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 Amazon this weekend has introduced a big discount on the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation, available for $134.99, down from $179.00. This is one of the best prices we've seen on the earbuds all year, and it's accompanied by a solid discount on the AirPods Pro 3.
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 Downsizing to a tiny house with a family in tow is always going to be a challenge, but the Kookaburra 2.0 has been carefully designed to smooth the process along. The towable home features two bedrooms, a bathroom with a bathtub, and plenty of storage throughout.
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NEW RESOURCES New-to-me, from Blag: Documenting the Signs and Sign Painters of Bursa, Turkey. "In last week's ‘BLAG 09 Digital Companion' I mentioned that there was more to come from Murat Ertürk […]
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NEW RESOURCES Yale Library: Mina Loy Papers Online. "The Yale Collection of American Literature is pleased to announce that the Mina Loy Papers have been digitized in their entirety… Mina Loy (1882-1966), […]
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NEW RESOURCES Future of Good: New database maps Canada's $17.3 billion DAF landscape and where philanthropic wealth is concentrated. "A new database that maps Canada's donor-advised funds (DAFs) landscape, shows that a […]
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For the first time since Apple started selling standard and "Pro" iPhones, we're not going to get an entry-level iPhone model this fall. Apple doesn't plan to release an iPhone 18 in September, and will only launch the iPhone 18 Pro, ?iPhone 18 Pro? Max, and foldable iPhone Ultra. The lower-cost ?iPhone 18? won't come out until spring 2027.
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DeepSeek launches its V4 Pro AI model with major coding gains, open-source developer tools, and pricing that remains well below leading rivals.
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Apple recently posted and removed details explaining how Mac users in China could set up their computers to work with Alibaba's Qwen AI. Now, Reuters has confirmed long-held speculation that Apple has revisited its Google Gemini AI playbook and built its own proprietary AI model for China with support from Alibaba.
Apple worked with a Chinese partner because US models such as ChatGPT or Claude are not being made available there, though Chinese AI development doesn't seem to be held back by that lack. Apple and Alibaba have not commented on the claims, the report said.
The approach echoes Apple's work with Google to build more advanced large language models (LLMs) for use with Apple Intelligence, and the news will likely be seen as broadly positive by Chinese iPhone users. They can now look forward to working with Apple Intelligence on their devices. The proximity of the reporting suggests they may be able to access Apple's AI quite soon, once new Apple operating systems ship next month.
The silver lining
It's also smart, as it means Apple has identified a way to introduce AI features in nations that are becoming protective of their tech stack.And while Apple's work with Google on Apple Intelligence was widely regarded as signifying how far behind the company had grown on AI, the work it is now doing with A
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 While many tiny homes have been trending steadily larger, the Sunrise Tiny House takes things in the opposite direction. This off-grid model has been created with mobility in mind and would be a good fit for those wanting a nomadic lifestyle.
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One of AI vendor DeepSeek's biggest selling points has been its ultra-low price point, but that party's about to end.
The Chinese model provider is raising API pricing for its V4 model family by notable margins, in some cases by more than 1,100%. The increases may not be that dramatic for all, though; the company is encouraging "more flexible workload scheduling," with peak rates and half-price off-peak rates.
The news was tucked into the announcement of the general availability (GA) of DeepSeek V4-Pro and upgrades to VR-Flash. The new pricing takes effect for most parts of the world on August 16.
"On paper, at peak, against the right comparator, DeepSeek's price advantage does disappear, and in places inverts," said Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst at Greyhound Research. But in practice, "the schedule's own clock and cache hand most of it back to any buyer paying attention."
How Flash and Pro compare now
The new API pricing structure is as follows:
Flash is now $0.22 per million input tokens (cache miss) and $0.66 per million output tokens off-peak; and $0.44 per million input tokens (cache miss) and $1.32 per million output tokens at peak.
This is up from the flat rate of $0.14 for inputs (cache miss),
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A wave of new services uses A.I. to monitor flights and hotel reservations to help you find lower prices. We look at how these tools work.
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NEW RESOURCES Harpswell Anchor: Harpswell Anchor launches archives website. "The archives of the Harpswell Anchor, from its first edition in July 1998 through June 2026, are now available in a searchable database […]
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 OpenAI today said it is "pausing" activities involving its upcoming AI model Astra, because its cyber capabilities are potentially too dangerous. OpenAI says its newest internal evaluations show "significant advancements in agentic coding and cybersecurity," and it cannot rule out "critical cyber capabilities." Prior OpenAI models, including GPT-5.6 Sol, were labeled as "High."
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