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Artie Beaty/ZDNET You probably didn’t know it, but if you played or are still playing Pokémon Go (there are more than half a million active players), you were helping train an AI-powered geospatial model that aims to map the world. A blog post from Niantic, the software developer behind the popular game, explains how it’s working on “a large geospatial model to achieve spatial intelligence” and trying to build a “visual positioning system” to understand the…

NurPhoto/Getty Images Meta’s Threads has introduced a feature that’s long been part of Bluesky, namely custom feeds. Now, rolling out to all Threads users after a brief test, custom feeds allow you to compile a list of multiple accounts in one shot, typically all devoted to a specific theme or subject. The idea is to offer quick and easy access to related accounts that might not necessarily appear in the For You or Following feeds, certainly…

ZDNET’s key takeaways The Bose SoundLink Home speaker is a Bose exclusive, meaning you can only purchase it on Bose’s website; it’s on sale ahead of Black Friday for $199. The SoundLink Home offers a sleek design reminiscent of the 70s and bass that doesn’t disappear at low volumes. This speaker isn’t compatible with Bose’s companion apps, lacks waterproofing, and has a shorter-than-average battery life. What’s the deal? The Bose SoundLink Home portable Bluetooth speaker…

Breville/ZDNET Expensive caffeine fix, tight(er) budget? As Black Friday draws nearer, you might be brainstorming on a great gift for the javaphile in your life. Or, you may opt to refresh your kitchen with a premium appliance you might not normally splurge on.  If you’ve been looking to upgrade your coffee routine, the Breville Espresso Machine is currently $410 — $89 off its usual $499 price tag. The Breville boasts a balanced extraction technique to…

HP/ZDNET Black Friday and Cyber Week are still over a week away, but that hasn’t stopped great deals from popping up online. One, in particular, immediately caught my eye when I saw it. Right now, on B&H Photo Video, the 16-inch HP Envy Multi-Touch Laptop has seen a huge price drop, from $2,000 to $1,100 for the holiday season. That’s nearly 50% off the original cost. For a computer of this caliber, this is a pretty…

No. 4: Atlanta Atlanta is expected to grow capacity by 484% to 3,125 MW—enough to power about 2.6 million homes. Microsoft is investing in incredible $1.8 billion to the region for a massive data center upgrade spanning three facilities and consuming 324 MW. This will effectively double the size of the existing data center infrastructure in the city. No. 5: Dallas-Fort Worth Data center capacity is projected to grow by 355% in Dallas-Fort Worth, requiring…

LD/Getty Images Are you tired of seeing AI overviews on your Google searches? There’s a simple way to prevent them from appearing again — at least for now. There’s no official way to turn off the summaries, but there are a few workarounds. While most involve tinkering with your browser’s settings, one involves just adding a few characters to your query. Also: AI just gave us the Star Trek farewell we always wanted – watch it…

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET There was a time I refused to drink coffee at home because no matter how strong of a coffee pod I bought for my Keurig, the coffee always tasted watered down. I started wondering whether I’d ever achieve the same hand-crafted coffee shop taste at home — until I was gifted the Nespresso VertuoPlus Coffee and Espresso Machine by De’Longhi.  Also: The 55+ best Black Friday Amazon deals 2024: Early sales live now With this…

Anna Barclay/Getty Images In the wake of turmoil at Twitter (now known as X), several social networks have popped up over the past couple of years to offer people an alternative to the Elon Musk-owned platform. One such network is Bluesky, which works a lot like X but avoids the baggage that Musk has brought to the table. Officially launched in February of 2023 as an invite-only beta service, Bluesky has watched its user population grow,…