Latest news with #Mashable
Express Tribune
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Simpsons executive producer addresses viral conspiracy theory on coldplay kiss cam prediction
A viral conspiracy theory claiming that The Simpsons predicted the recent kiss cam scandal involving Coldplay and two tech executives has been debunked by the show's longtime showrunner, Al Jean. The incident occurred during Coldplay's Music of the Spheres tour stop at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. As the kiss cam panned through the crowd, it captured a man and a woman embracing—who quickly pulled away upon noticing the camera. Coldplay frontman Chris Martin quipped from the stage, questioning whether the couple was shy or hiding an affair. The clip spread rapidly across social media, sparking public interest and corporate scrutiny after the couple was identified as Andy Byron, CEO of Astronomer, and Kristin Cabot, the company's HR head. Amid the backlash, a digitally altered image resembling a scene from The Simpsons began circulating online. The image, claiming to be from Season 28, Episode 8 ('Kiss, Bang Bangalore'), showed Homer and Marge Simpson caught in a similarly awkward kiss cam moment at a baseball game—allegedly mirroring the Coldplay scandal. However, Jean dismissed the rumour. 'We write satire, not prophecy. Any similarity is pure luck,' he told Mashable, denying that such a scene ever appeared in the show. Independent fact-checks by outlets including WION and Marca confirmed the image was not from an actual episode but was generated using AI tools mimicking the show's animation style. This is not the first time The Simpsons has been mistakenly credited with predicting real-world events. In past years, the show has been linked to predictions about FaceTime and Donald Trump's presidency. In this case, however, experts have verified the image is a deliberate fabrication, not a prophetic moment from the show.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The Panasonic Z85 Series TV is at its lowest-ever price — save over $800 right now
All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission. SAVE $802: As of July 1, the Panasonic Z85 Series TV is on sale for $997.99 at Amazon. That's a 45% saving on the list price. Opens in a new window Credit: Panasonic Panasonic Z85 Series TV $997.99 at mazon $1,799.99 Save $802 Get Deal Prime Day deals are the perfect excuse to upgrade your TV, whether it's the move to something smarter, a bigger screen, or going all in on a new surround sound setup. But with a week still to go until the deals officially kick off, you'll be pleased to know Amazon already has an incredible TV deal available right now. As of July 1, the 65-inch Panasonic Z85 Series is down to its lowest-ever price. Now at just $997.99, this deal saves you over $800 on list price. SEE ALSO: Amazon is dropping way better early Prime Day TV deals than years prior Stats-wise, this TV has a resolution of 3840 x 2160 and features a core OLED panel and the HCX Pro AI Processor MKII. It supports multiple HDR formats, including HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and HLG. HDR10+ Adaptive and Dolby Vision IQ use intelligent sensing to alter the picture quality based on the brightness of your room. For amazing sound quality, it boasts Theater Surround Pro with Dolby Atmos, a built-in subwoofer, and clear dialogue output. And if you're a gamer, the Game Mode Extreme function supports features like HDMI 2.1, a 120Hz refresh rate, VRR, and compatibility with AMD FreeSync Premium and NVIDIA G-SYNC. It also comes with a built-in Game Control Board to make it easier to adjust gaming settings. Sold yet? Grab this pre-Prime Day deal at Amazon now. Apple AirTag (4-Pack) — $74.99 (List Price $99.00) Apple 2025 MacBook Air 13-inch Laptop — $849.00 (List Price $999.00) Hisense 55" Class QD6 Series (2025 Model) QLED 4K UHD TV — $257.99 (List Price $379.99) Soundcore Life Q30 Hybrid ANC Headphones (Black) — $63.99 (List Price $79.99) iRobot Roomba 105 — $219.00 (List Price $319.99)
CNET
5 days ago
- CNET
iOS 26 Will Finally Let Us Get Rid of the Dreadful 9-Minute Snooze
In 2007, Apple launched the iPhone, a monumental device that became synonymous with the advancement of mobile technology. At the time, the iPhone included the 9-minute snooze, a dreadful and outdated alarm feature. While the latest iPhones are bezel-free, can shoot 4K videos in slow-motion and have face recognition, the 9-minute snooze persists -- until iOS 26. The tech giant announced the next iPhone update at its Worldwide Developers Conference 2025, and the software upgrade will bring a lot of new features to your iPhone when Apple releases it later this year, like new tools in Messages and a new Games app. But the company could also loosen its grip on your alarm's snooze duration in your Clock app in the software. In the iOS 26 developer beta, you can set your default snooze duration to anywhere between 1 and 15 minutes. After messing around in the developer beta, this is one of my favorite tweaks. I should note that the developer beta of iOS 26 is an early version of the software that is specifically aimed at software developers. This means that part of it could change over the coming months, including this new snooze feature. But first, why does snooze last 9 minutes? According to CNET's sister site Mashable, the snooze button was introduced to alarm clocks in the mid-1950s, and the snooze duration was -- that's right -- 9 minutes. It was supposedly easier on the hardware to set the snooze duration to a single digit as opposed to a double digit. Thus, the wretched 9-minute snooze was born. The 9-minute snooze also has some scientific backing. Science says 9 minutes might be an ideal snooze time before we fall back into a deep slumber. This is an early version of iOS 26 aimed at developers. The Snooze Duration menu could look different in the final version of iOS 26. Apple/Screenshot by CNET "In terms of sleep, 9 minutes is just enough time for a brief rest," Holly Schiff, a licensed clinical psychologist, told Reader's Digest. "Once you get past the 10-minute mark, your body can start to fall back into a deep sleep, which will make waking up again difficult and more unpleasant." However, it's 2025: My iPhone can stream videos from Netflix, play games from Xbox Game Pass and Android devices can set snooze for 10 minutes, so we know we can leave those 9 minutes in the past. As for health science, it would probably say I should do a lot of things, like eat more vegetables and less cheese. My doctor hasn't mentioned my cheese intake at my annual checkup, so will one more minute of snooze really be that detrimental? I don't think so. But at the end of the day, my true reason for loving this change is not nearly as nuanced: This tweak makes my brain happy because in my mind, 9 is an uncomfortable number for me. For starters, nine is an odd number, and everyone knows that even numbers are superior to odd numbers. The only exception to this rule is any odd increment of five, which are honorary even numbers, as everyone also knows. Is nine divisible by five? No. Strike one. Next, despite nine being an odd number, it isn't even a prime number. In fact, it's the only single-digit odd number that isn't also a prime number, so it's even weirder. That's strike two. And why would you pick nine when 10 is right there? There's a reason people say, "On a scale from 1 to 10," and not, "On a scale from 1 to 9." See how weird that sounds? So now whenever I make an alarm in the iOS 26 developer beta, I'm changing my alarm's snooze duration to 10 minutes. It's an even number, and in my head it's a nice, smooth number that makes my brain happy. And isn't that really what snoozing is all about? Think of it like this: If you had to manually set a snooze timer, how long would you set it for? I'd bet almost everyone would pick some increment of five. Absolutely no one would pick 9 minutes, except maybe some clock enthusiasts and whatever mad scientist at Apple made it the default for all these years. Is 10 minutes a scientifically better snooze time than 9 minutes? Probably not. Will it leave me in the same trap of just barely falling back asleep only to be abruptly woken up once more? Most likely. Am I relieved at the thought of snoozing for a number of minutes that is comfier for my brain? Absolutely. It's also nice to have the option to set it for a shorter time, like five minutes, so if you want a couple more minutes to wake up, you don't risk actually falling asleep again. Since this is a developer beta, I recommend downloading it only on something other than your primary device. Because this isn't the final version of iOS 26, the update might be buggy and battery life may be short, so it's best to keep those troubles on a secondary device. Note that the beta is not the final version of iOS 26, so there could be more features to land on your iPhone when iOS 26 is released. Apple wrote on its site that iOS 26 will be released to the general public this fall, but there's no word on an exact date. Until then, iOS 18 users are stuck with the horrid 9-minute snooze. For more on Apple, here's what you need to know about iOS 26 and everything the company announced at WWDC 2025.
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Astronomers caught a star that blew up not once, but twice when it died
Astronomers have finally caught a dying star in space going out with a bang — and then another bang. The new photographic evidence, captured using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, shows the first proof of a rare kind of stellar death called a double-detonation supernova. This double-blast event, spotted in the supernova remnant known as SNR 0509-67.5, confirms a theory that has divided astrophysicists for decades. The star's remains, about 300 years old, show a distinctive pattern: two separate shells of calcium, one nested inside the other like Russian matryoshka dolls. This could only form if a white dwarf exploded twice. The breakthrough, published in Nature Astronomy, rewrites part of the story behind one of the most important tools in astronomy, the Type Ia supernova. Sometimes dubbed a "cosmic yardstick" by NASA, this special supernova shines brightly for a short time and gives off a predictable, known amount of light. That makes it perfect for measuring distance in space: The farther the supernova, the fainter it appears to us. By collecting light from these blasts, scientists also can figure out how fast the universe has been expanding. "Our results required a large resource commitment with a very advanced instrument on a large telescope," Ivo Seitenzahl, one of the researchers, told Mashable. "Basically, the observations are near the limit of what's currently technically feasible." Understanding how exactly these events work isn't just academic, it's essential for making sense of the universe. These explosions forge the majority of iron in our galaxy — the same stuff found in our blood, buildings, and planet. A white dwarf star — the dense stellar core left behind after a sun-like star runs out of fuel — gradually steals material from a neighboring star. Once it grows massive enough, it ignites in a thermonuclear explosion. But some researchers have suspected there is another way: A thin outer layer of helium could explode first, sending a shockwave inward that then blows up the white dwarf's core. The second blast is the ultimate supernova that tears the star apart. Until now, this two-step concept lived mostly on whiteboards and in computer simulations. Now, astronomers have receipts proving it really happens. The explosions would have occurred in quick succession, Seitenzahl said. The second blast likely followed just two seconds later, "essentially the time it takes the helium detonation to travel from one side of the white dwarf star to the other." Scientists turned the telescope's Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer instrument toward the glowing wreckage in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy neighboring the Milky Way. The calcium detections were the giveaway. Sandwiched in between the blown-off shells was sulfur, with each layer consisting of different densities from the two explosions. "Revealing the inner workings of such a spectacular cosmic explosion is incredibly rewarding," said Priyam Das, lead author of the paper, in a statement, describing the remnant as a "beautifully layered structure." Astronomers can't normally see what happens deep inside a star during its final moments. The explosion itself is too bright, fast, and distant. But hundreds of years later, the drifting shrapnel betrays the secret. Though this discovery doesn't close the case on how all Type Ia supernovas work, it does show at least some stars don't need to hit a critical mass of matter before going boom. It seems a smaller star with the right kind of helium wrapper can self-destruct just fine. For this particular system, there won't be any more explosions, but the hunt continues for variations on this exotic breed. Some models for double detonations indicate the primary star can actually trigger yet another double detonation in the lighter companion star. "This would be a double double detonation," Seitenzahl said. UPDATE: Jul. 2, 2025, 12:50 PM EDT This story has been updated to include additional reporting, including new quotes, from the researchers.
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Yahoo
Don't forget: Microsoft is killing passwords. How to set up a Microsoft passkey before August deadline.
If you use Microsoft, you will soon be required to ditch your passwords and create a passkey. This is part of a strategy shift at Microsoft to get rid of passwords altogether — and the deadline is quickly approaching. Microsoft has laid out its plans on its website. As of June — aka right now — users are no longer able to add passwords to Microsoft Authenticator. In July, you will no longer be able to use autofill, which is the primary utility of a password manager. Come Aug. 1, you'll no longer be able to access your stored passwords at all. Instead, you'll need to set up a passkey. is a passkey? It's effectively a safer, more secure way of logging in that effectively rolls a password and two-factor authentication into one step. You effectively create a credential that is not stored on a server — this could include biometric data like facial recognition/thumbprint or a PIN — unlike a password. Microsoft believes passkeys will be much more difficult for hackers to access and more resistant to phishing. "It's the difference between using a codeword to open a door and using a physical key that only you have," Mashable Tech Editor Timothy Werth explained. "Passkeys are only stored on your devices, not a Microsoft server, and they also eliminate the kind of user errors that result in weak passwords. Plus, password managers are becoming a really popular target for hackers, so Microsoft is definitely onto something." As we noted in our guide to the top cybersecurity breaches of 2025, popular password managers are increasingly under threat. If you want to keep using passwords stored with Microsoft, you'll have to use Microsoft Edge and enable password autofill or export your passwords. However, Microsoft wants to get rid of passwords for all its various users and products, including Copilot and Xbox. As part of this, new Microsoft accounts are password-less by default. How to set up a passkey with Microsoft Microsoft has said it will automatically prompt users to set up a passkey in Authenticator. So, if you use Microsoft Authenticator to store passwords, you should have been — or will soon be — urged to set up a Microsoft passkey. Microsoft will also automatically detect the best method for your passkey. You can also add new passkeys in the Authenticator app by clicking "set up a passkey." After that, you simply log in and then set up the passkey. And if you want to set up a passkey for your Microsoft account, sign in and look for the "Advanced Security Options" tab. From there, you'll be able to select between "Face, Fingerprint, PIN, or Security Key." From there, simply follow the simple instructions.
