A pair of soft white tubes no thicker than a couple of strands of spaghetti rest in a researcher’s hands. They look almost fragile, yet these fibers can pull with the strength of real muscle, stay completely silent while they work, and run for hours on nothing more than a small battery pack. Researchers at the MIT Media Lab and Politecnico di Bari just published the full details of this system in Science Robotics, and the results feel like a genuine step change for anyone building humanoid robots or wearable machines.

Most robots are still powered by electric motors and gearboxes that simply spin a shaft and then convert that rotation into linear motion in the old-fashioned way, which works fine but has some significant drawbacks: it makes a racket, weighs a ton near the joints, and interferes with how our own limbs function. For years, soft fluidic actuators have been touted as a superior solution: long, flexible tubes that contract when pressed, similar to the muscles in your arm. The issue is with the massive pumps, compressors, and hoses that keep those actuators operating. They simply stop any possibility of a clean, portable design in its tracks.

Unitree R1 Humanoid Robot (White, R1 Air)

• Three models, one lightweight platform R1 Air (20 DOF, monocular camera), R1 (26 DOF, binocular camera, head+waist joints), and R1 Edu (26 DOF…
• Easy setup – no coding required for basic use Unbox, power on, and start. Manual teaching feature: physically pose the robot, and it replays the…
• More DOF = more expressive movement 26‑DOF models (R1 / R1 Edu) add head and waist articulation for smoother dance and running. For safety reasons…

The new electrofluidic fiber muscles solve that problem by actually inserting the pump inside the muscle. Each pump is a tiny tube that is less than 2 millimeters wide. Inside, two thin helical electrodes weave their way along the length, and when exposed to high voltage, they begin to inject charge into a unique insulating liquid known as a dielectric fluid. The charged particles just drag the entire fluid along with them, generating pressure and flow with no moving parts. The entire system is absolutely silent and converts electricity directly into hydraulic power.

These tiny pumps form a closed loop with some thin McKibben-style actuators, which are essentially soft tubes wrapped in a braided sleeve that contract when the fluid inside them expands. You may simply stack one pump between two opposing actuators, exactly like your biceps and triceps operate together. When the pump pushes fluid into one actuator, that side shortens while the other side lengthens. There is no need for an external reservoir, therefore the entire system remains sealed, lightweight, and self-contained.

The performance stats are impressive, with roughly 50 watts per kilogram of power density and fibers that can contract by 20% of their length. When multiple pumps are operated in simultaneously, response times drop to less than 0.3 seconds. They also have a pre-pressure system that keeps everything stable and doubles the stroke three times for the same pump effort, and with the bias pressure, they can exchange a little maximal force for even faster snaps when speed is more critical than sheer power.

To demonstrate how adaptable the design is, the team demonstrated no fewer than three different setups. One of them launches table tennis balls in less than 2 tenths of a second, which is very quick. Another bundles a bunch of fibers together so that a small package weighing only a few dozen grams can lift four kilograms, or 200 times its own weight, with a beautiful clean 30-millimeter stroke. The most friendly-looking demonstration incorporated the fibers into a flat biceps-triceps pair that bends a 3D-printed robot arm in a full 40-degree arc. That same knitted muscle is supple enough to shake someone’s hand without squishing their fingers or feeling stiff.
[Source]

Sony’s first-party fight stick was supposed to land in August.

Spotify is rolling out a new AI-powered conversational feature that lets Premium users talk directly to the app about what they want to hear. Users can type or speak a request and refine the results through follow-up questions instead of manually searching for a song, podcast, or audiobook.

The feature is available from Spotify’s Home and Now Playing screens and works much like a personal audio assistant. It can choose what plays, answer questions about the current track or album, recommend something new, and look through your listening history to provide more personalized responses.

What can you ask Spotify to do?

You can ask Spotify to play artists you have not heard before. Follow-up requests can add a particular artist, narrow the selection to recent releases, or make the music more upbeat. The assistant can also save a song, add it to your queue, or follow an artist. It can provide more information about whatever is currently playing. Users can ask when an album was released, what genre a song belongs to, or what inspired a particular record.

The feature also works across podcasts and audiobooks. You can ask Spotify to find more books by an author or pull up other podcast episodes featuring the same guest. It can also look back through your listening history. Spotify says you will be able to ask when you first played a particular song or which genres you have been listening to most recently.

This is not Spotify’s first AI-powered feature

Spotify has been experimenting with AI for a while now, and each feature has brought the technology into a different part of the service. AI DJ is one such feature that creates a personalized stream of music and uses an AI-generated voice to introduce songs and explain recommendations. AI Playlist lets users build playlists from written prompts based on a mood, activity, or genre.

Studio by Spotify Labs can generate personal podcasts and daily briefings shaped around a user’s listening history. Spotify has also announced a separate generative AI tool that will let Premium subscribers create licensed covers and remixes from songs by participating artists and songwriters.

The new conversational feature is now rolling out in beta to Premium users aged 18 and older in the US, Ireland, and Sweden. It is available in English through Spotify’s iOS and Android apps. Spotify says responses may not always be perfect while testing continues.

The federal government dropped the ball on the transition to electric cars when it killed the EV tax rebate last year. However, Governor Gavin Newsom has come up with an alternate solution for those in California in the form of up to $3,500 in instant rebates for first-time EV buyers.

Dubbed the MyFirstEV program, Newsom’s bill — which will go into effect sometime later this summer — is part of a larger $600 million investment by California to improve the state’s clean transportation economy. As for the rebates specifically, half of the program’s $270 million fund comes directly from California’s 2026-2027 state budget, while the other half is sourced from participating automakers.

That said, for Californians hoping to take advantage of the new incentive, there are some important restrictions. First, eligible vehicles are all zero emission, which means full battery electric cars, no hybrids. Second, in order to get the full $3,500 rebate on a new vehicle, the car’s MSRP must be under $50,000. For those planning to buy a used EV, a $1,750 rebate only applies to cars that cost less than $25,000. Finally, as the name of the program implies, the rebate is only available to first-time EV buyers.

Even with these restrictions, there’s still plenty of room in people’s budgets for a range of popular makes and models including the Nissan Leaf, Tesla Model 3 and Model Y, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Ford Mustang Mach-E and more. California-based Rivian’s latest EVs are a bit too expensive, but pricing for the R2 starts at $45,000 when the base model goes on sale sometime next year. Furthermore, the rebate is available as an instant discount through dealerships, which means you can effectively knock off up to $3,500 at the time of purchase. There’s no need to jump through additional hoops later on.

Going forward, the rest of California’s $600 million investment into zero emission transportation includes $150 million for the state’s Community Air Protection Program, $135.5 million for the Clean Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project and $130 million earmarked to replace vehicles with polluting heavy-duty engines. And for those in more rural areas, the state has also pledged to install more charging stations to help make refueling EVs easier.

Satechi, which makes some fantastic charging and PC peripherals, has just launched a whole bunch of accessories targeted at the MacBook Neo. But instead of making them boring and drab, the company has actually color-matched them to the exact shade that you get on Apple’s budget-centric laptop. The offerings on the table include a multi-port adapter, a USB-C snap hub, and a wireless mouse, and all of them are now available to buy starting at $29.99 from Satechi’s website and Amazon. Color options that are up for grabs include Citrus, Blush, Indigo, and Silver

Satechi OntheGo 5-in-1 Multiport Adapter ($44.99)

The round multi-port adapter by Satechi is arguably the most eye-catching device in the lineup. It’s a puck-shaped adapter that can also attach magnetically to the lid of your MacBook Neo. The Satechi OntheGo 5-in-1 Multiport Adapter comes with a color-matched nylon braided cable and features a USB-C as well as a USB-A port, both of which allow 5 Gbps data transfer.

The USB-C port also opens the door for 60-watt pass-through charging, and there is also an HDMI port that can handle monitors at up to 4K resolution and a 60 Hz refresh rate. It also features an SD card reader, which means you can also use it as an external storage and recording device, while attached magnetically to the back of your iPhone.

Satechi USB-C Snap Hub ($44.99)

If you don’t want a device that dangles through a wire from your laptop, the Satechi USB-C Snap Hub is the ideal solution. It can link up with the USB-C ports on your MacBook Neo and sits flush with the chassis, as if it were a natural extension of the body. It just misses out on the active cooling perk that the brand is offering with its SSD enclosure.

It flaunts an anodized aluminum build that feels right at home with Apple’s laptop, and offers a decent selection of six ports. You get an HDMI port that can handle 4K 60Hz output to an external monitor, a USB-A port, a USB-C inlet, an SD card reader, as well as a micro SD card slot, and a 45-watt pass-through charging port.

And finally, we have the Satechi Slim EX Wireless Mouse, which costs $29.99 and supports wireless connectivity over Bluetooth and the 2.4 GHz link. Rocking an aluminum build, Satechi says that its latest mouse offers “quiet click switches and a precision-machined scroll wheel.” It also features a user-replaceable battery and works just fine across macOS, Windows, Android, and iPadOS platforms.

Artificial intelligence giant Anthropic today upped the ante in its quest to win the increasingly competitive market for AI in education by debuting Claude for Teachers, a free large language model designed for U.S. K-12 educators.

Claude for Teachers includes a library of teaching skills and a “direct connection to evidence-based curricula, mapped to academic standards in all 50 states,” the company said in a statement.

The move by Anthropic is the latest in a series of initiatives by tech giants including OpenAI’s ChatGPT for Teachers, Microsoft Elevate for Educators, and Google AI Educator Series to earn market share in an increasingly competitive AI and edtech space.

“We built Claude for Teachers to close the distance between what the evidence recommends and what a teacher’s week allows,” the Anthropic statement continued.

Although some educators are skeptical of AI usage in the classroom, particularly in early childhood education, Anthropic cited Stanford research suggesting that AI tools, when designed and used correctly, can aid teachers and improve student learning.

Privacy and Security Measures

Claude for Teachers has access to academic standards in all 50 states, so it can create lessons that are “scaffolded and aligned to teaching standards.” The tool’s library of skills, co-developed with Learning Commons, was piloted with teachers in Prospect Schools in Brooklyn, New York, and other sites. Anthropic said it plans to evaluate Claude for Teachers in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, “working closely with teachers to study the impact on educator well-being and practice.”

Claude for Teachers includes Claude Code and Cowork, allowing teachers to vibe-code and use the technology to securely analyze class data. “We never train our models on your conversations. Training is off for verified teacher accounts,” Anthropic said.

Anthropic is collaborating with the American Federation of Teachers to ensure student information is protected. “We’ve been working with Anthropic on a Gold Standard that sets out industry best practices for safety and privacy in K-12 education,” said Randi Weingarten, president of American Federation of Teachers, in the Anthropic statement.

Revolut, Stripe, UniCredit, Deutsche Bank and SumUp are just some of the companies selected for the pilot, which is set to commence in the second half of 2027.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has chosen 36 payment service providers (PSP) to participate in a 12-month digital euro pilot, according to an announcement released today (14 July).

The financial organisations, which include Revolut, UniCredit, Deutsche Bank, SumUp and Stripe Technology Europe, were selected from a pool of 50 PSP applicants, ranging from traditional banks to transaction platforms. The companies come from 16 euro member countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Ireland and Austria.

Interestingly, three of the selected companies – Deutsche, DZ Bank and BPCE – were among a group of 14 European lenders that previously voiced reservations about the digital euro, citing concerns such as cost and potentially undermining existing private-sector payments initiatives in the continent.

The digital euro is a proposed central bank digital currency (CBDC) – basically a digital version of an official currency – that was first suggested in 2023. To date, only three countries worldwide have officially launched a CBDC: Jamaica, the Bahamas and Nigeria.

The digital euro pilot is due to commence in the second half of 2027, and will be “crucial” for testing the digital euro’s technical functionality and operational processes, as well as for refining user experience, according to the ECB.

The pilot will take place at the ECB and 19 national central banks across the euro area, specifically in Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.

The programme will use a beta version of the digital euro, which will be “functionally and technically close” to the digital euro as foreseen in the draft legislation – though it will not have legal tender status.

The pilot will involve staff at the ECB and the participating national central banks – as well as e-commerce merchants and vendors operating on their premises, such as cafeterias and restaurants – who will be able to make beta digital euro payments from person to person (both online and offline) and from person to business.

According to the ECB, some of the 36 selected financial organisations will act as ‘distributing PSPs’, which will provide Eurosystem staff with access to beta digital euro services such as account set-up and payments, while others will act as ‘acquiring PSPs’, which will serve selected merchants and enable them to receive beta digital euro payments.

Some PSPs will have a dual role providing both distributing and acquiring services.

“The strong market interest in the pilot shows the private sector’s readiness to engage actively and quickly advance with the digital euro project to strengthen the European payments landscape,” said ECB executive board member Piero Cipollone, who chairs the Digital Euro High-Level Task Force.

“We look forward to deeper engagement as we work with and learn alongside European payment service providers in developing a secure, efficient and inclusive digital euro.”

The digital euro pilot announcement comes after the European Parliament recently officially backed the digital euro. Meanwhile, talks began yesterday (13 July) between the European Parliament, European governments and the European Commission on establishing rules for the digital currency.

The negotiations intend to produce a final law by the end of the year, which would pave the way for formal approval of the digital euro at the start of 2027 – with an official launch intended for 2029.

One of the main arguments put forward by the ECB in support of the digital euro is its potential to reduce European reliance on non-European payment providers. The ECB has also stated that cash would not be replaced by the CBDC – a common concern associated with the project.

Meanwhile, other common doubts about the initiative include concerns about infrastructure reliability and fears of negative impacts on traditional banks.

Last year, BearingPoint’s Martin Deere spoke to SiliconRepublic.com about how Ireland can prepare for the digital euro.

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