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Hands-on with the Xiaomi 17 Ultra: three upgrades I love and two things I wish it had

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The Xiaomi 17 Ultra boasts a refined design, an impressive camera with a 1-inch sensor and a variable telephoto zoom, plus a huge battery.

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India won't force Apple to preinstall its state-run app on iPhone after all

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India’s government has abandoned its proposal that would require smartphone manufacturers to preinstall the state-owned biometric identification app, Aadhaar, on phones.

Two rounded square app icons on a teal gradient background: left shows iOS text over abstract blue and teal shapes, right shows the App Store stylized A on bright blue.
India drops proposal mandating Apple preinstall national ID app

In November, India’s Ministry of Communications issued a directive ordering smartphone producers to preload Aadhaar on any phone sold within the country. The order would have affected Apple, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi.
According to Reuters, India’s IT ministry has since reviewed the proposal and “is not in favour of mandating the pre-installation of the Aadhaar App on smartphones.” The ministry said the decision came after it held a “consultation with stakeholders from the electronics industry.”
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Making A Bronze Mirror From Scratch

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Although modern-day silvered glass mirrors have pretty much destroyed the market for bronze mirrors, these highly polished pieces of metal once were the pinnacle of mirror technology. Due to the laborious process required these mirrors saw use essentially only by the affluent. That said, how hard would it be to make a bronze mirror today with all of the modern technologies that even a hobbyist can acquire for their shed? Cue [Lundgren Bronze Studios] giving it a shot, starting by casting something flat-ish to start polishing.

Just getting that initial shape to start polishing is a chore, with hammering out the shape possibly being also a viable method. When casting metal it’s tricky to avoid having air bubbles and other defects forming, though using a sand mold seems to help a lot.

After you have the rough shape, polishing using power tools seems like cheating, but as you can see in the video even going from 50 to 8000 grit with a rotating disc left countless scratches. Amusingly, hand sanding did a much better job of removing the worst scratches, following which a polishing compound helped to bring out that literal mirror finish.

A quick glance at the Wikipedia entry for bronze mirrors shows that a tin-bronze alloy like speculum metal was used for thousands of years as it was much easier to polish to a good mirror finish. The metallurgy of what may seem like just a vanity item clearly goes deeper than just polishing up a metal surface.

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OpenAI Executive Kevin Weil Is Leaving the Company

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Kevin Weil, OpenAI’s former chief product officer who was recently tapped to build a new AI workspace for scientists, Prism, is leaving the company, WIRED has confirmed. Weil was previously an early executive leading product at Instagram.

“Today is my last day at OpenAI, as OpenAI for Science is being decentralized into other research teams,” Weil said in a social media post on Friday, shortly after WIRED reported his departure. “It’s been a mind-expanding two years, from Chief Product Officer to joining the research team and starting OpenAI for Science.”

Weil did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WIRED.

OpenAI is also sunsetting Prism, which the company launched as a web app in January to give scientists a better way to work with AI. The company is folding the roughly 10-person team behind it under OpenAI’s head of Codex, Thibault Sottiaux, and aims to incorporate Prism’s capabilities into its desktop Codex app. An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed the changes and tells WIRED this is part of the company’s effort to unify its business and product strategy. OpenAI has broader ambitions to turn Codex, its AI coding application, into an “everything app.”

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Weil, who joined OpenAI in June 2024, announced last September that he would be starting a new initiative inside of the company called OpenAI for Science. Now, OpenAI is dispersing those employees throughout the company’s product, research, and infrastructure teams. An OpenAI spokesperson reiterated the company’s commitment to accelerating scientific discovery and says it’s one of the clearest ways AI can benefit humanity. Earlier on Friday, the company announced a new series of AI models—GPT-Rosalind—built to help life sciences researchers work faster.

OpenAI is trying to refocus the company around a few key areas, such as enterprise offerings and coding, as the company faces increasing pressure from rivals like Anthropic and gears up to file for an IPO later this year. In March, OpenAI’s CEO of AGI deployment, Fidji Simo, told staff that the company needs to simplify its product offerings. The push to divert resources to more consequential efforts resulted in OpenAI discontinuing its Sora video-generation app.

Unrelated to Weil’s news, two other executives announced on Friday that they are departing OpenAI. OpenAI’s chief technology officer of enterprise applications, Srinivas Narayanan, announced internally that he is leaving the company to spend time with his family. Narayanan had joined OpenAI as the company’s VP of engineering. And Bill Peebles, head of Sora, posted on X that he was done at OpenAI as well.

The exits of Weil, Peebles, and Narayanan are just the latest in a series of executive shake-ups at OpenAI. The company recently announced a major reorganization of its executive team as Simo took a medical leave to focus on her health. In the same announcement, OpenAI said cofounder and president Greg Brockman would oversee the company’s products in the interim, and the company’s chief marketing officer, Kate Rouch, would take a leave of absence due to medical issues. Chief operating officer Brad Lightcap transitioned to a “special projects” role as part of the restructuring as well.

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman seemed to acknowledge the various upheavals in a recent blog post. “I am also very aware that OpenAI is now a major platform, not a scrappy startup, and we need to operate in a more predictable way now,” he wrote. “It has been an extremely intense, chaotic, and high-pressure few years.”

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Nearly 75pc of AI’s economic value captured by just 20pc of companies

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PwC research found that Irish companies are somewhat lagging behind their global peers where AI implementation and benefits are concerned.

Professional services company PwC has released data exploring how organisational leaders are navigating AI gains across a range of areas, such as growth, revenue, investment, workflows, autonomous decisions, reinventing business models and governance, and analysing where the AI leaders are driving results.

PwC collected data for a survey from 1,217 senior executives around the world, including from Ireland, at a director level or above, at companies across 25 sectors and multiple regions worldwide. 

From that information, PwC found that nearly three-quarters (74pc) of AI’s economic gains are being utilised by only 20pc of companies. According to the findings, this is indicative of a “stark and widening divide between a small group of AI leaders and the majority of businesses still stuck in pilot mode”.

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Commenting on the report, David Lee, the chief technology leader for PwC Ireland, said, “Many companies are busy rolling out AI pilots, but only a minority are converting that activity into measurable financial returns.

“The leaders stand out because they point AI at growth, not just cost reduction, and back that ambition with the foundations that make AI scalable and reliable.”

Is Ireland keeping pace?

Ireland specifically was found to be falling behind its global peers when it comes to AI implementation and benefits.

Lee said: “Based on our previous studies, Irish companies do somewhat lag global peers where AI implementation and benefits are concerned.”

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He added that “PwC’s 2026 Irish CEO survey reveals fewer Irish CEOs (8pc) report AI application across a range of business areas compared to global counterparts (18pc), including demand generation, products, services, experiences and strategic direction-setting”.

He noted: “Some of the benefits from AI are also taking longer to come through compared to global peers, with Irish organisations seeing the opportunities from AI, but are not yet grasping the transformative powers.

“17pc of Irish CEOs say that AI has delivered increased revenues in the past 12 months, behind global peers (29pc). Nearly a quarter (23pc) say that AI has delivered cost reductions in the past 12 months, also behind global peers (26pc).”

The companies that are leading were found to be roughly two to three times more likely to use AI to identify and pursue growth opportunities or reinvent their business model. They are also twice as likely to redesign workflows to incorporate AI rather than simply adding new AI tools.

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They are nearly three times more likely to have increased the number of decisions made without human intervention and were shown to be going further in relation to AI governance. Within high-performing companies, trust at scale models were found to be effective. 

The report said, “AI leaders are more likely than other companies to have mechanisms such as a responsible AI framework (1.7 times as likely as other companies) and a cross-functional AI governance board (1.5 times). As a result of their efforts, their employees are twice as likely to trust AI outputs.”

Time for a change

PwC’s report suggested that a failure to shift the current approach to the implementation of artificial intelligence by the majority would likely widen the performance gap between AI leaders and “laggards”, particularly as leading organisations continue to learn, grow, and automate safely and speedily.  

Commenting on the results of the research, Martin Duffy, the head of AI and emerging technologies at PwC Ireland, said: “AI return on investment comes down to execution discipline – clear metrics, fast stop-or-scale decisions and designs built for reuse. Value shows up when AI is embedded in everyday workflows, not isolated pilots.”

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Weekend Apple Watch Series 11 deals deliver prices as low as $299

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Save $100 on numerous Apple Watch Series 11 styles this weekend, including aluminum and titanium options.

Two Apple Watch Series 11 models, one gold with white band and one silver with metal mesh band, with bold red Best Price label on dark geometric background
Grab an Apple Watch Series 11 from just $299 this weekend – Image credit: Apple

Amazon’s Apple Watch deals have ramped up for the second half of April, with the 42mm Series 11 returning to $299, the lowest price on record, for the weekend.
Buy Apple Watch S11 for $299
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Quordle hints and answers for Saturday, April 18 (game #1545)

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Looking for a different day?

A new Quordle puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing ‘today’s game’ while others are playing ‘yesterday’s’. If you’re looking for Friday’s puzzle instead then click here: Quordle hints and answers for Friday, April 17 (game #1544).

Quordle was one of the original Wordle alternatives and is still going strong now more than 1,400 games later. It offers a genuine challenge, though, so read on if you need some Quordle hints today – or scroll down further for the answers.

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Amazon payments to Bezos’ Blue Origin reach $1.8B as shareholders cite conflicts of interest

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Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, shows off a mockup of the New Shepard suborbital space capsule during a 2017 conference in Colorado. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)

Amazon paid about $1.8 billion last year to Blue Origin, the space company owned by its founder and board chair Jeff Bezos — nearly triple the amount the year before — as the tech giant prepared to ramp up deployment of its own low-Earth orbit satellite constellation. 

The increase comes as shareholders weigh a proposal calling for a mandatory independent board chair, citing Bezos’ business interests outside Amazon as potential conflicts of interest. 

Bezos stepped down as Amazon’s CEO in 2021 but remains executive chairman.

According to the filing, the company paid approximately $2.2 billion total under satellite launch agreements during the past fiscal year, with an estimated $1.8 billion going to Blue Origin. The prior year’s proxy showed Blue Origin receiving about $578 million out of $1.7 billion total. 

Amazon is building a constellation of 3,236 low-Earth orbit satellites under the Amazon Leo program, formerly known as Project Kuiper, to beam broadband internet to consumers and businesses. The company has deployed 243 satellites so far and has asked the FCC for a two-year extension on a July deadline to launch roughly half of the fleet. 

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The company this week also announced a $10.8 billion deal this week to acquire Globalstar, a satellite operator that has used SpaceX as its primary launch provider. 

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket made its debut flight in January 2025 but has not yet reached the launch cadence needed for the rollout. In addition to Blue Origin, Amazon has launch agreements in place with United Launch Alliance and Arianespace, and has also tapped Blue Origin rival SpaceX’s Falcon 9 for some launches, as Reuters reported this week

Bezos is also co-founder and co-CEO of AI startup Project Prometheus, a venture focused on applying AI to manufacturing and engineering across a variety of commercial sectors. 

The shareholder proposal calling for a mandatory independent chair, submitted by the AFL-CIO Reserve Fund, points to Bezos’ expanding role outside Amazon as cause for concern. 

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“As a technology company, Project Prometheus could be a potential competitor or a business partner with our Company, raising potential conflicts of interest,” the proposal states, also citing Amazon’s multibillion-dollar launch agreements with Blue Origin as a potential conflict.

It notes that Amazon also has done business with the Bezos-owned Washington Post.

Amazon’s board recommends voting against the proposal, arguing that its lead independent director structure provides sufficient oversight. The role is currently held by Jamie Gorelick, a former U.S. Deputy Attorney General. The company’s annual meeting is set for May 20. 

The Blue Origin contracts have drawn scrutiny before. A shareholder lawsuit filed in 2023 alleged Amazon’s board spent less than 40 minutes approving the launch agreements without considering SpaceX as an alternative. Delaware’s Court of Chancery dismissed the case, and the state Supreme Court affirmed that ruling in November 2025.

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NYT Connections hints and answers for Saturday, April 18 (game #1042)

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Looking for a different day?

A new NYT Connections puzzle appears at midnight each day for your time zone – which means that some people are always playing ‘today’s game’ while others are playing ‘yesterday’s’. If you’re looking for Friday’s puzzle instead then click here: NYT Connections hints and answers for Friday, April 17 (game #1041).

Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

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US-sanctioned currency exchange says $15 million heist done by “unfriendly states”

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Grinex, a US-sanctioned cryptocurrency exchange registered in Kyrgyzstan, said it’s halting operations after experiencing a $13 million heist carried out by “western special services” hackers.

Researchers from TRM, which has confirmed the theft, put the value of stolen assets at $15 million after discovering roughly 70 drained addresses, about 16 more than Grinex reported. Neither TRM nor fellow blockchain research firm Elliptic has said how the attackers slipped past Grinex’s defenses. Grinex said it has been under almost constant attack attempts since incorporating 16 months ago. The latest attacks, it said, targeted Russian users of the exchange.

Damaging “Russia’s financial sovereignty”

“The digital footprints and nature of the attack indicate an unprecedented level of resources and technology available exclusively to the structures of unfriendly states,” Grinex said. “According to preliminary data, the attack was coordinated with the aim of causing direct damage to Russia’s financial sovereignty.”

“Due to the attack, the Grinex exchange is forced to suspend operations,” Grinex continued. “All available information has been transferred to law enforcement agencies. An application has been submitted to the location of the infrastructure to initiate a criminal case.”

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TRM said that TokenSpot, a second Kyrgyzstan-based exchange, was also breached. Two of the exchange’s addresses sent funds to the same consolidation address used by the affected Grinex-linked wallets. What’s more, both exchanges became inoperable on Wednesday, suggesting they were hit by the same attacker.

TRM said TokenSpot was a front for Grinex, which the US Treasury Department sanctioned last year. The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said that Grinex, in turn, was a rebrand of Garantex, an exchange it had sanctioned in 2022. The department said then that Ganantex had “directly facilitated notorious ransomware actors and other cybercriminals by processing over $100 million in transactions linked to illicit activities since 2019.” Last year’s sanctions against Grinex came a few months after TRM said that the exchange was likely a front for Ganantex.

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A Chinese AI just solved a decade-old math problem in 80 hours with zero human help and proved it

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  • The dual agent AI system autonomously solved Anderson’s conjecture from 2014
  • Rethlas explores problem-solving strategies like a human mathematician would
  • Archon transforms potential proofs into projects for the Lean 4 verifier

A research team led by Peking University developed a dual-agent AI system capable of solving advanced mathematical problems while also verifying its own results.

The system resolved a conjecture proposed in 2014 by Dan Anderson, completing the process within 80 hours of runtime.

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