Paramount Skydance is still aiming to close its roughly $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery by the end of September despite a lawsuit filed by 12 state attorneys general seeking to block the deal on antitrust grounds. Jeffrey Kessler, Paramount’s lead trial counsel, told CNBC on Tuesday that the company is prepared to take the matter to the Supreme Court if it faces a prolonged blockade. The coalition, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, filed the suit in federal court on Monday and followed it with a motion for a temporary restraining order later that evening.

The lawsuit argues that combining two of Hollywood’s five major film distributors and two of its five major basic cable channel owners would substantially lessen competition across theatrical distribution, cable programming, and the broader entertainment industry. Bonta said in a statement that the merger would lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content for audiences. The deal had already received clearance from the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, which concluded in June that the transaction was unlikely to harm competition, making the state-level challenge a direct rebuke of the federal finding.

Kessler told CNBC’s David Faber that Paramount had indicated its intention to close the deal as early as July 22, the date by which the European Union is expected to issue its own regulatory decision. Paramount recently submitted concessions to the EU to address remaining concerns. Kessler said the company offered the states two alternatives, an immediate close or an orderly judicial schedule that would resolve the matter by early September, but the states rejected both.

The financial pressure on Paramount is real. Under the merger agreement, if the deal has not closed by September 30, Paramount must pay Warner Bros Discovery shareholders a ticking fee worth roughly $650 million per quarter until closing. A temporary restraining order, if granted, would pause the transaction for 14 days, and up to two could be issued before the states seek a preliminary injunction that would put the deal on hold for the duration of the litigation.

Kessler argued the merger is pro-competitive rather than anti-competitive, noting that the entertainment industry is in deep trouble as consumers flee pay TV bundles and streaming competition intensifies. He said the combined company would be able to compete directly with Netflix, Disney, and Amazon’s Prime Video. CEO David Ellison has promised the merged entity would release 30 films per year, and Kessler said Paramount is willing to put that commitment in writing.

The deal has already cleared the DOJ and multiple international regulators, and Paramount has been unifying its streaming technology in preparation for absorbing HBO Max after closing. Whether the state attorneys general can delay the transaction long enough to trigger the ticking fee, or block it entirely, will likely depend on how quickly the federal court in Sacramento acts on the restraining order request.

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.

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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]

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.