Apple launches its long-awaited Journal app

It's Tuesday, December 12, 2023.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is planning big hardware announcements for early 2024. In his Power On newsletter, Gurman predicts the company will release the next iPad Pro and iPad Air generation in March. Gurman says the M3 MacBook Air will also likely come in March, in the usual 13- and 15-inch configurations. And Apple may kill off the 2020 M1 MacBook Air at that point too.

The company is also reportedly planning to make more apparent distinctions between its iPad families. The iPad Pro is expected to get Apple’s new M3 chip, an OLED display and come in two sizes: 11 and 13 inches. Meanwhile, the iPad Air will come in a 10.9-inch and a new 12.9-inch version and use the M2 chip.

If you’re waiting for a new Mac Studio and Mac Pro, those will land later.

— Mat Smith

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Researchers made VR goggles for mice

For science, not a bet.

Scientists have been using virtual reality setups to study brain activity in lab mice for years. In the past, they surrounded the mice with flat displays, with obvious limitations for simulating a realistic environment. Now, a team at Northwestern University developed tiny VR goggles to fit over a mouse’s face. Like you see above.

In their tests, the researchers say the mice appeared to take to the new VR environment more quickly than they did with the past setups. To recreate overhead threats, like birds swooping in for a meal, the team projected expanding dark spots at the tops of the displays. The way they react to threats “is not a learned behavior; it’s an imprinted behavior,” said co-first author Dom Pinke.

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Alex Jones and his conspiracy theories are back on X

Jones’ account was reinstated after users voted in a poll this weekend.

Alex Jones is back on X, five years after then-Twitter decided to permanently ban him and his show, Infowars, for violating the site’s policy on “abusive behavior.” Elon Musk created a poll on X over the weekend asking users to vote on whether to reinstate Jones. Jones won the vote.

Musk wrote, “I vehemently disagree with what he said about Sandy Hook, but are we a platform that believes in freedom of speech or are we not? That is what it comes down to in the end. If the people vote him back on, this will be bad for X financially, but principles matter more than money.” Principles? On X?

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Fortnite Festival tries to bring back the heyday of music gaming

It helps that it’s free.

Epic has launched an entirely new mode called Fortnite Festival, a social space where players can team up to perform their favorite songs or jam together on new mixes, all within Fortnite. The main stage, or championship stage, is basically the Rock Band experience recreated in Fortnite. You form a band with friends and choose a song to perform. Then you play the song using the standard music game format where notes slide down vertical bars, hitting the correct button when the note reaches the bottom. Meanwhile, the jam stage draws from Harmonix’s more recent (and less popular) mixing titles, Dropmix and Fuser.

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