Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

Just how big a deal is John Gruber, the blogger whose Daring Fireball site is a must-read for anyone who cares about Apple?Here’s one way to measure Gruber’s big-dealness: Every year for the last decade, following Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, top Apple executives have appeared onstage with Gruber for an extended interview.But not this year.The most likely reason: In March, Gruber wrote a scathing essay about Apple’s inability to deliver an AI upgrade for its Siri voice assistant — something it had been promoting and advertising for months.In Gruber’s telling, this wasn’t just a missed shipping deadline, but a…

BOSTON (AP) — Attorneys argued over whether a Harvard researcher accused of smuggling frog embryos brought “biological materials” into the U.S. in a court hearing Wednesday.Kseniia Petrova, a Russian-born scientist conducting cancer research for Harvard Medical School, appeared in Massachusetts federal court Wednesday for a probable cause hearing, where government and defense attorneys argued over whether she brought “biological materials” into the U.S., ABC News reported. She was returning from a vacation from France in February when she was questioned by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Boston Logan International Airport.Petrova, 30, had stopped at a lab specializing in splicing…

Last year was monumental for the AI industry in the U.S. and beyond. There were 49 startups that raised funding rounds worth $100 million or more in 2024, per our count at TechCrunch; three companies raised more than one “mega-round,” and seven companies raised rounds that were $1 billion in size or larger. How will 2025 compare? It’s still the first half of the year, but so far it looks like 2024’s momentum will continue this year. There have already been multiple billion-dollar rounds this year, and more AI mega-rounds closed in the U.S. in Q1 2025 compared to Q1…

When you lose your health insurance or switch to a plan that skimps on preventive care, something critical breaks.The connection to your primary care provider, usually a doctor, gets severed. You stop getting routine checkups. Warning signs get missed. Medical problems that could have been caught early become emergencies. And because emergencies are both dangerous and expensive, your health gets worse while your medical bills climb.As gerontology researchers who study health and financial well-being in later life, we’ve analyzed how someone’s ties to the health care system strengthen or unravel depending on whether they have insurance coverage. What we’ve found…

Across hundreds of thousands of years of human existence, an impossible question has befuddled our species: Why is the baby crying?! Sam Altman, who is both the father of a 3-month-old and CEO of OpenAI, hopped on OpenAI’s new podcast today to talk about how his company is impacting his experience with fatherhood. Altman, who describes himself as “extremely kid-pilled,” said he was “constantly” using ChatGPT to ask questions about the behavior of babies during the first few weeks of his son’s life — now that he’s a bit more settled, he’s using ChatGPT to ask more general questions about…

Ready-to-eat grilled chicken fettuccine Alfredo products that were sold at Walmart and Kroger have been voluntarily recalled due to possible listeria contamination, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced Tuesday.Food manufacturer FreshRealm’s establishments in San Clemente, California; Montezuma, Georgia; and Indianapolis, Indiana, are voluntary recalling the prepared pasta dishes because they “may be adulterated with an outbreak strain of Listeria monocytogenes,” the FSIS stated.The recalled products may be linked to a multistate outbreak of listeria infections across 13 states that has sickened 17 people and resulted in at least three deaths in Illinois, Michigan and Texas…

There’s a lot of talk in the startup world about how AI makes individuals so productive that it could give rise to a generation of “solo unicorns” — one-person companies worth over $1 billion. While an actual solo unicorn remains a mythical creature, Israeli developer Maor Shlomo provided compelling evidence Wednesday that the concept might not be impossible.  Shlomo sold his 6-month-old, bootstrapped vibe-coding startup Base44 to Wix for $80 million, Wix announced Wednesday. And the deal was cash, Wix confirmed to TechCrunch.  Admittedly, this wasn’t a billion dollars or close to it. And Shlomo wasn’t truly solo — he…

In late 2022, Noah Pepper, a former Stripe business lead for the Asia Pacific region, founded Multiplier, a startup that aimed to sell software to tax accountants. But soon after ChatGPT was released, it occurred to him that AI can change how professional service firms use technology. “I realized I was barking up the wrong tree by trying to build a SaaS business, and instead I should figure out how to make these people more effective,” he told TechCrunch. The startup acquired Citrine International Tax, a boutique provider of cross-border tax accounting services, and enhanced the firm with AI capabilities…

NEW YORK (AP) — Jazz Chisholm Jr’s home run just inside the right-field foul pole ended a 30-inning scoreless streak for the New York Yankees.It was hardly enough to end their massive slump at the plate.After Chisholm homered in the second inning against the Los Angeles Angels, the Yankees saw their losing streak reach six games in a 3-2 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday when shortstop Anthony Volpe committed a throwing error in the eighth.The Yankees are on their longest slide since losing nine straight Aug. 12-22, 2023. New York has scored six runs in the skid…

A new study builds on previous research that shows marijuana usage can contribute to cardiovascular risks.Research published in Heart, an international peer-reviewed journal, documents that adults who use cannabis are 29% more likely than nonusers to develop Acute Coronary Syndrome and 20% more likely than nonusers to suffer from stroke. Acute Coronary Syndrome is any condition brought on by a reduction or blockage of blood flow to the heart, which can result in heart attacks.Researchers surveyed 24 studies conducted between 2016 and 2023 that involved more than 400 million participants, ranging mostly between 19 and 59, according to the study.”Our…