Hendrickson, who led the league in sacks last season, will now shop around as the Bengals sort out extensions for Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
March 2025
Giancarlo Stanton gets 2nd round of PRP injections in injured elbows, surgery viewed as ‘last resort’
Surgery on his elbows would sideline Stanton for three months, according to Yankees GM Brian Cashman.
Giancarlo Stanton gets 2nd round of PRP injections in injured elbows, surgery viewed as ‘last resort’
Surgery on his elbows would sideline Stanton for three months, according to Yankees GM Brian Cashman.
AI-Powered Summaries Are Coming to the App Store, Too
There are nearly two million apps on the iOS App Store, and a lot of them aren’t worth your time. That’s why many of us, when considering a new app, turn to reviews: You want to see what other users’ experiences were like with the app—whether they loved it, liked it, or loathed it.
Personally, the current review system works fine for me. I scan some reviews, and generally get a sense of whether the app is right for me. If I’m feeling particularly analytical, I’ll even adjust the filters, perhaps to see which reviews are most critical (so it’s not just a bunch of fluff) or ones that are most recent, to see what customers thought of the latest version of the app.
But it’s 2025, which means one thing: AI. We can’t continue to live in the past. We must embrace the future of artificial intelligence, so say the tech companies. Why do 30 seconds of scanning, when the AI can cut that work down to 20 seconds? Perhaps even 15?
Apple’s AI App Store review summaries
With iOS 18.4, currently in beta, Apple is testing AI-generated summaries for reviews in the App Store. According to Apple, these summaries pull from “highlights and key information” from reviews for apps and games and are updated at least once a week, if the app or game has enough reviews to support it. These summaries will appear directly beneath the rating for the app or game, under the heading “Reviews Summary.”
Apple says review summaries are currently only available in English for a “limited number of apps and games” in the United States. The company plans to expand the feature to more countries and languages over the year.
Here’s the thing about features like this: they’re largely ignorable. If you love them, great! You can take a peek at the AI-generated summary and decide for yourself whether you’d like to read the reviews further. If you don’t like them, also great! Scroll right past to the reviews.
That latter approach is likely the one I’d take. For one, I don’t trust AI to get the gist right, even if the situation is relatively low-stakes. But, like I alluded to earlier, I also don’t think it saves that much time to read an AI summary versus scanning the reviews yourself. You might even miss some interesting insights the AI thought wasn’t important enough to make the review, or see some nuance that went over the AI’s, uh, “head.”
Apple is far from the only company to summarize reviews with AI. Google, Amazon, even NewEgg have all dabbled in this practice, so it’s not like Apple is breaking the mold here. But it does slightly rub me the wrong way—if we start relying on AI to summarize content like this, who is the original content being written for? Hundreds if not thousands of people are writing reviews of their experience, but if you only read the summary, those people are really writing their reviews for the AI—not other human beings.
iOS 18.4 is due out sometime in April. You can experience these summaries now if you install the beta, but if you’d prefer not to risk running temperamental software on your iPhone, you can simply wait until next month.
New Zealand court overturns Whakaari Management Limited conviction
Thursday, March 6, 2025
Image: GNS Science (formerly Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Ltd.).
On Friday, the New Zealand High Court overturned the conviction of Whakaari Management Limited (WML), which had been found guilty of failing to ‘keep visitors safe’ during the 2019 eruption. The eruption killed 22 visitors and injured 25 others. The court ruled that WML only owned the land the volcano sits on and was not responsible for visitor safety.
High Court Justice Moore stated that while WML contracted tour operators to conduct tours of the island, the language in the agreements did not make WML liable for such incidents on the island.
The Buttle family welcomed the judge’s decision, according to their lawyer, who also stated the decision would “bring certainty for all landowners who grant others recreational access to their land.”
In the original 2023 trial, survivors testified that they were not warned about the potential dangers before the eruption. They also stated that they were not given protective equipment, and that their burns were exacerbated by their clothing. Most of the victims were American and Australian tourists and tour staff.
White Island, New Zealand’s most active volcano, showed increased activity in the weeks before the 2019 eruption. At the time, it was under an ‘Alert Level 2’ status, indicating “moderate to heightened volcanic unrest.”
Concluding the 2023 trial, the court fined WML NZ$1.045 million and ordered another NZ$4.88 million be paid in restitutions to the victims.
High Court Justice Moore said, “It is impossible not to be deeply moved and affected by the sheer scale and nature of the human loss in this case.”
Sister links
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Sources
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- Kathryn Armstrong. “Volcano owners’ conviction over deadly eruption thrown out” — BBC News, February 28, 2025
- Clyde Hughes. “New Zealand drops conviction against Whakaari/White Island volcano management” — UPI, February 28, 2025
- Charlotte Graham-McLay. “Judge overthrows conviction of owners of New Zealand island where 22 died in volcanic eruption” — Associated Press, February 28, 2025
Crypto prime brokerage August raises $10 million in round led by Dragonfly Ventures
Mets Notes: Brandon Nimmo nearing return after MRI; Starling Marte update
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza provided updates on Brandon Nimmo and Starling Marte ahead of Thursday’s spring training game on SNY.
Giannis Antetokounmpo joins 20,000 points club while scoring 32 in Bucks win vs. Mavericks
He’s the second player on the Bucks roster to reach that number, joining Damian Lillard.
This TikTok Cleaning Method Might Have Broken My Fan
As the spring gets closer and closer, I was excited to see a new trend on TikTok that claims you can easily clean fans—a pretty tedious chore—just by spritzing the machine and covering it with a plastic bag. I tried it out on two different fans today and the results weren’t great. Here’s what happened and what you can (and should) do instead.
My attempt at the TikTok fan-cleaning hack
First of all, here’s how it’s supposed to look and work when you use a cleaning solution and garbage or plastic bag to “clean” your fan:
There are tons of videos like this on TikTok and they all look pretty effective, so I gave it a real try. Different creators recommend different cleaning solutions, like rubbing alcohol or dish soap, but I decided to fill my spray bottle with diluted Fabuloso, the same thing I’d clean the fan with if I were doing it manually.
First, I saturated my tower fan with some heavy-handed spray, then put the bag over it. Nothing happened. No dust or dirt came out into the bag whatsoever. I decided to take this as a personal win, honestly, and chalk it up to my fan simply not being disgusting and dirty enough. The goal here is ostensibly to dampen the dust within the fan to the point that it becomes heavy and dense enough to actually be blown out of the vents. I simply didn’t have enough dirt!
Useless.
Credit: Lindsey Ellefson
Credit: Lindsey Ellefson
My small table fan, however, definitely did; it was gross to even look at. I sprayed that one down, put the bag over it for a full 10 minutes, and… nothing. All the dirt was still visible when I removed the bag. None—and I mean none—came off. But worse, my fan got too wet and malfunctioned. It wouldn’t turn off. That, I think is the primary problem with this supposed hack: You can’t unplug the device like you normally would when cleaning something with electrical components, since you need it to be able to blow air in order to complete the trick. Unfortunately for me, my fan charges while it’s plugged in, so even unplugging it did nothing. It had to run for an hour with water inside before it regained the ability to be turned off. I unquestionably damaged and/or broke it by doing this.
Credit: Lindsey Ellefson
In short, not only does this hack not clean the fan vents or blades, but it has the potential to damage your fan. I don’t care how many videos you see of people appearing to pull this off successfully. It’s not worth attempting.
How to clean a fan instead
In this case, it’s best to do things the old-school way. Unplug your fan. On larger box fans, you should be able to unscrew and detach the front plate, giving you access to the interior parts while you plop the front plate into soapy water (your tub works great for this). From there, wipe down the blades with soapy water. If you can’t do that or don’t want to, just use a vacuum with a brush attachment to suck dirt and grime out through the vents and slats. Use soapy water to wipe down the exterior, including the cord, but don’t get any moisture near where the cord connects or any of the buttons. They can be wiped with a plain microfiber cloth. Here’s a more comprehensive breakdown.
While I am sad that the nifty trick didn’t work, I’m glad for two reasons: I can dissuade you from trying it, first of all, and my apartment smells great now that two of my fans have dispersed Fabuloso water through the air. It’s the little things.
Fantasy Basketball Playoff Tips, Part I: 3 pieces of advice to help make your title dreams a reality
Dan Titus reveals what fantasy hoops managers should keep in mind if they hope to bring home a championship.