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Motorola is gearing up to announce new phones on April 24, based on a short teaser video the company shared on X. The video shows what looks like two types of phone — presumably a member of the 2025 Razr family and a Moto Edge — sliding and unfolding into place to spell "AI."

There's little else to go on from the video other than the April 24, 2025 date and a glimpse of some new finish options for Motorola's phones, including a wood option. Last year's Razr and Razr+ came in a variety of bright, poppy colors with faux suede and leather backs. Historically, Motorola has also prided itself on offering unique customizations options, starting all the way back with the Moto X in 2013, which was also available with a wooden finish. It's possible that wood-paneled options ends up exclusive to the Moto Edge, but it would certainly make the Razr and Razr+ standout from other foldables if they got it, too.

Big reveals. Iconicdesigns. Coming 4/24 🤫. #MakeItIconic #GatewayToIconic pic.twitter.com/PhfPg4o71h— motorola (@Moto) April 10, 2025

Beyond that, the improvements Motorola could reasonably make to the Razr are more expected. It's made the front cover screen bigger before, and it could again on the 2025 Razr. The 2025 Razr+ couldn't get a bigger front display without Motorola changing the dimensions of the phone itself, but that's possible, too. If Motorola wanted to really offer a Razr worth upgrading to, it would also improve the phone's camera, fixing things like color reproduction and photo processing.

We should have a better idea of what Motorola has planned when it makes its April 24 announcement, until then, smart money is on the company cramming in a few more AI-powered features.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/youll-have-to-wait-until-april-24-to-know-if-motorola-was-brave-enough-to-make-a-wooden-razr-211723767.html?src=rss

Dough Spectrum Canvas is an affordable alternative to Apple's Studio DisplayIt is the display every Mac user has been waiting forThe display offers a Mac-friendly design, tailored for creatives

For many Mac users, Apple’s Studio Display is a highly desirable product, but its steep price will have placed it out of reach for some potential buyers.Tech start Dough is developing the Spectrum Canvas, an alternative to the Apple Studio Display, based on feedback from Mac users on r/Mac.This device is a 32-inch 6K monitor aimed at creatives, remote workers, and professionals who want Apple-like quality without the premium price tag. The Canvas aims to strike a balance between visual fidelity, premium materials, and community-informed features.

6K display built with macOS in mind

At the heart of the Spectrum Canvas is LG’s 6K IPS Black panel, which was announced at CES 2025. It offers true 10-bit color, 98% DCI-P3 coverage, 218 PPI, a 2000:1 contrast ratio, and 99.5% AdobeRGB coverage.The monitor also includes an ATW polarizer, which helps reduce IPS glow and improves color uniformity. With this level of performance, the Canvas is being positioned as one of the best 5K/8K monitor options available for modern Mac users.In terms of design, the device features an anodized aluminum body, a die-cast stand, and solid cover glass on the front. The glass finish is glossy yet anti-reflective, avoiding the glare typically associated with glossy panels.At the time of writing, some aspects of the monitor, such as power delivery specs, webcam options, speaker integration, and USB hub layout, are still under development. Instead of finalizing these decisions internally, Dough is involving its user community in the process. Those interested in contributing can join the company’s Reddit community.For users searching for the best monitor for Mac Mini or the best monitor for MacBook Pro, the native 6K resolution and large format of the Spectrum Canvas promises to deliver a seamless experience across both everyday tasks and creative workflows.As of now, Dough has not released official details regarding pricing or availability.

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Google Docs is introducing a new Audio Overviews featureAudio Overviews can read your documents aloud or summarize them like a podcastThe tool aims to help users improve their writing and enable multitasking

Reading your writing out loud is one of the best ways to discover any mistakes or awkwardness that could use some editing. But as the writer, you might have a blind spot for your own typos or be too close to what you wrote to note where it needs some rewriting (or outright cutting).So, if you don't always have a friend on hand to help, Google will start jumping in with a new Audio Overview feature for Google Docs.Audio Overviews are already a part of Google's NotebookLM platform. Now, Google is sending that “natural-sounding” narration to Google Docs to read your documents aloud.The goal is for the user to hear Audio Overviews read a document back to you, uncovering every mistyped word and stilted phrase you didn't hear when you wrote it.

(Image credit: Google)

Google is also including a second option besides just getting an AI recitation. You'll be able to hear what the company calls a “podcast-style overview” of the text, meaning just a collection of the highlights instead of every single word. For texts that are more than a dozen pages long and full of research, that could be a big help.Alas, this isn't the kind of podcast-style review available on NotebookLM, which will generate an actual conversation between two AI voices discussing everything you've uploaded.

Reciting AI

Google claims the voices will be indistinguishable from an actual human, and if it's the same AI voice model employed by NotebookLM, that's not far from the truth. Of course, mispronouncing words, especially proper nouns they haven't heard before, is a very human foible when reading out loud. Still, that might not matter much if it also catches your actual errors.The feature also has a major accessibility benefit as AI voices reading text have been a boon for people with impaired sight or other reading difficulties. An upgraded, more natural-sounding voice to read Google Docs would only make text more accessible. Plus, it could help anyone who just has a lot going on. You could 'read' a long report while driving, folding laundry, or doing anything else that keeps your eyes busy.This isn't a world-shaking feature, but it's the kind of quality-of-life improvement to a widely used product, Google Docs, that AI is uniquely suited to provide. It's hard to argue that using AI to enhance productivity software to make it more adaptive is unnecessary.Anything to streamline how you polish your writing will be a draw. Not that Google is unique in this pursuit, though, as both Microsoft and Apple have been experimenting with similar AI augmentation of their word processors.Even so, Google Docs is the go-to for millions of people, students, and professionals alike, and this move makes the product that much easier to stick with.

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The US Department of Justice has indicted Albert Sangier for defrauding investors with misleading statements about his Nate financial technology platform. Founded by Sangier in 2018, Nate claimed it could offer shoppers a universal checkout app thanks to artificial intelligence. However, the indictment states that the so-called AI-powered transactions in Nate were actually completed by human contractors in the Philippines and Romania or by bots. Sangier raised more than $40 million from investors for the app.

This case follows reporting by The Information in 2022 that cast light on Nate's use of human labor rather than AI. Sources told the publication that during 2021, "the share of transactions Nate handled manually rather than automatically ranged between 60 percent and 100 percent."

Many ambitious and ethically challenged entrepreneurs have attempted to make their fortunes by disguising human actions as a mechanical or technological innovation over the centuries. Claiming the results as AI work is just the most digital age application of the idea.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/tech-founder-charged-with-fraud-for-ai-that-was-secretly-overseas-contract-workers-225910022.html?src=rss

The promise of a lot what we currently call AI is that these tools can streamline some of the most tedious bits of life. They can summarize that meeting you missed without having to read a transcript or they can trim a video without you manually cutting every silent second. Adobe has taken that to the next stage with its new range of AI agent features.Adobe’s new agentic AI actively takes on full tasks, not just bits of larger projects. It can suggest edits in Photoshop and make them happen with a click. The AI can analyze hours of raw video footage in Premiere Pro, then make a judgment call about the best clips, assemble a rough cut, and even make color corrections. The AI agents will build an animated flyer from scratch in Express and read your PDFs in Acrobat, highlighting what they believe matters. They will even use them to produce a full sales pitch.The idea of delegating the mind-numbing roles to AI so you can focus on the parts that engage your mind creatively is appealing. Adobe isn’t wrong when it says this could significantly shift how people carry out these projects. But it's also a moment fraught with uncertain implications.The more we let the AI handle the heavy lifting, the fewer hours we spend manually adjusting every image or organizing the minutes of every meeting, and the easier it becomes for those passing out those assignments to devalue the creativity underlying the toil.It’s easy to tell ourselves we’re still in control. That we’re just tweaking what the machine gives us. But at some point, if all we’re doing is picking from drop-downs and nudging sliders, how much of the “creative” in the “creative process” is left?

Creative business

Adobe says this isn’t about replacing creativity but amplifying it. The AI isn’t the artist; it’s the assistant. And in many ways, that’s true. The AI doesn’t know your brand voice, your weird sense of humor, or your obsession with putting subtle frog references in every campaign.It can’t feel the rush of a good idea or the gut instinct that something just works. It doesn’t daydream in the shower or scribble storyboards on napkins. It just calculates.Artists, whether professional painters, commercial designers, or guerrilla documentarians, all understand that the AI's help is only as good as the human vision. Even so, there are plenty of people who would reason that if an AI can generate 10 polished options in seconds, then it's not worth paying a human to spend hours coming up with one that may not work out.After all, why wrestle with structure, tone, or typography when your digital agent is happy to make those calls for you?In a business context, speed and cost often win out. If the AI can generate something that’s “good enough,” will anyone fight for the slower, messier, more human-made alternative?If a marketing department can produce entire campaigns in minutes that are on-brand, on-message, and 85% ready to go, how long before creative teams become more like editors, checking the machine’s work rather than making their own?

Uncertain visions

This isn't happening today or tomorrow or even next year. There are still a thousand tiny decisions that only a human can make, or at least make well. The inevitable mockery and outrage that greets attempts to delegate creative tasks to AI fully makes that clear.Remember the ad Google had for the Olympics suggesting a little girl use AI to write a fan letter? There's a reason Google had to answer a lot of questions about the point of that ad. There’s still a soul in the work. But the slope is starting to feel a little slippery.I don't claim to have all the solutions, but I do have a few ideas on how to think about AI's place among creative tools. I do think there's a place for it, but at the same time, the more people and companies that reserve space in a project for actual creative exploration, the better.Related to that, talking about the value of AI is certainly worthwhile, but it shouldn't outweigh highlighting human creativity. AI might be 'good enough' almost always, but rough ideas, weird experiments, and even bad drafts are still worth making. Sometimes, they're the only things worth remembering.

Creative future

Adobe does seem to get this. They talk a lot about keeping the human in the loop in their announcement, about making the creator the director and the agent the crew. They describe how these tools are transparent, responsive, and in service of creative goals. And for now, that feels mostly true. You can reject suggestions. You can still do things the long way. You’re not being forced to hand over the reins.It still feels like a potential cultural shift as much as a technological one. The future Adobe is working toward is one where creative professionals may be expected to do more, faster, with fewer people, by relying on agents that never sleep and don’t charge hourly rates. That’s great for productivity. Maybe less great for careers built on the slow, joyful chaos of making stuff.Agentic AI is not the death of creativity, but it might constrain its presence without conscious effort. If we don’t pay attention and let speed and convenience dictate artistic efforts, creativity might become mostly a hobby and not something valued outside of that. If ideas come from prompts and output comes from agents, humans will mostly be there to sign off.That doesn’t have to happen. These tools can be incredible if we use them intentionally. They can give beginners a head start and help pros focus on what matters most. They can democratize design and storytelling in ways we’ve never seen. I'm sure we can come up with all new ways for creativity to flourish beyond the reach of any AI if we use our imagination.

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The practice of developing publicly accessible technologies and preventing monopolies of privately-owned, closed-source infrastructure was a pivotal technological movement in the 1990s and 2000s.The open source software movement was viewed at the time as a form of ‘digital civil duty’, democratizing access to technology. However, while the movement's ethos underpins much of today’s technological landscape, its evolution has proven to be a challenge for its pioneers.

Hurdles Facing Young Developers

Open source models successfully paved a path for the development of a multitude of technologies, cultivating a culture of knowledge sharing, collaboration, and community along the way. Unfortunately, monetizing such projects has always been a challenge, and ensuring contributors are compensated for their contributions working on them, even more so.On the other hand, closed-source projects offer greater control, security, and competitive advantage through proprietary innovation. These models allow companies to protect intellectual property and maintain strategic differentiation in the market. As a result, they’re significantly better funded and more lucrative.While this may be a contributing factor for the current generation of coders that prioritize financial gain over ideology, there are also technological drawbacks in the debate between open and closed source models.Many of the languages used to develop traditional open source technologies have been overtaken by popular alternatives – particularly in the wake of the current GenAI era. Over the past three years since the introduction of ChatGPT and other GenAI tools, Python rose to become the number one language of choice for people learning to code and 'other coders', as tracked in Stack Overflow’s 2024 Developer Survey.Python was also an established and utilized programming language at the time, but C and C++ dominated systems programming and performance-critical applications, while Perl and PHP fueled the early growth of web development. These languages haven’t fallen completely out of favor, but Python is largely regarded as the language of AI – and new coders are taking note.The appeal of developing proprietary systems for startups or innovative Big Tech companies is understandable for young developers looking for both inspiration and remuneration. With AI very much shaping the new frontier in technology and the LLM wars raging, it was common wisdom that deeply competitive, closed-source development would remain the status quo.Until, of course, the launch of DeepSeek.

The rise of a new open-source era?

In December 2024, DeepSeek released DeepSeek-V3, an advanced open-source LLM designed to enhance performance in areas such as mathematics, coding, and language tasks. Wherever you may land on the security implications of using DeepSeek, it’s undeniable that its launch dropped a bomb on the AI ecosystem – and crucially, on open versus close source programming.DeepSeek's dedication to open source AI models has sparked meaningful discussions on openness and collaboration in AI development – and may well be the catalyst needed to ignite interest in open source development amongst young coders. While these projects may still aim to become commercially successful, they nonetheless democratize AI beyond major tech corporations and provide opportunities for collaboration within the developer community.While this is undoubtedly a positive development, striking the right balance between open and closed source technology is essential for long-term innovation and business success. Open source approaches fuel rapid innovation, fosters developer trust, and creates a foundation for community-driven improvements. Open source technologies also provide transparency, flexibility, and cost efficiency, allowing developers to adapt and scale solutions quickly. But relying solely on open source can expose businesses to security risks, IP conflicts, and support limitations – which can have significant ramifications in our highly competitive, digital-first age.

Striking the right balance

The key to success – for both young coders and businesses – lies in adopting a hybrid strategy. Leveraging open source for foundational infrastructure and rapid development while building proprietary layers to create value-added differentiation can ensure long-term scalability and security.By combining the strengths of both approaches, developers can innovate faster while businesses reduce costs and maintain a competitive edge, all the while safeguarding their intellectual property and enhancing customer trust.This balance allows companies to harness the collaborative power of open source without sacrificing the strategic benefits of proprietary technology. And in turn, this approach will better serve the needs of the next generation of coders.

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