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Lego is bringing summer vibes with K.K. Slider and new Animal Crossing sets

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Lego is bringing summer vibes with K.K. Slider and new Animal Crossing sets

Good news for those of us who love Animal Crossing and Legos. Starting August 1st, Lego is launching two new Animal Crossing sets and a minifig of one very special canine crooner.

Lego teased the news on its X account, which shows K.K. Slider doing his thing and a brief glimpse of the two new sets. (Amusingly, Lego notes that the K.K. Slider minifigure does not actually move or sing. Bummer.) K.K. Slider is part of a fall-themed Town Hall set, which includes Isabelle and Audie. There’s also a small truck, snack stand, and some foliage to go along with K.K. Slider’s concert setup. The other set is of a Dodo Airlines airport, complete with a control tower, dock, and airplane. Granted, hordes of your turnip-hungry friends won’t be flying through this particular airport… but it does have minifigures of Wilbur and Tangy!

That said, we only have this short teaser to go off of. As of yet, there are no details on prices or the number of pieces yet. Lego and Nintendo first teamed up to offer five other Animal Crossing sets earlier in March, with prices between $14.99 to $74.99 and pieces ranging from 164 to 535.

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Compression-mounted laptop RAM is fast, efficient, and upgradeable

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Compression-mounted laptop RAM is fast, efficient, and upgradeable

The first laptop with LPCAMM2 memory is finally here. The folks at iFixit got their hands on the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 (Gen 7), which uses LPDDR5X memory in an LPCAMM2 module that you can upgrade or replace by simply unscrewing from the laptop’s motherboard.

That’s a major change from existing LPDDR memory in most modern laptops. This type of memory is typically soldered onto the motherboard, making it much more difficult to upgrade. LPCAMM2 — or Low-Power Compression-Attached Memory Module — offers modularity without losing the power efficiency of LPDDR.

Image: iFixit and Image: iFixit

Traditional DDR RAM uses SODIMM sticks that slot into the motherboard, much like on desktop PCs. As pointed out by iFixit, LPDDR is much more power-efficient, but it needs to be soldered directly to the mainboard, as close to the processor as possible. Up until now, manufacturers have had to choose between upgradeable RAM and power-efficient RAM. LPCAMM2 attempts to split the difference by cozying up to the motherboard with screws, rather than solder. And unlike SODIMM sticks, each LPCAMM2 module is dual-channel, so you only need one, not two.

As shown in the hands-on video posted by iFixit, you can replace the LPCAMM2 in Lenovo’s new ThinkPad P1 by removing the laptop’s backing and then taking out the battery. From there, you can take out the LPCAMM2 by removing three Phillips-head screws.

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In addition to Micron, Samsung and ADATA are also getting in on LPCAMM2. That will hopefully mean you’ll be able to upgrade your memory if it comes with a measly 8GB of RAM, but we likely can’t count on every manufacturer to make the shift.

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Hollywood hijacked: The AI takeover of Tinseltown’s films to fake out Americans

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Hollywood hijacked: The AI takeover of Tinseltown’s films to fake out Americans

If you’re a fan who counts down the days to upcoming movie releases for your favorite characters, you may also be a big fan of movie trailers. So, you may be quite angry if you believe you’ve stumbled on a secret movie trailer on YouTube that looks like the real thing, only to discover artificial intelligence duped you.

Although people have been creating fake movie trailers for quite a while and releasing them on platforms like YouTube, readily available artificial intelligence apps make the process far easier. A recent fake AI movie trailer for the James Bond movie franchise – that appeared to show Henry Cavill as the new Bond character – became quite popular, generating almost 4 million views in two weeks.

However, the trailer was a fake from KH Studio. Judging from the comments on YouTube, its quality was more than good enough to dupe many viewers who thought they were viewing the real thing. Because it generated so many views, other creators are sure to look to do something similar. 

CLICK TO GET KURT’S FREE CYBERGUY NEWSLETTER WITH SECURITY ALERTS, QUICK VIDEO TIPS, TECH REVIEWS AND EASY HOW-TO’S TO MAKE YOU SMARTER

Movie screen in a movie theater (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

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Why fake AI movie trailers scare Hollywood

AI technology played a key role in the recent labor talks in Hollywood between studios and the actor’s and writer’s unions. The union members wanted guarantees about how studios would use AI that would protect their jobs and creative rights.

The fake movie trailers highlight some of the biggest fears of the creatives in Hollywood. They fear filmmakers could upload existing material into AI software, allowing the AI to generate new material without needing writers or actors. Perhaps AI software could even reboot original TV shows and movies from decades ago with images of the actors as they looked in their younger days.

Those generating fake AI movie trailers currently don’t have a film studio’s financial resources or computing power. Yet, they are already fooling some people into believing the trailers are real. Without safeguards in place, those studios could potentially use their significant resources in the near future to generate AI content that simply isn’t distinguishable from the real thing.

Hollywood hijacked: The AI takeover of Tinseltown’s films to fake out Americans

Clapperboard used in filmmaking (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

MORE: AI’S IMPACT ON HOLLYWOOD AMID ‘BARBENHEIMER’ EPIC FRENZY

The proliferation of fake movie trailers on YouTube

You don’t have to search hard online for advice and step-by-step instructions for creating fake movie trailers. Such instructions include information on mimicking the audio, graphics and video to make the trailer look realistic. They can even help you create a fictional description to accompany the YouTube upload.

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Those who create these trailers often are simply looking for ways to show off their creativity – while generating plenty of views for potential monetization.

One creator well-known for these types of movies is Abandoned Films on YouTube. This creator uses a combination of AI and Photoshop to generate fake trailers for modern television shows and films that feature camera technology from the 1950s and 1960s.

Another YouTube creator, Curious Refuge, uses AI to generate movie trailers as if they’re filmed in the style of American filmmaker Wes Anderson.

Hollywood hijacked: The AI takeover of Tinseltown’s films to fake out Americans

Illustration of individual photographic images (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

MORE: REAL OR FAKE? AI PRODUCT REVIEWS ARE MAKING IT IMPOSSIBLE TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE

Protecting creativity and authenticity

As AI advances, the entertainment industry must work closely with technology companies to establish robust safeguards. This may involve developing digital watermarking techniques, improving trailer authentication processes, and ensuring that AI-generated content is clearly labeled. Preserving the integrity of the moviegoing experience will be crucial in this rapidly evolving landscape.

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MORE: ARE AI DEEPFAKES THE END OF ACTING AS WE KNOW IT?

Kurt’s key takeaways

No one likes to have the wool pulled over their eyes, especially Hollywood stars. Whether you enjoy the creativity found in fake movie trailers generated with AI or you agree with users on Reddit’s YouTube forum who absolutely hate them, they aren’t going to disappear any time soon. With Hollywood concerned about how AI may affect the entertainment industry, these fake AI movie trailers will surely receive increased attention as they become more prevalent and look more realistic.

Do you believe fake AI movie trailers are something akin to fan fiction? Or do such trailers represent a violation of the rights of the creator of the original works? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.

For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter.

Ask Kurt a question or let us know what stories you’d like us to cover.

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Apple iPad event: all the news from Apple’s “Let Loose” reveal

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Apple iPad event: all the news from Apple’s “Let Loose” reveal

When Apple CEO Tim Cook and a bunch of his deputies take the virtual stage next week to announce new iPads, they’re going to spend a lot of time talking about specs. If the rumors are true, we’re going to get new iPad Pros with OLED screens and thinner bodies, new Airs with faster chips and a correctly placed front camera, and a couple of new accessories. Before they even launch, I feel confident telling you these are the best iPads ever. But after all these years, I still don’t know how to tell you whether you should want an iPad. Or what you’d want to do with it. 

This has been true forever, of course. The iPad is the jack-of-all-trades in Apple’s lineup, a terrific device in many ways that still feels increasingly redundant now that so many people have big phones and long-lasting laptops. Apple seems to have spent the last decade-plus enamored with the idea of the iPad as a shapeshifter — a device that can be exactly what you need at any given time. The company loves that the iPad’s use case is hard to pin down, that it means different things to different people. It’s a fun, good, ambitious idea: The One Gadget To Rule Them All. The way to make that happen, though, is not to upgrade the chips or move the buttons or redesign the rounded corners. It’s to focus less on the iPad itself and more on the things you attach to it.

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