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An anonymous reader shares a report: On Wednesday, Pew Research Center published a survey assessing how parents in the US with children under 12 manage their kids' screen time, which revealed that 61% of respondents overall reported their child ever uses or interacts with smartphones -- including 38% of those with children under 2 years old. Much of this smartphone screen time is likely made up by parents streaming kid-friendly cartoons for their little ones to watch on the go: the study also found that YouTube use among children under 2 has risen sharply from 45% to 62% over the last five years. But it appears that most American toddlers only need to wait a few years before they can get devices of their very own. The same survey showed that almost one in four US parents overall allow their children aged 12 and under to have their own smartphones, and this ballooned to nearly 60% when just looking at kids aged 11-12 years old.

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The Japanese government has made a formal request asking OpenAI to refrain from copyright infringement. The request came after Sora 2 began generating videos featuring copyrighted characters from anime and video games. Minoru Kiuchi spoke at the Cabinet Office press conference on Friday and described manga and anime as "irreplaceable treasures" that Japan boasts to the world. The request was made online by the Cabinet Office's Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters. Sora 2, which launched recently, generates twenty-second videos at 1080p resolution. Social media is getting filled with videos showing characters from One Piece, Demon Slayer, Pokemon and Mario. Digital Minister Masaaki Taira expressed hopes that OpenAI would comply voluntarily. He indicated that measures under Japan's AI Promotion Act may be invoked if the issue remains unresolved.

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Apple will increase investment in China, the company's CEO Tim Cook said during a meeting with the country's industry minister in Beijing on Wednesday, according to an official summary of their exchange. From a report: Many U.S. companies have become cautious about relations with China as the world's two biggest economies have clashed over trade tariffs and as U.S. President Donald Trump seeks to promote manufacture in the United States rather than elsewhere. But Cook told China's industry minister Li Lecheng the iPhone maker will keep investing in China, the Chinese ministry said, although the summary gave no details of the size of the projected investment.

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Several leading news organizations with access to Pentagon briefings have formally said they will not agree to a new defense department policy that requires them to pledge they will not obtain unauthorized material and restricts access to certain areas unless accompanied by an official. The Guardian: The policy, presented last month by the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has been widely criticized by media organizations asked to sign the pledge by Tuesday at 5pm or have 24 hours to turn in their press credentials. The move follows a shake-up in February in which long-credentialed media outlets were required to vacate assigned workspaces which was cast as an "annual media rotation program." A similar plan was presented at the White House where some briefing room spots were given to podcasters and other representatives of non-traditional media. On Monday, the Washington Post joined the New York Times, CNN, the Atlantic, the Guardian, Reuters, the Associated Press, NPR, HuffPost and trade publication Breaking Defense in saying it would not sign on to the agreement.

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Apple unveiled a new 14-inch MacBook Pro on Wednesday that features the company's M5 chip and represents what Apple describes as the next major advancement in AI performance for its Mac lineup. The laptop delivers up to 3.5 times faster AI performance than the M4 chip and up to six times faster performance than the M1 chip through a redesigned 10-core GPU architecture that incorporates a Neural Accelerator in each core. The improvements extend beyond AI processing to include graphics performance that runs up to 1.6 times faster than the previous generation and battery life that reaches up to 24 hours on a single charge. Apple also integrated faster storage technology that performs up to twice as fast as the prior generation and allows configurations up to 4TB. The 10-core CPU delivers up to 20% faster multithreaded performance compared to the M4. The laptop runs macOS Tahoe and includes a Liquid Retina XDR display available in a nano-texture option, a 12MP Center Stage camera, and a six-speaker sound system. The 14-inch MacBook Pro is available for pre-order starting Wednesday in space black and silver finishes and begins shipping October 22. The base model costs $1,599.

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