Unseasonably cold temperatures and more snow is expected to end the week in Massachusetts.
Although Friday is expected to be mostly sunny, highs will only reach around the 20s for most of the state “and sit just around freezing for Cape Cod and the Islands,” according to the National Weather Service.
Springfield Public Schools reminded parents to dress students in layers, coats, hats and “shield your student’s lungs from extreme cold” to help keep them safe at bus stops.
The National Weather Service suggests three layers on the top half of your body and two layers on the bottom.
The National Weather Service gives tips on how to dress in the cold.National Weather Service
Scattered snow or rain showers are possible Friday night into Saturday morning. However, it’ll be less than an inch in most places.
Rain is possible through about 11 a.m. across Massachusetts on Saturday. But it’s only a slight chance, according to the National Weather Service.
The Chicago Tribune filed a lawsuit against AI search engine Perplexity on Thursday alleging copyright infringement. The suit, seen by TechCrunch, was filed in a federal court in New York.
The Tribune alleges that its lawyers contacted Perplexity in mid-October asking if the AI search engine was using its content, according to the complaint. Perplexity’s lawyers replied it did not train models with the Tribune’s work, but that it “may receive non-verbatim factual summaries,” the lawsuit claims.
The Tribune’s lawyers, however, argue that Perplexity is delivering Tribune content verbatim.
Interestingly, the newspaper’s lawyers are also calling out Perplexity’s Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) as a culprit. RAG is a method used to limit hallucinations by having the model only use an accurate or verified data source. The Tribune argues that Perplexity is using the newspaper’s content in its RAG systems, scraped without permission. Plus, it alleges the Perplexity’s Comet browser is bypassing the paper’s paywall to deliver detailed summaries of those articles.
The Tribune is one of 17 news publications from MediaNews Group and Tribune Publishing that sued OpenAI and Microsoft over model training material in April. That suit is ongoing. Another nine from these publishers sued the model maker and its cloud provider in November, too.
While creators have filed many lawsuits against model makers over using their work for model training, we’ll have to see if the courts weigh in about the legal liabilities of RAG as well.
Perplexity did not immediately respond to the Chicago Tribune’s story about its own lawsuit, nor to TechCrunch’s request for comment. Perplexity is facing other such suits. Reddit filed one in October. Dow Jones is also suing. Last month, while Amazon didn’t sue, it did threaten to by sending a cease and desist letter over AI browser shopping.
Skybound Game Studios is being sued by indie outfit iam8bit over fraud and breach of contract, including the theft of original designs. Skybound Entertainment, the parent company of Skybound Game Studios, is chaired by Robert Kirkman, who may be best known for creating the original comic book of The Walking Dead. We’ve reached out to Skybound for comment on the lawsuit but have not received a response as of publication.
iam8bit is a video game producer as well as a merchandise operation selling vinyl soundtracks and other geek gear. The company entered into a partnership with Skybound Game Studios in April 2021. Since then, iam8bit alleges that Skybound conducted a multi-year accounting scheme and failed to provide accurate financial reports for the partnership each month. “Skybound failed to provide the monthly reports as agreed,” the Los Angeles Superior Court complaint reads. “It also padded its expenses with millions of dollars in fake line items.” iam8bit claims Skybound has yet to explain the line items, even to a third-party auditor that it engaged. The company is alleging more than $4 million in damages related to the accounting issues.
iam8bit also accused Skybound of cutting it out of a deal regarding indie video game Stray. According to the company’s counsel, iam8bit designed and developed promotional materials for the launch of Stray on PlayStation and Xbox consoles. The complaint claims that Skybound used trade secrets from iam8bit to secure its own deal for the Nintendo launch of the game. It alleges Skybound used confidential information about iam8bit’s royalty split with publishing Annapurna Interactive to cut out its business partner, while also using “almost exact copies” of its creative output for marketing.
The full list of allegations in iam8bit’s complaint include breach of contract, fraud, conversion, unjust enrichment and misappropriation. The company’s legal team is seeking monetary damages, punitive damages and attorneys’ fees in compensation.
Google today officially detailed the new Fi Web Calls & Messages that started rolling out yesterday. The MVNO acknowledges that there are a “few changes to how things work under the hood.”
Compared to before (known as “Sync with Google Fi”), your phone must “remain powered on and connected to the internet (via Wi-Fi or mobile data)” to send SMS and now RCS. This is because Google is using the existing Messages for web platform — messages.google.com/web — available to all users on any carrier, including Fi users before today that did not need calling or voicemail on the web.
Google revealed today that it is “actively working to bring you RCS capabilities even when your phone is offline in the future.” There is no specific timeline. This was a big complaint about the new system from legacy (Hangouts era) users.
The carrier shared that “Sync with Google Fi” users can continue using the legacy SMS system until February 2026. However, signing out (like to try the new Web Calls experience) means “you will not be able to sign back in.”
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Once signed out, you will need to transition to the new Fi Web Calls & Messages experience to access your messages and calls on the web.
Additionally, you must sign-in to Google Messages for web using your Google Account that is linked to your Fi account.
The legacy QR code pairing method will not unlock these specific Fi features. You will see a banner prompting you to re-pair if you previously paired via QR code.
In other updates, Google is aware that “moving between the webpages currently opens a tab each time, and we are actively working to streamline this user experience to prevent tab clutter – a fix for this is incoming!”
AMHERST — Pro-Palestinian groups at the University of Massachusetts Amherst say the school continues to stifle student voices and refuses to agree to contracts with its professional staff amid building anger about the war in Gaza.
Meanwhile, members of the Professional Staff Union have been in ongoing negotiations with the university, saying in November it had been 500 days since thousands of employees had had a contract. The union members Thursday evening overwhelmingly voted no-confidence in Javier Reyes, the university’s chancellor.
The vote passed 966 to 59, representing a 94% vote of no confidence.
Students for Justice in Palestine, a group that has had an active voice in protesting the university’s role in the war over two years, claim that the university has been hypocritical and they want to hold it to account. They held a press conference in front of the university’s administration building on a wintry Thursday afternoon.
“The university has cracked down on student protests, cut back offerings in Arabic language and Middle Eastern studies, furthering its legacy as a hostile campus to Muslim and Arab students, as it has been deemed by the Council for American Islamic Relations,” said Will Kenney, a graduate student at the university and member of Students for Justice in Palestine.
Ari Jewell, communications and organizing committee member of the union and associate managing editor of UMass Magazine, told a reporter that many people on campus feel Reyes is running an “educational institution like a business and a corporation, not supporting the staff that it’s supposed to support.”
When reached for comment Thursday evening, Emily Gest, a spokesperson for the university, said the university will continue to present its proposals in good faith and bargain under the laws set forth in Chapter 150E.
Jewell said both Reyes’ and UMass President Marty Meehan have continuously shown why staff and students voted no-confidence in them. The union vote was the fourth no-confidence vote taken by a body of campus members since the pro-Palestinian protests began in October 2023.
Reyes was named the chancellor of the university in February 2023.
Kivlighan de Montebello speaks outside the Philip F. Whitmore building on Thursday about his suspension from the University of Massachusetts Amherst over a protest in September. Dec. 4, 2025. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)Douglas Hook
Students continue to be punished, groups say
In September, Kivlighan de Montebello, a junior at the university, was one of a number of students to protest the presence of RTX, formerly known as Raytheon — a defense contractor — at a career fair hosted by the business school.
He says days after the protest, which was dismantled by the university’s Demonstration Response and Safety Team, he received five charges of misconduct from the university: disruptive behavior, threatening behavior, creating a disturbance, failure to comply and violation of the university picketing code.
Now he is in the appeals process after receiving four additional sanctions — effective from Nov. 7 to May 31, 2026 — from the university, including suspension, restriction from university housing, a re-entry assessment meeting and a letter on decision making. The sanctions are stayed while the appeals process is underway, he said.
“While I’m watching a live-streamed genocide, having to deal with charges against me for trying to protest that genocide is extremely disheartening and as a member of the UMass community, I feel completely disappointed in the administration and this institution,” he told a reporter after the press conference.
De Montebello, who is studying social thought and political economy, said if his appeal is denied, the sanctions he received removes him from campus and he will have to reapply next fall to complete his final year at the university.
He said he is unsure if he’ll want to apply to come back.
Gest, university spokesperson, said she could not comment on the specifics of de Montebello’s case, including whether the charges and sanctions are accurate, per the U.S. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act as well as campus policy, in an emailed statement.
However, she said, generally student conduct cases are considered individually.
Sanctions and restorative outcomes preserve individual and institutional integrity and, whenever possible and appropriate, help students to learn from their mistakes, repair harms, and regain their standing in the community, she said.
With regard to RTX’s presence on campus in September and its ties to the company, Gest said the university remains “content-neutral” on which companies may join career fairs or host informational recruiting sessions, so long as those companies meet the college’s non-discrimination and recruiting guidelines, per the 1st Amendment.
“UMass Amherst maintains numerous partnerships with entities including, but not limited to, educational institutions, non-governmental organizations, and private industry,” Gest’s statement said.
Pro-Palestinian students also say that courses in Arabic and about the Middle East, including the history of Palestine and Israel and the Iranian Revolution, would be cut by the university “under the pretense of financial constraints,” an emailed statement from the Students for Justice in Palestine said.
Gest, university spokesperson, said no UMass program, credential or certificate has been discontinued, including the Arabic language class, which is offered by the Judaic and Near Eastern Studies program.
“UMass students can still take Arabic classes on campus or at Smith College,” she said in an emailed statement. ”The discontinued program referenced was the Five College Consortium’s Arabic Language Initiative (ended by the Five College Consortium due to low enrollment.)“
University course offerings are determined by faculty, not the administration, she said.
Kevin Young, a history professor at the university who has spoken out against his employer in support of the Palestinian people, said as some employees’ pockets get heavier, others — like those negotiating their contracts in the Professional Staff Union — are struggling to get by.
“By capping administrator salaries and reducing administrative positions to more reasonable levels, the campus could fund many of the things for which students and workers are fighting,” he said.
Steve Cropper, the Booker T. & the MG guitarist, songwriter and producer who was instrumental in the rise of R&B powerhouse Stax Records, died in Nashville at 84.
On season one of Build Mode: Product, Meet Market, we explore what it really takes to get your product into the hands of customers. We’ve talked a lot about product-market fit, but this week we take a step back to something just as essential and far less discussed: founder-market fit.
Investors love to ask, “What’s your competitive advantage?” Usually they’re talking about moats, IP, and defensibility. But before you ever write a line of code, you already have assets: your background, your experiences, your reputation, your network. Most founders simply forget to treat those as strategic tools.
As the saying goes, “if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.” Be intentional about who you surround yourself with, build a focused network, and share your unique expertise boldly.
This week, Isabelle sits down with Kyle Rudolph and Jon Walburg, co-founders of Alltroo, a fundraising platform that transforms celebrity access into once-in-a-lifetime charitable sweepstakes, from swimming with Michael Phelps to Oktoberfest at Arnold Schwarzenegger’s house.
Kyle and Jon’s story shows that while celebrity status can open doors, it’s the execution, trust, and authenticity behind the company that keeps those doors open. Their credibility—rooted in Kyle’s career with the Minnesota Vikings, co-founder Jason Zucker’s career with the Buffalo Sabres, Jon’s operator background, and the early crowdfunding success that inspired their model—forms a powerful foundation of founder-market fit that’s hard to copy.
Their pivot from exclusive $10,000 golf events to accessible $10 sweepstakes demonstrates how democratizing access can actually elevate prestige when done with intention.
And while not every founder begins with celebrity reach, every founder does begin with a network and the ability to grow influence. The real differentiator is how you activate it: strategically, authentically, and in ways that create clear value. Thought leadership is one of the most effective levers: sharing insights publicly; showing up on social media with purpose; writing, speaking, and consistently putting your ideas into the world. That’s how you become a “celebrity” in your own right, through credibility and contribution.
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This episode isn’t about chasing fame. It’s about how Kyle and Jon leverage their community and relationships to build trust, gain early traction, and open doors most founders never think to knock on and how any founder can use the same playbook to drive their go-to-market strategy.
New episodes of Build Mode drop every Thursday subscribe to the podcast or watch on YouTube. Isabelle Johannessen is our host. Build Mode is produced and edited by Maggie Nye. Audience Development is led by Morgan Little. And a special thanks to the Foundry and Cheddar video teams.
It can be tough to find a good gift for tech obsessives. Since they keep up with the latest releases, they probably already have the new high-profile gadgets out there. Luckily, Engadget staffers keep their eyes peeled all year long for the truly unique stuff. We travel to CES, attend product launches, cover major and minor tech events — we also can’t help but buy ourselves any zany, clever, addictive or productive tech we happen to stumble across. In short, we’ve got some ideas about good gifts for tech nerds (which we are). Here are the best tech gifts and gadgets for 2025.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/the-best-tech-gifts-and-cool-gadgets-for-2025-140052697.html?src=rss
Samsung, as the first-mover in the foldable market, always held a strong position in the market, but it’s no secret that prior generations were putting the company on a path to second place. Following the launch of the Galaxy Z Fold 7, though, Samsung has reestablished its dominance over the foldable market according to the latest numbers.
Counterpoint Research reports that Samsung made up 64% of the global foldable market in Q3 2025, up from 56% the year prior. That’s a huge increase, with Samsung’s overall shipment volume increasing by 32% on the back of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7.
OEM performance further underscored the outsized influence of the Samsung Galaxy Z cycle this quarter. In particular, the Z Fold7’s slimmer frame, lighter hardware, improved hinge durability and reduced crease visibility broadened its premium appeal and drove a stronger-than-expected uplift.
The increase is also despite nearly every other major player – Huawei, Motorola, and Vivo – seeing marked improvements to their shipment volume as well. Honor and Xiaomi, though, did see considerable drops in their shipment totals.
It just goes to show, yet again, that Samsung’s efforts to drastically improve the Galaxy Z Fold 7 paid off. In a prior comparison in Q2, ahead of the Fold 7’s launch, Samsung foldable shipments were behind both Huawei and Motorola.
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There’s no mention of Google’s Pixel Fold series here, though that’s not exactly a surprise, as Pixel remains a niche player in this already-niche portion of the smartphone market.
The report goes on to point out that existing brands such as Samsung and Huawei are “demonstrating clear technology leadership and sharpening product differentiation strategies” ahead of Apple’s expected foldable iPhone launch next year, pointing to Samsung’s Galaxy Z TriFold as an example.
SPRINGFIELD – The City Council voted Monday to use $5.7 million of the $18.6 million in free cash certified in mid-November to pay down liabilities and old debts.
For several years, the city has tried to put 10% of its free cash into a reserve account saved to make state required payments to its underfunded pension account.
Free cash is made up of money budgeted but not spent, funds earned from investments and fee payments.
An additional 10% is being tapped to beef up the account that pays for health insurance and other benefits for employees, which also has a huge liability, said Cathy Buono, chief administrative and financial officer.
About $2.1 million was also allocated to pay off COVID expenses that were not covered by reimbursements from the state and federal government.
Buono said the city has appealed those denials several times and has exhausted all other options.
