Home Assistant’s Voice Preview Edition is a little box with big privacy powers
Home Assistant announced today the availability of the Voice Preview Edition, its own design of a living-room-friendly box to offer voice assistance with home automation. Having used it for a few...
View ArticleVPN used for VR game cheat sells access to your home network
In the hit virtual reality game Gorilla Tag, you swing your arms to pull your primate character around—clambering through virtual worlds, climbing up trees and, above all, trying to avoid an infectious...
View ArticleGoogle will apparently offer “AI Mode” right on its main search page
Google will soon take more steps to make AI a part of search, exposing more users to its Gemini agent, according to recent reports and app teardowns. "AI Mode," shown at the top left of the web results...
View ArticleNew AA-powered AirTag case promises 10-year lifespan
On Wednesday, Elevation Lab announced TimeCapsule, a new $20 battery case purported to extend Apple AirTag battery life from one year to 10 years. The product replaces the standard CR2032 coin cell...
View ArticleThe next two FIFA Women’s World Cups will only air on Netflix
If you want to watch the next two FIFA Women’s World Cups in the US, you’ll need a Netflix subscription. FIFA confirmed the news today, marking an unexpected change for the sports event, which has...
View ArticleStartup set to brick $800 kids robot is trying to open source it first
Earlier this month, startup Embodied announced that it is going out of business and taking its Moxie robot with it. The $800 robots, aimed at providing emotional support for kids ages 5 to 10, would...
View ArticleGreen sea turtle gets relief from “bubble butt” syndrome thanks to 3D printing
Charlotte, a green sea turtle, was hit by a boat back in 2008. This left it with an affliction colloquially referred to as the “bubble butt,” a kind of floating syndrome that makes it impossible for a...
View Article$2,100 mechanical keyboard has 800 holes, NYC skyscraper looks
For $2,100, you could buy over a dozen upper-quality mechanical keyboards. Alternatively, you could buy just one mechanical keyboard kit. Costing the same as a desktop computer, The Icebreaker keyboard...
View ArticleI keep turning my Google Sheets into phone-friendly webapps, and I can’t stop
It started, like so many overwrought home optimization projects, during the pandemic. My wife and I, like many people stuck inside, were ordering takeout more frequently. We wanted to support local...
View ArticleFTC launches probe of Microsoft over bundling
The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Microsoft in a wide-ranging probe that will examine whether the company’s business practices have run afoul of antitrust laws, according to people familiar...
View ArticleYou can love or hate AI, but it’s killed crappy 8GB versions of pricey PCs...
I'd describe myself as a skeptic of the generative AI revolution—I think the technology as it currently exists is situationally impressive and useful for specific kinds of tasks, but broadly oversold....
View ArticleSamsung is the next company to try to popularize 3D displays (again)
Samsung is starting 2025 with a fresh attempt at popularizing 3D displays. Announced today, Samsung’s Odyssey 3D is the follow-up to prototypes that Samsung demoed at last year's CES technology trade...
View ArticleUSB-C gets a bit more universal as the EU’s mandate goes into effect
"It's time for THE charger," the European Commission posted to X on December 28, 2024. While the sentiment only applies to one continent (and not all of it) and only certain devices, the Common Charger...
View ArticleRumors say next-gen RTX 50 GPUs will come with big jumps in power requirements
Nvidia is reportedly gearing up to launch the first few cards in its RTX 50-series at CES next week, including an RTX 5090, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5070. The 5090 will be of particular interest...
View ArticleBob Dylan has some Dylanesque thoughts on the “sorcery” of technology
With the holiday release of the biopic A Complete Unknown, Bob Dylan is once again in the national spotlight. For me, the film provided a welcome excuse to read up on Dylan, who has always been a...
View ArticleMicrosoft would really like you to replace your old Windows 10 PCs this year
Last January at CES, Microsoft Chief Marketing Officer Yusuf Mehdi declared 2024 the "year of the AI PC." And whether you believe that prediction came true or not—many new PCs come with AI-accelerating...
View ArticleIntel fills out Core Ultra 200 laptop chips with hodgepodge of CPUs, GPUs,...
Intel's Core Ultra 200 series is currently bifurcated between two architectures: Lunar Lake, which powers the Core Ultra 200V series of laptop chips; and Arrow Lake, which is included in the Core Ultra...
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HDMI 2.2 will require new “Ultra96” cables, whenever we have 8K TVs and content
We've all had a good seven years to figure out why our interconnected devices refused to work properly with the HDMI 2.1 specification. The HDMI Forum announced at CES today that it's time to start...
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