Author: News Room
As modern homes become more sealed and indoor living becomes more intensive, healthy air is becoming a practical home comfort issue rather than a niche wellness concern. With remote work keeping more residents indoors for extended stretches, heightened focus on indoor air cleanliness has intensified amid seasonal pollen surges, wildfire haze and other outdoor contaminants. In response, a growing number of companies, including Cozeware, are exploring ways to bring fresh outdoor air indoors without requiring costly renovations or permanent installation, particularly for apartment dwellers and renters. Spiked indoor CO₂ concentrations, pet dander and wildfire smoke infiltration can constantly degrade living comfort, yet most standard air solutions fail apartment and…
Meta is in big trouble with the European Union over how addictive its apps are, and this time it could cost the company big. The European Commission announced today that Meta breached the Digital Services Act, a law that requires large online platforms to assess and reduce the risks tied to their design. The Commission’s preliminary findings specifically called out Instagram and Facebook features like infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and personalized recommendations, which are the tools that keep you glued to your screen for hours. Why does the EU think Meta’s apps are addictive? According to the Commission, Meta…
Octopath Traveler series developer Team Asano launched its HD-2D action RPG, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, last month on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC. Though many are enjoying the game, there is near-universal agreement that Faie, the companion fairy that accompanies Elliot on his adventure, talks way too much. A new update released today across all platforms lets you turn off Faie’s voice completely, providing a fix for the game’s most annoying feature. The Adventures of Elliot is, no doubt, aiming to be a Zelda-like adventure, and Faie can be seen as a stand-in…
Letterboxd, the fast-growing social network for film lovers, could soon have a new owner. According to a report by Puck News, the New Zealand-based platform has been exploring a potential sale, attracting interest from several major entertainment companies, including Netflix, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Paramount Skydance. While no deal has been confirmed, the discussions highlight how valuable online fan communities have become as streaming platforms compete not just for viewers, but also for the audiences that influence what people watch next. Hollywood heavyweights are reportedly circling Letterboxd Founded in 2011, Letterboxd has evolved from a niche movie diary into one…
If your Friday Release Radar has been feeling a little hit or miss lately, Spotify just gave you the tools to fix that. The streaming platform is rolling out a set of new session controls to Release Radar globally today, available on both mobile and desktop. The update lets you shape what your weekly new music playlist looks like, instead of listening to whatever the algorithm serves up. What can Spotify’s new Release Radar controls do? At the top of your Release Radar playlist, you will now see a set of session controls you can tap before hitting play. You…
My Pixel 8a launched in 2024 as a $499 midrange phone with seven years of software support, which isn’t usually the kind of device anyone buys expecting years of special treatment. It now sits behind the Pixel 9a and Pixel 10a, yet Google is still adding features through Pixel Drops. The seven-year update promise has so far meant more than fresh security patches and a polite place on a support page. Apple’s latest AI cutoff makes that feel unusually generous. The standard iPhone 17 launched at $799 and remains part of Apple’s current lineup, but it can’t run the company’s…
I recently covered a report suggesting that people who use fitness trackers and smartphone apps tend to stay more physically active. While my experience sits far outside the scope of that study that involved cardiovascular disease, I now understand how a wearable can turn an ordinary workout into something you want to repeat. I have been trying to get back into swimming, and the Oppo Watch X3 arrived at the perfect time. During a recent session, I took it into a 50-meter pool and swam 1,100 meters. The watch tracked the pool lengths, distance, pace, heart rate, strokes, rest periods,…
A robot can look convincing while walking across a stage and still be useless in a kitchen. Picking up a wet glass demands precision, quick corrections, and enough restraint to avoid squeezing too hard. 1X is tackling that problem with new tendon-driven hands for NEO, its humanoid home robot. 1X says each hand has 25 degrees of freedom, with 22 across the fingers and palm and another three in the wrist. Its joints can yield when pushed instead of staying rigid, giving NEO a better chance of handling household objects without treating every collision like a wrestling match. Why delicate…
We’ve seen a lot of “smart art frames” at CES over the years. Most of them feel like glorified digital photo frames in turtlenecks. However, there’s one that feels genuinely different: Fraimic, and I say that as someone deeply skeptical of this category. The pitch appears quite compelling at first. Speak a prompt into the device, and its built-in mic sends the command to OpenAI’s GPT Image 2.0, which then generates full-color artwork that lands on a Spectra 6 E Ink display. What makes it stand out from competitors like Aura and SwitchBot? Normally, you’d take out your phone to…
Digital reading has become more comfortable thanks to larger displays and e-paper screens, but one small annoyance remains: constantly reaching over to tap or swipe every page. DuRoBo believes it has a solution. The company has unveiled Moodi, its first Bluetooth page-turning remote, designed to make reading, browsing, and media control more comfortable across e-readers, tablets, and smartphones. Unlike conventional page-turners that focus solely on e-books, Moodi doubles as a compact Bluetooth remote for scrolling through articles, controlling multimedia playback, and navigating long-form content. The device looks towards ergonomic accessories that aim to reduce repetitive hand movements during extended screen…