Author: News Room
Meta has hit the brakes on its plans to open up the operating system that powers its Quest headsets to third-party manufacturers. First announced last year alongside the Horizon OS rebrand, the initiative now hangs in limbo as the company shifts focus to building “the world-class first-party hardware and software needed to advance the VR market.” When it initially pitched the idea, Meta aimed to democratize Horizon OS and create a new ecosystem of devices powered by its operating software. The company had even named Asus and Lenovo as early partners, with Asus developing a gaming VR headset and Lenovo…
I spend more hours slouching over my laptop, or staring at an unusually large monitor than I have the guts to admit. Between work, play, and passion projects, my daily screen time is abysmally unhealthy. And to top it off, my near-permanent workation situation means ergonomics is not a luxury for me. All that has taken a visible toll. I wear prescription lenses to compensate for vision issues and blue light protection. I often resort to hot water bags or vests to make me sit straight due to the forward-neck situation. And regular water intake, or work breaks, is something…
A new investigation by Consumer Reports, in collaboration with Groundwork Collaborative and More Perfect Union, suggests that Instacart’s use of artificial intelligence in pricing experiments may have resulted in shoppers paying different amounts for the same groceries. The findings point to a system where prices can quietly vary between users, even when orders are placed at the same retailer, at the same time, and for identical products. The study tracked over 400 Instacart users across four major U.S. cities and found that the price tag on a carton of eggs or a bag of chips often depended on who was…
Samsung is officially stepping in to shut down the panic. The company has firmly denied reports that it plans to kill off its consumer SATA SSD production. In a direct statement, a spokesperson made it clear: the rumors are false, and Samsung isn’t going anywhere. The rumors didn’t come out of nowhere. The global supply chain for memory is currently under massive pressure. With AI companies and cloud giants buying up insane amounts of hardware, manufacturers are struggling to keep up. The tension hit a breaking point recently when Micron unexpectedly pulled its Crucial brand out of the consumer SSD…
LimX Dynamics is doing some fascinating work in the robotics arena. Four months after impressing us with its talented Oli humanoid robot, the three-year-old tech startup has just unveiled Tron 2, which, as its name cleverly suggests, is the follow-up to Tron 1. Going by the video (top) released by LimX on Thursday, Tron 2 is an advanced, AI-powered modular humanoid robot featuring remarkable strength and movement. Grabbing your attention from the very start, the video begins with the odd sight of a pair of robotic legs — and nothing else — walking along. With a few turns of a…
Google is finally addressing a long-standing issue that has frustrated Pixel users for several years. The company recently marked the accidental touch prevention problem that has been around since the Pixel 6 days as “fixed” in its public bug tracker, indicating that a solution is on the way. Pixel phone users have long dealt with accidental actions, like unintended calls, apps opening on their own, and the flashlight turning on while the device sits in their pocket. While brands like Samsung and OnePlus offer a built-in accidental touch protection feature that uses the proximity sensor to disable touch input when…
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says his office has filed a smart TV privacy lawsuit against five television companies, arguing that some smart TV features crossed the line from convenience into covert tracking. In a public statement, the office names Sony, Samsung, LG, plus Hisense and TCL Technology Group Corporation (TCL). Texas notes Hisense and TCL are based in China, and it frames the cases around what it describes as unlawful data collection happening inside people’s homes. The key allegation is that the companies used Automated Content Recognition (ACR) to collect personal data about what consumers watch, without the viewer’s…
Astronauts visiting the International Space Station (ISS) typically spend about six months there before returning to Earth, though it’s true that a number of them have ended up staying for considerably longer periods of time. Living in cooped up conditions in microgravity, well away from family and friends, is a challenge for even the hardiest of folks, so how do astronauts aboard the ISS cope with their unusual surroundings 250 miles above Earth? Well, a short video released by NASA on Thursday reveals how astronauts spend their downtime after workdays that can last as long as 14 hours. How do…
AI agents are getting better at sounding human, but new research suggests they are doing more than just copying our words. According to a recent study, popular AI models like ChatGPT can consistently mimic human personality traits. Researchers say this ability comes with serious risks, especially as questions around AI reliability and accuracy grow. Researchers from the University of Cambridge and Google DeepMind have developed what they call the first scientifically validated personality test framework for AI chatbots, using the same psychological tools designed to measure human personality (via TechXplore). The team applied this framework to 18 popular large language…
Microsoft has rolled out a significant upgrade to its Phone Link system and the “Link To Windows” app for Android, improving cross-platform connectivity with Windows 11. First and foremost, there’s a new “Lock PC” toggle that lets you lock your Windows device remotely from your smartphone (provided the devices are connected). According to a new report by Windows Latest, locking a Windows 11 PC from an Android phone takes a couple of seconds. Once unlocked, the PC reconnects to your phone. Besides that, the app also gets a “Recent Activity” feed that shows file transfers and clipboard history shared between…