Author: News Room

I have been watching MKBHD for years. Long enough that Marques’ voice is part of the experience. So when a recent upload started playing on my TV and he was suddenly speaking Japanese, it took me a moment to process what was actually happening. This was not something I had turned on. YouTube had somehow decided, apparently due to the Japanese text on his T-shirt (but probably because I watch a lot of anime with English subtitles), that I should be hearing a dubbed version in a language I did not understand. It did not matter that the video was…

AI slop has already flooded video feeds, gaming debates, software code, and search results. Now the same low-effort machine-made content is moving into podcasts. Music usually dominates the AI slop debate, but the podcast problem may be harder to spot and harder to clean up. AI tools can now create, upload, and even monetize entire shows far faster than traditional podcast studios. ` Is podcasting becoming the next slop factory? A Bloomberg report points to how quickly this is spreading. According to the Podcast Index, 10,871 new podcast feeds were created over roughly nine days, and about 4,243 of them,…

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Walmart’s Onn brand may be preparing to move beyond streaming boxes and cheap TV accessories. A new certification listing from the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) has revealed an Onn Smart Speaker, suggesting Walmart could be expanding its budget-friendly device lineup into the smart home audio space. The listing was spotted by users on the r/OnnStreamingTV subreddit, where it quickly sparked speculation about what Walmart might be planning next. Gemini 搭載のサードパーティ製スマートスピーカーが海外で初確認。Walmart onn の新モデル https://t.co/vMRkvQhtbC— おむらまさひで(HelenTech) (@Helen_Tech) May 4, 2026 What’s coming in the next Onn gadget The certification page describes it as a Gemini-powered smart home speaker made by Shenzhen SEI…

Rivian may have figured out one of the hardest parts of building an affordable EV, as it has managed to reduce costs in producing one of its upcoming EVs. During the latest earnings call, the company said the upcoming R2 has achieved a cost reduction of more than 50% compared to the R1. With the R2 being made as the more accessible mass-market EV, this is a big deal. How Rivian found ways to save up According to InsideEVs, Rivian outlined several ways it brought costs down. The company reduced the R2’s wiring harness by 2.3 miles, cut the number…

Microsoft says it has started releasing a service-side update for a classic Outlook bug that caused Office files to load blank, show repair prompts, or trigger corruption warnings. The Outlook documents problem affects Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files opened through OneDrive and SharePoint links in classic Outlook. For workers who live in Microsoft 365, the bigger headache isn’t only the blank screen. It’s the uncertainty Outlook creates when a file that may be fine suddenly looks broken. Because the change is happening on Microsoft’s end, users shouldn’t need to install anything manually. A server-side update is rolling out The rollout…

Apple has spent the better part of the last year looking like the most composed player in a room full of people setting their own furniture on fire. While Microsoft was hiking Surface prices to genuinely eye-watering levels and Chinese OEMs were watching their flagship ambitions evaporate under the weight of component costs, Apple held the line — a quiet confidence that felt almost theatrical. It was impressive while it lasted. It just didn’t last long enough. Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring is now calling it: the iPhone 18 lineup will likely cost $100 more than the iPhone 17 generation…

Microsoft Edge is about to lose one of its more quirky features as Microsoft continues to clean up its software experience. The company has confirmed that the sidebar app list in Edge is being “retired” in the near future, starting with Microsoft account users. Microsoft revealed in an announcement that this is a part of an effort to simplify Edge, but there’s still no word on the exact retirement date yet. What are sidebar apps, and why is it being removed? Edge’s sidebar basically lets users pin web apps and sites into a side panel, making it possible to quickly…

I always loved menu bar calendar apps. They let me check upcoming events, add events quickly, and access my calendar without switching apps. It’s one of those small quality-of-life improvements that, once you experience it, you can’t go back from. My menu bar calendar journey started with Fantastical. It’s one of the best calendar apps on Mac, period. But when Flexibits moved to a subscription model, I couldn’t justify paying for features I wasn’t using. So I moved on. I then switched to Dato, which is a solid app and served me well for a long time. But it lacks…

I have always loved using small phones. The last iPhone I truly loved was the iPhone 13 mini, but since it didn’t sell well enough, Apple cancelled it. Since then, I had to settle for the Pro iPhones, simply because they were the smallest option available. When Apple launched the iPhone Air, I suddenly had another option. Yes, it has a large 6.5-inch screen, but it weighs only 165 grams, which is less than the regular iPhone 17 and significantly lighter than the iPhone 17 Pro. Its slim profile makes it easier to handle than its size would suggest, and…