Author: News Room
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…
Microsoft has recently been cleaning up some longstanding Windows 11 pain points, including parts of the Start menu and Search. According to a new report from Windows Latest, the company is also preparing several useful changes for the new Outlook app on Windows 10 and Windows 11, which became generally available in 2024. Microsoft is adding a warning for users who start replying to an older email after a newer response has arrived in the same conversation. The alert is meant to stop people from replying without seeing the latest information in the thread. How will the warning work? Outlook…
Samsung has confirmed its next Galaxy Unpacked event for July 22, where it’s expected to unveil its next-gen foldables. Recent reports suggest the devices may be priced significantly higher in Europe compared to their predecessors. Now, a new leak claims the same could be true for the US market as well. US buyers could see a $100 jump According to South Korean outlet SEDaily, the Galaxy Z Fold 8, AKA the Wide Fold, is expected to launch in the US at $1,899 for the 256GB model. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, the direct successor to the Fold 7, could…
Google just changed how it measures which AI models are best at writing Android app code, and the update has shuffled the rankings developers use to pick their tools. The company’s Android Bench leaderboard, which launched in March, now runs on a new testing system called Harbor. Google says this replaces the older, more generic testing tool it used before, and gives a better read on how models perform on real Android tasks, like updating old code to Jetpack Compose or handling wearable device networking. New models shake up the top of the list Since the testing tool changed, Google…
Razer’s Sanrio collaboration has already produced a full desk setup, and the final drop is now here. The company has launched the Razer Kraken Kitty V2 BT Cinnamoroll Edition, a wireless headset themed around one of Sanrio’s most recognizable characters. Cinnamoroll is a white puppy from Sanrio, the Japanese company behind Hello Kitty and several other globally recognized character brands. He is known for his long floppy ears, blue eyes, curly tail, and soft cloud-like look. As per the Sanrio lore, he was born high above the clouds and can fly by flapping his big ears. Razer has leaned heavily…