Author: News Room
Meta seemed to be quietly testing face recognition software for its Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses. A new WIRED investigation reveals that the company licensed it from Rank One Computing, a Denver-based firm that earns roughly 80% of its revenue from government clients, including the US military and police departments nationwide. This is the first known evidence of a business relationship between Meta and Rank One, and it raises serious questions about where consumer technology ends and surveillance infrastructure begins. So what exactly is Rank One Computing? Rank One is not your average tech company. It supplies face recognition to…
Peacock is going all in on vertical video. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the NBCUniversal-owned streamer is rolling out original Bravo microdramas and a TikTok-style, scrollable feed this month as part of a major push to get you to watch more content on your phone. Inside Peacock’s new vertical video lineup Campus Confidential is Peacock’s first original series designed specifically for a phone screen held upright. It is a short-form unscripted series built around the kind of soap opera drama Bravo has always done well. Alongside it, Peacock is rolling out a dedicated vertical video feed this month, starting with…
Portable chargers are boring — that’s not necessarily a criticism. Most power banks are supposed to be boring. They sit in a backpack, save your phone from dying, and disappear back into a drawer when they’re done. Every year, companies try to spice things up with bigger batteries, faster charging, or sleeker designs, but the basic formula rarely changes. That’s why Nimble’s new SharePower immediately caught my attention. It may be the coolest power bank idea I’ve seen in years, not because it charges faster than the competition, but because it solves a surprisingly human problem. SharePower is a 10,000mAh…
Modern travel runs on connectivity. From navigating unfamiliar cities and booking transportation to translating conversations and managing reservations, a reliable data connection has become just as important as a passport and boarding pass. Yet staying connected abroad hasn’t always been simple. International travelers have traditionally faced a choice between expensive roaming packages and the inconvenience of purchasing a local SIM card after arrival. Both options get the job done, but neither feels particularly well suited to the way people travel today. The rise of eSIM technology is changing that. As smartphones increasingly embrace eSIM support and move toward digital-first connectivity,…
A network of X accounts is pushing AI nudify apps into more feeds, giving abuse-prone tools another route to users while victims fight to contain the fallout. In a Wall Street Journal report, Graphika senior researcher Matthew Patane said some nudify services are promoted through coordinated social accounts that reuse similar wording. One network included 45,000 X accounts, with posts leaning on indirect phrasing and censored visuals to avoid moderation. The finding puts new pressure on X and on sites such as Undress AI, a Belize-based service that advertises explicit image tools and teases paid video creation. Undress AI and…
Foldable phones have usually been great at multitasking, but aren’t known for their photography prowess. Recent offerings from Chinese brands have been the exception, and now, Vivo might be pushing the boundaries once again. Ahead of its launch in China later this month, Vivo has confirmed several major camera and display details for the Vivo X Fold 6. However, the real headline-grabber is support for the ZEISS G2 telephoto converter, an accessory that lets the foldable shoot at a 200mm equivalent focal length. Why this camera system stands out Vivo executive Han Boxiao confirmed on Weibo that the X Fold…
Ironsmith is a free AI Mac app builder for Mac users with a narrow problem and no patience for the usual developer workflow. The open source menu bar app, shared by developer Jade Westover, turns plain-language requests into native macOS tools. Its target is the quick desktop helper, the kind of utility built around one personal task that would be hard to find in the App Store. It can use on-device models or cloud LLMs, so users aren’t boxed into one provider or one style of AI setup. Ironsmith is still in beta, so it’s better suited to low-risk experiments…
OnePlus just announced a brand-new budget lineup: the N Series for its. The first model in the lineup, the OnePlus N6, arrives June 30, 2026, but you might not be able to get your hands on it. OnePlus is keeping the N6 an India-exclusive model, at least for now. Despite an aggressive price range (about $215 to $300), the smartphone might not land in the US, and the reasons why are honestly more interesting than the phone itself. What exactly is the OnePlus N Series? It is a new affordable smartphone series that sits below the popular Nord lineup (INR…
Working from home has become a normal part of life for many employees since the pandemic, as it offers greater flexibility and control over where work gets done. However, new research suggests that this shift may also be playing a role in rising mental health challenges. Researchers writing in the journal Science analyzed data from five large surveys covering more than 580,000 U.S. workers between 2011 and 2024. Their findings suggest that the rise of remote work has significantly increased social isolation and may account for roughly one-third of the increase in mental distress observed since the pandemic. The study…
A year after the UK’s Online Safety Act came into force, a new study has found that harmful social media content is still reaching teenagers at nearly the same rate as before the law took effect. Research by the Molly Rose Foundation (via The Guardian) found that a third of all UK teenagers and nearly half of all girls encountered suicide, self-harm, depression, or eating disorder content on social media in the span of just one week. What the data shows The study surveyed 1,825 children aged 13 to 17 across 21 UK schools in April and May 2026. Here’s…