Author: News Room
Apple appears to be preparing a much broader push into smart-home hardware, with several new products in development as the company looks to expand beyond the HomePod mini and Apple TV, according to a 9To5Mac report. The roadmap includes refreshed versions of both existing products, a new smart-home hub with a display, a larger HomePod update, and eventually Apple’s first dedicated smart-home security devices. The information comes from recent reporting summarized by 9to5Mac, which notes that Siri’s long-awaited AI upgrades could remove one of the obstacles that has held back new Home products. Apple is finally giving the smart home…
Google may have accidentally revealed a fitness tracker that it has not announced yet. New Pixel 11 advertisements appearing on YouTube show a small, screen-equipped wearable that does not appear to be the Pixel Watch 5 or the Fitbit Air, raising questions about whether Google is preparing another fitness device. The ads were spotted by Reddit users over the past day and appear to promote the refreshed Pixel lineup. One advertisement shows Pixel 11 phones alongside a Pixel Watch 5, while another features several Google devices in matching green colors. Both ads also include the mystery tracker. Multiple advertisements showing…
Secondhand booksellers have noticed a curious pattern over the past few months. Large orders are coming in for old books that often share no obvious subject, author, or genre, leaving sellers wondering who wants them and why. According to The Guardian, booksellers in the U.K. and Ireland have received bulk orders covering everything from agricultural texts to racing biographies. Some buyers reportedly use opaque aliases, send orders to the same freight warehouses, and pay full price without negotiating bulk discounts. Similar activity has also surfaced in the U.S., Australia, and Europe. There is no proof that AI companies are behind…
Anthropic wants to make AI-generated text easier to identify, and on paper, I have very little reason to complain. The company is experimenting with an invisible watermark that can be baked directly into text generated by Claude. It sounds like a sensible idea. AI-generated text is everywhere, and knowing where something came from could certainly help. Moreover, Anthropic isn’t simply hiding a marker somewhere inside a document. Its approach changes how Claude selects words to create a statistical pattern that can later be detected. But there is one detail that bothers me. Anthropic is testing just how persistent that watermark…
Exoprimal was built using Capcom’s proprietary RE Engine, which is surprising considering the other Capcom games that have used the engine are quite different. The first game to publicly use it was Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, which caused many to dub the engine the Resident Evil engine, which is not what the ‘RE’ stands for. Instead, the acronym is confusingly shorthand for Reach for the Moon. In Japan, the Resident Evil series is called Biohazard, which is why Exoprimal technical director Kazuki Abe is surprised that anyone ever thought the engine was named after the survivor horror series . “It’s…
Google is finally giving Pixel users more control over one of the most frequently used parts of Android. The latest Android 17 QPR2 beta adds a new Layout editor for Quick Settings, allowing users to change the order of its main sections instead of being stuck with Google’s default arrangement. The feature also appeared in the latest Android Canary build, suggesting Google moved it fairly quickly from testing to the QPR2 beta. There are six layouts to choose from The new option appears after opening Quick Settings and tapping the pencil icon. A new Layout tab at the bottom lets…
I’ve been using Windows laptops for almost 25 years. In that time, I never once seriously thought of buying a MacBook. In fact, I can honestly say I had never used one at all until I bought my MacBook Air M5 six months ago. Never borrowed one for a weekend, spent an afternoon at an Apple Store, or even played with one at a friend’s house. Macs, to me, were just expensive computers for those who edited videos, made logos, or liked drinking expensive coffee. My change came completely by accident. Earlier this year, I was travelling across Manali in…
Whether you are trying to keep your invoices organized for tax season or just want a digital backup of important papers, scanning documents on your iPhone is one of those small habits that pays off later. That’s why document scanning apps have become so popular on the App Store. But what most people don’t realize is that you do not need to download a single third-party scanner app. Your iPhone already has several built-in tools that do the job well, and today I will show you how to use them. Scan documents using the Notes app If Apple Notes is…
Apple has added several new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro configurations to its Certified Refurbished Store, alongside more iPhone 16 Plus models and Apple Watches. The MacBook Air additions arrive at a particularly useful time. New M5 MacBook Air models are currently running in short supply across Apple’s retail network, with some configurations facing delivery estimates stretching into late August or September. Apple also raised MacBook Air prices in June, so students shopping before the new school year are being asked to spend more while potentially waiting longer to get one. Refurbished MacBooks could help with the supply problem The…
Apple has a memory problem. With the global chip shortage squeezing supply and pushing prices higher, the company has been looking for more places to source the memory in its devices. Two potential suppliers are in China, but the U.S. government isn’t particularly happy about that idea. According to The Wall Street Journal, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has told Apple that the Trump administration does not want the company buying memory chips from Chinese manufacturers. Apple has reportedly been considering chips from CXMT and YMTC as it tries to expand its supplier options. The move, however, has already attracted…