Things aren’t going so well for AI hardware startups. After years of development, startup Humane launched a $700 wearable in early April that leans heavily on artificial intelligence. The original pitch for the Ai Pin was that you no longer need to juggle different apps; its operating system can “search …
Read More »Google’s New $500 Pixel 8A Smartphone Will Get 7 Years of Software Updates
Google’s Pixel A-series Android smartphones have long proven that there's no need to spend anywhere close to $1,000 for a great, feature-packed smartphone. While the price of these handsets has slightly increased since the first Pixel 3A in 2019, the new Google Pixel 8A seems to have everything you'd want …
Read More »Beeper Took On Apple’s iMessage Dominance. Now It’s Been Acquired
Late last year the messaging app Beeper raised the ire of Apple when it found a way to recreate Apple’s infamous “blue bubble” messaging on Android. Apple later hobbled Beeper, but it’s not an entirely unhappy ending: The startup has been acquired in a deal valued at $125 million. Founded …
Read More »You Should Update Apple iOS and Google Chrome ASAP
It’s time to check your software updates. March has seen the release of important patches for Apple’s iOS, Google’s Chrome, and its privacy-conscious competitor Firefox. Bugs have also been squashed by enterprise software giants including Cisco, VMware, and SAP. Here’s what you need to know about the security updates issued …
Read More »The Apple Antitrust Case and the ‘Stigma’ of the Green Bubble
Back in 2022 at the annual Code Conference, where tech luminaries submit to onstage interviews, an audience member asked Apple CEO Tim Cook for some tech support. “I can’t send my mom certain videos,” he said; she used an Android device, which means she can't access Apple’s iMessage. Cook’s now-infamous …
Read More »The US Claims Apple Has a Stranglehold on the Future
The US Department of Justice had long been expected to file an antitrust lawsuit against Apple. But when the suit arrived Thursday, it came with surprising ferocity. In a press conference, attorney general Merrick Garland noted that Apple controlled more than 70 percent of the country’s smartphone market, saying the …
Read More »The DOJ Puts Apple's iMessage Encryption in the Antitrust Crosshairs
For well over a decade, Apple has been praised by privacy advocates for its decision in 2011 to end-to-end encrypt iMessage, securing users' communications on the default texting app for all its devices so thoroughly that even Apple itself can't read their messages. This was years before WhatsApp switched on …
Read More »These Companies Have a Plan to Kill Apps
Everyone wants to kill the app. There’s a wave of companies building so-called app-less phones and gadgets, leveraging artificial intelligence advancements to create smarter virtual assistants that can handle all kinds of tasks through one portal, bypassing the need for specific apps for a particular function. We might be witnessing …
Read More »Polar ID Is the Face ID Rival for Android Phones, and Could Even Beat Apple
A little more than six years ago, Apple unveiled Face ID. It was a new method to biometrically unlock iPhones and authenticate purchases by scanning your face. Yet after all this time, there still hasn’t been a meaningful competitor on Android—at least, not with the same level of security and …
Read More »All the Top New Gadgets at MWC 2024
Mobile World Congress—or just MWC—isn’t one of our favorite trade shows just because it’s situated in the beautiful city of Barcelona during a seasonally appropriate time of year. (Cheap cava and tapas don’t have anything to do with it either.) No, this show is a favorite because it’s one of …
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