Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

kenshirriff@oldbytes.space ("Ken Shirriff") wrote:

Intel's Pentium processor (1993) can compute sines, logarithms, and other special functions. To do this, it has a ROM with 304 floating-point constants. I reverse-engineered this ROM and extracted the constants. You can see pi in the ROM, binary 11.001001..., encoded in the transistor pattern. 1/n

Attachments:

• A diagram showing how pi is encoded in the Pentium chip. The Pentium has a ROM to hold constants in the lower right. Zooming in on the ROM shows how it holds exponents in the left and the signficand in the right. Zooming in more shows the individual transistors in the ROM. Eight bits are indicated with arrows, the binary bits that start pi. (remote)

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

TechTangents@dialup.space ("Tech Tangents") wrote:

@VintageProject
I have a written version of my high level video on doing floppy imaging from a flux perspective here: https://wiki.techtangents.net/wiki/Floppy_Disk_Imaging

I have some specific information on HP 3.5in floppy formats on my page for the 9122C: https://wiki.techtangents.net/wiki/HP_9122C_Dual_1.44MB_Floppy_Drive

I haven't documented it on my wiki yet, but I do have a 4951C I've looked at in some streams: https://www.youtube.com/live/0ltWvh2y8RI

They are a pain because they have a serial on the disks to lock them to specific machines if I remember right.

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

VintageProject@oldbytes.space ("Thilo, EE 🤘🏼🇪🇺⚛🎗️") wrote:

Looks like I added another section to my #RetroComputing learning curve.
The #Greaseweazle 4.1 arrived, and I'm looking forward to exploring a couple of floppy drives that I extracted from several devices.
Help is appreciated, but I'll start with the documentation.
Also, I kind of blame @TechTangents for putting this on my wish list. 😜

Attachments:

• A purple PCB with various ICs on it. Connections for a 34-pin ribbon cable, floppy power supply, and USB. The label says "Greaseweazle 4.1". (remote)

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

okay, this is seriously cool: https://decromancer.ca/greaseweazle/

#GreaseWeazle

h/t https://oldbytes.space/@VintageProject/113589661063173805

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

ben.werdmuller@threads.net ("Ben Werdmüller") wrote:

Four years ago ... https://projects.propublica.org/parler-capitol-videos/

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

tomwellborn3@threads.net ("Tom L. Wellborn") wrote:

Donald Trump’s proposed military action against Mexican drug cartels mirrors failed strategies used in Iraq and Afghanistan, risking further violence and instability. Experts warn targeting cartel leaders creates power vacuums, leading to more bloodshed. Critics argue a sustainable approach requires economic, political, and military pressure—not reckless invasions.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-mexico-invasion-plan-1235223266/

Reblogged by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):

Npars01@mstdn.social ("Nicole Parsons") wrote:

@blogdiva

Dick Uihlein hates freedom, especially freedom like the Roadrunner's freedom.

Uihlein secretly mails his catalogs to Wile E. Coyote in an ACME envelope.

/s

Intel won’t kill off its graphics card business

Image: Intel

Despite comments made by former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, who got ousted from the company last month, Intel will not kill off its discrete graphics business. “We are very committed to the discrete graphics market and will continue to make strategic investments in this direction,” Intel’s new co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus just told an audience in the company’s CES 2025 keynote. She says it’s a question she gets a lot.

Gelsinger was incredibly blunt on a recent earnings call that the company’s radically different Lunar Lake laptop processors were something of a failed experiment from a financial perspective, and suggested there’d be “less need” for the company’s investments in discrete graphics too: “How are we handling graphics? That is increasingly becoming large, integrated graphics capabilities, so less need for discrete graphics in the market going forward.”

But weeks later, Intel finally notched its first win in the discrete GPU space with the Intel Arc B580 graphics card, selling out of the budget gaming card most everywhere.

Now, it’s possible Holthaus’ new statement is code for “we’re retreating, but slowly and less overtly,” as her overall tone in this morning’s keynote was exceedingly upbeat despite Intel’s recent troubles. She also celebrated the Lunar Lake chip, and called 2024 “the year Intel really reasserted ourselves as the leader in this AI PC market” on its performance and battery life strengths, even though the company’s just announced Arrow Lake chips, and upcoming Panther Lake chips, are built differently.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

Intel co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus makes a public appearance at CES 2025.

(Holthaus reiterated that Panther Lake will launch in the second half of the year, and says samples are already shipping to all its major customers.)

Intel’s future “strategic investments” could also be in the AI space rather than gaming ones, similar to how AMD and Nvidia have refocused their efforts recently on the huge opportunity there.

There is at least one more gaming card coming soon, though. Holthaus says Intel will launch its next, already-announced B570 GPU this next week, a card which is even more budget than the B580.

Continue Reading…

'It's the beginning': Demi Moore wins her first major acting award at the Golden Globes

Moore, 62, won the Golden Globe for her starring role in The Substance. She said the film is the start of a new chapter in her career: "It's just this wonderful new time of exploration and discovery."

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Oh yeah, that’s a smart dog door with custom RGB lighting

Pawport’s indoor smart door with a wood finish. | Image: Pawport

The Pawport might be the most elaborate way to let your dog enter and exit your home. The smart dog door connects to a Bluetooth tag that straps to your dog’s collar. When your dog approaches, its double doors swing open to let your pet in or out of the house. Naturally, there’s also a glowing LED strip underneath the doors, for no purpose other than to add some more RGB lighting to your home. You can customize it to whatever color you want.

Pawport has been working on its titular smart pet door for a few years now, with the product launching on Kickstarter back in 2021. But the device is back at CES this year, and the company says it’s finally going to start shipping. The door will be available starting at $499. The company is also announcing a new weatherproof model that goes outside your house and pairs with the indoor version. That model starts at $399 but must be paired with an indoor unit.

Image: Pawport

The outdoor version of the Pawport dog door.

There are already other smart or automatic dog doors out in the world, so Pawport isn’t necessarily breaking new ground on the basics. But its product may be the sharpest, or at least the most high-tech-looking option out there. You can get the indoor Pawport with either plastic or aluminum doors, with the aluminum option being offered in different colors and fake wood finishes, too. The plastic model only comes in white or black, but both have steel frames underneath. It’ll be available in three sizes and is designed to slide on top of the frame of an existing pet door.

A companion app allows you to set a schedule for when your dog can come and go, and it can automatically make adjustments when the weather is bad. Smartec says the Pawport will begin shipping in “early 2025.”

Continue Reading…

This robovac has a self-cleaning mop that extends outward for more reach

Image: Ecovacs

Ecovacs’ new robovac has a mop that extends to clean hard-to-reach spots, like corners and the edges of walls. But unlike other robovacs equipped with extendable mops, the Deebot X8 Pro Omni trades circular mop pads for a roller mop that cleans itself while it roves about your house.

The robovac, which Ecovacs first revealed at IFA last year, has a mop that applies up to 4,000Pa of pressure and revolves 200 times per minute. At the same time, Ecovacs says the X8 Pro Omni cleans its roller using 16 water nozzles. It whisks dirty water into the robovac’s waste water tank, helping to prevent it from dragging stains across the floor and causing streaks.

Meanwhile, the X8 Pro Omni’s vacuum comes with an impressive 18,000Pa suction power and an anti-tangle brush to keep hairs from getting wrapped around the brush. To navigate your home, the robovac uses the new “TrueEdge” 3D sensor that’s supposed to help the robovac identify and adapt to different types of edges and baseboards, along with an AI system that recognizes objects like shoes and cables.

Like some of Ecovacs’ other vacuums, the X8 Pro Omni can be controlled with your voice. However, hackers broke into Ecovacs’ systems last year, letting them take over Deebot X2 vacuums to shout slurs and chase pets. Recent reports from ABC Australia also found serious security vulnerabilities with some of Ecovacs’ products and said the company collects photos, videos, and voice recordings if users consent to an AI training program.

Ecovacs also showed off its Deebot T50 line, with the higher-end T50 Max Pro offering up to 15,000Pa of suction. There’s the T50 Pro Omni, too, which comes with Ecovacs’ slimmest design so far at just 81mm (around 3.2 inches), allowing it to more easily slip beneath beds and couches.

The Deebot X8 Pro Omni is priced at $1,399.99 and will be available in mid-February, while Ecovacs will reveal details on pricing and availability for the Deebot T50 lineup at a later date.

Continue Reading…

This $700 door handle has an entire security suite built in

The striking Styla works with a standard deadbolt and uses a ball and catch mechanism rather than a handle. | Image: Lockly

We’re swimming in smart lock options, but we haven’t seen anything quite as cool as the $700 Lockly Styla, an all-in-one smart deadblot lock and video doorbell being shown off at CES 2025.

It’s a tall, cylindrical handle that’s visually comparable to something you’d find on the door of a brick-and-mortar business but with enough gadgetry to make Bruce Wayne blush.

Coming to the US starting in Q3 2025 in matte black, gray, and gold finishes, the so-called “Designer Handlebar” appears stylishly sleek but would certainly stand out from the traditional levers and knobs in your neighborhood. But even under a strict HOA, I might risk it all for a no-compromise front door security suite that integrates a 2K camera with color night vision, an AI-powered motion sensor, and two-way audio, for starters.

Image: Lockly

It’s also rife with unlock options, including a rearward 3D fingerprint sensor, a vertical PIN Genie keypad that randomizes digit placement for discreetly inputting numerical keycodes, an RFID reader with three programmable fobs in the box that you can pass around, and a traditional 12-pin slot for the two physical keys included.

You can create dozens of unique keys for each of these methods (including one-time or recurring offline codes), or hundreds in the case of the RFID keys. Lockly includes a new version of its Wi-Fi hub in the box, too, which enables private storage of video recordings and emits an audible chime as an alternative to smartphone alerts.

The inside portion doesn’t have nearly as many interfaces — just grip the handle to unlock the door. As there’s no standard latch handle, it uses a ball catch mechanism to keep the door in place, which should only require a bit of force when pushing or pulling. And because it’s battery-powered, you don’t need a special door or an electrician’s help for installation (it just needs to fall within a specific thickness range). It recharges via USB-C and can last up to 1.5 years in offline mode or 10 months with regular use, Lockly says.

As with other Lockly products, the companion app will let you create and share keys, manage the video feed and talk to visitors, remotely control and check on your lock’s status, and receive real-time notifications for any activity it detects. You can even copy profiles from other Lockly devices you may already own to make setup easier and control it hands-free using Google Home and Alexa voice commands.

When considering all of its separate capabilities, the Lockly Styla doesn’t necessarily offer anything unique compared to existing smart locks or video doorbells, except consolidating it all in such a funky form factor. Still, that’s enough to pique our interest.

Continue Reading…

Lockly’s latest smart lock is a digital peephole

The Vision Prestige smart lock has two cameras: a 2K one to stream a view of your front door to the back of the lock and an infrared camera it uses for facial recognition unlocking. | Image: Lockly

Lockly is one of the more innovative smart lock makers. Last year at CES, the company debuted the first consumer smart lock to unlock with your face, and this year, Lockly is upping the game by adding a video doorbell to its facial recognition smart lock. There’s also a built-in screen so you can see who is at the door right from your door lock. Lockly is also launching its first ultra wideband-powered smart lock, adding hands-free unlocking to the mix, along with its first standalone security cameras.

Image: Lockly

The Vision Prestige is a video doorbell and smart lock in one that unlocks with just your face and lets you see who is at your door.

The Vision Prestige will cost $499.99 and is slated for release in Q4 of 2025. The smart deadbolt lock can be unlocked with your face, fingerprint, or a code on the touchscreen keypad, or you can use your iPhone or Apple Watch through Apple Home Key. The outside unit has a built-in 2K camera with a 190-degree viewing angle to see visitors, while the inside unit has a four-inch screen to show you who is at the door — like a digital peephole.

The lock uses a rechargeable 10,000mAh battery that promises up to eight months of battery life. It also features built-in support for 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, so there’s no need for a separate bridge like Lockly’s other video doorbell requires. The door lock is compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Home (but not the video doorbell).

Image: Lockly

The Secure Pro features hands-free unlocking using ultra wideband technology.

The Secure Pro with ultra wideband will cost $379.99 and is also slated for Q4 2025. Using UWB technology, the Secure Pro can automatically unlock as you approach the door with a compatible smartphone or smartwatch. The UWB radio in the lock communicates with the one in your device to figure out exactly where you are and only unlocks as you approach from outside the house.

At launch, Lockly says hands-free unlocking will only work with UWB-enabled Android phones, which include recent flagships from Google and Samsung. Support for Apple’s UWB unlocking will be coming later. The Secure Pro supports Apple Home Key, too, so if you have an iPhone, you can tap to unlock with that or your Apple Watch. It also has a fingerprint reader, a touchscreen keypad, and a physical key.

Image: Lockly

The Sightline Pro is a 4K camera that can track motion.

Lockly is also branching out from smart locks and adding two new security cameras to its ecosystem. The outdoor-rated Sightline Pro ($149.99) is a pan and tilt 4K camera that can rotate 360 degrees and automatically track motion, and the Sightline ($69.99) is a fixed 2K camera with built-in spotlights. Both are battery-powered via a built-in battery, and a compatible solar panel can help keep them charged. They can record footage locally to a microSD card and work with the Lockly app.

Continue Reading…

Lifx made its first smart lamp

The Lifx Luna Smart Lamp offers user-controlled colors. | Photo: Lifx

Smart lighting brand Lifx is introducing its first smart lamp at CES 2025: the Lifx Luna. It uses Matter over Wi-Fi, so it’ll integrate with an existing smart home setup easily — or it’s a low-stakes way to add some smarts to your non-smart home.

The Lifx Luna Smart Lamp includes 26 controllable color zones and offers up to 1,000 lumens of brightness. There are four built-in buttons that can control not just the lamp but also other Matter-connected Lifx lights or smart devices. It’s designed to sit on a tabletop or attach to a wall with an optional mount. It’ll launch in March 2025 and cost $69.99 exclusively from The Home Depot — either in-store or online.

Photo: Lifx

You can schedule a sunrise alarm with the Luna.

For the more advanced smart home lighting enthusiast, Lifx is also announcing a bigger smart ceiling light. It’s oval-shaped, like the Luna lamp, measures 13 x 26 inches for a significant size bump over the 15-inch model, and includes 120 color zones. It’ll cost $149.99 and arrive in February.

The smart lamp will probably be the item with the widest appeal, though, given how easy it is to plug and play. It’s also significantly cheaper than high-end, sleep-oriented options from Philips and Hatch and doesn’t require a subscription like the latter. The Luna lamp doesn’t come with fancy features like guided morning stretches, but it does allow you to schedule routines like a sunrise alarm. For $130 less than something like the Hatch Restore 2, I’d skip the stretches, personally.

Continue Reading…

Bird Buddy’s new camera tracks plants and insects in your garden

The creators behind the Bird Buddy smart feeder have taken the wraps off a camera that keeps tabs on the activity in your garden, whether it’s a seed sprouting or a bee visiting one of your flowers. The Petal camera is launching under new Wonder branding, and features a bendable stem alongside a universal clip you can attach to different areas throughout your yard.

The 4K, 12-megapixel camera uses an AI system to help identify plants and insects from the accompanying app. You can also interact with an AI chatbot that will tell you helpful information about the activity the camera captures, as well as what you can do to help your garden.

Like with Bird Buddy’s feeder, you can use your smartphone to snap photos and view a livestream of wildlife from the camera. There’s an optional solar panel roof you can use to power the device as well.

In case you don’t have an ideal spot to plant your Petal, you can pair it with Wonder Blocks, a modular system designed to house plants and attract insects. You can customize the components you place atop the Wonder Block pedestal, including a plant base, seed tray, bee hotel, butterfly feeder, and a home for bugs, allowing you to track all sorts of activity from one spot.

Petal and Wonder Blocks will be available on Kickstarter in the spring of this year, but there are still no firm details on price.

Continue Reading…

The newest Kindle Scribe is $75 off in its first sale

The 2024 Kindle Scribe has a new look and new features, but you can stick to the older model if you already have one.

Amazon released a new version of its Kindle Scribe in October with an improved pen and new AI-powered writing features. It’s appropriately Amazon’s most expensive Kindle by far, but thankfully, you can finally get it a bit cheaper. The Kindle Scribe (second-gen) with 16GB of storage is down to $324.99 ($75 off) in its first sale at Amazon. You can also get a discount on the 32GB model that drops it to $339.99 ($80 off), or the 64GB model that’s now $364.99 ($85 off). All come with the newest Premium Pen, which adds a shortcut button and a soft eraser tip.

The writing features on the original Kindle Scribe felt more like an add-on to the reading experience than the primary selling point of Amazon’s biggest Kindle. The 2024 refresh further emphasizes the writing experience, however. When writing notes in a document or book directly on top of text, for example, the Scribe will automatically adjust your notations and markups so they’re not interfering with the surrounding text. It’ll also convert your handwriting to typed notes to make them easily editable, searchable, and shareable, plus summarize them using AI.

The ebook reader otherwise feels familiar: it’s still the biggest Kindle available with its 10.2-inch 300 ppi display, with a new textured cover that adds paper-like friction while writing. Amazon refreshed the design with thinner bezels that are now white. If you already have the Kindle Scribe, you can probably skip the upgrade (unless you need the slight hardware refinements) as it received most of the same software features in a recent update.

Read our Amazon Kindle Scribe (2024) review.

A few more deals to distract you from CES

• The GoPro Hero 13 Black debuted for $399.99, but now you can get the action camera bundled with two batteries, a carrying case, a grip handle, and a 64GB microSD card for just $299.99 ($150 off) at Amazon. That’s an all-time low price for the bundle and matching the record low for the camera itself. The Hero 13 Black uses the same camera sensors as the previous generation model, which supports up to 5.3K 10-bit video recording at 120 frames per second. The newest model adds an integrated magnetic mounting and charging system; three new lens options for macro, ultra-wide, and anamorphic shooting; Wi-Fi 6 connectivity; and slight battery life improvements.
• You can get the Anker MagGo Charger Stand for an all-time low of $35.99 ($14 off) at Amazon and from Anker’s store with code WS7DV2WISMJY. The 2-in-1 stand offers Qi2 charging speeds (up to 15W) for your MagSafe iPhone, with a rotating joint that lets you angle the device up to 45 degrees. There’s also a charging pad in the base for AirPods and other wireless charging earbuds.
• The Shargeek 170 power bank offers a quirky alternative to the black bricks we usually see. You can get the translucent, prism-shaped battery for $139 ($40 off) at Amazon (when clipping an on-page coupon), Huckberry, and Sharge’s online store, which is only about $4 more than the record low. The rugged power bank has IP66 protection against water and dust, and also boasts a 24,000mAh capacity with a 170W total output, including two-way 140W charging through either of its two USB-C ports (there’s also a USB-A port). It also has a digital display that’ll show its charging status and total capacity remaining.

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These Are Marvel Rivals' Best Team-Up Abilities In Season Zero

Team-Up Abilities are one of Marvel Rival’s most interesting mechanics is its Team-Up Abilities. Superheroes and villains working together to bring out unique buffs or exclusive moves is a fantastic idea that’s a lot of fun to play with. Although they’re not needed to win matches, each ability adds exciting gameplay…

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Amazon Cancels Mighty No. 9 3DS And Vita Pre-Orders 12 Years After They Were Originally Promised

Mighty No. 9 represented Mega Man artist Keiji Inafune’s ambition to resurrect—with the help of millions in funding from devout fans—a classic series that was languishing at the time under Capcom’s stewardship. The results were frequently delayed and generally quite bad. Promised 3DS and PlayStation Vita ports never…

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'A very, very small number' of teens receive gender-affirming care, study finds

A new analysis of private insurance claims data finds less than 0.1% of youth accessed puberty blockers or hormones for gender transition. This small group has garnered a huge amount of attention from Republican lawmakers in recent years.

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Samsung’s Galaxy Book 5 laptops get an Arrow Lake CPU upgrade

Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro. | Image: Samsung

Samsung has announced new Galaxy Book 5 Pro and 360 laptops featuring the NPU-packing (but not CoPilot Plus-qualifying) Arrow Lake Core Ultra processors Intel announced earlier today as an upgrade to the Lunar Lake-powered devices Samsung launched in September.

Samsung says the new Book 5 Pro and 360 convertible laptop / tablet “diversifies” the Galaxy Book AI PC lineup and highlights its AI software capabilities, including the Circle-to-Search-like AI Select app and an AI image retouch tool called Photo Remaster. These features launched on the Galaxy Book 5 Pro 360 and appeared on last year’s Snapdragon X Elite-powered Galaxy Book 4 Edge.

The Galaxy Book 5 Pro comes in 14- and 16-inch variants, each with 2880 x 1800 resolution AMOLED screens and a 120Hz refresh rate. The Pros also have “Vision Booster” tech that “uses tone mapping to adjust the contrast and colors” to make things easier to see while working outside.

Samsung says the 16-inch model provides up to 25 hours of video playback per charge, while the 14-inch offers up to 21 hours. Meanwhile, the Galaxy Book 5 360 has a 1080p 15.6-inch AMOLED screen and lasts “up to 31 hours” while playing videos.

All three models have Bluetooth 5.4 and Wi-Fi 7 connectivity, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one USB-A port, HDMI, and microSD card slots. They can be configured with Intel Core Ultra 5 or 7 “Evo” processors and either 16GB or 32GB of RAM. For storage, your options are 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. Pricing has not yet been announced, but all will ship to the US, Canada, UK, and other markets starting in February.

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U.S. Steel sues to salvage its sale to Japan's Nippon Steel

U.S. Steel and its would-be Japanese suitor filed twin lawsuits Monday to defend their $15 billion merger. President Biden issued an order on Friday to block the deal, citing national security concerns.

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Canada's Justin Trudeau says he will resign as party leader and prime minister

Trudeau's decision after almost a decade in power, sets the stage for a succession fight to select a new prime minister.

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Photos: See the impact a major winter storm is having on U.S.

Winter storm warnings have been declared from Illinois to New Jersey. And some areas will get a lot of snow. They will also get freezing rain and ice, blustery winds and frigid temperatures.

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jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

https://images-ext-1.discordapp.net/external/Ls_qfsFKx_e992ye8nbsb7KkYCyYni71plALpo_XfNQ/https/media.tenor.com/rF23dkyknu0AAAPo/muppet-statler.mp4

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

next up, handlers on the server-side to minimally re-validate & drop into PENDING database (for 2FA).

I will continue to leave the 2FA one-time-key handler (to make it move from PENDING to REAL_LIVE_USERS) *not* wired in until these seem adequate. next up after CREATE/UPDATE/DEACTIVATE: an “I forgot my password” handler.

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

at the point where I turn on user account self management, I think I’m ready to go “the beta is live” and try to get >=1000 users to sign up for a decent first “live” test.

creeping closer, hope to hit that by the end of this week: just 2 weeks past the ‘back of an envelope’ time estimate I made last JAN/FEB. IMHO that ain’t too bad for an olde farte who hasn’t done the production code planning dance for decades.

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

well, that was a reasonable morning’s work… log on (as “tester” / “password”) and hit the ‘Admin’ main menu choice and you get a page with tabbed panels for UPDATE email & UPDATE password & DEACTIVATE account. I *think* I got the validation & feedback logic into place, so email change button doesn’t go live until there is a valid one in there & password change button does not go live until there is a valid one typed in twice.

HDMI 2.2 cranks the bandwidth to 96Gbps and aims to eliminate audio sync issues forever

Image: HDMI Forum

The HDMI Forum is using CES — the annual showcase of all things home theater — to announce the new HDMI 2.2 specification. In a press release this morning, the trade association confirmed that the new spec will up total bandwidth significantly to a new high of 96Gbps. And yes, that means the introduction of an “Ultra96” HDMI cable that “enables all the HDMI 2.2 specification features.”

“Higher resolutions and refresh rates will be supported and more high-quality options will be provided,” the HDMI Forum said in its release. An example of an HDMI 2.2 cable (below) calls out some of those, including 4K at up to 480Hz, 8K at up to 240Hz, and 10K at 120Hz. Current HDMI cables can already pass 4K at 120Hz, so I doubt most people will feel any temptation to upgrade for years to come. And you’ll need content for any of these higher resolutions to be worthwhile, and there’s still a dearth of native 8K entertainment out there.

But with many TVs now offering 4K at up to 144Hz, and as consumers gravitate towards larger screens, the HDMI Forum sees ample reason to keep pushing forward.

Image: HDMI Forum

HDMI 2.2 cables will be badged as “Ultra96.”

There is at least a more helpful aspect of this spec for everyone: HDMI 2.2 includes a “Latency Indication Protocol (LIP) for improving audio and video synchronization, especially for multiple-hop system configurations such as those with an audio video receiver or soundbar.” In my experience, HDMI 2.1 and eARC have mostly resolved frustrating audio / video sync issues, but they can still pop up as a frustration depending on your setup. Apparently HDMI 2.2 will go further in keeping everything lined up and keeping this headache in the past.

Interestingly, the HDMI Forum is already anticipating tariff issues and has implemented an extensive certification program that includes anti-counterfeit labeling on packaging. You certainly can’t miss the Ultra96 badging.

HDMI 2.2 will be released in the first half of this year and be widely available “to all HDMI 2.x adopters.” Your TV and external devices will need to support the specification in order to unlock that new level of bandwidth, so we’re just starting down what’s inevitably going to be a long road.

Continue Reading…

Ecobee launches an even cheaper smart thermostat

Image: Ecobee

Ecobee is launching a new entry-level smart thermostat that costs $129.99. The Smart Thermostat Essential comes with a full-color touchscreen and supports Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, and Google Assistant.

Just like Ecobee’s other smart thermostats, the Essential adjusts the temperature of your home based on the schedule you set, allowing it to conserve energy while you’re away. It ensures your house reaches an optimal temperature by the time you return by learning how long it takes to heat or cool your home.

The Essential can be paired with the company’s SmartSensors to optimize the temperature in specific rooms. The smart thermostat, which can be controlled through the Ecobee app, is compatible with most conventional HVAC and heat pump systems but doesn’t support HVAC accessories or multispeed fan systems.

The Essential will replace the $150 Ecobee3 Lite when it launches in March 2025. The lower $129.99 price makes it more of a rival to the basic Google Nest Thermostat, which costs the same. However, the Nest works with Matter, whereas Ecobee still hasn’t added support for the new smart home standard, despite saying they would.

Continue Reading…

Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X chips bring Windows on Arm to cheaper laptops

Image: Qualcomm

Qualcomm is introducing another Arm laptop chip to its Snapdragon X series today, lowering the cost of Copilot Plus PCs to around $600. The new Snapdragon X joins the existing Snapdragon X Plus and X Elite and will be available in a variety of devices from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo in the coming months.

The Snapdragon X is designed for mainstream and budget laptops, so it won’t offer as good of performance as the X Plus or X Elite variants. Qualcomm is still promising better performance per watt compared to Intel’s Core 5 120U processor and better battery life across a variety of tests.

Much like the rest of the Snapdragon X series, the base Snapdragon X chip will include a 45 TOPS NPU that supports Microsoft’s Copilot Plus features. The Qualcomm Oryon CPU has eight cores that boost at up to 3GHz and is built on the same 4nm process node as the rest of the Snapdragon X series.

Image: Qualcomm

The Snapdragon X platform.

It looks like the Snapdragon X will also lay the groundwork for some of the first Qualcomm-powered mini desktop PCs. Qualcomm is promising the “world’s first mini desktop PC powered by Snapdragon X series” tomorrow, so it certainly sounds like more Copilot Plus mini PCs are on the way.

The Snapdragon X will really have an impact on the $600 laptop market. It’s poised to put even more pressure on Intel’s efforts here, and Qualcomm says more than 60 laptop designs from OEMs are currently in production or development based on the Snapdragon X series of chips. More than 100 are on the way by 2026. Windows on Arm momentum isn’t slowing down.

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Meta stops selling the Quest Pro

Poor little guy. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Meta has stopped selling the Quest Pro, UploadVR spotted. The news comes just over two months since the company discontinued the high-end VR headset. Meta wrote then that it would keep selling the headset until year’s end or until it ran out of stock, whichever came first. I guess it didn’t sell out.

The $999 headset’s product page now says the “Meta Quest Pro is no longer available” and encourages users to consider the Meta Quest 3 instead, which we liked more than its upscale sibling. UploadVR notes that the company is still selling the Quest Pro’s Touch Pro controllers, which work with the Quest 2 and up.

VR headsets have struggled to go mainstream, especially at the high end. The $3,500 Vision Pro has improved since we gave it a relatively lackluster review but still hasn’t caught on in a big way. Apple reportedly cut back on manufacturing it in October. The Quest Pro started at a cheap-by-comparison $1,499, but it made a far worse impression at launch — packed better internals than the Quest 2 and some fancy new features the older headset lacked, but it was also heavy, expensive, and didn’t have much better displays.

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Smite 2 Crossplay And Cross-Progression, Explained

The MOBA genre may be a bit niche, but players who play them tend to fall head over heels for certain games, keeping them alive for the long-haul. One of the most beloved and long-running games in the genre has been Smite, which is currently in its 11th year of service, so it only makes sense that its sequel has come…

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Disney strikes deal to merge Fubo with Hulu + Live TV

Hulu and sports-forward streamer Fubo are settling aside some legal differences and teaming up in order to launch yet another new platform for you to subscribe to.

Last year, Fubo filed a lawsuit against Disney (which co-owns Hulu), Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery last year on grounds that the studios’ plan for Venu Sports, a new sports streaming service, was anticompetitive. But today, Fubo announced that it has reached an agreement with Disney to merge Hulu + Live TV and the entire Fubo platform to create a new multichannel video programming distributor. Going forward, Disney will own about 70 percent of the new venture, which will be headed up by Fubo’s co-founder and CEO David Gandler. Hulu’s core video subscription service will also continue to operate independently.

In a statement about the partnership, Gandler insisted that the deal will enable Fubo to “deliver on our promise to provide consumers with greater choice and flexibility.”

“Additionally, this agreement allows us to scale effectively, strengthens Fubo’s balance sheet, and positions us for positive cash flow. It’s a win for consumers, our shareholders, and the entire streaming industry,” Gandler said.

Though a hearing for Fubo’s previously-filed lawsuit against Disney, Fox, and WBD was scheduled for today, the case has now been dropped because of the new deal. Additionally, Fubo will receive a $220 million payout from Disney, Fox, and WBD. Fubo also noted that Disney plans to provide it with a $145 million this year, and should the entire deal fall apart, Fubo will be due a $130 termination fee.

It wasn’t clear how Disney planned to proceed last summer after a federal judge sided with Fubo and blocked Venu Sports from its planned fall 2024 launch. But now it’s looking like the way forward is going to be a collaborative one.

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50 Percent Of PS5 Owners Are Freaks And Actually Shut Their Console Down When They Stop Playing

I only ever turn my PlayStation 5 off a few times a year, and it’s usually when there’s an unexpected power outage or I accidentally hit the red switch on the power strip it’s plugged into. My PS5 yells at me when I turn it back on and I vow never to do it again. Apparently only about 50 percent of players live this…

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Elvie’s automatic baby bouncer and bassinet costs $799 for six months of use

A motor bounces baby according to your settings, but you have to convert it into a bassinet using your own motor skills. | Image: Elvie

The Elvie Rise is an app-controlled baby bouncer that can be converted into a bassinet without moving the baby. Unfortunately, it costs $799 and isn’t suitable for tots over six months of age.

Of course, much less expensive bouncers without motors and apps also go flat for nap time, which is why Elvie’s pitch leans heavily into baby’s safety. As we’ve learned, baby tech is often peddled to anxious parents based on fear, not practicality.

According to Elvie’s own study, “at least 67 percent of babies aged 0-3 months routinely sleep in a product that is not deemed safe for sleep during the day and the night.” Rise follows the AAP’s sleep safe guidelines, which require a firm, flat mattress, breathable fabrics, and retractable straps.

Elvie’s “SootheLoop” tech records whatever bounce intensity and duration you desire, which can then be automatically repeated. In manual mode, bouncing can also be controlled by baby-power alone. It’s up to the caregiver to lift the bouncer into bassinet mode and hoist the blinders when baby grows tired.

Bouncer mode is suitable from newborn to six months of age, according to the company, or until your sub-20lb spawn starts to sit upright on their own. The bassinet is only suitable until junior hits five months, or starts to push up on hands and knees.

Decent portable bassinets that follow AAP guidelines start around $140, while highly regarded bouncers can cost $200. $799 could be justified if that 2-in-1 convenience and motorized bouncing really speaks to you — just don’t lose the charger. Too bad the company doesn’t make a dumb version without motor or app because it does look nice.

On the bright side, the Elvie Rise is way cheaper than a Snoo or that poop-detecting crib, and it doesn’t require a monthly subscription.

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Birdfy Bath Pro is a voyeuristic take on smart bird feeders

Birdfy has announced the Birdfy Bath Pro, a camera-equipped smart bird bath that lets you watch your local birds as they plop into the water to wash up. The device features two lenses — a wide-angle one and an auto-tracking one — and an optional AI analysis feature that keeps track of and summarizes the bath’s visitors. It’s in preorder now.

The onboard camera consists of a 2MP wide-angle lens that shoots at 1080p and a 3MP “Portrait Lens” with 2K resolution. It carries an IP66 waterproof rating, so it should be able to withstand bird splashes, rain, and a direct blast from a water hose. But if you live somewhere cold, you should know the camera may be slow or not start at all if the outdoor temperature drops below 14 degrees Fahrenheit (or minus 10 degrees Celsius).

Image: Birdfy

The Bath Pro notifies you when birds arrive.

The fountain portion comes with five interchangeable nozzles that Birdfy says make “captivating water patterns.” The Bath Pro will run you $249.99, or $299.99 with the stand included. For another $50, you can also get a lifetime subscription to its AI analysis service that Birdfy says will recognize birds and offer daily visitor counts and bird picture highlights. It also offers monthly recaps that rank your bath with that of other Birdfy owners.

Rounding out its features are an integrated solar panel to keep its 9,000mAh battery topped up, cloud storage for videos and images, and Wi-Fi connectivity so you can watch birds from your phone, “catching every flutter and dip in real-time.”

The Bath Pro feels like a logical next step after the Bird Buddy smart bird feeder got its moment in the sun in 2023. Bird Buddy seemed to agree when it announced its own prototype for one that year, but it hasn’t started shipping that yet according to an update on its Kickstarter page. Birdfy has its own bird feeders, including the also newly announced Birdfy Feeder Metal, a metal-housed smart bird feeder with similar features to the Bath Pro.

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This big ol’ smart display fits right into an electrical box and controls your home

Image: Shelly Group

Shelly introduced the Wall Display X2 at CES 2025, a new smart panel designed to fit into a wall electrical box that you can use to control your smart home.

The display makes it easy for anybody in the household to control smart lights, thermostats, and more by simply tapping its 6.95-inch touchscreen. It also has built-in temperature, humidity, and light sensors.

The Shelly Wall Display X2 stands out from rivals with its built-in relay functionality, which means you can add smarts to switches, outlets, fixtures, and more. So, for example, it will add smart capabilities to an existing circuit if you wire it up where there was a light switch.

The panel can also be used to create customizable scenes, play music, and show information like real-time power usage and the weather.

The Wall Display X2 works with all Shelly devices and Home Assistant. It supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Shelly didn’t announce pricing or a release date but said that the Shelly Wall Display X2 should be available internationally in Q1, with US availability to follow.

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Aqara’s new seven-inch home control tablet can replace a light switch

The Aqara Panel Hub S1 Plus is a touchscreen smart home controller that can replace an existing light switch. | Image: Aqara

I’m a big fan of different ways to control your smart home outside of using your phone or relying on voice, so I was very excited to see that Aqara is launching three touchscreen controllers at the CES tech show in Las Vegas this week — and one has a wheel!

The new Panel Hub S1 Plus, Touchscreen Dial V1, and Touchscreen Switch S100 can be installed in place of a regular light switch. They can control the existing circuit and wirelessly manage devices connected to the panel through the Aqara smart home app. This lets you — and anyone in your home — use touch to adjust lights, thermostats, blinds, and more without needing a phone or knowing the right voice command. The Panel and the Switch can also control Matter devices, exposing six wireless buttons to Matter.

Aqara is also launching new non-touchscreen smart switches that can connect over Thread or Zigbee. The Aqara Light Switch H2 and Dimmer Switch H2 come in several switch configurations and don’t require a neutral wire. The Light Switch H2 can also control Aqara’s wired smart lighting products, such as its T1M ceiling light, giving you an option for physical control that doesn’t cut off the device’s smart features. They’re slated for release in Q1 2025.

Image: Aqara

The EU version of the Panel Hub S1 Plus dispenses with the speaker grille at the bottom.

I first saw several of these products showcased at the IFA tech show in Berlin, Germany, last year, and now Aqara is debuting US versions. The Panel Hub works over dual-band Wi-Fi, has a 6.9-inch touchscreen with a 1440 × 720 resolution, and can be installed in a regular light switch outlet. It can connect to two lights on a wired circuit to automate them, including Aqara smart lights such as the T1M ceiling light.

The customizable display can show several widgets to control devices connected to an Aqara smart home, such as lights, locks, thermostats, and curtains, as well as trigger scenes and routines. It can also act as a display for viewing live camera feeds from an Aqara camera and as a video intercom for an Aqara doorbell — such as the new G410 Aqara Doorbell that’s also launching at CES.

A proximity sensor can turn off the screen when it’s not in use, and you can upload photos and custom wallpapers. The Panel Hub also doubles as a Zigbee hub for connecting the company’s Zigbee accessories like sensors and locks and can bridge those devices into Matter.

Image: Aqara

The Dial V1 has a tactile ring that can be used to adjust lights and control shades or blinds.

The Touchscreen Dial V1 is a compact tactile rotary dial that looks and feels a bit like a mini Nest thermostat with a 1.32-inch touchscreen inside. I got to play with the European version at IFA, and it was easy to swipe through the touchscreen to choose a device to control and then turn the dial for fine-tuned adjustments, such as dimming lights, adjusting a thermostat, or opening or closing curtains or shades. Unlike the Panel and Touchscreen Switch, the Dial is not Matter-compatible.

The Dial V1 can be wired to an existing light fixture. It has a temperature and humidity sensor and a presence sensor for screen activation. The Dial V1 and the Panel Hub will launch in Europe later this month and in the US later this year.

Image: Aqara

The S100 has two physical switches and a touchscreen. It’s also a Thread border router.

Finally, the Touchscreen Switch S100 US combines the physical and digital in one device. A smart switch with two physical buttons and a 1.3-inch touchscreen, the S100 can control an existing light fixture and wirelessly control smart devices and scenes.

Like the touchscreen on the Dial V1, you can use the touchscreen to dim lights or adjust a thermostat. Unlike the other two touchscreen devices, the S100 includes Thread as well as Wi-Fi and can work as a Thread border router and through Matter over Wi-Fi. Aqara hasn’t provided a launch date for the Switch.

Image: Aqara

As a battery-powered presence sensor, the FP300 offers more versatile installation options than Aqara’s wired mmWave sensors.

If switches aren’t your thing, Aqara is launching a new smart sensor that can control your lights automatically. The battery-operated Presence Multi-Sensor FP300 packs five sensors: PRI, mmWave, light, temperature, and humidity.

A follow-up to Aqara’s wired mmWave-powered presence sensors, the FP2 and FP1E, the FP300’s mmWave sensing can detect presence in a room with precision down to someone’s chest rising and falling when they breathe. This should ensure your lights never turn off when you’re quietly working on your laptop or reading a book.

One of the first wireless mmWave sensors, the FP300 can operate on two CR2450 batteries for up to two years over Thread and three years using Zigbee and a connection to an Aqara hub, according to the company. (You can pick your protocol.)

Image: Aqara

The Climate Sensor W100 has programmable buttons that can control a connected Aqara thermostat.

The company also announced an updated climate sensor. The Climate Sensor W100 has the option of Thread or Zigbee and features an integrated display that can show room temperature, humidity, and more. Three wireless buttons can be programmed to control any connected smart device, including a thermostat.

Image: Aqara

The Hub M100 is a small, discreet way to add a Matter, Zigbee, and Thread hub to your smart home. It plugs into an outlet.

Finally, Aqara is adding a new entry-level smart home hub, the Hub M100. The small device includes Wi-Fi, Thread, and Zigbee to enable connections for all of Aqara’s smart devices as well as third-party Matter devices. It can act as a Thread border router and a Matter bridge for Aqara Zigbee devices.

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This tiny button pulls off the wall and controls your lights and music with gestures

Image: Flic

On Monday, Flic announced the Flic Duo, a wall-mountable smart button you can pick up to control other gadgets using customizable gestures.

The dual-button remote allows users to create over 30 programmable motion-based commands, so you could, for instance, program the smart button to play a specific music playlist with a swipe. You could even configure the Duo to perform different tasks based on its location, so it turns into a light switch when mounted to the wall and functions like a music controller in your hand.

Flic’s also added other conveniences designed to make it easier to integrate with other smart tech. It’s compatible with Matter, for example, which means it works with all major smart home platforms, and offers up a replaceable battery that should last up to three years. And if you were to ever lose the button, you can easily keep tabs on its location via the companion Flic app.

In addition to being a smart home controller, the Flic Duo also includes safety features targeted toward senior adults and “lone workers.” These include fall detection capabilities and the ability to use it as a personal alarm via a built-in speaker. Flic says the remote should last for three years off a single coin-cell battery.

The Flic Duo will be available to preorder on January 28th at an “early bird price” of $49. It will ship sometime in the second quarter of this year.

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This sleek doorbell camera is also a smart home hub

The Doorbell Camera Hub G410 is a new video doorbell from Aqara that doubles as a smart home hub for Matter, Thread, and Zigbee devices. | Image: Aqara

Aqara revealed the long-awaited update to its Video Doorbell G4 at CES this week, and it looks like it’s been worth the wait. The Aqara Doorbell Camera Hub G410 adds 2K video quality, a 4:3 aspect ratio, and end-to-end encryption on live and recorded video. It is also one of the first doorbells to use an mmWave sensor for more accurate person detection.

The G410 works over dual-band Wi-Fi and has Thread and Zigbee radios on board. So — yes — it’s a full-on smart home hub. It can connect to and integrate both Aqara accessories and third-party Matter devices into your smart home.

Aqara is also adding Real-Time Streaming Protocol support so you can send its feed locally to a third-party client such as Home Assistant. And this is all in addition to features carried over from the G4, such as Apple Home compatibility (including HomeKit Secure Video support), on-device facial recognition, local storage, and the ability to work on battery (six AAs) or be hardwired to your home’s wiring. When hardwired, it offers 24/7 continuous recording to a microSD card.

The doorbell also supports Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings to stream to compatible smart displays. It works with Aqara’s new Panel Hub S1 Plus, which can act as a video intercom inside your house.

Image: Aqara

Aqara’s new Panel Hub S1 Plus, which installs in place of a regular light switch, can act as a video intercom for the G410 video doorbell.

There are a few disappointments, though. The field of view is wider than the G4’s, at 172 degrees on the diagonal, and it now offers a top-to-bottom 4:3 aspect ratio, but the G410 doesn’t have HDR imaging, which means it may be harder to see faces in some lighting. Its weather rating is still IPX3, meaning it really needs to be mounted under a porch or something similar to protect against heavy rainfall.

The doorbell’s smart alerts are limited to people and motion — there are no package, animal, or vehicle alerts (but you can get them through Apple Home). It also only records clips for up to 12 seconds at a time. Like the G4, the G410 won’t ring your existing chime and still requires that you plug in a small chime repeater to a nearby power outlet. This can house a microSD card for local storage.

The G4 offered free cloud storage, but the G410 will require a subscription. Local storage is free, though, and you can also use Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video service for recorded video. There’s no pricing or release date yet, but the G4 was $150, so this will likely land somewhere around that price.

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Honeywell Home’s first Matter thermostat costs just $80

Honeywell Home’s latest smart thermostat isn’t sexy, but it promises simplicity and significant savings. | Image: Resideo

Sadly, not all smart thermostats are things of beauty like the latest Nest Learning Thermostat, but that doesn’t mean they can’t save you some cash.

This week, Resideo announced the Honeywell Home X2S Smart Thermostat, an entry-level smart thermostat that looks utilitarian but costs just $79.99 and works with Matter. This means it supports Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, and other systems for smart home and voice control of your HVAC system.

Launching this spring, the X2S is designed to be simple, straightforward, and deliver big energy savings. It features a big, bright screen and large, spongy push buttons for controlling the temperature. It’s compatible with existing Honeywell Home thermostat wiring plates — so you might not have to do any wiring at all to install it. Resideo says that if you use the app’s recommended set points, the X2S can save you an average of 22 percent on heating and 17 percent on cooling.

Image: Resideo

The X2S is the first Honeywell Home thermostat to support Matter.

The X2S is the first Honeywell Home thermostat to work with Matter, which allows you to control the temperature and mode from any compatible ecosystem. It also works with Resideo’s First Alert app for more advanced features, such as scheduling and setting up an automatic away mode that uses geofencing to set the thermostat back when you leave home, helping save energy.

The Energy Star-rated thermostat requires a C wire and is compatible with up to two heating and cooling stages on conventional systems or up to two heating and one cooling stage on heat pump systems. It can also monitor humidity and offers air filter replacement reminders, but it won’t work with Honeywell Home’s room sensors.

According to Resideo, close to 80 percent of homes still don’t have connected thermostats, and this product is designed to be a simple, inexpensive way to upgrade. The addition of Matter, which should simplify the process of connecting to any smart home platform, is also something that would help push broader adoption of the technology.

“The Honeywell Home X2S’s price point and feature set make it the ideal upgrade from a non-connected to a connected thermostat, and Matter compatibility helps unlock other smart home benefits across other ecosystems,” said David Kaufman, director of strategic initiatives at Resideo.

In terms of competition, Google’s non-learning Nest Thermostat supports Matter but costs more at $129.99, and Meross just announced a Matter thermostat for $99. Both have more style than the X2S and rely on touch-sensitive interfaces rather than big buttons. Amazon has a similarly priced Smart Thermostat, but it only supports Alexa.

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JBL’s Tour One M3 headphones wirelessly connect to older devices using a touchscreen transmitter

The JBL Tour One M3 can be connected to almost any audio source using an optional wireless transmitter. | Image: JBL

JBL announced a pair of premium headphones at CES today that can be purchased with an optional transmitter that allows the Tour One M3 to be used wirelessly with audio sources like a plane’s in-flight entertainment system. The headphones will be available starting on April 13, 2025 in black, mocha, and blue for $399.95, but can also be purchased without the transmitter.

The option to connect to audio devices without wireless connectivity is a feature borrowed from JBL’s Tour Pro 3 wireless earbuds which incorporates the functionality into a charging case. With the new JBL Tour One M3 headphones, it’s offered through a small touchscreen accessory called the Smart Tx audio transmitter that connects to devices with a USB-C or a 3.5mm audio cable.

Image: JBL

The JBL Tour One M3 headphones will be available in black, mocha, and blue color options.

The Tour One M3 can connect to devices over Bluetooth, but the Smart Tx audio transmitter uses a “direct proprietary wireless connection” that JBL says offers reduced latency and improved stability. The Smart Tx’s touchscreen can also be used to adjust headphone settings like ANC and EQ, control music playback, answer phone calls, and broadcast audio “to an unlimited amount of Auracast enabled devices.”

The headphones feature “newly developed 40mm Mica Dome drivers” that JBL says are “precisely tuned to deliver deep bass, balanced mids, and crystal-clear highs.”

They reduce noise using JBL’s True Adaptive Noise Cancelling 2.0 technology which relies on eight microphones that are also used to boost ambient sounds when you want to be more aware of your environment. And in addition to offering EQ adjustments that can be customized for each ear, you can take a hearing test through JBL’s app to tailor the sound of the Tour One M3 to your liking.

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Pokémon Declares 2025 To Be The 'Year Of Eevee'

Step aside Luigi, 2025 is now officially the Year of Eevee. That’s the rather bold claim made today on the official Pokémon Center UK website, and likely to come to the U.S. version later today. What does it mean? Well, the TCG is about to launch a new special set of cards called Prismatic Evolutions, all themed…

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Aptera shows off a new solar-powered car that it swears will go into production

Image: Aptera

Aptera is aiming to get a little more time in the sun.

The once-dead and now-resurrected startup unveiled a new “production-intent” solar-powered electric vehicle that it made with a little help from legendary Italian automotive designers Pininfarina. And much like the last go-around, the new prototype is an ultra-efficient three-wheeled electric vehicle powered, in part, by embedded solar panels.

Aptera insists the partnership with Pininfarina is providing necessary resources, like access the company’s wind tunnel located in Turin, Italy, to refine its design “to achieve one of the lowest drag coefficients of any production passenger vehicle, setting a new standard for energy efficiency in the automotive industry.” But the biggest hurdles will likely finding enough funding to go into production.

Aptera didn’t include the exact drag coefficient for the new vehicle, but has claimed that past prototypes were able to achieve one of 0.13, as compared to 0.23 for Tesla’s Model 3.

The vehicle is equipped with 700W of integrated solar cells, allowing most drivers to drive every day without ever needing to plug in to charge. The cells can provide up to 40 miles of solar-powered range each day, and the ability to travel up to 400 miles on a single charge.

Aptera’s previous attempts to be one of the first companies in the world to mass produce a solar-powered car were derailed when it failed to qualify for the US Department of Energy’s advanced technology loan program. The company shut down in 2011, but reopened in 2020 after successfully raising enough money through crowdfunding and other means.

It’s unclear if the work is enough to get its weird, three-wheeled solar powered vehicle off the ground. Aptera isn’t the only company squinting at the sun for inspiration. German startup Sono Motors was working on a solar-powered electric car, but now its betting on solar buses. Mercedes-Benz’s Vision EQXX concept includes a solar roof array of 117 cells. And Toyota has promised an optional solar roof for its recently released BZ4X electric SUV.

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pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:

Oh, look! The Discovery Institute ranted against an obsolete caricature of evolution with their very own caricature!

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/01/06/i-didnt-devolve-i-just-got-angry/

Attachments:

• Creationists illustrate the "devolution of darwinists" with a lazy version of the "descent of man", showing scientists growing more stooped and ape-like (remote)

OpenAI’s Sam Altman says ‘we know how to build AGI’

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says that the company is confident that it knows “how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it,” referring to the tech industry’s long-sought benchmark of artificial general intelligence. And he predicts that AI agents capable of autonomously performing certain tasks may start to “materially change the output of companies” this year.

Altman made the announcement in a blog post published on Monday, where he discussed the past and future of OpenAI. The company’s next goal is “superintelligence in the true sense of the word,” he says.“We love our current products, but we are here for the glorious future. Superintelligent tools could massively accelerate scientific discovery and innovation well beyond what we are capable of doing on our own, and in turn massively increase abundance and prosperity.”

Altman’s description of superintelligence, broadly defined as AI agents that surpass human intelligence, sounds much like how OpenAI once described AGI: “AI systems that are generally smarter than humans.” OpenAI has repeatedly stated that its foundational goal is to develop an artificial general intelligence (AGI) system that “benefits all of humanity.” But Altman tried to lower expectations for AGI last month, saying it would “matter much less” than people thought.

Downplaying its previous definition of AGI may work in OpenAI’s favor, since the company is tied to Microsoft via exclusivity deals it made in 2023 until OpenAI officially declares that AGI has been achieved. But reports that Microsoft itself classifies AGI as a system capable of generating $100 billion in profits may prove that loophole ineffective. And while The Verge has heard that OpenAI plans to blend its large language models together as an “AGI” offering, potentially to hit this goalpost faster, the company isn’t turning a profit. Altman also says it’s currently losing money on its $200-per-month ChatGPT Pro subscriptions.

“People use it much more than we expected,” Altman wrote across several posts on X. “I personally chose the price and thought we would make some money.”

Altman doesn’t directly address OpenAI’s tight profit-sharing arrangement with Microsoft in his blog post, but he does lament about the confusing events that led to him being fired as CEO of OpenAI, hired by Microsoft, and subsequently returning to OpenAI in November 2023. Altman has since consolidated power at OpenAI, which aims to transition from a nonprofit organization to a for-profit one this year.

“The whole event was, in my opinion, a big failure of governance by well-meaning people, myself included. Looking back, I certainly wish I had done things differently, and I’d like to believe I’m a better, more thoughtful leader today than I was a year ago,” Altman said. “Good governance requires a lot of trust and credibility. I appreciate the way so many people worked together to build a stronger system of governance for OpenAI that enables us to pursue our mission of ensuring that AGI benefits all of humanity.”

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Microsoft is using Bing to trick people into thinking they’re on Google

Image: The Verge

Microsoft is pulling yet another trick to get people to use its Bing search engine. If you use Bing right now without signing into a Microsoft account and search for Google, you’ll get a page that looks an awful lot like... Google.

It’s a clear attempt from Microsoft to make Bing look like Google for this specific search query, and other searches just list the usual Bing search results without this special interface. The Google result includes a search bar, an image that looks a lot like a Google Doodle, and even some small text under the search bar just like Google does. Microsoft even automatically scrolls down the page slightly to mask its own Bing search bar that appears at the top of search results.

Image: Tom Warren / The Verge

The Bing search result for Google right now has a special interface.

While Bing still surfaces search results for Google underneath this spoofed Google UI, a lot of people will see this interface when they configure a new PC and search for Google in the address bar of Microsoft Edge. As 9to5Google points out, it’s a sneaky move from Microsoft to try and keep people using Bing instead of switching to Google.

Microsoft has a habit of this kind of behavior, too. We’ve been cataloging every trick Microsoft has used to convince people to switch to Bing or Edge instead of Google and Chrome over the past few years. Microsoft has modified Chrome download sites, added pop-up ads into Google Chrome on Windows, injected polls into Chrome download pages, and even used malware-like popups to get people to ditch Google.

Google also has its own notifications on its websites to encourage people to download Chrome instead of Microsoft Edge, but they’re nowhere near as aggressive as Microsoft’s use of operating system-level popups and website modifications.

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Schlage’s sleek new smart lock ditches keys for UWB

The Sense Pro is Schlage’s first lock to support Matter; it will also work with a new UWB-powered auto-unlocking feature. | Image: Schlage

It’s a bit of a moment for the humble door lock. Schlage, one of the oldest lock makers in the US, just launched its first-ever smart door lock without a keyway. But that’s not the most exciting part: the Schlage Sense Pro Smart Deadbolt is the company’s first lock to support the new smart home standard Matter and one of the first ever to use ultra wideband technology (UWB) for hands-free unlocking.

Along with the Sense Pro, Schlage also announced a new entry-level smart lock. The $199 Schlage Arrive Smart WiFi Deadbolt does have a keyway, along with a push button keypad for the touchscreen-adverse. The new locks join the company’s existing Encode smart lock line.

Image: Schlage

The Schlage Sense Pro is a new design for Schlage locks and comes in two finishes: satin nickel (pictured) and matte black (above).

While it’s nice to see a more affordable smart lock option from Schlage (its Encode deadbolts start at $274), the Sense Pro is the headliner. A radical redesign for the company, the new touchscreen lock has a completely smooth face and no keyway. While there are plenty of smart locks without keyways, this is a first for the 100-year-old Schlage. There’s also no fingerprint reader — a technology Schlage seems to have skipped over entirely.

Instead, it appears to be betting on UWB as the best option for seamlessly unlocking your door. Along with a numeric code and NFC-powered tap-to-unlock (similar to Apple’s Home Key), the Sense Pro can open automatically as you approach your door. Here’s how Schlage says it works:

This feature uses Ultra Wideband and the user’s paired and authorized personal device to intelligently calculate speed, trajectory and motion, ensuring seamless, intuitive entry that understands intent to enter and unlocks precisely as the user reaches their door.

Your phone or smartwatch will need to have UWB technology to support the hands-free unlocking, and Schlage said details on which specific models will be compatible with Schlage’s implementation will be announced closer to its retail launch.

While, initially, the lock will work over Schlage’s new Schlage Converge technology, Schlage has said that the Sense Pro will support Aliro. The open standard, which is due to be released this year, will add support for NFC and UWB unlocking across ecosystems and hardware. Theoretically, any Aliro lock will work with any Aliro-enabled smartphone — Apple, Samsung, and Google are all involved in developing Aliro.

Speaking of ecosystem support, the Sense Pro is Schlage’s first lock to work with Matter, which means it’s compatible with any Matter ecosystem, including Apple Home, Samsung SmartThings, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Home Assistant.

Matter support is over Thread, a low-powered, low-latency smart home protocol designed for battery-operated devices like locks. It should ensure the Sense Pro gets decent battery life, although the company hasn’t released details yet. Thread is used in the Schlage Encode Plus, but that model doesn’t support Matter. As with the Encode Plus, the Sense Pro will also work with built-in Wi-Fi to connect to the Schlage Home app.

Schlage says the Sense Pro will launch this year but hasn’t provided a date or price.

Image: Schlage

The Schlage Arrive comes in three styles: Camelot, Century, and a new design, Remsen. It will be available in satin nickel and matte black.

The entry-level Arrive doesn't have any of the bells and whistles of the Sense Pro, but it is Schlage’s first push-button keypad deadbolt equipped with built-in Wi-Fi. You can program up to 250 codes in the newly updated Schlage app or unlock it with a physical key. It also works with Amazon Alexa or Google Home — but there’s no support for Matter. Schlage says it will be available in late spring 2025.

Image: Schlage

The Arrive in the new Remsen style.

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Ring is upgrading its outdoor cameras with 2K resolution (even if you already own them)

The Floodlight Cam Pro is our pick for the best overall outdoor floodlight camera. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Ring is doing something rare for a technology brand: upgrading devices that customers have already purchased. The company is updating its outdoor cameras to boost video resolution, but it’s not just new customers who will benefit — existing owners of the floodlight and spotlight cams will get the upgrade, too.

Ring’s series of outdoor cameras currently support 1080p video. The Floodlight Cam Pro and the Spotlight Cam Pro are getting the boost to 2K video, while the Plus versions of those cameras will remain at 1080p. It’s a significant jump in resolution for the Pro models considering that most other Ring cameras top out at 1080p, with the exception of a few doorbells that do 1440p and 1536p.

Across Ring’s product line, these outdoor cameras are good candidates for a resolution bump. Since they’re typically mounted higher and farther away from the subjects they’re meant to record, a little extra resolution can make a significant difference in image detail. Digital zoom, which was already pretty good on the Floodlight Cam Pro, should get a little sharper, too.

Existing Floodlight and Spotlight Cam Pro owners will be able to upgrade their devices through the Ring app when the update starts rolling out on January 8th.

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Microsoft would really like you to stop using Windows 10 this year

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

It’s 2025, and Microsoft is kicking off the year by reminding everyone that support for Windows 10 ends in October. While the company has been trying to entice Windows 10 users to upgrade to Windows 11 with full-screen prompts throughout 2024, it’s now calling 2025 “the year of the Windows 11 PC refresh.”

Last year, Microsoft kicked off 2024 by declaring it was “the year of the AI PC,” before launching a range of Copilot Plus PCs several months later. As Microsoft edges closer to the end of Windows 10, it’s making its presence at CES felt this week by declaring that refreshing a Windows 10 PC will be more important than buying a new TV or phone in 2025.

“As CES 2025 begins, showcasing the latest innovations in technology, we are excited for the advancements our industry will offer to people around the globe,” says Yusuf Mehdi, executive vice president and consumer chief marketing officer at Microsoft. “And we believe that one of the most important pieces of technology people will look to refresh in 2025 isn’t the refrigerator, the television or their mobile phone. It will be their Windows 10 PC, and they will move forward with Windows 11.”

Mehdi believes that “Windows 11 is available at a time when the world needs it most” and that “the forefront of AI innovation will be realized on Windows.” 2025 should be a bigger year for Windows AI features, particularly after Recall was delayed enough times that it didn’t launch fully in 2024. Microsoft also hasn’t delivered its improved AI-powered Windows Search features to Insiders yet after unveiling them in October.

Microsoft isn’t at CES this week in the traditional sense of having a booth on the show floor or even announcing product news, but its influence will be felt in the myriad laptops that get announced this week, and even unusual announcements of its Copilot AI assistant coming to LG and Samsung TVs. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some Microsoft executives jump onstage during CES press events this week. Jason Ronald, Microsoft’s vice president of “next generation,” is already confirmed to appear at Lenovo’s handheld gaming PC event, and Windows chief Pavan Davuluri has been appearing at partner keynotes in recent months.

With Windows 11 adoption still lagging behind Windows 10, it’s no surprise to see Microsoft dedicating the year to making sure people upgrade to Windows 11 or buy a new PC. Windows 11 is now the most popular OS for PC gaming on Steam, but with Microsoft offering Extended Security Updates to consumers for the first time ever later this year, it will be interesting to see how many opt to pay $30 for an extra year of updates instead of moving to Windows 11.

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This home security camera can also monitor for falls and call for help

The camera uses AI to help identify falls even when the subject is partially obscured. | Photo: Kami Vision

Home security company Kami Vision is introducing a new camera that’s designed especially for seniors living on their own. The Kami Fall Detect Camera monitors for falls and can alert families or caregivers to take action. The company has been offering similar fall detection systems for senior living communities, but this is its first product designed with private homes in mind.

The Fall Detect Camera offers an 87-degree view and can rotate 360 degrees. The owner can authorize other users to receive alerts if a fall is detected or access the camera’s live view to check on them — there’s even two-way audio communication built in. Kami Vision claims the camera detects falls with 99.5 percent accuracy and uses AI to identify a fall even if the person is partially obscured.

Kami Vision offers a subscription service at $45 per month that includes professional monitoring to verify falls and automatic calls to emergency services if there’s no response to a fall. The camera itself costs $99 and can be used on its own, but the subscription is required to get the fall detection features.

Kami isn’t the first company to introduce tech to help people age in place. Both the Apple Watch and Google Pixel Watch include fall detection features that allow the wearer to call for help when a fall is detected. But those devices need to be on your body to work and need to be kept charged, which might not be practical for someone whose age or condition puts them at risk for falls. As baby boomers reach their senior years, something like Kami Vision’s approach will probably look awfully appealing to caregivers and those wanting to age in place alike.

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This $400 Brisk It smart grill has generative AI

Image: Brisk It

Barbecue tech startup Brisk It has unveiled its latest smart grill at CES, which uses generative AI to automate cooking and create personalized recipes. The $399 Zelos 450 electric wood pellet smoker features 450 square inches of cooking space and Wi-Fi connectivity for remotely adjusting settings and monitoring food as it cooks via a mobile app.

That’s pretty affordable for a smart wood pellet grill — the cheapest Wi-Fi-controlled offering from Traeger starts at $800, and that doesn’t include any generative AI cooking features. The Zelos is also substantially cheaper than previous AI-powered grills from Brisk It, which start at $849.99.

Whether you actually want AI to get in between you and your grilling is the bigger question. Brisk It says its Vera AI can “monitor, control, and automate the cook for you” at the push of a button, sending users notification updates on the cooking progress and reminders to do things like wrap or spritz ribs with water. If these prompts are missed or ignored, the AI will automatically adjust the grilling temperature to prevent food from being ruined. Ridiculous as it sounds, the company’s earlier models have received some positive reviews for their helpful automation.

Image: Brisk It

The Vera 2.0 AI model provides a variety of generative AI features for automating cooking and recipe creation via Brisk It’s smart phone app.

The latest Vera 2.0 model on the Zelos 450 includes new features like Smart Image Recognition, which uses photos of ingredients to generate recipes, and Recipe Re-creation, which can turn existing recipes into versions that can be automated on the grill.

The Zelos 450 has a temperature range of 180–500 degrees Fahrenheit that supports both slow cooking and high-heat grilling. Brisk It says it’ll be available to purchase at Amazon, The Home Depot, Lowe’s, Walmart, and the Brisk It Grills webstore sometime in Q1 2025.

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Ring is making a smart smoke alarm

Kidde’s new smart smoke and combination smoke + CO alarms with Ring work in the Ring app and don’t require a Ring Alarm system. | Image: Ring

Ring has announced a new partnership with fire safety brand Kidde to launch smart smoke and carbon monoxide alarms that connect to the Ring app via Wi-Fi and send alerts to your phone when the alarms are triggered.

The Kidde Smart Smoke Alarm with Ring ($54.97) and the Kidde Smart Smoke and CO Alarm with Ring ($74.97) are hardwired alarms with battery backup. They will launch this April at The Home Depot and come to more retailers later in 2025, according to Kidde.

Image: Kidde

The Ring-powered Kidde smart smoke alarm works with the Ring app and costs $55.

The alarms connect to the Ring app and, as well as sending alerts when triggered, will notify you about a low battery to help avoid those 2AM chirps. But the Ring alarm can’t hush an active alarm, you’ll have to do that manually. If you have other compatible hardwired Kidde smoke alarms in your house, adding one of these Ring-powered alarms will enable your existing alarms to also connect to the Ring app.

Unlike the First Alert Z-Wave smoke and CO alarms that also work with Ring, the Kidde alarms do not need a Ring Alarm hub to connect to the app and don’t require a subscription to receive alerts. Ring will offer the option go 24/7 professional monitoring of the smoke alarms for $5 a month; if you already have Ring Professional Monitoring for your Ring Alarm, smoke alarm monitoring is included. (Ring also sells a $35 smoke alarm listener that can alert the Ring app if it hears an alarm in your home, which also requires a Ring Professional Monitoring subscription.)

Smart smoke alarms are critical devices, as they can alert you to danger at home when you’re not there. There really aren’t many choices on the market today. While Amazon, Apple, and others offer services through smart speakers and home security systems that listen for your existing smoke alarms and send alerts to your phone, actual connected alarms are few and far between.

Google’s Nest Protect is one of the best options, but at $149, it's very expensive. While it has some excellent features, including a motion-activated nightlight, voice alerts, and the option to silence the alarm from the Nest app, the product hasn’t been updated in several years. Google also doesn’t offer professional monitoring. First Alert’s OneLink smart alarm line has been discontinued. Kidde sells a stand-alone line of Wi-Fi-connected smart smoke alarms that work with its app to send alerts and integrate with Amazon Alexa and Google Home. According to Kidde, these new alarms will only work with the Ring app at launch and will not integrate with Amazon Alexa or any other smart home systems.

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Intel’s new Core Ultra 200HX series CPUs are ready for next-gen gaming laptops

Image: Intel

Intel is announcing the rest of the Arrow Lake family of CPUs at CES today, with options for thin-and-light laptops all the way up to gaming notebooks. These mobile processors will appear in many of the computers being announced at CES this week, with the 200HX series being paired with next-gen GPUs we’re expecting Nvidia to announce later today and the 200H and 200U series of chips destined for thin-and-light and premium laptops.

While Intel will continue to supply Lunar Lake CPUs for its range of Copilot Plus laptops, the Arrow Lake mobile family won’t be ditching memory sticks after Intel confirmed in October that the Lunar Lake chips were a one-off experiment.

Image: Intel

Intel’s Core Ultra 200HX series of processors.

The new Core Ultra 200HX series will be targeted at gaming laptops and should deliver around 5 percent better single-thread performance and 20 percent multithread performance improvements over previous Raptor Lake-H Refresh processors.

Intel says new gaming laptops with the “latest discrete GPUs” (read that as Nvidia’s RTX 50-series) will be coming in late Q1. The flagship Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX has 24 cores (8 performance and 16 efficiency cores), can boost up to 5.5GHz, has 4 GPU cores, and a 13 TOPS NPU. That’s enough to meet Intel’s definition of “AI PC” but not enough for Microsoft’s Copilot Plus features.

Consumer laptops that aren’t gaming-focused will come with Intel’s 200H or 200U series of processors. The H variants have a base power of 28 watts, apart from the flagship Core Ultra 9 285H that pushes the power requirements up to 45 watts. These H-series CPUs have a new Intel Arc GPU inside that delivers around 15 percent better graphics performance over previous Meteor Lake chips.

Image: Intel

The Core Ultra 200HX series lineup.

CPU performance on these H chips should be around 15 percent better, too, for single-thread tasks. There are five chips available for laptop makers here, including the flagship Intel Core Ultra 9 285H with 16 cores (6 performance, 8 efficiency, and 2 low-power efficiency cores), a boost clock of 5.4GHz, and 8 GPU cores.

Intel will also release the U series of its Core Ultra 200 processors for laptops that are much more focused on battery life and thin-and-light designs. These chips have a base power of just 15 watts and only turbo up to 57 watts. The top Intel Core Ultra 7 265U processor includes 12 cores (2 performance, 8 efficiency, and 2 low-power efficiency cores) and can boost up to 5.3GHz.

While the 200HX series of chips won’t appear until late Q1 in gaming laptops, the 200H and 200U chips should start shipping in thin-and-light laptops in the coming weeks.

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This portable security camera has a week of free cloud recording

Image: Xthings

At last year’s CES, we heard from the company behind Ultraloq and U-tec about the $69 Ulticam Dot, a portable security camera that was supposed to launch over the summer. But according to Xthings chief strategy officer Matthew Brown, it delayed the launch until Q1 2025 in part to work on what it considers a “disruptive” feature: giving every Ulticam product seven days of free cloud storage for recordings and offering all features without a premium subscription.

Is that truly disruptive? Well, there aren’t many security camera manufacturers we know of that offer free cloud storage for any meaningful stretch of time, let alone a full week. (Arlo did before removing the option for new customers, and Nest still offers three hours.) Xthings isn’t exactly promising such generosity forever, but Brown says the company is committed to “deliver that experience for as long as we possibly can.” The company is also looking into an optional subscription that would extend cloud storage retention beyond seven days.

Free cloud storage will be available for every Ulticam, starting with the Dot, a battery-powered security camera that leans into its portability. It has a magnetic base that could make it more convenient than other options for travel. While it’s magnetically attached to the base, you can pan and tilt the camera to get the angle just right. You can attach the base to any vertical surface using screws or adhesive for more permanent installation or just set it upright on a flat horizontal surface.

The Dot otherwise follows a proven formula. The weather-resistant 2K camera supports night vision and offers real-time person and motion alerts with configurable detection zones. You can also engage visitors with two-way audio or a siren. It has 8GB of onboard storage for saving clips locally, and it works with Amazon Alexa and Google Home. Xthings says the Dot can last up to nine months in standby mode on four AA batteries (though battery life can vary based on usage).

The brand is also readying high-end wired home security cameras designed to cover your home’s exterior. The previously announced Ulticam IQ ($169 or $199 with 4G LTE connectivity) will come in Q1 2025, while the newly announced Ulticam IQ Floodlight ($199 or $239 with 4G) arrives in Q2. Both start with 2K resolution, but 4K versions will arrive in Q2.

Image: Xthings

The Ulticam IQ has a built-in motion-activated spotlight, while the upgraded model adds two floodlights for better illumination and color night vision. Both IQ cameras also have AI-powered motion detection of vehicles and specific faces with four configurable zones, all processed on-device. Like the Dot, they’ll come with seven-day cloud storage and 8GB of onboard storage, but you can expand that with an SD card up to 128GB.

Additional reporting by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

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jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

On 6 January

Crowd spurs that wild thread,
Voices rise, reason falters,
Chaos masks the truth.

This outdoor security cam adds a second camera that moves and zooms

The HybridCam Duo security camera system. | Image: Tapo

Home security cameras are usually good at getting a wide shot of your yard and whatever’s passing through it — but a new camera can help you get a close-up on your visitors, too.

Tapo’s new HybridCam Duo camera sticks two cameras together: a more traditional security camera with a wide-angle lens, plus a second camera that can pan, tilt, and zoom in to capture details.

Image: Tapo

The HybridCam Duo and the “Dual-Lens 4K Solar” kit.

Both cameras capture 4K footage that gets stored locally and processed using an on-device AI system for person, vehicle, and pet detection. The cameras are battery-powered, and they can be paired with a solar panel to keep them running indefinitely, so long as you’ve got the weather for it.

Tapo didn’t share many details beyond that, so pricing and availability are still TBD.

Other companies offer pan-and-tilt cameras with zoom lenses for tracking movement and capturing detail. Other companies also offer dual-lens security cameras to put zoom and wide-angle capture into a single unit. But companies don’t usually stick two cameras together quite as literally as Tapo has done here.

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7 John Cena Retirement Tour Moments Fans Hope End His Story

Shawn Michaels had Bret Hart. Stone Cold had The Rock. John Cena had… the fans. Well, he has them for one more year.

Read more...

Tapo’s palm-scanning door lock promises a full year of battery life

The PalmKey door lock from Tapo has a fingerprint reader and a camera for scanning your palm. | Image: Tapo

Tapo is the latest brand trying to let you open your front door with just a wave of your palm. The company announced the PalmKey smart door lock today, which lets you enter the house with a PIN, a fingerprint, or a palm scan.

The palm scanner requires your hand to be roughly four to 10 inches away from the reader, and according to Tapo, it’ll work if your hand is wet or dirty or if you have worn-down fingerprints. The system allegedly uses AI to assess the vein patterns within your palm.

Image: Tapo

The PalmKey lock’s indoor and outdoor units.

Tapo’s lock has a removable, rechargeable 10,000mAh battery that’s supposed to last a full year on a charge, which should make upkeep fairly low-effort. There’s also support for a physical key backup, according to the press release, though Tapo didn’t detail where that sits on the unit. It also works with Alexa, SmartThings, and Google Home.

Details are limited beyond that — Tapo didn’t share pricing or a release date.

Palm scanning is one of the newer trends we’re seeing in smart locks. Philips already has a palm-scanning model on sale, and Eufy announced a model in December. What this Tapo model misses out on is some of the truly hands-free tech that’s likely to start hitting the market this year. Those locks will rely on ultra wideband in your smartphone to automatically open the door when they sense you’re approaching, no need to raise your hand at all.

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How Jan. 6 will be different this year. And, who took home a Golden Globe award

Today, four years since the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, President-elect Donald Trump's victory is scheduled to be certified by Congress. And, the big wins and surprises at the 82nd Golden Globes.

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Apple, Google, and Samsung will accept Matter certification of smart home products

Illustration: The Verge

Buying a smart home product today means checking which ecosystems it works with by looking for the little “Works with Apple Home” or “Works with Google” badge on the package. Matter was supposed to get rid of those because if a product works with Matter, it should work with all the big smart home platforms. That hasn’t happened yet, and now we have one more badge to look for: the Matter badge.

Getting all those badges is about to get simpler for manufacturers, though. The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), which runs Matter, announced today that Apple, Google, and Samsung will all accept its certification for their “Works With” programs:

The Alliance is excited to share that Apple has begun accepting Alliance Interop Lab test results for Matter devices for Works With Apple Home, and that Google and Samsung will be doing the same for their respective Works With Google Home, and Works With SmartThings certifications later this year, underscoring the credibility and reliability of the Alliance’s testing programs.

This means device makers won’t have to put their gadgets through a separate testing program for each platform to wear its “Works With” badge. If they get certified as a Matter Device by the CSA, they can show their results to the other ecosystems and get those badges, too, without doing any more testing. This makes it much easier for device makers and gets us one step closer to just one badge to rule them all. (Notably, Amazon has not announced participation for Works with Alexa.)

The CSA also announced a new FastTrack Recertification Program and a Portfolio Certification Program that lets companies certify multiple products more efficiently. A complaint I’ve heard frequently from smart home companies is that getting devices certified and recertified by Matter when they make a change or an update is a laborious and expensive process that slows down their development work. The CSA says these two new programs simplify both processes and make them less costly and complicated.

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TiVo-powered TVs are coming to the US

Image: TiVo

More than a year after launching its smart TV platform in Europe, TiVo is now bringing it to the US. The company’s putting its TiVo OS platform inside a new Sharp TV arriving as soon as February, rivaling the likes of Roku, Google TV, and Amazon’s Fire TV.

TiVo first announced TiVo OS in 2022, but the platform didn’t actually launch until last year. The company bills its operating system as a “neutral” platform, allowing TV manufacturers to put their own spin on the viewing experience. It says TiVo OS supports “a wide range” of streaming services and comes with a recommendation system that serves up “personalized suggestions.” TiVo OS also offers voice controls for select TVs, but it doesn’t say whether this Sharp one is included.

The TiVo-equipped Sharp TV seems pretty standard: it comes with a 55-inch 4K QLED panel, along with three HDMI ports and Dolby Atmos. There’s still no word on how much it will cost or if TiVo plans on bringing its operating system to other TV brands. Over in Europe, TiVo OS comes packaged in TVs from several different companies, including Sharp, Panasonic, Daewoo, and others.

Still, TiVo is up against some tough competition in the smart TV platform business. Roku-powered TVs remain one of the most popular choices in the US, while a wide selection of brands already use Amazon and Google’s OS. It will likely have to be priced competitively if it wants to stand out in the sea of smart TVs.

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The ElliQ companion robot can now send health updates to a caregiver

Image: Intuition Robotics

Intuition Robotics introduced the ElliQ Caregiver Solution on Monday, an AI-powered system that includes the ElliQ companion robot and a new Caregiver app to help caregivers monitor the health of homebound seniors.

Originally, the bobblehead-esque animatronic was mainly a friendly looking Amazon Alexa-like voice assistant designed to offer companionship to seniors living alone. Unlike Alexa, though, the ElliQ is proactive, prompting seniors to talk to it and have conversations, while also offering entertainment, health and wellness support, and more. The company also offered a Connect app that let caregivers keep in touch via video calls but not much else.

But with the debut of the ElliQ Caregiver Solution at CES, the companion robot is now a much more helpful care assistant. For example, if the robot detects an elderly parent hasn’t slept well or is feeling sick, ElliQ will send alerts to the caregiver. It can also send updates about any significant behavioral or health changes. This way, caregivers can monitor their loved ones’ health and activity in a way that doesn’t feel as intrusive as a camera or sensor.

Caregivers can set personalized care goals that ElliQ will promote at home and receive other “proactive updates powered by AI-driven insights.” Basically, it’s like having a “friend” keeping you up to date about your loved one — without requiring you to physically check in.

The ElliQ Caregiver Solution is now available to purchase. Its price is comprised of a one-time enrollment fee of $249.99 and a subscription that costs $59.99 per month. For now, the Caregiver app will be available at no additional cost. Later this year, Intuition Robotics will charge new users an extra $9.99 per month for the Caregiver Solution.

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Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):

thezoq2 ("TheZoq2") wrote:

On March 30, we're hosting LATTE ☕ - A Workshop on Languages, Tools, and Techniques for Accelerator Design at ASPLOS

If you're working with languages and/or accelerators, you should absolutely submit a paper! The focus of the workshop is discussion, so papers on work in progress ideas and projects, or papers that identify gaps that need to be solved are highly encouraged!

Papers are 2 pages and the deadline for submission is on January 31

More info at https://capra.cs.cornell.edu/latte25/

Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):

HeliosPi@kolektiva.social wrote:

Jan 17th - 21st events:

Friday, Jan. 17th:
~11am Produce Porch (Every Tuesday ~1pm & Friday ~11am) at 1616 SE 32nd Pl, just south of Hawthorne. Food is dropped off on the curbside then people can collect items. first come, first serve.

1 - 4pm Really Really Free Market every Friday in Kenton! https://linktr.ee/pflpdx

3 - 5pm Community Free Store PDX SE, serving our neighbors every Friday at Lents with free food, harm reduction, and fun things.

7:30pm Trans & Queer fight training every Friday night at Unicorn Jiu jitsu (Stark & 92nd)

Saturday, Jan 18th:
9am Digital Security Fundamentals Training for Anti-Fascists, Info/enrollment: bit.ly/digisecworkshop

9 - 11:30am Community Garden work party Location: Southminster Presbyterian Church https://www.thprd.org/events/volunteer/community-garden-work-party-at-southminster-presbyterian-church-grupo-de-trabajo-en-huertas-comunitarias-en-southminster-presbyterian-church/01-18-2025

9am - 12pm Volunteer Land Tending, Friends of Tryon Creek, 11321 South Terwilliger Boulevard, https://friendsoftryoncreek.volunteerlocal.com/volunteer/?id=77678

10 - 11am Guided Hike, free nature hike to explore Tryon Creek’s forest and learn about the plants and animals that call this natural area home. meet in front of the Nature Center.

10am - 12pm The People’s March at Portland City Hall is about one thing: our power. WE WILL UNITE IN A FEMINIST-LED DAY OF ACTION. https://action.womensmarch.com/events/people-s-march-portland-or

1pm The MAST (Mutual Aid Social Therapy) Online Group meets on the 1st and 3rd Saturday every month at 1pm https://www.instagram.com/mutual_aid_social_therapy/?g=5

1 - 2:30pm grieve against the machine, a virtual grief space for anti capitalists (every Tuesday 7-8:30pm and Saturday 1-2:30pm), where: google meet, who: pdx queer death collective contact@pdxqdc.com, register: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf_mTWchUjnYTRI8ifYpoAhuzeu6PeJv3WDqoo40ISg6CjQ6Q/viewform

1 - 5pm The People's Inauguration Day Forum, A community forum on local grassroots campaigns. Via Letters 4 Palestine PDX. Location TBA.

4:30 - 6pm Food Not Bombs food giveaway and potluck at Buckman Elementary School, in the south playground, or if its raining in the basketball court.

5pm, Festivals of Resistance - A Gathering Before Inauguration Day, at Always Here Bookstore, 4555 N Williams Ave, Portland, OR 97217, USA https://withfriends.co/event/22422575/festivals_of_resistance_a_gathering_before_inauguration_day

Sunday, Jan 19th:
8:15 - 10am Winter Bird Walk, Join Park Ranger Rhett on Sunday mornings for a meandering walk through the park to observe and identify the birds that call Tryon Creek State Natural Area their home.

1 - 2:30pm grieve & chill - a virtual reflection space for grieving stoners, hosted by pdx queer death collective contact@pdxqdc.com , event address: google meet, register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSexHY3F1cagDUrd2ZbJNJ4-RSbxmMdiN3i-t3ICJwyzBdJIMQ/viewform

1 - 4pm Sunday Free Store at S Woods & S Corbett, building a sustainable community of care.

2pm, We Fight Back, at Revolution Hall, by Party for Socialism and Liberation

Monday, Jan 20th:
9 - 11:30am Restore the natural areas of Hyland Woods https://www.thprd.org/events/volunteer/restore-the-natural-areas-of-hyland-woods-restauracin-de-reas-naturales-en-hyland-woods/01-20-2025

1pm, THE ANNUAL MARCH FOR RECLAIM REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY !! 700 N Rosa Parks Way, more info at DontshootPDX.org

Tuesday, Jan 21st:
5pm The People's Inauguration Rally! Mobilize! Location TBA.

#Portland #PDX

Attachments:

• Flyer with event details, titled "PDX Resistance". See post for events. Background is of trees, butterflies, and silhouettes of people sitting in a circle. (remote)

Getting Sober-curious: why your friends (and maybe you) are going dry.

According to Pew – 79% of New Year's resolutions are about one thing: health. It's Been a Minute is kicking off 2025 with a little series called "new year, new me." We're getting into some of the big questions and cultural confusion around our health and wellness. This week – many Americans are starting out the year by cutting out alcohol and going "dry." But overall, alcohol is getting less popular in general: according to Gallup, the amount of Americans that drink is down to 58% – the lowest number since 1996. And 41% of Americans who do drink say they want to drink less. Is alcohol on its way out? And what would it mean to live in a more sober culture? Brittany Luse is joined by writer and journalist Ana Marie Cox to get into how people are disentangling alcohol from their lives, and the lessons she's learned as a recovering alcoholic.Interested in trying out dry January? Our friends at NPR's Life Kit have a newsletter just for the sober-curious. Sign up here.Support public media and receive ad-free listening & bonus content by joining NPR+ today.

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Biden bans new offshore oil and gas drilling in most federal waters

President Joe Biden is moving to ban new offshore oil and gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters, an effort to block possible action by the incoming Trump administration to expand offshore drilling.

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Pictures of Odesa, as it tangles with a complex web of Russian and Ukrainian heritage

Photographer Michael Robinson Chávez visits a city in Ukraine that was partly famous as a site for Russian travelers and intellectuals, but since 2022 has come under Russian attack.

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LG and Samsung are adding Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant to their TVs

The Verge

LG and Samsung have both announced their 2025 smart TVs at CES this weekend, and some of them will include access to Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant. Both TV manufacturers are chasing the artificial intelligence hype train with dedicated AI sections on their smart TVs that include a shortcut to a Copilot web app.

LG is adding an entire AI section to its TVs and rebranding its remote to “AI Remote,” in an effort to sell consumers on the promise of large language models. While it’s not clear exactly how Copilot works on LG’s latest TVs, the company describes access to Copilot as a way to allow users to “efficiently find and organize complex information using contextual cues.”

LG hasn’t demonstrated its Copilot integration just yet, but it has shown off its own AI Chatbot that’s part of its TVs. It appears Copilot will be surfaced when LG TV users want to search for more information on a particular subject.

Image: Samsung

Samsung is showing off its AI Vision features at CES this week.

Samsung also has its own Vision AI brand for its AI-powered TV features this year, which include AI upscaling, Auto HDR Remastering, and Adaptive Sound Pro. There’s also a new AI button on the remote to access AI features like recognizing food on a screen or AI home security features that analyze video feeds from smart cameras.

Microsoft’s Copilot will be part of this Vision AI section. “In collaboration with Microsoft, Samsung announced the new Smart TVs and Smart Monitors featuring Microsoft Copilot,” says Samsung in a press release. “This partnership will enable users to explore a wide range of Copilot services, including personalized content recommendations.”

I asked Samsung for more information or images of Copilot in action, but the company doesn’t have anything more to share right now. I’ve also asked LG and Microsoft for more information about Copilot on TVs and neither company has responded in time for publication. Without any indication of exactly how Copilot works on these TVs, I’m going to chalk this one up as a gimmicky feature that LG, Samsung, and Microsoft clearly aren’t ready to demo yet.

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Snowstorms close schools and offices across a large swath of the U.S.

Several governors have issued states of emergency as 6 to 12 inches of snow are expected from Ohio to Washington, D.C.

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Jan. 6 is set to be different this year — in a big way and more subtle ways too

In response to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot four years ago, Congress passed new rules to govern the presidential certification process. Those rules will be in effect Monday.

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Dr. Rachel Levine focused on her job at HHS. Still, anti-trans politics followed her

Dr. Rachel Levine is the highest ranking, out transgender person ever to serve in the federal government. Her tenure at HHS ran concurrent with an explosion in state legislation targeting transgender people.

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Is this Bitcoin's golden moment? These are 3 key things to watch for cryptos in 2025

Could 2025 be another game changing year for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies? Here are the three things to watch in the new year.

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Finally, a real contender for Apple’s pricey Thunderbolt 4 cable is here

OWC has released two new super-long active optical USB4 cables, available in lengths of nearly 10 feet (3 meters) and 15 feet (4.5 meters) and offering up to 40Gbps of data throughput. According to OWC’s press materials, they’ll set you back $98.99 and $129.99, respectively, though its website currently lists them for slightly less. That’s a bargain, compared to what Apple is charging.

Data throughput aside, OWC says you can also expect the 3m option to provide up to 240W of power, while the 4.5m cable manages 60W. The cables are covered with braided nylon, too, which hopefully means they’re nice and flexible. And although they aren’t Thunderbolt 4 cables, they’ll work the way you’d expect with other Thunderbolt 3- or- 4-capable devices, including docks and hubs.

Image: OWC

Intel generally guarantees Thunderbolt 4 performance at up to 2 meters over traditional copper cables. Those cables need special tech inside to keep throughput up over longer runs, which is likely part of why Apple’s 3-meter 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 cable costs $159.

You can find some USB4 cables as long as OWC’s for much less than that, but the longer ones don’t tend to offer the same high throughput, which OWC credits to the electromagnetic interference immunity of fiber-optics.

OWC’s cables are a bit of a throwback to Thunderbolt’s roots as Light Peak, which was initially codeveloped by Intel and Apple as a fiber optic cable standard that made its way to a Sony laptop just as the companies decided to go with copper, instead. Optical, data-only Thunderbolt lives on at companies like Corning, which has you covered if you need a $480 164-foot (50 meters) 5K optical display cable in your life.

Cables aside, OWC also recently announced a $189.99 Thunderbolt 5 hub, which went up for preorder in November and is available now. It’s got four Thunderbolt 5 ports and a single USB-A port and supports three simultaneous 8K displays at 60Hz.

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jwz wrote:

Dude is fucking Mr. Bean with a Delorean who catastrophically botched the Biff Tannen gambit. "Did I do that?"

jwz wrote:

The best thing (the only good thing) about OpenAI is that literally every photo of Sam Douchebag looks like a record-scratch freeze-frame from an 80s movie where the voiceover says "I'll bet you're wondering how I ended up here..."

Reblogged by jwz:

heidilifeldman ("Heidi Li Feldman") wrote:

“Jeff Bezos’s Washington Post spiking a cartoon that portrayed Jeff Bezos harshly is not an example of Jeff Bezos obeying Donald Trump in advance. It is an example of Jeff Bezos’s malign rule over the Post. Bezos is the autocrat in this scenario, not the supplicant.” https://www.findinggravity.net/p/no-jeff-bezos-is-not-obeying-in-advance

Reblogged by jwz:

igb@mastodon.hccp.org ("Ian Brown :verified:") wrote:

The antidote to capitalism is de-capitalism.

Attachments:

• world louis GIF (remote)

jwz wrote:

Hey, pro tip to my Olds, if Black Flag is coming to your town go see them because they fucking KILL. That is all. https://www.dnalounge.com/calendar/2025/01-05.html

L’Oréal claims its new skincare gadget can tell which ingredients work best for you

Here’s to figuring out whether using retinol is actually worth it for you. | Image: L’Oréal

L’Oréal is hoping its latest beauty gadget can demystify skincare. At CES 2025, the company announced Cell BioPrint, a device that’s designed to analyze your skin and give personalized advice on how to slow down signs of aging.

The device is the result of a partnership with NanoEntek — a Korean startup that specializes in chips that can read biofluids. A person essentially takes a facial tape strip, sticks it on their cheek, and then puts the strip in a buffer solution. That solution is then inserted into a cartridge for the Cell BioPrint to analyze. Once that sample is processed, the device takes images of your face as you answer a few short questions about skin concerns and aging.

From there, L’Oreal says it uses proteomics, or the analysis of protein structure and function from a biological sample. In this case, the Cell BioPrint is designed to determine how well your skin is aging. It’ll then give personalized advice on how to improve your skin’s appearance, as well as predictions of how responsive your skin may be to certain skincare ingredients.

It’s an attractive claim, but as with most beauty tech, it’s difficult to properly evaluate L’Oréal’s methods without peer-reviewed studies or experts weighing in. L’Oréal also claims the device can help predict future cosmetic issues before they manifest. For example, it may be able to determine if your skin is prone to hyperpigmentation or enlarged pores.

Image: L’Oréal

The Cell BioPrint analyzes your skin’s proteins to see how well you’re aging.

Skincare became massively popular during covid-19 lockdowns, sparking a shift in beauty trends toward self-care and the rise of “skinfluencers.” On the flip side, that virality has since turned skincare buying into an extreme sport. Hop onto TikTok, and you’ll find dozens of skinfluencers egging you into dropping $80 on a vial of vitamin C serum, debating the moisturizing properties of glycerin versus hyaluronic acid, or wagging a finger about this or that retinol cream. (Some, may even convince you to buy a wand that zaps your face to increase the efficacy of said ingredients.) It’s confusing, expensive, and maddeningly, what works for one person may not for another. The most the average consumer can do is cross their fingers and hope that the latest potion they bought will actually work.

The Cell BioPrint’s appeal is it claims to use science to cut through that noise. Maybe every skinfluencer says you need to start using retinol when you turn 30, but this device will purportedly tell you based on your own biology whether retinol will actually work for you. Personalization has always been a major theme with CES beauty tech, but it’s particularly compelling with skincare, which is highly dependent on your individual biology. But again, right now there’s no way to know how reliable the Cell BioPrint’s science and recommendations are.

L’Oréal says the Cell BioPrint will be easy to use, with the process taking only five minutes. It also says people will be able to repeat tests, enabling them to monitor changes and progress over time. That said, it might be a while before something like Cell BioPrint is available for consumers. L’Oréal says the device will first be piloted in Asia later this year but otherwise didn’t have a concrete launch timeline or price.

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Indonesia launches free meals program to fight stunting

Indonesia's new government started an ambitious project to feed nearly 90 million children and pregnant women to fight malnutrition and stunting, as critics question whether the program is affordable.

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Reblogged by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):

CatharticOutlet@ohai.social ("Cathy Outlet") wrote:

Forgot to post the outcome of my Christmas/New Year’s #linocut card project.

I make them every year - this year’s motif was a #snake as it’s the year of the snake!

#yearofthesnake2025 #handmade

Attachments:

• Photo of a hand holding an A5 card with a maroon snake print on it. The snake is seen from the side, it has a halo and is framed by rococo and Christmas-like decorations. A single scale and its iris are colored in shiny, gold metallic ink. (remote)

Samsung goes big on anti-glare screens and AI with 2025 TV lineup

With its new lineup of TVs, Samsung is making a decision that I think might prove somewhat divisive. The company is bringing the matte, glare-free display technology that debuted on last year’s S95D OLED to several more models — including its flagship Mini LED sets. Here at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, Samsung is showcasing all of its latest TVs at its annual First Look event.

The new S95F QD-OLED gets blazingly bright, likely using a just-announced Samsung Display panel that’s technically capable of reaching 4,000 nits. According to the company, the glare-free coating has been improved to further cut down on reflections from overhead lighting, floor lamps, and sunlight. And similar to LG’s top-tier 2025 OLEDs announced earlier today, the S95F is capable of hitting a maximum refresh rate of 165Hz. PC gamers, rejoice.

Even Samsung’s First Look show floor, with bright lights everywhere, poses no issue for the glare-free screen.

It’s really quite impressive. And now Samsung is bringing it to more models. But not everyone likes the perceived tradeoffs.

If you’re wondering what’s so controversial about Samsung’s glare-free screen, some people insist it results in a worse overall picture than glossy coatings and that the perfect blacks of OLED aren’t so inky black in all lighting conditions anymore. This issue has been debated at length on Reddit, in YouTube videos (hey, Caleb), and all over AVS Forum.

But clearly Samsung remains undeterred by the haters because now the glare-free display is also coming to the company’s Mini LED “Neo QLED” TVs for the first time. That includes the flagship 4K QN90F and both of this year’s 8K models. (Buying an 8K TV is very silly; I still very much recommend against doing that.) Samsung’s other 2025 4K TVs will stick with a glossy treatment, so at least there are options if you refuse to go glare-free.

These latest Mini LED TVs are also available in some truly enormous sizes: the QN90F tops out at 115 inches, while the (glossy) QN80F can be had at up to 100 inches. Samsung says the wonderfully named “Supersize Picture Enhancer” will help keep 4K content looking crisp even on that giant QN90F. You still won’t find Dolby Vision on any of these TVs no matter the size; clearly, that’s a philosophical choice at this point.

The company’s 115-inch 4K Neo QLED TV uses a “Supersize Picture Enhancer” to boost clarity at this enormous size.

Vision AI

For 2025, Samsung is pulling all of its AI-powered TV features under new branding called Vision AI. These include the usual suspects like AI Upscaling, Auto HDR Remastering, and Adaptive Sound Pro. But there’s a new Click to Search feature that can identify actors on-screen, the location of a shot, or what clothes are featured in a scene “with just one click of the new AI button on your SolarCell remote.” Yes, there’s now a dedicated AI remote button.

Another new AI trick is Samsung Food, which “recognizes the food on your screen and provides recipes for bringing it to life.” I’m mildly curious about this and can’t wait to see how accurate or off the mark it is. Live Translate is a much more helpful addition: it can “instantly translate closed captions on live broadcasts in up to seven languages.”

The company is also using AI to provide more robust home security features. From tonight’s press release:

Samsung AI Home Security transforms your TV into a smart security hub. It analyzes video feeds from your connected cameras and audio from your TV’s microphone to provide comprehensive home monitoring.

It can detect unusual sounds and movements, such as falls or break-ins, to give you more peace of mind whether you’re at home, or away.

You’ll receive alerts and notifications on your phone or directly on your TV screen, helping you stay connected to your home while ensuring the safety and well-being of your loved ones.

Samsung is even leveling up Bixby, which isn’t something we’ve said in a long time. The company’s voice assistant can now “better understand context and assist with multiple actions — like changing the channel and raising the volume at the same time.” You can also now control your Samsung TV with the Galaxy Watch on your wrist. That’s got absolutely nothing to do with AI, but it might be convenient at times.

As for its lifestyle TVs, Samsung is announcing The Frame Pro, which you can read all about here. Pricing for all of these 2025 TVs will be announced over the next few months, and they’ll begin to ship this spring.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

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Samsung announces The Frame Pro: could this be the perfect TV?

The company created a sensation by making TVs that look more like art and less like tech. With The Frame Pro, Samsung is trying to deliver the best of both worlds.

Samsung’s The Frame has been enormously popular ever since its release. There’s no shortage of imitators at this point, with other manufacturers trying their hand at creating a TV that seamlessly blends in with home decor and can also convincingly look like wall art when idle. But none have captured lightning in a bottle quite like Samsung.

And in 2025, Samsung is looking to fend off copycats by introducing The Frame Pro. With the artwork side of things well handled, now the company is aiming to make The Frame Pro a good TV for everything else. The Frame has nailed the aesthetics and style from the start. People buy it for the vibe more than anything else. But as a TV, it’s always just been, well... fine. There wasn’t much wow factor in terms of brightness or the overall picture quality that came with the nice design. That might be changing now.

There are two main upgrades that put the “pro” in The Frame Pro. First, Samsung is moving to Mini LED, which the company says will give The Frame Pro a boost in contrast, brightness, and black levels. The regular Frame, which isn’t going anywhere, has never offered any local dimming to speak of.

But there’s an important caveat: this isn’t Mini LED in the regular sense. Normally, Mini LED TVs contain a ton of small dimming zones behind the screen. This lets them be way more precise in lighting up only the sections of the display that need it while preserving black levels and shadow detail elsewhere. The Frame Pro doesn’t do that.

The Frame Pro uses Mini LEDs, but they’re at the bottom of the panel — not behind it.

Instead, Samsung is placing Mini LEDs along the bottom of the screen, while claiming that this approach still produces some level of local dimming. To me, it all still very much sounds like an edge-lit TV. But I’ll give this “Mini LED” tech a fair chance whenever I get one in for review.

Samsung is also boosting The Frame Pro’s maximum refresh rate from 120Hzto 144Hz, so PC gamers can get even smoother visuals than before. But if you were hoping “pro” might finally mean Dolby Vision support, that’s still a no.

The Frame has always been something of a compromise; maybe you’ve got a significant other who refuses to allow a dull black rectangle into the living room. So you, being the good and considerate person you are, ultimately agree to “settle” on The Frame. After first hearing about The Frame Pro, I was hopeful that it would be much less of a compromise.

But this asterisk around Mini LED has me a little less excited. Like recent models, The Frame Pro’s display has a matte finish to give your preferred art a more authentic appearance and mask the reality that you’re looking at a screen. But matte screens can sometimes lessen a display’s punch, so genuine Mini LED backlighting could’ve helped quite a bit in that regard.

There’s no more wire running from Samsung’s breakout box to the actual TV.

You plug your game consoles, streaming boxes, and other devices into the Wireless One Connect Box.

The second major improvement is that The Frame Pro no longer has a thin wire running between it and Samsung’s breakout box that houses all the HDMI inputs and the TV’s other brains: that connection has gone fully wireless. This will result in an even cleaner look with less cable clutter. And the Wireless One Connect Box, which supports up to Wi-Fi 7, eliminates yet another telltale sign that The Frame Pro is a television. Now, all you’ve got to worry about concealing is the display’s power cord. Samsung says the wireless connection between the box and TV works at distances of up to 10 meters, “even with obstacles in its path.”

The Wireless One Connect Box can be placed up to 10 meters away.

The Frame Pro is also getting the same litany of AI-powered features as Samsung’s other 2025 TVs. AI is such a focus this year that there’s a dedicated button on the remote for activating Click to Search, which can show you “who the actors are in a given scene, where that scene is taking place, or even the clothing the characters are wearing,” according to Samsung’s press release.

A new Samsung Food feature can recognize dishes onscreen and provide you with the recipes to make them — or something in the same ballpark, at least. Beyond that, the company is dialing up its AI-enhanced picture and sound optimizations, and AI is also reaching into accessibility features like Live Translate, which can “instantly translate closed captions on live broadcasts in up to seven languages.” That’s very neat.

The critical question is one I can’t answer yet: how much will this thing cost? How much more expensive will The Frame Pro be compared to the regular model? Samsung won’t be sharing pricing details until closer to the spring when it ships. If the company gets cocky and goes too high, that could ruin a lot of the appeal here. But if you already know that some version of The Frame is in your future, you’re probably very happy that The Frame Pro now exists.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

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A 55-year-old who ran a marathon every day in 2024 says the toughest part was mental

World-record chaser Hilde Dosogne is used to running extreme distances. Still, she says she underestimated the challenge. She's now hoping to make it official with a Guinness World Record.

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There’s a better way to type on TVs, and it’s based on old-school phones

When this is all you have to type with, you need new keyboard ideas. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Typing on a TV sucks. Those long and / or scrambled on-screen keyboards are both a nuisance to use, and a real problem for anyone wanting to make stuff for your TV.

At CES 2025, I was just introduced to a better way. It’s made by a company called Direction9, which has been working on the system for about a year, and it starts with a very old way of typing: T9. T9 was created by necessity, back in the days when cellphones’ only buttons were the number keys. (Here’s a demo for the uninitiated.) TVs are similarly constrained by their directional pad — on most set-top boxes and smart TVs there’s no other way to type.

The Direction9 system works like this: all the letters are arrayed in a three-by-three number grid, with multiple letters assigned to each number, just like T9. When you open the keyboard, your cursor defaults to the middle, and you click around to the letter you’re looking for. Every time you click the middle button to select a letter, the cursor jumps back to the center, which means you’re always only a click or two from the letter you’re looking for.

You can use the keyboard a “smart” mode, which tries to predict which word you’re looking for — click...

Read the full story at The Verge.

Ugreen’s new desk charger can power five laptops at once

The Nexode Desktop Charger 500W can deliver up to 240W of power through a single USB-C port. | Image: Ugreen

Ugreen has announced a new version of its Nexode desktop GaN charger, boosting the total power output from 300W to 500W, with up to 240W from a single USB-C port. It features five USB-C ports and a single USB-A port, so you can charge five laptops at the same time without the need for a power strip overstuffed with chonky adapters.

Pricing for the Nexode Desktop Charger 500W won’t be finalized until it’s available sometime in March 2025.

Image: Ugreen

All six of the desktop charger’s USB ports can be used simultaneously.

Although it would definitely help simplify your travel charging kit, the Nexode Desktop Charger 500W is a hefty brick designed to sit on your desk, in your workshop, or on a kitchen counter. It’s useful anywhere you have multiple power-hungry devices like laptops or handheld gaming devices, and Ugreen says it can even be used to charge power tools or e-bikes.

The charger supports USB-PD 3.1 and Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 fast-charging protocols. The top port can deliver up to 240W of power; the other five ports share 260W regardless of what the top port is doing, and none of them can exceed 100W. You can charge a gaming laptop at 240W, plus two more laptops at 100W and one at 60W, or one laptop at 240W and four laptops at 60W, with another device charging at 20W from the USB-A port.

Without a screen, this might be another multi-port charger in need of a cheat sheet to keep track of which port to use.

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Withings’ concept mirror scans your health and then talks to you about it

Mirror, mirror at CES, what’s my resting heart rate trend? | Image: Withings

Withings is back at CES with another futuristic health tech concept called Omnia. It’s a smart mirror that can measure and display your health metrics, offer feedback from an AI voice assistant, and then potentially set you up for a telehealth consultation with a doctor.

In a nutshell, Omnia has a base that can measure weight, heart health, and metabolic health. It can also pull in data collected from other trackers like smartwatches, blood pressure monitors, or even a smart bed. Withings says the built-in AI voice assistant will offer real-time feedback and could potentially give motivational pep talks or guidance. In addition to virtual consultations, the company says the mirror could also send data to doctors for review.

Image: Withings

The interesting thing about Omnia is it cobbles together a bunch of health tech trends into a single device.

The most interesting thing about the Omnia concept is how it rolls up a bunch of existing health tech trends into a single package. Connected smart mirrors capable of displaying information, making video calls, and playing sound are not new — all of those components existed in Lululemon’s ill-fated Mirror and other copycats. Likewise, smart scales that can measure heart rate, take EKGs, and discern body composition have been around for ages. Meanwhile, AI chatbots embedded in existing health tech was an emerging trend in 2024 — and something well-known players like Oura, Whoop, and Fitbit are tinkering around with.

More cynically, you could see this as an ecosystem play — a proof of concept for what a single person could do if they went all in on Withings’ myriad gadgets. After all, Withings makes plenty of smartwatches, smart scales, connected blood pressure cuffs, smart thermometers, and even a noninvasive sleep tracker that you stick under a mattress. It’s shown up at CES in the past with an at-home urinalysis gadget that you stick in your toilet and scales that can analyze nerve health from your foot. It’s also incorporated elements of telemedicine in past launches. Its original FDA-cleared ScanWatch had cardiologists review EKG results.

Omnia isn’t an actual product for sale yet. Withings says it’s “currently in development,” with no concrete timeline for when it’ll actually be available or for how much. Given the company’s track record with bringing CES launches to market, there’s a good chance it’ll be a lengthy wait before Omnia reaches consumers — if it ever does.

Withings will give demos at CES 2025, which may help gauge whether Omnia is the real deal or more CES health tech vaporware. But even if Omnia never amounts to anything beyond a concept, it’s an indication of where health tech is marching.

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These smart glasses have a tiny little screen hidden in the frame

Image: Halliday

Halliday Glasses have boarded the smart spectacles hype train, featuring “proactive” AI assistance and a near-eye display that shows information directly in the user’s field of view. Wearable technology startup Halliday says its flagship eyewear will be available sometime after CES. Shipping is expected to start “by the end of Q1 2025,” and pricing will be set somewhere between $399 and $499 — pricier than display-free competitors like the $299 Meta Ray-Bans and Solos AirGo Vision.

Halliday says the “DigiWindow” located in the upper right of the frame is the world’s smallest and lightest near-eye display module and can display information to the wearer “regardless of whether they have perfect eyesight or require vision correction.” The display appears as a 3.5-inch screen in the upper-right corner of the user’s view with minimal obstruction, according to Halliday, and remains visible in bright sunlight.

Image: Halliday

The near-eye display is located in the upper-right frame. Checking messages or notes might look a little odd to other people if you need to keep glancing up.

The glasses’ built-in display works alongside an AI assistant that can anticipate what users need by analyzing conversations, answering questions, and providing additional insights without requiring a prompt. “For instance, during a meeting, it can proactively answer complex questions, summarize key discussion points, and generate summarized meeting notes afterward,” Halliday said in its announcement.

The AI features require the glasses to be connected to a smartphone via Bluetooth, according to Halliday, but the company hasn’t mentioned what AI model it uses or if there are additional costs involved. Features include real-time AI translation in up to 40 languages, live navigation for directions, voice-to-text notes transcription, and the display of synchronized lyrics when listening to music. Users can also discreetly view and reply to messages, create audio memos, and display notes like a teleprompter.

The near-eye display is supported on both prescription lenses and if no lens is used at all. The displayed information isn’t visible to other people and can be controlled using either voice commands, frame interface controls, or a ring that features a built-in trackpad.

Image: Halliday

The Halliday Glasses are available in either black or tortoiseshell.

Image: Halliday

Information about the trackpad ring is limited, but it seems like a neat way to control the display features without messing with the actual glasses.

Halliday says the glasses weigh 35 grams (about 1.2 ounces), provide up to eight hours of battery life, and come in two color options: matte black or tortoiseshell. We’ve asked Halliday for more information about the trackpad ring, such as how / if it’s charged and any potential options for color and sizing.

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SwitchBot is bringing a Rosie the Robot wannabe to CES

SwitchBot’s new multitasking robot combines a robot vacuum with an adaptable platform that can support multiple gadgets. | Image: SwitchBot

SwitchBot, the company behind the ingenious robot finger that presses buttons for you, just debuted the closest thing yet to a real Rosie the Robot.

The SwitchBot Multitasking Household Robot K20 Plus Pro is a version of SwitchBot’s mini robot vacuum that attaches to a new “FusionPlatform” — a circular device on wheels that fits over the robot and connects to various SwitchBot devices.

Once attached via three mechanical claws, the robot pushes the platform around, enabling it to deliver items around your house, act as a security camera using SwitchBot’s pan / tilt cam, purify the air with the SwitchBot Air Purifier, or provide spot cooling with its fan. It can even carry your phone or tablet on a selfie stick, and SwitchBot says the platform will be compatible with third-party devices. The company also plans to add more features, including a mechanical arm.

Image: SwitchBot

The K20 Plus Pro working as an air purifier and pet monitor.

The robot can do all of these tasks autonomously using automations set up in the SwitchBot app — such as “purifying the air upon entry into a room,” or you can control it using the app or with voice commands through Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple’s Siri Shortcuts.

The robot navigates via a map the lidar-equipped device creates, and SwitchBot claims it has “centimeter-level accuracy in avoiding obstacles and navigating tight spaces” and “moves steadily and effortlessly over everyday barriers.”

The SwitchBot K20 Plus Pro will be able to maneuver around your home to deliver items or perform functions — such as the air purifying shown in the video.

The platform has various power ports, including USB-C, so, in theory, you can plug anything into it — although it has a weight limit of just under 18 pounds (8kg). SwitchBot says the FusionPlatform can work with “custom-made attachments, 3D-printed components, and third-party devices with multiple power ports for speakers, car fridges, or even UV sterilization lamps.”

Image: SwitchBot

A breakdown of the FusionPlatform while attached to the K20 Plus Pro robot vacuum.

A teaser image the company released shows a larger robot with the addition of a robotic arm, with an asterisk saying, “Mechanical arm is still under development.” There’s also the option of a combo base station for the K20 Plus Pro, which adds a stick vac, allowing you to summon the robot and do a quick touch-up with the handheld vac. If that mechanical arm ever comes to fruition, maybe the robot can take over this chore for you, too. That would get it a lot closer to its Rosie aspirations.

Image: SwitchBot

SwitchBot released an image that hinted at its plans for the K20 Plus Pro, which includes a mechanical arm.

This modular approach seems smart, and while no pricing has been announced, it should keep costs down. Rather than spending years and lots of money developing a humanoid robot to try and mimic human actions, adding mobility to existing devices feels more achievable.

In use, it will involve more human interaction — you’ll presumably need to remove the air purifier and replace it with the fan when you want to cool off — but it also feels like something people will use in their homes. Without the ability to climb stairs, it’ll be fairly limited in my three-story home, but I’m still looking forward to testing it out.

Image: SwitchBot

The K20 Plus Pro’s modular approach makes it capable of doing several things, including air purifying, cooling, vacuuming and home monitoring — some simultaneously. However, you’ll have to manually install each device when needed.

Switchbot plans to launch the K20 Plus Pro in May or June 2025 in custom bundled kits for all the various functions — bundling the vacuum with a circulating fan to form the K20 Plus Pro Air Flow Kit, or the K20 Plus Pro Combo with the SwitchBot air purifier to make up the K20 Plus Pro Omni Clean Kit, or combining all of the above for the SwitchBot K20 Plus Pro Omni Ultimate Kit.

The S20 mopping robot vacuum gets some upgrades that matter

Image: SwitchBot

The S20 Pro robot vacuum and mop has two new auto-empty base stations: one that can hook into your plumbing to automatically refill the robot and another that uses a refillable water tank.

SwitchBot also announced the SwitchBot S20 Pro this week, which is similarly slated to launch in May or June. The successor to the S10, one of our favorite mopping robot vacuums, the S20 adds an extendable roller mop and side brush to help the robot mop and vacuum in harder-to-reach areas such as corners and along walls. The S20 also has 15,000Pa of suction power, up from 6,500Pa on the S10.

The SwitchBot S10 was one of the first robot vacuum mops to feature plumbing hookups, enabling hands-free draining and refilling of its onboard water tanks via a compact battery-powered water station. (It has a separate auto-empty charging dock). While the S20 is compatible with the water station, which doesn’t need an outlet so it has more versatile placement options, the robot comes with the choice of two all-in-one auto-empty base stations: one with a regular water tank you manually refill or one that can hook into your plumbing. The S20 also works with SwitchBot’s Evaporative Humidifier and can be programmed to automatically refill the humidifier when it’s out of water.

Image: SwitchBot

The S20 Pro features the same self-cleaning roller mop found on the S10, but it can now extend the mop from the robot’s body to better clean edges and corners.

SwitchBot confirmed that the K20 Plus Pro (vacuum portion) and the S20 will support Matter over Wi-Fi, making them compatible with Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Samsung SmartThings, and any other platform that supports robot vacuums in Matter.

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My least favorite smart ring has a shot at redeeming itself

The Circular Ring 2 addresses many of my issues with the previous model. | Image: Circular

I was not at all impressed with the Circular Ring Slim. It wasn’t accurate, it felt like it was made of 3D-printed plastic, syncing took forever, battery life wasn’t great, and honestly, we’d be here all day if I listed everything that went wrong during testing. But for CES 2025, the company behind the ring says it’s here to redeem itself with the $380 Circular Ring 2.

“We had some issues, obviously, with the previous ring,” says Amaury Kosman, cofounder and CEO of Circular. “Mostly electronic, but more than that, we wanted to rebrand the company around two main points. One being accuracy, and the other being a more luxurious, quality-built product.”

That’s immediately apparent looking at the Circular Ring 2’s design and specs. For starters, it’s no longer plastic. The Ring 2 is now made from titanium in four finishes: gold, silver, rose gold, and black. It also sports an upgraded EKG sensor that allows for FDA-cleared atrial fibrillation detection — a first for this category. Beyond that, the new ring has additional photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors for more precise readings. Kosman says the upgraded sensor array translates to much more accurate health tracking compared to the Slim. (It’s a good thing, too; the Slim was sometimes off by 5,000 steps in my testing.)

“We also took into consideration everything we’ve learned from what was told to us [by customers]. The biggest things were connectivity issues, battery life, and at the beginning, the ring wasn’t entirely waterproof. The Slim tried to correct some of that, but obviously we weren’t doing it perfectly,” Kosman says, noting that these issues have also been improved in the new ring.

As mentioned, syncing was an absolute chore with the Slim — so much so, I often just gave up on engaging with the device. Now, Kosman says, the Circular Ring 2 should have no problems with background syncing. He also assures me that battery life has doubled. In performance mode (where all the tracking features are turned on), users ought to get around four days. In a battery-saving mode, the ring gets up to eight days. Also, instead of a tiny, easily lost USB charger, Circular has switched to a charging dock.

Circular’s AI chatbot Kira has also been revamped. Previously, it took 14 days to calibrate, took forever to generate dubious advice, and overall was cumbersome to use. With the Ring 2, Kosman says that it’ll only take about four days to calibrate and the overall experience will be smoother. Recommendations should also be more accurate and complex thanks to improvements to the algorithm and sensors.

Another neat update is that Circular will add digital sizing. Kosman says the company’s website will let customers use their smartphone camera to compare the size of their hand to a card-sized object. From there, Kosman says the company will be able to calculate which size ring a person needs for each finger. Smart ring sizing is a huge pain point for the category, and most companies require customers to order a physical sizing kit before they can actually buy the product.

Image: Circular

This definitely looks nicer than plastic.

On paper, it seems like Circular has taken the laundry list of issues with the Slim and ticked them off one by one. To do that, though, some sacrifices had to be made. One of the Slim’s unique features was a built-in haptic motor that worked as a silent alarm. In the future, Circular had promised that the motor could also alert you to notifications. Unfortunately, Kosman says the haptic motor had to go to accommodate better health sensors.

That said, Kosman isn’t giving up on the idea of haptics in smart rings entirely. The goal is to have two product lines — the Circular Ring 2, a more health-focused ring in line with what’s currently available on the market, and an upcoming revamp to the existing haptics-capable Circular Ring Slim.

The Circular Ring 2 will be priced at $380 and is expected to launch in February or March of 2025. We’ll have to see (and test) for ourselves whether Circular can deliver on all these improvements. It’s certainly a tall order considering that there’s increasing competition in the smart ring space. But if it can, that’d be one hell of a redemption arc.

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This stick tests your hormones using your phone and saliva

The Hormometer is meant to be a one-step at-home test for cortisol and progesterone levels. | Image: Eli Health

If you’re health-conscious, chances are your feed for the past year has been flooded with influencers evangelizing hormone balancing as a hack for easy weight loss, lowering stress levels, and even reversing symptoms of hormonal conditions like polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). So it’s not at all surprising to see Eli Health announce Hormometer, an at-home hormone-testing system that uses your spit and your smartphone’s camera to measure hormone levels.

Like many at-home tests, Hormometer requires you to take a sample of bodily fluid. In this case, it’s saliva. It consists of a thin cartridge that you stick in your mouth for 60 seconds. It looks similar to a pregnancy test, with a window where you can view results. Once collected, the Eli app uses your phone’s camera to assess the test’s results based on criteria like color intensity and sample patterns. Depending on the test and results, Eli Health says the app will then provide personalized trends and recommendations related to stress, sleep, athletic performance, and fertility.

To start, Eli Health says it’s offering two types of hormone tests: cortisol and progesterone. Cortisol is commonly known as the stress hormone and plays a critical role in regulating fight or flight response, blood pressure, blood sugar, metabolism, and sleep cycles. Long-term imbalances, both high and low, are often linked with negative health outcomes including Cushing’s syndrome, unintentional weight gain / loss, fatigue, Type 2 diabetes, and abnormal blood pressure. Meanwhile, progesterone is a reproductive hormone. Abnormal levels can result in irregular periods, fertility problems, and depression.

Image: Eli Health

The tests don’t require you to mail in samples. You can just use your phone to get results.

Eli Health’s tests are a reflection of recent health and wellness trends. Connected at-home testing kits, for example, saw a rise in popularity at the height of the covid-19 pandemic. Though expensive, smart over-the-counter PCR tests like Cue Health became a major part of some tech companies’ return-to-office plans, thanks to their convenience and accuracy.

Similarly, a big part of Hormometer’s appeal is its portability and accessibility. Traditionally, hormone tests have to be sent to a lab and are often taken at a doctor’s office. That can take several days or weeks. They can also be messy if they’re urine-based or invasive if blood-based. The advantage of this type of test is it doesn’t require another party and can turn around results more quickly. As far as cost, Eli Health says Hormometer will come with a subscription plan, starting at $8 monthly with a 12-month commitment. That’s competitive with other at-home hormone tests, which can range from roughly $30 to $250 and require people to mail in samples.

Meanwhile, balancing hormone levels, particularly cortisol, has become a viral wellness trend. Tips to fix “cortisol face,” for example, ran rampant on TikTok throughout 2024. However, experts have decried hormone balancing as both misleading and potentially harmful — hormones can’t truly be balanced, as they’re dynamic and naturally ebb and flow throughout the day. That said, these tests could help people with official diagnoses of chronic hormonal or reproductive health issues monitor their conditions.

A lot of that will depend on accuracy. According to Eli Health, the Hormometer is FDA registered. To be clear, this is different than clearance or approval. It doesn’t mean the FDA has reviewed or cosigned Eli Health’s claims. That said, the company claims that its cortisol and progesterone tests had a 97 percent and 94 percent agreement with gold-standard, FDA-approved lab tests in third-party testing, respectively.

Eli Health says Hormometer will begin beta access this month in the US and Canada. A full release is expected later this year. And while Hormometer is currently limited to cortisol and progesterone, the company says it’s already developing testosterone and estradiol tests for the future.

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This Wi-Fi-connected pizza oven can bake pies in just two minutes

Image: Current Backyard

There’s a hot new smart pizza oven in town that’ll let you cook a 12-inch pizza in your apartment in two minutes. The $599 Current Backyard Model P electric pizza oven works both indoors and out, can customize cook time based on pizza construction, and has both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for remote monitoring.

And it really is hot for an electric oven — Current Backyard says the Model P has a maximum temperature of 850 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing it to cook Neapolitan-style pizzas in two minutes. It comes with a 12-inch cordierite cooking stone and features specific modes for broiling and cooking Neapolitan, New York, thin crust, and frozen pizza. The Wi-Fi connection also enables users to step away for a few minutes while continuing to monitor and control the oven with an app.

Image: Current Backyard

At least two colors are available: silver (pictured) or a darker gray.

Current Backyard says the Model P uses a proprietary algorithm to keep heat uniform within the oven and prevent users from needing to turn pizzas while they cook, something that’s generally recommended with pizza ovens from competitors like Ooni. The Model P smart app controls also include a “Pizza Build Calculator” that works out the optimal cooking time and temperature based on dough thickness and the quantity of sauce, cheese, and other toppings.

“The Model P Smart Pizza Oven isn’t just about making pizza — it’s about eliminating limitations,” says Current Backyard CEO Tom Penner. “Whether you live in an apartment or have a backyard kitchen, this oven adapts to your lifestyle, offering unparalleled convenience, performance, and flavor.”

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Aiper’s smart sprinkler limits its spray to a map of your lawn

The IrriSense smart sprinkler can be installed in 15 minutes with a garden hose and power cable. | Image: Aiper

Aiper has announced a new smart watering solution at CES 2025 that could be as easy to set up as a traditional lawn sprinkler. The IrriSense Smart Irrigation Sprinkler doesn’t require any pipes to be buried under a yard, and as an all-in-one device, it doesn’t need additional hardware to be installed on a faucet. Its targeted approach to watering also limits overspray, reducing water usage.

The IrriSense Smart Irrigation Sprinkler will be available starting in May 2025 for $399. It includes a 33-foot-long waterproof power cord that needs access to an outlet, but you’ll need to provide a standard garden hose long enough to reach a faucet. Installation and setup takes about 15 minutes, according to Aiper, which involves the IrriSense sprinkler being secured using four ground stakes that can be pulled up when you need to relocate or temporarily remove the sprinkler to cut the grass.

Image: Aiper

The sprinkler’s targeted spray pattern can be defined in a mobile app, while watering schedules take into account recent weather conditions and rainfall.

The sprinkler’s blast can reach 39 feet and cover an area up to 4,300 square feet as it oscillates back and forth. Through the Aiper mobile app, you can customize the spray pattern by creating a map through a manual process that involves pinpointing locations around your yard. The goal is to not only reduce water consumption but also help keep certain areas dry, such as a public sidewalk on your front lawn.

The IrriSense sprinkler’s routine can be scheduled through the mobile app, but for additional conservation and to prevent overwatering, it can also take into account the weather. There’s a sensor on the sprinkler itself as well as separate soil sensors that can keep track of moisture levels. If the lawn is still properly hydrated from a recent rain, scheduled watering routines will be skipped.

Multiple IrriSense sprinklers can be installed and automated to expand the coverage area, and they can be used to dispense liquid fertilizers or pesticides.

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Stolen e-bike batteries could be made worthless if Bosch was less greedy

Removable Bosch batteries like the ones on this Gazelle Eclipse would be rendered useless if stolen. | Image: Gazelle

Electric bikes built around Bosch’s smart drive systems will be getting a new digital Battery Lock function this summer that would make stolen batteries worthless to thieves looking to make a quick buck. Great idea — if only Bosch wasn’t being so greedy with the rollout.

Battery theft is a major issue. I’ve personally had to replace two stolen e-bike batteries here in the Netherlands, where over half of all new bicycles sold are electric. The mechanical locks protecting all those removable batteries can be defeated with force, costing owners anywhere from $300 to $1,000 — in the case of e-bikes built around Bosch systems — to replace the stolen battery, in addition to any costs required to repair the broken housing.

Bosch says that Battery Lock supports several digital keys that can be used simultaneously — in the form of the Bosch Flow app and Kiox 300 and Kiox 500 bike displays — or disabled to share batteries with family and friends. The digital lock is compatible with all batteries in the Bosch smart system, including DualBatteries and the PowerMore 250 Range Extender.

Once activated, Battery Lock will engage automatically when a Bosch-based e-bike is turned off. “If a locked battery is inserted into another e-bike with the smart system, it automatically deactivates its motor support and renders the entire e-bike unusable for the thief,” says Bosch in a press release shared with The Verge. “This also makes reselling the battery pointless, which reduces the risk of theft.”

In other words, once thieves realize there’s no market for the stolen Bosch batteries, they’ll stop trying to steal them. It’s all part of Bosch’s “vision of ensuring that no e-bike with a Bosch system is stolen in the future.” Great!

Image: Bosch

This Bosch PowerTube 800 smart system battery costs $1,000, making it a prime target for thieves.

Here’s the catch: Battery Lock requires a Flow Plus subscription, according to the Bosch:

Battery Lock can be installed over-the-air as usual on any Bosch e-bike with the smart system via the e-bike Flow app and will be available from summer 2025 as part of the Flow+ subscription.

This is dumb. To be an effective theft deterrent, Battery Lock needs to be active on all Bosch smart system batteries, whether the owner subscribes to Flow Plus or not. Otherwise, there will still be a sizable resale market for thieves to profit from. Bosch does offer owners a free year of Flow Plus, which then costs $35 / £35 / €40 each year thereafter.

It makes sense to put premium services like an e-bike alarm with GPS tracking and notifications behind Flow Plus, like Bosch does now. But Bosch smart drive e-bikes already feature an integrated system lock that requires a digital key to activate the motor — no subscription required — and the same should be true for Battery Lock if the company’s zero-theft vision is to be believed.

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SwitchBot’s new video doorbell comes with an in-home display

SwitchBot’s new video doorbell and monitor. | Image: SwitchBot

SwitchBot has taken the wraps off a new video doorbell that comes with a monitor you can put inside your home. The 4.3-inch monitor serves as a “gateway” for SwitchBot products, as you can use it to see who’s at your door, talk to your visitors, and manage your door lock.

You can plug the display directly into a power outlet, allowing you to mount it on a wall or prop it up on a table. It features a 100dB chime and connects to SwitchBot’s new video doorbell, which offers 2K resolution and color night vision. The doorbell also features a 165-degree wide-angle view, AI motion detection, and an Amazon Alexa integration. You can either purchase a wired option or a battery-powered model that you can juice up with a USB-C charger or a solar panel.

Image: SwitchBot

The monitor displays the doorbell’s video feed, allowing you to see who’s at your door.

SwitchBot has also revealed an upgrade to its SwitchBot Lock Pro. Like its predecessor, the SwitchBot Lock Ultra is compatible with the company’s Matter hub and can fit over existing locks, including deadbolt, mortise, and jimmy-proof locks.

Where the Lock Pro has disposable batteries with the option to purchase a rechargeable one, the Lock Ultra comes with a rechargeable battery right out of the box. The Lock Ultra lasts up to nine months on a single charge (or up to 12 months with the “extra large” battery option) and has an “emergency battery” in case the main battery stops working due to cold temperatures.

Image: SwitchBot

The SwitchBot Lock Ultra comes with a rechargeable battery that lasts up to nine months.

You can unlock the SwitchBot Lock Ultra using 16 different methods, including with your fingerprint, NFC, voice commands via Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri, or through the SwitchBot app. It stores up to 100 fingerprints and can recognize them in as fast as 0.3 seconds, according to SwitchBot. The device also supports auto locking, allowing you to lock your door at a specific time.

The SwitchBot Lock Ultra, along with the new video doorbell and monitor, is set to arrive toward the end of the first quarter of 2025. There aren’t any details on pricing just yet.

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The HyperSpace Trackpad Pro is a Magic Trackpad for Windows

Targus-owned Hyper introduced the HyperSpace Trackpad Pro, a premium haptic trackpad for Windows, on Sunday. The company plans to add basic compatibility with macOS via a firmware update later this year.

Like the Magic Trackpad does on a Mac and other precision trackpads do on Windows laptops, the wireless HyperSpace Trackpad Pro supports multitouch gestures. However, Hyper’s trackpad software grants Windows users an advanced level of customizability, with the ability to set up shortcuts in the trackpad’s corners. That includes general functions like copying and pasting but also specific actions within apps like Adobe Suite, Figma, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint.

For instance, users could customize the trackpad’s bottom-right corner so clicking on it will add a new slide in PowerPoint. Users can also create and assign their own gestures instead, assigning — in Hyper’s example — a two-finger deep click to enter presentation mode in PowerPoint.

Hyper also lets users adjust the haptic feedback and pressure sensitivity, tweak the click force, and create customizable sound modes. After they’re done, they can share these custom configurations or discover others via the “Hyper Learning Cloud” community.

The trackpad has other things going for it beyond customizability. Hyper says it has independent force detection for up to 10 fingers as opposed to Apple’s four. It also features a 240Hz report rate, which should allow for high responsiveness and extremely smooth tracking. Finally, the trackpad can support multiple devices and comes with detachable magnetic palm rests.

The HyperSpace Trackpad Pro will arrive in the second quarter of 2025 and cost $129.99, the same as Apple’s Magic Trackpad.

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This pixel light grid can show you the weather (and the price of Bitcoin)

Image: Govee

Govee is launching a new pixel light grid that can display art, animations, and live data. The Gaming Pixel Light lets you upload your own images and GIFs to display or choose from 150 different data sources, letting it provide live updates on the weather, Bitcoin prices, NBA scores, and more.

You can also sync the display to games you’re playing by hooking it up to Govee’s HDMI sync box or play 8-bit tunes that sync to the pixel grid using the built-in speaker. Naturally, there’s an AI component as well — an accompanying app can generate new pixel art for you using Govee’s “AI Lighting Bot.”

Image: Govee

You can generate pixel art with Govee’s “AI Lighting Bot.”

The Gaming Pixel Light is compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. You can wall-mount the screen or place it atop a table or desk, making it seem like a neat little addition to a gaming room or office.

Along with this pixel light, Govee is announcing the Table Lamp 2 Pro — an LED-packed tabletop lamp with a 2.5-inch JBL speaker that syncs up lighting with your music. The portable device has 210 independently controlled LED beads and 600 lumens of brightness. When it’s not synced with your music, you can customize the lighting yourself or choose from 100 preset scenes.

Image: Govee

The Table Lamp 2 Pro comes with a 2.5-inch JBL speaker.

The lamp works with Matter, Google Assistant, and Alexa and comes with a rechargeable battery. You can also link two lamps together for a “full stereo surround experience.” Govee says it will release the Gaming Pixel Light and the Table Lamp 2 Pro in the second quarter of 2025, but it didn’t provide any pricing information.

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pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:

Poop 19 Seconds.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/01/05/were-home-at-last/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWBzoNjin9c

Reblogged by jwz:

anildash@me.dm ("Anil Dash") wrote:

Here's a quick piece I wrote up on how to understand DOGE as a very blatant attempt at procurement capture, a simple way of making government spending corrupt to benefit the tycoons. Please do pass it along & share any feedback! https://www.anildash.com/2025/01/04/DOGE-procurement-capture/