Posts Tagged: their

Tecno’s HiOS Will Bring Tecno AI, Their Answer To Samsung

Pixel’s Gemini and Samsung’s Galaxy AI have set forth a wave of AI iterations from other brands, including Tecno AI, which seems quite capable on paper.
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Their children were shot, so they used AI to recreate their voices and call lawmakers

The parents of a teenager who was killed in Florida’s Parkland school shooting in 2018 have started a bold new project called The Shotline to lobby for stricter gun laws in the country. The Shotline uses AI to recreate the voices of children killed by gun violence and send recordings through automated calls to lawmakers, The Wall Street Journal reported

The project launched on Wednesday, six years after a gunman killed 17 people and injured more than a dozen at a high school in Parkland, Florida. It features the voice of six children, some as young as ten, and young adults, who have lost their lives in incidents of gun violence across the US. Once you type in your zip code, The Shotline finds your local representative and lets you place an automated call from one of the six dead people in their own voice, urging for stronger gun control laws. “I’m back today because my parents used AI to recreate my voice to call you,” says the AI-generated voice of Joaquin Oliver, one of the teenagers killed in the Parkland shooting. “Other victims like me will be calling too.” At the time of publishing, more than 8,000 AI calls had been submitted to lawmakers through the website.

“This is a United States problem and we have not been able to fix it,” Oliver’s father Manuel, who started the project along with his wife Patricia, told the Journal. “If we need to use creepy stuff to fix it, welcome to the creepy.”

To recreate the voices, the Olivers used a voice cloning service from ElevenLabs, a two-year-old startup that recently raised $ 80 million in a round of funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. Using just a few minutes of vocal samples, the software is able to recreate voices in more than two dozen languages. The Olivers reportedly used their son’s social media posts for his voice samples. Parents and legal guardians of gun violence victims can fill up a form to submit their voices to The Shotline to be added its repository of AI-generated voices.

The project raises ethical questions about using AI to generate deepfakes of voices belonging to dead people. Last week, the Federal Communications Commission declared that robocalls made using AI-generated voices were illegal, a decision that came weeks after voters in New Hampshire received calls impersonating President Joe Biden telling them to not vote in their state’s primary. An analysis by security company called Pindrop revealed that Biden’s audio deepfake was created using software from ElevenLabs.

The company’s co-founder Mati Staniszewski told the Journal that ElevenLabs allows people to recreate the voices of dead relatives if they have the rights and permissions. But so far, it’s not clear whether parents of minors had the rights to their children’s likenesses.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/their-children-were-shot-so-they-used-ai-to-recreate-their-voices-and-call-lawmakers-003832488.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Apple tells developers not to call their AR and VR apps AR or VR apps

With Apple’s Vision Pro VR/AR headset set to go on sale on February 2, we’re starting to see more details about the app requirements. For example, the company has released guidelines for visionOS developers planning to release apps and there’s one strange caveat. It would rather developers don’t use the terms AR and VR when referring to Vision Pro apps, but rather call them “spatial computing apps,” according to the developer page spotted by 9to5Mac

“Spatial computing: Refer to your app as a spatial computing app. Don’t describe your app experience as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), extended reality (XR), or mixed reality (MR),” the company states. The headset itself should be called “Apple Vision Pro” with three uppercase words, while “visionOS begins with a lowercase v, even when it’s the first word in a sentence.” The terms should never be translated or transliterated, Apple added. 

Given that they’re definitely going to be AR and VR apps built for an AR/VR headset, Apple may want to differentiate its own offerings so that consumers don’t confound apps for other VR/AR headsets, particularly Meta’s Quest 3, with its own. At the same time, Apple has used those terms extensively to describe the headset, with CEO Tim Cook calling Vision Pro an “entirely new AR platform” when it launched at WWDC 2023. 

In the same document, Apple asked developers to indicate if their AR/VR, er, spatial computing apps contain movements like quick turns or sudden changes in camera perspective. That way, the product page will show a badge to warn users. It also described the use of privacy labels and game controllers. As mentioned, the Apple Vision Pro headset arrives on February 2 for $ 3,495 — a price likely to attract only highly motivated buyers. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-tells-developers-not-to-call-their-ar-and-vr-apps-ar-or-vr-apps-085136127.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Researchers made VR goggles for mice to study how their brains respond to swooping predators

Believe it or not, scientists have been using virtual reality setups to study brain activity in lab mice for years. In the past, this has been done by surrounding the mice with flat displays — a tactic that has obvious limitations for simulating a realistic environment. Now, in an attempt to create a more immersive experience, a team at Northwestern University actually developed tiny VR goggles that fit over a mouse’s face… and most of its body. This has allowed them to simulate overhead threats for the first time, and map the mice’s brain activity all the while.

The system, dubbed Miniature Rodent Stereo Illumination VR (or iMRSIV), isn’t strapped onto the mouse’s head like a VR headset for humans. Instead, the goggles are positioned at the front of a treadmill, surrounding the mouse’s entire field of view as it runs in place. “We designed and built a custom holder for the goggles,” said John Issa, the study’s co-first author. “The whole optical display — the screens and the lenses — go all the way around the mouse.”

What a mouse sees inside the VR goggles
Dom Pinke/ Northwestern University

In their tests, the researchers say the mice appeared to take to the new VR environment more quickly than they did with the past setups. To recreate the presence of overhead threats, like birds swooping in for a meal, the team projected expanding dark spots at the tops of the displays. The way they react to threats like this “is not a learned behavior; it’s an imprinted behavior,” said co-first author Dom Pinke. “It’s wired inside the mouse’s brain.”

With this method, the researchers were able to record both the mice’s outward physical responses, like freezing in place or speeding up, and their neural activity. In the future, they may flip the scenario and let the mice act as predators, to see what goes on as they hunt insects. A paper on the technique was published in the journal Neuron on Friday. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/researchers-made-vr-goggles-for-mice-to-study-how-their-brains-respond-to-swooping-predators-215927095.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro are still at their Black Friday prices

The Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro are great phones made even more irresistible while they’re on sale at Best Buy right now.
Digital Trends

EU users can now pay Meta to remove ads from their Facebook and Instagram feeds

We all know there’s no such thing as a free lunch. In one way or another you’ll end up paying for the meal and it’s the exact same philosophy with most things in life. Facebook and Instagram offer free access to their platforms but it’s paid for by you viewing and they hope, clicking on […]

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The EPA won’t force water utilities to inspect their cyber defenses

The EPA is withdrawing its plan to require states to assess the cybersecurity and integrity of public water system programs. While the agency says it continues to believe cybersecurity protective measures are essential for the public water industry, the decision was made after GOP-led states sued the agency for proposing the rule.

In a memo that accompanied the new rules in March, the EPA said that cybersecurity attacks on water and wastewater systems “have the potential to disable or contaminate the delivery of drinking water to consumers and other essential facilities like hospitals.” Despite the EPA’s willingness to provide training and technical support to help states and public water system organizations implement cybersecurity surveys, the move garnered opposition from both GOP state attorneys and trade groups.

Republican state attorneys that were against the new proposed policies said that the call for new inspections could overwhelm state regulators. The attorney generals of Arkansas, Iowa and Missouri all sued the EPA – claiming the agency had no authority to set these requirements. This led to the EPA’s proposal being temporarily blocked back in June.

While it's unclear if any cybersecurity regulations will be put in motion to protect the public moving forward, the EPA said it plans to continue working with the industry to “lower cybersecurity risks to clean and safe water.“ It encourages all states to “voluntarily review” the cybersecurity of their water systems, nothing that any proactive actions might curb the potential public health impacts if a hack were to take place.

Ever since the highly publicized Solarwinds hack in 2020 that exposed government records and the 2021 Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack that temporarily shut down operations for the oil pipeline system, it's been abundantly clear that government entities and public agencies are hackable and prime targets for bad actors. The Biden administration has initiated a national strategy focused on public-private alliances to shift the burden of cybersecurity onto the organizations that are “best-positioned to reduce risks for all of us.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-epa-wont-force-water-utilities-to-inspect-their-cyber-defenses-232301497.html?src=rss

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Save up to 60% on FlexiSpot Standing Desks and Chairs in their 7th Anniversary Sale

It’s a great time to be refreshing your office thanks to FlexiSpot’s 7th Anniversary Sale which brings savings of up to 50% on standing desks, office chairs, and a whole lot more. The anniversary finishes on August 25th in the US and on September 1st in the UK. Join us after the break for some […]

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Bluesky allowed people to include the n-word in their usernames

Before this week, Bluesky, the up-and-coming decentralized Twitter alternative, did not have a system in place to automatically prevent people from registering usernames that featured the n-word as part of their handle. On Wednesday, the company received multiple reports of someone who had the slur in their username. And while Bluesky eventually dealt with the issue, many are upset by the fact the startup did not seem to apologize for the oversight. Instead, on early Saturday morning, days after the incident occurred, Bluesky appeared to frame the event as a one-off that was swiftly addressed.

“On Wednesday, users reported an account that had a slur as its handle. This handle was in violation of our community guidelines, and it was our mistake that allowed it to be created,” the company said. “40 minutes after it was reported, the account was taken down, and the code that allowed this to occur was patched.”

Bluesky went on to claim it had in recent months “made significant investments” in its Trust and Safety team, and that it would continue to invest in “moderation, feedback, and support systems” that would scale with the platform’s growing user base. Bluesky did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request. Days before issuing a statement on the situation, the company, as caught by Hacker News, quietly added the n-word, and nearly four dozen other ethnic and racial slurs, to a list of “reserved” words.

Bluesky’s statement, when it did come, appears to have been prompted by a viral LinkedIn post penned by Scott Hirleman, the host of the Data Mesh Radio podcast. Hirleman tagged the company’s executive team, including CEO Jay Graber, and accused Bluesky of failing to address an “incredibly bad anti-blackness problem” on its social network. “If you don’t want to run a social media platform, split the company in twain and go focus on the protocol and fund the platform with another team that cares,” Hirleman added. As of the writing of this article, the post has more than 700 reactions and about 50 comments.

No social media network is free from racists, but the fact that Bluesky didn’t already filter for something so basic as the n-word is surprising when you consider Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is one of the company’s backers. Under Dorsey’s leadership, Twitter was often ineffective with addressing white supremacy and could have frequently done more to protect Black people and other marginalized users.  

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/bluesky-allowed-people-to-include-the-n-word-in-their-usernames-184049864.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II are down to their cheapest-ever price

The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II, which offer impressive noise cancellation and touch controls, are currently down to their lowest-ever price of $ 249 on Amazon.
Digital Trends

Shiny Xiaomi Buds 4 Pro come inside their own Space Capsule

Xiaomi’s new Buds 4 Pro true wireless earbuds come in a very shiny, very unusual case the company calls a Space Capsule. Here’s more on what you’ll find inside.
Digital Trends

Senator asks Apple and Google to ban TikTok from their app stores

TikTok is facing yet another call from a prominent lawmaker for the app’s ban, Colorado Senator Michael Bennet, a Democrat who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to Apple and Google urging the companies to ban TikTok from their respective app stores.

In the letter, Bennet says that “TikTok, in its current form, [is] an unacceptable threat to the national security of the United States.” The letter, addressed to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, repeats many of the same points that have been raised by other lawmakers seeking to ban the app.

Specifically, Bennet raises the possibility that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, could be compelled to “use its influence to advance Chinese government interests,” via TikTok. “Like most social media platforms, TikTok collects vast and sophisticated data from its users, including faceprints and voiceprints,” Bennet writes. “Unlike most social media platforms, TikTok poses a unique concern because Chinese law obligates ByteDance, its Beijing-based parent company, to ‘support, assist, and cooperate with state intelligence work.’”

TikTok has long denied that such scenarios could play out, and has attempted to downplay its ties to China. In a statement to CNN the company said Bennet’s letter “relies almost exclusively on misleading reporting about TikTok, the data we collect, and our data security controls.”

Apple and Google didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

While it seems unlikely either company would take such a drastic step based on a letter from one senator, it highlights the mounting pressure and scrutiny on TkTok. The company has spent the last two years negotiating with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) in order to secure its ability to continue to operate in the US. But that process is reportedly stalled, and the company has been waging a new charm offensive in an attempt to win over critics.

TikTok has also been sharing more details around its partnership with Oracle to safeguard US user data and comply with US regulators’ concerns. But lawmakers seem to be in no rush to let TikTok off the hook. The app has already been banned from federal devices, and numerous state governments have passed bans of their own. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is scheduled to testify at his first Congressional hearing next month,

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Check out these leaked renders of Samsung’s Galaxy S23 series and their official cases

The official Unpacked event is only a couple of weeks away and the leaks for the Galaxy S23 series are only intensifying with numerous renders of the phones and the official cases making their way online. The renders show us the entire Galaxy S23 range in their base colors, as well as the official flip […]

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[Promoted] BLUETTI’s Users Always Get More Than Power for Their Off-Grid Lives

BLUETTI’s “Share Your Story” campaign is in full swing. It began on December 15, 2022, and will end on January 15, 2023. All participants have the chance to win free solar generators, solar panels, outdoor gear, coupons, and BLUETTI Bucks, which can now be used to redeem BLUETTI Lifestyle products, besides its previous exchange for […]

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Discord server owners in the US can now create their own subscriptions

After a year of testing, Discord is ready to let more creators offer subscriptions. The community platform has enabled Server Subscriptions for all eligible server owners in the US. Your favorite streamer or social media star can now offer exclusive content and features at multiple price tiers they set themselves. You might get bonus videos, early access to merch or voting rights for influential polls, for instance.

Discord stresses that creators will get 90 percent of their subscription fee. They can also use a newly launched promo webpage feature to promote their paid options. Any server owner qualifies as long as they’re based in the US, agrees to policies and doesn’t have any “recent” violations.

The long testing period reflects Discord’s caution around launching Server Subscriptions. As company marketing manager Jesse Wofford told Engadget last year, the feature is meant to allow sustainable businesses on the platform — theoretically, a creator can generate meaningful profit (even if it’s purely supplemental) from their Discord community.

Whether or not this represents a good value may depend on the services a creator is already using to charge for Discord access. Patreon asks for as little as 5 percent of monthly income before payment processing, but membership tiers and some other perks aren’t available until a creator gives up 8 or 12 percent. Moreover, server owners still have to split their attention between two services — Discord’s move potentially simplifies subscriptions.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Elon Musk gives employees two days to commit to ‘hardcore’ Twitter or lose their jobs

Twitter might lose even more employees following the mass layoffs that halved its workforce and shortly after the company fired engineers who publicly called out its new owner. According to The Washington Post, Elon Musk gave remaining staff members an ultimatum and asked them to commit to an “extremely hardcore” Twitter going forward. “If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below,” he reportedly wrote in an email that links to an online form. 

So what does an “extremely hardcore” Twitter mean? The report didn’t quite delve into the specifics of Musk’s expectations, but the executive apparently said that it means “working long hours at high intensity.” He added: “Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.” It’s not quite clear if the move is legal for workers in countries that have rigorous labor laws. Regardless, the email said that those who don’t sign the form by 5PM Eastern on Thursday, November 17th, would be let go and would receive three months of severance pay. 

In addition to reporting about the Musk’s email, The Post said that Twitter will be doing a postmortem on the launch of its $ 8 Blue subscription over the next couple of weeks, in an effort to understand why and how it had led to an influx of impersonators. If you’ll recall, things got so bad that Twitter had to suspend its subscription service, which offered instant verification and, hence, gave fake accounts a semblance of legitimacy. Musk had just announced yesterday that the company is pushing back the return of Blue verification to November 29th to make sure that it’s “rock solid.”

The Post also saw internal information and data externally compiled by a software developer that showed Twitter Blue only had around 150,000 users by the time the website paused subscriptions. That’s a tiny fraction of the 238 million daily active users Twitter said it had in the second quarter of 2022 and would only bring in $ 14.4 million in annual revenue. 

Further, the new Blue subscription could potentially impact the website’s ad revenue. Twitter earned 79 percent of its ad revenue in the US from merely 10 percent of its most valuable users, with the top 1 percent earning the website $ 40 a month. They’re also the ones most likely to pay for a subscription, however, which means they’re bound to see fewer ads as one of the perks they’re paying for. 

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Sony and Honda will open pre-orders for their first EV in 2025

Sony and Honda have announced (PDF) that they're planning to start accepting pre-orders for their first electric vehicle model in the first half of 2025. Their joint venture, which they've simply named Sony Honda Mobility Inc. (SHM), is hoping to start deliveries in the United States by spring of 2026. In Japan, deliveries are expected to begin in the second half of 2026. According to Reuters, the companies are considering a European launch, as well, but they have no solid plans for the region at the moment. 

The companies didn't give us a glimpse of the vehicle they're working on during the event, and they didn't mention anything about its pricing or its battery technology and range. They did say, however, that they're planning to focus on online sales like Tesla does and that the first model will have a "somewhat high price range." Honda will manufacture their first model at its facility in North America, while Sony will be in charge of developing the vehicle's software system and sensors. SHM is aiming to develop a Level 3 autonomous driving system, which means its cars will eventually have the capability to drive itself in certain conditions.

Reuters also said that Sony's software system will offer a monthly subscription for entertainment and other services, providing SMH with recurring revenue. The company is even looking into providing new types of in-vehicle entertainment, including those based in the metaverse. SMH Chairman and CEO Yasuhide Mizuno said during the event that the joint company is "speedily" developing its first vehicle. He said that SMH can't miss taking pre-orders in 2025, as the firm believes that year will be a turning point for vehicle electrification. 

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Oppo and Mobvoi are already working on their first Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1-powered Wear OS smartwatches

Qualcomm just took the wraps off its new Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 chipset which could be the processor that Wear OS has been waiting for, and we already know of two exponents of the wearable platform that are developing smartwatches powered by the new silicon. In Qualcomm’s press release for the new wearable chip, it […]

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Netflix wants your non-resident moochers to start paying their own way

If you’ve got a Netflix account then it’s almost certain that you’ve got a moocher or two. Sometimes they live in the same house, but sometimes they live elsewhere, sometimes on a different continent even. It’s the latter type of moocher that Netflix wants to crack down on by trialing a new feature that ‘allows’ […]

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Google Play users have voted for their favorite game and app for 2021

At the beginning of November, users were able to vote for their favorite app and game on the Play Store for the Google Play Users Choice Awards that are held every year. The Google Play editorial team also reveal its choice of best apps and games based on their quality, design, technical performance, and innovation. […]

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Tesla app outage locked some owners out of their cars

Tesla's app server went down a few hours ago, leading to a worldwide app outage that left owners unable to connect to their cars. For those who've been mostly dependent on their phones instead of their keycards, that means being locked out of their vehicles. Electrek first reported the issue after receiving complaints from Tesla owners on Friday night, and for a while it seemed like the problem only affected drivers in North America. But then, an owner from Seoul, South Korea tweeted at Elon Musk about getting a server error on their app, to which the Tesla CEO replied that he's "checking" it out.

Other tweets show owners calling for roadside assistance and delaying their plans for the night. The outage came shortly after the automaker rolled out an update to its application, which Electrek said includes a feature that Tesla had issues implementing. It's unclear if that was connected to the outage, since Musk has yet to follow up on his initial response. Regardless, it looks like the outage is starting to get resolved. Downdetector received as many as 543 reports a few hours ago, but now they're down to less than a hundred. 

Being locked out of vehicles could be an ongoing problem as automakers move to cloud services and increase reliance on smartphone apps. As this situation showed, however, it's still wise to carry around a keycard/keyfob as backup just in case.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Fossil preparing their first LTE Wear OS smartwatch

Fossil looks like they might be ready to dive into the LTE smartwatch market, according to an FCC filing. It doesn’t look like it’ll be a full Gen 6 upgrade, but if you’re looking for a solid smartwatch contender with a data connection, it might be your best bet. Fossil LTE smartwatch Despite Qualcomm announcing […]

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T-Mobile got caught overpromising how good their 5G network is

T-Mobile has been talking about their 5G network for a long time. Not only that, but they’ve really slammed their competition and tried to sell magenta 5G as being the best around. And, well, unfortunately for T-Mobile, that may not have been entirely accurate, and advertising agencies have taken notice. T-Mobile 5G mis-advertising T-Mobile was […]

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Samsung’s newest phones are dropping support for their oldest smartwatches

This may come as a surprise to some people, but… you can’t use your original Samsung Galaxy Gear forever. I know, I know, it seems like just yesterday Samsung was releasing their goofy smartwatch-with-a-camera in 2013, but all good things must come to an end. According to the Samsung Members app, some of Samsung’s older […]

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Reddit and LinkedIn will fix clipboard snooping in their iOS apps

The clipboard privacy feature in iOS 14 is prompting more major developers to tone down their apps’ nosy behavior. To start, Reddit told The Verge in a statement that it would fix code in its iOS app that copies clipboard data with virtually every ke…
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We interviewed the new owners of Newton Mail; here’s their plan to tackle the email market

Newton Mail is alive, again. The email app (which is honestly pretty good!) has had a very bumpy life that involved a lot of shutting down, being revived, and getting shuttered over and over. Essential took it over at first, but then Essential went down, leaving the future of Newton up in the air. That’s […]

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OnePlus and McLaren have ended their phone partnership

OnePlus will no longer release McLaren editions of its phones in the future. The phonemaker and the British auto manufacturer have ended their partnership, a McLaren spokesperson has confirmed to Android Authority after reports about their split came…
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PC shipments see their largest drop in four years due to COVID-19

Many suspected PC shipments would take a hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, but now it’s clearer as to what the damage was. Canalys estimates that computer shipments fell a steep 8 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2020 as Chinese factories…
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OnePlus is testing forced dark mode for more apps in their latest OxygenOS beta

Dark mode is a big deal for Android users. It was a primary selling point with Android 10, and tons of apps and developers have been quickly trying to support that new native dark theme. But not all apps have taken advantage of Android’s native dark mode. Lots of apps are lagging behind, with some […]

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Stadia Pro subscribers will get first dibs on the free tier when their trial ends

Google has been handling Stadia in a pretty weird way, and things are about to get even stranger. With many Pro users having their trials expire at the end of this month, but the free tier of the game streaming service still a few months off, there were some questions about whether or not you […]

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Vizio gets into the OLED market and beefs up their focus on gaming-friendly TVs

Vizio is easily one of the most popular TV manufacturers in the market, and they’re more than happy to compete in whatever segment they can. Whether that’s smaller budget-friendly sets, mid-range TVs aimed at cord-cutting enthusiasts, or the high-end market for someone chasing the perfect home theater, Vizio usually has an option available. They’re finally […]

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Secure email service ProtonMail rolls out their new ProtonCalendar beta

If you’re invested into digital security, you might be familiar with ProtonMail. It’s a service that aims to make your email much more private by utilizing end-to-end encryption and keeps advertisers and the like from snooping in, and now they’re bringing that privacy focus into a calendar app. Appropriately titled ProtonCalendar, the service is the […]

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OnePlus might up their game with a 120hz display in the OnePlus 8 Pro

We haven’t heard much about the OnePlus 8 Pro yet, but some new rumors have started to pop up to fill in the details. If these rumors end up being right, we might see an insanely high refresh rate screen make its way into the next OnePlus flagship. High refresh rate screens have been making […]

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Microsoft merges all of their mobile productivity apps into one Office hub

Microsoft has announced that they’ll be taking their existing Word, Excel, and Powerpoint applications on Android and iOS and merging them into a single Office app. Fortunately there’s no loss of functionality with this change, but it should make things a little more fluid on your phone and take up less space, too. Alongside this […]

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Realme might be dropping their Android skin and taking a more stock approach

Realme is one of Oppo’s sub-brands, and it’s generally a pretty well-received manufacturer for its excellent hardware relative to the price. But like many of those high-value competitors, the software tends to irritate more users than it entices. It looks like Realme is finally coming to grips with that, and they’re planning to ditch their […]

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Sony officially kicks off their new 360 Reality Audio format on the Xperia 1

Sony is no stranger to proprietary formats for audio and video. Sometimes that pays off, like with Blu-ray, but sometimes it’s just a massive headache for everyone before eventually dying off and leaving some devices useless, like Sony memory sticks for cameras and the PlayStation Vita. Is that going to stop Sony from trying the […]

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Google defends their decision to not allow 4K60fps on the Pixel 4

Google announced the Pixel 4 with some serious camera capabilities, but it lacked one video feature that many users want. The Pixel 4 can shoot 4K video, but it’s not able to do so in 60fps. It’s not because phones can’t do that, either; Samsung, Huawei, Apple, and others are all able to cram 4K60 […]

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LG has announced Android 10 is finally coming to some of their devices

LG isn’t known for particularly quick updates, and that’s probably the biggest detractor from some of their otherwise great smartphones. It looks like they’ll be one of the last to get onboard the Android 10 train, but it is happening. They’ve announced an Android 10 preview that’s going live for the LG G8 ThinQ, with […]

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OnePlus already pushed out their first update for the OnePlus 7T

OnePlus announced the OnePlus 7T last week, so you wouldn’t think there would be much need for an early software update. But just a few days in and here we are, with Oxygen OS 10.0.3 officially rolling out for the brand new device. It’s not a massive update, mind you; this one’s pretty small with […]

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Redmi’s greatest competitor, Realme, to launch their first value-flagship

Oppo’s young Realme brand is gearing up to follow their first year of increasingly excellent-value budget devices with a debut in the competitive value-flagship space. Though not well-known outside of India and their home-turf, Realme first debuted as a direct competitor to Xiaomi‘s popular ‘Redmi‘ budget brand a mere 16 months ago; and yet in […]

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Samsung posts video asking users to treat their Galaxy Fold nicely

After a big launch during the Galaxy S10 Unpacked event on February 20th, Samsung’s first foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Fold, was revealed to suffer from a number of flaws, most notably with its display and the ingress of foreign objects. Samsung canceled preorders and pulled review units from tech sites while the Galaxy Fold underwent […]

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Asus crammed 1TB of storage in their ultimate Galaxy Note 10 killer

Asus is currently working on an already-impressive ROG Phone II. It utilizes the absolute best CPU from Qualcomm in the superclocked Snapdragon 855+ paired with a specialized GPU for maximum performance, a 120hz screen, and a 6000mAh battery with a ton of storage. But they’ve announced an even better version of that phone today, stuffed […]

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Now Tesla owners can attach a picture to their repair request

While many Tesla owners love their electric vehicles, one complaint we've heard about has been about waiting for repairs. Last year Elon Musk announced Tesla would bring most collision repairs in-house to help reduce wait times to same-day or even on…
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OnePlus confirms what OS their OnePlus TV will be running

Earlier this year OnePlus announced that they’ll be releasing a OnePlus TV device, but that was pretty much the extent of the announcement. They didn’t talk about specs, features, or much of anything else besides it being a connected TV device. They’re opening up a little more today, explaining what operating system they’re choosing to […]

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Samsung refreshes their mid-range with A50s and A30s and a major downgrade

We’ve recommended Samsung’s great mid-range offerings in the A30 and A50 before, but now they’re refreshing the two devices with some nice upgrades, and one major downgrade. Samsung defied expectations when they released a slew of new budget and mid-range devices at the start of 2019 that actually offered competitive value in stark contrast to […]

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Motorola has a solution for everyone that refuses to turn their phone to record smartphone videos

Smartphones have revolutionized the video industry, but it hasn’t all been positive. Being able to capture video anywhere, anytime is excellent, and you can even get really creative with some smartphone videography, but some people refuse to hold their phone properly when recording video. Yep, I’m talking about people that record something important, and they […]

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Reddit subreddits can now create their own community rewards

After several months of testing, Reddit announced today that it is rolling out a new feature called Community Awards for all eligible subreddits. The feature will allow moderators of communities on the site to create their own Reddit Gold-style medal…
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Huawei supposedly helped North Korea build out their cellular networks

One of the major concerns about Huawei from the US government has been their involvement, direct or indirect, in spying on users and using their networking equipment to enable spying. That’s obviously a pretty big concern with some info that comes out of China, and that’s done more than a little damage to Huawei’s reputation […]

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Google drops the ban hammer on CooTek, removing their adware from the Play Store

The Google Play Store has had a rough time in the last few months, with malicious developers, ad-infected apps, and copycat problems making headlines. These are all mostly unavoidable things, at least in small amounts, when you’re dealing with something the size of the Play Store with as many users and developers that Google is […]

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Apple and Google show off their more inclusive emoji for 2019

The Unicode Consortium teased the next round of emoji additions for 2019, and now it's clear just what they'll look like when they reach your phone. Both Apple and Google are marking World Emoji Day (July 17th) by showing their adaptations of the doz…
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