Author: News Room

Google is rolling out a major refresh for its Home ecosystem, and it’s finally the upgrade I’ve have been waiting for. The new Google Home app, rebuilt from the ground up for Gemini, promises to be faster, more reliable, and complete – delivering a smart home experience that feels modern and effortless. Performance was the first priority. The app now loads up to 70-percent faster on some smartphones, with crash rates cut by nearly 80-percent. Camera experiences have been supercharged too: live views load 30-percent faster, playback failures are down 40-percent, and scrolling through your camera history now runs at…

Today, the same day that Meta announced that it will soon use your AI chats to personalize the ads it shows you, Instagram head Adam Mosseri made a “myth busting” video attempting to set the record straight on a persistent rumor about Meta: “I swear, we do not listen to your microphone,” he says. Meta’s ad targeting systems can be eerily precise, sometimes showing you things that you feel like you’ve only discussed in a verbal conversation and would only be possible for Meta to know about if it was listening through a device’s microphone. It’s a perception that Meta…

Introduction The affordable EV market has grown rapidly in the last couple of years, and when it comes to buying family-focused models, folks are particularly well-catered for. The SUV side of that coin has just been added to by this, the Citroen e-C5 Aircross. There’s also a plug-in variant, and both are notable for their jolly decent range capabilities. Up to 422 miles from the big battery edition, if you please. This is quite a busy part of the car-buying marketplace, with Stellantis (overall owner of Citroen) offering many options from its other brands. This includes the likes of the…

Microsoft is officially unveiling its new Office icons today, after they leaked earlier this year. The icons have a modern design that’s more colorful and playful, with subtle changes that match Microsoft’s recent work with its Fluent illustrations.All of Microsoft’s 10 core Office icons are being refreshed, with a design that was inspired by Microsoft’s work on the Copilot icon. This is the first major change to the Office icons since their overhaul in 2018, and it’s meant to represent a more connected design system and Copilot’s influence on Microsoft 365.“The core 10 Office apps were last updated in 2018…

The most notable update is added support for Audio Sharing with Fast Pair made possible through Bluetooth LE Audio’s Auracast functionality. With an Android phone that supports Bluetooth LE Audio (including several Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy, and OnePlus models), you can pair two wireless headphones simultaneously to share what you’re listening to with a friend, or you can create a private broadcast for an entire group who can connect using a QR code or Google Fast Pair. Google announced in early September it was expanding Android’s BLE Audio capabilities to several models of Sony’s headphones.Other features coming to both sets…

We’ve been hearing rumors about Apple’s plan to launch a new version of its Vision Pro headset for months, and now a new filing with the Federal Communications Commission seemingly confirms the company’s work on the new device. In a filing spotted by MacRumors, Apple includes a diagram of a “Head Mounted Device” that looks a lot like a Vision Pro headset.The details included in the filing are still slim, but it lists the upcoming headset under model number A3416 and says it will come with support for Wi-Fi 6, similar to the original Apple Vision Pro. In July, Bloomberg’s…

Introduction For me, nothing says the festive season has arrived more than breaking out so many Christmas lights that my house can be seen from space. It’s a bit of a chore every year, though, and never fun when they all have to come down again when January rolls around. Govee’s permanent smart lights have long been a fire-and-forget alternative, and this latest set is easily the best of the bunch. The Permanent Outdoor Lights Prism triple down on the number of colour-changing LEDs, letting you be more creative with your lighting effects as well as bathing more of your…

Google is launching two new Nest Cams and a new Nest Doorbell, bringing 2K resolution to its lineup for the first time. The new wired Nest Cam Indoor 2K ($99.99), Nest Cam Outdoor 2K ($149.99 ), and wired Nest Doorbell 2K ($179.99) are the company’s first hardware designed for its AI-powered Gemini for Home platform, and they’re all available now.While only the wired cameras are getting a hardware refresh this week, all of Google’s cameras, dating back to the first Nest Cam launched in 2015, will work with Gemini for Home.The new 3rd-gen wired Nest Cam Indoor comes in three…

Google is finally launching a new smart speaker, and it’s a complete redesign. The new Google Home Speaker features a new flattened sphere shape, new colors, a new light ring, and lots of new AI-powered features.Announced this week, along with a major Gemini-infused update to its Google Home smart home platform, the speaker will also run the new Gemini voice assistant instead of Google Assistant. It won’t be available until spring 2026, but I got an early look in New York City last week.Ditching the Nest moniker of its predecessors — the Nest Mini and Nest Audio — the Google…

Amazon is planning to refocus its Luna cloud gaming service towards party games, in a bid to attract more Prime subscribers. Amazon Luna head Jeff Gattis announced in a blog post on Wednesday that a “completely redesigned and reimagined Amazon Luna” service will be relaunched later this year, introducing a Jackbox-like “GameNight” social category that allows Prime subscribers to play together with family and friends.Like Jackbox, GameNight players can join games by scanning a QR code using their phone, which will then serve as the game controller. The feature will launch with more than 25 multiplayer titles, including Angry Birds,…

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it — contracts that no one actually reads. It’s impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we started counting exactly how many times you have to hit “agree” to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people don’t read and definitely can’t negotiate.To use the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, you’ll need a Meta account and the Meta AI app downloaded onto your phone. A Meta account works across platforms like…

In August, Musk’s companies filed a lawsuit accusing Apple of rigging App Store rankings against chatbots and apps competing with OpenAI, including Grok and X. Apple’s lawyers said Musk’s AI and social media companies had done nothing to “plausibly” stand up their allegations, explaining that the agreement with OpenAI is “expressly not exclusive.”In any instance, Apple’s lawyers said it is also “widely known that Apple intends to partner with other generative AI chatbots,” adding that competition law does not require it to simultaneously partner “with every other generative AI chatbot” on the market, regardless of quality. Read the full article…