Author: News Room

Some of us take a kind of “eat to live” rather than a “live to eat” approach to gadgets. They’re tools that help you get things done, not something you want to invest a lot of time or money in. If that’s you — and there’s no judgment here from a certifiable gadget nerd — then you can probably think of more worthwhile ways to spend $1,000 than on a phone.Budget phones to the rescue. These devices are roughly $600 or under, and they’re more capable than ever. You won’t get all the bells and whistles, but you will save…

Google is working on a new hardware-based lighting fixture called Pixel Glow, judging by code spotted within the latest Android 17 beta, and it could be here as soon as the next Pixel phones. In its latest APK Insight piece, 9to5Google found that Google is working on a Pixel branded laptop that’ll have a lighting feature called Pixel Glow. It sounds a lot like the Glyph interface on the Nothing Phone series, which offers different light indicators to represent different notifications on the phone. While the report mentions a Pixel laptop, it would seem a no brainer that Google would…

Prediction market exchanges have created an environment where just about any piece of information is potentially monetizable: How well will BTS’s new song perform this week? How hot will Los Angeles get? Will Donald Trump be impeached? Users can wager on all of that and, on some platforms, more gruesome and violent outcomes in the real world.The rapid rise and expansion of Polymarket and Kalshi have put newsrooms in a strange position. Prediction market evangelists often claim that their odds are more trustworthy and accurate than polls and traditional media — effectively positioning the industry as a replacement for news.…

Introduction It fits into your pocket like a smartphone. It runs on Android 15 like a phone. It has a big colour touchscreen like a phone, a camera like a phone – and even a SIM card slot like a phone. But is the Boox Palma 2 Pro a phone? Not on your nelly. Technically, this is a pocket-sized e-ink tablet that supports mobile data but not calls or messaging – making it, by my reckoning, about 90% of a smartphone. Quite why Boox decided not to support that last 10% is a bit of a mystery to me, but…

I’ve never been as charmed and frustrated by one gadget as I have with the Poetry Camera.It’s a delightful object. White and cherry red with a color-matched woven strap, it looks playful and adorably lo-fi. If I saw it on a store shelf, I’d absolutely pick it up.But aside from obviously appealing, I’m not exactly sure what it is. I mean, I know what it is. It’s a camera that makes AI poems instead of photos. You take a picture, and instead of printing a photo, you get an AI-generated poem inspired by the scene, printed on thermal receipt paper.…

iPhone loyalty is at a record high according to a new survey where 96.4% of iPhone owners said they were planning to stick with Apple for their next upgrade. The survey from trade-in site SellCell (via MacRumors) found that just 3.6% of iPhone users were planning to go elsewhere, leaving the likes of Google, Samsung and OnePlus targeting a smaller group of people than ever before. In 2019, 90.5% of respondents were planning on staying loyal to iPhone and, when the company repeated the survey in 2021, the answer came back at 91.9%. So, of the ~10% of iPhone users…

Over the last few months, every phone maker under the sun has refreshed its lineups, especially at the affordable end, with no major budget phone launches now expected until next year. That made it the perfect time to go back and reassess The Verge’s recommendations for the best budget phones you can buy right now.You won’t be too surprised to hear that the iPhone 17E is now our recommendation for the best cheap iPhone, not least because it’s the only cheap iPhone. Still, this year’s addition of MagSafe charging makes it a much more well-rounded package than last year’s 16E,…

2-in-1 turntables aren’t unique, but the Mixx Analog+ was the first I’d ever seen that completely disguises its hybrid nature once a vinyl is spinning. The top-loading CD player neatly integrated into the record platter promised to simultaneously scratch both my itches for physical music media, without needing twice as much space in my home Hi-Fi setup. British brand Mixx has also ticked plenty of boxes for my TikTok-addled brain’s need for instant gratification: fully automatic playback. Bluetooth connectivity. A remote control. Oh, and the £299 price (the Analog+ has yet to launch in the US) is practically pocket money…

Vacuum cleaners, personal massagers, electronic baby rockers, and walking pads: These are the secondhand machines Rachel Youn sources to create their kinetic sculptures. Made with artificial flowers, metal hardware, and these used electronic components, each one possesses a humanlike presence.Slow Burn is made from an artificial orchid, a neck massager, bits of metal that clamp the orchids’ petals, and a monitor mount attaching the entire apparatus to a gallery wall. A motor on the massager animates metal rods that force the orchid open and close, a visual that feels caged in its sexuality, a flower forced to furl and unfurl…

All empires eventually fall, and it seems the creative software industry has collectively decided that Adobe’s time has come. The Creative Cloud provider’s suite of design tools have been considered the industry standard for decades — despite unpopular decisions to fully embrace generative AI and abandon software licenses in favor of expensive, complicated subscriptions.Pricing in particular has given competitors an opening to attack. Some of the best alternatives aren’t just undercutting Adobe’s price — they’re available for free. People love free.One example that was announced this week is Autograph, motion design software akin to Adobe After Effects. Autograph was acquired…

The best video doorbells just got some new competition – Sky has launched a new system called Sky Smart Home – and it’s going straight after the likes of Ring, Blink and Nest with one key hook – price. At its simplest, Sky Smart Home starts at £5 a month, with a £15 upfront cost. That gets you a video doorbell and chime, plus access to Sky’s new Smart Home app, which ties everything together. Notably, this is the first time Sky’s smart home kit has been available as a standalone product, rather than being bundled in with its Sky…

The best iPhones have donned various colours over the years, and new leaks suggest that the iPhone 18 Pro could arrive in one of the most eye-catching shades yet. According to a report from Macworld, Apple has been working on a Dark Cherry shade as the signature colour for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. It’s described as more of a rich, wine-like tone than a bright red – but still distinctive enough to stand out as the hero option in the lineup. If true, it matches up with previous reports of a rumoured deep red finish for the…