Author: News Room

I’ll admit, I’ve been pretty sceptical of the whole slim phone hype we’re going through. Are they impressive? Sure. But I didn’t get the main pull. Who’s out here struggling with the iPhone 16’s 7.8mm frame – or any other top smartphone for that matter? But then Infinix sent me the Hot 50 Pro+. And I think I finally get the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge hype after living with this slim phone. At 6.8mm, it’s not as slim as the upcoming Galaxy S25 Edge or Tecno Spark Slim. Both are rumoured to come in at around 5.8mm, which is frankly…

President Donald Trump’s latest round of tariffs — including a now 125 percent levy on Chinese imports — will hit the smart home industry hard.Many smart home device makers are already struggling, thanks, in part, to Trump’s first round of tariffs. Increased competition from budget smart home companies largely based in China has also played a part, and so has slower takeup from homeowners than the industry expected.Smart home control panel maker Brilliant cited tariffs and supply chain issues along with weaker-than-expected demand when it was close to shutting down last year. This year, robot vacuum maker iRobot announced it…

Were you clamoring for two AI-generated podcast hosts to talk through the key points of your document before you send it to your boss? No? Well, you’re getting it anyway. Google has announced new Gemini features coming to Workspace apps, including NotebookLM-style AI podcasts integrated right into Google Docs. There’s a wide spread of new features in this announcement, from an editor that can make suggestions in your documents to a tool that will help make sense of your spreadsheets, all with Gemini at the center.Maybe the most uncanny of them all is the podcast feature, which exists in a…

But it appears that, tariffs or no, the new Framework Laptop 12 won’t exactly be cheap.Framework has just opened Laptop 12 pre-orders in the UK, Europe, and Canada starting at €569/£499/$719 CAD. Hours after we published this story, Framework announced it will open US preorders starting at $549 tomorrow, April 10th.That’s hundreds less than Framework’s other DIY laptops, but a good bit higher than today’s entry-level Windows laptops and Chromebooks even before you consider that price doesn’t include storage, memory, ports, or an operating system. If you want those preinstalled, the machines start at €849, £749, and $1,079 CAD respectively,…

Lexus showed off its LF-ZC concept at Milan Design Week in a room so ridiculously dark you needed a torch to find your way out. The brooding electric car marks a bold step forward in Lexus’ vision for the future of mobility, blending cutting-edge electric vehicle technology with avant-garde design principles. The LF-ZC, short for ‘Lexus Future Zero-Carbon’, captures the brand’s commitment to sustainability, innovation and move to producing an all-electric lineup by 2030. Its debut in Milan, one of the world’s most influential design capitals, served as the perfect backdrop for a concept that’s as much a work of…

OpenAI filed a countersuit against Elon Musk on Wednesday, saying on X that “Elon’s nonstop actions against us are just bad-faith tactics to slow down OpenAI and seize control of the leading AI innovations for his personal benefit.”In the lawsuit, OpenAI’s lawyers argue that “Musk’s continued attacks on OpenAI, culminating most recently in the fake takeover bid designed to disrupt OpenAI’s future, must cease. Musk should be enjoined from further unlawful and unfair action, and held responsible for the damage he has already caused.”Musk, who was part of the initial founding team at OpenAI, initially sued last spring, saying he…

Meta’s latest whistleblower, Sarah Wynn-Williams, got a warm reception on Capitol Hill Wednesday, as the Careless People author who the company has fought to silence described the company’s chief executive as someone willing to shapeshift into whatever gets him closest to power.The message was one that lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on crime and counterterrorism were very open to. Their responses underscore that amid CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s latest pivot in cozying up to the right, his perception in Washington has not yet totally changed, even as he reportedly lobbies President Donald Trump to drop the government’s antitrust case against…

Aqara is adding support for over 50 new Matter device types, making it one of the most comprehensive smart home platforms in terms of Matter support, alongside Samsung SmartThings and Home Assistant. The company is also bringing advanced bridging to all its Matter controllers, allowing you to integrate Aqara’s many advanced automation features into any Matter-compatible smart home platform via scenes and triggers. This includes Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home. The new update also lets you bridge Matter devices that are not yet supported by a platform into those ecosystems.The new Matter device types that can now connect…

Adobe Photoshop’s agentic AI, or what the company calls its “creative agent,” will be presented in a new floating Actions panel that will recommend context-aware edits after analyzing your photo. For instance, it will be able to suggest removing people standing in the background or creating a greater depth of field by blurring everything behind the subject. All you need to do is click the suggestion and it will be carried out automatically.Long-time Photoshop users are used to manually manipulating photos by tediously masking people and objects and then creating layers so changes can be made to only certain parts…

The day before several major tech leaders appeared before Congress, begging for ways to get more energy for the nascent American artificial intelligence industry, Donald Trump signed an executive order offering a solution: increased coal production.As part of a series of executive orders released Tuesday designed to promote the rapid growth of the coal industry — opening federal lands for mining, designating coal as a critical mineral, and using his emergency authorization powers to relax environmental regulations on coal — Trump signed one explicitly aimed towards powering energy-hungry AI data centers using America’s “beautiful clean coal resources”, as Trump described…

As a result of the new tariffs that were announced last week, we have a series of unfortunate price and availability adjustments we need to make for US customers. We manufacture most of our products in Taiwan, for which we now face a new 32% import tariff into the US. We’re absorbing part of this cost temporarily, and we are increasing prices on in-stock laptops and new system pre-orders by approximately 10% for US customers. For our lowest-priced configurations, where we can’t afford to absorb the tariffs, we’re currently pausing sales to the US. We’re also delaying the pre-order launch…

Whether you’re buying your first pair of AirPods or replacing a well-used older pair, it’s easy to understand why so many iPhone owners prefer Apple’s earbuds and headphones over other options. Apple has spent years gradually adding new features that work best — and sometimes only work at all — within the company’s walled garden. These convenient tricks include audio sharing, automatic switching between Apple’s various devices, Apple TV integration, and more. There are four AirPods models to choose from, each with a distinct appeal and upside. You likely already know whether you’re more interested in earbuds or over-ear headphones,…