Author: News Room
Reddit is trying out a new way for people to take in content on Reddit: by turning text posts into audio / video content. As part of an experiment, some posts are being adapted into videos that use AI voices to read the text of the main post and some comments. The video highlights the text as it’s read by the AI voice, and under the video, a note says that it’s a “Real conversation voiced by AI.”An old post in r/boardgames from eight years ago with 101 responses to a request for good road trip games that adults will…
The promotional materials for the latest Made by Google devices feature a surprise – a mystery wearable fitness tracker or smartwatch Google is yet to officially announce. Sat there alongside the Pixel 11 range, the Pixel Watch 5, new Pixel Buds Pro 2 colour, and a series of straps and cases, is a wrist-worn wearable with the display embedded within the strap. Google did not announce this, but eagle-eyed fans on Reddit spied the mystery wearable amid the marketing materials and set about figuring out what it is. Some Redditors reckon it may be Pixel Watch A-series model because it…
Samsung’s wider Galaxy Z Fold 8 handset has gone over so well that the company is planning on going even wider for next year’s phones and could even launch five foldable phones on total. According to new reporting from ET News in Samsung’s South Korean homeland, the tech giant may go beyond the 4:3 aspect ratio for the recent Galaxy Z Fold 8 and opt for a phone that’s more adept for viewing video. It could mean we’d get a 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio on a Galaxy Z Fold 9 handset that would get rid of the horizontal letterboxing…
Sonos has updated its app for iPhone, which finally returns lock screen controls via the useful Live Activities tool for iOS. The update comes after a rough patch for iPhone users with Sonos systems where a disastrous relaunch took away or broke a series of trusted features including the ability to control music from the lock screen. For the last couple of years, Sonos users have lacked the ability to control music playing on their systems via the Sonos app without manually entering the app itself. If you’re playing via Spotify Connect or AirPlay there have been limited controls, but…
Today I’m talking to Ben Smith, the editor-in-chief of Semafor.Everywhere you go, people say they don’t trust the media — and yet they’ve never consumed more of it. Audiences have moved on from legacy names in favor of Substacks and podcasts and TikTok news influencers that seem to be everywhere in our feeds.Why would anyone want to start a new global news organization in the middle of all that, when even once-storied brands like CBS News can’t seem to figure it out?Well, that’s what Ben did four years ago. He’s the guy who ran BuzzFeed News at the height of…
If there’s one thing I love, it’s travel. Whether I’m off on a weekend trip, a full-blown summer holiday, or attending a launch event, going to new places is amazing. But (and I’m sure I’m not alone here), the travel side of things is far from ideal. Whoever said it’s all about the journey, not the destination, clearly never visited Miami International during Spring Break. So, I tried turning to the top travel tech to solve my woes. I’ve already got noise-cancelling headphones, tablets, travel backpacks, and other gadgets to keep me entertained. What I was looking for was stuff…
About 22 miles south of the former mining town of Patagonia, Arizona, down a winding, unpaved mountain road that passes cows grazing on open range, stands a cottonwood tree believed to be at least 200 years old. The “grandmother” tree, as some locals call it, is imperiled and already showing signs of stress, almost as if it knows its fate. The leaves are yellowing prematurely, falling to the ground at the height of summer. On July 27th, a construction crew felled three neighboring trees to build an extension of President Donald Trump’s wall along the US-Mexico border.An activist climbed up…
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve pulled into a EV charging station, seen six charging bays, and still had nowhere to plug in. Not because every bay was occupied by a charging car. Because half of them were occupied by cars that had finished charging twenty minutes ago, the other half are filled with ICE cars, and the other half were broken… That’s the thing about public EV charging – there’s no official rulebook, no laws in place, no driving test question about it, nothing printed on the back of your provisional licence. And yet every regular…
YouTube will soon count a view as soon as a video starts to play, lining up with the system used by Instagram, TikTok, and its Shorts videos. The update will go into effect on August 24th, “which means creators will likely see their total view counts increase faster moving forward,” the platform says.YouTube says it’s going to keep its original view-counting method under an “engaged views” metric in its Analytics dashboard. As my colleague David Pierce notes, it’s not entirely clear how YouTube counted views before this, but “it’s generally accepted wisdom that you have to watch 30 seconds of…
When it comes to speed of travel, commercial flight has regressed since the 1970s. For 27-years it was possible to fly between New York and London in under three hours thanks to a remarkable feat of Anglo-Franco engineering that offered the ultimate in luxury transatlantic travel. The record flight time from JFK to Heathrow was two hours and 52 minutes at an average of 1,250mph. Cruising at 60,000 feet at a speed was Mach 2.04 – more than twice the speed of sound. As a species, we did that! Since the Concorde fleet was retired in 2003, it now takes…
Sonos released an update to its mobile app that finally introduces support for iOS’ Live Activities, giving iPhone users quick access to playback controls on their lock screen. The added functionality is a “much requested, anticipated, and needed feature,” according to a post Sonos shared to Reddit today that was spotted by 9to5Mac.While some features like displaying album art are not available, the Sonos Live Activity provides basic details and controls when listening to music or podcasts through a Sonos system without having to fully unlock your iPhone and open the app.Support for Live Activities and lock screen controls similar…
It’s 5am. You kill the iPhone alarm. It’s time to gag down some slimy, raw eggs, scream into the void, and drag yourself outside for a run. Please. I’m begging you. Stop. Because despite what certain fitness influencers might suggest, exercise doesn’t have to painfully take over your entire life. Honest. Fitness gadgets can’t do the hard work for you either, but the right equipment can make that work easier to fit around everything else. And that’s where this feature comes in. None of the products below will magically transform your body without any effort on your part (believe me,…