Author: News Room

Apple Podcasts will soon include automatically-generated chapters for shows in English and allow creators to add links at specific timestamps in their episodes. Timed links may also be added to episodes automatically whenever creators mention another podcast.Creators can opt-out of both features, and chapters will only be generated when creators don’t add their own. Automatically generated chapters will also be marked as such above an episode’s chapter list. Spotify rolled out a similar auto-generated chapters feature earlier this year.With the timed links feature, creators can “provide links to Apple Music, Apple News, Apple Podcasts, Apple TV, and more” timestamped to…

The legal fight over whether the president can send troops into Portland, Oregon, depends on whether judges believe their own eyes or their smartphones.Even before inception, the lawsuit has been dogged by a war on reality fueled by social media influencers, some of whom have direct lines to federal officials. At every turn, influencers and the imperatives of content creation have been an inextricable though not always visible part of the National Guard case. The influencers have broadcast their content directly to figures in the administration, they have shaped national policy around “domestic terrorism,” and they have seeped into the…

This weekend, I turned my home into a test lab for Google’s new Gemini for Home AI and subjected my family to 72 hours of surveillance as it watched, interpreted, and narrated our every move. My purpose? To find out if an AI that sees everything is actually helpful or just plain creepy.“R unpacking items from a box,” read one notification from the Nest camera on a shelf in the kitchen. “Jenni cuts a pie / B walks into the kitchen, washes dishes in the sink / Jenni gets a drink from the refrigerator,” it continued. Sometimes, the alerts sounded…

Now that spooky season’s over, it’s time to swap the pumpkins and skeletons for something a little more cheery ahead of the holidays. Govee’s Christmas Lights 2 are customizable string lights that will add some smart home magic to your tree, with plenty of slack left over to adorn your space. Right now, they’re discounted to some of the best prices we’ve seen this year. They start at $69.99 for 66 feet of string lights at Amazon and directly through Govee, with the 99-foot version going for $20 more (Amazon, Govee). The longer 164- and 328-foot sets are also on…

Samsung Galaxy Watch owners are reporting an abundance of undue high stress warnings from their smartwatch following a recent software update. Users who say they’re fine claim say they’ve been besieged by high-stress warnings since upgrading to One UI 8 Watch. On the Galaxy Watch subreddit, a Galaxy Watch 7 owner posting under the username ‘oHomemCansado’ uploaded a snap of one of many “stress high” warnings that weren’t presented when the device was running an older version of the software. They wrote: “After the last update, my Galaxy Watch 7 is warning me many times per day that I am…

OpenAI has brought its AI video app, Sora, to Android. The app, which lets you create, share, and remix AI-generated videos, is now available on the Google Play Store in the US, Canada, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam, according to an announcement on Tuesday. Read the full article here

Apple is planning to launch a lower-end MacBook laptop for the first time, in an attempt to compete with affordable Chromebooks and Windows PCs, according to a new report from Bloomberg. In what would have seemed like an unlikely move just a few years ago, Apple has reportedly decided to boost Mac sales by chasing a new market with a cheaper option than the MacBook Air. According to the Bloomberg report, the model would run on an A-Series processor from the iPhone range, which would be a first for a macOS device. The report says the planned chip is more…

Google Maps is rolling out live lane guidance to drivers of the Google-powered electric Polestar 4. The company announced Tuesday that the new feature relies on the EV’s front-facing camera to “see” lane markings and road signs. That information feeds into Google Map’s AI and provides the driver with customized audio and visual cues about merging lanes in real-time.Google gives an example of how this might play out. Say you’re driving in the left lane of a US highway and your exit is up ahead on the right side. “With live lane guidance, just glance at your dash display to…

When Apple announced it was dropping the ‘+’ from its streaming service and going with Apple TV it promised a vibrant new identity and we’re now seeing what that’s all about. As well as a colourful new logo that debuted with the app in iOS 26.1, there’s also a new little tune that’ll play alongside it at the beginning of Apple TV’s movies and TV shows. The five-second opening jingle was created by the Oscar winning songwriter Finneas Baird O’Connell, Billie Eilish’s big brother. The pair won for What I Was Made For from Barbie in 2024 and No Time…

If you’re going to buy a phone in the next couple of days, you might already be considering one of Google’s Pixel 10 devices. Whether you want the cheapest model, which, like the iPhone 17, is very good, or you want the better camera performance and extra AI features offered by the Pixel 10 Pro, there are some great discounts happening for the next few days. Even the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is cheaper than usual.The Pixel 10 with 128GB of storage is $599 in multiple colors at Amazon and Best Buy, beating a previous discount that brought the unlocked…

There are a couple of universal truths about the smart home. Yes, you will come to treat your robot vacuum like a member of the family, and no, you cannot escape the fact that there will always be one light that doesn’t turn on even though there’s simply no reason it won’t. These are just the facts.Beyond that, the only thing we know for sure about the smart home is that it’s tricky to get right. You have to navigate a tangle of standards and ecosystems, optimize your control systems, and design a lot of seemingly basic features yourself. The…

WhatsApp has completely revamped its Apple Watch app – and you’ll now be able to properly read and respond to full messages with full chat suppprt. Before you could only really see basic notifications and send rudimentary responses. The Apple Watch app will also show you call notifications, while you can record and send voice notes as well. The hardware requirements are very accommodating, requiring Apple Watch Series 4 or later, running watchOS 10 or later which is better than Apple’s own support – Series 6 is the oldest Apple Watch still officially supported by Apple. Here’s a full list…