Author: News Room

Introduction Are sweaty warm weather commutes are your idea of hell? Sony’s latest quirky wearable aims to prevent work shirt ‘pit stains – and wants to keep you warm in winter too. The Reon Pocket Pro climate control neckband keeps your hands free, unlike a portable fan, and is smart enough not to keep chilling when you get somewhere with effective air conditioning. At least, that’s the theory. Can cooling a single spot really stop you from feeling the heat, to the extent that justifies the £199 asking price? (There’s currently no US launch planned, with Sony using this Reon…

In a 68-30 vote on Tuesday evening, the Senate overwhelmingly passed the GENIUS Act with bipartisan support. Eighteen Democrats joined the majority of Republicans in passing the bill, which is the first to establish a federal regulatory framework for stablecoins, crypto tokens that are pegged to the value of the US dollar. Its passage had not always been assured. Back in May, nine Democrats who’d previously supported the GENIUS Act suddenly reversed course, asking to revise the bill’s text, and days later, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ron Wyden (D-WA) successfully killed an attempt to bring the bill to a…

This week, WhatsApp did something its founders said it would never do: it’s putting advertisements inside the app. It ends WhatsApp’s decade-plus run of offering an ad-free messaging and calling experience.Meta, which acquired WhatsApp in 2014, attempted to justify the decision by saying ads will be sequestered to its “Updates” tab, where you’ll see some sponsored status updates. WhatsApp’s status feature allows users to share photos, videos, and text messages that disappear after 24 hours — but now you’ll see ones from businesses, too. “If you only use WhatsApp to chat with friends and loved ones there is no change…

So, you’re thinking of buying a smart ring. Well, some good news. Picking the best of the lot is incredibly easy right now. The “bad” news is that, as far as trustworthiness and reliability, your choices are somewhat limited, as this is still a niche and emerging gadget category.Smart rings are in the middle of a resurgence. That means a lot of experimental ideas and newcomer tech brands you’ve probably never heard of. Enough competitors have cropped up that I spent the better part of last summer rocking six rings like a high-tech mafia don. While these aren’t necessarily bad…

Meta is making a change to how sharing videos works on Facebook. Right now, you can share videos as a video from the post composer or as a reel, and both have different sharing workflows. In “the coming months,” however, “all videos on Facebook will be shared as reels,” according to a blog post.“Facebook remains a home for all types of video – short, long, and Live,” Meta says. “We will gradually roll out these changes globally to profiles and Pages over the coming months to help you create, share and discover reels more easily on Facebook.”Meta also plans to…

For the third time, President Donald Trump will extend the deadline for TikTok to spin out from its Chinese parent company or face a US ban. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed in a statement Tuesday that Trump will sign an executive order this week extending the deadline another 90 days, landing the new deadline in mid-September.The Trump administration will spend the next 90 days “working to ensure this deal is closed so that the American people can continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure,” Leavitt said.The extension, first signed on January…

Max — soon to be called HBO Max again — is rolling out an update that automatically plays video previews when you hover over shows and movies. The video previews are launching to users in the US now, but Max is still working on an “AI-assisted” tool to pick the clips that go in them.In the “coming weeks,” Max says its AI tool will automatically identify “standout” scenes from its shows and movies, which its team will then use to choose the clips featured in video previews. “This AI-driven technology will enable us to identify Drop-in Moments for the vast…

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says advancements in AI will “reduce” the company’s corporate headcount over the next few years. In a memo to employees on Tuesday, Jassy writes that Amazon expects the change due to “efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company,” without specifying how many employees would be affected.“As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done,” Jassy says. “We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs.”He notes that workers should also “be…

But unless the organization has somehow hidden an entire domestic mobile device supply chain right under our noses, this is virtually impossible. The T1 Phone, as it’s called, lists some decent midrange specs like a 6.8-inch OLED 120Hz refresh rate screen. Offering it for $500 as soon as this fall? That would take a miracle. Case in point: a company called Purism makes a device called the Liberty Phone, which sources many of its parts from US companies and assembles it here. The cost? $2000, and you won’t find something as luxurious as an OLED panel there.More likely the T1…

It’s official: Amazon’s Prime Day event is just three weeks away, and it’s possible we’ll see a number of great TV deals during the four-day event. But if you’d rather not wait and see, LG’s C4 OLED TV has hit a new low price, starting at $699.99 ($800 off) for the 42-inch model at Amazon and Best Buy. Some larger configurations like the 77-inch model are on sale too, with the 77-inch model going for $1,799.99 ($1,899 off) at Amazon and Best Buy.Given how similar the last-gen models are to the newer LG C5 OLED TVs, these are excellent deals.…

At Xbox our vision is for you to play the games you want with the people you want, anywhere you want. That’s why we’re investing in our next-generation hardware lineup — across console, handheld, PC, cloud, and accessories. I’m thrilled to share we’ve established a strategic multi-year partnership with AMD to co-engineer silicon across a portfolio of devices — including our next-generation Xbox consoles in your living room and in your hands. Together with AMD we’re advancing the state of art in gaming silicon to deliver the next generation of graphics innovation, to unlock a deeper level of visual quality…

It looks like Amazon has decided that two days isn’t enough for its annual Prime Day deal celebration. This year, the event will last a startling four days, running from 3AM ET on Tuesday, July 8th, through 3AM ET on Saturday, July 12th. (Why is it still called Prime Day instead of Prime Days? Dunno — ask Amazon.)The nice thing about having a longer sale period is that you have extra days to make up your mind if you’re not sure you want a specific item (although there is the possibility that some products might sell out before the four-day…