Author: News Room

AI is terrible. AI will improve our future. Whether you love or hate AI, holding both those thoughts in your head at the same time might make it hurt. But you should. Because last week, two industry giants perfectly demonstrated how both statements can be true. Yes, AI can be a menace and a boon – it all depends on how it’s being used. Right now, Netflix and Meta are using AI in very different ways. One is solving problems. The other is inviting us to stare into the abyss. Netflix first. Its plans have – for now – even convinced an AI sceptic like me. That’s…

A shoe engineered to be made entirely from additive manufacturing will be polarizing in the first quarter of the 21st century. That’s certainly been my experience wearing Adidas’ new 3D-printed Climacool sneakers on the beach, trail, or in the city. I felt more eyes on my footwear than normal, with a determined flick upward to see who was brave enough, dumb enough, or fantastic enough to wear such a shoe.I’ve been a fan of Adidas’ 3D-printed kicks ever since I purchased a pair of its 4D running shoes a few years ago. But those are traditional multi-material sneakers with 3D…

Smartwatches have come along way since the first Apple Watch arrived on the scene more than a decade ago. However, despite how ubiquitous they’ve become, they’re still nowhere near as discrete — or long-lasting — as a smart ring like the Samsung Galaxy Ring. Thankfully, if you’re looking to ditch the watch, Samsung’s first-gen smart ring is available with a $100 gift card at Best Buy and Amazon, where you can pick it up in a variety of sizes starting at $299.99 ($100 off), an all-time low.In many ways, the Android-only Galaxy Ring is more of an accessory for existing…

Google is set to pay $1.375 billion to settle claims of data privacy violations brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, according to a press release.Texas filed two lawsuits in 2022 against Google for “unlawfully tracking and collecting users’ private data regarding geolocation, incognito searches, and biometric data,” the release says. Before now, no single state has “attained a settlement against Google for similar data-privacy violations greater than $93 million.”“This settles a raft of old claims, many of which have already been resolved elsewhere, concerning product policies we have long since changed,” Google spokesperson José Castañeda tells The Verge. “We…

Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum Friday afternoon directing the Department of Energy to “consider using all lawful authority to rescind” or weaken regulations for water and energy efficiency for dishwashers and washing machines. The action also includes water use standards for showers, faucets, toilets, and urinals.It closes out a week of attacks on policies meant to save Americans money by incentivizing manufacturers to make products that save water and energy. Earlier in the week, CNN and E&E News reported that the Trump administration would shutter the Energy Star program as part of a “reorganization” planned at the Environmental Protection…

Tech event season is in full swing. This week, Stripe and Figma gathered thousands of people in downtown San Francisco for their respective conferences. I caught up with Figma CEO Dylan Field after his opening keynote at Config, where he announced the most significant product expansion in the company’s history. Below, you’ll find our chat about how he sees AI fitting into Figma after a rough start to integrating the technology last year, the new areas he’s targeting to grow the platform, and more. And keep reading for how Meta is turning up the heat on its AI team, my…

PS5 users can now buy games in the PlayStation Store using a new payment method: Apple Pay. You could use Apple Pay in the browser or via the mobile app already, but now the method joins other on-console options like using a saved credit or debit card, and PayPal.As reported by 9to5Mac, you may now see a new option for Apple Pay available at checkout. It’s using the QR code-style method that Apple introduced on iOS 18 last year, and also lets you buy things on third-party browsers like Chrome. The PlayStation support page for using Apple Pay has more…

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) plans on photographing every single person who leaves the US by car, an agency spokesperson told Wired. The agency says it will start using facial recognition technology at official border crossings to match all outbound travelers’ faces to their passports, visas, or other travel documents, though there’s no public timeline for when this will happen.“Although we are still working on how we would handle outbound vehicle lanes, we will ultimately expand to this area,” CBP spokesperson Jessica Turner told Wired. It’s an expansion of the agency’s current practice of photographing travelers as they enter the…

It’s my final day at The Verge and Vox Media after over 13 years. And as luck should have it, I was able to wrap up my tenure here by interviewing Tom Conrad, the interim CEO of Sonos. I’ve covered this company more extensively than any other, and as our readers know, Sonos has been through the ringer over the last year — in a mess of its own making, to be clear. But over the last several months, Conrad, a Sonos board member since 2017, has kept the company laser-focused on a turnaround effort with frequent app improvements and…

Whoop just announced its new Whoop 5.0 fitness tracker yesterday, but some existing users are already calling foul. Previously, Whoop said people who had been members for at least six months would get free upgrades to next-generation hardware. Now, the company says that members hoping to upgrade from a Whoop 4.0 to 5.0 will have to pay up.Whoop is a bit different from other fitness trackers in that it runs entirely on a subscription membership model. Most wearable makers that have subscriptions will charge you for the hardware, and then customers have the option of subscribing to get extra data…

According to the brochure, the Smart Display E10 features an eight-inch touchscreen with an HD resolution. It includes a charging station dock that draws power over USB-C, but the smart display also has a 5,000mAh battery that Eufy says will last up to 24 hours. You can carry it from room to room to keep an eye on what’s happening around your house or mount it to a wall in your home.The E10 can simultaneously display up to four live camera feeds and prioritizes feeds where motion has been detected. A live feed from one of Eufy’s smart doorbells or…