Posts

Matic’s robot vacuum is getting a $250 price hike in September

-
Image
The Matic is our favorite robot vacuum by a pretty comfortable margin. If you’ve been thinking about buying one, you may want to plan on doing it sooner than later. The company will raise its price by $250 on September 9th, going from $1,245 to $1,495. Matic told The Verge that the new price reflects its rising costs for memory and other components for the vacuum, which it says are now tenfold. Those who buy one directly from the company will get a year’s worth of replacement bags worth $96 at no extra cost. Each refill contains 12 bags, and they ship for free. Additionally, Matic has increased their return policy from 60 days to six months. Matic A different kind of robot vacuum and mop, Matic reinvents the floor cleaning machine. Where to Buy: $1245 at Matic Our reviewer Jennifer Pattison Tuohy praised the Matic’s “human-like navigation,” noting in her review that it got stuck only twice during six months of use. In her clutter...
Post a Comment
Read more

The square-ish phone that I wanted to love

-
Image
A great concept that falls flat. The Ikko MindOne Pro is delightfully small. I keep calling it a square phone, which isn't quite right; the screen is square, but the phone itself is slightly rectangular. The camera flips up so you can use it for selfies - you can even open it partway to use as a stand or a kind of PopSocket. There's a Clicks-style keyboard accessory that also adds a magnetic ring and a headphone jack. I tried so hard to like it, but this phone is a miss no matter how you look at it. I used it like a normal phone. I downloaded a minimalist launcher and tried using it as kind of a dumb phone. I put the keyboard case on. I took the keyboard case off. Nothing … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/960509/ikko-mindone-pro-hands-on
Post a Comment
Read more

The fanfiction community is at war with AI — and itself

-
Image
Fanfiction communities are trying to hunt down writers who haven’t written works with their own hands. | Image: Álvaro Bernis / The Verge Over the past week, a new fanworks movement has kicked off, with the aim to root out authors using generative AI. But the detection methods being implemented are questionable, and any fanfic writer could be caught in the crossfire. Broad distaste around the use of Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI tools has long been a thing in creative communities , including the world of fanfiction. Readers and writers have passed around tips for spotting supposedly AI-generated works, citing anything from em dashes to the broad concept of purple prose. But on June 29th, an anonymous X account called @heatedrivalryai promised a seemingly more reliable solution … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/960854/ai-fanfiction-ao3-claude-detector
Post a Comment
Read more

Qi fan fan

-
Image
The Kuxiu D5 keeps Qi-compatible phones cool while also charging a watch and earbuds. Despite my initial skepticism, I'm now sold on wireless Qi chargers that add integrated fans to keep your phone cool while charging. I figured they'd be too loud, or too weak, or too gimmicky, but I'm a convert after spending a week with the new $59.99 Kuxiu D5 Qi2.2 charging dock. Its active cooling system has kept my phone from heating up, unlike every other Qi charger I've tried. Good thing, given my own history with an overheating phone. Last year I fried the logic board on my titanium iPhone 15 Pro. I was on a sweltering train and trying to edit a 4K video on my phone, which was charging from a magnetically attached Qi power bank . Oof, … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/961332/qi-active-cooling-really-works
Post a Comment
Read more

Amazon updated 2023’s Fire HD 10 tablet with 4GB of RAM

-
Image
The Fire HD 8 that launched in 2024 was the last new addition to Amazon's budget-minded tablet lineup, but the company has quietly updated the Fire HD 10 that debuted the year before. In 2023 it was offered with multiple storage configurations that each came with 3GB of RAM, but the 32GB version now ships with 4GB of RAM , and a small price bump from $139.99 to $154.99. The Fire HD 10 with 64GB of storage still only comes with 3GB of RAM and the other specs for both tablets remain the same, including a 10.1-inch, 1,920 x 1,200 display, a 2GHz eight-core processor, a 13-hour battery, and expandable storage through a microSD card. The refreshe … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/961387/amazon-2023-fire-hd-10-tablet-4gb-update
Post a Comment
Read more

Meta has a new app called Pocket that is absolutely nothing like the old Pocket

-
Image
Mozilla shut down the well-loved read-it-later Pocket app last year , and now Meta is launching an app called Pocket with an entirely different, AI-focused pitch: this new app lets you make and share little interactive "gizmos" built from an AI prompt, as reported by Business Insider . Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is all in on AI as the new social media , and he's previously described a vision of how users could use AI to make interactive experiences and share them with people. The launch of Pocket appears to be one manifestation of that idea, and it follows Meta hiring engineers from a company called Atma Sciences Inc., which made an app called … Read the full story at The Verge. source https://www.theverge.com/tech/961086/meta-pocket-app-gizmo-ai
Post a Comment
Read more

The best July 4th sales we found so far

-
Image
July 4th sales are typically a precursor to what we’d see during a mid-July Prime Day, but obviously things are flipped around this year. Last week’s big Prime Day sale is over, yet there are a number of familiar deals still poking around in the week leading up to the nation’s birthday. Best Buy is hosting its own 4th of July sale, for example. And, if you’re on the hunt for tech and gear for the outdoors, REI is hosting a sale on products that will last through the week. There are even some Apple deals you can get, some of which are selling at pre-price hike levels. We’ll be logging the best July 4th sales we find this week below, keeping the list updated with notable discounts as we spot them. Asus ROG Falcata The Falcata is stuffed with features (wired / wireless connectivity, split ergo design, Hall effect customization), and it’s a bargain to get it all at Best Buy’s 4th of July pricing. Read our review . Where t...
Post a Comment
Read more