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Arlo has announced a new smart home security system. | Image: Arlo Arlo announced the impending arrival of its long-awaited home security system at CES 2022 this week, and the product even got a nod as a 2022 CES Innovation Award honoree. The company, known for its top-quality smart security cameras, also announced its support for Matter , a possible indication that a Matter specification for security cameras isn’t too far away. The DIY security monitoring solution is a natural expansion for the company that has a full suite of home security cameras. So natural that it actually announced one at CES 2019 . While that product never saw the light of day, the latest Arlo Security System is a complete redesign. The signature feature are the new, all-in-one multi-sensors with eight different functions, plus... Continue reading…

Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Blood tests on pregnant people that look for rare and devastating developmental conditions in fetuses are often wrong, according to an investigation from The New York Times . The blood testing technology, called noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT), works very well for more common disorders like Down syndrome. But The New York Times reported that a review of data from multiple studies showed that when NIPT is used to test for uncommon things like Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome (which is found in one in 20,000 births) or Cri-du-chat syndrome (which is found in one in 15,000 births), positive results are wrong 80 percent of the time or more. These tests, made by companies like Natera and Sequenom, have become more popular in recent years.... Continue reading…

The Acer Chromebook Spin 513 has a battery life of up to 10 hours. | Image by Acer Acer announced that it’s updating its existing lineup of Chromebooks with three new devices at CES 2022, each of which comes with slight changes when compared to its predecessors. Image by Acer The new Spin 513 has a larger 13.5-inch display compared to its predecessor. The new Spin 513 comes with a 13.5-inch display, an upgrade from the 13-inch screen that the previously released Spin 513 had . It swaps the Snapdragon 7c Compute SC7180 in for the MediaTek Kompanio 1380, a new processor that also comes with eight cores. And like all Spin models, you can bend back the screen to use the Chromebook as a tablet or stand it up on a flat surface in a tent-like position when watching videos. However, there is a bit of... Continue reading…

The L’Oreal ColorSonic is meant to make at-home hair coloring more convenient. | Image: L’Oreal While you might not expect it, L’Oreal has been a regular at CES these past few years, launching everything from wearable UV and pH sensors to an AI-powered skin care gadget . This year, the company is back with yet another invention, the Colorsonic — a device meant to make dying your hair at home a hell of a lot more convenient. The Colorsonic doesn’t look too far off from other hair styling gadgets. The top half has a nozzle with bristles, while the bottom half stores a cartridge containing a “precise mix of developer and formula.” The device works by dispensing the correct amount of hair color and then the bristles oscillate over 300 times a minute at a specific angle to evenly apply the color. Basically, the idea behind the device is... Continue reading…

Image: Comcast Comcast has announced that its xFi Advanced Gateway Wi-Fi router is getting an upgrade — the new version will support the Wi-Fi 6E standard and have support for the Zigbee and Matter IoT standards built in. Comcast says that the addition of a third, 6GHz band alongside the 2.4 and 5GHz bands found on its old gateway (and most modern, decent routers) should make the router ready for homes with dozens of wireless devices, including ones that use lots of bandwidth like VR headsets and gaming consoles. The selling point of the new (in terms of wireless standards, anyway) Wi-Fi 6E is that it can provide more bandwidth to power more devices, all with less potential for interference from other networks. Support for this standard should,... Continue reading…

The German automaker claims improved aerodynamics and battery efficiency allows for 1,000 km of range Continue reading…

Image: Samsung Samsung introduced its first TVs with Micro LED technology at CES 2021, and they wound up being perhaps the best sets that the company has produced yet — not counting the exorbitantly priced The Wall, that is. So this year, Samsung is opting for a different approach: it’s taking smaller strides in hardware and focusing more of its efforts on software refinement and new features. Samsung’s 2022 TVs will continue to run the company’s Tizen OS, but they’ll now come with a totally revamped home screen that’s described as “a testament to our vision for the future of TVs.” The first part of the new user experience is what Samsung calls the Media Screen. This will “put all of your streaming service content into one, easy-to-browse place” with... Continue reading…

An Asus Z690 Hero motherboard with burnt up MOSFETs. | Image by Actually Hardcore Overclocking via YouTube A YouTuber who goes by the name of Buildzoid on the Actually Hardware Overlocking channel has figured out that a backward capacitor on the Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboard is causing it to melt down, according to a report by Tom’s Hardware . Asus has since acknowledged the issue in a post on its site and plans on issuing replacements to customers with affected motherboards. Problems with the Z690 Hero motherboard started turning up on the Asus support forum , as well as on Reddit , and the issues experienced by users are pretty much identical. As noted by Tom’s Hardware , users reported that their motherboards started smoking in the same spot: the two MOSFETs (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor) next to the DIMM slots... Continue reading…

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge In an ongoing battle pitting the FAA and airlines against the FCC , Verizon, and AT&T over their planned launch of mid-band 5G service, the mobile carriers are declining a request by the FAA for a two-week delay. Earlier this year, an FCC auction sold the two carriers rights to use so-called “C-band” frequencies at a price of nearly $70 billion . Verizon and AT&T are eager to roll it out so that in addition to offering ultra-fast 5G connectivity in specific areas using high-band millimeter-wave technology and much slower 5G over low-band frequencies, the new spectrum will provide in-between performance over much wider areas. T-Mobile currently uses mid-band spectrum that isn’t in the C-band . Thank goodness: No more delays for #5G in... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If you woke up on January 1st, 2022, and found that your work email’s inbox was unusually empty, you aren’t alone. Microsoft rang in the New Year with a bug that prevents Exchange servers from sending emails, but fortunately, a fix has since been issued, as detailed in a report by Bleeping Computer . “The problem relates to a date check failure with the change of the new year” “The problem relates to a date check failure with the change of the new year and is not a failure of the AV engine itself,” Microsoft explains in a post on its Tech Community forum . “The version checking performed against the signature file is causing the malware engine to crash, resulting in messages being stuck in transport queues.” Microsoft outlines the solution... Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Tesla delivered a record 936,172 vehicles in 2021, as outlined in a report from Tesla , representing an 87 percent increase over the 499,550 vehicle deliveries Tesla made in 2020 . Great work by Tesla team worldwide! https://t.co/lsDTCJtMrp — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 2, 2022 The company managed to deliver 308,600 cars in the last quarter of 2021 alone, up from 241,300 deliveries in the third quarter . Of those deliveries, 11,750 were for the Model S and X, while 296,850 were for the Model 3 and Y. Both the Model 3 and Y also made up the majority of deliveries throughout the entire year at 936,172 shipments, compared to the 24,964 Model S and X deliveries. Tesla previously stated that it plans on increasing its deliveries by about... Continue reading…

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images Twitter has permanently suspended Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s personal account for repeatedly violating the platform’s rules on COVID-19 misinformation , as noted in a report by CNN . Since the ban only affects Greene’s personal Twitter account, @mtgreenee , she can still access and tweet from her governmental account, @RepMTG . In a statement to The Verge , Twitter spokesperson Katie Rosborough explains that the platform “permanently suspended” Greene’s account “for repeated violations” of the platform’s COVID-19 policies. “We’ve been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy,” she adds. Twitter implemented a five-strike system for COVID-19... Continue reading…

Samsung Samsung is adding onto its lineup of smart monitors with the 4K 32-inch M8. Like the models that are currently on sale, this new one can deliver smart TV-like functionality, including offering access to streaming apps, in addition to being able to plug into a computer like normal monitors. The company hasn’t revealed a release date or price, but the initial details we’ve learned prove that Samsung is going a few steps further with the M8 to make it even more useful to a variety of people. This smart monitor is 11.4mm-thick, which Samsung says is significantly thinner than prior models. Perhaps the most impressive feature is its magnetic and moveable SlimFit camera that can attach to the monitor for video calls. The monitor itself... Continue reading…

Samsung Samsung has announced a smaller version of its Odyssey Neo curved gaming monitor. The Odyssey Neo G8 is a 32-inch gaming monitor with the same 1000R curvature of the $2,500 49-inch Odyssey Neo G9 . The R stands for radius and, compared to 1800R and 1500R curvature, which are both common in the monitor market, Samsung specializes in the 1000R curvature that’s far more, well, curvy. It makes 1800R look like a flat panel by comparison. The G8 similarly has 2,000 nits of peak brightness and promises brilliant picture quality with its Quantum Mini-LED panel. Samsung hasn’t shared a price or a release date for the Odyssey Neo G8, but it’s offering up just a few images and details until a later date. Aside from the difference in size, the... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The second-generation AirPods Pro may support Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC), and could even come with a case that makes a sound to help you find it, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in a note to investors seen by AppleInsider and 9to5Mac . There currently isn’t an AirPods model that supports lossless audio, a form of file compression that preserves all of the data in the original audio file, resulting in higher quality sound. Each AirPods model — even the pricey AirPods Max — uses Bluetooth to deliver audio, which limits the devices to using Advanced Audio Codec (AAC), a lossy form of audio compression. Thus far, the only Apple devices that can take advantage of lossless audio on Apple Music (and elsewhere) include the iPhone,... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge We are officially in 2022. Know what that means? That’s right: It means Microsoft has failed at its stated goal of bringing Android 11 to the Surface Duo by the end of 2021. Attentive readers may recall that Microsoft said the following this past September : “We remain committed to providing updates to Surface Duo, and we’re working to bring Android 11 to existing customers before the end of this year.” Okay, so the company wasn’t exactly promising Android 11 by the end of 2021 — but that was the heavily implied intention, and it likely gave some Surface Duo users a lot of hope. “We’re working to bring Android 11 to existing customers before the end of this year.” As Windows Central first reported, Duo devices still haven’t received... Continue reading…

What would a Final Fantasy , Tomb Raider , or Deus Ex look like if it were partly powered by the blockchain, so gamers could make money from their contributions? You may get to find out: Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda has revealed that the company’s New Year’s resolution is to release “decentralized games” starting in 2022. While you won’t find any details in Masuda’s letter discussing the company’s strategy for the new year , you will find a good sense of his cautious-but-optimistic stance — not surprising, given how other game companies that recently Leeroy Jenkins’d their way into NFTs saw such immediate whiplash you could practically feel the vibrations over the internet. Here’s the most relevant section, which comes near the... Continue reading…

Photo by Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images Airbnb announced that it’s changing the way guest profiles are displayed in its app — for Oregon residents specifically. Airbnb hosts who are based in Oregon will now see a potential guest’s initials, rather than their full name, until after they’ve confirmed that guest’s booking request. The change will fully roll out by January 31st. The change aims to prevent racial discrimination among hosts, per the company’s announcement , by stopping them from gleaning a guest’s race from their name. A 2016 study found that Airbnb guests with names that sounded Black were 16 percent less likely to have bookings confirmed than guests with names that sounded white. The announcement follows a voluntary settlement agreement that Airbnb reached in... Continue reading…

Apple wants you to know that buying a $400 smartwatch could be a matter of life-and-death — and it’s brilliantly, gruesomely captured that feeling in a new TV ad. Titled “911,” the one-minute ad spot doesn’t show any of the gory details — you simply hear three phone conversations between 911 operators and people who managed to use their Apple Watch when facing seemingly imminent death: one who might drown in a sinking car, one who fell a great distance and broke his leg, and a paddleboarder who got swept out to sea. They each have a happy ending, Apple informs us: “With the help of their watch, Jason, Jim, and Amanda were rescued in minutes.” But the underlying message is brutally clear: if they didn’t have this miraculous life-saving... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge US officials have asked AT&T and Verizon to further delay new 5G deployments so that the Federal Aviation Administration can have more time to determine where they might interfere with airlines. US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and FAA Administrator Steve Dickson sent a letter to the CEOs of the two telecoms on Friday requesting a delay of “no more than two weeks,” according to Reuters . AT&T and Verizon had already delayed these deployments by a month over regulators’ concerns and planned to start the rollout on January 5th as a result. The two telecoms now tell Insider they are reviewing the latest request for a further delay. Buttigieg and Dickson write that, even with an additional delay, they expect 5G deployment will still... Continue reading…

Cover art for A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh . A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh , Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises , and other books, movies, and compositions from 1926 enter into the public domain today in the US. The works are now “free for all to copy, share, and build upon,” according to Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain , which tracks which copyrighted materials will become public each year. This year, the usual list of books, movies, and compositions comes with a sizable bonus: a trove of around 400,000 early sound recordings. A recent law, the 2018 Music Modernization Act, standardized how early sound recordings are handled under federal copyright law. As part of that, it set today as the date that copyright protections would end for “recordings first published... Continue reading…