Technology

While the Apple Airpods series and other wireless Bluetooth headphone options on the market currently deliver excellent sound quality with the added perk of convenience, wired options still provide the purest sound for the discerning audiophile. Sennheiser‘s latest premium in-ear monitors dubbed the IE 600, arrive between its flagship IE 900 and entry-level IE 300, marking one of the first products resulting from Sennheiser’s recent transfer of its Consumer Electronics division to hearing solutions company Sonova Holdings. The premium earbuds are constructed using a patented 3D printing process using ZR01 amorphous zirconium, a material used in the drilling head of the NASA Mars Rover that’s triple the hardness and bend resistance of high-performance steel used for bridges. The housing mat...

Samsung recently released new additions to its Galaxy S series lineup — the S22 series  — which features major upgrades to the phone’s camera and display. The S22 series comes in three configurations — the 6.1-inch S22, the 6.6-inch S22+ and the 6.8-inch S22 Ultra — each offering impressive photo-taking capabilities and durability packaged in a sleek design. All of the new devices come equipped with an AMOLED 2X adaptive 120Hz display and the new Vision Booster technology that automatically adjusts the screen depending on the lighting. The three devices all reach 1,750 nits of brightness, the brightest on a Galaxy smartphone ever. The biggest upgrade to the S22 series is the camera and photo-taking features. The S22+ and S22 feature a 12MP Ultra Wide Camera, a 50MP Wide Camera and a 1...

iRobot’s excellent, more affordable Roomba i3 robot vacuum received a firmware update this week that gives it new powers. Existing users and anyone who picks up the $349.99 Roomba i3 can now use smart maps to tell their robot exactly where to clean. This feature, which lets you send the bot just to vacuum a specific room or rooms rather than everywhere it can reach, was previously only available on the more expensive s9, j7, and i7 Roombas in iRobot’s top-of-the-line range. The update follows through on iRobot’s promise that its iRobot Genius software will make your robot smarter at no extra cost to you. Smart mapping, which is done without a camera, lets the vacuum learn your home’s floor plan, so you can direct it specifically where to clean using the iRobot Home app or a voice assistant...

Twitter is rolling out a change that, frustratingly, makes it a bit more difficult to see your chronological feed. The design change, which lets you swipe between your Home (algorithmically served) and Latest (reverse chronological) timelines, was announced Thursday. To set it up, you tap the sparkle icon in the top right corner, and you’ll see the option to pin your “Latest timeline,” and if you select that, you’ll see both “Home” and “Latest Tweets” tabs at the top of the iOS app. If you use pinned lists on the iOS app, the layout might look familiar. The feature is available first on iOS, and it’s coming “soon” to Android and the web, Twitter says. (The company began testing the feature in October.) To my great disappointment, however, I’ve found that after testing the feature, now I ca...

Rivian, the buzzy electric vehicle company backed by Ford and Amazon, delivered 909 vehicles to customers in the fourth quarter of 2021, the company said in its second earnings report since its historic IPO last year. The company says it has delivered a total of 920 vehicles in 2021. Rivian said it brought in $55 million in revenue over the course of the year, almost all of which in the last three months. It recorded a net loss of $2.5 billion in the fourth quarter and a net loss of $4.5 billion for the year. With supply chains constrained and the global chip shortage continuing to batter the auto industry, Rivian is maintaining a modest production schedule for 2022. In a shareholder letter, the company said it expects to produce only 25,000 vehicle over the course of the year, including i...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is increasingly threatening the vital connections between Ukraine’s nuclear power plants and the electric grid. The nuclear sites rely on outside electricity to keep critical safety systems running — but those links are fraying as reports come in about power lines damaged during the conflict. Fuel at nuclear sites generates tremendous heat. Without cooling systems, which typically rely on an external power source to run, that fuel could melt down and catastrophically release radioactive materials. There are several layers of backup systems that would need to fail for such a worst-case scenario to go down. But fighting and power losses in Ukraine have experts increasingly worried about the country’s nuclear sites in the long run. The ongoing conflict has also af...

After seemingly forgetting that Android tablets existed for a while, Google is suddenly very invested in the market. Android 12L is in development to support larger-screened devices, and one of the platform’s co-founders, Rich Miner, has rejoined the team with the title “CTO of Android tablets.” Now, speaking to developers during an episode of Google’s The Android Show, Miner explained the opportunity the company is seeing (via 9to5Google). Miner references the introduction of Android tablets in 2011 and how apps like media players scaled to fit them easily without much investment, but then growth “kind of stagnated.” Now, he cites data showing growth took off pre-COVID in late 2019 and has continued to rise, with more keyboard peripherals and developments in software and hardware by third...

Facebook and Instagram have instituted a temporary change in policy that allows users in some countries to post content that’s usually forbidden, including calls for harm or even the death of Russian soldiers or politicians. The change first surfaced in a report by Reuters, citing internal emails to moderators. In them, the outlet reports mods are told that calls for the death of Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will be allowed, as long as they don’t contain threats toward others or “indicators of credibility” like saying where or how the act will take place. In a statement sent to The Verge, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said, “As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine we have temporarily made allowances for forms of political expression th...

Sometimes journalists get lucky and discover information while reporting a story that they did not expect to find — a document or report, maybe even evidence of prior misdeeds. But I can’t recall ever reading a feature where the reporter discovers a previously undisclosed baby, as Devin Gordon did in his Vanity Fair profile of the singer Grimes, the former partner (she says they have split again but remain friends) of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. The two welcomed their first child — a son who they gave an unusual name — in May 2020. But as far as the general public was aware, the couple only had the one child. Gordon soon discovers otherwise. As he’s interviewing Grimes in her new home, he thinks he hears crying but brushes it off. Eventually, it’s undeniable: there’s a baby somewhere i...

Activision is bringing its hit battle royale shooter Call of Duty: Warzone to mobile phones, the company announced Thursday. “We are creating an all-new, AAA mobile experience that will bring the thrilling, fluid and large-scale action of Call of Duty: Warzone to players on the go,” Activision said in a post on its website. According to the post, this mobile Warzone will be a “large-scale, battle royale experience” that’s built “natively for mobile with cutting-edge technology designed to entertain gamers around the world for many years to come.” However, it seems as if the game is still early in development, as the post advertises several job openings and doesn’t include screenshots, video, or even an estimated release timeframe. Activision also hasn’t specified if the game will be like A...

T-Mobile has announced a new plan for its 5G home internet service, which won’t require applicants to undergo a credit check. The prepaid service will carry T-Mobile’s Metro branding, and customers will be able to sign up for it at Metro retail locations. This brings a prepaid option to T-Mobile’s $50 a month service, which doesn’t have any data caps or contracts, which could be appealing to users who don’t have great internet options available from traditional ISPs. It’s good to see that T-Mobile is offering an option that doesn’t require credit approval (especially given the state of credit reporting in the US). However, there are a few significant gotchas worth noting if you’re looking into the service. With the postpaid non-Metro plan, T-Mobile’s router is included in the $50 a month (...