Technology

Sleep Number’s 360 smart beds are a regular fixture at CES, and this year is no exception. Today, Sleep Number is announcing the latest upgrades to its 360 smart beds, improving some of their built-in sensors and adding on surrounding tech like lights and mobility accessories that it calls “smart furniture.” The idea, according to Sleep Number, is to create more accessible smart beds so that people can age more comfortably or recover from injuries. “Smart furniture” is a new addition that surrounds the 360 smart bed. While it looks like one of those fancy headboards with built-in shelves, Sleep Number says it was built to support sleep health and make its beds more accessible. For example, the smart furniture includes mobility aids to help sleepers who may need extra help entering or exiti...

For CES 2022, Samsung revealed a new C-Lab startup lineup that includes pet and baby tech with a spin on promoting additional wearable tech promoting safety features. The C-Lab is divided into both C-Lab Inside — an “in-house venture program” and C-Lab Outside — Samsung’s “startup acceleration program.” Established in 2012, the C-Lab Inside incubation program encourages employees to venture out and work on experimental projects. The program expanded in 2018, creating the C-Lab Outside program. Four inside programs were set to exhibit at CES 2022, with projects ranging from test-taking technology and infant health tech. Out of those featured, here are some that stood out: DearBuds (Outside): Bluetooth earbud-like ear device that tracks ear humidity. In addition to tracking, the technology i...

Cineplex, the largest theater chain in Canada, is preparing to temporarily shutter its Ontario auditoriums in response to a government mandate limiting indoor business to help curb the spread of omicron. The theater chain said that all 67 of its theaters in Ontario will close beginning Wednesday, January 5th, adding that the cinemas will reopen “as soon as we are allowed.” The measure comes as Ontario enacts restrictions on schools, dining, and entertainment venues to prevent what Ontario Premier Doug Ford characterized during a Monday news briefing as “a tsunami of new cases in the days and weeks ahead.” “To make it as easy as possible, we have already begun processing ticket refunds back to our guests’ original method of payment. There is no need for guests to contact our Guest Services ...

In 2016, Tesla tried to reinvent the humble roof as a beautiful array of glass tiles brimming with solar energy — a vision it’s been struggling to deliver ever since. But San Jose, California-based GAF Energy thinks it has a simpler solution to the solar roof. It’s built a solar shingle, one that can be nailed down in packs much like the everyday shingles you’d use when repairing or replacing your normal, non-solar roof. Solar panel, meet nail gun You might have heard of solar shingles before, but GAF Energy president Martin DeBono suggests the new Timberline Solar shingles are the first to actually deserve that name because they’re the first to actually work that way — you literally drive nails through a three-inch nailing strip, overlap the top of that shingle with the bottom of the next...

You should always be wary of invites to a stranger’s Home. That’s the upshot of a new piece of security research that has found a vulnerability capable of locking iOS devices into a spiral of freezing, crashing, and rebooting if a user connects to a sabotaged Apple Home device. The vulnerability, discovered by security researcher Trevor Spiniolas, can be exploited through Apple’s HomeKit API, the software interface that allows an iOS app to control compatible smart home devices. If an attacker creates a HomeKit device with an extremely long name — around 500,000 characters — then an iOS device that connects to it will become unresponsive once it reads the device name and enter a cycle of freezing and rebooting that can only be ended by wiping and restoring the iOS device. the most likely w...

The Wall Street Journal points out that on New Year’s Eve, Tesla revealed on its Weibo page the launch of a new dealership in Xinjiang, a region where the Chinese government has been accused of human rights violations against Uyghur Muslims. Image: Weibo / Tesla Just over a week ago, President Joe Biden signed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that “[we] call on the Government of the People’s Republic of China to immediately end genocide and crimes against humanity against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang.” Earlier in December, the Treasury Department sanctioned several Chinese companies for their alleged participation in the abuses, including drone maker...

Apple’s market cap passed $3 trillion on Monday more than a year after it surpassed the $2 trillion mark and three years after eclipsing $1 trillion. Apple’s huge success is due in large part to the iPhone, which revolutionized the smartphone industry and remains a cash cow for the company. But Apple continues to see strong momentum in its other businesses as well, with its services and Mac divisions reporting all-time highs in its Q4 2021 earnings. Shortly after hitting the $3 trillion milestone at around 1:45PM ET, Apple’s market cap dipped below it again. Apple’s market cap must be above the $3 trillion mark when the market closes at 4PM ET for it to officially be designated as the first publicly-traded company with that valuation. Apple isn’t the only company in the trillion-dollar clu...

BioShock creative lead Ken Levine is reportedly facing trouble. According to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, Levine’s studio Ghost Story Games and its long-awaited debut project have been plagued by shifting design goals and an overambitious vision. It’s not a new criticism of Levine, but it suggests that the game’s nearly eight-year waiting period might not end any time soon and hints at some details about what Ghost Story is actually doing. Schreier’s story indicates that Ghost Story, a division of Take-Two Interactive staffed with former members of Levine’s old studio Irrational, was originally supposed to release a small game in 2017. The project was a sci-fi shooter set on a “mysterious space station” where three factions would respond to the player’s actions. (While Bloomberg compares it...

Following the introduction of a solar-powered Eco Remote for its TV lineup at last year’s CES, Samsung has returned to the 2022 show with an updated remote that converts router radio waves into energy. Like the older models, the new Eco Remote can still be charged with solar energy, though its RF harvesting capabilities allow the device to be charged in dark environments. Aside from the remote’s radio-waves-to-energy conversion abilities, the device can be charged from both outdoor and indoor light, as well as via USB-C, which breeds the fastest charging time. Samsung has announced that it will unveil a white model of the device this year, which is intended to better match the aesthetic of the tech giant’s lifestyle TVs: The Frame, Serif and Sero. As with the previous device, the latest Ec...

Kohler’s long-touted PerfectFill technology is finally here, and frazzled parents everywhere can breathe a sigh of relief. The company announced the availability of its smart bath tech at CES 2022 this week, which lets you fill up a bathtub with a simple voice command. So, if you’re downstairs cooking dinner and want to get the kids’ bath going, you can just ask Alexa or Google to run the bath for you. PerfectFill consists of drain kit and digital valve that work together to draw the bath to your preferred temperature and depth. So, no more worrying about flooding the bathroom because you forgot it was running or scalding junior when they jump in the bath. The PerfectFill digital wall controller controls the system.Image: Kohler Bath time can be controlled by the Kohler Konnect app, as wel...