Technology

The Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses are getting the ability to let you send and receive Facebook Messenger messages right from your face, according to a Wednesday post by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He says that the features being rolled out are just the beginning for the product, which was made in partnership with eyewear titan Luxottica. Zuckerberg says that you’ll be able to use the glasses’ built-in mics, speakers, and assistant to send messages, have messages read out to you, and make audio calls using Facebook Messenger. He also promises that more updates will be coming in 2022. Sending messages using your glasses feels very Black Widow or Iron Man Adding the ability to use the Stories as a Tony Stark-esque communication device makes them significantly more useful as a piece of wearable ...

JanSport Fifth Avenue Fanny Pack JanSport is known for making some pretty classic backpacks, but did you know it also makes fanny packs? The Fifth Avenue Fanny Pack sports two pockets and comes in a collection of prints and colorful designs, so your mom can strut down the street wearing a simple black bag around her waist or a camo pack slung across her back. Price: $16 to $17 Amazon Chemex glass coffee maker For many, coffee is a necessity if there ever was one. Thankfully, Chemex’s glass pour-over carafe is capable of churning out six cups of balanced, flavorful coffee in a single go. It’s even included in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. How’s that for classic? Price: $45 Amazon Williams Sonoma Google Nest Hub (second-gen) Google’s latest Ne...

Intel made its first statement on the metaverse on Tuesday — its first public acknowledgement of that sometimes-nebulous future of computing which promises an always connected virtual world that exists in parallel with our physical one. But while the chip company is bullish on the possibilities of the metaverse in abstract, Intel raises a key issue with realizing any metaverse ambitions: there’s not nearly enough processing power to go around. “The metaverse may be the next major platform in computing after the world wide web and mobile,” an editorial begins from Raja Koduri, a senior vice president and head of Intel’s Accelerated Computing Systems and Graphics Group. But Koduri quickly pours cold water on the idea that the metaverse is right around the corner: “our computing, storage and ...

IBM and Samsung have announced a new development in semiconductor design that they report will lengthen phone battery life significantly . The companies’ discovery is called Vertical Transport Field Effect Transistors — VTFET, for short — and is a new approach to stacking transistors vertically instead of horizontally. With VTFET, current will run in an up-and-down flow pattern, rather than side-to-side, as transistors are built perpendicular to the surface of a chip. In comparison to the FinFET design, VTFET “has the potential to reduce energy usage by 85 percent,” IBM reported, opening the door to future improvements such as “cell phone batteries that could go over a week without being charged” instead of only a few days. IBM and Samsung cited the global chip shortage as their motivation...

The tragic collapse of an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois during last week’s historic tornado outbreak in the Midwest is raising questions about the safety of the e-commerce giant’s packing facilities and the policies and protocols Amazon has in place to protect workers during disasters. Despite hours of notice that severe weather was imminent, workers were not sent home before a tornado struck the warehouse and killed six people. The tornado appeared relatively suddenly, but it shouldn’t have caught warehouse managers off-guard. The official tornado warning from the National Weather Service came just 22 minutes before the tornado itself — but those rushed timelines are typical for tornadoes. More importantly, the National Weather Service warned of a moderate risk of tornadoes t...

Dell’s vision for the future of webcams, the Concept Pari, isn’t the kind that stays glued to the same spot on top of your monitor — it’s one that offers a lot more mobility. Ahead of CES, the company showed off the webcam alongside its ultra-repairable Luna laptop concept. The Concept Pari doesn’t just cut the wire — it adds magnets that would theoretically make it easier to place anywhere on your screen, which means instead of automatically giving people side-eye on Zoom calls, you could finally make some eye contact. At first glance, the Concept Pari looks like the typical webcam that sits atop your monitor. However, Dell made it so that you can remove the cylindrical camera housing from its dock (which also doubles as a USB-C wireless charging station, letting you carry around the 1oz ...

Apple has updated a webpage on its child safety features to remove all references to the controversial child sexual abuse material (CSAM) detection feature first announced in August. The change, which was spotted by MacRumors, appears to have taken place some time between December 10th and December 13th. But despite the change to its website, the company says its plans for the feature haven’t changed. Two of the three safety features, which released earlier this week with iOS 15.2, are still present on the page, which is titled “Expanded Protections for Children.” However references to the more controversial CSAM detection, whose launch was delayed following backlash from privacy advocates, have been removed. When reached for comment, Apple spokesperson Shane Bauer said that the company’s ...

I didn’t think I’d spend the first two hours of my morning listening to people place orders at an imaginary McDonald’s drive-thru. And yet that’s exactly what I did thanks to Twitter Spaces. Twitter user Julee, whose handle is @thequeensbit, spent hours roleplaying as a McDonald’s cashier to an audience of thousands of listeners. At the time I joined the conversation, she was on hour 13 with more than 1,700 people tuned in. She approved one user to speak at a time as the customer. The customer would then put in their order, often incorrectly, or make absurd requests for food that’s not on the menu. One person asked for “the cookies, and put it in milk in a bowl.” Julee almost always goes along with the bit even though that’s led her into some strange storylines of handing out bags of fries...

Amazon has introduced a new novelty voice for Alexa this festive season: Santa Claus. After enabling the skill with the command “Alexa, enable ‘Hey Santa,’” you can ask St. Nick to sing songs, crack jokes, tell stories, or just respond to typical Alexa commands like setting timers or playing music in his more festive voice. Judging by the customer reviews left on the Alexa skill’s Amazon page, the feature appears to have been released earlier this month. There are of course several Christmas-themed questions to ask Santa. Asking “Hey Santa, am I naughty or nice?” will prompt a series of questions to work out whether you’re getting presents or coal on the big day, and the big man will also happily tell you about his reindeer or favorite food when asked. Just preface a command with “Hey Sant...

Microsoft is planning to make its Windows Terminal the default command line experience in Windows 11 next year. While Windows 11 currently supports setting Windows Terminal as default, the default terminal emulator has always been the Windows Console Host. Microsoft hasn’t ever officially supported replacing this console host, meaning that command prompt and PowerShell always open in Windows Console Host. “Over the course of 2022, we are planning to make Windows Terminal the default experience on Windows 11 devices,” explains Kayla Cinnamon, a program manager for Windows Terminal at Microsoft. “We will start with the Windows Insider Program and start moving through rings until we reach everyone on Windows 11.” While this change won’t affect most Windows users, developers will soon see Wind...

The Analogue Pocket, a modern handheld console that can play old Game Boy cartridges, already supports Nintendo’s classic 1998 Game Boy Camera accessory. But with an upcoming firmware update, Gizmodo reports that you’ll be able to actually do something with the low-resolution, grayscale, and yet utterly cool photographs it takes. Namely: transfer them to a microSD card. Since the Game Boy Camera cartridge itself only stores 30 photos, it’s important to have a way to export them if you don’t want to constantly curate your collection. Back in the day, Nintendo’s official solution was a small thermal printer accessory called the Game Boy Printer which could attach to the handheld via its link port. But given its reliance on proprietary 38mm thermal paper, this obviously isn’t a great long-ter...

The Amazon Halo View looks like a Fitbit and acts like a Fitbit, and if that’s all it did, that would’ve been fine. But despite all appearances, this is not a Fitbit. To stand apart from the crowd, Amazon added a few exclusive features to its Halo platform with some admittedly impressive technology. However, instead of a straightforward, budget fitness tracker, Amazon created a baffling device that doesn’t quite know what it’s supposed to be. The Halo View is actually Amazon’s second foray into fitness trackers. The first was last year’s Halo Band, a screenless bracelet reminiscent of the Whoop tracker. With the View, a color OLED touchscreen was added so you can check your stats at a glance, and microphones were removed. While the microphone’s been nixed, you get the typical accelerometer...