Technology

Apple announced a complete refresh of CarPlay to better connect with a car’s instrument panel and a deep integration with the vehicle itself. CarPlay users will be able to swap what they see on the instrument panel with a very Apple-looking widget design. Users can add trip info, control climate in the car, see the weather, view updated navigation information, fuel and battery levels, and more. It can adapt to different screen sizes and has an all new interface that is reminiscent of having an iPad on the center screen. Apple says more announcements will come late next year. Apple has been working internally on an electric autonomous vehicle, but the company keeps getting hit with setbacks and executive departures. This new CarPlay integration is the closest we’ve seen to what an Apple Car...

Apple announced an all-new Home app for its HomeKit smart home platform at WWDC this week. The new app will arrive with iOS 16 this fall. The new Home app has been redesigned from the ground up, starting with the underlying architecture, which Apple said makes it more efficient and reliable, especially for homes with multiple accessories. The navigation has been redesigned, integrating Rooms and Favorites into the main tab of the app. There are new categories for climate, lights, and security, and when you tap on a category, you see all the accessories organized by room. A new multi-camera view will show four cameras at once, with more available as you swipe. Tiles also get a redesign to use shape and color to indicate the status of each device. There are also new lock screen widgets to he...

watchOS 9 includes a new feature that will let people with irregular heart rhythms track the amount of time they spend in atrial fibrillation, Apple announced today. The Apple Watch heart rhythm monitor already runs in the background to flag any irregularities that could be signs of atrial fibrillation. Now, users will get a weekly alert about the amount of time they spend in atrial fibrillation. They can also look in the Health app to see a breakdown of how other factors like sleep and exercise might be interacting with the heart rhythm. Users will be able to share a readout of their atrial fibrillation history with their doctors. The company got Food and Drug Administration clearance for an “Atrial Fibrillation History Feature” last week, which was first reported by My Healthy Apple. Dev...

NFTs have become a cultural phenomenon over the past year, constantly making headlines as celebrities dabble in the space and as shenanigans, scams, and legal fights ensue. While it’s hard to tell if they will retain or regain their popularity after a market slump or two, there are still plenty of reasons someone might want to try their hand at making one. Who can resist a field that creators have made millions from? We’re going to go over how to create an NFT using two of the most popular marketplaces, but before we get to that point, let’s cover some of the basics of what an NFT is and the decisions you may have to make before deciding to sell one. (If you’re relatively up to speed, you can go to Step 3 to begin the journey of actually creating a token.) Step 1: Figure out what an NFT is...

A group of Google contractors says they’ve been underpaid by the agency that recruited them, resulting in thousands of dollars in unpaid wages per affected worker. The earliest reports occurred as long ago as 2019, and workers say the payroll errors are happening so regularly that they believe it to be a kind of systematic wage theft. Guy Mylius, a contract employee in the Bay Area, found out about the issue four months into his job, when co-workers recommended he check his pay stub against the contractor’s work order. When he followed their advice, he discovered he’d been contracted for 50 percent more money than he’d been making. “I found out they had been paying me $20 an hour, but they were telling Google they were paying me $30.08 an hour,” Mylius says. “That was in the middle of Marc...

Password manager LastPass is rolling out a new “passwordless” method to access its desktop vault today. Previously, users had to type in their master password to unlock the company’s desktop vault (and its stored passwords). Now, they’ll be able to authenticate access via the company’s mobile app. Presumably, this will include the option to use your phone’s biometric login features, like face and fingerprint unlock, though LastPass has not been completely clear how this will work in practice. “Get instant access to the accounts used every day — without ever having to enter a password” LastPass is characterizing this as a “passwordless” login, but it’s important to note that your master password isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. LastPass’ chief secure technology officer Chris Hoff says mas...

Elon Musk says that Twitter is in “clear material breach” of their $44 billion acquisition deal and that he could “terminate” the agreement in response. In a letter sent to Twitter this morning, Musk’s legal team claims that Twitter has failed to provide him with information on the service’s spam bot problem and that he’s entitled to receive that information under the deal agreement. “Mr. Musk believes the company is actively resisting and thwarting his information rights (and the company’s corresponding obligations) under the merger agreement,” the lawyers write. The letter says Musk could choose “not to consummate the transaction” because of the alleged breach of contract. Musk has been complaining about bots since shortly after he signed the deal Musk has spent weeks complaining about t...

Microsoft is testing some updates to the Microsoft Store on Windows 11 that will improve how updates are handled. Currently, some store apps will close and reopen while they’re being updated, which means you could lose work if you opened the Microsoft Store and selected update apps. Microsoft is now testing a change to the Store that will skip over updates for apps that are open instead. The store update also includes faster navigation, which should make it a little smoother to find apps to download and install on Windows 11. Alongside these navigation improvements, Microsoft is also introducing native Arm64 support, so the Microsoft Store will be a lot faster on devices like the Surface Pro X. Faster Microsoft Store navigation.Image: Microsoft Finally, Microsoft is extending its pop-up st...