Technology

Smart home company Ecobee appears ready to release two new smart thermostats — the Ecobee Enhanced and the Ecobee Premium — ZatzNotFunny reports. The Enhanced model has appeared in a post on Reddit, while the Premium has leaked via a retail listing from Canadian Tire. Between them, they look set to overhaul Ecobee’s existing lineup of thermostats consisting of 2016’s Ecobee3 Lite and 2019’s Ecobee SmartThermostat with voice control. The Ecobee Premium appears set to replace the flagship $250 SmartThermostat. It still has a built-in microphone with support for voice assistants like Alexa and Siri, ZatzNotFunny reports, but new for this model is air quality monitoring. One product photo shows the Ecobee app recommending a window be opened to improve ventilation. The thermostat’s user interfa...

Earlier this week, Google confirmed what we’ve suspected for a long time: the Google Pixel Watch is coming later this fall. And while we learned some details, the reveal was more of a teaser than a full-blown announcement. Some of that was to be expected, and of course, the next few months will be full of speculation about what the final form of the Pixel Watch will be. But one thing Google has to get right is the chip inside. It’s clear, from the Pixel Watch’s design to the company’s massive undertaking in retooling Wear OS, that Google is trying to make an Android flagship smartwatch that can give the Apple Watch a run for its money. The thing is, Wear OS’s sluggish evolution wasn’t all on Google. For a number of years, Wear OS was stymied by a lack of capable processors. Most Wear OS wa...

It looks like Apple‘s change from Lightning to USB-C could be expanded past just iPhones. Long-time tech analyst and Apple rumor reporter Ming-Chi Kuo has just commented further on the port switch by indicating that the tech giant could be making the switch with other peripherals like AirPods, Magic Keyboard/Trackpad/Mouse, and the MagSafe battery. With this phasing out of Apple’s Lightning proprietary connector, Apple will take a hit on its royalty payments but the end-user will benefit from increased transfer speeds, charge times, and convenience. Check out the tweet below. 1. Portless iPhone may cause more problems due to current limitations of wireless technologies & the immature MagSafe ecosystem.2. Other Lightning port products (e.g., AirPods, Magic Keyboard/Trackpad/Mouse, MagSa...

Tony Fadell, inventor of the Apple iPod and iPhone recently took to Twitter to share his Spring cleaning, which later led to a trip down memory lane and the rediscovery of an important concept prototype. The most recent nostalgic finding comes after Apple confirmed that the iPod era has officially come to an end. In line with the current product discontinuation from the tech giant, Fadell shared with fans a key piece of Apple’s tech history. He revealed to Tech Crunch the initial iPod/iPhone hybrid concept and the prototype that combined elements of the music player and the phone and how the idea later birthed the iPhone. The prototype was sent to him by a third-party manufacturer that created a device that incorporate the functions of the phone with a number pad, camera and click wheel fo...

Elon Musk‘s Twitter acquisition continues to be the topic of conversation amongst the tech world. The deal was first announced in late April and has since sent the platform’s users into polarized viewpoints. However, over the weekend, the developments of the deal have been placed on hold due to Musk’s decision to look into Twitter’s fake accounts. The company recently disclosed that spam and fake accounts make up of less than 5% of the monetizable activity on the platform in Q1 of 2022. His choice to put the deal on hold caused the stock price of the platform to plummet 20%. In response to Elon Musk placing the deal on hold, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal still seems confident that the deal will push through. In a series of Tweets, Agrawal said that they “need to be prepared for all scenarios a...

Elon Musk‘s Twitter acquisition continues to be the topic of conversation amongst the tech world. The deal was first announced in late April and has since sent the platform’s users into polarized viewpoints. However, over the weekend, the developments of the deal have been placed on hold due to Musk’s decision to look into Twitter’s fake accounts. The company recently disclosed that spam and fake accounts make up of less than 5% of the monetizable activity on the platform in Q1 of 2022. His choice to put the deal on hold caused the stock price of the platform to plummet 20%. In response to Elon Musk placing the deal on hold, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal still seems confident that the deal will push through. In a series of Tweets, Agrawal said that they “need to be prepared for all scenarios a...

Tennant and Tate will star in an upcoming 2023 special. | Image: BBC David Tennant and Catherine Tate will return to Doctor Who in celebration of the long-running show’s 60th anniversary, the BBC has announced (via Gizmodo). The pair are currently filming scenes that are set to air in 2023. Tennant starred as Doctor Who’s Tenth Doctor from 2005 to 2010, while Tate played The Doctor’s companion, Donna Noble. The fan-favorite Doctor has made a reappearance in the past, with the BBC bringing back Tennant and Billie Piper (Rose Tyler) for Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary special in 2013, called “The Day of the Doctor.” But now, Tennant is set to make yet another return a whole decade later. They’re back! David Tennant and Catherine Tate return to Doctor Who ❤️❤️&...

Google and Samsung have partnered to create Health Connect, a platform and API (application programming interface) that gives developers a toolset to sync users’ health data between Android apps and devices. This should make it easier for users to keep track of their health and fitness data across several different platforms. Once a user opts in, developers can compile their health data in an encrypted hub that’s located on a user’s device. Google says users will get full control over what kind of data they share and what apps they share it with. If more than one app is collecting the same type of data, such as steps taken, users can choose to share that data with one app over the others. Health Connect supports over 50 data types in a number of categories, including activity, body measure...

Boost Mobile will now let you pay part of your phone bill with “blockchain-backed” Boostcoins earned through watching ads and playing games (via CNET). In a press release, the carrier says you can get BoostCoins by downloading the new BoostOne app, and then interacting with the games, ads, and Boost Mobile’s partners from within the app. But don’t get too excited just yet — one Boostcoin equals just one cent. In other words, you’ll likely have to dedicate a lot of time to the app if you want to see any significant savings. As pointed out by CNET, watching an ad lasting several seconds will earn you two Boostcoins. There’s also a Wheel of Fortune-style Spin & Win game that rewards players with anywhere from five cents to $5 in a single spin. It’s unclear whether there are limitations on...

Handheld maker Aya Neo is adding the Aya Neo 2 and Aya Neo Slide to its lineup of portable PC gaming devices, both of which are set to come with an upgraded Ryzen 7 6800U chip and a Radeon 680M integrated GPU with RDNA 2 graphics, according to a report from Liliputing. The Radeon 680M iGPU is capable of pushing 3.38 teraflops, more than double the 1.6 teraflops delivered by the Steam Deck. As pointed out by Tom’s Hardware, the Ryzen 7 6800 APU (accelerated processing unit) comes with eight cores and runs on the faster Zen 3 plus architecture. It also comes with the integrated Radeon 680M iGPU, which has 12 compute units (CUs). For comparison, the Steam Deck has a quad-core AMD APU that runs on the older Zen 2 architecture and an iGPU with RDNA 2 graphics and eight CUs. Judging by these spe...