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Mobile gaming has come a long way from endless swipes on Fruit Ninja. With today’s games offering open worlds, complex combat systems, and even the option to stream full console titles, the weak link is usually the controls. Touch screens get frustrating fast. That’s where a snap-on controller makes all the difference, and the Razer Kishi Ultra is one of the more serious options out there. At $89.99 on Woot (for the next three weeks or until it sells out), it’s a notable deal compared to Amazon’s $132 listing (down from $149.99), and even undercuts the lowest price it has ever hit ($99.99), according to price-trackers. Prime members get free standard shipping, while others will need to pay $6, though shipping isn’t available to Alaska, Hawaii, or P.O. boxes.
The Kishi Ultra feels less like a mobile add-on and more like a split Xbox controller. It’s bigger than most competitors, with proper grips and full-sized controls that make longer sessions less of a hand-cramp gamble. The triggers use Hall Effect sensors, so they’re smoother and more precise than the typical mushy plastic triggers you’d find elsewhere, and the mechanical face buttons click in with satisfying feedback. There’s also a proper 8-way D-pad for fighting games or retro titles, plus a couple of extra bumper buttons you can map however you like. Razer even added its signature Chroma RGB lighting around the edges if you want a little flair. And unlike other handheld controllers, this one doesn’t just fit phones; it can stretch wide enough to hold an iPad Mini, which makes it feel more versatile.
That said, you’ll need a USB-C device to use it, so anything older than an iPhone 15 is out. The upside is that the same port lets you double this as a wired PC controller, which extends its usefulness beyond mobile. Also, on iOS, cloud streaming support can be a little clunky with services like Xbox Game Pass, and there’s no virtual gamepad option, but for Android users or those who stream via Razer’s own Remote Play service, it works well, notes this PCMag review.
The United States has emerged as the largest investor in commercial spyware—a global industry that has enabled the covert surveillance of journalists, human rights defenders, politicians, diplomats, and others, posing grave threats to human rights and national security.
In 2024, 20 new US-based spyware investors were identified, bringing the total number of American backers of this technology to 31. This growth has largely outpaced other major investing countries such as Israel, Italy, and the United Kingdom, according to a new report published today by the Atlantic Council.
The study surveyed 561 entities across 46 countries between 1992 and 2024, identifying 34 new investors. This brings the total to 128, up from 94 in the dataset published last year.
Europe, the bloc with 24 official languages and 287 spoken in total, won’t get Apple’s Live Translation with AirPods feature for now. “Live Translation with AirPods is not available if you are in the EU and your Apple Account Country or Region is also in the EU,” the company said on its iOS feature availability page. No reason was given, but it may have to do with the EU’s strict rules around artificial intelligence and how it impacts privacy.
If that’s the case, Apple may be waiting for the EU to approve or examine the feature before implementing it in the region. The AI Act is most strictly applied to “high-risk use cases” involving the potential for discrimination or violation of users’ privacy. To that end, the EU may want to ensure that date stored when using the app is kept securely and locally in the bloc.
Apple’s phrasing about availability seems to indicate that it will work for North American and other users visiting the bloc and possibly vice-versa. Only users with an Apple Europe account who are also in Europe won’t be able to access the feature.
Live Translation lets users with AirPods communicate naturally with speakers of other languages. If the other party also has AirPods, the conversation is translated and heard by both people. If you’re speaking with someone without AirPods, speech is translated onto your phone where it can be either be read or heard by the other party.
Live Translation was first introduced at WWDC as part of iOS 26 and unveiled as a key feature for the AirPods Pro 3 during Apple’s “Awe Dropping” event on Tuesday. It will work on iPhone 15 and later devices running Apple Intelligence, and be available with the AirPods Pro 3, AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 once iOS 26 arrives on September 15.
Right now, Live Translation supports real-time translation between English, French, German, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish. However, Apple plans to add Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (simplified) support later in 2025.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/live-translation-with-airpods-wont-come-to-eu-based-apple-users-125410519.html?src=rss
For years, the world of high-performance AI training has been a kingdom ruled by a single sovereign: NVIDIA. But the latest results from the MLPerf industry benchmark signal a powerful challenger is not just at the gates, it is breaching the walls. In a landmark submission, AMD showcased staggering performance with its Instinct MI300X GPUs that demonstrated not only record-breaking speed but a rapidly maturing software ecosystem. This isn’t just another incremental update; it’s a declaration that the AI hardware race is now a fiercely contested, two-horse race, promising a new era of innovation and competition for the entire industry.
To understand the gravity of AMD’s achievement, one must first understand MLPerf. Organized by the MLCommons consortium, MLPerf is the Olympics of AI hardware and software. It provides a level playing field where companies like AMD, NVIDIA and Google submit their platforms to be tested on a suite of real-world, machine-learning training tasks. These benchmarks are the industry’s de facto gold standard for measuring performance, making them a critical barometer for enterprise customers deciding where to invest billions in their AI infrastructure. A strong showing here isn’t just about bragging rights; it’s about proving viability, performance and readiness for the most demanding AI workloads on the planet.
For this latest round, AMD submitted results for a standard server configuration featuring eight of its Instinct MI300X accelerators. This platform is AMD’s heavyweight contender, designed specifically to tackle the massive computational demands of training and deploying large language models (LLMs) and other generative AI systems.
The results speak for themselves. AMD’s submission demonstrated remarkable performance, particularly on some of the most popular and demanding models in use today. Using its robust ROCm 6 open software stack, the 8x MI300X server showed impressive “time-to-train” results, a critical metric that measures how quickly a system can train a model to a target level of accuracy.
One of the most significant takeaways was the platform’s scaling efficiency. In the world of AI, throwing more GPUs at a problem doesn’t guarantee a proportional increase in speed. The magic lies in making those GPUs work together seamlessly. AMD’s submission demonstrated near-linear scaling as it increased the number of GPUs, a testament to the maturity of its Infinity Fabric interconnect technology and the ROCm software. For enterprise customers, this is a crucial proof point: it means that as their AI needs grow, they can confidently scale their AMD-based infrastructure and expect predictable, powerful performance gains.
Perhaps more important than the raw performance numbers is what they were achieved on. For the first time, AMD submitted MLPerf results for training two of the industry’s most influential open-source models: Meta’s Llama 3 70B and Mistral’s Mixtral 8x7B. This is a massive strategic victory. For years, the primary barrier to AMD’s adoption in AI has not been the hardware itself, but the incumbency of NVIDIA’s CUDA software ecosystem. By demonstrating out-of-the-box, high-performance support for the very models that developers and businesses are clamoring to use, AMD is dismantling that barrier piece by piece.
This move signals that the ROCm software stack has reached a new level of maturity and usability that is capable of handling the complex demands of state-of-the-art models. It sends a clear message to the AI community that AMD is not just a hardware provider, but a serious platform contender committed to supporting the open-source models that are driving much of the innovation in generative AI.
Ultimately, every MLPerf submission is measured against the reigning champion. While direct, perfectly apples-to-apples comparisons are complex, the results place AMD’s MI300X in the same elite performance tier as NVIDIA’s formidable H100 GPUs. In several key benchmarks, AMD’s platform demonstrated performance that was not just competitive, but in some cases exceeded that of the NVIDIA submission in similar hardware categories.
This shatters the long-held perception that NVIDIA is the only viable option for cutting-edge AI training. It provides enterprise CIOs and AI researchers with what they have desperately needed: a choice. The ability to field a competitive bid from a second high-performance vendor introduces competition that can drive down prices, accelerate innovation and reduce the risks associated with being dependent on a single supplier.
AMD’s latest MLPerf results are a watershed moment for the AI industry. They represent the culmination of years of strategic investment in both silicon and software, resulting in a platform that can stand toe-to-toe with the best in the world. By delivering record-breaking performance, demonstrating near-perfect scaling and embracing the open-source models that define the modern AI landscape, AMD has proven it is no longer just an alternative but a true competitor for the AI throne. For a field that thrives on competition and innovation, this is unequivocally great news and heralds a future with more choice, better performance and faster progress for everyone.
Whether it’s a thumbnail-sized urban oasis or intended to get you through the zombie apocalypse (or something in between), keeping a home garden is a lot of fun—and a lot of work. It’s worth it, of course—aside from the natural beauty and the fresh veggies you can get from a personal garden, there are a host of physical, emotional, and mental health benefits associated with gardening. That assumes your garden is a success, of course.
If you have a brown thumb and your gardening efforts always turn into a floral graveyard, you might not be experiencing those benefits. If that describes you, the missing ingredient to your gardening triumph might be technology: There are a lot of apps and AI tools out there that can help you with everything from planning to maintaining your garden. If you’re struggling to keep things green, check out these apps and AI-powered tools you can use in your own home garden.
If you’ve never seriously gardened before, or just need some assistance planning it all out in terms of space, species, and layout, there are several tools that can make this process simpler for you:
VegPlotter is a simple, straightforward app ideal for folks who find complex, feature-packed tools to be difficult to use. You create a simple layout of your garden, select what you’re growing there, and the app tracks a calendar of growth and harvest times for you. It will even warn you if you don’t have enough space for your chosen plants. Cost: Free for up to 40 plantings; $22 or $35 per year for more options.
Planter is an alternative garden planner that’s easy to use—you just drag cute little pictures of plants onto a grid representing your garden. Planter automatically decides how many “squares” of your grid each plant needs, which makes it easier to lay everything out. Cost: Free, $24.99 per year, or $99 for a lifetime plan.
Garden Planner is a good choice if you need to plan out more than just plants, as it allows you to include pathways, fencing, and other landscaping features in your garden plan. It’s not as user-friendly as VegPlotter or Planter, but it’s relatively straightforward. Cost: $48 after a 15-day free trial.
Smart Gardener is a great tool if you want to feed yourself and your family from your own vegetable garden, as it will quiz you on how many people are in the household, what zones you live in, and other basic info to help you plan what to grow and when you’ll be able to harvest it. Cost: $15 for 90 days; $40 for a year.
Seed to Spoon offers a lot of tools for planning and caring for a garden, including a robust companion plant reference that makes it stand out. The app shows you which plants will thrive together, making it simple to fill up your garden with a harmonious selection. Cost: Free version includes 10 free plants, $4.99 for 1 month, $24.99 for 6 months, and $46.99 for a year.
PictureThis is a simple, but powerful, plant ID tool. With just a quick photo of any plant, you’ll find out what you’re looking at, an assessment of its relative health, and information about its care. This is a necessity if you’re taking over an existing garden, if you’re “ungardening,” or if you wake up to discover invader plants insinuating themselves into your planned space. Cost: Free.
A garden is a living thing, and all living things change over time. Keeping a garden journal is a crucial aspect of gardening, as it lets you track what you’ve grown, what yields were like, and what works and what doesn’t in your specific little spot. While you can certainly keep track of all this using a variety of tools (some of the other apps listed here include this feature, and there’s always old-fashioned pen and paper), Gardenize is a simple garden journal tool that makes it easy to input information about your garden. It automatically timestamps everything and makes it easy to see the impact of your choices over time. Cost: $8.99 for one month, $3.74 per month for 12 months, or $6.66 per month for three months.
Sometimes you don’t want a bunch of apps that do specific things—you want a single app that does everything:
Seedtime is a comprehensive gardening app that many gardeners swear by. It includes just about everything you need, from a harvest and planting calendar generated from a list of what you want to grow to planning, layout, and journaling tools. It even tracks your inventory of seeds, fertilizer, and other supplies and lets you know when they expire or need replenishing. Cost: Free for the limited version, $7 per month for a basic subscription, or $9 for an unlimited subscription.
Growbot AI is a general AI tool—it’s basically ChatGPT but specifically for gardening. You can ask it anything you need to know and get an answer back in natural language, including specific numbers and timelines, if applicable. It’s only available on iOS, however, so if you’re an Android user, you might be stuck using a more generic AI chatbot for your questions. Cost: Free, or $29.99 annual subscription.
A group led by RSS co-creator Eckart Walther has launched a new protocol designed to standardize and scale licensing of online content for AI training. Backed by publishers like Reddit, Quora, Yahoo, and Medium, Real Simple Licensing (RSL) combines machine-readable terms in robots.txt with a collective rights organization, aiming to do for AI training data what ASCAP did for music royalties. However, it remains to be seen whether AI labs will agree to adopt it. TechCrunch reports: According to RSL co-founder Eckart Walther, who also co-created the RSS standard, the goal was to create a training-data licensing system that could scale across the internet. “We need to have machine-readable licensing agreements for the internet,” Walther told TechCrunch. “That’s really what RSL solves.”
For years, groups like the Dataset Providers Alliance have been pushing for clearer collection practices, but RSL is the first attempt at a technical and legal infrastructure that could make it work in practice. On the technical side, the RSL Protocol lays out specific licensing terms a publisher can set for their content, whether that means AI companies need a custom license or to adopt Creative Commons provisions. Participating websites will include the terms as part of their “robots.txt” file in a prearranged format, making it straightforward to identify which data falls under which terms.
On the legal side, the RSL team has established a collective licensing organization, the RSL Collective, that can negotiate terms and collect royalties, similar to ASCAP for musicians or MPLC for films. As in music and film, the goal is to give licensors a single point of contact for paying royalties and provide rights holders a way to set terms with dozens of potential licensors at once. A host of web publishers have already joined the collective, including Yahoo, Reddit, Medium, O’Reilly Media, Ziff Davis (owner of Mashable and Cnet), Internet Brands (owner of WebMD), People Inc., and The Daily Beast. Others, like Fastly, Quora, and Adweek, are supporting the standard without joining the collective.
Notably, the RSL Collective includes some publishers that already have licensing deals — most notably Reddit, which receives an estimated $60 million a year from Google for use of its training data. There’s nothing stopping companies from cutting their own deals within the RSL system, just as Taylor Swift can set special terms for licensing while still collecting royalties through ASCAP. But for publishers too small to draw their own deals, RSL’s collective terms are likely to be the only option.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The first 21 satellites in a constellation that could become a cornerstone for the Pentagon’s Golden Dome missile defense shield successfully launched from California Wednesday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The Falcon 9 took off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, at 7:12 am PDT (10:12 am EDT; 14:12 UTC) and headed south over the Pacific Ocean, heading for an orbit over the poles before releasing the 21 military-owned satellites to begin several weeks of activations and checkouts.
These 21 satellites will boost themselves to a final orbit at an altitude of roughly 600 miles (1,000 kilometers). The Pentagon plans to launch 133 more satellites over the next nine months to complete the build-out of the Space Development Agency’s first-generation, or Tranche 1, constellation of missile tracking and data relay satellites.
Amazon’s Zoox officially launched its driverless robotaxi service in Las Vegas with free rides from a few select locations. “Riders will eventually have to pay, but Zoox said it’s waiting on regulatory approval to take that step,” notes CNBC. A broader rollout is expected in the coming months. From the report: … unlike Waymo and Tesla, Zoox’s electric robotaxi doesn’t resemble a car. There’s no steering wheel or pedals, and the rectangular shape has led many in the industry to describe it as a toaster on wheels. Zoox co-founder and technology chief Jesse Levinson says, “We use robotaxi or vehicle or Zoox.” “You can shoehorn a robotaxi into something that used to be a car. It’s just not an ideal solution,” Levinson told CNBC in an interview in Las Vegas. “We wanted to do that hard work and take the time and invest in that, and then bring something to market that’s just much better than a car.”
Zoox was founded in 2014, five years after Google formed the project that became Waymo. Following Las Vegas, the company said it plans to debut an early rider program in San Francisco before the end of the year. The company has been testing a fleet of 50 robotaxis in San Francisco and Las Vegas. Austin and Miami will be Zoox’s next locations, the company said. Zoox will soon begin testing robotaxis in those markets, and said it’s already driving retrofitted test vehicles in Los Angeles, Atlanta and Seattle. “We think it’s very, very early days, and the future is not written yet,” said Levinson, during a demo ride with CNBC.
Zoox’s Las Vegas depot spans 190,000 square feet, which is about the size of three football fields. At the facility, the company houses the dozens of vehicles set to start operating around the city. Smartphone users will be able to order them from Top Golf, Area15, Resorts World Las Vegas, New York-New York Hotel & Casino and Luxor Hotel & Casino. The robotaxi features two rows of seats that face each other and can transport up to four people at a time. The front and rear are identical, with bidirectional wheels that allow it to move forward or backward without turning around. The vehicle can run for 16 hours on a single charge. Floor-to-ceiling windows provide a sightseeing experience for passengers who want a clear view of the endless rows of casinos. But the interior design is meant to enable easy conversation with fellow riders. “It’s not a retrofitted car,” said Zoox CEO Aicha Evans. “It’s built from the ground up around the rider.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
U.S. officials issued an advisory warning that foreign-made solar-powered highway infrastructure may contain hidden radios embedded in inverters and batteries. Reuters reports: The advisory, disseminated late last month by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration, comes amid escalating government action over the presence of Chinese technology in America’s transportation infrastructure. The four-page security note, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, said that undocumented cellular radios had been discovered “in certain foreign-manufactured power inverters and BMS,” referring to battery management systems.
The note, which has not previously been reported, did not specify where the products containing undocumented equipment had been imported from, but many inverters are made in China. There is increasing concern from U.S. officials that the devices, along with the electronic systems that manage rechargeable batteries, could be seeded with rogue communications components that would allow them to be remotely tampered with on Beijing’s orders. […]
The August 20 advisory said the devices were used to power a range of U.S. highway infrastructure, including signs, traffic cameras, weather stations, solar-powered visitor areas and warehouses, and electric vehicle chargers. The risks it cited included simultaneous outages and surreptitious theft of data. The alert suggested that relevant authorities inventory inverters across the U.S. highway system, scan devices with spectrum analysis technology to detect any unexpected communications, disable or remove any undocumented radios, and make sure their networks were properly segmented.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motor1: BMW watched from the sidelines as Audi, Porsche, Mercedes, Volvo, and others announced lofty EV goals a few years ago, only to backtrack in recent months. Munich never vowed to go fully electric within a set timeframe, instead preferring to give customers the freedom of choice. It projects demand will be evenly split between gas and electric cars by 2030, but Bavaria hasn’t committed to a combustion-free future. The company maintains its desire to give people what they want rather than artificially restricting powertrains to EVs, as the European Union plans for 2035. In an interview with Australian magazine CarExpert, Chief Technology Officer Joachim Post argued it should ultimately come down to buyers, not the EU: “Finally, the customer decides.”
Provided the ban takes effect in a little over nine years, the board member fears it could have massive repercussions: “If the European Commission is going to say they have a plan to cut the combustion engine in 2035, they’re not asking the customers and how [EV charging] infrastructure is coming up, how the energy prices are and all the things there. It’s stupid to do that in that way. And you can kill an industry doing it that way.”
His concerns are echoed by Mercedes CEO Ola Kallenius, who recently warned the European car industry is “heading at full speed against a wall” and could even “collapse” if the EU doesn’t reconsider. The statement came shortly after Stuttgart’s boss admitted the company had to make a “course correction” to keep combustion engines longer than initially planned. Mercedes continues to invest in conventional powertrains, and there’s even a completely new V-8 from AMG on the way. The report notes that BMW continues to generate strong profits from its combustion engines, ranging from three-, four-, six-, and eight-cyclinder engines to a Rolls-Royce V-12 — even supplying rivals like Toyota and possibly soon Mercedes.
In fact, the “M” in BMW stands for “Motoren” (German for “engine”).
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
This is a 3D visualization created by Youtube channel RED SIDE featuring the evolution of the fastest wheeled vehicles from 1898 to present. It’s pretty wild to think there was an electric car that could do 39MPH in 1898, and one that could go 65MPH by 1899. Then electric vehicles fell off due to the advancements in gas engine technology, mass production, and the proliferation of gas stations. Now they’re back! Further proof that all technology is cyclical. Page me later?
President Trump on Tuesday issued a memorandum directing the FDA and HHS to crack down on misleading direct-to-consumer prescription drug ads, requiring clearer disclosure of risks and ensuring that promotions don’t overstate benefits or push costly drugs over generics. Longtime Slashdot reader sinij shares an excerpt from the memorandum: The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall therefore take appropriate action to ensure transparency and accuracy in direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising, including by increasing the amount of information regarding any risks associated with the use of any such prescription drug required to be provided in prescription drug advertisements, to the extent permitted by applicable law. The Commissioner of Food and Drugs shall take appropriate action to enforce the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act’s prescription drug advertising provisions, and otherwise ensure truthful and non-misleading information in direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertisements. “Advertising dollars is a major avenue for pharmaceutical companies to influence news and attempt to shape public opinion,” comments sinij. “Advertising was a major contributor to painkiller addiction, where networks were hesitant to cover early reports of addictiveness. It is likely directly contributing today to lack of critical coverage of Ozempic. It is just too big of a conflict of interest to allow to stand.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Amazon may be muscling into the field of augmented reality glasses. According to a report by The Information, sources claimed that the company is working on AR glasses for consumers, allegedly with plans to release the product in late 2026 or early 2027.
Insiders told the publication that the project, internally dubbed Jayhawk, would equip AR glasses with microphones, speakers, a camera and a full-color display in one eye. Amazon is reportedly using Chinese company Meta-Bounds for the AR tech.
Amazon is also working on a separate model of AR glasses specifically for its delivery drivers under the codename Amelia. This productivity-focused option, which would reportedly shave seconds off drivers’ times, could be ready by the second quarter of 2026, according to The Information‘s sources.
If Amazon does release these AR sets, it will primarily be in competition with Meta, which already sells simpler smart glasses with Ray-Ban. The social media company is expected to launch a new product currently dubbed Hypernova at its Connect conference next week, a set that pushes more into a true augmented reality experience with a similar one-eye AR concept.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/amazon-is-reportedly-developing-separate-ar-glasses-for-customers-and-its-drivers-230826640.html?src=rss
No, probably not. I can’t remember the last time any jellybean was finger lickin’ good, and I love jellybeans. Even the licorice ones. “You have a sweet tooth?” I have sweet TEETH — all of them. What’s left of them anyways. KFC and Frankford Candy LLC have teamed up to produce KFC jellybeans in fried chicken, sweet corn, and gravy flavors. The beans should be available before Easter next year. Yay? Eat a handful and you’ve got yourself a traditional KFC dinner! Just, you know, without any of the– “Nutrition.” I was going to say grease.
Oracle shares had their best day since 1992, skyrocketing 36% and adding $244 billion in market value as surging AI-driven cloud demand pushed the company toward a $1 trillion valuation. The surge boosted founder Larry Ellison’s fortune by $100 billion, making him the new world’s wealthiest person. CNBC reports: The company said Tuesday after the bell that it has $455 billion in remaining performance obligations, up 359% from a year earlier. “This is a very historic kind of print right here from Oracle with this backlog,” Ben Reitzes, technology research head at Melius Research, told CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime” on Tuesday. “The Street was looking for about $180 billion in RPO and they’re talking about a number that is a multiple of that. That is astounding.”
Oracle now sees $18 billion in cloud infrastructure revenue in fiscal 2026, with the company calling for the annual sum to reach $32 billion, $73 billion, $114 billion and $144 billion over the subsequent four years. Other analysts were left “blown away” and “in shock.” D.A. Davidson’s Gil Luria called it “absolutely staggering on CNBC’s “Fast Money.” Wells Fargo analysts said it was a “momentous confirmation” of the AI trade.
Oracle’s cloud revenue projections overshadowed an otherwise lackluster fiscal first-quarter report in which the company missed expectations on the top and bottom lines. The company had earnings of an adjusted $1.47 per share for the quarter, just below the $1.48 per share expected by analysts polled by LSEG. Revenue for the first quarter came in at $14.93 billion, missing the $15.04 billion expected.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
When the video kicking off Apple’s “Awe dropping” event began yesterday, I was pleased to see a HomePod in the opening shot. I hadn’t given any thought to Apple’s beleaguered smart home speaker in ages, so I was all set for Tim Cook and crew to deliver an actual surprise and reveal new stuff for HomePod. When the entire presentation then passed without another peep about the product, I was disappointed, but resigned.
HomePod has always been behind the curve. When smart speakers first came on the scene, the sector was quickly dominated by Amazon and Google, with Sonos as the boutique third-party option. Apple announced the HomePod in June 2017, almost three years after Amazon unveiled its original Echo speaker.
The HomePod arrived too slow and cost too much, and (in an echo of the company’s current woes) Siri was too unhelpful, for the smart speaker to really claw back much market share from its rivals. The Mini iteration came out in late 2020, and the second-generation HomePod in February 2023 added support for Thread smart home standard. Not exactly pushing the boundaries of smart speaker innovation.
And things got worse for the poor HomePod as voice-controlled AI assistants have transitioned away from being centered around dedicated speakers. AI is now being integrated ever-more tightly into our smartphones and computers, with less need for a separate intermediary device. Which brings us to the ongoing issue of Apple’s shaky foothold in the AI race.
Apple has been promising a big overhaul to Siri for awhile, with the new and improved version currently not due until spring 2026. To show off that new AI assistant, Apple is reportedly working on an interactive smart home hub that is expected to have HomePod-like audio capabilities baked in, but won’t be ready for launch until at least 2027. What’s a company to do in the interim?
It makes sense for Apple to hold back on any big developments to its existing Siri-centric smart home speaker. I get it. But I could have been hyped to see a stripped down HomePod that focused more on being a speaker than on being smart. I have a Sonos that I love, and part of me assumed that I would eventually upgrade to an Apple offering. The AirPods are such a great element in the Apple ecosystem, and I use mine almost daily. Having a powerful, high-quality home speaker that delivers the easy interconnectivity that’s such a big part of Apple’s value proposition might have helped bridge the time gap, keeping Apple in people’s minds as a player in home tech while the company works on its next, more innovative move. Take one step back to take three steps forward.
In practice, though, it feels like the window for the HomePod to become a star in Apple’s lineup has shrunk to almost nothing. As I now look at the recent trends in AI and home tech, I don’t see an obvious space for a smart speaker. That’s not limited to Apple; it’s also pretty telling that both Amazon and Google haven’t been giving much love to their smart speakers either. In fact, a majority of Engadget’s favorite smart speakers this year are from specialist Sonos as the big tech names have put their focus on AI instead of audio. We’ll still have smart speakers, but they’ll be folded into multi-purpose gadgets and pitched as general smart-home aids.
To be clear, there’s been no indication that Apple will sunset the HomePod. But my personal prediction is that HomePod will stay on the sidelines for now and get pushed even farther away from the spotlight when the new smart home products are unveiled, receiving only occasional attention until Apple officially and quietly pulls the plug for good. And so will end the life of a star-crossed product that never got the chance to shine at its full potential. Here’s hoping I’m wrong.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/as-apple-pursues-ai-spare-a-thought-for-the-poor-homepod-223250670.html?src=rss
An anonymous reader shares a report: Getting cash from an ATM is growing increasingly expensive as fees reach record highs. Americans are now paying an average of $4.86 for out-of-network ATM withdrawals, up 1.9% from $4.77 last year, according to a new survey from Bankrate.com. That’s the highest on record, according to the personal finance website, which starting tracking ATM fees 27 years ago.
“ATM fees are just one of those avenues that the bank can very freely continue to charge fees,” Bankrate financial analyst Stephen Kates told CBS MoneyWatch. Those costs include charges from both ATM owners and banks. According to the survey, the average fee from cash machine providers is $3.22. Banks charge $1.64 on average, up 3.8% from 2024 — the highest since 2018. As a result, Americans in certain metro areas could see average combined fees of more than $5.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Verizon lost an attempt to overturn a $46.9 million fine for selling customer location data without its users’ consent. The US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit rejected Verizon’s challenge in a ruling issued today.
The Federal Communications Commission fined the three major carriers last year for violations revealed in 2018. The companies sued the FCC in three different courts, with varying results.
AT&T beat the FCC in the reliably conservative US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, while T-Mobile lost in the District of Columbia Circuit. Although FCC Chairman Brendan Carr voted against the fine last year, when the commission had a Democratic majority, his FCC urged the courts to uphold the Biden-era decisions.