Monthly Archives: November 2023

Amazon is officially killing the Comixology app, forcing users over to Kindle

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Amazon has begun notifying Comixology users that they’ll no longer be able to read comics on the app come December 4. Comixology is merging with the Kindle app, and users’ libraries will soon only be accessible via the latter. The move caps off the ruination of Comixology that began nearly two years ago, when Amazon started chipping away at the platform’s native features and general usability in order to force a fit with its own ecosystem.

The Comixology app will officially be dead as of December 4, according to Amazon. From that point on, all of the comics, manga and graphic novels a user has purchased or borrowed on Comixology will live exclusively in the Kindle app. While Amazon says things like reading progress will be synced, you’ll have to redownload everything in the Kindle app if you want to pick up where you left off, even on the same device. There are filters to see “Comics & Manga” or “Books” only, for anyone not thrilled about having it all jumbled together.

The writing was on the wall for Comixology for some time, and while the termination of the app may not entirely come as a surprise for longtime users, it’s surely a bummer. Amazon has owned Comixology since 2014, but only in recent years has it really started to impose its influence on the product in a noticeable way.

The browser version of Comixology shut down in early 2022, and the alternative — using the Kindle app or Amazon’s own browser-based reader — made a lot of comics more or less unreadable. Integration with the Amazon store made for a clunky search experience when looking for specific titles, especially at first. And at the start of 2023, Amazon laid off thousands of employees, including Comixology staff, signaling doom for the service’s future.

Moving forward, the process of purchasing comics through Amazon’s Comixology storefront will be the same. Comixology Unlimited subscriptions will also remain intact, according to Amazon.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-is-officially-killing-the-comixology-app-forcing-users-over-to-kindle-213911500.html?src=rss

Google Photos has new AI-powered features to clean up your library

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A set of features rolling out to Google Photos today will make it much easier to declutter your photo library, the company announced in a blog post. Google Photos will now automatically identify similar photos that you took in rapid succession – helpful for those times when you clicked 50 shots of that gorgeous sunset to get the one perfect frame you will never look at again – and group them in a single “stack” to clean up your library.

The service will select a top pick that best represents the moment, but you can manually choose an image you want too. If you prefer to have multiple sunsets littering your library, you can turn off stacking.

A new feature in Google Photos groups similar images together.
Google

Photos will also automatically organize your pictures, separating IDs, receipts, and tickets into different albums, a feature that seems like it should have been there ages ago given how good Google Photos is at recognizing what’s in your images. You can also add an event to your calendar directly from a screenshot or a photo of a ticket, which seems really useful.

Unsurprisingly, Google says that all these features are powered by AI, something that the company has lately been cramming into all its products in general. Google Photos, however, has always been powered by AI. For years, the service sucked up all your photos and stored them in exchange for training its machine learning algorithms on them to be able to recognize their contents. That’s why you can search Google Photos for pictures of dogs or the beach, for instance, so easily (Google stopped providing free storage for Photos a couple of years ago).

Earlier this year, Google added another AI-powered feature to Photos that creates personalized scrapbook montages. Google’s algorithms sort your photos into relevant categories and create titles that you can modify if you want. Google also lets people use AI to easily make edits, such as removing unwanted people or objects from photos.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-photos-has-new-ai-powered-features-to-clean-up-your-library-204512642.html?src=rss

OnePlus may be hinting at a transparent speaker to be launched soon

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One of the better design trends that have made a comeback lately (and one that I wholeheartedly approve of) is the transparent device. We’re seeing things from phone cases to game controllers and devices to printers to keyboards to smart glasses sport that see-through design that we went crazy for back in the 90s. It’s pretty interesting to see the “inner workings” of these devices or at least pretending to see the insides of the gadgets. Now it looks like Chinese brand OnePlus may come out with their own transparent design device that is not a smartphone.

Designer: OnePlus

OnePlus India recently released a teaser ad that seems to hint at a new device that they will be announcing soon. With the tagline “The wonder of music meets the power of tech”, the teaser ad features what looks like a speaker system with an obviously transparent design. This is an expansion of their current product line which is mostly made up of mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, and wireless earbuds. While having speakers is not really that surprising, what caught people’s attention is the supposed design of the alleged device.

The teaser shows a transparent cube that shows off components that are most likely what you can find inside speakers. Since it’s still just an initial ad and not really the official one, we have no way of knowing what are the specifications of this upcoming product, whether it’s just a portable speaker or a whole speaker system. There is also some speculation that this may be a collaboration with another tech brand, Nothing, which has also been reported to be launching new audio hardware with a transparent design as well.

There is no specific date yet for an official announcement so all we have to go on, for now, is this teaser ad from OnePlus in The Times of India. But based on the image in this ad, it will be a pretty interesting piece of audio hardware if they indeed go with the transparent or see-through design. It will also be interesting to see how the brand (or brands, if the collaboration is true) will fit into the market and go against more established speaker brands.

The post OnePlus may be hinting at a transparent speaker to be launched soon first appeared on Yanko Design.

OnePlus may be hinting at a transparent speaker to be launched soon

Posted on by

One of the better design trends that have made a comeback lately (and one that I wholeheartedly approve of) is the transparent device. We’re seeing things from phone cases to game controllers and devices to printers to keyboards to smart glasses sport that see-through design that we went crazy for back in the 90s. It’s pretty interesting to see the “inner workings” of these devices or at least pretending to see the insides of the gadgets. Now it looks like Chinese brand OnePlus may come out with their own transparent design device that is not a smartphone.

Designer: OnePlus

OnePlus India recently released a teaser ad that seems to hint at a new device that they will be announcing soon. With the tagline “The wonder of music meets the power of tech”, the teaser ad features what looks like a speaker system with an obviously transparent design. This is an expansion of their current product line which is mostly made up of mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, and wireless earbuds. While having speakers is not really that surprising, what caught people’s attention is the supposed design of the alleged device.

The teaser shows a transparent cube that shows off components that are most likely what you can find inside speakers. Since it’s still just an initial ad and not really the official one, we have no way of knowing what are the specifications of this upcoming product, whether it’s just a portable speaker or a whole speaker system. There is also some speculation that this may be a collaboration with another tech brand, Nothing, which has also been reported to be launching new audio hardware with a transparent design as well.

There is no specific date yet for an official announcement so all we have to go on, for now, is this teaser ad from OnePlus in The Times of India. But based on the image in this ad, it will be a pretty interesting piece of audio hardware if they indeed go with the transparent or see-through design. It will also be interesting to see how the brand (or brands, if the collaboration is true) will fit into the market and go against more established speaker brands.

The post OnePlus may be hinting at a transparent speaker to be launched soon first appeared on Yanko Design.

Outer Wilds is actually, finally coming to Switch in December

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It's been a long time coming, but the Switch version of Outer Wilds now has an official release date of December 7, developers Annapurna Interactive and Mobius Digital announced during the Nintendo Indie World Showcase on Tuesday. Pre-orders for the digital version are now open, with a physical edition expected in early 2024.

Outer Wilds is already available on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 but there have clearly been some delays with the Nintendo Switch version, which was initially expected in 2021. For whatever reason, this seems to be a common issue with Nintendo Switch ports: We've reported on several other third-party publishers who have experienced setbacks in bringing their games to the Switch.

For the uninitiated, the popular game launches players into space for a little exploration, but things take an unexpected turn. Players soon realize they're stuck in a time loop. They’ll have just 22 minutes to figure out what’s happening before the sun goes supernova and forces them to start over again and again and again. Players must use the knowledge gained from each loop to bypass earlier obstacles and make it to the end.

Nintendo Switch users can purchase just Outer Wilds for $25 or Outer Wilds: Archaeologist Edition, featuring Outer Wilds and the Echoes of the Eye expansion for $38. Both editions are available for pre-order and currently 20 percent off until December 12.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/outer-wilds-is-actually-finally-coming-to-switch-in-december-195942023.html?src=rss

Lawmakers question Apple over cancellation of Jon Stewart’s show

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A group of lawmakers from a House of Representatives committee wants Apple, like many Jon Stewart enthusiasts, to explain why its streaming arm abruptly canceled the talk show The Problem With Jon Stewart. The current affairs TV series hosted by Jon Stewart briefly made its debut on Apple TV+ in 2021 but its time on air ended when the show received the ax for a third season, reportedly due to “disagreements” over show topics.

According to Reuters, Lawmakers want to know if the show's coverage and criticism of China has anything to do with the show’s cancellation. The government officials have asked Apple to speak on the issue by Dec 15, 2023. 

In a letter to the tech giant, the House members wrote that while Apple has the right to determine what content it deems appropriate for its platform, “the coercive tactics of a foreign power should not be directly or indirectly influencing these determinations.” This effort is bipartisan, with members from both Republican and Democratic parties affiliated with the House of Representatives' Select Committee on Competition with the Chinese Communist Party.

Roughly 19 percent of Apple sales come from China, with over $72.5 billion in net sales reported for the company’s fiscal 2023, which closed in September. It might make sense that the company would avoid streaming a show with strong political opinions that could impact its bottom line in such a significant way. But the show discussed several hot-button topics, including artificial intelligence and gun control. According to the New York Times, sources familiar with the matter said that, beyond discussions about China, the show’s criticism of topics like artificial intelligence played a role in the decision to cut the show.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lawmakers-question-apple-over-cancellation-of-jon-stewarts-show-192316298.html?src=rss

The iPhone 15 series will work with the upcoming Qi2 wireless charging standard

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When the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) unveiled its Qi2 charging standard earlier this year, we noted that it was built using Apple’s MagSafe technology. So it only makes sense that the iPhone 15 line will be among the first smartphones to adopt the new wireless charging method. It’s honestly quite rare to see Apple jumping on-board with a new technology so quickly, though the company has allowed for Qi wireless charging in the past.

In other words, new wireless iPhone 15 chargers are coming soon, this holiday season as a matter of fact. The WPC says companies like Belkin, Mophie, Anker and Aircharge have all pre-announced Qi2 products that should integrate with Apple’s latest and greatest. All told, over 100 devices are currently undergoing testing with an eye toward a near-future release. This includes Anker’s recently-announced MagGo lineup of chargers.

So what’s the big deal with Qi2? The WPC advertises faster charging, higher efficiency and greater convenience. It’s replacing the original Qi charging standard, which is over 13 years old now so, yeah, it’s time for a refresh. The Qi2 platform offers support for 15-watt charging and boasts foreign object detection, in addition to enhanced safety features to prevent device damage or battery life shortening.

Perhaps the greatest draw for Qi2, however, is with regard to interoperability. This is a new standard that should be adopted industry-wide, so you’ll be able to, in theory, use one Qi2 charger with a broad range of devices, no matter where you live in the world. The protocol even allows for the charging of unusually-shaped accessories that typically struggle with a flat charging pad.

All Qi2 devices will feature an obvious logo for branding purposes, so you know you aren’t about to use a knockoff charger. As a final aside, it’s pronounced “chee two” if you find yourself at a dinner party or something. Just a heads up.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-iphone-15-series-will-work-with-the-upcoming-qi2-wireless-charging-standard-190807866.html?src=rss

AI-powered Elmo and Cookie Monster are shilling $25 video messages on Cameo

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Cameo has added a pair of timeless superstars to its stable of celebrities (a term used loosely in some cases) available for personalized video greetings. Cookie Monster and Elmo, who may or may not have fallen on hard times, will shamelessly plug their services on the six-year-old platform, offering to count to your kid’s age or rattle off words that start with the same letter as your child’s name — for $25 a pop. Perhaps that relatively low price for the Sesame Street icons is because humans don’t appear to record their voices: Cameo describes the characters as “powered by artificial intelligence.”

Cookie Monster and Elmo join a Cameo crew that also includes Kenny G ($350 per message), Danica McKellar ($150) and Billy Dee Williams ($300), among many others. Other animated characters on the platform include Thomas the Tank Engine, Grumpy Bear (from Care Bears) and JJ from CoComelon.

“Hiya, it me, Cookie Monster,” the perpetually hungry, AI-fueled blue Muppet says in a sample Cameo on the service’s website. “Me so excited to meet you and maybe share a cookie or two. Me love to sing ‘Happy Birthday,’ say goodnight before bedtime or just say hi. Me can’t wait.”

Screenshot of the product page for Cookie Monster (AI-powered) greetings on Cameo.
Cameo / Sesame Workshop

Disclosures on the websites for the Sesame Street characters notify customers that AI powers them. “Elmo is a virtual character powered by artificial intelligence,” the description reads. “They will take the details you give them and craft a custom video just for you!” Engadget reached out to Cameo to clarify which parts of the message are AI-generated; we’ll update this article if we hear back.

Whether parents will find it worth paying for “personalized” greetings conjured by artificial intelligence remains to be seen. Still, at least the algorithmically created furry monster messages only cost around 12 percent of the price of Michael Rapaport.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai-powered-elmo-and-cookie-monster-are-shilling-25-video-messages-on-cameo-185614571.html?src=rss

Apple extends free emergency SOS satellite access for existing iPhone 14 owners

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It has been a year since Apple enabled emergency SOS via satellite on all iPhone 14 units in the US. The feature lets users text emergency services for help when they don't have cell service. The company is offering two years of free access upon activating an iPhone 14 or iPhone 15.

Apple has not said how much it will charge for the feature when the free access period ends. However, users won't have to worry about that for a couple more years. Apple says existing iPhone 14 users (i.e. those who activated their phone before Wednesday in a country where the service is available) will get free access for an extra year.

"Emergency SOS via satellite has helped save lives around the world. From a man who was rescued after his car plummeted over a 400-foot cliff in Los Angeles to lost hikers found in the Apennine Mountains in Italy, we continue to hear stories of our customers being able to connect with emergency responders when they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to," Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of worldwide iPhone product marketing, said. "We are so happy iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 users can take advantage of this groundbreaking service for two more years for free."

Apple is extending the free access period for many users not long after it emerged that Qualcomm's bid to offer a similar feature on Android devices has sputtered out. Iridium, its partner on the Snapdragon Satellite project, said smartphone makers have opted not to include the tech in their devices. Qualcomm noted that OEMs are looking for "standards-based solutions." The costs involved in the initiative may have put them off too.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-extends-free-emergency-sos-satellite-access-for-existing-iphone-14-owners-183256442.html?src=rss

Porsche Design Unveils the PD S20, its First Outdoor Wireless Speaker

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Porsche Design, renowned for its sleek, high-performance products, has recently unveiled the PDS20, marking its first foray into the realm of outdoor speakers. This move comes after years of producing other acclaimed audio products, underscoring Porsche Design’s commitment to expanding its portfolio and catering to a wider range of audiophile needs.

Designer: Porsche Design

Porsche Design has always been about blending top-notch design with serious tech and adding a sprinkle of automotive joy; their audio line is no exception. Take the 911 Speaker 2.0 60Y 911 for instance,  a limited-edition speaker modeled on the Porsche 911’s iconic tailpipe, proving Porsche Design knows a thing or two about exclusive, high-end audio gear. And if you’re in the mood to splurge, there’s the 911 Soundbar 2.0 Pro. This baby will set you back a cool $12,000.00, but it quite literally transforms an original exhaust pipe from a Porsche 992 GT3 into a staggering 300W sound system… But here’s where things get interesting with the PDS20. This isn’t just another high-end gadget in Porsche Design’s arsenal. Priced at a respectable $245.00, it’s their first outdoor speaker, and it’s a game-changer. Unlike its predecessors, the PDS20 is built for the great outdoors, with a tough, weather-resistant design and a sound that’s just as impressive in the open air as it is indoors. It’s like Porsche Design decided to take everything they knew about premium sound, throw in a dash of adventure, and voila – the PDS20 was born.

The PDS20 comes crafted from anodized aluminum and gray acoustic fabric, presenting a minimalist and durable design. This cylindrical speaker is equipped with two passive radiators and a 1.75″ woofer, ensuring exceptional sound quality, particularly in the bass department. Its IP67 rating guarantees resilience against dust and water, making it an ideal companion for outdoor activities such as hiking or for enhancing open spaces with premium sound. The PDS20 also boasts a 10-hour battery life and quick USB-C charging, ensuring all-day uninterrupted listening. An integrated microphone facilitates easy interaction with voice assistants for playlist control, call management, and messaging, all controllable via the haptic buttons built into the PD S20’s fabric grill. For an immersive stereo experience, it can easily pair with a second speaker via Bluetooth, perfect for larger gatherings or home entertainment enhancement.

The PD S20’s blend of design styles allows it to easily transition between being a haute home speaker or an outdoor-friendly audio device. That anodized aluminum enclosure is undeniably classy, although it gets a slight hint of rugged when you slide that silicone ring in (which comes in 2 color options that you can alternate between). With its sleek design, robust build, and superior sound quality, this speaker is ready to take on any adventure, be it a backyard barbecue or a hike in the hills. It’s a refreshing addition to the otherwise relatively unattainable Porsche Design lineup (10 grand for a soundbar?!), combining their trademark elegance with outdoor-friendly functionality so you can carry your love for Porsche with you wherever you go. And the best part? You can snag one of these for $245.00. Starting from November 15, 2023, it’s up for grabs at Porsche Design stores, their website, and selected retailers.

The post Porsche Design Unveils the PD S20, its First Outdoor Wireless Speaker first appeared on Yanko Design.