Apple has officially rolled out iOS 26.3, a feature-packed update designed to refine the user experience, enhance system performance, and address long-standing issues. This release introduces a variety of new features, subtle design adjustments, and critical bug fixes, all while laying the groundwork for future advancements. Whether you’re looking for smoother app performance, extended battery […]
Samsung has unveiled substantial updates to its Good Lock suite, focusing on the Keys Cafe and NotiStar apps. These enhancements introduce advanced customization features, improved stability, and solutions to common usability challenges. Designed to elevate the user experience, these updates cater to both personalization enthusiasts and productivity-focused users on Galaxy devices. Keys Cafe: Enhanced Keyboard […]
Ring has canceled its partnership with Flock Safety, after receiving backlash for running a Super Bowl ad touting its Search Party feature. If you’ll recall, Ring revealed back in October 2025 that it was entering a partnership with the surveillance company, which would make it possible for law enforcement to ask smart doorbell owners for videos captured by their devices. In its announcement, the company said that the “planned Flock Safety integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated.” The decision to call off the partnership was mutual, Ring added, and Flock Safety’s integration was never launched. Apparently, no Ring customer footage was ever sent to Flock.
Under the partnership, law enforcement agencies using Flock's Nova platform or FlockOS would have been able to use Ring’s Community Requests to ask for doorbell videos from users. They would have been asked to specify the location and timeframe of the incident, as well as provide a unique investigation code and the details about what is being investigated. Their requests would then be forwarded to relevant users, who could choose to share footage from their doorbell. Ring said the whole process would have been anonymous and optional.
Ring was known to have shared security cam videos to law enforcement without a court order or the device owner’s consent at least 11 times in the past. In 2024, however, it seemed to have walked back its police-friendly stance and said that it would stop sharing videos with the police without a warrant. This alliance with Flock would have marked a return to police collaboration after the company distanced itself from law enforcement. Flock is known for its automatic license plate readers and for centralizing the information it collects into a database that police can search without a warrant. While law enforcement says the system can help them solve crimes like kidnapping. 404Media reported last year that ICE has been using the database, citing immigration-related reasons.
While Ring’s official reason was that the Flock partnership would need more resources than expected, it’s worth noting that the company recently got flak for its Super Bowl Search Party ad. Ring touted it as a way to find lost dogs by using its cameras’ AI to identify pets running across their field of vision and then pooling feeds together to identify missing pets. While Search Party isn’t new and was announced last year, the ad sparked concerns about surveillance and how the tech could be misused, leading users to disable the feature for their cameras altogether.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/ring-calls-off-partnership-with-police-surveillance-provider-flock-safety-031717605.html?src=rss
On any given game day, millions of us become amateur analysts, dissecting every play and scrutinizing every statistic that flashes across the screen. We track player performance with an almost scientific rigor, celebrating the numbers that signal a win and debating the metrics that lead to a loss. This deep dive into data has fundamentally changed how we watch sports, turning passive viewing into an interactive, analytical experience. Yet, for all the attention we pay to the athletes’ performance, our own physiological journey as spectators has remained completely invisible.
Dreame’s new AI Smart Ring proposes a fascinating shift in perspective, turning the sensor technology usually reserved for athletes inward on the audience. The ring’s most ambitious feature, an AI-powered emotion index, aims to quantify the rollercoaster of being a fan, tracking how your body reacts to every thrilling victory and agonizing fumble. It represents a new frontier for wearables, one less concerned with counting your steps and more interested in mapping your heart’s response to the passions that drive you. It is pro-level analytics for the rest of us.
Instead of launching just one device, Dreame is splitting its ambition into a two-ring strategy, which is a seriously interesting market play. The company is effectively acknowledging that “health tracking” means different things to different people. For some, it is about hard, clinical data and safety nets. For others, it is about lifestyle, self-awareness, and emotional insight. So, rather than making one ring that tries to do everything, they have created two distinct products: the Dreame Health Ring, launching in early March, and the Dreame AI Smart Haptic Ring, which is slated for the second half of the year.
The Dreame Health Ring is the more advanced and serious of the two. This is the one aimed squarely at users who want professional-grade monitoring and peace of mind. Its headline feature is the ability to generate ECG reports on demand, moving it closer to a medical-grade device than a typical fitness tracker. It is built around a core of accurate health monitoring and safety alerts, using AI-driven analysis to flag potential issues. Think of this as the quiet, reassuring guardian, focused on delivering vital health data you can potentially share with a doctor, rather than tracking your mood during a movie.
Landing later this year, the Dreame AI Smart Haptic Ring is the lifestyle-focused sibling. You are looking at a 2.5 mm thin body that is about 7.5 mm wide and weighs a featherlight 5.2 grams. The outside is a microcrystalline zirconia nano-ceramic with a Mohs hardness of 8, while the inner band is a slick antibacterial alloy. This ring is all about AI-driven health and sleep tracking, but with a focus on interpretation and daily living. It is designed to be the wearable you forget you are even wearing.
Packed inside that tiny frame is the trifecta of modern health sensors: PPG for heart rate and SpO₂, a temperature sensor, and an accelerometer. This all feeds into the AI sleep algorithms that Dreame claims can nail your REM, deep, and light sleep stages with less than a 5 percent error rate. The AI ring tracks all your key vitals 24/7 and holds about a week of data offline, which is exactly how these trackers should work. But where the Health Ring focuses on ECGs, the AI ring uses this data to power its more experimental features.
This is where we get to the AI ring’s headline feature: the emotion sensing. It claims it can generate a real-time emotion index with 92 percent accuracy. Now, is it going to replace your therapist? Absolutely not. But that is not the point. The real value is in the biofeedback. It is a tool for spotting patterns, for seeing a data-driven trace of how your body reacted to a stressful day while your brain was telling you everything was fine. It is a fascinating, and potentially humbling, new layer of self-awareness that separates it from the more advanced Health Ring.
The design of the AI ring is meant to be invisible. It is a screenless, silent loop of ceramic. Instead of a screen, you get a tiny vibration motor inside for its AI Haptic Alerts, a subtle tap on your finger for a call or message, not a jarring buzz that makes everyone in the room look at you. Those haptics also support tap gestures for controlling music or snapping a photo. The battery life reflects this always-on philosophy, with about a week on the ring itself and a charging case that gives you a claimed at least a 100 days of use before you need a wall outlet.
So why are we seeing this two-ring strategy pop up around the Championship Sunday? It is a smart move. It frames the brand not as just another gadget maker, but as a company thinking deeply about the future of personal health. We are obsessed with the analytics of pro athletes, tracking every metric to understand their performance. Dreame is betting that we are finally ready to apply that same level of nerdy obsession to ourselves, and by offering two distinct paths, they are letting us choose just how deep we want that data to go.
Apple got thousands of people to pay $3,499 for an ambitious “spatial computing device.” Can they convince millions to shell out $2,299 for a foldable iPhone? Let’s just take a second to piece the logic. $2,299 gets you TWO latest iPhone Pros and some duct tape to hold them together. You’d get two screens, two camera modules, two processors. Heck, for $2,299 you could almost buy three iPad minis, giving you three 8.3-inch displays with Apple Intelligence running on all of them. What could a $2,299 iPhone Fold offer that would justify such a markup? Well, here’s everything we know.
The rumored clamshell-style foldable iPhone is shaping up to be a serious piece of hardware, not just a folding parlor trick. We’re looking at a 5,700mAh battery, which would be the largest ever in an iPhone by a significant margin, promising legitimate all-day power despite running dual displays. The device is expected to feature a 7.8-inch inner display with a 4:3 aspect ratio, essentially giving you an iPad-like canvas that folds into a pocketable form. The outer 5.5-inch screen would function as a standard iPhone when closed. Apple has reportedly solved the crease problem with advanced hinge technology, and the whole package would come wrapped in titanium, measuring just 4.5mm when unfolded.
Designer: 4RMD
Design studio 4RMD has visualized what this device could look like, and they’ve added the “Ultra” moniker to their concept to spice things up. The specs they’ve compiled from various leaks and reports paint a picture of a device that belongs in the upper echelons of Apple’s lineup, alongside the Apple Watch Ultra and potentially justifying that eye-watering price tag. The renders show a book-style foldable with dual 48MP rear cameras and a 24MP ultra-wide front camera, all running on the upcoming A20 Pro chip built on a 2nm process. Three color options appear in the concept: White, Black, and Deep Purple, the latter being a callback to the iPhone 14 Pro’s most popular finish.
Of all those specs, the 5,700mAh battery is the one that really stops you in your tracks. It’s a direct shot at the Achilles’ heel of every single foldable currently available. Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7 limps along with a 4,400mAh cell, and anyone who has used one knows that’s barely enough to get through a busy day. Google’s Pixel Fold does a bit better with 4,821mAh, but it’s still a compromise. A battery that large, combined with Apple’s legendary efficiency, means this could be the first foldable that you can actually use without constantly hunting for an outlet. That alone is a massive selling point.
Of course, stuffing a battery that big into a chassis brings up the immediate question of weight. Foldables are notoriously heavy; the Pixel Fold is a hefty 283 grams, and the Z Fold 6 is 239 grams. For context, an iPhone 16 Pro Max is around 227 grams. This is where the rumored titanium frame becomes critical. Titanium provides the necessary rigidity for a complex hinge mechanism without turning the phone into a pocket brick. If Apple can keep the weight manageable while achieving that 4.5mm unfolded thickness, they will have solved a core ergonomic problem that competitors are still struggling with.
The physical interaction model also gets a rethink, with Touch ID making a comeback on the power button. This isn’t a step backward; it’s a pragmatic engineering choice. Putting Face ID on both the inner and outer screens would mean two expensive, space-consuming TrueDepth systems. A single fingerprint sensor on the side works seamlessly whether the device is open or closed, and it’s a proven, reliable technology. If anything, it makes sense after years of FaceID not working when the phone isn’t facing you head-on. Just let me unlock my phone while it’s beside me in bed, Apple…
All this premium hardware would be for nothing if the main screen still felt like a compromise, which brings us to the crease. The concept details a nearly invisible one, which lines up with reports of Apple using advanced ultra-thin glass and a unique Liquidmetal hinge. Competitors have made progress, but you can still feel and see the fold on every device out there. If Apple truly manages to create a seamless internal display, it will remove the last major psychological hurdle for potential buyers. It would finally make a foldable screen feel like a single, uninterrupted canvas.
So, when do we actually get our hands on this thing? The consensus has been fall 2026, launching alongside the iPhone 18 Pro. That timing is now looking a bit shaky. Apple has reportedly pushed the standard iPhone 18 into 2027 because of component shortages, and the company is still wrestling with getting Apple Intelligence just right. If the Fold’s software isn’t ready (or even a better Apple Intelligence to pair with it), a delay seems inevitable. A slip from late 2026 to early 2027 would place its release right inside the window for the iPhone’s 20th anniversary. The original launched in June 2007, and it feels fitting that the 20th anniversary iPhone be one that bends in half on purpose.
When it comes to tiny houses, smart storage isn’t just a bonus; it’s essential. In a home where every square meter counts, thoughtful design must go beyond accommodating the obvious necessities and instead make clever use of every nook, drawer, and corner. The Ingrid tiny house does exactly that, delivering an impressive blend of storage capacity and spatial flexibility within a compact, towable footprint.
Designed and built by Polish firm Tiny Smart House, the same makers behind the striking Dark Vader model, the Ingrid offers a refreshing contrast in both mood and materiality. While Dark Vader embraced a dark, minimalist aesthetic, Ingrid leans into a light and colorful interior that feels open, cheerful, and highly livable. Despite its relatively modest 8 m 26 ft length, which places it slightly longer than some European tiny houses yet still smaller than many North American counterparts, the home manages to incorporate two bedrooms and an abundance of built-in storage.
The Ingrid is based on a triple axle trailer, ensuring stability and roadworthiness for transport. Externally, it is finished in engineered-wood cladding, complemented by a sloping metal roof and crisp white-framed windows. The clean exterior lines suggest modern simplicity, while the interior reveals a more layered and dynamic approach to design.
The living room is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the home. Rather than treating it as a minimal seating nook, the designers have integrated a substantial entertainment center with extensive shelving, transforming the wall into both a focal point and a highly functional storage hub. The space includes a large L-shaped sofa and a television, creating a comfortable area for relaxation without sacrificing practicality. The shelving system ensures that books, décor, electronics, and everyday essentials all have designated places, reducing clutter and reinforcing the home’s organized ethos.
Adjacent to the living area is a drop-down dining table mounted to the wall. Designed for two, it can easily double as a work desk, an increasingly valuable feature in compact homes. One standard chair accompanies the table, while another seat is cleverly integrated into the kitchen unit itself. This kind of multifunctionality exemplifies how Ingrid maximizes usability without expanding its footprint.
The kitchen continues the theme of efficiency paired with charm. It features a farmhouse-style sink, a propane-powered stove, an oven, and a fridge freezer, providing everything needed for full-time living. Storage is thoughtfully distributed throughout cabinetry and shelving, ensuring that cooking tools and pantry items remain neatly tucked away.
At the opposite end of the home lies the bathroom, and here Ingrid offers an unexpected luxury. Rather than opting for a compact shower stall, the designers included a regular-sized bathtub with a shower, a rare and welcome feature in tiny house design. The bathroom also contains a vanity sink, a flushing toilet, a washer-dryer unit, and additional storage, proving that comfort need not be sacrificed in small-scale living.
The Ingrid includes two loft-style bedrooms, both with low ceilings typical of tiny homes. The primary bedroom sits above the kitchen and bathroom and is accessed via a staircase with integrated storage, another smart solution that turns circulation space into usable storage. This loft accommodates a double bed and additional cabinetry. The secondary bedroom is positioned above the living room and accessed by a removable ladder. It offers generous storage and can serve as either a guest room or a more conventional second bedroom.
Already delivered to its owner, the showcased Ingrid demonstrates how intelligent design can transform a compact structure into a fully equipped, flexible home. While pricing details have not been disclosed, the model stands as a compelling example of how thoughtful architecture can make small-scale living both practical and genuinely comfortable.
Last year marked 20 years since God of War hit the PlayStation 2 and kicked off one of gaming biggest franchises. Now, at the tail end of that 20th anniversary celebration, Sony’s Santa Monica Studio has announced two new project. First, and most significantly, the original God of War trilogy from the PS2 and PS3 is being remade for the modern era.
There’s no footage of it yet — the developer says that they’re “very early in development,” so we likely won’t see or hear much about this for a while. But given renewed interest in God of War thanks to the excellent two Norse games from 2018 and 2022 (not to mention the upcoming Amazon series), it makes sense to revisit these classics.
God of War and God of War II were released for Playstation 2 in 2005 and 2007, respectively, while the third of the Greek trilogy hit PlayStation 3 in 2010. The third game was also remastered for the PS4. But it’s safe to say that while the first two games are classics for their era, they also really show their age in some gameplay spots. Hopefully the remake will smooth out those rough edges. (Who else has nightmares in the Hades level near the end of the first game? Not just me, right?)
While we won’t see the remakes for a while, there is a new God of War-inspired game out right now: God of War Sons of Sparta. It was developed by Mega Cat Studios, a developer known for its love of retro games — it even still releases games for the SNES and Genesis.
Given their pedigree, it’s no surprise that Sons of Sparta has vibes of classic 2D action/platformer games. It’s apparently canon for the series and takes place in Kratos’ youth while he trains with his brother. It obviously looks nothing like the other God of War games — but the combat and monsters shown off in the trailer definitely feel right at home in the series.
Perhaps the most fun part of all this is that it’s available today for $30. While Sons of Sparta looks like a fun curio for God of War fans, it’ll only go so far towards whetting our appetite for that remake series. Might I suggest binging some Valhalla in the meantime?
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/god-of-war-is-getting-a-remake-trilogy-and-a-new-retro-inspired-action-game-is-out-today-234056618.html?src=rss
Coming off the success of Slient Hill f,which moved the series’ psychological horror to the Japanese countryside, Konami, Annapurna Interactive and developer Screen Burn Interactive have chosen a foggy island as the setting for Silent Hill: Townfall.
The first gameplay trailer for Townfall, introduced during Sony’s latest State of Play, follows Simon Ordell, a man who keeps mysteriously waking up in the water off the coast of the empty island town of St. Amelia. In the trailer, Simon hides from monsters, peers at a portable television, swings a fire axe, and deals with the psychological turmoil typical of a Silent Hill protagonist, all in first person, one of the unique twists of this new game.
Silent Hill: Townfall was originally announced alongside Silent Hill f and the remake of Silent Hill 2 in 2022. The game is developed by Screen Burn Interactive (formerly known as No Code), the creators of Observation and Stories Untold. Konami will share more details about Townfall’s gameplay and story in an upcoming Silent Hill Transmission presentation later today.
Silent Hill: Townfall is coming to PlayStation 5 in 2026.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/silent-hill-townfall-takes-the-series-trademark-fog-to-an-eerie-coastal-community-233324897.html?src=rss
There’s something quietly radical about designing for pain. Not the dramatic, cinematic kind, but the daily grind of chronic discomfort that shapes how millions of people move through their lives. That’s exactly what Madhav Binu, Kriti V, and Himvall Sindhu set out to tackle with Revive, a home-based rehabilitation device for knee osteoarthritis patients.
The numbers tell a sobering story. Forty percent of India’s elderly population lives with knee osteoarthritis, a condition that doesn’t just hurt but fundamentally changes how people interact with their own bodies. Between 1990 and 2019, cases in India jumped from 23.46 million to 62.35 million. Even more striking? The prevalence is 15 times higher than in Western nations, driven by lifestyle and genetic factors that make this a uniquely urgent problem.
Designers: Madhav Binu, Kriti V, Himvall Sindhu
What really caught my attention about this project isn’t just the statistics, though. It’s how the design team approached the psychology of recovery. When you dig into their research, you see they identified three core issues: limited mobility, fear of movement, and reduced independence. That fear piece is crucial. When your knee hurts, your instinct is to protect it, to move less, to withdraw. But that’s exactly what makes recovery harder.
The team didn’t just sketch concepts in a studio and call it a day. They conducted hands-on primary research, interviewing patients, observing clinical sessions, and spending time with physiotherapists. This grounded approach shows in every aspect of the final design. You can see the wall of sketched ideas in their process documentation, hundreds of concepts systematically mapped and filtered based on technical feasibility, user practicality, and rehabilitation relevance. It’s the kind of rigorous ideation that separates student work from genuinely thoughtful design.
What emerged from all that research is a sleek, minimalist device that looks more like a piece of modern home tech than medical equipment. The form factor matters here. Recovery is already mentally taxing without having intimidating, clinical-looking equipment staring at you from the corner of your bedroom. Revive’s understated aesthetic makes it feel less like a constant reminder of limitation and more like a tool for progress.
The real intelligence of the project lies in how it positions itself within the rehabilitation landscape. The team’s market research revealed a clear gap: most existing solutions are either completely automatic (requiring minimal user effort but offering less engagement) or fully manual (demanding too much from people already dealing with pain). Revive sits in the guided category, balancing lower operational effort with higher product intelligence. It’s smart enough to direct your recovery without making you feel like a passive participant in your own healing.
Working with physiotherapists Dr. Ankit Patel and Dr. Hetal Patel from Ahmedabad, the designers refined the concept through multiple iterations. The collaboration brought professional credibility to the project while keeping it grounded in real therapeutic needs. As Dr. Hetal Patel noted, the strength of the product lies in its flexibility for different stages of therapy. That adaptability is key for a four-week rehabilitation program where needs change as patients progress.
The core insight driving Revive is deceptively simple: recovery happens when users relearn movement by starting small, increasing load gradually, and engaging consistently in daily life. Long-term improvement depends on integrating these movements into everyday routines. It’s not about heroic physiotherapy sessions twice a week. It’s about making rehabilitation feel manageable enough that people actually do it.
The design process itself reflects contemporary product development at its best. Prototype, share, gather feedback, refine, repeat. Ideas were continuously tested against real use, refined through iteration, and grounded in feasibility. The final form exploration shows dozens of variations, each tweaking the relationship between the device and the human body it’s meant to support. What makes this project particularly relevant right now is how it addresses home healthcare. As medical care increasingly shifts toward decentralized, patient-directed models, products like Revive become essential infrastructure. The device offers intelligent guidance while allowing people to maintain independence and dignity in their own space.
Revive represents the kind of design work that doesn’t just solve problems but fundamentally reframes them. Instead of asking how to make physiotherapy more effective in clinical settings, the team asked how to make recovery feel less isolating and more integrated into normal life. That shift in perspective, backed by rigorous research and thoughtful iteration, is what transforms a good concept into genuinely impactful design.
During its State of Play livestream on Thursday, Sony revealed the first PlayStation Plus Game Catalog addition for February and it's a doozy. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (PS5) will finally websling its way onto the Game Catalog on February 17.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was released in October 2023, and Insomniac's third Spidey game is the the best of the bunch. You can play as both Peter Parker and his protégé Miles Morales. Each Spidey has his own skill tree and moveset to master.
Traversing New York (with a lot more of it explorable than in previous entries) has never felt better thanks to the addition of the wingsuit, while the set pieces are frequently breathtaking. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 remains one of the PS5’s flagship games, and with Marvel’s Spider-Man: Remastered and Miles Moralesalready on the Game Catalog, Extra and Premium subscribers can now play the whole series while they wait for Insomniac's Wolverine game to arrive later this year.
Sony later revealed the full PS Plus Game Catalog lineup for February on the PlayStation Blog. It includes Neva (PS4 and PS5), a stunning 2D platformer that's pretty much an interactive fairytale. Engadget’s Jessica Conditt opened her review of the game by saying she had "absolutely nothing negative to say" about it, which is surely about as effusive as a recommendation can get. (A paid expansion that acts as a prequel is on the way next week too.)
The other titles coming to the PS Plus Game Catalog on February 17 are:
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown (PS5)
Season: A Letter to the Future (PS4 and PS5)
Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin (PS4)
Monster Hunter Stories (PS4)
Venba (PS5)
Echoes of the End: Enhanced Edition (PS5)
Rugby 25 (PS4 and PS5)
PS Plus Premium members will have an extra game to play on PS4 and PS5 in the form of Disney Pixar Wall-E. This version was originally released in 2008 for the PlayStation 2.
Looking further ahead, Tekken Dark Resurrection will be available to Premium subscribers in March. Premium members will be able to play the original Time Crisis on their PS5 with gyro controls in May, which sounds fun. Also,Big Walk, a multiplayer game from Untitled Goose Game developer House House, will be available on all three PS Plus tiers when it debuts later this year.
Update February 12, 6:43PM ET: Added the full list of PS Plus Game Catalog titles for February.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/the-ps-plus-game-catalog-additions-for-february-include-marvels-spider-man-2-232459779.html?src=rss