Google Wallet supports hotel room keys and, soon, an entire chain of hotels from Club Quarters will be adding support for the needed tech.
moreβ¦Friends donβt let friends buy a new MacBook Air right before a newer MacBook Air comes out, right? Thatβs mostly true, but two exceptions. There are currently two very good MacBook Air models that you can purchase brand new that are both incredible values.
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Obsbot has announced a $99 webcam with a two-axis motorized mount thatβs capable of tracking and dynamically reframing subjects. The Tiny SE is available now for $99, making it one of the cheapest ways to add a tracking camera to your streaming setup.
To hit that price tag for a two-axis gimbal-mounted webcam with tracking capabilities, the Tiny SE comes with one notable limitation: it tops out at 1080p. For comparison, the $199 Insta360 Link 2 can do 4K at up to 30fps, while Obsbot still offers its 4K-capable Tiny 2 Lite for $179.
Image quality will be lower than more expensive options, but the Tiny SE should still outperform the webcams built into many laptops. It can stream at 1080p at up to 100fps (or up to 120fps with the resolution dropped to 720p) and supports staggered HDR recording at up to 60fps.
Image: Obsbot
The webcam can reframe and tighten up a shot so it better focuses on a person and what theyβre interacting with, and it can be limited to track specific body parts like the lower body or the hand, or to keep their face hidden. But with no optical zoom capabilities β only 4x digital zoom β image quality will be further reduced. Using the Obsbot Center app, available for Windows and macOS, you can even adjust the composition of a shot, so tracked targets donβt always appear in the middle of the frame.
Other features include the ability to use hand gestures to manually adjust the framing of a shot while on camera, a built-in microphone with three noise reduction levels, background blur for increased privacy, and a standard tripod mount on the bottom for more flexibility on where it can be used.
Several governments participated in a meeting on the proliferation of commercial spyware at the United Nations Security Council.
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Elon Musk has put out an open call for skilled engineers to help create an βeverything app.β In a tweet, Musk emphasized that qualifications like a college degree or big-name job experience donβt matter as much as a solid display [β¦]
The post Elon Musk is hiring hardcore engineers: Join X to build the Everything AppβNo degree needed first appeared on Tech Startups.
If youβve noticed a missing toggle from your AirPods Pro settings, youβre not alone. Hereβs how to bring back the βOffβ option when managing AirPods Pro noise control settings.
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Younger Gen Zers are embracing OpenAIβs AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT, for schoolwork, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. But itβs not clear that theyβre fully aware of the techβs pitfalls. In a follow-up to its 2023 poll on ChatGPT usage among young people, Pew asked ~1,400 U.S.-based teens ages 13 to 17 [β¦]
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The market share of Apple TV+ in the US has been fairly consistent over the last few quarters, at least thatβs what the latest research from JustWatch shows. Now 9to5Mac has seen exclusive data on the market share of streaming platforms during Q4 2024 β and the situation for Apple remains stable.
moreβ¦We're nearly a month into 2025, and it's time for another flagship smartphone announcement. Samsung's first Galaxy Unpacked event is on the books for January 22, and like past years, you'll be able to watch along from home.
All signs point to the event including the launch of One UI 7 and a new lineup of Galaxy S25 phones (including Ultra, Plus and regular models) at the very least. The new phones are more or less guaranteed to use Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, and sport some amount of design tweaks, and new colors. One UI 7 was technically already announced at a Samsung developer event in 2024, but Unpacked should give the company to dig in to more of the details of how the operating system revamp will actually impact using the company's new devices.Β
Beyond that, Galaxy AI will be featured prominently, based on Samsung's original announcement of the event, and it seems possible the company could include an update on its wearables and more information about Project Moohan, the headset it's developing for Google's Android XR platform.
The event begins at 1PM ET / 10AM PT in-person in San Jose and online everywhere else. If you plan on watching, you can find a stream on Samsung.com, in Samsung's Newsroom, or watch along right here in the YouTube video below.
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Β© Richard Lai for Engadget
The biggest reveal from last weekβs Samsung CES press conference may well have been another press conference. The hardware giant closed out the main event by teasing the companyβs upcoming show. The next Samsung Unpacked event is set for January 22 at 10 a.m. PT. As with all recent Unpackeds, next weekβs big show will [β¦]
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