The latest Apple store opens on Saturday, and the company has shown off a few photos ahead of time. It has the same curved frontage we’ve seen in a couple of earlier mall stores.
Apple has previously aimed for a relatively seamless transition between the exterior and interior of these stores, and the latest example in Hefei, China, continues this trend …
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Realme just launched its 14 Pro phones in India, and they come with a party trick: the phones can change color in the cold. That’s in addition to a triple camera flash and a triple IP rating that should protect the phone from extreme water conditions.
Both the Realme 14 Pro and 14 Pro Plus share the color-sensitive tech, though it’s limited to the pearl white versions, with purple and gray models stuck on one lousy color. Co-designed with Danish studio Valeur Designers, the pearlescent phones include thermochromic pigments that start out as white, but pick up blue hues when the temperature drops below 16 degrees Celsius (about 61 degrees Fahrenheit), reversing as it warms up again.
Image: Realme
Realme says that the colder the temperature, the faster the phone will change. It’s even possible to create short-lived patterns by only cooling specific spots, which Indian YouTubers are already enjoying putting to the test.
It does come with one meaty caveat in the small print though: “The cold-sensitive color-changing function will gradually lose effect due to daily use and is not a quality issue.” How long it will last remains to be seen, but even Realme’s own website only promises the effect “during initial use.”
The color-changing design isn’t the only oddity to the 14 Pro series. The rear cameras include three separate flash modules, a design which Realme says “automatically restores natural skin tones in low-light conditions.” On the 14 Pro Plus those flashes sit in between three camera lenses, though the 14 Pro pulls a bit of a fast one, including two rear cameras and a third circle that only looks like a lens, but is in fact empty.
Image: Realme
This is also the latest phone to feature an IP69 rating for protection against dust and jets of water at high temperatures and pressure, joining the OnePlus 13, Moto G Power, and Honor Magic 7 Pro in adopting the stringent standard, which until recently was limited to the bulkiest rugged phones. The 14 Pro is also rated IP68 for submersion in water and IP66, which also applies to jets of water but for higher water volume at lower pressures and longer distances.
Otherwise, the two Realme phones are typical midrangers. They both feature 50 megapixel main cameras and middle-of-the-line chipsets, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 in the Pro Plus model and a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 in the Pro. The large 6,000mAh batteries and 80W charging speeds are still impressive, though. Both phones are out in India now, and start at ₹22,999 (about $265).
Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight company Blue Origin launched its new mega-rocket, called New Glenn, into orbit for the first time. The rocket lifted off at 2:03AM ET on January 16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and crossed the official boundary into space a few minutes later. Shortly after, a second-stage burn placed the rocket’s upper section into […]
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President Biden used his final public address from the Oval Office to warn the nation about the dangers presented by the spread of misinformation and power-hungry tech leaders.
“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”
In his farewell message on Wednesday, Biden called back to warnings that President Dwight Eisenhower gave about the military-industrial complex causing a “disastrous rise of misplaced power.”
“Six decades later, I’m equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country as well,” Biden said. Despite praising US technology leadership for its innovation and ability to transform lives, Biden said he was concerned about “a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people,” warning that there could be alarming consequences “if their abuse of power is left unchecked.”
While he didn’t specify names, Biden’s oligarch remark likely refers to Elon Musk, who has landed himself a leadership role in a not-really-government-department of the incoming administration after spending an estimated $250 million of his own money to help get Donald Trump elected.
Alongside Musk, Mark Zuckerberg also appears to be a specific target of Biden’s concerns regarding the rise in misinformation and conspiracy theories across social media platforms. Last week, Zuckerberg announced that Meta would scrap its third-party fact-checking program for Facebook, Instagram, and Threads in the US and remove several restrictions around heated topics.
“Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation enabling the abuse of power,” Biden warned. “The free press is crumbling. Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact-checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit.”
On Monday, tech CEOs including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, and Mark Zuckerberg are expected to attend Trump’s inauguration, seated in a position of honor on the dais alongside former presidents and family members. These same CEOs — either through their companies or via personal contributions — have reportedly donated $1 million apiece to Trump’s inauguration fund.
The latest update for social media aggregator Openvibe has now officially added support for notifications with Mastodon and Bluesky.
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