Social media changed everything from news consumption to shopping. Now, Dub thinks it can do the same for investing through an influencer-driven marketplace where users can follow the trades of top investors with a few taps. Think of it as TikTok meets Wall Street. Founded by 23-year-old Steven Wang — a Harvard drop-out who began […]

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On Saturday evening, Trump signed executive orders to impose tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), with a White House fact sheet claiming the move is meant to hold the US’ largest trading partners “accountable to their promises of halting illegal immigration and stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country.” The orders put 25 percent additional tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, the one exception being that energy products from Canada will be subject to a 10 percent tariff. Imports from China will also face a 10 percent tariff.

The broad tariffs are expected to take effect on Tuesday and could have ramifications not only for American businesses, but for consumers too. Mexico, Canada and China are the top suppliers of US goods imports, each accounting for hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of products coming into the country each year, data from the US Department of Commerce and the US International Trade Commission show. Those products span a wide range of categories, from agriculture to transportation/automotive, fuel, electronics, wood, furniture, alcohol and more.

Mexico and Canada dominate US imports of agricultural goods, with Mexico supplying items like fruits, vegetables and nuts, and the bulk of imported animal products like beef coming from Canada, according to Trading Economics and the US Department of Agriculture. The two countries have also been our top suppliers for transportation equipment, including cars and car parts, and crude oil. Canada is responsible for almost 60 percent of US crude oil imports according to the Congressional Research Service, which noted in a report last month that the new tariffs “might affect the U.S. crude oil market and consumer fuel prices.”

Imports of electronics have largely come from China, and Mexico follows closely behind. Trading Economics data also show machinery, toys and games, furniture and plastics among the top goods imported from China in recent years. The electronics sector could take an additional hit down the line, as Trump has said he also plans to impose tariffs on imported semiconductors, along with pharmaceuticals and steel.

Leaders from Canada and Mexico have both responded to the tariffs, saying they would impose their own on US goods in retaliation. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday announced a 25 percent tariff on roughly $107 billion (155 billion Canadian dollars) worth of US goods, Reuters reports.

In a statement released after the announcement of the tariffs, John Murphy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President and Head of International, warned that Trump’s new tariffs could negatively affect both consumers and the supply chains. “The President is right to focus on major problems like our broken border and the scourge of fentanyl, but the imposition of tariffs under IEEPA is unprecedented, won’t solve these problems, and will only raise prices for American families and upend supply chains,” Murphy said. “The Chamber will consult with our members, including main street businesses across the country impacted by this move, to determine next steps to prevent economic harm to Americans.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/trumps-tariffs-on-mexico-canada-and-china-could-drive-up-prices-of-cars-electronics-fuel-food-and-more-172823156.html?src=rss

©

© REUTERS / Reuters

Your next car purchase is probably going to be more expensive, thanks to President Donald Trump.

Around 5.3 million vehicles are built in Canada and Mexico, 70 percent of which are destined for the United States. Those vehicles will soon be subject to 25 percent tariffs, which were just announced by the Trump administration. And the companies paying the higher price to import those vehicles are very likely to pass that cost along to the consumer — to you.

You may not see higher MSRPs right away, says Mike Wall, executive director for automotive analysis at S&P Global Mobility. But you will likely see fewer incentives and special deals at dealerships as dealers get stingier about their vehicle inventories. Perhaps fewer vehicles even get made as manufacturers weigh the costs of paying 25 percent duties on key parts and components. Eventually, the higher cost of building and selling a car in the US will filter down to the consumer.

Around 5.3 million vehicles are built in Canada and Mexico, 70 percent of which are destined for the United States.

“I can’t emphasize that enough,” Wall said. “A 25 percent tariff is just massive in this industry.”

A tariff is a tax on goods imported from another country. The Trump administration claims it’s levying the new tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the US. Often, presidents use tariffs as a threat during trade negotiations or to protect domestic industries from cheaper foreign products (as the Biden administration did with electric vehicles from China). But as the New York Times has noted, Trump sees tariffs as a significant source of revenue for the US, perhaps even as a replacement for income taxes.

But most economists expect the outcome to be higher prices for a wide range of consumer goods, from clothes, to shoes, to food, to cars. Trump claims foreign companies will eat the higher costs, but don’t be fooled.

Just listen to the companies who will be bearing those costs. “If we get tariffs, we will pass those tariff costs back to the consumer,” said Philip Daniele, CEO of AutoZone, on an earnings call in September, according to CNN.

Virtually every car company will be impacted: Ford’s F-series trucks and Mustangs with engines made in Canada; Mazda CX-50s from Mexico; full-size pickup trucks from General Motors and Stellantis; even the Toyota Rav-4.

“A 25 percent tariff is just massive in this industry.”

S&P Global Mobility estimates that a 25 percent tariff on a $25,000 vehicle from Canada or Mexico would be $6,450 — most of which would be borne by the consumer.

“As that price goes up, consumers exit,” Wall said. “They’re gonna hold off, they’re gonna wait. They may go to the used market. I’ll tell you what, if pricing on the new market goes up, guess what? That pricing on the used market is gonna be impacted because it’s a supply and demand thing.”

Electric vehicle prices may be impacted as well, especially if the price of certain components go up as a result of the tariffs. Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe recently warned that the tariffs represent a bigger threat to the EV industry than the potential elimination of tax incentives under Trump. And while many EV makers are making huge investments in domestic manufacturing thanks to the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, they are still just as exposed as companies that build combustion engines.

Most automakers say they have contingency plans for tariffs but wouldn’t say exactly what those plans are. Spokespersons for Ford and BMW declined comment.

Volkswagen’s Puebla factory is Mexico’s largest and one of the biggest in the Volkswagen Group, making nearly 350,000 cars in 2023, including the Jetta, Tiguan, and Taos models, all for export to the United States. In a statement, the company said it “remains a strong advocate for free and fair trade.”

“We are monitoring the situation and planning for various scenarios,” the German auto giant added. “We hope for a swift resolution on tariffs across North America.”

Using Limp Bizkit might've legitimately have sold me on the Devil May Cry show more than anything else about it.

Apple will be giving iCloud users a new way to invite people to parties, meetings, and other events, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The company has code-named the service Confetti, and it could launch as early as this week, Gurman says. There aren’t many details about how it will actually work, but Confetti is reportedly […]

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Android tablets are finally, kind of, getting a little exciting again. But I’m tired of the same stupid asterisk on all of them. Android tablets need to stop “cheaping” out on biometrics and using insecure, effectively pointless face unlock.

more…

According to a tweet from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple will stop offering the option to purchase a 2-3 year plan of AppleCare+ in physical Apple Stores and on device. This change will be taking place next week.

more…

Last month, Fortnite Festival, the game’s Rock Band-like music mode, rolled out local multiplayer on PlayStation and Xbox. It’s a great addition if you and up to three buddies want to relive the halcyon days of ‘07 on a single TV, particularly if you’re using a nostalgia-inducing peripheral like the PDP Riffmaster — which is now available from Amazon, Best Buy, and PDP for an all-time low of $109.99 ($20 off).

Much like the old guitars developed for Rock Band, PDP’s wireless gamepad allows you to strum along with real songs in both Rock Band 4 (RIP) and the free-to-play Fortnite Festival. It offers a lot of the same functionality as previous controllers, though, seeing as it’s been nearly a decade since Mad Catz’s last Stratocaster-style gamepad, the Riffmaster introduces a few modern tricks. That includes USB-C charging and a 3.5mm audio jack, along with a dedicated analog stick on the back of the neck for more straightforward navigation.

In true RB4 fashion, the Riffmaster is also outfitted with five color-coded buttons higher up the neck and a second set lower down, each of which you can use to hammer out the various notes as they appear in their respective lanes. A strummer and a whammy bar make good on the classic Rock Band experience, letting you unleash vibrato on the Xbox, PlayStation, or PC with the included USB dongle.

More ways to save this weekend

• If you’re looking for a cheap way to stream Super Bowl LIX next weekend, Amazon’s latest Fire TV Stick 4K is on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for $29.99 ($20 off), nearly matching its second-best price to date. It’s not quite as capable as the step-up Max model — blame its lack of Wi-Fi 6E support and 8GB of storage — but the 4K streamer still offers Wi-Fi 6 and broad HDR support for Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HDR10 Plus.
• The PlayStation version of Final Fantasy I-VI Collection Anniversary Edition is down to an all-time low of $39.99 ($35 off) at Woot through 12:59AM ET on February 29th. The excellent remaster pulls together the first six Final Fantasy titles with revamped pixel graphics and rearranged orchestral scores, as well as an array of gameplay tweaks and quality-of-life improvements. I, for one, welcome the ability to turn off random encounters, which remain the bane of ‘90s-era JRPGs (sorry, not sorry).
• Lenovo’s Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition, a thin-and-light Windows laptop with an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V processor and 16GB of RAM, is going for $899.99 ($500 off) at Best Buy through the end of today, February 2nd. That’s a new low on the 15-inch machine, which, despite its bummer trackpad and other shortcomings, remains a solid rec thanks to good all-around performance, fantastic port selection, and bright 120Hz LCD display. Read our review.

Over the last couple years, it feels like we’ve heard news of mass layoffs and hiring freezes from tech companies nearly every week, and since the beginning of 2024, there’s been a new wave of layoffs and firings.

In the first few days of January 2024 alone:

• Google cut around a thousand employees
• Discord cut 17 percent of its staff
• Twitch cut a third of its staff (and Amazon fired hundreds from Amazon Prime Video and MGM Studios)
• Unity cut 25 percent of its workforce
• Humane cut four percent of its employees

And all that adds to the tens of thousands of tech and gaming layoffs that hit in 2023.

Elizabeth Lopatto spoke to experts in an article published last year to try and answer the question of why so many layoffs are happening right now despite tech companies continuing to register sizable profits. One reason is that “investors have changed how they’re evaluating companies,” even if there’s a lack of evidence that the layoffs can help solve any of the problems they may have.

Here’s all our coverage of the recent outbreak of layoffs from big tech, auto, crypto, gaming, and more.

• Microsoft’s ‘performance-based’ cuts have started.
• Zuckerberg says Meta will lay off more ‘low-performers’
• Meta is laying off employees at WhatsApp, Instagram, and more
• Brave has laid off around 15 percent of its employees.
• Apple is cutting jobs across its Books and News apps
• Dell is creating a new sales team to focus on AI.
• Intuit fires 1,800 employees to hire 1,800 employees and focus on AI.
• Best Buy is laying off more employees as it reckons with falling sales
• Microsoft layoffs hit HoloLens, Azure cloud teams
• Microsoft shuts down Bethesda studios behind Redfall and Hi-Fi Rush
• More Google layoffs.
• GTA 6, BioShock publisher Take-Two to lay off hundreds and cut projects
• Best Buy Geek Squad employees report mass layoffs
• Amazon lays off hundreds in the AWS physical store technology team.
• EA is the latest gaming company to lay off workers.
• “Why are we expected to do the coding Olympics for every company that wants to interview you?”
• Mozilla is laying off around 60 workers and scaling back its Mastodon instance.
• Paramount is cutting 800 jobs as it looks to “grow revenue, while reducing costs.”
• Warner Music Group to lay off 600 employees and close the Interval Presents podcast division.
• Amazon Health, Corsair, DocuSign, Drizly and Glowforge are the latest tech layoffs.
• Snap is cutting 10 percent of its staff
• Almost 30,000 workers in tech have been laid off this year.
• Jack Dorsey’s Block is also cutting jobs.
• Alphabet posted $307.4 billion in revenue for the 2023. It also spent $2.1 billion on layoffs.
• PayPal is laying off 9 percent of its employees.
• This is not “Play Nice, Play Fair,” Blizzard.
• Embracer lays off 97 Eidos employees and cancels new Deus Ex game
• Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees
• Vroom goes screech — laying off 800 workers and exiting used car sales.
• eBay will lay off 1,000 employees — 9 percent of the company
• Riot Games cuts more than 500 jobs
• TikTok is cutting jobs, too.
• Layoffs at the developer of Dead by Daylight.
• Google CEO tells employees to expect more job cuts this year
• YouTube is the latest part of Google to be hit with layoffs
• Google layoffs continue with ‘hundreds’ from sales team
• Google’s latest layoffs are just the beginning
• Layoffs hit a Gearbox studio.
• Instagram’s latest job cuts reportedly affect around 60 workers.
• Audible is laying off 5 percent of its staff.
• Discord is laying off 17 percent of employees
• Google confirms it just laid off around a thousand employees
• Google is losing its Fitbit leaders and laying off hundreds of AR employees
• Twitch is cutting one-third of its staff
• Hundreds of Amazon Prime Video and MGM Studios workers are being laid off.
• Humane lays off 4 percent of employees before releasing its AI Pin
• Twitch is reportedly planning to lay off 35 percent of its staff.
• Unity is laying off 25 percent of its staff
• 2023’s great games were overshadowed by a dark cloud of layoffs
• What do Houston, Nashville, and Dallas have in common?
• A $2 million dollar investment yesterday, layoffs today.
• Etsy is cutting around 225 jobs.
• Unity is probably going to do layoffs
• Ubisoft lays off dozens of workers as gaming industry struggles drag on
• Google’s postpandemic ‘reckoning’
• The Google News team just got a little smaller.
• LinkedIn lays off hundreds of employees for the second time this year
• Job cuts hit Qualcomm.
• Telltale Games laid off staff — but it’s unclear how many jobs were cut.
• More layoffs at Twitch.
• Naughty Dog is reportedly the latest studio to cut developer jobs
• Worms publisher Team17 loses its CEO, starts “period of consultation” ahead of restructuring.
• Epic Games cuts around 830 jobs
• BioWare is laying off ‘approximately’ 50 people
• Google’s $99 a night company hotel advertises ‘no commute’ as a perk
• CD Projekt Red is laying off about 9 percent of its staff
• Amazon is forcing some staffers to relocate as part of its return-to-office mandate.
• Microsoft is laying off 276 employees in Washington.
• Niantic lays off staff and shuts down games as it focuses on Pokémon Go
• Plex lays off more than 20 percent of its staff
• Google is laying off employees at Waze
• Ford is reportedly preparing more layoffs.
• Reddit is cutting ‘roughly 90’ staffers and reducing hiring.
• Verizon warns customer service employees of impending layoffs
• Meta has started its third of three planned rounds of layoffs.
• Disney’s third planned round of layoffs has started.
• Meta’s next round of layoffs will start next week
• Microsoft won’t give salaried employees raises this year
• Nuro plans for more layoffs as the AV sector’s economic woes deepen
• Unity is laying off 600 employees.
• Clubhouse is laying off more than half of its workforce
• Amazon is laying off Studios and Prime Video staffers.
• Lyft lays off nearly a third of its employees.
• Dropbox is laying off 500 people and pivoting to AI
• More Amazon layoffs.
• More Lyft layoffs are coming.
• Whole Foods is laying off several hundred corporate workers.
• Insider laid off employees on Thursday, too.
• “Why should we stay at Meta?”
• Meta layoffs hit London.
• Meta’s latest layoffs cut employees in technical roles
• Amazon is laying off some advertising staffers.
• Meta’s next round of layoffs might happen this week.
• “Humbled” Silicon Valley VCs are loading up on money from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE.
• DPReview’s archives live on!
• Meta’s layoffs are reportedly ‘gutting’ its new customer service teams
• Amazon’s layoffs could affect its gaming efforts.
• Apple has reportedly started a small number of corporate layoffs
• EA is laying off 6 percent of its workers
• Lucid’s laying off 18 percent of its workers
• The site that’s supposed to help people find jobs is laying off thousands of people.
• Amazon is shutting down DPReview, the go-to camera reviews website
• How Apple’s avoiding layoffs: delaying bonus payments, pausing hiring, cutting travel budgets.
• Amazon’s layoffs included ‘just over 400’ job cuts at Twitch.
• Amazon’s latest layoffs cut 9,000 more jobs in divisions including Twitch and AWS
• Even Apple can’t escape the economy.
• Meta is laying off 10,000 more employees in a series of cuts
• Waymo has laid off over 200 employees this year.
• Cerebral’s laying off even more staff.
• Meta’s “year of efficiency” reportedly isn’t off to a good start.
• Thursday has brought even more layoff news.
• Ebay is the latest to announce layoffs.
• Zoom is laying off 1,300 employees, around 15 percent of its workforce
• Pinterest’s new round of layoffs comes weeks after its last cuts
• Rivian is laying off 6 percent of its employees — again
• Is it time to start the Intel deathwatch?
• PayPal is laying off 2,000 employees.
• January was the worst month for tech layoffs.
• Why are so many tech companies laying people off right now?
• Spotify is laying off 6 percent of its global workforce, CEO announces
• More details come out on which departments saw layoffs at Google, Microsoft, and Amazon
• Today on The Vergecast: Elon Musk status update, M2 MacBook Pros, and tech layoffs.
• Google cuts 12,000 jobs in latest round of big tech layoffs
• 1,852 Amazon workers are out of a job in Seattle.
• Amazon begins another round of job cuts as it lays off more than 18,000 people
• Microsoft says it has changed its ‘hardware portfolio’ amid layoffs
• Microsoft announces big layoffs that will affect 10,000 employees
• DirecTV is reportedly laying off hundreds of workers.
• Verily, Alphabet’s health-focused company, is cutting jobs
• Meta confirms it’s rescinded some full-time job offers
• Esports and lifestyle brand 100 Thieves is laying off staff
• Amazon confirms it’s laying off 18,000 workers.
• Amazon confirms its massive layoffs will affect 18,000 employees
• Vimeo is laying off 11 percent of its workforce in another round of job cuts
• Apple’s market cap is down $1 trillion from its peak exactly one year ago.
• Micron will cut 10 percent of its workforce next year.
• Some ex-Meta employees say they’re not getting full severance.
• GameStop is reportedly cutting more jobs.
• Kraken crypto exchange lays off 30 percent of workforce
• DoorDash announces layoffs affecting 1,250 workers
• Job cuts are coming to a Silicon Valley original.
• Alexa isn’t pulling its weight.
• Robot delivery startup Nuro is laying off 20 percent of its workers
• Amazon’s CEO says more layoffs will happen in 2023
• Roku lays off 200 US employees
• Steve Aoki dropped the beat at Amazon during layoffs
• Amazon employees are still waiting to hear if they’ll keep their jobs.
• Amazon confirms cuts to hardware and services teams
• The Amazon layoffs have started.
• Ask A Manager has weighed in.
• The Tech Winter, visualized.
• Amazon mass layoffs will reportedly ax 10,000 people this week
• Tim Cook confirms that Apple’s slowing down on hiring.
• Twitter reportedly cut thousands of contractors without warning
• Disney is preparing to cut jobs, according to leaked memo from CEO
• Meta announces huge job cuts affecting 11,000 employees
• Twitter’s layoff notices in Africa are missing something.
• Meta layoffs are starting tomorrow, and they’re going to be bad.
• Elon Musk’s Twitter layoffs leave whole teams gutted
• Amazon confirms a “pause” on corporate hiring.
• Amazon curbs corporate retail hiring for the rest of 2022
• Lyft to lay off 13 percent of its workforce as economic outlook darkens
• Peloton CEO promises the company is ‘done’ with layoffs
• Twitter braces for layoffs
• Intel layoffs are coming in Q4 as it cuts billions in spending
• Wireless ISP Starry lays off half its workers in a bid to save cash
• Leaked documents show just how fast employees are leaving Amazon
• Warner Bros. Television’s massive job cuts worsen WBD’s diversity problem
• Layoffs at Gimlet and Parcast expose cracks in Spotify’s exclusivity model
• Intel reportedly planning major layoffs, likely affecting thousands of jobs
• Peloton’s CEO doesn’t understand why people aren’t happier he laid off 500 people
• Peloton CEO cuts 500 more jobs to ‘assure the future viability of the business’
• Warner Bros. Discovery is ‘absolutely not for sale,’ says CEO
• Meta is freezing hiring
• CNN lays off audio staffers as it shifts podcast strategy
• Meta and Google’s definitely-not-layoffs prod employees to compete for new jobs.
• Patreon is laying off 17 percent of its workforce and closing offices
• The T-Mobile / Sprint merger hasn’t created jobs — it’s cut thousands
• Snap lays off 20 percent of employees and cancels projects
• Ford is laying off thousands of employees, and here’s the memo explaining the change
• Wayfair lays off 870 people, about 5 percent of its global workforce
• Crypto.com laid off 260 employees — then quietly let go of hundreds more
• Peloton gears up to hike prices, lay off 800 employees, and shutter stores
• Rivian is laying off 6 percent of its employees
• Shopify is laying off 1,000 employees
• Zuck turns up the heat
• Ford will reportedly slash a quarter of its workforce to fuel EV expansion
• Google pauses hiring for two weeks to ‘review our headcount needs’
• Apple reportedly wants to slow down hiring in 2023
• Giant NFT marketplace OpenSea lays off about 20 percent of its staff
• Read the memo Google’s CEO sent employees about a hiring slowdown
• Ford-backed autonomous car startup Argo AI lays off 150 employees
• GameStop is laying off staff and has fired its CFO
• Substack CEO says he’s ‘very sorry’ about laying off 13 people
• Tesla lays off nearly 200 Autopilot employees who help train the company’s AI
• Netflix cuts around 300 jobs after losing subscribers
• Tesla accused of violating federal law over ‘mass layoffs’ at Gigafactory
• Tesla layoffs reportedly affect hourly workers, too
• Spotify will reduce hiring by 25 percent
• Coinbase is laying off 1,100 employees as Bitcoin prices continue to fall
• BlockFi and Crypto.com lay off hundreds of staff as coins slump
• Crypto winter has come, and Coinbase is in trouble
• Elon Musk reportedly orders hiring freeze, 10 percent staff reduction at Tesla
• Klarna used a prerecorded video message to lay off 10 percent of employees
• Snap plans to slow hiring, warns that revenue will grow slower than expected
• Meta freezes hiring for Messenger Kids, shopping team, and other products
• Netflix is laying off 150 employees and cutting dozens from its Tudum fansite
• Here’s the memo Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal sent about firing execs and a hiring freeze
• Uber CEO vows to be ‘hardcore about costs,’ slow down hiring in memo to employees
• Netflix tried and failed to build fandom with Tudum
• The company behind celebrity cameo videos has laid off a quarter of its workers
• Netflix is laying off staff from the fansite it just launched
• Fired Peloton employees crash new CEO’s first all-hands

Rejoice, Sleeping Dogs fans: Simu Liu's reportedly starring and producing in an adaptation of the cult classic crime game.

Should millions of Americans be downloading Chinese AI app DeepSeek and giving their personal data to it? For reasons of privacy and cybersecurity, maybe not.

From cast-iron pans to mechanical watches, we’ve rounded up products that are made to last for decades.

Google’s X “moonshot factory” this week announced its latest graduate. Heritable Agriculture is a data- and machine learning-driven startup aiming to improve how crops are grown.  As the firm noted in an announcement post published Tuesday, plants are incredibly efficient and impressive systems. “Plants are solar powered, carbon negative, self-assembling machines that feed on sunlight […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Smart rings are in the middle of a renaissance. That’s great because we finally have way more options than just an Oura Ring. The downside is most of Oura’s would-be rivals are launching their first, maybe second-gen smart rings. Meaning, if you want an Oura Ring alternative, there’s a good chance you’ll have to put up with quirks and a distinct lack of polish. The $199.99 Amazfit Helio smart ring is no exception.

Amazfit isn’t a household name but is well-known among wearable bargain hunters. It’s a compelling brand because its gadgets get you a lot of bang for your buck. That’s the case with the Helio ring, the brand’s first foray into smart rings. It’s primarily a sleep tracker, but it comes with an AI chatbot called Zepp Flow, an AI coaching feature, and it has an electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor for monitoring stress, a blood oxygen sensor, a temperature sensor, and period tracking. It also syncs with popular third-party fitness apps like Adidas Running, Strava, and Komoot, as well as  Apple Health and Google Fit. Like the Samsung Galaxy Ring, it works with Amazfit’s other smartwatches so you can double up on data sources — or switch between the two …

Read the full story at The Verge.

According to the Power On newsletter from Mark Gurman, Apple is still on track to enable support for PlayStation VR controllers on Apple Vision Pro. This partnership was originally reported on back in December, and things are still going as expected.

more…

Imagine walking up to your front door and it unlocks — even opens — automatically as you approach. It may sound like the stuff of smart home dreams, but it could soon be a reality, thanks to ultra-wideband (UWB) technology arriving on smart locks. 

With its precise, real-time location capabilities, UWB enables a smart lock to react to the presence of your phone or smartwatch as you approach your door, unlocking it with no intervention on your part. Both the lock and your device need a UWB chip, but this touchless experience means there’s no need to pull out your phone, fiddle with keycodes, fingerprints, or, god forbid, an actual key.

I got to demo the first locks to support the wireless communication protocol at CES last month, and I am ready for my hands-free smart lock future.

Fast, easy, and frictionless, hands-free unlocking is the kind of convenience the smart home needs

I test a lot of smart door locks and haven’t used a house key in a decade. But unlocking my front door still isn’t a frictionless experience: fingerprint readers are fast but can be finicky, Home Key is smooth but limited to Apple devices, keycodes slow me down, and palm readers and facial scan …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Borrowing from Apple’s MagSafe, Qi2 enables faster, more efficient magnetic wireless charging.

As of Sunday in the European Union, the bloc’s regulators can ban the use of AI systems they deem to pose “unacceptable risk” or harm. February 2 is the first compliance deadline for the EU’s AI Act, the comprehensive AI regulatory framework that the European Parliament finally approved last March after years of development. The […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple will be launching a new events and invites service as part of iCloud. This new service will differ from calendar, and will launch as early as “this coming week.”

more…

Samsung offers nearly 70% off the Galaxy S25 Ultra during preorder, plus almost free accessories like Galaxy Buds3 Pro.