There are plenty of third-party apps that will create automated lighting scenes with Philips Hue products, but a report that the company will be launching this feature in the official app has today been confirmed.

Users will be able to request AI-generated scenes using either voice or text, with the company citing the example “Give me a scene for a garden party” …

Writing at Six Colors, veteran tech writer Jason Snell thinks Apple’s plan to address the Apple Intelligence summaries mess doesn’t go far enough, and has three suggestions for the company.

The post follows a series of embarrassing mistakes in attempted summaries of news stories, which have variously claimed that Luigi Mangione shot himself, announced the winner of a competition which hadn’t even taken place, and reported the non-existent coming out of a tennis player …

While some parents treat their kids to an Apple Watch, the Pinwheel Watch aims to offer an interesting alternative. The $160 cellular smartwatch combines strong parental controls with a kid-friendly AI chatbot.

Unlike the real thing, the Pinwheel includes a camera, with the company promising that video calling will be coming later this year …

We already knew that Apple’s fiscal Q4 (calendar Q3) quarter set a new revenue record, but were lacking some details. A new report says that the income reflected record iPhone shipments, and the highest ever average selling price (ASP) achieved for the iPhone line-up.

Counterpoint Research shared the data from its latest Market Monitor report …

Dell was mocked at its own press launch for copying Apple’s iPhone naming convention for its PCs. Both laptop and desktop PCs are now divided into three tiers, whose names are taken straight from the iPhone line-up: Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max.

Despite claiming it did this purely for simplicity, and not to copy Apple, Dell actually managed to make its PC line-up even less comprehensible than before …

Smart home company Aqara has announced no fewer than nine new products at this year’s consumer electronics show. Most, however, won’t be available in the US until later in the year.

These include a large touch-screen panel which performs multiple duties as a smart light switch, a controller and display for other smart home devices, a Zigbee hub, and a Matter bridge for Aqara Zigbee devices …

We may still be mostly waiting for a smarter Siri, but OpenAI CEO Sam Altman thinks the company already knows how to create the holy grail of AI: artificial general intelligence (AGI).

AGI is the term given to an AI system which can match or exceed human cognitive capabilities across a wide range of fields – in other words, AI which is at least as smart as we are …

We may be just a few days into 2025, but Apple thinks it can already tell which upcoming music artists are set to make a breakthrough this year. The company shared its predictions as the Shazam Fast Forward 2025.

Apple looked at the trending artists in the first five days of music Shazammed by users, and had its own music editors review them …

Ensuring HomeKit compatibility for smart home products is now very much easier to achieve. Apple has agreed to accept Matter certification for all new devices, without requiring additional testing before granting the Works With Apple Home badge.

Although it was always the goal that Matter support meant automatic compatibility with HomeKit, Google Home, Alexa, and Samsung Smart Things, there was previously a difference between theory and practice …

Lutron has earned a reputation for high-quality HomeKit-compatible window blinds, but with a very hefty price tag. The cost is something the company is seeking to address with the new Caséta Smart Shade.

Lutron says that you can expect the quality and performance it is known for, but at a more affordable price tag of $399 for most window sizes …

Making iPhones in India is a key element of Apple’s efforts to reduce its manufacturing dependence on China, and a new report indicates that the company may be able to cut the cost of doing so.

The Indian government is reportedly planning to offer at least $2.7B in support for local manufacturing, which could reduce iPhone production expenses in the country …

A pair of reports suggest we can expect to see three changes to the materials Apple uses in the casing of at least some iPhone 17 models.

The latest of these concerns the way that the sides of the phone blend in with the rear casing, with a smoother transition promised …

iPhone sales in China fell for the fourth successive month, amidst a sharp decline across all non-Chinese brands.

Official data revealed that shipments of foreign-branded smartphones were down 47% year-on-year, explaining Apple’s rare decision to discount the cost of current iPhone models in the country …

The right to net neutrality has again been lost after a federal court ruled that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) did not have the power to ban a two-tier internet. The FCC had acted in response to calls from Apple and more than 40 other tech companies to safeguard equal treatment for all.

This means that internet service providers (ISPs) and mobile carriers will again be free to accept payments from large websites and services to prioritize their traffic over the rest of the internet …

The Chinese government forced Apple to remove VPN apps from the App Store there way back in 2017, and the company is now having to do the same in India.

So far, a small number of VPN apps have been removed to comply with an anti-privacy law barring anonymous use, but many more are likely to follow …

Telegram verification is already available for public figures and bodies, but it’s now rolling out a new system where accounts can be verified by third-party organizations …

Sony has had the exclusive manufacturing contract for iPhone camera sensors for more than a decade, but Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo last year suggested this would be changing with the iPhone 18. This has now been backed by another report, which provides a little more detail.

The latest one says that Samsung is working on a 3-layer stacked camera sensor for Apple, which should improve the performance of future iPhone cameras …

Phishing attacks are about to get a whole lot more convincing. A new report warns that scammers are now using AI to scrape information about you from your online profiles in order to send hyper-personalized emails which target your login credentials.

By finding out everything from your employer to your interests, scammers can send emails which have a far greater chance of appearing to be genuine …

Many start the new year full of good intentions on the exercise front, and Apple is offering some encouragement through a homepage promotion of a free three-month trial of Apple Fitness+.

The offer itself isn’t new – it’s been available with the purchase of a new device since 2022 – but the homepage promo is clearly intended to tap into new year resolutions …

A leaker with a mixed track record has claimed that this year’s iPhone SE will be getting an upgraded name to reflect its new design: the iPhone 16E.

We are expecting the budget model to get its biggest ever upgrade this year, finally dropping the large chin with Home button for a modern form factor based on the iPhone 14 …