SpaceX believes it knows what caused the explosion during the seventh test flight of its Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy booster on January 16th, 2025. Fires in the aft section of Starship, located between the bottom of its liquid oxygen tank and rear heat shield, caused “all but one of Starship’s engines to execute controlled shut down sequences” leading to a loss of communication and eventually the spacecraft’s safety system triggering its own destruction.

The goal of the seventh test flight was to test several upgrades SpaceX made to its heavy-lift rocket system. After a successful launch and completing a full duration burn, the Super Heavy booster separated from Starship and triggered a boostback burn designed to return it to the launch site. Following a landing burn, the Super Heavy booster was successfully caught mid-air by the launch tower at Starbase for the second time.

The mission didn’t go quite as well for Starship. Approximately two minutes after the spacecraft ignited its second stage Raptor engines following separation, a flash was observed in the aft section of Starship known as the attic, followed by sensors detecting a pressure rise from a leak. Two minutes after that, a second flash was observed, followed by sustained fires in the attic section that eventually “caused all but one of Starship’s engines to execute controlled shut down sequences and ultimately led to a loss of communication with the ship.”

Post-flight analysis indicated that Starship’s Autonomous Flight Safety System triggered a self-destruct approximately three minutes after the ground crew lost contact with the spacecraft. According to SpaceX, the most probable cause of the incident was vibrations that were much stronger during the flight than had been experienced during testing. That resulted in increased stress on the propulsion system’s hardware and, eventually, a propellant leak that “exceeded the venting capability of the ship’s attic area and resulted in sustained fires.”

The explosion created falling debris that looked more like a meteor shower over the islands of Turks and Caicos to several tourists who shared videos of the aftermath on social media. Although SpaceX says all the “debris came down within the pre-planned Debris Response Area,” the Federal Aviation Administration briefly slowed and diverted several flights in the area on January 16th as a result of the incident.

As part of the investigation into the explosion involving SpaceX, the FAA, NASA, the National Transportation Safety Board, and the U.S. Space Force, the company conducted a 60-second static test fire with the Starship that will be used on an upcoming eighth flight. Following the results of that test, SpaceX has made hardware changes to fuel feedlines as well as adjustments to propellant temperatures and operating thrust targets.

The company has also added additional vents and a “new purge system utilizing gaseous nitrogen” to the attic section of Starship designed to make that area more robust to propellant leakage.

SpaceX currently plans to launch an eighth test flight of Starship on February 28th, 2025, but is still “working with the FAA to either close the mishap investigation or receive a flight safety determination, along with working on a license authorization to enable its next flight of Starship.”

Google is planning to move away from sending six-digit authentication codes through SMS messages as a two-factor authentication tool for Gmail, Forbes reports. Instead, over the next few months, QR codes will be rolled out as a replacement for SMS codes in an attempt to “reduce the impact of rampant, global SMS abuse,” Gmail spokesperson Ross Richendrfer told Forbes.

Google uses SMS codes to both verify that it’s dealing with the same person who created or owns a Gmail account, and as a deterrent to prevent criminals from creating “thousands of Gmail accounts in order to distribute spam and malware,” Richendrfer says.

But while SMS codes are better than using no two-factor authentication at all, the approach comes with its own security risks. Criminals can trick or force users into sharing a code that’s been sent over SMS messaging, and users may not have immediate access to the device receiving the codes. It’s also dependent on each carrier’s own security practices, and how diligent their support teams are at preventing fraudsters from getting access to someone else’s mobile number.

The move will also help Google avoid a more recent scam called traffic pumping or toll fraud. “It’s where fraudsters try to get online service providers to originate large numbers of SMS messages to numbers they control, thereby getting paid every time one of these messages is delivered,” Richendrfer and Google’s Kimberly Samra explained to Forbes.

Once the change has been implemented, instead of verifying phone numbers by sending a six-digit code, a QR code will be presented that users can scan using the camera app on their smartphones. It will eliminate the risk of users being tricked into sharing codes since they no longer exist, and it takes security risks introduced by phone carriers, including unwanted SIM swapping, out of the equation entirely.

Sigma has announced a new compact 24.6-megapixel full-frame camera called the BF with a clean, minimalist design featuring just four button controls and a dial. The BF’s body is milled from a single block of aluminum, its user interface has been redesigned with a “completely new information structure compared to conventional digital cameras,” according to a release from the company, and it trades a memory card slot for a built-in SSD.

The Sigma BF will be available in black or silver finished for $1,999 and is expected to ship sometime in April 2025. That pricing doesn’t include a lens. The BF is compatible with the L-Mount lens standard initially developed by Leica but now used by Panasonic and Sigma as well. Sigma will be updating its I Series collection of prime lenses with a new silver color option to match the BF.

The BF’s minimalist design is most apparent on the back of the camera. Next to a 3.2-inch touchscreen display that doesn’t feature any articulation are three touch controls featuring haptic feedback so they feel like you’re touching real buttons. Above them are a dial for navigating menus with an additional haptic button in the center, and a smaller status monitor screen that shows settings options so the camera’s main display doesn’t get overly cluttered with information. You’ll find the shutter button on top of the camera, next to a couple of small microphone holes.

The streamlined user-interface on the BF surrounds the live preview with shooting-related settings including shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and EV compensation. Secondary settings are hidden in an optional menu, while camera management functions are buried in a system menu.

As is becoming more common with digital cameras, Sigma has included 13 different color modes with the BF, allowing photographers to achieve a specific look in-camera without the need for post-processing. These include options like standard and rich, as well as more creative modes like forest green, sunset red, warm gold, cinema, and monochrome.

You won’t find a memory card slot on the Sigma BF, but a USB-C port for charging and transferring files is included. Inside is a 230GB SSD which the company says is enough to store 14,000 JPEGs or 4,300 uncompressed RAW files. The camera can also capture 6K video at up to 29.97 frames per second, and can store up to 2.5 hours of video at its highest quality setting.

At full resolution, the Sigma BF can capture images at up to eight frames per second and it relies on a hybrid autofocus system combining phase and contrast detection. Its AF system also uses what the company describes as “state of the art algorithms” to detect and quickly focus on specific subjects including people, dogs, and cats.

According to recent observations, the European Space Agency now says the probability of asteroid 2024 YR4 hitting our planet has dropped to just 0.16 percent. That follows an announcement yesterday from NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory saying there was a 0.28 percent chance the asteroid would impact Earth.

Earlier this week, the odds of the asteroid impacting Earth on December 22nd, 2032, were closer to 3.1 percent, which was “the highest impact probability NASA has ever recorded for an object of this size or larger,” according to the agency.

The latest trajectory estimates come from new observations made after a week of limited visibility caused by a full moon. Ground-based telescopes will continue to track 2024 YR4 until April when its distant orbit will make observations from Earth impossible until it approaches again in 2028. The James Webb Space Telescope’s infrared capabilities will be used in March and May to observe the asteroid’s movements. Data gathered by the space telescope will help scientists more accurately calculate 2024 YR4’s size, what it’s made of, and the threat it poses.

First identified on December 27th, 2024 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) located in Chile, trajectory calculations showed 2024 YR4 was on a potential collision course with Earth after a few weeks of observation.

The asteroid is estimated to be between 130 and 300 feet in size and would impact the Earth with about 7.7 megatons of energy, according to Astronomy.com. That’s not powerful enough to wipe out humanity the same way an asteroid hit is believed to have done in the dinosaurs, but it’s more than enough energy to devastate a city with a direct hit.

Although the odds of the asteroid hitting the Earth have been dramatically reduced, NASA also says the new data has increased the chances of 2024 YR4 impacting the moon to one percent.

CNEOS’ Sentry page will be continuously updated with details on 2024 YR4’s latest impact probability.

American Airlines has announced support for Apple’s Share Item Location feature, potentially making it easier for passengers to be reunited with lost luggage tracked with an AirTag. The airline transported 226,405,000 passengers around the world last year, making it the busiest and one of the largest carriers in the US.

Share Item Location was first introduced as part of the iOS 18.2 update released last December. AirTag users are able to generate a shareable link within Apple’s Find My app on iPhones, iPads, or Macs allowing others to access an interactive map showing the location, or last known location, of a missing item.

The link will be deactivated when a lost item is recovered and the location sharing can be turned off at any time. The links also automatically expire after seven days.

“We’ve introduced the ability for customers to easily and securely share the location of their AirTag or Find My network accessory directly with the airline,” an American Airlines spokesperson told View from the Wing’s Gary Leff. “Customers can generate a link through Apple’s Share Item feature available on iOS 18.2 or later and share it with American in the rare case when a bag is delayed for any trips with a segment from or to a U.S. airport. Customers just need to scan the QR code at the baggage office to start their claim and provide their information.”

Airlines like United, Delta, and Air Canada integrated the Share Item Location feature into their lost luggage procedures soon after it was released. Additional carriers, including Lufthansa Group and Virgin Atlantic, announced support earlier this month.

DJI has announced a new version of the smallest camera stabilizer in its Ronin series. Like last year’s RS 3 Mini, the upgraded RS 4 Mini is a more compact, lighter, and cheaper alternative to DJI’s RS 4 and RS 4 Pro stabilizers, but designed for smaller mirrorless cameras and smartphones. Although it’s slightly heavier than its predecessor, the RS 4 Mini introduces subject tracking through an optional module, similar to what DJI recently launched with its Osmo Mobile 7 Pro.

The DJI RS 4 Mini is now available through the company’s online store in three versions. On its own, the gimbal sells for $369, but the $459 DJI RS 4 Mini Combo adds the new tracking module and a Mini Briefcase Handle accessory. There’s also the $478 DJI RS 4 Mini Creator Combo that includes the same accessories plus a smartphone holder for mobile creators looking to get more creative.

It’s a little heavier than its predecessor — 890 grams (a little under two pounds) up from 795 grams — but the RS 4 Mini offers the same capacity with support for cameras weighing up to 4.4 pounds. Battery life gets a boost from 10 hours to 13 now, while a 30-minute fast charge provides five hours of use.

Even with the extra weight the RS 4 Mini could be worth the upgrade thanks to DJI’s new RS Intelligent Tracking Module. It features its own camera and DJI’s tracking technology allowing the gimbal to autonomously follow and keep a moving human subject in frame from over 32 feet away without the need for DJI’s Ronin mobile app. Tracking can also be stopped and started remotely using an open palm hand gesture for creators working alone, while a new Responsive mode improves performance when capturing fast moving subjects.

Other upgrades include faster switching to vertical shooting mode, a new Teflon coating to further smooth out movements and balancing, and a smaller and lighter horizontal briefcase handle allowing shots to be more easily captured from lower angles.

Aside from an October 2025 release, the teaser Lego and Nintendo released in January for their upcoming Game Boy collaboration was light on details. But according to an Instagram account that Video Games Chronicle says has a reliable track record for sharing accurate details about new sets before Lego does, the brick-built Game Boy will sell for $59.99 when it launches on October 1st, and will include 421 pieces.

Falconbricks Studios shared the details on Instagram earlier today, including the set number 72046 that matches earlier leaks, but pricing that’s slightly cheaper than what has been anticipated.

However, $59.99 for 421 pieces — which works out to about 14 cents per brick — makes this upcoming set one of the more expensive Nintendo and Lego collaborations. The $129.99 Super Mario World: Mario & Yoshi set, released last October, came out to about 11 cents per brick, while the blocky Nintendo Entertainment System, which is now priced at $269.99, still works out to about 10 cents per brick. Non-themed sets, like the recently released $59.99 Medieval Dragon, sell for about eight cents per brick.

The Lego Game Boy will likely be the second most anticipated Nintendo handheld this year, following the official reveal of the Switch 2 last month. But we won’t know how much Nintendo’s flagship console will cost, or when it will be released, until the Switch 2 Nintendo Direct presentation on April 2nd.

Canon has announced a new point-and-shoot compact camera called the PowerShot V1 designed to appeal more to video content creators.

The V1 pairs a wide-angle lens with a new sensor from the company, and it’s the first PowerShot model to introduce “moods” that customize the look and feel of videos, plus a product demo mode that prioritizes autofocus for objects held close to the camera. It also has a built-in cooling fan so it can record at 4K/60p for over two hours without overheating.

The PowerShot V1 was announced ahead of the CP+ photography show taking place in Yokohama, Japan next week. Canon has revealed details on most of the V1’s functionality, but limited details on availability. Canon’s Japan site lists the PowerShot V1 with a 148,500 yen price tag, or around $990. It will launch in Japan, Korea, Honk Kong, China, and Taiwan in late April 2025, but wider availability, including the US, is still to be determined. More details may be announced next week.

The V1’s new Type 1.4 sensor is similar in size to a Micro Four Thirds sensor, but features a 3:2 aspect ratio that’s slightly wider and shorter. The camera can capture 22.3-megapixel still images at up to 15fps with its mechanical shutter, or up to 30fps with its electronic one. When capturing 10-bit video at 4K/30p the entire width of the V1’s sensor is used, but when boosting that to 60p a 1.4x sensor crop is used to reduce processing needs and heat generation.

The new sensor is paired with a 16-50mm equivalent f/2.8-4.5 wide-angle zoom lens and Canon’s Dual Pixel AF II system borrowed from its EOS R6 Mark II. That gives the V1 autofocus features that include subject tracking, image stabilization that helps maintain that subject’s position in frame, and the automatic detection of people, cars, animals, and even pupils.

The V1 doesn’t have an electronic viewfinder, so framing and menu navigation is handled entirely by a three-inch vari-angle LCD touchscreen on the back. But it can be tethered to a smartphone using a Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or USB-C connection with the Canon Connect app, and it can be used as a USB webcam on a computer without the need for any adapters.

There’s no built-in flash, but Canon includes a multi-function hot shoe for adding third-party solutions. The PowerShot V1 also includes a three-stop ND filter, a headphone and microphone hack, HDMI, and a single SD card slot.

Ring has announced its first outdoor security camera that supports 2K video at launch. Ring’s outdoor cameras previously only supported 1080p video, but earlier this year, the Amazon-owned company released software updates upgrading its Floodlight Cam Pro and Spotlight Cam Pro with 2K capabilities. The new Ring Outdoor Cam Plus works in 2K video right out of the box and adds improved Wi-Fi and low-light capabilities.

The Ring Outdoor Cam Plus is now available for preorder through Ring’s website and Amazon for $99.99 and is expected to ship on March 26th, 2025. Core features include real-time alerts when motion is detected, live streaming from the camera, and two-way talk capabilities. More advanced features, such as recording and saving motion events and package detection, require subscriptions that start at $4.99 per month, or $49.99 per year, for Ring Home Basic.

The new Outdoor Cam Plus is an upgrade to Ring’s existing Stick Up Cam. It can also be powered by a battery, a solar panel accessory, or be plugged in with an upgrade to a USB-C port. Dual-band Wi-Fi is now supported, and an easy-to-install mount is included, with expanded functionality allowing it to be attached to ceilings.

The camera is weather-resistant so it can be used indoors or out. It also features an expanded field of view and Ring’s Low-Light Sight technology that relies on “advanced image processing techniques to show a clear, colorful view even in near dark conditions,” according to a press release from the company.

The plug-in version of the Outdoor Cam Plus also supports 24/7 recording with the ability to find key moments using Ring’s AI-powered Smart Video Search. However, that functionality requires a Ring Home Premium subscription that’s $19.99 per month or $199.99 per year.

For the first time since 2018, King Jim, a Japanese stationery company, is making one of its distraction-free writing tools available in the US. The Pomera D250 launched in Japan in 2022 and while it looks like a compact laptop, its functionality is limited to being a digital typewriter. There’s no email, no social media, and no web browser. King Jim’s new Pomera D250US is similarly focused on that singular task, but with a keyboard featuring a US layout and an English dictionary for spell checking.

King Jim is making the Pomera D250US available through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign that has already surpassed its modest $10,000 funding goal. Early backers can preorder one for $374, while full retail pricing will be closer to $499, with shipping expected as early as March 2025. That’s more expensive than the $349 Freewrite Alpha which also minimizes distractions, and pricier than even many Chromebooks. But for those you’ll need to BYOD — Bring Your Own Discipline.

The last Americanized Pomera device, the DM30, featured a six-inch E Ink screen and a compact folding design with a keyboard that split into three sections. The 10.3-inch wide clamshell Pomera D250US doesn’t fold quite as small, but it trades E Ink for a slightly larger seven-inch 1024 x 600 black-and-white LCD display that won’t suffer from slow refresh speeds or ghosting.

Battery life is claimed to be up to 20 hours, and the D250US will be fully booted and ready for you to pound away on its scissor-switch keyboard a few moments after you open its screen.

Although built-in storage is limited to 1.3GB, that’s still enough to store a lot of text. Should you find yourself needing more, storage can be expanded with SD cards up to 32GB in size. Documents can be transferred to a PC over USB-C, or Wi-Fi and Bluetooth using the Pomera Link mobile app available for iOS and Android. If you don’t have access to a wireless network, the DM250US can also convert documents to a series of QR codes (up to 999 of them in succession) offering an alternate and tedious way to transfer text to the mobile app using your smartphone’s camera.

What if a smartphone maker decided to cram as many features into a device as possible and not worry about maintaining a pocket-friendly design? That’s the approach that Oukitel has taken with its new WP100 Titan smartphone. The company is known for creating chunky phones with extended battery life, and its new 1.3-inch thick Titan pushes that even further with a 33,000mAh battery the company says is good for 4,459 hours — or about six months — of standby time. On top of gargantuan battery, the company has managed to cram in other amenities like a projector.

Originally announced at CES 2025, Oukitel is making the WP100 Titan available through a Kickstarter campaign that has already surpassed its modest $10,000 funding goal. The earliest backers can preorder the WP100 Titan for $599, discounted from its $899 retail pricing. Oukitel expects to ship the device as early as April 2025. There’s always some level of risk when backing crowdfunded products, but the company says it’s ready to start mass production in March, and has already shipped review units.

Powered by a 2.5GHz MediaTek Dimensity 7300 processor paired with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, Oukitel says the Titan’s massive battery can let you talk on the phone for up to 289 hours or watch 49 hours of video on its 6.8-inch, 120Hz display.

On the back of the phone is a 1,200-lumen LED camp light that can be used for up to 150 hours — assuming you’re not doing much else with the phone — but its built-in projector isn’t quite as bright. It’s limited to just 100 lumens, which means you’ll need a very dark space to get anywhere close to creating a big screen experience. Oukitel doesn’t specify how much of a hit battery life takes while using the projector, but the company says you can watch up to six full-length movies on a full charge.

The Titan has an IP68 water resistance rating, meaning it can be submerged in five feet of water for up to 30 minutes and survive a drop from nearly the same height. On the back is a 200-megapixel main camera, a 20-megapixel infrared night vision camera, and a two-megapixel macro camera, while the front features a 32-megapixel selfie camera.

Out of the box Oukitel says the WP100 Titan will run Android 14. An “OTA upgrade to Android 15 in the pipe,” the company claims, but it’s not known if the Titan will be updated to Android 16 when Google releases the next version of its mobile OS later this year.

After launching several privacy-focused smartphones, Murena has released its first tablet. The French company customizes mobile devices with a version of Android called /e/OS that removes Google’s apps and services so the search giant can’t collect your data and personal info. The company is sticking with that familiar playbook for the Murena Pixel Tablet which is a customized version of Google’s Pixel Tablet that was released in 2023. You don’t get to choose a color or more than 128GB of storage, but you do get the peace of mind that a giant corporation isn’t keeping tabs on everything you do with it.

First announced last December, the Murena Pixel Tablet is available now through the company’s online store for $549. That’s a steep premium given Google currently sells the same 128GB version of the Pixel Tablet for $399, or $479 as part of a bundle with the charging speaker dock that Murena isn’t including.

Part of Murena’s de-Googling of the Pixel Tablet includes the removal of the Google Play Store. You can still download apps through /e/OS’ App Lounge which acts as a front-end for the Play Store allowing you to browse and get free apps anonymously without Google knowing who you are. However, downloading paid apps requires a login to a Google account.

Google’s various productivity apps aren’t included, but the Murena Pixel Tablet comes with privacy-minded alternatives for messaging, email, maps, browsing the web, calendar, contacts, notes, and even voice recordings.

Murena Workspace, the company’s version of services like Google Docs or Microsoft Office 365, includes productivity apps and 1GB of secure online storage for free. You can bump that to 20GB of cloud storage for $2.49 per month, or $24.90 per year, or up to 128GB for $7.49 per month, or $74.90 per year.

Insta360 has announced a new accessory for its Flow 2 Pro smartphone gimbal that allows any camera app to take advantage of the company’s AI-powered tracking technology. Previously, subject tracking required the use of the company’s own Android or iOS camera app, or iOS apps that supported Apple’s DockKit framework. The new Insta360 Flow 2 Pro AI Tracker handles the tracking and controls the gimbal on its own, letting you record, stream, or make calls with your preferred smartphone app.

With the introduction of DockKit in 2023, developers were able to make iOS camera apps compatible with motorized stands and mounts and add subject tracking capabilities without having to develop that feature themselves. That’s what allows many third-party iOS camera apps, such as Blackmagic Camera, to work with devices like the Flow 2 Pro.

Insta360’s new tracker module is a workaround for Android lacking its own built-in tracking framework. It’s got its own camera and Insta360’s tracking technology baked into the hardware. It doesn’t matter what smartphone camera app you’re using (on iOS or Android) — you’ll still get stabilized video with your subject automatically framed at all times, whether they’re human or a dog or cat. However, the tracking capabilities aren’t as robust as what you’ll get from Insta360’s app, which can track multiple people and track while zoomed into a subjects.

The AI Tracker module also brings gesture functionality to other apps, allowing you to start and stop its tracking. by raising your hand, or start and stop recording video by raising two fingers. There’s an LED fill light built into it with color temperature adjustments, it can be used facing forwards or back for selfie videos, and instead of relying on a battery, the tracking module draws all the power it needs while attached to the Flow 2 Pro gimbal.

The Insta360 Flow 2 Pro AI Tracker is available now on its own for $39.99, but the company is also offering it as part of a $179 AI Tracker Bundle that includes the $159.99 Flow 2 Pro gimbal, reducing the price of the add-on module to around $20.

The new AI tracker is a similar solution to what DJI introduced today on its new $149 Osmo Mobile 7 Pro which also expands tracking capabilities to more than just DJI’s mobile app. In our testing, the Osmo Mobile 7 Pro’s battery life was reduced from about 10 hours to around five while using its external tracking module, but Insta360 hasn’t revealed how much its new AI tracker will reduce the Flow 2 Pro’s battery life.

Nanoleaf has announced that the company’s “most popular products” are getting a permanent price cut as part of its new SmarterLife Pricing Initiative. “For the past two years, Nanoleaf has been working closely with their manufacturing and supply chain teams to completely reexamine, rework and reoptimize processes, materials, and structures to reduce costs,” the company says in a PR release. The price cuts go into effect starting today, and include many of Nanoleaf’s “hero products,” like its Shapes, Lines, Elements, and Blocks modular lighting solutions.

The discounts vary across the company’s products, but many are well over 30 percent off its previous pricing. For example, the $249.99 seven-piece Elements Smarter Kit is now $50 cheaper at $199.99, while its 13-piece Shapes Triangle Smarter Kit has been reduced from $339.97 to $249.97 — a savings of $90.

Some of the more significant price reductions come with bundles featuring multiple products. The Nanoleaf Invaders Bundle, which includes multiple shapes, is now $431.94, while the Immersion Bundle, that syncs lighting to what’s on a screen, is now $647.99.

“The economic climate has made affordability a key concern for many consumers. At Nanoleaf, we believe that lighting should be an extraordinary everyday experience, not just a luxury,” says Nanoleaf’s CEO and co-founder, Gimmy Chu. “We’ve had to completely reoptimize our company structures as a whole the past two years, but with our team’s dedication and commitment to achieving this goal, we’re proud to introduce SmarterLife Pricing—making Nanoleaf products more accessible for everyone in our community.”

Although Nanoleaf is positioning the price cuts as a way to make its products more accessible to a wider range of consumers, in recent years the company has been facing stiffer competition from brands like GE Lighting and Govee. In addition to a growing collection of smart lighting products for the holidays, Govee has also recently introduced inexpensive bias lighting solutions that sync with televisions and, at CES 2025, a pixel light grid that shows information like the weather and Bitcoin prices.

Starting on February 26th, 2025, Amazon is removing a feature from its website allowing you to download purchased books to a computer and then copy them manually to a Kindle over USB. It’s a feature that a lot of Kindle users are probably not aware of, given books can be more easily sent to devices over Wi-Fi, but it’s especially useful for backing up purchases or converting them to other formats compatible with non-Kindle e-readers.

There are a few reasons why some Kindle users might miss this feature. It’s useful if you don’t have access to a Wi-Fi network, and although it’s a tedious process since purchased books can only be downloaded one at a time, there’s some peace of mind in knowing you have offline copies of all your books.

It doesn’t happen frequently, but as Good e-Reader points out, Amazon has occasionally removed books from its online store and remotely deleted them from Kindles or edited titles and re-uploaded new copies to its e-readers. In 2009, the company removed copies of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, explaining the books had been mistakenly published. More recently, many of Roald Dahl’s books, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, were replaced with updated copies featuring modified language on various ebook platforms. It’s a reminder that you don’t actually own much of the digital content you consume, and without the ability to back up copies of ebooks, you could lose them entirely if they’re banned and removed.

The feature is also the easiest way to convert books purchased from Amazon to other formats like EPUB that can be used on alternative devices such as a Kobo. Books downloaded through Amazon’s website are delivered in the older AZW3 format which allows DRM to be easily removed using various software tools.

Older Kindle models also store books in the AZW3 format, and they can be extracted by connecting the device to a computer with a USB cable. But modern Kindles use the newer KFX format (first rolled out in 2015) which introduced improved font rendering, better layout capabilities, and DRM that’s nearly impossible to circumvent.

The download feature is a carryover from the days when Kindles didn’t come with Wi-Fi, allowing users who also weren’t able to take advantage of Amazon’s cellular Whispernet service to get purchased books onto their e-readers. It’s still accessible through Amazon’s website by accessing your “Content Library” while logged into your account. For purchased books you select the “More actions” menu, choose “Download & transfer via USB,” select a Kindle device you have registered, and a copy of the book will be downloaded to your computer.

But the pop-up that appears when selecting the download option now includes an additional warning. “Starting February 26, 2025, the ‘Download & Transfer via USB’ option will no longer be available. You can still send Kindle books to your Wi-Fi enabled devices by selecting the ‘Deliver or Remove from Device’ option.“

Amazon confirmed the removal of the book download feature in a statement to The Verge. “Customers can continue reading books previously downloaded on their Kindle device, and access new content through the Kindle app, Kindle for web, as well as directly through Kindle devices with WiFi capability,” said Amazon spokesperson Jackie Burke.

Once this feature goes away, you’ll still be able to manually copy ebook files and other documents to Kindles over USB using Amazon’s apps or third-party solutions like Calibre. You just won’t be able to download copies of your purchased books to a computer.

Update, February 14th: Added comment from an Amazon spokesperson.

Audio-Technica has announced a new version of its open-ear cartilage conduction headphones the company says deliver improved sound and better battery life. The headphones use a technology that’s similar to bone conduction headphones from companies like Shokz and Suunto but instead deliver sound through the softer cartilage around your ears. The approach still leaves the ear canal open so you can hear what’s going on around you, but the headphones are more comfortable to wear and offer better sound separation.

The Audio-Technica ATH-CC500BT2 are currently available in the UK for £119.00 and the rest of Europe for €139. That’s about $145 to $150, but the company hasn’t said if or when they might be available in the US.

The technology behind the headphones is based on research first shared in 2004 by Professor Hiroshi Hosoi, who’s now the president of the Nara Medical University in Japan. Instead of sending sound to the eardrum as vibrations passing through the bones in the skull, vibrations from the ATH-CC500BT2 travel through cartilage causing the wall of the ear canal to vibrate and generate sound waves that eventually reach the cochlea.

Cartilage conduction headphones require less pressure against the head than bone conducting headphones to effectively transmit sound, potentially making them more comfortable to wear for longer periods. The technology is also better at producing stereo sound, Audio-Technica claims, because bone conduction headphones tend to merge left and right signals in the cranial cavity.

The most compelling reason to choose the Audio-Technica ATH-CC500BT2 could be battery life. The company says you can listen to music or podcasts for up to 20 hours between charges or use them to make calls for around 10 hours. For comparison, the bone conducting Shokz OpenRun Pro (which don’t feature an additional air conduction speaker like the newer OpenRun Pro 2) only offer up to 10 hours. However, the OpenRun Pro feature smaller battery modules on their headband and weigh 29 grams — compared to 32 grams for Audio-Technica’s headphones.

The ATH-CC500BT2 are charged using a standard USB-C cable and plugging them in for just 10 minutes when they’re dead gets you about two hours of use. There’s no ANC, but they do include AI-powered noise reduction technology designed to filter out unwanted background noise, including wind, picked up by the microphone while you’re making a call.

The headphones are IPX4 water-resistant so you can wear them out in the rain or during especially sweaty workouts, include Bluetooth multipoint connectivity so you can easily switch between using them with two different devices, and support both Siri and Google Assistant for voice commands and receiving audible notifications.

Google is releasing the second public beta of Android 16 today that will introduce new features for professional photographers who want more control while capturing images and videos. The upgrades include new manual control options when using auto-exposure, precise color temperature and tint adjustments, and support for Ultra HDR images in the HEIC image format. Following today’s release, two more public beta releases of Android 16 are expected before its full release sometime in Q2.

Android’s camera app previously gave photographers the choice between full manual control of exposure settings or letting auto-exposure handle everything. Android 16 is introducing new hybrid auto-exposure modes that let you manually control ISO or exposure time settings, while the camera app’s AE algorithms handle everything else. This should give photographers who want to avoid the noise that comes with boosting ISO settings more flexibility.

White balance adjustments, which are currently limited to a list of presets including cloudy, incandescent, and twilight are being expanded with precise control over color temperature and tint. This will allow photographers to compensate for challenging lighting conditions and ensure they’re capturing color-accurate photos and videos without needing to apply color corrections afterward. But it also allows for more creativity in the look of images straight out of the camera.

Today’s public beta also adds support for Ultra HDR images in the HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container) file format that is higher in quality than JPEG while taking up less space thanks to improved compression techniques. Like Ultra HDR JPEGs, Ultra HDR HEIC files will have a “gain map” embedded in their metadata so they can be properly viewed on older devices with standard dynamic range screens. On newer devices with high dynamic range screens, additional color, brightness, and contrast details will be visible.

The Android 16 public beta is available for Google Pixel phones starting with the Pixel 6 as well as the Pixel Tablet. To access it, you’ll need to opt in here using the device you want to test it on.

Yamaha has announced a new handheld controller that gives a captain full control of a boat from anywhere onboard. It’s compatible with Yamaha’s Helm Master EX control system, which is designed to make boating more accessible.

The Helm Master EX Wireless Control — which looks like an upgraded version of the Nunchuk controller used with the Nintendo Wii — was announced today at the 2025 Miami International Boat Show but won’t be available for dealer installation until sometime in Fall 2025. Pricing for the controller hasn’t been revealed, but for single engine boats, the entire system is an upgrade that costs well north of $12,000.

Yamaha first introduced its modular Helm Master EX control system in 2020 as way to make it easier to operate boats with multiple engines. It includes both physical and touchscreen controls and can be upgraded with an autopilot system for holding a position or following a route, and a joystick featuring throttle and steering controls to simplify maneuvering.

The remote should make it easier for captains to operate their craft with less assistance. During launch or docking they can maneuver the boat with one hand while using the other to secure lines or adjust fenders. Its battery is estimated to be good for about eight hours of use, but that can be extended by occasionally docking it in a charging cradle that can be installed anywhere on a boat.

The remote is waterproof, buoyant, and features a system that can detect and respond to someone going overboard. It connects to up to eight fobs (two are included with the system) worn by the captain and passengers and should someone fall in the water the boat will come to a full stop and idle or turn off its engines completely, depending on the situation.

Samsung’s SmartTags trackers and Galaxy Find network offer similar functionality to Apple’s AirTags and Find My network, including precision finding using ultra wideband (UWB) radios. The downside is that they only work with Samsung Galaxy devices. A free open-source app called uTag (short for Universal Tag), developed by Kieron Quinn, lets Samsung’s SmartTags trackers work with Android devices that run Android 11 or later.

Samsung’s SmartThings app, which is used to configure and control various smart home devices, is compatible with any Android or iOS device. However, the app includes a software check, so that you can only set up a SmartTag tracker when the app is running on a Samsung Galaxy device. Certain features of the SmartThings app — including SmartThings Find, which lets you track the location of SmartTags on a map — also rely on software that’s only available on Galaxy devices through Samsung’s One UI user interface.

uTag replaces SmartThings’ tracking and map functionality with a companion Android app that replicates most of the features in Samsung’s apps. These include notifications for when a Tag is left behind, sharing its location with others, triggering its ringtone, and viewing its location history.

In addition to using a SmartTag on a non-Galaxy device, uTag is the “first tag tracking app on non-Samsung devices to support precise tracking” through UWB, according to Quinn, which is a feature still not available on Google’s Find my Device app. uTag also includes functionality not offered through Samsung’s SmartThings app, such as the ability to automatically scan periodically for unknown Tags, with notifications showing where one was detected. With the SmartThings app alone, scans for unknown Tags can only be started manually, limiting the usefulness of the feature.

uTag is available for free through GitHub as a downloadable Android APK. The app will download and install a modded version of SmartThings during setup that disables its device checks for Galaxy hardware and allows the app to communicate with uTag. You’ll also need to sign in with your Samsung account on the SmartThings app and on uTag so that it has access to necessary Samsung APIs. There’s always a risk when signing in to third party apps, but this is why Quinn has opted to release uTag as an open source app, allowing users to see exactly what it’s doing with those credentials.

With a 6.13-inch black-and-white E Ink screen, Bigme’s new Hibreak Pro looks similar to the Boox Palma 2 that debuted last October. But while the Palma 2 is positioned as a pocket-sized e-reader, the Hibreak Pro features a more powerful processor and dual-SIM 5G capabilities.

The Bigme Hibreak Pro is currently available for preorder through the company’s online store for $439. What sets it apart from similar Android-based E Ink devices that often feel sluggish is that it’s powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 1080 2.6GHz processor paired with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It’s a two-year-old processor used in midrange devices like the Samsung Galaxy A34 that could help Android 14’s user interface feel more responsive on the Hibreak Pro, even if it’s lacking the latest OS updates.

The experience won’t be comparable to what you get on smartphones like the $499 Pixel 8a, but the Hibreak Pro isn’t as much a budget smartphone competitor as it is an e-reader with enough capabilities to fill in the gap.

Even with Bigme’s “SSS” fast refresh technology, the Hibreak Pro’s E Ink screen still has a limited refresh rate of just 21fps. You won’t want to game on it, videos will look terrible, and scrolling TikTok won’t be as engaging. It’s instead worth considering if you’re looking for a mobile device that will minimize distractions while still offering the benefits of E Ink, like good battery life and a screen that’s easy on the eyes.

The Hibreak Pro’s E Ink screen has the same 300ppi resolution as the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite, so even small text should be sharp and crisp while reading ebooks. It also features a 4,500mAh battery, a 20-megapixel rear camera paired with a five-megapixel selfie camera, a microSD slot, GPS, NFC, an IR port letting you use it as a universal remote, and a fingerprint reader built into its lock button.