Apple’s launching five new iPhones this year, and signs are starting to emerge that this is the year prices will finally increase. The budget-friendly iPhone SE 4 is widely expected to get a modest price bump, but the flagship iPhone 17 lineup could too. Here are two reasons why.
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The New York law requiring Internet providers to offer cheap plans to people with low incomes will take effect on Wednesday this week following a multi-year court battle in which the state defeated broadband industry lobby groups.
A US appeals court upheld the law in April 2024, reversing the ruling of a district judge who blocked it in 2021. The Supreme Court last month decided not to hear the broadband industry's challenge, leaving the appeals court ruling in place. The state law requires Internet providers to offer $15- or $20-per-month service to people with low incomes.
As we've written, the battle between New York and ISPs was an important test case for how states can regulate broadband providers when the Federal Communications Commission isn't doing so. The Biden-era FCC's attempt to reinstate net neutrality rules and regulate broadband providers as common carriers was blocked in court, but ISPs lost the fight against the New York affordability law and an earlier fight against California's net neutrality law.
© Getty Images | Yuichiro Chino
Scientists have demonstrated that an ancient human skull excavated from a tomb at Ephesos was not that of Arsinoë IV, half-sister to Cleopatra VII. Rather, it's the skull of a young male between the ages of 11 and 14 from Italy or Sardinia, who may have suffered from one or more developmental disorders, according to a new paper published in the journal Scientific Reports. Arsinoë IV's remains are thus still missing.
Arsinoë IV led quite an adventurous short life. She was either the third or fourth daughter of Ptolemy XII, who left the throne to Cleopatra and his son, Ptolemy XIII, to rule together. Ptolemy XIII didn't care for this decision and dethroned Cleopatra in a civil war—until Julius Caesar intervened to enforce their father's original plan of co-rulership. As for Arsinoë, Caesar returned Cyprus to Egyptian rule and named her and her youngest brother (Ptolemy XIV) co-rulers. This time, it was Arsinoë who rebelled, taking command of the Egyptian army and declaring herself queen.
She was fairly successful at first in battling the Romans, conducting a siege against Alexandria and Cleopatra, until her disillusioned officers decided they'd had enough and secretly negotiated with Caesar to turn her over to him. Caesar agreed, and after a bit of public humiliation, he granted Arsinoë sanctuary in the temple of Artemis in Ephesus. She lived in relative peace for a few years, until Cleopatra and Mark Antony ordered her execution on the steps of the temple—a scandalous violation of the temple as a place of sanctuary. Historians disagree about Arsinoë's age when she died: Estimates range from 22 to 27.
© Gerhard Weber, University of Vienna/CC BY
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have joined the ranks of those displeased with Meta’s changes to fact-checking and have released a statement saying that the changes “directly underminds free speech.” “Meta’s changes to its ‘Hateful Content Policies’ do not protect free expression but instead foster an environment where abuse and hate speech silence and threaten […]
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Ben Lerer, managing partner of one of New York’s most prestigious seed-stage venture firms, Lerer Hippeau, shared some predictions with Fortune’s Leo Schwartz. He believes venture firms will continue to see a bifurcation as money pours mostly into top funds like Thrive and a16z, as well as into smaller more bespoke funds. “Where you go […]
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Blaize, an AI chip manufacturer founded by former Intel engineers, is set to IPO on the NASDAQ on January 14.
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It’s that time again! We’re planning our latest FOIA Forum, a live, hour-long or more interactive session where Joseph and Jason will teach you how to pry records from government agencies through public records requests. We’re planning this for Thursday, 23rd January at 1 PM Eastern. Add it to your calendar!
So, what’s the FOIA Forum? We'll share our screen and show you specifically how we file FOIA requests. We take questions from the chat and incorporate those into our FOIAs in real-time. We’ll also check on some requests we filed last time. This time we're particularly focusing on how to use FOIA in the new Trump administration. We'll talk all about local, state, and federal agencies; tricks for getting the records you want; requesting things you might not have thought of; and how to apply when the federal government tries to withhold those records.
If this will be your first FOIA Forum, don’t worry, we will do a quick primer on how to file requests (although if you do want to watch our previous FOIA Forums, the video archive is here). We really love talking directly to our community about something we are obsessed with (getting documents from governments) and showing other people how to do it too.
Paid subscribers can already find the link to join the livestream below. We'll also send out a reminder a day or so before. Not a subscriber yet? Sign up now here in time to join.
We've got a bunch of FOIAs that we need to file and are keen to hear from you all on what you want to see more of. Most of all, we want to teach you how to make your own too. Please consider coming along!
JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon has reignited his criticism of Bitcoin, calling it “a Ponzi scheme” that “has no intrinsic value.” In an interview with 60 Minutes, Dimon reiterated his skepticism, saying, “Bitcoin has no intrinsic value. It’s used […]
The post Bitcoin is ‘a Ponzi scheme’ that ‘has no intrinsic value,’ JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says first appeared on Tech Startups.
Your Monday afternoon collection of the best Android game and app deals of the day is now ready to go. Today’s highlight Android-centric hardware deals include Chipolo’s waterproof ONE Google Find My item tracker and Google’s Pixel 9 Pro Fold at $300 off alongside offers on the 256GB Meta Quest 3S and Samsung’s mid-range M7 Smart Monitor. But for now we are focused on the apps, including titles like 60 Parsecs!, 60 Seconds! Reatomized, Bright Reappear, Evoland 2, and more. Scope them all out down below.
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MagSafe battery packs have changed portable charging for iPhone users. Unlike old-school wired power banks that require a cable to charge your phone, MagSafe batteries snap directly to the back of your iPhone, providing a very easy charging experience. They’re convenient, compact, and perfect for those who want to avoid carrying extra cables. The ESR Qi2 MagSlim Kickstand power bank builds on these benefits, adding some nice features like a kickstand and LED display, making it a great option for charging away from a wall adaptor.
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Technology advocates and celebrities are backing the launch of Free Our Feeds, a campaign designed to “save social media from billionaire capture.” The project aims to raise $30 million over three years to support the development of a social media ecosystem powered by the AT Protocol, or the decentralized network powering Bluesky.
The raised funds will go toward launching a public interest foundation to support the project, while creating an “independently hosted infrastructure” giving Bluesky users, developers, and researchers access to the content and data posted “no matter what the company decides to do in the future.”
After starting as a research project under former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Bluesky became an independent company in 2021 and went on to create the AT Protocol, an open-source infrastructure that aims to create a social ecosystem with interoperable apps. Bluesky built its own social network atop the framework, raising millions in funds and attracting a growing number of users.
Despite these efforts, Free Our Feeds believes “social infrastructure run in the public interest cannot be governed by a private social media company” forever.
“Bluesky’s underlying technology, the AT Protocol, could offer a new pathway for the social web. Yet as it stands, it is still venture-capital backed,” Wikipedia co-founder and Free Our Feeds supporter Jimmy Wales said in a statement. “This important initiative aims to safeguard Bluesky’s underlying technology and put it on an independent pathway, so that the future of social media can be freed from the whims of any one company or group of billionaires.”
Free Our Feeds will be led by nine custodians — including the Mozilla Foundation’s Nabiha Syed and Mark Surman — who will oversee the project’s “major governance decisions.”
Mastodon is also moving away from the single ownership model used by social platforms like Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta and Elon Musk’s X. On Monday, Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko announced that he will transfer the ownership of the decentralized social network to a nonprofit organization because “Mastodon should not be owned or controlled by a single individual.”
With Meta making drastic changes to its content moderation policy, and X’s transformation under Musk’s ownership, the Free Our Feeds project couldn’t come at a better time — even if it might take some time for its efforts to come to fruition.
Hospitals and health systems in the U.S. collectively spend close to $20 billion annually trying to overturn denied insurance claims, according to a March report from Premier, a group purchasing organization. The report also highlights that nearly 15% of medical […]
The post Waystar launches generative AI tool to help hospitals fight insurance denials first appeared on Tech Startups.
Samsung is making the Galaxy Ring available to more people by adding size 14 and 15 rings to its options starting on January 22nd. With the expansion, which was rumored last month, the company says its ring sizes now run from five to 15, though it caveats that both size and color availability will vary by market.
The new sizes bring the Galaxy Ring closer to competitor Oura, which already offers its smart ring in sizes four to 15. Samsung’s announcement didn’t include details about the ring’s weight or battery life, but the current lineup’s larger size 12 and 13 rings use bigger batteries and can last an extra day versus the others.
The bigger options will be nice for those at the upper end of its size range, particularly if they’re only a half-size up. As my colleague Victoria Song wrote in her smart ring sizing guide, even if you’re able to slide the ring on, it could be hard to take it off again as your fingers swell in response to things like the food you’ve eaten or the environment you’re in.
Samsung also announced it’s going to sell its smart ring in 16 more countries, including Japan, Taiwan, New Zealand, Greece, and South Africa, starting on February 7th, though the exact date for each release will vary, it writes.
Samsung just announced new sleep-tracking tools available via the company’s Health app. This includes a new analysis tool that leverages other SmartThings enabled devices. Each morning, users receive a “sleep environment report” that takes factors like temperature, humidity, air quality and light intensity into account.
The app will also let folks automatically adjust room settings via the aforementioned connected devices. This should help people “create the ideal sleep environment.”
There’s another tool called “sleep time guidance” that suggests the optimal bedtime and wake-up time for each individual user. This is determined by analyzing sleep patterns, nightly habits and room conditions. Finally, the app now includes a new mindfulness tracker that helps manage “mood, breathing and stress levels.”
The company also made some announcements regarding the Galaxy Ring, just ahead of Samsung Unpacked on January 22. New sizes of the smart ring will be available for purchase on that date, which include two larger variants. This brings the number of available ring sizes to 11, with three color options. Additionally, the device is coming to new regions. These countries include Greece, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and many more.
This news likely indicates that there won’t be a Galaxy Ring 2 announced at Unpacked. Instead, the event should focus on new smartphones and (of course) AI junk, er, I mean tools.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/samsung-introduces-new-sleep-tracking-metrics-that-take-advantage-of-smartthings-enabled-devices-182052999.html?src=rss©
© Samsung
