More so than most items in Apple’s range, it feels like you either love the iPad mini or you don’t quite understand its appeal. Now in its sixth-generation, the smallest iPadOS tablet has seen its biggest update so far, 2021 bringing a whole new look, larger screen, and extra features like 5G. It’s still relatively affordable, though, especially when compared … Continue reading
Facebook Messenger has become one of the applications that some people use to keep in touch with friends and family, particularly during the pandemic. Messenger has announced some changes coming to the group messaging feature, making it easier to communicate with groups of people at once. One of the new features is the ability to have cross-app group chats using … Continue reading
This week, Cherlynn and Devindra go over the news from Amazon’s devices and services event, especially its intriguing Astro robot for the home. With the company’s history with data collection and security cameras in mind, we discuss the questionable merits of such a device. Then, we delve into the news from Google’s Search On event (also this week) and Facebook’s own slides about research that said Instagram is detrimental to teens.
Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!
Here’s what Amazon announced at its fall hardware event – 1:31
Meet Astro, a camera robot that wanders around your house – 2:32
The Echo Show 15 – 10:33
Amazon Halo View – 13:30
Amazon Glow – 17:04
A summary of Google’s Search On event – 28:30
Facebook responds to leaks that it knew Instagram was bad for teen mental health –39:07
Our Fitbit Charge 5 full review is up – 45:29
Chris Pratt is Mario – 46:46
Working on – 51:00
Picks – 54:06
Video livestream
Credits
Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar
Producer: Ben Ellman
Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos, Owen Davidoff, Luke Brooks
Graphics artists: Luke Brooks, Kyle Maack
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien
Nigeria is set to lift a ban on Twitter under the condition that it’s used in the country for “business and positive engagements,” according to Bloomberg. The social media network was originally banned in June after it removed a tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari under a violation of its abuse policy.
The Nigerian government said it was close to an agreement with Twitter on resuming operations. “As a country, we are committed to ensuring that digital companies use their platform to enhance the lives of our citizens, respect Nigeria’s sovereignty, cultural values and promote online safety,” said Buhari in a speech sent to Bloomberg.
Twitter was banned in the country following a tweet by Buhari that threatened to punish secessionists that allegedly attacked government buildings. At the time, the social media company said in a tweet that it was “deeply concerned” by Nigeria’s actions and that it considered the open internet an “essential human right.”
Facebook, Twitter, Apple and other tech giants often walk a fine line between promoting espousing internet freedom and bending to local laws. Apple, for example, was recently accused of giving the Chinese government control over local data, while railing against similar actions in the United States and elsewhere.
Mozilla’s Firefox is introducing some new features that will make it easier and more secure to log in to apps on Android, matching some of the features available via Google Chrome. The update will give you the ability to save and autofill passwords for Android apps using Firefox, or unlock them using your face or fingerprints.
Firefox already has its Lockbox for storing credentials, but accessing sites or apps has never been as easy as it is with Google’s Chrome. With the update, when you create an app on your Android device, you’ll be able to add a new password and save it directly into the Firefox browser. It will then be saved both on mobile and desktop.
From there, you can autofill any password you’ve saved in the browser “to log into any online account like your Twitter or Instagram app… no need to open a web page,” the Firefox team wrote. If you have multiple devices, you can use your Firefox account to sync passwords on all of them. Firefox is also introducing biometric security, letting you access accounts using your face and fingerprints.
Mozilla introduced all of this to time up with Cybersecurity Awareness month, which is October in case you didn’t know. The new features will arrive with the Firefox 93 update, which will start rolling out on October 5th, 2021.
Try as it might, TCL is having a hard time expanding its presence outside of TVs, despite owning notable phone brands like Alcatel, Blackberry, and Palm. It’s tough to be a major player in a smartphone market dominated by Apple and Samsung. Even LG got out of the game. But TCL is still trying, and for the second year…
When Tau Bennett was a child, he started as a puppet builder, making one monstrously hilarious Frankenstein after the next, he got to explore his imagination in a way many kids don’t get to. It shouldn’t have been much of a surprise when at the ripe age of 16, he got to learn from some of the top puppeteers in the…
Europe’s energy market has descended into chaos. A gas shortage has sent prices spiraling to shocking highs with knock-on impacts on everything from electricity to meat production.
Career experts explain how much time you can reasonably ask for — and how to do it.
The Texas teen amassed more than 2 million followers for his lip-sync, dance and comedy bits.
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