Tech

Source: The Verge The smart home in 2024 was a year for regrouping. After the initial excitement surrounding the new interoperability standard Matter — which is trying to make the smart home simpler and easier to use by allowing connected devices to work with any platform — momentum has stalled. As companies adjust to the…

Source: The Verge Happy holidays! ‘Tis the season for trimming trees, hanging lights, baking cookies… and spending two weeks at home trying to figure out why you can’t get the lights to automatically come on at night, and which of those stupid bulbs is causing all the rest to not work. Truly the most wonderful…

Source: The Verge A bipartisan group of senators is calling out the auto industry for its “hypocritical, profit-driven” opposition to national right-to-repair legislation, while also selling customer data to insurance companies and other third-party interests. In a letter sent to the CEOs of the top automakers, the trio of legislators — Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jeff…

Source: The Verge Bluesky now has a specific tab for mentions in your notifications as part of the app’s just-released 1.96 update. With the mentions tab, it’s much easier to see your replies or conversations you’ve been tagged in on the platform. Speaking of replies, update 1.96 lets you easily access settings that let you…

Source: The Verge A Google Street View image played in role in solving a missing person investigation in Spain, according to reports from the BBC and The New York Times. The image, which can still be seen on Street View, shows what appears to be a person loading a large object into the trunk of…

Source: The Verge There’s a new voice assistant in town, and this one can work locally in your home without phoning home to its corporate overloads. This week, the popular hobbyist smart home platform Home Assistant officially launched its first voice assistant hardware — Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition. Built for the open-source smart home…

Source: The Verge The first season of Dune: Prophecy is about to wrap up — but there’s more on the way. Ahead of the finale on December 22nd, HBO has confirmed than the prequel series has been renewed for a second season. The show premiered in November, and takes place 10,000 years before the events…

Source: The Verge Google Keep is being upgraded to a system app on Android 16 devices, joining the ranks of other Android apps that provide essential services like calling and messaging, reports Android Police. Google’s free note-taking app appears as a system app on the latest Android 16 beta, Android 16 Developer Preview 2. Anyone…