Gadget news and reviews
Donald Trump pardons Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht
22 January 2025 @ 1:02 am
President Donald Trump has pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road who was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of money laundering, narcotics trafficking and computer hacking. “I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbright [sic] to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Ulbricht has been serving a life sentence since 2015. Prosecutors
Netflix plans now cost between $8 and $25 after yet another subscription price hike
21 January 2025 @ 11:43 pm
Netflix has released its earnings figures for the fourth quarter of 2024. While a lot of the results seem like good news for the company's shareholders, like operating income of more than $10 billion and a 16 percent revenue increase, there's a sting in the tail for its viewers. Subscription prices are going up yet again, starting today.
"As we continue to invest in programming and deliver more value for our members, we will occasionally ask our members to pay a little more so that we can re-invest to further improve Netflix," the company said in its shareholder letter. "To that end, we are adjusting prices today across most plans in the US, Canada, Portug
Report: Meta could release its first true AR headset as soon as 2027
21 January 2025 @ 10:25 pm
Mark Gurman at Bloomberg has released a report about Meta's next steps in hardware, crediting sources familiar with the company's work. According to these insiders, Meta is developing at least three new smart glasses models and has set a roadmap toward releasing its first true augmented reality glasses. The company is reportedly also continuing efforts to implement AI tools in a wrist wearable and in earbuds.
Meta already sells smart glasses in partnership with Ray-Ban, a product line internally called Supernova. Gurman reports that this existing lineup will be intr
Meta is trying to lure TikTok creators with a new bonus program
21 January 2025 @ 10:06 pm
The TikTok ban may have lasted only a few hours (at least for now), but Meta is still trying to capitalize on its rival’s tenuous future. Meta has rolled out a new “breakthrough bonus program” that offers up to $5,000 to creators who are new to the company’s apps.
According to Meta, the bonus program is open to US adults who “have an existing presence on a third party social app that you can link or already have linked during the application process.” Participants will also be required to create a professional account on Instagram and a page on Facebook.
If accepted, creators will then be able to earn up to $5,000 over a 90-day period in exchange for sharing “at least 20 reels on Facebook and 10 reels on Instagram posted natively within each app within each 30-day bonus period” and sharing “on at least 10 separate da
Samsung Unpacked: How to watch the Galaxy S25 event on Wednesday
21 January 2025 @ 8:27 pm
The wait for the first Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event of the year is almost over. On Wednesday, January 22, you'll be able to watch Samsung announce its newest devices. Based on the combination of recent history and credible leaks, you can safely assume that the event will include an updated lineup of
Instagram blocked searches for #democrats and other political hashtags
21 January 2025 @ 7:56 pm
Instagram blocked searches related to a number of political hashtags, including #democrats, #democrat, #jan6th, #republicans and a number of other terms Tuesday. Users who searched for these hashtags were instead greeted with a notice that “we’ve hidden these results" because they "may contain sensitive content."
It’s not clear exactly how many search terms were affected but users on Reddit reported that dozens of tags were unsearchable. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone blamed an unspecified “issue” in a post on Threads and said the company was working on a fix.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Unpacked 2025 event: What to expect on Wednesday
21 January 2025 @ 7:29 pm
We're less than 24 hours away from new devices from Samsung. The company's Galaxy Unpacked event will take place on Wednesday, January 22 at 1PM ET in San Jose, CA, where Samsung’s “Next Big Thing” (to borrow a 14-year-old marketing slogan) will be unveiled. What will be revealed? Well, apart from a few sure bets and some likely leaks, only those sworn to a blood oath under an NDA know for certain. But here are the most likely products and features we’ll see. Spoilers: There will be phones.
Before we detail everything we know, take note: If you're enough of a Samsung fan to preorder sight unseen, it's your last chance to do so. Reserving "the next evolut
EA's Origin app for PC gaming will shut down in April
21 January 2025 @ 7:18 pm
EA's Origin PC client has officially reached the end of the line. The gaming company had previously announced its plans to rebrand the Origin app for desktop players back in 2020 and began rolling out the new EA app in 2022. However, Origin will be completely shuttered on April 17, 2025, as Microsoft ends support for 32-bit software. Anyone still using Origin will need to swap over to the EA app before that date.
For those PC play
Polyend stuffed a fully programmable drum machine in a stompbox
21 January 2025 @ 7:00 pm
This year’s NAMM trade show has opened up its doors, so that means there will be a wealth of new musical doodads to lust over. Case in point? Polyend just dropped a hybrid device that combines the functionality of a standard guitar pedal with a drum machine.
The Polyend Step is a “fully-featured, programmable drum machine in stompbox format.” This should be an absolute boon for those who want some accompaniment while playing guitar, or any other instrument. That alone makes it the perfect practice tool, however it looks like it could also be a great resource for anyone doing the whole “one person band” thing.
Drum stompboxes are nothing new, but the Step kicks things up several notches. It comes with over 200 drum kits to peruse, along with 350 preset rhythm patterns. These patterns consist o
The UK’s digital driver’s licence is coming later this year
21 January 2025 @ 4:50 pm
The UK will release a digital driver’s license later this year, along with a digital wallet issued by the government. This will allow folks to “easily prove their age when buying age restricted items online and in person.” Obviously, it will also prove a person’s right to drive.
This will be one of the first digital documents available via the GOV.UK digital wallet, which is also launching later this year. The wallet will also be home to documents like Veterans Cards, Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks and “every other credential issued by the government.” However, many of these digital versions won’t be available until the end of 2027.
The technology harnesses the security features of modern smartphones, for enhanced privacy. The documents won’t open without a facial recognition che
Sabrent's lineup of internal and external SSDs is popular among enthusiasts. The primary reason is the company's tendency to be among the first to market with products based on the latest controllers, while also delivering an excellent value proposition. The company has a long-standing relationship with Phison and adopts its controllers for many of their products. The company's 2 GBps-class portable SSD - the Rocket nano V2 - is based on Phison's U18 native controller. Read on for a detailed look at the Rocket nano V2 External SSD, including an analysis of its performance consistency, power consumption, and thermal profile.
NVIDIA on Tuesday said that future monitor scalers from MediaTek will support its G-Sync technologies. NVIDIA is partnering with MediaTek to integrate its full range of G-Sync technologies into future monitors without requiring a standalone G-Sync module, which makes advanced gaming features more accessible across a broader range of displays.
Traditionally, G-Sync technology relied on a dedicated G-sync module – based on an Altera FPGA – to handle syncing display refresh rates with the GPU in order to reduce screen tearing, stutter, and input lag. As a more basic solution, in 2019 NVIDIA introduced G-Sync Compatible certification and branding, which leveraged the industry-standard VESA AdaptiveSync technology to handl
Qualcomm this morning is taking the wraps off of a new smartphone SoC for the mid-range market, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3. The second of Qualcomm’s down-market ‘S’ tier Snapdragon 7 parts, the 7s series is functionally the entry-level tier for the Snapdragon 7 family – and really, most Qualcomm-powered handsets in North America.
With three tiers of Snapdragon 7 chips, the 7s can easily be lost in the noise that comes with more powerful chips. But the latest iteration of the 7s is a bit more interesting than usual, as rather than reusing an existing die, Qualcomm has seemingly minted a whole new die for this part. As a result, the company has upgraded the 7s family to use Arm’s current Armv9 CPU
The CXL consortium has had a regular presence at FMS (which rechristened itself from 'Flash Memory Summit' to the 'Future of Memory and Storage' this year). Back at FMS 2022, the company had announced v3.0 of the CXL specifications. This was followed by CXL 3.1's introduction at Supercomputing 2023. Having started off as a host to device interconnect standard, it had slowly subsumed other competing standards such as OpenCAPI and Gen-Z. As a result, the specif