Tech

These options replace the 1 Gig, 2 Gig, 5 Gig, and 8 Gig plans currently available in other supported cities. Like the existing 1 Gig plan, Google Fiber’s new Core 1 Gig option costs $70 / month with symmetrical 1 gigabit per second upload and download speeds. It comes with GFiber’s Multi-Gig Wi-Fi 6E Router and supports up to one …

When you say “wearables,” people generally think of smartwatches. But 2024 was a relatively quiet year for smartwatches, during which iterative updates reigned supreme. That happens in a maturing category. In exchange for polished products, you lose out on the weird frenetic energy — and sometimes ludicrously bad ideas — found when people are trying to figure out how to …

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 reality that Matter is going to take time …

In a post on X, Google DeepMind chief scientist Jeff Dean says the model is “trained to use thoughts to strengthen its reasoning,” and also benefits from the speed that comes along with the faster Gemini Flash 2.0 model. The demo shared by Dean shows how Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking goes about answering a physics problem by “thinking” through a …

There has been some initial pushback on it. A photographer on Threads complained that “there will be a small watermark-like credit on the photo, but there won’t be a link back to your account.” Curious, I tried out the new feature, went to see if there was indeed no link back to the original post, and followed bryanhansel’s instructions for …

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 control how replies on posts appear to you. …

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 platform, Voice PE costs $59 and brings a …

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 a car, as Gizmodo points out. Another image …

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 upgrading to this OS version will no longer …

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 of the Dune movies from Denis Villeneuve. It …