Technology

Google is making Meet more social with a new feature called in-meeting reactions. The idea is that users can send one of nine emoji reactions, including 💖👍 and 😂, which will appear on the recipient’s window and be visible to all in the meeting. If multiple users send emojis, they’ll appear as a burst on … Read more

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has recorded another inaugural milestone: its first confirmed discovery of an exoplanet. LHS 475 b is just 41 light years away and has a diameter 99 percent of Earth’s. But there’s more work to be done. The JWST should be able to figure out the atmospheres of Earth-sized exoplanets. … Read more

Apple is working on an update to the AirPods Max headphones and developing an AirPods “lite” with a $99 target price, analyst Min-Chi Kuo wrote in a tweet spotted by 9to5Mac. The new products won’t be coming anytime soon, however, with a target release date for the more affordable AirPods no earlier than the second … Read more

Amazon has failed to convince Cornele Overstreet, a regional director with the National Labor Relations Board, to overturn JFK8 workers’ vote in favor of unionization. If you’ll recall, the JFK8 facility in Staten Island became the first unionized Amazon warehouse after workers voted 2,350-1,912 in favor of joining a union back in April 2022. Amazon … Read more

With the rapid evolution of AI chatbot systems like Chat-GPT, VALL-E, and BlenderBot 3 and their growing abilities to generate text on par with human writers, robots coming to take your writing job is becoming a viable threat. Over at CNET, it’s apparently already happening.  On Wednesday, The Byte reported that the popular tech site … Read more

Apple is reportedly working on touchscreen MacBooks. Although the plans aren’t finalized, Bloomberg’s sources say that touch-friendly Apple laptops could arrive in 2025. For a company that has made a point of saying that touch is better on a product like the iPad, a touchscreen MacBook would be a big change — but don’t expect … Read more

It seems Elon Musk’s Twitter is working on a new scheme to make money from the platform. The service appears to be experimenting with an in-app currency called “coins” meant to help creators earn money from the platform, according to screenshots shared by two app researchers. The feature has been spotted in recent days by … Read more

It’s no secret that the conditions were ripe for a steep drop in PC demand this holiday, but now it’s clear just how bad that plunge really was. Gartner and IDC estimate PC shipments fell by more than 28 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2022. That’s the steepest quarterly decline Gartner has ever … Read more

The Guardian has confirmed that it was the victim of a ransomware attack, and that the damage is more serious than first thought. In an update to staff, Guardian group chief Anna Bateson and newspaper editor-in-chief Katharine Viner said the December attack was “highly sophisticated” and accessed the personal data of UK employees. There was … Read more

Universal Audio is known for its leading software emulation that mimics the quality of more expensive gear. After entering the modeling microphone space last year with the L22, the company is back with a pair of mics that, while fairly pricey, could appeal to serious bedroom producers. The Sphere DLX is the higher-end model at … Read more