Kalakshar US

In 2020, I bought an iPhone 12 to replace my aging Pixel 3, and nearly five years later, I’m still using that same device because it works fine and Apple has yet to bring the feature I want most on a regular iPhone: a ProMotion display. If you’re not familiar with the company’s marketing lingo, ProMotion is its way of describing a high-refresh rate display.

Apple introduced ProMotion with the iPhone 13 Pro. Since then, every Pro model has offered a 120Hz refresh rate display with the ability to scale down to 1Hz for always-on functionality. That’s great for gaming and day-to-day use; higher refresh rates make every interaction on the iPhone’s touchscreen look and feel smoother. In fact, high refresh rate displays are such a well-liked feature that most Android manufacturers have begun offering them on their entry-level devices, but it’s still something you need to spend $1,000 to get on an iPhone..

If you ask me, that’s a problem for Apple. The closest I got to upgrading was in 2023 when it released the iPhone 15, which was the first regular model to include the company’s Dynamic Island display cutout after it debuted on the iPhone 14 Pro. In the end, even the iPhone 15, with its better display, camera and USB-C charging, wasn’t enough to convince me to part with the iPhone 12, because the new model didn’t include a ProMotion screen. I imagine I’m not the only person who kept their old iPhone for the same reason.

At this point, Apple’s trickle-down strategy is painfully behind its competitors. In 2022, when display analyst Ross Young correctly predicted the entire iPhone 15 would offer Dynamic Island displays, he said the company likely wouldn’t bring ProMotion to its regular iPhones until 2024 at the earliest. He blamed the timing on a supply chain that “[couldn’t] support” the feature on Apple’s more affordable handsets. Whether or not that was true, I don’t know. In 2020, the same year Apple released the $799 iPhone 12, Google came out with the $700 Pixel 5, which came with a 90Hz OLED.

Either way, it appears my long wait is about to come to an end, with all four 2025 iPhone models — the iPhone 17, 17 Pro, 17 Pro Max and new iPhone 17 Air — reportedly set to offer 120Hz displays. For me, this is the year I upgrade, but I do wonder what it means for the future of the iPhone line.

If I had to guess, Apple’s decision to hold off on bringing ProMotion to the regular iPhone had more to do with the company wanting to give people a reason to spend extra on a Pro model than the limits of one of the largest and most efficient supply chains on the planet. If the pre-release rumors turn out to be true, the iPhone 17 will leave the iPhone Pro in an awkward place. With ProMotion gone as a differentiating feature and the Pro and Pro Max rumored to be made from aluminum again, there aren’t many reasons to go for the more expensive models other than if you want a telephoto camera or a bigger display in the case of the Pro Max.

I suspect this may be the last year we see an iPhone Pro, at least in the format we know it as now. When Senior Editor Devindra Hardawar and I got a chance to talk to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman during a recent episode of the Engadget podcast, he mentioned that Apple plans to go all in on the iPhone Air. At first, it may offer only a single camera and worse battery life than its siblings, but Gurman said Apple was confident it could further shrink those components over time and make the Air the equal of its current devices.

In other words, the iPhone Air might be a side project now, but it’s easy to envision a future where it becomes the company’s flagship. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I’m hopeful Apple plans for a future where the Air and regular iPhone offer similar features, but the company charges a premium for getting those in a sleeker package.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/if-the-iphone-17-doesnt-get-promotion-i-wont-be-upgrading-my-iphone-12-120030630.html?src=rss 

Uber and its new partner Momenta will start testing an autonomous ride-sharing service in Europe in 2026, Momenta announced. The service will kick off in Munich, Germany using Momenta’s self-driving tech and Uber’s ride-sharing platform, with the goal of future European expansion. The companies chose Munich to kick off the operation due to the city’s “deep-rooted engineering heritage, top-tier automotive ecosystem and openness to innovation,” Momenta said. 

Momenta and Uber announced a “strategic agreement” in May this year to launch a robotaxi service with safety drivers aboard to start with. Momenta was one of China’s first autonomous vehicle companies and has been testing self-driving cars in the nation since 2018, with plans to roll out a commercial operation at its base in Shanghai next year. It also builds ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) for major automakers including Mercedes-Benz and Audi, with over 400,000 installed to date. 

Europe has been slower than the US and China to adopt self-driving taxis, but that has started to change. Uber will be competing with Baidu, which announced plans to start testing its Apollo Go self-driving service in Switzerland as early as this year. Another company, WeRide, launched its own pilot program in Switzerland in January 2025 and started testing a driverless shuttle system in France shortly after that.

Elsewhere, Uber has partnered with other self-driving vehicle companies including WeRide, Pony.AI and Momenta in the Middle East. It also has a deal with UK-based Wayve to launch self-driving ride sharing trials in London next year, and recently said it would offer ride-sharing services in Los Angeles using an autonomous version of Volkswagen’s ID. Buzz.

Uber and Momenta’s Munich service will use Level 4 self-driving vehicles that can be operated without a safety driver in preset geographical areas. The companies will need to obtain certification from the German government and approval for the “geofenced zones” where it’s allowed to operate. 

Uber originally planned to build its own self-driving cars but abandoned the idea in 2020 following the death of a pedestrian and scandal around alleged trade secret theft from Waymo. Since then, it has taken the route of partnering with autonomous vehicle manufacturers, including the aforementioned Waymo in Austin and Atlanta.  

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/uber-and-partner-momenta-will-start-testing-robotaxis-in-europe-next-year-123058509.html?src=rss 

Japanese toymaker Takara Tomy is releasing a Poké Ball virtual pet toy so you can fulfill your dreams of carrying your favorite Pokémon around with you everywhere. I don’t know how this one slid under my radar when it was announced at the end of August (perhaps because all my attention has been on Tamagotchi Paradise) but now that I’ve seen it, I must have it. While it appears to be a Japan-only release, the product page shows it will have an English language option in the menu. Pre-orders are open (though currently sold out on Amazon Japan), and the device will ship on October 11, according to Essential Japan.

The toy costs ¥7,480 or about $51 — but I shudder to think how much that number will jump with tariffs factored in. Per the listing, there are seven partner Pokémon you can care for: Pikachu, Eevee, Sprigatito, Fuecoco, Quaxly, Lucario and Sylveon. And if you pet the device, they’ll react. There are also 150 other Pokémon to interact with, though it’s unclear what the extent of those interactions will be beyond battles (and… washing?). Regardless, l hope Wooper is one of them.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/this-pettable-poke-ball-is-a-tamagotchi-style-toy-with-over-150-pokemon-inside-and-i-need-it-now-215047740.html?src=rss 

Microsoft said its Azure cloud platform has returned to normal service after an incident of cut underwater cables that played out over Saturday. The tech giant reported “undersea fiber cuts” in the Red Sea on Saturday morning, which disrupted Azure service throughout the Middle East and led to potential “increased latency” for users. Microsoft said that the latency issue was resolved by Saturday evening and was able to reroute the Azure traffic through other paths.

Microsoft didn’t provide a reason for why the undersea cables were cut. These cables sit on the ocean floor and play the crucial role of delivering massive amounts of data across the world. While ships dropping anchors can sometimes damage undersea cables, there have been more intentional circumstances in the past. In 2024, the internationally recognized government of Yemen claimed that the country’s Houthi movement was responsible for cutting cables in the Red Sea. While Microsoft managed to restore service for its latest episode the same day, it also noted that undersea cable cuts “can take time to repair” and that it “will continuously monitor, rebalance, and optimize routing to reduce customer impact in the meantime.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/microsofts-cloud-service-restored-after-reports-of-cut-cables-in-the-red-sea-192312354.html?src=rss 

Nintendo has just won another major battle in its longstanding war against piracy. Earlier this summer, a US federal court ruled in favor of Nintendo in a lawsuit against Ryan Daly and the Modded Hardware website. The site was known for selling devices that allowed users to get around Nintendo’s piracy protections, including the popular MIG Switch flashcart that lets buyers play official Nintendo games without the need for a physical cartridge. Besides requiring Daly to pay $2 million to Nintendo, the lawsuit requires him to shut down the website and forfeit the domain to Nintendo as part of an all-encompassing permanent injunction.

The order also prevents Daly from any future involvement with devices that get around Nintendo’s guardrails, including creating, selling, contributing to, hosting other websites related to or investing in other businesses that deal in similar products. While MIG flash carts could be used as a backup for legally purchased physical games, it was more commonly used to pirate official Nintendo Switch titles. Nintendo has steadily fought against mods and pirating tools, including recently granting itself the power to brick Switches that have pirated games on them.

Nintendo is no stranger to taking legal action against those who defy its strict policies. In March of last year, Nintendo filed a lawsuit against the makers of the Yuzu emulator. The suit was settled quickly, with the team behind the Nintendo Switch emulator agreeing to pay $2.4 million. Like the lawsuit against Daly, the team behind Yuzu had to surrender its website and permanently refrain from doing any activities that bypass Nintendo’s rules.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-wins-a-2-million-lawsuit-against-popular-switch-modding-webstore-174528989.html?src=rss