Technology

Apple revealed its iPhone 16 lineup on Monday, and the big selling point was Apple Intelligence. Apple’s on-device AI system offers splashy features like the ability to rewrite emails, generate custom emoji, and a significantly upgraded Siri. But underneath it all, AI is delivering one other big change to the iPhone: more RAM.Although Apple never talks about RAM in its smartphones, MacRumors discovered that every iPhone 16 model now has 8GB of RAM, up from 6GB in the base models from last year. And it’s not just Apple making changes like that. Last month, Google made similar changes to its AI-heavy Pixel 9; both the standard and pro models saw an increase in RAM, making 12GB the least you can get this year.The impetus behind these RAM bumps appears to be artificial intelligence. AI is t...

All the new iPhone 16 models unveiled this week can reportedly charge more than 50 percent faster through a wired USB-C connection than the previous series. That’s according to a Chinese certification posted on Weibo indicating that Apple’s latest iPhones can support up to 45W of wired fast charging.Still, we’ll take what we can get. The latest iPhones also feature faster wireless charging now that MagSafe can deliver up to 25W when paired with a 30W power adapter, up from 15W on previous iPhone models and the Qi2 standard.

Two years after announcing support, Ikea’s Dirigera hub can now be updated to act as a bridge between Ikea’s smart home devices and Matter-enabled systems. The software update builds upon early beta support by letting Ikea’s entire lineup of Zigbee-based smart home devices — like lights, blinds, controllers, air purifiers, and sensors — communicate with Matter-enabled devices from any company. Bridging support for existing devices to Matter is a small but significant step in Ikea’s plan to fully support the new smart home protocol. It’s the same tepid approach Philips Hue has taken but hopefully with better results. Other companies like Aqara have more fully embraced the standard by launching native Matter devices that don’t require bridges to do the protocol translation.Ikea’s smart ho...

Taylor Swift said on Tuesday that she plans to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in November’s presidential election — and that AI-generated images circulating of herself pushed her in part to make her support public.“Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site. It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” Swift wrote in an Instagram post. “It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.”Her post references an incident in late August, in which Trump shared a collection of images to Truth Social intended to show support for his presidential c...

A pair of security researchers say they discovered a vulnerability in login systems for records that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) uses to verify airline crew members at airport security checkpoints. The bug let anyone with a “basic knowledge of SQL injection” add themselves to airline rosters, potentially letting them breeze through security and into the cockpit of a commercial airplane, researcher Ian Carroll wrote in a blog post in August.Carroll and his partner, Sam Curry, apparently discovered the vulnerability while probing the third-party website of a vendor called FlyCASS that provides smaller airlines access to the TSA’s Known Crewmember (KCM) system and Cockpit Access Security System (CASS). They found that when they put a simple apostrophe into the username...

Tomorrow’s iPhone 16 launch won’t be the final Apple event of the year, as the company plans to debut some M4 Macs and new iPads with another showing in October, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter.Apple could be announcing a new iPad Mini for the first time since 2021 in October, as well as a Mac Mini with an M4 chip, packed into a box about the size of an Apple TV, making that the first real redesign of the diminutive desktop in over a decade. So it’s about time for both! The event will include new versions of the iMac and MacBook Pro, both with M4 chips, as well, Gurman writes.

Negotiations for a new carriage deal between Disney and DirecTV are continuing into this weekend, reports Deadline. Meanwhile, the two are lobbing messaging at customers who are left out in the cold as the first NFL weekend kicks off.It’s been a week since DirecTV customers have been able to watch channels like ABC or ESPN. Disney published posts on Instagram and elsewhere, Variety wrote, pointing DirecTV viewers to alternatives like Spectrum or Disney’s own Hulu with live TV subscription to watch things like the US Open tennis tournament or the upcoming Monday Night Football game between the Jets and the 49ers. Last week, Disney accused DirecTV of “an agreement that undervalues our portfolio,” while DirecTV insisted that Disney is just trying to “maximize profits” at customers’ expense...

Sur cette image fournie par la NASA, la capsule Starliner atterrit sur Terre, au centre de lancement de White Sands, au Nouveau-Mexique (Etats-Unis), le 6 septembre 2024. NASA / AP La première mission habitée du Starliner, la capsule spatiale de Boeing, s’est achevée sans passagers, dans la nuit du vendredi 6 au samedi 7 septembre. L’engin s’est posé sans encombre, avec parachutes et airbags, dans un désert du Nouveau-Mexique, quelques heures après s’être désarrimé de la Station spatiale internationale (ISS). Mais les astronautes américains Sunita Williams et Barry « Butch » Wilmore, qui avaient effectué le trajet aller de ce vol de qualification, n’étaient pas à bord au retour, pour des raisons de sécurité. Le vol vers l’ISS, débu...

Have you ever wondered how our brave soldiers deal with nasty stuff like chemical and biological weapons? Currently, it's a risky and time-consuming process. Soldiers have to suit up in cumbersome NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) protective gear and spend about an hour decontaminating a single vehicle. It's not just uncomfortable, it's downright dangerous, putting our troops directly in harm's way.However, that's all about to change because the Army is rolling out some seriously cool robot tech that's about to change the game. So, instead of soldiers suiting up in those bulky hazmat suits to clean contaminated vehicles, they’ve got smart robots doing the dirty work. This new system, called the autonomous equipment decontamination system, is all about keeping our troops safe. Let's l...

Léon Marchand, lors du relais masculin des Jeux olympiques, à Paris La Défense Arena, à Nanterre, le 4 août 2024. MARKO DJURICA/REUTERS Dix mille pas et plus. Les performances de Léon Marchand, l’engouement lors des épreuves des Jeux paralympiques, qui se déroulent jusqu’au 8 septembre, la ferveur qui les accompagne ont de quoi donner envie de se mettre ou se remettre à la natation. Tant mieux car ce sport présente aussi de nombreux atouts pour la santé, que ce soit en prévention ou pour des personnes ayant des maladies chroniques, comme l’indique le Vidal du sport, ou Médicosport-Santé, un dictionnaire à visée médicale des disciplines sportives, validé par la commission médicale du Comité national olympique et sportif français et la Sociét...