Belkin’s camera grip power bank is a few upgrades away from being a must-have
Belkin's camera grip power bank is a few upgrades away from being a must-have Belkin’s Stage PowerGrip has shown me that I should be asking more from a wireless magnetic power bank than just boosting battery life while it hangs off the back of my phone. Its clever design adds layers of extra functionality, and […]
How AI broke the smart home in 2025
How AI broke the smart home in 2025 This morning, I asked my Alexa-enabled Bosch coffee machine to make me a coffee. Instead of running my routine, it told me it couldn’t do that. Ever since I upgraded to Alexa Plus, Amazon’s generative-AI-powered voice assistant, it has failed to reliably run my coffee routine, coming […]
Apple fined $116 million over app privacy prompts
Apple fined $116 million over app privacy prompts Third-party developers have to show users two prompts like this to obtain consent for app tracking. Apple has been fined more than €98 million (about $116 million) by Italy’s antitrust regulator over the “excessively burdensome” privacy rules it imposes on third-party apps. The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) […]
Apple fined $116 million over app privacy prompts
Apple fined $116 million over app privacy prompts Third-party developers have to show users two prompts like this to obtain consent for app tracking. Apple has been fined more than €98 million (about $116 million) by Italy’s antitrust regulator over the “excessively burdensome” privacy rules it imposes on third-party apps. The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) […]
Dometic makes a better portable water faucet
Dometic makes a better portable water faucet The Dometic Recon 360 Faucet pumping water out a Dometic Go Jug through a LifeStraw water filter. As a reluctant doomsday prepper and eager vanlifer, Dometic’s battery-powered Go Faucet has, for the last few years, played a central role in my bougie bug-out kit and my camping rig’s […]
The FCC’s foreign drone ban is here
The FCC's foreign drone ban is here The Federal Communications Commission has banned new drones made in foreign countries from being imported into the US unless the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security recommends them. Monday’s action added drones to the FCC’s Covered List, qualifying foreign-made drones and drone parts, like those […]
ChatGPT’s yearly recap sums up your conversations with the chatbot
ChatGPT's yearly recap sums up your conversations with the chatbot ChatGPT is joining the flood of apps offering yearly recaps for users. It’s rolling out a “Year in Review” feature that will show you a bunch of stats – like how many messages you sent to the chatbot in 2025 – as well as give […]
Bitcoin does cultural diplomacy in a dive bar
Bitcoin does cultural diplomacy in a dive bar Bitcoin culture, by nature, is anarchical and chaotic. It has to be, given the nature of Bitcoin itself and the people who adopted it: free-market libertarians who’ve gone all in on turning computer code into a form of money divorced from central banks, government intervention, and traceability. […]
Birdfy’s Hum Bloom captures 120fps slow motion footage of hummingbirds
Birdfy's Hum Bloom captures 120fps slow motion footage of hummingbirds Ahead of CES 2026 getting underway in early January, Birdfy has announced two new camera-equipped smart bird feeders that can identify and capture visitors in slow motion. The Birdfy Hum Bloom is specifically designed to attract and record hummingbirds using a nectar bulb that mimics […]
Instacart scraps AI pricing tests that made some products more expensive
Instacart scraps AI pricing tests that made some products more expensive Instacart is ending its AI-powered pricing tests, which led some users to see higher prices on certain products than others. “Now, if two families are shopping for the same items, at the same time, from the same store location on Instacart, they see the […]