TechRadar

Tesla's bizarre-looking Cybertruck has suffered through yet another recall. It's a sign that not only is the truck a bit like an experiment on wheels, but that Tesla is increasingly no longer the standard bearer for our EV aspirations. "Elon Musk is the reason both cars in my driveway are electric. He’s also the reason neither of them are Teslas," wrote Firebird Music CEO Nathan Hubbard on Threads. The post encapsulates a growing sentiment among EV owners and EV curious: Tesla is not necessarily the electric car company that will own the future of the market it all but created. Look, I don't want to dive too deeply here into the unpleasant actions and social presence of Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk. Let's just say that the once inspiring entrepreneur has become, to put it lightly, a polarizing figure. It's not a good look for someone who wants to sell electric vehicles to everyone and not just those who share his world (and off-world) views… #tesla #ev #technology

It's a miracle that the free Internet lasted as long as it did. It's been nearly 30 years of mostly unfettered, free content access to everything from magazine articles and newspapers to videos and recipes. The steady devolution of the online advertising business made free online content an economic equation that no one could solve. If you need further evidence that your free internet is evaporating like snow on an early spring day, look at CNN.com. The popular online news platform, an arm of the still popular cable news network, is putting up a paywall. It won't block you from seeing all CNN.com posts but will limit the number you can see for free. It's unclear if that will be a few a day or a dozen per month. However, once you hit the limit, CNN.com will prompt you to subscribe for $3.99 a month or $29.99 a year. That's not a lot, and for all-you-can-eat access, some might consider it a bargain. Even so, it'll be an adjustment, especially for those who've been accessing the site since it launched "on the World Wide Web" in August of 1995. #internet #subscriptions #web

Flappy Bird set the bar (or rather pipes, placed randomly) for mobile game simplicity. Between that and its bizarrely high level of difficulty, it created a devilish blend of game-playing compulsion I have rarely seen, before or since. When indie developer Dong Nguyen launched it in 2014, it was almost an instant hit. Everyone was desperately tapping on their iPhones and iPad screens in a vain attempt to keep a tiny animated bird aloft without slamming into a series of bright green pipes. There was almost nothing to the classic side-scrolling game, just the flapping bird and pipes racing toward it with small gaps that the bird would fly through – assuming you could tap just enough to keep Flappy flying but not too high or too low. Most people failed within the first few pipes. Experts, though, could thread through dozens. I still remember watching my youngest's laser-like focus as they navigated Flappy through dozens of pipes. The most I ever did was 13, I think…. #apps #tech #flappybirds #ios #iphone

On the eve of yet another Apple event, one in which it introduces a collection of iPhone 16 handsets probably not hugely different from the year before, and the collective technology consumer leaps into buying action because, well, it's Apple, it's worth remembering that, perhaps, none of this would've been possible without an act of charity or calculation by Apple's once greatest rival: Microsoft. I was reminded of the era when Apple, its heyday in the rearview, was relegated to failed Newton Handhelds, poorly conceived partnerships with Bandai (Pippin game console/internet appliance), and near irrelevance. In the years after Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs was ousted and his return in early 1997, Apple watched its revenues tumble from a high of $11 billion to $7 billion. It saw its losses mounting to $125M in 1996. There was talk of a merger with Sun Microsystems, one that then Apple CEO Gilbert Amelio wouldn't confirm and that spokespeople denied. It was clear though that such talk was further hampering sales of Apple's then mostly lackluster Power Macintoshes and Powerbooks… #appleevent #apple #microsoft #iphone #tech

Not content to serve just beginners, HoverAI is flying into the pro space with two new foldable camera drones: the HoverAir X1 Pro and HoverAir X1 Pro Max. Both bring better cameras, more speed, more intelligence, and more flight time. The new drones combine the best of HoveAir X1's intelligence with up to 4K video shooting capability on the Pro model and up to 8K at 60fps on the X1 Pro Max. The original HoverAir X1, which is still available, shoots up to 2.7k. The cameras on the new drones sit on 2x-axis gimbals. Like the original HoverAir X1, the new drones unfold and can be flying within moments. The rotors are covered, which makes them good for flying indoors or outside… #hoverair #tech #drones

As Samsung’s first Galaxy Ring and Galaxy Watch Ultra launched in Paris at Galaxy Unpacked, Samsung’s health plans are coming into sharp focus. They are best described as ambitious and based on the realities of our changing global demographics, the limits of what people will use, and the current state of AI. Overseeing a heady mix of new health measures, conversational AI, and a pair of new wearables about to be tested in a market brimming with alternatives is Dr. Hon Pak, Vice President and Head of Digital Health Team, MX Business at Samsung Electronics, a dermatologist, and the man leading Samsung’s Health Team. He recognizes that perhaps the biggest challenge is guiding us on our healthcare journey... #ai #galaxyunpacked #health #tech #wearables

In the aftermath of a typically loud and boisterous Fourth of July celebration in the US, our feeds were filled with countless photos and videos of fireworks. They're all bright, brilliant, colorful, and sharp – and many were taken with the best smartphones. I've been photographing fireworks, or at least trying to, for nearly 20 years. Digital photography, with its endless supply of files in place of film, meant I could experiment with lenses, aperture settings, and shutter speeds to capture distant explosions and spectacular cascades of lights, usually in red, white, and blue. Most of my early success came from my Canon EOS Digital Rebel. I'd crank the IOS to 400, set my aperture at 5.6 to pull in as much light as possible, and give the shutter 8 seconds or more to capture the full effect… #iphone #apple #photography #tech #fireworks

Some day, there may be an Artificial Intelligence Olympics, where generative AIs face off to create the wildest images, videos, and hallucinative text responses. In the meantime, we have the real Olympics, starting July 26 in Paris, France. They will feature flesh and blood athletes, but behind the scenes will be AI chatting with athletes, chunking up highlight reels, and telling attendees which Olympic sport they're best equipped to compete in (at least in their fantasies). "Our big focus for these games, which makes sense as it's really the hot topic right now, is artificial intelligence, and so we are the official artificial intelligence platform provider for the Olympic Games," said Sarah Vickers, who leads Intel's Olympic and Paralympic Games Office. I spoke to Vickers just as she was about to fly off for Paris, where she'll spend the next two months overseeing more than 100 Intel employees building and integrating Intel's Olympics AI strategy… Intel Corporation #intel #olympics #technology #ai #artificialintelligence #sports

Is Gen Z really different from the rest of us? The alchemy of being born between 1997 and 2012 has delivered a generation of not exactly non-conformists but some seemingly disengaged youths. I mean, they must be disengaged because they see everything differently. Or is it more clearly? Jigsaw, which is part of Google and tasked with researching "threats to open societies," studied the increasingly influential Gen Z generation to understand how they consume information, what they trust and don't trust, and how they divine facts and truth, according to a detailed report in Business Insider. The results were startling to Google and Jigsaw, but I could've saved them time and trouble by detailing my ongoing research involving my Gen Z relation. My non-binary child is 26 and has been schooling me for years on what people their age do and don't do. I understand how they connect or do not connect with peers, gather information, reach consensus, and mostly not take action that they'd perceive as pointless anyway… #genz #socialmedia #tech

The squirrel parked itself in my bird feeder, greedily consuming every seed. I wished, not for the first or last time, that I could shout at the furry pet to get him off the perch and give my beloved feathered friends a chance at a snack. I ran out my back door and shooed the rodent who launched himself off my Bird Buddy and sent most of the seeds flying out onto the ground. Aside from the frustration that Bird Buddy, a smart bird feeder with a built-in camera that you can hang from a tree or screw into a perch, does not include a tiny speaker that could carry my voice from the app to right where the squirrel is staring into the camera, I love this gadget… #gadget #birdwatcher #birding #tech #smarthome