Media Arts Lab, a unit within Omnicom Group agency TBWA that’s dedicated to Apple advertising, laid off several staffers Monday. The company wouldn’t say how many were laid off, but a report from Bloomberg, which first broke the news, placed the number at 50. “Yesterday was a difficult day, as we had to part with […]
Category: Technology
Ford’s electric Mustang project car packs a manual transmission
Sports car enthusiasts will sometimes balk at electric cars due to their usual lack of manual transmissions (there’s no need for a gearbox, after all), but Ford has hinted that stick shifting might not be completely dead. The automaker has partnered with Webasto on a Mustang Lithium project car (no, it’s not the Mustang-like SUV) […]
Amazon’s own Echo Buds may have revealed a future fitness tracking feature
Amazon’s truly wireless Echo Buds earbuds are excellent for their $130 price, to the point that they were the elephant in the room when we reviewed Apple’s new AirPods Pro. And they managed that resounding feat without one of their biggest rumored features — the ability to double as a fitness tracker and measure the […]
Google’s Play Points program rewards you for downloading apps
After first launching in Japan last year, Google is bringing its Play Store rewards program to the US. Starting this week, you’ll be able to enroll in Google Play Points, allowing you to earn rewards by using the company’s digital marketplace. To join the program, launch the Play Store app on your Android smartphone and […]
How to delete your Fitbit data before Google takes charge
The news that Google is buying Fitbit for $2.1 billion has come as something of a shock to Fitbit users, many of whom are nervous about how Google will handle their personal health data. Google itself is aware of this issue; in his blog post announcing the sale, Rick Osterloh, Google’s senior VP of devices & services, assures […]
Microsoft Introduces Unified Office App on the Phone
Microsoft is announcing a major step forward for Office on phones. The company is finally combining the three core Office apps into a single app, meaning you can now get Word, PowerPoint, and Excel — all in a single, unified experience. Microsoft says the company started building the new Office app by combining the standalone Word, PowerPoint, […]
Photoshop Camera app auto-edits your smartphone snaps so you don’t have to
You might now be able to get full-fat Photoshop for your iPad, but Adobe hasn’t stopped there with its software announcements – a new AI-powered smartphone app called Photoshop Camera will soon automatically edit your snaps for you. While it isn’t available to download yet, Adobe says Photoshop Camera will be free to download for […]
Russia is making more Soyuz spacecraft to help NASA’s ISS missions
While the US wants to reduce its dependence on Russian rockets, Russia itself is expecting to help for a while yet. Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin recently ordered the construction of two more Soyuz MS spacecraft, one of which will help NASA deliver astronauts to the International Space Station. The decision follows a letter from NASA […]
Pixel Watch: Google just dropped two billion hints that it finally plans to launch a watch
After years of rumours, Google looks as if it’s about to get very serious about smartwatches. The long-rumoured Pixel Watch, developed by the same industrial design team behind the likes of the Pixel 4, Google Home, and PixelBook, was allegedly pulled at the eleventh hour before it was unveiled on-stage during one of the Mountain […]
The two sides of Google’s Fitbit acquisition, equally dark
There are 28 million active Fitbit users, a number that CEO James Park recently said he is pretty proud of — not necessarily for the number itself, which is considerable in the wearables space, but for the number that stay loyal to the Fitbit brand. If you look at the market overhead, though, you’ll notice […]
SpaceX trumpets progress on commercial crew parachute testing
SpaceX said Nov. 3 that it has now carried out 13 consecutive successful tests of a new parachute design for its Crew Dragon spacecraft after overcoming initial problems with it. In a tweet, SpaceX posted video of the latest test of the “Mark 3” parachutes it is developing in cooperation with Airborne Systems. The latest […]
Buying Fitbit won’t save Google’s failing Wear OS
Google announced earlier this week that it would purchase Fitbit, the ailing manufacturer of fitness-focused wearables and smartwatches, for $2.1 billion. As tech acquisitions go, this one was small: Google valued Fitbit at a price equivalent to that of budget TV manufacturer Vizio back in 2016, a company whose value exists largely in its retail […]