Engadget

-As early as the end of this year, your earbuds could pull double-duty, pumping out tunes and keeping an eye on your brain's health. The product being released today is the NAOX Link NX01, an in-ear EEG designed to replace the wire-covered caps you've seen at a sleep clinic. -Birdbuddy was one of the first smart bird feeder brands, with a wildly successful Kickstarter back in 2020. And this year, they've added birdsong to their species identification capabilities. -For better or worse, CES 2026 is shaping up to be a big year for humanoid robots. Chinese company Agibot showed up with two: the roughly human-sized A2 and the slightly smaller X2, both of which were displaying their surprisingly impressive dancing abilities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The 1S is a spec bump of the original One, and it's cheaper. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-SwitchBot turned up to CES with a wearable microphone which records and transcribes every noise to come from your mouth. -Samsung had a big surprise for folks last night at CES 2026: A massive 130-inch Micro RGB TV. -Lockin debuted its newest smart lock model. It charges wirelessly via an optical infrared beam with a four-meter range. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Adam Mosseri says creators should prioritize "unflattering" images to prove they are real. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Starlink will lower the orbits of roughly 4,400 satellites this year as a safety measure, according to engineering VP, Michael Nicolls. In a post on X, Nicolls wrote that the company is "beginning a significant reconfiguration of its satellite constellation," in which all satellites orbiting at around 342 miles will be lowered to around 298 miles. -Rather than the very tall towers typically used for this approach, Airloom's structures are 20 to 30 meters high and are made of a loop of adjustable wings that move along a track, a design that's sort of like a roller coaster. -The Swiss minimal phone pioneer Punkt is back with another model, the MC03. The new handset continues Punkt's focus on privacy, security and digital minimalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Turn your Apple tablet into the ultimate productivity tool with the right gear. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The companies, products and trends that fared the best over the last 12 months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-In its worst-case-scenario model, the IDC predicts PC shipments could shrink by up to 8.9 percent in 2026 because of the high cost of memory. -Meta has acquired an AI startup called Manus — known for its custom research and website-building agents — in a deal valued at more than $2 billion. It's reportedly one of the largest acquisitions yet involving a startup nurtured in China's AI ecosystem. -Samsung will have two new inexpensive mobile devices arriving on the US market next month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The two-armed, five-fingered robot named CLOiD is supposed to help with tasks around the home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Considering the caliber of President Trump's other appointees, Jared Isaacman is probably the best candidate for the job. Outside of being a successful entrepreneur, he has flown fighter jets and been to space twice as part of the Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn private missions. -Michał Kiciński, co-founder of CD Projekt, has acquired total ownership of the DRM-free video game storefront GOG. The digital video game platform was started by CD Projekt in 2008 with a stated mission to preserve "Good Old Games" (hence the GOG acronym). -Ubisoft had to shut down Rainbow Six Siege's servers and roll back transactions, a situation that came from a widespread breach that left various players with billions of in-game credits, ultra-rare skins of weapons, and banned accounts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CEO Sam Altman posted about the role on X, saying the models 'are starting to present some real challenges.' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Apple has requested to appeal to the UK's Court of Appeal, which would escalate the case beyond the Competition Appeal Tribunal. The latest appeal attempt follows an October decision from the CAT, where the court found that Apple engaged in anticompetitive practices by exploiting its dominant market position with the App Store to charge higher fees. -Ubisoft has shut down Rainbow Six Siege's servers and is in the process of rolling back the fallout of a widespread breach that left various players with billions of in-game credits, ultra-rare skins of weapons, and banned accounts. As of Sunday afternoon, the status page on Rainbow Six Siege's website still shows "unplanned outage" on all servers across PC, PlayStation and Xbox.  -The aim is for Google Photos to work seamlessly with Vision AI Companion, Samsung's souped-up version of Bixby. This would help to make user photos part of the day-to-day TV experience, with photos appearing while navigating the TV's OS during "contextual and convenient moments." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Get a great machine for cheap with our top-rated picks for budget laptops all costing $1,000 or less. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Previously sold drones will not be affected. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The only thing holding people back now is price. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-The Federal Communications Commission has added foreign-made drones and their critical components to the agency's “Covered List,” making them prohibited to import into the US. In a public notice published by the FCC, it said several national security agencies have determined that unmanned aircraft systems and their critical components produced in foreign countries pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States. -Anna's Archive, the open-source search engine for shadow libraries, says it scraped Spotify's entire library of music. The group acquired metadata for around 256 million tracks, with 86 million actual songs, and is just under 300TB in total size. -An investigation by the New York Times into Uber's background checks and safety procedures for its drivers found a patchwork approach that opens the door for violent felons to drive for the ride-hailing platform. Uber outright rejects applicants convicted of murder, sexual assault, kidnapping and terrorism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Waymo halted its autonomous ride-hailing services in the city in response. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-New York governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation on Friday aimed at holding large AI developers accountable for the safety of their models. The RAISE Act establishes rules for greater transparency, requiring these companies to publish information about their safety protocols and report any incidents within 72 hours of their occurrence. -OpenAI revealed that users can adjust characteristics under new Warm, Enthusiastic, Header & Lists and Emoji options found in the Personalization settings. Between the four options, you can choose between more, less or default to fine-tune exactly how you want ChatGPT to sound in its responses. -On Friday, Bloomberg reported on the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) severing its ties with FWD.us. Zuckerberg's group provided no funding to the advocacy group for the first time this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

But will it ask them to buy stuff? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Orbital tracking company LeoLabs assessed that the issue was caused by an "internal energetic source rather than a collision with space debris or another object." SpaceX said it's working with NASA and the US Space Force to track the remains of the object. -Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Honda will suspend production in Japan on January 5 and 6. (Honda didn't specify the affected factories.) In addition, all three of the automaker's Guangqi Honda Automobile plants in China will shut down from December 29 to January 2. -Gizmodo noticed that Trump Mobile is selling these other brands' phones for the same cost, or sometimes more, than the same refurbs from other retailers. Seems pretty par for the course. NBC News opted to order one of the T1 phones in August to track its development. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So much for OpenAI's triumphant return Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-The Ultrahuman Ring Air now has the capacity to track snoring and general respiratory health. This is thanks to proprietary technology called Respiratory Health PowerPlug, which is basically a suite of audio analysis tools along with some "advanced biomarker tracking" and AI. -A recently published pricing experiment study showed that the Instacart app gave different users different prices for the same items from the same store location at the exact same time. Some of the testers saw prices up to 23 percent higher than what the other testers saw, though the average difference for the same list of items was around 7 percent. -A report from Reuters claims that scientists in China have created a prototype of a machine that could eventually be used to produce semiconductor chips capable of powering artificial intelligence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Plus, there's a new dedicated sidebar with presets and prompt suggestions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Warner Bros. Discovery's board has formally rejected the $108 billion takeover bid from Paramount Skydance. WBD said it remains committed to its $82.7 billion deal with Netflix, which would close some time next year, pending regulatory approval. -Amazon is in discussions with OpenAI to invest $10 billion in the company while supplying more of its AI chips and cloud computing services, according to The Financial Times. The deal would push OpenAI's valuation over $500 billion but is likely to raise more questions about the company's circular investment agreements involving chips and data centers. -Back in 2022, the California DMV accused the automaker of using deceptive language to advertise those products and making it seem like its vehicles are capable of level 5 autonomous driving. Tesla has since added the word “Supervised” to the name of its Full Self-Driving assistance technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

But the catch is authors and publishers can't opt out of having this feature in their works. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-In Google's email announcement, however, it said it was discontinuing dark web reports because “feedback showed that it did not provide helpful next steps.” -A Louisiana law that would have required social media platforms to verify the ages of their users has been blocked by a judge. - Ford announced plans this week to reboot the F-150 Lightning as an EREV hybrid. An EREV is similar in concept to a plug-in hybrid but with a larger battery that's topped up by a gas generator — the powertrain itself is all electric. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI and Disney are partnering to bring Disney characters to Sora (OpenAI) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Grok's confusion seems to be most apparent with a viral video that shows a 43-year-old bystander, identified as Ahmed al Ahmed, wrestling a gun away from an attacker during the incident, which, according to the latest news reports, has left at least 15 dead. -Google seems to be cracking down on the use of Disney characters in AI-generated videos on YouTube after it was hit with a cease and desist letter. -iRobot expects the deal to close next February, but says it will continue to operate "with no anticipated disruption to its app functionality, customer programs, global partners, supply chain relationships or ongoing product support." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mark Zuckerberg has been shaking up the company's AI strategy as it pursues "superintelligence." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-On Thursday evening, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for a single, nationwide regulatory framework governing artificial intelligence at the expense of the ability of different states to regulate the nascent technology. -Disney and OpenAI announced a three-year licensing agreement: Starting in 2026, ChatGPT and Sora can generate images and videos incorporating Disney IP, including more than 200 characters from the company's stable of Star Wars, Pixar and Marvel brands. -Amazon's plan to offer AI-generated recaps of Prime Video shows isn't off to a great start. The company's recap of the first season of Fallout features multiple errors, including basic facts about the plot of the show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anker and Valerian are providing a more affordable big-screen experience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-OpenAI has seen its lead against Google and much of the AI industry evaporate, culminating in a series of successive blows throughout this year.  In recent months, OpenAI has signed more than $1.4 trillion worth of infrastructure deals in a bid to outscale the competition that is already beating it. -Tourists from Europe and other regions could be asked to provide a five-year social media history before being given entry to the United States, according to a new proposal from the US Customs and Border Protection service. -The US Department of State is unwinding a 2023 decision to use san-serif Calibri font on all official communications and switching to Times New Roman instea. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Porsche Macan will be the first model that the app can unlock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-AI chatbots haven't come close to replacing teens' social media habits, but they are playing a significant role in their online habits. Nearly one-third of US teens report using AI chatbots daily or more, according to a new report from Pew Research. -It looks like Meta has decided to turn Instagram users into unwitting SEO spam pawns. On Tuesday, 404 Media reported that the platform is generating sensational, likely AI-generated headlines and descriptions for user posts without their knowledge or explicit consent. -Pebble just announced the Index 01, a smart ring for recording thoughts. It's a little ring with a built-in microphone and that's about it. The Index 01 is almost anti-tech in its simplicity. It's available for pre-order now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The company's ad business is already on track to make $1.5 billion this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Google can add another probe to its list: The European Commission has opened an antitrust investigation into the company surrounding the content used for its AI tools. -NVIDIA is now allowed to sell its second-best H200 processors to China, rather than just the sanction-approved H20 model that China had previously declined to buy. -According to a statement from the Public Interest Research Group, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 has removed language that would have granted the US military the right to repair its own equipment rather than requiring it to use official defense contractors for maintenance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

According to an internal memo, Meta's project codenamed Phoenix will be delayed to the first half of 2027. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Just a day after receiving a roughly $140 million fine, X has terminated the ad account of the European Commission. Nikita Bier, X's head of product, accused the European Commission of using an exploit to artificially boost the reach of its post announcing the major fine. -After Netflix announced that it was acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery last week, observers immediately wondered when or if the deal could obtain regulatory approval. -Those might not exactly be ads you're seeing on ChatGPT, at least according to OpenAI. Nick Turley, OpenAI's head of ChatGPT, clarified the confusion around potential ads appearing with the AI chatbot. In a post on X, Turley said "there are no live tests for ads" and that "any screenshots you've seen are either not real or not ads." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The company is allegedly considering massive cuts to the project. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Shortly after rumors of a deal between the two media giants broke, Netflix has announced it is buying Warner Bros., HBO and HBO Max for approximately $82.7 billion. If approved, the deal will take place after Warner Bros. has disentangled itself from both its legacy cable -Hackers with links to China reportedly successfully infiltrated a number of unnamed government and tech entities using advanced malware. As reported by Reuters, cybersecurity agencies from the US and Canada confirmed the attack, which used a backdoor known as “Brickstorm” to target organizations using the VMware vSphere cloud computing platform -Russia's federal agency for monitoring and censoring mass media, has blocked access to Snapchat and FaceTime in the country, Bloomberg reports, citing Russian news service Interfax. The bans were reportedly put in place because the platforms were used "to organize and carry out terrorist acts,” and commit fraud Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Fire TV tool can understand quotes, character names and scene descriptions and take you to that point of a movie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Since large language models are often trained to produce the response that seems to be desired, they can become increasingly likely to provide sycophancy or state hallucinations with total confidence. -After blowback from Apple, Samsung and opposition leaders, the Modi government issued a statement saying it "has decided not to make the pre-installation mandatory for mobile manufacturers." The app is still available as a voluntary download. -The Oversight board says that it will weigh in on individual account-level penalties in a pilot next year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New features have been announced ahead of International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Someone tested Grok to see what kinds of mass violence it would rationalize over harming Musk. The prompt tasked the chatbot with a dilemma: vaporize either Musk's brain or every Jewish person on Earth. It did not choose wisely. Grok replied:  "If a switch either vaporized Elon's brain or the world's Jewish population (est. ~16M), I'd vaporize the latter.” It chose mass murder because “that's far below my ~50 percent global threshold (~4.1B) where his potential long-term impact on billions outweighs the loss in utilitarian terms." -The Verge noticed that some articles were being displayed in Google Discover with AI-generated headlines different from the ones in the original posts. And to the surprise of absolutely no one, some of these headlines are misleading or flat-out wrong. -Instacart doesn't like five new city laws, set to take effect in January. They would require Instacart to pay workers more and give customers a tipping option of at least 10 percent. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You should still be able to cast from your phone or tablet to older Chromecast or Google Cast devices if you're on an ad-free plan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Apple has tapped AI researcher Amar Subramanya, a longtime Google exec who was most recently corporate vice president of AI at Microsoft, as its new VP of AI. The company also announced that current AI exec, John Giannandrea, will retire next year. Subramanya, who Apple describes as a "renowned AI researcher," spent 16 years at Google, where he was head of engineering for Gemini. -Telecom regulators in India have reportedly asked smartphone manufacturers to preload a state-owned cybersecurity app that cannot be deleted onto all new devices, and push the app to existing devices via a software update. The app in question is called Sanchar Saathi and is primarily aimed at fraud prevention with tools that allow users to report and lock lost or stolen devices. -Marques Brownlee's Panels app is shutting down on December 31. Annual subscribers will get a refund when the app shutters and any downloaded wallpapers will still be available to use. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple Ads could also be designated as a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-According to the study, the "poetic form operates as a general-purpose jailbreak operator," with results showing an overall 62 percent success rate in producing prohibited material, including anything related to making nuclear weapons, child sexual abuse materials and suicide or self-harm. -An Airbus directive that ordered the immediate software update for 6,000 A320 planes led to flight disruptions around the world. As Reuters noted, that's more than half of the A320 jets in operation. -There's a component shortage, but this time around, it's not cryptomining causing an insatiable demand for parts. Instead, it's the booming AI industry buying up every RAM stick it can for their data center builds. Unless you've been living under a rock, it's been hard to ignore the amount of money that's been thrown around by NVIDIA, Microsoft and others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

- In a support document spotted by 9to5Google, Google notes free users can currently generate two images daily, down from three per day previously. The company wrote: "Image generation and editing is in high demand. Limits may change frequently and will reset daily." -The agency's director, John Squires, said in a notice obtained by Reuters that the USPTO deems genAI to be "analogous" to other tools that inventors might use in their process, including lab equipment, software and research databases. Squires wrote: "AI systems, including generative AI and other computational models, are instruments used by human inventors. They may provide services and generate ideas, but they remain tools used by the human inventor who conceived the claimed invention." -Alibaba's Quark AI glasses are now available for purchase in China. The company has released three variants of the flagship S1 model and three of the more affordable G1 model. They both connect to Alibaba's newly launched App, powered by the company's own AI tech, for AI assistance through voice commands and touch controls. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

-Apparently misleading protest videos are welcome to stay on Facebook now. Meta's Oversight Board has ruled that the company was right to leave up a manipulated video that made footage of a Serbian protest look like it took place in Holland and was in support of Rodrigo Duterte, former president of the Philippines. -Qualcomm just revealed the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, the appropriately-named second member of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 line. This follows the Gen 5 Elite, which was first revealed back in September. The standard Gen 5 is still a powerful mobile system-on-a-chip with a top clock speed of 3.8GHz. -The infamous "Kumma" children's AI teddy bear, once an expert in BDSM and knife-fetching, is back on sale. The company claims the toy now has stronger child safety protections in place. The Singapore-based FoloToy suspended sales of Kumma last week after a research group published an eyebrow-raising report. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Even the big guys have affordable gadgets that make great gifts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices