Author: Nick Gold

For the first time since 2018, King Jim, a Japanese stationery company, is making one of its distraction-free writing tools available in the US. The Pomera D250 launched in Japan in 2022 and while it looks like a compact laptop, its functionality is limited to being a digital typewriter. There’s no email, no social media, and no web browser. King Jim’s new Pomera D250US is similarly focused on that singular task, but with a keyboard featuring a US layout and an English dictionary for spell checking.King Jim is making the Pomera D250US available through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign that has…

Anker’s smart home arm, Eufy, has announced its first smart lock that uses palm vein recognition to unlock your door. The $399 FamiLock S3 Max is also a video doorbell with a 2K-capable camera and an interior screen that shows a live video feed through the door lock. The S3 works over Wi-Fi 6 and supports Matter for integration with most smart home ecosystems, including Apple Home and Amazon Alexa.Most people who want a smart lock for their home probably aren’t worried about James Bond-style villains swiping their dead fingers, but there are practical reasons families might find palm unlock…

Humane is selling most of its company to HP for $116 million and will stop selling AI Pin, the company announced today.AI Pins that have already been purchased will continue to function normally until 3PM ET on February 28th, Humane says in a support document. After that date, Pins will “no longer connect to Humane’s servers.” As a result, AI Pin features will “no longer include calling, messaging, AI queries / responses, or cloud access.” Humane is also encouraging users to download any pictures, videos, and notes stored on their Pins before they are permanently deleted at that shutdown time.After…

A US federal judge declined to block Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing or transferring data from seven government agencies, or stop further firings of their workforce.DC District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan denied a temporary restraining order (TRO) sought by a group of 14 Democratic state attorneys general, led by New Mexico. The states had argued that Musk and DOGE have acted to trim the federal workforce, agency projects, and gain unprecedented data access without the proper authority. The Trump administration told the court that Musk is actually not an employee nor administrator of DOGE…

Acer CEO and chairman Jason Chen says your laptop will cost an extra 10 percent in the United States next month — and that his rivals might attempt price gouging if they think you’ll pay even more.It sounds like the price hike may not affect desktops, as Chen told The Telegraph that Acer had moved its desktop computer manufacturing outside China during Trump’s earlier tariffs during his first term. He said Acer might now consider moving some of its laptop manufacturing outside China too, with US manufacturing as “one of the options.”But as of today, the vast majority of the…

Nanoleaf has announced that the company’s “most popular products” are getting a permanent price cut as part of its new SmarterLife Pricing Initiative. “For the past two years, Nanoleaf has been working closely with their manufacturing and supply chain teams to completely reexamine, rework and reoptimize processes, materials, and structures to reduce costs,” the company says in a PR release. The price cuts go into effect starting today, and include many of Nanoleaf’s “hero products,” like its Shapes, Lines, Elements, and Blocks modular lighting solutions.The discounts vary across the company’s products, but many are well over 30 percent off its…

A team from Elon Musk’s SpaceX is visiting the Air Traffic Control Command Center in Virginia Monday to help overhaul the system in the wake of last month’s deadly air disaster in Washington, DC, US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced. The news comes after CNN reported that the Federal Aviation Administration fired hundreds of probationary employees who maintain critical air traffic control infrastructure.In a post on X, Duffy said the team from SpaceX went to Virginia to “get a firsthand look at the current system, learn what air traffic controllers like and dislike about their current tools, and envision…

It’s been nearly four years since Spotify announced a HiFi tier for its music streaming service that would support lossless audio. That wait could end this year, Bloomberg reports, as the company works to finalize details, including streaming rights.Spotify could charge as much as $5 or $6 extra per month for the new tier — said to be named “Music Pro” — which is in line with estimates CEO Daniel Ek shared last year. Spotify’s Premium tier currently starts at $11.99 per month before family or student discounts, the result of two price hikes in as many years.Competitors like Apple…

The Department of Government Efficiency has requested access to the Internal Revenue Service’s taxpayer data system — potentially giving it access to highly sensitive information, including Social Security Numbers and tax returns — according to a report from CNN. DOGE has also launched an IRS-specific account on X and is soliciting “insights on finding and fixing waste, fraud, and abuse” within the agency.“Waste, fraud and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long,” Harrison Fields, White House deputy press secretary, said in a statement to multiple outlets. “It takes direct access to the system to…

The New York Times has reportedly approved artificial intelligence tools that newsroom staff can use for editing copy, summarizing information, coding, and writing. The publication announced in an internal email that product and editorial staff will receive AI training, according to Semafor, and introduced a new internal AI tool called Echo for summarizing articles, briefings, and other company activity.Staff were reportedly sent new editorial guidelines detailing permitted uses for Echo and other AI tools, which encourage newsroom employees to use them to suggest edits and revisions for their work, and generate summaries, promotional copy for social media, and SEO headlines.Other…