Author: Nick Gold

After a tumultuous 2024, in which iRobot lost its founder and CEO, Colin Angle, Amazon abandoned its acquisition plans, and the company laid off a large portion of its staff, iRobot is back with a major shake-up of its robotic vacuum line.This week, the company that invented the robot vacuum over 20 years ago announced eight new models that are definitely not the Roombas you’re used to. Not only do they look totally different, but they also work differently, thanks to a new-to-Roomba feature: lidar navigation and mapping.iRobot has started publishing suction power specs for its robotsThe new lineup starts…

Although original estimates set the cost of the Las Vegas Sphere at $1.2 billion, Sphere Entertainment eventually spent around $2.3 billion to build the interactive venue. As the company looks to expand to other cities, it’s also looking to scale down the venue, making it more affordable to build and operate.Sphere Entertainment is currently working on a design for mini-Spheres with a capacity of about 5,000 people, the company’s Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, James Dolan, told analysts during an investment call, according to a report by AV Magazine. The Las Vegas Sphere can seat 17,600 people, but attendance…

Bluesky is adding support for longer, three-minute videos – a notable improvement from the previous one-minute limit. The update is rolling out in Bluesky version 1.99, which also includes a new DM filter that allows you to you approve or reject messages from people you might not know.The new “Chat Requests” feature is similar to Message Requests on X, and it will appear as a banner at the top of your inbox. Tap into it, and you’ll find messages from unknown users. Based on the example shared by Bluesky, it looks like the platform will also let you know if…

Eric Schmidt, who was the CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011, is now the CEO of rocket startup Relativity Space, a company spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch. Schmidt will be replacing Relativity Space co-founder Tim Ellis in the CEO role.Schmidt isn’t alone in the segment – Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are known for their work with SpaceX and Blue Origin, respectively, and former Amazon executive Dave Limp took over as CEO of Blue Origin in 2023.Relativity Space launched “the world’s first 3D printed rocket,” called the Terran 1, though it failed shortly after launch. It’s also working on the…

Apple plans to significantly redesign the look of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS later this year, Bloomberg reports.The changes, which are set to arrive with iOS 19, iPadOS 19, and macOS 16, will touch many parts of the operating systems, including “updating the style of icons, menus, apps, windows and system buttons,” Bloomberg says. The updates are also intended to simplify how people use Apple devices and make things more consistent across its software. The new design apparently takes some inspiration from the Vision Pro’s visionOS.Bloomberg says the design updates will be the biggest for the Mac since macOS Big Sur…

Lego has announced a new addition to its Mario Kart collection that first debuted last August. But don’t expect Lego’s latest Super Mario set to fit in with the rest of the racers. At 12.5 inches long and 8.5 inches tall, this set, featuring Mario in his standard racing kart from the game, is Lego’s largest Mario Kart build to date.The set is available for preorder now through Lego’s website for $169.99, with an expected ship date of May 15th, 2025, so you’ll have to wait a couple of months for it to cross the finish line.Featuring 1,972 pieces, the…

Apple is expected to release its thinnest phone yet later this year with the iPhone 17 Air. Rumors have held that the phone will be thinner than the 6.9mm iPhone 6 was, but recent leaks give us a better idea than we’ve had before of what to expect.But where Kuo said the phone will have a 6.6-inch screen, Ice Universe says it’ll actually be 6.9 inches like the iPhone 17 Pro Max — they say both phones will have the same “length, width, screen size, and bezel” as the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Later, they posted a video showing an…

Reports are cropping up today that second-generation Chromecasts and music-streaming Chromecast Audio devices are failing, displaying an error on the device they’re trying to cast from that seems to imply the streamers may no longer be supported, reports 9to5Google.Text from screenshots of the error posted to Reddit reads, “Untrusted device” and continues, saying the device “couldn’t be verified. This could be caused by outdated device firmware.” Understandably, people are concerned that Google has decided to send the streaming pucks, both quite old now, to the Google graveyard.As 9to5Google points out, the company hasn’t said it is deprecating the two, as…

The FAQ says that players will be prompted to link the two the first time they load the game. And if you unlink later, you “will be constrained to relinking to only that specific and originally linked” Microsoft account.The requirement stings given that there’s no cross-platform saving, so the progress you make in the PS5 version isn’t reflected in the Xbox version. It’s the same situation for the Steam version, as the FAQ points out. As the page also notes, Horizon 5 players will need a PlayStation Plus subscription to access the game’s multiplayer feature, and there are “no plans…

AliveCor has suffered another setback in its long-running patent case against Apple. Today, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has upheld a decision that the medical device maker’s EKG patents are not actually patentable. As a result, the Apple Watch won’t face a second import ban from the International Trade Commission (ITC).This back and forth between AliveCor and Apple began in 2021. AliveCor went to the ITC claiming Apple had infringed on its EKG patents. The ITC ruled in AliveCor’s favor, recommending an import ban that would’ve prevented the sale of Apple Watches with the EKG feature…