Author: Nick Gold

Ikea has registered its first Thread device, a new Matter-supporting temperature and humidity sensor called the “Timmerflotte,” with the FCC, reports HomeKit News. A diagram from the filing, which was spotted by CybermodStudios, shows a circular device that’s powered by two AAA batteries and features a QR code and 11-digit number for Matter setup.The Timmerflotte doesn’t appear to use any other wireless protocol other than Thread, HomeKit News notes. That means Ikea, which tends to use the Zigbee or Wi-Fi protocols for its devices, doesn’t offer a hub that this device could natively integrate with. Ikea’s Dirigera hub lacks both…

Intel is delaying the opening of its $28 billion Ohio chip plants yet again. In an update on Friday, Intel executive vice president Naga Chandrasekaran said the company now expects its first factory to begin operations between 2030 and 2031 – years later than its initial plan to kick off production in 2025.Meanwhile, the second fabrication plant on Intel’s Ohio campus isn’t expected to open until 2032. “We are taking a prudent approach to ensure we complete the project in a financially responsible manner,” Chandrasekaran said in the post. “We will continue construction at a slower pace, while maintaining the…

Mozilla also further clarified why it used certain terms, saying that the term “nonexclusive” was used to indicate that Mozilla doesn’t want an exclusive license to user data, because users should be able to do other things with that data, too.“Royalty-free” was used because Firefox is free and neither Mozilla nor the user should owe each other money in exchange for handling the data in order to provide the browser. And “worldwide” was used because Firefox is available worldwide and provides access to the global internet.

Hello,We are writing to inform you of a security incident. Due to a two-factor authentication (2FA) misconfiguration on an employee’s account, an unauthorized user gained access to certain Zapier code repositories. Normally, this would not impact our customers. Out of an abundance of caution, we audited the contents of the repositories, and we found that in isolated instances, certain customer information had been inadvertently copied to the repositories for debugging purposes.We became aware of unauthorized access to the affected repositories on Thursday, February 27, 2025 (2025-02-27 09:38:48 UTC). Once we became aware of the issue, we immediately secured access to…

A Paris-based creative studio has announced a minimalist turntable with controls streamlined to just a play button and a volume knob. Waiting For Ideas’ PP-1 — short for Plug and Play — doesn’t even have a visible tonearm, and it’s made from a solid block of anodized aluminum requiring about 12 weeks of production time to manufacture. That makes it easier to understand why the PP-1 has a €5,800 (around $6,012) price tag.Although companies like ELP of Japan sell turntables that swap needles and tonearms for laser pickups, the PP-1 does feature more traditional record player hardware. The studio worked…

Apple customers filed a class action lawsuit against the company, alleging it misled consumers with claims that certain Apple Watches are carbon neutral. For a product to be considered carbon neutral, its manufacturer has to offset or cancel out any pollution the item generates. Apple said in 2023 that “select case and band combinations” of its Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Ultra 2, and Apple Watch SE would be the company’s first carbon neutral devices. The suit was filed on behalf of anyone who bought those watches. It alleges that the products were not really carbon neutral because they…

Meta is planning to launch a dedicated app for its AI chatbot, according to a report from CNBC. The Verge can also confirm that Meta is working on the standalone app. The new app could launch in the second quarter of this year, CNBC says, joining the growing number of standalone AI apps, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot.Meta has already brought its AI chatbot across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, but launching a standalone app could help the company reach people who don’t already use those platforms. Similar to rival chatbots, Meta AI can answer questions, generate…

The EV4 sedan was first announced as a concept in 2023, but it’s now a real car. It comes in two versions. One has a funky rear that stretches out to look like a traditional 4-door car. The other, a “five-door” hot-hatch-looking version will primarily be for the European market, according to Kia. These aren’t going to be Kia’s most-performant EVs though, as they will be single-motor front-wheel drive vehicles with just 150kW of power and a 0-62 mph acceleration time as quick as 7.4 seconds.The EV4 will also run on a lesser 400-volt version of the company’s E-GMP platform…

Cricut has announced new versions of its crafting machines designed to print, cut, and emboss various materials using a collection of swappable tools. The new Cricut Maker 4 and Cricut Explore 4 are the first updates to both machines in nearly four years and offer faster cutting speeds for some materials, improved accuracy, and cheaper price tags. The machines will be available starting on February 28th, 2025. They’ll still start at $249.99 for the Cricut Explore 4, and at $399.99 for the Cricut Maker 4, and both will be available in sage and seashell color options. The four-year-old Cricut Explore…

Amazon is making its foray into quantum computing with the launch of a new chip designed to make quantum error correction more efficient. In an announcement on Thursday, Amazon Web Services (AWS) said the chip, called Ocelot, can “reduce the costs of implementing quantum error correction by up to 90%, compared to current approaches.”Quantum computing errors are one of the biggest challenges in the industry. Unlike traditional computers, quantum computing replaces binary 1s and 0s with qubits, a unit that can exist in multiple states at the same time. As noted by Amazon, qubits are “sensitive to the smallest changes,…