Latest News

01 Mar

Apple backtracks on plans to get rid of web apps on iPhones in the EU

John RoutledgeLatest News

Apple has walked back its decision to remove home screen web apps in the European Union (EU). After initially blaming its decision to ditch them on the Digital Markets Act’s (DMA) requirement to support non-WebKit browsers, Apple now says European users will return to enjoying the same web app experience from before when iOS 17.4 arrives early this month.“We have…

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01 Mar

Meta is starting to test the Threads API with third-party developers

John RoutledgeLatest News

Meta is starting to bring the Threads API online, though it will still be some time before it’s widely accessible to developers. The company has begun testing its new developer tools with a handful of companies, Meta engineer Jesse Chen shared in a post on Threads.According to Chen, whose post was first spotted by TechCrunch, the API is currently in…

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01 Mar

The new Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max is on sale for a record low of $40

John RoutledgeLatest News

The latest version of the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max is on sale for $40, which matches the record low Black Friday price. The streaming stick normally sells for $60, so this is a discount of 33 percent.This is the most advanced streaming stick Amazon has ever made. As the name suggests, it can easily handle 4K video, and…

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01 Mar

Adobe’s latest AI experiment generates music from text

John RoutledgeLatest News

This week, Adobe revealed an experimental audio AI tool to join its image-based ones in Photoshop. Described by the company as “an early-stage generative AI music generation and editing tool,” Adobe’s Project Music GenAI Control can create music (and other audio) from text prompts, which it can then fine-tune in the same interface.Adobe frames the Firefly-based technology as a creative…

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01 Mar

Spotify rolls out an audiobook-only subscription

John RoutledgeLatest News

Spotify has added another subscription option. This time around, it's offering a plan that has little to do with music. The Audiobooks Access Tier (which is US-only for now) offers 15 hours of audiobook listening each month for $10. You'll have access to Spotify's library of more than 200,000 titles You can, of course, still listen to ad-supported music via…

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01 Mar

Engadget is turning 20

John RoutledgeLatest News

This Saturday, on March 2, 2024, Engadget turns 20. Originally founded by Peter Rojas — you can read more about those early days here — the site has had eight editors-in-chief and, to my count, seven parent organizations to answer to. What started as a truly influential tech blog has morphed into a media organization aiming to break news, give…

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01 Mar

Streaming video changed the internet forever

John RoutledgeLatest News

It’s 1995, and I’m trying to watch a video on the internet. I entered the longest, most complex URL I’d ever seen into AOL’s web browser to view a trailer for Paul W.S. Anderson’s long-awaited film adaptation of Mortal Kombat. I found it in an issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, tucked away in the bottom of a full-page ad for…

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01 Mar

No, Mark Zuckerberg isn’t having a ‘PR moment’

John RoutledgeLatest News

Axios, a site known for political analysis and extensive use of bullet points, has joined the ranks of pundits fawning over Mark Zuckerberg’s PR strategy. The Meta CEO, they claim, is (as originally headlined) “having a PR moment” which is “casting a halo effect on the company itself." That's obviously untrue, but let's say it in a format more likely…

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01 Mar

The 6 best budgeting apps to replace Mint come March 2024

John RoutledgeLatest News

The popular budgeting app Mint is going away. Parent company Intuit will shut down the service on March 24, 2024, and has suggested folks migrate to its other personal finance app, Credit Karma. I’m one of Mint’s 3.6 million active users (as of 2021, according to Bloomberg), using the app to track all of my accounts in one place without…

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01 Mar

Elon Musk sues OpenAI and Sam Altman for allegedly ditching non-profit mission

John RoutledgeLatest News

OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk has sued the company, his fellow co-founders, associated businesses and unidentified others. He claims that, by chasing profits, they’re violating OpenAI’s status as a non-profit and its foundational contractual agreements to develop AI “for the benefit of humanity.”The suit alleges that OpenAI has become a “closed-source de facto subsidiary” of Microsoft, which has invested $13 billion…

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