Samsung Electronics announced its new $60 SmartThings Station, which the company describes as “an easy-to-use, affordable smart home hub and fast charging pad.” The product is designed to provide consumers with “simple control and interoperability of multiple connected devices.” SmartThings Station is one of numerous solutions touted at CES that are compatible with a growing collection of smart home products, including those that are labeled as Matter devices. The Matter home automation standard, which helps connect devices built with the Thread low-power mesh networking protocol, had a significant presence at CES. Continue reading CES: Samsung Introduces an Easy-to-Use Smart Home Hub

CoinDesk managing editor Toby Bochan, who moderated a CES panel on “How to Keep Control of Your Crypto” noted the industry is in a “crypto winter” in the aftermath of the FTX meltdown. Panelists pinpointed crypto wallets and other self-custody technology to create trust and ease-of-use for wary customers. Bitski head of product Jasmine Xu noted that newbies face unfamiliar phraseology and uncertainty about the security of their crypto assets. Exchanges are intimidating and untrustworthy for many considering crypto. Xu’s company stores keys in a digital wallet, she said, to “give consumers the safety they need.” Continue reading CES: Crypto Leaders Weigh Benefits of Wallets, Self-Custody

Over the holidays, the National Football League announced a multi-year deal with Google that will provide YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels with exclusive rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package, which includes all out-of-market Sunday games broadcast via CBS and FOX. Beginning with the 2023 football season, NFL Sunday Ticket will be available for U.S. consumers “on two of YouTube’s growing subscription businesses as an add-on package on YouTube TV and standalone a-la-carte on YouTube Primetime Channels,” according to Google. The agreement is valued at about $2 billion annually over seven years. Continue reading NFL Sunday Ticket Is Coming to YouTube TV and Primetime

Meta, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and Dutch mapping company TomTom have joined forces with The Linux Foundation to give Google a run for its money in the maps space with the launch of the Overture Maps Foundation to build interoperable open map data. “Mapping the physical environment and every community in the world, even as they grow and change, is a massively complex challenge that no one organization can manage,” Linux Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin said. Overture’s mission is to create an extensible mapping framework that will enable companies to contribute their own data, constantly refreshing as the physical world changes. Continue reading Meta, Microsoft, AWS Want to Map the Future with Overture

Apple is planning to allow app sideloading in response to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, set to take effect in 2024. The move reverses long-held policies that were a source of ire to many Apple developers as well as global regulators. It is believed the new approach could spillover to other regions where lawmakers are at various stages of reining in Big Tech, with companies including Google and Meta Platforms also in the crosshairs. The news sent shares up among companies that offer dating apps, including Match Group and Bumble. Spotify also got a bump. Continue reading Apple Plans to Open iOS to Third-Parties Thanks to EU Laws

Meta Platforms is updating Instagram, adding Notes, a way to share using just 60 characters plus emoji, and testing Candid Stories, which allows users to capture what they’re doing in the moment, similar to competing social app BeReal. Notes will appear for 24 hours at the top of the inboxes of those users to follow or on their list of Close Friends, with their replies showing up as DMs. “During testing, we learned that people liked having a lightweight, easy way to share what’s on their mind and start conversations,” Meta says. Continue reading Instagram Adds Features to Better Compete in Social Space

Magazine reading app Flipboard is aiming to relocate some of the online discussion taking place on Twitter to its own platform. Users — which Flipboard calls “curators” — can “write new notes and start conversations” within their magazines, a move to give content creators “more ways to connect with their followers on Flipboard.” Now, curators who open any of the magazines they manage will find in the navigation bar a new “Create” icon they can click to create a note. “Use notes to write messages to your followers, ask them questions or even welcome new readers,” Flipboard suggests. Continue reading Magazine App Flipboard Makes a Push for Social Interactivity

Disney Research Studios has created an AI tool that can make actors look older or younger more simply than the costly and time-consuming visual effects that are the current status quo. While artificial intelligence had been used to age or de-age people with relative success in still frames, the results lacked photorealism when applied to video. Disney calls its app FRAN, for Face Re-Aging Network. FRAN has been trained to identify the parts of a face that change with age and can either accentuate or erase the telltale signs. Continue reading Disney Invents High-Quality Tool to Rejuvenate or Age Actors

Alphabet’s AI offshoot DeepMind has created an AI tool called Dramatron that can help co-write scripts, generating things like plot points, character and location descriptions and dialogue. While a human will still need to manage the process by editing and rewriting Dramatron’s suggestions, the app is designed to make the screenwriting process faster and easier. To deploy Dramatron, users will need an OpenAI API key and, ideally, a Perspective API key to minimize the risk of “offensive text.” In addition to AI researchers, DeepMind tested the tool with 15 playwrights and screenwriters who used it to co-write scripts. Continue reading DeepMind Tool Provides AI-Powered Screenplay Assistance

Amazon is introducing Inspire, a feature that lets customers shop from a custom feed of videos and photos. Drawing comparisons to TikTok, Inspire is currently available to select U.S. users, with plans for a national rollout in the coming months. Inspire takes Amazon further into social shopping territory, where competitors Meta Platforms and Alphabet have followed TikTok and its parent ByteDance into the short-video shopping format. While the U.S. and Europe have failed to duplicate the astounding volume of China’s social shopping, Amazon — with a customer base in the hundreds of millions — could jump-start it. Continue reading Amazon Pushes into Social Shopping with Its Inspire Feature

Apple has updated its App Store pricing in what some have interpreted as a preemptive move against regulatory and legal pressure over store policies. Apple is offering developers “700 additional price points and new pricing tools” to make it easier to set prices per App Store country or region and manage foreign exchange rate changes, among other things. The move brings the total number of available App Store price points to 900 and allows developers in the U.S. to set prices ranging from $0.29 to $10,000. The new policy is expected to roll out soon in global markets. Continue reading Apple Revises App Store Pricing Policy, Adding 700 Options

OpenAI’s new AI chatbot, ChatGPT, is taking the world by storm. “Quite simply, the best artificial intelligence chatbot ever released to the general public,” is how The New York Times describes ChatGPT, which more than a million people signed up for when it opened for testing last week. Screenshots of ChatGPT conversations blew up Twitter. “Something big is happening,” tweeted one fan. “I just had a 20-minute conversation with ChatGPT about the history of physics … OMG,” offered another. The acronym stands for “generative pre-trained transformer,” a language model that leverages deep learning to respond to text-based input with human-like responses. Continue reading ChatGPT: OpenAI’s New Chatbot Draws Praise and Criticism

GoPro launched a new wireless remote with free firmware updates that is designed to control the company’s cameras even if they are far away or mounted somewhere hard to reach. Priced at $80 — the same as the previous Smart Remote — it is compatible with the Hero 9 Black, Hero 8 Black and Max cameras. Improvements in design include a larger display and an even bigger Record button on the front, ideal for use with gloved hands. Dubbed the miniature Remote, it is also waterproof up to a depth of 16 feet. Continue reading GoPro Releases New Wireless Remote, Firmware for Cameras

Stacy Spikes, a co-founder and former CEO of MoviePass, just launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund PreShow, an app that lets users receive free movie tickets in exchange for watching 15 to 20 minutes of advertising. But there’s a catch: PreShow is based on facial recognition; Spikes said it is to prevent users from gaming the system. While the user watches ads, her smartphone’s camera keeps track of her level of attention. The ad pauses after five seconds should the user walk away or even hide part of her face. Continue reading Former MoviePass Exec Kickstarts Service for Free Movies

For the first time, ESPN will have cameras on all 18 courts at Wimbledon to offer complete coverage of more than 500 matches, including this week’s four days of qualifiers. Tennis fans can stream coverage from the All England Club on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 and ESPN+ via the ESPN App. The sports network is also planning to televise about 140 hours on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. Additionally, the network will offer daily highlights, weekly reviews, press conference feeds, social buzz, related specials, and a marathon of notable matches on ESPN Classic. Continue reading ESPN to Cover More Than 500 Wimbledon Tennis Matches