Ring doorbell subscription cost doubles in two years, angering customers
Amazon has announced that the price of the cheapest Ring doorbell subscription is being increased again, amounting to a doubling in cost since 2022 …
Expand Expanding CloseBen Lovejoy is a British technology writer who started his career on PC World and has written for dozens of computer and technology magazines, as well as numerous national newspapers, business and in-flight magazines. He has also written two technothriller novels , a romcom novel, and an SF novella series.
He is old enough to have owned the original Macintosh. He currently owns an M1 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro, a MacBook Air 11, 12.9-inch iPad Pro (LTE 256GB), iPhone 13 Pro Max (256GB), Dell Ultrawide 49-inch monitor, an Apple Watch (Series 4 WiFi) and multiple HomePods – he suspects it might be cheaper to have a cocaine habit than his addiction to all things anodised aluminum.
He thinks wires are evil and had a custom desk made to hide them, known as the OC Desk for obvious reasons.
He’s known for his op-ed and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review:
He considers 1000 miles a good distance for a cycle ride and Chernobyl a suitable tourist destination. What can we say, he’s that kind of chap.
He speaks fluent English but only broken American, so please forgive any Anglicised spelling in his posts.
If @benlovejoy-ing him on twitter, please follow him first so that he can DM you if appropriate. If you have information you can pass on, you can also email him. If you would like to comment on one of his pieces, please do so in the comments – he does read them all.
Amazon has announced that the price of the cheapest Ring doorbell subscription is being increased again, amounting to a doubling in cost since 2022 …
Expand Expanding CloseVision Pro’s EyeSight feature is something Apple has stressed as a key product differentiator over rival headsets, and as a way of solving the isolation problem when using this kind of tech.
But comparing a range of real-life examples with Apple’s promo images leads one reviewer to conclude that it doesn’t really work …
Expand Expanding CloseA Disney/Epic Games partnership announced this week may see the Fortnite developer return to the App Store despite the fractious relationship between Apple and Epic.
The collaboration will see new games featuring characters and stories across a range of Disney worlds, including Walt Disney, Star Wars, Pixar, and Marvel …
Expand Expanding CloseA test of using Lightroom on Vision Pro found that the controls were easy and intuitive, but it did require a somewhat slower pace than working on a Mac.
Also, being based on the iPad app, the Vision Pro version of Lightroom doesn’t support all the features of the Mac app – and has one rather odd omission …
Expand Expanding CloseA new report says that Apple bought “up to” 32 AI startups in 2023, more artificial intelligence acquisitions than any other tech giant.
Apple is also said to have bought companies at an earlier stage in their development …
Expand Expanding CloseApple is one of more than 200 companies and other organisations to join the US AI Safety Institute Consortium (AISIC), at the request of the White House.
Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Nvidis are among the other companies to join the consortium in response to an executive order by President Biden to ensure that artificial intelligence is “safe, secure, and trustworthy” …
Expand Expanding CloseA federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit claiming that Apple CEO Tim Cook was overpaid by tens of millions of dollars.
A lawsuit brought by a pension fund invested in AAPL claimed miscalculations meant that the company paid far more than the compensation committee intended …
Expand Expanding ClosePerhaps the primary question to be answered regarding Apple’s new spatial computer is: What is it for? And the bigger version of that question: Is Vision Pro a first step toward the future of computing?
Right now, in a world where relatively few people have even tried it, and even fewer of them have bought it, it’s clear that there’s nothing remotely approaching a consensus. Answers range from “Of course not, it’ll just be a short-lived gimmick” to “Absolutely, this will replace our Macs” …
Expand Expanding CloseA security researcher with a track record of helping Apple identify vulnerabilities in its software seemingly found one particular security hole too tempting.
Instead of reporting it to the Cupertino company, he allegedly exploited it to scam the company out of gift cards and products worth some $2.5 million …
Expand Expanding CloseApple’s AI work may be something of a slow-burn when it comes to Siri, but the company isn’t sitting back doing nothing. The company has just released an open-source AI model for editing photos using simple text commands – something which has been described as a breakthrough achievement.
Named MGIE – for Multimodal large language model Guided Image Editing – the model allows the user to use natural language to tell the editor what it is you want to achieve …
Expand Expanding CloseIt looks like sports fans are set for an extremely comprehensive all-in-one option. Disney-owned ESPN is partnering with FOX and Warner Bros Discovery to create a package of no fewer than 14 different channels.
The joint venture will offer access to thousands of games and events, across a diverse range of sports – and you’ll be able to bundle the new service with Disney+, Hulu, or Max …
Expand Expanding CloseA new report from China suggests that Vision Pro may launch in the country under a different name, thanks to Huawei successfully registering the name as a trademark back in 2019.
The same report suggests that the spatial computer will go on sale in the country in either April or May …
Expand Expanding CloseMeta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s AI announcement has raised major concerns, after he said that the company had more user data than was used to train ChatGPT – and would soon be using it to train its own AI systems.
The company’s plan to use Facebook and Instagram posts and comments to train a competing chatbot raises concerns about both privacy and toxicity …
Expand Expanding CloseSpotify reported a mix of good news and bad in its latest quarterly earnings report. The good news was that Spotify paid users hit 236M, up 4% on the previous quarter. Subscribers on the free ad-funded tier grew even more, up 5% to 602M.
The bad news was that the company, which managed a rare quarterly profit in Q3, returned to being a loss-making business in Q4 …
Expand Expanding CloseA micro-LED Apple Watch Ultra has been variously predicted to launch in 2024, 2025, and 2026 – but a new report today suggests that it may slip to 2027, or even later.
The problem is said to be Apple’s hesitation over the high cost of the micro-LED screen, which suppliers have so far been unable to reduce to a more palatable level …
Expand Expanding CloseApple Music is offering a wide range of exclusive USHER content, ahead of the singer’s Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday.
Dubbed the King of R&B, USHER is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, selling 80 million albums worldwide …
Expand Expanding CloseMacworld’s Jason Cross sounds like he’s taking an approach along somewhat similar lines to my Apple product diaries with his Vision Pro review, saying that he’s going to take time before giving a verdict – and in the meantime share some of his early take-outs.
His initial thoughts describe some of the things that most impress him about the device – and some of the biggest problems he’s encountered so far …
Expand Expanding CloseA Casey Neistat Vision Pro video posted over the weekend was, he says, simply intended to be a piece of silly fun – wearing the device while catching metro trains and walking through Times Square.
But he said that in the course of making the video, he had a totally unexpected experience, which convinced him that this type of device is the future of computing …
Expand Expanding CloseIf you can’t afford or justify your own spatial computer, we learned last year that there would be a Vision Pro guest mode to you borrow someone else’s.
We discovered that Apple doesn’t exactly encourage this, as there are some fairly major gotchas, and a new video now gives an idea of what the experience is like …
Expand Expanding CloseWhen Apple Music said it was paying 10% more in Spatial Audio royalties, there were those among us who cynically wondered whether this meant everyone else would be paid less.
That seems to be confirmed by a new report today, which says that Apple is not increasing its total royalty payout, but rather re-allocating it …
Expand Expanding CloseThere’s no official Vision Pro YouTube app, as Google declined to create one, and also blocked the use of its iPad app, which could otherwise have been used.
But there’s now an unofficial YouTube app for Apple’s spatial computer, thanks to Christian Selig, best known as the creator of the now-dead Reddit client, Apollo …
Expand Expanding CloseA supply chain report says that the first Apple foldable device could launch in 2026 or 2027 – later than some sources have suggested – but that it’s unclear whether it will be a folding iPhone or a replacement for the iPad mini.
Making sense of the report is challenging as there are so few details, and the author admits they don’t actually know what it means …
Expand Expanding CloseMore than 600 new Vision Pro apps will be available on launch day, says Apple – adding to the million plus iPad apps that also run on the device.
The company says that the new apps will change the way we approach everything from entertainment to productivity …
Expand Expanding CloseAs one optical Apple product makes its debut, the company has declared another one obsolete: The last MacBook Pro with an optical drive …
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