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Showing posts from October, 2022

Elon finally gets his Musk all over Twitter with confirmed acquisition

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The on again , off again , off again , on again saga of tech billionaire Elon Musk’s planned acquisition of Twitter has finally come to an end. Having signed off on the deal reported to be worth as much as $44 billion, Musk has wasted no time in putting his unique stamp on the social media giant – firing several of Twitter’s top executives. CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, Policy Chief Vijaya Gadde and General Counsel Sean Edgett are among the casualties, with Bloomberg reporting Edgett particularly was escorted from Twitter’s head office. That detail, if accurate, would suggest Musk is still holding onto some angst from the legal fallout of his initial backflipping on plans to buy Twitter earlier in the year. But what does this change mean for Twitter users? Well, perhaps plenty. An outspoken libertarian, it has long been assumed that Musk’s taking over Twitter would see content moderation on the platform change dramatically, with the man himself all but confirming this. And fur

Sorry Apple: a Samsung exec thinks OLED displays aren’t good enough for AR glasses

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A Samsung Display executive doesn’t believe that OLED displays are good enough for augmented-reality glasses, which could be bad news for Apple if rumors that it’s working on AR glasses are accurate. At a recent industry event, Samsung Display group leader Kim Min-woo explained that the best VR headsets (like the Oculus Quest 2 ), and AR glasses like the long-rumored Apple Glasses require different displays to suit their particular applications (via The Elec ). Because AR devices enable the wearer to interact with the real world around them, their displays need to be brighter.  OLED pixels aren’t backlit so they are darker than LED pixels, because of this, users wearing the glasses won’t be able to see their glasses’ heads-up display (HUD) in bright conditions. Beyond being brighter, because OLED screens would need extra protective layers to ensure water and other particles don’t ruin their organic parts they’d have to be thicker and heavier than LED panels made from inorganic co

Hot or Not: The best (and worst) Amazon Prime Day tech deals, chosen by experts

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(Image credit: Future) The second day of Amazon’s Prime Day October sale is underway this morning - and we’ve been pleasantly surprised by the quality of some of the deals so far: there have been some absolute bargains. We’re talking A-grade discounts on products people actually want. (That’s not always a guarantee on Prime Day .) As with any Amazon sale, of course, there’ve been some clangers too. Polished and wrapped in glitter, sure, but inevitably best avoided. So are today’s Prime Day two deals hot? Or not? We’ll be the judge of that. We’ve pulled in the entire TechRadar team and asked our experts to rate Amazon’s plate. We’re scoring each deal on a scale of 1-5 for quality: 1 is extremely poor; 5 is off-the-chart hot. Here's our heads-up on the tech deals you need to buy now - and the ones that should be swiftly sidestepped. (We test this tech all year around, so we know a bargain when we see it.) Prime Day in October sale in the US: quick links Air fryers:   f

Making Smart Homes Simple

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Smart homes, but why?  The smart home concept has been with us almost as long as the home computer itself. Yet for most of us, the closest we've come to it is Uncle Brian yelling at his Alexa to play REO Speedwagon. That's all very well, but the rest of us want more. Which is where beautifully designed smart home tech from the likes of Aqara comes in. But what exactly does it do for your domicile? And why wouldn't you just do it yourself? Well, quite apart from the sheer living-in-the-future joy of having your drapes slide smoothly apart at the exact moment of sunrise, there's a level of security and convenience here that you have to experience to appreciate. There was a time when, if you wanted to talk to someone, you had to call a building and just hope that's where they were. Crazy, right? That's what future generations are going to think when you tell them that you had to go to your front door and open it to see who'd rung the bell. (Image

Prime Day in October live: top deals in Amazon’s Early Access sale

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Amazon Prime Early Access sale: live (Image credit: Future) Amazon's Prime Early Access sale kicks off at midnight tonight in the US and UK, which means it's almost go-time if you're looking to snap up some deals before the holiday season.  As with Prime Day proper, this new Amazon sale is a global shopping event running over days (11-12 October). We'll be live-blogging all the best deals here, and there are already some huge discounts on the Echo Dot and other Alexa devices to browse - so we've started early... You'll need to be a Prime member to get your hands on most (but not all) of the best deals. But if you don't have Prime, you can still take part by signing up for a 30-day free Prime trial - just make sure you cancel it before the trial ends if you don't want to become a full Prime member. So what are we expecting to see in the Prime Day 2.0 sale over the next few days? Alongside Amazon staples like its own brand devices, there