Reviews

Xiaomi 14 is one of the best examples of how collaborations should work. Here, Xiaomi and Leica have worked together, and we talked in detail about why this is not just a marketing partnership. 2024 is an important year for Xiaomi, not only because it completes 10 years of operations in India but also because this year, plenty of Xiaomi devices will be upgraded to HyperOS, the company's next big move to bring the human x car x home smart ecosystem a reality. We will get into that later in this review. The all-new Xiaomi…

In the attack, hackers create an app that injects malicious code into the Meta Quest VR system and then launch a clone of the VR system’s home screen and apps that looks identical to the user’s original screen. Once inside, attackers can see, record, and modify everything the person does with the headset. That includes tracking voice, gestures, keystrokes, browsing activity, and even the user’s social interactions. The attacker can even change the content of a user’s messages to other people. The research, which was…

A stylish home cinema smart projector with a novel five-channel dual-light optical engine and Dolby Vision? The Horizon Ultra went on sale late last year, and when I was recently given the opportunity to play catchup with the tech-packed home projector, I jumped at it.China's XGIMI founded in 2013, and formed an audio tech partnership with Harman Kardon the following year. The company signed with Google in 2015 to bring Android TV to the home projector market, which was realized with 2018's MoGo Pro.A new Horizon home…

The new model, called RFM-1, was trained on years of data collected from Covariant’s small fleet of item-picking robots that customers like Crate & Barrel and Bonprix use in warehouses around the world, as well as words and videos from the internet. In the coming months, the model will be released to Covariant customers. The company hopes the system will become more capable and efficient as it’s deployed in the real world.  So what can it do? In a demonstration I attended last week, Covariant cofounders Peter Chen…

The news: In the summer of 2021, OpenAI quietly shuttered its mulrobotics team, announcing that progress was being stifled by a lack of data necessary to train robots in how to move and reason using artificial intelligence.Now three of OpenAI’s early research scientists say the startup they spun off in 2017, called Covariant, has solved that problem. They’ve unveiled a system that combines the reasoning skills of large language models with the physical dexterity of an advanced robot. How it works: The new model, called…

Whenever a new phone series comes in, the ‘Pro’ or ‘Ultra’ models usually grab more limelight. This is because we assume that the standard variant would bear more or less the same features as the Pro models, but with some compromises. While this is true in many cases, every now and then, some phones pop up that defy this convention and show that regular variants can offer better value. When I got my hands on the OPPO Reno11 a couple of weeks back, I sincerely hoped that it would belong to this same category. Now that I…

Investor efforts to evaluate carbon emissions, decarbonization plans, and climate risks through ESG (environmental, social, and governance) rating schemes have merely produced what some academics call “aggregate confusion.” And corporations have faced few penalties for failing to clearly disclose emissions or even meet their own standards.  All of which is to say that a new set of SEC carbon accounting and reporting rules that largely replicate the problems with voluntary corporate action, by failing to require…

How open source voting machines could boost trust in US elections While vendors pitched their latest voting machines in Concord, New Hampshire, this past August, election officials asked every kind of question: How much does the new scanner weigh? Are any of its parts made in China?The answers weren’t trivial. These machines are a once-in-a-decade purchase and many towns in New Hampshire want to replace their current, shoddy machines. But with what?  The officials’ first option was to continue with a legacy vendor.…

An ultrasound, for example, might reveal that a fetus’s kidneys are smaller than they should be, but absent a glaring genetic defect, doctors can’t say why they’re small or figure out a fix. But if they can take a small sample of amniotic fluid and grow a kidney organoid, the problem might become evident, and so might a potential solution.   Exciting, right? But organoids can do so much more! Let’s do a roundup of some of the weird, wild, wonderful, and downright unsettling uses that researchers have come up with for…

All told, the law sparked a national innovation renaissance that continues to this day. In 2002, the Economist dubbed it “possibly the most inspired piece of legislation to be enacted in America over the past half-century.” I consider it so vital that after I retired, I joined the advisory council of an organization devoted to celebrating and protecting it.  But the efficacy of the Bayh-Dole Act is now under serious threat from a draft framework the Biden administration is currently in the process of finalizing after a…