Amazon Fire TV introduces ‘Dual Audio’ feature for simultaneous listening via hearing aids and TV speakers

Amazon announced on Wednesday new accessibility features for Fire TV, including a notable “Dual Audio” capability for the newly launched Fire TV Omni Mini-LED Series, which was unveiled in November. The new feature allows one user to listen through a hearing aid while others in the same

California can ban new gas cars starting in 2035, EPA says

The Environmental Protection Agency announced today that it will allow California to ban most sales of new gas- and diesel-powered cars and light trucks starting in 2035. California has long been able to set its own emissions standards under the Clean Air Act provided they are more stringent than

Tracker firm Hapn spilled names of thousands of GPS tracking customers

GPS tracking firm Hapn exposed the names of thousands of its customers due to a website bug, technewss has learned. A security researcher alerted technewss in late November to customer names and affiliations — such as the name of their workplace — spilling from one of Hapn’s servers, w

Instagram Threads adds ‘Use media’ feature for resharing photos and videos

Threads is introducing a new way to reshare photos and videos on its social network. Instead of quote-posting the original post and then adding commentary, Threads users will instead be able to click a new option, “Use media,” allowing them to just reshare the photo or video directly to

Perplexity acquires Carbon to connect AI search to your work files

Perplexity acquired a small Seattle-based startup called Carbon which specializes in connecting AI systems to external data sources, the companies announced on Wednesday. CEO Aravind Srinivasan says this will allow Perplexity to search through your files and work messages in Notion, Google Docs, Sl

App downloads decline 2.3% in 2024, but consumer spending grows to $127B

The global app economy continued to recover in 2024, after an earlier slowdown in 2022 — at least in terms of consumer spending. In 2024, global consumer spending in mobile apps and games reached $127 billion across the App Store and Google Play, up 15.7% from the prior year. However, those incre

Wing and DoorDash launch drone deliveries in Dallas-Fort Worth

Alphabet's Wing announced on Wednesday that it’s expanding its partnership with DoorDash to bring drone delivery to customers in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Customers in the area will now be able to order food from 50 merchants located in Stonebriar Centre in Frisco and Hulen Mall in

OpenAI brings ChatGPT to your landline

ChatGPT is coming to phones. No, not smartphones — landlines. Call 1-800-242-8478 (1-800-CHATGPT), and OpenAI’s AI-powered assistant will respond as of Wednesday afternoon. “[Our mission at] OpenAI is to make artificial general intelligence beneficial to all of humanity, and part of

Who wants ‘Her’-like AI that gets stuff wrong?

Hiya, folks, welcome to technewss's regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, smash the link and sign up here. Last week, OpenAI launched Advanced Voice Mode with Vision, which feeds real-time video to ChatGPT, allowing the chatbot to “see” beyond the

GitHub launches a free version of its Copilot

Microsoft-owned GitHub announced on Wednesday a free version of its popular Copilot code completion/AI pair programming tool, which will also now ship by default with Microsoft’s popular VS Code editor. Until now, most developers had to pay a monthly fee, starting at $10 per month, with only

AI startup Odyssey’s new tool can generate photorealistic 3D worlds

Odyssey, a startup founded by self-driving pioneers Oliver Cameron and Jeff Hawke, is developing an AI-powered tool that can transform text or an image into a 3D rendering. The tool, dubbed Explorer, is similar in some ways to the so-called world models recently demoed by DeepMind, World Labs

SpaceX gets green light for 7th Starship mission 

Regulators have given SpaceX the go-ahead to launch Starship for the seventh time, although the company has not yet announced when that mission might take place.  While the exact launch date is unclear, SpaceX engineers have been as busy as ever at the company's massive launch site near Boca

Sustainable Ocean Alliance marks 10 years with ocean-friendly startup label and a new batch of ‘ecopreneurs’

Over the last decade, the Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA) has graduated from dorm room activism to a thousands-strong global network of experts, investors, and “ecopreneurs” — all of whom believe the best way to save the ailing oceans is to embrace innovation. Founder Daniela Fernandez has s

Hauler Hero wants to bring waste-management software into the 21st century

After nearly four years of working in sales at tradesperson software company ServiceTitan, Mark Hoadley (pictured above) was looking for a change and to potentially start something of his own in a similar industry. Hoadley’s brother-in-law and now co-founder, Ben Sikma, was working on M&