Category: Tech Blog

  • Why the Google TV Streamer has an oval design and reducing remote wobble

    Making a set-top box with the Google TV Streamer was a design departure for modern Google hardware — there was of course the Nexus Player — and the team today explained some of the decisions they took. “We were bringing it out from behind the television set, so it needed to be something people are…

  • Google kills Chromecast, replaces it with Apple TV and Roku Ultra competitor

    This is Google’s new streaming box, the Google TV Streamer. It’s meant to sit on your media console instead of hanging from your TV’s USB port like the Chromecast. The remote comes with a lot of the standard features you’d expect from this kind of device now: a button to trigger voice control, a remote…

  • The New Nest Learning Thermostat Is Pretty… and Expensive

    Can a thermostat be art?  The new model of the Nest Learning Thermostat is, if you ask Anish Kattukaran, the director of product management for Google Home. It’s certainly smart, and it’s most definitely expensive at $280, but art? Some may find the sentiment a tad pretentious. In many ways, it is: When this product…

  • Chromecast is dead. Meet Google TV Streamer

    Along with a long-awaited update to the Nest Learning Thermostat, Google on Tuesday unveiled its latest set-top streaming box ahead of the company’s Made by Google 2024 event next week. Google TV Streamer’s arrival marks the end of the Chromecast line. With more than 100 million sold over an 11-year life, it was a good…

  • Want a cheap Chromecast? You'd better hurry – the discontinued dongle is only available 'while supplies last'

    After 11 years of service, the Google Chromecast has been discontinued and sent to the increasingly crowded Google Graveyard. The streaming dongle’s replacement, the Google TV Streamer, is here – and Google says it’s now “ending production of the Chromecast”. While that’s good news for anyone who’s been holding out for an Android-powered equivalent to the…

  • iOS 18 public beta 3 is now available, here’s what’s new

    Today Apple has released public beta 3 for iOS 18. This new public beta brings with it the variety of changes introduced in yesterday’s developer beta, and is available for download now to members of Apple’s public beta program. Here’s everything that’s new. Photos app changes in public beta 3 The Photos app’s big redesign…

  • The Google TV Streamer can't use Nest speakers for audio beyond speaker groups

    Google’s brand-new and quite compelling Google TV Streamer looks like a major improvement, but one feature that’s still missing is support for using Nest speakers for audio output in lieu of something like a soundbar. For years now, we’ve been waiting on Google to launch support for using Nest speakers as audio output on a…

  • After nine years, Google's Nest Learning Thermostat gets an AI makeover

    After nine long years, Google is finally refreshing the device that gave Nest its name. The company on Tuesday announced the launch of the Nest Learning Thermostat 4, 13 years after the release of the original and nearly a decade after the Learning Thermostat 3 and ahead of the Made by Google 2024 event next…

  • 'Gemini on earbuds' is 'Your new AI assistant'

    Work on bringing the Gemini assistant to more form factors beyond the web and phones continues with a new mention of “Gemini on earbuds.”  About APK Insight: In this “APK Insight” post, we’ve decompiled the latest version of an application that Google uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APKs, in…

  • OpenAI has a '99% effective' ChatGPT-detection tool ready. So why aren't they releasing it?

    Thanks to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft-backed OpenAI has admitted to having a tool that can watermark ChatGPT-generated text. According to OpenAI, the system has been ready for over a year now; however, there’s been debate on whether or not to release it. SEE ALSO: OpenAI rolls out ChatGPT’s new Voice AI…