Technology

China is escalating its war on kids’ screen time

August 9, 2023
This story first appeared in China Report, MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology developments in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. Two years ago, parents around the world likely looked at China with a bit of jealousy: the country had instituted a strict three-hour-per-week limit for children playing video games. In the…

Micromax, smartphone sales stalled, eyes a steer into electric vehicles

August 9, 2023
Micromax Informatics once had a firm grip on the local mobile phone market in India, for a time passing stalwarts like Samsung, icons like Apple and many more to be the biggest handset maker of them all. But a mix of stronger (and cheaper) competition, coupled with the rapid pace of technology development and the […]

BlueJeans folds

August 9, 2023
Verizon dropped hundreds on millions on BlueJeans at the height of pandemic lockdowns. Three years and some change later, the lesser-known video-conferencing app is done for, the telecom giant told users today. In a mass email, Verizon wrote that it “made the difficult decision to sunset our suite of BlueJeans products.” 9to5Google first reported the […]

Human toddlers are inspiring new approaches to robot learning

August 8, 2023
It’s an exciting time for robotic learning. Organizations have spent decades building complex datasets and pioneering different ways to teach systems to perform new tasks. It seems we’re on the cusp of some real breakthroughs when it comes to deploying technology that can adapt and learn on the fly. The past year, we’ve seen a […]

Google’s Messages app will now use RCS by default and encrypt group chats

August 8, 2023
Google announced today it’s making its Messages by Google app more secure with improvements to RCS, or Rich Communication Services — a protocol aimed at replacing SMS and is more on par with the advanced features found in Apple’s iMessage. The company says it will now make RCS the default for both new and existing […]

Nvidia teams up with Hugging Face to offer cloud-based AI training

August 8, 2023
Nvidia is partnering with Hugging Face, the AI startup, to expand access to AI compute. Timed to coincide with the annual SIGGRAPH conference this week, Nvidia announced that it’ll support a new Hugging Face service, called Training Cluster as a Service, to simplify the creation of new and custom generative AI models for the enterprise. […]

Netflix launches a game controller app for playing games on your TV

August 8, 2023
After last fall signaling its intentions to expand into cloud gaming, Netflix today launched a new app that will soon allow subscribers to play games on their TV. The app, dubbed “Netflix Game Controller,” lets you use your phone as a controller after pairing it with your TV in order to play the games available […]

GM’s Ultium-based EVs will be able to power your home by 2026

August 8, 2023
Owners of all-electric Chevrolets and other GM brands will soon be able to use their cars as backup generators to power their homes during an outage or during peak demand days. GM said Tuesday it is bringing its vehicle-to-home (V2H) bidirectional charging technology to its entire lineup of Ultium-based electric vehicles by model year 2026. Ultium […]