Tech Talk

Aqara this week released the Presence Sensor FP2 – a brand new millimeter wave sensor that goes far beyond the capabilities of more conventional motion sensors to facilitate powerful automations, with support for Apple HomeKit . The sensor uses millimeter wave radar technology to detect human presence in a room with greater precision than traditional passive infrared sensors, allowing for more specific automations and a more reliable experience. Aqara says that FP2 detects even the slightest movement, such as breathing, to ascertain human presence. This level of precision means that users can set up automations to turn on lights and keep them on when someone is in an area, even when there is very minimal motion that more conventional sensors would not be able to sense, for example. The sensor comes with a two meter USB-A to USB-C power cable, two adhesive magnetic mounting plates, a screw, a wall anchor, and an instruction manual. You need to provide your own USB-A wall adapter

Voicemod , the popular voice changer and soundboard, has just landed on macOS, allowing Mac users to transform their voices and trigger sound effects in real time. The AI-powered software features a wide range of features, including over 100 voice options, including natural and realistic human options, pitch-shifting, sound enhancement, and a variety of fantasy, funny, spooky, and musical voices. Voicemod's virtual microphone includes support for Discord, Roblox, Minecraft, Riot Games, Fortnite, Zoom, and more. The software is also compatible with FaceTime and iMessage, bringing real-time voice changing to Apple's stock video and chat apps. "We are excited to be the first company to offer a real-time voice changer and soundboard app to macOS users," said Jaime Bosch, CEO and co-founder of Voicemod. "Our app is designed to help users gain confidence, express themselves, or bring their character impersonations to life. With Voicemod, macOS users can now easi

The forthcoming 15-inch MacBook Air will indeed be equipped with an M2 chip, not the M3 that Apple originally planned, claims news aggregator account " yeux1122 " on the Korean Naver blog. According to the blog's Taiwanese supply chain source, Apple's decision to use an M2 chip was not down to production issues at chipmaker TSMC, but was due to a combination of factors, including market conditions and inventory adjustment. A previous report out of Korea earlier this month claimed that Apple temporarily halted production of its M2 series chips at the start of 2023 following a pronounced slump in global demand for MacBooks . The suspension is said to have continued through February, after which production of M2 series chips resumed, but they were "only half the level of the previous year," said the Korean-language report at the time, quoting a person familiar with the matter. Last week, an unreleased 15-inch MacBook Air with a processor "on par&q

Heart Analyzer this week reached version 10, bringing some major improvements and changes to the popular heart health app including a new dashboard experience, a refreshed Watch app, enhanced charts, and new tracking complications. The new Dashboard experience has been designed lets users switch days more easily and aims to offer clearer indications as to which day the user is looking at, while still offering a summary of heart rate and other Vital Health data for each day. In addition, Dashboard cards have all been refreshed, while for app Customization Premium users, the Health types can now be filtered and sorted based on personal preference. Another change in version 10 is the renaming of "Heart Home" to "Insights." Here users can view updated metrics and charts on various Vital Health types. There are trend comparisons for the past 30 days to the preceding 30 days, and the Heart Reports have been updated to use the new Swift Charts for more visually compe

Google today announced it will begin rolling out Matter support for the Nest Thermostat model released in 2020. Notably, this means the smart thermostat can now be controlled with Apple's Home app and Siri on the iPhone and other devices. In a blog post, Google said Matter support will be rolling out to the Nest Thermostat with an automatic over-the-air software update starting today, and the rollout will be completed over the next few weeks. Matter is a universal smart home standard that supports Apple's HomeKit, Google's Home, Amazon's Alexa, Samsung's SmartThings, and other smart home platforms all in one, meaning the Nest finally supports HomeKit. In the Home app, users can adjust the Nest Thermostat's temperature, change the thermostat's mode, and more, according to Google. The Verge notes that iPhone users will need to be updated to iOS 16.4 or later in order to take advantage of this functionality. Google is "exploring" adding Matte

WhatsApp, Signal, and other messaging services have penned an open letter to the British government appealing for it to urgently rethink the Online Safety Bill (OSB), a piece of legislation that would allow regulators to ask the platforms to monitor users in order to identify child abuse images. Under the bill, the government could force chat services to apply content moderation policies such as client-side scanning that are impossible to implement without circumventing end-to-end encryption, which ensures that only the user and the person they are communicating with can read or listen to what is sent. "Around the world, businesses, individuals and governments face persistent threats from online fraud, scams and data theft," reads the letter. "Malicious actors and hostile states routinely challenge the security of our critical infrastructure. End-to-end encryption is one of the strongest possible defenses against these threats, and as vital institutions become ever

Apple in iOS 17 will for the first time allow iPhone users to download apps hosted outside of its official App Store, according to Bloomberg 's Mark Gurman. Otherwise known as sideloading, the change would allow customers to download apps without needing to use the App Store, which would mean developers wouldn't need to pay Apple's 15 to 30 percent fees. The European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which went into effect on November 1, 2022, requires "gatekeeper" companies to open up their services and platforms to other companies and developers. The DMA will have a big impact on Apple's platforms, and it could result in Apple making major changes to the ‌App Store‌, Messages, FaceTime, Siri, and more. Apple is planning to implement sideloading support to comply with the new European regulations by next year, according to Gurman. Apple has claimed that sideloading will "undermine the privacy and security protections" that iPhone user