Technology

The next generation of WiFi is in development and speed is no longer the focus. WiFi 8 will reportedly be more about improving reliability. If you find it hard to keep up with WiFi developments, you're not alone. The chances are your home router runs WiFi 6 (introduced in 2020) or even its predecessor, launched seven years earlier. It was only last year that WiFi-7 became widely available and even then, it's a high-cost technology in most cases. Its main selling point was a theoretical maximum speed of 46 Gbps, up from 9.6 Gbps with WiFi 6. (Source: ee.co.uk ) Focusing on Real-World ...view more

A smart fridge and a musical lollipop are among the winners of the 2026 "Worst in Show" awards at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). These annual "anti-awards" aim to spotlight technology that is unfixable, wasteful, or invasive to user privacy. The awards are led by Repair.org, an organization which campaigns for the right to repair consumer tech. It works alongside consumer groups to produce the awards, which cover tech shown at the Las Vegas conference. The top dishonor for Overall Worst in Show went to Samsung's Family Hub Smart Fridge. Judges argued that adding complex ...view more

In a major development for space-based laser communication, Chinese scientists have successfully transmitted data from a high-orbit satellite to Earth at a rate of 1 gigabit per second (Gbps). This impressive breakthrough was achieved using an exceptionally low-power 2-watt laser, marking a significant advance for the technology. The experiment utilized a satellite positioned in a geostationary orbit approximately 36,705 kilometers from Earth. For comparison, this is more than 60 times higher than the orbits of Starlink satellites, which operate just hundreds of kilometers above the planet. ...view more

Some of the biggest leaders in technology are proposing a science-fiction-like solution to the growing energy and land crisis fueled by the artificial intelligence boom. Their answer is to build massive, solar-powered data centers in orbit around the Earth. Figures like Elon Musk and the leadership of companies including Google, Amazon, and OpenAI are backing the idea. They argue that as AI's demand for computing power escalates, Earth's resources will be unable to keep up, making a move to space inevitable. (Source: nytimes.com ) A Race with Global Players The push is creating a new kind of ...view more

Meta has announced that WhatsApp will support chats from third-party messaging apps for users in the European Union. The move is a direct response to the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), a major regulation that means designated 'gatekeeper' platforms must interact with smaller services. The new functionality, named "third-party chats," will be available on both Android and iOS devices. It is an opt-in feature, meaning users must manually enable it within their settings before they can communicate with people on other supported messaging apps. DMA Compliance Drives Change The Digital Markets ...view more

Google has announced a significant breakthrough in quantum computing. It says an algorithm, nicknamed "quantum echoes," is the first that has an advantage in a practical situation. The company reports its Willow quantum chip performed a complex calculation approximately 13,000 times faster than the world's most powerful supercomputer. This development moves beyond abstract benchmarks toward solving practical, real-world problems. Like Parallel Computing on Steroids Quantum computing is like parallel computing on steroids - but instead of running many threads, it explores all possibilities in ...view more

Spotify is expanding a new feature designed to solve a long-standing problem for parents: children's music infiltrating their personalized playlists and recommendations. The streaming service announced that managed accounts are now available for Premium Family subscribers in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. The feature follows successful pilot programs in 10 markets with smaller user bases. Dubbed 'Managed Accounts,' it allows parents to create separate music experiences for listeners under 13 years old within the main Spotify app. How Managed Accounts Work ...view more

A new app with an unusual function, Neon Mobile, has surged in popularity to become the number two social app on Apple's US App Store. The app pays users for recordings of their phone calls, which are then sold to artificial intelligence companies. The idea is to capture real examples of both what people say in conversations and the way they speak. This could power both language generating models and those which produce spoken audio. How Users Earn Money Neon reportedly pays users 30 cents per minute for calls made to other Neon users and 15 cents per minute for calls to anyone else, with ...view more

Windows 11 will soon have an AI tool that automatically switches user settings to improve usability. There will also be an update to the existing "Click to Do" tools. The features will initially be available on Copilot+ PCs. To clarify, Copilot is Microsoft's name for a series of AI powered tools, available on most Windows computers. Meanwhile Copilot+ is the name of a specific hardware specification that manufacturers can use in branding. It requires an extremely fast processor dedicated to AI operations. Microsoft has already added several Windows features that only work on Copilot+ ...view more

Microsoft has finally shut down its once-revolutionary voice and video chat service, Skype, marking the end of a 22-year era in digital communication. Launched in 2003, Skype played a pioneering role in bringing voice over IP (VOIP) technology into the mainstream, allowing people across the globe to connect for free or at extremely low cost. But in recent years, usage had fallen dramatically, and now the platform has officially been retired. Skype History Skype's journey began as an independent project created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the same duo behind the file-sharing platform ...view more