Apple Still Working on iPad-Like Swivel Tabletop Device

An iPad-like tabletop device, Apple’s rumors of Echo Show- and Nest Hub-style touchscreen devices could still happen. According to Bloombergcould debut as early as 2026, with a thin robotic arm that moves around a large display. In my head, it will look like mid-00s technology, like something from Portal Or Me, Robot.

Rumors suggest it could tilt its screen up and down using actuators and rotate 360 ​​degrees. This suggests it could use Apple’s DockKit software to track users as they move around the home for video calls and more. Hundreds of Apple employees are said to be working on the tabletop system right now, and it’s apparently closely tied to Apple’s Intelligence and Siri tools.

But there are (understandable) concerns about whether consumers will actually want it, especially since the price could hover around $1,000. Please, Apple: Just make it detachable like the Pixel Tablet. Please?

— Matt Smith

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The spring remodel caused long-term headaches for everyone. And me.

I love that my friend Billy Steele wrote this. I’m currently struggling to re-sync my Sonos Beam with my TV and I thought I was crazy. I’m not. After a major update in the spring, the Sonos app was very broken and lacked key features. It lacked basic features like sleep timers and alarms. Some users have also reported an inability to change speaker layout, intermittent speaker operation, and issues with other basic tasks. Some have reported an inability to reliably load the app. I’ve experienced most of these things. Sonos has a clear plan for how it plans to fix this mess, but there’s no telling how long it will take.

Read on.

It’s even harder to understand what’s happening on Facebook and Instagram.

Meta has shut down CrowdTangle, an analytics tool that has helped tens of thousands of researchers, journalists, and civil society groups understand how information spreads on Facebook and Instagram for years. The company has introduced a Meta Content Library, but it is much more tightly controlled than CrowdTangle. There is a vetting process, and while tens of thousands of people have had access to CrowdTangle, only “a few hundred” researchers have reportedly been allowed into the Meta Content Library. Journalists are not eligible.

The timing couldn’t have been worse; Meta shut down CrowdTangle less than three months before the US presidential election, despite pressure from campaign groups and a letter from lawmakers asking for a delay.

Read on.

The latest game, The Outlast Trials, is a risky one for the developer.

Room to sleep in Outlast Trials The name comes from the actual space at McGill University’s Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal, where doctors conducted mind-control experiments on patients from 1957 to 1964 as part of the CIA’s MK-Ultra initiative. It involved electroshock therapy, sensory deprivation, and high doses of psychedelic drugs.

Like all Red Barrels games, Outlast Trials draws from dark and true stories. The latest game is a cooperative, four-player horror experience in which participants must “complete” therapy by completing goals and surviving monstrous villains. The gameplay is mostly about running and hiding from hunting, crazed sadists. It’s time to get scared again, but this time with your buddies.

Read on.