Daily news for mobile technology (Smartphone, Consoles, Steam, Gadget, Tablets) )
Tech news across the globe
As announced a few weeks ago, Apple Arcade added multiple new titles today, including SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit 2 and PowerWash Simulator. Here’s the full list.
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When Apple rolled out Vehicle Motion Cues, it made my kinetosis much more manageable, but didn’t fully fix it. With iOS 26, a new adjustment finally did the trick.
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In the future, tiny flying robots could be deployed to aid in the search for survivors trapped beneath the rubble after a devastating earthquake. Like real insects, these robots could flit through tight spaces larger robots can’t reach, while simultaneously dodging stationary obstacles and pieces of falling rubble.
So far, aerial microrobots have only been able to fly slowly along smooth trajectories, far from the swift, agile flight of real insects — until now.
MIT researchers have demonstrated aerial microrobots that can fly with speed and agility that is comparable to their biological counterparts. A collaborative team designed a new AI-based controller for the robotic bug that enabled it to follow gymnastic flight paths, such as executing continuous body flips.
With a two-part control scheme that combines high performance with computational efficiency, the robot’s speed and acceleration increased by about 450 percent and 250 percent,
At The New York Times’ DealBook Summit today, California Governor Gavin Newsom addressed the tech sector’s deference to the Trump administration, and discussed Tim Cook’s overtures to the president. Here’s what he said.
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Following pushback from a mandate requiring phones in India to come pre-installed with a state-owned, undeletable app, the government is now saying that the app may be deleted if users choose to do so.
The move, however, is unlikely to change Apple’s refusal to comply with the order. Here are the details.
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iOS 26 is a huge update for iPhone, with a Liquid Glass design and lots of new features for built-in apps like Wallet, Messages, and Music. One popular app—Apple Calendar—mostly got overlooked this year, but it did gain one key new advantage: event creation via screenshots.
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Researchers at MIT have demonstrated that wedge-shaped vortex generators attached to a ship’s hull can reduce drag by up to 7.5 percent, which reduces overall ship emissions and fuel expenses. The paper, “Net Drag Reduction in High Block Coefficient Ships and Vehicles Using Vortex Generators,” was presented at the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers 2025 Maritime Convention in Norfolk, Virginia.
The work offers a promising path toward decarbonization, addressing the pressing need to meet the International Maritime Organization (IMO) goal to reduce carbon intensity of international shipping by at least 40 percent by 2030, compared to 2008 levels. Achieving such ambitious emissions reduction will require a coordinated approach, employing multiple methods, from redesigning ship hulls, propellers, and engines to using novel fuels and operational methods.
The researchers — José del Águila Ferrandis, Jack Kimmeth, and Michael Triantafyllou of MIT Sea Grant and the Department of Mechanical Engineering,
The Indian government issued a mandate that intends to force smartphone companies like Apple and Samsung to preinstall a state-run security app called ‘Sanchar Saathi’ on phones sold in the region. The companies have 90 days to comply.
But Reuters reports Apple intends to refuse the order and will not install the app on iPhones. The company will tell the Indian government that it does not comply with such orders in any market in which it participates, due to the associated security and privacy risks.
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There has always been this tension with Apple’s devices. Some people want no ports, and some people want them all. I can argue both sides, but the trend is clearly moving toward fewer ports. Satechi’s new MagSafe 7-in-1 hub is one of the first accessories I have used that actually fills that gap in a smart way. It gives the iPhone some of the flexibility of a Mac without adding much clutter or complexity, but can also serve as a portable hub for your Mac as well.
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Our muscles are nature’s actuators. The sinewy tissue is what generates the forces that make our bodies move. In recent years, engineers have used real muscle tissue to actuate “biohybrid robots” made from both living tissue and synthetic parts. By pairing lab-grown muscles with synthetic skeletons, researchers are engineering a menagerie of muscle-powered crawlers, walkers, swimmers, and grippers.
But for the most part, these designs are limited in the amount of motion and power they can produce. Now, MIT engineers are aiming to give bio-bots a power lift with artificial tendons.
In a study appearing today in the journal Advanced Science, the researchers developed artificial tendons made from tough and flexible hydrogel. They attached the rubber band-like tendons to either end of a small piece of lab-grown muscle, forming a “muscle-tendon unit.” Then they connected the ends of each artificial tendon to the fingers of a robotic gripper.