Tech

Spiegel just wrapped us up. I got to try the Specs, check out my story!

Heap is a Specs “visionary” (a celebrity partner), and she’s interacting with digital elements she can see in the Specs to make a song in real-time. It’s all very sci-fi.

Spiegel is trying it out now. He’s been flipping through a virtual book to try out different experiences, and got a letter from a virtual owl that was “sitting” on his arm. He’s also doing a Wingardium Leviosa spell.

The “SPECS First Look” opens at Westfield Century City in LA on October 1st, where you can “experience SPECS in person, meet members of the team, and check out what we’re building,” Snap says. Meta has also used pop-up shops as a way to show off its hardware.

The case, available as part of a bundle for $2,395 (a $200 increase over the Specs on their own), gives you an option to more easily get internet while wearing the Specs. In the US, Snap is working with Verizon to offer data plans and financing options.

After a brief interlude about how Specs can work in enterprise environments, Spiegel is pitching how Specs can help you learn things. Spiegel is down a live demo showing himself practicing drawing. He’s using a real pen to trace a digital alien mascot that’s layered over a real piece of paper.

I usually can’t see his eyes — they’re hidden behind the digital content he’s looking at.

We’ll see how this goes! Right now, he’s showing some menus, including quick access items that he pulled up by looking at his palm.

He’s giving an overview of the Specs AR glasses, which were initially announced in June. He says we’ll get live demos.

Made a friend walking in the door. I should have asked what he’s looking at.

The new guides cover everything from replacing the motherboard to cleaning the heatsink, and offer a neat look at the Steam Machine’s internals.

Similar to home internet offerings from Mint Mobile and Straight Talk, customers can bundle Cricket’s 5G home internet with a phone plan starting at $75/month for new customers or as a $45/month add-on for existing customers. Both prices factor in an autopay discount.

A Reuters report claims SK Hynix is considering leasing part of Intel’s Ohio chip factory or forming a venture with Intel and other companies.

I am prepping this week’s issue a little early, and I want to know everything you’re into. What are you reading / watching / playing / interested in this week? Tell me so I can tell everyone! (And subscribe to Installer!)

Apparently that’s what Flock cameras are silently telling themselves about every two minutes. 404 Media and Wired collaborated on reporting about hackers who broke inside the surveillance cameras and picked through their custom Android apps, data collection habits, and machine vision methods. Flock doesn’t seem happy, and the hackers are trying to “keep a low profile.”

Following an already busy year of releases, Xteink’s new S4, which is launching in China first, is the company’s first pocketable E Ink device to run Android 11 giving it access to both the Kindle and Kobo mobile apps. The S4 also features a 4.3-inch frontlit touchscreen, 32GB of storage, a proper USB-C port, and a generous 1,400mAh battery, according to Good e-Reader.

As part of a few new podcast-focused features for Threads, there are new podcast cards that will show up in posts and profiles that make the podcast stand out. Could be useful for creators trying to promote their show.

Nvidia’s CEO has been taking calls from the president recently, including two days ago when he put Trump on speakerphone on a conference stage. Now CNBC reports Huang is expected to attend Trump’s state dinner next week with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Someone may be getting pretty nervous about AI and data center regulation!

That’s according to Gal Silver, a technician at GameTraderZero who’s modded and repaired more than 1,000 Switch 2 Joy-Cons over the past year. You can read their findings on NintendoLife but despite using older thumbstick tech, the new Joy-Cons have much improved durability with fewer issues and no instances of “drift issue straight out of the box.”

Alongside the new Palma 3 announced yesterday, Boox’s Picco, a direct competitor to Xteink’s tiny e-readers, is now listed for preorder for $99.99. The Picco has a 3.97-inch, 235ppi, frontlit E Ink touchscreen, physical page turn buttons, and a 920mAh battery. It also uses microSD for storage, and includes a USB-C port for charging.

Bilal Chughtai and Josh Engels, who both worked on Deepmind’s AI safety team, left to join organizations dedicated to AI safety. “I now think that there’s a terrifying chance that AI systems cause immense harm in the next five years,” said Engels. “I earnestly believe that AI has the potential to kill us all,” wrote Chughtai.

The Pixel Watch 2 and later are getting Gemini Personalization, allowing the AI assistant to learn from past conversations and connected Google apps. The 3 and on also get new double-pinch gesture controls, while the 4 gets a performance bump to raise-to-talk. A similar September update is rolling out to Pixel phones too.

The EU Kids Act will be formally unveiled tomorrow where it will eventually be put to a vote by the 27 nation bloc. Parent-chaperoned “mini accounts” are proposed for children 13 to 15.

The mission will include two firsts if regulators approve the launch window and the weather holds: send Starship into orbit, and insert a few dozen of SpaceX’s larger and more capable V3 satellites into the Starlink constellation for the first time. The 26 satellites on Flight 14 will each add 1 Tbps of capacity to the constellation, boosting total network capacity by about 3 percent on just this one flight.

Sony has two new wireless headsets for PS5 players: the PlayStation Pulse and Pulse Edge. Visually it’s hard to tell the difference between these headsets, apart from the fact the Pulse Edge has a hidden and detachable boom mic (instead of integrated on the Pulse). The Pulse Edge also has eight magnets per planar driver instead of six on the Pulse, active noise cancellation, a carry case, and built-in audio controls on a PS5. They’re both designed to compliment the existing Pulse Elite, and the Pulse will arrive this holiday, followed by the Pulse Edge in early 2027. No exact release dates or pricing yet.

For $79.99 you get a sensor compatible with Thread and Zigbee networks that’s a more private alternative to cameras. It uses mmWave radar to track occupants in real time, and knows if they’re standing, sitting, or lying down. It can also detect falls and count the number of occupants, how long they’ve hung around, and the distance they’ve traveled.

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang says AI safety is important, but agrees with Trump — the “STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT” that removed the word “safety” from the AI Safety Institute — that capitalism’s invisible hand is enough to protect us:

OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Elon Musk have tentatively agreed to slow their roll, but Meta seemingly isn’t aligned. Mark Zuckerberg just tweeted each company has its own individual responsibility “to move at the pace required to train its models safely,” and claims Meta is already doing so.

As Comics Beat points out, 100 or so employees had until today to decide if they’ll move with the company out of New York City to Burbank, CA, the home of Marvel Studios and Disney.