As much as Apple would like it, iMessage is not the only messaging platform in the world. Yes, RCS is nice, but a lot of people prefer using WhatsApp and Telegram instead. And given the divisive state of world politics right now, secure apps like Signal have their own appeal.The reality is that, instead of just sticking to your default texting program, you're probably juggling between multiple messaging apps right now. Unfortunately, the iPhone doesn't really make this process easy. Now, there's a new app called DefaultSMS that's trying to bridge this gap.DefaultSMS uses a new, obscure iPhone setting to change your default messaging app for you. It'll kick in whenever you start up a new message, whether from a link, a preview page, or a contact page. This lets you automatically text using whatever app you want, even if that app doesn't yet officially support Apple's new setting.DefaultSMS works with WhatsApp, Telegram, or Signal, but conveniently, it also comes with the option to bring up a menu to instead choose between all of your messaging apps every time you go to text, so you can more easily navigate between them on a case-by-case basis. No matter your preference, there's a lot to like here.How to set up DefaultSMS on iPhoneAfter downloading the app from the App Store (it costs $0.99), make a trip to the Settings app. Scroll down to the Apps section, choose Default Apps, tap Messaging, and switch to the DefaultSMS app. Credit: Khamosh Pathak Now, open the DefaultSMS app to choose your preferred default messaging app. You can choose between Signal, Telegram, and WhatsApp. Or, if you frequently jump between Signal and WhatsApp, you can choose the Ask Each Time option instead. Again, when you use this feature, the app will prompt you to choose a messaging app each time you go to text, including the default Messages app.Now that setup is done, it's time to test it out. Credit: Khamosh Pathak Go to the Phone app, open a contact page, tap the Message button, and the DefaultSMS app will take over, opening a message to your contact in the app of your choice. I, personally, use this with WhatsApp, but regardless of your app of choice, it's nice not to have to hunt for each of my messaging apps on my home screen every time I want to use them.DefaultSMS still has some limitations. You'll still continue to receive SMS texts and iMessages in the default Messages app, and of course, this method only works if the person you're messaging has the app you're messaging them with installed. If they don't use Telegram, for instance, DefaultSMS won't magically let you them send them a Telegram message.

Twitch has rolled out a number of changes to its violation enforcement system. The biggest change is that now infractions will disappear from an account after a set amount of time. This is great news for long-time creators, as minor violations stacked. This led to folks getting suspended as these smaller infractions piled up.The platform says that most minor infractions, like cheating in an online game, will expire after 90 days. More serious violations, like participating in hateful conduct, will remain on an account for one to two years. The worst behavior will still result in an immediate suspension. Also, if a user is indefinitely suspended due to the accumulation of multiple violations, they can apply for reinstatement after six months.TwitchThis isnt any type of get out of jail free card. Twitch is also upping the consequences for repeatedly violating the rules in the same policy category. Each time a similar infraction occurs, the length of a suspension will increase. This will be true even if the severity of the offense hasnt gone up. The platform says this new rule is to help people understand the importance of adhering to our Community Guidelines without needing to resort to an indefinite suspension.Finally, Twitch is making good on its promise for increased transparency regarding policy violations. For most policy violations, users will now get a detailed email regarding the reasoning behind any suspension decision. This data will soon include specific chat messages or stream snippets. The information will also reside in the Appeals Portal. This starts with chat messages, with video clips coming later on.Most of these changes are rolling out right now. Twitch recently added something called Enforcement Notes that inform users if certain trends violate one of its policies. It also publishes notes to alleviate widespread community confusion and alert folks as to which behaviors are and arent out of bounds.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/twitch-community-guideline-violations-will-now-disappear-from-accounts-after-a-set-time-195122034.html?src=rss

The demise of Humane is perhaps the most predictable tech story of 2025. The company tried to build some buzz around its AI Pin in late 2023, marketing the device as a tiny replacement for smartphones and playing up the fact that Humanes co-founders were former Apple employees. The problem was that it wasnt really clear what the AI Pin would do to justify its $700 asking price (plus a $24/month subscription).It didnt take long for things to spiral out of control. The AI Pin was released in April of 2024 to some of the worst reviews Ive ever seen for a consumer tech product. Just a month after launch, reports surfaced that the company was already trying to be acquired for the positively ludicrous sum of $750 million to $1 billion dollars. At the same time, it was rumored that Humane sold only 10,000 Pins, a far cry from the 100,000 they had planned for. HP was named as a potential suitor last May, and the company smartly waited until they could pluck Humane for a comparatively paltry $116 million.As it turned out, waving your hands and shouting about the promise of AI doesnt make it any easier to build compelling hardware we slammed its high price, terrible battery life, slow performance, excessive heat and hard-to-use projected display. (And Engadget was far from the only publication to eviscerate this device.)Hayato Huseman for EngadgetFor a device whose main interface was conversational, the challenges the AI Pin had answering questions or executing commands made it a non-starter. Even when it did what was asked, it did it in some strange ways, like sending generic texts instead of letting you dictate what exactly you wanted to say. Its camera rarely worked as intended; after taking photos and viewing them on the projector, the Pin would get extremely warm and sometimes just shut down entirely. Speaking of that projection screen, it was nearly impossible to actually see it outdoors, even on a cloudy day. And interacting with it made our reviewer Cherlynn Low want to rip [her] eyes out.Oh, lets not forget that its extended battery case was recalled because it was a full-on fire hazard!The whole debacle is an illustrative example of how most consumer-grade AI isnt ready for prime time. Google and Apple may be trying to shove Gemini and Apple Intelligence down our throats on nearly every product they make, but those tools are additive, built on top of the strong foundations of each companys existing platforms. In Humanes case, there was nothing to fall back on. And the combo of terrible voice responses and recognition paired with a projector display that was not at all ready for prime time (not to mention the other hardware failings) was far too much to overcome.There was simply no intelligence to be found here, artificial or otherwise.To be fair to Humane, building hardware is notoriously difficult; first-generation products often have glaring flaws, even when youre talking about massive companies like Apple. The first iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch may have shown huge promise, but they also had strange omissions and performance issues that made them hard to recommend to everyone.Some companies manage to figure that out; Pebble is a great example of a hardware startup that survived some early issues to find some success. It beat Apple, Samsung and Google to the smartwatch market, and did it in a way that has yet to be imitated (maybe thats why the company is being resurrected). The Pebble wasnt exactly the most elegant piece of hardware, but both the watch and its software worked well enough that it paved the way for the more advanced smartwatches we have today. Of course, that wasnt enough to keep Pebble alive, as the company eventually filed for insolvency and had its assets picked up by Fitbit (which was later purchased by Google, if youre keeping track).Humanes situation at launch wasnt entirely different it was trying to build a new type of hardware altogether, and history tells us that the first products in a new space are going to be far from perfect. But, if there had at least been a glimmer of useful software, Humane might have survived to improve on those hardware problems with a future version. But its assistant was so bad that it killed any potential that the AI Pin had. There was simply no intelligence to be found here, artificial or otherwise.My takeaway from the Humane disaster is that its too soon to spend your hard-earned money on the promise of AI the marketplace isn't solidified at this point, and trusting a brand-new company like Humane to get this sort of thing right is several bridges too far. (If you're not convinced, look at the similarly flawed Rabbit R1.) Apple Intelligence is still half-baked at best, but at least you can turn it off and ignore it. But the AI Pin, well, relied completely on AI, and it wasnt just not ready it was one of the worst devices weve ever tried in our nearly 21 years as a publication. For some thousands of early adopters, that means their Pin will be a brick in just a few days, with no financial compensation coming their way. But hey, at least it will still be able to tell you its battery level.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-humane-ai-pin-debacle-is-a-reminder-that-ai-alone-doesnt-make-a-compelling-product-190119112.html?src=rss

Here's what I think we'll see at Meta Connect 2025.

A breach of the US Coast Guard has taken systems offline, affecting internal systems.

Microsoft's initial quantum processor, which contains eight topological qubits, is a step toward 1 million qubits and wide commercial use.

Baseten, a startup that runs artificial intelligence models for clients on their cloud infrastructure, has raised $75 million in funding, the company said.

Amid a month of skyrocketing stock prices and unprecedented social media buzz, Hims & Hers is expanding its territory into at-home blood testing and diagnostics.Hims has acquired at-home lab testing facility Trybe Labs, the telehealth company said Wednesday. Using at-home blood draws, Hims will now offer over 70 at-home diagnostics tests, ranging from heart health to certain cancer detection tests.All these can be arranged through the app, without a doctors visit.At-home lab testing is one more exciting step towards elevating the personal, comprehensive care customers in this country should expect, Dr. Patrick Carroll, Hims & Hers chief medical officer, told CNBC.Trybe Labs is based in New Jersey, and Hims & Hers will use these labs to process blood tests at low-cost for Hims & Hers members, using state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment, according to its webpage.Pricing information for these tests will come out within the next year, according to the company.Hims & Hers stock was up 23% during midday trading on Wednesday, following the news of the acquisition.By offering at-home testing, Hims & Hers now puts itself in competition with industry juggernauts like Labcorp and Quest Diagnostics. Shares of Hims have jumped 230% in the last three months, while Labcorps and Quests have grown only by 4 and 6%, respectively.The move comes during what has seemed like a month of Hims & Hers domination. The telehealth company, which vows to let its members skip the awkward doctors visits, recently entered the public consciousness with a viral and controversial Super Bowl ad.The ad criticized the pharmaceutical industry while promoting itself as a cheaper alternative. Within the ad, a spokeswoman says: There are medicines that work, but theyre priced for profits, not patients.After the ad aired, Hims & Hers saw a 650% increase in website traffic and an 11% increase in stock price.

President Donald Trumps administration on Wednesday ordered a halt to New York Citys congestion pricing system, which thins traffic and funds mass transit by imposing high tolls on drivers entering some parts of Manhattan.Launched on January 5, the citys system uses license plate readers to impose a $9 toll on most passenger cars entering Manhattan neighborhoods south of Central Park. In its early days, transit officials say the toll has broughtmodest but measurabletraffic reductions.That charge comes on top of what drivers already pay to use bridges and tunnels to get onto the island. Drivers who take a tunnel in from New Jersey during peak commuting hours now pay $31.81, or a discounted rate of $22.06 if they are enrolled in the E-ZPass toll collection program.In a statement, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced the federal government has rescinded its approval of the program, calling it slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners. Duffy said his agency will work with the state on an orderly termination of the tolls.Similar tolling programs intended to force people onto public public transit by making driving cost-prohibitive have long existed in other global cities, including London, Stockholm, Milan, and Singapore, but the system had never before been tried in the U.S.Trump, whose namesake Trump Tower penthouse and other properties are within the congestion zone, had vowed to kill the plan as soon as he took office. He previously characterized it as a massive, regressive tax.It will be virtually impossible for New York City to come back as long as the congestion tax is in effect, Trumpsaid in Novemberas New York prepared to implement the plan before he took office.Revenue from the tolls is intended to raise billions of dollars in revenue for the citys creaky and cash-strapped transit system, which carries somefour million ridersdaily.The tolling system has been divisive. Transit advocates and environmentalists have heralded it as an innovative step to reduce air pollution from vehicle exhaust, make streets safer for pedestrians and bikers, while speeding up traffic for vehicles that truly need to be on the road, like delivery trucks and police cars.But the high tolls are hated by many New Yorkers who own cars, particularly those that live in the suburbs or parts of the city not well-served by the subway system.New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, had fought the tolls and court and wrote a letter Trump on Inauguration Day imploring him to kill the program.New York Gov. Kathy Hochul also had misgivings. Last June, sheabruptly haltedthe tolling systems planned launch, citing concerns about its impact on the local economy. The Democrat thenrevived the tollin November following Trumps election, but reduced the toll for passenger vehicles from $15 to $9. Since then, she has lauded it as a win for the city and has discussed the issue multiple times with the president.The tolling plan wasapproved by New York lawmakersin 2019, but stalled for years awaiting a required federal environmental review during Trumps first term before being approved by the administration of President Joe Biden.As in other cities, the New York congestion fee varies depending on the time and the size of the vehicle. Trucks and other large automobiles pay a higher rate, and the fee goes drops to $2.25 for most cars during the quieter overnight hours.The toll survived several lawsuits trying to halt it before its launch, including from the state of New Jersey, unionized teachers in New York City, a trucking industry group and local elected leaders in the Hudson River Valley, Long Island, and northern New Jersey.Philip Marcelo, Associated Press

Im a pack rat and that means that I have a lot of stuff lying around my house and my desk. Ive bought a lot of organizers and storage things but somehow I still have too much stuff whenever I look around my house. So Im always on the lookout for all kinds of organizer things, even though, ironically, they might add to the clutter again since, as weve established, I collect a lot of things. Still, I cant help but look at concepts and actual products, in the hopes that they can add some value to my still disorganized life. Designers: Dongkyun Kim, Dohui Kim, Yunseo JungMystic is a concept for a versatile life organizer and it takes its inspiration from the most unlikely thing: corals reefs. Well, its not really that unlikely as coral reefs serve as sanctuaries to marine creatures, therefore bringing some sense of order to the seas. They also fulfill a lot of other functions like providing food, supporting diverse ecosystems, giving water filtration to sea creatures, and even bringing recreational activities to human beings like snorkeling, scuba diving, etc. But going back to the organizer concept, this set has several spherical vase-like containers and trays that you can use for various purposes as well. And just like coral reefs, it comes in various colors to add some more, well, color to your life. The containers also come in different heights so you get diverse storage options. Some of them are also connected to each other. You can put various things like flowers, stationery items like pens and scissors, your house keys, your wired and wireless earphones, pieces of not-so-valuable jewelry, and whatever it is that needs storing or organizing. Before they created actual product mockups, they made prototypes using 3D printing technology so they could play around with the dimensions and proportions of the different items and see if they could actually be used in real life. I for one wouldnt mind having this set of organizers since I have so many knick knacks lying around. And the fact that theyre both minimalist and colorful fits the aesthetic Im trying to go for. The post Mystic organizer concept is a minimalist but colorful set inspired by coral reefs first appeared on Yanko Design.