Mitchel Broussard

Smart lock company August Home has been acquired by Swedish lock manufacturer Assa Abloy, the world's largest lock manufacturer by sales volume and owner of Yale and multiple other lock brands. As is customary, the acquisition is "conditional upon regulatory approval," but Assa Abloy mentioned in its press release that it should close sometime during the fourth quarter of 2017. Any further terms...

Apple has been trying to get its $1 billion data center in County Galway, Ireland built for well over two years now, and last week the company finally won approval for construction by the Irish High Court. While it was expected that Apple would now move forward and begin planning for construction, two local residents have brought up a new legal challenge for the company. As reported by The...

The cellular capabilities of the Apple Watch Series 3 remain unavailable to new carrier plan subscribers in China, after having been "abruptly cut off...without explanation" just one week after the device's launch in September. A new report published today by The Wall Street Journal has looked into the LTE setbacks faced by the Apple Watch in the country, which is predicted to face ongoing issues ...

Earlier in October, Sonos announced its new smart speaker device, called the Sonos One, which will launch On October 24 with support for Amazon's Alexa voice assistant. The Sonos One allows users to control the speaker entirely through voice, providing smart speaker capabilities into a music-focused device, similar to Apple's marketing for the upcoming HomePod. Ahead of the October 24 launch,...

Best Buy today launched an early access sale for members of the My Best Buy program, marking the first day of a new 3-Day sale that's gearing up this week. Only one Apple product has an early access discount -- the mid-2017 refresh of the MacBook Air -- but there are a few other deals on 4K television sets and Bluetooth headphones. As the week progresses and Best Buy opens up the sale to more...

Apple is gearing up to launch Apple Pay in Sweden next week, according to a report by Swedish site MacPro [Google Translate]. The site stated that the first financial partner with Apple Pay in Sweden will be the bank Nordea, and that the two companies will jointly announce the mobile wallet collaboration one week from today, on October 24. During its third quarter earnings call in August,...

Two weeks after first unveiling the Pixel 2 at an event in San Francisco, reviews of Google's latest smartphone have now been published online. Many of the reviews written on the Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL are positive, with multiple articles referring to the smartphones as the best Android devices on the market, as well as legitimate competitors to Apple's iPhone series. The only slight...

After announcing support for job applications within the Facebook app on iOS earlier in 2017, Facebook this week has been testing out a LinkedIn-like résumé/CV "work histories" feature for certain mobile users. Discovered by developer Jane Manchun Wong, and shared by The Next Web, the feature lets Facebook users share their work experience with potential employers without having to leave the app. ...

PayPal today announced that "more than two million" retailers in the United States will now accept online payments from the PayPal-owned, peer-to-peer payments platform Venmo. Users with Venmo accounts will be able to pay on retailer apps like Forever 21, Foot Locker, and Lululemon starting this week (via Reuters). With the addition of Venmo into the checkout process of these apps, Venmo...

Best Buy this week has launched a sale on Apple's iPad mini 4, mirroring the $100 discount that Target placed on the 7.9-inch device late last week. You can get the 128GB iPad mini 4 from Best Buy in Space Gray, Silver, and Gold for $299.99, down from $399.99. There are also a few markdowns for the tablet on its cellular versions, depending on which carrier you choose. Most notably, Best...

Microsoft has revealed a redesign coming to its Outlook apps for Mac and Windows platforms, which is described as aiming for a "simplified" user interface that falls in line with the Outlook app for iOS. The Verge detailed the new and less complex version of Outlook on desktop, which was first spotted by MSPowerUser. The Mac and Windows apps will feature a single-line ribbon that will be...

DxO today announced a new update for its DxO One iPhone-connected camera accessory, introducing a new time-lapse option with exclusive "Auto Ramping" technology and multi-camera Facebook Live capabilities. There are also a few new accessories that were revealed today, including an external Battery Pack, Cable Back Door, and Tilt Stand. The version 3.0 update to the DxO One iOS app streamlines...

Apple recently added a new Bluetooth speaker to its retail and online stores, called the "SoundLink Micro" and created by Bose. Spotted by Japanese blog Mac Otakara [Google Translate], the $109.95 speaker seems to have appeared on Apple's website around October 11, and has subsequently launched in some retail stores as well. The SoundLink Micro is designed for durability and comes with an IPX7 ...

Apple Maps has added public transit directions for Ireland, as pointed out by developer Steven Troughton-Smith on Twitter. With the updated directions, users in Ireland can now choose from a few different public transportation routes when traveling around Ireland. Transit directions are available in a few cities like Dublin and Cork, including transportation provided by Bus Éirann, Aircoach,...

Apple Park is officially nearing completion as 2017 winds down, according to a new drone video that has captured footage of the company's campus. Shared by Matthew Roberts, the video comes nearly one month after an update in late September showed off Apple Park at sunset, and almost one year after "major landscaping changes" appeared around the campus. Now, according to Roberts, Apple Park...

This week Target has a $100 discount on Apple's 128GB Wi-Fi iPad mini 4, with the caveat of no online shipping available. If you have a local Target with stock on the 7.9-inch iPad, however, you can get the latest iPad mini for $299.99, down from $399.99 in Space Gray, Silver, and Gold. If you want some accessories to go with your iPad mini 4, Target has also discounted two first party Apple ...

Facebook today announced that you can now order food directly from within the Facebook app on iOS. Alex Himel, Facebook's vice president of local, explained that food ordering and delivery has "gotten complicated" within other apps and services, so the company aims to streamline that process by adding it to Facebook. Like other newly added services -- including local weather and jobs search -- ...

Apple's portion of the mobile ecosystem market increased in eight major territories in the three months ending August 2017, according to new data collected and shared by Kantar Worldpanel. Over the summer of 2017, iOS saw growth in the following territories compared to the same year-ago period: Spain (4.4 percentage point increase), followed by China (4.3), the United States (3.7), Germany (2.3), ...

Apple is reportedly "mulling" the idea of launching a stylus compatible with iPhone, believed to be a new iteration of the Apple Pencil, which is currently only supported by the iPad Pro. The rumor comes from industry sources speaking to The Korea Herald (via The Investor), which claimed that Apple engineers "have recently been working" on a new iPhone device that "comes with a digital pen,"...

Apple employees Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre this week broke ground on The Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation, a new academy named after the two men opening at the University of Southern California in 2019 (via USC News). The academy will focus on four areas of study: art and design; engineering and computer science; business and venture...