Mitchel Broussard

Smart home accessory company Nest today announced the addition of two-step authentication into its mobile apps for iOS and Android devices, which will act as an extra layer of security that prevents intrusions into a user's Nest account. The company said that these extra security measures can help prevent malicious access to private information, particularly camera feeds of Nest Cam products....

Porsche and Honda today each announced new sports cars that will be compatible with Apple's CarPlay infotainment system. In its unveiling, Porsche detailed the all-new 2018 911 GT3 street-legal sports car with a 4.0 liter flat-six engine that produces up to 500 horsepower -- an engine based on the one used in all of Porsche's 911 race cars. Other than CarPlay, the Porsche 911 GT3 has a...

Fitbit today announced the Fitbit Alta HR, which the company is calling the "world's slimmest fitness wristband" that has a continuous heart rate monitor. The Alta HR launches just over a year after Fitbit debuted the original Fitbit Alta, which included new "Reminders to Move" to tell users to stand up and move around a bit, like Apple Watch stand notifications. The main upgrade for the...

A few Facebook Messenger users have noticed that the company's "Reactions" are available to use within the app and on the web, along with a long-requested dislike -- or thumbs down -- button (via TechCrunch). Similar to Tapback in the iOS 10 Messages app, to use Reactions in Facebook Messenger users simply have to hover over a specific message and tap the small emoji button. Images via ...

A new supply chain report claims that Apple is planning to use OLED for every iPhone model by 2019, with the company expected to adopt OLED panels for 60 million units of the iPhone 8 later in 2017, equating to around 40 percent of its total manufacturing run (via The Bell) [Google Translate]. Apple will double the adoption of OLED panels for the 2018 iPhone before completely migrating over to...

After a period of testing earlier in the year, Facebook recently began rolling out a new tourism feature called "City Guides" to its iOS app for a number of users (via The Next Web). Located in the Explore tab of the app -- similar to the recently expanded Weather feature -- City Guides presents users with a list of cities visited by their friends and provides recommendations on places to eat,...

The Nintendo Switch launches worldwide tomorrow, March 3, and as journalists and reviewers have had their hands on the console for the past week, news of its hardware and software features have been shared online. This week, Quartz technology reporter Mike Murphy discovered that when plugging the Nintendo Switch into a MacBook Pro through a dual USB-C cable, the Switch inexplicably acts as an ...

Apple and 52 other major companies have signed a Supreme Court brief in support of seventeen-year-old Gavin Grimm, a young transgender man who's fighting with his local school district for the right to use the bathroom of his corresponding gender identity (via The New York Times). Other than Apple, the tech companies include Amazon, Microsoft, PayPal, Twitter, Tumblr, Yelp, eBay, Airbnb, and...

Camera-focused company Snap is said to have worked on a drone that would connect to the iOS and Android Snapchat app and let users take photos and videos from aerial angles, according to sources speaking with The New York Times. Details about the drone and any of its other capabilities remain under wraps, but the work is said to help Snap "bolster" its repositioning and rebranding as a modern-day ...

Twitter today announced a list of new features for the web and mobile that plan to leverage the company's learning technology to drastically reduce harassment on the service. The updates will place more tools in the hands of the users to "control your experience," and overall Twitter said it intends to be more vocal and "communicate more clearly" about the actions it takes in the realm of...

Viewers around the world are watching more than 1 billion hours of YouTube videos every day, setting the online video service on the path to beat regular TV viewership, according to a report this week by The Wall Street Journal. The 1 billion hour milestone, which YouTube passed sometime late in 2016, is said to have been reached thanks to Google's "aggressive embrace of artificial intelligence...

At Mobile World Congress today, enterprise application software company SAP gave more details about its partnership with Apple, which will result in the creation of a toolset that aims to help developers build "enterprise-grade" apps for iOS. Called the SAP Cloud Platform SDK for iOS, the tools will use Apple's programming language Swift to present developers and designers with a collection of...

In the first drone update since Apple officially named its Spaceship campus "Apple Park," Matthew Roberts has shared an ongoing look at the progress of the campus as it grows ever closer to the official employee move-in date in April. The last collection of video updates came at the end of January and saw walkways, lamps, and parking lots beginning to appear on the site. Now, the R&D center is ...

In a bid to reassess self-driving car guidances following the Obama administration, the Trump administration's newly appointed Transportation Secretary, Elaine Chao, said this weekend that she is reviewing the guidances while urging companies "to explain the benefits of automated vehicles to a skeptical public." Chao said that there's a lot at stake in improving and regulating the technology, and ...

Google today announced that its AI helper, Google Assistant, will begin rolling out to users with smartphones running Android 7.0 Nougat and Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Previously, the company's AI assistant was exclusive to the Pixel smartphone, Google Home, the Google Allo app, and Android Wear devices. Google Assistant will first arrive to English users in the United States this week, followed ...

Content delivery network Cloudflare has confirmed the existence of a bug that caused search engines to cache sensitive user data from a variety of well-known apps and websites. Google researcher Tavis Ormandy discovered and reported the bug to Cloudflare, and the company has since fixed the bug and published a detailed blog post about exactly what happened. According to Cloudflare, the period...

Cellebrite director of forensic research Shahar Tal recently tweeted out that the company's Advanced Investigative Service can now unlock and extract the full file system for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus (via CyberScoop). To date, CAIS "supports lawful unlocking and evidence extraction" from the following iPhone generations: 4s, 5, 5c, 5s, 6, and 6 Plus. No mention has been made whether or not...

Samsung plans on selling modified versions of the troublesome Galaxy Note7 device in emerging markets later in 2017, according to Hankyung [Google Translate]. Samsung's reported intention is to minimize as much monetary loss as possible by "transforming" the returned products, refurbishing them, and reselling them in the Indian and Vietnamese markets. The new Galaxy Note7 devices will include...

Instagram today announced that users will now be able to share multiple photos and videos within one post thanks to a carousel-like feature that allows up to ten pictures and videos to be uploaded simultaneously. After the series is shared, followers will be able to swipe through in the order they were uploaded, creating a natural series of moments that can cover a friend's birthday party or...

Over two years ago it was reported that Apple was planning on opening a new R&D office in Cambridge, England, and after that multiple reports suggested that the company was primarily working on Siri research at the location. Besides a few job posts Apple never formally admitted to being the occupant at 90 Hills Road in Cambridge. This week, however, Cambridge News has spotted confirmation of...