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Apple has its own smart battery cases for iPhone XS and XR
Yes, the rumors and leaks were true -- Apple has a new battery case after a lengthy absence, and it appears to have learned a few lessons in the process. The Smart Battery Case for iPhone XS, XS Max and XR extends your handset's battery to as much as 39 hours of talk time (on the XR), but avoids the ungainly lump from the iPhone 6/6s case that launched in 2015. Instead, there's a more graceful (if still bulky) slope. It supports wireless charging, too, so you don't have to plug in just because you want extra runtime.
Michael Kors' Sofie 2.0 smartwatch is about more than just fashion
When Fossil's Michael Kors label unveiled the first Sofie smartwatch, it had eye-catching looks... and not much else. You can't say the same for the just-unveiled Sofie 2.0, at least. Michael Kors has updated the wristwear with the same posh-looking exterior, but much more functionality under the hood. It now has heart rate monitoring, NFC payments, GPS tracking and the latest version of Wear OS. Much like a few other Fossil upgrades in recent months, the Sofie 2.0 is now far more functional.
Nike's Adapt BB is an app-controlled, self-lacing basketball shoe
We knew they were coming, but Nike has officially introduced its first self-lacing basketball shoes, the Adapt BB. These new sneakers are designed to provide a "truly customized fit for every basketball player," according to the company, thanks to a power-lacing system called FitAdapt that can be adjusted manually or with a smartphone app. The sportswear giant says that over the course of a basketball game, a player's foot can expand almost a half-size, which can affect their comfort level and ultimately have an impact on their movement and performance on the court. That's the problem Nike is looking to solve with Adapt BB.
US judge rules that feds can't force fingerprint or face phone unlocks
Authorities can't force people to unlock devices with their faces, fingers or irises, a magistrate judge from California has ruled. Forbes has uncovered a nine-page order denying the search warrant for an investigation looking into a Facebook extortion crime. While the judge admits that investigators were able to establish probable cause for the warrant, she called their request to unlock any phone on the premises with biometrics "overbroad." The request wasn't limited to a particular person or device, and authorities would've been able to get everyone in the house to open their devices.
The Morning After: An egg is winning Instagram
Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. While we prepared for a future of self-lacing basketball shoes, an egg took over the title of 'most liked' Instagram photo. How was your Monday?
Apple's year of cheap battery upgrades resulted in 11 million repairs
In a recent all-hands meeting, Tim Cook reportedly revealed that Apple replaced 11 million iPhone batteries in 2018, up from its normal 1-2 million tally. The spike was a result of Apple's price cut to its battery replacement program as part of the fallout from its iPhone throttling debacle. And it seems that trend hit Apple where it hurts: iPhone sales.
YouTube adds swipe-based navigation on your phone
Mobile navigation is all about the swipe these days, and now even YouTube is joining in. The platform has started rolling out an update for iOS devices, giving users a way to view the next video in the list by swiping left or right. Swipe forward to view the next recommended video and backward if you want to resume watching the previous one -- according to TechCrunch, the previous video will even start playing where you left off. And, yes, it works in portrait and landscape fullscreen modes.
Google Fi adds support for next-gen RCS text messaging
Google is putting its money where its mouth is when coming to support for next-gen texting. It's starting off 2019 by introducing RCS chat to Google Fi. So long as you have a supporting Fi-friendly Android phone (more on that in a bit), you can share higher-quality media, message over WiFi, see who's typing and get message receipts. It'll be automatically enabled if you have a "designed for Fi" phone, and will kick in if you set Google's official Messages app as your default.
Spotify strikes deal with India's largest record label
Spotify and T-Series, India's largest music record label and film production company, announced a new content agreement that will bring a huge library of Indian music to the streaming platform, according to Variety. T-Series' catalog of music includes more than 160,000 songs including tracks from popular Indian artists and major Bollywood movie soundtracks.
Nike teases self-lacing shoes you can control from your phone
Ahead of the launch of its first self-lacing basketball shoes this week, Nike just posted a major tease to get people hyped. And while we can't see what the sneakers actually look like, it does appear you'll be able to adjust their power laces using your smartphone, based on a video featuring various NBA athletes trying them out. This would be a notable change compared to the HyperAdapt 1.0 from 2016, which had no wireless connectivity and, instead, came with physical power buttons that let you lace up the shoes. Another big difference is that the upcoming self-lacing sneakers are only expected to cost $350, much less than the $720 of the original HyperAdapts. That's all we know so far, but we'll find out everything about "the future of the game" of basketball tomorrow, so stay tuned to our site for more coverage from Nike's event.
Facebook Stories test helps you invite friends to events
It's hard to make events exciting in Facebook. You can plan things down to the smallest detail, but that won't matter if people don't notice your event amid all the puppy videos and heated debates. Facebook may have a simple solution: put events where people are more likely to notice them. It's launching a test that lets you slip events into Stories, turning them into sales pitches of sorts. Share an event as a Story and you can create a flashier presentation with a sticker friends can use to show their interest.
Samsung will fight its phone sales slump with models built for India
Samsung knows it's facing tough times, and it's not just counting on the Galaxy S10 to get out of its funk. It's launching a trio of Galaxy M-series phones in late January that are designed expressly for "Indian millennial consumers," the company's Asim Warsi told Reuters. They'll launch in India first before a wider rollout, and they'll only be available through both Samsung's website as well as Amazon India.
China will make TikTok-like video apps responsible for what users upload
China's growing crackdown on internet media now includes some tight limits on short-form video apps like TikTok. Recently imposed guidelines make app creators responsible for the content their users post, and ask platforms to review every bit of content -- no mean feat when TikTok alone has roughly 150 million users in China.
Huawei fires employee arrested in Poland over alleged spying
Huawei doesn't want further whiffs of suspicion around its motivations, even in cases where it's not directly implicated. The Chinese tech giant has fired Weijing Wang, an employee arrested in Poland over spying allegations despite security officials saying the espionage wasn't directly tied to Huawei. The staffer brought the company into "disrepute," according to a statement. Police also arrested a Polish citizen in connection to the case.
Samsung and Qualcomm talk realistic expectations for 5G in 2019
The 5G hype at CES has grown each year, becoming unavoidable and almost unbearable over the past two shows. This year was no different -- we saw companies announce more partnerships and rollout plans, as well as the launch of new 5G mobile hotspots and networking chipsets. AT&T even pre-emptively started pushing out a so-called 5G Evolution signal logo to some phones on its network, which drew criticism across the industry, especially from rivals like T-Mobile and Verizon. Yes, 5G is going to become reality in 2019 -- that much the industry can all agree on. But what exactly are we expecting to see in 2019? Realistically, who will be able to experience true 5G this year, what will the performance difference be and, importantly, how much will it cost? Samsung's Derek Johnston and Qualcomm's Durga Malladi joined us on stage at CES 2019 to discuss the benefits, challenges and what to expect of 5G in 2019.
Health and beauty tech continues to fail pregnant women
There's a thread on Fitbit's Feature Suggestion forum titled, "Add Pregnancy/Nursing mode for more accurate calorie estimates," with the first comment logged in December 2013. It was locked at 328 comments and 1,388 upvotes. In the comments, hundreds of women chimed in to agree and add their own requests, including tweaks to Fitbit's menstruation-tracking features, nursing settings, weight-gain monitoring and other pregnancy-specific notifications. A moderator lurked, editing labels and updating the status of the request. At 4:41PM on May 6th, 2014, a moderator updated the pregnancy-feature thread to "New." By February 14th, 2015, the status had shifted to, "Not currently planned."
How Royole built the world's first foldable phone
Samsung has grand ambitions for its forthcoming, foldable phone, but China's Royole somehow beat the tech titan (and everyone else) to market. Here's the thing, though: despite working on rollable, bendable, flexible screens since 2012, hardly anyone saw Royole's push into the smartphone market coming. To hear founder and CEO Bill Liu tell it, though, that was exactly how he wanted it. Liu joined us on our CES stage, to discuss what it was like for a company mostly known for screens to start working on a smartphone, walk us through how it works, and (perhaps most important) explain where Royole came from in the first place.
Report: Apple plans three new iPhones, one may have three rear cameras
Apple will introduce a triple-camera iPhone this year and another lower-priced LCD model, according to the Wall Street Journal. Despite supposedly sluggish sales of its current iPhone XR LCD model, the news means the company still wants a diverse mid-to-high range lineup. Like most other manufacturers, Apple is experiencing a slowdown in the smartphone market as consumers upgrade less often.
Presenting the Best of CES 2019 winners!
Several hours of discussions and debate later, Engadget's editors have decided who among our finalists should win our Best of CES awards. Below is our list of winners for each category, as well as Best of the Best and People's Choice. Congratulations to all winners and finalists!
Google sued for allegedly covering up sexual misconduct allegations
A shareholder for Google's parent company Alphabet has sued the tech giant, accusing it of covering up sexual harassment claims against some of its top executives. The lawsuit filed by shareholder James Martin said Alphabet's board of directors, including Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt, were directly involved in the coverup. Martin supported his lawsuit with minutes from Alphabet board meetings in 2014 and 2016 concerning Andy Rubin and Amit Singhal, respectively. Both former Google executives left the company after sexual harassment complaints -- Rubin, in particular, received a $90 million exit package even though an internal investigation found the claims against him credible.
