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Blood pressure-reading earbuds could become a reality in 2020

TechSpot News | Jan. 9, 2020, 7:14 a.m. | Original

The big picture: According to Valencell President Steven LeBoeuf, the ear is one of the best places to measure blood pressure as it has ample blood flow and a rich heart rate reading. It also generally remains the same distance away from your heart.

Valencell believes the next big breakthrough in health monitoring wearables could come via in-ear buds.

The US-based biometric company is working to bring ear buds to market this year that are capable of monitoring a user’s blood pressure.

Facebook says it will let users choose to see fewer political ads on their feed

TechSpot News | Jan. 9, 2020, 6:42 a.m. | Original

In brief: Facebook's hands-off approach with regards to political ads won't change anytime soon, but the company says it will increase transparency and allow people to choose if they don't want their news feeds to be flooded by political ads. In the absence of regulation, Facebook thinks it's better for would-be leaders to have a voice so the public can have a basis for their arguments when they debate their choices.

The social giant recently said it would ban deepfakes on its platform

Valve is doing more to support video game soundtracks on Steam

TechSpot News | Jan. 9, 2020, 6:10 a.m. | Original

What just happened? Valve is doing more to support gaming soundtracks on Steam. The digital distribution platform this week announced the creation of a new “soundtrack” app type that aims to disassociate music content from DLC and add brand new functionality.

Users will now be able to purchase soundtracks without purchasing the base game and can even download tracks without downloading the associated title. Furthermore, you’ll be able to manage your collection from the new Steam library and configure a “music” directory where all music content can be stored

Samsung CEO does not seem to know how many Galaxy Folds have sold

TechSpot News | Jan. 9, 2020, 5:38 a.m. | Original

Facepalm: First Samsung said it sold one million Galaxy Folds. Then it said that number was a mistake, but would not disclose the correct the figure. Now it's saying that the device has somewhere between 400,000 and 500,000 in sales. Why are we getting the runaround about how the foldable smartphone is doing? Give us a number or don't say anything at all.

During CES 2020, Samsung CEO DJ Koh updated reporters on

Samsung 980 PRO PCIe 4.0 SSD spied at CES

TechSpot News | Jan. 9, 2020, 3:53 a.m. | Original

In brief: Most of the magic at CES happens on the big stage during press conferences and in timed media releases but occasionally, you’ll stumble across an unannounced gem sitting out in the open, waiting to be discovered. Such was the case at Samsung’s booth with the 980 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD.

The flagship solid state drive hasn’t been officially announced in a press release yet was on display on the show floor alongside other consumer drives from the South Korean tech giant. AnandTech

Sensible Soccer mod adds a fresh coat of paint to the classic footballer

TechSpot News | Jan. 9, 2020, 3:19 a.m. | Original

Through the looking glass: Sensible Soccer is one of those rare sports video games like Baseball, NBA Jam and NHL 94 that’s just flat out fun to play regardless of its technical limitations. And now, it’s getting a fresh coat of paint.

The Sensible World of Soccer 2020 mod adds updated rosters, new team names, modern colors and customizable commentary to the already fantastic footballer. Best yet, you can scale the graphics all the way up to 4K quality – all without

The iPhone 11 helps Apple to double-digit growth in China

TechSpot News | Jan. 9, 2020, 2:16 a.m. | Original

Why it matters: Relations between the US and China might remain frosty, but Apple still experienced a significant jump in smartphone shipments within the region last month. Thanks partly to the popularity of the iPhone 11, sales of the company’s handsets grew 18.7 percent in China year-over-year.

Bloomberg reports that Apple shipped around 3.18 million units in the Asian

TechSpot News | Jan. 9, 2020, 1:10 a.m. | Original |

In a nutshell: Twitter is introducing a new feature that will allow people to decide who, if anyone, can reply to their tweets. The platform already allows users to hide replies to tweets, but the new tool adds more control over what they see and should help address the long-running troll problem.

Suzanne Xie, Twitter’s director of product management, revealed the new reply options at CES. They will be tested in the first quarter of this year before being launched later in 2020,

Digital games and interactive media pulled in a record $120.1 billion in 2019

TechSpot News | Jan. 8, 2020, 11:49 p.m. | Original

Year in Revew: Another year has passed us by, and with it comes the usual array of end-of-year market research reports. One such report we always look forward to is SuperData's Digital Games and Interactive Media "Year In Review" analysis, and its 2019 iteration has just hit the web.

We'll start things off with some overall revenue numbers. Mobile games generated $64.4 billion in 2019, and PC games pulled in $29

Las Vegas prevented a major cyberattack on the city this week

TechSpot News | Jan. 8, 2020, 11:05 p.m. | Original

What just happened? Las Vegas almost became the latest city to suffer a serious cyberattack—and in the middle of CES. Officials say that a major security incident took place at 4:30 AM on Tuesday, which forced staff to take several services offline, including its public website.

ZDNet writes that city IT staff were quick to spot the attack and were able to take steps that protected impacted systems. While officials haven’t revealed the exact nature of the breach, local reports say it likely occurred through an

The big picture: According to Valencell President Steven LeBoeuf, the ear is one of the best places to measure blood pressure as it has ample blood flow and a rich heart rate reading. It also generally remains the same distance away from your heart.

What just happened? Valve is doing more to support gaming soundtracks on Steam. The digital distribution platform this week announced the creation of a new “soundtrack” app type that aims to disassociate music content from DLC and add brand new functionality.

In brief: Most of the magic at CES happens on the big stage during press conferences and in timed media releases but occasionally, you’ll stumble across an unannounced gem sitting out in the open, waiting to be discovered. Such was the case at Samsung’s booth with the 980 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD.

Through the looking glass: Sensible Soccer is one of those rare sports video games like Baseball, NBA Jam and NHL 94 that’s just flat out fun to play regardless of its technical limitations. And now, it’s getting a fresh coat of paint.

Why it matters: Relations between the US and China might remain frosty, but Apple still experienced a significant jump in smartphone shipments within the region last month. Thanks partly to the popularity of the iPhone 11, sales of the company’s handsets grew 18.7 percent in China year-over-year.

In a nutshell: Twitter is introducing a new feature that will allow people to decide who, if anyone, can reply to their tweets. The platform already allows users to hide replies to tweets, but the new tool adds more control over what they see and should help address the long-running troll problem.

Year in Revew: Another year has passed us by, and with it comes the usual array of end-of-year market research reports. One such report we always look forward to is SuperData's Digital Games and Interactive Media "Year In Review" analysis, and its 2019 iteration has just hit the web.

What just happened? Las Vegas almost became the latest city to suffer a serious cyberattack—and in the middle of CES. Officials say that a major security incident took place at 4:30 AM on Tuesday, which forced staff to take several services offline, including its public website.

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