Alongside its regular slate of laptops and other gear, Lenovo has announced an E-Ink notepad at CES. Smart Paper is a 10.3-inch display with an anti-glare screen. The company says it’s a lightweight device with 50GB of storage, enough for 50,000 pages of doodles and scrawls.

Smart Paper comes with a battery-less stylus that can be stored in the case. The Smart Paper Pen is designed to minimize lag, with latency as low as 23 milliseconds. There are nine different pen settings (such as pencil, ballpoint and marker), more than 4,000 pressure sensitivity levels and tilt detection. Smart Paper has dozens of notepad templates as well, including a blank slate, lined paper and music manuscript.

Lenovo

There’s the option to record voice notes, thanks to the dual microphones. Handily, you can take notes while recording a meeting or lecture. They’ll be synced, so you can select some text and hear that portion of the recording.

Don’t worry too much about losing a note. Smart Paper can convert your handwriting into text and you can use keyword searches to find what you’re looking for. You can delete and reorganize notes, and place them into folders. You'll be able to access millions of ebooks and search saved books and articles that are on your Smart Paper. If you leave the notepad at home, you’ll still be able to access all your stuff, thanks to the Smart Paper mobile and Windows PC app, which supports cloud sync. The app can translate text and audio recordings onto other languages as well.

Smart Paper seems like Lenovo's answer to Amazon's Kindle Scribe, which debuted last year. How they compare against each other in practice remains to be seen, but at $400, Smart Paper will be $60 more expensive. It should ship later this year.

Lenovo

Signify (formerly known as Philips Lighting) has a new app. It sounds kind of fun. You can use it to sync whatever's playing on certain Samsung TVs to Philips Hue smart lights, whether you're streaming a movie, listening to music or playing games. The idea is to make whatever you're watching feel more immersive by extending the colors to the rest of the room. Neat! Not so neat is how much Signify is charging for the Philips Hue Sync TV app. It costs £115, which works out to $138.

In fairness, that's still around $100 less expensive than the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box, a device that connects to your TV and syncs your lights to whatever's playing. The app supports all image formats and you can customize the settings. You'll be able to tweak the lights' brightness and how intense the syncing is. You can choose to auto-start the experience and whether the lights should be in video or game mode. There's the option to pinpoint where lights are in relative to your TV too.

If you're somehow interested in paying $138 for the app instead of snapping up disco lights for, like, $12, you'll need a 2022 or newer QLED TV in the Q60 range or above. You'll find Philips Hue Sync TV on the Samsung TV app store starting on January 5th.

Signify

Elsewhere, Signify announced more Philips Hue devices. The Resonate downward wall light can brighten up outdoor spaces. It costs £110 ($132) and will be available on January 24th. 

You may need to wait until March 14th for the latest Philips Hue Tap dial switch, which has a round mini mount that can be placed on magnetic surfaces, like a fridge. That will run you £45 ($54). Signify has also revealed when the Go portable table lamp it debuted last year will go on sale in the UK. You can snap it up for £140 ($169) on February 21st.

Signify

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says its Science and Technology Directorate division has created a portable gunshot detection system with the help of a company called Shooter Detection Systems (SDS). The agency notes that whereas other systems only detect audio, SDS Outdoor can pinpoint flashes of gunshots as well. DHS claims this approach can reduce false positive rates.

DHS has not disclosed details about the accuracy of the system. SDS, which is owned by Alarm.com, says its indoor gunshot detection system has a near-100 percent detection rate with fewer than one false alert per 5 million hours of use.

The latest system took DHS and SDS almost two years to develop, and it builds on SDS' indoor gunshot detection tech. Prototype testing started a year ago. DHS says that law enforcement agencies who were involved in testing helped to make SDS Outdoor more effective in alerting forest responders to gunfire.

The agency claims that SDS Outdoor could be employed at temporary events in locations where infrastructure support is not typically available. It gave open-field concerts (such as festivals) and pop-up rallies as examples of situations in which SDS Outdoor could bolster security.

“Many US gunshot detection technologies are not easily deployed in the field or at temporary locations,” Dr. Dimitri Kusnezov, DHS under secretary for science and technology, said in a statement. “This new system can be moved by one or two officers without the need for technicians to transport and set up. This mobile capability will help responders approach gun violence incidents with greater awareness, reducing response times and increasing responder safety.”

However, critics claim that gunshot detection systems aren't effective enough and may cause more problems than they attempt to solve. “Past efforts to detect gunshots in real-time have not only wasted taxpayer dollars, they’ve put civilians in harm's way when officers are falsely told that fireworks and car backfires are active shooters," Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Executive director Albert Fox Cahn told Gizmodo. Fox Cahn added that there are privacy concerns around such systems, which "can often be misused as illegal wiretaps."

Last July, the MacArthur Justice Center sued Chicago after police used evidence from gunshot detection system ShotSpotter in a murder case. The organization claimed that police had an overreliance on the tech and failed to follow other leads. After the suspect spent nearly a year in jail, prosecutors asked a judge to dismiss the case due to a lack of evidence.

In a study published in 2021, the MacArthur Justice Center found that 89 percent of alerts that ShotSpotter sends to law enforcement has no evidence of gun-related crimes. ShotSpotter has claimed that its system had a 97 percent accuracy rate.

Along with its gaming-focused laptops and models that offer 3D visuals without the need for glasses, ASUS had some upgraded general-purpose systems to show off at CES. Depending on how you spec them, though, the likes of Elden Ring should still look pretty great on these laptops.

First up is the latest Zenbook Pro 16X OLED, which ASUS says is the most powerful Zenbook to date. You'll be able to kit it out with up to a 13th-gen Intel Core processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40-series laptop GPU and 32GB of LPDDR5X DRAM.

ASUS says the Zenbook Pro 16X OLED (UX7602BZ) has a "unique" Intel processor and a Supernova System-on-Module design that reduces the size of the motherboard core area by 38 percent, allowing for more efficient cooling. There's also more space for the graphics unit's power components, which ASUS says will deliver higher and more stable GPU performance.

ASUS

As the name suggests, this model has an OLED display. It's a 16-inch, 3.2K HDR touchscreen with an aspect ratio of 16:10 and a 120Hz refresh rate. There's an auto-tilting keyboard that could help you to find the ideal typing angle. You'll also be able to take advantage of the ASUS Dial, which should offer more precise control in creativity-focused apps.

The Zenbook Pro 14 OLED is getting a glow up too. The UX6404 model has a 2.8K, 120Hz NanoEdge Dolby Vision display with a 100 percent DCI-P3 gamut and Pantone validation for accurate colors. It comes with up to a 13th-gen Intel Core processor, a GeForce RTX 40-series laptop GPU, a 2TB SSD and 16GB of DDR5 RAM. There's a memory slot that can accommodate up to 32GB SO-DIMM, as well as WiFi 6E connectivity and a 76Wh battery. ASUS says it packed all of this into a body that weighs 3.64 lbs (1.65 kg) and is less than 0.7 inches (1.8 cm) thick.

ASUS

As for the Zenbook 14X OLED (UX3404), that has a 14.5-inch, 2.8K HDR display with a 16:10 aspect ratio and 120Hz refresh rate. The laptop comes with up to a 13th-gen Intel Core processor, GeForce RTX 3050 GPU, 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM, a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD and a 70Wh battery. The thin and light 14X comes in two colors, Inkwell Gray and Sandstone Beige. The latter has a lid with what ASUS describes as "a new ecofriendly Plasma Ceramization coating technique that creates a ceramic-like finish and stone-like feel."

Meanwhile, the business-oriented ExpertBook B9 OLED (B9403CVA) is an all-metal laptop. The company claims the "ecofriendly manufacturing process helps to reduce production materials by up to 29 percent, and shortens manufacturing time by up to 75 percent to maximize energy efficiency." It's said to be lighter than most 13-inch laptops too.

The latest ExpertBook B9 has a 14-inch 2.8K display with a 90 percent screen-to-body ratio. There's a touchpad that's almost 27 percent larger than the previous model and you can expect a raft of security features, including NFC login, face login and a physical webcam shutter.

ASUS hasn't revealed pricing for any of these models as yet. The laptops should start shipping between April and June.

Disney+ is bolstering its IMAX Enhanced films, including some Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, with another audio option. The streaming service will enable IMAX signature sound by DTS on select titles this year, offering viewers high-fidelity audio to go with the expanded aspect ratio.

You'll need compatible equipment to hear DTS audio, however. At the outset, some IMAX Enhanced-certified TVs from manufacturers such as Sony and Hisense will support DTS on Disney+, as will certain AV receivers from the likes of Denon, Marantz and JBL. However, you don't need any particular devices to view IMAX’s expanded aspect ratio of 1.90:1, which offers up to 26 percent taller pictures during certain sequences.

Some may find that the addition of DTS audio will help them to better replicate the IMAX experience at home. DTS will provide a higher bitrate alternative to Dolby Atmos, but many folks prefer the latter. In the near future, you may be able to watch a Disney+ movie in either audio format and decide for yourself.

Meanwhile, Disney+ has announced when Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is coming to the platform. You'll be able to stream the most recent MCU movie at home starting on February 1st. The film will have IMAX Enhanced support.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has agreed a $100 million settlement with the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS), which accused it of violating regulations related to virtual currency, money transmitting, transaction monitoring and cybersecurity. "These failures made the Coinbase platform vulnerable to serious criminal conduct, including, among other things, examples of fraud, possible money laundering, suspected child sexual abuse material-related activity and potential narcotics trafficking," the agency said. The company will pay the state a $50 million fine and invest $50 million to address the issues flagged by the regulator and comply with a DFS-approved plan.

The agency claimed that Coinbase's practices concerning due diligence, transaction monitoring and sanctions compliance (among others) were "inadequate for a financial services provider of Coinbase’s size and complexity." It accused the company of failing to carry out sufficient background checks on customers before they opened accounts and being unable to keep up with transaction monitoring system (TMS) alerts. The DFS added that Coinbase had a months-long TMS backlog that meant the company "routinely failed to timely investigate and report suspicious activity as required by law."

By late 2021, the DFS said, Coinbase had a backlog of more than 100,000 transaction monitoring alerts it had not reviewed. It also noted that by that time, the backlog of customers who required "enhanced due diligence exceeded 14,000." Coinbase's approach to background checks amounted to a “simple check-the-box exercise,” regulators claimed. 

The DFS granted Coinbase a license to operate in New York in 2017. Compliance issues first emerged during a safety and soundness examination that the agency conducted in 2020. Following that probe, the DFS ordered Coinbase to hire an independent consultant to review the compliance program and offer recommendations on how to improve in areas in which the agency felt the company was falling short. As a result, Coinbase adopted a plan to bolster its compliance program. However, following an investigation it began in 2021, the DFS determined that the program could not "keep up with the dramatic and unexpected growth of Coinbase’s business." Coinbase now has more than 100 million users worldwide.

The agency brought in an independent monitor in early 2022 to evaluate the state of the compliance program and work with Coinbase to address the issues — all while the investigation was ongoing. As part of the settlement, the monitor will work with Coinbase for another year. The DFS can extend that timeframe at its discretion. The agency pointed out that Coinbase has started to address many of the issues and develop "a more effective and robust compliance program" under the eyes of the DFS and the monitor, though it noted that the company still isn't moving quickly enough to review older suspicious accounts.

Other crypto firms have faced penalties in recent months for allegedly violating financial regulations. The DFS fined Robinhood $30 million in August, while the Treasury Department reached a settlement with Kraken over claims that the exchange provided services to customers in Iran in violation of US sanctions. According to The New York Times, regulators are investigating Binance over possible money laundering violations. Before its collapse in November, FTX was said to have been under investigation too — the company's founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, pled not guilty to federal fraud charges this week. It was also reported last summer that the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating Coinbase over possible securities violations.

Harman has pulled back the curtain on a new record player that it claims does not sacrifice audio quality during wireless playback. The JBL Spinner BT has Bluetooth 5.2 support and aptX HD encoding, which will ensure that you'll get the "authentic sound" of your records, according to Harman. If you'd rather stick with a wired connection, though, the turntable has analog output with switchable moving magnet phono stage and an integrated phono preamplifier.

The Spinner BT has locked speeds and a speed sensor that Harmon says will "guarantee perfect pitch." On the tonearm, you'll find a preinstalled Audio Technica moving magnet cartridge. A removable head shell should make replacing and upgrading the cartridge a piece of cake. As for the base, Harman has damped the feet to reduce vibration from external sources. The record player's black MDF plinth, meanwhile, has accents of JBL's signature orange.

The JBL Spinner BT, which includes a hinged dust cover, will be available this fall. Harman says it'll cost $399.

Google has been working on giving its Pixel phone users access to spatial audio since at least September last year. Now, the tech giant is finally rolling out the feature with the rest of the January 2023 security updates for its flagship devices. In the list of changes arriving with the package, Google included spatial audio support for all Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro devices running Android 13. 

Spatial audio simulates an environment that makes users feel as if sounds are coming at them from different directions, sort of like the surround sound effect in movie theaters. As Android Police notes, it mostly became popular in mobile after Apple brought the feature to the AirPods Pro. Google started introducing code for it with the Android 13 beta released in September 2022 but disabled it upon that beta's stable release. Now, the feature has officially been enabled. 

According to 9to5Google, the company previously said that users can take advantage of spatial audio on the "Pixel phone with movies from Netflix, YouTube, Google TV, and HBOMax that have 5.1 or higher audio tracks." Users, however, "must wear headphones or earbuds" to be able to enjoy the immersive experience. 

In addition to activating the feature on Pixel devices, Google is also working on bringing head tracked spatial audio to the Pixel Buds Pro that will provide users with another layer of immersion, so long as the earbuds are connected to any of the aforementioned Pixel phones. The company says it will release another update for the earbuds that will enable head tracking in the coming weeks.

OnePlus has officially launched its new flagship phone and earbuds in China, more than a month before their global debut. The OnePlus 11 5G and OnePlus Buds Pro 2 will be available in the company's home country starting on January 9th before their worldwide release on February 7th. OnePlus had already revealed most of the new phone's features back in December, and its most notable offerings include the Alert Slider, which was absent from the OnePlus 10T. True to its name, the slider makes it easy to shift from alert mode to silent or vibrate and vice versa. 

The OnePlus 11 5G is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset that promises AI, camera and 5G speed upgrades and comes with support for ray tracing. In addition, it uses Oppo's SuperVOOC charging technology to be able to quickly charge its 5000 mAh dual-cell battery, has 16GB of RAM and has a 6.7-inch 2K AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It has three camera sensors, with the main one being a 50-megapixel lens, and it marks the return of Hasselblad camera tuning on the brand's phones. 

As for the OnePlus Buds Pro 2, they feature MelodyBoost Dual Drivers, which is what the company calls the "technology derived from premium speakers" that it had developed with Danish loudspeaker manufacturer Dynaudio. They also come with one default equalizer (EQ) and three customized EQs. OnePlus says it will reveal more information about the earbuds during its February 7th event in New Delhi, India. 

We asked the company for information regarding pricing in China and will update this post when we hear back.

We're now in the first week of 2023, and that means different things for different people, such as taking another stab at a New Year's resolution that's been on the list forever or getting started on a plan to reach a goal before the year ends. For Louisiana residents, it also means having to verify their ages if they want to access porn online. 

A new state law (PDF, courtesy of Motherboard) went into effect on January 1st, requiring websites containing "a substantial portion" of "material harmful to minors" to ask users to prove that they're 18 or older. "Substantial portion," according to the new law, is more than 33.3 percent of a website's content. As Gizmodo notes, Pornhub, Youporn and Redtube have already started asking visitors to verify their age.

Websites that host content that can be considered porn have to implement "reasonable age verification methods," including asking users to present a government-issued ID or a digitized form of it. Pornhub, Youporn and Redtube had chosen to ask visitors to prove their age by using their LA Wallet app, which is the state's digital wallet app for drivers licenses. A video posted on Twitter shows how Pornhub uses the app to check for a user's age. 

In the document detailing the law, its authors said: "Due to advances in technology, the universal availability of the internet, and limited age verification requirements, minors are exposed to pornography earlier in age. Pornography contributes to the hyper sexualization of teens and prepubescent children and may lead to low self-esteem, body image disorders, an increase in problematic sexual activity at younger ages, and increased desire among adolescents to engage in risky sexual behavior. Pornography may also impact brain development and functioning, contribute to emotional and medical illnesses, shape deviant sexual arousal, and lead to difficulty in forming or maintaining positive, intimate relationships, as well as promoting problematic or harmful sexual behaviors and addiction."

Speaking to TechCrunch, Olivia Snow, sex worker and research fellow at UCLA's Center for Critical Internet Inquiry, described the need for verification to access porn as "surveillance." She also said that it can harm LGBTQ populations in extreme cases: "As homophobia and transphobia — especially homophobia in the context of porn — is rising, I could totally see the state zeroing in on people consuming gay porn, or lesbian porn, and either surveilling them further or criminalizing that." Critics are also raising security and privacy concerns about having to present IDs to access porn online even if Pornhub promises that one's "proof of age does not allow anyone to trace [their] online activity."