Uber has rolled out an update for its iPhone app that gives you the capability to see at a glance whether it's time to head out the door and meet the ride you ordered. The company has launched support for Live Activities, an iOS 16 feature that puts real time events from compatible apps on top of the lock screen and on the iPhone 14 Dynamic Island when your device is unlocked. 

Uber's take on Live Activities is a window that includes the live progress of a ride, its latest estimated time of arrival and the trip status, such as whether your driver is already waiting for you and if the ride has been completed. It also shows the vehicle type and the license plate number of the ride you're waiting for. As MacRumors notes, Apple announced that Uber would support Live Activities at WWDC last year, and the feature has been in testing in select regions over the past months. This is a wide release that gives you access to the feature anywhere in the world. A company spokesperson also told the publication that the Uber Eats app will support Live Activities in the coming months.

In addition to Live Activities, Uber has updated its app to simplify the homescreen experience, as well. It has a new Services tab where you can find all of the company's services available in your city, as well as a new Activity Hub that tracks past and upcoming rides and Eats orders. 

Mercedes-Benz is developing a new in-house operating system to power its next generation of electric vehicles. Announced today at an event the automaker held in California, Mercedes said MB.OS – short for Mercedes-Benz Operating System – will deliver enhancements in safety, automated driving and navigation.

The automaker is working with several partners to build its new software stack, including NVIDIA, Luminar and Google. Mercedes will lean on NVIDIA for the company’s software, data and AI expertise. The GPU maker's Orin chipset will also power the first generation of electric cars Mercedes builds based on its upcoming Mercedes Modular Architecture (MMA) platform. The automaker expects the first MMA EV to arrive by mid-decade.

Mercedes-Benz

As for Luminar and Google, the former will provide Mercedes with its LiDAR technology, while the latter will work with the company to build a branded navigation experience incorporating features from Google Maps. In the meantime, Mercedes is partnering with Google to bring the company’s “Place Details” data to all cars that sport the latest version of its MBUX infotainment system. You can use the integration to look up a local business, find out when it opens, and see photos of the inside and what other Google users have to say about it. Mercedes plans to open MB.OS to other partners as well, including TikTok, Zoom and even Angry Birds developer Rovio.

All MMA EVs will ship with the hardware needed for Level 2 automated driving. Mercedes is also working with NVIDIA and Luminar to offer Drive Pilot, a Level 3 automated driving system. The software will arrive later this year in 2024 EQS and S-Class models. Naturally, MB.OS will also enable Mercedes to deliver over-the-air updates, allowing it to add new features to existing cars.

The company isn’t shy about the fact that some upgrades may cost a one-time fee or come as part of a subscription package. In fact, Mercedes has already announced a handful of software bundles it will offer to owners of cars with MB.OS. MB.Connect, for instance, will bring together the company’s navigation, entertainment and communication features in one package. Other bundles, such as MB.Charge, will provide customers with priority access to Mercedes-Benz charging stations. The automaker says it will allow drivers to explore and buy upgrades for their Benz online, through the Mercedes mobile app and directly from the car.

“The company is confident that this strategic approach to software and hardware development will be the basis for lifetime revenues as well as additional contributions,” Mercedes said, adding it expects software revenue from bundles like MB.Connect to contribute “a low-to-mid single-digit billion euro figure” to its bottom line by mid-decade.

The chair of the Federal Trade Commission has proposed new rules to tackle the scourge of text message scams. If the agency's commissioners approve the rules at a meeting in March, providers would have to block robotexts that are "highly likely to be illegal," chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement.

The FCC has yet to publish the full text of Rosenworcel's proposal. If adopted, it will force providers to block text messages that appear to be from numbers on a do-not-originate list. They include unused, invalid and unallocated numbers, as well as those that government agencies and "other well-known entities" say they don't send texts from. Messages from these numbers "are highly likely to be illegal and no consumer would want to receive them," an FCC statement reads.

Moreover, providers would have to block texts from entities that the FCC flags for sending illegal robotexts. The proposed rules state that providers would additionally need to expand National Do Not Call Registry protections to include texts to prevent consumers from receiving unwanted marketing messages.

“Missing packages that don’t exist; confirmation of payments that didn’t happen; links to shady websites; and truncated ‘wrong number’ messages from strangers. These scam robotexts are a part of everyday life for too many of us,” Rosenworcel said. “I’m asking my colleagues to join me in adopting the first FCC rules to focus on shutting down scam texts. But we’re not stopping here. Because we are going to keep at it and develop more ways to take on this growing consumer threat.”

The robotext proposal follows measures the FCC has taken to stamp out robocalls. Both issues are on the agenda for the FCC's open meeting next month, along with other items like a proposed framework "for increased collaboration between terrestrial mobile network operators and satellite service providers" to bolster phone service in areas where it is lacking. That could could come in useful for life-or-death situations in remote areas. Certain devices, such as the iPhone 14, now offer satellite connectivity for emergency use.

Apple's long-running quest to bring blood glucose monitoring to the Apple Watch appears to be moving forward. Bloombergsources claim the company's no-prick monitoring is now at a "proof-of-concept stage" and good enough that it could come to market once it's smaller. The technology, which uses lasers to gauge glucose concentration under the skin, was previously tabletop sized but has reportedly advanced to the point where an iPhone-sized wearable prototype is in the works.

The system would not only help people with diabetes monitor their conditions, but would ideally alert people who are prediabetic, the insiders say. They could then make changes that prevent Type 2 (adult onset) diabetes.

Apple declined to comment. The project has supposedly been in development for a long time. It began in 2010, when an ailing Steve Jobs had his company buy blood glucose monitoring startup RareLight. Apple is said to have kept the effort secret by operating it as a seemingly isolated firm, Avolonte Health, but folded it into a previously unknown Exploratory Design Group (XDG). CEO Tim Cook, Apple Watch hardware lead Eugene Kim and other top leaders have been involved.

Any real-world product is likely years away, according to Bloomberg. The industry also doesn't have a great track record of bringing no-prick monitors to market. In 2018, Alphabet's health subsidiary Verily scrapped plans for a smart contact lens that would have tracked glucose using tears. Even major brands with vast resources aren't guaranteed success, in other words, and it's not clear how accurate Apple's solution would be.

There are strong incentives to bring this tech to wearables. The Apple Watch is frequently marketed as a health device and can spot signs of atrial fibrillation, low blood oxygen levels and (as of Series 8) ovulation cycles. Non-intrusive glucose monitoring could make it an indispensable tool for those with diabetes — you wouldn't need a dedicated device that invades your skin, such as a continuous glucose sensor that sends info from an electrode-equipped thin needle to an external receiver. That painless approach could give the Apple Watch an edge over competing smartwatches.

Artifact, the personalized news curation app from Instagram's co-founders, no longer has a waitlist. The app is live in the Apple App Store in most English-speaking markets, as well as on Android. Starting today, you'll no longer need a phone number to use Artifact unless you want to create an account and move to a different device. 

In addition, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger's team has added more features, including a social element. There's now the option to upload your contacts to see if a certain article has gained traction with your friends. A badge will appear next to an article that's popular enough among your contacts.

Systrom told TechCrunch that you can't see which of your specific friends have read a story or how many. There's a threshold before the badge appears too, so you won't be able to just upload a single contact and use the feature to track what they're reading. These, apparently, are privacy considerations, but they overlook the fact that you'll need to upload your contacts' details to use it.

In another time, Artifact might have tapped into Twitter to see what the people you're following are reading (akin to the Top Articles feature for Blue subscribers). But with Elon Musk severely restricting Twitter's APIs, that may no longer be viable.

Eventually, Artifact will have a way for users to share and comment on articles in the app. The beta version already has a Discover feed of things people are sharing. Naturally, users can like and comment on those shared articles.

The app now has a stats feature that visualizes the categories you've been reading most often, as well as the publishers you've been reading the most. Artifact is grouping articles into more narrowly defined topics as well. Meanwhile, you can now indicate when you don't like an article or publisher and the app will show you less of that. It's possible to block publishers too.

I've been using Artifact for a few weeks and I'm enjoying it so far. Unsurprisingly, the suggestions have become more attuned to my tastes the more I use it and tell it what I don't want to see. It reminds me a bit of Facebook's old Paper app, my favorite thing Meta has built to date. Artifact doesn't have anything like the social graph of Facebook, but given that the Instagram guys are behind it, it's hard to bet against their new app finding success.

With its recent announcement of the Blade 16 and Blade 18, you might have assumed Razer was ready to sunset its older Blade 15 laptop. Not so: the company is keeping the Blade 15 around for at least another year while updating it with the latest components from Intel and NVIDIA. On Wednesday, Razer announced two new 2023 variants of the Blade 15.

Both feature 16GB of DDR5 RAM clocked at 5,200 MHz, 1TB SSDs and Intel i7-13800H processors. The 13800H is a 14-core, 20-thread chip with a maximum boost clock of 5.2GHz. For reference, all models of the Blade 16 come with Intel’s flagship 24-core i9-13950HX. That means the Blade 15 won’t offer as much performance as the Blade 16, but it also won’t be a slouch. Part of that is thanks to the fact both new Blade 15 models come with RTX 40 series GPUs. With today’s announcement, you can configure the Blade 15 with either an RTX 4060 or RTX 4070 GPU. There’s no 4090 option like Razer offers with the Blade 16, likely due to the internal space and thermal constraints present with the smaller chassis.

You also won’t find the mini LED display option that’s one of the highlights of the Blade 16. The Blade 15 limits you to a 16:9 QHD IPS panel with 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage and a 240Hz refresh rate. That’s a shame as 16:10 displays are often better suited for productivity tasks, but to be expected since Razer did not redesign the Blade 15.

The 2023 Blade 15 is available to order starting today. Pricing starts at $2,500 for the RTX 4060 model. The RTX 4070 variant will set you back $2,800. In other words, the latter is $100 more than the base model Blade 16, which starts at $2,700 and features an RTX 4060 video card. So the Blade 15 is not exactly a meaningfully cheaper option than the Blade 16. That said, the Blade 15 is about a pound lighter than its newer sibling and 5mm thinner. It should also offer slightly better battery life thanks to its more modest CPU. All things to keep in mind if you plan to buy a new gaming laptop this year.

Since it started opening up its generative AI-powered chatbot in Bing earlier this month, Microsoft has granted more than a million people access to a preview of the tool, while millions more are on the waitlist. Until now, the only way to access the chatbot has been through the Edge desktop browser. But Microsoft is already bringing it to more products, services and devices.

Starting today, those with access to the chatbot through their Microsoft account can use it on the Edge and Bing mobile apps for Android and iOS. Tapping the Bing button at the bottom of the namesake mobile app will start a chat session. In the Edge mobile app, you can fire up the chatbot from the homepage.

On top of that, you can start using the chatbot in Skype. Users can converse with it one-on-one or add it to a group chat. You might use the chatbot to help plan a trip and let everyone else see the suggestions at the same time, or settle a debate by asking it to clarify which movies an actor has appeared in over the last decade. It can translate information between more than 100 languages too.  

There's also another way to use the chatbot. Microsoft has added voice control on both mobile and desktop. While it's early days for the chatbot, it could finally spell the end for Cortana after years of the voice assistant gradually fading into the background.

Microsoft notes that it could (and probably will) bring the chatbot to other apps, such as Teams,. However, it said that it's still fine-tuning the chatbot, which has run into a number of speed bumps after more people got their hands on it.

In 2019, No Man’s Sky reinvented itself for virtual reality. Now, nearly four years later, it’s doing so again. With the release of PlayStation VR2, Hello Games has announced Fractal, a free update for No Man’s Sky that overhauls the game’s virtual reality experience on all platforms.

In a blog post published Wednesday, the studio said it redesigned the HUD and user interface in No Man’s Sky to make every interaction within the game feel natural and purpose-built. In practice, that means Hello Games has devised some clever ways for you to interact with your tools while playing No Man’s Sky in VR. For instance, you can access all of your Multi-Tool’s capabilities through a menu embedded into the device. Similarly, you can browse your character’s inventory through a wrist-mounted display they wear on their spacesuit.

PlayStation VR2 users can look forward to a handful of platform-specific enhancements. Thanks to the power of the PlayStation 5, the PS VR2 version of the game features enhanced reflections, denser foliage, higher-quality textures and better draw distances, among other technical improvements. The PS VR2 release also takes advantage of the headset’s signature features, including 3D audio technology and intelligent tracking. Best of all, you can seamlessly switch between VR and standard gameplay whenever you feel you need a break from the headset.

If you don’t own a VR headset, Hello Games hasn’t forgotten about you. The Fractal update includes new content and features for all No Man's Sky players to experience. To start, there’s the new “Utopia Speeder” spacecraft for players to add their stable. Hello Games says this ship is perfect for flying across the surface of a planet at high speed. Additionally, there’s a new expedition that tasks players with rebuilding a solar system. Taking part will allow you to earn a new drone companion for your character, among other items. On the technical front, Hello Games has redesigned the game’s options menu to add new accessibility features. It has also added support for gyro controls on PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck.

All told, Fractal looks like yet another meaningful update for a game that has evolved so much since its rough launch in 2016. You can download version 4.1 of No Man’s Sky today.

For autonomous vehicle developers, every mile driven serves as proof that their technology works and as an opportunity to gather data for further improvement. Which is why Cruise, which has just announced that it has completed 1 million fully driverless miles, calls the achievement one of its biggest milestones yet. A spokesperson told us that those were miles driven with no safety driver behind the wheel and that most of them were collected in San Francisco.

If you'll recall, the GM subsidiary started testing fully driverless rides in the city back in November 2021. It was also the first company to ever receive a driverless deployment permit from the California Public Utilities Commission, allowing it to charge passengers for robotaxi rides by June last year. Based on the disengagement reports it submitted to the California DMV, it only had around 30 cars or so operating at the beginning of 2022. CNN said it was maintaining a fleet of 100 vehicles by September last year and was seeking to add 5,000 more. 

Mo Elshenawy, Cruise's SVP of engineering, said each one of those miles "has been packed with complex scenarios that have set Cruise up for rapid scale." Since San Francisco streets are often chaotic and packed with people, the company was able to gather tons of useful data it can use to better its technology. "For example," Elshenawy wrote in a blog post, "stop sign blow-throughs are 46x times more frequent in San Francisco than in suburban areas."

Cruise has been feeding data from each drive into a continuous learning machine that creates millions of permutations of real-world scenarios on the road. That allows the technology to learn from simulated drives and then apply what it learns in real life. "When you consider our safety record, the gravity of our team’s achievement comes into sharper focus," Elshenawy continued. "To date, riders have taken tens of thousands of rides in Cruise AVs. In the coming years, millions of people will experience this fully driverless future for themselves."

Cruise's announcement comes almost a month after San Francisco officials sent a letter to California regulators, asking them to slow Cruise's (and Waymo's) expansion plans. They reportedly wanted a better understanding of autonomous vehicles first and were worried about "the hazards and network impacts caused by planned and unplanned AV stops that obstruct traffic." As The New York Times said in a recent report, stalled Cruise and Waymo vehicles have caused traffic jams in San Francisco several times in the past. Officials believe these companies have to significantly improve their technologies before expanding, or else they "could quickly exhaust emergency response resources and could undermine public confidence in all automated driving technology."

Amazon's months-long effort to acquire One Medical is finished — for now, at least. The company has officially completed its $3.9 billion purchase, giving it a primary healthcare provider with in-person and virtual treatment as well as lab tests. The successful buyout isn't leading to any immediate changes in One Medical's services beyond a temporary $55 discount on a one-year membership (now $144), but Amazon said last July that it planned a "reinvention" of healthcare with the takeover.

The completion comes just a day after the Federal Trade Commission said it wouldn't contest the buyout. However, the regulator also says it's still investigating the deal to explore potential anti-competitive effects and privacy concerns raised by Amazon's access to health data. An FTC official toldCNN the agency will warn Amazon it's closing the purchase at its own risk, and might still face a government challenge later.

Amazon has spent years making deeper forays into healthcare. It bought PillPack in 2018 and used the provider to launch an in-house pharmacy service. The online shopping heavyweight also introduced an app-based health service for employees in 2019 that it later offered to other companies. In 2021, the company introduced a custom Alexa for healthcare. The One Medical move theoretically completes the picture by letting Amazon handle everything from minor doctor's appointments through to prescriptions.

Whether or not Amazon could endure an FTC challenge isn't clear. Commission chair Lina Khan is known to be wary of Big Tech, and her stance even prompted Amazon to ask for her recusal from antitrust cases. There's no certainty the FTC might succeed, though, and it recently lost an effort to block Meta's purchase of Within. One Medical is considerably larger than Within, though, and its healthcare focus brings up privacy concerns that aren't always present in tech acquisitions.