Hacker News with Generative AI: Consumer Technology

Tell HN: Brother printers no longer consumer friendly (ycombinator.com)
I dislike the tactics many of the other printer manufacturers employ such as subscription services, DRM on cartridges, etc. I've always used and recommended Brother laser printers as they seem to largely not employ these non-consumer friendly approaches. They have always let you continue printing even when one cartridge was empty. I've always brought official cartridges out of respect for their business model.

Printers, Consumer Technology, Business Models

36 points by SimonPStevens 4 days ago | 16 comments

Snowden slams Nvidia RTX 5080 as 'a monopolistic crime against the consumer' (pcgamer.com)

Nvidia, Graphics Cards, Consumer Technology

6 points by solardev 34 days ago | 3 comments

Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses (bloomberg.com)
Apple Inc. has canceled a project to build advanced augmented reality glasses that would pair with its devices, marking the latest setback in its effort to create a headset that appeals to typical consumers.

Apple, Augmented Reality, Consumer Technology, Hardware

12 points by doener 35 days ago | 2 comments

Apple Scraps Work on Mac-Connected Augmented Reality Glasses (bloomberg.com)
Apple Inc. has canceled a project to build advanced augmented reality glasses that would pair with its devices, marking the latest setback in its effort to create a headset that appeals to typical consumers.

Apple, Augmented Reality, Consumer Technology, Hardware

46 points by dm 36 days ago | 69 comments

Don't pay $800 for Apple's 2TB SSD upgrade (jeffgeerling.com)
Apple charges $800 to upgrade from the base model M4 Mac mini's 256 GB of internal storage to a more capacious 2 TB.

Apple, Hardware, Consumer Technology, Price Comparisons

16 points by LorenDB 40 days ago | 5 comments

Sony Will Stop Producing Blank Blu-ray Discs After 18 Years (gizmodo.com)
Sony says it will stop manufacturing blank Blu-ray discs for the Japanese market along with MiniDiscs and MiniDV cassettes that could be used to save media in a physical format. “We would like to express our sincere gratitude to our many customers for their patronage,” a short press release concludes. It has been 18 years since the Blu-ray was first introduced coinciding with the launch of the PlayStation 3.

Consumer Technology, Media, Business, Japan

3 points by rntn 41 days ago | 0 comments

Bambu Lab pushes a "control system" for 3D printers, and boy, did it not go well (arstechnica.com)
Bambu Lab, a major maker of 3D printers for home users and commercial "farms," is pushing an update to its devices that it claims will improve security while still offering third-party tools "authorized" access. Some in the user community—and 3D printing advocates broadly—are pushing back, suggesting the firm has other, more controlling motives.

3D Printing, Security, Software Updates, Consumer Technology

9 points by pseudolus 46 days ago | 5 comments

Now Trump's import tariffs could raise the cost of a laptop for Americans by 68% (theregister.com)
The Consumer Technology Association has issued some fresh predictions of how much more Americans may have to pay for their hardware if Donald Trump's hard-line import tariffs are enacted.

Economics, Politics, Consumer Technology

7 points by pella 60 days ago | 5 comments

What a world to live in, Anti Consumer is trend and Pro consumer is niche (ycombinator.com)
Consumer tech companies are following the trends where they can get more and more locked down and less to consumers because some fruit company is doing it and the companies which are trying to give more open devices are considered as niche.

Consumer Technology, Trends, Open Source, Privacy

8 points by imbdb 61 days ago | 0 comments

Can dumb 'smart' TVs be the EU's next target, please? (thenational.scot)
IT was packaged by the European Commission as a belated Christmas gift – new regulations that mean all new small and medium-sized electronic devices sold in the EU will use the same charging cable.

Consumer Technology, Regulations, European Union, Sustainability

13 points by this_weekend 67 days ago | 7 comments

The USB-C charging mandate arrives in the EU – here's what that means (theverge.com)
From December 28th, a large percentage of the gadgets bought inside the EU are required to charge via USB-C.

EU Regulations, Consumer Technology, USB-C, Standardization

6 points by elsewhen 71 days ago | 1 comments

AI PC revolution appears DOA – AI PCs and smartphones is a bust, analyst says (tomshardware.com)

Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Hardware, Consumer Technology, Opinion

13 points by ashitlerferad 76 days ago | 0 comments

Startup will brick $800 emotional support robot for kids without refunds (arstechnica.com)
Startup Embodied is closing down, and its product, an $800 robot for kids ages 5 to 10, will soon be bricked.

Startups, Robots, Consumer Technology, Children

7 points by isaacfrond 88 days ago | 0 comments

Forced to upgrade (bearblog.dev)
I've been happily using an iPhone 8 for the last 7 years. It has been, and still is, a perfect smartphone. I've never bumped up against the limitations of the hardware (gaming on a phone is a bit of a mystery to me), and all of my photos and videos are synced to the cloud, so I've never even run out of the 64gb of storage space.

Consumer Technology, Smartphones, Personal Experiences

184 points by SpookyChoice 102 days ago | 296 comments

Air fryer might be spying on you (techradar.com)

Privacy, Security, Consumer Technology, Air Fryers

9 points by ulrischa 113 days ago | 5 comments

iRobot lays off another 105 employees (techcrunch.com)
Roomba maker iRobot is laying off 105 employees — about 16% of the company’s workforce, per an SEC filing — saying the cuts are part of an “operational restructuring plan.”

Layoffs, Robotics, Business, Consumer Technology

6 points by mfiguiere 122 days ago | 0 comments

The Alexa Skills revolution that wasn't (theverge.com)
The first Amazon Echo, all the way back in 2014, was pitched as a device for a few simple things: playing music, asking basic questions, getting the weather.

Amazon Alexa, Voice Assistants, Consumer Technology

6 points by marban 126 days ago | 2 comments

Ask HN: How can the elderly tell if the AirPods Pro 2 can correct their hearing? (ycombinator.com)
Do they have to buy it first so they can do the hearing test to determine if it is strong enough to correct their hearing?

Apple Products, Audio Technology, Consumer Technology

8 points by amichail 143 days ago | 11 comments

ABC News hacks into popular robot vacuum, watches owner through camera (abc.net.au)
The largest home robotics company in the world has failed to fix security issues with its robot vacuums despite being warned about them last year.

Security, Robotics, Privacy, Consumer Technology

315 points by puffl 156 days ago | 138 comments

HP injects AI into its printers (ghacks.net)
HP jumped on the AI bandwagon today when it announced Print AI for its printers. Is it a ploy to extract even more money from unsuspecting customers, or something truly useful?

Artificial Intelligence, HP, Printers, Consumer Technology

50 points by speckx 163 days ago | 55 comments

Complaints about crashing 13th,14th Gen Intel CPUs now have data to back them up (theverge.com)

Hardware, Computing, Software, Consumer Technology, Intel

42 points by Tomte 237 days ago | 7 comments

Starlink Mini is now available for anyone in the US to roam (theverge.com)

Satellite Internet, Starlink, Consumer Technology, United States

5 points by marban 241 days ago | 1 comments

Apple Users Are Keeping Their Devices for Longer as Upgrades Slow (macrumors.com)

Apple, Consumer Technology, Product Lifecycles, Upgrades

34 points by virgildotcodes 241 days ago | 110 comments

Amazon is bricking $2,350 Astro robots 10 months after release (arstechnica.com)