By Moinak Pal Apple’s upcoming smart glasses may include dual cameras, luxury materials and deep AI integration, positioning the device as a mainstream entry into ambient, wearable computing.
The post Apple’s upcoming smart glasses could get dual cameras and a touch of luxury appeared first on Digital Trends.

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By Pranob Mehrotra Amazfit has launched the T-Rex Ultra 2, a rugged 51mm smartwatch with offline global maps, six-satellite GPS support, and up to 30 days of battery life for extended off-grid adventures.
The post Amazfit’s new T-Rex Ultra 2 is built for your toughest outdoor adventures appeared first on Digital Trends.

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By Hisan Kidwai If you’ve recently travelled abroad, you know the huge checklist of things that need to be…
The post Holafly vs Airalo: Which eSIM Is Better in 2026? appeared first on Fossbytes.

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By Shikhar Mehrotra Google’s Pomelli Photoshoot uses AI to create studio-quality product images from simple photos, now available in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
The post Google’s secret AI tool feels like a professional photoshoot powerhouse in your pocket appeared first on Digital Trends.

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By Varun Mirchandani Meta is shifting Horizon Worlds away from VR and focusing almost entirely on mobile to reach a much larger audience.
The post Metaverse just went mobile first, leaving VR behind appeared first on Digital Trends.

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By Omair Khaliq Sultan Headphones are one of those purchases you feel immediately. Commute gets quieter, focus gets easier, and travel becomes less tiring. The Sonos Ace are positioned as a premium over-ear option with active noise cancellation, and right now they’re $319.00, down from a $399.00 compared value, saving you $80. If you’ve been curious about Sonos’ take […] The post Sonos’ first headphones are finally priced closer to where they should be appeared first on Digital Trends.

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By Manisha Priyadarshini A breakthrough lens developed by researchers could slash the cost of thermal cameras, making heat-sensing technology practical for smartphones and cars, where high prices have long kept it out of reach.
The post This lens breakthrough could put utterly cheap thermal cameras in phones and cars appeared first on Digital Trends.

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Apple has published its official iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 adoption figures on its developer website. While they do show a slightly slower upgrade pace than in past years, it’s far from the dramatic falloff implied by StatCounter earlier this year following a change in how it gathered this information.

What are the latest adoption numbers?

The company says its numbers are based on iPhones and iPads that transacted on the App Store on Feb. 12, 2026. The statistics are more or less in line with those for previous years:

74% of all iPhones introduced in the last four years (since 2022) are running iOS 26.

66% of all iPhones are running iOS 26.

66% of all iPads introduced in the last four years are running iPadOS 26.

57% of all iPads are running iPadOS 26.

How do the numbers compare with previous years?

To compare, here are Apple’s iOS 18 adoption figures at around this time last year:

76% of all iPhones introduced in the last four years (since 2021 at that point) were running iOS 18.

68% of all iPhones were running iOS 18.

63% of all iPads introduced in the last four years were running iPadOS 18.

53% of all iPads were running iPadOS 18.

It is also worth noting that iPadOS adoption has increased, year-on-year. 

Focusing only on iPhones then, in 2024, 76% of all iPhones introduced in the last four years (2020) were running iOS 17. Earlier, by June 2023, iOS 16 had reached 90% of all iPhones introduced in the last four years (since 2019). That was up on the previous year (2022) when iPhones stood at 89% adoption, while in 2021 iOS 14 was installed on 81% of Apple smartphones introduced since 2017.

Why has adoption slowed — and has it really?

In other words, Apple’s adoption figures show a relatively consistent trend. And while adoption does seem to have slowed in comparison to some years, it’s simply not as dramatic as the StatCounter data suggested:

This could simply be a matter of scale, given there are millions more iPhone users than before — and millions more second-user devices that may not run the latest systems.

It might also reflect a change in people’s attitudes toward updates, and quite possibly reflects the fact that Apple is becoming more proactive at ensuring security updates are installed even without major point upgrades. The main thing is that people upgrade eventually. 

Apple has become a lot more iterative in its approach to updates; while it does ship compelling upgrades from time-to-time, it typically teases out big feature improvements along with each major point upgrade. This also means that eventually during the 12-month lifecycle of an OS version, Apple will ship an improvement that will finally motivate an otherwise reticent customer to upgrade. 

Apple Intelligence and Liquid Glass might have dented adoption, at least among those who expected more of the first and want less of the second. But Apple’s latest data suggests the impact of both things is far, far more limited than online social media would lead you to expect (which may sound familiar). Another factor is the rate and cadence at which the company introduces major updates seems slightly extended this year, likely reflecting the company’s wider product introduction plans, about which we’ll learn more in March.

Apple is not Android

So, has adoption of the latest Apple system upgrades slowed? Not significantly, and what deceleration does exist is easily explained by other completely acceptable factors. 

Of course, what’s most important isn’t so much the numbers themselves as the confidence they should give developers that Apple continues to convince hundreds of millions of people to upgrade to new operating systems relatively swiftly. That means developers can focus on the most recent versions rather than spending much energy supporting old ones.

Apple’s platforms are not like others, as you do not sacrifice millions of customers solely by focusing on the current operating system versions. That’s good for developers, good for customers, and if your business happens to be mobile, quite possibly good for you.

Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe. Also, now on Mastodon.

Source:: Computer World

By Ana-Maria Stanciuc Google’s announcement that its Gemini app now writes music for you isn’t just one of those “blowing my mind” product updates. It feels like a symbolic surrender to a long-standing refrain from Big Tech: creative work is now just another checkbox for a machine.  If you don’t know what I am talking about, yesterday Google […] This story continues at The Next Web

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Enterprises struggling with the cost and complexity of long-term data archival could soon have a new option: a piece of glass.

New research published on Wednesday suggests that a borosilicate glass plate 120mm square and just 2mm thick can store 4.8TB of data across 301 layers with accelerated aging tests, indicating that the data would remain intact for at least 10,000 years.

“Glass is a permanent data storage material that is resistant to water, heat, and dust,” Microsoft researchers wrote in a paper published in the science and technology journal, Nature. “We have unlocked the science for parallel high-speed writing and developed a technique to permit accelerated aging tests on the written glass, suggesting that the data should remain intact for at least 10,000 years.”

Previous versions of the technology required fused silica, a high-purity glass available from only a handful of manufacturers. The new findings show the system works equally well with borosilicate — widely manufactured and significantly cheaper — bringing the technology a step closer to commercial viability, the paper added.

The timing is significant.

The global datasphere is doubling approximately every three years, according to Seagate research cited in the paper, yet “most digital archive systems rely on media that degrade” well short of the multi-decade retention timescales that legal, financial, and regulatory obligations increasingly demand, the authors noted.

Magnetic tape, the most widely deployed archival medium today, reflects those constraints. An LTO-10 (Linear Tape-Open) cartridge, the current enterprise benchmark, holds 30TB to 40TB native at 400MB/s, but its rated shelf life is just 30 years. It requires climate-controlled storage between 16°C and 25°C and migration roughly every five to ten years.

That operational overhead, analysts say, is the real cost of tape — not the media. “Archival estates rarely fail because cartridges chemically degrade on schedule,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst at Greyhound Research. “They fail because compatibility windows close, drive generations evolve, firmware support sunsets, and robotics require refresh.”

Tape-as-a-service models have shifted some of that burden, noted Vishesh Divya, principal analyst at Gartner, moving hardware lifecycle management to providers under defined service-level assurances.

“LTO tape remains the benchmark for enterprise cold storage,” he said. “The media cost per terabyte remains low, the ecosystem is mature, and enterprises have decades of operational experience managing refresh cycles,” Divya said.

Sony’s Optical Disc Archive — the main optical alternative at 5.5TB per cartridge with a 100-year rated shelf life — was discontinued in March 2025, leaving no comparable product on the market.

How data is written and read from the glass

Project Silica, Microsoft’s glass-based storage initiative, uses femtosecond laser pulses to encode data as three-dimensional structures called voxels inside the glass, at 25.6 megabits per second per beam and an energy cost of 10.1 nanojoules per bit.

The paper describes two encoding methods. The first method, birefringent voxels, modifies the polarization properties of the glass. The team reduced the laser pulses required to a pseudo-single-pulse technique — one pulse split to simultaneously begin one voxel and complete another — enabling faster beam scanning.

The second method, phase voxels, is a new invention that modifies the phase properties of the glass instead and requires only a single pulse per voxel. Crucially, it works in borosilicate glass, where the birefringent approach did not. “Much higher levels of three-dimensional inter-symbol interference in phase voxels can be mitigated with a machine learning classification model,” the researchers wrote.

Earlier Project Silica readers required three or four cameras to retrieve data; the updated system requires one, completing what the researchers described as the first fully demonstrated end-to-end glass archival system, from writing and storage through to retrieval.

Longevity verified through accelerated aging

The longevity claim is backed by a nondestructive optical method the team developed to measure voxel degradation in place, combined with accelerated aging techniques applied to written borosilicate samples. “Accelerated ageing tests on written voxels in borosilicate suggest data lifetimes exceeding 10,000 years,” the researchers noted.

For enterprise buyers, longevity alone will not make the case.

“A realistic TCO comparison must be modelled across multi-decade lifecycle horizons, not procurement cycles,” said Gogia. “Glass storage reframes the economic curve by potentially eliminating migration cycles — reducing labour, reconciliation overhead, and operational disruption.” Write speeds remain materially slower than tape, however, making glass better suited to ultra-cold, low-ingestion estates.

Compliance adds a further dimension. Data encoded as permanent optical modifications cannot be overwritten, reducing ransomware exposure. But “compliance is a system property, not a substrate property,” Gogia cautioned. “Enterprises must still ensure encryption key rotation, metadata indexing, and audit trail completeness. A 10,000-year medium does not remove the obligation to demonstrate governance discipline.”

No commercial product yet

Microsoft said in a separate blog post that the research phase of Project Silica is now complete. “We are continuing to consider learnings from Project Silica as we explore the ongoing need for sustainable, long-term preservation of digital information,” the company said, without disclosing a commercialization roadmap. If commercialized, glass storage is unlikely to displace tape.

“It is more likely to emerge as a specialized ultra-long retention rather than a replacement for tape-based cold storage,” said Gartner’s Divya. “Any new medium would have to compete on the full-stack equation — economics, hardware, software, and operational model — not just on media longevity.”

Source:: Computer World

By Shikhar Mehrotra Meta could launch an AI-powered smartwatch in 2026, marking a return to wearables after scrapping earlier plans amid metaverse-focused restructuring and cost-cutting efforts.
The post Meta could launch a smartwatch in 2026, years after killing its original plans appeared first on Digital Trends.

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By Hisan Kidwai It’s no secret that smartphone launches in 2026 have been plagued by rising costs, thanks in…
The post I Used the vivo V70 for a Month — And It’s the Best V-Series Yet appeared first on Fossbytes.

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By Ana-Maria Stanciuc Plato, a Berlin-based startup, has raised $14.5 million in seed funding to bring generative AI into wholesale distribution, a massive industry that rarely makes tech headlines but quietly moves a significant share of the world’s goods. The round was led by Atomico, with Cherry Ventures, Discovery Ventures, and D11Z joining in. Wholesale distribution accounts for […] This story continues at The Next Web

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>More than half of the software purchased by companies today could eventually be replaced by AI, Mistral AI CEO Arthur Mensch said in an interview with CNBC. The statement comes at a time when software stocks are under pressure due to concerns that AI will undermine SaaS business models.

According to Mensch, a major shift is already happening, with companies increasingly choosing to build their own AI-based applications instead of purchasing traditional SaaS services. He estimated that more than 50% of today’s SaaS spending could shift to AI solutions.

“We are also seeing with our customers that we can create fully customized applications within a few days to run a workflow — for example, a purchasing workflow or supply chain workflows — in a way that, five years ago, would have required a vertical SaaS solution,” Mensch said. “This platform change is a great opportunity for us, as we now have more than 100 corporate customers who are also turning to us with a desire to perhaps change and modernize their IT systems — for example, getting rid of things they bought 20 years ago and which are starting to become quite expensive.”

Even so, Mensch believes that basic business systems that store and structure company data will remain in place and become an important basis for AI applications.

Mistral AI recently purchased Koyeb, a Paris-based cloud startup.

Source:: Computer World

In 2019, Gartner analyst Dave Cappuccio issued the headline-grabbing prediction that by 2025, 80% of enterprises will have shut down their traditional data centers and moved everything to the cloud.

A lot has gone down since 2019, and Gartner’s latest guidance on the topic comes from John-David Lovelock, vice president analyst,who says, “It’s not as though the data center is going away. The enterprise data center is here to stay. There’s still enough spending by enterprises on servers, licensed software, and the skill sets they need to maintain and operate the environment that currently exists.”

Continue reading on CIO.com

Source:: Computer World

By Ana-Maria Stanciuc If you tuned in to China’s 2026 CCTV Spring Festival Gala looking for traditional lion dances and nostalgic tunes, you may have done a double-take when what greeted you was a squad of humanoid robots performing kung fu, synchronized moves, and comedy sketches with more precision than most of us manage during family reunions. It […] This story continues at The Next Web

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By Ana-Maria Stanciuc A Paris-based venture firm that has quietly shaped the quantum technology scenery is now making a much louder statement about Europe’s role in the future of computing, materials science, and sensing. Quantonation Ventures has today announced the successful close of its second flagship fund at €220 million, more than double the size of its first […] This story continues at The Next Web

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Stockholm-based Strawberry is launching its “self-driving” AI-powered browser in open beta after a year in closed testing. Strawberry is a browser with built-in AI agents that can surf, click, and perform real tasks on behalf of the user, even on login-protected sites.

The idea is to make AI agents available to non-technical users such as salespeople, recruiters, and analysts, without them needing to be able to write advanced prompts or code. A key new feature is a personalized onboarding process that maps the user’s role and workflow. With the user’s consent, the system builds a profile and then suggests relevant tasks to reduce the barrier to getting started.

According to Strawberry’s own tests, the browser outperforms competing AI tools, including Perplexity’s Comet and Open AI’s ChatGPT Atlas, in practical workflows. The browser also scores around 78% in the GAIA agent benchmark.

Strawberry is free to download and try. Access to its full functionality costs $20 per month.

Source:: Computer World

By Ana-Maria Stanciuc When European tech observers talk about AI ambition, the narrative often splits neatly in two: models and infrastructure. On one side are the clever bits of code that can write, reason, and generate text or images. On the other is the gritty reality of making those bits run reliably, at scale, and in production. Today, […] This story continues at The Next Web

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By Nadeem Sarwar Apple has reportedly sped up efforts to develop an AI-powered pendant equipped with a camera that could launch next year.
The post Apple racing to launch an AI pendant to serve as your iPhone’s eyes and ears appeared first on Digital Trends.

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