GoKawiil
Tech News
Ring has introduced its first smart door lock, which includes a built-in hand crank to recharge the device when its battery runs low. The lock features a fingerprint scanner, a backlit touchscreen keypad, and can be controlled via the Ring app or Alexa voice commands. It fits onto standard single-cylinder deadbolts without extra wiring, connects via Amazon Sidewalk for remote access, and is priced at $249.
Ring announced its first smart lock, which lets owners generate emergency power by manually cranking the thumbturn if the battery dies. The lock supports fingerprint, keypad, and app-based unlocking, costs $249, and ships in three finishes starting Q1 2027. Ring also revealed new 4K cameras with its Retinal Vision standard for improved low-light footage, plus a $69.99 Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam 2K.
A tech writer reports that enabling Apple's Call Screening feature, introduced in iOS 26 with the 'Ask Reason for Calling' option, eliminated spam and scam calls impersonating their mobile carrier and fake job offers that had been arriving weekly. The feature requires callers to state their reason before the phone rings through to the user.
The latest Apple Watch Series 12, introduced just weeks ago, is now available at a $49 discount on Amazon, with prices starting at $350 for the 42mm model. The watch features enhanced health sensors, a new Readiness app, and Siri integration, with various configurations and colors on sale. The promotional prices are limited-time and may end soon now that Prime Day has concluded.
Meta has updated its Muse iOS app to include native iPad support, about a month after the app launched and a week after a Mac version arrived. The same update adds new integrations for the iPhone version, including Canva, Dropbox, Figma, QuickBooks, GitHub, Zoom, Asana, Klaviyo, Granola, and Notion, plus a feature letting small business owners set a goal for Muse to autonomously plan marketing and product pages around.
Google Play Store listings now display one of five badges indicating how well an Android app functions on Googlebook laptops. The tiers range from 'Made for desktop' and 'Optimized for desktop' for strong laptop experiences, down to 'Compatible with desktop' and warnings like 'Better on the website' or 'Built for mobile' for apps less suited to larger screens. The labeling system was spotted by a Reddit user and detailed by Android expert Mishaal Rahman.
Google unveiled EmbeddingGemma 2, a multimodal on-device AI model that can process text, images, video frames and audio locally. Alongside it, the company released AI Edge Foresight, a macOS app that expands shorthand bullet points into polished meeting notes and answers questions live during meetings, all without sending data off the device.
Muse, Meta's new AI personal assistant, has reached No. 1 on the U.S. App Store with over 5 million downloads since launching last month. Each user's Muse runs on its own dedicated virtual machine in Meta's cloud, building a file of personal information drawn from connected accounts like email and Instagram, and users can request an export of that data. Meta says this data collection is intentional and is not shared with its advertising systems or other Muse agents.
Asos has acknowledged that hackers gained access sufficient to push an unauthorized push notification to users of its mobile app. The retailer confirmed the incident but has not detailed the scope of the breach or what systems were compromised.
The October 6, 2026 episode of 9to5Mac Daily recaps two Apple-related stories: John Ternus's involvement in design decisions at Apple, and recent changes to Apple Cash. The podcast episode, hosted by Chance, was sponsored by Stuff and Roborock and is available across major podcast platforms.
An entrepreneur building a savings and investment app for young families describes how pursuing partnerships with large financial institutions early on slowed the company down, as months of meetings and compliance reviews diverted attention from existing customers. The piece outlines a three-question filter for evaluating opportunities—whether they pay off within 90 days, fit the company's current stage, and justify the trade-off—and extends this discipline to investor advice, funding terms and high-profile partners.
Google's comparison highlights that Photos automatically backs up images to the cloud via a toggle in account settings, while Gallery requires manual backup. New Google accounts created after March 9, 2026 will get only 5GB of free storage by default, down from the current 15GB, though verifying a phone number unlocks an extra 10GB. Storage is shared across Gmail, Drive, WhatsApp and Photos, and additional space can be purchased through Google One starting at $2 per month for 100GB.