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Lilbits: Meta Portal’s slow demise, Microsoft’s Fall 2023 Surface hardware event, KDE goes double-click by default, and Bodhi Linux 7.0 released

The Meta Portal line of products are smart displays that launched in 2018 when Meta was still called Facebook. With support for Amazon’s Alexa voice service, they were kind of the company’s answer to an Amazon Echo, but with the added bonus of Facebook Messenger support, making them one of the easiest ways to place […]

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Lilbits: AR Glasses, Ubuntu Touch, Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds, and Android 4.4 KitKat is about to get less useful

It’s been nearly a decade since Google released Android 4.4 KitKat, which brought memory improvements, initial support for identifying the source of phone calls from unknown numbers, the introduction of the “OK Google” voice keyword, an immersive mode for apps and games, and other features… some of which have survived through the years in one […]

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Meta pulls the plug on its Portal smart display business

This summer news broke that Facebook parent company Meta was planning to shift the focus of its smart display division to enterprise products rather than continuing to focus on consumer devices like the Meta Portal lineup. Now it looks like Meta is exiting the smart display business altogether. The company announced it was laying off […]

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Now you can root the Oculus Go VR headset

The Oculus Go virtual reality headset was discontinued last summer, and while Facebook’s parent company Meta has promised to continue releasing security updates and bug fixes through 2022, the company has stopped accepting new apps for the platform. But a few months ago the company opened the door to allowing the Oculus Go to live […]

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Lilbits: Facebook abandons facial recognition, Linux 5.15 released, Netflix games, Microsoft Edge for Linux, and more

Facebook is giving up on using face recognition in its app a decade after introducing the feature, and in the coming weeks Facebook’s parent company Meta says it will delete facial recognition templates for a billion different people. In other recent tech news from around the web, we have a deep-dive into performance of the […]

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Meta (formerly Facebook) may be making a smartwatch with a front-facing camera

Smartwatches have been a thing for nearly a decade at this point, letting users view notifications, control media playback, and occasionally even make phone calls Dick Tracy-style from their wrist. But one thing that hasn’t really taken off, despite the occasional attempt from one watch maker or another? Smartwatches with cameras. Now it looks like […]

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Lilbits: Teenage Engineering’s first PC chassis, Right to Repair, and Magic Eraser breaks free from the Pixel 6

Teenage Engineering is a company known for designing sleek-looking products including the company’s own audio products and synthesizers as well as designs for third-party hardware including the Playdate handheld game console, H smart speaker, and l-1 camera. Now the Swedish company has introduced its first PC chassis. The Computer-1 is a striking looking compact case […]

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Facebook is rebranding as Meta, retiring the Oculus brand

Facebook launched as a social network in 2004, but in the years since then the company has expanded into other territory including virtual reality, smart displays, and… other social apps like Instagram and WhatsApp. So at a time when Facebook is coming under a lot of scrutiny, it’s probably not a surprise that CEO Mark Zuckerberg […]

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Unlocked Oculus Go software released, making the VR headset hacker-friendly

As promised, Oculus has released an unlocked version of the operating system for the discontinued Oculus Go, which could breathe new life into the inexpensive virtual reality headset. You can find  a download link and installation instructions at the Oculus Developers blog. The unlocked Oculus Go OS has all the same features as the last […]