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Lilbits: The latest Unihertz BlackBerry clone, why Pebble failed, and a dip in PC shipments

Unihertz plans to launch a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign soon for a modern phone with some retro-inspired features including a BlackBerry-style physical keyboard. The upcoming Unihertz Titan Slim will be the latest in a line of unusual phones from Unihertz, which has made a habit of releasing niche smartphones aimed at fans of old-school features like […]

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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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Lilbits: Apple’s other stuff (AirTags, Apple TV 4K, Apple Podcasts subscriptions and iOS 14.5)

Over the course of an hour this afternoon, Apple announced new iMac and iPad models powered by the same Apple M1 chips used in the latest MacBook Air and MacBok Pro laptops, as well as a bunch of other things. There’s a new Apple TV 4K with a faster processor and new remote control. And there’s […]

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Lilbits: Nintendo 64 cut down to size, Gazelle ends trade-ins, Pixel camera ported to non-Pixel phones

Some folks interested in playing classic console games on the go are content to run an emulator on their phones or tablets. Others actually trim the original motherboard of old game consoles and stuff them into new bodies. One YouTuber has taken that to extremes with a Nintendo 64 that’s been modified to become a […]

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Apple and Spotify bring podcasts to Amazon Echo devices (and other Alexa-enabled gadgets)

Amazon’s Echo line of products may have introduced the world to the idea of smart speakers that respond to your voice, answer questions, and play music among other things. But one thing Amazon’s Alexa voice service hasn’t been great at until now is playing podcasts. While you could ask Alexa to play a podcast, by default […]

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Pocket Casts is now free (with optional subscription-based features)

One of the most popular podcast apps for iOS and Android is now available for free. Previously the Pocket Casts app for Android cost $4, while the iPhone app was $4. Now you don’t have to pay a penny to use either one. But the company behind the app needs to make money somehow. Enter Pocket […]

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Lilbits 322: The Red Hydrogen One cometh… later

RED’s first smartphone is an unusual device. It has a rugged Kevlar body. It has a “4D holographic” display. And it will work with modular add-ons including specialized camera lenses. Basically the RED Hydrogen One is an expensive phone aimed at photographers, cinematographers and other enthusiasts. It’s also running late. The phone showed up at […]

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Plex redesigns its mobile apps, adds podcast features (sort of)

Plex is a popular app for organizing and playing media across a range of devices. It’s choc full of features that basically let you roll your own Netflix or Spotify by loading up a bunch of movies, TV shows, or music albums and then streaming them from a home computer or network-attached-storage device (NAS) over […]