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Its been around three years since Tile has offered a serious refresh for its popular line of Bluetooth trackers. Since that time, the company was bought by Life360 and Apple began dominating the field with its AirTag trackers. Now, Tile is back with four new trackers to help people find stuff. The Bluetooth range has been extended across the full lineup, but the big news here is the SOS alert button. The system will send out a notification and user location to designated emergency contacts when pressing the button three times. This feature is available to anyone with a free Life360 account, but a premium membership will allow users to send notifications to emergency dispatch services. The Tile Mate ($25) is the standard everything tracker with a built-in key ring. This makes it a good choice for keys, backpacks, purses and anything else that can accommodate a key ring. The Bluetooth range is around 350 feet and it features an IP68 water resistance rating and a non-replaceable battery that lasts three years. Orders are open right now. The Tile Pro ($35) is an amped-up version of the Mate. It looks the same, but it boasts a longer range, up to 500 feet, and a louder ring. The battery is also user-replaceable. This one wont be available until October. The Tile Slim ($30) is designed primarily for wallets, luggage and other items with plenty of nooks and crannies. The range maxes out at 350 feet and each tracker includes a non-replaceable battery that lasts three years. The Tile Sticker ($25) is being advertised as the smallest Bluetooth tracker on the market and its absolutely tiny. It also includes a sticker that adheres to items. This makes it a great choice for TV remotes and headphones. The range maxes out at 250 feet. Both the Slim and Sticker are available to order right now. Tile There are, as previously mentioned, snazzy new colors to choose from. The Tile Mate and Slim come in six colors, including black, white, blue, pink, green and yellow. The Tile Pro will be available in both black and white, while the Sticker is only available in black. Its worth noting that Tile experienced a hack a couple of months back in which customer information was accessed. Theres nothing in the promotional materials to indicate that these new trackers have been outfitted with updated security measures to prevent that kind of thing from happening again. We reached out to the company to inquire about potential safety tech and will update this post if we learn anything notable.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/tile-introduces-its-first-new-bluetooth-trackers-in-years-173100389.html?src=rss
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Prior to iOS 18's arrival, Apple released a firmware update for the AirPods Pro 2 that will deliver new features the company announced at WWDC in June. Now that the latest version of the mobile OS is available, your iPhone can fully employ the new tools, which include Siri Interactions, Voice Isolation and more. Your AirPods Pro 2 should have already installed the update and be ready to go when you upgrade to iOS 18, so here's what to expect when you use the new features. Siri Interactions Siri Interactions allow you to interact with your phone at times when you can't or don't want to speak or reach for your phone. Machine learning on the H2 chip and transformer models on a source device (iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch) can detect when you nod affirmatively or shake your head. This can be used any time Siri asks a yes or no question, like accepting or rejecting calls, responding to or dismissing messages and engaging with or dismissing notifications. So far, Siri Interactions have worked as described for me. I like that the tech recognizes smaller head movements, so you don't have to exaggerate them to get the system to respond. I've found the feature most helpful for incoming calls and texts, especially when my hands or full or when I'm in a setting where I can't immediately speak. Voice Isolation Voice Isolation is a new feature that taps the AirPods Pro 2 H2 chip and the source device (iPhone, iPad or Mac) for advanced machine learning to enhance how you sound on calls. The tech isolates your voice so it can effectively cancel significant amounts of background noise, and for some distractions, it will eliminate them entirely. During my tests, Voice Isolation totally blocked a noisy fan and running water. It's truly impressive how the roar that's otherwise obvious on a call is completely absent when this is enabled. It's also great that the tool works its magic with minimal impact to overall voice quality. Billy Steele/Engadget The feature is enabled automatically in your microphone settings, where you'll find options for Automatic, Standard and Voice Isolation. Here, you can activate Voice Isolation while you're on a call if you don't want the system to handle things on its own. The tool will also be supported in FaceTime and any third-party apps that use CallKit. Those include WebEx, Zoom, WhatsApp and many more. As a reminder, Siri Interactions and Voice Isolation are also available on the AirPods 4. Gaming features and Personalized Volume In addition to those two headliners, the update equips the AirPods Pro 2 with "the best wireless audio latency Apple has ever delivered for mobile gaming." What's more, gamers can expect improved voice quality, thanks to 16-bit, 48kHz audio when chatting during sessions. Apple says it also improved Personalized Volume on the AirPods Pro 2, but didn't go into specifics there. Personalized Volume is the tool that adjusts the media levels on your AirPods Pro 2nd based on changes in environmental conditions and your volume preferences. Apple says that the feature learns your listening preferences over time to fine-tune adjustments as they're needed. Hearing Aid and Hearing Test aren't in this update One of the biggest announcements from the iPhone 16 event was Apple's plan to turn the AirPods Pro 2 into a set of over-the-counter hearing aids for people with mild to moderate hearing loss. While the company has received FDA approval for the first software-based hearing aid solution that will be available without a prescription, the feature and the accompanying Hearing Test aren't ready just yet. Apple is planning to release the suite of hearing features as part of an update sometime this fall. How to download the AirPods Pro 2 update The AirPods Pro 2 update is available for free over the air from your iPhone. You can check the version number under the AirPods settings when the earbuds are connected to an iOS device. You'll want to look for 7A294 to be sure you're running the latest version. If not, you can trigger the update by listening to music for around 30 seconds and then putting the AirPods Pro back in the case. If you notice that the earbuds don't immediately disconnect on the Bluetooth menu, that means the update is happening, so keep the case closed and near your phone until it completes. AirPods Pro will disconnect when the process is over. You'll need to make sure your iPhone is updated to iOS 18 as well. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/airpods-pro-2s-new-features-have-arrived-heres-what-to-expect-172023882.html?src=rss
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As of now, iOS 18 is here. You can download and install it if your device is compatible, but it already comes with all iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus and iPhone 16 Pro models that will be available on September 20. Those with eligible devices can update them by going to Settings > General > About > Software Update and starting the download and installation processes. To see if your device is eligible, we have a list of iPhone models that can support iOS 18. Check it out and see if yours will work. Some of the hidden features our editor Cherlynn spotted include Apple Maps upgrades, Calendar integration with Reminders and expanded Tapback options in Messages, letting you see who reacted with which emoji. Safari is getting a Highlights function, which generates a summary of web pages youre on via machine learning. Our UK bureau chief Mat Smith also tried out some early iOS 18 features in July, and his main takeaway was that Apple Intelligence is the real star. Unfortunately, Apple Intelligence isnt out today but will be available in October. Besides iOS 18, iPadOS 18, visionOS 2 and watchOS 11 are also coming to their respective devices today. Make sure to check if your devices are eligible for the update and that they have enough space. You may have to free up a few gigabytes of storage first.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/ios-18-is-now-available-171444543.html?src=rss
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