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But look on the bright side: the most onerous of President Trump's tariffs have yet to take effect, so there are plenty of reasonably priced alternatives to consider.
Belkin stopped selling some of these Wemo products several years ago, but the company continued to operate the servers they depended on. After January of next year, however, you won't be able to operate them at all using the Wemo app or with any third-party services.
These recommendations are based on my assumption that you'll want to replace your Wemo devices with something equally simple, so I won't get into every alternative, including some that might be more appealing to smart home power users. I will, however, help you minimize the brands you buy into, so you don't need to juggle lots of smart home apps.
There are some cases where that won't be possible, however, because I'm recommending Lutron products as my top picks in many categories, and Lutron doesn't make smart bulbs or indoor smart plugs that can handle small appliances. Lutron also doesn't currently support Matter, if that's important to you (it's not to me).
If you're using Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, or Google Home, using more than one app isn't all that onerous once you've set up a given product and perhaps set up some on/off schedules, because most of your interactions with it will involve using voice commands. You'll find you won't need to rely on those apps all that much.
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Can't access Google services right now? You're not alone.
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Microsoft's newly published support document (found by Windows Central) is significant in that Microsoft is no longer selling video content via the Microsoft Store. It follows Microsoft's decision to stop selling music as part of its Groove Music services, which was shuttered in 2017.
But Microsoft's decision to stop providing movies and TV shows to rent or buy probably should be met with a shrug. Several streaming movie services already show movies just weeks after they're released in the box office, with rumors that the recent Superman release might be opened to streaming services just 45 days after first appearing in movie theaters. Microsoft doesn't offer a streaming service; instead, it provides direct sales and rentals to consumers. Plenty of services already do that.
So what will happen to movies and TV shows that you've already purchased? For now, they'll remain on Microsoft's servers. Microsoft's support document indicates that you'll be able to continue playing them
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Netflix is giving its TV user interface a major overhaul. Alongside a fresh, cleaner look, you'll see recommendations that adapt to your activity as Netflix tries to better gauge what you might be in the mood to watch. The company plans to roll out the update over the coming weeks and months.
It seems that the aim here, as has long been a goal for Netflix, is to help you find something you want to watch faster. That way, you won't spend an eternity scrolling through the various options while struggling to figure out what to start streaming.
Netflix originally designed its TV user interface for shows and movies, but it had to evolve to better handle new entertainment offerings, such as live events and cloud gaming. The company has been working on the new TV experience since last year, according to Eunice Kim, Netflix's chief product officer. "Our redesigned TV home page is simpler, more intuitive and better represents the breadth of entertainment on Netflix today," Kim said on a call with reporters.
The new tiles for each show, movie and so on are much larger. Rather than having information about a highlighted title appear at the top of the screen, the redesign brings everything together.
Each tile includes more at-a-glance contextual details as to why you might want to watch something. It might indicate that a show or movie was recently added, is in Netflix's top 10 list of the most-watched titles, has won awards or is leaving the service soon. Otherwise, Ne
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A hacker has exploited a vulnerability in TeleMessage to breach the service and steal data, according to reporting by 404 Media. TeleMessage is an Israeli company that provides modded versions of encrypted messaging apps like Signal and Telegram.
It was revealed last week that former US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz used TeleMessage's modified version of Signal to archive messages. Today's report indicated the presence of other high-ranking government officials in archived chats on the app, including Marco Rubio, Tulsi Gabbard and Vice President JD Vance.
The unnamed hacker was able to access archived chats, but it doesn't look like they got into any of Waltz's conversations. The hack does, however, prove that the app's message archiving service is not end-to-end encrypted.
The hacker also accessed contact information of government officials, login credentials for TeleMessage and data pertaining to the US Customs and Border Protection agency. Some businesses who use the service, like Coinbase and Scotiabank, were also hacked. 404 Media spoke to the anonymous hacker, who said the whole thing only "took about 15-20 minutes" and that it "wasn't much effort at all." TeleMessage's parent company Smarsh has yet to comment on the matter.
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