Eliana Willis

Maria Diaz/ZDNETThe new year is a great time to score lingering deals, and the Apple AirTag 4-Pack More

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services are rapidly replacing traditional, analog methods of calling. In the business world, VoIP — a type of IP telephony — is now a standard solution utilized by organizations of every size. It’s convenient, often affordable and scalable, and can be bolstered by features your business needs. For example, if you’re looking for VoIP, text messaging, and video conferencing, or a beginner-friendly, basic solution for a growing business, you have a massive range of VoIP providers to choose from. Also: The best password managers for businesses: Expert testedZDNET’s top recommendation for a business VoIP provider in 2025 is RingCentral More

Google Another Google app is getting the Gemini treatment. Google today introduced a new Gemini side panel for Calendar, a feature that lets you check your schedule, create an event, or look up event details with the help of AI. Also: Goodbye Gemini, hello Pixel Sense? What we know about Google’s AI assistant for Pixel […] More

Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images The next time you fly United Airlines, you might notice a serious upgrade to the in-flight internet. Earlier this year, United Airlines said that its first Starlink internet-equipped flight was expected to take off in the second quarter of this year. The airline appears ahead of schedule, as it has […] More

Kerry Wan/ZDNETQualcomm claims that my Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus’ Snapdragon 8 Elite CPU is faster than the Intel Core Ultra 288V chip. My smartphone also has 12GB of RAM and 512GB of solid-state storage. In short, it’s more powerful than most of my laptops. So why not use it as a laptop? Why not, indeed, says Google, which has introduced — at long last — a native Linux Terminal application in its March 2025 Pixel Feature Drop. Of course, Android is Linux. However, it’s a mobile-first Linux distribution with a smartphone-friendly interface that bears little resemblance to the traditional Linux shell interface, never mind the Linux graphical user interfaces and their programs. That’s changed now.Also: I’ve tested every Samsung Galaxy S25 model – and my favorite isn’t the UltraToday, Linux is only available on the latest Pixel devices running Android 15. When Android 16 arrives later this year, it’s expected that all sufficiently robust Android phones will be able to run Linux. Besides a Linux terminal, beta tests have already shown that you should be able to run desktop Linux programs from your phone — games like Doom, for example. The Linux Terminal runs on top of a Debian Linux virtual machine. This enables you to access a shell interface directly on your Android device. And that just scratches the surface of Google’s Linux Terminal. It’s actually a do-it-all app that enables you to download, configure, and run Debian. Underneath Terminal runs the Android Virtualization Framework (AVF). These are the APIs that enable Android devices to run other operating systems.  More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 is more polished, feature-rich, and pricier than ever, starting at $1,899 for the 256GB variant. Buy it for the flexible use cases, including the large inner display, which is great for mobile entertainment, and the hinge design, which makes taking photos with the rear camera […] More

<!–> ZDNET’s key takeaways The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is a premium flagship meant for users who want the most out of their phone, with a starting price of $1,299. Key improvements include new Galaxy AI features, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, and a 50MP ultrawide lens. No major shifts to camera hardware, battery […] More

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNETThe launch of ChatGPT sparked a generative AI craze, igniting a tech revolution that has forced companies to rapidly innovate to stay competitive in this evolving landscape. Also: I replaced my iPhone 16 Pro with the 16e for a week – here’s everything I learnedAlthough Apple was late to the AI race, its launch of Apple Intelligence promised a transformative overhaul, putting Siri at the center of the Apple ecosystem as a context-aware personal assistant. However, Apple confirms this vision may take longer to materialize than expected.When can you expect the AI-improved Siri?On Friday, in a statement for Daring Fireball, an Apple spokesperson shared that the highly-anticipated Siri upgrades, such as more personalized Siri with awareness of your personal context that performs actions for you, will take longer than expected to be delivered to the public. The spokesperson added that the company anticipates rolling those features out in the coming year. According to the report, the statement read: “Siri helps our users find what they need and get things done quickly, and in just the past six months, we’ve made Siri more conversational, introduced new features like type to Siri and product knowledge, and added an integration with ChatGPT. We’ve also been working on a more personalized Siri, giving it more awareness of your personal context, as well as the ability to take action for you within and across your apps. It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year.”Also: Got a suspicious E-ZPass text? It’s a trap – how to spot the scamThis confirmation comes days after a new report from Bloomberg correspondent and Apple watcher Mark Gurman revealed that people within Apple’s AI division believe that the fully upgraded, conversational version of Siri won’t reach consumers until iOS 20 — which would place the release at around 2027. When Apple originally showed off the concept at WWDC last June, it was marketed as a personal assistant that seamlessly integrates into a user’s existing device ecosystem to provide meaningful behind-the-scenes help. Additionally, it would finally make Siri more conversational, enabling more human-like conversation, a highly requested upgrade.However, since then, the company has rolled out only a handful of Apple Intelligence features, most of which have low helpfulness value. For example, users with eligible phones can now access Genmoji, Image Playground, notification summaries, writing tools, voicemail transcriptions, Visual Intelligence, and a ChatGPT integration. Ultimately, all of these features have fallen short, not adding much to the everyday smartphone experience. Also: How to program your iPhone’s Action Button to summon ChatGPT’s voice assistantApple Intelligence also continues to trail behind competitors. Just last week, Amazon launched Alexa+, a conversational voice assistant with agentic capabilities that allow it to perform everyday tasks for you. It also uses your personal context and habits to provide better assistance and is coming to Alexa-enabled products already in people’s homes. Two workaroundsBefore Amazon’s Alexa+ launch, Google and ChatGPT each unveiled their own AI-powered conversational assistants, Gemini Live and Advanced Voice Mode. These assistants understand your prompts in natural language, meaning you can speak to the AI as you would a friend. They also have multi-turn conversations, so you can keep the conversation going as long as you’d like without losing prior context. Both voice assistants have settings that make them easy to access from an iPhone, allowing iOS users to forgo Siri for a more conversational, AI-enhanced experience. ChatGPT Advanced VoiceChatGPT’s counterpart, Advanced Voice Mode, even has on-screen and camera awareness, making its assistance multimodal and adding an extra layer of support. As an iPhone user, you can easily access the assistant from the ChatGPT app, or if you want even more seamless access, you can even map it to your phone’s Action Button to summon ChatGPT. All users can access Advanced Voice. However, the limits vary depending on your plan. OpenAI doesn’t specify the limits but does make it known that paid subscribers get more access. I use ChatGPT Plus, a plan that costs $20 per month, and I’ve never hit the limit. I have found plenty of everyday use cases for the assistant, and reach for it constantly.  More