Information Technology

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNETZDNET’s takeawaysPebblebee announces a new safety feature for Clip trackers.Alert Live sends your real-time location to up to five contacts.The feature costs $2.99 a month or $24.99 a year.Days after announcing that its Clip would be the first tracker to be able to use both Google’s and Apple’s Find My networks, Pebblebee just revealed another major upgrade for the Clip — a potentially life-saving one.In July, Clip trackers (which made ZDNET’s list of the best Bluetooth trackers you can buy) got a new free safety feature called Alert. When you rapidly press the button on your Clip, it flashes a strobe light, emits a loud siren, and sends your location to a trusted contact.Also: The best Bluetooth trackers: Expert testedNow, an upgraded Alert Live feature sends your location to up to five contacts and shares your real-time location until you turn it off.Pebblebee says that Alert is designed for students, parents, and seniors who value independence, but it’s a useful feature for just about anyone. Unlike the basic Alert feature, Alert Live does have a cost. It’s minimal, though — $2.99 a month or $24.99 a year.In addition, Pebblebee also announced a new Silent Mode that’s available for both the Alert Free and Alert Live plans. In this mode, you can send alerts to a contact without any sound or visual cue. Pebblebee explains that this mode is “perfect for high-stress or unsafe situations where quiet communication is essential.” Also: My 5 favorite gadgets for students are all under $40 (and why they’re so useful)While Pebblebee’s previous announcement positioned the Clip as a lost-item tracker, today’s taps into the growing personal safety market (take a look at our list of the best GPS trackers for kids if you need something for a younger user). Other trackers, like the Tile, have a similar safety function, but Pebblebee’s combination is one of the few that works with both Apple and Android ecosystems.  More

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNETI started noticing something very annoying at the beginning of the year: I’d set my iPhone alarm for 7 a.m., only to sleep right through it. At first I assumed it was my mistake — maybe I’d accidentally left the ringer volume all the way down. But after double-checking that, even switching off vibrate and cranking the volume all the way up overnight, the problem persisted. Somewhere between frustration and desperation, I installed a third-party alarm app to try and even asked my partner to set a backup alarm on his phone.Also: How to clear your iPhone cache (and why it greatly improves performance)I was at a loss as to what was happening, so I decided to Google the issue. I found that Apple acknowledged an alarm problem back in April 2024 and that a fix was in the works. But this was over a year ago. In January, several reports claimed the issue was still happening. I consider myself an iPhone power user, so I kept thinking I could figure out what’s wrong myself — or at the very least, I hoped the fluke would resolve itself. But now, well into August, I’m turning to Reddit threads and Apple Support discussions for tech support. Every community seems to have its favorite solutions — some simple, some nuclear. Here are all the ones I plan to try. How to fix the ‘silent iPhone alarm’ glitchSince the silent iPhone alarm bug appears to be intermittent, I’ve decided to try one solution at a time to see which actually does the trick. If you’re in the same boat, here are all the troubleshooting tips I’ve found that will supposedly get our iPhone alarms working on schedule again. If Apple isn’t going to do something about it, maybe we can — and hopefully put an end to oversleeping. More

J Studios/Getty Images ZDNET’s key takeaways Claude can now be prompted to reference past user interactions. The feature rolls out today to Max, Team, and Enterprise users. It’ll be turned on by default, but you can also switch it off. Claude just got a major memory upgrade: Anthropic’s flagship generative AI chatbot can now retrieve […] More

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNETThere are thousands of songs about staying up all night to have fun, yet fewer about how nice it is to go to bed early. After a long day of work, nerve-inducing headlines, and strenuous exercise, all I want is sleep. That’s when the lyrics of Hall and Oates’ song, “When the Morning Comes,” a tune mainly about rejection that can be interpreted as an ode to a good night’s rest, come to mind: “It’ll be all right when the morning comes,” the duo sing. As a sleep enthusiast, I can’t help but agree.Also: New FDA-cleared blood pressure monitor delivers medical grade results at homeAs a health and wearables editor, I wear smartwatches and smart rings around the clock. By testing these products, my interest in optimizing my sleep and health has grown. Not to brag, but I’m amazing at sleeping — my roommates jokingly refer to me as the Sleepytime Tea Bear. I treat my sleep the same way a professional athlete treats their workout routine, and it’s paying dividends. My sleep scores reach the high eighties and low nineties consistently, and I get around eight hours — the expert-recommended daily sleep dose — every night. My focus is clear and my energy is long-lasting. If you want to level up your sleep scores, I’ve consulted experts from wearables specialists, such as Oura and Whoop, and drawn on my own experience using these products and witnessing my sleep results to compile a list of tips I swear by for better slumber. More

Samsung RGB Micro LED TV at CES 2025 Kerry Wan/ZDNET ZDNET’s key takeaways Samsung debuts 115-inch Micro RGB TV for $29,999.Millions of RGB LEDs deliver precise color and brightness.Glare-free tech, Tizen OS, and coming soon to the US.The long-awaited Micro RGB TV More

Nina Raemont/ZDNETZDNET’s key takeaways Oura launched features for pregnant and perimenopausal users on Tuesday. The science-backed features provide further context during periods of drastic biological change. The features are personalized, and the brand stresses data protection and privacy. Pregnant and perimenopausal women are getting more ways to track and understand their health, thanks to several new features Oura announced on Tuesday. The smart ring brand launched a redesigned Pregnancy Insights experience on the app alongside Perimenopause Check-In, available within the Cycle Insights tab. Also: 5 expert-backed tips to get better sleep – especially if you own a health-tracking wearableThe new features provide clarity and further context during two periods of drastic biological change in a person’s body and illuminate the normalities and abnormalities of each.  More

OnePlus Buds Pro 3 OnePlus/ZDNETYou don’t have to shell out the big bucks for studio-grade audio. Plenty of top-notch headphones and earbuds cost less than $200, such as the OnePlus Buds Pro 3 More

The Washington Post/Getty Images You can’t say Linux creator Linus Torvalds didn’t give the kernel developers fair warning.  He’d told them: “The upcoming merge window for 6.17 is going to be slightly chaotic for me. I have multiple family events this August (a wedding and a big birthday), and with said family being spread not […] More