Spotify is rolling out a new kind of advertising format during podcasts, call-to-action cards, that may give podcasters a break from having to spell out URLs and coupon codes letter by letter during their ad breaks whenever they want to relate specialized deals to listeners like you.  The ad cards, announced in a blog post Thursday, …

To fight possible racial bias in its booking process, short-term-rental company Airbnb will start hiding the first names of prospective guests from Oregon from their potential hosts. Would-be hosts will instead see interested renters’ first initials until a booking is confirmed. The program is scheduled to be implemented by the end of January and run for at least two years. At this …

This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon. Because 14 inches is the new 15 inches, the highlight of Alienware’s thin-is-in X-series gaming laptops for 2022 is the brand-new x14, seen at CES 2022. There are also refreshed versions of the bigger models, the x15 R2 and X17 R2; …

This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon. It’s a year of important laptop anniversaries for Lenovo. The ThinkPad business line turns 30 and its Yoga line of two-in-ones is now 10 years old. I’m not surprised the line’s lasted this long: It was the best two-in-one design to …

This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon. Intel dropped an Acme anvil of 12th-generation (Alder Lake) processors on us at CES 2022: That’s 22 for PCs, eight for gaming laptops, six in a new P series, 10 U series for thin-and-lights and four for cheap laptops and Chromebooks. …

This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon. The ThinkPad business laptop line turns 30 this year and while ThinkPads aren’t quite the black boxy laptops they were decades ago, most don’t look strikingly different either. The new ThinkPad Z series, announced Tuesday at CES 2022, shakes things up …

Thinking of trying out Verizon’s network but aren’t necessarily ready to switch to the carrier? If you have a recent iPhone, there’s a new way to do it now.  Visible, one of Verizon’s prepaid brands, announced on Thursday that it will offer 15-day free trials of its network. Similar to T-Mobile’s updated Test Drive program from last year, the Visible …

Bitcoin’s voyage to the moon has once again encountered turbulence. The cryptocurrency on Friday morning fell below $42,000 for the first time since late September. It has dropped over 12% in the past seven days, one of many cryptocurrencies to have tumbled in recent days. Ether, which held at around $4,000 for much of December, briefly dipped below $3,200 on …

This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon. Marketing company Merkle introduced two contactless shopping services that don’t require apps at CES 2022 this week. Scan & Know and UnboxIt are additions to Merkle’s ShopNXT products designed to streamline shopping and build customer loyalty. The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred the popularity of contactless shopping. …

This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon. OnePlus continues to trickle out details about its new flagship phone, the OnePlus 10 Pro, ahead of its official release on Tuesday in China. The company said Thursday the phone’s trio of rear cameras will look largely the same as last …

If your choice of encrypted messaging app is a toss-up between Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp, do not waste your time with anything but Signal. This isn’t about which one has cuter features, more bells and whistles or is the most convenient to use: It’s purely about privacy. And if privacy’s what you’re after, nothing beats Signal. You probably already know what …

This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon. The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is once again AMD’s poster child for a new processor launch as part of its AMD Advantage partner program, announced Tuesday at CES 2022. That means it’s one of the first systems to ship with the …

Despite his salary remaining the same over the last three years, Apple CEO Tim Cook’s total compensation saw a significant bump in 2021 compared to previous years.  When accounting for stock awards, which totaled over $82 million, other forms of compensation and his $3 million salary, Cook earned $98.7 million last year, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing …

Former President Donald Trump’s new social media platform could be launching Feb. 21, according to an expected date listed in Apple’s app store. This release date of Truth Social, spotted earlier Thursday by Reuters, would coincide with the Presidents’ Day long weekend. Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube booted Trump from their platforms in 2021 because of concerns his remarks would incite …

This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon. Folding screen phones are an interesting niche market that at least has a couple of flagship products, like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3. Folding screen laptops are much more conceptual. To date, only a couple have gone on sale, like …