Tech Archive

During the VivaTech 2026 conference in Paris, Samsung announced a new feature for its mobile devices created through a collaboration with the pet health management platform, Lifet. You’ll be able to snap a photo of your dog or cat which will be analyzed by AI to alert you to conditions like periodontal disease and obesity.

The new “Collections” feature is included in Mastodon’s 4.6 update, which will also allow you to hide the “Media” or “Featured” tabs on your profile and let people subscribe to your posts via email, even if they don’t have a Mastodon account.

A new dashboard will show a creator’s most popular AI characters, along with metrics including interactions, likes, and discoveries. Character.AI is also launching a feature that will notify followers when a creator launches a new chatbot.

One of Lego’s most iconic themes is back as a functional tabletop pinball machine launching on July 4th for $229.99. The Arcade Pinball Machine doesn’t keep score, but it’s got working flippers, a spring-loaded ball launcher, and an asteroid you can hit that will move an astronaut minifigure closer and closer to rescuing a space baby figure.

We’ve had unboxings, hands-ons, and teardowns, but Bloomberg is the first publication to give the T1 Phone a detailed review. It might be kinder than you expect — Verge alumnus Chris Welch admits the specs aren’t bad — but still reaches the obvious conclusion: “It’s easy to find a better phone than this.”

A major case surrounding lookalike products (“dupes”) came to a close this week, in which Deckers, the maker of UGG boots, sued direct-to-consumer brand Quince, alleging it had knocked off its shearling ankle boot. A jury found that Quince’s version was indeed substantially similar to the design patent for the UGG boots — but also that the patent itself was invalid in the first place.