Apple might have only released the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models earlier this year but the company is already working on getting what comes next ready for primetime. That of course will be the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro and they are both expected to arrive next year. Now, a new report appears to suggest that all four new iPhones are going to have one big new feature that could improve Siri for those who use it. But if you're thinking that feature will be a ChatGPT-like large language model chatbot, you're sadly mistaken.

That's because Ming-Chi Kuo, a supply chain analyst who has proven to be well connected with these kinds of things int he past, says that Apple intends to release all four new iPhone 16 models with a significantly upgraded microphone setup. That setup will apparently allow for the iPhone to better hear when people talk to it - making it much better at understanding Siri commands and requests. The same speaker upgrade is also expected to offer additional water resistance, although that seems likely to be a happy accident rather than the main reason behind the change.

The report says that AAC and Goertek will be the two companies that benefit from the microphone upgrade, with the cost of each part set to be considerably higher than the microphones used in the iPhone 15 family of devices.

Ever since iOS 17 was released in the middle of September we've been hearing various reports of charging strangeness, especially when trying to wirelessly charge iPhones in a car. First, there was an issue that caused the NFC chip to stop working in iPhones that were charged in specific vehicles, including those from BMW and Toyota. Apple later fixed that problem with the iOS 17.1.1 update. But another issue remained.

That issue saw multiple iPhone 15 owners find that their device wouldn't properly charge when placed on their car's wireless charging pad. It wasn't clear why the problem had started, and sometimes the charging process would begin only for it to stop again. No amount of restarting iPhones seemed to fix things, leaving people to charge their iPhones using a cable or not at all.

Last month it was confirmed by General Motors that it was aware of an issue and that it was looking into it, and now MacRumors reports that the upcoming iOS 17.2 update is set to squash this particular bug for once and for all. The iOS 17.2 update is currently in the hands of beta testers and has been for a number of weeks.

Apple has been working on a slew of software updates for release before the end of the year, and while all of the attention might be on the upcoming iOS 17.2 update, the tvOS 17.2 update might actually be one of the biggest changes of all. The software will be released on the Apple TV before Christmas, we expect, and it will remove some of the most familiar apps when it arrives.

That's as confirmed by Apple TV expert Sigmund Judge in a post on X, the social network previously known as Twitter. Judge shared details of what we can expect to see when the tvOS 17.2 update drops and it seems that beyond a newly redesigned interface, there will be plenty going away.

Judge notes that not only will Apple remove the iTunes Movies and iTunes TV Shows apps, but also a number of features including theatrical poster art, library number counts, and user and Rotten Tomatoes reviews. Apple TV owners can also expect to lose the correct display of TV show season, and the display of owned title resolution, too.

Some of those using Google Drive's desktop app experienced a very worrying issue recently - namely a chunk of files disappearing from their cloud storage locker - but the good news is that there's now a fix.

As flagged up by The Verge, Google outlined the steps you need to take in a support post, giving affected people (some of whom lost six months of files, or more) several options for recovering their files.

By the way, we're told that only a small number of Drive for desktop users were affected (those running version 84 of the app).

The Logitech G Astro A50X Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Headset is the company's new flagship audio product, and it's a headset and base station combo that features the new and unique PLAYSYNC technology. It works like an A/V receiver for a home theatre setup - you connect the HDMI 2.1 from your PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and USB-C from your PC into the base station that handles seamless and quick switching between devices. Plus, it charges the headset.

With audio signals carried over HDMI 2.1 for default console audio output, it's an interesting and clever way to add support for multiple devices and the ability to switch between them without having to sync up dongles or deal with different wireless protocols. Granted, it makes the base station quite high-tech as it supports full HDMI 2.1 passthrough (with 4K 120Hz HDR, VRR, and ALLM).

With the base station handling all audio processing and passthrough, audio will automatically switch back to the TV side when you're not using the headset. Again, it's a unique and impressive wireless audio solution for gamers with multiple devices - but it's also costly.

In 2020, Meta, which at the time was called Facebook, announced it was going to merge direct-messaging between Instagram and Messenger, in a bid to unify the instant messaging experience. Now, three years later, the company is moving to disconnect it.

The severing of chatting across Instagram and Messenger comes from a new support page update that states cross-app chatting between the two aforementioned apps will no longer be available as of "mid-December 2023".

The support page details what the end of support (EOS) means for users that were taking advantage of the feature; users won't be able to start new conversations or calls with Facebook accounts from Instagram, existing chats will become read-only, Facebook accounts won't be able to view your Activity Status or "seen" in messages, and any existing chats with Facebook accounts will move to your inbox on Facebook or Messenger.

NASA has taken to its blog to announce that 25 years ago, on December 6, the first two modules of the International Space Station (ISS) connected, beginning the space station assembly era.

The space agency has taken to its website to give a brief summary of the events that took place to create what we call today the International Space Station. NASA explains that the two modules, Zarya and Unity, were mated during the STS-88 mission of the space shuttle Endeavour.

The space agency writes that Endeavour's Canadarm robotic arm grappled to Zarya, which had been in orbit for two weeks at that time, and connected it to Unity, which was stowed within Endeavor's payload.

At the end of October 2023, a new island appeared on the surface of the Pacific Seas off Japan, and now satellites have imaged its continuous growth.

The new island has been officially called Niijima, which translates to "new island" in Japanese. According to the University of Tokyo, the new island was caused by an underwater volcanic eruption that occurred on October 21, 2023, and then on October 30, magma interacted with the ocean water, producing a massive explosion. This interaction created massive rock chunks several feet long, with reports indicating some were hurled more than 160 feet into the air.

The European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite snapped the below image of the new island on November 27, which shows the underwater volcanic activity is still proceeding. On November 27, the Japan Coast Guard took to X to share footage of the island being rocked by a following volcanic eruption, which is still ongoing. Notably, Japan Meteorological Agency's volcanic division expert Yuji Usui spoke to AP and said that the survival of Niijima may depend on its rock composition.

HBO's House of the Dragon season 2 will be released in the Summer of 2024, and ahead of the new season, the creator of the books, George R. R. Martin, has warned the new season may make you cry.

The writer of the famed series Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, took to his blog called "Not a Blog" and revealed he has seen the first two episodes of the new House of the Dragon season, expected to be released sometime in the summer of 2024. According to Martin, the first two episodes he saw were only "rough cuts," but from what he saw, he can distill that they are "dark, mind you. Very dark." Additionally, Martin warned, "They may make you cry. (I did not cry myself, but one of my friends did)."

Furthermore, Martin described both of the episodes as emotional, gut-wrenching, and heart-rendering, which he says is "just the sort of thing I like". For those that aren't familiar with House of the Dragon and have only seen Game of Thrones - House of the Dragon is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones and is based on Martin's book Fire & Blood, which tells the story of House Targaryen.

A new paper published on November 30 in the journal Science details the discovery of a planet that is more than 13 times as massive as Earth.

What is interesting about this planet's discovery is that it shouldn't exist, or at least according to the researchers from Penn State University that discovered it, as this massive planet is orbiting an "ultracool" star called LHS 3154, which is only one-ninth the size of our Sun. The mass ratio between the newly discovered massive planet and the star LHS 3154 is more than 100 times the mass ratio between Earth and the Sun.

The press release posted on the Penn State website states that the discovery of this planet orbiting the coolest and smallest star in the universe goes against current theories that would predict planet formation around small stars. Notably, this discovery marks the first time a planet with such a high mass has been discovered orbiting such a low-mass star.