Nanoleaf is one of my favorite brands in terms of smart home lighting. They offer not only smart light bulbs and uniquely customizable LED wall ornamentation, but also outdoor lighting and indoor fixtures, among other things.

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This week, Nanoleaf announced permanent discounts to many of the brand’s best-selling products as a part of what they call the SmarterLife Pricing Initiative. These permanent discounts apply to things like Nanoleaf’s modular Shapes, Lines, Elements, and Blocks lighting, among other things.

During a time when it seems like the cost of everything is just going up, the announcement of lowered prices on popular products is a welcomed change. In fact, we expect that it will help Nanoleaf to become more approachable by those on the fence about trying smart home lighting.

In terms of just how much prices have been reduced, Nanoleaf says they’ve been able to slash prices on certain products by as much as 36%, which is nothing to scoff at. Best of all, the lower prices are available starting today, February 18^th, 2025.

“The economic climate has made affordability a key concern for many consumers. At Nanoleaf, we believe that lighting should be an extraordinary everyday experience, not just a luxury,” elaborated Gimmy Chu, Nanoleaf’s CEO and co-founder.

“Innovation and technology has always been at the heart of what we do, so we knew it was imperative that lower prices did not mean lower quality. We’ve had to completely reoptimize our company structures as a whole the past two years, and with our team’s dedication and commitment to achieving this goal, we’re proud to introduce SmarterLife Pricing—making Nanoleaf products more accessible for everyone in our community.”

You can browse Nanoleaf’s website to see what some of the lower prices look like. But for those wanting the search to be easier, we’ll include some of our favorite Nanoleaf items that have lower prices going forward below:

• Blocks Combo XL Smarter Kit – previously $250, now just $199.99
• Blocks Squares Smarter Kit (6 panels) – previously $200, now just $179.99
• Skylight Smarter Kit (12-pack) – previously $880, now just $829.90
• Skylight Smarter Kit (9-pack) – previously $670, now just $619.93
• Skylight Smarter Kit (6-pack) – previously $460, now just $409.96
• Skylight Smarter Kit (4-pack) – previously $320, now just $269.98
• Skylight Smarter Kit (3-pack) – previously $250, now just $199.99
• Lines 60 Degrees Smarter Kit with Black Skins (9-pack) – previously $220, now just $179.99
• Lines 60 Degrees Smarter Kit with Black Skins (18-pack) – previously $440, now just $319.96
• Lines 60 Degrees Smarter Kit with Pink Skins (9-pack) – previously $220, now just $179.99
• Lines 60 Degrees Smarter Kit with Pink Skins (18-pack) – previously $440, now just $319.96
• Lines 60 Degrees Smarter Kit (9-pack) – previously $200, now just $159.99
• Lines 60 Degrees Smarter Kit (12-pack) – previously $270, now just $209-98
• Lines 60 Degrees Smarter Kit (15-pack) – previously $300, now just $229.99
• Lines 60 Degrees Smarter Kit (18-pack) – previously $370, now just $279.98
• Lines 60 Degrees Smarter Kit (21-pack) – previously $460, now just $354.96
• Lines 90 Degrees Smarter Kit (10-pack) – previously $220, now just $159.99
• Lines 90 Degrees Expansion Pack (3 pack) – previously $70, now just $49.99
• Lines 60 Degrees Expansion pack (3-pack) – previously $70, now just $49.99
• Elements Hexagons Smarter Kit (7-pack) – previously $250, now just $199.99
• Elements Hexagons Smarter Kit (10-pack) – previously $330, now just $259.98
• Elements Hexagons Smarter Kit (13-pack) – previously $490, now just $379.96
• Elements Hexagons Expansion Pack (3-pack) – previously $80, now just $59.99
• Shapes Ultra Black Hexagons Smarter Kit (9-pack) – previously $220, now just $189.99
• Shapes Ultra Black Hexagons Smarter Kit (12-pack) – previously $290, now just $239.98
• Shapes Ultra Black Hexagons Smarter Kit (15-pack) – previously $360, now just $289.97
• Shapes Ultra Black Hexagons Smarter Kit (18-pack) – previously $430, now just $339.96
• Shapes Ultra Black Triangles Smarter Kit (9-pack) – previously $220, now just $189.99
• Shapes Ultra Black Triangles Smarter Kit (15 pack) – previously $360, now just $289.97
• Shapes Ultra Black Triangles Smarter Kit (18-pack) – previously $430, now just $339.96
• Shapes Hexagons Smarter Kit (7-pack) – previously $200, now just $149.99
• Shapes Hexagons Smarter Kit (10-pack) – previously $270, now just $199.98
• Shapes Hexagons Smarter Kit (13-pack) – previously $340, now just $249.97
• Shapes Hexagons Smarter Kit (16-pack) – previously $410, now just $299.96
• Shapes Triangles Smarter Kit (7-pack) – previously $200, now just $149.99
• Shapes Triangles Smarter Kit (10-pack) – previously $270, now just $199.98
• Shapes Triangles Smarter Kit (13-pack) – previously $340, now just $249.97
• Shapes Triangles Smarter Kit (16-pack) – previously $410, now just $299.96
• Shapes Triangles & Mini Triangles Smarter Kit (17-pack) – previously $250, now just $159.99
• Shapes Ultra Black Hexagons Expansion Pack (3-pack) – previously $70, now just $49.99
• Shapes Ultra Black Triangles Expansion Pack (3-pack) – previously $70, now just $49.99
• Shapes Hexagons Expansion Pack (3-pack) – previously $70, now just $49.99
• Shapes Triangles Expansion Pack (3-pack) – previously $70, now just $49.99

As you can see, the savings is quite extensive. If you’re already a proud Nanoleaf smart light owner and have ornamental lighting on your wall, then now might be the perfect time to expand your design for less.

Be sure to head over to Nanoleaf’s website and see if any of the newly-priced products might fit your budget.

Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2025/02/18/nanoleaf-smarterlife-pricing-initiative/

WhatsApp is testing automatically clearing the unread message count badge on its icon every time you open the app to reduce clutter on your Home Screen.

WABetsInfo first reported about this. Meta is currently testing the new setting in the WhatsApp Beta for iOS and Android. It’s available to some beta testers and will be rolled out to more people over the coming days.

Those who already have the upcoming feature and are using the WhatsApp Beta via TestFlight can select the Settings tab and open the Notifications section. Here, you’ll find a switch labeled “Clear Badge” under the new Home Screen Notifications reading. When this toggle is enabled, WhatsApp will automatically clear the notification count on its Home Screen icon whenever you open the app.

WhatsApp will clear its unread message count badge

The feature’s description reads, “Your Home Screen badge clears completely after every time you open the app.” The icon badge clears itself whether you’ve read unread messages. In other words, this setting ensures WhatsApp’s icon badge only displays the number of unread messages since you last opened the app, “providing an ongoing snapshot of what still needs attention,” says WABetaInfo.

In other words, the badge won’t reflect your older unread messages already acknowledged. Instead, you’ll start fresh with a zero unread message count every time you use the app, making it much easier to keep track of new messages.

Conversely, disabling the toggle ensures the badge count is refreshed after each view rather than cleared. This is how the app currently works. In other words, turning off the Clear Badge setting will prompt WhatsApp to display the number of all missed calls and unread messages you have, new or old, on its icon badge.

View WhatsApp on the App Store

Meta has been testing other WhatsApp features recently, including showing Instagram profiles and other social media links on user profiles, support for logging into multiple accounts on a single iPhone a more. As of recently, WhatsApp supports Meta’s single sign-on login, meaning the app is now available alongside Facebook, Instagram and Quest as a login option in Meta’s Accounts Center

I find those icon badges annoying

The upocming WhatsApp toggle is a smart feature, I wish more apps would adopt it. Waking up to a Home Screen littered with red icon badges gives me instant anxiety, and the first thing I usually do before even getting out of bed is open apps and mark notifications as read, which prompts apps to clear their badge count.

That’s especially the case with messaging apps, which bombard me with dozens of notifications on any given day. I don’t respond to every text right away; some messages can wait until tomorrow. What I don’t want is for yesterday’s unread messages to increase the badge count. I don’t have this setting yet, but I will make sure to use it when WhatsApp rolls it out to all users.

The icon badge is available to all apps that choose to support it. The little red dot in the corner of apps’ Home Screen icons with a white digit inside indicating the number of unread notifications—that’s your icon badge. You see a badge on the Phone app’s icon when you have missed calls. Similarly, the Messages app shows the number of unread messages on its icon badge.

Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2025/02/18/whatsapp-unread-message-count-automatic-clear-test/

One of the most popular products that our friends at Nomad have ever sold is their keychain-friendly ChargeKey, which provides end users with a convenient mobile charging cable that you can effortlessly put on your keyring so that you always have a way to charge your devices.

Note: Purchases made on this page help support iDownloadBlog. We may earn a small commission when you complete a purchase from affiliate links shared on our website.

Today, ChargeKey received a significant upgrade with the release of ChargeKey 2.0, and it’s something that most users won’t want to miss.

ChargeKey 2.0 retains the same convenience of a portable charging cable as the original ChargeKey but includes subtle design and usability improvements that bring the connectors up to speed with the rest of Nomad’s redesigned cable lineup.

While the original ChargeKey supported fast-charging up to 60W, the newer ChargeKey 2.0 supports fast-charging up to 240W, making it an effective charging cable for some of the most power-hungry devices today, including Apple’s M4 Max MacBook Pro.

In addition to faster charging speeds, ChargeKey 2.0 gets a data speed bump. The original ChargeKey, intended as a charging cable, only provided USB 2.0 speeds of 480Mbps, but since more and more users are data conscious today, Nomad has bumped the speed up in ChargeKey 2.0 to USB 3.1 speeds of 10Gbps.

This effectively turns ChargeKey 2.0 into a powerful portable charging solution and data connection, which makes it easier to connect things like portable SSDs and digital cameras to your computers and devices with no discernible drop in performance when compared to using your traditional data cables at home.

With its metal cable housings and braided nylon cable design, you can expect ultimate durability from Nomad’s ChargeKey 2.0. Another feature we love is how the metal cable housings magnetically attach to one another, preventing them from flopping around on your keyring and reducing wear and tear generated by friction.

Thanks to the now universally-accepted USB-C connectors on both ends, the new ChargeKey 2.0 is compatible with most of your devices – even your brand-new iPhone. It’s something that you’ll never want to leave home without.

Despite all the upgrades that come with ChargeKey 2.0, Nomad hasn’t attached a 2.0 price. The latest iteration retains the same $25 MSRP as the original, making it a super affordable option for most people who need a convenient on-the-go travel cable that doesn’t take up any space in their bag.

You can pick one up today from Nomad’s website.

Are you planning to add a Nomad ChargeKey 2.0 to your kit? Let us know why or why not in the comments section down below.

Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2025/02/18/nomad-launches-chargekey-v2-with-usb-c-240w-power-delivery-10gbps-data-transfer-speeds/

Apple’s AI image generation model, Image Playground, suffers from clear racial and social biases because it struggles to identify skin tones and hair texture.

Image Playground is part of the Apple Intelligence suite of AI tools available on compatible iPhones, iPads and Macs. The feature only provides two drawing styles: Animation or Illustration. Furthermore, Image Playground can only create faces in cartoony styles to minimize any biases. Nevertheless, the feature has been found to exhibit racial issues when creating images of people from prompts.

Machine learning scientist Jochem Gietema tested the Image Playground and found that it struggles to properly identify skin tone and hair texture. He discovered this by feeding the feature his face shot as a starting point, then using a series of prompts to try to influence the skin tone of the resulting image.

Apple’s cartoony image generator has some bias issues

“In some images,” Gietema writes on his blog, “my skin tone gets significantly darker, and my hair changes quite a bit as if Image Playground doesn’t know what facial features are present in the image.”

Image Playground produced stylized images of his face with whiter tones when prompted with adjectives such as “affluent, rich, successful, prosperous and opulent.” It used darker skin tones for prompts containing the adjectives “poor, impoverished, needy, indigent, penniless, destitute and disadvantaged.”

He found similar racial-driven biases with prompts focused on sports, jobs, music, dance, and clothing style. Unfortunately, Apple hasn’t open-sourced Image Playground’s AI model so researchers could examine it more closely.

Image Playground cannot be used for deepfakes

Apple hasn’t brought a photo-realistic style to Image Playground because it didn’t want the tool to create deepfakes that could hurt its public image and tarnish its brand. Other guardrails are in place. For example, you cannot prompt Image Playground with negative words or upload pictures of celebrities.

All AI image generators are prone to racial biases. Even the biggest ones like Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion and OpenAI’s DALL·E are prone to common stereotypes. As in, researchers found that both tools associate the word “American” with wealth, the word “Africa” with poverty and the word “poor” with dark skin tones.

AI image generators tend to give racist and sexist results

Racial bias isn’t intentionally programmed into AI image generators. Instead, racial and social bias is caused by a lack of diversity in the models’ training datasets. However, it’s unclear whether prompt engineering could be used to counteract biases in data sets and improve the results. Improving the data sets themselves to reduce racial bias might be a better way to tackle this problem.

We’re only in the first stages of the AI revolution. Much of this is uncharted territory, with AI companies such as OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and others constantly learning from their mistakes and making adjustments. I’m convinced racial biases won’t be an issue for AI image generation a few years from now.

Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2025/02/18/image-playground-racial-bias-issue/