Aidan Gomez, the co-founder and CEO of generative AI startup Cohere, has joined the board of EV maker Rivian, according to a regulatory filing. The appointment is the latest sign that Rivian sees promises in applying AI to its own venture while positioning itself as a software leader — and even provider — within the automotive industry.
Rivian increased the size of the board and elected Gomez, whose term will expire in 2026, according to the filing.
Gomez has had a long career as a data scientist and AI expert. He launched Cohere in 2019 with co-founders Nick Frosst and Ivan Zhang with a focus on training AI foundation models for enterprises. The generative AI startup sells its services to companies such as Oracle and Notion.
Prior to starting Cohere, Gomez was a researcher at Google Brain, the deep learning division at Google led by Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton. Gomez is also known for “Attention Is All You Need,” a 2017 technical paper he co-authored that laid the foundation for many of the most capable generative AI models today.
Gomez’s skill set could be particularly useful for Rivian as the EV maker navigates a new $5.8 billion joint venture with Volkswagen Group to develop software. Under the joint venture, Rivian will share its electrical architecture expertise with Volkswagen Group — including its many brands — and is expected to license existing intellectual property rights to the joint venture.
It’s possible the joint venture will sell its tech to other companies in the future.
Rivian has also been working on an AI assistant for its EVs since 2023, Rivian’s chief software officer, Wassym Bensaid, told TechCrunch during an interview in March. The AI work, which is specifically on the orchestration layer or framework for an AI assistant, sits outside the joint venture with VW, Bensaid mentioned at the time.
Gomez’s expertise in AI and as a data scientist is clearly attractive to Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe, who noted in a statement that his “thinking and expertise will support Rivian as we integrate new, cutting-edge technologies into our products, services, and manufacturing.”
We’re not advising anybody to panic, but things are a little intense in the world right now. No matter what your situation, having a little extra home security is a smart choice. These Wi-Fi cameras feature day and night vision, motion detection, intelligent alerts, two-way audio, and tons of other features. We’ve hunted down discounts from leading brands like Ring, Euf,y and Kasa on well-reviewed items. Here are eight of the top smart security camera deals for April.
The Hottest Smart Camera Deals for April
Indoor Smart Camera Deals
Whether you’re keeping an eye on a sleeping baby, a mischievous pet, or anything else, these cameras deliver solid performance at good prices. They’re unobtrusive and power-efficient, able to be placed on bookshelves, mounted on walls, or otherwise hidden. Here are some nice price cuts on indoor smart cameras.
Credit: Amazon
Ring Indoor Cam
Amazon owns two different security camera companies for some reason, but their Ring products are universally affordable and feature-filled. The Ring Indoor Cam is a multi-purpose cylinder that PCMag said “delivered clear video and accurate motion detection in our tests, and remains an excellent camera for keeping an eye on the inside of your home” in its review, with reliable color 1080p footage day and night, along with easy integration with Amazon Alexa and IFTTT devices. A 42% discount is exceptional.
Credit: Amazon
Eufy Security Indoor Cam 220 (2-Pack)
PCMag gave an Editors’ Choice to the Eufy E220 indoor camera in its review, raving that it comes “equipped with the type of high-end features you typically find on more expensive models, including mechanical pan and tilt, high-resolution video, automatic motion tracking, and intelligent motion and sound detection,” and praising its easy integration with multiple home automation platforms including Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit and Google Assistant. With simple installation and simple USB power connections, you can put one just about anywhere and have it work right away.
Credit: Amazon
Kasa Indoor Pan/Tilt Smart Security Camera
The globe-shaped housing of this thrifty little room monitor allows it to move around extensively at your remote command, focusing on suspicious areas with ease. PCMag reviewed the Kasa Indoor Pan/Tilt Smart Security Camera, saying it “delivered very sharp 2K video in testing, with bright and saturated colors during the day.” The companion app is a breeze to use, with easy mechanical pan and tilt controls as well as two-way audio and real-time motion and sound detection. It also integrates with smart home networks so you can do things like turn lights on when the camera picks up motion.
Credit: Amazon
Furbo Mini Pet Camera
If you want a camera designed to track your household animals, the Furbo Mini is a solid pick. This is the company’s pint-sized version of its technology, but it doesn’t skimp on functionality and looks stylish. With full HD video and a damage-free wall mount, you can watch your dog or cat day and night. Audio alerts notice when your pet is meowing and barking and send push notifications to your phone; two-way audio lets you calm them down until you get home. An optional Furbo Nanny subscription adds even more functionality, and at $25 off, this camera is a great deal.
Outdoor Smart Camera Deals
Credit: Amazon
Eufy Security SoloCam S220
Powering an outdoor security camera typically involves either running power out to the unit or swapping out a battery every so often. But what if there were another way? Eufy has several solar-powered security cameras that get everything they need from renewable energy, and the tiny, wire-free SoloCam S220 is robust and powerful. Installation is a breeze, requiring just a single hole drilled to mount the unit, and the Eufy app lets you tap into it at any time, as well as sends you motion alerts, with no subscription necessary. Amazon is offering a 46% discount.
Credit: Amazon
Arlo Pro 5S Outdoor Security Camera (4-Pack)
Need to cover all the angles on your property? This is a ridiculously good deal that shaves 38% off of four excellent Arlo Pro 5S 2K cameras. PCMag reviewed this model and gushed over its speedy dual-band Wi-Fi compatibility, simple installation, and intelligent alerts. It integrates easily with tons of third-party smart home systems and supports voice commands through Alexa and Google Assistant. A redesigned battery gives you six months between charges, or eight months in low-power mode. The 4MP HDR camera offers 12x digital zoom and a 160-degree field of view.
Credit: Amazon
Blink Outdoor 4 Security Camera (5-Pack)
Amazon’s Blink line of security cameras is solid, and its most recent outdoor camera is a compact and functional unit that boasts long battery life and lots of cool features. In PCMag’s review of the Blink Outdoor 4, the site said that it “lets you affordably monitor outdoor areas without having to run any wires,” praising its 143-degree field of view, sharp 1080p video, and compatibility with Alexa voice commands. Motion alerts are accurate and instantaneous, and with an optional Sync Module, you can store video to a local USB drive. Right now you can get a set of five cameras for 50% off.
Credit: Amazon
TP-Link Tapo 2K QHD Outdoor Security Camera
Not a mammoth discount, but even saving $10 is a nice incentive for this durable and reliable outdoor camera. Capturing full 2K video, the TP-Link Tapo Outdoor Camera can withstand all kinds of bad weather thanks to its IP66 water and dust rating. The footage it captures can be transmitted to the cloud or stored on an internal SD card. Dual integrated spotlights and an 850 nm IR sensor combine to give you nearly 100 feet of visibility at night, and a built-in siren lets you scare off any evildoers.
Frequently Asked Smart Security Camera Questions
Do Smart Security Cameras Need Wi-Fi?
In general, smart security cameras that deliver alerts to your phone or other devices will need to be integrated into your Wi-Fi network to work. However, there are models on the market that do not. Some can connect through a LTE wireless data plan, and others use exclusively local storage. That said, for the most comprehensive coverage you’ll want cameras that connect to your home network.
How Long Do Smart Cameras Store Footage?
The amount of time footage is stored depends on the storage mechanism used by the cameras. For cameras with internal storage on an SD card or a remote hub, that amount is determined by the size of the card or drive. For cameras with cloud-based storage subscriptions, typically a larger amount of data is stored. For example, Amazon’s Ring subscription plan lets you store all of your video for up to 180 days.
What’s the Difference Between Indoor and Outdoor Smart Cameras?
Both indoor and outdoor cameras share many features, including motion detection and notifications. Indoor cameras are typically smaller and more lightweight, while outdoor cameras are sturdier with more protection from the elements. Outdoor cameras often also incorporate spotlight features to illuminate the area they cover.
The first week of the Meta antitrust trial brought new revelations about how the company formerly known as Facebook approached the competitive threat posed by Instagram in the early 2010s.
The U.S. government is accusing Meta of violating competition laws by acquiring companies like Instagram and WhatsApp that threatened the Facebook monopoly. If lawyers for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are successful, the government could force Meta to break up its business by selling off Instagram and WhatsApp.
As part of the trial, the FTC shared compelling evidence to demonstrate that Facebook was very much aware of the risk Instagram created for its business as the photo-sharing app grew in popularity. In documents containing Facebook’s internal emails, Facebook execs fret over Instagram’s growth and discuss how much to pay for the app, if Facebook were to acquire it.
The company execs also discuss other strategies for limiting Instagram’s growth, including copying its functionality and releasing an app of their own, or buying the app and then no longer adding new features to it while working on its own products.
Facebook’s strategy to either buy or bury its competition is on display in these conversations, according to the government’s arguments. In addition to showing how the company was thinking about its competition at the time, the messages are indicative of the cutthroat strategies that have allowed Meta to become the social networking behemoth it is today.
Some of the highlights from these messages are below.
Mark Zuckerberg and others worry about Instagram’s rapid growth
“Instagram seems like it’s growing quickly. In 4 months they’re up to 2m users and 30k daily photo uploads. That’s a lot. We need to track this closely. Also, apparently Dropbox’s next big push is going to be in photo sharing.” — Mark Zuckerberg, February 2011
“If Instagram continues to kick ass on mobile, or if Google buys them, then over the next few years they could easily add pieces of their service that copy what we’re doing now, and if they have a growing number of people’s photos then that’s a real issue for us. They’re growing extremely quickly right now. It seems like they double every couple of months or so, and their base is already ~5-10m users. As soon as we launch a compelling product a lot of people will use ours more and future Instagram users will find no reason to use them. But at the current rate, literally every couple of months that we waste translates to a double in their growth and a harder position for us to work our way out of.” — Mark Zuckerberg, September 2011
“The photos team is now focused almost exclusively on a new mobile photo app as we gawk at Instagram’s simple photo-sharing app taking off (and even our own app sees fat growth … mobile uploads increased to 17.7M day, +5.3 w/w). Like Beluga, watching these guys explode validates our strategy of de-cluttering our mobile experience and offering standalone messaging and photos products outside from the monolithic app garden.” — Chris Cox, chief product officer, February 2011
“One concerning trend is that a huge number of people are using Instagram every day — including everyone ranging from non-technical high school friends to even FB employees — and they’re only uploading some of their photos to FB. This creates a huge hole for us and one that I’m sure anything we’re going to do on platform or with social dynamics will completely solve.” — Mark Zuckerberg, February 2012
Facebook considers an Instagram acquisition, stopping its development and growth
“I wonder if we should consider buying Instagram, even if it costs ~500M. Right now they seem to have two things that we don’t: a really good camera and a photo-centric sharing network.” — Mark Zuckerberg, February 2012
“I think it’s quite possible that our initial thesis was wrong and theirs is right — that what people want is more to take the best photos than to put them on FB … we might want to consider paying a lot of money for this.” — Mark Zuckerberg, February 2012
“I actually think that there is a serious argument to be made that we should buy Path, Pinterest, Instagram, Evernote, and whomever else we really admire/are doing great things right now if (1) we can structure it in a way that we keep their products up & running but transition the teams to working on FB proper; (2) we think the people deeply care about building great things and we think we can lock them up for 4+ years to work on our platform.” — Samuel W. Lessin (former Facebook VP of Product), corresponding with Mark Zuckerberg in February 2012
“I think what we’d do is keep their product running and just not add more features to it, and focus future development on our products, including building all of their camera features into ours. By not killing their products we prevent everyone from hating us and we make sure we don’t immediately create a hole in the market for someone else to fill, but all future development would go towards our core products.” — Mark Zuckerberg, February 2012
“One way of looking at this is that what we’re really buying is time. Even if some new competitors springs [sic] up, buying Instagram, Path, Foursquare, etc now will give us a year or more to integrate their dynamics before anyone can get close to their scale again.” — Mark Zuckerberg, February 2012
It’s no secret that T-Mobile is one of the best wireless carriers in the business, offering great coverage and loads of premium perks with some of the best Android deals you’re likely to find anywhere. Whether you’re new to the Big Three carrier or if you’ve been a member for years, I’ve done the work of digging up all of T-Mobile’s best deals of the month so you don’t have to go searching.
I’m talking about offers that could get you the Galaxy S25 Plus for 100% free when you process a trade-in, or this deal that gets you a free Google Pixel 9a when you add an eligible line to your T-Mo account. There are plenty of other deals where those came from, so if you’re looking to make a change to your wireless situation, keep reading for all of the best offers available today.
Patrick Farmer
Patrick Farmer (he/him) is a no-nonsense deal hunter who uses his 10+ years of experience to find the best prices and offer practical shopping advice to our readers. Whether you need a new smartphone, TV, streaming service, or phone carrier, if Patrick recommends a deal, you know it’s worth your attention.
Samsung’s rollout of One UI 7, based on Android 15, has experienced a big delay after the initial release was paused due to a bug that affected quite a few devices, especially the Galaxy S24 series. The update started on April 7, 2025, in Korea and was supposed to reach the US and other regions by April 10.
However, just three days into the process, Samsung halted the update and removed related announcements, saying the schedule was being updated to give users the best possible experience. The company has not given a specific reason for stopping the update, but user reports say the bug made it hard for some Galaxy S24 owners to unlock their phones.
A revised rollout schedule has now surfaced, reportedly from the Samsung Members app and shared by a Reddit user, which has now been deleted. According to this probable timeline, the Galaxy S24 series, along with the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6, will be the first to get the update option again in April.
The next group has the Galaxy S23 series, Z Fold 5, Z Flip 5, and other eligible phones that will probably get the update in May. The updating process will end with the Galaxy Tab A9, which is set to get One UI 7 in July.
It is still unclear if this schedule will be the same worldwide or if it is specific to certain countries, like India, where the information first appeared, as reported by Android Central. In other regions such as Canada, carrier schedules do not yet list Samsung devices for the update, which could mean further delays.
Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, is slowly bringing its Grok chatbot to parity with top rivals like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
Wednesday night, xAI announced a “memory” feature for Grok that enables the bot to remember details from past conversations. Now, if you ask Grok for recommendations, it’ll give more personalized responses — assuming you’ve used it enough to allow it to “learn” your preferences.
Grok’s new memory feature is available in beta on Grok.com and the Grok iOS and Android apps — but not for users in the EU or U.K. It can be toggled off from the Data Controls page in the settings menu, and individual “memories” can be deleted by tapping the icon beneath the memory from the Grok chat interface on the web (and soon Android).
xAI says that it’s working on bringing the memory feature to the Grok experience on X.
(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)
Android Central Labs is a weekly column devoted to deep dives, experiments, and a focused look into the tech you use. It covers phones, tablets, and everything in between.
I’m a little late in the game, but I finally got my hands on the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE in late March so I could do some additional testing. I enjoy camera deep dives and display analysis for Android Central Labs, and while I fully expected this to be a run-of-the-mill Samsung release, the display really surprised me.
But it’s not the color accuracy or some other “normal” display metric that impressed me. It’s the High Brightness Mode (HBM). This special mode exists on all modern phones and typically turns on when the automatic brightness sensor detects something as bright as sunlight. But the Galaxy S24 FE’s does something different from every other Samsung phone I’ve tested: it switches to DC dimming, unlocking the full brightness potential of the display.
Typically, all Samsung Galaxy phones with AMOLED screens use PWM dimming at all brightness levels, withholding the display’s true maximum brightness level. Not only that, but PWM dimming makes people like me feel awful within just a few minutes, hurting my eyes and giving me a headache. That gives the S24 FE’s HBM a unique advantage that other Samsung phones don’t have, and it makes me wonder why Samsung doesn’t use it more often.
Forcing high brightness mode
(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)
My normal display testing procedure involves a light meter to determine brightness levels and flickering potential, a microscope to see the subpixel arrangement and if the display dithers, and a flashlight to force High Brightness Mode so I can separately measure how a display behaves in the sun.
It was during this flashlight test — where I turn on the torch on a smartphone and hold it near the top of the display — where I found the S24 FE’s special mode kick in. Theoretically, we could make Samsung flagships more eye-friendly by forcing High Brightness Mode on all the time and then using a screen dimmer app to reduce the brightness a different way, but we have to figure out how to force HBM all the time in the first place.
I checked all my usual sources on Reddit, Telegram, and even among other groups of tech journalists and no one seemed to know how other than what I had already done. It’s not exactly viable to walk around holding a flashlight up to your phone, so there had to be another way.
High Brightness Mode is something that only kicks in when a bright light source (like the sun) is shining on the display.
Searching the Google Play Store for apps that do the job returns lots of results. I spent money on several apps but none of them worked. Google has changed a lot on the backend of Android in recent years and system-level functions like HBM aren’t typically accessible to apps without root access, so this was a dead-end.
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So I turned to ADB, the command line solution for all your Android modification needs. I dialed down into /sys/class/backlight/panel and found the max_brightness setting I was looking for. You can force HBM on some Android phones by using a command like “echo 1 >> /sys/class/backlight/panel/max_brightness” to change this setting to 1, which means “enabled.”
Unfortunately, I got a “permission denied” response, which meant I had to have root access to do this. Rooting a Samsung phone is bad news, as it trips Knox security and requires all kinds of tomfoolery to get things working properly again so, yet again, this was a dead-end.
(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)
High Brightness Mode often doubles the display’s peak brightness, unleashing its full potential.
So then I got more desperate. What could possibly trick a sensor into thinking it’s in the sun? I tried applying a piece of foil to the screen, but that didn’t work. Light sensors are passive acceptors of light, not producers, but I hoped the foil would cause some kind of loop by reflecting the display and causing it to think it was under brighter lighting conditions. Oh well.
Maybe taping an LED to the screen and covering it would work? Sure, this was a potential solution but it not only requires some kind of external power supply for the LED, but it’s obviously not a full-time solution as it’s both bulky and trashy looking.
No, the only real solution is for Samsung to allow users to enable High Brightness Mode manually, something we’d have to petition en-masse to achieve.
High brightness, full potential
(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)
The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE’s high brightness mode is the only AMOLED-powered Samsung Galaxy phone I have in my posession that switches away from PWM dimming to DC dimming. If you’re not familiar with PWM dimming, here’s the quick gist.
AMOLED has the ability to quickly turn on and off its pixels, delivering better motion resolution with little to no ghosting, unlike some LCD panels. But AMOLED also has a problem: reducing voltage can sometimes introduce lower color accuracy and random noise patterns. Engineers have cleverly borrowed pulse width modulation (PWM) from other types of electronics — like fans and pumps — which turns the voltage off and on to “regulate” the amount sent to the component.
On the display side, this essentially turns your phone’s display into a strobe light. Normally, you can’t see this strobing because it’s done so quickly. Instead, your eyes perceive the display as brighter or dimmer depending on how long the display stays off during this flickering behavior.
(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)
But while this behavior ensures better color accuracy and smoother details in some circumstances, it also introduces negative health effects and artificially limits the maximum brightness of your phone’s display. Flagship Samsung phones like the Galaxy S24 Ultra and Galaxy S25 Ultra never reach their actual maximum brightness potential because they use PWM dimming at all times, even during high brightness mode.
DC-like dimming doesn’t just unlock the display’s full brightness potential, it also makes it more eye-friendly for people sensitive to flickering.
You can see this illustrated in the image above. On the left side, you’ll see what Samsung calls “100% brightness” with the “extra brightness” option enabled. It’s pretty obvious the display isn’t actually outputting “100%” brightness as the thick black lines detected with a 1/6400 camera shutter speed show how long the display stays off during the PWM dimming cycle. Clearly, “100%” in this case is an arbitrary number crafted by Samsung rather than the actual maximum output of the display.
The Galaxy S24 FE on the right is using High Brightness Mode, triggered by me holding a flashlight up to the top of the display for a few seconds. This recreates sunlight conditions and kicks the display up to its actual maximum brightness which, based on my measurements, is double the brightness level of “100%” brightness.
During this special high brightness mode, the display stays on most of the time and doesn’t use the harsh PWM flickering cycle it typically uses at all other brightness levels. This dimming method is known as “DC-like” dimming on OLEDs because it more closely follows how a traditional lightbulb or LCD dims itself, which is substantially more eye-friendly than the artificial methods Samsung typically employs.
(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich / Android Central)
Samsung devices are commonly about being everything to everybody, and it’s time Samsung delivers on that promise with its displays.
It’s actually quite surprising that Samsung doesn’t give users full access to the different brightness modes available, including different dimming options, given the company’s penchant for letting users fully customize their phones.
Instead, Samsung continues to limit its displays in bizarre ways. Not only do you only have access to about half the potential brightness of your display — or less on the Ultra models — but you’re forced to use harmful low-Hz PWM dimming on most Samsung phones.
Samsung, it’s time to give users the full range of choices they want on their displays. That “extra brightness” setting should mean enabling High Brightness Mode, not some arbitrary number you come up with. Users should be allowed to choose the dimming method that works for them, not just the one you decide on an arbitrary basis. Samsung devices are commonly about being everything to everybody, and it’s time Samsung delivers on that promise with its displays.
Samsung has announced two new rugged devices, the Galaxy XCover7 Pro smartphone and the Galaxy Tab Active5 Pro tablet for demanding work environments. These devices are built to be durable, with IP68 water and dust resistance and MIL-STD-810H certification, meaning they can handle drops, extreme temperatures, and vibrations. The XCover7 Pro and Tab Active5 Pro are powered by the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 processor and run on Android 15.
The XCover7 Pro is set to have a 6.6-inch FHD+ display with up to 120Hz refresh rate, a 50MP main camera, and a 4,350mAh user-replaceable battery. The Tab Active5 Pro is called to have a 10.1-inch WUXGA display, an S Pen that works even in wet conditions, and a 10,100mAh battery with dual hot-swap support, such that users can replace batteries without shutting down the device. Both devices support 5G, Wi-Fi 6E, and dual SIM support.
These rugged Samsung devices will come with AI-powered tools like Circle to Search with Google, Object Eraser, and Read Aloud.
The Tab Active5 Pro adds front-facing NFC for payments. Both devices have programmable keys to quickly access important functions like push-to-talk or barcode scanning.
The Galaxy XCover7 Pro and Galaxy Tab Active5 Pro aren’t Samsung’s first rugged devices. Samsung has a long history of launching rugged smartphones and tablets, starting with the original Galaxy XCover in 2011, which was the brand’s first rugged smartphone. The first rugged tablet from Samsung, the Galaxy Tab Active, was revealed in 2014. Since then, Samsung has released quite a few rugged models in both the XCover and Tab Active series, including the XCover6 Pro and Tab Active4 Pro in recent years.
The Galaxy XCover7 Pro will be available starting May 8, 2025, and the Galaxy Tab Active5 Pro will follow in early June 2025.
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AI dev platform Hugging Face has acquired Pollen Robotics, a robotics startup based in France, for an undisclosed amount. Wired reports that Hugging Face plans to sell Pollen’s humanoid robot, Reachy 2, and let developers download and suggest improvements to its code.
Pollen Robotics, which aims to bring affordable humanoid robots to the home, was founded in 2016 by Matthieu Lapeyre and Pierre Rouanet. The company managed to raise €2.5 million (around $2.83 million) from investors including Bpifrance prior to its exit, according to Crunchbase.
If you’ve followed the progress of robotics in the past 18 months, you’ve likely noticed how robotics is increasingly becoming the next frontier that AI will unlock.
At Hugging Face—in robotics and across all AI fields—we believe in a future where AI and robots are open-source,…
The acquisition marks an expansion of Hugging Faces’ robotics efforts, with which Pollen was closely involved. Last year, Hugging Face teamed up with Pollen to build “Le Robot,” and open source robot trained to do a variety of household chores. Hugging Face also established a robotics team led by Remi Cadene, a former robotics engineer from Tesla’s Optimus program.
