Latest Technology

India is planning to speed up testing and safety approvals of electronic devices, including smartphones and earbuds, to reduce their time to market. Currently, it can take as long as 20 weeks to for consumer electronics to pass safety tests — but the new approvals could bring that down to as little as three days. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the country’s nodal agency responsible for setting quality and safety standards, has considered a pilot project to do away with the existing sequential testing model and deploy parallel testing for electronic devices in the South Asian market. As reported by Reuters, the BIS held a meeting this week with officials of India’s technology ministry, industry group MAIT and key electronic hardware industry representatives, including Apple and Samsung, to discuss the project. The BIS and the technology ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. While earbuds are likely to be the first devices to undergo the new testing mo...

Amazon today announced the addition of Ring Intercom to its list of smartphone offerings. The product is designed to be an add-on to existing apartment intercom systems. The company has created a quick online questionnaire to determine whether your existing system will work with the new product. It’s a rare addition targeted specifically at apartment dwellers for a line that’s traditionally gone after homeowners. The company describes its functionality thusly: Ring Intercom utilizes the existing compatible intercom system to trigger encrypted Two-Way Talk via the Ring app, meaning users can only answer calls from someone buzzing their apartment building door. The Ring app makes it easy to tailor specific privacy and security settings, with the ability to manage Shared Users, and enable and revoke access at any time. Operating over Wi-Fi, the system fills a bunch of roles, brining Remote Unlock for trusted users, along with the ability to create a roster of “shared users,” who wil...