Author: Press Room

How to reserve your WhatsApp username so you don’t need to be tied to a phone number

Recently, WhatsApp revealed it would enable users to add others using usernames – breaking the cycle of WhatsApp accounts being tied to a phone number. Interestingly, you won’t be able to browse for other users – you will instead need to know their complete username so they will have to tell you themselves. Although the feature isn’t officially launched yet, WhatsApp is enabling you to reserve your username now, providing someone hasn’t grabbed the same thing already. Reserving a username isn’t currently available on WhatsApp Web or Desktop so you need to use your phone to do it. It’s also…

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Lego Smart Brick eight-months on – here’s how the next-gen Lego blocks are holding up

Back in January, I was crouched on the CES show floor making laser blaster noises with a Lego X-wing, utterly sold on the idea of Lego Smart Brick. Six months on, with the Star Wars launch sets built, tested, and largely gathering dust, and a batch of new Pokémon sets now sitting on my son’s shelf, I’ve got a very different, and much more complete, picture of these new tech-pack bricks. What are Lego Smart Bricks? For anyone catching up – Lego Smart Brick is Lego’s new interactive building system, built around a brick that looks just like a standard…

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Here’s how Starlink works on planes – find out the secret behind brilliant in-flight Wi-Fi

You’re in an aluminium tube, 35,000 feet in the air, doing 550 miles an hour, and somehow you’re streaming a 4K movie better than on your sofa at home. That’s the experience you should get when you fly on a plane equipped with Starlink. Several commercial airlines have now started installing the SpaceX Wi-Fi technology, including Virgin Atlantic, Emirates, United Airlines, Air France, SAS, Qatar and British Airways, to name a few, while others, such as American Airlines and Lufthansa, have announced plans to use it.  Some airlines are further along in their rollouts than others – Virgin has Starlink…

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30 ground-breaking tech events from the past 30 years – how many do you remember?

1996. Ewan McGregor goes swimming in a Scottish toilet, The Spice Girls launch Girl Power and a sheep gets cloned. Oh, and some other things happen too, like the mighty Stuff magazine making its debut. So now the mag’s in the year of its big three-oh, I thought it’d be fun to pick 30 key tech events from the past 30 years, including the launches of revolutionary smartphones, cars, gaming gear and more. And, no, Will Smith dubiously saving the world by uploading a virus from an Apple PowerBook to an alien mothership isn’t one of them. Sorry, Hollywood. DVD spins into view…

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Skipping this year’s iPhone is completely fine – here’s why nobody will judge you for it

Another September softly approaches, another collection of shiny new iPhones, and another nagging suspicion that the perfectly good phone in your pocket has somehow become outdated overnight. Only this year could be different. Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max in September, potentially alongside its first foldable iPhone. The regular iPhone 18, however, reportedly won’t arrive until the first half of 2027. That makes skipping this year’s launch more than an act of admirable financial restraint. If you don’t need a Pro phone, waiting might simply be the most sensible option. The regular…

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This 00 Lego storage system is absolutely ridiculous – but I really, really want it

Right now, my dining table looks like a battlefield. Pelennor Fields, to be precise, because I’m somewhere in the middle of building the Lego Minas Tirith set – 8200-odd pieces of a citadel that seems determined to spread across every flat surface in my house. Grey bricks here, white bricks there, a small mountain of 1×1 plates that easily get lost in the rug. It is, genuinely, one of the best builds I’ve ever attempted. But it is also a little chaotic. So when I stumbled across Brickle – a company that makes what can only be described as furniture-grade…

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I tracked my stress while making an 8000 piece Lego set, and the results are surprising

There are 8278 pieces in the Lego Icons The Lord of the Rings: Minas Tirith set. I know this because I have now touched, sorted, and clicked together a significant proportion of them, and my fingertips have the tiny cuts to prove it. The plan was simple, or at least it sounded simple when I came up with it. Watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy (Extended Edition, of course) back to back, roughly 11 hours and 23 minutes all in, and build the White City of Gondor alongside it, bag by bag, finishing the final brick as Frodo, Bilbo…

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Peloton IQ fixes the one thing that’s bugged me about Peloton since I reviewed the Bike+ so here’s what it is and what it does

Back in 2021, before I reviewed the Bike+, I was a Peloton sceptic. It all seemed entirely unnecessary, from the huge screen and expensive monthly subscription to the over-the-top instructors and pricey hardware. Why not just buy a cheap exercise bike and use an app on your phone? But then I tried it, and like everyone else, I got hooked.  Every week, I chased a higher output score, took part in the leaderboard nonsense, and very quickly learned to appreciate the quality of the instructors (even if some are still a bit much for me). Five years later, my Bike+…

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Here’s when the iPhone 18 release date will be – and why it’ll be different than the iPhone 18 Pro

One of this year’s hottest upcoming phone series is set to debut shortly. Yes, it’s time for the iPhone 18 series, but as you’ll hear, the standard iPhone 18 may debut at a different time than the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max. And there’s also the foldable iPhone Fold set to appear as well. What’s the difference this year? Multiple reports suggest that Apple will break its regular yearly cycle of iPhone launches as it juggles with multiple different models of iPhone and smartphone development slows down year-to-year. It seems we will get a premium-only lineup this year,…

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From Silverstone to your bedroom shelf – how Lego and F1 became the perfect pit-lane partnership

Two years ago, Lego and F1 shook hands on what looked like a fairly standard licensing deal. It’s since turned into one of the most successful partnerships in motorsport (up there with Rust-eze and Lightning McQueen). It started with some Speed Champions sets and a bit of cross-promotion. Job done, right? Instead it’s turned into something far bigger – drivable life-sized cars, a race-ready F1 Academy livery, and helmets so detailed that drivers turned up to the track with them. I’ve been watching F1 since Jenson Button won the title with Brawn GP, and I’ve been playing with Lego for…

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