Amazon’s Zoox officially launched its driverless robotaxi service in Las Vegas with free rides from a few select locations. “Riders will eventually have to pay, but Zoox said it’s waiting on regulatory approval to take that step,” notes CNBC. A broader rollout is expected in the coming months. From the report: … unlike Waymo and Tesla, Zoox’s electric robotaxi doesn’t resemble a car. There’s no steering wheel or pedals, and the rectangular shape has led many in the industry to describe it as a toaster on wheels. Zoox co-founder and technology chief Jesse Levinson says, “We use robotaxi or vehicle or Zoox.” “You can shoehorn a robotaxi into something that used to be a car. It’s just not an ideal solution,” Levinson told CNBC in an interview in Las Vegas. “We wanted to do that hard work and take the time and invest in that, and then bring something to market that’s just much better than a car.”

Zoox was founded in 2014, five years after Google formed the project that became Waymo. Following Las Vegas, the company said it plans to debut an early rider program in San Francisco before the end of the year. The company has been testing a fleet of 50 robotaxis in San Francisco and Las Vegas. Austin and Miami will be Zoox’s next locations, the company said. Zoox will soon begin testing robotaxis in those markets, and said it’s already driving retrofitted test vehicles in Los Angeles, Atlanta and Seattle. “We think it’s very, very early days, and the future is not written yet,” said Levinson, during a demo ride with CNBC.

Zoox’s Las Vegas depot spans 190,000 square feet, which is about the size of three football fields. At the facility, the company houses the dozens of vehicles set to start operating around the city. Smartphone users will be able to order them from Top Golf, Area15, Resorts World Las Vegas, New York-New York Hotel & Casino and Luxor Hotel & Casino. The robotaxi features two rows of seats that face each other and can transport up to four people at a time. The front and rear are identical, with bidirectional wheels that allow it to move forward or backward without turning around. The vehicle can run for 16 hours on a single charge. Floor-to-ceiling windows provide a sightseeing experience for passengers who want a clear view of the endless rows of casinos. But the interior design is meant to enable easy conversation with fellow riders. “It’s not a retrofitted car,” said Zoox CEO Aicha Evans. “It’s built from the ground up around the rider.”

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U.S. officials issued an advisory warning that foreign-made solar-powered highway infrastructure may contain hidden radios embedded in inverters and batteries. Reuters reports: The advisory, disseminated late last month by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration, comes amid escalating government action over the presence of Chinese technology in America’s transportation infrastructure. The four-page security note, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, said that undocumented cellular radios had been discovered “in certain foreign-manufactured power inverters and BMS,” referring to battery management systems.

The note, which has not previously been reported, did not specify where the products containing undocumented equipment had been imported from, but many inverters are made in China. There is increasing concern from U.S. officials that the devices, along with the electronic systems that manage rechargeable batteries, could be seeded with rogue communications components that would allow them to be remotely tampered with on Beijing’s orders. […]

The August 20 advisory said the devices were used to power a range of U.S. highway infrastructure, including signs, traffic cameras, weather stations, solar-powered visitor areas and warehouses, and electric vehicle chargers. The risks it cited included simultaneous outages and surreptitious theft of data. The alert suggested that relevant authorities inventory inverters across the U.S. highway system, scan devices with spectrum analysis technology to detect any unexpected communications, disable or remove any undocumented radios, and make sure their networks were properly segmented.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motor1: BMW watched from the sidelines as Audi, Porsche, Mercedes, Volvo, and others announced lofty EV goals a few years ago, only to backtrack in recent months. Munich never vowed to go fully electric within a set timeframe, instead preferring to give customers the freedom of choice. It projects demand will be evenly split between gas and electric cars by 2030, but Bavaria hasn’t committed to a combustion-free future. The company maintains its desire to give people what they want rather than artificially restricting powertrains to EVs, as the European Union plans for 2035. In an interview with Australian magazine CarExpert, Chief Technology Officer Joachim Post argued it should ultimately come down to buyers, not the EU: “Finally, the customer decides.”

Provided the ban takes effect in a little over nine years, the board member fears it could have massive repercussions: “If the European Commission is going to say they have a plan to cut the combustion engine in 2035, they’re not asking the customers and how [EV charging] infrastructure is coming up, how the energy prices are and all the things there. It’s stupid to do that in that way. And you can kill an industry doing it that way.”

His concerns are echoed by Mercedes CEO Ola Kallenius, who recently warned the European car industry is “heading at full speed against a wall” and could even “collapse” if the EU doesn’t reconsider. The statement came shortly after Stuttgart’s boss admitted the company had to make a “course correction” to keep combustion engines longer than initially planned. Mercedes continues to invest in conventional powertrains, and there’s even a completely new V-8 from AMG on the way. The report notes that BMW continues to generate strong profits from its combustion engines, ranging from three-, four-, six-, and eight-cyclinder engines to a Rolls-Royce V-12 — even supplying rivals like Toyota and possibly soon Mercedes.

In fact, the “M” in BMW stands for “Motoren” (German for “engine”).

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This is a 3D visualization created by Youtube channel RED SIDE featuring the evolution of the fastest wheeled vehicles from 1898 to present. It’s pretty wild to think there was an electric car that could do 39MPH in 1898, and one that could go 65MPH by 1899. Then electric vehicles fell off due to the advancements in gas engine technology, mass production, and the proliferation of gas stations. Now they’re back! Further proof that all technology is cyclical. Page me later?

President Trump on Tuesday issued a memorandum directing the FDA and HHS to crack down on misleading direct-to-consumer prescription drug ads, requiring clearer disclosure of risks and ensuring that promotions don’t overstate benefits or push costly drugs over generics. Longtime Slashdot reader sinij shares an excerpt from the memorandum: The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall therefore take appropriate action to ensure transparency and accuracy in direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising, including by increasing the amount of information regarding any risks associated with the use of any such prescription drug required to be provided in prescription drug advertisements, to the extent permitted by applicable law. The Commissioner of Food and Drugs shall take appropriate action to enforce the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act’s prescription drug advertising provisions, and otherwise ensure truthful and non-misleading information in direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertisements. “Advertising dollars is a major avenue for pharmaceutical companies to influence news and attempt to shape public opinion,” comments sinij. “Advertising was a major contributor to painkiller addiction, where networks were hesitant to cover early reports of addictiveness. It is likely directly contributing today to lack of critical coverage of Ozempic. It is just too big of a conflict of interest to allow to stand.”

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Amazon may be muscling into the field of augmented reality glasses. According to a report by The Information, sources claimed that the company is working on AR glasses for consumers, allegedly with plans to release the product in late 2026 or early 2027.

Insiders told the publication that the project, internally dubbed Jayhawk, would equip AR glasses with microphones, speakers, a camera and a full-color display in one eye. Amazon is reportedly using Chinese company Meta-Bounds for the AR tech.

Amazon is also working on a separate model of AR glasses specifically for its delivery drivers under the codename Amelia. This productivity-focused option, which would reportedly shave seconds off drivers’ times, could be ready by the second quarter of 2026, according to The Information‘s sources.

If Amazon does release these AR sets, it will primarily be in competition with Meta, which already sells simpler smart glasses with Ray-Ban. The social media company is expected to launch a new product currently dubbed Hypernova at its Connect conference next week, a set that pushes more into a true augmented reality experience with a similar one-eye AR concept.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/amazon-is-reportedly-developing-separate-ar-glasses-for-customers-and-its-drivers-230826640.html?src=rss

No, probably not. I can’t remember the last time any jellybean was finger lickin’ good, and I love jellybeans. Even the licorice ones. “You have a sweet tooth?” I have sweet TEETH — all of them. What’s left of them anyways. KFC and Frankford Candy LLC have teamed up to produce KFC jellybeans in fried chicken, sweet corn, and gravy flavors. The beans should be available before Easter next year. Yay? Eat a handful and you’ve got yourself a traditional KFC dinner! Just, you know, without any of the– “Nutrition.” I was going to say grease.

Oracle shares had their best day since 1992, skyrocketing 36% and adding $244 billion in market value as surging AI-driven cloud demand pushed the company toward a $1 trillion valuation. The surge boosted founder Larry Ellison’s fortune by $100 billion, making him the new world’s wealthiest person. CNBC reports: The company said Tuesday after the bell that it has $455 billion in remaining performance obligations, up 359% from a year earlier. “This is a very historic kind of print right here from Oracle with this backlog,” Ben Reitzes, technology research head at Melius Research, told CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime” on Tuesday. “The Street was looking for about $180 billion in RPO and they’re talking about a number that is a multiple of that. That is astounding.”

Oracle now sees $18 billion in cloud infrastructure revenue in fiscal 2026, with the company calling for the annual sum to reach $32 billion, $73 billion, $114 billion and $144 billion over the subsequent four years. Other analysts were left “blown away” and “in shock.” D.A. Davidson’s Gil Luria called it “absolutely staggering on CNBC’s “Fast Money.” Wells Fargo analysts said it was a “momentous confirmation” of the AI trade.

Oracle’s cloud revenue projections overshadowed an otherwise lackluster fiscal first-quarter report in which the company missed expectations on the top and bottom lines. The company had earnings of an adjusted $1.47 per share for the quarter, just below the $1.48 per share expected by analysts polled by LSEG. Revenue for the first quarter came in at $14.93 billion, missing the $15.04 billion expected.

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When the video kicking off Apple’s “Awe dropping” event began yesterday, I was pleased to see a HomePod in the opening shot. I hadn’t given any thought to Apple’s beleaguered smart home speaker in ages, so I was all set for Tim Cook and crew to deliver an actual surprise and reveal new stuff for HomePod. When the entire presentation then passed without another peep about the product, I was disappointed, but resigned.

HomePod has always been behind the curve. When smart speakers first came on the scene, the sector was quickly dominated by Amazon and Google, with Sonos as the boutique third-party option. Apple announced the HomePod in June 2017, almost three years after Amazon unveiled its original Echo speaker. 

The HomePod arrived too slow and cost too much, and (in an echo of the company’s current woes) Siri was too unhelpful, for the smart speaker to really claw back much market share from its rivals. The Mini iteration came out in late 2020, and the second-generation HomePod in February 2023 added support for Thread smart home standard. Not exactly pushing the boundaries of smart speaker innovation.

And things got worse for the poor HomePod as voice-controlled AI assistants have transitioned away from being centered around dedicated speakers. AI is now being integrated ever-more tightly into our smartphones and computers, with less need for a separate intermediary device. Which brings us to the ongoing issue of Apple’s shaky foothold in the AI race.

Apple has been promising a big overhaul to Siri for awhile, with the new and improved version currently not due until spring 2026. To show off that new AI assistant, Apple is reportedly working on an interactive smart home hub that is expected to have HomePod-like audio capabilities baked in, but won’t be ready for launch until at least 2027. What’s a company to do in the interim?

It makes sense for Apple to hold back on any big developments to its existing Siri-centric smart home speaker. I get it. But I could have been hyped to see a stripped down HomePod that focused more on being a speaker than on being smart. I have a Sonos that I love, and part of me assumed that I would eventually upgrade to an Apple offering. The AirPods are such a great element in the Apple ecosystem, and I use mine almost daily. Having a powerful, high-quality home speaker that delivers the easy interconnectivity that’s such a big part of Apple’s value proposition might have helped bridge the time gap, keeping Apple in people’s minds as a player in home tech while the company works on its next, more innovative move. Take one step back to take three steps forward.

In practice, though, it feels like the window for the HomePod to become a star in Apple’s lineup has shrunk to almost nothing. As I now look at the recent trends in AI and home tech, I don’t see an obvious space for a smart speaker. That’s not limited to Apple; it’s also pretty telling that both Amazon and Google haven’t been giving much love to their smart speakers either. In fact, a majority of Engadget’s favorite smart speakers this year are from specialist Sonos as the big tech names have put their focus on AI instead of audio. We’ll still have smart speakers, but they’ll be folded into multi-purpose gadgets and pitched as general smart-home aids. 

To be clear, there’s been no indication that Apple will sunset the HomePod. But my personal prediction is that HomePod will stay on the sidelines for now and get pushed even farther away from the spotlight when the new smart home products are unveiled, receiving only occasional attention until Apple officially and quietly pulls the plug for good. And so will end the life of a star-crossed product that never got the chance to shine at its full potential. Here’s hoping I’m wrong.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/as-apple-pursues-ai-spare-a-thought-for-the-poor-homepod-223250670.html?src=rss

An anonymous reader shares a report: Getting cash from an ATM is growing increasingly expensive as fees reach record highs. Americans are now paying an average of $4.86 for out-of-network ATM withdrawals, up 1.9% from $4.77 last year, according to a new survey from Bankrate.com. That’s the highest on record, according to the personal finance website, which starting tracking ATM fees 27 years ago.

“ATM fees are just one of those avenues that the bank can very freely continue to charge fees,” Bankrate financial analyst Stephen Kates told CBS MoneyWatch. Those costs include charges from both ATM owners and banks. According to the survey, the average fee from cash machine providers is $3.22. Banks charge $1.64 on average, up 3.8% from 2024 — the highest since 2018. As a result, Americans in certain metro areas could see average combined fees of more than $5.

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Verizon lost an attempt to overturn a $46.9 million fine for selling customer location data without its users’ consent. The US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit rejected Verizon’s challenge in a ruling issued today.

The Federal Communications Commission fined the three major carriers last year for violations revealed in 2018. The companies sued the FCC in three different courts, with varying results.

AT&T beat the FCC in the reliably conservative US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, while T-Mobile lost in the District of Columbia Circuit. Although FCC Chairman Brendan Carr voted against the fine last year, when the commission had a Democratic majority, his FCC urged the courts to uphold the Biden-era decisions.

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As part of its unprovoked invasion, Russia has been firing massed waves of drones and missiles into Ukraine for years, though the tempo has been raised dramatically in recent months. Barrages of 700-plus drones now regularly attack Ukraine during overnight raids. Russia also appears to have upped the ante dramatically by sending at least 19 drones into Poland last night, some of which were shot down by NATO forces.

Many of these drones are Shahed/Geran types built with technology imported from Iran, and they have recently gained the ability to fly higher, making shootdowns more difficult. Given the low cost of the drones (estimates suggest they cost a few tens of thousands of dollars apiece, and many are simply decoys without warheads), hitting them with multimillion-dollar missiles from traditional air defense batteries makes little sense and would quickly exhaust missile stocks.

So Ukraine has adopted widespread electronic warfare to disrupt control systems and navigation. Drones not forced off their path are fought with mobile anti-aircraft guns, aircraft, and interceptor drones, many launched from mobile fire teams patrolling Ukraine during the night.

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On Wednesday, Sony rolled out its September Game Catalog additions for PS Plus subscribers. This month’s entries run the gamut from turn-based tactics to survival horror and pro wrestling.

Persona 5 Tactica (PS5/ PS4) may be the most critically acclaimed title in the batch. The 2023 Persona spinoff takes the mainline games’ battles and shifts them into grid-based tactics. Think XCOM with Phantom Thieves.

The Invincible (PS5) is an adaptation of the 1963 sci-fi novel by Stanisław Lem. As its inspiration may suggest, this isn’t an action-heavy combat-fest. Instead, the narrative adventure invites you to explore the planet Regis III, searching for lost crew members. Your decisions will shape the story, so tread carefully.

2K / Sony

If exploring lost worlds as an astrobiologist isn’t your thing, then maybe pile drivers and elbow drops are. (No judgment!) WWE 2K25 (PS5 / PS4) is also on this month’s list, letting you step into the ring as a steroid-infused behemoth. You can take satisfaction in knowing your video game match’s outcomes are less pre-determined than the scripted matches you see on TV.

Other games in this month’s entries include the action RPG title Fate / Samurai Remnant, the survival horror game Crow Country and the first-person survival sim Green Hell. You can check out the PlayStation Blog’s announcement for all the details.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/the-ps-plus-game-catalog-additions-include-persona-5-tactica-and-wwe-2k25-211006881.html?src=rss

Someone might want to tell David Zaslav to read the room. Despite people’s ongoing frustration with the rising prices of streaming services—and just about everything else—the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) thinks that there is reason for HBO Max to charge more.

Zaslav shared his sentiments while speaking at the Goldman Sachs Cornucopia + Technology conference today in San Francisco. The Hollywood Reporter quoted Zaslav as saying:

The fact that this is quality—and that’s true across our company, motion picture, TV production [and] streaming quality—we all … think that gives us a chance to raise price. We think we’re way underpriced.

Today, HBO Max starts at $10 per month with ads, $17/month for no ads, and $21/month for no ads and premium features (4K streaming, Dolby Atmos, and the ability to stream from more devices simultaneously and perform more downloads). The streaming platform has raised prices twice since launching (as Max) in May 2023. In June 2024, the Standard, ad-free plan went from $16/month to $17/month, and annual subscription fees went up by $20 or $10, depending on the plan. Subscription fees also increased in January 2023.

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US Senator Ron Wyden says glaring cybersecurity flaws by Microsoft enabled a ransomware attack on a US hospital system and has called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate. Bloomberg: In a letter sent Wednesday to FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, the Oregon Democrat accused Microsoft of “gross cybersecurity negligence,” which he said had resulted in ransomware attacks against US critical infrastructure.

The senator cited the case of the 2024 breach at Ascension, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit health systems. The intrusion shut down computers at many of Ascension’s hospitals, leading to suspended surgeries and the theft of sensitive data on more than 5 million patients. Wyden said an investigation by his office found that the Ascension hack began after a contractor carried out a search using Microsoft’s Bing search engine and was served a malicious link, which led to the contractor inadvertently downloading malware. That allowed hackers access to Ascension’s computer networks.

According to Wyden, the attackers then gained access to privileged accounts by exploiting an insecure encryption technology called RC4, which is supported by default on Windows computers. The hacking method is called Kerberoasting, which the company described as a type of cyberattack in which intruders aim to gather passwords by targeting an authentication protocol called Kerberos.

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Susan Monarez, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who was ousted last month after mere weeks in the role, is set to testify before the Senate next week about what was behind her dramatic downfall, as well as the ongoing chaos at the public health agency under health secretary and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

In a hearing last Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee, a combative Kennedy repeatedly called Monarez a liar and made the incredible claim that he fired her after he asked her directly if she was a trustworthy person and she responded “no.” While Senators clearly struggled to believe that explanation, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) wryly noted that Kennedy should have asked her the question before having the Senate confirm her for the role.

In an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal the same day as Kennedy’s testimony, Monarez gave a different account of her firing—one corroborated by independent reporting—saying that she was ousted after she refused Kennedy’s directives to fire senior CDC staff and pre-approve vaccine recommendations from an advisory committee he has stacked with fellow anti-vaccine advocates.

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