ProtonVPN is running a Black Friday Sale on its VPN services, including a 30-month plan for 60 percent off, or $120 total. That works out to $4 per month for two and a half years of access, saving you $180 over paying full price. Proton VPN is our favorite VPN service and, unlike most VPN services that continually run promotions, Proton rarely hosts sales. Their email and other services are seeing discounts, too.
In our tests, ProtonVPN passed with high marks — but so did most of the other services. What sets ProtonVPN apart is its overall security and privacy safeguards. The Swiss-based company employs an independently audited no-logs policy and has proven they don’t comply with law enforcement requests to reveal data. It’s also based on an open-source code and discloses potential vulnerabilities through an official peer-review program. Plus, we found it easy to use.
While there is a free version, the Plus plan that’s on sale grants access to more servers, with locations in more than 65 countries and lets you run the service on 10 devices at a time. Compare that to the free version which only has servers in three countries and protects just one device at a time.
It’s worth noting that Proton’s Black Friday sale extends to all of its services, including Proton Mail, which we’ve recommended in our guides, and Proton Unlimited, which gives you access to VPN, Mail, Calendar, Drive and Pass, the company’s password manager. The everything plan is down to $105 for the year, which works out to just under $9 per month.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/protonvpn-plans-are-up-to-60-percent-off-in-a-black-friday-deal-153355317.html?src=rss
Apple just revealed some new hardware at a streaming event earlier this week, including Macbook Pro laptops equipped with the proprietary M3 chip. These laptops are still on preorder, as they don’t officially release until next week. Despite that, you can already get a pretty sweet discount of $200 for one of these ultra-powerful computers.
Retailer Adorama is offering the deal on pre-orders of nearly any configuration of the M3-enabled laptop. For instance, the basic Apple 14″ M3 MacBook Pro costs $1,600 to pre-order anywhere else, but Adorama’s deal brings the price down to $1,400. The same discount applies if you beef up the storage capacity, add more RAM, swap the screen size or increase the number of available cores.
There is a slight hoop you have to jump through to get this deal. You must be an Adorama VIP member. Luckily, signing up for this program is fairly effortless and, more importantly, absolutely free. Once you sign up, log into the rewards page and the discount will show up as an option.
These new Macbooks look to be the most powerful laptops the company has ever made, thanks to the just-built M3 chip. They are available in multiple colors, including the new Space Black option. The Macbooks ship in 14- and 16-inch versions and some feature M3 Pro and M3 Max chips, in addition to the standad M3. Though the prices start at $1,600 (or $1,400 with this sale), they can balloon to thousands of dollars once you start making upgrades.
As for other specs, the screen’s a bit brighter, with a peak of 600 nits. The new chips should also drastically improve performance and speed. Beyond that, many features remain the same as last year’s models. You get the same 1080p FaceTime cameras and the six-speaker sound system. The computers aren’t out in the wild yet, so we don’t have information regarding battery life and other real-world metrics.
This is an early Black Friday deal and it’s for pre-orders only. In other words, once the laptops officially release on November 7, the sale will likely end.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-m3-macbook-pro-is-already-200-off-in-an-early-black-friday-deal-150707609.html?src=rss
Even though its latest microcomputer bears its own chip designs, Raspberry Pi has been using Arm CPUs since its inception in 2008. The two companies have now formed tighter bonds as Arm has picked up a minority stake in Raspberry Pi. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. However, the companies say it’s a “strategic investment” on Arm’s part.
It seems that Arm wants to gain more of a foothold in the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. “With the rapid growth of edge and endpoint AI applications, platforms like those from Raspberry Pi, built on Arm, are critical to driving the adoption of high-performance IoT devices globally by enabling developers to innovate faster and more easily,” Paul Williamson, senior vice-president and general manager of Arm’s IoT division, said in a statement.
Many IoT developers have long been using Raspberry Pi’s low-cost, capable computers for a wide range of purposes. The Register reports that, since 2020, more than half of all Raspberry Pi devices are being used for industrial and commercial purposes. However, Raspberry Pi is said to have prioritized those partners, perhaps making it more difficult for students and enthusiasts to get their hands on its computers at retail price.
There’s another reason why Arm and Raspberry Pi might want to be closer bedfellows. RISC-V is an open-source processor design that could make it easier for companies to build their own chips or lower manufacturing costs. Qualcomm and Google are working on a RISC-V platform to power Wear OS devices, for instance. In addition, several companies are also using RISC-V CPUs in would-be Raspberry Picompetitors.
As The Register notes, Arm has pointed out the potential threat of RISC-V to its business. The company mentioned in a pre-IPO filing that if market support for RISC-V rises, “our customers may choose to utilize this free, open source architecture instead of our products.” To that end, the investment could help to bolster Raspberry Pi’s position in the single-board computer market and perhaps ward off competition.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/arm-picks-up-a-minority-stake-in-raspberry-pi-144946332.html?src=rss
Home improvement retailer Ace Hardware still can’t take online orders as of Friday while it recovers from “a malicous cyberattack.” News of the outage first started circulating on Sunday, after a Reddit user shared a note from CEO John Venhuizen detailing the incident. Ace Hardware has not responded to a request for comment to verify the email, but the website confirms that it is “currently unable to process orders online” and directs customers to make their purchases in-store.
The cyber incident impacted warehouse management, invoice and other delivery systems, according to Venhuizen’s memo. “The impact of this incident is resulting in disruptions to your shipments,” Venhuizen wrote. An update issued on Monday urged stores to stay open, and confirmed there were no known impacts to its in-store payment and service systems.
Out of the company’s 1,400 servers and 3,500 networked devices, 1,202 were impacted by the attack, according to a notice obtained by Bleeping Computer. About half had been restored as of early Thursday morning. “This frustration and all of this effort is the direct result of a malicious cyber attack on Ace,” the update said. “This was perpetuated by criminals. Though they are hiding in this shadows, they are no different than thugs who break into your store attempting to steal your stuff.” The details of the attack, such as who is responsible and how they accessed the systems, hasn’t been confirmed yet.
Ace Hardware also warned retailers to be aware of cybercriminals trying to take advantage of the chaos by spoofing email updates or trying to remotely access in-store systems. Ace Hardware operates on a retailer-owned model, in which store owners form the cooperative of shareholders behind the retail giant. The retailer operates more than 5,800 stores.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ace-hardwares-online-ordering-and-other-systems-are-still-down-due-to-a-suspected-cyberattack-143208409.html?src=rss
Board games are great gifts for anyone who wants to spend time with loved ones and disconnect from technology. But instead of pulling out the same old classics like Monopoly and Scrabble, we recommend giving some new board games a try. Thankfully, this space is full of unique sets that run the gamut from word puzzles to whodunnits to calming playthroughs that showcase the beauty of the little things in life. Here, we’ve compiled a list of games that you might not have heard of, but will still make excellent gifts this holiday season. From games with giant monsters to those with haunted mansions, we’re sure at least one of these will be a hit with friends and family.
Freelancers
Fiction
King of Tokyo
Wavelength
Betrayal at the House on the Hill (3rd Edition)
Clank! Catacombs
Ark Nova
Expeditions
Marvel Dice Throne
Azul
Votes for Women
Wingspan
Earth
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-board-games-holiday-gifts-130003702.html?src=rss
Apple’s M3 chip is here, and the company is wasting no time shoving it into new computers. This week, we dive into the new M3-equipped MacBook Pros and iMac, which offer some notable upgrades over the M2 and M1 models. Also, we find time to celebrate the death of the old 13-inch MacBook Pro, and try to determine if the cheaper 14-inch MacBook Pro is actually meant for pros with 8GB of RAM. We also chat about Apple’s healthcare plans, as well as Lenovo’s ridiculous tablet fashion campaign.
Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!
Topics
Apple announces M3 chips along with new MacBook Pros and iMac – 0:59
Other News: Bloomberg report outlines Apple’s very quiet attempt at getting into HealthTech – 24:33
Ad blockers no longer work on Youtube 🙁 – 39:02
U.S., U.K. announce first attempts at AI regulation – 48:10
Lenovo’s Tab Wear clothing line is like a kangaroo pouch for your tablet – 54:30
Working on – 58:39
Listener Mail: Should I go from a Fitbit to a Pixel Watch? – 1:00:28
The original SmartTag came on the scene in 2021 as a counter to the AirTag and Tile — but only for Galaxy users. Now, with its newest iteration, Samsung has updated quite a few features, such as taking the Bluetooth and ultra-wideband (UWB) variants and combining them into one model. The SmartTag2 also does something Apple still hasn’t mastered: providing a key ring for its smart tracker. The initial model simply had a punch hole.
Samsung’s SmartTag 2 is also IP67 dust and water-resistant, giving you an easier time for runs in the rain or letting your dog wander around with it in all sorts of weather. Plus, its battery life lasts 50 percent as long as its predecessor, giving you 700 days in Power Saving Mode and 500 days in Normal Mode. At the moment, the SmartTag 2 still only works for Samsung devices, but it’s definitely a good option if you have one.
Google has ended its agreement with real estate developer Landlease for its San Francisco Bay Project, effectively scrapping its plans to build a campus with thousands of homes for employees and locals. The company announced the project in 2019, promising the “development of at least 15,000 new homes at all income levels” on at least $750 million worth of land it owns. Around 4,000 of those homes were supposed to be affordable housing, which would’ve been a welcome presence in the region with one of the highest costs of living in the country.
The San Francisco Bay Project is a collective name for Google’s planned developments in San Jose (Downtown West), Sunnyvale (Moffett Park) and Mountain View (Middlefield Park and North Bayshore). San Jose, in particular, approved the massive project in 2021, and it would’ve seen the construction of 4,000 homes, office space for approximately 20,000 employees, 300 hotel rooms and 10 parks. As part of the deal, Google had agreed to set aside $200 million in funding for displaced local businesses and job readiness programs.
Earlier this year, however, Google put the Downtown West facility construction on hold after demolition had already started to make way for construction that was scheduled to begin in 2026. The company told Engadget at the time that it was still figuring out “how to best move forward” with the San Jose campus in a way that would cater to its “future needs.” Workplaces have changed tremendously over the past few years, after all, mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic — Google, for instance, adopted a hybrid work schedule that allowed employees to work from home for a couple of days a week. Earlier this year, Google parent Alphabet also laid off 12,000 workers after going on a hiring spree during a period of growth.
In Lendlease’s announcement (PDF), it said that the companies have decided to end their agreement after Google did a comprehensive review of its real estate investments. They’ve apparently determined that the “existing agreements are no longer mutually beneficial given current market conditions. Based on what a company spokesperson told CNBC, though, Google hasn’t entirely killed its housing projects. “As we’ve shared before, we’ve been optimizing our real estate investments in the Bay Area, and part of that work is looking at a variety of options to move our development projects forward and deliver on our housing commitment,” Alexa Arena, a senior director of development at Google, told the news organization. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan also told CNBC that this development “doesn’t change Google’s commitment to San Jose or their timeline” and that it gives the company more flexibility to choose the “best possible developers” for the project.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/googles-plan-to-build-15000-homes-for-the-san-francisco-bay-project-fizzles-out-113526409.html?src=rss
The Beatles have released another song, the first since 1995. “Now and Then” is being advertised as the final Beatles track, given that two of the members have passed and the other two are well over 80 years old. But then again, millionaires do love money.
The song grew from a John Lennon demo track dating back to the 1970s and a 1995 guitar track from George Harrison. The surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, then finished the tune using machine learning technology. The song was meant to come out back in 1995, along with “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love,” two other tracks culled from old Lennon demos. However, the technology just wasn’t there to pull the vocals without degrading audio quality.
With the same software director Peter Jackson used for the Get Back documentary for Apple, the team split Lennon’s vocal from the piano without any audio bleed, allowing the remaining Beatles to turn it into a fleshed-out ballad. The guitar solo is in the Harrison style, but it’s not actually played by him — he does play some of the rhythm guitar in the background.
— Mat Smith
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NASA+ will be available November 8 with live shows and original series.
NASA
Not another one! At least this streaming service is free. NASA has announced a new streaming service called NASA+, which will hit most major platforms next week. It’ll be completely free, with no subscription needed, and you won’t be forced to sit through ads, either. There aren’t too many details out just yet about the content, but NASA says its family-friendly programming “embeds you into our missions” with live coverage and original video series.
HTC is sending its Vive VR headsets to the International Space Station, apparently to give lonely astronauts something to do. The HTC Vive Focus 3 headsets will be part of an ongoing effort to improve the mental health of astronauts during long assignments on the station. The headsets are optimized to stabilize alignment and reduce the chances of motion sickness — which is a bigger problem when it happens in space.
Netflix is celebrating one year of its ad-supported plan by giving users on that tier every fourth episode of a consecutive binge ad-free. That’s certainly not a bad way to entice you into staying on, especially if it’s, ugh, Ozark. (Don’t ‘at’ me.) Netflix is also rolling out downloads on its ad-supported tier, claiming to be the first streamer to make the option available for users who have ads included. Netflix’s ad-supported plan is by far the cheapest after the streamer cut its Basic tier in mid-2023. It’s $6.99 monthly, while the Standard plan is now $15.49.
It sounds like an action movie, but it’s not. It’s just legal action. Scarlett Johansson’s lawyers have approached an AI app developer for using her likeness in an ad without permission.
An ad spotted on X promoted an AI image editor called Lisa AI used an AI-generated version of Johansson’s voice and image, alongside actual footage of the actor in a Black Widow behind-the-scenes clip. Multiple Lisa AI apps remain on the App Store and Google Play, but the ad no longer appears on X. Yet, when Johansson gets to play a robot voice, that’s OK? Yes. Of course it is.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-the-final-beatles-song-was-made-with-a-little-help-from-ai-111541406.html?src=rss
Amazon bundle deals are a relatively common occurrence, but the latest one is a pairing we’d never expect: Ahead of Black Friday, Prime Members can get the Fire TV Stick 4K Max and Blink Video Doorbell as a pair for $65. The Blink Video Doorbell is $60 on its own, so for another five bucks, you’re getting the Fire TV Stick 4K Max — not a bad deal. The 4K Max is having its own sale right now, with a 25 percent discount bringing its price to $45 from $60. So, even if you factor in the sale, you’re saving $40 overall, a nice steal.
While the only two things these items might seem to have in common is Amazon’s ownership, if we think really hard, we can connect them. Well, not having to get up to check who’s at the door while using your streaming device is good for starters. No, even better, you can activate Alexa on the Fire TV Stick to engage in two-way audio through the doorbell.
The Fire TV Stick 4K Max supports Dolby Atmos audio, Wi-Fi 6E and HDR10+. Meanwhile, the Blink Video Doorbell shows a 1080p HD picture during the day, uses infrared night video and can be wired or wireless, up to you. All-in-all, they’re both solid options to add to your home.
If you’re just in the market for a new monitoring system, check out the massive sales across Blink’s smart home doorbells and cameras lineup. The Blink Mini three-pack is currently 60 percent off, dropping to $40 from $100, while the new fourth-generation Blink Outdoor has four cameras available for 50 percent off, dropping to $180 from $360. Going back to the theme of bundles, you can pick up the whole Blink Home Bundle for 52 percent off, getting a Video DoorBell system, a fourth-gen Outdoor camera and a Mini for $102, down from $215.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-is-bundling-a-fire-tv-4k-max-and-blink-video-doorbell-for-65-in-early-black-friday-deal-105046984.html?src=rss
In just a bit over a month, legacy HBO Max subscribers paying for ad-free streaming will be losing a couple of perks they’re enjoying. One of those is 4K streaming. According to The Verge, the streaming service has started sending affected subscribers an email, notifying them that they won’t be able to stream in 4K anymore after December 5th. Warner Bros. Discovery promised existing subscribers when it rebranded the service into “Max” back in May they they would still have access to their plan’s features over the next six months. After that period ends, their only option to retain 4K streaming is to let go of their $16-a-month subscription plan to switch to Max’s Ultimate Ad-Free tier that costs $20 a month.
The service introduced the tier when Max launched, promising users access to 1,000 4K movies and TV show episodes, some of which support Dolby Atmos and Vision. Subscribers who choose to keep their legacy plan will have to make do with Full HD resolution. In addition, legacy subscribers will no longer be able to stream on three devices at once, because Max will only allow them access to two concurrent streams. Both changes bring the legacy $16 subscription in line with the new Max Ad Free tier, which costs the same amount.
An Ultimate Ad Free subscription allows subscribers to stream on up to four devices at once, aside from giving them access to 4K content. It costs quite a bit more than the regular ad-free subscription, but those who want higher-quality streaming and can afford to plunk down $200 in one go will be seeing their yearly expenses for Max go up by just a few cents per month. Max also has a $10-a-month ad-supported tier for those who don’t mind their viewing experience interrupted by commercials.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/legacy-hbo-max-ad-free-subscribers-will-lose-access-to-4k-streams-soon-092315829.html?src=rss
Intuit is shutting down its free budgeting app Mint, which had 3.6 million active users in 2021, Bloomberg reports. The company will absorb users into its other service called Credit Karma when Mint disappears on January 1, 2024 — less than two months from now.
“Credit Karma is thrilled to invite all Minters to continue their financial journey on Credit Karma, where they will have access to Credit Karma’s suite of features, products, tools and services, including some of Mint’s most popular features,” Mint wrote on its product blog. The company noted that Mint’s product team and some features have already shifted over to Credit Karma.
Mint helps users manage their budget, track expenses and keep track of subscriptions and monthly bills so you don’t pay late fees. Intuit acquired the company in 2009 for $170 million, with Mint saying the acquisition would help bring the app to millions more users.
Intuit will shift users to Credit Karma (a company it acquired in 2020), even though they’re not exactly the same. Credit Karma is more like a banking app that lets users view transactions, monitor credit and see multiple accounts, but lacks the budget tracking features that make Mint attractive to many. Intuit specifically notes on a support page that “the new experience in Credit Karma does not offer the ability to set monthly and category budgets,” instead helping users “build awareness” of their spending. However, Mint’s net worth feature was recently ported over to Credit Karma.
Mint users will be able to transfer their accounts by logging into Credit Karma from the Mint app, after which they’ll lose access to their Mint profiles. They can also download or erase any Mint data if they’d rather not switch.
Some Mint users on Reddit don’t seem thrilled with the switch, with one saying that without the budgeting feature, “Mint is just a glorified checkbook register.” Intuit, meanwhile, was recently ordered to pay $141 million for deceiving millions of low-income Americans into paying for tax services that should have been free.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/intuit-is-closing-down-mint-its-popular-free-budget-tracking-app-054145229.html?src=rss
A federal jury has found FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried guilty on all seven counts of fraud and conspiracy, which he was charged with following the downfall of his cryptocurrency exchange. According to The New York Times, he faces a maximum sentence of 110 years in federal prison. SBF, as he’s now infamously known, was arrested in the Bahamas back in December 2022 after the Department of Justice took a close look at his role in the rapid collapse of FTX. The agency examined whether he transferred hundreds of millions of dollars when the exchange filed for bankruptcy. (The company claimed it was hacked after around $600 million disappeared from its funds.) The DoJ also investigated whether FTX broke the law when it moved funds to its sister company, Alameda Research.
During SBF’s trial, which took place over the past month, prosecutors argued that he used FTX funds to keep Alameda Research running. The fallen entrepreneur also founded the cryptocurrency hedge fund, which was ran by his girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who was aware that he used FTX customers’ money to help Alameda meet its liabilities. Bankman-Fried previously denied that he deliberately misused FTX’s funds.
The Times says his lawyers tried to portray him as a math nerd who had to grapple with “forces largely outside of his control,” but the jury clearly disagreed after the prosecution called Ellison and three of Bankman-Fried’s former top advisers to the witness stand. Ellison and all of those advisers had pleaded guilty, with the Alameda Research chief admitting that she committed fraud at Bankman-Fried’s direction. The FTX founder himself took the stand and said that he “deeply regret not taking a deeper look into” the $8 billion his hedge fund had borrowed from the cryptocurrency exchange.
Bankman-Fried was charged with committing wire fraud against FTX customers; wire fraud on Alameda Research lenders; conspiracy to commit wire fraud against both; conspiracy to commit securities and commodities fraud on FTX customers; as well as conspiracy to commit money laundering. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 28, 2024 by US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who also presided over the FTX trial.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-found-guilty-on-seven-charges-of-fraud-and-conspiracy-012316105.html?src=rss
TikTok is pushing back on critics who claim the video app is falling short in its content moderation duties amid the Israel-Hamas war. In a statement, the company offered new details about the number of accounts and videos it has taken down since the October 7th attacks by Hamas.
According to TikTok, it removed more than 925,000 videos “in the conflict region” and millions more “pieces of content” from around the world. The company also said it’s experienced “spikes in fake engagement” in recent weeks. “Since Oct. 7, we’ve removed more than 24 million fake accounts globally and more than half a million bot comments on content under hashtags related to the conflict.”
The new details come as TikTok has faced increasing scrutiny over how its app is recommending content related to the ongoing conflict. According to NBC News, some lawmakers have recently stepped up their calls for the app to be banned amid allegations that TikTok’s algorithm is disproportionately promoting pro-Palestinian content. In its update, TikTok said that such claims were based on “unsound analysis” of its data.
“Unfortunately, some misinformed commentators have mischaracterized our work to prevent the spread of hate speech and misinformation surrounding the crisis in Israel and Gaza, especially as it relates to antisemitism,” the company said. “Over the last few days, there has been unsound analysis of TikTok hashtag data around the conflict, causing some commentators to falsely insinuate TikTok is pushing pro-Palestine content over pro-Israel content to U.S. users.” The company added that, in the United States, the hashtag #standwithisrael had been viewed 46 million times since October 7, while #standwithpalestine had been viewed 29 million times.
TikTok isn’t the only platform to face increasing scrutiny over its moderation policies as tensions surrounding the conflict spill over onto social media platforms. Meta has faced accusations that it “shadowbanned” Instagram accounts that posted about conditions within Gaza, which it attributed to a “bug.” X, formerly known as Twitter, is dealing with a European Union investigation into its handling of misinformation related to the conflict.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tiktok-says-its-removed-millions-of-fake-accounts-since-start-of-israel-hamas-war-231851792.html?src=rss
Apple’s latest quarterly earnings report paints a picture of software wins amid something of a hardware slump. In a statement announcing the financial results for its fiscal fourth quarter, the company called out a new all-time high for revenue from its services division. It also highlighted iPhone revenue as having set a September quarter record. However, this marks the fourth consecutive quarter of overall revenue decline, with its earnings of $89.5 billion representing a 1 percent drop year over year. This also means the record-breaking performances of the iPhone and Services divisions did little to offset weakness elsewhere.
The lackluster performance is somewhat understandable, though. The company just had a launch event for its new M3 chips, MacBooks and an iMac this week, none of which can be bought yet. And though the new iPhone 15 lineup and Apple Watches were introduced in September, sales of those devices likely did not account for much of this fiscal quarter’s results. We’re also anticipating a November release for new iPads this year, which could further fuel hardware revenue.
Correspondingly, the Mac, iPad and wearables divisions were down this quarter, with the first two taking noticeable hits. Though Apple drummed up significant interest with the Vision Pro headset earlier this year, that device is far from ready to be sold to the public and is unlikely to hit the market until 2024 at the earliest. With holiday shopping about to ramp up, as well as more product releases on the horizon, it’s much more likely that the company’s hardware products will have a greater impact on its bottom line next quarter.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-revenue-declines-again-despite-iphone-and-services-strength-211938910.html?src=rss
It looks like Amazon is hellbent on keeping its spot as the biggest online retailer — even if that means hurting both sellers and customers. In September, the FTC filed a long-expected antitrust lawsuit against Amazon over its alleged use of illegal strategies to stay on top. Details of the suit were previously withheld from the public, but today a mostly unredacted version was released, including details about Amazon’s secret pricing tool, known as Project Nessie. These algorithms helped Amazon increase prices by over $1 billion over two years, the FTC alleges.
As Amazon would argue, Amazon’s dominance of the online retail space has helped small businesses reach more consumers. But the FTC would argue that over the years, Amazon has become exploitative in its approach. The company continues to increase third-party seller fees, which are taking a toll on smaller businesses and even causing bankruptcy for some. Amazon previously said these claims were baseless, but the documents revealed today show otherwise.
According to the The Wall Street Journal, the internal documents cited in the original complaint show that Amazon executives were well aware of the effects of the company’s policies. In the documents, Amazon executives acknowledged that these policies, which included requiring Amazon sellers to have the lowest prices online or risk consequences, had a “punitive aspect.” One executive pointed out that many sellers “live in constant fear” of being penalized by Amazon for not following the ever-changing pricing policy.
The FTC also alleges that the company had been monitoring its sellers and punishing them if they offered lower prices on other platforms, which the agency says is a violation of antitrust laws. The unredacted documents indicate that Amazon has increased prices by over $1 billion between 2016 to 2018 with the use of secret price gouging algorithms known as Project Nessie. It was also revealed that the “take rate” — aka the amount Amazon makes from sellers who use the Fulfillment By Amazon logistics program — increased from 27.6 percent in 2014 to 39.5 percent in 2018. It’s unclear if that has changed in more recent years since those numbers remained redacted.
And Amazon isn’t just ruining its sellers’ experience. The complaint also revealed Amazon’s increased use of ads in search results. Several ad executives at the company acknowledged that these sponsored ads were often irrelevant to the initial search and caused “harm to consumers” and the overall experience on the site.
The FTC alleges that these policies were the brainchild of Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and former chief executive, to increase the company’s profit margins.
“Mr. Bezos directly ordered his advertising team to continue to increase the number of advertisements on Amazon by allowing more irrelevant advertisements, because the revenue generated by advertisements eclipsed the revenue lost by degrading consumers’ shopping experience,” the FTC complaint alleges.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-ftc-lawsuit-unredacted-documents-project-nessie-secret-price-gouging-algorithm-194800531.html?src=rss
NASA will soon start testing what is dubbed as the world’s first commercial spaceplane capable of orbital flight, which will eventually be used to resupply the International Space Station. The agency is set to take delivery of Sierra Space’s first Dream Chaser, which should provide an alternative to SpaceX spacecraft for trips to the ISS.
In the coming weeks, the spaceplane (which is currently at Sierra Space’s facility in Colorado) will make its way to a NASA test site in Ohio. The agency will put the vehicle, which has been named Tenacity, through its paces for between one and three months. According to Ars Technica, NASA will conduct vibration, acoustic and temperature tests to ensure Tenacity can survive the rigors of a rocket launch. NASA engineers, along with government and contractor teams, are running tests to make sure it’s safe for Tenacity to approach the ISS.
All going well, Tenacity is scheduled to make its first trip to space in April on the second flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket. The rocket has yet to make its own first test flight, which is currently expected to happen in December. However, given how things tend to go with spaceflight, delays are always a possibility on both fronts.
The spaceplane has foldable wings, which allow it to fit inside the payload of the rocket. On its first mission, Tenacity is scheduled to stay at the ISS for 45 days. Afterward, it will return to Earth at the former space shuttle landing strip at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida rather than dropping into the ocean as many spacecraft tend to do. Sierra says the spacecraft is capable of landing at any compatible commercial runway.
“Plunging into the ocean is awful,” Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice told Ars Technica. “Landing on a runway is really nice.” The company claims Dream Chaser can bring cargo back to Earth at fewer than 1.5 Gs, which is important to help protect sensitive payloads. The spaceplane will be capable of taking up to 12,000 pounds of cargo to the ISS and bringing up to around 4,000 pounds of cargo back to terra firma. Sierra plans for its Dream Chaser fleet to eventually be capable of taking humans to low-Earth orbit too.
As things stand, SpaceX is the only company that operates fully certified spacecraft for NASA missions. Boeing also won a contract to develop a capsule for NASA back in 2014, but Starliner has yet to transport any astronauts.to the ISS. Sierra Nevada (from which Sierra Space was spun out in 2021) previously competed with those businesses for NASA commercial crew program contracts, but it lost out. However, after the company retooled Dream Chaser to focus on cargo operations for the time being, NASA chose Sierra to join its stable of cargo transportation providers in 2016.
Dream Chaser’s first trip to the ISS has been a long time coming. It was originally planned for 2019 but the project was beset by delays. COVID-19 compounded those, as it constricted supply chains for key parts that Sierra Space needed before the company brought more of its construction work in house. The company is now aiming to have a second, human-rated version of Dream Chaser ready for the 2026 timeframe.
NASA has long been interested in using spaceplanes, dating back to the agency’s early days, and it seems closer than ever to being able to use such vehicles. Virgin Galactic (which just carried out its fifth commercial flight on Thursday) uses spaceplanes for tourist and research flights, its vehicle is only capable of suborbital operations. With Dream Chaser, Sierra has loftier goals.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-commercial-spaceplane-capable-of-orbital-flight-is-ready-for-nasa-testing-185542776.html?src=rss
It looks like Meta may be pumping the brakes on one of its more aggressive, and unpopular, growth-hacking tactics for Threads. The company appears to be working on a new privacy setting so Threads users can opt-out of having their posts cross-posted to Facebook and Instagram feeds.
The unreleased feature was spotted by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi, who often uncovers early versions of social media features before they officially launch. Paluzzi shared screenshots of a new “suggesting posts on other apps” toggle in Threads’ privacy settings.
The feature comes barely a week after the company acknowledged that it was promoting users’ Threads posts in Facebook feeds in an effort to boost Threads. While Meta has used similar tactics to promote its other apps in the past, the move has been widely unpopular among Threads users, many of whom are not active on Facebook and see the promotions as an intrusive overreach. Meta said last week it was “listening to feedback” in response to user complaints about not being able to opt out.
Notably, it appears as if Meta still intends to automatically enable cross-posting as a default setting. “If your profile is public, your posts may be suggested on other apps so people can discover and follow you,” the opt-out screen states.
The back and forth over the feature comes as Meta has steadily ramped up its efforts to boost Threads growth. The Twitter clone has been growing again in recent weeks, and currently has about 100 million monthly users. Mark Zuckerberg recently said he sees a path for the app to become Meta’s next billion-user service. But in order to reach that many people, the company will need to lean hard on its other apps to attract new sign-ups.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-will-stop-forcing-your-threads-posts-onto-facebook-and-it-cant-come-soon-enough-174835068.html?src=rss
Meta just released an experimental new A/B testing feature for Reels on Facebook, allowing creators to experiment with different captions and thumbnail images to create the perfect clips. The tools are part of the pre-existing Professional Dashboard, which already provides plenty of useful metrics, like view count insights and more.
Here’s how it works. When creating a Facebook Reel on your mobile device, you can insert up to four different caption and thumbnail combinations. This starts a testing phase for the content. Whichever one gets the most views will automatically be displayed on your page as the “winning variant.” It seems fairly simple.
The company’s also working on incorporating generative AI to help create unique caption and thumbnail options, though that feature is still being worked out. The ultimate goal here is to ensure user-generated content gets as many eyeballs as possible. This increases Facebook’s traffic and potentially gives creators some money in the process, thanks to Meta’s bonus program.
To that end, there’s a new system in place that awards achievement badges for leaping past certain metrics. A digital badge isn’t as good as money, but it’s something (I guess.) Meta does say that these badges could help creators achieve increased visibility of their content, via an awarded Rising Creator label.
That’s not the only tool that rolled out today. There’s also a new feature that lets you quickly whip up Reels from pre-existing video posts and livestreams. The Professional Dashboard has new content management tools to help users keep track of all of this stuff. Previously, creators could only access content performance on a post-by-post basis, but now the dashboard gives you a more holistic view of things.
It’s interesting that this feature dropped on Facebook and not Instagram, as Reels are more integral to the latter than the former. We’ll update you if and when the company debuts these tools for Instagram users.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-made-an-ab-testing-tool-to-help-users-optimize-their-reels-on-facebook-171323994.html?src=rss
For the third time in less than two years, I have COVID-19. Whenever an illness has forced me to stay in bed, my comfort food has been gaming. In 2009 I played through all of Assassin’s Creed II in a feverish, swine flu-induced haze. When I was sick with COVID for the first time, I jumped into Red Dead Redemption 2 blind, and found a story about sickness and human mortality. Now, during one of the most stacked years in recent gaming history, I find myself under the covers not with Starfield, Spider-Man 2 or any of the other big fall releases. Instead, my bedside companion is a small Apple Arcade exclusive called Japanese Rural Life Adventure.
I discovered this gem through an X account that tweets about upcoming indie games. I took one look at Japanese Rural Life Adventure and knew I had to play it. The game features a beautiful pixel art style, and a pastoral setting evocative of anime classics like Only Yesterday and Wolf Children. What I didn’t expect to find was a heartwarming experience about the importance of community.
In its opening hours, Japanese Rural Life Adventure plays out much like Stardew Valley or, for that matter, any other farming sim made in the past two decades. When the game’s protagonist first arrives in the countryside, they find their new home in disrepair, nearly every inch of the surrounding fields overgrown with weeds. But following a predictable start, the game shows its true character.
Almost uniquely among other games in the genre, Japanese Rural Life Adventure doesn’t include any romantic partners for the player’s character to pursue. Nearly everyone you meet is elderly. They complain of aching bones, bad backs and a dim future where there aren’t any young people to carry on their community’s traditions.
“I was born and raised in the city, in a big town. I have no memories of playing in rivers, climbing mountains, or anything like that,” Takeo Fujita, the founder of Japanese Rural Life Adventure developer GAME START, told me over email. “I have no older relatives living in the countryside. In other words, you could say that the ‘gentle and simple countryside’ found in Japanese Rural Life Adventure comes from a sense of longing that I felt watching and reading Japanese TV dramas and manga.”
Longing for a simpler life is something that pervades Japanese Rural Life Adventure –not just its setting, but also its mechanics and the scale of its gameplay. For all the time I’ve put into the game, I have not become a farming mogul. At most, it’s possible to plant and maintain four fields for growing rice and produce, alongside a few fruit trees. In fact, there’s only so much “work” for your character to do in a single day. And the days, compared to those in Stardew Valley or recent Harvest Moon entries, are long, adding to the sense of a slower pace of life.
Japanese Rural Life Adventure consistently pushed me to slow down and appreciate everything it had to offer beyond farming: fishing, bug catching, cooking and photographing wildlife, all of which have their own fun minigames associated with them. Sometimes, I would just let my character rest on the front porch to watch a cherry blossom tree shed its pedals or to bask in the sparkle of fireflies at night.
GAME START
At first, Japanese Rural Life Adventure limits players to the small area around their farm. More often than not, advancing the plot or opening a new section of the game involves helping others. Before I could buy seeds to grow my first batch of cucumbers and daikon radishes, I first had to build a bench for an old peddler lady to sit and rest. After completing a few of the game’s early objectives, including the partial restoration of a local Shinto shrine, the nearby town unlocks.
The town is in a sorry state when you first visit. The roads are weed-ridden and potholed. Nearly every building is falling apart. The young people are long gone. It’s one step removed from becoming a ghost town.
As it turns out, this town is the heart of Japanese Rural Life Adventure. After exploring it for a bit, I meet the village head, who tasks my character with restoring the decaying roads and buildings, including a Buddist temple and schoolhouse, all in hopes of bringing tourists who will help revitalize the local economy.
I didn’t expect this from Japanese Rural Life Adventure. In Japan, declining birth rates and one of the world’s oldest populations threaten to erase rural life as the country knows it. A 2019 Bloomberg article, citing data from the Japan Policy Council, frames the stakes succinctly: “If current trends continue, by 2040, 869 municipalities – nearly half of Japan’s total – will be at risk of vanishing.”
Fujita says GAME START didn’t set out to create a game about the plight of his country’s towns and villages. “When developing games, we do not consider difficult themes such as vanishing rural communities or population aging. We believe that games should be something you can enjoy and forget about everyday life,” he said. “‘Growth’ and ‘development’ are elements that can make a game attractive to prospective players. So we adopted ‘village regeneration’ as one of the themes of the game.”
GAME START
To some extent, all games like Japanese Rural Life Adventure share an interest in community. After all, it’s safe to say part of the reason why so many people love Stardew Valley is because of Pelican Town and all the weird and wonderful characters that inhabit it. However, inorienting almost all of the player’s actions towards the betterment of its unnamed town, Japanese Rural Life Adventure puts community front and center in a way I hadn’t seen in the genre before. It’s also that focus that makes the game feel fresh and compelling.
Take the restoration project I mentioned earlier. The village head compensates the player for completing the tasks he assigns to them, but I found the money I earned was often only enough to cover the costs of the next repair I needed to complete. More rewarding was seeing the results of my efforts. The project culminates in a summer festival that requires a significant investment from the player, both in terms of time and money spent. Before I could even start preparing for the event, I first had to repair and repaint the torii gates of the temple where the town planned to hold the festival. It was also up to me to produce the 21 chochin lanterns needed to light everything. This task consumed a few hours of my time, but the reward was a beautiful night time celebration that felt like a culmination of everything I had done up to that point. The fact I won a young koi fish to release in the pond in front of my house was a bonus.
Often, Japanese Rural Life Adventure doesn’t feature a lot of mechanical sophistication. Watering plants is as straightforward as a single tap, and most other tasks involve either foraging or buying the right items, but what it has a lot of is heart. That was something I needed.
Japanese Rural Life Adventure is currently available on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-arcade-exclusive-japanese-rural-life-adventure-review-170006419.html?src=rss
