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Fujifilm has taken the wraps off the GFX100 II medium format camera, a successor to the original GFX100 launched back in 2019. It carries the same 102-megapixel resolution of the original model, but has a new sensor and processor that delivers faster shooting speeds, improved autofocus, full-sensor 4K (and even 8K) video and a lot more. At the same time, it's more like the GFX100S in terms of size and price.Where the GFX100 was gigantic in size due to the built-in battery grip, the GFX100 II has separated those two things, so the camera body alone is considerably smaller (the grip is sold separately for $500). It has a new 9.44 million-dot electronic viewfinder (EVF), the highest in the industry, that's removable as before. That allows the use of an optional $569 tilt adapter that makes low-angle shooting easier. The rear touch display tilts up, down and a bit to the side, but doesn't flip out (sorry, rich vloggers).FujifilmWith the latest X-Processor borrowed from the X-H2S and X-H2 cameras, the GFX100 II can shoot at 8fps (up from 5fps before), pretty darn fast for a medium format (43.8 x 32.9mm) sensor camera. It now comes with subject-detection autofocus with face/eye detection, and can also track animals, birds, vehicles and other fast-moving subjects like insects and drones - both for photos and video.The body looks more like the X-H2/X-H2S than other X-series cameras, with just a single mode dial and a large LCD display on top. It offers 5-axis in-body stabilization with up to 8-stops of shake reduction. In terms of storage, it supports dual cards with one CFexpress Type B and one SD UHS-II slot - and you can also capture video to an external SSD via the USB-C port. Other features include headphone/mic ports, a full-sized HDMI port and an ethernet port. It even supports timecode jamming for video via the Atomos AirGlu BT.FujifilmIf you want to shoot video with a nearly 70mm-sized frame, the GFX100 II can do that impressively well also. It supports 4K at up to 60p using the full width of the sensor, and even keeps rolling shutter to a reasonable level - likely via line skipping or pixel binning. There's even an 8K mode, albeit with a 1.53 times crop, that reads the sensor pixel-for-pixel with some upscaling. On top of 8K, UHD and 4K DCI modes, it can shoot anamorphic video at up to 4.8K.It can record Apple ProRes vide in three formats (422 HQ, 422 and 422 LT), along with H.264 and ProRes 422 proxy files. The higher-quality codecs require CFexpress Type B or USB SSD capture.Fujifilm clearly thinks that pros will use the GFX100 II for video, as it offers waveform and vectorscope overlays to help nail exposure. It has front and rear tally lamps, the ability to use fractional shutter speeds to avoid flicker and an optional fan accessory that allows for unlimited 4K/60p recording times. And as mentioned, it supports timecode sync and jamming, so it can work in a multi-camera shooting environment. On top of all that, it supports up to four channels of audio.Along with the camera, Fujifilm introduced a new $2,300 55mm f/1.7R WR lens (44mm equivalent in full-frame terms), along with two tilt-shift 30mm and 110mm lenses for architectural an artistic shooting ($4,000 and $3,500 respectively). The GFX100 II launches in "early fall 2023 for $7,500, compared to $6,000 for the GFX100S and $10,000 for the GFX 100.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fujifilm-launches-the-slimmed-down-cheaper-gfx-100-ii-medium-format-camera-153054647.html?src=rss

If you've been thinking about getting a new keyboard for yourself, there are some fresh options on the market to consider. Drop is launching updated editions of its CTRL, ALT and SHIFT models. New features for the V2 keyboards include plate-mounted Drop Phantom Stabilizers, more LED customization and 50 new LED patterns. The new keyboards also have additional layers of foam, including Poron top and bottom case foam and IXPE switch foam. Plus, the SHIFT V2 comes with a new black colorway.The aircraft-grade aluminum of Drop's original keyboards remains alongside the upgrades. "The new and improved CTRL, ALT, and SHIFT V2 keyboards represent a leap forward in design, performance, and functionality while preserving the cherished qualities that made their predecessors beloved by our community," Drop CEO Jef Holove said in a statement. "With the addition of highly requested features such as stabilizer upgrades, new switch options, and enhanced RGB LED capabilities, we offer the community an upgraded and unparalleled typing experience that will make them fall in love with these reinvented, classic keyboards all over again."The news follows Corsair's recent acquisition of Drop for an undisclosed amount. In the July announcement, Holove said that Drop would still work together with "community favorites" while providing products to a larger audience at a quicker speed.Drop's V2 CTRL, ALT and SHIFT keyboards are available as barebones or fully assembled models. You can get the scaled-down versions for between $140 to $190 and the completed keyboards for $180 to $250. The company is also releasing the PCBA + foam kit and Phantom Stabilizers as add-ons - starting at $105 - if you already own a Drop keyboard but want to upgrade it a bit.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/drops-refreshed-ctrl-alt-and-shift-keyboards-offer-improved-stabilization-and-led-patterns-150003774.html?src=rss

Lyft has announced an initiative that aims to bolster safety for riders and drivers who identify as women or nonbinary. Women+ Connect is a feature that gives women and nonbinary drivers the option to match with women and nonbinary riders more often. Lyft says this is an opt-in feature that's preference-based. If a driver activates Women+ Connect but there are no women or nonbinary people who are looking for a ride close by, they'll still be matched with a male rider and vice versa.The feature will initially be available in Chicago, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose. Lyft plans to enable it in more cities in the near future. When it's available in their area, women and nonbinary riders and drivers will see a "count me in" prompt. If they agree to this, it's more likely that they'll be matched with a woman or nonbinary person.Improving safety is a major goal for Lyft with this effort. The company is also hoping it will encourage more women and nonbinary folks to sign up as drivers. Lyft says that, according to a recent survey, nearly half of riders are women, but they make up 23 percent of drivers on the platform. Women drivers tell us it's hard to drive at night," Jody Kelman, Lyft's executive vice president of customers, told The New York Times. We need to remove a barrier for women drivers today."Ridesharing platforms such as Lyft and Uber have added more safety features to their apps over the years amid reports of sexual assaults and other violent encounters. They have made it easier for riders and drivers to contact support staff and 911, keep loved ones up to date with their location and record audio from the ride. Lyft consulted with experts such as the Human Rights Campaign and the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives as it built Women+ Connect.It is worth noting that Lyft makes it a cinch for riders and drivers to change their gender identity in the app with a few taps. You'll see a driver or rider's preferred pronouns in the app, but not their gender identity.Access to Women+ Connect is based on the gender that users identify with in the Lyft app. Lyft says the default gender identity it uses for drivers is based on the license it has on file, while riders always self-identify their gender. However, any user can change their gender identity in the app at any time. Balancing the ability for users to easily express their gender accurately (particularly for those who are transitioning) while ensuring this feature works as intended is a tricky needle to thread and may cause some issues, but at least Lyft is considering that factor while implementing Women+ Connect.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lyft-aims-to-match-women-and-nonbinary-riders-and-drivers-with-each-other-more-often-145047131.html?src=rss

A deal is great, but a deal and a gift card is even better. Amazon is offering just that, giving customers who purchase an already discounted Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 or Galaxy Tab S9+ a $100 gift card to - you guessed it - Amazon. The Tab S9 is 13 percent off, dropping from $920 to $800, and the Tab S9+ is 11 percent off, taking it from $1,120 to $999.Samsung's Galaxy Tab series is a solid option overall, with the S9 and S9+ both representing good buys. We're partial to them over the newer Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra, which we gave a 78 to in our review due to its beautiful screen and powerful hardware (pro), but a $1,200 price tag (con). The cheaper Galaxy Tab S9 still has excellent features like an 11-inch high-quality screen, Wi-Fi 6E compatibility and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip. The Tab S9+ has a 12.4-inch screen, a 10,090mAh battery (compared to the S9's 8,400mAh) and a 512GB option.The $100 gift card is available with your purchase until September 24th, using the code PDHMT3LPAACC, and will be sent in an email as soon as your shipment is complete. If you prefer to buy directly from the manufacturer, Samsung currently has the same sales going on as Amazon. Of course, you'd be foregoing the gift card though.Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-is-giving-away-100-gift-cards-with-samsung-galaxy-tab-s9-purchases-142045167.html?src=rss

Panasonic has unveiled the Lumix G9 II, its first Micro Four Thirds camera with hybrid phase-detect autofocus. A successor to the 20-megapixel photo-centric G9 released way back in 2017, it comes with a new 25.2-megapixel (MP) sensor, and offers features like 60 fps burst speeds, 5.7K and 4K 60p ProRes video, USB-C SSD recording and 8 stops of optical image stabilization. It instantly becomes Panasonic's best Micro Four Thirds camera and should appeal to users ranging from wildlife photographers to content creators.The key feature is the new 25.2-megapixel dual native ISO sensor. It carries the same resolution as the GH6, but adds hybrid phase-detect (PDAF) autofocus with 779 points that's married to Panasonic's AI subject tracking. The new system allows not only for faster tracking, but better AF in backlit conditions, low illumination and other tricky conditions. It recognizes not just faces and eyes, but also human bodies, and can track animal eyes, cars and motorcycles.Panasonic is promising blackout-free burst speeds of 60 fps with continuous AF and the electronic shutter, or 10 fps in mechanical mode. At the same time, the buffer takes three seconds to fill, meaning you can grab around 160 RAW+JPG images before shooting slows. It's also got a pre-burst shooting function (0.5-, 1- or 1.5-second settings), meaning photographers won't miss a decisive moment if they're a bit late on the shutter.PanasonicPanasonic also borrowed the "Dynamic Range Boost" function from the GH6. It's essentially an HDR photo mode that combines low and high ISO images to produce a composite with both low noise and high saturation. The G9 II also has Panasonic's handheld high-res mode that combines multiple images to create a 100MP JPEG photo with extra detail. It uses the camera's IBIS mechanism to keep the camera steady, meaning no tripod is required.As for the IBIS, it's also borrowed from the GH6 and delivers 8 stops of compensation, or 7.5 stops in 5-axis Dual IS 2 mode (used for longer telephoto lenses). As with other recent models, the G9 II also offers Active IS for shooting on the move, and Enhance IS to correct larger shake when running or walking.The G9 II has a weather-resistant design, a new 8-direction joystick and supports an all-new optional $350 camera grip (also compatible with the S5 II/S5 IIx). The 1,840K dot LCD display fully articulates for vloggers and self-shooters, of course, and it comes with a decent 3,680K dot OLED. Other features include microphone/headphone ports and a full-sized HDMI port.PanasonicPanasonic downplayed it a bit, but the G9 II is now the company's most powerful Micro Four Thirds mirrorless model for video, thanks largely to the PDAF. It can shoot 4:2:0 10-bit 17:9 5.7K video at up to 60 fps, or 10-bit 4K at up to 120p. It also offers 4:3 open gate (5.8K) and 4:3 anamorphic shooting (4.4K). Plus, it supports regular MP4 formats (including I-frame) and Apple ProRes - not bad for a camera aimed at photographers.You can shoot V-Log/V-Gamut video with 13+ stops of dynamic range, while applying your own LUTs in real time to see how graded footage will look. Panasonic also has a few new creative looks including Leica Monochrome "for deep black-white contrasts."Other handy video features include a red rec frame indicator, a frame marker and AWB (auto white balance) lock. You can capture video not just to the dual UHS-II SD cards (relay, backup and allocation recording), but also to an SSD via the USB-C Gen 3.2 port. It also supports external ProRes recording via HDMI. The major drawback compared to the GH6 is the lack of a fan and a dedicated cooling design - so it may shut off during long recordings at high frame rates in hot conditions.PanasonicThe Panasonic G9 II arrives to the US in early November for $1,900. That's $200 more than the original G9 at launch, but a bit less than OM System's OM-1 Micro Four Thirds camera. Along with the G9-II, Panasonic introduced the new $1,600 Leica DG 100-400mm f/4-6.3 II Power OIS lens (200-800mm 35mm equivalent), ideal for wildlife and macro photography. It also unveiled the $1,150 Leica DG 35-100mm f/2.8 (70-200 35mm equivalent).This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/panasonics-lumix-g9-ii-is-its-first-micro-four-thirds-camera-with-hybrid-autofocus-140036804.html?src=rss

Up to three times the bandwidth of Thunderbolt 4. Support for multiple 8K displays, as well as gaming monitors running at up to 540Hz. 240 watts of charging power. These aren't just the highlights of my PC connectivity dreams: They're key features of Thunderbolt 5, Intel's latest stab at creating the ultimate PC cable. And this time, the chip maker may actually succeed.When Thunderbolt 4 dropped in 2020, it mostly seemed like a refined version of Thunderbolt 3. It had the same maximum bandwidth of 40 gigabits per second, but its increased efficiency allowed Intel to standardize support for multiple 4K screens, as well as double storage device speeds. At the very least, Intel required at least one Thunderbolt 4 to support USB-C charging.Thunderbolt 5, on the other hand, is a major leap forward. It's built on the USB4 v2 spec, which offers the same speed improvements, but Intel is making key features a requirement. That includes a baseline speed of 80 Gbps and support for 120 Gbps using bandwidth boosting (USB4 requires 20 Gbps); support for dual 6K screens (Thunderbolt 4 requires dual 4K monitors); and a minimum of 140 watt charging and a more powerful 240W mode.Since it was originally known as Light Peak, Intel's goal with Thunderbolt was to develop a single cable that could handle all of your data and power needs. This latest version should satisfy even more demanding PC users. With up to 240W of charging, for example, some gaming laptops and workstations wouldn't need a separate power port. That means fewer cables to carry, as well as the assurance that you could always borrow someone else's USB-C cable and adapter to juice up.IntelAs Intel previously announced, Thunderbolt 5 will also support the DisplayPort 2.1 and PCI Express Gen 4 standards. The latter should be particularly helpful with external GPUs, which have been significantly bandwidth limited until now. We can also expect that additional bandwidth to support new accessories like external AI accelerator, as well as far faster external storage.Intel says that Thunderbolt 5 accessories and PCs will be available in 2024. It'd be nice to have a clearer time frame, but Intel may be trying to avoid scaring off people from buying new systems this year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/intel-thunderbolt-5-launch-130006804.html?src=rss

I waved goodbye to Assassin's Creed Valhalla after 12 hours. I took my time to do everything I could in the opening area, then spent a couple of hours in the main part of the game. After yet another side objective that Ubisoft jammed into this bloated game, it dawned on me - nope, I can't go any further.Ubisoft's tendency to overstuff its games coiled around AC Valhalla, squeezing much of the fun out of my time with it. I could tell early on that the world was too big with too much to do. I had a similar problem with Far Cry 6, another recent open-world Ubisoft game I endured for around the same length of time.Assassin's Creed Mirageis blessedly billed as a return to the series' leaner early days, when Ubisoft was restricted by PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 hardware. After a few hours of hands-on time split across three sections of the new game, it feels like that's the case, but it's hard to say for sure given the curated nature of the demo.I started out with a brief prologue and a time skip to a training segment, the latter of which included an appropriately weighty initiation ceremony, the critical moment in which Basim, the protagonist, became a Hidden One and received the iconic hidden blade. It also featured the incredible voice of Shohreh Aghdashloo as Master Roshan, Basim's mentor.I was then able to spend 90 minutes or so in the open world. After I loaded into this section, Basim appeared on a perch and I was told that there were new points of interest to check out. I immediately opened the map and was pleased to see there weren't a million icons that threatened to pull me away from the main objectives. There were 15 or so, which feels far more palatable than the overwhelmingly busy maps I've seen in previous games.Mirage largely takes place in ninth century Baghdad, a couple of centuries before the Holy Land setting of the original Assassin's Creed, but around the same time as AC Valhalla (Basim made his first appearance in that game). Ubisoft has crafted a rich, lived-in world that's full of detail and is said to be around the same size as Paris in Assassin's Creed Unity. Most importantly, the bits I played were dense with structures, so it was far more about parkouring across rooftops than sailing on Viking ships with raiding parties. It reminded me of exploring Venice in Assassin's Creed II.There were some key things to try, such as tearing down posters to reduce my wanted level, a returning mechanic from previous games. That was essential to avert unwelcome attention after I executed every single person responsible for stealing tea from one of Basim's associates (there's no forgiveness for such a crime). Pickpocketing was also an important part of Basim's toolkit, as a means of procuring valuable items to bribe contacts for information. Still, I had no trouble focusing on the missions instead of getting distracted by, say, a nearby eagle feather.UbisoftThe last section of my hands-on time centered on an investigation. Ubisoft's approach here is a callback to the black-box format of games like Unity: You'll need to discover information about an assassination target before you can take them out by completing smaller objectives. You can take these on however you like.One involved infiltrating an enemy camp to find intel. It took me a few attempts to find an approach that worked here. Sending Basim's eagle companion Enkidu to scout out bad guys' locations was a big help, but it all inevitably fell apart when I failed to account for one goon whose buddy I executed right in front of them. I learned to be more careful in my later attempts, and not to rush through the encounter despite the time limit on my demo.The enemy AI seemed smarter than before, too. During the prologue, I messed up (intentionally, of course) an attempt at pickpocketing, which used a timing-based minigame. It took a few minutes of fleeing over and around buildings to finally shake my foes so I could return to my task. I also had to account for more intelligent adversaries that seemed wise to some of Basim's tricks during my foray into the enemy camp. I died a few times, but eventually found a way to complete my task.While you'll be able to unlock new abilities and level up Basim's weapons and tools through skill trees, it seems Ubisoft has pulled back on some of the RPG elements that have seeped into the series in recent years. I didn't need to worry about finding armor to boost a certain stat, for instance, and I was very thankful for that.Mirage feels like a throwback in the most positive of ways. It's a return to a format that feels fresh rather than dated. Basim's movement feels fluid and he has enough tools at his disposal to give you a lot of strategic options for enemy encounters. Stealth-based combat and the return of social blending are welcome. However, I completely forgot to try Basim's chain-assassination ability, which looked cool whenever Ubisoft showed it off.UbisoftI think we need more AAA games that are smaller in scope, rather than the enormous blockbusters that can take more than 100 hours to complete. Cutting out bloat could reduce developers' workloads and mitigate the need for crunch as well. After reading some Starfield reviews suggesting that game doesn't really get going until around the 12-hour mark, I'm far less interested in checking it out (though I inevitably will).Assassin's Creed Mirage is an entirely different game than Starfield, but I'd like to see more projects going in this direction. There will still be plenty of room for games that will take months to fully complete, but major publishers and studios stand to benefit from offering more intimate experiences in their key franchises - or at least different ones.It remains intriguing that Ubisoft has decided to charge $50 for Mirage, rather than the typical $60 or $70 that AAA games cost these days. The publisher may be wary of criticism over charging more" for "less" purely in terms of game length: Mirage is expected to ship with about 30 hours of content.On one hand, the pricing decision devalues the work of the development team that created Mirage. On the other, Ubisoft might be very wary of bad press after years of thuddingbody blowafterthuddingbody blow. That said, there's still an in-game store where you can buy cosmetic items if you wish, so some old tendencies remain.This is one of Ubisoft's first steps in a grand plan to bring its tentpole series together as part of a project called Assassin's Creed Infinity. Based on my first few hours with Mirage, the company is moving in the right direction, which may involve scarpering up the side of an exquisitely crafted structure.Assassin's Creed Mirage will arrive on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC on October 5.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/assassins-creed-mirage-preview-a-throwback-in-the-best-of-ways-120018919.html?src=rss

AI chatbots are coming to your Salesforce applications and it looks like it'll all of them. Company executives had a lot to show off during Tuesday's Dreamforce 2023 keynote address, including major updates to both its Einstein AI and Data Cloud services.Einstein AI has received a slew of updates and upgrades since we saw it integrated with Slack back in May. The new Copilot service will take the existing AI chatbot and tune it to a client company's specific datasets using their Salesforce Data Cloud data. This enables the Einstein AI to provide better, more relevant and more actionable answers to employees' natural language questions and requests."Copilot is a conversational AI assistant for both companies and employees to securely and safely access generative AI to do their jobs better, faster and more easily," Salesforce CEO of AI, Clara Chi, said during a press call monday. "It's going to be available to every Salesforce user across every cloud."The new Copilot Studio takes that tuning process a step further, allowing customers to "customize Einstein Copilot with specific prompts, skills, and AI models," per a Monday release. This more tightly structures Einstein's behaviors without constricting its generative capabilities. What's more, Salesforce executives announced that Copilot will be available across a variety of mobile platforms, including "real-time chat, Slack, WhatsApp or SMS.""We think that there is an incredible opportunity in AI," Patrick Stokes, Salesforce EVP and GM of Platform, said during the press call. "We think that it is creating jobs, we think that it is driving productivity across organizations... we also think that as customers and businesses are driving towards these AI strategies, they may not have the platform that they really want or that they really need."He notes that much of their customers' data is fractured and split among different applications, data lakes, APIs and vendors. "This is all leading to low productivity, and what they really want, is one connected platform or one that will connect their data," Stokes continued. To address that need, Salesforce also announced that it is integrating the chatbot with its Data Cloud service to create a one-stop platform for building low-code AI-powered CRM applications. Salesforce calls it the Einstein 1 Platform."All of these fields coming together from different systems that speak different languages... now speak one language on the platform," Chi said. "Any data from any system can now be used like any other object or field in Salesforce."One of Salesforce's first big innovations was its metadata framework a system that describes the relationship between, and behaviors of, individual pieces of a company's data. That metadata framework is also an ideal medium for training machine learning models to better understand customer interactions and business operations, thereby improving and refining their performance."Much of Salesforce is built on this metadata framework - from our platform to analytics, commerce, sales service and marketing," Stokes said. "Now our Data Cloud and Einstein are really giving you one platform where you can build all of your customer experience in one place with all of the data and AI that you need."To minimize the rate of hallucination and false responses by the AI, Salesforce has developed the "Einstein trust layer" which we first saw roll out to the company's CRM applications in March. The trust layer both secures data retrieval from the cloud and masks any sensitive or proprietary information before passing it on to the language model with another round of toxicity checks after that.The company does not deny that this new generation of generative AI can and likely will lead to job losses, such as coders whose services will be replaced by Einstein 1, but remains confident that there is reason for optimism. "I think it is a it's a big moment in time and there will certainly be impact a certain jobs," Chi admitted. "There's also certainly going to be a new jobs that are being created such as prompt engineer." Oh boy, a prompt engineer, the career every kid dreams of.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-next-generation-einstein-ai-will-put-a-chatbot-in-every-salesforce-application-120004305.html?src=rss

Anker makes some of the best charging products out there, but the extra quality comes at a price. If you've been waiting for a sale, you can now grab a number of Anker chargers and other smartphone accessories at Amazon with discounts of up to 50 percent. Some of the key items include the Anker 621 MagGo magnetic charger ($30 or 50 percent off), the 511 Nano 3 PIQ 3 charger at $17 in all colors, the 313 Power Bank 10,000 mAh portable charger and the MacBook Pro 100W charger ($27 or 30 percent off).The Anker 621 Magnetic Battery (MagGo) snaps right on to your iPhone 12/13/14, adding 5,000mAh of range. It's relatively thin at 12.8mm, attaches using a super-strong magnet and charges either wirelessly or via the USB-C port and included cable. It also doubles as a kickstand, letting you prop up your phone for video chats, movie watching and more. It's normally priced at $60, but you can now grab one for $30 for a savings of $30 (50 percent).The Anker 313 Power Bank, meanwhile, comes with a 10,000 mAh battery app and PowerIQ charging tech to triple the battery life of your iPhone or Android smartphone, all in a relatively slim and light size. Anker's 511 30W Nano 3 charger is one of our favorite accessories for Apple Watches and it's down to $17 instead of the usual $23. It's compact, foldable and has built-in safeguards to protect against overheating - and it's even powerful enough to juice up an iPhone.Finally, the company's 100W MacBook Pro charger is on sale for $27, or 30 percent - a particularly good deal if you compare it to Apple's own MacBook Pro chargers. It can charge up a 16-inch M1 MacBook Pro to 100 percent in just an hour and twenty minutes, while taking up a lot less space than the factory charger. The sale includes a number of other chargers, cables and other devices, but it's best to act soon before the sale ends.Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/anker-charging-accessories-are-up-to-50-percent-off-at-amazon-115035029.html?src=rss

Apple's annual iPhone event kicks off today, so if you can't stand the company's presentations or devices, you might want to disconnect this afternoon. But for anyone interested in what the most influential tech hardware company is doing, expect to see a new iPhone... obviously.All the iPhone 15 models (except for perhaps a new SE) could shift from the notch to the Dynamic Island cutout, which debuted in the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. There were rumors of an iPhone Ultra, but we're now expecting that next year.EngadgetRumors also suggest the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max could switch to titanium frames from stainless steel. This upgrade could make the new pro hardware stronger, lighter and more premium," according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The Pro Max model could well get a camera upgrade to a new periscope lens, using a prism to fold light, leading to an optical zoom of 5x to 6x without making the phone beefier.The company may phase out the Lightning port with the iPhone 15, making a long-awaited switch to USB-C and addressing European Union rules regarding unified charging ports. We may also see USB-C friendly AirPod cases too, if not entirely new AirPods.Expect minor Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra updates too, with a shift to the S9 chip, marking the product's first real processor upgrade since 2020. However, watchOS 10 - arguably the biggest software update so far for the wearable - should change how we use the Apple Watch.We'll be there in person, reporting and handling all the new hardware, and you can watch along right here.- Mat SmithYou can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!The biggest stories you might have missedWhat we bought: The self-emptying litter box that'll also empty your bank accountHitting the Books: Meet Richard Arkwright, the world's first tech titanApple event: How to watch the iPhone 15 revealForza Motorsport preview: A warm welcome for casual racing fansLogitech's newest webcam has a giant armIt's a crowdfunded project.LogitechLogitech just announced a new webcam called the Reach, with a flexible and articulating arm. There's a button for vertical movement and lossless zoom up to 4.3x, with a grip to move the camera along the vertical plane. Logitech's being a bit cagey about pricing and availability, but there's a survey on the official site that indicates a discounted price of $300 to $400 for early adopters. As a note, the Streamcam costs around $180 by itself. The Reach won't be sold via official means: Logitech is turning to Indiegogo Enterprise to fund the camera. Ah yes, the poor struggling startup that is 41-year-old Logitech, with revenues of over $5 billion in the last year alone.Continue reading.The Mercedes-Benz Concept CLA Class mixes big range with style400-plus miles of range.Mercedes BenzSure, this is a concept car. Gorgeous, presumably insanely expensive to build, but it also teases vehicles that could change everything you've come to expect about acceptable range from an electric car. The Concept CLA inherits a lot from the not-for-sale Vision EQXX, but this car is a lot more ready for production and should be a lot more affordable. The current CLA is one of the most affordable Mercedes-Benz cars you can buy - and this EV might not break the bank, either.Continue reading.The best ereaders for 2023Kindles are no longer your only option.Ereaders combine the best of paper and computers, and while Amazon's Kindle ecosystem dominates this market, there are some worthy competitors - especially useful if you have an aversion to Amazon's stranglehold on books. Other companies, particularly Kobo, now make solid ebook readers that might be better for your needs. We tested out some of the best ereaders, and we have some surprising recommendations.Continue reading.Apple chips made in the US may still require assembly in TaiwanThe Information says TSMC can only package advanced chips in Taiwan.Apple chief Tim Cook previously announced the tech giant will purchase chips for its key products from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC) new factory in Phoenix, Arizona. It seemed like a huge win for the Biden administration, which signed the CHIPS Act into law last year to boost US manufacturing and lessen its reliance on overseas suppliers. Now, The Information reports that even though the components for Apple's chips will be manufactured in the US, they'll still have to be sent back to TSMC's home country for assembly. The factory in Arizona apparently doesn't have the facilities to package - the final part of chip assembly - its customers' more advanced silicon.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-what-to-expect-at-apples-wonderlust-iphone-event-today-111510535.html?src=rss

Meta has rolled out software update v57 for its Quest headsets, and one of the biggest changes it brings is giving you the ability to make your avatar a better representative of your true self. When you choose a certain color for your hair and eyebrows, for instance, you'll be able to fine-tune it further through a slider that lets you adjust its depth. Yes, that means you'll now be able to more accurately pick your avatar's skin tone. You can put makeup and face paint on your avatar, in the exact colors you want, as well.In addition, update v57 gives you the capability to unsend image messages in virtual reality and the Meta Quest mobile app. When you hover over the image in VR or click on it in the app, you'll see the option to "Unsend a message." If you choose to do so, both parties will get a notification that a message has been removed for transparency. At the moment, this particular feature is available in Australia, Canada, Iceland, New Zealand, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan and the US.If the feed that greets you when log into VR looks different, that's because Meta is also replacing Quest's Explore feed with an updated one dubbed the "Horizon Feed." It still shows content relevant to your interests, though, so long as they're age-appropriate. Finally, update v57 introduces free-form locomotion, which lets you teleport throughout your Home space instead of being confined to predetermined spots. You still can't move through walls, furniture and other objects, but you can now at least explore your environment more freely.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/metas-customizable-quest-avatars-get-a-lot-more-inclusive-105509001.html?src=rss

A small number of Apple's iPhone 15 models manufactured in India could be available on launch day for the first time, according to a report from Bloomberg. Apple has built iPhones in India since 2017, but it has typically taken up to a year to ramp up production. This time, a small number built in India could go on sale immediately in that nation and some other regions.It's been known for a while now that Apple contractor Foxconn would manufacture more iPhone 15 models than before at a facility in Tamil Nadu, India. It's part of Apple's plan to diversify manufacturing in the face of supply chain risks due to tensions between the US and China. The number of units available on launch day from India will reportedly depend on the availability of components manufactured elsewhere and Foxconn's ability to ramp up production.Apple has only built a fraction of its iPhones in India, and production has typically lagged behind China by six to nine months. That changed with the iPhone 14, as Foxconn (and another manufacturer, Pegatron) were able to start manufacturing in India within the same month of the official release. Apple intends to eventually shift 25 percent of its production to the nation.Recent conflicts between the US and China haven't impacted Apple much, likely because Foxconn and other suppliers in the nation employee millions of people. It also has followed China's laws, removing thousands of illegal apps like VPNs. However, recent actions in the country to ban iPhones and other foreign devices for government officials have left the company more vulnerable than usual. Apple also sells a large number of phones in China, accounting for about 19 percent of its total revenue.Apple is set to release the iPhone 15 today at its Cupertino HQ, reportedly with thinner bezels, a titanium frame, USB-C charging and more. We're also likely to see updated watches and Airpods, along with its latest iOS 17, watchOS 10 and iPadOS 17 operating systems.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-launch-day-iphone-15s-may-originate-from-india-103337179.html?src=rss

Apple chief Tim Cook previously announced that the tech giant will be purchasing chips for its iPhones, Macs and other key products made in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC) new factory in Phoenix, Arizona. It seemed like a huge win for the Biden administration, which signs the CHIPS Act into law last year to boost manufacturing in the US and lessen its reliance on overseas suppliers. Now, The Information has reported that even though the components for Apple's chips will be manufactured in the US, they'll still have to be sent back to TSMC's home country for assembly.Apparently, the manufacturer's factory in Arizona doesn't have the facilities to package its customers' more advanced chips. "Packaging" is what you call the final stage of fabrication, wherein the chip's components are assembled inside a housing as close together as possible to enhance speed and power efficiency. The iPhone, in particular, has been using a packaging method developed by TSMC since 2016. Chips for iPads and Macs can be packaged outside of Taiwan, but the iPhone's will have to be assembled in the country.The Information says Apple is the manufacturer's only customer using its packaging method at high volumes, but TSMC has other clients, including NVIDIA, AMD and Tesla. It's unclear how many of those companies' chip models will have to be sent back to Taiwan for packaging, but they reportedly include chips for artificial intelligence, including NVIDIA's H100. The publication also previously reported that Google will be using TSMC's advanced packaging used on the iPhone for its future Pixel phones.The government set aside over $50 billion in funding under the CHIPS Act to provide subsidies for companies building chip factories in the US. President Joe Biden and his administration are encouraging the growth of the US semiconductor industry to mitigate fallout from the growing tension between the United States and China over Taiwan. In August, the president even signed an executive order that limits American investments in Chinese tech firms dealing with semiconductors, quantum computing and artificial intelligence.Seeing as the government recently established (PDF) a National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing program to boost chip packaging in the US, it's aware of the need to bring the process into the country, as well. Apple and all the aforementioned TSMC clients aren't the only companies whose chips have to be sent overseas for assembly, since manufacturers aren't making enough products in the US to justify building packaging facilities in the country. However, that program is only getting $2.5 billion in funding under the CHIPS Act, and the Institute of Printed Circuits told the publication that the amount shows packaging isn't being prioritized. As for TSMC, The Information's sources said it has no plans to build packaging facilities in the US due to the huge costs involved, and any future packaging method it develops will most likely be offered in Taiwan.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-chips-made-in-the-us-still-require-assembly-in-taiwan-report-suggests-075211020.html?src=rss

It turns out that Threads' recently introduced keyword-searching abilities won't work for all topics. The app is currently blocking searches for a number of potentially sensitive" words, including vaccines," covid," and other variations of words that have previously been linked to misinformation on Meta's platform.The limits, which were first reported by The Washington Post, are an apparent attempt to prevent controversial content from spreading on Meta's newest app. The company has blocked a number of covid and vaccine-related terms, including covid," coronavirus," covid-19," vaccines" and covid vaccines," as well as other terms associated with potentially unsavory content like gore," nude," and sex."The company confirmed it was blocking searches in a statement to The Post, calling it a temporary measure. The search functionality temporarily doesn't provide results for keywords that may show potentially sensitive content," a spokesperson said. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram who also oversees Threads, tweeted that the company was trying to learn from last [sic] mistakes and believe it's better to bias towards being careful as we roll out search."Meta's history shows the company has good reasons to be cautious about search on Threads. Instagram search has been widely criticized as a vector for misinformation and its ability to lead users down conspiratorial rabbit holes. The app's search was particularly weaponized during the early days of the pandemic, when it promoted conspiracy-touting anti-vax accounts in its top results for simple queries like vaccine" and 5g."At the same time, it's telling that Meta is now opting to block all searches containing potentially sensitive" keywords, even posts that don't contain rule-breaking content. It's also a notably more aggressive approach than the social media company has taken in the past.While Meta has previously limited search functionality on both Facebook and Instagram, the company has typically intervened when search terms were explicitly linked to rule-breaking content, like specific hashtags related to QAnon. In other cases, the company has worked to clean up search results for topics like vaccines, and pushed in-app PSAs directing users to official resources.As The Washington Post points out, the result of the total block on covid-related search terms is that users are also prohibited from looking for information, resources and conversations that don't break the platform's rules, which could be a barrier to those seeking advice or credible information from experts.Meta's caution also underscores just how quickly the company rushed the development of Threads. The app was released just five months after a small group of Instagram engineers started working on the project. The quick turnaround meant that Threads launched with several basic features missing from the service. And while Meta has said Threads has the same safety policies of Instagram, it hasn't disclosed many details about its plans to moderate content on the Twitter-like app, where posts look and feel very different.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-is-blocking-potentially-sensitive-topics-from-threads-search-231028963.html?src=rss

According to Semafor, data from NewsWhip showed that engagement on public posts linked to the New York Times website has dropped dramatically since late July. This is seemingly a unique issue to the NYT as other news organizations like CNN, the Washington Post, and the BBC have not seen similar dips in engagement.According to the report, the New York Times' reach hasn't changed on Facebook and other social media platforms. Additionally, recent tweets by former President Barack Obama that include NYT links saw less engagement when compared to his other tweets. For example, when Obama shared articles about healthcare costs, his posts reached fewer than 800,000 users. Most of his posts reach a minimum of 10 million users.While it's unclear what exactly is causing the drop in user reach, this wouldn't be the first time Elon Musk's X appeared to be affecting user engagement. In August, X was reported to be interfering with links to Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, Substack and of course-the New York Times, to make them load noticeably slower. At the time, it appeared that the high-profile websites affected were only big names that Musk publicly attacked in the past.X and The New York Times could not be immediately reached for comment.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/x-is-allegedly-limiting-user-reach-to-posts-that-link-to-the-new-york-times-224200207.html?src=rss

MGM Resorts confirmed on Monday that it was hit by a cybersecurity issue, shutting down systems across its suite of casinos. The hotel giant owns a notable swath of casinos along the Las Vegas Strip, where some gamblers reported slot machines being taken offline because of the incident. At MGM Resorts' international properties, hotels are currently taking reservations via phone because of website shutdowns."MGM Resorts recently identified a cybersecurity issue affecting some of the company's systems," the company wrote in a statement. It said the company "took prompt action to protect our systems and data, including shutting down certain systems" in response to the attack. MGM Resorts has not confirmed how widespread the shut down is, what systems have been affected or other details about the incident.Customer anecdotes report issues making reservations, using ATM machines, playing certain games and mobile key entry into hotel rooms, but Engadget has not independently confirmed these reports. While MGM Resorts informed the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department about the incident, the department said in a statement that these types of incidents are typically passed along to federal agencies.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mgm-resorts-hit-by-cybersecurity-issue-leading-to-massive-outage-215205561.html?src=rss

You didn't actually believe all those founder's myths about tech billionaires like Bezos, Jobs and Musk pulling themselves up by their bootstraps from some suburban American garage, did you? In reality, our corporate kings have been running the same playbook since the 18th century when Lancashire's own Richard Arkwright wrote it. Arkwright is credited with developing a means of forming cotton fully into thread - technically he didn't actually invent or design the machine, but developed the overarching system in which it could be run at scale - and spinning that success into financial fortune. Never mind the fact that his 24-hour production lines were operated by boys as young as seven pulling 13-hour shifts.InBlood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech- one of the best books I've read this year - LA Times tech reporter Brian Merchant lays bare the inhumane cost of capitalism wrought by the industrial revolution and celebrates the workers who stood against those first tides of automation: the Luddites.Hachette Book GroupExcerpted from Blood in the Machine by Brian Merchant. Published by Hachette Book Group. Copyright (C) 2023 by Brian Merchant. All rights reserved.The first tech titans were not building global information networks or commercial space rockets. They were making yarn and cloth. A lot of yarn, and a lot of cloth.Like our modern-day titans, they started out as entrepreneurs. But until the nineteenth century, entrepreneurship was not a cultural phenomenon. Businessmen took risks, of course, and undertook novel efforts to increase their profits. Yet there was not a popular conception of the heroic entrepreneur, of the adventuring businessman, until after the birth of industrial capitalism. The term itself was popularized by Jean-Baptiste Say, in his 1803 work A Treatise on Political Economy. An admirer of Adam Smith's, Say thought that The Wealth of Nations was missing an account of the individuals who bore the risk of starting new business; he called this figure the entrepreneur, which translated from the French as adventurer" or undertaker."For a worker, aspiring to entrepreneurship was different than merely seeking upward mobility. The standard path an ambitious, skilled weaver might pursue was to graduate from apprentice to journeyman weaver, who rented a loom or worked in a shop, to owning his own loom, to becoming a master weaver and running a small shop of his own that employed other journeymen. This was customary.In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as now in the twenty-first century, entrepreneurs saw the opportunity to use technology to disrupt longstanding customs in order to increase efficiencies, output, and personal profit. There were few opportunities for entrepreneurship without some form of automation; control of technologies of production grants its owner a chance to gain advantage or take pay or market share from others. In the past, like now, entrepreneurs started small businesses at some personal financial risk, whether by taking out a loan to purchase used handlooms and rent a small factory space, or by using inherited capital to procure a steam engine and a host of power looms.The most ambitious entrepreneurs tapped untested technologies and novel working arrangements, and the most successful irrevocably changed the structure and nature of our daily lives, setting standards that still exist today. The least successful would go bankrupt, then as now.In the first century of the Industrial Revolution, one entrepreneur looms above the others, and has a strong claim on the mantle of the first of what we'd call a tech titan today. Richard Arkwright was born to a middle-class tailor's family and originally apprenticed as a barber and wigmaker. He opened a shop in the Lancashire city of Bolton in the 1760s. There, he invented a waterproof dye for the wigs that were in fashion at the time, and traveled the country collecting hair to make them. In his travels across the Midlands, he met spinners and weavers, and became familiar with the machinery they used to make cotton garments. Bolton was right in the middle of the Industrial Revolution's cotton hub hotspot.Arkwright took the money he made from the wigs, plus the dowry from his second marriage, and invested it in upgraded spinning machinery. The improvement of spinning was much in the air, and many men up and down Lancashire were working at it," Arkwright's biographer notes. James Hargreaves had invented the spinning jenny, a machine that allowed a single worker to create eight threads of yarn simultaneously-though they were not very strong-in 1767. Working with one of his employees, John Kay, Arkwright tweaked the designs to spin much stronger threads using water or steam power. Without crediting Kay, Arkwright patented his water frame in 1769 and a carding engine in 1775, and attracted investment from wealthy hosiers in Nottingham to build out his operation. He built his famous water-powered factory in Cromford in 1771.His real innovation was not the technology itself; several similar machines had been patented, some before his. His true innovation was creating and successfully implementing the system of modern factory work.Arkwright was not the great inventor, nor the technical genius," as the Oxford economic historian Peter Mathias explains, but he was the first man to make the new technology of massive machinery and power source work as a system - technical, organizational, commercial - and, as a proof, created the first great personal fortune and received the accolade of a knighthood in the textile industry as an industrialist." Richard Arkwright Jr., who inherited his business, became the richest commoner in England.Arkwright was the first start-up founder to launch a unicorn company, we might say, and the first tech entrepreneur to strike it wildly rich. He did so by marrying the emergent technologies that automated the making of yarn with a relentless new work regime. His legacy is alive today in companies like Amazon, which strive to automate as much of their operations as is financially viable, and to introduce surveillance-intensive worker-productivity programs.Often called the grandfather of the factory, Arkwright did not invent the idea of organizing workers into strict shifts to produce goods with maximal efficiency. But he pursued the manufactory" formation most ruthlessly, and most vividly demonstrated the practice could generate huge profits. Arkwright's factory system, which was quickly and widely emulated, divided his hundreds of workers into two overlapping thirteen-hour shifts. A bell was rung twice a day, at 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. The gates would shut and work would start an hour later. If a worker was late, they sat the shift out, forfeiting that day's pay. (Employers of the era touted this practice as a positive for workers; it was a more flexible schedule, they said, since employees no longer needed to give notice" if they couldn't work. This reasoning is reminiscent of that offered by twenty-first-century on-demand app companies.) For the first twenty-two years of its operation, the factory was worked around the clock, mostly by boys like Robert Blincoe, some as young as seven years old. At its peak, two-thirds of the 1,100-strong workforce were children. Richard Arkwright Jr. admitted in later testimony that they looked extremely dissipated, and many of them had seldom more than a few hours of sleep," though he maintained they were well paid.The industrialist also built on-site housing, luring whole families from around the country to come work his frames. He gave them one week's worth of vacation a year, but on condition that they could not leave the village." Today, even some of our most cutting-edge consumer products are still manufactured in similar conditions, in imposing factories with on-site dormitories and strictly regimented production processes, by workers who have left home for the job. Companies like Foxconn operate factories where the regimen can be so grueling it has led to suicide epidemics among the workforce.The strict work schedule and a raft of rules instilled a sense of discipline among the laborers; long, miserable shifts inside the factory walls were the new standard. Previously, of course, similar work was done at home or in small shops, where shifts were not so rigid or enforced.Arkwright's main difficulty," according to the early business theorist Andrew Ure, did not lie so much in the invention of a proper mechanism for drawing out and twisting cotton into a continuous thread, as in . . . training human beings to renounce their desultory habits of work and to identify themselves with the unvarying regularity of the complex automaton." This was his legacy. To devise and administer a successful code of factory discipline, suited to the necessities of factory diligence, was the Herculean enterprise, the noble achievement of Arkwright," Ure continued. It required, in fact, a man of a Napoleon nerve and ambition to subdue the refractory tempers of workpeople."Ure was hardly exaggerating, as many workers did in fact view Arkwright as akin to an invading enemy. When he opened a factory in Chorley, Lancashire, in 1779, a crowd of hundreds of cloth workers broke in, smashed the machines, and burned the place to the ground. Arkwright did not try to open another mill in Lancashire.Arkwright also vigorously defended his patents in the legal system. He collected royalties on his water frame and carding engine until 1785, when the court decided that he had not actually invented the machines but had instead copied their parts from other inventors, and threw the patents out. By then, he was astronomically wealthy. Before he died, he would be worth 500,000, or around $425 million in today's dollars, and his son would expand and entrench his factory empire.The success apparently went to his head - he was considered arrogant, even among his admirers. In fact, arrogance was a key ingredient in his success: he had what Ure described as fortitude in the face of public opposition." He was unyielding with critics when they pointed out, say, that he was employing hundreds of children in machine-filled rooms for thirteen hours straight. That for all his innovation, the secret sauce in his groundbreaking success was labor exploitation.In Arkwright, we see the DNA of those who would attain tech titanhood in the ensuing decades and centuries. Arkwright's brashness rhymes with that of bullheaded modern tech executives who see virtue in a willingness to ignore regulations and push their workforces to extremes, or who, like Elon Musk, would gleefully wage war with perceived foes on Twitter rather than engage any criticism of how they run their businesses. Like Steve Jobs, who famously said, We've always been shameless about stealing great ideas," Arkwright surveyed the technologies of the day, recognized what worked and could be profitable, lifted the ideas, and then put them into action with an unmatched aggression. Like Jeff Bezos, Arkwright hyper-charged a new mode of factory work by finding ways to impose discipline and rigidity on his workers, and adapting them to the rhythms of the machine and the dictates of capital - not the other way around.We can look back at the Industrial Revolution and lament the working conditions, but popular culture still lionizes entrepreneurs cut in the mold of Arkwright, who made a choice to employ thousands of child laborers and to institute a dehumanizing system of factory work to increase revenue and lower costs. We have acclimated to the idea that such exploitation was somehow inevitable, even natural, while casting aspersions on movements like the Luddites as being technophobic for trying to stop it. We forget that working people vehemently opposed such exploitation from the beginning.Arkwright's imprint feels familiar to us, in our own era where entrepreneurs loom large. So might a litany of other first-wave tech titans. Take James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine that powered countless factories in industrial England. Once he was confident in his product, much like a latter-day Bill Gates, Watts sold subscriptions for its use. With his partner, Matthew Boulton, Watts installed the engine and then collected annual payments that were structured around how much the customer would save on fuel costs compared to the previous engine. Then, like Gates, Watts would sue anyone he thought had violated his patent, effectively winning himself a monopoly on the trade. The Mises Institute, a libertarian think tank, argues that this had the effect of constraining innovation on the steam engine for thirty years.Or take William Horsfall or William Cartwright. These were men who were less innovative than relentless in their pursuit of disrupting a previous mode of work as they strove to monopolize a market. (The word innovation, it's worth noting, carried negative connotations until the mid-twentieth century or so; Edmund Burke famously called the French Revolution a revolt of innovation.") They can perhaps be seen as precursors to the likes of Travis Kalanick, the founder of Uber, the pugnacious trampler of the taxi industry. Kalanick's business idea - that it would be convenient to hail a taxi from your smartphone - was not remarkably inventive. But he had intense levels of self-determination and pugnacity, which helped him overrun the taxi cartels and dozens of cities' regulatory codes. His attitude was reflected in Uber's treatment of its drivers, who, the company insists, are not employees but independent contractors, and in the endemic culture of harassment and mistreatment of the women on staff.These are extreme examples, perhaps. But extremity is often needed to break down long-held norms, and the potential rewards are extreme, too. Like the mill bosses who shattered nineteenth-century standards and traditions by automating cloth-making, today's start-up founders aim to disrupt one job category after another with gig work platforms or artificial intelligence, and encourage others to follow their lead. There's a reason Arkwright and his factories were both emulated and feared. Even two centuries later, the most successful tech titans typically are.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hitting-the-books-meet-richard-akrwright-the-worlds-first-tech-titan-205045895.html?src=rss

Microsoft announced a new Xbox Mastercard today. Cardmembers can earn points on purchases to redeem on games in the Microsoft Store. The card will launch exclusively for Xbox Insider Program members in the US on September 21, but it will open to all US-based Xbox users next year.The fruit of a partnership between Microsoft and Barclays, the card (unsurprisingly) encourages you to buy Xbox content. The Mastercard will give users one reward point for each dollar spent on everyday purchases. But the incentive grows to five points per dollar spent at the Microsoft Store. In addition, purchases made at some streaming (including Netflix and Disney+) and dining (including Grubhub and DoorDash) services will earn three points per dollar. Reward points are each worth a penny to be redeemed on Xbox games and add-ons, so if you pay $1,000 for standard purchases using the card, you'll earn the equivalent of $10 in points for new games.XboxThe card will be available in the five iconic designs" seen above, and you can optionally personalize it with your Xbox Gamertag. The company says it will work with contactless payments and digital wallets, and users will get free access to their FICO credit score. The Xbox Mastercard's terms and conditions say its APR can be 20.99%, 26.99% or 31.99%, depending on the results of a credit pull.Microsoft has a few extra perks for signing up and using the card. It says you'll receive a bonus of 5,000 card points (a $50 value) after your first purchase with the card. Members will also receive three free months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate after using the Mastercard for the first time - and you can transfer it to a friend if you're already a subscriber.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/forget-cash-back-microsofts-xbox-mastercard-exclusively-earns-game-discounts-185141446.html?src=rss

Logitech just announced a new webcam called the Reach with a flexible and articulating arm, allowing for easy movement and even downward-facing video footage. The company says this is the perfect tool for non-digital show-and-tell presentations, as the downward angle allows you to capture video of the stuff on your desk. In other words, use the Logitech Reach for interactive remote meetings, online tutoring, livestreams and all kinds of other presentations.The company recommends that users lay out the content to show first, then position the camera." To that end, the articulation follows multiple axes, sort of like a microphone stand, for increased versatility in what you can capture. There's a button for vertical movement and lossless zoom up to 4.3x, with a grip to move the camera along the vertical plane. There are even built-in guidance indicators to help the image stay upright as the camera moves. These axes combine to create novel vantage points" that remove the pain points of sharing non-digital content.The camera is an enhanced version of the popular Logitech Streamcam with better glass optics and a new smart autofocus feature. Other than that, the specs are the same so expect 1080p/60fps video capabilities. Logitech touts a plug-and-play experience for the device, as it connects via USB and automatically integrates with most computers and streaming platforms. It also ships with a low-profile edge clamp for a more compact experience during use.Logitech's being a bit cagey regarding pricing and availability, but there's a survey on the official site that indicates a discounted price point for early adopters at $300 to $400. As a note, the Streamcam costs around $180 by itself. The Reach won't be sold via official means, as Logitech's turning to Indiegogo Enterprise to fund the camera. There's no concrete start date for the campaign.If you're wondering if you can buy the mount without the camera, so you can add your own, the answer looks to be no. Logitech product lead Gaurav Bradoo told The Verge that the team considered this move but market research indicated they should go with an end-to-end solution and not just a mount."Of course, Logitech is a multi-tentacled beast and the camera division is just one of many. The company's been making moves in other areas lately, with a recent refresh to the Pebble line of keyboards and an update to the G Pro X Superlight gaming mouse.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/logitechs-reach-camera-has-an-articulating-arm-that-lets-you-point-it-just-about-anywhere-184302381.html?src=rss

As part of Samsung's fall sale event, you can get a Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 for as little as $100 with a new phone purchase. The phones eligible for this bundle deal include the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5.The Watch 6, which debuted in August at a starting price of $300, is effectively getting a $200 price drop in this deal. That might be compelling if you already need a new phone and are on the fence about a smartwatch.The exact savings you can get with a purchase will vary depending on the size of the watch and if you choose a Bluetooth or LTE model. The basic 40mm size with Bluetooth connectivity will run $100 as part of the bundle, while upgrading to 44mm will cost $110, down from $330. On the LTE side of things, the 40mm and 44mm varieties go for $120 and $130, respectively. That top-spec version technically shaves $250 off the retail price, so spend a little more, save a little more.For those that don't need a watch, you can alternatively get the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro for $130 off with your purchase. The Buds 2 Pro, which comes in white, purple, or graphite, normally sells for $230 but can now be purchased for $50 with a phone. However, if both a smartwatch and a new pair of wireless earbuds don't tickle your fancy, you can add a Galaxy Tab S9 to your Android collection instead. You can save up to $230 on the 256 GB beige tablet. It originally goes for $920, but with this deal will only cost $690, but only if you get the Galaxy S 23 Ultra.Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsung-galaxy-watch-6-bundles-are-up-to-250-off-right-now-181049133.html?src=rss

Spectrum owner Charter and Disney have resolved a dispute that prevented millions of customers from watching networks such as ABC and ESPN through their cable provider since August 31. The companies reached an agreement that features some intriguing streaming-related perks for Spectrum subscribers. Those include access to the long-awaited standalone ESPN streaming service, whenever that debuts, for those on a Spectrum TV Select plan.Those subscribers will also have access to the ad-supported basic tier of Disney+ in the coming months, while Spectrum TV Select Plus customers will be able to check out ESPN+ as part of their plan. According to CNBC, Charter will pay higher subscriber fees to Disney.It seems that Charter customers having access to ad-supported versions of Disney's streaming services was a point of contention between the companies before they finally reached a deal. In the meantime, Disney started offering Hulu + Live TV at a discounted rate of $50 a month for three months (the usual rate is $70) ahead of a price increase in October.The newly forged agreement between Charter and Disney means that subscribers again have access to 19 of the latter's networks, including ABC-owned stations, the Disney Channel, FX and the Nat Geo Channel. Just in time for Monday Night Football, the full suite of ESPN networks is back as well. However, Spectrum subscribers are losing the ability to watch Baby TV, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform, FXM, FXX, Nat Geo Wild and Nat Geo Mundo through the cable service.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/disney-channels-are-back-on-spectrum-after-12-day-standoff-174333955.html?src=rss

Mario Kart Tour has carved out a niche for itself in the mobile gaming space since launching as a beta in 2019, but all good things must come to an end. Nintendo just announced that there are only three more "tours" (original multiplayer events) scheduled for the next month and after that the tours will repeat from the beginning. There will be no new courses, drivers, karts, gliders or features of any kind added after October 4th, according to an in-game screengrab posted to Reddit.Does this mean the game is heading to the digital scrapyard? Yes and no. Nintendo is abandoning the development of new content for the free-to-play racer, but it'll still be available to download and experience. Without the lure of fresh content, however, the player base will likely shrink dramatically, despite Nintendo saying they hope people will continue to use the app.Nintendo/Engadget Engadget reached out to Nintendo for clarification as to why the content spigot was turned off and we'll update this post when we get something official. However, every game eventually runs out of new content, and it could be just as simple as that. It's worth noting that Mario Kart Tour has been a success for the company, raking in nearly $300 million as of last year, which was originally reported by Eurogamer. This haul makes it Nintendo's second-most profitable mobile title, behind the massively popular Fire Emblem Heroes.Despite financial success, Mario Kart Tour has had its share of controversy. Like most free-to-play mobile games, it constantly asks you for money and the most egregious instance of this was something called Spotlight Pipes." This gacha mechanic provided loot boxes with undisclosed odds, so you had no idea if it was worth it or not. Gamers rallied against this mechanic and Nintendo removed the pipes last September. However, the company faces a class-action lawsuit after a parent claimed his child spent $170 on Spotlight Pipes, as reported by Kotaku.Nintendo's still churning out content for other mobile games, including Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Super Mario Run and the aforementioned Fire Emblem Heroes. The company recently partnered with mobile giant DeNA to create something called Nintendo Systems, which presumably is developing new smartphone games and related experiences.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nintendo-is-sunsetting-mario-kart-tour-next-month-170533206.html?src=rss

Sir Ian Wilmut, the scientist who led the team that cloned Dolly the sheep in 1996, has died at 79. The University of Edinburgh, where he served as a professor before his 2012 retirement, announced his passing today. Dolly was the first successful cloning of a mammal from an adult somatic cell, demonstrating the viability of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). The controversial milestone helped pave the way for today's research on regenerative medicine.Born near Stratford-upon-Avon (also Shakespeare's birthplace) in 1944, Wilmut discovered an interest in biology while at school in Scarborough; he later switched his major at the University of Nottingham from agriculture to animal science, kicking off the work he would be most known for. His Ph.D. studies at the University of Cambridge foreshadowed his later breakthroughs, focusing on the preservation of semen and embryos for freezing." In 1972, he became the first scientist to successfully freeze, thaw and transfer a calf embryo, which he called Frostie," to a surrogate mother.Wilmut's work at The Roslin Institute in Edinburgh continued to push the boundaries of animal genetics. He strived to create modified sheep that would produce milk with proteins that could treat human diseases. A year before Dolly, he successfully cloned two lambs (Megan and Morag) whose cells were taken from sheep embryos.University of EdinburghDolly's successful birth in 1996 marked the first time a mammal was successfully cloned from an adult cell. The scientifically groundbreaking announcement also set off a media firestorm as experts and casual observers wrestled with lab-made mammals' ethical implications. Specifically, many wondered: If they're doing sheep now, how long until they clone humans? Religious groups accused the researchers of playing God." Even those who focused more on the natural world than supernatural ones worried about the potential for making designer humans" or something out of The Island of Dr. Moreau.While Dolly proved that cells could be used to create a copy of the animal they came from, Wilmut's next experiment proved that they could also be altered. Polly, born in 1997, was the first genetically modified cloned mammal. His team spliced the host's genes with a human gene to create a sheep that would produce a protein missing from people with hemophilia. Polly was Wilmut's last cloning experiment.Wilmut moved to the University of Edinburgh the following decade, focusing on using cloning to make stem cells for regenerative medicine. He was knighted in 2008 and retired in 2012. Wilmut was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2018 and became a patron of a new research program at the university working to slow the disease's progression with next-gen therapies.According toThe Guardian, Sir Ian is survived by his wife Sara, his children - Helen, Naomi and Dean - and his five grandchildren: Daniel, Matthew, Isaac, Tonja and Tobias.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sir-ian-wilmut-who-cloned-dolly-the-sheep-has-died-164536893.html?src=rss

Embracer's days of buying nearly every game developer and publisher it possibly can seem to be over, with the company now looking to reduce expenses. It recently closed Saints Row studio Volition as part of a restructuring plan that includes layoffs and game cancellations. Embracer may now be set to sell one of its more valuable assets.The company is considering several options for what to do with Borderlands creator Gearbox, according to Reuters. Some third parties are said to have shown interest in snapping up the developer and publisher, which Embracer bought in February 2021 in a deal that was worth up to $1.4 billion. Embracer is reportedly exploring a sale with the help of Goldman Sachs and Aream, while marketing materials are being made available to potential suitors.Embracer said in June that it was making sweeping changes in order to reduce its debt by around $605 million to less than approximately $903 million by the end of its financial year. The Swedish company said at the time that a proposed investment worth over $2 billion over six years ultimately fell apart. It was later reported that the Saudi government-funded Savvy Games Group was the partner Embracer tentatively had a deal with.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/embracer-may-sell-borderlands-creator-gearbox-amid-financial-woes-161505145.html?src=rss

I'll admit that, between Forza Horizon and Forza Motorsport, I'm more of a Horizon player. I'm interested in driving and crashing beautiful cars in exotic locations, and occasionally entering a low-stakes race, rather than perfecting my times on professional tracks with top-tier equipment. Despite this predilection, I've had a lot of fun tinkering around in the first few hours of Forza Motorsport's serious, car-obsessed world.I played a near-final version of the new Builders Cup Intro Series, which features three tracks and three cars - a 2019 Subaru STI S209, 2018 Honda Civic Type R, and 2018 Ford Mustang GT. On top of the actual races, the Builders Cup career mode includes a robust vehicle-customization system and the Challenge the Grid betting module. Developers at Turn 10 Studios have discussed this section of the game at length, but the preview marks the first public playtest of these roads, cars and systems.Put simply, they feel fantastic.Turn 10 StudiosTurn 10 knows how to build a smooth, responsive racing game with dynamic vehicles and tracks. Forza Motorsport is the ultimate showcase of these skills. Each car in the intro series handles differently, but none of them feel unwieldy. The Ford can't cut corners as sharply as the Subaru or Civic, but it's a powerhouse on the straightaway; the Civic is more floaty than the Subaru; the Subaru can handle quick braking better than the other two. These unique features are baked into each vehicle, but the customization screen also allows for fine adjustments that truly affect the way they drive.The beginning of Forza Motorsport is inviting in numerous ways. It offers a difficulty slider, three modes of play, a bounty of training and real-time assist options, and a rewind button (my absolute favorite feature). In Driving Assists, I turned the Global Presets down to light, set the Suggested Line on for braking only, and I kept ABS on, with automatic shifting. This configuration helped me feel in control on the tracks, and the customization made me comfortable experimenting with new angles and turn speeds in practice laps.Turn 10 StudiosThis is also where the rewind button became my best friend. If you're new to Forza, rewind might seem like a silly feature for a game that takes racing so seriously, but it's absolutely necessary for the pacing of practice rounds specifically. Rewind allows racers to mess up and quickly reset without leaving the track, and it encourages players to try, try again. It encourages play, and it's a lovely feature - one you can turn off at any time, if you think gaming should be pure punishment.One of the main reasons Forza Motorsport feels so great is its framerate. Motorsport runs at 60 fps on all platforms, including Xbox Series S, and I didn't notice any dropped frames during my playthrough on that console. This is vital for a racing sim, but feels especially notable when many AAA games today are either locked at 30 fps or fail to hit 60 fps on Series S. Microsoft requires feature parity between the Xbox Series X - the most technically powerful console on the market - and the Series S, Microsoft's less powerful, cheaper and most popular option this generation. In the case of games like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Redfall and Starfield, developers have prioritized high resolutions in big, dense worlds over framerate, often to the detriment of combat and animations on the cheaper console.Responsiveness is paramount in a racing game, and Turn 10 clearly knows this. The studio prioritized the proper things in order to hit 1080p and 60 fps on Xbox Series S, and the result is a game that looks pretty, but plays beautifully. Ray-traced global illumination and dynamic lighting make the cars and roads sparkle, and the environments along the tracks are busy without being distracting. So far, Forza Motorsport offers a strangely serene, high-octane experience, and I'm eager to dive into the full game.Turn 10 StudiosThere was drama recently over some features that won't be in Forza Motorsport at launch, namely spectator mode, AI racing in featured multiplayer, and splitscreen - and that last one is a sensitive topic for Xbox owners. In August, Baldur's Gate III creator Larian Studios had to delay the game's Xbox versions because they couldn't make splitscreen work on Series S, despite it running fine on Series X. Larian eventually worked out a deal with Microsoft and it plans to release Baldur's Gate III on Series S without the feature later this year, but Xbox players still remember that sting.After playing Forza Motorsport's Builders Cup intro series, I'm finding it hard to be concerned about the missing features. Turn10 is crafting a solid racing sim that nails the basics of responsiveness, customization and accessibility. It's a clean, polished foundation for years of DLC to come, and there's already plenty to mess around with in the game's first hours.Forza Motorsport is made to be replayed. After 18 years and seven installments, 2023's Motorsport is the final game that Turn 10 plans to release in the series, and it'll serve as the foundation of a live-service system. The goal is for Motorsport to be a hub for regular content drops (new maps, vehicles and challenges) over the coming years, with social and sharing features built into the experience. It makes a lot of sense for the franchise.In the game's introductory stages, Motorsport strikes a compelling balance between customization and complexity, making each track bingeable off the bat. The game's forgiveness stems from its malleability; nearly every setting is customizable, from vehicle upgrades, to AI difficulty, accessibility options and actual driving mechanics. This means that, when something goes wrong during a race, it doesn't feel like the game's fault. Forza Motorsport offers a true, repeatable test of player skill. Plus, it's really pretty, even on Xbox Series S.Forza Motorsport is scheduled to hit Xbox Series X/S and PC on October 10.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/forza-motorsport-preview-a-warm-welcome-for-casual-racing-fans-160010843.html?src=rss

Apple's iPhone 15 event is upon us, as we say goodbye to the old and hello to the new. You can watch the stream right here and marvel at the spate of announcements beamed live from Cupertino. The keynote, subtitled Wonderlust", begins promptly at 1 PM ET, or 10 AM in the sunny environs of Apple's California's campus. As always, we'll also have in depth coverage on each announcement as they happen.So what's the company planning on unveiling? It's a September keynote, typically referred to as the fall iPhone event, so the iPhone 15 will almost certainly take center stage. You can expect the typical offerings, with a standard iPhone 15, an iPhone 15 Plus, a high-end iPhone 15 Pro and the even higher-end iPhone 15 Pro Max (which might get rebranded to iPhone 15 Ultra.)As for specs, leaks indicate that the iPhone 15 will kick off the USB-C era, finally eschewing the proprietary Lightning port. This move comes after European regulations forced Apple to adopt a more universal port standard. Since the company must comply to satisfy EU standards, the rest of the world will likely also reap the benefits of going with USB-C. Screen size should remain static and the top-tier models will likely still boast the company's ProMotion, its rebranding of a 120Hz variable refresh rate display. All four models are rumored to get the Dynamic Island feature that launched with the high-end iPhone 14 options.The iPhone 15 should get most of the attention here, but this is an Apple event, so expect the unexpected. New Apple Watch editions typically accompany iPhone releases, so look out for Apple Watch Series 9 and a refresh of the Apple Watch Ultra. Rumors swirl that the forthcoming smartwatches will feature a brand-new processor, the first major CPU upgrade since 2020.AirPods are likely to get an unexciting refresh, with a switch from Lightning to USB-C being the standout feature. Software suites should also get some attention, including iOS 17, watchOS 10 and, potentially, iPadOS 17. It's likely that macOS Sonoma will get more details and a concrete release date.Finally, the uber-expensive and uber-cool Apple Vision Pro is set to launch early next year, so the keynote will likely show off some new features or software in development for the mixed-reality headset. Keep this page open and ready to go for the stream.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-watch-apples-iphone-15-event-153656934.html?src=rss

There's good news if you want to upgrade your wireless headphones for the new school year (even as adults, September will always feel like that). Samsung's Galaxy Buds 2 Pro is touting a 23 percent discount, dropping from $230 to $178 - the lowest we've seen it since Black Friday. All three colors are on sale, but interestingly, the white model is one whole dollar less than its graphite and bora purple counterparts.Samsung's release of the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro was a big step up from earlier models like the Galaxy Buds Live - which had terrible noise cancellation - and the original Galaxy Buds Pro, which struggled with sound blocking and quality. We gave the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro an 86 in our review, thanks to their much better noise canceling feature and their improved fit. The battery life (about five hours of ongoing listening) and the call quality both stayed roughly the same as its predecessor.The discounted Galaxy Buds 2 Pros are part of a larger Samsung "Smart Home event" currently happening on Amazon. Current Samsung deals include 29 percent off the 49" Odyssey G9 Gaming Monitor - dropping from $1,400 to $1,000 and a 30 percent discount on the Galaxy Watch 5 40mm LTE, bringing its price from $330 to $230. Gadgets like the Galaxy Z 5 Flip Cell Phone, Galaxy Watch 5 Pro Bespoke Edition and the Pro Ultimate microSD Memory Card are also on sale.Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsungs-galaxy-buds-2-pro-are-23-percent-off-right-now-150026884.html?src=rss

On the eve of Apple's big fall iPhone event, Qualcomm announced it will continue to provide the company with 5G smartphone modems through 2026. It's an indication that while Apple has successfully scaled up its chipset manufacturing efforts and ended its reliance on Intel, the company hasn't been able to do the same with 5G radios as yet.However, it seems Qualcomm believes Apple will eventually be able to manufacture its own 5G radios at enough scale. Qualcomm only expects to supply around 20 percent of the components Apple will need for its 2026 iPhones.It's been clear for a while that Apple intends to build its own modems and bring more of the iPhone supply chain in house. It bought Intel's mobile modem business for $1 billion four years ago, getting its hands on useful patents and knowledgeable staff in the process, as The Wall Street Journal notes. However, any plan to manufacture its own smartphone modems at scale evidently hasn't come to pass yet.The latest arrangement has no bearing on a patent license agreement between the companies that's been in effect since 2019. That pact has a six-year term with the option to extend it by two years. The latest accord between the two sides has likely been in the works for some time, given that new iPhones with Qualcomm modems will be hitting shelves in the coming days.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-will-keep-using-qualcomms-5g-tech-in-iphones-until-at-least-2026-143702711.html?src=rss

I'm fully aware that spending $650 on a self-cleaning litter box is ridiculous, especially when low-tech competitors (aka plastic boxes) cost $20. I'm not the sort of person who would've even entertained the thought (the economy and all) until James the cat entered my life. Now I'm glad I made the leap to Smarty Pear Leo's Loo Too litter box.Before James, it was just me and my calico BFF Cinnamon, and we were fine with traditional litter boxes. Let them have their spinning motors and smartphone apps," I'd grumble while scooping litter. Cleaning up after one cat is no big deal, but things change when a second or third feisty feline enters the mix. One day, in a lapse of sanity, I opened my home to a second cat, James, the aforementioned black-and-white terror.(By the way, if you're thinking, Who names a cat James?" I certainly didn't. It's a long story, but the foster assured me that the second-most renowned cat psychic in the state had met one-on-one with James and he told her it was his preferred name, or telekinetically meowed it at her or something.)Now James is a growing boy. He has literally doubled in size in just a few months, dwarfing poor Cinnamon. He eats like a racehorse and poops like one, too. I couldn't keep up and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I'd scoop the three household litter boxes (one for each cat plus an extra, Jackson-Galaxy style) seemingly every few hours, only to find more presents" waiting for me a few minutes later. I couldn't tell who was using which litter box (important because Cinnamon is susceptible to UTIs.) The house smelled; I was at my wit's end.So I went looking at so-called smart litter boxes. They all seemed similar feature-wise, but the Loo Too hooked me due to its pleasing design and companion app. The latter lets me know when a cat uses the litter box and distinguishes each feline by weight. I know exactly when Cinnamon uses it, sparing me the anxiety of wondering if she's experiencing a UTI flare-up.Smarty PearAs for the litter box itself, it's a reliable self-cleaning marvel. It's pretty quiet and the waste drawer takes a month to fill up, after which it requires manual disposal. A whole month! I was scooping multiple times a day before I got this. The setup was simple enough and it ships fully built. Once I set it up and powered it on, it was only a few minutes before James (of course) did his dirty business. Cinnamon followed suit later that night.Now it's their preferred litter box and my remaining boxes are near-empty when I go to scoop. The Loo Too automatically separates litter from waste and waits a few minutes before engaging the motor, giving the cat some time to exit the vicinity. It not only cleans the litter, depositing waste in a detachable lower box, but it boasts fancy UV technology to clean itself. I'm no scientist and so I can't speak to the efficacy of these UV rays, but I can say that this thing never, ever smells. The app lets you set the cleaning schedule and make a whole lot of other adjustments. It also integrates with Alexa and other assistants, but asking a speaker to clean poop seems beneath our AI overlords.There are some downsides, of course. The power cord is cat-proof, but it's also extremely short - only two or three feet. Most people put litter boxes out of the way, to mitigate odors and messes. I put the Loo Too in my room, but it was far from any outlet, so I had to buy an extension cord and electrical tape to run the cord around the closet, along the wall and finally to a surge protector. There's also the matter of cost. This thing is $650, so it's like the Apple Vision Pro of litter boxes. Even though I love it, that's pretty steep. It's worth it to me, though, because it saves me plenty of time and I get data regarding the bathroom habits of my precious mouse mutilators.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/what-we-bought-the-self-emptying-litter-box-thatll-also-empty-your-bank-account-140022098.html?src=rss

Fall is coming (even if recent heatwaves make it seem otherwise), and there are plenty of opportunities to get cozy on your couch and watch TV. Hulu is encouraging early hibernation with a major Hulu + Live TV package deal. The streamer is offering Live TV with Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+ (all with ads) for just $50 per month - a $20 drop from its usual sticker price of $70. The discount lasts for three months, so it will get you all the way through the start of big sweater season, Halloween specials and the first holiday movies.The Hulu (With Ads) + Live TV bundle has over 90 channels, including On Demand options. It also lets you watch on two different devices simultaneously and is available on everything from Apple TV to the Nintendo Switch. Plus, you can record unlimited programs to your DVR, which will store them for nine months.It's worth noting that Hulu's prices are increasing starting October 12th, meaning Hulu (With Ads) + Live TV will increase to $77. If you want to avoid ads on Hulu and Disney+ - they'll still be on ESPN+ - that plan is going up from $83 to $90. Just Hulu or Live TV will increase from $15 to $18 and $69 to $76, respectively. Yes, Live TV alone will be only a dollar cheaper than bundled. If you're looking for the whole package, grab Hulu (With Ads) + Live TV for $50 monthly until October 11th.Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/get-hulu--live-tv-for-50-a-month-before-the-upcoming-price-hike-kicks-in-131516358.html?src=rss

What you're looking at is a concept car, but it's also so much more. This is the car that could change everything you've come to expect about acceptable range from an electric car, not to mention raise the bar for visual style and aggression along the way. This is the Mercedes-Benz Concept CLA Class.The Concept CLA inherits a lot of learnings from the extremely slippery Vision EQXX, but it's a car that's a lot more ready for production, and should be a lot more affordable. The current CLA is one of the most affordable Mercedes-Benz cars you can buy in the US, and with any luck this future one won't break the bank, either.That's despite a range that should surpass 400 miles on a charge, plus a wholly new software architecture ready to deliver level-three advanced, hands-off driver assistance. It's an exciting combination of form and technology, and hopefully close to something we'll see in dealerships soon. Watch the video below for the full story.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-mercedes-benz-concept-cla-class-mixes-big-range-and-big-style-130222801.html?src=rss

Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. is setting the record straight. After Variety reported earlier this week that an AI-generated track echoing the voices of Drake and The Weeknd could be considered for a Grammy Award in songwriting categories, Mason is insisting that's not the case.In an interview with The New York Times only last week, Mason suggested the track would be absolutely eligible" as the lyrics a human made the lyrics. On Instagram, the Recording Academy CEO has now clarified that the song will not be eligible.Even though it was written by a human creator, the vocals were not legally obtained, the vocals were not cleared by the label or the artists and the song is not commercially available and because of that, it's not eligible," he said. Sorry robots.- Mat SmithYou can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!The biggest stories you might have missedWatch The Morning After: Can AI win a Grammy? (Editor: Well, that did not age well.)Engadget Podcast: Starfield's failure to launchSamsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra review: A little too big, a little too expensive Apple event rumor roundup: What to expect at the Wonderlust iPhone 15 keynoteButt-ugly Starfield ship defeats the enemy AI's perfect aimiRobot's new flagship Roombas ship with an updated OS to make cleaning simplerThe best cheap Windows laptops for 2023Chromebooks aren't always the answer.EngadgetAffordable Windows notebooks are great for people who only use a computer to check email, shop online or post on Facebook. They're also good for kids who have no business putting their sticky little hands on a $2,000 gaming rig. And, depending on what you need them for, these devices can be decent daily drivers, too. Here's what to look for in a cheap Windows laptop - and some of our recommendations.Continue reading.Google's more durable Pixel Watch 2 goes on pre-order October 4Expect IP68 water and dust resistance.GoogleGoogle desperately would love for you to remember that it will announce its own devices after Apple has its turn. Rather than just... holding its own event before Apple's, Google has instead teased its upcoming devices with short videos. After dripfeeding details about the Pixel 8 lineup, now Google is teasing a new Pixel Watch that will feature IP68 dust and water resistance.Continue reading.Watch the first Monarch: Legacy of Monsters trailerIt pits Kurt Russell against Godzilla.Apple has its fingers in many pies, and now it's getting into the monster business with an upcoming TV show. The company has released the first trailer for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and while the title might not make it super clear, this is a Godzilla affair. Get lost, Mothra.Continue reading.Uber could launch a service similar to TaskRabbitYou may be able to ask an Uber provider to help you mount a TV.According to Bloomberg, Uber is exploring offering a new TaskRabbit-like service. Developer Steve Moser found code hidden in Uber's iPhone app for an offering reportedly codenamed Chore. Based on its current iteration, Chore will let you hire taskers" and specify in the app what you need help with, how long you think it would take and what time you want the tasker to arrive. It's all pretty similar to TaskRabbit. Like any other unconfirmed feature still in development, Chore may not even make it to public release. If it does, it'll be a huge new undertaking for Uber.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-ai-generated-drake-and-the-weeknd-track-wont-be-winning-a-grammy-111545613.html?src=rss

Sony has launched the "Aibo Foster Parent" program for its $2,900 robot dogs, allowing owners whose basic plans have been canceled to donate them. The company will then refurbish the Aibos as necessary and donate them to medical facilities, foster homes and other organizations. The aim is to "make Aibo more sustainable," the company said, by giving the units a second home where they can provide emotional support and more.The Aibo robot dogs in question are the newer 2019 ERS-1000 units still being sold, which are a reboot of its "entertainment" robotic dogs from the late 1990s. It's not exactly a fully charitable project, as Sony will charge "foster parents" an unnamed fee for service. It also notes that depending on condition, some donated units may serve strictly as parts for other Aibo robots.As we discussed in our review back in 2019, Aibo can do a number of tricks like standing on its hind legs and greeting its owner at the door, and has been engineered to "mature" over time like a real dog. It also offers a web-based interface that lets you program custom actions. The units have a suite of sensors and respond to voice and touch, and can even recognize specific people, so they're ideal as emotional support devices. That means they can sub in at facilities that don't allow real animals, so the program seems like a good use of older units - while also reducing e-waste.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sony-will-repair-aging-aibo-robot-dogs-to-help-them-find-their-forever-homes-103303488.html?src=rss

The latest WhatsApp beta contains a new screen called Third-party chats that may allow it to work with other messaging apps, WaBetaInfo has reported. While the page is blank, its presence could signal that WhatsApp is getting such a feature ready in order to comply with the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA).In July, the EU announced that seven tech giant "gatekeepers" with over $7.5 billion in turnover - Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, TikTok owner ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft and Samsung - must comply with all of the EU's new digital market rules. A key tenet of the DMA is that gatekeepers are prohibited from favoring their own services and must allow interoperability with third parties. Last week, the EU Commission designated key apps subject to the rules, including Meta's messaging apps, WhatsApp and Messenger.

Amazon's iRobot just released a pair of budget-friendly robo-vacs to suit modest cleaning tasks, but it's been a while since the flagship J7+ vacuum got a refresh. Well, the wait is over. The company announced presales for the forthcoming J9+ line of vacuums, and these high-end appliances boast plenty of nifty features for those who absolutely hate manually pushing a vacuum or mop around.The J9+ is available in two versions, which is normally the case with modern Roomba devices. There's the traditional vacuum-only J9+ and the Roomba Combo J9+ that mops in addition to sucking up dirt. The latter ships with a redesigned fill dock that automatically empties debris and replenishes the robot with mopping liquid, removing yet another manual cleaning step so you can get back to the important work of clearing out that Netflix queue.These robots are more powerful than ever before, with an amped-up motor designed to tackle dirt, pet fur and debris with unmatched precision." The four-stage cleaning system provides multiple passthroughs and the newly-added dual rubber brushes take the suction power up a notch, in addition to allowing for pressurized scrubbing when necessary. The Combo J9+ features a motor that automatically lifts the mop pads when vacuuming carpets and rugs to avoid moisture leakage.The hardware updates are well and good, and certainly useful, but it's the software that provides the lion's share of new features. These Roombas ship with OS 7, which looks to take automation and efficiency to the next level. The software boasts a tool called Dirt Detective that uses a proprietary algorithm to keep track of previous cleaning tasks to assess the dirtiest parts of the home, prioritizing those locations accordingly. In other words, it'll start with the dirtiest rooms and move on from there.The Combo J9+ goes a step further, and Dirt Detective will force the vacuum and mop to clean the bathroom last, no matter how dirty it is. This means that the vacuum won't be tracking gross bathroom stuff throughout the rest of the home. If you want a more hands-on approach, you can use the app to manually select the navigation route through your house.Other software improvements include the SmartScrub feature that ensures the Combo J9+ makes multiple passes through certain parts of the home, like the kitchen, when mopping. It'll even boost the scrubbing power in these locations to eliminate dirt and stains. This also works in the other direction, so the vacuum will scrub less in cleaner areas to protect hardwood flooring and the like.The Roomba J9+ and the Combo J9+ are available for preorder today from iRobot and tomorrow from third-party retailers, with shipments going out sometime during the fall. The vacuum-only J9+ costs $900 and the Combo J9+ costs $1,400. As for OS 7, it's coming to other Roomba models beyond the J9+, but the company hasn't said which ones.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/irobots-new-flagship-roombas-ship-with-an-updated-os-to-make-cleaning-simpler-040142701.html?src=rss

You didn't actually believe all those founder's myths about tech billionaires like Bezos, Jobs and Musk pulling themselves up by their bootstraps from some suburban American garage, did you? In reality, our corporate kings have been running the same playbook since the 18th century when Lancashire's own Richard Arkwright wrote it. Arkwright is credited with developing a means of forming cotton fully into thread - technically he didn't actually invent or design the machine, but developed the overarching system in which it could be run at scale - and spinning that success into financial fortune. Never mind the fact that his 24-hour production lines were operated by boys as young as seven pulling 13-hour shifts.In Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech- one of the best books I've read this year - LA Times tech reporter Brian Merchant lays bare the inhumane cost of capitalism wrought by the industrial revolution and celebrates the workers who stood against those first tides of automation: the Luddites.Hachette Book GroupExcerpted from Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech by Brian Merchant. Published by Hachette Book Group. Copyright (C) 2023 by Brian Merchant. All rights reserved.The first tech titans were not building global information networks or commercial space rockets. They were making yarn and cloth.A lot of yarn, and a lot of cloth. Like our modern-day titans, they started out as entrepreneurs. But until the nineteenth century, entrepreneurship was not a cultural phenomenon. Businessmen took risks, of course, and undertook novel efforts to increase their profits. Yet there was not a popular conception of the heroic entrepreneur, of the adventuring businessman, until long after the birth of industrial capitalism. The term itself was popularized by Jean-Baptiste Say, in his 1803 work A Treatise on Political Economy. An admirer of Adam Smith's, Say thought that The Wealth of Nations was missing an account of the individuals who bore the risk of starting new business; he called this figure the entrepreneur, translating it from the French as adventurer" or undertaker."For a worker, aspiring to entrepreneurship was different than merely seeking upward mobility. The standard path an ambitious, skilled weaver might pursue was to graduate from apprentice to journeyman weaver, who rented a loom or worked in a shop, to owning his own loom, to becoming a master weaver and running a small shop of his own that employed other journeymen. This was customary.In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as now in the twenty-first century, entrepreneurs saw the opportunity to use technology to disrupt longstanding customs in order to increase efficiencies, output, and personal profit. There were few opportunities for entrepreneurship without some form of automation; control of technologies of production grants its owner a chance to gain advantage or take pay or market share from others. In the past, like now, owners started small businesses at some personal financial risk, whether by taking out a loan to purchase used handlooms and rent a small factory space, or by using inherited capital to procure a steam engine and a host of power looms.The most ambitious entrepreneurs tapped untested technologies and novel working arrangements, and the most successful irrevocably changed the structure and nature of our daily lives, setting standards that still exist today. The least successful would go bankrupt, then as now.In the first century of the Industrial Revolution, one entrepreneur looms above the others, and has a strong claim on the mantle of the first of what we'd call a tech titan today. Richard Arkwright was born to a middle-class tailor's family and originally apprenticed as a barber and wigmaker. He opened a shop in the Lancashire city of Bolton in the 1760s. There, he invented a waterproof dye for the wigs that were in fashion at the time, and traveled the country collecting hair to make them. In his travels across the Midlands, he met spinners and weavers, and became familiar with the machinery they used to make cotton garments. Bolton was right in the middle of the Industrial Revolution's cotton hub hotspot.Arkwright took the money he made from the wigs, plus the dowry from his second marriage, and invested it in upgraded spinning machinery. The improvement of spinning was much in the air, and many men up and down Lancashire were working at it," Arkwright's biographer notes. James Hargreaves had invented the spinning jenny, a machine that automated the process of spinning cotton into a weft- halfway into yarn, basically- in 1767. Working with one of his employees, John Kay, Arkwright tweaked the designs to spin cotton entirely into yarn, using water or steam power. Without crediting Kay, Arkwright patented his water frame in 1769 and a carding engine in 1775, and attracted investment from wealthy hosiers in Nottingham to build out his operation. He built his famous water-powered factory in Cromford in 1771.His real innovation was not the machinery itself; several similar machines had been patented, some before his. His true innovation was creating and successfully implementing the system of modern factory work.Arkwright was not the great inventor, nor the technical genius," as the Oxford economic historian Peter Mathias explains, but he was the first man to make the new technology of massive machinery and power source work as a system- technical, organizational, commercial- and, as a proof, created the first great personal fortune and received the accolade of a knighthood in the textile industry as an industrialist." Richard Arkwright Jr., who inherited his business, became the richest commoner in England.Arkwright pere was the first startup founder to launch a unicorn company we might say, and the first tech entrepreneur to strike it wildly rich. He did so by marrying the emergent technologies that automated the making of yarn with a relentless new work regime. His legacy is alive today in companies like Amazon, which strive to automate as much of their operations as is financially viable, and to introduce highly surveilled worker-productivity programs.Often called the grandfather of the factory, Arkwright did not invent the idea of organizing workers into strict shifts to produce goods with maximal efficiency. But he pursued the manufactory" formation most ruthlessly, and most vividly demonstrated the practice could generate huge profits. Arkwright's factory system, which was quickly and widely emulated, divided his hundreds of workers into two overlapping thirteen-hour shifts. A bell was rung twice a day, at 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. The gates would shut and work would start an hour later. If a worker was late, they sat the day out, forfeiting that day's pay. (Employers of the era touted this practice as a positive for workers; it was a more flexible schedule, they said, since employees no longer needed to give notice" if they couldn't work. This reasoning is reminiscent of that offered by twenty-first-century ondemand app companies.) For the first twenty-two years of its operation, the factory was worked around the clock, mostly by boys like Robert Blincoe, some as young as seven years old. At its peak, two-thirds of the 1,100-strong workforce were children. Richard Arkwright Jr. admitted in later testimony that they looked extremely dissipated, and many of them had seldom more than a few hours of sleep," though he maintained they were well paid.The industrialist also built onsite housing, luring whole families from around the country to come work his frames. He gave them one week's worth of vacation a year, but on condition that they could not leave the village." Today, even our most cutting-edge consumer products are still manufactured in similar conditions, in imposing factories with onsite dormitories and strictly regimented production processes, by workers who have left home for the job. Companies like Foxconn operate factories where the regimen can be so grueling it has led to suicide epidemics among the workforce.The strict work schedule and a raft of rules instilled a sense of discipline among the laborers; long, miserable shifts inside the factory walls were the new standard. Previously, of course, similar work was done at home or in small shops, where shifts were not so rigid or enforced.Arkwright's main difficulty," according to the early business theorist Andrew Ure, did not lie so much in the invention of a proper mechanism for drawing out and twisting cotton into a continuous thread, as in [. . .] training human beings to renounce their desultory habits of work and to identify themselves with the unvarying regularity of the complex automation." This was his legacy. To devise and administer a successful code of factory discipline, suited to the necessities of factory diligence, was the Herculean enterprise, the noble achievement of Arkwright," Ure continued. It required, in fact, a man of a Napoleon nerve and ambition to subdue the refractory tempers of workpeople."Ure was hardly exaggerating, as many workers did in fact view Arkwright as akin to an invading enemy. When he opened a factory in Chorley, Lancashire, in 1779, a crowd of stockingers and spinners broke in, smashed the machines, and burned the place to the ground. Arkwright did not try to open another mill in Lancashire.Arkwright also vigorously defended his patents in the legal system. He collected royalties on his water frame and carding engine until 1785, when the court decided that he had not actually invented the machines but had instead copied their parts from other inventors, and threw the patents out. By then, he was astronomically wealthy. Before he died, he would be worth 500,000, or around $425 million in today's dollars, and his son would expand and entrench his factory empire.The success apparently went to his head- he was considered arrogant, even among his admirers. In fact, arrogance was a key ingredient in his success: he had what Ure described as fortitude in the face of public opposition." He was unyielding with critics when they pointed out, say, that he was employing hundreds of children in machine-filled rooms for thirteen hours straight. That for all his innovation, the secret sauce in his groundbreaking success was labor exploitation.In Arkwright, we see the DNA of those who would attain tech titanhood in the ensuing decades and centuries. Arkwright's brashness rhymes with that of bullheaded modern tech executives who see virtue in a willingness to ignore regulations and push their workforces to extremes, or who, like Elon Musk, would gleefully wage war with perceived foes on Twitter rather than engage any criticism of how he runs his businesses. Like Steve Jobs, who famously said, We've always been shameless about stealing great ideas," Arkwright surveyed the technologies of the day, recognized what worked and could be profitable, lifted the ideas, and then put them into action with an unmatched aggression. Like Jeff Bezos, Arkwright hypercharged a new mode of factory work by finding ways to impose discipline and rigidity on his workers, and adapting them to the rhythms of the machine and the dictates of capital- not the other way around.We can look back at the Industrial Revolution and lament the working conditions, but popular culture still lionizes entrepreneurs cut in the mold of Arkwright, who made a choice to employ thousands of child laborers and to institute a dehumanizing system of factory work to increase revenue and lower costs. We have acclimated to the idea that such exploitation was somehow inevitable, even natural, while casting aspersions on movements like the Luddites as being technophobic for trying to stop it. We forget that working people vehemently opposed such exploitation from the beginning.Arkwright's imprint feels familiar to us, in our own era where entrepreneurs loom large. So might a litany of other first-wave tech titans. Take James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine that powered countless factories in industrial England. Once he was confident in his product, much like a latter-day Bill Gates, Watts sold subscriptions for its use. With his partner, Matthew Boulton, Watts installed the engine and then collected annual payments that were structured around how much the customer would save on fuel costs compared to the previous engine. Then, like Gates, Watts would sue anyone he thought had violated his patent, effectively winning himself a monopoly on the trade. The Mises Institute, a libertarian think tank, argues that this had the effect of constraining innovation on the steam engine for thirty years.Or take William Horsfall or William Cartwright. These were men who were less innovative than relentless in their pursuit of disrupting a previous mode of work as they strove to monopolize a market. (The word innovation, it's worth noting, carried negative connotations until the mid-twentieth century or so; Edmund Burke famously called the French Revolution a revolt of innovation.") They can perhaps be seen as precursors to the likes of Travis Kalanick, the founder of Uber, the pugnacious trampler of the taxi industry. Kalanick's business idea- that it would be convenient to hail a taxi from your smartphone- was not remarkably inventive. But he had intense levels of self-determination and pugnacity, which helped him overrun the taxi cartels and dozens of cities' regulatory codes. His attitude was reflected in Uber's treatment of its drivers, who, the company insists, are not employees but independent contractors, and in the endemic culture of harassment and mistreatment of the women on staff.These are extreme examples, perhaps. But to disrupt long-held norms for the promise of extreme rewards, entrepreneurs often pursue extreme actions. Like the mill bosses who shattered 19th-century standards by automating cloth-making, today's startup founders aim to disrupt one job category after another with gig work platforms or artificial intelligence, and encourage others to follow their lead. There's a reason Arkwright and his factories were both emulated and feared. Even two centuries later, many tech titans still are.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hitting-the-books-blood-in-the-machine-brian-merchant-hachette-book-group-143056410.html?src=rss

In the future, when you need someone's help to get a task done, you might find yourself launching the Uber app on your phone. According to Bloomberg, the company is exploring the possibility of offering a new TaskRabbit-like service. Developer Steve Moser found code hidden within Uber's iPhone app for an offering that's reportedly codenamed "Chore." Based on its current iteration, Chore will let you hire "taskers" and will let you specify in the app what you need help with, how long you think it would take and what time you want the tasker to arrive.Of course, you'll be able to input the address of where you want the person to go before you submit your request. Uber will then compute a payment that's commensurate with the time required to finish the task, but you will have to pay for a minimum of one hour no matter what it is. Bloomberg says the code Moser unearthed didn't have hints on what types of help you can ask from providers, but the potential service's rival TaskRabbit has a wide range of categories to choose from. These include cleaning, furniture assembly, electrical help, plumbing, TV mounting, packing and moving, snow removal, computer assistance, pet sitting and even senior care.Like any other unconfirmed feature still in development, though, Chore may not even make it to public release. If it does, it'll be a huge new undertaking for Uber, which is known for its ride-hailing and restaurant delivery services. Over the past months, Uber rolled out Carshare, which lets users borrow cars from private owner, to more locations as part of its efforts to become a zero-emission platform by 2040. It also started testing a toll-free number - 1-833-USE-UBER (1-833-873-8237) - that you can call to schedule an immediate or a future ride.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/uber-could-launch-a-service-similar-to-taskrabbit-133017852.html?src=rss

This isn't your parent's Lotus. The British maker, once famous for ultra-lightweight sportscars that had no room for creature comforts like air conditioning, heated seats, or even doors, is now part of the Geely family, with designs on a big international presence with big sales.That's going to require bigger cars, and while the Eletre SUV was something of a first big departure for the company, the Emeya is a quick second-act. The Emeya is a four-door sedan with a swoopy, coupe-like profile, comfortably seating four and, Lotus says, offering somewhere around 300 miles of range from a 102kWh battery pack.That's quite good range for a car that will offer up to 905 horsepower and that can sprint from 0 - 60 mph in less than 2.8 seconds. Quick, yes, but as a grand tourer, the idea is comfort and luxury, and that the Emeya has in spades. But will it be good enough to convert the Lotus faithful? That we won't know until sometime in 2024, when this enters production. Watch the video below for the full story.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-lotus-emeya-brings-electric-supercar-performance-for-four-130035674.html?src=rss

X, the social media company previously known as Twitter, is suing the state of California over a law that requires companies to disclose details about their content moderation practices. The law, known as AB 587, requires social media companies to publish information about their handling of hate speech, extremism, misinformation and other issues, as well as details about internal moderation processes.Lawyers for X argue that the law is unconstitutional and will lead to censorship. It has both the purpose and likely effect of pressuring companies such as X Corp. to remove, demonetize, or deprioritize constitutionally-protected speech," the company wrote in the lawsuit. The true intent of AB 587 is to pressure social media platforms to eliminate' certain constitutionally-protected content viewed by the State as problematic."X is not alone in its opposition to the law. Though the measure was backed by some activists, a number of industry groups took issue with AB 587. Netchoice, a trade group which represents Meta, Google, TikTok and other tech companies, argued last year that AB 587 would help bad actors evade companies' security measures, and make it harder for them to enforce their rules.At the same time, AB 587's backers have said it's necessary to increase the transparency of major platforms. If @X has nothing to hide, then they should have no objection to this bill," Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, who wrote AB 587, said in response to X's lawsuit.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/x-is-suing-california-over-social-media-content-moderation-law-233034890.html?src=rss

X, the company formerly known as Twitter, may not be labeling its ads properly, putting it at risk of - once again - running afoul of the FTC. There have been numerous reports over the last several days of ads appearing in users' timelines without being labeled as such, according toTechCrunch, which was first to report on the stealth ads.According to their reporting, as well as reports from industry groups, users have identified numerous ads that leave off the typical Ad" label that identifies the post as paid advertising rather than a native post. It's apparent that the posts are, in fact, ads when clicking into the ..." menu in the tweet, which indicates the tweet is a paid promotion.While the unlabeled ads have irked users, who may mistakenly believe the platform is showing posts from accounts they don't follow in their following timeline, the issue also risks stirring up more regulatory trouble with the FTC. Nandini Jammi, co-founder of watchdog group Check My Ads, has been sharingexamples on her Twitter account over the past couple days. The nonprofit group is tracking the issue and encouraging X users to report any examples they find.

Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. is setting the record straight. After Variety reported earlier this week that an AI-generated track echoing the voices of Drake and The Weeknd would be considered for a Grammy Award, Mason is insisting that's not the case. The track, Heart on My Sleeve, was created and submitted for consideration by someone using the pseudonym Ghostwriter." The song features lyrics written by Ghostwriter but imitates the voices of the rappers without consent.Despite that, in an interview with The New York Times, Mason suggested the track would technically be eligible in songwriter categories because of the lyrics. As far as the creative side, it's absolutely eligible because it was written by a human," he said.However, it seems things have changed. In a recent Instagram post, first spotted by Deadline, Mason offered some clarity. The CEO made it clear the song is not eligible for Grammy consideration."Let me be extra, extra clear: Even though it was written by a human creator, the vocals were not legally obtained, the vocals were not cleared by the label or the artists and the song is not commercially available and because of that, it's not eligible," he said.

Online game platform and creation toolset Roblox will finally be available on PlayStation in October, as announced at the 2023 Roblox Developers Conference (RDC) earlier today. The title is coming to the PS5, of course, but also the PS4 for those who have yet to make the leap to next-gen. As always, it'll be free to download.Roblox was already available on just about every other platform, including PC, Mac, iOS, Android and Xbox, though it's still not available for the Switch. CEO David Baszucki did mention the Switch alongside the PlayStation as potential platforms during an August earnings call, as reported by The Verge, so it could eventually launch on Nintendo's hybrid console. Or, maybe, the company will wait for the long-rumored Switch successor. The company has stated that the VR version of Roblox will officially launch for the Meta Quest platform later this month, after a successful test run.As for the PlayStation releases, the company promises that Sony fans will be able to access the full catalog of Roblox experiences", indicating a robust cross-platform toolset. In other words, you should be able to download it and jump right into your favorite creations. Why did a PlayStation release take so long? It may have been Sony's doing, as a document surfaced last year indicating that the console maker didn't want Roblox due to child safety concerns.The company also used RDC to announce some nifty innovations for the service, beyond wider availability. It unveiled its own version of video chat that incorporates your Roblox avatars for one-on-one conversations with other users.The company also announced a new chatbot called Roblox Assistant that uses generative AI to help plan builds, write code, create virtual assets and more, according to The Verge. In a demo of the feature, the company showed off someone typing in that they wanted a game set in some ancient ruins. The assistant automatically dropped in some stones, moss-covered columns and even broken architecture. Another example had a player asking for some trees to chop down, and the program followed suit. The software pulls assets from its own marketplace or your personal library. This looks to be a fantastic use of generative AI that takes the drudgery out of making your own Roblox builds. Both the chatbot and video call feature should roll out in the next few months.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/roblox-is-finally-coming-to-playstation-in-october-190256770.html?src=rss

Epic Games chief creative officer Donald Mustard is stepping down. The industry veteran, instrumental in guiding Fortnite to immense popularity, said he will retire at the end of September. I have enjoyed nearly 25 years in the game industry collaborating with some of the most talented people ever and I am so proud of what we have made together," the 47-year-old wrote on X (formerly Twitter).Mustard co-founded ChAIR Entertainment in 2005 with his brother Geremy Mustard, Ryan Holmes and others. The developer launched the subaqueous shooter Undertow on Xbox Live Arcade in 2007 and the Metroidvania title Shadow Complex two years later. Epic bought ChAIR Entertainment in 2008, and the studio soon unveiled Infinity Blade, a trilogy of iOS games showcasing the growing graphical prowess of Apple's early mobile devices, using simple dodge-and-attack gameplay reminiscent of the NES classic Punch-Out!!He was promoted to Epic's worldwide creative director in 2016. Fortnite launched the following year and quickly became one of gaming's biggest 21st-century success stories. The title's Battle Royale mode transformed it into a cultural phenomenon, as it emerged on nearly every platform, including PC, consoles and mobile. Fortnitepassed 350 million registered players in 2020 and remains one of the most ubiquitous games today (especially among younger players) while spawning countless copycats.Fortnite will never be finished,' the creative director posted on Twitter last December. The whole idea is that it's a living, breathing PLACE."

Patreon creators have a new option to interact with fans, as the subscription platform just rolled out a group chat feature. This community chat allows creators to interact with adoring fans, but also lets subscribers talk to one another in a space outside of comments. Creators can have up to four chats going at once and there's a toolset in place to allow certain restrictions as to who can participate. For instance, a creator can limit a specific chat to various subscriber tiers.Patreon group chats are exclusive to the mobile app for now, but the company says a desktop version is in the works. Yes, this all sounds suspiciously like Discord, which Patreon acknowledges, referring to the feature as essentially a simpler, in-app Discord server." However, it's not like Discord has a patent on group chats. Patreon says the tools aren't meant to replace Discord, as creators will still have access to an integrated experience with the third-party app. In other words, they can choose which chat method they prefer.You'll be able to do more in chats than just spit out hot takes regarding your favorite creator's published content. The rooms allow for the sharing of photos and emojis, in addition to plain-jane text. Obviously, there are moderation tools in place for creators to limit noxious content. The company says that a future update will allow creators to enlist fans to assist with moderation, so you can, uh, actually pay money to work.To make these group chats feel more like an actual community, Patreon has also introduced a new member profile feature. This allows you to customize your name, photo, social media links and bio, so your fellow chatters can get to know you better. The company told Engadget that all of these tools will be useful to enable deeper connections with fandom communities."Patreon group chats are already rolling out to select creators, with wider availability in the coming months. The subscription platform has been busy adding new features to aid creators and fans. It recently introduced tools to publish subscriber-only podcasts on Spotify and unveiled a native video toolset.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/patreon-app-adds-simple-discord-like-group-chats-181337987.html?src=rss

Apple's iPhone (and likely Apple Watch) event is right around the corner but Google desperately would love for you to remember that it will announce its own devices soon. Rather than just... holding its own event before Apple's, Google has instead decided to tease its upcoming devices with short videos. After starting to dripfeed details about the Pixel 8 lineup, Google has turned its attention to the Pixel Watch 2.One major change that's evident from the 15-second teaser is that "IP68" is printed on the back of the device. That indicates the Pixel Watch 2 will feature IP68 dust- and water-resistance, which should make it somewhat more durable than the previous model.Last year's Pixel Watch does not have an IP rating - smartwatches typically have an ATM rating. The original Pixel Watch is water resistant up to 50 meters and can "withstand some rain, shallow pools and sweat from exercise," Google says.Other than some minor cosmetic changes to the crown, the Pixel Watch 2 has a very similar design to the first model. We'll learn much more about the device during the Made by Google event on October 4.There's one more thing worth pointing out from the video, however. Google notes that Pixel Watch 2 preorders will open on October 4 as well, so it's very likely that the device will arrive sometime next month.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/googles-more-durable-pixel-watch-2-will-be-available-for-preorder-october-4-180256306.html?src=rss

SpaceX's latest Starship test launch was its last for the foreseeable future. The FAA announced Friday that it has closed its investigation into April's mishap, but that the company will not be allowed to resume test launches until it addresses a list of 63 "corrective actions" for its launch system."The vehicle's structural margins appear to be better than we expected," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk joked with reporters in the wake of the late April test launch. Per the a report from the US Fish and WIldlife Service, however, the failed launch resulted in a 385-acre debris field that saw concrete chunks flung more than 2,600 feet from the launchpad, a 3.5-acre wildfire and "a plume cloud of pulverized concrete that deposited material up to 6.5 miles northwest of the pad site.""Corrective actions include redesigns of vehicle hardware to prevent leaks and fires, redesign of the launch pad to increase its robustness, incorporation of additional reviews in the design process, additional analysis and testing of safety critical systems and components including the Autonomous Flight Safety System, and the application of additional change control practices," the FAA release reads. Furthermore, the FAA says that SpaceX will have to not only complete that list but also apply for and receive a modification to its existing license "that addresses all safety, environmental and other applicable regulatory requirements prior to the next Starship launch." In short, SpaceX has reached the "finding out" part.SpaceX released a blog post shortly after the FAA's announcement was made public, obliquely addressing the issue. "Starship's first flight test provided numerous lessons learned," the post reads, crediting its "rapid iterative development approach" with both helping develop all of SpaceX's vehicles to this point and "directly contributing to several upgrades being made to both the vehicle and ground infrastructure."The company admitted that its Autonomous Flight Safety System (AFSS), which is designed to self-destruct a rocket when it goes off its flightpath but before it hits the ground, suffered "an unexpected delay" - that lasted 40 seconds. SpaceX did not elaborate on what cause, if any, it found for the fault but has reportedly since "enhanced and requalified the AFSS to improve system reliability.""SpaceX is also implementing a full suite of system performance upgrades unrelated to any issues observed during the first flight test," the blog reads. Those improvements include a new hot-stage separation system which will more effectively decouple the first and second stages, a new electronic "Thrust Vector Control (TVC) system" for its Raptor heavy rockets, and "significant upgrades" to the orbital launch mount and pad system which just so happened to have failed in the first test but is, again, completely unrelated to this upgrade. Whether those improvements overlap with the 63 that the FAA is imposing, could not be confirmed at the time of publication as the FAA had not publically released them.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/faa-grounds-starship-until-spacex-takes-63-corrective-actions-174825385.html?src=rss

Labor Day sales have ended, Amazon's next Prime-related sale isn't until October and Apple won't announce new products (and likely discount older ones) until next week. In this in-between time, there are still a few worthy deals out there for those looking to save some coin on new tech. Some of our recommended Anker hubs and chargers are seeing up to 50 percent discounts while KitchenAid stand mixers are hitting the lowest prices we've seen this year. Disney+ Basic plans are just $2 for the next three months and Amazon's Fire TV Stick 4K Max is 51 percent off. Apple's AirPods Pro and the 15-inch MacBook Air have both returned to their all-time lows and Samsung's still-brand-new Galaxy Z Fold 5 is $300 off. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.Disney+ BasicIf you cancelled your Disney+ streaming service, or have yet to give it a go, you can get the Basic plan for $2 per month for three months. The deal runs though September 20 and only applies to subscribers in the US. Basic is the company's ad-supported tier, typically $8 a month, which means you'll save a total of $18 over the course of the promo. The deal comes just as Disney prepares to raise the prices of its ad-free subscriptions, with Disney+ Premium jumping by $3 to $14 monthly on October 12th. Hulu's ad-free plan will also go up by $3 per month to $18. If you want both ad-free services, you can opt for the new Duo Premium, a bundle that combines both top-tier plans into a single $20-per-month package.Apple AirPods ProApple's AirPods Pro are back on sale for $199 at Amazon and Walmart. That matches the lowest price we've seen for these yet and both retailers have offered this deal quite a few times lately. That could have something to do with Apple's upcoming iPhone event next week, during which we anticipate the announcement of AirPods Pro with USB-C charging cases, instead of Lightning. The charging port may be the only difference, but if you want to wait until the 12th to make your decision, that's understandable. In any event, we think the current generation of the AirPods Pro are the best companion for iPhone users and gave the buds a solid 88 in our review when they came out last September.Anker saleAs part of a larger Anker sale at Amazon, the 332 USB-C Hub is nearly half price, down to $18 instead of the $35 list price. There's even a clickable $2 coupon that'll make it even cheaper. It has an HDMI port that'll output 4K video at a 30Hz refresh rate, two data-and-power USB-C ports and two USB-A ports. It taps into the host with a built-in USB-C cable and can support pass-through charging to deliver up to 85 watts to your laptop as you use it.Also on sale is the Anker 313 Wireless Charging Stand, which we like as a budget option in our wireless charging guide. Its list price is $20, but the sale brings it to just over $15. Keep in mind it doesn't come with a power adapter brick and tops out at 10W for Android phones and 5W for iPhones. But you aren't likely to find a reliable stand-and-charger combo for less. One last device to note is Anker's USB-C Nano II 735 Charger, which is 15 percent off for the sale. After some extensive testing, we named this the best 65W charger you can buy. It's got three ports, a compact size and performed admirably when juicing up smartphones, laptops and a gaming handheld.Samsung monitor saleOne of our favorite monitors under $200, Samsung's T35F, is on sale right now as part of larger Samsung monitor sales at both Amazon and B&H Photo. The T35F is down to $129 at Amazon and $130 at B&H Photo, which is within a dollar of the all-time low price we've tracked. The 27-inch, 1080p display is ideal for work and light gaming, with a 75Hz refresh rate and an IPS panel that gives better color accuracy, picture quality and viewing angles than cheaper panel types.Kitchen Aid saleA few different KitchenAid appliances are on sale at Amazon this week, including our top pick for a cordless immersion blender, the KitchenAid Cordless Variable Speed Hand Blender. It's now $80 as opposed to its typical $100. The stick is easy to use, has a built-in safety switch and instead of discrete speed settings, the 180-watt motor adjusts with a squeeze of the trigger.If you've been thinking about a new stand mixer, today might be the time to buy as most colors of KitchenAid's Artisan series tilt-head Stand Mixers are seeing some sort of discount, putting many at the $380 mark, which is the lowest price we've seen so far this year. This particular mixer is one of the gadgets we recommend in out kitchen tech guide because it's durable, powerful and works with a huge array of attachments. Plus it looks pretty stylish on a countertop. The mixers are also on sale directly from KitchenAid.Xbox Wireless ControllersIf you worry you might wear out your gamepad playing Starfield, now might be a good time to pick up a spare. The Xbox Wireless Controller is down to $45 at Microsoft right now. That's a dollar more than they went for two weeks ago at Walmart and Amazon, and about $6 more than the all-time low during last year's Black Friday sales. Its a comfortable enough controller, with a dedicated share button and connectivity that's fairly speedy with Xboxes, Windows PCs and Android devices. It uses AA batteries instead of a rechargeable battery pack, though you can buy one separately for $25.If you want a rechargeable gamepad and lots of extra features, check out Microsoft's Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2, which is down to $140 at the Xbox site and at Amazon. That's just $2 more than its all-time low. It features adjustable-tension joysticks, a charging dock, four swappable paddles and extra thumbsticks.Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5Saumsung's new foldable, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is currently $300 off at Amazon, bringing it down to $1,500 instead of $1,800. That's certainly not cheap but still a pretty early discount, as the phone only came out last month. In his Engadget review, Sam Rutherford questions whether Samsung is squandering its head start in the foldable space, with a phone that's not terribly different from its predecessor. But Sam nevertheless appreciated one of the more noticeable upgrades, the Flex Hinge, which creates a much thinner profile when the phone is folded, helping the phone to fit better in your hand and open more smoothly than before. You also get a brighter screen, improved battery life and better performance that makes game graphics look "downright silky."Samsung's other new foldable, the smaller Galaxy Z Flip 5 is also on sale, but only in the higher-capacity 512GB size. That phone is down to $920 instead of the $1,120 list price. It's our current favorite foldable for multitasking in our smartphone guide and it earned an 88 in our review.Apple Watch Series 8The Apple Watch Series 8 is on sale at Amazon again, down to $310 for the 41mm model in Midnight and (Product)Red colorways. That's not quite the rock-bottom $280 the smartwatch sold for during Prime Day in July, but it's the lowest price we've tracked outside of that sale. The Series 8 is our current favorite smartwatch overall because it combines a slew of helpful health and fitness tools with useful apps, customizable features and, naturally, excellent integration with your iPhone. Of course, the sale may be in response to Apple's upcoming iPhone event, in which we expect the company to announce at least two new Apple Watches.Apple 15-inch MacBook Air M2The 15-inch MacBook Air Laptop with the M2 chip is still just $1,099 for the entry-level configuration at both Amazon and at B&H Photo. Apple's latest laptop has fallen to this price a few timesbefore, and it matches the all-time low. The 15-inch screen represents a bigger version of the already-great MacBook Air, but as Engadget's Nathan Ingraham said in his review, the extra real estate helps to make the most of the M2's processing power and makes it "one of the best Apple laptops" he's used in a long time. This model comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. If you need more room and opt for the 512GB capacity model, that's also $200 off at Amazon and B&H, putting it at $1,299, also an all-time low.Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K MaxAlong with a couple other Amazon Fire TV streaming devices, the 4K Max stick is on sale right now. It's down to $27, which is a 51 percent discount and just $2 more than it sold for during Prime Day. Two other streaming dongles are also on sale: the standard, HD-compatible Fire TV Stick is down to $25 instead of $40, and the set-top Fire TV Cube is down to $120 as opposed to $140.The 4K Max has speedy loading and response times and can show you live feeds of your smart cameras and doorbells with a picture-in-picture view. It also supports Wi-Fi 6 and bakes Alexa's help right into the remote.Crucial MX500 1TB SSDCrucial's MX500 1TB SSD is our favorite 2.5-inch SATA drive in our guide to the best SSDs and right now its 52 percent off at both Amazon and directly from Crucial. It delivers excellent performance, with sequential read speeds of 560MB/s and is a great value at its $85 list price. At just $48, that value gets even better. Another pick from the same guide, Samsung's 970 EVO Plus iTB SSD, is also on sale, currently down to $50, which matches its lowest all-time price. We thing that one is a good choice for people buying their first Gen3 NVMe drive.Razer BlackWidow V3 Mini HyperSpeedIn our guide to 60 percent keyboards, we named the Razer BlackWidow v3 Mini HyperSpeed the best option for a model with arrow keys. Right now Amazon is selling it for half price, making it $90 and the lowest price so far. Extra arrow keys make it a 65 percent keyboard instead of a 60 percent, but it's still compact enough to give you room on your desk. You can buy it with one of two switch types: clacky and tactile or liner and silent. Unfortunately, the linear model isn't seeing the same deep discount as the tactile version, with just a 27 percent off sale.Mophie Powerstation Pro ACMophie's Powerstation Pro AC is one of our favorite accessories for MacBooks and its currently down to the lowest price we've seen yet. Typically $200, the sale brings it to $172. In addition to Two USB-C ports and a USB-A slot, it includes an AC outlet so you can power non-USB items like printers, lights or other peripherals. The massive 27,000 mAh battery translates to about 100 watt hours, which is the maximum allowed in your airplane carry-on (keep in mind spare lithium ion batteries are not allowed in checked luggage in any size). In our tests, the Pro AC boosted a 16-inch MacBook Pro from 10 percent to 75 percent in just under 90 minutes, and that's while the laptop was under heavy use.Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/disney-basic-is-just-6-for-three-months-plus-the-rest-of-this-weeks-best-tech-deals-172007461.html?src=rss

The developer of Only Up!, a viral indie climbing game that blew up in popularity on Twitch streams, has delisted the title from Steam. After receiving accusations of using infringing assets and promoting NFTs, the game's creator said they plan to put the game behind" them due to stress. What I need now is peace of mind and healing," wrote developer SCKR Games.The developer posted an update on the title's Steam page explaining the decision, as first spotted byPCGamesN. I'm a solo developer and this game is my first experience in Gamedev, a game I did for creativity, to test myself, and where I made a lot of mistakes," SCKR Games wrote on Steam. The game has kept me under a lot of stress all these months. Now I want to put the game behind me. And yes. The game won't be available in the [Steam] store soon, that's what I decided myself." The title was delisted at the time of this article's publication, with its name changed to not available." You can view a cached version of the game's listing on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.The title's absurd difficulty became its calling card - likely a big reason it was a hot destination on Twitch. Players stepped into the shoes of Jackie, a teenager from the projects with dreams of rising out of poverty. Inspired by Jack and the Beanstalk," the developer tasked gamers with climbing and parkouring through elaborate mazes of pipes and other objects stretching into the sky. Lacking a save feature, it put you back at square one after falling. The point is that each successive level raised the stakes in the game, the higher you climb the more painful to fall," the developer wrote on the Only Up! Steam store page. However, the title did include a time-slowing feature to help fine-tune the more difficult leaps.SCKR Games / SteamAccording to data viewed by PCGamesN, Only Up! attracted up to 280,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch at its peak. A YouTube walkthrough from iShowSpeed' (Darren Jason Watkins ) has garnered 5.6 million views in two months.This isn't the first time Only Up! has been removed. SCKR Games delisted it in late June following the games' alleged copyright violations. A 3D artist accused SCKR Games of using a Sketchfab asset, a giant statue of a girl that wasn't licensed for commercial use. (The game cost $10.) Only Up! returned in early July with a statue of Atlas replacing the infringing one.The one-person SCKR Games says it will return with a new project. I plan to take a pause, and continue my education in game design and further with new experience and knowledge to direct my energies to my next game with the working title Kith - it will be a new experience and a new concept with realism, a completely different genre and setting, and the emphasis is on cinematography," the developer wrote. This time I hope the project will be created by a small team. This is a challenging project on which I want to significantly improve my skills in game design. Thank you for your understanding."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/viral-indie-game-only-up-delisted-from-steam-171652546.html?src=rss

Excerpts from Walter Isaacson's Elon Musk biography are coming to light ahead of its release next week, revealing some new details about the billionaire's decision to provide Ukraine with Starlink access amid the country's war with Russia. According to an excerpt CNN reported on, Musk allegedly told SpaceX workers to shut down Starlink access close to the Crimea coast to prevent a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's naval fleet.Musk, who has reportedly been in contact with Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin, is said to have been worried that the attack would lead to Russia retaliating with nuclear weapons. Ukrainian leaders seemingly begged Musk to reactivate Starlink access but drones that were approaching Russian warships lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly," CNN cites Isaacson as stating.Musk's alleged actions have had significant consequences for Ukraine, according to Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky. Podolyak wrote on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter that Musk owns) that in preventing drones from attacking the Russian ships, Musk enabled them to fire missiles at Ukrainian cities. "As a result, civilians, children are being killed," Podolyak claimed. "This is the price of a cocktail of ignorance and big ego."

Clogs in water recovery systems on the international space station have been so backed up that hoses have had to be sent back to Earth for cleaning and refurbishing. This is thanks to the build up of biofilms: a consortium of microorganisms that stick to each other, and often also to surfaces - the insides of water recover tubing, for instance. These microbial or fungal growths can clog filters in water processing systems and make astronauts sick.So space, like Earth, has a germ problem - so what? Because biofilms can compromise the integrity of and damage equipment, including space suits, recycling units, radiators and water treatment facilities, it can cost space agencies loads of money to replace affected materials. For the full year of 2023, NASA has dedicated a whopping $1.3 billion as part of its budget to resupply its cargo missions to the ISS. Preventing microbial growth in encapsulated space missions will be especially critical for long-haul journeys to places like the moon or Mars, where a quick return to Earth for repairs or treatment of sick astronauts is less feasible.In a cross collaboration between researchers at the University of Colorado, MIT and the NASA Ames Research Center, researchers studied samples from the space station using a specific and well-understood gram-negative kind of bacteria. The scientists also joined forces with experts at LiquiGlide, a company run by MIT researcher Kripa Varanasi that specializes in eliminating the friction between solids and liquids." The multidisciplinary study found covering surfaces with a thin layer of nucleic acids prevented bacterial growth on the ISS-exposed samples.Space Biofilm ProgramThe scientists concluded that these acids carried a slight negative electric charge that stopped microbes from sticking to surfaces. It's worth noting though, that the bacteria were up against a unique physical barrier as well as a chemical one: testing surfaces were etched into "nanograss." These silicon spikes, which resembled a tiny forest, were then slicked with a silicon oil, creating a slippery surface which biofilms struggled to adhere to.