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Samsung, in a few short years, became the foldable phone company. For now. Rivals have either been unable to launch their own smartphone origami projects or simply failed to match against the Z Fold (the horizontal folding one) or the Z Flip (vertical folding ‘flip-phone’.)Oppo has been taking notes, however. It revealed last year that its second generation of foldable phones would compete with the same form factors as Samsung. Now, while the west won’t be getting the bigger Find N2 Fold, in the UK and Europe, we will get the Oppo Find N2 Flip. I prefer the flip-phone iteration of foldables, so I’m glad this is the one heading out of China.In many ways, the Find N2 Flip attempts to address some of the shortcomings of existing foldables. (And I’ll say it now: I loved the Galaxy Z Flip 4), but there’s always room for improvement. Oppo’s focus appears to be the external display, which at 3.26 inches, is currently the largest cover screen on a flip smartphone. While this more accurately replicates the orientation of a smartphone screen, don’t expect icons or an Android-style interface like the one found on Samsung's Galaxy Z fold.Oppo Find N2 Flip (left) stood up next to Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 (right)Mat Smith/EngadgetYou will get a more functional area for previewing shots with the primary cameras, however. The 17:9 ratio makes more sense for framing your photos than on the Galaxy Z Flip, with its horizontal screen. You might think that Samsung’s implementation is better for notifications, but with a bigger outright screen, the Find N2 Flip can display up to six lines of text in your alerts – plenty for text messages and even email previews. There’s more space to peruse notifications, calendar entries and more, too – it can be a finickity task on the Z Flip 4. Oppo offers a handful of pre-programmed replies too, so you can subtly (or lazily) send a response without even opening the Find N2 Flip.You can quick-launch the camera by double-pressing the volume down button – you just need to make sure the phone is in standby, otherwise, it will just lower the volume. The cover screen also features a cute animated animal mascot – you can pick between a dog, cat, an unidentifiable bird, hamster or rabbit – and they’ll come alive when you activate the front display. It's a cute addition — it'd be nice if there was some Tamagotchi-style features, though, perhaps tagged to your step-count or even the device's battery life.One of the quirks of a flip smartphone is the fact that the primary cameras are also your selfie cameras. Like the bigger, China-only, Find N2 Fold, the array on the Flip consists of a 50-megapixel f/1.8 main camera, with an 8-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide camera. That’s a higher-res main sensor compared to the Z Flip 4. However, while testing it out for the week, the most noticeable difference has been a 2X zoom toggle, which is admittedly a digital crop – but still, it's a benefit of having such a high-megapixel sensor to begin with.Another benefit of the more expansive front screen is that you can turn on the preview mode even while someone is taking photos for you, making it easier to ensure that a stranger has managed to fit everyone into your group pic – or ensure they aren’t capturing video instead of a still image. (That has happened to me.) Oppo’s Hasselblad partnership informs its color calibration choices on the cameras again. If you like peppy color filters (I do), you’ll get a handful of these straight from the camera app.Unfolded, there’s also a 32-megapixel f/2.4 front-facing camera if you’re feeling a little old-fashioned. Like Samsung’s foldables, some apps will adjust to fit if you position the phone with the screen raised at an angle. These include the camera app as well as video call apps and YouTube. The hinge itself isn’t quite as stiff as the Z Flip, so it’s more liable to collapse to flat, but once you figure out the right angle, you’ll be fine. Oppo says the hinge’s range of motion is between 45 and 110 degrees.The company is also proud of its subtler crease, and that’s down to a more refined hinge. It claims that its second-generation flip phone has a crease that’s 63 percent less visible – which is… specific. It’s easy to scoff because, well, it’s still there, but it’s definitely smoother compared to the flip phones that came before it. Oppo’s new Flexion hinge is also smaller, and its waterdrop design leaves less space between the sides when it’s closed. This is especially notable compared to the Z Flip 4.Mat Smith/EngadgetAnother area where Oppo has made a wise upgrade is when it comes to battery capacity. The Find N2 Flip has a 4,300mAh cell – the biggest we’ve seen so far in this form factor, and closer to the Z Fold 4 than the Z Flip 4 – along with 44W fast charging support. That’s decent, again, for this form factor, but Oppo’s sibling/cousin/frenemy, OnePlus, is already showing off more typical smartphones with support for 100W. Still, it should fully charge in less than an hour, the company claims. (I'll be updating this story after further battery testing). However, just like OnePlus’ latest phone, there’s no wireless charging.The device will launch in Astral Black and Moonlit Purple and in the UK, it will be priced at £849 (roughly $1,018), which would put it around the same price as the Galaxy Z Flip 4. For now, there are no plans to bring either Find N2 devices to the US.

When Traeger overhauled its Timberline pellet grills last year, the company undertook a complete redesign of its flagship model. It introduced a truckload of new features that made cooking on and cleaning the grills much easier. Today, Traeger revealed a retooled version of its Ironwood series, the WiFi-connected pellet grills that sit in the company's midrange. While it did bring a lot of the upgrades from the new Timberline to these more affordable options, there are still premium tools reserved for the more expensive model.First, the Ironwood is now equipped with a touchscreen controller like the Timberline. This display puts critical information in an easier to read format on the grill. Of course, the company's WiFire tech is onboard as well, allowing you to control and monitor the Ironwood from anywhere via the Traeger app. This includes adjusting grill temperature, monitoring food temperature, setting alerts/timers and watching pellet supply levels (there's a dedicated pellet sensor). You can also control Ironwood and other Traeger grills with Alexa or Google Assistant if you'd rather go the hands-free route. The app is a wealth of culinary knowledge with over 1,600 recipes and cooking guidance from the company's pros. Like previous Traeger pellet grills, the new Ironwood is capable of everything from low-and-slow smoking to high-heat searing, including baking, roasting, braising and grilling.Inside, Traeger has taken steps to make the new Ironwood more efficient. The company says its Smart Combustion tech "maintains incredibly precise temperatures" while an EvenFlow heat shield evenly distributes heat over the entire cooking area. There's also an insulated double wall construction to help prevent unwanted fluctuations in temps. The combination of Traeger's existing Super Smoke mode and its Downdraft exhaust system keep wood smoke circulating around the cooking chamber. Plus, the company says its FreeFlow firepot now assists with that task of keeping smoke moving during a cook.On the bottom, the so-called EZ-Clean grease and ash keg that debuted on the Timberline is here as well, sending both liquid run-off and pellet debris to one place for easy removal and cleaning. Like the Timberline, the pellet hopper is cleaned out from the front on the new Ironwood, making it much easier to swap out pellets between cooks when you need to switch to a different variety.You'll notice the most difference between the Ironwood and Timberline on the outside. Not only do the grill lids have a different look, but the Ironwood keeps the four-leg base Traeger grills traditionally have. The new Timberline sits on more of a cart, with an enclosed cabinet, casters and small exterior shelves. What's more, the Timberline has an induction burner on the left side where that area on the Ironwood is just a shelf. The Ironwood does offer Traeger's ModiFire system of accessories though, thanks to a "Pop-And-Lock (PAL)" rail that allows you to snap on an assortment of shelves, storage bins, tool hooks and more — and it allows you to position those items exactly where you need them. The Ironwood only comes with two wired food probes where the Timberline ships with a set of Meater wireless probes. However, you can purchase them separately as the Ironwood does support them. A two-pack costs $230.The Ironwood and Ironwood XL are available now from Traeger and other retailers in the US and Canada for $1,799 and $1,999 respectively (616 square inches of cooking space vs. 924). While you'll have to sacrifice some features, that's much less than the Timberline which clocks in at $3,499 and $3,799.

2023 will be another big year for fans of Riot Games and League of Legends. This morning, the studio announced it will release not one but three games from its Riot Forge publishing label before 2024. The slate opens with The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story, a new action RPG from Digital Sun Games, the studio behind 2018’s Moonlighter. TheMageseeker casts you as Sylas, everyone’s favorite rogue Damacian mage, as he attempts to lead a revolution against the kingdom that imprisoned him. Riot is billing the game as a “2D hi-bit” title, meaning it features a pixel art style that takes advantage of modern rendering techniques. Judging from the trailer Riot shared, TheMageseeker looks like it draws inspiration from games like Hyper Light Drifter and Titan Souls. It will arrive this spring on PC and consoles.Sometime this summer, Riot will then release Convergence: A League of Legends Story. Double Stallion, a Montreal-based studio that’s best known for its work on Speed Brawl, has been working on the game since at least 2019. It stars Ekko, one of the League champions who makes an appearance in Netflix’s Arcane animated series, in a 2D action platformer. This being a game about Ekko, expect to use time manipulation to solve some of the challenges and puzzles Convergence throws at you.Lastly, there’s Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story. This spinoff comes courtesy of Rime creator Tequila Works and will arrive sometime in the fall. Of the three games that Riot shared release dates for today, Song of Nunu is probably the one I’m most excited to play since Nunu and Willump are such a loveable pair and Tequila Works has a consistent track record. Both Convergence and Song of Nunu will be available to play on PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC via Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Store when they arrive later this year.

Apple already announced a lot of the details on its MLS Season Pass, the company's biggest entry into live sports streaming yet. However, the company and the league still had a few details they hadn't yet revealed. As the start of the new season draws closer, the two collaborators announced more info today, including streaming and audio quality in addition to scheduling, the number of games and studio show formatsIn what will be a disappointment for some, Apple will stream every game in 1080p. That's the same quality the company offered for its weekly Major League Baseball games last year. However, it's an improvement for MLS as every game wasn't available in 1080p previously. The plan is to have more cameras on the field at each match, so despite a lack of 4K, the comprehensive nature of the visuals should be better than what fans are used to seeing. All MLS regular season and Leagues Cup matches will also be streamed with Dolby 5.1 audio as well as alternate broadcast options like local radio.One key thing that will be a welcome change for MLS fans is that the league has standardized game start times and scheduling. With a few exceptions, games will be on Saturday or Wednesday nights and they'll start at 7:30PM local time. There are some Sunday matches scheduled and a few afternoon games, but since MLS is dealing primarily with one broadcaster now, it had the ability to make things a lot easier to follow. Fans can expect at least 13 matches every Saturday or Wednesday night and they'll start at one of four times: 7:30PM Eastern, Central, Mountain or Pacific.Billy Steele/EngadgetThis schedule change also makes it easier to plan studio programming. Apple and MLS will offer three options: a preview show (MLS Countdown), a post-game show (MLS Wrap-up) and continuous "whiparound" coverage for the entire five hours games take place (MLS 360). A typical Saturday will begin with MLS Countdown 30 minutes prior to the east coast games kicking off. There will also be 15-minute installments of Countdown before the Central, Mountain and Pacific time zone matches begin. During the entire night, MLS 360 will offer coverage of key moments (goals) as they happen with live look-ins of in-progress matches with studio commentary. Finally, Wrap-up will air when all the games have concluded as a recap of all of the day's action.In total, Apple and MLS will offer up almost 1000 games through Season Pass. That's every regular season game, the All Star Game and MLS Cup playoffs. Then there's the 77 matches of the Leagues Cup that will include every team from MLS and Mexico's Liga MX (group stage and knockout rounds). Season Pass will also stream 250 live MLS Next Pro matches from league-affiliated development teams, including playoffs and the championship game. There will also be over 100 games from the MLS Next youth level, some of which are tournaments or qualifying tournaments, with MLS club academies on display here.As Apple has said before, MLS Season Pass will be available everywhere you find the Apple TV app. That includes the web, Apple TV (4K, HD and 3rd generation), iPhone, iPad and Mac as well as Samsung, Vizio, LG, Sony, Panasonic and Hisense smart TVs. You'll also find it on Roku, Fire TV, Android TV and Google TV streaming devices and it's available on PlayStation and Xbox consoles. Comcast in the US, Sky in the UK, Free in France, Magenta TV in Germany and B TV in Slovakia are TV providers that offer access.The 2023 season starts February 25th, but MLS Season Pass has already launched. There's plenty of on-demand content to prepare you for the season if you want to sign up now. The streaming plan costs $15 per month or $99 for the season. If you're an Apple TV+ customer, you'll get the discounted rates of $13/month or $79 a season. There will be a number of free games during the season, including every match on opening weekend. For a list of what you'll be able to watch without a subscription for the first month, check the MLS schedule here. Some games will also air on FOX and FS1.

The original Xbox Elite controller came out way back in 2015, so it's a wonder why Sony took so long to release its own take on a premium gamepad. But now that the PlayStation 5 is more widely available (kind of), the company is finally ready to show the world what it can do. While the $200 DualSense Edge costs a bit more than its rival, it offers a few nifty features you don't get on Microsoft's controller, combined with one potentially major shortcoming.DesignFor the Edge, Sony didn't stray much from its default template. From the top, the Edge looks almost exactly the same aside from a black D-pad and face buttons and a black touchpad adorned with a subtle pattern featuring the company's signature ▲ ■ ● and ✖ icons. Where things get interesting is when you notice the two little nubs that stick out below the analog sticks, which are function buttons reserved for changing your controller's button assignments.Sam Rutherford/EngadgetIn back, there are two switches on either side next to the shoulder triggers for adjusting their pull length, along with slots to accommodate the gamepad's removable rear paddles. The controller comes with two sets of rear paddles: longer, more traditional levers and short stubby half-domes, the latter of which ended up being my favorite. You also get a total of three different joystick nubs (standard, short-stemmed convex and long-stemmed convex) that can be swapped out on the fly, and a cable lock which can prevent the included USB-C cord from getting pulled out by accident.Both the thumbsticks and the rear paddles attach magnetically, which makes it super simple to test out different layouts before finding a combo you like. The long-stemmed domed thumbstick can be helpful for snipers in shooting games, especially if you prefer playing at lower sensitivities. But I was less concerned with trying to get an edge than I was with making the controller as comfortable as possible.Sam Rutherford/EngadgetOne of the Edge's highlight features are those fully replaceable analog sticks. By sliding the release toggle in back, the shroud around the analog sticks lifts off, revealing removable modules that attach via USB-A and can be changed out in seconds. This means when you start to experience some controller drift (which you will, given enough wear and tear), you can simply buy replacement thumbstick modules that cost $20 each. For hardcore gamers that put in hundreds or thousands of hours into their consoles, this can represent huge savings over time. If one joystick starts to get a bit wonky, just switch it out, or replace both sticks at the same time and get almost a brand-new gamepad.Finally, to round everything out, the Edge comes with a hardshell carrying case that looks and feels like an extra-large space egg. It has a lightly padded interior and a small mesh pocket for any additional accessories you might need (like the included charging cable). There's also a nifty velcro pass-through flap in back that allows you to route a cord inside so you can charge the controller while it remains tucked safely inside the case.Software and featuresSam Rutherford/EngadgetAnother big advantage the Edge has over rivals (especially third-party offerings like Scuf's Reflex) is the ability to set custom button configurations. The PS5 supports four quickset options and has the ability to save even more in settings. Switching layouts takes less than a second and is as simple as pressing either one of the function buttons and one face button at the same time. I also appreciate that the PS5 pops up a simple walkthrough on how to set everything the first time you connect the controller. And whenever you want to revisit your button presets, all you have to do is open the console's settings menu.Other handy features include the ability to customize your joystick sensitivity, adjust their deadzone and even set the actuation point for the triggers. So depending on your preferences, you can tell the controller to ignore shallow pulls to avoid inadvertent presses. This also works in conjunction with the slider on the back of the controller which can change the physical travel distance of the triggers to three distances (short, medium and long), which is nice when switching from a racing game, where you want the full analog feedback, and an FPS, when you want a real hair trigger setup.In-gameSam Rutherford/EngadgetWhen you get around to actually using the Edge, gaming with it almost feels like having a Swiss Army Knife. Sure, it looks and feels like a standard DualSense, but when you run into an awkward situation, the gamepad always seems to have a solution. For example: Some of my first console shooters were Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Goldeneye on the N64, so I've always preferred what gamers often call a Southpaw joystick setup, which means aiming with the left joystick and moving with the right. Unfortunately, not every shooter supports this layout. But with the DualSense I can use it in whatever game I want.Additionally, while the DualSense's deep triggers are great for racing games, that long pull is kind of annoying in fighters or beat 'em ups like Streets of Rage 4. But simply by moving the toggles in back, I can significantly shorten the pull, making things feel snappier and more responsive.Sam Rutherford/EngadgetNow I should mention that some other premium controllers like the Xbox Elite Series 2 offer multiple D-pad options, but in my opinion, both of them are worse than Sony's arrow-shaped version. And while I'll probably never use the cable lock, I can see it being useful in tournament settings where you want the confidence of a wired connection but don't want to worry about your USB cable getting yanked out by accident.My one small complaint is that I wish you could assign custom actions to the little function nubs. Right now they're dedicated to switching button presets and there's no way to change that, which seems like a bit of a waste. There are two nubs, at least let me use one of them as an extra button, especially since I feel like they're in the perfect location for launching grenades in shooters.Battery LifeSam Rutherford/EngadgetThe DualSense Edge's biggest weakness is its battery life, which is somehow worse than the standard PS5 controller. On average I was getting around five to six hours of use on a single charge, compared to six or seven for the regular DualSense. And that's just frustrating because not only does the Edge cost more than twice as much, the type of people that would pay big money for a premium controller are also quite likely to engage in marathon gaming sessions. And there are few things more annoying than having to scramble for a USB cord when your controller dies in the middle of the firefight. Thankfully, the Edge comes with a lengthy 10-foot USB cable, so even if it runs out of juice, you'll probably still be able to plug it in and have the cable reach your couch.Wrap-upSam Rutherford/EngadgetWhile the idea of paying $200 for a fancy controller might seem like a bit much (and it kind of is), after using the DualSense Edge I can see the appeal. It offers a familiar design with a handful of extra features including easy button remapping, multiple joystick nubs, customizable rear paddles and more. And the Edge is actually a tiny bit cheaper than some third-party options like those from Scuf, which doesn’t have replaceable joystick modules. Its short battery life is definitely a downer and I would have liked to see Sony include support for a second pair of paddles in back, like you get on of other premium gamepads. But if I had to choose just one controller to use with my PS5 until it dies, the DualSense Edge would be it.

Despite recently saying it would lay off more than 18,000 people, Amazon is still looking to expand its empire – which could mean more physical stores. CEO Andy Jassy told the Financial Times that Amazon still plans to “go big” on its brick-and-mortar grocery store business.The company's physical store division accounts for 3.4 percent of the overall business and has grown only around 10 percent since the Whole Foods acquisition. Jassy noted that many Amazon Fresh locations opened in the COVID-19 pandemic, so Amazon hasn't "had a lot of normalcy" to see what works. That’s also been true for other facets of its physical retail business. Almost a year ago, Amazon said it was closing all of its pop-ups, bookstores and four-star shops across the US and UK.In the interview, Jassy said: “We have a history of doing a lot of experimentation and doing it quickly. And then, when we find something that we like, doubling down on it, which is what we intend to do.”– Mat SmithThe Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.The biggest stories you might have missed

The Biden administration has unveiled new initiatives in its $7.5 billion plan to install 500,000 EV chargers on US roads by 2030. As part of that, it announced that Tesla has committed to to open up 7,500 of its charging stations to non-Tesla vehicles by the end of 2024.In 2021 Tesla announced that its open-access Supercharger program (currently being piloted in 16 European nations) would be coming to the US. With a firm date now in hand, the White House has revealed details of the plan. Of 7,500 chargers available for all compatible EVs, 3,500 will be new and existing 250 kW Superchargers along highway corridors. The rest will be Level 2 Destination Charging stations (22 kW max) at hotels, restaurants and other urban and rural locations. Tesla will also boost its US Supercharger network by 300 percent, officials said.

In a new update, Virgin Orbit has confirmed that the launch failure of its first UK mission was likely caused by a fuel filter that had been "dislodged from its normal position." That created a cascade of events that led to the shutdown of the second stage rocket, which ultimately fell back to Earth along with its payload, according to data gathered so far. The investigation is being led by United Launch Alliance's Jim Sponnick and Virgin Chief Engineer Chad Foerster, with oversight from the US FAA, UK Air Accidents Investigation branch and other authorities.The company's historic "Start Me Up" mission launched from Spaceport Cornwall on January 9th and Virgin confirmed things went well at the start. "The ignition, first stage flight, stage separation, second stage ignition and fairing deployment of the LauncherOne rocket were nominal," it wrote. "Each of these milestones constituted a first-of-its-kind achievement for any orbital launch attempt from western Europe."

Apple will rely on your previous purchases and spending habits to decide how much it will lend you for its upcoming "buy now, pay later" service, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apparently, the tech giant intends to evaluate your eligibility based on your purchases at its retail stores, your App Store transactions and even the peer-to-peer transfers you've made using Apple Cash.Whether or not you've applied for an Apple Card in the past will also reportedly factor into the amount the company will lend you, along with your spending habits using any other card linked to your Apple Pay. The company will take which Apple devices you own into account, as well, Bloomberg says. Apple Financing, the subsidiary the company established last year, is expected to be in charge of conducting customer background checks and loan approvals.The tech giant first announced the "buy now, pay later" functionality for Apple Pay at its WWDC event in June 2022 with the intention of launching it later that year. While Apple didn't explain why it didn't arrive with iOS 16 like it originally intended, Gurman said at the time that the delays were caused by "fairly significant technical and engineering challenges in rolling out the service." To test the feature, Apple reportedly gave its retail employees access to it for their own purchases. In Gurman's latest report, he says testers have been seeing loan approvals for as much as $1,000.When it first announced the pay later offering, Apple said it will give you a way to split the cost of purchases into four equal installments that you can pay over six weeks. That's a short amount of time, but you at least won't incur any additional interest or fees. The company reportedly plans to offer another option later on that would let you pay for larger purchases over several months, though that one will charge you interest on top of the base amount.

Platformer has interviewed Twitter employees to figure out why people's For You feeds turned into The Elon Musk show, and they said the company's engineers truly did build a system that benefited their CEO alone. According to the publication, Elon's cousin and Twitter employee James Musk sent an urgent message on the company's Slack on Monday morning. "We are debugging an issue with engagement across the platform," he wrote, calling the situation "high urgency" and asking everyone who can write code to help. The situation? President Biden's tweet about rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles got more engagement than Musk's.Apparently, the president's tweet generated almost 29 million impressions, whereas Musk's generated 9.1 million only before he deleted it. Musk's issue with his tweets not getting as much engagement as he would like started before the Super Bowl, however. Platformer previously reported that he fired one of Twitter's two remaining principal engineers because he suggested that Musk's tweets aren't generating as many impressions anymore because people are no longer that interested in what he's saying.Around 80 Twitter employees were reportedly tasked to investigate the possible reasons for Musk's waning engagement numbers, and they did consider the possibility that a lot of people had blocked and muted him in recent months. They also looked into legitimate potential technical issues, though, because tweets from users whose posts typically perform well should've been automatically promoted by the website's system.The fix they came up with, Platformer says, is to deploy code that would artificially boost Musk's tweets by a factor of 1,000, ensuring that they rank higher than everyone else's in people's feeds. As a result, over 90 percent of Musk's 128.9 million followers saw his tweets, and even those who don't follow the Twitter owner kept seeing his posts on their timeline.While Musk didn't speak at length about the issue, he did acknowledge the change in his own way, specifically by posting the "forced to drink milk" meme. He also asked people to stay tuned while Twitter made adjustments to the "algorithm" (his quote, not ours) after users started complaining of seeing all Elon all the time. "Adjustments" reportedly didn't mean removing his advantage completely, though: according to Platformer, Elon's tweets are still artificially boosted, but by a factor less than 1,000. Bottom line, users will still see his tweets a lot, unless they choose to move over to the Following tab instead.

TuneIn is adding a new way for users to discover the more than 100,000 radio stations available to stream on its service. This week, the company – in honor of World Radio Day, which fell on February 13th – began rolling out TuneIn Explorer (via Android Police).The feature plots everything TuneIn offers on an interactive map allowing you to see where some of the world’s most famous radio stations are based out of. You can access the map by visiting TuneIn’s website on your computer or mobile device. The company has included handy filters along the top of the interface, allowing you to narrow down the stations you see based on genre and language. You can apply multiple filters if you want more specific results. The map also includes a search feature and even displays emergency broadcast stations.There’s no word yet on when the feature will arrive in the TuneIn app. In the meantime, we can imagine a few fun use cases for the map. You could turn to it if you want to rediscover a radio station from your hometown or as a way to immerse yourself in a language you want to learn.

Google Fiber is launching the 5Gbps internet plan it began testing in October. The service will initially cover four cities, but Google says the $125-per-month service will expand to other areas later this year.The new plan is available today in Kansas City,West Des Moines and Fiber’s Utah cities. It has symmetrical upload and download rates, an upgraded 10 Gig Fiber Jack (the small box housing the fiber cable’s entrance into your home), professional installation, a WiFi 6 router and up to two mesh network extenders.Although 5Gbps speeds could be overkill for most households, they could come in handy for creative professionals, gamers or others who need minimal latency or transfer large files frequently. For example, a 150GB Microsoft Flight Simulator download that takes 11 minutes at 2Gbps would only take about three minutes at 6Gbps (under ideal conditions, anyway).The upgraded speeds are part of Google’s rejuvenated focus on Fiber. The company also recently announced its first network expansion in years. But, perhaps more crucially, it reestablishes Fiber as an industry disrupter pushing competitors to upgrade speeds and lower prices (maybe) on existing plans. Comcast already offers 6Gbps service in some areas, but it costs a whopping $300 and doesn’t include symmetrical uploads.Google also reiterated that Fiber’s 8Gbps option, also announced late last year, is still “coming soon.” That service will also include symmetrical uploads and downloads.

Meta isn't done pulling back some of its shopping features. Instagram has warned users that live shopping will shut down on March 16th. From that day on, shops can't tag products during livestreams — you'll have to wait until afterward (or rely on less-than-elegant links) to buy must-have items. The social network explained the move as a way to "help [it] focus" on core features.The move comes right as Instagram is removing the shopping tab from the home screen, and months after Facebook wound down Live Shopping and pointed stores toward Reels. Shopping is still part of these social media apps in posts, Reels and Stories, but Meta has increasingly taken a back-to-basics approach. Live shopping first reached Instagram in 2020, right as many people were forced to shop online during the pandemic.The decision isn't surprising. Meta is looking for ways to cut costs as a tough economy and an expensive metaverse pivot affect its bottom line, and it's particularly eager to slash initiatives that perform poorly. As Gizmodoexplains, that might include Instagram's live shopping. Social-based shopping was only expected to represent five percent of US e-commerce in 2022, according to Insider Intelligence. If that's true, Meta isn't earning much from purchases during live broadcasts.Meta isn't alone in struggling with shopping features. TikTok was set to bring live shopping to North America late last year, but only using outsourced technology. The Financial Timessources claimed last summer that TikTok was scaling back its plans between a poor UK uptake and a mass exodus of employees. Simply speaking, there may not be as much of an audience for social shopping as tech giants expect.

Astronomers at the European Space Agency (ESA) used the James Webb Space Telescope to capture an image of a spiral galaxy that resembles our home, the Milky Way. The star system, LEDA 2046648, sits a billion light-years away from ours in the constellation Hercules; it contains thousands of galaxies, trillions of stars and countless planets.The ESA released the picture on January 31 (highlighted this week by The NY Times). The space agency described it as a mere calibration image to “verify the telescope’s capabilities as it was prepared for science operations.” ESA astronomers snapped it on May 22, 2022, with the Webb telescope’s Near InfraRed Camera (NIRCam).That ultra-powerful camera can detect longer infrared wavelengths produced by light from this far away. Redshifting describes the stretching of light’s wavelength as it moves away from us, increasing until it appears redder than expected. It occurs because of the universe’s expansion: Distant systems like LEDA 2046648 keep moving farther from Earth.Most of the visible blobs surrounding LEDA 2046648 are also galaxies, although several stars can be discerned by their diffraction spike patterns. Some objects in the image could be as old as 300 million years after the Big Bang. Of course, an image of anything one billion light-years away means we’re viewing the galaxy’s light from a billion years ago. So astronomers are eager to study early galaxies like this one (and even older ones) to help clarify the types of stars that condensed out of the Big Bang — and how supermassive black holes ended up in most galaxies’ centers.

IKEA already has a side table that doubles as an air purifier, but now it has a way to gauge just how clean that air really is. The home store has introduced a smart indoor air quality sensor, the Vindstyrka, that gauges particulate matter levels (those smaller than 2.5 micrometers), humidity, temperature and the load of gaseous pollutants. Ideally, you'll know if your cleaning or cooking habits are making you sick.Vindstyrka works by itself, but it unsurprisingly becomes more useful when connected to IKEA's Dirigera smart home hub. You can check air quality through the company's app, and have the monitor control other devices. It can tell a Starkvind purifier to ramp up the fan speed based on particulate levels, for instance.IKEA plans to release Vindstyrka in all its markets starting in April. The company hasn't revealed pricing as we write this, but the feature set suggests it will be more affordable than high-end air quality monitors (such as Airthings' $299 View Plus) that also track CO2, radon and air pressure. It may be a viable option if the temperature and humidity sensors built into your smart speaker aren't enough.

Kia and Hyundai released a software update on Monday after a viral TikTok challenge taught users how to hack the vehicles. But for now, it’s only available to a selected one million vehicles, out of the four million cars that will eventually need the patch.It started as the “Kia Challenge” dating back to at least May on TikTok, demonstrating how “Kia Boys” use USB cords to hot-wire cars. Owners soon caught on to the widespread theft and began suing the car manufacturers for a lack of response. The class action lawsuit said that certain models of Kia and Hyundai cars lacked engine immobilizers, a common device that prevents car theft, making it easy to gain access, TechCrunch reported last September.Car owners of affected models like the 2017-2020 Elantra, 2015-2019 Sonata and 2020-2021 Venue can visit a local dealership to install the anti-theft update, Hyundai said in a release. The updates include an anti-theft sticker to deter attack, a longer alarm, and the need for a physical key, rather than just a push start, to turn the vehicle on. Updates for other affected vehicles will be available by June, and you can find the whole list on Hyundai’s website.In the meantime, Kia and Hyundai have provided about 26,000 steering wheel locks to vehicle owners to prevent theft, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. NHTSA got involved in the saga after thefts sparked by the Kia Challenge resulted in at least 14 reported crashes and eight fatalities, the agency said, turning it into a matter of public safety.

Starting today, Meta is rolling out a new version of its “Why am I seeing this ad?” tool. The company says the redesigned interface is meant to provide users with more information about how their activities on Facebook and beyond inform the machine learning models that power its ad-matching software. If you’re unfamiliar with the tool, you can access it by clicking or tapping the three dots icon next to an ad on Facebook or Instagram.Once you have access to the updated tool, you’ll see a summary of the actions on Meta’s platforms and other websites that may have informed the company’s machine-learning models. For instance, the page may note that you’re seeing an ad for a dress or suit because you interacted with style content on Facebook. Users will also see new examples and illustrations that attempt to explain how Meta’s machine learning algorithms work to deliver targeted ads. At the same time, the company says it has made it easier to access its Ads Preferences. You’ll see a link to those settings from more pages accessible through the “Why am I seeing this ad?” tool.Meta“We are committed to using machine learning models responsibly. Being transparent about how we use machine learning is essential because it ensures that people are aware that this technology is a part of our ads system and that they know the types of information it is using,” Meta said in a blog post published Tuesday. “By stepping up our transparency around how our machine learning models work to deliver ads, we aim to help people feel more secure and increase our accountability.”The company notes it worked with “external privacy experts and policy stakeholders” to collect input on how it could be more transparent about its ads system. Meta doesn’t say as much, but the changes likely represent an effort to ensure the company is compliant with the European Union’s Digital Services Act when it becomes law in 2024. The legislation has several provisions that apply directly to Meta, including one that mandates more transparency around how recommendation systems work. The law will also ban ads that target individuals based on their religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity or political affiliation.More broadly, the changes come after Apple’s ad-tracking changes in iOS 14 significantly hurt Meta’s bottom line. One early report after iOS 14.5 went live estimated only four percent of iPhone users in the US opted into app tracking. Since then, Meta has seen revenue growth shrink significantly. More recently, in combination with its virtual and augmented reality spending, Meta saw its first-ever revenue decline in the second quarter of 2022.

Meta's Oversight Board says it will review more cases and fast-track some within as little as 48 hours. "Increasing the number of decisions we produce, and the speed at which we do so, will let us tackle more of the big challenges of content moderation, and respond more quickly in situations with urgent real-world consequences," the board wrote in a blog post.Although previous versions of the Oversight Board's bylaws mentioned expedited reviews of Facebook and Instagram content moderation cases, it has not used this process so far. Under the board's revised charter and bylaws, Meta can now refer expedited cases to the board with relevant information and an explanation as to why it felt an urgent review was necessary. If the board's co-chairs decide to take on an expedited case, Meta "agrees to be bound by the board’s ultimate determination," the bylaws state.A panel (instead of the board's entire 23-strong membership) will review expedited cases and come to a decision that's posted on the Oversight Board's website within as little as 48 hours. The board notes, however, that this process can take up to 30 days. The target timeframe for standard decisions that demand more in-depth reviews is 90 days.The board won't take public comments into account for expedited cases due to time constraints. It might also choose to carry out expedited reviews of user appeals.

Apple released security updates to its operating systems on Monday to resolve a security flaw. While such updates are common, the company said in the announcement that the issue “may have been actively exploited,” meaning hackers could’ve taken advantage of the issue to access Apple devices.Apple issued security updates for its macOS Ventura, latest iPhone and iPad products and its Safari web browser. Security updates for its AppleTV and Apple Watch operating systems were also slated to be released on Monday, according to the Apple security updates website, but details have not been released at the time of publication. While the security flaws vary across devices, WebKit, its open-source browser engine, was a common target.Apple does not have additional details to share on the exploits beyond the update release notes, spokesperson Scott Radcliffe told Engadget.The company credited Xinru Chi of Pangu Lab, Ned Williamson of Google Project Zero, Wenchao Li and Xiaolong Bai of Alibaba Group and an anonymous researcher for finding the flaws, with additional recognition to The Citizen Lab at The University of Toronto’s Munk School for their assistance.Patches for security flaws exploited on Apple devices aren’t unusual, but keeping devices up-to-date can help keep users protected from falling victim to attack. Apple generally doesn’t reveal details of an exploit until a patch is publicly available. In August, the company released similarly timely patches for its iPad, iPhone and macOS users.The Citizen Lab has not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

BuzzFeed’sAI-powered quizzes have arrived. Starting today, there are six for readers to try. As you can probably imagine, the majority are themed around Valentine’s Day. Want help writing the perfect breakup text? How about a brief synopsis for a romcom starring your favorite actor as you? Those are just a few of the “Infinity Quizzes” BuzzFeed has on offer.Each works in more or less the same way. You pick the quiz you want to complete and then answer a few questions to give Buzzy the Robot, an algorithm based on OpenAI’s public API, the material it needs to generate a personalized response to your prompts. “It’s like having a really smart coworker that you can bounce ideas off of and collaborate with who is always available and never eats at their desk,” BuzzFeed says of the software.BuzzFeedAccording to the outlet, each quiz was created by a human writer who wrote the framing, headline and questions. The personalized outcomes you see are the result of Buzzy combining the inputs from both the quiz writer and you the reader. “It’s a collaborative effort and we couldn’t do it without all three,” BuzzFeed said. “Human creativity is always at the center of our work, and our quizzes, but with the magic of AI we can now create things that were never possible before, like infinite results personalized just for you.”The results Buzzy produces are predictably hit-and-miss. I enjoyed the breakup text it produced, but it took a few attempts and a few different quizzes before I got a result that made me chuckle. More than anything, BuzzFeed’s Infinity Quizzes highlight how hard it is to teach humor. However, I will say it’s a better use of the technology than we’ve seen from CNET, which tried and failed to use an AI to write financial explainers.BuzzFeedBuzzFeed’s foray into generative AI comes after the company laid off 12 percent of its newsroom this past December. However, it’s far from the only business turning to generative AI to improve its fortunes. In the same week that it came out BuzzFeed had plans to embrace the technology for both editorial and business operations, Microsoft announced a multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI’s text generation systems. The tech giant has since announced it’s working on AI-enhanced versions of Bing and Edge. Whether it's funny or not, generative AI is here to stay.

You've probably noticed a steep increase in the ridesharing fares you pay, but your drivers haven't necessarily received the benefits. UCLA Labor Center researchers have published a study indicating that median Uber and Lyft fares increased by 50 percent between February 2019 and April 2022, but media driver pay only climbed 31 percent. The companies' profits reportedly jumped from nine percent to 20.7 percent over the three-year span.The authors recommended that authorities cap the amount companies can take from passenger fare, with proportionate increases in pay and enforced minimum rates. They also call for increased transparency around both the rideshare commission and drivers' trip data. The study team further called for more detailed data, such as different ride types and surge pricing.The companies object to the study's conclusions. In a statement to Engadget, Uber claims the researchers made errors and that its April 2022 take was 16.4 percent. Government fees are 18 percent, the company adds. Lyft, meanwhile, tells Engadget pay has been "consistently above" $1,100 per week since the start of 2021, and that commission caps would "dramatically" increase fares and hurt lower-income communities.Study co-author Vivek Ramakrishnan tellsMotherboard the group purposefully excluded government fees, however. The project is meant to show the growing profits, not the overall price increases. One study at Cornell University claimed drivers in Seattle made healthy wages of $23 per hour in 2019, but earlier Berkeley and Economic Policy Institute studies determined that workers made roughly $9 per hour after expenses.The findings come just as the fight heats up over wages. A judge recently blocked a pay increase for New York City ridesharing drivers in January after Uber sued the city's Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) over an allegedly flawed methodology for calculating raises. That raise may still kick in following a March 1st hearing, but it's evident the companies aren't eager to adjust pay on authorities' terms.

Discord is expanding Stage Channels, its Clubhouse- and Twitter Spaces-style feature that puts a spotlight on a small group of speakers broadcasting a conversation to a larger audience. Stage Channels debuted almost two years ago as an audio-only feature, but that's all about to change as Discord is adding video feeds, screen sharing and text chat to the mix.Up to five participants can share their video feed. Someone else can can share their screen at the same time. As ever, no audience members' audio or video will be broadcast unless they're invited to join the speakers.Because video uses a lot more bandwidth than audio, Discord has imposed some limits. Any server with the free Community features switched on can enable video and screen sharing in Stages with up to 50 people, including the hosts. Still, Discord points out that's double the maximum viewer limit for video chat in regular voice channels. Boosted servers can have up to 150 people in a video Stage at Tier 2 and 300 at Tier 3.DiscordText chat, meanwhile, is the same as in voice channels. You can select "Show Chat" on the top right of the panel and ask questions or comment on what speakers are discussing. Additionally, moderators have the ability to only allow users with certain assigned roles to share video or their screen on a server.Meanwhile, as you're waiting for a Stage to begin, Discord will now play waiting room music. If you'd rather not hear it, you can switch off the music by hitting the eighth note (♫) button.Although Discord users won't be able to broadcast their video Stage chats to as many users as they can on the likes of Twitch, this will surely be a welcome update for users. Folks have used Stage Channels to run AMAs, fireside chats, live podcast recordings, beatboxing contests and other events. Now, creators can use the feature for premium gameplay streams if they want.Adding video to the mix gives users more flexibility without moderators having to mute and unmute too many people. It's useful for audience members too, since it'll be harder to accidentally unmute yourself during a Discord video presentation. Make sure your mic muting hotkey isn't one you press often, folks!

Google is rolling out a beta of Privacy Sandbox for Android starting today. The program is the company’s attempt to blend user privacy with targeted advertising, something the search giant has worked on for years in its planned shift away from cookie-based web tracking.One of Privacy Sandbox’s pillars is the Topics API, which pulls a list of your top interests based on usage. It then compares them to a database from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Google’s data. Partner publishers can ping the API, which responds with a list of interests to help serve relevant ads without sharing overly intrusive information. Google says stored interests are “kept for only three weeks, and old topics are deleted.” In addition, the data and processing are done on-device “without involving any external servers, including Google servers.”The beta is the first time Privacy Sandbox has been available publicly on Android. Google is still working on Privacy Sandbox for Chrome (here’s the timeline), which it has been letting developers test for about a year. It says it received feedback from hundreds of companies, which has helped shape its approach.Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) alert.ApplePrivacy Sandbox is Google’s answer to Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT), which the iPhone maker introduced in iOS 14.5. The feature requires user consent to track them across other apps and websites. Google dismisses ATT as a “blunt approach” since it doesn’t offer an alternate way for app developers and advertisers to replace the lost income from cookie-based targeting.Privacy vs. advertising is an arms race. When platforms like iOS block the old ways of profiting from ads, advertisers can (and do) resort to fingerprinting: collecting seemingly innocent device information that, when pieced together, may identify you nearly as well as cookies. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to detect and prevent. Google hopes Privacy Sandbox will strike the right balance between privacy and advertiser / developer revenue.Google says the Privacy Sandbox beta will roll out gradually, starting with “a small percentage of Android 13 devices” and expanding from there. You’ll see a notification on your device inviting you to join the beta if selected. After accepting, you can visit the new Privacy Sandbox section in your device’s Settings menu to view tracked topics and opt out individually. Additionally, the menu lets you leave the program.

Samsung is running another round of discounts on storage devices, bringing several of the company's better SSDs and microSD cards to, or at least near, their lowest prices to date. Most of the discounts are available across Amazon, Best Buy and Samsung's own online store.Among the highlights, the 2TB Samsung T7 Shield is back down to $150. That's about $25 below its usual street price and ties the lowest price we've seen for the ruggedized version of our favorite portable SSD. For a higher capacity, the 4TB model is down to a new low of $280, while the 1TB variant is $10 above its all-time low at $90. The standard T7, meanwhile, is also down to $90 for a 1TB model.On the microSD side, the company's Evo Select card offers a good balance between price and performance. The 128GB version of that U3- and V30-rated card is down to $13.49 at Samsung, which matches its all-time low. If you need more space for your Switch, Steam Deck, GoPro or what have you, the 512GB model is back to a low of $45 as well.As for non-portable SSDs, the 980 Pro is technically older but remains a decent value for those looking to build a high-performing gaming PC. Its 1TB and 2TB models are down to $100 and $160, respectively, both of which represent all-time lows. The 980 Pro also meets Sony's requirements for expanding the storage of a PlayStation 5, though you'd need to add a heatsink alongside it. If you're buying for the PS5 specifically, it might be worth getting the version of the 980 Pro that comes with a heatsink built-in. That model's 1TB and 2TB variants are on sale for lows of $110 and $180. For a less intense PC build, the 970 Evo Plus is an older PCIe 3.0 drive but should still be fast enough for most needs. That one is down to $80 for 1TB, which is a roughly $20 discount and an all-time low.If you do take the plunge with one of the NVMe SSDs above, make sure you keep its firmware up to date. Various users have reported higher-than-normal failure rates with the 2TB 980 Pro and the newer 990 Pro, specifically, but Samsung looks to have addressed those issues with recent updates.Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

In 1992, Matt Moneymaker had an experience that would change his life. Some local farmers had told him about a number of mysterious sightings deep in the forests of Ohio. Without the internet or social media, Moneymaker did what you did back then: He placed classified ads in the hope that these witnesses might come forward and share their story and, crucially, the location where it had happened.“I went to the area where they had seen one, and I found tracks. And we heard their sounds, and I was at that point very, very, very committed to getting some video footage of these things” he told Engadget. Those things? Bigfoots. “From those classified ads, I got a bunch of calls and was able to plot them on a map. And then I actually talked to some of the witnesses who introduced me to other people in the area.”In the thirty years since that lo-fi expedition, Bigfoot research has advanced significantly. Today your typical “squatcher” (as they informally call themselves) is more likely to carry a GPS and night vision goggles than a compass and binoculars. Because in a world of satellite broadband, 100-megapixel cameras and full-color night vision, blurry photos are starting to look a little quaint. Squatchers need to up their game, and they know this. Allison Babka for CityBeatMoneymaker is no stranger to the hunt. He is the President of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO), but is perhaps best known as one of the main investigators on Animal Planet’s Finding Bigfoot. The show attracted millions of viewers and made its protagonists celebrities in the squatching world. But Moneymaker now hopes technology, not cable TV exposure, will be the tool that bags him the proof needed to silence the skeptics once and for all.“Scientists will say that all these sightings of Bigfoot are just actually… they’re bear sightings, and people are mistaking them for bigfoots, and it's just, that never happens.”This was one of the first things Moneymaker explained to me during our interview and it turned out to be eerily prescient. Just days later, a new study did the rounds claiming that most Bigfoot sightings were likely just bears. The related paper was technically published just before we spoke, but most media didn’t pick up the story until after.As Moneymaker tells it, the reverse is true. “The very first thing their mind wants to compute is ‘it's a bear’” he said, adding “rather than, ‘this just couldn’t be a bear, this is walking on two legs and has long arms like a man and doesn't have pointy ears and a snout.’” Needless to say, for squatchers, they didn’t need a scientific paper to tell them that skeptics will assume most sightings were actually something ursine.So how does a serious squatcher like Moneymaker think we’ll eventually put the matter to rest? The answer isn’t on the forest floor, it’s in the skies.Last September, Moneymaker was invited to take part in the Bigfoot Basecamp Weekend in Ohio. It was here that he demonstrated his latest tech concept for finding these elusive creatures. At its core is a Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced drone by DJI combined with Dronesense’s search and rescue software with a little dash of people power. Effectively, the same setup one might use to find a lost hiker, just with claws instead of Cliff bars.Allison Babka for CityBeatIt’s important to note here that the Mavic 2 EA isn’t quite the Mavic 2 you see being flown by enthusiasts, wedding photographers and real estate professionals. The EA version is the same platform, but with more sensors and about three times the cost. Or half the cost of the equivalent Matrice series. The important feature on the Mavic 2 EA (and also the newer Mavic 3T) is the high-resolution thermal camera.The revolution here isn’t so much the technology, as drones and thermal cameras are not new, it’s the price. “Thermal on a drone for $6,500? That's revolutionary. You know, that's a huge difference in terms of it being accessible and available to common non-governmental entities” Moneymaker said.The live audience was originally there to be entertained. But according to Moneymaker, it turned out to be another part of the equation.“We had an open speakerphone with the pilot, who was a few miles away. The audience was able to watch all this on a very big screen. [...] And on a very big screen, you can see more heat targets. So the audience was able to help direct him toward heat blips, and he was able to move his drone closer.”As the event was a successful proof of concept, I asked Moneymaker why they don’t do them more often. “Using one at the Basecamp event was probably the first time that a thermal drone had been used systematically at a Bigfoot area. And so we're gonna go back and do it again in October” he said, before reminding me that squatchers rarely get funding and rely on sponsors. “I guess the point is, we'd love to go out and do that right now. We're trying to line up a benefactor to help us do that.”Unfortunately, no Bigfoots were found on this occasion, but representatives from the local government seemed impressed enough that they pitched Moneymaker an idea. “[They] were really interested in tourism development around paranormal things. They had success developing things for Ghost Hunter tourism, that it brought people to little places, forgotten places that nobody ever had a reason to visit.”The inspiration for using a drone with a thermal camera came from the Netflix show Night on Earth. Specifically the behind the scenes episode Shot in the dark. Much of the footage in that series wasn’t thermal, instead likely shot with something like Canon’s ME20F-SH which runs well into double-digit thousands for the body alone. But it was enough to spark the idea.

Despite pumping the brakes on some growth plans and recently saying it would lay off more than 18,000 people, Amazon is still looking to expand its empire. The company intends to “go big” on its brick-and-mortar grocery store business, CEO Andy Jassy told the Financial Times.Amazon bought Whole Foods in 2017 for $13.7 billion, but the company is far from dominating the grocery market like it has so many other sectors. The company's physical store division accounts for 3.4 percent of overall business and has grown only around 10 percent since the Whole Foods acquisition.“We’re just still in the early stages,” Jassy told the Financial Times. “We’re hopeful that in 2023, we have a format that we want to go big on, on the physical side. We have a history of doing a lot of experimentation and doing it quickly. And then, when we find something that we like, doubling down on it, which is what we intend to do.”Many of the layoffs Amazon recently announced were in its grocery division. It has closed several of its Fresh supermarkets and put plans to open new ones on hold as it tries to find a format and formula that works. Jassy noted that many Fresh locations opened in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and as such Amazon hasn't "had a lot of normalcy."The physical retail business has struggled on other fronts. Almost a year ago, Amazon said it was closing all of its bookstores, 4-star shops and pop-up locations across the US and UK. The aim at the time was to focus more on the grocery side of things as well as physical clothing stores. However, Amazon took a $720 million hit last quarter due to slowing down its grocery expansion plans.

The marquee show on Apple TV+ is coming back after a year and a half. Apple has revealed that the third season of Ted Lasso will premiere March 15th, with a new episode (12 total) arriving every week. The teaser trailer below doesn't shed much light on the story, but those who've followed so far know there's a lot to resolve after the end of season two.Season three has AFC Richmond fighting not just to prove itself after promotion to the Premier League, but against one of its former allies — Nate is now working for Rebecca's ex Rupert at West Ham United. Roy Kent has to fill Nate's shoes, while Ted, Rebecca and Keeley have to grapple with both personal and professional challenges. It's safe to presume the series' optimistic-but-not-naive tone will carry forward.Much is riding on this new chapter. Ted Lasso remains Apple's best-known production, having earned multiple awards. It's potential proof the company can produce a quality show with a substantial run. With that said, Apple isn't quite so dependent on the comedy as it once was. Apple TV+ is gathering momentum with a number of well-received titles that include Severance, Slow Horses and the Oscar-winning CODA. The service is still small compared to streaming heavyweights like Amazon and Netflix, but it's no longer an untested rookie.

The European Union is one step closer to banning sales of new gas-powered cars. The European Parliament has voted in favor of a Council agreement requiring that all new passenger cars and vans produce zero emissions by 2035. The move also revises some 2030 targets. Officials will now require that at least 25 percent of car sales (and 17 percent of vans) are zero-emissions models if a company wants to qualify for incentives between 2025 and 2029. The incentive will go away in 2030.The new rules task the European Commission with keeping an eye on real-world achievements. It will have until 2025 to develop a way to report data on the emissions of the "full life-cycle" of cars sold in the EU, and will track the gap between emission limits and real consumption data starting in 2026. From the end of 2025, the Commission will publish updates every two years to gauge progress toward zero-emissions transportation.The Council still has to endorse the text before it can be published in the EU Official Journal and take effect. The measure loosens the pre-2035 transition rules for niche automakers that produce fewer than 10,000 new cars or 22,000 new vans per year, and those making fewer than 1,000 cars per year will still be exempt.That final approval is largely a formality, however, and the EU's years-long move toward a gas car sales ban has already had its intended effect. Manufacturers like GM, Stellantis, Volvo and VW already plan to stop all combustion engine car sales in the region (and sometimes worldwide) by 2035 or earlier, while marques like Renault have committed to electrifying most of their lineup as soon as 2025. The shift is well underway — it's just a question of which companies finish first.

Amazon-owned Zoox has started offering driverless robotaxi rides in California after receiving a testing permit from the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles), the company announced. Unlike the autonomous vehicles from Cruise and Waymo, Zoox's vehicles are purpose built for driverless taxi rides, so they have no steering wheel or pedals.On February 11th, shortly after receiving the permit, Zoox conducted the "first run of its employee shuttle service in Foster City, California, marking the first time in history a purpose-built autonomous robotaxi without traditional driving controls carried passengers on open public roads," it wrote in a press release.To get to that point, the company completed what it called "rigorous" testing with the vehicles on private roads. It also ran its L3 test fleet (hybrid Toyota Highlanders with safety drivers) over a million autonomous miles on data-gathering missions in San Francisco, Las Vegas and Seattle.Zoox has been developing its unique vehicles since it launched nine years ago, and was acquired by Amazon in a $1.2 billion merger in the summer of 2020. Its robotaxis, introduced later that year, are relatively tiny at 3.63 meters (11.9 feet) long, have passenger bench seats that face each other, four-wheel steering and can drive in either direction. That makes them highly maneuverable, but they can also travel at speeds up to 75 MPH and run 16 hours on a charge thanks to the immense 133kWh battery packs.Zoox will now offer full-time employees robotaxi rides between its Foster City offices during business hours. "As the company continues to advance its progress and secure additional government clearances, it will expand its service to the general public," the company wrote.

A group of Tesla workers in New York has sent company chief Elon Musk a letter stating their intention to unionize, according to Bloomberg. It could end up being the first Tesla union if successful, seeing as previous attempts fizzled out before organizers could petition for a vote. The employees involved in the campaign are in charge of labeling data for Tesla's Autopilot technology at the company's Buffalo, New York facility. Bloomberg says the group is asking for better pay, job security and a better work environment that eases the production pressures placed on them.Workers told the news organization that they've been skipping bathroom breaks, since Tesla keeps a close eye on their every move. Apparently, the company monitors their keystrokes to see how long they spend on each particular task and how much time they spend working per day. They also said that the company shut down an internal chatroom where they can air their grievances, such as the how Tesla handles snow days. It was after that happened that the group started talking about unionizing. They're now planning to distribute Valentine-themed materials at the facility with links to a website where employees can sign union cards."We believe unionizing will give us a voice in our workplace that we feel has been ignored to this point," the workers said in a press release on Tuesday that was reported by Reuters. "We are only asking for a seat in the car that we helped build."The employees are working with Service Employees International Union affiliate Workers United, which unionized Starbucks cafes across the US. While Workers United has a good track record, the group still faces a tough road ahead, considering Elon Musk is known to be a staunch critic of unions. In 2017, he fired back against allegations of poor working conditions at Tesla's Fremont factory and criticized the United Auto Workers (UAW) for inciting the company's workers to unionize. He said UAW's allegiance is in "giant car companies, where the money they take from employees in dues is vastly more than they could ever make from Tesla."Last year, he also challenged UAW to hold a union vote, claiming that Tesla's (non-unionized) factory workers have the highest compensation in the auto industry. And let's not forget one of his perhaps most infamous tweets regarding unionization. In 2018, he tweeted that there's nothing stopping Tesla's workers from unionizing, but then he added: "why pay union dues [and] give up stock options for nothing?" The NLRB asked Musk to delete his post, deeming it as a threat that employees would be giving up company-paid stock options if they join a union. The tweet in question is still live, and Tesla is still appealing the labor board's ruling.

An artificial intelligence agent recently flew a Lockheed Martin VISTA X-62A training aircraft for over 17 hours. VISTA (which stands for Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft) normally uses software to simulate the performance characteristics of other aircraft. On this flight during a testing period in December, however, it mimicked a human pilot. US Air Force Test Pilot School (USAF TPS) Director of Research Dr. M. Christopher Cotting said in a statement, "VISTA will allow us to parallelize the development and test of cutting-edge artificial intelligence techniques with new uncrewed vehicle designs."This is the first time AI has been engaged in such a way on a tactical aircraft, Lockheed says. It’s like they’ve never seen the 2005 box-office bomb, Stealth…– Mat SmithThe Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.The biggest stories you might have missed

Samsung has announced that its Galaxy Watch 5 temperature sensor will finally be put to use. The company has teamed up with the fertility app Natural Cycles to bring its temperature-based period tracking algorithm to a smartwatch for the first time. The feature will be available in 32 countries across Europe, North America and Asia.Galaxy Watch 5 users will get access to "advanced cycle tracking through the Cycle Tracking feature," recently approved by Korea's equivalent to the FDA, Samsung said. Much like Apple's Watch Series 8, it will provide retrospective ovulation estimates and help people better understand their cycles, the company told The Verge.Since 2018, Natural Cycles has allowed women to track their temperature and menstrual cycle to check fertility, and the company has said it's 93 percent effective at preventing unwanted pregnancies. The app has already been approved by the FDA and European regulators to be used on wearables. The company tested it with Oura rings, but the algorithm apparently hasn't been used on a smartwatch until now.Temperature readings are key for those trying to achieve or avoid pregnancy, as basal body temperature tends to increase slightly two to three days after peak fertility. With Oura's temperature sensors, Natural Cycles was able to cut out the need to take readings from a thermometer, and it will presumably do the same with the Galaxy Watch 5.The feature will be integrated into Samsung's Health app, so you won't require a separate app to use it. It'll arrive to Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro users "within the second quarter" in 32 markets, including most of Europe, Korea, the UK and the US.

Toyota has revealed its plans for the future under a new CEO, and it looks like the company is finally prioritizing electrification. In his announcement, new President and CEO Koji Sato said the automaker is going to create new electric vehicles unique to Toyota and Lexus, its luxury division. He also said that the company is developing its "next-generation" battery electric vehicles, which will launch under the Lexus brand in 2026. It's not quite clear what "next-generation" means, but Sato said Toyota is working on "everything from the battery and platform to how a car is built optimized for BEVs" while also expanding its current EV lineup.As Reuters notes, Toyota is getting flak for dragging its feet when it comes to embracing electric vehicle technology and for its reluctance to move beyond its hybrid models, such as the Prius. Sato explained during the press conference that the automaker's slow EV adoption was mostly caused by communication issues. He also announced that the automaker will continue its "multi-pathway" and "omni-directional" approach, which means it's not going to drop its hybrid vehicles anytime soon. However, Toyota intends to accelerate its EV plans under its new management and to take on "a BEV-first mindset"So far, the automaker has only released one vehicle, the bZ4X, based on its e-TNGA BEV platform. The company previously vowed that it was going to be the first among the seven "Beyond Zero" electric vehicles it plans to release by 2025. Meanwhile, Lexus has yet to start selling the RZ, the brand's first model that was built from the ground up as an EV.

If you've been using Twitter's "For You" instead of the chronological "Following" tab, you may have noticed a problem. A number of users have remarked that the algorithmic feed has been showing a lot of Elon Musk's tweets and replies, whether they follow him or not. Twitter's CEO effectively confirmed the matter, tweeting "please stay tuned while we make adjustments to the uh... 'algorithm.'"I'd assume that by putting "algorithm" in quotes, Musk is joking that a person, possibly himself, may actually be responsible for the change. That's not too far-fetched, considering that the Elon-forward feed arrived shortly after Musk complained about a drop in his own engagement and even reportedly fired an engineer over the issue.

T-Mobile suffered network outages on Monday night, leading to intermittent issues with its voice, text and data services, according to Reuters. Based on reports submitted to Downdetector, over 80,000 subscribers in several areas in the US were experiencing problems by around 10:14PM ET on February 14th. T-Mobile responded to users' complaints on Twitter, initially to tell people that the carrier was working on a fix for the disruption and then to update everyone about its progress. Shortly after midnight on February 14th, Neville Ray, the company's President of Technology, announced that T-Mobile has seen "significant improvement and are operating at near normal levels."

Twitter is once again delaying the rollout of its paid API. In a tweet spotted by AppleInsider, the company said Tuesday it needs more time to complete work on the redesign. “As part of our efforts to create an optimal experience for the developer community, we will be delaying the launch of our new API platform by a few more days,” Twitter posted.When the company first announced it was shutting down its free APIs, Twitter said it would cut access off on February 9th. It later pushed back the cutoff date to February 13th without warning. Elon Musk hasn’t said much about how paid access to Twitter’s APIs could work other than to suggest the company will charge $100 per month and add “ID verification” to limit bot abuse. The company has also said it plans to introduce a free access tier that will allow “good” bots to tweet up to 1,500 times a month.

One of the Bay Area’s most popular ferry routes is going electric. The Angel Island Ferry is partnering with Pacific Gas and Electric Company to retrofit one of its watercraft, The Angel Island, as an EV. As part of the partnership, PG&E will help install charging infrastructure at the Angel Island ferry terminal and boost electrical transmission to the facility, so that the 59-foot-long Angel Island can carry residents and tourists without polluting the San Francisco Bay. Another company called Green Yachts will carry out the work of retrofitting the ship with an electric propulsion system.According to PG&E, the electrified Angel Island will be California’s first zero-emissions, short-run ferry once it starts carrying passengers sometime in 2024. California is one of a few places where electric ferries are about to become a more common sight. In Canada, British Columbia’s BCFerries service recently began rolling out battery-hybrid ferries that can carry 47 vehicles between the mainland and outlying islands. Outside of North America, Stockholm, starting this year, plans to trial one of the world’s fastest electric passenger vehicles. The Candela P-12 will carry passengers between the city center and the suburban island of Ekerö.

TikTok might use a simple strategy to keep growing: help creators make extra money. The Informationsources claim TikTok is developing a paywall feature that would let producers charge $1 (or a price of their choice) to access a given video. While it's not clear exactly how the system would work, this would help influencers profit directly from their hottest clips.The social network is also considering a revamp of its Creator Fund amid complaints about low payouts, according to the sources. TikTok would require a much larger follower count (100,000 versus 10,000), but could pay eligible creators more as a result. The fund might also reward users who produce longer videos that make good use of the recently raised 10-minute limit.In a statement to Engadget, TikTok didn't directly comment on the supposed plans but said it was "committed" to devising new ways to make the service "valuable and rewarding" for creators. It's not clear when the paywall would be available, but the revised Creator Fund could launch as soon as March. The company is reportedly testing the new funding system in Brazil and France.The additional rewards might be necessary. While TikTok's American user base surged during the pandemic, that audience levelled off in 2022. Paywalls and a new Creator Fund could keep social media stars posting videos on TikTok where they'd otherwise drift toward Instagram or Snapchat. The firm already has a YouTube-style program that shares ad revenue, but it's only available to a handful of top-tier users.Any boost is contingent on TikTok surviving allegations that it's a national security threat, mind you. Federal and state politicians are pushing to ban TikTok on at least government devices over concerns the Chinese government might use the app for spying and propaganda. The company has long denied these accusations, and its CEO is poised to testify before a House committee in March. If it can't persuade officials, however, any US growth strategy could quickly fall apart.

An artificial intelligence agent recently flew the Lockheed Martin VISTA X-62A training aircraft for over 17 hours. VISTA (which stands for Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft) can use software to simulate the performance characteristics of other aircraft. On this occasion, it mimicked a human pilot instead.The flight took place during a testing period in December. This is the first time that AI has been engaged in such a way on a tactical aircraft, Lockheed says. The aim is to use the platform to test aircraft designs that can be flown autonomously."VISTA will allow us to parallelize the development and test of cutting-edge artificial intelligence techniques with new uncrewed vehicle designs," US Air Force Test Pilot School (USAF TPS) director of research Dr. M. Christopher Cotting said in a statement. "This approach, combined with focused testing on new vehicle systems as they are produced, will rapidly mature autonomy for uncrewed platforms and allow us to deliver tactically relevant capability to our warfighter."Lockheed's skunk works division worked with Calspan to build VISTA for the USAF TPS at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Among other things, the VISTA program has been used to develop the virtual heads-up display and voice command input system for the F-35 Lightning II.The USAF recently upgraded the VISTA X-62A with Lockheed's Model Following Algorithm (MFA) and System for Autonomous Control of the Simulation (SACS). When integrated, these systems help VISTA carry out advanced flight tests that harness autonomy and AI.

After far too many delays to count, Dead Island 2 has a new release date once more. This time, however, publisher Deep Silver is pushing the game up by a week. Instead of arriving on April 28th as previously planned, the game will now hit consoles and PC on April 21st. “You asked for it, you got it. Dead Island 2 went gold and it’s coming out a week early,” the company said on Twitter.Notably, the change of release date means Dead Island 2 won’t land on the same day as Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. The two games were scheduled to hit consoles and PC on the same day after Electronic Arts delayed Respawn’s new game at the end of last month. Deep Silver didn’t say as much, but after years of development hell, the last thing it likely wanted was for Dead Island 2 to compete directly against the big new Star Wars release.

Whether or not Blue Origin puts a lander on the Moon, it might play a key role in sustaining lunar operations. Jeff Bezos' spaceflight company has revealed that it can produce solar cells and transmission wire using simulated Moon regolith. The firm's Blue Alchemist technique uses molten electrolysis to separate the lunar soil's aluminum, iron and silicon from bound oxygen to extract key materials. The process can build solar cells, cover glass and aluminum wire using only sunlight and the reactor's silicon.This approach would not only save explorers the trouble of importing material, but would be kinder to both the Moon and Earth. There are no carbon-based emissions, no chemicals and no need for water. The resulting solar cells can operate on the Moon for over a decade despite a "harsh" environment, Blue Origin claims.As Ars Technicaexplains, Blue Origin is pitching this as a solution for NASA's Artemis program and missions to Mars. The space agency could establish bases or other long-term installations while minimizing the environmental impact. While the concept of using regolith to build outposts isn't new, earlier efforts have largely focused on habitats rather than the power supplying those off-world facilities.Whether or not Blue Origin's tech reaches NASA is another matter, as the company has a mixed relationship with the US administration. While NASA is backing the Orbital Reef space station and will use New Glenn to fly a science mission to Mars, it lost a key lunar lander contract to SpaceX and failed in its challenge of the $2.9 billion deal. As novel as Blue Alchemist tech may be, it's not guaranteed to win business.

You might not have to pay much to bolster your smart home's security. Amazon is selling Blink devices for up to 43 percent off, including a Video Doorbell plus Sync Module for $60 (normally $85) — that's near an all-time low, You can also get the doorbell by itself for just $40 if you already have sync hardware. Most camera kits are also on sale, starting at $70 (normally $100) for the weather-ready Blink Outdoor.Blink is effectively the budget counterpart to Amazon's Ring brand, but that's not necessarily a bad thing — you're getting a lot of functionality at a lower price. The Video Doorbell supports both wired and wireless connections, offers two-way audio, captures infrared footage at night and gives you the choice of either storing clips locally (on a USB drive) or in the cloud with a subscription plan. It ties into Alexa devices, too, so it may be your ideal doorbell you have an Echo Show.The Blink Indoor and Outdoor models, meanwhile, remain our top picks for wireless security cameras. You get much of the same flexibility as with the doorbell, including a peak two years of battery life. Again, you'll have to invest in the Alexa ecosystem to make the most of these products. If you can live with that, though, you might not have many complaints.Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Bigscreen is best known for its namesake virtual social platform, but it's now getting into VR headsets — and it thinks it has a way to stand out in a crowd of powerful but bulky rivals. The company has introduced the Beyond, a PC-only wearable it claims is both the "world's smallest" VR headset and extremely light at just under 6oz with a strap. For context, even a simple competitor like the HTC Vive Flow weighs 6.6oz. This isn't a stripped-down device, either, as it includes two 5K (5,120 x 2,560) 90Hz OLED displays, six-degrees-of-freedom tracking and three-element pancake optics that reportedly eliminate the screen door effect (where you can see the gaps between pixels) while reducing bulk and providing a decent 93-degree horizontal field of view.The company isn't relying on a marvellous new technology to achieve the size reduction. Rather, it's making a number of strategic sacrifices. Instead of adjusting knobs and other controls to get an ideal fit, Bigscreen asks you to scan your face using an iPhone app (sorry, Android fans) to produce a custom-fitted Beyond design. You even need to buy custom prescription lenses if you normally wear glasses. The six-degree tracking relies on external SteamVR Base Stations rather than built-in cameras, and built-in headphones are only available with an optional "Audio Strap." You plug into a PC through a link box that supplies both video and power.BigscreenThe Beyond supports the SteamVR platform and will work with any compatible controllers (including the Vive and Valve's Index) and full-body trackers. You'll need that compatibility, too, as Bigscreen doesn't ship controllers in the box. You'll need a reasonable powerful computer, too, with at least a quad-core processor and GeForce RTX 2070- or Radeon RX 5700 XT-class graphics.The Beyond is available to pre-order today for $999, and will ship to the US in the third quarter of the year (read: summer). Canada and Europe will get their units in the fourth quarter, while Australia, New Zealand and Japan will have to wait until the very end of the year. Other countries are coming in 2024, Bigscreen says. The company chalks up the lengthy rollout to the longer manufacturing times needed for customized headsets.Whether or not the Beyond is a good value may depend on your uses and expectations. It's less expensive than clunkier, lower-resolution alternatives like the $1,500 Meta Quest Pro and $1,099 HTC Vive XR Elite, but those are also standalone headsets that include controllers and, crucially, can be shared with other users. You're also out of luck if you use games and apps that don't use SteamVR. If you meet all the criteria, though, this may be one of the few high-end headsets you can comfortably wear for extended periods.

Many people in Japan have been outraged by a recent trend dubbed "sushi terrorism." Videos across social media show people carrying out all kinds of unhygienic acts, like licking the spoon for a container of green tea powder. Another video, which has more than 98 million views on Twitter, showed a person licking the top of a soy sauce bottle and a teacup's rim before putting them back at a branch of the Sushiro chain. The company said it has replaced all the soy sauce bottles and cleaned every cup at the affected restaurant.To combat this gross trend, one chain, Kura Sushi, said it would use artificial intelligence to look for "suspicious opening and closing of sushi plate covers," Nikkei Asia reported. The company plans to upgrade existing cameras, used to track the dishes customers take from conveyor belts to determine their bill, by early March. If the system detects suspicious behavior, it will alert employees.– Mat SmithThe Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.The biggest stories you might have missed

Comcast subscribers are about to lose a big perk: free access to Peacock streaming. Since it launched in April 2020, the ad-supported version of Peacock Premium has been provided to Xfinity TV and broadband customers at no charge. Starting on April 3rd, it will no longer be offered to new subscribers, and as of June 26th, existing customers won't get it either, NBCUniversal has confirmed to Variety.The news was first noted on Reddit via screenshots posting more details. "Customers will be presented with discounted offer details within the Peacock app," an internal message reads. "Stay tuned for offer details and more information." NBCU has also sent messages to customers that they'll be able to purchase Peacock Premium at a discounted price, which has yet to be determined.Last month, Peacock stopped offering the free ad-supported standalone service to new users. At the time, the company said it believed Peacock's paid tiers were the best way to experience the service. More likely, it's because despite counting 20 million subscribers in 2022, up 9 million from the year before, Peacock has yet to turn a profit for NBCU/Comcast.The company's plan was always to phase out free Peacock access for Comcast users, a spokesperson told Variety. By next year, it aims to hit 100,000 hours of programing divided between original series, licensed TV, movies, live sports and more. Its buzziest original hit right now is Rian Johnson's Poker Face, and it also streams popular classic TV fare like The Office.

After years of neglect, Valve is preparing to release a major update for Team Fortress 2. This week, the studio published a rare blog post on the official TF2 website (via Kotaku), asking the game’s community to submit new content to the Steam Workshop ahead of May 1st. “The last few Team Fortress summer events have only been item updates. But this year [Valve’s emphasis], we’re planning on shipping a full-on update-sized update – with items, maps, taunts, unusual effects, war paints and who knows what else?!” Valve said.By our count, the “as as-yet-unnamed, un-themed, but still very exciting summer-situated (but not summer-themed)” update Valve has planned will go down as TF2’s first major content release since the company came out with the Jungle Inferno update in 2017 for the game’s 10-year anniversary. Valve has released smaller updates since then mostly to address the botting problem that made it impossible to play the game, but new content additions have been few and far between.

When Stellantis showed off the Ram 1500 Revolution this past January, the automaker said the prototype would serve as a design template for Ram’s first electric truck. Now, more than a month later, Stellantis has shared a first look at the 2024 Ram 1500 REV, and wouldn’t you know, the pre-production model looks more like its gas-guzzling predecessors than the futuristic concept we saw at CES 2023.StellantisTo start, the 2024 model doesn’t carry over the prototype’s “brutiful” styling. Like Ford did with the F-150 Lightning, Stellantis has played it safe. The Ram 1500 REV features more modern-looking front- and rear-facing lights, but that’s about all that makes it look different from just about any other Ram in production right now. The interior of the vehicle is also more conservative. It doesn’t have that futuristic edge that was present with the Revolution. Judging from the images Stellantis shared, the production variant also won’t ship with many of the more outlandish features the automaker managed to find space for in the Ram 1500 REV concept. The new vehicle does come with a frunk though, so there’s that at least.You can reserve a pre-order spot for the 2024 Ram 1500 REV by placing a $100 deposit through the Ram website. With deliveries not scheduled to start until late next year, there’s plenty of time to wait for Stellantis to share more information before you make a decision about the EV. In the meantime, the Super Bowl ad the company plans to air later today to promote the Ram 1500 REV is pretty funny and well worth the watch even if you don't have any interest in buying a big electric truck.

Opera is going all-in on artificial intelligence. This week, the company shared plans to integrate generative AI capabilities into its web browser, starting with “Shorten,” a feature that will use ChatGPT to create summaries of articles and webpages. When the tool becomes available to the public, you’ll see a new icon to the right of the address bar. Tapping it will open a sidebar where ChatGPT will provide a bulleted summary of the webpage you’re looking at.Jan Standel, vice president of marketing and communications at Opera, told The Verge, Shorten will start rolling out to users “very soon.” The company is working on other AI-powered features it claims will “augment” the Opera experience, but the company didn’t detail what those additions will entail.The announcement of Shorten comes in the same week that Microsoft said it was redesigning Edge to add an “AI-powered copilot” to the browser. Among the things the company’s new Prometheus model can do is summarize web pages. This past week also saw Google share that it’s working on Bard, an AI chatbot powered by its LaMDA platform. The timing of the announcements suggests Opera and Microsoft see generative AI as a way to break Google’s hold on the browser market. However, whether people actually switch away from Chrome as a result of those additions remains to be seen.

Divers and endurance athletes take note: the Apple Watch Ultra is on sale at Amazon. Thanks to a six percent discount, you can get the wearable for $749 right now. That’s only $10 more than the device was priced at during Black Friday last year. Moreover, Amazon has stock of most of the different bands Apple offers alongside the wearable.Engadget Deputy Editor Cherlynn Low gave the Apple Watch Ultra a score of 85 when she reviewed the wearable last fall. Chances are you already know if the Ultra makes sense for your workout needs. The inclusion of features like dual-frequency GPS and a longer-lasting battery compared to regular Apple Watch models make the Ultra ideal for those who frequently go hiking or want the most accurate tracking possible for runs. Other additions like a more durable design and bigger display are features any Apple Watch user can appreciate. Still, when you can buy a Series 8 model for half as much, most people are better off purchasing the Ultra’s more affordable sibling. A $50 discount makes the price of Apple’s high-end wearable more palatable, but it’s still a specialized device for a niche audience.Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

America's first astronauts from the 1960s were all pulled from the highest ranks of the nation's military. As such, NASA's first few classes tended to conform to a rather specific demographic theme — white, male, flattop haircut you could set a watch too. By the mid-70's however, the space agency had gotten with the times and opened up the spacewalking profession to more than former Air Force and Navy test pilots.In The New Guys, author Meredith Bagby follows the exploits of NASA's Astronaut class of 1978 — "Class 8," America's first women, African Americans, Asian American, and gay person to fly to space — from the team's selection through their mastering of cutting-edge technologies aboard the Space Shuttle and their history-making orbital missions. In the excerpt below, Class 8 receives a brutal introduction to the dangers that await them.Harper Collins PublishingFrom The New Guys by Meredith Bagby. Copyright © 2023 by Meredith Bagby. Reprinted courtesy of William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.Johnson Space Center, Houston. July 1978“Hey! We’ve got a fire in the cockpit!” a man screamed, then his voice cut out. Within seconds, another desperate voice cut through the static.“We’ve got a bad fire . . . !” the second man shouted in pain.“We’re burning up . . . !!!” a third howled.Then the transmission faded into nothing but static.In one of the many tiered seats in Mission Control, Ron McNair and his new classmates listened to a recording of the Apollo 1 fire. During a preflight test on January 27, 1967, astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee had burned alive. Even though over a decade had passed since the accident, the pain and fear of the astronauts who perished was palpable to the room of new recruits.The instructor surveyed the faces of the astronaut candidates. Are you sure you’re ready for this? The audio was a wake-up call, especially for those like Ron who had not served in the military and had never had a job with life-and-death consequences. If this reality was too much for any of them to accept, the instructor suggested, now was the time to go. No one budged.A few weeks earlier, as Ron moved his family across the country from left-leaning Malibu, California, to the Lone Star State, the summer sizzled. Disco hits from the Bee Gees’, “Night Fever” and “Stayin’ Alive,” blared from the radio. Billboards advertised the new Hollywood blockbuster Grease, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. In the nation’s capital, almost a hundred thousand demonstrators marched in support of the Equal Rights Amendment—at the time, the largest march for women’s rights in US history. Muhammad Ali was on the verge of making history at the Louisiana Superdome, becoming the first man to win the World Heavyweight title three times in a row.When Ron and his wife, Cheryl, arrived in Houston, they found a little starter apartment before moving to Clear Lake along with the Onizukas and the Gregorys. Everyone that had kids—or planned to—wanted a lawn for football and a cul-de-sac for bike riding. The neighborhood’s proximity to the middle and high schools made it the obvious choice for families. Single astronauts like Sally Ride, Kathy Sullivan, and Steve Hawley settled into apartments right outside Johnson’s back gate with a short commute, volleyball court, and communal barbecue pit.On the Monday after the July 4th holiday, Ron drove through the gates of Johnson Space Center for his first day of work. Looking up from his baffling acronym-filled schedule, Ron spotted a few of his classmates and followed them to Building 4, the home of Johnson’s Flight Crew Operations. Everyone was rushing to the Monday morning all-hands meeting, a staple of the Astronaut Office since the Mercury days.Standing watch from their office doors, Sylvia Salinas, Mary Lopez, and Estella Hernandez Gillette, all in their twenties, took in the excitement as the new astronauts stormed the hallways. The Hispanic American administrative staff — working in and around the Astronaut Office — came to be known as the Mexican Mafia. As the liaisons for George Abbey and John Young, Sylvia and Mary, and later Estella, ran the show behind scenes, making sure things went smoothly in the Astronaut Office. Up until then, the astronauts they worked for were military men, older in age and more conventional in style; they did not fraternize with support staff. Now, “kids like them” were rolling in. The arrival of Astronaut Class 8 was like a breath of fresh air.A large conference table surrounded by two rings of chairs dominated Room 3025, the locus of the Monday meeting. Assuming the first ring was reserved for administrators and senior astronauts, Ron took a seat in the back row, as did the rest of his class. Everyone, that is, except the blond, mustachioed Rick Hauck, a US Navy commander who by military standards was the most senior-ranking pilot of their class. Hauck took a seat at the table. Some in the room gasped. Others eyed him with suspicion. Wow, he must either be a fool or the most confident bastard among us. Maybe both. Either way he made an impression.Like Hauck, the fifteen fighter pilots in Ron’s class had plenty of swagger and bravado, and mixed easily with the veteran astronauts. The old guys, twenty-eight in all, including moonwalkers John Young and Alan Bean, whom Ron met during interview week, filled the inner circle. Among them were astronauts still itching for their first trip to space, like Bob “Crip” Crippen, the baby of the group at forty years old, and Richard “Dick” Truly, both career military pilots who had flown for both the Navy and Air Force. These yet-to-fly guys were caught between programs, too late for Apollo and—so far—too early for the shuttle. Crippen and Truly were part of Astronaut Group 7, who had been transferred to NASA after the cancellation of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL), a classified Cold War military project developed to acquire surveillance images from space. After a decade at the agency, the former MOL astronauts had only ever flown a desk.Everyone here wanted a ticket to space, but the ten interesting people would be setting historical precedent, breaking barriers that in the past restricted people like them from space travel. Of the six women in the room, one would be the first American woman in space. While the Soviets had flown the first female astronaut, Valentina Tereshkova—being the first American woman in space would earn a prominent place in the annals of history. In 1978, no Black person had flown to space. Ron, along with Guy Bluford, and Fred Gregory would compete to be the first, while Ellison Onizuka would almost certainly be the first Asian American to fly. Guy and Fred, both Vietnam vets, and El, an Air Force test pilot, all spoke the military language of the old guys. Ron was an outsider even among outsiders.John Young, chief of the Astronaut Office, began the meeting, mumbling “a few forgettable words of welcome” while staring at his shoes. Though he had braved the depths of space four times, on both Apollo and Gemini, Young had not conquered public speaking. Compact, with a jockey’s build, Young was a handsome Navy devil with big ears and an aw-shucks demeanor that belied how truly meticulous he was. He preferred solving thorny engineering problems, to dealing with management issues, and yet here he was as head of the Astronaut Office. He explained to the new class that they were not yet astronauts; they were still astronaut candidates, or “AsCans” for short. Only after two years of training would they earn the title astronaut and a silver pin to mark the achievement.Inspired by Navy and Air Force aviator badges, the pin depicted a trio of rays merged atop a shining star and encircled by a halo denoting orbital flight. The silver pin meant you were flight-ready, but the gold pin meant you had flown to space. That’s when you make it. Young then left the group with a bit of sage advice: “Don’t talk about nothing you know nothing about.” Got it. So basically, keep our mouths shut.As the old guys left the room, they once-overed the new guys. Quite simply, the old guys were a different generation. They were veterans, test pilots, and guys who had never worked with women or civilian graduate students. Underneath their pique was also perhaps a tinge of fear. The line to ride the bird just got a whole lot longer; maybe they would miss their chance altogether.Who are these guys anyway? Hell, half of them are civilians, wet behind the ears, fresh off their mother’s teat. They traded in high grades and accolades, not in life-or-death. The old guys shook their heads. Those Fucking New Guys. “The Fucking New Guy,” a military term for the newest grunt in the unit, seemed to suit Astronaut Class 8 perfectly. So was born the official class nickname: TFNG. In polite company, the TFNGs referred to themselves as “Thirty-Five New Guys,” but everyone knew what the term really meant.After the meeting, secretary Sylvia Salinas handed the New Guys their official NASA portraits and asked them to create signatures for the auto-pen machine. The agency would print thousands of autographed photos. Do thousands of people want our autograph? Ron wondered. It’s astronaut insurance, a veteran astronaut quipped. If you die, your family will have something to sell. The joke did not get any laughs.