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Bluesky, which has surged in the days following the US election, said on Friday that it won't train on its users' posts for generative AI. The declaration stands in stark contrast to the AI training policies of X (Twitter) and Meta's Threads. Probably not coincidentally, Bluesky's announcement came the same day X's new terms of service, allowing third-party partners to train on user posts, went into effect.A number of artists and creators have made their home on Bluesky, and we hear their concerns with other platforms training on their data," Bluesky posted (via The Verge) on Friday. We do not use any of your content to train generative AI, and have no intention of doing so."In a follow-up post, the decentralized social platform clarified that it does use AI to help with content moderation. Bluesky uses AI internally to assist in content moderation, which helps us triage posts and shield human moderators from harmful content," the company posted. Bluesky also added that it uses AI in the algorithms powering its Discover feed.None of these are Gen AI systems trained on user content," Bluesky stressed.The Verge points out that Bluesky's robots.txt (the policy that dictates what outside parties can scrape from a website) doesn't prevent OpenAI, Google or other leading GenAI companies from crawling its data. The company justified that potential hole by pointing to the platform's open and public nature. Just as robots.txt files don't always prevent outside companies from crawling those sites, the same applies here," spokesperson Emily Liu told The Verge. That said, we'd like to do our part to ensure that outside orgs respect user consent and are actively discussing within the team on how to achieve this."Although Bluesky is still the underdog in a race with X and Threads, the platform has picked up steam after the US election. It passed the 15 million user threshold on Wednesday after adding more than a million in the past week.A report from web analytics company SimilarWeb noted that the signup surge coincided with a spike in X deactivations. It found that more than 115,000 US web visitors deactivated their [X] accounts" on November 7, more than on any previous day of Elon Musk's tenure." In parallel, web traffic and daily active users for Bluesky increased dramatically in the week before the election, and then again after election day."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/the-suddenly-hot-bluesky-says-it-wont-train-ai-on-your-posts-220034195.html?src=rss

A damning report from the Anti-Defamation League published Thursday on the unprecedented" amount of racist and violent content on Steam Community has prompted a US Senator to take action. In a letter spotted by The Verge, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) asked Valve CEO Gabe Newell how he and his company are addressing the issue.My concern is elevated by the fact that Steam is the largest single online gaming digital distribution and social networking platform in the world with over 100 million unique user accounts and a user base similar in scale to that of the traditional social media and social network platforms,'" Warner wrote.The senator also cited Steam's online conduct policy that states users may not upload or post illegal or inappropriate content [including] [real] or disturbing depictions of violence" or harass other users or Steam personnel."Valve must bring its content moderation practices in line with industry standards or face more intense scrutiny from the federal government for its complicity in allowing hate groups to congregate and engage in activities that undoubtedly puts Americans at risk," Warner writes.Congress doesn't have the ability to take action on Valve or any platform except to shine light on the problem through letters and committee hearings. The Supreme Court overturned two state laws in June that prevented government officials from communicating with social media companies about objectionable content.This also isn't the first time that Congress has raised concerns with Valve about extremist and racist content created by users or players in one of its products. The Senate Committee on the Judiciary sent a letter to Newell in 2023 to express concerns about players posting and spouting racist language in Valve's multiplayer online arena game Dota 2.We reached out to Valve for comment. We will update this story if we receive a statement or reactions from Valve.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/adls-report-on-racist-steam-community-posts-prompts-a-letter-from-virginia-senator-214243775.html?src=rss

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said this week it's pressing criminal charges against X (Twitter) in France related to a Kremlin disinformation campaign that used the nonprofit as a prop to spread fake news. The organization said legal means are its last resort" in its fight against the bogus stories, designed to foster pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine sentiment, that festered on the platform. X's refusal to remove content that it knows is false and deceitful - as it was duly informed by RSF - makes it complicit in the spread of the disinformation circulating on its platform," RSF director of advocacy Antoine Bernard said in a statement.These legal proceedings seek to remind X, a powerful social media company, and its executives that they can be held criminally responsible if they knowingly provide a platform and tools for disseminating false information, identity theft, misrepresentation, and defamation - offences punishable under the French Penal Code," RSF attorney Emmanuel Daoud wrote.RSF published an investigation in September detailing how a fabricated video was planted and spread by Russia on the Elon Musk-owned social platform. The fake clip was made to look like a BBC-produced one, including the news organization's logo. It made the erroneous case that RSF conducted a study that revealed a large number of Ukrainian soldiers sympathizing with Nazism.False claims that Ukraine is a pro-Nazi nation have been a common propaganda tactic used by Russia since its 2022 invasion. The narrative is designed to engender support for the Kremlin-initiated war, which is estimated to have killed a million or more Ukrainian people.RSF's investigation revealed that an account called Patricia," claiming to be a translator in France, planted the seed for the disinformation. However, the report discovered that the account's profile picture was found on a Russian website featuring photos of blond women designed to make avatars."RSF says that even the account's name seemed to have been automatically generated by X. In addition, the organization says Grok, X's AI chatbot with access to live data about the platform, claimed the account has very strong opinions, often in support of Russia and Vladimir Putin, while severely criticizing Ukraine and its supporters in Europe."The investigation found the video then took off, spreading through a chain that included a pro-Kremlin Irish entrepreneur living in Russia, a Kremlin propagandist with a large following on Telegram and even Russian officials. It was also shared by highly influential bloggers" known for unflinching support of Vladimir Putin.In this story, the Russian authorities have acted a bit like they were laundering dirty information," an RSF representative said in a video about the investigation (translated from French) in September. They took false information, they laundered it through official channels. And then, this piece of information that wasn't actual information was reintroduced into public discourse to make it look credible."Russia's bogus video was widely shared on X and Telegram. Reporters Without Borders says the clip's viewership reached half a million combined views by September 13. To capture its frustration with the blow to its credibility, the nonprofit cited the quote (of unknown origin but often attributed to Mark Twain): A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes."RSF says it filed 10 reports with X of illegal content through the social channel's reporting system required by the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA). After a series of rejections from X and requests for additional information - which RSF provided - none of the reports resulted in the removal of the defamatory content targeting our organisation and its advocacy director," RSF wrote.In July, the US Justice Department said it uncovered and dismantled a Russian propaganda network using nearly 1,000 accounts to push pro-Kremlin posts on X. The DOJ claimed the accounts posed as Americans and were made using AI. In October, The Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk held multiple private calls with Vladimir Putin from 2022 into this year, describing the contacts as a closely held secret in government."X's refusal to remove content that it knows is false and deceitful - as it was duly informed by RSF - makes it complicit in the spread of the disinformation circulating on its platform," RSF director Bernard wrote in a statement. X provides those who spread falsehoods and manipulate public opinion with a powerful arsenal of tools and unparalleled visibility, while granting the perpetrators total impunity. It's time for X to be held accountable. Pressing criminal charges is the last resort against the disinformation and war propaganda that RSF has fallen victim to, which is proliferating on this Muskian' network."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/reporters-without-borders-says-its-pressing-charges-against-x-200005117.html?src=rss

WhatsApp, the most popular messaging platform on the planet, finally has a drafts feature. Why did it take until the tail-end of 2024 to institute a seemingly simple tool that has been available for rival platforms for years? Who knows, but it's here now.The appropriately-named Message Drafts offers a new and easy way to find your unfinished messages on WhatsApp." Just look for the Draft" indicator at the beginning of a message. The platform says that these unfinished messages will move to the top of the chats list so people can quickly locate them."It's a drafts feature, so there really isn't anything else to say. The tool's available now across the globe via the app. Finally, we will have no pressure to actually finish messages. We can tinker with them occasionally until the heat death of the universe. It's a procrastination mitzvah!This is just the latest update to WhatsApp, as the platform has been busy. It recently unveiled custom lists, to help people keep track of conversations, and introduced a program that allows users to add contacts from any device.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/whatsapp-finally-has-a-drafts-feature-194516831.html?src=rss

The Internet Archive is one of the very best things on the web, so it's great that the repository is up and running again after recent DDoS attacks. It hosts more than old versions of web pages, though. It hosts a trove of video (I'm forever thankful to whoever uploaded the wonderful Lucha Underground in its entirety), software, text, audio recordings and games as well. There have been two notable additions on the latter front in the form of Unreal and Unreal Tournament, seemingly with the blessing of Epic Games.You can now freely download disc images of the arena shooters from the Internet Archive via direct links for Unreal and Unreal Tournament. Alternatively, as Game Developer points out, the site OldUnreal offers installers for Unreal and UT, both of which pull the disc images from the Internet Archive and include the latest community-created patches.The installers are Windows-only for now, but the OldUnreal team is working on Linux and macOS versions. You'll also need to put in a little extra effort to get online with the games and savor their true multiplayer flavors. Heck, you might still even be able to join an Unreal clan.Epic delisted the Unreal games from Steam and shut down their servers quite some time ago, so this is a nice boost for game preservation. It comes on the heels of GOG introducing a new label for older titles that the platform is maintaining for current hardware. Unreal was one of the first PC games I played as a kid, so it's neat to learn that it will be available in perpetuity through the Internet Archive.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/two-early-unreal-games-are-now-permanently-free-via-the-internet-archive-190501047.html?src=rss

Elon Musk's X is taking the state of California to court over a new law that prevents the spread of AI-generated election misinformation. Bloomberg reports that X filed a lawsuit against AB 2655, also known as the Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024, in a Sacramento federal court.California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law on September 17, creating accountability standards for using false political speech faked with AI programs close to an election. The legislation prevents the distribution of materially deceptive audio or visual media of a candidate within 60 days of an election at which the candidate will appear on the ballet."X argues that the law will create more political speech censorship. The complaint says the First Amendment includes tolerance for potentially false speech made in the context of such criticisms."Newsom signed AB 2655 into law as part of a large package of bills addressing concerns about the use of AI to create sexually explicit deepfakes and other deceptive material. The next day, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against the law and other bills from Newsom's signing.California has become one of the epicenters of debate over the use and implementation of AI. Concerns about the use of AI in film and television projects, among other issues, prompted SAG-AFTRA to go on strike in 2023. SAG eventually reached a deal that included AI protections for actors prohibiting studios from using their likeness without permission or proper compensation. The following year, the state of California passed AB 2602, a law that makes it illegal for studios, publishers and video game studios to use someone's likeness without their permission.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/x-sues-california-over-deceptive-ai-made-election-content-ban-185010406.html?src=rss

When reality becomes stranger than satire, maybe the satirists can teach us something. Or, maybe the last laugh will be on them after all. The Onion said on Thursday that its parent company bought Infowars, the disgraced purveyor of Sandy Hook misinformation and vendor of pseudoscience supplements. The Onion posted on Bluesky that it plans to transform the rebooted Infowars into a very funny, very stupid website." However, the Texas judge overseeing the bankruptcy sale temporarily halted the takeover, citing concerns about the auction process. A review hearing will be scheduled for next week.The Onion said it received the blessing of the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting to scoop up Infowars in a bankruptcy auction. Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit founded in the massacre's aftermath, reportedly plans to advertise on the rebooted site if the sale is finalized.Infowars founder Alex Jones was found liable in 2022 for nearly $1.5 billion in damages for spreading conspiracy theories about the 2012 shooting that killed 20 children and six adult staffers.After The Onion's triumphant announcement on Thursday, the AP reported that US Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez called for an evidentiary hearing to review the auction that led to the takeover. Christopher Murray, the trustee overseeing the auction, reportedly said in court that The Onion's parent company, Global Tetrahedron, didn't offer the highest bid in cash. However, the sale price included a clause where some Sandy Hook families would forego their portion of the proceeds to pay Jones' other creditors. Murray said Global Tetrahedron's bid was the best despite having a lower (undisclosed) cash amount due to that agreement.The only other bidder was First United American Companies, which runs a website using Jones' name to sell his supplements. The company reportedly placed a $3.5 million bid that, based on cash alone, would have won the secret auction. First United's attorney reportedly told the judge on Thursday that the trustee changed the auction process days before, omitting a final round on Wednesday that would have given the parties a chance to outbid each other.The trustee only chose from the sealed bids submitted last week. However, he said his decision followed Judge Lopez's auction rules in September, describing the final round as optional.Lopez struck a disapproving tone in court, throwing the sale into question. We're all going to an evidentiary hearing, and I'm going to figure out exactly what happened," the judge reportedly said. No one should feel comfortable with the results of this auction."Elon Musk allowed Jones back on X (Twitter) last year after the platform permanently" banned him in 2018 under its previous ownership.As America's chief satire publication (at least of those doing so consciously), The Onion's (perhaps premature) announcement of the purchase stayed on brand. Its tone, hinting at what's to come, resembled The Colbert Report on steroids - or maybe Jones' Survival Shield X-2" pills.Founded in 1999 on the heels of the Satanic panic' and growing steadily ever since, InfoWars has distinguished itself as an invaluable tool for brainwashing and controlling the masses," The Onion wrote in a truth-meets-fiction announcement. With a shrewd mix of delusional paranoia and dubious anti-aging nutrition hacks, they strive to make life both scarier and longer for everyone, a commendable goal. They are a true unicorn, capable of simultaneously inspiring public support for billionaires and stoking outrage at an inept federal state that can assassinate JFK but can't even put a man on the Moon."If the sale still ends up in its hands, The Onion plans to rebrand Infowars as a parody of itself (more than it already was), poking fun at weird internet personalities" like Jones, according to The New York Times. Ben Collins, the CEO of Global Tetrahedron, hasn't said how much it paid to transform Infowars' destructive self-parody into constructive satire. (Collins reported extensively on Infowars when covering misinformation at NBC News.) He plans to launch the rebooted site in January.Update, November 15, 2024, 1:47PM ET: This story has been updated to reflect the sale's finality being thrown into limbo at a court hearing after the announcement.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/in-an-outcome-beyond-parody-the-onion-has-bought-infowars-171701601.html?src=rss

As the competition between Bluesky and Threads heats up, Meta is adding a new feature to Threads that will likely look familiar to Bluesky users: custom feeds. The Meta-owned service is starting to test a feature that allows users to pin topic-based feeds to the home screen of the app.The change will give people additional feeds beyond the algorithmic for you," which will remain the default view, and their following feed." Users can add custom feeds by searching a keyword like skincare" and then tapping the ..." menu and selecting create new feed." These feeds can be further customized by adding specific profiles of people whose posts you want to see in that feed. Users are able to add up to 128 custom feeds in the app, a Meta spokesperson said, though it's still only a test for now so not all users have access to it just yet.The feature is similar in many ways to Bluesky's custom feeds, which the company introduced last year. But while there are dozens of user-created algorithmic feeds in the app, making a new one is still a technical process. Meta's version of the feature, however, is more straightforward. It could also address some users' complaints about Threads' main algorithmic feed.The latest Threads feature comes as Bluesky has had a particularly good month. Though the service is still far smaller than Threads, which has more than 275 million users, Bluesky, which has just under 17 million users at the time of this writing, has been gaining momentum. The decentralized service added a million new users in the week following the election, and added another million new sign-ups in a single day this week. That's striking considering Threads has also been growing by about a million users a day, according to a recent post from Instagram chief Adam Mosseri. If Bluesky is able to sustain that level of growth for very long, Meta may feel even more pressure to borrow some ideas from its smaller rival.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-is-testing-custom-feeds-for-threads-183948414.html?src=rss

Apple's latest M4-powered MacBook Pro is a pretty stellar laptop. We gave it a score of 92 in our review, due in part to its great screen. The display is brighter this time around, peaking at 1,000 nits for SDR (standard dynamic range) content and 1,600 nits for HDR material. However, there's another aspect of the screen about which Apple has strangely been keeping mum.As noted by display expert Ross Young, Apple used a quantum dot (QD) film instead of a red KSF phosphor film on the display. "In the past, Apple went with the KSF solution due to better efficiency and lack of cadmium (Cd), but the latest Cd-free QD films are very efficient, feature as good or better color gamut and better motion performance," Young explained. That means the latest MacBook Pro screen should offer a wider color range than in the past while making motion look smoother.

The Black Friday elves are smiling today. Xbox holiday deals are officially live, and there are some real goodies to choose from. This is a digital sale, so it's a great time to pad that backlog, particularly if your Xbox lacks a disc drive. Perhaps the most noteworthy deal here is for Halo: The Master Chief Collection. It's on sale for $10, which is a massive discount of 75 percent. This collection includes Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3 and Halo 4. This adds up to 45 campaign missions and more than 100 multiplayer maps. Much of this content has been updated to provide 4K visuals and HDR support. The well-reviewed Street Fighter 6 is on sale for $30, which is a discount of 50 percent. We said the game oozes style" in our official review and praised the robust World Tour mode, which is sort of like a tutorial mixed with an RPG. The controls are as tight as ever and the myriad of playable characters are a whole lot of fun. The first-party game Pentiment is also half off, going down to $10 from $20. This is an RPG with a fantastic historical art style. It's a niche title, but a great one, particularly for ten bucks. The game's certainly easy on the eyes. Everyone's favorite walking simulator, Death Stranding: Director's Cut, is available for $20 instead of $40. Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred is 25 percent off, bringing it down to $30, and Star Wars Outlaws is $52 instead of $70. Other discounted games include Hogwarts Legacy, Resident Evil 4, Tekken 8 and, well, too many more to list. The sale ends on December 2. Check out all of the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/xbox-black-friday-deals-are-live-so-snag-halo-the-master-chief-collection-for-just-10-170334593.html?src=rss

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TMSC) is the first CHIPS Act awardee to get part of the money that the government has promised. The Biden administration has finalized its grants for TSMC, which expects to receive $6.6 billion in grants as part of their agreement to grow semiconductor production in the US. TSMC will also loan another $5 billion from the government to fund the expansion of its planned $65 billion three-factory complex in Arizona. According to Bloomberg, it's getting at least $1 billion from the total before the year ends, since it has already met a certain set of requirements.In October, a Canadian research firm discovered that Huawei was using TSMC chips for its artificial intelligence accelerators even though that violates US government sanctions. TSMC denied having any working relationship with Huawei, and it stopped shipping to the client that may have been illegally sending its chips to Huawei. It also decided to stop producing advanced AI chips for its Chinese clients, reportedly because it wanted to show the US government that it's "not acting against US interests.""Today's final agreement with TSMC - the world's leading manufacturer of advanced semiconductors - will spur $65 billion dollars of private investment to build three state-of-the-art facilities in Arizona and create tens of thousands of jobs by the end of the decade.... The first of TSMC's three facilities is on track to fully open early next year," President Joe Biden said in a statement.Other companies, like Intel and Samsung, are still waiting to get their grants. Business groups are reportedly urging the government to finalize their CHIPS Act deals before Biden leaves the office. While they're not worried about the new administration killing the CHIPS Act, which enjoyed bipartisan support, they apparently want to avoid the possibility of having to renegotiate with the government.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/us-government-finalizes-tsmcs-66-billion-chips-act-incentives-143007608.html?src=rss

The latest Amazon Fire HD 8, updated last month and starting at $100, is a modest refresh, offering more RAM, a nominally upgraded camera and some new AI features. The general sales pitch, however, remains the same: You get a just-competent tablet for the essentials at a dirt-cheap (and often-discounted) price, and in exchange, Amazon gets to plant another appliance for its own apps and services in your home. Nothing about this update drastically changes that agreement, but after using the tablet for the past month (and after using older Fire tablets for years prior), it may be time to demand more from Amazon's end of the bargain. It's definitely a cheap tablet Physically, the new Fire HD 8 is nearly identical to the last one. It is, without a doubt, A Budget Tablet - it's nowhere near premium, but it doesn't feel distractingly cheap either. At just under eight inches tall and 0.37 inches thick, it's small enough for most kids to operate without much struggle and most adults to carry with one hand. If you care more about your tablet's travel-friendliness than its virtues as a miniature TV, this size should be fine. The whole thing is lightweight at 0.74 pounds, so it's not an anchor in your bag. Its textured plastic frame is somewhat slippery but altogether sturdy, with no creaking or flexing. Its gently rounded edges dig comfortably into your palms. There are fairly thick bezels around the display, but I've never minded those on a tablet - they give your thumbs a natural place to rest. The display won't win any awards. It's the same LCD panel Amazon has trotted out in previous generations, with the same 1,280 x 800 resolution. If you've used any iPad, or even many midrange Android tablets, in the last decade, everything about it will be an obvious downgrade. The meager pixel density (189 ppi) makes images and text visibly less sharp. Colors are more muted, too. It doesn't get bright enough to be totally usable in direct sunlight; you can read it comfortably on the couch, but don't expect it to work as well by the pool. It's also a smudge and fingerprint magnet. The back of the Amazon Fire HD 8 is composed of a sturdy, if mildly slippery, textured plastic. Jeff Dunn for Engadget Again, though, the Fire HD 8 is competing in a different weight class than even an older iPad. The fact that the screen is relatively small makes the lower resolution at least tolerable. You can watch Netflix or read Kindle books and not think man, this sucks" the whole time, especially if you bought the thing for well under $100. There are other hardware compromises. The speakers aren't all that loud and struggle to fully separate different parts of songs. They're entirely on the left edge when you hold the tablet vertically, which always sounds odd. There's an old USB-C 2.0 port for charging and a glacially slow 5W power adapter in the box. Amazon says it'll take about five hours to fully charge the tablet with that; you can cut the wait in half if you bring your own 15W charger, though that's still not fast. There's no water resistance rating, so you'll need to be careful if you ever want to read in the tub. Both the five-megapixel rear camera and 2MP front camera are brutal, washing out colors and blurring fine details even in good lighting. (As always, please report anyone using their tablet as a camera to the nearest authorities.) It's not all bad. While the Fire HD 8 only comes with 32GB or 64GB of storage built in - of which only 25GB or 54GB is usable, respectively - you can add up to 1TB of additional space with a microSD card. The 13-inch iPad Pro, which starts at $1,299, does not let you do that (I'm just saying!). The Fire HD 8 also has a headphone jack, which helps offset the mediocre speaker performance a little bit, plus there's Bluetooth for wireless headphones. And one benefit of the shoddy display resolution is that it makes the Fire HD 8 less power-hungry: Amazon rates the tablet's battery life at up to 13 hours. I got much more than that in our (relatively forgiving) battery test, but closer to 10 or 11 hours with more strenuous use. Either way, it's good. Most people can safely expect it to survive a day of basic streaming and web browsing. The Fire HD 8's rear camera has technically jumped from 2MP to 5MP and now supports 1080p video recording, but it still doesn't take photos you'd want to share. Jeff Dunn for Engadget The new Fire HD 8 runs on a 2 GHz six-core processor (the MediaTek MT8169A). The base model includes 32GB of storage and 3GB of RAM, while a $130 variant with twice the storage bumps the memory up to 4GB. I tested the former. The previous generation only came with 2GB of RAM - the pricier Fire HD 8 Plus" had 3GB - so this is a welcome upgrade. That said, it's not a huge boost. With the entry-level model, the gist is the same as it's been with past Fire HD tablets: You can get by with simple video streaming, web browsing, reading and gaming, but there'll be hitches and occasional crashes along the way, and it'll never be powerful enough for serious work or reliable multitasking. The modern web is just too ad-heavy and grossly inefficient for a low-end chip like this, so you'll inevitably have to deal with some choppiness when loading media-heavy sites like ESPN or The New York Times. Apps take just a bit longer to open than they would on a pricier tablet, and it's not uncommon to get some lag when you jump back to the home screen. Still, for the money, it's all workable. It doesn't take forever to open a Peacock stream or load an article on Engadget. The Mali-G52 GPU can even handle a decent level of gaming - casual card and match-three games run fine, and even more involved fare like PUBG Mobile and Diablo Immortal are totally playable, albeit with severely low-res textures. On the Geekbench 5 benchmark, the Fire HD 8 earned a single-core score of 193 and a multi-core score of 907. That is lightyears away from impressive, but given that the last-gen version struggled to even complete the tests without crashing, it's still a step up. One benefit of buying a cheap tablet: You usually get a headphone jack. Jeff Dunn for Engadget Ultimately, it's about managing expectations. You don't buy a $100 tablet demanding a workhorse. When discounts bring that tablet's price below $60, not constantly annoying" becomes a compliment. If you can afford the model with 4GB of RAM, that should hold up better over time. Then again, a device like this makes the most sense when it's as cheap as possible. The ad-pocalypse that is Fire OS The Fire HD 8 still runs on Amazon's Fire OS, a fork of Android 11 that uses a custom app store and is designed to put Amazon's own apps and services in the spotlight. (For the record, stock Android is up to version 15.) The generous read is that many of those apps are popular, so having them all front and center can be convenient. If you often stream movies on Prime Video, use Amazon Music with a Prime subscription or own a bunch of Kindle ebooks or Audible audiobooks, all of it is right there. You can set up different user profiles - also not available on an iPad - including child accounts that present a curated selection of kid-friendly websites and videos. A fairly robust set of parental controls let you monitor your child's screen time within that. You can also call on Alexa and thus control various smart home devices hands-free, though Amazon has dropped support for the Show Mode" that turned the tablet into a pseudo smart display. You can install Alexa and all of those Amazon services on any tablet, though. Most of Fire OS' actual changes suck, and they have for years now. The app store plays a big part in that. It covers many of the big streaming and social media players - Netflix, Hulu, TikTok, X, Max, Spotify, Disney+, etc. - but still omits all Google apps, Reddit, Apple Music, Apple TV+, Slack, tons of games and any browser besides Amazon's ultra-basic Silk, among many others. The lack of Google remains the biggest killer; Amazon's stock email and calendar apps are far less robust than Gmail and Google Calendar, while the bootleg YouTube app" is just a web shortcut. Left to right: one of Fire OS' lockscreen ads, a snapshot of the less-than-useful "For You" page and an example of the AI-powered "Wallpaper Creator" tool. Jeff Dunn for Engadget It's true that you can install the Google Play Store and download most of what's missing with a hacky workaround, but that's not the experience Amazon is selling (and not one most people will opt to do). I can't praise an OS that works best when you go behind its back. And as with many Android tablets, many of the apps that are supported look like blown-up phone apps more than experiences designed with a larger screen in mind. Because this is a tech product launching in 2024, the Fire HD 8 also comes with a few AI-centric features, including an automated wallpaper creator, a writing assist tool and webpage summaries in the Silk Browser. All of these perform reasonably fast, but It's hard to call them game-changers: The writing assist makes copy sound overly stilted, while the webpage summaries strip down most articles of their nuances (I beg you, just read the post.) The DALL-E-style wallpaper generator is neater, offering different styles and responding well to natural language requests, but I can't get excited over AI art when there's so much of the real thing out there. More egregious are the ads. Oh, so many ads. Upon activating the tablet for the first time, I was greeted with a full-screen promo for BetMGM - because what budget-conscious tablet buyer isn't looking to gamble their savings away - and have since been bombarded with lockscreen ads to buy Toshiba hard drives, State Farm insurance and SteelSeries gaming keyboards. Thankfully, you can remove these for an extra $15, either upfront or after purchase. You can technically install the Google Play Store and get around some of Fire OS' app limitations, but it'll require a bit of legwork. Jeff Dunn for Engadget But the spirit of nickel-and-diming you goes beyond that. The first app you see is Shop Amazon." The home screen itself is split into two sections: For You and Home. The former is a page filled with content suggestions, a significant chunk of which are either sponsored apps, links to movies on Prime Video and songs on Amazon Music or calls to subscribe to Amazon services like Kids+, Luna and Audible. Some of these are free; many others are paid. At one point, I kid you not, it presented me with an ad to buy a different Fire tablet. The Home tab does have a traditional app grid, but above it is a Discover" row that takes up the top 40 percent of the screen and delivers a similar range of not-so-personalized suggestions. As I write this, it includes a link to the Prime Video series Fallout, the sponsored app Vita Mahjong for Seniors," the Max app, links to two different thriller books from the author Frieda McFadden and a few other things I've shown zero interest in over my time using Amazon services. It's a jumbled, undignified mess. There's a distinct lack of care to Fire OS, a pervading sense that it doesn't so much have your best interest at heart it wants to needle cash-strapped customers into pumping more revenue into the Amazon machine. This just isn't the case with iPadOS or even stock Android. Actually pay attention to what Fire OS is doing, and it becomes difficult to see Fire tablets as anything but subsidized ad platforms Amazon can seed in homes on the cheap. If you want a product that treats you with a little more respect, you have to pay for it. The Fire HD 8 resting on top of a 13-inch iPad Air. Jeff Dunn for Engadget Wrap-up I get it, some of us just need to save some cash. And Amazon, fairly or not (i.e., not), can significantly undercut most other decent budget tablets on price. If cost is your number-one concern, you only want a tablet for casual media consumption and you can live with the unfiltered Amazon-ness of Fire OS, there's still value to be had here. Little about the Fire HD 8 is good, but much of it is fine for the price, and when that price is as bananas-cheap as $55 with deals, that's probably enough. So it goes. Just make sure the slate is on sale before you take the plunge. Otherwise, I'd consider the 10.1-inch Fire HD 10, which has the same software annoyances but a sharper, roomier display, more CPU power and a touch more battery life. Either way, here's hoping Fire OS becomes less user-hostile one day.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/amazon-fire-hd-8-2024-review-a-cheap-tablet-hampered-by-outdated-software-141924425.html?src=rss

Elon Musk has amended his lawsuit against OpenAI, adding more anti-trust claims against the company and including Microsoft as a defendant. He also added his company, xAI, as well as Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member and mother to three of his children, as plaintiffs. Musk originally sued OpenAI in March, accusing founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman of violating the organization's non-profit mission by teaming up with Microsoft. He withdrew the state court lawsuit in June before suing OpenAI and Altman again in federal court.Musk was one OpenAI's earliest backers, and one of his arguments was that he was "betrayed by Mr. Altman and his accomplices." In response to his lawsuit, OpenAI published old emails from 2015 to 2018 in a blog post, wherein it claimed that Musk was involved in the planning when the company first explored transitioning into a for-profit structure. xAI's founder allegedly wanted majority equity, control of the initial board of directors and the CEO position and even suggested merging OpenAI with Tesla. Musk left the organization in 2018 before Microsoft invested the first billion in OpenAI. Since then, Microsoft has invested $13 billion in the generative AI firm, and OpenAI has taken steps to complete its transformation into a more traditional for-profit company with a non-profit arm.As TechCrunch notes, the amended lawsuit argues that OpenAI is "actively trying to eliminate competitors," including xAI, by making investors promise not to fund them. xAI has been harmed by OpenAI's and Microsoft's exclusive exchange of "competitively sensitive information," the lawsuit also says. Musk's new complaint names LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Microsoft VP Dee Templeton as defendants, as well, for being involved with both OpenAI and Microsoft boards. As for why Zilis was named as a plaintiff, the lawsuit says it's because the former OpenAI board member and current director of Neuralink repeatedly raised concerns over OpenAI's deals that were similar to Musks.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/elon-musk-adds-microsoft-as-defendant-in-his-lawsuit-against-openai-140023400.html?src=rss

GM's robotaxi unit Cruise has agreed to pay a $500,000 for submitting a false accident report as part of a deferred prosecution agreement. The US Justice Department (DoJ) said that Cruise failed to disclose vital details about a serious October 2023 accident in which one of its vehicles struck a pedestrian and dragged her 20 feet after she was hit by another vehicle."Federal laws and regulations are in place to protect public safety on our roads. Companies with self-driving cars that seek to share our roads and crosswalks must be fully truthful in their reports to their regulators," said Martha Boersch, Chief of the Office of the U.S. Attorney's Criminal Division. Uber has yet to comment on the matter.Under the terms of the three-year settlement, Cruise must cooperate with the government, put a safety compliance program into place and provide annual reports to the US Attorney's office. The company could still be prosecuted if it fails to comply with those conditions. Cruise was previously fined $1.5 million by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and reportedly reached a settlement with the victim worth at least $8 million.According to the US Attorney's office, a Cruise driverless vehicle operating in San Francisco ran over a pedestrian who had been thrown into its path after being struck by a separate, human-operated vehicle. The Cruise vehicle initially stopped after running over the pedestrian, but its systems failed to detect that she was still under the vehicle. It then tried to pull over to the side, dragging the woman over 20 feet. In Cruise's report to the NHTSA, it said nothing about dragging the victim after it struck her. (Cruise also omitted this information in statements to the press at the time of the accident.)Cruise was subsequently stripped of its license to operate self-driving vehicles in California. The company stopped all operations of both its driverless cars and its manned robotaxi service in order to engage in a comprehensive safety review. CEO Kyle Vogt resigned in November and GM announced plans to slash Cruise's funding and to restructure leadership based on external safety reviews. Nearly a quarter of the company's workforce was cut that in December.Cruise vehicles stayed off roads for several more months but returned to Arizona in April and to Houston in June under the supervision of human drivers. In September this year, Cruise recommenced operations in California, again with human drivers at the wheel. In August, the company said its self-driving vehicles would come to Uber starting next year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/gms-cruise-will-pay-a-500000-fine-for-submitting-a-false-accident-report-133041789.html?src=rss

For obvious reasons, Twitter users are leaving en masse and heading to Bluesky, its most prominent decentralized competitor. In this episode, we discuss why Bluesky now feels like the best of early Twitter, filled with vibrant conversations and people discovering a new social network filled with useful features (like serious blocking and content filtering). And of course, the lack of an algorithmic feed surely helps. Also, we chat with Justin Hendrix from Tech Policy Press about how Elon Musk has become a crucial ally to the upcoming Trump administration.Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!Subscribe!

The final piece of Apple's recent explosion of Mac hardware, the iMac is ready for review - and possible purchase - and it looks the same as ever.One quiet update that transforms the lineup, beyond the powerful M4 chip, is the boost in base memory, finally giving the entry-level models 16GB instead of the miserly 8GB they used to get. With an unchanged design, there might seem to be no justification to buy or upgrade to the iMac M4. However, that extra memory allows you to do more than ever on an entry-level iMac, including 4K video editing and AAA gaming - to a degree. Having said that, upgrades remain expensive beyond the base loadout, which is already $1,299.- Mat SmithThe biggest tech stories you missedApple's AI-infused Final Cut Pro 11 is availableGoogle now offers a standalone Gemini app on iPhoneThe new Xbox ad campaign is confused about what an Xbox isGet this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!The Onion has bought InfowarsIt plans to remake it into a very stupid website' of a less harmful variety.The Onion, arguably America's biggest most influential source of satire, confirmed on Thursday its parent company has bought Infowars, the disgraced purveyor of Sandy Hook misinformation and vendor of pseudoscience supplements. The Onion posted on Bluesky its plans to transform the rebooted Infowars into a very funny, very stupid website."The publication says it received the blessing of the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting to scoop up Infowars in a bankruptcy auction. Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit founded in the massacre's aftermath, will reportedly advertise on the rebooted site.Continue reading.The best Black Friday 2024 deals so farApple, Amazon, Nintendo and more.November is in full swing, which means Black Friday is right around the corner. If you want the best of the best deals, hold tight until the week before Thanksgiving. Still, the sales already available are some of the best this year. Rather than recommend things you already have/ don't want, take a look at our extensive list - so far.Continue reading.The best PS5 games for 2024Whether you've picked up a PS5 Pro or not.EngadgetIn the run up to gift-buying season, we're updating our pick of the best games for all the gaming platforms. This time, it's the PS5. With the massive library available, it's easy to get a little lost scrolling through titles. From award-winning adventures to intense-action RPG experiences, there's a world of incredible games to explore. Increasingly, the console has built up a collection of PS4 remakes and/or remasters too, offering the best playing experience for hits like Last of Us.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-122246108.html?src=rss

The Rogue Prince of Persia, a modern reboot of the classic platformer published by Broderbund in 1989, is still in early access mode but it's getting a bunch of new, cool-sounding stuff next week. Developer Evil Empire posted a blog on the game's Steam page that includes information about the new update and premieres a new teaser trailer with some gameplay footage.The Steam page says the update effectively doubled the game's content from launch." The Second Act" will include a second act and tons of narrative polish for Act 1" and more biomes, bosses and enemies. The update will also add more Quality of Life" features like multiple save slots and localization for German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish players. The game's protagonist will also look pretty different - RIP Prince of Purple.The new update drops on November 21. The Rogue Prince of Persia was already slick and inventive, even in its infancy. It's been updated quite a bit since its early access launch, but next week's update is likely to be its largest. It's shaping up to be a good mix of classic gameplay with new visuals and a modern roguelite" gameplay loop as seen in other indies like Hades.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/the-rogue-prince-of-persia-gets-a-big-update-with-the-second-act-000515851.html?src=rss

These times are very trying and it's understandable if someone goes a little off the deep end once in a while. Just like Norman Bates said in Psycho, We all go a little mad sometimes." However, a new Xbox ad campaign has us a little concerned.Microsoft launched a new marketing campaign for its Xbox consoles and cloud gaming service called This is an Xbox." It features posters and commercials with a bunch of different objects like a laptop, a smartphone and a Meta Quest 3 that are all an Xbox."We confirmed with a thorough fact check that all of those objects are not an Xbox. That may sound like overkill but when you live in a world where there's a real chance that the goopy mass voiced by Tim Curry in FernGully might become Secretary of the Interior, we're not taking any chances.The commercial is even trippier. It zips between objects like a flat screen TV, an ROG Ally and a laptop while Black Sheep's The Choice is Yours" blasts in the background. This time though, it displays the simple sentence This is an Xbox" with a secondary clause or imperative statement behind it. Is there some kind of malware virus in the AI software that runs our universe or something?Microsoft, we know this is an ad campaign and that you don't really believe these non-Xbox items are an Xbox." Of course, you want to talk up your cloud gaming service, which is available across all of the devices in the ads. But last I checked, I didn't need an expensive subscription to play games on a regular Xbox.Also this is the internet, a gathering place for conspiracy weavers, liars and ne'er-do-wells. Reality is hard enough right now without having to debate the merit of what things are. This feels like the kind of stuff that Jobu would pull when she finished decorating the bagel in Everything Everywhere All at Once.MicrosoftThis article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/the-new-xbox-ad-campaign-is-confused-about-what-an-xbox-is-231013374.html?src=rss

On Thursday, the European Union published its first draft of a Code of Practice for general purpose AI (GPAI) models. The document, which won't be finalized until May, lays out guidelines for managing risks - and giving companies a blueprint to comply and avoid hefty penalties. The EU's AI Act came into force on August 1, but it left room to nail down the specifics of GPAI regulations down the road. This draft (via TechCrunch) is the first attempt to clarify what's expected of those more advanced models, giving stakeholders time to submit feedback and refine them before they kick in.GPAIs are those trained with a total computing power of over 10^2 FLOPs. Companies expected to fall under the EU's guidelines include OpenAI, Google, Meta, Anthropic and Mistral. But that list could grow.The document addresses several core areas for GPAI makers: transparency, copyright compliance, risk assessment and technical / governance risk mitigation. This 36-page draft covers a lot of ground (and will likely balloon much more before it's finalized), but several highlights stand out.The code emphasizes transparency in AI development and requires AI companies to provide information about the web crawlers they used to train their models - a key concern for copyright holders and creators. The risk assessment section aims to prevent cyber offenses, widespread discrimination and loss of control over AI (the it's gone rogue" sentient moment in a million bad sci-fi movies).AI makers are expected to adopt a Safety and Security Framework (SSF) to break down their risk management policies and mitigate them proportionately to their systemic risks. The rules also cover technical areas like protecting model data, providing failsafe access controls and continually reassessing their effectiveness. Finally, the governance section strives for accountability within the companies themselves, requiring ongoing risk assessment and bringing in outside experts where needed.Like the EU's other tech-related regulations, companies that run afoul of the AI Act can expect steep penalties. They can be fined up to 35 million (currently $36.8 million) or up to seven percent of their global annual profits, whichever is higher.Stakeholders are invited to submit feedback through the dedicated Futurium platform by November 28 to help refine the next draft. The rules are expected to be finalized by May 1, 2025.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-eu-publishes-the-first-draft-of-regulatory-guidance-for-general-purpose-ai-models-223447394.html?src=rss

We initially heard about a team modding an RTX remaster of Half-Life 2 last August. Today, NVIDIA released a trailer giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at Orbifold Studios' efforts to apply more modern graphics tools to the iconic title. The video highlights the RTX Remix engine and how the team is using it to make visual upgrades to a game with an engine two decades old. They have examples of how they're creating more dynamic light sources, volumetric fog in moody areas, and full 3D detail on the objects in the environment.The crew at Orbifold still doesn't have a release date for their work, but as the 20th anniversary for Half-Life 2 approaches on November 16, it's possible that there may be something official in the works from Valve. No, not Half-Life 3. But YouTuber and veteran Valve reporter Tyler McVicker noticed that there is a new, password-protected branch of the game in Steam. Just based on the number of new test builds that have been pushed out on that branch, the new update seems more involved than the one the company released to mark the 25th anniversary of Half-Life 1 last year. So if you're itching to pick up the gravity gun again, this weekend might be the time to do it.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/heres-a-fresh-look-at-the-half-life-2-rtx-remaster-221321847.html?src=rss

Google will stop serving political advertisements in the European Union. The decision, announced in The Keyword blog, is in response to an upcoming new rule for the bloc that "introduces significant new operational challenges and legal uncertainties for political advertisers and platforms." The company says the Regulation on Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising has an overly broad definition for political advertising and raised concerns that technical guidance around the policy may not be given until close to October 2025, when the rules will take effect.In addition to no longer serving that ad content ahead of next October, Google said that paid political advertisements will also not be allowed on YouTube in the EU. The company said that similar regulations have already led it to stop serving political ads in Canada, France and Brazil.Google's advertising and ad tech have been subjected to scrutiny by the European government in recent years. The company faced (but ultimately avoided) fines for "abusive" advertising practices in 2019, and last year was hit with antitrust accusations. And Google has also engaged in other eyebrow-raising behavior in the bloc. Just yesterday, the company began what it called a "small, time-limited test" to omit results from EU-based news publishers in search, Google News and the Discover feed.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-will-stop-serving-political-ads-in-the-eu-including-on-youtube-210604043.html?src=rss

Valve's Steam store is more than just a place to buy computer games online. It's an active community of gamers. Unfortunately, a sizable portion of those gamers are posting an unprecedented" amount of hateful, racist and anti-Semetic content on the gaming site's cyber social gathering place Steam Community, according to a report from the Anti-Defamation League.The organization found 1.83 million unique pieces of extremist or hateful content" from 1.5 million unique users in 73,824 groups. The content included explicitly anti-Semitic symbols" and tens of thousands of instances" of users showing support for foreign terrorist groups. The online gaming community even included an alarming number of copypastas," more than half of which were variations of Nazi swastikas.ADLThe report also found a significant number" of Steam avatars with hateful symbols. Investigators uncovered 827,758 users with extremist or racist-signaling avatar images including the cartoon character Pepe the Frog in Nazi regalia or adorned with stereotypical tropes and looks, swastikas, the white supremacist skull or siege" mask and the Nazi Eagle. Another 15,129 avatars contained images of flags, emblems or logos of terrorist groups, the majority of which referred to the jihadist group ISIS.The ADL even uncovered images that glorify violent extremists" and violent hate crimes. The report found references to and stills from tragedies like the 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand shooting and the stabbing of five people in Eskisehir, Turkey committed by an 18 year old wearing neo-Nazi imagery.Even the Collections" and Mods" community on the gamer gathering site contained hundreds of mods that contained hateful imagery. An unidentified user named after the Christchurch shooter Brian Tarrant took the Valve physics sandbox game Garry's Mod and made the Australian S**poster collection." The user recreated Tarrant's body armor look and posted screenshots implying the character is killing Muslims just as Tarrant did in 2019.ADLOther users utilized the Garry's Mod game to create maps that also celebrated tragedies like the Columbine High School shooting and the Tops supermarket white supremacist shooting in Buffalo. The maps inspired even more racist comments and reactions such as make synagogue next" and remember labs, subscribe to PewDiePie," a chilling reference to a comment Tarrant made on a livestream just before he committed his shooting.The ADL accused Valve, Steam's owner, of not taking enough action to remove or curb the use of these images in its communities. The report claims Valve has a highly permissive approach to content policy" and only took action in rare notable cases."Steam has selectively removed extremist content, largely based around extremist groups publicized in reporting or in response to government pressure," the ADL report says. However, this has been largely ad hoc, with Valve failing to systematically address the issue of extremism and hate on the platform."We've reached out to Valve for a comment on the ADL's report.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/adl-report-finds-steam-is-rife-with-racist-posts-and-images-203934592.html?src=rss

Amazon and PBS have entered a partnership that will bring content from the public media operation to Prime Video. More than 150 local PBS channels and the PBS Kids Channel will launch as a free ad-supported TV (or FAST) offering on Prime Video over the coming months. The press release from PBS noted that this is the first time this collection of programming will be available on a major streaming service for free.PBS Distribution is also launching two new FAST channels that will be available exclusively on Prime Video for a limited time beginning November 26. These channels are PBS Drama and PBS Documentaries. It seems Amazon is looking to focus on a lineup of FAST channels within Prime Video for free viewing, since the company announced that it is closing Freevee.Having yet another place to watch public media content is a happy development for PBS fans. The broadcaster recently launched a FAST channel with Roku called PBS Retro, specifically with shows from the 1980s and 1990s for those of us who want to dive into a little nostalgic escapism.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/pbs-programming-is-coming-to-prime-video-190443155.html?src=rss

Did you think Teenage Engineering would go another entire year without dropping something both absurdly cool and outrageously expensive? Think again. The company just announced the long-rumored OP-XY groovebox. It looks like an OP-1 Field, but plays like the relatively-ancient OP-Z. It also costs $2,300. The OP-XY is described by the company as an "all-in-one powerful synthesizer and composer with deep, direct sequencing capabilities." That sounds about right. The primary workflow here is sequencing, as opposed to the faux tape recording found with its OP-1 siblings. The groovebox features a shrunken-down keyboard and a strip of 16 LED-equipped buttons to control the sequencer. There's a multisampler inside the box, in addition to some great-sounding synth engines, drum kits and a bevy of useful effects, including the punch-in effects from the original OP-Z. As for specs, this little beast ships with 512GB of RAM, a dual CPU system that's "capable of ultrafast processing power and efficiency" and 8GB of internal storage. Teenage Engineering boasts about the groovebox's "brain chord progression." This lets players program chord sequences by letting your hands do the talking." We don't exactly know what that means, as hands are typically involved when programming any chord sequence. We'll have to wait for a hands-on experience to get the gist. It does allow for live recording, which is nice. Just like the OP-Z, there's a built-in gyroscope that allows players to adjust parameters by simply moving the device around. As for connectivity, there's a USB-C port, a 3.5mm stereo input, MIDI in, MIDI sync and a new multi-output port that can send MIDI, CV, gate or sync data. It even has Bluetooth MIDI. Teenage Engineering It's also an absolute head-turner in the looks department. This thing is a stunner, dropping the toy-like OP-Z aesthetic for something that eerily resembles the OP-1 Field, albeit with a color swap to matte black. There's a bright OLED display and many of the same multi-function buttons and knobs found with the original OP-1 and the Field. It looks very cool and I want it. As previously mentioned, there's a rub. The OP-XY costs $2,300. You read that right. That's $300 more than the OP-1 Field. Heck. You could buy a brand new standard OP-1 and an OP-Z and still have some money leftover to buy cables and other accessories. Despite the price, I'm cautiously optimistic about this one. I absolutely love the OP-1 Field and I don't care who knows it. This is really the first ultra-expensive instrument the company has released since the aforementioned OP-1 Field. Last year's EP-133 and its medieval-flavored follow-up both cost $300. The OP-XY is available right now. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/teenage-engineering-is-back-with-another-droolworthy-and-expensive-groovebox-183918448.html?src=rss

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has started the process of placing Google under federal supervision, an action which could create new standards for how the federal government can oversee big tech if the effort is successful. Falling under the CFPB's supervision would subject Google to regular inspections and scrutiny, although the exact aims of the department's efforts have not been fully disclosed. However, it has been an ongoing project for some time, as sources told The Washington Post that Google has been fighting against this move by the CFPB for months.This department was created in 2008 in response to the financial crisis that year, and its objective is to protect consumers from unfair or deceptive financial practices. The CFPB primarily focuses on businesses such as banks and credit unions, but Director Rahit Chopra has voiced an interest over recent years in subjecting tech companies that offer financial products to similar oversight. For instance, the bureau began an investigation into app store payments systems from Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, PayPal and Square back in 2021.The preliminary moves by the CFPB to oversee Google, and the agency's entire scope of operation, will likely be impacted by Donald Trump's return to the presidency in early 2025.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-is-being-targeted-for-oversight-by-the-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-181032853.html?src=rss

Amazon just unveiled a new line of Fire TVs, just ahead of Thanksgiving and, more importantly, Black Friday. The Fire TV Omni Mini-LED series is being advertised as the most powerful and innovative Amazon-built TV yet." Let's take a look at some specs. These TVs all include QLED Mini-LED panels that deliver up to 1,400 nits of peak brightness and up to 1,344 dimming zones. They offer support for Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive, which should result in more vibrant colors, deeper blacks, and richer contrast." Amazon says these sets include AI-assisted Intelligent Picture technology, which automatically enhances image quality to optimize scenes in real-time." The TV's light and color sensor take the living space into account, making the appropriate brightness and color temperature settings as needed. Amazon They also allow access to Amazon's Fire TV Ambient Experience, which turns the TVs into a display for art. It's sort of like the well-regarded Samsung Frame series only, well, without the whole frame part. This software doesn't just display static pieces of art, as it can also handle custom animations and various widgets. This is the first Amazon-built TV with an AMD FreeSync Premium Pro certification, for my beautiful gamers out there. This software suite combines a variable refresh rate, an automatic low latency mode and a new 144Hz refresh rate in gaming mode. It also offers support for Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2, for some nice future-proofing. They all ship with two speakers, complete with two subwoofers, and allow access to Dolby Atmos audio. These are Amazon TVs so, of course, they play nice with Alexa. The company says that users can discover shows and movies, manage playback and control the Fire TV Ambient Experience hands-free" via voice control. The Fire TV Omni Mini-LED boxes are available right now. Prices range from $820 to $2,100, with size options ranging from 55-inches all the way up to 85-inches. Amazon These aren't the only entertainment products that Amazon released today. The company also dropped a new line of soundbars and a refresh for the pre-existing Fire TV 4 series. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/amazon-dropped-a-new-fire-tv-line-just-before-thanksgiving-174510455.html?src=rss

Black Friday is set to soak the world in glorious deals, but why wait until later in the month? Some of these deals are already live. For instance, the M2 MacBook Air is available via Amazon for just $749. The regular price is $1,000, so this is a discount of 25 percent. It even boasts 16GB of RAM. This model easily made our list of the best MacBooks, even with the presence of the newer M3 MacBook Air. Here are the takeaways. This laptop, obviously, includes Apple's proprietary M2 8-core CPU, which is more than fast enough for basic tasks and fine for even many advanced tasks, like music-making. We called it "Apple's near-perfect Mac" in our official review. This is not the bare-bones standard model, as it comes with 16GB of RAM. Most versions ship with 8GB of RAM. The multitasking bona-fides are strong with this one. The M2 MacBook Air also ships with a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display with 500 nits of brightness and support for the P3 wide color gamut. It's thin and light. It's a MacBook Air. This thing weighs around 2.7 pounds. The battery life is solid, at around 18 hours of use per charge. The four-speaker sound system can get surprisingly loud, so headphones are not a requirement when watching random YouTube videos or listening to music. So what's the downside? There isn't one. Not really. This isn't the M3 MacBook Air, so those looking for the latest and greatest model may be let down. The model does only ship with a 256GB solid state drive, but it's easy enough to plug in an external. Check out all of the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-m2-macbook-air-with-16gb-of-ram-drops-to-749-ahead-of-black-friday-161500053.html?src=rss

Google now offers a dedicated Gemini AI app on iPhone. First spotted by MacRumors, the free software is available to download in Australia, India, the US and the UK following a soft launch in the Philippines earlier this week.Before today, iPhone users could access Gemini through the Google app, though there were some notable limitations. For instance, the dedicated app includes Google's Gemini Live feature, which allows users to interact with the AI agent from their iPhone's Dynamic Island and Lock Screen. As a result, you don't need to have the app open on your phone's screen to use Gemini. The software is free to download - though a Gemini Advanced subscription is necessary to use every available feature. Gemini Advanced is included in Google's One AI Premium plan, which starts at $19 per month.The app is compatible with iPhones running iOS 16 and later, meaning people with older devices such as the iPhone 8 and iPhone X can use the AI agent. I'll note here that the oldest iPhone that can run Apple Intelligence is the iPhone 15 Pro. Of course, that's not exactly a fair comparison; Apple designed its suite of AI features to rely primarily on on-device processing, and when a query requires more computational horsepower, it goes through the company's Private Cloud Compute framework.Either way, it's not surprising to see Google bring a dedicated Gemini app to iPhone. Ahead of WWDC 2024, Apple had reportedly been in talks with the company to integrate the AI agent directly into its devices.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/google-now-offers-a-standalone-gemini-app-on-iphone-160025513.html?src=rss

The executive arm of the European Union isn't shying away from slapping major tech companies with hefty fines. The European Commission has fined Meta 797.12 million ($842 million) for violating antitrust regulations.The EC says that by tying Facebook Marketplace to Facebook and imposing unfair trading conditions on other online classified ads service providers," Meta abused its dominant positions" in the social networking space. Regulators determined that all Facebook users are regularly exposed" to Marketplace, even if they don't want to be. To that end, the link between the two services gives Meta a substantial distribution advantage which competitors cannot match."In addition, the EC found that third-party classified ads services that advertised on the likes of Facebook and Instagram were subject to unfair trading conditions. This allows Meta to use ads-related data generated by other advertisers for the sole benefit of Facebook Marketplace," regulators contended.The fine was determined based on the duration and extent of the infringement, as well as Meta's revenue. The Commission also told Meta to end the practice and avoid repeating such conduct or trying something similar.Meta said it will appeal the ruling. This decision ignores the realities of the thriving European market for online classified listing services and shields large incumbent companies from a new entrant, Facebook Marketplace, that meets consumer demand in innovative and convenient new ways," it claimed.The company is trying to appease European regulators on other fronts. The EC said in the preliminary findings of an ongoing investigation that Meta violated the Digital Markets Act with its approach to an ad-free subscription, as it required EU users to consent to highly targeted advertising or pay to avoid it. This week, Meta lowered the monthly subscription fee and said it would offer an advertising option that won't use as much of a user's data, though this will include some unskippable ads.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/eu-fines-meta-842-million-in-a-facebook-marketplace-antitrust-case-154111594.html?src=rss

One of the Gemini AI-powered features Google introduced at I/O this year was a solution for never-ending scam calls. It has the capability to detect whether a call is suspicious while it's still ongoing and can alert you so that you could drop the call as soon as possible. That live scam detection feature for phone calls is now available for Pixel 6 and newer devices, as long as you're part of the Phone by Google public beta program in the English language."[S]cam calls are evolving, becoming increasingly more sophisticated, damaging and harder to identify," the company said in its announcement. Scam Detection uses on-device AI to determine whether a call is a potential scam in real time. For instance, if the caller tells you it's your bank and asks you to transfer funds to another account because yours had allegedly been breached - a common scam tactic - you'll get an audio and a haptic alert. When you look at your phone, you'll see a visual warning, along with a button to easily end the call. If the AI ends up making a mistake, you can tap on the "Not a scam" button instead.GoogleScam Detection is off by default, and it's up to you whether you want to activate it. Google says it doesn't send your calls or their transcripts to a remote server, because the feature processes phone calls on-device. On the Pixel 9 series, it's powered by Gemini Nano, which Google describes as its "most efficient model for on-device tasks." On Pixel devices older than the Pixel 9, it's powered by the company's other machine learning models.Google didn't say when live scam detection will make it out of beta, but it promised that it's coming soon to more Android devices. In October, the company also rolled out enhanced scam detection for Messages, which also uses on-device machine learning models to identify scam texts.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/googles-live-scam-detection-for-phone-calls-is-now-out-for-pixel-devices-143017096.html?src=rss

With its biggest update to Final Cut Pro (FCP) in years, Apple may be re-embracing the professional video creator crowd it has neglected since the launch of FCP X in 2011. The company finally unveiled its successor, Final Cut Pro 11 (FCP 11), an update that leans heavily on AI tools. At the same time, it introduced spatial video editing to produce content for the Vision Pro headset.The key AI feature is Magnetic Mask, which lets you cut out people and other moving subjects, then stylize them or put them in another location altogether. "This powerful and precise automatic analysis provides additional flexibility to customize backgrounds and environments," Apple wrote. "Editors can also combine Magnetic Mask with color correction and video effects, allowing them to precisely control and stylize each project."AppleThe other key new AI feature is Transcribe to Captions, which automatically analyzes interviews and other timeline audio, transcribes it and places the captions directly on the timeline - effectively automating the entire process. That feature uses an Apple-trained large language model (LLM) designed to transcribe spoken audio, the company said.Final Cut Pro 11 also joins other pro editing apps like Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve in offering VR/AR video editing. "Spatial video editing" allows users to import and edit AR/VR video directly in the app, while adding effects, color correction and more. Footage can be captured from an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 16 models, along with Canon's R7 mirrorless camera paired with the new RF-S 7.8mm F/4 lens. Users can choose from different viewing modes to preview left- and right-eye angles, or bring their edit directly in to Apple Vision Pro to get a 3D preview.Apple also unveiled Final Cut Pro for iPad 2.1, further optimizing it for Apple silicon. The app also offers enhancements to the "light and color" feature that let you quickly improve the color, contrast and overall look of your video. And finally, the company released a new version of Final Cut Camera, which includes the ability to shoot in compact but high-quality HEVC files with Apple Log, rather than using storage-gobbling ProRes.As a professional tool, Final Cut Pro 11 is still missing features found in Resolve and Premiere Pro like text-based editing and certain advanced color correction tools. Still, the new version and features will no doubt be welcomed by FCP diehards. It's now available to download for $299 for new users (following a free 90-day trial) and is free to existing Final Cut Pro owners.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/apples-ai-infused-final-cut-pro-11-is-now-available-140030992.html?src=rss

Snapchat is adding new location tracking abilities to its parental control features. The changes will give parents new visibility into their children's Snap Map settings and allow them to keep tabs on their whereabouts.The new features, which will be available over the coming weeks," will be added to Snapchat's Family Center, the app's portal for parental control features. With the updates, parents will be able to request to view their child's location or share their own. Parents can also opt to receive travel notifications" when their child leaves specific places, like their school or home.Separately, Family Center, which already allows parents to keep tabs on who their children are chatting with, will also allow them to see who their teen has shared their location with in the app's Snap Map.That feature could help address some criticism the company has faced about the role its app's location sharing abilities has played in crucial safety issues. Snapchat's location sharing has come under particular scrutiny by safety advocates who have alleged it had enabled teens to connect with strangers, including drug dealers and potential predators. The feature was called out in a lawsuit brought by New Mexico's Attorney General earlier this year over alleged safety lapses at the company.In its latest update, Snap notes that it bars all users from sharing their location info with users who aren't already their friends. And the company says it plans to push additional reminders to users about their Snap Map settings prompting them to be extra thoughtful about their" choices.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/snapchat-will-let-parents-track-their-kids-through-family-center-130004215.html?src=rss

Xbox is thinking about future hardware, and it might not just be another box attached to your TV. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer told Bloomberg the team is considering its own gaming handheld - but it's years away.In an earlier interview with IGN, Spencer had mentioned a hypothetical Xbox gaming handheld PC device," which now appears to be in the early research and prototyping stage. The Xbox boss said local play would be important to include if Xbox were to design a handheld console. Compared to existing devices, like the Steam Deck, ROG Ally and Legion Go, it's unclear what unique features an Xbox handheld might offer.- Mat SmithGet this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!The biggest tech stories you missed

Google is adding a handful of new features to Maps in time for the holidays, including the ability to search for specific products within the app itself. If you need a sweater for your annual ugly sweater party, new clothes or some last-minute gifts, for instance, you can type the item in Maps' search bar to bring up nearby stores where you may be able to find what you're looking for. From the results that pop up, you can select one of the options and then look up directions. Google says you can search for a wide variety of items from Maps, such as electronics, home goods and even grocery items.The company has also updated Maps to allow you to report and see delays impacting your transit lines, as well as to show more details, such as alternate transit routes and subway station entrances. Maps will show reports for weather disruptions like unplowed or flooded roads and low visibility areas, as well. In addition, Google is adding the ability enter your vehicle's dimensions in its built-in Maps app to show routes that don't have bridges or tunnels you can't clear. For now, though, those routes are only available on the 2024 Chevy Tahoe, Chevy Suburban and GMC Yukon. The company says it will expand the feature's capability to more vehicle models in the future.If you're driving an EV and look up routes with charging stops on your phone, you can now send the route you've decided on to your car with built-in Google Maps. Finally, if you want to avoid crowds when you go out, you can look at Maps' Popular Times info to see traffic trends at specific times.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/you-can-now-search-for-products-inside-google-maps-120033602.html?src=rss

Now you'll be able to play one of the greatest zombie survival games of all time on your iPhone or iPad. Capcom's Resident Evil 2 remake is headed to the Apple and Mac App Store on December 10.The game won't be available on every Apple device. You'll need any iPhone 16 model, an iPhone 15 Pro or an iPad or Mac with the M1 chip or later. You'll also be able to try a small portion of the game before purchasing the full experience. The game comes with universal purchase" and cross-progression" for all your eligible devices, according to a Capcom statement.The Resident Evil 2 remake will offer advanced controls for touchscreens and the Mac version. Both Leon and Claire will also have a new Auto Fire feature" so you can unload your clip into whatever's shuffling towards you.This is just one of four Resident Evil games available for Apple devices and computers. Capcom and Apple have released versions of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil 4 on the App Store and Resident Evil: Village on the App and Mac App Store.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-resident-evil-2-remake-will-shuffle-its-way-to-apple-devices-in-december-234511380.html?src=rss

GOG is launching an effort to help make older video games playable on modern hardware. The GOG Preservation Program will label the classic titles that the platform has taken steps to adapt in order to make them compatible with contemporary computer systems, controllers and screen resolutions, all while adhering to its DRM-free policy. The move could bring new life to games of decades past, just as GOG did two years ago with a refresh of the 1999 title Wheel of Time. So far, 92 games have received the preservation treatment."Our guarantee is that they work and they will keep working," the company says in the video announcing the initiative.Preservation has been a hot topic as more games go digital only. Not only are some platforms eliminating disk drives by default, but ownership over your library is more ephemeral than it seems. After all, most game purchases are just a license, and licenses can be revoked (as The Crew players know all too well).This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/gogs-preservation-label-highlights-classic-games-its-maintaining-for-modern-hardware-231606454.html?src=rss

Bluesky may still be the underdog in the race for alternatives to X, but the once Twitter-affiliated service is gaining momentum. The app just passed the 15 million user mark after adding more than a million new users over the last week, the company said in an update.While Bluesky is still considerably smaller than Threads, which with 275 million users is its biggest rival, there are signs that Threads users have been increasingly curious about the upstart. Bluesky" has been a trending topic on Threads in recent days and an in-app search suggestion shows there are more than 19,000 posts about Bluesky." Bluesky itself has also made a push to win over Threads users in recent weeks by posting regularly on the Meta-owned service.That effort seems to be working. A month ago, Engadget noted, the service had just under 9 million users. Its mobile app also has the top spot in Apple's App Store, followed by Threads and ChatGPT. Its recent success also seems to be driven, at least in part, by frustration with Elon Musk and X following the US presidential election.A recent report from web analytics company SimilarWeb found that more than 115,000 US web visitors deactivated their accounts," on November 7, more than on any previous day of Elon Musk's tenure." The report also noted that web traffic and daily active users for Bluesky increased dramatically in the week before the election, and then again after election day," with Bluesky at points seeing more web traffic than Threads. (Threads' mobile usage, however, is still far ahead" of Bluesky.)SimilarWebIn the US, Bluesky got more web visits than Threads in the immediate aftermath of the election," the report notes. For context, it's important to note that both services are app centric, even though they support a web user interface."On its part, Bluesky seems intent on distinguishing itself from its larger, billionaire-controlled rivals. The company, which began as an internal project at Twitter before it spun off into an independent entity, has experimented with novel features like custom feeds, user-created moderation services and starter packs" for new users.You're probably used to being trapped in a single algorithm controlled by a small group of people, that's no longer the case," Bluesky's COO Rose Wang shared in a video aimed at new users Tuesday. On Bluesky, there are about 50,000 different feeds ... these feeds provide a cozy corner for you to meet people with similar interests. And you can actually make friends again, because you're no longer tied to a dominant algorithm that promotes either the most polarizing posts and or the biggest brands, and that's the mandate of Bluesky."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/bluesky-surges-to-15-million-users-after-getting-a-million-sign-ups-in-one-week-224213573.html?src=rss

NHL 25 is slated to get a sizable content update at the end of the year. EA announced that the six teams of the Professional Women's Hockey League will be added to the game in an update this December. The Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost, Montreal Victoire, New York Sirens, Ottawa Charge and Toronto Sceptres will be available to choose in the game's Play Now, Online Versus, Shootout and Season modes.This EA sports franchise has been putting more women's leagues and female players into the spotlight in recent installments. Women's teams first appeared in NHL 22 back in 2022, and last year NHL 23 showcased Olympic gold medalist Sarah Nurse of Team Canada on its cover alongside Trevor Zegras of the Anaheim Ducks.In addition to the December update with the PWHL partnership, NHL 25 is adding an NHL Arcade mode this Friday. In early 2025, the game will also see new content tied to the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off event.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-professional-womens-hockey-league-will-join-eas-nhl-25-this-year-224023998.html?src=rss

Spotify is aiming to give YouTube some competition with its new partner program for video creators and content that goes viral. The music and podcast app announced a new Partner Program" that monetizes audio and video beyond income from advertising starting on January 2, 2025.The new monetization program pays Spotify creators in two ways. Creators can earn a share of ad revenue from their content on all platforms through its Partner Program. They can also earn money through monthly podcast subscriptions that allow listeners to support creators directly in return for exclusive bonus content and perks."Both tiers also come with eligibility requirements. The Spotify Partner Program requires participants to host and upload their content through its Spotify for Creators platform, have streamed 10,000 hours and at least 2,000 unique views in a 30-day period and published at least 12 episodes. Subscriptions will be open to content creators who have at least two published episodes and at least 100 unique Spotify listeners in a 60-day period. The new programs will be available for subscribers in the US, UK, Canada and Australia next January.Spotify has taken other steps to make its video and music content more accessible and mainstream. The music and video streamer integrated with TikTok and Instagram so users can post tracks on the social media sites.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/spotify-unveils-a-new-payout-model-for-creators-with-popular-videos-221706698.html?src=rss

After a lengthy consideration, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Amazon's captive-audience meetings" are a violation of the National Labor Relations Act. These are mandatory meetings where an employer shares its stance on unionization.Ensuring that workers can make a truly free choice about whether they want union representation is one of the fundamental goals of the National Labor Relations Act. Captive audience meetings-which give employers near-unfettered freedom to force their message about unionization on workers under threat of discipline or discharge-undermine this important goal," Chairman Lauren McFerran said of the ruling. Today's decision better protects workers' freedom to make their own choices in exercising their rights under the Act, while ensuring that employers can convey their views about unionization in a noncoercive manner."The decision noted that employers may hold meetings about unionization as long as workers receive advanced notice about the topic, are told that attendance is voluntary and without consequences for opting not to participate, and that attendance records are not kept.Today's ruling centers on Amazon, which has a rocky history with its employees' efforts to organize and with the NLRB. However, the decision could impact other big tech firms that have followed similar practices around unionization.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amazon-cant-force-employees-into-anti-unionization-meetings-214438177.html?src=rss

A startup called Wonder is now the new owner of Grubhub. The food delivery app announced its acceptance of the deal on its website earlier today.Wonder acquired Grubhub from the Dutch food company Just Eat Takeaway for $650 million. Pending regulatory approval, the deal will close early next year. Wonder also announced it has raised an additional $250 million in venture capital funding to further its mission and growth."Chicago software engineers Matt Maloney and Mike Evens founded Grubhub in 2004 as an online restaurant ordering service and an alternative to those paper menus that showed up on doorsteps and in junk mailings. The company merged with the automated food ordering and delivery company Seamless in 2013. Just Eat Takeaway bought Grubhub in 2020 for $7.3 billion at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.The numbers for restaurant delivery apps started to drop once the pandemic became part of history and people started going out again. Legal troubles started in 2021 when Chicago took Grubhub and some of its competitors to court for alleged unfair business practices and fees. Companies like DoorDash eventually settled but Grubhub's legal battle with Chicago is still raging in court, according to the Chicago Business Journal.The District of Columbia won a similar lawsuit against Grubhub in 2021 that ended with a $3.5 million settlement. The following year, Grubhub announced it would lay off 15 percent of its corporate staff.Wonder is a new fooddelivery company started by Marc Lore, a former Walmart executive who owns two professional basketball teams. Lowe previously founded Diapers.com and Jet.com. The New York Times published a profile on Lore and his newest venture Wonder, which he said could be the Amazon of food and beverage."Wonder's original focus was to get its own restaurants up and running" and create a delivery service that offers cheaper, quicker build-outs." Maybe that's because third-party food delivery services like Grubhub, DoorDash and Uber have seen their prices jump in the last couple of years, according to CNBC.Just in New York City, food delivery prices increased by 58 percent in just under a year, according to Bloomberg. A new law that went into effect at the end of last year raised the minimum wage for New York delivery drivers to $17.96 an hour. The New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection reported that food delivery workers saw their wages increase by 64 percent and their tips decreased by 60 percent in just eight months.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/grubhub-just-sold-for-a-tenth-of-what-it-was-worth-during-the-pandemic-204555195.html?src=rss

Blizzard pulled off a rare surprise today by shadow launching remasters of the original Warcraft and its sequel to commemorate the franchise's 30th anniversary. These updates of the hit RTS games are available right now and look to merge retro goodness with some modern sensibilities.The remasters feature brand new, hand-drawn visuals that capture the original art style from each game." Players will be able to swap between the original graphics and the remastered versions in real time. If the trailer is anything to go by, the games look purdy. The simple animations match the vibe of the two games nicely.The original Warcraft is getting some serious quality-of-life changes to make the game more appealing to modern audiences. The update includes 16:9 resolution support and modern control options. For instance, players can now right-click to move units instead of having to rely on hotkeys.Both remasters have also received "various UI and UX improvements such as tooltips and health bars, mission select screens, and increased unit selection." The original games placed strict limitations on how many units could be selected at once, so that last one is a nice improvement.Warcraft 2 will even be available for multiplayer sessions. Franchise manager Brad Chan said during today's 30th anniversary livestream that all legacy custom maps will still be fully compatible and playable." These remasters are available right now. Warcraft 1 is $10 and Warcraft 2 is $15.Today's 30th anniversary stream also dropped all kinds of other nuggets beyond the remasters. Warcraft 3: Reforged got a major update today that fixes many long-standing issues. Blizzard also announced that the affiliated mobile title Warcraft Arclight Rumble will be playable on PC starting on December 10, albeit as a beta.The developer is relaunching WoW: Classic, complete with all-new, fresh realms." WoW: Classic 20th Anniversary Edition will be available on November 21 and will include PvE and PvP servers, in addition to Hardcore realms.WoW Classic is even getting a new (old) expansion. Mists of Pandora Classic will be available next year. Check the trailer above for proof.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/warcraft-1-and-2-remastered-are-available-right-now-for-some-retro-rts-goodness-194335478.html?src=rss

Google is conducting a test" that will omit results from EU-based news publishers. The company says the time-limited trial will only affect a small portion of users in nine EU countries and will help assess how results from EU news publishers impact the search experience for our users and traffic to publishers." But given the fragile state of the news media - and the company's history of threatening to pull its services in the face of news-related regulations - it's tempting to view it as the equivalent of a mob boss conducting a little test" to see how the corner laundromat fares without its protection.Google describes the experiment (via The Verge) as a small, time-limited test" to omit EU results from search, Google News and the personalized Discover feed. It will only affect one percent of users in Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain. Those users will still see results from other websites, including non-EU news publications.The company says news results will reappear as usual once the test concludes. (It didn't list a specific timeframe.) Google stresses that the experiment won't impact the publisher payments it makes under the European Copyright Directive (EUCD), under which the company has inked deals with over 4,000 EU publishers.Google does have a history of using the potential withdrawal of its visibility as a negotiating stick in similar situations. In some cases, the tactic has helped it draw concessions.Last year, Google pulled its news links from Canada in response to Bill C-18 (the Online News Act), which required tech companies to negotiate compensation with online publishers for linked content. After months of negotiations, Google said Canada had addressed its concerns and given it a path to an exemption. Canada said it granted one to Google last month, with the company agreeing to pay $100 million annually to news organizations.In April of this year, Google briefly removed links to California news outlets in response to the proposed California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), which would require Google to pay news publishers in exchange for continuing to link to their websites. Although the bill's fate is still up in the air, Google struck a deal with state lawmakers this summer, committing tens of millions of dollars to a fund supporting local news.In 2021, the company threatened to remove its entire search engine from Australia in response to a then-proposed law requiring tech companies to share royalties with news publishers. The nation's then-Prime Minister stood firm. Let me be clear. Australia makes our rules for things you can do in Australia," Scott Morrison said. After the bill was passed and enacted, Google struck deals with Australian media companies to license content.Google says it hopes the data analysis tools it provides publishers will help them use the EU test to understand traffic patterns."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/a-google-test-will-omit-eu-publishers-from-news-links-184536615.html?src=rss

Threads could start getting ads much sooner than Meta has let on. The company is now planning to bring ads to its newest app early next year" with the first ads arriving in January of 2025, according to a new report in The Information.That suggests Meta is looking to start making money on the rapidly growing service far sooner than Meta executives have previously suggested. In August, when the app reached 200 million users, Mark Zuckerberg said Threads could become the company's next billion-user service. He said making money off the app would be a "multi-year" effort.All these new products, we ship them, and then there's a multi-year time horizon between scaling them and then scaling them into not just consumer experiences but very large businesses," Zuckerberg said. In the company's most recent earnings call, Meta CFO Susan Li said the company doesn't expect Threads to be a meaningful driver of 2025 revenue at this time."According to The Information, Meta is planning a slow rollout for ads on Threads. The company will start with a small number" of advertisers in January. It's unclear how quickly the effort may expand. "Since our priority is to build consumer value first and foremost, there are no ads or monetization features currently on Threads," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.Meta's reported plans highlight just how quickly the service has grown in recent months. Threads has 275 million monthly users and is seeing more than 1 million new sign-ups a day, according to Zuckerberg. That makes it by far the largest of the X alternatives that have sprung up over the last couple years.Bluesky, another popular Twitter-like service, has also seen significant growth recently, adding a million new users in the last week, the company said Tuesday. It is still much smaller than Threads with 15 million users. Like Threads, it also currently has no advertising and the company has said it plans to experiment with subscription-based features.Update November 13, 2024, 2 PM ET: Added a statement from a Meta spokesperson.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-will-reportedly-bring-ads-to-threads-as-soon-as-january-183044211.html?src=rss

AMD has confirmed it's laying off roughly four percent of its global workforce, according to reports by TechCrunch and others. It's not entirely clear how many people will be impacted by this move, or which divisions the laid off employees will be pulled from.We can, however, do some math. The company had around 26,000 employees last year, according to an annual filing by AMD. Four percent of 26,000 comes out to just over 1,000 people. That's a lot.So that leads us to why. You already know the answer. It's a bunch of corporate gobbledygook. As a part of aligning our resources with our largest growth opportunities, we are taking a number of targeted steps," an AMD spokesperson told CRN.Don't worry. The company also said it's committed to treating impacted employees with respect and helping them through this transition." Engadget reached out to AMD for more information as to what that respect and help will look like. We'll update this story if we find out anything.This news comes after a fairly mixed Q3 earnings report. The company grew revenue and profit, but the gaming division saw a massive year-over-year decline of 69 percent, according to Wccftech. The company has also struggled to compete with NVIDIA in the world of AI chips.Experts still predict that AMD will make nearly $33 billion in 2025, thanks to forthcoming next-gen GPUs. This isn't enough for investors, however, as it's just" an increase of around $7 billion when compared to 2024. The company's stock is down around four percent this year, and dropped further today. Capitalism demands massive and endless growth.Rival (and occasional bestie) Intel has faced similar headwinds. The company announced over 15,000 layoffs earlier this year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amd-lays-off-4-percent-of-its-global-workforce-182534044.html?src=rss

Amazon Haul will be the ecommerce titan's new discount storefront designed to compete against Temu and Shein, CNBCreports. This new corner of Bezos's empire is mobile-only and promises items at crazy low prices."Unlike Amazon Prime's fast speeds, Amazon promises its Haul orders orders will arrive in less than two weeks. Previously, CNBC mentioned in a previous report that Amazon was exploring a storefront where goods would be sold to US customers directly from China, though now it seems the company itself is doing the importing and acting as an intermediary.Speed isn't the only alteration to the typical Amazon arrangement customers will have to get used to. It seems, regardless of if they subscribe to Prime or not, buyers will have to purchase $25 of goods per order with Haul to get free shipping. For lesser orders, the shipping fee will be $3.99. Amazon also won't accept Haul returns if the value of the items is $3 or under.If customers take to Haul, the new storefront could put Amazon in a favorable position in a seemingly crowded market. Both the US and EU have set their regulatory sights on Temu.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amazon-haul-wants-to-be-the-new-temu-161344035.html?src=rss

The Federal Trade Commission will get a chance to argue its case for Meta's breakup in court. On Wednesday, US District Judge James Boasberg allowed the FTC's lawsuit against the social media giant to move forward (PDF link). The FTC first sued Meta in 2020 in an attempt to force the company, then known as Facebook, to divest itself of Instagram and WhatsApp. Alongside dozens of attorneys general, the agency alleged Meta acquired the platforms in 2012 and 2014 to stifle growing competition in the social media market.This past April, Meta asked Judge Boasberg to dismiss the case. In addition to noting that the FTC had previously approved both acquisitions, Meta argued that the agency had failed to show that the company held monopoly power in the social networking services market, and that, in buying Instagram and WhatsApp, it had harmed consumers. Additionally, the company claimed that it had invested billions of dollars in both platforms and made them better as a result, to the benefit of social media users everywhere.While he did not entirely dismiss the lawsuit, Boasberg did force the FTC to narrow its case, dismissing an allegation that Facebook had provided preferential access to developers who agreed not to compete with it.We are confident that the evidence at trial will show that the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp have been good for competition and consumers. More than 10 years after the FTC reviewed and cleared these deals, and despite the overwhelming evidence that our services compete with YouTube, TikTok, X, Apple's iMessage, and many others, the Commission is wrongly continuing to assert that no deal is ever truly final, and businesses can be punished for innovating," a Meta spokesperson told Engadget. We will review the opinion when it's filed."Judge Boasberg will meet with the two sides on November 25 to schedule the trial. The FTC lawsuit, it should be noted, was filed under the previous Trump administration, though whether it moves forward and in what form will depend on who President-elect Trump appoints to lead the agency.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/meta-will-have-to-defend-itself-from-antitrust-claims-after-all-155730259.html?src=rss

This is Lightfoot, a solar scooter conceived by San Francisco-based R&D outfit Otherlab that, it claims, will be available to buy in the US from January. The most eye-catching feature are the two side panels covered in solar cells that will hopefully keep you from needing a charger. In the gap between the two, however, is a fairly capacious cargo compartment with almost 1.6 cubic feet of space. That should be more than enough to haul your gear to and from work, or to pick up some groceries when you're out and about. The padded seat and footplates, too, are designed to carry the rider and an additional passenger when required, too.Specs-wise, there's a pair of 750W brushless DC motors with a top speed of 20 miles per hour, generating 90Nm of peak torque, which should hopefully be enough to scale the hills around SF (and wherever you are). They're wired up to a 1.1kWh battery that the company promises will deliver a range of 37 miles on a single charge. The two 120W panels on either side will trickle charge the battery when on the road or parked up outdoors. Otherlab claims this idle solar charging will add three miles of charge per hour, or 18 miles if you leave it for a whole day.Lightfoot / OtherlabAside from the solar hardware, Otherlab claims that you - or a qualified technician - will be able to keep this running without any outside assistance. It said most of the components are off-the-shelf motorcycle parts and that they can be repaired or replaced just as easily. There's also a one-year whole-bike and two-year mechanical guarantee, as well as a no-question buy back policy. We'll reserve judgment on every facet of this until we're able to test it for ourselves, but we're looking forward to doing so just to see what this thing feels like to ride.Pre-orders for the Lightfoot are opening today for $4,995, with Otherlab pledging to make the first deliveries in January 2025.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/im-kinda-in-awe-of-this-goofy-solar-scooter-150041980.html?src=rss

The Guardian announced it will no longer be active on X (formerly Twitter) - all its editorial accounts will stop posting on the platform. Users can, of course, still share the outlet's articles on X, and journalists working for The Guardian may link to or embed X posts in their articles or continue using the platform to gather news.According to the statement, X has become rife with far-right conspiracy theories and racism" and is simply not worth sinking more resources into. The newspaper would rather spend its time and energy on less "toxic" platforms. Additionally, The Guardian cites Elon Musk as a major reason for moving away, since the results of the recent US presidential election have allegedly shown how Musk "has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse." Essentially, the concern appears to be that continuing to post would be adding fuel to a propaganda machine.The Guardian isn't the only news outlet to ditch X: NPR and PBS both left in 2023. Corporations like Apple, IBM, Disney and others still post, but no longer advertise on X. These companies have historically been the social media platform's biggest source of ad income, as reported by Axios.The Guardian claims it's able to make this decision because it doesn't rely on advertising as its main business model. But Twitter was always more about influence than driving traffic, and the returns on investment for publishers have only gotten worse with time.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/the-guardian-is-leaving-x-144549755.html?src=rss