Amazon’s drone delivery program doesn’t seem to be off to a great start. The Prime Air division was said to be hit hard by recent, widespread layoffs. Now, a new report indicates that Amazon’s drones have made just a handful of deliveries in their firs…
Arlo video doorbells and security cameras are up to half off
Folks on the lookout for a new video doorbell or home security camera might be interested in checking out the latest sale on Arlo gear. You can snap up the devices for up to half off at the minute, with the Essential Wire-Free Video Doorbell seeing the biggest drop from $200 to $100.
The doorbell, which you can plug in if you wish, offers a 180-degree wide field view and HD video with HDR. It captures video prior to motion-activated recordings, so you can see what caught the camera’s attention (such as what someone was doing right before ringing the doorbell). You can speak to whoever’s at your door from your phone thanks to two-way audio support. Alternatively, you can respond with quick reply prompts if you’re busy. Arlo says the device is durable too, so it should be able to withstand the elements.
The doorbell should play nicely with other smart home security devices, as it has Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Samsung SmartThings support. Those who take out an Arlo Secure plan, meanwhile, will receive notifications when the doorbell detects people, vehicles, and packages.
The sale also includes a wired version of the doorbell, which is 47 percent off at $80. A two-pack of the spotlight camera, which offers 1080p video capture and color night vision without the need for a hub, will run you $160 (31 percent off). Meanwhile, an indoor camera with a privacy shield is $30 off at $70.
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Microsoft rolls out Teams Premium with OpenAI-powered features
Fresh off the heels of news that Microsoft is making a multibillion-dollar investment into OpenAI, it’s integrating the company’s tech into more of its products and services. Microsoft has announced that Teams Premium is now broadly available. The serv…
OpenAI starts offering a paid ChatGPT plan for $20 per month
ChatGPT, the AI chatbot that has blown up over the last few months, is going premium. After confirming a few weeks ago that it would test a paid plan, OpenAI has rolled out ChatGPT Plus.
Although people will still be able to use the chatbot for free, there are of course some perks that come with a ChatGPT Plus plan. OpenAI says subscribers will have general access to the chatbot, even during peak times. They’ll also get faster response times from ChatGPT, along with priority access to upgrades and new features.
The paid service is available in the US for now. OpenAI plans to gradually invite people from the ChatGPT Plus waitlist to sign up for the service over the coming months. The company is also looking to open up the plan to folks in other countries and regions in the near future.
OpenAI says that the premium plan will help to keep ChatGPT free for anyone to use. In addition, it’s exploring cheaper subscriptions, as well as business plans and data packs to increase availability.
“We launched ChatGPT as a research preview so we could learn more about the system’s strengths and weaknesses and gather user feedback to help us improve upon its limitations,” OpenAI wrote in a blog post. “Since then, millions of people have given us feedback, we’ve made several important updates and we’ve seen users find value across a range of professional use-cases, including drafting and editing content, brainstorming ideas, programming help and learning new topics.”
OpenAI has found some other ways to bring in funding. Last month, Microsoft announced it’s making a multibillion dollar investment in the company and it plans to use OpenAI’s tech more broadly across its products. Google, meanwhile, has reportedly focused heavily on its AI work after the emergence of ChatGPT. It’s said to be preparing its own chatbot and at least 20 other AI-powered products to show off this year.
Rivian is laying off another six percent of its workforce
Electric vehicle maker Rivian is laying off another six percent of its workforce. The company reduced its headcount by the same proportion of workers back in July. The automaker has around 14,000 employees, according to Reuters, so it will be letting go around 840 people this time.
As with the previous round of layoffs, Rivian says it’s focusing resources on increasing production and becoming a profitable company.”While this doesn’t impact manufacturing jobs in Normal, teams across the company will be losing passionate collaborators — teammates who stretched themselves daily and have given their all to help us execute on our mission,” CEO RJ Scaringe wrote in an email to employees. The company shared a copy of the memo with Engadget.
As part of its push toward profitability, Rivian is attempting to ramp up production of its R1T and R1S vehicles, as well as the delivery vans it’s making for Amazon. It had to slash its production target for 2022 due to supply chain issues. Reuters notes that Rivian fell just short of its goal of making 25,000 vehicles last year.
The company is also working on more affordable R2 electric trucks, which it plans to produce at high-volume, but it doesn’t expect to start shipping them until 2026. Rivian will build that truck at a $5 billion factory it’s constructing in Georgia.
“Continuing to improve our operating efficiency on our path to profitability is a core objective and requires us to concentrate our investments and resources on the highest impact parts of our business,” Scaringe wrote. “The changes we are announcing today reflect this focused roadmap.”
We’ll get a clearer picture of the state of Rivian’s business when it reports quarterly earnings on February 28th. The company announced its latest layoffs soon after Tesla and Ford cut prices of their EVs, making it more difficult for newer players like Rivian to compete. Earlier this week, EV startup Arrival said it would cut around half of its workforce.
‘Apex Legends Mobile’ is shutting down after less than a year
Along with delaying Star Wars Jedi: Survivorby six weeks, Electronic Arts says it’s shutting down Apex Legends Mobile less than a year after releasing the game on iOS and Android. The company is also abandoning Battlefield Mobile and closing Industrial Toys, the studio behind that game.
“At Respawn, we aim to provide players with games that are consistently outstanding,” Respawn Entertainment said in a statement. “Following a strong start, the content pipeline for Apex Legends Mobile has begun to fall short of that bar for quality, quantity, and cadence. It is for this reason, after months of working with our development partner, that we have made the mutual decision to sunset our mobile game.” Tencent and Lightspeed had been working on the mobile version.
EA has already delisted Apex Mobile (which Apple named the iPhone game of the year for 2022) from app stores and halted all in-app purchases with real money. The game will still be playable for a few more months until the servers are switched off on May 1st at 7PM ET. EA says it won’t refund real money purchases but suggests that users can request refunds from the App Store or Play Store.
As for Battlefield Mobile, that game hadn’t been fully rolled out. EA started testing it in select markets in the fall of 2021. EA says it’s still focused on helping the Battlefield series reach its potential (it has ambitious plans for the franchise) and supporting Battlefield 2042, but a mobile version is no longer on the cards for the time being.
Meanwhile, around the same time EA announced the end of Apex Legends Mobile, it emerged that the Epic Games-published Rumbleverse, a pro wrestling-themed battle royale, will shut down at the end of this month. While big players like Fortnite, PUBG: Battlegrounds, the PC and console version of Apex Legends and Fall Guys seem to be doing just fine for now, these closures suggest the battle royale bubble is starting to burst.
Commerce Department calls Google and Apple ‘gatekeepers’ of mobile apps
Biden administration officials have taken aim at Apple and Google in a new report, describing the pair as “gatekeepers” of the mobile apps that consumers and businesses rely on. The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) states that users “should have more control over their devices” and argues that more legislation is probably needed to bolster competition in the app ecosystem. The agency also claims that “the current ecosystem is not a level playing field.”
In a report titled “Competition in the Mobile App Ecosystem” (PDF), the NTIA says it pinpointed two major policy issues that are getting in the way of a more competitive app ecosystem. First, it says that users “largely” can’t get apps outside of the Google and Apple-controlled app store model. The report notes that sideloading is not an option broadly available to most iOS users and that alternative app stores such as Amazon Appstore and Samsung’s Galaxy Store “are not currently sufficiently viable options to create robust competition.”
The NTIA says the second issue it identified is that Apple and Google impose technical barriers that can make it more difficult for developers to compete. These can include factors such as limits on how apps function and funneling apps through “slow and opaque review processes,” the report says.
The agency determined that, while there are some benefits to the current mobile app ecosystem, particularly when it comes to security measures, the cons outweighed the pros. It added that it’s still possible to shore up privacy and security in a more competitive marketplace. To get to that point, the NTIA suggests that several changes are required.
First, it says, users should have more control over what they do with their devices, including the option to set their own apps as defaults (something that’s already possible on Android and iOS to some degree), a way to hide or remove pre-installed apps and the ability to use third-party app stores. The NTIA argues that operators of app stores shouldn’t give their own apps preferential treatment in search results as well.
In addition, there should be measures in place to prevent limits on sideloading, web apps and other app stores “while still preserving appropriate latitude for privacy and security safeguards,” the agency said. Moreover, it claimed that “limits on in-app purchasing options should be addressed” by preventing app store operators from forcing developers to use their own payment systems. Google has been testing third-party billing options for certain Android apps, while Apple last year started allowing certain app makers to direct users to their websites to manage payments and accounts.
“We appreciate the report acknowledges the importance of user privacy, data security and user convenience,” an Apple spokesperson told Engadget in a statement. “Nevertheless, we respectfully disagree with a number of conclusions reached in the report, which ignore the investments we make in innovation, privacy and security — all of which contribute to why users love iPhone and create a level playing field for small developers to compete on a safe and trusted platform.”
In a filing with the NTIA, Apple said it “competes with other products that do not offer the same level of protection and instead choose to let customers load unvetted code onto their devices — which independent studies show leads to more malware and less privacy.” The company also claimed that if its “security and privacy protections were regulated out of existence, the result would thus be less competition and less consumer choice.”
Engadget has contacted Google for comment.
The NTIA report comes amid a drive from the White House to bolster competition in the tech industry. “My vision for our economy is one in which everyone — small and midsized businesses, mom-and-pop shops, entrepreneurs — can compete on a level playing field with the biggest companies,” President Joe Biden wrote last month in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
There have been attempts in Congress to increase competition in the mobile app ecosystem. Proposed legislation called the Open App Markets Act failed to pass in the last session despite gaining bipartisan support. It would have required Apple and Google to let developers use third-party app stores and payment systems.
Alienware’s first NVIDIA GeForce 40-series laptops arrive next week
Alienware has announced when you’ll be able to get your hands on its first laptops with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40-series graphics cards. Last month at CES, the brand unveiled a new 18-inch model, as well as more 16-inch laptops, and now the company has revealed some pricing and availability details.
The chunkiest system is called the Alienware m18. It will initially be available in the US on February 9th with a GeForce RTX 4080. That powerhouse system will start at $2,899. More configurations will be available at a later date, including an entry-level model that starts at $2,099 ($2,999 CAD in Canada).
Along with one of NVIDIA’s most powerful laptop GPUs, the Alienware m18 boasts Intel’s fastest 13th-gen HX mobile CPUs, up to 9TB of storage and either a 165Hz quad-HD or 480Hz 1080p display. It’s as thick as the existing m17 but there’s a promise of improved cooling, thanks to a vapor chamber covering the processor and graphics card, seven heat pipes and a quartet of fans. These are said to provide a 25 percent airflow improvement.
The m16 has a similar design and the same cooling boosts. Likewise, it will debut in the US with an RTX 4080 configuration on February 9th. That version of the m16 will start at $2,599. More variants are on the way, with the entry model slated to start at $1,899 ($2,699 CAD).
As for the x16, that also has a 16-inch display, albeit in a slimmer, more portable and all-metal form factor. Alienware managed to cram six speakers into this laptop, including two upward-firing tweeters and dual woofers. You’ll be able to snap one up with Intel’s fastest non-HX 13th-gen CPUs. The x16 will debut in the US with an RTX 4080 on February 14th for $3,099. Other Intel and NVIDIA-powered variants, available later, will start at $2,199 ($2,999 CAD).
Alienware plans to release AMD-powered versions of all of these laptops in Q2. It will reveal pricing closer to launch.
Meanwhile, Alienware has revealed that its first 500Hz monitor will arrive in the near future. The 24.5-inch display will debut in China on February 9th and it will make its way to North America “soon.” Pricing for the US and Canada will be announced later.
You’ll also need to wait a little longer to find out initial pricing and availability for the next Alienware x14, as well as Dell’s G15 and G16. Alienware will announce those details on March 2nd. On the same day, the brand will host an event on Twitch, during which it will reveal more peripherals and other hardware.
Netflix brings spatial audio to hundreds more titles, but only for Premium subscribers
Last summer, Netflix started using a spatial audio system that doesn’t require dedicated equipment. After debuting the tech with season four of Stranger Things and a few other other titles, Netflix is now rolling it out more broadly. However, you’ll need to be subscribed to the top-end Premium tier to check it out. The company says spatial audio is now available on more than 700 of its most-watched titles, including The Watcher, Wednesday and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
A spatial audio badge on shows and movies will make it clearer if a title supports that format. You can also search for “spatial audio” to see the full list of supported titles. In the coming months, you’ll be able to check out more series and films with spatial audio enabled, including You, Your Place or Mine, Luther: The Fallen Sun and Tour de France.
Netflix teamed up with Sennheiser to use Ambeo 2-Channel Spatial Audio tech. It’s designed for built-in stereo speakers, particularly laptops and tablets. Netflix says spatial audio should be effective on TVs that aren’t too far away from the viewer and phones with stereo speakers. The company claims that its spatial audio will offer a more immersive experience to those wearing headphones too.
Premium subscribers are getting another boost starting today, which could come in especially handy for those who watch Netflix shows and movies on the go and across several devices. You’ll now be able to download titles to six different devices, up from four. That’s six more devices than users on the ad-supported plan can download TV series and films to.
Twitter is killing off co-authored tweets after less than a year
Twitter has quietly killed off a feature that allowed users to publish co-authored tweets. The company enabled CoTweets on “select” accounts last July in the US, Canada and Korea, but the feature never made it beyond the experimental stage. As of today, you’ll no longer be able to post CoTweets.
“We’re sad to say that the current experiment is coming to an end,” Twitter wrote on an updated support page. “Already existing CoTweets will be viewable for one more month at which point they will revert to retweets.”
If you invited someone to CoTweet with you, that tweet will remain on your account, according to Mashable. For those who were invited to co-author a tweet, CoTweets will soon appear as retweets from the other person’s account. All clear on that? Swell.
This may not completely be the end of CoTweets. “We’re still looking for ways to implement this feature moving forward,” Twitter said. So, it could return at some point.
It’s unlikely to be high on Twitter’s list of priorities, however, particularly given that some 80 percent of employees have left the company since Elon Musk took over in late October. A recent report suggested Twitter now has fewer than 550 full-time engineers, who may have their hands full with other things.