Tech News

Japan's latest life-sized Gundam statue is almost complete

Igor Bonifacic — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 19:30:03 GMT

No matter how many times a new Gundam statue goes up in Japan, it’s always a sight to behold. This week was no different when workers attached the head of the RX-93FF V to its body as a crowd of onlookers and journalists came to watch the spectacle.

福岡市に姿を現したのは、高さおよそ25mの「ν（ニュー）ガンダム」。
クレーンで頭部が持ち上げられ胴体にドッキングされると拍手が上がっていました。https://t.co/lgfiHvQQj8 #nhk_video pic.twitter.com/zSj59o7LPR
— NHKニュース (@nhk_news) December 22, 2021

The one-to-one recreation is a riff on Amuro Ray’s Nu Gundam from 1988’s Char’s Counterattack. It stands 81.3 feet tall and is located in front of the LaLaport shopping center in Fukuoka, the most populous city on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu. Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino was involved in the design of the statue, including the new tri-tone color scheme that adorns it.

It’s not the first one-to-one scale Gundam statue to go up in Japan. The one most people are probably familiar with is the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam that stands in Tokyo’s Odaiba district. It was a frequent sight during the 2020 Summer Olympics and the source of many a nerd faux pas during the event. Just ask the BBC and this guy.

According to The Mainichi, there are still some finishing touches workers need to add before the Gundam is complete sometime by the end of February. Hopefully the pandemic eases by then so that there's a possibility people outside of Japan can visit it.

Intel apologizes for letter on forced labor in Xinjiang

Jon Fingas — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 19:00:44 GMT

Intel is learning first-hand about the challenges of pleasing both its home country and China. The New York Timesreports Intel has apologized on Chinese social networks after it sent local suppliers a letter saying it wouldn't use labor and products from the province of Xinjiang. The company said it was honoring US sanctions against the province, not outlining a political viewpoint like social media users, celebrities and nationalist press had suggested.

The US applied sanctions following widespread claims the Chinese government was suppressing Xinjiang's Uyghur Muslim population. Many have accused China of human rights violations that include forced labor, internment camps and constant surveillance. China has long denied the allegations. Intel may have played a role in those violations, as its chips were used in both a spying-oriented supercomputing center and in surveillance systems police obtained despite a blocklist preventing access to US tech. Intel said it wasn't aware China was misusing its hardware.

The uproar underscores the juggling act Intel, Apple and other American tech firms maintain when operating in China. They have to respect US sanctions (as Intel will continue to do here) and frequently want to be seen embracing American notions of civil and human rights, but they also risk losing a major source of revenue if they antagonize a Chinese government eager to silence criticism. Companies have removed features, transferred data storage and otherwise made exceptions to preserve their business in China. Intel won't necessarily be pushed to make a decision after the letter, but it clearly doesn't have much leeway in situations like this.

Amazon will remind workers about their rights following an NLRB deal

Kris Holt — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 18:36:02 GMT

The tussle between Amazon and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has taken another turn after the company reached a nationwide settlement with the agency. Amazon has agreed to remind current and former workers across the US about their labor rights on notices posted in workplaces, and on the mobile app and website for workers. Amazon will also send a copy of the notice to email addresses it has on file for any employee who worked at its facilities between March 22nd and December 22nd.

The notice informs workers that they have the legal right to join, form or assist with a union. They can select a representative to bargain with Amazon on their behalf and "act together with other employees for your benefit and protection."

In addition, workers have more leeway to organize in company facilities. In the notice, Amazon states it will not tell them to leave a property or threaten disciplinary action "when you are exercising your right to engage in union or protected concerted activities by talking to your co-workers in exterior non-work areas during non-work time." Nor will it ask workers about union activity, or why they're speaking to co-workers, according to the notice.

It'll be easier for the NLRB to sue Amazon if the agency believes it violated the agreement. In such cases, the company agreed to let the NLRB forego an administrative hearing process, which can take a long time to complete.

“This settlement agreement provides a crucial commitment from Amazon to millions of its workers across the United States that it will not interfere with their right to act collectively to improve their workplace by forming a union or taking other collective action,” NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo told The New York Times. Engadget has contacted Amazon for comment.

The agreement is related to six cases brought forward by workers who complained Amazon was impeding their efforts to organize. The company previously settled NLRB cases on an individual basis, but this a broader agreement. The agreement includes references to employees, but not contractors, who make up the bulk of Amazon's delivery workforce. It's unclear whether they will be afforded the same rights and protections under the deal.

The NLRB and Amazon have been at odds in recent times. In November, the labor board ordered Amazon to rerun a union election at an Alabama warehouse. It said Amazon interfered with the process. Workers at other facilities have attempted to organize — those at a fulfillment center in New York are trying once again to unionize after failing to obtain enough signatures last time.

Amazon has long been criticized over working conditions. Lawmakers this week sought answers from the company over whether its policies contributed to the deaths of six people after a tornado struck a warehouse in Illinois. Amazon recently warned its workers that an even more demanding workload than usual during the holiday period could have a significant impact on their mental health.

No one asked for lickable TV, and yet...

Jon Fingas — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 17:38:05 GMT

Never mind smelling what's on screen — would you like to taste what you see? Probably not, but one scientist is pressing forward anyway. ASCII and Reuters report Meiji University professor Homei Miyashita has presented Taste the TV, a set you can lick to get the flavor of whatever's on-screen. The prototype sends electrical signals to 10 flavor canisters to create unique sprays that cover a (thankfully hygenic) film overlay.

The device has been long in development. Miyashita discussed the basic concept of a "taste synthesizer" in spring 2020, and offered an early look at the TV in October this year.

It sounds disgusting, and people would no doubt give you strange looks if you French-kissed your TV in the middle of a show. However, Miyashita doesn't necessarily see this as gimmick to add to everyday consumer screens, like 3D TV. He instead imagined lickable screens as tools for cooks and sommeliers, and even hoped to build a platform where you could download tastes like you might songs or videos. This could help you taste recipes from around the world while staying at home.

The technology might be more practical than you think, too. The professor took about a year to build the prototype himself, and he estimated a shipping version would cost the equivalent of $875 to make. Although you probably wouldn't make one the centerpiece of your living room, it might be affordable enough for the culinary industry and dedicated gourmands.

Lenovo joins growing list of companies that won't attend CES 2022 physically

Igor Bonifacic — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 17:26:55 GMT

Lenovo has become the latest company to announce it won't have a physical presence at CES 2022. On Wednesday evening, the consumer and enterprise electronics manufacturer said it wouldn't have on-site personnel at the event to protect the health of its employees and customers.

"After closely monitoring the current trends surrounding COVID, it is in the best interest of the health and safety of our employees, customers, partners, and our communities to suspend all on-site activity in Las Vegas," the company said on Twitter. "While this is a change in plans, we are excited for you all to see our latest technology launching as scheduled on January 4th and January 5th."

CES UPDATE: After closely monitoring the current trends surrounding COVID, it is in the best interest of the health and safety of our employees, customers, partners, and our communities to suspend all on-site activity in Las Vegas.
— Lenovo Stories & News (@LenovoNews) December 23, 2021

Lenovo follows Amazon, Meta, Twitter and show sponsor T-Mobile in backing away from the trade show. All four said they would not attend in person due to concerns related to the new COVID-19 omicron variant. And while they're all important names in tech, they're not a hardware player in the same way Lenovo is, nor have they historically had as large of a physical presence at the show as it has in years past.

For the time being, the Consumer Technology Association, the organization that puts together CES every year, still plans to move forward with the event. "Given CES' comprehensive health measures — vaccination requirement, masking and availability of COVID-19 tests — coupled with lower attendance and social distancing measures, we are confident that attendees and exhibitors can have a socially distanced but worthwhile and productive event in Las Vegas, as well as a rewarding experience on our digital access," the organization told TechCrunch.

There's still much that scientists don't know about omicron, but early data suggests it's a highly transmissible strain of the coronavirus. Federal health officials said on Monday the variant accounted for 73 percent of all new cases nationwide the week ending December 18th. It made up 12.6 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the US just seven days earlier. In some areas of the country, including parts of New York states and the Pacific Northwest, the variant's share was even higher. Scientists have also found most non-mRNA vaccines, including Sinovac and Sinophram, offer little protection against the strain. It's understandable then why many companies want to play it safe, and it's fair to say Lenovo probably won't be the last to pull out of CES 2022.

Update 12:31PM ET: Alphabet's autonomous car unit Waymo announced today it too won't have a physical presence at CES 2022. The company says it will still participate virtually in some CES-related events, but it won't have a booth at the event.

The safety and wellbeing of our team is our top priority, so based on quickly evolving COVID infection rates, Waymo has made the tough decision not to participate in person at CES’22. We are aiming to still virtually participate in some CES-related events https://t.co/2BBmwYeQWk
— Waymo (@Waymo) December 23, 2021

The first text message is now a $150,000 NFT

Kris Holt — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 17:05:29 GMT

Vodafone has turned the first text message into a non-fungible token (NFT). It sold at a Paris auction house this week for €132,680 ($150,000) worth of Ether. The company will donate the proceeds to the United Nations Refugee Agency to support forcibly displaced people.

Just over 29 years ago, Richard Jarvis, then a director of Vodafone, received the first text message from programmer Neil Papworth. Suitably enough, given that it was sent in December, the SMS read "Merry Christmas." Although the content of the text message wasn't exactly exciting, it laid the foundation for the next several decades of communications.

The anonymous auction winner will receive a copy of the communication protocol for the SMS, as CNN notes. They'll also get a certificate of authenticity and a digital frame that displays an animation of a phone receiving the message.

It's yet another telecommunications landmark that has been turned into an NFT. Also in December, Jimmy Wales sold an NFT of the first Wikipedia edit at auction for $750,000. Earlier this year, Tim Berners-Lee minted the web's source code as an NFT and sold it for charity.

Amazon warned workers that its busy season could make them feel suicidal

Bryan Menegus — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 16:50:31 GMT

In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. Crisis Text Line can be reached by texting HOME to 741741 (US), 686868 (Canada), or 85258 (UK). Wikipedia maintains a list of crisis lines for people outside of those countries.

Amazon is hitting the tail end of peak – the term the company uses to refer to the winter holidays, as well as its own corporate holiday, Prime Day – when its workers are under the greatest strain, frequently required to clock mandatory overtime hours and are disallowed from scheduling any vacation days. It also coincides with the hiring of a deluge of temporary workers, with a projected 150,000 added this year, its largest holiday surge to date.

It's hectic during the best of times. But according to an internal email viewed by Engadget, and the testimonies of four current or former associates who were granted anonymity for fear of reprisal, it's also a time of year when Amazon expects some number of its workforce to take out their stress on their colleagues, or on themselves.

"Peak is a busy time for our entire team as everyone is dedicated to helping customers receive their holiday packages on time. It's easy to feel stressed and overwhelmed," the leaked email, dated November 23, reads. "And while most of us never pose a risk to others, some people can act out in a way that causes concern. This could be due to many factors in their lives, not just what they experience at work. Regardless of the cause, workplace violence is never the answer." [Emphasis theirs]

The worker who provided the email to Engadget could not recall similar messaging during previous peaks. "I've been with Amazon a little over four years now and they've never mentioned anything about our mental status until now," they wrote in an email. "Our leadership hasn't announced anything [other] than quota related issues."

The email goes on to draw a connection between the grueling workload of peak and the potential for self-harm. "Remember that your mental health matters," it reads. "If you experience stress, feelings of depression, anxiety, or thoughts of suicide, please talk with your manager, a human resources business partner, or a mental health professional." It directs workers to use the company's "free, confidential counselors and other resources."

Two of the associates who spoke to Engadget recalled being shown a video, covering similar subject matter, during their training.

"It was stupid things like call the employee resource center, and talking about 'if you feel like you want to harm somebody you can tell your supervisor and you'll be allowed to leave work and go home.' It was just such bullshit," one recalled. The same associate stated that the employee resource center is "like a black hole of 'press one for this', I don't even know how to talk to a real person there."

"They have a number you call if you start feeling suicidal or depressed from working too much," another told Engadget. "They put a video on during training where they talked about how a lot of workers feel this way. And that was right after the reveal that we were not getting the schedules we wanted and we had to work 60 hours a week. After being told it would be 40."

A 2019 report in the Daily Beast publicized some of the 911 calls that had been made from inside several of Amazon's warehouses, including a pregnant worker who threatened to stab herself and her unborn child. Jace Crouch, a former employee quoted in the story, said that "people having breakdowns [are] a regular occurrence" within these facilities.

An Amazon spokesperson declined to answer specific questions sent by Engadget, including whether the company had seen any uptick in workplace violence. Instead the company provided the following statement: “We know it’s been a tough year and a half for everyone, and like most large companies, we work to support our teams in many different ways. This includes providing resources throughout the year for anyone who may be dealing with stress in their personal lives or at work, and making sure they feel seen and able to ask for help if they need it.”

Are you a tech worker with concerns about your job, safety, or the work you're required to do? Reach out to me confidentially on Signal at 646.983.9846

Big Tech split leads to demise of Internet Association

Financial Times — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 16:37:36 GMT

Enlarge / Street sign for K Street, the Wall Street of political influence in the US capital. (credit: Bjarte Rettedal | Getty Images)

Growing tensions between Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Apple lie behind the death of the Internet Association (IA), the nine-year-old lobby group that was Big Tech’s voice in Washington, according to insiders and industry observers.

The Washington-based group, which dubbed itself the “unified” voice of the internet industry, will shut at the end of the year after both Microsoft and Uber, among others, pulled their financial support, leaving an insurmountable funding gap.

“Our industry has undergone tremendous growth and change,” it said in a statement, adding that its closure was “in line with this evolution.”

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Merck's COVID-19 antiviral pill is the second authorized by the FDA

Jon Fingas — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 16:29:51 GMT

Pfizer's COVID-19 antiviral pill will already have some competition in the US. As the Associated Pressreports, the Food and Drug Administration has given emergency use authorization for Merck's Molnupiravir pill. The treatment limits replication of SARS-CoV-2 by inserting "errors" in the virus' genetic code while an infection is relatively young, ideally preventing mild or moderate cases from becoming severe in high-risk patients.

The medicine might not get as much use as Pfizer's Paxlovid, however. Merck's offering will only be available to those 18 years or older versus 12 years for Pfizer's, as there are concerns it might affect bone and cartilage development in younger patients. There are also warnings against using it during pregnancy or while attempting to conceive — the FDA said people should use birth control both during and after treatment, with women waiting days and men waiting three months.

Molnupiravir also doesn't appear to be as effective as Paxlovid. While Pfizer's solution reduced hospitalization and death by as much as 90 percent, Merck's only managed 30 percent. This pill may become the secondary option, particularly in situations where Paxlovid isn't available. Both companies' products are expected to remain effective against the virus' Omicron variant as they don't target mutating spike proteins.

Still, this might become another useful tool for minimizing COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths. Pfizer's pill will be the most readily available when the US is ordering enough to treat 10 million patients, but there will be enough of Merck's drug to address 3.1 million. Even if the effectiveness is limited, that could spare hundreds of thousands of people from the worst the disease has to offer.

How the pandemic supercharged the creator economy in 2021

Karissa Bell — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 15:30:50 GMT

The multibillion dollar industry of game streamers, beauty vloggers, podcast producers, fitness influencers, newsletter writers and other social media stars who make up the “creator economy,” began long before 2021. Yet 2021 saw more platforms throw more money and resources at independent content creators than ever before.

This year, companies that had previously shown little interest in courting “influencers” or building relationships with creators began to invest in building monetization tools for them. And even more established, creator-friendly companies significantly ramped up their investments with new funds and tools.

Twitter, which had previously only ever had a single monetization feature — a video centric tool used by publishers — opted to reorient its entire platform around creators. It built Super Follows, a Patreon-esque subscription service for influencers. It launched Ticketed Spaces, so people could make money from its burgeoning live audio feature. It launched in-app tripping, and started building a newsletter platform.

Snapchat, which at one time actively shunned the idea of influencers, just announced that it had funneled more than $250 million to creators via its Spotlight feature, which launched at the end of 2020. Some of the app’s biggest stars are even getting their own shows in Snapchat Discover.

Facebook also took a renewed interest in the influencers and content creators who had long asked for more opportunities from the platform. Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly labeled creators as one of the company's top priorities and announced a plan to invest $1 billion into tools for them by the end of 2022. Since then, Facebook and Instagram have launched a dizzying number of creator-focused updates and monetization features.

Platforms not traditionally associated with influencers also began throwing money at creators and monetization features. Pinterest launched a $500,000 creator fund and built its first monetization tools. LinkedIn — yes, that LinkedIn — announced a $25 million fund. Clubhouse added tipping. Tumblr, meanwhile, launched a subscription service for its bloggers.

Even YouTube, the most established platform for creators to make money, identified “growing the creator economy” as its top 2021 priority. It launched an all-new $100 million fund just for Shorts, its TikTok-like feature. TikTok itself, which started a $200 million fund in 2020, also launched new monetization features.

With all that money flowing in, it’s no surprise that the number of individual creators also boomed. One report from payments company Stripe, which powers payments for dozens of influencer platforms, found that the number of creators was up 48 percent in 2021, compared with 2020. And that’s just a “fraction” of the total ecosystem, according to the company.

“If the recent exponential growth of the creator economy keeps up, these 50 platforms could be supporting more than 15.5 million creators in five years,” the company wrote.

Stripe

Growth wasn’t limited just to the major platforms, either. Startups catering to content makers and their needs also surged, with more than $3.7 billion in funding going toward “startups focused on creators,” according to a report in The Information.

One of the main drivers of this surge in activity was the pandemic. While creators were making money long before the pandemic, the industry was almost perfectly primed to absorb many of the changes brought on by it.

“I think the pandemic definitely turbocharged the creator economy through both necessity and through choice,” Li Jin, founder of Atelier Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in the creator economy, said in an interview earlier this year.

“Necessity meaning a lot of people were left without offline alternatives for work and income and had to turn to online platforms in order to continue their creative careers. And choice in the sense that obviously we had a lot of free time during the pandemic where we were just kind of stuck at home. I think a lot of people took that time and they started creating content.”

At the same time, the pandemic also seems to have shifted the way that many people think about work itself. While this year was full of hand-wringing about labor shortages and whether or not people want to go back to work, it’s not difficult to understand why some, particularly younger people, might opt for a different path. Zuckerberg described the shift as “people being able to make a living by expressing their creativity and by doing things they want to do, rather than things they have to.” Creators, he has said, deserve to be “rewarded” for their work,

But as Jin and others have pointed out, major platforms aren’t suddenly embracing creators just because they care about helping them create sustainable independent businesses. The economics are ultimately weighted in their favor as well.

Creators are responsible for a significant amount of engagement on their platforms of choice. If enough of an app’s biggest stars leave, they could take large chunks of users with them. Revenue from creators could also one day help Facebook generate income beyond advertising. Zuckerberg has pledged not to take a cut of their earnings until 2023, but even a relatively small commission could eventually add up to a significant amount. Likewise, Twitter has said it plans to take a 20 percent cut of Super Follow subscriptions from its highest-earning creators, though it could still be some time before the feature makes serious cash for anyone.

Creators are also crucial to drawing in new users and keeping platforms’ existing ones entertained. For Facebook, they could help the company avoid, or at least dampen, the “existential threat” of declining teen users. Snapchat has touted Spotlight as a key source of growth. Even LinkedIn has said creators can help their users get “better at what they do.”

Ultimately, though, it’s the platforms that will benefit most from creators, according to Jin. “Nothing is done purely altruistically,” she said. “It's to strengthen the company and their profitability.”

Jabra's Elite 85t earbuds drop to an all-time low of $140 for today only

Jon Fingas — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 15:00:12 GMT

Don't worry if you're scrambling for a last-minute audio gift or IOU — you have good timing. Best Buy is selling the Jabra Elite 85t true wireless earbuds for an all-time low price of $140, a sizeable $90 below the usual price. You'll have to be happy with one color to get that price, and the deal is only available for today (December 23rd), but it's difficult to object when this undercuts even the Black Friday pricing from a month earlier.

Buy Elite 85t at Best Buy - $140

The Elite 85t might be your choice if you prize active noise cancelling first and foremost. The earbuds do a superb job of blocking outside noises, whether it's a busy city or a raucous household, and you can customize the ANC levels to filter just enough sounds. They're also comfortable for extended periods and offer wireless charging you don't always get at this sale price.

There are limitations. The audio quality is good but not stunning, and you won't find special tricks like spatial audio or tight integration with specific phones. At $140, though, you probably won't mind — this is a viable alternative to AirPods, Galaxy Buds and other go-tos for portable listening.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Rainy years can’t make up for California’s groundwater use

Ars Contributors — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 14:37:56 GMT

Enlarge / When the California aqueducts can't carry enough water, many areas of the state turn to groundwater. (credit: Steve Proehl)

Over a third of American vegetables are grown in California, largely in the state’s Central Valley. The region also produces two-thirds of the nation’s fruits and nuts. These crops—and the many Americans who produce and consume them—are heavily reliant on California’s water supply. But, given recurrent and severe droughts, the state’s groundwater supply has been strained.

When surface water supplies run low, most arid regions worldwide turn instead to their groundwater. But past mismanagement of the groundwater in California has caused parts of the state to sink as much as 30 feet and has also increased the frequency of earthquakes along the San Andreas fault.

Just as importantly, the state's groundwater storage may have been depleted to a point where recovery may take many decades. But, given that this supply is—as its name suggests—in the ground, changes to groundwater aren’t the easiest to measure; the available approaches each have advantages and disadvantages. A new study uses a combination of four of the leading methods to show that California’s aquifers haven’t been recovering from overdrafts during the droughts over the last two decades—and they’re unlikely to do so unless policymakers put more limits in place soon.

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What we learned this year about how to avoid a climate catastrophe

Daniel Cooper — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 14:30:37 GMT

COP26 was not a fist-in-the-air moment, and not the victory against climate change that humanity had been banking on. Sadly, politics and commerce put a hard thumb on proceedings, limiting the action possible. Commitments to “phase down” coal, rather than a firm pledge to eliminate it outright, show how far we still have to go. But the event also served to highlight the extent of what needs to be done if humanity’s going to survive beyond the next century.

One “victory” out of the event was the belief that ensuring global warming held at 1.5 degrees was still possible. It’s worth saying, however, that 1.5 degrees isn’t a target to meet so much as an acceptance of impending disaster. In October, the IPCC explained that such a temperature increase will cause significant upticks in the frequency of extreme heat waves, monsoon-like rainfall and widespread droughts. Extreme weather events that may have taken place once every 50 years a few centuries ago could become a regular, and fatal, occurrence.

All the while, the facts of the matter are unchanged: Humanity needs to avoid adding new carbon emissions while also tackling those we’ve already emitted. That means an aggressive reduction of every man-made carbon-emitting process everywhere on Earth, the total reformation of agriculture and an unprecedented rollout of carbon capture and storage technology. And, ideally, that process should have begun the better part of two decades ago.

There are many dispiriting facts about the world, but one that always hurts is the fact that coal plants are still being greenlit. Global Energy Monitor’s data has plants currently being permitted or under construction in (deep breath) China, India, Indonesia, Turkey, Mongolia, Vietnam, Singapore, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Brazil and Mexico. As Reuters says, each plant will be expected to run for at least 40 years, severely damaging efforts to go Carbon Negative. Not only is it in everyone’s best interest that these plants don’t go online, but wealthier nations have a moral obligation to help provide the funding to help at least some of those names move toward clean energy.

Tunvarat Pruksachat via Getty Images

The problem is that electricity is going to be the most important resource of the 21st century, especially if we’re going to tackle climate change. Many key technologies, like transportation, will ditch fossil fuels in favor of electricity as their primary source of fuel. The world’s demand for energy is going to increase, and we’re going to need to generate that power cleanly. The US Center for Climate and Energy Solutions believes that, by 2050, the world’s power needs will jump by 24 percent. So where will we get all of this clean power from?

Fusion has, forever, been held up as a magic bullet that will totally eradicate our worries about energy generation. Unlike Nuclear Fission, it produces little waste, requires little raw fuel and can’t produce a runaway reaction. Unfortunately, Fusion remains as elusive as The Venus de Milo’s arms or a good new Duke Nukem game. ITER, the internationally-funded, French-built experimental reactor won’t be finished until 2025 at the earliest and is still just a testbed. If successful — and that’s a big if — we’re still a decade away from any serious progress being made, at which point mass decarbonization will already need to be well underway.

That means any power decarbonization will have to come from the renewable technology that’s available to us today. Nuclear, Wind, Solar, Geothermal and Tidal power all need to be ramped up to fill in the gap, but the scale of the task in the US alone is staggering. According to the EIA, the US generated just short of 2,500 billion kWh using fossil fuels in 2020. If you wanted to, for instance, replace all of that with nuclear power, you’d need to build anything in the region of 300 reactors, or increase the number of solar panels installed in the US by roughly a hundred percent — and that’s before we talk about intermittency.

James Trew / Engadget

One thing we can do, however, is to reduce our demand for energy to lessen the need for such a dramatic shift. That can be, for instance, as easy as better insulating your home (in cold climates) or improving the efficiency of AC systems (in warm climates). Another smart move is to ditch the car in favor of public transportation, walking, or getting on your bike. There is evidence that e-bike adoption is becoming a big deal, with Forbes saying that sales are tipped to grow from just under 4 million annually in 2020 to close to 17 million by 2030.

None of this, however, will matter much unless we can also find a way to pay off the debts humanity has racked up over the last century. The IPCC believes that we need to extract up to one trillion tonnes of atmospheric CO2 in the near future. This can be done with massive tree planting works, more of which needs to be done, but also this process may need a little help.

That’s why a number of startups have been working on industrial processes to extract CO2 from the atmosphere. Right now, such a process is very expensive, but it’s hoped that as the technology improves, the cost will start to tumble. There’s also a concern, of course, that running schemes like this will give polluting companies and nations a free license to avoid reform.

As much as we can hope that this technology matures quickly, the rate of progress needs to get a lot faster a, uh, lot faster. For instance, Climeworks’ Orca, its new flagship carbon capture plant in Iceland, will extract 4,000 tons of CO2 per year. If we’re going to reach the point where we can avert a climate catastrophe using extraction alone, we’ll need this capacity to increase by about a hundred million times.

The point of this is, broadly speaking, to outline how much more sharply our attitudes toward the climate need to shift. If we’re going to succeed at defeating climate change then we’re going to need to go onto the sort of war footing – where resources are devoted to nothing but solving the crisis – that few can ever imagine undertaking. But, as most of the resources point out, the only way that we’re going to stave off the damage after dragging our feet for so long is to go all-out in search of a solution.

'Star Trek: Discovery' finally embraces standalone storytelling in its fourth season

Kris Naudus — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 14:00:53 GMT

The following contains minor spoilers for season four, episode six of 'Star Trek: Discovery' (and vague discussion of episode seven).

There’s a bit of a trend or tradition among Star Trek shows, starting with The Next Generation. Somewhere around season three or four the show finds its way and actually becomes good, if not great. This isn’t a phenomenon limited to Trek, of course, but only Trek has a specific name for it: growing the beard. This is in reference to commanders William Riker and Benjamin Sisko, who both started their respective shows clean-shaven but grew beards around the time The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine got noticeably better. And Discovery might finally be ready to do its own metamorphosis, but instead of a beard it’s a change of format that has fans talking.

One of the complaints about Discovery’s first three seasons — besides the grimdark tone, the infallibility of Michael Burnham and all the crying — was that it largely embraced a more serial format, where each episode was another installment in one long ongoing storyline. Sure, there were occasional one-off adventures, but each episode was still firmly focused on the larger story.

CBS

Season four started off in the same manner, with the season premiere and second episode dedicated to setting up the new status quo of rebuilding the United Federation of Planets and introducing this season’s big threat: the Dark Matter Anomaly (DMA). However, unlike previous seasons where each episode would have been focused on one step toward finding a solution, the problem-solving has taken a back seat to a largely standalone A-plot.

The shift could be first seen in episode three, where Burnham and her crew are tasked with tracking down a rogue member of the Qowat Milat (as I described them to my editor: ninja nuns). The DMA is more of a C-plot in this episode, with the B-plot position occupied by the story of Gray Tal and his new android body. Episode four was Tilly trying to train and keep a group of Starfleet cadets alive (in a plot reminiscent of Voyager episodes ‘Learning Curve’ and ‘Good Shepherd’). Episode five saw the crew tasked with evacuating a planet threatened by the DMA. The anomaly may have been the instigating force in the episode, but it was in fact interchangeable with pretty much any other planetary threat since the episode was focused more on Michael’s struggle to free six prisoners on the surface.

CBS

This week’s episode finds Discovery traveling into a subspace rift created by the DMA and becoming stranded, with the ship’s newly sentient AI Zora unable to lead the crew to safety. However, while the anomaly is once again the cause of Discovery’s problems it’s also, once again, an interchangeable threat. The real drive of the episode is the problem-solving to get the crew out, and the personal struggles of characters like Zora and Cleveland Booker.

Next week will bring the Dark Matter Anomaly back to the forefront, but that’s only logical since the seventh episode marks the rough midpoint of the 13-episode season as well as the end of our calendar year. It’s not unusual for many television shows to use this time to “check in” on their major storylines and advance those plots to the next phase. But it is unusual for Discovery in that it doesn’t represent as clean a divide as in previous seasons: season one went from the Klingon War to the Mirror Universe, season two went from the mystery of the Red Angel to battling the evil AI Control. Next week’s episode represents a smoother transition than previously.

CBS

That smoothness is mostly due to the fact that the ongoing storyline hasn’t been given as much time to openly flourish, instead bubbling in the background while the show instead focuses on character-building single-shot adventures. Standalone episodes might feel outdated in an era of streaming and binging, where viewers can get their answers right away so there’s no need to make each individual chapter feel “complete.” There’s no chance to become unsatisfied by the content of an episode when the next one is merely seconds away. Even shows that premiere week by week have fallen into the trap, assuming that most viewers will binge the show later on anyway, with only the diehards watching each installment as it drops.

But for most of its existence at this point, Star Trek has been a franchise for the die-hards. The people who can’t wait for the next episode, the people who will read and write recaps on their favorite pop culture sites and those who share theories on social media. Paramount+ has put a lot of its chips on the strength of this die-hard base, stacking its production schedule with five different Star Trek shows that rarely overlap, meaning a fan who wants to see everything as soon as possible will need to maintain their Paramount+ subscription all-year-round.

CBS

While fan complaints may have played a big role in Discovery’s decision to switch to a more episodic format, it’s likely that the desire to keep fans on the hook for the show’s entire run played an even bigger part. When Discovery was the only Star Trek show, and one of the few Paramount+ offerings period, it was common for viewers to only sign up for a subscription when they wanted to binge something — sometimes even within the free week the service offers to new customers. Shows like Lower Decks, Prodigy and the upcoming Strange New Worlds already operate with a more episodic format, meaning Discovery could have created a “hole” in an ongoing subscription for viewers, a chance for them to take a break from Star Trek and from paying $6 a month.

With an episodic show it’s a lot harder to ignore it while it’s running; each episode represents a complete viewing experience, making the wait between episodes less excruciating. And when Discovery encounters new worlds and new adventures every week, it gives the fans something new to talk about, instead of rehashing the same old theories about the ongoing storyline again and again until the season ends. Star Trek was just made for episodic viewing, and embracing the format will make it easier for Discovery to hold fan interest over time.

2021 was the year the world finally turned on Facebook

Tim De Chant — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 13:44:44 GMT

Enlarge (credit: Jens Buettner/picture alliance)

Wish 2021 had been a better year? Facebook probably does, too. The company has long been maligned by politicians, media observers, and consumer advocates, but it wasn’t until 2021 that it felt like the tide truly began to turn.

Though Facebook had faced scandals in the past, from Cambridge Analytica to the Myanmar genocide, this year’s string of missteps and revelations may have tipped the company and its reputation past the point of no return.

For Facebook, trouble started shortly after the new year. On January 6, the company found itself enmeshed in the insurrection at the US Capitol. Both Facebook and Instagram played a key role in radicalizing users who later attended the deadly rally. While the company had acted swiftly in November 2020 to shutter the “Stop the Steal” group formed to undermine the results of the presidential election, it let splinter groups and individuals spawn a “harmful movement” that spread across its platforms. For two months, those groups operated more or less unfettered.

Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Amazon iPad sales drop the prices of Apple's latest WiFi and cellular models

Mariella Moon — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 13:15:40 GMT

Amazon is giving you the chance to grab some of Apple's latest iPad models at a discount before the year ends. Both the WiFi version and the cellular version of the basic iPad released just this September are now being sold at the lowest prices we've seen for the devices on the website. You can get the 256GB WiFi model for $449, which is $30 lower than its original retail price of $479. If you want a tablet with mobile data, you can get the 2021 iPad with WiFi and cellular for $580 instead — that's $29 less than the device's original price of $609.

Buy 2021 Apple 10.2-inch iPad (Wi-Fi, 256GB) at Amazon - $449 Buy 2021 Apple 10.2-inch iPad (Wi-Fi + Cellular, 256GB) at Amazon - $580

The tablet's 64GB model is on sale, as well. You can grab the WiFi-only variant with smaller storage space for $320. While the device isn't exactly deeply discounted, that's still $9 off a tablet you may have been planning to get anyway. The 64GB 2021 iPad with WiFi and cellular connections will set you back $449 on Amazon right now, which is $10 less what it will cost you on the Apple Store itself.

Buy 2021 Apple 10.2-inch iPad (Wi-Fi + Cellular, 64GB) at Amazon - $449

We gave the basic 2021 iPad a score of 86 in our review, where we praised it for being affordable, now made even more so with these deals. While it doesn't come with a big redesign, it has double the storage space of its predecessors. We found its A13 Bionic powerful enough for multitasking standard use cases, like browsing the web, playing games or watching videos, without lagging or showing any kind of significant issue. The device has a new 12-megapixel front-facing camera that's identical to the one found on the more expensive iPad mini, as well.

Speaking of the iPad mini, its 64GB cellular model is also at an all-time low of $629. That's $20 less than the device's retail price, so it may be time to grab one if you've been considering a smaller tablet for your needs. We praised the 2021 iPad mini in our review for its significant redesign, including an all-screen front, TouchID-capable top button, second-generation Apple Pencil support and USB-C charging capability.

Buy 2021 Apple iPad Mini (Wi-Fi + Cellular, 64GB) at Amazon - $629

How to Buy Used Gear on eBay—the Smart, Safe Way

Scott Gilbertson — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 13:00:00 GMT

Gracefully avoid sketchy situations and score a deal on the post-holiday gadget turnover.

From 360 Hz monitors to 8,000 Hz keyboards, 2021 was the year of the hertz

Scharon Harding — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 12:45:00 GMT

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images | MSI)

When tech gets stale, one thing the industry does to try to get shoppers excited about new products is offer bigger and better specs. In 2021, a lot of focus went into beefing up the speed specs, measured in hertz, of PC peripherals (a hertz, or Hz, is a unit of frequency representing one cycle per second). We saw vendors increase the polling and refresh rates of everyday devices, turning them into advanced pieces of equipment to pique enthusiast interest.

Here's how it all went down.

First, the monitors

2021 was the year of the hertz, but in order to get there, we have to go back to 2020, when the world was introduced to 360 Hz monitors.

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Amazon workers in New York make another attempt at forming a union

Mariella Moon — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 12:35:40 GMT

Former and current warehouse workers at JFK8, Amazon's fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York, have refiled an application to hold a vote on unionization. The workers originally filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board back in November, but they had to withdraw it after failing to gather enough signatures to be approved. This time, the organizers were reportedly able to gather over 2,500 worker signatures or half of the 5,000 people employed at the facility.

The workers are hoping to form the Amazon Labor Union, which will be an independent group that's not connected to any major national union. One of their lead organizers is Christian Smalls who led a walkout at JFK8 over the e-commerce giant's handling of COVID safety at the warehouse. Amazon fired Smalls after that, telling CNBC that he "received multiple warnings for violating social distancing guidelines." Even so, Smalls is still very much involved in the facility's renewed efforts to unionize. In an email to The Washington Post, he referenced what happened at Amazon's Bessemer warehouse, saying that "long drawn-out voting processes are controlled by the bosses who use that period to lie to, intimidate and threaten the workers into voting no for the union."

Majority of the workers at the company's Bessemer, Alabama facility voted against unionization back in April. However, the election was fraught with controversy, with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) — the union the workers were supposed to join — accusing Amazon of interfering with the elections. One of the main issues they pointed out was that the company installed the ballot box in front of the warehouse and in view of security cameras, making workers feel as if their votes were being monitored. After looking into the RWDSU's complaint, the NLRB ordered Amazon to hold another vote.

Amazon has been adamantly opposed to its workers joining unions. When the people at JFK8 first filed a petition to unionize, the e-commerce giant told Engadget in a statement:

"As a company, we don’t think unions are the best answer for our employees. Every day we empower people to find ways to improve their jobs, and when they do that we want to make those changes — quickly. That type of continuous improvement is harder to do quickly and nimbly with unions in the middle. The benefits of direct relationships between managers and employees can’t be overstated — these relationships allow every employee’s voice to be heard, not just the voices of a select few. We’ve made great progress in recent years and months in important areas like pay and safety. There are plenty of things that we can keep doing better, and that's our focus — to keep getting better every day."

The NLRB has confirmed to The Post that it received the group's petition and would be reviewing signatures over the coming days.

The Morning After: A smartphone that feels like paper?

Mat Smith — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 12:15:38 GMT

Realme, the sister brand of Oppo and OnePlus, has revealed its new flagship GT 2 Pro, and the most notable feature may not be a tech spec, but literally how it feels. The body of the phone uses an eco-friendly bio-polymer material on its back cover. It’s made from paper pulp, and it has obtained International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (or ISCC in short) as proof of its environmental bonafides.

Realme

Apparently, this adds a satisfying paper feel to the GT 2 Pro, which Realme is calling "Paper Tech Master Design,” tapping Muji and Infobar series designer Naoto Fukasawa for his input. For now, the phone launches in China on January 4th, 2022, with the device eventually going overseas later next year.

-Mat Smith

A ‘robot lawyer’ could help you get unbanned from social media

The service is meant to help people who were wrongly suspended from their accounts.

When users are wrongfully suspended from their social media accounts, it’s difficult to figure out how to regain access. Now, the “robot lawyer” company DoNotPay, which offers automated legal services, has a new feature: getting social media accounts unbanned.

It’s an alternative to emailing companies’ help center bots or appeals that may never get answered. Instead, DoNotPay asks users for information about what happened to them, and sends a letter to the relevant company’s legal department on their behalf.

Continue reading.

LG Display’s concept bike makes your Peloton look like a toy

It’s got several OLED concepts ready for CES 2022.

LG Display

This is the “Virtual Ride” stationary bike. It features three vertical 55-inch OLED displays that form one continuous screen in front and above the rider. The topmost panel has a 500R curvature radius. According to LG Display, that’s the most extreme curve in a large screen to date. No word on whether it has a pause button.

Continue reading.

FDA authorizes Pfizer's Covid antiviral pill for people 12 and older

The Paxlovid treatment could be available within a few days.

The FDA has issued emergency authorization for Pfizer's antiviral pill Paxlovid, making it the first oral method for treating mild to moderate cases of COVID-19. The treatment is meant for high-risk people 12 and older who could progress to a more serious COVID infection. Paxlovid will be available by prescription only, and is meant to be taken within five days of first noticing COVID symptoms.

According to Pfizer's tests, it can reduce hospitalization or death by 88 percent in high-risk patients. The treatment, which can be prescribed to both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, consists of 30 pills taken over five days. So far, the US has ordered enough pills to treat 10 million people.

Continue reading.

Square Enix sharpens up Final Fantasy 14's blocky grapes

The low-poly fruit became a meme.

Square Enix

Square Enix has rolled out the first Final Fantasy XIV patch after the ultra-popular Endwalker expansion arrived in November. Along with adding more quests, items and a raid dungeon, the update addressed various issues. One of those was a so-called bug fix that targeted some delightfully janky-looking grapes. Just don’t expect them to suddenly look photo-realistic.

Continue reading.

The OnePlus 10 Pro will be revealed in January

Rumors suggest the device will be the only model in the 10-series lineup.

OnePlus is gearing up to show off its next smartphone, and it seems we won't have to wait long to get our eyes on it. It will reveal the OnePlus 10 Pro next month, according to co-founder and CEO Pete Lau, who wrote “OnePlus 10 Pro, see you in January," on Weibo. Rumors suggest OnePlus will only reveal a single phone this time around, instead of the usual approach of having a base model and a pro device. Leakers have already offered a peek at what the phone may look like, with several unofficial renders. It seems OnePlus will again use Hasselblad cameras, while the OnePlus 10 Pro screen is slated to be a 6.7-inch QHD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate.

Continue reading.

Tesla under investigation for 'Passenger Play' gaming feature

The NHTSA is looking into how games being played while the car's moving may distract drivers.

Tesla came under fire earlier this month following reports that certain games are playable on dashboard infotainment systems while an EV is in motion. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is now investigating Tesla over the so-called "Passenger Play" function. While the feature prompts players to acknowledge they're a passenger before they start a game, the NHTSA said Passenger Play "may distract the driver and increase the risk of a crash." Before the summer, Passenger Play was only available when the EV was in park.

Continue reading.

The biggest news stories you might have missed

Steam's Winter Sale offers discounts on 'Horizon Zero Dawn,' 'Deathloop' and more

Democrats push Mark Zuckerberg on Meta's actions prior to January 6th Capitol attack

In 2021, Tesla's phenomenal profits were offset by constant crisis

NASA delays James Webb telescope launch due to poor weather

What to watch over the 2021 holidays

You Should Listen to CDs

Gilad Edelman — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 12:00:00 GMT

If vinyl is for hipsters and streaming is for everyone else, maybe the forgotten format is for you.

Google disables 'Hold for Me' feature on the Pixel 6 following buggy update

Steve Dent — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 11:15:04 GMT

Last year, Google introduced an exclusive feature for Pixel devices called "Hold for Me" that can alert you when a business finally picks up your call. However, that function has been temporarily disabled on the Pixel 6 due to a bug in the December update, XDA Developers has reported. Pixel 6 owners may also lose the Call Screening tool that stops robocallers from ringing your phone, Google said in a community post.

"In light of a bug in the December Android update, we are disabling Hold For Me and Call Screening on Pixel 6 devices running on the Android S December QPR release," the company wrote. The issue only affects Pixel 6 phones with the latest December 2021 security update, and not any older devices. If you haven't yet received the update, you should continue to have access to those features.

Hold for Me started as a US exclusive feature but was recently expanded to Canada, as XDA Developers noted. It uses Google's Duplex technology AI to detect when a real person comes on the line to take your call, sparing you the pain of listening to looped elevator music or pre-recorded messages. Google's Call Screening tech also uses Duplex AI tech, which launched with the promise of automatically making restaurant reservations for you.

Apple Watch Series 7 falls to a new low of $339 at Amazon

Steve Dent — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 10:28:43 GMT

With features like a bigger screen and faster charging, Apple's Watch Series 7 is a great gift idea — but the $399 price tag could be hard to swallow. However, you can now pick up the 41mm model (in green only) at a new all-time low of $339 at Amazon, for a savings of $60 or 15 percent off.

Buy Apple Watch Series 7 at Amazon - $339

The Watch Series 7 brings a subtle new design with a larger screen that makes a big difference for readability and control. It's more sporty thanks to new IP6X dust-resistance and improved crack-resistance, and offers faster charging if you tend to use it a lot — even for sleep tracking. As with past models, you get a strong watchOS 8 app ecosystem and solid health features like sleep-tracking and ECG measurements.

It can also monitor your respiration rate while you sleep, and it comes with exclusive watch faces, larger font sizes/buttons and a Qwerty keyboard. The main drawback is with the sleep tracking. Unlike devices from Fitbit and Samsung, the Watch Series 7 can't detect what sleep zone you're in, for one thing. And it won't detect when you've fallen asleep, so you'll need to make sure you have the Sleep Focus mode to log your slumber.

Still, Apple's Watch is the best selling smartwatch by far for good reason, and as the latest model, the Series 7 is the benchmark. With $60 off the price, there's never been a better time to get one.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Samsung's 2022 TVs and monitors will support its new HDR10+ Gaming standard

Steve Dent — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 09:26:55 GMT

Samsung's 2022 televisions and monitors will support its recently unveiled HDR10+ Gaming standard, the company announced. That means they'll deliver a variety of features for gamers like variable refresh rates (VRR) at up to 120Hz and automatic HDR color correction on a game-by-game basis.

The standard will be used by Samsung's 2022 Neo QLED lineup with the Q70 TV series and above, along with gaming monitors, the company said. It didn't mention any models, but it showed a wide-screen gaming display (below) and what could be a 2022 Neo QLED TV with very slim bezels.

Samsung

HDR10+ Gaming slipped under the radar when it was first announced, but it appears to be a move to counter Dolby Vision HDR for gaming found on Xbox Series X/S consoles. It provides a "consistent HDR gaming experience without the need for manual calibration across a variety of display technologies for various input sources, including consoles, PCs and more," Samsung said.

The idea with HDR10+ Gaming is that you won't need to use any manual settings, as the game engine itself automatically optimizes color calibration in real-time. It's designed to deliver details in dark shadows and highlights, while configuring the display to a "true reference mode" so colors are displayed as intended by the developer. It also supports VRR at up to 120Hz along with tone mapping that won't add any extra latency to the gaming signal.

As with HDR10+, however, the challenge for Samsung is getting developers to adopt the standard for games. Dolby Vision gaming is already available or is coming to over 100 games on Xbox Series X/S, so Samsung has some catching up to do. It did say that "several companies, including Saber Interactive, are expected to showcase their HDR10+ Gaming titles" at CES 2022 (if it takes place).

Samsung could make some headway with PC gaming, however, as Dolby Vision is only available on a handful of PC titles. To help pave the way for HDR10+ PC games, Samsung said that NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series, RTX 20 Series and GTX 16 Series GPUs will support HDR10+ with drivers "scheduled for release in 2022."

Apple closes more stores due to surge in COVID-19 cases

Mariella Moon — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 08:35:53 GMT

A bunch of Apple Stores across the US and Canada won't be able to cater to customers' last-minute holiday shopping. According to Bloomberg, the tech giant temporarily shut down eight locations due to a surge in COVID-19 cases both among the public and among its employees. Apple typically shutters a retail store if around 10 percent of its employees had tested positive for COVID-19, the news agency said.

The following locations have been closed since Tuesday:

Dadeland in Miami
The Gardens Mall in Palm Beach
Lenox Square in Atlanta
Cumberland Mall in Atlanta
Highland Village in Houston
Summit Mall in Ohio
Pheasant Lane in New Hampshire
Sainte-Catherine in Montreal

The company also shut down stores in Hawaii, Maryland, Ohio, Ottawa (Canada) and Texas earlier this month, though it only lasted for a few days. One of its retail locations in Miami, however, remains shuttered. The company told Bloomberg in a statement: "We regularly monitor conditions, and we will adjust our health measures to support the well-being of customers and employees. We remain committed to a comprehensive approach for our teams that combines regular testing with daily health checks, employee and customer masking, deep cleaning and paid sick leave."

Perhaps in an effort to persuade people to shop online instead, Apple is offering customers "free two-hour courier delivery on eligible in-stock items." The offer doesn't apply to "customized Mac, engraved products and... certain order types including orders paid for with financing or by bank transfer." But so long as the product is eligible and available — it's the holidays and companies are still struggling from component shortages, so availability will most likely be limited — buyers can get their orders delivered for free if they order before 12PM on December 24th.

Apple had taken other steps earlier this month following the rise in cases and the emergence of the Omicron variant. It had chosen to delay its return-to-office plans, which were slated to begin in February, and reinstated mask requirements across all its stores in the US.

Samsung teases a PCI 5.0 SSD that can hit 13,000 MB/s read speeds

Steve Dent — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 07:03:08 GMT

Samsung has teased a PCIe 5.0 SSD showing that storage products should keep doubling in speed every few years, even while Moore's Law is decelerating. Designed for enterprise servers, the PM1743 SSD can hit read speeds of up to 13,000 MB/s and handle 2,500K input/output operations per second (IOPS) — nearly double what the best PCIe 4.0 NVMe drives can do.

PCIe 5.0 supports up to 32 gigatransfers per second (GT/s), double that of PCIe 4.0. To harness that bandwidth, Samsung developed a proprietary controller and worked with Intel to test it. "Together, we have jointly resolved complicated technical issues encountered with PCIe 5.0 during this initial evaluation period," said Intel's Technology Initiatives Director Jim Pappas.

The SSD delivers sequential write speeds of 6,600 MB/s and a random write speed of 250K IOPS, again nearly doubling current specs. It also offers improved power efficiency of up to 30 percent. "This is expected to lower server and data center operating costs significantly, while also helping to reduce their carbon footprint," Samsung wrote.

While PCIe 5.0 is now inevitable, the next version isn't far behind, either. The PCI Special Interest Group has already unveiled a PCI Express 6.0 specification that could hit up to a blistering 256GB per second across 16 lanes — twice as fast as PCIe 5.0 and four times quicker than the 4.0 spec. However, that format will need to use a new trick called Pulse Amplitude Modulation technology that can carry twice as much data as existing methods without the need to use ridiculously high frequencies.

Samsung is now sampling the PM1743 PCIe 5.0 SSD for select customers and has plans to mass produce it in the first quarter of 2022, with capacities ranging from 1.92 terabytes (TB) to 15.36TB. It's also expected to be the first PCIe 5.0 SSD with dual-port support, guaranteeing server operation when a connection to one port fails. The first customers are likely to be data centers, but such technology usually trickles down to consumers a year or so later — so plan accordingly if you have any 16K video editing projects or whatever coming up.

LG made some wild curved OLED concepts for CES 2022

Igor Bonifacic — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 01:00:51 GMT

LG Display will showcase two flexible OLED concepts at CES 2022 – assuming the pandemic doesn’t claim the annual trade show as its latest victim. The first one is the “Virtual Ride” stationary bike. It features three vertical 55-inch OLED displays that form one continuous screen in front and above the rider. The topmost panel has a 500R curvature radius. According to LG Display, that’s the most extreme curve among large screens to date.

The second concept is the “Media Chair.” It’s a recliner with a 55-inch OLED TV attached to it. It features a 1,500R curvature, which LG says is ideal for a use case like this one. It also includes the company’s Cinematic Sound OLED technology, allowing the display to create sound without external speakers. Lastly, the display can alternate between portrait and landscape orientations with the touch of a button located on the armrest of the chair.

Like with most CES concepts, the likelihood we’ll see LG commercial either the Virtual Ride or Media Chair is slim. That’s not to say the company hasn’t brought some of its past concepts to market (the OLED R comes to mind), but it’s better to see these latest ones as a showcase of how much LG’s display technology has advanced in recent years.

7 Rapid At-Home Covid-19 Tests—and Where to Find Them

Brenda Stolyar — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 00:30:00 GMT

Planning to travel or see family during the holidays? Add an antigen test kit—if you can find one—to your packing list.

Benedict Cumberbatch encounters dark double in Multiverse of Madness teaser

Jennifer Ouellette — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 22:17:14 GMT

Benedict Cumberbatch stars in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

The first teaser trailer for Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness debuted in theaters this past weekend as a post-credits addition to Spider-Man: Now Way Home. Marvel has just released it to the general public, and it looks like we're in for another eye-popping, mind-bending ride.

(Spoilers for prior events in the MCEU below, particularly in Loki, What If? and No Way Home.)

The sequel to 2016's Doctor Strange has been in the works for years, with director Scott Derrickson initially signed on to make the film. Derrickson left the project in January 2020, citing creative differences, although it seems it was a mutually amiable parting. (Derrickson is still an executive producer.) Sam Raimi took over directing duties.

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Omicron cases less likely to require hospital treatment, studies show

Financial Times — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 21:10:29 GMT

Enlarge / Illustration of antibodies (red and blue) responding to an infection with Covid-19 (purple). (credit: Getty Images)

A lower share of people infected with the Omicron coronavirus variant are likely to require hospital treatment compared with cases of the Delta strain, according to healthcare data from South Africa, Denmark, and the UK.

The findings by separate research teams raise hopes that there will be fewer cases of severe disease than those caused by other strains of the virus, but the researchers cautioned that Omicron’s high degree of infectiousness could still strain health services.

The reduction in severe illness was likely to stem from Omicron’s greater propensity, compared with other variants, to infect people who have been vaccinated or previously infected, experts stressed, though the UK studies also hinted at a possible drop in intrinsic severity.

Read 23 remaining paragraphs | Comments

FDA authorizes Pfizer's Covid antiviral pill for people 12 and older

Devindra Hardawar — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 20:51:04 GMT

The FDA has issued an emergency authorization for Pfizer's antiviral pill Paxlovid, making it the first oral method for treating mild to moderate cases of COVID-19. The treatment is meant for high-risk people 12 and older who could progress to a more serious COVID infection. The best part? The FDA says it could be available to use within a few days, making it another tool as we face the Omicron variant wave.

Paxlovid is available by prescription only, and it's meant to be taken within five days of first noticing COVID symptoms. According to Pfizer's tests, it can prevent hospitalization or death by 88 percent in high-risk patients. The treatment, which can be prescribed to both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, consists of 30 pills taken over five days. It includes the protein inhibitor nirmatrelvir and rotinavir, which keeps that inhibitor from breaking down in your body. Side effects include an impaired sense of taste, high blood pressure, diarrhea and muscle aches.

“This authorization provides a new tool to combat COVID-19 at a crucial time in the pandemic as new variants emerge and promises to make antiviral treatment more accessible to patients who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19," Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement.

So far, the US has ordered enough pills to treat 10 million people, the New York Times reports. The company plans to deliver enough pills to cover 65,000 Americans within a week. And after that, production is expect to ramp up, with 150,000 courses delivered in January and 150,000 in February. It also won't be the only antiviral pill around: Merck's competing treatment is expected to be approved soon, and it'll likely be more readily available than Pfizer's. Merck's option is far less effective, though—tests show it can only prevent hospitalization or death by 30 percent. (Still, that's better than having no treatment.)

How a ‘robot lawyer’ could help you get unbanned from social media

Karissa Bell — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 19:45:15 GMT

Just weeks after Facebook rebranded itself to “Meta,” the longtime owner of @metaverse Instagram suddenly found herself locked out of the account she had run for years. A message told Thea-Mai Baumann she was suspended for impersonation, though she had never pretended to be anyone else. Her account was returned after The New York Timeswrote a story about the ordeal, but the company never offered an explanation for how the mistake was made.

While what happened to her was unusual, one aspect of Baumann’s story is more common: that people who are wrongfully suspended from their social media accounts often have little or no recourse for getting them back (at least, not without media attention).

Now that group may have another option. The “robot lawyer” company DoNotPay, which offers automated legal services, has a new offering: getting social media accounts unbanned.

The new service, which is included with DoNotPay’s $36 monthly subscription, offers users an alternative to emailing companies’ help center bots or wiring appeals that may never get answered. Instead, DoNotPay asks users for information about what happened to them, and sends a letter to the relevant company’s legal department on their behalf.

DoNotPay

“These platforms prioritize legal cases,” DoNotPay CEO Joshua Browder tells Engadget. “When you're just writing into customer service, they don't really take it seriously.” Legal departments, on the other hand, are much more likely to respond, he says.

In the appeal, the company also tries to “match” your appeal with a “legal reason why they can't ban you,” using state and federal laws that may apply. The letter also includes a deadline for the company to respond. He says that so far PayPal and Instagram have been among the most-requested services for unbanning. But the service will work with other platforms as well, including Twitter, Snapchat, Uber, Tinder, YouTube, Twitch and others.

Crucially, Browder points out that the service is not intended for people who were banned from a platform for legitimate reasons, like violating its terms of service. And even for those who were wrongly suspended, he estimates the odds of actually getting an account back as the result of this process are around 20 percent.

But even if the appeal isn’t ultimately successful, Browder says there are other benefits to the process. For one, companies are required to turn over users’ data regardless of whether their account was suspended. So even if you are unable to, say, regain access to your Instagram account, DoNotPay can ensure the company hands over your account details. There’s also the fact that sending a legal demand letter can cause a much bigger headache for a company than ranting to customer service agents.

“In general in America, they do have the right to ban you,” Browder says. “We don't overstate that we can make miracles happen, but we can punish them a lot and get your data.”

Steam's Winter Sale offers discounts on 'Horizon Zero Dawn,' 'Deathloop' and more

Igor Bonifacic — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 19:19:19 GMT

Steam’s Winter Sale is now underway. From today until January 5th, Valve is offering steep discounts on some of the best PC games you can buy right now. For instance, Arkane’s thrilling immersive simDeathloop, which only came out this past September, is currently 50 percent off, making it $30 at the moment.

Another recent highlight, Sony’s Horizon Zero Dawn, is currently $25, down from $50. If season two of The Witcher has made you want to experience more of Geralt’s adventures, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is 80 percent off. You can pick up the Game of the Year edition, which includes the game’s fantastic Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions, for just under $10.

If indies are more your jam, one of my personal favorites from the past year, Death’s Door, is 25 percent off until the new year. For $15, you can’t get a much better Zelda-inspired title than that. Eastward, an action RPG with one of the most beautiful pixel art styles in recent memory, is 10 percent off, marking the first time it’s been on sale. If you want to catch up on some older gems, may we suggest Disco Elysium and Hades? They’re currently priced at $18 and $16.24, respectively.

We’ll also note here both GOG and the Epic Games Store recently kicked off their own winter sales, so if you prefer those storefronts, make sure to check them out too.

T-Mobile, Amazon, and others are backing out of CES 2022 amid COVID resurgence

Andrew Cunningham — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 19:01:53 GMT

(credit: Andrew Cunningham)

After an all-virtual Consumer Electronics Show in 2021, it was looking like January 2022's CES would go back to being an in-person event. Though the Consumer Technology Association is forging ahead with the show, the list is growing of companies that are either going remote or canceling their plans entirely because of the COVID-19 surge being driven by the delta and omicron variants, according to Bloomberg.

Amazon, Twitter, Meta, and Pinterest have all dropped out, and T-Mobile has announced that it has chosen to "significantly limit our in-person participation" at CES and has canceled a planned keynote speech from CEO Mike Sievert. Nvidia was already planning a virtual conference for this year's show, while AMD will also have "a limited presence," according to the report. Press outlets like The Verge, TechCrunch, Engadget and, yes, Ars Technica, are also planning to cover the event remotely.

Other companies are planning to show, though many say that they are "monitoring the situation" and that their plans may include a mix of virtual and in-person presentations. Samsung, Qualcomm, Sony, Google, and HTC are all still planning to show up.

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The OnePlus 10 Pro will be revealed in January

Kris Holt — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 18:40:42 GMT

If OnePlus does reveal its next phone in January, it will mark a shift in the brand's usual timeline. Over the last few years, it has announced its flagship handsets in March or April, typically after Samsung debuts the newest Galaxy S series phones.

Rumors suggest OnePlus will only reveal a single phone this time around, instead of the usual approach of having a base model and a pro device. In the past, OnePlus has followed up the flagship devices with a T-series model as well, but it decided not to release a 9T this year.

Lau previously said 10-series devices will have a new Android 13-based operating system that OnePlus is sharing with Oppo. The two formally merged this year under the ownership of BBK Electronics, with OnePlus becoming a sub-brand of Oppo.

Leakers have already offered a peek at the next OnePlus phone through unofficial renders. It seems OnePlus will again use Hasselblad cameras, while the OnePlus 10 Pro screen is slated to be a 6.7-inch QHD+ display with a 120 Hz refresh rate. Lau confirmed earlier this month that the upcoming device will use the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset.

FDA gives emergency authorization to Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill

Eric Bangeman — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 18:01:21 GMT

Enlarge

COVID-19 patients as young as 12 can now be treated with Paxlovid, an antiviral pill developed by Pfizer, after the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization on Wednesday.

“Today’s authorization introduces the first treatment for COVID-19 that is in the form of a pill that is taken orally—a major step forward in the fight against this global pandemic,” said Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “This authorization provides a new tool to combat COVID-19 at a crucial time in the pandemic as new variants emerge and promises to make antiviral treatment more accessible to patients who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19.”

In early November, Pfizer published trial results for the new oral medication, saying that it reduced hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 by 89 percent. Although the results had not undergone peer-review, Paxlovid's strong effectiveness moved an independent data-monitoring committee to recommend ending the trial early.

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Reminder: Donate to win swag in our annual Charity Drive sweepstakes [Updated]

Kyle Orland — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 16:50:46 GMT

Enlarge / Just some of the prizes available in this year's Ars Technica Charity Drive Sweepstakes.

[Dec. 22: As we approach Christmas and the midway point of this year's Charity Drive, we've now raised over $18,000 from nearly 200 separate donations. Child's Play is in the lead over EFF, approximately $9,600 to $8,400, for those who keep track of such things.

That's a great start, but we still have a ways to go to beat last year's $58,000 record. Read on below to find out how you can take part!]

If you've been too busy playing Halo Infinite to take part in this year's Ars Technica Charity Drive sweepstakes, don't worry. You still have time to donate to a good cause and get a chance to win your share of over $1,600 worth of swag (no purchase necessary to win).

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LG’s 16:18 ultra-tall monitor means less scrolling

Scharon Harding — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 16:48:04 GMT

Enlarge / LG DualUp Monitor (28MQ780). (credit: LG)

If you haven't noticed, screens have been getting taller. Laptops are the most obvious example, with more of them opting for 16:10 this year than we've seen in years, with even a 3:2 aspect ratio being an option. LG has now brought this taller view to external PC monitors by announcing today the LG DualUp Monitor (28MQ780), a 27.6-inch monitor with a 16:18 aspect ratio.

It's not like LG just took a traditional monitor's form factor and turned it sideways. The DualUp is closer to a square than more common 16:9 displays. At 16:18, the monitor's length and height are closer to the same measurement, but the monitor is still taller than it is wide. If you're sick of scrolling through long articles, spreadsheets, lines of code, and your everlasting newsfeed, this option is something to consider.

Some will appreciate having a less narrow view. (credit: LG)

While taller screens are increasingly common in laptops, they're incredibly rare in PC monitors. There are plenty of ultra-wides filling the peripheral vision of gamers and productivity hounds, but it's nearly impossible to find a vertical PC monitor. We recently covered a much skinnier 7:32 vertical monitor, but it's primarily available in Japan, and as a portable monitor, it's much smaller at 8.8 inches. In terms of mainstream, widely available monitors in the US, the DualUp Monitor should be one of a kind whenever it comes out—LG didn't share a price or release date.

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SEC rejects Apple’s bid to block three shareholder proposals

Financial Times — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 16:45:04 GMT

Enlarge / An Apple Store in Cambridge, UK. (credit: Martin Pope | Getty Images)

The Securities and Exchange Commission has rejected Apple’s petition to block three shareholder proposals from going to a vote at its next annual meeting—a win for activists that signals trouble for other US companies hoping the regulator will allow them to fend off unwanted attention.

The resolutions call for detailed reports regarding allegations of forced labor in Apple’s supply chain, explanations of why certain apps are deleted from the App Store in China, and a public report of what risks the iPhone maker could face by allegedly using nondisclosure agreements in the context of workplace harassment and discrimination.

The Financial Times reported in October that Apple asked the SEC for permission to block six shareholder petitions, the highest amount of proposals the company has had since 2017. Apple’s reasoning was that it had “substantially implemented” what the petitioners were asking for. Of the remaining three proposals, one was rejected and two remain outstanding.

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AWS suffers third outage of the month

Eric Bangeman — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 16:32:43 GMT

Enlarge (credit: Chesnot | Getty Images)

December has been a rough month for Amazon—at least for Amazon Web Services. The massively popular cloud computing platform suffered its third outage of the month Wednesday, affecting Slack, the Epic Games Store, and several other services.

The AWS Service Health Dashboard shows the problem lies within a data center in northern Virginia and affects customers in the US-EAST-1 Availability Zone. The first outage was reported at 7:35 am EST.

Slack users began seeing problems shortly after the outage, and the Epic Games Store noted that the AWS outage was causing problems "affecting logins, library, purchases, etc."

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A fossil site reveals an ancient sinkhole and its enormous occupant

Ars Contributors — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 16:09:45 GMT

Enlarge / Rebuilding the lower jaw of the Gray mastodon. (credit: ETSU Gray Fossil Site & Museum)

Something has been discovered in Tennessee—something that only exists in one museum. It’s something enormous, slightly puzzling, and possibly the first of its kind discovered. Five years after its excavation, it remains incomplete.

The mastodon skeleton slowly taking shape in Tennessee is no secret. Pictures and descriptions of its progress have been posted on social media from the beginning, and while those who are aware of it are intrigued, it hasn’t made many headlines. Yet.

Out of the gray

The Gray Fossil Site near Gray, Tennessee, was found by accident during road construction in 2000. Thanks to the efforts of local people and the state government who recognized the importance of the site, construction halted. A museum was erected several years later. Bits of bones and one shattered tusk were all that had been found when the site was preserved, but the area is proving to be voluminous in its fossil content.

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NHTSA investigating Tesla over infotainment display gaming feature

Eric Bangeman — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 15:34:58 GMT

Enlarge / Sky Force Reloaded running on a Tesla's central screen while the car is driving down the road. (credit: YouTube / Cf Tesla)

Earlier this month, we covered a software update issued by Tesla that allowed games to be played on the infotainment display while the car was in motion. We pointed out at the time that this new capability would likely draw the attention of state and federal regulators. To no one's surprise, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Wednesday announced a formal safety investigation over the update.

According to the NHTSA, the feature has been around since December 2020 for Teslas equipped with "Passenger Play." Prior to that, games could only be played on the center screen when the vehicle was in park.

The NHTSA's investigation covers approximately 580,000 Tesla Model S, 3, X, and Y vehicles spanning model years 2017 through 2021. The agency said it will be evaluating "aspects of the feature, including the frequency and use scenarios of Tesla 'Passenger Play.'"

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How to Use SharePlay to Virtually Connect With Loved Ones

Julian Chokkattu — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 14:00:00 GMT

You can watch movies, listen to a new album, share your screen, or even work out with others on FaceTime through your Apple devices.

The Best Mouse (and Mousepads) for Every Kind of Gamer

Jess Grey — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 14:00:00 GMT

Whether you're into esports or casual fragging, these are the greatest gaming mice we’ve tested.

Super Last-Minute Gift Ideas—and Excuses—for Procrastinators

Louryn Strampe — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 12:00:00 GMT

If your Christmas tree is missing a present, these gifts will keep you on the nice list.

Google OnHub router will join Google’s list of dead products next December

Andrew Cunningham — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 00:29:06 GMT

Enlarge / The Google OnHub. (credit: Ron Amadeo)

If you're still using a Google OnHub router, Google wants you to know that you're nearing the end of the line. According to Android Police, the company has been emailing OnHub owners to let them know that support for the router is ending on December 19, 2022. The router will still function on a basic level after that date, but advanced services and router configuration will no longer be available through Google's apps, and you'll no longer receive security updates.

In the email it's sending to OnHub users, Google is also offering 40 percent discounts on Nest Wifi hardware for people who want to replace their OnHub with another Google router.

OnHub has always been a bit of an outlier in Google's hardware lineup; it shipped with mediocre performance and was never very flexible or configurable, and it was replaced with Google Wifi (now Nest Wifi) just a year after it launched. OnHub early adopters could always integrate the older router into their modern Google or Nest Wifi setups as a router or satellite, but that functionality will presumably go away when Google ends support a year from now.

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Boeing, Airbus wade into 5G scuffle, ask Biden admin to delay rollout

Tim De Chant — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 21:05:42 GMT

Enlarge / Aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus claim that an upcoming C-band 5G rollout will interfere with airplane instrumentation.

Boeing and Airbus have asked US Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to delay the deployment of C-band spectrum for 5G wireless service. The companies claim the rollout will interfere with key aircraft instruments.

“5G interference could adversely affect the ability of aircraft to safely operate,” said the letter, which has been obtained by Reuters. Boeing CEO David Calhoun and Airbus Americas CEO Jeffery Knittel claim that the rollout, currently scheduled for January 5, could have “an enormous negative impact on the aviation industry.”

Both manufacturers and aviation regulators have expressed concerns over C-band 5G signals interfering with radio altimeters on commercial aircraft. The instruments work by beaming radio signals in the 4.2–4.4 GHz band toward the ground and listening for a reply. By measuring the time it takes for the signal to return to the sensor, the aircraft can calculate its height above the ground. Radio altimeters give pilots a more precise reading than barometric altimeters, which rely on air pressure.

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Biden’s omicron battle plan includes 500 million home test kits

Eric Bangeman — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 19:48:20 GMT

Enlarge / Rapid at-home COVID-19 test kits. (credit: Bloomberg | Getty Images)

In an address to the nation today, President Joe Biden outlined his administration's plans to battle the omicron variant. The federal government plans to purchase 500 million rapid COVID-19 test kits for home use, set up new testing sites, and mobilize 1,000 military medical personnel to pitch in at hospitals slammed by the surge in COVID-19 cases.

"I want to start by acknowledging how tired, worried and frustrated many of you are," Biden said at the onset of his remarks.

Biden then encouraged vaccine holdouts to take action as omicron spreads across the country. "If you're not fully vaccinated, you have good reason to be concerned." He additionally called on folks who have not received boosters to schedule them.

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72 Last-Minute Christmas Gifts on Sale Now

Eric Ravenscraft, Gear Team — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 19:30:00 GMT

You can blame the supply chain for late packages, but there’s still time to get a few presents for the holidays.

Steve Ballmer’s “parting gift” as Microsoft CEO: Trying to name Cortana “Bingo”

Andrew Cunningham — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 17:00:08 GMT

Cortana on an iPhone. (credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft's Cortana voice assistant is clearly winding down—the feature is still available in the desktop versions of Windows, but it's no longer included in a default install of Windows 11, and the mobile app was discontinued back in March.

But the future once looked bright for the chipper virtual assistant, according to former Microsoft Product Manager Sandeep Paruchuri in an interview with the Big Bets newsletter. Paruchuri speaks at length about Cortana's development as a feature for Windows Phone 8.1 from its beginnings as a passion project with a small team.

The Cortana feature was only officially called "Cortana" after the codename leaked during development—another early suggestion was "Alyx," and then-CEO Steve Ballmer tried to name it "Bingo" as a "parting gift" before handing the reins to current CEO Satya Nadella. (Ballmer had "poor product taste," says Paruchuri, in what we in the tech biz call "an understatement.") Cortana’s developers were inspired by Siri but wanted their voice assistant to be more proactive, making suggestions based on context and user data rather than merely responding to direct input. The team also wanted Cortana to have more of a personality than Siri or Google Now, which was helped along by Cortana's Halo voice actor, Jen Taylor.

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Meta investors are sick of the scandals and want more oversight

Tim De Chant — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 16:50:06 GMT

Enlarge / A worker picks up trash in front of the new logo in front of Meta's headquarters on October 28, 2021, in Menlo Park, Calif. (credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

After a year of stunning and damning revelations, Meta, formerly Facebook, is facing calls from investors to allow an independent assessment of the company’s audit and risk oversight committee.

Investors and a public interest nonprofit have sent a letter to Meta’s corporate secretary requesting that its proposal be included in the company’s annual proxy to be voted on by shareholders.

“Shareholders request the board commission an independent assessment of the Audit and Risk Oversight Committee’s capacities and performance in overseeing company risks to public safety and the public interest and in supporting strategic risk oversight on these issues by the full board,” says the letter, which was obtained by Axios.

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Google pushes developers to adapt Android apps for Chromebooks

Scharon Harding — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 16:19:30 GMT

Enlarge / Google is putting more emphasis on Android apps on Chromebooks. (credit: Google)

The number of people using Android Apps on Chromebooks grew 50 percent year over year, according to a blog post from Chrome OS product managers Fahd Imtiaz and Sanj Nathwani this week. The execs cited internal Google data recorded from 2020-2021.

In 2021, as some smartphones moved to Android 12, Google worked on updating Chromebooks to support Android 11, while attempting to boost security and performance by bringing Android on Chrome OS to a virtual machine, rather than a container. The company also improved its general usability, using runtime improvements to make the resizing and scaling of Android apps on Chromebooks work better, as well as app rendering.

As the developer-focused blog noted, Chromebooks on Chrome OS 93 or newer (the latest is Chrome OS 96) automatically run Android apps made for mobile devices in a window that's set to stay in a "phone or tablet orientation." And, yes, you can turn this feature off.

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The Best Multi-Tools for Any Task

Matt Jancer — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 14:00:00 GMT

Tiny gadgets, big convenience. We'll help you find the best Leatherman and Swiss Army Knives.

Our 12 Favorite Photography Books of 2021

WIRED Photo Department — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 14:00:00 GMT

From border politics to vintage NASA gear, these are the photo books that best document the WIRED world.

The Exercise Games That Can Actually Get You Off the Couch

Suzie Glassman — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 14:00:00 GMT

A new generation of “exergames” take adventure, community, and fitness to a new level. Here's how to use them to build a lasting exercise habit.

Reach Easy With the 10 Best Messenger and Shoulder Bags

Jess Grey, Adrienne So — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 13:00:00 GMT

From everyday canvas sacks to rainstorm-ready sling packs, these one-strap wonders shoulder the burden.

The Best Coffee Subscription Boxes We've Savored

Scott Gilbertson, Jess Grey — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 13:00:00 GMT

These services deliver freshly roasted, delicious coffee right to your door—each with its own twist.

The Best Travel Mugs to Ward Off the Winter Chill

Adrienne So, Matt Jancer — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 15:00:00 GMT

Keep your coffee hot as a volcano and your water as cold as Pluto with these insulated mugs and tumblers.

5 Apps That Are Better on the Desktop Than in Your Browser

David Nield — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 14:00:00 GMT

Move these services out of your tabs for an optimal experience.

18 Face Masks We Actually Like to Wear

Adrienne So — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 13:00:00 GMT

Our tips and picks to up your mask game—whether you’re heading back to the office in the new year or just want to stay safe and stylish.

16 Great Deals on Home Goods, Office Gear, and Kitchen Tools

Matt Jancer — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 12:00:00 GMT

Fortify your space this winter with discounts on stand mixers, keyboards, and mattresses.

How to Use Discord: A Beginner’s Guide

Boone Ashworth — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 12:00:00 GMT

Confused by the buzzy social platform? Here’s everything you need to know.

Tips on How to Snag a PlayStation 5 (Good Luck!)

Simon Hill — Sat, 18 Dec 2021 14:00:00 GMT

A year after launch, Sony's latest console is still proving difficult to find. Here's how to score one.

These Are Our Favorite Robot Vacuums

Adrienne So — Sat, 18 Dec 2021 14:00:00 GMT

From no-frills cleaners to high-end automation, we have the perfect pick for you.

The Best iPhone 13 Deals—and Which Model to Pick

Brenda Stolyar — Sat, 18 Dec 2021 13:00:00 GMT

Get those Apple Wallets ready. From the Mini to the Pro Max, we break down all your options.