ARM won't sell its latest Neoverse V series chips to Chinese tech giant Alibaba after concluding that the US and UK would not approve licenses to export them, according to The Financial Times. The decision follows new US government rules restricting China and Russia exports of powerful chips that could be repurposed for military use.
Softbank-owned ARM reportedly believes that Neoverse V would fall into the category of high-performance processors affected by the new rules. While it could apply for a license, it would likely be turned down, according to FT's sources with knowledge of the sale process. It may be the first time that ARM has decided not to sell it's most advanced chip designs to China.
ARM designs the advanced RISC architecture for chips used in products ranging from smartwatches to advanced supercomputers. It doesn't build the processors itself, but sells the designs to manufacturers like TSMC and Samsung. Its latest Neoverse V2 core has the highest performance to date, with a design said to have originated in the US.
The Biden administration is also reportedly set to put Chinese chip manufacturer YMTC on its entity list as early as next week, according to a separate FT article. The company reportedly violated US export controls by supplying Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei with NAND memory chips.
The US government had YMTC on an "unverified" entity list, meaning it was unable carry out checks to confirming that domestic technology wasn't being used illegally. Thirty Chinese companies including YMTC had 60 days to comply to avoid being placed on an entity list that severely restricts exports. The Chinese government now allows such checks, but not all companies are necessarily cooperating.
The US unveiled sweeping tech export controls in October. "This includes preventing China’s acquisition and use of US technology in the context of its military-civil fusion program to fuel its military modernization efforts, conduct human rights abuses, and enable other malign activities," it said at the time. When the rules were announced, analysts said that memory chipmakers like YMTC would be most affected.
China filed a dispute with the World Trade Organization earlier this week over those export controls. The US government considers YMTC to be a "national champion" in China, so the latest move is likely to be met with a strong reaction.
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Lee Cronin teases Evil Dead Rise’s connections to the wider franchise. Bryce Dallas Howard will lead Disney+’s Witch Mountain reboot. Plus, filming wraps on Dune 2, and check out two more sneak peeks at Sonic Prime. Spoilers away!
Meta said it spent $5 billion on global safety and security last year and employs hundreds of people dedicated to anti-terror work. Not every company has those kind of resources, but Meta has shared a new open-source tool that can help combat child exploitation, terrorist propaganda and other types of abusive content for free. The tool is called Hasher-Matcher-Actioner (HMA), and it builds on the company's previous image and video matching software that it also released three years ago.
HMA can keep websites free of unsavory content with the help of its users who label images and videos that violate rules and laws. The system will create a "hash" or a unique fingerprint of each piece of content that gets saved onto a database. Companies can use the tool to create and run their own databases, but they can also use existing hash databases to make sure they have everything covered. That means they don't have to save the offending images or videos themselves and can simply run all their content through the databases they use to find posts that potentially violate their rules.
Meta has shared the tool shortly before it assumes the chair of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) board next month. That's the group it formed with Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft to fight online extremism back in 2017. GIFCT runs a database that companies can use with the HMA, and Meta says when "more companies participate in the hash sharing database the better and more comprehensive it is — and the better we all are at keeping terrorist content off the internet, especially since people will often move from one platform to another to share this content." It added: "...many companies do not have the in-house technology capabilities to find and moderate violating content in high volumes, which is why HMA is a potentially valuable tool."
Those interested can checkout the Hasher-Matcher-Actioner tool on GitHub.
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All I want for Christmas is for my glasses not to fog up. And Swiss scientists might deliver on that wish. ETH Zurich researchers have developed a gold nanocoating that heats glass by up to 46 Fahrenheit by absorbing a large amount of infrared radiation − and keeps your glasses fog free. Most protective treatments merely spread water around using hydrophilic molecules, but this nano-thin layer can stop the condensation from even forming.
The research group believes the layer could also reduce fog on car windshields, and future implementations could work on mirrors, windows and more. The coating lays gold between layers of titanium oxide, which amplifies the heating effect through refraction and protects the gold against wear – titanium is much tougher. And while gold is pricey, the amount needed is so small it shouldn't add much to the price of your glasses if the tech makes its way into mainstream spectacles.
– Mat Smith
The Morning After isn’t just anewsletter– it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, bysubscribing right here.
With Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon processor and a 1-inch camera sensor.
With the 13 and 13 Pro, Xiaomi is the second manufacturer to use Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 platform, following Vivo’s X90 Pro and IQOO 11 series. The 13 Pro’s camera is the main highlight: It packs a 50-megapixel (MP) f/1.9 main camera with a Type 1-inch sensor (it's really only 8.8 x 13.2mm, but it’s still significantly larger than most smartphone imaging sensors). It has a 50MP 3.2x zoom camera (75mm equivalent) with optical image stabilization (OIS) and a floating lens. And there’s also a 50MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera (14mm equivalent) because lots of camera sensors is a trend that’s going nowhere. Prices start at 4,999 yuan ($720) for the Xiaomi 13 Pro and 3,999 yuan ($570) for the Xiaomi 13. But, you won't be able to buy them in North America.
After multiple delays, Square Enix’s next big game is almost here. Forspoken is the first title to come from the team that made Final Fantasy XV – a game from 2016. While we know the magical attacks in Forspoken are spectacular, a one-on-one battle with Sila, the Tanta of Strength, made the biggest impression during our preview session – and the best showcase for all the attacks and moves you can master. Once you’ve read our preview, be sure to check out the demo to test the spells and magical parkour for yourself.
Each received 14 television nods, while 'The Rings of Power' and Will Smith were shut out.
Streaming services once again dominated TV categories for this year’s Golden Globes nominees. Netflix and HBO Max had the best showings among streamers, tallying 14 television nods. Netflix’s The Crown received four nominations: Best Drama Series, Best Television Actress - Drama Series (Imelda Staunton), Best Supporting Actress - Television Series (Elizabeth Debicki) and Best Supporting Actor - Television Series (Jonathan Pryce).
Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story also received four: Best Limited Series - Anthology Series or Television Motion Picture and acting nominations for Evan Peters, Niecy Nash and Richard Jenkins. HBO’s The White Lotus picked up four nominations, but I haven’t started season two, so no spoilers, please.
Framework released its first modular laptop last year, and the company now offers it with ChromeOS. It’s not the most exciting laptop, but it’s extremely well designed, upgradeable and flexible. You can easily swap out ports, add RAM and replace any parts that might break over time. Couple that with an excellent screen and keyboard and you have a quality device that should last years longer than the average Chromebook, even if its $999 price is pretty high.
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As promised, Apple has expanded its iPhone 14 Emergency SOS satellite feature to France, Germany, Ireland and the UK after launching it in the US and Canada. To remind you, the new iPhones have a built-in satellite connection that people can use to send emergency SOS messages in places where there's no available cellular signal. The service is available to all iPhone 14 users on iOS 16.1 in supported countries and is free for two years following purchase.
"It means that many more people will be able to contact 112 when they have no mobile coverage and need urgent assistance," said European Emergency Number Association CEO Gary Machado. "We are confident that this will save many lives and offer significant help to emergency services dealing with these often very complicated rescues."
Apple
Emergency SOS via Satellite is activated by a long press on the power and volume buttons, or rapidly pressing the power button five times. The interface guides you on the best direction to point your iPhone for the best signal. Once connected, you can open a message interface with emergency service providers, and the phone will also communicate your location. If everything goes to plan, you'll receive a message that responders have been notified, and to stay where you are.
You can also share your location with family members in a non-emergency using the Find My app. Users simply open the Me tab, swipe up to see My Location via Satellite, and tap Send My Location. It also works with iPhone and Apple Watch Crash and Fall Detection features. There's even a demo mode that lets you practice using Emergency SOS so you can act quickly if a real emergency arises.
The feature could be a godsend to hikers, skiers and others lost in the Alps or other remote parts of Europe. Support for more countries will arrive next year, Apple said.
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Elon Musk, who was booed mercilessly by a stadium full of people on Sunday during a Dave Chappelle stand-up show, has deleted tweets that sought to explain away the jeers. Musk had claimed the crowd was “90% cheers” and that there was a fight in the audience that stopped him from speaking normally, both apparent lies…
If you'd been meaning to catch up on Westworld even though it was cancelled before its fifth and final season, you may want to do so soon. The show is leaving the streaming service just over a month after it was cancelled, according to Deadline and Variety. The Nevers, the sci-fi series Joss Whedon created for HBO, has also been cancelled and will be removed from the streaming platform before the second half of season one could debut next year.
As Variety notes, HBO Max owner Warner Bros. Discovery is saving money with this move, as it will no longer have to pay residuals to cast and crew. That, of course, on top of the money it's saving by discontinuing the shows' production. Chief Executive David Zaslav promised investors that the company would find a way to cut $3.5 billion in costs after the $43 billion WarnerMedia and Discovery merger was finalized earlier this year. The company has been cutting down on spending since then and has cancelled shows other than these two.
Deadline says, however, that it's possible for both Westworld and The Nevers to come back as offerings on another one of the company's platforms. Zaslav previously talked about entering the free ad-supported TV streaming space, and the sci-fi shows could apparently be offered on a future service with that business model. If that does happen, the second half of The Nevers — a show set in Victorian London that follows a group of women who manifest abnormal abilities — will debut on that service. It remains to be seen if we're going to see the ending Westworld's showrunners envisioned for it. The show's fifth season didn't get the chance to start production, unlike The Nevers that's already done shooting the back half of its first season.
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If you have any regrets about pass on Google Pixel smartphone deals during this year's Black Friday sales, worry not. Nearly all of the same devices discounted last month are back on sale at the same prices, with up to 33 percent off the Pixel 6a, Pixel 7, Pixel Watch and Pixel Buds A-Series, along with home products like the Nest Thermostat, Nest Security Cam and Nest Doorbell.
For smartphone shoppers on a budget, Google's Pixel 6a is on sale for just $299 (33 percent off the regular $449 price), matching the Black Friday deal. It has top-notch performance, while giving you the purest Android experience possible. At the same time, you get excellent camera quality, thanks to the two 12-megapixel rear cameras and 8-MP front sensor delivering bright, colorful pictures and video. It also comes with a distinctive design, sharp 6.1-inch OLED screen covered with Gorilla Glass 3, long-lasting battery, IP67 water/dust protection and more.
Google's latest phones are also on sale. The Google Pixel 7 128GB (5G, unlocked) is available for just $499 instead of $599 (17 percent off), while the top-end Pixel 7 Pro (5G, unlocked) is priced at $749, or $150 off the regular $899 price. Both models have the new Tensor G2 chip, excellent cameras and new software and features like Direct My Call and Photo Unblur — helping them both achieve high scores in our Engadget review. The main differences between the two are in the display, with the Pixel 7 Pro being better for mobile gaming thanks to the 120Hz display, compared to 90Hz on the Pixel 7.
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Though it only recently came out, Google's sleek Pixel Watch is on sale for $300, or $50 (14 percent) off the regular price. It's easily one of the prettiest Wear OS watches out there, offers excellent health and fitness tracking and useful new faces. Meanwhile, Google's Pixel Buds A-Series are discounted by 30 percent, bringing the regular $99 price down to $69. We called them "Google's best earbuds yet," thanks to the solid ANC performance, punchy bass and reliable touch controls.
Finally, multiple Google Nest products are available at some of the lowest prices we've seen. You can grab the Google Nest Thermostat for $90, a savings of $40 (31 percent) off the regular price. The Google Nest Security Cam (wired) has been reduced by 30 percent to $70, and if it's a Google Nest Doorbell you're after, that item is on sale for $120, for a savings of $60 (33 percent). All of these will make great Christmas gifts, but it's best to act soon before the sale ends.
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Twitter has begun rolling out Community Notes to all of its users globally, the company announced on Saturday. Previously known as Birdwatch, the feature first debuted in 2021 under former CEO Jack Dorsey as means for the social media website to combat misinformation.
Community Notes takes a crowd-sourced approach to debunking misleading tweets. Moderators who are part of the program can append notes to tweets to add “context.” Regular users can then vote on whether they find the context “helpful.” Before today, only individuals in the US could see the notes. Twitter says it will start adding contributors from other regions soon.
Beginning today, Community Notes are visible around the world 🌎🌍🌏
Current company owner Elon Musk has positioned Community Notes as a critical element of his “Twitter 2.0” vision, claiming the feature will be “a gamechanger for improving accuracy on Twitter.” However, as with any crowd-sourced feature, there’s the potential for Community Notes to backfire if groups use the tool to promote partisan views.
The global rollout of Community Notes comes a day before the relaunch of Twitter Blue. Following a disastrous first attempt at paid account verification, Twitter announced on Saturday it would start rolling out its revamped subscription service again on Monday. This time around, subscribers will need to provide a number for verification purposes before the company will add a blue checkmark to their account. Additionally, users who change their handle, display name and profile photo will temporarily lose their blue checkmark while Twitter reviews their account.
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The uncrewed Orion spacecraft performed a flawless splashdown in the Pacific Ocean earlier today, in what is a very promising and exciting start to the Artemis era of lunar missions.
Richard Miller, a sculptor at Industrial Light & Magic, died earlier in the week at the age of 80, a handful of days after his birthday. Per the Hollywood Reporter, he passed after an extended stay in hospice care. Fon H. Davis, one of Miller’s colleagues, later confirmed the news on Instagram, writing that he was “…
If you recently bought an iPad and have been patiently waiting for the second-generation Apple Pencil to go on sale, now is your chance to buy one at a significant discount. Amazon has dropped the price of the stylus by 31 percent, making it $89 at the moment. That marks a return to an all-time low price for the Apple Pencil. Note that if you order today, it should arrive by Christmas.
At this point, there’s not much to say about Apple’s latest stylus. If you’re an artist or enjoy drawing, it’s a must-buy accessory. The second-generation model's pressure sensitivity allows you to add as much or as little detail to digital artwork as you want, and you can customize the double-tap feature to some extent. The Apple Pencil is also a great tool for photographers who rely on apps like Lightroom. Best of all, the stylus attaches magnetically to the iPad Pro and iPad Air for easy storage and charging. If you recently bought Apple’s new 2022 iPad, keep in mind the tablet is only compatible with the first-generation Apple Pencil.
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The past week has been eventful for fans of DC movies. Between a debut poster for Blue Beetle, everything going on with Dwayne Johnson andBlack Adam, and varying movies getting put on hold or maybe straight up gone, things are looking...kinda weird as James Gunn and Peter Safran begin to settle on what the next few…
The Covid pandemic wasn't the first time that America has found itself split along ideological seams over infectious disease, nor was the Spanish Flu in 1919. Even when America was still a collection of colonies, we held bitter disagreements on public health policy.
During the run-up to the Revolutionary War, the 13 colonies found themselves besieged by a widespread and deadly outbreak of smallpox, carried here aboard a recently arrived slave ship. With that disease also arrived our best defense against it — inoculation techniques practiced by the slaves themselves. However, getting the wider, whiter public on board with these lifesaving treatments — even with the vigorous backing by Benjamin Franklin, who lost a cherished son to the disease after refusing to inoculate the boy — was anything but easy.
But it damn well proved to be necessary. As historian Andrew Wehrman explains in The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution, our downright violent resistance to, and demand for freedom from, the disease was also precisely what helped galvanize our mobilization of independence from England.
On December 15, 1774, Reverend Samuel Williams of Bradford, Massachusetts, was invited to Salem by Reverend Asa Dunbar to deliver a Thanksgiving sermon before the congregation of the First Church. Williams titled his sermon “A Discourse on the Love of Our Country,” and it was preached and then published in the tense months between the announcement of Britain’s Coercive Acts in the summer of 1774 and the first shots at Lexington and Concord in April 1775. Williams, from the pulpit, touted America’s achievements in civil government, religion, and the military, but surprisingly also highlighted America’s scientific prowess. As an infant state, Williams argued, America could not be expected “to have the numbers, wealth, or literary establishments of ancient states,” but even with these disadvantages, Williams boasted that Americans had already made “two capital discoveries.” The first of these was Benjamin Franklin’s discovery of electricity, and the second was the discovery of inoculation against smallpox. These two breakthroughs indicated that America had “strong tendencies towards a state of greater perfection and happiness than mankind has yet seen.”
Popular mobilization for the war of independence required Americans in thirteen distinct colonies, possessing “different forms of government, different laws, different interests, and some of them different religious persuasions and different manners,” to imagine a shared culture that needed defending. By midcentury ordinary colonists had developed a great fondness for royal political culture and fashionable imported British consumer goods like tea, which created a shared and increasingly British identity across the colonies. The Revolution, then, was not inevitable but instead was the result of a sudden break in the 1770s over British grievances rather than a slow tear over decades of developing American values. By looking at how colonists viewed inoculation, however, we can see that Americans developed a particular sense of national pride while still maintaining their overall Britishness, and how suddenly such feelings could burst into jealous fury when unacknowledged. The discovery and implementation of smallpox inoculation from a folk practice to the medical triumph of the eighteenth century was certainly a global and transatlantic process, but Americans in the 1760s and 1770s cobbled together a shared history about the discovery of mankind’s greatest medical procedure, turning it into an all-American cure. Although they did not always agree on the details, they had no doubt that they did it without the help of anyone in Great Britain. As Williams did in his sermon, Americans used their claim to have invented inoculation to celebrate American achievement and ultimately to rationalize a revolution.
Throughout his sermon in Salem, Williams toyed with his audience about which country he was professing to love, Britain or America. He was speaking the day before the anniversary of the Destruction of the Tea in Boston Harbor. In retaliation for that destruction, Parliament had closed Boston Harbor with the Boston Port Act and altered how Massachusetts communities could conduct their own affairs and town meetings in the Massachusetts Government Act. The people of Massachusetts, angry over what they saw as tyrannical overreach, ended royal authority in much of the countryside, as communities were forming revolutionary committees of safety, closing county courts, demanding allegiance, arming themselves, and training their “minutemen.” Still, many hoped for a speedy reconciliation and a de-escalation of violence. Few were calling for outright independence.
Williams understood that his words mattered in this moment, as the people of Salem, which had been regarded — often derisively — as a center of loyalism in Massachusetts, considered how they would react to the inevitable crisis in the months to come. The minister established that people should love all mankind as they love God, but that there was a particular love that people should have for their own country. Not until the middle of the sermon did he begin to reveal that he had rhetorically separated the mother country from the united colonies and was encouraging the congregation to love the latter.
Williams understood his audience and the local context as well. Over the course of the last year, Essex Hospital and the Salem jail had been destroyed by mobs angry over inoculations. While not as violent as the controversy in Marblehead, in Salem, a civic debate about how best to protect their community from the smallpox epidemic had exploded into an issue of national pride over the claims of a flamboyant British doctor named James Latham, which split the town into Whigs and Tories on the eve of the Revolution. Williams, who would go on to become “Hollis Professor of Mathematicks and Natural Philosophy” at Harvard University five years after this sermon, used science to make his case. He compared the love of one’s country to a gravitational pull, which “will ever draw to a common centre.”
While the mother country had much to admire, Americans had created their own critical mass through population growth, drawing themselves together with asylum seekers from other lands: “From the weak beginnings of private adventurers, so amazingly rapid has been our growth and progress, that in a century and an half, we are become more than three millions of inhabitants.” And, Williams maintained, the process was accelerating. The discoveries of electricity and inoculation were bound to be only the beginning of America’s “improvements in commerce, philosophy, and the medicinal art.” Based on these achievements and this potential, Williams made it clear at the end of his speech that “the cause of America seems indeed to be much the better cause. It is not the cause of a mob, of a party, or a faction that America means to plead . . . Nor is it the cause of independency which we have in view. It is the cause of Self-Defense, of Public Faith, and of the Liberties of Mankind that America is engaged."
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After 25 days in space, Orion is about to conclude its uncrewed test run to the Moon. The Artemis 1 mission will draw to a close when the NASA spacecraft splashes down in the Pacific Ocean close to Guadalupe Island, which is 130 nautical miles off the coast of Baja California. Orion is scheduled to hit the water at around 12:40PM ET. NASA's livestream will start at 11AM and continue after splashdown as a recovery team picks up the capsule. You'll be able to watch the stream below.
NASA chose the landing trajectory and splashdown site so as not to pose a threat to people, land or shipping lanes. Just before re-entry, Orion and the European Service Module will separate, with the latter burning up in Earth's atmosphere.
The crew mobile will carry out a skip entry technique to ensure it accurately arrives at the designated landing site. Orion will edge into the upper part of the atmosphere, then use that and its own lift to "skip" back out before re-entering for the final descent. The atmosphere will reduce Orion's speed to 325MPH and the 11 parachutes will eventually slow it to a splashdown speed of 20MPH or less.
After multiple delays, Artemis 1 launched on November 15th as a precursor to the first crewed mission to the Moon in over 50 years. After carrying out a flyby in which it got as close as 80 miles to the lunar surface, Orion went into a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. That allowed NASA to test various systems while minimizing fuel consumption — Orion's cameras took some gorgeous pictures while it was out there too. The spacecraft left the Moon's gravitational pull on December 6th as it made its way home.
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Mastodon has been gaining popularity ever since Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter. Shortly after the deal became official, Vivaldi became the first browser to create its own Mastodon "instance" called Vivaldi Social. Now, the browser has announced that it's integrating the platform into the sidebar of its desktop browser, giving users an easy way to view posts from the accounts they follow.
The Twitter alternative bears similarities to Musk's social network and gives users a way to make short posts. Unlike Twitter, which a single entity runs, Mastodon is a decentralized service that runs on an open-source protocol. Users can create and run their own servers or "instances" that other people can join, and Vivaldi Social is just one of them. Instances can communicate with one another, and people from different servers can still follow each other and see the other's posts.
With the browser's latest update, its users can now find Vivaldi Social in the sidebar, though they can also add any Mastodon instance they want. When they access an instance from the panel, it pops up and is displayed on the side to create a split-screen view.
Vivaldi
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The still fairly recent hiring of James Gunn and Peter Safran to head up Warner Bros.’ DC Films arm has sent some ripples through the already turbulent air of DC movies. Wonder Woman’s third movie was put on ice ahead of Gunn and Safran’s pitch to WB for their overall plan, sequels for Superman and Black Adam may have…
Crunch has become a common issue at game development studios, especially as high-profile titles near launch. The release date for Diablo IV isn't until June, but people working on the Activision Blizzard game are already saying it will be difficult to meet the deadline even with employees working 12-hour days, late into evening and on the weekend.
The Nest co-founder once worked on a team at Apple that created the iPod. Now he's making a hardware wallet for crypto to give the digital currency its own iPod moment with the Paris-based company Ledger. Levy chronicles the period leading up to launch of the Ledger Stax this week.
An activity I look forward to every year is listening through Pitchfork's year-end lists. There are several, but I always start with albums — the long game. It's a fun annual chore, discovering new acts I've never heard of and listening back to some I'm already familiar with.
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Let’s face it: bed is one of the best places to be. It’s somewhere we feel warm, and safe, and comfortable, so it’s perhaps no surprise that getting up in the morning can be such a chore. If you’re finding that you’re hitting the snooze button once too often after waking up, there are a selection of apps you can pick…
A lagoon in the southern part of the Andes has dried up completely as the mountain region and the people living in it are struggling through a years-long drought.
Back in November, New York City's Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) voted to increase the pay rates of Uber and Lyft drivers to make up for the rise in inflation and and operational costs. The new rates were supposed to be implemented on December 19th, but now Uber has sued the commission to block the new rates from taking effect. According to Bloomberg, Uber said in its lawsuit that it would have to spend an additional $21 million to $23 million a month if the new rates are implemented and that it wouldn't be able to recover those costs without raising fares.
To note, drivers' per-minute rates are going up by 7.4 percent and per-mile rates by 24 percent under the new rules. That means for a 7.5-mile trip that takes 30 minutes, a driver would earn at least $27.15, which is $2.50 more than current rates. The drivers are also getting another pay bump in March 2023, based on inflation rates comparing December's to September's this year. A company spokesperson told the news publication that by increasing drivers' pay this December, TLC is locking in "this summer's high gas prices in perpetuity." They added that TLC "should have followed its usual annual adjustment and instituted a temporary gas surcharge when gas prices were actually elevated" instead.
The company's lawsuit seems to indicate that it intends to pass the costs associated with drivers' pay increase to riders. "Such a significant fare hike, right before the holidays, would irreparably damage Uber’s reputation, impair goodwill, and risk permanent loss of business and customers," its lawsuit said. In a strongly worded response to the lawsuit, TLC said acknowledged that Uber already charges 37 percent more today compared to 2019, but it said that the company is keeping money earned from fare hikes over the past few years to itself.
The commission's statement reads: "Just in time to steal Christmas from New York families, Uber is suing to stop the raise the TLC enacted for app drivers after months of public hearings, years of stalled wages, and the pandemic decimating incomes. Uber's Grinch move is on top of denying a fuel surcharge to only NYC drivers when costs skyrocketed due to record high inflation, forcing drivers in one of their most profitable markets to choose between groceries and fueling up.
Uber is already charging passengers 37% more today compared to 2019 AND KEEPING IT FOR THEMSELVES but says this modest raise for drivers is what will break the company. Shame on you, Dara Khosrowshahi. We call on the City to stand firm and defend the rights of drivers to labor with dignity. Uber seeks chaos. We seek dignity. We are confident we will prevail."
The ride-hailing giant is now asking the court to declare the new pay rates as invalid and to prevent the first increase's implementation this month while the lawsuit is ongoing.
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The cost of everything from gas to groceries is endlessly rising, but DJI seems to be the only company tackling inflation head-on, by releasing more affordable versions of its most popular drones. First it was the DJI Mavic 3 Classic: a cheaper version lacking the original Mavic 3's telephoto lens, and now it’s the…
Well, it’s that time of year folks. Yes, as we inch into December and towards 2023, the time has finally come to tally up the greatest (read: worst, most unfortunate, most ridiculous) hacking episodes of the year. As far as cybersecurity disasters go, 2022 wasn’t quite as bad as other recent years. There were fewer…
The Game Awards gave us a busy night for gaming news.. First up, Idris Elba will star in Cyberpunk 2077’s first big DLC. Phantom Liberty is a spy thriller introducing a new character, FIA agent Solomon Reed, played by Elba. The DLC also includes new missions and a new district in Night City, all of it culminating in "an impossible mission of espionage and survival," according to developer CD Projekt RED. I wonder if he’ll bump into Keanu Reeves’ character.
A Hades sequel might be the biggest reveal. While the game looks similar to the Supergiant hit, you can expect a new female protagonist, Melinoë, training with the witch goddess Hecate, and generally slaying beasts in the underworld. We also got release dates for Final Fantasy XVI (June 22nd), Street Fighter 6 (June 2nd) and Diablo IV (June 6th). In short, June 2023 is shaping up to be a busy month in gaming.
Hideo Kojima was also ready to reveal his next project, Death Stranding 2 – yes, another sequel. Both Norman Reedus and Léa Seydoux will reappear in the game, headed for PS5. Kojima added that his studio is also working on a second, completely new project with an experimental edge. So, not a sequel?
We’ve pulled together all the other big gaming headlines right here. But which game won? FromSoftware’s Elden Ring, of course. It beat games like God of War Ragnarok,Horizon Forbidden West, Stray and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 to claim Game Of The Year.
– Mat Smith
The Morning After isn’t just anewsletter– it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, bysubscribing right here.
IKEA and Sonos’ floor lamp collaboration, at $260, is the most expensive speaker in the Symfonisk lineup. Current models range from $120 for a bookshelf speaker (with less than stellar audio) to $250 for musical wall art. And your investment in the floor lamp could creep even higher if you want something other than the included bamboo shade. It’ll launch in January 2023.
Google is planning to merge its Waze and Maps divisions, The Wall Street Journal has reported. The move aims at reducing duplicated work across the products, but Google said it will still keep the Waze and Maps apps separate. Waze and Maps have been sharing features ever since Google acquired Waze for $1.1 billion back in 2013. "Google remains deeply committed to Waze’s unique brand, its beloved app and its thriving community of volunteers and users," a spokesperson told the WSJ. Waze CEO Neha Parikh will leave her role after a transition period, but there will reportedly be no layoffs.
Two new modes should help lighten the load on your desktop or laptop.
With a new Memory Saver mode, Google says Chrome will reduce its memory usage by up to 30 percent on desktop. The mode frees up memory from open tabs you aren't using. Google says this will help to give you a smoother experience on active tabs. Chrome will reload inactive tabs when you switch back to them. The company has also revealed a Battery Saver mode, which Google says can kick in when you're using the browser and your device's battery level drops to 20 percent. Chrome will limit background activity, including tabs with videos and animations. Google says all users will have access to them in the coming weeks, and it's rolling out the build already.
Expect to see a USB-C iPhone by 2025 at the latest.
The European Union has set a firm deadline for manufacturers to adopt USB-C charging for most electronic devices sold in the region. New phones, tablets, headphones, portable speakers and many other types of devices will need to adopt the standard for wired charging as of December 28th, 2024. Laptop makers will need to switch to USB-C by April 2026.
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Riot Games has sued Chinese tech giant NetEase, calling its mobile game Hyper Front "a copy of substantial parts of Valorant," Law360 has reported. On top of matching the format, NetEase also replicated parts of its character designs, game maps, weapon designs and more, Riot claims. It brought the case to the high court of England and Wales, but is also launching complaints in Germany, Brazil and Singapore, according toPolygon.
Like Valorant, Hyper Front is a free-to-play first-person shooter that pits teams of five against each other in different modes. In its claim, Riot noted that Hyper Front began development shortly after it revealed an early of Valorant dubbed "Project A" in October of 2019. NetEase, meanwhile, showed off a beta version of Hyper Front under the code name "Project M."
The release of Hyper Front in Singapore and other countries prompted complaints from users that it was essentially a "copy" of Valorant. That led to NetEase making modifications to the games, but the level of infringement goes beyond that, Riot said. The modified version of Hyper Front is currently available on Android and iOS stores, boasting more than one million downloads and 48,000+ reviews on Google Play.
NetEase is currently involved in a dispute with Korea's PUBG corp. over two NetEase mobile games. Earlier this year, two California judges said NetEase faced an "uphill battle" in challenging a settlement agreement with PUBG. Meanwhile, Riot Games recently settled a class-action gender discrimination lawsuit for $100 million.
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Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of hedge fund Alameda Research and crypto platform FTX, was a frequent guest on both mainstream financial news and more niche crypto podcasts. And while digging through his media appearances over the years, Gizmodo has stumbled upon a very weird analogy from SBF, as he was often known,…
Motorola is churning out another budget Android phone today with the Moto G Play (2023). The $170 handset runs an eight-core MediaTek Helio G37 chipset, the same entry-level processor from the latest Moto G Power. Unfortunately, although the new Moto G Play offers decent-enough specs on a budget, it also underscores Motorola’s habit of churning out endless rehashes of cheap phones.
The Android 12 handset has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage (expandable to up to 512GB with a microSD card). Its IPS TFT LCD 6.5-inch display has a mere 720p resolution but a fast 90Hz refresh rate, something you won’t always see in this price range.
The phone has three cameras on its back, a first for the Moto G Play series. A 16MP main lens gets help from 2MP macro and depth sensors to produce extreme closeups and portraits with blurred backgrounds. In addition, the rear camera and 5MP front sensor can each record full HD footage at 30 fps.
Motorola
Motorola says the phone’s 5,000mAh battery lasts up to three days and supports 10W rapid charging via USB-C. It has IP52 water protection, so it should withstand light splashes and spills. Continuing a familiar cost-cutting measure, the Moto G Play lacks NFC and 5G.
The phone’s unlocked version launches on January 12 at Best Buy, Amazon and Motorola. UScellular and Canadian carriers will have it on the same day, with various US regional carriers following later.
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The iOS 16 update is now firmly established on a large chunk of iPhones, but you might not be completely happy with every tweak and modification that’s been made. The good news is that at least some of the changes can be reversed by delving into the iOS Settings screen, and we’ll cover some of the most important ones…
Reddit has unveiled its end-of-year Recap for 2022 and detailed some key stats on the site and communities for the year. It now has over 100,000 active communities globally, and saw some 430 million posts, up 14 percent over last year. The site also saw some 2.5+ billion comments (up 7 percent year-over-year) and 24 billion upvotes.
Among all those communities, the number one most-viewed was r/amitheasshole (aka AITA). Meanwhile, r/worldnews climbed to number three, while r/ukraine had 1.8 billion views, up 76 percent from last year. In this year's edition of r/place (effectively the world's largest digital quilt blanket), redditors from 236 countries contributed 160+ million tiles, including art, memes and more.
Along with stats for the year, the company also announced that its Reddit Recap is back for individual users. It lets you see localized and translated stats for your year on the platform, like your most upvoted comment. At the end of the recap, you can see how you stack up against other users with the awarding of a "Rare," "Epic" or "Legendary" superpower status.
Reddit's traffic may have benefited this year from a new Google feature that made it easier to search results from Reddit and other forums. Reddit itself also finally made comments searchable, letting you see results from replies to posts and not just the original posts. For more on Reddit Recap 2022, check r/recap.
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In October, Elon Musk purchased Twitter for a cool $44 billion dollars. Among a variety of other assets and headaches, the deal came with one resource that’s gone under-explored: a vast data collection network spanning the sites of more than 70,000 Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, non-profits, universities,…
IKEA announced its latest Sonos collaboration today, a Symfonisk speaker that doubles as a floor lamp. The lamp/speaker combo will launch in January in IKEA stores and online.
The floor lamp’s $260 price makes it the most expensive speaker in the Symfonisk lineup. Current models range between $120 for a bookshelf speaker (with less than stellar audio) and $250 for musical wall art. And your investment in the floor lamp could creep even higher if you want something other than the included bamboo shade, as alternative lampshades run from $39 to $49.
Although Symfonisk speakers are cheaper than Sonos-branded devices, models in the IKEA collaboration don’t have a built-in AI assistant, so you’ll need a separate Alexa, Google Assistant or HomePod product to control them with your voice. But they still support other mainstay Sonos features, like a healthy list of music services, TruePlay tuning (iOS only) and speaker pairing.
IKEA
Sonos and IKEA launched the Symfonisk line in 2019, merging IKEA’s distinct home style with Sonos’ audio smarts. The companies frame the combination as helping customers conserve space on tables or nightstands — or, in this case, the floor — in apartments or smaller homes.
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As part of recent cost-cutting measures, Google is planning to merge its Waze and Maps divisions, The Wall Street Journal has reported. The move is aimed at reducing duplicated work across the products, but Google said it will still keep the Waze and Maps apps separate.
"Google remains deeply committed to Waze’s unique brand, its beloved app and its thriving community of volunteers and users," a spokesperson told the WSJ. Waze CEO Neha Parikh will leave her role after a transition period, but there will reportedly be no layoffs. Starting this Friday, the 500-strong Waze team will join Google's Geo organization in charge of Maps, Earth and Street View.
Waze and Maps have been sharing features ever since Google acquired Waze for $1.1 billion back in 2013. Waze's traffic data started appearing in Maps shortly after the acquisition, with speed limits, radar locations and other features arriving later. In return, Waze has benefited from Google's know-how in search. The FTC launched an antitrust investigation shortly after the acquisition, and at the time, Google said it was keeping Waze as a separate unit "for now."
It's been nine years since then, but according to former CEO Noam Bardin, Waze hasn't enjoyed complete independence. "All of our growth at Waze post acquisition was from work we did, not support from the mothership. Looking back, we could have probably grown faster and much more efficiently had we stayed independent," he said in a LinkedIn post last year.
Waze has 151 million monthly active users, compared to one billion for Google Maps services. Still, Waze is a highly popular navigation app (particularly in Europe), thanks to its crowd-sourced nature. Individual users can easily report traffic, police, crashes, map problems, radar cameras and more with the touch of a button. Google Maps added the ability to report driving incidents back in 2019, but is less geared around crowdsourcing.
With ad revenue slowing down at Google, CEO Sundar Pichai said in September that he hoped to make the company 20 percent more efficient. Part of that, he said, could be achieved via layoffs and merging multiple products.
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President Joe Biden has signed H.R. 7132 or Safe Connections Act of 2022 into law, and it could help domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and human trafficking survivors ultimately cut ties with abusers. Under the new law, users can ask mobile service providers to separate their line — as well as their dependents' — from their abusers' if they have a shared contract. That would ensure that abusers no longer have access to their phone records and can't get their service cut. Carriers aren't allowed to charge fees to grant these requests, which they must do so within do two days.
In addition, Safe Connections Act of 2022 will require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to create rules that would make it easier for survivors seeking separate mobile plans to enroll in its Lifeline Program for up to six months. This FCC initiative gives qualifying low-income consumers a discount on phone services, so they can remain connected to job opportunities, friends, family and emergency services while they're working to get back on their feet. The commission also has to establish rules that would prevent calls or texts to hotlines from appearing on call logs, presumably to keep survivors safe.
In a blog post, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) celebrated the new law but also said that it would have "preferred a bill that did not require survivors to provide paperwork to 'prove' their abuse." For a request to be valid, a user must submit "appropriate documentation" to verify that the person they're sharing a contract with "committed or allegedly committed an act of domestic violence, trafficking, or a related criminal act against the survivor."
Having to provide paperwork may not be easy, depending on a person's circumstances, and it could retraumatize survivors trying to break free from abusive situations. "However, this new law is a critical step in the right direction," the EFF continued, "and it is encouraging that Congress and the President agreed."
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GM has installed its first Level 2 charging stations in Wisconsin and Detroit as part of a community charging initiative unveiled last year. A dealership in Marshfield, Wisconsin put up stations at locations including parks, a library and a sports complex, while another installed them at a healthcare/wellness center in Owosso, Michigan. The aim is to help dealers install up to 40,000 chargers in community locations (including underserved rural and urban areas) across the US and Canada.
"Nearly 90 percent of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a GM dealership. Our dealers are... well positioned to determine locations that expand access to EV charging, including at small businesses, entertainment venues, schools and other popular destinations,” said GM VP Hoss Hassani.
GM originally said it would offer a mix of 11.5kW and 19.2kW chargers, but it now says it will give dealers up to ten 19.2kW chargers that deliver "the most power available to a Level 2 charger." Those can be placed at "key locations" in neighborhoods, such as apartments, colleges and businesses. Crucially, the units won't be limited to GM drivers, so EVs from other brands can use them as well.
GM selected Canadian manufacturer FLO as the charging station provider, with manufacturing to take place at FLO's Auburn Hills, Michigan facility. While not nearly as quick as fast chargers, the 19.2kW 80-amp stations could get you from a 20 to 80 percent charge in under three hours — not bad if you're spending time at a library or park, for instance. Last year, GM said the chargers would be available to buy through dealers for home use, but it didn't mention that option in its latest press release.
Earlier this year, GM also unveiled plans for a coast-to-coast fast-charging network with 2,000 350kW chargers across 500 stations. It eventually plans to expand Ultium Charge 360 access to over 100,000 charge points across North America. Its current EV lineup includes the BrightDrop electric delivery vans, Cadillac Lyric and Celestiq, GMC Hummer and Sierra EVs, Chevrolet Blazer and Equinox EVs and the Bolt lineup. In an interesting twist, GM recently revealed that it has serviced over 11,000 Tesla EVs since last year.
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Look out, kids, there’s a new chatbot in town and it’s making stuff weird for everybody. Launched last week by OpenAI, a startup founded by Elon Musk, the artificial intelligence-fueled platform ChatGPT has garnered well over a million users in a matter of days. It’s also caused no small amount of debate and …
