Qualcomm was apparently the victim of a sophisticated fraud. The Los Angeles Timesreports the federal government revealed charges against former Qualcomm research VP Karim Arabi and three others for allegedly tricking the chip maker into spending $150 million in 2015 to acquire technology that it already had. After Arabi developed a quicker method of testing processors, the four launched a scheme to falsely claim that a Canadian graduate student (Arabi's sister) had invented the technique and was commercializing it through a startup. Arabi purportedly hid his involvement through the entire process (his sister even changed her name), leading Qualcomm to buy the startup even though it legally owned the executive's inventions.
Arabi left Qualcomm in June 2016. Prosecutors further alleged that the quartet laundered money through methods that included interest-free loans and purchasing foreign real estate. The penalties could be steep if the court convicts Arabi's group. Each could face up to 20 years in prison and fines of either $250,000 or double whatever they gained through the fraud scheme.
Qualcomm sued Arabi, his sister and the startup's CEO in 2017. That case was dismissed without prejudice in 2018, opening the door to another lawsuit, but the company didn't discuss the possibility of another suit in a statement to The Times.
Now is a good moment to catch up on the Resident Evil series ahead of next year's RE4 remake. Humble is offering a "Decades of Horror" bundle that includes most Resident Evil games for PC. Spend enough to get the full 11-game collection and you'll play remastered and remade versions of the first three titles, the existing versions of RE4 through RE7, and side games like the Revelations series and RE0. You'll also receive a 50 percent off coupon for Resident Evil Village if you want to start on it before its first DLC arrives.
You can pay as little as $1 for a three-item pack that includes the original Resident Evil, Revelations and the first episode of Revelations 2. An in-between six-game bundle includes RE1, RE0, RE5, RE6, Revelations and Revelations 2 Deluxe Edition. As usual, you can pay extra to contribute more of your purchase to charity.
The bundle comes on the heels of Netflix's live-action TV series. There are clearly some gaps dictated largely by platform support — you won't find Code Veronica, alas. All the same, this could easily be worth the investment if you're new to Capcom's survival horror series or just want to fill out your collection.
An alleged developer of the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixing service has been arrested in the Netherlands. The Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD), a government agency that investigates financial crimes, said the 29-year-old man is suspected of "involvement in concealing criminal financial flows and facilitating money laundering through the mixing of cryptocurrencies." The suspect was due to appear before a judge today.
The FIOD started investigating Tornado Cash in June and its Financial Advanced Cyber Team suspects that the platform has been used to conceal the flow of criminal funds on a large scale, including illicit gains from crypto hacks and scams. The agency found that, since the platform launched in 2019, at least $1 billion of crypto of "criminal origin" has been funneled through Tornado Cash, with the service's creator believed to "have made large-scale profits from these transactions."
Earlier this week, the US government sanctioned Tornado Cash, a move that prohibits anyone in the country from carrying out any transactions on the service. The Treasury Department claimed that over $7 billion worth of crypto has been laundered through Tornado Cash, including $455 million stolen by North Korea's state-backed Lazarus Group hacking collective.
It's a good time to stock up on travel-friendly accessories before your next trip. A number of Anker portable batteries, wireless chargers and other accessories are on sale, and you can save even more if you're an Amazon Prime member. Those who need to work while on the go can pick up Samsung's T7 Shield SSD for the cheapest price we've seen, while Samsung's Galaxy Buds Pro drop to an al-time-low price just days after the company announced the latest version of the earbuds in the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro. On top of all that, the Apple TV 4K is on sale for only $120 and you can pick up a base iPad for as low as $299. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.
Apple TV 4K
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
The Apple TV 4K is back in stock at Amazon and on sale for $120. While not quite as cheap as it was on Prime Day last month ($109), this remains one of the best prices we've seen no our favorite high-end set-top box. We gave the device a score of 90 for its fast performance, Dolby Vision and Atmos support, HomeKit integration and much-improved Siri remote.
Most models of Apple's iPad are on sale at Amazon right now, so you can pick one up for as low as $299. The 256GB version is down to $399 as well, and most WiFi + Cellular tablets have been discounted, too. We gave it a score of 86 for its solid performance, excellent battery life and improved Center Stage cameras.
A couple of colors of the Apple Watch Series 7 are on sale for $299, or $100 off their usual rate. That's also close to the record-low price we saw on Prime Day last month. We gave the wearable a score of 90 for its larger screen, faster charging and handy watchOS capabilities. However, if you want the latest from Apple, it may be worth waiting until September when the company historically has announced its latest phones and smartwatches.
Amazon Prime members can save up to 40 percent on Anker charging accessories, including the 521 magnetic battery pack for MagSafe-compatible iPhones, which is $20 off and down to $30. It's a 5,000 mAh portable battery that attaches to the back of the latest iPhones to power them up. Also on sale is Anker's 511 2-in-1 power bank, which is down to $35. That accessory works with more devices since it's an AC charger and portable battery in one.
Amazon's Echo Show 5 is back on sale for $40, or only $5 more than it was during Prime Day last month. This is one of our favorite smart displays and we like it for its compact design and its tap-to-snooze feature, both of which make the device a good smart alarm clock. Also on sale is the Echo Dot, which is $10 off and down to $40.
The larger Echo Show 8 has also been discounted to $85, which is $45 off its normal price and only $10 more than its all-time low. We gave it a score of 87 for its lovely screen, great sound quality and its 13MP camera that keeps you in frame when you're video chatting.
On the heels of Unpacked this week, Amazon discounted the Galaxy Buds Pro to $120, which is 40 percent off and their best price yet. We gave them a score of 85 for their solid sound quality, comfortable fit and wireless charging capabilities. Samsung just announced their successors, the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, this week — you can pre-order them now for $230, and check back on Engadget for our full review in the coming weeks.
Samsung's new T7 Shield SSD in 1TB is down to a new record low of $100, which is $60 less than usual. This is the most durable version of Samsung's palm-sized portable drive, featuring a rubberized exterior and enough protection to survive up to 9.8-foot drops. It has sequential read speeds of up to 1,050 MB/s and write speeds of up to 1,000 MB/s, plus Dynamic Thermal Guard and 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard.
Both the NVIDIA Shield TV and the TV Pro streaming devices have dropped back down to record lows of $125 and $170, respectively. Both run Android TV and support voice commands from the Google Assistant as well as Amazon's Alexa if you have a compatible smart speaker in your home. They also both support 4K HDR content, Dolby Vision and Atmos, along with Chromecast capabilities.
A couple of Eufy robot vacuums are up to 47 percent off at Amazon right now. The RoboVac G30 Edge is down to a record low of $180, while the G30 Hybrid is on sale for only $220. Both of these are some of Eufy's more affordable machines — the G30 Edge comes with physical boundary strips that let you set no-go zones and the G30 Hybrid is a robot vacuum and mop in one.
Amazon includes a free Blink Mini camera when you buy a Blink Outdoor kit, so you'll save $35 in total on the bundle. Blink cameras are a relatively affordable way to outfit your home with security cameras — all of them record 1080p video and support two-way audio and motion alerts. The Outdoor cameras are wireless and weather-resistant, while the Blink Mini is a smaller, wired camera that's designed to fit into tight spaces inside your home.
The Beats Studio Buds are back on sale for $100, or $50 off their usual rate. These are some of the best Beats earbuds for most people and we gave them a score of 84 for their comfortable design, good sound quality and ANC and fast pairing with both iOS and Android devices.
Sony's LinkBuds S are on sale for $148, which is 26 percent off and a new all-time low. These buds came out earlier this year and support smart playback, which lets them automatically play and pause music depending on what you're doing.
It’s been more than a month since PlayStation Plus Premium went live, cementing the video game industry’s shift toward cloud gaming and subscriptions. PlayStation’s game-streaming scheme is competing directly with Xbox Game Pass, the service that proved the concept by earning more than 25 million subscribers over the past five years, leveraging Microsoft’s massive cloud network.
As the two main console manufacturers and the owners of huge franchises, Sony and Microsoft set the stage for the rest of the video game marketplace, and the transition to streaming subscriptions is no different. Here we’ll break down what they’re each offering and take a look at the industry from the perspective of the cloud.
PlayStation Plus has three tiers: Essential, Extra and Premium. Essential costs $10 a month or $60 a year, and it’s basically the PlayStation Plus you’re used to, offering three games to download each month, access to online multiplayer features, cloud storage and discounts. PS Plus Extra costs $15 a month or $100 a year, and has everything in the Essential tier plus a library of up to 400 downloadable PS4 and PS5 games.
PS Plus Premium costs $18 a month or $120 a year, and adds up to 340 games from past PlayStation consoles. This is also the tier that unlocks cloud gaming, supporting more than 700 titles and adding the ability to stream or download games from older eras. This tier actually replaces PlayStation Now, Sony’s often-underwhelming cloud gaming service that launched on PS4. With PS Plus Premium, cloud gaming is available on PS4, PS5 and PC, but not on mobile devices.
Sony
That’s one difference between Sony and Microsoft’s approach, as Xbox titles are playable on mobile devices as well as consoles and PC. But the bigger distinction is the type of games that are available on each network. Sony doesn’t plan on adding big exclusive games like Forspoken or God of War Ragnarök to Plus on day one, meaning subscribers will have to buy these titles separately if they want to play right away. On the Xbox side of things, Game Pass Ultimate offers a streaming library of more than 300 titles, and it includes big first-party drops like Halo Infinite on release day. That’s significant, considering Xbox owns influential studios including Bethesda and id Software, and it’s in the process of acquiring Activision Blizzard. Xbox offering the next Doom or Elder Scrolls on day one is a bigger draw than Sony offering Stray, even if Stray is the most adorable game of the year.
Xbox has been the loudest proponent of cloud gaming in the console space, and with the support of a robust network from Microsoft and years of public testing, Game Pass has set the standard when it comes to subscription services. Game Pass has PC-only and console-only tiers providing access to a library of more than 300 downloadable games for $10 a month, while Game Pass Ultimate unlocks cloud play on PC, mobile and Xbox consoles for $15 a month. Assuming you pay for PS Plus Premium up-front, this puts the annual price of Game Pass Ultimate ahead of Premium by $60 – which is roughly what it’ll cost PlayStation subscribers to buy one of those first-party Sony games, so it all shakes out in the end.
Aaron Souppouris/Engadget
Xbox has been steadily building the foundation for an industry that isn’t limited by hardware, relying on cloud gaming rather than console generations, while Sony still seems married to the idea of hardware cycles and more traditional game sales. Despite being there first with PlayStation Now, when it comes to streaming, Sony is playing catch-up to Microsoft, but it still has plenty to offer in the form of classic games and new exclusives. Cloud play is here to stay and it’s possible that other services like Steam and the Epic Games Store will follow Xbox and PlayStation’s lead in the coming years. Nintendo is bringing up the rear in terms of online, cloud, and anything resembling 21st century technology, but it has an unrivaled back catalog and Switch Online unlocks a number of NES, SNES and N64 games.
This isn’t about any one service being better than the others. This is about adjusting to the new normal for video games, where your money won’t be spent on a $60 disc or a discrete download code, but will instead be spread among streaming services with individual purchases on the side. We’re used to this idea when it comes to TV and movies, and streaming technology is almost reliable enough to make it the standard in gaming.
These are the new calculations we'll be running each month: Do I value Game Pass Ultimate over Netflix? Or PS Plus Premium over Spotify? New subscription services pop up almost weekly; something's gotta give.
Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!
Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 4 is a small improvement, but the company isn’t taking risks – 4:55
The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is a very solid premium foldable – 9:35
The Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro offer minimal aesthetic and hardware updates – 21:42
The iOS 16 developer beta brings back an odd-looking battery percentage display – 50:18
Kim Kardashian’s skin-colored Beats Fit Pro buds are supposed to help you blend in.. or stand out.. – 54:31
Some EV news: Rivian is testing dual motors, while the Ford F-150 Lightning gets a price hike – 58:47
Definitely-still-alive-service Google Stadia gets a new feature: Party Stream – 1:02:50
Working on – 1:04:21
Pop culture picks – 1:05:15
Video Stream
Credits Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Sam Rutherford Guest: Michael Fisher aka The Mr Mobile Producer: Ben Ellman Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos, Luke Brooks Graphics artists: Luke Brooks, Brian Oh Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien
If you missed out on snapping up an NVIDIA Shield TV Pro or Shield TV when they were on sale for record-low prices during Prime Day, there's some good news. The media streaming devices have dropped back to the same all-time lows at Amazon. The standard NVIDIA Shield TV is currently $125, which is $25 off the regular price. Its more advanced sibling, the NVIDIA Shield TV Pro, has dropped to $170, which is a $30 discount.
The NVIDIA Shield TV has a compact tube design, which should make it easy to slot somewhere behind your television, but it still makes space for the Tegra X1+ processor. You can control it using voice commands via Alexa and Google Assistant. It comes with a remote control with a voice search function and motion-activated, backlit buttons.
Owners can use it to stream shows, movies and music from the likes of Plex, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, HBO Max, Disney+, Spotify and Apple Music. The Android TV-powered device supports 4K HDR Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos audio and Chromecast streaming. You can also use the device to stream games from NVIDIA GeForce Now and Google Stadia (the Ethernet port should come in especially handy there).
The NVIDIA Shield TV Pro has all of those features and more. It might be the way to go if you plan to play Android games from the Google Play Store. It has 3GB of RAM, compared with the Shield TV's 2GB, and double the storage at 16GB. Storage on both devices is expandable, via microSD on the base model and USB drives on the Pro version. The biggest difference, however, is the fact the Shield TV Pro can be used as a Plex server.
Meanwhile, if you're not quite sold on NVIDIA's offerings, another prominent streaming device that might fit the bill is also on sale. Last year's version of the 32GB Apple TV 4K is $120 on Amazon, a third off the regular price of $180.
When the checkered flag drops Sunday in Seoul, Formula E will have run its 100th race. It’s a far cry from the series’ humble beginnings: a shared idea from Formula E chairman Alejandro Agag and FIA president Jean Todt, jotted down on a napkin in 2011. In three years, a group launched the world’s first all-electric single-seater championship. And the rest, as they say, is history.
“The people that we knew were laughing about the venture,” Formula E co-founder and chief championship officer Alberto Longo said on a call with the media last week. “And now, look how far we’ve come.”
Longo’s assessment is accurate. Formula E has indeed come a long way since Season 1 and that first race at Olympic Park in Beijing. Most notably, the series has become a hotbed for innovation with a number automakers fielding teams. Mahindra has been there from the start, with Audi, BMW, DS, Jaguar, Mercedes, Nissan, Porsche, Renault and others participating along the way. Several teams — like Mahindra, Venturi and Andretti — have also remained active in Formula E since that first season.
“Race 100 is a huge validation of the work people have done,” Longo said. “Everybody was saying we were going to fail.”
With all of that in its past, only one driver is poised to drive in all 100 E-Prix: Season 3 champion Lucas di Grassi. He also won the first-ever race back in 2014, amassing 13 wins and 38 podium finishes since. This weekend in Seoul, he’s on the verge of eclipsing 1,000 career points. So, he knows a thing or two about how far the series has come.
Lucas Di Grassi won the London E-Prix in July.
Sebastian Frej/MB Media via Getty Images
“Since Season 1, there have been massive changes,” di Grassi said during a media roundtable. “It has matured and it has moved from being something new and full of doubts to something which has been able to deliver on its promises.” He explained that Formula E is just like any other racing series now when you consider teams that have come and gone, and those that may return.
The Gen2 car debuted in 2018/19 for Season 5 with double the energy storage capacity of Gen1, which meant teams no longer needed to trade out cars during the race — or pit at all for that matter. Of course, the cars are faster, but one car per driver also meant the stakes were that much higher on E-Prix weekends.
“When we went from Gen1 to Gen2, you could actually see that the technology was starting to work,” Longo said. “We moved from having to use two cars to only one car.”
Gen2 also debuted a more “Batmobile-esque” design, with more power and a top speed of 174MPH. One of Formula E’s unique elements, Attack Mode, also arrived with Gen 2, giving drivers a timed power boost. The only catch is they have to leave the main racing line to activate it, which can mean sacrificing position for the extra power.
"The technology is only getting better and the cars are getting faster,” di Grassi explained. “Every month the battery tech, powertrain tech and so on evolves. It’s still in its relative infancy and we’re going to see big leaps still going forward."
Like every sport in the world, Formula E had to deal with the effects of a global pandemic in 2020. The series had completed just five races by the end of February when everyone, everywhere entered lockdown due to COVID-19. The season was suspended in mid-March. Formula E would emerge that August in Berlin, holding six E-Prix in nine days at the Tempelhof Airport.
“Looking back, those six races in Berlin were really important for us,” Longo said. “During COVID, we managed to mitigate the risk of traveling and finish the season.”
It’s fitting then that Formula E’s 100th race marks the end of the Gen2 era. When the series returns in 2023 for Season 9, the Gen3 car will be in every team’s garage. Formula E has already shown off “the world’s most efficient racing car,” unveiling the design and key specs ahead of the Monaco E-Prix in April. Indeed, the jump to the next generation will deliver another massive leap in innovation for the series. A top speed of 200MPH with 350kW of power, 100kW more than Gen2. The electric power units can convert over 90 percent of their energy to mechanical power, making them insanely efficient. Not to mention producing around 40 percent of the power needed to complete a race through regenerative braking. Plus, there’s a new body design that’s decidedly more F-18 fighter jet than Batmobile. And overall, the new cars should allow for tighter wheel-to-wheel racing across Formula E’s calendar of street circuits.
“We’ll drive much faster, smaller and lighter cars which will be even more impressive to see on-track,” di Grassi said. “The events are going in the right direction, providing a better and better product for fans to come and involve themselves with. The evolution will continue in this way — on the technical side and in the spectacle."
Formula E’s impact hasn’t been solely on the race track either. di Grassi knows the series has opened the world’s eyes to the potential of EVs.
“We can also see how many more people are interested in and aware of electric vehicles,” he noted. "For me, even if you help a little bit, this little bit has already helped to accelerate the advent of technology and change perceptions of consumers and manufacturers about electric cars — so it’s been well worth it.”
The Jakarta E-Prix circuit.
Formula E
Both the 100th race and the end of Season 8 are poised to be must-see TV. There’s a four-way fight for this year’s championship, with Mercedes-EQ’s Stoffel Vandoorne sitting atop the standings, holding a 36-point lead. Jaguar TCS’ Mitch Evans and ROKiT Venturi’s Edoardo Mortara sit 2nd and 3rd, separated by five points. Both Mortara and 4th-place Jean-Eric Verne failed to score any points in the last two rounds during the double-header in London.
Mercedes-EQ could not only snatch its second consecutive driver’s trophy (its other driver Nyck de Vries is the defending champ), it’s leading the team standings heading into the last two races by 36 points. A team championship would make two in a row for Mercedes, and the perfect ending before McLaren takes over the team next season.
There’s no denying the sport’s popularity has grown in eight years and it’s poised to continue the upward trajectory. The Jakarta E-Prix in early June was watched live by 13.4 million people — just in Indonesia. It was the first time the series had hosted an event in that city too, and over 60,000 fans attended in-person. Celebrating the most memorable moments, Longo mentioned Jakarta when listing off key achievements during the 100-race stint.
“The most-watched race in Formula E history,” Longo said.
Wanda Sykes has signed on to host an America's Funniest Home Videos type of TV show. It won't be showing clips deliberately captured using cameras or phones, though — nope, it will feature videos captured by Ring doorbells and smart home cameras. The show is called Ring Nation, and it's a production by MGM Television and Big Fish Entertainment. If you're wondering what the common denominator is between the three, it's none other than Amazon. The e-commerce giant owns MGM and Big Fish, and it purchased Ring's smart doorbell business for $1 billion in 2018.
According to Deadline, Ring Nation will showcase viral videos that feature content such as neighbors saving neighbors, marriage proposals, military reunions and animals doing silly things. In other words, videos you'll probably come across online if you frequent social networks, unless the show will also feature fresh content that could potentially go viral as shared by Ring owners.
Barry Poznick, president of alternative television & Orion TV at MGM, said: "From the incredible, to the hilarious and uplifting must-see viral moments from around the country every day, Ring Nation offers something for everyone watching at home."
That Amazon wants to make videos captured by its smart doorbells a source of funny family TV can feel a bit too Black Mirror-esque, especially when you consider Ring's relationship with law enforcement. Senator Edward Markey recently shared a disclosure revealing that Amazon had provided Ring footage to law enforcement in the US eleven times without a court order or the user's consent.
A company spokesperson justified Ring's actions and told us that the law authorizes companies "to provide information to government entities if the company believes that an emergency involving danger of death or serious physical injury to any person...requires disclosure without delay." Tweeting about his revelation, Markey said: "We cannot accept this surveillance as inevitable." He also used the disclosure as an example of why lawmakers should pass the Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act, which he introduced in hopes of banning law enforcement's use of the technologies.
Xiaomi had a busy Thursday. It revealed a new slimmer foldable smartphone to go up against Samsung’s just-announced Galaxy Z Fold 4, then made that appear dull when its own humanoid robot prototype walked on stage. The Xiaomi CyberOne is 177cm (5.8 feet) tall, weighs 52kg (115 pounds) and is, apparently, a Leo. It comes before Tesla’s humanoid vision arrived as a real-world prototype. But there’s some definite style overlap.
The CyberOne is the second product out of the Xiaomi Robotics Lab, after the CyberDog from August 2021. The humanoid machine has a face in the form of a curved OLED panel, it can see the world in 3D and hear with two microphones to identify "85 types of environmental sounds and 45 classifications of human emotion." I don’t think I even have that emotional range. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun said each CyberOne would cost between 600,000 and 700,000 yuan (about $89,100 to $104,000), so it'll be sometime before the robots hit mass production, if ever.
Jared Mauch just received $2.6 million in funding.
Given a choice between settling for pathetically slow internet speeds from AT&T or paying Comcast $50,000 to expand to his rural home, Michigan resident Jared Mauch chose another way: starting his own fiber internet service provider. Now, he's expanding his service from about 70 customers to nearly 600, thanks to funding aimed at expanding access to broadband internet. He'll need to expand from 14 to about 52 miles of fiber to complete the project, including at least a couple of homes that require a half mile of fiber for a single house.
Another foldable appears – this time to go up against the Galaxy Z Flip 4. Motorola's last Razr was a nifty folding smartphone and $1,500 fashion statement, but the weak hardware struggled. Now, the company has revealed the Razr 2022, a foldable that might live up to that kind of price, thanks to a true flagship-class Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor and an upgraded, more expansive screen. The curved chin and top camera notch has been nixed in favor of an all-screen design, removing a lot of that Razr design DNA.
Xiaomi’s Mix Fold 2 is the Chinese brand's second foldable phone, featuring a surprising thickness of just 5.4mm, opened — barely enough to house a USB-C port — and 11.2mm thick, folded. One feature that enables the Mix Fold 2's thinness is Xiaomi's third-generation "micro water drop hinge," which gives a tighter fold on the flexible display panel. Alas, the Mix Fold 2 is China-only for now, so good luck finding an importer.
You can also play games with the live sharing feature.
Google's merger of Meet and Duo is definitely confusing, but there should be some benefits. The company has added a live sharing beta feature that lets users of the revamped Meet share Spotify and YouTube streams during chats. The functionality will sound familiar if you've tried Apple’s SharePlay, but you can't use Spotify or YouTube with that feature. At least, not yet.
