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Google’s Pixel 6a is finally here. It’s a sub-$500 phone that, this year, includes Google’s own Tensor chip which should bring even more power to the cheapest Pixel option. It also matches the Pixel 6 family with a two-tone color scheme and camera bar.

Engadget

According to Reviews Editor Cherlynn Low, the $449 Pixel 6a feels less like the budget option and more like a smaller version (if a 6.1-inch screen is small..) of Google’s best phone. You get cutting-edge software tricks from Google, great cameras and a decent battery life. In short, it nails the essentials.

Check out the full review, but as Cherlynn puts it: there is no better Android phone under $500 than the Pixel 6a.

-Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

• How to pre-order the Google Pixel 6a

• Framework’s first major laptop upgrade lets you swap your system’s brain

• TikTok now lets you turn on captions for any video

• Ubisoft delays 'Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora' to 2023... 2024

• Amazon will buy primary healthcare provider One Medical for $3.9 billion

• How to edit, sign or convert a PDF

• Dell's XPS 13 Plus Developer Edition is the first laptop certified for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

• Ford will use new battery tech to help it build 600,000 EVs per year

Is it worth importing the Nothing Phone 1?

The cost and lack of support makes importing a challenge.

Engadget

A lot of readers are intrigued by the Nothing Phone 1, with its combination of eye-catching design, well-rounded performance and a reasonable price. The main struggle may be trying to buy one in North America. Is it worth the effort? Even once the device reaches your hands, there are a few challenges you’ll have to overcome.

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Amazon Fire 7 (2022) review

Surprise: You don't get much for $60.

Amazon’s latest Fire 7 has landed, with a few upgrades including a faster processor, double the RAM, USB-C charging and longer battery life. Unfortunately, it’s still sluggish, has a poor display and you’ll largely be confined to Amazon-approved apps and services. The $60 price point makes these flaws easier to swallow, but we recommend upgrading to the $90 Fire 8 HD, as it at least offers a better display.

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Amazon's Rivian-made electric vans are now delivering in some US cities

You'll see them in places like Chicago, Dallas and San Diego.

Amazon has revealed that Rivian's custom-made EVs are now delivering packages across the US. You'll find them in numerous cities including Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Kansas City, Nashville, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle and St. Louis. The company expects the vans to serve over 100 cities by the end of 2022. This deployment is important to both companies. Amazon had a 20 percent stake in Rivian as of late 2021. At the same time, Rivian has been cutting costs. Amazon stands to benefit when its automotive partner does.

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EA's last FIFA game is finally making women's soccer a priority

'FIFA 23' launches September 30th on PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Stadia.

After revealing Chelsea star Sam Kerr on its cover earlier this week, EA has unveiled the first trailer for FIFA 23 showing that women's soccer will finally be a key part of the game. It will include women's club teams from the top leagues in England and France, along with both the women's and men's competitions in both the 2022 Qatar World Cup and 2023 Australia/New Zealand World Cup. A reminder: FIFA 23 will be EA's last version of the game with the FIFA name, as it failed to come to terms with FIFA over financial and exclusivity issues.

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Zoom adds end-to-end encryption to its cloud phone service

E2EE protection is coming to meeting breakout rooms as well.

Zoom is bolstering its privacy and security protections by expanding end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to more of its services. First up is Zoom Phone, its cloud phone system. Users of that service will be able to switch on E2EE during one-on-one calls. When it's on, E2EE will ensure calls are secure with cryptographic keys that only the calling and receiving devices can access. The security feature will soon be available in breakout rooms — smaller discussions that break off from group meetings.

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With the PS5 remake for The Last of Usset to arrive soon, developer Naughty Dog recently showed the benefits you can expect with the new hardware. Now in a 10-minute video, the company has detailed new features including a speed-run mode and smarter AI, while walking through improved graphics, physics, character models, animations and more. 

As we saw last month, the new graphics are indeed much improved, with native 4K at 30 fps or dynamic 4K at 60 fps. The biggest changes are with gameplay, though. First off, the remake uses AI from The Last of Us Part 2, which gives enemies and NPCs more complex tactics, making for better fights. It's not one-sided, either, as your companions' AI has also been updated. 

The remake also includes new gameplay modes. One of those is a permadeath mode for those who want the full "infected" zombie apocalypse experience, along with new unlockable costumes for Joel and Ellie. The other is a speed run mode — details are scant on that, other than that you'll be able to measure your progress with a timer. 

The other improvements revolve around characters, with new models that include far more detail "down to the irises and the pupil depths," noted creative director and writer Shaun Escayg. The team also updated the animations with improved facial expressions, motion-matching tech for more flowing movements and more. It also includes new materials, physics, haptics, 3D audio and more.

The remake does look impressive, but it will sell at a full $70 triple-A price when it arrives on September 2nd. As such, Naughty Dog and Sony appear to be doing more than the usual amount of marketing for a remake, no doubt hoping to show potential buyers it's worth that. 

A 65-year-old man named Michael Williams spent almost a year in jail over the shooting of a man inside his car before prosecutors asked a judge to dismiss his case due to insufficient evidence. Now, the MacArthur Justice Center has sued the city of Chicago for using ShotSpotter, which it calls an "unreliable" gunshot detection technology, as critical evidence in charging him with first-degree murder. The human rights advocate group out of Northwestern University accuses the city's cops of relying on the technology and failing to pursue other leads in the investigation.

Williams was arrested in 2021 over the death of Safarian Herring, a young man from the neighborhood, who asked him for a ride in the middle of unrest over police brutality in May that year. According to an AP report from March, the key piece of evidence used for his arrest was a clip of noiseless security video showing a car driving through an intersection. That's coupled with a loud bang picked up by ShotSpotter's network of surveillance microphones. ShotSpotter uses a large network of audio sensors distributed through a specific area to pick up the sound of gunfire. The sensors work with each other to triangulate the shot's location, so perpetrators can't hide behind walls or other structures to mask their crime.

However, a study conducted by the MacArthur Justice Center in 2021 found that 89 percent of the alerts the system sends law enforcement turn up no evidence of any gun-related crime. "In less than two years, there were more than 40,000 dead-end ShotSpotter deployments," the report said. The group also pointed out that ShotSpotter alerts "should only be used for initial investigative purposes." San Francisco's surveillance technology policy (PDF), for instance, states that its police department must only use ShotSpotter information to find shell casing evidence on the scene and to further analyze the incident.

The lawsuit accuses Chicago's police department of failing to pursue other leads in investigating Williams, including reports that the victim was shot earlier at a bus stop. Authorities never established what's supposed to be Williams' motive, didn't find a firearm or any kind of physical evidence that proves that Williams shot Herring, the group said.

On its website, ShotSpotter posted a response to "false claims" about its technology, calling reports about its inaccuracy "absolutely false." The company claims its technology has a 97 percent accuracy rate, including a 0.5 percent false positive rate, and says those numbers were independently confirmed by Edgeworth Analytics, a data science firm in Washington, D.C. It also answers the part of the lawsuit that criticizes Chicago's decision to place most of it sensors in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods, which could lead to potentially dangerous clashes with the police. ShotSpotter said it's a false narrative that its coverage areas are biased and racially discriminatory and that it works with clients to determine coverage areas based on historical gunfire and homicide data .

As AP reports, the lawsuit is seeking class-action status for any Chicago resident who was stopped because of a ShotSpotter alert. The MacArthur Justice Center is also seeking damages from the city for the mental anguish and loss of income Williams had experienced throughout the whole ordeal, as well as for the legal fees he incurred. Further, the group is asking the court to ban the technology's use in the city altogether.

San Diego Comic-Con 2022 kicked off with a trailer for the movie Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and it... actually looks promising? The upcoming film has an all-star cast with Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page and Hugh Grant, and blends action, fantasy, comedy and some of D&D's most iconic monsters. 

"A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers undertake an epic heist to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people," the description reads. "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves brings the rich world and playful spirit of the legendary roleplaying game to the big screen in a hilarious and action-packed adventure."

The trailer delivers the dragons you'd expect, including possibly an acid-breathing Ancient Black Dragon and a Red Dragon. We also see a Mimic disguised as a treasure chest, a Displacer Beast, a Gelatinous Cube and an Owlbear — a beast that goes back to the original D&D game. As for realms and spells, there's what looks like the Underdark, a Heat Metal spell, Dimension Door spell and others. 

The film is being produced and distributed by Paramount and Hasbro, which controls the rights of the game and recently acquired the popular digital game-playing toolset D&D Beyond. Hasbro is also working on other film and TV adaptations for its toys including Transformers and My Little Pony. 

Meta has introduced new tools to expand the ways you can collaborate with others using Reels, as part of its strategy to be able to better compete with TikTok. To start with, you can now remix not just videos, but also photos on Instagram, giving you more material to use. The company has added more Remix layouts to include a green screen, a split screen or a picture-in-picture reaction view, as well, to make it easier to add your own spin or take to an existing Reel. Plus, you can choose to attach your remix to the end of the original Reel instead of having them play side-by-side. That format works better if you have a hot take or a rebuttal you want to publish.

In addition, Meta is rolling out templates to make it easy to create Reels with preloaded audio and video effects — you simply need to add your photo or video to one. You can see the company's template collection by tapping on the camera icon in the Reels tab. Another new feature that makes the feature a more veritable rival to TikTok is the ability to record with the phone's front and rear cameras at the same time using the Instagram camera. 

Finally, Meta has confirmed a previous feature leak that it will be turning all videos posted on Instagram as Reels, as long as they're shorter than 15 minutes. Videos under 90 seconds long may be recommended on the app and, hence, may have a wider reach. But you don't have to worry about becoming famous if you don't want to be: Instagram won't be using your Reels as a recommendation if your profile is set to private, and it will not retroactively convert old uploads. This feature is rolling out in the coming weeks and will also consolidate all your videos and Reels under one tab in the app.

Just a few days ago, Instagram also introduced a feature that would allow influencers to earn from their Reels. Creators can now share subscriber-only feeds that lock their content behind a paywall. Meta promised creators that it won't be taking a cut from their earnings until 2024, but putting Reels behind a paywall is one way of monetizing them.The company's executives previously said that they intend to focus on monetizing Reels as quickly as possible in the second half of 2022, so we'll likely see more features intended to make money off the short videos in the near future.

Zoom is bolstering its privacy and security protections by expanding end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to more of its services. First up is Zoom Phone, its cloud phone system. Users of that service will be able to switch on E2EE during one-on-one calls. When it's on, E2EE will ensure calls are secure with cryptographic keys that only the calling and receiving devices can access. You'll be able to verify the E2EE status by sharing a security code with the other person.

At the moment, it's only possible to enable E2EE on Zoom Phone for calls between users on the same company Zoom account. They'll need to be on the Zoom Phone desktop or mobile app and switch off automatic call recording. Account owners or admins will need to enable E2EE via a web portal before their users can activate it on calls.

In addition, E2EE will soon be available in breakout rooms — smaller discussions that break off from group meetings. Each breakout room can have its own encryption key. Again, account owners or admins will need to enable E2EE for their users.

Zoom started rolling out E2EE for meetings in October 2020, a few months after the company took off amid the COVID-19 pandemic and a trend of uninvited guests "zoombombing" calls emerged. Zoom initially planned to limit E2EE to paid accounts, but it relented after a backlash and offered it to everyone.

General Motors has been putting its OnStar in-vehicle safety and security suite into its vehicles since 1997 with the system having undergone numerous evolutions, upgrades and expansions in the last quarter century. Soon its roadside assistance and crash monitoring services will be available to two-wheeled motorists and homebodies as well, the company announced on Thursday.

As part of a modernizing redesign OnStar is making its Guardian crash monitoring and roadside assistance features available to motorcyclists. The service will rely on the accelerometer and other sensors in the rider's cellphone to determine if a crash has occurred (rather than using the vehicle's sensor suite as would happen in an automobile wreck) but otherwise is identical to the existing triage and response process. The roadside assistance will include jump starts, gas deliveries and flatbed tows.

The company is also expanding its Alexa integration, which GM began testing last year with select OnStar subscribers. Like having a red telephone to 911, this service will immediately connect members "to an OnStar Emergency Certified Advisor" through their Alexa-connected device, "in scenarios where Members need to call for help hands-free and time is of the essence." Today, that Alexa skill is available to every US OnStar subscriber.

American authorities are continuing to crack down against insider trading of digital assets. The New York Timesreports that federal prosecutors in New York City have charged three people with wire fraud relating to an insider trading scheme for cryptocurrency, including former Coinbase exchange employee Ishan Wahi. This is the first time officials have levelled charges relating to insider trading of digital currency, according to Southern District of New York attorney Damian Williams.

As with a companion civil case from the Securities and Exchange Commission, prosecutors allege Wahi shared confidential information about future asset listings with his brother Nikhil Wahi and his brother's friend Sammer Ramani. The data, shared between "at least" June 2021 and April 2022, helped Nikhil and his friend buy assets before the listing boosted their value. The two would then sell their assets for a profit. The purchases of 25 or more assets netted a profit of more than $1.1 million, according to the SEC.

Coinbase started an internal investigation in April in response to a Twitter post about unusual trading activity. Ishan Wahi booked a flight to India right before Coinbase was set to interview him, but he and his brother were arrested in Seattle this morning. Ramani is still at large and believed to be in India, the SEC said.

Wahi's lawyers maintained their client's innocence, and said he would "vigorously" defend against the charges. Ramani and the attorney for Wahi's brother haven't commented on the charges. Coinbase said it had turned over information to the Justice Department and had fired Wahi as part of a "zero tolerance" policy for this behavior.

This is far from the largest crypto case. Lending firm BlockFi recently paid $100 million to settle securities violations, while Telegram had to return $1.2 billion to investors for its own violations on top of paying $18.5 million. However, the charges are intended more to send a warning. The government wants to make clear that fraud is illegal whether it's "on the blockchain or on Wall Street," as Williams explained to The Times. This is as much about discouraging would-be crooks as it is punishment for the defenders.

You no longer have to wait for a TikTok star to enable captions before you can use them. As part of a string of updates, TikTok has added auto-generated captions you can switch on for any video. This will help if you have hearing issues, or simply want to catch every word of a clip in a noisy environment.

The social network has also added translations for captions and text stickers. And if you're unsure of what's happening, video descriptions are also available. The initial language support includes English, German, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish.

The additions are a recognition that TikTok's emphasis on video can be limiting for people with audiovisual issues. To some extent, they also empower communities for people with disabilities — creators can make clips knowing more people will understand what's being said.

Seventeen Republican attorneys general have urged Google not to limit the appearance of anti-abortion centers in search results. They made the demand a month after Democratic lawmakers asked the company to refrain from directing people who are looking up information on pregnancy terminations to such centers. The Republican AGs suggested that if Google obliges the request from the other side of the aisle, they may investigate the company and undertake legal action. "If you fail to resist this political pressure, we will act swiftly to protect American consumers from this dangerous axis of corporate and government power," they wrote in a letter to Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.

Many of the so-called crisis pregnancy centers in question have religious affiliations, as the Associated Press notes. Some centers have been accused of providing misleading information about abortion and contraception. Following a leak of a draft opinion suggesting that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, a ruling that ensured the right to abortion nationwide (a move that the court took in late June), Democrats in the House and Senate introduced a bill that seeks to "crack down on false advertising that crisis pregnancy centers employ to dissuade patients from getting the reproductive care they need, including abortion care."

"Directing women towards fake clinics that traffic in misinformation and don't provide comprehensive health services is dangerous to women's health and undermines the integrity of Google's search results," the Democratic lawmakers wrote in their June 17th letter. They cited statistics indicating that a tenth of Google searches for terms like "abortion clinics near me" and "abortion pill" included results for anti-abortion centers.

The Republican AGs took issue with the Democrats' missive. They noted that crisis pregnancy centers often provide services like free ultrasounds, pregnancy tests, sexually transmitted disease testing and parenting classes. "These pregnancy centers serve women, no matter who they are or what they believe," they wrote. "These attacks threaten not only those affiliated with the centers, but also the mothers in desperate need of the assistance the centers provide."

The AGs noted Planned Parenthood has acknowledged that crisis pregnancy centers "have religious missions" and “are faith-based organizations that oppose abortion." They claimed ceding to the Democrats' request would "[reek] of religious discrimination."

They went on to state that if Google complies with "this inappropriate demand to bias your search results against crisis pregnancy centers," their offices would investigate the company for possible violations of antitrust and religious discrimination laws. The AGs would also "consider whether additional legislation — such as nondiscrimination rules under common carriage statutes — is necessary to protect consumers and markets." They gave Google 14 days to respond.

Engadget has contacted Google for comment. Google previously said it will delete abortion clinic visits from users' location histories. Meanwhile, YouTube today started removing videos with unsafe instructions on how to self-administer an abortion.