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Anker's Eufy brand robotic vacuums are already affordable and they just got even cheaper via a new Amazon sale. The most interesting model is the Eufy BoostIQ RoboVac 30 that's available for just $130, for a savings of $120 or 48 percent off the regular price. Other models also have steep discounts like the advanced RoboVac X8, RoboVac 11S Slim, RoboVac 30C MAX and RoboVac G30 Hybrid. 

Anker launched Eufy back in 2016 as a budget robotic vacuum brand with an emphasis on technology. The cheapest model in this sale is the BoostIQ RoboVac 30, available for $130 or $120 off the regular price. It offers features like a slim profile, 1,500Pa suction levels, included boundary strips, automatic cleaning and 100 minutes of endurance on hardwood floors. It lacks WiFi and other advanced features, but if you don't need those, it's a steal at that price.

On the other end of the scale is Eufy's RoboVac X8, on sale for $400 or 33 percent off the regular $600 price. It generates 2,000Pa of suction, while offering advanced tech features like iPath laser navigation to scan and map your home using LiDAR; AI Map 2.0 tech that can save maps for multiple floors; and smartphone control via WiFi. 

In addition, you can grab the RoboVac 11S Slim for just $140, or $90 (39 percent off). While vacuum power is limited to 1,300Pa, it's small enough at 2.85 inches to fit in spaces other vacuums can't reach. Upgrade to WiFi and more powerful 2,000Pa of suction with the RoboVac 30C MAX, on sale for $180 or $80 off the regular $260 price. 

Another powerful WiFi-equipped model is the RoboVac G30, offering Smart Dynamic Navigation 2.0, 2,000Pa of suction and Alexa compatibility. It's on sale for $178, or $140 off the regular price via a coupon used at checkout. And finally, the RoboVac G30 Hybrid offers the same features but can also do mopping is on sale for $200, or $170 (46 percent) off the list price. 

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Lyft has agreed to pay $25 million to settle shareholders' allegations that it failed to disclose safety issues in its Initial Public Offering (IPO) paperwork. According to Reuters, shareholders accused the company of concealing known problems, such as sexual assaults by its drivers, to cultivate an image of a more socially responsible alternative to Uber. They also accused Lyft of not disclosing safety issues regarding its bikeshare program, specifically the problem the company faced with its brakes that forced it to pull its bikes from various cities in the US. While Lyft has agreed to settle, it denied any wrongdoing. In a statement sent to CNN Business, company spokesperson Gabriela Condarco-Quesada said:

"This settlement resolves a shareholder class action related to statements in Lyft's initial public offering and its financial impact on investors — it's not about safety-related claims on the platform."

In their complaint, the shareholders said reports of sexual assaults by Lyft drivers that came out after the IPO represented an "existential risk" to the brand that should have been disclosed beforehand. Further, they said Lyft used promotions to boost its market share against Uber. 

Lyft officially filed to go public in 2019, but it wasn't until 2021 that it had published its first safety report. In it, the ride—hailing firm revealed that it received a total of 4,158 sexual assault reports from 2017 until 2019. Lyft divided the cases in different categories for its report, with the most common incidents falling under the non-consensual touching of a sexual body part category. It's worth noting, however, that the money for this settlement will go to shareholders and not to any of the passengers who reported being sexually assaulted by the firm's drivers.

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SpaceX has fired employees who participated in writing and distributing an open letter criticizing Elon Musk, The New York Times has reported. First revealed yesterday, the letter called Musk's behavior on social media "a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment" and asked SpaceX to condemn his actions. 

According to three unnamed employees and an email from SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell seen by the NYT, SpaceX fired some of the letter's organizers. However, there's no indication of how many were let go.

 "[SpaceX has] terminated a number of employees involved" with the letter, she wrote. "The letter, solicitations and general process made employees feel uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied, and/or angry because the letter pressured them to sign onto something that did not reflect their views. We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism."

The open letter from the employees referenced recent accusations of sexual misconduct involving Musk that reportedly prompted a $250,000 settlement. Musk said the allegations were "utterly untrue" and made a crude joke about some of the details on Twitter. SpaceX defended Musk, with Shotwell saying she "personally" believed the accusations were false.

Another subject in the letter was distractions due to Musk's Twitter use. In February, the SEC opened an investigation into Musk over possible insider trading, and a court recently ruled that Tesla company lawyers must continue to approve his tweets. (Earlier this week, Musk appealed that decision). Prior to the letter, Musk reportedly told SpaceX employees that they must spend at least 40 hours a week in the office or risk being fired.

In her email, Shotwell added that "blanketing thousands of people across the company with repeated unsolicited emails and asking them to sign letters and fill out unsponsored surveys during the work day is not acceptable. Please stay focused on the SpaceX mission, and use your time to do your best work. This is how we will get to Mars."

Employees are protected against retaliation by OSHA's whistleblower rules, but those generally apply to issues like safety, fraud, environmental issues and health insurance. Still, the firings are likely to create another round of controversy involving Musk. 

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Snap has started testing a paid subscription tier for Snapchat that will give users early access to new features, a company spokesperson has confirmed to The Verge. "We're doing early internal testing of Snapchat Plus, a new subscription service for Snapchatters. We're excited about the potential to share exclusive, experimental, and pre-release features with our subscribers, and learn more about how we can best serve our community," the spokesperson said. While they barely revealed anything about the service, reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi has found some hidden information in the app that gives us an idea of what Snapchat Plus could offer. 

Apparently, it'll let users pin one friend as their #1 BFF and will give them access to some exclusive icons. Snapchat Plus users will also get a badge on their profile, will have the means to see their friends' locations over the past 24 hours — if those friends are sharing their location with the user — and will see how many friends have rewatched their stories. Based on the details Paluzzi has unearthed, the service will cost users €4.59 ($4.83) a month or €45.99 ($48.41) a year. 

Those features and prices could change by the time the feature is ready to launch, if Snap does decide to offer the service. Seeing as other social networks and apps are also offering or working on paid tiers of their own, it wouldn't come as a surprise if Snapchat Plus does become available. Twitter Blue made its debut in a US last year as a $3 option for users who want additional features, such as the undo button. Telegram also confirmed that it will launch a Premium tier sometime this month to give its most ardent fans access to bigger uploads, as well as more speed and resources.

Crypto lender Celsius Network opted to freeze customer withdrawals and other transactions on Sunday, leaving its nearly two million users unable to access their funds. Now, state security boards in Alabama, Kentucky, New Jersey, Texas and Washington have launched probes into Celsius, Reutersreports. The SEC has also been in contact with the firm. Engadget has reached out to the agency and will update if we hear back. 

This isn’t the first time the crypto lender has run into trouble with state and federal officials. Multiple states ordered Celsius last year to stop selling what are known as high-yield crypto products, which many investors warn are risky because they don’t offer the same FDIC protections as banks if the institutions go under. Currently, residents in the states of New York and Washington can’t purchase assets on Celsius.

Officials at the Texas State Securities Board began discussing Celsius’s surprise freeze on consumer assets first thing on Monday morning, the agency’s enforcement director Joseph Rotunda told the Reuters. "I am very concerned that clients – including many retail investors – may need to immediately access their assets yet are unable to withdraw from their accounts. The inability to access their investment may result in significant financial consequences," he said.

In its memo to users explaining Sunday's decision, Celsius cited “extreme market conditions” as the primary motivator. The freeze includes transfers, withdrawals and swaps between accounts. “We are taking this action today to put Celsius in a better position to honor, over time, its withdrawal obligations,” wrote the firm.

Users responded via social media over the weekend, often sharing the negative impacts the freeze had on their own finances. One user claimed on Twitter that, because they were unable to access funds to pay or post collateral, the platform had liquidated a loan worth more than $27,000. "This is not the reason I unbanked myself," they wrote.

While it’s no secret that social media shapes our political discourse, a new study by the Pew Research Center reveals to what extent. Nearly one in three tweets posted by American adults are political in nature, according to Pew’s analysis of a sample of a year’s worth of English-language tweets from US adults. But only eight percent of the original tweets Pew analyzed were political in nature, while more than 40 percent of retweets and quote tweets were classified as political. This shows that users are a lot more likely to share political content from a small group rather than create their own.

It’s important to note that the study analyzed tweets that were posted between May 2020 and May 2021 — a particularly tumultuous time period that included a US presidential election, a summer of political protests, a pandemic and the January 6 insurrection. It’s a significant uptick from 2019, when only 13 percent of US tweets were about politics. But Pew also significantly changed its methodology from 2019, which only focused on politics at the national level.

“This definition excluded mentions of state or local politics and politicians, as well as discussions of policy issues and current events that carry a political valence but do not explicitly reference national political figures or groups,” wrote Pew’s researchers in a blog post.

Still, the findings include some interesting insights on who shapes political debate on Twitter and how. First off, the study found that Americans who were 50 years and older produced 78 percent of all political tweets. While this age group only makes up a quarter of Twitter’s US user base, it virtually dominates the political discussion on the platform. Meanwhile, only seven percent of tweets from US Twitter users between the ages of 18 and 49 were political in nature.

As mentioned earlier, a large chunk of retweets and quote tweets are political in nature — suggesting that most users spread political information on Twitter rather than post original commentary. Roughly 44 percent of retweets and 42 percent were quote tweets were political in nature, as opposed to eight percent of original tweets. Many users voice their political opinions in the replies — an estimated 26 percent of reply tweets discussed politics. 

Republicans and Democrats also appear to perceive Twitter very differently from each other. For example, Democrats seem more likely to treat Twitter as a place to encounter like-minded people. Roughly 40 percent of Democrats said they mostly followed Twitter accounts with similar political beliefs to their own, as opposed to 20 percent of Republicans. This is likely helped by the fact that Twitter’s most prolific users swing left. A 2020 Pew study found that of Twitter’s most active users, roughly 69 percent identified as Democrats.

If you've been eyeing LG's super-tall display ever since December, you'll be glad to hear that you can finally buy it. LG has released the DualUp Monitor for $699. As promised, the clamp-mounted design centers on a 16:18 aspect ratio, 28-inch LCD whose 2,560 x 2,880 resolution promises the visual real estate of two 21.5-inch monitors while occupying much less desk space. It might fit the bill if you're a media creator or heavy-duty multitasker who can't justify an ultra-wide screen.

The Nano IPS-based panel should be reasonably accurate with 98 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color space, and it should serve well as a laptop dock between the 90W USB-C power delivery, dual HDMI, DisplayPort and USB 3.0 connections. The included ergonomic stand can pivot, tilt and swivel, so you shouldn't have trouble creating the ideal layout.

There are limitations. The DualUp Monitor doesn't offer a 4K resolution, of course, and it's not particularly gamer-friendly with its 60Hz refresh rate. While it does support HDR10, the 300-nit typical brightness won't exactly help HDR visuals pop. This is a productivity monitor first and foremost, and you're paying more for convenience than raw technical prowess.

Activision is taking on Call of Duty cheaters in some inventive ways. For one thing, it's literally taking away their guns. When the Ricochet anti-cheat system detects someone who's breaking the rules, they may lose their weapons (as well as their dignity). The cheaters can't even defend themselves with their fists.

"We don’t expect many clips of this to find their way online, but we have seen it in action and the reactions from cheaters are always priceless," the Ricochet team wrote. A blog post features a short clip of an undoubtedly upstanding member of the community encountering a now-harmless cheater.

Activision

The Disarm measure is one of several actions Ricochet takes against cheaters. "When a bad actor is detected, we hit them with something from our mitigation toolbox (or all of them at once if we’re feeling spicy) and analyze the data from the machine determined to be cheating," the team behind it wrote. "Beyond [our] mission to combat unfair play, we have a second somewhat secret mission to annoy as many cheaters as we can."

Other mitigation measures include Damage Shield, which reduces the damage those who play fairly take from cheaters. "If you’re being shot and see your health slowly trickle down, you know it’s likely a cheater on the other end of the battle," the blog post reads. The ne'er-do-well may realize that their opponent has Damage Shield enabled. Not only will they waste their ammo, they may figure out they've been caught in the act. Another mitigation technique is Cloaking. When a cheater fires at a legitimate player, the latter may become invisible to the rule-breaker.

Activision said the anti-cheat system has led to a "significant" drop in cheaters in some respects, though there have been "some unfortunate increases." That's part of the perennial cat-and-mouse battle it's in with cheaters, who are always looking for new exploits. Since late April, though, Activision has banned more than 180,000 players across both Call of Duty: Vanguard and CoD: Warzone. The Ricochet system will also be used in a new interpretation of Modern Warfare II, which will arrive later this year.