Amazon is rolling out some more features for Alexa Together, a service designed to help aging folks and caregivers stay connected using the voice assistant and Echo devices. One of these is called Circle of Support, which is now available to all users. This allows the person receiving support to have up to 10 designated caregivers.
Both that person and their primary caregiver can add or remove trusted people such as siblings, cousins, friends and close neighbors. All caregivers will receive daily alerts and check-ins through the activity feed. Circle of Support could be especially useful if the primary caregiver doesn't live close to the person receiving care. If the person receiving support enables Remote Assist, only the primary caregiver will be able to use it.
Speaking of Remote Assist, Amazon will soon upgrade that feature to let the primary caregiver set up Alexa Routines for their loved one. For instance, to make life a little simpler for the person receiving care, a routine might group together early morning actions like switching off the alarm, playing a news bulletin and turning on the coffee machine, all of which can be triggered with a single voice command.
Amazon says over 25 percent of Alexa Together users communicate across state lines and 65 percent do so between different cities. Adding some extra functions for users who live far apart from each other could make the service a more attractive proposition for some folks. Alexa Together, which is only available in the US for now, costs $20 per month or $200 per year. There's a six-month trial available as well.
It's relatively easy to find coffee table books on music, but how many of them give you the tools to make that music? Korg's does. The company has introduced a bundle that pairs its new NTS-2 do-it-yourself oscilloscope kit with a Patch & Tweak with Korg book from Bjooks (which also made books for Moog and Roland) that explores semi-modular synthesis. You'll find the usual history and artist interviews, but you'll also find guides to help you use the NTS-2 in tandem with synths and other equipment.
The NTS-2 is a companion of sorts to the NTS-1 synth and similar hardware. The pocketable box helps you visualize the signals and voltages from your music-making gear (up to four signals at once), tune inputs, analyze spectrums or generate dual waveforms. You can generate the exact sound you want rather than having to play it by ear. The device runs on either battery power or USB-C, and the DIY design practically begs for customization.
The bundle is a limited edition, and will be available soon for $230 through retailers like B&H. That's not trivial if you're just getting started on music creation, but might be easy to justify if you're hoping to elevate your production skills — and find something to read during your downtime.
Electric vehicle maker Canoo has warned investors it's running low on funds as it works toward bringing its products to market. It said that, due to the timing of the announced funding and some other factors, it has "substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern."
"We have been clear about our philosophy of raising capital judiciously and will continue with this disciplined approach," CEO Tony Aquila said in a statement. "We have more than $600 million in accessible capital to support Start of Production (SOP). As operators and investors, we have significant experience raising capital in challenging markets — and the best way to raise capital is to achieve your goals. We will continue to raise when needed, bridge to milestones and be in a position to take advantage of improving market conditions. We are focused on long term value creation for our customers and shareholders."
Canoo reported a $125.4 million net loss in its first-quarter earnings (compared with $15.2 million in Q1 2021). It burned through $120.3 million in the first three months of the year, up from $53.9 million a year earlier. That left it with cash and cash equivalents of $104.9 million as of the end of March.
The company projects operating expenses of between $95 million and $115 million this quarter, as well as $85 million to $105 million in capital expenditures. As it stands, Canoo is not generating revenue.
The EV maker says it had built 39 Gamma lifestyle vans as of the end of March, with 17 of those now on the road. According to Reuters, company leaders said in an earnings call that it's making up to just 12 vehicles a week and is focusing on fleet customers for the time being. Canoo claims it has received more than 17,500 pre-orders with a projected value of $750 million, and added that it secured a deal with NASA to provide Artemis ground crew transportation vehicles.
The company has had a turbulent history, as TechCrunch notes. It's been the subject of an SEC investigation into factors such as the departure of certain executives and the SPAC merger with Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp that took it public. Canoo has also been beset by production delays.
This is a golden moment to buy a console ahead of your summer vacation. Amazon is selling the standard Nintendo Switch with blue and red Joy-Cons at a new all-time low price of $260, or $40 below the official sticker. That's $20 better than a Woot deal from February, and a large-enough discount that you can easily use the savings to buy a microSD card for storing additional games.
The regular Switch might not have the eye-catching screen of the OLED model, but the fundamentals that make the system so enjoyable remain intact. This is a console you can use either handheld or at your TV, and without making too many compromises. The current revision offers plenty of battery life. And most importantly, the Switch now has a huge catalog of hits after five years, ranging from launch-era titles like Breath of the Wild through to recent successes like Metroid Dread. You won't run out of games to play on a long road trip.
You're likely already familiar with the limitations. The Switch isn't as powerful as dedicated TV consoles like the PS5 or the comparably-priced Xbox Series S, so you won't get 4K or some of the more visually demanding games on the market. And while you might not miss the Switch OLED's display, you'll also have to go without its improved stand and dock-based Ethernet jack. At this price, though, it's an easy choice if you want a two-in-one device or just don't want to pay a stiff premium to play current games.
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Nintendo will host its latest Indie World Showcase today at 10AM ET. On Tuesday, the company said the show would run approximately 20 minutes and showcase a handful of new indie games coming to the Switch. Will we finally get a release date for Hollow Knight: Silksong? We don’t know. Team Cherry announced the sequel to its beloved Metrodvania in 2019, and fans have been waiting for a release date ever since.
Either way, you can watch the entire showcase unfold below and on Nintendo’s official YouTube channel. And if you miss the livestream, we’ll have you covered with all the major announcements following the event.
Apple's compact desktop is back down to the best sale price we've seen since its debut. Amazon has the 2020 Mac Mini M1 for $570 right now, thanks to a discounted price that's brought down even further by an automatically applied coupon. That's $130 off the desktop's regular rate, and the model on sale includes 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
The Mac Mini is still the most cost effective way to get an M1 machine in your home — even the MacBook Air M1, which debuted at the same time, costs more starting at $1,000. The Mini comes with an eight-core CPU, eight-core GPU (one more than you'll find in the base Air M1) and 16-core Neural Engine, so you can expect speedy performance, high energy efficiency and nearly instant wake times. It should provide enough power for most users, even content creators, and it can even handle some gaming as well.
The exterior design of the Mac Mini has been left mostly unchanged, but that's not a bad thing. The small silver box will fit into nearly any desk setup without taking up too much space, and it has a number of ports including two Thunderbolt connectors, two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, an Ethernet connector and a headphone jack. Our biggest gripe with the machine is its lack of upgradeability: you can't change the RAM and SSD, as they are soldered in place. But if you can live with that, the Mac Mini M1 remains a good option for anyone in need of an updated, powerful desktop.
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Digital rights non-profit Fight for the Future and 27 human rights organizations have written an open letter to Zoom, asking the company not to continue exploring the use of AI that can analyze emotions in its video conferencing platform. The groups wrote the letter in response to a Protocol report that said Zoom is actively researching how to incorporate emotion AI into its product in the future. It's part of a larger piece examining how companies have started using artificial intelligence to detect the emotional state of a potential client during sales calls.
The pandemic made video conferences a lot more common around the world. Sales people have been finding it hard to gauge how receptive potential clients are to their products and services, though, without the capability to read their body language through the screen. Companies have started using technology that have the ability to analyze people's moods during calls as a result, and Protocol said Zoom has plans to provide the same service.
Fight for the Future and the other human rights orgs are hoping their call would pressure Zoom to abandon its plans. They called the technology "discriminatory, manipulative, potentially dangerous and based on assumptions that all people use the same facial expressions, voice patterns, and body language."
The groups also pointed out that the technology is inherently biased and racist, just like facial recognition. By incorporating the feature, Zoom would be discriminating against certain ethnicities and people with disabilities, they said. In addition, it could be used to punish students or workers if they displayed the wrong emotion. In 2021, a project led by University of Cambridge professor Alexa Hagerty showed the limits of emotion recognition AIs and how easy it is to fool them. Previous studies also showed that emotion recognition programs fail the racial bias test and struggle to read Black faces.
The group ended the letter by mentioning Zoom's decision to cancel the rollout of face-tracking features and calling this another opportunity to do what's right by its users. They're now asking Zoom to commit to not implementing emotion AI in its product by May 20th, 2022.
AT&T is launching location-based routing of wireless 911 calls to the appropriate call centers across the US, it announced. The company says it'll be the first US carrier to "quickly and more accurately identify where a wireless 911 call is coming from using device GPS and hybrid information." That'll allow it to route the call to the correct 911 call center (public safety answering point or PSAP) which can then "dispatch first responders to the right location faster," it wrote.
So far, wireless 911 call routing has been based on the location of cell towers, with accuracy often no better than 10 miles. The new system will be able to locate a device within 50 meters of its location, potentially reducing delays, particularly when a call is made at PSAP border areas where state, county or city boundaries overlap, AT&T said.
AT&T
AT&T collaborated with a company called Intrado to use its Locate Before Route location-based 911 routing feature. Intrado notes that currently, about 10 percent of wireless calls and up to 50 percent in border areas need to be transferred to a different emergency communications center (ECC), causing potential delays. The new system uses device-based hybrid data and dynamic routing to reduce the need for transfers, supposedly without sacrificing speed.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) launched an inquiry into the issue of more accurately transferring calls to the correct PSAPs back in 2018, so it's been ongoing for a while. The regulator also recently demanded that carriers start providing Z-axis location data (height), to help emergency services locate where 911 calls are coming from within multistory buildings.
AT&T's nationwide rollout is now available in Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Kansas, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Guam. It'll be available in other regions over the next several weeks, and the rollout is scheduled to be completed by the end of June, 2022.
It's the end of an era. Apple introduced the first iPod back in October 2001, when the company was highly dependent on its Mac computer sales and still on shaky financial ground. While the Mac requirement limited interest at the start, sales exploded after Windows users joined the fray — back when you needed to tether your iPod to your PC to sync music and, later, podcasts.
Now, in 2022, the company is finally discontinuing the iPod touch, which will only be available in stores "while supplies last." It’s the final death knell for the iconic gadget: Apple dropped the iPod classic in 2014, and both the iPod nano and iPod shuffle were discontinued in 2017.
The iPhone, ironically, was what killed the iPod, combining MP3 (not to mention video) playback with cellular networks, WiFi, apps, cameras and everything else.
Starting in 2023, the soccer series will be ‘EA Sports FC’
Don’t panic. The beautiful game will go on. Electronic Arts is calling it quits with FIFA after nearly 30 years of using the soccer governing body's name in the titles of its games. Starting in 2023, it’s renaming the series EA Sports FC. Which is rather (well, very) janky.
Other than the rebranding, the EA Sports FC games may not be vastly different. EA still holds licenses for more than 300 soccer partners and has exclusive agreements with the likes of the Premier League, MLS, La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A.
The DJI Mini 3 Pro is a small, lightweight drone loaded with features found on bigger models, like the Mavic 3. It has some of the best image quality specs on a lightweight drone, including 4K 60p, 1080 120p and 48-megapixel photos, as well as advanced features like ActiveTrack, QuickShots and more. The Mini 3 Pro is a bit expensive at $910 with the new RC remote, though, and image quality might not be good enough for some pros. Check out our gorgeous review video from Steve Dent. And consider whether you’d like a new toy. I am.
Android 13, the Pixel 6a and Pixel Watch could all take the spotlight.
Google's I/O developer conference is finally returning as an in-person keynote for 2022, but that's not the biggest story likely to emerge from the event. This year, in addition to the customary Android update (we’re up to 13, now), it’s probably going to include the debut of the first Pixel smartwatch, and possibly at least one new Pixel phone and more. We break down everything we're expecting to see later today.
The Xbox Adaptive Controller was Microsoft’s first real attempt at making accessible hardware. And while it was very well received, it didn’t really impact non-gamers. Today, the company is launching an Adaptive Mouse kit.
The mouse core is a tiny square, approximately two inches (50mm) wide, and about as thick as a finger. This packs in the usual mousey parts: scroll wheel, left and right buttons, optical sensor and triggers for Bluetooth. The intriguing part comes from the Button, which you can program to perform any task you want. The Button can even handle sequential tasks, so you can have the first push open an app, have the second tap of the same button enter a phrase and a third send an email, for example. We’ve taken a deep dive and even toured Microsoft’s inclusive tech lab.
In an interview with The Financial Times, Elon Musk said he would reinstate Trump when his deal to acquire Twitter closes. “I guess the answer is that I would reverse the permaban,” Musk said in response to a question about whether he would allow the former president back on the platform. “Obviously, I don't own Twitter yet. So this is not a thing that will definitely happen because what if I don't own Twitter.”
DS3231 RTC (Real Time Clock) Interfacing with Arduino to build DIY Digital Clock
In today's world, time is everything, and when it comes to specific electronics, timing is critical; just like us, humans, they also need a way to keep track of time. So how do electronics do it? The answer is DS3231, a Real-Time Clock, often known as an RTC, is a timekeeping device built into an Integrated Circuit, or IC. It is used in many time-critical applications and devices, such as servers, GPS, and data loggers. Let's see what makes it TICK.
