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Google has inked agreements with over 300 news publications in Germany, Hungary, France, Austria, the Netherlands and Ireland that would allow it to publish snippets of their stories on Search. The tech giant has announced the development in a blog post, where it has also launched new tool that would make it easier for a lot more news publishers in Europe to get paid for their content. 

Publishers can find the new tool that offers an Extended News Preview (ENP) agreement with Google within the Search console. It will include information on what the offer is for exactly, how they can sign up for it and how to provide feedback. Google says all offers under the program are consistent with the rules for licensing content under the European Copyright Directive. Participants will have full control over what will appear on Search and how their content will be previewed. They can also change their preferences anytime. 

The European Union passed its controversial copyright law back in 2019, requiring news aggregators to pay news publishers for snippets of content that go beyond "individual words or very short extracts." A year later, Australia created a mandatory code of conduct that would also require companies to pay news outlets when they use their content. Google initially responded by removing news previews in France when the country started implementing the EU law. The tech giant eventually changed its tune, though, and started inking deals to pay publishers for their content across Europe and Australia, including News Corp. It also launched the News Showcase experience that offers some paywalled articles for free.

Anker's Eufy brand offers some very affordable robot vacuums that just got even cheaper thanks to a sale on at Amazon. The most interesting model is the Eufy BoostIQ RoboVac 11S Max that's available for just $160, for a savings of $90 (36 percent) off the regular price. That's very inexpensive for a model that earned a spot in our budget robot vacuum guide thanks to its attractive looks and super solid design.

The RoboVac 11S Max is missing certain features like WiFi connectivity, which isn't surprising given the price. However, it's still easy to control using the physical remote that allows you to set things like cleaning schedules or change the suction power using BoostIQ or Max modes. It cleans both hard and carpeted floors with up to 2,000 Pa of suction power, and is pretty decent at avoiding collisions considering the price. It's only three inches high so it fits under a lot of furniture, and if it does hit something, it's quite sturdy. 

If you do want WiFi or other more advanced features, the Eufy G30 Hybrid is on sale for $220, for a savings of 41 percent off — the cheapest price we've seen on it so far. It's effectively an updated version of the 11S with WiFi connectivity, giving you smartphone control via the Eufy app. It can map out your home using the Smart Dynamic Navigation 2.0 system, allowing for more logical route planning instead of random paths. It also offers up to 2,000 Pa suction and boundary strips to block off specific areas. The sale finishes in less than 24 hours, so it's best to act soon.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

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Sony has heavily leveraged its camera expertise to create its upcoming flagship smartphone, the Xperia 1 IV, it announced. It offers a slew of innovative, image-oriented features including what it calls the "world's first true optical 85-125mm zoom lens, true 4K at 120fps, livestreaming and external monitor capabilities and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile platform chip. 

The key feature of the Xperia 1 IV is the telephoto zoom that offers an 85-125mm equivalent zoom range, enough for sports, wildlife and more. Sony didn't say how it achieved that, but other companies like Huawei have used 90-degree periscope style systems to create optical zooms on smartphones.

Sony

On top of the telephoto zoom, has 16mm and 24mm lenses (35mm equivalent), along with a time-of-flight sensor, and all cameras use a 12-megapixel Exmor RS sensor with readout speeds of up to 120 fps. That allows the phone to record 4K 120 fps video, or the equivalent of 5x slow-motion at 4K. 

Other camera features include real-time Eye AF and real-time tracking with every lens, along with an Optical SteadyShot system. All the lenses use Zeiss optics with a Zeiss T* coating designed to boost contrast and sharpness while reducing reflections. The front camera uses a new 12-megapixel Exmor RS sensor that's larger than on previous models, allowing you to shoot selfies with less light. 

Sony also added some apps and software features to add video content makers. Much like on the Xperia 1 Pro, that allows users to manually adjust settings like focus, exposure and white balance, even while recording. It also features 4K HDR multi-frame shooting, allowing for videos with wider dynamic range without any loss of resolution. 

Sony is also promising "the ultimate mobile gaming experience" with the Xperia 1 IV, thanks to a 120Hz HDR display with 240Hz motion blur and a 240Hz touch-scanning rate. It's powered by a Snapdragon Gen 1 Mobile Platform and uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon Elite Gaming to improve performance. It also has what Sony calls "Heat Suppression power control" that automatically reduces performance at high temperatures, "even during gameplay when connected to a charger." 

It's designed to simplify livestreaming as well, as you'll have access to the Eye AF and object tracking features when using the Videography Pro mode. It can also be used as an external monitor if you're livestreaming from any compatible Alpha camera and when paired with Sony's Vlog Monitor, "users can livestream content by using the rear cameras," Sony said. 

Other features include 5G with sub6/mmWave, WiFi 6E, 12GB of RAM, 512GB of storage with a microSD card and a 5,000 mAh battery. The price, as you'd expect from all that, will not be cheap. It's arriving on September 1, 2022 for "approximately" $1,600 to Sony dealers around the US, with the purple color available exclusively at Sony's website. 

Meta, Facebook's parent company, is facing another lawsuit filed by one of is former content moderators. According to The Washington Post, this one is filed by Daniel Motaung, who's accusing the company and San Francisco subcontractor Sama of human trafficking Africans to work in exploitative and unsafe working conditions in Kenya. The lawsuit alleges that Sama targets poor people across the region, including those from Kenya, South Africa, Ethiopia, Somalia and Uganda, with misleading job ads. They were reportedly never told that they'd be working as Facebook moderators and would have to view disturbing content as part of the job. 

Motaung said the first video he watched was of someone being beheaded and that he was fired after six months on the job for trying to spearhead workers' unionization efforts. A Time report looking into the working conditions of the office where Motaung worked revealed that several employees suffered from mental trauma due to to their jobs. Sama, which positions itself as an "ethical AI" company providing "dignified digital work" to people in places like Nairobi, has on-site counselors. Workers generally distrusted the counselors, though, and Sama reportedly rejected counselors' advice to let workers take wellness breaks throughout the day anyway. 

As for Motaung, he said in the lawsuit that his job was traumatizing and that he now has a fear of death. "I had potential. When I went to Kenya, I went to Kenya because I wanted to change my life. I wanted to change the life of my family. I came out a different person, a person who has been destroyed," he noted. The lawsuit also mentioned how Motaung was made to sign a non-disclosure agreement and how he was paid less than promised — 40,000 Kenyan shillings or around $350. The report by Time said employees left in droves due to the poor pay and working conditions. 

Harrowing stories of Facebook moderators having to watch traumatizing videos and working in poor conditions aren't new and come from all over the world, including the US. In fact, the company agreed to pay its US content moderators part of a class action lawsuit $52 million back in 2020. Those who were diagnosed with psychological conditions related to their work got a payout of up to $50,000.

Meta's Nairobi office told The Post that it requires its "partners to provide industry-leading pay, benefits and support." It added: "We also encourage content reviewers to raise issues when they become aware of them and regularly conduct independent audits to ensure our partners are meeting the high standards we expect of them."

Amazon has one less legal challenge to worry about. An appeals court today dismissed a lawsuit by New York State Attorney General Letitia James against the company for its coronavirus safety protocols and alleged retaliation against workers, reportedReuters. In its ruling, the court said that since federal labor law preempts state labor law, National Labor Relations Board “should serve as the forum” for the dispute. It also pointed to a separate NLRB case over fired employee Gerald Bryson and said it contained “essentially the same” allegations of retaliation, and argued there was a risk of “interference” over the NLRB’s jurisdiction.

The lawsuit — filed last year — accused Amazon of subjecting workers from two Staten Island facilities to unsafe conditions during the pandemic. It also alleged that Amazon retaliated against former employees Christian Smalls and Derrick Palmer — now of the Amazon Labor Union — by firing them after they protested the company’s working conditions. Just a few days earlier, Amazon filed its own lawsuit against the New York State attorney general’s office in an effort to stop the investigation.

Last month, it appeared that luck was on the NY State attorney general’s side when a federal judge denied Amazon’s bid to transfer the lawsuit. But the New York Court of Appeals today not only reversed this decision, it dismissed claims in the state attorney general’s lawsuit that Amazon violated COVID-19 health and safety protocols. The appeals court stated that since New York State’s coronavirus workplace protocols have since been lifted, the lawsuit's efforts to get Amazon to comply with them were “moot.”

“Throughout the pandemic, Amazon has failed to provide a safe working environment for New Yorkers, putting their health and safety at risk. As our office reviews the decision and our options moving forward, Attorney General James remains committed to protecting Amazon workers, and all workers, from unfair treatment,” wrote Morgan Rubin, a spokesperson for the attorney general, in a statement to Engadget.

Engadget has reached out to Amazon for comment on the lawsuit and will update if we hear back. 

On Tuesday, online used car retailer Carvana took to Zoom to lay off 12 percent of its workforce, reports Protocol. According to Twitter reports, the startup incited “mass hysteria” among workers when it sent a company-wide email at 7:30AM informing everyone of the impending job cuts but not specifying who would be affected. In the end, Carvana told approximately 2,500 workers, many of them in “operational positions,” they no longer had a job with the company in a Zoom call some employees said was pre-recorded, a claim the startup disputes.

Despite finding success early in the pandemic, Carvana has struggled recently. During its first-quarter earnings call, the company reported a $260 million net loss, and it blamed the layoffs on the financial headwinds that have come its way and slowed growth.

"Recent macroeconomic factors have pushed automotive retail into recession," a Carvana spokesperson told Protocol. "While Carvana is still growing, our growth is slower than what we originally prepared for in 2022, and we made the difficult decision to reduce the size of certain operations teams to better align with the current needs of the business."

On the same day Carvana told employees of the layoffs, the company announced it would spend $2.2 billion to buy a handful of used-car auction sites from Kar Auction Services. Carvana isn’t the first company to turn to a Zoom webinar to conduct layoffs. Late last year, mortgage startup Better.com fired about 10 percent of its workforce in a webinar that caused a similar backlash among those affected.

Starting tomorrow, YouTube will give both fans and creators the ability to gift paid channel subscriptions. A number of influential streamers tweeted the announcement today, many of whom were ecstatic about a new monetization tool. Gifted subs have been a popular feature on Twitch — YouTube Gaming's main rival— for a while. Many streamers see subscriptions as an easy way to generate revenue while also building their community. But YouTube has dragged its heels on releasing the much-anticipated feature for some time. Finally, YouTube Japan tested the waters with gifted memberships earlier this year for a select number of channels. Gifted memberships — which is still in beta — will now be available to all YouTube Gaming users in the US and UK.

Fans normally pay $4.99 per month for channel memberships, which allow them to access user badges, emotes and other exclusive content by their favorite creators. YouTube Gaming has released a number of other Twitch-like features this year, such as Live Redirects, which allow streamers to send fans to other streams or premieres. 

While Twitch remains the biggest US-based platform for livestreaming, a number of its high-profile streamers have decamped in recent years for YouTube Gaming. And there may be more to follow. Bloomberg reported last month that Twitch partners will get a smaller cut of revenue from subscriptions (50 percent from 70 percent) under a new monetization model by the Amazon-owned platform. YouTube Gaming takes only 30 percent of a streamer’s revenue from channel subscriptions. While YouTube Gaming doesn’t have as big of an audience as Twitch, that could easily change if more popular Twitch creators leave for greener pastures.

After months of teasing, Harley-Davidson’s LiveWire brand has unveiled its second all-electric motorcycle, the new middleweight Del Mar. Built on the brand’s new Arrow platform, it features a 60 kW motor capable of accelerating the EV from zero to 60 miles per hour in under four seconds, Electrek reported on Tuesday.

The Del Mar’s 21700-format battery is housed in a structural case that doubles as part of the motorcycle’s frame, reducing the overall weight of the vehicle. To make the Del Mar even lighter, LiveWire integrated a handful of components, including the onboard charger, into a single unit mounted to the outside of the structural battery case. All told, it’s about 25 percent lighter than the LiveWire One.

LiveWire expects the Del Mar will be able to travel approximately 100 miles on a single charge. Additionally, the EV will feature built-in GPS and cellular connectivity, which will allow the company to roll out new software features to the motorcycle and tune its performance through OTA updates. One feature you won’t find on the Del Mar is DC fast charging. It’s limited to Level 1 and 2 charging.

Following Tuesday’s reveal, LiveWire made 100 $17,699 “Launch Edition” Del Mar motorcycles available for pre-order. Those sold out almost instantly. As for the production model, which should go on sale sometime in the spring of 2023, LiveWire said it’s targeting a price of $15,000. For context, the LiveWire One, currently the brand’s most affordable electric motorcycle, starts at $22,799 before federal subsidies. LiveWire also teased that it’s already developing a third model based on the Arrow platform.