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Engadget readers like yourself are probably more tech savvy than the average person. That means you may get roped into helping older family members with email woes, new phone setups, or deciphering if a message is legit or a phishing scam. In my family, I’ve become my mother’s unofficial IT support hotline, which makes me wonder about older adults with adult kids who are short on time. Turns out there are a number of resources staffed with actual people who will calmly walk seniors through just about any tech trouble they may face. Many local libraries and senior centers host classes and even one-on-one tech assistance to seniors for free, but if they can’t make it to a live session or there aren’t offerings in their area, phone hotlines and online services may be the answer.

For the past couple weeks, I used my mom and her frequently asked questions to try out a few of the senior tech hotlines out there and found three services that are refreshingly helpful, two of which are completely free and a third that includes a free option. If you know a senior who could use help with their tech, directing them to one of these services won’t feel like pawning them off, but rather like you’re sending them to an IT pro with endless patience.

Top three free senior tech support companies

AT&T is raising its Unlimited plan prices a bit on March 5, 2024, though users will at least get more hotspot data, CNET has reported. Prices for all plans are going up by 99 cents per line per month, but users on AT&T's old Unlimited Elite plan will see no change. 

The new plans are now up on AT&T's website, showing the Unlimited Starter SL plan (replacing the old Unlimited Starter plan) now priced at $65.99, but offering 5GB of hotspot data, up from 3GB. The Unlimited Extra is now the Unlimited Extra EL plan, and costs $75.99 per month with 30GB of hotspot data rather than 15GB. Finally, the new Unlimited Premium PL option supersedes the old Unlimited Premium plan and bumps the hotspot data by 10GB to 60GB (all prices are for one user). 

The company is also boosting the price of its Value Plus VL (previously Value Plus) plan by 99 cents to $50.99. Hotspot data still isn't permitted, but you're now allowed up to 10 lines instead of just one. 

"We are bringing new benefits and added value to our best Unlimited plans," a spokesperson told CNET in a statement. "Customers on our current Unlimited Starter, Extra, Premium and Value Plus plans will receive the additional benefits starting in March [presumably along with the higher rate]. Existing customers will be notified of these changes in the coming days and will have several weeks prior to the effective date to update their plan or make other changes if they'd like to."

AT&T's Unlimited plans compare to T-Mobile's Go5G plans and Verizon's MyPlan options. All get considerably cheaper as you add lines, and include perks like Netflix, Disney and other subscriptions. Last year, the United States ranked 219th in global mobile data affordability, or 19th worst in the world, just ahead of the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu. 

If you're looking for a new tablet to keep track of all your 2024 goals on (or just for fun), now is a great time to buy. A range of Amazon Fire Tablets are currently on sale, including the new Fire HD 10 tablet. A 42 percent discount brings the 64GB Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet to $105 from $180 — the lowest price we've seen it at. The 32GB model is also on sale but, at $95, you might as well pay the extra $10 for double the storage.

The 2023 Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet is a solid upgrade from its predecessor, with 25 percent faster performance and 3GB of RAM. Its 10.1-inch HD touchscreen has a 1,920 x 1,200 resolution to easily view anything from a good book to a favorite game. The Fire HD 10 tablet also has 5MP front and rear-facing cameras and the option to expand storage by up to 1TB through a microSD slot. 

If you want something a little more advanced, the Amazon Fire Max 11 tablet is also on sale — the 128GB model is down to $200 from $280. The 11-inch screen is a touch bigger and better, with a 2,000 x 1,200 resolution. Other notable features include 8MP front and rear-facing cameras and 4GB of RAM. This version comes without lock screen ads and is currently only $5 more than the 64GB model with lock screen ads. 

Rounding out the Amazon Fire tablet deals is the 32GB Amazon Fire HD 8 Plus tablet, with a 38 percent discount, dropping it to $75 from $120. It comes with a 2MP front-facing camera and 5MP rear-facing cameras. It has 3GB of RAM and works 30 percent faster than its predecessor. Notably, this sale is on the lock screen with the ads model, but another $15 will give you an ad-free user experience. 

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Nikon has taken its imaging and AI prowess in a unexpected direction with a new system that can warn farmers when a cow is about to give birth, Kyodo News has reported. It's designed to reduce the need to constantly check large numbers of pregnant cows during busy birthing seasons, helping farmers improve efficiency.

The system, which costs 900,000 yen per year ($6,200) for a farm with around 100 cows, consists of a security-style camera married to an AI system. It uses a dedicated smartphone application that sounds an alert when a calf is due, allowing farmers to spring into action if required. 

Nikon started training the AI in the fall of 2021, then running proof-of-concept tests on four farms in southwestern Japan in February 2023. The system picks up on signs exhibited by pregnant cows about five hours ahead of labor, like increased movement and the beginning of the release of the calf's amniotic sac. "We want to be able to also detect when a female cow is in heat and other behavioral patterns," said Nikon's Kazuhiro Hirano. 

The system apparently does the job well, according a livestock owner who participated in the tests last year. "We deliver about 60 calves per year and had to check the mothers every few hours from around a month before they are due. This system has been a great help," said Keita Higuchi. 

Nikon is best known for its consumer cameras, but it also manufactures microscopes, X-Ray systems, semiconductor systems, robot vision, virtual production studios and more. The company uses AI tech to aid microscope imaging, but has also recently fought against misuse of fake AI images via new electronic watermarking technology. 

There are few things as American as watching football on a Sunday. If anyone needs further proof, NFL and Peacock have it: The January 14 Peacock Exclusive AFC Wild Card has set a new record for the United States' most streamed live event in history. According to a joint release from NBC-owned Peacock and Comcast, the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Miami Dolphins game — the first playoff ever exclusively live-streamed — reached 27.6 million viewers.

Peacock also claims that the livestream is to thank for the most internet usage in a single day across the US, taking up 30 percent of internet traffic. However, the current data is courtesy of Nielsen's custom fast national live and same-day data, with official numbers coming out on Friday, January 19.

While the livestream was a good alternative to shivering in person during the fourth coldest NFL game in history, not everyone was happy about it. New York congressman Pat Ryan was among those who expressed their outrage over having to pay for another streaming service in order to watch a game that typically airs on cable. "How much more profit do [NFL commissioner Roger] Goodell and NBC need to make at the expense of hard working Americans?" Ryan wrote in a letter. "Congress granted the NFL an antitrust exemption in its broadcast deals with the expectation that you wouldn't use it to screw over fans. That was clearly a mistake."

The game was available to Miami and Kansas City viewers on local NBC affiliates. Anyone else interested in watching had to sign up for a Peacock subscription, starting at $6 per month. Peacock's plan to stream the wild card game was first announced last May, with NBC reportedly paying $110 million for the rights to it.

LG is already one of the most prolific EV battery manufacturers in the US, but it wants to build the devices that charge them, too. The company just opened just opened its first EV charger manufacturing facility in the US, a 59,000 square foot plant in in Fort Worth, Texas capable of manufacturing 10,000 units per year. 

The company has already started to assemble 11kW home-style chargers there and will begin producing 175kW fast chargers in the first half of 2024. It plans to built 350kW ultra-fast chargers at some point this year designed for "commercial travel and long-distance transportation," LG wrote. 

The Korean company said it chose Texas as it had existing facilities there and because the state offers "excellent logistics and transportation networks and is home to major operations for companies in industries ranging from automobile manufacturing to finance" (GM, Toyota and Tesla all have vehicle assembly plants in the state). 

LG

LG said it's committed to bolstering its EV charger business in Asia and Europe as well. The company, along with two partners, jumped into the game just two years ago, acquiring a South Korean EV battery charger business called AppleMango (since renamed to HiEV).

LG said at the time that the acquisition would allow it to "create synergy" with its EV battery business, along with products like energy storage and energy management systems. The company is also able to leverage its display expertise by marrying the chargers with "sturdy, dust- and water-proof" outdoor digital display units. 

The move also allows LG to capitalize on a US push to build more public EV chargers. The nation currently has 169,741 charging ports (either DC fast or Level 2) across 65,113 stations, according to the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. However, the Biden administration wants at least 500,000 public chargers by 2030. "By establishing our EV charger production factory in Texas, we will be able to actively respond to the rapidly growing demand for EV infrastructure in the U.S.,” said LG Business Solution president Jand Ik-hwan. 

FedEx is planning to launch an ecommerce platform called “fdx” later this year. The shipping company announced the move on Sunday, describing fdx as an end-to-end online shopping hub that aims to provide sellers with solutions for everything from reaching potential customers to order fulfillment and returns. Sounds… familiar. FedEx says it’s targeting fall 2024 for the official launch.

The details are so far pretty scant, but fdx is being billed as a “data-driven” platform that will use FedEx’s insights to optimize basically every part of the buying and selling process. From the get-go, sellers on fdx will have access to the existing network of customers on the ecommerce site ShopRunner, which FedEx owns, and customers will be able to see delivery estimates on products as they browse and add things to their carts, even before checkout. Sellers will be provided carbon emissions reports relating to their supply chain decisions, optimal shipping routes and more.

FedEx is calling fdx a “first-of-its-kind” platform, which sure seems like a stretch, but we’ll find out soon enough if it really has something uniquely enticing to offer. It’ll need to if FedEx wants to woo people out of Amazon’s chokehold.

It looks like the Peregrine lunar lander’s final resting place will be back at home where it started. The doomed spacecraft, which experienced an anomaly shortly after launch and has been leaking propellant ever since, is expected to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, Astrobotic wrote in an update on X this weekend. The company plans to host a press conference with NASA on Thursday January 18 at 12PM ET to discuss the lander’s fate.

Peregrine has so far hung on much longer than anyone thought it would after the leak was first detected on January 8, and Astrobotic has been posting round-the-clock status updates. The company days ago ruled out a soft landing on the moon’s surface, but there’s been some uncertainty about where exactly it’ll end up. Peregrine did manage to make it to lunar distance — reaching 238,000 miles from Earth on Friday and then 242,000 as of Saturday — but because of where the moon currently is in its orbit, nothing was there to meet it.

If all had gone according to plan, Peregrine would have met up with the moon about 15 days after launch, at which point it could begin the transition from Earth orbit to lunar orbit. It’s only been six days, and Peregrine’s dwindling fuel supply isn’t likely to carry it for nine more. “Our analysis efforts have been challenging due to the propellant leak, which have been adding uncertainty to predictions of the vehicle’s trajectory,” Astrobotic wrote in its most recent update on Saturday. “Our latest assessment now shows the spacecraft is on a path towards Earth, where it will likely burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.”

It was always a known risk that Peregrine Mission One might end this way; moon landings are notoriously hard. The commercial mission marked the first of those contracted under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, and in a briefing ahead of last week’s launch, NASA’s CLPS Program Manager Chris Culbert said, “We recognize that success cannot be ensured.” 

We’re getting closer and closer to launch day for Apple’s Vision Pro headset, which means if you’re not yet sold on ordering one, you’ll soon be able to try it out in the store. But don’t expect the process to be quick and easy. In the Power On newsletter this week, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says customers hoping for a demo will each have to go through face scans and the subsequent assembly of a custom Vision Pro, a walkthrough of the interface and all the controls, and device calibration — all before a 25-minute demonstration of the Vision Pro experience.

The Vision Pro is meant to sit just right on its wearer’s face, with multiple sizing options for the light seal, foam cushion and band. And Apple isn’t planning on taking the risk of an attempted universal fit for in-store demos, according to Gurman. In addition to face scans, employees will have a device to scan customers’ glasses to determine the right prescription for Vision Pro lenses. Each store “will have hundreds of lenses on hand for demos,” Gurman says, and employees will tag-team the process, with one on the floor taking customers’ details and another in the back handling assembly.

Some stores will have at least a dozen Vision Pro headsets around for people to try. During the actual demo, according to Gurman, users will be shown a series of normal, panorama and “spatial” photos, spatial videos, immersive experiences including a “scene that makes users feel as if they’re on a tightrope,” and a glimpse at what it will be like using the Vision Pro as a computer. Signups will start at 8AM local time on February 2.

If you’re just walking in to buy a Vision Pro, the process should be much simpler. You’ll have to go through the face scans — as will anyone ordering one online — and then all the correct pieces will be boxed up for you right there, Gurman says. There will also be multiple display-only units in each store, if you just want to take a look.

Two months after shutting down its crypto wallet, GameStop says it’s killing its NFT marketplace, too. In an alert posted on the website, first spotted by Decrypt, the company has notified customers that the NFT marketplace will no longer be usable as of February 2. Echoing the statement it issued with the termination of the wallet, GameStop says the decision comes in response to “the continuing regulatory uncertainty of the crypto space.”

GameStop’s NFT marketplace wasn’t around very long. It launched in July 2022 in a partnership with Immutable X and Loopring following rumors of the project at the beginning of that year. Now, it only has a few weeks left in operation. “Effective as of February 2, 2024, customers will no longer be able to buy, sell or create NFTs,” the notice states. “Your NFTs are on the blockchain and will remain accessible and saleable through other platforms.”