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Discord is introducing new safeguards to protect young users. On Thursday, the company announced Teen Safety Assist. With this week’s initial rollout, the program consists of two features: Automated alerts and content filters.

Moving forward, when a user a teen hasn’t chatted with before sends a direct message, Discord will display a safety alert if the platform’s automated systems suspect the teen’s safety could be at risk. The prompt will nudge the young person to reconsider if they want to respond to the message, and point them to the app’s block feature and related safety tips.

By default, Discord will now also automatically blur potentially sensitive images from a teen’s friends and delete sensitive content from strangers. Young people can disable the feature through an option in Discord’s settings menu. Adults, meanwhile, can enable the filters for themselves, if they want the additional protections.

The introduction of Teen Safety Assist comes amid increased scrutiny of Discord’s efforts to limit the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and protect young users from predatory adults. In June, NBC News identified 35 cases over a period of six years where adults had allegedly used the platform to kidnap, groom or sexually assault minors. The outlet also found 165 cases where authorities were prosecuting adults for sharing CSAM over Discord or allegedly using the platform to extort young users into sending sexual images of themselves.

In the aftermath of the report, Discord banned teen dating servers and changed its safety policies to ban the sharing of AI-generated CSAM. It also announced new rules explicitly prohibiting any other kind of text or media content that sexualizes children. At the same time, the company introduced Family Center, a dashboard for parents and guardians to keep track of what their teens are doing on Discord.

Discord

“Teens are still in the process of learning about themselves and what it means to be online, and our new safety features are rooted in providing them with agency on the platform, to give them ways to learn and grow in safe and age-appropriate online spaces,” said Savannah Badalich, senior director of policy at Discord. “These newest features are part of an ongoing, multi-year effort to continually evolve and advance safety on Discord.”

At the same time, Discord is introducing a new warning system for people who violate its policies. Outside of incidents involving the most “extreme” violations, the company is moving away from permanent bans. It’s doing so under the belief that most users will choose to be better online citizens given the chance and proper guidance.

In practice, the system will notify a person when they’ve violated one or more of Discord’s policies and detail the restrictions on their account. It will also link out to the company’s Terms of Service, Community Guidelines and appeal mechanism. A new “Account Standing” tab within the settings menu will allow users to see all their current and past policy violations.

“We think we’ve built the most nuanced and proportionate reporting system,” Badalich told Engadget, adding the company hopes other platforms will look to what Discord has created for inspiration related to their own enforcement efforts. “We believe people, especially teens, have the capacity to grow.”

Separately, Discord announced a slew of new features and enhancements slated to arrive either in the near future or down the line. To start, the platform’s in-app shop, which Discord began testing last month with Nitro subscribers, will soon be available to all users. The marketplace features digital items people can use to decorate their avatars and profiles. Discord will offer store discounts to Nitro members, as part of a new perk for signing up.

Discord

This week, the company will also start rolling out a feature called Remix. It allows users to edit an image directly within Discord’s mobile app and share it with their friends and servers. The company spent much of the last year improving its Android and iOS clients. One recent update saw it improve app launch times on both platforms. In the near future, Discord says people can expect a new “Midnight” dark mode the company claims reduces battery consumption on devices with OLED screens, more functional notification tabs and a new search feature for the settings menu to make it easier to find the exact option you’re looking to tweak.

Last but not least, the company says it will begin rolling out Premium App Subscriptions to eligible developers in the UK and Europe, following a launch that began in the US a few weeks ago. On the subject of third-party apps, bots and plugins, the company said it’s in the process of exploring how to make those accessible across nearly every part of Discord. It provided few details on the effort, but said the goal is to allow people to access their favorite apps and bots without those experiences being restricted to select servers.

“We're experimenting with a few different things, but the goal is for developers to reach more people with the awesome experience they're building. For users, we don’t want them to be gated from having these custom experiences at their fingertips,” Cherry Park, director of product marketing at Discord, told Engadget. “In terms of the way we architecture and build it, there are a couple of solutions. Some are easier, some are more difficult, and you're going to see us experiment with a few of them over the next few quarters.”

Discord promised to share more about its efforts around app portability in the near future. In the meantime, Nitro subscribers will get a chance to test new features before they become available to the public.

Samsung was the first manufacturer to make a proper foldable phone, but it’s gotten a bit complacent. Now OnePlus is releasing its first phone with a flexible screen and it’s already giving the Galaxy Z Fold 5 a run for its money. Not only does the Open pack larger displays, both inside and out, it's also thinner and lighter. That is, as long as you don’t count its massive camera module. And with its Open Canvas software, OnePlus is taking a novel approach to multitasking that makes it super fast and easy to switch between apps. 

But perhaps the most impressive thing the Open is doing, is putting pressure on the price of big fancy foldables, because starting at $1,700, it costs $100 less than the Z Fold 5 and Google’s Pixel Fold – and that’s before you factor in OnePlus’ deal that knocks another $200 off with the trade-in of any phone. In a year when we’ve already seen Google release its first foldable phone, the arrival of the OnePlus Open is adding even more excitement to the category.

Displays: Super bright

Similar to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold line, the OnePlus Open sports two displays: a skinner 6.3-inch exterior screen along with a 7.8-inch flexible panel on the inside. Both panels are slightly bigger than those on the Z Fold 5 while also featuring 120Hz refresh rates. But the thing the OnePlus has really pushed is brightness, which hits around 1,400 nits during normal use, or up to a mindblowing 2,800 nits in certain situations like when watching HDR content outdoors. And once again, that’s for both displays. However, those numbers are so high, it maxed out my colorimeter, so I can’t fully verify OnePlus’ claims. Regardless, brightness was never an issue.

Design: When every gram matters

OnePlus hasn’t messed around too much with Samsung’s template and stuck with an inward folding design. However, it does feel like the company tried to shave off every extra gram or millimeter. The black model which features a vegan leather back weighs just 239 grams, just one gram lighter than an iPhone 14 Pro Max. Meanwhile, our emerald dusk review unit sports a glass back and only comes in a touch heavier at 245 grams.

The Open is also surprisingly sleek measuring just 11.7mm thick. That’s even thinner than the Pixel Fold (12.1mm). That is, until you factor in its massive camera module which brings the phone’s true thickness to around 18mm. The Open also has a wider exterior display, which makes typing on it much nicer without a ton of added bulk.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Of course, some of the biggest areas of concern on a foldable are its hinge and crease. Thankfully, OnePlus has done a pretty good job with both. There is a faint groove that runs down the middle of its main display, but it’s subtle. You only notice it when viewed from acute angles or if you really go looking for it.

The hinge is also surprisingly smooth and, unlike its rivals, there’s a bit of spring-loaded action to it. So after a certain point it just swings wide open. That’s a nice change coming from the Pixel Fold which always seems to stop right at 179 degrees, no matter what you do. Another detail I appreciate is that the Open closes flush, so you don’t have to worry about keys or other small objects getting inside. Unfortunately, you only get an IPX4 rating for water resistance, which is far short of the IP68 classification on the Pixel Fold and Z Fold 5.

Performance: Mobile multitasking made easy

The OnePlus Open features a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip that results in very similar performance to that of the Galaxy Z Fold 5. Samsung’s phone does enjoy about a five to 10 percent lead in tests like Geekbench 6 due to slightly higher clock speeds. But during everyday use, the advantage is basically imperceptible. But the OnePlus does have 16GB of RAM (versus 12GB on the Z Fold) along with 512GB of base storage–which is double what you get from both Samsung and Google.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

However, my favorite thing about the Open is how it handles multitasking. You can obviously do stuff like having two apps open in splitscreen. But if you want more, OnePlus’ Open Canvas software makes it possible to open three apps at once, with little tabs that let you move things around with a single tap. It’s like each app is a little card that slides in and out of view as you need them, and it works surprisingly well. It’s so much faster than sliding up and holding to open recent apps, but without adding too much clutter. And as a tweak on Samsung and Google’s taskbars, OnePlus added a dedicated icon for recent files, so it's super easy to drag and drop docs or photos into email or messages.

That said, as someone who loved older versions of Oxygen OS, I feel like the current design of OnePlus’ UI (following the company’s merger with Oppo) looks a bit cheap. Almost every button aside from in the quick settings is some kind of rounded rectangle, and while it’s functional, it’s also kind of boring.

Cameras: A big bump from Hasselblad

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Ever since OnePlus partnered with Hasselblad to upgrade its cameras, the modules on the backs of its phones have gotten bigger and bigger. And while it’s a bit of an eyesore, the Open’s huge camera bump isn’t without reason as it holds a large 1/1.43-inch 64-MP LYTIA T808 main sensor from Sony with a new pixel architecture designed to increase the amount of light it can capture for even better nighttime photos. OnePlus claims it delivers the best image quality on any foldable available today and, while I won’t go quite that far, its pics are relatively close to what you can capture with a Pixel Fold. Photos are sharp and detailed, the one shortcoming is that OnePlus’ low-light processing isn’t quite as good as Google’s Night Sight. But compared to the Z Fold 5, the Open’s pics often had better dynamic range and less exaggerated sharpening.

You also get a 48-MP ultra-wide cam that can also shoot macros, and a 64-MP telephoto with a 3x optical zoom that goes up to a 6x lossless magnification. Once again, while that 3x zoom is every bit a match for the Z Fold 5’s 3x telephoto cam, it's 6x lossless just isn’t quite as sharp as the 5x optical lens on the Pixel Fold. But that’s not a big surprise because there still isn’t a true replacement for high-quality glass.

Battery life: Great longevity but no wireless charging?!

OnePlus has always had somewhat spotty support for wireless charging. Its first phone to have it was the OnePlus 8 Pro in 2020, which was years after its competitors got on board. That support continued on the OnePlus 9, OnePlus 9 Pro, and the OnePlus 10 Pro. But then OnePlus dropped wireless charging for the 10T and the 11, and unfortunately, we don’t get it here on the Open either.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

The lack of wireless charging on any $1,000 phone is pretty disappointing, let alone a brand new flagship foldable. My suspicion is that OnePlus didn’t include it because charging coils would have added one or two millimeters in thickness, which would have detracted from the phone’s design. And if that’s true, that’s a pretty weak justification.

On the bright side, wired charging is significantly faster than its competition at 67 watts. And it's even faster in Europe at 80 watts due to their 240-volt power standard. However, because of OnePlus’ proprietary charging system, you only get those speeds when you use the included brick, so if you switch to a third-party adapter, speeds drop in half to around 30 watts.

Thankfully battery life is great. With its exterior display, the Open lasted 25 and a half hours on our video rundown test, which is an hour and a half better than the Z Fold 5. And with its main display, it lasted just over 19 hours, which is also quite respectable.

Pricing: An almost unbelievable discount

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

When it comes to pricing, big foldables like this have always been pretty expensive, though at $1,700, the Open costs $100 less than both the Z Fold 5 and the Pixel Fold. But to sweeten the pot even further, OnePlus has an enticing deal that will knock another $200 off the price with the trade-in of any phone. Typically there are some limits or restrictions to promos like this, so I had to confirm the details with OnePlus. But the company really does mean any device, regardless of how old it is or what condition it’s in. That means you can finally get rid of the Nokia brick that’s been living in a drawer for the last 10 or 15 years and get some value out of it. And if you do, you’re looking at an effective price of $1,500, which still ain’t cheap, but it is significantly lower than the competition. The caveat is that this discount is only available directly through OnePlus.

Wrap-up

When I first heard OnePlus was making a foldable phone, I wasn’t sure what their goal was. The company hasn’t been in the business of making flagship killers for a while. But with the Open, OnePlus has crammed some rather impressive hardware into a device with a novel approach to multitasking. The Open’s cameras are as good if not slightly better than what you get on a Z Fold 5, and it has bigger screens too. Honestly, there are a lot of things about the Open’s design that I wish we were getting from Samsung, as opposed to the three years of minor refinements we’ve seen following the release of the Z Fold 3.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

It’s also important to note that the Open has an alter ego, because depending on where you live, this thing will also be known as the Oppo Find N3. The two phones are essentially the same device just with different branding. That said, the Open will still get four years of Android updates and five years of security patches along with support for all the major US carriers. But unlike Google and Samsung’s offerings, the Open will only be available through online retailers and because OnePlus doesn’t have any local US retail partners, the only way to get the Open serviced is to send it in. That’s a bit of concern as pretty much every foldable phone tends to have an issue with its built-in screen protector bubbling after about a year. So even though OnePlus offers free shipping for repairs under warranty, no one wants to be without their phone for a week or more while it’s in the shop.

Still, I’m impressed with what OnePlus is bringing out the gate.

Alienware just announced a refresh to the popular m17 R5 gaming laptop. The m17 was already a stellar example of an AMD Advantage system and the m18 kicks this up a notch or two. The Alienware m18 goes all-in with AMD integration, with the company boasting that its the “most powerful 18-inch AMD Advantage laptop” ever made.

The term AMD Advantage is marketing speak for a computer that’s built from the ground up for gaming via various AMD chipsets and technologies. To that end, the m18 is the first computer to feature the all-new AMD Radeon RX 7900M laptop graphics chip. These laptops also come equipped with the well-regarded AMD Ryzen 7945HX CPU. So, yeah, this thing’s a beast, with Alienware calling it a “performance juggernaut.”

The Radeon RX 7900M has been engineered to deliver “desktop-class” visuals even when playing power-hungry AAA titles. The GPU is filled with techy features, like second-gen raytracing accelerators, 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM and other “advanced capabilities to push the limits of gaming and content creation on the go.”

The Ryzen 9 7945 CPU helps everything move along thanks to 16 performance cores, 32 processing threads and AMD’s proprietary Zen 4 chiplet technology. The CPU was manufactured using the new 5nm design, the first for gaming laptops, which promises better power efficiency and faster performance.

These laptops ship with AMD’s Adrenaline Edition software suite, so you can access the SmartShift tool to shift power between the GPU and CPU in real-time to boost performance. Additionally, the company’s proprietary SmartAccess graphics tech automatically prioritizes game performance and reduced latency when using FreeSync.

Alienware

Laptops are more than just numbers on a spreadsheet, however, and the m18 has some other perks worth mentioning. These computers come equipped with Alienware’s Cryo-tech thermal regulation technology. This thermal interface material extends to both the CPU and GPU, with an expanded vapor chamber covering each component, helping to dissipate heat across the entire system. Four thin fans finish this process by pulling heated air through eight heat pipes and out via five vents.

You also get an 18-inch display panel equipped with both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, with a 16:10 aspect ratio, QHD+ resolution and a maximum refresh rate of 165Hz. You can overclock this refresh rate all the way to 480Hz at the expense of resolution for competitive gaming scenarios. An FHD webcam and an IR camera for facial recognition are also on board.

As for RAM and storage, there’s user-replaceable dual-channel DDR5 memory and you can shop options with up to three M.2 SSDs for a combined total of 8.5TB of storage. The laptop boasts some aesthetic flourishes, like an aluminum lid and bottom cover, an aluminum die-cast inner frame and an embossed "18" on the exterior. The m18 is available today with a starting price of $2,800.

AMD has unveiled the Radeon RX 7900M mobile GPU built around its RDNA 3 architecture, its fastest mobile gaming chip to date and "first-even chiplet laptop graphics." The company has positioned the new chips for high FPS 1440p (QHD) gaming rather than 4K as a way to boost regular laptop gaming. AMD is also touting its FSR 3 (FidelityFX Super Resolution) upscaling tech that's similar to NVIDIA's DLSS 3, promising a large boost in frame rates for games like Starfield and Forspoken.

As a flagship chip, the RX 7900M comes with 72 compute units (compared to 32 for the RX 7700S) and features 16GB of GDDR6 RAM, while consuming up to 180 watts — well beyond the 110 watt TDP of NVIDIA's RTX 4080 mobile chip. AMD claims it can outperform the latter by 7 percent on average in terms of frame rates, while offering an additional 4GB of GDDR6 RAM. 

AMD

In one example, AMD claimed it could beat a laptop with an RTX 4080 mobile chip by 27 percent on Starfield with a 62 fps frame rate (FSR 2, Ultra 1440p). In another, it said that Forspoken could run at 201 fps with FSR 3 turned on, compared to 63 fps with the setting disabled. It also listed higher frame rates for a number of rasterized games, though it was beaten by a majority ray-traced games run on NVIDIA RTX 4080 GPU-equipped laptops. This is an issue we flagged after reviewing the Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT desktop processors last year.

Along with the mobile GPU, AMD announced a partnership with Alienware, integrating its RX 7900M and Ryzen 9 7945HX processor into the m18 laptop. Along with those chips, that model comes with an 18-inch QHD+ (2,560 x 1,600) display, up to 64GB of RAM, 8.5GB of storage max, and more. That model, along with the RX 7900M, is set to arrive in Q4 2023, when we can hopefully put AMD's claims to the test. 

Adobe just released the latest iterations of Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements. These 2024-branded versions feature plenty of new features that streamline the creative process, many of them aided by, wait for it, artificial intelligence. Beyond AI-powered tools, there’s also some other stuff for photo and video editors to get excited about.

Let’s start with AI features, all of which are powered by Adobe’s new Sensei AI platform. On the Photoshop side of things, there’s a new tool that automatically selects objects and backgrounds for removal, editing or replacement. This looks to be a more nuanced take on Google’s Pixel Magic Eraser tech.

The company says you can use this tool to swap out the sky, which should come in handy for those looking to turn standard outdoor photos into a fiery hellscape. The AI tools even let you smooth out a subject’s skin and complete a number of automatic smart fixes. Additionally, Photoshop Elements 2024 uses AI for its brand-new Artistic Effect options, allowing you to completely transform images into something resembling a famous work of art.

Adobe’s Sensei AI also lets you upscale JPEGs to remove artifacts, creating a more “smooth, natural look.” This should give editors more control over this file type, as it has never been anyone’s first choice when it comes to making image adjustments.

Adobe

As for Premiere, the popular video-editing software suite now uses AI to automatically create highlight reels culled from uploaded footage. The company says that these AI-created clips will “draw people in by focusing on motion, close-ups and your highest quality footage.”

Of course, this is a proper Elements update, so there’s all kinds of features that don’t dive into the AI well. Photoshop gets updated color and tone presets, photo reels that can be saved as MP4s or GIFs, a bunch of new one-click editing options and an aesthetic facelift to tie everything together. There’s even something called Guided Edits, that teaches you how to do things as you go.

Premiere gets a suite of new audio effects, like reverb, and a number of built-in presets to create a unique vibe. Just like Photoshop, there’s a visual redesign that offers a “fresh look” and access to a similar collection of tutorial-based Guided Edits. Both software suites are available now as solo purchases or in a bundle.

GM, Cruise and Honda are teaming up to introduce a driverless ride-hailing service in Japan, which could launch in early 2026 if things go according to plan. The companies have entered a memorandum of understanding to form a joint venture for the project, and they're hoping to establish the company in the first half of 2024, provided they're able to secure the necessary regulatory approvals by then. Their ride-hailing service will deploy the Cruise Origin electric shuttle van that the companies had developed together. It's a self-driving vehicle with no steering wheel or even a driver's seat, which means it also has no pedals and no rearview mirror.

Cruise

Instead, it has a big cabin space where up to six passengers can sit facing each other, and its doors slide open like a subway's. "The opportunity for the ridehail service in Japan, which is expected to be the first of its kind, is huge," GM said in its announcement. It has the potential to solve the country's ongoing driver shortage and could provide an alternative for those who can't use Tokyo's extensive train and subway system for any reason. 

While it's still early days for the project, the companies already have a vision for how they want to execute their plans. They're looking to start by deploying "dozens" of Cruise Origins in central Tokyo by 2026 before expanding the fleet to 500 Origins. After that, they're hoping to make the service available outside of the capital's center. Like any other similar service, passengers will be able to hail an Origin through a dedicated app, as well as pay for their ride. 

Anker had huge deals running for Amazon's October Prime Day, but if you missed out, there's some good news. The tech accessory leader currently has sales on some of its top chargers, including its super-fast Gallium Nitride (GaN) options. The cheapest — and arguably nicest looking — option of that lot is the Anker 511 GaN charger 30W, discounted 26 percent to $17, from $23. 

The Anker 511 is a USB-C charger that provides 30W of power at just 1.12 inches wide. It's available in natural green, misty blue and lilac purple, alongside standard black and white options. The three-port Anker 735 GaNPrime 65W is also on sale, dropping to $40 from $60 — a 33 percent discount. It offers two USB-C and one USB-A port and uses Ankers IQ technology for more efficient, 65W charging. One of the best deals comes courtesy of a 43 percent discount on the Anker 736 GaN II 100W charger. At two-thirds the size of a MacBook's 96W power brick, the model also includes two USB-C and one USB-A port, but with even faster charging than its counterparts. 

Other Anker devices for sale outside the GaN family include the 313 10W wireless charger pad, down to $12 from $16, and the 332 USB-C hub with 100W, available for $30 versus its usual $50. Alongside its chargers for sale, Anker also has a markdown on its PowerConf S3 Speakerphone with six microphones. The home office device is discounted 38 percent in Black, dropping to $80 from $130. 

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

EV charging infrastructure company ChargePoint announced Thursday that it’s rolling out support for Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector. In a move announced earlier this year, the network will support AC and DC charging for the formerly proprietary, soon-to-be-ubiquitous Tesla plug. Rival Electrify America announced a similar change in June, but it set a more modest deadline of 2025 to make the transition.

Support begins rolling out today with “much of the lineup” expected to deliver during the next month. Cable upgrade kits for the company’s existing DC fast chargers will be delivered to customers in November, “offering Tesla drivers a public fast charging alternative for the first time,” the company wrote in a press release Thursday.

The ChargePoint app now includes an NACS selection filter to help find a compatible station on your route. “With many car manufacturers recently adopting the NACS standard for upcoming models, ChargePoint now offers every necessary cable solution to charge an EV in North America and Europe,” the company wrote. ChargePoint has over 48,000 EV charging stations globally.

ChargePoint

ChargePoint will provide a native DC connector and AC “solutions” compatible with Tesla vehicles. It will also continue supporting the Combined Charging System (CCS-1) standard. “The lineup offers AC solutions as well, negating the need for a cumbersome adapter to charge,” the company wrote. In addition, ChargePoint begins shipping cables for its Level 2 Home Flex charging system this month. It’s the first publicly available option offering NACS DC fast-charging speeds for non-Tesla EVs.

“With more than 35 million historical ChargePoint sessions initiated by Tesla vehicles, we saw the need to offer native connector solutions for this large portion of the EV market,” Pasquale Romano, CEO of ChargePoint, wrote in a press release. “Our support for both installed and new products opens up ChargePoint DC chargers to millions of drivers who have not yet had a fast charging alternative to the Tesla ecosystem, and makes their AC charging experience more convenient.”

The auto industry has lined up behind NACS in recent months. Ford, GM / Rivian, Volvo, Polestar, Mercedes, Honda, Jaguar, BMW and Hyundai have announced plans to adopt the standard in upcoming vehicles. Toyota and Volkswagen stand as two of the few remaining holdouts.

WhatsApp is finally giving you the option to send voice notes without concerns about them being recorded or shared. The messaging app is rolling out a feature that lets you set voice notes to view once and then self-destruct, WABetaInfo reports. Now, there's really very little reason to call anyone.

The new feature works similarly to when you set a photo sent over WhatsApp to be viewable only once. When recording a voice note, you'll see the number one inside a circle. Simply click that, and your voice note will become a one-time listen. However, you cant hear it again either, so if you're someone who either likes the sound of your own voice (rare) or to analyze everything you've just said, then you might want to skip it. It also appears that the audio will be lost if your recipient accidentally closes out of the conversation while listening to it.

With voice notes' popularity growing tremendously over the past few years, this new feature could be a great option for sending friends your streaming password, card information or just cold-hard gossip without it getting out there. The ability to set your audio messages to listen once is currently in beta testing on both Android and iPhone devices but should roll out to more testers in the coming days. 

We haven’t heard much on the state of Amazon’s drone deliveries, but the company still seems focused on exploring the possibilities. A report earlier this year said Amazon had made only a handful of deliveries due to FAA regulations. However, in the announcement of prescription deliveries in parts of Texas, Amazon said its drones “have safely delivered hundreds of household items in College Station [in Texas] since December 2022.”

Amazon

Customers at College Station are now eligible for aerial deliveries of “more than 500 medications” for common conditions like the flu, asthma and pneumonia. Texas has established itself as a hotbed for drone delivery trials. Alphabet’s Wing also began offering them in Dallas–Fort Worth, including a partnership with Walmart.

Beyond a future third drone delivery area in the US, Amazon is planning an international expansion to the UK and Italy in 2024. Drone deliveries will start at one site each before expanding to more locations. Amazon added it will integrate the Prime Air program into its delivery network. In the US, drones will run out of some Same-Day Delivery sites.

Amazon will also start using its MK30 drone, first revealed last November. This model has a range twice as large as previous drones and improved tolerance for higher and lower temperatures. The MK30 can also operate in light rain. It’s smaller, lighter and quieter than previous drones too. But will it attempt delivery while I’m in the shower? Probably.

— Mat Smith

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Netflix jacks up the price of its premium plan to $23 a month

Grandfathered Basic subscribers will pay $12.

Netflix has announced two price hikes during its quarterly earnings. It said it’s increasing rates for its Basic and Premium plans. The Basic plan, which Netflix killed earlier this year, moves from $10 to $12 for grandfathered customers, while Premium rises from $20 to $23. Netflix said its ad-supported and Standard plans will remain the same at $7 and $15.49, respectively. Yay?

The company’s move to limit password sharing appears to have paid off too. Paid memberships are up to 247.15 million, a significant 10 percent annual increase.

Continue reading.

Tesla begins Cybertruck deliveries on November 30

Prepare for your angular ride.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

After years of delays and redesigns, Tesla Cybertruck deliveries will begin to select customers starting November 30, before the vehicle enters full production next year at its Texas Gigafactory. The latest design tweak is the vehicle’s electrical architecture, reportedly now being redesigned to accommodate an 800-volt standard, up from the 400V in existing Tesla vehicles. A lot of luxury and heavy-duty EV models — from the Audi e-Tron to the GMC Hummer EV — use 800V architecture as it enables EVs with large battery capacities to charge faster.

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YouTube’s new news hub directs you toward reliable sources

The platform is also helping channels create news-focused Shorts.

At a time when misinformation is rife on many platforms and is arguably even incentivized in some cases, YouTube is attempting to push back (while also being the home of so much of it). In around 40 countries, it’s rolling out a news hub to pull together news from “authoritative sources” in several formats: video on demand, live streams, podcasts and even Shorts. The feature will eventually land on desktop and connected TV apps.

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