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The Apple Watch SE is back on sale for $219 at Amazon and Best Buy, bringing what was already one of the better values on the wearable market within $10 of the lowest price we've tracked. Though we've seen this deal a few times since the SE launched last September, it's still $30 off Apple's MSRP and about $20 off the device's usual street price. Note that this offer is for the 40mm model; if you want the larger 44mm case size, that variant is down to $249, which is a slightly less significant discount. 

We gave the second-generation Apple Watch SE a review score of 89 last year, and we currently note it as the top pick for first-time or budget-sensitive buyers in our guide to the best smartwatches. Compared to the flagship Apple Watch Series 8, the SE lacks more advanced health-tracking features like a skin temperature sensor, ECG monitor and blood oxygen sensor, and its slightly smaller display doesn't have an always-on mode, so it's more cumbersome for checking the time. It also charges slower than the Series 8 or higher-end Apple Watch Ultra. For the most part, though, it provides the usual Apple Watch feature set at a lower price, with notifications, heart-rate monitoring, crash detection and a similar-looking, water-resistant design. This second-gen model runs on the same S8 processor as its pricier siblings, too, so it's just as fast in day-to-day use.

That processor bump is the biggest upgrade from the first-gen Apple Watch SE, but most people with that device shouldn't feel the need to upgrade here. Instead, this model is best for folks upgrading from an older Apple Watch (say, a Series 4 or older) or iPhone owners looking to buy an Apple wearable for the first time without spending more than $300. If that describes you, this deal should make the device a bit more approachable.

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Amazon is running a sale on Kindle e-readers just in time for outdoor reading, and there are a few good deals in the mix. The company is selling the base Kindle with lock screen ads for $80, or $20 off. That's near an all-time low, and makes it an easy pick if you want a compact, no-frills device for reading on the park bench. The sale also drops the price of the 8GB Kindle Paperwhite to $100, or $40 off.

Last fall's refresh of the entry-level Kindle helped it catch up to the Paperwhite in a big way. The 300PPI display is much easier on the eyes, and the longer six-week battery life helps you leave the charger at home. Factor in USB-C charging and double the storage (16GB) and you may have all you need to clear your reading backlog.

There are reasons to consider buying more advanced models, of course. The Kindle Paperwhite offers a larger screen, beach-friendly water resistance and an adjustable warm light. You can even charge wirelessly if you buy the Paperwhite Signature Edition (on sale for $140). However, those are more perks than must-haves. The starter Kindle covers the essentials well, and may even be preferable if you're looking for a small e-reader that can tuck into a bag's side pocket.

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Netflix released at least one movie a week over the past two years – I challenge you to name them all! – but for 2023, the company is changing course. According to Bloomberg, the streaming giant is restructuring its movie division and releasing fewer movies overall. Despite the sheer number of titles Netflix previously released, only a few had won accolades, attained significant hours of streaming, or had the kind of cultural impact some of the biggest blockbusters had achieved. (According to the company's Top 10 page, its most-watched movies for 2021 and 2022 include Red Notice, Don't Look Up and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.)

Netflix ramped up its film development after studios started building their own streaming services instead of licensing their movies to the company. This restructuring will combine the team working on small projects with a budget of $30 million or less and the unit that produces mid-budget films that cost $30 million to $80 million. There’s also a big-budget arm to its film development unit – likely involved with the aforementioned hits. No word yet on whether the restructuring will affect that part of the business.

– Mat Smith

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The biggest stories you might have missed

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Japan joins US-led effort to restrict China's access to chipmaking equipment

Breaking Bard

Testing the limits of today's leading AI chatbots.

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The generative AI race is on, and the current frontrunners appear to be Google's Bard and Microsoft's Bing AI, which is powered by ChatGPT. But what are the limits to the questions it can answer? We asked Google’s Bard chatbots a series of questions to see which is better at delivering facts, replacing us at our jobs or participating in existential debates. We also looked at their speed, transparency and how likely they were to break if we started to push its buttons And don’t worry, Bing AI got the same treatment.

Continue reading.

Apple wins appeal against UK antitrust probe into its mobile browser

Through a technicality.

Apple won an appeal against an investigation launched by the UK’s antitrust watchdog last fall. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened a full probe into Apple and Google in November. At the time, the regulator said that many UK businesses felt restricted by the “stranglehold” the two tech giants had on mobile browsing. The probe also sought to determine if Apple was restricting the cloud gaming market through its App Store rules. The company said the CMA should have opened the probe at the same time it first published its report on mobile ecosystems last June. The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), the court that oversees CMA cases, agreed with Apple, saying the regulator gave notice of its investigation too late.

Continue reading.

Court rules Elon Musk broke federal labor law with 2018 tweet

Tesla has also been ordered to rehire a worker that it illegally fired.

According to a federal appeals court, Elon Musk broke US labor law in 2018 when he tweeted that Tesla factory workers would forgo stock options if they chose to unionize. In May 2018, a Twitter user asked Musk about his union stance. “Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted,” he tweeted in response. “But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2X better than when plant was UAW & everybody already gets healthcare.” Tesla has argued the tweet was Musk’s way of pointing out that workers at other automakers don’t receive stock options. The court ordered Musk to delete the tweet. As of the writing of this article, the tweet is still there.

Continue reading.

Twitter's handling of verified users continues to shift after a number of developments over the weekend. Last week, Twitter said it would start winding down the legacy verified program on April 1st, but that was limited to specific cases including one called out by CEO Elon Musk. Meanwhile, a new report indicated that around 10,000 of the top-followed sites would retain their legacy checkmarks, even if they didn't subscribe to Twitter Blue. And now, Twitter is displaying the same status for both legacy verified and Twitter Blue subscribers, making it difficult to tell them apart. 

Verified legacy Twitter users were expecting to lose their white-on-blue checkmarks over the weekend, after the Twitter Verified account tweeted it would start stripping them on April 1st. For the most part, however, that didn't happen, reportedly because un-verifying users is a painstaking manual process (Musk tweeted in a now-deleted message that legacy users would be given "a few weeks grace"). However, Twitter did strip a verified badge from The New York Times after the site said it wouldn't pay for Twitter Blue, in an apparent fit of pique by CEO Elon Musk. He later labeled the site as "propaganda."

Speaking of the NYT, it reported that 10,000 of the top-followed sites and 500 leading advertisers would retain their verified badges without the need to subscribe to Twitter Blue. That follows tweets from a number of top users like LeBron James and The White House that they would never pay for a subscription. 

"It is our understanding that Twitter Blue does not provide person-level verification as a service. Thus, a blue check mark will now simply serve as a verification that the account is a paid user," White House digital strategy director Rob Flaherty told staffers in a memo. Numerous other accounts tweeted a similar sentiment, with some noting that celebrities, journalists and other influential users are the primary drivers of Twitter traffic.

Topping off the drama, Twitter just changed the tags that appears when you click on a verified badge. Before, it gave separate messages for Twitter Blue subscribers ("This account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue") and legacy verified users ("This is a legacy verified account. It may or may not be notable."). Now, it displays the same message for both: "This account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account."

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Some users applauded the revised tags as more egalitarian, but others said the message would make it harder to tell if users were genuine accounts or impersonators. That was the exact problem that delayed the rollout of Twitter Blue back in November, if you'll recall. For those on desktop who still want to know, a Chrome extension released last year can still tell you who paid for Twitter Blue, as shown by the different symbols above. 

Twitter recently said that Twitter Blue would cost $1,000 per month for organizations, plus an additional $50 per month for individual affiliates in the US. The program has reportedly met with limited success to date, and Elon Musk recently told employees that Twitter was worth less than half what he paid for it, according to several reports. 

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Paris residents have dealt a blow to e-scooter rental companies Lime, Tier and Dott, voting in an 89 percent landslide to ban "trotinettes" from streets amid low voter turnout, France 24 has reported. The French capital will likely become the second European city after Barcelona to prohibit the devices, as mayor Anne Hidalgo has promised to respect the referendum. Any ban won't affect e-bikes or privately-owned scooters.

Following a messylaunch in 2018, Paris introduced strict rules and reduced the number of rental companies from around 20 to just three. A spate of accidents ensued including a 2021 fatality, prodding the city to introduce new rules like a 10 km/h (6 MPH) speed limit in designated zones and fines for for not using dedicated parking. However, residents continued to complain about dangerous operation and devices strewn on city sidewalks. 

Only eight percent of city dwellers voted, and that group appeared to skew away from younger people more likely to use the devices. "In the double queue here, a majority of 50+ and parents with toddlers," tweeted journalist Agnes Poirier. "Incapable of regulating their use, the City of Paris is just leaving it to its inhabitants in an all or nothing alternative."

The move may be welcomed by some, but it goes against Hidalgo's initiatives to make Paris less polluted and dependent on cars. As part of a pledge to be carbon neutral by 2050, the city has vowed to phase out ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles by 2030, plant up to 170,000 trees, install electric chargers for EVs and promote e-mobility, including e-bikes and, at one time, e-scooters. 

The city has since changed its tune on the latter, though. It noted that the scooters were mostly replacing walking or public transport rather than cars or taxi trips, so weren't achieving the goal of reducing vehicle use. "They’re honestly not very ecological — they get damaged and they are left lying wherever," said Hidalgo back in January, adding that she was personally in favor of a ban. "We can’t contain them in public spaces and they’re causing road safety problems, especially for older and disabled people."

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While its next-generation rocket has yet to fly, that’s not stopping SpaceX from booking Starship flights. On Friday, a startup named Astrolab revealed that it had recently signed an agreement with Elon Musk’s private space firm to reserve a spot on an uncrewed Starship cargo mission that could launch as early as mid-2026. “This is SpaceX’s first commercial cargo contract to the lunar surface,” Jaret Matthews, CEO of Astrolab, told The New York Times, adding his company was one of a few customers involved in the flight.

Astrolab is building a vehicle it hopes will one day carry equipment, supplies and people across the lunar surface. The Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX) rover is about the size of a Jeep Wrangler, making it a bit bigger than NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars. It also features a robotic arm for assisting with cargo and can travel up to 15 miles per hour. Oh, and FLEX can carry up to two astronauts. 

Once it lands on the Moon, Astrolab claims FLEX will become the largest rover to travel the lunar surface. Matthews told The Times Astrolab already has customers waiting to use the rover to carry cargo during the 2026 Starship mission. Looking further to the future, Matthews said FLEX could assist with building a permanent human presence on the Moon and beyond. “Ultimately our goal is to have a fleet of rovers both on the Moon and Mars,” he said. “And I really think I see these vehicles as the catalysts ultimately for the off-Earth economy.”

Echo smart displays and speakers aren’t the only devices on sale on Amazon this weekend, the retailer has also discounted Ring doorbells, cameras and alarm systems. Nearly every product Ring offers is part of the promotion, including the Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2. Thanks to a 30 percent discount, you can get the smart doorbell for $175, instead of $250 at its usual price. Other notable discounts include a $40 price drop on both the plug-in and battery models of Ring Spotlight Cam Plus. You can also save $40 on Ring Floodlight Cam Wired Pro, in either black and white.

Although it’s a few years old now, the Ring Doorbell Pro 2 is still one of the best smart home doorbells you can buy. Ring refreshed the Pro 2 in 2021, equipping the device with a 1,536p video camera and a new fish eye lens. Thanks to those features, the Pro 2 offers a 150-degree field of view, allowing you to see when parcels arrive on your porch. The addition of a radar sensor means the Pro 2 offers more accurate motion detection. As with other Ring devices, you’ll get the most out of the Pro 2 if you already invested in the Alexa ecosystem. For those who prefer Google Assistant, Nest offerings like the Nest Doorbell can be a better choice.

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Tesla has shared its first production and delivery report of 2023. And in a repeat of its Q4 2022 results, the automaker set a new record for deliveries but fell short of Wall Street estimates. Tesla announced on Sunday it delivered 422,875 EVs during the first three months of the year. It produced 440,808 vehicles during that same period, another record for the company.

Going into the weekend, independent analyst Troy Teslike predicted the company was on track to deliver 427,000 vehicles in the first quarter of the year. The company’s final tally represents a 36 percent increase from the 310,048 deliveries it announced during this time last year. It’s also a four percent increase from the 405,278 deliveries it reported in the final quarter of 2022.

Unsurprisingly, the Model 3 and Model Y made up the bulk of Tesla’s deliveries in the first quarter of 2023, with 412,180 of those vehicles making their way to customers before the end of March. Comparatively, Tesla's more expensive Model S and Model X cars accounted for a modest 10,695 deliveries over the same time frame. That's a drop from the 17,147 Model S and Model X vehicles it delivered last quarter.

It will be interesting to see how Tesla’s latest delivery numbers affect the company’s bottom line. The first three months of the year saw Tesla aggressively cut pricing across most of its lineup. In January, for instance, the five-seat Model Y went from costing $65,990 to $52,990, and then $54,990 less than a month later. More recently, the automaker slashed the price of Model S and X vehicles by up to $10,000. Tesla will publish its full Q1 results on April 19th