ArduinoMania

Do you shop in-person because you invariably have questions for staff? Apple thinks it can offer some of that experience at home. It's rolling out a "Shop with a Specialist over Video" feature that gives US iPhone shoppers a one-way video chat with a retail employee. You can ask for advice on the model to buy, investigate payment options and learn about switching from Android.

The video call option is available between 10AM and 10PM Eastern every day. The company tells Engadget that the feature is accessible on any device that can reach Apple's website. You communicate through audio alone — the Specialist can't see you.

This won't help if you're looking for hands-on time, and you probably won't get the answers you'd find in a full review. You're also out of luck if you need help shopping for a Mac or other Apple products. Still, this may be useful if you'd rather not navigate product pages just to find answers. To some degree, this also makes Apple's retail services more accessible if you can't travel to a store.

The addition comes at an important moment for Apple. Like other hardware manufacturers, it took a bruising in the fall as a tough economy and supply shortages hurt sales. An online shopping tool isn't likely to play a major factor in improving those sales, but might help customers who would otherwise be hesitant to buy an iPhone sight unseen.

YouTube TV is now much more useful if you're a sports fan. The service is rolling out an early access multiview feature that shows up to four sports streams at once. Visit the "Top Picks For You" section and you can pick from pre-chosen multiview groups, such as NCAA March Madness games. You can jump to a full-screen view for each match, and switch the audio and captioning to the stream that captures your attention.

Importantly, the technology isn't limited to specific platforms or devices. It supports all smart TVs and living room media players that can run YouTube TV in the first place. You won't need a high-powered device like you do with some services. The trick, as the company's German Cheung explains, is to move the processing to YouTube's servers — your hardware only has to handle one feed regardless of how many streams you're watching. The tech is borrowed from YouTube's co-streaming feature.

 If you're part of the early access phase, you'll see both an alert and an email. YouTube TV expects to deploy multiview streaming for all subscribers in the "coming months." The company tells Engadget it plans to expand functionality over time, including the option to customize the stream selection.

The timing is convenient. March Madness is just getting started, and the MLB season start is weeks away. Multiview could make YouTube more compelling if you're deciding on a TV provider (particularly an internet-only service) and are determined to follow as many games as possible. The broad support may also be alluring if competing services don't offer this level of multi-stream support on your living room equipment of choice. The official March Madness Live app, for instance, only supports four-way streaming on the web — you're limited to two streams elsewhere.

Amazon has pulled back the curtain on its first slate of Project Kuiper antennas. The terminals, which will transmit data to and from Amazon’s Low Earth Orbit internet satellites, resemble furniture. The largest of the bunch is even the size of a full-blown patio table — it measures 19 inches by 30 inches. That model is intended for enterprise, government and telecommunications operations. Amazon said it will deliver internet speeds of up to 1 Gbps.

The standard terminal for consumers has a smaller footprint, measuring 11 inches square with a thickness of one inch. Without its mounting bracket, it weighs less than five pounds. This antenna should be able to deliver speeds up to 400 Mbps, Amazon says.

The company hasn’t revealed how much the terminals will cost, but says it should be able to build the standard model for less than $400 per unit. SpaceX's Starlink charges $599 for a terminal. That said, there will be a more compact and wallet-friendly terminal available from Amazon too. A seven-inch-square antenna will weigh one pound and offer speeds of up to 100 Mbps.

Amazon

Amazon designed its own baseband chip for the terminals. It says the chip, which has the code name Prometheus, has "the processing power of a 5G modem chip found in modern smartphones, the capability of a cellular base station to handle traffic from thousands of customers at once and the ability of a microwave backhaul antenna to support powerful point-to-point connections." The same chip is being used in Project Kuiper satellites and ground gateway antennas. Amazon says the chip will enable each satellite to process up to one terabit of traffic per second.

Project Kuiper is set to deploy two prototype satellites on the maiden flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. That launch is scheduled for May. Amazon expects to begin mass production of satellites by the end of this year and to commence launching them in the first half of 2024. It plans to start offering Project Kuiper service to customers later next year. Earlier this month, Amazon received conditional FCC approval to launch thousands of Low Earth Orbit satellites.

TikTok has a large science community, and the social network wants everyone to know it on Pi Day. The company is launching a dedicated STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) feed that shows only these more educational videos. You may learn to code or discuss experiments without having to wade through TikTok's usual entertainment-focused content.

Not surprisingly, TikTok is taking steps to block misinformation in this new section. Curator Common Sense Networks will study content to make sure it's relevant to the STEM feed, while the fact-checkers at Poynter will gauge the accuracy. Any videos that don't pass both inspections won't reach the new feed.

Users in the US will start seeing the STEM feed in the "coming weeks," TikTok says. The social media giant has already been experimenting with a "Topic Feed" in some regions to court fans of gaming, sports and other common subjects. The science-oriented feed is considered an expansion of this initiative.

The launch isn't surprising. Governments and schools are concerned TikTok may harm children and teens, to the point where schools are suing the company over alleged mental health problems. A STEM feed creates a positive space for "co-learning, inspiration and enrichment," as TikTok claims. It's also potentially lucrative, as TikTok claims that STEM-linked hashtags have received more than 110 billion views so far.

Whether or not this helps with TikTok's survival in the US is another matter. Some politicians want to ban TikTok outright over fears it's a national security threat. Officials are concerned China may collect data about key Americans or spread propaganda. CEO Shou Zi Chew is set to testify before a House committee next week on privacy, security and child safety issues. A STEM feed won't necessarily address those worries.

At its annual health event, The Check Up, Google announced a slew of updates for Search, Fitbit and developers. On the Search front, the company says it will soon identify community health centers and make it clear whether those facilities have free or low-cost care options. It seems there will be a label that reads, "offers free or low-cost care based on individual circumstances."

In addition, Google says it has employed Duplex to call hundreds of thousands of US healthcare providers and verify their information. The conversational AI has also been used to check whether providers accept various state Medicaid plans.

After several pauses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Medicaid will have a re-enrollment deadline this year. If folks in the US who are currently enrolled in the program fail to sign back up by March 31st, they'll lose their healthcare coverage. To help ensure people maintain their coverage, Google says it will make it easier for everyone to find re-enrollment information on Search.

Google

To assist those seeking help in a crisis, Google has teamed up with ThroughLine, which it says is the "largest verified network of mental health and crisis helplines around the world." As a result of the partnership, Google will expand the number of crisis helplines it displays at the top of Search results in more languages and countries for queries related to personal crisis situations, such as suicide and domestic violence.

Google

As for Fitbit, Google is opening up more of the Health Metrics Dashboard features available to users who don't have a subscription. The company says that, for instance, users will be able to view trends for metrics such as breathing rate, skin temperature and blood oxygen levels over longer periods of time.

Meanwhile, Google touched on some health-focused updates for developers. It discussed a suite of development tools called Open Health Stack, which it described as "open-source building blocks built on an interoperable data standard." In other words, Open Health Stack is designed to help developers build apps for healthcare workers to access key data and insights, such as population health data.

Google says the suite is based on Fast Healthcare Interoperability Standards and can be used to build apps that keep data secure for offline use in areas without internet connectivity or cell coverage. For instance, a developer in Kenya called Intellisoft Consulting is building a maternal health app designed to help community health volunteers and pregnant women in rural communities.

AI isn’t just good for writing term papers or clickbait financial explainers; it could help save lives in the medical field. At Google’s annual The Check Up healthcare event, it announced AI-related partnerships for ultrasound readings, medical language models and cancer treatments — areas where the technology could someday serve as a force for good.

Google sees AI as crucial in reading ultrasound devices in regions without enough trained specialists. Although the sensors are more accessible than ever, they require experts to conduct exams and interpret images. The company’s AI models could help simplify that process by identifying data like the early detection of breast cancer and gestational age in expectant mothers. To help make that a reality, the search giant is partnering with Kenya nonprofit Jacaranda Health to research AI-based ultrasound treatments for mothers and babies in government hospitals. “Through this partnership, we’ll conduct exploratory research to understand the current approach to ultrasound delivery in Kenya and explore how new AI tools can support point-of-care ultrasound for pregnant women,” said Google’s Health AI head Greg Corrado and Engineering VP Yossi Matias in a blog post today.

The company is also working with Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taiwan to research how AI can detect breast cancer via ultrasound as an alternative to mammograms, which have limited availability in lower-resource regions. Mammograms can also be less effective in populations with higher breast density. 

Evelyn Hockstein / reuters

In other areas, Google says its medical-focused large language model (LLM) has improved significantly. Med-PaLM 2, the company’s next-generation healthcare LLM, recently scored 85 percent on doctor-level medical exam questions — an 18 percent improvement from the previous version’s score. “This model not only answered multiple choice and open-ended questions accurately, but also provided rationale and evaluated its own responses,” said Corrado and Matias.

However, don’t expect a ChatGPT-like bot to replace your doctor anytime soon, as Google cautions the technology still isn’t ready for real-world work settings. For example, an evaluation on criteria like scientific factuality, precision, medical consensus, reasoning, bias and harm found “significant gaps” when answering medical questions. Corrado and Matias noted, “We look forward to working with researchers and the global medical community to close these gaps and understand how this technology can help improve health delivery.”

Google has also partnered with Mayo Clinic to explore AI’s part in planning radiotherapy for cancer treatment. The research focuses on reducing the tedious and time-consuming steps of the radiotherapy process — most notably, “contouring.” This technique requires clinicians to draw lines on CT scans to separate cancerous areas from nearby healthy tissues that the radiation could damage, a process that can take up to seven hours for one patient. The company says it will soon publish research from the three-year study while formalizing an agreement with Mayo Clinic to explore more radiotherapy-based research, AI models and commercial uses.

Finally, Google sees AI as helping with chest x-ray screening for tuberculosis. The company is partnering with an AI-based organization to make AI-powered TB screenings widely available in Sub-Saharan Africa. Its partners have committed to donating 100,000 free screenings to help detect tuberculosis early and provide early treatment to reduce its spread.

I'm just so tired of all the poop. Now that I'm dealing with three cats, an 11-month old's diapers and potty time with my four-year old, I just needed some relief from mountains of excrement. Enter the Litter Robot 4, the latest iteration of Whisker's automated litter box (a product we initially covered in 2005!). It's a small, spaceship-looking device that automatically rotates after your cat does its business, separating waste into a storage bin and leaving the remaining clean litter behind. Instead of scooping a box daily (or several times a day for multi-cat households), you only need to yank out the Litter Robot's bin bag and replace it with a new liner once a week. Sounds like a dream, right?

Well, mostly. For one, it's an eye-watering $699, putting it out of reach for most cat owners. And like practically every "smart" device, I ran into issues while setting up the Litter Robot 4. After a few months of testing, I've encountered many quirks – sometimes it didn't sift properly, occasionally its cat detecting sensors went haywire, and it didn't really prevent litter from reaching my floors. Despite all of that, though, it still made my life easier. Thanks to the Litter Robot 4, I had to deal with animal poop just a bit less every day. I'll chalk that up as a win.

As a cat owner since 2009, I've always eyed self-cleaning litter boxes with envy. But almost every option seemed like a headache back then: Some required specialized litter, others were prone to jamming and failure. And even though the Litter Robot has been around for a while, I've always considered it too expensive to be practical. But now that my household has grown, thanks to that aforementioned poopy infant and a pair of adopted kittens, I was eager for some relief. (One of those kittens also grew into an enormous 18-pound beast – you can imagine what his litter box looks like.)

I know several people who loved the Litter Robot 3, and it was generally well-reviewed, despite being simultaneously bulky on the outside and a bit too small for cats on the inside. The Litter Robot 4 improves on its predecessor with a sleeker design (it's a bit less wide, so it should fit better in small rooms), as well as a larger opening for big cats. It's also Wi-Fi connected, which makes it easy for you to check on litter and waste levels with Whisker's app. Thanks to new weight sensors, you can track how often your cats are using the Robot, and the company is also planning to launch more individualized tracking later this year. In theory, that should let you know if one of your cats is using the litter box too often, or not enough.

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Setting up the Litter Robot 4 was fairly easy – until I ran into some software issues. You just have to yank the 24-pound egg-like bot out of its box, dump some clumping litter into the main compartment, and throw an included bag in the waste bin. The device itself is made entirely out of plastic, making it fairly light and easier to maneuver. The inner portion where the litter sits is covered in a rubber-like material, which should make it fairly durable and easier to clean than hard plastic.

After plugging in and turning on the Litter Robot, though, I was faced with my worst fear with any new smart gadget: Pairing issues. Without being paired to the app, the Robot wouldn't self-clean at all. A few hours of frustration later, I learned that Whisker was having a system-wide issue and I had to wait a few days for the company to deliver a fix.

So it goes with smart devices, you might say. But it definitely felt silly (and a bit enraging) to be manually cleaning this $699 litter box. Without that initial connectivity, it was no better than the $20 litter tray my cats use upstairs. Once the app was set, the Robot ran through a cleaning cycle and evenly sifted the remaining litter. Upon seeing this new litter box move and make sounds (it's surprisingly quiet!), my three cats wouldn't go near it. At that point, it was just a $699 monument to pet excess.

A few days later, the bravest of the bunch — my 18-pound tuxedo cat named "Jiji" — finally jumped into the Litter Robot to explore. After several hops in and out, he deemed it safe and left his first offering, which was promptly cycled into the waste bin. The Litter Robot seemed pleased. Within a week, all of my cats were onboard. And around then, I noticed something strange: I couldn't smell any poop or pee! Sure, the Whisker app told me the waste bin was full, but you wouldn't know that while standing right in front of it. That's a good sign for anyone who wants to place the Litter Robot in a cramped living room.

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

My honeymoon period ended when one of my cats left a streak of feces inside the Robot. No amount of sifting and cycling got rid of that. Eventually, I started to notice some strange behavior from the device (perhaps in protest to what that cat did). Sometimes its indicator lights would flash red — a sensor fault, according to the Whisker app. The only way to fix that was by turning the unit on and off. Occasionally, the Robot wouldn't fully clean itself after one of my cats used it. So I had to hit the cycle button up top to get it going.

Over the course of a week, I typically have to deal with three of four issues like this from the Litter Robot. Few of those involve touching actual poop, and it's far less than I'd be cleaning a normal litter box. Still, for $699, I wish it were more reliable. I wouldn't trust it to work for an entire week if my family went on vacation. Just don't lose your cat sitter's number.

Cleaning out the Litter Robot's waste bin is a cinch — just yank out the liner bag and replace it with another. While you could stick with Whisker's products, I haven't had any trouble using Glad's 13-gallon ForceFlex bags. The company also recommends wiping down the Litter Robot's internals once a month, as well as refreshing the litter with an entirely new batch. That process isn't tough, but I found it easiest to accomplish by dragging the device outside. And yes, it also means you'll need to get your hands dirty a bit. There's just no escaping the poop.

Whisker's mobile app does a great job of alerting me when the waste bin is full, or when litter is running low. And it may sound strange, but I genuinely appreciate seeing how often my cats use the box. It's particularly helpful if one cat is feeling sick – going to the Robot frequently could be a sign of illness. The app also keeps track of your cat's weight, which could help you avoid over or under-feeding. (And of course, a big weight drop could be another health concern.)

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

After a few months of testing, only two of my cats continue to use the Litter Robot 4. Still, they use it frequently enough to fill up its waste bin every week. (We also have two normal litter boxes around the house for the lone renegade.) My one major annoyance, aside from all of those random errors, is the Litter Robot's open design. I'm aware it's something cats prefer, but it also leads to litter being strewn around the floor. Unfortunately, Whisker's bundled gate and front step for the Litter Robot don't really help much. If you do end up getting this thing, I'd suggest adding a litter mat up front, and be prepared to vacuum or sweep every few days.

The Litter Robot 4 is an extravagance, but it's one that tired cat owners may find useful. Just don't expect any miracles. You'll still need to watch out for errors, do some manual scrubbing and sweep up stray litter. The perfect self-cleaning litter box isn't here yet, but the Litter Robot 4 is as close as you'll get.

When Cowboy, a premium European e-bike company, invited the media to an event in Paris, France, it faced some unexpected challenges. Along with torrential rain, there also were strikes and protests against changes to the country’s pension system. And then the big reveal was… not a new bike. Instead, the announcement was three springtime color options for the Cowboy 4 and 4ST (step-through) plus Adaptive Power, a software upgrade coming to Cowboy 4 bikes this month. So when I met the company’s execs, I already had my question: Where’s the new model?

But before I sat down to speak with them, I was able to try out Adaptive Power, touring a few blocks and dipping down and out of Parisian car parks. Would this smarter e-bike (with the same motor) translate to any tangible improvements? Fortunately, yes. Adaptive power works by tapping into the e-bike’s accelerometer and other sensors, based on the rider’s weight, momentum and other factors – even wind. The new feature adjusts the motor’s power without the need for gears or tapping a boost button. The sensors also seemingly detect inclines as soon as your front wheel hits them, increasing motor assistance. The update taps into the same sensors and tech already used for crash detection.

Mat Smith / Engadget

According to Cowboy, the e-bike should offer equivalent battery life between the two iterations, as the motors will likely work more than the last version when the bike needs more power, but also work less when it doesn’t. If you’re riding an updated Cowboy 4, you won’t be able to return to the previous system, but using the app, you can choose between adaptive and eco modes, with the latter offering reduced assistance.

I was able to compare the C4, both with and without the feature, and the biggest improvement from Adaptive Power was how it kicked in at the perfect moment while accelerating from stationary. That’s not to say the Cowboy 4, pre-Adaptive Power, was slow, but it felt smoother and more responsive – it’s impressive for a single-gear bike. Previously, the bike’s motor would respond to your pedal pushes. This time it takes in more information to decide whether to boost.

While that was the most convenient benefit, there’s also a tangible improvement when tackling hills and inclines. With Adaptive Power, steep hills demanded a bit of pedaling but were surmountable. Downgrading to a bike without Adaptive Power – but the same motor with 45 Nm of torque – it’s a journey on the struggle bus. This was a common complaint from Cowboy 4 riders, with several saying that hilly environments were difficult to tackle, even with electric support. This new feature seems to address that, judging by my brief ride on the updated Cowboy 4. (If Cowboy is looking for what to improve when it eventually gets to its fifth-generation bike, this city rider would appreciate a more comfortable saddle.)

This update plays to the Cowboy 4’s design, too. Unlike many e-bikes, there are no controls to tap directly into the electric motor. It’s meant to look (and ride) like a normal push bike and that’s what it does. The Cowboy 4 is also, still, a few kilograms lighter than VanMoof’s latest e-bike, its most comparable rival. Both are premium e-bike options with similar pricing and features, but if you’re lifting your bike up stairs, or into buildings, it’s worth considering.

While Adaptive Power has been in beta testing with users before now, the official launch coincides with three new color options of both the Cowboy 4 and 4ST. While it’s an impressive way to upgrade the e-bikes of existing users – and do it without having to take it to a service center– these are the same bikes that first launched in 2021.

Until now, Cowboy has iterated fast, with new models arriving at a similar cadence to flagship smartphones. We reviewed its first bike in 2019, which wasn’t long ago. But there are a few reasons for the company to stick with the Cowboy 4.

 A lot of e-bike tech will not change hugely in the next few years. Barring incremental efficiency updates, the motor inside most e-bikes likely won’t see generational updates. I also wonder how existing Cowboy e-bike owners see the company's updated models, having spent thousands on an e-bike 18 months earlier, only to see it replaced so soon. So why no Cowboy 5? For Cowboy, CEO and cofounder Adrien Roose told me the focus is on improving quality, efficiency and all the things that come with scaling up to sell more bikes. The C4 and C4 ST both remain priced at around $3,000, depending on region, and the challenge is getting e-bike prices low enough for wider-spread adoption.

Mat Smith / Engadget

The company has opened up flagship stores in Germany, Belgium and France – the countries Cowboy is intently focused on, and where it sells most of its bikes. So far it’s sold over 50,000 bikes, globally. But while the C4 is available in the US (and being a company called Cowboy), earnestly targeting the American market remains a future challenge. Roose told me they’re in “learning mode” regarding the US. The plan appears to focus on keeping the company healthy and profitable. Roose added that he believes that Cowboy should get to that point by next year. Maybe they’ll celebrate with a new bike?

Now is a good time to go shopping if you're pining for Apple's most affordable tablet. Amazon is once again selling the 10.2-inch iPad with WiFi and 64GB of storage for $250, or $79 off. The discount makes it easier to justify if you're looking for a no-frills model for reading, video chats or TV marathons.

The 10.2-inch model remains our pick for the best budget iPad for a good reason: even at its normal price, it still delivers a lot of value for the money. It's still quick for everyday tasks, and very portable. It's also particularly appealing if you prefer wired audio — it's the only remaining iPad with a 3.5mm headphone jack. It can be a better deal than the 10th-generation iPad if you're unwilling to pay for an updated design.

There are reasons you may want to pay more, of course. The 10.2-inch iPad isn't as fast as other models, and doesn't have a USB-C port, the largest screen, cutting-edge cameras or the Smart Connector for advanced keyboards. Consider the iPad Air (including refurbished units) if you want a tablet that can handle some serious productivity. For casual uses, however, there's no need to splurge.

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

Meta has announced another round of sweeping layoffs in a bid to cut costs. CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the company is letting go of another 10,000 workers or so and closing "around 5,000 additional open roles that we haven’t yet hired." 

Meta will reduce the size of its recruiting team imminently and inform affected employees on Wednesday. The company will then announce layoff and restructuring efforts of its tech departments in late April and business teams in late May. Zuckerberg said it might take until the end of 2023 to complete the process, but the timelines might be different for Meta's operations outside the US. After restructuring, Meta plans to lift the hiring freeze.

"This will be tough and there’s no way around that. It will mean saying goodbye to talented and passionate colleagues who have been part of our success," Zuckerberg wrote. "They’ve dedicated themselves to our mission and I’m personally grateful for all their efforts. We will support people in the same ways we have before and treat everyone with the gratitude they deserve."

In addition, the company will "announce restructuring plans focused on flattening our orgs" and canceling lower priority projects, Zuckerberg said. Reports have suggested that the layoffs will impact teams working on wearable devices as part of the Reality Labs hardware and metaverse division. The "flattening" involves removing layers of management, while Meta will "will ask many managers to become individual contributors" — in other words, it seems managers will have to take on some of the tasks their employees focus on.

"We still believe managing each person is very important, so in general we don’t want managers to have more than 10 direct reports. Today many of our managers have only a few direct reports," Zuckerberg wrote. "That made sense to optimize for ramping up new managers and maintaining buffer capacity when we were growing our organization faster, but now that we don’t expect to grow headcount as quickly, it makes more sense to fully utilize each manager’s capacity and defragment layers as much as possible."

In November, Meta laid off more than 11,000 people, which equated to around 13 percent of its headcount at the time. That marked the company's first mass layoffs. Four months later, Meta announced planscutting thousands more workers.

The latest cost-cutting drive was widely expected. The Financial Times, Bloomberg and The Verge have all reported in recent weeks that more layoffs were in the pipeline. Zuckerberg, who will soon go on paternity leave for his third child, recently described 2023 as a "year of efficiency" for the company and doubled down on that in his note to employees today.

"Since we reduced our workforce last year, one surprising result is that many things have gone faster. In retrospect, I underestimated the indirect costs of lower priority projects," he wrote. "A leaner org will execute its highest priorities faster. People will be more productive, and their work will be more fun and fulfilling."

The latest layoffs follow a year in which Meta saw declines in quarterly revenue for the first time as its ad business slowed down. In October, the company also said it expected to lose more money on Reality Labs (the division that runs Meta's virtual and augmented reality initiatives) in 2023 as it continues to build its vision of the metaverse. Zuckerberg touched on this in his note, stating that "I think we should prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years."

Last week, Meta announced price cuts for the Quest 2 and Quest Pro headsets in an attempt to sell more units. The company recently unveiled another potential revenue stream in the form of Meta Verified, which allows users to pay for Instagram and Facebook verification along with some other perks.

Many notable tech companies have announced major rounds of layoffs over the last several months, including Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft. Twitter has been shedding staff almost on an ongoing basis since Elon Musk took over in October. So, Meta isn't alone here, but it's the first among its peers to have a second formal round of mass layoffs since late 2022.