Garmin has launched the latest iteration of the Vívosmart fitness tracker, the long-awaited Vívosmart 5. It’s been nearly four years since Garmin released the previous iteration of the Vívosmart, and for the most part, the new model doesn’t fix what wasn’t broken. It still has the same slim appearance as its predecessor, albeit with a much larger OLED screen and an interchangeable band. 

Unlike older models, the Vívosmart has a connected GPS, so it can connect to your smartphone to track the distance, speed and pace of your runs and bike rides. It includes 14 different modes for activity tracking, including everything from yoga to HIIT workouts to breathwork.

For those who need more than the basics, the Vívosmart 5’s lack of ECG sensors and built-in GPS may be a dealbreaker. Fitness trackers have only grown more advanced since Garmin released the Vívosmart 4 in 2018. The latest models from Apple and Fitbit are packed with multiple health-tracking features, GPS support and state-of-the-art sensors. Garmin's pricier models include bells and whistles like the Fenix 7's multi-LED flashlight and the Instinct 2's solar charging ability. But for those looking for a solid wearable that can track activity levels, sleep, menstrual cycles, blood oxygen levels and stress, the Vívosmart 5 could be a strong contender.

The Vívosmart 5’s battery claims to last for 7 days on a single charge, but that’s only if you don’t enable the pulse ox or sleep tracking features. It is both swim- and shower-proof, and the silicon band is available in three different colors: cool mint, black and white. The Vívosmart 5 retails for $150, putting it roughly at the same price point as the latest Fitbit Charge and a number of Garmin watches, including the Forerunner 45S.

The San Diego Padres will start wearing a Motorola logo on their sleeves, beginning with the 2023 Major League Baseball regular season. While corporate partnerships are nothing new in baseball, it’s the first time we’re seeing an MLB team with a sponsored patch. The league earlier this month said MLB teams could feature the logos of corporate sponsors on their uniforms, similar to what both the NBA and NHL are doing.

Beginning in 2023, the Motorola “batwing” logo will be featured on the right sleeve across versions of the Padres’ jerseys. Motorola will also outfit the Padres’ Hall of Fame with interactive technology displays and product integration throughout the exhibit.

“We are thrilled to partner with a quintessential and innovative brand like Motorola to bring cutting-edge technology, design, and performance to Petco Park,” Padres CEO Erik Greupner said in a press release. “Motorola’s iconic logo on our jersey is a perfect alignment with our Padres brand, and we look forward to teaming up to provide a great experience for our fans.”

The NBA’s jersey patch program has ended in some particularly lucrative deals — the combined value for the 2021-22 season was projected to be $225 million. The brands involved tend to be more unconventional than your run-of-the-mill beverage and sneaker company sponsors. A number of tech companies have sponsored jersey patches, including rebate app Ibotta, Squarespace, Vistaprint and online trading company WeBull. The Philadeliphia 76ers recently entered into a $10-million-a-year jersey patch partnership with Hong Kong-based Crypto.com arena.

Motorola is also the jersey patch sponsor of three separate NBA teams; the Milwaukee Bucks, the Indiana Pacers and the Brooklyn Nets. Perhaps the biggest score for Motorola is that is now the official smartphone sponsor for all these teams. These deals could raise the Android phone maker’s profile and generate more buzz around this year’s new Edge+ and Moto G Stylus.

Amazon will perform a racial equity audit of its nearly one million hourly employees, the company said last week in a statement to shareholders. The company is hiring a law firm to conduct the audit, which will be led by former US Attorney General Loretta Lynch and released to the public. But some critics say the audit should extend to the corporate level, instead of Amazon’s traditionally more diverse warehouse workers.

“Before you applaud this step, read the fine print. This audit will not include Amazon’s negative practices impacting Black employees at the corporate level. That’s a major carve out,” tweeted tech entrepreneur Charlotte Newman, a former corporate employee who once sued the company for racial and gender discrimination.

Amazon made clear that the purpose of the audit would be to study if there was any disparate racial impacts from its policies. "The focus of the audit will be to evaluate any disparate racial impacts on our nearly one million US hourly employees resulting from our policies, programs and practices," the company said in its statement.

The decision comes after Amazon investors rejected 11 proposals from shareholders to improve racial equity and diversity at the company. One of the rejected proposals would invite an hourly employee to join Amazon’s board.

“Amazon’s board lacks representation from hourly employees, who thoroughly understand the company’s daily operations. Women and racial minorities, which constitute a large percentage of Amazon’s hourly associates, are also comparatively underrepresented at the board level, which remains predominantly male and white,” wrote the proposal’s author.

Amazon’s board of directors recommended against voting for the proposal. “Our current process to identify and nominate directors has successfully recruited diverse and qualified directors with extensive human capital management experience,” wrote the board.

Another rejected proposal called for a more extensive racial audit of Amazon’s corporate and hourly workforce. A large percentage of Amazon’s hourly associates are women and racial minorities and its corporate workforce is overwhelmingly white. Nearly 60 percent of Amazon’s lowest-paid hourly workers are Black or Hispanic, according to a 2021 company report that looked at the past two years of demographic data. More than half of Amazon’s hourly workers are women. Meanwhile, Amazon’s highest-paid workers are white or Asian and male.

The company has faced multiple lawsuits from former and current employees who allege they faced race and gender discrimination at work. Back in February, a New York federal judge dismissed a class action racial discrimination lawsuit made by a former Amazon warehouse manager regarding its Covid-19 policies.

Amazon plans to hold its annual shareholder’s meeting on May 25th, where investors will vote on a number of proposals on racial equity and healthcare. Amazon has advised shareholders to vote against a proposal that would call for a full, top-down racial equity audit of the entire company.

“There is no public evidence that Amazon is assessing the potential or actual negative impacts of its polices, practices, products and services through a racial equity lens,” stated the shareholder’s proposal.

A movie version of Mojang Studio’s Minecraft is starting to come together. Action hero veteran Jason Momoa is in talks to star in an upcoming film adaptation of the popular worldbuilding game, reportedThe Hollywood Reporter. While no contract has been signed yet, the possible addition of Momoa is an encouraging sign of life for a film that has been on Warner Bros’ backburner. Warner Bros originally planned to release the film in March 2022, but it was shelved due to production delays related to the pandemic, according to THR. The film’s troubles pre-date Covid-19; its original director and screenwriters quit the movie in 2014 due to creative differences with Mojang.

Napoleon Dynamite’s Jared Hess has now reportedly signed-on to direct the film, and Dune producers Mary Parent and Roy Lee are also on board. It’s unclear what role Momoa will play in the film, as it’s still unknown what elements of the 2011 game will appear in the film and whether we’ll see fan favorites like Minecraft Steve. The film’s storyline, released by Mojang Studios in 2019, is pretty straightforward: “The malevolent Ender Dragon sets out on a path of destruction, prompting a young girl and her group of unlikely adventurers to set out to save the Overworld.”

But fans should expect more movement on the film in the near future. The Anklerreported that Warner Bros.’ lease on the rights to Minecraft expires in January 2023, so production on the film will need to start before then.

Sega Genesis’ Streets of Rage franchise is reportedly coming to the silver screen. Sources toldDeadline that John Wick creator Derek Kolstad wrote a script adaptation on spec. Also to be involved are Sonic franchise producers dj2 Entertainment and Escape Artists. While no deal has been signed yet, it’s likely to soon be in motion.

Widely known as one of the most popular Sega franchises from the early 90s, the original Streets of Rage trilogy still has an enthusiastic fanbase drawn to its vintage aesthetic and EDM soundtrack. The beat-em-up games feature ex-cops who take on underground criminal gangs. The franchise finally got a long-awaited sequel in 2020 with the release of Streets of Rage 4, which sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide. The games offer very little as far as storyline, which gives the film a lot of liberty, but also very little to work off of.

A Streets of Rage film adaptation has serious potential to draw crowds, given that there’s no shortage of nostalgia for games from the 80s and 90s. Both Sonic films were box office successes. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 earned $72 million in its opening weekend at the domestic box office this month, an especially high figure during the pandemic era.

Viewers have long complained about the early HBO Max app’s tendency to crash, and its lack of discoverability features. There have been a number of overhauls and fixes since then. Now we know why. Turns out that HBO Max launched its apps before they were ready in order to keep up with its competitors. The app was “never intended to go global” or to suit the needs of a direct-to-consumer market, according to an interview that Sarah Lyons, HBO Max’s head of product experience, gave Protocol. The network wanted to build an audience first, and then fix the app’s flaws as the service scaled up.

While Lyons admits that the early days of HBO Max were rocky, she thinks the company made the right decision. We’ve been changing out the engine of the plane while we’re flying the plane,” she said. “I do think it was the right decision to try to balance both,” said Lyons.

HBO Max first released its app in May 2020, to join an already saturated streaming ecosystem that included Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Apple TV+ and others. At the time, both HBO Go (the network’s on-demand app for cable subscribers) and HBO Now (the standalone app for cord-cutters) were still available, a fact that confused many subscribers. The network has since retired both apps.

Viewers have flocked to Reddit since the app’s initial launch with complaints that spanned platforms and devices. “We’ve been trying to watch the Harry Potter movies and literally every 15 min or so we get an ERROR message and have to force close the app. Another time it froze completely. It’s absolute garbage. I don’t have this problem with any other app or streaming service,” wrote one user in a thread on the r/HBOMax subreddit from January 2021 entitled “Why does this app suck so hard?”

For many viewers long-accustomed to advanced recommendation algorithms on Netflix and other streaming platforms, it was hard to get used to HBO Max’s lack of discoverability features. Lyons admitted that HBO Max wasn’t built with discovery in mind, and the app tried to address this by putting every new show on the app’s home page. “You didn't have to go find anything, because whatever [show] you were looking for was going to be at the top of the home page,” said Lyons.

While Engadget’s early review of HBO Max detailed its flaws, we pointed out that it was still a “smart bet” for the company. Since then, the service has made many improvements, including a new Apple TV app and updates to its apps for Roku, Playstation, Android TV and others. But following a recent $43 billion merger with Discovery, the biggest change is yet to come. The plan is to merge both Discovery Plus and HBO Max into one unified platform.

HBO Max ended 2021 with 43.8 million subscribers, when combined with the network’s cable subscribers of HBO who also have access to the streaming service. It’ll soon absorb at least another 22 million subscribers from Discovery Plus. While there could be more bumps down the road, viewers can at least be assured that HBO Max has more experience under its belt now.

Amazon is bringing two mobile games to its subscription-based entertainment platform for children. Known as Amazon Kids+, the $2.99 per month service has served as sort of a one-stop shop for kid-friendly books, TV shows, movies, games and more. The first game, Super Spy Ryan is a multiplayer game based on the children’s TV show Ryan’s World. It’s available today on both the Google Play and Apple app stores in the US, UK and Ireland. The title will be available later this year in Canada, Germany and Japan, but Amazon hasn’t specified a release date.

Another mobile game, Do, Re & Mi, is a musical education game designed for the preschool set. The show is based on the Amazon Kids+ show of the same name, which stars Kristen Bell and Jackie Tohn. That game will be available for iOS soon in the US, UK, Canada and Ireland.

Kids can play both games on either their mobile phone or Amazon Fire tablet. These are the first mobile games to be available on the Kids+ service, and more will soon follow. 

“We are always looking to bring joy and fun into the homes and lives of millions of families. That’s why, two years ago, we began looking at how we could reach even more kids and bring the magic and thoughtfulness of Amazon Kids+ original content to mobile phones,” said Natasha Lipovac, global head of the content division of Amazon Kids+.

If you’ve ever purchased a Kindle Kids e-reader for your child, you’re likely already familiar with Amazon Kids+ (the devices come with a free one-year subscription to the service). Amazon has made a serious effort to corner the children’s market in recent years. Given the sheer number of parents who are Prime subscribers, this makes sense. Last month the company released Amazon Glow, a kid-friendly video conferencing tablet that also includes games. We’re likely see much more children’s focused content from Amazon in the future, designed to work across all its different devices.

The New York Public Library made four banned books available nationwide on SimplyE, its free-reader app. The titles include Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi and Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. The library worked in coordination with the publishers and authors to make the titles available to the public for free, with no wait times or download limits. Normally publishers allow libraries to only lend out e-books to a single person at a time, often leading to long hold times at public libraries.

While the titles are only available for a month (the titles will disappear by the end of May), interested readers don’t need to hold an NYPL library card or live in the region. The books will be released through NYPL’s “Books For All” program, which makes hundreds of titles in the public domain available to anyone nationwide.

The NYPL has voiced its opposition to a recent spike in book banning across school districts nationwide, largely driven by conservative activists groups. Over the last nine months, more than 1,000 books have been banned or temporarily pulled from school districts, according to a report PEN America released this week.

“These recent instances of censorship and book banning are extremely disturbing and amount to an all-out attack on the very foundation of our democracy,” said New York Public Library President Anthony W. Marx.

The 1999 young adult novel Speak, about a ninth grade girl who has refused to talk since being raped at a party, is included in ALA’s list of 100 most challenged books between 2000 and 2009. Parents often voice opposition to its graphic, sexual content. King and the Dragonflies, about a middle school boy who struggles with the loss of his brother and his sexual identity, is the winner of the 2020 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, was flagged for removal in Keller, Texas. Stamped was challenged by parents in Round Rock, Texas last year, in part due to a tweet by by its author that criticized then-Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.

Angela Montefinise, vice-president of communications and marketing, told Engadget in an email that the SimplyE app had to increase its server capacity three times today to account for the spike in downloads. Currently there are no future plans to release any more banned titles on the app.

“At this point we’re not planning to release more books as part of this project, but we’ll see how things go,” wrote Montefinise in an email.

Google’s new model of the Pixel A-series budget phones is likely to be released in May, according to FCC listings first spotted by MySmartPrice. The documents described features we’ll likely see in future Pixel phones, including the Pixel 6a, the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro. At least one of the 6a models will support mmWave 5G (also known as high-band 5G), which would likely make it one of the more affordable options for 5G phones in the market.

The timing of the documents — as DroidLifepointed out — suggests that Google will release the 6a at its I/O developer conference this year, which starts on May 11th. FCC rules require certain kinds of equipment to be tested and approved before they can be released in the US market. Given that Google filed its equipment authorization documents for the 5a in July 2021 (a month before its release), we can expect similar timing with the 6a. The new phone (unlike the 5a, which was only available in the US and Japan) is also likely to be released in multiple countries. Since different countries use different network bands, smartphone makers usually submit documents for multiple models in such cases. 

For those who are unfamiliar with the Pixel 5a, the $449 phone had a quiet release in August 2021 due to the pandemic. Google then released the Pixel 6 later that year, which in our review we praised for its clever AI improvements and excellent camera. The 6a will likely contain the same AI features, thanks to Google’s new Tensor mobile chip. According to renders viewed by 9to5Google, the 6a will contain the same camera as the 5a. If you were looking forward to more advanced photography modes, this is worth keeping in mind. But if you’re looking for a fast, AI-enabled 5G smartphone in an affordable package, the upcoming Pixel 6a seems like a solid choice.

If you missed out on your chance to score a Lucid Air Dream Edition last year, you’re in luck. Lucid Motors is releasing two versions of its latest all-electric sedan, the 2022 Air Grand Touring. The Air Grand Touring and Air Grand Touring Performance are Lucid’s first production series after the limited run Dream Edition. Both cars offer speed and mileage that is comparable to their predecessors from 2021. The Air Grand Touring delivers 819 horsepower and can accelerate to 60 mph in three seconds flat. Its faster cousin, the Air Grand Touring Performance, promises 1050 horsepower and can go from 0-60 mph in 2.6 seconds. Both cars are powered by two miniaturized dual motors, one mounted at each axle

Both cars will easily get you from Los Angeles to San Francisco on a single charge, with some battery power to spare. The Air Grand Touring with 19-inch wheels has an EPA-estimated range of 516 miles, with 21-inch wheels its range is 469 miles. The Air Grand Touring Performance has an EPA-estimated range of 446 miles. Both are ahead of the Tesla with the longest driving range, the Model S Long Range, which has a range of 405 miles. Given Elon Musk’s not-so-secret derision for Lucid, this one has got to hurt.

The two all-electric sedans are packed with the type of premium features you’d expect in a car that costs six figures. Both are equipped with a 34-inch floating glass cockpit and a 5K display. They include DreamDrive Pro, Lucid’s proprietary advanced driver assistance system that includes LIDAR. It also comes with more than 30 semi-autonomous features, including traffic sign recognition, cross-traffic alerts, parking assist and more. They include an ultra-fast 900V charging system that allows drivers to add up to 300 miles in 21 minutes if they’re at a 350 kW DC fast charger.

Customer deliveries for the Air Grand Touring, which starts at $139,000, have started today. The Grand Touring Performance has an MSRP of $179,000, and deliveries are scheduled to begin in June 2022.