Posts with «author_name|cheyenne macdonald» label

Amazon Prime now comes with discounted access to One Medical health services

Amazon Prime subscribers now have access to a deeply discounted One Medical membership for primary care services. The company announced today that Prime members can sign up for just $99 a year, or $9 per month. A One Medical membership typically costs $199 annually. In addition to the individual plan, Prime members who sign up for One Medical can add up to five other people for $6 each.

Amazon announced its acquisition of One Medical in 2022 and finalized the $3.9 billion deal in February, when it began offering a temporary discount for One Medical memberships at $144 per year. It's now slashed that even further. One Medical has offices in major cities across the US, all of which will be available to Prime members who sign up. It also offers round-the-clock virtual care and drop-in lab services. The membership doesn’t cover the cost of visits though; patients will still have to bill through their insurance or pay out of pocket. 

Amazon has been pushing heavily into healthcare in recent years, with prescription services and even its own video- and text-based virtual clinic now among the perks of a Prime subscription. The company made its Amazon Clinic available to all states in the US over the summer, and began offering generic prescriptions for $5 a month with its RxPass at the beginning of the year. Amazon has also started offering drone deliveries for prescriptions in College Station, Texas.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-prime-now-comes-with-discounted-access-to-one-medical-health-services-161500277.html?src=rss

Discord is switching to expiring links for files shared off-platform

Discord is changing its approach to file hosting in an effort to crack down on malware. The platform will begin using temporary file links that will expire after 24 hours for user content shared outside of Discord, BleepingComputer reported. The change is expected to go into effect by the end of the year.

While the stated intention of the move is to crack down on malware, it’ll also curb the wider use of Discord as an unofficial file hosting service. It’s not uncommon for users to upload images and other content to their own servers and then post those links elsewhere. You won’t be able to do that as smoothly anymore once it makes the move away from permanent file links, because the links will go dead after a day. Nothing will change for content posted and shared within Discord itself.

Switching to temporary file links “will help our safety team restrict access to flagged content, and generally reduce the amount of malware distributed using our CDN [content delivery network],” a spokesperson for Discord told BleepingComputer. Discord also noted, “If users are using Discord to host files, we'd recommend they find a more suitable service.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/discord-is-switching-to-expiring-links-for-files-shared-off-platform-202533531.html?src=rss

Fornite keeps breaking player count records since releasing its nostalgic OG season

Fortnite players are definitely here for the new throwback season. Since the release of “Fortnite OG” at the end of last week, public player counts have reached new all-time highs, according to trackers like Fortnite.gg — peaking on Saturday with over 6.1 million concurrent players. With Chapter 4 Season 5, or “Fortnite OG,” Fortnite is dipping back into its Chapter 1 glory days to bring players back to the original 2018 island map and reintroduce gear and other elements from its past.

The season started with an update designed around Chapter 1 Season 5, and subsequent updates will pull from other phases of the game’s history. But, it’s only expected to run for about a month, and players aren’t wasting any time getting in on the battle royale action. The number of concurrent players has been rising all weekend, continually breaking the previous record highs. Within hours of the update’s release, the player count had spiked to over 3.9 million. Already today, there were 5.5 million players on Fortnite as of 11AM.

The number of concurrent plays for a single day nearly doubled on Friday, after the update was announced, from those seen earlier in the week, to hit nearly 1.5 million. Saturday logged over 1.8 million concurrent plays. It’s been years since Fortnite has seen numbers like this, but there’s no telling whether it’ll be able to keep it up.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fornite-keeps-breaking-player-count-records-since-releasing-its-nostalgic-og-season-160445720.html?src=rss

xAI’s ‘Grok’ chatbot will be available to X Premium+ subscribers

Elon Musk’s new AI company, xAI, will release its chatbot to subscribers of X’s $16 per month Premium+ plan once it exits beta. The system, called Grok, is positioned to be a competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and started rolling out to a select group of users this weekend.

As soon as it’s out of early beta, xAI’s Grok system will be available to all X Premium+ subscribers

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2023

Musk shared a few screenshots of the conversational AI on X, and confirmed its responses will unfortunately be laden with Musk-type humor. The CEO also further touted its capabilities compared to the competition, tweeting, “Grok has real-time access to info via the X platform, which is a massive advantage over other models.” There’s no public timeline yet for when it will be out of beta, but Musk said it “will be available to all X Premium+ subscribers” when it is.

The comments coincide with the timing of the first developer conference from rival company OpenAI — which Musk co-founded and remained on the board for until 2018 — on November 6. OpenAI’s ChatGPT costs $20 per month to use.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/xais-grok-chatbot-will-be-available-to-x-premium-subscribers-202127713.html?src=rss

X is reportedly soliciting people to buy recycled user handles for $50,000

X has been trying to find buyers for user handles it reclaimed from inactive accounts, even going so far as to send out solicitation emails asking for “a flat fee of $50,000 to initiate a purchase,” according to Forbes. Elon Musk announced back in May that X, formerly Twitter, would start purging accounts that have gone dormant, and has alluded to plans for recycling disused handles.

According to emails seen by Forbes, X now has a task force called the “@Handle Team” that’s working on creating a marketplace for buying handles tied to inactive accounts. X changed its policy this year to stipulate that users must log in every 30 days to remain active, and risk having their accounts suspended or permanently removed if they go long enough without signing on. It’s unclear how long a user would have to remain inactive for to actually be booted from the platform. After NPR quit the site this past spring, Musk began threatening to reassign its handle just a few weeks later.

As of now, obtaining another user’s inactive handle doesn’t seem to be something just anybody can do. X’s website still says it cannot release inactive usernames. But, the Forbes report suggests the company is looking at the possibility of a handle marketplace as yet another way to pull in money from its users. The company just recently introduced two new subscription tiers for paid users — a $16 per month Premium+ tier and a more pared-down $3 per month “basic” tier.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/x-is-reportedly-soliciting-people-to-buy-recycled-user-handles-for-50000-174504242.html?src=rss

Uber and Lyft must pay $328 million to New York drivers in massive wage theft settlement

Uber and Lyft have agreed to pay a combined $328 million in settlements following a wage theft investigation by the New York attorney general’s office. According to New York AG Letitia James, the companies’ policies “systematically cheated their drivers out of hundreds of millions of dollars in pay and benefits.” They’ll both now have to pay settlement funds to more than 100,000 current and former drivers in New York, and offer both minimum hourly pay rates and paid sick leave.

In the two settlements, Uber has to pay $290 million, while Lyft must pay $38 million. The AG’s office found both Uber and Lyft shortchanged drivers by deducting sales taxes from drivers’ commissions that should have been paid by riders between 2014 and 2017. They also did not offer paid sick leave. As a result of the settlement, drivers outside of New York City will be guaranteed an earnings floor of $26 per hour (NYC drivers already have minimum rates under Taxi & Limousine Commission regulations), and will earn one hour of sick pay for every 30 hours worked. This will be capped at 56 hours per year.

NYC drivers will get $17 per hour for sick leave, while drivers outside of the city will get $26 per hour. Both rates will be adjusted annually for inflation. Drivers can put in a claim for their share of the settlement on the New York Attorney General’s website. The companies will also be required to update their apps to improve the process for putting in sick leave requests and provide support for pay-related questions, plus earnings statements for drivers which explain their compensation in detail.

New York has been cracking down on app-based service providers in recent years amid a push by the Biden administration to see gig workers classified as employees. A California court, however, slapped down one such bill in March, allowing companies to continue classifying their drivers as contractors. But NY has made progress recently in securing more protections. In September, Uber, GrubHub and DoorDash were told they must pay their delivery workers a minimum wage.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/uber-and-lyft-must-pay-328-million-to-new-york-drivers-in-massive-wage-theft-settlement-155716817.html?src=rss

NASA is launching a free streaming service with live shows and original series

NASA has announced a new streaming service called NASA+ that’s set to hit most major platforms next week. It’ll be completely free, with no subscription requirements, and you won’t be forced to sit through ads. NASA+ will be available starting November 8.

We launch more than rockets. This month, we launch our new streaming service, NASA+. https://t.co/McWnWOKXSu

No subscription req.
No ads. No cost. Family friendly!
Emmy-winning live shows
Original series
On most major platforms pic.twitter.com/5ffjptumUJ

— NASA (@NASA) November 1, 2023

The space agency previously teased the release of its upcoming streaming service over the summer as it more broadly revamped its digital presence. At the time, it said NASA+ would be available on the NASA iOS and Android apps, and streaming players including Roku, Apple TV and Fire TV. You’ll also be able to watch it on the web. 

There aren’t too many details out just yet about the content itself, but NASA says its family friendly programming “embeds you into our missions” with live coverage and original video series. NASA already has its own broadcast network called NASA TV, and the new streaming service seems to be an expansion of that. But, we’ll know more when it officially launches next Wednesday.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasa-is-launching-a-free-streaming-service-with-live-shows-and-original-series-150128180.html?src=rss

The UK is spending $273 million to build its fastest ever AI supercomputer

The UK government has announced a $273 million investment to build its most powerful supercomputer yet, Isambard-AI, which will rank among the top AI supercomputers in the world when it’s switched on. It’ll pack thousands of NVIDIA superchips, allowing it to run more than 200 quadrillion calculations per second. Isambard-AI is expected to begin operations in summer 2024 and will be hosted by the University of Bristol.

The supercomputer is being built by Hewlett Packard Enterprise and will use 5,448 of NVIDIA’s GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips, NVIDIA said in its own announcement. It’ll be able to achieve over 21 exaflops of AI performance, or over 21 quintillion floating point operations per second for AI applications, like training large language models. According to the University of Bristol, Isambard-AI will be 10 times faster than the fastest supercomputer in the UK today. It’ll be housed at Bristol’s National Composites Center in a “self-cooled, self-contained data center.”

The announcement came during the UK's AI Safety Summit, where leaders from multiple countries — including the US — are meeting to discuss the future of AI and its potential risks. Isambard-AI will eventually be used to connect with other supercomputers in the UK as well, to boost performance even further. Once it’s up and running, according to Simon McIntosh-Smith of the University of Bristol, Isambard-AI “will be one of the most powerful AI systems for open science anywhere.” 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-uk-is-spending-273-million-to-build-its-fastest-ever-ai-supercomputer-213551806.html?src=rss

Tesla's Autopilot was not to blame for fatal 2019 Model 3 crash, jury finds

A California jury has found that Tesla was not at fault for a fatal 2019 crash that allegedly involved its Autopilot system, in the first US trial yet for a case claiming its software directly caused a death. The lawsuit alleged Tesla knowingly shipped out cars with a defective Autopilot system, leading to a crash that killed a Model 3 owner and severely injured two passengers, Reuters reports.

Per the lawsuit, 37-year-old Micah Lee was driving his Tesla Model 3 on a highway outside of Los Angeles at 65 miles per hour when it turned sharply off the road and slammed into a palm tree before catching fire. Lee died in the crash. The company was sued for $400 million plus punitive damages by Lee’s estate and the two surviving victims, including a boy who was 8 years old at the time and was disemboweled in the accident, according to an earlier report from Reuters.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that Tesla sold Lee defective, “experimental” software when he bought a Model 3 in 2019 that was billed to have full self-driving capability. The FSD system was and still is in beta. In his opening statement, their attorney Jonathan Michaels also said that the “excessive steering command is a known issue at Tesla.”

Tesla’s defense argued that there was no such defect, and that an analysis cited by the plaintiffs’ lawyers identifying a steering issue was actually looking for problems that were theoretically possible. A fix to prevent it from ever happening was engineered as a result of that analysis, according to the company. Tesla blamed human error for the crash, pointing to tests that showed Lee had consumed alcohol before getting in the car, and argued that there’s no certainty Autopilot was in use at the time.

The jury ultimately found there was no defect, and Tesla was cleared on Tuesday. Tesla has faced lawsuits over its Autopilot system in the past, but this is the first involving a fatality. It’s scheduled to go on trial for several others in the coming months, and today's ruling is likely to set the tone for those ahead.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/teslas-autopilot-was-not-to-blame-for-fatal-2019-model-3-crash-jury-finds-210643301.html?src=rss

The Google Pixel 7a is cheaper than ever at $374 in this early Black Friday deal

Google’s budget Pixel 7a was already a more affordable alternative to the flagship Pixel, but with a 25 percent discount on Amazon right now, it’s an absolute steal. The Pixel 7a is down to just $374 from its original price of $500. It’s the lowest we’ve seen it drop yet, beating even the October Prime Day price by $25. The discounted Pixel 7a is unlocked for all carriers, and available in the colors Charcoal, Sea and Snow.

While it may not have everything you’d get in a flagship, the Pixel 7a is still a really solid smartphone. It has a smooth 90Hz display and a Tensor G2 chip, plus 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The battery life is great, too. In our review, where it earned a score of 90, we found the Pixel 7a’s 4,385mAh battery kept it going for an impressive 17 hours and 41 minutes. The Pixel 7a is also the first in Google’s A series to support wireless charging. It’s not groundbreaking, capping out at 7.5 watts, but it’s still a nice convenience.

The Pixel 7a holds up in just about every category, and we ranked it as the best midrange Android smartphone in 2023. It boasts a 64MP camera on the back which does a great job of preserving detail, and shots taken in Night Sight mode even beat Samsung's Galaxy S23 when comparing white balance. The selfie camera is crisp as well, and now capable of shooting video in 4K.

Designwise, the 7a looks a lot like the flagship Pixel 7, though it’s slightly bulkier and has plastic backing. It’s got a 6.1 OLED screen and a water resistance rating of IP67. It’ll also get years of updates, with at least three OS upgrades and five years of security updates. There are some things it’s missing, being a budget phone — like a dedicated zoom lens — but at only $374, that may not be a dealbreaker.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-google-pixel-7a-is-cheaper-than-ever-at-374-in-this-early-black-friday-deal-173045009.html?src=rss