Amid a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the US, Apple will now require all customers to wear a mask when they visit its stores across the country. The company said it would also enforce occupancy limits. The move comes after Apple recently lifted mask requirements at more than 100 of its stores nationwide ahead of the Thanksgiving weekend. “Amid rising cases in many communities, we now require that all customers join our team members in wearing masks while visiting our stores,” Apple said in a statement to Bloomberg.

In a memo obtained by the outlet, Apple said it made the decision “after reviewing the latest trends in COVID-19 case counts across the US.” The recently sequenced omicron variant is causing new concerns about the direction of the pandemic. Per CNBC, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday the new variant is spreading faster than any previous strain of COVID-19. 

“Even if omicron does cause less severe disease, the sheer number of cases could once again overwhelm unprepared health systems,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned. As of Tuesday, the omicron strain represents approximately 3.0 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the US, up from 0.4 percent the week prior.

The unpredictable nature of the pandemic has forced Apple to frequently change its retail policies as the situation has evolved. The timing of this latest surge could affect the company’s bottom line as it looks to close out another busy holiday season.

There may be almost three weeks before the end of the year, but that’s not stopping Nintendo from getting in on the year-in-review action. As in 2020 and 2019, the company has a tool you can use to see how much time you spent playing your Switch throughout the last 12 months.

The 2021 iteration isn’t widely different from what Nintendo has offered in years past. You’ll once again see the total number of hours you put in throughout the year and a count of the all games you played. There’s also a breakdown of how many hours you played each month, in addition to a look back at your most active day. 

Since this is the Switch we’re talking about, you’ll see how much time you spent between handheld and docked modes, as well. At each stage, the tool will tell you how your 2021 stats compare to the ones you put up last year. You can see your year-in-review by logging into the company’s official website with your Nintendo Account. However, the tool is only available to people in the US, Canada and Latin America.

Now that Android 12 is making its way to more devices, Google has announced Android 12 Go Edition. When it arrives in 2022, the OS for low-cost phones will make your device up to 30 percent faster, according to the company. That adds to the 20 percent improvement Google pulled off previously with Android 11 Go Edition. The company says it has also smoothed out launch animations.

Google

If space is an issue, a new feature allows the operating system to conserve both battery life and storage by hibernating apps you don’t use frequently. Additionally, you can use Files Go to safely delete something and then recover it after 30 days. Meanwhile, an update to Nearby Share allows you to save data by transferring apps between devices. Separately, if you ever need to translate a webpage, you can now do so quickly thanks to a newly added shortcut found on the recent apps interface.

Google

In addition to performance tweaks, Android 12 Go Edition is all about privacy enhancements. Android 12’s privacy dashboard is making the jump to Go Edition. You can use it to review all the permissions your apps have access to and revoke them as needed. Additionally, you’ll see if your phone’s microphone or camera is active thanks to new privacy indicators located on the status bar. The update will also allow you to limit apps to accessing only your approximate location instead of your exact one. And if you ever want to let someone use your device, you can now open a temporary guest account directly from the lock screen. Android Go Edition 12 will automatically reset your phone once they’re done.

With today’s announcement, Google also shared that more than 200 million people globally use an Android Go Edition device daily. That’s not bad when you consider Go Edition has only been around since 2017.

Amazon may soon more directly compete with Instacart. According to The Information, the company has spent much of the last year trialing a product known internally as Amazon Fresh Marketplace. The service allows UK Prime subscribers to order groceries from two major supermarket brands, with same-day delivery fulfilled by the company’s Flex drivers. In 2022, Amazon reportedly plans to bring the service to the US and the majority of Europe.

Amazon declined to comment on the specifics of its plans but did share a statement with Engadget. “Our focus is on providing Amazon customers the best possible experience when it comes to grocery delivery whether that is from Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, or one of our local stores like Bartell’s in Seattle, Morrison’s in London, or Monoprix in Paris,” a spokesperson for the company said. “Partnerships with other grocers enable more customers to shop online and allow us to provide Amazon Prime members with more choice, value and convenience while our partners benefit from increased visibility for their selection and service.”

If the service does come to the US, it wouldn’t be Amazon’s first foray into the grocery delivery market. Since 2020, the company has offered a Whole Foods delivery service through its Flex program. The company has also more broadly experimented with food delivery. The most notable example was in 2015 when it launched Amazon Restaurants, allowing Prime members to order food from their favorite local spots. In 2019, Amazon shut down both its Restaurants business and Daily Dish, a workplace lunch delivery service it had operated for two years.

With a narrative that has spanned the course of history, Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed franchise has frequently seen some of its characters overlap with one another. In Assassin’s Creed Rogue, for instance, we saw protagonist Shay Cormac run into Adéwalé of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Haytham Kenway of Assassin’s Creed III. But those characters were all contemporaries of one another, and Ubisoft is now doing something different.

As part of the franchise’s first crossover event, the publisher is adding new story missions to Odyssey and Valhalla that will see protagonists Kassandra and Eivor come face-to-face. What’s an ancient Greek doing in 9th century England? We don’t know, but presumably, the Animus has something to do with it, and the event may even be a hint of what we can expect from the franchise's rumored online entry. The first story, “Those Who Are Treasured,” will take place in Odyssey, while the second, “A Fated Encounter,” will debut in Valhalla. Both will be available once the 1.4.1 and 1.5.6 title updates for their respective games launch on December 14th. By completing the stories, you’ll earn new equipment for your character.

On Monday, Ubisoft also announced Dawn of Ragnarök, the newest DLC for Valhalla. The publisher is billing the release as its most ambitious Assassin’s Creed expansion to date. It will add approximately 35 hours of additional gameplay that will explore more of Eivor’s connection to Odin. Ubisoft plans to release the DLC on March 10th, 2022.

Poland's Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) has opened an investigation into Apple's App Tracking Transparency feature. Introduced with iOS 14.5, it's a prompt developers had to add to their apps to ask iOS users for their permission to track them across apps. Apple announced the feature at WWDC 2020. It was initially scheduled to launch alongside iOS 14, but the company subsequently delayed it to give developers more time for implementation.

The feature was almost immediately controversial with advertisers. In particular, Meta, then known as Facebook, said it would have potentially dire effects on its ad network. Now, Poland's competition watchdog is investigating ATT, in part due to antitrust concerns. The regulator contends it "does not mean that users' information is no longer being collected and that they do not receive personalized ads." At the same time, it says it has concerns Apple may have introduced the feature to promote Apple Search Ads.

"During the course of our investigation, we want to examine whether Apple's actions may be aimed at eliminating competitors in the market for personalized advertising services, the objective being to better sell their own service," said Tomasz Chróstny, the President of UOKiK.

We've reached out to Apple for comment.

As noted by TechCrunch, the probe follows a recent study from adblocker Lockdown Privacy that questioned the effectiveness of the App Tracking Transparency feature. The study claims the feature only creates "the illusion of privacy." While the vast majority of iPhone owners have used the feature to opt out of app tracking, researchers found ATT "made no difference" in the total number of active third-party trackers.

Apple has released Tracker Detect, a new Android app designed to help those without an iOS device to find out if someone is using an AirTag or other Find My-compatible device to snoop their location. When the software finds a nearby AirTag that’s been separated from its owner, it will flag it as an “Unknown AirTag.” If it then follows you for 10 minutes, you can use the app to tell the tracker to play a sound, making it easier to find. At that point, you can tap the device with your NFC-compatible phone and you’ll get instructions on how to remove its battery or otherwise disable it.

You don’t need an Apple account to use the app. As mentioned above, it can also detect Find My-compatible trackers like the Chipolo One Spot. “AirTag provides industry-leading privacy and security features and today we are extending new capabilities to Android devices. Tracker Detect gives Android users the ability to scan for an AirTag or supported Find My enabled item trackers that might be traveling with them without their knowledge,” an Apple spokesperson told Engadget. “We are raising the bar on privacy for our users and the industry, and hope others will follow.”

The release of Tracker Detect comes following multiple incidents of bad actors abusing AirTags to stalk people. In Canada, for example, police recently warned of thieves using the $29 device to steal expensive cars. In June, Apple, in a separate effort to limit abuse, updated its trackers to play a sound between eight and 24 hours after they’re separated from their owner, instead of after three days as was the case at launch.

How much good Tracker Detect does to protect people will depend on how many people download it. Unlike with iOS, which sends proactive warnings when it detects errant AirTags, this is an app you need to install to your Android device. Its protections aren't built into Android, at least not yet. 

When Grand Theft Auto Online’s “The Contract” expansion arrives later this week, Dr. Dre won’t be the only musician joining the game. The DLC will also add a new station hosted by Rosalía and Arca, Rockstar Games announced on Monday. Motomami Los Santos will see the frequent collaborators play music from the likes of Popcaan, Daddy Yankee and Caroline Polachek of Chairlift fame.

The station will also play “La Fama,” the first single off of Rosalía’s upcoming third album, Motomami. While they’re not household names, both Rosalía and Arca have found a lot of success in their respective genres. Rosalía, in particular, has won eight Latin Grammy Awards, including an album of the year award for her sophomore release, El Mal Querer.

In addition to Motomami Los Santos, The Contract will include updates for two existing in-game stations. Radio Los Santos will add new tracks from Hit-Boy, Freddie Gibbs, Future and Tyler, The Creator, while West Coast Classics will host a new segment dedicated to Dr. Dre. It will feature career-defining collaborations the rapper recorded with 2Pac, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Nas and others.

Rockstar Games will release The Contract on December 15th. After the 16th, GTA Online will only be available on PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

Dremel is the standard when it comes to rotary tools. DIY enthusiasts use them for everything from standing down a dog's nails to cutting through steel. If you fall into that category, the company's latest release, the 8260, is interesting for a few reasons. 

To start, it's Dremel's first brushless rotary tool. Thanks to its more modern motor design, Dremel claims the 8260 outputs 20 percent more power than the 4300, its most powerful corded model. Moreover, it features double the battery life of the 8220, its previous flagship cordless model. It's also 20 percent faster than the 8220.  

It's also Dremel's first smart tool. The addition of Bluetooth connectivity allows you to connect the 8260 to your phone through Dremel's mobile app. One of the niftier features here is an interactive guide that will tell you what accessory and RPM you need to use to cut through specific materials. It will also send you battery notifications and warnings if the tool is about to stall or overheat. An LED light on the 8260 will also warn you if you're about to run into those problems.  

The 8260 is available today through the Home Depot for $169. The kit comes with three wheels for cutting metal and one designed for plastic, a battery, charger and a carrying case.    

IBM and Samsung claim they’ve made a breakthrough in semiconductor design. On day one of the IEDM conference in San Francisco, the two companies unveiled a new design for stacking transistors vertically on a chip. With current processors and SoCs, transistors lie flat on the surface of the silicon, and then electric current flows from side-to-side. By contrast, Vertical Transport Field Effect Transistors (VTFET) sit perpendicular to one another and current flows vertically.

According to IBM and Samsung, this design has two advantages. First, it will allow them to bypass many performance limitations to extend Moore’s Law beyond the 1-nanometer threshold. More importantly, the design leads to less wasted energy thanks to greater current flow. They estimate VTFET will lead to processors that are twice as fast and use 85 percent less power than chips designed with FinFET transistors. IBM and Samsung claim the process may one day allow for phones that go a full week on a single charge. They say it could also make certain energy-intensive tasks, including cryptomining, more power-efficient and therefore less impactful on the environment.

IBM and Samsung haven’t said when they plan to commercialize the design. They’re not the only companies attempting to push beyond the 1-nanometer barrier. In July, Intel said it aims to finalize the design for angstrom-scale chips by 2024. The company plans to accomplish the feat using its new “Intel 20A” node and RibbonFET transistors.