The US Federal Trade Commission has voted unanimously to tackle unlawful repair restrictions. In a policy statement published on Wednesday, the agency said it plans to devote additional resources to enforcing existing laws, such as the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, that protect small businesses and consumers from companies that would prevent them from fixing on their own products they purchased. In doing so, the FTC will take a five-part approach to the problem that will involve it collecting comments and complaints from the public, as well as working more closely with state law enforcement and policymakers to update existing regulations.     

"These types of restrictions can significantly raise costs for consumers, stifle innovation, close off business opportunity for independent repair shops, create unnecessary electronic waste, delay timely repairs, and undermine resiliency," recently confirmed FTC Chair Lina Khan said. "The FTC has a range of tools it can use to root out unlawful repair restrictions, and today’s policy statement would commit us to move forward on this issue with new vigor." 

The policy statement follows a July 9th executive order in which President Biden directed the FTC to tackle "unfair anti-competitive restrictions on third-party repair or self-repair of items" imposed by "powerful manufacturers" in the farming and technology industries. With Wednesday's announcement, the FTC didn't name any specific companies it will target as part of any enforcement action. However, a company like Apple is likely to be top of mind for the agency. The tech giant has consistently lobbied against state-level right to repair legislation, claiming those laws would put consumers at risk.        

Right to repair advocates were quick to praise the announcement. "The FTC sets the tone for the nation’s commerce. For too long, manufacturers have been bullying consumers and driving local repair shops out of business," iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens said in a blog post the company published following the policy announcement. "This landmark new policy changes that. There’s a new sheriff in town."

Zoom became indispensable during the pandemic, and now the company wants to ensure it stays that way when things return to some sense of normalcy. To that end, it’s adding third-party integrations, allowing you to use apps like Asana and Dropbox Spaces while in a Zoom call. As of today’s launch, there are more than 50 plugins you can add to your client, including games like Heads Up. Once you install the latest version of Zoom, a “Discover” tab under the new Apps side panel will allow you to see what’s available.

You can expand and collapse the panel as needed during a call to access the functionality of an app. As one example, the Asana plugin allows you to create, edit and assign tasks without leaving Zoom. Another way to see what’s available is through the Zoom Marketplace. If you use Zoom for work and you’re part of an organization, your admin can limit what you can install.

Zoom sees third-party integrations as a way to become a platform instead of a single-use app. Much like its new Events hub, which the company made widely available today, the idea here is to keep the service growing so it can continue on the trajectory it established during the pandemic. 

After sharing a short teaser earlier in the month, Netflix has released a full trailer for Nightmare of the Wolf, its upcoming animated Witcher movie, and shared details on the voice cast. Theo James, known best for his leading role in the Divergent series, voices protagonist Vesemir, years before the Witcher became the mentor of Geralt of Rivia. 

James also voiced the character in season one of The Witcher. “Vesemir grew up as a servant on a nobleman’s estate, working long days for too little coin,” Netflix writes of the charming monster hunter. “He yearns to break free of his social standing and to explore the Continent to find his destiny.”

On his adventure, he’ll meet a sorceress named Tetra, who we see throughout the trailer. If Tetra’s voice sounds familiar, it’s because she’s voiced by Dota: Dragon’s Blood actor Lara Pulver. Rounding out the main cast are Mary McDonnell as Lady Zerbst, a Kaedweni noblewoman, and Graham McTavish as Deglan, a Witcher from the Skellige Isles. Notably, McTavish will play Redanian spymaster Dijkstra in season two of The Witcher.

The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf debuts on Netflix on August 28th. It will give fans of the fantasy franchise something to watch before season two of The Witcher starts streaming on December 17th.

With the global popularity of Instagram, there’s a good chance you’ve run into Stories that haven’t been in English or any other language you might know. Until today, you had to go outside of the app to understand what those messages were communicating. Not any more. Instagram has introduced a new feature that will translate any foreign text you see in Stories, and that feature is now rolling out to users across the globe.

When the app detects you’re viewing a Story in another language, it will display a “See Translation” prompt toward the top left of the interface. All you have to do is tap the banner to see the text in your native tongue. With today’s launch, the feature can translate text between more than 90 languages — though it doesn’t work with audio at the moment. Inevitably that means they’ll be Stories where you might not understand what someone is saying. Still, it’s a step toward making Instagram as inclusive as possible. People can also take advantage of Instagram’s recently added auto-captioning feature to get around the current translation limitation.

Following a beta release in December, Premiere Pro now officially supports M1 Macs. “From launch times to export, everything is faster, and editing is buttery smooth,” Adobe says of the native Apple Silicon version of its video editing software. The company adds that Adobe Sensei features like Auto Reframe feel “noticeably” faster and that the app uses significantly less battery power on M1 Macs.

While Apple has only offered computers with its own ARM-based chips since November of last year, Adobe has been quick to support the platform. In December, it came out with an Apple Silicon version of Lightroom and followed that up in March with a native release of Photoshop. With today’s announcement, you don’t need to turn to Rosetta 2 to emulate most of the company’s most popular apps. Premiere Pro’s July update also includes a handful of features you don’t need a new Mac to appreciate. Most notable among those is a speech-to-text feature that can automatically caption a video.

HBO Max has a new way for people to check out its library of content. Starting today, you can watch the pilot episodes of select series, including Game of Thrones, Lovecraft Country and Gossip Girl, on Snapchat and do so while chatting with up to 63 other people.

The ability to watch HBO Max content through Snapchat comes courtesy of the Minis functionality Snap introduced last June. The tool allows third-party developers to offer pared-down versions of their apps within Snapchat. So far, some of the more popular developers to offer Minis include Headspace, but HBO Max is the first major streamer to use the feature to let people view its content.

You can start the HBO Max Mini by tapping on the rocket icon in chat or using the search feature to find it. Before you can see a list of available episodes, the app will ask you to verify your age. You don't need an HBO Max subscription to watch any of the pilots, but the Mini will prompt users over the age of 18 to sign up for the service. Once a session is underway, up to 63 other people can join one, and you can chat with everyone else watching the episode and share Bitmoji reactions.

HBO Max isn't the first streaming service to use another platform to attract users. Before its all too predictable death, Quibi let people watch pilots of its originals on YouTube.

For years, YouTube streamers have used third-party plugins to allow their fans to donate to them. Starting this week, however, YouTube is taking a step toward making that functionality something that’s built into the platform. While it’s still in beta, the company says its new “Super Thanks” feature is rolling out to “thousands” of additional creators in 68 countries. By the end of the year, it plans to make it available to everyone in the YouTube Partner Program.

When you decide to give your favorite creator a Super Thanks, you’ll have four options before you. The amounts will vary by market, but in the US you can donate $2, $5, $10 or $50 at one time. Once you complete the payment process, you’ll see an animated GIF of balloons float across your screen, and YouTube will highlight your comment, as well as the amount of money you sent. As with the other monetization tools YouTube offers to streamers, including Super Chat and Super Stickers, the company will take a 30 percent cut of all donations.

Adding more ways for creators to earn money is important for YouTube, even if it’s one the company is late to offer. Long gone are the days where it's the only video platform of note. The company faces competition from Twitch, TikTok and others, particularly as those platforms look for ways to keep their most prolific creators invested in making content only for their respective apps.

Dropbox is introducing a variety of new features across its product stack. Of all the tweaks the company announced today, the most intriguing ones involve its automatic backup utility for photos you take with your phone. Most notably, starting today that functionality is now available to all Basic users — that is, those who don't pay for the service.

The company says it has also made backend changes to make uploads faster and “more reliable.” Additionally, on iOS, you can specify the exact folders you want to back up. That functionality is coming soon to Android as well. Lastly, there’s a new option to tell Dropbox to delete a photo after it has uploaded it to the cloud. Notably, these features come after Google recently stopped offering unlimited free uploads to its Photos service.

Dropbox

In its web client, meanwhile, Dropbox is introducing several interface tweaks. The most significant of those changes is the addition of a new tool that allows you to convert files to different formats without leaving the client, with JPEGs to PNGs as one example. Elsewhere, Dropbox says a redesigned details pane makes it easier to see important information about your files. The company claims it has also made it faster to jump between different folders with a new side navigation bar.

As part of today’s update, Dropbox is also introducing a handful of new features to its password manager. Available to free users as of earlier this year, the tool can now store debit and credit card information. Dropbox has also added support for password sharing. Oh, and you can now download a free browser extension, making it easier to input and save passwords when you’re browsing the web on your computer. On their own, the changes Dropbox detailed today are small, but when you add them up, they make for a more compelling service. 

HTTPS-related enhancements aren't the only improvements coming to Chrome soon. On Tuesday, Google detailed a handful of smaller tweaks it plans to roll out to Chrome on Android, Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome OS in the coming weeks.

Google

To start, the company says it's making it easier to track individual site permissions. By tapping the lock icon in the address bar (pictured above), you'll be able to see if you've granted a website access to your location, microphone, camera and other sensitive information, and easily toggle those on and off. In the coming weeks, Google also plans to add an option here that will allow you to delete a webpage from your browsing history. Google says these updated site controls will roll out first to Chrome on Android phones and tablets before making their way to other platforms later.

Google

The company is also introducing new Chrome Actions. First introduced last year, they're commands you can type into the address bar to quickly access a feature. For instance, you can write "delete history" to clear your browsing data. A new "safety check" command will tell Chrome to conduct an audit of your passwords, as well as scan for malicious extensions. Chrome will also soon allow you to type "manage security settings" and "manage sync" to access the relevant controls mentioned in those commands.

Rounding things off, Google has updated Chrome's Site Isolation feature to cover a broader range of websites and extensions. Phishing protection is also improved, with Google claiming it's 50 times faster and uses less battery life. As mention above, you won't have to wait long to try out these latest features, with Google promising to roll them out in the coming weeks.

It's taken the better part of half a decade, but the Rich Communication Services (RCS) protocol finally has a path to ubiquity in the US. Following similar announcements from T-Mobile and AT&T earlier in the year, Verizon (Engadget's parent company) said today it's working with Google to bring the next-generation SMS replacement to all of its customers.

By the end of the year, existing Verizon subscribers who use the carrier's Message+ app will get full access to the RCS suite, including real-time typing indicators and read receipts. Then, starting next year, all of the company's phones will come with the Messages by Google app preinstalled. Once that happens, RCS perks like end-to-end encryption for one-on-one conversations and the ability to send full-resolution photos will be an app away.

To say today's announcement is a significant milestone for Google would be an understatement. The company has been pushing RCS for years, and at times it seemed like the project was fated to languish like so many of Google's past mobile messaging efforts. Due to the need for carrier buy-in, the protocol didn't "just work" like iMessage, at least not initially. 

In the early years, even if you went out of your way to download Google Messages, there was no guarantee you would get any of its promised benefits. That's because, more often than not, it was likely the person you were texting didn't have an RCS-capable app installed on their phone, nor were they with a carrier that was onboard with the platform. That meant most Android chats defaulted to SMS. With Google Messages now the default on most new Android phones in the US, that's a situation that should be the exception, not the norm. Today's announcement also leaves Apple in an odd position. Once an innovator in the space, the company is now on the outside looking in at a more broadly adopted ecosystem.