Expect to see a fair number of ads when Apple begins streaming Major League Soccer games next year. According to Bloomberg, the company is building an advertising network to support its 10-year agreement with the league. Apple has reportedly held talks with MLS sponsors about airing ads during games and accompanying programming the company has planned for next season.

It also sounds like diehard fans won’t be able to escape commercial breaks by paying more. Bloomberg reports the company currently plans to air spots across all three tiers of the partnership, meaning you’ll see ads whether you pay for a dedicated package, access the games through your existing TV+ subscription or catch the occasional free match on the company’s TV app.

The move is part of a broader push by Apple to increase how much it earns from advertising. The company’s ad unit currently generates about $4 billion in annual revenue. Todd Teresi, the head of the division, has reportedly pushed to increase that number to $10 billion and above. To that end, Apple recently began showing more ads in the App Store and is testing search advertisements within its Maps app.

By the time you read this article, Netflix will have started rolling out its new “Basic with Ads” plan. After years of resisting investor pressure, the company, following its first subscriber decline in a decade, announced this past April it would begin offering an ad-supported tier. Here's everything you need to know about the company's latest offering.

How is Basic with Ads different from other Netflix plans?

Besides featuring ads (more on that in a moment), the tier will limit you to streaming content at 720p. Additionally, you won’t be able to watch every title in Netflix’s library, and you won’t be able to download shows and films for offline viewing.

How much does the plan cost?

In the US, Basic with Ads is priced at $7 per month.

How many ads will I see?

According to Netflix, Basic with Ads subscribers can expect to see an average of four to five minutes of advertisements per hour of content. Initially, the company plans to play spots that are between 15 and 30 seconds long, though you’ll see them both before and during shows and films. The company will employ “broad” targeting, using criteria like your country and genre preference to inform the ads it shows you

Where is the plan available?

Starting this week, the Basic with Ads plan is available in 12 countries: the US, UK, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and Spain. The company expects to launch the tier in more countries over time. 

How do I switch to the new plan?

On either your computer or phone, visit the Netflix website and sign into your existing account. Click or tap on “Account,” and then “Change plan.” There, you’ll see the option to select from any one of the company’s four currently available tiers. Once you confirm you want to switch to the Basic with Ads plan, Netflix will move you over to it at the start of your next billing cycle.

Elizabeth Warren is calling for more federal oversight of Big Tech. In a letter (PDF link) the Democratic senator sent on Tuesday, she asked the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice to look into Google, Apple and Amazon’s expansion into the automotive industry.

Warren claims the three companies are using their positions in mobile and cloud computing to become dominant players within the sector. “This expansion has potentially alarming implications for developers, workers, and consumers,” Warren states. She’s urging FTC Chair Lina Khan and Jonathan Kanter, the head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, to act decisively before it’s too late. “As Chair Khan has written, ‘it is much easier to promote competition at the point when a market risks becoming less competitive than it is at the point when a market is no longer competitive.’ This market finds itself at exactly such a juncture,” Warren warns.

Specifically, the senator calls out the companies for employing “all-or-nothing” bundling tactics. As one example, she points to the terms of Android Automotive. Google’s operating system doesn’t come with Maps or Assistant included. To access one of those services, automakers must purchase a bundle that includes all of them. Warren argues that tactic allows Google to leverage its dominant position in one area to obtain market share in another. In this specific case, she suggests the company is using Maps to grow Assistant.

“These tactics are reminiscent of past Big Tech bundling controversies,” Warren states, drawing a parallel to cases like the Justice Department’s 2001 lawsuit against Microsoft. Apple and Amazon did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. “Carmakers choose to partner with tech companies to improve the experience for their customers,” a Google spokesperson told Engadget. "There is enormous competition in the connected car space – including Apple CarPlay, Amazon Alexa, Cerence, TomTom, ChargePoint and many others – and carmakers continue to invest in their in-house solutions simultaneously. At Google, our goal is to enable carmakers and developers across the auto industry to develop software solutions at scale.”

As Vox points out, automakers are partly to blame for the current state of the market. One reason platforms like CarPlay and Android Auto are so popular is that first-party options from car companies have historically failed to meet consumer expectations. In 2019, Ford paid $17 million to settle a class-action lawsuit related to its MyFord Touch infotainment system. The platform was known for freezing and crashing while in use.

Warren says ensuring there’s fair competition in the automotive sector should be a priority for the FTC and DOJ. “The FTC and DOJ don’t have to wait until there’s a problem to take action,” she writes. “Now is the time to prevent Big Tech from strangling competition in the automotive industry before it’s too late.”

Workers at an Apple Store in Glasgow, Scotland, voted on Wednesday to unionize. The vote came after “several” months of negotiations that eventually saw Apple agree to recognize the ballot voluntarily. According to The Herald, employees at the company’s Buchanan Street location, one of two stores Apple operates in Scotland’s most populous city, voted “overwhelmingly” in favor of joining the GMB Union. With the historic vote, the retail location is now on track to become the first unionized Apple Store in the United Kingdom.

Apple did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. “We have long been committed to providing an excellent experience for our customers and teams,” the company told The Herald. "Apple is one of the highest paying retailers in Scotland and we’ve regularly made enhancements to our industry-leading benefits as a part of the overall support we provide to our valued team members.”

The outcome is expected to prompt Apple Store workers at other retail locations across the UK to push forward with their own labor drives. “This is an absolutely historic vote and is a tribute to the hard work of activists and workers in Apple Glasgow,” said GMB Organizer John Slaven.

According to The Herald, organizers in Glasgow described negotiations with Apple as “consistently positive.” In the US, the company has been accused of employing union-busting tactics. In October, the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against the company, saying it had found merit in claims from the Communications Workers of America. The union accused Apple of interrogating staff at its World Trade Center store in New York City and subjecting them to mandatory anti-union meetings. More recently, organizers at the company’s Towson Town Center location, the first Apple Store in the US to unionize, said the company was withholding benefits from its I AM CORE members.

Etsy has begun testing visual search. The company suggests the feature is ideal for those situations where you’re not quite sure how to describe something. Whereas in the past you had to rely on keywords and a bit of luck, you can now tap the new camera icon in the search bar and snap a photo of a product in hopes of finding similar items.

In my testing, the feature works surprisingly well. I first took a photo of my keyboard, a Drop Ctrl with GMK Rainy Day keycaps. Not only did the app return with suggestions for keycaps, but it also narrowed in on ones that featured gray and blue tones like my set. I then snapped a photo of an artwork in my office I bought from a local Toronto artist. Etsy’s software successfully identified the piece as a line drawing and pointed me to stylistically similar artworks. I need to use the feature more to get a better sense of its limitations, but it does feel that it could be useful in exactly the way Etsy envisions it.

You can experiment with visual search on your own starting today if you have access to an iOS device. According to Etsy, the feature will soon come to Android.

Etsy

Twitter is increasing the price of its subscription service. Moving forward, Twitter Blue will cost $8 per month in the US, with pricing in other countries adjusted for the purchasing power of consumers in those markets, Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk announced today. The $3 jump from Blue's current $5 per month fee amounts to a 60 percent price increase. 

At the same time, Twitter plans to add new perks to the service. As a subscriber, you'll see fewer ads and have the ability to post longer videos and audio. It will also give you priority in replies, mentions and the platform's search feature, perks Musk claims are essential to reducing the amount of spam on the platform. "Twitter's current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn't have a blue checkmark is bullshit," Musk said, all but confirming verification will be tied to Twitter Blue subscriptions. Lastly, Twitter Blue will include the ability to bypass paywalls — though that will come later and will depend on Twitter forging the necessary publisher partnerships. "This will also give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators," Musk said.

Tuesday's announcement comes after days of speculation on how Twitter could change under Musk's ownership. On Sunday, two separate reports said the Tesla and SpaceX CEO was considering increasing the price of Twitter Blue to as much as $20 per month and making the subscription a requirement for verification.    

Developing...

Audio-Technica is bringing back its iconic Sound Burger portable turntable. After nearly 40 years and countless clones, the updated model adds a few new features to make it more appealing to modern listeners. To start, the 2022 Sound Burger includes Bluetooth connectivity and a built-in lithium-ion battery with USB-C charging. In other words, you won’t need to source a trio of C-cell batteries to power the new model. According to Audio-Technica, you can expect to get about 12 hours of continuous playback from the 2022 Sound Burger before it needs to be charged.

The company has tweaked the design of the turntable in a few other ways. For one, you won’t find an extendable cord hanger for your headphones. Speaking of headphones, the 2022 model doesn’t come with a complimentary pair like its predecessor. However, it will ship with an RCA cable if you prefer to physically connect the turntable to your sound system. The 2022 model also comes stock with an Audio-Technica ATN3600L stylus. Otherwise, this is in many ways the same turntable a lot of people fondly remember. Like its predecessor, it features a DC motor with a belt drive that can play 33 1/3 and 45 RPM records, meaning you can use it to listen to both full-length LPs and singles. It also looks just as good as it did back in 1983.

The 2022 Sound Burger is available to buy starting today for $199/£200/€229. That’s a reasonable price when you consider a vintage model can set you back as much as $500 on eBay. No word yet if Audio-Technica plans to bring back the Mister Disc branding for the US release.

The former New York Post employee who hijacked the outlet’s content management system and Twitter account to post a series of racist and sexist headlines last week has apologized for his actions. “I deserved to get fired for a very volatile, irresponsible, and disgusting action and an utmost betrayal of the New York Post,” Miguel Gonzalez told the Daily Beast, revealing his identity to the outlet and public.

The 25-year-old claims he went on his publishing spree after suffering an “emotional tantrum,” further claiming his actions weren’t politically motivated. Among the things Gonzalez posted on October 27th were fake headlines calling for the murder of President Joe Biden and House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “I let my own stupidity get the best of me,” he told the outlet.

Gonzalez began working for The Post in 2019. It was his first job out of journalism school. When the incident first occured, The Post said it was the victim of a hacking attack, before later sharing that an employee had been the one to gain access to its systems. As a digital producer at the outlet, Gonzalez used his credentials to access The Post’s publishing tools with “relative ease,” and did so from his home in New Jersey. Gonzalez says he hopes to stay in journalism and he has started applying for jobs at outlets like Gothamist.

When Twitter Blue began rolling out in the US last fall, the company positioned ad-free articles as one of the main reasons to subscribe. A little more than a year later, it looks like Twitter will discontinue that feature. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company plans to stop offering Twitter Blue customers the ability to access ad-free articles from publishers.

The Journal did not state how soon Twitter plans to implement the change. However, based on recent reporting that the company’s new owner Elon Musk wants to raise the price of Twitter Blue as early as November 7th, it’s likely to come sooner rather than later. It would also appear to be one among a handful of changes Musk wants to make to the service. Most notably, he reportedly wants to make verification a Twitter Blue perk.

Dropping ad-free articles from the service is unlikely to affect publishers. The Journal reports the program never attracted enough users to make a meaningful difference to their revenue. What it may do is make Twitter Blue less compelling to those who already pay for the service. Before completing his takeover of the company, Musk said his plan was to improve the service so that Twitter could reduce its reliance on advertisers. Without knowing more, it’s hard to see how removing features from Twitter Blue while also increasing how much it costs will accomplish that goal.

Elon Musk’s vision for Twitter may include bringing back Vine, the short-form video app the company shuttered in 2016. According to Axios, Twitter’s new “Chief Twit” told a group of engineers to work on a reboot that could be ready by the end of the year. The Verge’s Alex Heath, who was among the first to report that Musk was considering making the company’s Twitter Blue subscription mandatory for verified users, corroborated the news.

“I have also heard this, though unclear if Vine will actually be relaunched at this point,” he said. “Musk also has a lot of people telling him to just bake the experience into core Twitter.”

While we’re probably at the stage where Musk is contemplating any and all options, there’s certainly some evidence to suggest he is seriously considering bringing back Vine. Earlier today, he polled his 112 million Twitter followers to ask them if the company should reboot the app. When MrBeast, one of the most popular YouTube stars on the planet, said it would be “hilarious” if Musk did that and Vine went on to compete with TikTok, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO asked him “what could we do to make it better than TikTok?” Bringing back the platform would also certainly seem to align with Musk’s stated goal of transforming Twitter into a “super app” akin to China’s WeChat.

However, the timeline, like the one Musk reportedly set for monetizing Twitter’s verification feature, is likely unrealistic. According to Axios, the company hasn’t updated Vine since it shut down the app more than six years ago. "It needs a lot of work," one source told the outlet, referring to the software’s codebase. At this stage, it’s also hard to see the platform competing with TikTok and YouTube Shorts, even if it does come back. So much of TikTok’s success is a result of its “For You” algorithm which always seems to know what videos will keep you glued to the app. Vine never had anything comparable, and many of its most prolific creators have moved on to other platforms.