After months of teases and leaks, Google is finally ready to show off the Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel Watch. Those who are curious about what Google has in store can find out the full details as soon as the company announces them by watching the Pixel Event livestream. The festivities start at 10AM ET and you can watch via the video embedded below.

Engadget Deputy Editor Cherlynn Low and Senior Reporter Sam Rutherford will be breaking down the news as it happens on our live blog. We'll have full coverage of everything you need to know from the showcase on our Pixel 7 event page as well.

Google has already confirmed that the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro will run on a next-gen Tensor chip and Android 13. The Pixel Watch, meanwhile, is the first smartwatch that Google has designed and built in-house. It will blend Google features with Fitbit's health and fitness knowhow, and have an overhauled Wear OS experience.

It might be worth keeping close tabs on the event if you're already interested in buying a Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel Watch or new Nest device (Google will have some announcements on that front too). All the devices that Google will show off during the event are going on sale today.

Follow all of the news from Google's Pixel 7 event right here!

The Internet Archive is aiming to build up a new library of old content. It's expanding beyond Flash games and animations, movies, books and (of course) snapshots of websites with the Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications (DLARC). This particular archive, which will be led by tech historian Kay Savetz, will include amateur radio broadcasts and digital material from the early days of the internet.

Savetz told Gizmodo that his remit includes just about any kind of digital communications from the 1970s until the early 1990s. While the preservation project focuses on amateur radio recordings, it may also feature early podcasts, digital newsletters, photos, videos and, yes, websites. There are plans to digitize print materials as well. “I want the obscure stuff, the locally-produced ham radio newsletters or the smaller magazines, that sort of thing,” Savetz said.

The DLARC team, which has funding from the Amateur Radio Digital Communications Foundation, is looking for help to build out the collection. It's seeking "partners and contributors with troves of ham radio, amateur radio, and early digital communications-related books, magazines, documents, catalogs, manuals, videos, software, personal archives and other historical records collections, no matter how big or small." It added that every collection in the library will be accessible to everyone. The project will also offer a discovery portal designed for education and research use cases.

Teenage Engineering's latest drum machine probably isn't one that you're going to use to add percussion to your next piece. The company teamed up with designer Love Hulten to create CHD-4 in the aim of raising awareness about congenital heart disease.

The drum machine has four modules that produce rhythms based on the echocardiogram (ECG) scans of four children with heart defects. The scan results revealed the shape, pace and BPM of their heartbeats, Teenage Engineering said. It added the data to a four-track circular sequencer. The patterns can be played together or individually in order to create sounds that exemplify "each child's irregular heartbeat." A video gives a sense of the kinds of haunting soundscapes the machine can create:

"Drum machines are defined by order – beats, pace, and rhythm," Hulten said. "This machine disrupts that system, the same way life is disrupted when a child is born with congenital heart disease." The machine also has an OLED screen that depicts the audio and beat in a similar fashion to a proper ECG machine.

It's an art project, no doubt, but it's a fascinating one that's raising awareness of an important issue. If you're lucky, and have deep enough pockets, you might be able to add CHD–4 to your collection. It will be auctioned on Valentine's Day (February 14th), with all proceeds going to the Swedish Heartchild Foundation.

Teenage Engineering/Love Hulten

Spotify has bought a company it says will help it detect and address harmful content on the platform. Kinzen uses machine learning and human expertise to analyze possibly harmful content and hate speech across multiple languages, Spotify said in a statement. It added that Kinzen will "help us more effectively deliver a safe, enjoyable experience on our platform around the world" and that the company's tech is especially suited to podcasts and other audio formats.

Looking for signs of harmful audio content across hundreds of languages is a difficult task, particularly since there may be nuances that certain systems and non-native speakers may not pick up on. As such, Spotify says Kinzen will help it to "better understand the abuse landscape and identify emerging threats on the platform."

The two companies have actually been working together since 2020, with the aim of preventing misinformation in election-related content. They forged their partnership before Joe Rogan started spreading COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on his Spotify-exclusive show, which is said to be the most-listened-to podcast on the planet. 

There was a significant backlash against Rogan and Spotify earlier this year. Hundreds of doctors and scientists urged Spotify to enact a policy to stem the spread of misinformation. Weeks later, Spotify started adding a content advisory to podcast episodes that included discussions about COVID-19 and made its content guidelines public.

Several prominent artists pulled their music from Spotify in protest against Rogan, including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. The host and editor of Spotify-owned podcast Science VS also pledged to stop making episodes (except ones in which it fact-checked Rogan and countered misinformation on the platform) unless the company did more to stem the flow of harmful falsehoods.

It may be the case that Spotify sees employing Kinzen's tech as a means to help it avoid similar PR catastrophes in the future. However, it's unclear how effective it will be in preventing the spread of misinformation. Were harmful content to be featured on a popular podcast, it may gain traction on social media and in press coverage before Spotify can act. Still, at least it's trying to do more to stamp out misinformation.

Amazon is running a sale on Blink security cameras, and many of the devices and bundles are available for a steal at up to 54 percent off. Several have dropped to their lowest price to date, including the Blink Outdoor. That camera is currently $60, which is $40 off the regular price of $100.

Blink Outdoor is a wireless device and Amazon says it will run for up to two years on two lithium AA batteries. As long as you have the right mount, you should be able to position Blink Outdoor just about anywhere around your home. The weather-resistant camera records footage at up to 1080p resolution and it has infrared night vision.

You'll receive a notification when the Blink Outdoor detects motion, and there's two-way audio support, so you'll be able to speak with someone who's in front of the camera. Naturally, since it's an Amazon device, Blink Outdoor works with Alexa, so you can use voice commands to stream live video to compatible devices and to arm or disarm the camera.

Next up, a two-pack of the Blink Mini can be all yours for $30. The bundle has returned to the lowest price we've seen for it to date. These are wired cameras, so they'll need to stay inside and close to an outlet. Still, they have many of the same features as other Blink devices, including 1080p video capture, infrared night vision, motion sensors, Alexa support and two-way audio — which could be useful if you don't feel like yelling from the other side of the house to speak to someone.

Also worth noting is the Whole Home Bundle. This includes the Video Doorbell, Blink Outdoor, Blink Mini and the Sync Module 2, which can store recordings locally. The bundle has dropped by $70 to $140, which is a 33 percent discount. Again, this is an all-time-low price.

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Meta's quarterly revenue dipped for the first time ever in the April-June quarter. It's looking to make those numbers go back up and keep smiles on investors' faces. One of the strategies it's employing to do that is by attempting to squeeze more money out of Instagram. As such, it will shove ads into more areas of the app, namely the Explore feed and the grid on people's profiles.

Brands can now place ads in the Explore feed, but profile feed ads are still in the testing phase. The company will also offer some creators the chance to earn a cut of revenue from ads that are displayed in their profile feeds.

Meta announced a slew of other updates for its advertising products. Some of those will impact Instagram. For one thing, the company will try out augmented reality ads in both the feed and Stories. Meta suggests that brands might use these to let people test virtual furniture in their home or get a closer look at a car.

Meta

In addition, the company is experimenting with new formats for ads in Facebook and Instagram Reels. These include a "post-loop" format — skippable ads lasting between four and 10 seconds that play after a reel. After the ad finishes, the reel will play again. The company is also testing image carousel ads, which you may start to see at the bottom of Facebook Reels starting today. In addition, brands will have access to a free library of music to use in Reels ads.

As for how many ads you'll actually see, that may be different for each person. You may or may not see more of them, but they'll at least pop up in places where they weren't present before. "The number of ads across the platform varies based on how people use Instagram," an Instagram spokesperson told Engadget. "We closely monitor people’s sentiment — both for ads and overall commerciality."

It doesn't seem that Meta is considering the sentiment that some people don't want to see ads at all. The company swiftly took action against an unofficial, ad-free Instagram client that popped up last week.

Bulletin, Meta's foray into the newsletter subscription space, is going away in early 2023, as The New York Times first reported. The company confirmed to Engadget that it will pay out all Bulletin writer contracts. Writers can keep earning subscription revenue until the service shutters, and take their email lists and content archives to other platforms if they wish.

“Bulletin has allowed us to learn about the relationship between Creators and their audiences and how to better support them in building their community on Facebook," a Meta spokesperson told Engadget. "While this off-platform product itself is ending, we remain committed to supporting these and other Creators’ success and growth on our platform.”

Meta launched the Bulletin platform in June 2021 amid a boom in newsletter subscription services driven by the likes of Substack. Closing down Bulletin in early 2023 means it will have lasted a little over 18 months.

The company brought in prominent figures including Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, Malcolm Gladwell and Queer Eye's Tan France to use Bulletin, but it evidently wasn't as successful as Meta hoped. The Times notes that some of the writers have six-figure contracts.

Meta will shift resources from Bulletin into Facebook, with the aim of making the latter more of a place where people can discover engaging content. It plans to take what it learned from Bulletin and apply that to its other creator-focused products.

Recent reports have suggested that Meta is restructuring parts of the company as part of an effort to focus on core products and cut costs. The company has also reportedly warned staff about possible layoffs. Many other tech companies are feeling the sting of an economic slowdown. Substack, which just released an Android version of its app, laid off 14 percent of staff in June.

More than 100 Amazon employees conducted a work stoppage for around three hours after a fire broke out at a fulfillment center on Staten Island, New York. Night shift workers were moved to a break room as firefighters tackled a dumpster fire on a shipping dock next to the JFK8 warehouse. No one was injured, according to the New York City Fire Department, which was called to the scene at around 4PM ET on Monday.

Amazon Labor Union (ALU) president Chris Smalls said around 500 employees declined to return to work. Amazon put the figure at 100 and said another 1,000 kept working. The workers who downed tools occupied the human resources office and demanded paid time off for the night, as Motherboard reports.

“All employees were safely evacuated, and day shift employees were sent home with pay,” Amazon spokesperson Paul Flaningan told Gothamist. “The FDNY certified the building is safe and at that point we asked all night shift employees to report to their regularly scheduled shift. While the vast majority of employees reported to their workstations, a small group refused to return to work and remained in the building without permission."

Workers at the warehouse voted to form a union earlier this year. Amazon has contested the results of the election. Last month, a hearing officer recommended that the National Labor Relations Board should reject Amazon's claims that the vote was invalid and authorize the union. Pending further appeals, Amazon has not started union contract negotiations.

Meanwhile, workers at another Amazon warehouse are seeking to unionize with the ALU. An election will be held at a fulfillment center outside of Albany later this month. Amid unionization efforts across the company, Amazon this week announced it will increase hourly workers' pay.

After investigating an unfair labor practice charge against Activision Blizzard, the National Labor Relations Board found that the company withheld raises from quality assurance workers at Call of Duty support studio Raven Software. The agency attributed this withholding to the workers' union activity.

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) filed a complaint on behalf of the workers in June. It accused Activision Blizzard of retaliating against those who were attempting to unionize in a number of ways, including by laying some off and dismantling the studio's QA department by moving workers to separate teams. The CWA also said that Activision Blizzard leadership solicited grievances, which the NLRB concurred with. The agency is still looking into some aspects of the original complaint, as The Washington Post notes.

The CWA filed an amended version of the complaint on Monday. It claimed that Activision Blizzard is continuing to violate labor laws by keeping QA workers at the studio separated without their own department.

In April, Activision Blizzard gave 1,100 QA testers full-time jobs and higher base pay. However, it said QA workers at Raven were not eligible for pay bumps “due to legal obligations under the National Labor Relations Act.” At the time, Raven QA workers were working toward a union election. They voted to unionize in May. Contract negotiations between Activision Blizzard and the Game Workers Alliance (the Raven QA workers' union) are ongoing.

“Despite their best efforts, Activision’s constant attempts to undermine its workers’ and impede our union election have failed," CWA and the Game Workers Alliance told Engadget in a statement. "We’re glad the NLRB recognized that Activision acted illegally when they unequally enforced policies by withholding company-wide benefits and wage increase from Raven workers for organizing. We want the company to bargain a fair contract in good faith and to move past all of the cheap — and illegal — tricks they tried to pull to prevent us from forming our union."

"Due to legal obligations under the [National Labor Relations Act] requiring employers not to grant wage increases while an election was pending, we could not institute new pay initiatives at Raven because they would be brand new kinds of compensation changes, which had not been planned beforehand," Activision Blizzard spokesperson Rich George told The Washington Post. "This rule that employers should not grant these kinds of wage increases has been the law for many years.”

Gatorade has designed a smart water bottle to help you determine and maintain your baseline hydration level and monitor your post-workout recovery. A ring of LEDs that runs around the Smart Gx Bottle's cap should allow you to monitor you daily hydration, and gently nudge you to drink more when necessary. You can recharge the bottle using a USB cable. A Gatorade spokesperson told Engadget the bottle is dishwasher safe, but the cap is not. 

Naturally, your hydration levels can be tracked through Gatorade's iOS-only Gx App, which features nutrition and training programs as well as recovery recommendations. As for what happens when you drink water from another source and how the app will track that, Gatorade says that's "on the roadmap for launch."

Gatorade

Meanwhile, Gatorade's Sweat Patch, which the company debuted last year, is a single-use wearable that can help you create a "sweat profile" in the app and help track your perspiration. You'll need to use the Sweat Patch to get a hydration report for the Smart Gx Bottle. Alternatively, you can weigh yourself before and after your workout.

To that end, Gatorade sells pods that can be mixed with water to help replenish electrolytes and carbohydrates. They're compatible with the Smart Gx Bottle and regular Gx Bottle, each of which has a piercing mechanism for the pods. In addition, the company offering gummies that it claims can help with recovery and boosting your immune system.

Smart water bottles that can track hydration levels have been aroundfor years, but Gatorade is stepping into the space as a well-known brand. Folks might be more inclined to try one out from a company whose products they've used for years than one that started life as a crowdfunding project.

Engadget Deputy Editor Cherlynn Low has been checking out the Smart Gx Bottle using pre-release software. We'll need to test it out a bit longer to determine how effective it is in tracking hydration levels. It's similar to Gatorade's other bottles in terms of squeezability. However, Cherlynn found that the cap leaks, which isn't a great look. Also, in case you're wondering, Cherlynn says the recovery gummies taste better than expected.

The Smart Gx Bottle is available from Gatorade's website starting today. It costs $70. Gatorade will toss in a Sweat Patch and a pack of four pods of your choice at no extra cost. In case you're interested in the gummies, those will run you $26 for one batch or $46.80 for a bundle.