Vape pen maker Juul has agreed to settle another state lawsuit alleging that it targeted minors with its marketing. It will pay $22.5 million and undertake measures to prevent underage use and sales to settle a suit filed by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson in September 2020. Juul admits no wrongdoing under the settlement, though it told the Associated Press the agreement marked “another step in our ongoing effort to reset our company and resolve issues from the past.”

The AG claimed that when Juul debuted in 2015, it promoted itself with colorful ads on social media, leading to an increase in nicotine use and addiction in teens. Ferguson also claimed in the filing that the company deceived consumers about the addictiveness of its product. His office said the money from Juul's settlement will be used to establish a health equity unit that will "respond to deceptive and discriminatory health care practices that disproportionately impact vulnerable communities and communities of color."

Under the consent decree, Juul is not allowed to promote its products on social media and can't use advertising that appeals to youths. It agreed to monitor and report social media posts from underage users about its products and to require an adult's signature when delivering products that it sells online. Additionally, it must run a secret shopper program in the state for at least two years to ensure retailers aren't selling its products to underage users.

Over the last year, Juul has settled several cases brought by state AGs. It agreed to pay $40 million to settle a case in North Carolina and $14.5 million to settle one in Arizona. The company says it has also resolved a suit in Louisiana but lawsuits in several otherstates remain active. “We will continue working with federal and state stakeholders to advance a fully regulated, science-based marketplace for vapor products,” the company said.

Niantic is best known for creating augmented reality games based on existing franchises, but its next title will be an original one. Peridot is all about breeding and caring for unique virtual pets.

These Peridots (or Dots) have been asleep for thousands of years and they'll need players' help to ensure their survival, Niantic senior producer Ziah Fogel wrote in a blog post. Players will feed, play and explore with their Dots to raise them to adulthood. While you're out on daily walks, your Dot might discover hidden treasures. You'll be able to diversify the species of your Dots as well by working with other players.

Peridot seems skewed more toward players who enjoyed the likes of Pokémon Go and Pikmin Bloom than Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. It'll be Niantic's first original game since Ingress. Peridot is in its soft launch period and will only be available in select markets at first. If you're interested, you can sign up to be notified when the game's available in your region.

Just a couple weeks after Kia announced a European release window for its EV9, the automaker has revealed when US drivers will be able to get behind the wheel of the electric SUV. It said at the New York Auto Show that the EV9 is coming Stateside in the second half of 2023.

Kia didn't announce any more details at the show, as Autoblog notes, meaning pricing is still unknown. Still, at least the timeframe has been narrowed down.

The automaker hasn't spilled the beans on how the road-ready version of the EV9 differs from the boxy concept model. In November, Kia offered an early look at the concept EV9, which had a 27-inch dashboard display and a yoke-style wheel. It said the EV offered up to 300 miles of range and 350kW charging that boosts the battery level from 10 percent to 80 percent in 30 minutes.

Apple is looking to build on the success of TV+ by locking in Tom Hanks' production company to an exclusive multi-year deal. The agreement with Playtone covers series, documentaries and unscripted projects.

Hanks is also set to star in a sequel to World War II movie Greyhound. The thriller was one of the most-watched projects on Apple TV+, according to Deadline. Apple scooped up distribution rights to the film in 2020. Greyhound was supposed to be released theatrically, but the COVID-19 pandemic prevented it from being released in theaters. There was a similar situation with Finch, a post-apocalyptic survival film in which Hanks' character is accompanied on the road by his dog and a helper robot. That movie hit Apple TV+ in November.

Apple has had a working relationship with Playtone, which was founded by Hanks and producer Gary Goetzman, for a few years. It was announced in 2019 that the two companies and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television were working on Masters of the Air, a follow-up series to Band of Brothers and The Pacific. Production of the show has wrapped, but a release date hasn't been announced.

Adding more shows and movies from Playtone to the library will bolster Apple TV+, which is on a great run. It just became the first streaming service to win the Best Picture Oscar (for CODA) while sitcom Ted Lasso enjoyed huge success at last year's Emmys. Recent shows like Severance and Slow Horses have earned acclaim as well.

Amazon is said to have intensified its anti-union efforts ahead of a union election at a warehouse later this month. The Amazon Labor Union told Motherboard the company is mandating daily anti-union meetings at LDJ5, a facility in Staten Island, New York. It's also said to have distributed anti-union literature and disciplined a leader of the drive for organizing on the warehouse floor. What's more, ALU says Amazon has hired anti-union consultants to pose as employees.

Workers at the warehouse, which reportedly has around 1,500 employees, are scheduled to begin a union election on April 25th. Amazon's anti-union efforts ramped up in recent days, according to the report. The ALU recently won an election at a nearby facility, JFK8, which became the first Amazon warehouse in the US to formally unionize. Amazon plans to appeal the union's victory.

Amazon and the National Labor Relations Board in December reached a deal in December, under which the company agreed to inform past and current warehouse workers in the US of their right to organize. The terms of the agreement afforded workers more leeway to organize in break rooms, which is said to have been a key factor in ALU's success at JFK8.

However, Amazon reportedly isn't sticking to those terms at LDJ5. The ALU said the company removed pro-union literature from the break room and took down a pro-union banner after the JFK8 election result became clear. A lawyer representing ALU workers has filed unfair labor practice charges against Amazon for removing the banner and allegedly retaliating against a worker to stifle unionization efforts.

Engadget has contacted Amazon for comment.

Amazon has long been accused of cracking down on workers' attempts to organize. Last year alone, it spent $4.3 million on anti-union consultants. The company's also said to be working on a chat app for workers, in which terms like "union" and "pay raise" are on a blocklist.

The NLRB said the company illegally interfered in a union election in Bessemer, Alabama last year and called for a rerun. However, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union claimed Amazon interfered in the second election as well. The result of that vote hinges on a court hearing over challenged ballots.

No Man’s Sky is already an enormous game and yet Hello Games isn’t exactly out of ideas about how to expand the universe. The developer has released the Outlaws update, which adds the game’s first new starship in two years, smuggling and much more.

Solar ships are a new class of starships. These are dotted across the universe and have unique tech and procedurally generated variations. Each ship has solar-powered sail and engine tech. You can now own up to nine starships in total (an increase of three), each of which can be outfitted with a high-capacity cargo inventory.

The smuggling mechanic ties into the update's core theme: the fact you can now play as a space pirate. You can buy illicit goods in outlaw systems and sell them for a hefty profit in a regulated space, as long as you're able to smuggle them in. Sentinel drones will be on the lookout for illegal wares, however. You might be able to fend them off with a Cargo Probe Deflector.

Hello Games

In outlaw systems, where rebel forces are in control and piracy prevails, there are outlaw stations. Here, you'll find specialized technology merchants, mission agents and more. There won't be any Sentinel interceptors as these parts of the universe are unpoliced.

Hello Games says it has also revamped space combat with a focus on speed, challenge and flow. There's an option that'll let you automatically lock onto and track enemy ships, for instance. You'll be able to recruit pilots to join your squadron and help you out in ship-to-ship combat. You can call them in at any time and they'll appear automatically during space combat.

Elsewhere, there's a new expedition on the way soon with an array of rewards up for grabs. You can also expect to see revamped explosion and combat effects, forged passports and pirate raids on settlements and buildings. The update includes a slew of bug fixes and optimizations as well.

This is the second big content update this year, following February's Sentinel patch. The Outlaws update is out now on PlayStation, Xbox and PC. It’ll also give Nintendo Switch players more to look forward to when No Man’s Skyhits that platform this summer.

DuckDuckGo has revealed something it says its users have been requesting for years: a desktop browser. It will be available on Mac first, and a Windows version is coming in the near future. Until now, the only browser DuckDuckGo offered was on mobile.

As you might expect from a DuckDuckGo product, privacy is at the forefront. The browser uses DuckDuckGo's search engine by default, and the Smarter Encryption feature will make sure you use the encrypted HTTPS version of websites more often. There's a tracker blocker, email protection and the company's famed Fire Button, which closes all tabs and wipes your browser data with a single click.

In-app data such as your history, bookmarks and passwords are by default only stored on your system. You can import your bookmarks and passwords from some other browsers and password managers.

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo says the browser will do away with many of those annoying cookie consent popups as well. It can clear them for you on certain sites by automatically rejecting as much cookie tracking as possible. This feature will be available for around half of all websites at the outset. DuckDuckGo says that figure will grow during the beta period.

In the privacy feed, you'll be able to see which sites tried to track you. There's the option to clear stored data from certain websites and to return to recently viewed pages, albeit with some extra privacy protection. DuckDuckGo claims its Mac browser is fast, too. It uses the same built-in rendering engine as Safari and blocks trackers before they load.

The Mac browser is in an invite-only beta. To sign up for the waitlist, either download the DuckDuckGo mobile app or update it to the latest version. From the "More from DuckDuckGo" menu in settings, select DuckDuckGo for Desktop and tap "Join the Private Waitlist." You'll eventually receive a notification with an invite code and link to snag the browser on your Mac. The process is a little unusual, but, appropriately enough, you won't have to provide any personal details.

Android owners who use Beats products are getting some more useful features. The Apple-owned brand is adding "Locate my Beats" and Product Widgets tools to its Android app. 

You'll be able to track down misplaced earbuds, view battery life info and control listening modes (including noise cancellation) from your Android phone or tablet. Similar features are baked into iOS — iPhone users can locate compatible devices through Find My, for instance. 

These features will be available for all products that work with the Beats app on Android, including Studio Buds. As it happens, Beats just revealed three new colors for the $150 Studio Buds, which it says is the fastest-selling Beats product to date. The Sunset Pink, Ocean Blue and Moon Gray variants are now available on Apple's website.

Highly acclaimed sci-fi mystery 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim has arrived on Nintendo Switch. Until now, the game from Atlus and Vanillaware had only been available on PlayStation 4 (and PS5 through backward compatibility).

13 Sentinels knits together 13 stories and features a beautiful hand-painted art style. It combines 2D side-scrolling adventure elements with top-down, real-time strategy battles against kaiju. You'll be able to customize your mechs' loadouts to best fit the environment and enemy types.

Atlus released 13 Sentinels in Japan in 2019 and the rest of the world in 2020. It received glowing reviews, particularly for its story and visuals. Long-time players might be glad to have the option to play it while they're on the go, while Atlue and Vanillaware might be able to find a new legion of fans on Switch. Both the digital and physical editions cost $60, though the latter comes with bonus art cards.

Ukraine says Russian military hackers attempted to disrupt an energy provider in the country, but they were unsuccessful. The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) claims it was able to thwart an effort to gain access to computers linked to substations and wipe all files on them. That would have shut down the unnamed provider's infrastructure. The company in question is said to provide power to customers in a highly populated area.

Russia has been blamed for previous cyberattacks on Ukraine's power infrastructure, but it hasn't successfully conducted similar hacks since it invaded the country in February. In 2014 and 2015, some residents of the capital city Kyiv lost power in the wake of attacks attributed to Sandworm, a purported wing of Russia's GRU military intelligence agency.

Cybersecurity company ESET, which has been helping shore up Ukraine's defenses, said Sandworm was behind the latest attempt as well. Sandworm is said to have used a new version of the Industroyer malware it employed to shut down Ukraine's power grid in late 2015.

The latest attempted attack had been in the works for at least two weeks, according to ESET. Microsoft also helped ESET and Ukraine fend off the hackers, according to Viktor Zhora, a cybersecurity official in the country. According to CNBC, Zhora said the attackers did gain access to some systems and created disruption at one power facility, but they were snuffed out before any residents lost electricity.