Netflix ranks shows on its platform to give you an idea of what people have been watching recently — and sometimes, it releases hours viewed data for its most popular titles — but it's been keeping its viewership numbers close to the vest. Starting in November, though, it will finally reveal how many people stream its shows, at least in the UK. The streaming giant has teamed up with BARB, a non-profit organization that measures TV ratings in the region, to give us a look at concrete streaming numbers. "BARB is the first industry-owned audience currency in the world that Netflix has joined," the organization said in its announcement. 

While Netflix shows regularly make an appearance in Nielsen's streaming rankings, the two entities aren't officially working together. In fact, Nielsen's list doesn't seem to match Netflix's own Top 10 rankings at times. Reed Hastings, Netflix co-CEO said: "Back in 2019, at the RTS conference in Cambridge, I welcomed the idea of Netflix audiences being measured independently. We’ve kept in touch with BARB since then and are pleased to make a commitment to its trusted measurement of how people watch television in the UK."

BARB will publish viewing figures for Netflix that can be compared to traditional broadcasters starting in the second week of November. The organization will report the service's monthly reach and its share of total identified viewing. In addition to showing how the service is doing compared to traditional TV, BARB will also include shows across all the traditional channels and the streaming service providers that it works with in its weekly report of top 50 shows starting in November. 

As The Guardian notes, this move suggests that Netflix believes being more forthcoming with its viewer numbers will show the company in a good light. People have long criticized the service for not publishing any viewership metric for flops. The secrecy surrounding its viewership numbers also means program creators (and fans) aren't always sure if their shows are being watched or are in danger of being canceled. 

Based on BARB's preliminary figures from September, Netflix isn't doing poorly in the UK at all. It's the most accessed streaming service in the region. And while it's nowhere near as watched as the BBC, it accounts for 8 percent of all TV viewing in UK, which is higher than some linear channels', including Channel 4 and Sky.

Intel had long been expecting a decline in PC sales after a period of heightened demand due to work-and-study-from-home arrangements brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. In July, it admitted to Nikkei that it was going to raise the prices of its processors and other chips due to "inflationary pressures" later this year. Turns out that may not be the only move Intel is making to weather the declining PC market. According to Bloomberg, Intel is planning to cut thousands of jobs and could make the announcement around the same time it's releasing its third quarter earnings report on October 27th. 

The company slashed its sales and profit forecasts for 2022 back in July, when it said that it expects revenue for the year to be $11 billion less than previously projected. Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger said during its earnings call for the second quarter that the company "will look to take additional actions in the second half of the year" to improve profits. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh said the layoffs could reduce the costs Intel incurs to keep the company running by around 10 to 15 percent. Singh also said that those costs could be worth at least $25 to $30 billion.

Mobileye, the the self-driving tech firm that Intel had purchased for $15.3 billion back in 2017, recently filed for an IPO. Intel intends to keep most of what it earns from the IPO for itself and to help finance the chip factories it's planning to build. But projected earnings from the offering may not be enough to prevent the mass layoffs, which will affect various divisions within the company. Certain groups, such as the sale and marketing department, will reportedly see their numbers reduced by up to 20 percent. 

Over the past year, Intel took steps to achieve its goal of expanding its foundry business. It earmarked $20 billion to build a massive chip-making facility in Ohio, which it intends to turn into the biggest "silicon manufacturing location on the planet." The company also purchased Tower Semiconductor, a chipmaker catering to clients across industries, for $5.4 billion. There seems to be no indication that those expansion plans are changing, and Bloomberg said that Intel intends to pursue the goals it set for itself as a leaner company.

Blizzard previously admitted that Overwatch 2's launch, which was spoiled by a bunch of bugs, DDoS attacks and other issues, has not met players of the company's expectations. While the company has made a lot of progress to make the game playable — a lot of players couldn't even log in at first — its work is far from done. Now, the developer is trying to make it up to fans by giving out freebies and running events. It will hold several Double Match XP weekends to give players the chance to rack up points and rank up. Blizzard will announce specific dates for the events soon. 

It will also give players who log in from October 25th until the time Season One ends a Cursed Captain Reaper Legendary skin and a Health Pack Weapon Charm. Both items will automatically be added to people's collection when they log in within that window of time. In its announcement, Blizzard said that it will deploy more stability updates, starting with another patch scheduled for release this week. It also said that it's monitoring the game closely for any more issues and bugs that emerge. 

The developer keeps a public list of known issues on its forum, but players are finding more that it has yet to acknowledge. Users are reporting problems regarding specific characters in the game, such as Mei, whose ice wall has been behaving inconsistently, according to Kotaku. Blizzard even had to pull two heroes out of the game completely to address a few bugs in the ability kits. 

Snapchat has launched a set of new lenses that you can use to find Halloween costumes for parties and events you're attending this month. These new AR lenses will give you a way to virtually try on costumes from some of the shows and movies in recent history that had helped define pop culture as we know it. And yes, you can purchase them from within the app. The selection includes characters and costumes from Harry Potter, Squid Game, Stranger Things, Hocus Pocus, Transformers, Power Rangers and other titles.

Snap says it conducted a study with consulting firm Ipsos and found that shopping has become the number one reason why people use augmented reality. Indeed, more and more retailers and companies have started offering augmented reality tools that you can use to try on the goods they're selling. Snap itself has been expanding its AR try-on features for a while now and launched the ability for brands to connect their catalogs to their AR Lens experiences on the app back in August. In its announcement, it says it's creating more tools centered around augmented reality shopping.

If you want to shop for Halloween costumes on Snapchat, you only need to take full-body features. Snapchat's computer vision tech will overlay the product image onto your body in the photo, and you can take a Snap and share with friends if you want. You can find the Halloween try-on Lenses in Disguise Costumes' account. Simply search for that username in the app or search for specific show or movie titles in Snapchat's Lens Explorer.

Anker is selling quite a robust selection of products at a discount for Amazon's Prime Early Access Sale, and some of the deals even represent new all-time lows for the items. If you need to make sure your devices don't ever run out of battery, the Anker 737 Power Bank is currently on sale for $100, or $50 less than its retail price. The model has a 24,000mAh battery capacity and has two USB-C, as well as one USB-A, charging ports. Anker says it carries enough juice to charge an iPhone 13 for almost five times, though that number would probably be lower if you have an iPhone 14. 

Need a portable wireless battery for your iPhone instead? The black variant of the Anker 633 Magnetic Battery (MagGo) is currently on sale for $55. That's $25 off and the lowest we've seen for the wireless charger on the website. The device has a small kickstand attachment, and since it sticks to your iPhone while charging, it also doubles as a phone stand. This one's a bit smaller than the 737 Power Bank and has a 10,000mAh battery capacity with a 20W USB-C power delivery port for fast charging times. The white and blue versions are also on sale, but they cost a bit more at $64.

If you're traveling or just simply need a power strip with an abundance of ports and outlets, you can get Anker's 727 Charging Station for $66.50, or 30 percent off its usual price. That's the lowest we've seen for the power strip, which has a maximum output of 100W. The 727 Charging Station has two USB-C ports, two USB-A ports and two AC outlets, and it comes with a five-foot detachable cord. 

In case you need cords to be able to connect your iPhones and iPads to a USB-C charger, you can also grab a bunch from the sale. A 3-pack bundle of Anker's Powerline II USB-C-to-Lightning Cable will set you back $22, or $17 lower than usual. The cables come in different lengths — three feet, six feet and 10 feet — and had been tested to withstand up to 12,000 bends. 

There are a lot more Anker items on sale at the moment, but they are exclusive to Prime members. If you're a new user or haven't been a Prime subscriber over the past 12 months, though, you can sign up for a 30-day free trial.

Get the latest Amazon Prime Day offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter.

The cafeteria workers at Waymo's offices are forming a union, according to NBC News. As the news organization notes, that makes them the latest group of people to organize at one of Silicon Valley's most prominent companies. Waymo's food service personnel are also following in the footsteps of the 4,000 Google cafeteria workers who quietly unionized during the COVID-19 pandemic. The autonomous driving tech company used to be an experimental unit under Google before it became an Alphabet subsidiary. 

Like Google's other food service workers, Waymo's are employed by contracting firm Sodexo. Workers cited the high cost of living in the Bay Area where Alphabet's offices are located as the reason why they want to unionize. They said their $24-per-hour pay isn't enough to live adequately in the city, where rents are astronomical, and that their health plan is prohibitively expensive. The workers are also asking for better treatment and benefits, since they don't enjoy the same perks as full-time Alphabet employees. 

Organizers for the unionization efforts at Waymo told NBC News that they've already gathered signatures from majority of the workers. Sodexo said that it "respects the rights of [its] employees to unionize or not to unionize" but didn't say whether it will voluntarily recognize the union. If it does, the workers will have to file for an NLRB election to be able to join the other Alphabet cafeteria workers at Unite Here.

Rivian has notified customers that it's recalling 13,000 EVs — or almost all of the electric trucks and SUVs it has ever delivered — due to an issue that could render drivers unable to steer and control their vehicles. The company issued the recall after becoming aware of seven reports wherein a fastener connecting the steering knuckle to the vehicle's upper control arm "may not have been sufficiently torqued," according to Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal. 

In the letter sent to customers, Chief Executive Officer RJ Scaringe said the company is recalling vehicles despite the small number of reported defects "out of an abundance of caution." He said the fastener could become loose in "rare circumstances" and lead to loss of steering control, but that there had been no reported injuries related to the issue. 

At the moment, Rivian has two models on offer, which are the R1T truck and the R1S SUV, but it also makes electric delivery trucks for its minority owner Amazon at its factory in Normal, Illinois. Like most players in the auto and tech industries, the global supply chain woes over the past couple of years impacted its production capability. It even tried to raise the price of its R1T pickup truck by $12,000 due to inflation and component shortages earlier this year, though it quickly reversed the decision after customer backlash.

In July 2022, the automaker reported that it had almost doubled its production output to 4,401 vehicles for the second quarter of the year compared to the first. That's a fraction of other automakers' output — rival company Tesla, for instance, manufactured 258,580 EVs within the same period — but it's a positive step towards achieving its goal of producing 25,000 vehicles in 2022.

This recall isn't expected to prevent the company from reaching that goal, and the automaker is hoping that it can check all affected vehicles within 30 days. Rivian told customers that they can bring their vehicles to service centers to have the fasteners in their vehicles tightened within minutes. The company also said that they can send mobile repair vans to customers. Those experiencing possible symptoms for the issue, such as noise and vibration, may want to look into that option.

Acer has unveiled a new lightweight laptop that targets on-the-go professionals in a world where more and more people are choosing to work from home or away from the office. The Swift Edge is a 16-inch OLED laptop with a magnesium-aluminum chassis that's only 0.51-inch thin and only weighs 2.58 pounds. That's lighter than the 13.6-inch M2 MacBook Air that weighs 2.73 pounds or the 16-inch LG Gram that weighs 2.62 pounds. 

Its screen is a 4K OLED display with a 60Hz refresh rate, surrounded by a narrow bezel that gives it a 92 percent screen-to-body ratio. The model is powered by AMD Ryzen 6000 and Pro 6000 processors that come with integrated RDNA2 graphics, allowing users to play modern games in 1080p. It also comes with 16GB of LPDDR5 memory that's upgradable to 32BG and either 512GB or 1TB of SSD storage. The device's 54 Wh 3-cell battery can last up to 10.5 hours based on the company's video playback tests and up to 8.5 hours based on its web browsing test results. 

Other features include an FHD (1,920 x 1,080) webcam and support for Microsoft's Pluton security processor architecture, which provides additional protection for Windows 11 PCs. In addition, the laptop has a fingerprint reader and a Noble Wedge Lock slot. Acer's first Swift Edge laptop will be available this month in North America for prices starting at $1,500. In Europe, Middle East and Africa, prices begin at €1,499, while in China prices start at RMB 7,999.

Amazon's Scout robot, a small machine that looks like a cooler and can navigate sidewalks, won't be delivering anybody's packages anymore. The e-commerce giant has shut down field testing for the experimental machine and is "reorienting" the program. According to Bloomberg, the Scout team has been disbanded and most of its 400 members will be offered new positions within the company. Amazon spokesperson Alisa Carroll told Reuters that the company will not be abandoning the project completely. Only a skeleton crew will remain to consider the use of autonomous robot for deliveries, though, and that could mean that it's the end for the cooler-like Scout.

Carroll said:

"During our Scout limited field test, we worked to create a unique delivery experience, but learned through feedback that there were aspects of the program that weren't meeting customers' needs. As a result, we are ending our field tests and reorienting the program. We are working with employees during this transition, matching them to open roles that best fit their experience and skills."

Amazon started testing Scout back in 2019 and initially deployed six units to deliver packages north of Amazon's Seattle home base. The machine can autonomously follow a delivery route, and though it was accompanied by a human employee for the tests, it can stop at a customer's front door and open its lid to allow them to collect their purchase. After that initial rollout, Amazon expanded its tests to Southern California, Atlanta, Georgia and Franklin, Tennessee.  

While Carroll didn't say which exact aspects of the program "weren't meeting customers' needs," this is but one of the recent moves Amazon has made that indicates it's scaling back its experimental projects. Just a few days ago, it also killed the Glow kid-focused video calling device, possibly due to lackluster sales. 

Binance temporarily suspended fund transfers and other transactions on Thursday night after it discovered an exploit on its Smart Chain (BSC) blockchain network. Early reports said hackers stole cryptocurrency equivalent to more than $500 million, but Binance chief executive Changpeng Zhao said that the company estimates the breach's impact to be between $100 million and $110 million. A total of $7M had already been frozen.

The cryptocurrency exchange also assured users on Reddit that their funds are safe. As Zhao explained, an exploit on the BSC Token Hub cross-chain bridge, which enables the transfer of cryptocurrency and digital assets like NFTs from one blockchain to another, "resulted in extra BNB" or Binance Coin. That could mean the bad actors minted new BNBs and then moved an equivalent of around $100 million off the blockchain instead of stealing people's actual funds. According to Bleeping Computer, the hacker quickly spread the stolen cryptocurrency in attempts of converting it to other assets, but it's unclear if they had succeeded. 

Zhao said the issue has been contained. The Smart Chain network has also started running again — with fixes to stop hackers from getting in — so users might be able to resume their transactions soon. Cross-chain bridge hacks have become a top security risk recently, and this incident is but one of many. Blockchain analyst firm Chainalysis reported back in August that an estimated total of $2 billion in cryptocurrency was stolen across 13 cross-chain bridge hacks. Approximately 69 percent of that amount had been stolen this year alone.