Amazon is giving you free access to Disney+ if you pay for its music streaming service, perhaps in hopes of luring you away from Spotify and Apple Music. If you're in the US and Canada, you'll get six free months of Disney+ with a new Amazon Music Unlimited subscription, which will set you back at least $8 a month as a Prime member or $10 as a non-Prime user. You'll still get three free months of Disney+ as a current Music Unlimited subscriber, but you can't get the free months if you already have an existing Disney+ subscription. 

While it's unfortunate that you won't be able to take advantage of the promo if you already have Disney+, it's a great way to try the video streaming service. Disney+ doesn't have a trial period anymore, and its current offerings include Marvel's The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, as well as Loki, which had the most watched premiere episode on the platform.

The first and the last time Amazon reported growth metrics for Music Unlimited back in January 2020, it said the service has reached over 55 million subscribers worldwide. It's unclear how much the service has grown since then, but it still probably has a long way to go before it can catch up to Spotify, which recently reported having 158 million paying subscribers. It might be nearer to Apple Music in size: Apple revealed that its Music streaming service had 60 million paying subscribers back in mid-2019, but it hasn't reported new numbers since then.

To redeem the promo, you can head over to its official page and pay for an Amazon Music Unlimited subscription from there.

Google has launched a new website called Find Food Support, which puts important resources on how to locate free and affordable food in the US in one place. Perhaps the most useful feature the website can offer is a new Google Maps tool that can point you to the nearest food bank, food pantry or school lunch program pickup site. 

As the tech giant explains, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated hunger for people around the world. According to Feeding America (PDF), 45 million people in the US alone had no reliable access to affordable food last year, including children who lost access to school lunches. That's a 30 percent increase from 2019. The non-profit has a slightly better forecast for 2021, but it still believes 42 million people in the country — 13 million of which are children, and 1 in 5 of which are Black individuals — may experience food insecurity this year. 

Google worked with No Kid Hungry, FoodFinder and the US Department of Agriculture to add 90,000 places with free food support across 50 states on Maps. The company said it will add more locations in the future. To use the tool, you only have to go to the website, whether on a PC or on mobile, and type in your location. It will then show you the nearest food banks and pantries with their addresses, phone numbers, and the days and hours they're operational.

Google

Find Food Support also houses YouTube videos showing how food insecurity affects people from all walks of life. The hope is to destigmatize food insecurity, since the stigma associated with getting help prevents people from seeking groups and organizations that can assist them in their time of need. In addition, the website contains links to food support hotlines, benefit guides per state and information for specific demographics and communities, such as seniors, families and children and military families. And in case you don't need food aid and want to help out, you can also find information on how you can donate food, time or money on the website.

We may have to say farewell to SoftBank's adorable humanoid robot Pepper. According to Reuters, the Japanese conglomerate has stopped the robot's production last year and is slashing jobs across robotics-related businesses in several countries. Apparently, there wasn't much demand for Pepper, and SoftBank only ever produced 27,000 units manufactured by Foxconn. 

Nikkei has also reported that Pepper's production was halted due to weak demand, but the SoftBank rep it talked to denied that the company is killing the robot entirely. "We plan to resume production if demand recovers," the spokesperson said.

While Pepper sold out in under a minute when it was released in Japan in 2015, the company only produced 1,000 machines for its consumer launch. Pepper was built as a social robot that can recognize faces and basic human emotions, so it can interact with people. Most of the units SoftBank produced are leased to corporate clients, and the company also placed the robot in its mobile phone stores in Japan.

With a price of over $1,600, though, Pepper a bit too expensive for most developers and small businesses. Reuters' sources said its sales suffered from limited functionality and unreliability. Further, SoftBank wasn't able to give the robot more features, because culture clashes between its French business in charge of robotics projects and its Tokyo management reportedly affected Pepper's development. 

After SoftBank shifted its focus to the cleaning robot Whiz, Pepper was sidelined. The company plans to cut about half of its 330 staff positions in France in September, Reuters said, and half of the sales staff positions in the US and Britain had already been cut.

It can be quite infuriating to find out that you can't access some episodes and movies you thought you were able to download on your device after settling in for a long flight. Now Netflix has launched a new feature that can prevent the scenario from happening. Starting today, the streaming giant will let you begin watching shows and movies even if they never finished downloading while you were connected to the internet, as long as you're on an Android phone or tablet.

Netflix originally introduced the ability to download content way back in 2016 to give you a way to watch whatever you want even if you don't have constant access to an internet connection. It's an incredibly useful feature, especially if you commute regularly and live in places where mobile internet isn't reliable. 

The company has rolled out a number of other improvements to the downloads experience since then, including the ability to automatically delete stored episodes you've already seen and replace it with the next one in the series. Earlier this year, the service also introduced a new feature that automatically saves shows and movies its algorithm thinks you'll like.

With partial downloads, Netflix will prompt you to download the rest of the title you've already started watching once you get back online. You'll also be able to find the show or movie in the "download" or the "continue watching" tabs. While the capability is only available for Android users right now, Netflix will start testing it for iOS in the coming months.

Google has discussed how Chrome version 89 has improved the browser's memory usage and loading times on Mac, Windows and Android in a new post on the Chromium blog. The tech giant says the browser is now smarter when it comes to using and discarding memory across platforms — for instance, it now discards memory that the foreground tab is not actively using, such as big images that you've already scrolled past.

In addition, the update is also shrinking the browser's memory footprint in background tabs for macOS, which Chrome has already been doing on other platforms for a while now. For macOS, in particular, Google is seeing up to eight percent in memory savings and up to 65 percent in improvement on Apple Energy Impact score for tabs in the background. Those translate to a cooler Mac with quieter fans. Chrome 89 now also uses PartitionAlloc, the company's own advanced memory allocator, everywhere on Android and 64-bit Windows. Thanks to that change, it has improved browser responsiveness by up to 9 percent, and it's seeing up to 22 percent in memory savings on Windows.

The Chrome team says new Play and Android capabilities allowed it to repackage the browser for fewer crashes and that it rebuilt the browser to be more stable for newer Android devices. It has also introduced a feature called "Freeze-Dried Tabs" to make starting up Chrome on Android up to 13 percent faster. Freeze-Dried Tabs work by saving a lightweight version of your tabs — it's around the size of a screenshot, but it still supports scrolling and zooming, and it keeps links clickable. The screenshot-like tabs show up when you first fire up Chrome and while the actual tabs are loading in the background, so you can see pages load faster than before.

Verizon (owner of Engadget's parent company Verizon Media) has expanded its 5G Home Internet service's availability, launching it in 10 new cities this month. Starting on March 18th, the service will roll out to parts of Cleveland, OH; Las Vegas, NV; Louisville, KY; Omaha, NE and San Diego, CA. A few days after that, on March 25th, the service will also be available in parts of Charlotte, NC; Cincinnati, OH; Hartford, CT; Kansas City, MO and Salt Lake City, UT.

The carrier launched its 5G Home internet service back in 2018, promising typical download speeds of around 300 Mbps and max speeds of up to 1 Gbps with no data caps. As the name implies, it doesn't need a cable or fiber hookup, just the company's "Internet Gateway" device that customers can set up on their own. It was only available in five cities for quite some time, because Verizon pushed back its broader rollout to wait for more powerful equipment to come in. The service costs $50 a month for current customers with eligible mobile plans or $70 a month for non-Verizon customers. 

Verizon has also recently announced winning between 140 and 200 megahertz of C-Band spectrum in every available market from the latest FCC auction. That'll allow the company to expand its 5G Ultra Wideband's availability, though only those with premium unlimited plans will be able to access C-Band's faster speeds.

Tiktok users in Pakistan won't be able to access the app yet again after the Peshawar High Court issued an order to ban the short-form video sharing platform in the country. According to Al Jazeera, Ary News TV and other local news outlets, the court made the ruling during a hearing into a petition against the app. TikTok had around 33 million users in Pakistan (out of a total of 100 million users) as of last month, App Annie told TechCrunch. After receiving the order from the court, Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) published a statement on Twitter confirming that it has issued directions to service providers "to immediately block access to the TikTok App" in compliance. 

Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan said TikTok videos "are peddling vulgarity in society," Ary News TV wrote, and that the platform hosts unethical and immoral content. He also decided that the app should remain blocked until TikTok cooperates with authorities after PTA told the court that it approached the company to have "objectionable and indecent" content removed to no avail.

In a statement sent to Al Jazeera, a spokesperson defended the platform and its moderation practices:

"TikTok is built upon the foundation of creative expression, with strong safeguards in place to keep inappropriate content off the platform.

In Pakistan we have grown our local-language moderation team, and have mechanisms to report and remove content in violation of our community guidelines. We look forward to continuing to serve the millions of TikTok users and creators in Pakistan who have found a home for creativity and fun."

This isn't the first time the app was banned in the country, which recently rolled out digital laws that give regulators the power to censor content. As Financial Times notes, the new laws require companies to remove offensive content, including ones that threaten the "integrity, security and defense of Pakistan." The first time TikTok was banned was before the new laws came out, though, after authorities decided that it hosted "immoral and indecent" videos. That said, PTA lifted the ban a few days later after TikTok promised to moderate clips according to Pakistani "societal norms" and laws. 

Google has announced three new ways you can help make Maps more informative and accurate, which would make it more useful at a time when people are checking out places online before they venture out of their homes. To start with, the tech giant is holding a nationwide challenge in hopes of encouraging you to leave more reviews for local businesses. 

Over the next month, you'll be able to join the "Local Love challenge" if you have an Android device in the US. You'll see the option to contribute towards a goal of updating 100,000 businesses when you navigate to the Contribute tab in the Google Maps app. Aside from being able to leave ratings and reviews, you'll also be able to confirm/update an establishment's information, such as its store hours.

Google

Google is also launching a new feature that allows you to upload photos of an establishment in Maps in the coming weeks. It'll enable you to leave photos of a place with a short text description — say, to show other people that a restaurant has outside sitting or that a place has altered its facade — without having to leave reviews or star ratings. You can see photos in the Updates tab when you look up a place in Maps. To contribute, tap the "upload a photo update" button in the same tab.

Finally, Google has rolled out the ability to report map changes with a desktop editing tool. You'll be able to add missing roads in Maps by choosing "Edit" on the side menu and drawing lines. The tool will also let you change a road's direction, realign and delete incorrect roads, as well as rename them if the info in Maps is no longer accurate. Allowing anyone edit Maps can be risky, though, so Google will vet contributed road updates before publishing them to prevent people from adding false information. The tech giant will make this feature available in 80 countries over the coming months.

A new bill aims to make high-speed internet more accessible everywhere in the US, including far-flung locations and underserved communities. House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn has introduced the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act (PDF), which will spend $94 billion to ensure that unserved and persistent poverty communities have access to affordable high-speed internet. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), co-chairperson of the Senate Broadband Caucus, has also introduced the bill in the Senate.

Out of its total budget, $80 billion will be spent on deploying broadband infrastructure nationwide, while prioritizing unserved and underserved rural, suburban and urban areas. Providers whose networks were built from that money will then be required to offer affordable plans to consumers. The bill will also authorize the spending of $5 billion over five years on a new program that would provide low-interest financing for broadband infrastructure build out projects. The Emergency Broadband Benefit, which provides a $50 monthly discount on internet plans for low-income Americans and $75 for customers on tribal lands, will get an additional $6 billion in funding. $2 billion will go to the Emergency Connectivity Fund for students that need internet connection, and a portion of the money will also go towards funding for WiFi on school buses. 

In the lawmakers' announcement, they said the legislation was a product of extensive collaboration between Clyburn's House Rural Broadband Task Force, Chairman Frank Pallone of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Senator Klobuchar. 

Clyburn said in a statement:

"Access to broadband today will have the same dramatic impact on rural communities as the rural electrification efforts in the last century. When I formed the Rural Broadband Task Force, our mission was to address the digital divide. The disparate effects of that divide have been amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic and exposed the urgency of ensuring universal access to high-speed internet. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House and Senate to enact the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act."

EA is looking into allegations within its community that some employees are selling rare FIFA 21 Ultimate Team cards for cash. The gaming giant generated $1.49 billion in net revenue from Ultimate Team mode, which allows fans to create their own teams, for fiscal year 2020. It's a major moneymaker for the company, thanks to people spending serious cash in an effort to unlock rare players from randomized packs. According to accusations that surfaced online, employees have been selling the most coveted cards directly to players from $900 to as much as $2,500, so they don't have to drop money on random packs anymore.

As Kotaku and Eurogamer note, some of the offers are selling coveted Icon cards, which include legends such as Ronaldo, Pele and Zinedine Zidane. They're selling Prime Icon Moments, special versions of Icon cards, as well. As you can guess, it's not easy obtaining those cards from randomized packs, and people have been trading for them or buying them from auctions. 

It's still unclear who's selling the cards exactly, but in a statement posted on Twitter, EA said it's aware of the allegations circulating around and a "thorough investigation is underway." The company added that it's aware how illegal sales "create concern about unfair balance in the game and the competition" and promised to take swift action if it identifies improper conduct.