NASA and Axiom Space have revealed what Artemis III astronauts will wear when they walk on the Moon. The Artemis III mission is currently slated for December 2025. It’ll be the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 touched down in 1972, and it’s poised to include the first woman and first person of color to walk on the Moon.

Axiom Space

The new spacesuit accommodates a wider range of body types. It's also more flexible than past suits, featuring lights and even an HD camera. The design can even handle the extreme cold of permanently shadowed areas on the Moon. If you’re disappointed not to see the iconic white of NASA’s older spacesuits, don’t worry – this is just the early prototype. The final version will likely be all-white when worn by NASA astronauts on the Moon’s surface.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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T-Mobile is buying Ryan Reynolds-backed Mint Mobile

For up to $1.35 billion.

T-Mobile has announced an agreement to buy Mint Mobile's parent company, Ka’ena, for $1.35 billion in cash and stock. Mint has run on T-Mobile since its inception as a mobile virtual network operator. The deal is all the more intriguing thanks to its celebrity rep, Ryan Reynolds, who is believed to own between 20 and 25 percent of Mint. He'll stay on in his creative role as Mint spokesperson. Mint was founded in 2015 and spun out from Ultra in late 2019.

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BMW's new Panoramic Vision adds a full-width display on EV windscreens

Expect it to roll out on models from 2025.

With its new Panoramic Vision display, BMW wants to bring that important HUD data to eye level. The company has announced a heads-up display that spans the entire width of the windscreen to give drivers and passengers all the necessary information without having to take eyes off the road. As the driver, you can choose what you want to see across the Panoramic Vision display, including speed, time, and current song playing.

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Samsung explains its 'fake' Moon photos

The company says its AI enhances details, but critics claim it's adding info that wasn't there.

Samsung shared a deeper explanation of its Moon photo detection system it has used since the Galaxy S21. The phone detects when you're taking a clear photo of the Moon at 25X zoom or above and captures multiple frames. It then uses a neural network to enhance the detail, using a high-resolution reference image for comparison. It’s that latter part that’s rankling folks. So are the images you’re taking fake? Well, Samsung is using the actual shot as a baseline, but the phone is producing photos that don't represent what you get through the lens. The company appears to be aware of this, too, as it says it's refining Scene Optimizer to "reduce any potential confusion" between taking photos of the actual Moon and augmented images of it.

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The 'BlackBerry' trailer looks funnier than you'd expect

The rise and fall of the keyboard-toting smartphone business.

When we learned that a BlackBerry movie was in the works, no-one thought it would be a comedic feature. But judging from the trailer it should have a lighter touch than films like The Social Network and Steve Jobs. The BlackBerry movie stars Jay Baruchel (How to Train Your Dragon, Goon) and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Glenn Howerton as Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, the former co-CEOs of the Canadian firm Research in Motion.

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Samsung’s $450 Galaxy A54 has a bright 1,000-nit display

And looks more like a flagship phone.

Axiom Space

It’s that quiet moment between Samsung launching its Galaxy S flagships and its other flagships that just happen to fold. So it's the perfect time to update its midrange A series and add to the chaos. While no major shakeups are coming from the Galaxy A53 to the A54, there are some notable changes, including a redesign more closely aligned to the premium Galaxy S family, with metal detail on the cameras, which now jut out from the back independently of each other. The screen is also 20 percent brighter, topping out at 1,000 nits. The A54 will be available to pre-order on March 30th before launching on April 6th for $450 – the same price as last year’s model.

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Meta has announced another expansive round of layoffs to cut costs. CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the company is letting go of another 10,000 workers and closing "around 5,000 additional open roles that we haven’t yet hired." This follows layoffs of around 11,000 employees last year. The company is reducing the size of its recruiting team and will inform affected employees later today. It’ll then announce layoff and restructuring efforts of its tech departments in late April and business teams in late May. Zuckerberg, who will soon go on paternity leave for his third child, recently described 2023 as a "year of efficiency.” He added in his note: "I think we should prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years."

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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Google is putting its chatbot AI smarts into Gmail, Docs, Sheets and more

The updates will begin for US users by the end of the month.

NurPhoto via Getty Images

Google’s catch-up with ChatGPT continues, and the company is bringing its own take on next-gen chatbots and AI assistance to, well, all of its Workspace products. According to the company, you’ll be able to "draft, reply, summarize and prioritize" emails, "brainstorm, proofread, write and rewrite" text documents, autogenerate images and even video with Slides, have Sheets create formulas autonomously and automate transcription notes in Meet video calls.

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Fitbit won't make you pay for your own weekly health data anymore

You'll no longer need to pay $10 a month to see information for the past 30 or 90 days.

One of our biggest complaints about Fitbit products is that $10 monthly fee to see your historical data. Until now, you could only see up to seven days' worth of your breathing rate, resting heart rate and heart rate variation, and just 90 days of everything else, without paying for a subscription. Today, Google announced it's making "more of the insightful data from Fitbit's Health Metrics Dashboard available without a subscription to all of its users." You can now check 30- and 90-day views of your data, without paying for it.

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It took a TikToker barely 30 minutes to doxx me

Kristen Sotakoun found out way too much about me in a consensual test of my online security.

In 30 minutes or less, TikToker and Chicago-based server Kristen Sotakoun can find out your birthday. “My first thing is to be entertaining. My second thing is to show you cracks in your social media, which was the totally accidental thing that I became on TikTok.” Sotakoun, who goes by @notkahnjunior, calls it “consensual doxxing.” Engadget’s Katie Malone offered her social media profiles up to the test.

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YouTube TV adds multiview streaming in time for March Madness

You'll be limited to sports during the early access phase.

YouTube TV is rolling out an early access multiview feature showing up to four sports streams simultaneously. Visit the Top Picks For You section and you can pick from pre-chosen multiview groups, such as NCAA March Madness games. There's a full-screen view for each match and you can switch the audio and captioning to the stream that captures your attention. The feature works on smart TVs and living room media players that run YouTube TV. You won't need a high-powered device as all the processing to YouTube's servers – your hardware only has to handle one feed.

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Litter Robot 4 review: A great but imperfect self-cleaning litter box

Would you pay $699 to avoid scooping litter?

Engadget

OK, I’ll say it: I would pay that much to avoid scooping up pet poop.

I'm not sure I want to continue reading.

It’s that quiet moment between Samsung launching its Galaxy S flagships and its, well, other flagships that just happen to fold. The perfect time, then, to update its midrange A series and add to the chaos. We’re going to focus on the Galaxy A54, but Samsung will also launch a similar, cheaper device, the Galaxy A34, in other regions like the UK.

While no major shakeups are coming from the Galaxy A53 to the A54, there are some notable changes, including a redesign more closely aligned to the premium Galaxy S family, with metal detail on the cameras, which now jut out from the back independently of each other. 

Mat Smith / Engadget

The display is now slightly smaller at 6.4 inches (the predecessor had a 6.5-inch screen), but it keeps the same 2,400 x 1,080 resolution. This year, however, Samsung has boosted the maximum brightness to 1,000 nits. That should be noticeable in sunlight and the company is going further, adding Vision Booster to enhance visibility when your environment is a little too bright. The screen also reaches up to 120Hz, though the variable refresh rate helps to keep battery life in check. It’s another gorgeous screen from Samsung, which continues to shrink the gap between flagship and mid-range. It’s only the bezels that kinda give the game away here.

Samsung has also upgraded the A54’s processor, running on the 5nm octa-core Exynos 1380 – the company’s latest in-house chip. Samsung claims that this should offer 20 percent performance improvement on CPU tasks, and 26 percent improvement when it comes to GPU tasks. While it was hard to push the phone to its limits during hands-on time, we’re hoping the A54 is a little more capable than last year’s A53. Samsung has kept the battery the same size as last year, which is a good sign: two-day battery life was one of the stronger points when we reviewed the device.

Mat Smith / Engadget

When it comes to imaging, It’s another triple-camera array for this year’s A-series. There’s a 50-megapixel main camera with optical image stabilization and an f/1.8 lens, which is flanked by a 12MP ultra-wide camera, and a 5MP macro camera. Samsung has also kept the 32-megapixel selfie camera for the 2023 refresh. The company says the changes to the camera system include larger pixels (more detail, less noise) and enhanced optical stabilization, from 0.95 degrees of stability up to 1.5 degrees – that’s a notable improvement, especially if you’re capturing a lot of video. Samsung has also embedded Snapchat filters into the native camera app, which you can see in the main image at the top of this story. It'll sync with your Snapchat account, giving you easy access to filters across all the cameras.

In the US, the Galaxy A54 arrives in two glossy color options: black and violet. Elsewhere, you’ll be able to choose white and lime colorways. A few of our images include the Galaxy A34, which has a notch selfie camera, a slightly larger screen and a hypnotic, familiar, pearlescent finish, which I think is actually nicer than the more expensive A54. However, only the A54 is heading to the US, which will be available to preorder on March 30th before launching on April 6th for $450 – the same price as last year’s model.

When Cowboy, a premium European e-bike company, invited the media to an event in Paris, France, it faced some unexpected challenges. Along with torrential rain, there also were strikes and protests against changes to the country’s pension system. And then the big reveal was… not a new bike. Instead, the announcement was three springtime color options for the Cowboy 4 and 4ST (step-through) plus Adaptive Power, a software upgrade coming to Cowboy 4 bikes this month. So when I met the company’s execs, I already had my question: Where’s the new model?

But before I sat down to speak with them, I was able to try out Adaptive Power, touring a few blocks and dipping down and out of Parisian car parks. Would this smarter e-bike (with the same motor) translate to any tangible improvements? Fortunately, yes. Adaptive power works by tapping into the e-bike’s accelerometer and other sensors, based on the rider’s weight, momentum and other factors – even wind. The new feature adjusts the motor’s power without the need for gears or tapping a boost button. The sensors also seemingly detect inclines as soon as your front wheel hits them, increasing motor assistance. The update taps into the same sensors and tech already used for crash detection.

Mat Smith / Engadget

According to Cowboy, the e-bike should offer equivalent battery life between the two iterations, as the motors will likely work more than the last version when the bike needs more power, but also work less when it doesn’t. If you’re riding an updated Cowboy 4, you won’t be able to return to the previous system, but using the app, you can choose between adaptive and eco modes, with the latter offering reduced assistance.

I was able to compare the C4, both with and without the feature, and the biggest improvement from Adaptive Power was how it kicked in at the perfect moment while accelerating from stationary. That’s not to say the Cowboy 4, pre-Adaptive Power, was slow, but it felt smoother and more responsive – it’s impressive for a single-gear bike. Previously, the bike’s motor would respond to your pedal pushes. This time it takes in more information to decide whether to boost.

While that was the most convenient benefit, there’s also a tangible improvement when tackling hills and inclines. With Adaptive Power, steep hills demanded a bit of pedaling but were surmountable. Downgrading to a bike without Adaptive Power – but the same motor with 45 Nm of torque – it’s a journey on the struggle bus. This was a common complaint from Cowboy 4 riders, with several saying that hilly environments were difficult to tackle, even with electric support. This new feature seems to address that, judging by my brief ride on the updated Cowboy 4. (If Cowboy is looking for what to improve when it eventually gets to its fifth-generation bike, this city rider would appreciate a more comfortable saddle.)

This update plays to the Cowboy 4’s design, too. Unlike many e-bikes, there are no controls to tap directly into the electric motor. It’s meant to look (and ride) like a normal push bike and that’s what it does. The Cowboy 4 is also, still, a few kilograms lighter than VanMoof’s latest e-bike, its most comparable rival. Both are premium e-bike options with similar pricing and features, but if you’re lifting your bike up stairs, or into buildings, it’s worth considering.

While Adaptive Power has been in beta testing with users before now, the official launch coincides with three new color options of both the Cowboy 4 and 4ST. While it’s an impressive way to upgrade the e-bikes of existing users – and do it without having to take it to a service center– these are the same bikes that first launched in 2021.

Until now, Cowboy has iterated fast, with new models arriving at a similar cadence to flagship smartphones. We reviewed its first bike in 2019, which wasn’t long ago. But there are a few reasons for the company to stick with the Cowboy 4.

 A lot of e-bike tech will not change hugely in the next few years. Barring incremental efficiency updates, the motor inside most e-bikes likely won’t see generational updates. I also wonder how existing Cowboy e-bike owners see the company's updated models, having spent thousands on an e-bike 18 months earlier, only to see it replaced so soon. So why no Cowboy 5? For Cowboy, CEO and cofounder Adrien Roose told me the focus is on improving quality, efficiency and all the things that come with scaling up to sell more bikes. The C4 and C4 ST both remain priced at around $3,000, depending on region, and the challenge is getting e-bike prices low enough for wider-spread adoption.

Mat Smith / Engadget

The company has opened up flagship stores in Germany, Belgium and France – the countries Cowboy is intently focused on, and where it sells most of its bikes. So far it’s sold over 50,000 bikes, globally. But while the C4 is available in the US (and being a company called Cowboy), earnestly targeting the American market remains a future challenge. Roose told me they’re in “learning mode” regarding the US. The plan appears to focus on keeping the company healthy and profitable. Roose added that he believes that Cowboy should get to that point by next year. Maybe they’ll celebrate with a new bike?

Last year, Elon Musk and T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert announced Coverage Above and Beyond, a joint initiative to bring Starlink satellite coverage to compatible T-Mobile phones and other devices. Less than a year later, during a panel at the Satellite Conference and Exhibition 2023, SpaceX VP Jonathan Hofeller said the company would "start getting into testing" its satellite-to-cell service this year.

Hofeller didn't elaborate on which phone carriers SpaceX was working with, but the timeline certainly tallies with Musk's original vision for the T-Mobile partnership. In August, Musk said Starlink V2 would launch in 2023 and " transmit directly to mobile phones, eliminating dead zones worldwide." T-Mobile said the eventual service would give the carrier "near complete coverage" of most of the US, including National Parks and mountain ranges. And maybe that one airport terminal where I never get a signal. We can dream.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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The best Android phones for 2023

From budget to flagship, we have picks for every price range.

Engadget

Unlike the iOS ecosystem, where Apple is the only game in town, one of the best things about the Android phone market is all the choice. That said, when it comes time to upgrade, that wealth of options can make it difficult to choose the right handset for you. If you’re looking for a new phone and don’t know where to start, we’ve got you covered with a selection of the best Android phones for every budget. Spoiler alert: the Pixel 6a is cheap and great.

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'The Last of Us' creators won't restrict 'Part II' to a single season

But will it be two or three seasons?

HBO

The first season of HBO’s The Last of Us wrapped up on Sunday night (read our thoughts on the finale right here), and the show's creators are already looking ahead to the challenge of adapting the second game. HBO swiftly greenlit a second season after the show became an immediate success, but that won't be enough to contain the events of The Last of Us Part II, as Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann confirmed to GQ. In the interview, Druckmann added: "It’s more than one season."

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Sony made a $600 point-and-shoot camera for the visually impaired

The viewfinder projects images directly onto a person’s retina.

Sony

Sony’s DSC-HX99 RNV is a camera kit designed for those with visual impairments. The system consists of a Sony point-and-shoot camera from 2018 and a viewfinder with a retinal laser projection system. The camera is a Cybershot DSC-HX99 with an 18-megapixel sensor and image stabilization. The HX99RNV kit will cost $600 this summer, so it won’t cost more than the DSC-HX99 camera on its own. In a show of support for the low-vision community, Sony says it’ll bear “the majority” of the cost to produce the device.

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Google’s latest feature drop brings faster Night Sight photos to the Pixel 6

Google is also bringing Magic Eraser and other features to older Pixels.

Night Sight, Google’s low-lit photography feature, is now faster for Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro users. The company chalks up the speed boost to “new and improved algorithms” for the Tensor chip inside the phones. Additionally, the company says Magic Eraser is now available on all Pixel handsets. The highly marketed feature scrubs unwanted people or objects from photos, filling in the backgrounds behind them (usually) seamlessly. It was previously a Pixel 6 exclusive.

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Netflix took home six Oscars last night, besting all the other streaming services, but a single film, Everything, Everywhere All at Once, dominated the biggest awards. It claimed three of four of the acting awards, along with Best Director and Best Picture.

Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front won Oscars for Best International Feature, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design and, perhaps surprisingly, Best Original Score. Netflix also claimed Best Animated Feature trophy for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, while Apple TV+ – the only other streaming service to win anything – claimed Best Animated Short Film with The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse. However, it’ll be a muted celebration compared to last year, when Apple won the first-ever Best Picture Oscar for a streaming service with CODA.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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Elon Musk reportedly wants to be his employees' landlord

He's trying to build a company town for Tesla, Boring and SpaceX workers in Texas.

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk is attempting to build a company town for Tesla, Boring and SpaceX workers. The mooted town, around 35 miles from Austin, Texas, would likely be called Snailbrook. The plan would encompass 110 homes next to Boring and SpaceX facilities in Bastrop County. The report states Boring employees were invited last year to apply for housing, with rents expected to start at around $800 per month for a two- or three-bedroom home. The median rent in nearby Bastrop is around $2,200 a month.

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Audi's electric mountain bike costs over $10,000

The two-wheel E-tron takes some cues from Audi's Dakar Rally car.

Audi

Audi is the latest automaker to dip into upscale e-bikes, with a pricey electric mountain bike that takes design cues from its RS Q E-tron E2 electric Dakar Rally racer. Built by Italy's Fantic, it combines a 250W Brose motor with a 720Wh battery, but Audi hasn’t announced the range or top speeds yet. Like other Brose-powered e-bikes, the ride has four levels of electric assistance ranging from a mild Eco through to the all-out Boost mode. The Audi electric mountain bike comes in three sizes, but you'll need to act quickly and have a large bank balance. The bike is only available as a "limited run" model priced at £8,499 (about $10,200) in the UK.

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US regulators will protect all deposits at Silicon Valley Bank

Companies like Etsy and Roku will gain immediate access to their funds.

US regulators have announced they're acting to "fully" protect all deposits at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). The institution is home to many startups and established companies, like Roku and Etsy, which will have full access to their funds as of today. At the same time, officials said there will be "no bailouts." On top of SVB, regulators closed Signature Bank on the weekend. It's one of the largest banks used by cryptocurrency companies, and Crypto exchange Coinbase had $240 million in deposits at the bank. In a joint statement, federal regulators said, "all depositors of this institution will [also] be made whole."

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SpaceX’s Crew-5 mission safely returns to Earth after five months in space

It was a trip for the history books.

SpaceX’s Crew-5 mission has safely returned to Earth. On Saturday evening, the company’s Endurance Dragon spacecraft splashed down off the coast of Florida, following a five-month stay at the International Space Station. The capsule was carrying NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann, Japan’s Koichi Wakata and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina. Not on the flight was NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who flew to the ISS on MS-22, the Russian Soyuz spacecraft that sprung a coolant leak late last year following an apparent micrometeoroid strike. The Endurance crew temporarily retrofitted their ride to carry Rubio in case of an emergency evacuation from the ISS after Roscomos determined MS-22 could only safely transport two people. Fortunately, there’s now a replacement craft at the ISS.

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Who’d have thought anyone would use Bing in 2023? By choice! Bing has crossed 100 million daily active users a month after the launch of its chatbot AI, according to Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's VP for Modern Life, Search and Devices. He said the company is fully aware it's still just "a small, low, single-digit share player," but hey, there was a time when Bing wasn't even a part of the conversation.

Around a third of Bing's daily preview users have been using its chat AI for their queries. On average, Microsoft is seeing three chats per session, with over 45 million chats since it introduced the new Bing. Microsoft took advantage of packaging advanced chatbot AI into its search engine, but dominant player Google is rushing to catch up: It introduced its own chat AI, Bard, last month. And as you’ll see from today’s newsletter, it’s been a busy 24 hours for OpenAI and chatbots.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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Raspberry Pi adds a camera for machine vision

It offers distortion-free capture of sports and fast-moving industrial processes.

Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi is offering a 1.6-megapixel global shutter camera module, providing a platform for machine vision, hobbyist shooting and more. Global shutter sensors with no skew or distortion have been promised as the future of cameras for years now, but so far only a handful of products have appeared. Like other global shutter sensors, the new Raspberry Pi sensor pairs each pixel with an analog storage element, so light signals can be captured and stored by all pixels simultaneously. The Global Shutter Camera is now available to purchase for $50.

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Grammarly adds AI-powered writing tools to its proofreading app

GrammarlyGo generates text based on contextual cues.

Grammarly is also getting into generative AI, with GrammarlyGo. Its auto-composition features help the proofreading software keep up with companies adding the ChatGPT API (or different generative AI backends) to their products. The feature can use context like voice, style, purpose and where you’re writing to determine its approach. So it can spit out email replies, shorten passages, rewrite them for tone and clarity, riff or choose from one-click prompts. The company says it will soon add the AI writing feature to its Premium, Business, Education and Developer plans – and free plans “in select markets.” The GrammarlyGo beta will begin rolling out in April.

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With the help of OpenAI, Discord is adding conversation summaries

And a chatbot.

Discord is partnering with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT. There’s a chatbot, obviously, but the company also plans to use machine learning in a handful of more novel and potentially useful ways. Starting next week, a public experiment will augment Clyde, the built-in bot Discord employs to notify users of errors and respond to their commands with conversational capabilities. The most interesting feature uses OpenAI tech to offer conversation summaries. When it arrives in a few servers next week, the feature will create an overview of chats you may have missed while away.

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Roku's first self-made TVs hit Best Buy stores today

They range from basic sets to more advanced TVs with QLED and Dolby Vision.

Earlier this year, Roku announced its own TVs; now you can pick one up at Best Buy. Roku Select sets range from 24 to 75 inches, and Roku Plus televisions come in 55-, 65-, and 75-inch sizes, all powered by its streaming platform. The Select TVs will start at $149 (with a potential drop to $120 this summer), and the Plus models below $500 – similar to TCL and other partners. You’ll probably be more interested in the Roku Plus series, which has QLED panels, local backlight dimming for better contrast, 4K Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos-approved speakers.

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Many Twitter users feared that the platform would fall apart after Musk took over Twitter in October and swiftly fired thousands of employees and contractors. That hasn’t happened yet, but links failing to work, yesterday, is likely connected to the company’s recent tinkering with APIs.

On Monday, links and images completely broke on Twitter for a spell across the company's website and mobile apps. "Some parts of Twitter may not be working as expected right now. We made an internal change that had some unintended consequences," Twitter shared on its Support account at 12:19 PM ET, Monday. It took roughly less than an hour for most of the social network to start working again.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk tweeted: "A small API change had massive ramifications. The code stack is extremely brittle for no good reason. Will ultimately need a complete rewrite." Twitter is restricting its APIs, the tools developers use to hook into the platform, and the company said it would start charging for access to them in early February.

Clicking on a link raised an error message that read: "Your current API plan does not include access to this endpoint, please see https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/twitter-api for more information." That link was also broken for a while.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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Microsoft is holding a 'future of work' AI event on March 16th

You may see OpenAI technology powering Microsoft's business services.

Now everyone is excited about something Microsoft is working on, the company is going hard on events. It’s holding another AI event, focused on what it says is “the future of work.” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Microsoft 365 lead Jared Spataro will host the presentation. A leak from The Verge suggests Microsoft may introduce AI-equipped versions of Microsoft 365 apps like Outlook and Word. While the exact functionality isn't known, The Information claims Outlook could use AI to improve search results and suggest email replies.

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Nothing will show off the Ear 2 earbuds on March 22nd

Not sure bugs and in-ear buds should be associated, though.

Nothing

Those looking for more details on Nothing's next earphones won't have to wait much longer. The company will reveal the Ear 2 on March 22nd. The latest teaser image suggests the transparent aesthetic will continue in the follow-up headphones, with an image showing a beetle pushing what appears to be a charging case out of frame.

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Microsoft’s Outlook is now free to use for Macs

You now have another major alternative to the built-in Mail app.

Microsoft is staying busy this week. It has made Outlook for Mac free to use. You previously needed either a Microsoft 365 subscription or an Office purchase to use the email client. It's available now through the Mac App Store. Microsoft pitches this as a good complement to Outlook for iOS, as you can now hand off an email draft to your iPhone if you haven't finished writing it on your Mac.

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Honda's latest autonomous robot packs things around construction sites

Asimo was cuter.

Honda

Honda is known for its vehicles and robots, and over the last few years, it has tried combining those two things with the Autonomous Work Vehicle (AWV). It just unveiled a new third generation, designed to transport up to two palettes worth of goods around worksites with no human assistance. Compared to the second generation, the latest AWV has a larger bed size (two pallets) and higher capacity (2,000 pounds); a higher self-driving speed of up to 10 MPH; a larger battery for up to 10 hours and 28 miles of endurance. Honda says the AWV will allow construction and other companies to address issues like labor shortages and worksite transport. After extensively testing the last model, it said the AWV 3.0 is now ready for field trials.

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FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried may be stuck using a feature phone. In a letter seen by Bloomberg, prosecutors said Bankman-Fried’s lawyers had agreed to modify the terms of his bail agreement. Provided the judge overseeing the case agrees to the changes, SBF will be restricted to using a “non-smartphone” without internet connectivity. Unless a lawyer is present, he will also be forbidden from contacting current or former FTX and Alameda Research employees. The proposed restrictions came after Bankman-Fried allegedly attempted to contact the general counsel of FTX’s US subsidiary over Signal at the start of the year. District Judge Lewis Kaplan threatened to revoke Bankman-Fried’s bail and send him to jail before the start of his trial after learning the disgraced entrepreneur may have influenced potential witnesses.

Under the modified bail agreement, SBF would be allowed to use a laptop to surf the web, but his access would be filtered through a VPN that would limit him to two categories of websites. One category would include resources his defense team says are critical to his case. The other has 23 websites SBF could use to order food, read the news and watch streaming content.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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Amazon is shutting down some of its cashier-less Go stores

It’s paused construction on its second headquarters, too.

Amazon is closing down two cashierless Go stores in New York City, two in Seattle and four in San Francisco on April 1st, according to multiple reports. Bloomberg noted these are part of Amazon's latest cost-cutting moves amid slowing sales growth. In January, the company expanded its planned job cuts from 10,000 to 18,000 positions. Company spokesperson Jessica Martin said: "We remain committed to the Amazon Go format, operate more than 20 Amazon Go stores across the US and will continue to learn which locations and features resonate most with customers."

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Tesla slashes Model S and X US prices by up to $10,000

It's the second big price cut on those models this year.

Tesla has cut the prices of its high-end Model S and Model X electric cars by $5,000 and $10,000, respectively, according to changes on its website seen by TechCrunch. It's the second time this year the company has chopped prices, so the Model X has dropped $21,000 from $120,990 at the beginning of the year to just $99,990 currently. The Model S, meanwhile, has fallen from $104,990 to $89,990 since January 1st – a steep $15,000 reduction. However, neither car qualifies for Federal Tax rebates set to expire later this month, as those only apply to SUVs priced below $80,000.

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Amazon offers Mar10 Day sale discounts on popular Nintendo Switch games early

If you don’t already own 'Mario Kart 8 Deluxe,' it’s 35 percent off.

Super Mario celebration/sales opportunity, March 10th (Mar10) might not be for another few days, but that’s not stopping retailers like Amazon from offering Mario Day deals early. Ahead of Friday, the company has discounted a handful of Nintendo Switch titles that feature the mustachioed plumber. For instance, Super Mario Odyssey is 33 percent off, making it $40 at the moment. Meanwhile, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is $39 currently, down from $60.

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Razer Edge review

A new breed of gaming handheld.

Engadget

With the rise of cloud gaming, there's a newer breed of mobile machines, like the Razer Edge, trying to make things even more travel friendly. Instead of relying solely on local performance, the Edge runs Android for lightweight apps, while services like GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud gaming provide the computing power for more demanding titles. But is the Razer Edge something you really need?

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Neuralink’s efforts to bring a brain-computer interface still have a way to go. According to a new report from Reuters, Elon Musk’s startup was apparently denied authorization by the FDA in 2022 to conduct human trials using the same devices that, well, killed 1,500 animals. Those tests, according to internal reports, lead to needless suffering and death of test subjects.

Current and former Neuralink employees told Reuters: "The agency’s major safety concerns involved the device’s lithium battery; the potential for the implant’s tiny wires to migrate to other areas of the brain; and questions over whether and how the device can be removed without damaging brain tissue."

The FDA is concerned that, because of the minuscule size of the electrical leads, they are at risk of breaking off during removal (or even during use). At Neuralink's open house last November, Musk claimed the company would secure FDA approval "within six months," basically by this spring. That’s looking increasingly unlikely.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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Ooni reveals its first indoor pizza oven

We don’t all have gardens.

Ooni

I'm sick of winter, but I love pizza, okay? Ooni is one of the biggest names in the pizza oven game. The company has a full line of models that use wood, charcoal or gas to give you the hot-and-fast pizzeria experience in minutes. Ooni promises high-heat cooking for Neapolitan-style pizza, plus the ability to bake other styles, bread and even sear steaks with its ovens. Until now, all of the company's products have been made for outdoor use, but today it's debuting its first indoor model: the $999 Volt 12. Taking design cues from the high-end Karu 16, the Volt 12 is also Ooni's first all-electric pizza oven. The company says you can use it indoors or outside thanks to "advanced" insulation and powder-coated carbon steel exterior that retains heat and withstands the weather.

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Microsoft gives Bing's AI chatbot personality options

You can make the chatbot more entertaining or direct.

Microsoft’s web services chief Mikhail Parakhin has revealed that 90 percent of Bing preview testers should see a toggle that changes the chatbot's responses. A Creative option allows for more "original and imaginative" answers, while a Precise switch emphasizes shorter, to-the-point replies. There's also a Balanced setting, somewhere between the two. The company reined in the Bing AI's responses after early users noticed strange behavior during long chats and 'entertainment' sessions. As The Verge noted, the restrictions irked some users as the chatbot would simply decline to answer some questions.

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Ford will restart F-150 Lightning production on March 13th

It paused work after a battery issue caused one of the electric trucks to catch fire.

Ford says it’s aiming to restart production of the F-150 Lightning on March 13th, several weeks after it put the EV on hold. It paused production and sent a stop-shipment order to dealers after a battery issue caused a truck to catch fire in a holding lot on February 4th. It’s unclear what exactly led to the fire or how Ford has resolved the problem, though the company has said there's no indication a charging fault was to blame. Since it initially started F-150 Lightning production last April, Ford has sold fewer than 20,000 of the EV. But it’s very much in demand: Ford initially capped reservations at 200,000 in 2021 before reopening them last August. And a reminder: The F-Series has been America’s best-selling vehicle for 41 years.

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