Amazon is preparing to increase its brick and mortar footprint in a big way. The retailer plans to open several large physical locations in the US akin to department stores, according to anonymous sources cited by The Wall Street Journal. The new stores — the first of which will come to Ohio and California — will sell clothing, household items and electronics from "top consumer brands." Obviously, shoppers can also expect to run into Amazon's own-brand products, too.

While the sites are tipped to be around the third of the size of a typical department store at 30,000 square feet, they'll still be much larger than Amazon's other physical locations. The move sees the company expanding into an area it originally disrupted as it grew into an all-in-one online shopping destination. 

With their sales already plummeting, the pandemic sealed the fate of several high-profile department stores. The likes of J.C. Penney and Neiman Marcus Group have filed for bankruptcy along with other big names in the sector. Though some were thrown a lifeline when they managed to attract new owners. 

Amazon, on the other hand, has seen its fortunes skyrocket during the pandemic as it profited from an increasing shift toward e-commerce. Its booming business even helping to bankroll founder Jeff Bezos' trip into space.

Amazon's move into physical retail predates the virus, however. The company started with brick and mortar bookstores back in 2015, later acquiring Whole Foods for $13.4 billion in 2017. More recently, it opened cashierless Amazon Go stores in the US and UK. Not to mention its highly-curated Amazon 4-star stores and Amazon Pop-Ups inside malls.

The larger stores are apparently viewed as a way of letting shoppers try before they buy, which is particularly useful for things like apparel. That's an area where Amazon has historically struggled. As the WSJ notes, the only high-fashion label on its online store is Oscar de la Renta. It also lost a major seller in Nike in 2019, which decided to go it alone in e-commerce — a move that has paid off for the sneaker company.

Amazon's department stores would also allow it to showcase its range of electronics, from its Fire TVs and tablets to Echo speakers to its Ring home security range, and even its Luna cloud gaming service. Notably, big box retailers have shown that emboldened shoppers are returning to stores. Both Walmart and Target recently smashed estimates in their respective second quarters as sales rose across most categories.

Splitgate, a frenetic free-to-play arena shooter with portals, has become a word of mouth hit with 10 million downloads in under 30 days. Developer 1047 Games has announced that the game will remain in open beta indefinitely as it works on managing the sudden influx of players. As a result, Splitgate is no longer slated to fully launch this month. Instead, 1047 will continue to roll out updates and fixes to the game complete with new content and improvements to the backend that can facilitate the uptick in players. Queue times are now less than 10 minutes and a new Ranked Duos mode recently went live.

Splitgate injected the tired arena shooter with a much need blast of vitality by adding portals to the mix. Players can cast these wormholes around the map and even shoot opponents through them. It helps that it's free-to-play, contains a variety of guns and plenty of game modes (like Team deathmatch, Team Shotty Snipers and Team SWAT). 

While the game has been in early access since 2019, it exploded in popularity in the wake of its open beta launch in early July, which brought with it cross-play with Xbox and PlayStation consoles. According to 1047, the shooter went from an initial 4,000 concurrent players to more than 175,000 in a few weeks. Naturally, the massive increase caused backend issues. Splitgate was taken offline twice in recent weeks as the small 1047 team worked on server optimizations. 

In late July, the developer announced that it had raised $10 million in a recent funding round led by Human Capital on top of the $6.5 million it snagged earlier in the year. 1047 said it would put the money toward expanding its engineering team. The company also has a major announcement in store for Gamescom later this month as it looks to build on Splitgate's breakout success. In a recent Q&A session on Twitch, the developer reportedly mentioned that a Switch and mobile port of the game was "part of the vision."

“This has been the most surreal time of my life,” said Ian Proulx, CEO and co-founder of 1047 Games. “The fan support has been incredible as we work to improve the player experience. We never dreamed of having to scale this big this quickly, and as a result we have had to overcome challenges to keep up with player demand. We met several major milestones in a short time, creating a stable platform where fans can expect to find a server to play on relatively quickly, and I’m proud of what our team has accomplished - but there’s a lot more to come!”

Proulx continued, “In looking at the issues facing the scalability of the game’s backend, the process includes far more than simply dealing with server capacity. We are focused on keeping the game stable for fans, and iterating on the game’s concurrent capacity in order to minimize player wait times. We want to do this the right way, and we want to be prepared for massive scale when we officially launch, all the while continuing to improve the beta with frequent updates, additional features, and improvements to server capacity.”

Samsung's insistence on shoving ads into its stock apps has detracted from its otherwise stellar phones. If the pop-ups inside Samsung Pay and Music irked you, we have good news: They'll soon be axed for good. “Samsung has made a decision to cease the advertisement on proprietary apps including Samsung Weather, Samsung Pay, and Samsung Theme,” the company confirmed in a statement to The Verge. “The update will be ready by later this year.”

The move to cull in-app ads was first reported by Korean media who attributed it to TM Roh, president and head of mobile communications business, Samsung Electronics. In response to a question by an employee at the company's online town hall, the exec said that ads would go away in future versions of apps like Samsung Pay, Samsung Themes and Samsung Weather. Roh hinted that the reversal was made in response to user and staff feedback.

We were never fans of the in-app ads here at Engadget. In our recent reviews of the flagship S21 Ultra and mid-range A52 5G, we noted that the "lousy" ads in Samsung's Weather and Daily news apps felt "unpleasant and weird." It seems Samsung finally took heed of the criticism, especially from irritated users, and decided to ditch them altogether.

ASUS is updating its range of ROG gaming phones at a fast clip to keep up with the latest processor advancements. The new ROG Phone 5S and 5S Pro, the fifth and latest additions to the high-end lineup, pack Qualcomm's fresh Snapdragon 888+ 5G chipset, a beefed-up version of the base 888 found inside predecessor, the ROG Phone 5. It's not the first phone to get the processor, though. That accolade went to the Xiaomi Mi Mix 4. In fact, we knew the 888+ was coming to the ROG phone: Qualcomm listed ASUS' gaming handset as a partner earlier this summer, along with devices from Vivo, Honor and Motorola.

The processor itself promises a clock speed boost from a peak 2.86GHz to nearly 3GHz courtesy of its Kryo 680 CPU architecture. It also boasts a 20 percent AI improvement with up to 32 TOPS AI performance. All of which is to say it's a natural fit for a premium gaming phone.

ASUS

Beyond the upgraded chipset, the new ROG phones sport the same 6.78-inch 144Hz display, 6,000 mAh battery and triple rear cameras with a 64-megapixel main sensor as their predecessor. Additional updates include a more responsive 360Hz touch-sampling rate (which still doesn't match the 720Hz responsiveness of Lenovo's Legion Phone Duel 2) and a max 18GB and 512GB storage on the 5S Pro. You can also expect ultrasonic sensors for the AirTrigger 5 buttons and grip press detection.

According to Gizmochina, the two phones are currently only available to pre-order in ASUS' native Taiwan ahead of an August 24th shipping date. The 5S costs $1,077/$1,221 based on RAM and storage and the 5S Pro costs $1,365.

As part of its ongoing data breach investigation, T-Mobile has confirmed the enormity of the stolen information. Roughly 47.8 million current and former or prospective customers have been affected by the cyberattack on its systems, the carrier confirmed on Wednesday. Of that number, about 7.8 million are current T-Mobile postpaid accounts and the rest are prior or potential users who had applied for credit, the company added in a press release. 

Worryingly, the data includes some personal information including the first and last names, date of birth, SSN, and driver’s license/ID information for a "subset of customers." So far, T-Mobile said it does not have any indication that the stolen files contain phone numbers, account numbers, passwords or financial information.

What's more, the company said about 850,000 active T-Mobile prepaid customers also had their names, phone numbers and account PINs exposed. The affected users do not include Metro by T-Mobile, former Sprint prepaid, or Boost users and T-Mobile said it has reset the PINs on these accounts. In addition, it claimed that "some additional information" from inactive prepaid accounts was accessed through prepaid billing files.

The findings from the carrier's preliminary analysis come just days after it was notified of a data breach. Initially, it was reported that a member of an underground forum claimed to have obtained the data for over 100 million T-Mobile customers. The culprit was reportedly selling information of about 30 million T-Mobile customers for about $270,000 in Bitcoin. 

As part of its compensation and mitigation efforts, T-Mobile is offering affected customers two years of McAfee’s ID Theft Protection Service; recommending all postpaid users change their PIN; and setting up an online resource page. T-Mobile said that it began coordination with law enforcement on Tuesday as its investigation into the data breach — the third such attack it has suffered in the past two years — continues.

The FBI received a tip off about suspicious activity ahead of the Capitol Riot on January 6th from a surprising source. Elliot Carter, a recreational mapmaker, contacted law enforcement after his site about Washington, D.C.'s underground infrastructure witnessed a spike in activity from suspicious websites. His warning eventually made it to the highest ranks of the Capitol Police, according to a new investigation by News4 I.

Normally a mecca for local history buffs, the Washington Tunnels website Carter oversees was flooded with nationwide visitors in the days before the insurrection. A deeper review of the traffic analytics revealed that many of the clicks were coming from hyperlinks shared on anonymous message boards, sites and forums named after militias or firearms, or using Donald Trump’s name. Though the initial interest originated from the deepest and darkest recesses of the web, it eventually transitioned onto popular social media sites, including Twitter.

The Washington Tunnels website itself was a labor of love. Back in 2018, Carter set to work building his online resource of the District's subway and freight rail tunnels, pedestrian passageways, underground steam tunnels and sewage and water pipelines. But, even then he was rebuffed by some government agencies concerned by the security and terrorism risks that could arise from publishing such information online.

Carter's "online tip" to the FBI was mentioned in the US Senate Rules and Homeland Security committees' June 2021 review of the US Capitol insurrection. In a statement to News 4 I, the US Capitol Police said its leadership had been alerted "to the spike in website traffic regarding maps" ahead of the insurrection. But, added that its wider intelligence gathering "didn't reveal [that the expected] large-scale demonstration would become a large-scale attack on the Capitol Building."

Undercurrent is an upcoming immersive art event featuring audiovisual installations from around 40 musicians, headlined by Bon Iver, Grimes and The 1975, designed to inspire climate activism. Before the physical exhibition arrives in Brooklyn on September 9th, a digital sister event is today launching online that showcases 3D interactive music videos from some of the support acts. The Undercurrent digital platform includes original, unreleased music from Nosaj Thing, Mount Kimbie, Actress, Aluna, and Jayda G. 

Undercurrent / Jayda G

Again, the focus is on spurring change around environmental issues through immersive art. Each musician's work ends with a call to action, whether it be donating to or volunteering for a non-profit. The virtual event could also be a way for budding visitors to get a feel for the main exhibition. Or, for those still harboring trepidations about the virus to experience it remotely. Though, you'll have to make your own sustainably sourced cocktails and snacks at home.

As part of her contribution, Canadian house music producer and DJ Jayda G will showcase an 8-bit style video game about the importance of preserving agriculture. In it, players will be tasked with scaling a mountain with two paths to choose from, with the music matching the dystopian or utopian route you choose. The clip's partner is Kiss the Ground, a regenerative agriculture non-profit. 

Undercurrent / Actress

In another music video, this time from Actress, viewers will explore the depths of the Pacific Ocean to learn about the damage caused by deep sea rare earth mineral mining. Staying with the aquatic theme, Nosaj Thing's clip illustrates the importance of plankton and its degradation through ocean pollution and dumping. While Aluna's interactive video will see users transported from an apartment in a post-apocalyptic future to a surreal rainforest, where they can climb trees in order to reconnect with nature. 

Finally, Mount Kimbie's piece is from the perspective of a flying bee navigating through 3D worlds in a journey to find a lost flower to pollinate. Undercurrent's additional non-profit partners include Ocean Conservancy and Global Forest Generation.

Qualcomm is showing off the type of drones that could wind up being built on its dedicated Flight RB5 5G platform. The chip-maker has released a new reference design that contains all the latest connectivity and processing tech it has been talking up since last summer. That's the exoskeleton above, which is equipped with a Qualcomm Spectra 480 Image Signal Processor that can capture 200 megapixel photos and 8K video at 30 FPS. In addition, the drone can record in 4K at 120 FPS with support for HDR. 

At its core, the Flight RB5 5G platform uses the QRB5165 processor and Kryo 585 CPU and Adreno 650 GPU, based on the Snapdragon 865 CPU. The AI enhancements come by way of the Hexagon Tensor Accelerator in the Hexagon 698 DSP. Third-parties that use the platform will also get access to a trio of software development kits for neural processing, computer vision and multimedia applications. 

Qualcomm

As its name implies, Qualcomm's drone platform includes support for 5G connectivity — including mmWave and sub-6 GHz bands — and WiFi 6. The chip-maker says the networking tech can help support drone-to-drone communications and drone swarms. Both use cases are being explored across industries, from delivering and transporting goods to aerial light displays to military warfare. The reference drone is available to pre-order now, ahead of a late Q3 shipping date, at ModalAI for $400 sans 5G and $500 with 5G. Those interested will also have to put down a $1,000 deposit to reserve it.

On a macro level, Qualcomm will be hoping the dedicated platform can accelerate drone development by leveraging the power of its latest mobile chips. This is far from an experiment for the company. It threw its weight behind drones back in 2015 and more recently waded into robotics. Last year, the company combined both fields under the RB5 platform and now it's focusing its efforts on aerial UAVs. Giving companies a reference on which to base their drone designs could help get the wheels (or propellers) turning on its long-running project.

Like most consumer tech companies, Apple has seen its retail and workplace setup severely disrupted by the pandemic. (Its bottom line, on the other hand, has emerged unscathed.) The iPhone maker has previously been forced to temporarily close stores and recently delayed its return to the office as the virus has surged. In the latest sign that things are returning to normal for the company, Apple is planning to bring back its educational classes to retail locations in the US and Europe, according to Bloomberg. 

The sessions, known as Today at Apple, are expected to kick off on August 30th, though that roadmap could be delayed in areas where the virus is on the rise. Scouring its site, we found scheduled in-person classes at Apple stores in New York, California, Massachusetts, Washington and even states where COVID-19 cases are at all-time highs including Florida, Oregon and Hawaii.

Apple moved the events online last year. The last time it held an in-person class was in March, 2020, right before governments began imposing coronavirus-induced lockdowns. However, it reportedly opened its reservation portal on Monday to allow people to sign-up for the courses in advance. The classes range from iPhone photography tutorials to augmented reality workshops to music sessions to beginner coding guides.

Amazon is known for making affordable tablets that get the basics right. As of now, the retailer is offering discounts on a range of its own-brand slates that cut up to 33 percent off its biggest and best devices. You can grab last year's 8-inch Fire HD 8 with 32GB expandable storage for just $60, down from $90. If you want something larger and more powerful, the latest 10-inch Fire HD 10 (also with 32GB storage) is available for $100, $50 off its typical price. You should note that barring the Kids tablets (see below) these are all ad-supported versions of the devices and opting-out of lockscreen adverts comes at a cost.

Buy Fire HD 8 at Amazon - $60Buy Fire HD 10 at Amazon - $100

Buy Fire HD 10 Productivity Bundle at Amazon - $170

If you're looking for an affordable tablet for work, you should check out Amazon's Productivity Bundle, which is currently discounted by $100. With it, you get the Fire HD 10 along with a Bluetooth keyboard and a 12-month subscription to Microsoft 365 for $170. The latter gives you access to Office apps and 1 terabyte of OneDrive cloud storage for up to five devices. Though it's far from a true laptop replacement, Amazon's biggest tablet should be fine for creating and editing Work or Excel documents.

Overall, both the Fire HD 8 and HD 10 are suitable for browsing the web and social media, watching Netflix in HD and accessing Amazon's ecosystem of shopping, music, reading and video streaming services. On the downside, they come with a paltry selection of apps compared to iOS or Android tablets, including a lack of Google services like YouTube. 

Buy Fire 7 Kids Pro at Amazon - $60Buy Fire HD 8 Kids Pro at Amazon - $90

Alongside the regular Fire tablets, Amazon is also offering all-time low deals on some of its Kids range. The cheapest of the lot is the Fire 7 Kids Pro, down to $60 from $100, which makes up for its non-HD screen and lack of USB-C (micro-USB instead) with a bevy of parental controls and age-appropriate web and app content for kids. You get all of those pros, plus HD resolution and USB-C, for $30 more on the Fire HD 8 Kids Pro, which is on sale for $50 off. The last time we saw Amazon's children's tablets drop this low was in July.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.