AT&T, helped by satellite communications specialist AST SpaceMobile, has announced the first two-way audio call using satellites with a standard smartphone. The initial call came from AT&T in Midland, Texas, to mobile carrier Ratuken in Japan on an unmodified Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone using AST SpaceMobile's BlueWalker 3 satellite.

The use of satellites could be a significant step toward increasing cellular access not only in the US, where large areas of the country struggle with service, but in developing countries too. Typically a mobile phone call requires nearby cell towers to provide service. Many areas across the United States, such as rural communities and national parks, are "dead zones" — yes, just like the eerie early 2000s Verizon commercials warned. The same technology could be a great solution to the same issues in developing countries. Instead, satellites could act as a sort of space-based network of cell towers — with AST SpaceMobile claiming it's "building the first and only space-based cellular broadband network."

AT&T aims to use satellites to provide global cellular broadband from 2G to 5G. "Achieving what many once considered impossible, we have reached the most significant milestone to date in our quest to deliver global cellular broadband from space," Abel Avellan, CEO and chairman of AST SpaceMobile, said in a release. "While we take a moment to celebrate this tremendous accomplishment, we remain focused on the path ahead and pivotal next steps that get us closer to our goal of transforming the way the world connects." 

It's unclear whether satellite access would come at an extra cost. In AT&T's original AST SpaceMobile partnership annoucement, the company couldn't say whether existing plans would include satellite coverage. 

AT&T is one of a few carriers looking to expand its satellite access. Verizon teamed up with Amazon's Project Kuiper satellite network in 2021 with the intention of connecting underserved communities and industries. Amazon is in the midst of launching its satellites into space, with its FCC license requiring at least half of the 3,236 they plan to deploy to be operational by July 2026. 

T-Mobile has also partnered with SpaceX, a major competitor of Project Kuiper, with plans to "start getting into testing" its satellite mobile coverage this year. There are currently over 4,000 Starlink V2 satellites in orbit, though some have experienced issues requiring them to be removed from orbit or tested further. T-Mobile has claimed customers should have satellite access through most existing plans and, like AT&T, that existing phones should work with the satellite offerings. 

While satellite offerings aren't available for consumers yet, this successful test brings widespread access one step closer to becoming a reality. 

Yelp has announced a bunch of updates across its site and apps, including a light lean into the AI trend. New features include providing a consumer guarantee, expanded review options and password-free logins. 

Yelp is utilizing AI and natural language models to further improve its search features. When you search for a specific place, like a tennis court, Yelp will suggest options and add a review with helpful information about going there — such as being able to book in advance. Further updates include showing you relevant businesses across the country and clickable tags like "Breakfast and Brunch."

If you're unsure what you're craving, their new "Surprise Me" button will suggest a well-rated restaurant in your area. It's available right on your search page and you can keep clicking it until something gets your taste buds excited.

Yelp Guaranteed is a new protection available for people looking to hire anyone from a plumber to a contractor. Customers who use Yelp's Request A Quote service can find businesses that are "Backed by Yelp Guaranteed" — it will display it right on their information page. If anything goes wrong after you hire one of them, Yelp says it will reimburse you up to to $2,500.

Currently, it's only available in select major cities like San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle, with just iOS users able to filter for it. According to Yelp, it should roll out nationwide and extend to Android and web users this summer. 

Yelp

Yelp is encouraging users to cover food, service and ambiance in their reviews, with each topic appearing at the top of the page. If you mention anything in one of the categories, it will light up green and have a checkmark next to it. You can also now add videos up to 12 seconds along with your review. 

The final set of Yelp's updates focus on the site's look and logistics. Just like with reviews, Yelp Connect — the paid option for business owners to share updates — now offers a video option. Yelp's home and navigation pages have also been refreshed to include easier access to restaurants' menus and ratings. 

This should all be a little quicker to access with Yelp finally offering automatic logins. You'll be sent a secure email the next time you sign in and, from then on, you don't have to worry about remembering your password. A lot of these are small changes but, overall, could make Yelp a bit more comprehensive moving forward. 

Apple allegedly plans to release a journaling app for the iPhone, The Wall Street Journal reported. The app, codenamed "Jurassic," would align with Apple's desire to expand into healthcare, with internal documents tying journaling to improved mental health. 

This app could act as a life tracker of sorts, analyzing what your typical day is like, where you go, who you interact with and when you differentiate from a standard routine. Supposedly, it might attempt to even determine the difference between who your colleagues and friends are, using a feature called "All Day People Discovery." It could work by picking up your proximity to other individuals, though it's not clear if they would also need an iPhone and the app. 

The comprehensive information Apple may collect isn't exactly new, but could be very obvious, with a personalization feature using the data it collects to suggest relevant journaling topics. Basically, it seems that if you bring your iPhone on a run, it will suggest writing about a workout. All data could apparently be stored solely on-device, with journaling suggestions automatically deleting after four weeks. 

If Apple does release a journaling app, it could be in direct competition with Day One. The feeling and activity tracker has spent over a decade growing to 200,000 premium subscribers — much with the help of Apple. It received a 2014 Apple Design Award and received repeated App Store promotions. Paul Mayne, its founder, told the WSJ that Apple's support noticeably dropped off about three years ago, leading him to assume it was making a similar app. Apple has previously been accused of creating its own versions of popular apps — also known as Sherlocking — or taking meetings with companies only to drop off and produce something akin to their idea. 

Apple has not publicly announced anything about the alleged journaling app, and likely won't until, at earliest, its June developer conference. 

The Apple Watch SE is back down to $219 again this month, just $10 more than its all time low. With a usual price tag of $249, the second-generation model is already one of the most affordable options out there for a solid smart watch. It has all the typical Apple Watch features, like crash detection, heart-rate monitoring, notifications and water-resistance. The second-gen SE also runs on the same processor as its elevated sibling, the Apple Watch Series 8. It doesn't have all of the Series 8's benefits, but its lower price makes it a more appealing option if you're looking for a simple way to dip your toe — or should we say wrist? — in. 

The current sale is available in the 40mm Starlight, Midnight and Silver small to medium models. If you're looking for something a bit larger, only the Starlight case and band are discounted to $219.

The Apple Watch SE's 44mm make also has a few sales going on, depending on what size you want. The small to medium model is $30 off in Starlight and Midnight — bringing its cost to $249 from $279. The sale flips for the 44mm medium to large model with just the Silver discounted to $249. 

If you do want a more advanced smart watch, the Series 8, with its faster charging and more comprehensive health tracking, is currently 18 percent off.  

With the number of Apple Watch deals on right now, it's a good time to look around and see which is the best smart watch model for you. 

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Proton has announced the launch of Proton Pass, a secure password manager it claims has a "more complete encryption model" than its competitors. This marks the security company's latest expansion after finding success as ProtonMail, its encrypted email service, and eventually rebranding as Proton with a Calendar, Drive and VPN. 

Last year, Proton acquired SimpleLogin, an email alias company, with that new team responsible for most of Proton Pass' development. The new password manager utilizes a 32-byte random vault key that only the specific user can access, another level of encryption at the item level, and the same sharing securities tested on their calendar and drive systems. Usernames, websites and emails can all be encrypted alongside newly created email aliases and notes — none of which the company can access. Proton bills itself as an "open source company," meaning anyone can inspect if their systems work as described. 

Proton Pass notably enters the market after the password manager, LastPass, was hacked last year, with bad actors accessing sensitive information like customer meta data and third-party integration secrets. The liability left more room for rival secure password companies — something Proton seems to be capitalizing on. Andy Yen, Proton's founder and CEO, made a not-so-subtle reference to it in Proton Pass' announcement: "We’ve always been worried about the risk posed by a major password manager breach, which unfortunately became a reality with the recent hack of LastPass." 

Currently, Proton Pass is only rolling out in Beta form for lifetime and visionary Proton plan members. Any eligible customers should receive an email to their Proton Mail account in the next week. Proton Pass should launch publicly "later this year."  

Atari wants everyone to game like its 1985 — just with better technology. The console maker has announced the acquisition of over 100 PC and console titles launched in the 1980s and 1990s from Accolade, Micropose and Infogrames. Atari's ownership and catalogue have changed hands a bit since its heyday, so the purchase includes a homecoming for some of Atari's IPs. It's also adding Accolade's trademark to its vault. 

The newly Atari-owned games include the Demolition Racer series, Bubsy and Hardball. “Many of these titles are a part of Atari history, and fans can look forward to seeing many of these games re-released in physical and digital formats, and in some cases, even ported to modern consoles," Wade Rosen, Atari's CEO, said in a statement. 

Atari is really gunning for a comeback, with a "multi-year effort to transform the company" and investments in IPs people care about (reimagined versions of Asteroids and Missile Command are reportedly in the works). Just last month, Atari put through deals for Nightdive Studios and the IPs of 12 Stern Electronics Arcade Classics, including Berzerk and Frenzy. At the time, Rosen called the games a "perfect fit for our strategy of commercializing classic retro IP.” The Nightdive Studios acquisition is notable not just for the games it provides, but for its technology. Nightdive specializes in remastering retro games for modern systems, while also improving their quality — exactly what Atari aims to do. 

With its latest purchase, Atari says it will rerelease already existing games on modern consoles and create new adaptations of past storylines. The timeline here makes a lot of sense: Nightdive specializes in doing this, so it's going to make that a lot easier.

Too often now it seems you'll be watching a movie or show only for the characters' conversations to be muffled by what's happening in the background. Sure, you can pick up the remote and raise the volume, but then everything increases, and eventually subtitles are needed to catch everything. Amazon is attempting to resolve this issue by rolling out a new Prime Video feature called Dialogue Boost, which lets you increase the volume of conversation relative to other sounds. 

It appears pretty easy to use as it lives right in the audio menu with Low to High boost available, depending on what you're looking for. Amazon also claims that Dialogue Boost should benefit anyone who is hard of hearing. 

Amazon

The AI-based technology works by isolating audio and enhancing speech volume in any scenes it determines that the background sound or music may overwhelm the dialogue. Of course, the tool is exclusive to Prime Video and, right now, is only on a select few Amazon-produced titles. You can test it out through any device with Amazon Originals like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Harlem or movies like Being The Ricardos and The Big Sick. Program to program, the details page will let you know whether Dialogue Boost is available. 

Amazon plans to integrate Dialogue Boost across more titles later this year. 

AirPods are known for two things: playing good audio and going on sale. Today, Apple's premium earbuds are living up to one of them in big way after Woot slashed the first-generation AirPod Pros back to an all-time low from $249 to $159. That's a savings of $90 (or 36 percent), but be quick because the deal is for today only.

If you don't care too much about having the latest model, this price drop puts the AirPod Pros around the cost of the standard third-generation AirPods. The big benefit of these headphones is their impressive active noise cancelling (ANC) feature, which makes them good for travel, but also calls. They also have IPX4 water resistance, so you can go on a nice Spring jog without worrying about sweat bothering them. Then there's the benefit of hands-free Siri access, so you can make calls, send messages and turn on alarms without having to dig deep into any bags for your phone. 

The first-gen AirPod Pros last about five hours per use and give you 24 hours of battery life with the case, which gives you the option to wirelessly charge. If you do happen to have some extra cash and could maybe spring for the second-generation AirPod Pros, Amazon has them priced at $200, a savings of $50 (or 20 percent).

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Two weeks ago, Netflix confirmed it was taking a rare opportunity to livestream Love Is Blind's season 4 reunion. However, when the time came, what was an exciting prospect became a source of frustration as technical difficulties led to canceling the reality dating show's real-time viewing.  

At first, subscribers were told there would only a few minutes of delay, but Netflix finally pulled the plug after over an hour. The streaming service soon tweeted an apology: "To everyone who stayed up late, woke up early, gave up their Sunday afternoon… we are incredibly sorry that the Love Is Blind Live Reunion did not turn out as we had planned. We're filming it now and we'll have it on Netflix as soon as humanly possible. Again, thank you and sorry."

The show is incredibly popular, with Nieman reporting it was 2022's eighth most streamed original show. The reunion, hosted by real-life couple Nick and Vanessa Lachey, checks back in with Love Is Blind contestants months after filming has finished. If you're not familiar with it's premise, the show follows 30 men and women who date each other over 10 days from inside pods that prevent them from seeing each other. The idea: Avoid letting any physical aspects weigh in on how they feel. All in all, it made sense for Netflix to choose Love Is Blind for a livestream but the streaming service just couldn't hold up the technical end of the bargain.

Frustrated users responded with calls for Netflix to lower its subscription prices and to resume shipping DVDs as it was more their "speed." Other brands got in on the fun — if you can call it that — with Paramount+ tweeting that it was "pouring one out" for Netflix's social team and Tile asking if Netflix lost the remote and offering to send a tracker. 

Early in the morning, Netflix tweeted an update alongside a photo of the Love Is Blind cast with a "promise" that the reunion will be available to stream today at 3PM ET. 

This was only Netflix's second attempt at live-streaming, with Chris Rock's comedy special Selective Outrage airing live in March. Netflix also owns the rights to stream the Screen Actor Guild Awards live on its platform in 2024. We'll have to wait and see how the company's next attempt goes. 

Sega is buying Rovio, the Finnish video-game company best known for creating Angry Birds, in a €706 million (~$776 million) deal. Though a slew of existing Sega games are available on iOS and Android, like Sonic the Hedgehog, the company is looking to "accelerate its expansion" into mobile gaming.   

Buying Rovio will give Sega access to Beacon, its "high-level experience" platform designed to improve and simplify game design, monetization and maintenance. Basically, its the accelerator Sega is looking for to bring it's current and future titles into the big leagues of mobile gaming. "I feel blessed to be able to announce such a transaction with Rovio, a company that owns Angry Birds, which is loved across the world, and home to many skilled employees that support the company’s industry leading mobile game development and operating capabilities," Haruki Satomi, President and CEO of Sega Sammy, said in a statement. 

Angry Birds truly was the definition of a "phenomenon." There was a time in the early 2010s when if you asked someone if they were playing Angry Birds, almost everyone said yes. In early 2014, Rovio said the Angry Birds series had surpassed two billion downloads, with 200 million playing the games each month.

Its popularity has certainly dipped in the years since, but that's not to say Angry Birds disappeared from the world's consciousness (Rovio has over five billion downloads). A 2015 movie inspired by the game grossed just under $347 million worldwide, though 2019's 'The Angry Birds Movie 2' dipped to $147.8 million, according to Box Office Mojo. Just last year, Angry Birds returned to the App Store for 99 cents as Rovio Classics: Angry Birds.

Rovio has yet to produce anything close to the success of Angry Birds but, with the deal expected to close "during the third quarter of 2023," it'll be interesting to see what comes next.