Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter is "temporarily on hold" pending confirmation that spam and fake accounts do represent less than 5 percent of users, he tweeted. Attached to the tweet was a Reuters link reporting that Twitter estimated in a regulatory filing that those types of accounts represented 5 percent of its monetizable daily active users during the first quarter of 2022.
Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of usershttps://t.co/Y2t0QMuuyn
It appears that Musk may have some concerns about those figures, judging by the tweet. It's not clear what steps he and Twitter will take to verify them, however.
If you've been somehow disconnected from the internet (lucky you!), Musk is in the process of buying Twitter for $44 billion. He aims to quadruple the user base and has said he'll defeat spam bots, authenticate all humans and make its algorithms open source, while also championing free speech and walking back content moderation. As part of that, he said he'd reverse the Twitter ban on Donald Trump and other users.
However, some experts on social media content moderation have said that those goals conflict with each other. Facebook's former security chief Alex Stamos, for one, recently tweeted that Musk's ideals for Twitter may conflict with European laws, pointing out that there's "a large mismatch between the US and the UK's Online Safety Bill and EU Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Acts." Stamos also noted that Twitter is saturated in the developed world, so any growth "will require even more dealing with the challenges of autocracies and developing democracies."
Starlink's internet service is now available in 32 countries around the world, the Elon Musk-owned company tweeted. Countries and regions marked on its map as "available," including parts of Australia, Brazil, Chile, the US, Canada and most of Europe, can have their equipment shipped "immediately." The service has steadily expanded since exiting beta last year, with availability in 12 countries as of September 2021 and 25 countries last February.
Starlink is now available in 32 countries around the world. People ordering from areas marked “available” will have their Starlink shipped immediately → https://t.co/slZbTmHdmlpic.twitter.com/CecM1pkf5D
Starlink's map shows areas marked as "available" (light blue), "wait list" (medium blue) and "coming soon" (dark blue). The service has a potential near-global reach at latitudes below around 60 degrees north, but availability is granted on a country-by-country basis.
The kits recently rose in price and now cost $549 for reservation holders or $599 for new orders, and include a satellite antenna dish, a stand, a power supply and a WiFi router. Service prices also shot up from $99 to $110 per month. Users can also now add a portability feature, letting them take the kit while traveling, for an additional $25 per month fee.
The company is primarily targeting remote regions that can't get connected otherwise, to start with. It offers very respectable speeds of 104.97/12.04 Mbps (download/upload) in the US as of Q4 2021, nearly up to fixed US internet speeds. In theory, speeds climb as the company adds more satellites and ground stations. Latency is slower than fixed broadband (40 compared to 14 milliseconds) but far better than other satellite options including HughesNet (729 milliseconds) and Viasat (627 milliseconds).
Starlink has not been without controversy. Astronomers have complained that the thousands of satellites in its constellation have interfered with Earth telescope observations, and the company recently lost 40 satellites to a geomagnetic storm. In addition, Starlink's license to operate in France was temporarily cancelled by the nation's regulator ARCEP, with a final decision expected soon.
As workers at some of its Stores attempt to unionize, Apple is giving talking points to managers to tamp those efforts down, Vice has reported. It's telling employees that they could lose career opportunities, personal time off and work flexibility, adding that the company will pay "less attention to merit" in union stores.
The scripts have been given to leaders at multiple Apple Stores, according to Vice. Managers have used the scripts during "downloads," or employee meetings that start shifts. "There are a lot of things to consider. One is how a union could fundamentally change the way we work," they reportedly read. "What makes a Store great is having a team that works together well. That can’t always happen when a union represents a Store’s team members."
Employees of Apple's Atlanta Cumberland Mall Store were the first to try to unionize, hoping to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA). They've complained about relatively low pay for their region, difficult working conditions and limited promotion opportunities.
"Everybody deserves the opportunity to be able to not worry about whether they can afford food or pay their bills. Everybody deserves to be able to afford to live in the city that they work in," employee Elli Daniels told Engadget last month.
Apple didn't respond directly to Vice about the report, but repeated a statement it has given before. "We are fortunate to have incredible retail team members and we deeply value everything they bring to Apple. We are pleased to offer very strong compensation and benefits for full time and part time employees, including health care, tuition reimbursement, new parental leave, paid family leave, annual stock grants and many other benefits," it told Vice. Engadget has reached out for comment.
Apple has reportedly hired the same law firm Starbucks is using for its anti-union campaign and its talking point rhetoric resembles arguments used by Amazon and Starbucks during worker meetings. One Amazon union buster warned employees they could end up with lower pay after unionization, before walking that back under employee questioning.
However, research has shown that unions improve wages and benefits compared to non-union workers in the same industries, while also narrowing race and gender disparities, as Vice noted. The Atlanta union vote is set for next month, and other stores in Maryland and New York are also reportedly pursuing unionization bids.
Chatting while gaming on your Xbox One Series X/S can be fun, but party chat members' poor quality mics that let in every barking dog and blaring TV? Not so much. Now, Microsoft is doing something about it by introducing noise suppression to party chat in the latest Xbox update.
"We’ve enabled a new feature which will process your microphone input through a noise suppression step to help produce cleaner audio in your Party Chat session," it wrote in the Xbox blog. " The setting is enabled by default but can be toggled from the dropdown options menu."
The Xbox update also includes various fixes for audio, controllers, HDMI CEC, Guide and more. It's entering the alpha skip-ahead ring today, but should roll out more widely in the near future.
Teenage Engineering (TE) has unveiled the successor to its popular OP-1 portable synth sampler, the $2,000 OP-1 Field, which it calls "louder, thinner and 100 times better." That relates to the fact that it has around 100 new features including a new low profile aluminum body, internal FM antenna for both receiving and transmitting and a high-resolution flush display.
The OP-1 Field is the second of TE's "Field" products following the launch of the TX-6 mini mixer. The company notes that with the two working together, "you can get an incredibly powerful and ultra portable sound recording and performance system, all battery powered and rechargeable via USB-C." In terms of connectivity it offers USB-C, line in and out sockets, and a 4-pole audio jack for headset or mic support.
On top of the features mentioned above, the OP-1 Field has 32-bit audio Bluetooth MIDI, stereo throughout the entire signal chain, 24 hours of battery life, eight swappable tapes, four different tape styles, multiple recording formats and a new synth engine. It features a new speaker system with a passive driver promising "detailed, fat and loud sound," TE says.
In a short overview video (above), the company shows how to choose from multiple synth presets and record them to tape, with up to four stereo tracks (and infinite overdubs). You can use sampled or synth drums, adjust audio levels, panning, effects and EQ, then switch the active tape wheel and use multiple tapes to manage your recordings. The final track can be output by USB or using the new FM output module.
The OP-1 Field is a huge update to the original, but as mentioned, it isn't cheap. You can now order it for $2,000 (€2,000/£2,000 in Europe/the UK) on Teenage Engineering's website.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating Elon Musk's belated disclosure of his purchase of more than 5 percent of Twitter's share, The Wall Street Journal reports. The lag allowed him to purchase more stock without alerting other shareholders, something that may have saved him a significant amount of money. Musk is also facing a lawsuit from Twitter shareholders and a separate FTC probe over the same matter.
Musk disclosed his purchase of the shares on April 4th, 10 days later than the law requires. According to the WSJ's expert, he likely saved over $143 million by not reporting the trade, as the share price may have been higher had the market known about his stake. He eventually acquired 9.2 percent of Twitter, which made him the company's largest shareholder.
In his initial filing, Musk said he was a passive shareholder, but the following day he filed a form that showed more involvement, including an offer to join the board of directors. A week later, he submitted an offer to buy Twitter for $44 billion, which has been approved by Twitter's board. Musk has said that he'll unlock the "extraordinary potential" of the site and that the deal will be good for free speech.
Musk has butted heads frequently with the SEC over the past few years. In February, he asked a judge to overturn his agreement with the SEC that required him to get approval for tweets, accusing the Commission of conducting a "harassment campaign." That request was denied, as was Musk's request to block an SEC subpoena related to possible insider trading.
Musk was also hit with a class-action lawsuit over his Twitter investment. The SEC appears to have a good case against Musk for the late disclosure, but it's not yet clear what it plans to do. However, the lawsuit is unlikely to stop Musk's purchase of Twitter, according to the WSJ.
AT&T is launching location-based routing of wireless 911 calls to the appropriate call centers across the US, it announced. The company says it'll be the first US carrier to "quickly and more accurately identify where a wireless 911 call is coming from using device GPS and hybrid information." That'll allow it to route the call to the correct 911 call center (public safety answering point or PSAP) which can then "dispatch first responders to the right location faster," it wrote.
So far, wireless 911 call routing has been based on the location of cell towers, with accuracy often no better than 10 miles. The new system will be able to locate a device within 50 meters of its location, potentially reducing delays, particularly when a call is made at PSAP border areas where state, county or city boundaries overlap, AT&T said.
AT&T
AT&T collaborated with a company called Intrado to use its Locate Before Route location-based 911 routing feature. Intrado notes that currently, about 10 percent of wireless calls and up to 50 percent in border areas need to be transferred to a different emergency communications center (ECC), causing potential delays. The new system uses device-based hybrid data and dynamic routing to reduce the need for transfers, supposedly without sacrificing speed.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) launched an inquiry into the issue of more accurately transferring calls to the correct PSAPs back in 2018, so it's been ongoing for a while. The regulator also recently demanded that carriers start providing Z-axis location data (height), to help emergency services locate where 911 calls are coming from within multistory buildings.
AT&T's nationwide rollout is now available in Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Kansas, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Guam. It'll be available in other regions over the next several weeks, and the rollout is scheduled to be completed by the end of June, 2022.
Anker's Eufy brand offers some very affordable robot vacuums that just got even cheaper thanks to a sale on at Amazon. The most interesting model is the Eufy BoostIQ RoboVac 11S Max that's available for just $160, for a savings of $90 (36 percent) off the regular price. That's very inexpensive for a model that earned a spot in our budget robot vacuum guide thanks to its attractive looks and super solid design.
The RoboVac 11S Max is missing certain features like WiFi connectivity, which isn't surprising given the price. However, it's still easy to control using the physical remote that allows you to set things like cleaning schedules or change the suction power using BoostIQ or Max modes. It cleans both hard and carpeted floors with up to 2,000 Pa of suction power, and is pretty decent at avoiding collisions considering the price. It's only three inches high so it fits under a lot of furniture, and if it does hit something, it's quite sturdy.
If you do want WiFi or other more advanced features, the Eufy G30 Hybrid is on sale for $220, for a savings of 41 percent off — the cheapest price we've seen on it so far. It's effectively an updated version of the 11S with WiFi connectivity, giving you smartphone control via the Eufy app. It can map out your home using the Smart Dynamic Navigation 2.0 system, allowing for more logical route planning instead of random paths. It also offers up to 2,000 Pa suction and boundary strips to block off specific areas. The sale finishes in less than 24 hours, so it's best to act soon.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
Sony has heavily leveraged its camera expertise to create its upcoming flagship smartphone, the Xperia 1 IV, it announced. It offers a slew of innovative, image-oriented features including what it calls the "world's first true optical 85-125mm zoom lens, true 4K at 120fps, livestreaming and external monitor capabilities and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile platform chip.
The key feature of the Xperia 1 IV is the telephoto zoom that offers an 85-125mm equivalent zoom range, enough for sports, wildlife and more. Sony didn't say how it achieved that, but other companies like Huawei have used 90-degree periscope style systems to create optical zooms on smartphones.
Sony
On top of the telephoto zoom, has 16mm and 24mm lenses (35mm equivalent), along with a time-of-flight sensor, and all cameras use a 12-megapixel Exmor RS sensor with readout speeds of up to 120 fps. That allows the phone to record 4K 120 fps video, or the equivalent of 5x slow-motion at 4K.
Other camera features include real-time Eye AF and real-time tracking with every lens, along with an Optical SteadyShot system. All the lenses use Zeiss optics with a Zeiss T* coating designed to boost contrast and sharpness while reducing reflections. The front camera uses a new 12-megapixel Exmor RS sensor that's larger than on previous models, allowing you to shoot selfies with less light.
Sony also added some apps and software features to add video content makers. Much like on the Xperia 1 Pro, that allows users to manually adjust settings like focus, exposure and white balance, even while recording. It also features 4K HDR multi-frame shooting, allowing for videos with wider dynamic range without any loss of resolution.
Sony is also promising "the ultimate mobile gaming experience" with the Xperia 1 IV, thanks to a 120Hz HDR display with 240Hz motion blur and a 240Hz touch-scanning rate. It's powered by a Snapdragon Gen 1 Mobile Platform and uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon Elite Gaming to improve performance. It also has what Sony calls "Heat Suppression power control" that automatically reduces performance at high temperatures, "even during gameplay when connected to a charger."
It's designed to simplify livestreaming as well, as you'll have access to the Eye AF and object tracking features when using the Videography Pro mode. It can also be used as an external monitor if you're livestreaming from any compatible Alpha camera and when paired with Sony's Vlog Monitor, "users can livestream content by using the rear cameras," Sony said.
Other features include 5G with sub6/mmWave, WiFi 6E, 12GB of RAM, 512GB of storage with a microSD card and a 5,000 mAh battery. The price, as you'd expect from all that, will not be cheap. It's arriving on September 1, 2022 for "approximately" $1,600 to Sony dealers around the US, with the purple color available exclusively at Sony's website.
With every release, DJI seems to pack more features into smaller and smaller drones. The Mavic 3 that launched last year was a relatively small drone with a mirrorless camera sensor, pro video quality and more. Now, it has brought a lot of that technology to an even tinier drone, the Mini 3 Pro. It’s more capable on paper than the Mavic Air 2, a model more than twice its size.
At 249 grams (8.8 ounces), the Mini 3 Pro is light enough to avoid most drone regulations. But DJI has managed to fit in a sensor larger than most smartphones, and it can detect obstacles all around. Unlike the Mavic Mini 2, it offers 4K at 60 fps and 120 fps slow-mo, plus most of the AI features on the Mavic 3 like ActiveTrack, QuickShots and MasterShots.
Its tiny size and light weight makes it more maneuverable than the Mavic 3, and it’s launching with an all-new remote that has a built-in screen. The Mini 3 Pro costs between $679 to $910, though, so it’s one of the most expensive lightweight drones out there. To see if it could justify that price, I took it for a spin with help from my drone pilot friend Samuel Dejours.
Features
The Mini 3 Pro is so small that you can fit it, the RC remote, three batteries and a charger into a tiny bag. That in turn makes it ideal for travel, adventure activities and more. And as it’s under 250 grams, you don’t have to register it or have a drone pilot’s license in the US and other countries.
The standard Intelligent Flight Battery delivers up to 34 minutes of flight time, according to DJI, but you’ll need to take that figure with a huge grain of salt. We ran it to exhaustion several times and saw about 30 minutes max, with the return to home (RTH) warning kicking in after about 25 minutes. With a drone so light, those numbers of course depend heavily on wind and other factors.
If that’s not enough, DJI offers the optional Intelligent Flight Battery Plus that boosts endurance to 47 minutes max (while keeping the weight unchanged), something that’s unprecedented for a drone this size. Again, don’t count on achieving that figure very often, but even if you hit 40 minutes, that’s still incredible for a lightweight drone. DJI notes that the higher-capacity battery isn’t available in the EU and other regions due to local regulations, but it can be sold in the US.
To aid in endurance and keep it more resistant to wind, the Mini 3 Pro has a new aerodynamic body that tilts when flying forward to reduce drag. The redesign also allowed DJI to use bigger propellers to increase propulsion efficiency.
Steve Dent/Engadget
While the Mini 2 was completely lacking in obstacle avoidance features, the Mini 3 Pro has DJI’s APAS 4.0 system and can detect objects in front, behind and below, all with fairly wide sensing visibility. That system is key for mountain bikers and others who want to film their adventures in forests and other tricky environments.
DJI claims its 1080p OcuSync 3.0 RC video transmission works over 12 km (7.5 miles), but we found this to be a weak point in our tests. If you don’t have direct line of sight, it tends to lose the signal far more rapidly than the Mavic 3. For example, we tried multiple passes under a nearby bridge and it either nearly or completely lost the signal, forcing the drone to find its own way out. So if you don’t have line of sight to the drone, you won’t get anywhere close to 12 km.
The camera gimbal tilts down 90 degrees and up 60, more than double the Mini 2 and Mavic Air 2. The higher upward angle makes it useful to capture dramatic shots of buildings, cliffs and so forth. It has a relatively large 48-megapixel 1/1.3-inch sensor, bigger than the one on the iPhone 13 and only about 40 percent smaller than the DJI Mavic 2 Pro’s 1-inch sensor. It offers Dual Native ISO for improved HDR and low-light sensitivity, and a 24mm-equivalent f/1.7 fixed aperture lens.
Just as DJI’s Mavic 3 borrowed features from mirrorless cameras, the Mini 3 Pro has taken a page from smartphones. You can shoot high-res 48-megapixel photos or combine four pixels into one for 12-megapixel images with improved night sensitivity, just like on many smartphones. It has a two times digital zoom for 4K and four times for 1080p.
Video specs are impressive for a small drone, too. 4K and 2.7K are supported at up to 60 fps, or you can shoot 1080p at 120 fps. That compares to 4K at 30fps for the Mini 2 and Autel’s EVO Nano+, the Mini 3 Pro’s principal rival. Videos and photos are saved on microSD cards and there’s a small 1.25GB of internal storage.
Steve Dent/Engadget
Another cool trick is true vertical video mode for social media sharing. To maximize quality, the gimbal physically turns the camera sideways for both video and photos. So just as with a smartphone or camera, you get up to 48-megapixel videos and 4K video whether shooting in portrait or landscape modes.
If you’d rather not use a smartphone and the usual DJI RC-N1 remote, for an extra $240 you can get the Mini 3 Pro with the new RC remote that features a built-in screen. It looks and feels cheaper than DJI’s $1,100 RC Pro, of course, and the display isn’t nearly as bright or crisp. Using it in bright sunlight, we found we had to stay in the shade to get a clear view.
But the screen is large and usually bright enough, and it’s extremely convenient compared to the RC-N1. It makes shooting that much more easy and fun when you don’t have to take out a smartphone, connect it and so on.
It has power, home and a cinema, normal and sport switch on top. Photos and video are taken with the front triggers and the joysticks can be stowed underneath for travel. Unlike the RC-N1, though, it has separate triggers for photos and video. Hitting either trigger will automatically change the mode between video and photos, so you can avoid diving into the menus..
It has USB-charging and host ports, along with a microSD card slot for screen recording. Overall, it’s a nice addition to DJI’s remote RC lineup. The company has yet to say whether it will offer the remote separately or for use with other drones.
Performance
Steve Dent/Engadget
One big complaint with the Mavic 3 was that many key features like ActiveTrack weren’t available on launch and didn’t arrive until months later – too late to review them. Luckily, I was able to test nearly every function on the DJI Mini 3 Pro.
With its small size and potential maneuverability, the first thing we wanted to see was the APAS 4.0 obstacle detection and ActiveTrack following. To test those functions out, we grabbed a mountain bike and headed to a forest, pitting the Mini 3 Pro against a Mavic 3. The aim was to drive through some tree-lined trails and see which drone could keep up.
As we expected, the Mini 3 Pro destroyed the larger drone. It followed Nathanael with greater agility, avoiding nearly all trees. Only once did its sensors miss a small branch, but the minor crash didn’t even cause a scratch. That’s another benefit of a small drone – they’re less likely to be damaged in an accident. The Mavic 3, meanwhile, was much slower and often stopped completely rather than going around obstacles.
Steve Dent/Engadget
There are a few caveats with subject tracking. FocusTrack 4.0 and ActiveTrack only work at 4K 30p, not at 4K 50/60p or 1080 120p. Also, a feature that allows the drone to go around obstacles rather than stopping first isn’t yet enabled.
The Mini 3 Pro also acquitted itself well in various QuickShots and MasterShots scenarios. In one instance, while trying to use the Helix mode function, it detected an obstacle (a roof) and stopped. Those functions (Helix, Boomerang, Dronie, Rocket and Circle) all give you some cool shots to share on social media and worked flawlessly on the Mini 3 Pro, though quality was limited to 1080p. We also used the Hyperlapse function to create a nice time lapse video over a city at night.
Image quality
When it comes to image quality, the news is mostly good. By and large, the video was sharp and colors accurate, to the level of what you’d expect on a good smartphone. With a smallish sensor, the Mini 3 Pro is not at the same caliber as a mirrorless camera or the Mavic 3 though, of course.
I did have a few issues. For video, the automatic mode tended to overexpose bright objects, like a boat, so I had to adjust the settings to reduce that. In sunny weather, I found -0.3EV of exposure compensation worked best.
It does offer a fully manual pro mode to control color balance, shutter, ISO and more. However, most users likely will leave it in automatic mode and tweak the exposure compensation settings. You’ll have to be careful though, because exposure change transitions in automatic mode (when pointing at the ground then the sky, for example) aren’t as smooth as they are on the Mavic 3.
Where most lightweight drones are limited to 4K 30p, the Mini 3 Pro offers 60 fps at 4K for smoother video with fast-moving subjects. The addition of true 120 fps slow mo at 1080p is also a great option for birds in flight, action sports and so on. As mentioned, though, keep in mind that ActiveTrack doesn’t work in those modes. That’s kind of a shame, as high-frame rate video is just what you need for tracking action.
Movie files are limited to a maximum of 8 bits of color depth, 4:2:0 sampling and a 150 Mbps bit rate. Without 10-bit or log video modes, there’s not a lot of room to adjust exposure afterwards, so you’ll need to get it right the first time. It does come with a CineLook-D mode that helps boost dynamic range a bit, but you need to be in the manual Pro settings to use it.
As with any smallish sensor, low-light sensitivity is decent but not great. Shooting over a brightly lit town at night, Mini 3 Pro video was far less clear than a similar scene shot with the Mavic 3. When I tried to boost shadows to get more detail, I saw a considerable amount of noise.
Unlike with video, you can fix over- or under-exposed photos if you use the RAW DNG format. The 48-megapixel images are very sharp, and with the binned 12-megapixel mode enabled, RAW images retain extra detail in low light.
Overall, though image quality isn’t perfect, it helps to remember that this is a $670 lightweight drone. It beats all other models in that category, and is better than many heavier drones, too.
Wrap-up
Steve Dent/Engadget
DJI’s Mini 3 Pro is the new king of the lightweight drones. It’s well suited for adventure sports, nature, hiking and more, thanks to the impressive tracking and obstacle avoidance. It’s also a great camera for social activities and even pro shoots for weddings and events. Samuel, who does exactly those types of things, thinks the Mini 3 Pro and a Mavic 3 would make a killer combination for his business.
Its main competition is the $899 Autel Evo Nano Plus, currently the best lightweight drone available. It has a similar 48-megapixel 1/1.27-inch camera sensor, three-way obstacle avoidance, subject tracking, and more. However, battery life is only 28 minutes, it’s limited to 4K 30p with no 120fps option and doesn’t offer a remote with a screen.
With DJI’s name recognition and marketing punch, the Mini 3 Pro is likely to be a winner, sales-wise. Samuel and several of my Engadget colleagues have expressed interest in purchasing one – and they won’t be disappointed. It’s now available starting at $670 or you can get one for $910 with the new RC controller. You can also pick up a kit with a two-way charging hub, two regular batteries, two sets of propellers and a shoulder bag for an extra $189.
