The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has a treat to celebrate the upcoming second anniversary of its launch. NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), which operate the craft alongside the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), shared a recent image of the icy planet Uranus. The picture, resembling a glowing blue marble rippling into a black ocean, was funneled through the telescope’s infrared filters to capture wavelengths future space travelers wouldn’t see with the naked eye.

Compared with the generic-looking images of Uranus taken by Voyager 2 in the 1980s, the Webb telescope paints a more vivid picture. Capturing light in the infrared spectrum, the craft’s sensors reveal a “strange and dynamic ice world filled with exciting, atmospheric features,” as the team operating the telescope described it.

The JWST’s image showcases the planet’s rings surrounding the planet, including “the elusive Zeta ring,” Uranus’ faint and scattered innermost one. You can also catch its north polar cloud cap, the white blob near the center.

NASA / ESA / CSA

The image also captures 14 of Uranus’ 27 moons, labeled in the photo above. Among the (mostly Shakespearean-named) orbiting bodies pictured are Oberon, Titania, Umbriel, Juliet, Perdita, Rosalind, Puck, Belinda, Desdemona, Cressida, Ariel, Miranda, Bianca and Portia.

The JWST’s photo uses four NIRCam filters, revealing detail in the near-infrared spectrum. These include F140M (blue), F210M (cyan), F300M (yellow) and F460M (orange). An image NASA shared earlier this year showed Uranus in only two filters (blue and orange), resulting in a more primitive-looking view of the icy giant.

Speaking of ice, Uranus has loads of it. The planet rotates on its side at about 98 degrees, plunging the opposite side of the planet into extreme cold and darkness for a quarter of a Uranian year. Oh, and since Uranian years last around 84 Earth years, that means, by our calendar, the planet’s dark side enjoys a blustery 21-year winter.

NASA / ESA / CSA

Astronomers believe the Webb telescope’s images will help them better understand Uranus, especially its Zeta ring, for future missions. They also view the pictures as a proxy for learning about the nearly 2,000 documented exoplanets in other solar systems that share traits with our ringed and icy neighbor.

Acura has opened reservations for its first fully electric vehicle (EV). Starting today, you can order the Acura ZDX at around $60,000 for a baseline model with a single-motor (rear-wheel-drive) powertrain. The first deliveries of the “performance SUV” are expected in early 2024.

The automaker said earlier this year it would shift to online-only sales of Acura EVs starting in 2024, and ZDX preorders appear to reflect that. The company said the EV is available through “a new, omni-channel digital sales process,” which buyers can use themselves at home, or receive assistance in using at Acura dealers (although the EVs won't be available at the dealership itself.)

The ZDX comes in two models. The standard ($60,000 and up) A-Spec variant ships with a 325-mile range, 340 horsepower, a rear-wheel-drive single motor and 20-inch wheels. Meanwhile, the all-wheel-drive ZDX Type S has a shorter 288-mile range but a more potent 500 horsepower, 22-inch wheels and a starting price of around $70,000. Parent company Honda describes the pricier Type S as “the most powerful and best performing Acura SUV ever.”

Acura

The EV has Android Auto, built-in Google apps and Apple CarPlay integration. It includes an 11-inch driver-side touchscreen, an 11.3-inch center display and a Bang & Olufsen audio system, which is standard. Its safety features include a rear pedestrian alert and blind zone steering assist. It even has hands-free cruise driver assistance.

The ZDX supports DC Fast Charging (and can add 81 miles through a 10-minute top-off). In addition, Honda has teamed with six other automakers on a project to build a network of 30,000 stations across North America. That initiative is expected to begin in the US by the summer of 2024.

Acura

You can order your ZDX in either model in Acura’s online reservations portal. Honda notes pre-orders will include a bonus Acura Energy Key Card, which can unlock “exclusive benefits,” including “discounts to Acura entertainment partners and special events.”

Agility Robotics shared a demo video Wednesday of one of its Digit robots upgraded with AI. Although that may conjure terrifying pop-culture images of sentient sci-fi machines taking over the world, the demo video reveals something much more pedestrian, if not boring. The bipedal warehouse robot ploddingly works to complete a slightly puzzling task without direct human control or detailed guidance. In the clip, it slowly but successfully interprets and executes the command, “Take the box that’s the color of Darth Vader’s lightsaber, and move it to the tallest tower in the front row.”

The company, which added a “head” and “hands” to Digit earlier this year, pitches the demonstration as a glimpse into how large language models (LLMs) can enhance its humanoid machines. It suggests it’s a natural fit, describing Digit as “a physical embodiment of artificial intelligence.”

“We created a demo space with a series of numbered towers of several heights, as well as three boxes with multiple defining characteristics,” Pras Velagapudi, Agility Robotics’ vice president of innovation and chief architect, explained in the clip. “Digit was given information about this environment, but was not given any specific information about its tasks. Just natural language commands of varying complexity to see if it could execute them.”

Agility Robotics

The clip shows Digit’s beat-by-beat inner monologue overlaid on the screen as the robot thinks its way through the task. For example, “I should find out what commands I can use,” “I should first assess the environment to see what items and locations are available,” and “Darth Vader’s light saber is red, and so the red box (box2) is the one I need to move. The tallest tower in the front row is tower4. I will first move to the location of box2.” 

After moving to the location of the red box, Digit continues. “Now that I’m at the location of box2, I should pick it up,” it reasons. It continues, “Now that I have box2, I should move to the location of the tallest tower in the front row, which is tower4” and “Now that I’m at tower4, I should place box2 on it.” Finally, it declares its work finished: “I believe I have completed the task, as I have moved the box that is the color of Darth Vader’s light saber (red, box2) to the tallest tower in the front row (tower4).”

Agility Robotics, which pitches Digit as sparing human workers from the most taxing physical activities, says it created the demo to “show how LLMs could make our robots more versatile and faster to deploy.” The company is building an Oregon factory to produce 10,000 humanoid robots annually. It has also inked a deal with Amazon for the retailer to test Digit in a Seattle-area facility. Fiction-fueled fears aside, the robots are much more likely to hurt humans by stealing their warehouse jobs than by shapeshifting, murdering innocents or reenacting other Hollywood-fueled dystopian nightmares.

Spotify is testing an AI-powered feature that creates playlists from text prompts. TikTok user @robdad_ posted a short clip of it, captioned, “I just randomly discovered Spotify’s ChatGPT?” For the chosen guinea pigs, the feature is available as an option under Your Library after tapping the plus sign to create a new playlist. The news was reported by TechCrunch, which says it received confirmation from Spotify that it’s testing AI playlists. It isn’t yet clear if the music streamer plans to launch it publicly.

“Turn your ideas into playlists using Al,” the feature’s in-app description reads in the TikTok video (while noting it’s only available in English). Above a chatbot field for custom inputs, it also suggests prompts. These include, “Get focused at work with instrumental electronica,” “Fill the silence with background cafe music,” “Get pumped up with fun, beat, and positive songs” and “Explore a niche genre like Witch House.”

@robdad_ \ TikTok

@robdad_ chose the last option. “Here’s your Witch House Exploration playlist,” the bot responded. “Swipe left to remove any songs you don’t want as you continue refining your playlist.” Due to video editing, it’s impossible to tell from the TikTok clip how long Spotify’s AI took to generate the tracks.

The resulting (Grimes-heavy) playlist included “Bloom for Me” by Pearly Drops, “Goth” by Sidewalks and Skeletons, “Pin” by Grimes, “After Dark” by Mr.Kitty, “Suffocation” by Crystal Castles, “Cold Touch” by Kito and GrimesAI and “chain” by Aziya and “Nothing Lasts Forever” by Sevdaliza and Grimes. I’ll leave it to the Witch House experts to determine if the AI did a good job.

In a statement to TechCrunch, Spotify was tight-lipped about whether the general public can expect to see AI playlists. “We routinely conduct a number of tests,” a Spotify spokesperson wrote. “Some of those tests end up paving the path for our broader experience and others serve only as an important learning. We don’t have anything further to share at this time.”

Drew Angerer via Getty Images

If Spotify eventually launches the feature, perhaps it could include it as a carrot to entice users to pay for a more expensive subscription tier. The company’s premium hi-fi feature, announced nearly three years ago, still hasn’t materialized after rival Apple Music added lossless audio without charging extra. Expanded audiobook access could be another perk to throw into a pricier plan.

Earlier this year, Spotify launched an AI DJ feature (powered by OpenAI tech) that talks you through recommendations. It does so using an AI voice trained on the company’s Head of Cultural Partnerships, Xavier “X” Jernigan.

Like much of the tech industry, the music streamer appears eager to incorporate artificial intelligence into its products. In addition to the AI DJ, Spotify CEO and co-founder Daniel Ek said in a July earnings call that the company could use AI to “contextualize and personalize content.” The Ringer founder Bill Simmons noted in May (first reported by Semafor) that Spotify was developing “a way to use my voice for ads.” The sports analysis podcaster added, “You have to obviously give the approval for the voice, but it opens up, from an advertising standpoint, all these different great possibilities for you.”

Earlier this month, Spotify conducted its third round of layoffs in 2023. It’s only the latest chapter of what’s turned out to be a devastating year of job cuts in the tech industry.

Cruise is laying off 24 percent of its workforce, the company confirmed to Engadget. GM’s self-driving subsidiary says it will cut approximately 900 employees, as first reported by TechCrunch and CNBC. The news comes over 10 weeks after an incident in San Francisco when a Cruise vehicle pinned and dragged a pedestrian who had initially been hit by another car. Earlier this week, the company parted ways with nine executives, including its chief operating officer.

“We shared the difficult news that we are reducing our workforce, primarily in commercial operations and related corporate functions,” a Cruise spokesperson wrote in an email to Engadget. “These changes reflect our decision to focus on more deliberate commercialization plans with safety as our north star. We are supporting impacted Cruisers with strong severance and benefits packages and are grateful to the departing employees who played important roles in building Cruise and supporting our mission.” 

A Cruise spokesperson pointed Engadget toward an internal email written by new President and CTO Mo Elshenawy, also published on the company blog. “We knew this day was coming, but that does not make it any less difficult—especially for those whose jobs are affected,” the message reads. The email says the layoffs primarily target non-engineering roles, including field workers, commercial operations and corporate staffing.

“We are simplifying and focusing our efforts to return with an exceptional service in one city to start with and focusing on the Bolt platform for this first step before we scale,” the email reads. “As a result, we are reducing our employee counts in operations and other areas.”

The news isn’t exactly a shock. Last month, Mary Barra, GM Chair and CEO, expressed plans for Cruise to be more “deliberate.” That included cutting expenses “by hundreds of millions of dollars” in 2024, a clear sign that the writing was already on the wall for considerable layoffs.

The tragic October 2 incident involved a Cruise vehicle pinning a pedestrian after another car’s hit-and-run. There weren’t any passengers in the autonomous vehicle (AV) at the time. “She was just screaming,” a cyclist bystander who tried to help told the SF Chronicle. The aftermath has been swift and decisive, with the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) suspending its driverless permits over safety issues. There were even reports the company’s AVs were unable to effectively detect children, a situation that obviously requires extra precautions.

The roughly 900 employees losing their jobs at Cruise join a long list of tech layoffs in 2023.

Proton finally has a desktop app. The Swiss company, known for its privacy-focused alternatives to the Google Workspace apps, revealed a Windows and macOS application on Thursday that includes Proton Mail and Proton Calendar. The desktop app is currently available in beta for subscribers on the most expensive premium tier, but the company says it will launch for all Proton users in early 2024.

The company says the desktop app has a modern design with a clutter-free experience. Proton views the move as providing a leg up over Google. “While many people use email on desktop in a browser, desktop apps can still provide certain advantages such as better offline support,” Proton CEO Andy Yen wrote in a press release. “For this reason, we have decided to launch a desktop app, something that even Gmail does not provide.” The desktop app now gives Proton apps on all major platforms.

Proton

In addition to the desktop app, Proton is launching several new features for all platforms, including auto-forwarding email rules. Messages sent this way will be encrypted between Proton accounts, and it supports unencrypted auto-forwarding to non-Proton accounts. In addition, Proton Mail now integrates with customer relationship management (CRM) and customer support software as the company looks to grow its footprint in the business world.

Proton says encrypting forwarded messages while maintaining the security the company brands itself on was an enormous challenge. “Messages sent between Proton Mail accounts are always end-to-end encrypted by default,” Proton CTO Bart Butler wrote. “But to maintain end-to-end encryption for messages forwarded to other Proton users presented a huge technical challenge. We needed to figure out how to re-encrypt messages for different recipients without the server being able to access the content.”

Attachment previews are also available for all Proton Mail platforms. Previously, you had to download email attachments locally before viewing them. It now lets you see them directly from the inbox with one click. Proton says it does so without compromising security.

Proton

You can also now snooze Proton Mail messages in another catch-up move for the encryption-focused company. In addition, it spruced up the Proton Calendar with searches on the web while adding public holidays. The company has had a busy year, also launching a native Windows file-syncing app in July and a password manager in April.

Before it officially launches early next year, the Proton Mail desktop app is available now in beta for Proton Visionary subscribers. That tier was previously locked to legacy supporters, but the company has reopened registrations from now until January 3. (The plan isn’t cheap, though, at $40 monthly or $360 annually.) Meanwhile, auto-forwarding is available now for paid users on any plan, while attachment previews, snoozing and calendar improvements are here for everyone with a Proton account.

An anonymous and inventive Nintendo fan has recreated the Game Boy classic The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening with a twist that separates it from the official 2019 remaster. The widescreen Windows remake adds high frame rate support and lets you zoom out to view a larger portion — or even all — of Koholint Island. But the game may not last long as Nintendo has a habit of crushing copyright-infringing fan games, even when crafted lovingly and offered for free like this one.

Spotted on X (alongside a writeup by Polygon), Link’s Awakening DX HD is a love letter to the 1993 original and its 1998 color re-release. The unofficial port recreates the quirky Zelda installment with 120 frames per second (FPS) support, which the developer describes as adding “unparalleled fluidity.”

The homebrew port also gets rid of the original’s transitions, which loaded a new screen every time you walked to the next one (old-school Zelda style). In this version, the camera pans fluidly as Links strolls around the island, something we imagine was no small task for the unnamed creator.

linksawakeningdxhd / itch.io / Nintendo

Zoom level, available in the in-game settings menu, lets you pan out to a 1:1, half or one-third pixel scale, allowing you to view as much as the entire island simultaneously. This isn’t a static perspective, either. Each visible section is fully activated (as if Link were on it in the original) and swarming with enemies. You can move around in the panned-out views, swinging your sword at Moblins and searching for the next task without pausing to consult a static game map.

The game’s developer posted the 90s love letter anonymously, likely to shield them (for a time, anyway) from Nintendo’s litigation-happy legal team. The 24 MB Link’s Awakening DX HD is a free download on itch.io, but we wouldn’t count on it staying there for much longer. Either way, you can watch a snippet of gameplay in the video below.

Etsy is the latest company to lay off staff in 2023. CEO Josh Silverman confirmed the marketplace is letting go of 11 percent of its staff (around 225 employees) in its first significant staffing cut in recent years. It’s also reshuffling its leadership, including announcing two executives’ departures at the beginning of 2024.

“After deep discussion and careful consideration, we are reorganizing our internal structure to more closely align our resources with our most important business priorities and better serve our customers,” Silverman wrote to employees. “As part of this, I’m sad to share that we must say goodbye to approximately 225 team members, reducing the Etsy workforce by ~11%. This decision was among the hardest we’ve ever made, and one that we have tried earnestly to avoid.”

The company is facing a consumer spending slowdown, as its leadership warned in its Q3 2023 earnings call in November. “There’s no doubt that this is an incredibly challenging environment for spending on consumer discretionary items,” Silverman said to investors last month. “It’s therefore important to acknowledge that the volatile macro climate is going to make it challenging for us to grow this quarter.” Etsy’s revenue growth had already stalled in recent years, with customers adjusting their spending habits post-lockdowns after a pandemic-era boom.

Etsy

Etsy’s CEO says Shein and Temu have also affected the company’s bottom line. “There’s no question that Temu and Shein are having an impact in the market,” Silverman said in the November call. “You don’t get that big that fast without taking share from many people.”

However, the two upstarts’ competition isn’t the only issue; Shein and Temu have also allegedly driven up Etsy’s advertising costs. “And the other thing that is happening is they’re spending a large amount of money on marketing, not clear that they’re using ROI thresholds to do that,” Silverman added. “And so I think those two players are almost single-handedly having an impact on the cost of advertising, particularly in some paid channels in Google and in Meta.”

Silverman plans to market the platform’s “quality, value and reliability” to help fend off the younger competitors, which specialize in cheaper goods. “I have great confidence in these plans, but we need the right structure and resources in place to successfully execute on them,” he wrote to employees.

The CEO wasn’t above talking a little smack, either. “We are the opposite of Temu,” Silverman said to investors in November. “If I had to think about what is the polar opposite of Etsy, I’d probably get pretty close to Temu.”

As part of the reorganization, Etsy’s chief marketing officer, Ryan Scott, and chief human resources officer, Kim Seymour, will leave the company on January 1. Chief operating officer Raina Moskowitz will now lead marketing teams, and chief product officer Nick Daniel inherits Moskowitz’s previous turf, overseeing payments and fulfillment teams.

Netflix has published the first of a new twice-a-year engagement report called “What We Watched.” The first installment, launched Tuesday as a Microsoft Excel file, lists the hours viewed for every title (original and licensed) that has tallied more than 50,000 viewing hours. Although it’s an uneven performance comparison since episodic series will rack up many more hours than standalone films, this is the first ultra-detailed glimpse at what people watch on Netflix.

The first spreadsheet, covering January to June 2023, includes 18,214 entries of eligible content. The first season of the action-thriller series The Night Agent: Season 1 sat comfortably at the top with 812,100,000 hours during that period. Following (far behind) in second place was season two of the drama Ginny & Georgia (665,100,000 hours). Rounding out the top five are season one of The Glory (622,800,000), the inaugural season of the Jenny Ortega-led Wednesday (507,700,000) and the limited prequel series Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (503,000,000).

The J.Lo action flick The Mother was the top-ranked movie on the list, raking in 249,900,000 viewing hours and falling at number 20 behind a glut of multi-episode series. Idris Elba’s Luther: The Fallen Sun (209,700,000) came in at 26, while the Chris Hemsworth vehicle Extraction 2 (201,800,000) slotted in at 29.

Netflix

In addition to hours viewed, the spreadsheet denotes each title’s release date and whether it’s available globally. For curiosity’s sake, the lowest-ranking globally available item on the list is the 2020 comedy special Yours Sincerely, Kanan Gill.

Netflix stressed the importance of not using total hours viewed alone to determine a movie or series’ impact. “Success on Netflix comes in all shapes and sizes, and is not determined by hours viewed alone,” the streamer wrote in its announcement blog post. “We have enormously successful movies and TV shows with both lower and higher hours viewed. It’s all about whether a movie or TV show thrilled its audience — and the size of that audience relative to the economics of the title.”

Netflix says the new biannual spreadsheets will combine with its weekly Top 10 and Most Popular lists to paint a more comprehensive picture for viewers, creators and industry watchers.

You can rev up Excel or Numbers and download the inaugural Netflix spreadsheet drop here.

Apple is adding a new iPhone feature called Stolen Device Protection that limits what thieves can do with a stolen phone and passcode. Created following a report earlier this year by the Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern, the opt-in feature is included in the iOS 17.3 beta, now available for developers. It works using a combination of location, biometric scans, and time delays, allowing victims to lock out the perpetrator and safeguard their data.

Stolen Device Protection aims to snuff out a common practice among iPhone thieves in public places, who watch users enter their passcode before snatching the device and bolting. In such cases, the perpetrator could reset the owner’s Apple ID password, turn off Find My, add a recovery key and factory reset the phone for resale before the victim can do anything about it.

For example, without Stolen Device Protection turned on, an iPhone thief with your passcode can use that to change your Apple ID password, locking you out of your device. This allows the pickpocket to turn off Find My, crucial to wiping the device for a new user. The thief can then sell the device at full used value, rather than trying to pass off an iCloud-locked brick for much less.

Photo by David Imel for Engadget

But with the feature turned on, the phone will ask for a Face ID or Touch ID scan if the user is away from a familiar location like home or work. It will also require a one-hour delay before changing the Apple ID password on the device. After the hour, it will still ask for a Face ID or Touch ID Scan before changing the Apple ID password from the iPhone. This makes life much harder for the thief and gives the owner time to report the iPhone as stolen, locking out the perp.

Stolen Device Protection works similarly with Apple security settings. Adding recovery keys or updating the account’s trusted phone number is another way iPhone thieves lock out the original owner. Like in other areas, with the new feature activated, the phone will ask for two biometric scans an hour apart if away from trusted locations.

Similarly, iCloud Keychain passwords, Apple’s built-in password manager, will require a Face ID or Touch ID scan. The passcode won’t serve as a backup for failed biometric scans when the Stolen Device Protection is turned on.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple plans to prompt users to turn on the feature in iOS 17.3. Since Apple only launched the update’s first beta today, the general public may need to wait at least several weeks before trying it out.