Amazon is pausing construction on its second headquarters in Arlington, VA. The company tied the decision to “a reassessment of office needs to account for remote work,” although the move came months after the retailer laid off around 18,000 workers.

The online retailer confirmed the move to Bloomberg while insisting it’s still committed to the second headquarters (HQ2) in the Washington, DC suburb, where it has committed to hiring 25,000 workers and spending $2.5 billion. Amazon has already hired more than 8,000 people while completing the first phase of the new campus, including two towers in the 2.1-million-square-foot Metropolitan Park. The suspension affects development on PenPlace, a larger area across the street where it plans to build three 22-story office towers, a 350-ft corporate conference center and an indoor garden. In addition, the delay could have a ripple effect on the area as local developers, construction workers and other businesses have set plans in motion based on Amazon’s timeline.

“We’re always evaluating space plans to make sure they fit our business needs and to create a great experience for employees,” said Amazon real estate chief John Schoettler. “And since Met Park will have space to accommodate more than 14,000 employees, we’ve decided to shift the groundbreaking of PenPlace out a bit.” 

Amazon’s county-approved plans require it to meet construction and permitting goals by April 2025 unless it gets an official extension.

The company settled on the Arlington offices after its hyped nationwide search for a second headquarters in 2017. Critics panned the move as a stunt to start a bidding war over who could offer the mega-corporation the juiciest taxpayer-funded incentives. Amazon initially settled on a split between Queens, NY and Northern Virginia but withdrew from Queens after facing opposition from local politicians and officials, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who objected to the nearly $3 billion in financial kickbacks the company was set to receive. Around 10 months after Amazon withdrew its New York plans, the company announced it would still build new offices in the Hudson Yards neighborhood of Manhattan’s West Side.

Alienware announced a slew of revamped PC gaming peripherals today in a Twitch livestream. In addition, it revealed pricing and release info for its latest laptops from CES.

First, the mechanical Alienware Tri-Mode Wireless Gaming Keyboard lets you connect in three ways: a 2.4GHz wireless USB-C dongle (including a dongle extender), Bluetooth 5.1 or a detachable USB-A to USB-C paracord cable.​ The keyboard uses Cherry MX Red switches (with a 100 million actuation lifecycle), a programmable rocker switch and dial, anti-ghosting and N-key rollover. The keyboard starts at $290 and launches in the US and China on April 14th and the rest of the world on May 19th.

Alienware

The wired Tenkeyless Gaming Keyboard is a slimmer and more compact mechanical model. It also uses Cherry MX Red switches, double-shot PBT keycaps, anti-ghosting and N-key rollover. The keyboard has an integrated cable routing on its underside that lets you position it toward the left, right or center, depending on your setup (and the USB cable is detachable). It supports per-key RGB lighting in 16.8 million colors. It’s available today for $160.

Alienware also announced the Dual-Mode Wireless Gaming Headset, which connects to your PC with a bundled USB-C dongle or 3.5mm audio cable. It has a 45mm-wide headband with a sliding adjustment and memory foam ear cups covered in fabric. Alienware says it’s plenty roomy inside with “comfortable contact points with your head.” It includes a retractable boom mic and can cancel out background noise for your audience while you’re speaking (not to be confused with active noise cancelation, which it doesn’t have). In addition, the headset uses 40mm drivers and supports Dolby Atmos. Finally, the company says its battery will last up to 30 hours. The headset is available today, costing $160.

Alienware

The company also revealed a second model, the Alienware Wired Gaming Headset. Although you’ll need to plug it in through USB or a 3.5mm cable, it otherwise has near feature parity with the wireless model. It also supports Dolby Atmos and has RGB lighting; it uses a 45mm sliding headband, memory foam ear cups covered in fabric and a retractable boom mic with AI-powered voice isolation. The headset costs $100 and launches on April 14th in North America and China and May 19th in other parts of the world.

The last of the newly announced gear is the Alienware Wireless Gaming Mouse. It has a sculpted right-handed design with a dedicated thumb channel “to help provide comfortable control during long gaming sessions.” It has independent L / R keyplates and optical switches. Alienware says the mouse’s sensor supports up to 26,000 dots per inch while tracking quick movements with 650 inches per second and 50G max acceleration. Additionally, it has tactile grip zones. Alienware promises up to 140 hours of battery life, and the company says five minutes of charging (while on a low battery) will yield 10 hours of uptime. The mouse (which already launched in China last week) is available today in North America and on March 31st elsewhere; it will cost $100.

Devindra Hardawar / Engadget

The company also announced new pricing and release info for products it announced at CES. The Alienware m16 and m18 laptops will be available in all Intel and Nvidia variants on March 7th. The m16 starts at $1,899, while the m18 starts at $2,099. Meanwhile, the Dell G15 ($899 and up) and G16 ($1,499 and up) launch on March 21st in Intel / Nvidia flavors. (AMD options for all those models will arrive in Q2, with pricing info coming later.) Finally, the Alienware x15 R2 launches in early April with a $1,799 starting price.

A Dead by Daylight movie is on the way. Production studios Atomic Monster and Blumhouse are teaming up with gaming studio Behaviour Interactive to oversee the film adaptation of the multiplayer horror title. In addition, the companies are beginning their search for a director and screenwriter as Hollywood (perhaps naively) hopes HBO’s excellentThe Last of Us ushers in a new era of video game adaptations worth watching.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to work with Jason Blum and James Wan, two giants of the horror film industry, to further expand the Dead by Daylight universe,” said Stephen Mulrooney, Behaviour Interactive’s executive vice president. “At Behaviour, our motto is to create unique moments, together, forever. Atomic Monster and Blumhouse are the ideal partners to craft Dead by Daylight’s killer entrance onto the big screen.”

The game has been a horror / survival staple since its 2016 launch. The one vs. four multiplayer title splits teams into either survivors or the killer; the survivors aim to activate generators and escape while the killer seeks to hunt them down. It’s added DLC monsters through the years, including Freddy Kreuger, Pinhead, Leatherface, Evil Dead’s Ash Williams and a surveillance-happy tech executive. Strangely, it even has a dating-sim spinoff arriving later this year.

Mulrooney will co-produce with Atomic Monster CEO James Wan (who also directed The Conjuring and Insidious) and Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum. Blumhouse, which made Paranormal Activity and The Black Phone, is set to merge with Atomic Monster; the deal was announced last year and is expected close this summer.

Movies Anywhere announced Wednesday that it’s soon shutting down Screen Pass, its movie-sharing feature launched during COVID-19 lockdowns. The Disney-owned platform didn’t provide a reason for the closure.

“As the experience continues to evolve, we want to notify you that effective May 1 users will no longer be able to use the Screen Pass feature to send a Screen Pass,” the announcement reads. “For Screen Passes sent prior to May 1, recipients will still be able to accept and finish watching the movie before their passes expire. As of June 1, the Screen Pass feature will no longer be supported.”

Screen Pass lets users send three movie passes monthly to friends or family without sharing login info. As long as you’ve redeemed a code with the service in the past six months, it lets you send a link through text, email or instant message that gives the recipient seven days to accept and 14 days to begin watching; once the movie starts, they have 72 hours to finish.

Movies Anywhere, launched in 2014, syncs digital film and television purchases across platforms like the Apple TV app, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, Vudu and Microsoft. Fortunately, the platform’s core service remains intact, but sharing your purchases with friends will soon require you to be in the same space (or explore alternate methods).

Microsoft has reportedly cleared a major regulatory hurdle as it tries to move toward finalizing its Activision Blizzard purchase. The company’s licensing offers to competitors are expected to appease European Union (EU) antitrust concerns about the $69 billion acquisition, according to Reuters. The EU previously said it believed the deal could “significantly reduce competition” in PC, console and cloud gaming.

The EU isn’t expected to demand asset sales to approve the deal. However, the potential sale of Call of Duty has been a point of contention; Microsoft wants to hang onto the property while using the licensing agreements to quell regulators. The company has pledged to keep the franchise on competing platforms for at least 10 years if the purchase closes; it’s even bringing Call of Duty to Nintendo’s consoles.

Microsoft says it’s “committed to offering effective  and  easily  enforceable solutions  that address the European Commission’s concerns.” “Our commitment to grant long-term 100% equal access to  Call of Duty to Sony, Steam,  NVIDIA and others preserves the deal’s benefits to gamers and developers and increases competition in the market,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Reuters.

The company announced the deal in January 2022 to help it compete against industry leaders Tencent and Sony while developing its take on the metaverse. “Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said at the time.

Microsoft will still need to appease the US Federal Trade Commission and UK regulators before the deal can be finalized. The company only has until July to sort out the antitrust concerns, or it will need to renegotiate or abandon the purchase (which would mean paying a breakup fee of up to $3 billion).

Garmin announced two new GPS running smartwatches with AMOLED displays today: the Forerunner 965 and 265 series. The new watches provide “advanced training metrics” for runners and health stats like heart-rate variability (HRV), overall sleep quality and training load.

The Forerunner 265 Series come in two sizes (the 42mm Forerunner 265S and the 46mm Forerunner 265). The 265S offers up to 24 hours of battery life in GPS mode and up to 15 days in smartwatch mode; the 265 offers up to 20 hours of GPS use and 13 days of smartwatch use. Both watches have Pulse Ox sensors, “Body Battery” energy monitoring, sleep and stress tracking, menstrual cycle monitoring and pregnancy tracking. Additionally, they monitor V02 max (the maximum oxygen you can consume per minute based on your weight), performance condition and other metrics. Finally, it offers two adaptive training options: daily suggested workouts by entering upcoming race info and following a video series from your favorite Garmin coaches.

Meanwhile, the Forerunner 965 is the higher-end model with a 1.4-inch AMOLED display, up to 31 hours of battery life (in GPS mode) and up to 23 days in smartwatch mode. In addition to carrying over all of the cheaper model’s features, it logs additional performance metrics like load ratio (the relationship between an athlete’s training load and what they can handle), real-time stamina info to manage exertion levels and detailed climbing metrics (including gradient, distance and elevation gains). The watch also includes built-in mapping and more storage for music.

The Forerunner 965 will cost $600 when it launches in “late March.” The Forerunner 265 is available today for $450.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT and DALL-E 2, announced several significant changes today. First, it’s launching developer APIs for ChatGPT and the Whisper speech-transcription model. It also changed its terms of service to let developers opt out of using their data for improvements while adding a 30-day data retention policy.

The new ChatGPT API will use the same AI model (“gpt-3.5-turbo”) as the popular chatbot, allowing developers to add either unchanged or flavored versions of ChatGPT to their apps. Snap’s My AI is an early example, along with a new virtual tutor feature for the online study tool Quizlet and an upcoming Ask Instacart tool in the popular local-shopping app. However, the API won’t be limited to brand-specific bots mimicking ChatGPT; it can also power “non-chat” software experiences that could benefit from AI brains.

The ChatGPT API is priced at $0.002 per 1,000 tokens (about 750 words). Additionally, it’s offering a dedicated-capacity option for deep-pocketed developers who expect to use more tokens than the standard API allows. The new developer options join the consumer-facing ChatGPT Plus, a $20-per-month service launched in February.

Meanwhile, OpenAI’s Whisper API is a hosted version of the open-source Whisper speech-to-text model it launched in September. “We released a model, but that actually was not enough to cause the whole developer ecosystem to build around it,” OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman toldTechCrunch on Tuesday. “The Whisper API is the same large model that you can get open source, but we’ve optimized to the extreme. It’s much, much faster and extremely convenient.” The transcription API will cost developers $0.006 per minute, enabling “robust” transcription in multiple languages and providing translation to English.

Finally, OpenAI revealed changes to its developer terms based on customer feedback about privacy and security concerns. Unless a developer opts in, the company will no longer use data submitted through the API for “service improvements” to train its AI models. Additionally, it’s adding a 30-day data retention policy while providing stricter retention options “depending on user needs” (likely meaning high-usage companies with budgets to match). Finally, it’s simplifying its terms surrounding data ownership, clarifying that users own the models’ input and output.

The company will also replace its pre-launch review process for developers with a mostly automated system. OpenAI justified the change by pointing out that “the overwhelming majority of apps were approved during the vetting process,” claiming its monitoring has “significantly improved.” “One of our biggest focuses has been figuring out, how do we become super friendly to developers?” Brockman said to TechCrunch. “Our mission is to really build a platform that others are able to build businesses on top of.”

Jack Dorsey’s new Twitter alternative, Bluesky, is now available in closed beta on the App Store. The invite-only app could soon join a crowded field of budding Twitter competitors, including Mastodon.

Interested users can submit their email addresses to join the waitlist. The Bluesky app reportedly borrows heavily from Twitter. However, it includes minor differences like “What’s up?” in place of “What’s happening?” along with a simplified process of creating a post (which can also include photos) by selecting a plus button. Otherwise, it has familiar features like searching for and following users and viewing their posts on a Home timeline.

Bluesky began in 2019 as a Twitter-funded side project. Dorsey, who co-founded Twitter and was still CEO when the initiative started, saw it as a more open alternative to an increasingly centralized Twitter. Then, Bluesky spun off as its own company in 2021. Dorsey has said he believes social media should be free of corporate or government control and that only authors should have the power to remove their social-media content. Additionally, although he said Twitter’s decision to ban Donald Trump after his role in inciting the January 6th insurrection was “the right decision,” he also worried about its precedent in endangering a “free and open global internet.”

Whether Twitter users will flee to Bluesky (or other platforms) in large enough numbers to make a significant difference is an open question. However, considering many people seeking an alternative are doing so because of current CEO / owner Elon Musk’s headline-grabbing embrace of far-right figures and ideology, it may be illogical to expect them to flock to a brainchild of someone who holds reservations about banning anyone for any reason.

Airbnb is reportedly banning users who, despite having a clear background, were associated with people the company deems a safety risk. Although the short-term rental company faces an impossible balancing act of making owners feel secure without discriminating unfairly against renters, its appeals process — a critical step in catching overreaches — sounds lackluster and confusing while erring on the side of perceived homeowner security.

Airbnb confirmed to Motherboard that it sometimes refuses to rent to users associated with banned individuals “likely to travel” with them. For example, in January, Airbnb informed a user named Amanda that she was prohibited from the platform due to being “closely associated with a person who isn’t allowed to use Airbnb.” Amanda used the credit card of her boyfriend — who has a criminal record — to book the rental. (Amanda doesn’t have a criminal record.) She told Motherboard that her partner’s flagged history was from “a white collar charge” while adding that the two don’t share an address or bank account.

Two days after appealing the ban, Airbnb informed her it was upholding it “after careful consideration” to help “safeguard our community.” Then, it slammed the door shut on the case, adding that it wouldn’t “offer additional support on this case at this time.” Although the company is less than transparent about how long it’s enacted this process or how often it uses it, its procedures require one of two things to appeal successfully: the banned acquaintance causing their prohibition successfully appeals their ban, or the person attempting to rent proves they aren’t “closely associated” with the problematic person. 

Either way, the company’s subliminal message has concerning undertones: Associate with someone with a checkered past — regardless of who they are today — and neither of you can use our platform.

Airbnb is a private business, and Amanda could try booking through a competitor — or simply get a hotel room. Further, we don’t know the precise details about why her boyfriend was banned in the first place. But the company’s approach highlights a more significant issue we may see again as Big Tech’s ability to profile users grows more advanced. (The company already uses “anti-party tech,” and competitor Vrbo used what’s essentially pre-crime for house parties during the Super Bowl.) 

So where do you draw the line? Airbnb’s answer appears to be a cynical calculation that risking negative press about banning acquaintances — perhaps unfairly — is preferable to anything that could make homeowners feel less secure about using the service.

Google announced that it’s rolling out Pixel Watch fall detection starting today. Like the Apple Watch feature of the same name launched in 2018, Google’s version also uses motion sensors and algorithms to determine if you’ve fallen and need help. However, Google says it won’t accidentally call emergency services for winter sports accidents, as the Apple Watch’s crash detection has done.

If the Pixel Watch detects a possible fall and a lack of movement for about 30 seconds, it will vibrate, emit an alarm and display an onscreen message checking on you. If it wasn’t a bad fall, tap the “I’m OK” button to dismiss the alert; tap “I fell & need help” if you want it to call 911. Otherwise, the sound will continue for about a minute and grow louder in its final seconds. If you still haven’t responded to the alert by then, it will contact emergency services automatically, playing them an automated message requesting help at your location. (You’ll also have the option of speaking to the 911 operator from the watch.)

You can activate the feature on the “Updates” page in the Watch Companion app on your paired phone or in the Pixel Watch’s Personal Safety app.

Google says its fall detection should avoid false positives. “Worried that doing burpees or hitting the ski slopes will trigger an accidental emergency call?” Google wrote in its announcement post. “Your Pixel Watch knows the difference between taking a hard fall and performing a vigorous physical activity or even quickly recovering from a small stumble — thanks to our machine learning algorithms and rigorous testing. The motion sensors and algorithms can monitor for a sudden impact and your body’s responses and instinctive reactions to falling. We trained this process using a broad variety of human and simulated fall data and other motion patterns to accurately detect real falls and minimize potential false alarms.”

Google adds that you can supply data to help it improve the feature by toggling the “Help improve fall detection” option. This will send the company motion-sensor data of any events detected as falls.