You can no longer buy either print or Kindle Newsstand magazine and newspaper subscriptions from Amazon, as the company appears to implement yet another cost-cutting measure. The e-commerce giant announced that it was halting Newsstand subscriptions on March 9th (via The Verge) and that the change was going to take effect that very day. If you have an annual subscription, it will not be renewed, as well. 

You can continue managing your subscriptions — such as changing your delivery address — through Amazon until June 5th at 11:59PM PST. But after that, you'd have to get in touch with the publisher for any inquiry. Finally, Amazon will only be sending you the latest issues for your magazines and newspapers until September 4th. The good news is that you'll still be able to access all the digital issues that have already been delivered, and Amazon will send you a pro-rated refund for any undelivered issue. 

In a statement, Amazon spokesperson Julia Lee told The Verge that the company looks at each of its businesses to see what it should change as part of its annual operating planning review process. Lee explained: "Following an assessment of our magazine and newspaper subscriptions and single-issue sales, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue these services. We don't take these decisions lightly and are winding down these offerings in a phased manner over several months. We will continue to support customers, sellers and publishers during that time."

Based on Lee's statement, the company wasn't making money from subscriptions, and they likely became a casualty that could be attributed to its cost-cutting efforts. Back in January, Amazon expanded its planned job cuts to cover 18,000 roles in the company after hiring thousands of new people to keep up with the heightened demand during the previous years' COVID lockdowns. Amazon also paused construction on its second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia and shut down several cashierless Go stores over the past few months. 

If you want to keep receiving the newest issues of your magazines and newspapers, you'll have to look at alternative subscription options from their publishers. Some of them, however, will still be available as part of Amazon's Kindle Unlimited service. 

Bandcamp has always been known as an artist-friendly alternative to streaming services like Spotify, where you can buy music directly from the musicians themselves. Now, workers at the Epic-owned online audio distributor want to ensure that they're treated as well as its creators by forming a union called Bandcamp United. According to Rolling Stone and TechCrunch, a majority of workers are in favor of unionizing, and all 62 of its non-managerial and non-supervisory personnel in the US will make up its bargaining unit. Those 62 workers are composed of support staff, designers, engineers, writers and other roles within the platform. 

Apparently, Bandcamp's personnel have been quietly working on their organizing efforts since last summer. They ultimately decided to join Tech Workers Union Local 1010 of the Office and Professional Employees International Union, which is the same group that helped full-time Kickstarter employees organize back in 2020. Based on the mission statement written on Bandcamp United's website, the group aims to fix pay disparities and promote "equitable conditions and economic stability." They want to make sure workers have access to paid time off and that their salaries "will grow to meet economic necessity."

Rolling Stone says they're also looking to address management's lack of transparency after Epic's takeover last year. Workers were reportedly asked to sign new employment contracts when the Fortnite developer acquired the platform, and they were given a limited amount of time to review its terms with no room for negotiations. 

Ethan Diamond, Bandcamp's CEO, told the publications that management is "aware that some... employees are seeking to organize a union and [is] reviewing the petition to understand their concerns." Bandcamp United has already filed for a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to administer a union election and will hold one to make things official once it gets approved. 

The Resident Evil 4 remake starts out strong. Updated aiming mechanics and a fresh infusion of processing power make this the most exciting version of RE4 Capcom has ever delivered, and Leon Kennedy looks better than ever, even with his new chin implant. The remake performs well for the first few hours, as Leon shoots and stabs his way through the misty Spanish village where las plagas has transformed the locals into murderous tentacle monsters. These early scenes, set among crooked wooden buildings and the shores of a twisting cave system, establish the game’s blood-soaked tone and provide a satisfying balance of asset management, puzzle solving and modern third-person shooting.

As the game grows in complexity, it becomes clumsy. Capcom’s approach to modernizing RE4 is to add more enemies, cramped environments and fewer ammo drops – all of which could result in a high-tension action experience, if its controls were consistent. As it stands, the RE4 remake is plagued by sluggish animations and frustrating combat sequences. Leon constantly feels underpowered, unable to evade basic attacks or reliably land a shot.

Resident Evil 4 set the standard for action-horror games when it came out in 2005, and the remake shines when it embraces the innovations of the original: over-the-shoulder precision shooting and an atmosphere blending combat and terror. However, the remake loses focus quickly, and it feels like much of Capcom’s effort was poured into upgrading enemies and environments, leaving Leon in the GameCube-era dust.

The RE4 remake introduces new boss fights and head-bursting enemies, and it also allows Leon to parry powerful attacks. Sometimes. The parry ability is only available if Leon has a knife on standby, and when the prompt does pop up, it’s easily interrupted by environmental nudges, the actions of other enemies, and Leon’s own animations. Like most of Leon’s movements, the parry ability is simply too inconsistent to be satisfying, and it generally does nothing to heighten the tension of combat scenes.

The remake often places Leon at the center of a swarm of enemies, without the option to quickly dodge incoming attacks. He has to shoot or press his way through the horde – but he runs as if he’s knee-deep in sludge, and even a bullet to the head doesn’t always stop a rushing cultist. Meanwhile, enemy attacks always interrupt Leon. Sluggish movement is authentic to the experience of the original four Resident Evil games, and it’s something that the RE2 and RE3 remakes specifically address, offering updated controls and environments that feel at home on modern hardware. In comparison to those games, RE4 feels unfinished, or at least un-finessed.

Capcom

One boss fight that Capcom reimagined for the remake is against Méndez, the mutant priest with the extra long spine. In the original, Méndez slings a repetitive series of attacks from the rafters of a burning slaughterhouse. In the remake, Méndez drops back to hurl flaming logs and explosive oil drums at Leon, before rushing forward for close-quarters fighting and alternating these positions a few times. Even though the environment in the remake is larger, it’s cramped with flames that interrupt Leon’s actions any time he touches them. Méndez moves quickly and so do the objects he throws, while Leon has a sluggish run ability, no way to quickly dodge, and lethargic animations for reloading, retrieving items, touching fire and knifing enemies. Méndez seems like a fully remade character here; Leon, not so much. This results in a frustrating boss fight.

I died a few times while trying to defeat Méndez – and that’s when Capcom pranked me. I was playing on Standard, and during my Méndez death screens, the game started prompting me to turn on Assisted mode, the lowest difficulty setting. I generally don’t do this during reviews, but a dozen infuriating attempts later and I relented, pressing OK without reading the fine print. Assisted mode makes the game incredibly forgiving, and I easily defeated Méndez in the following run.

And then I was unable to change my difficulty settings at all. Keep this in mind: Assisted mode is permanent in RE4.

I played a few more minutes on the lowest difficulty setting, but it truly felt like a different game than the Standard version, devoid of tension or risk. Luckily, I was on PlayStation 5, which only syncs cloud saves when you exit a game. I turned off the console’s internet connection, closed the game and then downloaded the old save file from before I switched settings. Then I defeated Méndez the old-fashioned way, on Standard difficulty, and carried on with a newfound fear of accidentally switching to Assisted mode in my soul.

Permanent downward mode-switching is a standard feature in Resident Evil games, but I find it to be baffling. It’s especially confusing as RE4 actively encourages Standard players to try Assisted mode in loading screens and death menus. I asked Capcom why the team designed RE4 this way, and a spokesperson said, “The difficulty mode a player completes the game on has ramifications for in-game achievements and trophies.” This doesn’t fully answer the question for me: Plenty of action games have dynamic difficulty settings without disrupting achievements, and this response doesn’t address my perception that Capcom is prioritizing trophy integrity over accessibility.

Capcom

While we’re in the complaints department, I also want to encourage all PS5 players to turn off controller sounds in the audio settings. This goes for RE4 and literally every other game with this feature. Why is the volume on the DualSense so loud, all the time? Please, someone, make it stop.

This is what the RE4 remake has reduced me to: a pleading mess of unfulfilled nostalgia and frustration. It’s not a terrible game, but it isn’t seamless, either. It adds enemy variety and fresh environments, but Leon’s bullets routinely hit their targets without dealing damage, his movements are clumsy and his new parry ability is only semi-functional. The game clearly establishes combat strategies for each scene, but then its mechanics get in the way, punishing the player in the process. Overall, the word for the RE4 remake is inconsistent.

Qualcomm has unveiled its latest chipset that will power a wealth of mid-range phones starting later this month. Redmi and Realme are among the brands that will use the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 chipset.

As you might expect, the chipset isn't quite as powerful as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, but it appears to offer a notable upgrade over the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. Qualcomm says the CPU will deliver a performance improvement of over 50 percent, with speeds of up to 2.91GHz. The company claims the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 will offer improvements in GPU performance (by two times) and power efficiency (by 13 percent) as well. Moreover, Qualcomm says that "on-device AI is integrated across the entire platform."

You can expect over twice the AI performance compared with the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 and 40 percent better per-watt performance, Qualcomm says. AI Super Resolution is said to be capable of upscaling game visuals and photos from 1080p to 4K resolution.

Other gaming features include volumetric rendering, which adds particle graphics such as fog and smoke. Auto variable rate shading should help to boost performance and power by rendering content that's in focus at full resolution and limiting the background of a scene to a lower resolution, according to Qualcomm. The company claims that Snapdragon Sound with Qualcomm aptX will deliver lossless music streaming and lag-free gaming audio too.

The chipset supports photo captures up to 200MP, along with HDR video capture with triple exposure from two cameras at the same time. Thanks to 18-bit Triple ISP support, it could be easier to capture better images in very low light. Qualcomm says devices using the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 can capture 30 images and blend the best parts of them into a single shot to provide you with brighter, clearer and more colorful photos.

On the connectivity front, there's support for 4G and 5G dual SIMs, along with download speeds of up to 4.4 Gbps over a data network thanks to the new X62 5G modem. As for WiFi, Qualcomm says the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 will enable download speeds of up to 3.6 Gbps.

IKEA's Vappeby lineup continues to grow with a new waterproof Bluetooth speaker designed for the shower and priced at just $15 — undercutting all but the cheapest no-name products. "The fundamental goal with the new product was to offer quality sound in a versatile product that can really be used anywhere," said product design developer Stjepan Begic in a press release. 

The silicone speakers are just three inches square and two inches thick, small enough to bring pretty much anywhere. They come with a lanyard-style card, letting you hang them in the shower or carry around. They come in yellow, black or red and can be used as a stereo pair if you splurge another $15 for a second one. They offer an amazing 80 hours of battery life at 50 percent volume, and are IP67 rated for water and dust resistance.

IKEA launched its Vappeby lineup with an outdoor LED lamp that doubles as a Spotify-enabled Bluetooth speaker. That model has an IP65 dust and splash rating and delivers 360 sound. The Swedish retail giant also offers the Symfonisk lineup of Sonos speakers, with a bookshelf speaker, floor lamp/speaker and a wall art/speaker combo. 

The only thing lacking on the new Vappeby waterproof model is a USB-C charger, but I imagine you have a few of those lying around. Given the ridiculously low price, shower-friendly design and crazy-long battery life, they should fly off the shelves — though I wouldn't expect great sound quality. They're set to arrive in April for $15. 

In December, ByteDance confirmed that it fired four employees who had used TikTok to spy on the locations of two journalists. Now, Forbesreports that the FBI and the Department of Justice have been investigating the incident.

News of the investigation comes at a moment when ByteDance is facing mounting pressure to sell its stake in TikTok. The company confirmed that US officials have said that TikTok will face a possible ban in the United States if ByteDance doesn’t separate itself from the video app.

TikTok critics in Congress have previously raised questions about the app’s surveillance tactics, particularly in light of ByteDance’s acknowledgement that employees had inappropriately accessed the data of US users.The full extent of law enforcement’s investigation into the incident is unclear but, according to Forbes, ByteDance has received subpoenas from the DoJ. The FBI has also conducted interviews related to the matter, though it’s not clear if the two are part of the same investigation.

"We have strongly condemned the actions of the individuals found to have been involved, and they are no longer employed at ByteDance,” a ByteDance spokesperson said in a statement. “Our internal investigation is still ongoing, and we will cooperate with any official investigations when brought to us."

If you take pride in people bookmarking your social media posts, Twitter is ready to feed your ego. The social network has added a bookmark counter to its iOS app. Similar to the counts for likes, quotes and retweets, you'll know just how many people saved a given tweet for later reference. The company hasn't mentioned when the feature might come to Android or the web.

Twitter stresses that bookmarks are still private. Users may know if their tweets are popular, but they won't know just who bookmarked a given post.

This counter isn't just useful for bragging rights, of course. If you're a creator or run a company's Twitter account, the tally could show whether or not followers find your posts useful. That, in turn, may help you refine content to reach a wider audience.

The addition comes after a handful of upgrades to Twitter, such as alerts about community misinformation notes. However, the service has lately been dominated by concerns about a string of outages and a paywall for text-based two-factor authentication. However useful the bookmark counter may be, it's not going to garner as much attention as it might have in the past.

Disney is pushing out new Tron merchandise despite the 13 years since the last movie (not to mention the four decades since the original). Although another sequel — this one with Jared Leto — may be in the works, the toys coincide with the Disney World opening of Tron Lightcycle / Run, the high-speed ride that debuted at Shanghai Disneyland in 2016. The action figures are customized using the park’s Tron Identity Program to display your scanned face on an LCD hidden behind the figure’s visor.

The Tron Identity Program will digitize visitors’ facial features, including six lines of recorded dialogue. The LCD on the resulting figure will show your scanned face, and pressing a button on the chest will play back your recorded lines. Your custom identity is stored on a memory card that you can swap into other Tron toys that Disney hopes you’ll buy.

Custom action figures are about as old as modern 3D printing, but the holographic approach has the advantage of much quicker turnaround times. Since it doesn’t require plastic molding, Disney World visitors can have their toy in hand in around 16 minutes. By comparison, Hasbro’s Selfie Series can take 45 to 60 days to ship to you, although you don’t have to visit Florida to get one of those.

If you have a Disney World trip planned, you can reserve a time with the Tron Identity Program beginning on March 21st. A custom figure will cost $90, which is $30 more than Hasbro’s (non-LCD, non-Florida) custom figures.

Satellite-to-phone service is only just getting started, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants to give a boost. The regulator is proposing rules that would make it easier for phone carriers and satellite operators to provide coverage in remote and underserved areas. Under the plan, satellite companies teaming with cellular providers could get FCC permission to operate on some licensed, flexible wireless spectrum normally reserved for ground-based service.

Operators would have to meet certain requirements. They'd have to use non-geostationary orbit satellites, and get leases from terrestrial spectrum owners in a given area. After that, though, they could provide outdoor service even in areas where cellphones are completely non-functional.

Few devices support satellite connections so far. Apple's iPhone 14 family can use satellites to send emergency messages. Qualcomm's Snapdragon Satellite enables texting off the grid, but only for Android phones using Snapdragon systems-on-chip and the X70 modem. It won't arrive until the second half of 2023, however. Carrier partnerships also won't kick off in earnest until T-Mobile and SpaceX roll out their Starlink-based collaboration. Testing for that begins later this year, although it should work with both standard texting as well as some messaging apps.

The technology usually depends on line of sight to a satellite, and the limited bandwidth of existing solutions makes them impractical for significant data transfers. However, they can help you reach first responders during a hike or confirm your arrival at a camp site in the wilderness. Eventually, the hope is to use satellites for general data.

The FCC is looking for public input on how the satellite-to-cell rules would bolster access to 911 and Wireless Emergency Alerts. The agency is also exploring whether or not it can apply the framework to other purposes, regions and wireless bands. If the proposal moves ahead, though, carriers beyond T-Mobile may have a relatively easy time filling (some) gaps in their networks.

Last month, the FCC proposed a new set of rules designed to combat the nuisance of robotext scams. Those rules are now official: not only will carriers be required to block messages that are likely to be illegal, but the new order also takes the first steps toward closing a loophole that allows scammers to dodge Do-Not-Call Registry protections.

Specifically, the rule targets text messages that come from numbers that are "unlikely to transmit text messages," citing unallocated, unused or invalid numbers, as well as numbers for government agencies and other "well-known entities" that don't send text messages. The order also hopes to close the "lead generator loophole," that allows companies to interpret a consumer's "consent" to a call as permission for other marketers to add them to a robocall list.

The announcement makes a point of saying that while these kinds of robotexts already fall under the Telephone Consumer Protection act, the new rules will give carriers more tools to help them actively block scammers. Even so, the best way to prevent being scammed is to protect yourself.