Apple has reportedly canceled the development of a new iPhone SE. According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the company recently told suppliers it would not release a fourth-generation SE model sometime in 2024. In a Medium post spotted by MacRumors, Kuo said the device would have been the debut of Apple’s first in-house 5G modem, adding that the company had planned to test and fine-tune the chip on the SE before rolling it out more broadly to the iPhone 16 and beyond. Instead, Kuo suggests Apple is now more likely to continue using Qualcomm modems through 2024.
Kuo doesn’t say why Apple shelved the fourth-generation iPhone SE or if the performance of its own 5G chip had anything to do with the decision. For the better part of a decade, Apple has tried to reduce its dependence on Qualcomm. In 2019, the two ended their bitter patent feud and signed a “multiyear” wireless chip supply deal. Months later, however, Apple bought the majority of Intel’s mobile modem business. Then, at the end of 2020, the company disclosed it was working on its own cellular chipset. There’s been little news about the project since.
The CES conveyor belt of PCs doesn’t let up. Lenovo has been busy. Let’s start with its latest YogaBook, the dual-screen YogaBook 9i. Instead of folding like a conventional laptop, this… thing unfurls a screen atop another, with a slimline keyboard at the bottom. Thankfully, as well as the keyboard and stylus accessories, there’s a kickstand to ensure those two 13.3-inch 2.8K OLED displays stay in place. There’s an incredible amount of flexibility here. You can have the screens unfolded like a book, stacked atop each other or as a classic laptop, with the lower screen showing the keyboard.
Then there’s the $400 Smart Paper tablet. An unashamed stab at rivaling Amazon’s Scribe e-ink tablet, there’s a screen to write and annotate on and a battery-less stylus you can holster in the case. There are nine pen settings (such as pencil, ballpoint and marker) and over 4,000 pressure sensitivity levels to ensure your sketches come out as you intended. Lenovo’s Smart Paper can convert your handwriting into text, and you can use keyword searches to find what you’re looking for – something Amazon’s version lacks. Conversely, though, Lenovo won’t have the library of Kindle books to scribble notes on – these are two distinct offerings.
Oh, you wanted a twist? Well, Lenovo isn’t done: It also revealed a new ThinkBook Plus that twists and turns to switch between e-ink and OLED screens. In short, it’s a bit of both. Check out our full impressions and spec rundowns here. We’ll be back Monday with more CES coverage, including Engadget’s Best of CES winners.
– Mat Smith
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Back in 2020, Ring showed off a concept home drone. Now it’s getting closer to patrolling the homes of anxious types. The mini drone zooms around your home, scouting for intruders when you’re not there. The entire device, including the dock, looks more like a kitchen gadget than a security drone. The Always Home Cam makes that drone-ish hum – don’t expect it to sneak up on any trespassers – and you train it by holding it (without obscuring the camera) and walking around your home in flight paths. There’s also the option to set multiple paths and waypoints. Ring still hasn’t announced a release date or a price.
While Lenovo has been a huge force in the enterprise laptop space thanks to its long line of ThinkPads and ThinkBooks, Motorola is attempting to bring a similar aura to its newest mobile device: the ThinkPhone by Motorola. With an aramid fiber weave back, it certainly looks the part. The big question is: Do people want a phone that matches their work laptop? And will people be willing to choose the ThinkPhone over the usual Apple and Samsung suspects?
The concept will serve as a design template for upcoming production vehicles.
There's finally an electric Ram truck – or at least a concept of one. Stellantis, an automaker with a stable of more than a dozen North American and European brands, including Jeep, Ram, Dodge, Maserati and Fiat, has extremely ambitious goals to make 100 percent of its European sales and half of its US sales fully electric vehicles. The company hasn't revealed the battery size yet for this concept truck, but it did confirm the system will use an 800V architecture enabling it to add up to 100 miles of range in about 10 minutes on a 350 kW DC fast charger.
The prototypes have reportedly passed Department of Transportation testing.
Goodyear is back with an improved sustainable tire prototype – 90 percent sustainable materials – a full 20 percent improvement over last year. The company says the 90-percent blend has already passed Department of Transportation testing, approving it for road use. The 90 percent tires reportedly offer a lower rolling resistance compared to the company's reference tires, which translates as better gas mileage and longer EV ranges.
The company is still working with its supply chain partners to secure sufficient precursor materials to produce them at a commercial scale and even plans to have a fully sustainable blend by 2030. The new materials include four types of carbon black made of both organic and inorganic sources: soybean oil and rice husk silica, post-consumer polyester and bio-renewable pine tar resins.
Amazon is cutting more jobs than it had previously planned, CEO Andy Jassy has admitted in a blog post. Back in November, reports came out that the e-commerce giant was eliminating 10,000 jobs, just as other companies in the tech sector had announced layoffs of their own. Now, the company is expanding its job cuts, and between the employees who'd already lost their jobs and the ones losing theirs in the near future, Amazon will be eliminating over 18,000 roles in the company.
Jassy said majority of the upcoming layoffs would be from its retail and recruiting divisions. As The Wall Street Journal notes, Amazon benefited from the COVID lockdowns over the past few years, since people had to shop online more often than before. The company reportedly added hundreds of thousands of employees to keep up with the surge in demand — and then launched cost-cutting reviews to see which units weren't making profit. It then froze hiring, closed brick-and-mortar stores and shut down business units.
When news broke that Amazon was planning sweeping layoffs, Meta had also just revealed that it was letting more than 11,000 of its employees go. Like Amazon's executives, Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg significantly increased Meta's investments following a large revenue growth due to the pandemic. However, people's spending habits eventually went back to pre-pandemic trends, leading to a smaller revenue for the company. More recently, Slack owner Salesforce revealed that it's cutting 10 percent of its workforce and closing down offices. The company also grew rapidly during the pandemic and can't sustain its bloated workforce in the current economy.
Amazon will be cutting more jobs than Meta did by the time it's done. Jassy said the company will reach out to impacted employees starting on January 18th, so the layoffs will likely take place over the coming weeks. He added that Amazon will offer them packages that include a "separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits and external job placement support."
No shade on Acer before now, but I’ve always found its laptop naming scheme to be a little bit obtuse. For instance, can you tell me the qualitative difference between Acer’s Swift 3 and Swift 5 without looking? To address this, the company has dumped its odd-numbers system in favor of categorizing everything by screen size. So, here at CES, Acer is now showing off the Swift Go 14 and 16, as well as the Swift 14 and the Swift X 14 — although, on reflection, that’s still a lot of Swifts, isn’t it.
The Swift Go models are the successors of the Swift 3 series, mainstream machines with an eye on keeping things thin and light. There are two models, both of which get the option of three different displays, all of which are 16:10. The 14-inch unit gets the option of a (deep breath) 2,880 x 1,800 90Hz OLED display, a 2,240 x 1,400 IPS LCD or a 1,920 x 1,200 IPS LCD. The bigger sibling, meanwhile, gets the choice of a 16-inch 3,200 x 2,000 120Hz OLED, a 2,560 x 1,600 IPS LCD, or a 1,920 x 1,200 IPS LCD (one of which will be touch, but the spec sheet I have doesn’t say which one.)
Nestled inside, you’ll find the usual raft of spec-to-order 13th generation Intel Core processors, including the option of an H-series chip instead of a U. These, Acer say, will be able to run at full pelt thanks to the new-and-improved cooling in the new machines. That will be teamed up with up to 16GB LPDDR5 RAM and up to 2TB of SSD storage, while both models have USB-C with Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.1, a microSD-card reader and a 1440p webcam. If you’re looking to snap one up, you’ll have to wait until May for the 14-inch model and June for the 16-incher, with prices starting from $850 for the former and $800 for the latter.
Acer
In the middle of the pack, you’ll find Acer’s suffix-free Swift 14 (formerly the Swift 5), of which the company has little to talk about, compared to its siblings. That’s a shame, because it might also be the best-looking, with the dark green and copper model destined to become an object of unbridled desire. Weighing in at 2.64 pounds, the Evo-certified machine offers a choice of 13th-generation Intel Core processors. And you’ll get the pick of two different touchscreens, a 1,920 x 1,200 panel or a glitzier 2,560 x 1,600 model. Connectivity-wise, it’s also blessed, with two USB-C, HDMI-out, 3.5mm and a pair of USB A sockets, perfect for those of us who haven’t upgraded all our accessories. If this model catches your fancy (have I mentioned how good looking it is) then it’ll hit these shores in April, with the base model priced at $1,400.
Acer
Last, but quite obviously not least is the flagship Swift X 14, although there’s less that’s new and gosh-darn exciting to mention about this unit. It’ll offer H-series Intel Core chips paired with a new GeForce RTX GPU, the name of which hasn’t yet been disclosed. Here, the company says that the NVIDIA Studio-rated machine will get the benefit of lots of new cooling, thanks to a new air inlet keyboard that draws air in between your fingers. You’ll be staring into either a 14.5-inch 2,880 x 1,800 120Hz OLED display or a 14.5-inch 2,560 x 1,600 IPS LCD unit. And, much like the other machines in the refresh, you’ll get a 1440p webcam to capture the full extent of your beauty as you share it with the world. This model will land in the US in April, with the base model priced at $1,100, although I’d imagine any half decent spec will push that figure up pretty swiftly.
Facebook parent company Meta has acquired Luxexcel, a Dutch startup specializing in smart eyewear. News of the purchase was first reported by De Tijd and later confirmed by TechCrunch. “We’re excited that the Luxexcel team has joined Meta, deepening the existing partnership between the two companies,” a Meta spokesperson told the outlet. The company did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.
Founded in 2009, Luxexcel began life as a prescription lens manufacturer. More recently, the company has made a name for itself in the augmented reality space. At the start of 2021, for instance, it partnered with WaveOptics, the display manufacturer Snap paid $500 million later that same year to buy. As TechCrunch points out, there are also rumors Luxexcel previously worked with Meta on the company’s Project Aria AR glasses.
The acquisition comes as Meta faces regulatory scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission over its purchase of Supernatural developer Within. The agency sued Meta in July to block the deal. The social media giant also faces criticism over just how much it's spending to further its metaverse ambitions. In October, a month before the company laid off 11,000 employees, Meta told investors Reality Labs, its virtual and augmented reality unit, lost more than $9 billion in 2022. It went on to predict the division’s operating losses were likely to “grow significantly year-over-year” in 2023.
Amazon’s growing library of sports content could soon have a home of its own. The Information reports the retailer is working on a new standalone streaming app to declutter Prime Video and better highlight its deals with the NFL, Premier League and New York Yankees. The development comes following recent comments from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, who highlighted live sports content as one of the areas where the company plans to continue spending money even as it cuts costs in other areas.
The Information says it couldn’t learn when Amazon expects to release the app, nor if the company plans to charge separately for access to Prime Video’s sports content. The outlet also notes Amazon may decide to shelve the app. Amazon did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request.
Whether it makes sense for Amazon to launch a standalone sports app is not as straightforward as you might think. On the one hand, Prime Video could definitely use decluttering. Even after Amazon recently redesigned the platform’s interface to make it “less busy and overwhelming,” it can be tricky to find content on the service since it incorporates both streaming and video-on-demand content.
On the other hand, a standalone app would create more pressure for Amazon to secure worthwhile content. What’s more, the cost of sports content has increased dramatically in recent years. Amazon reportedly pays about $1 billion annually for exclusive streaming rights to the NFL’s Thursday Night Football package. Earlier this month, Google reportedly agreed to pay between $2.1 billion and $2.2 billion for the league’s Sunday Ticket package. A standalone app with its own subscription tier would also complicate Prime Video’s role as a driver of Prime subscriptions. Amazon may decide whatever it gains by creating a separate app may not be worth the tradeoff.
Apple has stopped rolling out an optional Home app upgrade after users began reporting issues with the software. "We temporarily removed the option to upgrade to the new Home architecture," the company says on a support page spotted by MacRumors. "The option to upgrade will return soon. If you already upgraded, you are unaffected by this change."
Released as a part of iOS 16.2 and macOS Ventura 13.1 on December 13th, the recalled update was an upgrade to HomeKit's underlying architecture. Apple said the rewrite would make the platform "more reliable and efficient." However, some of those who installed the software quickly encountered issues, including select Siri terms not working correctly and their smart home devices not showing up within the Home app. MacRumors was one of the first publications to spot that Apple had removed the option to install the upgrade. The company later confirmed the move after The Verge contacted it.
"We are aware of an issue that may impact the ability for users to share the Home within the Home app. A fix will be available soon," an Apple spokesperson told the outlet. "In the meantime, we've temporarily removed the option to upgrade to the new Home architecture. Users who have already upgraded will not be impacted." If you've already installed the new architecture, you'll need to wait for Apple to release a fix for the software; there's no option to revert to the older framework.
The new 11-inch iPad Pro has hit its lowest price ever at Amazon, which means you can grab the base version of Apple's premium tablet for just $699. That's $100 off the list price and $40 less than it was before Black Friday. It won't arrive in time for Christmas, but if you've had your eye on the Pro, this will likely be the lowest price you'll see this year. The steepest discount goes to the 128GB model with WiFi and the applies to the Silver colorway. If you want a bit more storage, both the 256 GB WiFi model and the 512GB WiFi models are also on sale, with both models seeing a $60 discount. We should note that the WiFi plus cellular configurations and the giant, TB size models aren't discounted right now.
The iPad Pro was released at the end of October, and the biggest update came with the addition of Apple's latest processor, the M2 chip. That made an already powerful tablet even more so. We gave the slab an 87 in our review, praising both the "ludicrously" fast speeds and best-in-class screen. The iPad Pro handily makes use of Apple's new Stage Manager, which allows for multitasking with overlapping and resizable windows. The feature finally gives the Pro the opportunity to properly harness all the speed it's been given.
Paired up the Magic Keyboard, the tablet is an extremely capable hybrid device, though with that accessory's $300 price tag, you've essentially entered laptop price range. That said, the iPad Pro is still an impressive tablet with plenty of power and a great screen. The changes to this model probably aren't enough to warrant an upgrade if you've got 2021's model. But if you've been thinking about grabbing a Pro, this $100 discount is a great time to snap it up.
Apple fans disappointed by the Studio Display could soon have a few more options from the company. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is developing “multiple new external monitors,” including a refresh of its 32-inch Pro Display XDR from 2019. Details on the upcoming screens are sparse, but Gurman suggests they’ll incorporate built-in Apple Silicon chipsets like the Studio Display, which features a dedicated A13 Bionic processor. He adds that the updated Pro Display XDR could ship after the M2 Mac Pro arrives (more on the computer in a moment).
It’s unclear if Apple’s slate of new monitors could include a Studio Display refresh. As MacRumors points out, display analyst Ross Young tweeted in October that the company was preparing to release a monitor with a 27-inch mini-LED panel in the first quarter of 2023. Based on the specs Young shared, it looked like Apple was planning to update the Studio Display with its ProMotion technology.
Gurman also provides an update on the long-rumored M2 refresh of the Mac Pro. In October, he reported the computer would ship with an optional “Extreme” variant of the company’s M2 chipset that was reportedly slated to feature a processor with up to 48 cores and 256GB of memory. Since then, Gurman says Apple has abandoned those plans.
“Based on Apple's current pricing structure, an M2 Extreme version of a Mac Pro would probably cost at least $10,000 — without any other upgrades — making it an extraordinarily niche product that likely isn't worth the development costs, engineering resources and production bandwidth it would require," Gurman writes.
As things stand, the remaining model will reportedly feature an M2 Ultra chipset with up to 24 CPU cores, 76 GPU cores and at least 192GB of RAM. Additionally, Gurman says the new Mac Pro retains the current model’s expandability, including the option to add more memory. It will be interesting to see how Apple offers that kind of upgradability since the company’s current chips feature soldered RAM.
Apple was supposed to finish transitioning its computer lineup to Apple Silicon two years after the release of its first M1 chip. According to Gurman, feature tweaks and a change in Apple’s manufacturing plans are among the reasons why it’s taken the company so long to announce a new Mac Pro. Barring any additional delays, the new model will likely arrive sometime next year, though Gurman did not speak to a specific timeline.
Instagram is introducing more safety and security tools. These include a hub where people can go to report and resolve account access issues they're having. This could be hugely beneficial for hacked users who are struggling to regain access to their accounts.
If you can't log in, you can visit the hub on the Instagram website. Instagram will ask whether the issue concerns a hacked account, forgotten password, impersonation, loss of two-factor authentication method or disabled account. Once you select the issue, you can follow a string of steps to help you access your account again.
One method you can use to verify an account is actually yours is to ask others to confirm your identity. If you get locked out of an account, you can get two Instagram friends to verify your identity. Instagram started testing this feature earlier this year and now it's available to everyone. Your friends will have 24 hours to respond to the request. If they do, Instagram will let you reset your password.
Instagram
Meanwhile, Instagram says it's employing more measures to prevent account hacking in the first place. The service is removing accounts that its systems deem malicious, such as those that are impersonating others. A new test involves sending you a warning "if an account that we suspect may be impersonating someone requests to follow you." In the coming months, Instagram will start sending warnings to those who get a DM from an account that may be impersonating a business.
On top of all that, you'll start seeing the blue badge for verified accounts in more places. Along with profiles, you'll now see the badge on Stories and DMs. The badge will show up in the feed soon as well. Instagram says this will help users know if an account they're interacting with is the real deal.
