For nearly two years, Walmart has been testing a drone delivery program across parts of the US. Now the company says it’s ready to expand that offering. By the end of the year, the retailer plans to add 34 sites to its existing DroneUp network. With the expansion, approximately 4 million households in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Utah and Virginia will have access to drone deliveries from the retailer. For a delivery fee of $4, you can order up to 10 pounds of groceries and household items. If you use the service, Walmart says to expect your package in “as little as” 30 minutes.

By the end of 2022, Walmart estimates it will have the capacity to deliver 1 million packages by air annually. It’s an impressive milestone, to be sure, but it doesn’t sound like the program is profitable just yet. The retailer notes it will offer drone services to local governments and businesses. As just one example, Walmart suggests the drones could help construction companies with one-site aerial photography. “Not only will the added revenue help offset the cost of delivery, but it also serves the entire drone industry by gathering more flight data as we work together to expand drone operations in a safe and regulated way,” the company said.

Walmart won’t be the only company operating a drone delivery service in Texas. Alphabet’s Wing division recently expanded its program to include the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Starlink has launched a new product meant specifically for RV dwellers and those who can't wait to get connected to the satellite internet service. While applying for a regular Starlink dish and service will put customers in a waitlist until 2023, Starlink for RVs is immediately available and will ship out to buyers right now. The downside? Network resources are always de-prioritized for it, and the service costs $135, which is $25 more than a regular Starlink connection. 

In other words, the RV option costs just as much as a regular Starlink connection with the Portability feature introduced back in March that allows customers to use the service while they're away from home. A regular connection requires one to have a home service first, though, and that may not be possible for some people. Another difference is that the product for RVs gives customers the ability to pause and un-pause service, so they can control when their billing starts and ends. 

Since the network is de-prioritized for the RV service, though, users' connection might be slow and intermittent in congested areas and during peak hours. "Stated speeds and uninterrupted use of the service are not guaranteed," the company wrote in its Help page, clearly making sure interested customers understand that it's prioritizing at-home users. One important thing to note for those looking into the RV option is that they can't use Starlink while in motion at this time. SpaceX chief Elon Musk also added on Twitter that the dish is too big for cars, though that didn't stop at least one user from bolting it onto their vehicle's hood.

Voyager 1 — one of two space probes NASA launched in 1977 to study Jupiter, Saturn and their respective moons — is sending confusing data back to Earth, according to the space agency. The spacecraft’s control system regularly sends telemetry data back to NASA that indicates its location. But Voyager 1’s engineering team has recently been puzzled by readouts from the spacecraft that contain jumbled or inaccurate data. Even more perplexingly, the nearly 45-year-old probe is otherwise in good shape — its signal is still strong and the glitch hasn’t triggered its safe mode. Voyager 2 (Voyager 1’s sister probe) appears to be perfectly fine.

“A mystery like this is sort of par for the course at this stage of the Voyager mission,” said Suzanne Dodd, the project manager for the Voyager program at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “The spacecraft are both almost 45 years old, which is far beyond what the mission planners anticipated. We’re also in interstellar space – a high-radiation environment that no spacecraft have flown in before. So there are some big challenges for the engineering team."

Communicating with Voyager 1 is easier said than done. Both probes are now farther away from Earth than Pluto — Voyager 1 is an estimated 14.5 billion miles away from our planet. It takes roughly two days to receive a response from the spacecraft after sending a message, according to NASA.

Dodd said that NASA may be able to solve the issue through software changes or potentially one of the spacecraft’s redundant hardware systems. If not, the agency will “have to adapt” to the glitch.

Either way, NASA will lose touch with both drones in the next few years when they run out of their energy supply. Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 run on plutonium-238, which decays with time. Scientists estimate that by 2025, neither probe will have enough plutonium-238 to still operate properly. There’s a finite supply of plutonium left on Earth, and producing it is time-consuming and challenging. For many years, Russia provided NASA with plutonium-238, until it severed this agreement in 2015. Luckily for NASA, the US Department of Energy re-started domestic plutonium-238 production at Oak Ridge Laboratory, making a number of current and future NASA missions possible —including NASA’s Perseverance Rover.

Picking out something new to watch from Netflix’s slew of kid’s titles can be overwhelming, for both parents and children. And sometimes kids are just indecisive. But the streaming service’s new “Mystery Box” feature on Netflix Kids — available today — can leave the decisions up to the algorithm. Similar to the “Play Something” option for the adult set, the Mystery Box feature will pick a new title that viewers haven’t watched before. Rest assured, the new show or film that Mystery Box selects won’t be a complete wildcard pick — the titles will be similar to shows that viewers have already deemed their favorites.

In order to try out the Mystery Box, select a kid’s profile on Netflix on any platform of your choice. Then go to the “Favorites Row” on top of the homepage. Finally, hover over the “Mystery Box” option to see a selection of new titles.

When it comes to children’s programming, Netflix has more competition than ever before. Its main rival in the space — Disney+ — is planning on a $32 billion content spend for the 2022 fiscal year. Hulu, HBOMax and Apple TV+ all offer children’s programming. Netflix last year acquired some high-profile IP, including the Roald Dahl Story Company. But given its current commitment to trim costs in light of a historic drop in subscribers earlier this year, we’re likely to see Netflix be more cautious moving forward. A number of kids titles that were in production recently got the chopping block, including an animated series by Meghan Markle and Ava DuVernay’s Wings of Fire.

Reddit's war over GameStop stock has claimed a major casualty. Bloomberg and The New York Times report Melvin Capital, the hedge fund considered the nemesis of the meme stock affair, is shutting down. Fund owner Gabe Plotkin told investors that the "appropriate next step" after steep losses was to liquidate assets and return cash to investors, and that it was time to "step away" from managing others' capital. At least half of the cash will transfer by May 31st, with the rest coming by June 30th.

Melvin Capital had been a successful fund, starting 2021 with over $12 billion. However, its public bet against GameStop and other struggling companies made it one of the largest victims of a GameStop-centric investing spree by people coordinating across Reddit and social networks. Plotkin's fund reported a 53 percent loss in January 2021, and it took a $2.75 billion cash infusion to soften the blow and keep losses down to 39 percent for the year.

The GameStop saga wasn't the only factor involved, however. While a recovery appeared possible, Melvin posted a 23 percent loss through April that was partly linked to poor stock positions. The fund was clearly in peril after the Reddit battle — it's just that some miscalculations finished the company once and for all.

Reddit speculators shifted their attention to BlackBerry and other companies in the aftermath of the GameStop drama, and there hasn't been fallout on par with Melvin's in the months since. Still, the shutdown illustrates the power of coordinated internet investors — they can demolish conventional stock managers in the right circumstances.

You might not have to worry that Disney+ will bombard you with marketing when the ad-supported tier arrives later this year. Disney has confirmed to TechCrunch that it will limit the volume of ads to an average of four minutes per hour with this cheaper plan, or far less than the 7.4 minutes you endure with Hulu. Content aimed at preschoolers won't include any ads, and Disney will "never" target ads at individual kids.

It's still not clear how much the ad-backed tier will cost. However, Disney mentioned during its latest earnings call that it would likely hike the price of the ad-free version (currently $8 per month) once the more affordable plan arrives.

The restraint wouldn't be surprising. Disney+ is mostly built around family-friendly content, and a heavy ad load could be seen as exploiting the high ratio of child viewers. It just has to look to YouTube as an example. Google's video service drew flak from politicians and other critics for allowing targeted ads meant for kids, not to mention exploitative videos. YouTube responded by restricting ad targeting and demonetizing "low-quality" videos that are overly commercial or promote bad behavior. Limited ads could both prevent a regulatory crackdown and reassure companies jittery about where their ads appear.

As it stands, Disney can't afford to risk alienating customers. While the company said during its call that its growth strategy is still on track, its direct-to-consumer division (which includes streaming) saw losses deepen to $887 million last quarter as licensing and other costs hit hard. The more people sign up for the ad-supported tier, the sooner Disney+ can swing to a profit.

Uber Eats is launching not just one but two autonomous delivery pilots today in Los Angeles, TechCrunch has reported. The first is via an autonomous vehicle partnership with Motional, originally announced in December, and the second is with sidewalk delivery firm Serve Robotics, a company that spun out of Uber itself.

The trials will be limited, with deliveries from just a few merchants including the Kreation juicery and organic cafe. Serve will do short delivery routes in West Hollywood, while Motional will take care of longer deliveries in Santa Monica. "We'll be able to learn from both of those pilots what customers actually want, what merchants actually want and what makes sense for delivery," an Uber spokesperson told TechCrunch.

Uber will apparently charge for the deliveries from Serve. However, autonomous vehicle deliveries in California require a permit that Motional reportedly doesn't possess, so it appears that customers won't be charged for deliveries from their vehicles, for now. In addition, human operators will take control when near the drop-off locations "to ensure a convenient and seamless experience for customers," a spokesperson said. 

Serve's robots, meanwhile, will mostly be able to operate autonomously, but remote operators will take control in certain cases, as when crossing a street. 

Customers within specific test zones will have an option to have their food delivered by an autonomous vehicle and can track it as with a regular delivery. When the food arrives, they'll be able to unlock the vehicle with a passcode to obtain their meals, either from a Serve cooler or the backseat of a Motional car. "The hope is that [the trials] are successful and that we learn over the coming months and then figure out how to scale," Uber's spokesperson said. 

Alexa has introduced "Shopping List Savings" to the Alexa App, letting you scan receipts on eligible products from any store to gain cashback rewards, TechCrunch reported. It won't cost you a thing to use it and you'll get cash back to your Amazon gift card to use on any item on Amazon. The catch is that the system will provide Amazon with a ton of valuable data on your shopping habits, even when you're not shopping on its site.

Using it is pretty straightforward. You just search the Alexa app to find available offers, then add them to your shopping list. You can shop the offers at your "go-to grocery store" (or pharmacy, or any store where you can get an itemized receipt) and scan the receipt and product barcodes to redeem them. That'll get you cash directly on your Amazon gift card, usually in 24-48 hours, which can be used to buy anything on Amazon. 

Amazon doesn't explain how your data will be used or promise to anonymize it, as TechCrunch notes. Instead, it simply states that "we will get any information you provide, including receipt images and information we may extract from those receipts, and the offers you activate. You understand and acknowledge that your personal information may be shared with Amazon’s service providers." 

Amazon isn't the only company to offer such a service, as you can also get cash rewards from Fetch, Ibotta and other companies in exchange for your shopping data. The amount of reward per product appears to be on an offer-by-offer basis, and you can check on payment status any time on the Get Paid page on "Browse Savings." The offer appears to be limited to the US, for now.

The UK's Royal Mail wants to set up as many as 50 drone routes over the next three years to make deliveries to remote communities. The plan, which requires approval from the Civil Aviation Authority, would see the service secure up to 200 of the autonomous devices from logistics drone company Windracers.

The Royal Mail said the first communities to benefit would be the Isles of Scilly (off the coast of Cornwall in south-west England) and the Scottish islands of Shetland, Orkney and the Hebrides.

Test flights started last year. In the most recent one, held in April, the service was able to use a UAV to deliver mail to Unst, Britain's most northerly inhabited island, from Tingwall Airport on Shetland's largest island. That's a 50-mile flight each way.

The twin-engine drone used in the tests can carry a payload of up to 100 kg of mail and take two return flights each day. The Royal Mail said the device has a wingspan of 10 meters and can withstand difficult weather conditions with the help of its autopilot system. After the drone arrives at its destination, a postal worker will retrieve the mail and parcels and deliver them.

The Royal Mail claimed the drones would help it reduce carbon emissions and provide a more reliable delivery service to islands. It eventually hopes to have a fleet of more than 500 drones that will operate across the UK.

Although Netflix had long said its service wouldn't include ads, it revealed last month that it will actually roll out a cheaper, ad-supported plan. Co-CEO Reed Hastings said on an earnings call that plans for that tier would be firmed up "over the next year or two." However, it seems the company is looking to offer the option even sooner. It reportedly suggested in an internal memo that an ad-supported version of the streaming service will emerge later this year.

Executives told staff in the note that they want to introduce an ad-supported plan in the last three months of 2022, according to The New York Times. What's more, the note suggested the tier will be introduced around the same time as an extra fee for subscribers who share their passwords with people living at different addresses.

In the memo, Netflix is said to have noted that, outside of Apple TV+, every major streaming platform offers a lower-cost, ad-supported plan. Those include Hulu, HBO Max and Peacock. The company reportedly said that some of its competitors have still been able to “maintain strong brands" while showing commercials.

Meanwhile, Netflix recently said that more than 222 million households are paid subscribers. However, it claimed more than 100 million households are watching Netflix on someone else's account without paying for access. On the earnings call, chief operating officer Greg Peters said that while the company is “not trying to shut down that sharing," it is "going to ask you to pay a bit more to be able to share.” Netflix started testing an extra fee for account sharers in Peru, Chile and Costa Rica in March.

After years of impressive growth, Netflix suddenly has a big issue when it comes to subscriber numbers, which fell for the first time last quarter. It lost 200,000 members (largely due to shutting down its service in Russia) and it thinks it may lose as many as another two million this quarter. With its stock nosediving by over 50 percent in the last month, the company is hoping an ad-supported tier and extra charges for password sharing will help increase revenue.