The Google Chromecast with Google TV is the top pick in our guide to the best streaming devices, as it provides an attractive, detailed interface for navigating apps at an affordable price. If you find the smart platform built into your TV slow or unwieldy and are looking to make a switch, Google has kicked off a new sale that brings the 4K streamer back down to $40. 

Google has run this discount several times in the past: It's a few bucks more than the lowest price we've ever seen, but it's still $10 off the device's typical going rate. It's also the first major discount the Chromecast has received in the new year. The offer is available at several retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, B&H and the Google Store. According to Google's listing, it'll last through February 11.

The 4K Chromecast was released way back in 2020 and doesn't support Wi-Fi 6 (or 6E), so we wouldn't be surprised to see a refresh at some point. That said, the existing model is still snappy enough to navigate apps and load up content. It supports all the major streaming services and the most-used HDR formats (Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+), as well as Dolby Atmos audio via HDMI passthrough. The dongle itself plugs directly to a TV's HDMI port, and it comes with a simple remote that can also control volume and power for your TV (though it lacks a dedicated play/pause button).

But you'd mainly buy the Chromecast for its UI. Instead of presenting a grid of apps like a Roku device, Google TV takes a more content-centric approach, proactively recommending shows and movies you may like based on your viewing history. This works well: Recommendations are pulled from a wide range of services, and series you've been watching recently are usually placed toward the top, so it's easy to jump into the next episode. It can also integrate with certain live TV services like YouTube TV and Sling TV to show what's on right from the menu. You can create separate personalized profiles for different people, and contextual searches through the Google Assistant typically work great. You'll still see sponsored content, as with most streamers, but the advertising here generally isn't egregious as it is on, say, Amazon's Fire TV Sticks.

The Roku Streaming Stick 4K is another affordable option that we recommend in our buying guide; it's currently available for $39 as well, though that deal has been around for most of the last two months. Its app-based interface is more basic than Google TV, and it's generally not as precise as the Chromecast when searching for content. But if you want a streamer that just shows you apps and gets out of the way, it might be a better fit. Roku's streamer also supports Apple AirPlay, so you can beam content to it right from an iPhone. If you've got much more cash to burn, meanwhile, the $129 Apple TV 4K is faster and less ad-filled than either device, but that one isn't significantly discounted right now.

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Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, is laying off 10 percent of its workforce, according to an SEC filing and confirmed by a company spokesperson. The company reported a total number of 5,367 employees at the end of 2023’s third quarter, so the layoffs should impact around 540 people.

Snap discussed the decision in the SEC filing, saying the layoffs would “best position our business to execute our highest priorities” and ensure it has “the capacity to invest incrementally” over time. The company told us the layoffs were necessary to “reduce hierarchy and promote in-person collaboration.” None of those sentences really mean anything, so let's just go with "corporate restructuring." 

Snap said in the filing that it would be issuing severance packages to the impacted employees, but there's no specific information regarding package details. A Snap spokesperson confirmed to Engadget that it's “focused on supporting our departing team members.”

These layoffs are happening just one day before Snap is scheduled to report fourth-quarter earnings for 2023. The company actually did pretty well in Q3, beating out Wall Street expectations by about five percent, according to Variety.

If tomorrow's earnings report is bad, it'll show why these layoffs are necessary. On the other hand, if it's better than expected, Snap may be announcing these layoffs now to avoid doing so after a quarter of financial gains. Nobody likes to see a big company massively reduce its headcount after bragging about earnings. Snap told us the company’s in a “quiet period” until tomorrow’s Q4 financial report drops.

This follows another round of layoffs in November, in which Snap let go of 20 product managers. However, both of these news items pale in comparison to Snap’s massive culling in 2022, which eliminated over 1,300 employees.

Microsoft's gaming division appears to be considering a significant shift in its strategy when it comes to major exclusives. Rumors have been swirling for a while that the company is bringing Hi-Fi Rush, a well-received game from last year, and Sea of Thieves to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5. But the company is said to be bringing some of its blockbuster Xbox exclusives to PS5 as well, which would mark a monumental change in policy.

Over the weekend, XboxEra reported that Microsoft will bring Bethesda's Starfield (its tentpole game for 2023) to PS5 later this year, sometime after the release of the Shattered Space expansion. The report suggests that Microsoft has acquired more PS5 dev kits to help port its games to Sony's console.

MachineGames' Indiana Jones and the Great Circle could be bound for PlayStation 5 as well. According to The Verge, the action-adventure game is slated to hit Sony's platform just a few months after it debuts on PC, Xbox and Game Pass later this year.

Amid the Federal Trade Commission's failed attempt to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, then-Bethesda vice president Pete Hines confirmed in court last year that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was initially going to be released on multiple consoles. However, after Microsoft purchased Bethesda parent ZeniMax Media, it changed the agreement to make the game an Xbox console exclusive. The FTC was also under the belief that fellow Bethesda titles Starfield and Redfall were at one point bound for PS5 before those versions of the games were canned.

There's really only one reason why Microsoft would even begin to consider bringing more of its exclusives to PlayStation: money. It may be the case that the Game Pass model can't really sustain multiple games with nine-figure budgets and Microsoft could feel as though it's leaving money on the table by not having certain titles on PS5, as XboxEra put it.

It's clear that Microsoft is looking to make its gaming division more profitable. It recently laid off around 1,900 workers in that unit, just a few months after closing the $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard takeover.

When Microsoft bought ZeniMax, Microsoft Gaming CEO Spencer said his team would decide platform availability on a case-by-case basis. However, he said that Starfield would only be available on Xbox, PC and Game Pass.

Some Xbox games are already available on PlayStation and Switch, such as Minecraft Dungeons. As part of its 10-year deal to release Call of Duty titles on Nintendo consoles, Microsoft suggested it would bring other Xbox games to Switch and/or its successor.

The change in strategy could call into question Xbox's place in the games industry. While console wars are by and large nonsense, some players may feel aggrieved that Starfield and the Indy game are seemingly bound for PS5, especially if they decided to make Xbox Series X/S their sole console. Certain gamers who might only be able to afford one of the flagship consoles and tend to trade in games may feel that they're missing out if they plumped for an Xbox but Microsoft's titles are hitting PS5 alongside the likes of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and God of War Ragnarok.

It might not be too long until we learn more details about Microsoft's shift in multi-platform strategy. Hi-Fi Rush is reportedly coming to Switch and PlayStation this quarter, while the company is said to be preparing a public announcement about the new lay of the land for later this month.

Yandex, often described as Russia’s Google, has sold its domestic businesses at a knock-down price. Bloomberg reports the search and services giant, now headquartered in the Netherlands, has handed off its Russian operations for 475 billion rubles ($5.2 billion) in cash and shares. The new owners include the management group, as well as Russia’s biggest domestic energy company, Lukoil, and Russian businessman and a former executive at Gazprom, Alexander Ryazanov, among others. Now that Yandex has cut ties with Russia, it will be able to grow and partner more freely given the sanctions affecting businesses with Russian ties following the invasion of Ukraine.

Since the war, Yandex has faced repercussions such as removal from Nasdaq. Its founder, Arkady Volozh, faced European Union sanctions in the summer of 2022 due to the company reportedly supporting Russian propaganda. The company soon sold its news aggregation service, and Volozh openly condemned the war.

Reports that Yandex would cut ties with Russia first emerged in late 2022. At the time, the company was facing sanction repercussions and was rumored to have no path forward to grow projects without Western technology. However, it took a year and a half of negotiations between Yandex and the Kremlin (a necessary step) for Yandex NV to be allowed to separate from its Russian businesses. The final deal came with at least a 50 percent discount, a customary practice when the Kremlin deems the registered country — in this case, the Netherlands — unfriendly.

Microsoft is teaming up with media website Semafor on a new project that uses ChatGPT to aid in the creation of news stories, The Financial Times has reported. It's one of several journalistic collaborations Microsoft is set to announce today, and follows a New York Times lawsuit filed against the software giant and its partner, OpenAI, for copyright infringement.

Semafor, co-founded by former Buzzfeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith, will create a feed called "Signals" that will be sponsored by Microsoft for an undisclosed but "substantial" sum, the report states. It will highlight breaking news and analysis, offering a dozen or so posts per day. All stories will be written entirely by journalists, with the AI effectively acting as a research tool.

Signals responds to the deep and continuing shifts in the digital media landscape and the post-social news moment, and to the risks and opportunities posed by artificial intelligence, Semafor wrote.

Specifically, Semafor's team will use AI tools to rapidly find breaking event reporting from other news sources around the world in multiple languages, while providing translation tools. An article might therefore include Chinese, Indian or other sources, with reporters adding context and summarizing the different viewpoints. "Journalists need to adopt these tools in order to survive and thrive for another generation," former AP journalist Noreen Gillespie, now with Microsoft, told The Financial Times. 

The use of ChatGPT and other AI chatbots has been controversial in newsrooms, with sites like CNET recently using them to generate entire feature-length articles (albeit with the help of human editors). This despite the fact that AI can "hallucinate" (make up untrue content) and exhibit other kinds of bizarre behavior. Newsrooms are trying to figure out how to use them to improve reporting and potentially compete against chatbots churning out reams of SEO-friendly content.

Late last year, The New York Times announced that it was suing OpenAI and Microsoft for using published news articles to train its chatbots without providing compensation. The lawsuit, which potentially seeks billions in statutory and actual damages, marks the first time a major news organization has pursued ChatGPT's developers for copyright infringement.

Microsoft also announced collaborations today with the Craig Newmark School of Journalism, the GroundTruth Project, the Online News Association and other journalism organizations. 

The biggest podcast in the world makes many people furious, but it’s still the biggest podcast in the world. Now, the man behind The Joe Rogan Experience has signed another deal with Spotify, worth an estimated $250 million. The deal allows the streamer to distribute Rogan’s podcasts on additional platforms, including a video version for YouTube, but it also includes a revenue-sharing agreement based on ad sales, in case Rogan burns through those hundreds of millions too quickly.

Rogan has been a regular source of controversy since signing up, in particular with uninformed COVID opinions, which prompted doctors and scientists to demand Spotify update its misinformation policy. Spotify claimed it wasn’t responsible for Rogan, that it was a platform, not a publisher. Now Spotify will be publishing Rogan’s projects elsewhere, what will be its defense next time?

— Mat Smith

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The biggest stories you might have missed

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iFixit tears down the Apple Vision Pro

Its lenticular optics make ghostly 3D avatars.

iFixit

Apple uses a stereoscopic 3D effect to make your virtual eyes look more lifelike on the Vision Pro’s EyeSight outer display. It has a widening optical layer and a lenticular lens layer over the OLED screen, so exposing the panel shows “some very oddly pinched eyes.” The optical nature of the added layers also explains the EyeSight display’s dim output. iFixit is unraveling the headset to figure out how Apple does it all.

Continue reading.

Google might rename its chatbot, already

And there may be a dedicated app soon.

According to a leak, Google may change the name of its AI chatbot from Bard to Gemini. It would make sense for Google to do so — the company introduced its new multimodal AI model, Gemini, at the end of 2023. The changelog, shared by Android app developer Dylan Roussel and dated February 7, notes a paid Gemini Advanced tier will be available. It also mentions a Gemini app for Android.

Continue reading.

Japan’s Moon lander took this eerie photo before being enveloped by lunar night

The SLIM lander has since gone dormant.

JAXA

Japan’s SLIM lander managed to turn back on more than a week after it plopped upside down onto the surface of the Moon — but now, it’s gone dormant for the duration of the lunar night, and it may not wake up again. Lunar night lasts the equivalent of two Earth weeks and can get colder than -200 degrees Fahrenheit. Its chances of resuming operations aren’t great, but then again, it’s already surprised us once.

Continue reading.

Samsung chairman Jay Y. Lee's legal troubles may be in the rearview mirror as a Korean court acquitted him of stock manipulation and accounting fraud charges over a 2015 merger, The Financial Times has reported. The ruling allows Lee to continue leading Samsung, which saw a sharp decline in revenue last year. 

Seeking a five year jail term, prosecutors accused Lee of manipulating the share price of two Samsung subsidiaries to smooth the way for a merger that allowed him to consolidate his power. However, the Seoul Central District Court ruled that the prosecutors failed to prove that. "It is hard to say that Lee Jae-yong [aka Jay Y. Lee] . . . spearheaded the merger, and that the merger was done just for the sake of Lee’s succession," the judge stated in the ruling.

The verdict will allow Lee and Samsung to focus on its declining smartphone and memory chip businesses. Samsung recently lost its smartphone sales crown to Apple, and is now behind SK Hynix in the new and hot market of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used by NVIDIA and others to create artificial intelligence (AI) models. 

The decision was heralded by business groups including the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, but not everyone in the country agreed. "The ruling will free Lee of legal risks, but I am at a loss for words in terms of the country’s economic justice," Park Ju-geun, head of corporate thinktank Leaders Index, told the FT. "This goes totally against all previous court rulings on the merger."

Lee was originally sentenced to five years in prison in 2017 after being found guilty of bribing public officials over the same merger. He walked free after a year in detention, but the South Korean Supreme Court overturned that decision and ordered the case to be retried.

While Lee was sentenced with two-and-a-half years of prison time in early 2021 in that retrial, he was paroled half a year later in a development that civic groups had described as another example of the justice system being lenient towards the country's elite. (Korea's former president Park Geun-hye also went to jail for her role in the same affair.) 

In 2022, Lee was given a pardon by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, ostensibly so he could help the country overcome its economic crisis. Ironically, Yoon is the country's former chief prosecutor and oversaw the original convictions of Lee and Park. 

The Oversight Board is urging Meta to update its manipulated media policy, calling the current rules “incoherent.” The admonishment comes in a closely watched decision about a misleadingly edited video of President Joe Biden.

The board ultimately sided with Meta regarding its decision to not remove the clip at the center of the case. The video featured footage from October 2022, when the president accompanied his granddaughter who was voting in person for the first time. News footage shows that after voting, he placed an “I voted” sticker on her shirt. A Facebook user later shared an edited version that looped the moment so it appeared as if he repeatedly touched her chest. The caption accompanying the clip called him a “sick pedophile,” and said those who voted for him were “mentally unwell.”

In its decision, the Oversight Board said that the video was not a violation of Meta’s narrowly-written manipulated media policy because it was not edited with AI tools, and because the edits were “obvious and therefore unlikely to mislead” most users. “Nevertheless, the Board is concerned about the Manipulated media policy in its current form, finding it to be incoherent, lacking in persuasive justification and inappropriately focused on how content has been created rather than on which specific harms it aims to prevent (for example, to electoral processes),” the board wrote. “Meta should “reconsider this policy quickly , given the number of elections in 2024.”

The company’s current rules only apply to videos that are edited with AI, but don’t cover other types of editing that could be misleading. In its policy recommendations to Meta, the Oversight Board says it should write new rules that cover audio and video content. The policy should apply not just to misleading speech but “content showing people doing things they did not do.” The board says these rules should apply “regardless of the method of creation.” Furthermore, the board recommends that Meta should no longer remove posts with manipulated media if the content itself isn't breaking any other rules. Instead, the board suggests Meta “apply a label indicating the content is significantly layered and may mislead.”

The recommendations underscore mounting concern among researchers and civil society groups about how the surge in AI tools could enable a new wave of viral election misinformation. In a statement, a Meta spokesperson said the company is “reviewing the Oversight Board’s guidance and will respond publicly” within the next 60 days. While that response would come well before the 2024 presidential election, it’s unclear when, or if, any policy changes may come. The Oversight Board writes in its decision that Meta representatives indicated the company “plans to update the Manipulated Media policy to respond to the evolution of new and increasingly realistic AI.”

Bad actors keep using deepfakes for everything from impersonating celebrities to scamming people out of money. The latest instance is out of Hong Kong, where a finance worker for an undisclosed multinational company was tricked into remitting $200 million Hong Kong dollars ($25.6 million). 

According to Hong Kong police, scammers contacted the employee posing as the company's United Kingdom-based chief financial officer. He was initially suspicious, as the email called for secret transactions, but that's where the deepfakes came in. The worker attended a video call with the "CFO" and other recognizable members of the company. In reality, each "person" he interacted with was a deepfake — likely created using public video clips of the actual individuals. 

The deepfakes asked the employee to introduce himself and then quickly instructed him to make 15 transfers comprising the $25.6 million to five local bank accounts. They created a sense of urgency for the task, and then the call abruptly ended. A week later, the employee checked up on the request within the company, discovering the truth.

Hong Kong police have arrested six people so far in connection with the scam. The individuals involved stole eight identification cards and had filed 54 bank account registrations and 90 loan applications in 2023. They had also used deepfakes to trick facial recognition software in at least 20 cases. 

The widespread use of deepfakes is one of the growing concerns of evolving AI technology. In January, Taylor Swift and President Joe Biden were among those whose identities were forged with deepfakes. In Swift's case, it was nonconsensual pornographic images of her and a financial scam targeting potential Le Creuset shoppers. President Biden's voice could be heard in some robocalls to New Hampshire constituents, imploring them not to vote in their state's primary. 

One of Vision Pro's most intriguing features is undoubtedly the EyeSight display, which projects a visual feed of your own eyes to better connect with people in the real world — because eye contact matters, be it real or virtual. As iFixit discovered in its teardown, it turns out that Apple leveraged stereoscopic 3D effect as an attempt to make your virtual eyes look more life-like, as opposed to a conventional "flat" output on the curved OLED panel. This is achieved by stacking a widening optical layer and a lenticular lens layer over the OLED screen, which is why exposing the panel will show "some very oddly pinched eyes." The optical nature of the added layers also explain the EyeSight display's dim output. Feel free to check out the scientific details in the article.

While iFixit has yet to do more analysis before it can give the Vision Pro a repairability score, so far we already know that the front glass panel "took a lot of heat and time" to detach from the main body. That said, the overall modular design — especially the speakers and the external battery — should win some points. As always, head over to iFixit for some lovely close-up shots of the teardown process.