Tesla and Hilton have struck a deal to make EV charging more accessible while attracting guests to the latter's hotels at the same time. The companies have announced that starting in 2024, they will install 20,000 Tesla Universal Wall Connectors at 2,000 Hilton properties across the US, Canada and Mexico. This deal expands a previous partnership between the two and will see each chosen property get at least six new chargers. 

Matt Schuyler, Hilton's chief brand officer, told CNBC that the second most searched attribute for its hotels is EV charging. Using the "EV charging" filter on its website, we found that there are 1,148 Hilton hotels with EV chargers in the US at the moment, along with 67 properties in Canada and 22 in Mexico. That's but a fraction of what this expansion entails — according to The Points Guy, it would put Hilton ahead of Los Angeles County for having the most chargers in the continent by the time the project is done. 

While the companies didn't give a timeline for the installations, their deal has the potential to assuage a lot of people's range anxieties, especially since Tesla's Universal Wall Connectors are designed to work even with EVs from other brands. According to the automaker's website, the wall connector has the capability to add up to 44 miles of range per hour. It's also not exclusively available to big companies like Hilton. Tesla is selling the device for $595, and orders for it will start shipping in October. 

There was a time when Walgreens championed Theranos' blood tests and offered them at "wellness centers" in its stores. That was before it came to light that Theranos' tests were faulty, leading to a bitter breakup between the two companies. Now, according to Bloomberg, Walgreens has agreed to pay $44 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by customers who received flawed Theranos blood tests through its centers in Arizona and California. 

Lawyers for both sides struck a deal after a US district judge ordered the case to go to trial, and they filed a notice for a tentative settlement back in May. A court still has to approve the proposal, but based on the court filing by the plaintiffs, those customers will receive around double their out-of-pocket damages if the terms remain unaltered. 

The lawsuit accused Walgreens of being "willfully blind" to its partnership with Theranos, alleging that it had good reason to be suspicious of the latter's fingerprick testing method. Bloomberg says the plaintiffs' lawyers have acknowledged, however, that Walgreens had a "potent" defense argument when it said that it was also defrauded by the blood-testing company. 

Walgreens took Theranos to court in 2016 for a reported $140 million shortly after it formally ended their relationship. They eventually settled the lawsuit in a way that "resolve[d] all claims," but details about that agreement were undisclosed. As for Theranos, well, the company is now dead, with company founder Elizabeth Holmes currently serving time in prison with a scheduled release date of December 29, 2032.

The Steam store will soon tell you if a game supports Sony’s DualSense or DualShock controllers. Valve posted an update for developers this week, announcing that the feature would go live in Steam’s store and desktop app starting in October. Valve hints that more controller-friendly features could be on their way to Steam. “This is the first step toward helping players find games that support the most commonly-used PC video game controllers,” the company wrote.

Developers should now see a new questionnaire in Steamworks, Valve’s game creation tools for its ubiquitous digital storefront. The survey lets devs specify whether their game offers full or partial support for Xbox, DualShock and DualSense controllers. Valve says the filters will also display each PlayStation controller’s usage level, helping gamers learn which gamepads people use the most.

Valve

Valve chalks up the decision to rising numbers of players using PlayStation controllers. It says Sony controller usage has grown from 11 percent of sessions in 2018 to 27 percent today. The company adds that, since 2017, over 87 million Steam users have played at least once using a controller. Among that group, 69 percent have used “some version of Xbox controllers,” while the remainder used “a mix of PlayStation controllers, Switch Pro Controllers, and hundreds of other devices.”

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston have developed an implant, notably as small as a grain of rice, that can test the effects of drugs on a patient’s brain tumor in real-time during surgery. Currently, monitoring the effects of drugs on a brain cancer patient during surgery is limited to intraoperative brain imaging and tissue sampling after a drug has been administered. The technique known as microdialysis currently stands as one of the more minimally invasive sampling options for testing the impact of drugs on brain tumors, but even that requires an entire catheter to be inserted into the patient’s skull cavity.

During development, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital designed the device specifically to help test treatments in patients with brain cancers or gliomas, a type of tumor that originates in the brain or spinal cord. The device is designed to only remain implanted in a patient for about two to three hours while it delivers microdoses of the respective drug that is under observation. It can observe the impact of up to 20 drugs on the market for cancerous tumors, according to the researchers. Once the device is removed (sometime before the surgery ends), the surrounding tissue is returned to the lab for analysis.

In a statement published Wednesday, Pierpaolo Peruzzi, co-principal investigator and assistant professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital said that knowing the impact of cancer drugs on these tumors is critical. “We need to be able to understand, early on, which drug works best for any given patient,” he said.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital

During the development process, researchers at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital ran a clinical trial to observe the actual impact of the implant on real patients. The study found that none of the patients in the trial experienced any adverse effects. The researchers were able to collect biological data from the devices, such as what molecular changes happened when each drug was administered. While the study demonstrated that the implant could be easily incorporated into surgical practice, the researchers are still determining how the data it can gather should be used to optimize tumor therapy.

The researchers are now conducting another study that focuses on implanting the device through a minimally invasive procedure 72 hours before their main surgery. Advancements in the cancer treatment space continue to expand, with new iterations of drug cocktails and viruses that can fight cancer cells emerging in the biotech space. Implants like the one developed by the Brigham and Women’s Hospital bring scientists one step closer to better being able to use tools and data to provide more personalized care treatment plans for cancer patients.

For the first time in Joe Biden's presidency, Democrats will have a majority at the Federal Communications Commission and the ability to undo a wave of Trump-era deregulation in the internet and communications industries. The Senate has confirmed Anna Gomez as the agency's third Democratic commissioner, bringing an end to a long-standing partisan split on the panel.

Biden nominated Gomez, who is currently a State Department communications policy adviser, to the FCC in May. The president's previous pick for the FCC's open chair was Gigi Sohn, who withdrew from consideration in March after enduring attacks from politicians and industry lobbyists. Republicans and certain Democrats such as Sen. Joe Manchin refused to confirm Sohn, who is an advocate for affordable broadband.

However, senators found Gomez a more palatable choice and confirmed her to the panel on Thursday with a 55-43 vote. Gomez worked for the FCC in several positions over a 12-year period before moving into the private sector then onto the State Department earlier this year. She will be the FCC's first Latina commissioner since Gloria Tristani stepped down in 2001.

Industry bodies and figures such as the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association and former FCC chair and Broadland campaign co-chair Mignon Clyburn have welcomed Gomez's appointment. “At long last, at this critical time for the US telecommunications and media industries, we have a full roster of FCC commissioners,” Communications Workers of America President Claude Cummings Jr. told Engadget in a statement. “Anna Gomez is a dedicated public servant who is highly qualified to serve on the FCC. We are looking forward to working with her to realize the potential of the bipartisan infrastructure bill to bring affordable internet service to all Americans and to reverse the decline of local news that threatens the foundations of our democracy.“

After Gomez is sworn in, the Biden administration will be able to fulfill some of its major communications policy goals after a years-long partisan deadlock at the FCC. The agency has long had two Democratic and two Republican senators, who have often been unable to agree on policy votes since former chair Ajit Pai left the panel in January 2021.

The FCC is now expected to reverse some telecommunications sector deregulation efforts that the agency carried out under Donald Trump. Those include the potential restoration of Obama-era net neutrality rules, which the agency scrapped in 2017. In recent years, Democratic commissioners have had their hands largely tied, preventing them from taking meaningful action on issues such as internet data caps. However, the agency has still taken action on some fronts, including tackling problems such as robocallers and banning telecom equipment made by Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE.

The Democratic commissioners may need to act quickly to carry out agenda items on behalf of the Biden administration, however. Biden has nominated Democratic Commissioner Geoffrey Starks for a second term. His initial term expired last year, but he has remained on the panel in an acting capacity. Unless the Senate re-confirms Starks, the FCC may be back in a deadlock scenario in the not-too-distant future.

As the consumer tech world shifts its gaze towards Apple’s expected iPhone 15 launch next week, Google appears determined to make sure you don’t forget it has new Pixels in the pipeline. The company posted a sneak peek of the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro on YouTube, revealing that the phones will be available for pre-order the same day they’re announced: October 4.

Google’s video is little more than a design tease, as it doesn’t showcase or detail any specific features or specs for the handsets that will soon replace the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. Google also posted a new Google Store landing page today that shows the Pixel 8 / 8 Pro and Pixel Watch 2. 9to5Googlenoticed that the image’s alt text describes the displayed models’ colors as Rose and Porcelain.

The upcoming Pixels have popped up several times lately in what many suspect are intentional leaks to try to cut into Apple’s limelight. Earlier this week, the company posted (and removed) a 360-degree Pixel 8 Pro simulator that allowed visitors to spin the virtual device around and view it from every angle. That “leak” confirmed previously rumored features like a temperature sensor, physical SIM slot and three of its available colors (blue, porcelain and black). The company also published a photo of a person holding a porcelain-colored Pixel 8 Pro on the same day Apple sent out iPhone event invites.

Other leaks have pointed to the higher-end Pixel having a 50-megapixel main camera (that lets in 50 percent more light) and a 64-megapixel ultrawide camera made by Sony. In addition, a 5,000 mAh battery and 27W max charging speed are expected.

Google plans to reveal the devices in an event on October 4 in New York City. “You’re invited to an in-person Made by Google event where we’ll introduce the latest additions to our Pixel portfolio of devices,” reads Engadget’s invitation.

Thank the social media makers. Meta’s Threads is officially rolling out a keyword search feature in the United States, alongside many other countries including India, Canada, Mexico and the UK. This has been one of the most asked-for tools since the platform launched in July. Keyword search appeared last week as a beta in New Zealand and Australia, and it looks that beta was a success given today’s announcement.

Keyword search, known as hashtags or text search in some circles, is vital for connecting with communities and for following real-time events. Oddly, Threads is the first major Twitter/X competitor to integrate the feature, which could spell even more trouble for Elon Musk’s beleaguered social media site.

A Meta representative told Engadget that keyword search is being integrated into both mobile apps and the recently-launched web app, so you’ll have your pick of where to search for Star Trek fans or whatever it is you’re into. The company said it’s working on bringing the search function to other languages and countries in the near future. Before this update, you could only use search to look for active Threads accounts.

Meta has been aggressive about adding features to Threads, which is good because the app had an extremely strong start but has fizzled since the initial launch. Maybe this latest update will entice users to return to the service.

GE Aerospace has demonstrated a worm-like robot that could one day inspect and repair jet engines. The Sensiworm (Soft ElectroNics Skin-Innervated Robotic Worm) is designed to serve as “extra sets of eyes and ears” for service operators as they examine the insides of aircraft. GE says the soft robot can minimize downtime and perform less invasive inspections and, in the future, make repairs itself.

The company compares the Sensiworm’s role in aerospace engineering and repairs to how soft robotics have allowed for minimally intrusive patient surgeries. “These technologies are enabling less invasive inspection and repair of jet engines on the wing to reduce downtime,” the company wrote. GE says the worm-like machine could give operators “virtually unfettered access” to inspect engines without disassembling them.

GE Aerospace

Resembling an inchworm, the Sensiworm (remote-controlled by operators) can crawl across various engine parts, including rotating wind turbine blades. It can sense and avoid obstacles automatically, reach places where gravity may stop other tools (thanks to its suction-cup feet) and measure the thickness of thermal barrier coatings. GE says it can even sniff out gas leaks. “With their soft, compliant design, they could inspect every inch of a jet engine, transmitting live video and real-time data about the condition of parts that operators typically check,” the company wrote.

GE Aerospace developed the robo-worm through SEMI Flex Tech, a US Army-funded public / private coalition focused on advancing flexible electronics. GE hasn’t mentioned how far along the worm is in its development or when we can expect deployment in the field. Engadget asked a company spokesperson to clarify, and we will update the article if they respond.

The video below shows the Sensiworm in action (complete with its own theme music).

Snapchat is adding new features meant to discourage teens from interacting with strangers on its app. The changes come after years of scrutiny on the app as lawmakers and other officials have questioned Snap’s ability to keep teens safe.

As with previous updates, the new restrictions primarily affect the accounts of 13- to 17-year-olds on the app. Last year, the company began limiting the visibility of teens’ accounts in its “Quick Add” recommendations to limit strangers’ ability to find young people in the app. Now, the company says it will make teens even harder to find in search and recommendations by increasing the number of mutual friends users must have in order to appear in search and suggested accounts.

And, in cases when teens are able to connect with people with whom they don’t share many mutual friends, Snap will surface warnings encouraging users to only interact with people they know. The warning will be accompanied by an option to block or report the user in question.

The company is also introducing a new strike system for accounts that share “age-inappropriate content” in public-facing parts of the app, like Stories and Spotlight. Under the new system, the app will remove posts that it deems age-inappropriate and dole out a strike to the offending account. Users who rack up too many strikes over a set period of time will have their accounts permanently disabled, according to the company.

Snap has also published a new section of its website aimed at parents who have potential concerns about their teens’ use of Snapchat. The site offers several explainers about the app, including guides on how to use its parental control features.

Here's some news that might shock you: drivers really don't like paying extra for car features they expect as standard. BMW is one of several automakers that have been nickel and diming customers, including with a monthly subscription for heated seats in certain models and territories. The company has dropped that controversial practice to focus on paid software services — it no longer plans to charge drivers extra to use hardware features that are already in their cars.

Pieter Nota, BMW's board member for sales and marketing, told Autocar that the brand will train its attention on paid software features such as driving assistance and parking assistance. Nota suggested that's a more accepted practice, akin to downloading a movie or accessing a paid feature in an app.

However, drivers didn't take to the $18 per month heated seats subscription in the countries where BMW offered that, er, perk. “We thought that we would provide an extra service to the customer by offering the chance to activate that later, but the user acceptance isn’t that high," Nota said. "People feel that they paid double — which was actually not true, but perception is reality, I always say. So that was the reason we stopped that.”

It sounds like a classic case of supply and demand. Drivers didn't want to pay for heated seats (or the likes of heated steering wheels), so BMW stopped doing that. Owners may be heartened to learn that the brand won't make them pay extra for hardware functions going forward either, which is a step in the right direction. Best of all, BMW has clarified its position on heated seats just before the chillier fall weather starts in the northern hemisphere — the subscription didn't even make it to a second winter before BMW canned it.