While Twitter encountered many self-inflicted wounds this week, users jumped to Blue Sky and Mastodon. Then Meta decided it was a fine time to drop its Twitter copycat, Threads. In this episode, Cherlynn and Devindra chat with Engadget’s Karissa Bell about where all of these services are headed. Will Threads be the clear winner, thanks to Instagram’s social graph? Or will the future lie with fully decentralized platforms like Mastodon?
Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!
This is a great time to grab a 2022 Apple iPad from Amazon, where it's currently on sale for just $1 more than its all-time low. The 10.9-inch tablet will set you back $400 on the website, or $49 lower than its retail price of $449. That price applies to the blue, pink and yellow color options of the WiFi-only 64GB version of the 10th generation iPad. We gave the tablet a score of 85 in our review and praised it for having an updated modern design, which makes it look more like the iPad Air than the previous versions of Apple's basic tablet. It still costs more than the previous iPad, but it is larger than its predecessor, and this price cut makes it a more affordable and enticing option.
In addition to giving the 2022 iPad flatter edges and thinner bezels, Apple also give it a USB-C port like its more expensive siblings. Underneath the hood, you'll find an A14 Bionic chip — it's an older model that debuted with the iPhone 12, but it still represents upgraded performance for the tablet. The iPad has a solid battery life, as well. When we tested it out, we found that it could last up to 11 hours and 45 minutes while playing back a movie purchased from the iTunes Store.
But the best upgrade if you use your iPad for video conferences is perhaps its front facing camera that's now installed on the landscape edge of the device. The camera is no longer awkwardly placed to the side when you put the tablet on landscape mode, and your face will now finally be centered when you take a video call. Take note that while the silver version of the iPad isn't listed at the same price, you can get still get it for $428 on the e-commerce website.
Are you on Threads yet? Meta’s Twitter rival pulls your existing Instagram handle and follows to create a pretty busy timeline, despite only launching over 24 hours ago. It’s already got over 30 million users – which is insane – and speaks to the ease of converting your Instagram account to a Threads account.
Twitter probably isn’t happy, as beyond its own problems, Threads is doing a decent job (in these early days) of replicating Elon Musk’s social network. Now that’s legally true: Twitter has threatened legal action against Meta, accusing it of poaching former employees and unlawful misappropriation of trade secrets and intellectual property.
“Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information,” Alex Spiro, Elon Musk's personal lawyer, wrote in a letter to Meta. Spiro, who is acting on behalf of Twitter parent X Corp., claims Meta has hired dozens of ex-Twitter employees over the last year. (Surely, they have to get jobs somewhere.)
Meta has refuted Spiro's claims. “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing," Meta communications director Andy Stone wrote on… Threads.
– Mat Smith
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Police could tap into cameras and mics for surveillance.
Lawmakers in France's National Assembly have passed a bill that lets police surveil suspects by remotely activating cameras, microphones and GPS location systems on phones and other devices. A judge will have to approve use of the powers, and the recently amended bill forbids use by journalists, lawyers and other "sensitive professions," according to Le Monde.
But civil liberties advocates are alarmed. The digital rights group La Quadrature du Net previously pointed out the potential for abuse. As the bill isn't clear about what constitutes a serious crime, there are fears the French government might use this to target environmental activists and others who aren't grave threats.
To give you an idea how old Angry Birds is, it arrived on iOS, webOS and something called Maemo 5 (you don’t remember Maemo?) before it even came to Android, according to our 2010 review. It’s still around, over 13 years later, and Sega is buying its developer, Rovio, for around $776 million. Now we’re getting the first Angry Birds-themed restaurant, called iSwii by Angry Birds, in the food court at the new Tangram mall in Flushing, Queens, NY. I prefer the Kirby Cafe.
We’ve got recommendations for almost every size and situation.
We all know this, but there are so many Windows laptops now. If there’s a specific feature (like a touchscreen or stylus input) you really need, there’s a great chance there’s a notebook for you. However, that abundance of choice can also make it difficult to know where to start shopping. If your main focus is on general productivity, a sleek ultraportable is all you need. But if you edit photos and videos or play AAA games, you may want a bigger system with discrete graphics. We lay out the most crucial specs, our top-rated devices and our best budget picks too.
It’s now been four years since Pokémon Sleep was announced, in the wake of the Pokémon Company’s success with Pokémon Go. Finally, there’s a brand-new gameplay trailer and an approximate release date of late July. Can you call it gameplay, though? Because, really, it’s a sleep-tracking app wearing a Pokémon jacket.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-twitter-says-meta-stole-trade-secrets-to-build-threads-111503761.html?src=rss
Uber, DoorDash and Grubhub are suing for an injunction to stop New York City's new $18 minimum wage law for food delivery app workers, The Washington Post has reported. The app delivery platforms are asking for a temporary restraining order against the new rules, set to be implemented on July 12th. "We will not stand by and let the harmful impacts of this earnings standard on New York City customers, merchants, and the delivery workers it was intended to support go unchecked," a DoorDash spokesperson told CNN.
The Worker's Justice Project that backed the survey decried the new lawsuit. "This latest legal maneuver to prop up their business model comes at the expense of workers who can barely survive in a city facing a massive affordability crisis," director Ligia Guallpa told the Post.
New York became the first US city to mandate a minimum wage for food delivery workers, ordering platforms to pay workers $17.96 per hour, plus tips, by July 12th. The minimum wage in the city is $15 per hour, but the extra amount accounts for the fact that delivery workers are usually paid as contractors, so have higher taxes and must pay work-related expenses out of pocket. According to an estimate from the DCWP (NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection), NYC has more than 60,000 food delivery workers who earn an average of $7.09 per hour.
However, DoorDash and GrubHub argued that the earnings estimate was based on flawed methodology. Workers surveyed were told up front that the aim was to help raise the pay of delivery workers and suggested "correct" answers, according to the lawsuit.
Grubhub also expressed concern about the increased difficulty in monitoring workers. Uber said, in a separate lawsuit, that the higher minimum wage would inflate food order prices, in turn hurting local restaurants.
App services like Uber have fought for years against regulations against the "gig worker" economy. Earlier this year, a court ruled that Uber and Lyft could keep treating drivers as contractors, rather than reclassifying them as salaried employees.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/uber-doordash-and-grubhub-sue-new-york-city-over-18-minimum-wage-law-103531552.html?src=rss
So, you signed up for a Threads account, because you wanted to see what the fuss was about with Meta's Twitter rival. If you decide that the new social network isn't for you or if you want to start fresh, deleting your Threads profile may not be the way to go — as The Verge notes, doing so will also erase your entire Instagram account. When you open a Threads account, you can use your Instagram credentials to sign up if you want to bring over your profile and your circles from the photo-sharing app. But by doing so, your accounts on both platforms become inextricably linked.
In a post on Threads, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, said Meta is aware of the issue and is currently looking for a way to allow you to delete your Threads account separately. The company is also working on features that are still missing from the app, including the following tab, hashtags, fediverse support and messaging. For now, you can deactivate your Threads account to hide your profile and content. You can also set your profile to private or simply just delete individual threads. To note, you can also sign up for a Threads account with an email or a phone number not linked to your Instagram account, so you can keep the two platforms completely separate.
Meta couldn't have launched Threads at a better time. Twitter recently made changes that frustrated even the most avid users. It first prevented people who aren't logged in from seeing tweets — though it quietly backtracked on requiring users to log in — and then put a strict cap on how many posts users can see per day. Around 10 million users signed up for a Threads account within its first seven hours, and in the first morning after it became available, the app already had 30 million users. Shortly after Threads launched, Twitter threatened to sue Meta, accusing it of poaching former employees and misappropriating trade secrets and intellectual property. In a response to a tweet about the potential lawsuit, Elon Musk replied: "Competition is fine, cheating is not."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-is-working-to-stop-deleted-threads-accounts-from-nuking-instagram-too-094423213.html?src=rss
Amazon's $1.7 billion acquisition of Roomba manufacturer iRobot is under scrutiny not only in the US, but also in Europe. The European Commission has revealed that it has opened an in-depth investigation into the purchase out of concerns that the merger would restrict competition for robotic vacuum cleaners. In particular, the commission is concerned that Amazon might prevent iRobot's rivals from selling their robot vacuums on its marketplace. Amazon might favor iRobot's products in both paid and unpaid search results or charge competing products more to advertise their offerings, the commission said.
In addition, authorities are worried about the possibility of Amazon preventing iRobot rivals from accessing future Alexa APIs and from getting the "Works with Alexa" certification, since voice control with the assistant is one of the most important selling points for robot vacuums. Finally, the commission has raised concerns about Amazon obtaining access to iRobot users' data, which it believes could provide the e-commerce giant "an important advantage." Amazon could, for instance, use that information to better personalize and target advertisements. Bottom line is that the "transaction may raise barriers to entry and expansion for Amazon's competitors to the detriment of consumers."
The commission will now look into these concerns in cooperation with other competition authorities and has until November 15th to finalize its results. In the US, the Federal Trade Commission launched a probe into the acquisition last year after politicians from both parties asked it to oppose the purchase.
An Amazon spokesperson told Reuters that the company will "continue to work through the process with the European Commission and [is] focused on addressing its questions and any identified concerns at this stage." They also told the news organization that Amazon could "offer a company like iRobot the resources to accelerate innovation and invest in critical features while lowering prices for consumers."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazons-irobot-purchase-is-under-investigation-by-european-authorities-054857108.html?src=rss
French law enforcement may soon have far-reaching authority to snoop on alleged criminals. Lawmakers in France's National Assembly have passed a bill that lets police surveil suspects by remotely activating cameras, microphones and GPS location systems on phones and other devices. A judge will have to approve use of the powers, and the recently amended bill forbids use against journalists, lawyers and other "sensitive professions," according to Le Monde. The measure is also meant to limit use to serious cases, and only for a maximum of six months. Geolocation would be limited to crimes that are punishable by at least five years in prison.
An earlier version of the bill passed the Senate, but the amendment will require that legislative body's approval before it can become law.
Civil liberties advocates are alarmed. The digital rights group La Quadrature du Net previously pointed out the potential for abuse. As the bill isn't clear about what constitutes a serious crime, there are fears the French government might use this to target environmental activists and others who aren't grave threats. The organization also notes that worrying security policies have a habit of expanding to less serious crimes. Genetic registration was only used for sex offenders at first, La Quadrature says, but is now being used for most crimes.
The group further notes that the remote access may depend on security vulnerabilities. Police would be exploiting security holes instead of telling manufacturers how to patch those holes, La Quadrature says.
Justice Minister Éric Dupond-Moretti says the powers would only be used for "dozens" of cases per year, and that this was "far away" from the surveillance state of Orwell's 1984. It will save lives, the politician argues.
The legislation comes as concerns about government device surveillance are growing. There's been a backlash against NSO Group, whose Pegasus spyware has allegedly been misused to spy on dissidents, activists and even politicians. While the French bill is more focused, it's not exactly reassuring to those worried about government overreach.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/french-assembly-passes-bill-allowing-police-to-remotely-activate-phone-cameras-and-microphones-for-surveillance-210539401.html?src=rss
Twitter isn't exactly happy about Meta's Threads app, a new text-based Instagram sibling. As Semafor reports, Twitter has threatened legal action against Meta, accusing it of poaching former employees and unlawfully misappropriating trade secrets and intellectual property.
“Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights, and demands that Meta take immediate steps to stop using any Twitter trade secrets or other highly confidential information,” Alex Spiro, Elon Musk's personal lawyer, wrote in a letter to Meta. “Twitter reserves all rights, including, but not limited to, the right to seek both civil remedies and injunctive relief without further notice to prevent any further retention, disclosure, or use of its intellectual property by Meta.”
Spiro, who is acting on behalf of Twitter parent X Corp, claims that Meta has hired dozens of ex-Twitter employees over the last year. He claimed the company "deliberately assigned" them to work on Threads "with the specific intent that they use Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property in order to accelerate development of Meta's competing app." He argued this violates state and federal laws as well as those employees' obligations to their former employer. In addition, Spiro said Meta is prohibited from scraping Twitter data relating to who people follow.
Engadget has contacted Meta for comment. The company told Semafor that Spiro's claims were baseless and that no members of the Threads engineering team were ex-Twitter employees.
For the time being, Threads users need to sign up for the app with their Instagram profile. It's an easy process that helped Meta quickly sign up tens of millions of users. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that 30 million people had joined Threads by Thursday morning, just over 12 hours after the app went live.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/twitter-threatens-to-sue-meta-over-the-new-threads-app-191141961.html?src=rss
The Super Mario Bros. Movie has been available for digital purchase and download from various sources for a little while now. The film will be available to rent starting July 11th on services such as Apple TV and Amazon Video. It was even available to watch through Twitter for a short period of time. But for those who prefer (or already subscribed to a ton of) streaming services, the movie will be hitting Peacock on August 3rd, according to Deadline.
Despite some earlier mixed reviews, most fans seemed to like it overall. The Super Mario Bros. Movie even broke box office records. When we checked the movie out, our reviewer Devindra Hardwar thought that it was great for all ages with endless references that didn’t take you out of the movie if you’re not a diehard Nintendo fan. Its A-List cast includes Jack Black as Bowser, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad and Chris Pratt as the lovable Mario. The movie follows the Mario Bros struggling to get their Brooklyn-based plumbing business off the ground. Somehow, someway (you’ll have to watch the movie to find out) the duo falls into the Mushroom Kingdom and ultimately have to battle it out with the one and only Bowser.
The success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie hopefully sets a precedent for more films from Nintendo. It’s long been rumored that Nintendo is working on a Legend of Zelda movie or TV series, and the success of Mario might give them reason to finally do it.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-super-mario-bros-movie-is-coming-to-peacock-on-august-3rd-184942554.html?src=rss
It’s been a whopping four years since Pokémon Sleep was announced, in the wake of the Pokémon Company’s success with Pokémon Go. For a while everyone thought the bizarre sleep tracking app would disappear into the dustbin of vaporware history, but there’s a brand-new ‘gameplay’ trailer and an approximate release date of late July.
We put gameplay in italics because this isn’t a game. It’s a sleep-tracking app with a Pokémon skin. The app pairs you with the snooze-loving Snorlax. You increase your bond with the giant oaf by, you’ll never guess, sleeping. Getting a good night’s sleep increases your score and allows Snorlax to siphon “drowsy power” from your poor, lifeless husk. In return, more tired Pokémon visit and gift you rare sleep styles. Rinse and repeat until your “Sleep Style Dex” is filled to the brim. Gotta catch 'em all.
You can also moderately increase your bond with Snorlax by feeding it berries and specialized drinks, but that won’t bring exhausted Pokémon like Slowpoke and Diglett to your “sleep island.” That requires rest and accurate sleep tracking.
To that end, the sleep tracking capabilities seem fairly robust, leveraging your phone’s microphone and accelerometer sensors to see how much you toss and turn or if you snore. Your personal sleep style seems to inform which pocket monsters come to visit. For instance, if you toss and turn all night, expect Togepi to impart its “Rocking Sleep” style. If you snore, Jigglypuff will offer a song via its signature “Singing Sleep” style. The company hasn’t noted which Pokémon comes to visit if you lay in bed all night staring at your phone surrounded by potato chips, nor have they stated why a sleep tracker took over four years to develop.
The app is a walled-garden and doesn’t integrate with any fitness tracking or sleep tracking apps. It does, however, pair up with the Pokémon Go Plus bracelet, letting users begin sleep tracking by pushing a button on the device. Using the bracelet also encourages a rare visit from a nightcap-wearing Pikachu. A bracelet costs around $30 and the forthcoming Pokémon Sleep is a free app.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/pokemon-sleep-is-coming-later-this-month-and-theres-a-gameplay-trailer-to-prove-it-182444048.html?src=rss
