Amazon might be planning to offer Prime subscribers a pretty significant perk: free cell phone service. According to Bloomberg, the company is talking with multiple US-based carriers about offering cheap — around $10 a month — or even free phone service to Prime customers. Right now, Amazon is supposedly negotiating with the three major US carriers (Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile) as well as the Dish Network, though it sounds like talks with AT&T have fallen off in recent weeks. 

It'll likely be a while before this potential offering launched, as Bloomberg says that talks have only been ongoing for about six to eight weeks and they could still be scrapped. But given how expensive mobile plans can get, this could be a potentially interesting offer for Amazon customers. Of course, that would require a further commitment to Amazon, which already has its fingers in a frankly absurd number of different businesses. 

So far, there's no details on what Amazon's service might look like — whether it would offer the same level of service as you'd get going directly through Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T. Specifically, carriers tend to offer more data at 5G speeds depending on what plan its users choose; there are also a ton of perks that carriers tend to include these days like Netflix from T-Moble or Apple Music or Disney+ on Verizon. 

But it's not hard to imagine that a lot of customers would trade some of those perks or even less high-speed data to get mobile service for free. That's assuming they're OK tying yet another part of their digital lives to Amazon — but if you're already hooked on Prime, this could make for a compelling new part of Amazon's subscription plan. 

The idea of solar energy being transmitted from space is not a new one. In 1968, a NASA engineer named Peter Glaser produced the first concept design for a solar-powered satellite. But only now, 55 years later, does it appear scientists have actually carried out a successful experiment. A team of researchers from Caltech announced on Thursday that their space-borne prototype, called the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD-1), had collected sunlight, converted it into electricity and beamed it to microwave receivers installed on a rooftop on Caltech's Pasadena campus. The experiment also proves that the setup, which launched on January 3, is capable of surviving the trip to space, along with the harsh environment of space itself. 

"To the best of our knowledge, no one has ever demonstrated wireless energy transfer in space even with expensive rigid structures. We are doing it with flexible lightweight structures and with our own integrated circuits. This is a first," said Ali Hajimiri, professor of electrical engineering and medical engineering and co-director of Caltech's Space Solar Power Project (SSPP), in a press release published on Thursday. 

The experiment — known in full as Microwave Array for Power-transfer Low-orbit Experiment (or MAPLE for short) — is one of three research projects being carried out aboard the SSPD-1. The effort involved two separate receiver arrays and lightweight microwave transmitters with custom chips, according to Caltech. In its press release, the team added that the transmission setup was designed to minimize the amount of fuel needed to send them to space, and that the design also needed to be flexible enough so that the transmitters could be folded up onto a rocket.

Space-based solar power has long been something of a holy grail in the scientific community. Although expensive in its current form, the technology carries the promise of potentially unlimited renewable energy, with solar panels in space able to collect sunlight regardless of the time of day. The use of microwaves to transmit power would also mean that cloud cover wouldn't pose an interference, as Nikkeinotes.

Caltech's Space Solar Power Project (SSSP) is hardly the only team that has been attempting to make space-based solar power a reality. Late last month, a few days before Caltech's announcement, Japan's space agency, JAXA, announced a public-private partnership that aims to send solar power from space by 2025. The leader of that project, a Kyoto University professor, has been working on space-based solar power since 2009. Japan also had a breakthrough of its own nearly a decade ago in 2015, when JAXA scientists transmitted 1.8 kilowatts of power — about enough energy to power an electric kettle — more than 50 meters to a wireless receiver. 

The Space Solar Power Project was founded back in 2011. In addition to MAPLE, the SSPD-1 is being used to assess what types of cells are the most effective in surviving the conditions of space. The third experiment is known as DOLCE (Deployable on-Orbit ultraLight Composite Experiment), a structure measuring six-by-six feet that "demonstrates the architecture, packaging scheme, and deployment mechanisms of the modular spacecraft," according to Caltech. It has not yet been deployed.

Nintendo is launching a sequel to 1-2 Switch, its party title that features a robust collection of mini-games, on June 30th. It's called Everybody 1-2-Switch!, because you don't even need to use Joy-Cons to participate in some of its games — you can join in, as long as you're using a compatible smartphone. The original 1-2 Switch launched with 28 mini-games meant to get people playing and to liven up get-togethers. Some of them were odd, such as the game where you have to get a crying baby to sleep, but some were oddly fun. There's a mini-game where you have to pretend to be sashaying down the runway like a supermodel, and another where you have to milk a cow. 

According to a report by Fanbyte last year, Nintendo has been working on the sequel for quite some time. However, testing groups reportedly excoriated the game, and families with kids, which are Nintendo's prime reason for enabling matches with more than two participants, apparently found the mini-games boring. People were calling the sequel "Horseshit," the publication wrote, because the host is a person wearing a horse mask. Was Nintendo able to fix its issues and create mini-games entertaining enough to change the testers' minds? It's not quite clear. In fact, the official product page for Everybody 1-2-Switch! is pretty bare and mostly just mentions the game's multi-player capability. It also says that the title will "feature everything from balloons to aliens." 

The title will set you back $30 when it arrives. That's much less than its predecessor's $50 launch price, and, at this point, your guess is as good as ours on whether that's a good sign or a bad sign. 

We've known it was coming for quite some time, but now Google has a date for when it will start transitioning Fitbit users to Google logins. On June 6th, the tech giant will introduce the option for Fitbit users to log into their accounts using their Google credentials. When it announced the upcoming change following its $2.1 billion purchase of the wearable maker, the company said that it will enable the option for people to move their Fitbit device to their Google account when the log in support arrives. Users will have the opportunity to tweak their data when making the move and will have the option to manage their information either from the Fitbit app or from their Google settings page. 

While logging into Fitbit with Google is only an option for now, soon users will have no choice. The company plans to require the use of a Google login to sign up for a new Fitbit account and to activate new sports devices and smartwatches sometime this year. And then by 2025, it will end support for Fitbit accounts altogether. Those planning to stick to the Fitbit brand will simply have to be OK with linking their devices to their Google account. 

The tech giant is presenting the integration as an easy way for users to "manage all [their] connected apps and paired devices." But it knows that some people will be concerned about the privacy of their information, so it previously said that it won't be using Fitbit users' health and wellness data for Google Ads.

Apparently, the introduction of Windows Copilot signaled the end of Cortana on Microsoft's desktop OS. In a new support document first spotted by Windows Central, the tech giant has announced that it will stop supporting the standalone Cortana app for Windows in late 2023. Microsoft launched Cortana as a voice assistant for Windows mobile devices back in 2014. It was supposed to be the company's answer to Apple's Siri, and it even predates Amazon's Alexa, but it never quite achieved their level of recognition and popularity. 

Over the year, Microsoft scaled back its plans for the voice assistant until it discontinued its Android and iOS apps back in 2021. The company even removed it from partner manufacturers' devices, such as smart speakers. For Windows, in particular, Microsoft changed its status as a baked-in digital assistant and spun it out into its own app for computers. That's the app we're bidding farewell to by the end of the year. 

In its announcement, Microsoft pointed out that users will still have access to "powerful productivity features in Windows and Edge, which have increased AI capabilities." It specifically mentioned the new Bing that's now powered by OpenAI's GPT-4 technology. Microsoft introduced the Microsoft 365 Copilot tool that can create content within Office apps with text-based prompts in March. 

And then in late May, the company revealed at its Build developer conference that it's making AI a deeply integrated part of Windows 11 by putting a Copilot tool in the platform's sidebar. Users can ask it to perform tasks within the OS, such as changing the computer background, or even editing photos and summarizing documents, without having to launch apps or to search for particular settings. Most likely, very few people will be missing Cortana. Those that do use the assistant can transition to using Copilot, which will be available as a preview version for Windows 11 starting this month. 

If you're buying a Tesla Model 3 in the US, you can now get the maximum possible tax credit of $7,500 no matter what make you're getting. Tesla has updated its website to show that the rear-wheel drive Model 3, along with its long range and performance counterparts, now qualify for the full federal tax credit for EVs. You'll also get to the enjoy the same amount of savings if you're buying the all-wheel, long-range or performance Model Y. 

The US government issued a revised set of guidelines for which electric vehicles qualify for the federal $7,500 EV tax credit in March to comply with the Inflation Reduction Act rules the president signed last year. Under the new guidelines, which went into effect on April 18th, vehicles using battery components that are 50 percent made or assembled in the US qualify for a tax credit of $3,750. They can only get the full $7,500 credit if their manufacturer sources at least 40 percent of their critical minerals from the US or its free trade partners, which don't include China. 

A lot of EVs were kicked off the list of vehicles qualified for credits when the change was implemented, but some were re-added in the days that followed. You could only subtract $3,750 from your taxes for Tesla's rear-wheel drive and long range Model 3 due to the new guidelines, but that's no longer the case. It's not quite clear if Tesla altered the cars' batteries or found new suppliers to ensure that its new Model 3 deliveries meet the requirements for the new guidelines. But this means in some locations, you could get the standard version of the vehicle for just a bit more than $30,000 — or maybe even less than that if the state has its own perks for EVs.

Twitter lost its executive in charge of content moderation on the platform, Ella Irwin, earlier this week. In another sign of instability in Twitter's upper ranks, it looks like yet another top executive is leaving the company. The Wall Street Journal reports that A.J. Brown, who was in charge of Twitter’s brand safety and ad quality, decided to leave the company on Friday. Brown was reportedly in charge of making sure Twitter was a safe place for advertisers to place their ads. At the time of writing, she has not officially given a reason as to why she has decided to exit the company.

Since Elon Musk took over, Twitter has struggled to keep advertisers on the platform. It was reported earlier this year that over 500 of the company’s top advertisers have paused spending on the platform. At the time, Twitter owner Elon Musk said that the company planned to break even within the year.

It’s not just advertisers that have concerns about the future of the platform. Some brands and users have ultimately decided to abandon Twitter entirely over concerns over how Musk handles content moderation on the platform.

The departure leaves incoming CEO Linda Yaccarino in an interesting spot. Yacacarino, previously in charge of ad sales at NBCUniversal, has said in the past that brand safety is a top priority for advertisers. Given that advertising is Twitter’s main way of making money, it’ll be interesting to see how she handles this situation.

After Elon Musk’s takeover last year, Twitter seemingly has been in a scramble to try and keep the social media platform afloat. The company has reportedly let go of a vast majority of its workforce and cut off third-party app support. Not to mention, Twitter is charging an exorbitant amount of money for those who want to use its API and is trying to get users to pay $8 per month for a “premium” experience on the platform.

In a Friday afternoon news dump, YouTube inexplicably announced today that 2020 election denialism is a-okay. The company says it “carefully deliberated this change” without offering any specifics on its reasons for the about-face. YouTube initially banned content disputing the results of the 2020 election in December of that year.

In a feeble attempt to explain its decision, the company wrote that it “recognized it was time to reevaluate the effects of this policy in today's changed landscape. In the current environment, we find that while removing this content does curb some misinformation, it could also have the unintended effect of curtailing political speech without meaningfully reducing the risk of violence or other real-world harm. With that in mind, and with 2024 campaigns well underway, we will stop removing content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in the 2020 and other past US Presidential elections.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Police have arrested a South Carolina man after he allegedly robbed a convenience store armed with a Nintendo light gun primarily used in the 1980s to play Duck Hunt, Hogan’s Alley and Gumshoe, as originally announced by York County deputies. The 25-year-old suspect allegedly made away with $300 in cash after donning a mask, wig, hoodie sweatshirt and the aforementioned Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) Zapper gun accessory.

Police allege the suspect waved the fake gun at a clerk and demanded money from the cash register. Authorities found him down the street in a Dollar General parking lot with the fake pistol in his pants. The original 1984 accessory is famously bright orange and gray, but authorities say the suspect spray-painted his black, likely so it would resemble a functional firearm. The York County Sheriff’s Department released an image of the doctored gaming accessory on its Twitter account.

The original light gun accessory, called the Zapper, shipped with the NES and used an internal optical sensor to translate trigger presses to on-screen action. The primary use was Duck Hunt, though it worked with a handful of titles throughout the console’s lifespan.

Using a fake gun to commit a crime is no joke and has been a serious issue for decades. A 1990 study conducted by Congress found that fake guns were used in more than 15 percent of robberies. It’s worth noting that in most parts of the country, using a fake gun to commit a crime carries similar penalties to that of a real firearm, as the threat of danger is very real to victims. After all, these toy or replica guns look nearly identical to the real thing. To that end, New York State recently passed legislation banning toy guns unless they are clearly fake, such as those painted with bright colors.

Will Apple's rumored mixed reality headset set the company up for failure, or for a future where smart glasses are everywhere? That's the big question running through my mind as we prepare for its annual Worldwide Developers Conference next week. Despite Apple's track record with disrupting nascent technology — most notably, with the iPod and iPhone — there's plenty of reason for skepticism when it comes to mixed reality. Existing mixed reality headsets like the HoloLens 2 and Magic Leap 2 are targeted mainly at corporate customers that can more easily stomach the high prices. VR headsets have arguably plateaued when it comes to the depth of their experiences and their potential market. Just look at the PlayStation VR2, which mostly recycles existing VR games.

And then there's the major problem, the one Apple needs to solve more than anything else: Why would mainstream consumers — not the geeky early adopters or impassioned gamers — want to wear something on their head for extended periods? A mixed reality headset wouldn't be like the iPod or iPhone, which expanded the possibilities of existing products but could easily slip into your pocket. It's not just like the AirPods or the Apple Watch, accessories meant to compliment Apple's existing hardware. A headset, by its very definition, would have to be an all-consuming product, a persistent reminder that you're seeing the world through Apple's eyes.

At its WWDC keynote on Monday, Apple will need to make the case for its mixed reality headset as deftly as Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone and iPod. But this time, it likely won't have a completed product meant for mainstream users. (Admittedly, the iPhone took a few years to transform into something more compelling with the addition of 3G and the App Store.) Instead, we’ll probably see an appeal to developers to help build its mixed reality ecosystem, and for consumers to have faith that it'll eventually be more affordable and truly useful.

Reporting from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman points to Apple's mixed reality headset — potentially called the Reality One or Reality Pro — being a $3,000 device with a focus on gaming, exercise and productivity. It’s said to rely on finger gestures to navigate a floating interface, and there will be a virtual keyboard along with support for physical keyboards. Additionally, Gurman notes that there will be a Digital Crown, similar to the Apple Watch, that can transition the headset from fully immersive VR into mixed reality, which will combine the digital interface with the real world using onboard cameras.

Magic Leap founder (and This Week in XR podcast co-host) Rony Abovitz sees Apple's potential headset as a major boost for the mixed reality industry. "If Apple actually reveals an XR system next week, that act alone will help to validate the belief shared by many XR pioneers that XR is the next important computing platform," he told Engadget over email. "It will take time and a number of generations to perfect, but we should see the market move more quickly after this milestone."

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

But not everyone is convinced that "mixed reality" (MR) is the way forward. Edward Saatchi, the founder of the VR studio Fable and the original founder of Oculus's Story Studio, tells me he still he's "unconvinced" about the concept of MR: "As a VR and AR creator, there are significant differences between making AR content and making VR content and it’s hard to see how an MR headset which can’t decide between AR and VR will be hugely successful."

"AR and VR present significantly different design challenges and you can’t port an AR app over to a VR app," Saatchi added. He likens it to smartphone gamepad accessories, like the Backbone and Razer Kiyo, that aim to let you play either complex console games or casual phone games. Putting those together just "doesn't quite feel right" to him.

As cloudy as Apple's intentions may seem right now, the mixed reality industry is primed for the sort of disruption the company is known for. After all, Apple didn't make the first MP3 device, or the first smartphone. But it was the first company to create a simple music store supported by the music industry, and the iPhone represented a dramatic leap forward over what the BlackBerry and other smartphone platforms offered in 2007.

"The biggest piece that Apple brings to the table with this [headset] is the Apple installed base, and the ability to leverage all of the other Apple tech with a wealth of already installed hardware," Jack Gold, President and Principal Analyst at J. Gold Associates told Engadget. "Meta doesn’t have that same ability since it’s really only a browser/software play. Apple could easily couple any headset with links (and OS updates) to iPhones and Macs and have a built-in market of millions. So Apple has a head start against anyone in the market with an installed base of users that could be easily upgraded."

Gold notes it also makes sense that Apple is focusing on developers first: "Given the price and the relatively low volumes expected, it’s much better to get [headsets] to creators than consumers, and save the consumers for follow on products with better features (which are also being debugged by the developers), and a lower price."

Even if Apple manages to build one of the most sophisticated mixed reality headsets on the market, it's still unclear what the mainstream pitch for such a device would be. For it to be truly compelling, I'd imagine the company has to go a step further from what we've seen with the Meta Quest (and the upcoming Meta Quest 3). It'll need to go beyond games to deliver experiences you can't get anywhere else.

One possibility came to mind a few weeks ago when Sightful unveiled its augmented reality laptop, Spacetop. It's basically a small computing box which, together with customized Nreal smart glasses, lets you see a 100" AR display. While I didn't get to test it in person, it's easy to imagine something from Apple offering similar functionality when connected to a Mac, iPhone or iPad.

Just imagine toting a MacBook Air to a coffee shop, slipping on a pair of mixed reality glasses, and having a 100-inch virtual window expanding out of the laptop's screen. It'd be a boon for multitaskers, as well as people who need to work on confidential material in public. (No more people peeking over your shoulder on planes!) It’ll likely be years before this is technically feasible, but that may also align with when Apple can make a more affordable headset.

Apple's vision reportedly extends beyond mixed reality to lightweight AR glasses, but it's still unclear how feasible those will be in the future. "Pure AR glasses seem like a totally logical next step, but it was 10 years ago that we all said it would take 10 years to get there, and they still don’t seem 10 years away to me," Saatchi said.

But why stop at glasses? Apple's mixed reality ecosystem could easily translate to more advanced technology that doesn’ require you to wear anything. "I think the biggest issue is still having to wear this 'thing' over your head that takes up space and makes it so I can’t really see that well (imagine trying to walk down the street with one of these things on)," Gold said. "I think in five to ten years, what we’ll see is XR that does not require this massive thing on my head to work. That’s when it gets more meaningful, using heads up displays, even 3D displays on phones, etc."

To paraphrase Dr. Emmet Brown in Back to the Future, where we're going, we won't need screens.