Amazon has announced it's making over 100 Prime Video original series and movies available on Freevee, its free streaming service. It seems to be a natural part of the lifespan for exclusive video content these days: In April, HBO and Warner Brothers made a bunch of their shows available for free on Roku, some of which originally aired on TV.
The full list of Prime original content expanding to Freevee isn't available yet, but titles will include The Summer I Turned Pretty, The Wheel of Time, Late Night, Troop Zero and Reacher. The 100-plus titles won't all arrive at once, as Amazon reports that new series and movies will become available on Freevee throughout the year.
It appears that Amazon is dedicated to using Freevee to capture the free-streaming market. Last year, it rebranded IMDB TV into Freevee in a move it said reflected the streaming service's free access — other names reportedly in consideration included "Zon" and "Free TV." Ads are likely a small inconvenience for many people when Amazon Prime starts at $14.99 a month or $139 a year for individuals. You can access Freevee through Amazon and its Fire TV stick or as an independent app on iOS, Android, Xbox, most smart TVs and other systems.
Freevee already produces a range of original content, like America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation and Judy Justice. The streamer also offers titles outside the Amazon production family, including Schitt's Creek, John Wick and Bones.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-is-making-over-100-prime-video-originals-available-for-free-160032958.html?src=rss
One of the pioneers of artificial intelligence has made a high-profile exit. Geoffrey Hinton, nicknamed the "godfather of AI," tellsThe New York Times he resigned as Google VP and engineering fellow in April to freely warn of the risks associated with the technology. The researcher is concerned that Google is giving up its previous restraint on public AI releases in a bid to compete with ChatGPT, Bing Chat and similar models, opening the door to multiple ethical problems.
In the near term, Hinton is worried that generative AI could lead to a wave of misinformation. You might "not be able to know what is true anymore," he says. He's also concerned it might not just eliminate "drudge work," but outright replace some jobs. Going forward, the scientist is concerned about both the possibility of fully autonomous weapons and the tendency of AI models to learn odd behavior from training data. While some of these issues are theoretical, Hinton fears an escalation that won't be checked without regulations or the development of effective controls.
Hinton says his stance began changing last year, when Google, OpenAI and others began creating AI systems that he believes are sometimes superior to human intelligence. AI has developed rapidly in just the past five years — it's "scary" what could happen in the next five, the researcher suggests.
In a statement to Engadget, Google's chief scientist Jeff Dean says his firm is still dedicated to a "responsible approach" and on guard for "emerging risks." The search giant recently released a rough version of its Bard chatbot in March following months of rumors the company is worried about the competitive threat of generative AI. Before then, it refused to publicly release AI models like its art-oriented Imagen over the potential for toxic content and copyright violations.
Hinton has devoted his career to studying the neural networks that are often key to AI, but is best known for developing an object recognition system in 2012. His breakthrough neural net could use training images to help recognize common objects. Google bought Hinton's DNNresearch startup in 2013, and the underlying concept of his invention helped foster a surge of development that led to today's generative tech.
Hinton isn't alone. A number of influential academics and tech luminaries, including Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak, recently signed an open letter calling for a six-month pause on AI development to address ethical and safety problems. As one of the most prominent figures in the industry, though, Hinton's word carries significant weight.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/godfather-of-ai-leaves-google-amid-ethical-concerns-152451800.html?src=rss
Air fryers are all the rage and those who've been on the fence about adding one to their kitchen might be interested in checking out a deal on a model from Ninja. The 10-quart DZ550 DualZone, which Ninja released last year, has dropped to $200 at Amazon. That's $50 off the regular price. While it's not the lowest price we've seen for this model, this might be the biggest discount that you'll find for a while.
This is a more recent version of one of our favorite air fryers, Ninja's DZ401. The main upgrade is the addition of an integrated food thermometer. This should help you monitor the internal temperatures of foods, especially proteins, with more accuracy.
As with other dual-zone fryers, the DZ550 has two independent, nonstick baskets, allowing you to cook two foods simultaneously, such as a main and a side. You can have different settings for each basket or match the settings across both — a handy option if you're cooking two batches of the same thing. The Smart Finish feature, meanwhile, is designed to make sure the food in each basket is ready at the same time.
The DZ550 has six functions: air frying, air broiling, roasting, baking, reheating and dehydrating. There's also a wide temperature range that runs from 105 to 450 degrees. Additionally, Ninja claims its air fryer can cook food faster than a traditional oven. It says the DZ550 can cook two six-pound chickens 30 percent faster than a regular oven and make frozen food crispy in 30 minutes.
You'll need to set aside plenty of counter space for the DZ550: it's 17 inches wide and 14 inches deep. It weighs just under 20 pounds as well. Still, if you have the room for the DZ550, it could prove a helpful addition to your kitchen, and the lower price makes it that much more appealing.
You don't have to buy a whole new router if your existing WiFi network coverage isn't quite cutting it. Amazon is running a sale on TP-Link WiFi extenders. The steepest discount is on the WiFi 6-based RE500X, which now sells for $55 (39 percent off), but you can also buy our favorite budget extender, the WiFi 5-capable RE315, for just $32 (normally $50). That's the best price we've seen for the entry model all year, and makes it an easy choice if you're comfortable with your existing router's peak speed.
All of the WiFi extenders add up to 1,500 square feet of additional coverage. That's enough to make your network usable in the basement, a far-off bedroom or the backyard. They support OneMesh networking to easily grow your network if you have a compatible TP-Link router. And if you need a physical link (such as for a console or printer), they include Ethernet jacks to either plug in wired devices or create a wireless access point.
Your main concern may be future-proofing. The WiFi 6 models including the RE600X, now at $68) may be a better long-term value if you expect to upgrade to the more recent wireless standard in the near future. You won't have to replace your extender if you buy a more advanced router. And if you're looking to upgrade your overall performance, you may want to consider a WiFi 6E system instead. For many people, though, TP-Link's offerings are an affordable way to boost signal quality.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tp-link-wifi-extenders-are-up-to-39-percent-off-at-amazon-133050880.html?src=rss
In a Twitter audio chat on Saturday, SpaceX's founder, Elon Musk, shared more details about what went awry during the first fully integrated Starship rocket and Super Heavy booster launch in April. One of the biggest revelations: The self-destruct setting took 40 seconds to work — a seemingly short time, except when you're uncertain if the massive rocket you just launched will blow up before hitting land. To recap the day's events, the rocket and booster cleared the launch pad before being unable to separate from each other, flipping and, finally, blowing up. The automated command should have immediately caused an explosion, but tumbled around for a bit first, The New York Times reported.
In one of many spins on the day's failures, Musk claimed it was because "the vehicle’s structural margins appear to be better than we expected." While SpaceX previously said the only goal was that initial takeoff, a lot clearly went wrong.
The delayed self-destruction wasn't the only issue following the launch from SpaceX's facility in Boca Chica, Texas. After the eventual explosion, debris fell across about 385 acres of land made up of the SpaceX facility and Boca Chica State Park. The latter resulted in a 3.5-acre fire. Musk's response? "To the best of our knowledge there has not been any meaningful damage to the environment that we’re aware of."
The FAA has already announced it's investigating the events and will ground Starship until "determining that any system, process or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety." Even with all of that, Musk went so far as to call the launch "successful" and "maybe slightly exceeding my expectations."
In this case, success was clearing the launch pad and, apparently, learning lessons along the way. "The goal of these missions is just information," Musk said. "Like, we don’t have any payload or anything — it’s just to learn as much as possible."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spacexs-starship-didnt-immediately-respond-to-a-self-destruct-command-120010127.html?src=rss
After more than three years of litigation, Apple has quietly dropped its lawsuit against Gerard Williams III, a former chip executive the company accused of poaching employees. After over a decade at the company, in 2019, Williams left Apple to co-found Nuvia, a chip design firm later acquired by Qualcomm in 2021. When the tech giant first sued Williams, it accused him of “secretly” starting Nuvia and recruiting talent for his startup while he was still an Apple employee. Williams disputed Apple’s claims and accused the company of spying on his text messages. The case was dismissed, mired in a lot of legalese and multiple court documents.
Apple requested to dismiss the suit against Williams earlier this week. The request does not state the company’s reason for dropping the case, but in March, Apple wanted the recusal of Judge Sunil Kulkarni, because its legal team added lawyers from a company that Judge Kulkarni had previously worked at. So, conflicts of interest, initiated by Apple recruiting more legal firepower. Apple and Qualcomm, Williams' current employer, did not immediately respond to Engadget's request for comment.
– Mat Smith
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On Saturday, a federal appeals court in Brazil lifted the country-wide ban on messaging app Telegram. Brazilian authorities wanted the app suspended after Telegram failed to hand over a full set of data on a pair of neo-Nazi groups on the app accused of inciting violence against schools. According to Reuters, judge Flávio Lucas ruled that a complete suspension of the messaging app was “unreasonable” given that thousands of people in Brazil rely on the platform. At the same time, he upheld the daily $200,000 fine on Telegram for failing to provide local authorities with the data they requested. This isn’t the first time Telegram has been briefly banned in Brazil. In 2022, the country’s highest court suspended the app for failing to freeze accounts accused of spreading disinformation ahead of the country’s recent presidential election. Similarly, that ban was lifted just days later.
On paper, the 2023 edition of Sony’s midrange headphones should continue the company’s reputation for solid headphones – and a viable alternative to the pricey flagship WH-1000XM5. The WH-CH720N has the same V1 chip as the M5, which powers both active noise cancellation (ANC) and overall sound quality. There’s also an updated design and a lower price ($130), following another early cut. The noise cancellation does a decent job, but it’s not the best, and you’ll have to make do without automatic pausing. Still, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better option at this price.
What, you don’t remember the 1995 PlayStation game?
After those sweet Super Mario Bros. Movie box office numbers, more companies want a piece. Streaming service Peacock is joining the video game adaptation wars with a live-action comedy based on the PS1-era vehicular warfare simulator Twisted Metal, and it just dropped the first trailer. The franchise arguably reached its pinnacle in 1996 with Twisted Metal 2, but when have clowns and car explosions not been cool?
Yes, the addictive hit game Vampire Survivors is getting the animated TV show treatment.. Developer Luca Galante said in a (hopefully) cheeky tone, “The most important thing in Vampire Survivors is the story.” (Note: There really isn’t much of one.) Media company Story Kitchen will partner with Galante (founder of developer poncle), to make the series.
The Razer Blade 16 is one of the most unique laptops we’ve ever seen. It can handle 4K gaming just as well as high-speed 1080p gameplay, thanks to a dual-mode screen. And it’s one of the fastest notebooks around, featuring Intel’s latest CPUs and NVIDIA’s newest GPUs. And notably, it can be configured with an RTX 4090. But it’s noticeably heavier than the Blade 15, and you’ll have to pay at least $3,300 to own one with the dual-mode display. It’s an additional cost that Razer devices didn’t need.
Walmart is using a chatbot from Pactum AI to automatically negotiate some of its supplier deals. The technology saves an average of three percent on contracts and is even preferable to the vendors. Walmart says three out of four suppliers prefer haggling with the AI over a human. Pactum's system simply asks Walmart to set its budget and requirements, such as discounts and payment terms. It compares a supplier's demands with trends, commodity values and competitors' costs. After that, the AI can strike a deal in a matter of days, rather than the weeks or months of conventional talks.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-apple-drops-lawsuit-against-former-exec-who-accused-the-company-of-spying-111833313.html?src=rss
Over nine million people watched The Super Mario Bros. Movie over the weekend — on Twitter, The Verge reported. On Friday, a Twitter user uploaded the entire movie to the platform, and it remained there, openly violating copyright laws, until Sunday. The movie was removed and the user suspended from Twitter — again, shy of ten million people already seeing it.
Sure, copyrighted movies have repeatedly spent a few days on Twitter since Elon Musk took over (firing most your safety and compliance staff will do that for you). But, previous posts, like The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift or Avatar, were shared in two minute increments across lengthy threads. The Super Mario Bros. Movie required only two posts, one with the first hour of the movie and another with the final 32 minutes.
Why hasn’t this happened before now? Well, Twitter Blue subscribers can upload videos up to 60 minutes long. It's only available on Twitter’s website though, with app users limited to 10-minute videos.
Regardless of mainstream illegal streaming, The Super Mario Bros. Movie has crushed at the box office, making over $1 billion globally, and holding the number one spot four weekends in a row across the US and Canada. If it has come and gone in your area, don't worry, it will probably be back on Twitter soon.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/someone-posted-the-entire-super-mario-bros-movie-on-twitter-100017804.html?src=rss
Over nine million people watched The Super Mario Bros. Movie over the weekend — on Twitter, The Verge reported. On Friday, a Twitter user uploaded the entire movie to the platform, and it remained there, openly violating copyright laws, until Sunday. The movie was removed and the user suspended from Twitter — again, shy of ten million people already seeing it.
Sure, copyrighted movies have repeatedly spent a few days on Twitter since Elon Musk took over (firing most your safety and compliance staff will do that for you). But, previous posts, like The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift or Avatar, were shared in two minute increments across lengthy threads. The Super Mario Bros. Movie required only two posts, one with the first hour of the movie and another with the final 32 minutes.
Why hasn’t this happened before now? Well, Twitter Blue subscribers can upload videos up to 60 minutes long. It's only available on Twitter’s website though, with app users limited to 10-minute videos.
Regardless of mainstream illegal streaming, The Super Mario Bros. Movie has crushed at the box office, making over $1 billion globally, and holding the number one spot four weekends in a row across the US and Canada. If it has come and gone in your area, don't worry, it will probably be back on Twitter soon.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/someone-posted-entire-super-mario-100017148.html?src=rss
ARM has registered for a US stock market listing. In a press release published Saturday, the mobile chip company said it recently confidentially submitted a draft F-1 form to the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to Reuters, ARM hopes to raise between $8 billion and $10 billion dollars when it holds the initial public offering later this year, though over the weekend the company said it had yet to determine the size and price range of the proposed IPO.
ARM parent company SoftBank has been eyeing a public listing ever since NVIDIA’s $40 billion bid to buy the chip maker fell through at the start of last year due to regulatory resistance from the US Federal Trade Commission and other antitrust watchdogs. In March, SoftBank said it would list ARM on the US stock market after rebuffing a push for a London listing from the United Kingdom government. ARM designs the processor components used in almost every mobile device, including models from Apple and Samsung. Its licensing model means nearly every tech company depends on ARM designs. According to a recent Financial Times report, the company recently began work on a prototype chip that is “more advanced” than any semiconductor produced in the past.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/arm-registers-for-us-initial-public-offering-201942271.html?src=rss
A federal appeals court in Brazil on Saturday lifted the country-wide ban that had been put in place against Telegram earlier this week. Per Reuters, judge Flávio Lucas ruled a complete suspension of the messaging app was “not reasonable” given that thousands of people in Brazil who rely on the platform for their communication needs. At the same time, he upheld the daily $200,000 fine on Telegram for failing to provide local authorities with the data they requested.
The original ban came on Wednesday after a federal court instructed Apple and Google to temporarily remove the service from their domestic app stores. Brazilian authorities sought the suspension after Telegram failed to hand over a full set of data on a pair of neo-Nazi groups on the app accused of inciting violence against schools.
According to The New York Times, a teenager accused of committing two school shootings in November, which left three dead and 13 people injured, was involved with the two groups. Authorities say they saw Nazi content, violent videos and bomb-making instructions shared in those group chats. When it didn’t comply with the initial court order, Telegram reportedly said the two groups had been deleted and that it couldn’t recover the requested information. Telegram did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request.
This isn’t the first time Telegram has been briefly banned in Brazil. In 2022, the country’s highest court suspended the app for failing to freeze accounts accused of spreading disinformation ahead of the country’s recent presidential election. Similarly, that ban was lifted just days later.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/brazilian-court-lifts-nationwide-telegram-ban-put-in-place-over-data-demand-183423449.html?src=rss
