Remember Humane’s AI pin that was hyped as the next big thing right up until people used it? Turns out being an unusable piece of tat wasn’t the only thing wrong with it: Humane has now advised users its charging case may pose a fire risk. There are other less flammable ways to re-juice your unit, with the fault limited to a single component. But, even so, it’s not a good look for a company that already has plenty of eggs on its virtual face.

— Dan Cooper

The biggest stories you might have missed

Panasonic has revealed the followup to the popular Lumix GH6 vlogging camera

HBO’s The Last of Us season two will only be seven episodes long

Ex-Meta engineer sues company, claiming he was fired over handling of Palestine content

Australia ends legal fight for X to remove violent stabbing video

AI workers demand stronger whistleblower protections in open letter

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Boeing’s first crewed Starliner mission is finally heading to the ISS

It’s carrying two astronauts and 760 pounds of cargo.

Boeing

Starliner has successfully completed its first crewed launch on the back of an Atlas V rocket, nearly a month after originally planned. The vessel is now on course to dock with the ISS with two crew members and 760 pounds of cargo, where it will stay for the next eight days. After so many false starts, let’s hope Starliner can finally start delivering on the promises made all those years ago.

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YouTube is putting new age restrictions on gun videos

No, it wasn’t doing this already.

YouTube has altered its policies on weapon-related videos to ban content for users under 18. Similarly, it’s banning clips detailing how to remove safety devices for all ages from June 18. The move comes a full year after a watchdog group found YouTube was recommending gun content to “child” accounts.

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A $110,000 MicroLED TV? In this economy?

Who needs a home when you can have Samsung’s latest panel?

Samsung

Robin Williams once said [a certain substance best inhaled through the nose] is God’s way of telling you you’re making too much money. To that list, we can add Samsung’s brand new MicroLED TVs, which start at $110,000 and run all the way to $150,000. Just imagine what your local homeless shelter could do with that sort of money.

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If the wave of overwhelmingly negative reviews weren’t enough, it seems that Humane has discovered yet another major issue with its once-hyped AI Pin. The company is warning customers not to use the device’s charging case due to a potential “fire safety risk.”

In an email sent to AI Pin owners, the company said it had received a report of a “charging issue” that led to “a quality issue with the battery cell supplied by a third-party vendor used in your Charge Case Accessory.” Humane didn’t explicitly indicate whether the unspecified “charging issue” caused an actual fire, but it said an investigation found that “certain battery cells supplied by this vendor may pose a fire safety risk.”

While Humane is so far not using the word “recall,” the company is advising people to stop using the charging case immediately. Other charging accessories, including the battery booster and charge pad, are apparently safe as their batteries come from different suppliers. We’ve reached out to Humane for more information and whether they have plans to refund or replace the $149 accessory for people who have already bought one. In the meantime, the company is offering customers two months of its subscription service for free.

The full text of the email is below.

Out of an abundance of caution, we are reaching out today to ask that you immediately stop using and charging your Charge Case Accessory due to an issue with certain battery cells for the Charge Case Accessory.

Upon receiving a single report of a charging issue while using a third-party USB-C cable and third-party power source, we identified a quality issue with the battery cell supplied by a third-party vendor used in your Charge Case Accessory.

Our investigation determined that the battery supplier was no longer meeting our quality standards and that there is a potential that certain battery cells supplied by this vendor may pose a fire safety risk. As a result, we immediately disqualified this battery vendor while we work to identify a new vendor to avoid such issues and maintain our high quality standards.

The issue identified is isolated only to certain battery cells used in the Charge Case Accessory and is not related to the Charge Case Accessory hardware design.

Importantly, Humane’s Ai Pin, its Battery Booster(s) and Charge Pad are not affected as the disqualified vendor does not supply batteries or any other components of those Humane products, and are safe for continued use.

Panasonic just announced the followup to its popular Lumix GH6 vlogging camera, the GH7. This Micro Four Thirds mirrorless camera comes just two years after the release of the GH6, which is pretty quick in the videography world. The GH5 was released five full years before the GH6.

The 25.2-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor is likely the same as the one on the photo-centric Lumix LG9 II announced earlier this year. It also offers improved autofocus performance, which has been a much-requested feature, thanks to phase detection auto-focus (PDAF). There’s also a newly added real-time auto-focus recognition algorithm for use on airplanes and trains.

The GH7 is designed for video, and it looks like it delivers in that regard. It now supports internal ProRes RAW recording at up to 5.7K 30p along with ProRes as before, and can shoot 5.8K 60p 10-bit H.265 video. It can handle 4K at up to 120fps or Full HD at 240fps. It's equipped with both SD UHS II and CFexpress card slots, with the latter required for ProRes and ProRes RAW recording.

Panasonic

On top of ProRes RAW for video, it supports 32-bit float audio recording. Panasonic says the float recording “eliminates the need to adjust sound recording levels during shooting,” though it does require a separate XLR adapter. The image stabilization technology has also gotten a boost, which includes perspective distortion correction for videos.

We don’t know how heavy it’ll be and the GH6 was certainly on the heftier side. The battery life of the previous model was also fairly short, maxing out at 400 still images and around an hour of continuous 4K shooting. This camera should be able to shoot for long periods of time, however, as Panasonic has added a cooling fan for heat dissipation. It’s also splash resistant, dust resistant and freeze resistant down to 14 degrees Fahrenheit.

The GH7 supports native Camera to Cloud integration via Adobe’s Frame.io, which automatically uploads images and videos to the cloud. All in all, this looks like a worthy update to the line. Panasonic’s latest and greatest vlogging camera will be available in July for $2,200. Incidentally, this is the same price that the GH6 released at back in 2022.

Somehow, it's already been almost a year and a half since the first season of The Last of Us arrived on HBO. Things are well underway with the second season, and we've known for a while that it won't premiere until 2025. We still don't know exactly when to expect it (though given that they're well into shooting, an early-year debut isn't out of the question), but we do now know that season two will only have seven episodes.

In an extensive interview with Deadline, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann (director of the two The Last of Us games that Naughty Dog has released for various PlayStation consoles) confirmed the shorter season. "The story material that we got from Part II of the game is way more than the story material that was in the first game, so part of what we had to do from the start was figure out how to tell that story across seasons,” Mazin said to Deadline. “When you do that, you look for natural breakpoints, and as we laid it out, this season, the national breakpoint felt like it came after seven episodes.”

That said, Mazin said that season three will likely be "significantly larger" — we don't know if that's from a scope perspective or running time perspective, but it's an interesting thing to broadcast given that we're still six months minimum away from season two premiering. And Deadline also confirmed that season two will have at least one extra-long episode, much like the 90-minute series premiere and the 70-plus minute episode focused on Bill and Frank in season one.

We've known for a while that Mazin and Druckmann were going to spread The Last of Us Part II over multiple seasons, but it even sounds like the story could spin into a forth season. "We feel like it’s almost assuredly going to be the case that — as long as people keep watching and we can keep making more television — Season 3 will be significantly larger. And indeed, the story may require Season 4," Mazin said. 

While the plotting of The Last of Us Part II was fairly involved, with lots of flashbacks and multiple points of view, stretching it over three seasons seems like a bit much. But based on this interview, it sounds like Mazin and Druckmann have figured out exactly where they want each season to begin and end and what story beats it'll cover. Of course, the show hasn't yet even been renewed for season three yet, so all this is contingent upon continued success. Given that season one was one of HBO's biggest ever, that probably won't be an issue.

HBO

Finally, Deadline dropped a surprising tidbit about a potential third game in the series — specifically, it's still unknown if one will happen. Indeed, the publication says that "a new installment has not been picked up or put into development." That's a very strong statement, albeit one that isn't sourced directly from a quote or given any real attribution. If true, it means a third The Last of Us game could easily be more than five years away, if it ever happens. 

Druckmann did confirm that the show won't go beyond the what has been portrayed in the video games, unlike the HBO Game of Thrones series infamously moving beyond the novels it was based on (not that they had much of a choice). "As a fan, I’m thrilled that there might be a third Last of Us game," Mazin said. "As the co-creator of this television show, there’s no world where I would want our show to go beyond the source material that people have in the world." 

Hopefuly, Deadline just has its lines crossed about a potential third game — with Summer Games Fest just days away, there's a lot of buzz around what Sony's first-party studios, including Naughty Dog, might be planning to announce. The last bit of concrete news we got around the game series was that the planned multiplayer game set in the Last of Us universe was canceled.

YouTube quietly snuck in a policy change that will age-restrict some gun-related videos and bar others altogether. Content featuring homemade and automatic firearms will be banned for viewers under 18, while tutorials for removing safety devices will be prohibited regardless of age. The new policy will take effect on June 18.

“Starting June 18, 2024, certain content showing how to remove safety devices will be prohibited,” a disclaimer on YouTube’s firearms policy page now reads. “Content showing the use of homemade firearms, automatic firearms, and certain firearm accessories will be age restricted.”

In a statement to Engadget, YouTube spokesperson Javier Hernandez wrote, “These updates to our firearms policy are part of our continued efforts to maintain policies that reflect the current state of content on YouTube. For example, 3D printing has become more readily available in recent years so we’re expanding our restrictions on content involving homemade firearms. We regularly review our guidelines and consult with outside experts to make sure we are drawing the line at the right place.”

YouTube added that the prohibitions will apply to the real use of firearms and won’t pertain to video games, film clips or other artistic content. The platform may also make exceptions for content that’s in the public interest, like military or police footage, news or warzone videos.

The change comes a year after the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), a nonprofit watchdog group, called out YouTube for recommending gun-related content to several “child” accounts the organization set up to see how easily the platform’s algorithms nudged underage users towards gun videos. The researchers set up four accounts, two posing as nine-year-old boys and another pair pretending to be 14-year-old boys. The accounts watched playlists of videos about video game franchises like Halo, Grand Theft Auto, Lego Star Wars and Roblox, and the team monitored the accounts to see what recommendations popped up.

Lo and behold, YouTube allegedly recommended content about weapons and shootings. “These videos included scenes depicting school shootings and other mass shooting events; graphic demonstrations of how much damage guns can inflict on a human body; and how-to guides for converting a handgun to a fully automatic weapon,” TTP wrote at the time.

Other recommended videos featured a young girl firing a gun and tutorials for converting handguns into fully automatic weapons. Some of the content was monetized with ads.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, recently famous for convicting a 77-year-old who had trouble staying awake in court, chimed in soon after TTP’s report last year. The DA asked to meet with YouTube CEO Neal Mohan to discuss why the platform allowed video tutorials for “ghost guns,” firearms assembled using 3D-printed parts or kit components.

The Tech Transparency Project applauded the policy change but warned the real test would be in how stringently YouTube enforces it. “YouTube’s policy changes to age-restrict gun content are a step in the right direction, given that firearms are the number one cause of death for children and teens in America, but it’s not clear why it took the company so long to address the issue,” TTP Director Katie Paul wrote in a press release. “As always with YouTube, the real proof of change is whether the company enforces the policies it has on the books. Until YouTube takes real action to prevent videos about guns and gun violence from reaching minors, its policies remain empty words.”

Update, June 6, 2023, 3:19 PM ET: This story has been updated to add a statement and additional info from YouTube.

The Google Pixel Buds A-Series are solid earbuds that are a more budget-friendly version of the flagship Pixel Buds. That’s even more true when you consider that the Pixel Buds A-Series are on sale at the minute. You can snap up a pair for $79, which is $20 off the usual price. While that’s not a record low price for the earbuds, it’s still a good deal and the best offer we’ve seen on them so far this year.

We gave the Pixel Buds A-Series a score of 84 in our review after being surprised that Google retained most of the features of the original Pixel Buds. We feel they are comfortable to wear and they deliver solid sound quality.

There are some odd quirks, such as the lack of onboard volume controls. Instead, Google suggests users the audio levels via Google Assistant (you can always change the volume manually on your connected device too). That said, there are some deep Assistant integrations here. You can activate the voice assistant hands-free and use Google Translate. You can receive a bevy of useful notifications through your earbuds too.

Meanwhile, the Pixel Buds Pro are also on sale. They can be all yours for $140, which is $60 off the list price. Features like active noise cancellation, punchy and deep bass, wireless charging and sturdy touch controls helped the Pixel Buds Pro earn a score of 87 in our review.

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Boeing's first Starliner flight with a human crew onboard has successfully blasted off to space on top of United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket, almost a month after it was originally scheduled to launch. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams entered the Starliner capsule and completed necessary checks by 10:08AM ET. Less than 30 minutes after the astronauts entered the capsule, the CEO ULA tweeted that the company was "working an issue with topping valves on the ground side" and that it was running the fix through its Software Integration Lab (SIL) before it's executed. In the end, ULA was able to implement a workaround, and the spacecraft lifted off at 10:52am ET. 

Back on May 6, the companies scrubbed the flight two hours after it was originally scheduled to launch after their ground teams detected "anomalous behavior by the pressure regulation valve in the liquid oxygen tank of the Centaur upper stage of the ULA Atlas V launch vehicle." The valve was replaced and the Starliner teams were ready to make another launch attempt when they encountered another issue: They found a "small helium leak" in the spacecraft's service module. 

NASA and Boeing had to push back Starliner's launch date in order to investigate the leak and figure out how it would affect the flight. They eventually determined that it didn't pose a threat to the mission's safety, so they scheduled a launch attempt for June 1. Last week's launch was also scrubbed last minute due to the "computer ground launch sequencer not loading into the correct operational configuration after proceeding into terminal count."

Aside from the NASA astronauts, Starliner flew with 760 pounds of cargo, including 300 pounds of food and other supplies requested by the crew that's currently onboard the International Space Station. Wilmore and Williams will spend eight days on the ISS conducting tests to help determine whether the Starliner is ready for regular flights to the orbiting laboratory. NASA said that if the mission is completed successfully, it will begin the final process of "certifying Starliner and its systems for crewed rotation missions to the space station."

Boeing's first Starliner flight with a human crew onboard has successfully blasted off to space on top of United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket, almost a month after it was originally scheduled to launch. NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams entered the Starliner capsule and completed necessary checks by 10:08AM ET. Less than 30 minutes after the astronauts entered the capsule, the CEO ULA tweeted that the company was "working an issue with topping valves on the ground side" and that it was running the fix through its Software Integration Lab (SIL) before it's executed. In the end, ULA was able to implement a workaround, and the spacecraft lifted off at 10:52am ET. 

Back on May 6, the companies scrubbed the flight two hours after it was originally scheduled to launch after their ground teams detected "anomalous behavior by the pressure regulation valve in the liquid oxygen tank of the Centaur upper stage of the ULA Atlas V launch vehicle." The valve was replaced and the Starliner teams were ready to make another launch attempt when they encountered another issue: They found a "small helium leak" in the spacecraft's service module. 

NASA and Boeing had to push back Starliner's launch date in order to investigate the leak and figure out how it would affect the flight. They eventually determined that it didn't pose a threat to the mission's safety, so they scheduled a launch attempt for June 1. Last week's launch was also scrubbed last minute due to the "computer ground launch sequencer not loading into the correct operational configuration after proceeding into terminal count."

Aside from the NASA astronauts, Starliner flew with 760 pounds of cargo, including 300 pounds of food and other supplies requested by the crew that's currently onboard the International Space Station. Wilmore and Williams will spend eight days on the ISS conducting tests to help determine whether the Starliner is ready for regular flights to the orbiting laboratory. NASA said that if the mission is completed successfully, it will begin the final process of "certifying Starliner and its systems for crewed rotation missions to the space station."

Who needs to save for college when your kids can enjoy the infinite contrast and eight million glorious points of light in Samsung's new MicroLED TVs, which now start at the low price of $110,000. Available in 89-inch, 101-inch ($130,000) and 114-inch ($150,000) sizes, MicroLED TVs offer all of the benefits of OLED — super dark blacks and bold colors — but without the reasonable price points reachable by lowly commoners. 

Envelope yourself with Samsung's 3D Arena sound, which includes Dolby Atmos, Object Tracking Sound Pro and AI powered voice amplification. Behold the MICRO AI processor, which upscales everything into 4K (never mind that every TV offers pretty decent upscaling today). When you proudly reveal the price of your MicroLED TV, remember your friends won't be laughing at you — they're just jealous. 

Unfortunately, Samsung isn't throwing in a $8,000 8K set and luxury hotel stay with these MicroLED TVs, as it did in South Korea.

Apple's AirTag is certainly convenient for keeping track of everything from your cat to your keys, but it's lack of a key ring hole is frustrating to say the least. Fortunately, there are tons of great Apple AirTag accessories with a range of functions and prices. Right now, its worth checking out the Apple AirTag leather loop, on sale for $10 from $39 in California Poppy and Meyer Lemon. The 74 percent discount is part of a larger sale on Apple wireless accessories at Woot. 

While many Apple AirTag accessories are variations on key ring, the leather loop provides similar functionality with a sleeker look. It's a good option for attaching to a bag, suitcase or any item with a handle really. If you're in need of multiple AirTags then grab the two-pack, which Woot has discounted 81 percent to $15 from $78. You can also check out the AirTag leather key ring if you want a more traditional option. This model is on sale for $10 from $35, while the two-pack is discounted to $15 from $70. All of these items are marked down for 10 days or until they sell out. 

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