Motional’s driverless Ioniq 5 is entering service earlier than expected. On Tuesday, the company and Lyft announced that the vehicle is ready to begin offering rides to the public, starting with residents and visitors to Las Vegas. With today’s announcement, the Ioniq 5 is the first fully electric autonomous vehicle to join Lyft’s network.
In Las Vegas, Motional, a joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv, had been testing autonomous vehicles without safety drivers since 2020. With its public launch, the Ioniq 5 is fully integrated into Lyft’s software. When the car arrives to pick you up, you can unlock the doors through the Lyft app. Inside, you’ll also find a dedicated passenger display and you can contact a remote agent at any time – you know, in case the car ever needs to be rescued from a traffic situation it doesn’t understand.
"Launching Motional’s all-electric Ioniq 5 on Lyft’s network in Las Vegas represents tremendous progress in our vision to make an electric, autonomous, and shared future a reality for people everywhere," said Lyft CEO Logan Green. "Building an experience that Lyft riders love is core to advancing this technology, and today's launch provides riders access to Motional’s autonomous technology in a way that will feel seamless, familiar, and personalized, all on a network they already trust."
Lyft plans to bring fully driverless cars to multiple US cities in 2023 and beyond. However, it's unclear where the company will deploy the vehicles next. Lyft and Motional will need approval from local regulators before they can start offering rides to the public.
Dell is releasing two new Alienware-branded monitors this fall. Before you ask, they don’t feature QD-OLED panels like the drool-worthy AW3423DW. The more interesting of the two new monitors is the 27-inch AW2723DF. It features an LG Nano IPS panel with a 2560 x 1440 resolution, a native 240Hz refresh rate and a claimed 1ms gray to gray response time.
A factory overclock lets you push the refresh rate to 280Hz for games like Valorant and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. For more immersive gaming, the monitor comes with support for AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and NVIDIA G-Sync. It doesn’t feature local dimming, but for what it’s worth, HDR performance was good enough for the AW2723DF to earn VESA’s DisplayHDR 600 badge.
Dell
Alienware is billing the AW2723DF as the perfect monitor for gamers who do content creation on the side. The AW2723DF’s screen covers 95 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut. A toggle found in the monitor’s OSD menu allows you to switch to sRGB when doing work for the web. As with most Dell-made monitors, the AW2723DF won’t leave you wanting for ports. On top of the usual DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 connections, the monitor features multiple USB 3.2 Gen 1 inputs, as well as a headphone jack and audio output. All that’s missing is an HDMI 2.1 connection for console gaming. New to the Alienware design is a retractable headset hanger. The stand offers swivel, pivot, tilt and height adjustment. You can also VESA mount the AW2723DF if you want to use it with a monitor arm.
For the competitive gaming crowd, there’s the AW2523HF. It comes with a 25-inch LG IPS panel that features a Full HD resolution, 360Hz refresh rate and up to 0.5ms gray to gray response time. The screen covers 99 percent of the sRGB color gamut and is FreeSync Premium Pro certified. Like its sibling, the AW2523HF features a retractable hanger for storing your gaming headset. The AW2523HF also comes with a hexagonal stand instead of the V-shaped one that you find on most Alienware monitors. Dell says the design gives the AW2523HF a smaller footprint.
Dell
Of the two monitors, the AW2523HF will arrive first. It will go on sale on September 7th for $450. Meanwhile, the AW2723DF will cost $650 when it hits store shelves on October 6th.
We may be only a few months away from the launch of Google's Pixel 7, but those who can't wait for a new smartphone can save a bunch on the Pixel 6 Pro right now. Amazon has the current flagship for $649, which is $250 off its usual rate and the best price we've seen — even cheaper than it was on Prime Day last month. That's what you'll pay for the base, 128GB models, but the 256GB versions are also $250 off, so you can pick one up for as low as $749. The standard Pixel 6 is also on sale for $499.
We like the entire Pixel 6 series, but the Pixel 6 Pro earned a score of 91 from us and earned a spot on our list of best smartphones you can get right now. It's an attractive handset with a striking camera bar on its back, along with a 6.7-inch 120Hz OLED display. It's powered by Google's Tensor Processing Unit, which provides excellent performance while also being efficient — we were able to eke roughly 17 hours of battery life out of this smartphone, so it should easily last all day for most people.
But the Pixel 6 Pro really shines when taking photos. It has a triple rear camera array with a 50-megapixel main sensor, a 12MP wide-angle lens and a 48MP telephoto shooter, and those are in addition to the 11MP, 4K front-facing camera. We consider it to be the best smartphone for photography right now, as it handles all kinds of photos well including large group shots, wide landscapes, close ups, and more. Google's Night Sight also does a fantastic job of producing solid images in low light, and its computational photography features enable things like Magic Eraser, Face Unblur and Long Exposure.
Walmart will add a perk to its membership program in September that would make it a more veritable rival to Amazon Prime. The retail giant has struck a deal with Paramount Global to add its streaming service to Walmart+ starting in September. Walmart+ members, who are currently paying $12.95 a month or $98 a year for unlimited free delivery on orders over $35 across the US, will also get a Paramount+ Essential subscription for free. Walmart's membership prices will remain the same, it's just that the service will now come with an answer to Amazon's Prime Video.
The Paramount+ Essential plan typically costs $5 a month or $50 a year and streams content with "limited commercial interruptions." Paramount's streaming service offers shows and movies from various production studios, including BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures and the Smithsonian Channel. It also streams every CBS Sports event and gives users access to the CBS News Streaming Network and to all local CBS stations across the country.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that Walmart held talks with Walt Disney Co., Comcast Corp. and Paramount Global executives to discuss the possibility of teaming up to provide one of their streaming products to its members. Walmart and Paramount have reportedly agreed to a two-year partnership that would give Walmart+ members access to the ad-supported streaming service. The first 12 months will be an exclusive partnership between the two, though it's unclear what would change once they enter the second year of the deal.
Walmart says its membership program has shown positive growth every month since its launch in 2020. Paramount also recently reported that its streaming service has been doing well and that it has added 3.7 million subscribers in the second quarter of the year even after pulling out of Russia. The partnership could boost their numbers further, though we'll likely have to wait until the companies publish their earnings results by the end of the year to know for sure.
Russia decommissioned its last self-run space station, Mir, in 2001. Now Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, has shared a model of the country’s future station, as it prepares to move out of the International Space Station. Nicknamed ROSS by state-controlled media, it would launch in two phases, starting with four modules and expanding to six with a service platform. The design would accommodate four people in rotating tours and reportedly offer better monitoring of Earth than Russia gets from the ISS today.
State media claim the first phase will launch between 2025 and 2030, with Russia expected to leave the ISS in 2024. It announced its departure from the ISS in July in response to sanctions and other measures following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.
Samsung has gone all-out on its next-generation monitor. Samsung claims the Ark is the world’s first 55-inch monitor with a 4K resolution, a 165Hz refresh rate and a 1ms response time. You also get support for HDR 10+ and Dolby Atmos audio, and it’s got six built-in speakers that create a dome of sound. Oh, and you can use it vertically.
The software is out of beta and brings some small but useful new tools.
Android 13 is coming out of beta and will start rolling out to Google’s Pixel phones today, with devices from Samsung, ASUS, Nokia (HMD), Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, Sony, Xiaomi and more expected to get the update later this year.
The latest version of Google's mobile operating system brings more granular privacy controls, a new photo picker, Bluetooth LE audio and more. Messaging app streaming might be the most notable new feature, letting you cast your messaging apps to your Chromebook so you can chat with your friends on your laptop. Google said this works with Messages "and many of your other favorite messaging apps." The company added you'll "soon be able to copy content — like a URL, picture, text or video — from your Android phone and paste it on your tablet," or the other way around.
From a company that worked on the movie trilogy’s special effects.
Wētā Workshop is working on a new Lord of the Rings game alongside publisher Private Division. The game is in early development and few details have been announced, but Wētā Workshop has "the broadest creative license to interpret the underlying lore of the books," according to a press release. If you’re wondering who or what WētāWorkshop is, it worked on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movies as well as The Hobbit trilogy. The special effects powerhouse is also collaborating with Amazon on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. It set up its gaming division in 2014.
TikTok has introduced a basic AI greenscreen effect in its Android and iOS apps that turns your text descriptions into artwork. It's much simpler than OpenAI's DALL-E 2, producing abstract blobs rather than photorealistic depictions — which makes it a lot less interesting. However, AI art tools like DALL-E are usually limited to a select group of users. TikTok, meanwhile, has over a billion monthly users — while few of them are likely to ever use AI-generated art, the addition brings the technology to a much wider audience.
The company is also redesigning its bikes for home assembly.
Peloton may soon allow users of competing fitness equipment to stream its workouts to their bikes and treadmills. In an interview with Bloomberg, CEO Barry McCarthy said the company is “rethinking” its digital strategy. Peloton could adopt a freemium model offering some features and workouts in its mobile and TV app for free. Currently, the software costs $13 per month. In the future, people with stationary bikes or treadmills from companies like Bowflex, Echelon and NordicTrack could also stream Peloton's content to their equipment’s display.
It didn't take long for Polestar to translate the O2 Concept to a production model. The company has confirmed that it will sell the electric convertible as the Polestar 6 sometime in 2026. Most details are still under wraps, but the 6 will share the same 884HP dual-motor powertrain and 800V architecture as the Polestar 5 sedan. The firm is targeting a 0-62MPH time of 3.2 seconds and a 155MPH top speed.
There will also be a limited, 500-unit run of a Polestar 6 LA Concept edition with the O2 Concept's signature blue color, "light" leather interior and 21-inch wheels. Unlike many adaptations of concepts, you really can buy a car that (at least superficially) resembles what you saw at motor shows.
The Polestar 6 is a sportier, open-air counterpart to the 5 with a smaller footprint. It also represents an aerodynamics challenge — the range will heavily depend on Polestar's ability to overcome convertibles' typically higher drag coefficients. There's no mention of whether or not the 6 will include some of the more fanciful features from the concept, though, including the integrated camera drone.
No matter what the finished model offers, it's clear Polestar plans a steady expansion of its lineup. The Polestar 3 SUV arrives next year, followed by the 5 in 2024. The Volvo sibling brand will still have a relatively small selection, but you'll at least have choices if the Polestar 2 doesn't fit your needs.
If you have a child in your life who needs a new tablet or e-reader, Amazon has a sale you may want to check out. The company's devices designed for kids are currently being sold at a discount —some are even listed with the lowest prices we've seen for them on the website. You can get Kindle for Kids for $60, which is an all-time low for the e-reader and is $50 less than its normal price. Kindle for Kids is just the 10th-gen Kindle that comes with a year of Amazon Kids+, a subscription service that gives you access to child-friendly books and magazines. It also comes with a kid-friendly cover and a 2-year warranty, guaranteeing that Amazon will replace the device for free if it gets damaged and returned within that period.
The 2022 version of the Fire 7 Kids tablet is also on sale for $70, or $40 less than its usual price. Like the Kindle for Kids, it comes with one year of Amazon Kids+ and a two-year warranty. Plus, the 7-inch tablet ships with a kid-friendly case that has a built-in kickstand. The model on sale for $70 has 16GB of internal storage, but it can be expanded with a microSD card up to 1TB in size.
If you want to get a bigger tablet for your kid, you can get Amazon's Fire HD 8 Kids tablet instead. It's currently on sale for $70, which is 50 percent off or $70 less than its normal price. This tablet has an 8-inch display, 32GB of internal storage with expandable memory and up to 12 hours of battery life. It also ships with one year of Amazon Kids+, a childproof case and a 2-year warranty.
Finally, the Amazon Glow with Tangram Bits pack will only set you back $200, or $130 less than what buying them separately will cost you. Amazon Glow is a video calling and interactive entertainment system that can project a 19-inch touchscreen on its accompanying mat. Meanwhile, Tangram Bits are small physical pieces kids can use to play and solve puzzles. The pack also comes with one year of Amazon Kids+ that will give you access to Glow's games, books and art activities, as well a two-year warranty.
After multiple delays and false starts, Apple now has a solid start date for its hybrid work arrangement. According to Bloomberg and The Verge, the tech giant will start requiring employees who work in its Santa Clara Valley offices to report to office three times a week starting in the week of September 5th. They're expected to come in every Tuesdays and Thursdays, with the third day set by their individual teams. In a letter sent to staff members, Apple's SVP of software engineering Craig Federighi encouraged employees to share their input about that third team-specific day with their managers to help them decide.
Apple has been planning to enforce a hybrid arrangement wherein employees are required to work from its offices since June 2021. At the time, though, it wanted personnel to come in every Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. The company, which puts great value in what Tim Cook calls the "irreplaceable benefits of in-person collaboration," has made several attempts to enforce a hybrid work week arrangement since then but has had to keep pushing its plans back due to rising COVID-19 cases and other factors.
Earlier this year, it again attempted to start enforcing its hybrid work policy in the week stating on May 23rd. However, employees had criticized the policy for being "driven by fear" — "[f]ear of the future of work, fear of worker autonomy, fear of losing control," they said in an open letter. Apple even reportedly lost Ian Goodfellow, its director of machine learning and most cited expert in the field, over the policy. In the end, the company backtracked and softened its stance, launching a pilot that required some employees to report to its offices two days a week instead.
Now, it looks like there's no stopping Apple from requiring employees to report to its offices. "September 5th marks the true start of our hybrid work pilot in the Santa Clary Valley," Federighi wrote in his memo. As he mentioned, though, it is still a pilot, and the company expects to learn from its implementation in the coming months as it prepares for employees' return to office in other locations.
Apple may be planning to bring ads to more of its first-party apps. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company has conducted internal tests of a version of Maps that features search ads. Apple already employs similar advertisements within the App Store.
Developers can pay the company to get their software to show up at the top of the search results page when you input specific terms. Gurman suggests search ads in Maps would work in much the same way. For instance, a Japanese restaurant could pay Apple for their business to show up higher in local listings when people use search terms like “sushi.” Gurman believes Apple could implement similar ads in its Podcasts and Books apps. He says the company could begin offering an ad-supported tier through Apple TV+.
Gurman attributes the potential push to Todd Teresi, the vice president in charge of the company’s advertising division. Teresi recently began reporting directly to services chief Eddy Cue and has reportedly talked of greatly expanding his team’s impact. The division generates about $4 billion in annual revenue. Teresi’s ambition is to increase that number to the double digits. That would require a significant expansion of Apple’s current advertising efforts.
A wider advertising push would be an about-face for a company that has, at least externally, positioned itself as a champion of user privacy. With the release of iOS 14.5, Apple introduced a feature called App Tracking Transparency. The prompt allows you to prevent apps from logging your activity across other apps and websites. In 2022, it’s estimated the policy will cost Facebook parent company Meta approximately $13 billion in lost revenue. When Apple announced ATT at WWDC 2020, the company publicly said it designed the feature to protect user privacy. A recent report from The Wall Street Journal, which said the company pursued a revenue-sharing agreement with Facebook, suggests its motivations with ATT may have not been so altruistic.
Signal's reputation for secure messaging doesn't make it completely invulnerable to hacking incidents. The company has confirmed that a data breach at verification partner Twillio exposed the phone numbers and SMS codes of roughly 1,900 users. As TechCrunchobserved, the intruder could have either used the information to either identify Signal users or re-register their numbers to other devices.
The data has already been misused. The culprit searched for three phone numbers, and re-registered the account of one user. Signal doesn't store chat histories or contacts online, so the breach shouldn't have revealed other sensitive details.
Signal is taking steps to limit the damage. It will unregister the app on all devices linked to affected accounts, forcing users to re-register. The team also recommended enabling a registration lock that bars anyone from re-registering on other devices without providing a PIN code.
Twilio revealed the breach on August 8th. The currently unidentified perpetrators used phishing scams to obtain login details and access the accounts of 125 customers. Although it's not clear which other customers were affected, Twilio typically serves large companies and organizations.
The attack increases pressure on Signal to join other encrypted messaging providers in moving away from phone numbers, which can be vulnerable to SIM swaps and other digit-based schemes. This is also a reminder that systems are only as secure as their technology partners — a slip at a third-party is sometimes as dangerous as a direct assault.
