Electric vehicle maker Rivian is planning a "major" cost-cutting drive and will be "as thoughtful as possible as we consider any reductions," CEO RJ Scaringe wrote in a memo to employees. Scaringe sent the note in response to reports that Rivian is planning up to 700 or so layoffs, primarily among non-engineering teams.
“This is not how we intended for you to hear about this,” he wrote. "We had hoped these very sensitive and complex conversations would have stayed within Rivian until we could address them more comprehensively." Scaringe will share more information during an all-hands meeting scheduled for this Friday.
Rivian is pausing certain non-manufacturing hires, Scaringe wrote, while the company is "adopting major cost down efforts" to reduce its outlay on materials and operating expenses. "We will always be focused on growth, however, Rivian is not immune to the current economic circumstances and we need to make sure we can grow sustainably,” Scaringe told employees in the memo, which was first reported by Bloomberg. He added that the company is "financially well positioned and our outlook remains strong"
Scaringe added that Rivian will prioritize some programs and halt some others as it restructures certain aspects of the business. Earlier this year, Rivian said it would focus on a few areas for the time being. For one thing, the company is focused on increasing production of its R1T, R1S and electric delivery van, as TechCrunch notes. Other priorities include building out EV charging and service infrastructure, speeding up development of the next-generation R2 platform and finding more efficiencies for costs and operating expenses.
The company has nearly doubled its headcount over the last year to more than 14,000 employees, but it has been beset by problems, such as the supply chain crisis and the state of the economy. It has also delayed deliveries of the R1S SUV several times.
While Rivian expects to eventually build around 600,000 vehicles a year between its existing factory in Normal, Illinois and a plant that's expected to open in Georgia in 2024, the company forecasts that it will build 25,000 EVs this year. As of earlier this month, Rivian had a backlog of 71,000 EV orders. It also has a contract to build 100,000 delivery vehicles for Amazon by the end of the decade. Right now, though, the company seemingly isn't able to keep up with demand.
A Rivian spokesperson shared the full memo with Engadget:
Hi Team,
I’d like to address the news reports that are circulating about restructuring at Rivian. The reports speculate broadly on many intricate internal discussions about our business so I wanted to offer more clarity.
As discussed in recent all hands meetings, we’ve been working to focus our business in order to stay ahead of the changing economic landscape. We are financially well positioned and our outlook remains strong, but to fully realize our objectives it is critical that our strategy supports our sustainable growth as we ramp towards profitability. Earlier this year, we outlined our core strategic priorities for the next 18 months:
1) Ramping and enhancing R1 and EDV
2) Accelerating R2 development
3) Continuing to ramp our go-to-market capabilities, including our charging and service infrastructure
4) Optimizing costs and operating expenses across the business
As a result, we’ve implemented changes across Rivian, including prioritizing certain programs (and stopping some), halting certain non-manufacturing hiring and adopting major cost down efforts to reduce material spend and operating expenses. We also began the process of aligning the organization as a whole to ensure we are as focused, nimble and efficient as possible to achieve our priorities and objectives.
The hardest part of this process has been working through our organization to assess the size and structure of our teams and how well this aligns with our strategic plan. Our team is the core of Rivian and we are working to be as thoughtful as possible as we consider any reductions. We will always be focused on growth, however, Rivian is not immune to the current economic circumstances and we need to make sure we can grow sustainably. Every decision about our team is being assessed through the lens of our strategic priorities, not as a mechanism to simply reduce costs. Our team will continue to grow in support of our production ramp and product roadmap.
This is not how we intended for you to hear about this. We had hoped these very sensitive and complex conversations would have stayed within Rivian until we could address them more comprehensively. However, because information is coming out unofficially, I wanted to personally address it. I’ll be sharing more this Friday at our scheduled All-Hands meeting.
The iOS 16 public beta is here, which means you can get a taste of Apple’s upcoming mobile software before its stable release. As we saw at WWDC in June, the iPhone is slated to get a whole new lock screen, edit and send options in iMessage, improved dictation, a Medication tracker, new sharing features and more. iOS 16 is shaping up to be a beefier update than years past, and you might (understandably) be itching to test it out.
As always, I have to remind you that installing any beta software comes with risks. Some of your favorite apps might stop working, or worse, your phone might be completely bricked. If you’re still set on running the beta, please make sure to back up your data. You can access the preview by enrolling on Apple’s website, which will push a download option to your phone’s Software Update section.
Just as with the iOS 15 public beta last year, basically all the features announced at WWDC are ready for testing. The only things missing would require developers to make some changes, like integrating an API for the new live activity update box on the lock screen. And the redesigned CarPlay, won’t be available until next year. I can’t get into every single change, and will save my more complete evaluations for our full review when iOS 16 is officially released.
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New lock screens are a visual refresh
Once my phone restarted after installing the beta, the change was obvious. Instead of the clock and list of notifications my eyes had grown tired of, there was a box at the bottom of the page telling me the software had updated. The clock font was a thicker, blockier style, which I immediately wanted to change. I long-pressed the wallpaper, but that brought up the page for me to enter my passcode.
I found a bug where I couldn’t access the editor or switch pages until I set up Face ID. Basically, you can’t tweak or change lock screens without logging into your phone, but when you enter your passcode, the system takes you straight to your home page, bypassing the lock screen altogether. Face ID allows your iPhone to stay on the page after having unlocked your phone.
Once I got into the Lock Screen creator, I could choose from eight styles and two colors for the clock, as well as add up to five widgets across two boxes at the top of the page. I picked the weather, air quality and UV index widgets, and then added two more profiles with different wallpapers featuring my favorite photos (you can also choose your preferred emoji, people or color). There’s also options based on the weather or “Astronomy,” which uses your position to show where you are on a globe. It can also display the moon or solar system.
Each page can be linked to a Focus mode, though there must always be a default lock screen that isn’t tied to anything. Speaking of, Apple also added Focus filters to let you have finer control over what you want to interact with in certain modes. You can choose which tab groups appear in Safari with your Work profile and pick a different calendar to see when set to Play. iOS 16 also offers Allow and Silence lists when you’re setting up your Focus modes, and will provide suggestions around Lock Screen content that would be relevant to each profile.
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The revamped Lock Screen also features a new “live activity box” at the bottom. The idea is that when you’re following a sporting match or recording an interview for example, you can stay updated without having to leave the app open. Developers need to integrate the new API for this to work. Right now, it works with Spotify and Apple’s timer app, making it easy to pause or skip ahead in my music and cancel my countdowns.
Messages gets better
One of the most useful changes coming with iOS 16 is the ability to edit and unsend chats in iMessage. For now, this works best with people who are also using the public beta — anyone on iOS 15 will see a second message that says “Edited to” followed by your new words. Just like what people on Android used to see when iPhone users used emoji reactions on texts.
You’ll have 15 minutes after sending a message to access the options for “Undo Send” or “Edit.” When you rescind a message, by the way, your friend will see an alert saying “[friend’s name] unsent a message.” Texts that had been updated have the word “Edited” next to the read receipt below the bubble.
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Apple also updated the dictation experience. Now, when you tap the microphone on the iPhone’s keyboard, the QWERTY setup stays in place instead of being taken over by a waveform animation. A small tab with a microphone icon appears over the input field when you’re not speaking, so you know dictation is still enabled.
You can tap mistakes in the box and continue dictating to fix them, which is similar to what Google did with its updated voice engine on the Pixel 6. Unlike on Android, though, iOS 16 doesn’t allow you to speak commands like “Send” or “Delete all”. This dictation interface didn’t appear when I was typing in the App Store’s search bar, though, so despite this being a systemwide feature, it still appears to be missing in places.
Visual Lookup is the most fun
Of all the updates the iOS 16 beta brings, my favorite has to be in visual lookup. Or, as I prefer to call it, the quicker-sticker-maker. Basically, you can long-press a subject in any picture in the Photos app and copy it without the background and paste it somewhere else.
I was impressed with how accurately the system picked out subjects, whether it was a coworker smizing against a blue sky, or a model in a flowing dress in front of a building. Sadly, it doesn’t work on things in the background — I couldn’t get it to highlight a dog behind its owner.
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When you paste your selection into a Message field, it’s automatically sent as a cutout with a transparent background — i.e. a sticker. But often, the system would think I was trying to send a picture and add a black background, which took away from the effect. This is a known bug, though, so it shouldn’t be happening by the time iOS 16 is ready for its stable release.
Apple also added video support for Live Text, which scans images for text and picks them out so you can interact with them. This will work in the Photos app, as well as anything that uses the iOS player, which includes fullscreen videos from articles on the web. Third-party services with custom controls won’t automatically support this, but developers can integrate the ability if they wish.
Medications and health features still need work
I was looking forward to seeing the new Medications feature in the Health app and, satisfyingly, it’s straightforward and intuitive. I easily found my daily pill, and Apple offers US users the option to scan their packaging label. The database is still somewhat sparse, and I couldn’t find the specific brand and dosage of Vitamin B12 that I take every day, but I imagine as more people use this and plug their own pills in, there will be more entries soon.
While it’s helpful that you can choose frequency intervals like daily, alternate days, specific days of the week and more, I wish there were a way to choose an end date. You can set a specific day to start your meds, but for short-term situations like a course of antibiotics, for example, you’ll have to manually delete the entry after you’re done.
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The most intriguing aspect of Medications is that if you enter substances that have risky interactions, the system should flag it for you. This isn’t limited to drugs — Apple also prompts you to add whether you consume alcohol, marijuana or tobacco. Through this, I found out that my birth control might increase the effects of marijuana, and the Health app labeled this as a Moderate drug interaction.
I’m allergic to a few different drugs, including some major antibiotics, and I’ve listed this information in my medical ID in the Health app in case of an emergency. When I added one of the antibiotics in Medications, I wasn’t alerted about it. Granted, the information in the medical ID is simply a list of words as opposed to a piece of data Apple can use to match against other information. And I probably wouldn’t encounter a situation where I’m dispensed medication that contains something I’m deathly allergic to. But it would be nice to see Apple think about how to approach situations like this.
Concerns about medical privacy are at an all-time high and I almost didn’t want to list my birth control in Medications, though I do feel that Apple’s privacy policy is one of the better ones around. Still, if there was a way for this information to be hidden behind a passcode, I would feel a bit better.
Sharing, accessibility and a long list of other updates
I’ve barely covered the list of changes iOS 16 will bring, but we’ve covered what will have the biggest impact on your daily experience. If you frequently collaborate with others, the new Safari group tabs can be helpful. I created a group and shared it with fellow deputy editor Nate Ingraham as we tested the new software. I had the Engadget home page and Apple’s iOS summary open, and the next day he had added some other reference pages, but he also noticed I had been looking up the cast of Ms. Marvel.
Sharing photos with your friends and family is also easier if they’re using iOS. You can create a shared photo album and images added will be synced with all members. Family Sharing has also been updated to make child accounts easier to set up, and your kids can send you Screen Time requests through Messages (and you can approve or decline from the chat, too).
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I didn’t have time to check out some of the other new features like the assistive Door Detection tool or Sound Recognition. But I did try Live Captions, which provides subtitles for audio playing through all apps on your phone. Though Apple’s version is occasionally inaccurate and slightly slow compared to Android, I appreciate that I can tap the box on iOS and choose to pause Live Captions or tap the microphone icon to switch to transcribing sounds in my surroundings. I can also minimize the Live Captions box on iOS, leaving only a floating circle on the screen that stays out of the way till I need subtitles again.
Apple also added a new Safety Check tool that “allows you to disconnect from people, apps and devices you no longer want to be connected to.” You can review the people and apps that have access to your location, photos, calendar or contacts and revoke permissions, or choose nuclear options like “Emergency Reset” or “Select All and Stop Sharing.” Changing these options requires you to sign in, either with a passcode or by Face ID. There’s also a new Lockdown Mode that the company announced earlier this month, which is “an extreme, optional protection” for those who “believe you may be personally targeted by a highly sophisticated cyberattack.”
I’ve been enjoying the iOS 16 public beta, and though I still hesitate to recommend installing beta software, most people who aren’t risk-averse will enjoy the updates. If you’re worried about stability and losing your data, you can always wait till the final release (typically in the fall) to get the new features.
Twitter co-founder Evan Williams is stepping as CEO of Medium. Williams announced the decision on Tuesday. Writing on Medium (where else?), he said he’s handing the company over to Tony Stubblebine, the CEO of Coach.me.
Stubblebine may not be a household name, but the two have a long history together. Before Williams went on to create Twitter with Jack Dorsey and a few others, he and Stubblebine worked at Odeo, the podcasting startup Williams founded in 2005 with Noah Glass. “Tony is a builder, a writer, an open-minded thinker, and a keen businessperson,” Williams wrote of his replacement. “I’m confident Medium will benefit greatly from his vision, integrity, energy, and pragmatic leadership.”
Williams will continue to advise Medium as the chairman of the company’s board of directors. “To be clear, Medium’s story is far from over,” he said. “The team today is probably the most capable I’ve seen at this company. I’m excited to see what they do.”
As for what’s next for the serial entrepreneur known as “Ev” to many of his peers, he plans to spend the immediate future “learning as much as I can about things I don’t know a lot about.” To that end, Williams says he will start a new holding company or research lab.
In handing over the operations of Medium to someone else, Williams leaves the company fighting to stay relevant. In a 2014 interview with The New York Times, he promised his startup would change the web. “Right now, the internet rewards speed and quantity, and we wanted to make a place where quality matters,” he told the outlet.
And for a time, it did feel like Medium had managed to create a place where thoughtful people could post smart writing. However, between a series of strategic missteps involving the company’s business model and the emergence of competitors like Substack, Medium doesn’t feel as essential as it once did. And it now falls on Stubblebine to chart a course forward for the company.
A much-loved YouTube account featuring calm hip-hop beats is back online today, after two popular radio live streams (the oldest of which has been playing non-stop for two years) got yanked from the platform due to bogus copyright claims. In a tweet, the owner of the Lofi Girl channel — which has been streaming relaxing ambient music since 2017 — announced that the streams have relaunched after a nearly 48-hour hiatus.
The origin of the DMCA claims came from FMC Music, a Malaysian record label. After receiving a counterclaim from the creators of Lofi Girl, YouTube manually reviewed FMC’s complaint and came to the conclusion that the record label had no ownership over the music.
“Confirmed the takedown requests were abusive & terminated the claimants account 😔 we've resolved the strikes + reinstated your vids – it can sometimes take 24-48 hours for everything to be back to normal! so sorry this happened & thx for your patience as we sorted it out,” wrote YouTube on Twitter, in response to Lofi Girl’s request on Monday that the streams be reinstated.
But FMC Music is alleging that it is also a victim in this affair. A spokesperson from the label told local news site Malaysiakini that hackers broke into its YouTube account to file the copyright infringement claim. The record label said that it reported the incident to Google. Its YouTube account has since returned back online.
The relatively unknown record label was hit hard with online abuse over the weekend, as fans of Lofi Girl flocked to its social media channels and demanded to know why it filed the fake claim. Most of Lofi Girl’s largely Gen-Z and younger Millennial fanbase rely on the music to study, relax or meditate.
In an ironic twist, Lofi Girl also has a considerable Malaysian fanbase, who were also quite unhappy about the channel’s removal. In a Reddit thread on r/Malaysia entitled, “Who the hell is FMC Music Sdn Bhd Malaysia and why did they copywrite strike lofi girl?”, a despondent fan urged others to “make some noise” on the record label’s socials.
“For context, I was studying while listening to lofi girl before both of their streams got taken down by a certain FMC Music Sdn Bhd Malaysia. Now their livestreams can't be accessed in Malaysia. What gives them the right to take down the best channel on youtube,” wrote the user.
Malicious copyright strikes are hardly a new incident on YouTube. Game creater Bungie decided to take one creator to court after they allegedly filed nearly 100 fake copyright claims. Lofi Girl noted that an accidental takedown in 2020 also took the account offline, and called for a stronger vetting process for DMCA claims at YouTube. “This event has shone a light on an underlying problem on the platform: It’s 2022, and there are countless smaller creators out there, many of which engaged in this discussion, that continue to be hit daily by these false claims on both videos and livestreams,” Lofi Girl wrote in a tweet.
When Apple put its M1 processor in the 2021 iPad Pro and iPad Air, I couldn’t help but wonder what all that power was for. The A-series chips that Apple had used in earlier models ran iPadOS extremely well, so seeing the same processor found in computers like the MacBook Air and Mac Mini was a surprise.
With iPadOS 16, which I’ve been testing in beta for the last few weeks, it’s now obvious why Apple put the M1 in its latest iPads. It enables some significant new features around multitasking that make the iPad a lot more flexible, and it enables some entirely new workflows: things that iPad power users have been requesting for years. Apple calls this new multitasking scheme Stage Manager.
And even though Stage Manager will only work on the three M1-powered iPad models, it’s easily the most significant change to iPadOS in years, as well as the most notable feature that’s currently available in the iPadOS 16 beta. As usual, a host of features that Apple announced at WWDC last month aren’t yet fully enabled in the beta software.
Resizable, overlapping app windows is the most immediately obvious benefit that Stage Manager offers, but Vivek Bhardwaj from Worldwide Product Marketing at Apple told Engadget in an interview that the company looks at Stage Manager as far more than, in his words, “a little iteration on multitasking.” The broader goal was to figure out how to make apps more capable on the iPad. “When we took a step back, we realized that there’s an opportunity for us to have apps running not just on iPad but on an external display, to be able to multitask with multiple apps, and have arrangements and flexibility like users have never had before,” Bhardwaj said.
Despite the bugs that I’ve encountered running iPadOS 16 on a 2021 iPad Pro (more on that later), Bhardwaj’s assessment feels accurate. Stage Manager makes the iPad feel much closer to a Mac than it ever has before while still retaining the simplicity that the iPad is known for. That shows up in some limitations — you can have at most four apps “on stage” at once, so you can’t stack as many windows and apps as you want. But it’s a reasonable limitation: Even on a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, having more than three apps running on a single stage can feel cramped. But because iPadOS keeps four more recent stages on the left (each of which can also hold up to four apps), it’s easier than ever to jump between a host of different apps.
For example, I’m writing this story in a Pages document, with a Notes instance running next to it. I have Slack and Messages running in a communication-focused stage, a few Safari windows, and my email readily accessible via the left-side recent apps view. I can also get to any app in my dock with one tap or use Spotlight to search for any app on my iPad if I need something that isn’t readily available. There’s definitely a learning curve here, but it’s undoubtedly a more powerful and flexible way to use an iPad than we’ve ever had before. It’s significant that Apple is giving iPad users complexity and customization at the expense of simplicity, something the company usually avoids.
This is doubly true when you hook up an iPad to an external display. Before, you’d just get a mirror image of what is on your iPad’s screen, but now the external display is an entirely separate workspace. With Stage Manager, you can have a distinct set of apps running on that monitor, something that makes using an iPad with another display significantly more useful than it ever was before — and another example of why Stage Manager requires an M1-powered iPad.
That said, in its unfinished form, Stage Manager is a bit rough around the edges. When I was using my iPad with an external display, the system crashed and threw me back to the home screen not infrequently, which obviously kills productivity gains. There are also quirks with apps behaving unpredictably when resizing their windows. I’d expect these things to be improved by the time iPadOS 16 is officially released this fall, but just be aware that the beta still feels very much like a beta.
Stage Manager, which is also coming to macOS Ventura, provides a clear example of how Apple differentiates its platforms even when they share features. “On the iPad, we looked at how do we optimize [Stage Manager] for multitouch?” Bhardwaj said. “Because we know people are going to want to interact with it, we had to make adjusting windows and overlapping windows not feel overwhelming, not feel like you have to have fine cursor control and pixel-perfect arrangement.” That led to a lot of automation in terms of how windows interact with each other and where they’re placed when you add apps to a stage or resize them.
On the Mac, though, the behavior is different because of the user’s expectations for the platform and the tools you use to interact with it — specifically, a mouse rather than your fingers. “People actually need fine-grained control because that’s the behavior and usage of Mac,” Bhardwaj said.
Before Apple showed off Stage Manager at WWDC, the rest of the iPadOS 16 preview was dominated by new collaboration features. In a world that’s been remade by the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work is more common than ever, and Apple is clearly trying to make the iPad even more of a productivity tool than before. And it’s doing so by using its incredibly popular Messages app as an entry point.
Apple’s new collaboration API means that you can share things like a Pages, Numbers or Keynote document with a group via Messages, and the recipients will be able to all work on the document in real time. Previously, this would just send a copy of the document, but now everyone in your group will be able to make changes, with updates tracked in the Messages thread. You can also jump directly from a document into a FaceTime call with your group. “Communication often is the first place where we start ideation,” Bhardwaj said. “When you look at Messages or FaceTime, our customers have been using them for a long time; it’s such an integral part of the way our sets speak to family, friends, teammates, colleagues.”
Google and Microsoft have had real-time collaboration for years, and it’s not new to Apple’s iWork suite either. What is new is the deep integration with Messages and FaceTime. That likely won’t be enough to draw in users who are already committed to using Google Docs or Microsoft Office, but Apple’s new collaboration features aren’t limited to just those apps. For example, you can share a group of tabs from Safari, or share content from Notes and Reminders. And Apple is also extending SharePlay, which it introduced last year as a way to watch videos or listen to music with friends, to Messages as well. Additionally, you can now use SharePlay with games, so you compete with a friend over FaceTime.
Perhaps most importantly, though, Apple is making a Collaboration API available to third-party developers. Offering a more seamless way to collaborate using Messages, one of the most crucial apps Apple offers, could be an important new tool. “For developers, they want to meet the user where they’re at, where the conversation is happening,” said Bhardwaj. “For many people, that’s in apps like Messages and FaceTime. So this is exciting for a developer because a conversation that was organically already happening can now be a great jumping-off point into their app.” We won’t know if this happens until after iPadOS 16 is out, of course, but the ubiquity of Messages on Apple’s hardware make it a logical tool for developers to support.
Freeform, a new app that unfortunately isn’t available in the iPadOS 16 beta, is perhaps the best example of how Apple sees communication and collaboration intersecting. From a FaceTime call, you can create a new Freeform board, which is a space that everyone you invite can contribute to, whether that’s adding text, web links, documents or notes and drawings made with an Apple Pencil. Each contributor is highlighted as they add things to the space, and you can tap on someone’s name from the share menu to see exactly what they’re up to. Adding more material is simply a matter of zooming out and picking a free space.
Apple
The easy comparison is that it’s a virtual marker board — not at all something meant for formal presentation, but a good place to brainstorm. While Freeform will also be available on iPhones and Macs, it feels uniquely suited to the iPad. It looks like it’ll be most easily navigated via a large touch screen, and Apple Pencil users will likely find it a good place to use their stylus.
Naturally, there’s a host of new features in iPadOS 16 that are shared with macOS Ventura and iOS 16. The Mail app now supports scheduling emails, undoing send and a much-improved search interface, while the Messages app lets you edit and undo sending as well. The Photos app now includes a shared photo library, with new pictures and edits automatically syncing between family members. And there’s an official Weather app, some 12 years after Apple shipped its first iPad! (Joking aside, the Weather app is really nice, with tappable modules that show lots of detail on various conditions.)
In a lot of ways, it’s a typical iPadOS update: There are a host of new features, most of which are nice to have but won’t fundamentally change the way you use an iPad. But, the combination of features like Stage Manager, Freeform and the new collaboration tools point to how Apple intends to make the iPad more suited to productivity than it has been before. We’ll have to wait until iPadOS 16 is finalized and released this fall to judge how successful this update is. But after feeling like iPad hardware was outpacing what its software could do, we’re glad to see Apple making some big changes to iPadOS this year.
You're not wrong to look for big-ticket gadgets to go on sale during Amazon Prime Day. Plenty of popular devices are down to record-low prices, and you should grab them before their prices go back up after Prime Day ends. But maybe you're on the hunt for even more affordable things, or useful accessories that won't cost you an arm and a leg even when discounted. Those things do exist, so, to help you avoid endless sifting through cheap deals, we collected the best Prime Day tech deals under $50 here.
Echo Dot
The Echo Dot is on sale for $20 while the Echo Dot with Clock is down to $33. We like these tiny smart speakers for their good audio quality, compact design and tap-to-snooze feature.
The Echo Show 5 has dropped to $35, or $50 off its usual price. If you want a smart alarm clock, this is the smart display to get. We like its sharp 5-inch display, ambient light sensor, smart home controls and tap-to-snooze feature.
Amazon's standard Kindle has dropped to $45, which is half off its normal price. We gave this e-reader a score of 91 for its improved contrast display, extra front lights and sleeker design.
The Fire HD 8 tablet is half off and down to $45. We gave it a score of 81 for its decent performance, good battery life, wireless charging capabilities and USB-C port.
You can pick up Amazon's most affordable streamer, the Fire TV Stick Lite, for only $12 right now. It supports 1080p streaming and gives you access to some of the most popular services like Netlfix and Disney+.
The standard Fire TV Stick is on sale for $17. It supports 1080p streaming with Dolby Atmos and it comes with an Alexa Voice Remote that has power and volume buttons on it.
The Fire TV Stick 4K is on sale for $25 for Prime Day. This one supports 4K streaming with Dolby Vision along with Dolby Atmos audio and Amazon's Fire TV OS.
The higher-end Fire TV Stick 4K Max has dropped to $35, which is $20 less than usual. On top of all of the features in the standard Fire TV Stick 4K, the Max version also supports WiFi 6 and live picture-in-picture viewing.
The Chromecast with Google TV is down to $40 right now. We gave it a score of 86 for its handy remote control, good Google Assistant integration and 4K streaming chops with Dolby Vision and Atmos support.
Roku's Express streaming dongle has dropped to $18. Like Amazon's own budget streaming devices, the Express doesn't have a ton of fancy features, but it does support HD content and it comes with a high-speed HDMI cable. The Express 4K+ streamer is also on sale for $25.
The latest Roku Streaming Stick 4K is on sale for $30. It builds upon the technology in the Streaming Stick+, supporting 4K HDR10+ content, Dolby Vision, long-range WiFi, voice search and TV controls with the included remote.
You can grab an AirTag for $27.50 right now at Amazon, or you can head over to Woot and get one for $25 or a pack of four for $85. These tiny trackers sync with the Find My app on iOS to help you keep track of your keys, bags and other belongings. Just make sure you pick up a holder so you can actually attach the gadget to your stuff.
Tile trackers are up to 30 percent off for Prime Day and you have a few different designs to choose from. The standard Tile Mate is down to $180, the Tile Slim is on sale for $24 and the Tile Sticker is down to $21. These Bluetooth chips help you keep track of your things digitally and they can lead you to your lost items by emitting a chime.
You can pick up a Galaxy SmartTag+ for only $30 right now, or $10 off its usual price. This is Samsung's answer to Apple's AirTags, and it lets you keep track of items via your smartphone. If you're close enough to your lost stuff, you can even follow directions on your smartphone that will lead you back to it.
Samsung's Pro Plus microSD card in 128GB is half off and down to only $18 for Prime Day. It also comes with an adapter, so you can use it with more types of devices. You'll get read/write speeds of up to 160MB/s and 120MB/s, respectively, and a card that's temperature, magnet- and drop-resistant.
SanDisk's Dual Drive Go is on sale for $50 right now, or 32 percent less than usual. It's a more modern version of a thumb drive featuring a swivel design with a USB-A connector on one end and a USB-C dongle on the other. We like its sleek, portable design, its 150MB/s read speeds and the fact that you'll be able to use it with almost any device.
Jabra's excellent Elite 3 earbuds have dropped to $50, or $30 off their normal rate. These already affordable buds earned a score of 88 from us for their impressive sound quality, good battery life, reliable touch controls and comfortable fit.
Jabra's Elite 45h headphones are half off and down to $50. We like these cans for their solid sound quality, voice assistant access, compact design and 50-hour battery life.
Sony's compact SRS-XB13 Bluetooth speaker is down to just $48, which is nearly half off its regular price. Not only does it come in a bunch of fun colors, but this tiny speaker also has a waterproof IP67 rated design, punchy bass and a 16-hour battery life.
Razer's Anzu smart glasses have returned to an all-time-low price of $50 for Prime Day. We gave them a score of 74 for their blue-light filtering lenses, decent battery life and convenient hands-free audio.
A four-pack of Kasa smart plugs is 24 percent off and down to only $23 for Prime Day. You can plug in any "dumb" appliance to these attachments to make them a bit smarter, enabling you to control them from your phone, set usage schedules and more.
Along with a bunch of other Amazon smart home gadgets, the company's smart plug is $12 off and down to $13. You can plug almost any "dumb" appliance into this accessory to make it a smart one that can be controlled via a companion app and with Alexa voice commands.
Amazon's smart thermostat is on sale for $42 right now. This affordable IoT gadget lets you control your home's temperature from anywhere and it can be adjusted via Alexa commands.
The Blink Mini has been discounted to only $30 for Prime Day, and you can get two of them for the price of one as well. This camera needs to be plugged in, but we like its compact design, 1080p recording, motion alerts and two-way audio.
For the past week, a handful of high-profile and Michelin-starred restaurants from San Francisco to New York City have been targeted in an extortion campaign weaponizing Google reviews. It appears to be a coordinated effort with a repeatable strategy: The restaurants receive a barrage of one-star reviews on Google — you know, the ratings that show up when you search for anything on Maps — and then the owners receive an apologetic email asking for a $75 Google Play gift card in order to stop the digital bombing.
Kim Alter is chef and owner of Nightbird, a fine dining restaurant in San Francisco that was hit by this campaign. On July 5th, she shared an email she received from the extortionists after her restaurant was inundated with negative reviews. The email read as follows:
"Hello. Unfortunately, negative feedback about your establishment has been left by us. And will appear in the future, one review a day. We sincerely apologize for our actions, and would not want to harm your business, but we have no other choice. The fact is that we live in India and see no other way to survive. We are begging you to send us google play gift card worth $75."
The message then offered a link to buy the gift card on PayPal and an email address to receive the code. It concluded with another apology.
Alter shared the email on Twitter and tagged Google, asking for the company's help in removing scam-related reviews. She tagged a handful of other acclaimed SF-based restaurants that were experiencing the same review bombing, including Sons & Daughters, Acquerello, 3rd Cousin, Marlena, Birdsong and Nari. But this wasn't just a West coast thing — high-profile restaurants across the country received the same threats and negative reviews this past week, including Ever, Roux, EL Ideas and Sochi Saigonese Kitchen in Chicago.
A Google Maps spokesperson told The New York Times on Monday that the company was investigating the issue and removing reviews from people who didn't actually visit these establishments. The Google Maps team explained in February how it used machine learning and live moderation to identify and stop review bombing, writing, "Our systems continue to analyze the contributed content and watch for questionable patterns. These patterns can be anything from a group of people leaving reviews on the same cluster of Business Profiles to a business or place receiving an unusually high number of 1 or 5-star reviews over a short period of time."
This particular extortion campaign seems to fall in that final category, with restaurants receiving a bunch of one-star reviews at once, but owners like Alter had to take the issue to social media to get help from Google. One week after Alter's tweet, it looks like the scam-related one-star reviews have been purged from the affected restaurants' profiles — for now.
Doomis playable on just about anything, from a DJ controller and Canon printer to an ATM and Minecraft. YouTuber kgsws took the Inception route, though. They put a playable version of Doom inside Doom II.
They used an exploit in the DOS version of Doom II, as Gizmodo notes. The modder, who explains the process in a 15-minute YouTube video, was able to get a modern port of Doom (Chocolate Doom, which uses the original source code) running inside Doom II as an animated texture. The original game is projected on a virtual display in a custom Doom II map that kgsws created.
They built more maps that showcase the pioneering first-person shooter, including having the same instance of Doom running on four walls surrounding the player and a cinema screen that's projecting the game. Additionally, kgsws showed off Heretic running inside of Doom.
You can try the hack for yourself, as kgsws shared the code on GitHub. You can snap up a DOS version of Doom II from Steam. You might need a reasonably beefy gaming PC to run Doom inside Doom II, though. "Both games are running independently of each other," kgsws explains. "That means you need double the memory. I would recommend you to get at least 16MB of RAM."
Amazon has announced a new version of its smart shopping cart. The new Dash Cart can transport more groceries and includes new features. Amazon says the latest version can carry four grocery bags, up from two previously, and has dedicated shelves for delicate and oversized items. The latest version is also weather-resistant so you can take it to your car.
As before, the cart will automatically weigh produce and keep a real-time tally of all the food you buy. Amazon has tweaked the software on the touchscreen to display images of nearby fresh fruit and produce. The company's software will now also do a better job of keeping track of where the cart is in stores and notifying you of deals. Lastly, the latest version has a bigger battery, which should translate into the new Dash Cart being more frequently available for customers to use.
Speaking of availability, Amazon is finally bringing the Dash Cart to Whole Foods, starting with the chain’s Westford, Massachusetts location and expanding to “a few additional” stores in the coming months. Previously, Dash Carts were only available at the company’s Amazon Fresh grocery stores, of which there are only about two dozen locations in the US at the moment.
Once Dash Carts arrive at your local Whole Foods, you can start using them by scanning the QR code you find on each one in the Amazon or Whole Foods Market apps. As you find items you want to buy, you scan them with one of the cameras near the cart's handlebar. Once you’re done shopping, you exit the store through the dedicated Dash Cart lane. Amazon will automatically bill the credit card associated with your account, and you’ll get an emailed receipt after leaving the store.
Upgrading your home with the latest tech can be expensive, but Amazon Prime Day is an opportunity to do so for a lot less. Be it robot vacuums or smart bulbs, there’s a whole lot of IoT and kitchen devices that are on sale today. Even some of our favorites from iRobot, Shark and Google have been discounted. Not all of the sales are actually worth your money, so we’ve done the hard work of narrowing that list down to the best deals available.
Ecobee Smart Thermostat
Ecobee Smart Thermostat
Ecobee
One of our favorite smart thermostats is this one from Ecobee, so we’re glad that it’s on sale today for $178 ($71 off its retail price of $249). It has built-in Alexa support, which means you can control the temperature simply by using your voice. Features include natural language processing, speech detection and a smart “Home & Away” function that can detect your presence and adjust the temperature automatically. If you would rather have something a little simpler, the Ecobee3 Lite, which doesn’t have voice control, is also on sale for $128 (original price is $179).
If you want to elevate your Ecobee ecosystem even further, consider getting these smart sensors. They’re on sale for $63, which is 21 percent off its $80 retail price. Simply attach them to your doors or windows, and you’ll get an alert any time they’re open. They’ll work in concert with your Ecobee smart thermostat to automatically pause heating or cooling if they’re left open. It works as a security system as well, as it has a 120-degree motion sensor that will alert you of any movement up to 16 feet away.
Nest has quite a number of products on sale today. One of them is Nest’s Learning Thermostat, which has dropped to $190 for Prime Day. That’s $60 less than its original retail price. It’s available in a variety of finishes – Brass, Copper, Mirror Black, Polished Steel, Stainless Steel and White. It’s currently the top-of-the-line smart thermostat from Google, with the ability to “learn” your preferences over time and adjust the temperature of your home accordingly. It also works with optional sensors that you can place around the home so you can assign specific temps for different rooms.
A more affordable option is the standard Nest Thermostat, which is also on sale today for $90 ($40 less than the original $130). It doesn’t work with the temperature sensors and lacks the learning capabilities of the higher-end model, but you can still use it to remotely control your home’s temperature.
Nest’s Doorbell Battery is only $120 today, which is $60 less than its usual $180 price point. This video doorbell runs on rechargeable batteries so it doesn’t need to be hard-wired into the house, which is good news for renters. It doesn’t offer 24/7 video recording like the Nest Hello does, but it does keep up to 3 hours of event history for free, or up to 60 days if you have a Nest Aware subscription. Plus, if the WiFi goes down, it’ll store up to an hour of recorded events so you can see what you’ve missed. Alternatively, if you just want a security camera for indoors or outdoors without the doorbell functionality, the Nest Cam Battery is on sale today as well for just $120 each ($60 less than its original retail price). It also runs on rechargeable batteries and even features a magnetic mount.
If you would rather have an Amazon-powered video doorbell instead, Ring’s Video Doorbells are discounted for Prime Day too. The 2020 version is down to $75, which is 25 percent off, while the upgraded Ring Video Doorbell 3 is now $160 ($40 off). The most recent of them all, the Video Doorbell 4, is down to just $170 ($50 off). All three let you interact with people at your front door, and you’ll get an alert when there’s a visitor or a package as well. You have the option of using either the built-in batteries or hard-wiring them to your house. The Video Doorbell 3 has a removable battery pack and interchangeable face plates, while the Doorbell 4 has color video previews and a new Quick Replies feature.
One of our favorite smart locks, August’s 4th-gen WiFi Smart Lock, is on sale today for just $150, which is $80 off its retail price. There’s also a bundle with the lock and a keypad for $189, which is 30 percent off the combined cost. We really liked the August WiFi Smart Lock back when we reviewed it in 2020 due to its slim design and WiFi connectivity. It forces you to set up two-factor authentication that adds an extra layer of security, which is always welcome with smart locks. Like most smart locks, the August lets you remotely lock and unlock the door, which is handy for letting friends and family members in when you’re absent. It also works with regular keys too, just in case the WiFi goes down.
There’s often several discounts on Roombas for Prime Day and this year is no exception. iRobot’s Roomba i7+ is now on sale for just $500, which is 50 percent off its original $1,000. That’s the lowest we’ve seen yet, and it’s certainly worth considering if you’re in the market for a robot vacuum. Not only does it automatically clean your room for you, it’ll actually charge itself and empty its own dustbin too. It has 10 times the suction power of regular Roombas, which makes it fantastic for those with pets and it automatically maps your home for a more targeted clean.
If you want a more affordable option, iRobot’s Roomba 692 is discounted today as well. It’s now priced at $180, which is $120 off the $300 retail price. Though it won’t clean itself like the i7+, the 692 is still capable enough, with excellent cleaning capabilities and adaptive navigation. It also works with Alexa and Google Assistant, so you can command it with your voice.
Shark also has a couple of robot vacuums on sale this Prime Day. The AV2501AE is just $380, which is $270 off its $650 retail price. Like the i7+, the Shark can empty itself into a base. This particular model can actually hold 60 days worth of dirt and debris, which is a godsend if you’re looking to reduce your chores around the house. It also has excellent cleaning performance with powerful suction and an on-demand deep cleaning mode that targets specific rooms and zones. It’s great for homes with pets and it has hands-free voice control with Alexa or Google Assistant support. A slightly cheaper option is the Shark AV2501S, priced at $300 (down from $550), which is similar to the AV2501AE except it has a 30-day capacity base instead.
Though you might associate the Instant Pot brand with multi-cookers, the company also makes excellent air fryers, and a few of them are on sale this Prime Day. Our favorite of the lot is the Instant Pot Vortex Plus, which is just $100 today ($60 off its $160 retail price). Not only does it crisp foods efficiently, it has a clear see-thru window which lets us check our food. Plus, it has odor-erasing filters that produce less smoke compared to other air fryers. If you want a smaller, more affordable option, the Instant Pot Vortex is also on sale today for $90 ($44 off $134). It doesn’t have a clear window or odor-erasing filters but it’s an option if you want to save a little more counter space.
For those who just need to air fry more than one thing at once, Ninja’s Foodi Dual-Zone XL is worth considering. It’s on sale today for $160, which is $70 off its regular price. We dubbed it the best dual-zone option in our air fryer guide and for good reason. You can either cook two different things at a time, or you can double the quantity of something and use the Match Cook function to cook all of it with the same settings. Best of all, it can adjust the cooking times so that foods from both areas can be done at the same time.
We recommended the Vitamix as the creme de la creme of blender brands in our kitchen guide, and fortunately, the company has several different models on sale for Prime Day. Our favorite is the 5200, which is on sale for $300 ($106 off the retail price of $406). It’s the choice of restaurants and professional chefs (you’ll frequently see it on shows like Iron Chef) as it’s such a kitchen workhorse. It’s powerful enough to handle tough ingredients like nuts and frozen fruit while also producing silky smooth results.
A slightly more elegant version, the Professional 750 Series, is also on sale for $400 (retail price is $630). It can do many of the same tasks as the 5200 but has five pre-programmed settings for frequently made items like smoothies and soups. It also has a lower profile so it can fit underneath your upper cabinets. Last but not least, the Vitamix One is now just $175, which is $75 off the original $250. It still has plenty of the power of the other Vitamix blenders, but housed in a more petite package for those who have less counter space.
As you might expect, Amazon’s entire product line is on sale today for Prime Day. We already have a post outlining them all, but we’ll highlight a few of the smart home options here. The Echo Show 8 is our favorite Alexa-powered smart display thanks to its small footprint, sharp display and video-chatting capabilities. We also really like the Show 5, which makes for an excellent smart alarm clock due to its size. Last but not least, there’s the Show 10, which has a swiveling display and a camera that automatically pans and zooms during video calls.
Eero’s entire line of mesh WiFi routers is on sale for Prime Day. The Eero 6 is a dual-band model that covers up to 1,500 square feet and is now $71, while the Pro 6 is a tri-band system that covers up to 2,000 square feet and starts at $148. If you’re willing to pay more, you can upgrade to the Eero Pro 6E, which covers up to 6,000 square feet and supports speeds of up to 2.3 Gbps. The Eero 6+, on the other hand, is an affordable gigabit router that is down to just $90, and supports up to 1Gbps speeds plus up to 4,500 square feet of coverage.
Several of Amazon’s Blink cameras are on sale for Prime Day. The Indoor is now just $55 ($20 off), the Outdoor is $60 ($40 off) and the Mini is just $30 ($5 off). Both the Indoor and Outdoor models are completely wireless, though the Outdoor version has a more weather-resistant design. The Mini needs to be plugged in, but otherwise has similar features to the other two. All of them support 1080p recording, motion alerts, and two-way audio.
