Samsung's Galaxy Watch 4 is now cheaper than ever at Amazon, where the 40mm Bluetooth-only version is currently on sale for $174. That's a new all-time for the wearable and is $76 less than its retail price of $250. The watch has been on sale a few times for $200 over the past months, but the lowest it got before this was $180 ahead of Black Friday last year. 

We gave the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 a score of 84 in our review and praised it for its comprehensive health tracking capabilities. It has a 3-in-1 biometric sensor that enables body mass scans and new sleep-tracking features, such as continuous blood oxygen detection that can help assess your sleep quality more accurately. We also praised the watch for having a sharper and brighter screen than its predecessors. 

Since Galaxy Watch 4 is loaded with Wear OS, it has much better third-party app support than previous versions. You can download apps directly from the Play Store — there's even a section that shows which of the apps on your phone has a Wear OS counterpart. In addition, Samsung has added gesture controls to the device via the One UI that will let you answer or dismiss calls by flicking your wrist or lifting your arm. 

Although only the 40mm version is on sale for $174 right now, you can also get its bigger counterpart at a discount. If you prefer a larger smartwatch, the 44mm version of the Galaxy Watch 4 is currently available for $230, which is only around 90 cents off its all-time low and $50 less than its regular price. 

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Gaming has been one of Chrome OS’ weak spots for years. Most Chromebooks have lower-power hardware paired with an OS built on web technology, so playing AAA titles found on Windows has simply not been an option. Cloud gaming, like Google’s own Stadia, offered a solution of sorts, but many players have been eager to see how Steam would fare, after Google announced Valve's platform was in an early alpha phase.

News Editor Nathan Ingraham tested things out on one of the seven Chromebooks that can run Steam, an ASUS Chromebook CX9 with Intel's 11th-generation Core i7. (Google says Steam required a device with at least a Core i5 processor and 8GB of RAM.) He explains that many games run like a dream; however, his attempts to play 2018's God of War, originally released for the PS4 and ported to Windows in January this year, was apparently a “totally unplayable slideshow.” God of War’s spec requirements demand either NVIDIA's GTX 960 or AMD's R9 290X graphics cards — it wasn’t a huge shock.

While Google and Valve will improve the Steam experience from this early alpha, it's fair to say Chrome OS will never be the place to play cutting-edge games. But, Steam's library is vast, and there are thousands of titles — most playable offline, something Stadia can’t offer.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

• Meta offers new professional certificates through Coursera

• 'Elden Ring' for PlayStation falls to $50 in a good day for gaming deals

• Steam on a Chromebook works better than I expected

• The best self-care gifts for graduates

• AMD teases new 'Dragon Range' CPUs for high-end gaming laptops

• YouTube Go will no longer be available from August

• Samsung's new dashcam memory card records non-stop for up to 16 years

• Apple employees criticize work-from-home policy in open letter

New 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' trailer includes some Darth Vader assembly

The six-episode series debuts on Disney+ on May 27th.

Lucasfilm and Disney+ celebrated May the 4th by offering another look at the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series. There's not a ton of new footage, but it includes a peep at Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) being pieced together, which is much more than the breathing cameo from the previous trailer.

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Wordle brought 'tens of millions' of users to The New York Times

Many players stuck around, too.

The New York Times has revealed it added "tens of millions" of new users in the first quarter of 2022 thanks to Josh Wardle's hit word game. That led to the company's best quarter yet for subscriber additions to games, and "many" of those incoming players have stuck around to try other games.

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Samsung's new phone storage standard is twice as fast

The company will start mass-producing Universal Flash Storage 4.0 in the third quarter.

Samsung has introduced the latest iteration of its Universal Flash Storage product, which it says is much, much faster than its predecessor. UFS was created to enable SSD speeds for cameras, phones and other devices, but this version — called UFS 4.0 — can reach 23.2Gbps per lane. That's double the speed of UFS 3.1, the storage used in Samsung’s Galaxy S22.

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Sonos' rumored $250 soundbar is reportedly called the Ray

It may be smaller than the Beam, with some high-end features.

Sonos' rumored budget soundbar was briefly posted online at Colombian store KTronix. The listing suggested g it will be called the Sonos Ray and be smaller than the already compact Beam Gen 2 at just 22 inches long (versus 25.6in), if slightly taller and thinner. A previous leak hinted Sonos might release it as soon as early June. And while the Colombian price (about $323) likely won't reflect the exact pricing for the US, it does imply the rumored $250 sticker is at least close to the mark.

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The best gifts to upgrade your grad’s tech setup

Due a refresh.

Engadget

Graduation is traditionally a big time for gift-giving, so if you know someone heading out into the real world who could use an upgrade after four (or more!) long years of higher education, we’ve got a host of options — even if the giftee is in deep with tech already.

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As part of Lenovo's big spring laptop refresh, the company today unveiled a new generation of Slim clamshell laptops in the US (which confusingly share the 'Slim' branding with older, unrelated models). These include the Slim 9i, the Slim 7i and Slim7i Pro X, the Slim 7i Carbon and the Slim 7. The last of those come with an AMD Ryzen 6000 Series processor rather than the Intel chips inside its sisters, while the Slim 9i claims to be carbon neutral. While the improvements aren’t dramatic, the new line offers decent boosts in performance, longevity and screen quality. 

Lenovo’s Slim 9i is a 14-inch laptop with WiFi 6 and three Thunderbolt 4 ports. It's also supposedly carbon-neutral, which makes this a solid bet if you're eco-conscious. The display includes an option to upgrade to a 4K OLED Puresight touchscreen display, which will no doubt make for sharper visuals and more immersive gaming. It also includes the IdeaPad’s infrared webcam, which means it will have facial recognition abilities. It also features 12th-gen Intel Core processors. The laptop starts at $1,799 and will be available in US stores starting in June.

Both the Slim 7i Pro X and Slim 7 Pro X are 14-inch laptops; the former offers 12-gen Intel Core processors and the latter includes an AMD Ryzen 6000 Series processor. You can expect up to 32 GB of RAM and the option of an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU. At 3.5 pounds, both machines are also very lightweight, especially for ones with dedicated graphics cards. The 7i Pro X starts at $1,699 and the 7 Pro X starts at $1,499.

The Slim 7 features a 16-inch screen and is outfitted with an AMD Ryzen 6000 Series processor, and starts at $1,499. The Slim 7i is available in either 14 or 16-inches and includes 12th-gen Intel Core processors. It is priced starting at $1,199 or $1,599, respectively.

For those in the market for a lightweight laptop that also won’t weigh down their carry-on bag, a decent option may be Lenovo’s 13-inch 2.2 pound Slim 7i Carbon. As the name implies, it saves weight by having a carbon frame. It includes 12th-gen Intel Core processors and self-adjusting fan and power speeds to save battery life. The 7i Carbon is available as either a 13-inch laptop or an upgraded model that features a 13.3-inch Lenovo Puresight touchscreen. The price starts at $1,299, and will be available in the US this June.

For those afraid of losing their laptops while on the go (or heaven forbid, their machine getting stolen), Lenovo will be offering its Smart Lock program in North America, starting in June. The cloud-based security program includes an app and browser version and essentially allows users to track and find their machines, as well as remotely lock or wipe any personal data from them.

Google has purchased a startup called Raxium specializing in MicroLED displays as part of its Devices & Services group, 9to5Google has reported. Raxium is developing what it calls "ultra-compact, low-power, high resolution" displays, so Google may be planning to use it in future augmented or virtual reality devices. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

"Today we’re announcing that Google has acquired Raxium, an innovator in single panel MicroLED display technologies," wrote Google senior VP of Devices & Services, Rick Osterloh in a short blog post. "The team at Raxium has spent five years creating miniaturized, cost-effective and energy efficient high-resolution displays that have laid the foundation for future display technologies."

A deal with Raxium was rumored last March in a report from The Information. Google was supposedly interested in owning the company to gain more control over key display components for future AR/VR products, rather than outsourcing as it generally does now. It could also use the tech on future Pixel phones or its Starline immersive videoconferencing product, according to the report. 

To date, MicroLEDs have seen meager commercial production due to high manufacturing costs, apart from some very exotic products. Raxium, by contrast, says its on the "cutting edge of bringing monolithic integration" like that used in silicon computer chips, to MicroLEDs. That could allow them to be mass-produced far more cheaply.

Unlike Meta and other rivals, Google hasn't said much about its augmented reality plans, but that doesn't mean the company isn't working on it. Last year, news of Google's Augmented Reality OS leaked out late last year through job listings and the company reportedly plans to release an AR headset by 2024. 

If you have several items (or pets) you want to keep track of, this is a great chance to grab multiple Apple AirTags at once. You can pick up a four-pack from Best Buy for $84.55, or $14.45 less than its retail price of $99. That's even cheaper than the package's recent deal on Amazon, where it was being sold for $89. The catch is that the Best Buy deal is only available today, with only 20 hours left as of this writing. 

AirTags are probably the best choice if you have an iPhone, especially if you have a newer device. These coin-sized trackers come equipped with Apple's U1 ultra-wideband chip that acts as a beacon allowing devices that have the same chip to find it more easily. That means if you have an iPhone 11 or newer, you can simply press the "Find" button in the Find My app to access its precise tracking capabilities and narrow down your search.

Since the AirTag was made to make items easier to find, it comes with a speaker that can play an alert tone that was surprisingly louder than we expected when we tested it out. Apple also says the device is easy to pair as its AirPods — we found that to be the case — and has user-replaceable batteries. Perhaps the only downside if you're an iOS user is that it doesn't have a built-in keychain ring, which means you may have to purchase extra accessories to attach it to whatever it is you want to track.

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TurboTax maker Intuit will pay $141 million "for deceiving millions of low-income Americans into paying for tax services that should have been free," the NY Attorney General's office wrote in a press release. It must also suspend its "free, free, free" ad campaign for TurboTax that baited customers with the promise of free tax preparation, then switched them into a paying service.

The company agreed to a settlement with all 50 US states and the District of Columbia, Ars Technica reported. The company must refund nearly 4.4 million consumers who used TurboTax's Free Edition between 2016 and 2018, then discovered they had to pay to file. Many didn't realize they had the option of of filing for free using the IRS Free File program available via a separate product. 

"Intuit cheated millions of low-income Americans out of free tax filing services they were entitled to," said Attorney General Letitia James. "For years, Intuit misled the most vulnerable among us to make a profit. Today, every state in the nation is holding Intuit accountable for scamming millions of taxpayers."

For years, Intuit misled the most vulnerable among us to make a profit. Today, every state in the nation is holding Intuit accountable for scamming millions of taxpayers.

A multistate investigation found that "Intuit engaged in several deceptive and unfair trade practices that limited consumers' participation in the IRS Free File Program," the New York AG wrote. Specifically, Intuit used similar names for both its IRS Free File product and commercial freemium TurboTax product and used search engine ads to steer customers looking for the former to the latter. It also "purposefully blocked its IRS Free File landing page from search engine results during the 2019 tax filing season," the NY AG wrote. 

The AG office said that it marketed the freemium product through ad campaigns "where 'free' is the most prominent or sometimes the only selling point... however, the TurboTax 'freemium' product is only free for approximately one-third of US taxpayers." 

Intuit released a statement expressing no regret and said the required ad changes would have little impact on its business. "As part of the agreement, Intuit admitted no wrongdoing, agreed to pay $141 million to put this matter behind it, and made certain commitments regarding its advertising practices," the company wrote on its blog.

As part of the agreement, Intuit admitted no wrongdoing, agreed to pay $141 million to put this matter behind it, and made certain commitments regarding its advertising practices.

Intuit dropped out of the the IRS's Free File Alliance last year, saying an exit would help it focus on "further innovating" without being encumbered by Free File program rules. Eighteen months prior, the IRS introduced new Free File rules that prohibit members from "engaging in any practice" that would prevent their free software from showing up on Google or any other search engine. They were also required to call their apps "IRS Free File program delivered by [product name]."

Senator Elizabeth Warren once called the Free File Alliance "a front for tax prep companies who use it as a gateway to sell expensive products no one would even need if we’d just made it easier for people to pay their taxes." Other countries including the UK and Japan allow return-free filing for many citizens, but Intuit, H&R Block and other companies have lobbied against such a move in the US. 

The payouts, amounting to about $30 per person for each tax year, are supposed to take place within 30 days of the signing of the agreement. After that, the Attorneys General of each state will "have sole discretion concerning the administration and distribution of the Settlement Fund." 

Meta is limiting its intake of new employees as part of its efforts to cut costs due to weak revenue forecasts, according to CNBC and Bloomberg. Facebook's parent company is slowing the pace or pausing hiring for most mid-to-senior level positions altogether. It has started putting recruitment on hold, the sources said, after holding off on hiring new entry-level engineers over the past weeks. 

Facebook's latest quarterly earnings results were better than expected, and its daily active users even bounced back a bit from last quarter. However, the company also expects a revenue drop next quarter in part because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Company CFO David Wehner said during the earnings call that Meta "experienced a further deceleration in growth following the start of the Ukraine war due to the loss of revenue in Russia as well as a reduction in advertising demand both within Europe and outside the region." 

In addition, Facebook expects to lose $10 billion in revenue due to the changes in Apple's privacy settings on iOS. Apple introduced a new feature earlier this year that limits advertisers' access to the unique IDFA code associated with users' devices. That identifier is what gives companies a way to link a user to their Facebook data and show them targeted ads. Facebook even rolled out a prompt asking users to allow the company to track their activity across websites and apps before the change was implemented in hopes to curb its effects on the company's business.

A Meta spokesperson told the publications:

"We regularly re-evaluate our talent pipeline according to our business needs and in light of the expense guidance given for this earnings period, we are slowing its growth accordingly. However, we will continue to grow our workforce to ensure we focus on long-term impact."

Insider previously reported on leaked internal memos, wherein Wehner said that the hiring freeze will last the rest of the year. It will affect almost every team across the company, which won't be recruiting "engineers, managers and even some director level talent" throughout 2022.

Part-time employees at RaterLabs — an AI vendor whose only known client is Google — are campaigning to qualify for the $15 hourly minimum wage the tech giant promised to its "extended workforce" back in 2019.

Yahoo Financereported that the quality raters whose sole job is evaluating Google’s search and ad results for accuracy don’t qualify for sick leave, PTO or other benefits the company provides for its TVCs (temporary workers, vendors and independent contractors). Google increased base pay following critical reporting of its treatment of TVCs in 2018 — the same year it was revealed the majority of Google's workforce was not directly employed by the company.

A number of RatersLabs employees believe the work they do is vital enough to Google that they should receive the higher pay and benefits of their peers. Christopher Colley, who has worked for the Google vendor since 2017, told Yahoo Finance that he only earns $10 an hour, and hasn’t qualified for a raise over the five years he’s worked at RaterLabs. Colley is also part of the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU-CWA), a subgroup of the Communications Workers of America focused on organizing full-time and part-time workers of Alphabet.

“The raters work from home, use their own devices, can work for multiple companies at a time, and do not have access to Google’s systems and/or badges,” a Google spokesperson told Engadget. “As noted on the policy page, the wages and benefits policy applies to Alphabet’s provisioned extended workforce (individuals with systems and/or badge access to Google)."

Among the hurdles workers need to jump in order to qualify for the pay bump afforded to some TVCs is a minimum 30-hour workweek. As AWU-CWA was quick to point out, RaterLabs contractors are capped at only 26 hours.

Employee accounts on RatersLabs’ Indeed profile describe low morale, low pay and an unclear feedback process. “Reviews are monthly, with one bad review potentially costing you the job [...] Guidelines can change the week before the review and you can be 'graded' based on them despite doing the work way before," wrote a former RatersLab employee in January 2022. "The job is very flexible, pay is mediocre, and you have no chance for advancement.”

This isn’t the first time that Google’s army of raters have spoken out about low pay, no opportunities for advancement and subpar working conditions. In fact, RatersLabs was formed by the CEO of Leapforce, a company that also hired raters for Google search and ad products. Back in 2017, Leapforce raters spoke out about chaotic working conditions, resulting in at least three contractors being fired, two of whom claimed their separations from the company were acts of retaliation. As Ars Technicanotes, a number of Leapforce workers filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board which were eventually resolved via settlement. Appen — which acquired Leapforce in May of 2017 — is also the parent company of RatersLabs.

Cameo, the startup behind the video app that allows users to pay celebrities for short personalized greetings, has laid off a significant chunk of its workforce. The company parted ways with 87 employees, according to Cameo CEO Steven Galanis. That number, which according to Protocol, includes top executives like the CTO and CPO, accounts for about 25 percent of the company’s employees.

“I made the painful decision to let go of 87 beloved members of the Cameo Fameo,” Galanis said on Twitter. He reportedly told employees the company had hired too quickly and fallen short of revenue expectations. The startup has raised $165 million and was valued at $1 billion last spring.

Galanis, a Web3 enthusiast who once compared the burgeoning movement with colonization of the Americas, called it a “brutal day at the office." In recent months, Galanis has expanded Cameo’s purview from celebrity and creator videos to NFTs. News of the layoffs also comes one day after the company announced a new partnership with Snap to power a new advertising product for Snapchat.

TikTok creators might soon have an easier way to profit from their posts. As part of a TikTok Pulse ad solution, the social media giant will start "exploring" a program that shares ad revenue with influencers, publishers and well-known public personas. Those with at least 100,000 followers will be eligible in the first stage, TikTok said.

The company told TechCrunch it will launch Pulse in the US this June, with other countries due in the fall. TikTok will split revenue equally between itself and producers. That's slightly worse than Instagram (where creators get 55 percent), but still significant.

The appeal is clear: if you're popular enough, you could make money with every post. That could encourage more posts on TikTok, not to mention spare some video makers from relying heavily on sponsorships or donations.

This also helps TikTok, of course. It could prevent stars from jumping to Instagram or other, potentially more lucrative rivals. However, it might also encourage more creators to produce ad-friendly clips — you might see cleaner, less polarizing material. That won't be thrilling if you like TikTok's more political or risqué content, but it might help TikTok withstand increasingly fierce competition.