I love it when fashion houses and technology collide. It’s often a complete disaster. I’ve played, reviewed and stared incredulously at a few of them, but, oh boy, Louis Vuitton loves to test the limits.

Its new Tambour smartwatch has a lot of what you’d expect: a $3,500 price tag for the most well-heeled smartwatch shoppers, LV livery everywhere, leather strap options and a divisive design that seems intentionally not for everyone.

Engadget

However, the watch, running on its own OS, is surprisingly competent. There are different power-saving modes, you can send notifications to your iOS or Android phone, with apps for weather and calendar functions all built-in. There are even Louis Vuitton travel guides, which are accessible for any trips you register on the watch.

It’s not for everyone, sure, but for the ‘someone’ that wants a glowing LV-emblazoned wrist, according to Reviews Editor Cherlynn Low, it’s functional as well as fashion.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

• Engadget Deals: Apple's Mac Mini M1 returns to a record low of $570

• Amazon's 3-for-2 sale includes ‘Pokémon Legends: Arceus,’ ‘Animal Crossing’ and more

• Spotify CEO apologizes to staff but won't back down over Joe Rogan stance

• Google hit with $2.4 billion lawsuit in Europe for favoring its own shopping service

Android 12L hands-on

Big-sized Android for huge screens.

Engadget

Google might be on the 12th generation of its mobile OS, but it felt like Android left tablets behind years ago. (Google gave up making its own tablets.) But with Android 12L, Google is trying to address some of the OS’ shortcomings while paving the way for emerging types of gadgets, like foldables. The major upgrades focus on a new taskbar and multitask interface, which makes sense. Sam Rutherford tests it out.

Continue reading.

Tobii says it's in talks to provide eye tracking for Sony's PlayStation VR2

The VR headset might not be close to launch.

Tobii says it's in talks to provide its eye-tracking technology for the next-gen VR headset. It noted the discussions were "ongoing" and that it couldn't share the potential financial impact of the deal. Sony previously confirmed the PlayStation VR2 would use eye tracking, but it didn't name a tech supplier or explain in detail how the feature would work. It suggests the VR hardware might be a ways off.

Continue reading.

Watch Hulu's intense 'The Dropout' trailer based on the rise of Elizabeth Holmes

Amanda Seyfried stars as the Theranos founder.

Hulu

Hulu has dropped the first trailer for The Dropout, a miniseries about the failed blood-testing startup Theranos. The best part of the two-and-a-half-minute preview might be Holmes developing her (iconic? infamous?) deep voice.

Continue reading.

IRS says it will back away from facial recognition amid outcry

The decision comes hours after mounting political pressure.

The Internal Revenue Service has told Senator Ron Wyden it plans to back away from using facial recognition for verification purposes. Wyden said the transition would "take time.” Under the plan, the IRS would have used ID.me’s technology to authenticate users hoping to file taxes online or otherwise use the IRS' internet services.

The approach was intended as a fraud prevention tool, but it encountered opposition from Republican senators, House Democrats and civil liberties groups. Worries included security concerns, the degree of privacy of uploading sensitive data, historical biases in facial recognition, the inaccessibility to people without broadband and a general lack of accountability.

Continue reading.

The UK is, once again, attempting to introduce mandatory age verification in order to access adult content online. The beleaguered nation, currently reeling from a series of self-inflicted crises, has announced its plans to revive the scheme that has been deemed unworkable since 2015. Chris Philp MP, under-secretary of state for Tech and the Digital Economy, has announced that the mostly-unchanged plan will be introduced as part of the forthcoming Online Safety Bill.

Mandatory age verification has been in the works ever since the Conservative party included it in its 2015 manifesto. Since then, it has attempted to get the scheme running, passing the enabling laws in 2017 and setting a series of deadlines to implement the system. In April 2019, regulators said that the scheme would finally begin operating that July but the then culture secretary pulled the plug in mid-June. At the time, the plan was to replace the plan with a broader set of rules then being examined under the umbrella of Online Harms.

Unfortunately, the bill remains full of the same problems that rendered the system unworkable when it was previously introduced. The UK originally intended to hand off operation of the system to the BBFC, a film censorship board run by the film industry, rather than a dedicated operator. It had also ignored the screams of privacy campaigners who said that databases holding the names of people who have signed up for age verification is a target for everyone. It doesn’t help that if a company owns an adult content portal and an age verification platform, which is what Pornhub owner Mindgeek proposed, there’s a concern about monopoly power.

Peloton grew massively during the COVID-19 pandemic, but now that things are opening up, it has struggled to maintain growth. Now, the company is shaking things up by replacing its CEO, overhauling the board and laying off around 20 percent of its corporate workforce, according to The Wall Street Journal.

CEO and co-founder John Foley is stepping down as CEO to become executive chairman and will be replaced by former Spotify COO Barry McCarthy, the company told the WSJ. McCarthy will reportedly bring his understanding of content-driven subscription models to Peloton. "I have always thought there has to be a better CEO for Peloton than me," said Foley said. "Barry is more perfectly suited than anybody I could’ve imagined." On top of that, the company is cutting around 2,800 corporate positions. 

On top of its financial struggles, Peloton has been hit by bad press over equipment safety, unpaid employees and even not-so-positive mentions in recent TV shows. With the value of the company tumbling from a peak of $50 billion to around $8 billion last week, it has been a subject of takeover rumors from the likes of Amazon, Nike and even Apple. 

Peloton will discuss its plans to deal with the crisis in more detail when it reveals its second quarter results later today. It's expected to cut $800 million in costs and stop development of its $400 million Ohio factory, among other changes. In January, the company reported $1.14 billion of preliminary Q2 revenue and said it had 2.77 million subscribers. Its earnings call is set today at 5:00 PM ET. 

With the US labor market getting tighter and employees changing jobs or quitting in droves, Amazon has made a big move to become more competitive. The company has boosted its maximum base pay from $160,000 to $350,000, in response to what it calls a "particularly competitive labor market," The Washington Post has reported.

In a recent Amazon Web Services (AWS) blog, the company said that it pays around 50-65 percent of "what 'the market' will pay you." By contrast, it noted that Microsoft paid 75 percent, Google 95 percent and Netflix "top of market." Until now, anything more than $160,000 at Amazon was instead compensated by stock or cash signing bonuses.

This past year has seen a particularly competitive labor market and in doing a thorough analysis of various options, weighing the economics of our business and the need to remain competitive for attracting and retaining top talent, we decided to make meaningfully bigger increases to our compensation levels than we do in a typical year.

According to Amazon's own information, the company's maximum base pay is now also at the top market level, or more. It's also increasing overall compensation for most jobs around the world, with increases "much more considerable than we've done in the past," it wrote. At the same time, it's keeping the alternate compensation options, like stock options and signing bonuses, according to GeekWire. 

The change comes as Amazon's stock options become perhaps less interesting, considering that its share prices are down 15 percent from their peak in July 2021. Potential employees, especially top candidates who have their pick of tech companies, may have noticed that as well. 

TikTok is beginning to test ways to age-restrict some types of content in its app amid a push to beef up safety features for teens. The work is in an early stage, but the company says the goal is to shield younger users from mature content or other potentially inappropriate videos.

TikTok, like other social media apps, has recently faced increased scrutiny for how it handles user safety, particularly for children and younger teens. At a Congressional hearing last fall, the company’s VP of Public Policy hinted that the app was working on new ways “to enjoy content based on age appropriateness.” Now, the company has shared a few more details of what that may look like.

TikTok, long known for its eerily precise recommendation algorithm, is working on features that would be able to classify content based on “content maturity and thematic comfort zones,” according to Tracy Elizabeth, TikTok’s global issue policy lead. “When the system is fully launched, content that we've identified as containing overtly mature themes could be restricted from teens,” she said during a briefing with reporters. “And for content that has less … mature themes, our community members are going to be able to choose the comfort zones or content maturity that they would prefer to skip or opt into.”

Elizabeth didn’t elaborate on how the company was determining a video’s maturity level, saying the work was in an “innovation phase.” But she said it could eventually resemble the ratings used for film, television and video games. “We know that there’s family-ish content, there’s teen-ish content, there’s adult-ish content,” she said. “What we’d like to do is … say ‘here you go: you can pick for yourself what is that category that you feel most comfortable with.’” She added that parents could also control these preferences for their children via TikTok’s “Family Pairing” settings.

Separately, TikTok is also working on a feature for creators that would allow them to indicate whether their videos are intended for adults or younger users. This could help further inform TikTok’s recommendations to ensure that more mature content stays out of the feeds of younger users.

While TikTok is now running a small test of the age restrictions, it could still be some time before the features are widely available, and Elizabeth noted they are still taking shape. “A lot of this we haven’t fully decided how we’re going to do it,” she said.

Outside of those features, TikTok also shared an updated set of community guidelines. Under the new rules, TikTok is giving suicide hoaxes and dangerous challenges its own section in an effort to make the policy more visible. The company is also expanding the type of content it bars under its eating disorder policy. The new rules will prohibit videos that promote “disordered eating,” like extreme calorie counting, short term fasting, overexercise and other “under-recognized signs of a potential problem.”

Finally, TikTok is also updating its rules to explicitly ban “deadnaming, misgendering, or misogyny as well as content that supports or promotes conversion therapy programs.” The company says it already removed these types of posts in the past, but that the rules weren’t specifically outlined in its public-facing community guidelines.

TikTok is beginning to test ways to age-restrict some types of content in its app amid a push to beef up safety features for teens. The work is in an early stage, but the company says the goal is to shield younger users from mature content or other potentially inappropriate videos.

TikTok, like other social media apps, has recently faced increased scrutiny for how it handles user safety, particularly for children and younger teens. At a Congressional hearing last fall, the company’s VP of Public Policy hinted that the app was working on new ways “to enjoy content based on age appropriateness.” Now, the company has shared a few more details of what that may look like.

TikTok, long known for its eerily precise recommendation algorithm, is working on features that would be able to classify content based on “content maturity and thematic comfort zones,” according to Tracy Elizabeth, TikTok’s global issue policy lead. “When the system is fully launched, content that we've identified as containing overtly mature themes could be restricted from teens,” she said during a briefing with reporters. “And for content that has less … mature themes, our community members are going to be able to choose the comfort zones or content maturity that they would prefer to skip or opt into.”

Elizabeth didn’t elaborate on how the company was determining a video’s maturity level, saying the work was in an “innovation phase.” But she said it could eventually resemble the ratings used for film, television and video games. “We know that there’s family-ish content, there’s teen-ish content, there’s adult-ish content,” she said. “What we’d like to do is … say ‘here you go: you can pick for yourself what is that category that you feel most comfortable with.’” She added that parents could also control these preferences for their children via TikTok’s “Family Pairing” settings.

Separately, TikTok is also working on a feature for creators that would allow them to indicate whether their videos are intended for adults or younger users. This could help further inform TikTok’s recommendations to ensure that more mature content stays out of the feeds of younger users.

While TikTok is now running a small test of the age restrictions, it could still be some time before the features are widely available, and Elizabeth noted they are still taking shape. “A lot of this we haven’t fully decided how we’re going to do it,” she said.

Outside of those features, TikTok also shared an updated set of community guidelines. Under the new rules, TikTok is giving suicide hoaxes and dangerous challenges its own section in an effort to make the policy more visible. The company is also expanding the type of content it bars under its eating disorder policy. The new rules will prohibit videos that promote “disordered eating,” like extreme calorie counting, short term fasting, overexercise and other “under-recognized signs of a potential problem.”

Finally, TikTok is also updating its rules to explicitly ban “deadnaming, misgendering, or misogyny as well as content that supports or promotes conversion therapy programs.” The company says it already removed these types of posts in the past, but that the rules weren’t specifically outlined in its public-facing community guidelines.

Just ahead of Samsung's Unpacked event set for tomorrow, a press release for Samsung's Galaxy Tab S8 lineup has been revealed by leakmeister Evan Blass, The Verge has reported. It confirms many key specs from earlier leaks, including the existence of an "Ultra model," the screen sizes, charging capacity and more.

Samsung will have three models in the lineup, including the 11-inch Galaxy Tab S8, 12.4-inch S8 Plus and big 14.6-inch S8 Ultra. The latter will feature 2,960 x 1,848 resolution with a notch to accommodate the front-facing camera. The other two models will come with 2,560 x 1,600 and 2,800 x 1,752 screens, respectively. 

Other features include support for fast WiFi 6E (with optional 5G), 45-watt fast charging, and a new S Pen Stylus. All models offer a 13-megapixel + 6-megapixel ultrawide rear camera setup, with a 12-megapixel ultra front camera. The Ultra model, however, has a second front-facing 12-megapixel wide camera, hence the aforementioned notch. Samsung may also offer an optional keyboard cover. 

The Galaxy Tab S8 lineup will arrive on February 25th in select markets including the US, Europe and Korea, according to the press release. Pre-orders will open in those markets on February 9th at 10AM ET. 

Tinder says it will no longer charge older users more to use Tinder+, following a new report questioning the dating app’s practice of charging older users “substantially more.”

The report, from Mozilla and Consumers International, detailed just how much Tinder+ pricing can vary based on users’ age. The report relied on “mystery shoppers” in six countries — the United States, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Korea, India and Brazil — who signed up for Tinder+ and reported back how much the app charged for the subscription. According to the report, Tinder users between the ages of 30 and 49 were charged an average of 65.3 percent more than their younger counterparts in every country except Brazil.

Tinder’s age-based pricing for Tinder, which gives users access to premium features like unlimited likes, has long been a source of controversy for the dating app. When it launched, the company said it charged older users more because younger people were more “budget constrained.” Since then, the dating app has been hit with at least one class action lawsuit over the practice.

But though Tinder had pledged to end the practice in some areas, like California where the class action suit originated, the company continued to offer different rates in many countries. The latest report from Consumers International highlights just how much the dating app’s subscription pricing could vary. In New Zealand, where the mystery shoppers were quoted a total of25 different prices, the lowest quoted price was $4.95, while the highest was $24.54, according to the report. In the Netherlands, there were 31 different prices, with the lowest at $4.45 and the highest at $25.95.

Now, Tinder says it plans to abandon its age-based pricing altogether. In a blog post published Sunday, Tinder said younger users were offered subscriptions at different rates in order to “make Tinder affordable for those in school or early in their careers.” The company said it ended the practice in the US, Australia and UK, and that it plans on “eliminating age based pricing for all of our members in all markets by the end of Q2 this year.” The company says it never used other personal or demographic info to determine rates.

In a statement, a Tinder spokesperson said the report from Consumers International was “deeply flawed and contains completely false and outrageous allegations,” but didn’t specify what those were. The spokesperson added that the company’s internal pricing tests could have “impacted the findings,” and noted that prices are “typically” lower on Tinder’s website than in App Stores due to Apple and Google’s commission structure.

Going forward, Tinder says it plans to offer more “a la carte” features, rather than pricier subscriptions that bundle multiple capabilities. The app also recently introduced “coins” to allow users to make one-off in-app purchases.

NVIDIA's has reportedly abandoned its plans to purchase ARM, the UK-based business that licenses chip technology used in most smartphones. According to The Information, the deal collapsed on Monday, a year and a half after NVIDIA announced that it's purchasing the Softbank-owned chip business for cash and stock then valued at $40 billion. Based on NVIDIA's current stock prices, the deal would've been worth over $60 billion if it had gone through today. 

The planned takeover, however, was met with opposition from the start. ARM customers Qualcomm and Microsoft objected to the deal, raising concerns that NVIDIA might prevent ARM from licensing its chip designs. The massive acquisition, which would've been the largest in the chip sector, was also intensely scrutinized by regulators. UK's Competition & Markets Authority investigated it twice over its impact product prices and quality, as well as on its implications on national security. 

In the US, the Federal Trade Commission sued to block the purchase over concerns that it would stifle competition for multiple technologies. Previous reports said NVIDIA has been preparing to walk away from the deal since early January, seeing as it has made little progress on convincing regulators to approve the purchase. 

As The New York Times notes, NVIDIA repeatedly told authorities that it will keep ARM's business model and even proposed to set up a separate licensing entity for its chip designs. It also said that it will license any ARM-based IP that it develops to all companies without discrimination. "There is no evidence that a combined NVIDIA and ARM would have either the ability or the incentive to harm competition," its lawyers said in a response to FTC's lawsuit. 

ARM-owner Softbank will get a break fee of up to $1.25 billion as a result of the failed purchase, the sources said. Its Japanese parent company is also expected to take ARM public before the year ends, though it will likely have a tough time matching NVIDIA's offer.

Electronics giant Samsung announced that its upcoming Unpacked event, to be aired this Wednesday, will be accessible in both virtual reality and actual reality. Metaverse-minded fans can watch the event at 837X, a recreation of Samsung’s flagship New York City store location, recreated within virtual reality platform Decentraland.

What makes Samsung’s venture into the metaverse so interesting is how little the company has had to say about VR in recent years. The South Korean giant was one of the first companies to make strides in the world of augmented reality and virtual reality when it released Gear VR, a smartphone-based virtual reality platform. Once known as one of the cheaper and more popular options for a VR headset Samsung announced it was planning on retiring Gear VR last December with no plans for a replacement.

It’s prudent for any company to tread lightly in the metaverse, especially since a great deal of experts in business and tech think it’s just a gimmick. Facebook parent Meta’s stock fell more than 26% last week after an earnings call last week where it also revealed it lost over $10 billion on Reality Labs, its AR and VR division. Still the considerable hype behind the metaverse doesn’t seem to be dying down. A number of companies including Walmart, Microsoft, Nike and Disney are investing heavily in the metaverse. While interest in VR is greater than ever (sales of AR and VR hardware nearly doubled in 2021), it’s still widely considered a niche product.

Broadly, the issue with the metaverse writ large is that no one seems entirely sure what problem it exists to solve. Other than a vague tweet alluding to the unveiling of some new feature, Samsung has not given much indication of how watching this week's Unpacked in VR is better than, or even meaningfully different from, just streaming it on any of the eight other places it will be available. Those platforms include Samsung's various accounts on YouTube, TikTok and Twitter, as on Twitch and Reddit. 

The event is expected to include the debut of the Galaxy S22, Samsung's new flagship phone.