It's not always easy to find deals for the Nintendo Switch, so this latest bargain might be worth a look. Woot is selling the blue-and-red LCD model for $280 to Amazon Prime members, or $20 below the official price. The company's return policy isn't the same as Amazon's, but you'll have until February 28th to take advantage of the discount.
In a sense, the hardware is almost incidental here. You're buying a Switch for the games, which now include many classics ranging from launch-era titles like Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to the recent Metroid Dread. Popular third-party games like Fortnite are available, too. Still, Nintendo's system is a great fit if you want TV and handheld gaming from one device — or just want a console with a particularly kid-friendly game selection.
There aren't many catches, but they're worth noting. You won't find some blockbuster multi-platform games like the Call of Duty series, and the Switch's 2017-era processing power won't wow you like a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X might. We'd add that it's also a question of whether or not this is the right Switch for you — the Switch OLED offers markedly improved display quality, battery life and tabletop gaming for $350, while the $200 Switch Lite is a bargain if you're just interested in portable use. At $280, though, the standard LCD Switch represents a good balance between features and price.
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You might not have to venture downtown (or to a grocery chain) to visit an Amazon Go store. USA Todayreports Amazon plans to open a new version of the cashierless store designed for suburban areas. The locations will still focus on essentials, ready-to-eat food, drinks and snacks, just with layouts more suited to these outlying regions.
The shops will still rely on computer vision to detect what you buy. Once you've scanned your phone at the entrance, camera systems detect what you grab from the shelves. Amazon charges you for the items once you leave the Go store.
Amazon will open the first of these suburban Go stores in Mill Creek, Washington sometime in the months ahead. A second store will debut later in the Los Angeles area. The move still leaves large parts of the US (not to mention the planet) without access, but we suspect Amazon isn't too concerned when third-party chains like Starbucks are beginning to adopt its AI-based shopping tech.
YouTube is the latest platform eyeing a move into NFTs. In a new letter to creators about YouTube’s 2022 priorities, CEO Susan Wojicki said the company is exploring how its creators could benefit from the digital collectibles.
In the letter, Wojicki said that Web3 — a term used by crypto enthusiasts to refer to the collection of blockchain based technologies they believe will usher in a new era of the internet — has been a “source of inspiration” for the company. She didn’t say exactly how YouTube may integrate NFTs into its platform, but suggested the technology could be a new source of revenue for creators.
“The past year in the world of crypto, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), and even decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) has highlighted a previously unimaginable opportunity to grow the connection between creators and their fans,” she wrote. “We’re always focused on expanding the YouTube ecosystem to help creators capitalize on emerging technologies, including things like NFTs, while continuing to strengthen and enhance the experiences creators and fans have on YouTube.”
If YouTube allowed creators to sell NFTs directly to their fans, it would be a major boon for the technology, which has grown in popularity over the last year, but hasn’t been widely adopted by major social platforms. But there are already signs that could change in 2022.
Twitter just introduced its first experiment with NFTs, with NFT profile pictures. Instagram’s top executive has also expressed an interest in the technology, and The Financial Timesreported last week that Facebook and Instagram are working on an NFT marketplace and other features,
NFT aren’t the only new monetization opportunities YouTube is looking at in the coming year, though. Wojicki also said the company is “excited” about podcasts and that “we expect it to be an integral part of the creator economy.” She also confirmed that YouTube would expand its shopping features to more creators, and test “how shopping can be integrated into Shorts.”
The CEO also touched on the controversy surrounding YouTube’s decision to remove public dislike counts from its platform. She noted that the dislikes was often used to target smaller creators for harassment, and that the feature could still be used to inform individuals' recommendations. “Every way we looked at it, we did not see a meaningful difference in viewership, regardless of whether or not there was a public dislike count,” she said. “And importantly, it reduced dislike attacks.”
The Apple TV 4K has many things going for it, but its relatively high $179 price tag isn't one of them. We consider it to be the best premium streaming device thanks to its feature set but also its price tag. But now you can get the latest set-top box from Apple for $20 less — Amazon has the 32GB Apple TV 4K for $160 thanks to a sale and an automatically applied coupon that knocks another $10 off the discounted price. While we saw it drop to $150 during the holiday shopping season last year, this is the best price we've seen since then.
If you're looking for a higher-end streaming device to complement the rest of your home theater setup, the Apple TV may be the one for you — especially if you also already live in the Apple ecosystem. The latest model streams 4K content and supports Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision, AirPlay 3 and screen mirroring. It also has handy HomeKit integration, so you can ask Siri to show you feeds from your home security cameras and they'll show up directly on your TV screen.
All of those features impressed us, as did the latest model's speedy performance. But arguably the biggest upgrade that the 2021 version has is the new Siri remote. Apple fixed a lot of problems that the previous remote had — the new one is larger and generally easier to use, plus it has a directional clicker that's also touch sensitive. The latter makes it smooth and easy to scroll through watch options or scrub backwards and forwards in a video. In addition to new back, home, play/pause and volume buttons, the remote also has a new infrared power button that will let some power on and off their TV.
The new Siri remote is a big selling point for the latest Apple TV 4K. Is it enough to upgrade if you have the previous model? It's not a clear-cut decision, especially since the performance improvements in the latest version may not be noticeable to everyone. But if you've had your eye on the Apple TV 4K for a while, the 2021 model is the one to get.
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Canadian musician Neil Young is not pleased to be sharing Spotify's platform with podcast star Joe Rogan, according to Rolling Stone. In a now-deleted letter, Young reportedly asked his management team and record label to remove his songs from the platform. "I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines — potentially causing death to those who believe [it]," he said. "They can have [Joe] Rogan or Young. Not both."
The content of the letter was confirmed to The Daily Beast by Young's manager, Frank Gironda. "It's something that's really important to Neil," said Gironda. "He's very upset about this disinformation. We're trying to figure this out right now." As it stands now, his music is still available on Spotify.
Spotify signed Joe Rogan to a reported multiyear, $100 million+ deal, and his The Joe Rogan Experience is now the world's most popular podcast with up to 11 million listeners on average. It's been controversial since it was launched, however, with Rogan allowing conspiracy theorists like InfoWars' Alex Jones on his show.
Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy.
Most recently, Rogan hosted virologist Dr. Robert Malone, who says he's one of the creators of mRNA technology. Malone made baseless claims about COVID-19, saying a "mass formation psychosis" led people to believe the vaccines were effective. The episode prompted a group of over 1,000 doctors, nurses, scientists and educators to send an open letter to Spotify demanding that it create a misinformation policy. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has previously said that he doesn't believe the platform has editorial responsibility over podcasts.
Young previously removed his music from Spotify over objections that the quality was too low at the time. The same year, he created the Pono music player designed for high-quality audio, and in 2016 announced a streaming service that adapted music quality based on your internet speed. That never went anywhere, but rival services including Apple Music, Amazon Music and Spotify have since launched both "lossless" high-definition and surround-sound audio options that significantly boost quality.
Young has six million followers himself on Spotify, but noted that the Joe Rogan Experience's "tremendous influence" concerns him. "Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy," he wrote.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is getting a sequel, its developer Skydance Interactive has confirmed. It doesn't come as a surprise — the title quickly became one of the most popular games for the PlayStation VR since it launched in 2020, and it swiftly made its way to other platforms, including the Oculus Quest 2, Viveport and PC. Skydance has also revealed, along with its announcement that a sequel is in development, that the VR survival-horror title has welcomed 2.5 million players and has "far surpassed $60 million in revenue" since it became available on January 23rd, 2020.
The sequel is entitled Chapter 2: Retribution, and Skydance says it will pick up from where the first game left off. It'll continue its predecessor's storyline, which means players will play the Tourist that'll have to survive the zombie-infested remains of New Orleans. That said, it'll be developed as a standalone game for those who don't want to bother playing the first and will feature new characters and new threats.
Chris Busse, head of Skydance Interactive, said in a statement:
"The past two years have been absolutely incredible for The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, and we’re grateful forthe continued support from the player community who have helped make the game the success it is today. We're excited to announce Chapter 2, and we can't wait to let players explorethe new adventures that await them in the French Quarter and beyond."
Unfortunately, that's the only information Skydance has shared for now, though the company promises to release more details about the sequel later this year.
Topics API relies on the Chrome browser to determine a list of top five topics a user is interested in, based on their surfing history. It'll determine what the topics are by comparing known websites (that you visit) against a list of about 350 topics drawn from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Google's own data. Then, when partner publishers need to know what topics a viewer is into, they can use Topics API to ping the browser for that data and serve relevant ads based on that.
Say, for example, you've visited a lot of sites for hiking or working out. Chrome will count those towards your top interests for that particular week and share them with participating publishers who can then show you ads for, say, athleisure or camping gear. Topics will select one area of interest from each of the past three weeks to share with each site and its advertising partners. Google says topics are "kept for only three weeks and old topics are deleted." The data and processing happens on your device "without involving any external servers, including Google servers."
There will also be options in Chrome for users to see the topics assigned to you, remove those you don't like or disable the feature altogether. At the moment, since Google has only just announced Topics and hasn't started user tests, it hasn't shared whether Topics will be opt-in or opt-out for users.
The list of topics is pre-set, and Google says it "will not include potentially sensitive categories, such as gender or race." This should theoretically prevent unwanted browsing history from counting towards and showing up in your interests.
Google is targeting the end of the first quarter this year to launch its trial, and after publishing the explainer on how it expects to use Topics API today, it'll be accepting feedback from partners, interest groups and regulatory authorities. Based on that, the company may adjust Topics API before its first trial, and if all goes well it could launch the feature by the third quarter of the year.
NVIDIA has reportedly made little to no progress in gaining regulatory approval for its $40 billion purchase of ARM and is privately preparing to abandon the deal, according to Bloomberg's sources. Meanwhile, current ARM owner SoftBank is reportedly advancing a program to take ARM public as an alternative to the acquisition, said another person familiar with the matter.
NVIDIA announced the deal in September 2020, with CEO Jensen Huang proclaiming it would "create a company fabulously positioned for the age of AI." ARM's designs are used under license almost universally in smartphones and other mobile devices by companies like Apple, Qualcomm, Microsoft, Samsung, Intel and Amazon.
A backlash began soon after the announcement. The UK, where ARM is based, launched an antitrust investigation into the acquisition in January 2021, and another security probe last November. In the US, the FTC recently sued to block the purchase over concerns it would "stifle" competition in industries like data centers and car manufacturing. China would also reportedly block the transaction if other regulators don't, Bloomberg's sources say.
We continue to hold the views expressed in detail in our latest regulatory filings — that this transaction provides an opportunity to accelerate Arm and boost competition and innovation.
Companies like Intel, Amazon and Microsoft have reportedly given regulators enough information to kill the deal, the sources say. They previously argued that NVIDIA can't preserve ARM's independence because it's an ARM client itself. As such, it could also potentially become both a supplier and competitor to ARM licensees.
Despite the stiff headwinds, both companies maintain that they're still pushing forward. "We continue to hold the views... that this transaction provides an opportunity to accelerate ARM and boost competition and innovation," NVIDIA spokesman Bob Sherbin told Bloomberg. "We remain hopeful that the transaction will be approved," a SoftBank spokesperson added in a statement.
Despite the latter comment, factions at Softbank are reportedly pushing for an ARM IPO as an alternative to the acquisition, particularly while the semiconductor industry is so hot. Others in the company want to continue pursuing the transaction given that NVIDIA's stock price has nearly doubled since it was announced, effectively increasing the transaction price.
The initial agreement expires on September 13th, 2022, but will automatically renew if approvals take longer. NVIDIA predicted that the transaction would close in approximately 18 months — a deadline that now seems unrealistic.
Panasonic’s relationship with Tesla has been a successful one. Last year, the Japanese electronics company was able to spin its $30 million stake in Tesla into $3.6 billion, but the team-up continues. A higher-capacity next-gen battery for Tesla vehicles could go into production next year, boosting EV ranges by over 15 percent.
Although the battery is said to be twice as big as previous versions, it may have a fivefold increase in energy capacity. Panasonic is reportedly investing around 80 billion yen ($704 million) on new equipment to produce the 4680 cell — just a fraction of that windfall.
The new cell is also apparently cheaper to produce, meaning it could well affect the pricing on future Teslas — in a good way.
Google is reportedly developing a new Chromecast aimed at folks who haven't yet splurged on a 4K TV. According to Protocol, the low-end device will offer a maximum stream resolution of 1080p.
The device, which could be named Chromecast HD with Google TV, is said to be capable of decoding the AV1 video codec (something the 4K-capable Chromecast with Google TV doesn't support at the hardware level). Given the lower resolution output, the device will cost less than the $50 Chromecast with Google TV.
It reportedly collected "more financial data than was needed" from users.
Even if you've never heard of a company called Plaid, they may owe you part of a multimillion dollar lawsuit settlement. The company connects consumer bank accounts to services like Venmo, Robinhood, Coinbase and other apps and was accused of collecting excessive financial data from consumers. While denying any wrongdoing, it agreed to pay $58 million to all consumers with a linked bank account to any of its approximately 5,000 client apps.
New plans will offer symmetrical 2Gbps or 5Gbps data speeds starting at $110 a month.
AT&T is now upgrading its fiber-based broadband service with two new plans that top out at 2Gbps and 5Gbps. The company says its new multi-gig fiber broadband will be available in more than 70 metro areas, including Dallas, LA and Atlanta. The new 2-gig plan is set to start at $110 per month plus tax (or $225 a month for a business fiber), while the faster 5-gig plan will cost $180 per month (or $395 a month for businesses).
More Google rumors. There have been rumblings for years that Google has been making its own smartwatch. Talk last month suggested a Google-branded watch could arrive sometime in 2022, now the latest murmurs point to the end of May. The smartwatch is expected to have a circular face, like other Wear OS devices seen over the past few years. It will likely have a heart rate sensor and other features adopted from Fitbit, which Google bought last year. But nothing’s confirmed yet — not even that Pixel branding. We’ll share more when we hear more.
It's using the AI Research SuperCluster to develop new experiences for the metaverse.
Meta has completed the first phase of a new AI supercomputer. The company believes the AI Research SuperCluster (RSC), once finished, will be the fastest AI supercomputer on the planet, capable of "performing at nearly 5 exaflops of mixed precision compute."
Er, what? Well, Meta says RSC will help researchers develop better AI models that can learn from trillions of examples. Among other things, the models will be able to build better augmented reality tools and "seamlessly analyze text, images and video together."
If you're looking to buy new microSD cards, external hard drives or flash drives, you may want to take a look at Amazon's deal of the day sale. You'll be able to get SanDisk and WD storage products for up to 40 percent off their usual prices, including the SanDisk 256GB Extreme microSDXC card for its all-time low price of $32. That's $6 off its original retail price of $38 and is the lowest we've seen it sell for on the website. The microSDXC card has read speeds of up to 160MB/s for fast file transfers of large images and videos, and it also has 90MB/s write speeds for fast shooting. It's a UHS speed class 3 card with a video speed class of 30 (V30), making it capable of handling 4K UHD and Full HD files.
SanDisk's 512GB Ultra microSDXC is also currently on sale for its lowest price yet — you can get it for $50.49, which is almost 50 percent off its original retail price of $100. Advised for use with smartphones, tablets and mirrorless cameras, this microSDXC card has read and transfer speeds of up to 120MB/s.
But if what you really need is an SD card for your camera, you can get the SanDisk 256GB Extreme PRO SDXC card instead. It's currently on sale for $46, which is 54 percent off its original price of $100 and is the lowest we've seen it sell for on Amazon. That's $2 less than the previous all-time low for the card with shoot speeds of up to 90MB/s and transfer speeds of up to 170MB/s. It's V30 card with a UHS speed class of 3, and SanDisk says it's perfect for shooting 4K UHD video and sequential burst mode photography.
In case you need an external drive to store all those videos, images and other files, you can also get the SanDisk 1TB Extreme PRO Portable SSD for 45 percent off. It's back to its all-time low price of $170 that we last saw in November. That's a whopping $140 off its full price of $310. The portable SSD can reach read and write speeds of up to 2000MB/s and is enclosed in a forged aluminum chassis that acts as a heatsink to be able to sustain those speeds. It's also water-and-dust resistant and can withstand drops of up to 6.5 feet. There are a lot more drives and other products included in the sale if none of the above catches your eye — you just have to grab them before the sale ends within the day before they go back to the full price.
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