After introducing its "tip jar" feature to all iOS users over 18, Twitter has brought the feature to Android as well. The idea is that if you see a particularly entertaining or informative tweet, you can send money to the creator's Cash App, Patreon, Paypal, Bandcamp and Venmo from directly within the app.
Tips is now on Android!
You can get set up to receive tips from your profile –– tap the “Edit profile” button then tap “Tips” to start.
Twitter first introduced tip jars in May, then rolled it out widely to iOS users in September. A similar feature is available inside Twitter's Clubhouse-like "Spaces" feature, letting creators charge for "tickets" to its live access features. Twitter also recently opened "super follows" to select creators, allowing them to monetize tweets and provide exclusive content, along with a subscription service that could eliminate publications’ paywalls on the platform.
On top of using regular money via payment services, Twitter may soon let you tip others using Bitcoin. According to a leak, Twitter is planning to use the Lightning Network to enable Bitcoin payments with high speed and relatively low fees.
Amazon's Fire tablets make great portable, secondary devices, or primary devices for the kids in your life. They're already pretty affordable — that's one of the best things about them — but Black Friday has knocked their prices down even more. Most Fire tablets are on sale right now, including the primary three in the lineup: the Fire 7 is down to $35, while the Fire HD 8 and HD 10 are on sale for $45 and $75, respectively. These deals are all the same or better than those we saw during Prime Day back in June — but now you don't have to be a Prime subscriber to get the discounts.
Out of the three, the Fire HD 8 will suit most people well. We gave it a score of 81 due in part to its refined design, long battery life and new USB-C charging port. It runs on a quad-core 2.0GHz processor and has up to 64GB of onboard storage, but you can expand it to up to 1TB with a microSD card. It's a handy device to use on the couch or on the go when you want a larger screen to online shop, check email and even video chat with friends and family. It also may be a better option than a Kindle if you read a lot of graphic novels and manga since it has a full-color 1,280 x 800 display.
If you're willing to spend a bit more, the Fire HD 10 gives you a number of extra perks. Key among them are a larger, 1,920 x 1,200 display, an octa-core 2.0GHz processor, an extra gigabyte of RAM and an improved rear camera. Those planning on primarily streaming TV shows and movies with the tablet should opt for the bigger HD 10, along with those who don't want to sacrifice speed and performance even when getting an affordable slab.
Fire tablets make good kids devices since they have a bunch of parental controls and they cost significantly less than that expensive slab you may have just bought for yourself. You could opt to simply buy one of the above devices for your child, or you can get one of Amazon's Kids Edition bundles which pair the tablets with a kid-friendly case, a two-year warranty and a one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+. All of the Kids devices are on sale right now, too: the Fire 7 Kids Pro is down to $60 while the Fire HD 8 Kids Pro has been discounted to $70 and the Fire HD 10 Kids Pro is on sale for $120.
Amazon Kids+ is one of the key benefits to these bundles. The service gives your child access to over 20,000 apps, games, books, audiobooks and more that are age appropriate directly on the tablet. It's essentially a whole ton of content that parents don't have to screen beforehand to know if it's kid-friendly. Just make sure to keep an eye on your subscription because it will renew for the full $3-per-month price after one year. Also, the Kids Pro tablets come with a special digital store in which kids can request apps to download with parental approval. Overall, they're good, affordable options if your child has been bugging you for a tablet and you'd rather get one that you have a bit of extra control over.
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As ever, Amazon is discounting many of its products for the Black Friday shopping period. Like many other companies, Amazon is getting out of the gate a little early with deals on Kindles. The standard Kindle is down from $90 to $50, which is the lowest price we've seen for the e-reader. Back in the summer, it dropped to $55 for Amazon Prime Day.
This is the ad-supported version of the tenth-generation Kindle, which has a 167 ppi glare-free display with a built-in front light. It comes with 8GB of storage, which is enough to store thousands of books. You can also pair it with Bluetooth headphones or speakers to listen to audiobooks.
Elsewhere, two Kindles for kids are on sale. Kindle Kids is down to $60 (usually $110) and Kindle Paperwhite Kids, which usually costs $160, has dropped to $115, only a couple of months after Amazon announced it. Both come with a year of access to Amazon Kids+, a kid-friendly cover and a two-year worry-free guarantee — Amazon will replace the device if it breaks during that period.
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Black Friday for Echo and Fire TV devices has already started — Amazon knocked down the prices of many of its Echo gadgets today. Most of the sale prices are the same as we saw during Amazon Prime Day in June, or even better. Discounts of note are the Echo for $60 and the second-generation Echo Show 5 for $45. While the latest Echo Show 8 isn't on sale yet, the first-gen device bundled with a Blink Mini security camera is $80 off as well, bringing it down to $65.
You probably already know the deal with Echo devices, but we'll recap here. The Echo and the Echo Dot are the big and little versions of Amazon's smart speaker. The Echo is actually one of our favorites thanks to its solid sound quality, even better sound with in stereo mode and attractive design.
Those who have less space to play with should consider the Echo Show 5, especially now that it's nearly half off. The latest version of the tiny smart display has a slightly better camera for video calls, but otherwise it's the same as last year's model. The five-inch screen is just the right size for a bedside smart alarm clock, and we liked its surprisingly good sound quality, physical camera shutter and sunrise alarm feature. The Echo Show 8 is a good alternative if you want a slightly larger display, which will make it better in a kitchen, living room or entryway setting. The bundle currently on sale that includes a Blink Mini camera is a solid deal, especially since you can ask Alexa to show you the camera's video feed directly on the Show 8's screen.
Billy Steele/Engadget
A couple of other Echo devices are on sale, including the Echo Buds and the Echo Frames. The former earned a score of 80 from us for their improved sound quality, good ANC and smaller size. Wireless charging is optional, but thankfully both models have been discounted and both come in at less than $100. The Echo Frames are Amazon's version of smart glasses, and we gave them a score of 76 for their lightweight design, hands-free Alexa access and compatibility with prescription lenses.
On top of all the Echo discounts, most Fire TV devices are cheaper than usual, too. Many of these went on sale starting last weekend, but they're worth another mention. The new Fire TV Stick 4K Max, which supports WiFi 6 and picture-in-picture live view, is down to $35, while the Fire TV Stick Lite and the Fire TV Stick are on sale for $18 and $20, respectively.
Amazon's most powerful streaming device has also been discounted — the Fire TV Cube is down to a record low of $80, and it's the device to get if you want to stream 4K, Dolby Vision and HDR content, and want hands-free TV controls with Alexa. And if you're on the market for an over-the-air DVR, the Fire TV Recast is $100 off right now, bringing it down to $130.
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Stop me if you've heard this one before: In Halo Infinite, you play as the Spartan super-soldier Master Chief who must defeat a dastardly group of aliens (somehow, the Banished returned!) before they take over a mysterious ring world. Playing through the game's first few missions is like plowing through an abridged Halo campaign, for better or worse. It starts off with Master Chief drifting in space, where he's miraculously rescued by a human soldier. In short order, he was back in action taking down feisty grubs, plowing helmet-first into increasingly bigger firefights and going toe-to-toe with angry looking space ape. Been there, plasma grenaded that.
To be blunt: Halo Infinite's opening had me worried, especially after its year-long delay. Sure, it was nice to be back in Master Chief's shoes after six years, but it still felt like a retread, even with the addition of a new grappling hook. It was as if I was walking down the same corridors and fighting enemies that I already faced in Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians, the previous two games developed by 343 Industries. Once again, I feared that the studio would be too afraid to push Halo into fresh territory and reach the heights of Bungie, the franchise's creator. (Bungie's Halo 3: ODST, in particular, was a unique attempt at delivering a human-focused story in a world filled with super soldiers.)
But a few hours in, once I showed that ape who was boss and acquired a Cortana-like AI called "The Weapon," Halo Infinite finally opened up. I made may way to the nearby semi-destroyed ring world, dubbed "Zeta Halo," along with my soldier buddy. After clearing out a Forward Operating Base (or FOB) filled with baddies, I was presented with something rarely seen in Halo: choice. Before me lay a chunk of Zeta Halo that I could explore freely. Judging from my map, which was populated by taking over that FOB, there was plenty to do. I could rescue some nearby soldiers, go hunt for new equipment, or take on notorious targets. This Halo was my oyster (or more fittingly, a broken disc-shaped sea creature of some kind).
I chose to embrace the freedom. My next story mission could wait. As I wandered around Zeta Halo, a grassy environment that's clearly reminiscent of the first entry, I quickly learned that the grappling hook was more than just a way to climb up. It also gives you a bit of a speed boost as you traverse the open world. Movement in Halo has always been slow, a quirk that likely made the game easier for players to grasp when console shooters were rare.
343 Industries/Microsoft
Halo Infinite still feels a bit like you're trying to hop around on the moon, but I appreciated being able to zip forward quickly by grappling onto a nearby hill or tree. You can also dash, something that the series didn't have until its fourth major entry, Halo Reach, but this time around it's more like a light jog. Time and again, it was the grappling hook that saved my Spartan butt if I needed to quickly run from a battle. It also gives you the freedom to approach enemies from multiple angles. When I noticed some soldiers pinned down by the Banished, I was able to scale up the side of a cliff and clear out the aliens easily.
While Halo Infinite technically presents you with an open world, it's more akin to a slimmed-down Far Cry map than something filled with detail like Assassin's Creed or Grand Theft Auto. Zeta Halo feels large, but it's not exactly teeming with life (though it's nice to see a few stray animals hopping around). Still, the ability to chart my own path felt thrilling, and investigating waypoints was well worth it. Helping those soldiers, for example, gave me valor points which can unlock new weapons at FOBs. There are also Spartan Cores throughout the map, which can be used to upgrade your equipment (I was quick to beef up my shields and make my grappling hook faster.) Everyone will be able to turn Master Chief into their own customized super soldier.
As you'd expect, everything in Halo Infinite ultimately comes down to you blasting aliens into a pulp. Sometimes, you blow stuff up. But 343 Studios still found a few ways to change up the gameplay. When you go after a High Value Target, for example, you have to be prepared take on a over-powered enemy that's typically surrounded by plenty of goons. Some of those encounters took me several tries on the Heroic difficulty setting, which forced me to optimize and reassess my attack strategy. Taking down those notorious bad guys nets you unique guns and plenty of valor points.
For a bigger challenge, you could also try to take over Banished Outposts teeming with enemies. Tackling one of those down was a multi-step process: I sniped the tougher looking soldiers from afar, grappled along the rooftops, and manually opened up and destroyed four fuel cores. What started out as a semi-stealth mission turned into an all-out frag fest—at one point I hopped into a trusty Battle Tank and started blasting Banished ships left and right. The escalation of that encounter left me breathless.
I waited until the very last moment before I tackled that overdue story mission—I just wanted to explore every nook and cranny of the world before my preview session was up. By that point, my shields and grappling hook were upgraded several times, and I fully grasped the importance of approaching combat encounters thoughtfully. As I peered at the looming tower before me, I noticed a rocky outcrop along one side. A bit of grappling led me to a sniper's nest, where I found a rifle that helped me take out some of the more dangerous Brutes.
343 Industries/Microsoft
I could only do so much damage remotely, though. So I held my breath, took a running start, and leaped towards several Banished soldiers patrolling a nearby tower. I couldn't quite clear the distance on my own, but thankfully my trusty grappling hook pulled me right up. At that point, I was in a typical Halo firefight, but it felt all the more special because I chose how to get there.
Once I made my way into the center of the tower, a new tool awaited me: the threat detector. Think of it like a three-dimensional radar that can be deployed on any surface. It shows you exactly where enemies are hiding for a limited period. That was particularly useful as I made my way up every level of the tower, which was filled with Banished aliens waiting around corners and hiding behind debris. The threat detector was also key to defeating that mission's boss, a Banished leader who spent the entire fight cloaked in invisibility. (Not so sportsman-like, I know.)
Despite the rocky start, I came away from my glimpse at Halo Infinity's campaign with the urge to keep exploring. I wanted to optimize my Master Chief build, and I was eager to see if the game would somehow wrap up his relationship with Cortana, his previous AI who turned into a galactic threat. Mostly, though, I was curious to see what else 343 Industries had in store. After a decade leading the franchise, it seems like the studio is finally ready to let Halo evolve.
343 Industries/Microsoft
That's also true of Halo Infinity's free-to-play multiplayer mode, which Microsoft launched this week as a celebratory surprise. As someone who mainly plays Halo for its campaign, I really didn't expect much from the game's multiplayer, but it still managed to hook me during 343's closed betas. Now that it's open to everyone (though still a beta), I'm even more impressed. The maps are fun and inventive, the gunplay feels tight, and every match feels like a life-or-death battle between super soldiers. It's the closest the franchise has come to replicating the glory days of Halo 3 (or back when I was hooked on the first game in college). And judging from its massive popularity on Steam, where more than 270,000 people were playing on launch day, it seems like for many gamers, the wait was worth it.
If you missed the chance to get the NVIDIA Shield TV for $20 off its usual price in August, here's your chance to do so before Black Friday even arrives. The $150 streaming box is now on sale for $130 at Best Buy, which is only $1 more than its all-time low price for Black Friday last year and is the best price we've seen for the device in 2021. It's a great chance to grab the streaming box if you're looking for something a bit more powerful than a Chromecast either for yourself or as a gift this holiday season.
The Shield TV is powered by an NVIDIA Tegra X1+ processor, giving it the capability to run the Android TV software smoothly and efficiently. It supports Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos surround sound, and it's capable of 4K streaming from services where it's available, including Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV. You can also stream straight from your phone with its built-in Chromecast 4K.
The Shield TV isn't literally a box and comes in a tubular body, which NVIDIA says can help avoid wireless interference. On it, you'll find a Gigabit Ethernet port and a microSD card slot for storage expansion. You can control the device with your voice using Google Assistant, and you can issue commands hands-free with Alexa through an Amazon Echo speaker, as well. As a plus, it has Bluetooth that you can use to transfer media and to connect accessories like wireless headsets. The NVIDIA Shield TV has been around for a couple of years at this point, but it's still a powerful addition to your entertainment center.
Ford has ambitions to become the biggest US-based EV manufacturer someday, and that means greatly ramping up its production. Company CEO Jim Farley has announced that the automaker is planning to produce 600,000 electric vehicles per year by the end of 2023, which will double the number of EVs it originally intended to manufacture. According to Automotive News, production will be spread across the Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning and E-Transit.
Ford's current EV lineup is wildly popular, Farley said, and the demand is "so much higher" than the company expected. The Mustang Mach-E is selling on three continents, while the Ford F-150 Lightning has been popular from the time it was announced. Ford received 100,000 reservations within three weeks after it was unveiled, and that number's now up to 160,000 — all placed with a $100 refundable deposit. Due to the high demand for the F-150, Ford previously decided to invest $250 million to boost its production, creating 450 new jobs to help it make 80,000 trucks a year. It's unclear how much that target would change now that the company is doubling its manufacturing goal.
Before it achieves its ultimate goal of being the biggest EV producer in the US, Ford is first aiming to become the second largest behind Tesla. As CNBC notes, whether Ford can achieve that with 600,000-a-year production target remains to be seen. Long-time Ford rival GM is expecting to sell 1 million electric vehicles by 2025 and is also ramping up production by converting current plants and opening new ones in the US over the coming years.
We're approaching it like we did building ventilators & PPE for Covid. Whatever it takes, find a way. And it's working.
We are now expecting to produce 600,000 EVs/yr globally by end of 2023. 2x our original plan.
And that’s BEFORE #BlueOvalCity & other EV sites come online.
More than a year after failing its first civil rights audit, Meta says it’s still working on a number of changes recommended by auditors. The company released an update detailing its progress on addressing the auditors' many recommendations.
According to the company, it has already implemented 65 of the 117 recommendations, with another 42 listed as ”in progress or ongoing.” However, there are six areas where the company says it is still determining the “feasibility” of making changes and two recommendations where the company has “declined” to take further action. And, notably, some of these deal with the most contentious issues called out in the original 2020 audit.
That original report, released in July of 2020, found the company needed to do more to stop "pushing users toward extremist echo chambers." It also said the company needed to address issues related to algorithmic bias, and criticized the company’s handling of Donald Trump’s posts. In its latest update, Meta says it still hasn’t committed to all the changes the auditors called for related to algorithmic bias. The company has implemented some changes, like engaging with outside experts and increasing the diversity of its AI team, but says other changes are still “under evaluation.”
Specifically, the auditors called for a mandatory, company-wide process for “to avoid, identify, and address potential sources of bias and discriminatory outcomes when developing or deploying AI and machine learning models” and that it “regularly test existing algorithms and machine-learning models.” Meta said the recommendation is “under evaluation.” Likewise, the audit also recommended “mandatory training on understanding and mitigating sources of bias and discrimination in AI for all teams building algorithms and machine-learning models.” That suggestion is also listed as “under evaluation,” according to Meta.
The company also says some updates related to content moderation are also “under evaluation.” These include a recommendation to improve the “transparency and consistency” of decisions related to moderation appeals, and a recommendation that the company study more aspects of how hate speech spreads, and how it can use that data to address targeted hate more quickly. The auditors also recommended that Meta “disclose additional data” about which users are being targeted with voter suppression on its platform. That recommendation is also “under evaluation.”
The only two recommendations that Meta outright declined were also related to elections and census policies. “The Auditors recommended that all user-generated reports of voter interference be routed to content reviewers to make a determination on whether the content violates our policies, and that an appeals option be added for reported voter interference content,” Meta wrote. But the company said it opted not to make those changes because it would slow down the review process, and because “the vast majority of content reported as voter interference does not violate the company’s policies.”
Separately, Meta also said it’s working on a “a framework for studying our platforms and identifying opportunities to increase fairness when it comes to race in the United States.” To accomplish this, the company will conduct “off-platform surveys” and analyze its own data using surnames and zip codes.
Since 2017, Instagram has allowed users to combine up to 10 photos and videos in a single post, but only now, some four years later, is the company adding a way to delete a single image or clip from a carousel. Instagram head Adam Mosseri detailed how the new feature works in one of his recent weekly video updates.
You can delete a photo or video from a carousel by first tapping the three dots icon, then the edit button. At that point, swipe over to the image or clip you want to remove and then tap the delete icon. According to Mosseri, the feature is currently only available on iOS, though it’s coming to Android soon. He was also quick to admit it was something Instagram should have added a while ago.
If you live in the US, you also have access to another new feature. This one is called “Rage Shake,” and it’s exactly what it sounds like. If you’re using Instagram and something isn’t working properly, shake your phone. Doing so will cause the app’s bug report interface to appear. You can then tell the company what happened. Mosseri says it will help Instagram prioritize the specific bugs it needs to address. Rage Shake is currently only available in the US.
Both features won’t change how you use Instagram, but they should be welcome additions all the same. Now if only the company would release a dedicated iPad app.
Clubhouse may have popularized the live audio format, but in many ways, it’s been forced to play catchup with its competitors. Nowhere is that more apparent than on the feature front, where it’s missing functionality found in other apps. However, this week the company filed a significant gap by adding support for live captioning on iOS. That’s a feature Twitter Spaces already had on offer, and it’s one that will make the app accessible to those who are deaf or hard of hearing.
closed captioning is here for iOS! update your app now to see it in action in live rooms.
In a statement to TechCrunch, the company said the feature supports 13 languages at launch, including English, Cantonese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin and Russian. However, as the outlet also points out, some users have found that the feature sometimes doesn’t recognize a language properly, leading to incomprehensible captions. There’s also no word yet on when Clubhouse will make closed captioning available on Android.
To its credit, Clubhouse has added a lot of handy features in recent weeks. One of the more notable additions was Wave, a tool you can use to invite friends to a private audio room quickly. It also recently made it possible to share 30-second previews of public rooms. Those are all essential additions as the company attempts to stave off Twitter and Facebook.
