Spotify may not be the first service that comes to mind when you think of blocking other users. However, the streaming app's features could mean someone you no longer jive with can still access your playlists or activity. Today the company is massively updating how you block another user on its platform, giving you the ability to do so yourself for the first time. Before now, you had to contact customer service to get the job done, but now you can complete the task on Spotify app from a desktop or mobile device.
Users have been clamoring for a way to directly block others for quite some time. In 2018, the company designated a block feature as a "good idea," although it wasn't officially on a product roadmap and no timeline for arrival was given. In 2019, Spotify began allowing users to block artists they never wanted to hear with a "Don't play this artist" option. Still, there wasn't an option to keep your ex or anyone else you didn't want to see your stuff from doing so unless you reached out to the company for help.
To block someone on Spotify, simply visit their profile and click the ... button. Select "Block," or "Block User" on mobile, and that person will no longer be able to access your page, public playlists or see your listening activity. As you might expect, there's an "Unblock" option should you ever change your mind.
Spotify says the introduction of a direct blocking feature is part of its ongoing mission to give users the best experience it can while fostering a safe environment for them to listen to music and podcasts. You can expect the new functionality to start rolling out this week.
Whether they be cat or dog lovers, Engadget’s editors have our fair share of fur babies. With all the comfort and joy our pets have given us, especially over the past year, we think they deserve gifts just as much as any other member of the family this holiday season. Here’s a list of things we’ve given our own little furry friends that we think your pet will enjoy too.
BarkBox monthly subscription
BarkBox
You can buy your pet the cutest, squeakiest toys but you know they won't last forever: your dog will tear even the sturdiest plush to shreds eventually. You can at least stay ahead of them with a Barkbox subscription, which will deliver a themed box full of funny toys and delicious treats once a month. The themes will make you laugh, while your dog will love having a package that's all for them. — Kris Naudus, Buyer’s Guide Editor
Prior to last year, my husband and I usually bought cat food at the grocery during our weekly shop. Then, sometime during lockdown, all of the cat food was suddenly sold out. As I was browsing online to see if we could get some delivered, I came across CatPerson, a subscription service for cat food. On top of that, the food looked high-quality, with natural ingredients and 50 percent more protein than the industry standard. I decided to try it out, and my household hasn't looked back. The cat absolutely loves it and we like that there are 16 different flavors so she’ll never get bored. Bonus: the delivery box easily converts into either a toy or a kitty chalet for the cat to play around in. — Nicole Lee, Senior Editor
When I first saw this, $80 felt like a big splurge for a piece of cat furniture I wasn’t even sure if my kitty would like. But after more than a year with Catastrophic Creations’ “The Lift,'' I'm so glad I took the chance. The wall-mounted hammock is exceptionally well made, and comes in a variety of colors and finishes so you can match your existing decor. Most importantly: my cat absolutely loves having her own space, a few feet above the couch, where she can nap in the sun and silently judge us from above. The company makes a range of other wall-mounted cat furniture as well, so you can set up an entire elevated playground, complete with mini Indiana Jones-style rope bridges, scratching posts and feeding stations. But even if you’re not ready for all that (or just lack the wall space), the cat hammock is the best of both: a comfy nap spot and a new place to run to when the zoomies hit. — Karissa Bell, Senior Editor
Cats generally prefer drinking moving water; if you ever see your kitty splashing her water around in the bowl, that’s why. It’s also one of the reasons many people suggest getting a water fountain for your cat. We ended up getting the Catit Senses 2.0 Flower Fountain for our little one. It has three different water flow settings and a triple-action filter that helps ensure the water is as fresh as possible. On top of that, we love that it looks like a little plastic flower pot. — N.L.
In my house, we’ve nicknamed this bed “the hottub,” because our resident cat loves to sit in here for hours, especially in the winter months. The K&H bed is simple, yet effective. There’s a built-in heating pad stashed in the base of the bed that keeps it at a consistently cozy (and safe) temperature. The cover is also removable, so it’s easy to wash up, which is a good thing when your cat spends hours a day in there. — K.B.
From the affordable Cam to the more luxurious Bites 2, PetCube offers several different pet camera models, but we like the Bites 2 Lite for its balance of price and features. You get a treat dispenser with a 1080p camera that features automatic night vision and 8x digital zoom. It also comes with support for two-way audio. The Bites 2 Lite doesn’t come with Alexa built-in, but there’s a good chance you don’t need Amazon’s voice assistant on a device you use to check on your pet and toss them treats when they’ve been a good boy or girl. — Igor Bonafacic, Associate Editor
If your doge is anything like mine, they’re mostly floof and easily get thirsty on warm, sunny days. After trying several different dog-specific water bottles, I found the travel bottle from PetKit ideal for helping my canine companion stay hydrated. It’s only $13 but can hold up to 14 ounces of liquid and features a clever design that limits spillage. A silica gel gasket and lock ring also help ensure that the bottle won’t leak in your backpack. I take it on almost every walk with my dog and he always seems thankful when he can drink from it. — I.B.
My husband and I love our cat very much, but boy, does her poop stink up the joint. After seeing an ad for PrettyLitter online, we decided to try it out to see if it would help us. Fortunately, it does, and more. Not only does it have super absorbent silicon crystals that trap odor, but it actually changes color to tell you if your cat has any urinary tract issues. Of course, this doesn’t replace going to the vet, but it’s nice to know what’s going on with your cat’s health. Since the litter is so efficient at keeping odor away, we’ve found that we actually use less litter than before, which helps reduce waste. Plus, our cat seems to like it too. On top of that, the company offers a subscription service, delivering a new bag to your door every month. — N.L.
The Ruffwear Dog Cooling Vest is ideal for hiking and camping fans in warm climates, and it’s incredibly simple to use. Dunk the vest in water, wring it out and buckle it onto your dog — that’s it, and your buddy is ready to run around in the sun. The Ruffwear vest has an Ultraviolet Protection Factor rating of 50+, a built-in leash slot and a three-layer design that encourages evaporative cooling. It comes in sizes from x-x-small to x-large, and it costs around $60, or about as much as a Patagonia workout shirt (for humans, that is). — Jessica Conditt, Senior Editor
Hopefully, your pet will be too comfortable in this bag to care that it’s called a “Muttmover.” This backpack from Timbuk2 is designed to carry your dog (or cat, we guess), their water bowl, and even your own gadgets, with padded shoulder straps and plenty of external pockets. The main bag has a zippered hole big enough for your pet’s head to poke through while you walk, while the entire front panel unzips for easy extraction. The interior is easy to wipe down and made of durable ripstop nylon fabric, and it even comes with a collapsible dog bowl. — J.C.
The European Union's General Court in Luxembourg has upheld (PDF) the European Commission's decision to slap Google with a record €2.42 billion (US$2.8 billion) fine for an antitrust case back in 2017. Back then, the commission decided after a lengthy investigation that the tech giant favored its own comparison shopping services and unfairly directed users to its own products over those of its rivals'. That $2.8 billion fine is just a tiny fraction of Alphabet's (Google's parent company) $2 trillion valuation, but it was the biggest financial penalty the commission has ever handed out.
The court said in a statement:
"The General Court finds that, by favoring its own comparison shopping service on its general results pages through more favorable display and positioning, while relegating the results from competing comparison services in those pages by means of ranking algorithms, Google departed from competition on the merits."
While the General Court mostly sided with the commission's findings that Google's actions had harmful effects on comparison shopping, it disagreed with one element of the EU's case. As The Wall Street Journal noted, it said that regulators weren't able to prove that the company's conduct harmed competition among general search engines.
Back when it appealed the EU's decision, Google argued that the commission ignored the competition it faces in the e-commerce sector from Amazon. The company could appeal the General Court's decision yet again by taking the case to the EU's highest court, the European Court of Justice. A spokesperson told The Journal, however, that the company will still have to review the judgment more closely before deciding whether to file another appeal.
You can’t keep a fitness company down. Following some rough financial news from one of the companies that thrived during the pandemic as many took up at-home workouts, Peloton is looking to bounce back, like a burpee, but more business-like.
It just announced the Peloton Guide, a strength-training camera system that looks like Kinect, hooks up to your TV and uses machine learning to understand your movements.
The movement tracker feature is compatible with hundreds of existing Peloton strength classes. The idea is to encourage users to carry out all of the exercises in a class and keep up with instructors (but it's not a big deal if you can't stick to the instructor's pace). The Self Mode will enable users to match their form against the instructor's in real-time via smart camera technology. You'll be able to select how you appear on screen, and the aim is to help you make form adjustments during a class.
Peloton will also continue to train the machine learning model on more movements. It will be the company's least expensive device to date — but that doesn’t make it cheap. It will cost $495 when it arrives in the US in early 2022.
NVIDIA has launched a follow-up to the Jetson AGX Xavier, its $1,100 AI brain for robots it released back in 2018. The new module, called the Jetson AGX Orin, has six times the processing power of Xavier even though it has the same form factor and can still fit in the palm of your hand. NVIDIA designed Orin to be an "energy-efficient AI supercomputer" for use in robotics, autonomous and medical devices. It’s apparently capable of 200 trillion operations per second. NVIDIA hasn’t revealed what the Orin will cost, but it will land in the first quarter of 2022.
Microsoft has pushed cheap Windows laptops as the ideal school computers. Matching the capabilities of Chromebooks, they can also run traditional Windows software. But now, Microsoft is finally ready to jump into the affordable, kid-friendly PC fray with the $249 Surface Laptop SE. It's one of the first PCs to run Windows 11 SE, a stripped-down OS targeting K-8 students (and their beleaguered teachers). You can also expect to see Windows 11 SE devices coming from Dell, HP, Acer and ASUS. And that’s just the beginning.
A nice discount on the device that supports master quality audio for wired headphones.
When it comes to improving audio for your wired headphones, a USB DAC (digital to analog converter) can do wonders for sound quality. However, a lot of them are huge. THX’s USB-C version is the size of a thumb drive. And the connectivity means you can use it with both your computer and your phone. After only being available through Razer before, THX's DAC is now available through Amazon, and it's currently on sale for $150. That’s $50 less than the RRP.
Sure, we regularly publish our best console games lists. But buying a game for someone else is a different matter entirely to choosing one for yourself. Unless you know exactly what they want, where do you even begin? How about right here. And no, they’re not all $60 AAA games...
Soon after the iPhone 13 was released, an iFixit teardown showed that Face ID stopped working if the display was replaced by a third-party repair shop, unless the engineer also transferred a microcontroller from the original screen. Apple will soon remedy this with an upcoming software update, so Face ID will still function even without swapping the chip to the new display.
It's not clear when Apple will roll out the update, but questions remain over why the Face ID function broke in the first place.The controversy emerged amid a broader push by the US government to strengthen right-to-repair rules.
Roomba owners have been able to control their vacuums with Alexa voice commands since 2017, but that experience is pretty basic. You can tell your robot vacuum to start and stop cleaning, or to set up a schedule, but the entire interaction is, well, robotic. That changes today with iRobot's latest Alexa Skill, which taps into the company's Genius software platform to deliver smarter and more conversational voice commands.
You'll be able to tell Wi-Fi connected Roombas to clean around specific objects, and you can schedule cleaning jobs without sounding like you're inputting a computer program. As iRobot CEO Colin Angle tells us, the Alexa Skill is one of the most complex ever created. You can even tie a bunch of commands together, even across iRobots vacuums and Bravaa mop. For example, you can shout "Alexa, tell Roomba to clean my dining room every Sunday at 4PM and then run Bravaa."
Additionally, iRobot's devices will also be able to use Alexa speakers to send announcements about cleaning jobs. Sure, the company's app already sends you phone notifications, but it's easy to miss those if you're cleaning up the house while Roomba works. iRobot devices can also tap into Alexa's AI-driven Hunches to start cleaning jobs if it thinks you aren't home. (Hopefully, there'll be plenty of control about how exactly that feature works.)
According to Angle, iRobot has a fundamental belief that you're supposed to be able to talk to your robots, and "do so in a natural and sophisticated fashion." When Amazon was first developing Alexa, he says, one of the earliest concepts discussed was being able to use voice commands to control Roombas. Given iRobot's push towards making its device smarter — the latest Roomba has enough cameras and processing smarts to detect objects, even dog poop — it was only a matter of time until it focused more on voice support.
While iRobot's software platform taps into the maps Roombas create around your floorplans, Angle says the company isn't sharing any data with Amazon. Similarly, he claims iRobot isn't learning anything from Amazon either. Still, the two companies had to work together to ensure that a complex string of voice commands could work properly with Alexa. And looking ahead, iRobot plans to add even more features, like the ability to set a Do Not Disturb time for cleaning jobs.
It'll be interesting to see how much Roomba customers will actually want to talk with their robots. I've used the company's original Alexa skill since it launched, but I still end up starting cleaning jobs from my phone most of the time. I'm also hoping we'll eventually see these voice smarts on platforms other than Amazon's. Angle says the company is working with Google about optimizing its Home skill, but Apple hasn't been as receptive (at least you can get some Siri support with IFTTT).
Apple is introducing another way to ensure its AirTags won't be used for stalking when iOS 15.2 comes out. According to MacRumors, the beta version of the mobile platform that has just come out has a new feature that will let users scan for AirTags that may be tracking their location. At the moment, users can find the feature under the Items tab in the Find My app — all they need to do is tap the "Items That Can Track Me" option to do a scan.
Any trackable item nearby that belongs to someone else will be detected and show up as an unknown item. Apple will then point users to a set of instructions on how to disable the device that's being used to track them. While it could put people's mind at ease, the new feature could also be a double-edged sword. For users that hide AirTags in bikes, other items thieves could steal and even their pets' collars, this could prevent them from catching the culprit and retrieving their property. The feature might work a lot differently, however, by the time iOS 15.2 is ready for wider rollout.
To note, Apple updated AirTags to address stalking concerns back in June. It adjusted the time period after which the device would play a sound when separated from its owner from three days to a random time between 8 and 24 hours. This experimental feature is an additional privacy measure.
Another interesting feature that showed up with the beta version of iOS 15.2 is Digital Legacy. It will allow users to designate people as Legacy Contacts, who'll be able to access their account and digital information when they pass away. In the current iteration of the mobile OS, Legacy Contact lives inside Password and Security within the Settings app.
Google has escaped the risk of a lawsuit after violating the privacy of around 5.4 million iPhone users in the UK. The UK’s Supreme Court has ruled that it cannot allow a US-style Class Action suit to be lobbed at the search giant after it deliberately created a workaround to track Safari users. The judgment, read by Lord Leggatt, was focused on procedural matters, like the intersection between Google, based in the US, and the UK’s data protection laws. More importantly, however, was the issue of “damage,” and the fact that the claimants — led by consumer rights champion Richard Lloyd — had not established that any material harm had been caused by Google’s workaround.
The story begins in 2017 with Lloyd, and many others, formed a group called “Google You Owe Us” to attempt to sue the company. It alleged that Google had illegally collected data on iPhone users between June 2011 and February 2012 in violation of UK law. The matter hinged on the fact that Google had deliberately created a workaround to get access to data it was not otherwise entitled to. Lloyd and crew lost at the High Court, but this initial decision was overturned by the UK’s Court of Appeal, saying that it was quite proper for Google to face a courtroom after the intentional misuse of personal data without consent.
US-style Class Action lawsuits are not common, or even really a thing in UK law, although it is possible for a large group of litigants to bring a joint action. Lloyd and his cohort were trying to establish that Google’s tracking was, in and of itself, harmful, and by extension a standard level of compensation could be calculated. This was the fact that the Supreme Court rejected most clearly — saying that a set figure (reportedly pegged around £750 (around $1,000) per affected user) was not fair redress.
David Barker of Pinsent Masons — the firm Google hired to fight this case — wrote that the decision upholds the notion that compensation can only be asked for where real harm has been caused. And that, put simply, Google’s aggregation of personal data was insufficient to cause any real-world harm or mental distress. Richard Lloyd, who brought the action, told Sky News that he was “bitterly disappointed” that the court had “failed to do enough to protect the public from Google and other Big Tech firms who break the law.” And that this ruling, in effect, is the writing of a blank check for large technology companies to keep misusing user data without fear of censure. He added that it is time for government leaders to step in and craft laws to better clamp down on the misuse of personal data.
NASA has officially adjusted its timeline for the Artemis III mission and won't be landing on the Moon in 2024. The agency is now aiming to land the first woman and next American man on the lunar surface in 2025 at the earliest, NASA administrator Bill Nelson has announced. NASA was originally targeting a 2028 launch date for its return to the Moon, but the Trump administration moved that date up by four years back in 2017. In a conference call with reporters, Nelson said "the Trump administration's target of 2024 human landing was not grounded in technical feasibility."
In addition to the unrealistic deadline, Nelson blamed Blue Origin's lawsuit against the agency for the delay. It had to put its contract with SpaceX on hold and pause work on the lunar lander that's meant to take astronauts to the surface of the Moon for a couple of times. NASA lost almost seven months of work on the lander as a result, which had cast doubts on the 2024 landing even before Nelson made his announcement.
If you'll recall, NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to develop a Starship-based lunar landing system back in April. The agency historically works with more than one contractor for each mission, but in this instance, it inked a deal with Elon Musk's company alone. Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin sued NASA over that decision, arguing that it wasn't given the chance to revise its bid for the project.
Based on legal documents The Verge obtained in September, however, NASA felt that Blue Origin "gambled" with its proposed $5.9 billion lunar lander bid. The company allegedly set the price higher than necessary, because it assumed that NASA would award it a contract but negotiate for a lower price. The Federal Court of Claims ultimately ruled against Blue Origin a few days ago, dismissing its claims that NASA ignored "key flight safety requirements" when it awarded SpaceX the lunar lander contract.
Nelson's announcement comes shortly after NASA moved the uncrewed Artemis I flight test launch from this year to February 2022. That's assuming everything will go as planned — the Orion capsule and Space Launch System that will be used for the mission will still have to go through a battery of tests before NASA can schedule it for blastoff.
Apple has failed to convince US District c to delay the App Store change she ordered back in September. As the judge for the Apple vs. Epic trial, Rogers ruled in favor of the tech giant for 9 out of 10 counts, but she also decided that Apple must allow developers to direct users to other payment systems within their apps by December 9th. As a response to that, Apple asked for a stay on the injunction to push back its implementation by one more year. Now, Rogers has rejected the company's appeal for a stay and called the motion "fundamentally flawed."
"...Apple's motion is based on a selective reading of this Court's findings and ignores all of the findings which supported the injunction, namely incipient antitrust conduct including supercompetitive commission rates resulting in extraordinarily high operating margins and which have not been correlated to the value of its intellectual property."
Apple argued that it needed more time to establish new guidelines to protect users, developers and itself if it allows alternative payment methods. It also previously said that following the court order and allowing developers to link out to other payment methods by December 9th "would be a poor use of resources" due to the "near-inevitable litigation" from Epic regarding the scope of its compliance. In addition, it's still appealing this aspect of the case, and the Court of Appeals could take more than a year to come to a decision.
In her ruling, Rogers said that the party that would benefit most from a stay would be Apple, and that the court can "envision numerous avenues" for the tech giant to comply while still protecting its users. "Other than, perhaps, needing time to establish Guidelines, Apple has provided no credible reason for the Court to believe that the injunction would cause the professed devastation," she added.
As CNBC has noted, though, allowing developers to link out to external payment methods doesn't mean Apple won't be taking a percentage of their earnings. Google, for instance, recently announced that it will now allow the use of alternative payment systems for Play Store apps in South Korea to comply with local laws. While it lowered its commission by four percent for developers using their own payment processors, they will still have to pay the company a cut nonetheless.
Unity Technologies, the company behind the Unity engine, is buying Weta Digital. If you’re a film buff, you need no introduction to Weta. It’s the VFX house Peter Jackson co-founded in 1993. It has worked on movies like the Fellowship of the Ring, Avatar and Black Widow. Under the $1.625 billion deal, Unity is obtaining the company’s technology division, including its artist tools and engineering talent. Weta’s VFX and animation teams will form a separate entity known as WetaFX, which Peter Jackson will continue to hold a majority stake in. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, pending regulatory approval.
Weta’s technology suite includes tools for facial animation, creating virtual cityscapes and modeling the deformation of objects, among many other applications. Unity’s plan is to not only integrate those programs into the Unity Engine but to also eventually offer them as part of cloud-based subscription offering. At some point, many of the assets Weta Digital has created over the years will make their way to the engine as well, allowing anyone with access to Unity to use them.
The company didn’t say exactly when those things will happen, but the vision here is to put Unity at the forefront of the metaverse since whatever it entails will likely need a lot of 3D models. “The unified tools and the incredible scientists and technologists of Weta Digital will accelerate our mission to give content creators easy to use and high performance tools to bring their visions to life,” Unity said in a blog post. “Whatever the metaverse is or will be, we believe it will be built by content creators, just like you.”
