With the debut of new Echo Show 8 and Show 5 devices in June, we've seen a few good deals on Amazon's first-generation smart displays since then. A new one has popped up on both Amazon and Best Buy for the original Echo Show 8, dropping it down to a record low of $64. That's the best price we've seen all year on the gadget, and it's even better than the $70 sale price that we saw during Amazon Prime Day.
The Echo Show 8 sits in the middle of Amazon's smart display lineup with its 8-inch HD screen. While the Echo Show 5 excels as a smart alarm clock, the Echo Show 8 lets you watch videos, view photos and check out security camera feeds with a bit more comfort. The larger display is also better for video chats and it has a physical camera shutter (along with a microphone on/off button) for when you want extra privacy. If the Show 5 is a bit too small for you but the $250 Echo Show 10 is too expensive (or you're freaked out by its swiveling base), the Show 8 will likely hit a sweet spot with its power, screen real estate and price.
The updated Echo Show 8 is only a few months old but it's much pricer at $130 and it's not significantly different from the first-generation. It has a faster octa-core processor and a 13-megapixel wide-angle camera with auto-framing, which means it will automatically pan to track your face and keep you in view during video calls. This feature also works with all video chat services that the device supports, including Skype and Zoom, so it will come in handy if you frequently make calls with the Show 8. But you could safely skip the 2021 model if you mostly use your smart displays for weather alerts, calendar appointments, music streaming and other basic tasks.
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Twitter has agreed to pay $809.5 million to settle a class action suit filed by shareholders in 2016. Investors alleged that Twitter masked the company's slowing growth while executives including former CEO Dick Costolo and co-founders Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey (the current CEO) sold stock “for hundreds of millions of dollars in insider profits.”
The plaintiffs said Twitter was tracking daily active users (DAU) as the key metric for engagement in early 2015, but it was still reporting monthly active user figures. The DAU measurement indicated engagement was dropping or staying flat, according to the lawsuit.
Twitter says the proposed settlement, which a court has yet to approve, "resolves all claims asserted against Twitter and the other named defendants without any admission, concession or finding of any fault, liability or wrongdoing by the company or any defendant." Twitter and all of the individuals named as defendants in the suit have denied any wrongdoing. The lawsuit accused Twitter and executives of violating the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
The company plans to use cash on hand for the settlement. It's expected to pay the sum by the end of the year.
In its Q4 2018 earnings report, Twitter started reporting average monetizable daily active users (mDAU). It said that was the only engagement metric it would disclose to investors going forward, partly because it's a more accurate reflection of how it's making money from users.
The next time you have friends over and you happen to run out of one guest's favorite tipple, you'll have another way to order another bottle quickly — as long as you live in a place where DoorDash supports alcohol delivery. You can now use the app to order booze to your doorstep in 20 states, the District of Columbia, Canada and Australia. The company says more than 100 million people now have access to booze delivery through the app.
Users in those markets can view a selection of drinks from restaurants, grocery stores, retailers and convenience stores through the Alcohol tab. Depending on where you live, you may be able to bundle alcohol with your restaurant order using the DoubleDash feature, which lets you add items to your order from nearby stores without paying a separate delivery fee.
You'll need to be of legal drinking age to order alcohol through DoorDash. Couriers will verify your age at dropoff. You can upload a copy of your ID to the app. Couriers will only be able to see your photo and date of birth on the app — DoorDash says it blurs out all of the other information for security and privacy reasons.
Over the last few years, DoorDash has enabled merchants to deliver alcohol through DoorDash Drive, its white-label delivery service. DoorDash Drive couriers fulfill orders made via a merchant's own website, app or third-party platform, not the DoorDash app. The company previously let users in southern California add alcohol to their restaurant orders.
Alongside the expansion of hooch deliveries, DoorDash announced partnerships with alcohol responsibility organizations. Students Against Destructive Decisions and Responsibility.org focus on drunk driving and underage drinking. DoorDash also teamed up with two organizations Down Under, Drinkwise and Retail Drinks Australia, "to further expand our commitment to responsible service of alcohol in other countries."
DoorDash is playing catch up a bit with its rivals when it comes to alcohol. Uber bought booze delivery service Drizly earlier this year for $1.1 billion. Instacart and Postmates both added alcohol delivery options over the last few years.
Algoriddim has been working closely with Apple for years on its djay apps and regularly appears in the company's keynotes. Now, it's integrating another Apple product, Shazam, into its latest iOS djay app with the release of iOS 15. The new feature lets you can scan your surroundings and identify any song playing, whether at an event, listening to the radio or playing sets with other DJs. Once it picks out the song, djay will instantly load it onto the virtual decks and play it in sync with the external music source.
Once loaded, you can create a mix with similar tracks, remix the song, apply effects and deconstruct it into components using the company's Neural Mix tech. It can also save songs into iOS 15's music recognition history in the control center, "providing users with streamlined access to all of their song discoveries," the company said.
While this sounds like cool technology in search of an application, Algoriddim has a few use cases in mind. The main one is that you can identify a track you might hear and get it into your library with the tap of a button, or create an automated mix based on the recognized song. "djay can instantly provide you with similar tracks to the one you just heard, allowing you to quickly immerse yourself in a particular style," Algoriddim told Engadget.
Another, more marginal use case is with back-to-back DJing. If you're playing in tandem with another DJ or in a lineup, you can pick up where the last DJ left off by identifying and syncing with their song before phasing into your own set. This goes a step beyond beat matching, letting you match the last DJ's song exactly. Mind you, many DJs may not care to replay the last DJ’s song or work with a playlist inspired by it, especially if they weren’t familiar with the tracks
The Shazam-enhanced version of iOS djay lets you save recognized music to your Tidal (music and video), SoundCloud, Beatport and Beatsource libraries (not Spotify or Apple Music). Other new features include the ability to add effects to the master audio output, enabled by new Audio Unit (extensions) features in iOS 15. That will let you better tailor the sound for broadcast or to match a PA system. Algoriddim's iOS djay update for iOS is now available for free, or you can get the Pro version for $6.99 per month or $49.99 per year.
Roku's $50 Streaming Stick 4K has been one of our favorite devices for years. It's cheap, pocketable and has just about every feature you'd want in a streaming gadget. This year, Roku is finally adding a long-awaited feature to its new 4K stick: Dolby Vision HDR. That's something the Roku Ultra started supporting last year, and it's a particularly big deal for home theater fans. Additionally, the new Streaming Stick 4K boots up around 30 percent faster than before, and its revamped wireless receiver makes Wi-Fi speeds up to twice as fast, according to Roku.
Like the HDR10 format, Dolby Vision allows for higher peak brightness levels and more nuanced dark scenes. But it can also do so dynamically, tweaking its contrast and brightness levels for every individual frame in a film or TV show. That's something HDR10 can't do, though it's since been added to the newer HDR10+ format, which the new 4K streaming stick also supports. There's a lot more Dolby Vision content out there today, though, so I'd wager most people would be more excited for Dolby Vision than HDR10+ support.
Roku
While the 4K streaming stick ships with Roku's standard voice remote, you can also opt for the $70 Streaming Stick 4K+ bundle, which packs in the company's new Voice Remote Pro. Normally a $30 upgrade, that smarter clicker adds hands-free voice searching (instead of hitting a button), as well as a rechargeable battery. And if you're looking for something a bit more powerful, the $80 Wal-Mart exclusive Roku Ultra LT is also getting Dolby Vision, a faster processor and better Wi-Fi this year.
For most people, the Roku Streaming Stick 4K is likely all the streaming player you need. You can get faster speeds and more connectivity with the $100 Roku Ultra, or a nicer interface and game ecosystem with the $179 Apple TV 4K. But when it comes to just streaming video in the best possible formats, there's little need to spend more than $50. You'll be able to find the new Roku Streaming Stick 4K sometime mid-October in the US, and in the coming months across Canada, Mexico and
You won't need Roku's new Streaming Stick 4K to take advantage of its latest software features. The Roku OS 10.5 update, which will roll out to players and TVs in the next few weeks, will be jam-packed with features to make your streaming life easier. There's expanded Roku Voice support, which will let you ask players (with supported remotes) to start playing content from Netflix, Spotify and most other channels. And the company has added a Live TV Channel Guide to help find free TV content (so far there are more than 200 live channels to sift through).
But more importantly for the Roku faithful, there are even more configurations for the company's wireless speakers. Roku OS 10.5 will let you use any of the company's soundbars — the Streambar, Streambar Pro and Smart Soundbar — as a center channel flanked by Roku wireless speakers. Put that setup together with two more rear speakers and a wireless sub, and voila, you've got a full-fledged 5.1 surround solution. Previously, you were only able to use Roku's soundbars as all of your front channels (left, right and center).
Roku
From what I recall of Roku's earlier surround solution, it sounded more than adequate for a small room. I haven't heard the company's 5.1 setup yet, but generally having more speakers is always better. At the very least, you can expect clearer dialog and better front channel separation. I can't say if it's worth shelling out up to $630 for all of Roku's speakers ($300 for four wireless speakers, $180 for the StreamBar Pro, and $150 for the wireless subwoofer), but it's nice to have the flexibility to build out a full system if you've already invested in a few of them.
Roku OS 10.5 will also add some audio improvements for headphones. When you connect a wireless headset to the Roku mobile app, it will adjust your sync settings based on the type of headphone you're using. You'll also be able to use your smartphone camera to adjust the audio delay even further. That's a useful feature for anyone using Bluetooth headphones, where audio delay issues are fairly common.
To coincide with expanded Spotify voice support, Roku is also adding a new music and podcasts row to its system search. You'll be able to see results from Spotify's entire library, but more importantly it opens the door for better audio app support on Roku OS.
The mastermind behind a seven-year scheme to illegally unlock AT&T handsets has been sentenced to 12 years in jail. Muhammad Fahd unlocked phones for ineligible customers who still had to pay off the cost of their smartphone. AT&T says 1.9 million handsets were unlocked in this manner, and it lost around $201.5 million because of the scheme.
Fahd contacted and subsequently bribed an AT&T employee to help unlock devices until the company locked down the system. Consequently, Fahd commissioned malware to be installed on AT&T’s internal systems, which captured data on both the company and its employees. Fahd was indicted in 2017, arrested in Hong Kong a year later and extradited to the US in 2019.
Perhaps the most staggering part of the story is the lengths Fahd went to keep the project going. It’s not clear if Fahd’s malware put any customer data at risk, but that a scheme like this was able to run for so long is troubling.
Pretty much everyone knows you can make your house a lot cooler if you paint it white, which is common practice in warmer countries. Now, however, a team of scientists at Purdue University has cooked up the ultimate white paint, which, they claim, works so well it could eliminate the need for air conditioning. The covering supposedly reflects 98.1 percent of all solar radiation, theoretically leaving the surface cooler than the surrounding environment. If it works and it’s implemented properly, it could reduce the global energy bill by quite a figure.
In 2020, Apple TV+ was proud to earn just one primetime Emmy for The Morning Show’s Billy Crudup. A year later and the nascent streamer managed to take home 11 trophies, with breakout hit Ted Lasso earning seven of those on its own. In fact, while HBO remains the top dog of this particular awards show, Netflix’s The Crown won most of the big drama nods. It’s clear that streaming services are swallowing the world whole, and the challenge of formerly blue-chip broadcasters is to somehow up the ante on their well-heeled rivals.
Microsoft has a big event coming September 22nd, and an image, via Twitter user Shadow_Leak, purporting to be a store listing suggests the Surface Pro 8 might get some big improvements. New features for the slate include a narrow-bezel, 120Hz display, dual Thunderbolt ports and an 11th-generation Intel Core processor. Given how the Surface Pro has become such a mainstay of Microsoft’s hardware lineup, it’s always exciting to see some dramatic changes year on year.
The new head of the National Transportation Safety Board has advised Tesla to get its house in order. In an interview, Jennifer Homendy said she took issue with how Tesla tests, operates and markets its self-driving technology. That includes the “misleading and irresponsible” way it sells Full Self Driving, which encourages people to “misuse and abuse” it. In addition, Homendy said the company needed to address “basic safety issues” rather than focus on headline-grabbing new features. Homendy’s words don’t mean much yet in a policy sense, but it might set the tone on how the NTSB chooses to deal with companies like Tesla in future.
Were you disappointed when Harley-Davidson showed off a gorgeous, retro-inspired e-bike then didn’t put it on sale? Thankfully, someone at the company heard your sighs of frustration and is going to release a version, called the MOSH/TRIBUTE, towards the end of this year. Unfortunately, no matter how pretty this thing is, there’ll only be a limited release of 650, and it’ll cost you $5,999 for the privilege of owning one. But, you know, it is pretty.
India’s competition authority has found Google abused its dominant position to box out potential rivals. A two-year probe into how the search giant does business on the subcontinent has found the company in violation of the local competition law. Regulators took issue with how Google prevents manufacturers from using forked versions of Android, and the “arbitrary” nature of the Play Store’s policies. India joins an ever-growing list of countries that have probed Google’s business dealings and found something isn’t right. Regulators have yet to decide if Google’s conduct was illegal and if fines need to be handed out, but given what happened in South Korea just a few days back, we shouldn’t be surprised.
Amazon may be getting set to release a new version of its Paperwhite reader including a high-end "Signature Edition," according to Amazon listings spotted by Reddit users and GoodEReader. A comparison chart on Amazon's Canadian and Mexican sites, now removed, showed new Kindle Paperwhite and Paperwhite Signature Edition models, with 6.8-inch 300 ppi displays and 17 LEDs. The current Paperwhite, by contrast, has a 6-inch display and just four LEDs.
Both models are IPX8 waterproof as before, offer a "flush-front design" and appear to have narrower side and top bezels. They also feature an "adjustable warm light," meaning they likely have both white and amber LEDs — just like Amazon's high-end Kindle Oasis. The Signature Edition offers a storage update over the Paperwhite 5 to 32GB, along with wireless charging and auto-adjusting light sensors that change screen brightness depending on the environment.
The Canadian listing shows the Paperwhite and Paperwhite Signature Edition at CAD$150 and CAD$210, (about $117 and $165, respectively), but those could just be placeholders. Currently, the standard 8GB Kindle is $90, the 8GB Kindle Paperwhite $130 and the 8GB Kindle Oasis is $250. If the new prices are accurate you'd be paying more for the Paperwhite, but get some of the features found on the Oasis.
Following a crackdown on gaming by Chinese authorities, ByteDance is introducing new youth controls for Douyin, its TikTok-equivalent app in China, Bloomberg has reported. Any users confirmed to be under 14 will enter a new "youth mode" limited to 40 minutes of usage per day. At the same time, it unveiled a new app called Xiao Qu Xing ("Little Fun Star"), a TikTok-style short video app with limited subject materials, a 40 minute time limit and the ability to like, but not upload or share videos.
On top of the time restriction, kids in China won't be able to access Douyin between 10PM and 6AM. The new controls only apply to users who supplied their real names and ages, so to that end, Douyin has asked parents to register their kids' real information. ByteDance also added more content to Douyin with educational subjects like science, art history, history and more. The new app, Xiao Qu Xing, appears to offer exclusively educational content.
Gaming limits introduced earlier this month are even more restrictive, with under-14s limited to just three hours per week between 8-9PM on Friday, weekends and public holidays. Previously, kids could game for 90 minutes a day and three hours on holidays. The rule change was put in place to combat gaming addiction, regulators said.
The TikTok restrictions won't affect as many kids, however. According to an article in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), just 0.34 percent of Douyin users are under 12, with 4.18 percent from 13-19 years old. Those figures are far from certain, though, as Douyin doesn't publish demographic data.
It also acknowledged that it might be easy to bypass the new rules. "As the first short video platform to launch minor protection measures, we deeply understand that there will be imperfections," the company said in a statement. To that end, it has launched a bug-finding campaign seeking "loopholes" in the login process.
If you've ever thought, "hey, it would be great if I could charge my phone or tablet just by laying it on a regular desk," then IKEA has the gadget for you. It just unveiled the Sjömärke, a $40 wireless charging pad that's designed to work with nearly any desk or table, as The Verge has reported.
IKEA
The concept is pretty clever. Sjömärke is a Wireless Qi charging pad, but you don't place it on your desk. Rather, it installs underneath your desk and is held in place either by double-sided tape (included) or 18mm x 6mm screws (not included). Your desktop needs to be made of something like wood or plastic that won't block the magnetic field, and must have a minimum thickness of 8mm (5/16th of an inch), and a maximum of 22.2mm (7/8th of an inch), according to the manual.
Once you install the pad, plug it in with the six-foot power cable and mark the charging point on your table with the included "X" shaped sticker, you're ready to charge your phone or other device. With Qi 1.2.4 charging, it should supply about 5 watts for decent but not super fast charging. IKEA notes that it also comes with temperature and power monitoring so it won't overheat — important, since it will be placed against wood surfaces.
For $40, this might prove to be an attractive option for folks who don't want to mess up their décor with an unseemly plastic pad. Sjömärke will arrive in IKEA's stores and website in October 2021.
