Amazon might be going from strength to strength business-wise, but it's having a tough week in the public eye. The National Labor Relations Board says Amazon illegally fired two employees that publicly criticized its climate and workplace practices. Former employees Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa were let go last year for repeatedly violating Amazon's internal policies that forbid workers from publicly discussing the company without formal approval. The decision prompted the Labor Relations Board to investigate claims that Amazon was retaliating against employees who organize or participate in protests. The news also comes not long after the company offered a public apology for tweets attacking criticism of working conditions for some of its drivers.
Cunningham and Costa's high-profile case gained national attention after they lambasted the retailer for its climate policies last year in a video shared by Bernie Sanders. They later spoke out against the company's workplace conditions during the pandemic. According to recent reports, the labor agency has also seen the number of complaints against Amazon's meddling more than triple during the pandemic. The board added it would accuse the company of unfair labor practices if it did not settle the case with the two former workers.
Yahoo Answers will shut down on May 4th, 2021. The website has been around since 2005, making it one of the longest-running Q&A platforms on the internet. The shut-down process starts later this month, and the site plans to stop accepting new submissions from April 20th. After May 4th, you'll have until June 30th to download an archive of content you posted to the website. When the dust has settled, eventually the Yahoo Answers webpage will redirect to the Yahoo homepage. Continue reading.
To celebrate a fictional day in the future when humanity first made contact with the Vulcans (stop rolling your eyes), the Star Trek freight train announced the airdates for both Picard and Discovery. Production on Picard season 2 has started, with the show scheduled to premiere on Paramount+ in 2022. In a teaser showing off new footage, Paramount also announced that season four of Star Trek: Discovery will make its debut later this year. The series will, of course, only be available on Paramount+ upon release, along with the first seasons of Prodigy and Strange New Worlds and a new season of the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks.Continue reading.
If you can't wait for WiFi 6E routers later this year, this will probably fit the bill.
TP-Link has introduced the Archer AX5400 (aka Archer AX73), a WiFi 6 box that promises speedy access while keeping the price vaguely in check. The dual-band device mates six antennas with newer tech (such as HT160 and 1024-QAM) to deliver 5.4Gbps of total bandwidth and 4.8Gbps with WiFi 6.
The AX5400 is available now through Amazon for $200. It's not the lowest-priced WiFi 6 router you'll find (TP-Link's range starts at $90), but it arguably strikes a better balance between the modest speeds of the AX3000 and the spare-no-expense AX6000. Continue reading.
Samsung is co-branding with Adidas to create some buzz around its latest wireless earbuds. The Galaxy Buds Pro Adidas Original Special Pack comes in what looks like a mini sneaker box with the classic green-and-white Stan Smith branding. The snapback case is made of recycled plastic, and the Galaxy Buds Pro themselves are made of 20 percent post-consumer materials. The special edition Buds Pro will go on sale on April 7th in a limited edition of 6,000 units for 279,000 KRW ($250), only available in South Korea. Continue reading.
YouTuber Michael Pick made a Switch that's 650 percent larger than Nintendo's portable hybrid. He claims it's the world's largest fully functioning Nintendo Switch, weighing in at 65 pounds and measuring 30 inches tall and 70 inches wide. You have to really stretch for those trigger buttons. If you think the entire endeavor is ridiculous, Pick says his goal was to create a Switch that was "harder to lose" — which I think he has achieved. He ends his YouTube tale by donating his creation to a nearby affiliate of St. Jude's Children's Hospital. Don't worry, there's a connected normal-sized controller. Continue reading.
The early reports were right: LG is bowing out of the phone business. With long-running losses and occasionally esoteric devices never quite selling, it makes business sense. LG's dual-screen phones (and the promise of rollable displays, which we'll never see now) were not enough to lure consumers away from the likes of Apple and Samsung.
By the end of 2020, its stake in the global phone market was estimated to be around 1.7 percent, and LG announced it would outsource the designs of more of its low- and mid-range handsets to third parties.
The company won't announce any new smartphones but it will sell through all its remaining phone inventory, so if you're looking for an LG Wing, keep an eye out for fire-sale prices.
Researchers at the Queen Mary University of London have shown you can collect "environmental DNA" (eDNA) from the air, using a peristaltic pump and pressure filters to grab samples of naked mole rat DNA. The method not only pinpointed the mole rats' DNA (both in their housing and in the room at large), but also even caught some human DNA at the same time.
While the method was built for conservation and ecological study, it could be used for much more, with enough development. Forensics units could pluck DNA from the air to determine if a suspect had been present at the scene of a crime. It could also be useful in medicine, to better understand how airborne viruses (like the one behind COVID-19) spread. Continue reading.
The Hyundai-owned car brand Genesis marked its entrance into China by launching 3,281 drones into the sky, breaking the Guinness World Record for the most unmanned aerial vehicles in the air at the same time. The show itself was back on 29th March, but Guinness has to check these kinds of things. Expect to see the record broken again, though.
Shenzhen Damoda Intelligent Control Technology flew 'just' 3,051 drones in September 2020, which smashed a record set by a 2,200-drone performance in Russia just days earlier. If you're looking to smash this record, you might want to stock up on drone batteries now. Continue reading.
NASA has confirmed that its Perseverance rover deployed its UAV, called Ingenuity, on Mars after a final four-inch drop to the Red Planet's soil on April 3rd. The only challenge now is to make it to the flight itself, which could take place as soon as April 11th. For now, Ingenuity needs to charge itself using its own solar cells, ready for its first trip — a 30-second hover. Continue reading.
Data has been circulating privately since January.
Hackers have reportedly been sharing a massive amount of personal Facebook data since January. Security researcher Alon Gal has discovered that a user on a hacking forum has made the entire dataset public, exposing details for about 533 million Facebook members. The data includes phone numbers, birth dates, email addresses and locations, among other revealing info. About 32 million of the users are in the US, while 11 million are from the UK and another 6 million come from India. Continue reading.
Everyone else is doing it, so naturally it appears that Google is lining up a custom chip to power upcoming Pixel phones. 9to5Google has the details on what "Whitechapel" might be when Google's new mobiles launch this fall, but really I'm just excited to see what is possible when Android hardware and software development works so closely together.
Apple's growing reliance on custom hardware has had benefits in battery life and performance, and if it comes to the Android side, hopefully it benefits not only Google's own phones, but also those made by other manufacturers. Still, any Pixel 6 launch is months away, so there's plenty of time left to speculate while re-reading Amazon's "apology" for tweeting that its workers don't pee in bottles.
And the price of Anker's AirPods Pro rivals dropped down to $100.
Apple's MacBook Pro M1 returned to its all-time-low price of $950 and the new, swiveling Echo Show 10 received its first discount since debuting in February, dropping to $210. Amazon knocked down the prices of its Fire tablets, too, including the Fire HD 10, which is still $55 off.
Here are all the best deals from the week that you can still snag today, and remember to follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for more updates. Continue reading.
Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg promised official Xbox Series X mini fridges if the company won a Twitter brand competition, and he's being true to his word. Greenberg told followers that Microsoft would "move forward" with plans for the Series X fridges. He didn't offer prices, availability or even a glimpse at the fridges, but it's safe to presume they'll be easier to accommodate at home than the full-size fridges Microsoft made to capitalize on internet memes. Continue reading.
Now that iPhones have magnets in them, what can you do with them? For Belkin, apparently the answer is a robotic iPhone mount that keeps the phone looking at your face while you move around. That said, the face-tracking feature only works with Belkin's app — you can't use the mount with Zoom or FaceTime and expect it to follow you around, as well.
If that limitation doesn't bother you, take note that the $65 device is also compatible with official MagSafe cases and links to social networks. Continue reading.
Lots of folks are trying to recreate the experience at home, but to get anything close to a real cinema experience, a TV won't do. Instead, you'll want the immersive, large-screen, darkened-room experience of a projector.
Regardless of what type of projector you're going for, it's now possible to get a 4K HDR model that can project up to a 150-inch image for as little as $1,000. That's around the same price as a decent 65-inch TV, and you're getting a picture that's two and half times larger. You'll be happy as long as you temper your expectations and know what to expect, and that's where this guide comes in. Continue reading.
Htown Junk Car Buyer pays you top dollar for your junk cars running or not. Free towing is always included with every purchase. Many companies will try to charge you for towing, this is not done by us. We are a local company that has been in Houston for over 20 years.
No need to worry about repairing a broken-down car we will give you cash on the spot. The repairs are costly and once you start repairing a broken-down car it will always need repairs. Wasting your time and money without good returns.
We specialize in paying the most for unwanted or junk cars. Many junk car buyers claim to pay you the most, we do pay the most! When you are made an offer by us, that is the amount you receive. No games or gimmicks, just cash in your hands. No need to worry about paperwork, our drivers do it all for you!
Our car buying process is painless and without hassle. Have you lost your title to your car? No problem we can purchase it too. Some restrictions apply if you have lost your title. We require a valid state issued identification or drivers license. The vehicle has to be in your name, and you must have the keys to the car. Junk car buyer no title.
April 1st is a tricky day to make any kind of serious announcement, so when Casio announced it's plugging Google's Wear OS into the iconic G-Shock, we were appropriately skeptical. However, it's not a joke — the GSW-H1000 is part of Casio's rugged G-Squad Pro lineup, with a host of sports features on board.
As well as its brawny build with titanium backing, shock resistance and water resistance down to 200 meters, it's laden with sensors and is the first G-Shock watch with a color LCD screen. One big negative is the 1.5-day battery life with the color display, though that stretches out to a month in "multi timepiece mode." The GSW-H1000, which is real and not a joke, will ship in mid-May, with three colors to choose from (red, black and blue) for $700.
Now that iPhones have magnets in them, what can you do with them? For Belkin, apparently the answer is a robotic iPhone mount that keeps the phone looking at your face while you move around. That said, the face-tracking feature only works with Belkin's app — you can't use the mount with Zoom or FaceTime and expect it to follow you around, as well.
If that limitation doesn't bother you, take note that the $65 device is also compatible with official MagSafe cases and links to social networks. Continue reading.
Bloomberg reports that Amazon has been examining the idea of opening discount stores or outlets selling unsold electronics and home goods at steep discounts. "It's a way to be able to clean out warehouses and get through inventory without having to destroy it," one of Bloomberg's sources said. Amazon has reportedly dropped the idea for now because of the pandemic's impact on brick-and-mortar retail, plus it just launched the Fresh grocery store chain and wanted to focus on that. Continue reading.
With the start of a new month comes a long list of fresh content to check out on Netflix. Leading the company's slate of originals this month is Shadow and Bone, which adapts Leigh Bardugo's best-selling fantasy novel series. The show was penned and produced by Eric Heisserer of Arrival and Bird Box fame and will start streaming on April 23rd. Next week, viewers can choose between a Dolly Parton tribute documentary and Thunder Force, a new superhero movie starring Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer.
Finally, on April 30th, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller will follow up their hit film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse with another animated feature, The Mitchells vs. The Machines. Continue reading.
In a new behind-the-scenes video, visual effects studio Industrial Light & Magic details the enhancements it made to the technology to coincide with season two of The Mandalorian.
To start, it made the Stagecraft LED stage even bigger and directors extended practical sets in new shapes. "By the second season, ILM developed some software that was specific to this technology and to what the hardware was capable of," said series showrunner Jon Favreau. One of those improvements is Helios, the in-house rendering engine ILM built to power the volume.
With season two, the tool gave the production team even more control over the set, enabling them to manipulate virtual items on the fly based on what they see in the camera. That created memorable scenes from last season that added new smoke and water effects that just weren't possible before. Continue reading.
