Jan 22
Peter Navarro Claims He Saw ‘Nothing But Peaceful People’ On Insurrection Day
Posted in: Today's ChiliTrump’s former trade adviser refused to acknowledge the violence on Jan. 6, 2021.
Jan 22
If you’ve been looking at a set of AirPods but hesitate due to concerns about fit, don’t forget about the Beats Fit Pro earbuds. They have the many of the same perks including ANC and spatial audio, but offer a more comfortable design. If you’ve been hesitating due to the $200 price, you can now pick up a pair at either Amazon or Walmart for $153.11, for a savings of 23 percent.
But Beats Fit Pro at Amazon – $153.11Buy Beats Fit Pro at Walmart – $153.11
The Beats Fit Pro wireless earbuds earned an excellent 87 Engadget review score for their solid around performance. On the comfort front, the “fit wing” tip can bend to a wide range of ear shapes while keeping the buds firmly in place. They also offer physical buttons to answer calls, control volume, play/pause music and skip tracks.
The sound quality is “balanced and powerful” with punchy bass as you’d expect with Beats earphones, while also offering great clarity. They support Apple’s spatial audio, giving you the ability to listen to Dolby Atmos Music content in Apple Music, or TV/movies on Apple TV. They also support Adaptive EQ that adjusts low- and mid-range frequencies depending on ambient sound to keep audio quality consistent. The ANC is powered by Apple’s H1 chip and does a solid job of blocking distractions when you need it to.
The regular $200 price is fairly high and we haven’t seen them on sale much yet, so the discount is welcome news if you’ve been eyeing a pair. Keep in mind that the $153.11 price won’t show in Amazon until you add it to your cart, but the discount is there. The deal also only applies to the black color model.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
Jan 22
Authorities searched for at least three of the monkeys that appeared to have escaped the vehicle in Pennsylvania.
Jan 22
Now that the James Webb Space Telescope is safely on the way to its orbital home, Cherlynn and Devindra chat about why it’s so important with Space.com editor-in-chief Tariq Malik, as well as science and technology journalist Swapna Krishna. They dive into why it’s such a big upgrade from Hubble, as well as the discoveries astronomers hope to make about exoplanets, black holes and our own solar system. Also, Senior Editor Jessica Conditt joins to chat about Microsoft’s mammoth $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Is more consolidating a bad thing for the video game industry? (Spoilers: Probably.)
Listen above, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!
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Topics
James Webb Space Telescope post-launch update – 1:07
Microsoft buys Activision/Blizzard for $68.7 billion – 31:03
Working On – 58:46
Pop Culture Picks – 1:01:06
Video livestream
Credits
Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar
Guests: Tariq Malik and Swapna Krishna
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien
Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos and Luke Brooks
Graphic artists: Luke Brooks, Kyle Maack
Jan 22
Otherwise, it could have been “absolutely a lovely day,” Trump told Sean Hannity.
Jan 22
Leak offers a glimpse at Microsoft's canceled Andromeda OS for dual-screen devices
Posted in: Today's ChiliBefore Microsoft announced the Surface Duo in 2019, the company spent several years working on an operating system codenamed Andromeda. It was envisioned as a reboot of Windows Phone with an emphasis on inking. The company worked on the software until it eventually decided to instead include Android on the Surface Duo. Until now, we’ve only seen glimpses of Andromeda in things like patent filing. But Windows Central recently obtained an internal build of the operating system and installed it on a Lumia 950.
Outside of a rare look at an unfinished project, what’s interesting about seeing Andromeda after all these years is how many of the ideas Microsoft was working on then either made their way to the Surface Duo or apps the company has released since. On the lock screen, for instance, you can see an early version of the Surface Duo’s peek functionality. Meanwhile, a lot of the features you see on the “Journal” home screen eventually made their way to the company’s Whiteboard app, and that’s something you can download from the Microsoft Store.
At the same time, it’s an interesting look at what could have been. Even in the software’s unfinished state, there’s a lot we see in the video that’s genuinely different from anything Android and iOS offer, even to this day. The fact Andromeda allowed you to jot down notes directly on the lock screen, and that they would still be there the next time you unlocked the phone, is something that looks genuinely useful.
Of course, there are probably many good reasons Microsoft ultimately decided not to pursue Andromeda. Launching a device that does something different, let alone a completely new operating system, is no easy task in a mature marketplace. Unless a device does nearly everything right, it’s difficult to overcome the fact most people tend to stick with products they know and are comfortable with.
Jan 22
Zara Rutherford always dreamed of flying solo around the world, but she never thought it would actually happen. It was “expensive, dangerous, complicated, a logistical nightmare,” Rutherford told herself. However, as she was finishing school, she decided to do something crazy: try to make her dream come true. She…
Jan 22
The Buddhist teacher had returned to his native Vietnam to live out the rest of his days.
Jan 22
Call of Duty: Warzone quality assurance workers at Activision Blizzard studio Raven Software have announced plans to unionize with the Communication Workers of America (CWA). They have asked the company to voluntarily recognize their group, which is called the Game Workers Alliance. The 34-person unit had the support of 78 percent of eligible workers, according to Polygon.
Today workers at @RavenSoftware launched @WeAreGWA with CWA!
Solidarity with #GWAUnion! https://t.co/Z1jxHG8G2W
— CWA (@CWAUnion) January 21, 2022
“We ask that Activision Blizzard management respect Raven QA workers by voluntarily recognizing CWA’s representation without hesitation,” CWA secretary-treasurer Sara Steffens said in a statement. “A collective bargaining agreement will give Raven QA employees a voice at work, improving the games they produce and making the company stronger. Voluntary recognition is the rational way forward.”
Workers have given Activision Blizzard until January 25th to respond to their request, according to The Washington Post. If the company fails to do so, the group will file for a union election through the National Labor Relations Board and, because the workers have a supermajority of votes, they’d be able to formalize the union without voluntary recognition from Activision Blizzard. Should the group approve the union in an election, the company would need to bargain with workers in good faith.
Sixty Raven workers went on strike in early December after Activision Blizzard laid off 12 QA contractors, despite a request from Raven leadership to keep them employed. The workers demanded the company convert all Raven QA contractors into full-time employees. So far, Activision Blizzard has reportedly been playing hardball and declining to meet with with the striking workers. Warzone players have been grousing about the game’s bugs, which QA workers are tasked with finding and addressing.
“Activision Blizzard is carefully reviewing the request for voluntary recognition from the CWA, which seeks to organize around three dozen of the company’s nearly 10,000 employees,” the company told Polygon. “While we believe that a direct relationship between the company and its team members delivers the strongest workforce opportunities, we deeply respect the rights of all employees under the law to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union.” It added that it has raised minimum pay for Raven employees by 41 percent over the last few years, extended paid time off and converted over 60 percent of the studio’s contractors into employees.
The CWA claims Activision Blizzard has “used surveillance and intimidation tactics, including hiring notorious union busters, to silence workers.” Last July, the company hired WilmerHale, a law firm with a history of cracking down on unionization efforts, to review its HR policies.
The Game Workers Alliance said its principles include solidarity, equity, diversity, transparency and sustainability. “Shortened development timelines sacrifice project quality and damage the mental and physical health of our team,” it wrote on Twitter. “‘Crunch’ is not healthy for any product, worker, or company.”
Our Principles:
-Solidarity: The voices of workers should be heard by leadership. By uniting in solidarity, we can ensure our message is further reaching, and more effective. (1/8)
— Game Workers Alliance 💙#WeAreGWA (@WeAreGWA) January 21, 2022
Earlier this week, Microsoft announced an agreement to buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, the biggest deal in video game history. If shareholders and regulators approve the acquisition, which could have enormous ramifications for the industry, the merger should close by June 2023.
In an interview with the Post on Thursday, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer noted that he didn’t have much experience with unions personally after working at Microsoft for over three decades. “So I’m not going to try to come across as an expert on this, but I’ll say we’ll be having conversations about what empowers them to do their best work, which as you can imagine in a creative industry, is the most important thing for us,” he said.
On Wednesday, Activision Blizzard said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing regarding the planned merger that, “To the knowledge of the company, there are no pending activities or proceedings of any labor union, trade union, works council or any similar labor organization to organize any employees of the company or any of its subsidiaries with regard to their employment with the company or any of its subsidiaries.” The week that Raven workers went on strike, Activision Blizzard sent its employees a letter imploring them “to consider the consequences” of signing union cards.
As Bloomberg‘s Jason Schreier noted, the Game Workers Alliance is the first union within a AAA gaming company in North America. Last month, workers at Vodeo Games formed the first video game union in the US. Management at the indie studio voluntarily recognized Vodeo Workers United. Swedish publisher Paradox Interactive signed a collective bargaining agreement with unions in 2020, while Japanese–Korean publisher Nexon recognized a workers’ union in 2018.
Jan 22
If you’re looking to invest into cryptocurrency, choosing a well-established exchange is a good idea. There are reasons for this, such as reliability where you can trust that they won’t suddenly take all your money and disappear into the ether. Then there is also security, where you don’t want your exchange of choice hacked and having your crypto stolen.
Unfortunately for Crypto.com, a cryptocurrency exchange, it appears that they were hacked. In a post on its website, the exchange confirmed that a hack took place several days ago which resulted in over $30 million worth of bitcoin and Ethereum being stolen. However, there is good news because the exchange has since suspended withdrawals and reimbursed customers who were affected.
According to Crypto.com, “On 17 January 2022, Crypto.com learned that a small number of users had unauthorized crypto withdrawals on their accounts. Crypto.com promptly suspended withdrawals for all tokens to initiate an investigation and worked around the clock to address the issue. No customers experienced a loss of funds. In the majority of cases we prevented the unauthorized withdrawal, and in all other cases customers were fully reimbursed.”
The exchange has also since revoked all 2FA tokens for all its users and moved to a completely new 2FA infrastructure. That being said, if you do plan to trade and hold cryptocurrency, you might want to consider moving your assets to a cold wallet, which is basically an offline wallet like a USB drive meaning that short of you losing that drive, no one else will be able to access your funds.
Crypto.com Exchange Loses $30 Million In Cryptocurrency In Hack
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