Hasta La Gadget!

Prepare to be hosted by Ken if you manage to nab a booking of the Barbie Dreamhouse in Malibu, CA through Airbnb. Even though Ryan Gosling is presumably not part of the deal, Ken’s version of the Barbie Dreamhouse does include an exclusive stay with your own skates and surfboard—all the better to live your best …

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In a series of messages on his Telegram channel, Pavel Durov has revealed that the instant messaging service is launching its own take on Stories next month. He shared that users have been asking for the feature for years but the company has initially been against it “since Stories are already everywhere.” Telegram ultimately decided to listen to its users, though, and has created a version of its own that seems to be more customizable than other platforms’. 

The messaging service’s Stories feature looks just like Messenger’s in that they show up as expandable bubbles at the top of the conversation list. Users will be able to define who sees their posts and can choose to make them viewable to the public, only to their contacts (with exceptions), just a few selected contacts or to list of Close Friends. They can add captions and links to their Stories, and they can tag other people. Users can also share photos and videos captured by the front-facing and the rear cameras simultaneously, similar to posts found on BeReal. 

If users don’t want to see posts from a certain contact, they can move them to the “Hidden” list in their contacts section. But what’s perhaps the best thing about Telegram’s take so far is that users will be able to choose when their Stories expire. They can set them to disappear in 24 hours like in other services, but they can also choose to make them disappear within 6, 12 or 48 hours. Users can even permanently display their Stories on their profile page. If they do, they won’t be forced to make them viewable to anybody and can still choose the privacy setting for each post. 

Durov said Telegram has been testing the feature internally and that it’s in the last stages of the testing phase. The company plans to make Stories available on its app sometime in early July. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/telegram-stories-with-customizable-expiration-times-are-coming-next-month-113535087.html?src=rss

Lordstown Motors is having an eventful day, to say the least. The Ohio-based EV startup has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in hopes of finding a buyer and is suing its investment partner, Foxconn Technology, for breach of contract and fraud. In its suit, Lordstown claims Foxconn’s actions “had the intended effect of destroying the business of an American startup.”

Foxconn, primarily known for assembling Apple’s iPhones, bought Lordstown’s Ohio factory in late 2021 (around when General Motors jumped ship) and a year later agreed to invest another $170 million through the purchase of common shares and newly created preferred shares. But, in April, Foxconn threatened to terminate the deal, claiming that Lordstown’s stock dropping below $1 per share for 30 trading days in a row represented a breach in their agreement. The car manufacturer said the claims had no merit and accused Foxconn of acting in “bad faith” to get control of the factory and its workers without intending to support Endurance, its first pickup EV. 

The decision to declare Bankruptcy doesn’t exactly come as a surprise — in May, Lordstown said production would likely stop “in the near future” and that the company would file if its deal with Foxconn didn’t proceed. Lordstown also reported a $171.1 million loss for 2023’s first quarter. 

Endurance has also faced continual problems from production to the final product. Even after Foxconn bought the factory, Lordstown failed to meet its forecasted vehicle production numbers for 2022, cutting it from 500 to 50 trucks. Then came an underperformance in miles, with the Environmental Protection Agency recently rating the pickup’s range as just 174 miles versus its promised 250. Its competitors, the Ford F-150 Lightning and the Rivian R1T, can go 240 and 289 miles, respectively. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lordstown-motors-sues-foxconn-and-declares-bankruptcy-100549575.html?src=rss

Lordstown Motors is having an eventful day, to say the least. The Ohio-based EV startup has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in hopes of finding a buyer and is suing its investment partner, Foxconn Technology, for breach of contract and fraud. In its suit, Lordstown claims Foxconn’s actions “had the intended effect of destroying the business of an American startup.”

Foxconn, primarily known for assembling Apple’s iPhones, bought Lordstown’s Ohio factory in late 2021 (around when General Motors jumped ship) and a year later agreed to invest another $170 million through the purchase of common shares and newly created preferred shares. But, in April, Foxconn threatened to terminate the deal, claiming that Lordstown’s stock dropping below $1 per share for 30 trading days in a row represented a breach in their agreement. The car manufacturer said the claims had no merit and accused Foxconn of acting in “bad faith” to get control of the factory and its workers without intending to support Endurance, its first pickup EV. 

The decision to declare Bankruptcy doesn’t exactly come as a surprise — in May, Lordstown said production would likely stop “in the near future” and that the company would file if its deal with Foxconn didn’t proceed. Lordstown also reported a $171.1 million loss for 2023’s first quarter. 

Endurance has also faced continual problems from production to the final product. Even after Foxconn bought the factory, Lordstown failed to meet its forecasted vehicle production numbers for 2022, cutting it from 500 to 50 trucks. Then came an underperformance in miles, with the Environmental Protection Agency recently rating the pickup’s range as just 174 miles versus its promised 250. Its competitors, the Ford F-150 Lightning and the Rivian R1T, can go 240 and 289 miles, respectively. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lordstown-motors-sues-foxconn-and-declares-bankruptcy-100549575.html?src=rss

Meta has added new tools to its Family Center that will allow parents to see and control how their teenage kids are using Messenger. They’ll now be able to view how much time their kid spends on the app, along with their privacy and safety settings. Parents and guardians will be able to see who can message their child and who can see their stories. In addition, they can get notifications for changes to their teen’s contact list and for any changes their kid makes to their privacy and safety settings. If their child reports a user to Meta, parents can also get notified if their teen chooses to share the information with them. 

The social networking giant said these are but the first batch of parental supervision tools coming to Family Center, and that it plans to add more over the next year. While they’re only rolling out for users in the US, UK and Canada at the moment, Meta intends to expand their availability to other regions around the world in the coming months. Take note that Facebook has had parental controls for Messenger Kids for years, and these tools are for the main Messenger app, meant for parents with teens 13 to 18 years old. 

Facebook/Meta

Aside from these new parental tools, Meta will now show teens a notification when they’ve already spent 20 minutes on Facebook to urge them to set daily time limits. For Instagram, it’s exploring a new nudge feature that will ask teens to close the app if they’ve been scrolling Reels at night. Meta has also expanded its parental controls for Instagram to show parents how many friends their teen has in common with accounts they follow and are followed by. Plus, teens will get a new notification after they’ve blocked someone, encouraging them to add their parents to supervise their account. 

Instagram/Meta

The company has a few safety updates that aren’t teen-focused, as well. It’s rolling out Quiet Mode, which mutes all notifications and changes a user’s profile status, on Instagram around the world over the coming weeks. It’s also currently testing a couple of new features meant to protect Instagram users from unwanted DMs. Users must now send an invite to connect to someone who doesn’t follow them before being able to send a message. Further, they can only send one invite at a time and can’t send more until the recipient accepts it. These message request invites are text only, prohibiting users from being able to send photos, videos or voice messages to other users they’re not connected to. 

Instagram

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/facebook-adds-parental-control-tools-to-messenger-090034344.html?src=rss