Hasta La Gadget!

Prime Video users will soon see ads on shows and movies unless they pay an extra $3 per month on top of their regular Prime subscription, Amazon has announced. “Starting in early 2024, Prime Video shows and movies will include limited advertisements,” the company wrote, noting that pricing for the ad-free tier will be announced for additional countries “at a later date.”

The news represents a significant change to Prime Video, which hadn’t previously served ads next to movie and TV content as part of Amazon’s Prime subscription. The streaming service is currently included for free with a Prime or $9 per month if purchased separately, offering third-party content (movies, TV series, etc.) and Amazon Original content produced by Amazon Studios. That includes series like The Boys and The Citadel, along with movies including Air, Manchester by the Sea and The Big Sick. 

It didn’t say how many ads you’ll have to watch, though Variety suggests “limited advertisements” could mean around four minutes per hour. “We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers,” the company said. “Ads in Prime Video content will be introduced in the US, UK, Germany, and Canada in early 2024, followed by France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, and Australia later in the year. No action is required for Prime members. We’re not making changes in 2024 to the current price of Prime membership.”

The news follows a report early this summer that Amazon was planning some kind of ad-supported Prime Video tier. Now, it turns out that’s just the regular subscription, with the new tier effectively an add-on.

Amazon justified the decision, saying it will allow it to “continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time.” It also cited the “vast selection of movies and series, including Amazon Originals and live sports, along with critically acclaimed series like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”. The company recently spent millions to acquire rights to NFL Thursday Night Football and acquired MGM Studios in 2021 for $8.5 billion. 

Amazon has already dallied with ads, as it currently shows them next to live sports streaming on Prime. Amazon also offers the FreeVee ad-supported site with over 100 Prime Video original series, available on its Fire TV stick, on other devices and as an app. 

Ad-free Prime Video certainly made Amazon’s $139 per year ($15 per month) Prime membership compelling. With that now watered down, and Amazon also introducing new fees for same-day deliveries, it will be interesting to see if there’s any impact on subscriber numbers. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazons-prime-video-will-show-ads-unless-you-pay-3-more-per-month-111709384.html?src=rss

Jaguar is joining Mercedes, Polestar and other automakers in adopting Tesla’s NACS chargers for vehicles sold in North America starting in 2025. The company signed an agreement with Tesla to gain access to its 12,000+ Superchargers for its “current and future customers” using the standard.

“The next generation luxury electric Jaguars, launching in 2025, will incorporate the NACS connector without the need for an adapter in the USA, Canada and Mexico,” it said in a press release, adding that it will adopt the standard for “vehicles and home chargers, and source and supply adapters from Tesla for I-PACE drivers once available.” Jaguar noted that its in-house battery and power electronics technology will optimize charging rates on both Tesla’s current V3 (250 kW) and upcoming V4 (350 kW) Superchargers. 

Jaguar has been quiet of late around its EV plans, but announced back in 2021 that it would become an all-electric brand by 2025, with its Land Rover division rolling out six new EVs in 2024 — all as part of a sweeping “Reimagine” strategy. The company will use a pure electric architecture for its Jaguar lineup, replacing gas and hybrid vehicles like the XE, XF, E-Pace and F-Pace with all-electric versions. Land Rover, meanwhile, will introduce two separate platforms for all-electric and hybrid vehicles. 

Many, if not most, major automakers have now signed up to use Tesla’s Supercharger network, including Fisker, Ford, GM, Honda, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Polestar, Rivian and Volvo. A number are reported to be in talks, including VW, Stellantis and Hyundai. In addition, other networks are adopting NACs, including ChargePoint and Electrify America. And recently, Tesla received $160 million in funding to expand its Supercharger network in year. 

All of that shows the wisdom in Tesla’s gambit over ten years ago to make Superchargers a strong selling point for its EVs. Now, the network is becoming a key feature for other manufacturers as well — to the likely benefit of Tesla. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/jaguar-signs-on-to-use-teslas-chargers-too-095503057.html?src=rss

While most modern flip phone makers have been focusing on maximizing their cover screen sizes, a new contender decided to branch away with a circular one instead. Following its flagship foldable from earlier this year, China’s Tecno has also unveiled its first flip phone, the Phantom V Flip 5G, which attempts to stand out from the crowd by offering a round external AMOLED display. Even though the Huawei P50 Pocket was the first clamshell to carry a similar feature, Tecno’s counterpart comes in at a more practical 1.32 inches and a slightly sharper 352ppi, which should translate to easier selfies, richer notifications and handier widgets — namely weather, vitality rings, audio recording, timer and more.

The Phantom V Flip is powered by MediaTek’s Dimensity 8050 5G chip, so it’s going head to head with the Moto Razr in the mid-range segment. As is the case with Tecno’s recent devices, this one is competitively priced — at around $600, though it’s only available in India initially (49,999 rupees, to be precise), with more markets to follow later. At least you get Google services pre-installed on this one, unlike most of its hometown buddies. As a bonus, Tecno’s HiOS 13.5 (based on Android 13) comes with its own voice assistant, “Ella,” which has ChatGPT built in.

Despite the price point, the spec sheet doesn’t disappoint here. The Phantom V Flip is 14.95mm thick when folded and 6.95mm thick when opened. At 195g, this turns out to be the heaviest device in the flip phone category to date. This is somewhat justified by the reasonable 4,000mAh battery (Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5 only has 3,700mAh), which supports 45W fast charging — 15 minutes will refill a depleted battery to 50 percent, or wait for 45 minutes for a full charge. Sadly, there’s no wireless charging here, for those who care.

Tecno

The Phantom V Flip packs a 6.9-inch FHD+ (2,640 x 1,080) flexible screen on the inside, with a 10-120Hz LTPO refresh rate and 360Hz touch sampling. The hinge can hover at any angle between 30 degrees and 150 degrees, which is handy for selfies via the rear-facing cameras — you can even use gesture or voice to trigger your shots.

Photography-wise, you get a 64-megapixel f/1.7 main camera, a 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera and a small LED ring flash, with all three features positioned along the circumference of the circular cover screen. When unfolded, there’s a 32-megapixel punch-hole selfie camera at the top, complemented with an LED flash in the top screen bezel to make you look prettier in video calls.

Tecno didn’t cheap out on accessories, either. The Phantom V Flip is shipped with a protective case that shields all four sides of the phone, except the opening for the fingerprint reader and volume rocker. The case also has a ring attached above the hinge, allowing you to wear the phone as a pendant or hold it more securely.

While it’s unclear whether the $600 Phantom V Flip will make it to western markets, Tecno does appear to have an opportunity to spook its more established competitors in this ever-growing flip phone segment — especially before the new Moto Razr enters the US, if ever (in China, it starts from around $550). That said, it’s just a matter of time before the likes of Honor and Xiaomi offer similarly competitive clamshells.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tecnos-phantom-v-flip-phone-puts-a-circular-display-on-its-cover-090836663.html?src=rss

Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard looked close to being dead not long ago, but it just took a big step toward clearing its last major obstacle. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced that Microsoft’s revised agreement “substantially addresses previous concerns and opens the door to the deal being cleared.” The agreement is still in consultation, but final approval now looks highly likely. 

“The CMA considers that the restructured deal makes important changes that substantially address the concerns it set out in relation to the original transaction earlier this year,” the regulator wrote. “In particular, the sale of Activision’s cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft will prevent this important content — including games such as Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft — from coming under the control of Microsoft in relation to cloud gaming.”

The UK regulator initially blocked the merger over fears it would hand Microsoft a 60 to 70 percent share of the cloud gaming market, making it a monopoly player. That in turn would give it “incentive to withhold games from competitors and substantially weaken competition in this important growing market.” 

In response, Microsoft announced last month that it would sell Activision Blizzard streaming rights to Ubisoft in an attempt to win UK approval. It said that if the merger goes through, it would transfer “cloud streaming rights for all current and new Activision Blizzard PC and console games released over the next 15 years to Ubisoft Entertainment… in perpetuity.” Ubisoft said in a separate release that the titles would be available across a range of services. 

The revised deal “substantially addresses most concerns,” the CMA wrote, but it still wants to ensure that provisions in the sale of Activision’s cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft can’t be “circumvented, terminated or not enforced.” It added that Microsoft has offered remedies to ensure that those rights are enforceable, and those should resolve any residual concerns. 

Microsoft managed to turn the deal around after taking a lot of blows from regulators. Late last year, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued to block the merger, but was later rebuffed by a federal court. The UK’s CMA rejected the deal a few months later, but Microsoft appealed the decision and was later given more time to submit an amended deal. It made a major concession with the sale of streaming rights to Ubisoft — and that seems like it may have done the trick. We should know soon, as the CMA’s consultation on Microsoft’s proposed remedies closes on October 6. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsofts-activision-merger-set-to-get-its-final-uk-approval-083315786.html?src=rss

X users will soon no longer be able to make posts viewable only to a smaller group of friends. The website formerly known as Twitter has announced that it’s deprecating Circles on October 31st. Users won’t be able to add people to their Circles anymore or create new posts limited to a tight-knit group. They will, however, retain the capability to remove people from the group if they no longer want certain accounts to be able to see their old limited posts.

In April this year, users discovered a bug that exposed Circle tweets to outsiders. Turns out their posts were exposed due to a security incident, which was only one of the technical issues the website faced since Elon Musk took over. 

The company launched Circles in August 2022 after nearly four months of testing. Similar to Instagram’s “close friends” feature, it gives users a way to share their thoughts with people they trust or people with the same interests without having to make it visible to the rest of the world. It’s for those worried about getting harassed on the platform and those who don’t want accounts that are fully public. X previously said that users with Circles posted more overall during its testing period, but it looks like the feature didn’t quite get enough interest to become an indispensable part of the website.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/x-is-disabling-circles-on-october-31-064510783.html?src=rss