samedi 4 mars 2023

Amazon’s sleep-tracking Halo Rise smart alarm drops to a new all-time low price

Amazon Halo Rise on a nightstand with a plant, while a person sleeps in the background. — *The Amazon Halo Rise is on sale for $99.99 ($40 off) at multiple retailers.* | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Welcome to the weekend — and the last one where you’ll be able to enjoy an “extra” hour of sleep before you lose it next Sunday. That’s right: Daylight Saving Time begins in the US next Sunday, March 12th, which means the clocks will spring forward one hour, the days will get brighter, and we’re all going to wake up the following Monday morning even sleepier than usual.

That sucks, but today’s deal on Amazon’s Halo Rise might help make the adjustment to the change in time go a little smoother. Right now, you can buy Amazon’s latest wellness gadget at a new all-time low of $99.99 ($40 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Lowe’s. Part smart alarm clock, the Rise will gently wake you up during your lightest sleeping stage with a natural morning light so getting up earlier feels less disorienting. At the same time, the Rise is a noninvasive sleep tracker that helps you improve your sleep habits as you adjust by generating daily reports and monitoring potential disturbances, like room temperature.

Oh, and just in case you find it hard to actually get to sleep, you can also use the Rise as a soothing warm smart table lamp you can use to read before bed. It’s also compatible with Echo devices, so you can ask Alexa to play some relaxing music. Read our review.

Shopping for an excellent pair of noise-canceling headphones? Good news: today we’ve found deals on two of the best on the market: Bose’s QuietComfort 45 and Apple’s AirPods Max. First up, Bose’s QuietComfort 45 are on sale at Amazon and Newegg for $279 ($50 off) in various colors. Not only do these over-ear headphones boast excellent noise cancellation, but they are also some of the most comfortable we’ve ever tested. As a result, you won’t suffer from ear fatigue when you want to tune out loud passengers while, say, flying out of town for spring break. You won’t need to fear running out of battery either as they can last 24 hours, and fitting them into your luggage won’t be a problem as the ear cups can even swivel and fold. Read our review.

If you’re more of an Apple aficionado, though, you can alternatively buy Apple’s AirPods Max for $449.99 ($100 off) in all colors at Best Buy, which is the lowest price we’ve seen this year. Compared to their plastic Bose and Sony rivals, the aluminum and steel AirPods Max feature superior build quality, albeit with a heavier weight. While their bass response isn’t quite as good, their sound quality is still phenomenal, thanks to nice features like spatial audio support. Plus, the Bluetooth headphones pair well with other Apple devices, making them a particularly good pick for iPhone owners. Read our review.

If you’re looking for a powerful Chromebook, you might want to take a look at today’s deal on Acer’s Chromebook Spin 714. With Intel’s fast 12th Gen processors and Thunderbolt 4 support, it’s our favorite Chromebook for power users and even comes with an included stylus to boot. Yet at the same time, it’s relatively quiet and produces very little heat in comparison to its predecessor. There’s also an HDMI port, which is rare to find in a thin Chromebook. While it’s a shame its battery life is slightly worse than its predecessor’s and its speakers aren’t that great, it’s an otherwise good Chromebook capable of handling more intense workloads than many of its rivals. You can buy it with 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and an Intel Evo Core i5 processor for $499 ($230 off) at Best Buy, which is just $20 shy of its all-time low price. Read our review.

Just a few more deals to wrap up the week...

Sonos is discounting a few of its refurbished speakers and soundbars for a limited time. You can, for instance, purchase the portable and water-resistant Sonos Roam smart speaker for $139 in black instead of $179, the price it sells for new. For more information about the sale, check out our full list of the best deals available. Read our review.
You can buy the Dart Zone Pro MK-3 foam blaster for $59.99 ($25 off) in red from Amazon. The well-designed blaster is powerful to use and capable of firing darts at up to 150 feet per second. Read our review.
All colors of the Beats Fit Pro have dropped to $159.95 ($40 off) at Amazon, including the yellow, coral pink, and blue models (a new all-time low for those colors that launched last month). The Beats Fit Pro are our favorite wireless buds for working out, sporting IPX4 water resistance and built-in wingtips for a more secure fit while running. Read our review.
Amazon’s offering its first cash discount on unlocked Samsung Galaxy S23 phones. You can, for example, buy the 256GB Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra with its stylus for $1,099.99 when you clip the on-page coupon for $100 off. Alternatively, you can buy Samsung’s Galaxy S23 in pink with 128GB of storage for $749.99 ($50 off) by clipping its on-page coupon. Read our reviews of Samsung’s Galaxy S23 / Galaxy S23 Ultra.
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening for Nintendo Switch is $39.99 ($20 off) at Target. The Switch reimagining of the 1993 Game Boy classic offers a whole new take on the original, with an adorable miniature-like aesthetic to its graphics. Read our review.

Sick of hunt-and-peck? Here’s how to touch-type like a pro

Illustration featuring a keyboard and various animated people typing on various computers — Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

As a kid, I started typing by tapping in cheat codes on ’90s PC games like Doom and Rise of the Triad, but it wasn’t until the covid pandemic that I finally ditched my awkward hunt-and-peck technique and learned touch typing.

If you don’t know how to touch type, there are very approachable ways you can learn on your own. You may think you do just fine ham-fisting your way through the keys, but with a little effort, you can learn to type faster, use your fingers more ergonomically, and rarely have to take your eyes off your screen as you clackity-clack-clack-clack along.

If you’ve been relying on only a few fingers to type, it’s going to take some time to adjust and get those idle digits cracking along. At first, you may type as slow as molasses while you learn what fingers are responsible for what keys, but that’s okay. Even if you start off at 20 words per minute, it’s key to focus on accuracy and building that new muscle memory from the ground up. Just like playing a musical instrument, hit the right notes first — then do it faster.

*The home row resting position and the corresponding keys for each finger.*

Touch typing begins with anchoring your fingers on the home row. On a QWERTY layout keyboard, that involves resting your left fingers on A, S, D, and F while your right digits are on J, K, L, and semicolon. Both thumbs should hover over / rest on the space bar. Do you feel a little raised bump, nub, or other signifier on the F and J keys? Most keycaps have some tactile accent making these two keys feel different. That’s how you find these important keys to anchor your index fingers and let the rest fall into place, even without looking.

It’s easy to get started with different kinds of training apps (the majority of which are free) that simplify the typing experience and even make it fun. In this article, I’ll first walk you through a variety of options for you to try and then add some dos and don’ts that should get you learning new finger muscle memory to make you much, much faster.

My favorite typing apps

Keybr

When it comes to free resources for learning how to touch-type, I highly recommend using Keybr on a desktop browser. This site automatically builds typing lessons for you by measuring your initial skill (accuracy and speed) and generates practice lessons that focus first on the most frequently used letters. It then slowly ramps up with more letters to type and fingers to use. You’ll be typing a mix of real words and fake words that follow familiar-looking phonetic structures, so it works your fingers without abstracting away all semblance of language.

By making an account with Keybr (via email, Google, or Facebook sign-ins), you can save your progress and pick up where you left off. Keybr also offers a premium account for a one-time $10 purchase that removes ads and disables ad trackers, though the on-page ads are not very invasive.

The key to using Keybr, just like any typing tool, is consistency. Keep practicing daily and the program will work you through all the keys before you know it. Once you’ve “unlocked” all the keys, keep forging ahead and focusing on accuracy. Your speed will slowly go up over time.

You can see from my practice calendar that my prime learning time was about six weeks of fairly consistent practicing. Keybr also saves other nifty data about your progress in your profile, like your best and worst letters.

And then, just when you start to get some confidence, try turning on capital letters and punctuation in Keybr’s settings. I assure you, it will suck at first, but you gotta learn those shift keys eventually. Best practice dictates that you should use the pinky finger of the opposite hand that’s typing the capital letter, but in reality, I’m sure many of us slip on that fine detail.

I don’t love that Keybr adds capitalization and punctuation to every single word when you enable those settings, but you can always switch it off when you want to pivot back to focusing on character speed. Plus, once you start feeling generally comfortable touch typing without looking, you can always switch from Keybr to another program that incorporates more real-world use of caps and symbols.

Monkeytype

Once you start getting the hang of touch typing, the site that I continuously return to is Monkeytype. Monkeytype is the sleekest, most customizable type tester I’ve come across. Its clean interface allows you to load it up and hammer out some phrases in a matter of seconds, or you can dive into the options and custom-tailor something unique. The site has all kinds of cool templates and styles for you to customize. You can test based on time or phrase length, and you can also choose to incorporate punctuation, capitalization, longer or shorter passages, or extra-hard parameters — like failing if you make a single mistake or dip below a words-per-minute threshold. You can even load up randomly generated tests that pull from movie, book, and TV quotes.

Really, there’s a lot of fun stuff to tinker with on Monkeytype, ranging from the color layout to weird graphical effects that may test your threshold for motion sickness as much as your typing.

TypeLit.io

Little Women *isn’t just a timeless American coming-of-age novel — it makes for a fun typing exercise.*

Want to practice typing while reading classics by George Orwell, Dante Alighieri, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and more? TypeLit.io has dozens of books for you to practice typing with, like The War of the Worlds or Sense and Sensibility. There’s even William Strunk Jr.’s The Elements of Style, so you can learn 1920s-era American-English writing style while you type.

This may be a bit of a novelty, but it’s a charming take on typing practice. It offers thousands of pages of actual literary text, which makes for some good exercises.

Typing Trainer

Brace yourself for some antiquated design and graphics. Typing Trainer may look like the cheesy programs we used as kids, but it’s still an effective learning tool. You can work your way through a series of courses from the very beginning or jump into some timed tests.

Typing Trainer also has some browser games you can play, where you can race a car or blast alien spaceships by, you guessed it, typing. They’re pretty basic, with an early-2000s flash game aesthetic, but they’re a fun distraction to practice with.

Mario Teaches Typing

*Mamma mia! What the hell is going on with Toad’s face in this title screen?*

Many of us olds might remember the 1992 DOS classic Mario Teaches Typing, made for Nintendo by Interplay. You can now play the whole game free in your browser courtesy of the Internet Archive. It’s very dated and probably not the best way to learn today since it’s stuck in the old ways of grueling and unrelenting repetition using lots of individual letters and repeated sequences, but it’s worth it for a laugh and the nostalgia trip. Fun fact: this was the first game where Mario spoke, and the voice lines are hilariously bad, sounding like they’re trying the Italian-American accent thing way too hard.

Plus, there’s a writing prompt about the American Civil War that seems to downplay the significance of slavery in the cause of the war. So, yeah, be prepared for some problematic stuff buried in there.

Epistory - Typing Chronicles

*Not only do you type your way through battles in* Epistory, but the movement keys are situated on the home row to keep your hands in the right position. It takes a little getting used to, but in this case, it’s better than using traditional WASD controls.

Epistory - Typing Chronicles is a charming Steam-based action-adventure game with a papercraft aesthetic that uses typing to activate the powers of your fox-riding protagonist and fight monsters while exploring a fantasy world. I find Epistory to be a little dry at times, but it’s a pretty game, and I admire its fun twist on the typing genre. It’s a novel way to practice once you’ve started getting the hang of touch typing, and if you enjoy it, there’s even a sequel due out soon.

The Typing of the Dead: Overkill

*Putting down zombies with a rat-a-tat-tat as you feverishly tap away on your keys just somehow feels right.*

This is an on-rails shooter spinoff of the House of the Dead games, where typing words fires bullets at zombies. The Typing of the Dead: Overkill is a visceral experience that’s good for a cheap thrill while typing, though it shows some of its 2010s-era cringe with campy jokes and characters that lean on tired stereotypes. It’s like a C-movie video game with B-level typing, but I can’t help myself from enjoying it and recommending it.

More tips for learning touch-typing skills

Having gone through this learning process myself and being a bit of a nerd for mechanical keyboards (the two often go hand-in-hand), here’s some further advice and best practices on developing your touch-typing expertise.

Dos:

Practice regularly. Ideally, once a day.
Turn practicing into a regular routine or habit, like starting your day with it while drinking your morning coffee.
Test yourself with capital letters, punctuation, and even numbers. Real-world typing isn’t just lowercase letters!
Look ahead to the next word on a typing prompt. You type faster when you know what’s coming next. Think of it like Tetris.
Use the same methods for learning alternate keyboard layouts like Dvorak and Colemak. Sites like Keybr and Monkeytype offer training in all of them, though QWERTY is the default.
Use your newfound love of typing as an excuse to get into mechanical keyboards. Sure, they won’t help you type faster, but they sound and look cool, and it’s a fun rabbit hole to dive into.

Don’ts:

Don’t get impatient about getting faster.
Don’t ignore your typos. If a type trainer allows you to backspace and fix mistakes, you should do that to build the habit.
Don’t overdo the training. Your fingers can get overworked, and practicing too much in one sitting yields diminishing returns. Just like when you exercise, recovery and rest are important, too. You’ll probably be slightly faster when you pick it up the next day.
Don’t be elitist about typing. Just because you know how to touch-type doesn’t mean you get to judge others for not knowing or for typing slowly. Sometimes people online use Words Per Minute (WPM) as a measure of people’s worth or as a way of gatekeeping, and that’s just not cool. Instead, be welcoming and encourage others to get into it if they’re interested.

Uh oh! The crypto collapse has reached the real financial system

Liquidity trouble? | Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Silvergate, one of the most important banks in crypto, is in big trouble. Maybe existential trouble.

Silvergate didn’t start in crypto. It started in real estate. But in January 2014, the bank jumped into Bitcoin, a volatile year — Bitcoin started the year at $770 and closed above $300 in December. “Some of the companies that were being formed at the time to provide services to this budding Bitcoin space, many of them were struggling to find and maintain bank accounts,” said Silvergate CEO Alan Lane in a June 2022 episode of the Odd Lots podcast. “So that was really where we started.”

The focus at the bank was institutions — other companies, some of which work with consumers. For instance, Genesis, the now-bankrupt crypto-lending subsidiary of DCG, was among Silvergate’s early clients. The bank developed the Silvergate Exchange Network, which was a way for crypto institutions such as Coinbase, Gemini, and Kraken to transact in dollars 24/7. “We’ve got all of them,” Lane said in 2022. “All of the major ones. Anybody who is serious about regulation.”

Also among Lane’s clients: FTX. Federal prosecutors are now examining Silvergate’s role in banking Sam Bankman-Fried’s fallen empire. The more pressing problem is that the collapse of FTX spooked other Silvergate customers, resulting in an $8.1 billion run on the bank: 60 percent of its deposits that walked out the door in just one quarter. (“Worse than that experienced by the average bank to close in the Great Depression,” The Wall Street Journal helpfully explained.)

In its earnings filing, we found out that Silvergate’s results last quarter were absolute dogshit, a $1 billion loss. Then, on March 1st, Silvergate entered a surprise regulatory filing. It says that, actually, the quarterly results were even worse, and it’s not clear the bank will be able to stay in business.

In response, Coinbase, Galaxy Digital, Crypto.com, Circle, and Paxos have said they will stop using Silvergate — as did other, less notable clients. Tether, the controversial stablecoin that has had its own problems with banking, helpfully popped up to remind us it was not using Silvergate.

The laundry list of customers helps to explain why Silvergate’s woes are frightening. Very few banks will touch crypto because it’s so risky — and most traditional banks don’t let crypto clients transact in dollars 24/7. Access to banking that moves at the pace crypto does is rare, and only one other US bank can do it.

“If Silvergate goes out of business, it’s going to push funds and market makers further offshore,” Ava Labs president John Wu told Barron’s. The issue is how easy it is to get into actual cash dollars, which in finance-speak is called liquidity. Less liquidity makes transactions more difficult. Already there is a broader gap between the price at which a trade is expected to go through at and the actual price at which it executes, Wu said.

So Silvergate’s troubles are a problem for the entire crypto industry.

Stablecoins

Silvergate’s SEN was an important on- and off-ramp from the almighty dollar (and the almighty euro) into crypto. In 2022, Lane said all the “regulated, US-dollar backed stablecoin issuers” banked at Silvergate.

But for stablecoins issued by Circle, Paxos, and Gemini, among others, the SEN was important for making and burning their tokens, which were issued when someone deposited a dollar in their Silvergate bank accounts, Lane said.

Silvergate was a pass-through point for crypto. Stablecoins that are backed by dollars at least theoretically have cash or cash-like assets sitting in reserve somewhere. (The reason Tether is controversial is that there are questions about the existence and value of that reserve.) Silvergate’s job was to create a token when someone put a dollar into, say, USDC and to burn a token when someone took a dollar out. “We are this critical piece of infrastructure where folks, as they’re exiting the ecosystem and wanting to go to cash — those dollars pass through Silvergate,” Lane said in 2022.

You’ll notice I’m saying “was.” That’s because on March 3, Silvergate announced it was suspending SEN, effective immediately.

The dollar side of the transaction meant that Silvergate’s clients had to keep a bunch of cash on hand at the bank in order to pay each other and anyone who wanted to cash out. To make money here, Silvergate could do a few things. The safest is to buy, like, one-month Treasury bills at the Fed and call it a day.

Now, this being finance, taking more risk also may mean more profit. So Silvergate seems to have bought bonds. (Verge favorite Matt Levine at Bloomberg has a more in-depth analysis of how this worked if you want the gory details.) The problem is not that the bonds were super risky — it is that FTX sparked a mass exodus into dollars, and Silvergate suddenly had to come up with a bunch of money. Unfortunately, that meant selling its bonds at a loss in order to pay its obligations. Ironically, the bonds were pretty safe — “if its depositors had kept their money at Silvergate, its bonds would have matured with plenty of money to pay them back,” notes Levine.

Silvergate has another way of touching stablecoins besides serving as the on- and off-ramp for their transactions. It bought assets from Facebook’s doomed stablecoin attempt Libra, later renamed Diem, in January 2022. At the time, Silvergate said it would start making Diem available by the end of the year. The goal was a digital payments network.

Of course, that was before FTX blew up, and the Enron guy said it was worse than Enron. That’s the kind of thing that tends to change the regulatory environment.

Lending against Bitcoin

One of the other services Silvergate offered was the ability to lend dollars against Bitcoin. Now, Silvergate said in January on its fourth quarter earnings call that “all of our SEN Leverage loans continued to perform as expected, with no losses or forced liquidations.” Maybe these loans are fine! Silvergate doesn’t appear to have done anything exceptionally risky elsewhere.

But if you want to use your Bitcoin to take out a dollar loan, I think that just got harder.

Real estate

Silvergate had a life before crypto: it was a tiny bank focused on real estate deals in southern California. During that time, it never had more than $1 billion in deposits, according to The Financial Times. And Silvergate needed deposits. When Lane steered the company into crypto, its business ballooned. By 2021, Silvergate had more than $10 billion. The bank went public in 2019 at $12 a share and peaked at over $200 a share in 2021. (Shares closed at $5.77 on March 3.)

Real estate became less and less of a focus because crypto was a rocket ship for the bank. But that real estate connection proved useful for Silvergate in 2022, though. In the last quarter of the year, Silvergate got at least $3.6 billion in funds from Federal Home Loan Banks, a 1930s-era system that also originally dealt in mortgages.

To pay that off, Silvergate sold off more bonds. This is not ideal, and it is part of the reason Silvergate is in trouble. “If you are a bank you do not want to be pointing in the wrong direction, because that becomes self-fulfilling,” writes Bloomberg’s Levine. And indeed, this is why many of Silvergate’s major customers are spooked. Levine thinks that this may get some regulators interested in crypto banking.

Bizarre transactions

In fact, the Justice Department is already interested. There are some questions around bizarre transactions that took place at Silvergate.

For instance, Binance. Its supposedly independent arm, Binance.US, transferred more than $400 million to a trading firm called Merit Peak Ltd, Reuters reported. That firm is managed by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. “The CEO of Binance.US at the time, Catherine Coley, wrote to a Binance finance executive in late 2020 asking for an explanation for the transfers, calling them ‘unexpected’ and saying ‘no one mentioned them,’” Reuters wrote. Those transfers took place on Silvergate’s special network, SEN.

This is similar to some of the problems Silvergate faces around FTX. Alameda Research, the trading firm also owned by Bankman-Fried, opened an account with Silvergate in 2018. Bankman-Fried admitted he used Alameda accounts for FTX funds, commingling customer funds with those for the trading firm.

I don’t know if Silvergate did anything wrong. Possibly it didn’t! But having the Feds start poking around, asking questions? That is a headache and a distraction. It is the last thing a troubled bank needs.

What to expect

A lot of companies that banked with Silvergate have been out here talking about how they have minimal exposure to it, which is historically not a great sign. (See: Bankman-Fried’s notorious “FTX is fine. Assets are fine” tweet.)

But you know what? In this specific case, I’m inclined to believe them. First of all, just a fuckload of money has already left Silvergate. But second, SIlvergate was a pass-through bank for crypto; it didn’t hold onto reserves, and it didn’t pay interest. The problem here is less that some exchange or stablecoin is going to suffer a massive loss of customer money and more that it is now even harder for crypto companies to get banking.

The crypto industry desperately needs banks. But both of Silvergate’s competitors, Metropolitan and Signature, were pulling away from the sector even before this debacle. Metropolitan said in January that it was getting all the way out of crypto. And in December, Signature said it was going to get rid of $8 billion to $10 billion in digital asset-related funds.

I don’t know whether Silvergate is going to come through this. But I strongly suspect it has just gotten a lot harder to get into dollars from crypto and out of crypto into dollars. Silvergate dealt in liquidity, and a liquidity problem can become a solvency problem real fast. The entire crypto industry just got a lot more fragile.

vendredi 3 mars 2023

TikTok ‘acting too slow’ to tackle self-harm and eating disorder content

Organisations including NSPCC say app has chosen to deny the problem and must take meaningful action

TikTok has been urged to strengthen its content moderation policies around suicide and eating disorder material by organisations including the NSPCC and the Molly Rose Foundation.

The groups claimed TikTok had not acted swiftly enough following the publication of research suggesting the app’s recommendation algorithm pushes self-harm and eating disorder content to teenagers within minutes of them expressing interest in the topics.

In the UK, the youth suicide charity Papyrus can be contacted on 0800 068 4141 or email pat@papyrus-uk.org. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or by emailing jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org. You can contact the mental health charity Mind by calling 0300 123 3393 or visiting mind.org.uk.

UK chip designer Arm chooses US-only listing in blow to Rishi Sunak

PM had held talks with firm’s owner SoftBank in effort to make London first choice for tech flotations

The Cambridge-based chip designer Arm is to pursue a US-only listing this year, dealing a major blow to Rishi Sunak’s ambitions to make London the first choice for tech company flotations.

The company, which is owned by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, confirmed its preferred plan of seeking a US-only main listing later this year, spurning the UK despite heavy lobbying by successive prime ministers.

Labor board decision could force Google to negotiate with YouTube contractors

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Alphabet, Google’s parent company, should be considered a joint employer for a group of YouTube Music contractors. The workers are currently attempting to organize with the Alphabet Worker’s Union, and the NLRB’s decision could mean that the tech giant has to negotiate with them if they vote to unionize in an upcoming election.

The workers are directly employed by a company called Cognizant, which acts as an Alphabet subcontractor. However, the NLRB believes that Google has enough control over their “benefits, hours of work, supervision, and direction of work” that it counts as a partial employer, according to Bloomberg.

“We are proud to win a precedent setting victory not just for ourselves, but also for workers across the country,” said Sam Regan, a union organizer and YouTube Music contractor, who was quoted in a press release from the AWU. “Technology companies in particular have innovated new ways to deny responsibility for their workers’ livelihoods through subcontracting, gig work, and other poor employment practices.”

For its part, Alphabet intends to appeal the NLRB’s decision. “We simply don’t control these workers’ employment terms or working conditions,” spokesperson Courtenay Mencini told Bloomberg.

In addition to the union drive and fight to get Alphabet recognized as a joint employer, the contractors went on strike in February to protest return to office orders — the first strike at the company, according to the AWU. The dates for the union election haven’t been publicly announced yet.

Apple’s business-oriented ‘Mac notebook upgrade program’ has been discontinued

An Apple ad highlighting its $30 per month Mac upgrade program — Image: @MaxWinebach

Apple partnered with a bank in 2021 to let small businesses lease new M1 Macs for as low as $30 per month, with easy options to upgrade if and when more powerful devices are released. Now that’s no longer being offered, and businesses that had signed up will now have to sign up for a different program from CIT Group, the bank Apple partnered with, or go another route to get their computers.

A business that reached out to The Verge shared an email from CIT Group (aka First Citizens Bank) confirming the Mac Upgrade Program has ended. Now the bank is requesting the business to switch to its FMV lease or continue to lease the equipment at the same monthly rate — though it would run indefinitely with no buyout option. The Verge contacted both CIT and Apple to confirm the program’s status, but neither has responded at time of publication.

While the Mac Notebook Upgrade Program is no more, CIT Group still has Apple hardware leasing options that include a “$1 buyout lease.” Although the terms are not fully disclosed on the page, Apple has an active business financing page that seems to describe CIT’s offering.

The current offering includes “flexible” leasing options, 12 / 24 / 36-month terms, a $4,000 order minimum, financing for up to 25 percent of the value on accessories, and buyout options. The now-defunct program offered low monthly payments starting with the 13-inch MacBook Air for $30, 13-inch MacBook Pro for $39, 14-inch MacBook Pro for $60, and 16-inch MacBook Pro for $75. Immediate upgrades were available if a new MacBook Air or Pro with newer chips were released at any time after the first 90 days of the lease.

It also seemed like a part of Apple’s overall service-oriented shift, following the iPhone Upgrade program that has existed for consumers for several years, bundling AppleCare Plus and the ability to swap your phone annually, or the also consumer-aimed Upgrade Plus financing setup Apple offers for laptops purchased from Best Buy. It’s unclear if this program has shut down due to a lack of interest or a change in strategy, but there was a rumor that Apple might launch a full subscription program for the iPhone, perhaps by the end of this year.

Although Apple and CIT Group aren’t offering the Mac Upgrade Program anymore, Apple is still supporting small businesses on the services side with its Business Essentials IT management package. Businesses (and K-12 / High Ed) can also still order hardware directly from Apple’s special Business or Education store site and build POs — but normally for the full price.

Apple is also expected to launch its buy now, pay later service this year. Whether it launches or not, individuals — and perhaps individuals that own a small business — could always use an Apple Card and pay 0 percent financing on new Apple computers.

From Ghostbusters and Aliens to Lego Star Wars: 10 great video games based on movies

As Oscars night approaches, we pick out some of the rare movie tie-ins that don’t make you want to throw popcorn at your screen

Designed by ex-Atari luminary David Crane (Pitfall, Decathlon), Activision’s wonderful tie-in captured the humour and spirit of the classic comedy. Players set up their own ghostbusting franchises, buying equipment before setting out to capture spooks. With its use of digitised speech and a jaunty reproduction of the film’s soundtrack, it showed that games really could provide an authentic movie experience.

Sony might be forced to reveal how much it pays to keep games off Xbox Game Pass

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Sony might be forced to detail its PlayStation exclusivity deals and how much it pays for “blocking rights” to keep games off rival services like Xbox Game Pass. The FTC has sued to try and block Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition and kicked off a legal discovery process with Microsoft sending subpoenas to Sony to force it to reveal records, internal documentation, and emails from the company’s PlayStation unit.

Kotaku spotted that the FTC’s chief administrative judge D. Michael Chappell has now sided with Microsoft’s request for details of Sony’s PlayStation exclusivity deals. The request cover deals made after January 1st, 2019, including fees or agreements that prevented publishers from placing games on Xbox Game Pass. The judge’s decision comes after Microsoft previously accused Sony of paying for “blocking rights” to stop developers from adding their content to Xbox Game Pass.

Here are Microsoft’s latest claims, summarized in the word’s of Judge Chappell:

Microsoft argues that the Complaint in this case makes a number of allegations regarding high-performance video game console developers’ exclusivity arrangements with video game publishers. Microsoft states that it is aware that SIE requires many third-party publishers to agree to exclusivity provisions, including preventing the publishers from putting their games on Xbox’s multi-game subscription service, and that understanding the full extent of SIE’s exclusivity arrangements and their effect on industry competitiveness will assist in its defense.

“The nature and extent of SIE’s content-licensing agreements are relevant to the Complaint’s allegations of exclusivity arrangements between video game console developers and video game developers and publishers,” said Judge Chappell.

Microsoft had also been trying to get details on Sony’s deals dating back to 2012, but Judge Chappell labeled this “excessive,” and granted Sony’s request to limit the applicable time for document requests to 2019 instead.

It’s incredibly rare for details on such exclusivity deals to be made public, but the FTC case could open up some of the secrecy of the games industry in court hearings. The last time we saw similar details revealed by a court case was Epic Games vs. Apple in 2021. That case showed how Microsoft had explored reducing its Xbox store cut to shake up console gaming, how Sony had implemented cross-play platform fees, and that Fortnite was a PS4 cash cow.

The FTC case is still at the document discovery stage, with an evidentiary hearing scheduled for August 2nd, so we’re months away from seeing any potential new details.

Elsewhere, Microsoft’s Activision deal is likely to be approved by EU regulators. The combination of a binding 10-year agreement with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo platforms and a similar deal with Nvidia has reportedly convinced the European Commission to approve the acquisition. Microsoft still faces scrutiny from UK and US regulators though, with Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) offering possible remedies last month that include forcing Microsoft to sell off Activision Blizzard’s business associated with Call of Duty.

As A.I. Booms, Lawmakers Struggle to Understand the Technology

As A.I. Booms, Lawmakers Struggle to Understand the Technology Tech innovations are again racing ahead of Washington’s ability to regulate them, lawmakers and A.I. experts said.

jeudi 2 mars 2023

CNET editor-in-chief Connie Guglielmo will step down to work on AI-generated content

A graphic showing a robot performing multiple functions — Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Following monthslong questions about how CNET uses artificial intelligence tools, longtime CNET editor-in-chief Connie Guglielmo will step down from her role and take on a new job: senior vice president of AI content strategy and editor-at-large, according to an internal draft memo circulated today, a copy of which was obtained by The Verge.

In her new role, Guglielmo will work on machine learning strategy at Red Ventures, the private equity-backed media company that acquired the tech news site in 2020. Adam Auriemma, the former editor-in-chief of a different Red Ventures outlet, NextAdvisor, will become editor-in-chief. NextAdvisor, a personal finance outlet, appears to no longer be active — the site’s Twitter account hasn’t posted since January, it no longer appears on Red Ventures’ list of brands, and its website redirects to CNET.

Guglielmo’s move to her artificial intelligence role comes just hours after The Verge reported that mass layoffs were underway at CNET. At least a dozen employees lost their jobs, including some longtime figureheads at the company, according to sources with knowledge of the layoffs. The full extent of the layoffs is not yet clear as staff work to figure out which colleagues are affected — the number could be as high as 26 or more, sources say.

After Futurism revealed in January that CNET had been quietly publishing dozens of articles generated using AI, Guglielmo and other Red Ventures leaders defended the use of automation tools despite public concern around how the practice was implemented. The tool’s use was temporarily paused while Red Ventures conducted an internal audit of all AI-generated content across its sites. Soon after, more than half of the articles were updated with corrections.

Guglielmo, who has been CNET editor-in-chief for nine years, has defended the use of AI tools at the outlet. In late January, she said in a blog post that though the AI-generated stories were halted, the newsroom would continue testing AI tools that would “help [CNET’s] teams.”

Multiple former CNET staff told The Verge that editorial independence was chipped away under Guglielmo’s leadership and Red Ventures’ ownership. Former staff recounted multiple instances of employees being pressured to change their work to appease advertisers, and other team members were repeatedly asked to work on ads and prioritize work that served marketing purposes and ranked highly in Google search.

The latest round of layoffs is far from the first: former CNET staff told The Verge that some teams have been decimated by past cuts to the workforce, while other staffers have been pushed out over time.

Red Ventures didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.

Here are the best Kindle deals right now

The Kindle Paperwhite lying on a bunch of physical books while turned on. — *The 2021 Kindle Paperwhite Kids is on sale at Amazon and Best Buy starting at just $104.99.* | Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge

When it comes to finding a device to use to read your ebooks, you have a few options to choose from. You can always buy a tablet or use your phone, but those devices are multipurpose and can be used for a ton of things, like surfing the web or doom-scrolling on Twitter. If you are looking for something to strictly read books, e-readers, while niche, are designed to store all of your books in a virtual library with limited functionality.

Amazon, one of the pioneers of the e-reader, has dominated the space for years with its ever-expanding Kindle lineup, which consists of several unique models with their own pros and cons. The bulk of the devices function as simple ebook readers; however, with the Kindle Scribe, Amazon looks to be moving beyond books and into the realm of writing — something that should make future Kindles function more akin to physical paper.

Below, we’ve listed each model currently available. Sometimes, there isn’t a deal for one or any of the products, but we’ve mentioned the most recent sale price in those instances. Also, keep in mind that Amazon offers 20 percent off all of its Kindles when you trade in select devices, as well as $20 off when you purchase two (at least in some cases), so there are still other ways to save money when none of the models are available at a discount.

Best Kindle deals 2023

The best Kindle (2022) deals

In case you missed it, Amazon announced a new entry-level Kindle last year, one that’s designed to replace the 2019 model. The latest Kindle — which starts at $99.99 — puts Amazon’s base e-reader more in line with the most recent Kindle Paperwhite, providing a number of quality-of-life improvements in the process. The new model features longer battery life, a 300ppi screen, and now charges via USB-C instead of Micro USB. It also touts 16GB of storage by default and comes in a new “denim” color, which resembles the soft blue you might associate with jeans.

Although the new Kindle recently dropped to $74.99 in the run-up to Valentine’s Day, it’s currently only available at retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, and Target with ads and up to four months of Kindle Unlimited for $99.99, its standard retail price. It’s also available in its ad-free configuration at Amazon for $119.99 or with a power adapter and a fabric cover starting at $149.97, neither option of which is discounted. Regardless of whether you choose the standalone model or the bundle, however, the new Kindle remains a worthwhile option if you’re looking to pick up an e-reader for $40 less than the current price of the latest Paperwhite.

The best Kindle Kids (2022) deals

The new base Kindle wasn’t the only e-reader Amazon introduced in September. The new entry-level model has arrived alongside a new Kindle Kids, which is identical to the standard model but comes with a handful of accessories and provides age-appropriate content for younger readers who prefer digital books. Like the last-gen Kindle Kids, the new model retails for $20 more than the base model, bringing the MSRP to $119.99.

In terms of add-ons, the new Kindle Kids edition consists of four items: the device, a case, a two-year extended replacement guarantee (in the event the device breaks), and one year of Amazon Kids Plus. The latter is the biggest selling point of the device aside from the kid-friendly patterns, as it allows parents to grant their child access to a digital library of kid-friendly books like Percy Jackson and the entire Harry Potter series at no additional cost.

On the discount front, we recently saw the 2022 Kindle Kids drop to $84.99 ($30 off), which remains the e-reader’s all-time low. Right now, however, it’s only available at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target for its full retail price of $119.99.

*The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition is identical to the standard model but features wireless charging and a sensor to automatically adjust the backlight.*

The best Kindle Paperwhite (2021) deals

Amazon’s latest Kindle Paperwhite is its 11th-gen model, which comes with USB-C support, longer battery life, and a larger 6.8-inch display. The e-reader launched more than a year ago, and it's starting to receive steep discounts at retailers like Amazon and Best Buy. That said, you can also still occasionally pick up the last-gen model from 2018 at a discount.

The 2021 Kindle Paperwhite comes in three main configurations: an 8GB model with ads for $139.99, an 8GB model without ads for $159.99, and a 32GB ad-free Signature Edition for $189.99. The latter is identical to the standard Paperwhite except it also features Qi wireless charging and a sensor that will automatically adjust the backlight when needed. Amazon has also rolled out a Kindle Paperwhite Kids Edition for $159.99, which comes bundled with a kid-friendly cover, a two-year extended replacement guarantee, and a year of Amazon Kids Plus, much like the aforementioned Kindle Kids. All 2021 models are also similar to the 2018 model in that they feature a waterproof design and Audible audiobook support.

Amazon’s latest Paperwhite recently dropped to an all-time low of $104.99 in the run-up to Valentine’s Day. As of right now, though, the e-reader is only available in the ad-supported configuration at Amazon, Target, and Best Buy starting at $139.99, or in its ad-free variant at Amazon starting at $159.99.

As for bundles, Amazon is offering the base Paperwhite from 2021 as part of a package that contains a power adapter and your choice of a fabric cover for $169.97, a leather cover for $179.97, or a “cork” cover for $189.97, all of which are $20 off.

As for the 32GB ad-free Signature Edition, it’s available at Amazon and Best Buy right now for its full retail price of $189.99, or about $60 more than the e-reader’s all-time low. If you prefer a bundle, Amazon is currently selling it in three configurations: one with a cork cover and a wireless charging dock starting at $239.97 ($20 off), one with a fabric cover and a wireless charging dock starting at $219.97 ($20 off), and one with a leather cover and a wireless charging dock starting at $229.97 ($20 off).

Lastly, if you’re looking for the Kindle Paperwhite Kids Edition, it’s available at Amazon and Best Buy starting at $159.99, which is the e-reader’s standard retail price and $55 more than its most recent low. If want to outfit your child with additional storage, the 16GB model is also available at Best Buy, Amazon, and Target for $169.99 (its full retail price).

The best Kindle Oasis (2019) deals

The Kindle Oasis is the most expensive of the lineup, starting at $250. The device comes in two storage configurations, 8GB or 32GB, and like the other models, you can get it with or without ads on the lock screen.

The 2019 Kindle Oasis looks very similar to the previous model. It retains its waterproof 7-inch 300ppi E Ink display and supports Audible audiobooks via Bluetooth. However, unlike previous models, it can adjust the color temperature to a yellow-toned display, making it easier to read at night.

In the past, we’ve seen the 8GB Kindle Oasis drop to as low as $174.99, which remains the lowest price to date for the standalone configuration. Unfortunately, the ad-supported Oasis is only retailing at Amazon and Best Buy right now starting at $249.99. If you prefer the model without ads, you can pick it up on Amazon for $269.99 with three months of Kindle Unlimited. Lastly, if you need additional storage, the 32GB model is available on Amazon with ads for $279.99 or for $299.99 without.

As for bundles, the 8GB Kindle Oasis is currently on sale in its ad-supported configuration at Amazon with a power adapter and a fabric cover for $279.97, a leather cover for $289.97, or a “premium” leather cover for $304.97, all of which are $30 off.

The best Kindle Scribe deals

The ad-free Kindle Scribe is Amazon’s biggest e-reader to date — one that also represents a departure from past Kindle models. It packs a 10.2-inch display with 300 dpi, along with the same great battery life for which Kindles have become known. What separates the Scribe from other models, however, is that it comes with one of two styli, which can be used to annotate books, doodle, or jot down notes. We found the e-reader’s note-taking capabilities lacking in our testing, but Amazon has already started to improve the software via free OTA software updates, helping bring it up to speed with other E Ink competitors.

Although we recently saw the Kindle Scribe drop to $194.99, the 16GB base model is currently only available at Amazon and Best Buy with up to four months of Kindle Unlimited and a Basic Pen starting at $339.99, its typical retail price. The 16GB base model with the Basic Pen is also available on Amazon bundled with a fabric cover and a power adapter for $379.97 or with a leather cover and a power adapter for $399.97, both of which are $40 off.

Samsung’s new foldable hinge might look nicer, but it probably won’t have a longer life span

Galaxy Z Fold 4 folded in half on a desk with hinge facing outward. — *The Galaxy Z Fold 4’s U-shaped hinge might make way for a new shape this year.* | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

We have good reason to believe that Samsung will put a new kind of hinge in its next flagship foldable, and a South Korean trade publication has just supplied more confirmation. Spotted by 9to5Google, The Elec reports that Samsung has started reliability testing a new water drop-style hinge for the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 5.

The new hinge design would make the folded phone thinner and help reduce the appearance of a crease with the main screen unfolded. But according to this report, Samsung is testing the hinge to withstand 200,000 folds like the last one, which falls short of longevity claims from recent competitors like the Honor Magic VS and Oppo Find N2 — both rated to 400,000 folds.

The Elec’s report does mention that the hinge would be tested to a maximum “limit” of 300,000 folds, but 200,000 folds seems to be the main bar that this design needs to clear. After folding 200,000 times (which takes four to five days!), the hinge needs to maintain at least 85 percent of its original strength. That test, in theory, represents about five years of daily use if you open the phone a little more than 100 times per day. The Magic VS and Find N2, on the other hand, would last for around 10 years, which is roughly an eternity in consumer electronics years.

An image showing the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 in an unfolded state — *The Z Fold 4’s hinge design leaves a noticeable crease in the main display — hard to see straight-on, but it’s visible at an angle.*

In fairness to Samsung, the Z Flip 4 and Z Fold 4 boast IPX8 water resistance ratings — neither the Find N2 nor Magic VS has an IP rating of any kind. If you drop your non-water-resistant foldable phone in a puddle two years into ownership, it’s not much comfort knowing that it would have kept folding for another eight years.

Still, we’re hoping to see Samsung pushing the limits of its folding devices a little further this year. It’s been basically running unopposed for Foldable of the Year the past couple of years in the US, where competition is scarce. With more candidates (hopefully) in the mix this year, it would be nice if Samsung felt a little more pressure to innovate — we’ll just keep our fingers crossed for bigger cover screens and better cameras.

Best podcasts of the week: Words of wisdom from Michelle Obama and her famous friends

In this week’s newsletter: Personal stories and platitudes abound in the former first lady’s The Light We Carry podcast. Plus: five of the best shows to help you organise your life

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Michelle Obama: The Light Podcast
Audible, all episodes out on Tuesday
We could all do with some of the formidable former first lady’s words of wisdom being fed into our ears from time to time. These eight recordings of conversations Michelle Obama conducted as part of her most recent book tour for The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times provide exactly that. Speaking to the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King, she serves personal stories to learn from and on-brand platitudes to live by.
Hollie Richardson

Fujifilm announces the new Instax Mini 12 instant camera

White, purple, pink, blue, and green Fujifilm Instax Mini 12 instant cameras against a white background. — *The Fujifilm Instax Mini 12 comes in a variety of colors.* | Image: Fujifilm

Fujifilm has announced the newest instant camera in its Instax Mini lineup: the Fujifilm Instax Mini 12. The Instax Mini 12 is a new iteration of the Instax Mini 11 — our current top instant camera pick — and will be available around mid-March for $79.95.

Save for a few minor feature and design updates, the Instax Mini 11 and Instax Mini 12 look identical. However, the lens structure is the most notable change. You can now, for instance, twist the lens to enter the Close-Up Mode instead of pushing a button, much as you would a traditional point-and-shoot. I’ve only just started testing the camera, but based on my first impression, this makes zooming in just a little more fun and intuitive as a result.

You can also now power the instant camera on and off by simply twisting the lens to clearly labeled “on” and “off” settings. Previously, you had to click a button on the side to turn the camera on and pop the lens out and then push it back to turn the camera off. That’s not exactly intuitive, and I imagine that, combined with the lack of clear “on” and “off” labels, may have made it a little harder for kids to use the Instax Mini 11.

Still, while I like the fact that it’s now more intuitive to turn off the camera, I prefer using the Instax Mini 11’s button to turn it on. That’s because the Close-Up mode is close to the “on” and “off” settings. This makes it easy to accidentally turn the Instax Mini 12 off, which I did while trying to switch the lens to Close-Up Mode. It’s possible, though, things will improve after I test the camera more and adjust to the change.

Fujifilm’s also made some changes to the flash that are worth pointing out. Though, unfortunately, you still can’t turn the flash off, Fujifilm says the new automatic flash control should better optimize image quality in bright and low light environments. I’ll have to do further testing to see if that claim holds true, but I hope it is since that was one of my main issues with its otherwise excellent predecessor.

A green Fujifilm Instax Mini 12 instant camera against a white background. — *The new green Fujifilm Instax Mini 12*

Finally, as mentioned before, the Instax Mini 12 features a few design changes. Most noticeably, the body is more rectangular than square, though with the same rounded edges as its predecessor. It also lacks the Instax Mini 11’s curved side and is less wide, which makes holding it while taking photos easier. In addition, Fujifilm’s swapped out the black colorway with a new and fun mint green shade that may appeal more to the younger crowd.

In addition to the Instax Mini 12, Fujifilm has announced the launch of a new free downloadable INSTAX UP! smartphone app that will be released soon. Users can digitally scan, import, organize, and store their pictures in the app no matter which Instax print or camera they own, which means Instax Mini 12 users will also be able to use it.

I’ll soon be updating our instant camera guide after I finish testing the Instax Mini 12 and will add my thoughts about how it stacks up against rivals from Polaroid and Kodak, so stay tuned.

‘They’re more concerned about profit’: Osha, DoJ take on Amazon’s grueling working conditions

The federal workplace safety agency has issued citations against the company at multiple warehouses for various violations

The US’s top workplace safety regulator and the justice department are pressuring Amazon to explain safety practices that have led to injury rates for warehouse workers that are on average close to twice as high as the company’s competitors and in one case five times higher.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) issued citations against Amazon at six warehouses in December 2022, January 2023 and February 2023 over unsafe working conditions, ergonomic hazards and failure to properly report injuries.

Ebay parcel was lost, but the courier can’t trace it

Using the platform to book an Evri delivery signs sellers up to Packlink

Before Christmas my husband used eBay to sell two toys, and went on the site to book the parcels firm Evri to deliver them. The problem is that they didn’t arrive. In the past we have been able to claim whenever a parcel got lost but not this time.

We have tried logging on via the website, chat, or the customer service phone line but to no avail. Whenever we give Evri the tracking number of our parcels, the company says they cannot be found and to follow “our protocols” for lost parcels.

mercredi 1 mars 2023

‘The internet’s sewer’: why Turkey blocked its most popular social site

Chaotic free speech on Ekşi Sözlük finally proved too much after devastating earthquakes hit country

Launched on the eve of the millennium, Turkey’s most popular homegrown social media website has weathered lawsuits, criticism from the highest levels of government and even death threats directed at one of its founders. A simple editable online dictionary turned national obsession, Ekşi Sözlük has for more than two decades spurred its own biting form of social satire while providing a rare haven for free expression on the Turkish internet.

But this year’s earthquakes that upended life across Turkey may prove to be the death knell for Ekşi Sözlük, which was abruptly blocked across the country in the weeks after the earthquakes first struck, without proper explanation.

TikTok will limit teens to 60 minutes screen time a day (but you can turn the limit off)

TikTok will also soon roll out similar features available to all users to allow for better screen time management. | Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

TikTok has announced a batch of new features intended to reduce screen time and improve the well-being of its younger users.

In the coming weeks, a daily screen time limit of 60 minutes will be automatically applied to every TikTok user under 18 years old. Teens that hit this limit will be asked to enter a passcode to continue watching. They can disable the feature entirely, but if they do so and spend more than 100 minutes on TikTok a day, they’ll be asked to set a new limit.

TikTok claims these prompts increased the use of its screen time management tools by 234 percent during the feature’s first month of testing. Teens will also be sent an inbox notification each week that recaps their screen time, allowing younger users to be aware of how much time they spend on the app and requiring that they make active decisions to extend the recommended screen time.

TikTok says it consulted current academic research and experts from the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital when deciding how long the time restriction should be.

“While there’s no collectively-endorsed position on how much screen time is ‘too much’, or even the impact of screen time more broadly, we recognize that teens typically require extra support as they start to explore the online world independently,” said Cormac Keenan, Head of Trust and Safety at TikTok, in a statement.

The 60 minute time limit will also apply to children under the age of 13 using the “TikTok for Younger Users” limited app experience. In this instance, a parent or guardian will need to set or enter an existing passcode to enable 30 minutes of additional watch time on the account if the screen time limit is reached.

Four new features are also being added to Family Pairing, TikTok’s customizable parental controls that allow a parent or guardian to link their TikTok account to a younger user’s account. Custom limits can be applied, allowing restrictions to be adjusted based on what day of the week it is (or more widely extended over school holidays).

Family Pairing will also grant access to TikTok’s screen time dashboard that summarizes how much time a child has spent on the app, how often it was opened, and a breakdown detailing how much time was spent during the day and night. A new “Mute Notifications” setting will soon allow parents to set a schedule to mute app notifications on their children’s accounts. Push notifications are already muted automatically from 9PM for users between 13 and 15 years old, while 16-17 year-olds have push notifications disabled from 10PM.

Finally, TikTok says it’s developing new content controls that will allow caregivers to filter videos with words or hashtags they don’t want their children to watch. The company is working with “parenting, youth, and civil society organizations” over the coming weeks to design the feature.

Outside of Family Pairing, TikTok said some of these settings will be available widely to all accounts “soon,” allowing any user to schedule mute notifications and set customized screen time limits for each day of the week. A sleep reminder is also being introduced that allows users to set a time to be reminded to close the app and go to bed.

TikTok has not said when exactly the new features announced today will roll out to users. We’ve reached out to TikTok to request a release timeline, and will update this story should we hear back.

Metroid Prime was astonishingly ahead of its time. I can’t put it down

Unlike a lot of throwbacks, a new remastered version of the 3D space adventure plays even better than it did two decades ago. Plus, your gaming questions answered

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Welcome back to Pushing Buttons! First up – last week’s newsletter had a few errors in it. Most obviously, I referred to the Meta Quest 2 headset as the now-discontinued Oculus Go (even though I’d just been playing with the Quest 2, to compare it with PSVR2 – nice job, brain). I also gave some incorrect pricing info. A corrected version is on the Guardian site. Apologies for the mistakes.

I wrote a few weeks ago about how bringing games back from the 1990s can be a difficult exercise, given how technologically hamstrung developers were in the early 3D era. Replaying games from that period today requires a kind eye and a willingness to accept compromising quirks. But sometimes, you play a game from a decades ago and think, this might actually hit better now. Metroid Prime Remastered is one of those games. I’ve been unable to play anything else for weeks, since I downloaded it on a whim after February’s Nintendo Direct. This game was astonishingly ahead of its time. In fact, I didn’t appreciate it in 2003, when I was a teenager, as much as I do now.

The next big Olympics esports competition will feature chess and Just Dance

SPAIN-IRAN-WOMEN-PROTEST-CHESS — Image: CRISTINA QUICLER/AFP via Getty Images

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is taking its next steps into esports competitions, and it’s adding chess and Just Dance to the mix.

In June, the IOC will host Olympic Esports Week, which expands upon the Olympic Virtual Series it put on in 2021 with some new events. Like the Olympic Virtual Series, Olympic Esports Week will focus on virtual representations of physical activities. While that means you won’t see any Overwatch 2 gold medalists, the IOC is adding some entries to the lineup that adhere less to the traditional concept of “sport.”

New for Olympic Esports Week are archery, tennis, tae kwon do, Just Dance (Ubisoft’s hit dancing franchise), and chess, which will sit alongside returning competitions in motorsport (via Gran Turismo), cycling, baseball, and sailing. Chess, to me, feels particularly notable given how huge it has become on Twitch, and I think there could be a huge draw to watching the fight for the first Olympic esports chess champion.

Olympic Esports Week technically kicks off today, March 1st, with initial qualifiers. The competitions will conclude with an in-person event that’s set to take place in Singapore from June 22nd to 25th.

New mobile puck will allow smartphones to send texts via satellite

Low-cost device launched to solve mobile blackspots with SOS and two-way texting for Android and iPhone

The Defy Satellite link gives any Android or iPhone an instant upgrade with the ability to send and receive text messages via satellite, solving the problem of mobile dead zones for emergencies and wilderness adventures.

Announced ahead of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and produced by the British phone manufacturer Bullitt under the Motorola brand, the Satellite link connects to a normal smartphone via Bluetooth and uses an app to send not only SOS messages but general two-way chat via texts.