Wednesday, January 26, 2022

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NVIDIA RTX 3050 review: A great $250 GPU (in theory)

Posted: 26 Jan 2022 06:00 AM PST

The idea of a $250 graphics card seems like a pipe dream today, when unprecedented demand, scalpers and the global chip shortage have driven GPU prices into the stratosphere. Still, that's not stopping NVIDIA from trying with the new RTX 3050. It's the company's cheapest GPU yet with ray tracing, and it's meant to take on AMD's even cheaper Radeon RX 6500 XT, which has a suggested retail price of $200. While it's unclear if the 3050 will actually sell for $250 once it hits stores, it'll at least come in less than the RTX 3060, which launched at $329 but now goes for around $1,000 (not a typo) at Newegg and other retailers.

Like NVIDIA's wildly popular GTX 1050 and its other 50-class GPUs, the 3050 is meant to be an affordable way to reach 1080p/60fps while playing modern games. With newer titles like Control demanding more power from our systems, it makes sense for NVIDIA to finally deliver a budget 30-series entry. The 3050 features 2,560 CUDA cores, a boost speed of 1,777 MHz and 8GB of GDDR6 RAM, putting it well below the 3060's 3,584 CUDA cores and 8GB of RAM (not to mention its vastly faster memory interface). Still, as a 30-series GPU, it also has ray tracing and tensor cores, allowing it to tap into more realistic lighting, as well as the company's DLSS technology to boost performance.

NVIDIA is positioning the new card as a major update to the GTX 1650, which had just 896 CUDA cores and no ray tracing or tensor capabilities. (There was no RTX 2050 desktop GPU, though the company surprised us all when it announced a laptop version at CES this year.) The RTX 3050 is also more compelling on paper than the Radeon 6500 XT, which only has 4GB of memory, a much slower memory bus, and only taps into 4 PCIe lanes instead of the typical 16. AMD clearly cut as much as it could to create an inexpensive GPU for entry-level gamers, but that also makes it less future-proof than the slightly more expensive RTX 3050.

During my testing, the EVGA RTX 3050 XC Black GPU (NVIDIA isn't making any Founder's Editions this time) was able tackle every game I threw at it in 1080p, even when I cranked up the graphics settings all the way up. It averaged 140fps in Hitman 3's Dubai benchmark, making it well-suited for 144Hz refresh rate monitors. Bumping the resolution up to 1,440p halved performance to 74fps, which was a significant dip from the 3060's 110fps average. That higher resolution is definitely playable, but it's clear the 3050 is best-suited to 1080p gaming, especially if you're trying to get enough performance to justify a high-refresh rate monitor.

3DMark TimeSpy

Destiny 2

Hitman 3

Port Royal (ray tracing)

NVIDIA RTX 3050

6,702

1080p: 90 | 1440p: 60-65

1080: 140 | 1440p: 74

3,643/17fps

AMD Radeon RX 6600

8,521

1080p: 110-120 | 1440p: 75-85

1080p: 138 | 1440p: 94

3,846/17fps

NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti

11,308

1440p: 85-110fps

4K: 45-60fps

N/A

6,989/32.36fps

All benchmarks tested on a system powered by a Ryzen 7 5800X, 32GB of RAM and Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD.

In Destiny 2, the 3050 hit a 90fps average in 1080p and 65fps in 1,440p with the highest graphics settings. Those are decent scores if you want all of the best visual flourishes, but I'd wager many gamers would step some of those settings down for better framerates. I was most impressed with how the GPU handled Control, which is still one of the more demanding games around. It reached 65fps on average in 1080p with maxed out graphics (but no ray tracing). When I flipped on DLSS, which rendered the game at 720p and used AI to upscale it to 1080p, the framerate jumped to a silkier 90fps. And surprisingly enough, it was perfectly playable at 70fps when I turned on medium ray tracing settings along with DLSS. Not bad for a (supposedly) $250 video card!

NVIDIA RTX 3050 GPU
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

As for typical benchmarks, like 3DMark's suite, it's best you don't look at those. The 3050 is clearly much slower than the rest of NVIDIA's lineup, so you're better off ignoring what you're missing. What's important is that it's an affordable card that can play demanding games well in 1080p, and in some cases it'll even get you to 1440p. And thanks to its relatively tame performance, it also doesn't generate much heat or noise. It stayed at a surprisingly cool 60 Celsius under load.

I didn't have an RTX 6500 XT to compare it to, but judging from the reviews and its specs, you'll have a hard time reaching any Ultra-level 1080p gaming with that GPU. AMD purposefully hampered its memory to make it less appealing to cryptominers. That plan may have actually succeeded, as its price is now hovering between $250 and $300 on Newegg.

NVIDIA RTX 3050 GPU
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

It'll be interesting to see just how far the RTX 3050's price jumps after its release. But based on what we know so far, it's an absolute steal if you can nab it for $250, and for many gamers it'll be worth paying several hundred more. At the moment, it's the only way to get an NVIDIA 3000-series card without paying over $1,000.

Europe's second highest court scraps Intel’s €1.06 billion antitrust fine

Posted: 26 Jan 2022 05:10 AM PST

Intel has emerged triumphant (for now) in a long-running antitrust case that once saw the chipmaker slapped with a record-breaking fine by the European Commission. The General Court, Europe's second highest court, has overturned the €1.06 billion fine levied against the company way back in 2009. Back then, the Commission determined that Intel abused its dominant position in the market and harmed its rivals by offering manufacturers such as HP, Dell and Lenovo incentives for using its microprocessors instead of those from rival AMD's. 

The company, of course, appealed the decision, but the General Court upheld the fine in 2014. Intel had a game plan to shut out AMD from the market and "attempted to conceal the anti-competitive nature of (those) practices," the court said. In 2017, however, the highest court in the European Union ordered the fine to be re-examined. It sent the case back down to the General Court on the grounds that the Commission didn't consider conducting an economic assessment on how Intel's activity impacted its rival's ability to compete against it.

Now, the General Court has issued its decision, in which it confirmed that the Commission carried out an incomplete analysis of the company's rebate scheme all those years ago. As such, it's not possible to establish whether the rebates Intel offered the manufacturers were "capable of having, or were likely to have, anticompetitive effects." The General Court has also decided that it's not in a position to identify how much fine Intel has to pay, so it has scrapped both the decision and the fine levied against the chipmaker.

It's a major victory for the company that's currently trying to catch up to AMD while also dealing with the global supply chain shortage. According to The Wall Street Journal, though, the decision could still be appealed, and it would return to the Court of Justice if that happens.

The Morning After: Neil Young threatens to pull his music from Spotify over Joe Rogan's podcast

Posted: 26 Jan 2022 04:15 AM PST

Musician Neil Young has asked his management team and record label to remove his songs from Spotify. "I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines — potentially causing death to those who believe [it]," he said. "They can have [Joe] Rogan or Young. Not both." The content of the letter was confirmed by Young's manager, Frank Gironda, according to The Daily Beast. It's probably not an empty threat; Young previously removed his music from Spotify due to low audio quality.

The Joe Rogan Experience picks up around 11 million listeners on average, and as you probably already know, some of his guests (and comments) have been controversial. Rogan hosted virologist Dr. Robert Malone, who made baseless claims about COVID-19, saying a "mass formation psychosis" led people to believe the vaccines were effective. This prompted a group of over 1,000 doctors, nurses, scientists and educators to send an open letter to Spotify demanding that it create a misinformation policy.

In an episode that followed, Rogan contended that a rare heart condition had been linked to vaccines when it was actually linked to those that had contracted COVID-19. (You can watch the awkwardness here.) Spotify CEO Daniel Ek previously said he doesn't believe the platform has editorial responsibility for podcasts. The company hasn't yet responded to Young's letter.

— Mat Smith

 

The biggest news stories you might have missed

Respawn is making three more Star Wars games

A follow up to 'Jedi: Fallen Order' is one of them.

TMA
Respawn

EA's Respawn Entertainment is making three more Star Wars games. The studio — best known for Titanfall and Apex Legends — is working on a follow-up to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, though it's not clear if the upcoming game is a direct sequel. There will also be a first-person shooter overseen by a former Star Wars Battlefront producer as well as a strategy game from a studio headed up by Greg Foertsch, who previously worked on the XCOM series. Some Star Wars for everyone.

Continue reading.

Samsung built a fingerprint security chip for payment cards, employee IDs and more

It combines a lot of security tech into one chip.

Samsung has announced the "industry's first" all-in-one fingerprint security chip (IC) for payment cards. It can read biometric information via a fingerprint sensor, store and authenticate data with a tamper-proof secure element (SE) and analyze it with a secure processor. While primarily designed for payment cards, it could also be used for "student or employee identification, membership or building access," the company said.

We might have enough payment options, thanks to our phones, but that's not stopping Samsung. Last year, it announced it was collaborating with Mastercard on a biometric scanning payment card with a built-in fingerprint reader.

Continue reading.

Sony's new soundbar offers virtual surround for $300

There's also a large subwoofer and tight integration with Sony TVs.

Sony has unveiled the HT-S400 soundbar. It has a few tricks while keeping the price down to $300. While it's a 2.1-channel system, it offers virtual surround sound (S-Force Pro Front Surround, if you wanted to know) to provide more immersive audio for your movies and shows. It's also a fairly powerful system for the class, with a rather large 130W wireless subwoofer contributing to a total of 330W output. The soundbar is set to launch in April 2022.

Continue reading.

Report: NVIDIA is preparing to walk away from its ARM acquisition

ARM may be planning an IPO if the deal falls through.

According to a Bloomberg report, NVIDIA is struggling to gain regulatory approval for its $40 billion purchase of ARM and is privately preparing to abandon the deal. Meanwhile, current ARM owner SoftBank is reportedly planning to take ARM public as an alternative to the acquisition. A backlash began soon after the announcement.

The UK, where ARM is based, launched an antitrust investigation into the acquisition in January 2021 while, in the US, the FTC recently sued to block the purchase over concerns it would "stifle" competition in industries like data centers and car manufacturing.

Continue reading.

Google is testing a new replacement for third-party cookies

FLoC seems to have flopped.

With the demise of third-party cookies on the horizon, everyone is scrambling to come up with better ways to get ads in front of our eyes. Google announced FLoC (or Federated Learning of Cohorts) last year. That was then delayed, and the company's Privacy Sandbox faced regulatory scrutiny. Today, the company announced it's testing out a new approach called Topics API, leaving FLoC by the wayside.

Simplified, Topics API uses the Chrome browser to determine your top five topics. It'll figure out what the topics are by comparing known websites (that you visit) against a list of about 350 topics drawn from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Google's own data. Then, when partner publishers need to know what topics you're into, they can use Topics API to ping the browser for that data and serve you relevant ads.

Continue reading.

Google Assistant will now cease talking if you simply say 'stop'

Posted: 26 Jan 2022 03:44 AM PST

You can now get Google Assistant to stop talking with just one word: "Stop." That's it — you don't even have to say "Hey, Google" before that. The official Google Twitter account has announced the small but necessary quality-of-life improvement for the company's speakers and smart displays. It sometimes takes a while (and several repeated attempts) to get Assistant's attention with a "Hey, Google" if it suddenly goes off without you wanting it to or if you absolutely have to cut it off mid-spiel. This new feature solves that problem.

Google has been testing the capability to issue voice commands without wake words on Android since at least last year. The feature, codenamed "Guacamole," includes the ability to cancel alarms simply by saying "Stop." A year before the discovery of that experimental feature, another one codenamed "Blue Steel" was leaked to the public. Blue Steel gives you a way to activate Assistant by proximity alone, with the voice AI's interface automatically popping up when you move close to a smart display without having to say anything. Google didn't say whether this new capability is a result of either experiment, though we're sure all that matters if that you need to stop Assistant from talking is that the feature exists. 

Twitter reports record number of takedown requests from governments

Posted: 26 Jan 2022 02:20 AM PST

Twitter has received the highest number of content removal demands from governments around the world from January to June 2021, the website has revealed in its latest transparency report. To be precise, it received 43,387 legal demands that involve 196,878 accounts. Twitter says those numbers represent the largest increase in content removal requests and accounts reported within a six-month reporting period from the time it started publishing transparency reports in 2012.

One factor that contributed to the spike in accounts reported is the legal demands submitted by Indonesia's Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. The agency flagged 102,363 accounts for posting sexual services and illegal adult content, and Twitter took action on 18,570 of them. Twitter also saw an increase in accounts withheld from the public due to content that allegedly violated Russia's laws against inciting suicide. 

Last year, Russian News Agency Tass reported that the country's internet authorities threatened to block Twitter if it doesn't remove "suicide incitement aimed at minors, child pornography, as well as information about the use of drugs" on its website. The authorities also slowed down Twitter's loading speeds for desktop and mobile.

A total of 95 percent of the total global volume of legal demands came from five countries in particular, with Japan remaining as the top requester. Japan is responsible for 43 percent of the legal demands Twitter received, with most of them being about narcotics and drug-related posts, obscenity and financial-related crimes. The other four countries are Russia, Turkey, India and South Korea, in that order.

Based on Twitter's report, there's an upward trend in the number of legal demands Twitter gets, with a huge spike happening in the first half of 2020. It remains to be seen whether those numbers will keep on rising, but Twitter's VP of global public policy Sinead McSweeney expressed her concerns in a statement: "We're facing unprecedented challenges as governments around the world increasingly attempt to intervene and remove content. This threat to privacy and freedom of expression is a deeply worrying trend that requires our full attention."

Kia's EV6 pricing will start at $42,115 when it goes on sale in the coming weeks

Posted: 26 Jan 2022 01:25 AM PST

Kia's EV6, which shares a platform, battery, motors and more with Hyundai's Ioniq 5, will start at $42,115 including the $1,215 destination charge, the company announced. That sum will get you the base "Light" rear-wheel drive (RWD) model with a 167-horsepower motor and 58-kWh battery pack delivering a 232-mile EPA range. The model is eligible for a full $7,500 federal tax credit, which would reduce the price down to $34,615. 

That's $1,190 more than the Ioniq 5, if you're keeping score at home. While the two vehicles share the same platform and offer similar performance, the Ioniq 5 has a more edgy, angular design, while the EV6 offers a more classic, rounded look. 

Kia's EV6 starts at $42,115, or $34,615 with the Federal EV tax credit.
Kia

Kia's higher-end EV6 models jump considerably in price. The "Wind" RWD EV6 with the 77.4-kWH battery pack and 225-horsepower motor starts at $48,215, offering an EPA range of 310 miles. Meanwhile, the GT-Line RWD comes with more luxurious options but the same drivetrain and starts at $52,415. Both the Wind and GT-Line models can be updated to all-wheel-drive (AWD) starting at $52,115 and $57,115, respectively. EPA range drops to 274 miles for both models, again eligible for $7,500 federal tax credits.

By comparison, Ford's Mustang Mach-E starts at $44,995, while the Tesla Model 3 has a $46,490 MSRP and the Volkswagen ID.4 is $39,995, all before any incentives. 

In our road test with the Ioniq 5, we found that Hyundai had produced a retro-futuristic winner that offers cutting-edge tech and is a pleasure to drive. The EV6 will hopefully live up to that same standard — the first models are expected to arrive at dealers in the coming weeks.

The SAT will drop the pencil and go completely digital by 2024

Posted: 26 Jan 2022 12:30 AM PST

The SAT standardized college admissions tests will be taken exclusively on computers starting in 2024, The New York Times has reported. The new system will spell the end to tests taken on paper with No. 2 pencils, a right of passage for American high school students since the SAT was first administered nearly a hundred years ago.

Students will instead complete the exams on laptops or tablets, either their own or devices issued by the school. If students don't have a device, the board will provide one on the test day. And if a student loses power or connectivity, "the digital SAT has been designed to ensure they won't lose their work or time while they reconnect," said the College Board, which administers the tests.

On top of the technical changes, the testing time will be shortened to two hours instead of three. It'll feature shorter reading passages with one question for each, reflecting a wider range of topics more representative of what students will see in college. For the math section, calculators will finally be allowed. And students and teachers will get test scores in days rather than weeks, with educators no longer having to deal with packing, sorting or shipping test materials. 

It felt a lot less stressful, and whole lot quicker than I thought it'd be.

The College Board said that in pilot testing, 80 percent of students found the digital-only tests less stressful. "It felt a lot less stressful, and whole lot quicker than I thought it'd be," 11th grade student Natalia Cossio told the board. "The shorter passages helped me concentrate more on what the question wanted me to do."

The new testing standard was announced amid a growing trend for schools across the US to drop the SAT (or rival ACT) tests altogether. For Fall 2022, around 1,815 schools (of nearly 4,000 degree-granting institutions) have eliminated the requirement for standardized test scores, according to the FairTest non-profit foundation. 

"Schools that did not mandate ACT/SAT submission last year generally received more applicants, better academically qualified applicants and a more diverse pool of applicants," FairTest Executive Director Bob Schaeffer told the Los Angeles Times last year. 

Critics have also noted that the SAT tests handicap students who don't have access to expensive test preparation courses or who can't afford to take the $55 test multiple times. The digital SAT shift "does not magically transform it to a more accurate, fairer or valid tool for assessing college readiness," Schaefer told the NYT. The College Board, meanwhile, has said that SAT scores can actually help students who don't have top-flight grade-point averages. 

Amazon's 'pay-to-quit' program won't cover most US workers this year

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 11:36 PM PST

Amazon won't be paying most warehouse workers in the US to quit their jobs this year. According to The Information, the e-commerce giant has paused its "pay-to-quit" program for majority of its workers for 2022, and it's unclear if it will be reinstated. The publication has obtained a copy of Amazon's message to its employees, which was then verified by a spokesperson from the company. Typically, Amazon pays its warehouse workers up to $5,000 to quit their jobs after peak seasons like the holidays as a way to pare down its workforce in the slowdown that follows. 

Jeff Bezos also once told shareholders in a newsletter that it's a way to give employees an out if they're no longer happy working for Amazon. The company would usually make "The Offer," as it's also called, towards the end of the first quarter of the year. For 2022, however, it told employees that only workers who graduated from Amazon's Career Choice training program will be eligible for the payout. They're also only eligible within 90 days after graduating. Amazon pays tuition reimbursements for workers part of the Career Choice program, which expands this January to include GEDs, English as a Second Language (ESL) certificates and bachelor's degrees. It only used to cover certificates for technical skills and associate degrees.

Karen Riley Sawyer, the company's representative, has confirmed the changes to the pay-to-quit program, telling The Information that it's currently only available "to graduates of Career Choice to support their transition to a new career should they choose to leverage their new certifications." While Sawyer didn't say why the program's scope has been narrowed down, it could be because vaccine mandates and the rising infection rates caused by the spread of the Omicron variant are making it hard for Amazon to find adequate staffing. Earlier this month, Motherboard reported that over 1,800 workers at a single Amazon facility in New York were out on leave due to COVID. A source also told The Information that the warehouse had been facing severe staffing shortages over the past months. 

Facebook-backed Diem Association may be close to dissolving

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 05:49 PM PST

It's looking more and more likely that Diem, Meta's ill-fated cryptocurrency previously known as Libra, will never actually materialize. The Diem Association is reportedly "weighing a sale of its assets as a way to return capital to its investor members," Bloombergreports.

It's unclear what assets the Diem Association owns, but the report notes the group is talking to bankers about selling its intellectual property and finding "a new home for the engineers that developed the technology."

If a sale were to happen, it would seem to be the final nail in the coffin for Diem, the cryptocurrency project that Mark Zuckerberg has championed. Plans to get the stablecoin off the ground have stalled for years amid regulatory pushback and lawmaker concerns. After first launching as Libra, several high-profile partners pulled out in 2019.

Last fall, Facebook started a small pilot of Novi, the cryptocurrency wallet formerly known as Calibra. But the fact that Novi was forced to launch without support for Diem — it used a different stablecoin called the Pax Dollar — was a sign that Diem's future remained uncertain. Longtime Facebook exec David Marcus, who oversaw the social network's crypto plans, said at the time that Facebook remained committed to Diem. "I do want to be clear that our support for Diem hasn't changed and we intend to launch Novi with Diem once it receives regulatory approval and goes live," he wrote. Marcus announced a month later that he was leaving Facebook. 

A representative for the Diem Association said that Bloomberg's reporting contained unspecified "factual errors," but declined to elaborate or comment further.

'Call of Duty: Warzone' studio will try to unionize without Activision Blizzard's blessing

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 05:40 PM PST

Activision Blizzard had until 6PM ET on January 25th to voluntarily recognize Game Workers Alliance, a group of Raven Software employees that recently gathered the votes to unionize, backed by Communications Workers of America. That deadline passed without recognition from Activision Blizzard, and Raven employees will now move forward with plans to file for a union election through the National Labor Relations Board.

"At Activision Blizzard, we deeply respect the rights of all employees to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union," an Activision Blizzard spokesperson said. "We carefully reviewed and considered the CWA initial request last week and tried to find a mutually acceptable solution with the CWA that would have led to an expedited election process. Unfortunately, the parties could not reach an agreement."

In a series of tweets, GWA confirmed its plans to file with the NLRB. 

"This was an opportunity for Activision Blizzard to show a real commitment setting new and improved standards for workers," one tweet read. "Instead, Activision Blizzard has chosen to make a rushed restructuring announcement to try and hinder our right to organize."

Events have been unfolding quickly here, so let's break it down by day:

  • January 21st: More than 30 quality assurance testers at Raven Software announced they'd gathered enough signatures to unionize, a move that would make Game Workers Alliance the first union at a large-scale North American video game studio. Raven is owned by Activision Blizzard and focuses on supporting Call of Duty: Warzone, so this is about as AAA as it gets. Union signatories asked Activision Blizzard leadership to voluntarily recognize GWA by January 25th.

  • January 22nd: Raven workers ended a weekslong strike against Activision Blizzard, awaiting union recognition from executives. The strike began on December 6th, in response to layoffs of 12 QA testers at Raven — all of whom had signed their names to the unionization effort, according to The Washington Post.

  • January 24th: Raven head Brian Raffel sent an email to employees announcing "organizational change" that would dissolve QA as a team and transfer those workers to various departments across the studio. This is known as "embedding" and it's not uncommon at AAA studios. Raffel said embedding was the next logical step in a process that began "several months ago."

"As we look ahead at the ongoing expansion of Call of Duty: Warzone, it's more important than ever that we foster tighter integration and coordination across the studio – embedding will allow for this," Raffel wrote. 

The timing of the announcement and the focus on QA testers has concerned activist groups, union signatories at Raven and Activision Blizzard employees who have been fighting for cultural change at the studio since last year. Activision Blizzard is the subject of a lawsuit and multiple investigations into allegations of systemic gender discrimination and sexual harassment, and employees have walked out multiple times, calling for longstanding CEO Bobby Kotick to resign.

It's unclear how the restructuring at Raven will impact the union going forward, but the worry is that this move will impede members' ability to coordinate with each other. CWA said on Twitter that the announcement was "nothing more than a tactic to thwart Raven QA workers who are exercising their right to organize."

The CWA thread continued, "When Management uses meaningless buzzwords like 'alignment,' 'synergy,' and 'reorganization,' they are sending a message to workers: 'we make all the decisions, we have all the power.'"

An Activision Publishing spokesperson provided the following response to questions about the timing of the reorganization: 

"This is the next step in a process that has been carefully considered and in the works for some time, and this structure brings Raven into alignment with the best practices of other prominent Activision studios. It is also a milestone in our broader plan to integrate QA more into the development process as our teams strive to deliver best in class coordination in real-time, live service operations."

All of which brings us to today. Activision Blizzard employees have a supermajority of votes in favor of unionizing, and they're bringing their case to the NLRB. This can be a protracted process, and the longer it takes, the more leverage Activision Blizzard leadership will have.

Cornell professor of labor and employment law Risa Lieberwitz told The Washington Post that the structural changes shouldn't interrupt the unionization process, but added that the timing "raises the question of whether [Activision Blizzard] are retaliating against the QA employees because of their union activities."

The full statement from an Activision Blizzard spokesperson about the failed unionization talks with CWA follows:

At Activision Blizzard, we deeply respect the rights of all employees to make their own decisions about whether or not to join a union. We carefully reviewed and considered the CWA initial request last week and tried to find a mutually acceptable solution with the CWA that would have led to an expedited election process. Unfortunately, the parties could not reach an agreement.

We expect that the union will be moving forward with the filing of a petition to the NLRB for an election. If filed, the company will respond formally to that petition promptly. The most important thing to the company is that each eligible employee has the opportunity to have their voice heard and their individual vote counted, and we think all employees at Raven should have a say in this decision.

Across the company, we believe that a direct relationship between managers and team members allows us to quickly respond and deliver the strongest results and opportunities for employees. As a result of these direct relationships, we've made a number of changes over the past couple years including raising minimum compensation for Raven QA employees by 41%, extending paid time off, expanding access to medical benefits for employees and their significant others, and transitioning more than 60% of temporary Raven QA staff into full-time employees. We look forward to continuing a direct dialogue with our team and working together to make our workplace better.

Microsoft last week announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, a deal that's poised to change the video game landscape completely. One day after that news dropped, Activision said in an SEC filing that there were no unionization efforts underway at the studio, though it had previously warned Raven employees to "consider the consequences" of signing union cards.

Meta's 'free' internet is costing people money in developing countries

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 03:32 PM PST

Software glitches in Meta's free internet service are leading to unwanted charges for users, according to documents obtained by whistleblower Francis Haugen and shared with The Wall Street Journal. Paid features, like videos, have been appearing in the service's free mode, even though clips are either supposed to stay hidden or warn users of data charges. When users tap the content, they face carrier bills that can be especially difficult to pay for the service's target audience of users in developing countries.

The slip-up appears to have been lucrative for carriers. Meta estimated carriers were charging free users about $7.8 million per month as of last summer. The issue was particularly serious in Pakistan, where users have reportedly been charged a total $1.9 million per month.

A Meta spokesperson said it had received reports about the problem and had "continued work" on fixing the software flaws. New versions of the free mode explicitly label it as "text only" rather than implying it will never cost any money. The representative said the document estimating $7.8 million per month in charges wasn't based on carrier billing information, and that the overcharges were closer to $3 million per month.

Meta, like Google, has a strong interest in pushing free internet access. Most of its recent growth comes from developing countries where many people are hopping online for the first time. While the free service doesn't limit users to only visiting Facebook and other services it owns, it increases the chances internet newcomers will sign up and spur Meta's growth.

There are other concerns about Meta's free offerings beyond surprise billing. The company has been criticized for making it too easy to pay for data through in-app systems (instead of direct purchases from carriers) and after-the-fact "loans" in some countries. It has also been accused of pushing users of its Discover product towards content on its own services, while not doing enough to make external content easily accessible. While the company has claimed it will treat all internet traffic —whether to its own products or elsewhere — equally, the leaked document itself states that Discover "is not functioning consistent with our commitments." 

Samsung's first Unpacked of 2022 will take place February 9th

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 03:00 PM PST

After its president TM Roh teased "the most noteworthy S series device we've ever created", Samsung is announcing today when we can learn more. The next Galaxy Unpacked event, which is the company's first this year, will happen virtually on Wednesday, February 9th at 10am ET (7am PT). You'll be able to watch the event on Samsung's website, though Engadget will also have our own livestream with a pre- and post-show Q&A to discuss the news. 

Samsung is expected to unveil the next S-series flagship then, and if it doesn't drastically change the naming standard it's been using for the last few years, we should be seeing the Galaxy S22. Based on the rumor mill, there might not be many huge upgrades in the next-gen product. The most significant improvement could be an onboard slot for the S Pen and a blockier design, which would spell the death of the Note line. 

Other reports suggest the new Ultra variant might start out with less RAM than last year's model, offering 8GB at the base level compared to the S21 Ultra's 12GB. There could also be a 50-megapixel camera on the regular S22s, up from the S21's 12-megapixel sensors. 

We won't know the full details until Samsung officially confirms them come February 9th. You can tune in to the company's stream directly, but if you want to chat and react live with us before and after the show, come join us on the Engadget YouTube channel instead. It should be an illuminating time. 

Why TikTok stars are criticizing its creator fund

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 02:20 PM PST

Being part of TikTok's creator fund is apparently a lot less lucrative than it may seem, even for some of the app's biggest stars. Over the last few days, some high-profile TikTokkers have taken the unusual step of publicizing how much — or in this case, how little — they are making from the fund.

TikTok is still relatively early in its monetization features for creators. Instead of a revenue sharing arrangement like YouTube's Partner Program, TikTok pays its top stars out of a creator fund. Launched in 2020, the fund started out with $200 million, and TikTok said last year it was increasing the fund to $1 billion over the next three years in the U.S. But the company hasn't provided details on how much it has distributed or how much participants can expect to earn.

But according to one prominent streamer, most creators are earning very little. Last week, Hank Green, who has more than 6 million followers on TikTok, shared a YouTube video titled "So… TikTok sucks." In the 24-minute video, he details his experience in TikTok's creator fund, and estimates that he currently makes about 2.5 cents per 1,000 views on the platform — a fraction of what he earns on YouTube and about half of what he had previously earned on TikTok.

The problem, as he explains it, is that TikTok offers a steadily growing number of creators a portion of a "static pool of money," that isn't tied to TikTok's revenue or its skyrocketing popularity. The result is that each creator makes less and less, even as TikTok becomes more successful. "Because of the way that TikTok shares a lot of audience among a lot of creators, that ends up being less than a dollar a day for most of the people in the creator fund," he said.

Green, whose participation in the creator fund was previously touted by TikTok in a corporate blog post, said that creator funds aren't bad on their own, but that TikTok's current arrangement is preventing creators from being able to adequately support themselves.

His comments prompted others to share their frustrations with TikTok. Safwan AhmedMia, who goes by SuperSaf on TikTok, shared Green's video along with a screenshot of his TikTok earnings: £112.04 (about $151). "This is how much I've made from the TikTok Creator Fund since April 2021 with over 25 million views in that time," he wrote.

Then, Jimmy Donaldson, the streamer known as Mr. Beast, shared his TikTok earnings. According to the screenshot, he's earned just under $15,000 from the app, with daily earnings between $18 and $32 in January. As The Informationpoints out, that works out to less than $10,000 a year from TikTok, despite his estimate that he's gotten "over a billion views" on the app. That number is particularly low considering Donaldson is YouTube's top earner, and made $54 million on the platform in 2021.

It's not clear how much Green, AhmedMia and Donaldson's experience reflects that of other creators in the the fund. But TikTok hasn't offered an alternative explanation about why its creators are making so little. "The Creator Fund is one of many ways that creators can make money on TikTok," a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement, pointing to the company's creator marketplace, which helps match creators with potential sponsors. "We continue to listen to and seek feedback from our creator community and evolve our features to improve the experience for those in the program."

It's true that the creator fund isn't the only way TikTok stars make money from the app. The app has a tipping feature, though it's not available to everyone yet. Creators also regularly partner with brands and those deals can be worth millions for the app's most influential users. But inking a deal with a major brand requires time and effort, and that option may not be available to lesser known creators. And since TikTok doesn't have a revenue sharing feature, the fund is right now the only way creators can be paid directly by the company. 

Elsewhere, the app is testing other monetization features for creators. It's experimenting with subscription features, which would allow creators to effectively move some of their content behind a paywall. The features appears to be in an early stage, and the company hasn't said when, or even if, the feature may be available more widely.

Are you in TikTok's creator fund or have a tip to share about how it distributes funds? Email me at karissa.bell [at] engadget.com.

Microsoft's profits jump by 21 percent thanks to Office and the cloud

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 02:00 PM PST

Microsoft's overall business is still going strong, even though it's not seeing the shockingly huge profit growth it saw last year. In its Q2 earnings report today, company reported revenue of $51.7 billion (up 20 percent from last year) with profits of $18.8 billion (up 21 percent). As usual, Microsoft has its unstoppable cloud business to thank, as well as a decent showing from its PC group, Office and other business products. Its Intelligent Cloud business grew by 26 percent, reaching $18.3 billion, while its Productivity and Business group saw revenues increase by 19 percent to reach $15.9 billion.

There weren't any true major weak links this quarter — even Surface revenue, which Microsoft previously expected to dip a bit, grew by 8 percent thanks to strong Surface Laptop sales. Windows OEM revenues also increased by 25 percent, not a huge surprise since the overall PC industry is still going strong. Where the PC business goes, Microsoft's revenues will follow, after all. When it comes to Office, the company says its consumer revenue increased by 15 percent, and that it has reached 56.4 million Microsoft 365 subscribers.

While Microsoft's earnings reports have basically looked the same over the last few years — Cloud good! Revenues grow! — the company's numbers will look a bit different once it finalizes its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2023. At the very least, we'll get to see how much the new Microsoft Gaming division actually helps (or hurts) Microsoft's overall business.

Biden name checks Apple and Microsoft in right to repair speech

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 01:40 PM PST

President Joe Biden has offered some more backing to right to repair rules, following an executive order he signed last summer. He acknowledged that many companies have made it difficult for consumers to fix their own devices. Biden also nodded to Apple and Microsoft for changing their right to repair policies ahead of the Federal Trade Commission taking more action on the matter.

Among dozens of other issues the executive order covered, it encouraged "the FTC to issue rules against anticompetitive restrictions on using independent repair shops or doing DIY repairs of your own devices and equipment." The agency said later that month it would tackle unlawful right to repair restrictions by enforcing existing laws and doing more to help consumers and small repair shops fix products.

"Denying the right to repair raises prices for consumers, means independent repair shops can't compete for your business," Biden said. "Too many areas, if you own a product, from a smartphone to a tractor, you don't have the freedom to choose how or where to repair that item you purchased."

The president noted that, in many cases, consumers need to go to a dealer or the manufacturer and pay their asking price for repairs. He added that he was pleased to hear the FTC unanimously voted to "ramp up enforcement against illegal repair restrictions."

Toward the end of last year, both Apple and Microsoft announced programs that would help consumers repair their own iPhones, iPads and Surfaces. "What happened was a lot of these companies said, 'You're right. We're going to voluntarily do it. You don't have to order us to do it,'" Biden said. "For example, Apple and Microsoft are changing their policies so folks will be able to repair their phones and laptops themselves — although I'm not sure I know how to do that."

The president added that moves such as ones made by Apple and Microsoft, as well as possible regulations at state and federal level, will "make it easier for millions of Americans to repair their electronics instead of paying an arm and a leg to repair or just throwing the device out."

US warns global chip shortage will likely last through 2022

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 01:06 PM PST

Don't expect the worldwide chip shortage to end any time soon. Bloomberg and The Washington Post note the US Commerce Department has published a semiconductor supply chain report estimating that the global shortage will last until at least the second half of 2022. "We aren't even close to being out of the woods" with supply problems, Department Secretary Gina Raimondo said.

Many companies are particularly sensitive to problems, too. The median chip inventory for a client company plunged from 40 days in 2019 to under five days in 2021. Even a relatively short (weeks-long) disruption overseas could shut down an American factory, the Department said.

The shortage is particularly damaging to broadband companies, car makers and medical device producers, according to the report. Despite early claims, there wasn't evidence hoarding contributed to the shortfalls. Demand was higher, too, with median interest about 17 percent higher in 2021 than it was two years earlier. The Commerce Department's study was comprehensive, obtaining supply chain data from almost all major semiconductor firms and companies across a range of industries.

Officials concluded the government couldn't directly end the shortage. Private companies were "best positioned" to overcome challenges by increasing production, optimizing their designs and limiting the impact on their supply chains. However, Raimondo used this as an opportunity to plug President Biden's proposed $52 billion subsidy through the US Innovation and Competition Act (USICA). The investment could help "rebuild American manufacturing" and boost domestic supply chains for "years ahead," she said.

Factories resulting from USICA money wouldn't be ready for years, however, and the bill itself has been delayed. While it passed a crucial Senate vote, the House bill is only expected to surface by this week at the earliest. It could take longer to both clear the House and evolve into a final form Biden can sign into law. For now, the tech industry largely has to solve this dilemma on its own.

NYC's app-based delivery workers can finally use restaurant bathrooms

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 12:55 PM PST

Back in September, a slate of landmark bills successfully passed through the City Council of New York granting a variety of common sense provisions to the many delivery workers of the five boroughs. Well, the first tranche of new laws came into effect this week and crucially, they now guarantee couriers the right to use the bathrooms of restaurants. 

The lack of access to toilets has been a major point of contention for this class of workers (no doubt you've seen reports of Amazon drivers urinating in in bottles — something the company is reportedly well aware of.) The situation has been no different gig workers in NYC, and so bathroom access became a rallying cry for Los Deliveristas Unidos, a group of couriers who have been pushing for change. What was a long uphill battle resulted in a legislative win backed by progressive lawmakers in the states, and Local Law 117 — sponsored by District 2 Councilwoman Carlina Rivera — guarantees that:

"food delivery applications include a provision in contracts with restaurants requiring them to make their toilet facilities available for delivery workers' use, as long as the delivery worker seeks to access the facilities while picking up a food or beverage order for delivery"

Why this was not already the case is a total mystery. Keep in mind that, while the pandemic has certainly put a spotlight on the working conditions of couriers, Seamless launched in New York City in 1999, and has been leveraging its own fleet of gig workers since around 2014. A law addressing the discrepancy between "working everywhere" and "being allowed to use a toilet almost nowhere" took this long to address.

Free use of restrooms isn't the only quality of life change for gig workers. Two other laws which became enforceable yesterday provide greater pay transparency. The first requires informing delivery persons of the amount each customer has tipped them on an order, while the second mandates the information related to the previous day's total pay and total tips for be shared with the courier. These also might seem like small, perhaps even obvious features one might expect to already be available in these apps. But once again, this has been a long-running issue for gig workers; both Amazon Flex and DoorDash have been forced to pay hefty settlements for using tip money to subsidize contractor wages. 

Additional provisions for couriers will go into effect near the end of April that will require companies to provide insulated bags, routing directions for accepting an order and to pay workers at least once a week. Another law will also allow delivery workers to set the maximum distance they wish to travel, and give them the freedom to avoid going over bridges or through tunnels which can sometimes be dangerous. Finally, this coming January 1st, apps will be required to pay an as-yet-to-be-determined minimum rate to couriers, similar to how the city enacted a pay floor for rideshare drivers in 2018. 

Life is Strange remasters will join the Stadia Pro lineup on February 1st

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 12:35 PM PST

Stadia Pro members will be able to claim a couple of notable games at no additional cost next week. Following a delay, Square Enix's Life is Strange Remastered and Life is Strange: Before the Storm Remastered will hit various platforms (but not Switch) on February 1st, and subscribers can snag them on the same day. 

The most recent game in the well-regarded, narrative-heavy series, Life is Strange: True Colors, landed on Stadia and elsewhere on September 10th.

Five other games will join the Stadia Pro lineup on February 1st: Cosmic Star Heroine, Nanotale, Merek's Market, Phogs and One Hand Clapping. Subscribers can add those titles to their library and play them for as long as their Stadia Pro membership remains active.

It emerged earlier this month that Stadia users will soon have another way to access the platform. Samsung's 2022 TVs will allow players to access some cloud gaming services, like Stadia, without the need for dedicated hardware, such as a Chromecast dongle. You'll just need a compatible controller. Other TVs, including some LG models, offer direct access to Stadia as well.

Blizzard is diving into the survival game genre

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 12:10 PM PST

Blizzard, the studio behind Overwatch, Diablo and World of Warcraft, is getting into a new genre with the announcement that it's working on a survival game. It seems the project is in the early stages of development, so don't expect a finished product (or even a splashy trailer) any time soon, but it's notable that the publisher is playing around with fresh mechanics and new worlds.

Blizzard's job post about the survival game says it will be "a place full of heroes we have yet to meet, stories yet to be told, and adventures yet to be lived. A vast realm of possibility, waiting to be explored." So, yeah, they're keeping things vague for now.

The studio has confirmed one detail about the project: It'll be available on "PC and console." It's hard to say if the use of the singular "console" is prophetic — after all, Microsoft just announced plans to purchase Activision Blizzard, and the cross-platform future of its games is uncertain. Operating as a subsidiary of Microsoft, it's possible that Blizzard would build a game just for Xbox consoles, leaving PlayStation and Switch players in the lurch.

It'll likely be at least a year before we hear platform details and concrete information about the game, but Blizzard is looking to hire a handful of people in art, design and engineering to fill out the team. 

Activision Blizzard is currently facing a lawsuit and several investigations into allegations of systemic gender discrimination and sexual harassment at the studio, where CEO Bobby Kotick has been in charge for the past 30 years. One Blizzard employee went public with her experience, saying she was "subjected to rude comments about [her] body, unwanted sexual advances, inappropriately touched, subjected to alcohol-infused team events and cube crawls, invited to have casual sex with [her] supervisors, and surrounded by a frat-boy culture that's detrimental to women." 

Blizzard head Mike Ybarra last week promised to rebuild trust in the studio and establish "a safe, inclusive and creative work environment" as it transitions to Microsoft's roster.

Watch a drag race between Tesla's Model S Plaid and the Lucid Air

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 11:50 AM PST

Now that the Lucid Air is a practical reality, there's a looming question: how well does it fare in a drag race against the other well-known electric luxury sedan, Tesla's Model S Plaid? You now have a better idea. DragTimes has shared a long-teased video of a quarter-mile faceoff between the Air and Model S Plaid, and the outcome is at once expected but still full of insights.

It won't shock you to hear the Model S Plaid wins three of the four runs, including one with a rolling start. It has a shorter claimed 0-60MPH time (1.99 seconds versus 2.5), and its lighter curb weight (4,828lbs versus about 5,200lbs), helps offset the horsepower deficiency. The Tesla didn't have its drag strip prep mode enabled, either. If you're fortunate enough to cross-shop these EVs, the Model S is still your pick for raw acceleration.

The Lucid Air still holds up well, though, and it even won a race when the Model S Plaid's launch mode wasn't engaged. That added power still matters, to put it another way — and this is worth considering if you're more interested in green light races (where a launch mode likely won't be an option) than drag strips. Lucid also pointed out that you can precondition the Air for better straight-line performance, and that it's currently focused more on "luxury and efficiency" than speed.

The conditions weren't ideal between relatively chilly temperatures for the Houston-area strip and strong winds. You'll likely see faster times elsewhere. Even so, the video is worthwhile as a rare chance to see how different electric car platforms manage in real conditions. It also shows just how far EVs have come — these are figures you'd have previously associated with higher-end supercars, not four-door people carriers.

YouTube's head of gaming and two other executives are leaving

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 11:34 AM PST

Three YouTube executives are moving on from the platform, including head of gaming Ryan Wyatt. Senior director of creator partnerships Jamie Byrne and vice president and global head of product partnerships Heather Rivera are departing too.

"Like many other companies, we've seen some of our people choose a new direction in the new year," YouTube told Tubefilter. "We are also fortunate to have a deep bench of talented leaders to take our business forward. We thank Heather, Jamie, and Ryan for their incredible contribution to YouTube over the years and can't wait to see what they do next."

Wyatt, who also led YouTube's virtual and augmented reality projects, joined Google in 2014 after a career in esports and live events. He said on Twitter that he's leaving YouTube in the coming weeks to join Polygon Technology, a company in the Web3 space, where he'll head up the Polygon Studios division.

Wyatt wrote that he'll be "focused on growing the developer ecosystem through investment, marketing and developer support." He'll oversee gaming, entertainment, fashion, news, sports and other areas for Polygon Studios.

During Wyatt's tenure, YouTube has added a number of features to cater to gaming-focused creators and viewers, such as subscriptions, Super Chat and clips. In 2020, YouTube secured the rights to stream Call of Duty League and Overwatch League events for three years. The service has also lured several high-profile streamers away from Twitch over the last few years, including Jack "CouRage" Dunlop, Rachell "Valkyrae" Hofstetter, Tim "TimTheTatman" Betar and Benjamin "DrLupo" Lupo.

Byrne had been with YouTube since 2006 and most recently was overseeing areas like creator acquisitions and Shorts partnerships. According to Tubefilter, he's joining NFT endeavor Bright Moments to lead operations and partnerships — just as it seems YouTube may be getting into NFTs. Rivera, meanwhile, was involved in growing ad-supported and subscription businesses, such as YouTube TV.

GM is building EV production and battery factories in Michigan

Posted: 25 Jan 2022 09:52 AM PST

GM and LG are building a third Ultium factory in the US. The $2.6 billion plant in Lansing, Michigan will make batteries for GM's electric vehicles.

Ultium Cells, a joint venture between the companies, expects to create 1,700 manufacturing jobs at the plant, which is projected to open in late 2024. At full production, Ultium expects the factory to have a battery cell capacity of 50 gigawatt hours, and it will be able to adapt to advancements in materials and tech. Construction is underway on Ultium's other battery manufacturing sites in Tennessee and Ohio.

Ultium's cells can be stacked vertically or horizontally inside battery packs, which allows GM to customize the layout for each vehicle design. Energy options range between 50kWh and 200kWh. GM says Ultium system may deliver a range of 450 miles or more on a single charge and accelerate from zero to 60MPH in three seconds. The company is designing Ultium-powered EVs with fast charging in mind — most of them will have 400-volt battery packs and up to 200 kW fast charging. Electric trucks, meanwhile, will have 800-volt packs with 350kW charging.

The Ultium factory forms part of a new $7 billion investment by GM (the company's largest single outlay to date) in four Michigan sites. The automaker is spending $4 billion to convert a plant in Orion Township, which will become its second US manufacturing location for the Chevrolet Silverado EV and electric GMC Sierra.

Conversion work is underway, and GM expects to start making the electric trucks at the plant in 2024. It expects to retain around 1,000 current jobs and add more than 2,350. Production of the Chevrolet Bolt EV and EUV will continue during the transition. The company projects that it will convert half of its North American assembly capacity to EV production by 2030.

GM is aiming to make more than a million EVs in the US per year by the end of 2025, and today's investment announcement forms a key part of that. The company's also spending more than $510 million to increase production at two sites in the Lansing area, one of which is building the next-gen Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave.
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