Friday, February 4, 2022

Engadget RSS Feed

Engadget RSS Feed

Snap is finally profitable

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 03:06 PM PST

Nearly five years after going public, Snap is finally profitable. The company shared the milestone in its fourth-quarter earnings release, where it reported $23 million in positive net income.

That may be a tiny percentage of its $4.1 billion in quarterly revenue, but it's an important step for the company which has at times struggled with user growth. But those challenges appear to be firmly behind Snapchat, as daily active users climbed to 319 million, an increase of 13 million for the second quarter in a row. DAUs were up 20 percent overall in 2021.

The news for shareholders was particularly welcome as Snap's results came a day after Meta reported that Facebook's daily active users had declined for the first time in its history. The resulting stock slide wiped more than $200 billion off the company's market cap. Meanwhile, Snap's stock shot up more than 50 percent in after-hours trading, fueled by news of its profitability and continued user growth.

Snap, like Facebook, has said in the past that Apple's privacy changes had negatively impacted its advertising business, with CEO Evan Spiegel calling it a "frustrating setback" last quarter. But it now seems Snap is navigating those changes a bit more easily. During a call with analysts Thursday, CFO Derek Andersen credited Snapchat's privacy-centric approach.

"We built our business with privacy by design at the core of our products, including our advertising platform," he said. "As a result, the impacts of the changes that we've seen on the iOS platform are likely to be experienced differently for business than perhaps for others." He added that the company was still "very early in the journey."

Spiegel also reflected on how the pandemic has changed Snapchat users' behavior. "We are seeing people post fewer Stories to their friends, view fewer Stories from their friends," Spiegel said. "But at the same time we've seen folks watching more premium content, watching more content in Spotlight." 

Spotlight is Snapchat's TikTok-like feature for short-form video. Spiegel credited the feature with helping grow Snapchat's creator community, with more than 12,000 creators receiving payouts from Spotlight in the feature's first year. "Today we see three times as many monthly posts per creator than we did when Spotlight launched a year ago," he said.

Amazon is raising the price of Prime to $139 per year

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 02:27 PM PST

Amazon Prime is increasing in price for the first time since 2018. The company used its latest earnings to reveal that it's raising the fee to $15 per month (previously $13), or $139 per year (previously $119). The higher rates kick in February 18th for new customers, but they won't take effect for existing customers until they renew March 25th or later — if you were thinking of trying Prime, you might want to sign up now to lock in the current price for a year.

Amazon pinned the increase on the "continued expansion" of Prime perks along with higher wages and transportation costs. As with the last time around, you can likely blame Amazon's ever more ambitious Prime Video plans for some of the increase. According to Hollywood Reporter, the upcoming Lord of the Rings series is expected to cost $465 million just for its first season — and that's not including other big productions. Throw in the MGM acquisition and Amazon has plenty of media-related expenses.

The company can't blame the hike on financial hardship, at least. Amazon's net profit jumped nearly 57 percent in 2021 to $33.4 billion — the lingering COVID-19 pandemic has been good for Amazon's core shopping business. A surge in profit from EV maker Rivian's initial public stock offering (Amazon has a 20 percent stake) helped mask lower income in the last calendar quarter of 2021, but it's evident the company doesn't need the Prime hike in the near future.

The Prime increase might also irk people beyond Amazon's customers. The company is raising rates even as it fights workers' efforts to improve working conditions, and as it faces increasing government scrutiny of its pricing and other practices. There won't be much sympathy from some corners, then, even if Amazon does use the extra revenue to help staff.

Ford starts 2022 with its highest EV sales numbers to date

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 01:55 PM PST

If the bonkers preorder numbers for both the hybrid Maverick and the EV F-150 Lightning weren't enough of an indication, Ford's Q4 earnings results are plenty proof that the company's electrification efforts are already paying dividends. 

"Financial performance is obviously critical," President and CEO Jim Farley said in a release Thursday. "We're also proud that customers see how Ford is taking EVs mainstream, and have already ordered or reserved more than 275,000 all-electric Mustang Mach-E SUVs, F-150 Lightning pickups and E-Transit commercial vehicles – and we're breaking constraints to deliver every one of them as fast as we can."

"We started moving with real speed of ambition to build a modern Ford," he added during Thursday's investors call. "Our true breakthroughs are still ahead of us."

In fact, the company reports that sales of its EVs in January "grew almost 4 times faster than the overall electrified segment" (13,169 units in total), making Ford the current number 2 retailer of electric vehicles in the country behind Tesla (and the country's top-selling automaker overall), prompting a promise from Farley to double the company's global production capacity for EVs "to at least 600,000 by 2023." He expects EVs to "represent at least 40 percent of its product mix by 2030." What's more, China is now Ford's largest market for Lincoln-brand vehicles, Farley noted.

In all, Ford saw revenue of $37.7 billion, a net income of $12.3 billion and $2 billion in EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) in Q4 2021. The company sold 6,513 Mavericks in January alone — with 3,549 of these sold as hybrids — along with 2,370 Mach-Es, 27 percent of which were of the GT variety. Ford also saw strong interest in its new Transit line of commercial EVs with more than 300 American businesses placing orders for 10,000 vehicles. 

"We plan to take full advantage of our first-mover position in the fully electric pickup truck market starting with lightning," Farley declared. "But there's much more to come. In the coming months, we'll break ground on the Blue City electric truck plant in Tennessee."

"It will be the largest, the most advanced manufacturing complex in our history," he added. "And it will produce Ford's second generation of full size electric pickups in high volumes starting in 2025. At the same time, we have three large-scale battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky, which will be coming on stream with capacity to produce enough battery cells for more than 1 million vehicles a year."

And, while not wholly electrified, Ford did point out that its pickup lines — the F-150, Ranger, and Maverick — with combined sales of 62,293, outsold GM's pickups in January. The company's mobile Ford Pass and Lincoln Way apps saw their US memberships grow to nearly 8 million uses total.

Due to the strong order and sales numbers, Ford CEO John Lawler said in Thursday's statement that the company "expects full-year 2022 adjusted EBIT to be even stronger [than 2021] – $11.5 billion to $12.5 billion, an increase of 15 to 25 percent over 2021."

"The velocity of change at Ford is increasing," Farley concluded. "We're not seeking half measures.Fear of change and risk has never served legacy automakers well in the past couple of decades. We're done with incremental change."

Democratic lawmakers take another stab at AI bias legislation

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 12:58 PM PST

Democrats in Congress on Thursday renewed a push to hold tech companies accountable for bias in their algorithms. Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), along with House representative Yvette Clarke (D-NY) introduced an updated version of a bill that would require audits of AI systems used in areas such as finance, healthcare, housing, education and more. First introduced by Wyden in 2019, the Algorithmic Accountability Act has never passed the committee level in either the House or Senate.

"If someone decides not to rent you a house because of the color of your skin, that's flat-out illegal discrimination. Using a flawed algorithm or software that results in discrimination and bias is just as bad. Our bill will pull back the curtain on the secret algorithms that can decide whether Americans get to see a doctor, rent a house or get into a school," said Wyden in a press release.

A wave of studies found evidence of racial and gender bias in AI tools and automated systems used in everything from approving mortgages and credit cards to prescribing pain medication. Civil rights groups in recent years have lobbied Congress to hold companies accountable for flawed and biased algorithms.

The bill would require companies to perform an audit of their AI systems and report their findings to the Federal Trade Commission. It would also require the FTC to force companies to make high-profile AI decision making public. Under the bill, the FTC would create a public database where consumers can review critical decisions that have been automated by companies.

The legislation would require companies that use AI tools in "critical decision making" to evaluate the outcomes of such tools and regularly report their findings to the FTC. According to an analysis of the bill released by Wyden's office, this includes any decisions by businesses that are related to the "cost, terms, or availability of education and vocational training, employment, essential utilities, family planning, financial services, healthcare, housing or lodging, legal services, or any other service, program, or opportunity that has a comparably legal or similarly significant effect on a consumer's life as determined by the Commission through rulemaking."

The bill has been endorsed by a handful of civil liberties and digital rights groups, including EPIC, Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), Fight for the Future, and others. "Color Of Change commends Sens. Wyden and Booker and Rep. Clarke for advancing racial justice equities in tech regulation. We hope Congress will pass this instrumental legislation," said Arisha Hatch, Vice President of Color Of Change, in a statement.

Both the House and Senate versions of the bill will next need to be reviewed and voted on by their relevant committees in Congress. The date for this vote has yet to be scheduled.

Engadget has reached out to the bill's co-sponsors for further details on the legislation and its next steps in Congress, and will update when we hear back.

Canada will get its first universal quantum computer from IBM

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 11:30 AM PST

Quantum computing is still rare enough that merely installing a system in a country is a breakthrough, and IBM is taking advantage of that novelty. The company has forged a partnership with the Canadian province of Quebec to install what it says is Canada's first universal quantum computer. The five-year deal will see IBM install a Quantum System One as part of a Quebec-IBM Discovery Accelerator project tackling scientific and commercial challenges.

The team-up will see IBM and the Quebec government foster microelectronics work, including progress in chip packaging thanks to an existing IBM facility in the province. The two also plan to show how quantum and classical computers can work together to address scientific challenges, and expect quantum-powered AI to help discover new medicines and materials.

IBM didn't say exactly when it would install the quantum computer. However, it will be just the fifth Quantum One installation planned by 2023 following similar partnerships in Germany, Japan, South Korea and the US. Canada is joining a relatively exclusive club, then.

The country is no stranger to quantum computing. Controversial company D-Wave is based in Canada, after all. Even so, the IBM move is significant. It gives Canada a more generalized system that could conquer problems impractical to solve using conventional supercomputers. This won't necessarily revolutionize Canada's scientific community, but it could provide an edge until quantum computing is relatively commonplace.

The new Moto G Stylus adds a 90Hz display, a big battery and not much else

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 11:11 AM PST

Motorola is once again kicking off a new year with a new Moto G Stylus, and this one still offers solid value — if you're willing to make a couple of sacrifices. The newly introduced Moto G Stylus 2022 model still has a 6.8-inch 1080p display (albeit with a centered hole-punch camera) and an otherwise mostly fmiliar design, but makes the leap to a faster 90Hz refresh rate. You also won't be hurting for longevity with a sizeable 5,000mAh battery in place of last year's 4,000mAh pack.

While those are appreciable improvements, this latest Moto G Stylus is oddly conservative in some places. For one, there's no 5G — slightly odd for a 2022 budget phone when devices like Samsung's A32 5G already managed the feat last year. It ships with Android 11 instead of Android 12, for that matter. You do get 6GB of RAM and a higher-resolution 50MP main rear camera (up from 4GB and 48MP respectively), but Motorola has ditched the Snapdragon 678 in favor of MediaTek's Helio G88. That's more of a step sideways in performance than a leap forward. You still get a ultra-wide and macro cameras, though, and the 128GB of expandable storage plus water resistance should help the phone last.

The 2022 Moto G Stylus is available to pre-order now through Amazon, Best Buy, Motorola and Walmart for $300. That still makes it a good value, but it's not an easy choice between this and last year's Moto G Stylus 5G. You'll have a better display and processing power, but you'll lose 5G and the extra built-in storage. The better value could depend on sale prices for each handset, too. Until there's an updated Moto G Stylus 5G, you may need to shop carefully to find the best device.

Senate bill targeting Apple and Google in-app payments moves forward

Posted: 03 Feb 2022 10:53 AM PST

A bill targeting Apple and Google's app store restrictions has taken a step forward. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 20-2 to advance the Open App Markets Act, with only Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis opposing. The vote showed once again that there's bipartisan support for the bill.

Should the legislation become law as it stands, it would prevent app marketplace owners with more than 50 million users in the US from locking third-party developers into their payment systems. The App Store and Google Play Store, which require third-party apps to use their respective payment systems, pass that threshold.

They wouldn't be able to block or punish developers from offering apps at other prices on different platforms, and they'd have to let developers contact their users with "legitimate business offers, such as pricing terms and product or service offerings." Another provision would force Apple and Google to let users install third-party app stores or sideload apps. This would have a bigger impact on Apple, since Android already allows sideloading.

Apple and Google have opposed the bill, claiming that it would put user security and privacy at risk. They said the same things about the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, a more sweeping tech reform bill that the committee passed last month. Both bills will go to the Senate floor for debate and a vote.

The stakes are high for both companies. The App Store and Google Play Store each take a 15 percent cut of in-app purchases up to the first $1 million developers make in annual revenue. After that, the fees rise to 30 percent. 

Google parent company Alphabet reports Play Store revenue under "Google other revenues," which also includes hardware and non-ad income from YouTube. That business segment brought in $8.2 billion last quarter, a year-over-year increase of 22 percent. App Store revenue falls under the Apple's services segment, which raked in $19.5 billion in Q4.

Apple was last year ordered to allow developers to direct users to other payment methods as a result of its legal battle with Epic Games. An appeals court judge granted a last-minute delay before the change was supposed to take effect.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)