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The Morning After: A ‘perfect’ ultraportable laptop?

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‘Bloomberg’ sources claim they’re coming later this year.Amazon is working on an Alexa-powered AirPods competitor

Amazon is working on some AirPod-esque hardware that can tap into Alexa. Bloomberg reports the online retail giant is working on its first Alexa wearable. Sources say the Amazon version will be similar to AirPods in terms of both general design and features. The company is reportedly aiming to offer better audio quality than Apple — nothing new there.

This is the worst version of ‘Pokemon Go’ I’ve ever seen.Verizon’s 5G network is live and fast, if you can find it

In a bid to claim the title of the first consumer-ready 5G network in the world, Verizon surprised us by lighting up its 5G nodes across Chicago and Minneapolis ahead of schedule. Obviously, there was no way we couldn’t book a flight to the Windy City and see what this next-gen network was capable of. As usual, though, things weren’t quite that straightforward. Mobile Editor Chris Velazco’s time testing 5G turned into a city-wide scavenger hunt, trying to find stable high-speed connections.

‘BioWare magic’ is marketing BS.‘Anthem’ is proof that crunch can’t save AAA games

Anthem is a fiery mess. Since launching in February, BioWare’s loot shooter has been plagued by game-breaking bugs, narrative and gameplay inconsistencies and an overwhelming sense of incomplete blandness. Critically, Anthem has received middling reviews, and its current Metacritic score, 55, is the lowest a BioWare title has ever received. Yes, that includes Mass Effect: Andromeda. The culprit: The Crunch. Developers getting burned out.

Original director Shinichiro Watanabe is serving as a consultant.Netflix ‘Cowboy Bebop’ series casts John Cho and Mustafa Shakir

According to Variety, John Cho will take up the lead role of bounty hunter Spike Spiegel. Alongside him will be Luke Cage-star Mustafa Shakir, who will play Spiegel’s partner Jet Black. Daniella Pineda of The Originals fame will play the amnesia-stricken Faye Valentine. British stage actor Alex Hassell will take on Vicious, a notorious hitman and rival to Cho’s Spiegel.

An iOS tablet that has serious power at a price that’s easier to swallow.Apple iPad Air review: Just right

The $499 iPad Air is a notable upgrade in almost every respect over the entry-level, $329, iPad. It has a bigger, better screen, more storage and support for Apple’s Smart Keyboard case. According to Nathan Ingraham, unless you’re on a tight budget, it’s worth the extra cash and is probably the best all-around iPad you can buy right now.

One of the best Windows PCs gets even better.Dell XPS 13 review: A perfect ultraportable

Dell did it again. Its XPS 13 is still one of the best Windows ultraportables around. The design? Better than ever. The screen supports Dolby Vision HDR and Dell has finally returned the webcam to the proper position. Devindra Hardawar says there aren’t many downsides — unless you’re looking for a bit more gaming oomph.

If you can wait three to five years.High-density EV battery could offer 600-mile range on a single charge

Innolith AG plans to cram 1,000 Wh/kg into the rechargeable battery, a “world’s first,” and cut manufacturing costs by ditching “exotic and expensive materials.” To put that in perspective, a top-level Tesla Model S offers up to 315 miles of range thanks to a 100 kWh lithium-ion battery.

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Jim Henson shows come to Amazon Prime Video, but not in the US

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According to Variety, the Henson additions include all five original seasons of Fraggle Rock, The Storyteller, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss and Mother Goose Stories. None of those will be available stateside. In Fraggle Rock’s case, it’s because the show is on HBO in the country. US subscribers are getting Fraggle Rock: The Animated Series and a bunch of other specials instead. Meanwhile, all subscribers aside from those in Canada will get access to Pajanimals, a musical show for pre-schoolers.

Prime Video probably won’t be able to release the aforementioned shows in the US until their licenses for other platforms expire. The Jim Henson Company is publishing programs on Prime Video via the tech giant’s self-distribution program, though, so chances are it will release those shows in the region as soon as it’s able.

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Labo VR modes come to ‘Super Mario Odyssey’ and ‘Breath of the Wild’

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Still on the fence about Nintendo’s latest push into VR? There’s one more thing to know about Nintendo Labo VR: it will work with hit Switch titles Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. According to Nintendo you won’t have to press it up to your face to replay either game in full, instead updates will enhance each title in different ways.

In Breath of the Wild, players can jump in and out of the VR experience at will, while playing the same game as always. In Super Mario Odyssey, however, it will gain three “bite-sized bonus experiences” crossing the Cap, Seaside, and Luncheon Kingdoms. Software updates for both titles will arrive on April 25th, a couple of weeks after the VR kit and its accessories hit shelves on the 12th. Nintendo didn’t say whether VR upgrades are planned for any other games, but if the add-on takes off then the potential is certainly there.

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Judge orders Elon Musk and the SEC to settle Tesla tweet dispute

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The SEC brought him to court for the second time after he tweeted a photo of Tesla’s facility and followed that up by saying that the automaker will manufacture 500,000 cars in 2019. He corrected himself in another follow-up and clarified that 500,000 is merely the expected production rate. Tesla still expects to deliver 400,000 vehicles for the year, which is consistent with previous guidance. Clearly, his clarification wasn’t enough for the SEC.

Musk had to step down as Tesla chairman and pay $20 million in penalty the first time the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against him over tweets about taking Tesla private. The agency said his proclamation that the company already has the funding to take the automaker private constitutes fraud for being “false and misleading.”

While that lawsuit also sought to ban the executive from serving as an officer of a public company, Musk’s deal with the SEC ultimately allowed him to keep his role as Tesla’s CEO. Also part of that deal? Having tweets that contain material information about Tesla’s vehicle production pre-approved by one of the company’s lawyers.

The commission said that by tweeting the 500,000 production outlook for the year, Musk shared “inaccurate and material” data, one that wasn’t reviewed by Tesla’s lawyers. Musk argued, however, that he had the right to decide whether a post needs pre-approval and that the tweet in question was immaterial to shareholders. He said in a statement provided to Reuters:

“I have great respect for Judge Nathan, and I’m pleased with her decision today. The tweet in question was true, immaterial to shareholders, and in no way a violation of my agreement.”

Judge Nathan gave both parties two weeks to hammer out an agreement. If they still don’t reach one by that time, then that’s when she’ll hand down her decision. In case Musk is found in contempt, he might be required to start submitting regular reports about how Tesla’s lawyers are overseeing his tweets. SEC lawyer Cheryl Crumpton is also eyeing the possibility of imposing higher fines, seeing as Musk said the $20 million fine he had to pay the first time was “worth it.”



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Verizon’s 5G network is live and fast, if you can find it

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Where I did find 5G, I generally saw very fast download speeds in Ookla’s Speedtest app. Emphasis on the word “generally” — in some places, I could consistently get north of 350Mbps down, and frequently saw speeds top out at nearly 600Mbps. Verizon claims that peak speeds can get as high as 1Gbps, but even with few people actively using the network now, none of my tests even got close. Even so, assuming you find the right location, 5G on the Moto Z3 can be really fast. (Of course, that’s not to say it doesn’t have competition.)

The thing to keep in mind is that there’s more to using a phone than just looking at speed tests, and for now at least, the practical benefits of 5G on this smartphone haven’t been game-changers. Pages loaded noticeably faster than my personal iPhone on AT&T’s so-called 5GE network, but I’m not sure that’s necessarily a fair comparison — as I bounced across the city, I rarely found full coverage on AT&T anyway.

5G was more helpful for playing back 1080p60 video on YouTube, though. Scrubbing through the same videos took noticeably less time on the 5G Moto Z3 than another test device I brought with me. I also downloaded PUBG Mobile (a 1.81GB file) over 5G in exactly four minutes and thirty seconds, which isn’t bad considering the same download took just over eight minutes over LTE. When I launched the app to try and fumble through a round, though, I noticed that the download speeds for a 200-ish MB update file never went faster than 8MB per second, or 64Mbps. That’s not nearly as fast as I was hoping for.

Months ago, Motorola nearly sold me on the idea of trying to use the 5G-enabled Moto Z3 as a super-fast mobile hotspot while traveling. It’s a great idea in theory, but that’s all it is right now — until Motorola releases a software update at some point, the hotspot feature simply doesn’t work. It’s probably just as well, too, because upload speeds were comparatively tame — they generally hovered between 15 and 25Mbps. That’s because only data traffic to the phone runs over the 5G network; everything you try to upload gets routed over LTE, so anyone hoping to move big files around on the go will likely be disappointed (at least for now).

As I plodded around in the rain on foot, I did find a few particularly strong pockets of 5G. The single best place I found to get a sense of the network’s speed was right outside Motorola’s headquarters in the city’s historic Merchandise Mart. That’s great if you work for Motorola, but less than ideal for, well, most residents of Chicago. I also stumbled across a decent 5G signal at the corner of Michigan and Monroe, a busy intersection just feet away from Millennium Park and the city’s Art Institute.

This is where things started to get a little dicey. The typical speed tests were appropriately quick outdoors, but when I ducked into a coffee shop to try and warm up a bit, the phone quickly fell back to an LTE connection. When I pressed myself up against the coffee shop’s front window, the 5G UWB logo popped up again… for just a moment. I spent the next fifteen minutes watching the phone switch between 4G and 5G connections, but the pane of glass in front of me seemed to prevent it from securely latching onto that mmWave signal.

A lackluster speed test result (roughly 45Mbps down) confirmed the issue. Those flaky connections don’t just strike when indoors, either. The rest of my jaunt around the touristy spots Verizon said should have functional 5G involved lots of wandering around and freezing in place when I saw the 5G logo pop up. While that often worked, I occasionally saw the phone switching back and forth between 4G and 5G during speed tests, leading to significantly slower results.

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Google dissolves newly formed AI ethics board

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The group also has a long history of climate change denial and anti-immigrant sentiments. James, as the head of the foundation, espouses those views and is very vocally anti-trans and anti-equality. Shortly after the council was announced with her as part of the panel, a group of Google employees called for her removal. In the group’s letter, they pointed out that current AI technologies’ flaws mostly affect trans people, persons of color and immigrants, so James isn’t the best person for a council formed to guide the responsible development of AI:

“Appointing James to ATEAC also significantly undermines Google’s position on AI ethics and fairness. The potential harms of AI are not evenly distributed, and follow historical patterns of discrimination and exclusion. From AI that doesn’t recognize trans people, doesn’t “hear” more feminine voices, and doesn’t “see” women of color, to AI used to enhance police surveillance, profile immigrants, and automate weapons — those who are most marginalized are most at risk. Not only are James’ views counter to Google’s stated values, but they are directly counter to the project of ensuring that the development and application of AI prioritizes justice over profit. Such a project should instead place representatives from vulnerable communities at the center of decision-making.”

Another controversial board member was Trumbull Unmanned founder Dyan Gibbens, whose appointment reignited discussions on the use of Google-made AI for the military. And then there’s the fact that some members resigned over their problematic peers.

A Google spokesperson has confirmed the panel’s dissolution to Engadget. And based on what they told us, it sounds like the company is looking for a new way to get valuable outside opinions on its artificial intelligence efforts.

“It’s become clear that in the current environment, ATEAC can’t function as we wanted. So we’re ending the council and going back to the drawing board. We’ll continue to be responsible in our work on the important issues that AI raises, and will find different ways of getting outside opinions on these topics.”



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Samsung sees its Q1 profit drop 60 percent from last year’s record

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Samsung just released guidance for its Q1 2019 earnings report, and estimates an operating profit of 6.2 trillion won (about $5.5 billion), which is less than half of the $14.4 billion profit it recorded in the same period last year. Samsung had issued an unprecedented warning for investors of bad news on the way, citing declines in prices for memory chips, and lower demand for screens like the OLED display it makes for Apple’s iPhone.

We’ll have to wait a few more weeks for a detailed breakdown and final numbers, but in its last earnings report Samsung noted how it hoped the Galaxy S10 series would help turn things around. The prediction for overall revenue dropped by only fourteen percent, to 52 trillion won. The last time Samsung saw a drop of this magnitude, we were looking forward to the Galaxy Note 4 and 4K TVs. Now the company hopes investments in data centers will drive more demand for memory, and that the high-priced Galaxy Fold can drive profits by enticing competitors to use its flexible display tech for their own devices.

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Faraday Future pins hopes on China-exclusive EV

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Still in its conceptual stages, the first pre-production V9 is expected in 2020 and will be sold exclusively in China. Faraday signed a $600 million dollar deal with The9 back in March to build an EV exclusively for sale in China. The two companies aim to release 300,000 of the V9s per year.

The founder of Faraday, Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting, tweeted that the V9 was “a new mobility luxury intelligent space that blends design, AI and seamless cabin connectivity.” Few other details are known about the V9, other than that it will be a multipurpose vehicle based on the same platform as the FF91, of which we’ve only seen a pre-production prototype.

The EV startup pitched itself as a Tesla disrupter but has faced numerous financial struggles keeping its flagship car, the FF91, from hitting the market. Even though The9 is providing a much-needed lifeline for Faraday, the $600 million dollar investment isn’t a done deal. Faraday received $5 million up front for its short-term cash flow problems. According to an SEC filing, the EV startup will get the rest of the money in $200 million increments after meeting certain milestones, including setting up the joint venture in Hong Kong, securing funding for a factory in China, and coming up with a design prototype that is approved by its board of directors.



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Amazon reportedly has an Alexa-powered AirPods competitor in the works

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In addition to saying “Alexa” to activate the virtual assistant, the earbuds will reportedly offer gesture controls for things like taking calls and skipping tracks while listening to music. The Alexa earbuds are said to follow much of the true wireless competition with an included charging case. Bloomberg reports Amazon’s hardware division, Lab126, is working on the project. Lab126 popped up in reports last spring about an Alexa-enabled home robot — a device code-named Vesta.

Amazon has faced a number of delays in development of the earbuds, but the company has been looking for parts suppliers and manufacturing partners over the last few months, according to Bloomberg.

True wireless earbuds have been around for a while now, but they’re becoming increasingly more popular. And with reports indicating AirPods are the most popular option, it’s easy to see why Amazon would want to introduce something similar for it’s own virtual assistant. Amazon typically hosts a big hardware showcase in September, so it makes sense that the Alexa-powered earbuds would debut around then.

We’ve reached out to Amazon for a comment on the matter, and we’ll update this post if we hear back.

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Skype doubles group call limit to 50 people

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Meanwhile, notifications will take over from ringing as the default for group calls, so prompts to join them should be a touch less obtrusive. You can still ring people individually or the entire group (as long as there are fewer than 25 people invited to a call) if they dally and a notification isn’t quite enough to get them to join.

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