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Waymo’s self-driving vans will carry UPS packages in Phoenix

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The program kicks off this quarter (that is, no later than March). Waymo had already grown its AutoNation deal to include a car part delivery test in 2019. UPS has been busy, too, having just ordered 10,000 electric trucks from Arrival for crewed deliveries.

The two see this as part of a “long-term plan” to explore how they can cooperate. There’s no guarantee that will involve a self-driving courier rolling up to your door, but that wouldn’t be surprising when UPS is already using drones to deliver medicine. For now, the benefits are more modest. UPS sees this moving packages out of stores more frequently, increasing the chances that your package will reach its destination on time and freeing up space in the stores themselves.

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Xbox is the only weak point for Microsoft’s strong quarter

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That’s not too surprising, considering that many gamers are eagerly awaiting the next-generation Xbox Series X. Still, it’s not a great sign for the company to see such a significant sales drop during the holiday quarter. And it didn’t help that there weren’t many must-have exclusives for the Xbox over that period, either. Microsoft might be more focused on building up an impressive lineup of titles for its next system, which at this point includes Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 and the long-awaited Halo Infinity.

Overall, the company reported revenue growth of 14 percent for the second quarter, reaching $36.9 billion. Net income, meanwhile, jumped 38 percent ($11.6 billion). We’ve said it before: at this point Microsoft’s business seems unstoppable.

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Disney+ announces two adventure competition shows for teens

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The Quest, which you may remember as a short-lived ABC series from 2014, is a reality competition with teen contestants filmed in a castle outside of Vienna, Austria. It’s set in a fantasy world called Everealm, and it will include “mystical beings and magical encounters.” A few of its producers have ties to other work you may recognize, including The Lord of the Rings, Queer Eye and The Amazing Race.

In The Maze, an “adventure competition,” five teams of one adult and one teen relative will follow riddles around European cities and villages in a race to solve “the maze.” The show is being produced by The Amazing Race producers Bertram van Munster, Elise Doganieri and Mark Dziak.

“These projects take people on epic adventures, immerse them in fantastical worlds and shine a light on extraordinary people and creatures, which are all important benchmarks of our Disney+ nonfiction content philosophy,” said Agnes Chu, senior vice president of content at Disney+.

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Play the arcade classic ‘Tecmo Bowl’ on PS4 and Switch tomorrow

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Some of the other notable differences between the two versions are that the arcade one features better graphics and that it allows you to switch between 10 different players instead of nine. The NES version, however, was the first console sports game to feature licensed players. In 1991, its sequel, Tecmo Super Bowl, became the first sports game licensed by both the National Football League and National Football League Players Association, allowing it to feature both real NFL teams and players. If you own a Switch, you can play the NES version of Tecmo Bowl through Nintendo’s Switch Online service.

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Facebook may be cutting its budget for original Watch content

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While Facebook has yet to confirm The Information‘s claims, just last week, the social network reached a deal with the PGA Tour to bring daily recaps and highlight videos, rather than live coverage, to Facebook Watch. It also recently canceled two of its original shows, Limetown with Jessica Biel and Sorry for Your Loss with Elizabeth Olsen, after their first and second seasons, respectively.

When Facebook launched Watch in 2017, it infamously committed to spending a ton of money on its original shows. In some cases, it reportedly offered Hollywood agencies as much as $3 million per episode for original scripted content. It seemed like Facebook’s goal was to compete with major streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. That’s an increasingly crowded space, with the addition of Disney+ and Apple TV+. Focusing on talk shows and highlight clips could position Facebook Watch to better compete, instead, with the likes of YouTube.

Last summer, Facebook claimed Watch had 720 million monthly viewers and 140 million daily viewers, but already, it has reportedly slashed its news programming and drastically reduced the number of MLB games that it streams. It looks like original content is next on the chopping block.

Engadget has reached out to Facebook for comment.

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Lawsuits claim Amazon, Apple and more are streaming unlicensed music

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The defendants include Amazon, Apple, Deezer, Google, iHeartradio, Pandora, Rhapsody, 7digital, SoundCloud and YouTube, so this is a wide-sweeping effort on the part of PMR. The company says it has been proactive in the matter, offering licensing deals to all 10 defendants and educating them about their obligations regarding copyright laws. These efforts had little to no effect, though — the services have continued to stream the tracks without paying royalties.

PMR calls their actions a “blatant disregard of the Copyright Act.” The company is seeking “the maximum $150,000 for each act of willful infringement with respect to the copyrights involved in the action.” It’s unclear whether the company is seeking $150,000 per unlicensed track available on a given service or for every time one of those tracks has been streamed. PMR represents both emerging and chart-topping artists, including Wiz Khalifa, Gucci Mane and Fall Out Boy, so the company could be suing the defendants for huge sums of money, either way.

Royalty collection firms like PMR have their work cut out for them — major changes to the music industry have them navigating uncharted water. And while many of these shifts have been beneficial to musicians — just about anyone can have their music published alongside big acts thanks to companies like DistroKid — there are also new opportunities for big companies like Apple and Spotify to take advantage. Whether companies like PMR stand a chance against the legal defenses of tech giants remains to be seen.

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The best pre-Super Bowl deals for 4K TVs and streaming

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If you already have a 4K TV but don’t have one with a built-in Fox Sports app or a 4K box from TV providers like Dish, Comcast, Verizon or DirecTV, then adding a set-top box or streaming stick will work as a shortcut. For cord-cutters, you can sign up with Fubo TV (or at least take advantage of its 7-day free trial) and get the 4K stream that way.

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K

All of Amazon’s Fire TV 4K hardware is on sale right now, including the Fire TV Stick 4K for $35, which is $15 cheaper than the usual $50 price. According to Fox, it is scheduled receive an HDR feed, so this should guarantee you one of the best-looking views of the game available anywhere.

Roku

Roku’s Premiere also can catch a Fox Sports stream, and is available at many stores for just $30. Of course, if your setup is all-Apple then the Apple TV 4K is the way to go (although the Super Bowl feed will not be in HDR), and Walmart has the cheapest price right now at $169 for the 32GB model.

Still, none of that matters unless you have a 4K TV to plug it into, and then the question is how much space is there in your living room — and your budget. If the answer is “not much” then one of the cheaper but still-good options is Hisense’s 50H8F. It’s easy to find at Amazon or Best Buy with a small discount to $330, and it recently scored as one of RTINGS.com’s best 4K TVs under $500.

TCL

If you’re ready to step up to something larger — and you should, 4K really shines on these big screens — then things get interesting. Budget options include the 2018 65-inch favorite from TCL, as the 65R615 is once again on sale at Best Buy for $499. That matches the lowest price we’ve seen for this one, so if it’s available close by it may be convenient to pick up for the weekend.

TCL

Slightly pricier options from the 2019 vintage include TCL’s newer model, the 65R625 that adds quantum dot colors and is available for $699, matching the lowest price we’ve seen so far. That’s also $100 less than what I paid just a few months ago.

Vizio

Still, purely for value it’s hard to beat Vizio’s M-Series television that also has quantum dot tech built-in, and 90 zones of local dimming. The 65-inch model is currently on sale for about $650.

Hisense H9F

If you’d rather have Android TV than the Roku OS TCL uses or Vizio’s Smartcast setup, then Hisense’s 65-inch H9F delivers similar performance, and is on sale for $799 — $100 less than the standard price. All of them can manage 4K HDR with support for Dolby Vision.

But what if you spent just a little more? Higher-end TVs will come with better performance not just for fast-moving bright content like the Super Bowl’s 4K stream, but movies and perhaps even video games you’ll play later on. LG’s B9 OLED is as beautiful as any other screen we’ve seen in the last year, but at nearly $1,800 it might be a bit too much of a jump. Samsung’s Q60 series of 4K TVs should fit the bill perfectly. They’re compatible with both Alexa and Google Assistant, have a bevy of apps built right in and FreeSync VRR to make sure compatible games look their best. Right now it’s on sale for $898, which is about $100 cheaper than before.

X900F

Similarly, Sony’s X900F 4K TV was one of the better ones on the market in 2018. It will be replaced soon by the X900H models we saw a few weeks ago at CES, but it’s still an excellent TV — albeit with some off-angle viewing issues — and now it’s on sale for under $1,000, which is as cheap as we’ve seen a 65-inch model.

TCL

Still, if size is the only thing that matters, then I can’t blame you for going big. There are a couple of excellent deals available for super-sized TVs. First up, TCL’s 4 Series has fewer dimming zones than some of its competitors, but that shouldn’t matter as much for the bright lights of a prime time football game. The 75-inch model is available for just $650 and stretches the image far enough to blow the minds of your guests.

If I had the space, I’d take a long look at Sony’s XBR-X850G (shown at the top). The 85-inch 4K monster brings Android TV, Alexa and Google Assistant support alongside all of Sony’s 2019 TV features. Right now it’s on sale for just under $2,000, which matches the cheapest price we’ve seen and is several hundred dollars off of the normal price.

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Samsung’s first 5G tablet goes on sale in South Korea

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The slate launches in South Korea on January 30th for 999,900 won (about $848). It’s not a trivial purchase, although Samsung is promising perks for Korean buyers like a free keyboard cover and a YouTube Premium membership.

There’s no word on international releases, although that might hinge on carrier support. We wouldn’t rule out news of a wider release at Samsung’s Unpacked event on February 11th. However, that event is expected to focus on the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Z Flip. A 5G version of an existing tablet would be a low-priority item, and Samsung might decide that it’s easier to roll out the Galaxy Tab S6 5G on a country-by-country basis.

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EU won’t unilaterally ban Huawei gear from 5G networks

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The Commission asked member nations to implement the guidelines by April 30th, and to provide a report on their implementations by June 30th.

These guidelines could theoretically placate the US by encouraging countries to ban the likes of Huawei if they feel there’s a security risk, but American officials might not be happy all the same. They’ve repeatedly asserted that Huawei could theoretically be used as a conduit for Chinese government surveillance and have sought to ban it completely wherever possible.

The US so far hasn’t presented public evidence to support this, though. The newspaper Handelsblatt claimed that the German government had evidence of Huawei cooperating with Chinese surveillance, but it didn’t elaborate. Huawei has routinely denied serving as a tool for Chinese spying. As such, it’s hard to imagine the EU backing down from its current approach. Huawei may end up with a footprint in Europe, even if it’s not as large as the company might like.

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Lab-grown heart muscles transplanted into a human for the first time

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These cells were then placed on small, degradable sheets, which were used to cover the damaged areas of the patient’s heart. The patient who received the transplant suffers from ischemic cardiomyopathy, where the heart has difficulty pumping because its muscles don’t receive enough blood. In some cases, this condition requires a heart transplant, but the researchers hope the new muscle cells will secret a protein that will help regenerate blood vessels, thereby improving the heart’s overall function.

The patient — the first of 10 across this three-year trial — is now recovering in hospital and will be monitored for the next year. If successful in the long term, the procedure could become a viable alternative to heart transplants, since creating these cells is much easier than finding suitable donor hearts, and they are considerably less likely to be rejected by the recipient’s immune system.

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