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Save $200 on Klipsch R-51PM wireless speakers

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Eufy RoboVac 11S Robot Vacuum

eufy

Street price: $220; deal price: $150 w/ on-page coupon, code ROBOVAC11S

Usually $220, this recommended robot vacuum is down to $150 with clipped on-page coupon and code ROBOVAC11S, matching the all-time low we saw during Cyber Week. Due to its low profile, this vacuum may be able to clean more of your house, like under coffee tables with shelving, because it can fit under more stuff. If you are looking for a quiet and affordable robot vacuum, this is an excellent price for one.

The Eufy Robovac 11s is the top pick in our guide to the best robot vacuums. Wirecutter Senior Editor Liam McCabe wrote, “No other robot vacuum blends into the background like the Eufy RoboVac 11S. It can clean almost every nook of your house, yet you’ll barely notice it. It sounds more like a fan than a vacuum, so even if you’re at home while it’s running, it shouldn’t get on your nerves. Of all the bots we’ve tested, it’s one of the least likely to get stuck and quit cleaning mid-session. We also found that, in certain situations, it’s strong enough and persistent enough to pick up more debris than bots that cost two or three times as much. Like most affordable robots, it relies on a semi-random navigation system, which can struggle in larger homes (and some people get frustrated when they watch it too closely). But it’s perfectly effective in smaller spaces, and you can find ways make it work in bigger areas, too.”

Ring Video Doorbell Pro + Echo Dot (3rd Gen)

Ring

Street price: $250; deal price: $170 for Prime Members (price reflects in cart)

At $170 in cart for Amazon Prime members, this is a nice bundle price that includes the Ring Video Doorbell Pro, which typically has a street price around $240 on its own. It’s an especially good option if you want or need a camera smaller than our top pick, but be warned—this model requires hard-wiring your doorbell. While there’s still the monthly subscription fee and installation to contend with, this drop helps lessens your initial investment. The added Echo Dot (3rd Gen) is a nice bonus for yourself or as a gift.

The Ring Video Doorbell Pro is the slimmer, no battery pick in our guide to the best smart doorbell camera. Wirecutter Staff Writer Rachel Cericola wrote, “The Ring Video Doorbell Pro stands out from the Ring 2 for its smaller size and more granular motion-detection options. You can also connect it to a 5 GHz Wi-Fi network, whereas the other Rings can use only 2.4 GHz. It doesn’t include a battery, so it requires a hardwired connection to your home’s doorbell system. Although its field of view is slightly smaller than that of the Ring 2, if your doorframe requires a smaller device and you have the wiring to support it, this is the doorbell cam to get for basic monitoring and alerts. Video recording requires the same $30-per-year subscription as other Ring doorbell cameras.”

Klipsch R-51PM Speakers

Klipsch

Street price: $500; deal price: $300

Down to $300, this is easily the best price we’ve seen for the vinyl enthusiasts pick in our guide to the best wireless powered bookshelf speakers. Often as much as $500, this $200 drop is a considerable discount, especially compared to the regular $400 deals we’re used to seeing for the Klipsch R51-PM. The versatility these speakers offer usually results in one of the higher price points in our guide, but this deal has the R-51PM speakers costing less than our other picks.

The Klipsch R-51PM are the vinyl enthusiasts pick in our guide to the best wireless powered bookshelf speakers. Wirecutter Editor Brent Butterworth wrote, “Klipsch’s R-51PM is the most versatile choice of all our picks because it includes a phono input for connecting to a turntable, plus USB, optical digital, and analog inputs and a subwoofer output—but that versatility comes with a higher price. Our panelists ranked the R-51PM just slightly behind the Edifier S1000DB in sound quality. Everyone agreed it had a reasonably full and natural sound, but all said they’d prefer a little more bass. At 13.3 inches high by 9.1 inches deep by 7 inches wide, the R-51PM speakers aren’t quite as bulky as our top pick, and they have a more contemporary look.”

Whistle 3 GPS Pet Tracker

Whistle

Street price: $80; deal price: $64

Down to $64, this on-collar pet tracker is $16 less than the typical retail price of $80. Whether you have a serial escape artist or lingering fireworks are still driving your pet crazy, a pet tracker can be a lifesaver. We don’t see deals on this tracker too often, so if you’re thinking about getting one, this is a good chance to grab it a solid price.

The Whistle 3 is the top pick in our guide to the best GPS trackers for cats and dogs. Wirecutter Senior Staff Writer Nick Guy wrote, “If you’re concerned about your pet getting away and you want a tool to help you more easily find it, the best option is the Whistle 3 GPS Pet Tracker & Activity Monitor. This tracker is as accurate as any model we tested, quickly transmitting its GPS signal back to your phone. It lasts longer on a charge than any of the other contenders we tried, its hardware design is the best by a long shot, and its smartphone software is equally well thought out.”

Because great deals don’t just happen on Thursday, sign up for our daily deals email and we’ll send you the best deals we find every weekday. Also, deals change all the time, and some of these may have expired. To see an updated list of current deals, please go here.

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Zack Snyder is turning Norse myths into anime for Netflix

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Wesley Coller and Zack’s wife Deborah will produce the show.

There’s certainly reason to be cautious when Snyder has a mixed track record. Oliva is well-known for titles like Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, though, and the subject matter of gods and Vikings could play into their strengths. If nothing else, this reinforces Netflix’s commitment to anime — even if it doesn’t please everyone.

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Google is testing an online social network for offline meetups

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Importantly, you can share activities with others whether or not they have Shoelace. You won’t necessarily have to create a Facebook event to rope people in, then.

Don’t expect to try Shoelace for a while. It’s invitation-only at present, and then only in New York City for now. Whether or not it goes public will likely depend on its early performance. If nothing else, it’s a relatively fresh take for a Google-made social network — it’s trying to get you off your phone instead of keeping you hooked.

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Facebook will offer more info on the ads you see

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The company will also reveal where your information came from, for instance, if it was from a website you visited or a Page you liked. Under Ad Preferences, Facebook is adding an “advertisers and businesses” tab, which will show users which third-party companies uploaded lists with their information. Perhaps most importantly, Facebook will let users adjust which ads they see in the future.

Facebook’s ad policies are a work in progress, and the company has been working to improve things like transparency in political ads. At worst the ads have been used to meddle with elections and led to housing discrimination. At best, they’re a nuisance. At least now, users have more control.

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The SIGMA fp is the ‘world’s smallest’ full-frame mirrorless camera

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The 24.6-megapixel camera has a 35mm full-frame Bayer sensor, and it weighs just 370g (less than a pound), without the battery and memory card. That’s lighter than full-frame cameras like the Panasonic S1 (1,021 grams with the battery and card), Sony A7 (650 grams) and Canon EOS RP (485 grams). Sigma is calling the fp a “pocketable full-frame” camera, and at 112.6 x 69.9 x 45.3 mm (or 4.4 x 2.75 x 1.8 inches), it will likely fit in the palm of your hand.

Sigma hasn’t announced when the Sigma fp will be released or how much it will cost, but the company’s other mirrorless cameras range from $800 to $1,200. It’s too soon to predict how successful the camera will be. If nothing else, it’s certainly ambitious.

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Amazon plans to retrain one-third of US employees as automation looms

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Amazon’s “upskilling” plans includes six programs, which will be available to employees at any Amazon location. Amazon Technical Academy will teach non-technical employees the skills needed to transition into software engineering roles. Associate2Tech is designed for fulfillment center workers to move to a variety of IT roles. Machine Learning University will give employees with some technical background the ability to add machine learning skills. Amazon Career Choice offers pre-paid tuition programs to fullfilment center associates so they can train for “high-demand” jobs of their choosing. Amazon Apprenticeship provides paid classroom training and on-the-job apprenticeships within Amazon. Finally, AWS Training and Certification lets employees train for technical careers utilizing the AWS Cloud.

Amazon hasn’t been shy about introducing automation throughout its supply chain. Last year, the company began building a “picker” robot that will be able to collect items around fulfillment centers for shipments. Amazon has also toyed with the idea of introducing boxing robots that could displace as many as 1,300 workers. Amazon projects that robots won’t start entirely replacing human workers for at least a decade, but even shifts to partial automation will leave some people out in the cold. The new training programs should help to combat that.

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NASA’s LEMUR robot escaped Death Valley in its last field test

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JPL sent the last version of LEMUR up a cliff earlier this year. The robot’s AI chose its own route, and it used the hundreds of tiny fishhooks embedded in each of its 16 fingers to climb up. All while its science instruments scanned the rock for ancient fossils. LEMUR was able to climb up to its goal and find fossilized balls of algae, which once inhabited the sea that used to be in the area. Those fossils are around 500 million years old, proving the robot’s ability to detect signs of previous life — an important capability for machines exploring other planets.

Although the LEMUR project itself is over, it has inspired and given rise to other climbing robot initiatives already in the works. JPL’s Ice Worm was adapted from a single limb of the LEMUR robot and is meant to climb ice walls in frozen worlds, like Saturn’s moon Enceladus. RoboSimian, originally built for DARPA’s Robotics Challenge as a disaster-relief robot, has four limbs like LEMUR.

The Underwater Gripper is pretty much one of LEMUR’s limbs with the same fishhook-powered grippy fingers built for underwater exploration. Even the Mars 2020 mission’s helicopter will have a perching mechanism adapter from LEMUR’s grippy feet so it can cling to cliffsides. It only means that even though the LEMUR robot itself won’t be making its way to outer space, technologies derived from the project will help us explore worlds outside our own.

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David Fincher’s next movie is a Netflix Original

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Mank is a personal project for Fincher, as the script was written by his late father Jack, who died in 2003. Considering the personal life of Mankiewicz, though, it could be a lot of fun. According to Welles collaborator John Houseman, “Mank” was “a neurotic drinker and a compulsive gambler, [but] also one of the most intelligent, informed, witty, humane and charming men I have ever known.” Welles and Mank famously clashed during the writing of Citizen Kane, but the film won an Oscar — its only Oscar — for original screenplay.

Fincher hasn’t been sitting around during his feature film hiatus, having produced Netflix’s Love, Death, and Robots, an adult-themed animated anthology series. He was set to direct a sequel to World War Z starring Brad Pitt, but the project was shut down over reported budget issues. Oldman, meanwhile, is working non-stop, shooting Steven Soderbergh’s The Laundromat for Netflix, along with several other films.

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Former Tesla employee admits to storing Autopilot source code on his own iCloud

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In the court filing, ex-employee Guangzhi Cao admits that he accessed Tesla’s source code and uploaded the files to a personal drive, but denies that his actions constitute theft of trade secrets. Tesla disagrees, writing in its complaint that the Autopilot feature Cao worked on is the “crown jewel of Tesla’s intellectual property portfolio” and that Cao tried to bring these trade secrets to Xiaopeng Motors, his new employer.

Cao received an offer to work for Xiaopeng Motors in November 2018, and Tesla alleges that “Long before he left, Cao began uploading complete copies of Tesla’s Autopilot-related source code to his personal iCloud account — more than 300,000 files and directories, in violation of Tesla’s policies and its agreements with Cao.”

Xiaopeng Motors, also known as XMotors or XPeng, is a rival Chinese electric vehicle company which has been at the center of a trade secrets lawsuit before. Last year, a former Apple employee was arrested after stealing a trove of data from Cupertino’s self-driving car lab. The employee downloaded files and admitted to taking hardware, and he had announced his intention to move to China to work for Xiaopeng Motors.

Xiaopeng Motors itself has not been accused of legal wrongdoing, but in the complaint, Tesla specifically calls out the company for copying its ideas: “Inspired by and on a mission to beat Tesla, XMotors reportedly designed its vehicles around Tesla’s open-source patents and has transparently imitated Tesla’s design, technology, and even its business model.”

The company denies any involvement in the actions of its potential employees. The chairman He Xiaopeng called the lawsuits “questionable”, according to Bloomberg, and said there was a natural “flow of talent” between his company and Tesla.

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Jumping ant robots use teamwork to overcome obstacles

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Now, researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) have developed tiny robots with similar skills. They can jump or crawl across surfaces and communicate with each other to complete complex tasks and achieve goals.

The “Tribots” are origami robots with three legs which are autonomous and untethered. “Their movements are modeled on those of Odontomachus ants. These insects normally crawl, but to escape a predator, they snap their powerful jaws together to jump from leaf to leaf,” says Zhenishbek Zhakypov, first author of the paper. The bots use a similar mechanism to snap closed and catapult themselves to their desired location.

Each tiny bot has minimal intelligence on its own, but when connected to its siblings the collective can work together to solve puzzles like how to navigate around an obstacle or how to move a large and heavy object. The robots assign themselves one of three roles when faced with a challenge: explorer, for detecting physical obstacles; worker, for combining strength to move objects; or leader, for instructing others.

“Each Tribot, just like Odontomachus ants, can have different roles. However, they can also take on new roles instantaneously when faced with a new mission or an unknown environment, or even when other members get lost. This goes beyond what the real ants can do,” says group leader Professor Jamie Paik.

The bots could potentially be deployed for search and rescue missions, as they do not rely on GPS to communicate. They are easy to manufacture as well, so they could be in large groups and if some bots were lost on a mission the others could continue working without them. However, the biggest strength of the robots could be their adaptability. In certain circumstances, like heading into an unknown environment, this could make them even more effective than bigger and more powerful robots.

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