In December 2024, YouTube TV again hiked its rates , this time to $83 a month, an increase of around $50 since the services debut in 2017. Its just the latest live TV streaming service to raise prices Hulu+ Live TV jumped to $82 in August of 2024 and FuboTVs cheapest tier climbed to $80 back in January. Even in the $80-range, these are still cheaper than cable in many markets, but the gap is steadily narrowing and at least you dont need a contract or any special equipment like you do with cabl

The US Department of Commerce on Friday announced its awards for Samsung, Texas Instruments and Amkor Technology under the CHIPS Incentives Program, which come to more than $6.75 billion altogether. The program is meant to help expand domestic semiconductor production. Samsung was awarded up to $4.745 billion in direct funding a smaller amount than the preliminary award of up to $6.4 billion that was announced earlier this year while Texas Instruments was granted up to $1.61 billion and Amkor

After announcing this week that it furloughed 82 employees , EV startup Canoo emailed remaining workers to inform them they were being placed on a mandatory unpaid break and would be locked out of the companys systems at the end of the day Friday, TechCrunch reports. The email viewed by TechCrunch reportedly said the break would last at least through the end of the year. Canoo announced on Wednesday that it was idling its Oklahoma factories while it works to finalize securing the capital necessa

Google has filed a proposal outlining how it would remedy the antitrust violations its been accused of by the Department of Justice, after the DOJ called for Google to sell off Chrome and face restrictions that would prevent it from favoring its own search engine in Android. Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in August that Google has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act, and called Google a monopolist. Google said in the proposal filed on Friday night

We may be a bit technology-obsessed here, but the Engadget team does occasionally get around to low-tech activities, like reading. Well, some of us read on ereaders or our smartphones, but you get the point books are great, and we read some exceptional ones this year that each deserve a shoutout. These are some of the best books we read in 2024. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/our-favorite-books-we-read-in-2024-151514842.html?src=rss

A federal judge in California has agreed with WhatsApp that the NSO Group, the Israeli cybersurveillance firm behind the Pegasus spyware, had hacked into its systems by sending malware through its servers to thousands of its users' phones. WhatsApp and its parent company, Meta, sued the NSO Group back in 2019 and accused it of spreading malware to 1,400 mobile devices across 20 countries with surveillance as its purpose. They revealed back then some of the targeted phones were owned by journ

Another day, another Tesla recall. This time, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) informed the owners of almost 700,000 Tesla vehicles warning them of a problem with a warning light for the tire pressure monitoring system as reported by the Associated Press . The recall affects the 2024 Cybertruck, 2017-2025 Model 3 and 2020-2025 Model Y Vehicles. The NHTSA says the warning light for the tire pressure monitoring system may not stay illuminated between drives. Tesla says it

Movie icon and super spy James Bond seemed to be on another rise to the top of the box office just a few years ago, but things have been almost as quiet as a shot from a Walther PPK with a silencer ever since then. Daniel Craig took on the role in 2006 with Casino Royale and passed the baton with 2021s No Time to Die in one of the most heart-wrenching endings in Bonds cinematic history (you cried, just admit it) . The only thing sadder is the reason why we havent seen a new Bond movie since then

A little more than a week after announcing Gemini Deep Research , Google is making the tool available to more people . As of today, the feature, part of the companys paid Gemini Advanced suite , is available in every country and language where Google offers Gemini. In practice, that means Gemini Advanced users in more than 100 countries globally can start using Deep Research right now. Previously, it was only available in English. As a refresher, Deep Research takes advantage of Gemini 1.5 Pros

Instagram is still thought of as a feed of algorithmically-suggested photos first and foremost, but the app is also pretty popular for messaging, too. If you want to take some of the stress out of remembering to send a birthday message to a friend, as part of a recent update, you can now schedule Instagram messages in advance. Scheduled messages can't contain media like GIFs, photos or videos, but you can schedule them up to 29 days in advance on both the Android and iOS versions of the app. Wha

When Intel debuted its first Arc video cards two years ago , I was more than a little skeptical. Could a company that famously gave up on its last major desktop GPU project in 2009 actually make a dent in a market dominated by NVIDIA and AMD? Well, when I reviewed them in 2022, the Arc A750 and A770 turned out better than I thought, though they were also held back by Intel's poor drivers. But it seems Intel has learned from its mistakes. The new $250 Arc B580 performs better than AMD's low-end R

Hey, gamers! Do you like Rayman ? Do you like Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon ? Do you wish theyd make a new Rayman or Blood Dragon game? Well, you got your wish (sort of) if youre willing to give your wish a lot of leeway and a bit of money. Journalist Stephen Totilos Game File newsletter reported that Ubisoft secretly released a new Web3 game with NFTs featuring Captain Laserhawk from the Blood Dragon animated series spinoff on Netflix and Rayman (who hasnt appeared in a proper new adventure in years)

After nearly two weeks of announcements, OpenAI capped off its 12 Days of OpenAI livestream series with a preview of its next-generation frontier model. Out of respect for friends at Telefnica (owner of the O2 cellular network), and in the grand tradition of OpenAI being really, truly bad at names, its called o3, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told those watching the announcement on YouTube . The new model isnt ready for public use just yet. Instead, OpenAI is first making o3 available to researchers who

Whether or not youve heard of a white elephant gift exchange before, theres a good chance you have the wrong idea of what it is, how it actually works and where the idea came from. According to legend, the King of Siam would give a white elephant to courtiers who had upset them. It was a far more devious punishment than simply having them executed. The recipient had no choice but to simply thank the king for such an opulent gift, knowing that they likely could not afford the upkeep for such an a

On Friday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) sued four financial companies involved with Zelle. The CFPBs lawsuit ( via CNBC ) accuses Zelles operator (Early Warning Services) and three of the services partner banks JPMorgan Chase, Bank Of America and Wells Fargo of failing to protect consumers from widespread fraud on the peer-to-peer payment system. The CFPB says customers of those three banks have lost over $870 million during Zelles seven years as a payment service . The suit

Netflix has inked a deal with FIFA to snag exclusive US broadcasting rights to the next two Womens World Cup tournaments, according to a report by ESPN . This contract covers both the 2027 and 2031 events. Neither entity has described the financial value of the deal, but it has been reported to be the most significant contract that FIFA has ever signed with a streaming service for a major tournament. FIFA president Gianni Infantino called it a landmark moment for sports media rights and a truly

The big ticket tech gifts may get the lion's share of attention during the holidays, but it's surprising how much people appreciate small and thoughtful accessories and gadgets. We picked out a dozen such stocking stuffers for under $50 perfect for a little something extra for a loved one or a welcome gift for a coworker. Just be sure to check the shipping windows to make sure these handy gizmos will arrive in time. Here are some of our favorite techie gift ideas come in at $50 or less. Check o

We're less than a week from Christmas, and if you haven't finished your holiday shopping, well, you should probably get on that. While it's likely too late to get most items shipped by Wednesday morning, there are still tons of decent tech deals available for those you're seeing after the holiday or if you just want to treat yourself. For one, Sony's WF-1000XM5 , our pick for the best wireless earbuds, is down to an all-time low of $198, while the 10th-gen iPad is back at its best-ever price at

The winter solstice is upon us, which means that Christmas is next up and that the clock for timely gift-giving is nearly expired. If you're gifting for a tech fan, something from Apple, Google, Samsung or another big brand is always at the top of the list. But be prepared for sticker shock once you look at the price tags for their latest and greatest devices. Thankfully, you dont have to spend hundreds of dollars to get a gift for someone that has all the cachet of a brand they know and love.

The courageous story of Afghanistans first all-girls robotics team is coming to a theater near you. Rule Breakers is based on the true story of The Afghan Girls Robotics Team, who grabbed the worlds attention when they were denied member visas by the United States in 2017 while attempting to compete at the First Global Challenge international robotics competition. Fifty three members of Congress signed a petition and President Donald Trump intervened to give the girls travel documents on special

The holiday season has barely begun, but some of us are already getting ready for CES 2025. Shortly after New Years Day, many from the Engadget team will be packing our bags to fly to Las Vegas, where well be covering techs biggest annual conference. As usual, our inboxes are already flooded with pitches from companies that are planning to be there, and our calendars are filling up with appointments for briefings and demos. Based on our experience, as well as observation of recent industry trend

Do you constantly lose stuff? Then we have a deal for you. A four-pack of Apple AirTag tracking chips is available via Amazon for just $70 . This is a record low price and represents a discount of $30. That breaks down to $17.50 per tag. Apple AirTags easily made our list of the best Bluetooth trackers , and this is especially true if youre already tied into the companys ecosystem. The finding network is vast and comprehensive, which really helps when it comes time to actually find one of these

Bluesky has rolled out an update that fixes one important issue that could lead to impersonation on the decentralized social network. Now, when you verify your identity on the platform with your own domain, Bluesky will no longer free up your old .bsky.social username. In the past, going through the authentication process will make your original .bsky.social name available again, which means you'll have to sign up again to secure your old handle if you don't want impersonators to scoop i

Clickbait videos have always been annoying, but there are times when they can be downright harmful. YouTube has vowed to strengthen its enforcement efforts when it comes to dealing with egregious clickbait on its website, particularly those that cover or pretend to cover breaking news and current events. The website describes egregious clickbait as videos where the title or thumbnail promises viewers something that the video doesn't deliver. YouTube says these videos leave viewers feeling

We at Engadget are in the unique position to test out many more gadgets than we actually use on a regular basis. It just comes with the territory of reviewing the newest smartphones or testing out dozens of power banks to find the best ones. But we still have to buy things for ourselves, and there are winners and losers just like there are when we test things out for professional purposes only. And similar to when we find a new top-tier tablet or VR headset , we like to sing the praises of the t

This week, we're looking back at our hellish 2024 and trying to figure out where to go from here. We began the year with enormous hype around artificial intelligence, but that's cooled off after seeing how useless many AI features have been. It's also clear that many companies, including Microsoft and Apple, are trying to push half-baked AI concepts onto users. Looking forward, we're expecting a rough few years for the tech industry (not to mention the world as a whole). Listen below or subscrib

Last week, Google allegedly instructed contract workers evaluating Gemini not to skip any prompts, regardless of their expertise, TechCrunch reports based on internal guidance it viewed. Now, contractors have allegedly been instructed not to skip prompts that require specialized domain knowledge and to rate the parts of the prompt you understand, adding a note that its not an area they have knowledge in. Apparently, the only times contractors can skip now are if a big chunk of the information is

Almost a year ago, I was prompted to look for another budgeting app. Intuit, parent company of Mint, the budgeting app I had been using for a long time, shut down the service in March 2024. The company encouraged Mint users to migrate to its other financial app, Credit Karma , but I found it to be a poor Mint replacement after trying it out. That sent me searching elsewhere to find an app to track all of my financial accounts, monitor my credit score, track spending and set goals like building a

While there remain regular laptops and gaming laptops, the line that separates them has nearly disappeared. Today, if you have a fast CPU and graphics card, along with perks like a big screen and a good cooling system, you can play a decent number of games on your laptop. Besides, not everyone wants a big, garish gaming rig, nor does everyone want to spend the money required to get one of those. If youre considering a new laptop for school, there are more options now than ever before that can bo

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has reached a settlement with Amazon about alleged hazardous workplace conditions at ten of the tech giant's facilities. Under the terms of the settlement, Amazon will pay a penalty of $145,000 and must implement corporate-wide ergonomic measures to reduce the risk of worker injuries. OSHA will also continue inspecting the facilities for the next two years. On the government side of the agreement, OSHA is withdrawing nine of its ten ergonomic cit

Waymos fleet of driverless vehicles are operating in more cities and a study indicates that may reduce crashes on roadways. The study , a non-paid partnership between Waymo itself and reinsurer Swiss Re, indicated Waymos cars result in fewer insurance claims than those operated by people. Swiss Re analyzed liability claims from collisions covering 25.3 million miles driven by Waymos autonomous cars. The study also compared Waymos liability claims to human driver baselines based on data from over

It's here! The Steam Winter Sale is underway now and runs through January 2. That leaves you plenty of time to internally debate whether you really need to buy yet more games and ultimately convince yourself that yes, in fact, you do. Several notable titles from the Summer Sale are once again seeing similar discounts this season. Baldur's Gate 3 is 20 percent off and you can buy it for $48. At $27, Cyberpunk 2077 is half off and Elden Ring is $36, which is 40 percent off. If you've a

When Apple put its new M4 chip in the iPad Pro before adding it to a MacBook , that was a pretty clear sign that tablets are more than just idle couch companions. But with just one or two ports, youll need a hub if you want to maximize that potential. The same goes for laptops: they can be more powerful than desktops, but they almost always have fewer ports. USB-C hubs give you some combo of extra USB, HDMI, memory card, Ethernet and/or 3.5 mm ports so you can connect peripherals like monitors o

It looks like Lenovos next ThinkBook Plus laptop is going to have a rolling screen. According to images shared by prolific leaker Evan Blass , Lenovos sixth-generation ThinkBook Plus will have an extendable, rolling display that builds on the rollable laptop concept the company first introduced in 2022. The leaked images show a laptop with a traditional, if slightly taller than average display, that can extend and unroll until you effectively have two screens stacked on top of each other. Lenovo

Earlier this year, Meta previewed Movie Gen, an AI video editing tool that looked impressively realistic (at least in the sample clips it released). At the time, though, Meta said it was still a research project with no immediate plans to make the features available to users. But it now seems that Movie Gen could arrive on Instagram sooner than later. Instagrams top exec Adam Mosseri posted a short video previewing the kind of seamless AI edits that will eventually be possible, saying that the c

Paramount Pictures is hoping to spin-dash to success for a fourth time. The studio has confirmed that it is working on Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and is targeting a theatrical release of spring 2027 for the movie. No details have leaked about the plot, but it's likely that the project will see actors Ben Schwartz and Jim Carrey reprising their roles as Sonic and Dr. Robotnik. The recent film adaptations of Sega's famous game franchise have become a consistent hit for Paramount. The first film secured

SpaceXs satellite-to-cell Starlink texting service can now operate throughout New Zealand, thanks to the telecommunications company One NZ . The New Zealand-based provider says this is the first time that a nationwide satellite text messaging service has been powered by Starlink. T-Mobile has been making a lot of noise about getting this going, but it looks like One NZ beat it to the punch. Whats the benefit here for New Zealand residents? Its a country with many rural areas without access to mo

Sony has acquired a major stake in FromSoftwares parent company Kadokawa. This follows reports that Sony was in talks to purchase the company outright . It looks like that isnt happening, but Sony has boosted its total ownership of Kadokawa up to ten percent after spending around $300 million on more shares. This makes Sony the largest shareholder of the Japanese publisher. Sony likely made this move to get its hands on some of Kadokawas IP, which includes the entire roster of FromSoftware games

Apple has issued a complaint about Meta regarding the DMAs mandated interoperability requests, as reported by Reuters . The iPhone maker says that Meta has issued 15 of these requests, which it says could impact the privacy and security of users. Meta disagrees. First, a quick primer. The EUs Digital Markets Act (DMA) requires that Apple allow rivals and third-party app developers to inter-operate with its own services or risk a steep fine, as much as ten percent of global turnover. Under the te

It's been available for over two years, but Apple's 10th-generation iPad is still the newest model available for the base iPads. Our choice for best budget iPad is a great option for some last-minute present shopping. That's especially the case, right now, as the Apple 10th-gen iPad is down to $250 from $349. The great markdown comes courtesy of a 20 percent discount and a $29 off coupon that you can apply on the product page. It's available on the Wi-Fi model with 64GB and with a silver finish.

There's no arguing that AI still has quite a few unreliable moments, but one would hope that at least its evaluations would be accurate. However, last week Google allegedly instructed contract workers evaluating Gemini not to skip any prompts, regardless of their expertise, TechCrunch reports based on internal guidance it viewed. Google shared a preview of Gemini 2.0 earlier this month. Google reportedly instructed GlobalLogic, an outsourcing firm whose contractors evaluate AI-generated output,

Spoilers for The New Next Generation. When Starfleet said it had dispatched the Enterprise to help the Cerritos close the rift, I was worried. Lower Decks has spent the last four years stepping out the shadow of its more famous predecessor. Its grand finale didnt need a focus-pulling cameo from any of the Next Generation cast (or even a subtle one from Steven Culp ). Mercifully, none came, and we got one last chance to spend half an hour with the Cerritos crew on their last ride. For now, at lea

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) spending bill has just been release and it grants DJI a year's grace before it's potentially banned in the US, The Verge reported. It was expected that DJI and rival Autel could be banned by the end of 2024 because of the Countering CCP Drones Act provision. However, the bill gives DJI an extra year to prove to an appropriate national security agency that its products don't pose a national security risk in the US. Failing that, the bill a

A company called Elevation Lab has released an accessory for the Apple AirTag that extends its battery life by up to 10 years and makes it waterproof. The TimeCapsule is essentially a case that contains your AirTag and two AA batteries. You don't need to open your AirTag and tinker with it you only have to remove its backplate and coin battery before attaching it to the case. As you can see, it will make your tracking device a lot bigger and considerably heftier, so it's mostly ideal for use wi

The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear TikTok owner ByteDances appeal of a law that could ban the app. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act is set to go into effect on January 19, the day before President-elect Donald Trumps inauguration. ByteDance claimed the law violates free speech rights, a position the ACLU has supported. The Justice Department defended the law in lower courts, citing concerns that the Chinese government could influence the company an

Honda is officially introducing two Series 0 electric vehicle prototypes at CES next year, and the company says they'll be available for purchase around the world sometime in 2026. The vehicles will be based on the futuristic-looking concepts the company presented at CES 2024 , including a flagship model called the Saloon that featured an aerodynamic design. They'll be the company's first entries in the Series 0 lineup, which are also expected to feature an advanced driver-assisted s

Whether its justified or not, Apples AirPods have become the default for most iPhone owners in the market for new wireless earbuds . If you use an Android phone, however, the best options arent as obvious. If youre hunting for a new pair yourself, allow us to help: Weve tested countless pairs over the years, so weve broken down our top recommendations for Android users below. Whether you want powerful noise cancellation, a pair thatll survive the gym or just something that plays nice with a Gala

You might be tempted to get a Chromebook as your next laptop and we wouldnt blame you. Chrome OS has come a long way: Chromebooks today have a good combination of build quality, battery life and power while also supporting years of software updates that will take you years into the future. If you primarily browse the web, or dont need a ton of extra software on a regular basis, a Chromebook can be a powerful daily driver. While Google did make things simpler last fall by introducing the Chromebo