Category: Trending

Smart rowing machine maker Hydro recently announced the Core, a new model that doesn’t charge a monthly subscription fee. The Hydro Core rower features the same “award-winning design” as the original Pro rower, which we said was positioning itself to become “the Peloton of smart rowing machines.”

Obviously, the highlight here is that the Core is a one-time purchase with no recurring subscription costs. It still comes with an attached display that lets users “row through amazing destinations.” In total, this machine provides access to 30 self-paced rows through these fascinating locations.

The Core rower supports unlimited users, which is nice, but there’s a big caveat. There’s no subscription, so there’s no access to instructor-led workouts, badges, milestones, and other premium features.

However, customers can add a subscription for all of that stuff later. Hydro charges $44 per month for the subscription. It might be worth trying it out for a month to see if all these extra features are worth it.

The Hydro Core rower is available now and costs $1,995. That’s the same price as the flagship Pro rower. The company also recently released a smaller version called the Hydro Wave. It’s smaller and cheaper, costing around $1,700.

At CES 2025, Anker announced several new products, including a 3-in-1 robot vacuum that transforms into a stick vacuum. Although you can’t buy that device right now, the company’s latest chargers and power banks are available to buy now — and at a discount.

Anker’s 140W four-port wall charger is $10 off thanks to a coupon you can clip on both Amazon and Anker’s website. The charging brick has a built-in display that lets you keep an eye on various metrics, including an “odometer” to track its lifetime usage.

When not on sale, the Anker charger (140W, 4-port, PD 3.1) costs the same as Apple’s 140W wall charger for MacBooks, but has several additional features. One of them is its “high-definition” (though we don’t know the exact resolution) color display.

There, you can monitor its total output power, per-port wattage breakdown, temperature, and its total hours of operating time (the aforementioned “odometer”). The screen rotates 90 degrees with a long-press of its button to fit different outlet orientations.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to go for a run outside without fear of harm? Technology has a way of making us safer and putting us at greater risk while out and about, but a new tool from Strava could help with the former. Strava has announced Night Heatmaps, a feature that shows which areas have more activity – or “heat” – between sunset and sunrise. Yes, heatmaps are the feature that accidentally revealed the location of US military bases.

This update is welcome because in some areas of the world the sun sets very early, while nights last long into the morning. It also comes with a new Weekly Heatmap, which shows the heat level in an area over the past seven days. Again, this can help you know which trails will have the most people, but not at all times of the day. While this extra awareness is great for knowing where to go, some people may choose to deliberately avoid the busiest times for fear of unwanted attention (no winning here).

In any case, the Night and Weekly heatmaps are only available on subscriber accounts (subscriptions will cost you $12 per month or $80 annually). It’s also worth noting that the heatmaps are only pulled from public activities on Strava, so you’re not getting a full picture of how many people go where.

The Night and Weekly heatmaps join the Global heatmap (which is also subscriber exclusive) and your personal heatmap. You can access any of them via the Maps tab and filter the heatmaps by activity type.

At CES 2025, Anker announced several new products, including a 3-in-1 robot vacuum that transforms into a stick vacuum. While you can’t buy that device just yet, the company’s newest chargers and power banks are available to buy right now — and at a discount.

Anker’s 140W Four-Port Wall Charger is $10 off thanks to a coupon you can clip on both Amazon and Anker’s website. The charging brick has a built-in display that lets you keep an eye on various metrics, including an “odometer” to track its lifetime usage.

When not on sale, the Anker charger (140W, 4-Port, PD 3.1) costs the same as Apple’s 140W wall charger for MacBooks, but it has a number of additional features. One of them is its “high-definition” (though we don’t know the exact resolution) color display.

There, you can monitor its total output power, per-port wattage breakdown, temperature, and its total hours of operating time (the aforementioned “odometer”). The screen rotates 90 degrees with a long-press of its button to fit different outlet orientations.

This is the Lightfoot, a solar scooter conceived by San Francisco-based R&D outfit Otherlab, which is claimed to be available for purchase in the US from January. The most eye-catching feature are the two side panels covered in solar cells that hopefully won’t require you to plug in a charger.

However, in the gap between the two is a fairly large cargo compartment with about 1.6 cubic feet of space. This should be more than enough to carry your stuff to and from work or to pick up some groceries when you’re out. The padded seat and footplate are also designed to carry the rider and an additional passenger.

As for the specifications, it has a pair of 750W brushless DC motors with a maximum speed of 20 mph, producing a peak torque of 90Nm, which will hopefully be enough to traverse the hills around SF (and wherever you are).

They’re connected to a 1.1kWh battery, which the company claims will give it 37 miles of range on a single charge. Two 120W panels on either side will slowly charge the battery when parked on the street or outside. Otherlab claims this passive solar charging will add three miles of charge per hour, or 18 miles if you leave it for a full day.

Apart from the solar hardware, Otherlab claims you – or a qualified technician – will be able to keep it running without any outside help. That said most of the components are off-the-shelf motorcycle parts and can be easily repaired or replaced.

There’s also a one-year whole bike and two-year mechanical guarantee, as well as a no-questions-asked buy-back policy. We’ll reserve judgement on every aspect of it until we’re able to try it out ourselves, but we’re curious to see what it feels like to ride this thing.

Pre-orders for the Lightfoot start today for $4,995, with Otherlab promising first deliveries in January 2025.

The Federal Trade Commission will get a chance to make its case for a Meta split in court. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg allowed the FTC’s lawsuit against the social media giant to proceed (PDF link).

The FTC first sued Meta in 2020 to force the company, then known as Facebook, to divest itself of Instagram and WhatsApp. Along with dozens of attorneys general, the agency alleged that Meta acquired the platforms in 2012 and 2014 to stifle growing competition in the social media market.

Last April, Meta asked Judge Boasberg to dismiss the case. In addition to noting that the FTC had previously approved both acquisitions, Meta argued that the agency failed to show that the company had monopoly power in the social networking services market, and that it had harmed consumers by buying Instagram and WhatsApp.

Additionally, the company claimed it had invested billions of dollars in both platforms and made them better as a result, benefiting social media users everywhere. While he didn’t dismiss the lawsuit entirely, Boasberg forced the FTC to limit its case, dismissing the allegation that Facebook had provided preferential access to developers who agreed not to compete with it.

“We believe the evidence in the lawsuit will show that the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp have been good for competition and consumers.

More than 10 years after the FTC reviewed and approved these deals, and despite overwhelming evidence that our services compete with YouTube, TikTok, X, Apple’s iMessage, and many others, the Commission continues to incorrectly claim that no deal is ever meant to be final, and that businesses can be penalized for innovating,” a Meta spokesperson told Engadget. “We will review the opinion when it is filed.”

Judge Boasberg will meet with both parties on November 25 and set a date for the trial. It should be noted that the FTC lawsuit was filed under the previous Trump administration, although whether it moves forward and in what form will depend on who President-elect Trump appoints to lead the agency.

Meta is continuing to make changes to its moderation and content rules. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri posted today that Instagram and Threads will begin including political content in recommendations.

This is a reversal from a policy adopted by both platforms last year, under which political content was something users had to choose whether or not to see. Now, Mosseri said there will be three levels of political content that Instagram and Threads users can choose to see: less, standard (which will be the default) and more.

“Drawing a red line around what is and is not political content has proven impractical,” Mosseri wrote. The change will begin rolling out in the US this week and to the rest of the world in the coming weeks.

The announcement is the latest in a series of changes being made by Meta that appear to be efforts to curry favor with President-elect Donald Trump. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company would eliminate third-party fact-checkers in favor of a Community Notes model for Facebook, Instagram and Threads, mimicking the approach taken at X (formerly Twitter).

Nick Clegg has resigned as Meta’s head of global affairs and has been replaced by Joel Kaplan, who has good ties to Republicans in Washington DC.

Amazon recently unveiled a new line of Fire TVs just ahead of Thanksgiving and, more importantly, Black Friday. The Fire TV Omni Mini-LED series is being advertised as the “most powerful and innovative Amazon-made TVs yet.” Let’s take a look at some specs.

All of these TVs feature QLED Mini-LED panels that offer a peak brightness of up to 1,400 nits and up to 1,344 dimming zones. They offer support for Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive, which should result in “more vibrant colors, deeper blacks, and richer contrast.”

Amazon says these sets include AI-assisted Intelligent Picture technology, which automatically enhances image quality to optimize scenes “in real time.” The TV’s light and color sensor takes the living space into account, delivering the proper brightness and color temperature settings as needed.

They also allow access to Amazon’s Fire TV Ambient Experience, which turns the TV into a display of art. It’s similar to the Samsung Frame series, but without the full frame. The software doesn’t just display static artwork, but it can also handle custom animations and a number of widgets.

This is the first Amazon-made TV with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro certification for my beautiful gamers. The software suite adds a variable refresh rate, an automatic low latency mode, and a new 144Hz refresh rate in gaming mode. It also offers support for Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 for some great future-proofing. They all come with two speakers, two subwoofers, and allow access to Dolby Atmos audio.

These are Amazon TVs, so of course they work great with Alexa. The company says users can “watch shows and movies, manage playback, and control the Fire TV ambient experience hands-free” via voice control.

The Fire TV Omni Mini-LED boxes are available now. Prices range from $820 to $2,100, and size options range from 55-inches to 85-inches.

These aren’t the only entertainment products Amazon released today. The company also launched a new line of soundbars and a refresh to the already existing Fire TV 4 series.

Select YouTube creators can now create their own remixes of existing songs. YouTube has announced a new feature for its AI-powered Dream Track tool that allows individuals to “restyle” a song and create a 30-second tune to be used in a Short.

Creators in the experiment group for this feature can choose from eligible songs and then tell the AI ​​how they want to remix it. These changes can focus on giving the song a different style or mood — whatever twist they’re envisioning.

From there, a new song is created “that reworks the music while maintaining the essence of the original song’s tone and lyrics,” YouTube’s announcement says.

“These restyled soundtracks will have clear attribution to the original song via the Short and Shorts Audio Pivot page, and will also clearly indicate that the track was restyled with AI.”

YouTube rolls out Dream Tracks, powered by Google DeepMind’s Lyria model, in November 2023. It allowed select US creators to create songs using the AI-generated voices of participating artists.

The feature included a deal with Universal Music Group and partnerships with several musicians, including John Legend, Charli XCX, and Troye Sivan. It has since expanded its availability to all US creators. According to the Hollywood Reporter and others, the long-awaited streaming service Venu Sports is no longer operating.

The sports-focused streaming service was supposed to be a joint offering by Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox. No concrete reason was given other than corporate-speak. “In an ever-changing marketplace, we determined it was best to meet the growing demands of sports fans by focusing on existing products and distribution channels,” the companies wrote in a statement.

We assume the move will also involve some serious layoffs, as Venu has been on a tear for some time. In this regard, the companies said that they are “proud of the work we have done on Venu to date and grateful to Venu’s employees, whom we will support during this transition period.” There are no details about what this support will include.

After lengthy deliberation, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Amazon’s “captive-audience meetings” are a violation of the National Labor Relations Act. These are mandatory meetings where the employer shares its stance on unionization.

“Ensuring that employees can make a truly free choice about whether they want union representation is one of the fundamental goals of the National Labor Relations Act. Captive audience meetings — which give employers nearly total freedom to impose their message about unionization on workers under threat of discipline or termination — undermine this important goal,” President Lauren McFerran said of the decision.

“Today’s decision better protects workers’ freedom to make their own choices in exercising their rights under the Act, while ensuring that employers can express their views about unionization in a non-coercive manner.”

The decision states that employers can hold meetings about unionization as long as workers receive advance notice about the topic, are told that attendance is voluntary and there will be no consequences if they choose not to attend, and attendance records are not kept.

Today’s ruling focuses on Amazon, which has had a difficult history with its workers’ attempts to organize and with the NLRB. However, the decision could impact other big tech firms that have followed similar practices in terms of forming unions.

It was quite a challenge, as there were countless contenders in the landscape. As expected, most of the things we saw at this CES had an AI component, including AR glasses, hearing aid earbuds, solar-powered technology, robot vacuums, and even emotional support robots. (Apparently people love robovacs that can pick up socks.) Our team also found more growth in technology designed to improve the lives of people with disabilities and mobility issues.

As many new twists as we saw on traditional tech like laptops, TVs, and soundbars, we also saw a lot of pretty weird off-beat tech at the show. And we were pleasantly surprised to see that some of the recently announced CES 2025 products were actually already available for sale or preorder.