Category: Technology

IKEA isn’t going to be making a play for top tech company anytime soon, but it has kept up an offering of solid smart home devices. Its latest releases are a trio of affordable smart home sensors for everything from open doors to water leakage.

First in the lineup is the Parasoll door and window sensor. You can mount it on your door or window (basically any access point) and receive a notification if they open or close unexpectedly. It also pairs directly with an IKEA smart bulb. Speaking of light, there’s the Vallhorn wireless motion sensor, which activates lights when movement is detected. You can choose what color and amount of light you want, with the sensor controlling up to 10 IKEA smart bulbs. Rounding out the new offerings is the Barding water leakage sensor, which works to alert you about any rogue water before your floor finds out. The device can send you a mobile notification, or trigger an alarm.

The sensors are small and white, lending themselves to blending in better throughout the house (unless you really love color). All the sensors are compatible with IKEA’s Dirigera Hub, but only Vallhorn works with the older Tradfri gateway.

IKEA points to people’s desire to feel comfortable and secure in their homes as motivation for these new products. “Everyone wants to feel safe at home and we feel excited about entering a new smart product area that creates not only a better, but safer life at home,” Stjepan Begic, Product Design Developer at IKEA of Sweden, said in a statement. “We believe these products can provide our customers with peace of mind and a greater sense of control and comfort.” The three new devices follow the release of previous sensors by IKEA, like Vindstyrka, which measures air quality.

The US pricing isn’t available yet, but the Parasoll will be €9.99 in Europe, with the Vallhorn and Barding sensors priced at €7.99 and €9.99, respectively. These numbers could transfer over directly into USD or be slightly higher. The sensors should be available in the US in January (Vallhorn), April (Parasoll) and July (Barding) in 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ikeas-new-smart-home-sensors-focus-on-safety-and-avoiding-water-damage-133033586.html?src=rss 

Eduards Sizovs, founder of software developer conference DevTernity, has already been in the headlines for listing fake female speakers for a conference. Now, it has been revealed that Sizovs may also be behind is also behind Coding_Unicorn, a popular Instagram account supposedly run by a female coder, 404 Media reports.

Coding_Unicorn has 115,000 followers on Instagram and claims to be run by a professional software developer named Julia. The account features photos — many of which are glamour shots — of Julia at a MacBook alongside “no-BS coding, career, productivity tips.” 

404 Media has laid out a range of evidence that Sizovs is responsible for the account, such as a YouTube video showing Sizovs having previously logged into the account’s email and photos of Julia’s computer screen that show her logged in as Sizovs. Some of Julia’s Instagram captions are also exact copies of Sizovs’ LinkedIn posts. 

Julia also lists herself as a DevTernity fan and links to the company’s upcoming conferences. She was allegedly going to speak at a conference but “switched to helping with the organization.” The event, which was set to start on December 7, has been canceled following the allegations that fake women were added to the lineup in an effort for it to look diverse. Two women — one listed as a staff engineer at Coinbase and another as a Microsoft MVP and WhatsApp senior engineer — were removed from DevTernity’s website and have no online presence or, potentially, existence at all, according to The Register.  

Sizovs responded to the conference allegations on X: “The amount of hate and lynching I keep receiving is as if I would have scammed or killed someone. But I won’t defend myself because I don’t feel guilty. I did nothing terrible that I need to apologize for.” Sizovs did admit that one profile listed on the site was a “demo persona” that was “auto-generated, with a random title, random Twitter handle, random picture.” However, skeptics claim removing the person should have been simple and that it didn’t appear to be auto-generated at all, with the picture even changing early on.

Looking to the future, Sizovs said, “I’ll increase efforts 10x to make sure that next year, if one of our ladies drops out, we have a fallback plan.” As for Unicorn_Coding, it’s unclear who exactly the woman is in the photos or how she’s connected to Sizovs. Read 404 Media‘s article to learn more about this wild case.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-popular-female-coding-influencers-instagram-is-apparently-run-by-a-man-115046245.html?src=rss 

Google Drive users have recently been reporting that files and folders have gone missing, with some saying that months worth of data has disappeared from their accounts. Now, Google has acknowledged the issue, saying that it appears to be caused by the Drive for Desktop app, 9to5Google has reported.

The issue is pretty alarming, obviously. One user on Google’s support forums said that an expense spreadsheet they regularly updated has lost all data from nearly the last five years, with the version history showing the latest version as January 2019. “I’m really mad as this had all the important data which I do not have any local copy for. I need this data retrieved at any cost.” Another poster said the drive reverted to May 2023, with all subsequent data disappearing, and others report similar issues.

In a post from yesterday, Google said that “we’re investigating reports of an issue impacting a limited subset of Drive for desktop users and will follow up with more updates.” It noted the problem affects Drive for desktop v84.0.0.0 – 84.0.4.09. It advised users not to click “disconnect account” within Drive for desktop, and to not delete or move a specific app folder called DriveFS as detailed here. It even recommends making a copy of the app data folder if you have room on your hard drive. 

Google offers several ways to recover (or at least check) deleted files. That includes checking the trash, which is now automatically emptied after 30 days. It’s also a good idea to check the activity panel, which shows any files deleted or moved along with the relevant date. For this latest issue, however, the activity panel doesn’t appear to show that the files have gone missing, according to Google’s support forum users. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-is-investigating-a-drive-issue-that-causes-files-to-go-missing-092028653.html?src=rss 

Following X’s alleged ad controversy involving antisemitic content, it is now Meta’s turn to be put under the spotlight for its content algorithm. According to an experiment conducted by The Wall Street Journal, Instagram’s Reels video service would serve “risqué footage of children as well as overtly sexual adult videos” to test accounts that exclusively followed teen and preteen influencers — namely young gymnasts and cheerleaders. These sort of ads were supposed to be forbidden on Meta’s platforms.

To make matters worse, such salacious content was also mixed in with ads representing notable US brands like Disney, Walmart, Pizza Hut, Bumble, Match Group and even The Wall Street Journal itself. The report added that the Canadian Centre for Child Protection achieved similar results with its own tests separately.

While Walmart and Pizza Hut apparently declined to comment, Bumble, Match Group, Hims (retailer of erectile-dysfunction drugs) and Disney have since either pulled their ads from Meta or pressed the firm to address this issue. Given the earlier controversy on X, advertisers are obviously even more sensitive about the type of content shown next to their ads — especially for Disney which was affected by both X and now Instagram. 

In response, Meta told its clients that it was investigating, and that it “would pay for brand-safety auditing services to determine how often a company’s ads appear beside content it considers unacceptable.” However, the firm stopped short at providing a timetable nor detail on future prevention.

While one could say that such tests don’t necessarily represent real user experience (as tech companies tend to argue with), Instagram’s tendency to aggregate child sexualization content was a known problem internally — even before the launch of Reels, according to current and former Meta employees interviewed by the WSJ.

The same group of people suggested that an effective solution would require revamping the algorithms responsible for pushing related content to users. That said, internal documents seen by the WSJ suggested that Meta made it difficult for its safety team to apply such drastic changes, as traffic performance is apparently more important for the social media giant.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/instagram-reportedly-served-up-child-sexualizing-reels-to-followers-of-teen-influencers-053251960.html?src=rss 

Rivian has started a leasing program in 14 US states. The EV maker added the new financing option to its website on Monday (via Electrek), allowing customers to lease R1T electric pickup trucks for estimated prices starting at around $770 monthly (depending on your region). Since vehicle leases are categorized differently from purchases under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), lessees qualify for the full $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles.

The leasing program will be available to customers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington. “We chose these launch states based on many factors including where our customers are located and where leasing is most popular,” a Rivian spokesperson wrote in an email to CNBC. Rivian told the outlet it plans to expand the program’s available states and vehicle models, but it didn’t offer a timeline or further details. It’s reportedly working with Chase for financing.

Although the Rivian R1T starts at $73,000, the leasing program currently only includes higher-end models hovering around $90,000. For example, when entering a Denver zip code, the automaker’s online configurator estimated prices from $87,000 to $91,000 with monthly payments in the $782 to $835 range. So, although the federal tax credits can make signing off on a new electric truck more manageable, it’s still limited to buyers with at least fairly deep pockets.

Rivian raised its production forecast for the entire year by 2,000 vehicles earlier this month. It now expects to move 54,000 units by the end of the year as it prepares for the long-delayed arrival of the Tesla Cybertruck.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/rivians-electric-truck-is-available-to-lease-in-14-us-states-215636074.html?src=rss 

Evernote is experimenting with severe restrictions to its free plan, which may nudge users to upgrade or quit the app entirely. According to a report from TechCrunch, some Evernote users were greeted with a pop-up message announcing that the free plan would be limited to a single notebook and 50 notes. The pop-up also introduced a “special 40 percent off” offer, encouraging users to upgrade to a paid plan to create notes and notebooks without limits.

But despite the in-app notification, Evernote’s website has no mention of changes coming to its free plan. A representative for the company explained to TechCrunch that the website had not been updated because the change was not yet final. The company confirmed it has been testing the limited plan with less than 1 percent of its free users. Based on how that goes, Evernote will determine whether to implement the new plan. If that does happen, the representative said the company would then communicate the changes to “the relevant customer touch-points.”

The limited version of the free plan would not prevent users from managing, editing or deleting their current notes. It would only take away the ability to create new notes unless users took the plunge and paid for their plan.

For years, Evernote was the go-to app for countless power users and productivity gurus. However, the app has been kind of on a downward slide for a while. In 2020, it appeared Evernote was trying to reclaim its crown with the release of a major cross-platform redesign. But the updates weren’t enough to revive the app, which was once valued at almost a billion dollars. Last November, Evernote was purchased by a Milan-based company called Bending Spoons, which went on to lay off 129 staffers. Bending Spoons later announced it would be abandoning most of its US operations, shifting Evernote development to Europe.

If implemented, this would be a dramatic change for die-hard Evernote fans who have stuck with the free plan for lightweight note-taking purposes. The change would make the free plan basically useless, and there would be no compelling reason to use Evernote over something free and more powerful like Apple and Google’s own note-taking apps.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/evernote-is-reportedly-testing-a-severely-restricted-plan-for-free-users-184607336.html?src=rss 

There are tons of great gaming deals floating around this Cyber Monday but few are better than one we’ve spotted for the Xbox Series X. After you apply a $49 coupon at Amazon, Microsoft’s most powerful gaming console is available for $400. That’s a record low price for the system — you could even put the savings toward a few months of Game Pass access. You’ll probably need to act quickly if you’re interested, though. There’s no telling when this deal will vanish.

Along with the PlayStation 5 (which has its own Cyber Monday Deals), the Xbox Series X is your top choice for a current game console. There are a few factors to consider when buying a gaming system. If you need something more portable, a Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck is the way to go. If you prefer Sony’s formula of polished single-player adventures like The Last of Us or Spider-Man, the PlayStation 5 is likely your best option. Still, it’s hard to beat the combination of power, 4K gaming, game library and price that the Xbox Series X offers.

The value of an Xbox Series X gets even better if you have an Xbox Game Pass or Game Pass Ultimate subscription. Xbox Game Pass ($11 per month) grants you access to a vast library of games on your console, including third-party titles. You’ll be able to play every first-party game at no extra cost on its release day too. Game Pass Ultimate ($17 per month) adds online multiplayer and access to the PC Game Pass library, Xbox Cloud Gaming and EA Play (i.e. an extra batch of games from that publisher).

Xbox Game Pass includes hundreds of titles from major first-party games like the Halo series, Starfield, Minecraft, Doom Eternal and Forza Horizon 5 to stellar indies such as Hollow Knight, Jusant, Celeste and Cocoon. There are plenty of big-time third-party games available through the subscription too, including Assassin’s Creed Origins, Mortal Kombat 11, Madden NFL 23 and Grand Theft Auto V.

Best of all, you won’t need to wait for those to download to your Xbox Series X if you have a Game Pass Ultimate subscription. You can check many of them out via cloud streaming to decide whether it’s worth downloading them.

Your Cyber Monday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Cyber Monday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Cyber Monday tech deals. Learn about Cyber Monday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Cyber Monday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Cyber Monday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cyber-monday-deal-brings-the-xbox-series-x-down-to-a-record-low-of-400-on-amazon-185303684.html?src=rss 

Bungie has officially delayed the forthcoming Destiny 2 expansion, The Final Shape, until June 4 of next year, according to a video posted by game director Joel Blackburn. This delay has been rumored for a couple of months, ever since the company laid off an unknown amount of staffers working on the project. The expansion was originally supposed to come out in February and will act as an end to the game’s main storyline.

Bungie, however, says the expansion’s delay is just because it “needs more time to become exactly what we want it to be,” going on to note that staffers are polishing the title “to deliver an even bigger and bolder vision.” To that end, the company’s rejiggering its release calendar a bit to ease the burden of the just-announced delay.

Season of the Wish, the final season in the game’s calendar before it moves onto an episodic model, starts tomorrow and will now include more content than previously anticipated to offset the delay. Starting in February, there will be weekly progression-based quests called Wishes that offer unique rewards. Bungie’s also moving the Guardian Games up to March with a renewed focus on class vs. class combat. Finally, in April players will get a two-month content update called Destiny 2: Into the Light that will act as something of a bridge to The Final Shape.

The forthcoming expansion wasn’t the only title slapped with the delay hammer after those layoffs. The studio has also pushed back the release date for the extraction shooter Marathon all the way until 2025. This is a rebooted IP for Bungie that first came to Macs all the way back in 1994.

As for The Final Shape, the expansion will include new dungeons, new maps, new character classes and much more. You’ll also get a final bow wrapped on the story, for those who play online shooters for the narrative arc.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/bungie-confirms-destiny-2-expansion-delay-after-team-layoffs-180529846.html?src=rss