Category: Technology

This week, Cherlynn is joined by guest co-host Sam Rutherford to break down everything Samsung announced at its Unpacked event this week. Are we excited about the first major flagship phones of the year? And how about those confusing new laptops? Also, because we’ve had a Galaxy S23 Ultra in our possession for about 12 hours, we discussed our early impressions of the new phone. Plus, we take a look at the new Apple HomePod and other news in tech.

Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!

Subscribe!

iTunes

Spotify

Pocket Casts

Stitcher

Google Podcasts

Topics

Samsung unveils the Galaxy S23, S23 Plus and S23 Ultra – 1:44

The Galaxy Book 3 announcement was so confusing – 20:00

HomePod 2023 review – 33:39

More layoffs in tech: Rivian, PayPal and more – 39:47

OpenAI introduces paid plan for ChatGPT – 44:39

Working on – 52:35

Pop culture picks – 53:45

Livestream

Credits
Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Sam Rutherford
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien
Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos
Graphic artists: Luke Brooks and Brian Oh

There are a few times throughout the year when it’s worth snatching up new TVs and home theater tech while it’s on sale. Undoubtably, the holiday shopping period is your best bet, but at least in the US, right before the Super Bowl is the next best time. You can find a bunch of TVs on sale right now, and Sonos has joined the fray today by discounting a bunch of its home theater equipment. Its latest soundbars, the Arc and the Beam, are down to $799 and $399, respectively, while the Sonos Sub is on sale for $649. But the easiest in to the Sonos ecosystem is with a One speaker, and you can pick that up for only $179 right now.

Despite being a few years old, the Sonos One remains a top pick of ours in the smart speaker space. It provides excellent audio quality and you can pair two of them together for stereo sound. If you have multiple Sonos speakers in your living room, you can connect all of them together to create your own sound system as well. We also appreciate Sonos’ Trueplay technology, which measures the acoustics in your room in order to fine-tune the speaker.

The standard Sonos One is on sale, which means you get voice assistant capabilities as well. You can ask Alexa, the Google Assistant or Sonos’ own vocal helper to play music from a bunch of different services including Spotify, Tidal, Amazon Music and others. It also supports AirPlay 2, so you can easily send any sound from your Apple devices to the speaker to play.

As for the soundbars on sale, the Arc is the one to go with if you want the best that Sonos has to offer right now. We like its modern design and stellar sound quality, plus it also calibrates to your room and supports voice assistant input. The Beam is a great soundbar as well, and the addition of Dolby Audio on the second-gen model really helps it out. Both are some of the best soundbars you can get, plus they are easy to set up and simple to connect to other Sonos devices you might have (or want to have), like a Sub or a Sub Mini. Aside from how expensive things get when you want to expand a Sonos system, our biggest knock against both soundbars is that they only have one HDMI input each.

Shop deals at Sonos

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

After the last few years of nonstop growth, Apple reported revenue of $117.2 billion for its first fiscal quarter, which is five percent down year over year, marking the first time Apple’s revenue has dipped since 2019.

That said, the company set a revenue record of $20.8 billion in its Services business and hit over two billion active devices globally. CEO Tim Cook said three things hit revenue: the “challenging macroeconomic environment,” foreign exchange issues and COVID-related supply constraints that led to delays in the ship times of iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max models. Anecdotally, we’ve heard from several people that ended up canceling iPhone orders over lengthy delays.

It reflects a slowdown across most of the tech industry, with a mixture of lower revenues, decreased profits and general growth slowdown across Meta, Microsoft and Google owner Alphabet.

– Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

Samsung Galaxy S23, S23+ and S23 Ultra vs. the competition

Instagram could be working on a paid verification feature

Senator asks Apple and Google to ban TikTok from their app stores

Hasselblad X2D 100C camera: Incredible resolution, beautiful imperfections

Razer debuts its lightest gaming mouse ever, weighing in at 49 grams

It uses the company’s fastest wireless mouse tech.

Razer announced its lightest gaming mouse, the Viper Mini Signature Edition. It only weighs 49g, making it 16 percent lighter than the company’s own Viper V2 Pro and one of the most lightweight mice we’ve seen. The mouse uses a magnesium alloy exoskeleton with a semi-hollow interior. It’s light, but it’s not cheap: The $280 mouse will be available on Razer’s website starting February 11th.

Continue reading.

ChatGPT reportedly reached 100 million users in January

It may have averaged 13 million unique visitors a day last month.

According to a new study by analytics firm UBS (via Reuters and CBS), the OpenAI-developed chatbot was on pace to reach over 100 million monthly active users in January. For comparison, it took TikTok nine months after its global debut to reach 100 million monthly users despite its popularity, especially among younger generations. There isn’t another public chatbot with comparable capabilities. It has reportedly rattled Google’s execs to the point that they decided to declare “code red” and accelerate the company’s AI development.

Continue reading.

Columbia researchers bio-print seamless 3D skin grafts for burn patients

Instead of flat sheets, these grafts are shaped to fit better.

The primary shortcoming of bio-printed skin grafts is that they can only be produced in flat sheets with open edges. This method “disregard[s] the fully enclosed geometry of human skin,” argues a team of researchers from Columbia University. Instead, they’ve devised a novel means of producing skin in virtually any complex 3D shape they need — from ears and elbows to entire hands. Scientists can make “fully enclosed” 3D skin tissue that not only fits better but also appears to work better. Initial lab tests with mouse models were encouraging. Dr. Hasan Erbil Abaci, the lead researcher, said: “It was like putting a pair of shorts on the mice.”

Continue reading.

Amazon’s drones have reportedly delivered to fewer houses than there are words in this headline

The FAA is said to have placed strict conditions on the Prime Air program.

Amazon’s drone delivery program doesn’t seem to be off to a great start. The Prime Air division was said to be hit hard by recent, widespread layoffs. After nearly a decade of working on the program, Amazon said in December that it would start making deliveries by drone in Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas. According to The Information, however, by the middle of January, as few as seven houses had received Amazon packages by drone. The report suggests that Amazon has been hamstrung by the Federal Aviation Administration, which is said to be blocking drones from flying over roads or people unless the company gets permission on a case-by-case basis.

Continue reading.

Google has announced that it’s holding a streaming event called Live from Paris that will be all about “Search, Maps and beyond,” set to be livestreamed on YouTube on February 8th. “We’re reimagining how people search for, explore and interact with information, making it more natural and intuitive than ever before to find what you need,” the description reads. 

Hopefully, the “beyond” part will shed some more light on its plans for a ChatGPT rival. During Google’s earnings call yesterday, Pichai finally addressed Google’s own plans for an AI chat system. “In the coming weeks and months, we’ll make these language models available, starting with LaMDA, so that people can engage directly with them,” he said. Google also plans to bring those AI tools to businesses, developers and Alphabet’s own internal operations.

Last month, Google CEO Sundar Pichai reportedly declared a “code red” over OpenAI’s ChatGPT, due to its potential threat to Google’s search dominance. Notably, Microsoft is a large investor in ChatGPT, and plans to integrate the AI into its Bing search engine to provide more understandable and human-like results.

Google was said to be planning to show off its AI tools at its I/O event, which usually takes place in May. It’s possible, though, that the company wants get well ahead of any criticism that it’s behind OpenAI in the natural language chatbot race. 

On the other hand, the event might be strictly focused on Search and Maps — core products used by a lot of people. In the thumbnail above, Google also hints at news about Lens, Shopping and Translate. The event will be livestreamed on YouTube on February 8th at 8:30 AM ET. 

Instagram might be considering the possibility of offering paid verification to users, based on code seen by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi. The developer shared screenshots in the app’s code with TechCrunch, showing lines that say: “IG_NME_PAID_BLUE_BADGE_IDV” and “FB_NME_PAID_BLUE_BADGE_IDV.” They clearly say “paid blue badge,” most likely referencing the blue checkmarks verified users on the platform get. FB and IG stand for Facebook and Instagram, which could mean that Meta is thinking of verifying users for a fee across platforms. IDV, as TechCrunch notes, is a known acronym for “identity verification.” Paluzzi has unearthed numerous unreleased features in the past, including a BeReal-like feature and in-app scheduler on Instagram.

In addition, the developer also reportedly discovered code referencing a new type of subscription, though it’s unclear if it’s directly connected to paid verification. Twitter Blue, as you know, is a subscription service that costs $8 to $11 a month and gives users access to the website’s verified checkmark, along with some experimental features. Offering paid verification was one of the earliest moves Elon Musk made upon taking over Twitter, and it did make Blue look more appealing to prospective subscribers. Its launch was pretty disastrous, however, as the company didn’t implement safeguards to prevent random users from impersonating companies and high-profile personalities. 

If Meta truly is developing paid verification, it has to find a way not to repeat Twitter’s mistake. Especially since Instagram users might scramble to get their profiles verified, considering how hard it currently is to get a blue badge on the app. There’s even a black market for Instagram verification, with people paying up to tens of thousands of dollars to get a blue tick next to their name. TechCrunch says Meta chose not to comment on Paluzzi’s discovery, though, so whether it truly is working on paid verification is still up in the air.

TikTok is facing yet another call from a prominent lawmaker for the app’s ban, Colorado Senator Michael Bennet, a Democrat who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to Apple and Google urging the companies to ban TikTok from their respective app stores.

In the letter, Bennet says that “TikTok, in its current form, [is] an unacceptable threat to the national security of the United States.” The letter, addressed to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, repeats many of the same points that have been raised by other lawmakers seeking to ban the app.

Specifically, Bennet raises the possibility that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, could be compelled to “use its influence to advance Chinese government interests,” via TikTok. “Like most social media platforms, TikTok collects vast and sophisticated data from its users, including faceprints and voiceprints,” Bennet writes. “Unlike most social media platforms, TikTok poses a unique concern because Chinese law obligates ByteDance, its Beijing-based parent company, to ‘support, assist, and cooperate with state intelligence work.’”

TikTok has long denied that such scenarios could play out, and has attempted to downplay its ties to China. In a statement to CNN the company said Bennet’s letter “relies almost exclusively on misleading reporting about TikTok, the data we collect, and our data security controls.”

Apple and Google didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

While it seems unlikely either company would take such a drastic step based on a letter from one senator, it highlights the mounting pressure and scrutiny on TkTok. The company has spent the last two years negotiating with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) in order to secure its ability to continue to operate in the US. But that process is reportedly stalled, and the company has been waging a new charm offensive in an attempt to win over critics.

TikTok has also been sharing more details around its partnership with Oracle to safeguard US user data and comply with US regulators’ concerns. But lawmakers seem to be in no rush to let TikTok off the hook. The app has already been banned from federal devices, and numerous state governments have passed bans of their own. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is scheduled to testify at his first Congressional hearing next month,

As many Apple watchers have predicted, the company’s financial results this quarter are a break from the last few years of nonstop growth. The iPhone maker reported a revenue of $117.2 billion for its first fiscal quarter (ended December 2022), which is five percent down year over year, marking the first time Apple’s revenue is down since 2019. 

There are a couple of bright spots in the company’s performance, namely in its setting a revenue record of $20.8 billion in its Services business and hitting more than 2 billion active devices in its installed base. All-time revenue records were also set in markets like Canada, Indonesia, Mexico, Spain, Turkey and Vietnam.

In a statement, CEO Tim Cook said “As we all continue to navigate a challenging environment, we are proud to have our best lineup of products and services ever, and as always, we remain focused on the long term and are leading with our values in everything we do.”

On its earnings call, Cook said there were three main things that impacted revenue: the “challenging macroeconomic environment”, foreign exchange issues and COVID-related supply constraints that led to delays in the ship times of iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max models. “Production is now back to where we want it to be,” he added.

Apple’s decline in revenue is in line with a general slump in the tech industry, with Meta having just reported revenues that are 4 percent down from the previous year. Alphabet is also seeing a slowdown in growth this quarter, and while Microsoft saw its revenue climb, its earnings missed expectations and profits fell by 12 percent. Amid the economic downturn, tech companies havebeenlaying off significant portions of their workforce, though Apple doesn’t appear to have made similar moves at the moment.

The company is holding a call to go into detail about its financial results at 5pm ET / 2pm PT today, and we will update this post with any additional news and insight.

The science of grafting skin has come a long way from the days of scraping it off one part of a patient’s body and slapping it back on somewhere else to cover a nasty burn or injury. These days grafts are commonly bioprinted like living inkjets using the patient’s cultured cells to seed the growing process, down to the vascularization. The primary shortcoming of these printed grafts is that they can only be produced in flat sheets with open edges. This method “disregard[s] the fully enclosed geometry of human skin,” argue a team of researchers from Columbia University. Instead, they’ve devised a novel means of producing skin in virtually any complex 3D shape they need — from ears and elbows to entire hands printed like a pair of Buffalo Bill’s mittens. 

The team published their findings, “Engineering edgeless human skin with enhanced biomechanical properties,” in the January issue of Scientific Advances. They explained how they engineered, “the skin as a fully enclosed 3D tissue that can be shaped after a body part and seamlessly transplanted as a biological clothing.”

“Three-dimensional skin constructs that can be transplanted as ‘biological clothing’ would have many advantages,” Dr. Hasan Erbil Abaci, lead researcher and assistant professor of dermatology at Columbia University, said in a recent press release. “They would dramatically minimize the need for suturing, reduce the length of surgeries, and improve aesthetic outcomes.” 

What’s more, these uniform grafts have shown superior performance, both mechanically and functionally, than their patchwork alternatives. The Columbia team has dubbed the grafts “wearable edgeless skin constructs” (WESCs). Ok, but can you eat them?

The process of making these skin prosthetics isn’t that far off from the existing techniques which result in flat slabs of skin. The transplant site is first scanned with a 3D laser to create a digital facsimile of the structure. That data is worked through a CAD program to generate a hollow wireframe of the appendige and then printed. This serves as the scaffolding on which the patient’s cultured cells will grow. It’s coated with skin fibroblasts and collagen then covered by an outer layer of keratinocytes (which make up the epidermis) and growth medium to feed the cells as they mature. As with making flat sheets, the entire process requires around three weeks for the cells to fully set up and be ready for transplant.

Initial lab tests with mouse models were encouraging. “It was like putting a pair of shorts on the mice,” Abaci said. “The entire surgery took about 10 minutes.” Don’t get too excited, mouse skin is not people skin. It heals differently enough that additional animal studies will be required before we start trying it on humans. Such tests are likely still years away. 

Amazon’s drone delivery program doesn’t seem to be off to a great start. The Prime Air division was said to be hit hard by recent, widespread layoffs. Now, a new report indicates that Amazon’s drones have made just a handful of deliveries in their first few weeks of operation.

After nearly a decade of working on the program, Amazon said in December that it would start making deliveries by drone in Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas. However, by the middle of January, as few as seven houses had received Amazon packages by drone, according to The Information: two in California and five in Texas.

The report suggests that Amazon has been hamstrung by the Federal Aviation Administration, which is said to be blocking drones from flying over roads or people unless the company gets permission on a case-by-case basis. Although Amazon had touted its FAA certification, the agency imposed a string of restrictions, which hadn’t been revealed until now. It has largely rejected Amazon’s requests to loosen the limitations.

One of the plans the FAA agreed to, according to the report, was for Amazon employees to check no cars were passing on surrounding roads before drones left its Lockeford delivery facility. That depot is on an industrial block, and the drones need to fly over at least one road before getting to any homes.

Amazon’s drones are far heavier than ones operated by Wing, as well as Walmart’s partners Flytrex and Zipline. Those weigh between 10 and 40 pounds. Amazon’s drone, on the other hand, weighs around 80 pounds and can only carry a five-pound payload. The report suggests the drone’s mass could be causing concern among FAA officials. The agency has given Wing, Flytrex and Zipline permission to fly over roadways — to date, Wing has carried out more than 300,000 deliveries.

One other aspect that doesn’t help Amazon’s prospects is that folks who want to receive deliveries by drone need a backyard where packages can be dropped off — so apartment dwellers need not apply. The drone can only carry a certain size of box and it dumps packages from 12 feet in the air, further limiting the types of products it can transport.

“We meet or exceed all safety standards and have obtained regulatory authorization to conduct commercial drone delivery operations,” Amazon spokesperson Maria Boschetti told The Information. “We welcome the FAA’s rigorous evaluations of our operation, and we’ll continue to champion the significant role that regulators play to ensure all drone companies are achieving the right design, build and operating standards.” Boschetti added that the Prime Air layoffs, which have reportedly slashed the size of the delivery teams at both locations by more than half, have not affected Amazon’s plans for the test sites.

Starbucks Rewards members can now pay with Venmo. The payment service’s parent company, PayPal, announced the change today, saying customers can use Venmo accounts to load and auto-reload their Starbucks Card funds.

PayPal says you can add your Venmo account in the Starbucks app or the Starbucks Card section of the company’s website. Additionally, you can pay directly from Venmo after adding your account to the coffee chain’s app.

The companies are running a promotion to entice you to try it. Until February 10th, Starbucks Rewards members will get 100 bonus Stars (perks for spending money there) by adding at least $15 from Venmo to their Starbucks Card. Alternatively, spending $15 or more using Venmo as a direct payment in the Starbucks app will also get you the bonus.

This isn’t the coffee chain’s first new partnership as it deals with recent slowdowns. It announced last month it was working with DoorDash to offer 95 percent of its in-store menu items through the delivery service. Unfortunately, it also pounced on the NFT bandwagon, launching an alternative rewards system using digital collectibles.