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NVIDIA is expected to reveal its GeForce RTX 4070 Ti graphics card at CES next week, but it preemptively leaked the specs. Thanks to new rumors, we have a sense of the GPU’s likely price too.

The RTX 4070 Ti is slated to have 12GB of GDDR6X memory with 7,680 Cuda cores that can be boosted to 2.61GHz, as Tom’s Hardware notes. NVIDIA seemingly expects the card to deliver 4K gameplay at up to 240Hz, or 8K visuals at 60Hz with DSC and HDR enabled. The company claimed the RTX 4070 Ti will deliver around 3.5 times better performance than the 12GB RTX 3080 in Cyberpunk 2077 when the new RT Overdrive mode is enabled.

It has been widely believed that the latest card would essentially be a rebranded version of the 12GB RTX 4080. In October, NVIDIA reversed plans to release that model and suggested it would rebadge the GPU.

Meanwhile, rumors indicate NVIDIA will sell the RTX 4070 Ti for $799. It was previously expected that the price would be $899, but NVIDIA may have lowered it after the US delayed tariffs on GPUs that were set to resume on January 1st. Based on the RTX 4070 Ti’s expected performance, Wccftech ran the numbers and found that, on a teraflop-to-dollar ratio, the GPU will offer 97 percent of the value proposition of the $1,599 RTX 4090.

We should find out official details about the RTX 4070 Ti, perhaps including the release date, very soon. NVIDIA has scheduled a CES edition of its GeForce Beyond event for January 3rd at 11AM ET.

 

Google has agreed to pay $9.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Washington DC Attorney General Karl Racine, who accused the company earlier this year of “deceiving users and invading their privacy.” Google has also agreed to change some of its practices, primarily concerning how it informs users about collecting, storing and using their location data.

“Google leads consumers to believe that consumers are in control of whether Google collects and retains information about their location and how that information is used,” the complaint, which Racine filed in January, read. “In reality, consumers who use Google products cannot prevent Google from collecting, storing and profiting from their location.”

Racine’s office also accused Google of employing “dark patterns,” which are design choices intended to deceive users into carrying out actions that don’t benefit them. Specifically, the AG’s office claimed that Google repeatedly prompted users to switch in location tracking in certain apps and informed them that certain features wouldn’t work properly if location tracking wasn’t on. Racine and his team found that location data wasn’t even needed for the app in question. They asserted that Google made it “impossible for users to opt out of having their location tracked.”

The $9.5 million payment is a paltry one for Google. Last quarter, it took parent company Alphabet under 20 minutes to make that much in revenue. The changes that the company will make to its practices as part of the settlement may have a bigger impact.

Folks who currently have certain location settings on will receive notifications telling them how they can disable each setting, delete the associated data and limit how long Google can keep that information. Users who set up a new Google account will be informed which location-related account settings are on by default and offered the chance to opt out.

Google will need to maintain a webpage that details its location data practices and policies. This will include ways for users to access their location settings and details about how each setting impacts Google’s collection, retention or use of location data.

Moreover, Google will be prevented from sharing a person’s precise location data with a third-party advertiser without the user’s explicit consent. The company will need to delete location data “that came from a device or from an IP address in web and app activity within 30 days” of obtaining the information

“Given the vast level of tracking and surveillance that technology companies can embed into their widely used products, it is only fair that consumers be informed of how important user data, including information about their every move, is gathered, tracked, and utilized by these companies,” Racine said in a statement. “Significantly, this resolution also provides users with the ability and choice to opt of being tracked, as well as restrict the manner in which user information may be shared with third parties.”

Engadget has contacted Google for comment.

 

Like many Apple products, the Apple Watch can be extremely simple to start using — but that simplicity hides a surprising level of depth and customization. You may be wondering where to start with setting up a new Apple Watch if you just received one, and it’s true, there’s a lot to do to make sure you’re getting the most out of your new wearable. Let us guide you through that process, from initial setup to optimizing everything it can do.

Setup

Of course, the first thing you’ll want to do is pair your Apple Watch with your iPhone. Even if you have a cellular-capable Apple Watch, an iPhone is required for setting up and managing the device. Fortunately, this process is extremely straightforward — after powering on the Apple Watch, just place it near an unlocked iPhone and you’ll get a prompt to set the device up. During this process, your iPhone will walk you through the initial pairing as well as signing in with your Apple ID, assigning a passcode, setting up things like Siri and Apple Pay, and deciding if you want to transfer your compatible apps. I recommend against transferring all your apps automatically, as the Watch is a lot more useful when you curate it with only what you need.

A few features you definitely should set up are fall detection, crash detection and emergency SOS. The latter lets you quickly place a call to local emergency services by pressing and holding the side button, while fall detection uses the Watch’s accelerometers and other sensors to, well, detect if you’ve taken a fall. It’ll initiate an emergency SOS call automatically if you’ve taken a spill and it doesn’t sense you moving. Before making that call, the Watch will try its best to get your attention via a notification, a vibration and an audible alarm. Crash detection, which is only available on the new Series 8 and Ultra, works in a similar fashion, except in this case it’s looking for movement that it recognizes as a car accident, with the accelerometer able to detect up to 256 Gs of impact force.

The fun part: tweaking apps and notifications

Once you have the basics set up, it’s time to make the Apple Watch your own. By default, the Apple Watch mirrors all notifications that go to your phone. But I’ve found the Watch to be much more useful with a bit of curation. In the iPhone Watch app, you can customize notifications for all of Apple’s first-party apps, or turn them off entirely. For example, the Activity app notifications panel lets you choose whether or not you want reminders to stand every hour, or notifications when your friends share activity milestones with you and so forth.

Third-party apps don’t have the same granularity, but you can always turn them off altogether so they won’t ping your Watch. For things that aren’t particularly time-sensitive (say, updates from Google Photos, or Apple News updates), it’s best to just skip them. They’ll still hit your iPhone, and you can always enable them again later.

The iPhone Watch app also lets you pick which specific apps from your iPhone will be installed on the Apple Watch. I think this is more useful than just letting the Watch install every single compatible app. I prefer going through the list and deciding if there’s a benefit to having these apps on my wrist. In the case of apps like Google Maps or Ecobee for controlling my thermostat, it’s a definite yes. But things like Etsy or Bank of America don’t exactly make a ton of sense on a Watch. And if you change your mind, you can remove an app from the Watch app or by long-pressing it in grid view and deleting it – just keep in mind that this will remove the app from your Watch but not from your iPhone.

That said, I have been surprised at what some developers have envisioned for the Apple Watch. Take the notes app Bear, for example. I often use it to make grocery lists, and checklists show up great on the Apple Watch. So if there’s an app on your phone that you consider essential, give it a shot on the Watch.

Watch faces

Another occasionally-overlooked part of the Apple Watch experience are watch faces. Since this is literally what you’ll see every time you raise your wrist, I think it’s worth finding ones that fit your personal style. While there are no third-party faces, the Apple Watch has more than 30 built-in options that are endlessly customizable. We’re talking about a huge variety of colors, different typefaces and watch styles, complications (small slices of info like weather, date, or music controls) and much more. You can have a simple digital time display with nothing else, or an info-dense face with eight different complications or anything in between.

You can set up new faces on the Watch directly — but as with most in-depth features, it’s easier to do this on the iPhone. The Face Gallery shows every available face, along with multiple examples of how they can be customized. You can use those as a jumping off point to make your own creations. Once you’ve curated your favorites, you can simply swipe through them on the Watch itself when you want to mix things up. If you long press on a face, you can edit it directly on your Watch too, which is handy when you want to just change the color quickly to better match your outfit.

If you’re using an Apple Watch Series 5 or later, you can also decide whether you want to activate the always-on display. You can find this option in the settings app, under “Display & Brightness.” If you’re after maximum battery life, turn this off, but most people will probably prefer it on. New watches can still get a full day of use while using the always-on feature, but once your watch ages a bit and battery performance degrades, you might want to learn to live without it. Note that both versions of the Apple Watch SE do not have an always-on display.

Apple Watch Ultra’s “action button”

The new Apple Watch Ultra is the first with a second button on its side. Unlike the standard button on the right, which lets you pull up recently used apps, access Apple Pay and a handful of other features, the Ultra’s Action Button is a blank slate. You can set it up for a variety of actions, like tracking intervals on a run, setting a compass waypoint for you to navigate back to later, starting a dive or other things that third-party apps could enable. You might be better off using your Watch for a bit before deciding on what it is best suited for, but don’t forget about it.

Fitness tracking

One of the biggest Apple Watch selling points is its fitness-tracking features. Whether or not you actually exercise on a regular basis, the Watch will monitor your steps and activity level, and use that data to track your daily movement via three rings that you’re encouraged to close. The “move” ring is how many active calories you burn in a day, the “exercise” ring tracks activity at or above a brisk walk, and the “stand” ring notes whether or not you get up and move for a minute or two each hour of the day.

When you set up your Apple Watch, it’ll suggest daily goals for each of these, and the Activity app (or the Fitness app on your iPhone) will show how close you are to hitting them. If you’ve never used an Apple Watch before, it’s fine to just go with the defaults — every week, you’ll get a recap of how you did and it’ll even suggest bumping up your Move number if you’re easily surpassing it. The exercise and stand options default to 30 minutes per day and 12 hours per day, respectively, but those too can be adjusted.

For extra motivation, the Fitness app lets you connect with other friends who use an Apple Watch and see how much progress they’re making against their three rings. Naturally, you can use this information to taunt them about their couch-potato habits, but you can also challenge them to informal competitions. You earn points based on the percentage you close each of your rings every day, and the person with the most points after a week wins. It’s pretty casual, but it’s also a fun way to stay motivated.

If you want to track a specific workout, like a run, walk, or weight-training session you do that in the “workout” app. There, you’ll find the many different types of workouts that the Watch can track. If you already have a favorite way to track exercise on your phone, though, chances are you can find it for the Apple Watch too. Nike Run Club, MapMyRun, Peloton and others all have Watch apps that let you track workouts using the wearable’s sensors. Also, a lot of apps can now connect with the Health app on your iPhone. It’s a database of all your activity and workout data from your Watch, so you might be able to easily sync workout data from there into your service of choice. As with most things Apple Watch, it’ll just take a bit of playing around to see what works best for you.

Other health features

Newer Apple Watches offer a few other health-tracking features, as well. For example, you can rest your thumb on the Apple Watch crown to take an ECG measurement, or have the watch detect your blood oxygen level. Those features don’t really require anything to get started, but ones like sleep tracking, medication reminders and advanced cycle tracking via the temperature sensor on the Apple Watch Series 8 and Ultra require some adjustments to work properly.

You’ll find sleep settings on your iPhone in the Health app. There, you can set a goal for how many hours of sleep you want to get a night and tell your Watch and iPhone what time you want to get up every day. You can also set up different schedules (for the week or weekend) and fine-tune details like what alarm sounds you want and when the sleep focus setting (which reduces distractions like notifications and the always-on display) turns on. Once that’s done, you can view sleep history data on your Watch or phone that shows how much time you spend in REM, core or deep sleep as well as when and how often you wake up.

The medication tracking feature is pretty lightweight, but potentially handy if you want help sticking to your schedule. As with most of these other features, you set up a schedule in the Health app on your iPhone. From there you’ll add the medication name, add a schedule and a visual identifier and also take note of any interactions you want to have on record. Once that’s done, you can log all your medications for the day or an individual one through the Apple Watch app.

If you menstruate, the Apple Watch Series 8 and Ultra can use a temperature sensor along with your reported data on when you have your period to estimate when you may be ovulating. To use this, you’ll need to set up manual cycle tracking in the Health app on your phone first, which lets you log the days you have your period each month (you can do this via an app on the Apple Watch itself, too). Assuming you input this data and wear your Watch when sleeping, you’ll then be able to get a notification on when you may be ovulating.

Given the extremely sensitive nature of this data, Apple has a detailed write-up on how it keeps this private. Long story short, Apple Health information is encrypted and unreadable by default if your phone is locked behind a passcode, Touch ID or Face ID. And if you use iOS 12 or later and have two-factor authentication turned on for your Apple ID, it can be backed up to iCloud while still remaining unreadable by Apple.

However, you may have granted third-party apps access to your health data at some point. If you want to check and rescind those permissions, go to the Health app on your iPhone and tap the “sharing” tab at the bottom. There you’ll see what apps have access to your Health data and what specific pieces of info they can see. For example, Runkeeper can view things like my walking and running distance as well as workouts that I log, but it doesn’t have access to sleep or medication tracking. In this menu, you can delete all data that third-party apps have access to and revoke an app’s permissions to see your health info.

Music

One of my favorite things about the Apple Watch is that it can stream music and podcasts – not just from Apple’s services but others like Spotify and Pandora as well. You’ll need a cellular-capable Watch to stream music without your phone, but the good news is that Apple Music, Spotify and Pandora all allow you to save music directly on the Watch as well. Regardless of whether you spring for the cellular model or not, there’s a way to listen to tunes and leave your phone behind.

If you’re an Apple Music user, you’ll manage downloads through the Watch app on your iPhone. Pop that open and go to the “Music” section and you’ll see a big button to add songs. There’s also a setting that’ll automatically download albums and playlists you’ve listened to recently – turn that on and you’ll always have some music on your wrist.

It’s easy to choose specific albums or playlists you want saved, too. Just hit the big plus button and you’ll see your Apple Music library. From there, just navigate to what you want, hit another plus button and it’ll be downloaded to your Watch. Note that music only transfers when your Watch is charging, so you’ll need to take it off your wrist to sync.

If you’re using Spotify, just navigate to an album, playlist or podcast on your phone and tap the three dots icon – you’ll see an option to “download to Apple Watch” there. Then, on your watch, there’s a clearly-marked “downloads” section where you can play content without a connection.

Experiment, experiment, experiment!

Like many Apple products, the Apple Watch has a lot of functionality and hidden complexity beneath its user-friendly surface. But I’ve found that the Watch hides a lot of features, so it’s worth checking out the built-in Tips app for suggestions on what you can do. Without a guide like that, you’ll probably never realize that clicking the side button twice summons Apple Pay, or that you can display the grid of icons in a list if you prefer. Chances are good you’re not going to irrevocably mess something up, so tap and swipe and scroll and dig into the settings.

 

There’s never really been a shortage of reasons to spend less time on Twitter. Even before Elon Musk’s chaotic takeover, the platform was long plagued by misinformation, hate speech, harassment and other ills that made it less than welcoming.

There’s never been a better time to quit Twitter. The Elon Musk-induced chaos at the company has breathed new life into a crop of alternative platforms, and has inspired a new wave of competing efforts to win over disillusioned Twitter users.

Competition emerges

Of all the alternatives out there, none have benefited as much as Mastodon. The open-source service was created in 2016, and first gained notoriety in 2017, when some Twitter users were upset with changes the company had made to the functionality of @-replies. At that time though, it didn’t gain much traction outside a small base of hardcore enthusiasts.

That all changed from the second Musk announced he wanted to buy Twitter. Mastodon saw an immediate spike back in April and the momentum has only increased, according to the nonprofit. “Mastodon has recently exploded in popularity, jumping from approx. 300K monthly active users to 2.5M between the months of October and November, with more and more journalists, political figures, writers, actors and organizations moving over,” founder Eugen Rochko wrote in a recent blog post.

The service isn’t a perfect analog to Twitter. Its platform, which runs on thousands of servers, can make signing up a bit confusing. And a couple of the platform’s most popular servers, like mastodon.social, have at times halted new sign-ups due to surging demand.

But, as Rochko points out, the decentralized platform has become one of the top platforms of choice for some of Twitter’s most influential — and most followed — users. Tellingly, when Musk briefly imposed a ban on accounts promoting alternative social networks, Mastodon’s official Twitter account was the only social app to be suspended.

Mastodon is far from the only previously-niche app to get a boost from turmoil at Twitter. Other apps like CounterSocial, which has a Tweetdeck-like interface, and Tribel, which describes itself as a “pro-democracy Twitter alternative” have also seen an uptick in sign-ups.

There’s also a wave of competition from fresh upstarts. Post News, a new service from former Waze CEO Noam Bardin has also tried to capitalize on Twitter’s dysfunction. The service, which is currently invitation-only, rushed to launch an early version of its beta in November in hopes of drawing away disillusioned Twitter users. Post, which bills itself as a place “to discover, read, watch, discuss and share premium news content without subscriptions or ads,” has more than 610,000 people on its waitlist, according to Bardin.

Another app that’s emerged, seemingly out of nowhere, is Hive Social, an image-centric platform with a feed that looks more like Instagram than Twitter. The service was founded in 2019, and hit 1.5 million users in November, according to the company. The site has had some notable security issues, which it claims to have fixed, but has still managed to make an impression with Gen Z Twitter users.

Legacy platforms are also trying to seize the opportunity created by growing apathy for Twitter. Tumblr claimed to see a surge in new and returning users, according to Matt Mullenweg, CEO of parent company Automattic. The site has also made a habit of trolling Musk and his new policies for Twitter, including with the addition of a $7.99 “Important Blue Internet Checkmark” for users’ blogs. Mullenweg has also said Tumblr will adopt ActivityPub, the protocol powering Mastodon, to make the two services interoperable.

Meta is also keen to challenge its longtime rival. The company recently launched a new “Notes” feature within Instagram that allows users to share status updates at the top of their inbox. At 60 characters, it’s hardly a full-fledged Twitter alternative, but it might not be the last such feature we see from Meta. The New York Timesreports that the company has discussed several ideas to go after Twitter’s “bread and butter.”

The future for Twitter Quitters

It’s hardly the first time that unpopular decisions within Twitter have sparked an interest in alternatives. But in the past, surges to outside platforms have been relatively short lived. And most would-be competitors are still only a fraction of the size of Twitter.

Even with an influx of new users, Mastodon, Post News, Hive Social and Tumblr are still substantially smaller than Twitter. And, as unpopular and autocratic and Musk’s policy decisions seem, the idea of starting over on a new platform can feel daunting. Not everyone can easily rebuild their social graphs on alternative sites, and some may find the growing crop of Twitter clones to also be unwelcoming (this is especially true if you rely on accessibility features, as many of the newer platforms haven’t invested much in these features.)

Still, this particular moment feels different than other times when Twitter has struggled to keep disgruntled users around. For one, there are more choices than ever before for those looking for a reason to leave. But it’s also unique because there are more people actually active on these alternatives than ever before.

 

Can you believe CES is just a week away? For our final episode of 2022, Cherlynn, Devindra and Senior Writer Sam Rutherford dive into their expectations for CES 2023. We’ll definitely hear more from Intel and AMD when it comes to CPUs, as well as AMD and NVIDIA’s latest mobile video cards. But we’re always keeping our eyes out for the weird stuff at the show, like Lenovo’s wild swiss army lamp (a combination webcam, facelight and USB hub!). And of course, there will likely be tons of news around new TVs, PCs and cars.

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!

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Topics

PC hardware to look forward to – 5:06

Phones and mobile at CES – 22:16

New TVs and gaming monitors to expect – 28:11

Wearables at CES 2023 – 35:38

Other news – 42:07

Working on – 44:47

Pop culture picks – 46:06

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

 

New York governor Kathy Hochul has finally signed a right-to-repair bill into law, over half a year since the state legislature was passed. Representatives for Microsoft and Apple pressed Hochul’s office for changes, as well as industry association TechNet, which represents many notable tech companies, including Amazon, Google, Dell and HP. Critics say the amendments will weaken the law’s effectiveness. The bill’s revised language excludes enterprise electronics, like devices used in schools and hospitals. Home appliances, motor vehicles, medical devices and off-road equipment were also previously exempted.

Whatever aims the right-to-repair bill had when first proposed have been weakened. Public Interest Research Groups (PIRG), a collective of consumer rights organizations, said in a statement to Engadget: “Such changes could limit the benefits for school computers and most products currently in use.” It continued: “The bill now excludes certain smartphone circuit boards from parts the manufacturers are required to sell and requires repair shops to post unwieldy warranty language.”

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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TikTok will be banned on most US federal government devices

Included in a mammoth $1.7 trillion bill that President Biden just signed.

TikTok will be outlawed on almost all devices issued by the federal government after lawmakers passed a $1.7 trillion spending bill. Officials recently added the No TikTok on Government Devices Act (what a name) to the bill, which the Senate unanimously approved last week. The mammoth 4,155-page legislation was fast-tracked to avoid a partial government shutdown. It will fund the government through September. The legislation requires the Biden administration to establish rules to remove TikTok from government devices by mid-February. The bill carved out exceptions for elected officials, congressional staff, law enforcement agents and other officials. However, the House of Representatives separately banned TikTok on devices it owns and manages.

Continue reading.

Samsung’s new smart fridge has a massive 32-inch display

Think of it like a smart TV with a fridge attached to it.

CES is nearly here, which means we’re once again writing about refrigerators. With its Family Hub Plus, Samsung has boosted the touch display size to 32 inches from 21 inches, although it’s still a vertical screen. Samsung has added support for Google Photos, along with the OneDrive integration seen on past models. There’s also a new SmartThings hub so you can control multiple smart home devices from your… kitchen, including robot vacuums, air conditioning, lighting and more. It also supports Amazon’s Your Essentials service, letting you order groceries and other products directly from the touchscreen. Those groceries go inside.

Continue reading.

The EV revolution became an eventuality in 2022

It’s been a busy year for the industry.

It’s been a decade since the first Tesla EV made its commercial debut and the electrification of American automotive society began in earnest. Over the past ten years as battery capacities have grown and range anxieties have shrunk, electric vehicles have become a daily sight in most parts of the country. Now, virtually every notable automaker on the planet has jumped on the electric bandwagon with sizable investments in battery and production technologies and pledges to electrify their lineups within a decade or so.

Not even recent years’ production slowdowns and supply chain disruptions brought on by the COVID pandemic managed to stall the industry’s momentum. The International Energy Agency in January reported that EVs had managed to triple their market share between 2019 and 2021 with 6.6 million units being sold globally last year. And as eventful as 2022 turned out to be, 2023 and beyond could be even bigger for the EV industry. We’re expecting EV debuts including the VW ID.3; the Lucid Gravity, Polestar 3, Jeep (one of four!) and Honda’s Prologue SUVs.

Continue reading.

 

Google Voice has made it easier to filter out spammers trying to call your number. The tech giant has announced that the service will now flag suspected spam calls and will clearly label them as such, complete with a big red exclamation mark. Spam calls and texts have been a huge issue for a years, and they aren’t going away anytime soon — according to the FCC, consumers in the US receive approximately 4 billion robocalls per month and that Americans had lost nearly $30 billion to scam calls in 2021. Google says the feature was designed to help protect you “from unwanted calls and potentially harmful scams.”

The new label that says “suspected spam caller” will show up not just on the incoming call screen, but also in call history for future reference. If you confirm that the call is spam, any future call from that number will head straight to voicemail, and all its call history entries will be sent to the spam folder. But if you confirm that the number is legitimate and isn’t a spam caller, the warning will never be displayed for it again. Here’s what the label would look like on the call screen:

Google uses the same artificial intelligence that’s in charge of identifying spam calls across its ecosystem to pinpoint spam callers for this feature. Apparently, that AI has been filtering out billions of spam calls a month for the tech giant. To note, the new label will only appear if your spam filter setting under Security is turned off. If it’s on, all calls Google suspects to be spam are sent to voicemail from the start.

 

JLab has consistently produced some of the best cheap earbuds over the last few years. The company offers solid performance and decent sound quality for well under $50 in some models. For 2023, JLab is taking things a step further in multiple ways with its smallest true wireless earbuds yet and also its first premium noise-canceling set. What’s more, the company is jumping into the over-the-counter hearing aid market with two options with “discreet” designs. 

First, the $39 JBuds Mini are 30-percent smaller than JLab’s Go Air Pop that debuted in 2021. They aren’t the company’s cheapest model, but despite the tiny stature, the JBuds Mini still pack on-board controls, Bluetooth multipoint connectivity and over six hours of listening on a charge (over 20 hours with the case). The charging case is also quite small — about the size of a car key fob — and has an integrated key ring loop. 

On the higher end, the $199 Epic Air Lab Edition earbuds are JLab’s first hybrid dual driver design and, as you might expect, the company is calling them its best-sounding option to date. Equipped with active noise cancellation (ANC) and ambient sound mode, the Epic Air Lab Edition also offers touch controls, Bluetooth multipoint and over 54 hours of use when you factor in the wireless charging case. The company says there will be multiple ANC modes available in its app and a USB-C dongle will offer low-latency Bluetooth LE audio for video and games. 

JLab OTC Hearing Aid prototype. 

Now that over-the-counter hearing aids have been approved by the FDA, you can expect to see a lot of headphone companies entering that market. JLab has two models that will debut in 2023: the OTC Hearing Aid and the Self-Fitting OTC Hearing Aid. The former is $99 while the pricing on the latter is TBD. The company says both will be compatible with iOS and Android with “impressive” battery life. Details are scarce for now, but we expect a lot more info before these two hearing aids arrive later in the year. And based on the early renders, at least one of them will look like a set of JLab true wireless earbuds.

JLab says all of these new products, which will be the focus of its CES showcase, will be available during Q3 2023.

 

TikTok will be outlawed on almost all devices issued by the federal government after lawmakers passed a $1.7 trillion spending bill. Officials crammed the No TikTok on Government Devices Act, which the Senate unanimously approved last week, into the mammoth 4,155-page omnibus bill. The spending package was fast tracked in order to avoid a partial government shutdown. It will fund the government through September.

The Senate voted 68-29 to pass the bill on December 22nd. The House approved it on Friday with a vote of 225-201. On the same day, President Joe Biden signed a stopgap bill that funded the government for another week in order to avert a shutdown until the omnibus bill landed on his desk. Today, President Biden signed the bill into law.

The legislation requires the Biden administration to establish rules to remove TikTok from government devices by mid-February. The bill carved out exceptions for elected officials, congressional staff, law enforcement agents and other officials. However, the House of Representatives separately banned TikTok on devices it owns and manages.

Earlier this month, FBI Director Chris Wray warned that China could use the app (which is owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance) to collect data on users. Some attempts have been made, including in the last few weeks, to prohibit TikTok in the US entirely. Several states have banned TikTok from government devices, including Georgia, South Dakota, Maryland and Texas. Indiana has sued TikTok over alleged security and child safety issues.

TikTok has attempted to soothe US lawmakers’ concerns that the app could be used for spying purposes. Since June, it has been directing all traffic from the country to Oracle servers based domestically. TikTok and ByteDance said they’d delete US user data from their own servers in the US and Singapore. In August, Oracle began a review of TikTok’s algorithms and content moderation systems.

As Congress was voting on the bill, news broke that ByteDance fired four employees (two in the US and two in China) who accessed the TikTok data of US journalists. The workers were allegedly trying to find the sources of leaks to the reporters.

The omnibus bill includes other tech-related provisions, including more funding for federal antitrust officials. In addition, the package incorporates the Computers for Veterans and Students Act. This requires the government to hand over certain surplus computers to nonprofits. The systems will be repaired and/or refurbished, then distributed to schools, homeschooled students, veterans, seniors and others in need.

There’s also another $1.8 billion in new funding to implement the CHIPS and Science Act, which aims to boost domestic production of semiconductors. The omnibus bill earmarks $25.4 billion for NASA — 5.6 percent more than the agency received in fiscal year 2022, but less than the $26 billion the White House asked for. The National Science Foundation will get $9.9 billion, an increase of 12 percent. The National Institute of Standards and Technology and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will receive increases of 32 percent (up to $1.6 billion) and 17.5 percent ($761 million), respectively.

 

Almost seven months after the state legislature overwhelmingly passed a right-to-repair bill, New York governor Kathy Hochul has signed it into law. But Hochul only greenlit the bill after the legislature agreed to some changes. Hochul wrote in a memo that the legislation, as it was originally drafted, “included technical issues that could put safety and security at risk, as well as heighten the risk of injury from physical repair projects.” The governor said the modifications addressed these issues, but critics say the amendments will weaken the law’s effectiveness.

“This legislation would enhance consumer options in the repair markets by granting them greater access to the parts, tools and documents needed for repairs,” Hochul wrote. “Encouraging consumers to maximize the lifespan of their devices through repairs is a laudable goal to save money and reduce electronic waste.”

The changes strip out the bill’s requirement for “original equipment manufacturers [or OEMs] to provide to the public any passwords, security codes or materials to override security features.” OEMs will also be able to bundle “assemblies of parts” instead of just the specific component actually needed for a DIY repair if “the risk of improper installation heightens the risk of injury.” 

The rules will only apply to devices that are originally built and used or sold in New York for the first time after July 1st. There’s also an exemption for “digital products that are the subject of business-to-business or business-to-government sales and that otherwise are not offered for sale by retailers.”

As Ars Technica reported earlier this month, representatives for Microsoft and Apple pressed Hochul’s office for changes. So did industry association TechNet, which represents many notable tech companies, including Amazon, Google, Dell, HP and Engadget parent Yahoo.

As a result, the bill’s revised language excludes enterprise electronics, such as those that schools, hospitals, universities and data centers rely on, as iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens wrote in a blog post. Home appliances, motor vehicles, medical devices and off-road equipment were previously exempted.

“Such changes could limit the benefits for school computers and most products currently in use,” Public Interest Research Groups (PIRG), a collective of consumer rights organizations, said in a statement to Engadget. “Even more troubling, the bill now excludes certain smartphone circuit boards from parts the manufacturers are required to sell, and requires repair shops to post unwieldy warranty language.”

“We knew it was going to be difficult to face down the biggest and wealthiest companies in the world,” PIRG right to repair director Nathan Proctor said. “But, though trimmed down, a new Right to Repair law was signed. Now our work remains to strengthen this law and pass others until people have what they need to fix their stuff.”

As The Verge notes, repair technician and right-to-repair advocate Louis Rossmann said the changes have watered down the law to the point where it’s “functionally useless.” Rossmann, who spent seven years trying to get the bill passed, called Hochul’s assertion that the changes were necessary to include protections from physical harm and security risks “bullshit,” citing a Federal Trade Commission report on the issue.

The right-to-repair movement has picked up steam over the last couple of years. Ahead of expected legislation coming into force, companies such as Google, Apple, Samsung and Valve started providing repair manuals and selling parts for some of their products.

Last year, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that aimed at bolstering competition in the US, including in the tech industry. Among other measures, it called on the FTC to ban “anticompetitive restrictions on using independent repair shops or doing DIY repairs of your own devices and equipment.”