Kalakshar US

The Oral-B iO Series 7 smart electric toothbrush is down to $149 at Amazon after a $71 discount. That matches the best price we’ve seen and returns it to the low it hit for the shopping holidays last year. The deal comes as part of a larger sale in which Oral-B toothbrushes are up to 55 percent off. We named the iO Series 7 the top pick in our guide to smart toothbrushes because it hits a good balance between features and affordability (particularly if you can catch it on sale like right now).  

We tested a handful of smart electric toothbrushes (in this case “smart” means app-connected) and ultimately liked this one best. It has a black and white LED screen that tells you helpful info like mode, battery life and how long is left on your two minute timer. The vibrating head is vigorous but not lip-numbing like other models we tried and the lighted ring helpfully indicates whether you’re pushing too hard or not quite firmly enough.

If you want to brush while looking at your phone, you can watch an animated recreation of a set of teeth that slowly turns from blue to white as the internal sensors track the position and movement of your brush. It’s a bit of a surreal experience, but I did notice my teeth felt cleaner after using this than they do with a standard brush.

This set comes with a replacement head, travel case and charging dock which you should only need to use a couple times per month. If you want something even fancier, the Oral-B iO Series 9 is also on sale. The Series numbering refers to the level of features, not the newness of the brush, so Series 9 has extra brush modes, a color LED screen and a charging travel case — all of which the Series 7 lacks. Though in my tests, I didn’t find those perks were worth an additional $100.

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

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/our-favorite-smart-electric-toothbrush-is-70-off-right-now-204912632.html?src=rss 

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) could file “a sweeping antitrust case” against Apple as soon as the first half of this year, according to The New York Times. The report says the agency is in “the late stages” of its investigation, focusing on the company’s control over hardware and software services and how its “walled garden” approach has allegedly made it harder for rivals to compete and customers to switch to competing products.

The New York Times report says the investigation has expanded beyond what was previously reported, according to people with knowledge of the meetings. Among other areas, its scope has allegedly covered how the Apple Watch is more tightly integrated with iPhone services than rival wearables and how it locks competing platforms out of iMessage.

Executives from Beeper, which got into a public spat with Apple late last year over the iPhone maker’s blocking of the app’s iMessage integration on Android, reportedly talked with investigators. In addition, Tile, which has made Bluetooth trackers since long before the AirTag existed, allegedly sat down with the DOJ, too. The agency is said to have “had conversations with” representatives from banking and payment apps about Apple’s practice of blocking rivals from using tap-to-pay on the iPhone.

Meta also reportedly talked with investigators. The social company allegedly “encouraged” the DOJ to look into Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) privacy tool in its meetings. ATT, launched in 2021, lets users hinder advertisers’ data collection, a feature Meta said in 2022 could cost it $10 billion that year. The NYT claims investigators have also looked into Apple’s cut of digital purchases made on the iPhone, a point Spotify, Epic Games and dating corporation Match Group have been vocal about in recent years.

The federal government currently has its hands full with Big Tech antitrust cases. The DOJ is pursuing two antitrust cases against Google (one for search and another for advertising), while the FTC has sued Meta and Amazon.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-doj-is-reportedly-prepared-to-file-a-broad-antitrust-lawsuit-against-apple-213030784.html?src=rss 

The recently-released OnePlus Open foldable smartphone is already available at a discounted price. Amazon has knocked $200 off the total cost, bringing the device’s price to $1,500. This represents a savings of 12 percent, for those keeping score. If you’ve got a hankering for a flagship foldable, this could be the kick in the pants you need to smash that purchase button.

$1,500 is still a whole lot of cheddar, but this is a whole lot of phone. The OnePlus Open ships with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage. This particular model comes unlocked, so you aren’t tied to any particular provider. It also boasts a fantastic Hasselblad camera and a pair of 120Hz displays. The exterior display is 6.3-inches, while the foldable interior screen is 7.8-inches. That’s a lot of visual real estate and one of the primary reasons this model made our list of the best foldable phones.

In our official review of the OnePlus Open, we praised the powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, the large battery and the comprehensive Open Canvas software that allows for tile-based multitasking. We also liked the slim form factor and relative lightness when compared to rival flagship smartphones. The folding hinge is solidly built and barely perceptible, unless you’re looking for it.

This isn’t a perfect phone. It’s slightly lower in price than other foldables, like the Google Pixel Fold, but there’s no wireless charging option, which is an oversight for devices launched in 2023. Also, you only get an IPX4 water-resistance rating, which is far short of the IP68 classification on the aforementioned Pixel Fold and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5. Despite these caveats, this is a great foldable for the money.

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

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-knocks-200-off-the-oneplus-open-foldable-phone-194314636.html?src=rss 

An investigative report from Bloomberg paints a disturbing picture of Twitch’s difficulties in moderating the livestreaming platform — especially its Clips feature, which allows users to preserve short videos. The outlet reports that, after analyzing about 1,100 clips, it found at least 83 with sexualized content involving children. Twitch removed the videos after it was alerted, and a company spokesperson wrote to Engadget in an email that it has since “invested heavily in enforcement tooling and preventative measures, and will continue to do so.”

Bloomberg highlighted one incident that exemplified the problem with Clips’ permanent nature on the otherwise transient platform. It recounts the unsettling story of a 12-year-old boy who took to Twitch last spring “to eat a sandwich and play his French horn.” He soon began taking requests from viewers, which (in a sad reflection of online behavior) somehow led to the boy pulling his pants down.

The outlet describes the incident as being over “in an instant.” Still, Clips’ recording function allowed one viewer — who allegedly followed over a hundred accounts belonging to children — to preserve it. This allegedly led to over 130 views of the 20-second Clip before Twitch was notified and removed it.

Clips launched in 2016 as a way to preserve otherwise ephemeral moments on the platform. The feature records 25 seconds before (and five seconds after) tapping the record button. This has the unfortunate side effect of allowing predators to save a troubling moment and distribute it elsewhere.

Twitch has planned to expand Clips this year as part of a strategy to produce more TikTok-like content on the platform. It plans to launch a discovery feed (also similar to TikTok) where users can post their short videos.

Bloomberg’s report cites the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, which reviewed the 83 exploitative videos and concluded that 34 depicted young users showing their genitals on camera. The bulk were allegedly boys between the ages of five and 12. An additional 49 clips included sexualized content featuring minors “exposing body parts or being subjected to grooming efforts.”

The organization said the 34 “most egregious” videos were viewed 2,700 times. The rest tallied 7,300 views.

Twitch’s response

“Youth harm, anywhere online, is unacceptable, and we take this issue extremely seriously,” a Twitch spokesperson wrote to Engadget. In response to being alerted to the child sexual abuse material (CSAM), the company says it’s developed new models to detect potential grooming behavior and is updating its existing tools to more effectively identify and remove banned users trying to create new accounts (including for youth safety-related issues).

Twitch adds that it’s stepped up its safety teams’ enforcement of livestreams, the root of Clips. “This means that when we disable a livestream that contains harmful content and suspend the channel, because clips are created from livestreams, we’re preventing the creation and spread of harmful clips at the source,” the company wrote. “Importantly, we’ve also worked to ensure that when we delete and disable clips that violate our community guidelines, those clips aren’t available through public domains or other direct links.”

“We also recognize that, unfortunately, online harms evolve,” the spokesperson continued. “We improved the guidelines our internal safety teams use to identify some of those evolving online harms, like generative AI-enabled Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM).” Twitch added that it’s expanded the list of external organizations it works with to (hopefully) snuff out any similar content in the future.

Twitch’s moderation problems

Bloomberg reports that Clips has been one of the least moderated sections on Twitch. It also notes the company laid off 15 percent of its internal trust and safety team in April 2023 (part of a harrowing year in tech layoffs) and has grown more reliant on outside partners to squash CSAM content.

Twitch’s livestream-focused platform makes it a trickier moderation challenge than more traditional video sites like YouTube or Instagram. Those platforms can compare uploaded videos with hashes — digital fingerprints that can spot previously known problematic files posted online. “Hash technology looks for something that’s a match to something seen previously,” Lauren Coffren of the US National Center for Missing & Exploited Children told Bloomberg. “Livestreaming means it’s brand new.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/twitchs-clips-feature-has-reportedly-enabled-child-abuse-to-fester-on-the-platform-201058947.html?src=rss