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Tile has just launched “Lost and Found” QR labels that are a essentially a low-tech way to get your stuff back. They’re meant to be used on small or perhaps not particularly valuable items like “travel mugs, musical instruments, sports equipment and earbud cases,” the company said. It’s the company’s first new product release since its acquisition by location sharing service Life360. 

Unlike its Tile trackers that let you see where an object is physically located via Bluetooth, the new stickers are effectively a fancy version of an airport luggage tag. Anyone who finds it can scan the QR code to bring up your contact information, and then (if they’re honest) contact you to return the item. 

Without tracking or beeps to locate your object, privacy is less of an issue than it is with Tile’s trackers or Apple AirTags. That said, you’re still potentially putting your contact information out in public, so you should make sure the labels never appear in public social media posts, for instance. They’re priced at $15 for three sheets of five labels, which is a lot cheaper than the $25 trackers — but $1 for a sticker still seems like a lot.

 

Slack has introduced a new feature called “canvas,” which it describes as a “surface” where teams can “curate, organize and share mission-critical resources.” When it launches next year, Canvas could replace external apps or programs teams use to collate and share information and ideas, such as Google Docs, company Wikis or Notion. 

Users can create a new canvas by choosing the option in the drop-down menu beside their Slack team’s name. They can embed files in it, along with links, channel lists, videos, workflows, tasks to complete and other resources — anything useful team members might need, so they don’t have to waste precious time hunting for information.

The company envisions canvas as something teams could use to organize marketing campaigns, to share executive briefings with everyone and to onboard new hires. Users can create canvases without having to use code, and they can keep editing existing templates instead of creating new ones again and again. Here’s an example of what a canvas could look like:

Slack has also started rolling out the new and updated huddles with features it promised back in June. Huddles provides an audio chat capability for teams within Slack, but this update gives users the option to switch on video, as well. Opting for a video huddle will open a separate window, and users will have the ability to blur their backgrounds like they can in other video conferencing apps such as Zoom. And yes, they can use emoji reactions in video huddles. 

In addition, the revamped huddle allows more than one person to share their screen at the same time. In a session where multiple people are sharing screens, they can use live cursors and the ability to draw on the shared screens as a visual aid. Any information shared during a huddle, including links, files and notes, will automatically get saved in a thread in the channel or the DM where it was launched. These threads can be pinned for easy access and will even be searchable. If they’re posted in channels instead of in DMs, even users who aren’t part of the huddle will be able to see them. It could take a while for everyone to get access to these features, but Slack says they’ll make their way to all users over the coming weeks. 

 

Peloton is today announcing its long-awaited entry into the smart ergometer market with Peloton Row. Much like the firm’s other products, Row is a smart rowing machine with a 23-inch HD display onto which you can watch live classes. The company is making its usual noises about a premium piece of hardware that promises better customization than its competition.

Row is belt driven, much like its ostensible rival in this space, the Hydrow, which has a similar silhouette. That offers a fine-grain, electronically-controlled resistance — at odds with the broader resistance you’ll find on air rowers, of which Concept2 provides the gold standard. Peloton also says that Row can offer individually-calibrated on-screen feedback on your form as you row.

(This is something I’m particularly interested in exploring myself, given that my usual form issues are related to rounding over my back, rather than how I’m pulling the chain. Unless there’s some Peloton Guide-esque computer vision stuff that the company hasn’t mentioned in the Row’s press release that might identify real-world issues. Speaking of which, Guide is also getting an update this week to include rep tracking.)

You’ll also get personal pace targets to help you gauge what your instructors are bellowing at you to do through the screen. Not to mention a whole bunch of data that’ll be slapped onto you after each row, giving you performance metrics that should help you improve in future. (Rowers are, if nothing else, nerds for some good data.)

Of course, like most at-home fitness gear these days, Peloton is also making a big deal that you can stow this thing vertically. And that it’s brought on a raft of new instructors, with a series of pre-recorded classes available on-demand, while live classes will start in 2023. Plus, like other Peloton products, you can swivel the display to work out with free weights or any other class of your choice. 

As for the price, Peloton is asking $3,195, plus the cost of the monthly $44 per month membership for all of the content. The company hasn’t yet mentioned if Row will join its rental program, although it’s likely that the initial wave of devices will be needed to service the demand of folks who’ve been waiting for Peloton to join the rowing world for some time now.

 

Voyager and Lockheed Martin plan to have their private space station, Starlab, up and running by 2027. The latest development is a partnership with Hilton, which will help design astronaut facilities, including the sleeping quarters and other parts of the station. NASA has contracted four private companies to build private space stations ahead of the agency’s planned decommissioning of the International Space Station at the end of the decade.

Under the partnership, Hilton and Voyager will investigate marketing opportunities related to Starlab and trips to what could be one of the first space hotels.

– Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

Judge orders release of ‘Serial’ podcast subject Adnan Syed

James Webb Space Telescope’s first pictures of Mars could reveal more about the atmosphere

The iPhone 14 Pro camera is shaking and rattling when certain third-party apps are used

Google’s ‘Nest WiFi Pro 6E’ pricing leaks on retail site

ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold OLED review: Great screen, now do the keyboard

Apple’s 12.9-inch iPad Pro drops to a new all-time low of $900

Ford thinks Bluetooth LE can keep pedestrians and cyclists safe from cars

ASUS’ ROG Phone 6D Ultimate has a beefy cooling system

When the fan is attached, the phone’s cooling fins are exposed.

ASUS’ latest hardcore gamer phone, carrying its gaming PC ROG branding, includes a flap that exposes the phone when you attach the bundled AeroActive Cooler 6 – yes a giant cooling peripheral. This blasts 1,000cc of air through the phone per second. The ROG Phone 6D Ultimate will be available across Europe soon, priced at €1,399 (around $1,400) or £1,199 in the UK. No word on US availability yet.

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Rockstar confirms gigantic ‘Grand Theft Auto VI’ leak

They featured an early build of the game.

That purported Grand Theft Auto VI leak appears to be real. Rockstar Games has confirmed the leak’s authenticity in a tweet, noting that a hacker stole confidential data including “early development footage” of the next Grand Theft Auto title. The firm didn’t foresee any long-term damage to development or live services like GTA Online, but was “extremely disappointed” that details of the future game were revealed. It was a big leak, including 90 videos of a very early build of GTA VI. The clips appear to confirm rumors from July that a return to Vice City was on the cards, as well as a Bonnie and Clyde-like pair of male and female protagonists.

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Boom’s supersonic jet is facing a lack of interest from engine suppliers

Manufacturers say supersonic travel is ‘tangential’ and are focusing on efficiency instead.

Boom recently lost its jet engine partner for the Overture supersonic jet, and other major engine manufacturers reportedly aren’t interested in the project either, according to a report from Insider. After Boom signed an “engagement agreement” with Rolls-Royce for supersonic jet engines back in 2020, the latter announced last week that it had left the project. Another jet engine supplier, Pratt & Whitney, cited efficiency as an issue for supersonic jets, while other manufacturers say they’re concentrating on reducing fuel-burn – the primary focus for the industry, given criticism of air travel’s contribution to global warming.

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The iPhone 14 is the most repairable iPhone in years

It’s completely been reworked inside.

iFixit has finished a teardown of this year’s iPhone 14, and it’s clear that the device was reworked from the ground up, with do-it-yourself fixes in mind. The back glass is easier and cheaper to fix, but the metal midframe keeps the front just as accessible. Apple still demands that customers and technicians activate parts after installation, so you can’t just use an unofficial back instead of Self Service Repair components. Still, iFixit claims this is the most repairable Apple handset since 2016’s iPhone 7. In Fact, the design is more repairable than many Android phones that are only easy to open from the back.

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‘Cyberpunk 2077’ is a hit on Steam again

Thanks to its Netflix anime spinoff.

With nearly 80,000 concurrent Steam players at the moment, Cyberpunk 2077 is enjoying a resurgence in popularity. While it’s a far cry from the more than one million people that played the game on PC following its troubled launch, it’s still more interest than the game has seen in over a year. That’s likely thanks to the game’s anime spinoff, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, which premiered on Netflix to critical acclaim.

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Xbox’s online DRM has been one of the biggest issues with Xbox Series X consoles, as outages and other issues have left players with no access to purchased games. Another big complaint is that cross-platform Xbox One disc games have been inaccessible offline, even with games that don’t require a connection. Now, a new update means you won’t be forced to do an internet check or download from an Xbox One disc anymore, engineering lead Eden Marie confirmed in a tweet.

Users started noticing the change recently, but it has been in place since the 2206 update earlier this summer, Marie said. “We examined data since Series X|S launch & determined the online compatibility check isn’t needed in the vast majority of cases for Xbox One discs. Some games may still need to be updated online after install to ensure the best experience,” she added.

What was the problem before? The issue essentially revolved around Microsoft’s Smart Delivery system. Previously, when you inserted various types of Xbox One/Xbox Series X game discs on a new-gen console, it wouldn’t install the game straight from the disc — rather, it would install an updated version via the internet. This, despite the fact that Series X consoles are perfectly capable of playing most Xbox One games directly (the main exception being Kinect games).

What this means it that you can now play many games offline that are branded “Xbox One,” “Xbox One/Xbox Series X,” “Xbox Series X/Xbox One” and “Xbox Series X.” However, you can’t play original Xbox or Xbox 360 games without updates, as the data “can’t be used directly,” according to Eden. (Most of this doesn’t apply to the Xbox Series S, of course, because it doesn’t have a disc drive.)

There are a few other exceptions as well. For instance, some disc games known as “stubs,” like Forza Horizon 5 or Halo Infinite, don’t contain the full version of the game — so you’ll need a connection for those. You’ll also need the internet to download the latest versions of games, along with expansion packs, etc. And Series X consoles require an account, so you’ll need to be online at least once to set that up. Still, the update is a good step and means you’ll be able to play a lot more games in the not-so-rare event that Microsoft’s servers go down.

 

Apple has announced that it’s raising the prices of both apps and in-app purchases, not including auto-renewable subscriptions, across several regions starting on October 5th. All territories using the Euro currency are affected, along with Chile, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Poland, South Korea, Sweden and Vietnam. Apple says the price increase in Vietman reflects new laws that require the company to collect value added tax (VAT) and corporate income tax.

The amount added to old prices vary, based on the list of updated pricing tier (PDF) the tech giant has published. Apps that currently cost 99 cents will set users back €1.19 in Euro territories, while those that cost €4.99 will cost a Euro more at €5.99. The additional charge gets bigger the higher one goes in the pricing tier — purchases that cost €14.99, for instance, will cost people €17.99 instead.

Apple didn’t explain the reason behind the price hike for most territories aside from Vietnam. For Euro-using countries, it could be partly because of the fact that the Euro is weak against the dollar and even fell below parity for the first time in almost two decades. Perhaps this price hike shouldn’t come as a surprise because of that, seeing as people are also expected to pay much, much more for the iPhone 14 in Europe than in the US. The iPhone 14 Pro, for instance, will set buyers back $999 in the US. Converted, that’s only €997, but the model is priced at €1,299 in Germany, €1,319 in Spain and €1,339 in Italy.

 

If you’ve ever felt like it’s difficult to “un-train” YouTube’s algorithm from suggesting a certain type of video once it slips into your recommendations, you’re not alone. In fact, it may be even more difficult than you think to get YouTube to accurately understand your preferences. One major issue, according to new research conducted by Mozilla, is that YouTube’s in-app controls such as the “dislike” button, are largely ineffective as a tool for controlling suggested content. According to the report, these buttons “prevent less than half of unwanted algorithmic recommendations.”

Researchers at Mozilla used data gathered from RegretsReporter, its browser extension that allows people to “donate” their recommendations data for use in studies like this one. In all, the report relied on millions of recommended videos, as well as anecdotal reports from thousands of people.

Mozilla tested the effectiveness of four different controls: the thumbs down “dislike” button, “not interested,” “don’t recommend channel” and “remove from watch history.” The researchers found that these had varying degrees of effectiveness, but that the overall impact was “small and inadequate.”

Of the four controls, the most effective was “don’t recommend from channel,” which prevented 43 percent of unwanted recommendations, while “not interested” was the least effective and only prevented about 11 percent of unwanted suggestions. The “dislike” button was nearly the same at 12 percent, and “remove from watch history” weeded out about 29 percent.

In their report, Mozilla’s researchers noted the great lengths study participants said they would sometimes go to in order to prevent unwanted recommendations, such as watching videos while logged out or while connected to a VPN. The researchers say the study highlights the need for YouTube to better explain its controls to users, and to give people more proactive ways of defining what they want to see.

“The way that YouTube and a lot of platforms operate is they rely a lot of passive data collection in order to infer what your preferences are,” says Becca Ricks, a senior researcher at Mozilla who co-authored the report. “But it’s a little bit of a paternalistic way to operate where you’re kind of making choices on behalf of people. You could be asking people what they want to be doing on the platform versus just watching what they’re doing.”

Mozilla’s research comes amid increased calls for major platforms to make their algorithms more transparent. In the United States, lawmakers have proposed bills to scale back “opaque” recommendation algorithms and to hold companies accountable for algorithmic bias. The European Union is even farther ahead. The recently passed Digital Services Act will require platforms to explain how recommendation algorithms work and open them to outside researchers.

 

Over the weekend, Terraform Labs’ CEO and co-founder Do Kwon took to Twitter to say that he was not “on the run” or “anything similar.” He made the statement after South Korean authorities issued an arrest warrant for him and five other people connected to Terraform Labs for violating the country’s capital markets laws last week. But Korean prosecutors aren’t convinced, especially since authorities in Singapore, where Kwon flew to back in April, said he was no longer in the country. Now, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office is asking the Interpol to place him in the agency’s red notice list and to revoke his passport, according to The Financial Times. 

According to the Interpol’s website, a red notice entails seeking “the location and arrest of wanted persons wanted for prosecution or to serve a sentence” and is commonly issued for fugitives. As Yonhap News notes, Kwon flew to Singapore in late April around the time he dissolved his company’s office in Korea. His family members and other key Terraform Labs personnel reportedly followed him to the city-state in May. 

The executive and other Terraform Labs’ personnel are under investigation for financial fraud and tax evasion following the collapse of the company’s stablecoins, TerraUSD and Luna. $40 billion of investor money was wiped out from the even. And those investors, who lost their life savings to the crash, filed complaints that accuse him of running a Ponzi scheme. 

Prosecutors believe he left Korea to “evade investigation,” seeing as Kwon also apparently told them through his lawyers that he didn’t intend to appear before them for questioning. A spokesperson for the Seoul prosecutors’ office told The Times that they’re doing their best to locate and arrest him. “He is clearly on the run as his company’s key finance people also left for the same country during that time,” they added. 

Kwon has yet to respond to the prosecutors enlisting the Interpol for help in finding him. On Twitter, his location is still set to Singapore, and his latest tweets were still from the weekend, denying that he was trying to avoid being captured by law enforcement. 

 

Blizzard plans to invite some of its most dedicated fans to play Diablo IV in the coming weeks. The studio shared details about its upcoming end game closed beta test on Monday. Using “specific gameplay data,” Blizzard will select players who have recently spent “significant” time with the post-story experiences found in Diablo II: Resurrected and Diablo III. If you feel that describes you, you can let the studio know you’re interested in participating in the beta by ensuring the “News and Special Offers from Battle.net” option is enabled on your account by October 11th. Once that’s done, look for an email from Blizzard in your inbox for an invite. 

Once the beta arrives, it will be available on PC, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5 and PS4, with support for crossplay and cross-progression between platforms supported. If you don’t get into this round of testing, Blizzard notes public testing will begin early next year.

The upcoming beta will focus on Diablo IV’s endgame experience for a couple of reasons. Blizzard says it doesn’t want to spoil the game’s story before release. The decision is also a reflection of the way a lot of players enjoy Diablo games. “For many, the end game is their favorite aspect of Diablo — we want to ensure it feels satisfying, and with no shortage of challenging variety to experience across many, many demon-slaying gaming sessions,” the studio said, adding feedback from participants will play a critical part in polishing the experience. One thing you should not expect is to hear from those playing the closed beta. Blizzard said the event would be “confidential,” a not-so-subtle allusion to the fact footage from Diablo IVleaked over the weekend.

 

A Baltimore judge has overturned the conviction of Adnan Syed, reports The Associated Press. The 41-year-old had been serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of his former girlfriend Hae Min Lee. In 2014, his case attracted international interest after it was chronicled by former Baltimore Sun reporter Sarah Koenig in the first season of the hit podcast Serial.

Koenig spent more than a year investigating the specifics of Syed’s case, focusing in particular on the conduct of his lawyer, Cristina Gutierrez. In 2019, Maryland’s highest court found Gutierrez had failed to properly investigate an alibi witness but voted against granting Syed’s request for a retrial. However, prosecutors recently recommended that a judge grant him a new trial, noting the state had lost “confidence in the integrity of the conviction.” With Monday’s decision, the state has 30 days to decide whether to move forward with a new trial or drop the case entirely.

“This is not a podcast for me,” said Young Lee, the brother of Hae Min Lee, during Monday’s hearing. He said his family felt “betrayed” and “blindsided” by the state’s motion to vacate Syed’s conviction. “Whenever I think it’s over, and it’s ended, it always comes back,” he added.

Following the decision, Serialannounced it would air a new episode on Tuesday morning. In the years since its widely successful first season, Serial has produced a series of spinoffs, including S-Town and The Trojan Horse Affair. More broadly, it’s safe to say the true crime genre and podcasting more generally have never been more popular – even if the series was never quite able to replicate the success of its first season.