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The next time you rent a Lyft scooter, you might find the company has a new model for you to ride. Starting today, Lyft is rolling out a “next-gen” electric scooter across its footprint. The device features a redesigned suspension system Lyft claims will result in smoother rides. The company says the new model can also travel to places its previous scooters could not, thanks to a more powerful motor and 11.5-inch airless tires.

Internally, Lyft has equipped the scooter with a swappable battery that provides up to 50 miles of range and that can be charged out in the field. Later this year, the company plans to roll out a variant of the scooter that can recharge at stations connected to local electrical grids. The scooter also features cameras and Lyft’s latest sidewalk detection and parking awareness software. When you need to park the scooter, that software will use visual cues to alert you of restrictions, including areas where you can’t leave the scooter. Last but not least, the scooter comes with a built-in phone mount to make navigating easier.

At the same time, Lyft has begun rolling out new docking infrastructure. The company has redesigned its steel bollards to make them more resistant to corrosion and rust, and, thereby, easier to maintain. It has also added solar cells to the bollards and found a way to make them more power efficient. Those are changes Lyft says should make them go longer between battery swaps. As mentioned above, the bollards can also pull power from the local power grid, a feature Lyft claims will increase vehicle availability. If you’ve run into trouble docking a Lyft scooter or e-bike before, you’ll also be happy to learn the new bollards feature a redesigned locking mechanism Lyft says requires “significantly” less physical effort to use. Additionally, they feature flip dots and speakers to make using them more accessible to first-time users.

Lyft hasn’t said when people in specific cities could expect to see its new scooters and docking infrastructure arrive, but it sounds like the rollout will take place gradually throughout the year.

 

Whether you call them battery packs, power banks or portable chargers, these accessories do one thing well: charge your devices when you can’t find an open outlet. Small enough to fit in a day pack and sturdy enough to live at the bottom of your carry on, battery packs can charge your smartphone, tablet, laptop or even all three at once, depending on the size of the battery. What size you’ll need, and any extra features you may find useful, will largely depend on the devices you plan on charging up. With so many of these accessories on the market right now, we tested out a bunch to see which are worth your money.

What to look for in a portable battery pack

Battery type

Nearly every rechargeable power bank you can buy (and most portable devices) contain a lithium-ion battery. These beat other current battery types in terms of size-to-charge capacity, and have even increased in energy density by eight fold in the past 14 years. They also don’t suffer from a memory effect (where battery life deteriorates due to partial charges).

One drawback you may have heard is the possibility of lithium ion batteries catching fire. To limit the danger, battery packs require internal mechanisms to limit things like voltage and pressure. While you should still make sure a battery isn’t exposed to unnecessary stress like excessive heat, damage from drops or operating in freezing weather, battery packs are considered safe enough to bring on an airplane. According to the TSA, external batteries rated at 100Wh or less (which all of our recommendations are) can fly with you – just make sure you stash them in your carry on as they aren’t allowed in checked baggage.

Capacity

Power bank manufacturers almost always list a battery’s capacity in milliamp hours, or mAh. Smaller batteries, say those that can charge a smartphone to between 50 and 75 percent, tend to have a 5,000mAh capacity. Larger batteries that can recharge laptops and tablets, or give phones multiple charges, can exceed 25,000mAh. Unsurprisingly, the prices on most batteries goes up as capacity increases, and since batteries are physical storage units, size and weight go up with capacity as well. If you want more power, be prepared to spend more and carry around a heavier brick.

You might think that a 10,000mAh power bank could charge a 5,000mAh phone to 100 percent twice, but that’s not the case. In addition to simple energy loss through heat dissipation, factors like voltage conversion also bring down the amount of juice that makes it into your phone. Most manufacturers list how many charges a battery can give a certain smartphone. In our tests, 10,000mAh of battery pack capacity translated to roughly 5,800mAh of device charge. 20,000mAh chargers delivered around 11,250mAh to a device, and 25,000mAh banks translated to about 16,200mAh of charge. That’s an average efficiency rate of around 60 percent.

Ports

While the tech world is (thankfully) moving towards USB-C as the standard, it’s still a mixed bag in the power bank world. All of our picks have at least one USB-C port and a few also have a USB-A port or two. Newer Android smartphones charge via USB-C, iPhones still use the Lightning port, but the latest tablets (including current generation iPads) and newer laptops are typically powered up via USB-C.

When a battery pack has more than one port, they usually serve different functions. You’ll typically see at least one port labeled “in/out,” which means you can use it to both charge the bank and charge your device. While USB-A ports can power up smartphones and other small devices, they can’t charge larger devices. Plus, they aren’t as fast as USB-C ports overall. That’s something to keep in mind when you’re deciding which ports and cables to use to connect your phone to the pack.

There’s even more variation among USB-C ports themselves, with different ports on the same device supporting different power transfer rates. What that means in practical terms is an iPhone will charge just fine plugged into a power bank’s 18W port. But to properly charge, say, a MacBook or similar laptop, it’ll need the extra juice supplied by a 100W port (which larger power banks can offer). Power banks with more than one port can also charge multiple devices at the same time, but speeds and the overall charge delivered will be lower.

You’ll also want to consider your cable. For anything larger than a smartphone (and to access fast-charging capabilities) you’ll want to use USB-C ports and cables. But not all cables are created equal, even when they have the same USB-C plugs on the end. If you want power delivered from a 100W USB-C power bank port, you’ll need a 100W-rated USB-C cable. Luckily, power banks capable of delivering 100W tend to include a compatible cable. For any devices that don’t, we’ve tried and liked Anker’s 100W USB-C cable. For smaller devices, we used this 60W cable from Nimble and we don’t recommend bothering with cables under 60W. For around $20, higher-capacity cables will make sure you’re not wasting time with connections that limit your potential power transfer.

Design

For the most part, battery packs have a squared-off, brick-like design, though many nod towards aesthetics with attractive finishes and detailing. While that doesn’t affect how they perform, it’s a consideration for something you’ll interact with regularly. Some include extra features like MagSafe compatibility, a built-in wall plug or even a kickstand. Nearly all have some sort of indicator to let you know how much available charge your power bank has left, usually expressed with lighted pips near the power button. Some of the largest banks take that a step further with an LED display indicating a percentage for the remaining battery, which can be helpful if you’re relying on a pack in a mobile office setting or something similar.

How we tested

Before we even put our hands on a battery pack, we did extensive research. We considered brands Engadget reviewers and staff have tried over the years and we checked out customer ratings on retail sites like Amazon and Best Buy. In all, we acquired 14 battery packs, ranging from small wireless banks to large, multi-device batteries.

Here’s the full list:

MagSafe-compatible

Apple MagSafe Battery Pack (5000 mAh)

Spigen ArcHybrid Mag (5000mAh)

Anker 521 Magnetic Battery (5000 mAh)

Anker 633 Magnetic Battery (10,000mAh)

Low capacity (≤10,000mAh)

Anker 511 Power Bank (5,000 mAh)

Anker 313 Power Bank (10,000mAh)

Nimble Champ (10,000mAh)

Biolite Charge 40 PD (10,000mAh)

Mid capacity (10,001 – 20,000mAh)

Otterbox Fast Charge (15,000mAh)

Mophie Powerstation Pro (20,000mAh)

Anker 535 PowerCore 20K (20,000mAh)

High capacity (20,001mAh+)

Mophie Powerstation Pro XL (25,000mAh)

Anker 737 Power Bank (25,600 mAh)

Zendure Supertank Pro (26,800mAh)

I tested each battery on an iPhone 14 Plus and a Galaxy S22 Ultra. For the mid- and high-capacity packs, I added an iPad Air (5th generation) to the mix. I only charged one device at a time, even though some are capable of multiple-device charging. I charged from fully depleted to 100 percent (or until the power bank was dead), and didn’t use the device while they charged other than to power them on and enter the unlock code.

For the most part, I used the cable included with each power bank to charge the Galaxy S22 Ultra and the iPad Air. For the iPhone 14 Plus, I used the USB-C to Lighting cable that came with Apple’s phone. In the case of the lower-capacity power banks that didn’t include a cable or included a USB-C to USB-A cable, I used a 60W-rated USB-C to USB-C cable.

For reference, here are the battery capacities of each device we used for testing:

iPhone 14 Plus: 4,325 mAh

Galaxy S22 Ultra: 4,855mAh

iPad Air: 7,729mAh.

I noted the times for each charge and the number of charges each bank provided. I also paid attention to things like ease of use and overall design. Here’s what made the cut:

Best MagSafe-compatible battery: Spigen ArcHybrid Mag

I went into this category expecting Apple’s own MagSafe battery pack to win. And while it performed admirably, charging a dead 14 Plus to about 43 percent in an hour and 45 minutes, Spigen’s ArcHybrid delivered a 56 percent charge in nearly the same amount of time. The ArcHybrid firmly attaches to the MagSafe ring and it’s flush enough that you can easily hold your phone and use it while charging up. Unlike the Apple battery, it includes four indicator lights to help you gauge how much juice the pack itself has left. Considering Spigen’s battery is $30 cheaper than Apple’s, it’s easy to recommend.

Alternatively, Anker’s 633 Magnetic battery delivered a larger charge thanks to its 10,000mAh capacity, boosting the iPhone to 100 percent in three hours with enough left over for an additional 29 percent charge. And while the kickstand feature felt mildly useful, the battery itself was bulky – but that’s understandable for a power bank that’s twice as large as Spigen’s. Ultimately, the ArcHybrid performed better as a quick and convenient way to give a partial charge to your iPhone on the go.

It’s important to note that wireless charging is less efficient than wired. Our tests showed wired battery banks deliver a device charge at around 60 percent efficiency. With the wireless chargers, that rate dropped to an average of 46 percent. Something to keep in mind when weighing the costs, both ecological and monetary, of wasted energy.

Specs: 5000mAh, 7.5W max
Ports: One USB-C in/out
Cable: USB-C to USB-C
Number of charges iPhone: 0.56
Charge time iPhone: 0 to 56% in 1h 43m

Best battery for a partial charge on an Android: Anker 511 Power Bank

Until Android phones get something like MagSafe, a wired connection makes the most sense for on-the-go charges. The Anker 511 Power Bank is a cleverly designed unit about the size and shape of a skinny stick of butter. The battery charged a depleted Galaxy S22 Ultra to 75 percent in a little over an hour, so you’ll be covered if you don’t have long between flights to give your phone a bit more juice. It also has a built-in plug and allows for pass-through charging, which means it can act as a wall adapter if you’re ever stuck with both a dead battery bank and phone, but happen to be near an outlet. It doesn’t come with a cable, though, so you’ll need to provide one that can go from the bank’s single USB-C port to your device.

Specs: 5,000 mAh, 10W max
Ports: One USB-C and wall outlet prongs
Cable: None
Number of charges Galaxy S22 Ultra: 0.75
Charge time Galaxy: 0 to 75% in 1h 7m

Best low capacity battery: BioLite Charge 40 PD

BioLite is probably better known in the outdoor community than the tech world, and it’s fair to say that the Charge 40 PD is geared more towards camping trips than urban commutes. But this battery simply outperformed the others in its category. The rugged, yellow-accented exterior is a refreshing change from the standard shiny black of many tech accessories. It also has a rubberized finish and feels solid enough to handle the bumps and jolts of riding around in a purse or messenger bag all day. It gave both the iPhone and the Galaxy one and a half charges, which means it’s plenty capable of reviving a dead phone a couple of times when you’re out and about.

The Nimble Champ gets an honorary mention here because it’ll also deliver a few reliable fill-ups and comes in a rugged package. It delivered a full charge to the iPhone in two hours plus a 22 percent charge in 16 minutes. It gave the Galaxy a full charge in an hour and 44 minutes, then got the phone from dead to 41 percent in 50 minutes. At the same $60 price point as the BioLite, Nimble gets extra points for being one of the few B-Corp-certified personal tech manufacturers out there, meaning they’ve committed themselves to higher environmental and social standards, and took the time to prove it through B Lab’s certification process.

Specs: 10,000mAh, 18W max
Ports: One in/out USB-C, two USB-A out only
Cable: USB-C to USB-A
Number of charges iPhone 14 Plus: 1.36
Charge time iPhone: 0 to 100% in 1h 50m, 0 to 50% in 36m
Number of charges Galaxy S22 Ultra: 1.33
Charge time Galaxy: 0 to 100% in 1h 33m, 0 to 50% in 45m

Best medium capacity battery: Otterbox Fast Charge

At the medium-capacity level, you can charge multiple devices at once or power up something larger than a phone. The Otterbox Fast Charge power bank only lists 15,000mAh of capacity, but it performed nearly as well as the 20,000mAh batteries while costing about $30 less. Over the month and a half I spent testing battery packs, this was the unit I grabbed the most when my own devices needed a charge. It has a stylish exterior with a gray faux leather finish and copper detailing. A little bigger than a deck of cards and weighing just over 11 ounces, it’s a nice looking accessory that feels solid.

It filled up both smartphones twice, then gave an additional third of a charge each. I introduced the iPad to the mix here and got a full charge plus an extra third. The Otterbox also lost very little charge while sitting dormant, which means if you carry it around on the off chance that you’ll need it, it should have plenty of power when the time comes.

This category may have been the closest to call, as Anker’s 535 Power Core performed slightly better than the Otterbox, but Anker’s price point is higher. That said, if you want a screaming fast charge for your Galaxy phone, grab the 535. It got the Galaxy up to 100 percent three times, taking about an hour each time. It had enough left over for a small nine-percent charge before it finally gave up. While the battery did get pretty warm, it never felt overly hot. That one-hour fill up is the fastest any power bank was able to deliver a charge to the Galaxy, other than Anker’s 737, which shaved off a few minutes, but costs $90 more. I also appreciated the 535’s cool iridescent finish.

Specs: 15,000mAh, 18W max
Ports: One in/out USB-C, one in/out USB-A
Cable: USB-C to USB-A
Number of charges iPhone 14 Plus: 2.33
Charge time iPhone: 0 to 100% in 2h 2m average, and 0% to 33% in 27m
Number of charges Galaxy S22 Ultra: 2.33
Charge time Galaxy: 0 to 100% in 1h 35m and 0 to 37% in 33m
Number of charges iPad Air: 1.31
Charge time iPad: 0 to 100% in 2h 23m and 0% to 31% in 38m

Best high capacity battery: Anker 737 Power Bank

If you want something with a lot of charge that transfers quickly, go for the Anker 737 Power Bank. It was for the most part the fastest bank we tried, capable of delivering the largest amount of charge in the shortest period of time for the iPad and Galaxy. (Anker’s 535 got the iPhone to 100 percent an average of two minutes faster, but didn’t give as many charges.) The 737 fully charged our S22 Ultra three times, with enough left over for another 93 percent charge – and those full charges completed in under an hour on average. That’s on par with outlet charging. The numbers for the iPhone were slightly less staggering, but still impressive, going from zero to full in about an hour and a half. The iPad charged completely twice, and did so in just over two hours, which is also close to that device’s wall-connected charge speeds.

While it’s great for multiple full charges on a given smartphone, I should point out that the 737 has three ports, but only one of those is USB-C. If you want to charge more than one device at a time, you’ll have to use the lower-efficiency USB-A ports for a couple of them. That said, this bank not only costs less than the other high capacity batteries we tried, it also includes a 65W PowerPort fast charger, which goes for $34 on its own.

The design is nothing groundbreaking, with a glossy black exterior and a metallic-looking finish on one side. It weighs a little over a pound and has the same general form as an old school TI-85 graphing calculator. Its single button has eight lighted pips to show you how much charge it has left.

Specs: 25,600mAh, 60W max
Ports: One in/out USB-C, two out only USB-A
Cable: USB-C to USB-C, includes 65W wall adapter
Number of charges iPhone 14 Plus: 3.67
Charge time iPhone: 0 to 100% in 1h 38m average and 0 to 67% in 40m
Number of charges Galaxy S22 Ultra: 3.93
Charge time Galaxy: 0 to 100% in 57m average 0 to 93% in 59m
Number of charges iPad Air: 2.14
Charge time iPad: 0 to 100% in 2h 7m average and 0 to 14% in 13m

Best mobile command center battery: Mophie Powerstation Pro XL

For those who take their work on the road, the Mophie Powerstation Pro XL, with its trio of USB-C ports, is a good pick. It’s capable of charging three devices at once, with a different wattage rating for each port: 100W, 45W and 20W. In practice, that means you could use the ports to charge a laptop, a tablet and a phone simultaneously. To keep the numbers comparable across our testing, I charged one device at a time. Both smartphones juiced up fully three times, with around a third of an additional charge left over. I got about two full charges from the battery on the iPad Air.

The Powerstation XL has the look and feel of a fancy pocketbook with a marled gray fabric exterior that feels nice in the hand and, incidentally, hides stains well. It weighs the same as the Anker 737 (one pound and three ounces) and also has lighted pips to indicate charge levels. There are only four lights, however, which doesn’t give you the most precise insight as to how much charge it’s carrying.

Another option, the Zendure Supertank Pro, almost won this category in part because it handles its charge indication with a lighted LED display that shows exactly how much charge remains, expressed as a percentage. With four variable-wattage USB-C ports, a tough exterior and included semi-hard case, it seems tailor made to act as a power source for mobile photoshoots or nomadic offices. The charge speeds were a little slower than the Mophie, but it did manage to give a few more percentage points of charge to the iPad and the Galaxy phone, filing the latter four times. In the end, it came down to price: for $50 more than the Mophie, the Supertank Pro’s speeds and capacity just didn’t edge it out. But if you happen to see the Supertank on sale, snap it up.

Specs: 25,000mAh, 120W max
Ports: One USB-C in/out, two USB-C out only
Cable: USB-C to USB-C
Number of charges iPhone 14 Plus: 3.23
Charge time iPhone: 0 to 100% in 1h 45m average and 23% in 18m
Number of charges Galaxy S22 Ultra: 3.85
Charge time Galaxy: 0 to 100% in 1h 36m and 85% in 1h 12m
Number of charges iPad Air: 2.02
Charge time iPad: 0 to 100% in 2h 16m and 2% in 7m

 

ChatGPT has been growing at a rate much, much faster than TikTok or any other popular app or service. 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. The chatbot only became available to the public on November 30th last year, but its rise to fame has apparently been meteoric. Within its first month of availability, it already boasted 57 million monthly active users, the study said. By January, it was already being visited by around 13 million individual users a day. 

In comparison, it took TikTok nine months after its global debut to reach 100 million monthly users despite its popularity, especially among the younger generation. UBS analyst Lloyd Walmsley also pointed out that Meta’s Instagram had been around for two-and-a-half years before reaching that point. It remains to be seen, however, if the chatbot can maintain this level of interest in the coming months. “The next question is obviously what its staying power will be. There may be an element of people just coming to look,” Walmsley added.

ChatGPT provides users with natural-sounding human-like responses to queries, so much so that educators are concerned that it could be used by students to cheat. While it still has serious accuracy problems — “Models like ChatGPT have a notorious tendency to spew biased, harmful, and factually incorrect content,” MIT’s Tech Review wrote in a piece — 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 accelerated the company’s AI development. The tech giant is working on a few potential ChatGPT competitors, including a chatbot for search, and is aiming to showcase 20 AI products this year. 

ChatGPT remains free to use at the moment, and OpenAI doesn’t seem to have any plans to completely lock access to it behind a paywall. However, the startup does intend to start charging for the service and has already started testing a paid ChatGPT plan for $20 per month, which offers faster response times and priority access to new features.

 

Samsung’s first big tech event of 2023 unveiled three phones and three laptops. The showstoppers are, predictably, the company’s premium flagships, the Galaxy S series. The S23 Ultra ($1,199) has a huge 6.8-inch, an S-pen stylus and a 200-megapixel camera. That’s a lot of pixels.

It’s the company’s first Adaptive Pixel sensor, which means while you can still shoot at 200MP, by default, the system uses pixel-binning to deliver brighter, clearer pictures at 50MP or 12MP. Other upgrades include optical image stabilization that’s been effectively doubled for better-lit photos and less shaky video.

Meanwhile, the Galaxy S23 (starting at $800) and S23+ ($1,000) are slightly more iterative but still premium smartphones. They pack reliable cameras and faster processors – the entire S23 series has a special overclocked version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. All the phones are available to pre-order now.

Samsung also revealed an ultra laptop. The 16-inch Galaxy Book 3 Ultra draws inspiration from the company’s best-selling Galaxy S phones, but combines it with heavy-hitting PC specs, like 13th-gen Intel Core i9 processors and NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4070 graphics.

– 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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AI-generated ‘Seinfeld’ is pretty awful

At least it’s inadvertently entertaining.

What if AI made never-ending Seinfeld? “Nothing, Forever” uses OpenAI’s GPT-3 natural language model to produce (occasionally coherent) dialog between pixelated characters Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer. One creator posted to Reddit: “Aside from the artwork and the laugh track you’ll hear, everything else is generative, including dialogue, speech, direction (camera cuts, character focus, shot length, scene length, etc.), character movement, and music.” The stream has little human involvement and changes based on viewer feedback from the Twitch stream.

Continue reading.

Sony is killing its PlayStation Plus collection on May 9th

If you own a PS5, claim the games before then.

Since September 2020, Sony’s PlayStation Plus Collection has offered a bunch of PS4 greatest hits to PlayStation 5 owners with an active PS Plus membership. It included God of War, The Last of Us Remastered, Resident Evil 7 and more. Alas, come May 9th, Sony is shuttering the PlayStation Plus Collection, saying it plans to focus on bringing more games to its various tiers of PS Plus. Make sure you download any of the 19 titles now, while they’re still there.

Continue reading.

Facebook now has 2 billion users

The social network is still growing.

Almost 20 years in, Facebook is still growing. Meta reported alongside its fourth-quarter earnings it has now reached two billion daily users. While Facebook isn’t the first Meta-owned platform to reach that number – WhatsApp recently crossed two billion DAUs – it does show the company’s biggest source of ad revenue is still growing. During a call with analysts, Zuckerberg suggested Meta will continue to make cuts as it prioritizes efficiency. “We’re going to be more proactive about cutting projects that aren’t performing or may no longer be as crucial,” he said. The CEO also said generative AI would be a priority for Meta in the year ahead. He added: “One of my goals for Meta is to build on our research to become a leader in generative AI.”

Continue reading.

 

Developers will soon have to pay Twitter to be able to use its API. The website has announced through its Twitter Dev account that it will no longer support free access to its API, both versions 1.1 and 2, starting on February 9th. It will launch a “paid basic tier” instead, but the company has yet to reveal how much it would cost. Twitter has been experimenting with new ways to make more money ever since Elon Musk took the helm. The biggest change so far has been Twitter Blue, which evolved into a $8-to-$11-a-month subscription service that allows users to purchase the website’s previously elusive blue checkmark. 

A New York Times report from last year said Musk and his advisers also discussed the possibility of adding paid direct messages and videos behind a paywall. They even reportedly considered reviving Vine, its short-form video app that it shut down back in 2016. Musk has been exploring all possible sources of income to be able to pay the loans he took when he purchased Twitter for $44 billion. As The Information notes, he borrowed $13 billion from a group of banks to close the deal, and they weren’t able to sell the debt to investors as planned. The company now has to pay $1.5 billion every year in interests alone.

Twitter showed signs that it had plans to change the way developers accessed its APIs when third-party clients like Tweetbot suddenly stopped working in January. Later, the company confirmed that it deliberately cut off their access due to “long-standing API rules,” even though it previously removed the section in its developer policies that discouraged app-makers from creating something similar to its core service. A few days after third-party Twitter clients went down, the website updated its developer agreement to ban access to its “Licensed Materials to create or attempt to create a substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Applications.”

“Twitter data are among the world’s most powerful data sets,” the company wrote in a follow-up tweet. “We’re committed to enabling fast & comprehensive access so you can continue to build with us.” While it’s pretty clear that Twitter intends to charge developers to use its API, it didn’t say if it would make exceptions for researchers. Twitter provides specialized access to its API for academic research, and people in academia have been using data from the website for their studies across various fields, including health and politics. 

The website promises to share more details about the new “paid basic tier” for its API next week.

 

After lightly integrating Discord features on PlayStation 5 consoles in early 2022, voice chat has finally arrived in its latest beta update, Sony has announced. PS5 Testers in the US, Canada and Japan will be able to join Discord calls, some months after Microsoft introduced the feature on Xbox. The PS5 is also gaining Variable Refresh Rate support for 1440p, along with dashboard UX improvements and more. 

Discord integration is a bit clunky, much like it was on Xbox at first. Here’s how to set it up and use it, according to Discord’s blog. First, you need to link your PlayStation Network (PSN) account to Discord, then select Discord under “Linked Services.” After that, you can complete the integration using either a QR code or the PS5’s integrated browser. 

Each time you want to use Discord chat on console, though, you’ll need to use your mobile device to transfer your conversation, which isn’t ideal. Back in November, Microsoft made it possible to join Discord chats directly from the console, so hopefully Sony will eventually do the same. 

Other new social features include a new way to share screens, party chats in the dashboard and “friends who play” that shows which of your friends are playing a game right now. Sony also introduced Variable Refresh Rate support for 1440p gaming, so HDMI 2.1 displays should exhibit smoother performance at that resolution with less tearing. Sony launched PS5 VRR in April last year and 1440p support shortly afterwards, but the two features have yet to work together. 

Gamers will also find new tools to access PS4 saved data on a PS5, along with the ability to move games from one PS5 console to another over WiFi or ethernet. The new beta is rolling out to certified testers today, and should be available to everyone else over the next few months.

 

Kindle’s Paperwhite 5 launched in 2021, but Amazon has just spruced up the models a bit with a couple of new colors and put them on sale for good measure. You can now grab them in Agave Green and Denim, with the regular 16GB variant priced at $110 (27 percent/$40 off) and the Signature version on sale at $140 ($50 or 26 percent off). Oddly, the black version doesn’t carry any discount and is still priced at $190, so the new color versions are currently the way to go.

Amazon also did this for the Paperwhite 4, introducing new colors well after the original launch date, as The eBook Reader pointed out. Amazon used the same Denim Blue color on the 11th generation 2022 Kindle as well. Even if you’re not crazy about the new colors, you’ll see the same black bezels when viewing it from the front. 

We gave the Paperwhite 5 Signature Edition one of our highest Engadget scores ever (97) calling it “the best e-reader, period.” It has a bigger and more responsive screen than ever, tiny bezels, both USB-C and wireless charging, a waterproof body, 32GB of storage, automatic brightness and warm light options. The standard model drops storage to 16GB and lacks wireless charging, but is otherwise the same. 

As mentioned, the Signature Paperwhite is $50 off in Agave and Denim, while the standard version offers a $40 savings in the green and blue shades — near the lowest prices we’ve seen. 

 

Sony’s gaming business had a blockbuster holiday quarter as it sold 7.1 million PS5s from October to December compared to 3.9 million in the same quarter last year. That’s a whopping 82 percent increase, so the company’s supply issues appear to be largely solved — much as the company has said as of late. In other words, you should be able to buy a PS5 now with little to no delay. 

All of that resulted in a giant boost in revenue, as its Game & Network Services segment took in 1.25 trillion yen ($9.7 billion), up 53 percent year on year. That includes over double the revenue for hardware and healthy boosts in software (30 percent), network services (20 percent) and others including PSVR and first-party software sales on other platforms (73 percent). 

To grasp the significance of all this, Sony has now sold 32.1 million PS5s compared to 25 million in November 2022, so total unit sales increased 28 percent in just a single quarter. It also means that Sony may hit its fiscal year 2022 PS5 sales forecast (18 million units from March 2022 to March 2023) if it can ship 5.2 million consoles, something that seemed wildly optimistic last quarter. If it does reach that goal, it will hit PS5 sales of over 37 million units.

Sony has fought Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision, though Microsoft itself recently pointed out that Sony has five times more exclusive games than Xbox. In terms of first-party titles, God of War Ragnarök and Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut were standouts on PS5 this quarter. 

Sony’s gaming business dwarfed its other segments, though its imaging sensor business continues to rise as well, with sales up 63 percent year on year to 417 billion yen ($3.24 billion). Sony supplies the lion’s share of camera sensors to both smartphone and mirrorless camera manufacturers.  

 

Back in 2021, Nissan revealed a few concept vehicles as part of its announcement that it was going to invest $17.6 billion in the development of electric vehicles over the next few years. One of the concepts it presented is a convertible two-seater sports car called the Max-Out, but the automaker only released a render that showed what it was supposed to look like. Now, the company has shown off a real-life physical version of the Max-Out at the launch of the Nissan Futures event in Yokohama, and it looks like the automaker stayed true to its original design. 

It’s still a two-seater convertible with headlights and edges that light up in different neon colors. The EV’s design has the mixed aesthetics of several different sci-fi franchises, including Tron and Avatar. But other than showing what it looks like, Nissan hasn’t shared details about the EV concept, probably because it doesn’t have plans to create a production version of it anytime soon, if at all. 

When the company first unveiled the Max-Out, it vowed to develop 23 electrified vehicles and to launch 15 new EVs by 2030. It didn’t make a pledge to go fully electric by the end of the decade, but it did say that it was aiming for a mix of EVs and gas vehicles. In particular, it’s targeting a market mix of 75 percent electrified vehicles in Europe and 40 percent electrified in the US and China. One of the EVs it has released since its 2021 announcement is the Ariya, Nissan’s first electric crossover, which has an estimated range of 216 to 304 miles depending on the variant. 

Nissan says the Futures event will showcase how it’s “shaping the future of sustainable mobility and innovative design” and how it’s preparing for “the various challenges and opportunities the coming large-scale transition to electric mobility will bring.” While the event will be held at the company’s global headquarters in Japan, Nissan will upload some panel recordings on its YouTube channel. 

 

The Federal Trade Commission has slapped prescription drug discount app GoodRx with a $1.5 million fine for the unauthorized disclosure of customers’ identifiable health information with third parties, such as Facebook and Google. This is the first time the agency has taken enforcement action under its Health Breach Notification Rule, which requires vendors of personal health records to notify customers if their data has been breached. While the rule has applied to companies handling health records since 2009, FTC commissioners voted in favor of expanding it to cover health apps in 2021. 

According to the FTC, the California-based telehealth service repeatedly violated the rule by sharing customers’ personal health information, including their health conditions and the medicine they’re taking. Further, it shared their information with companies that have third-party advertising platforms like Facebook, Google and Criteo despite making a promise to customers that it will never do so. The FTC says GoodRx also monetized its customers’ information. In 2019, for instance, it uploaded the email addresses, phone numbers and mobile advertising IDs of users who purchased certain medications to Facebook, so it can target them with health-related ads. 

In addition to imposing a $1.5 million fine on GoodRx, the FTC is also seeking to change how the company handles user information. In its proposed court order (PDF) against the company, it listed several provisions, including banning the service from disclosing user data for advertising purposes. For other purposes, it wants to require GoodRx to secure customers’ consent first before sharing their health information to third parties. The FTC also wants GoodRx to get the third parties it shared data with to delete its customers’ information, and it wants the company to establish a comprehensive privacy program that will protect user data. 

Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in statement:

“Digital health companies and mobile apps should not cash in on consumers’ extremely sensitive and personally identifiable health information. The FTC is serving notice that it will use all of its legal authority to protect American consumers’ sensitive data from misuse and illegal exploitation.”