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The CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23rd. Chew will discuss the app’s privacy and data security measures, its impact on kids and ties to China (where parent company ByteDance is headquartered). This is Chew’s first appearance in front of a congressional panel. TikTok’s security and relationship with Chinese authorities have drawn the attention of US officials over the last few years. However, as CNBC reported, discussions between the US and TikTok appear to have stalled.

The relationship has been a precarious one for several years. The company has tried to assuage concerns by storing US user data on domestic Oracle servers and deleting such data from its own servers in the US and Singapore. However, other stories, like TikTok having to fire four employees (two each in China and the US) who accessed the data of several journalists, aren’t helping. They were said to be looking for the sources of leaks to reporters.

Also in December, a mammoth spending bill passed by lawmakers included a ban of TikTok from federal government-owned devices. However, the relationship has thawed since its nadir during the Trump administration, when the president pushed for the social network to shed its US assets. That, of course, never happened.

– Mat Smith

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Samsung’s profits plunged in 2022 due to weak smartphone demand

Chip sales were down, too.

Samsung has revealed a sharp decline in profit for 2022, mainly due to the weak demand for its chips and smartphones, the company’s main moneymakers. The Korean tech giant has posted KRW 302.23 trillion (US$245.4 billion) in annual revenue, which is a new record high for the company, in its latest earnings report. Its operating profit, however, was down KRW 8.5 trillion (US$6.9 billion) from the year before. Sales for Samsung’s more affordable phones went down, and while flagship sales held up to market expectations, they’re still lower than in previous quarters. The company expects demand for mass-market smartphones to weaken even further in 2023 “due to persistent macroeconomic conditions.” That’s not great news when the company is holding its first Unpacked event of 2023 tomorrow.

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Nothing Phone 2 to launch in US later this year

Carl Pei says the upcoming flagship will be “more premium” than the Phone 1.

Nothing’s Carl Pei has confirmed the company’s second phone will launch in the US later this year. He described the 2023 flagship as “more premium” than the Nothing Phone 1, which probably means it’ll be more expensive, too. In an interview with Inverse, Pei said the Phone 2’s US launch would be Nothing’s top priority this year. Pei added that American carrier demands (“red tape”) were the main reason Nothing didn’t launch the Phone 1 in the US.

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China’s biggest search engine may launch a ChatGPT rival in March

Baidu’s service will allow users to get conversation-like search results.

Chinese search giant Baidu aims to introduce a ChatGPT-like AI service that gives users conversational results, according to a Bloomberg report. Open AI’s ChatGPT has taken the tech world by storm, thanks to its ability to answer fact-based questions, write in a human-like way and even create code. Microsoft invested $1 billion in Open AI back in 2019, and reportedly plans to incorporate aspects of ChatGPT into its Bing search engine. It’s the big thing – even Google reportedly sees the technology as a threat to its search business and plans to accelerate the development of its own conversational AI technology.

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Spotify just released its Q4 earnings and announced that it now has 205 million premium subscribers, up 10 million from last quarter. It also made €3.17 billion ($3.43 billion) in revenue, so it exceeded expectations in both subscriber count and sales. It now counts nearly 500 million monthly active users including ad-supported and paid subscriber tiers. 

However, its losses continued with €270 million ($292 million) in red ink compared to €39 million in the same period last year, due to moves that chief executive Daniel Ek called “too ambitious.” For all of 2022, the company reported a net €430 million loss ($466 million) on revenue of €11.7 billion ($12.7 billion). 

Spotify said that the losses were due to “higher personnel costs primarily due to headcount growth and higher advertising costs,” along with currency fluctuations. That helps explain the company’s actions last week, when it announced that it was laying off 6 percent of its workforce as part of a company-wide restructuring. 

As part of that, chief content officer Dawn Ostroff stepped down and Ek said that the company would “fundamentally change how we operate at the top,” including his own role. At the time, Ek said that “in hindsight, I was too ambitious in investing ahead of our revenue growth.” Looking ahead to the next quarter, Spotify forecasts that it’ll hit a half-billion monthly active users and see a modest boost to 207 million premium subscribers. 

 

A few days ago, speech AI startup ElevenLabs launched a beta version of its platform that gives users the power to create entirely new synthetic voices for text-to-speech audio or to clone somebody’s voice. Well, it only took the internet a few days to start using the latter for vile purposes. The company has revealed on Twitter that it’s seeing an “increasing number of voice cloning misuse cases” and that it’s thinking of a way to address the problem by “implementing additional safeguards.”

While ElevenLabs didn’t elaborate on what it meant by “misuse cases,” Motherboard found 4chan posts with clips featuring generated voices that sound like celebrities reading or saying something questionable. One clip, for instance, reportedly featured a voice that sounded like Emma Watson reading a part of Mein Kampf. Users also posted voice clips that feature homophobic, transphobic, violent and racist sentiments. It’s not entirely clear if all the clips used ElevenLab’s technology, but a post with a wide collection of the voice files on 4chan included a link to the startup’s platform. 

Perhaps this emergence of “deepfake” audio clips shouldn’t come as a surprise, seeing as a few years ago, we’d seen a similar phenomenon take place. Advances in AI and machine learning had led to a rise in deepfake videos, specifically deepfake pornography, wherein existing pornographic materials are altered to use the faces of celebrities. And, yes, people used Emma Watson’s face for some of those videos. 

ElevenLabs is now gathering feedback on how to prevent users from abusing its technology. At the moment, its current ideas include adding more layers to its account verification to enable voice cloning, such as requiring users to enter payment info or an ID. It’s also considering having users verify copyright ownership of the voice they want to clone, such as getting them to submit a sample with prompted text. Finally, the company is thinking of dropping its Voice Lab tool altogether and having users submit voice cloning requests that it has to manually verify. 

 

The National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) has determined that Apple’s rules around leaks violate worker’s rights, Bloomberg has reported. Apple’s actions and statements from executives “tend to interfere with, restrain or coerce employees” from exercising their rights, a spokesperson said in a statement.

The decision stems from complaints by former employees Cher Scarlett and Ashley Gjøvik. Scarlett alleged that Apple work rules “prohibit employees from discussing wages, hours or other terms or conditions of employment,” in violation of labor laws. Gjøvik, meanwhile, complained that an email sent by CEO Tim Cook vowing to punish leakers violated federal laws. Apple’s policies prohibiting staff from disclosing business information, talking to reporters and other actions were also illegal, Gjøvik alleged. 

In the email in question, Cook wrote that “we do not tolerate disclosures of confidential information, whether it’s product IP or the details of a confidential meeting… people who leak confidential information do not belong here.” That was in response to the leak of a company-wide meeting that was effectively tweeted live by a journalist, as TechCrunch noted.  

The NLRB will issue a complaint against Apple unless the company settles, the spokesperson said. Apple has yet to comment, but a company attorney previously said, “Apple fosters an open and inclusive work environment whereby employees are not just permitted, but encouraged, to share their feelings and thoughts on a range of issues, from social justice topics to pay equity to anything else that they feel is an important cause to promote in the workplace.”

Gjøvik was fired by Apple in 2021 for leaking confidential information and told TechCrunch she believes she was let go in retaliation after filing an EPA report about toxic fumes in her office. She complained to the NLRB that she was let go illegally, but the board has yet to issue a ruling on that subject. 

The NLRB recently found that Apple violated federal law with anti-union meetings in Atlanta. Earlier this month, Apple agreed to review its labor practices, saying in an SEC filing that it would assess its “efforts to comply with its Human Rights Policy as it relates to workers’ freedom of association and collective bargaining rights in the United States by the end of calendar year 2023.” 

 

Samsung has revealed a sharp decline in profit for 2022, mainly due to the weak demand for its chips and smartphones, which are the company’s main moneymakers. The Korean tech giant has posted KRW 302.23 trillion (US$245.4 billion) in annual revenue, which is a new record high for the company, in its latest earnings report. But it has also reported an operating profit of KRW 43.38 trillion (US$35 billion) for all of 2022, down KRW 8.5 trillion (US$6.9 billion) from the year before. 

“The business environment deteriorated significantly in the fourth quarter due to weak demand amid a global economic slowdown,” the company explained. While the tech giant’s Foundry business posted an increase in profit due to customer and application diversification, its semiconductor business performed poorly as a whole. There was weak demand for its chips overall, as customers adjust and reduce their inventory in the face of economic uncertainties. Its chips’ prices also dropped, mostly likely due to a surplus in unsold inventory, contributing to the business’ decline in earnings for the year. 

In the fourth quarter of 2022, Samsung’s semiconductor business earned KRW 20.07 trillion (US$16.3 billion) in consolidated revenue but only KRW 0.27 trillion (US$219 million) in operating profit. For comparison, it posted a consolidated revenue of KRW 26.01 trillion (US$21.6 billion in early 2022’s conversion rates) and an operating profit of KRW 8.84 trillion (US$7.35 billion) for Q4 2021. Samsung is bracing for this downward trend to persist throughout the next few months, though it expects demand for its semiconductors to pick up in the second half of the year. 

Similarly, the demand for smartphones remained weak in the fourth quarter of 2022. Sales for Samsung’s more affordable phones went down, and while flagship sales held up to market expectations, they’re still lower than previous quarters’. The company expects demand for mass market smartphones to weaken even further in 2023 “due to persistent macroeconomic conditions.” But since it also expects demand for premium devices to stay solid, it vows to strengthen “the competitiveness of its premium flagship products.” To note, Samsung will hold its first Unpacked event of 2023 on February 1st where it will most likely unveil its next flagship phone, the Galaxy S23. 

 

You’re now more likely to have meaningful choice for fast fiber internet service. Frontier has introduced a symmetrical 5Gbps plan (that is, 5Gbps for uploads and downloads) across all its fiber markets in the US. The company claims it’s the first “major” provider to manage the feat. You’ll have to pay $155 per month (which includes installation and a router), or $55 more than the 2Gbps tier. However, it might be worth the outlay if you regularly download massive files or share your data with other heavy-duty users in your household.

You’ll need a WiFi 6e router and supporting devices, like the Pixel 7 or 2023 MacBook Pro, to make use of the extra speed without relying on 10Gbps Ethernet. Frontier estimates that it takes less than two minutes to download a 100-minute 8K movie.

Whether or not Frontier offers the best deal depends on the rivals in your area. AT&T’s 5Gbps plan has been available for a year, but will cost $180. Google Fiber is on the cusp of offering 8Gbps for $150, but it covers only a handful of cities. Frontier may well beat cable companies, though. Comcast already has 6Gbps service in some areas, but the $300 per month pricing and non-symmetric uploads make it less practical.

The higher price for 5Gbps service may not be thrilling if 2Gbps already seemed expensive. Even so, the rollout suggests competition is heating up among multi-gig internet providers. That’s good news for customers — you may see more aggressive performance or pricing as telecoms jockey for your business.

 

Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23rd. Chow will discuss the app’s privacy and data security measures, its impact on kids and ties to China (parent company ByteDance is headquartered in the country). This will be Chew’s first appearance in front of a congressional panel, the committee said. TikTok COO Vanessa Pappas faced similar questions from lawmakers in September.

“ByteDance-owned TikTok has knowingly allowed the ability for the Chinese Communist Party to access American user data,” committee chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers said in a statement. “Americans deserve to know how these actions impact their privacy and data security, as well as what actions TikTok is taking to keep our kids safe from online and offline harms. We’ve made our concerns clear with TikTok. It is now time to continue the committee’s efforts to hold Big Tech accountable by bringing TikTok before the committee to provide complete and honest answers for people.”

Engadget has contacted TikTok for comment.

TikTok’s security and relationship with Chinese authorities have drawn the attention of US officials over the last few years. However, as CNBC notes, discussions between the US and TikTok appear to have stalled, as officials remain concerned about the possibility of China forcing it to hand over user data.

The company has tried to placate concerns from regulators and elected officials by storing US user data on domestic Oracle servers and deleting such data from its own servers in the US and Singapore. Oracle has been reviewing TikTok’s algorithms and content moderation models for signs of Chinese interference.

Last month, TikTok said it fired four employees (two each in China and the US) who accessed the data of several journalists. They were said to be looking for the sources of leaks to reporters.

Also in December, lawmakers passed a mammoth spending bill. The legislation bans TikTok from federal government-owned devices. More than half of all states have implemented similar bans on local government devices. Meanwhile, senators and members of Congress have renewed efforts to ban TikTok in the US entirely.

News of Chew’s appearance before the panel comes on Data Privacy Day. In a blog post, TikTok laid out some of its efforts to bolster user privacy, including a plan to set up a data center in Dublin this year to store UK and European Economic Area data.

 

If you’ve been reading Engadget for a while, there’s a good chance your high school education involved using a scientific or graphing calculator during math class. Your old calculator might even be sitting in a desk drawer somewhere collecting dust. If you can’t find it, the Internet Archive’s latest project is here to help (via Ars Technica).

With the help of the team behind the Multi-purpose Emulation Framework (MAME), a project that has spent the past 25 years creating software that can emulate all sorts of gadgets, the archive now offers emulated versions of some of the most popular calculators of the past few decades. In all, The Calculator Drawer features 14 different models for Internet Archive visitors to noodle around, including the venerable Texas Instruments TI-81 from 1990.

Not every calculator of note from the past 25 years is part of the collection. For instance, you won’t find the Casio fx-7000g, the world’s first graphing calculator, on the list, but if you used a Texas Instruments or HP model back in school, there’s a good chance you’ll find something that should feel familiar. And if you feel a bit overwhelmed by all the buttons, worry not; the Internet Archive has also uploaded manuals for most of the included calculators.

 

Nothing’s Carl Pei has confirmed the upcoming Phone 2 will launch in the US later this year. The CEO and co-founder described the 2023 flagship as “more premium” than the Nothing Phone 1, which Engadget saw as “an impressive debut” in our review.

Pei dropped several tidbits in an interview with Inverse. First, he says the Ear 1 earbuds’ US launch was a barometer for US demand. “We’re really excited about the US market because it’s a big country,” said Pei. “If you look at our earbuds sales, about one-third comes from the US. And by not launching our phone in the US, we’re leaving potentially a third of the volume on the table.” Pei describes the Phone 2’s US launch as Nothing’s top priority this year.

Pei suggests declining smartphone sales indicate the US market is ripe for innovation. “From a business point of view, [Apple and Samsung] shouldn’t go very niche and try something completely different because they might alienate current users. That’s where smaller companies like us can come in and try and do something different. It’s not that we’re smarter or that they can’t, but it just doesn’t make sense for them to do it.” However, although stagnation may play a part, the biggest reasons for the nosedive have likely been supply-chain problems, inflation and an unpredictable economy.

Carl Pei in 2019.

Pei says red tape was the main reason Nothing didn’t launch the Phone 1 in the US. American carriers demand Android manufacturers comply with various adaptations and preinstalled apps, which takes significant resources. But the company’s rapid growth and proven ability to move volume has given it leverage. “When you make a smartphone for the US, you need to work with the carriers on certification and adapting some of their features into your OS,” he said. “We didn’t have the resources for that before, and now we do,” Pei adds that Nothing has grown from 200 employees in 2021 to 400 today.

Although Pei doesn’t spill many secrets about the Phone 2, he hints at a higher-end design than its predecessor. “We’re developing a smartphone that’s more premium than the Nothing Phone 1, and software will be a big focus area for us.” However, he stresses that the Phone 1 was also a flagship handset. “Mobile chipsets have really improved over the last seven to nine years. That’s why I want to avoid calling the Phone 2 a flagship because that would mean that the Phone 1 was not a flagship. Within our own portfolio of smartphones, the Phone 1 was very much a flagship in terms of the amount of care we put into the product. That’s why I used the word ‘premium’ [to describe the Phone 2] instead, which signifies that it’s a more premium step up, but it’s still a flagship just like the Phone 1.”

 

Ford has slashed prices of its Mustang Mach-E electric vehicle by up to eight percent (as much as $5,900), with the extended-range battery dropping in price by around 19 percent. The entry-level models are now around $600 to $900 less expensive, according to Reuters, which reported that people who are currently waiting for Ford to deliver a Mach-E will receive the price cut automatically.

At least one variant is again eligible for the $7,500 federal tax credit, which applies to EVs that have an MSRP of $55,000 or less. SUVs, vans and pickup trucks are eligible for the credit if they have a maximum MSRP of $80,000, but the Internal Revenue Service does not class the Mach-E as an SUV.

In August, Ford increased the price of the Mach-E for new orders by between around $2,600 and $8,000 compared with the 2022 trims. The company attributed the price hikes to “significant material cost increases, continued strain on key supply chains and rapidly evolving market conditions.” However, it seems those issues have abated somewhat.

“At Ford, we want to make EVs more accessible, so we’re increasing Mustang Mach-E production and reducing prices across the Mach-E lineup,” Ford CEO Jim Farley wrote on Twitter. “Scaling will shorten customer wait times. And with higher production, we’re reducing costs, which allows us [to] share these savings with customers.”

Ford built 78,000 Mach-E vehicles in 2022. It hopes to ramp up production to an annual run rate of 270,000 by the end of this year. The company is aiming to reach a total EV production rate of 600,000 by late 2023 with the help of new lithium iron phosphate battery packs.

The move comes after Tesla slashed the prices of its EVs by up to 20 percent earlier this month. The five-seat Model Y Long Range became eligible for the tax credit after the cut, meaning that it’s now $20,500 (over 30 percent) less expensive.