Kalakshar US

Booking a stay through Airbnb can be a chore for a few reasons. Chief among those is the fact it’s not always easy to tell at a glance how much you’ll pay for your vacation rental, since the cleaning fee or security deposit may not appear until after you click on a listing. However, Airbnb is at last set to make pricing a bit more transparent.

CEO Brian Chesky wrote on Twitter that, starting next month, the company will offer the option to see the full price of a stay in search results, and on the map, price filter and listings pages. You’ll still be able to see a breakdown of the full price, including Airbnb’s service fee and any discounts. Moreover, Chesky says Airbnb will prioritize total price rather than nightly price in its ranking algorithm. “The highest quality homes with the best total prices will rank higher in search results,” Chesky said.

This is by and large a positive move, since the per-night prices shown in search results don’t tell the whole story. Hosts may charge different cleaning fees or even fees for extra guests that aren’t immediately apparent. Showing (almost) the full price upfront should make it easier for folks to compare listings while reducing sticker shock at checkout.

There is one drawback, though. The price that you see in search results and on the map still doesn’t include taxes. It would be helpful to see that at the jump as well, particularly given that many hotel booking sites show the full price with taxes included in search results. “Our thinking was that since prices in the US are typically displayed pre-tax, that we should go with this convention,” Chesky wrote.

Elsewhere, Chesky said that Airbnb will offer hosts more pricing and discount tools. He noted that hosts want a clearer understanding of the full price users pay and what they should charge to help them stay competitive. Chesky added that users shouldn’t have to undertake “unreasonable” checkout tasks like vacuuming or stripping the bedding. He noted that simple actions like turning off lights, chucking food in the trash and locking doors are reasonable, and that hosts should communicate those kinds of checkout requests before a booking is made.

 

On October 15th, billionaire Elon Musk said he would indefinitely fund Ukraine’s Starlink use to support the country. But, on October 24th, the Ukrainian military lost internet access, causing problems for commanders and soldiers fighting the Russian invasion. The outage was reportedly caused by a funding brouhaha between Musk, SpaceX and the Department of Defense.

The issue centers on the (roughly) $3.15 million running cost, which SpaceX had asked the US to pay for, but withdrew after public criticism. The report added that DoD officials are likely to take on the running costs but want to set firm contract terms, lest the impulsive billionaire “change his mind.” That’s a reference to, uh, lots of things, but also that Musk has publicly called on Ukraine to hand over chunks of its territory to Russia to guarantee peace.

– Dan Cooper

The biggest stories you might have missed

Apple is reportedly building a live TV advertising network as part of its MLS deal

Feds charge former MoviePass execs with securities and wire fraud

Apple is reportedly working to simplify Siri’s trigger phrase

Meta will reportedly announce ‘large-scale’ layoffs next week

The company employs over 87,000 people

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp owner Meta will apparently start the week by announcing a round of large-scale lay-offs. This is a reaction to both Meta’s recent financial woes (burning all of its profit on a metaverse boondoggle) and the sheer number of people it employs. In its most recent earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg said the company would focus its investments on “high priority” areas, which would see non-priority teams stay flat or shrink.

Continue Reading.

Virgin pulls its name from Hyperloop One

The decision to drop passenger operations was behind the split.

Virgin Hyperloop is no more after the Virgin Group withdrew its branding from the well-funded Hyperloop startup. The company has now reverted to its previous name, Hyperloop One, and is promising a fresh start in its operations. The split was prompted by the startup’s decision to end research into building a passenger service to concentrate on freight shipping.

Continue Reading.

HBO cancels sci-fi drama ‘Westworld’ after four seasons

Three seasons too late, if you ask me.

Westworld’s first season was a thoughtful and entertaining exploration of AI, humanity, free will and commerce. Unfortunately, the blockbuster conclusion of that run also kicked the narrative legs out from under the series as it attempted to continue. After limping on for three more awful years of go-nowhere, no-stakes storytelling, ratings fell from 3.3 million in the pilot to a low of 312,000 during its fourth season. It’s no surprise HBO pulled the plug, citing the high budget and miniscule audience as justification. And to think: The second season of Carnivále pulled in 1.7 million viewers a week, but that wasn’t enough to spare it from the axe.

Continue Reading.

Spain temporarily closed its airspace due to an out-of-control Chinese rocket

This isn’t the first Long March 5B to screw up its descent.

Spain was forced to close its airspace, leading to hundreds of flight delays, to prevent mid-air collisions caused by a falling Long March 5B. The Chinese-made rocket carried the final piece of the country’s Tiangong space station into orbit, before making an uncontrolled descent. Unlike other heavy rockets, which can fire engines to guide their fall back to Earth, the Long March is just left to land wherever. The approach has already drawn the ire of NASA administrator Bill Nelson, who said China risks causing major damage or loss of life.

Continue Reading.

Twitter Corner

Here’s a rundown of everything that happened with Twitter over the weekend.

A number of major companies opted to pull their adverts (and money) from Twitter after Elon Musk’s content-moderation promises failed to reassure them. One of the world’s largest advertising companies has advised clients to pause spending on Twitter until the dust around the acquisition settles.

The reaction is only natural. Blue-chip brands don’t really want to have ads sitting side by side with hate speech. This is especially the case given the company lost around 15 percent of its trust and safety team in the mass-layoffs. Not long after, Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of safety and integrity, said fighting misinformation remains a top priority as the US goes to the polls. Roth’s pleas may fall upon disbelieving eyes, however, as Musk himself promoted a conspiracy theory concerning Paul Pelosi’s attacker last week.

Twitter then began testing support for its new Blue subscription, with its paid-for verification system. The setup isn’t live yet, but app updates already reveal groundwork laid for the features. Activations for the paid-for verification wouldn’t start until November 9th at the earliest, however, holding off until after the midterm elections, to prevent abuse of the system.

Another feature, announced this weekend, is the ability to append long-form essays to tweets. This, said Elon Musk, would end the absurdity of “notepad screenshots,” common when users want to post lots of text (usually an apology) in a single tweet.

Speaking of apologies, Twitter co-founder and former CEO, Jack Dorsey, posted one of his own on Saturday. He said the need for large-scale layoffs was his fault because he grew the company “too quickly.”

But clearly, despite those claims, Twitter has apparently had some remorse of its own around the scale of its layoffs. Management has reportedly realized many of the employees unceremoniously dumped last week were actually doing important work. It’s rumored some of those people were asked to return, but you can understand if they’re not feeling much generosity of spirit toward their former employer after the nature of their split.

 

French high-end audio company Devialet has a reputation for making powerful, interesting and eye-wateringly expensive speakers. Today, the company has announced its first portable smart speaker with an eye-watering price tag. Looking like a cannonball with its own carrying strap, the Devialet Mania is designed to calibrate its sound to the area it’s in. So, if near to a wall, it’ll tweak where its speakers are pumping to give you “expansive” and “powerful” audio while on the go.

Nestled inside the Mania’s 170mm (6.7-inch) tall body is a quartet of full-range drivers teamed up with a pair of Speaker Active Matching sub-woofers. Four microphones are used for that stereo calibration, but can also be used to communicate with Amazon’s smart assistant, Alexa. The speaker can also connect to your favorite music service over WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect. The company promises that Mania will travel well, too, with IPX4 water resistance and 10 hours of battery life, when used at moderate volumes, at least.

The Mania is available to order from today, priced at $790 online or via a number of retail stores.

 

Amazon is having a sale on its latest Watches, with a particularly good deal on the Series 8 cellular model. You can grab one of those in multiple colors for just $389, for a savings of $110 off the regular $499 price (22 percent off). If its a Watch LE model you’re after instead, those are on sale too in both cellular and GPS versions for as little as $290 ($39 off) and $220 ($29 off) respectively.

Shop Apple Watch Series 8 and SE models on Amazon

The Series 8 isn’t a huge update over the Series 7, but it does carry some useful new features. The main one is a temperature sensor tied to women’s health, giving female users an estimate on when they may be ovulating. It’s meant to be used overnight, sampling your wrist temperature every five seconds so you can see shifts from your baseline

The other is Crash Detection. Much as current watches can detect a fall, the Series 8 can detect car crashes via a pair of new accelerometers. It works in concert with other sensors to detect four different types of crashes, including rollovers, front impact, back impact and side impact. And of course, all of these Series 8 models have a cellular function, giving you internet connectivity, calls and texts for running, hiking and other activities that don’t require a smartphone. The Series 8 cell models are fairly pricey at $499, but $389 is much more palatable. 

Meanwhile, the Watch SE 2nd generation offers a performance boost of up to 20 percent and the same crash detection feature as the series 8. It also has a lower starting price, so taking an additional $39 and $29 off the cellular and GPS models brings the prices down to a very affordable $290 and $220, respectively. 

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

 

Netflix and developer Tender Claws are releasing a Stranger Things VR game set to arrive in Winter 2023 on major VR platforms, the companies announced at Stranger Things Day 2022. The game will let you play as the fearsome Season 4 villain Vecna, with the goal to “enact revenge on Eleven and Hawkins,” according to the press release. 

“Play as Vecna in this new Stranger Things adventure in VR,” the video description reads. “Become an explorer of unknown realities as you form the hive mind and tame the void. Invade minds and conjure nightmares in your quest to enact revenge on Eleven and Hawkins. Stranger Things VR is a psychological horror/action game developed by Tender Claws and coming to major VR platforms in winter 2023.”

Tender Claws previously developed the VR games Virtual Virtual Reality 1 and 2, along with the “mobile AR virtual pet Tendar, and immersive theatrical adventures The Under Presents and Tempest,” according to its about page. Meanwhile, Netflix has previously released multiple games around its flagship series, including Stranger Things: The VR Experience, along with the mobile and console game Stranger Things 3: The Game. 

 

Before acquiring Twitter, Elon Musk said he was against lifetime suspensions, promising to reinstate banned users like Donald Trump. Now, Musk wrote that Twitter will permanently suspend account impersonators if they are not clearly labeled as parody. The move comes after several verified “blue-check” users changed their accounts to impersonal Musk himself. 

Twitter appears to have just banned comedian Kathy Griffin for impersonating Musk, at least temporarily, after she used his name and image in her own verified Twitter account. Other verified accounts impersonating Musk, including Jeph Jacques, also appear to have been kicked off the site.

Prior to Musk’s takeover, Twitters rules already stated that users “may not impersonate individuals, groups or organizations to mislead, confuse or deceive others, nor use a fake identity in a manner that disrupts the experience of users on Twitter.” Parody accounts were required to say so in both their accounts and bio. Consequences included profile moderation, temporary suspension or permanent suspension — though the latter was rarely imposed.

Twitter has been awash in drama over the last few days. Early in Musk’s tenure, trolls and racists flooded the site with epithets and other hate speech, presumably to test the new limits of the site. This week, a flood of advertisers put a hold on spending on the site. In reply to a user who suggested a boycott on those companies, Musk tweeted a “a thermonuclear name & shame is exactly what will happen if this continues.”

 

COVID-19 restrictions at Foxconn’s primary iPhone 14 factory in Zhengzhou, China means shipments will be lower than anticipated, Apple said in a short press release. That means in turn that customers who’ve ordered one will experience “longer wait times to receive their new products,” it added.

COVID-19 restrictions have temporarily impacted the primary iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max assembly facility located in Zhengzhou, China. The facility is currently operating at significantly reduced capacity. As we have done throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we are prioritizing the health and safety of the workers in our supply chain.We continue to see strong demand for iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max models. However, we now expect lower iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max shipments than we previously anticipated and customers will experience longer wait times to receive their new products.We are working closely with our supplier to return to normal production levels while ensuring the health and safety of every worker.

A slowdown in shipments was widely anticipated after the Chinese government ordered a week-long lockdown in the area where the Foxconn factory is located following the outbreak. The action, part of the government’s “Covid Zero” approach, affects the factory that manufactures four out of five Apple’s new smartphones. Overall, iPhone production could be reduced by 30 percent, according to previous reports.

Launched in September, the iPhone 14 is a relatively minor upgrade over the the previous model, with the main change being the elimination of the SIM tray, and the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro. The shipping time is currently listed as 3-4 weeks in the US.

 

Facebook parent company Meta could announce large-scale layoffs as early as next week, according to The Wall Street Journal. The outlet reports the company is planning to cut “many thousands” of employees, with an announcement coming as soon as Wednesday. Meta currently employs more than 87,000 individuals. The cuts could be the largest workforce reduction conducted by a tech company this year, surpassing the layoffs made by Twitter on Friday. The cuts would also represent the first broad restructuring in Meta’s history.

Meta declined to comment. A spokesperson pointed Engadget to a statement CEO Mark Zuckerberg made during the company’s recent Q3 earnings call. “In 2023, we’re going to focus our investments on a small number of high-priority growth areas. So that means some teams will grow meaningfully, but most other teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year,” he said. “In aggregate, we expect to end 2023 as either roughly the same size, or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today.”

As The Journal points out, Meta grew significantly during the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic, adding more than 27,000 employees in 2020 and 2021. The company’s hiring spree continued through the first nine months of 2022, a period during which it brought on an additional 15,344 employees. While the company was a major beneficiary of the pandemic, its fortunes have changed in recent months. In July, the company reported its first-ever revenue drop. The company has blamed its recent hardships on tough competition from TikTok and the release of Apple’s contentious App Tracking Transparency feature.

At the same time, Mark Zuckerberg’s bid on the Metaverse has so far failed to create new revenue opportunities for the company while costing it dearly. Since the start of 2021, Meta has spent $15 billion to make virtual and augmented reality mainstream with little success. The company expects to lose even more money on the project in 2023.

 

Mere days after cutting its workforce in half, Twitter is asking some employees to return, according to Bloomberg. Citing two sources within the company, the outlet reports management at Twitter has come to the realization it either let some workers off by accident or without realizing their experience was essential to building the features Elon Musk wants to bring to the platform.

Twitter did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. Platformer’s Casey Newton was the first to report on the company’s plan, sharing messages from one of its internal Slack channels. One post suggests the company is in need of Android and iOS developers.

A decision to bring back some employees would cap off a chaotic weekend at Twitter. The company began Friday by laying off approximately 3,800 employees, a move that gutted teams across the company, including those responsible for developing new accessibility features. On Saturday, the company began briefly rolling out its new paid verification system. One day later, the company reportedly made the decision to delay the release of that feature until after the US midterm elections.

 

Twitter has delayed the rollout of paid account verification until after the end of the US midterm elections, according to The New York Times. The company reportedly made the decision on Saturday after it briefly began rolling out its $8 per month Twitter Blue service. In the hours after the company released an iOS app update that gave people a preview of its new verification system, both employees and users raised concerns that paid badges could lead to confusion ahead of a pivotal election.

According to The Times, one Twitter employee, writing in an internal company Slack channel, asked management why the social network was “making such a risky change” with the “potential of causing election interference.” A day later, a manager on the project said “we’ve made the decision to move the launch of this release to November 9th, after the election.”

Twitter did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. The majority of the company’s public relations team was let go on Friday. Before Elon Musk announced Twitter’s revamped subscription service on Tuesday, the company had reserved blue badges for the accounts of notable politicians, celebrities, journalists and other prominent figures. While the system the company used for handling verification requests was often a mess, it was at least designed to limit impersonation. It’s unclear how the company plans to prevent that kind of behavior moving forward.

The November 9th release date is likely to come with a sigh of relief for the engineers working on paid verifications. Before Sunday, Elon Musk had reportedly told employees they had until November 7th to ship the feature or else they would be fired.