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One of the best-loved Nintendo 64 games is coming to Switch Online’s Expansion Pack this week. Back in September, Nintendo revealed that GoldenEye 007 was coming to the service and now that day is almost upon us. You’ll be able to start playing the game on your Nintendo Switch starting on January 27th. The game will be available on Xbox on the same date.

It’s unusual to see a licensed game arrive on Nintendo’s subscription service, but GoldenEye 007 is one that many fans have been looking forward to replaying (or even playing for the first time). It remains to be seen how well Rare’s classic first-person shooter will hold up almost 26 years after it debuted on the N64. Hopefully, Rare has improved the janky controls and awful framerate from the original game.

There are some new additions to the Switch Online version, though, including a widescreen mode and online multiplayer. So, you won’t necessarily need to cram around the same TV to take on your friends in a “slappers only” deathmatch.

Rare is also bringing a “recreated” version of GoldenEye 007 to Xbox consoles this Friday with dual analogue stick support, 4K resolution and “a consistent refresh rate.” Oddly, there’s no online multiplayer on the Xbox version, though there’s still four-player splitscreen support. You’ll be able to access it through Xbox Game Pass. Owners of the Rare Replay collection can download GoldenEye 007 to their Xbox One or Xbox Series X/S at no extra cost.

 

YouTube Music contractors in the Austin area who voted to unionize are accusing their employers of abusing return-to-office policies to stifle labor organizers. The Alphabet Workers Union (AWU) has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleging that YouTube parent Alphabet and staffing firm Cognizant are using an abrupt return-to-office move, due in February, to punish remote workers, many of whom are reportedly pro-union. Some also live outside Austin. Managers have also been sending work to other offices to “chill” union organization efforts in Austin, according to the complaint, while a supervisor purportedly made implicit anti-union threats.

While the workers are contracted, they claim Alphabet and Cognizant represent a “joint employer.” If so, Alphabet would be responsible for working conditions and have to negotiate if the Austin-area team votes in favor of a union.

We’ve asked Alphabet and Cognizant for comment. In a statement to Bloomberg, a Cognizant spokesperson claims staff were “fully aware” of an eventual return to the office before the petition to unionize, and that it has “repeatedly and consistently” told employees about its return-to-office policy since December 2021. Those contractors who willingly left the Austin area and can’t come back to in-person work can also be “considered” for other work at Cognizant, the spokeperson says.

This isn’t the first increase in tension between Alphabet and pro-union contractors. In spring 2022, Washington state Cognizant employees working on Google Maps warned they would go on strike over an allegedly unreasonable return-to-office schedule. Cognizant pushed back the return by 90 days. At Google, meanwhile, many cafeteria workers quietly unionized during the pandemic as they sought better conditions.

The row comes as Alphabet is cutting 12,000 jobs worldwide in the wake of rough economic conditions and dropping profits. While that figure only covers direct employees, it reflects pressure to slash employment costs. That, in turn, may set up conflicts with pro-union workers seeking better pay and benefits.

 

Honda has big plans for the new year and electrification will play a huge part of that, the company’s recently-promoted SVP of Sales, Mamadou Diallo, told reporters on Tuesday. Expect to see a lot more Honda and Acura hybrids on the road this year, ahead of a major EV push come 2024.

Overall, Honda is officially aiming to move 1.2 million units in 2023, with Acura shooting for 160,000 units, a 20 – 25 percent increase over what they sold in 2022. And although the company managed to maintain a single-digit days’ supply of vehicles throughout last year, it enters 2023 with a glut of cars and trucks and a 17-day supply. As such, dealers are going to be looking to move a lot of that inventory before this year’s models start arriving so fingers crossed, we could potentially see some Tesla-level price cuts in the near future.

“In 2023, we will see the strategies we’ve been talking about, including growing sales of light truck models, increasing volume of hybrid-electric models and the start of digital sales at Acura,” Diallo said in a Wednesday press release. “All this leads toward our vision of 100-percent electrified sales by 2040 to fulfill our ultimately goal of zero emissions by 2050.” 

The ZDX and ZDX Type S will be Acura’s first full-EV offerings and serve as the harbingers of the company’s new, exclusively online EV sales strategy. Diallo didn’t have much additional information regarding how the system would work — such as whether haggling was allowed or how individual vehicle prices would be set — but assured the assembled journalists, “as we get closer to [the ZDX debut], we certainly will be discussing this a little bit more with our dealer body and the press in general. For right now we’re still finalizing all those details.” Acura joins Ford, Volvo, GM and VW in shifting its electrified vehicle sales to the digital marketplace. 

For its part, Honda is planning a significant increase in its hybrid vehicle production in 2023, starting with the newly-redesigned Accord and Accord Hybrid (they’ll also be Honda’s first with Google Built-In). The company “will continue to increase hybrid sales through core models as an important step in bridging customers to full electrified vehicles while reducing GHG emissions,” the Wednesday release reads. Honda anticipates a solid half of this year’s CR-V and Accord sales to be of the hybrid variety and its efforts bolstered in 2024 with the introduction of a new Civic hybrid. Sales for the all-electric Prologue begin this year with deliveries set for 2024.

 

In November, millions of Taylor Swift fans logged on to Ticketmaster to grab tickets for her 2023 tour. However, the site crashed, rendering verified users unable to purchase. Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation, explained that while 1.5 million people had signed up as legit customers, over 14 million hit the site when tickets went on sale – many of which were bots.

Live Nation president and CFO Joe Berchtold told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that the company “learned valuable lessons” from the Swift debacle. Three senators shoehorned in Taylor Swift quotes into their statements and questions – which I loved.

Berchtold called for Congress to expand the BOTS Act to “increase enforcement.” Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal reminded Berchtold there are already legal options for going after scalpers using bots to procure tickets. “You have unlimited power to go to court,” Blumenthal said. “Your approach seems to be that everyone else is responsible here.”

– Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

LG’s latest ultra short-throw projector is a dream – if you can afford it

Apple’s latest 12.9-inch iPad Pro is up to $200 off

The 2024 Polestar 2 will have better range, stronger motors and a SmartZone sensor suite

SpaceX completes first stacked Starship fueling test

NASA and DARPA will test nuclear engines for crewed missions to Mars

The agencies hope to demonstrate the tech as soon as 2027.

NASA is teaming up with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to test a nuclear thermal rocket engine in space, to use the technology for crewed missions to the red planet. The agencies hope to “demonstrate advanced nuclear thermal propulsion technology as soon as 2027,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said. “With the help of this new technology, astronauts could journey to and from deep space faster than ever – a major capability to prepare for crewed missions to Mars.” There are, of course, risks involved with NTP engines, such as the possible dispersal of radioactive material in the environment should a failure occur in the atmosphere or orbit. Nevertheless, NASA says the faster transit times NTP engines can enable could lower the risk to astronauts – they could reduce travel times to Mars by up to a quarter. Nuclear thermal rockets could be at least three times more efficient than conventional chemical propulsion methods.

Continue reading.

Amazon’s RxPass offers Prime members generic medications for $5 a month

It has medications for 80 common health conditions.

Amazon has launched a new subscription service for customers in the US to get as many eligible medications as they need for $5 a month. The new service, called RxPass, is part of the e-commerce giant’s Pharmacy business, which launched in 2020 as a two-day prescription drug delivery for Prime users. That makes RxPass a $5 add-on for Prime, which sets users back $139 a year or $15 a month in the US. Customers will need to pay $5 out of pocket, since the service does not take insurance, like Amazon Pharmacy does, for purchases outside of the program. People enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid and any other government healthcare program will not be able to sign up for RxPass, either.

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‘Forspoken’ review: A magical world with several cracks

Fluid battles, uneven plot.

In Forspoken, you control the agile, angry Frey, slinging elemental attacks (and f-bombs) at multiple monsters before leaping off a cliff face and swinging from a molten outcrop. You keep moving, through the lands of Athia, through the adventure, because it’s enjoyable and satisfying, but also because when you slow down, you start to see the cracks. Delayed twice, while the fighting system is generally solid, Forspoken has a lot of sub-quest padding, and most of it’s pretty dull.

Continue reading.

WhatsApp’s native Mac app beta is now available to all

It’s optimized to run fast and efficiently on Mac hardware.

Mac users now have a native version of WhatsApp. The new app is optimized for Mac hardware and built with Mac Catalyst, so it should be faster and more efficient than the current web-wrapped Electron version. You also get a new interface with three panels to easily flip between chats, calls, archived and starred messages, while seeing contacts and interactions at a glance.

Continue reading.

 

If you’re looking to buy some accessories for your phone, a bunch of Anker powerbanks, cables and chargers are on sale right now at Amazon. One of the best deals in the list is the Anker Magnetic (MagGo) Battery for the iPhone 12, 13 and 14, which is currently 36 percent off at $45. That’s $25 less than its usual price and is an all-time low for the device that can stick to the back of your iPhone for on-the-go wireless charging and can double as a kickstand. The 5,000 mAh battery is only 0.5 inches thin and can also charge via USB-C. Its white, purple and blue versions are on sale for $45 at the moment, but you can also get the green variant for $60.

Buy Anker charging accessories at Amazon – up to 49 percent off

In case you need a portable battery with a much bigger capacity not just for your phone, but for your laptop and tablet, as well, Anker’s PowerCore 40K is also on sale for $56. This is the lowest price we’ve seen for the powerbank, which retails for $100, on the website. Like its name implies, the device has a 40,000 mAh capacity and is capable of 30W USB-C charging. Anker says it can charge an iPhone 13 for up to 8.8 times and a 2020 MacBook Air twice. 

Anker’s Nano II 45W USB-C Charger is also on sale, if what you’re looking for is a single small charger for multiple devices. It can charge Samsung Galaxy devices and the 2020 MacBook Air at full speed, and it can also charge an iPhone 13 faster than Apple’s original charger can. But it also works with other devices, such as the iPad, Apple Watch and 13-inch MacBook Pro. This compact foldable charger will set you back $30, or $10 less than its usual price.

If all you need is cables, however, you can also get a three-pack bundle of Anker’s Powerline+ II Lightning Cable from the sale. The bundle comes with two three-feet and one six-feet cable and will cost you $26.24, or 25 percent less than retail. 

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

 

Multiple Microsoft 365 services went down for thousands of users around the world, prompting the tech giant to investigate the incident affecting several of its products. In an announcement about the outage posted in the early morning (ET time) of January 25th, the company said users were unable to access its services, including Microsoft Teams, Exchange Online, Outlook, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, Microsoft Graph, PowerBi and Microsoft 365 Admin Center. The tech giant admitted that the outage might not be limited to those products, however, and true enough, over a thousand users also reported having problems with accessing Xbox Live on Down Detector.

In an update to its announcement, Microsoft said it “isolated the problem to a networking configuration issue.” The company added that it had to plan its next troubleshooting steps carefully and analyze “the best mitigation strategy” in order to come up with a solution that wouldn’t cause any additional impact. By 4:26AM ET, Microsoft tweeted that it “rolled back a network change” that it believed was causing the outage and that it was monitoring its services as they start coming back online. 

 

Amazon union workers in the UK are striking for the first time over wages and what they call “severe” working conditions. They’ve rejected what they say is a “derisory” £0.50 pay raise (62 cents) and are demanding an increase to £15 ($18.48) an hour. 

A 98 percent majority of GMB union workers at Amazon’s Coventry fulfillment center voted in favor of the “historic” walkout and announced a strike date of January 25th earlier this year. Of 1,000 workers at the plant, 300 are unionized and expected to participate in the action. 

Amazon told Engadget in a statement that the size of the strike is “only a fraction of 1 percent of our UK employees.” It added that pay has increased 29 percent since 2018 and that it made a one-time £500 payment to help workers with inflation. “Employees are also offered comprehensive benefits that are worth thousands more — including private medical insurance, life assurance, subsidized meals and an employee discount, to name a few.”

However, two employees interviewed by the BBC said Amazon’s offer last August of a small pay raise to between £10.50 and £11.45 per hour was a “smack in the mouth” considering the company’s profits and high inflation. “These people had worked two years through the pandemic, that had seen Amazon’s shares go through the roof, they had seen the profits just become unimaginable,” Darren Westwood told the BBC. 

They also decried the company’s work culture, saying Amazon’s warehouse robots “are treated better than us.” Westwood said that employees are monitored constantly and questioned for any idle time lasting a few minutes. He also noted that some employees work 60 hours a week to make ends meet.

In April of 2022, workers at Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse voted to become the first in the US to join a union, and Amazon’s appeal failed last week. The company recently announced that it would eliminate 18,000 jobs, the majority from its retail and recruiting divisions. It has been frequently been accused of poor working conditions, notably after a warehouse collapsed in a tornado, and also faced criticism over anti-union activities. 

Update 1/25/2023 5:18AM ET: The post has been updated with Amazon’s statement to Engadget.

 

Bowers & Wilkins debuted its first true wireless earbuds in the spring of 2021. In fact, it announced two models at that time: the Pi7 and Pi5. Today, the company revealed updated versions for both which will carry the S2 label Bowers & Wilkins typically uses for retooled but not entirely brand new products. While the Pi7 S2 and Pi5 S2 aren’t rebuilt from the ground up, there are still some notable upgrades to both.

The Pi7 S2 and Pi5 S2 now both offer five hours of battery life on a charge. That’s up from four hours on the Pi7 and Pi5. A 15-minute quick-charge feature still gives you two hours of use and the included cases carry an additional 16 hours for the Pi7 S2 and 19 hours for the Pi5 S2. Both still have wireless charging capabilities, though the case for the Pi7 S2 is equipped with Wireless Audio Retransmission. Like it did for the Pi7, the case can connect to can external audio source — like in-flight entertainment — and wirelessly send sound to the earbuds. This isn’t novel to Bowers & Wilkins earbuds, but it is a handy feature nonetheless. Bowers & Wilkins says it also updated the antenna design on the Pi7 and Pi5 to increase Bluetooth range up to 25 meters. 

The key difference between the two models is audio quality. The Pi7 S2 supports aptX Adaptive with 24-bit/48kHz streaming from compatible devices and services. 9.2mm balanced armature dynamic drivers are paired with Bowers & Wilkins’ digital signal processing tech for higher quality audio that what the Pi5 offers with CD-quality sound and regular aptX. The Pi7 S2 also packs one additional microphone per earbud which should make it the preferred option for calls. And while both feature active noise cancellation (ANC), the Pi7 S2 has an adaptive setup that automatically monitors your surroundings to adjust the audio as needed for “the best possible, uninterrupted listening experience.” 

Both the Pi7 S2 and Pi5 S2 are available starting today, replacing the Pi7 and Pi5. The $399 Pi7 S2 comes in black, white and dark blue color options while the $299 Pi5 S2 offers light grey, dark grey and purple. A green version of the Pi5 S2 is slated to arrive later this spring.

Pi5 S2

 

Tesla has big expansion plans for its first Gigafactory near Reno, Nevada. The automaker has announced that it’s investing $3.6 billion to build two new factories in the complex and hire 3,000 additional workers. That’s bigger than the company’s initial investment ($3.5 billion) when it made a commitment to build the facility back in 2014. One of the new Nevada factories will manufacture its 4680-type batteries, while the other will be Tesla’s first factory to mass produce the Semi. 

The automaker delivered its first production Semis to Pepsi in December 2022, five years after it first showed off the electric rig and following several delays. Tesla currently manufactures the truck in limited quantities only, but it has long been planning to start volume production in Nevada. The company’s Semi truck uses less than 2 kWh per mile of energy and can go between 300 and 500 miles on a single charge. Tesla claims owners will enjoy an estimated fuel savings of up to $200,000 within the first three years. 

While the Semi factory will finally allow Tesla to mass produce its trucks, its 4680 battery factory will help it achieve its goals of slashing battery costs by half and ramping up production to be able to sell 20 million electric vehicles by 2030. Tesla introduced the 4680 battery — named as such because its cells measure 46mm by 80mm — as a higher-capacity-but-cheaper option to power its vehicles. According to Reuters, though, the company has been having issues scaling up its production due to the dry-coating technique used to coat its cells. Tesla didn’t say how it’s addressing those issues, but it did say that the new factory will have the capacity to produce enough 4680 batteries for 1.5 million light duty vehicles every year.

 

Don’t worry if you hate Twitter’s curated For You tab, as you now have a better way to avoid it. Twitter is updating its web and mobile apps to default to the timeline tab you last had open. If you close the app after looking at the chronological Following tab like a sensible human being, you’ll see it again when you come back. The tab default is rolling out today on the web, and “coming soon” to the Android and iOS apps.

This won’t revert to the old “twinkle” button that saved space. It does let you stick to your preferred timeline, though. This could be particularly helpful if you want to follow time-sensitive events (one of the main reasons many people use Twitter) and would rather not switch tabs every time you check your feed.

For You is an algorithmically generated feed that highlights certain tweets based on the users and conversations Twitter believes are relevant to you. While this can surface slightly older posts you might have missed, it also tends to bury content from some users and makes it difficult to follow live events.

The update comes as Twitter faces criticism of its approach to clients following Elon Musk’s acquisition last year. The social network now bans third-party clients, forcing developers to shut down popular apps and pivot to rival services like Mastodon. Many of those apps gave users more control over their timeline view and otherwise helped users dodge common Twitter annoyances. This change won’t likely satisfy fans of alternative apps. It might, however, reduce the sting of being force to use official software.