Tech Boys

Amazon appears to have nixed its Prime Video-only plan in the US and UK. Cord Busters reports that the little-known subscription, introduced in 2016, is no longer available to new users in either country. Those trying to sign up for the previously $8.99 monthly plan (£5.99 monthly in the UK) are now directed to the landing page for a full Amazon Prime membership. The Prime Video plan launched eight years ago, priced to undercut Netflix’s (at the time) $9.99-a-month subscription price for standard HD streaming on up to two devices. Although the option stuck around for close to a decade, Amazon increasingly buried it, making it impossible to sign up for on mobile devices. It was also increasingly difficult to find on desktops, where you had to navigate to an easy-to-miss “See more plans” section of the Prime sign-up page . The Prime Video plan never even got a price increase during that time, further illustrating how obscure Amazon apparently wanted it to remain. Now, it appears to

Google Maps will reportedly tap into satellite connectivity for instances when you cannot connect to Wi-Fi nor a cellular network. How do we know? According to PiunikaWeb , new code references in Google Maps beta v11.125 indicate the app can determine users' location via satellite connectivity. SEE ALSO: How to turn on 3D buildings in Google Maps navigation Google Maps' satellite connectivity could be 'life saving' PiunikaWeb reported that the new strings hint that users will have the option to update their location in Google Maps every 15 minutes, up to five times a day, via satellite connectivity. This could be a life-saving feature if you're in an out-of-range area without a network. Keep in mind, however, that this feature will only work on devices with satellite connectivity. There is scuttlebutt that the Google Pixel 9 series will have the feature, which can also be found on the iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 models. We're also seeing rumors that And

There's a new app in town, according to Wired and Bloomberg , if you consider Silicon Valley a town. A by-invitation-only audio-based app called Airchat is reportedly being "hyped in tech circles," with invites making the rounds among the Valley's top brass. The app combines elements of X (formerly Twitter ) and voice notes, with a main feed populated by text transcripts of voice notes from other users, which you can play, heart, or repost. SEE ALSO: BeReal has 10 months left before it runs out of money The "hype" for AirChat has been magnified by reports from Business Insider and a contributor at Forbes , who declared that you'd have to have been "under a rock" to have avoided an invite to the app. And it's no coincidence that Airchat cofounders Naval Ravikant (co-creator of AngelList) and Brian Norgard (former chief product officer at Tinder) are tech insiders themselves, or that investors include the likes of OpenAI CEO Sam Alt

TikTok is ramping up penalties for creators who post potentially “problematic” content and tightening its rules around what can be recommended in the app. The updates arrive as TikTok is fighting for its future in the United States and trying to convince lawmakers and regulators that its app is safe for teens. Under its updated community guidelines, set to take effect in May, TikTok has added a long list of content that’s not eligible to be recommended in the app’s coveted “For You” feed. The list includes some obvious categories, like sexually suggestive or violent content, but it also adds topics that have previously been a source of controversy for the app. For example, the new guidelines bar videos showing “dangerous activity and challenges,” as well as many types of weight loss or dieting content. It also prohibits any clips from users under the age of 16 from appearing in “For You.” There’s also a lengthy section dedicated to a wide range of misinformation and conspiratorial

Take-Two Interactive plans to lay off 5 percent of its workforce, or about 600 employees, by the end of the year, as reported in an SEC filing Tuesday. The studio is also canceling several in-development projects. These moves are expected to cost $160 million to $200 million to implement, and should result in $165 million in annual savings for Take-Two.  As the owner of Grand Theft Auto and the parent company of Rockstar Games, 2K, Private Division, Zynga and Gearbox, Take-Two is a juggernaut in the video game industry. It reported $5.3 billion in revenue in 2023, a nearly $2 billion increase over the previous year. Just a few weeks ago, Take-Two agreed to purchase Gearbox , the studio responsible for Borderlands, for $460 million. The company is preparing to release Grand Theft Auto VI in 2025, a move that should bring in billions on its own. Take-Two instituted a round of layoffs in 2023 across Private Division — the indie label behind Kerbal Space Program, The Outer Worlds an

On March 8, a piece of space debris plunged through a roof in Naples, FL, ripped through two floors and (fortunately) missed the son of homeowner Alejandro Otero. On Tuesday, NASA confirmed the results of its analysis of the incident. As suspected, it’s a piece of equipment dumped from the International Space Station (ISS) three years ago. NASA’s investigation of the object at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral confirmed it was a piece of the EP-9 support equipment used to mount batteries onto a cargo pallet, which the ISS’ robotic arm dropped on March 11, 2021. The haul, made up of discarded nickel-hydrogen batteries, was expected to orbit Earth between two to four years (it split the difference, lasting almost exactly three) “before burning up harmlessly in the atmosphere,” as NASA predicted at the time. Not quite. The roof-piercing debris was described as a stanchion from NASA flight support equipment used to mount the batteries onto the cargo pallet. Made of the metal all

2024 has not been good to Tesla so far.  EV sales are on the decline , which led to the Elon Musk-led company laying off 10 percent of its workforce on Monday. Now there's a major problem with Tesla's newest vehicle, the Cybertruck, which has apparently forced the company to halt production, sales, and deliveries. SEE ALSO: Tesla to cut more than 10% of workforce, report claims While Tesla has yet to confirm the problem, some Tesla Cybertruck owners have reported on social media that they have experienced a major safety issue in which the accelerator pedal gets stuck when it's being pressed down. Tweet may have been deleted Tesla customers who had ordered the Cybertruck have posted on the internet that their deliveries have been suspended due to either a recall or a "stop-sale." A well-known Elon Musk fan account on X, which usually reports on Tesla news, also reported that the company has stopped Cybertruck deliveries due to the accelerator issue.

If you're a gamer with a design bug, IKEA thinks you'll love it's new collection of "gaming furniture," due in stores in September 2024. The furniture giant says that its 20-piece Brännboll collection "challenges traditional gaming design" and should more peacefully co-exist in aesthetic harmony within your home than, say, a Secretlab gaming chair. SEE ALSO: The best gaming monitor for upgrading your visuals But the collection seems more like a brilliant marketing ploy than a genuine attempt to meet gamers where they are. Much of Brännboll looks like regular old IKEA furniture, accessorized with an Asus ROG Ally console or a Meta Quest 2 VR headset. The gaming market is currently estimated to be worth about $282 billion in the US alone and IKEA's only previous foray into the industry was a small line of black and red gaming furniture in 2021. A tall standing cabinet harbors a hidden fold-down tabletop with storage for a PC and monitor.

With its plan to return samples from Mars in jeopardy, NASA is now making a desperate plea for outside help to save the costly and complex mission. NASA administrator Bill Nelson and the agency's head of science, Nikki Fox, announced Monday they will seek suggestions from the greater space industry with a formal request for ideas. The agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which has been overseeing the mission from California, has already laid off about 530 employees — about 8 percent of its workforce — and 40 contractors in the face of budget constraints . NASA will solicit new concept proposals for the mission that could reduce spending and hasten the timeline. The agency is also asking other NASA campuses to weigh in. By the fall, they hope to have some new ideas to consider. When asked what happens if there aren't any practical solutions, administrator Bill Nelson quipped, "Better than not to try." "I suspect if folks at NASA and our contractors an

By now, you've likely heard that Apple is making big moves in the AI space in order to compete with competitors like Microsoft and Google. Its upcoming M4 chipset for its Macs and MacBooks is being built for AI. And, when it comes to mobile devices, the soon-to-be-released iOS 18 is going to have a heavy focus on AI, bringing new AI-powered capabilities to your iPhone. According to Bloomberg's Apple insider Mark Gurman, Apple is looking to continue its privacy-focused ethos with its AI products, too — at least, where it can. "As the world awaits Apple's big AI unveiling on June 10, it looks like the initial wave of features will work entirely on device," Gurman writes in his paid Power On newsletter (first highlighted by MacRumors) . "That means there's no cloud processing component to the company's large language model, the software that powers the new capabilities." SEE ALSO: iOS 18 rumors: Everything we know about the next big iPhone