Nvidia’s new GTX 1660 Ti and 1650 could power your next budget gaming laptop

Gaming laptops have never been so thin and yet so powerful as they are with Nvidia’s RTX graphics chips, and we believe the RTX 2060 is the sweet spot for price and performance. But if laptops with those chips are too pricey for your pocketbook, you’ll want to check out the new GeForce GTX 1660 Ti and 1650 mobile GPUs, which were just announced today.
Featured in laptops starting at $1,000, Nvidia says the standard GeForce GTX 1660 Ti can deliver 100 frames per second in today’s popular battle royale games, including Fortnite, Apex Legends, and PUBG, and over 60 fps with an $800-plus laptop sporting the new GTX 1650, each at 1080p resolution and high settings.
But as is typical with many of Nvidia’s recent chips, there is one catch: each of these new Turing GPUs comes in both a full-fat and a less power-hungry Max-Q variant, which can fit into even thinner laptops (including many that do double-duty for work and play) at the expense of some performance. With an 80-watt thermal envelope, Nvidia says the standard GTX 1660 Ti is only about 5 percent slower, depending on the game, than the 80-watt RTX 2060 we liked! But the 60-watt Max-Q version of the GTX 1660 Ti might be a slightly different story.
The chips will be most compelling if your current laptop is a little bit older. The 1660 Ti isn’t hugely more powerful (1.2x to 1.5x performance) than a mobile GTX 1060 already was previously. But Nvidia says there are tens of millions of laptop gamers still rocking a GTX 960M or earlier, and those users should see up to four times the performance from the new GTX 1660 Ti in modern games. You can see some more of Nvidia’s specific performance estimates in the gallery above.
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New York City’s algorithm task force is fracturing

In 2017, New York City passed a law to keep the city’s automated systems in check. Local Law 49, the first law of its kind in the nation, established a task force to examine the hidden algorithms governing life in New York and suggested a way for experts to study those tools for error and bias.
As automated systems take over more and more decision-making in cities around the country, the new group could ask key questions about the systems that are being used in New York. Which tools decide who is first — or last — in line for government services? Does automation favor some neighborhoods more than others? If so, who’s being left behind? The new task force could examine those questions and recommend changes where necessary.
But the New York task force now shows signs of fraying, raising troubling questions for the algorithmic accountability movement nationwide. Some members have turned openly critical of the city, accusing officials of failing to provide transparent access to information, effectively turning the task force into a publicity effort instead of a source of accountability.
At a city council hearing earlier this month, city officials said they had not yet come up with a definition of automated decision systems (ADS), the tools that the task force is meant to examine, and they couldn’t identify a single instance of an automated system that the task force could study in detail. “It has taken more time than we originally thought it would take,” an official admitted at the hearing.
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Mozilla releases Firefox beta for Windows 10 ARM laptops

Mozilla is releasing an ARM version of its Firefox browser today for Windows 10. While Microsoft and Google have been working together on Chromium browsers for Windows on ARM, Mozilla has been developing its own ARM64-native build of Firefox for Snapdragon-powered Windows laptops. We got an early look at this version of Firefox late last year, and it seemed to fare well on an ARM laptop with a dozen tabs open.
This new build of Firefox is available today as part of Mozilla’s beta channel for the browser for anyone with an ARM-powered Windows 10 laptop to test. That might not be a lot of people right now, but Mozilla has been working on its Firefox Quantum technology to optimize Firefox for the octa-core CPUs available from Qualcomm. This should mean the performance is relatively solid, while maintaining all of the regular web compatibility you’d expect from Firefox.
Chromium ARM64 builds seem relatively close, too. A developer successfully built and ran a version of Chromium on an ARM-powered laptop recently, demonstrating that it should also perform well on these devices.

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The first AI-generated textbook shows what robot writers are actually good at

Academic publisher Springer Nature has unveiled what it claims is the first research book generated using machine learning.
The book, titled Lithium-Ion Batteries: A Machine-Generated Summary of Current Research, isn’t exactly a snappy read. Instead, as the name suggests, it’s a summary of peer-reviewed papers published on the topic in question. It includes quotations, hyperlinks to the work cited, and automatically generated references contents. It’s also available to download and read for free if you have any trouble getting to sleep at night.
While the book’s contents are soporific, the fact that it exists at all is exciting. Writing in the introduction, Springer Nature’s Henning Schoenenberger (a human) says books like this have the potential to start “a new era in scientific publishing” by automating drudgery.
Schoenenberger points out that, in the last three years alone, more than 53,000 research papers on lithium-ion batteries have been published. This represents a huge challenge for scientists who are trying to keep abreast of the field. But by using AI to automatically scan and summarize this output, scientists could save time and get on with important research.
“This method allows for readers to speed up the literature digestion process of a given field of research instead of reading through hundreds of published articles,” writes Schoenenberger. “At the same time, if needed, readers are always able to identify and click through to the underlying original source in order to dig deeper and further explore the subject.”

Slack is now easier to use with Microsoft’s Office 365 apps

Slack is integrating Microsoft’s Office 365 services today. While apps like OneDrive and Azure Active Directory have previously been available on Slack, the messaging service will now have far deeper integration with Office apps and files, including a new Outlook calendar and mail app, an updated OneDrive app, and the ability to preview Office files directly in Slack.
The new Outlook calendar app for Slack is designed to bring all of your meetings and calendar invites into the messaging service. It will message you when a meeting invite arrives, allowing you to respond with a single click. It will also include reminders to join Skype, Webex, or Zoom meetings. The Outlook calendar app will even set your Slack status automatically based on your calendar, and it will add “out of office” to a status if you’ve enabled it in Outlook.
Slack is also adding Outlook mail integration, with the ability to bring emails straight into Slack channels. Previously, you needed a third-party solution to enable this. You’ll be able to forward emails from Outlook directly into a Slack channel or direct message alongside adding a note and even including mail attachments. Similar email functionality already exists for Gmail, and the Outlook add-in will be available today.

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Smart glasses company North announces new, essential features for Focals

North, the company behind the Focals smart glasses, announced this week that it’s updating its glasses to add new, much-needed functionality. Of most interest to me, and as I noted as a feature I’d like to see in my prior review, the company added support for Spotify controls. Users will be able to skip songs, see a track’s title/artist, and adjust the volume of their connected listening device from the glasses’ accompanying control ring, called the Loop.
The company’s also rolling out direction updates that will provide steps to take for transit, as well as delays. Users can also share their ETAs with contacts. Up until now, Focals could only provide walking directions or the ability to call an Uber. It doesn’t provide driving directions, likely because Focals shut off when they think a wearer is driving.
Additionally, the company introduced a feature called “Rewind” that takes advantage of the glasses’ built-in microphone. The glasses capture voice notes, send them back to North’s servers, which then process and transcribe them. Users will receive an email with their audio and text notes after they’ve been processed.
All these features sound nifty and are important for the company’s survival. When I reviewed the glasses in February, I specifically called out the fact that they didn’t support transit directions — essential for a New Yorker — and that they didn’t allow for music playback — a key reason I often have to check my phone.
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The Hidizs Sonata HD is the best USB-C audio dongle

One of the frustrations of my job is the difficulty of convincingly communicating differences in sound quality. If I want to inform you of a great new camera, such as the Huawei P30 Pro’s low-light heroics, I can post side-by-side photos and demonstrate exactly how much of an upgrade the latest tech is. A great new display can also be photographed to show off its strengths. New video game with awesome graphics? More visual evidence can be provided. But if I want to tell you about an amazing pair of headphones, all I have is words. So I suppose you’ll have to just trust me when I say that a $28 USB-C audio dongle by an obscure company called Hidizs is the best you can buy.
It’s 2019 and the issue of headphone dongles is very much still with us. Most people buying new headphones these days are looking to get a wireless pair, but the majority of headphones and earphones that we already own tend to have a wire terminating in a 3.5mm connector. As of right now, if you want a headphone jack on your phone, you have a choice between either getting an LG flagship, which offers easily the best sound quality in any smartphone with its quad-DAC audio setup, a Samsung Galaxy device, or a mid-ranger from some other company (such as Huawei’s P30, for instance, which sits just below the top P30 Pro model). Or you can buy a separate dongle.
The Hidizs Sonata HD is my favorite audio dongle, surpassing the quality of all the (mostly mediocre) audio adapters bundled in the box with various smartphones. The great thing about this USB-C adapter, which happens to also be a DAC and amplifier, is that it’s characterless. It doesn’t tinge your music in any direction, it doesn’t boost or deaden any frequencies, just plays things straight. It also gets plenty loud enough, which is not something that every USB-C dongle can claim.
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Kaz Hirai is retiring from Sony

Sony chairman Kazuo “Kaz” Hirai has announced his retirement, drawing a 35-year career with the company to a close. Hirai stepped down as CEO a little over a year ago, passing the role to Kenichiro Yoshida, the CFO with whom he orchestrated Sony’s turnaround from a money-losing gadget maker to a profitable company focused on components and the PlayStation business.
Hirai will leave his chairman role on June 18th, but will continue to act as occasional “senior advisor” for the company upon the request of Sony’s management team. “Hirai-san and I have been working on management reforms together since December 2013,” says Yoshida in a statement. “While he will be retiring from both Chairman and our Board of Directors, we look forward to his continuing high-level support to Sony’s management that encompasses a breadth of diverse businesses.”
“Since passing the baton of CEO to Yoshida-san last April, as Chairman of Sony, I have had the opportunity to both ensure a smooth transition and provide support to Sony’s management,” Hirai’s statement says. “I am confident that everyone at Sony is fully aligned under Yoshida-san’s strong leadership, and are ready to build an even brighter future for Sony. As such, I have decided to depart from Sony, which has been a part of my life for the past 35 years. I would like to extend my warmest gratitude to all our employees and stakeholders who have supported me throughout this journey.”
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Record labels sue Charter for not kicking off music pirates

Major music labels are suing Charter Communications for not kicking pirates off its service. Late last week, Warner Bros., Sony, Universal Music Group, and several subsidiaries claimed Charter had “knowingly contributed to, and reaped substantial profits from, massive copyright infringement committed by thousands of its subscribers.” Specifically, the complaint says Charter received notices that its subscribers were pirating music through BitTorrent and other services, but it refused to terminate their accounts. A similar suit has been filed against Charter subsidiary Bright House Networks.
“Charter did not want to lose subscriber revenue by terminating accounts of infringing subscribers,” the complaint reads. “Nor did Charter want to risk the possibility that account terminations would make its service less attractive to other existing or prospective users.” As Ars Technica pointed out, it actually comes close to suggesting that Charter promoted piracy simply by advertising high download speeds — complaining that “Charter has told existing and prospective customers that its high-speed service enables subscribers to ‘download just about anything instantly,’” and “told subscribers that its Internet service ‘has the speed you need for everything you do online.’”
The suit says that “tens of thousands” of Charter subscribers were flagged for copyright infringement, and it’s asking a court for damages that include Charter’s profits from maintaining these accounts. Charter told The Verge in a statement that “we will defend against these baseless accusations.”
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Huawei’s FreeLace neckbuds pair and charge by plugging into your phone

Huawei has a quirky new idea for wireless earphones, and I’m into it. The company’s new FreeLace neckbuds can be disconnected from one another, exposing a USB-C plug that can be jacked into your Huawei phone to facilitate seamless Bluetooth pairing or simply charge up the buds. This eliminates the need for a separate charging cable, and it sidesteps one of the biggest pain points with wireless audio.
The Huawei FreeLace are rated to last for 18 hours of music or 12 hours of calls on a single charge, and they can be fast-charged to run for four hours off of five minutes of being plugged in.
The look, shape, and function of the FreeLace are super reminiscent of OnePlus’ Bullets Wireless. The design is IPX5-certified for water and sweat resistance, and it’s balanced in weight, with two elongated modules housing batteries and the in-line volume and playback controls. Huawei has done a terrific job of creating chunky, clicky buttons that are a pleasure to use with the FreeLace.
I tried out these earphones for myself, and my lingering impression is all about the joy of those buttons. I won’t comment much on the FreeLace sound yet, other than to say that it’s rich on bass and tuned to generate excitement. The audio driver inside of each bud measures 9.2 mm in diameter.
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Apple might update the iPod touch

Apple has already announced a few product refreshes this week, but it might not be done just yet. The iPod touch may be the next device to get a hardware update, and according to MacRumors, the seventh-generation model may be announced tomorrow via a press release, as Apple did with the low-profile announcements of the new iPad Air, iPad mini, and today’s iMac.
A new iPod touch hitting soon seems plausible, as it has been name-dropped by Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst with a good record for predicting Apple launches. MacRumors also notes that developer Steve Troughton-Smith discovered references to what could be a refreshed iPod touch in iOS 12.2 code.
Aside from that, an iPod touch upgrade makes sense because it’s among the oldest devices that Apple still features on its store. It was last updated in 2015, and it’s beyond due for an upgrade since it is powered by the aging A8 processor that’s also found in the iPhone 6.
As far as what could change, it’s safe to expect a significant boost to the iPod touch’s processing power. But otherwise, it’s unclear if Apple will stick with the thick-bezeled design to draw a clear line between its iPhones and the last remaining iPod, or welcome it to the notch party.
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Walmart is planning to launch its own low-cost Android tablet

Walmart is planning to release an inexpensive tablet under its in-house ONN brand, a spokesperson for the company has confirmed to Bloomberg. The report claims the device will be manufactured by a Chinese supplier, run on Android, and it’s expected to be aimed at kids.
The tablet is the latest attempt by the retailer to establish itself in the electronics space after it released a Walmart-branded lineup of gaming PCs and laptops last year under its new Overpowered brand. We reviewed the so-called Overpowered 17+ laptop and were left disappointed by its flimsy build quality, poor specs, and insufficient customer support. Reviews of the desktop gaming model have been similarly unimpressed.
What’s different about the upcoming Android tablet is that it will reportedly be aimed at the budget end of the market. Its main competitor will be Amazon, which produces tablets like the $79.99 Fire HD 8 and $149 Fire HD 10 — both of which are available as child-friendly Kids Editions. However, Amazon’s tablets run on its own Amazon Fire OS, a fork of Android, and so they don’t have access to a full range of Android apps. If Walmart’s tablets run on stock Android rather than a fork, this could be a key advantage for it.
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Dropbox adds three-device limit for free users

Dropbox has quietly updated its website to allow users on the company’s free storage plan to only connect up to three laptops, tablets, or phones to their account at one time, as spotted by Liliputing.
Users with more than three devices linked before March 2019 will be allowed to keep those devices connected, even if they’re over the three-device limit. But adding new devices — say, if you get a new computer or phone — won’t be allowed. If you have more than three devices that you’d like to use with your account, you’ll either have to pay for a Plus or Professional plan or get used to constantly linking and unlinking devices. Mobile devices count toward the three-device limit, too. So if your account is linked to a laptop, a phone, and a tablet, you’ll already run into the new limit.
It’s hard to view the new restriction as anything but a move by Dropbox to encourage customers to pay for its paid plans, which include the $9.99-per-month Plus subscription for 1TB of storage or the $19.99-per-month Professional plan with 2TB of storage. It’s not the first time we’ve seen this sort of device limit from companies that are looking to push premium subscribers.
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Windows 7 users to receive notifications from Microsoft about end of support

Microsoft is planning to push notifications to Windows 7 users warning them about the upcoming end of support. The software giant will stop supporting Windows 7 on January 14th, 2020, and it will start warning consumers about this cutoff date next month. Microsoft’s end of support date means that Windows 7 and Office 2010 will no longer receive security updates, and the company wants consumers to upgrade to Windows 10 PCs and Office 365.
The notification won’t specifically mention upgrading to Windows 10, but it will warn of the date of support and link to microsoft.com/windows7, a site that will encourage consumers to upgrade to Windows 10 or purchase a more modern PC. “Beginning next month, if you are a Windows 7 customer, you can expect to see a notification appear on your Windows 7 PC,” explains Matt Barlow, CVP of Windows. “This is a courtesy reminder that you can expect to see a handful of times in 2019.”
Microsoft has learned from its persistent nagging notifications during the free Windows 10 upgrade period, and Windows 7 users will be able to select “do not remind me again” on the notification so they never see it again. If they simply dismiss it by closing the prompt, then it will trigger again. Microsoft says it will only be displayed a “handful” of times during 2019, and the notifications will stop once Windows 7 support ends in January.
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LG might sell a pod-based ice cream-making gadget in the future

I wasn’t looking for pod-related gadgets, but, somehow, they found me. LG hosted a pop-up at SXSW this year where it showed off a few new prototypes, although it mostly demoed new models of its CLOi line of home robots. Naturally, LG also brought something called the Snow White to the festival: an at-home ice cream machine that requires capsules to produce a treat.
The machine requires two pods: one for flavor and another for a base texture, which determines whether you’re making sorbet, ice cream, or gelato. Every capsule has a QR code printed on it that’ll tell the machine what to make. The person demoing this device didn’t know what ingredients were inside the capsules, except for shelf-safe pasteurized milk, nor how cold the machine could get.
Unfortunately, we don’t have pricing or availability details for the device, only that it’s in the prototype phase right now. I genuinely hope LG starts making ice cream pods, if only because I think that would be a funny line of business for the same company that also makes the awe-inspiring rollable OLED TV.
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The PS4’s Remote Play update now lets you stream to iOS devices

You can now use the PS4’s Remote Play functionality on iOS devices, thanks to version 6.50 of the console’s firmware, allowing you to remotely play your PS4 games from an iPhone or iPad (via Engadget). To access it, you’ll need to download the Remote Play app for your iOS device, and then pair it with your console. Compatible games can then be played over Wi-Fi using the on-screen buttons.
Announced back in 2013, Remote Play originally let you stream games from a PS4 console to the handheld PlayStation Vita, but later in 2016, Sony released Remote Play apps for both Windows and Mac. Although Sony has yet to announce a broader Android version of the service, the existence of an Android version of the app that’s exclusive to Sony Xperia phones suggests there aren’t any technical barriers.
Bringing the functionality to iOS is a huge expansion for Remote Play, although it’s a shame that you’re not officially able to pair a DualShock 4 controller with the app via Bluetooth for a more authentic experience (although some users have reported being able to get the controller working via a sneaky workaround). If you’re prepared to use a non-Sony controller, then you’ll be happy to know that MacStories is reporting that other MFi gamepads (such as the SteelSeries Nimbus) work just fine with the iOS app.
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T-Mobile tries to woo regulators on Sprint merger with promise of amazing 5G home internet

T-Mobile says it’ll launch a 5G home internet service with fast speeds, easy installation, and low prices that will reach half of all US homes within five years and meaningfully shake up the woefully anti-competitive cable industry. There’s just one catch: T-Mobile says this only comes true if its Sprint merger is approved.
In a blog post and Federal Communications Commission filing today, T-Mobile outlines in the most detail yet what its 5G home internet service will look like. The company started divulging some details around the offering last September, but with today’s CEO-written blog post, T-Mobile is starting to advertise its promises in a far more public fashion.
T-Mobile says it plans to create a true cable competitor using 5G, offering speeds at 100 Mbps or higher. It’ll come at an unspecified lower cost, and customers will be able to set up the system themselves, so they won’t have to wait around for someone to install it. T-Mobile thinks it can have 9.5 million customers within five years, and save customers up to $13 billion in that time because of the increased competition.
It’s an exciting picture, but the thing to remember is that this is all a big, beautiful dream that T-Mobile is describing to get its merger approved.
If T-Mobile and Sprint merge, the United States would shrink from four major wireless carriers down to three. The previous leader of the FCC repeatedly said that four carriers are necessary to maintain a competitive environment. And while the current leader doesn’t seem to believe that, this general concern is a big element of what’s holding up the 10-month-old merger agreement.
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A new tool from Google and OpenAI lets us better see through the eyes of artificial intelligence

What does the world look like to AI?
Researchers have puzzled over this for decades, but in recent years, the question has become more pressing. Machine vision systems are being deployed in more and more areas of life, from health care to self-driving cars, but “seeing” through the eyes of a machine — understanding why it classified that person as a pedestrian but that one as a signpost — is still a challenge. Our inability to do so could have serious, even fatal, consequences. Some would say it already has due to the deaths involving self-driving cars.
New research from Google and nonprofit lab OpenAI hopes to further pry open the black box of AI vision by mapping the visual data these systems use to understand the world. The method, dubbed “Activation Atlases,” lets researchers analyze the workings of individual algorithms, unveiling not only the abstract shapes, colors, and patterns they recognize, but also how they combine these elements to identify specific objects, animals, and scenes.
Google’s Shan Carter, a lead researcher on the work, told The Verge that if previous research had been like revealing individual letters in algorithms’ visual alphabet, Activation Atlases offers something closer to a whole dictionary, showing how letters are put together to make actual words. “So within an image category like ‘shark,’ for example, there will be lots of activations that contribute to it, like ‘teeth’ and ‘water,’” says Carter.
The work is not necessarily a huge breakthrough, but it’s a step forward in a wider field of research known as “feature visualization.” Ramprasaath Selvaraju, a PhD student at Georgia Tech who was not involved in the work, said the research was “extremely fascinating” and had combined a number of existing ideas to create a new “incredibly useful” tool.
Selvaraju told The Verge that, in the future, work like this will have many uses, helping us to build more efficient and advanced algorithms as well as improve their safety and remove bias by letting researchers peer inside. “Due to the inherent complex nature [of neural networks], they lack interpretability,” says Selvaraju. But in the future, he says, when such networks are routinely used to steer cars and guide robots, this will be a necessity.
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Microsoft reportedly launching disc-less Xbox One S next month

Microsoft is reportedly launching a new Xbox One S without a disc drive next month. Windows Central reports that Microsoft will unveil a disc-less “Xbox One S All-Digital Edition,” with preorders expected to be available in mid-April. This new console is said to be available in stores in May, ahead of Microsoft’s typical E3 show in June.
Codenamed “Xbox Maverick,” details on the disc-less console appeared in November. Microsoft is also rumored to be creating an option to ship this disc-less console with games pre-installed, so new Xbox owners can choose the games they want installed before the console ships.
If the report is accurate, Microsoft’s disc-less Xbox One S will be designed for digital copies of games. It will likely mean this new console is cheaper than the existing Xbox One S, as the costly Blu-ray drive is being removed. It will also be designed for services like the Xbox Game Pass, that deliver games digitally.
Microsoft has been aggressively pushing its Xbox Game Pass, a subscription service that provides access to more than 100 Xbox games. The software maker even started launching its first-party Xbox Game Studios titles like Sea of Thieves and Crackdown 3 on Xbox Game Pass at the same time as their retail launch dates. Microsoft hasn’t provided exact Xbox Game Pass subscriber numbers, but the company has said millions pay monthly for the service.
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You can now control your Roku with an Amazon Echo

After announcing support for Google Assistant last fall, Roku is today doing the same for Amazon's Alexa voice assistant. After installing the new Roku skill, you'll be able to control the company's streaming devices and Roku TVs with voice commands like “Alexa, open Hulu on Roku.”
You can launch apps, pause content, or search for something to watch with your voice. Roku TV owners can turn their TV on or off, adjust the volume, or change inputs using Alexa as well. You'll still need to mention “Roku” in each voice command instead of just “the TV,” however. If you've got an antenna hooked up to your Roku TV, you can also tune to specific channels.
Roku tells me that Alexa and Google Assistant have the same consistent functionality when it comes to controlling its devices. So there shouldn't be anything one voice assistant can do that the other can't.
As with Assistant, you'll need to already own an existing Alexa speaker like the Amazon Echo to control Roku. Roku hasn't built support for either platform into its own remote controls, which continue to run only the company's proprietary voice control system.
But Roku's voice commands are still in need of refinement. They can get the job done for simple requests, but that's about where it ends. By supporting both Amazon and Google’s alternatives, Roku is making its ecosystem a little bit more open as it works to improve its home-grown version.
Source:- The Verge

Microsoft reportedly plans to discuss next-gen Xbox consoles at E3 2019

Sony may have decided to skip the video game industry’s largest annual expo this year, but Microsoft plans to be back at E3 2019 with its usual blow-out press conference. And now, French gaming news outlet JeuxVideo is reporting that Microsoft plans to discuss its next-gen Xbox lineup as well.
We likely won’t get pricing details or product names, the report states, but we’ll certainly get some official confirmation of the two devices Microsoft is planning to release next year. The news lines up with the company’s slow and steady approach to unveiling its future console roadmap following the launch of the Xbox One X in fall 2017.
At last year’s E3, Microsoft unveiled the next iteration of Halo, to be called Halo Infinite, and also confirmed the rumors that it was officially working on a game streaming service for Xbox consoles that would also work across Windows PCs and mobile phones. (A report from just yesterday also has that cloud service coming to the Nintendo Switch.) In contrast to Sony’s more tight-lipped approach to next-gen hardware and services, Microsoft has already come out and revealed the name of the cloud service to be xCloud, with public trials starting this year.
Last December, the codenames for Microsoft’s new consoles apparently leaked, with one called Anaconda and another Lockheart under a new two-console development strategy codenamed “Scarlett.” Microsoft is reportedly taking its existing Xbox One S / One X “good/better” approach and apply that to its new generation as well, so there will be two console options for people at launch.

SoundCloud now helps artists self-distribute music to Spotify and other streaming platforms

SoundCloud announced today that it is adding distribution to its self-monetization Premier program. Those who are eligible in the open beta will now be able to self-upload, monetize, and publish their songs to other streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora for no additional cost — all from within SoundCloud. Notably, SoundCloud says those who use its distribution service will keep “100 percent of their distribution royalties from third-party services.”
To be eligible, users must have a SoundCloud Pro or Pro Unlimited account, have original music (or own all the rights for applicable music), be 18 years old or age of majority in their country, have no copyright strikes, and have at least 1,000 plays in the past month from countries where SoundCloud monetizes.
Although distribution is offered as part and parcel of SoundCloud’s Premier program, this doesn’t necessarily make it a free service. The cheaper SoundCloud Pro tier costs $72 annually, and it only allows you to distribute one release to all major services. Pro Unlimited costs $144 annually, and it allows for unlimited distribution. Depending on how extensively you use the platform, this could actually make it a more expensive option than competitors like CD Baby, which starts at $29 per album, and Distrokid, which is $19.99 a year with unlimited distribution. Spotify took a minor stake in Distrokid last fall, allowing artists in its beta self-monetization program to self-upload for free and then self-distribute through the Spotify for Artists dashboard.

Amazon starts selling Echo Wall Clock again after issuing connectivity fix

After a few weeks back in the product lab, Amazon’s Echo Wall Clock is again ready to ship after the company released a software update to address connectivity issues plaguing the initial version of the product that began selling last month.
The device, costing $29.99, connects to a compatible Echo product and mirrors the series of timers you set through Alexa with 60 LED lights around the edge. That way, you don’t have to continually ask the voice assistant for updates while cooking. It’s a simple and useful integration and, for that price, a pretty decent-looking wall clock to boot.
But it seems like there was some sort of issue with the Bluetooth link between the device and its Echo counterparts, requiring Amazon pull it from the store in late January while it figured out a fix. Now, if you order the Echo Wall Clock, you can get it as early as tomorrow with one-day paid shipping or in two days with Prime.

LG partners with smart oven startup for automated cooking

LG keeps making its ovens smarter — not by building its own software, but by outsourcing the effort to startups. The company announced today that its 2019 smart ovens will now recognize pre-packaged meals from Tovala, a smart oven company based out of Chicago. Owners of LG’s 2019 smart ovens will be able to scan meals through Tovala’s app, then have their oven automatically move through the correct settings to cook them.
While multiple smart oven companies, like June and Brava, have built food recognition systems into their devices, the Tovala team is the only one to have launched a companion meal shipment service. The team creates meals every week, cooks and packages them, and then ships them to customers. It’s a big undertaking that’s clearly caught LG’s attention, which means Tovala will no longer be limited to selling its meals only to Tovala oven customers.
The Tovala oven, which is in its second generation, steams, bakes, toasts, and broils food automatically based on each meal. Tovala also recently started letting users scan Trader Joe’s frozen foods, but it’s unclear whether LG’s ovens will be able to handle those, too.

Twitter has been storing your ‘deleted’ DMs for years

Twitter lets users delete direct messages from their own side of the conversation (the recipient will still get to keep a copy, unless they also choose to delete it). But it turns out, those deleted messages aren’t really getting removed at all, according to a report from security researcher Karan Saini, via TechCrunch.
It turns out that despite showing that the message was deleted, Twitter still stores all those DMs dating back years. Folks can access this simply by downloading the archived data on their account from Twitter. Saini confirms that even messages sent to and from deleted or suspended accounts are still accessible.
Now, this isn’t the most concerning of bugs — the data appears to only be available to the user that sent or received the message, but the fact that Twitter isn’t deleting the messages when it says that it is, isn’t a great look for the company. Twitter is at least aware of the issue, commenting to TechCrunch that it was “looking into this further to ensure we have considered the entire scope of the issue,” but that’s no guarantee that anything will change.

Apple buys AI voice startup that helps companies build Alexa and Google Assistant apps

Apple has acquired a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence startup called PullString that specializes in helping companies build conversational voice apps, according to a report from Axios. Pullstring was founded back in 2011 by former Pixar employees — its CEO, Oren Jacob, is Pixar’s former chief technology officer. Up until now, PullString was most well known within the tech industry as the software backbone behind voice systems for popular toys, like Mattell’s talking Hello Barbie doll.
It’s not clear what Apple will be getting out of the deal, which is said to be worth under $100 million, but well over the $44 million in venture capital funding PullString has amassed thus far. But beyond toys, PullString has also worked on the enterprise end to help companies build skills and apps for Amazon’s Alexa platform and Google Assistant. In that sense, Apple could be acquiring PullString to help accelerate the growth of Siri-powered apps and features, which are sorely lacking compared to the tens of thousands of integrations, skills, and actions Amazon and Google offer.