Revel is shutting down its shared electric moped service

Revel is leaving behind its roots and ending its (at times controversial) electric moped service New York City and San Francisco. Company CEO and co-founder Frank Reig has sent a company-wide email, viewed by TechCrunch, telling staff that "the service has been strained and ridership isn't what it used to be." Revel has also sent out emails to its passengers, notifying them that the service will shut down on November 18 and encouraging them to use their account credits before then. 

As the publication notes, Revel pulled the service out of its other markets in 2022, and only has around 3,000 mopeds operational in NYC and San Francisco. A spokesperson from the company told TechCrunch that ridership has dropped by 30 percent in both remaining cities year-over-year and that it's no longer sustainable to keep that segment of its business running. 

Revel temporarily paused its moped service a few times over the years due to safety concerns. In 2020, it suspended the ridesharing solution following an accident wherein two customers were killed while riding its vehicles. It brought back the service after implementing a mandatory in-app safety test and requiring riders to take a selfie of themselves wearing a helmet. Revel also pulled its mopeds from the Bronx for over a year due to a string of battery thefts.

Going forward, Revel will focus on its EV ride-hailing service operated by employee drivers across the five boroughs of New York. It also plans to expand its EV fast-charging stations in New York and the Bay Area.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/revel-is-shutting-down-its-shared-electric-moped-service-113046594.html?src=rss

Lucid cuts prices on Air luxury EVs by up to $10,000

Lucid is selling several of its electric vehicle models at a discount until November 30, and as Reuters notes, it's another sign that the EV market is going through period of slow demand in the midst of tougher competition. The automaker is now selling the 2023 Air Pure All Wheel Drive (AWD) for $74,900, down from $82,400. Meanwhile, the Air Touring now costs $87,500 instead of $95,000, and the Air Grand Touring will set buyers back $10,000 less at $115,600 instead of $125,600. Lucid is offering these discounts as "Air Credits," which the company launched during an earlier round of price cuts. 

"We think our customers still deserve a $7,500 credit for choosing an EV," Zak Edson, Lucid's Vice President of Sales and Service, said back in February. Buyers can get federal tax credits of up to $7,500 for electric vehicles within certain price ranges, but Lucid's luxury sedans are too expensive and don't qualify for the incentive. 

To note, customers can only avail of Lucid's discounts if they can take delivery within seven days of their order being ready. One of the company's main reasons for cutting prices seems to be to sell its current inventory, because the limited-time offers only apply to "cars for immediate delivery." Upon checking its available vehicles, Lucid has dozens of the aforementioned models available for buyers within the next two weeks. 

Lucid isn't the only EV-maker to cut its prices more than once over the past year. Tesla notably lowered its prices several times since 2022, the latest of which was announced after it revealed that it fell short of market estimates for deliveries in the third quarter of 2023. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lucid-cuts-prices-on-air-luxury-evs-by-up-to-10000-091529627.html?src=rss

Google’s plan to build 15,000 homes for the San Francisco Bay Project fizzles out

Google has ended its agreement with real estate developer Landlease for its San Francisco Bay Project, effectively scrapping its plans to build a campus with thousands of homes for employees and locals. The company announced the project in 2019, promising the "development of at least 15,000 new homes at all income levels" on at least $750 million worth of land it owns. Around 4,000 of those homes were supposed to be affordable housing, which would've been a welcome presence in the region with one of the highest costs of living in the country. 

The San Francisco Bay Project is a collective name for Google's planned developments in San Jose (Downtown West), Sunnyvale (Moffett Park) and Mountain View (Middlefield Park and North Bayshore). San Jose, in particular, approved the massive project in 2021, and it would've seen the construction of 4,000 homes, office space for approximately 20,000 employees, 300 hotel rooms and 10 parks. As part of the deal, Google had agreed to set aside $200 million in funding for displaced local businesses and job readiness programs. 

Earlier this year, however, Google put the Downtown West facility construction on hold after demolition had already started to make way for construction that was scheduled to begin in 2026. The company told Engadget at the time that it was still figuring out "how to best move forward" with the San Jose campus in a way that would cater to its "future needs." Workplaces have changed tremendously over the past few years, after all, mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic — Google, for instance, adopted a hybrid work schedule that allowed employees to work from home for a couple of days a week. Earlier this year, Google parent Alphabet also laid off 12,000 workers after going on a hiring spree during a period of growth. 

In Lendlease's announcement (PDF), it said that the companies have decided to end their agreement after Google did a comprehensive review of its real estate investments. They've apparently determined that the "existing agreements are no longer mutually beneficial given current market conditions. Based on what a company spokesperson told CNBC, though, Google hasn't entirely killed its housing projects. "As we've shared before, we've been optimizing our real estate investments in the Bay Area, and part of that work is looking at a variety of options to move our development projects forward and deliver on our housing commitment," Alexa Arena, a senior director of development at Google, told the news organization. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan also told CNBC that this development "doesn't change Google's commitment to San Jose or their timeline" and that it gives the company more flexibility to choose the "best possible developers" for the project. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/googles-plan-to-build-15000-homes-for-the-san-francisco-bay-project-fizzles-out-113526409.html?src=rss

Legacy HBO Max ad-free subscribers will lose access to 4K streams soon

In just a bit over a month, legacy HBO Max subscribers paying for ad-free streaming will be losing a couple of perks they're enjoying. One of those is 4K streaming. According to The Verge, the streaming service has started sending affected subscribers an email, notifying them that they won’t be able to stream in 4K anymore after December 5th. Warner Bros. Discovery promised existing subscribers when it rebranded the service into "Max" back in May they they would still have access to their plan's features over the next six months. After that period ends, their only option to retain 4K streaming is to let go of their $16-a-month subscription plan to switch to Max’s Ultimate Ad-Free tier that costs $20 a month.

The service introduced the tier when Max launched, promising users access to 1,000 4K movies and TV show episodes, some of which support Dolby Atmos and Vision. Subscribers who choose to keep their legacy plan will have to make do with Full HD resolution. In addition, legacy subscribers will no longer be able to stream on three devices at once, because Max will only allow them access to two concurrent streams. Both changes bring the legacy $16 subscription in line with the new Max Ad Free tier, which costs the same amount.

An Ultimate Ad Free subscription allows subscribers to stream on up to four devices at once, aside from giving them access to 4K content. It costs quite a bit more than the regular ad-free subscription, but those who want higher-quality streaming and can afford to plunk down $200 in one go will be seeing their yearly expenses for Max go up by just a few cents per month. Max also has a $10-a-month ad-supported tier for those who don’t mind their viewing experience interrupted by commercials.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/legacy-hbo-max-ad-free-subscribers-will-lose-access-to-4k-streams-soon-092315829.html?src=rss

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty of fraud, faces up to 110 years in prison

A federal jury has found FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried guilty on all seven counts of fraud and conspiracy, which he was charged with following the downfall of his cryptocurrency exchange. According to The New York Times, he faces a maximum sentence of 110 years in federal prison. SBF, as he's now infamously known, was arrested in the Bahamas back in December 2022 after the Department of Justice took a close look at his role in the rapid collapse of FTX. The agency examined whether he transferred hundreds of millions of dollars when the exchange filed for bankruptcy. (The company claimed it was hacked after around $600 million disappeared from its funds.) The DoJ also investigated whether FTX broke the law when it moved funds to its sister company, Alameda Research.

During SBF's trial, which took place over the past month, prosecutors argued that he used FTX funds to keep Alameda Research running. The fallen entrepreneur also founded the cryptocurrency hedge fund, which was ran by his girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who was aware that he used FTX customers' money to help Alameda meet its liabilities. Bankman-Fried previously denied that he deliberately misused FTX's funds. 

The Times says his lawyers tried to portray him as a math nerd who had to grapple with "forces largely outside of his control," but the jury clearly disagreed after the prosecution called Ellison and three of Bankman-Fried's former top advisers to the witness stand. Ellison and all of those advisers had pleaded guilty, with the Alameda Research chief admitting that she committed fraud at Bankman-Fried's direction. The FTX founder himself took the stand and said that he "deeply regret not taking a deeper look into" the $8 billion his hedge fund had borrowed from the cryptocurrency exchange. 

Bankman-Fried was charged with committing wire fraud against FTX customers; wire fraud on Alameda Research lenders; conspiracy to commit wire fraud against both; conspiracy to commit securities and commodities fraud on FTX customers; as well as conspiracy to commit money laundering. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 28, 2024 by US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who also presided over the FTX trial. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-found-guilty-on-seven-charges-of-fraud-and-conspiracy-012316105.html?src=rss

Brave’s AI assistant comes to its desktop browser

Brave joins the growing list of browsers that come with built-in generative AI assistants. The open source browser developer has started rolling out an update for Brave on desktop, which gives users access to its AI assistant Leo. Brave introduced Leo through its Nightly experimental channel back in August and has been testing it ever since. The assistant is based on the Llama 2 large language model, which Microsoft and Meta had developed together for commercial and research purposes. 

Like other AI assistants, users can ask Leo to do various tasks, such as creating summaries of web pages and videos, translating and/or rewriting pages and even generating new content. The Llama 2-powered Leo is available for free to all users, but Brave has also introduced a paid version capable of "higher-quality conversations." Leo Premium, as it's called, is powered by Anthropic's Claude Instant and can produce longer and more detailed responses. Users will have to pay $15 a month for it, but they will also get priority queuing during peak periods and early access to new features. 

In its announcement, Brave Software emphasized that Leo preserves users' privacy. The developer said that conversations with Leo are not persisted on its servers and that the assistant's responses are immediately discarded and "not used for model training." It also explained that it doesn't collect IP addresses and retain personal data that can identify a user. Plus, users don't even have to create an account to use Leo. 

Back in July, Brave came under fire after it was accused of selling copyrighted information to train artificial intelligence models without consent. "Brave Search has the right to monetize and put terms of service on the output of its search-engine," the company's Chief of Search, Josep M. Pujol, said at the time in response to the allegations. "The 'content of web page' is always an excerpt that depends on the user’s query, always with attribution to the URL of the content. This is a standard and expected feature of all search engines."

Brave is rolling out Leo on desktop in phases over the next few days. Those using the browser on their Android and iOS devices, however, will have to keep an eye out for its release on mobile in the coming months. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/braves-ai-assistant-comes-to-its-desktop-browser-160010918.html?src=rss

Amazon’s new Fire TV soundbar is 17 percent off in early Black Friday deal

It's been less than two months since Amazon launched the Fire TV soundbar at its annual fall event, but the device is already on sale as part of the website's early Black Friday offerings. You can get the brand new entry to the Fire TV line for $100, which is a full $20 less than its original list price. The device can enhance your TV audio with its dual speakers and give you access to a 3D virtual surround sound experience with its DTS Virtual:X and Dolby Audio support.

It can connect to your phone or tablet via Bluetooth, but it doesn't support Alexa voice commands. And if you want to adjust its volume, you'd have to use its remote. That said, if you have a Fire TV streaming device and a Fire TV-powered smart TV, you can use one remote for all of them — simply plug the soundbar's HDMI cable to your TV. 

Amazon's soundbar is just one of the Fire TV devices currently on sale at the website. You can get its streaming sticks for up to half off their usual prices, including the Fire TV Stick Lite that's on sale for $18 and the standard Fire TV Stick that's listed for $20. If you don't mind spending a bit more for higher-quality streaming, you can get the Fire TV Stick 4K for $30 instead or the even beefier Fire TV Stick Max for $45. Finally, the TV Cube will cost you over 20 percent less than usual and will set you back $110.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazons-new-fire-tv-soundbar-is-17-percent-off-in-early-black-friday-deal-102022941.html?src=rss

Disney is taking full ownership of Hulu, setting it up to dominate streaming

Disney is buying the rest of Hulu from Comcast, the company has announced. It will acquire the 33 percent of Hulu Comcast still controls and expects to pay NBC Universal approximately $8.61 billion for the deal, though the final amount will be determined after an appraisal that will be wrapping up sometime next year. As The New York Times notes, the companies had agreed back in 2019 that Comcast could force Disney to buy its stake by next year and Disney could require Comcast to sell. The cable TV and media company chose to speed up negotiations with Disney instead of waiting until 2024. 

"The acquisition of Comcast’s stake in Hulu at fair market value will further Disney's streaming objectives," Disney said in its announcement. Earlier this year, the company revealed that it will launch a "one-app experience" that combines Disney+ and Hulu content by the end of 2023. While it didn't outright say at the time that it had plans to buy out Comcast, that was a pretty big clue that a full Hulu takeover was in the cards. Hulu's standalone app won't be going away anytime soon, but its offerings will also be available on Disney+ when the new experience launches. 

Disney CEO Bob Iger said when he announced the combined streaming app that it's "a logical progression" of the company's direct-to-consumer offerings "that will provide greater opportunities for advertisers, while giving bundle subscribers access to more robust and streamlined content..." As for Comcast, it already has its own streaming service — Peacock — and has been making its shows like The Voice available to its members. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/disney-to-buy-out-comcast-and-take-full-control-of-hulu-054157026.html?src=rss

YouTube is cracking down on ad blockers globally

YouTube is no longer preventing just a small subset of its userbase from accessing its videos if they have an ad blocker. The platform has gone all out in its fight against the use of add-ons, extensions and programs that prevent it from serving ads to viewers around the world, it confirmed to Engadget. "The use of ad blockers violate YouTube's Terms of Service," a spokesperson told us. "We've launched a global effort to urge viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad free experience. Ads support a diverse ecosystem of creators globally and allow billions to access their favorite content on YouTube."

YouTube started cracking down on the use of ad blockers earlier this year. It initially showed pop-ups to users telling them that it's against the website's TOS, and then it put a timer on those notifications to make sure people read it. By June, it took on a more aggressive approach and warned viewers that they wouldn't be able to play more than three videos unless they disable their ad blockers. That was a "small experiment" meant to urge users to enable ads or to try YouTube Premium, which the website has now expanded to its entire userbase. Some people can't even play videos on Microsoft Edge and Firefox browsers even if they don't have ad blockers, according to Android Police, but we weren't able to replicate that behavior.

People are unsurprisingly unhappy about the development and have taken to social networks like Reddit to air their grievances. If they don't want to enable ads, after all, the only way they can watch videos with no interruptions is to pay for a YouTube Premium subscription. Indeed, the notification viewers get heavily promotes the subscription service. "Ads allow YouTube to stay free for billions of users worldwide," it says. But with YouTube Premium, viewers can go ad-free, and "creators can still get paid from [their] subscription."

The website raised Premium's rates to $14 a month in July from $12 before that. YouTube Premium also gives users access to offline viewing, background playback and higher-quality 1080p streaming, but it could be too expensive for those who just want an ad-free experience. The platform used to offer a more affordable option called Premium Lite in certain European regions, and it only cost €7 ($7.42) a month to remove advertisements from videos. However, it never made Lite available worldwide and ultimately killed that option by the end of October.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtube-is-taking-its-fight-against-ad-blockers-global-122041223.html?src=rss

Sony ANC headphones are up to 53 percent off in Amazon’s early Black Friday sale

A bunch of Sony headphones, earbuds and other audio devices have been discounted as part of Amazon's early Black Friday sales, including the Sony WH-CH720N headset, which is currently selling for the lowest price we've seen for it on the website. You can get the noise canceling wireless headphones for $98, down 35 percent from their original list price of $150. They have a lightweight, over-ear design with ample space around your ears so that they'd be comfortable to use. And while you can completely block out outside noise for full immersion, you can also switch on their Adjustable Ambient Sound mode that comes with 20 levels for when you want to be aware of your surroundings. 

You can pair the WH-CH720N with two Bluetooth devices at the same time, and you can easily switch between them at the touch of a button. Plus, the model supports both Alexa and Google's voice assistants, and Sony says it can last for up to 35 hours on a single charge. 

The most deeply discounted product among the ones currently on sale, however, are the Sony WH-XB910N wireless headphones. They have the power to enhance low-end frequencies for extra bass with their "dedicated bass duct on the headphone housing" and "increased airtightness between the driver units and eardrums." The headphones use dual noise cancelation technology to keep ambient sounds out, and like the WH-CH720N, you can quickly switch between two connected Bluetooth devices. You can get the Sony WH-XB910N headphones right now for $118, which isn't quite a record-low for the model but is still 53 percent lower than its original price. 

If you're looking for earbuds instead of headphones, you can also grab a pair of Sony LinkBuds S with noise canceling capabilities for $128 (36 percent off) from the sale. Want earbuds designed to let ambient sounds in? The Sony LinkBuds earbuds with an open-ring design now also cost $128, or 29 percent less than their original list price. Finally, you can find deals on subwoofers and sound bars from Amazon, as well, if those are what you've been eyeing for the upcoming holiday season. 

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sony-anc-headphones-are-up-to-53-percent-off-at-amazon-095038076.html?src=rss