Getting access to everything you want to watch without a cable subscription is easy these days — but the subscription fees can add up quickly. On average, streaming services charge between $5 and $15 each month for their on-demand libraries. If you're a Verizon Wireless customer, however, you might be able to save a little with a new bundle: starting on June 2nd, the company will offer Netflix's Premium Plan and Paramount+ with Showtime for $25.99 per month. 

The deal is available exclusively through Verizon's +play portal, which it introduced last year as a tool to help customers manage their streaming subscriptions and discover new content. It's essentially a service that helps you consolidate all of your streaming bills in one place, and this bundle seems to be an incentive to get more users on the service. To get access, however, you'll need to be a Verizon Wireless customer specifically: subscribers to Verizon Fios don't qualify. 

Netflix's Premium plan costs $19.99 on its own, and you'll pay $11.99 for Paramount+ with Showtime — Verizon's deal can save about $6 a month for a qualifying customer. 

Amazon will pay $5.8 million to settle a recently announced privacy lawsuit raised by the Federal Trade Commission. According to the federal complaint, Ring had allowed employees and third-party contractors full access to customer video content. This unfettered access was abused by some employees and contractors and was used to violate the privacy of both Ring customers and other workers.

The lawsuit highlights several cases where hacked cameras were used to sexually harass and spy on women, stalk female co-workers who used Ring products, utter racial slurs toward children and more. The FTC alleges that Amazon failed to address these issues after buying the company in 2018, noting that security issues persisted from 2016 through 2020.

Amazon has previously fired employees for inappropriate use of customer data, telling US Senators in 2020 that at least four employees had been terminated for accessing or attempting to access data that "exceeded what was necessary for their job functions."

This isn't the first time Ring Doorbells have contended with privacy complaints, either. The company faced scrutiny last year for giving police footage from Ring products without user consent. In 2020, hackers used illicit access to Ring cameras to use in livestream swattings.

Amazon's Ring division tells Engadget that its settling the lawsuit to resolve the issue and move forward, but notes that it does not agree with the FTC's claims. "Our focus has been and remains on delivering products and features our customers love, while upholding our commitment to protect their privacy and security," the company's statement reads. "Ring promptly addressed these issues on its own years ago, well before the FTC began its inquiry. While we disagree with the FTC's allegations and deny violating the law, this settlement resolves this matter so we can focus on innovating on behalf of our customers." 

The company has published its official response on the Ring website. 

If you've been waiting for a game that takes the Assassin's Creed franchise back to its roots, you won't have to wait long: The May PlayStation Showcase just revealed that Assassin's Creed Mirage will release on October 12.

Set two decades before Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Mirage will put players in the robes of Basim Ibn in the city of Baghdad, 861 CE, and will have a stronger focus on stealth mechanics and parkour-based movement than its predecessor. That makes it look a lot like older games in the series from the trailers we've seen so far, but it hasn't completely abandoned Valhalla's innovations: Basim's pet eagle can scout ahead to spot threats and targets, just like the bird companions in the previous game.

Naturally, the PlayStation Showcase highlighted the game's release for PS4 and PS5 consoles, but Assassin's Creed Mirage will also be available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Amazon Luna and PC when it launches later this year.

Last August, SoundCloud cut its workforce by 20 percent, citing "the challenging economic climate" for the layoffs. That's been a common refrain among companies reducing staff in recent years — with companies like Google, Meta, Amazon and more framing layoffs as restructuring or cost cutting measures. Now, SoundCloud says it will be cutting staff by an additional 8 percent, telling staff that the reduction is a "challenging but essential decision to ensure the health of our business and get SoundCloud to profitability this year."

That goal was baked into the company's last round of layoffs too, with the 2022 cuts being positioned as putting SoundCloud on "a path to sustained profitability." This new "headcount reduction" seems to be the next step in that plan, with sources telling Billboard that the company hopes to be profitable by Q4. SoundCloud leadership has also reportedly said that it's courting new investors.

Although SoundCloud's layoffs follow the same gruesome pattern we've seen across different tech brands recently, the company has actually been slowly reducing staff for some time. In addition to last year's cuts, the company slashed its workforce by 40 percent back in 2017.

Check out Engadget's look at the biggest tech layoffs of 2023 for more details.