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Waymo’s vehicles are now fully driverless in Nashville

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Waymo has gotten a step closer to offering robotaxi rides to the public in Nashville, Tennessee. The company the city and making sure they can operate as fully autonomous rides before launching a paid service in the location. Waymo announced that it was planning to bring its robotaxis to Nashville in September 2025, with the intention opening up rides to the public sometime this year. The company has been testing its technology in Nashville since then, but it has yet say when it’ll start accepting bookings for rides.

The company conducts extensive testing in every new city before deploying its robotaxi service. It starts by having safety drivers map the area and then updating its software with information learned from those tests, since each city has its own driving rules and conditions. Despite its testing, Waymo has had to issue a software recall several times in the past after its vehicles malfunctioned when faced with real hazards on the road. Its vehicles were previously seeing hitting gates, chains, telephone poles and stationary vehicles. Most recently, it issued a recall because its robotaxis failed to stop for school buses.

At the moment, Waymo vehicles are already open to the public in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami and Phoenix, as well as in Atlanta and Austin through a partnership with Uber. It’s active in a lot more locations, including New York, New Orleans, Seattle and even Tokyo, Japan, but it’s not serving riders in those locations yet. Nashville is in the list of new locations where Waymo is conducting or planning to conduct driverless trials, along with Boston, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Orlando, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Diego, Washington and London, UK.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/waymos-vehicles-are-now-fully-driverless-in-nashville-120412343.html?src=rss

Riot Games is laying off half of the 2XKO development team

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Another day, another wave of gaming layoffs. Today it's Riot Games with the announcement that it's cutting jobs on its pair-based fighting game 2XKO. For context, a representative from Riot confirmed to Game Developer that about 80 people are being cut, or roughly half of 2XKO's global development team. 

"As we expanded from PC to console, we saw consistent trends in how players were engaging with 2XKO," according to the blog post from executive producer Tom Cannon. "The game has resonated with a passionate core audience, but overall momentum hasn’t reached the level needed to support a team of this size long term."

The console launch for 2XKO happened last month. Cannon said the company's plans for its 2026 competitive season have not altered with the layoffs. He added that Riot will attempt to place the impacted people at new positions within the company where possible.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/riot-games-is-laying-off-half-of-the-2xko-development-team-215423279.html?src=rss

DOJ may face investigation for pressuring Apple, Google to remove apps for tracking ICE agents

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House Judiciary Committee member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) has asked the US Department of Justice to turn over all its communications with both Apple and Google regarding the companies' decisions to remove apps that shared information about sightings of US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers. Several apps that allowed people to share information about where they had seen ICE members were removed from both Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store in October. Politico reported that Raskin has contacted Attorney General Pam Bondi on the issue and also questioned the agency's use of force against protestors as it executes the immigration policy set by President Donald Trump.

"The coercion and censorship campaign, which ultimately targets the users of ICE-monitoring applications, is a clear effort to silence this Administration’s critics and suppress any evidence that would expose the Administration’s lies, including its Orwellian attempts to cover up the murders of Renee and Alex," Raskin wrote to Bondi. He refers to Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were both fatally shot by ICE agents. In the two separate incidents, claims made by federal leaders about the victims and the circumstances of their deaths were contradicted by eyewitnesses or camera footage, echoing violent interactions and lies about them that occurred while ICE conducted raids in Chicago several months ago.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/doj-may-face-investigation-for-pressuring-apple-google-to-remove-apps-for-tracking-ice-agents-212145181.html?src=rss

OpenAI starts testing ads in ChatGPT

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Users on ChatGPT's free and Go plans in the US may now start to see ads as OpenAI has started testing them in the chatbot. The company announced plans to bring ads to ChatGPT. At the time, the company said it would display sponsored products and services that are relevant to the current conversations of logged-in users, though they can disable personalization and "clear the data used for ads” whenever they wish.

“Our goal is for ads to support broader access to more powerful ChatGPT features while maintaining the trust people place in ChatGPT for important and personal tasks,” OpenAI wrote in a blog post. “We’re starting with a test to learn, listen and make sure we get the experience right.”

These ads will appear below at the bottom of chats. They're labeled and separated from ChatGPT's answers. Ads won't have an impact on ChatGPT's responses.

Ads won't appear when users are conversing with ChatGPT about regulated or sensitive topics such as health, mental wellbeing or politics. Users aged under 18 won't see ads in ChatGPT during the tests either. Moreover, OpenAI says it won't share or sell users' conversations or data to advertisers. 

A source close to the company told CNBC that OpenAI expects ads to account for less than half of its revenue in the long run. Currently the company also takes a cut of items bought through its chatbot via the shopping integration feature. Also according to CNBC, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told staff on Friday that the company will deploy "an updated Chat model" this week.

The tests come on the heels of Anthropic running Super Bowl ads that poked fun at OpenAI for introducing advertising. Anthropic's spot asserted that while “ads are coming to AI,” they won’t appear in its own chatbot, Claude.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-starts-testing-ads-in-chatgpt-191756493.html?src=rss

Here’s how to disable Ring’s creepy Search Party feature

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Ring aired a Super Bowl ad touting its

that didn't quite get the intended buzz. Instead, the commercial scared the pants off of anyone

.

The feature is advertised as a way to reunite missing dogs with their owners, a noble cause indeed, but Search Party does this by turning individual Ring devices into a surveillance network. Each camera uses AI to identify pets running across its field of vision and all feeds are pooled together to potentially identify lost animals. I've never seen a slope quite so slippery, as the technology could easily be rejiggered to track people.

It's also worth noting that this isn't a new feature. Search Party was

. In that time it has been used to find 99 lost dogs in 90 days of use, according to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Approximately ten million pets go missing in America each year. Many people aren't keen on helping to create a surveillance state for a tool with what looks to be around a 0.005 percent success rate. That percentage is sure to rise with mass adoption, but you get the jist.

With that said, many Ring users are looking for a way to disable the feature, as it's enabled by default. Engadget has got you covered.

Thankfully, this is fairly easy to do. Just open the Ring app and tap the menu in the top-left corner. Next, select Control Center. Then, tap Search Party and toggle the settings to Disable for both Search for Lost Pets and Natural Hazards. Repeat this process for each camera.

There has also been some confusion as to what Ring

. If you want to go a step further, delete all of your saved videos by tapping the History icon and then "Delete All."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/heres-how-to-disable-rings-creepy-search-party-feature-185420455.html?src=rss

YouTube TV launches curated subscription packages this week

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YouTube is launching YouTube TV Plans this week, after revealing the program back in December. These are genre-specific subscription packages that let users opt into a curated version of the service and save a few bucks in the process. Yeah. It's pretty much cable, proving you can't cut a cord if it's made out of invisible radio waves.

There are more than ten plans available and they are all cheaper than the typical asking price of $83 per month. There's a Sports Plan that costs $65 per month and includes channels like FS1, NBC Sports Network and all of the ESPN networks. Subscribers will pay $72 per month to add some news channels like CNN and CSPAN to the sports package.

The Entertainment Plan costs $55 per month and includes networks like Bravo, Comedy Central, FX and the Food Network, among many others. There's a beefier version of this that costs $70 per month and adds in family channels like the Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, along with news channels.

Signing up for one of these plans still provides various perks of a standard YouTube TV subscription. These include unlimited DVR, multiview and the ability to add up to six members on one account. Of course, those with deep pockets can spring for some premium add-ons like HBO Max, 4K Plus and the NFL Sunday Ticket.

A list of prices with discounts.
YouTube

Some plans are rolling out later in the week, but YouTube says it could take "several weeks" for every plan to become available. New customers receive a discount for the first three months, which is worth looking into.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/youtube-tv-launches-curated-subscription-packages-this-week-170710000.html?src=rss

Apple’s Magic Mouse drops to only $68

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Apple's USB-C Magic Mouse is back on sale for about $11 off its usual retail price of $79. At $68, that's a savings of 14 percent for one of Apple's best accessories from a company that does not often run sales.

The multi-touch mouse was first released in 2009 with a modest refresh released in 2015 and the addition of a USB-C port in 2024. The rechargeable mouse features gesture controls and automatically pairs with your Mac when connected via USB. The Magic Mouse can also be used with an iPad via Bluetooth, or with a Windows PC, though in that case, functionality would be limited.

Famously, Jony Ive's design of the Magic Mouse sees its charge port on the underside of the body, rendering it unusable while charging. In 2024 there were rumors of a more comprehensive redesign coming but nothing has materialized since.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-magic-mouse-drops-to-only-68-152708721.html?src=rss

Apple’s Magic Mouse is down to $68 right now

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Apple's USB-C Magic Mouse is back on sale for about $11 off its usual retail price of $79. At $68, that's a savings of 14 percent for one of Apple's best accessories from a company that does not often run sales.

The multi-touch mouse was first released in 2009 with a modest refresh released in 2015 and the addition of a USB-C port in 2024. The rechargeable mouse features gesture controls and automatically pairs with your Mac when connected via USB. The Magic Mouse can also be used with an iPad via Bluetooth, or with a Windows PC, though in that case, functionality would be limited.

Famously, Jony Ive's design of the Magic Mouse sees its charge port on the underside of the body, rendering it unusable while charging. In 2024 there were rumors of a more comprehensive redesign coming but nothing has materialized since.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-magic-mouse-is-down-to-68-right-now-152708925.html?src=rss

The first PlayStation State of Play of 2026 will air on February 12

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The first PlayStation State of Play livestream of 2026 has been announced. The stream will take place on February 12 at 5PM ET. It will run for over an hour and feature PlayStation Studios titles as well as third-party projects and indie games that are bound for PS5. You can watch it on PlayStation’s official YouTube channel (in English, Japanese or with English subtitles) or on Twitch.

As the first State of Play of the year, Sony is going to want to drum up some more hype for its upcoming release slate. Since Bungie’s Marathon is due to arrive on March 5, that will surely make an appearance. MLB The Show 26, which is out on March 17, will likely get a look in too. We could also get another peek at Saros, the highly anticipated follow-up to Housemarque’s Returnal, which will arrive on March 20. A new trailer for Marvel’s Wolverine isn’t out of the question, but Sony could wait until a summer showcase to give us another look at that one. 

The last State of Play took place in November, but that one was focused solely on games coming out of Asia and Japan. Before that, Sony also had a showcase during Tokyo Game Show in September, which featured a first look at gameplay from the aforementioned Wolverine, which is due to arrive later in 2026.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/the-first-playstation-state-of-play-of-2026-will-air-on-february-12-145747775.html?src=rss

HBO Max is finally coming to the UK and Ireland

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A big day in streaming has finally arrived: HBO Max has finally announced it's coming to the United Kingdom and Ireland. The two countries join over 110 territories worldwide that already offer HBO Max. Some HBO shows, like Euphoria, have already been available in these regions through other platforms. HBO Max will bring titles like The Pitt, One Battle After Another and Sinners. It will also air the upcoming Harry Potter series. 

An HBO Max subscription will be available in the UK and Ireland starting on Thursday, March 26. Plans will start at Basic with Ads for £5 per month, offering all titles except movies that first stream on HBO Max after a theatrical release. Then there's Standard with Ads for £6 per month, which includes those releases and 30 downloads. Both can stream on two devices at a time. 

Anyone who wants an ad-free experience can purchase a Standard or Premium plan. The former has all titles available on two devices, up to 30 downloads and, of course, no ads. The Premium plan comes with four devices in 4K Ultra HD with Dolby Atmos — if the system has capabilities. 

Interestingly, the expanded area comes as Netflix prepares to own Warner Bros., including HBO and HBO Max. While there's no indication of whether this had any influence, Netflix has long been available in the UK and Ireland. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/hbo-max-is-finally-coming-to-the-uk-and-ireland-145126162.html?src=rss