Amazon will give Cloud Cam owners a free camera when service shuts down

Amazon is shutting down service for the Cloud Cam, but you may not mind if you’re reluctant to buy a replacement. MacRumors and The Verge have learned Amazon will offer owners a free Blink Mini security camera and a one-year subscription to the higher-end Blink Subscription Plus service (normally $100 per year) before Cloud Cam functionality ends on December 2nd. Key Edition owners will also get a fourth-generation Echo speaker to serve as a replacement smart home hub. Ideally, you won’t have to pay a cent more to keep your home supervised in the near future.

In an email to customers, Amazon said it was shutting down Cloud Cam service to focus on Blink, Ring and other products that “make your home smarter.” The move will primarily end storage for video recording, but people using the Cloud Cam Key Edition as a Zigbee hub will also lose the ability to connect to smart locks until they get the Echo substitute.

The end of service doesn’t come as a complete surprise. Amazon stopped offering the Cloud Cam at the end of 2019 as Blink and Ring ultimately took over. We won’t blame you if you’re still upset, though. Amazon is joining Wyze and other brands in ending support for security cameras on relatively short notice. This could also leave some users paying more. Some of the Cloud Cam’s free features, such as quick video access and motion-based recording, require at least a $30 per year Basic subscription with Blink. That’s a small price, but it’s more than you might have expected to pay.

The latest Apple TV 4K is back to a record low of $150

Now is a good time to shop for a high-end media streamer. Amazon is once again selling the latest Apple TV 4K at a record-low price of $150 for the 32GB model, or $29 off. However, the 64GB model is also on sale for $170 — an easy choice if you need extra storage for apps and games. We’ve seen Amazon sell the base model at this price on occasion, but rarely with a similar discount for its higher-end counterpart.

Buy Apple TV 4K (32GB) at Amazon – $150Buy Apple TV 4K (64GB) at Amazon – $170

The most recent Apple TV 4K fixes some of the few issues with what was already a powerful media player. The new Siri remote is much more intuitive, and the speedier A12 Bionic chip both enables HDR video at 60 frames per second (for the handful of content that supports it) and better game performance. This is the living room device you want if you’re interested in more than basic media playback, particularly given Apple’s tight integration and robust app ecosystem. You can get in a Fitness+ workout, control your smart home or use a niche streaming service.

Apple TV’s main caveat remains the price. At $150, it’s expensive if you just want something to watch Netflix, Amazon Prime Video Apple TV+ and other common services. You can buy a Chromecast, Fire TV Stick or Roku player that will handle 4K HDR video and some other popular apps for considerably less. If you’re heavily invested in Apple’s products or just want the most powerful media box you can get, though, this is still an obvious pick.

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Atlassian co-founder takes big step toward shutting down Australia’s coal power

Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes just scored a major coup in his quest to end Australia’s use of coal energy. The Wall Street Journalreports AGL Energy, Australia’s worst emissions producer, has withdrawn plans to ‘demerge’ its retail power and generation units (thus keeping coal power plants running longer) after Cannon-Brookes bought over 11 percent of the company’s stock. The breakup plan is unlikely to pass a shareholder vote after the tech executive’s move, AGL said.

Both the chairman and CEO of AGL are stepping down as a result of the failed demerger. The board of directors is also conducting a review of the company’s strategy, and plans broader changes to the board as well as overall management. The directors want to deliver the best value in light of “Australia’s energy transition,” the company added.

Cannon-Brookes hopes AGL can shut down the coal plants about 10 years sooner than the company’s 2045 goal. He originally tried to buy AGL outright with help from Canadian investment giant Brookfield Asset Management, but resorted to buying stock after the energy provider rejected the offers.

The Atlassian exec’s renewable energy push began in 2017, when he learned of Tesla’s proposal to end southern Australian blackouts using large-scale battery storage. He has long singled out AGL as a target. According to Cannon-Brookes, AGL represents about 8 percent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. That’s more than every car in the country, and more than some entire developed countries.

The stock ploy won’t guarantee that AGL shuts down its coal plants ahead of schedule. Still, it’s a relatively unique effort in the tech world to accelerate the shift toward clean energy. Companies like Amazon, Apple, Google and others have generally focused on reducing their own emissions by either buying renewables or installing solar and wind power at their facilities — Atlassian’s co-creator is trying to engineer change across an entire country.

Analogue Pocket’s first major update arrives in July

The Analogue Pocket is finally getting some of the important feature updates promised at launch. As The Vergenotes, Analogue has promised a Pocket OS 1.1 beta in July that will add the expected Library, Memories and FPGA development features. You can expect advancements to arrive “regularly” after that, according to the company.

Library will amount to an encyclopedia for classic games. Insert a cartridge and you’ll ideally learn everything about your specific copy of a game, including play guides and publisher details. Memories, meanwhile, lets you create save states and screenshots. Although Analogue hasn’t fully explained the development expansion, this will likely let programmers use the Pocket’s second FPGA. They’ll have access to the OS, hardware and features like Memories.

There’s no mention of why 1.1 is taking so long. However, the delay was substantial. Analogue said in December that Library and Memories would be ready in January, but they’re now appearing several months later in a rough form. Not that the wait will matter if you aren’t already an owner. New pre-orders won’t get their Pockets until 2023, so this is is more a kindness to early adopters than anything else.

Koala Sampler now uses AI to automatically create song stems

It’s been possible to automatically create song stems on your computer, but now you have that option in a sampler app on your phone. Elf Audio has updated its Koala Sampler app for Android and iOS with a feature that uses AI to automatically isolate stems from samples. You can have the J Dilla-inspired app pick out the vocals, drums or bass (plus a generic “other”) so that you can fold them into a track without consuming much time on your part.

The AI isn’t perfect, as you can hear in the clip below. However, that’s not strictly the point. As with the rest of Koala Sampler, this is more about creating quick cuts and making music production more accessible to people who can’t justify expensive sampling tools. At $5, it’s an easier way to dabble in this kind of production than investing in a full suite or novelties like Kanye’s Stem Player.

It’s now easier to take handwritten notes on your Chromebook

School may be winding down, but that isn’t stopping Google from making Chromebooks more useful as note-taking tools. The company is rolling out a Chrome OS M102 release that makes the previously limited Cursive app available on any Chromebook with pen support. The software helps you create, organize and share handwritten notes, in some cases with shorcuts that spare you from using keyboards or finger touch.

You can write or draw, as you’d expect, but you can also use your pen to move content just by circling it, or erase it by scribbling on top. You can even create extra space by drawing a horizontal line. Cursive also lets you paste images, collate material in notebooks and share notes by either copying it or saving them as PDFs.

M102 is also an important update if you’re using a Chromebook with Thunderbolt or USB 4 ports. Chrome OS on systems with 11th- or 12th-generation Core processors is now smart enough to recognize if the USB-C cable you’re using can’t support a display or otherwise falls short of what your laptop can handle. You might not have to wonder why a peripheral isn’t working properly.

If you need magnification, the upgrade lets you resize the magnified portion. You can better see zoomed-in content, or keep the area small when you just want a closer look at tiny pictures or text.

Cursive will be preinstalled on all compatible Chromebooks as part of the update, but you can install it manually using the earlier link. It’s reasonable to say the update makes stylus-equipped Chromebooks that much more useful — you can jot down class and meeting notes knowing they’ll be tidy and easy to access.

PlayStation’s next State of Play will showcase PSVR2 games on June 2nd

Sony is holding its first PlayStation State of Play event in months, and you’ll want to tune in if you’re looking forward to PlayStation VR2. The company has announced a stream for June 2nd at 6PM Eastern that will include a “sneak peek” at several PSVR2 games. There aren’t any clues as to what those entail, but the company recently noted that there will be at least 20 “major” games for the VR platform at launch — we wouldn’t be surprised to see some of those during the presentation.

The State of Play video will also feature other game reveals from third-party developers as well as some “updates.” The event will be available to watch live through PlayStation’s Twitch and YouTube channels.

Only a few games have been confirmed for PSVR2 so far, including the spinoff Horizon: Call of the Mountain as well as Among Us VR, Cyan Worlds’ Firmament and unnamed projects from Coatsink (Jurassic World Aftermath) and nDreams (Fracked). It’s not certain if Sony will mention those games, or even show any gameplay, but it’s clear the company is ready to shift more of its attention toward the new headset’s software.

Minecraft’s big wilderness update arrives June 7th

It took several months, but Minecraft’s The Wild Update is nearly here. Mojang and Microsoft are releasing The Wild across all platforms on June 7th, and it remains as expansive as promised. The refresh adds two biomes, a mangrove swamp as well as a “deep dark” that hides vicious mobs (such as the Shrieker and Warden) as well as special resources. You can also sail a boat with a chest, so you won’t need to leave supplies behind if you’re crossing a lake.

The upgrade also adds a mud block (made with dirt and water, naturally), a crowd-voted item collector mob (the allay) and a frog that grows from tadpoles. It even produces “froglights” if it attacks magma.

The debut comes a while after Mojang had to rethink its expansion strategy. The deep dark biome was originally meant to appear in 2021, but was folded into The Wild as the developer grappled with the size of its two-part Caves and Cliffs Update. While it isn’t surprising that the Minecraft team wants to keep its game relevant more than a decade after launch, the schedule suggests it might have been a little too eager to please.

‘Willow’ TV series comes to Disney+ on November 30th

Disney+ is finally ready to share more details of its Willow revival. The streamer has revealed that the TV series (simply titled Willow) will premiere November 30th. The accompany teaser trailer doesn’t show much, but it has an older Willow Ufgood returning to save a future empress from the clutches of evil. He’ll join an eclectic band of adventurers, but this time he’s clearly more experienced than in the 1988 movie.

The show sees Warwick Davis reprise his role as Willow. At least a few familiar actors are joining the cast, including Ellie Bamber (most recently in Netflix’s The Serpent) and Disney alumnus Erin Kellyman (Solo and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier). Jon Chu was originally slated to direct, but was replaced by multiple directors when he had to step down due to pandemic restrictions. Willow movie director Ron Howard is involved as an executive producer.

The announcement comes just as Disney shared a wave of details about its next Star Wars shows, including Andor and Skeleton Crew. The company isn’t shy about its Disney+ strategy, then. The service is packing its schedule with ever more originals in a bid to keep people watching, and it’s not afraid to mine multiple old franchises in the process.

Twitter investors sue Elon Musk over stock manipulation claims

Elon Musk is facing yet another lawsuit over his planned Twitter acquisition. Reutersreports investors have sued the Tesla CEO for allegedly manipulating stock prices ahead of his $44 billion takeover bid. As in an earlier suit, Musk supposedly saved $156 million by failing to disclose that he’d bought more than a 5 percent stake in Twitter by March 14th, violating SEC rules. The investors said Musk only disclosed his investments in early April, when he revealed that he owned a 9.2 percent slice of the social network.

Musk’s post-announcement statements also amounted to manipulation, the investors said. They were particularly concerned about his claim that the deal was “on hold” until Twitter could prove that bots weren’t a major problem and represented less than 5 percent of accounts.

The plaintiffs in the case are hoping for class action status, and ask for unspecified damages if they’re successful. Twitter has declined comment, and Musk hadn’t responded to Reuters‘ requests for comment.

Musk’s hoped-for purchase has already sparked a flurry of legal action. In addition to the previously mentioned lawsuit from April, a Florida pension fund sued Musk for purportedly violating a Delaware law that would bar the merger until 2025. The SEC, meanwhile, is investigating Musk’s disclosure timing. There’s no certainty any of these actions will succeed, but they still pose serious challenges to Musk’s ambitions.