Lexus announces the RZ, its first purpose-built EV

Lexus has today announced the RZ, the luxury marque’s second entry into the EV market, and the first designed from the ground-up as an electric vehicle. With a 71.4kWh battery and a claimed range of around 280 miles, the RZ will also show off a new active four-wheel drive system dubbed DIRECT4. That will, so the company says, enable the car to automatically distribute force to each wheel according to its need. And Lexus says that DIRECT4 will offer “excellent driving performance” with a “stronger human-machine connection.”

Given this is Toyota’s luxury brand, there’s plenty of mention of omotenashi, the Japanese concept of overwhelming your guests with hospitality. Here, Lexus says that owners can expect lots of interior space and plenty of comfort, both for the driver and their passengers. Rear passengers look like they’ll get decent legroom, and a dimming panoramic roof will help make those seats feel a little more spacious, especially compared to most Lexus crossover SUVs.

Image of the Lexus RZ
Lexus

Of course, the only thing anyone will likely want to focus on is the steering yoke, because you can’t drive a futuristic EV with something as old-fashioned as a wheel, come on. (Don’t worry, it’s an option, the default version comes with a wheel). 

The RZ isn’t Lexus first foray into making a battery electric vehicle, and offered a EV version of its UX series (the 300e), which garnered lukewarm praise from critics. The Lexus build quality and luxury on offer might have been appreciated, but with a range under 200 miles, cramped rear space and poor charging dimmed its shine. Thankfully, the RZ is based on the same e-TNGA EV platform you’ll find underpinning both Toyota’s new bZ4X and Subaru’s Solterra. And we’d expect the RZ to sit as a fancier-pantsier version of the bZ4X, with better interior options and the already-mentioned longer range.

Lenovo’s Smart Clock Essential with Alexa falls to a new low of $45

Lenovo launched a new smart clock at CES earlier this year, and it improved upon its previous models by giving it a pogo docking pin at the bottom and support for Amazon’s Alexa. If you’ve been thinking of picking it up but haven’t gotten the chance to until now, you may want to head over to the device’s listing at Best Buy. Lenovo’s Smart Clock Essential with Alexa is currently on sale for $45 on the retailer’s website only for today — there’s less than 20 hours left for the deal as of this writing. That’s $25 off the smart clock’s $70 retail price and lower than a previous deal at Amazon. 

Buy Lenovo Smart Clock Essential with Alexa at Best Buy – $45

The Smart Clock Essential with Alexa retains the brand’s Smart Clock 2 cloth design. While its predecessors only supported Google Assistant, though, this model only supports the Alexa voice assistant. It has a 4-inch LED display that shows the time, day and real-time decibel levels in white text on a black background. Lenovo clearly kept things minimal for the model and gave it just a few buttons for the volume, for activating assistant and for setting the alarm.

Lenovo’s compatible docks for the device are optional, but they do improve the experience. The brand has docks that can accommodate the clock along with a wireless charging-capable device like smartphones, for instance. It also sells the Ambient Light Dock in either a sea lion or a squid design that works as a nightlight. You can get the Lenovo Smart Clock Essential from Best Buy at a discount right now in both Misty Blue and Clay Red. 

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Okta says Lapsus$ breach affected only two customers

Following a breach of its systems in January, Okta has released a forensic report finding that the threat group Lapsus$ accessed just two active customers via a third-party company. Lapsus$ “actively controlled” a workstation belong to an engineer at support firm Sitel for 25 minutes on January 21st, the company said. 

“The threat actor actively controlled a single workstation, used by a Sitel support engineer, with access to Okta resources,” wrote Okta chief security officer David Bradbury. “During that limited window of time, the threat actor accessed two active customer tenants within the SuperUser application and viewed limited additional information in certain other applications like Slack and Jira that cannot be used to perform actions in Okta customer tenants.”

While just two customers were accessed, many more users might have been affected, as Otka has 15,000 customers but over 100 million individual users. Despite the access, though, Lapsus$ was not able to do any MFA or password resets, configuration changes or customer support impersonation, Okta said. “The threat actor was unable to authenticate directly to any Okta accounts.” 

It took Okta two months to notify customers of the Lapsus$ breach, and eventually released a statement saying it “made a mistake” in how it handled things. In a blog post last month, it revealed that 2.5 percent of its customers may have had their data viewed or acted upon during a five day window.

It now looks like the breach was far more limited in scope, but Okta said it took lessons from the situation. It terminated its relationship with the contractor in question and promised to strengthen audit procedures for others. It’s also going to directly manage the devices of third parties with access to customer support tools so it can respond more “effectively” to incidents. Finally, it’s adopting new systems to “help us communicate more rapidly with customers” on security issues. 

Brave’s browser can automatically bypass Google’s AMP pages

Brave is putting Google’s Accelerate Mobile Pages (AMP) on blast with a new feature called De-AMP, The Verge reported. It’s designed to bypass any pages rendered with AMP and take users directly to the original website. “Where possible, De-AMP will rewrite links and URLs to prevent users from visiting AMP pages altogether,” the company wrote in a blog post.

If that’s not possible, then “Brave will watch as pages are being fetched and redirect users away from AMP pages before the page is even rendered, preventing AMP/Google code from being loaded and executed,” it added. 

The new feature was implemented in the name of privacy, security and internet experience, according to Brave. “In practice, AMP is harmful to users and to the Web at large,” the article states. “Just as bad, AMP helps Google further monopolize and control the direction of the web.” It adds that the next iteration of AMP “will be even worse.” 

Google originally promoted AMP as a way to improve the mobile web experience by loading pages faster. However, it has recently been a target of critics who see it as a way for Google to increase its hegemony in the internet ad market by hosting content on its own servers. A group of publishers recently announced it was moving away from AMP, and a lawsuit filed by several US states accuses Google of running a monopoly that harmed ad-industry competitors and publishers.

Brave promises “the best privacy online” with its browser, so of course attacking Google is part of its business strategy. Despite its efforts, though, it lags well behind most other browsers in mobile market share, sitting in the “other” category behind Internet Explorer on Statcounter. De-AMP is now available in beta and “will be enabled by default in the upcoming 1.38 Desktop and Android versions, and will be released on iOS soon after,” Brave said.

Delta confirms it worked with SpaceX to trial Starlink’s satellite internet

Delta Chief Executive Ed Bastian has revealed in an interview that the airline held talks with SpaceX and conducted “exploratory tests” of Starlink’s internet technology for its planes. According to The Wall Street Journal, Bastian declined to divulge specifics about the test, but SpaceX exec Jonathan Hofeller talked about the company’s discussion with several airlines back in mid-2021. Hofeller said back then that the company was developing a product for aviation and that it’s already done some demonstrations for interested parties. 

SpaceX chief Elon Musk tweeted in the same period last year that Starlink antennae for planes would have to be certified for each aircraft type first. He added that the company is focusing on dishes for 737 and A320 planes, because they serve the most number of people.

Hofeller reiterated SpaceX’s quest to put Starlink on planes at the Satellite 2022 conference last month, saying that the company believes “[c]onnectivity on airplanes is something [that’s] ripe for an overhaul.” He said SpaceX is developing a service that would allow every single passenger on a plane to stream content like they’re able to do in their homes.

SpaceX filed an application with the FCC in August last year for a ruggedized type of Starlink antenna that can withstand harsh environments meant for use on planes, ships and other types of moving vehicles. A couple of months later, another FCC filing had revealed that SpaceX was going to test the new “mobile user terminal” on an aircraft for six months. 

Even though Delta had already tested Starlink’s technology, Summit Ridge Group (a consulting firm with expertise in satellite communications) founder J. Armand Musey told The Journal that it could take several years for SpaceX’s satellite broadband to see widespread adoption. It still has to schedule time with airlines to install terminals on their planes, after all, while more established competitors are also taking steps to improve their service. 

Netflix plans to offer cheaper ad-supported subscription tiers

Netflix might offer cheaper ad-supported plans in the coming years. In the company’s most recent earnings call, co-CEO Reed Hastings has revealed that the streaming giant is currently working on the offering and that it will be finalizing details for those plans “over the next year or two.” Hastings said he finds ads complex and he’s a huge fan of the simplicity of subscriptions, but giving consumers who don’t mind watching ads the option to pay less “makes a lot of sense.”

And it could make a lot of sense for the company, too. The service lost around 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022, a development it blamed on stiffer competition, inability to expand in some territories due to technological limitations and account sharing. Apparently, 222 million households are paying for Netflix, but over 100 million more are sharing those accounts. 

Back in March, Netflix started testing a feature in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru that allowed subscribers to add two “sub-members,” who’ll get their own log-ins and profiles, for $3. It may just be a fraction of what a full membership costs, but at least Netflix is getting something from people who’d normally just borrow their friends’ accounts.

Hastings clarified during the call that the ad-supported memberships will be added as tiers and members who don’t mind paying full subscription fees don’t have to be subjected to advertisements. “It is pretty clear that it is working for Hulu, Disney is doing it, HBO did it. We don’t have any doubt that it works,” he said. The executive also added that Netflix will merely be a publisher and that it will not track user data to match ads like some of its competitors do.

Cre8Audio’s NiftyKeys is a MIDI controller you can build a Eurorack synth in

Cre8Audio made a splash a few years ago when it launched the NiftyCase in 2019, a Eurorack case that featured a surprising amount of convenient features for a stunningly low price. Seriously, $200 for an 84hp Eurorack case with a power supply, MIDI to CV converter, MIDI over USB capabilities and audio connections is kind of bonkers. Now the company is going a little more upmarket, targeting a niche within a niche, with the NiftyKeys.

NiftyKeys is a full-sized 49-key MIDI keyboard with a 112hp Eurorack case mounted on top. Now, at $600 it’s a decent investment, especially considering you still have to fill it up with modules. But the only comparable product I can think of is the now discontinued Waldorf kb37 which retailed for $999 and was smaller and less feature packed than the NiftyKeys. Which means, it’s actually something of a bargain? 

There are four paired CV pitch and gate outs across the top which means you can patch up a four-voice polyphonic synth, or four separate monophonic patches playable split across different zones of the keyboard, or a pair of duophonic patches, or… you get the idea. There’s also CV outs for aftertouch, velocity, modwheel, expression or the clock-synced LFO. There’s an internal clock, but the whole rig can also be clocked externally, even over MIDI. There’s five-pin MIDI In and Out/Through, plus MIDI over USB. Plus the keyboard itself has an auto-chord feature, a multi-mode arpeggiator, glide and swing control. 

Netflix isn’t blaming the pandemic recovery for its lost subscribers

Netflix may have benefitted from the COVID-19 pandemic, but it’s not blaming its latest troubles on people leaving their homes. The company has revealed that it lost about 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022, a sharp contrast from the millions of additions per quarter over the past year. However, the streaming giant said that the pandemic only “obscured the picture” — there were multiple problems hiding under the surface.

The company pointed to stiffer competition from online services like Disney+ and Prime Video. While Netflix has still been gaining share at a modest rate, it wants to grow “faster.” The firm also blamed limited room to expand in many countries due to both technology factors outside of its control (such as smart TV adoption and data prices) and the abundance of account sharing. There are more than 222 million paying households, Netflix said, but another 100 million-plus sharing those accounts.

The decision to halt service in Russia also helped swing Netflix from growth to a loss. It would have added 500,000 customers, but ultimately lost 700,000 after dropping its Russian base in response to the invasion of Ukraine. Growth was still “soft” across all regions, however.

Netflix outlined multiple efforts to turn things around. It hoped to improve the quality of its shows, profit from sharing (such as an option for paid sharing in Latin America) and produce more content to suit audiences outside the US, where growth was stronger.

These results might not pay off in the short term. Netflix still expects either mild growth (no more than 1.5 million new members) or a loss (up to 2 million) in the ongoing second quarter. With that said, Netflix is clearly under no illusion that mobile games and minor feature additions will be enough to spark renewed interest by themselves — its fundamentals need to improve if it’s going to fend off rivals.