‘Apex Legends Mobile’ arrives on May 17th

The wait is over. After a year of regional betas and a delay to the game’s initially planned limited launch, Respawn Entertainment announced on Wednesday it will release Apex Legends Mobile on May 17th. At that point, anyone who wants to check out the battle royale can do so on Android and iOS. Fans can pre-register to receive a notification as soon as Apex Legends Mobile is available to download. And by signing up for a download prompt, Respawn says you’ll be helping the community unlock special rewards.   

EA first shared it was bringing Apex to mobile in 2019. The Android and iOS release does not feature cross-play support with the PC and console versions of the popular first-person shooter. At launch, Apex Legends Mobile will also include a smaller pool of playable characters, but one will feature one exclusive legend. 

Airbnb’s big redesign helps you split stays between homes

Now that it’s relatively safe to travel again, Airbnb is unveiling an overhauled experience that includes some much-needed features for frequent travellers. To start, the reworked app now lets you search for categories tied to the home style, location or activity. You can look for places close to national parks, or even book a treehouse. Airbnb is clearly hoping you’ll book stays beyond the usual tourist hotspots.

The biggest addition, however, might be Split Stays. As the name implies, this lets you split a trip between two homes without having to separately book each location. You can split between categories or destinations, too. This promises to be helpful for long trips, or any travel where you won’t stay in one place.

And while Airbnb no longer offers refunds if you get COVID-19, it is providing some extra protections to encourage travel. A new AirCover program will either relocate you or provide a refund if the host needs to cancel (within 30 days), if you can’t check in or if the home doesn’t match the advertised claims. The 24-hour safety phone line has also expanded support to 16 languages, and AirCover is built directly into both the app and Airbnb’s website.

The reworked experience is available in the US today, and should spread worldwide this week. Airbnb may be stretching when it claims this is its largest change “in a decade,” but it might be enough to prompt a vacation after two years of huddling in place.

Alexa Together will let caregivers remotely set up routines for aging loved ones

Amazon is rolling out some more features for Alexa Together, a service designed to help aging folks and caregivers stay connected using the voice assistant and Echo devices. One of these is called Circle of Support, which is now available to all users. This allows the person receiving support to have up to 10 designated caregivers.

Both that person and their primary caregiver can add or remove trusted people such as siblings, cousins, friends and close neighbors. All caregivers will receive daily alerts and check-ins through the activity feed. Circle of Support could be especially useful if the primary caregiver doesn’t live close to the person receiving care. If the person receiving support enables Remote Assist, only the primary caregiver will be able to use it. 

Speaking of Remote Assist, Amazon will soon upgrade that feature to let the primary caregiver set up Alexa Routines for their loved one. For instance, to make life a little simpler for the person receiving care, a routine might group together early morning actions like switching off the alarm, playing a news bulletin and turning on the coffee machine, all of which can be triggered with a single voice command.

Amazon says over 25 percent of Alexa Together users communicate across state lines and 65 percent do so between different cities. Adding some extra functions for users who live far apart from each other could make the service a more attractive proposition for some folks. Alexa Together, which is only available in the US for now, costs $20 per month or $200 per year. There’s a six-month trial available as well.

Korg’s DIY oscilloscope comes paired with a coffee table book

It’s relatively easy to find coffee table books on music, but how many of them give you the tools to make that music? Korg’s does. The company has introduced a bundle that pairs its new NTS-2 do-it-yourself oscilloscope kit with a Patch & Tweak with Korg book from Bjooks (which also made books for Moog and Roland) that explores semi-modular synthesis. You’ll find the usual history and artist interviews, but you’ll also find guides to help you use the NTS-2 in tandem with synths and other equipment.

The NTS-2 is a companion of sorts to the NTS-1 synth and similar hardware. The pocketable box helps you visualize the signals and voltages from your music-making gear (up to four signals at once), tune inputs, analyze spectrums or generate dual waveforms. You can generate the exact sound you want rather than having to play it by ear. The device runs on either battery power or USB-C, and the DIY design practically begs for customization.

The bundle is a limited edition, and will be available soon for $230 through retailers like B&H. That’s not trivial if you’re just getting started on music creation, but might be easy to justify if you’re hoping to elevate your production skills — and find something to read during your downtime.

EV maker Canoo is in danger of going out of business

Electric vehicle maker Canoo has warned investors it’s running low on funds as it works toward bringing its products to market. It said that, due to the timing of the announced funding and some other factors, it has “substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”

“We have been clear about our philosophy of raising capital judiciously and will continue with this disciplined approach,” CEO Tony Aquila said in a statement. “We have more than $600 million in accessible capital to support Start of Production (SOP). As operators and investors, we have significant experience raising capital in challenging markets — and the best way to raise capital is to achieve your goals. We will continue to raise when needed, bridge to milestones and be in a position to take advantage of improving market conditions. We are focused on long term value creation for our customers and shareholders.”

Canoo reported a $125.4 million net loss in its first-quarter earnings (compared with $15.2 million in Q1 2021). It burned through $120.3 million in the first three months of the year, up from $53.9 million a year earlier. That left it with cash and cash equivalents of $104.9 million as of the end of March.

The company projects operating expenses of between $95 million and $115 million this quarter, as well as $85 million to $105 million in capital expenditures. As it stands, Canoo is not generating revenue.

The EV maker says it had built 39 Gamma lifestyle vans as of the end of March, with 17 of those now on the road. According to Reuters, company leaders said in an earnings call that it’s making up to just 12 vehicles a week and is focusing on fleet customers for the time being. Canoo claims it has received more than 17,500 pre-orders with a projected value of $750 million, and added that it secured a deal with NASA to provide Artemis ground crew transportation vehicles.

The company has had a turbulent history, as TechCrunch notes. It’s been the subject of an SEC investigation into factors such as the departure of certain executives and the SPAC merger with Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp that took it public. Canoo has also been beset by production delays.

Nintendo Switch falls to new all-time low of $260 at Amazon

This is a golden moment to buy a console ahead of your summer vacation. Amazon is selling the standard Nintendo Switch with blue and red Joy-Cons at a new all-time low price of $260, or $40 below the official sticker. That’s $20 better than a Woot deal from February, and a large-enough discount that you can easily use the savings to buy a microSD card for storing additional games.

Buy Nintendo Switch at Amazon – $260

The regular Switch might not have the eye-catching screen of the OLED model, but the fundamentals that make the system so enjoyable remain intact. This is a console you can use either handheld or at your TV, and without making too many compromises. The current revision offers plenty of battery life. And most importantly, the Switch now has a huge catalog of hits after five years, ranging from launch-era titles like Breath of the Wild through to recent successes like Metroid Dread. You won’t run out of games to play on a long road trip.

You’re likely already familiar with the limitations. The Switch isn’t as powerful as dedicated TV consoles like the PS5 or the comparably-priced Xbox Series S, so you won’t get 4K or some of the more visually demanding games on the market. And while you might not miss the Switch OLED’s display, you’ll also have to go without its improved stand and dock-based Ethernet jack. At this price, though, it’s an easy choice if you want a two-in-one device or just don’t want to pay a stiff premium to play current games.

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

Apple’s Mac Mini M1 returns to a record low of $570 at Amazon

Apple’s compact desktop is back down to the best sale price we’ve seen since its debut. Amazon has the 2020 Mac Mini M1 for $570 right now, thanks to a discounted price that’s brought down even further by an automatically applied coupon. That’s $130 off the desktop’s regular rate, and the model on sale includes 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

Buy Mac Mini M1 (256GB) at Amazon – $570

The Mac Mini is still the most cost effective way to get an M1 machine in your home — even the MacBook Air M1, which debuted at the same time, costs more starting at $1,000. The Mini comes with an eight-core CPU, eight-core GPU (one more than you’ll find in the base Air M1) and 16-core Neural Engine, so you can expect speedy performance, high energy efficiency and nearly instant wake times. It should provide enough power for most users, even content creators, and it can even handle some gaming as well.

The exterior design of the Mac Mini has been left mostly unchanged, but that’s not a bad thing. The small silver box will fit into nearly any desk setup without taking up too much space, and it has a number of ports including two Thunderbolt connectors, two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, an Ethernet connector and a headphone jack. Our biggest gripe with the machine is its lack of upgradeability: you can’t change the RAM and SSD, as they are soldered in place. But if you can live with that, the Mac Mini M1 remains a good option for anyone in need of an updated, powerful desktop.

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

Human rights organizations ask Zoom to scrap its emotion tracking AI in open letter

Digital rights non-profit Fight for the Future and 27 human rights organizations have written an open letter to Zoom, asking the company not to continue exploring the use of AI that can analyze emotions in its video conferencing platform. The groups wrote the letter in response to a Protocol report that said Zoom is actively researching how to incorporate emotion AI into its product in the future. It’s part of a larger piece examining how companies have started using artificial intelligence to detect the emotional state of a potential client during sales calls. 

The pandemic made video conferences a lot more common around the world. Sales people have been finding it hard to gauge how receptive potential clients are to their products and services, though, without the capability to read their body language through the screen. Companies have started using technology that have the ability to analyze people’s moods during calls as a result, and Protocol said Zoom has plans to provide the same service. 

Fight for the Future and the other human rights orgs are hoping their call would pressure Zoom to abandon its plans. They called the technology “discriminatory, manipulative, potentially dangerous and based on assumptions that all people use the same facial expressions, voice patterns, and body language.” 

The groups also pointed out that the technology is inherently biased and racist, just like facial recognition. By incorporating the feature, Zoom would be discriminating against certain ethnicities and people with disabilities, they said. In addition, it could be used to punish students or workers if they displayed the wrong emotion. In 2021, a project led by University of Cambridge professor Alexa Hagerty showed the limits of emotion recognition AIs and how easy it is to fool them. Previous studies also showed that emotion recognition programs fail the racial bias test and struggle to read Black faces.

The group ended the letter by mentioning Zoom’s decision to cancel the rollout of face-tracking features and calling this another opportunity to do what’s right by its users. They’re now asking Zoom to commit to not implementing emotion AI in its product by May 20th, 2022.