Siri is finally coming to third-party devices. Apple announced at its WWDC keynote that HomeKit accessory makers will be able to integrate Siri voice control into their products starting later this year. The voice assistant will be routed through a HomePod if the devices are connected to your network.
Apple hasn’t released a comprehensive list of devices and brands that will support Siri. The company demoed it on an Ecobee thermostat during its WWDC keynote presentation. It also announced support for Matter — a new interoperability standard that has big players like Amazon, Google, and Samsung on board — will come with iOS 15.
Apple also revealed a number of smaller smart home features. Home Keys, which allow you to remotely lock and unlock doors by tapping your iPhone or Apple Watch, are coming to Wallet app, as are work keys and hotel keys.
Image: Apple
The HomePod Mini will support lossless audio in Apple Music later this year and will be able to function as a speaker for the Apple TV 4K (as does the discontinued full-size HomePod). Apple also announced that the HomePod Mini will ship to more countries this month — including Austria, Ireland, and New Zealand — as well as Italy by the end of the year.
HomePods also now support commands for the Apple TV (so you can ask Siri to play shows), and SharePlay now works with Apple TV, which will enable you to watch shows synchronously with friends over FaceTime.
Speaking of Apple TV, tvOS now includes a “Share with You” row, where friends can share shows with each other via text messages. Another new row called “For All Of You” is intended to help families find shows to watch together — it will curate suggestions that combine every user’s viewing history.
Apple
And the Apple Watch now supports the HomePod’s intercom feature, which will allow you to talk to HomeKit-enabled doorbells and access package detection from your wrist. You’ll be able to control nearby HomeKit accessories in camera view.
Spatial audio is coming to Apple Music today, Apple has confirmed at its WWDC (Apple Worldwide Developers Conference).
Last month, Apple announced that Dolby Atmos-powered spatial audio tracks would soon be coming to its music streaming service alongside CD-quality and hi-res lossless audio for no additional cost, and while we patiently await a release date for lossless quality, “thousands” of spatial audio songs will be available to Apple Music subscribers from today.
Spatial audio with Dolby Atmos is designed to deliver surround sound and 3D audio via your headphones; to put “multidimensional sound and clarity” between your ears. This experience works with Apple’s AirPods, as well as any headphones. That’s right, Apple Music’s spatial audio tracks will play on all headphones (and here’s how to enable it).
Unlike the spatial audio feature that initially launched as part of iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, the new Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos for Apple Music doesn’t require the sensors in Apple’s own headphones to enable head-tracking (which helps position the sound accurately). The implementation for Apple Music of spatial audio is sound-only, and this opens it up to more devices. For example, while the Apple TV can’t output spatial audio to a pair of headphones (a feature we’d very much like to see added in the future), it will support Dolby Atmos tracks from Apple Music when connected to an Atmos-capable sound system.
So keep your eyes peeled for today’s update, Apple Music subscribers, because this is sure to be a freebie worth checking out. And when will lossless audio quality follow? Very soon, we expect. Last week, some users reported seeing lossless and hi-res icons appear on the service, suggesting its arrival is imminent.
MORE:
With Apple and Amazon offering lossless streaming for no extra charge, what now for their rivals?
Apple Music lossless: which devices will play lossless and Spatial Audio
Apple spatial audio: what is it? How do you get it?
The California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) said Friday (pdf) it has authorized General Motors-owned self-driving vehicle company Cruise to provide driverless passenger service to the public in its robotaxis.
The CPUC said Cruise is the first entrant in its driverless pilot program, which lets companies give test rides in vehicles without drivers. Under the terms of the program, Cruise may not charge passengers for the rides, and the company must submit quarterly reports to the CPUC about the vehicles’ operations.
Cruise has been testing its driverless vehicles in San Francisco, and last month applied for a permit that will allow the company to charge for autonomous rides and deliveries in the area. The company unveiled its Cruise Origin, a prototype vehicle without a steering wheel, pedals, or any controls typically associated with human driving last year. It’s slated to begin production at GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck plant starting in early 2023. Currently, most of Cruise’s driverless test vehicles are Chevrolet Bolt EVs.
In addition to Cruise, seven other companies, which include Google spinoff Waymo, Zoox, owned by Amazon, and Aurora, have CPUC permits to test driverless vehicles on roads in California, but only Cruise is permitted to provide rides to passengers without a driver on board.
In California, companies need permits from both the CPUC and the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles to test driverless vehicles (and eventually, to get the vehicles on the road with passengers). A total of 55 companies have active permits from the DMV to test driverless vehicles in California, including Cruise, but so far Nuro is the only company to receive a deployment permit from the DMV that allows it to operate its autonomous vehicles in California commercially. That deployment permit doesn’t allow Nuro to transport passengers, however.
In January, Microsoft announced a long-term strategic partnership with Cruise, and said it was joining a $2 billion funding round that pushed Cruise’s valuation to $30 billion.
Floyd ‘Money Man’ Mayweather is set for a blockbuster showdown with YouTube ‘personality’ Logan Paul at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Sunday 6th June. Mayweather has called the eight-round exhibition bout “legalised bank robbery”. It’s a $50 pay-per-view in the US but only £17 in the UK. Follow our guide on how to watch a Mayweather vs Logan Paul live stream from anywhere in the world.
Mayweather vs Logan Paul live stream
Date: Sunday 6th June 2021
Venue: Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, FL, USA
Start time: 1am BST / 8pm ET / 10am AEST
Mayweather vs Logan Paul: 4am BST / 11pm ET / 1pm AEST
UK stream: Sky Sports Box Office (£16.95)
Watch anywhere: Try ExpressVPN
US stream: Showtime ($49.99)
AUS stream: Main Event ($49.99)
Rest of world: Fanmio($49.99)
So, can one of greatest pound-for-pound boxers of all time beat one of social media’s biggest stars? Mayweather vs Logan Paul: Bragging Rights certainly got off to a spicy start this week when Mayweather allegedly punched Logan Paul’s brother at the press conference.
“It’s one thing to sell a fight, and people can say what they want, but one thing no one is going to do, is disrespect me,” Mayweather fumed. “The boxing was the mashed potatoes. I guess these guys now are the gravy.”
Mayweather is undefeated (50-0, 27 KOs) having ended his professional career with a 10th-round stoppage of UFC star Conor McGregor back in August 2017. The Money Man might be a 44-year-old dad of five, but his famous speed and accuracy makes him clear favourite to take this bout.
That said, 26-year-old Logan Paul will be 30lb heavier when he steps into the ring and has a 4-inch reach advantage over his opponent. Paul returns to the ring for the first time after losing to fellow social media star KSI in November by split decision.
It’s an exhibition, so there will be no judges and no official winner. Knock outs will be the referee’s decision. The eight three-minute rounds will be boxed without headgear. The packed undercard features former NFL star wide receiver Chad Johnson making his boxing debut against Brian Maxwell.
Sunday’s unmissable PPV is much cheaper in some countries than in others. Here’s how to find a Mayweather vs Logan Paul live stream from anywhere in the world…
Watch Mayweather vs Logan Paul for only £16.95
(Image credit: Sky Sports Box Office)
UK boxing fans can catch this weekend’s big fight live on Sky Sports Box Office for £16.95. Some have grumbled at the price but it’s less than half what it costs in other countries. So, in that sense, it’s a bargain.
If you’re a UK citizen trying to watch from the US or Australia, you can always use a VPN to access a Mayweather vs Logan Paul live stream from anywhere in the world. We recommend ExpressVPNas it comes with a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee.
You don’t have to be a Sky subscriber. You can watch Mayweather vs Logan Paul online through the Sky Sports Box Office app and website. Simply set up a Box Office account, buy the fight, and you’re good to go.
Mayweather vs Logan Paul: Get the big fight for £16.95
Sky Sports has the rights to the epic Mayweather vs Logan Paul exhibition boxing match. Non-Sky customers can stream the event live for only £16.95 across a range of mobile devices including the iPad. Order in advance and ready for the big fight!
Mayweather vs Logan Paul live stream anywhere in the world using a VPN
Even if you have subscribed to the relevant Mayweather vs Logan Paul rights holders, you won’t be able to access these streaming services when outside your own country. The service will know your location based on your IP address, and will automatically block your access.
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) helps you get around this obstacle. A VPN creates a private connection between your device and the internet, such that the servers and services you’re accessing aren’t aware of what you’re doing. All the information passing back and forth is entirely encrypted.
There are many VPN providers out there, with some more reliable and safe than others. As a rule, we’d suggest a paid-for service such as ExpressVPN.
Try ExpressVPN risk-free for 30 days ExpressVPN offers a 30-day money back guarantee with its VPN service. You can use it to watch Canelo vs Saunders on your mobile, tablet, laptop, TV, games console and more. There’s 24/7 customer support and three months free when you sign-up.
US: Mayweather vs Logan Paul live stream
(Image credit: Showtime)
US boxing fans looking for a Mayweather vs Logan Paul live stream will need to pay-per-view. Showtime has the exclusive and is charging $49.99. Ouch.
UK boxing fans who find themselves in the States this weekend can use a VPN to watch the boxing via Sky Box Office for only £16.95. We recommend ExpressVPN as it comes with a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee.
Brian Custer, the veteran sportscaster, will host the Showtime event and will be joined by Desus Nice and The Kid Mero, hosts of the hit late-night Desus & Mero show. The duo will provide their brand of off-the-wall commentary throughout the night.
The Mayweather vs Logan Paul live stream will be available through Showtime’s website and apps (iOS, Android, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Android TV, Apple TV 4th Gen+, Xbox One).
Australia: Mayweather vs Logan Paul live stream
Aussie boxing fans can order a Mayweather vs Logan Paul live stream through Main Event. The price? A one-off fee of AU$49.95.
UK boxing fans who find themselves in Oz this weekend can use a VPN to watch the boxing via Sky Box Office for only £16.95. We recommend ExpressVPN as it comes with a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee.
Rest of the World: Mayweather vs Logan Paul live stream
Not in the UK, US or Australia this weekend? Fanmio has you covered. The streaming site is charging $49.99 for pay-per-view access. It’s not cheap but the price does include a limited edition Mayweather vs Logan Paul T-shirt (you have to the pay the shipping, though, so it’s not entirely ‘free’).
Mayweather vs Logan Paul free live stream
Sadly there are no opportunities for get yourself a Mayweather vs Logan Paul free live stream. The cheapest option is Sky Sports Box Office in the UK (£16.95)
Mayweather vs Logan Paul fight card
(Image credit: Sky Sports Box Office)
Floyd Mayweather vs Logan Paul – Exhibition
Badou Jack vs Dervin Colina – Light Heavyweight
Jarrett Hurd vs Luis Arias – Middleweight
Chad Johnson vs Brian Maxwell – Cruiserweight
Jean Carlos Torres vs Zack Kuhn – Junior Welterweight
Adrian Benton vs Pedro Angel Cruz – Lightweight
Micky Scala vs Adam Ramirez – Junior Middleweight
Dorian Khan vs Jonathan Conde – Featherweight
Jalil Hackett vs Angelo Diaz – Welterweight
Viddal Riley vs Quintell Thompson – Cruiserweight
Mayweather vs Logan Paul tale of the tape
Name: Floyd ‘Money Man’ Mayweather – Logan ‘The Maverick’ Paul
Nationality: American – American
Date of birth: 24th Feb 1977 – 1st April 1995
Height: 5ft 8 inches – 6ft 2 inches
Reach: 72 inches – 76 inches
Total fights: 50 – 1
Record: 50-0, 27 KOs – 0-1, 0 KOs
Floyd Mayweather on Logan Paul
“It’s going to be fun. It’s what I do. There’s a difference between being a YouTube fighter and an elite fighter. I’m a fighter, and I don’t worry about anything. I’ve been a professional for 25 years, and I’ve fought the best and seen every style, and I always came out on top.
“Why not fight Logan Paul? He’s huge on YouTube. He has a huge following. Before I even knew about YouTube, I was huge in boxing. And when you bring his world with my world, man, it’s going to be crazy.
“I never worry about the height or size. It’s all about the skills. That’s one thing about Floyd Mayweather. I’ve got skills.
“The boxing was the mashed potatoes. I guess these guys now are the gravy. I retired from boxing, but I didn’t retire from entertainment or from making money.”
Logan Paul on Floyd Mayweather
“I didn’t choose boxing; boxing chose me. I got challenged to box, and I answered that challenge. I kind of fell perfectly into the sport. Truthfully, boxing is easier on the body than MMA. MMA is hard. I got bad knees. I’m old now. I’m ageing. My upper body is strong, and I have dense bones. My strength is all in my upper body.
“I’m going in there with that energy, and he’s got everything to lose. There’s a lot on the table for him, not a lot on the table for me, and that’s a dangerous man… It’s a fight, so anything can happen.”
The European Commission and UK regulators have opened antitrust investigations into Facebook over concerns its Marketplace service is unfairly distorting competition for classified ads. Both are interested in whether or not Facebook unfairly used advertising data to compete in the classified ads market, and are collaborating as part of the investigation.
“Facebook collects vast troves of data on the activities of users of its social network and beyond, enabling it to target specific customer groups,” the European Commission’s competition head Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. “We will look in detail at whether this data gives Facebook an undue competitive advantage in particular on the online classified ads sector, where people buy and sell goods every day, and where Facebook also competes with companies from which it collects data.”
In particular, the Commission says a preliminary investigation has raised concerns that Facebook may be using data from rival classified ads services that advertise on its platform to compete with them. The Commission and UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will now carry out in-depth formal investigations to assess these concerns.
In addition to concerns about Facebook Marketplace and classified ads, the UK’s CMA is also investigating Facebook’s dating service on similar grounds.
In a statement, a spokesperson from Facebook said it believes the allegations are “without merit,” adding that both Facebook Marketplace and Facebook Dating are part of “highly competitive” markets.
“We are always developing new and better services to meet evolving demand from people who use Facebook. Marketplace and Dating offer people more choices and both products operate in a highly competitive environment with many large incumbents,” the spokesperson said. “We will continue to cooperate fully with the investigations to demonstrate that they are without merit.”
The European Commission has been scrutinizing Facebook Marketplace for years. Reuters notes that European officials sent out questionnaires about the service back in 2019, only for Facebook to push back against the investigation the following year, arguing that the scale of the EU’s document request meant it would have to hand over unrelated, yet highly sensitive information.
Launched in 2016, Facebook’s Marketplace service allows people to buy and sell items from locals. It’s now used by 800 million Facebook users across 70 countries, according to Reuters. Rivals have reportedly complained that Facebook gives itself an unfair advantage by being able to advertise Marketplace for free to its 2 billion users.
This is the first time Facebook has been formally investigated by the EU, the FT previously noted, with the case joining similar anti-competitive investigations by the bloc into the likes of Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. Earlier this year, the EU formally accused Apple of violating antitrust rules with its App Store policies, and last November the commission said Amazon was misusing the data it collects from third-party marketplace sellers.
Update June 4th, 7:03AM ET: Updated with Facebook’s statement on the investigations.
The Nvidia TX 3080 Ti is here, at least for those lucky enough to find one. Announced earlier this week alongside the forthcoming RTX 3070 Ti, the 3080 Ti serves as the pricier successor to the GeForce RTX 3080, an excellent graphics card that made 4K gaming that much more affordable and exemplified just how transformative DLSS technology could be.
Like the RTX 3090, Nvidia’s newest flagship touts impressive 1440p and 4K performance, albeit in a smaller, quieter package with half the VRAM. It certainly isn’t cheap at $1,200, but given the ongoing semiconductor shortage and the outlandish street prices of most GPUs right now, the RTX 3080 Ti might be more affordable at MSRP than if you were to succumb to the resale market.
While we expect availability to be limited at launch and throughout the remainder of the year, several retailers currently have the RTX 3080 Ti in stock. Best Buy announced yesterday that it would give customers a chance to purchase a Founder’s Edition of the card at select stores today, however, unlike previous years, Best Buy will only offer the GPU in-store. Customers who are hoping to pick it up at launch will need to line up early and secure a ticket at 7:30AM local time before it officially goes on sale at 9:00AM local time. If you’re reading this now, chances are good that you’re already too late.
Heading to your local Micro Center might be your only other viable option, if you’re hoping to get one in-store. That retailer lists five RTX 3080 Ti models on its site from Gigabyte, Asus, EVGA, and MSI. If you’re looking to purchase the RTX 3080 Ti online, your options are limited. The cards will go on sale at B&H Photo, Newegg, Micro Center, and Amazon, however, we expect stock to sell out fast. You might have luck getting one online through MSI, PNY, Zotac, or EVGA’s site.
Here are some of the specific models available at the online retailers above (we’ll add more individual listings as they go live at other sites):
If these options fail you, try your luck in a Newegg Shuffle lottery on June 4th at 9AM ET:
Looks like Google TV could soon support different user profiles on the home screen. 9to5Google has dug into the source code of the latest version of the operating system and found mention of personalised home screens, which would offer a much more tailored experience for anyone watching.
Google TV already lets you sign in with multiple Google Accounts, and offers Kids Profiles, which only offer age-appropriate content. But with adult profiles, no matter who’s watching, the homepage will only be personalised to the main account. That means anyone watching will only see recommendations for the main account holder.
But it looks like that could soon change. Source code for the latest update to the Google TV Home app – version 1.0.370 – contains mentions for individual profiles on the home screen.
The mentions include: “Add another account to this device to have their own personalized Google TV experience”. Which seems pretty clear cut.
However, just because this text appears in the code that doesn’t mean the feature will definitely make an appearance. Google might just be considering adding it for now, though given how it would enhance the user experience – and bring it in line with lots of other streaming services – we reckon it’s close to a dead cert.
The code also reveals a new tutorial video that would show parents how to hide certain content from kids’ profiles.
Google TV features on the stellar Google Chromecast with Google TV – a dongle that earned five stars in our review. The operating system recently added support for Amazon Music, bolstering its offering even further.
MORE:
Read all about Google TV: apps, features, compatible TVs and more
Check out our guide to the best video streamers
Or go in-depth with one of the best, with our Amazon Fire TV 4K review
Amazon tells its warehouse employees to think of themselves not as overworked cogs in an enormous, soul-crushing machine, butas “industrial athletes,” and to prepare their bodies for that experience like someone training for a sporting event, according to a pamphlet obtained by Motherboard. The comparison is a troubling euphemism for a company whose workers have almost double the amount of serious injuries as the rest of the warehousing industry and who reportedly are often unable to take bathroom breaks.
The pamphlet tells employees that some of them will walk up to 13 miles throughout the course of the day, burning an average of 400 calories an hour. It also suggests all sorts of ways to help workers prepare for the athlete life, including changes to their diets and sleep schedules and making sure they’re not dehydrated throughout the day by keeping an eye on the color of their urine. It also suggests that employees buy shoes “at the end of the day when [their] feet are swollen” to avoid tightness and blisters— advice that will be familiar to distance runners or multi-day hikers.
One thing Amazon doesn’t bring up is that athletes train for an event with a definite end date. Athletes aren’t competing day in and day out, and they have time to rest and recuperate in between. The comparison becomes even more ridiculous when you look at what a pro athlete’s day is actually like: significant time is spent warming up to avoid injuries, practice may be only a few hours out of the day (read: not in eight or 10-hour shifts), there’s time made for rest or even naps, and significant effort is spent on nutrition. It’s safe to say that most Amazon warehouse workers don’t have professional nutritionists and / or chefs taking care of their dietary needs. If an employee wanted to make up the calories they might expect to burn in a given shift, they would have to eat almost 40 apples, or over 1,000 baby carrots if they were assigned one of the company’s 10-hour “megacycles.” Amazon does say that it’s trying to provide workers with healthy snacks, but that’s not exactly reassuring.
Unlike actual athletes — who have a lifetime of physical experience that allows them to train and compete at a high level — many Amazon workers have no background in doing highly physical work. It’s little wonder then that reports continue to find Amazon’s comparatively high injury rates: Amazon’s warehouse workers had almost double the number of serious injuries compared to other warehouse workers in 2020, which is actually a “marked” improvement compared to the numbers from 2017, 2018, and 2019.
Amazon told Motherboard that it had immediately removed the pamphlet after it was created, but the worker who provided it said it had been around since November.
If Amazon wants its workers to think of themselves as “athletes,” the solution isn’t wellness programs or pushing employees to check the color of their pee. Instead, it should let them work at a reasonable pace and provide them with support and personnel to keep them healthy. Trainers don’t seek to extract the maximum value from an athlete only to discard them if they’re hurt. In the case of a worker who spoke to Motherboard, though, he said out of all the Amazon employees he had to consult during the process of recovering from a workplace injury, only one person even asked how he was feeling.
Amazon is relaxing its policy around employees using weed, according to a new blog post, and will no longer enforce marijuana drug tests for any employee who isn’t also regulated by the Department of Transportation, like a delivery driver. In the past, Amazon used positive tests as a reason to disqualify applicants during the hiring process.
Dave Clark, Amazon’s CEO of worldwide consumer, announced the change as part of the company’s goal to be “Earth’s Best Employer,” a strategy that so far has been characterized by new programs like WorkingWell that seem to view employees as things that need to be maintained and trained, rather than people who should be treated fairly. Still, as weed is legalized for recreational and medicinal use state by state across the US, acknowledging that the average employee probably uses marijuana in the same casual way people drink alcohol is good.
Clark also announced that Amazon’s policy team will be “actively supporting” the reintroduced Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2021 (MORE Act) which seeks to legalize weed at the federal level, along with expunging the criminal records of people who were arrested for marijuana possession.
In a statement provided to The Verge, Kassandra Frederique, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, supported Amazon’s change:
We implore Amazon and other employers to let this be the starting point and not the goal post. This change can and should be the catalyst to a much larger move—ending drug testing for all drugs—that would ensure a more just and equitable future for millions of people, especially Black, Brown and Indigenous communities who have been disproportionately impacted by these policies.
However helpful Amazon’s tweaks to its employee policies are, they’re still not as good as actual representation for its workers. Luckily, in the fallout of the union drive in Alabama, that’s possibly still on its way, too.
Patriot, which produces some of the best RAM on the market, has presented the new Viper Elite II, the successor to the brand’s award-winning Viper Elite family. Retaining its successor’s DNA, the Viper Elite II memory arrives with an aggressive design that’s devoid of flashy RGB illumination.
The Viper Elite II, which is built for performance and overclocking, featuring a 10-layer PCB with hand-tested memory integrated circuits. Patriot offers the memory in a single module presentation and a dual-channel package. The Viper Elite II comes with densities, spanning from 16GB (2x8GB) to 64GB (2x32GB). There are four data rates to choose from: DDR4-2666, DDR4-3200, DDR4-3600 and DDR4-4000.
The maximum capacity varies depending on the data rate. The DDR4-2666 and DDR4-4000 memory kits max out at 32GB (2x16B), while the DDR4-3200 and DDR4-3600 memory kits are available up to 64GB. (2x32GB).
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(Image credit: Patriot)
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(Image credit: Patriot)
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(Image credit: Patriot)
As far as timings go, the DDR4-2666 and DDR4-3200 variants come with 16-17-17-36 and 18-22-22-42 timings, respectively. The faster DDR4-3600 and DDR4-4000 variants, on the other hand, are rated for 20-26-26-46.
The Viper Elite II is compatible with the latest Intel and AMD platforms. As expected, the memory modules support XMP 2.0 for automatic overclocking on compatible platforms. Patriot backs its Viper Elite II memory with a limited lifetime warranty.
Patriot’s new memory is already available for purchase at Amazon and Newegg. The DDR4-2666, DDR4-3200, DDR4-3600 and DDR4-4000 memory kits start at $89.99, $91.99, $97.99 and $132.99, respectively.
(Image credit: Future / The Boy From Medellin, Amazon Prime)
Sony is giving away a £50/€50 PlayStation Store voucher with select Bravia XR TVs.
The promotion is already up and running in seven European countries: UK, France, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. All you need to do is pick out a Bravia XR TV (LED or OLED) at a participating retailer between June 1st and July 31st 2021.
According to the official announcement on Sony’s website, you can redeem the £50/€50 gift card for, “anything on PlayStation Store: games, add-ons, subscriptions and more”.
Not familiar with Bravia XR? The range boasts some of the best TVs in the Sony 2021 TV line-up and featues the Japanese giant’s “cognitive intelligence” tech, which aims to optimise every pixel, frame and scene to produce the most lifelike picture possible.
As you’d expect the Bravia XR range is a decent match for a next-gen console such as the PS5. The presence of HDMI 2.1 with support for 4K@120Hz and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) should help you max out the PS5’s capabilities.
The XR line-up covers Sony’s top-tier models. The 55-inch A80J starts at £1999/€2299 (around $2800, AU$3600) while the A90J Master Series, the firm’s top 4K OLED for 2021 costs from £2699 ($2800, around AU$3700). Not cheap, but recently we called the 55-inch XR-55A90J “simply one of the best TVs we’ve tested”.
The Bravia XR models also come with free access to Bravia CORE, Sony’s high-bitrate video streaming service, which promises lossless Blu-ray-quality “streaming up to 80Mbps.”
MORE:
Your guide to the Sony 2021 TV line-up
Samsung 2021 TV lineup: everything you need to know
The Spectrix D50 Xtreme DDR4-5000 is one of those luxury memory kits that you don’t necessarily need inside your system. However, you’d purchase it in a heartbeat if you had the funds.
For
+ Good performance
+ Gorgeous aesthetics
Against
– Costs an arm and a leg
– XMP requires 1.6V
When a product has the word “Xtreme” in its name, you can tell that it’s not tailored towards the average consumer. Adata’s XPG Spectrix D50 Xtreme memory is that kind of product. A simple glance at the memory’s specifications is more than enough to tell you that Adata isn’t marketing the Spectrix D50 Xtreme towards average joes. Unlike the vanilla Spectrix D50, the Xtreme version only comes in DDR4-4800 and DDR4-5000 flavors with a limited 16GB (2x8GB) capacity. The memory will likely not be on many radars unless you’re a very hardcore enthusiast.
Adata borrowed the design from Spectrix D50 and took it to another level for the Spectrix D50 Xtreme. The heat spreader retains the elegant look with geometric lines. The difference is that the Xtreme variant features a polished, mirror-like heat spreader. The reflective finish looks stunning, but it’s also a fingerprint and dust magnet, which is why Adata includes a microfiber cloth to tidy up.
The memory module measures 43.9mm (1.73 inches) so compatibility with big CPU air coolers is good. The Spectrix D50 Xtreme still has that RGB diffuser on the top of the memory module. Adata provides its own XPG RGB Sync application to control the lighting or if you prefer, you can use your motherboard’s software. The Spectrix D50 Xtreme’s RGB illumination is compatible with the ecosystems from Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and ASRock.
Each Spectrix D50 Xtreme memory module is 8GB big and sticks to a conventional single-rank design. It features a black, eight-layer PCB and Hynix H5AN8G8NDJR-VKC (D-die) integrated circuits (ICs).
The default data rate and timings for the Spectrix D50 Xtreme are DDR4-2666 and 19-19-19-43, respectively. Adata equipped the memory with two XMP profiles with identical 19-28-28-46 timings. The primary profile corresponds to DDR4-5000, while the secondary profile sets the memory to DDR4-4800. Both data rates require a 1.6V DRAM voltage to function properly. For more on timings and frequency considerations, see our PC Memory 101 feature, as well as our How to Shop for RAM story.
Comparison Hardware
Memory Kit
Part Number
Capacity
Data Rate
Primary Timings
Voltage
Warranty
Crucial Ballistix Max
BLM2K8G51C19U4B
2 x 8GB
DDR4-5100 (XMP)
19-26-26-48 (2T)
1.50
Lifetime
Adata XPG Spectrix D50 Xtreme
AX4U500038G19M-DGM50X
2 x 8GB
DDR4-5000 (XMP)
19-28-28-46 (2T)
1.60
Lifetime
Thermaltake ToughRAM RGB
R009D408GX2-4600C19A
2 x 8GB
DDR4-4600 (XMP)
19-26-26-45 (2T)
1.50
Lifetime
Predator Apollo RGB
BL.9BWWR.255
2 x 8GB
DDR4-4500 (XMP)
19-19-19-39 (2T)
1.45
Lifetime
Patriot Viper 4 Blackout
PVB416G440C8K
2 x 8GB
DDR4-4400 (XMP)
18-26-26-46 (2T)
1.45
Lifetime
TeamGroup T-Force Dark Z FPS
TDZFD416G4000HC16CDC01
2 x 8GB
DDR4-4000 (XMP)
16-18-18-38 (2T)
1.45
Lifetime
TeamGroup T-Force Xtreem ARGB
TF10D416G3600HC14CDC01
2 x 8GB
DDR4-3600 (XMP)
14-15-15-35 (2T)
1.45
Lifetime
Our Intel platform simply can’t handle the Spectrix D50 Xtreme DDR4-5000 memory kit. Neither our Core i7-10700K or Core i9-10900K sample has a strong IMC (integrated memory controller) for a memory kit.
The Ryzen 9 5900X, on the other hand, had no problems with the memory. The AMD test system leverages a Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master with the F13j firmware and aMSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Trio to run our RAM benchmarks.
Unfortunately, we ran into a small problem that prevented us from testing the Spectrix D50 Xtreme at its advertised frequency. One of the limitations with B550 motherboards is the inability to set memory timings above 27. The Spectrix D50 Xtreme requires 19-28-28-46 to run at DDR4-5000 properly. Despite brute-forcing the DRAM voltage, we simply couldn’t get the Spectrix D50 Xtreme to run at 19-27-27-46. The only stable data rate with the aforementioned timings was DDR4-4866, which is what we used for testing.
AMD Performance
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Memory Review (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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There’s always a performance penalty when you break that 1:1 ratio with the Infinity Fabric Clock (FCLK) and memory clock on Ryzen processors. The Spectrix D50 Xtreme was just a hairline from surpassing the Xtreem ARGB memory kit where DDR4-3600 is basically the sweet spot for Ryzen.
It’s important to bear in mind that the Spectrix D50 Xtreme was running at DDR4-4866. As small as it may seem, that 134 MHz difference should put Adata’s offering really close to Crucial’s Ballistix Max DDR4-5100, which is the highest-specced memory kit that has passed through our labs so far.
Overclocking and Latency Tuning
Memory Review (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Due to the motherboard limitation, we couldn’t pursue overclocking on the Spectrix D50 Xtreme. However, in our experience, high-speed memory kits typically don’t have much gas left in the tank. Furthermore, the Spectrix D50 Xtreme already requires 1.6V to hit DDR4-5000 so it’s unlikely that we would have gotten anywhere without pushing insame amounts of volts into the memory
Lowest Stable Timings
Memory Kit
DDR4-4400 (1.45V)
DDR4-4500 (1.50V)
DDR4-4600 (1.55V)
DDR4-4666 (1.56V)
DDR4-4866 (1.60V)
DDR4-5100 (1.60V)
Crucial Ballistix Max DDR4-5100 C19
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
17-25-25-48 (2T)
Adata XPG Spectrix D50 Xtreme DDR4-5000 CL19
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
19-27-27-46 (2T)
N/A
Thermaltake ToughRAM RGB DDR4-4600 C19
N/A
N/A
18-24-24-44 (2T)
20-26-26-45 (2T)
N/A
N/A
Patriot Viper 4 Blackout DDR4-4400 C18
17-25-25-45 (2T)
21-26-26-46 (2T)
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
At DDR4-4866, the Spectrix D50 Xtreme was cool operating with 19-27-27-46 timings. However, it wouldn’t go lower regardless of the voltage that we crank into it. We’ll revisit the overclocking portion of the review once we source a more capable processor and motherboard for the job.
Bottom Line
The Spectrix D50 Xtreme DDR4-5000 C19 won’t offer you the best bang for your buck by any means. However, the memory will make your system look good and give you some bragging rights along the way. Just make sure you have a processor and motherboard that can tame the memory before pulling the trigger on a memory kit of this caliber.
With that said, the Spectrix D50 Xtreme DDR4-5000 C19 doesn’t come cheap. The memory retails for $849.99 on Amazon. Not like there are tons of DDR4-5000 memory kits out there, but the Spectrix D50 Xtreme is actually the cheapest one out of the lot. For the more budget-conscious consumers, however, you should probably stick to a DDR4-3600 or even DDR4-3800 memory kit with the lowest timings possible. The Spectrix D50 Xtreme is more luxury than necessity.
Facebook employees are circulating an internal petition calling for the company to investigate content moderation systems that led many Palestinians and allies to say their voices were being censored, the Financial Times reports. The news comes weeks after Israeli airstrikes killed more than 200 people in Gaza, including at least 63 children. Israel and Hamas have now reached a cease fire.
Palestinian activists and allies have long accused social media companies of censoring pro-Palestinian content — and the issue has only gotten worse during the recent conflict. At Facebook, content moderation decisions are made by third-party contractors and algorithms, and the process is less than perfect, particularly in non-English speaking countries. After Instagram restricted a hashtag referring to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, pro-Palestinian activists coordinated a campaign to leave one-star reviews of Facebook in the app store.
It appears Facebook employees are taking note. “As highlighted by employees, the press, and members of Congress, and as reflected in our declining app store rating, our users and community at large feel that we are falling short on our promise to protect open expression around the situation in Palestine,” they wrote in the petition. “We believe Facebook can and should do more to understand our users and work on rebuilding their trust.”
The letter was posted on an internal forum by employees in groups called “Palestinians@” and “Muslims@.” It reportedly has 174 signatures.
Employees are asking Facebook to do a third-party audit of content moderations decisions surrounding Arab and Muslim content. They also want a post by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he allegedly called Palestinian civilians terrorists, to be reviewed by the company’s independent oversight board.
Last month, employees at Google, Apple, and Amazon wrote internal letters calling for executives to support Palestine. Employees at all three tech giants said they felt executives were unsupportive of Muslim workers. Some also wanted Google and Amazon to review a $1.2-billion cloud computing contract the companies had recently signed with the Israeli government. Yet no company had as immediate an impact on information surrounding the fighting as Facebook.
In a statement emailed to The Verge, a Facebook spokesperson said the company has committed to an audit of its community standards enforcement report. “We know there were several issues that impacted people’s ability to share on our apps,” the spokesperson added. “While we fixed them, they should never have happened in the first place and we’re sorry to anyone who felt they couldn’t bring attention to important events, or who believed this was a deliberate suppression of their voice. We design our policies to give everyone a voice while keeping them safe on our apps and we apply them equally, regardless of who is posting or what their personal beliefs are.”
Amazon has recently changed its terms of service to allow its customers to bring lawsuits against the company instead of having to go through an arbitration process. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company made the change after over 75,000 Echo users were organized to file individual arbitration cases, which would have left Amazon on the hook for millions of dollars in fees.
Unlike lawsuits, arbitration cases are handled by a third party instead of a judge or jury. According to the American Arbitration Association’s rules (which Amazon was bound by in its old terms of service), the company involved is responsible for hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars in fees when a consumer brings a case against it — and those numbers add up quickly if a law firm is able to coordinate large numbers of consumers to bring complaints at once.
We’ve seen mass-arbitration happen before in attempts to pressure tech companies (often with the goal of having those companies drop the aforementioned arbitration clauses from their worker contracts). Both Uber and DoorDash have faced thousands of disputes from their workers. As consumers and workers seem to be cluing in to the possibility of using arbitration clauses to their advantage, it actually seems like Amazon’s terms of service change may be more out of self interest: win or lose, a class action lawsuit is very likely to be less expensive for the company.
Amazon’s conditions of use page says it was last updated on May 3rd, 2021. As of May 1st, according to the WayBack Machine, the “Disputes” sub-section explained, at length, the process users would have to go through if they wanted to make a claim against the company. It also made clear Amazon’s responsibility to reimburse auditors fees for claims under $10,000, unless the claim was declared frivolous. Now, the disputes section reads:
Any dispute or claim relating in any way to your use of any Amazon Service will be adjudicated in the state or Federal courts in King County, Washington, and you consent to exclusive jurisdiction and venue in these courts. We each waive any right to a jury trial.
The updated terms of service also removes the requirement that users agree to the Federal Arbitration Act in order to use any Amazon services.
That last bit about waiving the right to a jury trial may be unusual for tech company ToS agreements, but as an alternative to arbitration, it’s certainly been tried in other industries — though some states have found such clauses to be unenforceable.
While Amazon’s customers may now no longer have to go through arbitration, some of its Flex workers are currently fighting for the ability to sue the company, despite their arbitration agreements.
It’s also worth noting that certain consumer suits were able to bypass arbitration before the change — Amazon is currently being sued after allegations that some of its Alexas devices made audio recordings of minors. Judges have ruled that the case did not have to be handled by arbitration, as the minors didn’t agree to the terms of service. However, Amazon’s change opens the gates for other suits to be handled in court as well, and it helps the company avoid expensive mass arbitrations in the future.
Do you own an Echo Studio, an Echo Dot, or a Ring Floodlight Cam? If so, Amazon is about to introduce your device to a new type of network it calls Sidewalk, which is meant to help extend the range of its low-bandwidth devices (so that if your network goes down, for example, your Dot can piggyback on your neighbors’), and also to make location devices such as Tile more efficient.
According to Amazon, Sidewalk will use Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), the 900MHz spectrum, and other frequencies “to simplify new device setup, extend the low-bandwidth working range of devices, and help devices stay online and up-to-date even if they are outside the range of home Wi-Fi.” It will do this by essentially sharing the connectivity of your compatible devices with that of your neighbors.
Amazon says that Sidewalk will get switched on this coming June 8th (Tile functionality will be enabled June 14th), and that it plans to automatically opt in all the eligible devices. The company’s published list of devices includes: Ring Floodlight Cam (2019), Ring Spotlight Cam Wired (2019), Ring Spotlight Cam Mount (2019), Echo (third gen and newer), Echo Dot (third gen and newer), Echo Dot for Kids (third gen and newer), Echo Dot with Clock (third gen and newer), Echo Plus (all generations), Echo Show (all models and generations), Echo Spot, Echo Studio, Echo Input, Echo Flex.
Questions have been raised as to how this could impact the privacy of your data. Amazon has made a white paper available that lays out how customer information is being protected. But if you are still not reassured by this and would rather not participate in Amazon’s good neighbor program — as it were — you can opt out before Sidewalk gets switched on. Here’s how:
In your Amazon Alexa app, select the “More” icon at the lower right hand corner of the screen
Go to “Settings” > “Account Setting” > “Amazon Sidewalk.” (Just a note: if you’re not connected to any Echo or Ring devices, you will probably not see this option.)
Use the toggle to disable Sidewalk
And that’s it! Opting out will not (according to Amazon) in any way affect the current function of your devices. But if you decide you do want to opt back in, or you want to opt out sometime in the future, you can come back to the “Amazon Sidewalk” page and use the toggle.
Note that in the same page you’ll see a setting for “Community Finding,” which will share the approximate location of the devices connected by Sidewalk in order to make location-dependent items like Tile more accurate. If you want, you can leave Sidewalk active but disable “Community Finding” by selecting the “Community Finding” link at the bottom of the “Amazon Sidewalk” page and then toggling it off.
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