Technology

Sonos has launched a new Upgrade Program which offers discounts of up to 30 percent on new speakers if you own select older models, Android Central reports. It replaces the company’s previous Trade Up deal, which offered similar discounts, but the new program expands these to owners of slightly newer speakers like the Play:1 and and Play:3. Alongside it, Sonos has also announced that its Sonos Arc soundbar now supports multi-channel LPCM audio. If you own one of the speakers listed below, Sonos will give you a discount of either 15 or 30 percent on the purchase of a new speaker. Importantly, old speakers do not have to be traded in, and can continue to be used, Sonos says. Eligible owners can sign into their Sonos account and select an eligible product to claim the discount. The discount c...

Following the “One More Thing” hardware event, Apple has announced its new line of Arm-based Macs powered by Apple’s own processors, replacing Intel, which has been used in Mac laptops and desktops since 2005. Currently, the first three Apple computers to have Apple’s custom M1 chip are the MacBook Air, the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and the Mac mini. The new Arm-based Macs are available to order now, and Apple says the computers will ship starting November 17th. But if you are ready to preorder one of the new models now, we have compiled a list of retailers currently offering the new computers. MacBook Air with an M1 processorImage: Apple Where to buy the new MacBook Air Currently, you can buy the new MacBook Air directly from Apple’s website. You can get the Air model with an M1 chip, an eight...

If you purchased a Peloton bike or treadmill to exercise with during the pandemic, you’ll soon have a new collection of classes to take from a familiar artist. This week, Peloton announced a multi-year partnership with cultural phenomenon Beyoncé — the artist will help curate classes for the fitness company’s subscription service, starting with a series of Homecoming-themed classes in honor of historically Black colleges and universities. Peloton says that Beyoncé is one of the most requested artists for its playlists. Based off the announcement, its unclear what Beyoncé’s “curation” entails, but if you’d like to see for yourself, Beyoncé-themed classes have already begun. There are meditations, outdoor runs, and bike rides scheduled for the remainder of this week and more classes to come....

Apple announced three new Mac computers on Tuesday powered by its all-new M1 chip, a custom Arm-based system-on-a-chip. But despite the performance and efficiency gains the M1 chip allows, there is one notable constraint: memory. According to Apple, customers interested in buying a new Mac with more than 16GB of RAM will need to purchase an older, Intel-based model. Right now, the M1 cannot support more memory. That may be disappointing to some professional users interested in switching over to the Arm-based laptops or the new Mac mini, considering older Intel-based models can carry as much as 32GB of RAM. It echoes complaints against the MacBook Pro refresh of four years ago, too, when Apple said limitations on memory options were to conserve battery life. M1 Macs don’t come in configurat...

A former Chan Zuckerberg Initiative employee is filing a racial discrimination complaint, claiming the philanthropic organization underpaid and under-promoted Black staff members. Raymond Holgado, who worked for CZI between 2018 and mid-2020, filed his claim yesterday with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. Holgado says that he was paid less than white colleagues with similar experience, denied promotions, and asked to juggle multiple jobs without recognition. He calls the issue part of a larger problem with race at CZI. “Black employees who want to advance within the organization are shut down and labeled as too assertive or aggressive, while non-Black employees are favored and encouraged,” Holgado writes. “When Black employees have communicated these concerns to CZ...

Two Apple developers have been given the green light to promote mask-wearing with their stickerpack apps for iOS, after previously receiving rejections from Apple that suggested they were making “inappropriate references to the COVID-19 pandemic.” Here’s how this story began: Had similar rejection. Our stickers said ”wear a mask”, “wash your hands”. Got approved when we removed the text but kep the sticker. pic.twitter.com/cFZABwwY8A — Mark Johnson (@markjnet) November 8, 2020 How could a friendly sticker wearing a mask be an inappropriate reference to COVID-19, particularly when Apple has its very own mask-wearing emoji? That was the question on my mind, so I reached out to Apple yesterday. This morning, Apple replied that not only does the company not have any rules about mask-wearing st...

TikTok has filed a petition in a US Court of Appeals calling for a review of actions by the Trump administration’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The reason, according to the company, is that it hasn’t heard from the committee in weeks about an imminent deadline for parent company ByteDance to sell off US assets over national security concerns. The CFIUS set the deadline of November 12th for TikTok to divest itself of “any tangible or intangible assets or property, wherever located, used to enable or support ByteDance’s operation of the TikTok application in the United States.” TikTok says it applied for a 30-day extension that was allowed for in the CFIUS’ order, but hasn’t received any communication on the matter. It’s not clear what would actually happen i...

Lyft continues to struggle to bring in money amid rising case numbers of COVID-19 in the US. The ride-hailing company lost $495 million over the last three months, with its adjusted net revenues down 48 percent year over year. Its ride-hailing is significantly smaller than it was last year. This quarter, Lyft reported having 12.5 million active riders, compared to 22.3 million in the third quarter of 2019 — a drop of 44 percent. It’s a deep hole, but Lyft is starting to claw its way out. The company’s ridership has been steadily growing over the course of the year: this quarter’s number is 44 percent improvement over Q2. Lyft is starting to claw its way out Lyft brought in nearly $500 million in revenue this quarter, versus $956 million in the third quarter of 2019. It was a steady improve...

Xbox Live users are struggling to log into the service today, amid the launch of both the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Xbox Support tweeted at 2:33PM that its teams were “closing in on a fix for this issue.” However, some users were still struggling to sign in across multiple platforms as of 4:40PM. A resolution is still pending. Microsoft’s next-gen consoles arrive today (though it might be tricky to find a console, thanks to the challenges of high demand in a pandemic). In addition to launch titles like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the console also allows for backwards compatibility for Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One games playable on existing Xbox One hardware. Online services are already important for players to download new games, updates, and more for their consoles. For the Xbox Ser...

Apple’s MacBook Air is one of a collection of the company’s computers to receive the newly announced M1 chip today. The beloved laptop appears almost identical from the outside, but if you open it up you’ll notice the familiar keyboard has changed. Apple’s traded out some of the function keys on its new MacBook Air, adding in new ones for Spotlight, Do Not Disturb, and Dictation. The last time the functionality of the MacBook Air keyboard changed was to add Touch ID for securing passwords and payment details. This change goes further, removing the brightness keys for the keyboard along with the Launchpad key that pulled up macOS’s SpringBoard-inspired app launcher. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman first noticed the change and shared the new layout in this tweet: The new MacBook Air has updated keyb...

It’s been a little bit weird that Apple would sell both a 13-inch MacBook Air and a 13-inch MacBook Pro simultaneously, but perhaps never more than today — because Apple’s new $999 and $1,299 laptops seem nearly identical if you look beyond the differently curved frames. They’ve got the same M1 processor, the same memory and storage options, the same ports, and very similar screens. I’m not joking when I say: the biggest difference is a fan. This fan, which is exclusive to the MacBook Pro: The 13-inch MacBook Pro’s fan.Render: Apple I mean, yes, it is a little bit hilarious the MacBook Air is now a laptop that doesn’t blow air, just like it’s amusing that the Air technically continues to be a thicker laptop than the 13-inch Pro. (I guess it’s been a long time since manila envelopes were a ...

Google has added another promotion to help push its cloud gaming service Stadia into more households: now YouTube Premium subscribers can get its $100 Stadia Premiere Edition bundle for free. Google’s Stadia Premiere Edition features one Stadia controller in addition to a Chromecast Ultra. However, it is important to note that the Chromecast Ultra included is an older model and not the newer one that was recently released. Google has said that the new Chromecast Ultra will not support the cloud gaming service until the first half of 2021. With Stadia’s one-year anniversary coming up next week, the service has come a long way over the last year Unfortunately, if you plan to subscribe to YouTube Premium now, you will not have the option to redeem this offer. The promotion is only available i...