Tech

google-discontinues-nest-protect-smoke-alarm-and-nest-x-yale-lock

Google discontinues Nest Protect smoke alarm and Nest x Yale lock

Google acquired Nest in 2014 for a whopping $3.4 billion but seems increasingly uninterested in making smart home hardware. The company has just announced two of its home gadgets will be discontinued, one of which is quite popular. The Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detector is a common fixture in homes, but Google says it has stopped manufacturing it. The less popular Nest x Yale smart lock is also getting the ax. There are replacements coming, but Google won’t be making them.

Nest launched the 2nd gen Protect a year before it became part of Google. Like all smoke detectors, the Nest Protect comes with an expiration date. You’re supposed to swap them out every 10 years, so some Nest users are already there. You will have to hurry if you want a new Protect. While they’re in stock for the moment, Google won’t manufacture any more. It’s on sale for $119 on the Google Store for the time being.

The Nest x Yale lock.

Credit: Google

The Nest x Yale lock. Credit: Google

Likewise, Google is done with the Nest x Yale smart lock, which it launched in 2018 to complement the Nest Secure home security system. This device requires a Thread-enabled hub, a role the Nest Secure served quite well. Now, you need a $70 Nest Connect to control this lock remotely. If you still want to grab the Nest x Yale smart lock, it’s on sale for $229 while supplies last.

Smart home hangover

Google used to want people to use its smart home devices, but its attention has been drawn elsewhere since the AI boom began. The company hasn’t released new cameras, smart speakers, doorbells, or smart displays in several years at this point, and it’s starting to look like it never will again. TV streamers and thermostats are the only home tech still getting any attention from Google. For everything else, it’s increasingly turning to third parties.

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Google solves its mysterious Pixel problem, announces 9a launch date

Google revealed the Pixel 9a last week, but its release plans were put on hold by a mysterious “component quality issue.” Whatever that was, it’s been worked out. Google now says its new budget smartphone will arrive as soon as April 10. The date varies by market, but the wait is almost over.

The first wave of 9a releases on April 10 will include the US, Canada, and the UK. On April 14, the Pixel 9a will arrive in Europe, launching in Germany, Spain, Italy, Ireland, France, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, Switzerland, Poland, Czechia, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, and Finland. On April 16, the phone will come to Australia, India, Singapore, Taiwan, and Malaysia.

You may think that takes care of Google’s launch commitments, but no—Japan still has no official launch date. That’s a bit strange, as Japan is not a new addition to Google’s list of supported regions. It’s unclear if this has anything to do with the previous component issue. Google says only that the Japanese launch will happen “soon.” Its statements about the delayed release were also vague, with representatives noting that the cause was a “passive component.”

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google-announces-maps-screenshot-analysis,-ai-itineraries-to-help-you-plan-trips

Google announces Maps screenshot analysis, AI itineraries to help you plan trips

AI overviews invaded Google search last year, and the company has consistently expanded its use of these search summaries. Now, AI Overviews will get some new travel tweaks that might make it worth using. When you search for help with trip planning, AI Overviews can generate a plan with locations, photos, itineraries, and more.

You can easily export the data to Docs or Gmail from the AI Overviews screen. However, it’s only available in English for US users at this time. You can also continue to ignore AI Overviews as Google won’t automatically expand these lengthier AI responses.

Google adds trip planning to AI Overviews.

Credit: Google

Google adds trip planning to AI Overviews. Credit: Google

Google’s longtime price alerts for flights have been popular, so the company is expanding that functionality to hotels, too. When searching for hotels using Google’s tool, you’ll have the option of receiving email alerts if prices drop for a particular set of results. This feature is available globally starting this week on all mobile and desktop browsers.

Google is also pointing to a few previously announced features with a summer travel focus. AI Overviews in Google Lens launched in English late last year, which can be handy when exploring new places. Just open Lens, point the camera at something, and use the search option to ask a question. This feature will be launching soon in Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish in most countries with AI Overview support.

Updated March 27 with details of on-device image processing in Maps.

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discord-is-planning-an-ipo-this-year,-and-big-changes-could-be-on-the-horizon

Discord is planning an IPO this year, and big changes could be on the horizon

The product has evolved into something akin to Slack, but for personal use. It’s used by artist communities, game developers, open source projects, influencers, and more to manage communities and coordinate work. In some cases, people simply use it as an extremely robust group messaging tool for groups of friends without any games or projects involved.

Limited ads to tackle limited revenue

For years, Discord proudly touted a “no ads” policy, but that dam has broken in some small ways in recent months. Discord began offering game publishers opportunities to create special “quests” that appear in the Discord interface, wherein players can earn in-game rewards for doing specific tasks, like streaming a game to friends. A new format, called video quests, is planned for this summer, too.

The new ad products are meant to drum up Discord’s revenue potential in the lead-up to an IPO; the platform already offered premium subscriptions for access to more advanced features and a marketplace for cosmetics to jazz up profiles.

So far, the ad products are, by and large, much less intrusive than ads in many other social networks and seem to be oriented around providing some user value. However, an IPO could lead to shareholders demanding more from the company in pursuit of revenue.

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Newer Kindles get a work-around for touchscreen page-turning in new software update

All Kindles that get the 5.18.1 update also gain access to new book summaries for “thousands of bestselling English language Kindle books,” aiming to make it easier to pick up a new book in an ongoing series.

When a recap is available, it will be accessible from your Kindle’s home page, or by opening the book and selecting “Recaps In This Series” from the menu. Opening a recap will show you a spoiler warning before you tap through. Based on the handful of recaps I could find and skim, there’s a pretty good chance these summaries are mostly AI-generated, but Amazon’s release notes and the Kindle interface don’t say one way or the other.

The 5.18.1 update also includes the typical non-specific “performance improvements, bug fixes, and other general enhancements” for all models. This is the first update to get the Colorsoft and the other Kindles running on the same software version—before now, the other Kindles were all on version 5.17, and the Colorsoft ran a version of 5.18 that wasn’t available for manual download from Amazon’s software update page.

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Google makes Android development private, will continue open source releases

Google is planning a major change to the way it develops new versions of the Android operating system. Since the beginning, large swaths of the software have been developed in public-facing channels, but that will no longer be the case. This does not mean Android is shedding its open source roots, but the process won’t be as transparent.

Google has confirmed to Android Authority that all Android development work going forward will take place in Google’s internal branch. This is a shift from the way Google has worked on Android in the past, which featured frequent updates to the public AOSP branch. Anyone can access AOSP, but the internal branches are only available to Google and companies with a Google Mobile Services (GMS) license, like Samsung, Motorola, and others.

According to the company, it is making this change to simplify things, building on a recent change to trunk-based development. As Google works on both public and private branches of Android, the two fall out of sync with respect to features and API support. This forces Google to tediously merge the branches for every release. By focusing on the internal branch, Google claims it can streamline releases and make life easier for everyone.

When new versions of Android are done, Google says it will continue to publish the source code in AOSP as always. Supposedly, this will allow developers to focus on supporting their apps without keeping track of pending changes to the platform in AOSP. Licensed OEMs, meanwhile, can just focus on the lively internal branch as they work on devices that can take a year or more to launch.

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napster-to-become-a-music-marketing-metaverse-firm-after-being-sold-for-$207m

Napster to become a music-marketing metaverse firm after being sold for $207M

Infinite Reality, a media, ecommerce, and marketing company focused on 3D and AI-powered experiences, has entered an agreement to acquired Napster. That means that the brand originally launched in 1999 as a peer-to-peer (P2P) music file-sharing service is set to be reborn again. This time, new owners are reshaping the brand into one focused on marketing musicians in the metaverse.

Infinite announced today a definitive agreement to buy Napster for $207 million. The Norwalk, Connecticut-based company plans to turn Napster into a “social music platform that prioritizes active fan engagement over passive listening, allowing artists to connect with, own, and monetize the relationship with their fans.” Jon Vlassopulos, who became Napster CEO in 2022, will continue with his role at the brand.

Since 2016, Napster has been operating as a (legal) streaming service. It claims to have over 110 million high-fidelity tracks, with some supporting lossless audio. Napster subscribers can also listen offline and watch music videos. The service currently starts at $11 per month.

Since 2022, Napster has been owned by Web3 and blockchain firms Hivemind and Algorand. Infinite also develops Web3 tech, and CEO John Acunto told CNBC that Algorand’s blockchain background was appealing, as was Napster’s licenses for streaming millions of songs.

To market musicians, Infinite has numerous ideas for helping Napster users interact more with the platform than they do with the current music streaming service. The company shared goals of using Napster to offer “branded 3D virtual spaces where fans can enjoy virtual concerts, social listening parties, and other immersive and community-based experiences” and more “gamification.” Infinite also wants musicians to use Napster as a platform where fans can purchase tickets for performances, physical and virtual merchandise, and “exclusive digital content.” The 6-year-old firm also plans to offer artists abilities to use “AI-powered customer service, sales, and community management agents” and “enhanced analytics dashboards to better understand fan behavior” with Napster.

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apple-barred-from-google-antitrust-trial,-putting-$20-billion-search-deal-on-the-line

Apple barred from Google antitrust trial, putting $20 billion search deal on the line

Apple has suffered a blow in its efforts to salvage its lucrative search placement deal with Google. A new ruling from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals affirms that Apple cannot participate in Google’s upcoming antitrust hearing, which could leave a multibillion-dollar hole in Apple’s balance sheet. The judges in the case say Apple simply waited too long to get involved.

Just a few years ago, a high-stakes court case involving Apple and Google would have found the companies on opposing sides, but not today. Apple’s and Google’s interests are strongly aligned here, to the tune of $20 billion. Google forks over that cash every year, and it’s happy to do so to secure placement as the default search provider in the Safari desktop and mobile browser.

The antitrust penalties pending against Google would make that deal impermissible. Throughout the case, the government made the value of defaults clear—most people never change them. That effectively delivers Google a captive audience on Apple devices.

Google’s ongoing legal battle with the DOJ’s antitrust division is shaping up to be the most significant action the government has taken against a tech company since Microsoft in the late ’90s. Perhaps this period of stability tricked Google’s partners into thinking nothing would change, but the seriousness of the government’s proposed remedies seems to have convinced them otherwise.

Google lost the case in August 2024, and the government proposed remedies in October. According to MediaPost, the appeals court took issue with Apple’s sluggishness in choosing sides. It didn’t even make its filing to participate in the remedy phase until November, some 33 days after the initial proposal. The judges ruled this delay “seems difficult to justify.”

When Google returns to court in the coming weeks, the company’s attorneys will not be flanked by Apple’s legal team. While Apple will be allowed to submit written testimony and file friend-of-the-court briefs, it will not be able to present evidence to the court or cross-examine witnesses, as it sought. Apple argued that it was entitled to do so because it had a direct stake in the outcome.

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after-borking-my-pixel-4a-battery,-google-borks-me,-too

After borking my Pixel 4a battery, Google borks me, too


The devil is in the details.

The Pixel 4a. It’s finally here! Credit: Google

It is an immutable law of nature that when you receive a corporate email with a subject line like “Changes coming to your Pixel 4a,” the changes won’t be the sort you like. Indeed, a more honest subject line would usually be: “You’re about to get hosed.”

So I wasn’t surprised, as I read further into this January missive from Google, that an “upcoming software update for your Pixel 4a” would “affect the overall performance and stability of its battery.”

How would my battery be affected? Negatively, of course. “This update will reduce your battery’s runtime and charging performance,” the email said. “To address this, we’re providing some options to consider. “

Our benevolent Google overlords were about to nerf my phone battery—presumably in the interests of “not having it erupt in flames,” though this was never actually made clear—but they recognized the problem, and they were about to provide compensation. This is exactly how these kinds of situations should be handled.

Google offered three options: $50 cash money, a $100 credit to Google’s online store, or a free battery replacement. It seemed fair enough. Yes, not having my phone for a week or two while I shipped it roundtrip to Google could be annoying, but at least the company was directly mitigating the harm it was about to inflict. Indeed, users might actually end up in better shape than before, given the brand-new battery.

So I was feeling relatively sunny toward the giant monopolist when I decided to spring for the 50 simoleons. My thinking was that 1) I didn’t want to lose my phone for a couple of weeks, 2) the update might not be that bad, in which case I’d be ahead by 50 bucks, and 3) I could always put the money towards a battery replacement if assumption No. 2 turned out to be mistaken.

The naïveté of youth!

I selected my $50 “appeasement” through an online form, and two days later, I received an email from Bharath on the Google Support Team.

Bharath wanted me to know that I was eligible for the money and it would soon be in my hands… once I performed a small, almost trivial task: giving some company I had never heard of my name, address, phone number, Social Security number, date of birth, and bank account details.

About that $50…

Google was not, in fact, just “sending” me $50. I had expected, since the problem involved their phones and their update, that the solution would require little or nothing from me. A check or prepaid credit card would arrive in the mail, perhaps, or a drone might deliver a crisp new bill from the sky. I didn’t know and didn’t care, so long as it wasn’t my problem.

But it was my problem. To get the cash, I had to create an account with something called “Payoneer.” This is apparently a reputable payments company, but I had never heard of it, and much about its operations is unclear. For instance, I was given three different ways to sign up depending on whether I 1) “already have a Payoneer account from Google,” 2) “don’t have an account,” or 3) “do have a Payoneer account that was not provided nor activated through Google.”

Say what now?

And though Google promised “no transaction fees,” Payoneer appears to charge an “annual account fee” of $29.95… but only to accounts that receive less than $2,000 through Payoneer in any consecutive 12-month period.

Does this fee apply to me if I sign up through the Google offer? I was directed to Payoneer support with any questions, but the company’s FAQ on the annual account fee doesn’t say.

If the fee does apply to me, do I need to sign up for a Payoneer account, give them all of my most personal financial information, wait the “10 to 18 business days” that Google says it will take to get my money, and then return to Payoneer so that I can cancel my account before racking up some $30 charge a year from now? And I’m supposed to do all this just to get…. fifty bucks? One time?

It was far simpler for me to get a recent hundred-dollar rebate on a washing machine… and they didn’t need my SSN or bank account information.

(Reddit users also report that, if you use the wrong web browser to cancel your Payoneer account, you’re hit with an error that says: “This end point requires that the body of all requests be formatted as JSON.”)

Like Lando Calrissian, I realized that this deal was getting worse all the time.

I planned to write Bharath back to switch my “appeasement,” but then I noticed the fine print: No changes are possible after making a selection.

So—no money for me. On the scale of life’s crises, losing $50 is a minor one, and I resolved to move on, facing the world with a cheerful heart and a clear mind, undistracted by the many small annoyances our high-tech overlords continually strew upon the path.

Then the software update arrived.

A decimation situation

When Google said that the new Pixel 4a update would “reduce your battery’s runtime and charging performance,” it was not kidding. Indeed, the update basically destroyed the battery.

Though my phone was three years old, until January of this year, the battery still held up for all-day usage. The screen was nice, the (smallish) phone size was good, and the device remained plenty fast at all the basic tasks: texting, emails, web browsing, snapping photos. I’m trying to reduce both my consumerism and my e-waste, so I was planning to keep the device for at least another year. And even then, it would make a decent hand-me-down device for my younger kids.

After the update, however, the phone burned through a full battery charge in less than two hours. I could pull up a simple podcast app, start playing an episode, and watch the battery percentage decrement every 45 seconds or so. Using the phone was nearly impossible unless one was near a charging cable at all times.

To recap: My phone was shot, I had to jump through several hoops to get my money, and I couldn’t change my “appeasement” once I realized that it wouldn’t work for me.

Within the space of three days, I went from 1) being mildly annoyed at the prospect of having my phone messed with remotely to 2) accepting that Google was (probably) doing it for my own safety and was committed to making things right to 3) berating Google for ruining my device and then using a hostile, data collecting “appeasement” program to act like it cared. This was probably not the impression Google hoped to leave in people’s minds when issuing the Pixel 4a update.

Pixel 4a, disassembled, with two fingers holding its battery above the front half.

Removing the Pixel 4a’s battery can be painful, but not as painful as catching fire. Credit: iFixit

Cheap can be quite expensive

The update itself does not appear to be part of some plan to spy on us or to extract revenue but rather to keep people safe. The company tried to remedy the pain with options that, on the surface, felt reasonable, especially given the fact that batteries are well-known as consumable objects that degrade over time. And I’ve had three solid years of service with the 4a, which wasn’t especially expensive to begin with.

That said, I do blame Google in general for the situation. The inflexibility of the approach, the options that aren’t tailored for ease of use in specific countries, the outsourced tech support—these are all hallmarks of today’s global tech behemoths.

It is more efficient, from an algorithmic, employ-as-few-humans-as-possible perspective, to operate “at scale” by choosing global technical solutions over better local options, by choosing outsourced email support, by trying to avoid fraud (and employee time) through preventing program changes, by asking the users to jump through your hoops, by gobbling up ultra-sensitive information because it makes things easier on your end.

While this makes a certain kind of sense, it’s not fun to receive this kind of “efficiency.” When everything goes smoothly, it’s fine—but whenever there’s a problem, or questions arise, these kinds of “efficient, scalable” approaches usually just mean “you’re about to get screwed.”

In the end, Google is willing to pay me $50, but that money comes with its own cost. I’m not willing to pay with my time nor with the risk of my financial information, and I will increasingly turn to companies that offer a better experience, that care more about data privacy, that build with higher-quality components, and that take good care of customers.

No company is perfect, of course, and this approach costs a bit more, which butts up against my powerful urge to get a great deal on everything. I have to keep relearning the old lesson— as I am once again with this Pixel 4a fiasco—that cheap gear is not always the best value in the long run.

Photo of Nate Anderson

After borking my Pixel 4a battery, Google borks me, too Read More »

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“MyTerms” wants to become the new way we dictate our privacy on the web

Searls and his group are putting up the standards and letting the browsers, extension-makers, website managers, mobile platforms, and other pieces of the tech stack craft the tools. So long as the human is the first party to a contract, the digital thing is the second, a “disinterested non-profit” provides the roster of agreements, and both sides keep records of what they agreed to, the function can take whatever shape the Internet decides.

Terms offered, not requests submitted

Searls’ and his group’s standard is a plea for a sensible alternative to the modern reality of accessing web information. It asks us to stop pretending that we’re all reading agreements stuffed full with opaque language, agreeing to thousands upon thousands of words’ worth of terms every day and willfully offering up information about us. And, of course, it makes people ask if it is due to become another version of Do Not Track.

Do Not Track was a request, while MyTerms is inherently a demand. Websites and services could, of course, simply refuse to show or provide content and data if a MyTerms agent is present, or they could ask or demand that people set the least restrictive terms.

There is nothing inherently wrong with setting up a user-first privacy scheme and pushing for sites and software to do the right thing and abide by it. People may choose to stick to search engines and sites that agree to MyTerms. Time will tell if MyTerms can gain the kind of leverage Searls is aiming for.

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Oops: Google says it might have deleted your Maps Timeline data

The Google Maps Timeline has long been a useful though slightly uncomfortable feature that maintains a complete record of everywhere your phone goes (and probably you with it). Google recently changed the way it stored timeline data to improve privacy, but the company now confirms that a “technical issue” resulted in many users losing their timeline history altogether, and there might not be any way to recover it.

Timeline, previously known as Location History, is very useful if you need to figure out where you were on a particular day or if you just can’t remember where you found that neat bar on your last vacation. Many Google users grew quite fond of having access to that data. However, Google had access to it, too. Starting in 2024, Google transitioned to storing Timeline data only on the user’s individual smartphone instead of backing it up to the cloud. You can probably see where this is going.

Users started piping up over the past several weeks, posting on the Google support forums, Reddit, and other social media that their treasured Timeline data had gone missing. Google has been investigating the problem, and the news isn’t good. In an email sent out over the weekend, Google confirmed what many already feared: Maps has accidentally deleted Timeline data on countless devices.

A Google spokesperson confirmed this is the result of a technical issue and not user error or an intentional change. It’s unclear how this happened, but we’d wager on a botched Maps update. Google usually rolls out updates in waves, and it’s possible that the defective build in this case made it to a large number of devices before it was stopped.

You have exactly one possible fix for this issue, but only if you planned ahead. When Google began the full change-over to local storage of Timeline data, it added several settings to control the feature. While the data is stored locally by default, you have the option of creating encrypted backups in the cloud. If you did that, you should be able to restore the data.

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sometimes,-it’s-the-little-tech-annoyances-that-sting-the-most

Sometimes, it’s the little tech annoyances that sting the most

Anyone who has suffered the indignity of a splinter, a blister, or a paper cut knows that small things can sometimes be hugely annoying. You aren’t going to die from any of these conditions, but it’s still hard to focus when, say, the back of your right foot is rubbing a new blister against the inside of your not-quite-broken-in-yet hiking boots.

I found myself in the computing version of this situation yesterday, when I was trying to work on a new Mac Mini and was brought up short by the fact that my third mouse button (that is, clicking on the scroll wheel) did nothing. This was odd, because I have for many years assigned this button to “Mission Control” on macOS—a feature that tiles every open window on your machine, making it quick and easy to switch apps. When I got the new Mini, I immediately added this to my settings. Boom!

And yet there I was, a couple hours later, clicking the middle mouse button by reflex and getting no result. This seemed quite odd—had I only imagined that I made the settings change? I made the alteration again in System Settings and went back to work.

But after a reboot later that day to install an OS update, I found that my shortcut setting for Mission Control had once again been wiped away. This wasn’t happening with any other settings changes, and it was strangely vexing.

When it happened a third time, I switched into full “research and destroy the problem” mode. One of my Ars colleagues commiserated with me, writing, “This kind of powerful-annoying stuff is just so common. I swear at least once every few months, some shortcut or whatever just stops working, and sometimes, after a week or so, it starts working again. No rhyme, reason, or apparent causality except that computers are just [unprintable expletives].”

But even if computers are [unprintable expletives], their problems have often been encountered and fixed by some other poor soul. So I turned to the Internet for help… and immediately stumbled upon an Apple discussion thread called “MacOS mouse shortcuts are reset upon restart or shutdown.” The poster—and most of those replying—said that the odd behavior had only appeared in macOS Sequoia. One reply claimed to have identified the source of the bug and offered a fix:

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