Snap Kills Off Pixy, Its Flying Selfie Drone

Deal Score0
Deal Score0

Ding dong, the drone is useless. Pixy, Snap’s petite flying selfie digicam, is not any extra.

Technically you may nonetheless purchase one, however The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the gadget is finished for. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has informed staff that the corporate would quickly cease making the $230 gizmo. Snap will as a substitute “reprioritize” its growth efforts elsewhere.

The little drone had a brief life. (The identical might be mentioned for its battery.) The Pixy appeared virtually out of thin air in April. Now, rather less than 4 months later, its rotors spin no extra.

This shouldn’t be the primary time Snap has jerked the wheel on its {hardware} technique. Rather than attempt to mass-produce merchandise and create the following large factor, Snap has remained an eccentric outlier in shopper tech. The firm has made a number of attempts at AR glasses, however they’ve by no means actually gone a lot past being a marketing stunt. Its latest glasses weren’t even offered for sale. Similarly, Snap by no means appeared to set its sights too excessive with Pixy. It made a restricted provide and mentioned it will promote the gadget so long as provides lasted.

Last month, Snap reported that it had made less revenue than ever before, which spooked the corporate’s shareholders and led it to reduce on hiring. Unlike poor Pixy, Snap’s future continues to be up within the air.

Here’s extra of this week’s shopper tech information.

Motorola Gets Edgy Again

Motorola smartphones have suffered from issues for some time. Most notably, they had been typically lacking key aggressive options and provided solely restricted software program updates. Thankfully, Moto is remedying a few of these flaws with its newest handset, the Motorola Edge. Does that identify sound acquainted? Yes, there was a Motorola Edge+ 2022 earlier this 12 months, however that telephone was $1,000. The new mannequin is half that value, but it would obtain higher software program assist: three OS upgrades and 4 years of bimonthly safety updates. It additionally has an NFC sensor, so you should use tap-to-pay wherever it is accepted.

The Motorola Edge runs Android 12 and has a powerful listing of specs for its value, together with a 6.6-inch, 144-Hz OLED display screen, wi-fi charging, and two-day battery life—because of the 5,000-mAh cell. It’s additionally powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 1050 chipset, which provides sub-6 and mmWave 5G assist (and C-Band too). We’ll have to attend and see how properly its dual-camera system fares towards opponents just like the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G and Google Pixel 6A, although the Edge loses factors for its lesser IP52-rated water resistance (it is solely secure from rain and unintentional spills, not a drop within the pool).

More apparently, that is Motorola’s first smartphone to be “fully carbon offset,” and it’ll arrive in plastic-free packaging, which purportedly will cut back plastic waste by 5.7 metric tons and CO2 emissions by 83 metric tons. (It’s a disgrace such a factor took this lengthy!) The new Edge might be bought at T-Mobile within the coming weeks for $498, and it’ll come to different carriers and as an unlocked gadget at Amazon and Best Buy for $500 at a later date. This is a “limited-time launch price” although—after a while, it will value $599.

Ultimate Ears Wonderboom

We right here at WIRED have a tendency to actually like Ultimate Ears’ wi-fi audio system. (There are three of them in our information to the best Bluetooth speakers.) They sound nice, take a beating, float on water, and are even kinda cute. They additionally emit sound 360 levels round them, so nobody within the sizzling tub is neglected of the blast zone.

Ultimate Ears’ latest Bluetooth speaker was introduced this week. The Wonderboom 3 is an replace to the corporate’s hand-grenade-sized sound emitter. The firm says this new model boasts 14 hours of battery life, an improved wi-fi vary, and an IP67 waterproof and dustproof score. It will value $99 and may begin delivery August 31.

Google Wants Search to Suck Less

Google Search is a multitude. Try to lookup any random factor and also you’ll probably discover that the topmost hyperlinks are sponsored adverts or misinformation or ineffective websites which have simply exploited search engine optimization algorithms to realize a greater place on the web page. Finding actually useful search outcomes is usually a ache.

Well, now Google says it’s making an attempt to repair all that. In an announcement on Wednesday, Google mentioned it plans to tweak its Search settings to prioritize “helpful content made by, and for, people.” The purpose is to weed out the low-effort content material that’s been designed primarily for search optimization. Google hasn’t shared the specifics of how that may work. (It’s all backend proprietary algorithm shenanigans, in any case.) But in its developer blog, the corporate says that its automated methods will trawl pages for apparent search engine optimization bait and deprioritize them. If one thing is deemed spammy, it is going to be tagged within the system as “unhelpful content.” Then, hopefully, you’ll have the ability to see higher search pages with out these hyperlinks cluttering up your outcomes.

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