Amazon’s Prime subscription is getting more expensive across Europe

After hiking US Prime prices earlier this year, Amazon is doing the same across Europe. According to emails received by Engadget staffers and a Reuters report, it’s raising the cost of Prime in the UK from £79 to £95, in France from €49 to €69.90, in Spain and Italy from €36 to €49.90, and Germany from €69 to €89.90. 

Those increases are the first in several years and quite significant, ranging from 20 percent in the UK to 43 percent in France. Amazon cited “increased inflation and operating costs” along with faster delivery and more streaming content to justify the rises. “We will continue to focus on making Prime even more valuable for members” via faster deliveries, more streaming content and more, the company’s UK branch wrote in an email. 

Last quarter, Amazon lost money for the first time since 2015 due to slowing growth and higher costs, following a huge boom during the pandemic. The company also took a hit due to its investment in electric pickup truck maker Rivian. It vowed to increase productivity during its last earnings report, but is facing a federal probe over the required pace of work and other potential warehouse hazards. 

Logitech’s new Aurora gaming accessories are ‘inclusive’ but expensive

Logitech has launched the Aurora Collection, a line of “gender-inclusive” gaming accessories including a mouse, keyboard and headset. The devices are built around “comfort, approachability and playfulness” based on “feedback from women gamers across the community,” the company said. They have all-new designs and some interesting features, but also carry high prices suggestive of a “pink tax” on products designed for women.

The G735 wireless headset is a good example of that. It’s Logitech’s first G gaming headset with Blue VO!CE microphone tech that helps modulate your voice, while letting you save preferred settings directly on the headset. It also promises comfort for gamers with smaller heads, 2.4Ghz wireless connectivity and up to 56 hours of battery life with the side LEDs turned off. However, it’s very expensive for a gaming headset at $230, compared to say Logitech’s high-end $200 Pro X headset with similar features. 

The wireless and wired $200 G715 and $170 G713 tenkeyless keyboards offer per-key and perimeter RGB lighting and a choice of GX mechanical switches (tactile, linear or clicky), along with a cloud-soft palm rest. The G715 can connect via Bluetooth or a 2.4Ghz dongle, and offers around 25 hours of battery life on a charge. 

Finally, the $100 G705 lightweight (85 gram) wireless mouse is specifically designed for players with small hands. It comes with an 8,200 DPI “gaming-grade” sensor, offers battery life up to 40 hours with the LEDs enabled, and can connect to the G715 keyboard to avoid clutter. 

On top of the devices, Logitech is offering accessories we don’t see with many of its other gaming products. Those include pink or neon boom mics with earpads for $20, keyboard top plates ($20) and colored keycaps ($40). It’s also offering $30 mousepads and a $40 case for the G735 headset and G705 mouse. 

Logitech said that when it looked at its gaming products, “we realized we could be doing more” in terms of delivering solutions for all gamers. In one way, it has certainly achieved that considering the $500 price tag for the entire collection. If it really wants to expand its offerings for more players, though, it may need to expand its Aurora lineup with more budget-oriented products that match the quality and prices of its standard offerings. 

Update 7/26/2022 10:46 AM ET: The article originally stated the new accessories were “gender-exclusive” rather than “gender-inclusive.” The article has been corrected with right term. 

Intel strikes a deal to manufacture MediaTek’s chips

Intel and MediaTek have formed a strategic partnership to build chips for “a range of smart edge devices” using Intel Foundry Services (IFS), Intel announced. The aim is to help MediaTek build a “more balanced, resilient supply chain,” with added capacity in the US and Europe. 

MediaTek is a fabless chipmaker that supplies processors for smartphones made by OnePlus, Samsung and others, with most of its capacity currently handled by fab giant TSMC. However, it looks like Intel will build chips for less glamorous devices used for industrial computing, medical devices, internet-of-things applications and more. Intel currently manufactures chips for MediaTek used in its 5G data card business.

Still, the partnership meets Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger’s pledge to seek customers for its foundry business. Intel launched IFS in 2021 to take advantage of surging demand for semiconductor manufacturing by offering “leading-edge process and packaging technology,” along with committed capacity in the US and Europe. As one of the leading fabless chip makers, MediaTek would be a key client. 

Last year, Intel announced that it would build chips for Qualcomm as part of its foundry launch. It also detailed its “IDM 2.0” strategy to catch rivals TSMC and Samsung by 2025, kicking it off with a $20 billion investment in two Arizona fabrication plants. Later in 2021, the Biden administration spurned plans by Intel to manufacture silicon wafers in China as a way to relieve global chip shortage issues, citing security concerns. 

The US Senate is set to vote on the CHIPS Act designed to bolster domestic semiconductor manufacturing with tax credits and up to $52 billion in subsidies. However, some industry players are concerned that it could unduly favor Intel, to the detriment of smaller manufacturers like AMD, Qualcomm and NVIDIA. Those companies design their own chips but don’t manufacture them, so would see no direct benefit from subsidies. 

A chess-playing robot broke its seven-year-old opponent’s finger

In something out of Black Mirror meets Queen’s Gambit, a chess robot accidentally broke the finger of its seven-year old opponent during an exhibition in Moscow, The Guardian reported. The child apparently moved his piece too soon and the robot grabbed his finger and squeezed it, causing a fracture before help could arrive. “The robot broke the child’s finger,” said Moscow Chess Federation president Sergey Lazarev. “This is of course bad.” 

Video shows the robot grabbing the boy’s finger and holding it for several seconds a group of people come to free him. It’s not clear what went wrong, but Lazarev said the child had “made a move, and after that we need to give time for the robot to answer, but the boy hurried and the robot grabbed him.” He implied that the robot’s suppliers may need work on the safety aspects, saying the are “going to have to think again.” 

The boy was identified as Christopher and went on to play the next day, finishing the tournament. His parents, however, have reportedly contacted the public prosecutor’s office. Russian chess official Sergey Smagin downplayed the incident, calling it “a coincidence” and saying the machine was “absolutely safe.” 

In any case, the incident can be seen as a modern parable of the dangers of robots, even in something as innocuous as chess. On a larger scale with things like robotic cars, however, the stakes are considerably higher. 

‘The Orville’ will stream on Disney+ starting August 10th

After a delay of nearly three years, season 3 of Hulu’s The Orville finally launched last month and proved to be worth the wait. Now, creator Seth MacFarlane has announced some extra recompense for fans — the first three seasons of the series will also stream on Disney+. 

The Orville has been relatively popular with critics, but moved from much wider distribution with Fox to the smaller audiences of Hulu after two seasons. With over 85 million subscribers internationally, though, Disney+ will greatly expand the pool of potential viewers.

“I’m thrilled to bring all three seasons of The Orville to Disney+,” said MacFarlane. “Making this show has been one of the most satisfying experiences of my career, and I’m immensely grateful to Disney for providing us the opportunity to expand our Orville community further. I can’t wait for new audiences to experience this series.”

The extra eyeballs on The Orville with Disney+ could prove crucial to the series, as it has yet to be greenlit for a fourth season. MacFarlane himself didn’t reveal anything in that regard, saying “I don’t think we’ll know until this season is finished.” The last two episodes of season 3 are set to air on July 28th and August 4th, and all three seasons will hit Disney+ on August 10th. 

US and UK joint data access agreement goes into effect on October 3rd

The US and UK have signed a Data Access Agreement that will allow law enforcement agencies in each country to request user internet data from the other, the Department of Justice (DoJ) and UK Home Office said in a joint press release. The agreement was…

Naughty Dog shows off improved gameplay from ‘The Last of Us’ PS5 remake

With the PS5 remake for The Last of Usset to arrive soon, developer Naughty Dog recently showed the benefits you can expect with the new hardware. Now in a 10-minute video, the company has detailed new features including a speed-run mode and smarter AI, while walking through improved graphics, physics, character models, animations and more. 

As we saw last month, the new graphics are indeed much improved, with native 4K at 30 fps or dynamic 4K at 60 fps. The biggest changes are with gameplay, though. First off, the remake uses AI from The Last of Us Part 2, which gives enemies and NPCs more complex tactics, making for better fights. It’s not one-sided, either, as your companions’ AI has also been updated. 

The remake also includes new gameplay modes. One of those is a permadeath mode for those who want the full “infected” zombie apocalypse experience, along with new unlockable costumes for Joel and Ellie. The other is a speed run mode — details are scant on that, other than that you’ll be able to measure your progress with a timer. 

The other improvements revolve around characters, with new models that include far more detail “down to the irises and the pupil depths,” noted creative director and writer Shaun Escayg. The team also updated the animations with improved facial expressions, motion-matching tech for more flowing movements and more. It also includes new materials, physics, haptics, 3D audio and more.

The remake does look impressive, but it will sell at a full $70 triple-A price when it arrives on September 2nd. As such, Naughty Dog and Sony appear to be doing more than the usual amount of marketing for a remake, no doubt hoping to show potential buyers it’s worth that. 

‘Dungeons & Dragons’ movie trailer looks like a loud, dumb and hopefully fun time

San Diego Comic-Con 2022 kicked off with a trailer for the movie Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and it… actually looks promising? The upcoming film has an all-star cast with Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page and Hugh Grant, and blends action, fantasy, comedy and some of D&D’s most iconic monsters. 

“A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers undertake an epic heist to retrieve a lost relic, but things go dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people,” the description reads. “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves brings the rich world and playful spirit of the legendary roleplaying game to the big screen in a hilarious and action-packed adventure.”

The trailer delivers the dragons you’d expect, including possibly an acid-breathing Ancient Black Dragon and a Red Dragon. We also see a Mimic disguised as a treasure chest, a Displacer Beast, a Gelatinous Cube and an Owlbear — a beast that goes back to the original D&D game. As for realms and spells, there’s what looks like the Underdark, a Heat Metal spell, Dimension Door spell and others. 

The film is being produced and distributed by Paramount and Hasbro, which controls the rights of the game and recently acquired the popular digital game-playing toolset D&D Beyond. Hasbro is also working on other film and TV adaptations for its toys including Transformers and My Little Pony. 

Ford is reportedly planning to cut 8,000 jobs to help fund its EV plans

Ford is reportedly planning to cut up to 8,000 jobs over the coming weeks in an effort to fund its plans to build EVs, according to Bloomberg. The layoffs would occur at its Ford Blue unit, recently created to develop vehicles with internal combustion engines (ICE), and would affect other salaried positions in the company. The bulk of cuts are expected to occur in the US.

In March, Ford CEO Jim Farley restructured the company, dividing it into the Ford Blue and Model E divisions, with the latter dedicated to electric cars and pickups like the Mach E and F150 Lightning. As part of that, he announced plans to cut $3 billion in costs by 2026, with the aim of transforming Ford Blue into “the profit and cash engine” for the entire company.

“As part of this, we have laid out clear targets to lower our cost structure to ensure we are lean and fully competitive with the best in the industry,” Ford’s CCO Mark Truby told Bloomberg in a statement, without revealing more details about the cuts. Ford currently employees around 31,000 salaried US workers. 

In March, the automaker announced plans to boost electric vehicle spending to $50 billion and plan to build two million EVs by 2026. The company sold just 27,140 EVs stateside last year, but got a significant 76.6 percent boost last month as shipping commenced for the F-150 Lightning.