Google is making it easier to find and support Asian-owned businesses

Google is making it easier for people to find and support Asian-owned businesses in their communities. Starting today, US merchants can now add an “Asian-owned” label to a verified Google business profile, which will appear in Search and Maps queries.

The move is part of Google’s efforts to support historically marginalized communities. It previously rolled out labels for Black-owned, Latino-owned, veteran-owned, women-owned and LGBTQ+ owned businesses. 

In addition, the company says its Grow with Google initiative, along with the non-profit US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce, will help another 10,000 Asian-owned small businesses learn digital skills. To date, they’ve assisted more than 20,000 Asian-owned businesses with workshops on things like e-commerce, analytics-driven decisions and design.

Amazon knocks $100 off Samsung’s Freestyle smart projector

Samsung debuted its Freestyle smart projector earlier this year at CES as a portable home theater gadget with auto focus and auto leveling features, making it easier to watch anything, anywhere. Normally priced at $900, the Freestyle projector is down to $798 at Amazon right now, which is just about $100 off. Samsung also has it for nearly the same price. The only time we’ve seen the projector cheaper was when it went on sale for $650 at Woot in a one-day sale back in April. If you missed the chance then, now’s a good opportunity to grab the Freestyle while it’s decently discounted.

Buy Freestyle projector at Amazon – $798Buy Freestyle projector at Samsung – $800

The Freestyle is really best for those that want a portable projector as it weighs only 1.83 pounds and can be easily picked up and moved from spot to spot around your home. Its stand can rotate nearly 180 degrees and its auto focus and auto leveling features help align what you’re watching, so you could project a movie onto your ceiling, your wall and a number of other places without the picture looking too wonky. The Freestyle projects images with a 1080p resolution with a size range of 30 to 100 inches, making it easy to adjust the image to fit the surface you’re working with. Along with built-in Alexa, Google Assistant and Bixby voice command support, it also has 360-degree audio, so you won’t need to plug in external speakers for sound.

If you’d rather invest in a new TV than a projector for your home theater setup, some of Samsung’s 2022 smart TVs have also been discounted on Amazon. The 85-inch Class Neo QLED Mini LED 4K TV is a whopping $700 off and down to $3,298, which is an all-time low. This set uses Mini LED technology to produce bolder, brighter colors and higher contrast, plus it supports a 120Hz refresh rate, 4K AI upscaling, Dolby Atmos and Alexa, Google Assistant and Bixby voice controls. Elsewhere, Samsung’s 65-inch Q80B Series QLED 4K set is $200 off and down to $1,298, while the 65-inch Class Neo QLED 8K Mini LED TV is $500 off and on sale for $4,498.

Buy 85-inch Samsung Mini LED TV at Amazon – $3,298Buy 65-inch Samsung Q80B QLED 4K TV at Amazon – $1,298Buy 65-inch Samsung QLED 8K Mini LED TV at Amazon – $4,498

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Solana ‘hot’ wallets are being drained in multi-million dollar attack

An unknown actor has drained over 8,000 internet-connected wallets in an ongoing attack on the Solana blockchain ecosystem. According to Blockchain auditor OtterSec, the attacks were still ongoing when it posted an update in the evening of August 2nd and that they had affected multiple wallets, including Phantom, Slope, Solflare and TrustWallet, across a wide variety of platforms. 

As TechCrunch notes, the bad actor seems to have stolen both Solana tokens and USDC stablecoins, with the estimated losses so far amounting to around $8 million. OtterSec is now encouraging users to move all their assets to a hardware wallet, and the Solana Status Twitter account echoed that advice, adding that there’s no evidence “cold” wallets have been impacted.

The Solana Status account has also revealed that an exploit allowed a malicious actor to drain funds from the compromised wallets and that it seems to have affected both their mobile versions and extensions. Engineers from multiple ecosystems have already banded together to work with security researchers to identify the root cause of the exploit, which is yet to be discovered. 

People in the crypto industry have several theories, though, with some believing that the bad actors got access to private keys through a supply chain attack, because the attacker was able to sign, or initiate and approve, transactions on behalf of the victims. Others warning that the exploit has caused the widespread compromise of private keys and that revoking wallet approvals won’t help at all. 

Porsche’s new companies are all about electric bikes

In the future, you may come across a lot more two-wheeled Porsches on the streets. The luxury automaker has launched two new joint ventures with Dutch company Ponooc Investment B.V., and they’re both all about electric bikes. Porsche eBike Performance GmbH is based in Ottobrunn near Munich and will develop components, including motors and batteries. Anything it creates will then be used by P2 eBike GmbH, the second joint venture based in Stuttgart, to manufacture Porsche-branded e-bikes for consumers that the company plyans to launch starting in the middle of the decade. 

Porsche is far from a newcomer in the e-bike space. In 2021, it debuted two electric bikes inspired by the Taycan and were made to complement the Cross Turismo, which has a rear carrier. Those bikes, however, along with their motors and gear shifting systems, were manufactured by Japanese bicycle industry giant Shimano. With one company developing parts and another working on the consumer bikes themselves, the upcoming products the joint ventures will release will be all (or at least mostly) Porsche.

The components business will use the e-bike drive systems develop by Fazua, a company Porsche recently acquired, as noted by Electrek. However, it will also develop e-bike systems under the Porsche brand name — it will even sell the technology it designs to other brands. As with anything Porsche, the bikes under the new ventures will most likely not come cheap: Its Taycan-inspired bikes, for instance, set buyers back at least $8,500 at launch, with the sports model selling for prices that start at $10,700.

Watch the Pokémon Presents stream at 9AM ET for updates on ‘Pokémon Scarlet,’ ‘Violet’ and more

The latest Pokémon Presents is livestreaming at 9AM ET today, promising updates on Pokémon apps and games “including Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet,” The Pokémon Company said. It didn’t add more details, but the last Pokémon Presents revealed the Scarlet and Violet release windows, among other news. 

The company also showed off some visuals from the game at the last Pokémon Presents, including a pastoral countryside and urban landscapes, as well as the three new starters Sprigatito, Fuecoco and Quaxly. It also announced a new “Daybreak” update for Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

We now know that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are coming to Switch on November 18th. A subsequent reveal in June showed two new professors and clues about the game’s open world. In addition, a series of rough screenshots may have shown new battle mechanics and evolutions, as well as clues about the total number of Pokémon. Hopefully, all will be revealed when the trailer drops today at 9AM ET.  

The Morning After: Uber receipts are crashing Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft has flagged a formatting bug that freezes Outlook whenever you open emails with complex tables, including, er, Uber receipts. The glitch is so powerful it even crashes Word, too. The problem was first noted in a standard release of Outlook, b…

Nintendo’s Switch sales drop as it contends with chip shortage

Nintendo’s Switch sales fell significantly last quarter, dropping to 3.43 million units compared to 4.45 million during the same period last year, according to its earnings report. Software sales also fell to 41.4 million units compared to 45.3 million year over year. All that that resulted in an operating profit of 101.6 billion yen ($763 million), down from last year and short of what was expected. 

The company chalked up the Switch sales issue to a parts shortage, the same thing that bedeviled Sony during the same quarter. “Hardware production was impacted by factors such as the global shortage of semiconductor components, resulting in a decrease of hardware shipments,” the company said. It noted that the OLED model made up a large chunk of Switch sales with 1.52 million units sold, and the lower margins on that model dragged profit down a bit.

While game sales also dropped, Nintendo managed to boost the overall percentage of first-party games sold. In fact, it was the second best first quarter for first-party game sell-through since the Switch launched — second only to Q1 2021, which was fueled by Animal Crossing: New Horizons. All told, however, Nintendo would have to call the quarter a success considering that game buyers spent 13 percent less this year compared to 2021, according to Bloomberg

Some of that was aided by the launch of three key games, the company pointed out, particularly Nintendo Switch Sports which arrived on April 29th. Mario Strikers: Battles League launched on June 10th, while Fire Emblem Warriors arrived on June 24th. “More than 100 million users played Nintendo Switch in the latest 12-month period,” the company added. 

Nintendo is hoping that upcoming games will help out next quarter. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 just launched, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass: Wave 2 arrives on August 4th, Splatoon 3 will be released on September 9th and you’ll see Kirby’s Dream Buffet sometime this summer. The company is also launching an OLED Switch Splatoon 3 Edition on August 26th. 

Uber tests train and bus bookings in the UK

As it promised earlier this year, Uber is testing bus and train travel options in the UK via a partnership with Berlin-based travel platform Omio, TechCrunch has reported. “We’re excited to launch our new travel offering this summer, allowing a seamless door-to-door travel experience across the UK,” Uber UK general manager Andrew Brem said in a statement. 

Omio covers over 1,000 transportation providers in 37 countries. It has its own travel app for consumers, but has also been developing a business-to-business API that allows partners to access its ground transport network. The company also offers air and ferry travel on its consumer app and website, but its primary focus is on train and bus/coach travel.

The company has already partnered with UK’s LNER, travel site Kayak and others, but Uber is its biggest partner so far. “Uber is the first partner that is both at this scale but also the first that gets access to our full ticketing API so you actually are, as a customer, able to do everything within the Uber app,” Omio CEO and founder Narem Shaam told TechCrunch.

With access to Omio’s API, Uber will be able to offer international train travel to UK users right away. Trips booked via Uber’s app will generate a commission for Omio, which it will share with Uber via an undisclosed split. Uber is also paying Omio to license its technology. 

Omio believes that its app has a “high overlap” with Uber users, and is hoping the deal will increase its UK market penetration. Ground transport functionality will be added in phases with a basic feature set launching today and building out over the coming months.