Amazon’s Echo Show 5 is more than half off right now

Amazon’s smallest smart display is back on sale at one of the best prices we’ve seen. If you missed the chance to pick up the Echo Show 5 on Prime Day, you can get it now for only $40. That’s 53 percent off its normal price and only $5 more than it was during Amazon’s two-day shopping event. You’re getting the most up-to-date model here, which is the 2021 version with a 2MP camera for video calls. The kids version of the gadget has also been discounted to $50, which is nearly half off its regular rate.

Buy Echo Show 5 at Amazon – $40Buy Echo Show 5 Kids at Amazon – $50

We’ve recommended the Echo Show 5 many times in the past as a solid, compact smart display that also works well as a smart alarm clock. You may not have a ton of space for another gadget on your desk, nightstand or countertop, but the Show 5 should be able to fit even in the most cramped spaces. It has a 5.5-inch, 960 x 480 resolution display that will show things like weather forecasts, calendar events, photos and more. The 2MP camera can be used to video chat with friends and family, but it can also be used as a makeshift security camera of sorts. When you’re out of the house, you can access the camera to check out what’s going on in your home. And if you prefer not to use the camera at all, the Show 5 has a built-in camera shutter (along with a mic mute button) to give you more privacy.

We were impressed by the Show 5’s audio quality as well. While you won’t get as rich sound as you would on a dedicated speaker, the Show 5 pumps out good audio and gets pretty loud, too. If you have the Show 5 on your nightstand, you can use it as a smart alarm clock and make use of the gadget’s tap-to-snooze feature, which lets you silence the alarm with just a touch to the top of the device. Ultimately, the Echo Show 5 is one of the most affordable ways to get Alexa into your home when it’s on sale like this. It’s currently the same price as the Echo Dot, so if you prefer to have a screen to see certain information or to do things like check security camera feeds, follow along with recipe videos and the like, the Echo Show 5 is the better buy.

The Echo Show 5 Kids is essentially the same as the standard smart display, but it comes in fun colors and gives you one year of access to Amazon Kids+. It’s the company’s subscription service that includes a bunch of child-friendly videos, games, books and more, and a lot of them can be accessed directly on the Show 5. Also, the kids version has more advanced parental controls, so you can set usage limits and bed times, review activity and otherwise keep track of how your child can use the gadget.

If you’d rather skip the display and opt for a gadget with even better sound quality, the full-sized Echo remains on sale for $60. That’s a record low and a return to its Prime Day price. It’s been one of our favorite smart speakers since it came out in 2020 thanks to its great audio quality, 3.5mm jack for optional input and output, plus its ability to play stereo sound when you pair two of them together.

Buy Echo at Amazon – $60

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SEC investigates Coinbase, says it may have illegally sold unregistered securities

Coinbase is facing a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) probe into whether it allowed users to trade digital tokens that should have been registered as securities, Bloomberg has reported. Coinbase, involved indirectly in another probe by the SEC and state of New York, recently caught the regulator’s eye after expanding the number of tokens it offers for trading. 

After taking a conservative approach to listing cryptocurrencies, Coinbase now lets Americans trade more than 150 tokens, according to Bloomberg. If any of those are considered to be securities, it would need to register as an exchange with the SEC. A token is considered to be a security if it involves investors putting up funds for a company in order to profit from the work of its leadership.

Last week, the commission accused a former Coinbase employee of violating insider-trading rules by helping his brother and a friend buy dozens of different types of tokens before they were listed on the platform. Coinbase itself wasn’t accused of any wrongdoing, but the SEC said it considered nine of the dozens of digital tokens traded by the men to be securities, including seven listed by the exchange. 

In a response by chief legal officer Paul Grewal, Coinbase said that it “does not list securities on the platform. Period.” As evidence of that, it said that the US Department of Justice “reviewed the same facts [as the SEC] and chose not to file securities fraud charges against those involved.” 

Coinbase has previously complained that there’s no regulatory framework for digital asset securities. As it happened, the company filed a petition for rule making to clarify those rules just before the SEC filed charges. “Instead of crafting tailored rules in an inclusive and transparent way, the SEC is relying on these types of one-off enforcement actions to try to bring all digital assets into its jurisdiction, even those assets that are not securities,” Grewal wrote. 

Samsung’s Galaxy S22 will be available in another shade of purple on August 10th

Ahead of its upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event in August, Samsung is unveiling a new color variant of the flagship S22 it launched earlier this year. Called “Bora Purple” after the Korean word for purple, the new hue will be available only for the smallest S22, not the Plus and Ultra versions, though Samsung said the color will launch on “exciting new Galaxy devices later this year.” You’ll be able to buy the Bora S22 on August 10th for the same $800 as the original model, which also comes in violet, green, pink, white and black. 

We’ve seen Samsung launch purple gadgets before, like the “Orchid Gray” Galaxy S8, “Lilac Purple” Galaxy S9 and the lavender Z Flip 3. The S22 series itself is already available in violet, but the Bora edition’s contour cut camera housing is color-matched to the rest of the phone, while this part on the older handset is gold. 

Samsung’s obsession with the color purple is evident in the press release it issued to announce the launch of Bora. “[P]urple is for everyone, whether you’re a global pop sensation, someone with a playful sense of style or a teen who wants to stand out from the crowd,” the company wrote. “In that sense, the purple stands for the same things as Samsung Galaxy: embracing diversity, pushing boundaries, and relentlessly innovating under the philosophy of openness.”

The company’s executive vice president and head of marketing Stephanie Choi also said in the statement “With its pastel and neutral tones, Bora Purple embodies optimism and a sense of calm. It will unfold your world with the power of choice.” Choi added “You don’t need to be a K-pop star or a mythical creature to embody mystery or power, you just need to be yourself.” 

That is all technically true, with or without a purple phone. During my brief hands-on with the new Bora S22, I did not feel like a K-pop star or a mythical creature. I did not feel like I embodied mystery or power. I did not feel more optimistic or calm, though the phone is indeed quite pretty.

We’re expecting Samsung to launch five new Galaxy products next month, including the next-generation Z Fold, Z Flip, Watch and Buds. Judging by the hint in today’s announcement, it’s likely that Bora Purple will be a launch color for these devices. 

The Morning After: A chess robot broke the finger of its 7-year-old opponent

Sometimes the headline says it all: A chess-playing robot accidentally broke the finger of its seven-year-old opponent during an exhibition match in Moscow. The child apparently moved his piece too soon, and the robot grabbed his finger and squeezed it…

Meta calls for the death of the leap second

Meta is putting its considerable weight behind the tech industry’s push to do away with the leap second. In a post on the company’s engineering blog, Meta production engineer Oleg Obleukhov and research scientist Ahmad Byagowi talked about how a leap second can wreak havoc on a network, along with the solution Meta implements to prevent outages and any issues it could cause. 

The leap second was introduced back in 1972 as a way to adjust Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and make up for the difference between the International Atomic Time (TAI), which is measured by atomic clocks, and imprecise observed solar time (UT1). They sometimes don’t match due to irregularities and slowdown in the Earth’s rotation caused by various climate-induced and geological events, such as the melting and refreezing of ice caps on the tallest mountains.

As Obleukhov and Byagowi note, the offset a leap second creates can cause issues all over the industry. In 2012, for instance, it took Reddit out for 40 minutes when the time change confused its servers and locked up its CPUs. A time leap added in 2017 also affected Cloudflare’s DNS service.

To prevent unwanted outages, Meta and other tech companies, such as Google and Amazon, use a technique called “smearing.” These companies “smear” a leap second by slowing down or speeding up the clock throughout a number of hours. Meta smears a leap second throughout 17 hours, while Google uses a 24-hour smear technique that lasts from noon to noon and encourages everyone to follow suit. That way, a leap second doesn’t create any weird time stamps that could throw networks off.

But Meta isn’t advocating for the adoption of its smearing technique — its new post’s purpose is to lend its voice to the movement that’s calling for the leap second’s retirement. The body responsible for deciding whether to adjust UTC, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, has added 27 leap seconds since 1972. Meta believes that’s enough adjustment for the next millennium.

The company’s post comes over a year before the fate of the leap second is decided. Back in 2015, the International Telecommunications Union discussed the leap second at its World Radiocommunication Conference and came to the conclusion that further studies are needed to figure out the impact of dumping it. The union is expected to examine the studies’ results and to consider the proposal to retire the leap second at its next conference in 2023.

Meta said in its post:

“Leap second events have caused issues across the industry and continue to present many risks. As an industry, we bump into problems whenever a leap second is introduced. And because it’s such a rare event, it devastates the community every time it happens. With a growing demand for clock precision across all industries, the leap second is now causing more damage than good, resulting in disturbances and outages.”

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.