author_name|Jon Fingas August 3, 2023 0

Tesla sued for false advertising after allegedly exaggerating EV ranges

Tesla is already facing the fallout from a report that it exaggerated EV ranges and tried to muffle complaints. Three owners in California have launched a proposed class action lawsuit accusing Tesla of false advertising. The trio claims their cars fell well short of their estimated ranges, and that they've had no success lodging complaints. The customers either wouldn't have bought their cars or would have paid considerably less for them, according to the suit.

The owners allege Tesla committed fraud, violated warranties and conducted unfair competition. If the lawsuit gets class action status, it would cover all people in California who bought a Tesla Model 3, Model S, Model X or Model Y. The plaintiffs are hoping for unspecified damages. Tesla has disbanded its communications team and isn't available for comment.

The lawsuit follows a Reuters report that Tesla began modifying EV ranges about a decade ago. Its cars would supposedly show inflated figures when fully charged, and would only start showing accurate numbers under a 50 percent charge. To head off complaints, the automaker is said to have created a "Diversion Team" that would persuade users to drop range-related support calls.

It's not certain that Tesla still uses these purported exaggerations. The Environmental Protection Agency did ask the company to trim its range estimates from the 2020 model year forward, and South Korea recently issued a $2.2 million fine over an alleged failure to adequately inform customers that EV ranges would drop in cold weather.

Tesla isn't alone in boasting EV range estimates that don't hold up in real conditions. An SAE International study found that electric cars tend to fall about 12.5 percent short of their advertised ranges. The report and lawsuit suggest Tesla's figures are less accurate than for other brands, however, and that the company may have tried to silence unhappy customers.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tesla-sued-for-false-advertising-after-allegedly-exaggerating-ev-ranges-151034923.html?src=rss

Jon Fingas

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author_name|Sam Rutherford February 24, 2022 0

Samsung Galaxy S22 review: Building on a solid foundation

by Sam Rutherford

A lot of gadgets operate on a “tick-tock” development cycle, with the most well-known being past iPhones that sported fresh designs, only to be replaced 12 months later by more refined but similar-looking S variants. And after Samsung ticked the box with a fresh new design for last year’s S21, now the company has returned with the more polished Galaxy S22 and S22+. While they might look a lot like last year’s phones, there have been some notable upgrades, especially on the S22’s display, performance and camera.

Design

Even though I’m still not sure how much I love Samsung’s Contour Cut camera design, the Galaxy S22 very much looks and feels like a high-end device. The outside of the phone features Samsung’s Armor Aluminum alloy that’s been polished to a near-mirror finish, with the S22 also being one of the first phones equipped with Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus+ to protect the phone from drops and scratches — both in front and in back.

The Galaxy S22 and S22+ are available in four colors: white, black, green, and pink.

To add a little spice to the mixture, the S22’s backside sports a lovely matte texture – which does a surprisingly good job of resisting fingerprints. And for 2022, Samsung also spruced up the S22’s color options with new shades of green, pink and white, along with good ole black.

Like previous Galaxy S phones, the S22 comes with an ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint reader, and after years of tweaking its algorithm and improving the tech, this time it feels seriously fast. In my experience, unlocking the phone was practically instant, and I never really ran into recognition issues unless my fingers were legit wet or greasy. (Keep your grubby hands away from my phone if you’re eating pizza, k thnx.)

The sides of the Galaxy S22 are made from Samsung's patented Armor Aluminum, which are then polished to a near-mirror finish.

The one thing avid movie watchers should be aware of though is the color-matched frames on the pink and white models. If you’re the kind of person that might be bothered by a glint or sparkle around the edge of the phone while watching videos, you may want to go with one of the darker color options.

And while it’s not really a surprise at this point, the S22 doesn’t feature a microSD card slot or a headphone jack. With the Galaxy S line now being three generations removed from the last device to include both of those features, it’s pretty clear they’re not coming back.

Display

Samsung has had a lock on the crown when it comes to making the best mobile displays in the business for a while now. But on the S22, the company has outdone itself once again with displays that can hit a peak brightness of 1,300 nits on the S22, or an astounding 1,750 nits on the S22+. Suffice to say any fears of the S22’s screen being hard to read even in direct sunlight are unfounded.

Then, to make things look even better, Samsung created a new feature called Vision Booster designed to amp up things like contrast and color saturation in very bright or dim conditions. While there’s no indicator or pop-up that lets you know it’s working, I found the effect most pronounced when I used the phone outdoors, with more subtle changes in the dark when compared to phones like the Pixel 6 Pro. I found Vision Booster made dark scenes easier to parse, but even when viewed side-by-side, I basically had to press my face up against the phones to really see the differences.

But regardless of where you are, the end result is a display that lives in technicolor, pumping out vivid shades and hues, along with the perfectly dark inky blacks that make OLED screens so enthralling. Plus, thanks to a 2,340 x 1,080 resolution and a variable 120Hz refresh rate, everything from photos to gifs look sharp and crisp.

Performance

The Galaxy S22 line is one of the first phones to feature Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, which when combined with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage (or 256GB if you opt for the upgrade) results in a phone that feels blisteringly fast. In my experience, there isn’t really anything you can throw at the S22 that makes it even sweat, aside from stuff like hardcore multitasking when connected to an external monitor via Samsung Dex (which is still very much a thing).

Like previous Galaxy phones, the S22 features an ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint reader.

And while some reports claim that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Gen 8 Gen 1 has a proclivity for running hot, S22’s built-in vapor chamber cooling system seems effective at keeping throttling to a minimum. Compared to the S21 FE, which features an older Snapdragon 888 chip, our S22+ posted scores in Geekbench 5’s Compute test around 25 percent higher (4,708 vs 5,999). And while the gap wasn’t quite as large in Geekbench 5’s CPU test, the S22+ still posted a significantly higher single-core score of 1,213 compared to 1,061 for the S21 FE.

As for wireless connectivity, all versions of the S22 and S22+ support all the important flavors of 5G, including Verizon and AT&T’s new C-band spectrum.

Cameras

After recent advancements from competitors like the iPhone 13 and Pixel 6, Samsung is now playing catchup to Apple and Google in the camera department. And while Samsung is touting a bunch of new camera features for the S22 and S22+ like Adaptive Pixel and various “Nightography” improvements, the real upgrades are the S22’s new sensors — particularly the one for its 50MP main cam.

Thanks to that significantly higher resolution (up from 12MP on the S21), photos from the S22’s main wide-angle camera are just flat-out sharper than before. But more importantly, the S22’s primary camera offers wider dynamic range and big improvements for low-light photos. In darker scenes, the S22 uses a four-to-one pixel binning technique that combines four adjacent pixels into one big pixel, which allows for improved light sensitivity. The result is brighter photos with richer colors, especially at night. And even though Google’s Night Sight still has a slight advantage over Samsung’s Night Mode, the S22 has seriously narrowed the gap.

Elsewhere, you also get a solid 12MP ultra-wide camera with a 120-degree field of view, and a 10MP telephoto camera with a 3x optical zoom, the latter of which is important because neither the standard iPhone 13 or Pixel 6 comes with a dedicated zoom lens. So once again, the base S22 is the most well-rounded camera phone for the money. And in front, the 10MP selfie camera captured crisp pictures of my face including my many pores and blemishes, though you can always play around with Samsung’s beauty settings if you want to put on a smoother face for social media.

Where things get frustrating is that some of the S22’s new camera features are often hard to use, or even tell when they’re working — with the main offender being Samsung’s Adaptive Pixel feature. Adaptive Pixel uses multi-frame image capture to shoot pics using the main sensor’s full resolution along with lower-res pixel-binned shots, before merging them together to create a higher-quality composite final image. The issue is that Adaptive Pixel isn’t turned on by default, and searching the phone’s settings for it doesn’t return any matches.

To even activate this, you need to first make sure Samsung’s scene optimizer is on, then you have to turn on the camera app’s full 50MP capture mode, make sure the Detail Enhancer setting is disabled, and then point the S22 at a dark scene and hope Adaptive Pixel kicks in. And I do mean hope, because there’s no pop-up or notification that lets you know when the feature is activated. Even when you do get it to work, while the pictures are a bit sharper and feature a more neutral color profile (which is better for anyone who wants to edit their pics later), Adaptive Pixel doesn’t really produce magically superior images like Samsung’s marketing may have led you to believe.

A comparison photo of a local book drop using the S22+'s standard Night Mode and its new Adaptive Pixel feature.

That’s kind of a shame after all the attention Adaptive Pixel got during the S22’s debut at Samsung’s recent Unpacked event. Thankfully, other new camera features like Auto Framing work as advertised, allowing the phone to track up to 10 people’s faces when capturing video, while Samsung’s Advanced OIS ensures that your clips look smooth and shake-free. The company’s AI Stereo Depth Map technique also makes the phone a bit better at differentiating between your subject’s face and the background in portrait mode, though you may have to do some serious zooming in to really see the difference.

In short, I like a lot of the changes Samsung has made to the S22’s camera setup, raising its general photo prowess, even if some of the phone’s new software don’t quite live up to expectations.

Software

There are new features like Adaptive Pixel in the S22 camera app, though because it's not labeled, it can be hard to find.

The Galaxy S22 line comes with Samsung’s One UI 4.0, which is based on Android 12. That means because it has long supported features like scrolling screenshots, the main upgrades in Samsung’s latest Android skin are the new Privacy Dashboard and customization options for your home screen, app icons and the phone’s UI. Similar to what’s available in Google’s Pixel phones, the customizations allow you to set a consistent color palette across your phone’s menu, while new mic and camera notifications make sure you know when apps are accessing critical hardware components.

Other software upgrades include Live Sharing in Google Duo, which is a Samsung-exclusive feature that lets you share your screen during video chats. It’s simple and effective, even if it’s not quite as full-featured as Apple’s SharePlay in iOS 15. And for those looking to keep better track of digital documents like your ID, credit cards, and even digital car keys, Samsung also made a new Digital Wallet that can securely store all those things in one place.

Battery life

The Galaxy S22 only features a single USB-C port on the bottom, no headphone jack or microSD slot.

Featuring 3,700 and 4,500 mAh batteries respectively, both the S22 and S22+ have respectable longevity. But if lasting a long time between charges is really important for you, the S22+ is definitely the better pick as it lasted 17 hours and 33 minutes on our local video rundown test, compared to just 14 hours and 47 minutes for the standard S22. And thanks to its 45W wired charging (up from 25W charging on the S22), the S22+ juices up way faster too. In both cases though, you’ll need to make sure you have the proper power brick, as neither phone comes with a charging adapter in the box.

S22 vs S22+

Aside from the obvious differences in screen size (6.1 inches vs. 6.6 inches) and overall dimensions (5.8 x 2.8 x 0.3 inches and 5.9 ounces vs. 6.2 x 2.9 x 0.3 inches and 6.9 ounces), there are a few other features that separate the S22 and S22+. The S22 is limited to 25-watt wired charging while the S22+ gets 45-watt wired charging, with both phones also featuring 15W Qi wireless charging and 4.5W reverse wireless charging (aka wireless power share).

Other differences include slightly faster WiFi speeds on the S22+ thanks to support for WiFi 6E (compared to standard WiFi 6 for the S22). The S22+ also has built-in UWB connectivity, which isn’t available on the S22. UWB is one of many protocols used to send files to other devices wirelessly via Nearby Share, though that’s not really a big deal since Nearby Share still works, albeit less swiftly, over WiFi and Bluetooth. The other consideration is that for people looking to use digital car keys from automakers like BMW and others, those often work better and have longer ranges using UWB compared to NFC, which might make the S22+ a better choice for more tech-savvy new car buyers.

Wrap-up

The color-matched frames on the pink and white versions adds a sparkly border around the outside of the phone.

The Galaxy S22 isn’t a huge improvement or departure from last year’s phone, but just like an “S-year” iPhone, Samsung has tweaked and elevated all the phone’s most critical components. You’re getting a more refined design, improved performance, a sharper main cam with better low-light photography and an even brighter screen. And that’s saying something from the king of mobile displays.

Sure, some features like Vision Booster and Adaptive Pixel are more subtle or harder to use than I’d like, but putting all this in a chassis sporting excellent build quality and other premium features like IP68 dust and water resistance, reverse wireless charging and more is a formula that’s hard not to like. And with a starting price of $800 for the standard S22, you’re getting more phone for the money than anything you can buy from Apple or Google.

author_name|Nathan Ingraham February 3, 2022

In the Joe Rogan debate, Spotify is acting like a spectator rather than a player

by Nathan Ingraham

The Joe Rogan Experience was problematic long before Spotify paid a reported $100 million for exclusive rights to the show in 2020. Rogan’s tendency to let guests disseminate hideous and demonstrably false viewpoints has attracted criticism before, but as with many things, the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the controversy to new heights in recent weeks. On December 31st, Spotify published an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience in which virologist Dr. Robert Malone likened the belief that vaccines are effective to “mass formation psychosis.”

A few weeks later, 270 doctors, nurses, scientists and educators sent an open letter to Spotify asking the company to adopt a clear misinformation policy to help curb the spread of dangerous false claims, like those made in that episode of The Joe Rogan Experience.

Over the last few weeks, the backlash to Rogan’s podcast has come from others on the platform. Several high-profile musicians, including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, pulled their music from Spotify over the platform’s dissemination of misinformation. Spotify’s Science VS podcast also announced this week that it would only produce episodes that fact-check misinformation spread on the platform until the company made a stronger effort. Author and researcher Brené Brown has paused her Spotify-exclusive podcasts Unlocking Us and Dare to Lead as well.

Rogan and Spotify haven‘t seen a response of this magnitude before, and it shows no signs of abating. Indeed, several of these artists and podcasters chose to remove their content after Spotify publicly shared its content guidelines and announced a plan to add a “content advisory” to any podcast that discusses COVID-19.

In many ways, what Spotify is grappling with right now is the same thing social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have had to confront over the last five years. They’re so big that they need to have guidelines around what people post, and accept some degree of responsibility for how they disseminate information. Spotify needs to do the same thing, with the added wrinkle that there’s no gray area: By paying artists and podcasters to appear on its platform, the company has a responsibility for the content it puts out. Of course, it’s not clear Spotify sees it that way.

Instead of simply being a podcast player, Spotify has a host of exclusive deals and owns major podcasting studios including Gimlet Media and The Ringer. These financial entanglements mean Spotify has to make tough decisions about how much of a voice it wants to give to potentially objectionable creators like Joe Rogan. As Ashley Carman of The Vergenotes, Apple delisted Alex Jones’s Infowars show from its podcasts app, but people could still find his show and listen to it through RSS. But The Joe Rogan Experience is part of an increasingly common closed podcast ecosystem — and any company that participates in such a system could have similarly difficult decisions to make about what creators say on those platforms.

Spotify’s response to this controversy has been tepid at best. The content guidelines the company published say nothing about spreading misinformation on the platform, and the COVID-19 content advisory draws a false equivalency between legitimate discussion and incorrect information. It’s hard to imagine these moves doing anything to quell the backlash any time soon.

And that backlash is now coming from Spotify employees, as well. The Vergeviewed screenshots from Spotify’s internal Slack that showed the company said it reviewed all episodes of Rogan’s podcast and found that none met the threshold for removal. This was a response to Spotify employees reportedly being “vocally upset” about Spotify’s deal with Rogan and his view on vaccines. And earlier today, Carman and The Vergeonce again published details of an internal Spotify meeting where employees voiced their concerns and where Ek defended his decisions, including Ek insisting that Spotify is simply a platform, not a publisher.

“Everyone’s a little upset, especially the people whose initiatives directly contradict what’s happening,” a source who asked to remain anonymous told Carman. “People are feeling increasingly frustrated that no matter what the company says messaging-wise, or no matter what people’s initiatives are, it all kind of ladders up to, ‘What’s the best for Joe Rogan and Joe Rogan’s audience?’”

Ek continued to defend Spotify’s relationship with Rogan today, saying that “exclusivity does not equal endorsement,” (n.b.: paying money to support something is literally endorsing something) and saying that exclusive deals like the one the company cut with Rogan are what’s helping keep the company successful. “To be frank, had we not made some of the choices we did, I am confident that our business wouldn’t be where it is today,” Ek reportedly said.

It’s hard to imagine Spotify turning its back on Rogan. The Joe Rogan Experience remains an exceptionally popular show, and Spotify made its feelings about Rogan clear when they backed up a dump truck full of cash to have exclusive rights to the show – and they’ve been steadfast in their defense of him since then. The company knew he was a controversial figure before, and he’s so popular that someone else would surely open their wallets for his show if Spotify decided to cut him loose.

It’s not impossible that Rogan could do something that would cause Spotify to change its stance. After all, Facebook and Twitter eventually banned the former president of the United States after putting up with years of lies and dangerous rhetoric. And Twitter recently banned Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene for spreading COVID-19 misinformation. But it’ll take a lot more than Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pulling their music catalogs to make Spotify change course, given its financial investment in Rogan. If Rogan or a guest on his show called for an insurrection at the US capitol — that might move the needle. But short of that, it seems likely that Spotify will likely wait for this current storm to subside and simply move on with the status quo.

author_name|Mariella Moon March 24, 2022 0

Cybersecurity researchers trace Lapsus$ attacks to a teenager from England

by Mariella Moon

A hacking group calling itself Lapsus$ recently made waves by releasing sources codes it claimed to have stolen from Microsoft and Okta. Now, cybersecurity researchers investigating the attacks have traced them to a 16-year-old living with his mother near Oxford, England, according to Bloomberg. While the researchers have identified seven accounts associated with the hacking group — including one traced to another teenager in Brazil — they believe the teenager from England is the mastermind and is behind some of the major Lapsus$ hacks. However, they weren’t able to connect the teen to all the attacks the group carried out.

The researchers looked at forensic evidence from the hacks, as well as public information to determine that the teen was indeed involved. Apparently, rival hackers posted the teenager’s details online, including his address and information about his parents. Bloomberg didn’t release the teen’s personal information and only mentioned that he goes by the aliases “White” and “breachbase.” White is reportedly so skilled at hacking and so fast at what he does that researchers previously thought the attacks were automated.

Some cybersecurity researchers believe that the group is motivated by not just money, but also notoriety, seeing as the actor doesn’t cover its tracks. As Microsoft detailed in its investigation of the Lapsus$ attacks, the group even announces its hacks on social media and publicly posts calls for employees willing to sell their company logins. The bad actor also joins targets’ communications channels, such as their Zoom calls, to taunt the people responding to their attacks.

Microsoft said the group started by targeting organizations in United Kingdom and South America, but that it has since expanded to target entities around the world, including government agencies, telecoms, and companies in the health sector. Both Microsoft and Okta admitted that they suffered a security breach, but both claim limited impact from the attacks.