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More support options for Pixel 6a owners have been revealedYou can get a $100 payment or $150 in Google Store creditGoogle has set up a website where you can make your claimThe long-running Google Pixel 6a battery saga continues, and Google has now provided details of how owners of the 2022 handset can claim up to $150 (about £110 / AU$230) back from the company – money that could be put towards a new phone.If you're just getting up to speed with this story, Google is in the process of rolling out a mandatory update for some Pixel 6a phones that could be in danger of overheating. In recent weeks there have been multiple reports of these handsets catching fire, which is obviously something Google doesn't want to see continue.The update will "reduce battery capacity and charging performance" according to Google, and will show up as part of Android 16. Only some Pixel 6a phones are affected and in danger of overheating though – Google hasn't provided too many details about this, but you can check if your device will be included via Google's website.Now 9to5Google has uncovered some extra details. Affected Pixel 6a owners will get three options: a free battery replacement for their phone, $100 (about £75 / AU$155) in cash, or $150 (about £110 / AU$230) in Google Store credit.How to claimSome Pixel 6a owners have been given a voucher towards a Pixel 9a (Image credit: Future)The battery replacement option presumably means the battery limits put in place by Android 16 will be removed again – though you'll have to do without your phone for a few days while Google takes care of the repair job.Whatever option you prefer, you can head here to choose it. You'll need to provide your email address and the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number of your phone to prove your eligibility – you can find your handset's IMEI number by heading to About phone from Settings.I can't work through the steps on Google's site because I don't have a Pixel 6a IMEI number to use, but the screenshots grabbed by 9to5Google show that Payoneer will be used to deliver the cash compensation. If you're outside the US, the $100 or $150 figures will be converted into your local currency.Interestingly, 9to5Google reports that some users have been sent vouchers for $125 (about £90 / AU$190) to put towards a Google Pixel 9a (retail price $499 / £499 / AU$849), so check your inbox – though these vouchers apparently can't be used with the $150 credit.You might also likeThe Google Pixel 10 Pro series might barely be an upgradeThese are the best Pixel phones you can buyAs a Samsung Galaxy owner, I'm jealous of the Pixel 9 Pro

The so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” has passed with plenty of nasty treats for the US technology and manufacturing industries. As well as swinging the sword at basic environmental protection measures, the bill sticks its thumb in the eye of the EV industry. Tim Stevens takes you on a tour of the most salient changes, like the imminent end of the EV tax credit. Joining that on the bonfire is the used EV incentive, as well as the rebates for the purchase of commercial EVs.

Similarly, for all of this administration’s talk of bringing manufacturing back to the US, the bill is a middle finger for domestic solar companies. The US is the only credible manufacturing rival to China in solar panels, but the bill cuts these businesses off at the knees. I spoke to people inside the US solar industry who know that, despite whatever tariffs are implemented, this bill opens the door to a flood of cheap, Chinese-made solar panels to usurp their US rivals.

An earlier version of the bill also contained moves that could only be described as weirdly vindictive. It previously proposed an annual EV tax of $250 (and $100 for hybrid owners) as well as a general levy on all wind and solar projects. Why? A cynic might suggest it was due to the bill being drafted to benefit fossil fuel companies at the expense of literally everyone else.

Anyway, hopefully you can enjoy the holiday and won’t need to spend it panic-buying an EV and US-made solar panels. Although that’s not actually a bad way to spend a long weekend.

— Dan Cooper

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The news you might have missed

Here are the letters that let Apple and Google ignore the TikTok banAG Pam Bondi offered a written guarantee they would incur no legal liability.

Xbox was funding Romero Games' new game, but layoffs have left the project in crisisTurns out Microsoft was backing John Romero’s new studio.

Uber drivers in British Columbia, Canada have unionizedThis will be interesting.

Get two months of Paramount+ for only $2 right now

Catch up on all that new Star Trek.

Paramount+

You can snag two months of Paramount+ for just $2, allowing you to take advantage of the new season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The deal applies to both the Essential and Premium plan, so you can easily have a little run of ad-free Star Trek as a treat. And, if you don’t like the idea of binging Strange New Worlds, you can always watch Star Trek: Lower Decks instead.

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Microsoft gaming division suffers further layoffs

Even before the Xbox layoffs, there was 'tension' at Halo Studios

Halo Studios

Microsoft has announced it will cut 9,000 jobs from its global workforce, with much of that focus on its gaming division. Engadget's Jessica Conditt got the inside scoop from employees at Halo Studios, who reveal all is not well at what should be one of Microsoft’s crown jewels. Sadly, the company was already gutted back in 2023, and the lukewarm reception of its work since then is a sign of how badly things are going.

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Crunchyroll's lazy AI subtitles have anime fans furious

Friends don’t let friends subtitle shows with ChatGPT.

Igor Bonifacic for Engadget

Translating a work of art is a delicate task requiring nuanced knowledge of both the culture and the languages you’re translating from and to. Unless you’re Anime-favoring streaming service Crunchyroll, which just dumped subtitle files into ChatGPT and hoped for the best. As well as a general sloppiness, Engadget’s Igor Bonifacic found instances of lines beginning with “ChatGPT said:” at the start of a line. Crunchyroll said the subtitles were the result of the unauthorized action of a "third-party vendor," and it is working to rectify the error right now.

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PlayStation needs Neil Druckmann more than HBO does

Our take on the ‘Last of Us’ changes

Neil Druckmann, head of Naughty Dog and co-creator of The Last of US and its TV adaptation, is stepping down from the HBO series. He said he’s shifting his focus back to video games full time to work on the studio’s next big title, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. The Last of Us Part II co-writer Halley Gross is also stepping down at the same time, and that got our staff TLoU superfan Nathan Ingraham’s antennae twitching. He feels the video game industry, currently suffering body blow after body blow, needs Druckmann (and Gross) far more than the TV world does.

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Nothing Phone 3 hands-on: A tiny, playful dot-matrix screen in the company's most expensive phone yet

It’s another quirky gimmick on the back cover.

Mat Smith for Engadget

Nothing has launched its third-generation flagship, the $799 Nothing Phone 3, complete with a new eye-catching gimmick. Whereas previous models had the Glyph Interface, a series of flashing lights on the rear cover, the 3 gets a tiny dot-matrix display called the Glyph Matrix. Wanna find out if it’s going to be worth your cash? Check out Mat Smith’s detailed hands-on.

Continue Reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-111523433.html?src=rss

Ford CEO Jim Farley believes half of white-collar jobs will be lost to AIAmazon, Anthropic, Fiverr and other companies all agreeUnsurprisingly, OpenAI and Nvidia think we're overreactingFord CEO Jim Farley has stated he believes "literally half" of all white-collar jobs in the US could be lost to artificial intelligence (via TechSpot).Speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Farley stated, “Artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the US...AI will leave a lot of white-collar people behind.”This of course comes from the automaker responsible for revolutionizing the manufacturing process, and aligns with similar expressions shared by other influential execs.Will AI take my job?Despite widespread warnings from business leaders and analysts globally, AI's real effects on the human workforce are yet to be fully determined – countering this common view, many believe AI might simply redefine roles, removing some and creating others.AI is certainly on track to replace some roles at Amazon, with its CEO Andy Jassy recently stating many positions will become redundant due to advancements in generative AI.However, Jassy did note that new STEM-related roles could be created, marking a shift rather than a total wipeout.Dario Amodei, CEO of AI giant Anthropic, also predicted that around half of entry-level white-collar jobs could be at risk, leading to unemployment rates 10-20% higher within five years.Micha Kaufman, CEO of Fiverr, which has its eyes on the freelancer community, suggested that programmers, designers and lawyers could be at risk, while JPMorgan Chase expects headcount to drop by about 10% due to AI adoption.Then, there are the companies that have halted hiring efforts altogether. It is believed that Apple's hiring freeze continues since it was first revealed in 2022, with Spotify CEO Tobi Lütke pausing recruitment to assess whether AI can do the job first.It's not all doom and gloom, though, with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI's COO, Brad Lightcap, saying there's been little evidence so far of widespread entry-level job loss from AI. Lightcap believes the impact will be slower and more limited than some of the above views, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang calling them "overly alarmist."You might also likePrepare for the future with the best online learning platformsThese are the best job sites and best recruitment platforms if you're looking for a changeAI might end up creating more jobs than it ends - and these jobs in particular should be safest

A new search ability is rolling out for the Copilot appIt gives Windows 11 and 10 users an AI-powered search, offering natural language queriesCopilot can also peek inside files and find relevant info you need, saving you the legworkWindows 11 is getting a new ability for Copilot to help you find files on your PC, and quickly glean info from those files, should you want to.Windows Latest reports that the extended search powers facilitated by AI, which were previously in testing (a few months ago) with Windows 11, are now rolling out to all users (including those on Windows 10 too).The folk at Windows Latest have already got the new functionality for the Copilot app and tested it out, being generally impressed by the feature.It allows the user to fire up a local search of the PC – although there are limitations on the locations covered (I'll come back to that) – within the Copilot app simply by typing a natural language query. For example: "Find my resume for that job application I made last year."Clearly, it's nice to have the ability to search just by asking a question like this, rather than trying to use Windows search itself and (attempting to) figure out the best query – after all, who can remember exact file names, especially with older files?Analysis: A commendably useful feature... with some caveats(Image credit: Windows Latest / Microsoft)Windows Latest observes that this Copilot search is fast, as it's a local search – which also includes any synced files in OneDrive – and leverages Windows search itself. In other words, there's no waiting for the Copilot app to send data to the cloud, or wait for a reply from Microsoft's servers – everything is happening on the device, and so it's pretty nippy.The search provided is also better than a basic Windows 11 search - even though this is still how the query is ultimately being resolved - as you can use natural language as noted. Indeed, this is a kind of makeshift alternative to the nifty AI-supercharged search in Windows 11 which is offered with Copilot+ PCs - and I'm glad to see it, because most of us don't have one of those devices (I certainly don't).On top of this, the Copilot app search also lets you surface info from files you're hunting out without even opening them. So, if you're searching for a document file full of recipes, and you want a particular recipe for a curry, say, you can ask for exactly that - and the AI will extract it from the document there and then.This Copilot-powered search also lets you sidestep some of the bugs with the standard Windows 11 search functionality (even though it still leverages the latter to get results).Okay, so it all sounds good overall - but not everything is sweet smelling roses. There's a notable thorn in that the scope of the search is limited to commonly used files (meaning obscure file formats may not show up). Furthermore, by default the locations covered by this AI search are limited to your essential personal folders (such as Documents and Downloads). You can, however, expand that reach and grant Copilot access to further folders if you wish.The thornier issue still for many, though, will be privacy. It's important to note that this search capability is turned off by default, which is good, and frankly necessary, given that there are plenty of people out there who are very much against Copilot 'nosing around in their files'.It's also worth noting that there's not just a toggle to turn on the local file search ability for Copilot, but also a separate slider to allow the AI to read your files. The latter is obviously needed for Copilot to surface material from within a file (like the aforementioned curry recipe), so if you want to perform that trick, you'll obviously need to let Copilot 'nose around' in your stuff.If you don't want the AI to have that kind of access, you can still use the feature, but leave this second slider alone and it won't look in your files (but you'll only get the basic search in the Copilot app).There will still be plenty of doubters around this kind of feature, mind, but as long as it's off by default, it isn't going to be a problem - you can take it or leave it. If this functionality sounds useful to you, then you can go ahead and enable it - with the rollout now apparently underway, it should hopefully be turning up on all Windows 11 and 10 PCs before too long.You might also like...No, Windows 11 PCs aren't 'up to 2.3x faster' than Windows 10 devices, as Microsoft suggests – here's why that's an outlandish claimmacOS Tahoe 26: here's everything you need to know about all the new featuresCan’t upgrade to Windows 11? This Linux project wants to save your old PC from the scrapheap when Windows 10 support ends

The MSI Claw A8 is now available for pre-order in ChinaIt has an official price of 6,999 RMB without subsidy, which is roughly $970It's expected to launch this July in China, and potentially the same in other regionsMSI announced its latest handheld gaming PC at CES 2025 without any word on release date or pricing, so official details have been a long time coming – but it looks like we may finally have our answer.As reported by VideoCardz, the MSI Claw A8 is now available for pre-order in China, with a confirmed launch this July. Its official price (according to its China pre-order listing) is 6,999 RMB, which is roughly $970 (including tax), making it even more costly than its MSI Claw 8 AI+ predecessor.There's also a subsidized price at 5,949 RMB (around $737), thanks to the Chinese government offering a 15% subsidy on some products, but this likely won't be relevant for other regions.As the first handheld to use AMD's Ryzen Z2 Extreme processor (if it releases before the ROG Xbox Ally), it's expected to outperform most handhelds like the Asus ROG Ally X, Lenovo Legion Go, and the Nintendo Switch 2. However, if the converted price is accurate for its retail price when it becomes available in the US and other regions, some prospective buyers could be put off.The MSI Claw 8 AI+, the Claw A8's predecessor, is already an expensive handheld; it can be argued that it backs up its pricing with great gaming performance, but that doesn't change the fact that it prices out most gamers.The Claw A8 potentially having a higher price would suggest the Z2 Extreme is the more powerful chip than the Claw 8 AI+'s Core Ultra 258V – but it's hard to see it selling well if it's pushing even closer to a $1,000 price point.Analysis: Don't muck this up please, MSI...(Image credit: MSI)While nothing is confirmed for other regions just yet, I'd say it's highly likely that the purported price based on its Chinese listing (or somewhere within that ballpark) is accurate.It's hard to believe that the Claw A8 will be significantly cheaper than the Claw 8 AI+, especially if the Ryzen Z2 Extreme turns out to be the better option for performance. It would have been unreasonable to expect a major price shift, then, but that doesn't mean the pricing won't affects its appeal.If it's pricier than the handheld that's already difficult to buy (since the Claw 8 AI+ is scarce), then we can forget about it truly challenging other handhelds and the Switch 2.The MSI Claw 8 AI+ is already pushing it with its $899 / £899 / AU$1,799 price tag, and it's worse with price rises due to tariffs. I have no doubts that it will be one of the best handhelds on the market in terms of performance, but I can't say I'm not worried about the impression its cost will leave on consumers...You might also like...Nintendo Switch 2 owners, beware – some owners are reporting worrisome overheating problemsThe Switch 2's value has just been diminished significantly due to its poor display - and it's another reason you should opt for a handheld gaming PCDon't expect any good Prime Day Nintendo Switch 2 deals – here are the 3 handheld gaming PCs I recommend instead, and the deals to look for

Microsoft will end operations in Pakistan 25 years after it moved therePolitical and financial instability join tech barriers as motivations to pull out of PakistanNeighboring India is set to receive $3 billion in Microsoft investments over the next two yearsAfter reducing its headcount and operations to the bare minimum, Microsoft has now fully pulled out of Pakistan, 25 years after it opened up in the country.The news was revealed via a LinkedIn post by Jawwad Rehman, the founding head of Microsoft Pakistan, without a formal public announcement from the company itself.However the move was all but confirmed already, with full operations shut down in Pakistan and only a liaison office with around five employees remaining.Microsoft shuts shop in Pakistan after 25 yearsAlthough it's believed service and customer agreements will remain unaffected through partners and regional offices, Microsoft ultimately had to pul out over economic instability, political volatility and tech barriers."This is more than a corporate exit. It’s a sobering signal of the environment our country has created.. one where even global giants like Microsoft find it unsustainable to stay," Rehman wrote on LinkedIn.Unstable currency, barriers to importing tech hardware, frequent political regime changes, unstable governance, internet shutdowns, content blocks and difficulty moving funds and tools across borders are among the long list of factors likely to have influenced Microsoft's decision.In a separate post, Rehman asked the Honourable Minister of IT and the Government of Pakistan to "actively engage Microsoft’s regional and global leadership" so that the company can maintain a presence within Pakistan.Neighboring India has emerged as a key destination for tech investment in South Asia, with Microsoft announcing plans to invest $3 billion into the country over a two-year span earlier this year."India is rapidly becoming a leader in AI innovation, unlocking new opportunity across the country," CEO Satya Nadella wrote.The news comes just a few months after Microsoft also revealed plans to end its joint-venture operations in China.You might also likeCut costs by migrating to the best free office softwareThese are the best productivity tools and best online collaboration toolsMicrosoft is struggling to sell Copilot to corporations - because their employees want ChatGPT instead