The big picture: Amazon uses a fork of Android called Fire OS to power its tablets and smart TVs, but it has also been developing a new operating system called Vega, with plans to ditch Android for good. A new report suggests the first Vega OS device could debut later this year. Electronics newsletter Lowpass reports that Amazon is preparing a new TV streaming device powered by Vega OS. With development nearly complete, the company is now negotiating with major app makers to bring their services to the platform. Amazon expects to release the device later this year. Vega is a Linux-based operating system meant to replace Fire OS across Amazon's smart home lineup. It already powers several devices, including the Echo Show 5, Echo Hub smart displays, and the Echo Spot smart clock. Behind closed doors, Amazon has been courting developers to adopt Vega's Kepler SDK to build React Native apps for TV devices www.lowpass.cc/p/amazon-veg... [image or embed] – Janko Roettgers (@jank0.bsky.social) April 17, 2025 at 10:18 PM Vega OS uses JavaScript-based React Native instead of Java-based Kotlin, so developers must rebuild their software. To ease the transition, Amazon hosted a Fire TV App Partner Summit earlier this year to showcase Vega OS. Several major publishers, including Paramount, Rakuten, and the BBC's UKTV, were reportedly on board. Amazon may be pushing forward with Vega OS, but it hasn't abandoned Android yet. The company recently announced plans to release new Fire TVs powered by Android 14, sparking speculation that it could be scaling back or even ditching its Vega OS project. // Related Stories Despite Amazon's announcement, the Lowpass report insists that Vega is still in active development and will soon power more of the company's smart home devices. While it's unclear whether Vega will make its way to Fire tablets due to app compatibility issues, Amazon plans to include it in future Fire TVs and Echo smart speakers. Ditching the Android-based Fire OS in favor of the Linux-based Vega on smart TVs may not impact most users, especially if Amazon can convince major developers to support the platform. However, it could create challenges for power users who install third-party apps or sideload Android applications since many developers may choose not to bring their services to Vega OS.

Kagi’s “Assistant” feature, previously only available to Ultimate subscribers, is now rolling out to all tiers — including the free trial tier. The feature gives you access to a range of different LLMs for both chatting and web-searching purposes. If you don’t know much about Kagi, it’s a paid search engine that borrows its name from the Japanese word for “key.” The concept is simple — with Google, you pay for the service by allowing ads and data collection. With Kagi, you pay for the service with money to get a private and ad-free experience. Recommended Videos There are also open-source and free-to-use search engines out there that focus on data privacy, but they nearly always have ads and they nearly always struggle to get the funding they need to improve their services and expand their features at a decent rate. Related As a search engine that’s funded by its users, Kagi can axe the ads, keep your data locked up safe, and bring you plenty of new and polished features to improve your search experience. Kagi’s default homepage is a big old Google-style search bar, as most search engines tend to have, but when you switch to Assistant mode, you’ll get an LLM-style chat interface instead. You can choose the AI model you want to use from the drop-down box and use the toggle next to it to control whether the model has access to the web or not. Without the web, you can use the chatbot just as you would normally. With the web, the AI model will be powered by Kagi Search, allowing you to ask anything you want and get generated responses complete with hyperlinked references. Since Kagi is a paid service, the higher your subscription tier, the more you get. The Ultimate tier gets access to the best AI models along with unlimited interactions and searches. It costs $25 a month and is mostly aimed at professionals and super AI fans. Apparently, the average Google user searches three or four times a day or around 100 times a month, so Kagi believes most people probably only need the $5 Starter plan, which provides 300 searches and AI interactions per month. This tier gets access to the “standard” AI models including: GPT 4o mini GPT 4.1 mini Gemini 2.5 Flash Mistral Pixtral Llama 4 Scout Nova Lite DeepSeek Chat V3 If you want unlimited searches and interactions but you’re not bothered about the top-tier AI models, then you can choose the Professional plan for $10 a month. The trial tier will also have access to the Assistant feature, allowing anyone to try it out for a total of 100 searches and interactions. Kagi also has an interesting “Fair Pricing” system that doesn’t charge you if you don’t use it. If you pay your fee at the start of the month but then don’t use the service, you’ll receive a full credit to your account to pay for the next month. Paying for a search engine can definitely seem odd at first, but these services have never actually been free — they’ve always been powered by advertising. And as time has gone on, tracking and data collection practices have become part of the game as well. I’m personally pretty intrigued by this whole thing, so I’m going to subscribe and use this service for a while to see what it’s like. Editors’ Recommendations

The bloc postponed penalties, temporarily avoiding a conflict with the Trump administration during a week in which it ramped up its push for a trade deal with the U.S.

McCall’s way with words brought her success with scripts in 1930s Hollywood, but her starring role was as a union leader.

Number go up Nintendo raises planned Switch 2 accessory prices amid tariff “uncertainty” Prices for hardware and games remain steady, delayed US preorders open April 24. Kyle Orland – Apr 18, 2025 9:55 am | 14 You're going to pay a bit more than expected for extra Joy-Con 2 controllers. You're going to pay a bit more than expected for extra Joy-Con 2 controllers. Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Nintendo announced Friday morning that a number of accessories for the Switch 2 "will experience price adjustments from those announced on April 2 due to changes in market conditions." And while the launch price of the console hardware and Nintendo's first-party exclusive games is not changing for now, the company warned that "other adjustments to the price of any Nintendo product are also possible in the future depending on market conditions." The announcement comes as Nintendo has set a new date of April 24 to open US preorders for the Switch 2. Those preorders were initially delayed from a planned April 9 opening so Nintendo could "assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions" on the console's launch. "We apologize for the retail pre-order delay, and hope this reduces some of the uncertainty our customers may be experiencing," Nintendo said in its announcement Friday. Here are the newly announced planned prices for Nintendo's official Switch 2 accessories (the original prices announced on April 2 are struck out in parentheses): Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller: $84.99 ($79.99) Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con 2 Controllers: $94.99 ($89.99) Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con 2 Charging Grip: $39.99 ($34.99) Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con 2 Straps: $13.99 ($12.99) Nintendo Switch 2 Joy-Con 2 Wheels: $24.99 ($19.99) Nintendo Switch 2 Camera: $54.99 ($49.99) Nintendo Switch 2 Dock Set: $119.99 ($109.99) Nintendo Switch 2 Carrying Case and Screen Protector: $39.99 ($34.99) Nintendo Switch 2 All-In-One Carrying Case: $84.99 ($79.99) Nintendo Switch 2 AC Adapter: $34.99 ($29.99) The Switch 2 hardware will still retail for its initially announced $449.99, alongside a $499.99 bundle including a digital download of Mario Kart World. Nintendo revealed Thursday that the Mario Kart bundle will only be produced "through Fall 2025," though, and will only be available "while supplies last." Mario Kart World will retail for $79.99 on its own, while Donkey Kong Bananza will launch in July for a $69.99 MSRP. Most industry analysts expected Nintendo to hold the price for the Switch 2 hardware steady, even as Trump's wide-ranging tariffs threatened to raise the cost the company incurred for systems built in China and Vietnam. "I believe it is now too late for Nintendo to drive up the price further, if that ever was an option in the first place," Kantan Games' Serkan Toto told GamesIndustry.biz. "As far as tariffs go, Nintendo was looking at a black box all the way until April 2, just like everybody else. As a hardware manufacturer, Nintendo most likely ran simulations to get to a price that would make them tariff-proof as much as possible." But that pricing calculus might not hold forever. "If the tariffs persist, I think a price increase in 2026 might be on the table," Ampere Analysis' Piers Harding-Rolls told GameSpot. "Nintendo will be treading very carefully considering the importance of the US market." Since the Switch 2 launch details were announced earlier this month, Nintendo's official promotional livestreams have been inundated with messages begging the company to "DROP THE PRICE." Kyle Orland Senior Gaming Editor Kyle Orland Senior Gaming Editor Kyle Orland has been the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012, writing primarily about the business, tech, and culture behind video games. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He once wrote a whole book about Minesweeper. 14 Comments

John Edwards, Technology Journalist & AuthorApril 18, 20255 Min ReadA multi-purpose robodog called Spot at a new technology fair in Turin, Italy, 2021Wirestock, Inc. via Alamy Stock PhotoAs technology advances, attention is rapidly turning toward polyfunctional robots, which incorporate a design and intelligent software that enables them to handle more than one task. Some models are adaptable enough to learn on the job, allowing them to fulfill tasks they weren't originally designed to handle. Liz James, a managing consultant with advisory firm NCC Group, describes polyfunctional robots as robotics systems designed for a wide range of different assignments rather than the single, highly optimized task. "Behind the technology is a desire to increase automation and reduce labor costs," she explains in an email interview. Growth Drivers The future of polyfunctional robots lies in their adaptability and ability to seamlessly integrate into connected systems, says Rodger Desai, CEO of secure identity verification provider Prove. "These robots are no longer limited to a single task," he says in an online interview. "They are evolving into generalists, capable of performing a wide range of functions, from assembly lines to medical assistance." In logistics environments, for example, robots are evolving from task-specific pick-and-place units to adaptive systems capable of sorting, packing, and inspecting while responding to real-time operational changes. Related:At Work Polyfunctional robots are already revolutionizing data center management, particularly in hardware maintenance and environmental monitoring, says Nick Esposito, founder of NYCServers, an IT infrastructure and hosting provider. In an email interview, he points to a colleague who manages a 50,000-square-foot facility that uses polyfunctional robots equipped with sensors and modular tools to perform various essential tasks, such as replacing faulty drives and checking server temperatures. "These robots quickly identify hot spots that could cause hardware failures and then replace components, saving hours compared to manual processes," he explains. Previously, separate teams handled hardware and environmental monitoring, resulting in delays and inefficiencies. "Now, a single robot performs both roles resulting in faster response times and fewer disruptions." Evolving AI and machine learning technologies will further accelerate polyfunctional robot trends, allowing adopters to autonomously analyze and improve workflows, Desai says. "This will make them indispensable in industries with high variability, such as e-commerce and agriculture, where conditions change on a daily basis," he says. "Just as cloud-based systems reduce programming complexity, polyfunctional robot adoption will spread to smaller businesses, which are currently falling behind large enterprises in robotics integration." Related:Market Players Boston Dynamics is among several leading polyfunctional robot manufacturers. One of the firm's mobile robots is Spot, which is targeted at construction and oil industries where it's used to conduct inspections and make data-driven decisions aimed at reducing manual labor costs while improving worker safety. "Additionally, Boston Dynamics' Stretch robot is transforming logistics, allowing companies, such as DHL, to automate warehouse unloading, increasing efficiency by as much as 25%," says Stanislav Khilobochenko, a vice president at medical device manufacturer at Clario in an online interview. On the industrial side, ABB Robotics offers YuMi, a robot that works on assembly lines, supporting human-robot collaboration in electronics and automotive manufacturing. Khilobochenko notes that YuMi recently assisted a major European manufacturer by reducing production time while maintaining precision in complex assembly tasks. Innovative robotics makers succeed because they invest in versatility and integration, Khilobochenko observes. "Boston Dynamics focuses on adaptability, making their robots useful across multiple industries," he says. "ABB thrives on precision and scalability, having formed partnerships with major corporations such as BMW and Nestlé." Related:Future Outlook With advancements in modular design and interoperability, polyfunctional robots have the potential to reshape industries by increasing efficiency, flexibility, and scalability across a wide range of applications, Desai says. James, meanwhile, expects polyfunctional robot adoption to grow steadily in settings where relatively low-skill and low-complexity tasks are currently handled by humans. "This is especially true in logistics and freight tasks, where there has already been significant investment in specialized robotic solutions." Remote facility monitoring is likely to gain widespread adoption in the near future, James says. "This is already being trialed by some infrastructure operators, using mobile robotics platforms and computer vision to take periodic measurements and/or samples around key areas." She also anticipates the arrival of "porter robots" delivering food and beverages to tables in restaurants. "I can also see this potentially being applied to ... porter functions in hospitals and care facilities, too." The Human Element It's important to ensure that the human element isn’t lost within the polyfunctional hype, James says. "As with automation, there's a potential for large parts of the economy to be impacted by this technology, and that could harm people who currently survive performing basic tasks," she explains. "These polyfunctional technologies should be rolled out in a very considered way, both at a societal level and at an individual organizational level." About the AuthorJohn EdwardsTechnology Journalist & AuthorJohn Edwards is a veteran business technology journalist. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and numerous business and technology publications, including Computerworld, CFO Magazine, IBM Data Management Magazine, RFID Journal, and Electronic Design. He has also written columns for The Economist's Business Intelligence Unit and PricewaterhouseCoopers' Communications Direct. John has authored several books on business technology topics. His work began appearing online as early as 1983. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, he wrote daily news and feature articles for both the CompuServe and Prodigy online services. His "Behind the Screens" commentaries made him the world's first known professional blogger.See more from John EdwardsReportsMore ReportsNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also Like

Cyanobacteria blooming in Lake Windermere, UKAshley Cooper pics/Alamy Communities around the world trying to manage blooms of toxic algae and cyanobacteria already know they have to control nutrient pollution. But now it seems they may have another factor to worry about: too much artificial light. “You have light pollution in urbanised areas where you may also have a nutrient pollution problem,” says Hans-Peter Grossart at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Germany. “It could be that the combination of both favours cyanobacteria blooms.”

The quest for long, healthy life—and even immortality—is probably almost as old as humans are, but it’s never been hotter than it is right now. Today my newsfeed is full of claims about diets, exercise routines, and supplements that will help me live longer. A lot of it is marketing fluff, of course. It should be fairly obvious that a healthy, plant-rich diet and moderate exercise will help keep you in good shape. And no drugs or supplements have yet been proved to extend human lifespan. The growing field of longevity medicine is apparently aiming for something in between these two ends of the wellness spectrum. By combining the established tools of clinical medicine (think blood tests and scans) with some more experimental ones (tests that measure your biological age), these clinics promise to help their clients improve their health and longevity. But a survey of longevity clinics around the world, carried out by an organization that publishes updates and research on the industry, is revealing a messier picture. In reality, these clinics—most of which cater only to the very wealthy—vary wildly in their offerings. Today, the number of longevity clinics is thought to be somewhere in the hundreds. The proponents of these clinics say they represent the future of medicine. “We can write new rules on how we treat patients,” Eric Verdin, who directs the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, said at a professional meeting last year. Phil Newman, who runs Longevity.Technology, a company that tracks the longevity industry, says he knows of 320 longevity clinics operating around the world. Some operate multiple centers on an international scale, while others involve a single “practitioner” incorporating some element of “longevity” into the treatments offered, he says. To get a better idea of what these offerings might be, Newman and his colleagues conducted a survey of 82 clinics around the world, including the US, Australia, Brazil, and multiple countries in Europe and Asia. Some of the results are not all that surprising. Three-quarters of the clinics said that most of their clients were Gen Xers, aged between 44 and 59. This makes sense—anecdotally, it’s around this age that many people start to feel the effects of aging. And research suggests that waves of molecular changes associated with aging hit us in our 40s and again in our 60s. (Longevity influencers Bryan Johnson, Andrew Huberman, and Peter Attia all fall into this age group too.) And I wasn’t surprised to see that plenty of clinics are offering aesthetic treatments, focusing more on how old their clients look. Of the clinics surveyed, 28% said they offered Botox injections, 35% offered hair loss treatments, and 38% offered “facial rejuvenation procedures.”  “The distinction between longevity medicine and aesthetic medicine remains blurred,” Andrea Maier of the National University of Singapore, and cofounder of a private longevity clinic, wrote in a commentary on the report. Maier is also former president of the Healthy Longevity Medicine Society, an organization that was set up with the aim of establishing clinical standards and credibility for longevity clinics. Other results from the survey underline how much of a challenge this will be; many clinics are still offering unproven treatments. Over a third of the clinics said they offered stem-cell treatments, for example. There is no evidence that those treatments will help people live longer—and they are not without risk, either. I was a little surprised to see that most of the clinics are also offering prescription medicines off label. In other words, drugs that have been approved for specific medical issues are apparently being prescribed for aging instead. This is also not without risks—all medicines have side effects. And, again, none of them have been proved to slow or reverse human aging. And these prescriptions are coming from certified medical doctors. More than 80% of clinics reported that their practice was overseen by a medical doctor with more than 10 years of clinical experience. It was also a little surprising to learn that despite their high fees, most of these clinics are not making a profit. For clients, the annual costs of attending a longevity clinic range between $10,000 and $150,000, according to Fountain Life, a company with clinics in Florida and Prague. But only 39% of the surveyed clinics said they were turning a profit and 30% said they were “approaching breaking even,” while 16% said they were operating at a loss. Proponents of longevity clinics have high hopes for the field. They see longevity medicine as nothing short of a revolution—a move away from reactive treatments and toward proactive health maintenance. But these survey results show just how far they have to go. This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here.

The CFPB terminated thousands of employees this week. J. David Ake/Getty Images 2025-04-18T14:28:32Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau terminated 90% of its staff. A copy of a termination notice reviewed by BI said employees will lose access to work systems on Friday night. It's Trump's latest move to gut a federal agency created to prevent another financial crisis. President Donald Trump is moving forward with his promise to slash a top federal consumer watchdog.The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau began sending termination notices to nearly 90% of its employees on Thursday night, slashing the agency spearheaded by Sen. Elizabeth Warren in 2011 with the aim of preventing another financial crisis like the one that sparked the Great Recession.Over the past decade, the CFPB has filed lawsuits against major companies, including student lenders and banks like Capital One, over accusations of predatory behavior. It has also returned billions of dollars to consumers and introduced new rules to crack down on medical debt and overdraft fees."I regret to inform you that you are affected by a reduction in force (RIF) action," a copy of the notice viewed by Business Insider from Russell Vought, acting director of the CPFB and director of the Office of Management and Budget, said. "This RIF action is necessary to restructure the Bureau's operations to better reflect the agency's priorities and mission.The notice added that employees will "retain access to work systems" until 6 pm ET on Friday, and that after that deadline, "system access will be discontinued, and you will be placed in an administrative leave status through your official separation date as outlined above."The National Treasury Employees Union wrote in a legal filing on Thursday that Vought sent reduction-in-force notices to "the vast majority of CFPB employees." The notices, as first reported by Fox Business, went out to about 1,500 employees, slashing the agency's workforce by nearly 90%. The CFPB sent those numbers to BI."As one would expect with a RIF of that size, the plaintiffs have been told that entire offices, including statutorily mandated ones, have or soon will be either eliminated or reduced to a single person," the NTEU wrote in the legal filing.These termination notices come just one week after a federal judge ruled on April 11 that the CFPB could move forward with firing some employees deemed unnecessary to carry out the CFPB's "statutory duties." It followed an earlier ruling from a federal judge that froze the CFPB's earlier attempts at terminations, calling them a "hurried effort to dismantle and disable the agency entirely."Business Insider reported on Wednesday that the CFPB laid out new priorities for the agency in an internal memo sent to employees. The memo, viewed by BI, said the CFPB would "shift resources from enforcement and supervision that can be done by the States."That included plans to "deprioritize" student-loan oversight, medical debt, consumer data, and digital payments.These changes are part of Trump and the DOGE office's efforts to slash the government workforce to reduce spending. Elon Musk, DOGE's unofficial leader, has previously said he wanted to "delete" the CFPB entirely, writing "CFPB RIP" in a February post on X.Warren wrote in a statement on Thursday night that "Trump just gutted almost all CFPB staff, so the agency can't do its job of helping Americans who get scammed by big banks and giant corporations.""Dismantling the CFPB in the face of a court order blocking an illegal shutdown is yet another assault on consumers and our democracy by this lawless Administration, and we will fight back with everything we've got," she said.The OMB and White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.Have a tip or story to share? Contact this reporter via email at asheffey@businessinsider.com or Signal at asheffey.97. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely. Recommended video

Overwatch 2's new mode is a lot to take in, layered on top of an already complex game, so Daily Star asked Game Director Aaron Keller how the team is planning to integrate newcomersTech14:43, 18 Apr 2025Updated 14:44, 18 Apr 2025Expect Stadium matches to be chaotic(Image: Blizzard)Overwatch 2 has big things coming next week with its latest season. We've already got an in-game perks system, while the new Stadium mode will take cues from a surprising source of inspiration.The mode, which offers a "best of 7" format with intense battle across multiple modes, locks players into a single Hero but lets them tweak it with surprising new items in the Armory, purchased with cash in each match.‌It's a really neat twist on Overwatch, leaning on MOBA-like systems, but as part of a recent interview series, I asked Game Director Aaron Keller if the sheer volume of mechanics and features makes it hard for a newcomer to get on board.Here's what he had to say.Article continues below"We've done a lot of work to make it easier for a new player to jump into Stadium. One of the biggest pieces of the Stadium game mode is the Armory, where you unlock different items and powers for your Heroes and try to put together the best build you can for that particular match," Keller explained."Systems like that can be a little bit intimidating because, by design, there is intentional complexity to them," he admits."We want this game mode to have a ton of depth. We want people to be theory-crafting what the best builds are. You know, we've had conversations internally on like 'What's the best low-cost survival item in Stadium?'"‌"We want people to be able to kind of argue back and forth on that, but that does make it a little bit harder to just jump into the mode.""So we've done several things that I think make it easier for newer or first-time Stadium players to jump into it."The first one is that we've divided our abilities into two types; There are items and then there are powers. And powers are the things that are the most transformative to your Hero, and every hero has 12 of those to pick from.‌"The trick here, though, is that you can only select an item on Rounds 1, 3, 5, and 7, but It doesn't cost any currency to select that power. So the moments where you're making a big adjustment to your hero, we've really constrained."We also have something called the 'example builds' tab, and what that is a tab in the Armory where a player can click over to, and it has two builds available that are put together by designers on our team."So if you don't want to try to take all the time to figure out what the right build is for your Hero, you can just pick one of those two. You can look at the barrier build for Reinhardt and just select the different items at the different times available to you over the course of the match, and you'll kind of like instantly have a viable build that you can use."‌Get your team together for Stadium(Image: Blizzard)So, could Stadium bring back lapsed players?‌"I'll jump on a soapbox for a second," Keller said towards the end of our chat. "It's been really exciting to see players' reception to Stadium and even as we've opened up this preview server, the team has really, really loved hearing about how much fun players are having.""So, you know, if you're watching any of that or if, or if you're reading any of the articles on Stadium, as a player that's on the sidelines, I would encourage you that now is the time to jump into Overwatch."For more on Overwatch 2, check out our chat with Keller about the huge undertaking moving Overwatch 2 to a third-person perspective for Stadium.Article continues belowFor the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.‌‌‌