After the battery woes surrounding the Pixel 4a and the promise of an eventual reduction in battery capacity for the Pixel 9a, Google is now proactively tackling any future battery issues that Pixel 7a owners may face. In a support document, the company said it has now determined that some Pixel 7a devices may experience battery swelling, and is offering a free battery replacement to everyone impacted by this issue. Here's everything you need to know about the problem and how to get a free battery replacement for your Pixel 7a.Identifying the signs of a failing batteryOne major limitation of lithium-ion batteries is degradation. Over time, these batteries experience reduced capacity to hold a charge and eventually have to be replaced. This is a technological limitation that generally applies irrespective of the brand of the smartphone you're using, since a majority of modern smartphones use lithium-ion batteries. However, some phones can be more susceptible to this than others, depending on which batteries they use, as evidenced by Google's concern about the Pixel 7a. If you have a Google Pixel 7a, look for one of the following symptoms to know if your phone needs a battery replacement:Your phone runs out of charge fairly quickly even when you're not using it that muchThe Pixel 7a appears to be visibly swollenYour Pixel 7a's cover is separating from the device because it appears to be bulgingIf your device exhibits any of these signs, visit this Google support page to see if your Pixel 7a is eligible for a free battery replacement. Just follow the on-screen steps and Google will tell you how to proceed. Note that your device may not qualify for a battery replacement if it has liquid damage or other forms of physical damage. Google also said that battery replacement is only available while stock lasts, and only in the following regions:United States IndiaGermanyCanadaUnited KingdomSingaporeJapanAdditionally, of the above regions, only the United States and India offer a mail-in repair option. Users located elsewhere must either take their phone to a walk-in repair appointment or claim another form of appeasement, mentioned below. Google's also offering a one-time payment If you live outside of the United States and India, then you may be able to claim a one-time payment instead of a battery replacement. If your device is out of warranty, Google is offering either $200 (or an equivalent amount in your local currency) or $300 in Google store credit, which will be applicable towards the purchase of another Pixel phone. If your device is in warranty and you choose to claim the one-time settlement amount, Google says it will pay you $456 or its equivalent in your local currency. Visit Google's support page to confirm the terms of the settlement and to check what you're eligible for, since these terms may not be applicable for purchases from certain regions.

Those looking to upgrade from an aging tablet to a new iPad should consider the new iPad A16. Not only do we consider it the best budget iPad, but it's also on sale for even less right now. A few colorways of the iPad A16 are down to $299, which is $50 off their normal price and a record low. The deal is for the entry-level configuration with 128GB of storage, 6GB of RAM and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity. The A16 iPad, which Apple released earlier this year, is our pick for the best budget iPad. It's not as sleek or powerful as the iPad Air, but as things stand it'll run you significantly less than that tablet. It's a good device in its own right, as we gave it a score of 84 in our review. Apple didn't increase the price of the latest base iPad compared with the previous model, but it added 2GB of RAM, doubled the storage and slotted in a more powerful chipset that's fast enough for most common tasks, including casual gaming and light photo editing. However, the iPad doesn't support Apple Intelligence — which is either a positive or negative, depending on your perspective or feelings about generative AI. The build quality is still solid, while the 11-inch tablet runs for around 10 hours on a single charge, depending on the tasks you carry out with it. On the downside, the accessory situation isn't ideal. The Apple Pencil doesn't charge wirelessly when you attach it magnetically to the iPad — you'll need a USB-C cable and a USB-C to Lightning adapter to juice up the original Pencil's battery from the tablet. The Magic Keyboard support isn't great either, as the model that works with the base iPad is tough to stabilize on your lap. Still, if the accessory fussiness doesn't bother you, this might be the right iPad for your needs. Sure, the iPad Air and Pro lineups have models with more powerful chipsets, but if all you're looking for is an iPad to watch some movies on while you're flying or to read the news on without breaking the bank, this could be the way to go. Check out our coverage of the best Apple deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-newest-ipad-is-down-to-its-best-price-yet-143619170.html?src=rss

Google has commented on the current state of the Find My Device network, and says it's getting better.

As Liverpool FC stars Mo Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Virgil van Dijk celebrated winning the Premier League club’s 20th title on Sunday, you can bet that across the ocean thousands of American fans were ordering shirts with their names on the back.  There are 24 million Liverpool fans in the U.S. Many of them are spread across 67 different club supporters groups in 35 states. Americans buy more Liverpool kits and merchandise than any other international market. Sales were up 14% last season, and that coincides with more than 30 million U.S. fans watching the club on TV, up 42%. More than half of Liverpool’s partners are headquartered in the U.S., including Nike, Coca-Cola, Expedia, and UPS. The club’s success and ability to grow its business across the pond is a snapshot of how its overall approach to the business of global soccer has been directly tied to its ability to win on the field.  Back in 2010, Liverpool FC was struggling financially. It was a celebrated and historic sports icon, but bad business had put the club on the verge of collapse. Boston-based Fenway Sports Group bought the club for about $380 million. In May, Forbes estimated the club’s worth at roughly $5.7 billion.  Ben Latty, Liverpool FC’s chief commercial officer, says it was about a decade ago that Liverpool really focused on specific areas of business growth. “The way that we operate commercially, and from a revenue standpoint, is very different to American sports,” says Latty, who joined the club in 2013.  The Premier League controls the broadcast rights, so Liverpool put its emphasis on as many other areas as possible that it could control: licensing, partnerships, and retail. “There’s other models out there, yeah, pros and cons of those. But we believe that we’ve got the right model to control our own destiny,” Latty says. Here’s how it works.  [Photo: Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Offside/Getty Images] In-house ownership In the NFL, most teams control their local broadcast rights. For retail, Fanatics designs, manufactures, and distributes the fan gear, and in many cases manages retail and ecommerce. Global football clubs operate much more independently from their leagues, so their ability to afford the best players—and therefore succeed on the field—is largely driven by how well they run as a business.  Latty says for Liverpool, that means owning and operating many of the primary points of contact fans have with the club. All its merchandise design and even manufacturing, except for its game kit by Nike, is club owned.  “We do everything ourselves,” says Latty. “That has pros and cons, but it allows us to control our own destiny—scale up when we need to and, though we haven’t had to yet, scale back when we need to. Our retail business is really important as it relates to engaging with our fan base around the world, making sure we have the right products for the right regions, and the customer service that they expect.” [Photo: Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC/Getty Images] Power in partnerships A key cog in the Liverpool FC global brand machine is its ability to attract and work with big-name corporate partners. In the past 18 months, the club has signed 10 major deals, including with Google Pixel, UPS, Japan Airlines, Peloton, and Husqvarna. And more than half of its major partners are U.S.-based companies, including Nike, Coca-Cola, and Expedia. Latty says it’s about balancing partners across different industries and product categories, and then working with them to create content that works best for them, the club, and its fans.  “The key word is impact,” he says. “We’ve got to make sure that what we provide to them hits their objectives and becomes impactful. These are brands from every corner of the planet, and the impact is to a global audience through broadcast, digital, and social. . . . These partners are a really important piece for us to engage with our fan base in all of those global markets.” For example, as part of its partnership with Google Pixel, the club gave the smartphones to all its media and content staff to capture behind-the-scenes content—some scripted, some not so much.  “There was this amazing moment last season, when during a goal celebration Virgil van Dijk . . . noticed someone from the media team behind the goal. He took the phone and filmed the celebration. It wasn’t planned at all,” Latty says. “You can say that’s luck, but you also make your own luck seeding the right people in the right places with the right technology.” A truly incredible angle of Darwin's winner and then celebrations shot by the skipper 🤣🤳#AD | #TeamPixel pic.twitter.com/humiZ1djWl— Liverpool FC (@LFC) March 2, 2024 Content Club Liverpool FC was the first Premier League club to reach more than 10 million followers on YouTube (now it has more than 11 million). Its content is a mix of behind-the-scenes, interviews, fan engagements, and game highlights. The club also produces all its branded content for partners in-house.  “Our content team is really at the center of working with our partnerships team to make sure that whatever we’re coming up with for our partners is going to resonate on our channels and give them the reach they signed up for,” Latty says. The club has more than 46.7 million Instagram followers, and last season it reported 1.5 billion engagements across its social channels, a 40% increase from the previous season, and tops in the Premier League. “To put our level of engagements into context, when we won the Carabao Cup back in February 2024, we got 61.3 million social engagements,” Latty says. “When Real Madrid won La Liga, they got 48.9 million engagements, and when the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl last year, they registered 12.7 million engagements.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Liverpool Football Club (@liverpoolfc) Latty says roughly 70% of the club’s content is watched by people who don’t regularly follow soccer. He credits the quality of the content to how media and content is woven into the organization. “I think some of the beauty of that is how closely they’re integrated into what we do as a football operations team so they’re there for the moments that matter,” he says. As Salah, van Dijk, and the rest of the team prepare to officially lift the Premier League title trophy later in May, the goal for Latty is to make sure the business side keeps fueling wins like this.  “We’ve got to continue to protect what we’ve built up to now,” he says. “For me, the pressure is always to drive as much revenue as we can for the football club, so that we can do what we’re doing on the pitch now, and long may that continue.”

Razer has spent decades perfecting the art of the “normal” mouse – ergonomic enough, deadly fast, neon-soaked in a way that makes a desk setup feel alive. You could argue they had no reason to ever go vertical. Traditional gaming mice were working just fine, carving killstreaks into our muscle memory while quietly carving out carpal tunnel too. Whether gamers avoided vertical mice because nobody made them cool, or companies never made them because gamers wouldn’t bite, is one of those chicken-and-egg mysteries. But none of that matters anymore. We’re here now, and Razer’s Pro Click V2 Vertical Edition is flipping the script, vertically. The design immediately sets a new tone. It leans into a 71.7-degree tilt with a deep thumb channel, lifting your wrist into a neutral, handshake position that feels strangely natural after a few minutes of use. Instead of trying to sneak ergonomic features into a traditional shell, Razer goes fully vertical and unapologetic. The result is a mouse that reshapes how your hand interacts with the desk without losing the sharp, futuristic edge that defines the brand. RGB lighting glows under the base like a subtle undercurrent of attitude, proof that comfort doesn’t have to mean boring. Designer: Razer Click Here to Buy Now At $119.99, it plants itself firmly in premium territory. The internals are serious – a 30,000 DPI Focus Pro sensor capable of tracking almost absurdly minute movements, wireless connectivity through Razer HyperSpeed, and Bluetooth with multi-device support. Battery life hits up to 46 hours with the RGBs blazing and up to 87 hours if you prefer to work in the shadows. These numbers aren’t theoretical best cases either – the battery holds strong even under heavy daily usage. The Pro Click V2 Vertical Edition feels heavier than Razer’s traditional gaming mice, weighing in at around 138 grams. The weight isn’t arbitrary – it anchors the mouse without making it sluggish, helped by slick PTFE feet that make movement feel effortless despite the vertical stance. A free-spinning, tiltable scroll wheel adds serious utility for anyone who spends their day bouncing between massive spreadsheets and photo editing timelines. Razer’s inclusion of programmable buttons and “AI Prompt Master” shortcuts shows how much thought went into making this mouse more than a physical design experiment. The AI Prompt Master allows users to summon ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot without alt-tabbing through layers of distraction. It is the kind of forward-thinking detail that makes the mouse feel built for 2025 workflows, not retrofitted for them. Comparisons to Logitech’s MX Vertical are inevitable. Logitech treated vertical design like a medical device, functional but sterile. Razer injects character into the form factor, making it something you might actually want to leave on your desk without feeling like you’ve given up on aesthetics. The Pro Click V2 Vertical Edition looks good, feels intentional, and doesn’t apologize for being part of the RGB tribe. Switching to a vertical mouse still comes with a short adjustment period. Muscle memory built over years of flat-mouse use will rebel for a while, and your hand might feel lost in the new angle. But the payoff is obvious. Reduced wrist strain, a more natural arm posture, and longer sessions without that familiar creeping soreness that used to feel inevitable. Click Here to Buy NowThe post Razer’s First Vertical Gaming Mouse also comes with a Dedicated ChatGPT Button first appeared on Yanko Design.

Is it really that easy?

Looking for the CliffsNotes of a lengthy YouTube video? This Gemini feature could be worth a try.

In the highly interactive and detailed world of The Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion Remastered you can expect to get into hot water if you attempt to sell stolen merchandise to legitimate traders. This can prove to be a problem if your first instinct is to loot every chest you see, only to be unable to translate that into cold, hard gold coins at a merchant. This guide has every avenue available to you to sell stolen goods in The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion Remastered. Thieves Guild This method requires you to be a member of the Thieves Guild which can be accomplished fairly easily at the very start of the game. Next, head to the Garden of Dareloth at the Imperial City Waterfront at midnight, and speak to Armand Christophe. In the dialogue, select ‘About the Thieves Guild’–>’Where can I find a fence?’, which will provide you a handy list of traders willing to buy your ill-gotten wares. The list is reproduced here: Ongar the World-Weary Either at Ongar’s House, or at Olav’s Tap and Tack Bruma Requirement: be a member of the Thieves Guild at the Pickpocket Rank Dar Jee Either at Dar Jee’s House, at the Five Claws Lodge, or near the Three Sisters’ Inn Leyawiin Requirement: be a member of the Thieves Guild at the Bandit Rank Luciana Galena Either at Luciana Galena’s House, or at The Lonely Suitor Lodge Bravil Requirement: be a member of the Thieves Guild at the Catburglar Rank  Fathis Ules Either at Fathis Ules’ House, or The Oak and Crosier Inn Either in the Imperial City, or in Chorrol Requirement: be a member of the Thieves Guild at the Master Thief Rank  Non-Guild Trader If you are not inclined to join the Thieves Guild for whatever reason, you can instead rely on the services of another trader with a significantly smaller pool of gold at his disposal. Manheim Maulhand At the Inn of Ill Omen The Green Road Those are all the NPCs who will buy stolen goods in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered.

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More In my first stint as a machine learning (ML) product manager, a simple question inspired passionate debates across functions and leaders: How do we know if this product is actually working? The product in question that I managed catered to both internal and external customers. The model enabled internal teams to identify the top issues faced by our customers so that they could prioritize the right set of experiences to fix customer issues. With such a complex web of interdependencies among internal and external customers, choosing the right metrics to capture the impact of the product was critical to steer it towards success. Not tracking whether your product is working well is like landing a plane without any instructions from air traffic control. There is absolutely no way that you can make informed decisions for your customer without knowing what is going right or wrong. Additionally, if you do not actively define the metrics, your team will identify their own back-up metrics. The risk of having multiple flavors of an ‘accuracy’ or ‘quality’ metric is that everyone will develop their own version, leading to a scenario where you might not all be working toward the same outcome. For example, when I reviewed my annual goal and the underlying metric with our engineering team, the immediate feedback was: “But this is a business metric, we already track precision and recall.”  Once you do get down to the task of defining the metrics for your product — where to begin? In my experience, the complexity of operating an ML product with multiple customers translates to defining metrics for the model, too. What do I use to measure whether a model is working well? Measuring the outcome of internal teams to prioritize launches based on our models would not be quick enough; measuring whether the customer adopted solutions recommended by our model could risk us drawing conclusions from a very broad adoption metric (what if the customer didn’t adopt the solution because they just wanted to reach a support agent?). Fast-forward to the era of large language models (LLMs) — where we don’t just have a single output from an ML model, we have text answers, images and music as outputs, too. The dimensions of the product that require metrics now rapidly increases — formats, customers, type … the list goes on. Across all my products, when I try to come up with metrics, my first step is to distill what I want to know about its impact on customers into a few key questions. Identifying the right set of questions makes it easier to identify the right set of metrics. Here are a few examples: Did the customer get an output? → metric for coverage How long did it take for the product to provide an output? → metric for latency Did the user like the output? → metrics for customer feedback, customer adoption and retention Once you identify your key questions, the next step is to identify a set of sub-questions for ‘input’ and ‘output’ signals. Output metrics are lagging indicators where you can measure an event that has already happened. Input metrics and leading indicators can be used to identify trends or predict outcomes. See below for ways to add the right sub-questions for lagging and leading indicators to the questions above. Not all questions need to have leading/lagging indicators. Did the customer get an output? → coverage How long did it take for the product to provide an output? → latency Did the user like the output? → customer feedback, customer adoption and retention Did the user indicate that the output is right/wrong? (output) Was the output good/fair? (input) The third and final step is to identify the method to gather metrics. Most metrics are gathered at-scale by new instrumentation via data engineering. However, in some instances (like question 3 above) especially for ML based products, you have the option of manual or automated evaluations that assess the model outputs. While it’s always best to develop automated evaluations, starting with manual evaluations for “was the output good/fair” and creating a rubric for the definitions of good, fair and not good will help you lay the groundwork for a rigorous and tested automated evaluation process, too. Example use cases: AI search, listing descriptions The above framework can be applied to any ML-based product to identify the list of primary metrics for your product. Let’s take search as an example. Question MetricsNature of MetricDid the customer get an output? → Coverage% search sessions with search results shown to customerOutputHow long did it take for the product to provide an output? → LatencyTime taken to display search results for the userOutputDid the user like the output? → Customer feedback, customer adoption and retentionDid the user indicate that the output is right/wrong? (Output) Was the output good/fair? (Input)% of search sessions with ‘thumbs up’ feedback on search results from the customer or % of search sessions with clicks from the customer% of search results marked as ‘good/fair’ for each search term, per quality rubricOutputInput How about a product to generate descriptions for a listing (whether it’s a menu item in Doordash or a product listing on Amazon)? Question MetricsNature of MetricDid the customer get an output? → Coverage% listings with generated descriptionOutputHow long did it take for the product to provide an output? → LatencyTime taken to generate descriptions to the userOutputDid the user like the output? → Customer feedback, customer adoption and retentionDid the user indicate that the output is right/wrong? (Output) Was the output good/fair? (Input)% of listings with generated descriptions that required edits from the technical content team/seller/customer% of listing descriptions marked as ‘good/fair’, per quality rubricOutputInput The approach outlined above is extensible to multiple ML-based products. I hope this framework helps you define the right set of metrics for your ML model. Sharanya Rao is a group product manager at Intuit. Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI. Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. An error occured.

Nike’s Cryptokicks iRL, a physical sneaker released under the RTFKT brand. A group of people sued Nike this week over its decision to wind down its virtual show project RTFKT last year. The buyers of the digital assets accuse Nike of causing “the rug to be pulled out from under them,” and say they wouldn’t have bought its NFTs if they’d known they were “unregistered securities,” reports Reuters.  Filed in New York’s Eastern District, the proposed class action lawsuit seeks “unspecified damages of more than $5 million for alleged violations of New York, California, Florida and Oregon consumer protection laws.”  Nike tried to jump into the NFT game by buying RTFKT in 2021. But, like Starbucks Odyssey, it never quite worked out and the company abandoned the idea, announcing in December via the RTFKT X account that it planned to “wind down RTFKT operations” by the end of January this year.  Since then, RTFKT has seemingly been maintained by a single person named Samuel Cardillo, who spent Thursday posting through the sudden disappearance (and later reappearance) of artwork for its CloneX NFTs project.