Category: Technology

In addition to all of the gadgets and gear you can find on sale during Black Friday, there are also a number of service and subscription deals you can get, too. VPNs are included in this, and there’s a good deal on one of our favorites right now. ExpressVPN’s Black Friday deal gives US-based customers up to 61 percent off various plans.

The one-year plan, which includes four extra months, costs $6.25 per month, billed at a total of $100, and the 2-year plan (actually 30 months in total) costs just $4.99 per month, billed at a total of $150. Those are much better rates than the $12.95-per-month rate you’d pay regularly.

Engadget deemed ExpressVPN the best for streaming services, frequent travel and gaming. Its biggest drawback is generally considered to be the price — higher than most rivals in the space — so this is a great time to get it at a discount. (There’s a 7-day trial period and a 30-day money back guarantee, so you can make sure it meets your needs before committing.)

Since we conducted our review, ExpressVPN has added some additional features making it more of a full-service suite, including a password manager and ad blocker. More recently, it’s added ID alerts (with a $1 million identity theft insurance package), as well as a data removal service (to counteract the preponderance of online data brokers). 

Some notable caveats: The data removal service is only available on the 30-month plan, and the ID alerts, insurance and data removal features are only applicable to subscribers in the US. Furthermore, these discounts are applicable only to new ExpressVPN customers. And the service will automatically renew at the standard rate after the initial discount period expires.  

It goes without saying that ExpressVPN is compatible with nearly all major operating systems, with support for connecting 8 devices at a time. And its no-logs policy means your online activity is as anonymous as can be. If you’re looking for a dependable VPN that now has a bevy of additional privacy features, ExpressVPN is worth checking out. But don’t delay: This offer is only good through December 6. 

Check out all of the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/expressvpn-black-friday-deal-get-up-to-61-percent-off-a-30-month-plan-120441157.html?src=rss

Bloomberg reports that Uber has started farming out independent contractors for data-labeling services as well as coders-for-hire.

Uber describes its new Scaled Solutions division as a platform of “analysts, testers and independent data operators,” according to the company’s website. Scaled Solutions began life as an internal team, handling “large-scale annotation tasks” for Uber’s other services. Now it’s been expanded to provide coders and data labelers for outside companies like Pokémon Go developer Niantic Inc. and the self-driving trucking software firm Aurora Innovations. Aurora acquired Uber’s self-driving Advanced Technologies Group (ATG) unit in 2020 and Uber is one of Aurora’s investors.

Uber started recruiting workers this month for its Scaled Solutions division from India, the US, Canada, Poland and Nicaragua. Scaled Solutions also posted some corporate openings for positions in San Francisco, New York and Chicago. According to an onboarding FAQ reviewed by Bloomberg, contractor pay is distributed monthly and totals are based on the tasks that contractors complete. The company did not reveal any specific rates to Bloomberg for its new crop of freelance employees.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/ubers-latest-gig-economy-play-is-offering-out-coders-for-hire-215036314.html?src=rss

The US Fair Trade Commission published a paper that found 89 percent of connected devices do not detail how long the item will receive software support. The study examined product websites looking for specifics about how long the company expected to support the device. Within the 11 percent of product sites that shared this information, the review found cases with ambiguous language as well as inconsistencies in where dates were displayed. As a secondary test, the researchers conducted basic Google searches for information about support dates and couldn’t quickly find answers for 67 percent of the devices.

“Consumers stand to lose a lot of money if their smart products stop delivering the features they want,” said Samuel Levine, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the FTC. “When shopping for smart devices, consumers should ask questions and consider how long their product will last.”

The 89 percent figure sounds like a pretty damning rate, but there is a major caveat to this research. The FTC only looked at 184 products, and they fell across a huge range of categories. The review excluded laptops, personal computers, tablets and automobiles, but any other “connected device” was covered. So while the real percentages are likely hazier than this report suggests, the FTC’s point about considering ongoing product support is still a good one.

It’s becoming more common for smartphone manufacturers to say upfront how long they’ll support the device; for instance, Samsung will keep the S24 line updated for seven years. The wave of right to repair laws that have been passed in a few states, most recently in California, could also point toward longer lifespans for hardware. However, that practice clearly hasn’t spread to all personal and home tech. Today’s paper from the FTC doesn’t advise any action on the topic, but it does highlight a need to set expectations around how and when companies will offer support for their software-driven products.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/ftc-warns-that-companies-dont-disclose-how-long-connected-devices-will-be-supported-212432111.html?src=rss