The Biden administration and the states of Illinois and Minnesota sued tractor and agricultural manufacturer John Deere Wednesday, arguing that the company’s anti consumer repair practices have driven up prices for farmers and have made it difficult for them to get repairs during critical planting and harvesting seasons. The lawsuit alleges that Deere has monopoly power over the repair market, which 404 Media has been reporting on for years.
The lawsuit, filed by the Federal Trade Commission and the attorney generals of Illinois and Minnesota, is the latest and most serious legal salvo against Deere’s repair monopoly. Deere is also facing a class-action lawsuit related to its repair practices from consumers in Illinois that the Department of Justice and other federal entities have signaled they are interested in and support, as we reported last year.
“The Federal Trade Commission today files suit against agricultural equipment manufacturer Deere & Company, stating that it has illegally restricted the ability of farmers and independent technicians to repair Deere equipment, including tractors and combines,” FTC commissioner Lina Khan wrote in a formal comment explaining the decision.
Deere has become notorious for cornering the repair market on its machines, which include tractors, combines, and other major agricultural equipment by introducing software locks that prevent farmers from fixing the equipment they buy without the authorization of John Deere. It has also made repair parts difficult to come by. Deere previously promised to make certain repairs easier for consumers with a “Memorandum of Understanding” (MOU) signed with a farming organization that would have made it possible for farmers to do some repairs and obtain some specific parts; implementation of that MOU has been incredibly uneven, according to farmers. In October, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said that Deere was not honoring that agreement and demanded answers to several questions about it; Deere has not yet responded.
Farmers have told 404 Media that they remain unable to do many types of repairs, and that it can sometimes take days for “authorized” John Deere or John Deere dealer technicians to come fix broken equipment. In farming, this delay can result in lost harvest, crucial delays in planting, and dying crops during critical periods of the farming season.
“These delays can mean that months of hard work and much-needed income vanish, devastating their business. In rural communities, the restrictions can sometimes mean that farmers need to drive hours just to get their equipment fixed,” Khan wrote. “For those who have long fixed their own equipment, these artificial restrictions can seem especially inefficient, with tractors needlessly sitting idle as farmers and independent mechanics are held back from using their skill and talent.”
The lawsuit, in the waning days of the Biden administration, is the most serious punitive act the federal government has ever taken to break up a repair monopoly and to support consumers’ right to repair. For years, the FTC has issued reports about repairability and manufacturer dominance of the repair market, but aside from a few small fines, has not formally sued any company. The steps Deere has taken to secure a repair monopoly are among the most egregious of any manufacturer in any industry, which has led farmers in some cases to resort to hacking their own tractors for the purposes of repair, sometimes using software pirated from Ukraine and other countries.
“We shouldn’t tolerate companies blocking repair,” Nathan Proctor, consumer rights group PIRG's Senior Right to Repair Campaign Director, said. “When you buy something, you should be able to do whatever you want with it. The FTC’s enforcement action will help farmers, and everyone else who believes people should be able to fix their stuff.”
While you could say this about every single year, 2024 was a big year for Google, but 2025 promises to be even bigger – here’s just what we expect to launch, plus a few extras we hope to see.
Today’s fresh batch of price drops join ongoing deals on iPad mini 7 and Apple Pencil Pro, not to mention the 2024 Apple Watch Milanese Loop in black. To kick things off we have some notable deals on Apple Watch Ultra 2 with open-box and certified refurbished listings as low as $475, or $324 off the sticker price. That deal sits nicely alongside the return of all-time low pricing on Apple’s latest navy Alpine Loop, AirTag down at $23 (or the 4-pack at $70) as well as even more accessories and charging gear. Everything awaits down below.
Streaming TV services keep getting more expensive, and those subscription costs will only continue to rise in 2025 and beyond. Amid all these price hikes, the best we can hope for is that the companies behind them will continue to add new features to ease the sting of paying more. Sling TV is trying to do just that with its cloud DVR, which has removed its previous recording limits and is now “unlimited.”
“Unlimited DVR (previously called DVR Plus) will allow customers to record as much content as they want, with recordings saved for up to nine months,” the company wrote in a press release today. That endless recording freedom still requires an extra $5 each month, however; YouTube TV includes an unlimited cloud DVR in its base subscription — but that subscription costs quite a bit more. Either way, unlimited is certainly better than the 200-hour limit that Sling’s Premium DVR had before.
Here’s what the newly enhanced DVR gets you:
Unlimited DVR: Record without restrictions, whether it’s a single show or an entire season.
Exclusively on Sling: Replay top sports, TV shows and movies - even if you forget to record.
Ad-Skipping Freedom: Fast-forward through commercials or pause and rewind at your convenience.
Cloud-Based Convenience: No need for physical hardware—Sling’s Unlimited DVR is fully cloud-powered.
Cross-Device Accessibility: Watch your recordings on any Sling-supported device.
As usual, there’s the potential for asterisks or exceptions depending on what content you’re trying to save. Sling TV actually has a few different tiers of DVR depending on your needs and which plan you’re subscribed to. The simplest options are free, but unlimited DVR is not:
Freestream DVR provides 10 hours of storage at no cost, with recordings available for up to 30 days. (Freestream is Sling TV’s FAST / free ad-supported TV service and available without a subscription.)
DVR Free plan includes 50 hours of storage with recordings kept for nine months, also free of charge.
Unlimited DVR offers endless storage, allowing users to record as much content as they like with a nine-month retention period.
Sling TV last raised its monthly subscription at the end of 2024. Sling Blue and Orange each now cost $45.99 per month, and the combined package is $61. The service even now has an arcade gaming component. Was anyone asking for that? Probably not. But if you’re paying through the teeth anyway, I guess any incentive counts.
The trailer’s anchored around Matt Murdock sitting at a diner with arch-nemesis Wilson Fisk, calling to mind that famous scene in Heat between Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. The relationship between these two was one of the main reasons that the Netflix series worked so well, and the actors still have plenty of chemistry.
The footage is also ultra-violent, which should please fans of the original show. The bone-crunching looks to be extra, uh, visceral. Eagle-eyed viewers will also spot a bearded and disoriented Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, likely on his way to mow down 400 gangsters.
Daredevil’s best buds Karen and Foggy are in the footage, but briefly and without any speaking lines. We know they were only recently added to the show after a complete retool, which leaves me wondering how much we’ll see of the pair.
Daredevil: Born Again stars Charlie Cox, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jon Bernthal, Ayelet Zurer and Wilson Bethel, among others. It’s been over six years since the final season of the Netflix show premiered, so we are more than ready to go back to Hell’s Kitchen. As previously mentioned, this show has been in the works for a while. Disney+ actually filmed a large portion of the season before scrapping it all and starting over.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/daredevils-new-trailer-is-heavy-on-violence-and-nostalgia-164430782.html?src=rss
A Washington-based launch company announced Wednesday that it has raised $260 million in Series C funding, a significant capital raise at a time when it has become more difficult for some space companies to attract funding.
"The market is tough, but I think what we’re doing is poised to go straight to the end state of the industry, and I think investors recognize that," said Andy Lapsa, Stoke Space's co-founder and chief executive officer, in an interview with Ars after the announcement.
By "end state of the industry," Lapsa means that Stoke is developing a fully reusable, medium-lift rocket named Nova. The vehicle's first stage will land vertically, similarly to a Falcon 9 rocket, and the second stage, which has a novel metallic heat shield and engine design, will also land back on Earth.
On the Github page for the quixotic project, coder ading2210 discusses how Adobe Acrobat included some robust support for JavaScript in the PDF file format. That JS coding support—which dates back decades and is still fully documented in Adobe's official PDF specs—is currently implemented in a more limited, more secure form as part of PDFium, the built-in PDF-rendering engine of Chromium-based browsers.
In the past, hackers have used this little-known Adobe feature to code simple games like Breakout and Tetris into PDF documents. But ading220 went further, recompiling a streamlined fork of Doom's open source code using an old version of Emscripten that outputs optimized asm.js code.
In a bid to make its Gemini chatbot app more of one-stop shop, Google says it’s working with The Associated Press to build “a feed of real-time information” in Gemini. Jaffer Zaidi, Google’s VP of global news partnerships, said that the goal is to “further enhance the usefulness of results” in the Gemini experience. “As […]
For the digital media industry, 2024 was a year characterized by ongoing disruption and challenges, balanced by emerging opportunities for resilience and growth.
For many digital publishers and media brands, much of last year was spent modernizing core infrastructure and systems (e.g., CMS upgrades, dynamic paywalls, authorization systems), improving site performance (e.g., core web vitals and SEO) and optimizing subscription strategies.
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The Oscars of porn and the industry’s largest trade show will begin in one week, on January 22 at Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas. Inside, adult performers, producers, directors and crew will find out whether they’ve won the prestigious AVN Award in categories including “Best All-Girl Group Sex Scene” and “Best Big Butt Movie or Collected Release,” but outside, hospitality workers are picketing for a better union contract. It’s a massive week for the adult industry, but porn workers are conflicted about crossing the picket line, with many choosing to sit this one out entirely.
The Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE) and the Adult Video Network Awards, collectively often referred to as AVN, is expected to bring more than 45,000 attendees to Vegas for three days of signings and meet-and-greets for fans, panels and programming about the adult industry, and booths for hundreds of brands, studios, and sex toys. It’s also the biggest event of the year for the industry’s indie performers, who come out to shoot content and network, spending weeks and months planning agendas and setting up unofficial parties and meetups. The show has been going for decades—since 1998 when it shared space and dates with the Consumer Electronic Show, and later at the Hard Rock Hotel when vendors and performers were forced out of CES and started their own event a few weeks and a couple blocks away.
Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165, Nevada affiliates of UNITE HERE, represent 60,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno according to their website. They’ve been on open-ended strike since November, and are fighting for a new five-year contract for 700 workers. Union representatives said last month that the latest offer from Virgin Hotels Las Vegas was a 30-cent-a-year wage increase, which they rejected.
Virgin Hotels, formerly the Hard Rock before renovations and a rebrand in 2020, was AVN’s first home when it split from CES’ dates and venue in 2011 (AVN became its own event in 1998 but shared space and time with the mainstream electronics show, where attendees would drift from one to the other). Today, AVN is actually multiple events, including the AEE and the awards but also the Adult Novelty Expo (ANE), interNEXT Expo, GayVN Awards Show, and the “O” Awards. In 2020, when the hotel reopened, Virgin Hotels Las Vegas CEO Richard Bosworth called AVN and other conferences “very cherished clients.”
🪧 @VirginHotelsLV ON STRIKE! Hospitality workers are pushing to win a union contract. Virgin Las Vegas workers are strong and they will stay out on strike until they win a contract. ATTN: Customers: Support workers & DON'T cross picket line.
Performer Electra Rayne told me on Monday she’s still planning to boycott the event as long as the strike is ongoing. She corresponded with the Culinary Union, and confirmed with them in an email she posted to X that striking workers are asking people to refrain from patronizing the venue in solidarity, which the union has since said publicly in statements.
“Thankfully I'm local so it's not like I spent a ton of money on travel or anything, and I'm supposed to go sign at the booth for my agent who has been super understanding about me needing to cancel should the strike be ongoing (which it seems it will be),” Rayne said. “I'm bummed to not see my fans, but the really sad part is that I was in a feature that's up for multiple awards this year, and I won't be able to celebrate that at the awards with the cast. We worked so hard on that movie and I'm so proud to have been a part of it, it's a really bummer to not get to participate in that moment.”
Other people in the industry are planning to attend despite the strike, but still find the decision difficult. “It saddens me to hear that Virgin is not paying their workers a fair wage, as that is something everyone deserves. With that said, I will still be attending AVN as it is the biggest convention of the year for my industry and I do have agreements and obligations that were arranged far ahead of these strikes,” performer Leya Falcon told me. “I do find it quite disturbing to hear that some of those on strike are ‘allegedly’ harassing and sometimes even following in an intimidating manner those that decide to enter the property as we have nothing to do with their employment situation, we are simply doing our job, which to be fair, does not always pay fairly either. [The Culinary Union did not respond to a request for comment on this alleged harassment, but we will update if we hear back.] Just as they are working to care for their families, we are doing the same and we should not be bullied for it, especially in this economy. I do hope that they can see the other side of the coin here, much as we do see theirs, and understand that none of us are against them receiving fair pay, we are simply doing what we need to do to provide for our families as not all of us have the luxury to just decide to sit this one out.”
Performer London River wrote on X that she would also still attend. “I likely can’t pull out of my commitments to AVN without experiencing losses. Considering that, I will be donating a percentage of my profits from the event to the strike fund,” she wrote, linking to a donation page for their fund. Striking workers are paid $500 a week out of this fund, a representative for Local 226 told me.
“Performers should not cross picket lines!”
There is a lot to unpack here. Many performers and independent production companies have invested a significant amount of money into attending the AVN expo. And most of that money cannot be refunded which means that we stand to suffer…
AVN declined to comment, but last week, it launched a FAQ page for attendees of the event. “The hotel has assured us that the strike will not impact the AVN Expo and Awards. Contingency measures are in place to maintain a memorable guest experience and exceptional service during the event,” the page says.
On January 9, the Adult Performance Artists Guild (APAG) issued a statement about the strike: “As the union for performers in the adult industry, care for the safety and well-being of our workers is paramount to our mission,” they wrote. “We feel this for not only our members and other workers in the adult industry but for all workers, regardless of their jobs. As union representatives, we support the sacrifices made by workers on strike, fighting for better working conditions. The officers of APAG voted unanimously to support our fellow union workers in Culinary Workers Local 226, and we will not cross their picket line in a show of solidarity.”
APAG said it “strongly encourages” members to avoid crossing the picket line, as well as cancelling reservations at the hotel and contacting AVN, Virgin Hotels, and companies they were set to sign with at the event to express their concerns.
And on Saturday, marking day 58 of the strike, APAG members joined Local 226 workers and their families for a march from the Las Vegas Strip to Virgin Hotels, blaring vuvuzelas and holding signs referencing Virgin Las Vegas’ contract negotiation offer of an estimated 30 cents an hour in wage increases.
“The Adult Performance Artists Guild (APAG)’s decision to stand with Culinary Union strikers and honor the picket line at Virgin Las Vegas demonstrates unity, and the Culinary Union applauds the unwavering solidarity shown by the APAG and their members,” Ted Pappageorge, Secretary-Treasurer for the Culinary Union, said in a statement. “Workers across industries share the same fight for dignity, fair pay, respect, and protections on-the-job, and Culinary Union is proud to stand with APAG in solidarity as strikers continue to take on a billionaire-owned company that refuses to treat workers fairly. APAG’s support sends a powerful message: When workers stand together, we are unstoppable. To APAG members and all customers choosing not to cross the picket line – thank you for standing with workers on strike, with your continued support we will win.”
Last week, Pornhub announced that its team is canceling its upcoming trips to AVN and adult industry event XBIZ LA due to the strike in Vegas, and in Los Angeles, the wildfire crisis that’s required many LA residents to evacuate to hotels. “Unfortunately, this means our scheduled in-person events and workshops are no longer going on as planned. We are working closely with XBIZ to host our scheduled workshop virtually,” they wrote in a post on X. “We're so disappointed we won't be able to get face time with those of you who were planning to attend, and looking forward to seeing you all again soon.”
If workers don’t receive a fair contract soon, AVN won’t be the only event where attendees will have to choose between staying home or crossing a picket line. There are 11 other trade shows and events set to take place at Virgin Hotels in the coming weeks, including the Fancy Food Show, World of Concrete Expo, Academic Surgical Congress, CHAMPS Trade Show, and Kitchen and Bath Industry Show.
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CES 2025 was a whirlwind of a time. It is the only convention in the world where you can see the future of the toothbrush industry right next to a booth all about robot vacuums with robotic arms coming out of them. Everyone brand now has some sort of AI assistant or smartglasses or health wearable or 1000W GaN charger that can charge 18 different laptops at full speed (A bit of an exaggeration). However, through all that noise, a few products and brands stood out to me regarding Apple-related products and accessories. Here are 5 of the best products I saw at CES.
Drake’s ongoing legal battle with his label, Universal Music Group, has escalated. The artist filed a lawsuit in federal court today, accusing UMG of harming his reputation and endangering him for profit. The suit stems from the diss track “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar, another UMG artist. Drake’s legal complaint also again accuses UMG of using bots on Spotify and other streaming platforms, and payola to make the song more popular.
“On May 4, 2024, UMG approved, published, and launched a campaign to create a viral hit out of a rap track that falsely accuses Drake of being a pedophile and calls for violent retribution against him,” the complaint reads. “Even though UMG enriched itself and its shareholders by exploiting Drake’s music for years, and knew that the salacious allegations against Drake were false, UMG chose corporate greed over the safety and well-being of its artists.”
Image: Aubrey Drake Graham vs. UMG Recordings
Drake accuses UMG of using bots to drive up listens and views, and paying for promotion on social media.
The lawsuit details a shooting at Drake’s (real name: Aubrey Graham) home just a few days after the song was released, during which a security guard was injured. Multiple break-ins occurred in the following days, which the lawsuit says were caused by UMG’s actions.
Why would UMG pit two of its own artists against each other? Drake’s team has a theory:
UMG’s actions are motivated, at least in part, by UMG’s desire to best position itself in negotiations with Kendrick Lamar in 2024 and Drake in 2025. With respect to Lamar, on information and belief, UMG was incentivized to prove that it could maximize Lamar’s sales—by any means necessary—after only being able to get him to sign a short-term exclusive contract. UMG wanted Lamar to see its value on an expedited timeframe in order to convince Lamar to resign exclusively and for a longer period of time. As to Drake, in 2024, his contract was nearing fulfillment. On information and belief, UMG anticipated that extending Drake’s contract would come at a high cost to UMG; as such, it was incentivized to devalue Drake’s music and brand in order to gain leverage in negotiations for an extension
Lamar is not named as a defendant in the suit; instead, Drake’s legal team pins the blame on UMG for releasing the song despite knowing the song’s “allegations are unequivocally false.”
“Drake is not a pedophile. Drake has never engaged in any acts that would require he be “placed on neighborhood watch.” Drake has never engaged in sexual relations with a minor. Drake has never been charged with, or convicted of, any criminal acts whatsoever,” the suit reads.
The suit follows a petition filed in November in which Drake accuses UMG and Spotify of artificially inflating the success of “Not Like Us” using payola and streaming bots. The petition — which itself isn’t a lawsuit but a precursor — was withdrawn this week. But the suit filed today includes similar allegations of “pay-for-play” schemes to get “Not Like Us” played on radio stations and promoted on streaming platforms. The suit also again accuses UMG of using bots to “artificially inflate the spread” of the song. It cites a “whistleblower” who claimed he was paid $2,500 over Zelle “via third parties to use ‘bots’ to achieve 30,000,000 streams on Spotify in the initial days following the Recording’s release.”
As The New York Times notes, Drake has enlisted Michael J. Gottlieb, the lawyer that represented the owner of the restaurant embroiled in the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory. Drake’s complaint draws parallels between the shooting at the artist’s home and the shooting at the restaurant, calling it “the 2024 equivalent of ‘Pizzagate.’”
“The online response was similarly violent and hateful. An avalanche of online hate speech has branded Drake as a sex offender and pedophile, among other epithets,” the complaint reads.
UMG did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Asimo OS was mentioned at CES 2025 alongside its 0 Series SUV and Saloon sedan EV concepts, but the Acura RSX will be the first production vehicle to get it. The operating system uses technology similar to its namesake robot to recognize external environments and understand people’s intentions, according to the company. It will also assist in the vehicle’s automated and advanced assisted driving functions.
The company's current EVs — the Acura ZDX and the Honda Prologue — are both based on the General Motors Ultium platform. Production of the Acura RSX will take place in Honda’s new Fayette County, Ohio factory. The final beams of the plant were only erected a little less than a year ago, and it's projected to have battery and RSX production up and running by the end of this year. Consumers should be able to get their hands on the new vehicle sometime in 2026.
While Honda is working hard on its EVs, its plans to merge with Nissan, announced at the end of last year, continue. The two companies have been collaborating on making EV components and software since August.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/the-acura-rsx-calls-dibs-on-hondas-proprietary-asimo-os-162231318.html?src=rss
Tires might be one of the more prosaic parts of a car, but they are undoubtedly among the most important. Bench racers might obsess about powertrain specs, and average consumers mostly want to know that there's wireless charging for their phones, but it's the tires that actually make contact with the road. Without them, no one is going anywhere. At least not very far.
In the past, tires have been considered somewhat mysterious, with secret blends of rubber, carbon, and other stuff combined with clever arrangements of belts and wires to hold the whole thing together as it rotates faster and faster without flying apart. These days, we know an awful lot about how tires work. Or at least tire companies like Goodyear do, having amassed enough testing data to be able to simulate them accurately enough to shave months off a development schedule.
In fact, the use of simulation in tire research and development has quite a long history. Chris Helsel, who is now Goodyear's CTO, joined the company back in 1996; he was hired as part of a tiny team doing computer tire simulation. "At Goodyear in '96, it felt like almost late to the party in terms of doing what we call finite element analysis, which is basically breaking a large structure down into little parts," Helsel said.
The Galaxy S25 is set to go official next week, but the leaks keep coming ahead of that. Most recently, quite a few of Samsung’s official Galaxy S25 cases have hit the web via a retailer, offering a preview of what the company will have to offer.
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Image: Aubrey Drake Graham vs. UMG Recordings
