Anker says its first 3D printer is designed with speed in mind

Anker, a company most known for its charging products, is getting into the 3D-printing business. The company has just announced AnkerMake, its new 3D printing brand, and its first model called AnkerMake M5. Anker claims that the M5 solves the most critical issues that have prevented 3D printers from going mainstream, including their typically slow print speeds.

The AnkerMake M5 has a basic print speed of 250 mm/s that’s meant to be used if you’re working on more detailed projects that need a smooth finish. However, the printer also has a much speedier mode that gives it the power to print up to 2,500 mm/s². The end result is rougher and less detailed, and the mode is mostly suitable for prototypes and perhaps random toys, but Anker says it enables the M5 to reduce average print times by up to 70 percent compared to other printers. 

In addition to being speedy, the M5 was designed to be easy to set up: It will apparently only take 15 minutes to get it ready to start printing. To address another pain point — the need for constant supervision — Anker gave the M5 the capability to monitor print jobs with a built-in AI-powered camera. If it detects issues like nozzle plugging, it can send an alert to your phone. You can also view live feeds of your print jobs through the Anker mobile app wherever you are. 

Whether the M5 can deliver on all those promises remains to be seen. At the moment, it’s a Kickstarter project, which means it could take a while for Anker to start shipping the product, and that’s if the campaign reaches its goal. If you want to back the project and don’t mind waiting, you can get the the AnkerMake M5 for its super early bird price of $429. After that, you’ll have to pledge at least $499 to secure a unit.

Vevo says an ‘unauthorized source’ vandalized Drake, Lil Nas X and other YouTube channels

If you were trying to watch Drake, Taylor Swift, Lil Nas X, The Weeknd, Eminem, Ariana Grande, Harry Styles, Kanye West, Michael Jackson and other artists on YouTube this morning, you may not have seen what you expected. Music video network Vevo was reportedly attacked by someone with the Twitter handle @lospelaosbro, who uploaded some extremely strange clips, The Verge reported. Those included video of a rapper called Lil Tjay and a man called Paco Sanz who was sent to jail for scamming donations after lying about having cancer. 

Vevo acknowledged the incident, telling Engadget that “some videos were directly uploaded to a small number of Vevo artist channels earlier today by an unauthorized source.” It added that no pre-existing content was accessible to the attacker and said that it would be “conducting a review of our security systems.”

Vevo is owned primarily by music labels Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group. The company says it controls “the largest network of music channels on YouTube,” and essentially acts like a contractor, allowing distributors to merge Vevo channels with existing channels as “Official Artist Channels.” Google also owns a small stake in the service.

According to a Vevo FAQ, artists don’t post their videos directly, but send them to “content providers” for uploading. Content providers include major labels like Universal Music Group and Sony Music, along with independent distributors. The hacked artist channels belong to multiple labels and Vevo said that they have now been secured and the incident is resolved.

Update 4/6/2022 1:34 PM ET: The article has been updated with a statement from Vevo. 

Amazon Music Unlimited price is going up a dollar to $9 for Prime members

The price for an Amazon Music Unlimited plan is going up from $8 to $9 for Prime members, Amazon has confirmed. It’s also raising the price for a “Single Device” subscription from $4 to $5, as spotted byConsumer Reports reporter Nicholas De Leon. Non-Prime members will continue to pay $10 per month and the Family Plan will still cost $15 per month for Prime members only.

The news means that Prime subscribers are barely getting any kind of deal on Amazon Music Unlimited, whereas Prime Video is still included for free in the plan. The price is still a bit cheaper for Prime members than you’d pay for Apple Music ($10 per month) or Spotify ($10 per month). Amazon also offers Music Prime for free to Prime members, but you’re limited to 2 million songs and can only play on one device at a time.

Amazon Music Unlimited is obviously best if you’re a Prime subscriber and have an Echo or other Alexa device, though it works on tablets, smartphones, TVs, Amazon Fire devices, PCs and so on. However, the user interface is generally considered subpar compared to Apple Music or Spotify, lacking things like biographies in artist profiles. Some of the benefits include downloads for offline listening and HD, Dolby Atmos and Sony 360RA streaming at no extra cost. 

Uber will soon offer taxi rides in San Francisco

Uber customers in San Francisco might soon find a traditional taxi waiting for them when they use the app to summon a ride. According to San Francisco Chronicle, the ride-hailing giant has inked a deal with Yellow Cab SF and Flywheel, the company that operates an Uber-like app used by taxi drivers across companies in the city. The agreement will give 1,075 taxi drivers in the area access to Uber customers in the coming months. Uber recently struck a similar deal in NYC, allowing people in the city to hail any of its 14,000 taxi drivers through the app. 

The companies were able to finalize the deal, because the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board has just voted in favor of allowing taxis to accept flat upfront rates for rides hailed through a third-party app. Customers can expect to pay UberX rates, which are calculated based on trip time and distance on top of a base fare, for taxi rides. The year-long pilot for the deal will begin on August 5th.

Uber’s rates are typically lower than metered fares, though they could be higher during surge times. Kate Toran, SFMTA’s director of taxis, said during the board meeting that Uber and Lyft fares are about 80 to 85 percent of metered rates. While drivers could earn less than usual for Uber rides, their participation is completely optional. They can accept Uber rides whenever they want, and there are no consequences for rejecting them. 

Flywheel and Yellow believe the deal would benefit drivers, who could accept Uber rides to fill in gaps for dead hours. “[H]aving some revenue come in versus no revenue is a much better situation in the end, even if it is lower than the taxi rate,” Yellow Cab CEO Chris Sweis said. Still, not all SF cab drivers are thrilled about the development. Mark Gruberg, a board member of the San Francisco Taxi Alliance, expressed concerns about regular taxi customers being ignored during Uber surge times. Another driver told ABC7News that earning less money from Uber rides would mean he’ll have a harder time paying off the debts he took to pay for his medallion, which cost $250,000.

If Uber gets its way, though, there’ll be no taxi left that isn’t part of its network. Uber exec Andrew Macdonald recently said during an investor presentation (PDF) that that the company aims to put every taxi on Uber by 2025. Doing so wouldn’t only increase its driver supply, it could also unlock new markets where people don’t have their own cars to use for the service.