Month: June 2019

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

Greetings, Arsians! The Dealmaster is back with another round of deals to share. Today's list is headlined by a deal on the Apple Watch Series 4, as Apple's latest wearable is down to $345 at Amazon. That's a $55 discount—that might not feel massive, but it's the lowest price we've seen at a major retailer to date. Just note that this price only applies to the space gray aluminum model with Apple's black sports loop at the moment; the rest are $4 more expensive.

Various stores have had the Series 4 down to around $350 for the past few weeks, but this is a good price for the Apple Watch with the fastest performance and largest screen. It's still probably not worth ditching a Series 3—which itself is on sale—if you own the former already, but with the upcoming WatchOS 6 update making the Watch more capable independent of the iPhone, this looks like a solid deal on a still-improving device.

If you don't want a new smartwatch, we also have deals on a high-performing internal SSD from HP, Vizio 4K TVs, Sony noise-cancelling headphones, and more. Have a look at the full list below.

Enlarge / News2Share's YouTube page. (credit: News2Share)

YouTube on Wednesday announced an expanded crackdown on hate speech, but the company said it would make sure not to ban or demonetize videos that "aim to condemn or expose hate, or provide analysis of current events."

However, YouTube's crackdown has already targeted a journalist who documents extremism, presumably by mistake.

"Within minutes of @YouTube's announcement of a new purge it appears they caught my outlet, which documents activism and extremism, in the crossfire," journalist Ford Fischer wrote on Twitter yesterday. "I was just notified my entire channel has been demonetized. I am a journalist whose work there is used in dozens of documentaries."

Enlarge / Kik CEO Ted Livingston. (credit: Alex Flynn/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a lawsuit against social media company Kik over its creation and sale of a cryptocurrency called Kin back in 2017. Kik is vowing to fight the lawsuit, setting the stage for a landmark ruling on how securities laws apply to the sale of digital tokens online.

The case is important because the Kin sale was one of thousands of so-called initial coin offerings held in the last three years. The Kin sale generated almost $100 million in revenue, and coin offerings have collectively raised billions of dollars. Most organizers did not file the kind of disclosure forms that the law requires for conventional stock sales.

The big question is whether the law required them to do so. We don't yet have a clear answer, largely because the SEC has been slow to address the issue.

Enlarge / "Play Now"... but first, do you want to pay full price to buy the full version of the game?

In announcing Stadia this March, Google executives sold their streamed-gaming ambitions as a way to revolutionize the gaming business and the community surrounding it. With today's announcement of Stadia's pricing and business model, though, the company seems to be stuck in a decidedly old-fashioned mode that doesn't really exploit streaming's biggest benefits.

It starts with the initial hardware purchase requirements. A big part of Google's sales pitch for Stadia was the fact that the service would work on any computer with a Web browser, as well as generic mobile phones and tablets, using non-proprietary USB controllers. Requiring early adopters to purchase $129 worth of Chromecast Ultra and Stadia Controller hardware cuts against that "open to anyone" messaging. In a world where an Xbox One with a bundled game routinely sells for under $250, asking for a $129 hardware commitment to use Stadia's platform doesn't seem especially revolutionary.

Yes, that "Founder's Edition" purchase requirement (and the attendant $9.99 Pro-tier monthly subscription) will go away sometime in 2020—likely after Google has confirmed its game streaming servers can work at scale. But by then Google will have already lost the initial impact it could have had with a launch to billions of Chrome users. Requiring mobile users to have a Google Pixel 3/3a phone similarly deadens the market impact of Stadia's planned November rollout.

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  The hardware you get with the $129.99 Stadia "Founder's Edition."

Players will have to pay $129.99 up front and $9.99 a month, on top of individual game purchase costs, when Google's previously announced Stadia game-streaming service launches in November. A free tier will be available some time in 2020, as will a paid subscription tier that doesn't require the upfront purchase.

The Stadia Founder's Edition and its contingent Stadia Pro subscription will be the only way to get access to the Stadia service when it launches, Google announced today. That $129.99 package, available for pre-order on the Google Store right now, will include:

• A Stadia controller in "limited-edition night blue"
• A Chromecast Ultra
• Three months of Stadia Pro service and a three-month "buddy pass" to give to a friend
• First dibs on claiming a "Stadia Name"

After the first three months, Stadia Pro users will have to pay $9.99 a month to maintain their membership. For that price, they will get access to Google's highest-quality streams, at up to 4K/60fps with high-dynamic range (HDR) and 5.1 surround sound. For the time being, users will not be able to sign up for Stadia Pro without investing in the Founder's Edition hardware package.