Technology

Amazon’s Ring just doubled the price of its alarm monitoring service for grandfathered customers

Published

5 hours ago

October 3, 2024

Amazon’s Ring just doubled the price of its alarm monitoring service for grandfathered customers

Did you, like me, buy a Ring Alarm system for your home because it offered the most affordable professional 24/7 monitoring around, at just $10 a month or $100 a year? Then I expect you — like me — just got an email stating you’ll now pay twice as much starting the next time you renew.

Here’s the top of the email I received a few hours ago, telling me I’ll pay $20 a month or $200 a year starting in March, which matches the price of the Ring Protect Pro plan that Amazon started selling three years ago. I was previously on Ring Protect Plus:

Price hike.

Image: Sean Hollister / The Verge

Price hikes are always annoying, but Ring is still a relatively affordable alarm service, I suppose. The truly infuriating part: Amazon is pretending it responsibly warned grandfathered customers that this was coming.

“This is your reminder that we previously notified you,” reads the first line of Ring’s email to me today. When? I certainly don’t remember ever getting an email telling me about a 100 percent price hike before…

But digging around on the company’s website, I do find an FAQ with an answer: “In September 2021, we sent you email letting you know that your Ring Protect Plus (1st Gen) subscription would be moving to a new plan starting in 2025.”

So, of course, I dig through my email from September 2021, where I find an email from Ring… which states nothing is changing except for the name of my plan.

Seriously, take a look at this portion of an email titled “Important: Your Plan Name Has Changed”:

“Don’t worry, everything else is staying the same.”

Image: Ring

Oh, but there’s that little footnote marker. See that number 1 at the very end of the sentence? That leads to a little dark grey section of fine print at the bottom of the email, which states:

“You’ll continue to have access to Ring Protect Plus (1st Gen) until your next subscription renewal after January 1, 2025…”

Image: Ring

In fact, looking back through my boring Ring renewal emails each year, every one of them has this fine print at the bottom. Basically, Amazon has been dark patterning its Ring customers for three years. If I hadn’t taken Amazon at its word that nothing was changing, maybe I would have switched to a different alarm system. I guess it’s not too late…

In fact, Ring may have dark patterned some of them again today. Some customers say their email about the price hike began with the words “New name. New features. Same great price,” before going on to describe how either the features or the price were about to significantly change.

I’m pissed because I’m over a barrel. Am I really going to rip and replace my hardwired Ring doorbell? Would I really let my home insurance alarm discount lapse? But I do understand the price hike to some degree. Inflation happens, and grandfathered Ring customers like me have been enjoying the low prices for many years.

Amazon’s Ring didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Technology

Drone versus drone combat is bringing a new kind of warfare to Ukraine

Published

4 mins ago

October 3, 2024

NewsAdmin

Drone versus drone combat is bringing a new kind of warfare to Ukraine

A Ukrainian drone operator with a first-person view kamikaze drone
Andriy Andriyenko/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

As both sides of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war attempt to claim technological supremacy, drone versus drone combat has become routine – and thanks to the ubiquity of cameras, this new kind of warfare is being documented in real time across air, land and sea.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has already been dubbed the “first drone war”, with some sources suggesting that small drones are inflicting as much as 80 per cent of the damage to military hardware and personnel. Now, the war has evolved, with machines…

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Technology

NYT Crossword: answers for Wednesday, October 2

Published

25 mins ago

October 3, 2024

NewsAdmin

The New York Times crossword puzzle can be tough! If you’re stuck, we’re here to help with a list of today’s clues and answers.

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Servers computers

Dell PowerEdge Server Portfolio

Published

31 mins ago

October 3, 2024

NewsAdmin

Dell PowerEdge servers are designed to accelerate performance for powerful computing across data centers, large-scale public clouds and edge locations.
Learn more: https://www.dell.com/sR_11s16XPw .

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Technology

Gmail gets redesigned summary cards with more data & features

Published

47 mins ago

October 3, 2024

NewsAdmin

Featured image for Gmail gets redesigned summary cards with more data & features

Google implemented summary cards in Gmail a few years ago to give you key snippets of data and shortcuts to quick actions as soon as you open an email in certain categories. The feature is especially useful when you’re checking emails about tickets, purchases, travel, etc. Now, Google has announced a big update to Gmail’s summary cards that will make them even more functional.

Gmail’s revamped summary cards include more options and useful info

Gmail’s summary cards appear in four categories of emails: Shopping, Events, Bills, and Travel. Now, Google is redesigning the cards to not only give them a new look but to integrate new quick actions and useful info. For purchases, the cards will show order details and the expected product delivery date. For events, you’ll be able to directly add upcoming events to your Calendar account, invite other people, and get directions to the location.

For bills, you’ll be able to check them out, pay them, or add a reminder to pay them later to your Google Tasks account. For travel emails, you’ll get data like the hotel’s check-in and check-out times. Summary cards in travel emails will also let you directly check-in for flights and manage hotel reservations.

The redesign of summary cards in Gmail also makes the feature more useful for getting data at a glance. Now you’ll get short summaries with all the essential information you need before reading the email. The cards will also include shortcuts to actions like “Get directions,” “Invite others,” “Track package,” “Check in,” “Remind me,” or “Mark as paid.” Google made sure that summary cards in Gmail were dynamic. This means that the information they display is updated in real-time in case there are changes regarding events, delivery dates, and more.

Gmail event summary card before and after — Event summary card: before vs after

Summary cards getting a “Happening soon” section

Google wants to make summary cards a fundamental part of Gmail. So, the company will give them more prominence with a whole new “Happening soon” section. “Happening soon” will be available at the top of inboxes and in the Gmail search box. It will include summary cards for your purchases. The new section won’t be there permanently, but it will appear when there are relevant updates about your orders.

If you have multiple pending orders with delivery dates close together, Gmail will stack the relevant summary cards. You can expand all pending cards from the stacked one whenever you want. You can also dismiss summary cards altogether if you don’t find them useful.

The new summary cards are already available for purchase-related emails on Android and iOS. The company will roll out cards for events, invoices, and travel “in the coming months.” The “Happening soon” section will also take a few months to roll out.

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Servers computers

Toten 42U Server Rack Unpack

Published

1 hour ago

October 3, 2024

NewsAdmin

if any need to know about Toten Product, also about Toten 42U server Rack Please Comment

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Technology

Epic will extend its free games program to its mobile store

Published

1 hour ago

October 3, 2024

NewsAdmin

Until now, the mobile version of the Epic Games Store has mostly been focused on the brand’s staples like Fortnite and Fall Guys. It won’t be that way for long.

Epic Games Store general manager Steve Allison announced at Unreal Fest in Seattle that it plans to expand the Epic Games Stores’ mobile library with 10 to 50 new third-party games and start a free games program, according to .

Allison said the free games program and third-party titles will be available in “Q4” or the last part of the year. Epic’s Unreal Fest keynote also teased that Ark: Ultimate Mobile Edition will be one of the new third-party games on the mobile store.

Epic Games also wants to make the game submission process a lot easier. Allison mentioned the store would offer “self publishing tools” for developers. This will allow them to release their games “without any interactions with us, like they do on PC today.”

The Epic Games Store is available worldwide on Android devices and for iOS users in the European Union.

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