Technology
YouTube Premium’s grandfathered $7.99 price to disappear soon
It looks like early subscribers to the now-known as “YouTube Premium” plan will soon lose the lower price compared to those who came later. As a way of rewarding its first paid users, Google did not increase the cost of the service for several years. However, everyone will soon lose access to YouTube Premium’s grandfathered price, starting in Europe.
YouTube Premium’s grandfathered (early adopter) price will increase after several years
YouTube’s first premium subscription arrived in 2014 under the name “Music Key.” The plan started at a price of $7.99 during a trial period where a limited number of people could sign up. Later, the company raised it to $9.99. Those who were paying $9.99 had already received a price increase last year. Now, those users who were still enjoying the grandfathered price of $7.99 could receive the same treatment.
According to reports, YouTube users in European countries are receiving a notification about the upcoming change in the price of the Premium plan. The increase will not take effect immediately, as the company will give three more months at the original rate to early subscribers of the service. Once the deadline passes, they will have to start paying the same price as everyone else in the region.
Currently, the YouTube Premium plan has a $13.99 price tag in the US. When YouTube will implement the same measure in the US and other regions is unknown.
The price of $7.99 has remained fixed since 2014
The video platform’s paid plan has gone through multiple changes since its inception. In 2018, the Mountain View giant relaunched YouTube Music as the successor to Music Key for a better music streaming experience. At that time, “beta subscribers” not only kept the same price but also enjoyed all the benefits of YouTube Premium (including ad-free videos) for the initial $7.99 or $9.99. For reference, that year, YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium cost $11.99 and $9.99, respectively.
Years later, in 2023, Google implemented a $2 increase in the price of the plans. Since then, YouTube Music Premium and YouTube Premium have cost $11.99 and $13.99, respectively. Even then, the company kept the price intact for its beta subscribers who paid $7.99. However, those who paid $9.99 already had to start paying the new prices.
Now, the platform’s next move is to eliminate the $7.99 grandfathered price as well. Those lucky enough to still enjoy it will have three months to continue doing so and decide whether to keep the plan at the new cost or stop paying it.
There’s a new portable gaming console in town, joining an ever-crowded field. The Ayaneo 3 is the manufacturer’s latest portable device, following last year’s Ayaneo 2S. This Windows-based handheld looks to be an improvement in nearly every major way over its predecessors.
The Ayaneo 3 will be available in a few different versions. Purchasers can choose between two processors, an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 or Ryzen 7 8840U. The HX 370 is the more powerful option, offering an “extraordinary handheld gaming experience with AI support.” It’s worth noting that the 8840U should still be able to run plenty of modern games, as the company says it’s a good choice for “gamers who prefer classic powerful performance.”
Folks can also select between two display options. There’s a model with a serviceable 7-inch LCD screen and another with a 7-inch OLED. Portable devices really pop with OLED screens.
Every model boasts a new back button design, to provide for a “richer button combination experience.” The company says the design has been “ergonomically optimized” so human fingers can easily reach those back buttons. There’s also a trigger lock feature, to offer enhanced “control in both popular and retro games.” Otherwise, the front-facing buttons and slanted joystick layout are familiar.
The front-facing speakers have received a refresh here, with Ayaneo promising “immersive audio beyond expectations.” It says they were designed in “deep collaboration with sound specialists” and will offer “low rumble” and “depth and clarity.”
That’s about all we know for now. Ayaneo says it’ll release more information soon, including new features and “more control innovations.” There’s no price yet and no release date.
Chris Comparato, CEO, the Toast, Inc. IPO at the New York Stock Exchange, on September 22, 2021.
Source: NYSE
Upstart, which uses artificial intelligence to inform online lending decisions, soared 46% on Friday, its best day in over three years. Toast, which sells payments technology to restaurants, jumped 14%, closing at its highest since 2021.
Both companies reported better-than-expected results, sparking the rallies.
Upstart’s revenue jumped 20% in the third quarter to $162 million, easily beating analyst estimates. CEO David Girouard said on the company’s earnings call that, “we’re in growth mode.”
Toast is still well off its pandemic highs of 2021, but the stock has now more than doubled this year. The company’s adjusted earnings forecast of $90 million to $100 million for the current quarter sailed past estimates.
The two stocks were part of a huge rally on Wall Street this week that followed Donald Trump’s election victory on Tuesday night. All three major indexes closed at records, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq finishing the week up 5.7%, its second-best week of the year.
Within fintech, companies tied to crypto were some of the top performers, after candidates funded by the crypto industry won races up and down the ballot.
Coinbase shares jumped 48% for the week, their strongest performance since January 2023. Coinbase was one of the top corporate donors in the election cycle, giving more than $75 million to Fairshake and its affiliate PACs, including a fresh pledge of $25 million to support the pro-crypto super PAC in the 2026 midterms.
Trump has vowed to oust SEC Chair Gary Gensler, which potentially bodes well for companies like Coinbase fighting the regulator in court over alleged securities offenses.
Robinhood, which allows users to buy and sell a number of digital currencies, rose 27% for the week. The online brokerage received a Wells Notice from the SEC in May, a move that often precedes formal charges.
Bitcoin hit a new intraday high above $77,300, ending the week 11% higher. Ether, solana, and dogecoin outpaced bitcoin’s gains.
Not all fintechs rallied.
Block, the parent company of Square, reported third-quarter revenue on Thursday that trailed Wall Street’s expectations, leading to a slight drop in the stock on Friday. Shares of Jack Dorsey’s company underperformed the boarder tech market for the week, rising 3.3%.
Affirm, the provider of buy now, pay later loans, beat on the top and bottom line, but the stock still dropped 4.7% on Friday, leaving it slightly ahead of the Nasdaq for the week.
WATCH: Robinhood Crypto general manager reacts to bitcoin rally
The majority of businesses, 90%, have experienced at least one identity-related intrusion and breach attempt in the last twelve months.Read More
Monarch Tractor has laid off around 10% of its workforce as part of a restructuring that will see it prioritize non-agricultural customers, license its autonomous technology, and boost sales of its AI-powered farm management software, TechCrunch has learned.
Around 35 employees were cut this week by the Livermore, California-based autonomous electric tractor startup that has raised a total of $220 million since it was founded in 2018. Some Monarch workers told TechCrunch they were let go without severance. It’s the second cut this year; Monarch previously laid off around 15% of its workforce in July.
CEO Praveen Penmetsa told TechCrunch in an interview the company decided to restructure after a slower-than-expected third quarter, and despite raising $133 million in July from the likes of Foxconn and agri-food tech impact firm Astanor. Penmetsa said he was uncertain if employees were let go without severance, but that the company has been trying to help out laid-off workers on a case-by-case basis.
“All of this happened pretty quickly,” Penmetsa said, referring to the recent crash of California’s vineyards, which made up a bulk of Monarch’s early customers. That development, plus an ongoing pullback in agri-tech investing, left Penmetsa and his team looking at other options.
“The industry has slowed down on acquisition of new equipment and new solutions, especially in the core farming sectors,” Penmetsa said. “But in the meantime, as a platform company, we also have some very exciting non-agriculture opportunities that started sprouting because of our success in ag.”
He said the company, which has shipped 500 tractors to date, is now focused on widening its customer base in a number of ways. It is expanding beyond agricultural customers to golf courses, solar farms, and even municipalities. It’s also putting more focus on selling its “WingspanAI” farm management software. And Monarch is in talks with other “off-road” vehicle companies to license its autonomous technology.
Penmetsa said these changes inspired the cuts which hit, among other things, some of Monarch’s engineering and operations team. He also said that Monarch is leaning more on contract-manufacturer Foxconn, which builds the tractors at its Lordstown, Ohio facility, for operational roles.
“We are a startup,” Penmetsa said. “You have to be agile, right?”
The Beatles have been nominated for two Grammys — nearly 50 years after the band officially split up. Their final song, called “Now and Then,” was restored last year with the help of AI, and is now up for record of the year alongside the likes of Beyoncé, Charlie XCX, Billie Eilish, and Taylor Swift. It’s also been nominated for best rock performance, where it goes up against Green Day, Pearl Jam, and The Black Keys.
However, “Now and Then” was never released, as technology at the time couldn’t separate John’s vocals and piano to get a clear sound. But in 2021, filmmaker Peter Jackson and his sound team were able to separate the instrumentals and vocals with machine learning technology, allowing Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to finally complete the song.
Though “Now and Then” was finished using machine learning, it still falls within the bounds of The Grammy’s rules surrounding AI. The guidelines currently state that “only human creators are eligible to be submitted for consideration for, nominated for, or win a GRAMMY Award,” but work that contains “elements” of AI material is “eligible in applicable categories.”
It’s a bit strange to see “Now and Then” competing with modern-day music like Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em,” but it’s been a long time coming. We’ll get to see how the Beatles fare during the 2025 Grammy Awards, which takes place on Sunday, February 2nd.
Science & Environment
Why did the UK’s first satellite end up thousands of miles from where it should have been?
BBC/Gerry FletcherSomeone moved the UK’s oldest satellite and there appears to be no record of exactly who, when or why.
Launched in 1969, just a few months after humans first set foot on the Moon, Skynet-1A was put high above Africa’s east coast to relay communications for British forces.
When the spacecraft ceased working a few years later, gravity might have been expected to pull it even further to the east, out over the Indian Ocean.
But today, curiously, Skynet-1A is actually half a planet away, in a position 22,369 miles (36,000km) above the Americas.
Orbital mechanics mean it’s unlikely the half-tonne military spacecraft simply drifted to its current location.
Almost certainly, it was commanded to fire its thrusters in the mid-1970s to take it westwards. The question is who that was and with what authority and purpose?
It’s intriguing that key information about a once vital national security asset can just evaporate. But, fascination aside, you might also reasonably ask why it still matters. After all, we’re talking about some discarded space junk from 50 years ago.
“It’s still relevant because whoever did move Skynet-1A did us few favours,” says space consultant Dr Stuart Eves.
“It’s now in what we call a ‘gravity well’ at 105 degrees West longitude, wandering backwards and forwards like a marble at the bottom of a bowl. And unfortunately this brings it close to other satellite traffic on a regular basis.
“Because it’s dead, the risk is it might bump into something, and because it’s ‘our’ satellite we’re still responsible for it,” he explains.
BBC/Gerry FletcherDr Eves has looked through old satellite catalogues, the National Archives and spoken to satellite experts worldwide, but he can find no clues to the end-of-life behaviour of Britain’s oldest spacecraft.
It might be tempting to reach for a conspiracy theory or two, not least because it’s hard to hear the name “Skynet” without thinking of the malevolent, self-aware artificial intelligence (AI) system in The Terminator movie franchise.
But there’s no connection other than the name and, in any case, real life is always more prosaic.
What we do know is that Skynet-1A was manufactured in the US by the now defunct Philco Ford aerospace company and put in space by a US Air Force Delta rocket.
“The first Skynet satellite revolutionised UK telecommunications capacity, permitting London to securely communicate with British forces as far away as Singapore. However, from a technological standpoint, Skynet-1A was more American than British since the United States both built and launched it,” remarked Dr Aaron Bateman in a recent paper on the history of the Skynet programme, which is now on its fifth generation.
This view is confirmed by Graham Davison who flew Skynet-1A in the early 70s from its UK operations centre at RAF Oakhanger in Hampshire.
“The Americans originally controlled the satellite in orbit. They tested all of our software against theirs, before then eventually handing over control to the RAF,” the long-retired engineer told me.
“In essence, there was dual control, but when or why Skynet-1A might have been handed back to the Americans, which seems likely – I’m afraid I can’t remember,” says Mr Davison, who is now in his 80s.
Sunnyvale Heritage Park MuseumRachel Hill, a PhD student from University College London, has also been scouring the National Archives.
Her readings have led her to one very reasonable possibility.
“A Skynet team from Oakhanger would go to the USAF satellite facility in Sunnyvale (colloquially known as the Blue Cube) and operate Skynet during ‘Oakout’. This was when control was temporarily transferred to the US while Oakhanger was down for essential maintenance. Perhaps the move could have happened then?” Ms Hill speculated.
The official, though incomplete, logs of Skynet-1A’s status suggest final commanding was left in the hands of the Americans when Oakhanger lost sight of the satellite in June 1977.
But however Skynet-1A then got shifted to its present position, it was ultimately allowed to die in an awkward place when really it should have been put in an “orbital graveyard”.
This refers to a region even higher in the sky where old space junk runs zero risk of running into active telecommunications satellites.
Graveyarding is now standard practice, but back in the 1970s no-one gave much thought to space sustainability.
AstroscaleAttitudes have since changed because the space domain is getting congested.
At 105 degrees West longitude, an active satellite might see a piece of junk come within 50km of its position up to four times a day.
That might sound like they’re nowhere near each other, but at the velocities these defunct objects move it’s starting to get a little too close for comfort.
The Ministry of Defence said Skynet-1A was constantly monitored by the UK’s National Space Operations Centre. Other satellite operators are informed if there’s likely to be a particularly close conjunction, in case they need to take evasive action.
Northrop GrummanUltimately, though, the British government may have to think about removing the old satellite to a safer location.
Technologies are being developed to grab junk left in space.
Already, the UK Space Agency is funding efforts to do this at lower altitudes, and the Americans and the Chinese have shown it’s possible to snare ageing hardware even in the kind of high orbit occupied by Skynet-1A.
“Pieces of space junk are like ticking time bombs,” observed Moriba Jah, a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
“We need to avoid what I call super-spreader events. When these things explode or something collides with them, it generates thousands of pieces of debris that then become a hazard to something else that we care about.”
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