Sony hit with a class action lawsuit for allegedly profiting from tariff-related price hikes


















Joby Aviation is kicking off 10 days of electric air taxi demo flights in New York City. Before you try to book one to bypass the city's awful traffic, Joby's aircrafts aren't taking customers yet. Instead, the company is trialing the air taxis in "real flight routes and real environments," as indicated in its press release.
With the first point-to-point flight of its electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft completed, Joby said that one of its electric air taxis made it from John F. Kennedy International Airport to NYC's heliports in Lower Manhattan and Midtown in less than 10 minutes. Unlike helicopters, Joby's CEO, JoeBen Bevirt, said this "quiet, zero operating emissions air taxi service" will better serve New Yorkers. These demo flights are part of Joby's participation in the eVTOL Integration Pilot Program, the Federal Aviation Administration's program to fast-track the commercial rollout of air taxis.
Joby said it's still in the final stages of securing FAA certification, but this latest campaign in NYC should propel its process forward, especially after having completed piloted demos in the San Francisco Bay Area in March. Joby was previously targeting to launch its air taxi service in 2025, but that goal has since been pushed back. The company's CEO said that Joby is planning to start passenger flights in New York, Texas and Florida as soon as the second half of 2026, according to Bloomberg.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/joby-aviation-is-demoing-10-minute-air-taxi-flights-from-jfk-to-manhattan-for-a-week-180247411.html?src=rss©
© Joby
OpenAI is opening up its partnership with Microsoft in the latest amendment to the major multi-year collaboration between the tech giants. The latest changes allow OpenAI to offer its latest AI models to other companies and through other cloud providers, stripping Microsoft of its exclusivity rights.
In a joint announcement posted on OpenAI and Microsoft's websites, Microsoft will still be OpenAI's primary cloud partner with the latest products shipping first on Azure, but OpenAI is now allowed to use any cloud provider. Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, posted on X that the company is "now able to make our products and services available across all clouds."
On top of that, Microsoft will still have a license for OpenAI's models and products through to 2032, but the license will no longer be exclusive. On the business side, Microsoft will no longer pay a revenue share to OpenAI, but OpenAI would still make revenue share payments to Microsoft until 2030, which will now be subject to a total cap.
The two companies have worked closely together since announcing a multiyear partnership in 2019. Microsoft and OpenAI have gone through several phases for its collaboration, but the two put out a joint statement in February of this year that still mentioned the exclusivity agreements. However, the latest update confirms that OpenAI can break exclusivity, with the companies arguing these changes are for "flexibility, certainty, and a focus on delivering the benefits of AI broadly."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/openai-breaks-out-of-exclusivity-agreements-in-its-partnership-with-microsoft-162829584.html?src=rss©
© Microsoft
In its quest to become an all-in-one app, Spotify is now breaking into the fitness app world by offering "guided workout experiences" and on-demand Peloton classes. Premium subscribers will get access to Peloton's library of more than 1,400 classes in the app, while both Free and Premium can browse curated playlists (they're listed under the genre "fitness.")
Spotify said the classes are primarily in English, but there are some options in Spanish and German. Like music and podcasts, Spotify lets you bounce between different devices for its fitness media, so you can start a video workout on your TV and switch to an audio-only version on your phone or smart speaker. Users can even download the classes for offline use.
The fitness category may feel like a sharp turn for Spotify, but the company said that nearly 70 percent of its Premium subscribers work out monthly and that fitness and workout content was one of the top use cases for its Prompted Playlist feature. Spotify has long been expanding its offerings outside of music, with its latest efforts giving users a way to buy physical books or create group chats.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/spotify-is-now-a-fitness-app-too-144037057.html?src=rss©
© Spotify