Technologies

Amazon warehouse operations reportedly at a standstill amid AWS outage

Karaoke, anyone?

Amazon workers are reporting in social media posts that the company’s warehouses are at a standstill while it struggles to resolve an AWS outage, leaving workers without much to do but hang around or, apparently, sing karaoke. The outage also took down multiple major websites and apps for some people Tuesday.

The service, also called AWS, stores and serves up much of the internet, including websites and apps for Disney Plus, Robinhood, Barclays and Slack. Website outages were concentrated in East Coast cities including Washington, DC, and New York City, but Amazon’s internal systems appeared to be affected around the country, according to social media comments from dozens of people who say they work for the company.

Amazon didn’t respond to requests for comment on the AWS outage or its warehouse operations. Down Detector, which collects data on outages, showed a spike of more than 11,000 outage reports for AWS-run sites on Tuesday in the late morning hours East Coast time. While some progress has been made in lowering that number, the outages persisted hours later.

On an AWS status page for monitoring system activity, Amazon noted issues originating in a Virginia facility affecting its US-EAST-1 region. The problems appeared to be affecting multiple AWS products used by businesses to run their websites and apps.

The dashboard noted the company was troubleshooting shortly after reports came in. By evening, the company said it was still seeing some of its services «severely» affected. «Many services have already recovered,» the update said, «however we are working towards full recovery across services.»

On Reddit and Twitter, people who say they’re Amazon workers posted comments and videos about a complete halt of operations due to internal systems not functioning. Multiple workers wrote that they were singing karaoke or reading their phones while waiting for systems to come back online. Vice spoke to delivery companies that contract with Amazon and said their drivers were unable to log into Amazon systems to make deliveries Tuesday morning.

Down Detector also showed outage reports from dozens of services all originating at the time the AWS outage began. Included were Amazon itself, as well as its Ring, Prime Music, Alexa and Chime services. TicketMaster, Google, McDonald’s, Venmo, Cash App, and My Social Security, a portal for online accounts with the US Social Security Administration, were also among the services that all showed outages beginning around 11 a.m. Eastern Time.

Technologies

Honor’s Shimmering Magic V Flip 2 Has Arrived to Outshine Samsung’s Galaxy Flip

The flip foldable, releasing in China, includes a limited edition model co-designed by Jimmy Choo.

Honor has unveiled a new flip phone in China, and the company is billing it as, «the ultimate selfie device.» The Magic V Flip 2 includes an ultra-wide portrait mode, AI photography features and a playful, sparkly design.

The Magic V Flip 2 adds another device to Honor’s increasing lineup of foldable phones. So far, it’s only releasing the Magic V Flip 2 in China, starting on Aug. 28. It will sell for RMB 5,499 or about $766 USD.

The Magic V Flip2 appears to be geared toward influencers and fashionistas — a limited edition version of the new phone is co-designed by fashion icon Jimmy Choo and is, «inspired by the subtle shimmer of crystals.» It comes in deep sea blue and has a crushed stardust design, according to Honor’s press release.

Honor is also touting the phone’s 5,500mAh battery, which it says is the largest on the market for a flip phone. The also phone features a 200-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera and a 50 MP selfie camera. The Magic V Flip 2’s closest competition may be Samsung’s Galaxy Flip 7 FE, which is about $200 more expensive than the Magic V Flip 2.

Technologies

Silksong, Long-Awaited Hollow Knight Spinoff, Gets Release Date: Sept. 4

Announced in 2019, Team Cherry’s follow-up is coming sooner than expected, and it’s on Game Pass on Day 1.

Hollow Knight: Silksong is the follow-up, announced back in 2019, to one of the most beloved indie games of the last decade. In a special announcement video on Thursday, Australian developer Team Cherry revealed that the wait is almost over.

Silksong will be released on Sept. 4, according to the new trailer. The almost two-minute video reveals some of the new enemies and bosses in the upcoming spinoff and ends with the surprise release date.

Originally, Silksong was going to be a DLC for Hollow Knight. However, numerous delays resulted in it being pushed back again and again. Glimpses of the game would show up here and there over the years, but it was this year that it received the most attention from Nintendo as part of its Switch 2 lineup, and from Microsoft, which confirmed it would be available on Xbox Game Pass.

Hollow Knight: Silksong will be available on PC, Switch, Switch 2, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, PS4 and PS5. It will be available on Day 1 for Xbox Game Pass subscribers.

Technologies

PS5 Prices Go Up Today. Here’s How Much and Why

You can expect to pay more for a new PlayStation, thanks to «a challenging economic environment.»

Sony will increase the prices of its PlayStation 5 consoles in the US, starting today. This follows the trend of console manufacturers such as Microsoft and Nintendo raising prices for their hardware in response to tariffs.

The PlayStation-maker posted about the price change Wednesday. The jump in price is $50 more than the current price for each model.

The new prices are:

PlayStation 5: $500 to $550
PlayStation 5 Digital Edition: $450 to $500
PlayStation 5 Pro: $700 to $750

«Similar to many global businesses, we continue to navigate a challenging economic environment,» Sony said in a post about the price increase.

As of Thursday morning, retailers and Sony’s online store have yet to update the console prices. This jump in price also will likely affect recently released PS5 bundles such as the Astro Bot bundle and Fortnite Cobal bundle.

Sony says accessories have not been affected by the change and this cost hike only affects the US.

In May, Microsoft increased the price of the Xbox Series consoles and Nintendo hiked the original Switch console price and Switch 2 accessories this month.

While the companies didn’t point to the tariffs instituted by President Donald Trump as the reason for the hardware price jump, it would explain the trend in recent months.