Google has fired a Cloud engineer who interrupted Barak Regev, the managing director of its business in Israel, during a speech at an Israeli tech event in New York, according to CNBC. "I'm a Google software engineer and I refuse to build technology that powers genocide or surveillance!" the engineer was seen and heard shouting in a video captured by freelance journalist Caroline Haskins that went viral online. While being dragged away by security — and amidst jeers from the audience — he continued talking and referenced Project Nimbus. That's the $1.2 billion contract Google and Amazon had won to supply AI and other advanced technologies to the Israeli military.
Last year, a group of Google employees published an open letter urging the company to cancel Project Nimbus, in addition to calling out the "hate, abuse and retaliation" Arab, Muslim and Palestinian workers are getting within the company. "Project Nimbus puts Palestinian community members in danger! I refuse to build technology that is gonna be used for cloud apartheid," the engineer said. After he was removed from the venue, Regev told the audience that "[p]art of the privilege of working in a company, which represents democratic values is giving the stage for different opinions." He ended his speech after a second protester interrupted and accused Google of being complicit in genocide.
A Google Cloud engineer just interrupted Google Israel managing director Barak Regev at Israeli tech industry conference MindTheTech this morning in NY.
“I refuse to build technology that powers genocide!” he yelled, referring to Google’s Project Nimbus contract pic.twitter.com/vM9mMFlJRS
The incident took place during the MindTheTech conference in New York. Its theme for the year was apparently "Stand With Israeli Tech," because investments in Israel slowed down after the October 7 Hamas attacks. Haskins wrote a detailed account of what she witnessed at the event, but she wasn't able to stay until it wrapped up, because she was also thrown out by security.
The Google engineer who interrupted the event told Haskins that he wanted "other Google Cloud engineers to know that this is what engineering looks like — is standing in solidarity with the communities affected by your work." He spoke to the journalist anonymously to avoid professional repercussions, but Google clearly found out who he was. A Google spokesperson told CNBC that he was fired for "interfering with an official company-sponsored event." They also told the news organization that his "behavior is not okay, regardless of the issue" and that the "employee was terminated for violating [Google's] policies."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-fires-engineer-who-protested-at-a-company-sponsored-israeli-tech-conference-090430890.html?src=rss
Sam Altman is back on the board of OpenAI, nearly four months after the CEO was ousted, and quickly reinstated, from the company he founded. Although Altman had returned as the AI company’s top executive in November, a temporary board oversaw his return and the subsequent investigation into his conduct.
That investigation is now complete, according to the company, which added three new members to its board of directors. The additions include: Instacart CEO and former Meta executive Fidji Simo, former Sony executive Nicole Seligman and Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, economist Larry Summers and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, who served on the temporary three-seat board, will remain in their positions with Taylor continuing as chair.
The announcement caps off a tumultuous several months for the AI company, which was rocked by Altman’s abrupt ouster last fall.
On Friday, OpenAI also published a summary of the findings from WilmerHale, a law firm that the company’s board retained in December 2023 to conduct an independent investigation into the events that led to Altman’s firing. Despite that, however, we’re no closer to finding out exactly why Altman, who rejoined the company as CEO within five days, was fired to begin with.
“WilmerHale [found] that the prior Board’s decision did not arise out of concerns regarding product safety or security, the pace of development, OpenAI’s finances, or its statements to investors, customers, or business partners,” the summary said. “Instead, it was a consequence of a breakdown in the relationship and loss of trust between the prior Board and Mr. Altman.” WilmerHale also concluded that OpenAI’s previous board fired Altman abruptly without giving notice to “key stakeholders”, and without giving Altman an opportunity to respond to its concerns.
To come to this conclusion, the firm reviewed more than 30,000 documents and conducted dozens of interviews with OpenAI staffers including previous board members over the last few months.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sam-altman-is-back-on-the-openai-board-we-still-dont-know-why-he-was-fired-002358008.html?src=rss
Sam Altman, CEO of Microsoft-backed OpenAI and ChatGPT creator takes part in a talk at Tel Aviv University in Tel Aviv, Israel June 5, 2023. REUTERS/Amir Cohen
TikTok’s future is looking increasingly uncertain as support grows for a new bill that would force the company to sell itself or face a ban in the United States. Now, President Joe Biden has come out in support of the measure, one day after it cleared its first legislative hurdle in the House.
"If they pass it, I'll sign it,” he said, in remarks reported by CBS News. The bill, called the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” which was introduced earlier this week, would give TikTok a six-month window to divest itself from parent company ByteDance or face an app store-level ban in the US. Meanwhile, Republicans in the House of Representatives could bring the bill to a floor vote as early as Wednesday, Semaforreported.
TikTok has said the bill is a thinly-veiled effort to force a “total ban” of its app. "This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States," the company said in a statement earlier this week. "The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression. This will damage millions of businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country.”
The company has also encouraged its millions of users to oppose the measure. On Thursday, ahead of the committee vote on the bill, the app sent push notifications prompting users to call their representatives and ask them to oppose the legislation. The notifications reportedly led to a flood of calls in many Congressional offices as staffers fielded hundreds of calls from teens.
Notably, the bill has another prominent opponent: former President Donald Trump. Though Trump also sought to force a sale of TikTok to a US company during his time in office, the former president said he no longer believes the app should be banned. “If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Though clearing the House would be significant milestone for the bill, it’s unclear where the Senate stands on it. As Semafor points out, some prominent senators have been a bit more cautious in their comments about whether they would support the legislation. At a recent Senate hearing about child safety, several senators pressed TikTok CEO Shou Chew on his own citizenship (he's Singaporean) as well as the app’s ties to China and the practices of its parent company ByteDance.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/joe-biden-says-he-would-sign-bill-that-would-force-a-sale-or-ban-of-tiktok-232221156.html?src=rss
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 07: WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 07: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address during a joint meeting of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol on March 07, 2024 in Washington, DC. This is Biden’s last State of the Union address before the general election this coming November. Biden was joined by Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA). (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Microsoft appears to have blocked several prompts in its Copilot tool that led the generative AI tool to spit out violent, sexual and other illicit images. The changes seem to have been implemented just after an engineer at the company wrote to the Federal Trade Commission to lay out severe concerns he had with Microsoft's GAI tech.
When entering terms such as “pro choice,” “four twenty” (a weed reference) or “pro life,” Copilot now displays a message saying those prompts are blocked. It warns that repeated policy violations could lead to a user being suspended, according to CNBC.
Users were also reportedly able to enter prompts related to children playing with assault rifles until earlier this week. Those who try to input such a prompt now may be told that doing so violates Copilot’s ethical principles as well as Microsoft’s policies. “Please do not ask me to do anything that may harm or offend others,” Copilot reportedly says in response. However, CNBC found that it was still possible to generate violent imagery through prompts such as “car accident,” while users can still convince the AI to create images of Disney characters and other copyrighted works.
Microsoft engineer Shane Jones has been sounding the alarm for months about the kinds of images Microsoft's OpenAI-powered systems were generating. He had been testing Copilot Designer since December and determined that it output images that violated Microsoft's responsible AI principles even while using relatively benign prompts. For instance, he found that the prompt “pro-choice" led to the AI creating images of things like demons eating infants and Darth Vader holding a drill to a baby's head. He wrote to the FTC and Microsoft's board of directors about his concerns this week.
“We are continuously monitoring, making adjustments and putting additional controls in place to further strengthen our safety filters and mitigate misuse of the system," Microsoft told CNBC regarding the Copilot prompt bans.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsofts-copilot-now-blocks-some-prompts-that-generated-violent-and-sexual-images-213859041.html?src=rss
FILE - A Copilot page showing the incorporation of AI technology is shown in London, Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024. A Microsoft engineer is sounding an alarm Wednesday, March 6, 2024, about offensive and harmful imagery he says is too easily made by the company’s artificial intelligence image-generator tool. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)
Rivian’s R2 reservations are off to a hot start. On Friday, CEO RJ Scaringe posted on X that the automaker had taken more than 68,000 reservations for the SUV in less than 24 hours. Amid alarmingly weakened demand for electric vehicles, perhaps there’s a latent interest in innovative EV companies when they aren’t helmed by a conflict magnet with a fixation on baseless conspiracy theories and the supposed online “rights” of Neo-Nazis.
Rivian’s 68,000 reservations hold up well against its most high-profile competitors. It took Ford about three weeks to get 100,000 pre-orders for the F-150 Lightning. Tesla’s Cybertruck got 250,000 reservations in less than a week. To be fair, reserving a Rivian R2 only requires a $100 deposit the same as the Cybertruck and F-150 Lightning.Customers plunking down a Benjamin to hold one have no obligation to pay the remaining $44,900 (and up) when the vehicle finally arrives in 2026, and even if they intend to buy one now, that’s plenty of time to change their minds.
You could argue that — like with Tesla and Ford — Rivian chose the low deposit to build hype, knowing full well that many pre-order customers won’t follow through. But it also helps that Rivian’s event on Thursday did everything the company needed. The R2 looks “quite fetching,” as Engadget’s Lawrence Bonk pointed out. On the inside, it has sleek and subtle details like two glove boxes, fold-down rear and front seats, a slide-out cargo floor and dual scroll wheels with dynamic haptic feedback on the steering wheel. It also has a 300-mile minimum range and a $45,000 starting price, which doesn't hurt.
Overwhelmed by the wonderful response to our new vehicles: R2, R3 and R3X.
In less than 24 hours, we’ve taken more than 68,000 R2 reservations. We are thrilled to see this vehicle resonate so strongly with our community! pic.twitter.com/tEIBhwlJQC
And, of course, the surprise “One more thing”-style reveal of the cheaper, sportier and more compact R3 and R3X could help provide a halo effect for the company when it desperately needs to build excitement around its brand. In February, Rivian announced that it would lay off 10 percent of its salaried workers, and this week, it cut 100 employees at its Illinois factory. Still, the EV market could use a new “hero.” I have no idea if Rivian or its CEO, RJ Scaringe, has potential to be the face of the industry. But Elon Musk, its current poster boy, is a lightning rod for unnecessary turmoil.
In a survey of Americans conducted by The Harris Poll late last year, 45 percent of respondents said they had a lower opinion of EVs “because of the actions of people associated with them.” (I’m pretty sure they didn’t mean Ford’s Doug Field or GM’s Mary Barra.)
Perhaps Rivian’s impressive showing reveals at least some Americans have an appetite for an EV maker that’s neither a traditional auto company nor one helmed by someone who, at times, seems more interested in behaving like a teenage contrarian than a responsible adult serving as the public face of an industry the world desperately needs to grow up — and get people excited about driving electric vehicles — as climate change begins to ravage the planet.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/rivians-r2-pre-order-numbers-hint-at-pent-up-demand-for-musk-free-ev-innovation-211755052.html?src=rss
Chevrolet is resuming sales of the 2024 Chevy Blazer EV after pulling the car last year following reports of major software issues, as indicated by Car and Driver. The company says the malfunctions have been patched, thanks to “significant software updates.” To entice wary consumers back into the fold, Chevy has slashed prices on the vehicle. The sticker price has been reduced by $5,600 to $6,500, depending on the trim.
Here’s how that breaks down. The Blazer EV LT AWD now starts at $50,195, instead of $56,715. The RS AWD now sells for $54,595, down from the original MSRP of $60,215. Finally, the RS RWD goes for $56,170, down from $61,790. These prices all include destination charges.
Also, the 2024 Blazer EV line is eligible for that $7,500 federal tax credit. This lowers the price of the LT AWD to just $42,695 and can now be applied directly at the dealership, so buyers don’t have to wait for a rebate check. If that’s still too rich for your blood, the Blazer LT FWD EV is still slated for release later this year. Chevrolet says it’ll start “under $50,000”, though exact pricing has yet to be revealed. If Chevy follows through with that pricing promise and it qualifies for the full tax credit, we could be looking at a real budget-friendly contender in the EV space.
However, the EV Blazer line has experienced months of bad press following last year’s software malfunctions, which involved everything from drive motor control failures to glitchy and blank infotainment screens. Who knows if the price cuts will be enough for people to forget that embarrassment. GM has said that it’ll be instituting these software fixes to other EVs under its umbrella, according to The Verge. Chevrolet’s parent company also owns Cadillac, GMC and Buick.
One thing is for sure. Despite proclamations that the EV industry is going the way of the dodo, there’s still a whole lot of curious consumers out there. Manufacturer Rivian made a huge splash by announcing a trio of new vehicles this week, racking up over 68,000 preorders in under a day.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-chevy-blazer-ev-is-back-on-sale-with-functioning-software-and-a-big-price-drop-190245222.html?src=rss
Apple has reversed course on its decision to ban Epic Games' developer account after it emerged European Union officials were looking into the issue. The about turn means that Epic will be able to bring its own app store to iPhones and iPads in the EU. The publisher will also be able to more easily bring Fortnite back to those devices in the bloc, nearly four years after Apple kicked the game out of the App Store over an in-app purchases battle (a decision that spurred a drawn-out legal tussle between the two sides).
"Following conversations with Epic, they have committed to follow the rules, including our DMA [Digital Markets Act] policies," an Apple spokesperson told Engadget. "As a result, Epic Sweden AB has been permitted to re-sign the developer agreement and accepted into the Apple Developer Program."
"Apple has told us and committed to the European Commission that they will reinstate our developer account," Epic wrote in an updated blog post. "This sends a strong signal to developers that the European Commission will act swiftly to enforce the Digital Markets Act and hold gatekeepers accountable. We are moving forward as planned to launch the Epic Games Store and bring Fortnite back to iOS in Europe. Onward!"
Apple killed Epic's developer account earlier this week, claiming that Epic was unlikely to abide by the related contractual agreements. Its lawyers described Epic as "verifiably untrustworthy."
The sudden about face surely has nothing to do with reports that EU regulators planned to question Apple over the ban. Epic claimed the decision was a "serious violation of the DMA." Under that law, which just came into effect, Apple is required to allow third-party app stores on iOS in the EU. However, Apple is still forcing companies that want to have their own app marketplace on iPhone to abide by its rules.
Also this week, the EU fined Apple almost $2 billion for suppressing third-party music streaming apps on the App Store by preventing them from telling users that they could subscribe to their services elsewhere for a lower cost than if they signed up through iOS. This was the first fine the EU has given Apple, and the bloc's third-largest financial penalty ever. Apple is appealing the fine.
Given the even heftier penalties that companies face for failing to comply with the DMA — up to 10 percent of their annual revenue — and the EU showing it's ready to wield its power when necessary, it's not too surprising that Apple backed down from its latest scrap with Epic. Indeed, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said Apple backtracked after "a swift inquiry by the European Commission."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-reinstates-epics-developer-account-two-days-after-banning-it-184118270.html?src=rss
FILE - An Apple logo adorns the facade of the downtown Brooklyn Apple store in New York, Saturday, March 14, 2020. European Union regulators said they want to question Apple over accusations that it blocked video game company Epic Games from setting up its own app store, in a possible violation of digital rules that took effect in the 27-nation bloc Thursday, March 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-amazon-fire-tv-stick-4k-max-is-back-down-to-40-plus-the-rest-of-this-weeks-best-tech-deals-173046390.html?src=rss
Russian hackers keep trying to infiltrate Microsoft, the company revealed in a blog post. These hacks follow a similar incident from November of last year, in which state-sponsored agents obtained the emails of Microsoft’s senior level managers. An internal investigation led by Microsoft identified the hackers in both instances as a Russian group called Midnight Blizzard.
It looks like Midnight Blizzard has gotten bolder in its approach. Last year’s attack seemed to prioritize the collection of email addresses, but this most recent attack finds the group repeatedly attempting to breach the company’s systems and gain access to source code. Microsoft has filed an incident report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
We don’t know exactly what these hackers want, but Microsoft said they are likely using email addresses acquired during November’s attack to help gain access to internal systems. Midnight Blizzard “may be using the information it has obtained to accumulate a picture of areas towhich led to a breach of government networks. attack and enhance its ability to do so,” the company wrote. I know one thing. They had better leave Clippy alone.
Midnight Blizzard is believed to work directly for Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and is said to operate at the behest of Vladimir Putin. The group is likely behind 2016’s hack of the Democratic National Committee and 2020’s hack of the software company SolarWinds, which led to a breach of government networks.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/russian-state-sponsored-hackers-keep-trying-to-infiltrate-microsoft-162706062.html?src=rss
As is always the case between seasons, Epic Games took Fortniteoffline early on Friday to perform some maintenance and get the game ready for all the new stuff fans are about to enjoy. While the downtime typically lasts a few hours, Epic has encountered a problem that's forcing it to delay the start of Chapter 5 Season 2.
"Hey everyone, we encountered an unexpected issue during our maintenance and we need to extend downtime at least 8 additional hours," a 9:14AM ET post on the Fortnite Status X account read. "We apologize for making everyone wait longer than usual to drop into Chapter 5 Season 2 of Battle Royale. The team is working through this as quickly as possible, and we’ll provide another update when we have more info."
Epic provided an update at 4PM, letting fans know that work to bring the game back online was ongoing. "Players will be able to pre-download an updated version of v29.00 in approximately 5 hours," it said. "We’re grateful for your patience and can’t wait for everyone to be able to jump in." That means players won't be able to hop into the new season until at least 9PM, meaning Fortnite will have been offline for around 18 hours.
We’re continuing the work to bring Fortnite back online. Players will be able to pre-download an updated version of v29.00 in approximately 5 hours.
We’re grateful for your patience and can’t wait for everyone to be able to jump in. ⚡💛 pic.twitter.com/lcresJjEuc
The delay is a bit of a pity as the new season looks pretty compelling. It's called Myths and Mortals and it's focused on Greek gods. Along with earning skins for the likes of Aphrodite, Medusa and Poseidon through the battle pass, you can wield mythical powers such as Zeus' lightning bolts and the Wings of Icarus. Epic has added some intriguing new areas to the island as well, including Mount Olympus and Hades' Underworld. A spooky-looking version of the River Styx, which is guarded by Cerberus, leads up to the latter.
Update 3/8 4:40PM ET: Added more details about how long the technical issues are taking to resolve.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fortnites-new-season-is-delayed-due-to-tech-issues-161538098.html?src=rss
Greek gods Artemis, Zeus and Hades are depicted holding firearms and a chain-like weapon in Fortnite. The background is split between The Underworld and Mount Olympus.
Yes, you can get a good laptop without spending thousands of dollars. Not everyone wants (or needs) to spend a boatload on their next notebook, and depending on how you plan on using it, you might be better off with a cheap laptop anyway. As with most affordable tech, the key in getting the right machine for you is understanding what you need your laptop to do and the sacrifices you can make to save a bit of cash. Best of all, you may find that you don’t need to sacrifice as much as you thought to get a good laptop at a great price. We’ve tested a bunch of budget-friendly laptops to find our top picks and gather buying advice that can guide you to the right machine for you.
What to look for in a budget laptop
First, we at Engadget consider anything under $1,000 to be “budget” in the laptop space. The reason for this is twofold: even the most affordable flagship laptops typically start at $1,000 or more, and if you go dramatically lower than that (say, $500 or less), that’s where you’ll really start to see compromises in performance. You’ll typically find the best balance of power and price in the $500 to $1,000 range. But in this guide, we’ll cover top picks at a wide range of prices — there are a number of excellent options on the low and high end of the budget spectrum.
Arguably the biggest thing to look for in a cheap laptop is a decent spec sheet. You might be able to find configuration options with the latest generation CPU chipsets, or you may have to go for one that has a slightly older processor. We recommend trying to find a notebook with the most up-to-date internals as possible, but know that if you pick a machine with a CPU that’s one generation behind, it probably will not significantly affect performance.
Along with processors, you should also consider the amount of memory and storage you need in a daily driver. For the former, we recommend laptops with at least 8GB of RAM; anything with less than that will have a hard time multitasking and managing all those browser tabs. The latter is a bit more personal: how much onboard storage you need really depends on how many apps, files, photos, documents and more you will save locally. As a general rule of thumb, try to go for a laptop that has at least a 256GB SSD (this only goes for macOS and Windows machines, as Chromebooks are a bit different). That should give you enough space for programs and files, plus room for future operating system updates.
After determining the best performance you can get while sticking to your budget, it’s also worth examining a few different design aspects. We recommend picking a machine with a mostly metal body, a screen that has at least a 1080p resolution and a keyboard and trackpad area that’s relatively spacious. Any affordable laptop worth purchasing will have a built-in webcam, but most of them top out at 720p. A few of the latest models have 1080p webcams, but you may want to consider a standalone peripheral if you spend a ton of time on Zoom meetings.
Be sure to check out the port situation as well. Many laptops closer to $1,000 will have fewer ports than their more affordable counterparts (as counterintuitive as that may seem). You’ll find at least one or two USB-C ports on the newest machines, which means you may need a separate dongle if you frequently have to connect to SD cards.
A note about refurbished laptops
Refurbished laptops are another option to consider if you need a new machine and don’t want to spend a ton of money. Buying refurbished tech can be tricky if you’re unfamiliar with a brand’s or merchant’s policies surrounding what they classify as “refurbished.” But it’s not impossible — for laptops, we recommend going directly to the manufacturer for refurbished devices. Apple, Dell and Microsoft all have official refurbishment processes that their devices go through before they’re put back on the market that verifies the machines work properly and are in good condition. Third-party retailers like Amazon and Walmart also have their own refurbishment programs for laptops and other gadgets as well.
The best cheap laptops of 2024
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-budget-laptop-150038435.html?src=rss
Game design is a daring and dangerous endeavor for Niklas Åkerblad, who creates under the name El Huervo. When he describes the artistic process behind ULTROS, a neon-speckled platformer set in a demonic cosmic uterus, he talks about pushing against the sharp edges of introspection and sanity, drawing from wells of creativity buried deep in his psyche. It sounds like he could’ve slipped and fallen down any of those wells at any second, never to be seen again.
“I had a pretty rigorous discipline when it came to creating the world of ULTROS,” Åkerblad told Engadget. “It involves deep meditation while working and maintaining 100 percent focus to be able to know when harmony is achieved when working with such a dense flow of shapes and colors. It is almost impossible to cerebrally analyze this process, but it is rather something you have to feel, thus any external disturbance can greatly impact the process. It is perhaps not something I recommend others do without proper experience in creating visual art.”
Niklas Åkerblad
At the same time, Åkerblad is extremely practical about the business of making games. He’s been in the independent scene for years, and he’s enjoyed incredible success as the collaborator who provided the cover art and other assets for Hotline Miami and its sequel. You know the vibe — grizzled but radiant, with the threat of violence in every other pixel. He also composed a handful of songs for those games, including “Daisuke” and “Rust,” and he went on to develop else Heart.Break(), a 3D adventure set in a digital city of hackers, artists and activists that implemented programming as a core mechanic. Else Heart.Break() came out in 2015 and was a finalist at the Independent Games Festival that year.
His latest project, ULTROS,is a 2D exploration of The Sarcophagus, a looping world in a black hole that cycles players through environments overrun by alien plant life and vicious demons. Every scene in ULTROS is packed with detail and brilliant color; the backgrounds are alive with monsters and organic machines. Streaks of black delineate the boundaries of walking paths, ceilings and platforms, contrasted against shifting rainbows of luminosity.
Hadoque
There’s a lot going on in ULTROS at any given moment, but the protagonist stands out with a glowing green helmet, vermilion cloak and an evolving arsenal of platforming gadgets. One lesson from else heartbreak() that Åkerblad fed into ULTROS was the idea that games can have way more fun with color palettes. ULTROS is purposefully packed with visual interest.
“I felt video games tend to not push the boundaries of colors so much beyond ‘green is good’ and ‘red is bad,’ and whatever metrics are used for loot tiers,” he said. “I feel that there is this misunderstanding in design that less is more, and my gut tells me it's the opposite and I worked very hard on ULTROS to prove my theory. Undoubtedly there will be those who do not agree with me, but I feel it has more to do with taste and personal or physical preferences than academic truth — if there is such a thing.”
As a cyclical Metroidvania title, ULTROS is completely different from Åkerblad’s previous projects, but it’s also undeniably El Huervo. Actually, in this case, it’s Hadoque — around 2017, Åkerblad and game director Mårten Bruggemann started building the prototype that would become ULTROS, eventually bringing in composer Oscar “Ratvader” Rydelius and Fe designer Hugo Bille. Other artists joined over the years, and they ended up calling themselves Hadoque, a loose organization of creators who could float in and out as a project called to them.
Hadoque
“We wanted our group to be associated with its own thing, so we decided on Hadoque,” Åkerblad said. “It's a cool name that looks a bit weird and it suits our vibe. Also, it allowed everyone to still have their own thing on the side and not be legally tied to anything if they wished to pursue other venues.”
El Huervo AB remains Åkerblad’s own corporate entity, useful for dealing with the bureaucratic aspects of making video games. Through El Huervo AB, Hadoque received backing in 2019 from the gaming fund Kowloon Nights, which has also supported titles like Sifu, Rollerdrome, We Are OFK, Sea of Stars, Spiritfarer and Tchia.
“El Huervo AB merely functions as a sort of bureaucratic condom, and Hadoque as a name to be used when a group of developers come together to make art as games,” Åkerblad said. “Sort of like a band name. People come and go, but the vision remains.”
ULTROS is a game about life, rebirth, aliens, monsters and peace, and it all plays out in a technicolor dreamscape of vicious creatures and gorgeous foliage. This is the palette of surreal sci-fi, to Åkerblad.
Hadoque
“The themes explored in ULTROS are of an existential and spiritual nature, and I find that surreal sci-fi is a good genre to explore these themes in, as it has a long tradition of doing so,” he said. “In this regard, Ursula K. Le Guin has been a huge inspiration. Hopefully, what we manage to evoke in players is a sense of introspection and comfort.”
Despite the amount of deep thought that he’s done about the nature of art, sci-fi and play, there’s no singular message that Åkerblad is trying to convey with ULTROS. Instead, he and the rest of the developers at Hadoque encourage players to identify their own journey as they cycle through The Sarcophagus. As Åkerblad put it:
“Please enjoy ULTROS any way you want and don't try to look for a ‘true’ interpretation, but rather find your own meaning. This goes for any art, I think, in general. Interpretation is purely subjective and I want to keep telling stories that invoke and allow this subjectivity to exist.”
ULTROS is available now on PlayStation 4, PS5, Steam and the Epic Games Store, published by Kepler Interactive.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ultros-and-the-palette-of-surreal-sci-fi-160023230.html?src=rss
Now might be a good time to snap up a PlayStation 5 if you've been on the fence and are particularly interested in playing Marvel's Spider-Man 2. A bundle of the console and the game is currently $50 off. The savings apply to both versions of the console, so you can snag an all-digital version of the PS5 with Spider-Man 2 for $400. If you'd prefer to have a standard edition of the console with a disc drive to perhaps watch Blu-ray movies on, the bundle will run you $450.
If you're a newcomer to the PlayStation ecosystem, Spider-Man 2 is an excellent way to get your collection of PS5 games started. It's one of our favorite games of last year and we felt it was both bigger and better than the first game in the series. If you'd prefer to play Marvel's Spider-Man and Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales before diving into the latest entry (both are great games too), you can check them out through the PlayStation Plus subscription service on the Extra and Premium tiers. However, some folks may now be joining the PlayStation club after already playing those two games on PC — I wouldn't want to wait too long for Spider-Man 2 to arrive on PC after first playing the previous entries there either.
When it comes to a modern gaming system, you can't go far wrong with the PS5. It's our pick for the best high-end gaming console, alongside the Xbox Series X/S.
It has a terrific library of exclusive games at this point and it can run pretty much any PS4 game too. Along with strong performance and excellent visuals, the PS5 has one killer feature that helps it stand out from the Xbox Series X/S: the DualSense controller. The haptic feedback and adaptive triggers (i.e. varying tension levels in the L2 and R2 buttons as you pull the string on a virtual bow or drag an object) help create a feeling of immersion Xbox consoles can't quite match yet.
For Engadget’s 20th anniversary, we put together a package of stories about the most pivotal pieces of technology from the past two decades, and mine was on Steam. It’s difficult to overstate how influential Steam is to PC gaming, or how rich the storefront has made Valve. As a private company with infinite piles of Steam cash, Valve has the freedom to ignore market pressure from consumers, creators and competitors. It famously has a flat hierarchy with no strict management structure, and developers are encouraged to follow their hearts.
This has all resulted in an incredibly rich studio that doesn’t produce much. It may be a tired joke that Valve can’t count to three in its games, but we’re not talking about Half-Life today. We’re talking about Valve’s history of buying exciting franchises and talented developers, playing with them for a while, and then forgetting they exist. Real fuckboi behavior — but it’s just how Valve does business.
Let’s take a look at Valve’s history of talent acquisition. One of its oldest franchises, Team Fortress, started as a Quake mod built by a small team in Australia, and Valve bought its developers and the rights to the game in 1998. Team Fortress 2 came out in 2007 and it received a few good years of updates and support. Today, the game has a devoted player base, but it’s riddled with bots and it’s unclear whether anyone at Valve is consistently working on TF2.
Portal began life as a student project called Narbacular Drop, and Valve hired its developers after seeing their demo in 2005. Portal officially came out in 2007, Portal 2 landed in 2011, and both were instant classics. There hasn’t been a whiff of another Portal game since, even though one of the series writers, Erik Wolpaw, really, really wants Valve to make Portal 3.
Of all the Valve franchises that have been left to wither and die, I miss Left 4 Dead the most. Turtle Rock started building Left 4 Dead in 2005, and by the time that came out in 2008, Valve had purchased the studio and its IP outright. Citing slow progress and poor communication, Turtle Rock left Valve before helping the company make Left 4 Dead 2 in 2009. Turtle Rock went on to release Evolve in 2015 and Black 4 Blood in 2021, and is now owned by Tencent. Meanwhile, I’m here, dreaming of that third Left 4 Dead game.
In 2010, Valve secured the rights to the Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients, and hired its lead developer. Dota 2 came out in 2013 and became an incredibly successful esports title. Now, eleven years later, Dota 2 players are complaining about a lack of support and communication from Valve, especially in comparison with games like League of Legends.
Counter-Strike has received the most attention from Valve in recent memory, with the rollout of Counter-Strike 2 late last year. The original Counter-Strike was a Half-Life mod, and Valve acquired it and its developers in 2000. Counter-Strike 2 is the fifth installment in the series, released 11 years after its predecessor, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. After this recent attention, it’s about time for Valve to start ignoring the Counter-Strike community again.
Valve has quietly continued to make acquisitions. In 2018, Valve hired all 12 developers at Firewatch studio Campo Santo, who were at the time working on a very-rad-looking new game, In the Valley of Gods. This could turn out to be another spectacular, genre-defining franchise for Valve’s resume of acquired IP, but there have been no updates from that team in nearly six years. In April 2018, Campo Santo said they were still building In the Valley of Gods at Valve, and promised regular blog posts and quarterly reviews. And then, nothing.
Matt Wood worked at Valve for 17 years, where he helped build Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Portal 2, CS:GO and both episodes of Half-Life 2. He left in 2019 and is now preparing to release his first independent game, Little Kitty, Big City. Wood told me in 2023 that Valve was “sitting on their laurels a little bit, and it’s like they weren’t really challenging themselves, taking risks or doing anything. Steam’s making a lot of money so they don’t really have to.”
Steam’s unwavering success has helped turn Valve into a senior resort community for computer science nerds, where game developers go to live out their final years surrounded by fantastic amenities, tinkering and unsupervised. It’s a lovely scenario. At least developers there aren’t getting laid off — and I mean that sincerely. Steam is a great service, and Valve seems at least temporarily committed to the Steam Deck hardware, which is very cool. Still, I miss the games that Valve devoured. I have to wonder if the developers there do, too.
Valve’s treatment of legendary franchises and developers raises questions about its commitment to… anything, including Steam. What happens if Valve decides to pivot, or sell, or Gabe Newell retires and blows everything up? What would happen if Steam shut down? As a service with native DRM, all of our games would instantly disappear. Just like all those game devs.
This week's news
Playdate update
Playdate is one of my favorite gaming gadgets of the past decade, not only because it has an incredibly cute crank, but also because its low-res screen belies a buffet of strange and beautiful experiences pushing the boundaries of traditional play. Panic held a showcase for new Playdate games last week and the headliner was Lucas Pope’s Mars After Midnight, which is coming out on March 12. Pope is the developer of Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn, two incredible games, and Mars After Midnight is set in the doorway of a crowded alien colony. Pope’s games were made for Playdate, this time literally.
Yuzu and Citra are gone
A week after Nintendo threatened to sue the creators of Yuzu into oblivion, the popular Switch emulator has been pulled off the market as part of a $2.4 million settlement. To make matters worse for the emulation community, the lead developer of Yuzu announced that they are also killing the 3DS emulator Citra. Both emulators were open-source, so it’s likely we’ll see Citra at least maintained by the broader community. It’s not clear whether anyone is willing to take on a fork of Yuzu and risk a lawsuit.
Bonus Content
Ghost of Tsushima will hit PC on May 16. It comes with all of its DLCs, and Sony says it’ll run on anything from high-end PCs to portable PC gaming devices.
Capcom's Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is apparently coming out this year on PC, PlayStation and Xbox. It debuted at Summer Game Fest and looks pretty unique.
Hadeshits iOS as a Netflix mobile exclusive on March 19. There are currently no plans for an Android version, which sucks for me.
Now Playing
I found This Bed We Made while doing research for the GLAAD Gaming report I covered a few weeks ago, and I’m incredibly pleased about it. This Bed We Made is an exploration and narrative-driven game set in a 1950s hotel, and it’s absolutely oozing drama and mystery. The writing is fantastic, the characters are complex, and there’s a thrilling storyline running through the whole thing. It’s available on PC and consoles now.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/valves-strange-history-of-talent-acquisitions--this-weeks-gaming-news-153020318.html?src=rss
Our review of Apple’s new MacBook Airs is out, and our esteemed reviewer Devindra Hardawar gave them both equal scores of 90. That’s a very good score! But I think Devindra’s underselling the 15-inch MacBook Air, which is the best laptop I’ve used in years. It deserves at least an extra point or two, in my humble opinion. For me, it’s a Goldilocks laptop, just right, and I think a lot of people would feel the same way if they managed to realize that a 13-inch laptop isn’t the end-all, be-all form factor that Apple has cast it as over the last decade.
For years now, the 13-inch Air has been Apple’s best laptop for most people, with an undoubtedly excellent combo of power and portability. After a total redesign in 2022, though, there’s not much to differentiate this year’s Air. That’s not bad in and of itself, as it’s a sign of a product that has matured over the years to near-perfection; this year’s model has a new chip to keep performance as fresh as possible.
At some point, due in large part to the MacBook Air’s decade-plus dominance, the 13-inch form factor became the de-facto laptop size for most people. Particularly those who wanted a Mac, because in the last ten years the 16-inch Macbook Pro (and the 15-inch model that preceded it) got way too expensive for most. As such, a large screen became a “pro” feature, not something most people could afford.
Fortunately, Apple addressed that last summer with the 15-inch MacBook Air, a computer that retains everything we like about the 13-inch model in a slightly larger and heavier package. In exchange for a little more cash and a slightly bulkier device, I got a bigger screen that I really appreciated when using the Air as my primary computer without a monitor. To me, 15 inches is the ideal laptop size. If you ever felt the same way but got priced out by Apple, you should definitely check out the 15-inch MacBook Air.
The 13-inch model will almost certainly remain the default option for most people — in part because it’s cheaper. And if you travel a lot, you’ll probably be happier with a smaller and lighter machine. But I believe that a lot of people would be much happier with the larger screen, because the 15-inch Air is still extremely thin and light. Devindra disagrees, noting the bigger laptop is a half-pound heavier, “more unwieldy” and a little “annoying to carry.” That’s fair — I didn’t have the same experience because I never used the 15-inch alongside the 13-inch. Instead, I compared it to Apple’s two MacBook Pro models, and the Air is lighter than both. In fact, it’s more than a pound lighter than the 16-inch MacBook Pro.
While I already believe that most people would be just as happy with the 15-inch Air, if not happier, there are a few use cases worth pointing out to hammer home the point. Devindra said the Air did pretty well playing some of the newer games available for it like Lies of P and Death Stranding. If you’re into games, whether they’re titles like those or more casual options from Apple Arcade, there’s little doubt they’re more fun on a larger display.
The 15-inch MacBook Air is also a great option for older users, or people with visual impairments (or, honestly, anyone who prefers bigger elements on their screen). When I use the 15-inch Air, I enjoy having more pixels to show more of whatever apps I’m using. But, you can just as easily scale up screen elements so you have the same canvas as the 13-inch Air, just on a greater scale. Naturally, the screens on the Air series aren’t as pixel-dense and sharp as the MacBook Pros, but they’re still lovely and won’t look overly pixelated if you decide to scale up the UI.
Forget about specific use cases, though. To put it simply, I’m a fan of the 15-inch Air. It just feels right — much more portable than a computer with a 15-inch display has any right to be. I don’t feel like I’m giving up screen size for something that’s easier to carry around; instead, it’s a computer that I can take anywhere and not feel constrained while using it. Maybe I’m overestimating the appeal — you can just plug the 13-inch Air into a monitor at home to get a bigger screen and then have a smaller computer when you’re on the go. But for someone who likes the idea of a single computer that can work in any context, the 15-inch Air fits my bill.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/why-the-15-inch-m3-macbook-air-is-the-best-macbook-air-150020238.html?src=rss
Just as Engadget was hitting publish on its first posts, I was putting a freshly minted English degree to use working at an indie bookshop in Los Angeles. In seemingly unrelated news, Amazon had just reported its first profitable year after switching from selling books to selling “everything” four years before. (It still sold a lot of books.)
Our bookstore did a good job keeping shelves stocked with a balance of the more worthy popular hits and smaller, better fare. But we couldn’t have every book a customer might want, so we offered to order any in-print title. If a distributor had it, it’d take about a week to get in, longer if we had to go through the publisher. That seemed fine for most customers.
But sometimes “about a week” was too long. A few people came right out and said, “Nah, I’ll order it on Amazon.” In 2005, Amazon launched Prime, the membership program that, for $79 a year, gave customers unlimited two-day shipping on most orders. At launch, CEO Jeff Bezos called it “‘all-you-can-eat’ express shipping.” No one knew at the time how hungry the world was for Amazon’s brand of convenience. And now, nearly two decades later, we’ve seen the shifts that accommodate that buffet — in labor, retail and the entire customer experience.
Prime wasn’t an overnight success. It’s estimated that six years after launch, just four million households paid for the service. But 10 years later, in 2021, Bezos claimed it had accrued 200 million members worldwide. Outside of that milestone, Amazon hasn’t made its membership numbers public, but it’s likely the figure is higher now.
That shipping should be both free and fast has become an expectation, and no company has done more to alter the landscape of logistics than Amazon. On its own, the company operates over a hundred warehouses in the US, each ranging from 600,000 to four million square feet. Each one employs between 1,000 and 1,500 people, and an army of around 750,000 robots works alongside humans in many locations.
The company operates a fleet of cargo planes, is experimenting with drone deliveries and deploys thousands of delivery vans — though none of those Amazon-branded vans are driven by actual employees. Rather, separate companies, known as delivery service partners (DSP), subcontract drivers to operate those vans. Amazon employs 1.5 million people either full or part time (with one million in the US), but those figures don’t include independent contractors and temporary personnel. In addition to the DSP program, Amazon Flex lets individuals use their own cars to deliver smile-emblazoned packages to porches. The company outsources delivery to traditional providers too, relying on both UPS and the US Postal Service, the latter it has compelled to deliver packages on Sundays since 2013.
Such vast orchestration to deliver Stanley Quenchers and pimple patches faster than anyone has paid off. However, it’s hard to look at growth and revenue numbers without considering the human costs. Contracted drivers pee in bottles because meeting quotas leaves no time for bathroom breaks. Workers sustain serious injuries at automated warehouses. The company has been sued for retaliatory firing, intrusive employee surveillance practices and failure to follow COVID safety guidelines. Amazon again made the dirty dozen list in 2023 for workplace safety, according to the advocacy group National COSH. And while it has taken steps to improve, with better compensation, the company takes anti-union actions typical of a massive corporation, joining others in calling the National Labor Relations Board “unconstitutional.”
Apart from worker issues, Amazon’s dominance has made life harder for retail businesses in general, particularly the big chains. The Amazon Effect became shorthand for the mall-emptying squeeze of e-commerce on traditional retail. Even businesses that team up with Amazon don’t fare well. Third-party sellers on the site are subject to punitive measures and must contend with increasing fees, which sometimes put them out of business. Sellers who do perform well have seen products copied and sold by Amazon’s private label. Notable partnerships have had dismal results, such as when Borders outsourced its early web sales or the exclusivity deal with Toys ‘R’ Us. Of course, Borders no longer exists, and Toys ‘R’ Us filed for bankruptcy in 2017.
Trying to beat Amazon on speed and price is pointless. Joining them is unwise. So retailers compete in other ways. At the bookstore, we focused on our strengths: a varied, multi-talented staff who could size up a customer’s reading tastes and stick a good book in their hands. If someone came into our store circa 2005 and said they were into fantasy, there’s a good chance our book buyer would pass them a copy of George R.R. Martin’s latest, years before HBO had anything to do with it.
We had a curated ‘zine section and hosted live events with bestselling authors, cult magazine founders and local writers. But mostly, we capitalized on folks who wanted something more from their shopping experience than just speed and convenience, people who didn’t mind if it took a week to get a book, as long as it came with a little local community. Some just wanted to browse books while sitting under the tree (there’s a tree in the middle of the store), petting a cat (in my day, that was Lucy) and listening to what we felt were pretty wicked playlists.
Today, Skylight Books is still a force of creativity and verve in the Los Feliz neighborhood, and it has even expanded into an annex next door. In general, after the initial casualties from the retail apocalypse and COVID, independent bookstores are doing OK, with established names staying put and new stores opening. Elsewhere in the retail industry, big chains continue to close locations, but independent retail seems to be growing. Personally, I enjoy the new bakeries, brewpubs and bulk stores that have sprung up around the neighborhoods where I now live.
I can’t, as a commerce writer, ignore that a decent portion of my job directs readers to Amazon’s website. The company is playing a part in displaying the very words you’re reading, as Engadget’s site is facilitated by Amazon Web Services (AWS) through Yahoo’s cloud partnership. The company is one of the biggest on the planet, the second largest employer in the US and a good portion of every retail dollar spent in the US goes into Amazon’s revenue chest.
With its acquisition of Whole Foods’ 500+ stores, Amazon is doing fine in the physical retail sector. Yet the company doesn’t tend to win when it tries to fabricate other retail experiences. Amazon Books, Amazon Style and Amazon 4-Star were all small-scale retail spaces that tried to leverage Amazon’s brand, massive trove of buyer data and cutting-edge retail technology. At their peak, those stores comprised about 70 brick-and-mortar locations, all of which are now closed. The cashierless Amazon Go still has more than 20 locations in the US, but Amazon shut down nine of them in 2023 and hasn’t announced plans to open more.
Those misfires could be statistically inevitable; more than half of new businesses go under before they hit the 10-year mark. But perhaps those stores failed because, as physical spaces, they couldn’t capitalize on Amazon’s primary strength: zero-effort buying. Shopping at Amazon.com isn’t particularly pleasant. The website is cluttered and confusing. Suspect products and fake reviews erode shoppers’ trust. It isn’t even the cheapest place to shop. But that 1-Click™ buy button and turbo delivery makes stuff appear on our doorsteps like it slid there on greased rails.
Yet when people get up the energy to leave their homes, they may hope for more: human experiences created by people from their own neighborhoods who do what they do out of passion, not because market data indicates dollars to be had in a given sector. With its trillion-dollar valuation, Amazon isn’t going anywhere, but under its massive shadow, there’s still room for businesses that focus on the human element of commercial transactions, places where people might want to spend some of the time Amazon’s speed and convenience may have saved them.
To celebrate Engadget's 20th anniversary, we're taking a look back at the products and services that have changed the industry since March 2, 2004.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-19-years-of-amazon-prime-has-satisfied-our-need-for-speed-141557261.html?src=rss
Apple's refreshed MacBook Air laptops are finally here, and they're toting shiny new M3 chips. This week, Cherlynn chats with Devindra about his review of the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air M3. They're faster, as we expected, but they're also not a huge leap over the M2 MacBook Air, which now starts at $999. (And we're sure you'll find some excellent refurbished and used deals soon.) No matter which one you pick, though, you're getting one of the most stunning ultraportable notebooks around. In other news, we discuss Apple's nearly $2 billion fine from the EU, Microsoft's upcoming Surface AI event and the death of Android apps on Windows 11.
Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!
Topics
Finally, the MacBook Air gets an M3 update – 0:41
EU fines Apple nearly $2 billion for “blocking” competing music apps – 15:27
iOS 17.4 brings third party app stores to the EU, podcast transcription for everyone – 20:18
Microsoft announces a Surface and AI event for later in March – 22:02
No more (Amazon App Store) Android apps in Windows – 27:49
Developer of Switch emulator Yuzu fined $2.4 million to settle suit with Nintendo – 39:19
Around Engadget: Sam Rutherford’s Nothing Phone 2 review – 46:17
It used to be difficult to find cheap wireless earbuds that weren't trash. Today, though, it's much less of a struggle to get something good enough without spending triple digits. And with headphone jacks all but extinct on most new smartphones, that should be the case. Still, some models are better than others. If you’re looking to upgrade, we’ve researched and tested more than a dozen wireless earbuds that cost less than $100 and sorted out our top picks below. While none of them beat our absolute favorite wireless earbuds in terms of sound quality or noise cancellation, the best can provide a surprisingly polished experience for a fraction of the price. This is a busy market with new contenders arriving all the time, but for now, here are the best budget wireless earbuds we’ve tried.
Honorable mentions
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-budget-wireless-earbuds-130028735.html?src=rss
Ever compared Cassidy to Spike Siegel or gunslinger Ashe to gun-toting Faye Valentine? Write this date down: March 12. That's when Blizzard is launching Overwatch 2's collaboration with legendary anime Cowboy Bebop, which will bring five skins based on the show to the game. The trailer released for the collaboration also shows the hacker Sombra dressed as her fellow hacker Ed, the Tank hero Wrecking Ball/Hammond as the data corgi Ein and the Samoan warrior Mauga as Jet Black.
Speaking of that trailer, it certainly looks and feels like Cowboy Bebop's opening animation — it even uses the same theme song. Clearly, this collaboration is looking to appeal to the anime's fans, though we wish it could've happened sooner, say during the show's 25th anniversary last year. Blizzard did launch an anime tie-up in 2023, but it was with Japanese superhero show One-Punch Man.
Wrecking Ball's Ein skin will be available for free to all players, but the other skins will be sold through the Overwatch 2 shop. The collaboration will also give you access to new emotes, highlight intros and other items you can buy. Blizzard will officially introduce each skin and item on March 11, perhaps so you'd at least have an idea of how much you're spending a day later.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/overwatch-2-will-let-you-dress-your-heroes-as-cowboy-bebop-characters-130022260.html?src=rss
Engadget’s resident laptop expert Devindra Hardawar put the 13- and 15-inch M3 MacBooks Air through their paces. Fundamentally, both are fantastic machines but probably lack some of the gosh-wow factor the M2 Airs had when they debuted in 2022. After all, the M2 heralded a new industrial design and far better internals, while the M3 is more of an iterative update. Think of it like the iPhone S-years, when a dramatic redesign (the iPhone 4, say) was followed by a more refined model (the 4S) the following year.
Consequently, reviewing the M3 is an exercise in spotting the small differences, like the faster Wi-Fi (6E), brighter display and quicker processing speed. Benchmarking saw both machines get out ahead of the M2, but you probably won’t notice if you’re using this machine casually. And Devindra’s clearly getting a kick out of being able to run games like Death Stranding on a fanless ultraportable. You can — and should — read on to find out if the M3 is a must-buy.
Steve Dent, who knows more about cameras than I know about literally anything, has been using Sony’s A6700 and is now ready to lay down his verdict. He’s never been too much of a fan of Sony’s 6000-series models, which he says aren’t as good looking or usable as Fujifilm’s alternatives. The A6700 is an attempt to remedy this situation, and Steve says it’s a far better camera than its predecessor. But is it good enough for him to want to use it as his daily driver? You’ll have to read on to find out.
Netflix is devolving into the very thing it sought to destroy. It’s been stepping into the live broadcast space for a while and yesterday announced it would air a live punch fight between two people with extensive Controversies and Legal Issues sections on their Wikipedia pages. Given the high-profile nature of the participants and, presumably, people’s desire to see one or both get punched in the face, it should be a massive event. And it’s going to be the sternest test of Netflix’s capacity to use the internet to deliver millions of simultaneous streams of live TV.
Engadget is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a series of articles looking back on the biggest changes in the tech world over that time. The wonderful Tim Stevens is in the spotlight today to talk about the Tesla Model S and his experiences when it debuted. It’s a tale of the car’s innovations, its highs, lows and how the EV industry has changed in the ensuing years.
The European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA) is officially in action, and the ramifications are coming out left and right. The latest development comes from Apple, which released a DMA Compliance Report outlining the changes required of them. These include immediate and upcoming steps, such as introducing a browser choice screen.
Before we get into Apple's changes, here's some quick background: The Digital Markets Act identifies "gatekeepers" such as Apple, Meta, and Amazon based on earnings and users. The law prohibits these companies from favoring their own platforms or forcing users to stay within their ecosystem. In line with that — when Apple users in the EU open Safari, they'll be prompted to choose a default browser from a list of options available in their area. Developers can also choose from different browsers — though they need to request and obtain different "entitlements." These updates will be reflected for anyone who has downloaded iOS 17.4.
Apple is also implementing steps to make its data more portable to outside systems, meaning an iOS user could import their data to an Android phone, for instance. "Apple is developing a solution that helps mobile operating system providers develop more user-friendly solutions to transfer data from an iPhone to a non-Apple phone," the statement reads. "Apple is also creating a browser switching solution for exporting and importing relevant browser data into another browser on the same device." The mobile operating system changes should go into effect by Fall 2025, while Apple aims to get the browser switches in effect by the end of 2024 or early 2025.
Throughout the Compliance Report, Apple lays out ways in which the company believes these shifts could harm users and developers. Apple states these risks include "new avenues for malware, fraud and scams, illicit and harmful content, and other privacy and security threats. These changes also compromise Apple's ability to detect, prevent, and take action against malicious apps on iOS and to support users impacted by issues with apps downloaded outside of the App Store." The company has introduced steps like Notarization for iOS apps, but claims they won't be fully effective.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-will-make-it-easier-for-eu-users-to-switch-to-android-and-delete-safari-113041250.html?src=rss
LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 11: A general exterior view of the Apple Store Brompton Road in Knightsbridge on December 11, 2023 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by John Keeble/Getty Images)
There have been plenty of Wordle clones even before The New York Timespurchased the real thing in 2022, to the point that they had become a common sight on app stores. It sounds like The Times has been trying to cull the numbers of Wordle knockoffs recently, though, and has been sending DMCA takedown notices to their developers. As 404 Media reports, the latest notice the news organization sent could take out not just the target game itself, but also thousands of other alternatives and spinoffs.
The Times' latest DMCA notice was filed against Chase Wackerfuss, the person behind a Wordle clone called "Reactle." In its notice, the publication said that GitHub must delete the infringing repository and the hundreds of forked repositories based on it. Wackerfuss already took down Reactle's GitHub page — he told 404 Media it wasn't worth getting into a legal battle with The New York Times and just deleted his repository. According to the publication, though, it was forked 1,900 times before it was removed and was used to create versions of Wordle in dozens of different languages, as well as spinoffs with various twists. Some of those spinoffs turned Wordle into crossword puzzles and two-player games, while others transformed it into guessing games that use emoji and other symbols instead of letters and words.
Based on the takedown request The Times sent to Reactle, the newspaper is claiming ownership of the name Wordle, as well as its mechanics. "The Times's Wordle copyright includes the unique elements of its immensely popular game, such as the 5x6 grid, green tiles to indicate correct guesses, yellow tiles to indicate the correct letter but the wrong place within the word, and the keyboard directly beneath the grid," the DMCA notice reportedly read. "This gameplay is copied exactly in the repository, and the owner instructs others how to knock off the game and create an identical word game." Seeing as Wordle has a pretty simple premise, though — I was easily able to create a simpler but similar word-guessing game when I took a basic programming course — this takedown request likely won't spell the end for its clones and alternatives.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-new-york-times-is-cracking-down-on-wordle-clones-100004668.html?src=rss
Wordle game displayed on a screen and Wordle game displayed on a phone screen are seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on July 20, 2023. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Rivian generally had a good day yesterday, launching the R2 SUV along with the surprise R3 crossover and dune buggy-esque R3X that were met with general acclaim. Buried in that press release, however, was the news that the automaker is halting production of its $5 billion Georgia plant in order to save money.
Instead of building the R2 in Georgia as originally planned, the company will start production of the electric SUV at its existing Normal, Illinois plant. "Beyond significantly reducing the amount of capital needed to bring R2 to market, the company believes this approach considerably reduces risk to the launch and associated ramp," the company said.
The move will also allow Rivian to bring the R2 to market sooner, in the first half of 2026, while saving the company $2.25 billion in capital spending in the short term. That's important since it has been burning through cash of late, according to recent reports.
Elliot Ross Studio
Of all the EV startups to come along of late, Rivian has been one of the most promising thanks to significant investments from Amazon, Ford and others. The company's electric R1T pickup and R1S SUV were also widely praised for their attractive designs, healthy range and more.
Ramping up an automotive startup is no easy feat, though, especially in a market that's been tough on EVs of late — with even stalwart Tesla feeling the pinch. It doesn't help that startup rivals like Fisker are having serious cash flow issues, as it may spook consumers wary of untested EV brands.
Rivian selected Georgia as the site for its second EV factory back in 2021, receiving up to $1.5 billion in state incentives. At the time, the company said it hoped to eventually produce 400,000 electric vehicles there annually. With plant changes, the Normal, Illinois facility will augment capacity to 215,000 units annually across R1T, R1S, EDV, RCV, and R2.
The Georgia location remains in the picture, but Rivian only said it construction would restart later. "Rivian’s Georgia plant remains an extremely important part of its strategy to scale production of R2 and R3," it said in a statement.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/rivian-is-halting-construction-of-its-5-billion-georgia-plant-to-save-money-082236810.html?src=rss
Journalists, creators and long-winded VCs on X now have a new way to be exhausting on main. X now allows verified organizations and Premium+ subscribers to publish long-form “Articles."
The feature adds a basic text-editing interface that includes embedded media and some text formatting options, like the ability to make bulleted lists. It also appears that articles can be longer than the 25,000-character limit currently in place for premium subscribers’ “longer posts” feature. According to my initial tests, I hit the character limit for articles at just over 100,000 characters or about 15,000 words.
Here’s what the editing interface looks like:
Screenshot via X
Notably, Twitter began working on longer form posts long before Elon Musk’s takeover of the company. The company showed off an early version, originally called “Notes” in 2022, as it looked to lure newsletter writers and other creators to the service. Musk confirmed last summer that the publishing tools were still in the works.
The rollout of publishing tools is notable as Musk has often been hostile to journalists on his platform. Last year, Musk directed a change to X’s recommendation algorithm so that links to newsletter platform Substack would not appear in users’ “For You” feeds, which has throttled many independent writers’ reach on the service. X also stripped headlines from news stories shared on the platform last fall (headlines eventually returned, in a much smaller font).
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/you-can-write-long-form-articles-on-x-if-you-pay-for-premium-005707599.html?src=rss
The little console that could, Playdate, is having its first sitewide games sale, just like its more-established rivals. Manufacturer Panic is holding the sale to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the online store, which is officially called the Playdate Catalog.
The discounts are noteworthy. If you happen to own a Playdate, you’ll find plenty to like here. The cute little synthesizer app Playmaker is on sale for $8, instead of $15, and the action RPG Under the Castle is on sale for $7, which is a discount of 30 percent. Many titles go much lower than this. The bizarre unicycle/coffee-acquisition sim A Balanced Brew is on sale for just $2 and the Adventure-esque dungeon crawler The Keyper is only a buck.
One of the key selling points of the Playdate is its abundance of indie games that you can’t play anywhere else, which this sale shows off in spades. However, there’s one big game missing from the sale. Lucas Pope’s Mars After Midnightdoesn’t come out until March 12, though the sale lasts until March 14, so maybe we’ll get a day-one discount.
For the uninitiated, the Playdate is a retro-styled portable console that resembles the original Nintendo Game Boy. It’s bright yellow and features a unique control mechanism in the form of a hand-powered crank. This crank is used in novel ways, like keeping the unicycler balanced in the aforementioned A Balanced Brew. It’s a gimmick, but a fun one.
Beyond the sale, new Playdate owners get 24 free games when purchasing the $200 console. These unlock on a week-by-week basis over 12 weeks. The console has technically been available for nearly two years, but there was an obscene waiting period as Panic worked to meet initial preorders. That’s gone now, so orders ship within a few days.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/playdate-is-having-a-sitewide-games-sale-like-a-real-grown-up-console-203552312.html?src=rss
TikTok is stepping up its efforts to fight a new bill that could force a ban of the app in the United States. The app has been alerting its millions of US users about the measure, which would force ByteDance to sell TikTok in order for the app to remain available in US app stores.
“TikTok is at risk of being shut down in the US,” the push notification says. “Call your representative now.” An in-app message then instructs users to “speak up now — before your government strips 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression.” It also provides users a shortcut to dial their representative’s office if they enter their zip code.
The push alerts are reportedly already having a dramatic effect. Politico reporter Olivia Beavers said that House staffers report their offices are being inundated with calls. One staffer said on X that “we're getting a lot of calls from high schoolers asking what a Congressman is.”
We're getting a lot of calls from high schoolers asking what a Congressman is.
Unfortunately for TikTok, their plan to stir up resistance to the bill may not be having the intended effect. The flood of calls may in fact be “backfiring,” according to Beavers, who says the response may be increasing support for the bill among members of Congress. In a post on X, Representative Mike Gallagher, who chairs the select committee that introduced the bill, said the push notifications were “interfering with the legislative process.”
The alerts come amid growing support for the measure, which was introduced earlier this week by members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. On Thursday, the bill cleared its first legislative hurdle with a unanimous vote, 50 - 0, by members of the Energy and Commerce Committee to advance the measure. President Joe Biden, whose administration has also sought to force a divestiture of TikTok, is reportedly supportive of the bill. As Punchbowl News notes, previous bills to ban TikTok have not had the backing of the White House.
If passed, the bill would give TikTok about six months to separate itself from ByteDance or else an app store ban would take effect. "This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States," TikTok said in a statement published after the vote in the House. "The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression. This will damage millions of businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country.”
Digital rights groups also oppose the measure. The ACLU has called it “unconstitutional,” while other groups say that comprehensive privacy legislation would be a more effective way to protect Americans’ data.
Update March 7, 2024, 3:52PM ET: This story has been updated to reflect the results of a vote by the House Energy and Commerce Committee and a statement from TikTok.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tiktok-is-encouraging-its-users-to-call-their-representatives-about-attempts-to-ban-the-app-202056111.html?src=rss
This photograph taken on March 7, 2024 in Nantes, shows the logo of Chinese social media platform TikTok. (Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP) (Photo by LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty Images)
The iRobot Roomba 694 is back on sale for $180 via Amazon, which is a savings of 35 percent or $95. This isn’t the lowest price ever for the well-regarded robovac, but it’s darned close. There likely won’t be a price drop this stark until Prime Day or the holidays.
The Roomba 694 isn’t one of the company’s flagship models, but it’s still a highly efficient design that excels with standard cleaning tasks. As a matter of fact, this robovac topped our list of the best budget robot vacuums. We loved the handy mobile app that helps people plan routes, schedule cleanings and perform basic maintenance tasks. We also enjoyed the powerful suction, which makes short work of pet hair, dust and debris.
The 694 will return to the charging base on its own, which is always nice, and it runs anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes on a single charge, depending on the flooring. This is a no-frills vacuum, however, so there isn’t a mopping feature or a large debris tank. It’s also somewhat larger than many of its siblings, so it could struggle to get underneath certain items of furniture.
This is part of a larger Amazon sale on iRobot devices, with discounts on just about every model the company makes. For instance, the high-end iRobot Roomba Combo j5+ is on sale for $500, a discount of $300. This machine can both vacuum and mop, and it’ll even self-empty debris into the included container.
Rivian officially revealed the R2 electric SUV during a livestream held Thursday afternoon. We knew the followup to the well-regarded R1 was coming, and we even got some leaked specs earlier this week, but now we’ve heard it from the electric horse’s mouth. The company also surprised view R3 and R3X, however, came as a complete surprise, harkening back to Steve Jobs and his famous "one more thing" conference enders.
As previously suspected, the R2 is a compact SUV that looks quite fetching. All versions of the five-seat electric vehicle get at least 300 miles per charge, thanks to newly-designed 4695 cell and a much larger battery pack that makes up a large portion of the bottom floor. Owners will also get plenty of refueling options. It comes with a NACS chargeport, so it'll work with Tesla Superchargers. The company's also building its own charging network, called the Rivian Adventure Network, with plans for 600 locations within a few years.
Rivian
The R2 has plenty of get up and go, with three motor layouts to choose from. There's a standard single-motor rear-wheel drive model, a dual-motor all-wheel model with motors in both the front and back and the beastly tri-motor version, which features two motors in back and one in front. That last model can go from zero to 60 in three seconds, though the metric likely shrinks when considering the other two versions.
There’s a robust infotainment center up front, though the layout of these digital elements are subject to change as we get closer to launch. Also up front? The R2 sports two gloveboxes, whereas the R1 line lacked even one. There's also two scroll wheels on the steering wheel, complete with dynamic haptic feedback. The car's self-driving features have gotten a major boost here, thanks to 11 cameras throughout and five radars, including a long-range front-facing radar.
Rivian
Prices start at $45,000 for the standard single-motor version, which is in line with what company CFO Claire McDonough has been promising. Though slightly smaller than the R1, the R2 is still pretty roomy. As previously stated, it fits five people and boasts an open-air design with quarter windows that pop out and a rear glass window that drops and opens. Seats on both rows fold flat, so owners should be able to transport longer-than-average gear like surfboards. Just like the R1 line, there's a roomy front truck, otherwise called a frunk, for additional storage. The R2 is available for preorders now, with deliveries starting in 2026.
Rivian
The R3, on the other hand, looks to be even more compact than its newly-announced sibling. It features a shorter wheelbase than the R2 and an overall tighter design. It'll also be available in three models, including single-motor, dual-motor and tri-motor versions. There's no range data available, but it does feature the same battery pack as the R2.
The R3 also includes some of the same open-air design features as the R2, with an automatic rear lift and a rear-facing glass window that pops open for storage. This window can adjust to multiple heights to accommodate oddly-shaped items. There's a pair of gloveboxes up front and an interior design that prioritizes sustainable materials.
Finally, there's the dune buggy-esque R3X. This is a high-performance vehicle, with only a tri-motor design available. It boasts a wider stance and more ground clearance than the R3. As a matter of fact, it doesn't really look like the R3 at all, with its "rugged and playful" interior made from cork and anodized metal, among other materials.
Rivian
Rivian hasn't announced any pricing or availability information on the R3 or R3X. It did, however, tease some forthcoming accessories for the company's entire fleet of vehicles. These include a tent that fastens to the roof, bike racks and additional rear storage options.
Now, the bad news. Rivian itself has been experiencing some issues. The company announced back in February that it would be laying off 10 percent of its salaried employees and job cuts have already started. The EV maker laid off around 100 employees at its Normal, IL factory this week.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/rivian-reveals-the-45000-r2-electric-suv-and-its-siblings-the-r3-and-r3x-185640727.html?src=rss
Microsoft is deepening its ties with the Ukrainian cloud gaming company Boosteroid. Beginning today, Xbox Game Pass subscribers (PC Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate) with a Boosteroid membership can stream Game Pass titles along with supported titles purchased through the Microsoft Store on Windows.
Boosteroid, founded in 2016 in Kyiv, Ukraine, said last year it had over four million users globally. In May 2023, Microsoft inked a 10-year deal with the company to try to convince antitrust regulators it would handle its Activision Blizzard acquisition responsibly. Around the same time, Microsoft struck similar decade-long deals with Nintendo and NVIDIA to bring Call Of Duty games to their platforms.
To stream Game Pass (or Microsoft Store) titles, install the Boosteroid app and sign in. Then, browse to the Library tab and select Xbox as a filter. Choose the game you want, click “Play” and log into your Microsoft account with an active PC Game Pass or Game Pass Ultimate membership and confirm.
Boosteroid is available on Windows, macOS, Android and ChromeOS. It also has beta apps for webOS and Android TV.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsofts-game-pass-now-supports-boosteroid-a-third-party-game-streaming-service-194437608.html?src=rss
Netflix has been experimenting with live sports over the last few months with golf and tennis exhibition events. The company has announced the biggest test for its livestreaming capabilities to date: a boxing match between YouTuber (and pro boxer) Jake Paul and former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.
The fight is going to be a spectacle for a number of reasons. Both fighters bring star power to the table. There's a 30-year age gap between them. Despite his 9-1 record, Paul can hardly be described as an elite fighter. While Tyson is regarded as one of the best heavyweights of all time, he retired 19 years ago and has only fought in two matches since then. Paul's second match was on the undercard of Tyson's last bout, which was against Roy Jones Jr. in 2020.
The battle will take place at the 80,000-capacity AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. It's bound to attract a decent audience through Netflix as well. Most major boxing matches are on pay per view, but Netflix's 260 million subscribers will be able to watch at no extra cost.
It’s JAKE PAUL vs. MIKE TYSON — yes, really! — in a LIVE BOXING event at AT&T Stadium you won’t want to miss. Airing live on Netflix Saturday, July 20 #PaulTysonpic.twitter.com/ULXVeCYeH6
Netflix hasn't released viewership figures for the Netflix Cup (its golf event) or the Netflix Slam (a recent tennis exhibition). Combat sports tend to deliver high viewership, though, suggesting that Netflix's infrastructure will have to handle more simultaneous streams than any of its other live events so far.
The company has dabbled with other live events over the last year or so, including a Chris Rock comedy special, the SAG Awards and a weekly cooking show with David Chang. However, the company has faced issues with livestreams in the past — it was forced to abandon plans for a live Love is Blind reunion due to technical issues.
Netflix has around nine months to make sure its livestreaming capabilities are in order before it embarks on its most ambitious sports (well, sports-adjacent) project yet. Starting in January, Netflix will be the home of WWE's live weekly shows in many markets, including the flagship program Raw in the US.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-real-fight-isnt-tyson-vs-paul--its-netflix-vs-its-livestreaming-infrastructure-190924232.html?src=rss
We’ve kicked off 2024 with a slew of new processors from Intel, NVIDIA and AMD, which means there should be plenty of refreshed laptops on the horizon. This year, the term you’ll probably hear the most is AI PCs, that is, computers with neural processors designed to speed up AI tasks. While it’s not necessary for you to buy a laptop just for the sake of AI this year, it’s a good thing to keep an eye on for future-proofing as more companies bring the likes of Microsoft’s Copilot or ChatGPT to their systems. Some notebooks even have dedicated Copilot buttons on the keyboard to make it easier to summon generative AI help.
Even if you’re willing to wait out the AI hype while you shop for your new laptop, there are still plenty of other specs to consider. Should you pay extra for more memory, or get a notebook with a larger screen? We've tested and reviewed dozens of the latest laptops, including Apple's latest M3 MacBook Air, to come up with top picks for the best laptops you can buy right now, along with buying advice that will hopefully help demystify the market.
What to consider before buying a laptop
Price
You probably have an idea of your budget, but just so you know, most modern laptops with top-of-the-line specs cost between $1,800 to $2,000 these days. That doesn’t mean you won’t find a good system for under $1,000 — a grand is the base price for a lot of premium 13-inch ultraportables, with chips like Intel’s Core i3 or i5 series. And if that’s too expensive, you’ll still have respectable options in the $600 to $800 range, but they might come with older, slower processors and dimmer screens. You could also consider configurations with AMD’s processors, which have become more reliable and speedy in recent years, while sometimes costing less. I’ve included our favorite budget-friendly model in this best laptop buying guide but we have a list of more-affordable laptop picks that you can check out as well.
Operating system: Apple, Windows or Chrome OS
After working out how much money you want to spend, your next decision is what operating system to choose. As expected, that’s slightly easier for people who prefer an Apple MacBook. Now that the company has brought its M-series chips to the whole lineup, with the Pro models sporting the third generation of those processors — your only real considerations are budget, screen size and how much power you need.
Over on Team Windows, however, the shift to ARM-based chips hasn’t been as smooth and it’s quite unlikely you’ll be considering one in 2024. Though Apple laptops have been able to bring huge increases in battery life while maintaining (and in some cases improving) performance with their own silicon, PC makers have been limited by Windows’ shortcomings. For now, it’s still safer to stick with an Intel or AMD processor.
As for whether you want a PC with a dedicated AI button on the keyboard, that depends on how often you see yourself using Microsoft’s CoPilot generative tools. Given we’re only just seeing the first slate of AI PCs, it would be wiser to wait out the hype and see what improvements might come over time.
Finally, if you don’t really need your laptop for a lot of complicated tasks and mostly want it for Netflix, shopping and Google Docs, it’s worth remembering there’s a third and fairly popular laptop operating system: Chrome OS. If you do most of your work in a browser, then a Chromebook might be good enough, and they’re usually more affordable, too.
Devindra Hardawar / Engadget
Connectivity
It’s worth pointing out that some recent models have done away with headphone jacks. While this doesn’t seem to be a prevalent trend yet, it’s a good reminder to check that a machine has all the connectors you need (otherwise, you'll have to spend more money on the necessary adapters). Most laptops in 2024 offer WiFi 6 or 6E and Bluetooth 5.0 or later, which should mean faster and more stable connections if you have compatible routers and devices. While 5G coverage is more widespread now, whether you need support for that depends on how much you travel and your need for constant connectivity sans-Wi-Fi.
Display size
Where you plan on taking your laptop also helps in deciding what size to get. Many companies launched new 14-inch machines in the last year, straddling the line between ultraportable and bulkier 15-inch laptops. For most people, a 14-inch screen is a great middle ground. But if you’re worried about weight and want a more portable laptop, a 12- or 13-inch model will be better. Those that want more powerful processors and larger displays will prefer 15- or 16-inch versions.
This Apple laptop is just a larger version of the 13-inch M3 MacBook Air. It's still quite portable at 3.3 pounds, and some will appreciating having just a tad more screen real estate all the time. Configuration options are the same as well; you can spec out the 15-inch Air with up to 24GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. But considering it starts off $200 more than the smaller model, it's primarily best for those who absolutely need a larger screen and are willing to pay for it.
FAQs
What is the average battery life of a laptop per charge?
Battery life will vary depending on the type of laptop you have and what you use it for. Gaming laptops have some of the shorter average battery lives in the notebook space because playing laborious titles causes battery to drain faster. You can expect between five and eight hours of life on a single charge with most gaming laptops, but don't be surprised if you actually get less use per charge if you're doing heavy things with it. As for regular laptops, you can expect roughly ten hours of life on the best models, but some will fall on the lower and higher ends of the spectrum.
What is the best storage capacity for a laptop?
There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to laptop storage. Most of the best laptops will have configurations with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB storage options, and we think most people will be served best by either of the two middle options: 256GB of 512GB. If you use your laptop to store tons of documents and files, or photos and videos, we recommend springing for extra built-in storage or investing in a portable SSD with which you can backup your most important files. It's also worth noting that Chromebooks tend to come with less built-in storage — 32GB, 64GB or 128GB — since Chrome OS encourages users to save their files in the cloud rather than on a device.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-laptops-120008636.html?src=rss
Leica's SL family has always been the most "mirrorless" looking of its cameras, offering pro photographers handling that's similar to rivals like Canon and Sony. That continues with the launch of the SL3, a 60-megapixel (MP) model that looks nothing like its famous rangefinder cameras, offering a new phase-detect autofocus system, 8K video capability and more.
The new model has the same sensor as the M11 rangefinder and Q3 compact models, but very much resembles the SL2 and tips the scale at a hefty 767 grams. It's also IP54-rated so you can shoot in weather conditions ranging from 14 to 104°F without worrying about dust, moisture etc.
Leica
The biggest change in the layout is a new dial on the left top (all the dials are blank as you can customize them any way you want). At the back, Leica moved the three key buttons (play, function and menu) to the right, and changed the power switch to a button.
The SL3 now has a new 3.2″ 2.3m-dot LCD, and unlike past models, it can tilt (but not swivel). The EVF has also been updated to a higher-resolution 5.76m-dot 0.78x OLED version. As for storage, it supports both CFexpress type B and SD UHS-II memory cards. It comes with a full-sized HDMI and USB-C charging ports, along with mic/headphone jacks.
Leica
The new sensor increases resolution from 47 MP on the SL2 up to 60 MP, a significant bump. It's likely similar to the sensor Sony uses on the A7R V, and supports a wide native ISO range from 50-100,000, with a claimed 15 stops of dynamic range.
It can shoot bursts up to 15fps, but more importantly, offers a new phase-detect AF system that's faster and more intelligent, according to the company. It combines phase detection, contrast and object autofocus for faster and more consistent performances. That includes face and eye detection, along with a new animal detection feature. It's also supposed to be better at tracking action, Leica says.
Leica
As for video, the SL3 can record internally in DCI 8K 8192 x 4320 at 30 fps and DCI 4K at up to 60p with a maximum bitrate of 600Mb/s. It can also record externally via the HDMI output, also at DCI 8K and DCI 4K up to 60fps. Those resolutions are all available in 10-bit with the choice of L-Log Rec. 2020 and HLG Rec. 2020. It supports ProRes recording, but only up to 1080p.
As you're probably expecting, the SL3 isn't cheap at $6,995, though it is significantly cheaper than the $9,000 M11. It's now available at B&H Photo Video and elsewhere.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/leicas-sl3-mirrorless-camera-offers-a-60-megapixel-sensor-and-8k-video-181501226.html?src=rss
Spotify said on Thursday it will raise its subscription prices in France in response to a new tax designed to support the nation’s music industry. The company wrote an open letter denouncing the tax, which France’s government passed in late 2023. The streaming service hasn’t yet said how high the price hike will be, other than teasing, “French users will now pay the highest subscriptions across the European Union.”
France’s CNM tax imposes a levy on music services that earn over 20 million euros ($21.9 million) in the country: Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer. (Apple Music and Deezer have opposed the tax but haven’t announced similar price hikes.) The companies pay the new 1.2 percent charge on all streaming revenue generated in the country. Social media companies licensing music, including TikTok and Facebook, are also subject to the tax. The fees will go to the nation’s Centre National de la Musique (CNM), a public institution supporting and promoting the French music industry.
Spotify’s initial response in December was to pull financial support from French music festivals Francofolies de la Rochelle and Printemps de Bourges. The company threatened to pull its services from Uruguay when a similar tax was announced there but ultimately backed down when the Uruguayan government said streaming services wouldn’t have to cover any costs.
Spotify hasn’t made similar threats to exit France, likely because the country is much more crucial to its bottom line. Instead, it’s waging a public pressure campaign, including the music service painting the tax as an unnecessary government money grab that only partially funds the music industry.
“This tax will generate approximately 15 million euros, when the CNM’s administrative budget (office fees, personnel, capital expenditure, media monitoring or professional training etc.) sits at 20.2 million euros,” the company wrote in the public letter. “Our concern is that possibly less than half of its overall 146.9 million euros budget will find its way toward effectively aiding music.”
Other than listing the CNM’s administrative budget, Spotify didn’t provide any evidence that the fees wouldn’t go toward aiding music.
Spotify’s revenue grew 16 percent year-over-year to €3.7 billion ($4.05 billion) in Q4 2023, in what it described as “a very strong quarter.” Its CEO sold $57.5 million in stock in February, following a $64 million stock sale in October 2023.
“As we have long said, we simply can’t absorb any additional taxes,” Spotify wrote. “Even after making the difficult decision to reduce our artist marketing budget and support of French music festivals — which is an essential vehicle for Spotify to continue to drive hundreds of millions of euros to the music industry — it still continues to impede our ability to operate in France. Accordingly, over the coming weeks and months, we’ll need to make changes to our price plan in France.”
Spotify says French subscribers will learn more about the price hike “in the coming weeks.”
Update, March 7, 2024, 3:08 PM ET: The story has been updated to attribute Spotify’s open letter to the company, not CEO Daniel Ek (as the previous version stated).
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spotify-is-mad-at-the-french-government-and-taking-it-out-on-users-175910647.html?src=rss
Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, speaks to reporters at a news conference on May 20, 2015 in New York. Streaming leader Spotify on Wednesday announced an entry into video and original content, hoping to expand its reach beyond music. Spotify, by far the largest company in the booming streaming industry, said it was updating its platform to support videos and would offer news and other non-music content provided by major media companies. AFP PHOTO/DON EMMERT (Photo by Don EMMERT / AFP) (Photo by DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images)
Ubisoft+ Classics is now available as a standalone subscription on PlayStation consoles. This is Ubisoft’s curated collection of its back catalog, letting PS4 and PS5 owners play Far Cry and Assassin’s Creed titles until the heat death of the universe. Subscribers can choose from more than 50 games going back more than a decade.
This isn’t a dumping ground for low-reviewed shovelware, as there are plenty of recent hits to choose from. Members can play the well-reviewed Assassin's Creed Valhalla, the squad shooter Rainbow Six Siege, the sidescrolling platformer Rayman Legends and the Giancarlo Esposito simulator Far Cry 6, among many others. All told, there are five Far Cry installments and a whopping 12 Assassin’s Creed games to pick from. The catalog also includes standalone titles like Immortals Fenyx Rising, Child of Light and Valiant Hearts: The Great War.
A subscription to Ubisoft+ Classics for PlayStation costs $8 per month on its own, though it’s still available as part of PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium. So this membership is for Ubisoft superfans who don’t want access to all of the other perks that a dedicated PS Plus membership provides. There must be a few people like that out there, right?
There’s also the Ubisoft+ Premium tier, which costs $18 per month. This pricier membership includes premium editions of the entire back catalog, in addition to day-one access to new releases, early access games, monthly rewards and more. Ubisoft+ Premium, however, is currently only available for Xbox, Amazon Luna and PC.
There is, though, a multiplayer elephant in the room. Games like Rainbow Six Siege aren’t really any fun without other people, but it looks like an Ubisoft+ Classics subscription only provides access to the games and not any online multiplayer component. For that, gamers would have to pony up for a PS Plus membership, which eliminates any of the savings from opting for Ubisoft+ Classics instead of PlayStation Plus Extra or Premium. We reached out to Ubisoft for clarification on this matter.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ubisoft-classics-is-now-available-as-a-standalone-subscription-on-playstation-consoles-173750071.html?src=rss
Amazon has released a full trailer for the live-action Fallout series that's coming to Prime Video soon. It's our most in-depth look yet at the show and early indications suggest that the creative team has captured the distinct blend of irreverence and violence that helped Bethesda's game series become so successful.
The clip focuses on Lucy (Ella Purnell), a young woman who emerges from a fallout bunker into what used to be Los Angeles, 200 years after a nuclear apocalypse. Lucy quickly discovers that life on the surface isn't quite as cushy as staying in a luxury vault. "Practically every person I've met up here has tried to kill me," she says, seconds before we see a robot attempt to harvest her organs.
The trailer (and the show) gets a helping hand from the otherworldly charm of Walton Goggins as a pitchman for living in a fallout shelter. His character somehow survives the apocalypse and is still around two centuries later, carving out a life as a mutated bounty hunter called The Ghoul. The trailer has a ton of other references to the games for fans to drink in.
Amazon also took the opportunity to reveal that Fallout will arrive on Prime Video on April 11, one day earlier than previously announced. You won't have to wait a week between episodes either, as the entire season will drop at once.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/prime-videos-latest-fallout-trailer-deftly-captures-the-tone-of-the-games-170210309.html?src=rss
Sony is so closely associated with full-frame mirrorless cameras that it’s easy to forget it also sells the A6000 APS-C lineup — particularly since the last one, the A6600, came out five long years ago in 2019. The flagship A6700 finally arrived last year, though, with a feature list that appeared to be worth the wait.
It’s the same price the A6600 was at launch four years ago, but addresses its predecessor’s main flaws by boosting resolution a bit and reducing rolling shutter. At the same time, it’s been likened to a mini-FX30 cinema camera as it has the same sensor and video capabilities.
I’ve never been a big fan of Sony’s A6000 series. But now that the A6700 has been out a while, I was keen to see if it lived up to some of the hype and how it compared to rival Canon and Fujifilm models. As you’ll see, it’s mostly good news with just a little bit of bad.
Body and handling
One of the things I’ve disliked about Sony’s APS-C bodies over the years is the usability and looks, especially compared to Fujifilm’s good-looking and easy-to-use models. I wouldn’t call the A6700 beautiful, but at least Sony has rectified the handling part.
The redesigned grip is larger and more comfortable, making it more comfortable to use over a full day. At the same time, Sony added a new control dial on the front, making the camera easier to use in manual or priority modes.
It includes a new dedicated photo, video and S&Q dial, letting you keep settings separate for each. Menus are a big step up too, as the A6700 uses the improved system from recent full-frame models. The only thing missing is a joystick, but the focus point can be adjusted using the d-pad-like dial on the back.
Steve Dent for Engadget
The A6700 is also the first Sony APS-C camera with an articulating display, so it’s better for vloggers than the flip-up display on past models. The relatively low resolution EVF is a weak point as it’s difficult at times to check focus, but it does the job most of the time. .
Another negative is the single card slot, but at least it supports high-speed UHS-II cards. Luckily, it has the same large battery as full-frame models, which gives it an excellent 570 shot CIPA rating.
Other features include microphone and headphone ports (along with support for Sony’s hot shoe audio accessories), a USB-C port for charging and data transfers and an HDMI port. The latter, unfortunately, is of the fiddly and fragile micro variety.
All of that adds up to a 6000-series camera I’d happily use for most types of work. Previously, I found those models not up to the job, especially for video.
Performance
Steve Dent for Engadget
Performance is more of a mixed bag, though. Lossless RAW bursts are possible at up to 11 fps, either in mechanical or electronic shutter modes. That compares to the 15 and 30fps for the similarly priced Canon EOS R7 and 15/20 fps for the Fujifilm X-T5. That’s quite a deficit considering the latter two have much higher resolution sensors.
The A6700 only stores up to 36 compressed RAW frames before the buffer fills, compared to 45 on the A6600 and comparable to rivals. Based strictly on speed, though, the R7 and X-T5 are better action cameras.
Fortunately, the autofocus is superb and that’s arguably more important for a consumer camera. In continuous mode, you’ll get reliable results even with fast moving subjects. And the AI tracking locks onto eyes and faces, ensuring you won’t miss important shots of rowdy kids, soccer games and more.
Steve Dent for Engadget
It also works with airplanes, animals, birds, cars or trains and insects. Unlike Canon’s auto system, though, you have to tell the A6700 exactly what you’re tracking. Once you’ve set it up the way you want, though, it’s a touch more reliable than Canon’s system, and significantly better than the X-T5..
The five-axis in-body stabilization is good but not great, offering 5 stops compared to 8 on the EOS R7 and 7 on the Fuji X-T5. Still, I was able to take sharp photos down to about an eighth of a second.
Rolling shutter was my main complaint with the A6600, but it’s now much improved and about as good as you get without a stacked sensor. It’s still present, though, so you’ll want to use the mechanical shutter for fast-moving subjects like propellers and trains.
Image Quality
With a new 26-megapixel sensor, The A6700 captures more detail than past 24-megapixel models. As mentioned, though, it’s lacking compared to the 32.5-megapixel Canon R7 and 40-megapixel X-T5.
Colors are mostly spot-on, but I still prefer Canon’s skin tones. JPEGs look good out of the camera, if a touch over-sharpened. With 14-bit RAW uncompressed files, I found plenty of room to adjust and tweak images, dialing down bright areas or adding detail to shadows. Keep in mind that when shooting bursts, though, RAW files are captured with only 12-bits of color fidelity.
There is a benefit to the lower resolution. The A6700 is better in low light than rivals, with noise well controlled up to ISO 6400. Images are usable up to ISO 12800, but anything beyond up to the ISO 102,400 limit is for emergency use only. It’s best to emphasize shadow exposure at high ISOs, as lifting those even a couple of stops creates excessive noise.
Video
The A6700 is so far above its predecessor for video that it’s useless to compare them. Rather, think of it as a cheaper, smaller FX30 cinema camera with the same image quality. The main difference is that the A6700 doesn’t have the same cooling capability, as I’ll discuss shortly.
It subsamples the full sensor width for 4K at 30 and 60 fps, so video is sharper than the X-T5 or R7. And the A6700 beats both of those models by having a 4K 120fps mode, though it’s cropped significantly at 1.58x.
Due to the relatively small body and lack of fans, you’ll need to be wary of overheating at 120p, as it’ll cut out after 20-30 minutes. For indoor shooting, you can generally shoot at up to 4K 60p without any stoppages with the “auto power temp” setting on “high.” Outside on a hot day, however, you may hit the limits and need to wait for the camera to cool down.
Like the FX30, you can shoot all video modes with 10-bit with S-Log3 capture. You can also load your own LUTs either to make log footage easier to monitor, or bake it into the final image.
Steve Dent for Engadget
Rolling shutter is still present, so you’ll still need to be careful with whip pans, fast subjects and the like. However, it’s far less bothersome than on past Sony crop sensor models.
It has a video feature that’s actually lacking on the FX3, namely auto-framing. That’s handy for vloggers as it can crop in and follow them as they move around the frame — with less quality loss than the ZV-E1 (this feature is finicky on the A6700 so be sure to test it first). It also offers focus compensation that digitally eliminates breathing, and again, this extra resolution compared to the ZV-E1 results in a sharper result.
Stabilization for video isn’t quite as good as the ZV-E1, though. The active mode is fine for handheld use and slow pans, but doesn’t do a lot to smooth out footsteps, and adds a 1.13x crop.
As for video quality, you’re seeing the same accurate colors and solid low-light capability as with photos. The 10-bit log options allow for plenty of flexibility in post, especially with contrasty images.
Wrap-up
Steve Dent for Engadget
The A6700 is easily Sony’s best APS-C camera yet, excelling at both photos and video, and offering much better handling. Despite being far more capable than the A6600, it carries the same $1,400 price.
As a photo camera, it’s slower than its main competition, the Canon R7 and Fujifilm X-T5, so those models are better for shooting action. Sony’s autofocus is slightly better though, and faster bursts are worthless if photos aren’t sharp.
As a video camera, though, it beats its main rivals across the board. All told, it’s a great option for content creators or hybrid shooters who favor video but do some photography. If that’s you, I’d highly recommend it.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sony-a6700-review-the-companys-best-aps-c-camera-yet-164540597.html?src=rss
Most smartphone games are designed to be played with touch controls first and foremost. But if you want to stream games from an Xbox or PlayStation, or if you gravitate toward games with more complex control schemes like Call of Duty: Mobile or Diablo Immortal, a mobile gamepad like the Backbone One can make things more comfortable.
If this sounds appealing to you, Backbone is running a sale that brings the Lightning-based version of the One down to $70 at Amazon, Best Buy, Target and its own online store. While that's not an all-time low, it's still $30 off the controller's usual going rate.
In general, discounts on the device have been uncommon. The offer applies to both the standard black model and the PlayStation-branded white model, which are functionally the same but use different icons. The discount technically started earlier this week, but Backbone says it'll run through March 10. Unfortunately, the sale does not extend to the USB-C version of the device, so Android users or those who plan on upgrading to an iPhone 15 anytime soon should pass.
If you plan to play on an iPhone 14 or older for the next couple of years, though, this deal should be worthwhile. As my colleague Mat Smith noted in his review, the One fits snugly and works immediately with remote streaming apps and virtually every iOS game with controller support. It has all the requisite buttons to play modern games, including pressure-sensitive triggers and analog joysticks, along with a built-in headphone jack and a pass-through charging port. Its clicky face buttons are on the noisy side, and its d-pad is somewhat spongy. Still, its rounded grips keep it comfortable to hold over time, and it balances its weight better than an Xbox or PS5 pad hooked up to a mobile gaming clip. It also comes with a handy companion app, which you can use to quickly launch games and start party chats. If nothing else, it should be a more cost-effective alternative to cloud gaming handhelds like the PlayStation Portal.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-backbone-one-mobile-game-controller-is-30-percent-off-right-now-163014567.html?src=rss
At its 14th Ability summit, which kicks off today, Microsoft is highlighting developments and collaborations across its portfolio of assistive products. Much of that is around Azure AI, including features announced yesterday like AI-powered audio descriptions and the Azure AI studio that better enables developers with disabilities to create machine-learning applications. It also showed off new updates like more languages and richer AI-generated descriptions for its Seeing AI tool, as well as new playbooks offering guidelines for best practices in areas like building accessible campuses and greater mental health support.
The company is also previewing a feature called “Speak For Me,” which is coming later this year. Much like Apple’s Personal Voice, Speak For Me can help those with ALS and other speech disabilities to use custom neural voices to communicate. Work on this project has been ongoing “for some time” with partners like the non-profit ALS organization Team Gleason, and Microsoft said it’s “committed to making sure this technology is used for good and plan to launch later in the year.” The company also shared that it’s working with Answer ALS and ALS Therapy Development Institute (TDI) to “almost double the clinical and genomic data available for research.”
One of the most significant accessibility updates coming this month is that Copilot will have new accessibility skills that enable users to ask the assistant to launch Live Caption and Narrator, among other assistive tools. The Accessibility Assistant feature announced last year will be available today in the Insider preview for M365 apps like Word, with the company saying it will be coming “soon” to Outlook and PowerPoint. Microsoft is also publishing four new playbooks today, including a Mental Health toolkit, which covers “tips for product makers to build experiences that support mental health conditions, created in partnership [with] Mental Health America.”
Ahead of the summit, the company’s chief accessibility officer Jenny Lay-Flurrie spoke with Engadget to share greater insight around the news as well as her thoughts on generative AI’s role in building assistive products.
“In many ways, AI isn’t new,” she said, adding “this chapter is new.” Generative AI may be all the rage right now, but Lay-Flurrie believes that the core principle her team relies on hasn’t changed. “Responsible AI is accessible AI,” she said.
Still, generative AI could bring many benefits. “This chapter, though, does unlock some potential opportunities for the accessibility industry and people with disabilities to be able to be more productive and to use technology to power their day,” she said. She highlighted a survey the company did with the neurodiverse community around Microsoft 365 Copilot, and the response of the few hundred people who responded was “this is reducing time for me to create content and it’s shortening that gap between thought and action,” Lay-Flurrie said.
The idea of being responsible in embracing new technology trends when designing for accessibility isn’t far from Lay-Flurrie’s mind. “We still need to be very principled, thoughtful and if we hold back, it’s to make sure that we are protecting those fundamental rights of accessibility.”
Elsewhere at the summit, Microsoft is featuring guest speakers like actor Michelle Williams and its own employee Katy Jo Wright, discussing mental health and their experience living with chronic Lyme disease respectively. We will also see Amsterdam’s Rijksmusem share how it used Azure AI’s computer vision and generative AI to provide image descriptions for over a million pieces of art for visitors who are blind or have low vision.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsofts-neural-voice-tool-for-people-with-speech-disabilities-arrives-later-this-year-161550277.html?src=rss
A screenshot from a Microsoft video about its Copilot AI feature's accessibility support. The screenshot shows a person with a vision-related disability and an overlaid screenshot of a "Draft with Copilot" tool.
The consumer electronics industry has changed radically over the past two decades. AR/VR devices have come and gone and come again, smartphones have grown from filling our pockets to dominating our lives, and the tendrils of connected services now touch everything we touch.
Yet, for me, the most exciting to watch has been the development of technology that moves us. I mean that literally: cars and scooters and e-bikes and all the other wild and wonderful modes of transportation that have grown wings or wheels over the past few decades.
A love for all that stuff has always been at my core. Many moons ago, before my time as editor-in-chief of this site, I served as automotive editor. In the late 2000s, that mainly meant pondering what was happening in the world of Ford Sync or writing about flying car concepts that, today, are still very decidedly grounded.
An excellent perk was getting to drive many early EVs, though it didn’t always end well. In 2012, I made an aborted attempt to get from Portland to Seattle for an emissions-free Engadget Show episode. The poor Mitsubishi i-MiEV we’d borrowed wasn’t up to the task.
But then along came the Tesla Model S. At the time, I knew it would be significant. Everyone in the industry knew it would be significant, but it’s only in looking back more than a decade later that we can truly appreciate just how significant it was. In the rear view mirror, we can also see what a shame it is Tesla has barely moved the needle since.
A preview in Fremont
In the (long) lead-up to that car’s eventual late-2012 release, Tesla invited me out to a supposed grand reopening of its Fremont factory. The place was unbelievably massive and virtually empty. Tesla officials were proud to show off the numerous giant presses that would stamp out Model S components.
Other Tesla employees were dutifully feeding into those presses metal sheets, which came out the other end as flat as they went in. The presses were there and they were a-pressing, but the dies that formed the parts were absent. This event, like the many Tesla events to come, was somewhat lacking in substance.
Still, the time I spent chatting with Peter Rawlinson had a huge impact on me. Formerly of Lotus and Jaguar, Rawlinson was the chief engineer at Tesla at the time. He and I talked for ages about the advantages of low-slung battery packs and the torque behavior of electric motors. It’s all standard stuff these days, but back then, it was a fantastic opportunity for me to learn. (You can enjoy some of his insight in a series of videos here.)
Early Tesla EVs had two-speed transmissions. I asked Rawlinson whether there was a third gear for handling reverse.
“No,” he said. “We just spin the motor backward.”
That seems like such a simple concept now, but that moment caused a small-yield explosion between my ears. I spent the remainder of the day pondering the myriad other unforeseen implications of this switch to electrification. Nothing else happening in the industry was nearly as exciting as this.
My review
I got a quick go in a Model S at that Fremont event, a lap or two around Tesla’s test track, but I’d have to wait until early 2013 before I could take one for my first proper review of the Model S. It was a Performance edition, with an 85kWh battery pack and a $101,600 sticker price.
I picked it up in New York City and drove it home to Albany, NY. Along the way, I got a preview of what would become another unfortunate Tesla theme: an uncomfortable relationship with the media.
Before I’d made it far, I got a warning light on the dash. I called Tesla PR to ask what to do.
“Oh, don’t worry, we’re watching you,” they said. “It’s fine.”
I didn’t feel fine. I’ve been reviewing devices for decades, and I always assume some degree of logging is involved, but this seemed a little more ominous.
(Over the years, it only got more so. In a later review of a Model 3, I complained the auto high-beams were terrible on country roads. Tesla PR asked me when this occurred so their engineers could pull up the footage from my drive.)
Warning light extinguished, Big Brother now visible in the back seat, I got back to enjoying the car. After having reviewed the Tesla Roadster two years before, a beautiful mess of a slapped-together machine, the Model S was something entirely different. It was calm, it was composed and it wasn’t nearly so drafty. I made the 165-mile drive home with 23 percent to spare, this in January on a 24-degree day.
That is pretty poor by today’s standards, but remember, the most common EV of the day was the Nissan Leaf. In 2013, the Leaf’s range was EPA rated at 75 miles. The Model S was on another level.
But it wasn’t perfect. I was not a fan of many of the interior materials and design choices in 2013, and I would have been so disappointed to know things really haven’t improved since.
I also found the handling underwhelming, but my biggest complaint was the lack of advanced driver assistance systems. That Model S didn’t even have adaptive cruise. Autopilot was still years away, and the ongoing debacle of Full Self Driving much further afield.
And yet I still gave it a glowing review, and it deserved it. I was suitably impressed, as were plenty of others. I recently spoke with several buyers of these early sedans, and most were totally enamored with their cars, despite many teething issues. (So many broken door handles...)
However, it probably goes without saying that many of the folks I spoke with are less enamored of Tesla’s CEO than they were back then. Between that, the racially abusive work environments, and the constant anti-worker behavior, cheering for Tesla is a lot more complicated than it used to be. That is a true shame.
The evolving landscape
The seismic forces generated when the Model S dropped still echo through the industry. You can feel them in virtually every premium EV on the market today.
And yet it’s in those other EVs that the bulk of EV innovation is happening. If you look at what Peter Rawlinson did with the Lucid Air, a sedan that goes over 500 miles on a charge, it’s easy to imagine what could have been had he not parted ways with Tesla. The on-road performance of the Porsche Taycan, the off-road prowess of the Rivian R1T and the minimalist cool of the Volvo EX30 are raising the bar.
Tesla has been more successful than any other manufacturer at getting more EVs into more driveways and at getting more chargers into more places. Tesla made EVs viable and desirable. You have to respect it for that. Lately, though, the company’s greatest achievements have all focused on cutting costs and minimizing complexity, often at the expense of quality and, indeed, safety.
Look at today’s Model S and you still see the car that was released in 2012. It’s quicker and has more range, sure, but it is the same platform and basic design I reviewed over a decade ago. Pondering the time wasted on vanity projects, like the Model X, and vaporware, like the new Roadster, it’s hard to not feel the ache of missed potential.
To celebrate Engadget's 20th anniversary, we're taking a look back at the products and services that have changed the industry since March 2, 2004.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-tesla-model-s-shook-the-industry-but-its-echo-is-fading-160010877.html?src=rss
Adobe is bringing its generative AI (GAI) tech to mobile for the first time. Firefly GAI features are included in the beta of the new Express app on Android and iOS starting today. They should afford users more expansive creation and editing options while they’re on the go.
Using text prompts, you’ll be able to generate images and insert, remove or replace people, objects and other elements such as backgrounds. Quick Actions enable you to apply edits, remove backgrounds and resize images with a single tap. Video editing tools, a social content scheduler and collaboration options are available too. Creative Cloud subscribers can use the Express mobile app to import and edit designs from Illustrator and Photoshop.
Adobe says Firefly GAI is designed for commercial use. Assets generated using Firefly tools include a label to indicate they were forged in the fires of GAI.
During the beta, Express premium features are available to everyone for free, but they'll eventually be locked behind a $10 per month subscription. The number of users who can access the beta on iOS are limited. Those who are interested can sign up through Adobe. The Android beta of the new Express app is available in most countries on the Google Play Store.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/adobe-brings-firefly-generative-ai-to-mobile-for-the-first-time-in-express-153323032.html?src=rss
Do you really like the aesthetic of bowling but have no interest in the game itself? In January, Xbox released the special edition Dream Vapor controller with swirls that look like they've been pulled right from a bowling ball. Now, the Dream Vapor controller — which is a great accessory for the Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One or Windows — is on sale for $58, down from $70. The 17 percent discount puts the model at the lowest price we've seen yet.
Xbox's Dream Vapor controller is — dare we say — beautiful. It has pink and purple accents that swirl together to create a calm, aesthetically pleasing look. Even the buttons are in a light pink with purple accents. The wireless controller works like its counterparts, offering 40 hours of battery life, custom button mapping and a share button.
The Dream Vapor model isn't the only Xbox controller available for a record-low price. If you're looking for a basic new controller, the Robot White Xbox controller is down to $45 from $60 — a 25 percent discount. It's a sleek but fun option with ABXY buttons in a range of bright colors.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-dream-vapor-xbox-wireless-controller-drops-to-a-record-low-of-58-151551431.html?src=rss
It's hard to expect much from Apple's new M3-equipped MacBook Airs. The 13-inch M2 model, released in 2022, was the first major redesign for Apple's most popular notebook in over a decade. Last year, Apple finally gave its fanatics a big-screen ultraportable notebook with the 15-inch MacBook Air. This week, we've got the same two computers with slightly faster chips. They didn't even get a real launch event from Apple, just a sleepy Monday morning press release. They look the same and are a bit faster than before — what else is there to say?
Now, I'm not saying these aren't great computers. It's just that we've been a bit spoiled by Apple's laptops over the last few years. The M3 MacBook Air marks the inevitable innovation plateau for the company, following the monumental rise of its mobile chips and a complete refresh of its laptops and desktops. It's like hitting cruising altitude after the excitement of takeoff — things are stable and comfortable for Apple and consumers alike.
M3 MacBook Air vs the M2 MacBook Air
Even though they look exactly the same as before, the M3 MacBook Air models have a few new features under the hood. For one, they support dual external displays, but only when their lids are closed. That was something even the M3-equipped 14-inch MacBook Pro lacked at launch, but Apple says the feature is coming to that device via a future software update. Having dual screen support is particularly useful for office workers who may need to drop their computers onto temporary desks, but it could also be helpful for creatives with multiple monitors at home. (If you absolutely need to have your laptop display on alongside two or more external monitors, you'll have to opt for a MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro or Max chip instead.)
Both new MacBook Air models also support Wi-Fi 6E, an upgrade over the previous Wi-Fi 6 standard with faster speeds and dramatically lower latency. You'll need a Wi-Fi 6E router to actually see those benefits, though. According to Intel, Wi-Fi 6E's ability to tap into seven 160MHz channels helps it avoid congested Wi-Fi 6 spectrum. Basically, you may actually be able to see gigabit speeds more often. (With my AT&T gigabit fiber connection and Wi-Fi 6 gateway, I saw download speeds of around 350 Mbps and uploads ran between 220 Mbps and 320 Mbps on both systems from my basement office. Both upload and download speeds leapt to 700 Mbps when I was on the same floor as the gateway.)
Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
Design and weight
Two years after the 13-inch M2 MacBook Air debuted, the M3 follow-up is just as sleek and attractive. It seems impossibly thin for a notebook, measuring 0.44 inches thick, and is fairly light at 2.7 pounds. We've seen ultraportables like LG's Gram and the ZenBook S13 OLED that are both lighter and thinner than Apple's hardware, but the MacBook Air still manages to feel like a more premium package. Its unibody aluminum case feels as smooth a river stone yet as sturdy as a boulder. It's a computer I simply love to touch.
Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
The 15-inch M3 MacBook Air is similarly thin, but clocks in half a pound heavier at 3.2 pounds. It's still relatively light for its size, but the additional bulk makes it feel more unwieldy than the 13-inch model. I can easily slip either MacBook Air model into a tote bag when running out to grab my kids from school, but the larger model’s length makes it more annoying to carry.
For some users, though, that extra heft will be worth it. The bigger MacBook Air sports a 15.3-inch Liquid Retina screen with a sharp 2,880 by 1,864 (224 pixels per inch) resolution, making it better suited for multitasking with multiple windows or working in media editing apps. It's also a better fit for older or visually impaired users, who may have to scale up their displays to make them more readable. (This is something I've noticed while shopping for computers for my parents and other older relatives. 13-inch laptops inevitably become hard to work on, unless you're always wearing bifocals.)
While I'm impressed that Apple finally has a large, consumer-focused laptop in its lineup, I still prefer the 13-inch MacBook Air. I spend most of my day writing, Slacking with colleagues, editing photos and talking with companies over video conferencing apps, all of which are easy to do on a smaller screen. If I was directly editing more episodes of the Engadget Podcast, or chopping up video on my own, though, I'd bump up to the 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro chip. Even then, I wouldn't have much need for a significantly larger screen.
A lonely headphone jack that could use a USB-C companion.
Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
It's understandable why Apple wouldn't want to tweak the Air's design too much, given that it was just redone a few years ago. Still, I'd love to see a USB-C port on the right side of the machine, just to make charging easier in every location. But I suppose I should just be happy Apple hasn't removed the headphone jack, something that's happening all too frequently in new 13-inch notebooks, like the XPS 13.
Hardware
For our testing, Apple sent the "midnight" 13-inch MacBook Air (which is almost jet black and features a fingerprint-resistant coating that actually works), as well as the silver 15-inch model. Both computers were powered by an M3 chip with a 10-core GPU, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. While these MacBooks start at $1,099 and $1,299, respectively, the configurations we tested cost $400 more. Keep that in mind if you're paying attention to our benchmarks, as you'll definitely see lower figures on the base models. (The cheapest 13-inch offering only has 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and an 8-core GPU, while the entry-level 15-inch unit has the same RAM and storage, along with a 10-core GPU.)
Geekbench 6 CPU
Geekbench 6 GPU
Cinebench R23
3DMark Wildlife Extreme
Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (M3, 2024)
3,190/12,102
30,561
1,894/9,037
8,310
Apple MacBook Air 15-inch (M3, 2024)
3,187/12,033
30,556
1,901/9,733
8,253
Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (M2, 2022)
2,570/9,650
25,295
1,576/7,372
6,761
Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (M3, 2023)
3,142/11,902
30,462
1,932/10,159
8,139
M3 chip performance
I didn't expect to see a huge performance boost on either MacBook Air, but our benchmarks ended up surprising me. Both laptops scored around 300 points higher in the Cinebench R23 single-core test, compared to the M2 MacBook Air. And when it came to the more strenuous multi-core CPU test, the 13-inch M3 Air was around 1,700 points faster, while the 15-inch model was around 2,400 points faster. (Since both machines are fan-less, there's a good chance the larger case of the 15-inch Air allows for slightly better performance under load.)
There was a more noticeable difference in Geekbench 6, where the M3 models were around 40 percent faster than before. Apple is touting more middling improvements over the M2 chips — 17 percent faster single-core performance, 21 percent speedier multi-core workloads and 15 percent better GPU workloads — but it's nice to see areas where performance is even better. Really, though, these aren't machines meant to replace M2 systems — the better comparisons are how they measure up to nearly four-year-old M1 Macs or even creakier Intel models. Apple claims the M3 chip is up to 60 percent faster than the M1, but in my testing I saw just a 35 percent speed bump in Cinebench's R23 multi-core test.
When it comes to real-world performance, I didn't notice a huge difference between either M3-equipped MacBook Air, compared to the M2 model I've been using for the past few years. Apps load just as quickly, multitasking isn't noticeably faster (thank goodness they have 16GB of RAM), and even photo editing isn't significantly speedier. This is a good time to point out that the M2 MacBook Air is still a fine machine, and it's an even better deal now thanks to a lower $999 starting price. As we've said, the best thing about the existence of the M3 Airs is that they've made the M2 models cheaper. You'll surely find some good deals from stores clearing out older stock and refurbished units, as well as existing owners selling off their M2 machines.
Gaming and productivity work
I'll give the M3 MacBook Airs this: they're noticeably faster for gaming. I was able to run Lies of P in 1080p+ (1,920 by 1,200) with high graphics settings and see a smooth 60fps most of the time. It occasionally dipped into the low-50fps range, but that didn't affect the game's playability much. The director's cut of Death Stranding was also smooth and easy to play at that resolution, so long as I didn't crank up the graphics settings too much. It's nice to have the option for some serious games on Macs for once. And if you want more variety, you can also stream high-end games over Xbox's cloud streaming or NVIDIA's GeForce Now.
In addition to being a bit faster than before, the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Airs are simply nice computers to use. Their 500-nit screens support HDR and are bright to use outdoors in sunlight. While they're not as impressive as the ProMotion MiniLED displays on the MacBook Pros, they'll get the job done for most users. Apple's quad and six-speaker arrays are also best-in-class, and the 1080p webcams on both computers are perfect for video conferencing (especially when paired with Apple's camera tweaks for brightness and background blurring). And I can’t say enough good things about the MacBook Air’s responsive keyboard and smooth trackpad – I wish every laptop used them.
Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
Battery
Unfortunately, the short turn-around time for this review prevented me from running a complete battery test for these computers. At the moment, though, I can say that both machines only used up 40 percent of battery life while playing a 4K fullscreen video at full brightness for over 10 hours. Apple claims they'll play an Apple TV video for up to 18 hours, as well as browse the web wirelessly for up to 15 hours. My testing shows they'll definitely last far more than a typical workday. (I would often go three days without needing to charge the 13-inch M2 MacBook Air. Based on what I've seen so far, I expect similar performance from the M3 models.)
Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
Wrap-up
There aren’t any major surprises with the 13-inch and 15-inch M3 MacBook Air, but after years of continual upgrades, that’s to be expected. They’re great computers with excellent performance, gorgeous screens and incredible battery life. And best of all, their introduction also pushes down the prices of the still-great M2 models, making them an even better deal.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/macbook-air-m3-review-2024-13-15-inch-140053162.html?src=rss
Of the many bizarre moments that preceded Twitter's change in ownership, one that’s always stuck out to me was Jack Dorsey’s tweetstorm that “Elon is the singular solution I trust.” His insistence that Musk was uniquely positioned to “extend the light of consciousness” was a strange endorsement, even by Dorsey’s usual weird-guy standards. But Dorsey had long idolized Musk and the two men had a relationship that was far deeper than what many onlookers realized.
That’s according to a new book that explores Jack Dorsey’s role in Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. Written by Bloomberg reporter Kurt Wagner, Battle for the Bird tells the story of how Dorsey saved Twitter in 2015 and how his actions – or often, lack thereof— led to Musk’s acquisition and, ultimately, Twitter’s death.
Wagner’s isn’t the first book to delve into the tumultuous events of the last two years — Musk biographer Walter Isaacson had a front-row seat to the drama — but Battle for the Bird sheds new light on Dorsey's side of the equation. “Jack had been bringing Elon to Twitter offsites, he'd visited him at his SpaceX launch facility, the two of them sort of had this relationship that I don't really think people paid much attention to,” Wagner tells Engadget. So once Musk began acquiring a large stake in the company, “Jack sort of stepped in and did what he could” to make the deal happen.
The book, which began as a Dorsey biography before Musk’s takeover forced Wagner to change his plans, focuses on the enigmatic Twitter co-founder whose unusual management style sometimes worked against the company’s own interests.
Inside of Twitter, Wagner writes, Dorsey was known to “rarely speak” in meetings and disliked making decisions. Internally, this was a source of confusion as executives often had to guess what Dorsey was thinking about a particular issue. “People would be surprised at how little he was directing [Twitter and Square], he was really advising them in a weird way,” Wagner says.
These dynamics played out in Twitter’s product. Wagner reports that Dorsey had initially encouraged the product team to create the feature that was eventually known as “Fleets,” Twitter’s experiment with disappearing posts. But Dorsey “grew to despise” the feature and publicly cheered when the company killed it less than a year after its rollout. “Even though he thought Fleets was a bad decision, he never stepped in to halt the product or move the team in another direction,” Wagner writes.
Battle for the Bird also details Dorsey’s many eccentricities: the days-long silent meditation retreats, his affinity for “salt juice” (a mixture of water, pink Himalayan sea salt and lemon juice) and his more recent obsession with bitcoin. “He goes through these stages of his life where he's different, he looks different, he acts different, his priorities are different and I think it's sort of a reflection of the things that he becomes obsessed with,” Wagner says.
Giving Musk a more influential role at Twitter was another idea Dorsey fixated on. He tried to get Musk a seat on the company’s board in 2020 amid a bruising fight with activist investor Elliott Management. Dorsey managed to keep his job but failed to get Musk a board seat because, according to what he told Musk, the rest of the board were “super risk averse.” (By 2020, Musk had already faced at least two major lawsuits over his tweets.)
Dorsey would also tell Musk that the board’s veto was “about the time I decided I needed to work to leave” the company. He had always seemed disinterested in the business of running Twitter, but the troubles with Elliott seemed to change him. “He thought that Twitter served this bigger purpose … its place in the world was not to make money for shareholders,” Wagner explains. “And as a result, he was just not really that interested in playing the Wall Street game, which is a problem when you're a publicly traded company.”
So in 2022, after he had stepped down as CEO, Dorsey encouraged Musk to use his new position as a major stakeholder in Twitter to address Twitter’s “original sin” of existing as a corporate entity beholden to advertisers and political interests. Dorsey believed that Musk loved Twitter for the same reasons he did. So when Musk decided to buy the company and take it private, he backed Musk.
Dorsey publicly endorsed the move and promised to roll over his Twitter shares into the new entity, effectively saving Musk about $1 billion. He, along with the rest of the company’s board, voted to approve the deal.
As Wagner points out in Battle for the Bird, Dorsey eventually soured on Musk after he tried to back out of the deal, saying “it all went south.” But by then, Jack Dorsey’s Twitter was already unrecognizable. “He so publicly endorsed this new idea, this takeover from Elon,” Wagner says. “And as a result, the company that he co-founded and led for almost 16 years in various ways, is no more. X is here, but Twitter is gone. His legacy has really been hurt by this whole debacle.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/why-jack-dorsey-thought-elon-musk-could-fix-twitter-140004514.html?src=rss
WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 5: Twitter chief executive officer Jack Dorsey testifies during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing concerning foreign influence operations' use of social media platforms, on Capitol Hill, September 5, 2018 in Washington, DC. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg faced questions about how foreign operatives use their platforms in attempts to influence and manipulate public opinion. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Space and fashion lovers have a crossover accessory right now, and it's not just because there are some moons and stars dotted across it. Coperni, a French luxury brand, has unveiled the Air Swipe Bag, made entirely of NASA's nanomaterial silica aerogel, Fast Company reports. Scientist Steve Jones first created the substance for NASA's 1999 Stardust mission, which brought samples back from the Wild 2 comet.
The Air Swipe Bag weighs only 1.1 ounces, with just 0.2 percent of its matter actually tangible. The rest is air that moves through the Aerogel's trillions of channels. Aerogel is renowned for its lightweight build, taking the title of lightest matter in the 1990s, with a second version breaking that record. NASA previously dubbed the substance "solid smoke," and one look at the bag shows how true that statement is. Coperni's Instagram post even had one Instagram user comment: "This looks like my bong when it's filled with smoke and I'm obsessed."
While Aerogel is just being used to create a small bag, in this case, it's one sturdy accessory. The substance can hold 4,000 times its weight (far more than this purse can fit) and withstand up to 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit. It's no surprise then that, when not being made into bags, Aerogel has been used for tasks such as insulating Mars rovers.
The Air Swipe Bag isn't listed for sale on Coperni's website yet, but if you want an accessory this powerful, it's likely going to cost you. Space travel and fashion are two things that never come cheap.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/this-luxury-handbag-is-made-from-the-material-nasa-uses-to-collect-comet-dust-135151909.html?src=rss
Warning: The following article covers matters of a sensitive nature.
A SpaceX employee has filed a lawsuit against the company, accusing it of siding with a supervisor who pressured her into having sexual relations with him. The plaintiff said that she and other female employees also had to endure "humiliating comments" questioning their credentials, that she was passed up for promotions in favor of male candidates and that she experienced retaliation when she complained about being paid less than her male counterparts.
The plaintiff, Michelle Dopak, has been working at the aerospace corporation's headquarters in California since 2017. According to her complaint, she experienced discrimination early on in her employment when she was passed up for job opportunities in favor of external male candidates. Her male colleagues allegedly spread rumors about their female coworkers, as well, claiming that they only got their jobs because of their looks. Dopak and two of her female colleagues met with Gwynne Shotwell to complain about both issues — "an action that no male colleague or employee at SpaceX would ever feel the need to do to justify their hiring and stop such discriminatory actions," the lawsuit reads. The SpaceX president, however, apparently didn't take any action.
After a reorganization in 2019, the plaintiff was placed under the supervision of a male boss who allegedly pressured her into having a sexual relationship that lasted years. When she got pregnant as a result, she said her married supervisor offered her $100,000 to have an abortion, which she had refused. She also accused SpaceX of colluding with her boss to transfer 48,289 shares worth $3,718,253 out of his name so that he could get out of paying child support.
Her complaints didn't end there. After getting promoted to a position she had been chasing for years, she found out that a male colleague who was hired at the same time was being paid $5,000 more. The company officials she talked to about the pay disparity couldn't justify it and allegedly offered her only $2,500 more if she also took a reduction in stock benefits. In the lawsuit, the plaintiff said the offer was "a message that if you complain at SpaceX, we will just retaliate against you and find other ways to punish you."
The lawsuit accuses SpaceX of forcing female employees who have claims of sexual harassment and discrimination into bringing their claims to arbitration so that they could be kept secret from the public. "SpaceX has also attempted to coerce and force [the plaintiff] into only bringing her claims in arbitration even though such claims are barred from being forced to arbitration," the complaint continues.
The plaintiff is asking for general, compensatory and consequential damages, including lost wages, earnings and other employee benefits. She's also asking the court to prohibit SpaceX from continuing any "unfair and unlawful business practices." SpaceX is currently facing another proposed class action lawsuit that claims it pays women and minorities tens of thousands less than what it pays white male employees. In January, the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against SpaceX, as well, accusing it for illegally firing a group of engineers who criticized Elon Musk for making crude jokes on X about the sexual misconduct accusations against him.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spacex-lawsuit-claims-repeated-instances-of-gender-discrimination-and-basic-safeguarding-failures-133014753.html?src=rss
Dec 8, 2019 Hawthorne / Los Angeles / CA / USA - SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.) headquarters; Falcon 9 rocket displayed in the front; SpaceX is a private American aerospace manufacturer
Microsoft has announced that it's holding an event on March 21 that will focus on its upcoming generative AI devices and features. The event entitled "Advancing the new era of work with Copilot" will start at 9AM Pacific/12PM Eastern time that date. Microsoft promises to unveil "the latest in scaling AI in your environment with Copilot, Windows and Surface," but it has shared no other details on what its announcements could be.
As Windows Centralhad previously reported, the company is expected to launch the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 on March 21. They're apparently slated to be Microsoft's first AI PCs that will be equipped with the new Intel Core Ultra or Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processors. Both models have neural processing units (NPUs) that boost AI capabilities, which is why the upcoming Surfaces will most likely be the first to support the new AI features coming to Windows 11.
Those new AI features could include real-time live captions and translations, upscaling for games and frame rate smoothing. Microsoft is also reportedly working on a feature called AI Explorer that will give users a way to conduct searches across apps, documents, web pages, images and chats using natural language. Windows Central said AI Explorer might have the capability to understand context and suggest actions based on what's on the screen. It could also create a history of the tasks a user does on their computer to make them searchable later on. We'll know for sure if Microsoft truly is launching new Surface devices and new AI features a couple of weeks from now — we will, of course, keep you updated on what the company reveals.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-announces-a-surface-and-windows-ai-event-for-march-21-130447407.html?src=rss
L´HOSPITALET DE LLOBREGAT, BARCELONA, SPAIN - 2024/02/29: A view of the logo of the American company Microsoft at the Mobile World Congress 2024. (Photo by Ramon Costa/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The sheer number of computer monitors on the market is enough to intimidate anyone lookin to add one to their workspace or gaming rig. Plus, the technology has evolved rapidly even in just the past year alone with OLED Flex, QD-OLED and built-in smart platforms becoming more prevalent in new monitors. That’s on top of big improvements in things like color accuracy, image quality, size and resolution as well. But fear not, Engadget can help you make sense of the computer monitor space and help you decide which monitors (or, at the very least, type of monitor) is right for you. Whether you’re a business user, a content creator, a multitasker or into competitive gaming, you have plenty of options to choose from and we’ve outline our top picks below.
Factors to consider
Panel type
The cheapest monitors are still TN (twisted nematic), which are strictly for gamers or office use. VA (vertical alignment) monitors are also relatively cheap, while offering good brightness and a high contrast ratio. However, content creators will find that IPS (in-plane switching) LCD displays deliver better color accuracy, picture quality and viewing angles.
If maximum brightness is important, a quantum dot LCD display is the way to go — those are typically found in larger displays. OLED monitors are now available and offer the best blacks and color reproduction, but they lack the brightness of LED or quantum dot displays. Plus, they cost a lot. The latest type of OLED monitor, called QD-OLED from Samsung, just came out in 2022. The most notable advantage is that it can get a lot brighter, with monitors shown at CES 2022 hitting up to 1,000 nits of peak brightness.
MiniLEDs are now widely used in high-end displays. They’re similar to quantum dot tech, but as the name suggests, it uses smaller LED diodes that are just 0.2mm in diameter. As such, manufacturers can pack in up to three times more LEDs with more local dimming zones, delivering deeper blacks and better contrast.
Screen size, resolution and display format
In this day and age, screen size rules. Where 24-inch displays used to be more or less standard (and can still be useful for basic computing), 27-, 32-, 34- and even 42-inch displays have become popular for entertainment, content creation and even gaming these days.
Nearly every monitor used to be 16:9, but it’s now possible to find 16:10 and other more exotic display shapes. On the gaming and entertainment side, we’re also seeing curved and ultrawide monitors with aspect ratios like 21:9. If you do decide to buy an ultrawide display, however, keep in mind that a 30-inch 21:9 model is the same height as a 24-inch monitor, so you might end up with a smaller display than you expected. As a rule of thumb, add 25 percent to the size of a 21:9 monitor to get the vertical height you’d expect from a model with a 16:9 aspect ratio.
A 4K monitor is nearly a must for content creators, and some folks are even going for 5K or all the way up to 8K. Keep in mind, though, that you’ll need a pretty powerful computer to drive all those sharp pixels. And 4K resolution should be paired with a screen size of 27 inches and up, or you won’t notice much difference between 1440p. At the same time, I wouldn’t get a model larger than 27 inches unless it’s 4K, as you’ll start to see pixelation if you’re working up close to the display.
One new category to consider is portable monitors designed to be carried and used with laptops. Those typically come in 1080p resolutions and sizes from 13-15 inches. They usually have a lightweight kickstand-type support that folds up to keep things compact.
Samsung
HDR
HDR is the buzzy monitor feature to have these days, as it adds vibrancy to entertainment and gaming – but be careful before jumping in. Some monitors that claim HDR on the marketing materials don’t even conform to a base standard. To be sure that a display at least meets minimum HDR specs, you’ll want to choose one with a DisplayHDR rating with each tier representing maximum brightness in nits.
However, the lowest DisplayHDR 400 and 500 tiers may disappoint you with a lack of brightness, washed out blacks and mediocre color reproduction. If you can afford it, the best monitor to choose is a model with DisplayHDR 600, 1000 or True Black 400, True Black 500 and True Black 600. The True Black settings are designed primarily for OLED models, with maximum black levels at .0005 nits.
Where televisions typically offer HDR10 and Dolby Vision or HDR10+, most PC monitors only support the HDR10 standard, other than a few (very expensive) models. That doesn’t matter much for content creation or gaming, but HDR streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and other services won’t look quite as punchy. In addition, the best gaming monitors are usually the ones supporting HDR600 (and up), rather than content creation monitors – with a few exceptions.
Refresh rate
Refresh rate is a key feature, particularly on gaming monitors. A bare minimum nowadays is 60Hz, and 80Hz and higher refresh rates are much easier on the eyes. However, most 4K displays top out at 60Hz with some rare exceptions and the HDMI 2.0 spec only supports 4K at 60Hz, so you’d need at least DisplayPort 1.4 (4K at 120Hz) or HDMI 2.1. The latter is now available on a number of monitors, particularly gaming displays. However, it’s only supported on the latest NVIDIA RTX 3000- and 4000-series, AMD RX 6000-series GPUs.
Inputs
There are essentially three types of modern display inputs: Thunderbolt, DisplayPort and HDMI. Most monitors built for PCs come with the latter two, while a select few (typically built for Macs) will use Thunderbolt. To add to the confusion, USB-C ports may be Thunderbolt 3 and by extension, DisplayPort compatible, so you may need a USB-C to Thunderbolt or DisplayPort cable adapter depending on your display.
Color bit depth
Serious content creators should consider a more costly 10-bit monitor that can display billions of colors. If budget is an issue, you can go for an 8-bit panel that can fake billions of colors via dithering (often spec’d as “8-bit + FRC”). For entertainment or business purposes, a regular 8-bit monitor that can display millions of colors will be fine.
Color gamut
The other aspect of color is the gamut. That expresses the range of colors that can be reproduced and not just the number of colors. Most good monitors these days can cover the sRGB and Rec.709 gamuts (designed for photos and video respectively). For more demanding work, though, you’ll want one that can reproduce more demanding modern gamuts like AdobeRGB, DCI-P3 and Rec.2020 gamuts, which encompass a wider range of colors. The latter two are often used for film projection and HDR, respectively.
Console gaming
Both the Xbox Series X and Sony’s PS5 can handle 4K 120Hz HDR gaming, so if you’re into resolution over pure speed, you’ll want a monitor that can keep up and provide the best gaming experience possible. 4K resolution, HDR and at least 120Hz is the minimum starting point, but fortunately there are 27-inch displays with those specs starting at well under $1,000.
Pricing and parts shortages
Though the pandemic has eased, monitor supply is still a bit tighter than pre-pandemic levels due to supply and demand issues. To that end, you may have trouble finding monitors at Amazon, B&H or elsewhere for the suggested retail price point. For our guide below, we’re basing our picks on the MSRP, as long as the street price doesn’t exceed that by more than $25.
Best monitors under $200
Best monitors under $400
Best monitors under $500
Best monitors under $1,000
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-buy-a-monitor-143000069.html?src=rss
The European Union has entered the latest clash between Apple and Epic Games. Bloomberg reports that regulators will question Apple over its choice to ban Epic's developer account. The Fortnite creator claims this action prevents it from launching the Epic Games Store in Europe.
This escalation began when Epic CEO Tim Sweeney shared a post on X in January claiming that Apple was trying to thwart complying with the Digital Market Act (DMA) and calling much of its latest policy announcement "hot garbage." Apple's rules include meeting the company's Notarization requirements, paying a Core Technology fee (about 54 cents per install annually) after hitting the millionth download and showing proof of $1.1 million in credit that could be used for financial disputes. Supreme
A month after Sweeney's post, Apple sent a letter stating, "In plain, unqualified terms, please tell us why we should trust Epic this time." Sweeney responded that the company was "acting in good faith and will comply."
Apple seemingly had no trust in Epic and would not allow it to have a developer account. "Epic's egregious breach of its contractual obligations to Apple led courts to determine that Apple has the right to terminate 'any or all of Epic Games' wholly owned subsidiaries, affiliates, and/or other entities under Epic Games' control at any time and at Apple's sole discretion.' In light of Epic's past and ongoing behavior, Apple chose to exercise that right," the company said in a statement.
Sweeney's response was visual, to say the least, stating, "This is the medieval feudal lord, mounting the skulls of their former enemies on their castle walls," CNBC reports.
This disagreement is the latest in nearly half a decade of issues between the two companies — you could throw a dart at a board filled with fights in the tech industry (of which there are many) and still have a good chance of hitting an Epic Games and Apple face-off. The friction between the pair started in 2020 when a Fortnite update allowed gamers to buy digital coins through a direct payment feature, thus going around Apple's rule that iOS games use in-app purchases (giving them a 30 percent cut). Epic sued Apple, with California's Ninth Circuit Court ruling in favor of the game developer. The Supreme Court declined to take up the case, in which both Apple and Epic appealed the ruling (Epic claimed there were "legal errors" and that Apple had violated federal antitrust laws).
The EU's decision comes just as the DMA finally goes into effect. The new law states that "gatekeepers," such as Apple, Microsoft and Meta, can't favor their own systems or prohibit third party developers from interoperating with them. Apple could be forced to pay ten percent of its annual worldwide revenue if found in violation of the DMA and 20 percent if it's a repeat offender. Apple recently received its first fine from the EU, a €1.8 billion ($1.96 billion) charge for restricting competitors' music streaming apps.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/eu-regulators-probe-apples-latest-epic-games-takedown-130016452.html?src=rss
ANKARA, TURKIYE - JUNE 20: The logo of Epic Games is displayed on a mobile phone screen inside of the logo of Apple in Ankara, Turkiye on June 20, 2023. (Photo by Arda Kucukkaya/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) limits the power of big platform holders, but it may have also created a new revenue stream (and some drama) for those same big names. Google has followed Apple’s lead in imposing extra charges on developers who want to circumvent its own app storefront. Companies luring users outside the Play Store will need to pay Google a cut of in-app purchases and subscriptions. I’m sure everyone will treat this as rationally as when Apple announced it too.
At the same time, Apple has once again suspended Epic Games’ developer access, concerned the games giant isn’t going to play by its rules. The iPhone maker pointed to tweets made by (Epic CEO) Tim Sweeney, suggesting a lack of faith in the company’s rules. Apple more or less said out loud it couldn’t trust Epic, especially given its track record of agreeing to work within Apple’s rules and then very publicly breaking those rules.
You can buy one without a prescription in the summer.
The FDA has approved Dexcom’s Stelo Glucose Biosensor as the first wearable continuous glucose monitor to be sold over the counter. Sales of the device will begin this summer to help people who aren’t using insulin to manage their diabetes and also for more general use. I was surprised to learn these weren’t available to buy already since, in the UK, a startup called Zoe has been selling implantable monitors as part of its weight loss program for ages.
Shane Jones has blown the whistle on AI images before.
Microsoft’s rush to incorporate AI into so many user-facing products has driven whistleblower Shane Jones to the FTC. They wrote to the body, saying Copilot Designer can be used to create inappropriate images and should be removed until better safeguards are in place. The Windows giant and OpenAI have both previously said robust tools exist to steer the model away from creating some of the gruesome images Jones has alleged to have generated.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-more-fallout-from-the-digital-markets-act-121534557.html?src=rss
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 09: The exterior of the new headquarters of Google is seen at 550 Washington Street in Hudson Square on January 09, 2024 in New York City. Designed by COOKFOX Architects, the 1.3-million-square-foot project involved the restoration and expansion of the St. John’s Terminal building along the Hudson River waterfront. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
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