In this installment of What We're Listening To, Engadget writers and editors discuss some of the recent music releases we've had on repeat. It's safe to say there's some variety on this list.

Sierra Ferrell - Trail of Flowers 

Sierra Ferrell seems almost like an anachronism in 2024, but in the best possible way. She has this effortless, old-timey country style that is at points reminiscent of the likes of The Carter Family or Flatt and Scruggs (her brilliant covers of songs once performed by the latter duo are permanently seared into my brain), and it’s just so refreshing. Trail of Flowers, Ferrell’s second studio album, toes a little further into a more modern sound, but it maintains this deeply Americana feel that just seems to roll off the West Virginia-born artist so naturally.

Country music isn’t just one thing, and neither is Trail of Flowers. It meanders through different flavors — folk, bluegrass, hints of jazz — but it manages to do so in a way that feels cohesive when it’s all taken together. The wistful “American Dreaming” and “Wish You Well” are offset by sillier, whimsical numbers like “I Could Drive You Crazy” or the deep cut cover, “Chitlin' Cookin' Time in Cheatham County.” Tracks like “Money Train,” “I’ll Come Off the Mountain” and “Lighthouse” are instantly catchy. “Why Haven’t You Loved Me Yet” and “No Letter” feel like classics in the making.

And then there’s the cheekily sinister, scorned-lover’s lament, “Rosemary.” It’s one of the songs that first got me hooked on Sierra Ferrell years ago, as I imagine is the case for a lot of fans who have followed Ferrell’s career since her busking days or her unforgettable GemsOnVHS performances. I was almost nervous to hear it on Trail of Flowers, with a full production, after loving the raw, stripped-down recording I’ve been replaying on YouTube for so long. But they’ve done a beautiful job of capturing that magic, and “Rosemary” may be my favorite track on the album. It’s hard to pick, though.

Castle Rat - Into the Realm 

Sometime early last year, I discovered something I didn’t realize was missing from my life: medieval fantasy doom metal. I was at a show at the gloriously trippy Brooklyn Made watching an opener ahead of the band I’d gone there to see, and unexpectedly found myself witness to an on-stage choreographed sword fight (well, there was a scythe involved too) between a woman in chainmail and someone wearing a hooded rat mask and lingerie. I’d already been enraptured by the band’s heavy, immersive riffs and the singer’s hypnotic 1970s-esque vocals, but in that moment, yeah, things really clicked into place. This was my introduction to Castle Rat, and it was a damn good one.

I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of their debut album ever since, and from the second it dropped last month — an LP called Into the Realm — I’ve pretty much been playing it on a nonstop loop. It would actually be embarrassing if you were to check the number of times I’ve listened to the album’s standout ballad, “Cry For Me.” It is a haunting, emotional song that really takes you on a journey and I’m a little obsessed with it. Into the Realm opens strong with the boppy “Dagger Dragger,” and some real heavy-hitters follow in tracks like “Feed the Dream,” “Fresh Fur” and “Nightblood.” “Red Sands” is a slow-building powerhouse, and I’ve even found myself loving the three roughly minute-long instrumental interludes that tie the whole album together.

Doom bands love a good theme (as do I), and we tend to see a lot of weed, witchcraft, science fiction and fantasy pop up throughout the subgenres that fall under this umbrella. Castle Rat definitely isn’t the first to have a shtick, but there’s a certain freshness to the band’s even more specific, self-described medieval fantasy brand, perhaps because they commit to it so hard. Their ‘70s and ‘80s influences are obvious, yet everything they’ve put out so far still feels original. Some people might find the whole thing gimmicky, but I think it’s working. Especially since they have the chops to back it up. I’m excited to see where Castle Rat goes from here.

Honorable Mentions:

Girl with No Face, Allie X— Another song I’ve been listening to an embarrassing amount these days is Weird World, off Allie X’s latest album, Girl with No Face. I somehow haven’t tired myself of it yet, it makes me go absolutely feral. Girl with No Face is full of synth-pop gems, like “Off With Her Tits” — a dancey, angsty anthem sure to resonate with anyone who has experienced dysphoria around their body image — “John and Johnathan,” “Black Eye” and “Staying Power.”

Club Shy, Shygirl — This is just a collection of straight-up bangers. It’s not even 16 minutes long, but it really hits. If you need an instant mood-elevator ahead of a night out, this album is it.

Stampede: Volume 1, Orville Peck — Orville Peck’s first release in his fringeless era is a duets album, the first part of which was released on Friday and features artists including Willie Nelson, Noah Cyrus and Elton John. I haven’t had much time to spend with Stampede: Volume 1 yet, but I’m into it so far. “Conquer the Heart” ft. Nathaniel Rateliff and “How Far Will We Take It?” with Noah Cyrus feel like they combine the best elements of Pony (2019) and Bronco (2022). Bronco came in two waves, so I expect we’ll see a Volume 2 for Stampede before long, too.

— Cheyenne MacDonald, Weekend Editor

Hannah Jadagu - Aperture

Whenever I hear the words “banger” or “bop,” I don’t think about artists like Taylor Swift. I think about the nebulous musical genre known as bedroom pop. Bop, after all, is right there in the name. Hannah Jadagu is a bedroom pop wizard of the highest order. Her first EP was made entirely on an old iPhone and still slaps, though she has since graduated to real recording studios. Jadagu’s latest full-length on Sub Pop, Aperture, is filled with both bangers and bops, and my favorite is the lovelorn “Say It Now.” Listen to this thing. It just may be the perfect pop song and is absolutely crying out for some road trip singalongs. The shoegaze-adjacent “What You Did” is another classic and would be at home on any decent summer playlist.

— Lawrence Bonk, Contributing Reporter

Justice - Hyperdrama

Justice’s first full-length release Cross from 2007 is one of my favorite albums of all time. Not only did it define the crunchy electronic sound of the blog house era in the late 2000s and early 2010s, it also felt like a new French duo had picked up where Daft Punk left off following 2005’s Human After All. Now Justice is back with its fourth album in Hyperdrama. But instead of being inspired by a specific genre of music like we heard in Audio, Video, Disco’s stadium rock tracks or Woman’s disco-fueled beats, this album feels more like the soundtrack to a moody sci-fi thriller, almost as if this is Justice’s alternate reality take on the Tron: Legacy soundtrack.

“Generator” is a certified banger and probably the song that sounds the most like classic Justice. “Neverender” and “One Night/All Night” are also highlights, though I think Justice may have leaned a bit too heavily on Tame Impala to give this album personality. “Dear Alan” delivers super smooth vibes and Thundercat makes a delightful appearance and finishes things strong in “The End.” 

The one thing I really miss is at least one truly danceable track like we got on all of the band’s previous albums. I also have to admit that some of the songs in the middle blend together in a less-than-memorable way. So while Hyperdrama isn’t the top-to-bottom masterpiece that Cross was a decade and a half ago, more Justice isn’t a bad thing.

— Sam Rutherford, Senior Reporter

Utada Hikaru - Science Fiction

Over the past few weeks, I've mostly been listening to songs from Science Fiction, the first greatest hits album by J-Pop artist Utada Hikaru. I've been a fan since they released their debut album First Love back in 1999, when people were far more likely to be weirded out by the fact that yes, you can enjoy music with lyrics in a language you don't understand. Utada has been in and out of the J-Pop scene since then, and there were long stretches of time when I wouldn't hear anything about them. Every new music drop is a gift, especially this album, since it's tied to an upcoming concert tour, which they only do once in a blue moon.

Utada experienced a resurgence in 2022 when their songs “First Love” and “Hatsukoi” — which also translates to “first love” — were featured in a hit Japanese drama series on Netflix called (you guessed it) First Love. Those tracks are, of course, in Science Fiction, which also includes songs from various points in Utada's career. 

The album will take you on a journey from when they mostly wrote R&B-inspired pop to an era when their music became more experimental, and it will introduce you to their current sound, which is both mainstream and unique. While some of the re-recorded versions of their older songs like “Traveling” don't quite hit the mark, it's still a good representation of who Utada is as a musician. As a long-time fan, though, this album isn't just a collection of songs to me, but a collection of memories from different stages of my life.

— Mariella Moon, Contributing Reporter

Caroline Polachek - “Starburned and Unkissed”

There are a few reasons that “Starburned and Unkissed” stands out against the I Saw the TV Glow soundtrack, which is replete with not only beloved mainstays like Broken Social Scene's “Anthems For A Seventeen-Year Old Girl” as well as other original songs from luminaries like Phoebe Bridgers and Hop Along's Frances Quinlan. If cornered, I would say the most brilliant thing about “Starburned and Unkissed,” its greatest strength, is that it's just a little too slow. 

Every note stretches and yearns with the impatience of adolescence, verges on running out of air, of snapping in two. Much like the scene of the utterly and equally brilliant I Saw the TV Glow it was written for, it captures the sleepy anxiety of a too-warm high school, overcrowded and isolating. The heaviness of its crushing guitars ebbs and flows unsteadily, mimicking the experimentation of callow hands. (It takes the second try on the chorus for the drums and guitars to all come in on cue.) 

It's unstable, hopeful. Caroline's voice — gently mangled by intentional autotune pitch shifts — falls out of key in the song's last few refrains, threatening to derail the dreamy beauty of the past three minutes. It ends abruptly, begging for another listen, another return to a time that can't be recaptured.

Honorable mentions:

“Lover's Spit Plays in the Background,” Claire Rousay — Rousay's sentiment is a perfect album for reading outside on an overcast day. I'm not sure I can pick a standout track, as the experience is really in letting the whole thing wash over you, but this one's close enough.

“Stickers of Brian,” Hot Mulligan — Classic pop punk subject matter (“my job sucks and I hate everyone”) but my god what an earworm.

“On Brand,” Ekko Astral — Levels of snottiness previously considered unachievable. Hard not to love what a beautiful mess these folks make.

“Cometh the Storm,” High on Fire — Most of High on Fire's 20+ years of output sounds like — and lyrically is probably about — an axe-wielding barbarian ripping a bong, or whatever other D&D nonsense they're up to. (I say this lovingly. I adore High on Fire.) The title track off the new one is… unusually dirge-like? At first it felt very “old band showing their age” but it's grown on me as an intentional and welcome change. They're not off the hook for using AI for the “Burning Down” music video though. C'mon guys.

— Avery Ellis, Deputy Editor, Reports

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/what-were-listening-to-trail-of-flowers-hyperdrama-science-fiction-and-more-143052023.html?src=rss

If you've been seeing more Waymo robotaxis recently in Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles, that's because more and more people are hailing one for a ride. The Alphabet-owned company has announced on Twitter/X that it's now serving more than 50,000 paid trips every week across three cities. Waymo One operates 24/7 in parts of those cities. If the company is getting 50,000 rides a week, that means it receives an average of 300 bookings every hour or five bookings every minute. Waymo has revealed, as well, that it's had over one million rider-only trips across four cities, including Austin, where it's currently offering limited rides to select members of the public.

In its announcement, Waymo credited its "safe and deliberate approach" to scaling its program for reaching the milestone. "We see people from all walks of life use our service to travel carefree, gain independence, reclaim their commute and more. Fully autonomous ride-hailing is a reality and a preferred mobility option for people navigating their cities every day," it added. 

While Waymo certainly seems to be doing better than Cruise, which only recently re-deployed some of its autonomous vehicles following a much-needed hiatus, it's had its share of controversies. In April, six Waymo robotaxis blocked traffic in a San Francisco freeway, and it was just one of the instances wherein the company's vehicles caused traffic blockage. Earlier this year, two Waymo vehicles crashed into the same pickup truck one after the other, because their software had incorrectly predicted the future movements of the truck. The company issued a software recall after the incident to fix the issue and prevent similar incidents from happening. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/waymo-says-its-robotaxis-are-now-making-50000-paid-trips-every-week-130005096.html?src=rss

© Waymo

The following includes spoilers for “The Devil’s Chord.”

For a show about time (and space) travel interwoven with British pop culture since its start in 1963, a trip to visit the Beatles is an obvious premise. So obvious that this is the second time we’ve had a “what if” episode hinging on the Fab Four’s cultural impact. After all, both the Beatles and Doctor Who became global cultural exports as Britain flexed its post-imperial soft power. But while there’s plenty of material to mine in that premise, this isn’t an episode that’s interested in doing that, relegating the Beatles to little more than window dressing.

This has always been a trick in Doctor Who’s toolbox, especially when Russell T. Davies is in charge. He loves dangling an idea, or eye-catching visual, to lure in an audience before moving the focus to something else. I’m reminded of the kung-fu monks from “Tooth and Claw” which looked great in the trailers but had no real impact on the story. It’s “Tooth and Claw” that “The Devil’s Chord” feels similar to — an early season one episode that doesn’t quite work in and of itself, but does spend a lot of its time gesturing to this year’s recurring themes. (FilmStories reported from a recent Q&A, where Davies said that this episode lacked a central plot and was, instead, "Just some subplots.")

James Pardon/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios

But to understand that, and my stance, we’re going to have to take a little look at The Context before we get to examining the meat. You see, during its history, Doctor Who has bent itself to fit the vision of its primary creative figure and Davies is a voracious watcher of TV. He’s obsessed with the form and format of TV as much as its content, and this is reflected in his work. His episodes often develop with news reports, CCTV clips and deeper forms of exposition revealed through screens. “Bad Wolf” is a great example, where the show lands at a TV studio that’s making sci-fi versions of the then-current pantheon of British reality TV.

Davies also trusts his audience to instinctively know the unspoken rules of TV even if they can’t name them. Which is why I think it’s worth looking at “The Devil’s Chord” as an episode that is, for want of a better phrase, collapsing in on itself. When Mrs. Flood talks to the camera at the end of “Church on Ruby Road,” it felt Deliberately Wrong, especially after she was seemingly unaware of the TARDIS earlier in the episode. Here, the numerous fourth wall breaks and lapses in storytelling are similarly an intentional sign of How Wrong Things Are. What starts out as a by-the-numbers celebrity historical quickly collapses into a fever dream like Sam Lowry’s descent into madness at the end of Brazil.

James Pardon/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios

We open in a concert hall in 1925 as a teacher outlines the basics of music theory for a young child. He shows off that he has “discovered” The Devil’s Chord and, by playing it, unleashes Maestro (Jinkx Monsoon), the embodiment of music. Maestro is a godlike elemental force and a child of the Toymaker – featured villain of the 60th Anniversary special episode “The Giggle.” After praising the musician for their genius, Maestro then sucks the music out of their heart and eats it like cotton candy before staring into the camera and playing the show's theme tune on the piano.

When the titles end (notice the theme is playing out of the jukebox) it’s clear Ruby has been on the TARDIS for some time. She asks the Doctor if it would be possible to visit the recording of the Beatles’ first album at the EMI’s studios on Abbey Road. Before they open the doors, she asks if it might be worth them changing into less conspicuously modern clothes and they spring off to sample the delights of the TARDIS wardrobe, complete with a wig for the Doctor.

James Pardon/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios

The pair sneak into George Martin’s producer’s booth but quickly spot something is wrong with the scene in front of them. Rather than playing any of Please Please Me’s big and recognizable hits, they’re turning out mop-top music about animals. The Doctor doesn’t know it yet but Maestro has spent the last few decades swallowing all of the music out of people’s hearts. It’s a genius way to get around the fact that, even with all the cash thrown at Get Back and Disney’s vast bank balance, Doctor Who still can’t readily afford to license Beatles songs.

Next door, (famous British singer / TV presenter / notorious diva) Cilla Black is similarly stricken with a case of the muzaks while a concert orchestra is just about mustering a version of Three Blind Mice. The Doctor and Ruby head to the canteen to corner John and Paul to try and find out what went wrong with history. They then head to the roof with a piano, where Ruby plays a tune she wrote to help a friend get over a breakup. But once the Doctor hears Maestro’s giggle, he sprints away, hiding in a nearby basement.

James Pardon/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios

The Doctor explains that any villain who laughs is tied to the Toymaker and is a sign of the fractured universe. Fighting the Toymaker in “The Giggle” was sufficiently draining and difficult, especially given how powerful these elemental forces are, that he doesn’t want to do it again. Maestro is hunting for them, but the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to kill all of the sound in the area. (The Doctor knows just enough about how the form and format of TV works to turn the tables on their opponent.) Maestro works out how to undo the blocking – with some magnificent sound editing — but is then distracted from their pursuit of the Doctor by an older woman Ruby had inspired to play the piano.

The eagle-eyed among you will notice that this is the second time in two episodes that Ruby has inspired another person to be bold to their detriment. Her words were enough to encourage Eric to try and take on the bogeyman single-handed in “Space Babies,” nearly imperiling him. The older woman isn’t so lucky and gets consumed by Maestro

Because of how long Doctor Who has run, it's often its own source material. Ruby, once they’ve escaped, assumes that everything is okay because she recalls listening to music as a child and so therefore Maestro can’t have won. So, in a scene pulled from “Pyramids of Mars,” the Doctor takes her to 2024 in the TARDIS to show the wreckage of the alternate future. Because while she’s protected from the ravages of continuity by the fact she’s traveling through time, the rest of the universe isn’t so lucky.

Natalie Seery/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios

But this flash-forward, in an echo of the meeting with the Toymaker, flips from a visage of a bombed-out London to a stagey set. Maestro arrives behind a white piano to outline their plan to rid the universe of music, leaving just the aeolian tones of the wind brushing against objects. But the Doctor says that a universe without music, unable to express joy or anger through art, turns sour and destroys itself. It's a feeling I can relate to — like when love becomes so painful in its absence that you'd rather disappear into the void than keep going on. Davies is also a nihilist so many of his episodes have revolved around the dark face of humanity that reveals itself when denied Earthly pleasures.

Escaping back to the ‘60s, the Doctor and Ruby meet Maestro and find the walls of reality are collapsing. Murray Gold’s swirling soundtrack isn’t just the background music, it’s bled into the fabric of the show itself. The Doctor and Ruby start trying to find a chord that will bind Maestro with the Mrs. Mills piano, a (real) fixture of Abbey Road’s studio. As they play, the notes are rendered floating over the piano, but the pair fail to identify the final note before Maestro turns up.

Maestro begins attacking, throwing around musical scores as weapons and hurling the piano into the hall. It’s here that the episode’s coherence starts to sag, the scenes get longer and odder, a wonky version of a standard monster-of-the-week TV show conclusion. The tension builds, and all looks lost, until John and Paul stumble upon the piano in the hallway. They’re able to see the notes hanging in the air over the piano and with their, uh, innate musical nous, and complete the chord to bind the villain. But before they’re whisked away, Maestro has time to reveal they aren’t the only one of the Toymaker’s minions coming, and “the one who waits” is lurking in the background.

Out of nowhere, the episode ends with a big musical number that features the cast dancing through the Abbey Road sets, delighted at the return of music. Even the steps of the road crossing light up as the Doctor and Ruby cut a rug across them. I can’t work out if it’s simply an indulgent sequence, or another big sign that the show’s structure is breaking down. That the Doctor and Ruby are blind to the apparent Wrongness of it all hints at the latter, especially given the deeper context of the song’s title — see below.

James Pardon/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios

There are other signs that Doctor Who is collapsing into its own TV series, including the casting decisions. The older woman who plays the piano is June Hudson, the show’s costume designer from 1978 to 1980 — who famously redesigned the fourth Doctor’s costume. The musician at the piano during the dance number is Murray Gold, while the figures the Doctor and Ruby dance with at the end are Strictly Come Dancing stars Shirley Ballas and Johannes Radebe. Maybe the big nemesis haunting the series will be some form that could threaten its existence as a TV show itself.

It’s worth saying that Doctor Who has an uneasy relationship with “big” villain performances which can turn hard into hamminess. But Jinkx Monsoon manages to pitch Maestro as just big and flamboyant enough to steal every scene they’re in, but never too silly. It’s also the right side of charming and magnetic, and while they don’t have anywhere near enough time to properly face off against Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor, it’s still a great match-up.

The problem of Susan Twist

As much as I don’t want to get into the weeds here, it’s possible this stuff is going to come up later that I need to flag it. Doctor Who has been running for more than 60 years with a revolving door of creative figures who paid little-to-no attention to consistency. A convenient way to justify these is by suggesting time travel, by its very nature, would always mess up your personal history. But, in latter days, the show has often preferred to overlook the thornier parts of its backstory, like the existence of the Doctor’s granddaughter, Susan.

When the show started, the Doctor was joined on his adventures by Susan and a pair of teachers who followed her home one night. Long before any mention of Time Lords or Gallifrey, she was just the kid figure who often wound up needing rescuing. Then, in “The Dalek Invasion of Earth,” the Doctor exiles her to 22nd century Earth because she wants to kiss a boy. His goodbye speech has been long since de-contextualized and made to sound noble. But it is essentially him going “yeah, you’re interested in boys now, so you go make babies (eww babies) and stay here while I go off running around the universe.” Yes, it is a bit yikes.

This ties in with a small body of writing about this trope in children’s literature about the way female characters are treated when reaching adulthood. In combination with a sexual awakening, this is often used as justification to dump them out of the narrative. It’s even called “The Problem of Susan,” albeit named after Neil Gaiman’s rebuttal of what happens to Susan at the end of The Chronicles of Narnia. If you’d like to learn more, you can read Elizabeth Sandifer’s essay on "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" which talks about this in some detail.

Why is this relevant? Because when Davies’ returned to Doctor Who, he cast the same actress in two different episodes. Susan Twist played Mrs. Merridew in "Wild Blue Yonder" and was seen again in "The Church on Ruby Road," which sent keen-eyed fans into a frenzy. She pops up here as a tea lady and, on the roof of Abbey Road; the Doctor even talks about the fact another of his incarnations is living in Shoreditch in 1963 with his granddaughter. That the episode ends with a musical number called “There’s always a Twist at the end” with Ncuti Gatwa winking to camera is as big a neon sign as you could hope for.

Doctor Who fans — never ones to not scour the text, metatext and paratext of each episode — took Twist’s repeated casting as a signpost. They assumed, not unjustifiably, that this series would feature a twist about Susan, and that Davies was subtly signaling this to diehard fans. Given Twist’s appearance here, and that we get a song saying the quiet part out loud, seems to vindicate those theories. Unless, of course, it’s all a triple bluff, but I’m not sure how anyone could game that successfully. The only question that remains, of course, is what Davies' plan is, and how exactly it’ll play out in the next six episodes.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/doctor-who-the-devils-chord-review-is-this-madness-010056449.html?src=rss

© Natalie Seery/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios

The following includes spoilers for “Space Babies.”

You can’t help but admire Russell T. Davies’ audacity. He plucks the rights to make Doctor Who from the BBC. He gets Disney+ to write an enormous check to bring the show to life in a way never before attempted. Then, with so much money at stake and a months-long promotional campaign, he opens season one and the door to new fans with this.

We kick off at the end of “The Church on Ruby Road,” with the Doctor's latest companion, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), entering the TARDIS for the first time. The Doctor introduces himself and offers a quick run-through of the premise for the folks at home. They’re an alien, adopted by the Time Lords of Gallifrey who were then wiped out. That leaves the Doctor (once again) as the last of their kind; a quasi-immortal time traveler who can go anywhere in the universe.

To set the scene, the pair hop back to prehistoric Wyoming to gaze at a detailed vista of some CGI dinosaurs. This is the show boasting about what it can do even for a throwaway scene with its new bigger budget. And it helps banish the memories of some of the less successful attempts to do a dinosaur episode from way back when.

Ruby is already savvy to the conventions of the time-travel genre and asks about the risks to causality if she steps on a butterfly. The Doctor dismisses this idea out of hand before Ruby does and causes unutterable damage to the timeline. The butterfly is quickly revived and the Doctor nips back into the TARDIS to activate the Butterfly Compensator. Which is as close as this show gets to saying that it has never been a hard sci-fi show and it never will be.

James Pardon/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios

For their next trip, they travel into the far future, landing on a space station that grows babies for colony projects. The bowels of the vessel are being stalked by an eyeless, teeth-heavy monster while the upper deck is crewed by talking babies. Mere seconds after proving the show can do decent-looking dinosaurs, it overreaches and adds an appallingly creepy CGI mouth to a baby. I’ve seen this done in movies, and commercials, and it never works, and please God stop trying.

The Doctor and Ruby encounter the crew, a bunch of babies with the minds of preschoolers and the mouths of adults, or something. They’ve been left to run the station, with pulleys and cables letting them control specific onboard functions, and smart strollers to carry them around. The only other presence on the ship is an AI, NAN-E, which acts as a comforting voice for the kids.

Ruby’s genre-savviness kicks in again here, and she notices there’s almost a storybook quality to the situation. A bunch of kids being menaced by an unwelcome, bogeyman-esque presence below, and the need for a hero to step in and rescue them. The pair give the babies some much-needed cuddles and are then invited to another part of the station by NAN-E.

On the way, the pair discuss origin stories and how Ruby, following on from the events of “The Church on Ruby Road,” wants to use the TARDIS to find out who her parents are. While they talk, snow — the same snow that fell when Ruby was left on the steps of the eponymous church — starts to fall inside the corridor. Ruby’s memories and history are somehow seeping through into the present, or she’s able to do something to alter the universe.

James Pardon/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios

But they can’t focus on that too much, since they’re interrupted by NAN-E, who turns out not to be an AI, but a person. Jocelyn Sancerre (Golda Rosheuvel) is the last adult crew member, who stayed on the station to care for the children when everyone else was ordered to leave. The government of the planet below pulled funding for the stations and ordered the adults to leave, abandoning the children in place. But, because the planet is also anti-abortion, they wouldn’t terminate the as-yet unborn babies, preferring them to slowly die from external factors. Geez, do you think they might be talking about us?

Much as this will be framed as a post-Roe story by US audiences, it’s worth saying the UK’s Conservative Party has taken a similar approach. In 2010, the Labour government had worked to greatly reduce child poverty and homelessness with a number of targeted programs. These were quickly unwound by the incoming Conservatives, not only undoing all of those gains but making the issue a lot worse. So much so that the UN – the UN! – of all people upbraided the nation.

The streak of saying the quiet part out loud continues when, while hatching a plan to save the babies, they opt to take them to another planet in the system. It’s a world that takes in refugees, but you have to turn up on the planet’s doorstep to get any help, because it won’t lift a finger to help rescue people in need from further afield. Again, this is a not-so oblique reference to the UK’s monstrous policy of attempting to block refugees from reaching the country via sea. It is a point of enormous pride for the Prime Minister that he has boasted about his work to prevent boat crossings.

This is made all the more painful as, for a brief moment, the country was reconsidering its approach following the death of Alan Kurdi, a two-year-old boy who drowned while attempting passage to Europe from Syria. The image of his body became a harrowing and defining image of the day, but the press quickly worked to stifle any pro-migrant sentiment, enabling the country to engage in an enormous boondoggle by spending millions of pounds building a detention center in Rwanda to forcibly-relocate people seeking asylum in the UK as a “deterrent.”

James Pardon/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios

The grown ups can’t mull their problems for long as Eric, one of the babies (sorry, space babies) heads down to the lower level to tackle this bogeyman. There’s a telling moment where Ruby sprints out to rescue the child far ahead of the Doctor, continuing a thread from the Christmas special: Ruby Sunday is willing to throw herself head-first into the action rather than waiting for help, steel pipe in hand. Doctor Who has always thrived when the companions — a name we’ve been saddled with since 1963 — are active figures in the narrative. Every one of the show’s sidekicks, bar one, has their ardent fans, but commanding figures like Sarah Jane and Ace are always the most beloved.

Once the baby is rescued by the other babies wielding a gas pipe as a flamethrower, they’re sent back upstairs while the Doctor and Ruby take on the bogeyman. Ruby’s assumptions are proved further right when it turns out the alien is actually a bogey-man, as in made of snot. The station’s malfunctioning systems sought to build an appropriate environment for the kids, and used children’s literature as its template.

Jocelyn works out that she can force the bogeyman toward an airlock while keeping the Doctor and Ruby safe. She then exposes the monster to the void of space, but the Doctor can’t be so cruel to another lonely, misunderstood figure. He makes his way into the airlock room and closes the door to seal them both in to save the bogeyman’s life.

The episode ends with the Doctor realizing that the station can eject its six full years worth of soiled diapers to propel it towards the refugee planet. It’s entirely fair game to resolve a crisis precipitated by rogue bodily fluids with a poop joke.

Crisis averted, he and Ruby walk back to the TARDIS where he gives her a key and welcomes her to the team, before adding that, as much as she may want to, he can’t take her back to the moment she was abandoned. He covertly begins scanning Ruby to work out what exactly is her deal, and why she’s capable of bending the universe. (And yes, there are shades of the Impossible Girl arc in how this is playing out.)

The TARDIS lands back at Ruby’s home, smashing up the kitchen and the Christmas dinner therein.

James Pardon/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios

I imagine it won’t be long after the episode airs that the usual corners of the internet will scream culture war. Davies was always a political writer and feels a duty to be unapologetic about his viewpoint on current-day matters. His original tenure on the show was rooted at the tail-end of the Blair and Brown years, fueled by righteous fury around the invasion of Iraq. This is, again, all the more surprising given it’s being broadcast on Disney+, the model of conservative restraint.

During his first tenure, Davies would begin the production of every episode with a tone meeting which outlined how each episode would maintain a consistent feeling in the writing, acting and direction. By comparison, “Space Babies” lurches wildly: Poop and fart jokes in one scene, unsettling horror in the next, weighty examinations of human morality between. The scenes of Jocelyn’s adult dialog being run through the “nanny filter” is a good source of comedy, it’s just odd that they’re juxtaposed with high drama.

But that’s more or less what makes Doctor Who one of the best shows on TV — its ability to do anything it damn well pleases. If the weirdness of what you’ve just seen appeals then you’ve just become a Doctor Who fan. If it didn’t, then you might find the next episode will serve up what you were looking for.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/doctor-who-space-babies-review-bet-you-didnt-expect-that-000030277.html?src=rss

© James Pardon/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios

Apple will reportedly focus its first round of generative AI enhancements on beefing up Siri’s conversational chops. Sources speaking with The New York Times say company executives realized early last year that ChatGPT made Siri look antiquated. The company allegedly decided that the large language model (LLM) principles behind OpenAI’s chatbot could give the iPhone’s virtual assistant a much-needed shot in the arm. So Apple will reportedly roll out a new version of Siri powered by generative AI at its WWDC keynote on June 10.

Apple Senior Vice Presidents Craig Federighi and John Giannandrea reportedly tested ChatGPT for weeks before the company realized that Siri looked outdated. (I would argue that the epiphany came about a decade late.) What followed was what The NYT describes as Apple’s “most significant reorganization in more than a decade.”

The company sees generative AI as a once-in-a-decade tentpole area worth shifting heaps of resources to address. You may recall the company canceled its $10 billion “Apple Car” project earlier this year. Apple reportedly reassigned many of those engineers to work on generative AI.

Apple executives allegedly fear AI models could eventually replace established software like iOS, turning the iPhone into “a dumb brick” by comparison. The clunky, awkward and overall unconvincing first wave of dedicated AI gadgets we’ve reviewed, like the Human AI Pin and Rabbit R1, aren’t good enough to pose a threat. But that could change as software evolves, other smartphone makers incorporate more AI into their operating systems and other hardware makers have a chance to innovate.

So, at least for now, it appears Apple isn’t launching direct competitors to generative AI stalwarts like ChatGPT (words), Midjourney (images) or ElevenLabs (voices). Instead, it will start with a new Siri and updated iPhone models with expanded memory to better handle local processing. In addition, the company will reportedly add a text-summarizing feature to the Messages app.

Apple

Apple’s first foray into generative AI, if The NYT’s sources are correct, sounds like less of an immediate threat to creators than some had imagined. At its May iPad event, the company ran a video plugging the new iPad Pro that showed various creative tools crushed by a hydraulic press. The clip accidentally served as the perfect metaphor for the (legitimate) fears of artists, musicians and other creators, whose work AI models have trained on — and who stand to be replaced by those same tools as they become more normalized for content creation.

On Thursday, Apple apologized for the ad and said it canceled plans to run it on TV. 

Samsung and Google have already loaded their flagship phones with various generative AI features that go far beyond improving their virtual assistants. These include tools for editing photos, generating text and enhancing transcription (among other things). These features typically rely on cloud-based servers for processing, whereas Apple’s approach will allegedly prioritize privacy and handle requests locally. So Apple will apparently start with a more streamlined approach that sticks to improving what’s already there, as well as keeping most or all processing on-device.

The New York Times’ sources add that Apple’s culture of internal secrecy and privacy-focused marketing have stunted its AI progress. Former Siri engineer John Burkey told the paper that the company’s tendency to silo off the information various divisions share with each other has been another primary culprit in Siri’s inability to evolve far past where the assistant was when it launched a day before Steve Jobs died in 2011.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-big-ai-rollout-at-wwdc-will-reportedly-focus-on-making-siri-suck-less-203035673.html?src=rss

© Apple

Samsung’s HW-Q990C was the best overall soundbar I tested last year, mostly due to its stellar audio and the fact that a subwoofer and rear speakers came with it. The company didn’t change much for the 2024 version, the HW-Q990D, but one tweak delivers a feature last year’s model should’ve had: HDMI 2.1. There are some new audio modes too, but you can find those on other Samsung soundbars. The Q990D is as powerful as ever, but it’s still pricey at $2,000. If you already bought a Q990C, the company hasn’t given you a reason to upgrade just yet.

What’s new on the Samsung Q990D?

The biggest addition on the Q990D is HDMI 2.1. With this, Samsung addressed my main criticism of the Q990C, which debuted last year at a time when much of the competition had already adopted the standard. HDMI 2.1 delivers 4K passthrough at 120 frames per second, which will improve the visuals if you connect your PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X directly to the soundbar.

The Q990D also arrives with new audio modes. Private Listening turns off all of the front-firing drivers and uses only the rear satellite speakers. It’s basically an expanded version of the night mode a lot of companies offer on soundbars, aimed at reducing boomy bass when family or roommates might be asleep. My house has an open floor plan and my TV faces towards the hallway to the bedrooms, which means any soundbar will beam noise in that direction. Private Listening sends the audio the opposite way, and while you have to sacrifice some overall quality, it’s good enough for all the times you need to be quieter.

There’s also a new Party Play mode that provides more balanced sound between the soundbar and rear speakers for a better experience when you’re hosting a rager. When this is active, you get the full audio range rather than just the channels specifically programmed for the speakers behind you. I actually turned the speakers around and faced them out of the living room to project the re-tuned audio into other communal spaces. This makes a bigger difference for movies and TV because music already plays from the rear speakers with more balanced levels.

These two modes aren’t unique to the Q990D; the rest of the 2024 Q-series lineup will be able to use them too. This is the first time I’ve tested them though, and it’s notable that they actually work well on Samsung’s most expensive soundbar.

What’s good

Billy Steele for Engadget

The combination of a driver-packed soundbar, large subwoofer and more-robust rear speakers produces immersive sound that envelops my living room. Whether you’re listening to music or the soundscape of Dune, the Q990D retains the sonic prowess of its predecessor. Dolby Atmos content from Disney+ is as immersive as ever. I could hear the finer details of Knowhere in the opening scenes of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, including the life-like reverb of Radiohead’s “Creep” playing over a loudspeaker. The directional sounds of the town, including the hustle and bustle of people moving around, make it seem like you’re standing right there.

For music, there’s deep, boomy bass when a track calls for it, and that crisp detail that I heard in movies is here too. Justice’s Hyperdrama shows off the Q990D’s range, with driving low-end tone on songs like “Neverender” accompanied by textured synths. Quieter genres like jazz are a blanket of sound too, with albums like Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue offering subtleties that make you feel like you’re in the studio.

The thing I like most about the Q990D is that everything you need for a complete surround sound setup is included in the box. The subwoofer and rear speakers come with the soundbar and don’t require an additional purchase. Those satellite speakers also house up-firing and side-firing drivers, which isn’t always the case on comparable accessories from the competition. And the setup is as easy as plugging everything in because pairing with the rest of the system happens automatically.

What’s bad

Billy Steele for Engadget

An all-in-one setup is great, but that also means the Q990D is expensive. At $2,000, this is a considerable investment even if you’re getting everything you need in the package. The Q990D is currently on sale for $1,750, but we don’t know how long that discount will last. For comparison, Sony’s upcoming Bravia Bar 9 is $1,400. The cheapest subwoofer and rear speakers you can get for it are $400 and $350 respectively, which puts your total cost at $2,150. Of course, with Sony you have two options for subs and rears, and you don’t have to buy all of them. LG offers some respite if you want to go that route, with its S95TR coming in at $1,500 and including the subwoofer and rear speakers with up-firing drivers.

The overall size of the soundbar is something else you’ll need to consider. The Q990D houses 11 front-facing speakers, two up-firing drivers and a subwoofer. All of those components need space, and accommodating them means this soundbar ends up being quite large at 48.5 inches wide. While that’s not a deal-breaker per se, it does require some planning, so just know you’ll need ample room.

Like soundbars from other companies, the Q990D has some handy features that are reserved for Samsung TVs. For example, Q-Symphony, which uses your TV speakers in addition to the soundbar to expand the audio capabilities, requires a compatible 2020-2024 Samsung TV. The Q990D sounds great without this, but just know you’re not getting the full bag of tricks unless you also have a supported TV.

Wrap-up

Unless you care for the latest HDMI standards, the Q990D doesn’t offer a huge upgrade over last year’s model. Their design and features lists are nearly identical, except for two new sound modes and 4K/120 passthrough. And some of those additions are available on more-affordable Samsung soundbars. So if you already sprang for last year’s Q990C, there’s probably not enough reason to make another sizable investment. If you don’t already own a Samsung flagship soundbar, the Q990D offers boomy, immersive sound in an all-in-one package that now has all the modern conveniences it should.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsung-hw-q990d-soundbar-review-a-small-but-significant-update-180022782.html?src=rss

© Billy Steele for Engadget

Climate protestors in Germany broke through police barricades on Friday, amid clashes between activists and law enforcement. The protestors either made it onto (according to protestors) or near (according to local police) the grounds of a Tesla gigafactory in Grünheide, Germany, near Berlin. It’s part of a planned five-day demonstration ahead of a local government vote next week to determine whether Tesla’s plant can expand.

Wired flagged social media videos showing activists, many of whom have been camping out in treehouses in nearby forest encampments, running toward a Tesla building on the site. In addition, the German newspaper Welt said at least one person participating was injured. Police reportedly police used pepper spray and batons to try to thwart the crowd, and there were at least some arrests.

A spokesperson for one of the groups participating in the protests told Wired that they broke the police barriers and stormed the Tesla grounds. “Eight hundred people have entered the premises of the gigafactory,” Lucia Mende of Disrupt Tesla said. However, local police posted on X (Musk’s social media platform) that the activists only reached a field facing the site. “We have been able to prevent them from entering so far,” they posted.

Axel Schmidt via Getty Images

At least at first glance, it’s easy to wonder why activists are pouring so much energy into fighting Tesla. After all, despite Musk’s increasingly unhinged right-wing conspiracy-mongering and Nazi-catering on X, other automakers pushing gas-guzzling cars seem like more appropriate targets (not to mention the fossil fuel companies spending big bucks on anti-climate-reform disinformation). However, several factors make the issues at the heart of the protests less simplistic.

A (nonbinding) vote in February showed Grünheide residents opposed the expansion by almost a two-to-one ratio. If for no other reason, the local government having a chance to brush aside the overwhelming will of the voters in the name of capitalism is enough to raise the eyebrows of anyone who balks at minority rule.

Wired notes the area is also one of the most water-scarce in Germany, and residents worry the gigafactory will drain the resource, leaving much less for the humans who live there. The plant could also pollute local water supplies.

Those fears appear to have merit: The plant is licensed to use 1.4 million cubic meters of water annually, and a separate Wired report from Tuesday noted that’s enough to supply for a large town. As for the contamination fears, Tesla was fined in 2019 by the EPA for several hazardous waste violations at a California factory. The company paid a grand total of $31,000 to settle. (Tesla had a market cap of almost $76 billion in 2019.)

But some of the groups protesting have concerns that go much farther than those more immediate issues affecting the locals, instead taking issue with the entire electric vehicle movement. “Companies like Tesla are there to save the car industry, they’re not there to save the climate,” Esther Kamm, spokesperson for Turn Off the Tap on Tesla told Wired.

Another activist, who only gave Wired the name Mara, described the factory as the result of “green capitalism.” She views the EV movement as little more than a theatrical performance in the name of profit. “This has been completely thought up by such companies to have more growth, even in times of an environmental crisis,” she said.

I wouldn’t exactly say flipping the bird to the EV movement is a “workable” solution to the very real and pressing climate crisis. Regardless of your thoughts on the matter, the world needs to move quickly to fend off climate change’s most ravaging effects, and the scientific consensus is that the planned shift to EVs will need to play a central role.

Tesla reportedly told its employees at the factory to work from home on Friday, shutting down the plants for the planned protests. As for Friday’s protests, Welt reports that the situation had calmed by afternoon — at least for now.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/climate-protestors-clash-with-police-outside-teslas-german-gigafactory-175726961.html?src=rss

© Axel Schmidt via Getty Images

Swiss start-up Climeworks has done it again. The company just opened the world’s largest carbon capture plant in Iceland, dwarfing its own record of how much CO2 it can pull from the air. The company’s previous record-holding carbon capture plant, Orca, sucks around 4,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere per year, but the new plant can handle nearly ten times that, as reported by The Washington Post.

The plant’s called Mammoth and boasts 72 industrial fans that can pull 36,000 tons of CO2 from the air each year. Just like with Orca, the CO2 isn’t recycled. It’s stored underground and eventually trapped in stone, permanently (within reason) removing it from the environment. The plant’s actually located on a dormant volcano, so it’ll make a great hideout for a James Bond villain should it ever cease operations.

The location was chosen for its proximity to the Hellisheidi geothermal energy plant, which is used to power the facility's fans and heat chemical filters to extract CO2 with water vapor. After extraction, the CO2 is separated from the steam, compressed and dissolved in water. Finally, it’s pumped 2,300 feet underground into volcanic basalt. This compound reacts with the magnesium, calcium and iron in the rock to form crystals, which become solid reservoirs of CO2. It’s pretty nifty technology.

However, it’s not the end-all solution to climate change. It’s barely a blip. For the world to achieve "carbon neutrality" by 2050, "we should be removing something like six to 16 billion tons of CO2 per year from the air," said Climeworks founder Jan Wurzbacher, according to reporting by CBS News.

Therein lies the problem. This facility, the largest of its kind by a wide margin, can capture up to 36,000 tons of CO2 from the air each year, but that’s just 0.0006 percent of what’s needed to meet the minimum annual removal threshold as indicated by Wurzbacher. There are other plants, of course, but all of them combined don’t make a serious dent in what’s required to pull us from the brink.

To that end, Wurzbacher has pleaded with other companies to take up the cause. He says that Climeworks has a goal of surpassing millions of tons captured per year by 2030 and a billion by 2050. The company’s chief technology officer, Carlos Haertel, told 60 Minutes that scaling up the process globally is possible, but requires political will to rally behind the initiative.

The Biden administration recently committed $4 billion to jumpstart the industry here in the states and earmarked $1.2 billion for a pair of large-scale projects. The US Department of Energy also started a program called Carbon Negative Shot, with a goal of fostering the development of budget-friendly carbon capture technology.

The method of carbon capture deployed by Climeworks is just one of many approaches. These processes range from stacks of limestone blocks that absorb CO2 like a sponge to giant hot air balloons that freeze and trap the chemical compound. Restoring forests is another option, which is something companies like Apple and Goldman Sachs have experimented with. Which one is best? All of them together deployed at global scale. Whatever it takes. Climate change isn’t fooling around.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-worlds-largest-direct-carbon-capture-plant-just-went-online-172447811.html?src=rss

© Climeworks

The new iPad Pro and iPad Air — and the internet's reaction to how they've been advertised — may have been the big Apple news of the week, but we're turning our attention to AirPods for our latest deals roundup. More specifically, all four models in Apple's wireless headphone lineup are currently on sale. The noise-canceling AirPods Pro and third-gen AirPods back down to lows of $180 and $140, respectively, while the entry-level earbuds and top-end AirPods Max are both cheaper than usual at $80 and $450. Beyond that, we've also found noteworthy discounts on Amazon's Kindle, LG's C3 OLED TV, Keychron's budget-friendly C3 Pro keyboard and annual Paramount+ with Showtime subscriptions, among others. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-entire-airpods-lineup-is-discounted-plus-the-rest-of-the-weeks-best-tech-deals-164320939.html?src=rss

© Billy Steele/Engadget

Not all connected speakers have a voice assistant built in. The Sonos One SL, for instance, doesn't have a microphone. So, if you want to use your voice to control such devices, you may need to pick up a secondary smart speaker, such as Amazon's Echo Dot. As luck would have it, that little Alexa-enabled device is on sale for $28. That's 44 percent off and just $5 more than the record-low price.

That's not to say the Echo Dot isn't a decent speaker in its own right. In fact, we think it's the best smart speaker under $50.

Amazon has been steadily improving the Dot's audio quality over the years and the most recent version from 2022 pumps out far louder and clearer audio than could be reasonably expected from a sub-$50 speaker. The globe-shaped speaker has some physical buttons, including ones for volume control and another that mutes/unmutes the microphone if you don't want Alexa to remain alert for voice commands at all times.

If you'd prefer to save a few extra bucks, you could instead opt for the Echo Pop. That Alexa-enabled speaker is currently half off at $20. The colorful speaker also has a mic mute switch. It could prove to be a handy bedside speaker for listening to podcasts or a sleep story when it's time to nod off.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazons-echo-dot-drops-to-just-28-162815137.html?src=rss

© Amazon

They say "Twitter isn't real life," but Black Twitter proved otherwise. For years, that phrase has been a way to ignore the real-world impact of social media conversations, especially when they spark radically new ideas. But that's clearly not true when you look at Black Twitter, an unofficial community made up of the site's black users, which inspired culturally significant movements with hashtags like #BlackLivesMatter and #OscarsSoWhite. Hulu's new documentary, "Black Lives Matter: A People's History," adapted from Jason Parham's Wired article, explores the rise and global influence of the community. Over the course of three engaging and often hilarious episodes, the series cements itself as an essential cultural document.

"The way I would define Black Twitter is a space where Black culture specifically was hanging out in a digital way," said Prentice Penny, the series director and former show-runner of HBO's Insecure, in an interview on the Engadget Podcast. "And even though it was a public space — clearly, it's Twitter, anybody can get on it — it still felt like you were having conversations with your friends that are like on the back of the bus. Or like on the stoop, or in the lunchroom. I mean, that's the energy of it."

In particular, Penny says that Twitter felt special because there was no real hierarchy, especially in the early days. That meant that even celebrities weren't immune to being mocked, or acting out on their own social media profiles (like Rihanna's notorious early Twitter presence). Twitter in its heyday felt like a place where money or class didn't really matter.

"This was kind of an equalization of a lot of things, that somebody in Kentucky who nobody knows could have the same strong opinion as someone who you revere, right?" Penny said. "And I think that's what made the space so fresh, because we don't really have spaces that are kind of a level playing ground in this country."

Twitter also felt genuinely different from the other social networks in the late 2000s. At the time, Facebook was mostly focused on connecting you with schoolmates and family members — it wasn't really a place for simply hanging out and joking around. Prentice notes that the forced brevity on Twitter also made it unique, since you had to really focus on what you were trying to say in 140 characters. 

"Each of the creators [in the series] had a different idea of what Twitter should be," Penny added. "Some thought it should be a town square, some people thought it should be a news information thing... I think like with Black culture, the one thing we do really well is, because we're often given the scraps of things, we have to repurpose something, like taking the worst of the pig and making soul food... I think we are really good at taking things that could kind of be different things and make it be pliable for us."

The documentary recounts the many ways Black Twitter leveraged the platform, both for fun and for kicking off serious social movements. The community helped make live-tweeting TV shows a common occurrence, and it's one reason Scandal became a hit TV show. But Black users also helped raise the profile around Trayvon Martin's killing by George Zimmerman. His eventual acquittal led to the creation of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag, a movement which sparked national protests in 2020 following the killing of George Floyd and other Black Americans.

If you've been online and following the Black Twitter community for years, the Hulu documentary may not seem particularly revelatory. But there's value in charting the impact of cultural movements, especially given how quickly social media and the tech world moves.  

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hulus-black-twitter-documentary-is-a-vital-cultural-chronicle-161557720.html?src=rss

© Hulu

Google has released a security update for the Chrome browser to fix a zero-day vulnerability exploit that has been used by threat actors. This is the fifth time this year the company has had to issue a patch for one of these vulnerabilities, as reported by Bleeping Computer.

"Google is aware that an exploit for CVE-2024-4671 exists in the wild," the company said in a short advisory. It did not issue any specifics as to the nature of the real-world attack or the identity of the threat actors. This is common for Google, as it likes to wait until a majority of users have updated the software before announcing specific details.

We do know some stuff about the exploit. It’s being classified as a “high-severity issue” and as a “user after free” vulnerability. These bugs arise when a program references a memory location after it has been deallocated, leading to any number of serious consequences from a crash to a random execution of code. It looks like the CVE-2024-4671 vulnerability is attached to the visuals component that handles rendering and the display of content on the browser.

The exploit was discovered and reported to Google by an anonymous researcher. The fix is available for Mac, Windows and Linux and updates will continue to roll out to users over the coming days and weeks. Chrome updates automatically with security fixes, so users can confirm they are running the latest version of the browser by going to Settings and About Chrome. Users of Chromium-based browsers like Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera and Vivaldi should also update to a new version as soon as they are available. 

As stated, this is the fifth of this type of flaw addressed by Google this year. I don’t mean “within the last calendar year.” I mean in 2024. Three were discovered back in March at the Pwn2Own hacking contest in Vancouver. This isn’t a record or anything. Google found and fixed five in one month back in 2020.

Zero-day exploits have been a constant thorn in Google’s side. These are a type of cyberattack that take advantage of an unknown or unaddressed security flaw in computer software, hardware or firmware. The company typically pays out big money for bug discoveries, as part of its Vulnerability Rewards Program.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-just-patched-the-fifth-zero-day-exploit-for-chrome-this-year-153723334.html?src=rss

© Unsplash / Clint Patterson

A Prince of Persia game from the studio behind Dead Cells was supposed to hit early access on PC on May 14. That’s no longer the case. Evil Empire says The Rogue Prince of Persia’s debut is delayed until later this month, and it’s because of a little game called Hades II.

Soon after a technical test wrapped up, Supergiant Games released Hades II into early access on Monday. It skyrocketed up the Steam charts and quickly reached a peak of 102,000 concurrent players. Evil Empire suggested that “everyone and their mom” is playing Hades II, including its own team, so it’s getting out of that game’s way. The new early access date for The Rogue Prince of Persia will be revealed on Monday.

“While we have every confidence in The Rogue Prince of Persia, it’s not every day that a game in the same genre as you, which is one of the most anticipated upcoming games of 2024, will release into early access a week before you plan to do the same,” Evil Empire wrote on X. “We are not prideful enough to ignore the implications of that, and we truly believe that this short delay is the best decision for us and our early access journey.“

As it happens, the delay will also give Evil Empire some extra time to polish up The Rogue Prince of Persia. While the whole point of releasing a game in early access is to get feedback from players on a project that’s far from the finished article, developers still want their games to be in as good a shape as possible when the public goes hands on with them for the first time.

Evil Empire says it can “add even more cool things” and try to squish some bugs before the game’s debut. The team also has a bit more time to test and refine the “hefty” day one patch.

Getting out of Hades II’s way is a smart idea given the two games are both roguelikes. It’s nice to see Evil Empire being transparent about the reasons for the delay too. But there are a bunch of other indies that were released this week that reviewed well and have been overshadowed at least to some degree by that blockbuster sequel.

Another Crab’s Treasure (a cute spin on From Software's Soulslike format), PS1-style survival horror Crow Country, sci-fi title 1000xResist and adorable-looking adventure Little Kitty, Big City all debuted to strong reviews this week. So too did Animal Well, a Metroidvania about which the word “masterpiece” has been invoked by some reviewers (though that’s actually the number one best-selling game on Steam at the time of writing, just above Hades II).

The train doesn’t stop there as some other buzzed-about indies are arriving over the next couple of weeks, including Lorelei and The Laser Eyes (we’re very excited about that one) and Paper Trail. There’s another one coming next week that I’ve been playing and is worth checking out, though I can’t talk about it just yet.

Although there might not be too many AAA games from the likes of Sony, Microsoft and EA dropping at the minute, there’s a lot of fascinating stuff going on in the indie scene. So maybe go check some of those games out if you haven't already.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-rogue-prince-of-persia-is-delayed-because-hades-ii-is-a-juggernaut-144229150.html?src=rss

© Evil Empire/Ubisoft

As rumors foretold, Apple has revamped the iPad Pro with an M4 chip, tandem OLED screen and a thinner case. There's also a new Magic Keyboard that should deliver a more MacBook-like typing experience! In this week's episode, Cherlynn and Devindra discuss how Apple is shining a new light on tablets (which also includes the new iPad Air models) and reworking its vision of mobile computing. Does anyone really need the iPad Pro today? And could it be more compelling if iPadOS improves its multitasking capabilities? Also, we discuss the launch of Google's new mid-range phone, the Pixel 8a.

---

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

• New iPad Pro with OLED and M4 processor, iPad Air and Apple Pencil announced at ‘Let Loose’ event – 1:04

• Google announces Pixel 8a with 120Hz OLED screen and AI capability – 20:50

• What the heck happed with Helldivers 2? – 28:31

• Microsoft shuts down Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin – 34:10

• Hades 2 early access is out now – 42:01

• Around Engadget: Steve Dent reviews Fujifilm X100 VI – 45:39

• Working on – 48:38

• Pop culture picks – 52:08

Subscribe!

• iTunes

• Spotify

• Pocket Casts

• Stitcher

• Google Podcasts

Livestream

Credits 

Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/engadget-podcast-rabbit-r1-ai-review-113031272.html?src=rss

© Apple

Apple has apologized for its Crush! ad, which sparked a furious backlash among artists, musicians, and other creators. AdAge reports Apple said the video “missed the mark,” and it has scrapped plans to run the commercial on TV. The video shows a series of musical instruments and other tools for human expression, including a guitar, drums, trumpet, amplifiers, record player, TV and much more being crushed to “All I Ever Need Is You” by Sonny and Cher. The crusher pulls up to reveal an iPad. Tonally, you could see how it could be misconstrued.

Apple is rumored to have more AI tricks planned for its next WWDC, while this new iPad Pro has a chip that boasts a lot of AI power, all with the looming threat of AI to creatives.

But — and imagine I’m using my indoor voice, here — it’s just an ad. However, Apple is such a huge company that it wields a huge amount of influence. And everyone is watching.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

How to watch Google's I/O 2024 keynote

Nintendo is done paying Elon Musk for X integration on its consoles

Asteroids and Resident Evil join the World Video Game Hall of Fame

​​You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!

Jack Dorsey claims Bluesky is ‘repeating all the mistakes’ he made at Twitter

Bluesky was the Twitter spinoff.

In a rambling interview, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey claimed Bluesky was “literally repeating all the mistakes” he made while running Twitter. Dorsey’s complaints seem to boil down to two issues. First, he never intended Bluesky to be an independent company, with its own board and stock and other vestiges of a corporate entity. Instead, his plan was for Twitter — as it was called — to be the first client to take advantage of the open-source protocol Bluesky created.

Dorsey also didn’t like Bluesky’s form of content moderation, and how it has occasionally banned users for things like using racial slurs in their usernames. A lot of this isn’t particularly surprising. If you’ve followed Dorsey’s public comments over the last couple years, he’s repeatedly said Twitter’s “original sin” was being a company beholden to advertisers.

Continue reading.

An insulin pump software bug has injured over 200 people

The FDA has issued the highest level of recall for the app.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a Class I recall for the t:connect mobile app on iOS, which people with diabetes use to monitor and control an insulin pump. The FDA received 224 injury reports as of April 15. Insulin pumps, like the t:slim X2, automatically deliver insulin under the user’s skin at set intervals and whenever needed. The bug excessively drained power from the pump, meaning it could shut down without warning and before the user expected it to, leading to the under-delivery of insulin.

Continue reading.

Netflix and Roblox team up for a digital theme park

‘Mommmm, I want more corporate synergy!’

Netflix

This simply sounds horrible.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-apple-apologizes-for-its-ipad-pro-ad-that-crushed-human-creativity-111523044.html?src=rss

© Apple

In a couple of months, you'll be able to get Microsoft's mobile games from its own store. Xbox President Sarah Bond has revealed at the Bloomberg Technology Summit that the company is launching a web-based store where you can download its mobile games and get add-ons or in-app purchases at a discount. Bond said the company has decided to launch a browser-based store instead of an app to make it "accessible across all devices, all countries, no matter what" so that you don't get "locked to a single ecosystem."

Microsoft will only host its own games to start with, which means it will feature a lot of titles from Activision Blizzard. If you'll recall, it snapped up the gaming developer and publisher in a $70 billion deal that closed last year. You'll most likely find Candy Crush Saga, which has apparently generated $20 billion in revenue since it launched in 2012, and Call of Duty's mobile games in the first batch of titles available for download. Bond said that Minecraft may also be one of the first games you can get. 

An Xbox spokesperson told Bloomberg that this is "just the first step in [the company's] journey to building a trusted app store with its roots in gaming." Microsoft plans to open the app store to third-party publishers in the future, though it didn't share a timeline for that goal. 

The company first announced its intention to launch a gaming store for Android and iOS devices last year shortly before rules under the EU's Digital Markets Act became applicable. To comply with DMA rules, Apple and Google have to allow third-party app stores to be accessible on their platforms and to offer alternative billing systems for purchases. They're also compelled to allow app sideloading, which will be a massive change for Apple, a company known for its "walled garden" approach to business. 

Operators of third-party app stores will get to avoid some of the fees Google and Apple charge, but they'd still have to pay the companies for bypassing their mobile platforms' official stores. Both tech giants have already outlined how they're changing things up to comply with the DMA regulations. The companies' rivals found the changes they're making insufficient, however, prompting the European Commission to start investigating their compliance plans. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsofts-web-based-mobile-game-store-opens-in-july-090044359.html?src=rss

© Candy Crush Saga

Smart plugs aren’t the most complicated smart home devices — they really just turn stuff off and on — but they do make life a little easier. That’s what most people probably want from household automation anyway. In the past year or so of testing smart plugs, I’ve grown accustomed to having the living room lamps click on just before sunset and go off when I say goodnight to Alexa or the Google Assistant (Siri can turn off a few of my lights, but isn’t compatible with all of them). Most smart home device makers have a plug or two in their lineups, but finding one that’s compatible with your chosen ecosystem, easy to set up and reliably connects can involve a little trial and error. That’s why we tried more than a dozen models to find the best smart plugs you can buy right now.

What to consider when buying a smart plug

Before you buy one, it helps to know how a smart plug works best. They are designed for things that have an on/off switch, making them great for turning lamps into smart lights. If you want a plug-in fan to move some air around before you get home, a smart plug can help. You can load a basic coffee maker with grounds and water the night before and wake up to a fresh pot in the morning. And instead of an air purifier running all day, you could set it to just run when you’re away. But gadgets that needs to be programmed further, or requires a stand-by mode, isn’t ideal. If you want to control built-in lights, you’ll need smart switches, which are more involved than smart plugs as they can involve installation.

Some smart plugs can even monitor how much energy they use and display those figures within their companion app. That might not be much use on its own, as lamps with LED bulbs consume very little energy, but it could help you keep tabs on your overall energy consumption. 

Setup and use

Adding a smart plug to your home is relatively simple. You’ll use the manufacturer’s app to initially connect, after which you can add the plug to a compatible smart home ecosystem so you can use voice control and other features. Both the brand’s app and your smart home app will let you name the plug, set schedules and program “routines” which provide automation for multiple smart devices at once. But as you can guess, a manufacturer’s app only lets you control products from that brand. If you want whole-home automation, operating, say, a plug from TP-Link’s Kasa, a bulb from GE’s Cync and a camera from Arlo without switching apps, you’ll need to use a smart home platform, which means you’ll need to consider compatibility.

Compatibility

Smart home devices connect through wireless protocols, often using more than one to communicate with your phone, smart speaker, router and in some cases, one another. The majority of smart plugs use Wi-Fi, but some have recently incorporated Matter, a relatively new wireless standard intended to solve integration issues between different brands and manufacturers, while also improving security and reliability.

More of these smart plugs are coming to market and, for now, most Matter devices work via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a low-power mesh network called Thread. Matter requires a controller that stays at home, like a hub or smart speaker, to manage things when you’re out and about.

As for Bluetooth, most plugs, including all Matter plugs, use the short-range protocol to get the device set up for the first time. Some can continue to run on Bluetooth in the absence of another option, but the connection isn’t as reliable and you won’t be able to control the plug when you’re away from home, or perhaps even just on the other side of the apartment.

Because Matter is relatively new, it may be easier to consider the manufacturer’s system you’d use the most. There are four major “branded” smart home platforms: Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home, Apple’s HomeKit and Samsung’s SmartThings. The first two work with the widest range of brands and are compatible with both iOS and Android devices. HomeKit not only limits app access to Apple devices, but it’s also compatible with fewer plugs. You can also turn to open-source software like Home Assistant or go with the larger functionality of IFTTT if you want to, say, have your lights turn off when your Uber arrives. For the purposes of our testing, we stuck with the four big players. Nearly every plug we looked at clearly stated which platforms it works with, both on the packaging and retail product pages.

Of course, there’s no rule that says you have to stick with one home assistant. You might have an Echo Dot in the basement, a HomePod in the living room and a Google Nest Mini in the kitchen, each controlling any compatible devices. My kid has a great time telling Alexa to turn on a light then asking the Google Assistant to turn it back off.

Photo by Amy Skorheim / Engadget

Hubs and smart plugs

All of our top picks recommended here don’t require a hub and connect directly to your home’s Wi-Fi router. That means if you already have wireless internet and a smartphone or tablet, you can quite literally plug and play. The exception is Apple’s HomeKit. If you want to pair up a compatible plug with that platform, you’ll need a HomePod speaker, Apple TV or an iPad that stays in your home to enable remote control when you’re away.

Some smart plugs require a hub regardless of which platform you use. For our guide, we focused on the simplicity (and lower cost) of options that work on their own, but hub-dependent devices may make sense in certain situations. Some companies, like Aqara for example, make a vast range of smart home products, adding automatic shades, window sensors, smart locks and air quality monitors to the more traditional cameras and plugs. If you’re going all-in on one brand and plan to get a plethora of connected devices, a hub can keep your Wi-Fi network from getting too crowded and provide a more seamless setup with reliable connectivity.

Sharing

Once a plug is set up with your platform and voice assistant of choice, anyone can control the plug just by talking. If someone else wants to control things with their phone, things get more complicated. Google makes it easiest, allowing you to invite another person just by tapping the + button within the Home app. Whomever you invite will have full access to your connected devices – including cameras – so this is only for people you trust the most.

HomeKit makes it similarly easy to grant app access to someone else, but as with most things Apple, it only works for other iOS users. Amazon only allows you to share access to your Echo, not your connected home devices.

Many smart plug manufacturers allow you to share control through their app by inviting another person via email. But this only grants access to devices of that brand. Hopefully as Matter expands, multi-admin features will become more widespread.

If you get a new Wi-Fi network

Most people will wirelessly connect their smart plugs to their home’s Wi-Fi router. Matter, Z-Wave, Thread and other smart home protocols can work over local networks, but for most setups, the signals telling your plugs what to do will be dispatched through your router. If you happen to get a new one (like I did when it became clear my very basic gateway could not handle the number of smart home devices being tested) you’ll need to take a few steps to get everything reconnected.

Depending on the brand, the steps may simply involve using the plug’s companion app to update your credentials (network name and password). Or it will require deleting the device in the companion app, doing a factory reset (typically by pressing the onboard button for 10 seconds) and setting up the plug like it's brand new. GE Sync and Emporia plugs allow for a credentials update via their apps, others, like TP-Link Kasa and Meross plugs require deletion and a factory reset to get along with your new network. Amazon’s smart plug updates automatically after updating the associated Echo device.

How we tested the best smart plugs

Before we decided which smart plugs to test, we considered brands Engadget staffers have had the best experiences with, both in review capacity and personally. We also checked out other online reviews. We then looked at factors like price, compatibility and relative popularity. I got ahold of ten indoor smart plugs and four outdoor versions from eight manufacturers.

I set up each one using its companion app, then added it to all compatible smart home platforms. Plugging in a cadre of lamps and string lights, I tested the plugs using an iPhone 11, Galaxy S10e, Echo Dot, HomePod mini and Nest Mini. I accessed the plugs via the apps and through voice commands and controlled them in my home and away from it. I programmed schedules and routines and moved the plugs to different outlets, including ones in the basement to gauge range. For the outdoor devices, I plugged them into an outlet in the garage (approximately 85 feet from my Wi-Fi router) and an outlet attached to the back of the house.

Here’s every smart plug tested before settling on our top picks:

• Amazon Smart Plug

• Emporia Smart Outlet*

• GE Cync Indoor

• Wyze Plug

• Roku Indoor Smart Plug SE

• Belkin Wemo smart plug with Thread

• TP-Link Kasa EP25

• TP-Link Kasa Ultra Mini EP10

• Meross Wi-Fi Dual

• TP-Link Kasa KP125M (Matter)

• Eve Energy (Matter)

• Aqara Smart Plug (hub required)

• AmazonBasics Outdoor Smart Plug (outdoor)

• Wyze Plug Outdoor (outdoor)

• TP-Link Kasa Outdoor EP40A (outdoor)

• TP-LINK Outdoor Dimmer KP405 (outdoor)

*Emporia issued a recall on its smart plugs purchased before August 1, 2023 due to a potential fire risk, though no incidents were reported. The plugs have since been updated to resolve the issue and are back on sale. We’ll be testing the revised version for an upcoming update to this guide.  

The best outdoor smart plugs

Most people will likely use outdoor plugs for two things: patio lighting and holiday string lights. The devices are designed for the outdoors with ingress protection rating of IP64 or higher, which means they’re impervious to dust and can handle splashing water from rain and sprinklers. They have a longer Wi-Fi range than indoor plugs, for obvious reasons, and many have dual outlets, with individual control over each one.

Setup is the same as for indoor plugs: you’ll use your phone to help the plug find your Wi-Fi using its companion app. The only tricky part is getting your phone within Bluetooth range of the plug (which it uses to initialize setup) and in Wi-Fi range at the same time. I had to awkwardly stand at a triangulated point in the middle of my driveway to get things communicating properly. Once set up, the plugs will communicate using your router for voice and app control and your phone needn’t be anywhere near the plug.

Other smart plugs we tested

Meross Matter plug (MSS115)

I wasn’t able to test the Meross Matter plug fully. It requires Wi-Fi splitting, a process that’s certainly possible for the average consumer, but more involved than it should be, considering the more than dozen other plugs I’ve tested don’t require such a step. The plug itself also blocked the other outlet. Meross has an updated version of the Matter device on the way, one that looks to solve both issues and we’ll update this guide accordingly once we’ve had a chance to test it.

Roku Smart Plug

Roku’s smart home gear is basically Wyze equipment with an app and packaging that are more purple. The Roku smart plug performed just fine with both compatible voice assistants (Alexa and Google Assistant). The companion app doesn’t offer scheduling that revolves around the timing of the sunset in your area, but the plugs go for less than $10 each and if you’ve got a Roku TV or streaming device set up and want to keep everything on-brand, it could be a fit.

Aquara Smart Plug

The Aqara plug requires an Aqara hub. In tests, the connectivity was solid and the companion app allowed for useful if/then automations that can rope in other Aqara devices like locks, window shades, cameras and more. The plug also worked well with voice assistants from Amazon, Google and Apple. As a stand-alone plug, however, it’s tough to recommend the nearly $100 combo to anyone who isn’t planning to get a complete Aqara smart home setup.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-smart-plug-131542429.html?src=rss

© Photo by Amy Skorheim / Engadget

Just in case there was any doubt about how Jack Dorsey really feels about Bluesky, the former Twitter CEO has offered new details on why he left the board and deleted his account on the service he helped kickstart. In a characteristically bizarre interview with Mike Solana of Founders Fund, Dorsey had plenty of criticism for Bluesky.

In the interview, Dorsey claimed that Bluesky was “literally repeating all the mistakes” he made while running Twitter. The entire conversation is long and a bit rambly, but Dorsey’s complaints seem to boil down to two issues:

1. He never intended Bluesky to be an independent company with its own board and stock and other vestiges of a corporate entity (Bluesky spun out of Twitter as a public benefit corporation in 2022.) Instead, his plan was for Twitter to be the first client to take advantage of the open source protocol. Bluesky created.

2. The fact that Blueksy has some form of content moderation and has occasionally banned users for things like using racial slurs in their usernames.

“People started seeing Bluesky as something to run to, away from Twitter,” Dorsey said. “It's the thing that's not Twitter, and therefore it's great. And Bluesky saw this exodus of people from Twitter show up, and it was a very, very common crowd. … But little by little, they started asking Jay and the team for moderation tools, and to kick people off. And unfortunately they followed through with it. That was the second moment I thought, uh, nope. This is literally repeating all the mistakes we made as a company.”

Dorsey also confirmed that he is financially backing Nostr, another decentralized Twitter-like service popular among some crypto enthusiasts and run by an anonymous founder. “I know it's early, and Nostr is weird and hard to use, but if you truly believe in censorship resistance and free speech, you have to use the technologies that actually enable that, and defend your rights,” Dorsey said.

A lot of this isn’t particularly surprising. If you’ve followed Dorsey’s public comments over the last couple years, he’s repeatedly said that Twitter’s “original sin” was being a company that would be beholden to advertisers and other corporate interests. It’s why he backed Elon Musk’s takeover of the company. (Not coincidentally, Dorsey still has about $1 billion of his personal wealth invested in the company now known as X.) He’s also been very clear that he made many of Twitter’s most consequential moderation decisions reluctantly.

Unsurprisingly, Dorsey’s comments weren’t well-received on Bluesky. In a lengthy thread, Bluesky’s protocol engineer Paul Frazee said that Twitter was supposed to to be the AT Protocol’s “first client” but that “Elon killed that straight dead” after he took over the company. “That entire company was frozen by the prolonged acquisition, and the agreement quickly ended when Elon took over,” Frazee said. “It was never going to happen. Also: unmoderated spaces are a ridiculous idea. We created a shared network for competing moderated spaces to exist. Even if somebody wanted to make an unmoderated ATProto app, I guess they could? Good luck with the app stores and regulators and users, I guess.”

While Dorsey was careful not to criticize Musk directly, he was slightly less enthusiastic than when he said that Musk would be the one to “extend the light of consciousness” by taking over Twitter. Dorsey noted that, while he used to fight government requests to take down accounts, Musk takes “the other path” and generally complies. “Elon will fight in the way he fights, and I appreciate that, but he could certainly be compromised,” Dorsey said.

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber, who was handpicked by Dorsey to lead Bluesky, also addressed Dorsey's comments, saying the Twitter founder doesn't "fully understand" the work the company is doing. "With all due respect to Jack for having the vision to invest in decentralized protocols, we’ve carried out the work in a way I don’t think he fully understands," she wrote. "Bluesky is structurally open in a way Twitter has never been, but the design of atproto allows it to feel familiar and easy to use."

Update May 10, 2024, 11:50 AM ET: This post has been updated with comments from Bluesky CEO Jay Graber.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/jack-dorsey-claims-bluesky-is-repeating-all-the-mistakes-he-made-at-twitter-234326121.html?src=rss

© GREG NASH via Getty Images

Apple has reportedly apologized for its tone-deaf “Crush!” ad that sparked a furious backlash with artists, musicians and other creators. AdAge reports that Apple said the video “missed the mark” and has scrapped plans to run the cutesy-turned-cringey commercial on TV.

It’s clear that Apple intended for the ad to serve as a metaphor for all the myriad creative tools one has when they throw down $1,000 or more for a new iPad Pro. Run during Tuesday’s event, the video shows a series of musical instruments and other tools for human expression, including a guitar, drums, trumpet, amplifiers, record player, TV and much more. “All I Ever Need Is You” by Sonny & Cher soundtracks the clip.

Soon, it’s revealed that the objects are all sitting on an industrial crusher, which descends upon the scattered creative instruments, exploding in plumes of satisfyingly colorful smoke. But when the crusher pulls back up, we see that everything was transformed into a shiny new iPad Pro.

Apple

A decade ago, this ad likely wouldn’t have been a big deal. But Apple’s marketers completely whiffed on the context of the moment. The ad comes weeks before Apple will take the stage at WWDC to announce its generative AI features that its investors have been salivating for.

Generative AI, as you may have heard, needs something to train on — and that means humans’ work. It learns from existing content to make algorithmically generated words, pictures, music, voices or who knows what else. It also has the capability to put those same creators — most of whom don’t have cushy jobs at Apple or other Big Five tech companies — out of work as corporations and consumers eagerly adopt the robots destined to put creators on the unemployment line.

Context is everything, and Apple failed spectacularly there. Its ad serves as a pitch-perfect metaphor for generative AI’s potential to crush human creation, turning us all into “prompt artists” who type words into text boxes to replace their years of training and experience. (Granted, generative AI has genuinely exciting applications, too, but much more needs to be made of the society-level chaos it can and will unleash.)

“Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world,” Tor Myhren, Apple VP of marketing communications, told AdAge. “Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.”

Hey, an apology means something. But we’ll see what tone Apple adopts next month when it rolls out the tools that set the stage for the apology in the first place. Something tells me that train is out of the station and will be plowing forward full steam, no matter how much creativity the company has in its DNA.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-apologizes-for-its-tone-deaf-ad-that-crushed-human-creativity-to-make-an-ipad-211116524.html?src=rss

© Apple

Google has an offer for iPad owners who are curious about the Pixel Tablet. The company has a trade-in promotion that covers at least the cost of the Pixel Tablet for iPad owners — if not more, depending on which model you have. It works with Samsung tablets as well, but those trade-in values are lower. The Pixel Tablet costs $399 (without deals) for 128GB storage and no charging speaker dock.

The promo works with iPads as old as the sixth-generation model from six years ago. For that, Google will give you a surprising $399 — matching the Pixel Tablet’s base cost. That iPad model only cost $329 in 2018, so Google is overpaying by a lot for that one.

However, Google balances that with much worse offers for modern, high-end iPads. For example, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with M2 chip (2022) only nets $450. Until this week (when the company launched a new iPad Pro and iPad Air), Apple sold that model for $1,099, so we don’t recommend that trade-in price. If you’re done with a high-end iPad from the last few years, you can likely sell it on places like eBay, Craigslist or Swappa for significantly more.

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

The Pixel Tablet stands out from its Android-running competitors by working with a charging speaker base that lets the device double as a smart display, making it much more versatile. Engadget’s Cherlynn Low thought that part overshadowed its core functionality as a tablet. “As a smart display, the Pixel Tablet mostly shines. It has a useful dashboard, an easy-to-read interface and impressive audio quality,” she wrote in our full review.

The tablet has a 10.95-inch display with a 2,560 x 1,600 resolution (276 PPI) and runs on a Google Tensor G2 chip. It weighs slightly over a pound and is lighter than Android rivals like the Galaxy Tab S8 and OnePlus Pad. Its back has a nano-ceramic coating that gives it a premium, glass-like feeling that you may not expect from a $399 device.

Accessories are where the Pixel Tablet stands out the most. Google’s Pixel Tablet Case, sold separately for $79, has a built-in kickstand that makes the slate more versatile. “What I love about the kickstand-hanger-combo is that it allows you to place the Tablet pretty much anywhere,” Low wrote in Engadget’s review. “So when I want to hang it off a kitchen cabinet to follow along with a recipe video or keep watching Love Is Blind for example, I can. And though the 2,560 x 1,600 LCD panel isn’t as vibrant as the OLED on Samsung’s Galaxy Tabs, it still produced crisp details and colorful images.”

The star accessory is Google’s $129 charging speaker dock, which you can use without removing the kickstand case. This product transforms the tablet into a smart display, potentially voiding the need for other smart home control hubs. The speaker has impressive sound for its size, making it easier to hear its responses if you aren’t right next to it.

Google’s fine print notes that the trade-in value will be finalized after receiving the tablet, and it could be lower if it determines the condition doesn’t match what you selected during the trade-in process. The refund will be processed on the credit card you used to buy the Pixel Tablet (or through Google Store credit if you return your purchase during that time).

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/get-up-to-450-off-a-google-pixel-tablet-when-you-trade-in-your-old-ipad-or-android-slab-192718892.html?src=rss

© Sam Rutherford for Engadget

As one of Engadget’s resident mobile geeks, I’ve reviewed dozens of midrange phones and have found that a great smartphone doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Years of commoditization have brought features once exclusive to high-end devices – including big batteries, multi-camera arrays and high refresh rate displays – down to their more affordable siblings. While there are still some things you'll only find on flagship smartphones, you don't have to compromise as much anymore if you're looking to find the best buy at a lower price point. If you have less than $600 to spend, I can help you figure out what features to prioritize when trying to find the best midrange smartphone.

Editor’s note (5/9/24): Google has announced the Pixel 8a, its latest midrange smartphone. The 6.1-inch handset starts at $499 and, as expected, takes many of its cues from last year’s flagship Pixel 8 series. We’ll have a full review in the coming days and will update this guide accordingly. For now, you can check out our hands-on preview for more details on what to expect. Google says it’ll continue to sell the Pixel 7a, our current top pick, at a reduced price, so it may continue to be worthwhile. Most should hold off until we put the new Pixel through its paces, though.

What is a midrange phone, anyway?

While the term shows up frequently in articles and videos, there isn’t an agreed-upon definition for “midrange” beyond a phone that isn’t a flagship or an entry-level option. Our recommendations for the best midrange smartphones cost between $400 and $600 — any less and you should expect significant compromises. If your budget is higher, though, you should consider flagships like the Apple iPhone 13 and Samsung Galaxy S22.

What factors should you consider when buying a midrange smartphone?

Buying a new device can be intimidating, but a few questions can help guide you through the process. First: what platform do you want to use? If the answer is iOS, that narrows your options down to exactly one phone. (Thankfully, it’s great.) And if you’re an Android fan, there’s no shortage of compelling options. Both platforms have their strengths, so you shouldn’t rule either out.

Obviously, also consider how much you’re comfortable spending. Even increasing your budget by $100 more can get you a dramatically better product. And manufacturers tend to support their more expensive devices for longer. It’s definitely worth buying something toward the top limit of what you can afford.

Having an idea of your priorities will help inform your budget. Do you want a long battery life or fast charging speed? Do you value speedy performance above all else? Or would you like the best possible cameras? While they continue to improve every year, even the best midrange smartphones still demand some compromises, and knowing what’s important to you will make choosing one easier.

Lastly, pay attention to wireless bands and network compatibility. If you don’t want to worry about that, your best bet is to buy directly from your carrier. To make things easier, all the phones we recommend are compatible with every major US wireless provider and can be purchased unlocked. 

What won’t you get from a midrange smartphone?

Every year, the line between midrange and flagship phones gets blurrier as more upmarket features and specs trickle down to more affordable models. When we first published this guide in 2020, it was difficult to find $500 devices with waterproofing or 5G. Now, the biggest thing you might miss out on is wireless charging. Just remember to budget for a power adapter too – many companies have stopped including chargers with their smartphones. Performance has improved in recent years, but can still be hit or miss as most midrange phones use slower processors that can struggle with multitasking. Thankfully, their cameras have improved dramatically, and you can typically expect at least a dual-lens system on most midrange smartphones below $600.

The best midrange phones for 2024

Google Pixel 7a: The best midrange Android phone

iPhone SE (3rd generation): The best iPhone under $600

Samsung Galaxy A53 5G: The midrange phone with the best display for streaming

OnePlus Nord N200 5G: The best cheap smartphone when on a budget

Chris Velazco contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-engadget-guide-to-the-best-midrange-smartphones-120050366.html?src=rss

© Engadget

The Alienware m16 R2 is a rarity among modern laptops. That’s because normally after a major revamp, gadget makers like to keep new models on the market for as long as possible to minimize manufacturing costs. However, after its predecessor launched last year sporting a fresh design, the company reengineered the entire system again for 2024 while also limiting how big of a GPU can fit inside. So what gives? The trick is that by looking at the configurations people actually bought, Alienware was able to rework the m16 into a gaming laptop with a sleeker design, better battery life and a more approachable starting price, which is a great recipe for a well-balanced notebook.

Design

There are so many changes on the m16 R2’s chassis it’s hard to believe it’s from the same line. Not only has Alienware gotten rid of the big bezels and chin from the R1, but the machine is also way more portable now. Weight is down more than 20 percent to 5.75 pounds (from 7.28 pounds) and it’s also significantly more compact with a depth of 9.8 inches (versus 11.4 inches before). For some style points, Alienware added RGB lighting around the perimeter of the touchpad. This result is a major upgrade for anyone who wants to take the laptop on the go. It fundamentally changes the system from something more like a desktop replacement to a portable all-rounder.

Critically, despite being smaller, the m16 R2 still has a great array of connectivity options. On its sides are two USB 3.2 Type-A ports, a microSD card reader, an Ethernet jack and a 3.5mm audio socket. Around back, there are two USB-C slots (one supports Thunderbolt 4 while the other has DisplayPort 1.4), a full-size HDMI 2.1 connector and a proprietary barrel plug for power. Generally, I like this arrangement as moving some ports to the rear of the laptop helps keep clutter down. That said, I wish Alienware had switched the placement of the Ethernet jack and one of the USB-C ports, as I find myself reaching for the latter much more often.

Display

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

The m16 R2 has a single display option: a 16-inch 240Hz panel with a QHD+ resolution (2,560 x 1,600). It’s totally serviceable and for competitive gamers, that high refresh rate could be valuable during matches where potential advantage matters. But you don’t get any support for HDR, so colors don’t pop as much as they would on a system with an OLED screen. Furthermore, brightness is just OK at around 300 nits, which might not be a big deal if you prefer gaming at night or in darker environments. But if you plan on lugging this around to a place with big windows or a lot of sunlight, games and movies may look a bit subdued. That said, it’s not a deal breaker, I just wish this model had some other display options like the previous one.

Performance

While the m16 R2’s sleeker design is a major plus, the trade-off is less space for a beefy GPU. So unlike its predecessor, the biggest card that fits is an NVIDIA RTX 4070. This may come as a downer for performance enthusiasts, but Alienware said it made this change after seeing only a small fraction of buyers opt for RTX 4080 graphics on the old model. Even so, the R2 can still hold its own when playing AAA titles. In Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p and ultra graphics, it hit 94 fps, barely behind what we saw from the ASUS ROG G16 (95 fps) with a more powerful 4080. And while the performance gap grew slightly when I turned ray tracing on, the m16 still pumped out a very playable framerate of 62 fps (versus 69 fps for the G16).

Battery life

One of the biggest benefits of the m16 R2’s redesign is that it allowed Alienware to install a larger 90Wh battery versus the 84Wh pack in its predecessor. When you combine that with components and fans better tailored to the kind of performance this machine delivers, you get improved longevity. On our rundown test, the m16 R2 lasted 7 hours and 51 minutes, which is longer than both the Razer Blade 14 (6:46) and the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (7:29) and just shy of what we got from a similarly specced XPS 16 (8:31). That said, it’s still not as good as the ASUS G16’s time of 9:17. Regardless, the ability to go longer between charges is never a bad thing. Meanwhile, for those who want to pack super light, one of the m16 R2’s USB-C ports in the back supports power input, though you won’t get the full 240 watts like you do with Alienware’s included brick.

Wrap-up

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

For 2024, it would have been so easy for Alienware to give the m16 a basic spec refresh and call it a day. But it didn’t. Instead, the company looked at its customers' preferences and gave it a revamp to match. So despite not having the same top-end performance as before, the R2 is still a very capable gaming laptop with a more compact chassis, improved battery life and a lower starting price of $1,500 with an RTX 4050. Sure, I wish its display was brighter and that there was another panel option, but getting 240Hz standard is pretty nice.

Really, the biggest argument against the m16 R2 is that for higher-specced systems like our $1,850 review unit with an RTX 4070, you can spend another $150 for an ASUS ROG G16 with the same GPU, a brighter and more colorful OLED display and an even lighter design that weighs a full pound less. But for people seeking a well-priced gaming machine that can do a bit of everything, there’s a lot of value in the m16 R2.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/alienware-m16-r2-review-when-less-power-makes-for-a-better-laptop-174027103.html?src=rss

© Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Netflix and Roblox have teamed up for a digital theme park with activities pulled from the streamer’s many popular franchises. Netflix Nextworld is an area within Roblox that’s currently in early access. The company says the experience is “all about bringing fans to the entertainment they love.”

To that end, Nextworld features activities based on Stranger Things, One Piece, Cobra Kai and even those Zack Snyder Rebel Moon movies that people seem to hate. There’s also an activity based on the upcoming Jurassic World: Chaos Theory cartoon. The whole thing is arranged like a theme park, with mini-games and easter eggs galore.

Some of these games look pretty fleshed out, like the survival horror title Stranger Things: Escape from Hawkins High and the fighting sim One Piece: East Blue Brawls. Regular people can make some really cool stuff on Roblox, so a company with resources like Netflix should really raise the bar.

There are also a bunch of shorter experiences, like an online version of the game show Is It Cake? in which, well, people try to guess if something is cake. We aren’t sure how that one will work since none of it is cake. It’s just pixels and code. 

Playing these games and exploring the park nets users collectibles and wearables from various shows, which are then used to decorate a private space called a Fan Pod. Some of these collectibles include a Demogorgon plushie head and the iconic One Piece flag. 

Netflix

Finally, there’s something called the Streamship, which is a shared space to watch Netflix content. The company says this “home base within Nextworld” will provide “social features” and include events like “premieres and viewing parties.”

Netflix Nextworld is now in early access and is available on any console that supports Roblox, in addition to mobile and PC/Mac. The streamer does say the theme park will feature plenty of surprises, so let’s hope for a mini-game based on the driving crooner.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflix-and-roblox-team-up-for-a-digital-theme-park-thats-heavy-on-corporate-synergy-171944923.html?src=rss

© Netflix

Nintendo has apparently had enough of X’s (Twitter’s) API fees. The Mario maker said on Wednesday that starting on June 10, direct integration from the Switch’s image album to Elon Musk’s Nazi-curious platform will no longer work. With Nintendo’s departure, all three major console makers have pulled the plug on native screen-sharing to X.

X’s official gaming account posted a bizarre, downright Orwellian response that ignores its central role in the Mario maker’s exit. “Our partnership with Nintendo remains strong, and we are working together to ensure a smooth transition for all users,” @xGaming posted at the end of its nonchalantly misleading reply to Nintendo’s announcement. “We will continue collaborating with partners to bring new and exciting experiences to our global gaming community.”

Ironically, X’s built-in reader context feature filled in the omitted subtext. “This is in direct response to X changing their API,” the user-generated context says. “Specifically, X is charging companies upwards of $40,000 or more per month to access its API. Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox already removed integration with X last year.”

Wired first reported last year that access to the cheapest Enterprise API plan for The Dumpster Fire Formerly Known As Twitter starts at $42,000 monthly. Higher tiers can allegedly cost $125,000 and $210,000 per month. Microsoft led the charge when it said the Xbox was abandoning Musk’s API plan in April 2023, while Sony held its nose and stuck it out until November.

The $42,000 (or more) monthly cost may not sound like much to these well-heeled mega-corporations, but apparently, even they have their limits. After all, quick screen-sharing to social channels is a marketing feature from a corporate perspective. If their accountants look at the analytics, weigh them against Musk’s fees and see it isn’t paying off, they’ll do what profit-driven entities do and reduce the overhead. But hey, at least X’s “partnership with Nintendo remains strong.”

Of course, you can still post Switch screenshots to Musk’s hellscape; it just has extra steps now. You can send Switch album images to your phone wirelessly or transfer them to your PC using a USB cable, and then post them manually. Nintendo says integrated Facebook sharing is still enabled but warns that it could be discontinued later.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nintendo-is-done-paying-elon-musk-for-x-integration-165704399.html?src=rss

© Nintendo

Ember’s highly-esteemed Travel Mug 2+ has dropped to a record-low price of $128, which is a discount of $72. The actual sale price is $160, but there’s a clippable coupon for the remaining $32. This is a pretty great deal for those in the market for a tech-heavy travel mug.

To that end, the Travel Mug 2+ integrates with Apple’s Find My technology, so you’ll always know exactly where your beverage is. It even has a built-in speaker that’ll ping when you’re looking for it. Anything can happen while traveling, so it’s good to have a little peace of mind, particularly because the usual price of this mug is $200.

Otherwise, this is a fantastic mug that keeps beverages hot for up to three hours and boasts a 12-ounce capacity. The battery’s on point, allowing for three hours of use on its own and a full day while resting on the included charging coaster. You also get access to the Ember’s proprietary app for setting the temperature, customizing presets and more. The mug does feature a little touchscreen for this, so the app’s not always necessary.

Ember makes great products, which is why we often recommend the company’s mugs. However, the Travel Mug 2+ isn’t perfect. You can hand wash it, but don’t put it in the dishwasher, unless you want to turn it into an expensive mug-shaped thing that doesn’t actually work. There’s also the price. At $200, it’s very hard to recommend this product because, well, it’s a mug for drinking tea and coffee. It’s easier to recommend at $128, and it makes a great gift, but at the end of the day it’s still just a container for liquids. 

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/embers-travel-mug-2-with-find-my-support-drops-to-a-record-low-price-163054893.html?src=rss

© Ember

Dead by Daylight's next chapter isn't too far away and it's another crossover rather than an original creation. Behaviour Interactive likes to keep fans on their toes with some unexpected partnerships and the latest one is no exception. This time around, Dungeons and Dragons is entering the fog. It's a bit of a surprising turn as D&D isn't normally associated with horror, but there's enough connective tissue for it to make sense.

Behaviour revealed the crossover in a short teaser trailer with no further details about what to expect. It remains to be seen what the chapter will bring in terms of a killer, survivor and/or map. But you won't have to wait too long to find out.

The Dead by Daylight anniversary stream will take place on May 14, starting at 11AM ET (for what it's worth, a new player test build will go live that day). You can tune in to find out more details about the Dungeons and Dragons chapter as well as what's ahead for Dead by Daylight as a whole in the coming months. Perhaps we'll find out a bit more about the spinoff games that are in the works. And given Behaviour's track record, it may just have some other surprises in store...

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/dungeons-and-dragons-is-coming-to-dead-by-daylight-161537165.html?src=rss

© Behaviour Interactive

It’s that time of year again. Google’s annual I/O keynote is upon us. This event is likely to be packed with updates and announcements. We’ll be covering all of the news as it happens and you can stream the full event below. The keynote starts at 1PM ET on May 14 and streams are available via YouTube and the company’s hub page.

In terms of what to expect, the rumor mill has been working overtime. There are multiple reports that the event will largely focus on the Android 15 mobile operating system, which seems like a given since I/O is primarily an event for developers and the beta version is already out in the wild.

So let’s talk about the Android 15 beta and what to expect from the full release. The beta includes an updated Privacy Sandbox feature, partial screen sharing to record a certain app or window instead of the whole screen and system-level app archiving to free up space. There’s also improved satellite connectivity, additional in-app camera controls and a new power efficiency mode.

Despite the beta already existing, it’s highly probable that Google will drop some surprise Android 15 announcements. The company has confirmed that satellite messaging is coming to Android, so maybe that’ll be part of this event. Rumors also suggest that Android 15 will boast a redesigned status bar and an easier way to monitor battery health.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Android 15 won’t be the only thing Google discusses during the event. There’s a little acronym called AI you may have heard about and the company has gone all in. It’s a good bet that Google will spend a fair amount of time announcing updates for its Gemini AI, which could eventually replace Assistant entirely.

Back in December, it was reported that Google was working on an AI assistant called Pixie as an exclusive feature for Pixel devices. The branding is certainly on point. We could hear more about that, as it may debut in the Pixel 9 later this year. 

Google’s most popular products could also get AI-focused redesigns, including Search, Chrome, G Suite and Maps. We might get an update as to what the company plans on doing about third-party cookies and maybe it’ll throw some AI at that problem too.

What not to expect? Don’t get your hopes up for a Pixel 9 or refreshed Pixel Fold for this event, as I/O is more for software than hardware. We’ll likely get details on those releases in the fall. However, rules were made to be broken. Last year, we got a Pixel Fold announcement at I/O, so maybe the line between hardware and software is blurring. We’ll find out soon.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-watch-googles-io-2024-keynote-160010787.html?src=rss

© Google

The Strong National Museum of Play has revealed this year's inductees into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. Asteroids, Myst, Resident Evil, SimCity and Ultima have made the cut. While that means the likes of Guitar Hero, Metroid and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater miss out from the slate of finalists, it would be hard to make a case against any of the five inductees.

Games are selected for the hall of fame based on a number of criteria, including cultural impact and their influence on the industry. Asteroids absolutely fits the bill. The 1979 game was an enormous hit. Atari sold more than 70,000 arcade units, making Asteroids its best-selling coin-op machine. The home version on the Atari 2600 was very popular too. While the vector graphics were rudimentary, that didn't take away from the immensely satisfying gameplay loop of blowing up a ton of space rocks.

Slow-paced puzzle game Myst was also a big hit in the '90s, selling more than 6 million copies. Resident Evil is probably the most relevant name on the list for modern audiences. The series is still going strong nearly three decades after the original 1996 game popularized the survival horror genre.

Back in 1989, Maxis released a city builder game called SimCity. Its intricate systems of urban design and problem management spurred a bunch of sequels and inspired the creators of other real-time strategy games, such as Command & Conquer and Age of Empires. As for Ultima: The First Age of Darkness, that 1981 game is one of the foundations of the role-playing genre. The developers of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy are among those who've cited it as an influence, as GamesBeat notes.

These five games are joining a whole bunch of other notable names in the World Video Game Hall of Fame, including last year's inductees The Last of Us, Wii Sports, Barbie Fashion Designer and Computer Space. The inductees are on permanent display at The Strong in Rochester, New York.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/asteroids-and-resident-evil-join-the-world-video-game-hall-of-fame-154647663.html?src=rss

© The Strong National Museum of Play

Most headphones don't last forever, especially wireless ones as the battery life will inevitably dwindle. If you're ready for an upgrade and you're willing to splash a little cash, Apple's AirPods Max are worth considering. Those headphones are currently on sale at Amazon. The price has dropped by $100 to $450, putting it at just $20 above the lowest price we've seen for the cans to date. The offer applies to all colorways.

The price was one of our major drawbacks when we reviewed the AirPods Max back in 2020 so the sale mitigates that a bit. We gave the headphones a score of 84, with the audio quality and aesthetics proving to be major plus points.

We felt that the AirPods Max had great balanced sound and capable active noise cancellation (ANC). With both spatial audio and ANC enabled, we had no trouble getting 20 hours of use out of the headphones on a single charge, just as Apple pledged.

Given that it's been a few years since the AirPods Max debuted and the fact Apple is in the midst of switching out the Lightning charging port for a USB-C one across all of its devices, a new version of the headphones may be on the way. That may result in Apple bringing the price of the original model down even further to clear out the stock. That said, if you don't want to wait, this is a solid deal on a good set of headphones, particularly if you're already entrenched in the Apple ecosystem.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-airpods-max-are-100-off-and-close-to-a-record-low-143019278.html?src=rss

© Billy Steele/Engadget

Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings film trilogy came out right around the time movie studios decided everything needed to be a big franchise that exists in perpetuity. From that perspective, it’s a little surprising that Warner Bros. Discovery hasn’t milked Tolkien’s work more than they already have. That’ll change soon, though, as the company just announced that there are two new Lord of the Rings films in the works (you can read the full press release here).

The first is tentatively titled Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, and it’s being directed by Andy Serkis — you may remember him for his landmark performance as Gollum in Jackson’s prior movies. The fact that Serkis is on board, and working from a script by Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens (who co-wrote the prior Middle-earth movies along with Jackson) has me feeling a bit better about this not being simply a crass cash grab. Peter Jackson, along with Walsh and Boyens, are set to produce as well. Serkis previously served as second unit director on The Hobbit films and also directed 2022’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

Given the working title of the film, you won’t be surprised to learn that Serkis is also starring again as the titular Gollum. While part of me was interested to see how another actor might take on the character, Serkis so defined Gollum for the big screen that it’s almost impossible to put anyone else in the role. As for what the movie will cover, there’s no official word yet — but again, the title indicates it’ll take place between the events of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings as Gandalf and Aragorn search Middle-earth for Gollum, trying to learn more about the ring that Bilbo and then Frodo possessed. 

Given Hollywood’s insatiable thirst for Content based on Popular Franchises, it’s a little surprising something like this didn’t happen sooner. Jackson and company followed up the original trilogy of films nine years later with the bloated and overly CGI-reliant film series based on The Hobbit and corresponding events from Tolkien’s LOTR appendices. And, of course, Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series debuted in 2022. And before The Hunt for Gollum arrives, we’ll see another intriguing project: an anime-style film called The War of the Rohirrim. That movie arrives this December and covers events in Rohan a few hundred years before The Lord of the Rings.

As a massive Lord of the Rings fan, I’m both skeptical and excited by this announcement. The sad reality of the entertainment world is that projects like this are going to happen no matter what; there’s too much money wrapped up in things like Lord of the Rings to not try and extract more. But Serkis seems like an excellent choice to direct this movie, and hopefully they’ll find a tight, self-contained story that works as a standalone film. The mess that was made in the Hobbit films has me wary, but even in those movies I found plenty of things to enjoy — and this feels like a good opportunity to chart a positive course forward for more movies in Middle-earth.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-new-lord-of-the-rings-film-the-hunt-for-gollum-will-hit-theaters-in-2026-140141386.html?src=rss

It's no secret that MacBooks can cost you a pretty penny, which is why we're excited to see that our favorite budget Macbook has dropped to a new all-time low price. Apple's 2022 Macbook Air is currently available for $829, down from $999 – $20 lower than ever before. The deal is running the 256GB model in all colors but doesn't include AppleCare+.

We've been a huge fan of Apple's 2022 MacBook Air from the start, calling it a "near-perfect Mac" when it first launched, and, despite new arrivals since, it's still an excellent option for a well-made, everyday laptop. We gave it a 96 in our review thanks to its thinner look and an impressive 13.6-inch high-quality screen. The MacBook Air also comes with an M2 chip, and despite Apple's new foray into an M4 chip with the iPad Pro, it's still a fast-performing, great option.

This model was also the first MacBook Air to get rid of the wedge design and get the more uniform, sleek look of its more expensive sibling, the MacBook Pro. Other perks include a great quad-speaker system that works with Dolby Atmos and Spatial Audio and a three-mic array for better sound quality during video chats.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-13-inch-macbook-air-m2-drops-to-a-new-low-of-829-131644937.html?src=rss

© Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

The fight continues to protect artists' content from being used to train AI without their consent. The latest pushback comes from IbisPaint, which has announced an AI Disturbance tool that interferes with AI image generation. The feature applies noise to illustrations, which stops AI from properly interpreting or replicating the art. Another popular option, Glaze, corrupts the data to prevent copies — but is available as an outside tool rather than being integrated into a creative program.  

IbisPaint is a popular app for mobile and tablet users that offers over 15,000 brushes, 21,000 materials and a stroke stabilization feature — among other tools. When a user turns on AI Disturbance in IbisPaint, the image they've created appears almost grainier. However, artists can determine the level of AI Disturbance they want (based on how much they're willing to impact the work) and adjust accordingly. In its announcement, IbisPaint shows that the higher the noise intensity, the less alike AI-created images are to the original.

Users can access the AI Disturbance tool by clicking the back button and then choosing to save the artwork. At that point, there's an option to turn on AI Disturbance and adjust its intensity. However, IbisPaint notes, "the effectiveness of the disturbance effect depends on the AI and the fine-tuning algorithms used. This feature does not guarantee that the disturbance effect will be achieved in any situation."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ibispaint-launches-an-ai-disturbance-tool-to-make-it-harder-for-machines-to-copy-your-work-131015685.html?src=rss

© IbisPaint

Sega has announced its latest iteration of the many Sonic titles: a game called Sonic Rumble that will be coming exclusively to mobile devices. The "multiplayer action game" is reminiscent of Mediatonic's Fall Guys, which even offers a version called Sonic's Adventure. Both games can accommodate up to 32 players, have minigames and are battle royale-style, with only one player left standing as the winner. In Sonic Rumble, players can also collect rings to get new costumes and accessories.

Sonic Rumble isn't the first game to compete with Fall Guys. Kitka Games released Stumble Guys (big name change there) globally in early 2021 and has seen massive success. Like Sega, Kitka targeted mobile users — an area Fall Guys avoided.

While Sega doesn't expect to release Sonic Rumble until the winter, you can get in on the action relatively soon. The company is recruiting closed beta testers to try out the game in different time slots between Friday, May 24 and Sunday, May 26. You can register here anytime before Sunday, May 19 at 11:59PM PT, and Sega will email you if you're selected. Until then, you can get a sneak peek of the game in its announcement trailer.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/segas-next-sonic-game-looks-a-lot-like-fall-guys-124524392.html?src=rss

© Sega

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a Class I recall for the t:connect mobile app on iOS, which is used to monitor and control the t:slim X2 insulin pump used by people with diabetes. It was supposedly the first smartphone app that can program insulin doses that the FDA had approved. The agency issued the highest level of recall it could, because the app had serious software problems that could've have caused life-threatening conditions or even death. In fact, while there were no mortalities reported, the FDA received 224 injury reports as of April 15. 

According to the agency, version 2.7 of the t:connect mobile app had a bug that initiated a cycle wherein the app would crash and then would be relaunched by the iOS platform again and again. That apparently led to excessive Bluetooth communication that would drain the pump's battery and cause it to shut down earlier than the user would expect. Insulin pumps like the t:slim X2 are designed to automatically deliver insulin under the user's skin at set time intervals and whenever needed. They're supposed to take on the burden of managing the user's sugar levels so that they can go about their day without having to stop and inject themselves or if they're prone to getting hypo or hyperglycemia. 

If a pump shuts down without warning and before the user expects it to, it could lead to the under-delivery of insulin. As the FDA explained in its recall, that could result in hyperglycemia and even diabetic ketoacidosis, a life-threatening complication caused by the inability of the body to turn sugar into energy due to the lack of insulin. Tandem Diabetes Care, the company behind the app and the pump, sent all affected customers an emergency notice back in March. It advised them to update their app, to monitor their pump battery level closely and to carry backup insulin supplies. The FDA's recall notice could reach potentially affected customers who may not have seen the manufacturer's alerts, however, or who may have brushed it aside. Malfunctioning insulin pumps had been linked to multiple deaths in the past, so users may want to keep a close eye on theirs regardless of the brand. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/an-insulin-pump-software-bug-has-injured-over-200-people-123056847.html?src=rss

© Tandem Diabetes Care

The laptop buzzword of 2024 is "AI PC" — notebooks that have neural processing units (NPUs) for AI-related tasks. But while it's smart to be aware of those systems, there are far more important things to consider beyond AI-savviness. It turns out buying a computer in 2024 isn't really that much different than in recent years: You'll still want to find a system that balances power, weight and screen size with your computing needs.

Out of the 14 notebooks we've reviewed in 2024, we consider Apple's 13-inch MacBook Air M3 to be the best laptop for most people. It's powerful enough to handle most tasks (even light video editing); it has a great screen and built-in speakers; and its battery could last around 20 hours (depending on what you're doing, of course). The MacBook Air M3 is also one of the lightest and thinnest systems we've reviewed, and it's dead silent, thanks to a fanless design.

As for Windows laptops and Chromebooks, the recommendations are a bit more nuanced and varied. While the aforementioned AI features may dominate the news, the more traditional choices – between Intel and AMD CPUs, and whether or not you want a dedicated graphics chip, or GPU – still stand. And unlike Macs, your options include systems with touchscreens, 2-in-1 convertible tablets and more. To that end, we have plenty of recently tested and recommended models from brands including HP, Dell, ASUS and more in this guide.

Table of contents

• Best laptop for 2024: Apple 13-inch MacBook Air M3

• Best Windows laptop: Dell XPS 13

• Best gaming laptop: ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14

• Best Chromebook: Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5

• Best budget laptop: HP Pavilion Aero

• Best high-end laptop: Apple MacBook Pro M3

• Best convertible laptop: HP Spectre x360 14

• How we test laptops

• What to consider before buying a laptop

• Other laptops we tested that didn't make the cut

• FAQs

• Best laptops compared

How we test laptops

Engadget has been reviewing laptops for two decades, and while the definition of what a portable PC is has changed considerably since, our obsession with testing their limits and serving up informative buying advice remains the same. Be it a hybrid tablet like Microsoft's Surface machines, a rotating 2-in-1 convertible like HP's Spectre x360s or a plain old clamshell notebook, our review process follows similar beats. How does it look and feel? How fast is it? Whether it’s a Windows device, a MacBook or a Chromebook, we aim to answer the most important question: Is it actually worth your hard-earned cash?

What to consider before buying a laptop

Price

You can expect to spend between $1,000 and $1,800 for a new laptop these days, depending on the configuration. If you're looking for more of a workhorse, that could cost you well over $2,000 for additional RAM, storage, as well as a beefier GPU and CPU. But you can also find some good deals under $1,000 if you're willing to overlook build quality (or buy a refurbished or previous generation machine, which we highly recommend). Systems with AMD chips tend to come in cheaper than their Intel counterparts, but the bulk of their cost will come down to other components like RAM and storage.

I’ve included our favorite affordable model in this best laptop buying guide, but we have a list of the best budget laptops that you can check out as well.

Operating system: Apple, Windows or Chrome OS

There's a good chance you've already committed to an operating system, but my advice is to be as flexible as possible. These days, most major software is compatible with both Macs and PCs. (Of course, it's another story if you've become dependent on an Apple-only app like Final Cut Pro.) Web-based apps, naturally, will work on any platform with an internet browser.

If you're an Apple-loyalist, there aren't many reasons to consider Windows laptops (unless you want a secondary gaming machine). But for Windows users, macOS is becoming more tempting every year. Apple's MacBooks, powered by its M-series Silicon chips, are among the fastest and most efficient laptops we've ever seen. They're incredibly well-built and have tremendous battery life to boot. MacOS itself is also an easy platform to learn, especially if you're used to iOS and iPadOS.

That brings up another point: iPhone users may want to consider Macs because of the seamless integration with Apple's other platforms. You can't respond to iMessage conversations easily or hop into FaceTime chats on Windows PCs, but doing so is simple on Macs. (Microsoft's Phone Link app lets you send iOS users individual texts, but not media or group chats.) Android users, meanwhile, may be better off with Windows, as Phone Link can make calls, synchronize all your texts and also access your phone's photos.

As for whether you’ll want a PC with a dedicated Copilot AI button on the keyboard, that depends on how often you see yourself using Microsoft’s 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.

And what about ChromeOS? Chromebooks are a smart and (typically) inexpensive way to browse the web and hop on a few video chats, but they're not the best choice as your primary computer. There aren't many apps or games that work offline, and they also don't work with powerful software suites like Adobe's (you can use the stripped-down Adobe Express and Photoshop online tools, though). Chromebooks are great secondary machines to use alongside a more powerful Mac or PC, and they're popular in schools because they're cheap and easy for IT workers to manage. And if all you need is web access, or a notebook for a kid, a Chromebook might be enough.

Connectivity

These days, most laptops ship with a few USB-C ports, which can handle both charging and speedy data transfers. Apple's MacBooks also include a separate connection for MagSafe power, and you'll find custom power connections on some PCs like Microsoft's Surface. Older USB Type-A connections are less common now, but they still pop up in systems like HP's Spectre x360 14, as well as many models from ASUS.

If you're a fan of wired headphones, it's worth keeping a close eye on headphone jack availability. Many ultra-slim laptops, like Dell's XPS 13, don’t have the 3.5mm socket entirely. They usually include a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter, but that's a clunky solution, and it also takes up a USB port. Sure, most people use wireless earbuds and cans today, but it's still helpful to have a wired one around for when those devices run out of juice.

Most laptops in 2024 offer Wi-Fi 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 Wi-Fi 7 routers have started appearing, that spec hasn't made its way into laptops yet. As for cellular coverage, there are notebooks like the Surface Pro 9 and Samsung Galaxy Book models that offer integrated 5G. But from our testing, that feature may not be worth the cost of a separate data plan. Instead, you could tether to your smartphone or invest in a wireless hotspot that can keep multiple devices online.

Display size and weight

So how portable do you want your laptop to be? That's the ultimate question you need to ask when choosing between various screen sizes. 13-inch machines have become a solid starting point for most shoppers — it's enough real estate for the majority of tasks like emailing and writing, and it also helps keep machines relatively light (typically between two to three pounds). Thanks to manufacturing advancements, these dainty machines sometimes even come with larger screens (the smaller MacBook Air actually has a 13.6-inch display).

If you have trouble seeing fine text, we’d recommend going for a display larger than 13 inches. ASUS’s Zephyrus G14 is a solid 14-inch option for gamers, and we’re also seeing more productivity-focused machines aim for that size, like the XPS 14 and MacBook Pro. While 14-inch notebooks are a bit heavier than 13-inch models, coming in between three to four pounds, their screens are noticeably roomier.

For artists, or anyone else who needs a large canvas, a 15-inch laptop may make the most sense. They typically weigh between 3.5 and 4.5 pounds, but that extra heft may be worth it to fit wider video editing timelines or Photoshop windows. And, as you'd expect, you'll also pay a bit more for a 15-inch notebook compared to smaller ones (the 15-inch MacBook Air starts at $1,299, while the smaller model goes for $999). PC makers are also replacing 15-inch systems with 16-inch versions, which will give you even more space to work.

You can still find laptops with 17-inch or 18-inch screens, but those are typically gaming systems or souped-up workstations. They're not meant for mere computing mortals.

Battery life

A laptop's battery life depends on several factors: The power draw from the screen and other hardware, the optimizations used to avoid unnecessary power drain, and, of course, the size of the actual battery. One of our favorite systems, the Dell XPS 13, lasted 13 hours and 15 minutes in the PCMark 10 battery benchmark. In real-world testing, I was able to use it for a day and a half without needing a recharge. The MacBook Air 13-inch, meanwhile, lasted 20 hours in our benchmark and kept running for more than two work days of my typical workflow. In general, you should expect a modern laptop to last at least eight hours.

If battery life is your absolute priority, I'd strongly suggest looking at Macs over Windows PCs. Apple's M-series chips are essentially mobile hardware, with all of the power efficiency you'd expect from something originally designed for phones. Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon chips could help Windows PCs compete with Apple’s astonishing battery life, but we’ve yet to see those in action. Chromebooks also typically get decent battery life (as long as you don’t overstuff them with power-draining tabs).

Refresh rate

A laptop's refresh rate refers to the amount of times its screen is cycled every second. Modern displays like LCDs and OLEDs support 60Hz refresh rates at a minimum, but we're seeing more devices offering 120Hz, 240Hz and beyond. The higher the number, the faster the screen is refreshed, which ultimately leads to a smoother experience while mousing around or scrolling through web pages. (If you want to get a sense of what a slow refresh rate looks like, just grab an e-reader like the Kindle and try to flip between book pages.)

While high refresh rates used to be reserved for gaming laptops, nowadays we're seeing more mainstream machines like the XPS 13 offer 120Hz (or variable rates that move between 60Hz and 120Hz). If there's one knock against the MacBook Air, it's that it's still stuck at 60Hz.

CPU

If you’re buying a new laptop, you’ll want to make sure it’s got the latest CPUs. For Windows PCs, that’s either Intel’s Core Ultra chips for thin-and-light machines or the 14th-gen HX chips for beefier systems. The Core Ultra series have NPUs for handling AI tasks, while the HX hardware does not – they’re based on Intel’s previous chip architecture, and they’re more focused on delivering raw horsepower. Intel's older 13th-gen and 12th-gen laptop chips also don't have NPUs, so keep that in mind if you're looking at used systems.

You'll also see AMD's Ryzen 8000 chips in plenty of new systems like the ASUS Zephyrus G14 and Razer Blade 14. Those CPUs mainly target gaming laptops and high performance systems, while you'll still find AMD"s older Ryzen 7000 chips in ultraportables. AMD's main advantage is that its chips also include Radeon graphics, which are far more capable than Intel's Arc hardware (though those are getting better).

As for Apple's laptops, you'll be choosing between the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Ultra, each of which is progressively more powerful. Apple is also keeping its older M2 chip around for the $999 MacBook Air, which is still a solid performer for the price.

GPU

A GPU, or graphics processing unit, is the component that communicates directly with a laptop's display. Laptop CPUs all have some form of integrated GPU: Intel has either its standard graphics or beefier Arc hardware, while AMD's chips include fast Radeon mobile graphics. If you want to play demanding games or need some extra power for rendering video or 3D models, you can configure a laptop with a dedicated GPU like NVIDIA's RTX 40-series hardware or AMD's Radeon RX 7000. Just be sure to leave room in your budget if you want a powerful GPU, as they typically add $300 or more to the cost of a laptop.

Apple's M-series chips, meanwhile, have GPU cores that can perform as well as NVIDIA’s and AMD's lower-end dedicated GPUs. That's quite the accomplishment for systems like this (especially the MacBook Air and 14-inch MacBook Pro), and it's another reason we highly recommend Apple's notebooks.

AI PCs and NPUs

We knew 2024 was going to be an intriguing year for notebooks based on Intel and AMD's latest chips. Intel unveiled its "Core Ultra" CPUs in December, its first to include an NPU for AI work. AMD also announced its Ryzen 8040 AI mobile chips that month (and it couldn't help but say they were faster than Intel's new hardware). At the moment, NPUs in laptops unlock MIcrosoft's Windows Studio Effects during video chats, and can also power some editing tools from Adobe and other companies.

While those capabilities aren't exactly Earth-shattering, it might be worth investing in an NPU-equipped system now so you're ready for future AI-driven features. For example, Microsoft will reportedly let its Copilot AI run locally on PCs with NPUs, which would be dramatically faster than sending all of its queries to the cloud. There's also been plenty of buzz around Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon laptop chips, which could potentially be just as fast as Apple's M-series processors.

See Also:

• Best Gaming Laptops for 2024

• Best Cheap Windows Laptops

• Best 2-in-1 Laptops for 2024

• Best Chromebooks

• Best Laptops for College Students

Other laptops we tested that didn't make the cut

Apple 15-inch MacBook Air M3

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.

ASUS ZenBook 14 OLED

Aside from its lovely OLED screen, the ASUS ZenBook 14 OLED doesn't stand out from the crowded laptop field in any way. It just looks dull and boring, especially compared to the strikingly beautiful ASUS Zephyrus G14, which also came out this year. While you can probably find the ZenBook 14 for a decent price, I'd recommend holding out for something with a bit more personality (and with a less wobbly screen hinge).

Razer Blade 14

The Razer Blade has almost everything you'd want in a 14-inch gaming notebook, but it's far pricier than the Zephyrus G14 on this list, and it doesn’t even have an SD card reader. It would be a solid competitor once its price falls a bit, and it's certainly a great option if you just have to have a jet-black laptop.

Framework Laptop 16

Framework gave its modularity magic to the Laptop 16, delivering a gaming notebook where almost every single component is user replaceable. But you'll have to pay a pretty penny to snag it with upgraded hardware, and its optional Radeon 7700S GPU was surprisingly slow.

FAQs

What is the average battery life of a laptop per charge?

It’s hard to come up with an average battery life for laptops, since that will ultimately depend on what you’re doing with them. An ultraportable like the MacBook Air that sips power can last around 20 hours in our battery benchmark, and around two full work days of real-world usage. But a gaming laptop may last only a few hours if you’re actively playing something while on battery. At this point, Macs are delivering far better battery life than PCs, thanks to Apple’s Silicon chips.

What is the best storage capacity for a laptop?

There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to laptop storage. You’ll typically find configurations between 256GB and 1TB SSDs (solid state drives) on most laptops, and I’d recommend most people get at least 512GB. That’ll be enough space for large apps, music and video files without stressing your system too much. If you’re a media hoarder, or want to play a ton of games, then it’s definitely worth getting a 1TB SSD.

If you’ll mainly be streaming your shows and music, and would rather invest in RAM or other hardware, then 256GB of storage would be serviceable. I’d recommend staying away from any machine with 128GB of storage though. Most of that will be taken up by the operating system, and you’ll likely run into issues cramming in large apps after a few months.

We recommend springing for extra built-in storage or investing in a portable SSD for backing up your most important files. It's also worth noting that Chromebooks tend to come with less built-in storage — 32GB, 64GB or 128GB — since ChromeOS encourages users to save their files in the cloud rather than on the device.

What's a good price range for a decent laptop in 2024?

You can expect to spend between $1,000 and $1,800 for a typical 13-inch laptop today. As I explained above, you'll pay more if you want to stuff in more RAM or GPU hardware. But you can also find deals below $1,000 if you look for refurbished or older-generation models.

What’s the difference between macOS and Windows? Which is better?

Simply put, macOS is the operating system powering all of Apple's notebooks and desktops, while Windows powers the vast majority of PCs. You'll also find Chromebooks running Google's ChromeOS, but those are basically just web browsers running on top of Linux.

Debating the differences between Windows and Macs is something PC nerds have been doing since the '80s, so we won't be declaring a winner here. There are some small, negligible distinctions, like using a Command versus a Control key, how file explorers work and concerns about viruses and security. For the most part, those are minor issues or have become moot thanks to better built-in security.

But if you care more about playing the newest games, you'll want to have a Windows system. If you're more focused on creative apps, like Photoshop, Premiere and Final Cut Pro, then macOS may be a better fit (especially if you're running an iPhone).

What are the best laptop brands?

There is no single "best" laptop brand, but judging from this guide alone, we're generally impressed by notebooks from Apple, Dell and ASUS. They all produce fast, reliable and sturdy machines. HP also makes some eye-catching devices if you want an option that’s the most aesthetic. Those four brands, along with Lenovo and Acer, dominate laptop sales worldwide. We'd avoid systems from any retail store brands, or companies that don't have a major presence in the US.

Best laptops compared

Product	Tested configuration	Tested battery life	Rated battery life
Apple MacBook Air M3 (13-inch)	Apple M3, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD	21 hours	Up to 18 hours
Dell XPS 13	Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD	13 hours	Up to 18 hours
ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14	AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070	7.5 hours	10 hours
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5	13th-gen Intel Core i3, 8GB RAM, 128GB storage	6 hours	10 hours
HP Pavilion Aero	AMD Ryzen 5800U, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD	Up to 9.75 hours	Up to 10.5 hours
Apple MacBook Pro M3 (14-inch)	Apple M3, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD	24.5 hours	22 hours
HP Spectre x360 14	Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD	5 hours	Up to 13 hours

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-laptops-120008636.html?src=rss

© Photo by Devindra Hardawar / Engadget

TikTok is ramping up its efforts to automatically label AI-generated content in its app, even when it was created with third-party tools. The company announced plans to support content credentials, a kind of digital watermark that indicates the use of generative AI.

TikTok’s rules already require creators to disclose “realistic” AI-generated content. But that policy can be difficult for the company to enforce, particularly when creators use other companies’ AI tools. But because content credentials are increasingly used across the AI industry, TikTok’s new automated labels should be able to address some of those gaps.

Often described as a “nutrition label for digital content,” content credentials attach “tamper-evident metadata” that can trace the origins of an image and AI tools that were used to edit it along the way. That history can then be viewed by users if they come across a piece of AI-made content on a platform that supports the technology.

TikTok says it will be the first video platform to support content credentials, though it will take some time before these labels become commonplace since many companies are only just beginning to support the technology. (Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Adobe have all pledged to support content credentials. Meta has said its using the standard to power labels on its platform as well.)

However, it’s worth noting that content credentials and other systems that rely on metadata aren’t foolproof. OpenAI notes on a support page that the tech “is not a silver bullet” and that metadata “can easily be removed either accidentally or intentionally.” Labels also simply aren’t that effective if people don’t bother reading them. TikTok says it has a plan to address that too. The company has partnered with fact-checking organization MediaWise and human rights organization Witness on a series of media literacy campaigns meant to educate TikTok users about the labels and “potentially misleading” AI-generated content.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tiktok-will-automatically-label-more-ai-generated-content-in-its-app-120001090.html?src=rss

© TikTok

Earlier this week, Apple introduced a new top-end stylus, the Pencil Pro, but didn’t discontinue any older model. That means there are now four styluses to choose from, channeling the chaotic lineup energy of Apple Watch and iPad families over the years. Because not every Pencil works with every iPad, we explain the best choices.

Apple

Just… don’t buy the first-gen one.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

Everything announced at Apple’s Let Loose iPad event

The best budget Android phone

US revokes Intel and Qualcomm’s licenses for chip sales to Huawei

Oh no, I think I want an iPad Pro now

​​You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!

OpenAI is reportedly working on ChatGPT search

Results could include citations.

OpenAI is reportedly working on a search feature for ChatGPT that could make the chatbot capable of things you’d normally use Google Search for. According to Bloomberg, it’ll be able to scour the web for answers to your queries and spit out results, complete with sourcing. ChatGPT could take information from Wikipedia or blog posts, for instance, and link to their original pages when you ask it questions.

Earlier this month, DataChaz on X, reported that OpenAI had created a new subdomain with the address search.chatgpt.com. It apparently briefly rerouted to the main ChatGPT page over the weekend.

Continue reading.

Marvel’s making an interactive story for Apple Vision Pro

Based on the What If...? sho

Disney

Marvel and Industrial Light & Magic just announced an Apple Vision Pro title based on Marvel’s What If…?, the current Disney+ show that just finished its second season. It’ll be an hour-long experience with interactive story elements where you choose the story’s direction. Imagine that: an alternate cinematic universe where I was a Vision Pro early adopter.

Continue reading.

The best smartphones you can buy

Not just flagships.

Buying a new phone is slightly easier if you’ve already determined you only want an iPhone. (And even then, Apple’s lineup offers more options than ever.) However, if you’re looking for an Android device, there are even more options — and likely more questions. Do you want a camera that can zoom into extremely far-away subjects (Samsung’s Galaxy S series)? Or do you want intuitive AI to screen incoming calls for you? (May I interest you in Google’s Pixel series?) Or maybe it's time to get into foldables...

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-unraveling-apples-messy-pencil-lineup-111540814.html?src=rss

© Apple

Netflix has added Sonic Mania Plus to its roster of games subscribers can access for free on mobile without ads or in-app purchases. The company first announced that it was going to add the title to its lineup, along with Game Dev Tycoon, back in December 2023. Sonic Mania Plus was developed for the franchise's 25th anniversary by fans known for their Sonic fangame creations and for their work in the ROM hacking community. It is frequently cited as one of the best Sonic games of all time ever since the original version was released in 2017. Sonic Mania Plus, which came out in 2018, includes additional content. Netflix says the version in its library will come with new levels and bosses, as well. 

On May 14th, Netflix is also adding the anniversary edition of Braid to its gaming lineup. Braid is a time-manipulation platformer, where players control a character called Tim who has to explore old memories across interconnected worlds to find and rescue a princess. Its anniversary edition features upgraded audio, new animation sequences, fully repainted graphics and more puzzles to solve, along with 15 hours of audio commentary discussing the game's development. 

In addition to those two titles, Netflix's gaming library is also getting top-down puzzle adventure Paper Trail on May 21 and a Stories game based on the series Virgin River on May 29. The 2019 platformer Katana Zero, which features a katana-wielding assassin in a dystopian setting, will also make its way to Netflix games, though the company doesn't have a date for its arrival yet. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sonic-mania-plus-and-braid-come-to-netflixs-gaming-library-085458126.html?src=rss

© Sega

One of the best things about the Android ecosystem is the availability of truly affordable phones for as little as $150. By comparison, the cheapest iPhone is based on a dated design and starts at $429. However, picking the right one can be a bit tricky, as reducing the price of a phone can sometimes result in too many trade-offs. So to give you a hand, we tested a bunch of the most popular options and put together a list of our favorite cheap Android phones.

Editor’s note (5/9/24): Google has announced the Pixel 8a, its latest midrange smartphone. The 6.1-inch handset starts at $499 and, as expected, takes many of its cues from last year’s flagship Pixel 8 series. We’ll have a full review in the coming days and will update this guide accordingly. For now, you can check out our hands-on preview for more details on what to expect. Google says it’ll continue to sell the Pixel 7a, our current splurge pick, at a reduced price, so it may continue to be worthwhile. Most should hold off until we put the new Pixel through its paces, though.

How low should you go?

We tend to define a budget phone as costing between $150 and $350. Any lower and the device runs the risk of suffering from too many compromises, and above that, you cross over to pricier midrange handsets (if you're open to spending more, we shouted out a couple of our favorites at the very end of this guide).

But for those with a little wiggle room, there are some things to consider. For example, a child may be better off with a cheaper device, especially if it’s intended mainly for emergencies or texting parents (and not social media). On the higher end of this price spectrum, sub-$350 phones have come a long way thanks to improved performance, better cameras and nicer displays. This makes them a viable alternative to premium flagships, even if you have the freedom to spend more.

What to look for in a budget Android phone

When it comes to affordable devices, you get what you pay for. Most phones in this price range are made out of plastic, though the fit and finish of a specific model can vary a lot based on price. A bright screen is also important. Typically you’ll get LCD panels with a 60Hz or 90Hz refresh rate, but some phones may have OLED screens with increased color saturation. Long battery life is critical as well, so we tend to favor devices with larger power cells of around 5,000 mAh. In this price range, performance can vary a lot, so look for devices with at least 8GB of RAM and processors that can deliver stutter-free visuals. It’s also important to consider support length, as periodic operating system and security updates can extend the longevity of your device, which will save you money in the long run.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-budget-android-phone-160029327.html?src=rss

© Photo by Sam Rutherford / Engadget

Disney has expanded its partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery to offer a streaming bundle sometime this summer. The companies have announced that they'll soon give people the option to pay for Disney+, Hulu and Max subscriptions together in the US. Hulu on Disney+ recently came out of beta, a few months after Disney took full ownership of the former late last year. An ad-free bundle with the two services costs $20, while a Max subscription without ads costs $16 a month. An offering with all three will most likely be cheaper than $36, and viewers will have the option to get their ad-supported versions if they want to pay even less. 

Disney's ESPN is also working with Warner Bros. Discovery, as well as Fox Sports, to launch a streaming sports service, the companies announced back in February. The joint service will stream sporting events from all the networks the companies own, including games from the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA.

"This new offering delivers for consumers the greatest collection of entertainment for the best value in streaming, and will help drive incremental subscribers and much stronger retention," said JB Perrette, the CEO and President for Warner Bros. Discovery's Global Streaming and Games. Indeed, subscribers might be less inclined to give up a bundle of three if ever they decide to cull the services they're paying for. As The New York Times notes, Disney has seen good results from its Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ bundle, so we can probably expect it to come up with more offerings like it. 

The companies have yet to reveal pricing and an exact release date for their new product, but they said it will be available for purchase on any of the streaming platforms' websites. Subscribers might also get notifications to get the bundle for an additional payment if they already have any of the services, similar to how Disney+ members get asked if they want to pay $2 more for Hulu content. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-disney-hulu-and-max-streaming-bundle-will-soon-be-available-in-the-us-033155312.html?src=rss

© Disney

You might have an idea of which smartphone you want to buy next. But there are more options than ever before that are solid — plenty of companies are making stellar handsets nowadays, at similar prices, all with comparable feature sets. That said, the choice isn’t always cut-and-dry. If you know you want an iPhone, your decision-making process is a bit easier. If you’re an Android person, you have even more options to choose from and more questions to answer before you spend any money. At Engadget, we review phones regularly and have tested dozens over the years; so far for 2024, our top picks remain the same as they were last year, with Apple's iPhone 15 Pro and Google's Pixel 8 handsets sitting at the top of the list. Whether you’ve had your eye on them, one of Samsung's new Galaxy S24 phones or another device, we’re here to help you decide which is the best phone to buy this year.

Editor’s note (5/8/24): Google has announced the Pixel 8a, its latest midrange smartphone. The 6.1-inch handset starts at $499 and, as expected, takes many of its cues from last year’s flagship Pixel 8 series. We’ll have a full review in the coming days and will update this guide accordingly. For now, you can check out our hands-on preview for more details on what to expect. Google says it’ll continue to sell the Pixel 7a, our current midrange pick, at a reduced price, so it may continue to be worthwhile. Most should hold off until we put the new Pixel through its paces, though.

Android or iOS?

When you're searching for the best smartphone, it becomes clear that each OS has its pros and cons. Apple’s tight-knit ecosystem makes it super easy to share data between iPhones, iPads and Macs or seamlessly hand-off phone calls or music from one device to another. At the same time, you’re effectively locked in, as services like Apple Messages aren’t available on other platforms.

As for Android, there’s a much wider range of handsets from companies like Google, Samsung, Sony and more. However, Android phones don’t enjoy that same length of software support and often have lower trade-in values. In short, there’s no wrong answer. However, you will want to consider how your phone will fit in with the rest of your devices. So unless you’re really fed up with one OS and willing to learn another, it probably doesn’t make a lot of sense to switch from an iPhone to an Android phone (or vice versa) – especially if everyone else in your household is using the same platform.

Cameras

Since your cell phone often pulls double duty as your primary camera, figuring out what kind of photo tools you want is key. Nowadays, practically every mobile phone can take a great picture in bright light. But if you want a long optical zoom, you’ll probably have to upgrade to a more expensive device.

Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Mid-range phones often only have two rear cameras (a primary wide-angle lens and a secondary ultra-wide camera) and can sometimes struggle in low-light situations. Each phone maker also has various features that might be a better fit for your style, with Apple offering four different color presets on the latest iPhones, while Google’s Pixel 8 comes with neat tools like dedicated long exposure and Action Pan modes.

Will you get mmWave 5G or Wi-Fi 7?

The good news is that in 2024, most phones have at least Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6e and support for some kind of 5G connectivity. However, if you want the fastest wireless speeds possible, it’s going to cost you a little extra. For example, on certain networks, mmWave 5G offers up to gigabit download speeds, less latency and better bandwidth. But mmWave 5G also requires more sophisticated (and pricier) modems, which means support for it is often missing on less expensive devices, even those like the unlocked version of the Pixel 8.

On the bright side, mmWave 5G isn’t as widely available as other versions of 5G, so depending on where you live and what network you’re on, you may not be missing out on much right now if you buy a phone that doesn’t support it. It’s a similar situation for Wi-Fi 7, which is available on some high-end handsets like the Galaxy S24, but harder to find on cheaper devices. Wi-Fi 7 also requires you to have a compatible router, so unless you know you need it or have a specific use case in mind, the lack of support for mmWave 5G or Wi-Fi 7 shouldn’t be a dealbreaker when looking for a new phone.

Other features to consider

Because not everyone agrees on what makes the best phone, you should think about any other specs that might be extra important for you. Mobile gamers will almost certainly appreciate the 120Hz refresh rates you get on phones like the Samsung Galaxy S23 or the Apple iPhone 15 Pro. Alternatively, if long battery life is important, you’ll probably want to go with a larger iPhone or an Android phone with a battery that’s between 4,000 and 5,000 mAh in size. Meanwhile, if you find yourself juggling a lot of devices, it can be really nice to have a phone that supports reverse wireless charging, which on Samsung phones even lets you recharge the company’s Galaxy Watches.

Other smartphones we've tested

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

For its latest super-premium phone, Samsung gave the S24 Ultra a more durable titanium frame, faster performance thanks to a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip and a much longer battery life. The company also tweaked its longest telephoto lens with a 5x optical zoom so it's more usable in a wider range of situations. But the biggest upgrade is a new full suite of AI tools, which includes the ability to proofread texts, edit images and transcribe recordings. And when you tack on the best display available on a phone today and a built-in stylus, you have a very compelling flagship handset. Unfortunately, starting at $1,300, the S24 Ultra is a bit too expensive to recommend to anyone without deep pockets.

OnePlus 12

While the OnePlus 12 wasn’t able to unseat the latest Pixel, it’s worth mentioning because it offers powerful specs for the money. It features a speedy Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, a big and bright 6.8-inch, 120Hz OLED screen and the best battery life we’ve seen on any phone to date. OnePlus also brought back support for wireless charging for the first time in several generations, along with a good (but not great) IP65 rating for dust and water resistance. And even though its huge camera module looks a bit ungainly, its photos are surprisingly sharp. But the best thing is that, with a starting price of $800, the OnePlus 12 costs $200 less than a Pixel 8 Pro or a similarly specced S24+.

FAQs

How do I know which smartphone is the best for me?

While choosing the best smartphone can be challenging, it mostly comes down to how you plan on using the device. All of the best phones available now get the basics right — you’ll be able to make calls, text and access the internet without many hiccups. If your smartphone is your most used gadget, you may want to consider paying for a device on the higher end of the price spectrum. That will get you better overall performance, higher-quality cameras and a phone that will last for many years. If you don’t use your phone for everything, you may be able to compromise on performance and extra perks and spend less on a still-capable handset.

How much is a smartphone?

Smartphones range in price from $300 to over $1,500. The best budget phones available now will usually compromise on overall performance, design, camera prowess and extra features to keep costs down. On the flip side, the most expensive phones will have powerful processors, triple-camera arrays and even flip or fold designs. Most people will find a phone that fits their needs somewhere in the middle of that wide price range — we’ve found that most of the best smartphones available right now cost between $500 and $1,000.

What can you do on a smartphone?

Smartphones are essentially small, portable computers that let you do things like check email, browse social media, follow map directions, make contactless payments and more. This is all on top of the basics like making phone calls and texting, which we’ve come to expect in all modern cell phones. Smartphones have also mostly replaced compact cameras thanks to their high-quality, built-in shooters, and the fact that most smartphones today as just as portable, if not more so, as compact cameras.

How long do smartphones last?

Smartphones can last years and people are holding on to their phones longer now than ever before. Software updates and battery life are two of the biggest factors that can affect phone longevity. Apple promises five years worth of software updates for its latest iPhones, and Google promises the same for its Pixel phones. Samsung phones will get four years worth of Android updates from the time they launch. As for charging speeds and battery life, your phone can deteriorate over time as you use and recharge your phone on a regular basis.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-smartphones-140004900.html?src=rss

© Engadget

Much of the recent AI hype train has centered around mesmerizing digital content generated from simple prompts, alongside concerns about its ability to decimate the workforce and make malicious propaganda much more convincing. (Fun!) However, some of AI’s most promising — and potentially much less ominous — work lies in medicine. A new update to Google’s AlphaFold software could lead to new disease research and treatment breakthroughs.

AlphaFold software, from Google DeepMind and (the also Alphabet-owned) Isomorphic Labs, has already demonstrated that it can predict how proteins fold with shocking accuracy. It’s cataloged a staggering 200 million known proteins, and Google says millions of researchers have used previous versions to make discoveries in areas like malaria vaccines, cancer treatment and enzyme designs. 

Knowing a protein’s shape and structure determines how it interacts with the human body, allowing scientists to create new drugs or improve existing ones. But the new version, AlphaFold 3, can model other crucial molecules, including DNA. It can also chart interactions between drugs and diseases, which could open exciting new doors for researchers. And Google says it does so with 50 percent better accuracy than existing models.

“AlphaFold 3 takes us beyond proteins to a broad spectrum of biomolecules,” Google’s DeepMind research team wrote in a blog post. “This leap could unlock more transformative science, from developing biorenewable materials and more resilient crops, to accelerating drug design and genomics research.”

“How do proteins respond to DNA damage; how do they find, repair it?” Google DeepMind project leader John Jumper told Wired. “We can start to answer these questions.”

Before AI, scientists could only study protein structures through electron microscopes and elaborate methods like X-ray crystallography. Machine learning streamlines much of that process by using patterns recognized from its training (often imperceptible to humans and our standard instruments) to predict protein shapes based on their amino acids.

Google says part of AlphaFold 3’s advancements come from applying diffusion models to its molecular predictions. Diffusion models are central pieces of AI image generators like Midjourney, Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s DALL-E 3. Incorporating these algorithms into AlphaFold “sharpens the molecular structures the software generates,” as Wired explains. In other words, it takes a formation that looks fuzzy or vague and makes highly educated guesses based on patterns from its training data to clear it up.

“This is a big advance for us,” Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis told Wired. “This is exactly what you need for drug discovery: You need to see how a small molecule is going to bind to a drug, how strongly, and also what else it might bind to.”

AlphaFold 3 uses a color-coded scale to label its confidence level in its prediction, allowing researchers to exercise appropriate caution with results that are less likely to be accurate. Blue means high confidence; red means it’s less certain.

Google is making AlphaFold 3 free for researchers to use for non-commercial research. However, unlike with past versions, the company isn’t open-sourcing the project. One prominent researcher who makes similar software, University of Washington professor David Baker, expressed disappointment to Wired that Google chose that route. However, he was also wowed by the software’s capabilities. “The structure prediction performance of AlphaFold 3 is very impressive,” he said.

As for what’s next, Google says “Isomorphic Labs is already collaborating with pharmaceutical companies to apply it to real-world drug design challenges and, ultimately, develop new life-changing treatments for patients.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-deepminds-latest-medical-breakthrough-borrows-a-trick-from-ai-image-generators-194725620.html?src=rss

© Google

Apple unveiled a slew of new iPads on Tuesday, and the updates have brought a bit more clarity to the company's tablet selection. Yes, there are still six different models in total, but the lines separating those slates are more firmly drawn: You have a good option (the base iPad), a better option (the iPad Air) and a best option (the iPad Pro). Both the Air and Pro are available in 11- or 13-inch frames, but those SKUs are more or less identical outside of their size. The iPad mini, meanwhile, is still off to the side for the relatively small niche that prefers a compact tablet.  

Within those announcements, however, the Apple Pencil became even more of a mess. Apple introduced a new top-end stylus, the Pencil Pro, but didn't discontinue any older model. As a result, prospective shoppers now have four (4!) different styluses to choose from. Each has different features, two are the same price, and only the lowest-end model works with every iPad in Apple's now-current lineup. And the highest-end version prior to yesterday is no longer compatible with the latest iPad Air or iPad Pro. 

This is pretty bad! Exactly how Apple got here may stem from what the company calls a "new magnetic interface." This is what the Pencil Pro uses to connect and charge with compatible iPads, which in this case only includes the new iPad Airs and iPad Pros. Those tablets have been redesigned to place their front-facing cameras on the long edge, which is a welcome change in a vacuum, but could have resulted in the devices no longer supporting the charging system used by the second-generation Pencil. Apple hasn't formally confirmed any of this, however. When reached for comment, the company did not provide additional information aside from noting that the new Pencil charging and pairing interface was created to work with the latest tablets' designs and accommodate their landscape front cameras.

It's more than possible that we're in an awkward transitional period, with the first- and second-gen Pencils on the way out whenever the entry-level iPad and iPad mini are refreshed. As it is today, though, it'd be hard for digital artists and note-takers to look at the Pencil lineup as anything but chaotic. That there's a "lineup" at all, and not one product that just works with every iPad, feels like a condemnation in itself. But if you're in the market for a new Pencil and not sure which one to get, we've broken down the current offerings below. 

The Apple Pencil Pro is the newest and most technically advanced Pencil. It costs $129 and is up for pre-order now, with full availability starting on May 15. As noted above, it's only compatible with Apple's latest tablets: the 11- and 13-inch iPad Air (M2), and the 11- and 13-inch iPad Pro (M4).

To keep things simple, if you're going to buy one of those iPads, this is almost certainly the stylus you should get. We still need to review it, but it's essentially an upgraded version of the second-gen Pencil, which we previously recommended in our guide to the best iPad accessories. It has virtually the same comfortable shape and matte finish, though it's technically 0.05 ounces lighter. It still supports pressure sensitivity, so your marks will be darker if you press down with more force, and tilt detection, so you can hold it at an angle for light shading and similar effects. It still pairs and charges magnetically, and it can still utilize a "double-tap" feature that lets you quickly swap between tools in certain apps. With certain iPads, a "hover" feature allows you to interact with elements on screen by holding the stylus just over the display. 

The Pencil Pro has a few exclusive perks on top of that. You can squeeze it to open a contextual menu for changing colors, line weights and similar tools. A built-in gyroscope can detect when you roll the stylus, which should make it simpler to change the orientation of shaped pen and brush tools. There's a haptic engine to deliver more tangible feedback as you use the pen. And, maybe most conveniently, it works with Apple's Find My network, so it should be easier to locate if you ever misplace it. 

The second-generation Pencil was released in 2018 and remained Apple's best stylus until this week. It, too, costs $129, though recent sales have dropped it as low as $79. It's compatible with the following iPads: 12.9-inch iPad Pro (3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th gen), 11-inch iPad Pro (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th gen), iPad Air (4th and 5th gen) and iPad mini (6th gen). 

To reiterate, Apple says it is not compatible with any of the iPad Airs or iPad Pros announced on Tuesday. Yes, paying $129 for a stylus only to be forced into replacing it a generation or two later is obnoxious.

The second-gen Pencil lacks the squeeze and "barrel roll" gestures, increased haptic feedback and Find My support of the Pencil Pro. Otherwise, it includes all of the same core features. If you own one of the compatible iPads listed above and do not plan on upgrading anytime soon, it's the Pencil to buy, as it remains a significant upgrade over Apple's lower-cost models. But if you plan to buy a new iPad Air or iPad Pro in the near future and don't desperately need a stylus today, it's worth holding off and buying the Pencil Pro alongside your new tablet, as much as that sucks. 

The USB-C Apple Pencil was released late last year and effectively serves as Apple's "budget" stylus. With a list price of $79, it's still not outright cheap, though we've seen it go for $10 less with recent discounts. 

This is the only Pencil that's compatible with every iPad in Apple's current lineup: the iPad Air (M2), iPad Pro (M4), iPad (10th gen) and iPad mini (6th gen). Besides those, it works with the the older 12.9-inch iPad Pro (3rd-6th gen), 11-inch iPad Pro (1st-4th gen) and iPad Air (4th and 5th gen).

However, it's also a clear downgrade from the Pencil Pro and second-gen Pencil, as it lacks pressure sensitivity and magnetic charging support. The former means it's less precise for illustrations, while the latter means you'll need a USB-C cable handy when it comes time to recharge the device. You can still attach the USB-C Pencil to the side of iPads with magnetic holders, which is convenient, but it won't power up. It doesn't work with Apple's double-tap feature, either, though it does support "hover" and basics like tilt sensitivity. It's also slightly shorter than the higher-end models.

For most people who care about drawing or note-taking enough to buy an Apple Pencil in the first place, I'd recommend just paying up for the Pencil Pro or second-gen Pencil, depending on your iPad. But for those who really want to save cash and may only want a stylus for casual writing or generally navigating their device, the USB-C Pencil could make sense. This is especially the case for the iPad (10th gen), which doesn't work with either of Apple's superior models. 

The original Apple Pencil was introduced way back in 2015. Apple still sells it for $99, though these days it's frequently available for $20 to $30 less at other retailers. Most people can safely ignore it: The only modern iPad it works with is the entry-level iPad (10th gen), but even then it requires a Lighting to USB-C adapter to charge, which looks ridiculous and gives you more things to potentially lose. It can't attach magnetically, and it has a glossier, more rounded design that can more easily roll away on a flat table. It also lacks most of the more advanced features found in newer Pencils.

The one thing the first-gen Pencil does have over the USB-C model, though, is pressure sensitivity. Yes, even though it's eight years older, it's technically better in at least one meaningful way. So, if you own the iPad (10th gen) and are willing to deal with the dongle-ridden charging situation in exchange for a more precise drawing experience, there's a world in which the first-gen Pencil is still justifiable. But most people in that situation should just step up to an iPad Air and the Pencil Pro.

Just for posterity, here's the list of iPads that support the first-gen Pencil: 12.9-inch iPad Pro (1st and 2nd gen), 10.5-inch iPad Pro, 9.7-inch iPad Pro, iPad Air (3rd gen), iPad mini (5th gen) and iPad (6th-10th gen).

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-apple-pencil-lineup-is-a-mess-so-heres-a-guide-to-which-one-you-should-buy-190040913.html?src=rss

© Apple

We’re still waiting for the perfect hybrid PC that can work as well as a tablet as it does as a laptop. As we enter 2024, it seems like many companies have also given up on that ideal — but Microsoft, Apple and Samsung still have some options to consider. And we’re still seeing OS tweaks to make iOS and Android more usable for larger displays. If you’re on the hunt for your next computer and are dead-set on it being a 2-in-1, we’ve collected our current top picks here plus all of the things you should know before making a purchase.

Editor’s note (5/8/2024): Apple has announced a quartet of new iPads, including overhauled 11- and 13-inch iPad Pros with OLED displays, thinner designs and faster M4 chips, a refreshed 11-inch iPad Air with an updated M2 chip and an all-new iPad Air with a 13-inch display. There’s a new Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil Pro as well. As part of the updates, the 10th-gen model has permanently dropped in price to $350. All of the new devices are currently available for pre-order now. Updated versions of the base iPad and iPad mini are still reportedly expected later in 2024. Our current iPad pick below may still work for some people, but everyone else should wait to see how the new hardware stacks up. We’ll have full reviews in the near future and will update our advice accordingly.

Factors to consider before buying a 2-in-1 laptop

When you’re shopping for a 2-in-1, there are some basic criteria to keep in mind. First, look at the spec sheet to see how heavy the tablet is (alone, and with the keyboard). Most modern hybrids weigh less than 2 pounds. If the overall weight of the tablet and its keyboard come close to 3 pounds, you may be better off getting an ultraportable laptop.

Also, while some 2-in-1s offer built-in LTE or 5G connectivity, not everyone will want to pay the premium for it. An integrated cellular radio makes checking emails or replying to messages on the go far more convenient. But it also often costs more, and that’s not counting what you’ll pay for data. And, as for 5G — you can hold off on it unless you live within range of a mmWave beacon. Coverage is still spotty and existing nationwide networks use the slower sub-6 technology that’s barely faster than LTE. For now, tethering a PC to your phone is still the best way to get online.

These machines still have their limits, of course. Since they’re smaller than proper laptops, they tend to have less-powerful processors. Keyboards are often less sturdy, with condensed layouts and shallower travel. Plus, they’re almost always tablets first, leaving you to buy a keyboard case separately. (And those ain’t cheap!) So, you can’t always assume the advertised price is what you’ll actually spend on the 2-in-1 you want.

See Also:

• Best Laptops for 2024

• Best Gaming Laptops

• Best Cheap Windows Laptops for 2024

• Best Chromebooks

• Best Laptops for College Students

Sometimes, getting a third-party keyboard might be just as good, and they’re often cheaper than first-party offerings. If you’re looking to save some money, Logitech’s Slim Folio is an affordable option, and if you don’t need your keyboard to attach to your tablet, Logitech’s K780 Multi-Device wireless keyboard is also a good pick.

While we’ve typically made sure to include a budget 2-in-1 in previous years, this time there isn’t a great choice. We would usually pick a Surface Go, but the latest model is still too expensive. Other alternatives, like cheaper Android tablets, are underpowered and don’t offer a great multitasking interface. If you want something around $500 that’s thin, lightweight and long-lasting, you’re better off this year looking at a conventional laptop (like those on our best budget PCs list).

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-2-in-1-laptops-173038508.html?src=rss

© Photo by Devindra Hardawar / Engadget

As a bona-fide hater of actual reality, virtual reality is very appealing to me. However, I’m not that into 100 hour AAA games like Asgard’s Wrath 2 or Half Life: Alyx. I’m into short interactive experiences that can’t be had anywhere else. Good news for me? The Apple Vision Pro is getting a pretty nifty mixed-reality “interactive story” that could herald the evolution of a new type of entertainment that puts people directly in their favorite shows or movies.

Marvel and Industrial Light & Magic, the company George Lucas built, just announced a forthcoming Apple Vision Pro title based on What If…?, the current Disney+ show that just completed its second season. It’ll be an hour-long experience that uses all of the technology embedded within Apple’s pricey headset, including that stellar passthrough.

The story is being kept under wraps, but you won’t play as The Watcher, that much is clear. The promotional copy says players will “learn the mystic arts”, which recalls Dr. Strange to me. The companies also promise that “fans will step into breathtaking environments that place them in new and iconic MCU locations.” Does this mean we’ll be able to virtually order shawarma with Tony Stark and the gang?

Now, I haven’t played a demo of this, but I have played the Vader Immortal series and plenty of similar titles and absolutely love them. It just seems like such a natural evolution of both games and TV to merge them together. Give the player the illusion of freedom but keep it mostly on rails and call it a day.

Director Dave Bushore agrees, calling this title “the next evolution in how we tell our stories” and that it's a “glimpse of what I’ve been waiting for my whole life.” Bushore doesn’t have a lot of directing credits, but was the interactive marketing executive for Iron Man 3, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, among other MCU films. It’s being written by David Dong and Phil McCarty, a duo best known for a short film adaptation of a David Sedaris essay. There are some heavy hitters on the EP side of things, with people who were involved with The Marvels and X-Men ‘97 signing on for the mixed-reality project.

Marvel hasn’t announced any actors returning to reprise their roles, but Jeffrey Wright as The Watcher seems like a given. For the uninitiated, What If…? is an anthology series that examines parallel universes and how things could have shaken out in the MCU if something happened a bit differently. The game/experience will be exclusive to Apple Vision Pro and is coming “soon.”

This isn’t enough to get me to part with $3,500, but come on, it’s a cool sign of things to come. Who wouldn’t want to “play” an episode of The Mandalorian or something like that?

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/marvels-making-an-interactive-story-based-on-the-what-if-show-for-apple-vision-pro-183958714.html?src=rss

© Disney+

Your cable streaming bill may be getting more expensive once again. Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is reportedly planning another price increase for Max. Bloomberg didn't reveal how much WBD is expected to jack up the subscription by. The cheapest ad-free plan is currently $16 per month after a $1 increase in early 2023. WBD is said to be aiming for $1 billion in earnings from Max and Discovery+ next year.

We could find out about any Max price increase as soon as Thursday. That's when WBD will report its earnings for the first three months of the year.

The price increase may be on the way as part of WBD's seemingly never-ending cost-cutting drive. As part of that, more layoffs may be in the pipeline. Over the last year, the company has fired more than 2,000 people and eliminated their positions.

Very soon after WBD formed in 2022 following a merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery, CEO David Zazlav went into extreme costcutting mode as the company was saddled with over $50 billion in debt. The company quickly axed the just-launched CNN+, laid off staff, canceled projects, moved shows and movies from Max to ad-supported streaming services and shelved completed or nearly finished movies in favor of tax breaks.

Zazlav has reduced WBD's debt load by around $10 billion so far, according to Bloomberg. However, his decisions have infuriated creatives and many fans, such as those who are clamoring for the company to release the highly regarded live-action Looney Tunes film Coyote vs. Acme instead of canning it for a tax rebate.

Coincidentally, Variety on Wednesday published a list of media and tech CEOs' pay packages for 2023. Zazlav's compensation is said to have shot up by 26.5 percent to $49.7 million. That's around 290 times what the median WBD employee makes.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ugh-max-subscription-prices-might-be-going-up-again-181332420.html?src=rss

© Warner Bros. Discovery

The iPad Pro has always struck me as a baffling device. It's significantly more expensive than the (very capable!) iPad and iPad Air. iPadOS still isn’t a great environment for multitasking. And Apple hasn't yet justified why, exactly, you'd want a super-powerful tablet in the first place (simplified versions of Final Cut Pro and Audition aren't enough!). If you're trying to get serious work done, you're better off buying a slightly used last-gen MacBook Pro, instead of shelling out $1,000 or more on a souped-up tablet.

And yet, something about this year's iPad Pros compels me.

Apple

Taken individually, most of the tablet's new features seem inessential. It's the first device with Apple's M4 chip, which has vastly better AI performance than its earlier M-series hardware. It has a "tandem" OLED display, which stacks two OLED panels together for better performance. And both the 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pros are incredibly thin and light (the latter model is the slimmest device Apple has ever made, measuring 5.1mm).

But when you wrap all of those advancements together and pair them up with a redesigned, MacBook-like Magic Keyboard, the iPad Pro M4 is starting to look more and more like the ultra-light computer of my dreams. A super-powerful machine that's easy to take anywhere, with a gorgeous screen for binging TV shows and a capable keyboard for writing on the go. Maybe I'm just charmed by the side profile of the iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard, which looks like it could have been designed by Syd Mead in the '90s, imagining how laptops could be transformed in a few decades.

I'll admit, the new iPad Pro looks very similar to the 2022 model. But, as the kids say, it just hits differently now. This year’s iPad Pro is thinner than I ever thought possible, and the revamped Magic Keyboard solves most of the problems I've had with earlier versions, thanks to its aluminum top cover, function keys and larger touchpad.

Part of the appeal, for me at least, is that Apple has also taken the idea of a tablet PC a step further than Microsoft's Surface tablets. While those devices can function as genuine PCs and run full Windows apps, Microsoft hasn't improved its keyboard covers or overall design in years. If you want to hold a Surface on your lap, you'll still have a kickstand digging into your legs and a pretty flimsy typing experience. The iPad Pro M4, on the other hand, now more closely resembles an actual laptop.

Now I realize part of this gadget lust comes from covering Apple's recent launch event. I've been thinking far too much about iPads over the past few days, and it's taken a toll. You could potentially get a laptop-like PC experience from either the entry-level iPad or iPad Air when paired together with a keyboard case. But, then again, I’ve already bought a 10th-gen iPad with Logitech’s Slim Folio keyboard and I don’t actually use it much for typing. It’s fine for jotting down something short like emails, but the unsatisfying keys makes it tough to get into a writing flow.

I'd also feel better about jumping on the iPad Pro bandwagon once iPadOS becomes an even better platform for multi-tasking. Stage Manager is a start, but it's a bit clunky and hard to navigate. Sure, Apple is constrained by what's possible on smaller displays, but I could imagine iPads (along with iPhones and Macs) becoming far more functional once the company starts rolling out its rumored local AI models.

What if Siri could accurately note down your shopping list, pull in prices from local stores and share it with your friends. What if it could automatically edit your vacation videos to post on Instagram? Now imagine you could do those things without losing focus from the email on your screen, or your company’s Slack channel. Multitasking doesn't necessarily need to involve jumping between several apps. With AI enhancements down the line, we could potentially complete complex tasks with natural language, and our devices could better anticipate what we actually need.

Apple

The iPad Pro M4’s price problem

Price is another obvious problem facing the iPad Pro. It has always been expensive, but Apple is really pushing the boundaries of acceptability with these new models. Both the 11-inch and 13-inch tablets are $200 more than before, starting at $999 and $1,299 respectively. While it's nice to see them come with 256GB of storage by default (up from 128GB), creative professionals will probably want to spend another $200 to get 512GB.

If you want the full 10-core CPU power of the M4 chip, though, you'd have to shell out for at least 1TB of storage, which makes the 11-inch iPad Pro $1,599. Want nano-textured glass for additional glare reduction? That's another $100. Oh, and don't forget the Magic Keyboard! That's $299 or $349 more, depending on the size. If you actually wanted to spec out the iPad Pro like a laptop, it's easy to hit a price near $2,000.

Alternatively, you could just get a $1,299 MacBook Air, or $1,599 14-inch MacBook Pro. Maybe add another $200 to get 16GB of RAM. At least with those machines, you've got larger screens, excellent keyboards, the full desktop power of macOS and more than a single port for connectivity. If you really want an iPad Pro experience, you could always keep an eye out for used or refurbished 2022 models, which come with the very capable M2 chip.

Given just how expensive it is, I likely won't be buying a new iPad Pro anytime soon. But the desire is certainly there, sitting somewhere deep within me, ready to take over my cognitive functions the minute these tablets get cheaper.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/oh-no-i-think-i-want-an-ipad-pro-now-170041331.html?src=rss

© Apple

Speedrunning video games is a time-honored tradition, and this is especially true when it comes to retro titles. Nintendo is getting in on the trend with a fairly bizarre forthcoming Switch game called Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, which drops on July 18. It’s all about speedrunning through the classics, like Legend of Zelda, Metroid and Super Mario Bros., among others.

This comes in the form of 150 speedrunning challenges pulled from 13 NES games, which seems mightily familiar to those cool NES Remix releases from the Wii U era. There will be global online leaderboards, to give it a tournament feel, and local 8 player co-op. The game will also include an automatic rewind feature, letting people try and try until they get it right.

If the name Nintendo World Championships sounds familiar, that’s because it's taken from the company’s semi-regular esports tournament. This has been the company’s branding for in-person competitions since 1990, when Nintendo visited 29 cities throughout the country. That first national tournament also spawned an ultra-rare NES cartridge with minigames based on Super Mario Bros., Tetris and Rad Racer. Only a few hundred were made and they currently sell on eBay for, no joke, $175,000. The last time we covered this cartridge, it was selling for $5,000 to $10,000. Retro-flation is real, ya’ll.

Pre-orders for the digital version are available right now on the eShop, but there is a physical edition coming. This version will include 13 art cards, five pins and a physical game cart. It’ll also include a gold commemorative NES cartridge, though it's sadly nonfunctional. Come on Nintendo! Make that thing functional so I can sell it for $175,000 in 30 years. The digital version of Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition costs $30 and the deluxe physical pack costs $60.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nintendo-just-revealed-a-nes-speedrunning-collection-inspired-by-an-ultra-rare-1990-cartridge-164607841.html?src=rss

© Nintendo

Amazon has the Google Pixel Watch 2 on sale for $70 off. The Wear OS 4-powered smartwatch arrived last fall with a new stress-tracking feature, slightly longer battery life and a better heart sensor, as Google’s flagship wearable inches closer to rivals Apple and Samsung. Its current $330 sale price is a record low.

The Pixel Watch 2 works with Android phones, so you’ll want to sit this deal out if you use an iPhone and don’t plan on switching. But those with the right setup get a sleek device with a round (1.2-inch) screen. The watch’s 41mm case (one size only) is lighter than its predecessor, thanks to its recycled aluminum material. It also has an IP68 water and dust resistance, meaning it has dust protection and can withstand half an hour of submersion in 1.5 meters of water.

This latest model includes a stress-tracking feature that uses the watch’s continuous electrodermal activity (cEDA) sensor to track changes in your skin’s electrical activity. “This new sensor can point to possible signs of stress using a machine learning algorithm that incorporates heart rate, heart rate variability and skin temperature,” Google explains. “When the algorithm picks up on physical indicators of positive and negative stress, including excitement, the Body Response feature will send you a notification.”

Fitness tracking is likely one of the main reasons to buy a wearable like this, and Engadget’s Cherlynn Low found the watch’s Fitbit integration performed very well in our full review. “I’ve been wearing the Pixel Watch 2 alongside the Apple Watch Series 9 to all my workouts this week, and they generally showed similar results,” she wrote when the smartwatch arrived last fall. It includes automatic workout start and stop prompts in case you forget to set up or end a session.

The Pixel Watch 2’s $330 sale price is for the LTE version of the Pixel Watch 2, so once you set it up with your wireless carrier, it can stay connected without needing you to keep your phone nearby. If you prefer the Wi-Fi-only version, it’s available for $300, which is $50 off its usual price.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-google-pixel-watch-2-has-never-been-cheaper-162729942.html?src=rss

© Cherlynn Low for Engadget