The built-in speakers in most TVs aren’t enough to fill your living room with immersive sound that adequately showcases the finer details of movies and TV shows. Thankfully, you don't have to splurge for a five-speaker (or more) surround-sound system to improve your audio experience. In most cases, a single soundbar and maybe a subwoofer can often drastically improve the quality of Dolby Atmos content. To assist with your home theater shopping, I’ve compiled a list of the best soundbars in premium, mid-range and budget price ranges, along with a summary of what sets them apart from the competition. Just know going in that the more you pay, the more you’re going to get — both in terms of features and performance.

What to look for in a soundbar

Features

When it comes to features, the more you pay the more you're going to get. Most affordable options ($150 or less) will improve your television's audio quality, but that's about it. Step into the $300 to $400 range and you'll find a smart soundbar with things like built-in voice control, wireless connectivity, Google Chromecast, AirPlay 2 and even Android TV. They're all helpful when you want to avoid looking for the remote control, but the best sound quality is usually only in the top tier and the formats those premium soundbar systems support. I’m talking about things like Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and other high-resolution audio standards. These are what you'll want to look for if truly immersive sound is what you crave for your living room setup. And not all Atmos soundbars are equal, so you'll need to look at the finer details carefully before you break into the savings account.

Ports

Sony

This is a big one. A lot of the more affordable soundbars are limited when it comes to connectivity options. They either offer an optical port or one HDMI jack and, if you're lucky, both. Things get slightly better in the mid-range section, but that's not always the case. The Sonos Beam, for example, is $449, but only has a single HDMI port. If you want to connect your set-top box, gaming console and more directly to your soundbar for the best possible audio, you'll likely want to look for an option with at least two HDMI (eARC) inputs. HDMI connections are essential for things like Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and other high-res and immersive audio formats. And with the HDMI 2.1 spec, soundbars can support HDR, 8K and 4K/120 passthrough to make these speaker systems an even better companion for a game console.

Channels

Another big thing you’ll want to pay attention to when looking for the best soundbar is channels. That’s the 2.1, 7.1.2 or other decimal number that companies include in product descriptions. The first figure corresponds to the number of channels. A two would just be left and right while a more robust Atmos system, especially one with rear satellite speakers, could be five or seven (left, right, center and upward). The second number refers to the subwoofer, so if your new soundbar comes with one or has them built in, you’ll see a one here. The third numeral is up-firing speakers, important for the immersive effect of Dolby Atmos. Not all Atmos-enabled units have them, but if they do, the third number will tell you how many are in play.

Wireless

Sony

Most soundbars these days offer either Bluetooth, WiFi or both. When it comes to WiFi, that connectivity affords you luxuries like voice control (either built-in or with a separate device), Chromecast, Spotify Connect and AirPlay 2. Depending on your preferences, you might be able to live without some of these. For me, AirPlay 2 and Chromecast are essentials, but the rest I can live without. Those two give me the ability to beam music and podcasts from my go-to apps without having to settle for — or struggle with — a Bluetooth connection.

Size

This one might seem obvious but humor me for a minute. Nothing is more soul-crushing than getting a pricey soundbar in your living room only to discover you have to rearrange everything to find a spot for it. This was my plight when the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar arrived at my door. Yes, that speaker is absurdly large (and heavy), and most soundbars aren't nearly as big. I learned a valuable lesson: Make sure the space where you want to put a soundbar will accommodate the thing you're about to spend hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars on.

Basically, it all comes down to the TV you have (or are planning to get) and what the primary goal is for your living-room audio. Is it ease of use? Do you want the best possible sound from a single speaker or speaker/sub combo? Do you just want to be able to actually hear your TV better? Or do you want to turn your living room into an immersive home theater system with surround sound?

By paying attention to each of those areas, you should have a good idea of what to look for in a soundbar, soundbar/subwoofer combo or a more robust setup. With that said, we've put numerous products through their paces at Engadget and have a few favorites for best soundbar at various price points to get you started.

The best soundbars for 2024

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-soundbars-143041791.html?src=rss

© Engadget

The new 13-inch M4 iPad Pro is really, really thin. That’s inevitably going to make certain aspects of repairing the device even more difficult, which iFixit confirmed in a teardown published this weekend. But it does shine in one area — when it comes to replacing the battery, Apple made some seriously helpful changes.

“For the first time in an iPad Pro, we’re able to remove the battery immediately after removing the screen,” Teardown Tech Shahram Mokhtari wrote in a blog post. Mokhtari notes that “immediately is relative,” as there are still some screws and brackets to remove before the battery can be taken out, and the video documenting the process shows it takes a bit of work to get to the pull tabs beneath the batteries, but the new setup still shaves hours off the process compared to earlier models.

“The fact that you can remove the battery without having to remove every major component inside this device is still a huge win for repairability,” Mokhtari says in the video. “It’s a massive improvement over the previous generation.” Everything else, on the other hand, is going to be pretty tricky to repair without causing damage. “From the daughterboard to the speakers and coax cables, we found a whole bunch of stuff that’s glued down because there just isn’t enough space for screws.”

And, the teardown shows the new Apple Pencil Pro is a repairability nightmare. Mokhtari — who got cut by the Pencil while trying to get to its insides — called it “a disposable piece of crap once the battery dies.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ifixits-teardown-of-the-new-m4-ipad-pro-reveals-an-easier-to-replace-battery-205413201.html?src=rss

OpenAI reportedly made exiting employees choose between keeping their vested equity and being able to speak out against the company. According to Vox, which viewed the document in question, employees could “lose all vested equity they earned during their time at the company, which is likely worth millions of dollars” if they didn’t sign a nondisclosure and non-disparagement agreement, thanks to a provision in the off-boarding papers. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed in a tweet on Saturday evening that such a provision did exist, but said “we have never clawed back anyone's vested equity, nor will we do that if people do not sign a separation agreement (or don't agree to a non-disparagement agreement).”

An OpenAI spokesperson echoed this in a statement to Vox, and Altman said the company “was already in the process of fixing the standard exit paperwork over the past month or so.” But as Vox notes in its report, at least one former OpenAI employee has spoken publicly about sacrificing equity by declining to sign an NDA upon leaving. Daniel Kokotajlo recently posted on an online forum that this decision led to the loss of equity likely amounting to “about 85 percent of my family's net worth at least.”

In Altman’s response, the CEO apologized and said he was “embarrassed” after finding out about the provision, which he claims he was previously unaware of. “[T]here was a provision about potential equity cancellation in our previous exit docs; although we never clawed anything back, it should never have been something we had in any documents or communication,” he wrote on X. “this is on me and one of the few times i've been genuinely embarrassed running openai; i did not know this was happening and i should have [sic].” In addition to acknowledging that the company is changing the exit paperwork, Altman went on to say, “[I]f any former employee who signed one of those old agreements is worried about it, they can contact me and we'll fix that too.”

All of this comes after two more high-profile resignations from OpenAI this week. OpenAI co-founder and Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever announced on Wednesday that he was leaving the company, and was followed soon after by Jan Leike, who was a team leader on OpenAI’s now-dissolved “Superalignment” AI safety team.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sam-altman-is-embarrassed-that-openai-threatened-to-revoke-equity-if-exiting-employees-wouldnt-sign-an-nda-184000462.html?src=rss

© REUTERS / Reuters

Slack trains machine-learning models on user messages, files and other content without explicit permission. The training is opt-out, meaning your private data will be leeched by default. Making matters worse, you’ll have to ask your organization’s Slack admin (human resources, IT, etc.) to email the company to ask it to stop. (You can’t do it yourself.) Welcome to the dark side of the new AI training data gold rush.

Corey Quinn, an executive at DuckBill Group, spotted the policy in a blurb in Slack’s Privacy Principles and posted about it on X (via PCMag). The section reads (emphasis ours), “To develop AI/ML models, our systems analyze Customer Data (e.g. messages, content, and files) submitted to Slack as well as Other Information (including usage information) as defined in our Privacy Policy and in your customer agreement.”

In response to concerns over the practice, Slack published a blog post on Friday evening to clarify how its customers’ data is used. According to the company, customer data is not used to train any of Slack’s generative AI products — which it relies on third-party LLMs for — but is fed to its machine learning models for products “like channel and emoji recommendations and search results.” For those applications, the post says, “Slack’s traditional ML models use de-identified, aggregate data and do not access message content in DMs, private channels, or public channels.” That data may include things like message timestamps and the number of interactions between users. 

A Salesforce spokesperson reiterated this in a statement to Engadget, also saying that “we do not build or train these models in such a way that they could learn, memorize, or be able to reproduce customer data.”

The opt-out process requires you to do all the work to protect your data. According to the privacy notice, “To opt out, please have your Org or Workspace Owners or Primary Owner contact our Customer Experience team at [email protected] with your Workspace/Org URL and the subject line ‘Slack Global model opt-out request.’ We will process your request and respond once the opt out has been completed.”

The company replied to Quinn’s message on X: “To clarify, Slack has platform-level machine-learning models for things like channel and emoji recommendations and search results. And yes, customers can exclude their data from helping train those (non-generative) ML models.”

How long ago the Salesforce-owned company snuck the tidbit into its terms is unclear. It’s misleading, at best, to say customers can opt out when “customers” doesn’t include employees working within an organization. They have to ask whoever handles Slack access at their business to do that — and I hope they will oblige.

Inconsistencies in Slack’s privacy policies add to the confusion. One section states, “When developing Al/ML models or otherwise analyzing Customer Data, Slack can’t access the underlying content. We have various technical measures preventing this from occurring.” However, the machine-learning model training policy seemingly contradicts this statement, leaving plenty of room for confusion. 

In addition, Slack’s webpage marketing its premium generative AI tools reads, “Work without worry. Your data is your data. We don’t use it to train Slack AI. Everything runs on Slack’s secure infrastructure, meeting the same compliance standards as Slack itself.”

In this case, the company is speaking of its premium generative AI tools, separate from the machine learning models it’s training on without explicit permission. However, as PCMag notes, implying that all of your data is safe from AI training is, at best, a highly misleading statement when the company apparently gets to pick and choose which AI models that statement covers.

Update, May 18 2024, 3:24 PM ET: This story has been updated to include new information from Slack, which published a blog post explaining its practices in response to the community's concerns. 

Update, May 19 2024, 12:41 PM ET: This story and headline have been updated to reflect additional context provided by Slack about how it uses customer data.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/yuck-slack-has-been-scanning-your-messages-to-train-its-ai-models-181918245.html?src=rss

© Slack

Blue Origin is back in the space tourism game. Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight company successfully flew six paying customers to the edge of space and back this morning, breaking its nearly two-year-long hiatus from crewed missions. This was Blue Origin’s seventh trip with humans on board. The mission — a quick jaunt to cross the Kármán line, or the boundary of space, about 62 miles above Earth — lifted off from the company’s Launch Site One in West Texas shortly after 10:30AM ET.

The six people inside the New Shepard crew capsule included 90-year-old Ed Dwight, a former Air Force Captain who was the first Black astronaut candidate when he was picked for the training program in 1961. He went through training but ultimately wasn’t selected for NASA’s Astronaut Corps, and never made it to space until now. Also on board were Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Kenneth L. Hess, Carol Schaller and Gopi Thotakura. They were briefly able to unbuckle their seatbelts and experience zero gravity.

The crew safely landed back on the ground about 10 minutes after launch. One of the capsule's three parachutes didn't properly deploy on the return trip, but this didn't pose any problems for its touchdown thanks to the redundancies in the system that account for exactly that type of situation. 

This was also the 25th mission for a New Shepard rocket. It last flew a crew in August 2022, but suffered a structural failure in its engine nozzle the following month during the launch of a payload mission and didn't fly again at all until December 2023. It returned to flight then with another payload mission, making today's launch its first with human passengers in almost two years. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/blue-origin-successfully-sends-tourists-to-the-edge-of-space-again-after-a-long-hiatus-144745261.html?src=rss

Video game horses tend to play a fairly uncomplicated role, at least in mainstream titles. Like semi-sentient meat bicycles, they often exist as little more than a way to make the player travel faster, jump farther or occasionally defy the laws of physics. With the exception of Red Dead Redemption 2, an outlier beloved for its equine verisimilitude and breadth of riding-related activities, horses in video games are generally emotionless props, notorious for janky animations and unnatural anatomy.

That’s fine for most players’ needs, but for those who are drawn to certain games in part because they have horses, there's a lot to be desired. Especially since the alternatives — dedicated horse games — haven’t proven to be much better. The genre is plagued with shoddy graphics, unoriginal storylines and drawn-out, repetitive caretaking tasks like hoof-picking. While horse games of the aughts, like the Barbie Horse Adventures series, sparked a lasting interest in the niche for a lot of young gamers, we’ve yet to really see what their maturation can look like for the now-adults still chasing that high.

The biggest actual horse game today, the decade-old MMORPG Star Stable Online, is distinctly tween-girl-coded. Suffice it to say, there’s a hole in the market as big as a Clydesdale. But some extremely passionate developers are trying to change that.

Alice Ruppert, who runs The Mane Quest — the go-to blog for all things relating to horse games — has cultivated a community of “horse-interested gamers and game-interested equestrians” over the last five years by churning out news, reviews, analyses and wishful editorials covering the latest developments in the genre. As a lifelong equestrian who also has a professional background in game design, she’s become an authoritative voice at the intersection of these two worlds.

The way Ruppert sees it, dedicated horse games have long been stuck in place. Budgets for new titles over the years were kept tiny based on the assumption that these games would only land with a very small niche of gamers, namely young girls. Limited resources resulted in the creation of subpar games, with “basic mistakes of game design and usability,” causing those games to be poorly received. Bad sales and negative reviews ensured future projects wouldn’t be given bigger budgets, and the cycle repeats.

There’s been a shift more recently, she says, “as the game development space is getting democratized and more people start trying to make games.” That has introduced a host of new issues, like “very amateur teams launching really big projects… and not being able to deliver,” Ruppert said, but she thinks that's “a better problem to have than just nobody making any games at all.”

After Ruppert panned Aesir Interactive’s Windstorm: Start of a Great Friendship (Ostwind in its original German, based on a movie), the studio got in touch and later brought her on as a consultant and eventually creative producer for its 2022 title, Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch. The game is far from perfect, Ruppert admits, but despite joining the project at a pretty late stage, she says she was able to make some contributions toward creating an experience that could be appreciated by people who actually know and love horses.

Aesir Interactive

That included helping to correct funky details that might not have registered to a non-equestrian but would stick out like a sore thumb to anyone in that world — like a bizarre transition when changing a horse’s leading leg in a canter. “Whenever I spotted something that was wrong, I was like, okay no, we need to fix this because the horse game crowd is going to care,” she says.

Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch is an open world adventure game where players can explore on horseback, tame wild horses, breed and train horses, and maintain their own ranch. It takes a realistic approach to breeding and genetics, and the horses each have unique personality traits. The team crowdsourced horse names, too, so the game’s automatic name generator spits out the names of community members’ real horses.

Still, the game drew some harsh criticism after its release, and the reviews overall have been mixed, with common complaints of game-crashing bugs and a world that feels empty. (The team released a final patch for the game in April devoted entirely to bug fixes.) It has its fans, though, and if there’s one thing players seem to agree on, it’s that the horses and the riding mechanics look great.

Aesir also announced last month that it’s releasing a remastered version of Windstorm: Start of a Great Friendship. The revamped game includes improvements like “replacing those horse animations that I’ve been complaining about for the past five years,” wrote Ruppert — who has separated from the studio — in a blog post. It’s slated for release in June.

As more and more efforts from the horse games community pop up, “The really promising developments are going to come when either those amateur projects learn and grow into something better, or when more experienced indie devs start picking [them] up,” Ruppert says.

One such example she points to is The Ranch of Rivershine, a horse game developed and published by Canadian studio Cozy Bee Games that’s currently in Early Access. The studio, founded by developer Éloïse Laroche, focuses on cozy games (think Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing), as the name would suggest, and already had a handful of highly rated titles under its belt before putting out The Ranch of Rivershine. That includes Capybara Spa and the baking sim Lemon Cake.

While it may not be “the horse game to end all horse games,” Ruppert says, “I do think it does a lot of things really well.” The Ranch of Rivershine takes a format Cozy Bee Games has shown it excels in, and applied horses. It isn’t groundbreaking — players are tasked with building up their own ranch, where they can breed, take care of and train horses — but it doesn’t necessarily need to be. There are trail rides, cross country competitions, villagers to interact with, auctions and lots of pretty horses. Unlike many of its peers, The Ranch of Rivershine has mostly positive reviews.

Rockstar Games

To this day, Red Dead Redemption 2 stands widely accepted as the best horse game out there despite it not technically being a horse game. Red Dead Online has drawn hordes of equestrian-minded players over the last few years for organized in-game meetups, trail rides, horse shows and other horse-centered activities. The horses themselves, though they’re not without flaws, are far more lifelike than others heretofore have achieved. And the game places importance on actually bonding with them.

It’s so good, it’s become a pain point for projects that have emerged in its wake. AAA games like Red Dead Redemption 2 set a bar that is “almost impossible for an indie game studio to reach, which puts a lot of pressure on creators,” says Jonna Östergren, a 3D animator working with the Hungary-based developer Mindev Games on Unbridled: That Horse Game. Nevertheless, they’re aiming high.

Engadget caught up with the Mindev team recently over a Discord group chat. “I have loved horses for as long as I can remember,” Östergren says, they’ve “been a big part of my life.” So have video games, and in 2017, she started learning how to make them using tools like Unity and Blender. Östergren by chance connected with Jasmin Blazeuski, the founder of Mindev, years later while working on her own horse game that had hit a dead end. “I had big aspirations but I was alone and I was trying to learn all the things, from coding to animation. It was a lot,” Östergren said.

After talking with Blazeuski, “I offered to help them make some 3D models if they needed it. One thing led to another and I became a much bigger part of the team than I had first imagined.”

Unbridled’s creators envision the game as one that allows the player a lot of freedom. “You decide how you want to play and manage your stables,” Blazeuski said. “If you want to make money over competitions, breeding horses or farming — it is all up to you.” They’re striving for realism, in terms of the horses’ physical appearances but beyond that, too. “I have never had a horse game with a simple yet so cute detail such as horses looking outside the stable. Casual, real things horses do, we want them all in the game.”

The emotional elements are crucial. Even in games where horses are the main subject, they often “lack personality and liveliness,” Östergren said. “They are not really their own being with their own mind… That is something that I would love to change in our game. Not making the horse a nuisance that never does what you want it to do, but to make it so that your horse feels alive in the world that you are in as your character.”

The team, also including 3D artist and longtime equestrian, Sara Wermuth, points to childhood games like Horse Illustrated: Championship Season, Riding Champion: Legacy of Rosemond Hill, Pippa Funnell: Ranch Rescue, My Horse Friends, and Pony Girl (1 and 2) as sources of inspiration. Only Unbridled’s programmer, Amon Ahmad, comes from outside the world of horses and horse games, and had to watch “a lot of gameplays from different horse games” to get up to speed.

Between the old and new games, “I noticed that nothing has actually ever changed, apart from the graphics or the style,” Ahmad said. “New functions, new gameplays, new ideas in general are missing.” The team aims to avoid those trappings with Unbridled, which is being built meticulously using the Unreal Engine.

Mindev Games

Horse games have a tendency toward tedious and repetitive tasks or mini-games, which can be detrimental “no matter how much detail and love was put into it,” Östergren said. They don’t want to go down that road. And Unbridled will have unique systems for dressage and jumping to give players a challenge, without predetermined points that will guarantee a well-executed jump, according to Ahmad. Instead, players will have to train their horses and develop a feel for the timing.

But making a game of this scope that is fun, engaging and realistic can be a slow process, not to mention an expensive one. The team’s recent Kickstarter campaign failed to reach its funding goal, and it’s relying on avenues like Patreon for financial support to see the project through. An update posted in February noted that half of the team has picked up part-time jobs to bring in additional income.

The animation alone is a huge undertaking. The complexity of horses’ bone structure, all the bending points, plus “getting the gaits right and all those little details of movement is very difficult [to do] by hand,” Blazeuski said. But, “we will take our time to perfect everything.”

Unbridled: That Horse Game has been in a closed beta since November, allowing the developers to get direct feedback from the community, but the team estimates it’ll be a few years yet before the full release.

Astride, another horse game being developed by a small team with big ambitions, is setting itself apart with its focus on Nordic horse breeds, like the Norwegian Fjord Horse and the Norwegian Dole, as well as gaited breeds like the Icelandic Horse. The studio behind it, Raidho Games, was formed in 2021 after Maja Nygjelten (CEO and concept artist) and Mathilde Kvernland (Community Manager and 3D artist) decided to get serious about their idea to create the horse game they’d always been in search of.

Raidho Games

They put word out on a Norwegian Facebook group for gamers and ultimately expanded the team to five people, including fellow equestrian Tirna Kristine Mellum, who joined as a 3D artist and Project Manager. Using their combined experience with horses in real life to guide the process, Mellum said, “We are hoping to have a horse game where the horses feel like horses.”

“We know what to look for in references” to provide their animator, Marius Mobæk Strømmevold, so the horses’ gaits and other movements look true to life, Nygjelten said. “I think that's very important, to [not] take a random animation from YouTube” but instead provide him with references that they’re confident show the proper result.

The main focus of the game at launch, which is somewhat scaled down from the original vision, will be on breeding horses in the fictional Scandinavian town of Eldheim and training them to compete. “Most [horse games] have show jumping as the first feature, including us… [but] I think we will stand out a lot with the breeding and everything,” Nygjelten says. “We have very realistic horse genetics,” according to Mellum, and that will initially be what the game leans into most.

The early gameplay is centered around the stable and interactions in the Eldheim community rather than grand adventures. It’s being designed to be an online multiplayer game, so players will also be able to meet up with friends. Down the line, the plan is to implement more complex storylines and quests to keep building out the experience.

The project has had some successful funding efforts, including a Kickstarter campaign in spring 2022, but it’s also suffered delays. An Early Access version of the game was released behind schedule last June to very mixed reviews. But, the team emphasizes, it’s still a work in progress.

“Astride still has some years left of development,” says Nygjelten, “The game will continue to grow every single day, and it will probably be very different in a year.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/indie-developers-are-trying-to-make-horse-games-that-dont-suck-its-not-easy-140008337.html?src=rss

© Mindev Games

It might be a good time to finally upgrade your iPhone if you’ve been hanging onto an older model — according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple will be offering a little more than usual for some trade-ins starting next week in the US and Canada. The company itself hasn’t said anything about the promotion, but according to Gurman, it’ll be offered in-store to customers who’ll be using the credit toward any model in the iPhone 15 lineup. This will reportedly be in effect starting this Monday and last until June 3.

Apple lists trade-in values on its website for all iPhone models going back to the iPhone 7. Something that old currently goes for something in the ballpark of $50, while a more recent model like the year-and-a-half-old iPhone 14 Pro Max has an estimated trade-in value of up to $630. Of course, the online estimates aren’t always what you end up getting, but it gives you an idea. Since Apple hasn’t said anything about a temporary value boost, it’s unclear by how much these numbers may go up.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-will-reportedly-offer-higher-trade-in-credit-for-old-iphones-for-the-next-two-weeks-205239618.html?src=rss

© Apple

A full trailer just dropped for the upcoming animated show based on the popular game Dead Cells, and it looks like the creators have made a few unexpected choices. For one, the Beheaded can apparently talk. 

Dead Cells: Immortalis is being produced by Bobbypills, the studio behind the game’s animated trailers, and the French streaming service, Animation Digital Network. Along with the trailer, the series now has a release date: June 19. It’ll come out in French first, with English subtitles, before getting an English-language release later this year, according to Dead Cells developer Motion Twin.

The trailer shows a different animation style than we saw in the teaser that came out last year when the series was first announced. As hinted back then, the main character — who the show introduces now as “The Chosen One” — takes on the purple-flame-headed Bobby design. He’s accompanied by a character named Laurie Esposito, Guardian of the Truth. There’s an overall silliness to the trailer, too, so while it looks like there will be plenty of action, don’t expect the show to take itself too seriously.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/new-trailer-for-dead-cells-immortalis-gives-us-a-first-real-look-at-the-animated-series-180440816.html?src=rss

© Bobbypills/Animation Digital Network

Several models of Beats headphones and earbuds are deeply discounted right now in a deal from Amazon, including the noise-canceling Studio Buds, which are nearly half off. The limited time deal also includes the option for two years of AppleCare+ coverage. The Beats Studio Buds with AppleCare+, which would normally cost $180, are only $100 right now. If you don’t want AppleCare+, you can get them for even cheaper, at a record-low $80 compared to the usual price of $150. The deal applies to five colors: Black, Moon Gray, Red, Sunset Pink and White.

The Beats Studio Buds are a good option for anyone looking for true-wireless, noise-canceling earbuds that perform well but won’t break the bank. They offer fast pairing for both iOS and Android devices, and will work with both operating systems’ Find My networks so you can track them down if ever misplaced. They also support Spatial Audio for tracks that come in that format. The Beats Studio Buds get about eight hours of battery life without active noise-cancellation enabled, and around five hours with it turned on.

If you’re looking for earbuds to use while you’re working out, the Beats Fit Pro, also on sale, may be a better option. These are among our top picks for true-wireless earbuds. The Beats Fit Pro earbuds (without AppleCare+) have dropped down to $160 in the current sale. This model is normally priced at $200, and comes in a slew of colors. The Fit Pro buds have a wingtip to help keep them securely in place while you’re exercising, and come with features like active noise-cancellation and adaptive EQ.

Also on sale right now are the wireless Powerbeats Pro earbuds, which hook onto the ear, and over-the-ear headphones including the Studio Pro, Solo3 and Solo4. These also come with the option to add AppleCare+.

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/beats-headphones-and-earbuds-with-applecare-are-on-sale-at-amazon-154735059.html?src=rss

© Billy Steele/Engadget

The following article discusses spoilers for the first season of X-Men ‘97.

I was excited about the return of the ‘90s Saturday morning cartoon version of the X-Men. Still, I wasn’t sure Marvel, under the auspices of Disney, could deliver on the flavor of the original while also making a modern show that older fans, now adults in their 30s and 40s, could enjoy. And X-Men '97 is a total play on our nostalgia, which makes it even odder that it delivers. And is better than the original in pretty much every way.

And of all the Marvel baubles that needed some affection, the X-Men arguably needed it most. The ten-episode run managed to cram in so many plotlines, cameos, comic sagas, villains, plot twists and even deaths that, at times, it was hard to process everything — but I utterly loved how relentless it all was. X-Men ‘97 goes hard, especially if you’re already an obsessive fan.

When Marvel first launched an all-you-can-read comic book app, I went in hard on the X-Men back catalog, especially stories by Chris Claremont and Grant Morrison, two of my favorite writers. X-Men ’97 mines a lot of my favorite characters and stories. Magneto is put on trial, and begins a (brief?) redemption arc, Jean Grey turns out to be a clone, and the cartoon crammed a roughly-year-long comic arc, Inferno, into a single episode. Other arcs either included wholesale, or with some riffs, include Lifedeath, Fatal Attractions, Motendo, Operation: Zero Tolerance and more.

The highlight of this first season (a second is already underway) has to be the crushing episode 5, where the mutant nation of Genosha is devastated by a high-powered sentinel mothership… thing. Just before the attack destroys mutant adults, mutant children and eventually even an X-man, Cable, the time-traveling son of Scott Summers and Jean’s clone. (See: Inferno, mentioned above) reappears to stop the attack. But he fails again and his mother dies.

Magneto is left helpless as mutants are slaughtered and he’s forced to relive the genocide he suffered as a child. Eventually, Gambit sacrifices himself and lights up the entire robot with his mutant ability. This is after Rogue reignites a romance with Magento, changes her mind, and decides to be with Gambit. As I said, each episode is a lot.

I may be alone in this, but I still prefer the older series’ animation style and look. A cartoon can look a little scrappy, in my opinion —or maybe I’m just 39 and also not a Disney executive. The majority of the action scenes are great, too. Cyclops is finally not done dirty and gets to thrive in fights. There are some great combination attacks comparable to the iconic fastball special.

Sometimes, the show can feel a bit too “anime” (And I love anime, don’t at me!), where the ridiculous scale of the fight removed a lot of my interest in it. Cool, Bastian has metal wings in the final episode. Yes, yes, very cool. But didn’t one of his super sentinel underlings wipe the floor with the X-Men mid-series? And did we need the Phoenix to reappear (again!) so that Jean can save her 50-something son from the future? Probably not.

But, it’s the X-Men. It wouldn’t be the X-Men without this kind of nonsense.

I also adored the attention to detail. How Storm changed back to her original comic-book attire, Rogue transitioned to her green and white look, Magneto wore the same black-and-white costume while on trial, just like the original comic book. X-Men '97 doesn’t miss the chance to sprinkle in other Marvel characters, too. Captain America pops up a few times, we spot an out-of-costume Spider-Man, with Mary Jane Watson, watching the fall of Asteroid M. The Silver Samurai, who got his own episode in the original series, stares on as Tokyo loses power due to Magneto’s attack on the whole of Earth.

In other episodes, an aged Polaris, Rachel Grey and more mutants briefly appear in a vision of the future. The series is bursting at the seams with references, easter eggs and surprises. Did you know that Bastian is briefly, obliquely, on-screen during the horrific attack on Genosha, long before he’s revealed as the X-Men’s primary antagonist? Well, he is. It’s a show that’s ripe for debate and discussion in an era of Reddit, Discord and YouTube reactions.

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige stipulated that both the cast and the music had to return for the project to happen. I’m glad it did and I’m glad the theme song still slaps.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/x-men-97-didnt-have-to-go-that-hard-140023964.html?src=rss

© Disney, Marvel

Delta, an emulator that can play Nintendo games, had to change its logo after Adobe threatened legal action. You'd think it would face trouble from Nintendo, seeing as it has been going after emulators these days, but no. It's Adobe who's going after the developer, which told TechCrunch that it first received an email from the company's lawyer on May 7. Adobe warned Delta that their logos are too similar, with its app icon infringing on the well-known Adobe "A," and asked it to change its logo so it wouldn't violate the company's rights. Delta reportedly received an email from Apple, as well, telling the developer that Adobe asked it to take down the emulator app.

Delta

If you'll recall, Apple started allowing retro game emulators on the App Store, as long as they don't offer pirated games for download. Delta was one of the first to be approved for listing and was at the top of Apple's charts for a while, which is probably why it caught Adobe's attention. At the time of writing, it sits at number six in the ranking for apps in Entertainment with 17,100 ratings. 

The developer told both Adobe and Apple that its logo was a stylized version of the Greek letter "delta," and not the uppercase letter A. Regardless, it debuted a new logo, which looks someone took a sword to its old one to cut it in half. It's a temporary solution, though — the developer said it's releasing the "final" version of its new logo when Delta 1.6 comes out.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/adobe-threatens-to-sue-nintendo-emulator-delta-for-its-look-alike-logo-123026491.html?src=rss

© Adobe

Springtime means it’s keynote season in the tech world, and in 2024, that means “time to show off your AI bona fides.” Google and OpenAI have already revealed big new upgrades to Gemini and ChatGPT this month, and now it’s time for Microsoft Build. The tech giant’s annual developer conference kicks off with a keynote slated for Tuesday, May 21 at 12 PM ET/9 AM PT, and you can watch the entire event live on YouTube (which is also embedded below) and at Microsoft's site (registration required). What about that Microsoft Surface event you may have heard about? Well, that’s actually happening a day earlier: Monday, May 20. Confused? Don’t worry, here’s the tl;dr version of what to expect, summarized from our more in-depth What to expect from Microsoft Build 2024: The Surface event, Windows 11 and AI.

New Microsoft Surface products expected: Monday, May 20

One day before the official Build keynote, Microsoft is hosting a more intimate event for journalists at which it plans to reveal its "AI vision across hardware and software." That event won’t be livestreamed, but Engadget will have full coverage as it unfolds.

The rumor mill strongly suggests that we’ll see new consumer-targeted Surface PCs. And unlike the enterprise-centric models like the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 introduced back in March, these new models may be powered by updated Qualcomm Snapdragon chips – Arm chips that run cooler and offer far better battery life than their Intel and AMD equivalents, but often at the expense of reduced app compatibility and processing speeds.

Microsoft Build keynote: Tuesday, May 21

The thought is that Microsoft is following the template that its fellow tech giants have demonstrated this season: get the hardware announcements out of the way first, clearing the runway for an all-AI showcase at the developer conference. That’s what happened with Apple and Google in recent weeks, as they respectively revealed new iPads weeks before the WWDC event in June, and a new Pixel 8a phone in the days leading up to Google I/O.

What’s that mean for Tuesday? Last year’s Build announcements give you the general flavor: Microsoft’s Copilot AI (possibly with more impressive OpenAI-powered smarts) integrated into even more of Microsoft’s DNA, likely both at the device level (Windows) all the way up to the company’s massive cloud infrastructure.

While much of Tuesday’s news will be through the prism of Microsoft’s developer community, we’re looking forward to giving you the big picture on what it all means for end users – and how it dovetails with the hardware announcements we expect to hit on Monday. Stay tuned.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-watch-the-microsoft-build-2024-keynote-live-on-may-21-003204596.html?src=rss

© REUTERS / Reuters

The following contains spoilers for “Boom.”

It should be a given any new series needs time to find its footing, even when it’s a revival of an already-running hit. The first three episodes of “new” Doctor Who have been fun, but not without their own idiosyncrasies that made them hard to love. Now it’s time for Steven Moffat, the series’ greatest 21st century writer, to show what this new season can do. There’s the usual degree of showboating and cleverness, but it’s hard to deny the man’s genius when he pens the first genuine classic of the Disney+ era. Bloody hell.

“Boom” thrusts the Doctor and Ruby into the smallest corner of a war, and lets it play out in microcosm. This is an angry story about how money, power and cruelty make people inhuman, and is the sort of episode Doctor Who excels at. This story makes no bones about the pointlessness of war and why money is the engine that keeps it going. Its framing may be modern — there’s one too many uses of the word “algorithm” here — but its central thesis is timeless.

Bad Wolf / BBC Studios

In a wasteland battlefield on Kastarian 3, two militarized Anglican clerics are walking back to base. Carson (Majid Mahdizadeh-Valoujerdy) is leading his friend, John Francis Vater (Joe Anderson) who has been blinded in the fighting, an injury that’ll take four weeks to recover from. In the distance, they spot an ambulance but seem afraid of it and look to go the long way around it. Carson loses his footing and slips into a small crater, activating a land mine that instantly obliterates him. The disturbance summons the ambulance, a tank-tracked device with a large screen with an apparently friendly avatar (Susan Twist) which injects its tendrils into Vater, identifying his injury. It decides that four weeks is an unacceptable amount of time for recovery and terminates him instead. His scream is heard by the Doctor, who sprints out of the TARDIS to help but winds up putting one foot on the exact same mine that killed Carson.

Ruby arrives to find the Doctor frozen in place, asking her to describe what he’s standing on: A Villengard mine. It’s an anti-personnel explosive made by a notorious weapons manufacturer that Moffat has referenced several times before. The Doctor asks Ruby to find something heavy for him to hold, so that he can shift his weight and put his foot down without triggering the mine. What she finds is Vater’s compacted remains bolted to an AI canister containing a simulacrum of Vater. The Doctor asks Ruby to throw it to him, but she instead opts to walk within the blast range and hand it over. It affirms the dynamic that as Gatwa’s Doctor has vacated the role of big-chested hero, Ruby has stepped in to fill the void.

The mine is, however, unsure if the Doctor is a viable target, and so remains frozen on the edge of activation. Villengard’s weapons are notoriously vicious and the company has created a warfare algorithm to limit the number of bodies in the battle zone at one time, while also dragging wars on profitably and indefinitely. It gives the company license to slay the wounded rather than spending the cash to cure them.

Bad Wolf / BBC Studios

Before he died, Vater was speaking to his daughter Splice (Caoilnn Springall), who was brought along to the war as there was no-one else to look after her. While her father was on patrol, she had been left in the care of Mundy (Varada Sethu), a lower-ranking soldier in the army. But she slips her minder to reach the last GPS-tagged location of her father. She arrives, triggering the hologram attached to Vater’s remains that delivers his valediction to his daughter.

Soon after, Mundy tracks down her wayward ward and is able to explain the rest of the plot to the TARDIS crew. The Anglicans have been fighting a war for six months against an enemy that’s never seen or heard. Mundy and the Doctor spar on the nature of religion and how faith — in more than just a higher power — helps create willing material for the meat grinder of war. Mundy’s skeptical about the Doctor and Ruby but is quickly convinced when she scans the Doctor to see he’s not just going to explode on the mine. As a complex space-time event, the mine’s activation won’t just kill him but destroy half of the planet. It gets worse: The mine is going to time out and go off anyway after its stuttering activation.

Having detected the fracas, an ambulance arrives and jams its menacing tendrils into the Doctor. Ruby, again refusing to allow anyone else control the narrative, grabs Mundy’s rifle and tries to create a distraction to no effect. Mundy tells Ruby to shoot her using the rife’s lowest setting which would draw the ambulance without being fatal. But, as Ruby takes aim, Canterbury (Bhav Joshi) arrives just in time to misappraise the scene and shoot Ruby to defend his fellow soldier. Ruby, on the edge of death, generates more snow but is fading fast

The Doctor has worked out the problem, which is that there’s no enemy on the planet at all — it’s barren. Villengard's algorithm is sending soldiers out to die with the traps they themselves bought and probably placed. The only solution is to surrender but that’s not something Mundy is willing, or empowered, to do, so the Doctor needs to find proof to show to the senior cleric. He uses the AI of Vater, appealing to his duty as a father and whatever humanity is left inside to search through the military database to find evidence there is no enemy at all.

More ambulances arrive in an attempt to overwhelm the people in the crater, looming down on them all. As Mundy and Canterbury speak, the latter is suddenly minced for reasons that boil down to… we’re in the final few minutes of the episode. In the chaos, it looks as if all is lost, but as the Villengard AI projects a hologram, it’s quickly taken over by Vater, whose love for his daughter has hopefully triggered some sort of feedback loop, ending the war and disabling the mine. As the war is ended, Ruby is resurrected by the ambulance and the four survivors are able to enjoy the beautiful view in the skies over Kastarian 3.

There’s even time for the Doctor to mention a “grumpy old man” who told him once that “what will survive of us is love.” That’s a reference to notoriously acerbic poet Philip Larkin’s work An Arundel Tomb, referencing a long-decayed sculpture of two people lying in state. The Doctor mentions Splice may have a bright future ahead of her, and gets ready to head off to their next adventure.

Bad Wolf / BBC Studios

There’s no good place to address this later, so I’ll add that Varada Sethu has also been cast as a new companion for Doctor Who’s second season. Initial rumors suggested she was replacing Millie Gibson but the BBC said last month the trio would travel together. It’s not uncommon for an actor to play a minor role in one episode and then return as a member of the core cast. Peter Capaldi, Karen Gillan, Freema Agyeman and Colin Baker all played one-off roles before joining as a Doctor or as a companion. I have no idea if Mundy will return, or if Sethu will play a new character, but I’m not sure Mundy was a compelling enough character to warrant a revisit.

Bad Wolf / BBC Studios

“Boom” is a masterclass in perpetually-building tension in a way that Doctor Who has rarely attempted. I wouldn’t want to experience this level of stress every single week, but it’s a wonderful change from the status quo. The one thing that doesn’t quite work with the episode is the uneven pacing. For all the effort put into building the tension, the ending just seems to happen.

I feel like Moffat was straining against the running time, since the last few minutes are just dashed off without as much attention as I’d have liked. Interestingly, the other times Moffat has written stories that are this bleak, like “The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances” and “World Enough and Time / The Doctor Falls,” they were both two-parters. I’m not sure “Boom” needed 90 minutes, but an extra 10 or so might have helped things breathe.

Despite being rooted to one spot for most of the story, Gatwa’s Doctor still commands every frame he occupies. There’s enough chemistry between him and Millie Gibson that the pair’s interactions are entirely believable. The rest of the cast, however, don’t really get as much time to shine, given the limited focus and the stock roles they play in the narrative.

It’s entirely in keeping with Moffat’s style that he’d come back to a show, now equipped with a Disney-sized budget, only to make an episode set in one location. As a writer, he’s always enjoyed tying one hand behind his back and then allowing those restrictions to force him to be better. It was his Swiss watch plotting, smart storylines and snappy dialog that has always ensured his episodes are events. History has also silenced his critics: Last year, Doctor Who Magazine polled readers to rank every episode of the show made. Staggeringly, of the top 10, Moffat was credited with five, knocking Robert Holmes, the show’s greatest writer, off his perch.

And, as I said at the top, “Boom” stands proud as the first bona fide classic of the Disney+ era.

Susan Twist Corner

This week, Susan Twist played the avatar of the sinister Villengard ambulances that roamed the battlefield. Several times, the Doctor appealed to Vater’s AI homunculus on the fact that they are, or were, both fathers. If it isn’t clear, I think the show really wants the audience to know that the Doctor is a father with a child, whereabouts unknown. The hacky premise would be that it’s Susan who has taken the mantle of “The One Who Waits,” or that she’s somehow Ruby. Yeugh.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/doctor-who-boom-review-all-hail-the-conquering-hero-000001420.html?src=rss

© Bad Wolf / BBC Studios

We may have a good look at Motorola’s next foldable phones. Separate leaks from 91Mobiles (via 9to5Google) and longtime device-leaking insider Evan Blass show the entry-level Moto Razr 50 and high-end Razr 50 Ultra (likely branded as the 2024 Razr and Razr+ in the US) in various colors from all sorts of angles.

Leaks point to the high-end Razr+ (2024) — aka Razr 50 Ultra — running on a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chip with 12GB of RAM and 256GB storage. It’s expected to have a 6.9-inch OLED display at 2,640 x 1,080 resolution on the inside and a 3.6-inch cover display on the outside. A 50MP wide-angle camera paired with a 50MP telephoto lens, a 32MP front sensor and a 4,000mAh battery round out the (alleged) specs.

Leaked images of the flagship model show dark blue, dark green, peach and pink color options.

Meanwhile, the entry-level Razr (2024) — likely branded as the Razr 50 outside the US — will supposedly run on a MediaTek Dimensity 7300 processor, a departure from the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 found in its 2023 equivalent. Another apparent change from its predecessor is its reported 3.63-inch cover display, quite a step up from the piddly 1.5-inch outward-facing screen on last year’s budget model.

The leaks show no sign of the snazzy wood option Motorola included in the Edge 50 phone series unveiled last month. Old-school smartphone buffs will remember that as a throwback to the Moto X from way back in 2013, when the company was under Google ownership. (It’s been under Lenovo’s umbrella since 2014.)

You can check out a gallery of the leaked images below, courtesy of Blass and 91Mobiles.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/motorolas-2024-razr-lineup-may-include-a-bigger-cover-screen-for-the-budget-model-203745181.html?src=rss

© Evan Blass | @evleaks

In the summer of 2023, OpenAI created a “Superalignment” team whose goal was to steer and control future AI systems that could be so powerful they could lead to human extinction. Less than a year later, that team is dead.

OpenAI told Bloomberg that the company was “integrating the group more deeply across its research efforts to help the company achieve its safety goals.” But a series of tweets from Jan Leike, one of the team’s leaders who recently quit revealed internal tensions between the safety team and the larger company.

In a statement posted on X on Friday, Leike said that the Superalignment team had been fighting for resources to get research done. “Building smarter-than-human machines is an inherently dangerous endeavor,” Leike wrote. “OpenAI is shouldering an enormous responsibility on behalf of all of humanity. But over the past years, safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products.” OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Engadget.

X

Leike’s departure earlier this week came hours after OpenAI chief scientist Sutskevar announced that he was leaving the company. Sutskevar was not only one of the leads on the Superalignment team, but helped co-found the company as well. Sutskevar’s move came six months after he was involved in a decision to fire CEO Sam Altman over concerns that Altman hadn’t been “consistently candid” with the board. Altman's all-too-brief ouster sparked an internal revolt within the company with nearly 800 employees signing a letter in which they threatened to quit if Altman wasn’t reinstated. Five days later, Altman was back as OpenAI’s CEO after Sutskevar had signed a letter stating that he regretted his actions.

When it announced the creation of the Superalignment team, OpenAI said that it would dedicate 20 percent of its computer power over the next four years to solving the problem of controlling powerful AI systems of the future. “[Getting] this right is critical to achieve our mission,” the company wrote at the time. On X, Leike wrote that the Superalignment team was “struggling for compute and it was getting harder and harder” to get crucial research around AI safety done. “Over the past few months my team has been sailing against the wind,” he wrote and added that he had reached “a breaking point” with OpenAI’s leadership over disagreements about the company’s core priorities.

Over the last few months, there have been more departures from the Superalignment team. In April, OpenAI reportedly fired two researchers, Leopold Aschenbrenner and Pavel Izmailov, for allegedly leaking information.

OpenAI told Bloomberg that its future safety efforts will be led by John Schulman, another co-founder, whose research focuses on large language models. Jakub Pachocki, a director who led the development of GPT-4 — one of OpenAI’s flagship large language models — would replace Sutskevar as chief scientist.

Superalignment wasn’t the only team at OpenAI focused on AI safety. In October, the company started a brand new “preparedness” team to stem potential “catastrophic risks” from AI systems including cybersecurity issues and chemical, nuclear and biological threats.

Update, May 17 2024, 3:28 PM ET: In response to a request for comment on Leike's allegations, an OpenAI PR person directed Engadget to Sam Altman's tweet saying that he'd say something in the next couple of days.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-openai-team-tasked-with-protecting-humanity-is-no-more-183433377.html?src=rss

© REUTERS / Reuters

For those looking to elevate their cooking, a sous vide machine might be the perfect addition to your toolkit. Previously, these gadgets were almost exclusively used by high-end restaurants. But more recently, prices have come down to where they can be relatively affordable additions to your kitchen. These devices make preparing perfectly cooked steaks a breeze while taking all the guesswork and hassle out of dishes like pulled pork or brisket. And it’s not just for meat either, as a sous vide machine can make easy work out of soft-boiled eggs, homemade yogurt or fish. And while some may say you need a lot of accessories like vacuum sealers or special bags to get the best results, starting with the right appliance will get you 90 percent of the way. So to help you figure out which sous vide machine is right for you, we’ve assembled a list of our favorite gadgets on sale right now.

What we look for

While they might have a fancy name, the main things we look for in a quality sous vide device are quite straightforward: ease-of-use, reliability and a good design. It should be easy to clean and have clear, no-nonsense controls. It should also have some way of attaching to a tank or pot, whether by magnet or adjustable clamp, so it doesn’t become dislodged during use. And most importantly, it should have a strong heating element and motor that can deliver consistent water temperatures to ensure your food hits the correct level of doneness every time without overcooking.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-sous-vide-133025288.html?src=rss

© Engadget

According to a pair of content creators, the wait for a new Valve game is almost over: A third-person hero shooter called Deadlock is in closed alpha and an announcement seems imminent.

The game has apparently been in the works since 2018, with IceFrog, a developer synonymous with the original DotA mod, in charge. It’s reportedly what became of the Neon Prime project that has been rumored for a couple of years. Tyler McVicker, a veteran Valve reporter, and the content creator Gabe Follower, have this week both independently confirmed the game is in an advanced state of development.

“In terms of scope,” McVicker says, “this is meant to be Valve's next major competitive game. The next Counter-Strike. The next Dota.” He describes it as Valve’s attempt to bring the company’s various game communities together, with precise gunplay and the laning objectives of a MOBA. McVicker describes it as looking “like Valorant, Overwatch, Dota 2 and Team Fortress 2 had a baby.”

The new title is apparently based in a “fantasy setting mixed with steampunk,” a marked shift from prior reports on the project that described Neon Prime as sci-fi inspired. Gabe Follower posted four screenshots on X which show something a little more subdued than the Overwatch and Valorant comparisons might imply.

The images show six vs. six gameplay across four lanes — suggesting a mix of solo lanes and two vs. two action across the map. It also shows ‘transit lines’ that can get players back to lane faster, like League of Legends’ hex gates. McVicker says these transit lines are inspired by BioShock: Infinite’s Sky-Hook system.

Outside of Counter-Strike 2 and Half-Life: Alyx, it’s been a hell of a long time since Valve released an all-new, big-scope title, and it’s been even longer since the company launched an all-new IP. McVicker says Deadlock is currently in a closed alpha, with “hundreds” of people playing. Of course, this is Valve, so it’s never too late for the project to be killed. But with June traditionally being a big month for video game news, it's not impossible we'll hear something official soon.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/valves-next-game-appears-to-be-deadlock-a-moba-hero-shooter-185418880.html?src=rss

© Valve, via Gabe Follower

Just like it slimmed down the latest iPad Pro, Apple is said to be looking at making the iPhone more slender. To be more precise, the company is working on a "significantly thinner" device that may arrive as part of the iPhone 17 lineup in place of a Plus model, according to The Information.

This model has been described as an iPhone X-level leap forward in design language for the company, according to several sources. Apple has yet to lock down the design and it's said to be looking at various options, including an aluminum chassis. An upgraded front-facing camera could be housed alongside Face ID sensors in a smaller pill-shaped cutout, while the rear camera array could move to the center of the phone (that could reduce the possibility of accidentally covering the lenses with your fingers). The screen size is pegged somewhere in between that of the current base iPhone and the iPhone Pro Max — so between 6.12 and 6.69 inches.

If that's of interest to you, it's worth bearing in mind that the slimmed down iPhone may actually be more expensive than the iPhone Pro Max, which starts at $1,200. But hey, at least you'll have some time to save for it.

This thinner model could be set to replace the Plus in the iPhone lineup. The report suggests that there will be an iPhone 16 Plus, but that could be the end of that format, which hasn't lived up to Apple's sales expectations. This year's iPhones are said to be more about AI advancements than any major changes to the physical design, though there may be a new button on the side with touch sensitivity for improved camera control.

Engadget has asked Apple for comment on the report. Meanwhile, there's unfortunately no indication that the company is going back to smaller screen sizes. I still miss my iPhone 5 sometimes.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-is-said-to-be-working-on-a-significantly-thinner-iphone-180823565.html?src=rss

© Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget

I knew what to expect from the Surface Pro 10 for Business the minute Microsoft announced it: A faster processor with a neural processing unit (NPU) inside the same case as the Surface Pro 9. As the first "AI PC" Surface devices, the Pro 10 for Business tablet and its more traditional sibling, the Laptop 6, seemed disappointing. And the fact that you could only buy it on Microsoft's website, or through enterprise resellers, made it seem as if the company was trying to hide its shame.

But after testing the Surface Pro 10 tablet (I'll omit the "For Business" part of its name for the rest of the review, you get it), I realized Microsoft just wanted to make a PC upgrade to appease IT workers. It’s boring; there aren't any major new features to learn, and your company's existing Windows software will all work just fine. No alarms, no surprises.

I can accept this Surface Pro 10 for what it is because we know Microsoft has some intriguing consumer-focused Surface hardware on the horizon. The company has invited media to an event in Seattle on May 20th (a day before its Build conference begins), where we expect to see some consumer-focused Surface devices powered by Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X Elite chips. It makes sense for Microsoft to take a bigger risk with its consumer hardware, instead of the machines IT workers need to manage.

What's new in the Surface Pro 10 for Business?

Both the Surface Pro 10 and Laptop 6 for Business are powered by Intel's new Core Ultra chips. These are the company's first processors to include an NPU for handling AI tasks. Admittedly, there aren't many AI-driven features in Windows 11 yet, but we're expecting to see Microsoft sell some new AI capabilities at Build.

For now, having an NPU means you can use Windows Studio Effects, which can glam up your video chats with blurred backgrounds and other features. By tapping into your NPU, instead of your CPU or GPU, Windows 11 can also handle those tasks more efficiently, and without slowing down the rest of your system. Who wouldn't want that?

Design-wise, the Surface Pro 10 is almost exactly the same as the Pro 9 — the 13-inch 120Hz PixelSense screen returns, and Microsoft is still relying on its clunky kickstand to prop up the tablet. But at least the company shoved in a new 1440p webcam with a wider field of view, which should lead to clearer video chats.

	Geekbench 6 CPU	3DMark Wildlife Extreme	Cinebench R23
Microsoft Surface Pro 10 for Business (Intel Core Ultra 5 135U, Intel graphics)	2,085/8,827	2,546	1,555/7,153
Microsoft Surface Laptop 6 for Business (Intel Core Ultra 7 165H, Intel Arc graphics)	2,351/12,531	4,200	1,662/10,298
Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G (SQ3, Adreno 8cx Gen 3)	N/A	2,959	575/1,866

What's good about the Surface Pro 10?

In spite of its lack of updates, the Surface Pro 10 is still a reliable and capable hybrid tablet. It delivered fast performance, a great display and excellent battery life. Here are my favorite things about it:

• Intel's Core Ultra 135U chip is slightly faster than the 12th-gen processors used in the Surface Pro 9: It reached 5,772 points in PCMark 10, compared to its predecessor's 4,010 points.

• That Core Ultra chip's NPU also makes the Pro 10 more future-proof. It'll be ready to tackle AI features as they appear (developers like Adobe and Audacity are already working on several).

• Microsoft's PixelSense display still looks fantastic, with bold colors and enough brightness to use outdoors in direct sunlight.

• While I would have liked to see a newer design, its case still feels shockingly slim and sturdy. It feels like an iPad, even though it's running Windows 11.

• The Surface Pro 10 lasted 12 hours and 19 minutes on the PCMark 10 Modern Office battery benchmark. That’s better than the vast majority of ultraportables we’ve seen this year, and it’s only an hour less than the latest Dell XPS 13.

Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

What's not good about the Surface Pro 10?

For a machine that starts at $1,200 though, the Surface Pro 10 is lacking in a few key ways:

• For a "Pro" device, it has too few ports for accessories.

• Its trademark kickstand is just a pain to live with now. It's still awkward to hold on your lap, and it also makes the Pro 10 impossible to use on small surfaces (like my beloved standing desk laptop riser).

• The Surface Pro Keyboard is still sold separately, and it's still far too expensive at $140 (there are also pricier models if you really want to punish yourself). Nobody will ever buy a Surface tablet on its own! Microsoft's inability to recognize this basic truth has haunted these systems since their inception.

• It may be undercut by the upcoming consumer-focused Surface Pro 10. Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chips are Arm-based, so they'll have to run an Arm version of Windows 11 and rely on emulation for older apps. But their NPUs also offer 45 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) for AI tasks, while the Core Ultra chips only hit 10 TOPS on their NPUs. These differences may not mean much for the next year or so, but they may make the Snapdragon Surface Pro 10 more future proof as we see more AI features roll out.

Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Should you buy the Surface Pro 10 for Business?

At this point, you're better off waiting to see how Microsoft's new consumer-focused Surface hardware performs before investing in either the Pro 10 or Laptop 6. But, as I said at the start, these systems aren't really meant for consumers anyway. They exist to give IT workers a way to update their inventory without having to significantly shift their workflows.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/surface-pro-10-for-business-review-a-safe-upgrade-for-it-workers-172033986.html?src=rss

© Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Prime Video's Fallout series has been a hit with critics and audiences, but Microsoft and Bethesda weren't ready to fully capitalize on its success. Fallout 4 rocketed up the sales charts and Bethesda updated it for current-gen consoles, but there was no new Fallout game ready to go. In fact, the next Fallout title is several years away. Bethesda won't properly get to work on it until The Elder Scrolls 6 is done.

But there's another gaming entity ready to make the most of Fallout's upswing in popularity — Fortnite. The battle royale's X account teased a crossover ahead of the new Fortnite season, which is dubbed "Wrecked" and will go live on May 24. Epic shared an image of the Brotherhood of Steel's power armor.

It's too early to tell exactly what the Fallout crossover will entail, but Fortnite has already begun setting the stage for a possible post-apocalyptic version of the island as a sandstorm appears to be on the way. Maybe you'll be able to use Fallout-inspired weapons like mini nukes.

This is just the latest example of Epic being tapped into the zeitgeist better than just about any other publisher or studio. Meanwhile, vaulting — the term Epic uses for the act of removing items from Fortnite — could be about to get a whole new meaning if fallout shelters start popping up on the island.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-fallout-crossover-is-coming-to-fortnite-165853292.html?src=rss

© Epic Games/Bethesda Softworks

Apple and Google recently held events to showcase new products and services. From a deals perspective, that means some older iPads are hitting new low prices — we even spotted a few modest $30 and $50 discounts on brand new iPad Air and iPad Pro models. Google's latest smartphone, the Pixel 8a, shipped this past Tuesday, but a few retailers are still offering pre-order deals of a free $100 gift card with purchase. There were plenty of deals on other tech too, like a return to an all-time low on the Kindle Scribe, a sale on one of our favorite outdoor pizza ovens and discounts on a couple of Anker portable chargers that'll keep your phone topped off as you do what you do. 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/amazons-kindle-scribe-dips-back-to-an-all-time-low-plus-the-rest-of-this-weeks-best-tech-deals-163858971.html?src=rss

© Cherlynn Low / Engadget

This Anker Nano 10K power bank is on sale for $32 via Amazon. That’s a discount of 20 percent on one of our most recommended chargers. Anker makes good stuff and its products are all over our list of the best power banks.

One of the nifty features of this particular power bank is that it has a USB-C cable built right into the unit, so you won’t ever have to curse yourself when forgetting to bring along an extra. There’s also a handy display that shows the current charging status, which is always a nice add-on.

This thing is called Nano for a reason. It’s tiny, at four inches tall, making it easy to throw in a bag and forget about it until needed. The 10,000mAh capacity is enough to supply around two full charges to a modern smartphone, though results may vary depending on the make and model of your phone.

To that end, this is a USB-C charger, so it’s only useful for the latest Apple iPhone 15 line of smartphones, though it’s good for Android handsets going back years. It’ll be future proof for Apple products, however, as forthcoming iPhones will all be equipped with USB-C ports. The only downside? The battery itself doesn’t provide the fastest charge in the world, but it gets the job done.

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/this-anker-nano-10k-power-bank-is-on-sale-for-just-32-151128977.html?src=rss

© Anker

Recent reports suggested that Microsoft executives had been debating for some time whether to put new Call of Duty games onto Game Pass on day one (i.e. on their release day). That seems like something it should have figured out before spending $68.7 billion on CoD publisher Activision Blizzard, but it seems that Microsoft has finally reached a decision. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company will indeed bring the next Call of Duty title directly to Game Pass when it arrives later this year.

Doing so may mean that Microsoft will leave hundreds of millions of dollars in game sales on the table given that each annual Call of Duty release is one of the top-selling titles of its respective year. However, the company has struggled to significantly increase the number of Game Pass subscriptions in recent times. 

Putting a new Call of Duty title on there will certainly bring in new members. Microsoft will still make boatloads of money from in-game purchases, sales on other platforms (it agreed to release CoD games on PlayStation, Nintendo and elsewhere for at least a decade after the Activision deal closed) and those who prefer to buy games outright on Xbox. Xbox-owned games are selling well on PlayStation in general. There's always the possibility that Microsoft will increase the price of Game Pass to offset some of the revenue it's likely to lose from lower sales of the next Call of Duty entry on Xbox and PC.

Before Microsoft bought it, Activision had largely eschewed the idea of putting its games on subscription services. While Call of Duty titles have been made available on the likes of PlayStation Plus in the past, that usually happens years after the games were originally released.

After Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard closed late last year, it said that it would take some time for the publisher's games to start showing up on Game Pass. To date, only Diablo IV has joined the service.

Having a brand new Call of Duty game on a subscription service on day one marks a major change in strategy, though it's one that lines up with recent comments from Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer. “Our intent is the full portfolio of games from ZeniMax, Activision Blizzard and XGS — Xbox Game Studios — will be on Game Pass, day one," Spencer told Game File in February. Xbox fans will also be pleased to know that the long-standing approach of putting all first-party Microsoft releases on Game Pass on day one is likely sticking around.

We'll likely find out more about Microsoft's plans for Call of Duty and other Activision games when it comes to Game Pass at its annual showcase on June 9. The core showcase will be followed by one focusing on a "beloved franchise," which is widely expected to be CoD.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-next-call-of-duty-will-reportedly-hit-game-pass-on-its-release-day-142332534.html?src=rss

© Infinity Ward

Smart grills are expensive. Companies definitely make you pay a premium for the conveniences that a little Wi-Fi can afford. When it comes to pellet grills, you’re likely going to pay over $1,000. Ditto for gas models that have wireless connectivity. For this reason, it’s important to consider what types of cooking you plan to do and how often you plan to do it when you’re shopping. Do you cook burgers for warm-weather holidays or sear the occasional steak? Dropping that much money might be overkill. But if you prefer to cook outdoors nearly year-round and are ready to expand your culinary skills to include low-and-slow smoking, you’re in the right place.

The real benefit of a smart grill is being able to keep tabs on your food without having to stand next to it the whole time. Most models allow you to monitor temperatures and offer some degree of cooking guidance. There’s convenience for beginners and experienced cooks alike, especially for things that take several hours to complete. However, if you’re happy with a Weber Kettle or Big Green Egg, there are ways to get smart grill features without making a pricey purchase.

Smart grill alternatives

ThermoWorks

You can get the basic function of a smart grill for $100 or less. All you really need to keep tabs on temperatures from a short distance away is an RF thermometer that has meat probes. For its accuracy and ease of use, I prefer the ThermoWorks Smoke line. The most affordable option is $99 and it comes with one food probe and one ambient temperature probe. For $169, you can upgrade to the longer-range two-probe Smoke X2 and the four-probe Smoke X4 is $199. All of these allow you to monitor things from inside and they offer the ability to set both high and low temperature alarms for audible alerts. ThermoWorks also sells an additional accessory that can add Wi-Fi to the base-level Smoke model, allowing you to send stats to your phone.

Of course, those devices only monitor temperature. They don’t do anything to help you adjust heat levels. For that, ThermoWorks built Billows. It’s a temperature control fan that eliminates the need for you to manually open/close vents on a smoker or grill that’s burning charcoal or wood. You’ll need a ThermoWorks controller to use it, like the $239 four-probe Signals unit. Signals is more expensive than the Smoke models, but it has Wi-Fi built in, so it works with your phone right out of the box.

If both Wi-Fi and step-by-step guidance are your thing, the Weber Connect Smart Grilling Hub is a great option. This adds nearly every smart function to any grill. Weber’s app not only offers tips for how to prep food, but it also walks you through the entire process – from flipping to wrapping and resting. Timers let you know when the next step is coming and the hardware/software combo can even estimate when the cook will be complete. That last bit comes in handy when smoking things like brisket that can take 8-12 hours. The Hub can accommodate up to four probes, so you can keep tabs on multiple foods and grill temp via the simple on-board interface.

If having cables criss-crossing the inside of your grill sounds like a hassle, and it very well can be at times, there are wireless options available for keeping tabs on temperature. My preferred product is the Meater 2 Plus ($130 and up) that can pull double duty with one probe. It’s completely wire-free and is equipped with six temperature sensors: five for internal temps and one for the ambient heat level of your grill on the other end. The Meater app has an estimator algorithm that predicts how long it will take to cook your food and recommends an amount of time for resting it afterwards. The Meater 2 Plus also has updated Bluetooth that extends its range to up to 250 feet. Plus, this model can be used over a direct flame and it’s waterproof, making it suitable for deep frying, sous vide and the dishwasher.

Pellet grills

Traeger

When it comes to smart grills, the backyard cookers that burn wood pellets are some of the most popular models. Basically, a heating element in the bottom of the grill ignites compressed wood that’s fed to the fire pot via an auger. A fan that’s run by a controller on the grill regulates the size of the flame and overall temperature. Of course, all of this is done automatically once you set the temperature. What’s more, Wi-Fi-enabled pellet grills allow you to monitor and adjust temperatures from your phone, so you can stay inside and entertain your guests.

A key advantage of pellet grills is their versatility. Most of them can handle low-and-slow cooking at as little as 180 degrees Fahrenheit, as well as searing high-heat temps of 600 degrees or higher. This gives you the ability to cook everything from brisket, ribs and pork butts to burgers, pizza and steaks. Some even have a slider that allows you to sear over the flame of the fire box. These grills allow you to “set it and forget it” for long cooks, and even for short ones, they don’t require much attention other than flipping or saucing foods.

There are more affordable smart pellet grills on the market, but for the mix of hardware and software performance, Traeger and Weber are the best picks. Traeger has a variety of models, almost all of which are Wi-Fi-equipped, starting at $800. The company’s completely redesigned Timberline series is basically an outdoor kitchen. It can accommodate a variety of accessories to expand its abilities and there’s a built-in induction burner on the side for making sauces, cooking sides, and searing. The cook chamber has double-wall insulation and the grill comes with a set of Meater wireless thermometers that connect to its touchscreen controller. However, all of the updates to the Timberline will cost you a whopping $3,300. And that’s for the smallest size.

Trager also redesigned the Ironwood series, giving it a lot of the updates that the new Timberline offers. There’s no induction burner, wood shelving, storage or dual-wall construction, but the touchscreen controls, new accessories (including a modular rail system) and, most importantly, the company’s redesigned grease and ash management system are all here. The Ironwood does have an open shelf on the bottom and a large side shelf in place of the Timberline’s burner. And while it doesn’t ship with Meater probes, this grill does support them if you buy them separately. The lack of high-end features makes the Ironwood far more affordable, starting at $1,800.

With the Traeger app, you get access to a massive library of recipes, all of which can be sent to the grill so you don’t have to dial in the settings. You also get step-by-step instructions, timers, food probe temps and the ability to activate special modes. All of that is in addition to remote control and monitoring for grill temperature. The software is compatible with all of the company’s Wi-Fi-enabled models, including older ones, so you don’t need the newest Timberline or Ironwood to take advantage of what the app has to offer.

Weber’s SmokeFire pellet grill used to be in this discussion, but since it was replaced by the Searwood in the company’s lineup, I’ve removed it from our recommendations. I’ll be reviewing the Searwood soon, and based on the list of features and brief demo I got at CES, that new model will likely earn the spot previously filled by its predecessor. The Searwood has an all-new design and a special cooking mode that allows you to sear and griddle with the lid open.

Gas grills

Engadget

Smart options aren’t limited to pellet grills, though. If you don’t have a need for the lower-temperature cooking, a propane or natural gas model might be a better option. In 2021, Weber brought its Connect smart grilling platform to its gas grills, offering three- and four-burner configurations, some of which also have a side burner for extra cooking space. Just like on the SmokeFire, Weber Connect not only allows you to monitor both food and grill temperatures from a comfy chair, it can guide you through the process and give you time updates. You still have to manually adjust the burners, but Weber’s app can alert you when you’re running low on fuel (propane models).

Other types of smart grills

Masterbuilt

Both pellet and gas grills have their merits, but some folks prefer the tried-and-true flavor of charcoal when cooking outdoors. While the purchase of one of the previously mentioned accessories will probably achieve what you're after for a kettle or kamado-style grill you already have, there are some charcoal smart grills that offer a degree of connectivity for your cooks.

For fans of the kamado-style ceramic grills, Kamado Joe recently announced the Konnected Joe. Silly spellings aside, the unit addresses two key issues with these types of grills: lighting the charcoal and regulating temperature. To help with the former, the company installed an ignition system in the bottom of the cooking chamber that lights the fuel at the press of a button. The Konnected Joe is also equipped with built-in smart grilling features that help you keep the temps consistent while being able to monitor food and grill temps remotely via an app. Before now, if you wanted smart features on a Kamado Joe grill, you had to invest in the iKammand add-on. The big caveat here is that I haven’t yet tested one yet. They were announced in March but won’t ship until June (pre-orders are open though). At $1,699, this grill is another significant investment, though that figure is on par with the company’s other models that lack the added features connectivity brings.

If you prefer charcoal but still want a versatile smart grill, Masterbuilt’s Gravity Series does everything from low-and-slow smoking to high-heat searing. The gravity-fed charcoal hopper allows you to cook with a fuel source that’s more familiar to most people while the unit’s digital fan maintains temperature. You can monitor the grill from your phone and adjust the heat levels as needed. The company’s latest version, the Gravity Series XT, has an updated controller with a color display and a number of other design improvements.

A word about griddles

Weber

Flat-top griddles are having a moment. These grills are insanely popular for their ability to accommodate smash burgers, fajitas, fried rice, breakfast and anything else that would otherwise fall through a normal grill’s grates. There are endless options here, most of which offer the same basic premise: multiple burners underneath a steel, aluminum or cast-iron flat top. Except for Recteq’s SmokeStone that burns pellets, the rest of the griddles I’ve seen run on propane.

Since the basics are pretty much the same across the board, you’ll want to look at finer details in the design of a griddle while you’re shopping. How much space will you need? What’s the cooktop made out of? Does it have an attached lid? Are the side shelves big enough to hold everything you’ll need to cook? These are the types of questions you should be asking to make sure you buy something you’ll be happy with long term, since you’ll be spending several hundred or maybe even a thousand dollars on a griddle.

One option that I think goes beyond the normal menu of features is the Weber Slate. This is the second griddle for Weber, a company with a decades-long history of charcoal and gas grills. The Slate’s cooktop is made of rust-resistant carbon steel, which requires less maintenance and is more forgiving when you forget to clean it immediately after cooking. There’s also a front-mounted temperature display that shows the average reading across the cooking surface. Lastly, Weber offers a line of accessories designed for the Slate, including a caddy, condiment holder, cutting board and storage bins. These tools allow you to reconfigure the griddle so it’s a prep station/cooking area combo, which means fewer trips to and from the kitchen.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-smart-grills-and-how-to-choose-one-153006286.html?src=rss

© Traeger

Twitter officially went through a rebranding almost a year ago, but most of its pages still used Twitter in their URL until now. Now, Elon Musk has announced that the social network is done moving all of its core systems on X.com, which means it's done transitioning into its new identity and scrubbing all traces of the name Twitter and its iconic blue bird logo. As The Verge notes, the website has also edited its landing and log-in page with a note at the bottom that says: "Welcome to x.com! We are letting you know that we are changing our URL, but your privacy and data protection settings remain the same." It then links to its Privacy page, which now uses x.com in its address.

Over the past year, the company has been shedding its pre-Elon Musk identity little by little. It changed its official handle from @Twitter to @X and replaced the Twitter logo on its headquarters building. Its website changed favicons, which initially triggered some browsers' security safeguards, while its apps switched over to the new X logo from its previous blue bird design. Tweetdeck has been renamed into XPro and Twitter Blue became X Premium. The company has slowly been moving its pages to x.com, as well — slow enough that the move became something of a security risk, since bad actors could take advantage of the inconsistent URL to phish victims. Well, now the company is done moving to its new URL, and it's time to say goodbye to one of the last remaining parts of a website that helped shape the social media landscape.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/twitter-has-officially-moved-to-xcom-120028269.html?src=rss

© X (formerly known as Twitter)

We've spent some time with the iPad Pro M4 and new iPad Air... and the iPad Pro is still a bit too pricey for us. This week, Cherlynn and Devindra chat with Engadget Deputy Editor Nathan Ingraham about his reviews and why he still prefers the iPad Air. Also, we wrap up Google I/O 2024 with a Project Astra hands on, and we chat about Apple bringing eye tracking to iPhones and iPads as an accessibility feature.

---

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

• Nate Ingraham reviews the iPad Pro M4 and iPad Air: Powerful, but pricy – 1:11

• Google I/O news wrap up – 20:11

• OpenAI’s new GPT-4o can talk, sing, and sounds a little flirty – 28:36

• Intel brings back the days of FireWire data transfer with Thunderbolt Share – 31:43

• New accessibility features from Apple: eye tracking and expanded wake word options – 35:48

• Biden administration quadruples tariffs on Chinese EVs (along with solar and other hardware) – 43:20

• Listener Mailbag: The age old question of what to do with your old tech – 55:48

• Working on – 1:01:32

• Pop culture picks – 1:05:45

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Livestream

Credits 

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

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/engadget-podcast-reviewing-the-ipad-pro-m4-and-ipad-air-113044130.html?src=rss

© Engadget

One of the biggest, most iconic gaming series is almost back. Grand Theft Auto 6 is apparently on track for a fall launch next year — a little more specific than the previous release window of “2025.”

There’s no new trailer, and GTA publisher, Take-Two, is not quite ready to offer a specific release date. CEO Strauss Zelnick told Variety: “I think we’re going to leave it there for now.”

The sixth mainline installment will be set in Leonida (Rockstar’s Florida equivalent) and focused mostly on Vice City (Miami). Compared to GTA Vice City, however, it’ll be contemporary. So, I’m banking on OnlyFans pastiches, vapes, self-driving cars and everything else 2020s. Plus explosions and crime.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

Uber will soon let you reserve a shuttle to get home from a big concert or ballgame

Samsung’s Music Frame gets its first discount on Amazon

The best PC games out there (but we need to add Balatro)

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AT&T is making all its phones satellite phones

A new deal will connect your phone with five commercial satellites.

AT&T

AT&T subscribers will soon have cell service even in typical dead zones, like deep inside national parks or far-flung rural locations. The mobile carrier has been working with AST SpaceMobile since 2018, testing two-way audio calls, texts and video calls via satellites in space using ordinary smartphones. Now, the companies have entered a commercial agreement, just in time for a rocket launch of five commercial AST satellites this summer. Those satellites will enable AT&T to roll out its service, but there’s no start date, yet.

Continue reading.

OpenAI strikes deal to put Reddit posts in ChatGPT

The deal is similar to the one Reddit struck with Google just months ago.

OpenAI and Reddit announced, on Thursday, a partnership for OpenAI to surface Reddit discussions in ChatGPT, and for Reddit to bring AI-powered features to its users. The partnership will “enable OpenAI’s tools to better understand and showcase Reddit content, especially on recent topics,” the companies said in a joint statement. As part of the agreement, OpenAI will also become an advertising partner on Reddit. Ugh.

I’ve resurrected my Reddit habit due to an incredible/accursed game called Balatro. So hopefully, soon, I can just ask ChatGPT what certain cards and terms mean.

Continue reading.

US House passes act to force event pricing transparency

But it doesn’t address exorbitant fees or bots.

On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that could provide at least some accountability for Ticketmaster and other live-event vendors. NBC News reports the TICKET Act (not to be confused with the Senate’s separate bill with the same try-hard acronym) would mandate that ticket sellers list upfront the total cost of admission — including all fees — to buyers.

Reforming the ticketing industry became a political point-scoring item in late 2022 after Ticketmaster’s Taylor Swift fiasco. The Live Nation-owned service, which has a stronghold on the industry, melted down as millions of fans battled “a staggering number” of bots. Ticketmaster said presale codes reached 1.5 million fans, but 14 million (including those pesky bots) tried to buy tickets.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-grand-theft-auto-6-is-coming-fall-2025-111507383.html?src=rss

© Take Two

PC gamers have almost too many options when it comes to titles to play, which is a great problem to have. With decades of games to choose from (and the first port of call for most indie titles, too), the options are endless. You also get the perks of (nearly always flawless) backward compatibility and console-beating graphical performance — if you've got the coin for it when you’re building your perfect kit or picking up a high-powered gaming laptop. The whole idea of what a gaming PC is and where you can play it is shifting, too, with the rise of handheld gaming PCs like the Steam Deck. We've tried to be broad with our recommendations here on purpose; here are the best PC games you can play right now.

Best PC games to play right now

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-pc-games-150000910.html?src=rss

© Engadget

OpenAI and Reddit announced a partnership on Thursday that will allow OpenAI to surface Reddit discussions in ChatGPT and for Reddit to bring AI-powered features to its users. The partnership will “enable OpenAI’s tools to better understand and showcase Reddit content, especially on recent topics,” both companies said in a joint statement. As part of the agreement, OpenAI will also become an advertising partner on Reddit, which means that it will run ads on the platform.

The deal is similar to the one that Reddit signed with Google in February, and which is reportedly worth $60 million. A Reddit spokesperson declined to disclose the terms of the OpenAI deal to Engadget and OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.

OpenAI has been increasingly striking partnerships with publishers to get data to continue training its AI models. In the last few weeks alone, the company has signed deals with the Financial Times and Dotdash Meredith. Last year, it also partnered with German publisher Axel Springer to train its models on news from Politico and Business Insider in the US and Bild and Die Welt in Germany.

Under the new arrangement, OpenAI will get access to Reddit’s Data API, which, the company said, will provide it with “real time, structured, and unique content from Reddit.” It’s not clear what AI-powered features Reddit will build into its platform as a result of the partnership. A Reddit spokesperson declined to comment.

Last year, getting access to Reddit’s data, a rich source of real time, human generated, and often high-quality information, became a contentious issue after the company announced that it would start charging developers to use its API. As a result, dozens of third-party Reddit clients were forced to shut down and thousands of subreddits went dark in protest. At the time, Reddit stood its ground and said that large AI companies were scraping its data with no payment. Since then, Reddit has been monetizing its data by striking such deals with Google and OpenAI, whose progress in training their AI models depends on having access to it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/openai-strikes-deal-to-put-reddit-posts-in-chatgpt-224133045.html?src=rss

© Reuters / Reuters

Grand Theft Auto VI’s return to Vice City is officially scheduled for fall 2025. On Thursday, parent company Take-Two Interactive wrote in its Q4 2024 earnings report that it’s narrowed GTA 6’s previously announced 2025 window to autumn of next year.

“Our outlook reflects a narrowing of Rockstar Games’ previously established window of Calendar 2025 to Fall of Calendar 2025 for Grand Theft Auto VI,” Take-Two Chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick wrote in the earnings report. “We are highly confident that Rockstar Games will deliver an unparalleled entertainment experience, and our expectations for the commercial impact of the title continue to increase.”

The sixth mainline installment in the open-world series will be set in Leonida (Rockstar’s Florida equivalent), focused mostly on Vice City (Miami). The game appears to have a contemporary setting, as opposed to the charming '80s cheese from 2002’s Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. You can catch a glimpse of protagonists Jason and Lucia in the trailer below.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/grand-theft-auto-6-will-arrive-in-fall-2025-205513138.html?src=rss

© Rockstar Games

On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that could provide at least some accountability for Ticketmaster and other live event vendors. NBC News reports the TICKET Act (not to be confused with the Senate’s separate bill with the same try-hard acronym) would mandate that ticket sellers list upfront the total cost of admission — including all fees — to buyers.

In addition to the full pricing breakdown, the bill would require sellers to indicate whether the tickets are currently in their possession. It would also ban deceptive websites from secondary vendors and force sellers to refund tickets to canceled events. The bill doesn’t appear to address price gouging or extravagant fees.

It now moves to the Senate, which is floating two separate event-reform bills: the other TICKET Act and a bipartisan Fans First Act. The latter was introduced in December to strengthen the 2016 BOTS Act that bars the use of bots to buy tickets, a practice that Taylor Swift fans (among others) can attest is still all too common.

Reforming the ticketing industry became a political point-scoring item in late 2022 after Ticketmaster’s Taylor Swift fiasco. The Live Nation-owned service, which has a stronghold on the industry, melted down as millions of fans battled “a staggering number” of bots. Ticketmaster said presale codes reached 1.5 million fans, but 14 million (including those pesky bots) tried to buy tickets.

Live Nation President and CFO Joe Berchtold testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in January 2023, where he largely passed the buck to Congress to fix the mess. He suggested the government strengthen the BOTS Act, which one of the Senate’s bills would try to do. During the hearing, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) needled the executive for dodging blame, accusing the company of pointing the finger at everyone but itself.

Representatives Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) issued a joint statement on Wednesday about the House’s TICKET Act. “This consensus legislation will end deceptive ticketing practices that frustrate consumers who simply want to enjoy a concert, show, or sporting event by restoring fairness and transparency to the ticket marketplace,” the group wrote. “After years of bipartisan work, we will now be able to enhance the customer experience of buying event tickets online. We look forward to continuing to work together to urge quick Senate passage so that we can send it to the President’s desk to be signed into law.”

Artists publicly supporting legislation to combat the ticketing industry’s failures include (among others) Billie Eilish, Lorde, Green Day, Cyndi Lauper, Jason Mraz and Dave Matthews. “We are joining together to say that the current system is broken: predatory resellers and secondary platforms engage in deceptive ticketing practices to inflate ticket prices and deprive fans of the chance to see their favorite artists at a fair price,” a joint letter from over 250 musicians reads.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/us-house-passes-ticket-act-to-force-event-pricing-transparency-202852148.html?src=rss

© Disney+

The rise and fall of MoviePass is one of those stories just begging for the documentary treatment and, well, HBO has got you covered. The platform just set a premiere date of May 29 for MoviePass, MovieCrash, a documentary helmed by filmmaker Muta’Ali and produced by none other than Mark Wahlberg.

The film chronicles the “meteoric rise and stranger-than-fiction implosion” of the movie ticket subscription platform, which originally set the world on fire when it first launched back in 2011. However, it wasn’t long before the company realized that the “all you can eat” approach that works so well with gyms and other membership clubs is a weird fit for movie theaters, particularly at the service’s low price point. In just eight years, the company went from the fastest growing subscription service since Spotify to total bankruptcy.

As the trailer shows, the documentary will feature interviews with many of the major players involved in the various stages of MoviePass. This includes original co-founder Stacy Spikes and former CEO Mitch Lowe. There will also be plenty of interviews with journalists who covered the service, FTC personnel and former subscribers. Incidentally, the trailer promises an anecdote in which a customer sent a box of feces to the MoviePass offices, and we don’t want to miss that.

Though premiering on HBO at 9PM ET on May 29, the documentary will also be available on-demand via Max. Director Muta’Ali has made a few good documentaries, including Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn and Cassius X: Becoming Ali.

As for MoviePass, well, it’s a long and complicated story. The app captured the hearts of theater-goers in 2011 by promising unlimited trips to the cinema for a single monthly subscription fee. The love affair didn’t last. The company ceased operations in 2019 and filed for bankruptcy in 2020. Between those dates, there have been reports of wire fraud, securities fraud and significant data breaches, among other outlandish scenarios. In short, it’s perfect fodder for a documentary.

MoviePass is actually still around. Co-founder Spikes recently bought the company’s assets, brought on new investors and re-launched the service. However, the updated pricing model is on the confusing side, with credits and tiers, and seems to have not captured lightning in a bottle for the second time.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hbos-upcoming-moviepass-documentary-is-a-must-watch-for-fans-of-tech-trainwrecks-184923511.html?src=rss

© HBO

If you can't tell by now, just about every tech company is eager to pray at the altar of AI, for better or worse. Google's recent I/O developer conference was dominated by AI features, like its seemingly life-like Project Astra assistant. Just before that, OpenAI debuted GPT 4o, a free and conversational AI model that's disturbingly flirty. Next up is Microsoft Build 2024, the company's developer conference that's kicking off next week in Seattle.

Normally, Build is a fairly straightforward celebration of Microsoft's devotion to productivity, with a dash of on-stage coding to excite the developer crowd. But this year, the company is gearing up to make some more huge AI moves, following its debut of the ChatGPT-powered Bing Chat in early 2023. Take that together with rumors around new Surface hardware, and Build 2024 could potentially be one of the most important events Microsoft has ever held.

But prior to Build, Microsoft is hosting a showcase for new Surfaces and AI in Windows 11 on May 20. Build kicks off a day later on May 21. For the average Joe, the Surface event is shaping up to be the more impactful of the two, as rumors suggest we will see some of the first systems featuring Qualcomm’s Arm-based Snapdragon X Elite chip alongside new features coming in the next major Windows 11 update.

That's not to say it's all rosy for the Windows maker. Build 2024 is the point where we'll see if AI will make or break Microsoft. Will the billions in funding towards OpenAI and Copilot projects actually pay off with useful tools for consumers? Or is the push for AI, and the fabled idea of "artificial general intelligence," inherently foolhardy as it makes computers more opaque and potentially untrustworthy? (How, exactly, do generative AI models come up with their answers? It's not always clear.)

Here are a few things we expect to see at Build 2024:

New Surface hardware

While Microsoft did push out updates to the Surface family earlier this spring, those machines were more meant for enterprise customers, so they aren’t available for purchase in regular retail stores. A Microsoft spokesperson told us at the time that it "absolutely remain[s] committed to consumer devices," and that the commercial focused announcement was "only the first part of this effort."

Instead, the company's upcoming refresh for its consumer PCs is expected to consist of new 13 and 15-inch Surface Laptop 6 models with thinner bezels, larger trackpads, improved port selection and the aforementioned X Elite chip. There’s a good chance that at the May 20th showcase, we’ll also see an Arm-based version of the Surface Pro 10, which will sport a similar design to the business model that came out in March, but with revamped accessories including a Type Cover with a dedicated Copilot key.

According to The Verge, Microsoft is confident that these new systems could outmatch Apple's M3-powered MacBook Air in raw speed and AI performance.

The company has also reportedly revamped emulation for x86 software in its Arm-based version of Windows 11. That's a good thing, since poor emulation was one of the main reasons we hated the Surface Pro 9 5G, a confounding system powered by Microsoft's SQ3 Arm chip. That mobile processor was based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3, which was unproven in laptops at the time. Using the Surface Pro 9 5G was so frustrating we felt genuinely offended that Microsoft was selling it as a "Pro" device. So you can be sure we're skeptical about any amazing performance gains from another batch of Qualcomm Arm chips.

It'll also be interesting to see if Microsoft's new consumer devices look any different than their enterprise counterparts, which were basically just chip swaps inside of the cases from the Surface Pro 9 and Laptop 5. If Microsoft is actually betting on mobile chips for its consumer Surfaces, there's room for a complete rethinking of its designs, just like how Apple refashioned its entire laptop lineup around its M-series chips.

AI Explorer

Aside from updated hardware, one of the biggest upgrades on these new Surfaces should be vastly improved on-device AI and machine learning performance thanks to the Snapdragon X Elite chip, which can deliver up to 45 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) from its neural processing unit (NPU). This is key because Microsoft has previously said PCs will need at least 40 TOPs in order to run Windows AI features locally. This leads us to some of the additions coming in the next major build of Microsoft’s OS, including something the company is calling its AI Explorer, expanded Studio effects and more.

According to Windows Central, AI Explorer is going to be Microsoft’s catch-all term covering a range of machine learning-based features. This is expected to include a revamped search tool that lets users look up everything from websites to files using natural language input. There may also be a new timeline that will allow people to scroll back through anything they've done recently on their computer and the addition of contextual suggestions that appear based on whatever they're currently looking at. And building off of some of the Copilot features we’ve seen previously, it seems Microsoft is planning to add support for tools like live captions, expanded Studio effects (including real-time filters) and local generative AI tools that can help create photos and more on the spot.

Smarter and more local Copilots

Microsoft wants an AI Copilot in everything. The company first launched Github Copilot in 2021 as a way to let programmers use AI to deal with mundane coding tasks. At this point, all of the company's other AI tools have also been rebranded as "Microsoft Copilot" (that includes Bing Chat, and Microsoft 365 Copilot for productivity apps). With Copilot Pro, a $20 monthly offering launched earlier this year, the company provides access to the latest GPT models from OpenAI, along with other premium features.

But there's still one downside to all of Microsoft's Copilot tools: They require an internet connection. Very little work is actually happening locally, on your device. That could change soon, though, as Intel confirmed that Microsoft is already working on ways to make Copilot local. That means it may be able to answer simpler questions, like basic math or queries about files on your system, more quickly without hitting the internet at all. As impressive as Microsoft's AI assistant can be, it still typically takes a few seconds to deal with your questions.

More from Microsoft at Build 2024

After all the new hardware and software are announced, Build is positioned to help developers lay even more groundwork to better support those new AI and expanded Copilot features. Microsoft has already teased things like Copilot on Edge and Copilot Plugins for 365 apps, so we’re expecting to hear more on how those will work. And by taking a look at some of the sessions already scheduled for Build, we can see there’s a massive focus on everything AI-related, with breakouts for Customizing Microsoft Copilot, Copilot in Teams, Copilot Extensions and more.

What else to look out for?

While Microsoft will surely draw a lot of attention, it’s important to mention that it won’t be the only manufacturer coming out with new AI PCs. That’s because alongside revamped Surfaces, we’re expecting to see a whole host of other laptops featuring Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite Chip (or possibly the X Plus) from other major vendors like Dell, Lenovo and more.

Admittedly, following the intense focus Google put on AI at I/O 2024, the last thing people may want to hear about is yet more AI. But at this point, like most of its rivals, Microsoft is betting big on machine learning to grow and expand the capabilities of Windows PCs.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/what-to-expect-from-microsoft-build-2024-the-surface-event-windows-11-and-ai-182010326.html?src=rss

© ASSOCIATED PRESS

Sony used to be a fairly major player in the smartphone space, but its offerings never quite made a splash in the US. Despite that, the company has been pumping out yearly refreshes of its Xperia line of smartphones and the just-announced Xperia 1 VI looks like the perfect device for both amateur and professional photographers. Sony, after all, is no slouch when it comes to cameras.

The sixth-generation of the company’s flagship smartphone is filled with so many camera-centric features that it could actually lure people away from rival iPhone and Pixel devices. There’s a true optical zoom, AI-assisted autofocus and a telephoto camera for snapping macro shots.

This breaks down to three cameras on the back, in the form of a 24mm main camera with a 48-megapixel Sony Exmor T sensor, a 16mm ultrawide and the aforementioned 85-170mm variable zoom telephoto camera. That last one provides 3.5x to 7.1x magnification when compared to the main camera. The ladybug in your yard is begging for its closeup.

As for that AI-assisted autofocus, Sony touts a technology called “human pose estimation” that can recognize a person’s body and head position to provide the perfect focus. The camera system also supports filming video in 4K HDR at 120fps. All of these features work together within Sony’s new unified camera app, so people don’t have to constantly jump between different software to get the job done.

Of course, this is a smartphone and not just a bunch of cameras attached to a rectangle. The Xperia 1 VI boasts the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, 12GB of RAM and a choice between 256GB and 512GB of storage. Sony says the integrated 5,000mAh battery should allow for up to two days of use before requiring a charge. To that end, the device supports both 15W wireless charging and wireless battery sharing to other devices.

There is an OLED display which is nice, but it’s 2220 x 1080 and the Xperia V shipped with a 4K screen. The aspect ratio gets a hit here too, downsizing from 21:9 to 19.5:9. This display does now offer a variable refresh rate between 1Hz to 120Hz, however, and it can achieve a 50 percent higher peak brightness when compared to last year’s model. Also, 4K resolution on a phone screen is kind of unnecessary and this thing can shoot in 4K, which is what really matters.

The Sony Xperia 1 VI is available for preorders now in the UK, starting at the jaw-dropping asking price of $1,640 in US dollars. There’s some more bad news for US consumers. Unlike previous versions, the company has no current plans to bring this phone stateside.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sonys-new-smartphone-could-entice-shutterbugs-away-from-apple-and-google-180755649.html?src=rss

© Sony

It's been a long time coming but we finally know when College Football 25, EA Sports' revival of the long-dormant football sim series, will hit consoles. The game will land on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on July 19, living up to EA's promise that it would arrive sometime this summer.

Michigan running back Donovan Edwards, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers and Colorado wide receiver/defensive back Travis Hunter are the cover stars. College Football 25 will include thousands of current athletes and feature 134 schools in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

More details about the game will be revealed in the coming weeks. However, like its NFL-centric sibling Madden, College Football 25 will include EA's money-vacuuming Ultimate Team mode. Ultimate Team, which has long been a staple of the EA Sports FC (formerly FIFA) and NHL games too, sees players earn or buy packs of random players to add to their custom roster.

Pre-orders for College Football 25 are now open. EA is selling an MVP bundle of College Football 25 and Madden NFL 25 that includes the deluxe edition of each game and three days of early access to each. 

As it happens, the release date for Madden NFL 25 was also revealed on Thursday, albeit through pre-order product listings. It will hit PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on August 16, less than a month after College Football 25.

The College Football series had been dormant for over a decade following legal issues over the use of student athletes' likenesses, allegedly without consent. When EA announced a revival of the franchise in 2021, it noted that College Football would not feature real athletes. However, things have changed since then due to the NCAA at long last allowing student athletes to make money from their name, image and likeness (NIL).

Players had the choice of whether to opt in to College Football 25, and as of March, more than 10,000 had reportedly agreed to be included. Most received an NIL check of $600, according to CBS Sports. Higher-profile names, presumably including the cover athletes, were said to have landed better-paying deals.

Update 5/16 2PM ET: Added the Madden NFL 25 release date.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ea-sports-dormant-college-football-will-reemerge-cicada-like-on-july-19-175136953.html?src=rss

© EA Sports

YouTube said it would comply with an order blocking access to videos of Hong Kong’s protest anthem inside the region, according to The Guardian. The platform’s decision comes after an appeals court banned the protest song “Glory to Hong Kong,” which the largely China-controlled government (predictably) framed as a national security threat.

Alphabet, YouTube and Google’s parent company, followed its familiar playbook of legally complying with court orders undermining human rights while issuing statements puffing up its advocacy for them. “We are disappointed by the Court’s decision but are complying with its removal order,” YouTube’s statement to The Guardian said. “We’ll continue to consider our options for an appeal, to promote access to information.”

Alphabet reportedly told the outlet the block would take effect immediately inside the region. It added that it shares the concerns of human rights groups that it could deal a blow to online freedoms.

YouTube reportedly said links to the videos will eventually no longer be visible in Google Search inside Hong Kong. I tried using a Hong Kong-based VPN server while in the US, and the videos were still viewable on Thursday morning. However, The Guardian said attempts to view it from inside the region show the message, “This content is not available on this country domain due to a court order.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtube-reportedly-agrees-to-block-videos-of-hong-kongs-protest-song-inside-the-region-174245129.html?src=rss

© Human Rights Foundation

The web version of Threads could soon be much more useful. Meta is starting to test custom Tweetdeck-like feeds that will allow users to track multiple topics, searches and accounts in a single view.

People who are part of the test can set up to “pinned columns” that will track updates around specific topics, tags, accounts or search terms. Users can also opt to have these columns automatically refresh with new content. For now, Threads will support up to 100 different columns, though a Meta spokesperson said that number may change as the test progresses. 

Based on screenshots shared by Mark Zuckerberg, the new Threads columns look a lot like Tweetdeck, the desktop app long favored by Twitter’s power users. The app is now called X Pro and only available to X’s paid subscribers.

The test is the latest sign Meta is looking to make Threads a more reliable source for real-time information. The company has also added a “recent” tab and trending topics to search. But being able to track multiple feeds of updates at once is even more useful. It could also address long-running complaints about Threads’ algorithmic “for you” feed, which tends to surface a random mix of days-old posts and bizarre personal stories from unconnected accounts.

It’s not clear how many people will be part of Meta’s initial test of the feature, though Adam Mosseri said the company is looking for feedback on the changes. But the company has often rolled out major Threads changes to small group of users first before making them more widely available.

Update May 16, 2024, 2:15 PM ET: Added details about how many columns Threads will support.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/metas-threads-gets-its-own-tweetdeck-clone-172131218.html?src=rss

© Meta

Activision just announced that it's working on a brand-new IP, with a mission “to craft a franchise with an enduring legacy that resonates far beyond games.” To help steward this mysterious franchise into the world, the company has opened up a new internal studio called Elsewhere Entertainment.

The team is headquartered in Warsaw, which is where CD Projekt Red cooks up The Witcher and Cyberpunk games, with assistance from a smaller US-based group. The company hasn’t given one ounce of detail regarding the IP itself, just saying that Elsewhere is “dedicated to establishing an environment that inspires bold and diverse ideas” and that it has “full access to Activision’s resources and tools.”

The developer has suggested the final release will be a “next-gen” experience, but didn’t say whether that meant today’s next-gen or whatever consoles are coming down the pike in the next few years. This will likely be a story-driven game, as Activision has hired up folks who worked on The Last of Us, the Uncharted franchise, Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3. If you have a decent resume and a hankering to work on a new IP, here’s a likely-related job posting.

A new studio means new hires, which is great news for an industry plagued by layoffs. As a matter of fact, the formation of Elsewhere comes just over one week after Activision’s parent company Microsoft closed three Bethesda studios. This is also happening a couple of months after Toys for Bob, another Activision studio, spun off into an indie. In any event, we’ll let you know when the company drops some concrete information about the franchise itself.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/activision-forms-a-studio-to-develop-a-brand-spanking-new-ip-164001419.html?src=rss

© Activision

When it comes to cooking meat — especially on the grill — it's critical to make sure that you're getting it to the correct temperature. One easy way to do that is to use a smart meat thermometer and, as luck would have it, one of our favorite models is on sale just ahead of Memorial Day weekend. The Meater Plus thermometer has dropped to $70, which is its lowest price ever. It typically costs $100. You can buy it at the sale price at Amazon or from Meater directly.

We've included a newer model, the Meater 2 Plus, in our latest guide to the best grilling gear as it offers some upgrades, including improved temperature accuracy and a waterproof design to support deep fry and sous vide usage. But the original Meater Plus is still plenty capable.

The wireless design allows you to monitor the temperature of your cook from up to 1,000 feet away, Meater claims, though that range drops to a maximum of around 165 feet when obstacles like walls get in the way. 

The Meater app aims to help you get consistently strong results by, for instance, estimating the optimal cooking and resting times. It can also provide you with step-by-step directions to follow. You can set up time- and temperature-based alerts and notifications on your phone, tablet and smartwatch to help make sure you're on top of things too.

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-meater-plus-smart-meat-thermometer-drops-to-a-record-low-price-162005145.html?src=rss

© Meater

Google has updated some of its accessibility apps to add capabilities that will make them easier to use for people who need them. It has rolled out a new version of the Lookout app, which can read text and even lengthy documents out loud for people with low vision or blindness. The app can also read food labels, recognize currency and can tell users what it sees through the camera and in an image. Its latest version comes with a new "Find" mode that allows users to choose from seven item categories, including seating, tables, vehicles, utensils and bathrooms.

When users choose a category, the app will be able to recognize objects associated with them as the user moves their camera around a room. It will then tell them the direction or distance to the object, making it easier for users to interact with their surroundings. Google has also launched an in-app capture button, so they can take photos and quickly get AI-generated descriptions. 

Google

The company has updated its Look to Speak app, as well. Look to Speak enables users to communicate with other people by selecting from a list of phrases, which they want the app to speak out loud, using eye gestures. Now, Google has added a text-free mode that gives them the option to trigger speech by choosing from a photo book containing various emojis, symbols and photos. Even better, they can personalize what each symbol or image means for them. 

Google has also expanded its screen reader capabilities for Lens in Maps, so that it can tell the user the names and categories of the places it sees, such as ATMs and restaurants. It can also tell them how far away a particular location is. In addition, it's rolling out improvements for detailed voice guidance, which provides audio prompts that tell the user where they're supposed to go. 

Finally, Google has made Maps' wheelchair information accessible on desktop, four years after it launched on Android and iOS. The Accessible Places feature allows users to see if the place they're visiting can accommodate their needs — businesses and public venues with an accessible entrance, for example, will show a wheelchair icon. They can also use the feature to see if a location has accessible washrooms, seating and parking. The company says Maps has accessibility information for over 50 million places at the moment. Those who prefer looking up wheelchair information on Android and iOS will now also be able to easily filter reviews focusing on wheelchair access. 

Google made all these announcements at this year's I/O developer conference, where it also revealed that it open-sourced more code for the Project Gameface hands-free "mouse," allowing Android developers to use it for their apps. The tool allows users to control the cursor with their head movements and facial gestures, so that they can more easily use their computers and phones. 

Catch up on all the news from Google I/O 2024 right here!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/googles-accessibility-app-lookout-can-use-your-phones-camera-to-find-and-recognize-objects-160007994.html?src=rss

© Google

8BitDo makes some of our most beloved third-party game controllers. They work with just about everything and they’re well-built. Right now, you can scoop up a bundle with an 8BitDo Ultimate Controller and a charging dock for $56 via Amazon. That’s almost a record-low price and the cheapest we’ve seen this particular controller combo since earlier this year.

We called this controller the “last gamepad” most people will “need to buy for Switch and PC.” There’s no stick drift, thanks to the use of magnets and “hall effect” sensors instead of traditional potentiometers. This gamepad should stick around for the long haul. We also loved the Bluetooth functionality, especially when using the controller with portable devices like the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck.

There’s a neat little mobile app for customization, which can adjust the sensitivity of the joysticks, triggers and haptic vibrations. Of course, this app also allows users to remap the buttons, add macros and create unique settings profiles. If mobile isn’t your bag, this can all be done on PC.

The charging dock powers up via USB-C and doubles as a storage container for the included USB wireless dongle. The gamepad can connect over this dongle, Bluetooth or a USB-C cable. Pairing is simple, with a mostly plug-and-play experience.

The battery life is decent, though not spectacular. This controller gets around 20 hours per charge. The only real downside here is the original $70 asking price, which is the same as a Switch Pro controller. This issue has been alleviated by this discount, as $56 is pretty much the sweet spot for a high-grade third-party controller.

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/8bitdos-ultimate-controller-with-charging-dock-is-back-on-sale-for-56-150938138.html?src=rss

© Engadget / Jeff Dunn

When a good deal hits your eye like a big pizza pie, it may be a great day. Maybe more so than usual in this case if you’re in the market for a pizza oven, as some Solo Stove bundles have been discounted ahead of Memorial Day. The company is running a site-wide sale with up to 30 percent off everything, including the Pi Ultimate bundle that includes an oven with support for both gas and wood sources. That has dropped by $280 to $600.

Meanwhile, a bundle with the Pi model that supports wood burning only is $270 off. That means it can be yours for $480. On the downside, both models are showing estimated shipping dates of June 3 at the time of writing, so likely you won't get your oven in time for Memorial Day weekend, sadly.

That said, snapping one up will prepare you for a summer of delicious pies. The Solo Stove Pi is one of our top picks for the best multifuel outdoor pizza oven, behind the more expensive Ooni Karu 16.

The Pi has an open-front design and it's made out of stainless steel. It can reach temperatures of up to 850 degrees Fahrenheit when burning wood and 900 degrees when using gas, according to Solo Stove. That works out to stone temperatures of 750 and 800 degrees, respectively.

The bundles include all kinds of useful accessories, including a stand, bamboo and stainless steel peels, turner, thermometer, silicon mat, pizza cutter and shelter for protection from the elements. One thing the bundle does not include, unfortunately, is a gas burner for the dual fuel model. You'll need to buy that separately for $120.

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/solo-stove-memorial-day-sales-cut-up-to-280-off-pi-ultimate-pizza-oven-bundles-142652678.html?src=rss

© Photo by Billy Steele / Engadget

Update, 1:55PM ET: This discount/coupon has expired.

Samsung launched its Music Frame speaker last month, and now it finally has its first Amazon sale running. A $23 coupon brings the device down to $375 from $398 — already $2 off its standard $400 retail price. All you need to do is apply the coupon at checkout, and you can get the Music Frame for a discount (though the deal is limited to one device per purchase).

Samsung first announced its Music Frame back in January at CES 2024 after years of success with its Frame TVs. The wireless speaker has two woofers, two tweeters and two mid-range drivers inside. It uses Samsung's SpaceFit to calibrate based on your room and is compatible with Dolby Atmos audio. Unlike other smart speakers (or Samsung's Frame TVs), the Music Frame actually requires a physical picture put inside it. It might seem a bit weird, given its digital nature, but it does help it blend in among other pictures better. You can connect the Music Frame to your television or phone and change the bezel color to better match its surroundings. 

We had a chance to see the Music Frame in action at the conference and found the speaker had a robust, clear sound quality with solid highs and mids. The bass was more restrained, but it wasn't clear whether that was due to the noisy environment. 

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/samsungs-music-frame-gets-its-first-discount-on-amazon-132056376.html?src=rss

© Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget

Immersion blenders (or hand blenders) might not be absolutely essential in every good kitchen arsenal. But they can unlock faster and easier ways of making soups, smoothies, sauces and more. Plus, they’re smaller than their countertop brethren, which often makes them a better choice for RVs, boats or apartments where space is a premium. Finally, because cleaning them is usually as simple as running them in a bowl of hot soapy water, there’s less hassle, too. To help you figure out which immersion blender is right for you, we’ve put together a list of our favorite models across a variety of needs and use cases.

Which device is right for you?

Before you even think about buying a new kitchen appliance, it’s important to figure out how you’re going to use it and where it fits in with any gadgets you already own. In an ideal world, everyone would have a dedicated food processor, countertop blender and a stand mixer. But the reality is that many people don’t have the room or the budget.

While handheld blenders and traditional, full-size blenders have a lot of overlap, there are strengths and weaknesses to both. For example, if you’re looking to make smoothies every day, a countertop blender might be a better choice. The bigger pitchers make it easier to blend drinks for multiple people at once, while larger motors will make short work of ice and frozen fruit. Additionally, more expensive options like those from Vitamix, All-Clad, Ninja or Robocoupe can even cook soup during the blending process using the heat generated from the blender’s motor, which isn’t something you can do with an immersion model. I’d even go so far as to say that if you have the space for it and don’t already own one, a regular blender is probably the best option for most people.

That said, immersion blenders are often less expensive and, thanks to a wide variety of accessories offered by some manufacturers, they can be great multitaskers. A whisk attachment allows you to make whipped cream or meringues quickly without needing an electric hand mixer, or risk getting tendonitis in your elbow doing it manually. Some immersion blenders also come with food processing bowls, so you can easily throw together things like small batches of hummus, salad dressings or homemade pesto in minutes. And because immersion blenders are smaller and less bulky than traditional models, they're a great choice for apartment dwellers or anyone with limited storage or counter space. That means if you’re simply trying to expand your culinary repertoire without blowing up your budget, an immersion blender can be a great way to try something new without committing too hard.

Corded or cordless?

Similar to figuring out if you should get a blender or not, trying to decide between a corded or cordless model depends a lot on the other gadgets you already own. Corded versions typically have more powerful motors, which makes them great for people who don’t have a countertop blender or food processor. But if you do own one of both of those, cordless is the way to go. Not only do you get the convenience of not worrying about wires, but the ease of use makes it fast and easy to whip out your immersion blender to add some extra texture to a sauce, or puree a large pot of soup without having to do it in batches.

A quick word about safety

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No one should be ashamed of being nervous around a device that is essentially a motorized blending wand with a spinning blade at the end. But with proper care and use, an immersion blender doesn’t have to be much more dangerous than a chef’s knife. The most important safety tip is to make sure you always keep the sharp blades pointed down and away from you or anyone else nearby. That includes your hands, along with any utensils (like a spoon), that might be in or around your mixing bowl.

Thankfully, all consumer immersion blenders are designed to prevent their blade from directly hitting the vessel holding your food (be it a mixing bowl or a pot). However, to be extra safe, you should avoid blending things in glass containers or nonstick cookware, as glass can chip or shatter while the metal blades and shroud of an immersion blender can damage teflon and ceramic.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

You’ll also want to make sure you keep water away from the plug or outlet of corded immersion blenders. And if you want to remove the blade or clear away any food that might have gotten tangled, first make sure the blender is off, disconnected from its power source (either its battery or wall socket) and in safety mode with a lock button or other feature.

On the bright side, cleaning an immersion is rather simple and straightforward. All you have to do is fill up a bowl or cup with soapy water, submerge the immersion blender, and then run it for 10 to 20 seconds. That’s it. If it’s still not clean, you can repeat that process again until it is. And if hand washing is too much work, the blending wand on a lot of models (including all of the ones on this list) are dishwasher safe too.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-immersion-blenders-150006296.html?src=rss

© Photo by Sam Rutherford / Engadget

There was a time when streamers wooed potential customers with the promise of an ad-free experience. In recent years, however, companies such as Netflix, Amazon, Disney and more have hiked up their prices and made an ad-supported tier the most affordable option. Now, Netflix is taking the next step towards becoming a de-facto ad tech company by moving its development in-house, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

Netflix announced the shift during its upfront preview, in which the company also shared that its $7 per month ad-supported tier has 40 million monthly active users. The ad-supported plan is reportedly getting 40 percent of new signups, with it having 15 million users just six months ago, in November. 

The streaming company has relied heavily on Microsoft to reach this success, partnering with the tech giant in 2022 on advertising and sales. But, the training wheels are coming off with Netflix's choice to move things in house, a choice that "will allow us to power the ads plan with the same level of excellence that’s made Netflix the leader in streaming technology today," Netflix ads chief Amy Reinhard said. Microsoft will also no longer be Netflix's sole ad tech partner, as the streamer will start working with companies like Google’s Display & Video 360 and The Trade Desk later this summer. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflix-is-becoming-an-ad-tech-company-130004240.html?src=rss

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Intel has launched a new software application called Thunderbolt Share that will make controlling two or more PCs a more seamless experience. It will allow you to sync files between PCs through its interface, or see multiple computers' folders so you can drag and drop and specific documents, images and other file types. That makes collaborations easy if you're transferring particularly hefty files, say raw photos or unedited videos, between you and a colleague. You can also use the app to transfer data from an old PC to a new one, so you don't have to use an external drive to facilitate the move. 

When it comes to screen sharing, Intel says the software can retain the resolution of the source PC without compression, so long as the maximum specs only reach Full HD at up to 60 frames per second. The mouse cursor and keyboard also remain smooth and responsive between PCs, thanks to the Thunderbolt technology's high bandwidth and low latency. 

The company says it's licensing Thunderbolt Share to OEMs as a value-add feature for their upcoming PCs and accessories. You will need Windows computers with Thunderbolt 4 or 5 ports to be able to use it, and they have to be directly connected with a Thunderbolt cable, or connected to the same Thunderbolt dock or monitor. The first devices that support the application will be available in the second half of 2024 and will be coming from various manufacturers, including Lenovo, Acer, MSI, Razer, Kensington and Belkin.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/intels-thunderbolt-share-makes-it-easier-to-move-large-files-between-pcs-123011505.html?src=rss

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Meta is back in hot water for its methods (or lack thereof) for protecting children. The European Commission has launched formal proceedings to determine whether the owner of Facebook and Instagram has violated the Digital Services Act (DSA) by contributing to children's social media addiction and not ensuring they have high levels of safety and privacy.

The Commission's investigation will specifically examine whether Meta is properly assessing and acting against risks brought on by its platforms' interfaces. It's concerned about how their designs could "exploit the weaknesses and inexperience of minors and cause addictive behavior, and/or reinforce so-called 'rabbit hole' effect. Such an assessment is required to counter potential risks for the exercise of the fundamental right to the physical and mental well-being of children as well as to the respect of their rights."

The proceedings will also explore whether Meta takes necessary steps to prevent minors from accessing inappropriate content, has effective age-verification tools and minors have straightforward, strong privacy tools, such as default settings.

The DSA sets standards for very large online platforms and search engines (those with 45 million or more monthly users in the EU) like Meta. Obligations for designated companies include transparency about advertising and content moderation decisions, sharing their data with the Commission and looking into risks their systems pose related to areas such as gender-based violence, mental health and protection of minors.

Meta responded to the formal proceedings by pointing to features such as parental supervision settings, quiet mode and it automatically restricting content for teens. "We want young people to have safe, age-appropriate experiences online and have spent a decade developing more than 50 tools and policies designed to protect them. This is a challenge the whole industry is facing, and we look forward to sharing details of our work with the European Commission," a Meta spokesperson told Engadget.

However, Meta has continuously failed to prioritize the safety of young people. Previous alarming incidents include Instagram's algorithm suggesting content that features child sexual exploitation and claims that it designs its platforms to be addictive to young people while suggesting psychologically harmful content, such as the promotion of eating disorders and body dysmorphia.

Meta has also famously served as a hub of misinformation for people of all ages. The Commission already launched formal proceedings against the company on April 30 due to concerns around deceptive advertising, data access for researchers and the lack of an "effective third-party real-time civic discourse and election-monitoring tool" before June's European Parliament elections, among other concerns. Earlier this year, Meta announced that CrowdTangle, which has publicly shown how fake news and conspiracy theories move around Facebook and Instagram, would be completely shut down in August.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/eu-investigating-meta-over-addiction-and-safety-concerns-for-minors-120709921.html?src=rss

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Meta’s Oversight Board has accepted its first case involving a post on Threads and it will allow the group to weigh in on the debate over the role of political content on Threads. The board, which started taking appeals from Threads users earlier this year, announced its first case involving Meta’s newest app.

The case stems from a post by a Japanese user who was replying to a screenshot of a news article about Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and allegations of tax evasion. The reply, according to the board, included “several hashtags using the phrase ‘drop dead.’” Meta’s content moderators removed the post, citing the company’s rules against inciting violence. But after the user appealed to the Oversight Board and had the case accepted, Meta reversed course, saying that the post didn’t violate its rules after all.

All that may sound like a fairly typical case for the board, which regularly reviews Meta’s content moderation decisions and pushes the social media company to change its policies. But it’s the first time the group will apply that same process to Threads. And the board has suggested it will use the case to weigh in on the company’s controversial decision to stop showing political content in its algorithmic recommendations on Threads and Instagram.

“The Board selected thi case to examine Meta’s content moderation policies and enforcement practices on political content on Threads,” the Oversight Board wrote in a statement. “This is particularly important, in the context of Meta’s decision not to proactively recommend political content on Threads.”

As usual, it will likely be several months before we see the Oversight Board’s decision actually play out in any policy changes at Meta. In the meantime, the board is seeking public comment on “how Meta’s choice not to recommend political content on Threads and Instagram newsfeeds, or pages not followed by users, affects access to information and political speech.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/metas-oversight-board-will-wade-into-the-debate-over-political-content-on-threads-120001168.html?src=rss

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Eight TikTok creators are suing the US government in an effort to block a law requiring TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell the service or face a US-wide ban. The lawsuit claims the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act is unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment rights of the creators who depend on the platform.

TikTok has already filed its own lawsuit against the government, but according to The Washington Post, the company is “covering” the legal fees for this separate suit too. ByteDance has money.

But will it work? Maybe? A group of TikTok creators sued Montana over an attempted statewide ban last year. And that ban never happened.

— Mat Smith

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Apple brings eye tracking to recent iPhones and iPads

The company is making it easier to use your gaze to navigate iOS and iPadOS.

Coinciding with Global Accessibility Awareness Day, this week, Apple is bringing eye-tracking support to recent models of iPhones and iPads (with an A12 chip), as well as customizable vocal shortcuts, music haptics, vehicle motion cues and more.

With eye tracking enabled, people can look at their screen to move through apps and menus, then linger on an item to select it. That pause to select action is called Dwell Control, which has already been available on Macs. There are also new vocal shortcuts and music haptics for Apple Music.

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The Proteus Xbox controller is an accessible gamepad of modular cubes

A huge array of customizable input options.

Microsoft

Xbox is also expanding its accessibility with the Proteus Controller, a modular gamepad created by peripheral company ByoWave. The controller is a group of palm-sized cubes connected in a variety of configurations, with interchangeable buttons and controller faceplates. This means players can set up the Proteus Controller in myriad ways: in one hand, flat on a desktop or as part of a traditional gamepad with palm grips. The Proteus Controller is available for pre-order now at a discounted price of $255. It’s expected to ship in the fall.

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Bandai is finally rereleasing a beloved Tamagotchi from 2004

Pre-orders are open.

Bandai

Bandai announced this week it’s bringing back the Tamagotchi Connection to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the toy’s release. Yes, you’re old.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-in-a-bid-to-stop-ban-tiktok-creators-are-suing-the-us-government-111555478.html?src=rss

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