Apple's flagship AirPods Max wireless headphones have much to offer like excellent audio quality, ANC and spatial audio support — but they're definitely not cheap at $549. Now, you can grab a pair in green, pink, silver and sky blue for just $429. That's 22 percent off and tied with the lowest price we've seen to date.
The AirPods Max scored a solid 84 in our Engadget review and made our latest list of favorite headphones, thanks to their high sound quality, effective noise-cancellation and reliable controls. They offer a uniquely Apple-esque design, and despite being slightly heavier than Sony’s WH-1000XM4 cans, are comfortable to wear. Once you get used to it, the rotating crown makes it easy to adjust sound.
Audio quality is more natural than other headphones we've tried with bass that's accurate and not overpowering. Sony's WH-1000XM4 headphones have more effective ANC, but the AirPods Max come close. Meanwhile, the Transparency Mode lets you quickly disable ANC if you need to hear what's going on. The biggest drawback is the lack of lossless audio support, but they work great with Dolby Atmos surround sound on most Apple devices.
The AirPods Max are ideal if you're in the Apple ecosystem, with the H1 chip letting you quickly switch between an iPhone and a Mac, for example. There's no question that they're very expensive at the regular $549 price, so Amazon's latest discount presents a good buying opportunity if you've been eyeing a pair.
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A few days ago, Corsair introduced a 45-inch display called Xeneon Flex with a panel made by LG that you can bend to switch between a flat and a curved screen. Turns out LG also developed a bendable monitor model of its own. The Korean company has just unveiled the LG OLED Flex or LX3, a 42-inch screen that you can manually adjust until it reaches a curvature of 900R. To note, Corsair's has a max curvature of 800R, and a smaller number means the monitor's curve is more pronounced.
You can quickly adjust the Flex's curvature by using a dedicated button on its remote control and choosing either of the two available presents. But you can also manually adjust its degree of curvature in five percent increments, giving you over 20 levels of curve to to choose from. Further, you can tilt the monitor towards or away from you and adjust the height of its stand by 140 millimeters.
LX3 uses the company's backlight-free and self-lit OLED technology and was designed to have a 0.1 millisecond response time and low input lag. It also gives you the power to adjust the size of the image onscreen so you can choose to use the whole monitor or just a part of it, if you want to see the whole picture at a glance — say for games that need you to be aware of your environment.
LG also gave the monitor exclusive access to its new Game app, which has shortcuts to popular gaming-related apps like Twitch and YouTube and lists all your connected external input devices. Speaking of connected devices, the model's Switching Hub function lets you easily switch device connection between your PC and the monitor. You can use the monitor's built-in mic and anything connected to its USB ports, including headsets and keyboards, and then press a button to use the devices connected to the PC instead. Other features include two front-firing 40W speakers, support for Dolby Atmos and support for Dolby Vision gaming.
LG has yet to announce pricing or relate date for the model, but it will showcase the OLED Flex at IFA 2022 in Berlin.
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August 2022 was an expensive month for tech companies. While the industry as a whole continues to reel from a major tech downturn, Meta, Snap, and TikTok all agreed to pay out settlements to put to rest lingering privacy lawsuits. Combined, those payouts total well over $100 million dollars.
The first thing you notice is the hideous carpet. You could probably spill a whole pot of coffee on it and no one would notice. Next you’re wondering what that weird handle on the wall is for.
Sony has joined forces with Tencent to purchase a 30.34 percent share of FromSoftware, the developer behind titles like Elden Ring,Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne. Tencent's Sixjoy Hong Kong division will own 16.25 percent of FromSoftware's shares, Sony will take a 14.09 percent interest and parent Kadokawa Group will remain the largest shareholder with a 69.66 percent stake. Tencent already has an investment in Kadokawa from last year.
FromSoftware might not be a developer that's on the tip of your tongue, but it has an impressive catalog. Elden Ring has been the top selling game of 2022 to date, with sales of 12 million copies in the first 18 days alone. Along with Bloodborne and the Dark Souls franchise, it has also produced the PSVR mystery adventure Déraciné and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
The company plans to use the funds raised (36.4 billion yen or $262 million) to strengthen its relationship with Sony, create new IP and expand its ability to publish globally. Elden Ring is the company's biggest hit to date, but it's published outside of Japan by Bandai Namco. Earlier this year, FromSoftware and Bandai Namco called Elden Ring the start of a "new franchise" and announced efforts to "expand the brand beyond the game itself and into everyone's daily life."
While Microsoft has grabbed most of the headlines with its (still-pending) Activision Blizzard acquisition, Sony has been snapping up studios as well. It recently completed a $3.6 billion deal to buy Halo and Destiny developer Bungie Games, along with God of War co-development studio Valkyrie and Jade Raymond's Haven Studios. Considering the success of Elden Ring, its stake in FromSoftware seems like a relative bargain.
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There are lots of productions underway right now, including an R.L. Stine adaption starring Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase (Zombie Town), a sci-fi thriller starring Tessa Thompson and Joseph Gordon Levitt (Ash), and Jennifer Connelly and Joel Edgerton attached to sci-fi series on Apple TV (Dark Matter). This year looks…
Sony improved upon its already stellar WH-1000XM4 headphones earlier this year by introducing their follow-up, the WH-1000XM5. The new cans make nearly everything about the previous model ever so slightly better, putting them in a class of their own — and their $398 price tag reflects that. But now you can snag the XM5 for roughly $60 less than usual thanks to a one-day sale at Woot that brings the black model down to $340. That's the best price we've seen since the headphones came out in May.
Sony did make some subtle changes to the design of the XM5. Compared to the XM4, the new headphones have a slimmed down headband and a more modern look overall. They only weigh slightly less than their predecessor, but they feel much lighter when you're wearing them, which should make them even more comfortable to wear for hours on end.
Somehow, Sony managed to make sound quality and active noise cancellation even better on the XM5. The headphones have new 30mm carbon fiber drivers that handle audio, which is well-tuned for a wide variety of genres and has better depth and clarity. ANC has improved thanks to additional processors and a total of microphones that help detect noise and block it out. Overall, the XM5 does a better job of blocking out things like nearby voices and TV noise than its predecessor.
The XM5 work with Sony's companion mobile app as well, which you can use do change settings and do things like enable multipoint connectivity, change voice assistants and more. As far as battery life goes, you'll get roughly 30 hours before you'll need to recharge them, and it'll only take three minutes to get three hours of playback time. Make no mistake, the Sony's WH-1000XM4 are still great headphones (which you can often find on sale as well), but the XM5 cans are the ones to get if you want all of the latest features and some of the best ANC you'll find on over-ear headphones.
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Elon Musk has filed an updated notice to kill his $44 billion Twitter acquisition by citing whistleblower Peiter Zatko, Twitter's former head of security. In a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Musk alleged that Twitter "has not complied with its contractual obligations" due to the "extreme, egregious deficiencies" alleged by Zatko.
Musk filed his initial bid to terminate the acquisition agreement on July 12th because of "false and misleading representations" made by Twitter, alleging that it "dramatically" understated the number of spam and fake accounts. Twitter sued Musk in July to force him to honor his agreement, saying that he "apparently believes that he... is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk way." Musk filed a countersuit later that month.
With the updated filing, Musk's lawyers said that Zatko has revealed "additional and distinct bases to terminate the merger agreement," and that Twitter was in "material noncompliance" with its FTC obligations. Specifically, they said that Twitter is "uniquely vulnerable to systemic disruption resulting from data center failures or malicious actors," something the company "ignored and sought to obfuscate."
Yesterday, Musk subpoenaed Zatko for a deposition on September 9th, requesting materials related to how Zatko’s tenure at Twitter ended and what stock, if any, he owns in the company. It also requested documents that may indicate any illegal activity by Twitter. Twitter and its CEO Parago Agrawal have disputed Zatko's assertions, laid out in a lengthy whistleblower complaint against the company.
A court case between Musk and Twitter is set to go to trial in October. On top of that, US Senate and Congressional committee leaders announced that were investigating Zatko's claims, saying they "raise serious concerns" about the company's security and other issues.
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France’s Budget Minister Gabriel Attal announced plans for a lease program to open up EV use. “We know that for many French, [EVs] remain very expensive,” he said, adding the government was working to figure out how quickly it could implement the measure.
At the moment, under a subsidy scheme similar to the one introduced by the US Inflation Reduction Act, French car buyers can receive as much as €6,000 off electric vehicles less than €47,000. Under this new electric vehicle subsidy program, people could lease an EV for €100 ($100) per month.
You probably don’t think of cheap Windows laptops when you think of daily drivers. But it would be a big mistake to ignore these devices – if not for yourself, for someone close. There’s a reason the big PC companies, like Acer, ASUS and Dell, make Windows devices for under $500. We lay out what to look out for (things like an SSD with at least 128GB of space, a 1080p display and a mostly metal design) and share our top choices.
While Senior News Editor Billy Steele wanted a White Mountain ice cream maker, they’re hard to pick up. Eventually, he received Cuisinart’s Pure Indulgence two-quart ice cream maker as a gift. It’s a compact countertop model that takes up about the same space as a food processor. It has a bowl insert you stick in the freezer to chill, and a plastic dasher churns your ice cream. You just really need to ensure the mixing bowl is properly chilled and homemade ice cream is all yours.
Apple may again be looking to nail down "Reality" trademarks ahead of the launch of its much-anticipated AR/VR headset. While Apple didn't directly request the trademarks, law firms the company has previously used applied for "Reality One," "Reality Pro" and "Reality Processor" in the US, EU, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica and Uruguay. With realityOS as a potential name for the operating system, Reality One and Reality Pro could be naming options for the actual headsets. "Reality Processor” could be an M2-based chip to power those.
Sony has announced a fresh push into mobile gaming with the launch of a new division inside PlayStation Studios, aptly called PlayStation Studios Mobile, and the acquisition of Savage Game Studios. Sony said the new studio will be "providing more ways for more people to engage with our content.” Savage Game Studio doesn't appear to have produced any games yet, but its co-founders had a hand in mobile franchises like Clash of Clans and Angry Birds. It will join PlayStation Studios Mobile, which will operate separately from its console division and create "new experiences" based on PlayStation IP and franchises. You know, like all those movies.
Meta has followed through on its promise to bring NFT (non-fungible token) support to Facebook. Users can now post digital collectibles they have in their digital wallets across Facebook and Instagram. After they connect digital wallets to one app, they'll be able to access NFTs from both of them. Meta is moving deeper into NFT territory even though the market for the digital tokens has nosedived in recent months.
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The crisis in Ukraine may be rushing in a new golden age for nuclear power. Recent announcements from Germany, California, and Japan—three places where early retirement of nuclear plants has been a heated policy debate—signal that the world’s energy crisis could be turning the tide on nuclear energy.
Logitech has refreshed its iconic gaming mouse, the G502, with lighter materials and new features while mostly keeping its design. The new lineup is called the G502 X, and it comes in a wired version, a base wireless form and another wired option with RGB lighting. Logitech used thin-wall exoskeleton and a lighter scroll wheel to reduce the wired mouse's weight to 89 grams. It also used an updated version of its proprietary Lightspeed wireless protocol to ensure that its wireless versions have a 68 percent faster response rate than the previous generation's.
All three versions use Lightforce hybrid optical-mechanical switch technology, which (as Logitech explains) combines the crisp tactile clicks of mechanical switches with the ultra low-latency/speedy performance of optical switches. They also use Logitech's Hero 25K gaming sensor — the company's most advanced mouse sensor — for max speed and accuracy. Plus, they come with a removable DPI shift button that lets you program the mouse to go faster or slower. You can either reverse the button's orientation to bring it closer to your thumb or replace it completely with the included blank cover if you don't think you need it.
The Plus wireless variant of the G502 X has all the features the other models offer, but it also comes equipped with a flowing 8-LED lighting strip that you can customize with effects and personalizations through the G Hub software. While it will likely use more battery than its less showy wireless sibling, it does have a play detection feature that switches the lighting off while your hand is covering it to conserve power.
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For over a decade, Valve has offered access to Steam through Android and iOS clients. In recent years, however, the Steam mobile app hasn’t gotten much attention from the company. Not only does it look dated, but it’s also a pain to use. I only keep it on my iPhone to take advantage of Steam Guard verification.
The good news is that Valve is working on a new version of the mobile app. In a blog post spotted by PC Gamer, the company invited “invested Steam users” to beta test its redesigned Android and iOS client. “We’ve rebuilt the app on a new framework and modernized the design. (2015 called and wanted their app back,)” Valve wrote.
In addition to previously included features, the redesigned app adds more intelligent notifications, multi-account support and a new way to log into your Steam account. Instead of inputting your username, password and Steam Guard verification, you can use a QR code to simplify the process. It’s probably the most useful feature added by Valve.
The early consensus among testers is that the new app is a welcome improvement over its predecessor. It does have the usual blemishes you find in beta software, including sluggish performance and plenty of bugs, but it's a step forward. “The sooner we get your feedback on a product, the better,” Valve wrote. “This is especially important when the app can be used on so many different phones and devices.”
There’s no public release date for the redesigned app yet. However, the beta is open to anyone who wants to take part. You can find installation instructions on the Steam website, but note that the iOS beta is limited to 10,000 concurrent participants due to Apple’s TestFlight restrictions.
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For today only, Amazon has discounted a handful of Anker chargers and Soundcore speakers. Starting things off, there’s Anker’s 521 Charger. It’s a 40W power adapter with a pair of USB-C ports capable of charging two devices simultaneously. The company offers the 521 in four colors: Glacier Blue, Cool Lavender, Black Ice and Arctic White. The blue model is $9 off, making it $27 at the moment. Engadget hasn’t had a chance to check out the 521, but it has a five-star rating on more than 4,300 reviews. One thing to note is that it doesn’t come with a cable. Thankfully, included in today's sale is Anker’s 10-foot Nylon USB-C to USB-C cable. At the moment, it’s 30 percent off.
For something you can take on the go, consider the PowerCore Fusion 10000. It’s a 20W adapter that doubles as a 10,000mAh power pack. The Fusion 10000 features both a USB-C and USB-A port, with the former delivering 20W charging whether you’re using the adapter as a wall charger or battery pack. Based on the Amazon rating, the Fusion 10000 is another Anker product that people seem to like. It’s currently $37.49, down from $50.
If you’re looking for a wireless charger, Amazon has also discounted Anker’s PowerWave Magentic 2-in-1 Stand. The nifty thing about the PowerWave is that it can charge your phone and a pair of wireless earbuds at the same time – though you’ll need a Qi-compatible case for the latter. The PowerWave is currently $18 off from its usual $50 price. Note that you’ll need to buy a compatible power adapter separately.
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Earlier in the year, Spy x Family debuted on Crunchyroll, and took the anime world by storm. Created by Tetsuya Endo, the delightfully strange series stars master spy Loid Forger who adopts a young girl named Anya as part of his new mission, and later gets into a fake marriage with a woman named Yor Briar to sell his…
Hurricane season is currently in full swing across the Gulf Coast and Eastern Seaboard. Following a disconcertingly quiet start in June, meteorologists still expect a busier-than-usual stretch before the windy weather (hopefully) winds down at the end of November. Meteorologists like Matthew Cappucci who, in his new book, Looking Up: The True Adventures of a Storm-Chasing Weather Nerd, recounts his career as a storm chaser — from childhood obsession to adulthood obsession as a means of gainful employment. In the excerpt below, Cappucci explains the inner workings of tropical storms.
Hurricanes are heat engines. They derive their fury from warm ocean waters in the tropics, where sea surface temperatures routinely hover in the mid- to upper-eighties between July and October. Hurricanes and tropical storms fall under the umbrella of tropical cyclones. They can be catastrophic, but they have a purpose—some scholars estimate they’re responsible for as much as 10 percent of the Earth’s annual equator-to-pole heat transport.
Hurricanes are different from mid-latitude systems. So-called extratropical, or nontropical, storms depend upon variations in air temperature and density to form, and feed off of changing winds. Hurricanes require a calm environment with gentle upper-level winds and a nearly uniform temperature field. Ironic as it may sound, the planet’s worst windstorms are born out of an abundance of tranquility.
The first ingredient is a tropical wave, or clump of thunderstorms. Early in hurricane season, tropical waves can spin up on the tail end of cold fronts surging off the East Coast. During the heart of hurricane season in August and September, they commonly materialize off the coast of Africa in the Atlantic’s Main Development Region. By October and November, sneaky homegrown threats can surreptitiously gel in the Gulf of Mexico or Caribbean.
Every individual thunderstorm cell within a tropical wave has an updraft and a downdraft. The downward rush of cool air collapsing out of one cell can suffocate a neighboring cell, spelling its demise. In order for thunderstorms to coexist in close proximity, they must organize. The most efficient way of doing so is through orienting themselves around a common center, with individual cells’ updrafts and downdrafts working in tandem.
When a center forms, a broken band of thunderstorms begins to materialize around it. Warm, moist air rises within those storms, most rapidly as one approaches the broader system’s low-level center. That causes atmospheric pressure to drop, since air is being evacuated and mass removed. From there, the system begins to breathe.
Air moves from high pressure to low pressure. That vacuums air inward toward the center. Because of the Coriolis force, a product of the Earth’s spin, parcels of air take a curved path into the fledgling cyclone’s center. That’s what causes the system to rotate.
Hurricanes spin counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, and clockwise south of the equator. Though the hottest ocean waters in the world are found on the equator, a hurricane could never form there. That’s because the Coriolis force is zero on the equator; there’d be nothing to get a storm to twist.
As pockets of air from outside the nascent tropical cyclone spiral into the vortex, they expand as barometric pressure decreases. That releases heat into the atmosphere, causing clouds and rain. Ordinarily that would result in a drop in temperature of an air parcel, but because it’s in contact with toasty ocean waters, it maintains a constant temperature; it’s heated at the same rate that it’s losing temperature to its surroundings. As long as a storm is over the open water and sea surface temperatures are sufficiently mild, it can continue to extract oceanic heat content.
Rainfall rates within tropical cyclones can exceed four inches per hour thanks to high precipitation efficiency. Because the entire atmospheric column is saturated, there’s little evaporation to eat away at a raindrop on the way down. As a result, inland freshwater flooding is the number one source of fatalities from tropical cyclones.
The strongest winds are found toward the middle of a tropical storm or hurricane in the eyewall. The greatest pressure gradient, or change of air pressure with distance, is located there. The sharper the gradient, the stronger the winds. That’s because air is rushing down the gradient. Think about skiing — you’ll ski faster if there’s a steeper slope.
When maximum sustained winds surpass 39 mph, the system is designated a tropical storm. Only once winds cross 74 mph is it designated a hurricane. Major hurricanes have winds of 111 mph or greater and correspond to Category 3 strength. A Category 5 contains extreme winds topping 157 mph.
Since the winds are derived from air rushing in to fill a void, or deficit of air, the fiercest hurricanes are usually those with the lowest air pressures. The most punishing hurricanes and typhoons may have a minimum central barometric pressure about 90 percent of ambient air pressure outside the storm. That means 10 percent of the atmosphere’s mass is missing.
Picture stirring your cup of coffee with a teaspoon. You know that dip in the middle of the whirlpool? The deeper the dip, or fluid deficit, the faster the fluid must be spinning. Hurricanes are the same. But what prevents that dip from filling in? Hurricane eyewalls are in cyclostrophic balance.
That means a perfect stasis of forces makes it virtually impossible to “fill in” a storm in steady state. Because of their narrow radius of curvature, parcels of air swirling around the eye experience an incredible outward-directed centrifugal force that exactly equals the inward tug of the pressure gradient force. That leaves them to trace continuous circles.
If you’ve ever experienced a change in altitude, such as flying on an airplane, or even traveling to the top of a skyscraper, you probably noticed your ears popping. That’s because they were adjusting to the drop in air pressure with height. Now imagine all the air below that height vanished. That’s the equivalent air pressure in the eye a major hurricane. The disparity in air pressure is why a hurricane is, in the words of Buddy the Elf, “sucky. Very sucky.”
Sometimes hurricanes undergo eyewall replacement cycles, which entail an eyewall shriveling and crumbling into the eye while a new eyewall forms around it and contracts, taking the place of its predecessor. This usually results in a dual wind maximum near the storm’s center as well as a brief plateau in intensification.
In addition to the scouring winds found inside the eyewall, tornadoes, tornado-scale vortices, mini swirls, and other poorly understood small-scale wind phenomena can whip around the eye and result in strips of extreme damage. A mini swirl may be only a couple yards wide, but a 70 mph whirlwind moving in a background wind of 100 mph can result in a narrow path of 170 mph demolition. Their existence was first hypothesized following the passage of Category 5 Hurricane Andrew through south Florida in 1992, and modern-day efforts to study hurricane eyewalls using mobile Doppler radar units have shed light on their existence. Within a hurricane’s eye, air sinks and warms, drying out and creating a dearth of cloud cover. It’s not uncommon to see clearing skies or even sunshine. The air is hot and still, an oasis of peace enveloped in a hoop of hell.
There’s such a discontinuity between the raucous winds of the eyewall and deathly stillness of the eye that the atmosphere struggles to transition. The eyes of hurricanes are often filled with mesovortices, or smaller eddies a few miles across, that help flux and dissipate angular momentum into the eye. Sometimes four or five mesovortices can cram into the eye, contorting the eyewall into a clover-like shape. That makes for a period of extraordinary whiplash on the inner edge of the eyewall as alternating clefts of calamitous wind and calm punctuate the eye’s arrival.
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Not since 1972 has a human set foot on the Moon, but NASA is aiming to change that through its ambitious Artemis program. The lunar missions will kick off with Artemis 1, scheduled for launch on Monday, August 29. Live stream available here.
Microsoft’s forthcoming Xbox Game Pass Ultimate family plan could allow you to share the subscription with your friends. In a tweet spotted by The Verge, frequent Microsoft Store leaker Aggiornamenti Lumia shared an image that indicates the tier will carry a “Friends and Family” branding. This is something we thought the company was working towards. In the two regions where Microsoft is currently testing Game Pass Ultimate family plans, customers can share their subscription with up to four other people, as long as they’re in the same country.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. Before the start of testing, there were months of rumors that the company would introduce a family plan. Allowing customers to share its most expensive subscription offering with people outside of their immediate family would make a lot of sense for Microsoft. Not only would the feature encourage more people to try the new tier, but it would also likely earn the company goodwill since the industry standard in recent months has been to restrict account sharing.
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Earlier in the summer, news broke that Sony was going to bring its sci-fi RPG franchise Horizon Zero Dawn to the small screen via a Netflix adaptation. Watching post-apocalyptic humans battle big-ass robot animals sounds like something that could work as both a game and a TV concept, and Sony’s eager to test that…
The recent culling at Warner Bros. has meant that numerous projects have suddenly found themselves cut loose, and surprisingly, one of them was Batman: Caped Crusader. Previously announced back in 2021 from Bruce Timm and JJ Abrams, and planned to air on both HBO Max and Cartoon Network, Caped Crusader had its plug…
Netflix’s forthcoming ad-supported tier could represent a significant discount on the company’s existing plans. According to Bloomberg, the streaming giant is considering a monthly price between $7 and $9. For context, the company’s current “Basic” plan starts at $10 per month and does not include HD streaming. You can pay as much as $20 every 30 days to access 4K content on Netflix.
The new tier could arrive in half a dozen markets before the end of the year, with a broader rollout planned for 2023. Bloomberg reports that Netflix wants to avoid many of the complaints that frequently come up with other ad-supported streaming services. At first, the company plans to show only about four minutes of ads every hour and won’t place any at the end of a show or movie. Additionally, most people will see the same selection of ads, mainly because Netflix wants to avoid a situation where people see the same few advertisements repeatedly.
Bloomberg previously reported that Netflix doesn’t plan to show ads during kids content or original movies. Code found within the app suggests the new tier could also drop support for offline viewing. Netflix described Bloomberg’s report as “all just speculation at this point” in a statement the company shared with The Verge, adding that it was “still in the early days of deciding how to launch a lower priced, ad-supported tier and no decisions have been made.”
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Following the report on Friday morning that WandaVision director Matt Shakman is in the running to helm Marvel’s upcoming Fantastic Four film, it’s now being reported that he’ll be leaving the fourth Star Trek reboot film as a result. Previously, Shakman was announced as the film’s director in summer 2021 after he…
NASA’s most powerful rocket is nearly ready to send an uncrewed Orion capsule on a 42-day journey to the Moon and back, but this deceptively straightforward plan involves a ton of moving parts—including a harrowing 5,000-degree reentry through Earth’s atmosphere. Here’s what you can expect from this historic mission,…
It’s a strange time for me to sit down and attempt to don the gadget reviewer hat. I was solo parenting a sick kid for the week, and then I contracted the stupid virus, which meant this review had to take a backseat. There was much crying, mucus, missed deadlines, and a copious amount of video chat—more than I had…
We’re in the middle of a major wearable refresh. With Apple’s latest Watch expected to surface at its iPhone event in a few weeks, we’ve already seen updates from Fitbit and been testing out the latest pair of smartwatches from Samsung. To be honest, its outdoor-minded Galaxy Watch 5 Pro isn’t that different from the Galaxy Watch 5.
Aside from a larger screen, bigger battery and more durable glass, its applications have few upgrades on the Watch 5. Still, with its rugged build and the company’s capable wellness-tracking software, the Watch 5 Pro can still claim the title of best Android smartwatch. Check out our full review of both watches.
It pairs with the new DJI Goggles 2 video headset.
DJI has launched a new cinematic drone called Avata, made to work with the new DJI Goggles 2 video headset. Since it's a cinewhoop, the Avata has the speed and agility of racers but with the stabilization technology needed to capture smooth vivid footage. The camera can shoot 4K videos in 60 fps and 2.7K videos in 50, 60, 100 or 120 fps. The DJI Avata is available today from the company's website and various retailers, with prices starting at €579. We’re still waiting to hear US pricing.
Duolingo Math marks the learning company’s first move beyond language. The new app has two elements. The first is a math course designed for elementary school-level kids, with short, gamified math lessons. The app also has a brain training component geared toward those aged 13+.
According to early images seen by The Verge, Sonos is working on a new high-end speaker with the codename Optimo 2. If its current design sticks, the device will have a dual-angled shell and be able to fire sound in nearly all directions, including up. Its work-in-progress images apparently make it look as big as the Sonos Five.
The first fully hydrogen-powered passenger train service is now up and running. Coradia iLint trains built by Alstom are running on the line in Lower Saxony, Germany. The only emissions are steam and condensed water, and Alstom notes the train operates with a low level of noise. Alstom says the Coradia iLint has a range of 1,000 km (621 miles), so it can run all day using a single tank of hydrogen.
They're returning to the series for the first time since 2006.
Microsoft
We knew helicopters and gliders were coming to Microsoft Flight Simulator, but they'll arrive earlier than expected. Developer Asobo Studio previously said it would add them on November 22nd, but it will introduce both types of aircraft on November 11th instead. That's the release date for the game's 40th Anniversary Edition, which will be available as a free update for anyone who has bought Microsoft Flight Simulator. In all, Asobo will add 12 aircraft: four classic commercial airports (including Meigs Field in Chicago), 10 glider airports, 14 heliports and 20 missions from previous games on November 11th.
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Any institution regularly dealing with customers’ money will be a prime target for lawsuits, but Coinbase, one of the most popular crypto exchanges on the scene, has been practically showered with legal complaints just this past month, all of them aspiring class action suits.
After months of innuendo, speculation and rumor, German car giant Audi has announced that it will join Formula One from the 2026 season. The VW-owned company says it will build a new hybrid engine for the competition at its facility in Neuburg. Audi said that technical changes made by the sport’s governing body, the FIA, to prevent cost overruns and improve sustainability prompted it to sign up. It’s hoped Audi will help push the sport to its ambitious goal of being climate neutral by 2030.
Broadly speaking, the FIA’s new engine specifications require a V6 engine designed to run on a more sustainable fuel blend. Paired with that will be a 400kW electric motor with an output of around 544 horsepower, making it almost as powerful as the V6 itself. Audi added that its project will be led by Adam Baker, who has previously served as the FIA’s Safety Director, and had stints with Cosworth (another F1 engine maker) and BMW.
Audi said it will announce which team it will work with “by the end of this year,” but most F1 fans feel it’s already a done deal. The longstanding rumor is that Audi will buy a majority stake in Swiss motorsport company Sauber, which currently races under the Alfa Romeo livery. As Planet F1 reports, Sauber has already been the subject of takeover talks this year and could benefit from a big auto giant’s backing.
Given the fact we’re still some years away from Audi’s first race, it’s not clear how any of this will impact the storylines on Drive To Survive, which I know is what most of you are worried about. Whatever happens, I’m sure Christian Horner will find a way to be face-punchingly smug about it.
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Researchers say that a mysterious “threat actor” (a fancy term for a hacker or hacker group) has managed to steal nearly 10,000 login credentials from the employees of 130 organizations, in the latest far-reaching supply chain attack on corporate America. It began with the identify verification and password…
The judge presiding over Twitter's lawsuit against Elon Musk has mostly rejected the multi-company executive's request to access an "absurdly broad" amount of data. She did, however, agree that additional data from Twitter is warranted and has ordered the social network to produce a subset of what Musk's camp had requested. To be exact, Judge Kathaleen McCormick has ordered Twitter to hand over data from the 9,000 accounts it reviewed in the fourth quarter of 2021 to determine the number of spam accounts on the platform. Further, it must produce the documents showing how those accounts, which Twitter calls "historical snapshot," were selected for review.
Twitter, if you'll recall, is suing Elon Musk to force him to complete his $44 billion acquisition of the website. Musk offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share back in April, and Twitter had quickly agreed. Their talks broke down over the next few months, though, and Musk accused Twitter of fraud for hiding the real number of bots on its platform. Twitter has long been claiming that the inauthentic accounts that see ads, which are called monetizable daily active users or mDAU, represent less than five percent of its userbase. However, Musk claimed in a legal filing that the actual numbers are much higher and that mDAUs represent 10 percent of the website's users.
Musk's camp has been requesting access to "all of the data Twitter might possibly store for each of the approximately 200 million accounts included in its mDAU count every day for nearly three years," according to the judge's decision as obtained by The Verge. Twitter couldn't even say how much time it would take to do that, because "no one in their right mind has ever tried to undertake such an effort," McCormick continued. Twitter told the court that the historical snapshot it used in the fourth quarter of 2021 no longer exists and that it could take up to two weeks to recreate it, so the judge gave the company that much time to do so.
In a statement sent to Reuters, Musk's lawyer, Alex Spiro said: "We look forward to reviewing the data Twitter has been hiding for many months."
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HP's work PCs typically focus more on performance than clever features, but you can't accuse it of playing it safe this time around. The company has unveiled a pair of computers that each have their share of tricks for remote workers. To start, HP has introduced the first Folio hybrid in its Dragonfly line, the Dragonfly Folio G3. As with earlier Folios, you can pull the 13.5-inch screen forward to convert the machine from a laptop to a presentation device or tablet. Don't expect the Snapdragon chip from the Elite Folio, though — this is a conventionally-powered PC with a 12th-gen Intel Core i5 or i7, up to 32GB of RAM and a new cooling system that promises to maximize performance without extra bulk.
The 3.1lb design is also thoroughly up to date. You can choose between either a 1,920 x 1,280 LCD or a 3,000 x 2,000 OLED panel. There's no slot for the stylus, alas, but you can magnetically attach and charge the pen on the side like you can with some recent iPads. You'll find a pair of Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 ports plus the usual audio jack, and optional 5G can keep you online away from WiFi. Storage starts with a 256GB SSD and scales up to 2TB.
The Dragonfly Folio G3 is already available with a $2,379 starting price. That's far from modest, but it's better than the $2,642 Elite Folio HP was selling as of this writing while offering better performance.
HP
Desktop-bound remote workers are well accounted for. HP has unveiled a 34-inch All in One (that's the actual name) whose centerpiece, beyond the 5K ultra-wide display, is its webcam system. You can move the magnetically attached 16MP camera to multiple places on the top bezel, and point it toward the desk for sharing documents. You can even add a second camera to share your notes while you stay on-screen.
You have the choice of 12th-gen Core i5, i7 or i9 processors, and you'll have GeForce RTX 3050 or 3060 dedicated graphics. Expansion shouldn't be much of an issue with up to 128GB of RAM, 4TB of SSD storage, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, four USB-A ports, Ethernet, HDMI 2.1 output, an audio jack and an SD card reader. The 34-inch All-in-One arrives in September with a base price of $2,119.
HP
There are a pair accessories that might prove appealing whether or not you care for HP's computers. The 32-inch Z32k G3 is billed as the first monitor to combine LG's IPS Black tech (higher contrast ratios) with Thunderbolt 4. You can plug in and charge many recent laptops (up to 100W), daisy-chain another 4K screen and otherwise minimize the need for cables and docks. It's not the brightest display at 400 nites, but the 98 percent DCI-P3 color coverage, pivoting and tilting will make it useful for creatives. It doesn't ship until November and has yet to receive a price.
There's also an add-on webcam. The HP 965 touts a 4K resolution, AI-guided framing and autofocusing and a low-light-friendly 18mm f/2.0 lens. You can buy it today for $199.
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A mission to Mars takes a distressing turn in Deus, a new sci-fi film starring and produced by Claudia Black (whose many credits include Farscape and Stargate SG-1, as well as voicing characters in major video game franchises like Uncharted and Mass Effect). io9 has an exclusive new trailer to share today!
Apple has just sent invites for its next hardware event. As expected, the company will share what it's been working on for the past year on September 7th, with a live broadcast from Apple Park starting at 1 PM ET. The invite features the words "Far out", so hit up Reddit for what that could possibly mean. We’re expecting new phones and wearables from Apple.
Rumor-wise, the iPhone 14 may include more RAM, longer-lasting batteries and a better selfie camera. Meanwhile, the Pro models are expected to feature a new design that swaps a display notch for a Samsung-style hole-punch front camera cutout. The Pro phones might also pack a new 48-megapixel main camera and thinner display bezels.
HyperX is putting its own spin on the burgeoning gaming monitor product category. Instead of bundling the display with a traditional stand, the company has created an all-in-one package featuring an adjustable monitor arm. For HyperX, the goal is, apparently, to offer a simple solution that frees up desk space for things like extra-large mousepads, wireless charging pads or any other peripheral you could imagine.
A third-party entity accessed users' emails, usernames and encrypted passwords.
Plex says someone has infiltrated its system. The company says a third-party entity got access to a subset of its data, which includes people's emails, usernames and encrypted passwords. Plex says it has already addressed the method the bad actor used to infiltrate its system, but it didn't elaborate on what method that was. For now, Plex is requiring all users to change their passwords "out of an abundance of caution."
Fitbit has several updated wearables to announce, all at once. Both the Sense 2 and Versa 4, which already have continuous heart rate monitoring, will connect to Google Maps for turn-by-turn directions on your wrist. The pair also get access to Google Wallet – reminding all of us that the company is now owned by, well, Google. Its entry-level Inspire fitness tracker has also got a battery upgrade and more.
It will reportedly star Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton.
It’s the spicy tech tale we all needed to see at the movie theater. Relive the rise and fall of the company from the time it was still known as Research in Motion (RIM) until it lost the smartphone fight against Google and Apple. Miss the phone keyboard? Then you won’t want to miss this epic.
The legislation also targets blind spots in larger vehicles.
New York State Senator Brad Hoylman has proposed legislation that would require automakers to fit speed limiting tech to new cars. If the bill passes, any passenger vehicle built after January 1st, 2024, registered in the state will need to have "advanced safety technology." The bill notes there were 270 traffic-related deaths in New York City's streets in 2021, up from 243 the previous year.
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Supermassive Games, which you might know for developing Until Dawn, has released the trailer for the fourth entry of The Dark Pictures Anthology at Gamescom 2022. The anthology, which the developer first announced in 2018, is comprised of interactive standalone titles that tackle various horror tropes and subgenres. This entry is entitled The Devil in Me, and it's all about serial killers. It centers around a group of documentary filmmakers who gets invited to visit a replica of the Murder Castle, the hotel in Chicago where H. H. Holmes tortured and killed his victims. And because it's a survival horror game, of course things aren't what they seem, and the characters find themselves being watched and controlled.
The game serves as the anthology's Season One finals and will have to solving tool-based puzzles to survive and escape "killing rooms" where failure means death — and yes, all playable characters can die during your playthrough. If you don't want to play alone, you can share your story online with a friend or play offline with up to four other people using the pass-the-pad mode.
The Devil in Me will be available starting on November 18th, 2022, and unlike Until Dawn, it won't be a PlayStation-exclusive. In addition to the PS5 and the PS4, it will also be playable on the Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, as well as on PCs. You can watch the game's full trailer below:
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We’ve all grown accustomed to hearing about foreign-seeded disinformation campaigns, but we seldom hear about America’s own covert influence operations. On Wednesday, however, social media researchers revealed details about what appears to have been a long-running U.S. disinformation effort aimed at web users in…
Earlier Wednesday, Facebook endured the digital equivalent of what happens when you drink one too many and your body says: “No, ma’am.” It filled users’ news feeds across the globe with very weird posts that random people had sent to celebrities like Eminem, Taylor Swift, and Nicki Minaj—stuff that wouldn’t turn up…
TP-Link makes a bunch of IoT gadgets that can make your home a bit smarter, and now you can pick up a number of them for less. Amazon has a one-day sale on TP-Link devices that brings many of them down to record-low prices. We particularly like the company's Kasa Smart Light Bulbs, which earned a spot in our best smart lights guide. You fan grab a two pack of those multicolored bulbs for $17, which is a return to their Prime Day price. If you prefer white lights, a four pack of those bulbs is 38 percent off and down to $28.
Both the white and color packs that are on sale are WiFi lights, which means they don't need a central smart home hub to work. You'll simply connect them to your home's WiFi network via the TP-Link companion app, and then you'll be able to control them from your smartphone. The mobile app is pretty easy to use, allowing you to cycle through light colors, set schedules, change dimness settings and even check out usage stats per bulb. These TP-Link lights are also compatible with Amazon's Alexa and the Google Assistant, so you'll be able to control them with voice commands as well.
Smart lights are some of the easiest IoT gadgets to install in your home, but you can also easily make "dumb" things around your home a bit smarter with the right plugs. TP-Link makes a bunch of smart plugs that we've recommended in the past, and a couple of packs have been discounted in this sale. A four pack of the Kasa Mini Smart Plugs is 20 percent off and down to $24, while one of the Kasa Outdoor Smart Dimmer Plugs is 40 percent off and on sale for $18. The former is for indoor use only, but they let you plug in a coffee maker, kettle, lamp or other things and control them via your smartphone. Similarly to the Kasa smart lights, the plug's companion app lets you set schedules and check usage for all of your appliances, and you can use Away Mode to automatically turn things on or off when you're out of the house.
Finally, there are quite a few networking gadgets included in this sale. You can pick up Gigabit Ethernet switches for up to 56 percent off, and a number of routers and mesh systems for less. Key among them is the TP-Link Deco AX3000 mesh WiFi 6 system, which has returned to its Prime Day price of $200. The pack includes three Deco X55 routers that you can place around your home to cover up to 6,500 square feet. You'll be able to connect up to 150 devices wirelessly to your network, and each node has three Ethernet ports, which means you have more options to hardwire devices for even better speeds if you wish.
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Facebook looked different for at least a couple of thousands of users when they logged in earlier today. Instead of seeing posts from their friends and from the groups they're in, they saw their feeds spammed with random people's posts on celebrities' pages instead. As UK news organization Sky News reports, users posted about their dilemma on other social networks like Twitter, showing the state of their News Feeds with screenshots.
Apparently, everyone following a certain celebrity page — say, The Rock's — were getting everything other people were posting on it in their timelines. Since users tend to follow multiple celebrities, their feeds got clogged with posts from strangers on the website. Some reportedly even used the opportunity to promote their businesses or look for jobs.
While there are no official stats on what percentage of users was affected, over 2,600 people have reported the issue to DownDetector over the past few hours. Over 80 percent of the reports came from people using the desktop version of the social network, with the rest reporting issues with the app.
Sky News also says outages had been reported not just in the UK, but also in the US, Spain, Canada, Mexico, Italy, France, Poland and Australia. Facebook told the news organization that it's aware of the issue, but it didn't elaborate on what went wrong. In a newer statement provided to Metro UK, a Meta spokesperson said that the problem was caused by a "configuration change" earlier today. They added: "We resolved the issue as quickly as possible for everyone who was impacted, and we apologize for any inconvenience."
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