At a time when folks are tying a movie’s runtime as part of their interest in seeing it in the theater, blockbuster tentpoles can sometimes run fairly long. At two hours or more, superhero flicks can run long in the the tooth. So if such a thing matters to you, you’ll be pleased to hear that the upcoming The Marvels ac…
Apple's iOS 17 brought a host of new features, including the option to leave video messages on FaceTime. While younger generations typically dread hearing their phones ring and seeing that someone has left a voicemail, Apple's new video version might be a hit. Now, when you call someone on FaceTime, if there's no answer you'll have the option to record and send a video message. Please note: Both you and your recipient must be running iOS 17 or iPadOS 17 to send and receive FaceTime video messages.
Leaving a video message via FaceTime is pretty simple. All you have to do is initiate a FaceTime call like you normally would. This can be done in a few ways but the easiest way would be to go to the FaceTime app.
Once in the app, tap the New FaceTime button, select the contact you're trying to reach then tap FaceTime at the bottom. If no picks up, you'll see "[Contact] is Unavailable" and you'll be presented with two options. You can either call them again or hit Record Video to do just that.
Select Record Video and get ready to shoot your shot. You'll see an onscreen countdown and then you can record your message.
After you're done saying what you need to say, you can send it by tapping Send, which looks like a white button circle with a green arrow inside, or you can select Retake.
Apple has also included a Save option, which means you can save the video message you just recorded directly to your Camera Roll. Or if you'd prefer not to send the message at all, you can simply hit Cancel.
But if you do go through with sending your video message, the recipient will be able to view it in the missed call log within their FaceTime app. Once there, they'll have the option to return your call, watch the video message or save it to their Camera Roll.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/Rhs6CHF
In 2019, animator and illustrator Vivienne Medrano (aka VivziePop) released the pilot for her upcoming animated series Hazbin Hotel. Animation fans took the show fairly well and at time of writing, it’s racked up 90 million views on YouTube. The following year, A24 opted to pick up the pilot for a full-blown show, and…
There are few places in this world where dead things are offered such a promoted place among the living. If I had to arrange my mind to any, my first thought lands on the Catacombes de Paris, the old quarries turned morbid gallery for the shelves of anonymous bones. In that enormous memento mori, the skulls of…
Get ready for some SuperSize collectibles from Super7, which are available as of today.
The summer season has ended, but spaceflight continues to be hot, with new views of our Moon and Jupiter’s moon Io, the much-anticipated return of an astronaut and an asteroid sample, and important new rocket engine tests, to name just a few of the many moments that captured our attention in September.
Watching the Meta Quest 3 being announced by Meta made me realize something – the hardware available for virtual, augmented and mixed reality is finally catching up with the big idea pitches everyone had about this concept called the “metaverse” a couple of years ago.
The life of a retro gamer is one fraught with delight and frustration. Chasing the unique feeling of waiting years while someone develops a new game for your vintage console of choice in their spare time. But the delight, when it lands, makes it all worth it. Conversely, watching someone snipe your eBay bid for a super rare game you’ve been seeking for years, that’s frustrating. No one appears to understand this yo-yo of emotions better than the team at Analogue — makers of some of the most desirable modern retro consoles around.
When I say Analogue understands this, I mean it’s perfected the art of inducing both ends of that emotional spectrum. The very existence of the company shows it understands the passion retro lovers feel about gaming history. But almost two years after the release of the (delightful) Pocket handheld, we’re still (frustrated) waiting for key accessories and consoles to reliably be in stock. Meanwhile, the company just unveiled some seriously delightful limited editions. (Good luck actually buying one — frustrating.) They really have this retro gaming thing down to a tee, and fans have noticed.
When the Pocket was announced, that sent a wave of delight around the retro gaming community. That was in October 2019 with an estimated release date of “2020.” Eagle-eyed readers will have already noticed that the company missed that broad target by almost a year. That’s a minor frustration, but one that only served to fuel the desire for what is, arguably, Analogue’s most complicated and refined product. Almost immediately, the company reopened orders along with a mild bump in price and — depending on how quick you were — a potential two-year window for it to ship.
As of this month, most of those orders have finally been fulfilled — but not without sprawling Reddit mega-threads of people comparing shipping statuses, order numbers and total days since ordering (props to the 600+ crew). The recent glow in the dark (GITD) limited edition itself caused a bit of a stir (or, in some cases, contempt) as the lucky few who were able to secure one saw it ship out immediately with no wait at all —- including the one Analogue supplied for the images in this story.
Things got a bit meta when Analogue quickly unveiled another series of limited editions, this time, the saliva-inducing transparent colors that every gaming handheld deserves. People who had jumped on the GITD Pocket found themselves with buyer’s remorse, had they known the other editions were coming, they would have rather tried for one of those. Some folks are just buying the limited editions because they simply want a Pocket, leaving fewer for those that actively wanted them. A delightfully frustrating situation for all involved.
The Glow in the Dark Analogue Pocket looks fantastic though (we’re sure the transparent ones will also). And it’s another sign of Analogue’s hard-line approach to retro purism. The Pocket, a clear reference to the Game Boy Pocket, which had one little-known, hyper rare limited edition given out at a gaming competition. You guessed it, it was glow in the dark — the only official Nintendo console ever to come in the luminous material. Cruelly, the Game Boy Pocket didn’t have a backlight, so the effect was hard to enjoy during play time.
Analogue’s version, of course, can totally be played in the dark, and is positively encouraged. “Glow in the dark is amazing — when was the last time you've seen a proper consumer electronic fully glow in the dark?” Christopher Taber, founder and CEO of the company told Engadget. And according to Taber, the design involved creating an entirely new material. “We spent a few months getting the color and unique starry, chalky texture. Multiple different plastics to allow that to only be shown when it's glowing — when not glowing it has the perfect green, pure.” Taber’s enthusiasm appears to be matched by Pocket fans as all the units sold out in under two minutes. (Though Taber didn’t specify how many were available when asked.)
Unsurprisingly, and to the chagrin of, well, everyone, plenty of GITD editions have found their way into the hands of resellers.
Now that the shipping of actual Pockets seems to be mostly caught up, I asked whether there’d be stock for the holidays, to which Taber confirmed there would be. Which just leaves those cartridge adapters, and that’s a whole other situation, one that’s changed a fair bit since launch.
The whole selling point of the Pocket was that it could natively play original Game Boy cartridges (including Color and Advanced titles), plus Atari Lynx and Game Gear carts via an adapter. Later, TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine and NeoGeo Pocket adapters were also confirmed to be in development. At launch, the Game Gear accessory was ready to go, but there’s been a long wait for the others.
Analogue initially communicated they should be available in Q3 this year, but Taber said they were “still on track to be shipped out by the end of the year.” (FWIW, an archived version of this page showed Q3 up until at least the day before we asked for confirmation, Google has since cached a newer version.) But the real change is that the Pocket can play games from far more systems than it could at launch, including some of the ones for which there are adapters.
The Pocket doesn’t emulate games so much as it reprograms itself to “become” the system you want to play. It does this via something called Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) and more specifically “cores” that, in lay terms, mimic each system — it’s what sets the Pocket apart from most other retro handhelds that emulate in software.
Since launch cores have been made available for a number of consoles, including the NES, SNES, Genesis/Megadrive, Neo Geo and TurboGrafx-16. To play games from these systems, no adapter is required, but it does mean dabbling in the murky world of ROMs. To what extent this diminishes the appetite for the adapters is unclear (the Atari Lynx and Neo Geo Pocket remain the systems with adapters that don’t have community-created cores available).
Analogue's Transparent Limited Edition Pockets go on sale today at 11AM Eastern.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/fQHq0Zo
As Google faces a massive antitrust lawsuit, revelations surrounding the case have presented us with a glimpse into an alternate reality. Microsoft reportedly discussed selling Bing to Apple just a few years ago, and if the deal went through, Google would have no longer been the default search engine on iPhone.
A team of researchers from around the world, led by Ohio State University, will be gathering data to create artificial intelligence-informed models to better understand the long-term impact of the climate crisis on biodiversity.
Netflix is shipping its final DVD rentals, marking the end of an era that helped make the company the streaming behemoth it is today. "Netflix will mail its final DVD on September 29, 2023," the company said in a post on X yesterday. "But the red envelope remains an enduring symbol of our love of entertainment."
Netflix announced in April this year that it would shut down its DVD rental business on September 29, saying the shrinking demand for physical rentals is making it "increasingly difficult" to offer the quality of service it wants. The company shipped its first disc (Beetlejuice) in 1998, and has since shipped 5.2 billion movies in those red envelopes to more than 40 million customers.
Netflix will mail its final DVD on September 29, 2023.
— Netflix (@netflix) September 28, 2023
But the red envelope remains an enduring symbol of our love of entertainment. pic.twitter.com/vVdjuhJvrb
DVD rentals paved the way for Netflix to introduce streaming on-demand in 2007, and it quickly grew to become the company's most popular offering by 2009. The rest is history, as Netflix gradually expanded to produce its own streaming content and now counts over 238 million subscribers. Meanwhile, DVD rentals (which shifted to DVD.com) have gradually become a minor part of Netflix. And while video purists still love DVDs and Blu-rays, sales worldwide dropped 19 percent from 2021 to 2022 alone. In one recent blow, Disney announced that it was halting DVD and Blu-ray production in Australia.
While it's sadly the end of an era, there is one silver lining. This summer, Netflix announced that anyone who still has a rental will be able to keep their discs, and can even request up to 10 more movies so that the company can clear out its stock. "Please enjoy your final shipments for as long as you like," the company posted on X.
Just when Microsoft’s buyout of Activision finally seemed to be near complete — and we could focus on Google’s legal tussles with the Department of Justice — the Federal Trade Commission said it will revive its attempt to block the $69 billion deal in an adjudicative process. Microsoft received EU approval over the summer when the European Commission endorsed the deal as long as the tech giant could ensure “full compliance with commitments.”
Normally, the FTC drops its challenges to deals when efforts are lost in federal court. This move will not delay the deal, though in the worst-case scenario, Microsoft might have to sell off parts of the gaming company. Microsoft told Bloomberg it’s not concerned about the move preventing its purchase. Regardless of the impact it could have, the FTC’s in-house hearing will only start after the Ninth Circuit issues an opinion on the appeal.
— Mat Smith
The Morning After is going to YouTube. Check out our weekly episodes here!
How to use iOS 17’s Check In feature in iMessage to let friends know you got home safe
macOS Sonoma made me hate widgets less
The best gaming keyboards of 2023
ChatGPT now supports voice chats and image-based queries
Observing 22 years of the first black hole humanity has ever imaged has offered “unequivocal evidence” that black holes spin. There’s apparently an oscillating jet that swings up and down roughly every 11 years. An international team of scientists headed by Chinese researcher Dr. Cui Yuzhu analyzed more than two decades of observational data gathered by more than 20 telescopes around the world to make the discovery in the black hole at the center of galaxy M87.
A small fraction of particles not falling into the black hole get jetted out. The telescopes’ observations show that M87’s jet oscillates by 10 degrees in a recurring 11-year cycle —– as Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity predicted. Aside from proving Einstein right, it’s a significant discovery that massively improves our understanding of black holes.
Honda has revealed more details about its all-electric Prologue SUV. The EV will have a listed range of 300 miles and cost around “the upper $40,000s” before any incentives or tax credits. The pricing puts it well above rival SUVs, like the Volkswagen ID.4, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Mustang Mach-E — all of which start around $40,000. Also, the range of Honda’s EV is comparatively shorter.
The Nitro Deck comes from CRKD, a new company founded at Embracer Group’s Freemode incubator lab. The Nitro Deck is a simple idea executed well: Slide your Switch screen into the frame and it acts as a self-contained, beefed-up gamepad, sidestepping the initially innovative but drifty Joy-Con controllers. You can also get it in a decidedly Gamecube colorway. Lots of purple.
Scientists at the University of Washington have developed flying robots that change shape in mid-air, without batteries, as originally published in the research journal Science Robotics. These miniature Transformers snap into a folded position during flight to stabilize descent. They weigh just 400 milligrams and feature an on-board battery-free actuator, powered by solar. Future-use cases could range from monitoring weather to checking air conditions with a fleet of the lil’ things
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/CabxNhfGoogle is sending Jamboard on its way to the company's ever-growing graveyard full of products and services that didn't quite work out. It will wind down the Jamboard whiteboarding app sometime in late 2024, it has revealed in a Workspace post, and will switch to working more closely with third-party partners. Jamboard is the tech giant's home-grown whiteboarding solution that provides people the ability to collaborate in real time. Anything drawn or edited on its website or app, for instance, gets reflected on the Jamboard hardware, and vice versa.
To continue giving teams that use its tools access to a collaborative digital whiteboard, Google is integrating FigJam, Lucidspark and Miro across its Workspace. It also promised to provide a "retention and migration path" so that users don't lose any collaborative work they've created within an organization. In its post, Google said it received feedback from customers that the advanced features offered by the aforementioned third-party partners helped their teams work better together. Based on that feedback, the company has decided to "leverage [its] partner ecosystem for whiteboarding in Workspace and focus [its] efforts on core content collaboration across Docs, Sheets, and Slides."
In addition to killing the Jamboard app, Google is also winding down support for the $5,000 Jamboard device. The 4K digital whiteboard, which originally went on sale in 2017, will stop receiving auto-updates on September 30, 2024.
Four more Exorcist: Believer clips tease a returning nightmare. Wolf Like Me season 2's new trailer shows troubled times ahead for the werewolf romance. he cast of The Boys welcomes the cast of Gen V in a new featurette. Plus, what’s coming on Star Trek: Lower Decks. Spoilers now!
Reddit said it was “simplifying” its ad privacy options by removing the ability to ignore targeted ads based on what communities you join, which posts you upvote or downvote, and how you spend your time on the platform.
After rumors began to swirl that Apple alum Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman were having collaborative talks on a mysterious piece of AI hardware, it appears that the pair are indeed trying to corner the smartphone market. The two are reportedly discussing a collaboration on a new kind of smartphone device with $1…
Today, tabletop roleplaying game publisher Evil Genius filed a lawsuit against Netflix for Breach of Contract. Evil Genius was hired to create a franchise TTRPG for Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon, and alleges that after working alongside Netflix and Snyder, Netflix unceremoniously terminated its contract.
Joy-Cons are the Switch’s weakest feature. The two itty-bitty controllers have caused a plethora of issues for players — and Nintendo itself — since the Switch first came out in 2017, tarnishing the sheen of an otherwise fantastic hybrid console. Stick drift was the main problem and it became such a widespread phenomenon that Nintendo faced a class-action lawsuit over it, and the company is still offering free repairs for all busted Joy-Cons, even outside of warranty terms.
The left Joy-Con on my Switch went wonky about a year ago, but I also had a Switch Lite and a few Bluetooth controllers, so I never bothered to get it fixed. And now, I never have to. The Nitro Deck is a handheld frame for the Switch screen, complete with Hall Effect thumbsticks and incredibly clicky buttons. It’s so, so much better than the standard Joy-Con setup.
The Nitro Deck comes from CRKD, a new company founded at Embracer Group’s Freemode incubator lab. The Nitro Deck is a simple idea executed well: Slide your Switch screen into the frame and it acts as a self-contained, beefed-up gamepad. It feels like the offspring of a Switch Lite and a Steam Deck, and it comes in black, gray and white as default colorways. Limited edition styles include mint, GameCube purple and an SNES-y gray. (The hottest versions come from a collaboration with Limited Run, but these transparent lovelies are sold out).
The Nitro Deck includes a stand for Bluetooth play, but it really shines as a handheld. The D-pad is responsive and face buttons are crisp. They have a satisfying weight and pop back up quickly after each press. The shoulder buttons are clicky, the triggers are buttery-smooth, and though I haven’t actually found a use for the four back-panel buttons, I’m happy with their positioning and the way they feel.
The analog sticks are the star, though, simply because they’re such an upgrade from the standard Joy-Con experience. Hall effect joysticks mean there’s no chance of drift and they offer a wide, accurately tracked range of motion. The Nitro Deck carry case kit includes two spare sticks with different textures, and it’s incredibly simple to pop one out and replace it with a new one.
As evidenced in my Steam Deck review, my hands are on the smaller side, and the Nitro Deck fits just fine in my palms. I have a touch of anxiety over the distance between the right thumbstick and the face buttons directly above it, but it hasn’t actually affected my ability to play any games. Tiny Hands Gang, I think this one’s OK.
The most jarring aspect of the Nitro Deck is its rumble function. The rumble on this thing isn’t particularly powerful in terms of physical feedback, but it’s certainly loud. This was especially noticeable while playing Mario Kart 8, which activates rumble with every drift, crash and off-track tire touch, sometimes for seconds at a time. The noise generated is obscene. It sounds like a ghost with a cold groan-screaming into your hands, and it doesn’t offer any subtlety. That said, it’s easy enough to turn off the rumble completely. That’s what I did, and I didn’t miss it.
Hades is the game I’ve spent the most time with on Switch and Switch Lite, and playing it on Nitro Deck was a refreshing experience. The Nitro Deck supports a larger screen than the Switch Lite and its inputs are much better than the classic Switch, making the game look and feel like something new. I’ve been playing with a traditional Switch screen, but the Nitro Deck also supports the OLED model.
While I’ve been putting off getting my weird Joy-Con fixed for free, this device might be the final push I need to actually drop some cash on an OLED Switch. With clearer visuals, a slightly bigger screen and updated controls via Nitro Deck, the complete package would feel like a brand-new, end-of-cycle refresh.
The Nitro Deck costs $60 on its lonesome, or $90 with the carry case. The case itself is worth the extra $30, in my opinion: It’s sturdy and thick, and it comes with two swappable thumbsticks, a screen wipe and an eight-foot USB-C charging cable. Nitro Deck pre-orders placed before September 18 are currently shipping, and any units purchased from now on should be sent out this week or next (more detailed information can be found here).
The Nitro Deck improves the Switch in ways I didn’t know I wanted. Truthfully, I may never connect the Joy-Cons to my Switch again. This is simply my Switch’s final form: bulbous, purple, loud and, more than anything, satisfying to play.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/l1o63v8The first black hole humanity has ever imaged has also provided us with what researchers are calling "unequivocal evidence" that black holes spin. An international team of scientists headed by Chinese researcher Dr. Cui Yuzhu analyzed 22 years of observational data gathered by more than 20 telescopes around the world. What they found was that the black hole at the center of galaxy M87, which is 6.5 billion times more massive than our sun, exhibits an oscillating jet that swings up and down every 11 years. This phenomenon confirms that the black hole is indeed spinning.
Black holes gobble up huge amounts of gas and dust, which they attract with their massive gravitational pull. A small fraction of those particles that don't fall into the black hole get spewn out and travel close to the speed of light, showing up as narrow beams along the axis. These beams are called "jets." The telescopes' observations show that M87's jet oscillates by 10 degrees in a recurring 11-year cycle, just as predicted by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.
So, what causes the M87's jet to swing back and forth? The researchers' analysis indicates that the black hole's spin axis doesn't perfectly align with the rotational axis of its accretion disk. This disk-like structure is typically found surrounding a black hole, because it's made of materials that gradually spiral into the void to be consumed. That misalignment between the rotating mass and the matter that swirls around it causes "a significant impact on surrounding spacetime," which affects the movement of nearby objects in what the General Theory of Relativity calls "frame-dragging."
This is a significant discovery that massively improves our understanding of the mysterious region of spacetime — aside from proving Einstein right, of course. Scientists have yet to find out the size of M87's accretion disk and how fast its black hole is spinning, though, and that entails further observation and analysis.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/gT5kSQP
Kevin Greutert talks Amanda Young’s growth in the Saw movies. The cast and crew of The Exorcist: Believer talk religion in a new featurette. Kristen Stewart’s Living for the Dead gets a new look. Plus, what’s coming on the final episode of Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. Spoilers, away!
OpenAI is looking to continue to bolster its reputation as a modern-day tech juggernaut by pivoting from its incredibly popular software to hardware. The company’s CEO Sam Altman is reportedly in talks with Apple alumnus and product designer Jony Ive on the top-secret project.
Even if you’ve never heard of Shure’s SM7B, you’ve almost certainly heard the SM7B. From live radio to podcasting and streaming, the sleek, black microphone can be found hanging in front of mouths, delivering its trademark broadcast sound. Today, Shure is unveiling the latest edition — the SM7dB — to celebrate the microphone’s 50th anniversary. It also happens to solve one of the mic’s biggest pain points (the clue is in its name). The $499 Shure SM7dB comes with a built-in preamp that adds either 18- or 28dB of much-needed gain.
The SM7B famously needs a lot of amplification which can lead to quiet audio or an undesirable “hiss” on inferior preamps. To solve this, people often purchase an in-line preamp such as a FetHead or a CloudLifter — which is an additional $100 or so on top of the $399 SM7B.
The SM7dB eliminates the need for additional hardware and also promises a “clean” boost in volume. What’s more, it does this without adding any significant size or a change in form factor. To be clear, the new microphone is a shade longer than its un-amplified counterpart. And there’s a minor cosmetic change from the sleek, stealthy matte black to a slightly shinier paintjob. There’s also a glossy “Shure” logo now on the microphone body which makes the whole thing look a bit less cool if you ask me but you might not be so sensitive to such things.
The addition of a preamp brings with it some other practical changes. The classic SM7B has two switches on its rear: a high pass filter and a mid-frequency boost. The SM7dB still has those, but there are two more switches — one for bypassing the preamp and the other for toggling between the amount of gain (the aforementioned 18- and 28-dB boosts).
When “bypass” is activated, the SM7dB acts as a regular dynamic microphone and won’t need phantom power. Once you activate that preamp though, you’ll need to supply 48v to drive the preamp. The vast majority of audio interfaces with an XLR input will also supply phantom power, so there’s no issue here but if you're used to working with dynamic microphones and the mild convenience of not having to think about phantom power, just know there's a slight workflow change here.
One of the main benefits of a dynamic microphone is its noise rejection —- they're much more forgiving on background noise or the sound of passing traffic, for example. Thankfully, the built-in preamp here doesn't change that as the microphone still works as a dynamic should (unlike condensor microphones that need phantom power to work and are much more sensitive).
With the full 28dB of gain applied, I initially thought there was some audible noise when recording silence, but it quickly became clear that with all that extra gain and my audio interface set to record at full volume it was simply just too loud and was picking up more ambient noise — it would have been far too loud if I had started speaking into it. Once the levels were adjusted accordingly, the noise floor disappeared.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, without any preamp turned on, the new SM7dB sounds near identical to its legacy sibling. I tested both via a Rodecaster Duo which has ample gain to drive these microphones on its own. However, when I tested both of the SM7dB’s preamp settings (while lowering the gain on the Rodecaster accordingly) the output remained just as clear and noise free with no obvious change in character — which is exactly what Shure was going for.
The obvious downside is that, the SM7dB costs about $100 more than the regular SM7B. That’s a decent amount more, especially if you don’t really need the preamp but are maybe hoping to future-proof your setup, or just upgrade to the newest model. On the other hand, if you were going to buy an SM7B knowing you’d also need a separate preamp then the new model costs about the same as buying both separately.
Given the sheer popularity of the SM7B, the new edition should be well received. Not least because of the obvious advantage of it being louder, but for a more practical, if slightly superficial reason, too. That being that the design of the SM7B puts the XLR port facing either directly up or down on most boom arms or mic stands (rather than perpendicular) which certain inline preamps can look a little, well, ridiculous sticking out of the top of bottom. With the SM7dB, then, you can possibly eliminate one more visual distraction from your streams. Whatever your motivation for considering the new microphone, it's available starting today.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/tPFQsiu
Artificial intelligence has proved a costly endeavor—well, yes, in terms of money, but AI requires massive amounts of energy, and water consumption to operate at scale. That hasn’t stopped big tech companies such as Google and Microsoft from putting that energy-hungry AI into practically every single one of their user…
Logitech has launched a new $299 cockpit for racing simulators that wouldn't look too out of place at a backyard BBQ. The accessories maker has teamed up with gaming seat company Playseat to release the Playseat Challenge X. It's equipped with all the right parts to support your gaming wheel, but when it's not in use, it's like any other foldable chair that you can stow away.
As The Verge notes, it does look almost identical to Playseat's non-Logitech-branded Challenge racing cockpit, which is $70 cheaper. This version, however, already comes with a tilting pedal bracket and a gearshift mount. While the chair doesn't include the actual accessories needed to play racing sims, it is compatible with the company's G wheels and the driving force shifters that support them. The Verge says it should work with other brand's wheels, shifters and pedals, as well, assuming they're compatible with the mounts on the chair.
Speaking of the chair itself, it uses a breathable material that can keep you cool in the heat. You can easily adjust it and find the most comfortable one among its six positions, and you can move the pedals further if you're tall and need the leg room. The maximum user height it can accommodate is around 7 feet, while the maximum user weight it can support is 359 pounds. It could be a good option if you're looking for a simpler, relatively affordable chair for your racing games, and you can get it now from Amazon.
Meta is gearing up its annual event devoted to all things VR, AR and the metaverse. The company is once again showing off a new VR headset, the Meta Quest 3, as well as its next-generation smart glasses. We already know quite a bit about the Meta Quest 3, thanks to a preview from Zuckerberg earlier this year. The $499 headset has been considerably slimmed down and has redesigned controllers. It will also have better graphics, thanks to a new next-gen Qualcomm chipset, which will power new mixed-reality features similar to last year’s high-end Quest Pro. This is the consumer version of VR/AR Meta hopes the wider public will embrace.
The VR headset likely won’t be the only Reality Labs gadget we’ll hear more about at Meta Connect. As UploadVR noted last week, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth hinted at a second-generation of Meta’s Ray-Ban-branded smart glasses also in the works. The new frames should have better cameras and some new features, like livestreaming.
Beyond hardware, we’re expecting Zuckerberg to attempt more compelling pitches on the broader idea of the metaverse itself, AI chatbots and avatars and Meta’s baby metaverse, Horizon Worlds, which could do with more things to do and, honestly, more people in it.
— Mat Smith
The biggest stories you might have missed
SAG-AFTRA video game actors vote in favor of strike action over wages and AI
Olivia Rodrigo is teaming up with Sony for limited edition purple earbuds
The best October Amazon Prime Day early access deals for 2023
YouTube’s ad-free Premium Lite tier is going away
The Federal Communications Commission plans to reinstate net neutrality protections nixed in 2018 during the Trump administration. After Anna Gomez was sworn in as the third Democratic member on the FCC’s five-person panel, the agency is pushing forward with an attempt to bring back net neutrality regulations. Net neutrality rules are meant to ensure internet service providers may not block or give preference to any content.
It will take quite some time to restore the previous rules. The FCC commissioners will vote on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking at their next monthly meeting on October 19. If, as seems likely, the agency votes in favor, it will start new rulemaking and seek public comments on the proposal.
Similar to the ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold, LG’s Gram Fold is a touchscreen device that can be a massive tablet or a computer when fully unfolded. Users will get a 17-inch OLED screen with a QXGA+ (2560 x 1920 pixel) resolution when it’s used purely as a display, and they can link it to its accompanying Bluetooth keyboard, which can rest on the lower half of the screen. It’s 4.99 million won ($3,700) — not cheap, but still more affordable than HP’s $5,000 Spectre Fold.
Spotify is rolling out a new feature called Jam, which will give friends a way to curate a single playlist on the service and listen to it together in real time. Participants in a Jam session can contribute tracks to a shared queue, which they can access whether they’re in the same room or around the world. The audio streaming giant is rolling out the feature to both free and Premium subscribers, but only the latter can start a session. Rival service Apple Music has teased a similar collaborative service coming to iOS 17, but it’s expected to arrive later this year.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/5nkd9GzApple has released a firmware update for its Studio Display to improve its contentious 12MP ultrawide webcam, it said in the release 17 notes spotted by 9to5Mac. While the company (sort of) addressed image quality issues in previous updates, users still complained about the camera's relatively high tilt that can be distracting on video calls. Now, the latest update "adds support for zoom, recenter and manual framing" to the webcam, giving users more control over how they look
The new controls now let you zoom and pan across the image to help position yourself in the frame the way you want, and you can go back to the default settings by hitting the "recenter" button. That should be a big help for those who use the webcam in manual mode, though it also works with Center Stage to automatically frame you in the image. The update also adds "minor stability improvements" to the Studio Display. Note that the Studio Display firmware update also requires the latest macOS Sonoma release that came out yesterday.
Also via the macOS Sonoma release, Apple brought the same controls over to the Continuity Camera that lets you use your iPhone for video chats on Mac. That might be a better option for many Studio Display owners, as despite all the fixes, the webcam still ain't great.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/z1ZMvHI
It’s been six years since internet service providers were granted a boon allowing them to push and pull the levers of internet speeds for any website that may not want to pay a ransom. The end to limitations of what is called net neutrality has tugged at the heartstrings of many internet advocates
The number of ways you can chat with generative AI engines continues to grow, from ChatGPT to Claude to Google Bard to Bing AI, and FreedomGPT is one of the latest options you can add to your list of potential conversational partners. Here we’re going to take you through the key features that mark it out as being a…
Once upon a time, Twitter (now renamed X) routinely tried to label what it deemed “state affiliated” news sites, in an effort to highlight potential government disinformation and propaganda. After Elon Musk took over the platform late last year, however, he decided to put the kibosh on that policy. Predictably, new…
Pop star Olivia Rodrigo has completely redefined herself with her new album GUTS, drawing on the kind of punky guitar growl that defined so many successful musical acts in the 1990s. She’s also teaming up with mega-corporation Sony to release a pair of limited-edition earbuds that draw on the basic design of the company’s successful LinkBuds S line.
These are basically a color swap of the standard LinkBuds S, with a “unique violet marble pattern” the company says was designed by the Grammy-winner herself. Rodrigo backs up this claim, stating she was “so excited” to help create “a limited edition LinkBuds S in the color violet,” going on to say that she “can’t wait for my fans to experience GUTS in this way.”
While deferring to a large multinational corporation isn’t exactly in the spirit of the music Rodrigo drew from on her latest album, there’s one cool techy tidbit here. These earbuds can access custom equalizer settings tuned by Rodrigo and producer Daniel Nigro. These settings offer an “optimal listening” experience of her two albums on major streaming services.
As with all LinkBuds S models, the new Rodrigo-flavored earbuds offer robust active noise-canceling tech, 360-degree spatial sound support, LDAC 3 for high-resolution audio and a transparency mode adjusts for ambient noise. The earbuds are also environmentally-friendly, more or less, as many components were manufactured using recycled plastic materials from automobile parts and reclaimed water bottles.
The LinkBuds S x Olivia Rodrigo cost $200 and preorders start today directly from Sony and via a number of authorized dealers. This isn’t the first high-profile team-up between Rodrigo and a large company in support of GUTS. Back in April, she partnered with Meta’s Instagram to advertise a feature that allowed users to add music to slideshows.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/pHuMtyVSAG-AFTRA members have voted in favor of a strike authorization for performers working in video games, including those who do voice work, motion capture and stunts for the industry. Of the 34,687 members who cast their ballot, 98.32 percent voted "yes." It doesn't automatically mean that the performers are going on strike, only that they could after September 26.
The guild explained that it's been negotiating for a new contract with video game companies since 2022, but that they "have refused to agree to critical terms [its] members need." For its next bargaining sessions on September 26, 27 and 28, it believes the strike authorization gives it the added leverage needed to get the companies to agree to its terms. At the moment, the guild is in talks with Activision, Blindlight, Disney Character Voices, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Formosa Interactive, Insomniac Games, Take 2 Productions, VoiceWorks Productions and WB Games.
Specifically, SAG-AFTRA is fighting for wage hikes that would allow performers to make a living from their work in the face of inflation, as well as more rigorous safety measures on set. The guild is also fighting for a contract that would protect performers against exploitative uses of artificial intelligence, such as companies making unauthorized copies of their likeness and voice. These all mirror the issues that ignited the ongoing strikes in the film and TV industry. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is believed to be nearing an agreement with major studios, with one of the last sticking points in their negotiations being the use of generative AI in content production.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/w3GkIY5
In its latest bid to adopt artificial intelligence technology, Amazon announced on Monday that it is investing a bundle in OpenAI competitor Anthropic. The investment will reach up to $4 billion, making Amazon Web Services (AWS) the primary cloud provider for Anthropic.
On Monday, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI announced it was starting to roll out voice and image recognition in ChatGPT. Essentially, the AI can recognize a picture for what it is, and communicate with users about it. Plus, the AI now has speech-to-text and text-to-speech synthesization capabilities. All the new features are…
After previously announcing that it would be pivoting to recycled plastic bottles to make bricks, Lego is now walking back on that promise. The toy manufacturer has given up on its plan to use recycled bottles, claiming that the plastic wasn’t sustainable enough.
Yesterday, after nearly 4 straight days of intense bargaining, the WGA has approved a tentative contract, ending the pickets and tentatively signaling an end to the Writer’s Strike that has lasted 146 days. It’s been an incredible summer for labor action, as SAG-AFTRA went on strike as well, joining the WGA on the…
After grinding its teeth about AI for over a year, one of the biggest stock image sites around, Getty Images, will let subscribers start creating their own AI images through its site. The company promises users won’t have to worry about all those sticky copyright issues since its AI is only trained on Getty’s own…
Hey big spender. Tinder Select, the dating app’s most exclusive tier, is rolling out now. It will cost love seekers $500 per month (or $6,000 annually — no bulk discounts) for features like exclusive search and matching.
The company has only offered Tinder Select to the less than one percent of users it considers “extremely active” — does anyone want that label? Tinder told Bloomberg it’ll open applications for Tinder Select on a rolling basis, but it didn’t say exactly when. Tinder’s exclusive membership was originally hinted at all the way back in 2019.
The owners of Tinder, Match Group, have dabbled in exclusive dating apps before, like The League, which it bought in 2022, so it’s not too much of a shock to see Tinder also get reframed for the lonely rich. Is this worse than paying for verification when you have less than 1,000 followers on other social media networks? Yes. Yes, it is.
— Mat Smith
What the Elon Musk biography revealed about his tumultuous Twitter takeover
Drop BMR1 PC speaker review: Not bad, but not amazing
The best October Amazon Prime Day early access deals for 2023
Hitting the Books: Beware the Tech Bro who comes bearing gifts
Our short-but-sweet YouTube edition of this week’s news covers includes Microsoft’s rough, rough week, a sassier Alexa from Amazon and whether the iPhone 15 Pro is worth the extra bucks. Also: viewers take umbrage at my ‘fake’ glasses. Which are not fake.
I’ve been waiting for this. Sony fully embraced amateur / semi-pro content creators back in 2020, with the launch of the ZV1 camera. It has since added no less than four models to its ZV lineup, and this is the latest: the 12-megapixel full-frame ZV-E1. It uses the same sensor as the $3,500 A7S III, a video-focused camera — and a low-light marvel. However, the ZV-E1 costs $1,300 less. While Sony has cut some minor corners, it combines outstanding video features and AI tricks, and I might have to start saving for one.
Eagle-eyed visitors to Samsung’s Argentinian website — I visit it weekly — have spotted something a little unexpected: a product page for new Galaxy Buds FE earbuds, along with images of a Galaxy S23 FE smartphone and Galaxy Tab S9 FE tablet. Samsung’s Fan Edition devices have proven popular, packing in solid features for a more reasonable price than Samsung’s flagship models.
The company hasn’t let slip any specs for the phone and tablet yet. However, there are some details on the Galaxy Buds FE, Samsung’s first Fan Edition earbuds. They’re slated to have a single 12mm driver, three microphones in each earbud to bolster active noise cancellation and a three-way speaker.
Foldables have come a long way since the original Galaxy Fold went on sale back in 2019. They’re smaller, they’re tougher and, while they still aren’t a great option for people on a budget, they’re now more affordable too. (Kind of?) We walk through the crucial specs, durability concerns and our favorite picks.
This week, Cherlynn chats about her experience reviewing the iPhone 15 Pro and Apple Watch Series 9. Does a 5X camera zoom make much of a difference? Meanwhile, Microsoft is basically consolidating all of the Copilot products it’s already announced for Edge, MS 365 and Windows, but maybe this will be less confusing in the long run?
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/M4osEmq
Back in the 2000s, Marvel released a line of Ultimate Marvel comics that offered then-modern takes on the publisher’s premier characters. While the line overall eventually fell in quality, two of its strongest books were Ultimate Spider-Man and its sequel series, Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man from writer Brian Michael…
In the realm of animal-based horror movies, the spider is widely overlooked. Snakes, wolves, sharks, bears, you feel like you see them all the time. And yes, there are killer spider movies, but not as many as one might think considering just how scared so many people are of the eight-legged creatures. Well, a new one…
When Squid Game dropped in 2021, it hit in such a way that you could tell that Netflix was going to let it go on far as long as the show’s momentum would allow. Though season two is still a-ways away, the streamer is looking for other ways to fill the void left by the South Korean thriller until its return. And one of…
