In terms of entertainment, 2023 was a big year all around. We got many wholly new things that were excellent in their own special way, while the majority of reliable brands and franchises stayed firm in greatness or took a few hits with their new entries. And on this, the final day of the year, it’s time to think…
A few weeks ago, NASA’s robotic Mars explorers were given some time off from hard work while the agency waited out Mars solar conjunction, a natural phenomenon that could interfere with their communications. Leading up to the pause, the Curiosity rover was put in park — but its Hazard-Avoidance Cameras (Hazcams) kept snapping away. In a first for the rover, Curiosity recorded the passage of a Martian day over 12 hours from its stationary position, capturing its own shifting shadow on the landscape as the sun moves from dawn to dusk. It held onto the images until after the conjunction ended on November 25.
Curiosity was given instructions to record the 12-hour sequences a few days before the conjunction began in mid-November, according to NASA. The idea was to see if it could catch any weather events that might crop up. That didn’t end up happening, but the images Curiosity snapped on November 8 are still pretty enchanting. They’ve been pieced together in two videos showing the view from its front and rear Hazcams.
Curiosity’s Hazcams are normally used to help drivers avoid terrain that could be dangerous to the rover. But with the rover parked ahead of its pause in duties from November 11 to November 25, the cameras were freed up for a bit of sight-seeing. Curiosity recorded from its position at the base of Mars’ Mount Sharp from 5:30AM to 5:30PM. It and the other Mars explorers have since resumed their normal activities.
The year is ending, but the posting never stops. io9 wrote thousands of stories in 2023, from breaking news to analysis and critique of the biggest films, TV shows, comics, and games in our worlds. Here’s a look back at the 100 you, our dear readers, read and shared the most. Thanks for sticking around for another…
British actor Tom Wilkinson died on Saturday. He was 75, and per the Hollywood Reporter, his family say his death was at home and “sudden.”
It’s the final week of 2023, but the news hasn’t stopped quite yet. As the year wound down, the io9 crew found time to look back on the year’s events, say goodbye (and possibly hello?) to some old friends, and return to some haunts we left behind. Check them out here!—James Whitbrook
In 2023, I posed 23 challenges as part of the Gizmodo Monday Puzzle series. Some require a bit of math, and others a light familiarity with physics; but most can be solved through logic and creative thinking. For each of the following puzzles, I provide a link to the solution, but I suggest you resist the temptation…
JBL recently did something somewhat out-of-the-box and experimental: launching its first-ever wireless turntable. It’s called the Spinner BT, and released it a couple of weeks ago, just in time for the holiday season.
A few days ago, Microsoft released a standalone Android app for Microsoft Copilot, giving you a quick way to access the AI assistant. Turns out the iOS and iPad versions weren't far behind, because they're now available from Apple's App Store. Just like in Copilot on desktop and other AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, you can type in your question and wait for responses generated by artificial intelligence. In Copilot's case, you'll get responses spun by OpenAI's GPT-4, the company's latest large language model. The free version of ChatGPT, in comparison, is powered by the older ChatGPT-3.5, and you'll need to pay for ChatGPT Plus to get access to the newer model.
In addition, Copilot on iOS has the capability to turn your words into images. That particular feature is powered by OpenAI's DALL-E 3 text-to-image AI system, which the company previously said is "significantly better" at being able to grasp the final product you want to achieve with the text prompt you type in. DALL-E 3 was also designed to be better at rendering the elements its predecessors were having trouble with, such as human hands.
This is but the latest Copilot product Microsoft has released since it rebranded Bing Chat. The company also brought Copilot to Windows 10 and then to Windows 11, giving around a billion devices — based on the platforms' user numbers — access to the AI chatbot. With these mobile rollouts, Microsoft is expanding Copilot's reach even more, especially since the apps are free to use.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/wSp6goNI know we say this every year, but it feels like just yesterday we were all crammed in a single room in Las Vegas eating mediocre takeout and voting for our best in show. But CES 2024 is actually just around the corner. The show officially runs from January 9 - 12, though we'll on the ground well before that, with the first CES-related events expected to kick off on January 7. Last year we saw a focus on accessibility and a rather disturbing amount of stuff that you were supposed to pee on or into. While we'll probably see a good amount devices designed to help those with hearing impairments and mobility restrictions again this year, we anticipate some new trends to steal some headlines. Here's a few predictions from our staff about what to expect from CES 2024 in Las Vegas.
I suspect CES 2024 will be full of clean energy technology, packaged in the form of consumer hardware. Solar panels have traditionally been the purview of professional contractors but standalone setups are gaining in popularity. Two or three years ago, this gear would have been targeted at RV users but now it’s cresting into the mainstream. Pop-up panels, coupled with inverters and batteries that look like air conditioning units, sitting unobtrusively in the corner, are all the rage. It’s a plus that most of these setups are plug and play, removing the need for a professional to get involved.
There are a couple of drivers for this beyond the niche audience of folks looking to get off of the electricity grid. In many places outside the US, the cost of energy has spiked dramatically and it’s folly to think the same won’t happen here. Not to mention that, in places like Texas, people have seen the power grid fail with devastating consequences. It’s going to be a big market in the next few years and I’d expect to see more and more consumer brands follow Anker and Jackery into the home battery world. — Dan Cooper, Senior Reporter UK
If Engadget’s audience stats are any indication, audio nerds are extremely excited about MEMS earbud drivers. As my colleague James Trew has detailed in his reporting, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) may very well be the next big thing in headphones. A California-based company called xMEMS is the first to bring the solid state components to market, and the first true wireless earbuds that use them have recently gone on sale.
Some of the benefits of MEMS drivers are said to be improved response, better durability and more consistent fidelity. They also don’t require the calibration or matching that balanced-armature or dynamic drivers need on a production line. The only downside is that in their current state, they still need a hybrid setup with a secondary driver for bass. In its next-gen MEMS speaker, though, xMEMS is promising 40 times louder bass response.
The new model is called Cypress and the company will be demoing it for attendees at CES. xMEMS says its performance is consistent with the bass performance of “the best” 10-12 coil speakers currently being used in earbuds. What’s more, Cypress can improve ANC performance, which xMEMs says will cover higher frequencies – including crying babies. The company has already said the components won’t go into mass production until the end of 2024, so consumer products are over a year away. But the promise is too good not to be excited about a very early preview in Las Vegas. — Billy Steele, Senior Reporter
While it may not be the most exciting development, I’m expecting to see a number of new devices with support for Wi-Fi 7 at CES 2024 — from laptops to TVs and everything in between. Currently, it’s still a work in progress, but with the official Wi-Fi 7 spec expected to be finalized sometime in early 2024, gadget makers are looking to get an early jump. Some benefits of Wi-Fi 7 include maximum speeds of up to 46 Gbps — more than twice as fast as what’s available using Wi-Fi 6/6E — along with a 320Mhz channel width that offers double the capacity compared to previous generations.
Another important feature is MLO (multi-link operation) which allows Wi-Fi 7 devices to use two bands at the same time, essentially turning a single wireless connection into a two-lane highway. For people with larger homes, this should improve the performance of mesh networks by allowing devices to switch bands without losing speed or connection. QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) is also getting a significant boost from 1024-QAM on Wi-Fi 6/6E to 4096-QAM with Wi-Fi 7 which allows devices to pack more information into the same carrier signal.
The downside is that while there are some gadgets on sale today like the Samsung Galaxy S23 that already support Wi-Fi 7, you’ll need both a compatible device and router (not to mention a sufficiently fast internet connection) to take advantage of the spec’s full capabilities. In short, you should keep an eye out for new devices that work with Wi-Fi 7, but don’t rush out and upgrade everything in your home until prices stabilize and they become more widespread. — Sam Rutherford, Senior Reporter
If there’s one buzzy term you’re guaranteed to hear a ton throughout 2024, it’s “AI PC.” It’s a phrase both Intel and AMD are using to describe computers equipped with chips featuring NPUs, or neural processing units. Similar to the way GPUs speed up graphics processing for gaming, an NPU offloads AI tasks to handle them more efficiently. For Windows 11, that’s mainly limited to Microsoft’s Studio Effects, which can blur your video chat backgrounds or punch up your lighting. But more Windows AI features are rumored to be on the way (Microsoft’s push to bring its Copilot AI everywhere is a big sign), and companies like Adobe and Audacity are also developing NPU-powered features for their apps.
For years chipmakers have been chasing higher clock rates, smaller process designs and a wealth of other architectural upgrades like 3D transistors to make their hardware faster and more efficient. The move towards mobile chip designs, like Apple’s Silicon, is yet another way to reduce power consumption while also speeding up computational possibilities. Intel, AMD and other companies are also focusing more on GPUs to beef up basic gaming performance, while also offloading some creative tasks like media encoding. NPUs are the latest tool chip designers can rely on, and they also have the potential to change the way we use our computers entirely (or at least, deliver a bit more power and battery life for ultraportables).
While it’s easy to be skeptical of marketing terms, the phrase “AI PC” is at least functional. There are still plenty of laptops on the market without NPUs — Intel only got into the AI game with its new Core Ultra chips — so consumers will need an easy way to differentiate between different types of systems. After all, if you’re upgrading your laptop to take advantage of Windows Studio effects and AI powered software, you don’t want to be stuck with a non-NPU system for several years. — Devindra Hardawar, Senior Reporter
Displace made a splash at CES 2023 with its truly wireless TV that could be mounted anywhere, even suction-cupped to a window. The company’s demo left us with a lot of questions as it wasn’t yet ready to discuss key details of the product since what it showed off were CES-specific prototypes. The company is returning to Vegas this year and it’s already announced what it plans to have on display.
First, Displace says two sizes of TVs will be demoed: the 27-inch Displace Mini and the 55-inch Displace Flex. The display we saw earlier this year was also 55 inches, but a key difference between it and the Flex is that this new version attaches to an optional magnetic wireless charging stand. Both the Flex and the Mini pack enough battery life to last a month if you watch six hours of content per day, according to the company. There’s no pricing available for these yet, but they go up for pre-order on January 9, so we’re bound to find out soon. Displace said it will also show off a 110-inch model at CES, although details are scarce.
The original version has gone up in price since last CES: it’s now $4,499 and orders won’t ship until mid-2024. The new Mini and Flex aren’t expected to ship until late next year either. The main thing we’ll be looking for at CES is a status update. Are the units any more polished? Have there been any notable upgrades since that first prototype? How much will the extra swappable batteries cost? Does it look like the company will actually be able to ship in the next 6-12 months?
Displace has also announced an AI-based shopping platform for its TVs. Using the same gestures that control TV viewing, the tech can analyze a paused scene for products that might be available for sale. The system also allows you to quickly make a purchase by either bringing a phone or watch near the NFC-enabled TVs or by using a mobile app. Displace says the goal for its products has always been ambient computing, and the first step towards that is this shopping platform. It’s also a way for the company to make money off the TVs after the initial sale. — Billy Steele
We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/XovDJY2
The sleepy week between Christmas and New Year’s is for hangouts and hangovers. That is unless you work at Apple. For the folks in Cupertino, this week was all about trying to get the Apple Watch unbanned and scrambling to find a new lead designer for the iPhone.
Google’s Chrome has long featured the ability to launch the browser in Incognito mode, offering a seemingly blank slate for your internet browsing, away from your usual cookies, forms and web history. But that seemingly didn’t mean Google wasn’t keeping an eye on where you were browsing.
The company faced a lawsuit in 2020 that accused it of tracking Chrome users' activities even when they were using Incognito mode. Google has now agreed to settle the complaint that originally sought $5 billion in damages, after failing to get the suit dismissed.
The plaintiffs said Google used tools like its Analytics product, apps and browser plug-ins to monitor users. By tracking someone on Incognito, the company was falsely making people believe that they could control the information that they were willing to share with it.
The lawsuit's plaintiffs revealed internal emails that allegedly showed conversations between Google execs proving that the company monitored Incognito browser usage to sell ads and track web traffic. Which does sound like a thing Google would do. According to Reuters and The Washington Post, neither side has made the details of the settlement public.
– Mat Smith
You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!
This is the future of generative AI, according to generative AI
Apple reportedly faces pressure in India after sending out warnings of state-sponsored hacking
Russia will assist NASA with ISS space flights through 2025
The best PS5 accessories for 2024
Xiaomi, best known for its smartphones, smart home peripherals, and many other things, has made an EV. Unveiled at a Beijing event yesterday, the Xiaomi SU7 — pronounced "soo-chee" in Chinese — is a sedan that will come in two flavors: the dual-motor all-wheel-drive SU7 Max, and the single-motor rear-wheel-drive SU7.
Xiaomi claims the SU7 Max has a range of up to 800km and a 0-100km/h acceleration of just 2.78s, both of which apparently beat Tesla's Model S and Porsche's Taycan Turbo. There’s also a lot of tech splashed around, with a dedicated in-car entertainment system, ports for your (Xiaomi, of course) tablets and headlamps designed to look like the chinese character for rice – also the ‘mi’ in Xiaomi. We’ve chewed over all the details below.
The Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 are back on sale, after a federal appeals court in Washington D.C. granted a temporary pause on an import and sales ban. However, Apple’s wearables aren’t out of the woods just yet: the ban could be reinstated on January 10, when the International Trade Commission (ITC) decides on whether to grant Apple a longer pause.
The ban could also return on January 13, when the same agency makes a decision regarding Apple’s redesign of both smartwatches. The original ban lasted a little more than a day.
Yes, CES is in a couple of weeks. Why do you ask?
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/V2CB07YLG is trying to one-up its rival Samsung with the launch of the MyView 32-inch 4K monitors with built-in smart TV features. On top of performing regular monitor chores for productivity, content creation and light gaming, they have LG's webOS 23 built-in so that you can stream Netflix and other services — much like Samsung's M8 smart monitors.
The three monitors (the 32SR85U, 32SR83U and 32SR70U) have similar specs with minor differences. All come with 31.5-inch 16:9 4K (3,840 x 2,160) IPS displays, 95 percent DCI-P3 coverage and HDR10 support. You also get webOS 23 on all models, with streaming services (Netflix, Disney+ etc.) along with productivity programs including Microsoft 365 and Google Calendar. They also support AirPlay 2 and Miracast for wireless screen mirroring, and have WiFi and Bluetooth built-in.
However, the lower-end 32SR70U offers only 350 nits of brightness compared to 400 nits on the other models. And while all three have USB Type-C PD charging, the 32SR85U supports 90W, the 32SR83U supports 65W and the 32SR70U supports just 45 watts. The higher-end 85U and 83U screens also have slim bezels and an adjustable stand, while the 70U has a "low-profile base" that's likely fixed.
The 32SR85U can be paired with a "detachable 1080p webcam" for video conferencing, but you have to buy one separately for the other two. Other features include 5W stereo speakers, a voice assistant, two HDMI 2.0 ports and a remote controller.
The 95 percent DCI-P3 coverage is impressive, and even though 400/350 nits isn't very bright for HDR content, it's fine given that monitors tend to be just a couple of feet from your eyeballs. In addition, the 60Hz refresh rate won't allow for any high-end gaming.
The MyView monitors beg a comparison with Samsung's M8 series, of course. LG is subtly digging its rival by saying they "raise the bar for picture quality in the smart monitor category," and that seems largely true. The IPS displays should offer better viewing angles than the VA panels on Samsung's monitors, along with much better color accuracy (Samsung boasts only 99 percent SRGB coverage).
Otherwise, they offer many of the same features, so attractiveness to buyers will depend a lot on the price. LG has yet to announce US pricing, but the 32SR83U will be 699,000 won (around $538) in Korea. Samsung's M8, meanwhile, is often on sale for as little as $400.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/EbawZYiRussia and the United States have had a strained relationship, at best, in recent years. However, the pair are still working together in one regard: getting crews to the International Space Station (ISS). Roscosmos, Russia's federal space agency, has announced that the two countries will continue partnering on "cross-flights until 2025 inclusive."
Cross-flights involve putting crews from multiple countries onto the same spacecraft. Roscosmos intends always to have at least one of its own representatives in the Russia section of the ISS and at least one NASA representative in the US section. The agency added that the decision was made "to maintain the reliability of the ISS as a whole." The ISS, launched in 1998, is a symbol of US-Russia cooperation after the Cold War and the space race ended.
The news follows NASA's April 2023 announcement that Russia will remain aboard the ISS until 2028. The Director General of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, had previously said Russia would pull out of the ISS "after 2024" to focus on creating its own space station. NASA had been preparing for Russia's departure with plans ranging from pulling astronauts from the ISS to figuring out how to control the ISS if Russia took away its thrusters. The US agency has committed to maintaining the ISS until at least 2030.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/C5Rz2GNXiaomi, a Chinese brand once synonymous with affordable smartphones, is now attempting to make an even bigger splash with its first-ever electric car. Unveiled at a Beijing event earlier today, the Xiaomi SU7 — pronounced "soo-chee" in Chinese — is a sedan based on the company's very own Modena Architecture with HyperEngine electric motors of up to 21,000rpm, as well as chassis stamped by its die casting machines with a clamping force of 9,100 tons — beating that of Tesla's apparently. The line will come in two flavors: the dual-motor all-wheel-drive SU7 Max, and the single-motor rear-wheel-drive SU7.
It'll be a few more months before Xiaomi announces the prices, but it's already claiming that the SU7 Max has a range of up to 800km (497 miles; according to China Light-Duty Vehicle Test Cycle aka CLTC), as well as a 0-100km/h acceleration of just 2.78s, both of which apparently beating Tesla's Model S and Porsche's Taycan Turbo. This is partly thanks to battery maker CATL's generous 101kWh 800V high-voltage platform, which offers a 220km range with just a 5-minute charge, or 390km in 10 minutes, or 510km in 15 minutes. The base model, however, only supports 400V charging for its smaller 73.6kWh battery, which has a range of up to 668km or 415 miles.
Xiaomi hired talents from the auto industry to realize this project. Most notably, CEO Lei Jun claimed that Tianyuan Li, formerly of BMW's iX series and iVision concepts, offered himself to Xiaomi's auto design team. Li was also joined by James Qiu, who had previously worked on Mercedes-Benz's Vision EQXX design. They later recruited Chris Bangle, a BMW veteran, to be their design consultant.
The SU7 is about the same size as the BMW 5 series, coming in at 1,440mm tall, 1,963mm wide and 4,997mm long. You get three color options: the signature "aqua blue," gray or olive green. In his event, Lei highlighted the seemingly generous leg room as well as trunk spaces — 517L in the back and 105L in the front.
At the launch event, Lei highlighted details like the "water droplet" head lamps, each of which resembled the Chinese character for "rice" (which is the "mi" in "Xiaomi"), as well as the halo rear brake light consisting of 360 LEDs. The exec also pointed out that his team went with the half-hidden door handles, because the more flush handles are apparently harder to use in cold weather.
Just as Xiaomi teased earlier, the SU7 offers a HyperOS in-car entertainment system, which is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8295 processor and takes just 1.49 seconds to boot. You can access your media, adjust your seats or even control your Xiaomi appliances via the 16.1-inch 3K central screen, as well as optional Xiaomi Pad tablets which can be mounted on magnetic ports (up to 22.5W output) behind the two front head rests. The UI on the central screen allows for up to three split windows for multitasking, and you can even cast your Xiaomi phone's screen to it for a seamless experience. As for music and video entertainment, it'll be complemented by the 23 internal Dolby Atmos speakers.
Lei also mentioned opening up the Xiaomi CarIOT ecosystem to third parties, with one example being a smart booster car seat which can remind you if its seat belt isn't fastened. The exec added that even iPhone users can tap into some of the Xiaomi car features, with support for wireless CarPlay and AirPlay connectivity, as well as iPad-mounting for rear passengers.
Much like Volkswagen, Xiaomi already knows that car owners still prefer to have some physical buttons, so it's kept a few for climate control, as well as two extra buttons — one for toggling the spoiler (Lei said this is largely for showing off), and one for adjusting the body height (to avoid scratching the bottom, if needed). You can also get an optional row of buttons mounted beneath the central display.
The SU7 will have autonomous driving capabilities, too, thanks to its Xiaomi Pilot platform powered by up to two NVIDIA Drive Orin processors (the base model only has one) and an array of sensors. These include a top-mounted Lidar, with a visual range of up to 200m and pixel accuracy of down to 0.1m — the latter meaning better detection for thinner and smaller obstacles. In a series of video demos, Xiaomi showed how the SU7 could navigate through a busy live street with mixed obstacles, as well as performing valet parking on its own, and even parking itself in a robotic car park with tight spaces. Being a Beijing-based company, Xiaomi claims that the SU7's sensors can cope with snowy and rainy climates, too.
Lei added that his company aims to complete autonomous driving tests in 100 cities across China by the end of 2024, though it's unclear how soon the local authorities will open up autonomous driving nationwide.
In addition to future software updates, Xiaomi also teased its upcoming HyperEngine V8s with a record-breaking 27,200rpm, all tucked inside a stronger silicon steel housing to keep the motor in check. This is apparently already mass-production-ready, with plans to equip this in cars by 2025. The company then teased further with a next-gen electric motor tech based on carbon fiber, which will apparently be capable of a whopping 35,000rpm, but this won't be ready any time soon, apparently.
Xiaomi has yet to share prices for the SU7 line, though Lei already hinted that they will be expensive — which is subjective, of course. We shall find out in a few months' time, and hopefully by then we'll know about availability outside China as well, but we wouldn't count on a US launch any time soon, if ever. Meanwhile, you can get the Xiaomi 14, 14 Pro smartphones and the Xiaomi Watch S3 eSIM in their limited edition colors — either aqua blue or olive green — to match the upcoming SU7.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/NvSFa8uThe lonely “Windows” button on most modern keyboards is an old joke turned into a bore. The key is a lonely, barren island sitting between “alt” and “ctrl” that’s long proved more of a nuisance for a wayward finger that strays a little too far southwest than it is a usable function. While some might find the key good…
How can you tell if a dinosaur is female or male? It’s one of the most basic aspects of biology and yet, for the most part, it continues to be a mystery in paleontology. We don’t yet know the sex of most extinct species, even if those in museum displays have gender-specific names like Sue the T.rex or Cliff the…
Microsoft, a notoriously conservative and slow-moving giant, is bringing artificial intelligence right into the heart of Windows. But. after investing a total of $13 billion in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI (and acquiring a 49 percent stake in the process), will AI actually make its products better?
Microsoft went to town. Bing Chat officially kicked off its year of AI, while Copilot, assisting with its AI smarts, subsequently launched on Edge, Microsoft 365 products like Word and Powerpoint and eventually Windows 11.
While the AI interactions aren’t perfect, the one constant around AI is that everything is changing incredibly quickly. Microsoft has already announced Copilot will be upgraded with the more powerful GPT-4 Turbo and Dall-E 3 models.
– Mat Smith
How the EU forced tech companies to change in 2023
The best Xbox Series X and Series S accessories in 2024
CBS and Paramount’s parent company reports hack affecting over 80,000 people
You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!
Amazon is telling its Prime Video subscribers that they have to pay extra if they don't want their viewing experience interrupted by commercials. It will start showing "limited advertisements" with its service's movies and shows starting on January 29. If they want to keep it ad-free, they’ll have to pay an extra fee of $3 a month on top of their Prime subscription or their standalone $9-a-month Prime Video membership. The company says it’s all for “increasing investment” in its shows and movies. Lord of the Rings doesn’t pay for itself.
Apple filed its appeal to the International Trade Commission (ITC), attempting to reverse a ban on US sales of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2, according to court records. The company’s also requesting an emergency stay on the ban until a decision is reached regarding proposed redesigns of both smartwatch models. The matter even went before President Biden, with Apple hoping in vain for a veto. The ban officially goes into effect today, though Apple started pulling smartwatches from its digital and physical storefronts last week.
An impressive-looking Fallout: London mod has been on our radar for a couple of years, and now the fan-made adventure has an official release date of April 23. The team behind it claim it’s a “DLC-sized mod” for Bethesda’s Fallout 4, built from the bones of the 2015 sequel. The trailer shows off a post-apocalyptic London, with iconic locations like Big Ben, Shakespeare's Globe and Trafalgar Square,
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/yOr83Zi
The outside world is loud. Sometimes too loud. If you commute, you know this all too well. A good pair of active noise-canceling headphones is exactly what you need to enjoy a little peace and quiet, even on the noisiest train. Shure’s Aonic 50 has good ANC; you could even argue it’s too good.
A video of Taters the cat beamed across 19 million miles of space because NASA had to try it. It was a successful demonstration of new laser communication technology, through which NASA beamed an ultra-high-definition video across deep space, from the Psyche spacecraft back to Earth. The signal from the video, sent on December 11, made it to Earth in 101 seconds.
That data speed — through space — is faster than most broadband connections on Earth.
— Mat Smith
You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!
How we built a less-explodey lithium battery and kickstarted the EV revolution
The best books we read in 2023
Engadget Podcast: Diving into the Apple Watch sales ban
The best budgeting apps to replace Mint
Apple has apparently started negotiating with major publishers and news organizations to use their content to train its generative AI system. The company doesn’t expect to get its hands on content for free, though, and The New York Times says it’s offering them multi-year deals worth at least $50 million. While some of the publishers are reportedly concerned about the repercussions of letting Apple use their news articles throughout the years, the company is building goodwill simply by asking for permission and showing willingness to pay.
The Humane Ai Pin is expected to start shipping in March. On Friday, the company posted on X that “those who placed priority orders will receive their Ai Pins first when we begin shipping in March.” The company previously gave an “early 2024” estimate for the screen-less, $66 wearable device, which Humane believes is the next-gen hardware to replace smartphones.
Instead of a screen, the Ai Pin relies on voice cues and a projector that beams info onto the user’s hand.
Mint Mobile, the prepaid mobile carrier backed by Ryan Reynolds, notified customers via email this weekend that their information may have been stolen in a security breach. That information includes names, phone numbers, email addresses and SIM and IMEI numbers. Hackers did not access customers’ credit card information, which Mint says is not stored, nor were passwords compromised.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/dpXjKh3
It’s Christmas, and that can only mean one thing we’ve been waiting simultaneously six years and also just three weeks for: Doctor Who is back for a festive treat, and it’s bringing a new Doctor and companion, and a whole new era, along for the ride. Need somewhere to talk about everything that just happened? We’ve…
In early 2023, io9 gazed into a blood-splattered crystal ball and made a list of all the horror entertainment we were most looking forward to. Some of the titles we were excited about delivered; others did not—and perhaps most excitingly, several releases we knew nothing about in advance swooped in and scared the hell…
With El Niño slated to drop a warm, wet winter on most of the US in the coming months, everybody’s going to need something good to read while the weather outside is frightful. Engadget’s well-read staff have some suggestions: our favorite books of 2023! We’ve got a phenomenal assortment of genres and titles for you this year, from horror and true crime to rom-coms and fantasy adventures, here to provide months of entertainment for even the most voracious reader.
I love horror movies but horror novels are kind of hit and miss for me. I was immediately pulled into Final Girl Support Group, though, which does a lot of winking and nodding at classic slasher flicks while creating a completely unique story.
If you’re a fan of horror, then you’re already familiar with the trope of the “final girl.” Grady Hendrix’s novel doesn’t satirize the final girl, but imagines what life might be like for them after the end of their movie. Each of the main characters is (loosely) based on the final girl of a classic slasher, though their storylines don’t feel contrived or predictable. It reads like a fast-paced thriller but, like so many of the best horror movies, it’s also a poignant reflection on trauma. It’s also the rare thriller where I found myself wanting more at the end of the story. Luckily, HBO has signed on to develop a series based on the book, so I may soon get my wish.
2023 was the year I undertook to read a lot more books written by or centering characters who were like me: which is to say, trans. I tore through Nevada and Dream of a Woman, recognizing bits of myself reflected back and seeing versions of me that could exist in the future; I just barely slogged through Testo Junkie, cringed with Tiny Pieces of Skull, gravely nodded along with Whipping Girl and sobbed as Stone Butch Blues kicked me in the heart over and over again. (There's more. Ask me for recommendations!) The canon of trans literature is unfortunately not huge, and I speedran a good portion of it, always interleaving comics, zines or manga between novels.
Enter The Chromatic Fantasy.
It popped up in the new releases section of the newsletter from comics mainstay Silver Sprocket, which was all I knew going in. What I got, in what I assumed would be a break from often-heavy trans narratives, was… the most adorable T4T romance I've ever read?? Jules and Casper have some truly cute us-against-the-world chemistry, which is only further heightened by their status as literal outlaws — get in loser, we're robbing rich jerks at swordpoint. The fantastical setting is best described as polychronistic: while mostly hewing to gorgeously rendered high fantasy aesthetics, there are, for example, landline telephones (such the better to flirtatiously twirl a finger through the wire of), and seemingly the corporation Starbucks, none of which is explained or needs to be.
The Chromatic Fantasy slips effortlessly between swashbuckling glibness (benefits of a protagonist who literally cannot die) and genuine emotion. And did I mention it's gorgeous? No really, it's jaw-droppingly pretty. Congratulations to H. A. on joining Leslie Feinberg in the hall of Authors Who Made Me Cry Ugly Tears This Year.
Nat Cassidy hooked me last year with his excellent novel Mary: An Awakening of Terror, and his sophomore release is certainly not a slump. Nestlings follows Ana and Reid, a couple with a new baby who move into the Deptford, an ancient, revered Manhattan apartment building overlooking Central Park. It seems almost magical that they even won the competitive lottery to move to this otherworldly place. Both Ana and Reid believe their new home could be the answer to their problems: Reid, a struggling musician with a lackluster day job trying to care for his new daughter and his wheelchair-bound wife; Ana, a voice actor with bubbling resentments toward her baby after a traumatic childbirth left her paralyzed from the waist down.
But there’s no peace for the little family once they move in. Disturbing events leave Ana paranoid and wanting to get out, while Reid dismisses her concerns as he dives deeper into learning about the gothic building’s history. Baby Charlie never sleeps and constantly fusses, and things go from bad to worse when the young parents discover needle-like bite marks on their daughter.
What follows is an absolute rollercoaster of terror, filled with gargoyles, vampiric creatures, sore–infested, suicidal neighbors, cockroach-chomping real estate agents and lots and lots of bugs. Cassidy does a great job of drawing readers in with questions about what the hell is going on in this apartment building that’s so hard to move into but also seems to have no one living in it aside from Ana and Reid. The plot is enough to keep readers guessing, but you really stay for the tension Cassidy builds between these complicated characters. Ana and Reid’s relationship is put through every test, and I found myself loving each of them and hating them both at various points of the novel. Cassidy thoughtfully explores a lot of topics in Nestlings through the struggles of his characters: marriage, parenthood, postpartum depression, ableism, antisemitism, grief and much more.
I particularly enjoyed the nuanced discussions around being a caretaker, being a mother and all of the other things that can suck the life out of a person. There are many complicated ideas surrounding motherhood in this book: What does motherhood give to you, and what does it take away? How much control does a mother have over their child? Where does a mother’s influence end? Even with all of those heavy themes running throughout this book, Nestlings, in my opinion, is even more fun than Mary thanks to its consistent pacing, complicated characters, creepy setting and downright disgusting imagery. – Valentina Palladino, Senior Commerce Editor
I watched Animal Planet like it was my job when I was a kid. So my inner child was thrilled to discover Alice Henderson’s Alex Carter series last year. The books follow wildlife biologist Alex Carter as she monitors near-extinct animal species in the field, while also encountering a new unsolved murder in each sleepy town she resides.
The latest installment, A Ghost of Caribou, takes our hero to the mountains of northwestern Washington state to track a single mountain caribou believed to have wandered down from Canada into the contiguous United States. But she’s quickly met with hostility and violence: activists and loggers are duking it out over protected lands and the townspeople are on edge after the murdered body of a forest ranger is discovered in a local park. On top of that, Alex learns a hiker went missing a year prior in the same forest in which she’s conducting her research. Alex is soon forced to fight for her life, while also trying to solve at least two murders that may or may not be connected.
I love a good cozy mystery, and this series feels like one step up from those genre staples. It’s a little more serious with more threatening baddies, but you still get a hint of a cozy vibe thanks to the very careful choice of setting and the wildlife element. You actually end up learning quite a lot about the star animals in these books, thanks to the author’s experience as a wildlife researcher herself. Alex is a well-realized protagonist with a clear moral compass and a deep devotion to the protection of animals and the environment, but she’s also entertaining to follow. And while each book takes her to a different locale to study another species, there are throughlines in the series that make you want to pick up the next installment to see what’s going to happen. The side characters (recurring ones like Alex’s father and her best friend, along with single-book individuals) are also colorful and engaging. I can’t think of a better series to pick up if you love mysteries and suspense novels, and also have a fascination with the animal world.
At the center of Genevieve Wheeler’s debut novel is the titular character Adelaide, a 26-year-old American living in London who believes she’s found her very own prince charming in Rory. She’s sure he’s the love of her life, regardless of his complete disregard for her feelings throughout their relationship. Wheeler remarkably brought me deep inside Adelaide’s consciousness while seamlessly adding depth and a fuller story by jumping into the perspectives of both Rory and his ex-girlfriend Nathalie.
On the surface, it’s easy to put Adelaide strictly into the romance box, another story of girl meets boy. But, to do so belittles the nuanced experience of what it’s like to live a life of incredible moments of joy and piercing episodes of despair — namely to be human.
Adelaide deals with themes of trauma, friendship, heartbreak, mental health and, critically, the desire we all have to not just be loved, but to be understood. As a mid-to-late 20-something American living in London, it would’ve been difficult not to relate to Adelaide. But, these aspects of Wheeler’s novel made me reckon with the way I move through life and drove home the fact that — cheesy or not — we’re each the greatest love of our life.
Project Hail Mary may not have been released this year, but I only came across it in one of my numerous attempts to read more books in 2023. Try as I might, I just had a hard time concentrating, and nothing managed to hold my attention. On Libby, I borrowed and skimmed titles by authors like Blake Crouch and Stephen King — people whose work I always liked. And nothing took. I’ll admit it took me more than 10 pages to really get hooked on PHM, too. But once I began to absorb the premise, I devoured the book in two days.
In PHM, Weir tells the tale of a man in space, off to investigate a mysterious substance that not only proves that life exists outside of Earth, but also might lead to the destruction of our planet. His is on a suicide mission, with not enough fuel for a return trip. Yeah, the stakes are high.
I’m not a scientist, so I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the book’s finer details, but Weir’s evocative descriptions helped paint a rich mental image of the spacecraft. And though one of the characters in the story remained an amorphous blob in my mind, I still formed an inexplicable emotional bond with them, the way you might grow to love a boisterous pet.
As with most space adventures, PHM’s characters encounter numerous challenges and setbacks, making for a gripping read. Throw in likable characters, an emotional turn of events and a somewhat satisfying end, and PHM easily nabbed the title of my favorite book all year (not to mention a spot in my heart).
Naomi Alderman’s last book, The Power, was a very big deal. It made both Barack Obama’s and Bill Gates’ best-of lists for 2016, and it even spawned an Amazon Prime Video show. All of the accolades were well-deserved, as I had never read something quite like it. The book examined the corruptible nature of power and how it impacts gender, all while remaining a rip-roaring yarn about women who have the ability to control electricity.
Alderman’s latest and greatest, The Future, isn’t going to set the world ablaze quite like its predecessor, but that doesn’t mean it's not an absolute page-turner. This is for one simple reason. There are already a ton of speculative fiction books that examine near-future technology and how it could impact humanity. It’s a whole genre unto itself. Still, The Future is a fantastic example of this type of book, and manages to fold in recent events, from COVID to Elon Musk and the rise of AI platforms.
To that end, the novel revolves around proxy versions of many of our big tech companies (Apple, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI etc.) and boasts a sprawling narrative with multiple protagonists, including a tech vlogger that hits a bit too close to home. There are doomsday cults, narcissistic billionaires, depression-inducing social media algorithms and, of course, plenty of technological advancements. The tech in this book isn’t pie in the sky. It’s stuff that’s five or 10 years out. Alderman is careful not to give a year for when the story takes place, but she does refer to actor Ryan Reynolds as a “silverfox” and, well, he’s 47 right now.
The story is fast-paced and involves, surprise, a potentially game-changing AI. There’s also more biblical allegory than you can shake a stick at. Alderman, after all, previously wrote a book that examined the life of Jesus Christ. The Future is tough to put down and well worth reading, even if Bill Gates didn’t put a review up on his blog. Yes, Bill Gates has a blog.
Every time I recommend this book to someone, which is fairly often, I usually throw in a small apology for what it’s going to put them through. Here’s me doing that now: sorry, this one’s pretty heavy! But damn, is it a powerful read.
This Thing Between Us is often described as being about a haunted Alexa-style smart speaker called Itza, but that’s only partially true. Really, it’s about grief, cultural identity and inescapable cycles of hardship. It’s told from the perspective of Thiago, who seems to be recounting for his late wife, Vera, the increasingly bizarre and horrifying experiences he’s faced after her sudden death from a freak accident. The apparent supernatural possession of Itza is initially positioned as the catalyst for the horrors that play out across the novel.
Thiago’s unraveling mental state as he grapples with the loss of his wife and a haunting that starts to take on a more cosmic quality builds into a frantic sense of dread. It’ll break your heart over and over. There are some pretty solid scares, too, with more than a few deeply unsettling moments that have lingered in my memory, popping back up when I’m driving alone on a dark country road or taking my dog out at night. While This Thing Between Us didn’t come out in 2023 (it was published in 2021), I didn’t get around to reading it until this year, and it’s probably the book I’ve thought about most since.
Stephen Graham Jones is one of those authors who is just so good, you end up wanting to inhale his entire body of work immediately after finishing whichever book first got you hooked. At least, that’s how it went for me. I read one, and I needed infinitely more. So, I was beyond excited to find out that 2021’s My Heart is a Chainsaw — a love letter to slasher films and social misfits — was not only getting a sequel, but would ultimately be spun into a trilogy. Don’t Fear the Reaper, which came out in February 2023, is the second book in that series and it’s got all the heart of the first one, if not more.
Don’t Fear the Reaper continues the story of slasher-obsessed Jennifer “Jade” Daniels and the residents of Proofrock, Idaho, who four years prior endured a town-wide tragedy that irrevocably changed their lives. This time, because they cannot catch a break, a convicted serial killer known as Dark Mill South is on the loose after he managed to escape from a prison convoy nearby during a blizzard. And bodies are starting to pile up. In the first book, Jennifer/Jade’s acute knowledge of final girl survival skills took center stage as she tried to make people see the signs of a slasher in their midst before it was too late. Now, she’s repressed that part of herself and her protégé, a survivor of the previous book’s climactic event, has taken the torch.
It has all the elements of a good slasher story and tons of movie references for genre fans to latch onto. There are twists that will put your brain to work, plus a few moments that are purely supernatural. Like Graham’s other works, it also contains a lot of important subtext about being an American Indian. Jade, the final girl to end all final girls, is Native. So is the killer, Dark Mill South. In the end, Don’t Fear the Reaper is a surprisingly beautiful narrative about trauma (personal and generational), perseverance and healing. The third and final book in The Indian Lake Trilogy comes out in March 2024 — so you have just enough time to catch up with the first two before then.
I didn’t know much about Birnam Wood before picking it up — just that it had a Booker Prize winner for an author and a Shakespearean title that made me feel smart for vaguely remembering Macbeth. Turns out, it’s about the clash between an anarchist New Zealand gardening collective and a doomsday-prepping American tech-bro billionaire, which, had you given me a million guesses…
The story has plenty of meat on its bones, grappling with the Big Issues of environmentalism, capitalism, class struggles and the absurd ineffectuality of grassroots action in the face of unfathomable wealth. The main players in the gardening collective are idealistic but erratic Mira, her dissatisfied second in command, Shelly, and Tony, a Bernie-bro trust-funder with a self-righteous inflexibility that butts up against his desire for glowing recognition.
When Mira scouts out a vast plot of land the collective could potentially “borrow” for some guerilla farming, she meets billionaire Robert Lemoine who has already earmarked the property for his luxury end-time bunker. When he impulsively (sociopathically) decides to bank roll the gardening collective, the group has to make a decision. And at least one of them has to figure out what Lemoine is really doing out in the pristine lands of New Zealand’s South Island.
To talk too much more about the machinations of the plot is to give away some of the joys. But I will say that I ripped through the book’s 400 pages. Birnam Wood manages to meld the breath-holding pace of a genre thriller with the psychological archaeology of the best literary reads. And no other novel in recent memory has presented a better thesis as to what it may take to derail the runaway train of resource exploitation.
Girlfriend on Mars tells the story of a train wreck that I just couldn’t look away from. Told in both the first-person view of complacent stoner Kevin and in third-person of his girlfriend of 14 years, Amber, the story bounces between their two perspectives as Amber tries to win a reality show that’ll send her and another contestant on a one-way trip to Mars. The whole time, I was fascinated by whether Amber would win the contest and really walk away from Earth forever and equally engaged in watching Kevin’s descent into full-on agoraphobia as the one person he cares about essentially tells him she’s willing to leave the planet and him forever.
The two main characters are massively flawed, something that’s obvious right from the start, but you care about them finding some measure of peace and happiness regardless. Amber’s side of the story is a scathing critique of multiple parts of American culture, with the Elon Musk-esque billionaire funding the trip to Mars cutting corners and disregarding safety at every turn just to make a profit. Takedowns of the influencer world and the reality show obsession with watching beautiful people duke it out are well-trodden territory, but there’s an extra bit of grotesqueness to these proceedings, since the people flying to Mars are assuredly going to die there, sooner or later, and probably on camera.
Kevin’s story is a lot smaller, but the effects of his proximity to Amber’s growing fame are tough to watch — everyone wants a piece of her, which means they want a piece of him, all the while knowing that her success in the contest makes it more and more likely she’ll never see him again. The book is extremely readable, almost fluffy with its reality show tropes, but the last third is quietly devastating in a way that stuck with me more than I expected when I started. At first, Girlfriend on Mars feels as light as the image on the cover, but there’s surprising depth and darkness in these pages.
As the title suggests, Time’s Mouth has some elements of time travel to it, but it’s decidedly not science fiction — or at the very least, it’s not just science fiction. Edan Lepucki has some experience straddling genres, as her 2014 novel California deftly straddled a post-apocalyptic setting with literary fiction musings on family and environmental breakdown. In the same vein, Time’s Mouth focuses on a woman who can revisit any time in her past and the effects it has on both her and future generations of her family. Like any good time travel story, moving back and forth in time ends up having unexpected repercussions, and they come together in a very satisfying way as, years later, her son discovers his daughter can do the same thing.
It’s not an easy story to put into words, involving a sinister California commune of “mamas” who worship Ursa and her time-travel gift. Being brought up in such an environment makes her son Ray want a totally different life, but he’s drawn back to her world when his daughter Opal independently realizes she has the same skill as her unknown grandmother. At first, I thought the story would deal with Opal and Ray’s life without intersecting back with Ursa, who Ray has completely distanced himself from. But when the two worlds collide again after decades apart, it leads to a stunner of a reckoning for the family. Time’s Mouth made me both wish I could revisit my past and see it from a different light while also making me thankful that I’m stuck firmly in the present, aside from my memories.
It’s the same reason I don’t watch prestige dramas: The world’s on fire and everything is already terrible, why would I watch rich and powerful people be horrible to one another as entertainment? I simply don't have the emotional bandwidth these days to follow along the intricacies of courtly intrigue, betrayals and political maneuvering among competing noble houses, but I will spare an afternoon to read a wholesome isekai progression fantasy like Beware of Chicken.
Set in an alternate universe of Qi cultivation (wherein its practitioners meditate and partake in vigorous training to achieve superhuman powers and godlike immortality), the story follows Jin Rou, an initiate cultivator who is having a very bad day. First our protagonist finds themself isekai’d from a previous life in modern day Canada into the body of a Warring State period initiate cultivator — one who was just severely beaten by his fellow disciples. Not about to hang around the jerks who just bludgeoned the last version of him into putty, Jin Rou picks up, leaves his sect behind and hightails it to the most remote, least magical (and therefore least dangerous) region he can find in his new world, intent on living out the quiet life of a hermit farmer. Too bad for Jin, the universe has other plans.
In this three-book continuing series, Jin Rou’s efforts to remain anonymous prove comically ineffective — whether due to his steadily growing menagerie of human and spirit animal disciples or his inexplicably fertile farming efforts — especially after members of his former sect come sniffing around. If you’re a fan of massively OP protagonists like John Sutton from Battlemage Farmer and Saitama of One Punch Man, or are into LitRPGs like Path of Ascension, Mark of the Fool and Unbound you’re going to love Beware of Chicken.
Once Upon a Crime by Fergus Craig (Daniel Cooper — Senior Reporter, UK)
It’s always fun watching a professional pretend to be bad at their job, because it requires so much effort. There’s an art to doing something badly in an entertaining way that doesn’t just spill over into tragedy, or worse. Now imagine how hard it is to write a book that’s intentionally bad that never wears out its welcome, and you’ll see why I’m in awe of Once Upon a Crime.
Once Upon a Crime is written by Fergus Craig, but it’s really the debut novel from Craig’s comic character Martin Fishback. Fishback is a middle-aged, middle-of-the-road middle-Englander who, after his forced early retirement, aspires to becoming a crime writer. His lowbrow taste may far exceed his talent, but that’s not going to stop him writing his own crime novel, damnit.
Fishback’s main character, Detective Roger Le Carré, is the most obvious case of self-insert fic you’ll see all year. He’s a sprightly all-star police officer with an old school sensibility (read: He share’s Fishback’s provincial tastes and attitudes) and a knack for romance. Le Carré is also the only man who can tackle the grand criminal conspiracies on the mean streets of… rural Exeter.
As well as the general bathos of trying to pass off a sleepy cathedral city as a criminal hotbed, Fishback is prone to a tangent. Not to mention needing to pad some sections of his book where he’s gone to Wikipedia to help add ballast to the word count. All of this may sound bad, but in the hands of a master like Craig, it threads the needle to perfection.
I didn’t even know the book existed until I saw it on a table in a book store in London, clocked the name and reflexively started reading. In about three hours, I’d devoured it, hooting with glee to the great annoyance of my children and the other passengers on the train.
The Year of Less is a biography of a woman in her late twenties stuck in a cycle of accumulating debt. She decides to make a complete life change after racking up nearly $30,000 in credit card debt. Looking back, she can't even recall most of the things she's mindlessly purchased. Flanders decides to challenge herself and not shop for an entire year. For 12 consecutive months, she only purchases absolute necessities like groceries and gas for her car. Her endeavor starts small, with a ban on things like takeout coffee and new books. By the end she's gotten rid of 70 percent of her belongings and saved more than half of her income. She keeps her readers looped in through her online blog the entire way. By the end of her project, she achieves her goal of only making purchases that are in alignment with her bigger life goals. Flanders' story might make you want to create your own version of a personal shopping ban. Though you might not feel compelled to make such drastic cuts in every aspect of your life, The Year of Less could inspire you to spend more consciously.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/pxsX6Kh