X will soon be moving the ability to live stream behind its premium paywall, the company announced. The change will make X the only major social platform to charge for the feature, which is currently free on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch and TikTok.Starting soon, only Premium subscribers will be able to livestream (create live video streams) on X," the company said. This includes going live from an encoder with X integration," an apparent reference to X's game streaming capabilities.X didn't offer an explanation for the change. The company has used additional features, like post editing, longform writing, and ad-free feeds to lure users to its paid subscriptions, but hasn't typically moved existing, widely available, features behind its paywall. X Premium subscriptions start at $3/month for the "basic" tier, and rise to $8/month for Premium and $16/month for Premium+.There are, however, other signs that the Elon Musk-owned platform wants to charge for other simple features. The company introduced a $1 annual charge for new accounts to have posting privileges in New Zealand and the Philippines. Though the company still describes the scheme as a test, Musk has suggested he wants to expand the fees to all new users.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/x-is-making-live-streaming-a-premium-feature-185151147.html?src=rss
Spotify has a new plan for US subscribers that keeps you on the old $11 monthly pricing - as long as you don't mind ditching audiobooks. The new Basic tier includes the music and podcast content you get from Premium but without 15 hours of audiobook access, a recently added feature we suspect many subscribers don't care about anyway. Spotify said earlier this month it would hike Premium prices to $12 per month, beginning in July.The Basic plan echoes one it rolled out in the UK last month. That one costs 11 per month compared to 12 for Premium with audiobook content.Some have suspected Spotify's audiobook push has nefarious motives. Earlier this month, the National Music Publishers' Association asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the move, going as far as calling the company's audiobook integration a scheme to increase profits by deceiving consumers and cheating the music royalty system." The NMPA complaint claims Spotify will pay about $150 million less in music royalties over the next year because of its audiobook fusion. Spotify told Engadget it did nothing wrong and rejected the accusations.Spotify has been penny-pinching in other areas. It was reported last year that the company planned to overhaul its royalty model. One alleged part of that plan was to demonetize tracks earning less than five cents per month, pushing out some indie artists without established audiences.Spotify also laid off around 9,000 employees late last year, citing the gap between our financial goal state and our current operational costs."You can switch to the audiobook-free tier (which is now live) by navigating to your account page, then Manage your plan" and Change plan" and picking Basic. If you're a new subscriber, you can choose the Basic option when signing up.Update, June 21, 2024, 2:36 PM ET: This story has been updated to note that the ability to sign up for the Basic plan is now live.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spotifys-basic-plan-returns-to-11-a-month-by-cutting-audiobooks-163804267.html?src=rss
Apple reportedly said on Friday that it would delay iOS 18's marquee AI features in the European Union, conveniently blaming Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulations. The company claimed it would block the launch of Apple Intelligence, iPhone Mirroring on the Mac and SharePlay Screen Sharing in the EU this year, according to Bloomberg, which reported the news.We are concerned that the interoperability requirements of the DMA could force us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that risk user privacy and data security," the company said in a statement to Bloomberg. Apple didn't expand on how DMA regulations could force it to compromise user privacy and security.The DMA, which passed in 2022, tries to usher in fair competition by reining in what Big Tech companies can do to stifle competition. It blocks them from pushing out smaller competitors, favoring their own services over those of rivals, locking customers' data into their platform and limiting transparency about their use of advertising data.This isn't the first time Apple has pinned blame on regulations - without offering much in the way of specifics -for blocking EU users from having nice things. Earlier this year, the company said it would remove the ability to add home screen web apps in Europe due to DMA rules. It later reversed course, citing requests" it received. Google did something similar when it removed third-party apps and watch faces from European devices, blaming new regulatory requirements."Apple's delay comes when EU regulations present a thorn in the company's side. The European Commission formally opened an investigation into the company in March and reportedly plans to charge it in the coming weeks for DMA violations. The company was already fined 1.8 billion ($1.95 billion) earlier this year for preventing app developers from informing iOS users about cheaper music subscription plans outside of the company's ecosystem.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-will-reportedly-withhold-new-ai-features-in-europe-due-to-regulations-183313640.html?src=rss
As we do each Friday, we've gathered up the best deals on tech we could find. In the audio department, we spotted sale prices on some of our recommended earbuds from Anker and Beats. Discounts on Apple gear include all-time low prices on the 15-inch 2024 MacBook Air laptop, the new Apple Pencil Pro stylus and the (Product) RED Apple Watch. For your home, you can snag a deal on our favorite mesh Wi-Fi system and charging docks from both Anker and Belkin. And if all this talk of shopping has you thinking about your finances, you may want to check out the half-price subscription to Quicken Simplifi, our current top pick for a budgeting app. Here are all the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-new-apple-pencil-pro-gets-its-first-discount-plus-the-rest-of-the-weeks-best-tech-deals-161923518.html?src=rss
We've known for a while that Amazon is planning to soup up Alexa with generative AI features. While the company says it has been integrating that into various aspects of the voice assistant, it's also working on a more advanced version of Alexa that it plans to charge users to access. Amazon has reportedly dubbed the higher tier "Remarkable Alexa" (let's hope it doesn't stick with that name for the public rollout).According to Reuters, Amazon is still determining pricing and a release date for Remarkable Alexa, but it has mooted a fee of between roughly $5 and $10 per month for consumers to use it. Amazon is also said to have been urging its workers to have Remarkable Alexa ready by August - perhaps so it's able to discuss the details as its usual fall Alexa and devices event.This will mark the first major revamp of Alexa since Amazon debuted the voice assistant alongside Echo speakers a decade ago. The company is now in a position where it's trying to catch up with the likes of ChatGPT and Google Gemini. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, who pledged that the company was working on a more intelligent and capable Alexa" in an April letter to shareholders, has reportedly taken a personal interest in the overhaul. Jassy noted last August that every Amazon division had generative AI projects in the pipeline."We have already integrated generative AI into different components of Alexa, and are working hard on implementation at scale - in the over half a billion ambient, Alexa-enabled devices already in homes around the world - to enable even more proactive, personal, and trusted assistance for our customers," said an Amazon spokeswoman told Reuters. However, the company has yet to deploy the more natural-sounding and conversational version of Alexa it showed off last September.Remarkable Alexa is said to be capable of complex prompts, such as being able to compose and send an email, and order dinner all from a single command. Deeper personalization is another aspect, while Amazon reportedly expects that consumers will use it for shopping advice, as with its Rufus assistant.Upgraded home automation capability is said to be a priority too. According to the report, Remarkable Alexa may be able to gain a deeper understanding of user preferences, so it might learn to turn on the TV to a specific show. It may also learn to turn on the coffee machine when your alarm clock goes off (though it's already very easy to set this up through existing smart home systems).Alexa has long been an unprofitable endeavor for Amazon - late last year, it laid off several hundred people who were working on the voice assistant. It's not a huge surprise that the company would try to generate more revenue from Remarkable Alexa (which, it's claimed, won't be offered as a Prime benefit). Users might need to buy new devices with more powerful tech inside so that Remarkable Alexa can run on them properly.In any case, $10 (or even $5) per month for an upgraded voice assistant seems like a hard sell, especially when the current free version of Alexa can already handle a wide array of tasks.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-reportedly-thinks-people-will-pay-up-to-10-per-month-for-next-gen-alexa-152205672.html?src=rss
One of my favorite PC trends has been the explosion of gaming handhelds. Even after big names like ASUS and Lenovo entered the market last year with the ROG Ally and Legion Go, more manufacturers continue to join the fray. But with the Claw A1M, MSI is taking the road less traveled by opting for an Intel chip instead of something from AMD. And that has made all the difference, even if many of those changes are not for the better.Design and display - Straightforward but effectiveWhile MSI may have zagged with the Claw's processor, its design is incredibly familiar. That's because aside from being black instead of white, it almost looks like a carbon copy of the ROG Ally. That said, a few subtle changes have a bit of an impact. The Claw's grips are more pronounced, so it's more comfortable to hold, while its rear paddles are smaller and located a bit further down so there's less of a chance you press them by accident.MSI also opted for Hall effect joysticks, so they are a touch more precise and should wear better over time. However, the springs inside are rather light, so they don't feel quite as tight as I typically prefer. Unfortunately, while its triggers are nice, the Claw's bumpers are a bit too spongy.Meanwhile, nearly the entire rear panel on the Claw is vented to provide ample room for cooling. And along the top there's a built-in microSD card reader, 3.5mm audio jack, a volume rocker and a single USB-C port with support for Thunderbolt 4. That last one is a very nice inclusion as it's fast enough to hook up peripherals like an external GPU dock. I just wish there were two of them so I had a spare slot for accessories.Photo by Sam Rutherford/EngadgetOf course, in the middle there's a 7-inch 1080p IPS LCD display. It's relatively colorful and with a tested brightness of around 450 nits, it's easy to view even in sunnier rooms (though direct sunlight is still an issue). However, aside from a 120Hz refresh rate, there's not much else going on. There's no variable refresh rate to help reduce tearing in more modern games and it can't match the size or more saturated hues of the Legion Go's 8.8-inch OLED panel. And while this isn't really a design consideration, with the Claw priced at $750, I wish MSI shipped it with an included case like Lenovo does with the Legion.Performance - Keeping up, but just barelyHere's where things get a bit tricky, because at least on paper, the Claw is pretty well-equipped. Our review unit features an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU with Arc graphics, 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. There is also a less expensive model with an Intel Core Ultra 5 135H chip and a 512GB SSD. Unfortunately, the Claw's real-world performance lags behind MSI's claims and rival handhelds. Back at CES 2024, MSI touted that the Claw would be 20 to 25 percent faster than AMD-based alternatives. But no matter what I do or how much time I spend tweaking settings, I simply can't produce numbers anywhere in that ballpark.Photo by Sam Rutherford/EngadgetIn Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1280 x 720, high graphics and in Balanced Mode (30 watts), the Claw hit 52 fps, which is slightly behind the 54 fps I got from the ROG Ally at just 15 watts. To make matters a bit worse, those numbers didn't improve much when I switched to the Claw's 35-watt Extreme Performance setting, which only bumped the framerate up to 59 fps compared to 60 fps for the Ally when set to 25 watts. So despite running at a higher TDP (total device power), the Claw is just barely keeping up.It's a similar story in other titles too. In Cyberpunk 2077 at 720p on medium graphics, the Claw hit 50 fps in Balanced mode, which is the same as the Ally. Finally, in Returnal at 720p on medium, it was essentially a tie again with the Claw hitting 32 fps versus 33 fps for the Ally. Overall, the Claw's performance isn't bad, but it's not as prodigious as MSI promised.Photo by Sam Rutherford/EngadgetThe underlying issue seems to be the Claw's optimization and graphics drivers. I've been using the Claw for about a month, and in that time it's gotten a ton of updates including two or three BIOS flashes and a seemingly endless number of new graphics drivers. There was even one in late May that boosted performance by as much as 30 percent in some titles. So just imagine how rough performance was at launch earlier this spring.In some respects, this level of support is reassuring because it shows Intel's commitment to improving the graphics on its latest chips. That said, the Claw has been on the market since as early as April depending on the market, so it clearly wasn't ready at launch and its performance continues to be a work in progress.Battery life - Nothing specialPhoto by Sam Rutherford/EngadgetWith a 53Wh cell, there was hope the Claw could provide significantly longer runtimes than the Ally and its smaller 40Wh power pack. But because of the Claw's higher TDP, the difference in real-world longevity isn't quite as pronounced. When I played Diablo IV on medium graphics, the Claw lasted an hour and 43 minutes, which is 12 minutes better than the Ally's time of 1:31, but more than 20 minutes less than the Steam Deck's mark of 2:07.Software - Clunky at bestOne of the biggest issues with Windows-based handhelds is that while they are great for gaming, doing anything else without an external mouse or keyboard can be a chore. Windows 11 generally works as you'd expect, but the MSI Center app feels much less polished. Similar to ASUS' Armoury Crate, MSI Center is meant to be a one-stop shop for launching games, tweaking settings and downloading updates. And while it works, it just feels clunky. The app often stutters when you open it and I ran into a couple of instances when patches stalled while trying to update software.Wrap-upPhoto by Sam Rutherford/EngadgetUltimately, timing may be the Claw's biggest enemy. If it had come out last year when the ROG Ally and Legion Go hit the market, the Claw may have been a more interesting rival. But ASUS is about to release a successor to the Ally - the Ally X - next month with a completely redesigned chassis, 24GB of RAM and a huge 80Wh battery. That leaves the Claw in a really tight spot. And our top-spec review unit costs $750, which is $100 to $200 more than an equivalent ROG Ally (albeit with half the storage) and has basically the same performance and an almost identical design.Meanwhile, thanks to recent price cuts, the Claw is also more expensive than the Legion Go, but doesn't have the OLED screen, kickstand and detachable controllers found in Lenovo's handheld. This doesn't even factor in Intel's drivers, which clearly weren't ready at launch and even now after multiple updates, don't offer a significant advantage in performance. But the Claw's biggest opponent may be MSI itself, because while we're still waiting on an official release date, the company has already announced a successor in the Claw 8 AI+. The Claw isn't a bad handheld gaming PC; it just arrived too late and without the tuning it needed.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/msi-claw-a1m-review-a-touch-late-and-bit-too-pricey-143009327.html?src=rss
I've always been a PC guy, even when other content creators were waving MacBooks around. I'll state up front that I don't game, so everything I do on a laptop revolves around video editing. To handle that, I use a high-end desktop Windows machine at home and up till recently had a Gigabyte Aero 15X laptop for video editing on the go. Then, the Aero 15X died. The keyboard stopped working and the Lightning port failed. I didn't even really mourn the loss - it was always noisy and hot. Battery life was never great, and to do any serious video work, I had to plug it in with a comically large and heavy power brick. It was time for a new laptop, but I had no intention of reliving my Gigabyte experience. Instead, I wanted a lightweight, powerful and cool computer with long battery life. I needed to edit 4K video on DaVinci Resolve while doing color correction, as well as adding effects and titles. I also do RAW photo editing, so I'd be using Photoshop and Lightroom regularly, too. I eyed a MacBook Pro M3, but figured it would be too expensive. After checking, I was surprised to find that the gap between the price of a new MacBook Pro and a Windows laptop with similar performance has been less since Apple started using its own Silicon. So I made the leap and purchased a 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro chip (12-core CPU and 18-core GPU), 36GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. From what I'd read, that would be enough to handle challenging edits. I paid $3,100 in Canada including taxes, with the same machine selling for about $200 less in the US. Steve Dent for Engadget I put my new MacBook to work right away when I created a video review of the Nikon Z8 while in Vancouver. Later, I edited a review of the Fujifilm X100 VI in London and did a hands-on video for Panasonic's S9 camera from Japan. Those projects gave me a good feel for the MacBook's performance, battery life and usability while on the road. Back at home, I was curious to compare the MacBook to my desktop PC. While not state-of-the-art, the latter still has impressive specs with an AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-core CPU, NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti GPU and 64GB of RAM. I use mirrorless cameras like the Canon EOS R6 II and Panasonic's S5 II, which output up to 6K 10-bit 4:2:2 Log H.264 or H.265 Quicktime files. Those formats usually tax a computer's processor and GPU, so I wasn't expecting real-time playback. However, I noticed that I could smoothly play those video files in DaVinci Resolve on my MacBook Pro with no rendering or conversion required. I can't do that on my well-specced desktop PC, so what was going on? It turns out that even recent NVIDIA and AMD GPUs can't decode many of those commonly used formats in real time, as systems integrator and benchmark specialist Puget Systems revealed recently. It is doable with some of the formats (not H.264) on newer Intel CPUs with Quick Sync tech on DaVinci Resolve 18 Studio or later. Real-time playback of 8K H.265 files with multiple color correction nodes? No problem. Steve Dent for Engadget The ability to edit these files straight out of the camera was a major quality-of-life improvement, as it eliminated a time- and storage-wasting step. I also saw real-time playback on my Mac in most circumstances with no rendering. That includes sequences with 6K and 8K video, color correction on most clips, titles, multiple layers, optical-flow time-warping and stabilization. In contrast, my high-end desktop PC not only requires me to convert my video files but also to enable timeline rendering, particularly with 6K or 8K video. Both of those things take up time and can consume hundreds of gigabytes of disc space. While the MacBook felt fast, I also wanted to see how it compared to my Windows machine more objectively. I used the PugetBench Creator benchmark suite, which compares performance between machines on commonly used creator apps like Photoshop, Premiere Pro and Davinci Resolve. Considering my PC didn't perform as well for video-editing, the results surprised me. The MacBook Pro M3 did come out on top in Photoshop tests, garnering an overall score of 10,076 compared to 7,599 for my desktop PC. That's largely due to the superior M3 processor. Steve Dent for Engadget However, my PC out-benchmarked the MacBook Pro for video-editing by a pretty wide margin, thanks to its faster GPU. The Apple machine saw an overall score of 4,754 on the Premiere Pro PugetBench tests in high power mode, while my PC hit 8,763. There are no public PugetBench tests yet for DaVinci Resolve, but Puget Systems' own scores show that high-end PCs handily outperform high-end MacBook Pro models on that app. The PC is generally better when working with RAW formats and easily beats the MacBook Pro for GPU effects, AI features and encoding to H.264 and H.265 formats. These results show that benchmarks don't paint a full picture. The relative power of a computer depends on what you're doing with it, and in my case, the ability to edit certain video formats without rendering outweighed pure speed. However, people who use more effects or work with ProRes or RAW formats may be better off with a powerful PC. All that said, a lot of the stuff I hated about my Windows laptop had nothing to do with performance. I was often annoyed by my Aero 15X's weight (if you include the power brick), heat, noise, build quality and relatively useless trackpad. Since I bought the MacBook Pro 16, I've never felt it get overly hot and the fans rarely kick in, even while editing video. By contrast, there's not a single Windows creator PC I've heard of that doesn't generate excessive heat and fan noise under intensive loads. Add a second display like this Ricoh portable 150BW model Steve Dent for Engadget Another major bonus with the MacBook is that it offers the same performance whether plugged in or not, but the same can't be said for most PCs. Many throttle down when unplugged, substantially reducing performance. If you need to edit on the go and don't have access to AC power, the MacBook wins here as well. While editing on DaVinci Resolve, it can go three to four hours on battery power alone, triple what my Gigabyte laptop could do. And it takes the MacBook Pro just 1.5 hours to get to a full charge, compared to around 2 hours minimum for Dell's XPS 17 9730. It charges considerably faster, as well. It's also less of a grunt to lug than my Aero was, as it weighs a less and the charger is much lighter, too. Finally, the trackpad is much better, to the point that I can even edit videos without a mouse, something I could never say with the Aero or any other PC laptop I've owned. Not all is perfect, as I dislike the webcam notch, but otherwise the MacBook Pro 16 M3 is perfect. As it stands now, Windows laptops using Intel and AMD silicon might be able to match it in performance, but they lag far behind in efficiency. That may change with the new Qualcomm laptops or NVIDIA's upcoming 5000-series GPUs, but for now, Apple's products are hard to beat for traveling content creators like me.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-latest-macbook-pro-beats-my-high-end-pc-for-content-creation-130053351.html?src=rss
Anker makes our pick for the best budget-friendly earbuds in the form of the Soundcore Space A40. That model is now an even more enticing proposition, as has it dropped to an all-time-low price. You can pick up the Anker Soundcore Space A40 now for $40. The earbuds usually cost $80, so you're saving $31. Given that the Space A40 boasts features you'd find in earbuds that are twice as expensive, we already felt that they offered great value, so this is a pretty solid deal. The earbuds are light, and we reckon they should be comfortable to wear for extended periods. You won't hear as much detail as you would get from higher-end options, but that's to be expected. What you will get is an all-round warm sound profile that does a decent job at the lower end. You'll be able to adjust the EQ settings in the Soundcore app if you wish to put more onus on the bass or high end. You can also customize the touch controls through the app. In terms of durability, these earbuds have an IPX4 rating for water resistance, which is at least enough to protect them from everyday sweat and light rain. It's possible to connect them to two devices at the same time and you can use each earbud independently. The battery life isn't bad either as the buds will run for around eight hours before you have to plop them back into the charging case (which has wireless charging support and can top up the earbuds with another 40 hours or so of listening time). The best feature of the Space A40 though is the active noise cancellation (ANC), which delivers great performance for earbuds at this price. There's adaptive ANC tech that adjusts the intensity of the noise cancellation based on your surroundings, though it won't block out higher pitched sounds completely. You can adjust the ANC level manually too. There's also a transparency mode, which is decent enough. While phone calls are viable with these earbuds, the mic quality isn't terrific. The lack of auto-pausing when you remove an earbud is a disappointment too. Still, those are relatively minor complaints for a set of earbuds that are otherwise great value. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-budget-earbuds-around-are-on-sale-for-49-123026762.html?src=rss
The Apple AirTag is our pick for the best Bluetooth tracker for iPhone users and there's some good news if you've been waiting for a solid deal before picking up a few of them. A four-pack of AirTags is currently on sale. You can snap up the bundle for $80. That's a discount of $19 and it's just $5 or so more than the lowest price we've ever seen for the four-pack. One great thing about AirTags is that they're integrated into Apple's ecosystem right off the bat. It works with the Find My app on Apple devices, so you don't need to download an additional app. Just pair it with your iPhone (a very straightforward process) and you're good to go. AirTags can tap into a vast network of connected devices thanks to the large number of iPhones that are out in the wild. So if you misplace an item that has an AirTag attached, all it takes is for someone with an iPhone to be close by and it will pop up in Find My. Also, once you move around 1,200 feet away from an AirTag, you'll likely receive a left-behind alert, just to make sure you didn't accidentally leave something behind. (You can turn off these alerts for certain trackers and set up exceptions for them at locations like your home and office.) If you have an iPhone with an ultra-wide band (UWB) chip - an iPhone 11 or later, but not SE models - it can point you in the right direction of an AirTag with directional arrows and a distance meter when you're within 25 feet. This is handy if you struggle to hear the chirp of an AirTag (it has the quietest ring of any tracker we've tested) or the disc is obscured from view. The AirTag is fairly rugged thanks to its IP67 rating for water and dust resistance. It has a replaceable battery too, unlike some rival trackers. On the downside, the audible ring only lasts for seven seconds when you press the play button, so you might miss it. There's no built-in attachment point, so if you want to put an AirTag on your keys, for instance, you'll need to buy an accessory. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-four-pack-of-apple-airtags-has-dropped-to-80-120026531.html?src=rss
The Apple Pencil Pro is currently on sale for $119 on Amazon, or $10 lower than its original price. While that's not a massive discount, it's the first time the new iPad accessory has gone on sale since it came out in mid-May. If you've been looking to get the model as soon as possible, this is a great chance to at least get it at a lower price than usual. The Apple Pencil Pro comes equipped with a sensor that can recognize squeezes, which can bring up tool palettes, activate shortcuts and do other actions. A haptic engine then delivers tangible feedback to serve as confirmation for each gesture and action you perform. You can also change the orientation of the shaped pen and brush tool by rotating the barrel of the stylus. The Apple Pencil lineup can be a bit confusing, seeing as you now have four models to choose from that work with different iPad models. Apple's Pencil Pro works with latest iPads, namely the 11- and 13-inch iPad Air (M2), and the 11- and 13-inch iPad Pro (M4), so it's the one to get if you're also buying one of the company's newest tablets. To note, the new stylus retains the second-gen Pencil's shape and matte finish, though it's a bit lighter. And it still pairs and charges magnetically with compatible iPads. In addition, the new Apple Pencil works with the company's Find My network. If it's not attached to an iPad, and you misplace it, you can simply log into Apple's Find My and track it down. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-new-apple-pencil-pro-is-on-sale-for-the-first-time-since-launch-113052630.html?src=rss
It's been a quiet week of news, but we've been feverishly testing Microsoft's new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop Copilot+ AI PCs. In this episode, Devindra and Sam will answer your questions about Microsoft's new hardware, and we'll deliver some of our first impressions. It turns out Microsoft may have finally gotten Windows on Arm support right! And some of the Copilot+ AI features are actually useful, surprisingly enough. But we'll have to wait a few months to test out the controversial Recall feature, which was pulled from the Copilot+ launch.Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!Topics
Did you know Meta has a customer services department? If you have a problem with Facebook, Instagram and the rest, you might find it hard to get some of that service. Instead, people have been taking Meta to small claims court to get some kind of response to their complaints. Engadget spoke with five individuals who have sued Meta in small claims court over the last two years. In three cases, the plaintiffs were able to restore access to at least one lost account, but all eventually got the attention of Meta's legal team.The company has argued that it is not liable for more than $100 in damages according to its terms of service. However, some plaintiffs were awarded thousands of dollars - which still might pale compared to lost earnings for those whose businesses revolve around their Facebook or Instagram presence. We chart the mixed results of these users and Meta's logic in giving them so much attention.- Mat SmithThe biggest stories you might have missedThe best SSDs in 2024Apple reportedly has plans for a thinner iPhone, MacBook Pro, and Apple WatchMore than 1,000 students pledge not to work at Google and Amazon due to Project NimbusNetflix House will open two locations in Texas and Pennsylvania in 2025The Webb Telescope's dazzling nebula image supports a long-held theoryYou can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!Amazon says it's cut down on its plastic air pillowsPopping them makes me jump.You may have already noticed, but Amazon says it's reduced its use of plastic airbags included with its packages, shifting to compostable paper filler in most cases. It plans to eliminate using them by the end of the year. It's a move in the right direction: In 2021, the nonprofit ocean conservation group Oceana estimated that the waste produced from plastic air pillows alone would circle the Earth more than 600 times."Continue reading. A remastered Beyond Good and Evil arrives next weekBut where's that sequel?UbisoftUbisoft has released a trailer for its remake of the cult classic game Beyond Good and Evil, adding that it will launch on June 25. The understated cult hit has been upgraded to 4K and 60FPS - it was initially released on the PS2, so you'll see the difference. It will be available on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, with physical copies going on sale next month, too. What about the sequel that has been revealed, teased, promised, and... seen (by me!)? No word.Continue reading.The US will ban sales of Kaspersky antivirus softwareAfter years of scrutiny over the Russian company's government ties.The Biden administration has taken sweeping action to ban Kaspersky Labs from selling its antivirus products to US customers. A source told Reuters that the company's connections to the Russian government made it a security risk. In a statement included in the report, Kaspersky added that its activities did not threaten national security and that it would pursue legal options. The FCC put Kaspersky on its list of companies posing unacceptable security risks in 2022, while back in 2017, federal agencies in the US banned Kaspersky products. The company cannot sell to new customers starting in July.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-how-small-claims-court-became-metas-customer-service-hotline-111555251.html?src=rss
Smart displays have evolved quite a bit since the initial debut of Amazon's first Echo Show back in 2017. In fact, the category didn't really come into its own until Google joined the fray with its own line of hardware about a year later. Now, both of these companies are essentially dominating the smart display landscape, with each offering their own take on a smart assistant with a screen.
SpaceX has started offering some users a new Starlink kit that's small enough to fit in a backpack, so users can take it wherever they want to and get access to the company's satellite internet service. The Starlink Mini will cost users $599 up front, according to the emails SpaceX has sent out. That's $100 more than the standard dish kit, and users will need to have an existing standard service plan because they can only tack on the Mini Roam service for an additional fee of $30 a month. As TechCrunch notes, a Starlink residential customer will have to pay $150 every month in all if they also get the Mini.The smaller dish may not cost that much forever, though. SpaceX said in its message that it's working to make Starlink more affordable as a whole, and that it's only offering a limited number of Mini kits "in regions with high usage" for now. A few days ago, company chief Elon Musk talked about the Mini on X (formerly known as Twitter) and called it a "great low-cost option." He also said that it will cost "about half the price of the standard dish to buy and monthly subscription."
After a bit of a false start, Ubisoft has released a trailer for its remake of the cult classic game Beyond Good and Evil. The video first appeared in a tweet from the game studio that was later deleted. But the new announcement seems to be sticking around, and that means we really will be getting the Beyond Good and Evil - 20th Anniversary Edition on June 25. It will be available on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. Limited Run Games will also be selling physical copies of the remaster starting July 12; those will be for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S and Switch.The two-minute long trailer showcases the newly updated art assets. The remaster will run at up to 4K and 60 FPS, and it has a re-orchestrated soundtrack. Plus it also promises "exclusive new content," but it's unclear what that might include. Check out the whole video for yourself:Today's back-and-forth on X echoes back to how the world learned about the planned remaster in the first place. A listing for it appeared on the Xbox Store and an incomplete version was briefly on Ubisoft Plus back in 2023 thanks to a technical glitch. Also, any time Beyond Good and Evil comes up, regular readers might find themselves wondering about the sequel that has been revealed and teased and promised and seen for more than a decade. No, this update doesn't seem to bring any new information about that project.What a long, strange development cycle it's been.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-beyond-good-and-evil-remaster-will-be-released-next-week-for-real-230001749.html?src=rss
Sony has announced that it will be ending its rewards program at the end of this year. No, it's not PlayStation Stars, the loyalty program that rewards you digital collectibles for completing certain gameplay tasks. Nor is it the defunct PlayStation Rewards program, which offered PSN bonuses for the most voracious PlayStation gamers. It's terminating the Sony Rewards program offered through the Sony and PlayStation-branded Visa credit cards.The company updated the FAQ and Terms and Conditions pages to reflect that it will sunset the Sony Rewards website and mobile app on December 31, 2024, and new members will no longer be accepted into the program effective immediately. Pre-existing Sony and PlayStation cardholders will still be able to redeem points, access their account and submit bonus points and purchase credit request forms through the app between now and New Year's Eve. However, they cannot send physical bonus points and credit request points by mail after July 21.Additionally, members can no longer earn points through offers or partner offers, and they can't link their accounts to the Sony Store or Movies Anywhere. The Sony Rewards customer service will cease operation on February 14, 2025. As far as the Sony and PlayStation credit cards are concerned, cardholders will be contacted by Comenity Bank in due time about changes to the credit card programs but they can keep using them until December 31.The Sony Rewards program launched in 2017, allowing you to accrue enough points through your Sony or PlayStation credit card to redeem items only from the Sony brand. Redeeming points for PlayStation games seems like a great perk at first glance, but the redemption process is inflexible and the APR for purchases sits at a high 27.99%. The Xbox Mastercard, which Microsoft introduced last year, has the same issue but the APR can be 20.99%, 26.99% or 31.99%, depending on your balance. Plus, there's no cash back.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sony-will-terminate-its-sony-rewards-program-224538912.html?src=rss
You know those little plastic air bags in your more fragile Amazon purchases that make perfect popping noise makers when you crush them? Amazon says it's reduced its usage of them and plans to completely eliminate using them by the end of the year.The ecommerce behemoth announced on its news blog that it has reduced the use of plastic air pillows by 95 percent and switched to crumbled paper filler instead. Amazon also says it plans to use paper filler for nearly all" of its customer deliveries on Prime Day.The company says its decision to phase out the use of plastic air cushions at its distribution centers aims to eliminate unnecessary waste and focus more on using recycled materials.Plastic pollution has always been a concern when it comes to our environment but it has dramatically increased as a result of Amazon's meteoric rise especially during the COVID pandemic. The nonprofit ocean conservation group Oceana released a study in 2021 showing that Amazon produced 599 million pounds of plastic waste in 2020. The group also estimated that the waste produced from plastic air pillows alone would circle the Earth more than 600 times."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-says-its-cut-down-on-those-plastic-air-pillows-in-packages-222953642.html?src=rss
New York has passed two new laws restricting how social media companies interact with and collect data from users under the age of 18.New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed two bills into law on Thursday including the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act and the New York Child Data Protection Act.SAFE requires social media companies like Facebook and X to restrict addictive feeds to minors on its platforms. These include feeds that are algorithmically driven" to prevent unhealthy levels of engagement," according to a press release.The New York Child Data Protection Act also prevents online sites and devices from collecting, sharing or selling the personal data of anyone under the age of 18.Both laws require companies to obtain consent from parents before allowing kids to access feeds driven by algorithms or collecting data from them. The new laws also require social media companies to create age verification and parental consent controls for its platforms based on guidelines set by New York's Attorney General.New York passed two new laws restricting how social media companies interact with and collect data from users under the age of 18. Governor Hochul said in a released statement that these new policies will provide a safer digital environment, give parents more peace of mind and create a brighter future for young people across New York."Other parts of the country have passed laws restricting or limiting children's access to phones and online platforms. The California State Senate approved a bill similar to New York's SAFE Act that would also prevent social media apps from sending notifications to minors during school hours and from midnight to 6 a.m. throughout the year. The Los Angeles Unified School District instituted a ban that restricts students' phone usage during school hours. California Governor Gavin Newson responded to the decision by promising to work with lawmakers on a similar statewide law.These new policies and laws aren't just about keeping kids off of their phone while they're in school. They are designed to address mental health issues caused by social media platforms. The New York Times published an op-ed on Monday from US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy calling social media an important contributor" to the detriment of mental health in teenagers and called for social media companies to post a warning label for adolescents on its platforms and apps.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/new-york-governor-signs-two-new-bills-into-law-protecting-kids-from-social-media-211935749.html?src=rss
The image of the Serpens Nebula you see above, taken by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), not only looks mesmerizing but also captures a never-before-seen phenomenon. The aligned, elongated protostellar outflows" visible in the top left support a longstanding theory. As suspected, the jets shoot out in alignment from the swirling disks of surrounding material, showing evidence that clusters of forming stars spin in the same direction.NASA says the bright and clumpy streaks in the image's upper-left area, which somewhat resemble JJ Abrams-style lens flare, represent shockwaves caused by outward-shooting jets that emerge when the interstellar gas cloud collapses inwards. As forming stars condense and twirl more rapidly, some material shoots out perpendicular to the disk.Astronomers have long assumed that as clouds collapse to form stars, the stars will tend to spin in the same direction," Klaus Pontoppidan of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory wrote in a blog post. However, this has not been seen so directly before. These aligned, elongated structures are a historical record of the fundamental way that stars are born."The aligned jets (which look a bit like JJ Abrams-style lens flare) indicate the forming stars spin in the same direction.The Serpens Nebula is only one or two million years old and sits around 1,300 light years from Earth. NASA says the dense cluster of protostars at the image's center includes stars less than 100,000 years old. Serpens is a reflection nebula, meaning the gas and dust cloud shines by reflecting light from stars inside or nearby.The JWST's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) captured the image, which covers about 16 trillion miles by 11 trillion miles. The black rectangles you see at the full image's lower left and upper left represent missing data. NASA says its next step is to use the telescope's Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) to study the Serpens Nebula's chemical breakdown.You can check out NASA's instructional video below for a closer look at specific details from the glorious image.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-webb-telescopes-dazzling-nebula-image-supports-a-long-held-theory-210229206.html?src=rss
The Biden administration has taken a sweeping action to ban Kaspersky Labs from selling its antivirus products to US customers. The Russian software company will not be able to sell to new customers starting in July and cannot provide service to current customers after September.Ahead of the official news, a source told Reuters that the company's connections to the Russian government made it a security risk with the potential to install malware, collect privileged information, or withhold software updates on American computers. US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced the ban at a briefing today."You have done nothing wrong, and you are not subject to any criminal or civil penalties," she said to current Kaspersky customers. "However, I would encourage you, in as strong as possible terms, to immediately stop using that software and switch to an alternative in order to protect yourself and your data and your family."The Russian company has been the topic of cybersecurity questions many times over the years. The Federal Communications Commission put Kaspersky on its list of companies posing unacceptable security risks in 2022. In 2017, Kaspersky products were banned from use in US federal agencies, and the business also drew scrutiny from the UK's cybersecurity leadership.This level of presidential order to block or limit access to tech and software from countries deemed foreign adversaries dates from the Trump administration. In 2020, he made an effort to ban TikTok and WeChat on the grounds that the Chinese-owned apps could be a security risk. That action was overturned in 2021, but it sparked a review of the apps that has culminated in legislation Biden signed in April that could force TikTok to find a new owner to continue operating in the States.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-us-will-ban-sales-of-kaspersky-antivirus-software-next-month-205106837.html?src=rss
If you're in the market for a new webcam, you can save 20 percent on one of Engadget's top picks for video calls. The Anker PowerConf C200, our top budget pick even at its standard price, is on sale for only $48. Anker PowerConf C200 Webcam captures video in up to 2K resolution. Although 1080p will suit most people just fine (and you can lower it to that, 720p or 360p if you want), we appreciated the extra sharpness and clarity the 2K feed brought to our calls. The plug-and-play webcam has a fast autofocus and an f/2.0 aperture to let in more light and help brighten up darker scenes. It has dual stereo microphones built in, and you can use its companion software (AnkerWork) to change its pickup sensitivity from the default directional to omnidirectional (the latter for when more than one person is in your room). The webcam has a 95-degree field of view, but you can adjust it to 78 degrees if you prefer a tighter shot. As far as tradeoffs, it's a surprisingly short list for this price point. The Anker C200 lacks the fancy AI framing in some of the latest flagship models, and its cube-like shape makes it a bit more challenging than some competitors to adjust while on top of your screen. Its bundled USB-C to USB-A cable is also annoyingly short - not a big deal for laptops, but folks with standing desks or more sprawling desktop setups may need to swap it out for a longer one. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/one-of-our-favorite-webcams-is-on-sale-for-only-48-184715331.html?src=rss
Anthropic rolled out its newest AI language model on Thursday, Claude 3.5 Sonnet. The updated chatbot outperforms the company's previous top-tier model, Claude 3 Opus, while working at twice the speed. Claude users (including those on free accounts) can check it out beginning today.Sonnet, which tends to be Anthropic's most balanced model, is the first release in the Claude 3.5 family. The company says Claude 3.5 Haiku (the fastest in each generation) and Claude 3.5 Opus (the most powerful) will arrive later this year. (Those models will stay on version 3 in the meantime.) The Sonnet update comes only a few months after the arrival of the Claude 3 family, showcasing the breakneck speed AI companies are working to spit out their latest and greatest.AnthropicAnthropic claims Claude 3.5 Sonnet marks a step forward in understanding nuance, humor and complicated prompts, and it can write in a more natural tone. Benchmarks (above) show the new model breaking industry records for graduate-level reasoning, undergraduate-level knowledge and coding proficiency. It beats OpenAI's GPT-4o on many of the benchmarks Anthropic published. However, the latest Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Llama models tend to score within a few percentage points of each other on most tests, underscoring the tight competition.The company claims Claude 3.5 Sonnet is also better at interpreting visual input than Claude 3.0 Opus. Anthropic says the new model can accurately transcribe text from imperfect images," a skill it hopes will attract customers in retail, logistics and financial services who need to grok data from charts, graphs and other visual cues.Claude's update also brings a new workspace the company calls Artifacts (above). When you prompt the chatbot to generate content like code, text documents or web designs, a dedicated window appears to the right of the chat. From there, you can prompt Claude to make changes, and it will keep the Artifacts window updated with its latest output.The company sees Artifacts as a first step towards making Claude a space for broader team collaboration. In the near future, teams - and eventually entire organizations - will be able to securely centralize their knowledge, documents, and ongoing work in one shared space, with Claude serving as an on-demand teammate," the company wrote in a press release.Claude 3.5 Sonnet is available now for anyone with an account to try on its website, as well as in the Claude iOS app. (On both of those platforms, Claude Pro and Team subscribers get higher token counts.) You can also access it through the Anthropic API, Amazon Bedrock and Google Cloud's Vertex AI. It costs $3 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens -the same as the previous model.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/anthropics-newest-claude-chatbot-beats-openais-gpt-4o-in-some-benchmarks-170135962.html?src=rss
Embracer Group is making the move to using AI in game development following the mass layoff and game cancellations months ago. The parent company of THQ Nordic, Gearbox Entertainment and Crystal Dynamics - Eidos Montreal detailed in its annual report (via Game Developer) that it is adopting an AI policy to its game production model, despite the controversy around the use of AI in the games industry and beyond. It said that not using AI will lead to the company lagging behind other major game developers and publishers like EA, Sony, Square Enix and Ubisoft, claiming that the tech will help expedite the development process and give players an optimized gameplay experience.AI has the capability to massively enhance game development by increasing resource efficiency, adding intelligent behaviors, personalization, and optimization to gameplay experiences," Embracer said in the report. By leveraging AI, we create more engaging and immersive experiences that provide each player with a unique, dynamic and personalized experience."Along with listing the benefits of using AI in and outside of game development, Embracer said it understands that adopting the technology is not without risks. It noted that AI may produce unethical, biased, discriminatory or completely wrong results if it has not been properly trained, instructed or used for purposes it was not designed."Embracer's plans to adopt AI comes several months after it laid off 1,500 employees and canceled 80 games over the past year, along with shuttering studios like Volition of Saints Row fame. Despite concerns that AI will replace human workers, Embracer says it doesn't intend to use it that way. It went so far as to say AI will open doors to entry into the games industry for some developers, including those with disabilities who can't operate certain equipment the same way as non-disabled people. Only time will tell if they'll keep that promise.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/embracer-group-plans-to-use-ai-in-game-development-163040373.html?src=rss
Last month, Ray Palena boarded a plane from New Jersey to California to appear in court. He found himself engaged in a legal dispute against one of the largest corporations in the world, and improbably, the venue for their David-versus-Goliath showdown would be San Mateo's small claims court.Over the course of eight months and an estimated $700 (mostly in travel expenses), he was able to claw back what all other methods had failed to render: his personal Facebook account.Those may be extraordinary lengths to regain a digital profile with no relation to its owner's livelihood, Palena is one of a growing number of frustrated users of Meta's services who, unable to get help from an actual human through normal channels of recourse, are using the court system instead. And in many cases, it's working.Engadget spoke with five individuals who have sued Meta in small claims court over the last two years in four different states. In three cases, the plaintiffs were able to restore access to at least one lost account. One person was also able to win financial damages and another reached a cash settlement. Two cases were dismissed. In every case, the plaintiffs were at least able to get the attention of Meta's legal team, which appears to have something of a playbook for handling these claims.Why small claims?At the heart of these cases is the fact that Meta lacks the necessary volume of human customer service workers to assist those who lose their accounts. The company's official help pages steer users who have been hacked toward confusing automated tools that often lead users to dead-end links or emails that don't work if your account information has been changed. (The company recently launched a $14.99-per-month program, Meta Verified, which grants access to human customer support. Its track record as a means of recovering hacked accounts after the fact has been spotty at best, according to anecdotal descriptions.)Hundreds of thousands of people also turn to their state Attorney General's office as some state AGs have made requests on users' behalf - on Reddit, this is known as the AG method." But attorneys general across the country have been so inundated with these requests they formally asked Meta to fix their customer service, too. We refuse to operate as the customer service representatives of your company," a coalition of 41 state AGs wrote in a letter to the company earlier this year.Facebook and Instagram users have long sought creative and sometimes extreme measures to get hacked accounts back due to Meta's lack of customer support features. Some users have resorted to hiring their own hackers or buying an Oculus headset since Meta has dedicated support staff for the device (users on Reddit report this method" no longer works). The small claims approach has become a popular topic on Reddit forums where frustrated Meta users trade advice on various methods" for getting an account back. People Clerk, a site that helps people write demand letters and other paperwork required for small claims court, published a help article called How to Sue facebook," in March.It's difficult to estimate just how many small claims cases are being brought by Facebook and Instagram users, but they may be on the rise. Patrick Forrest, the chief legal officer for Justice Direct, the legal services startup that owns People Clerk, says the company has seen a significant increase" in cases against Meta over the last couple years.One of the advantages of small claims court is that it's much more accessible to people without deep pockets and legal training. Filing fees are typically under $100 and many courthouses have resources to help people complete the necessary paperwork for a case. There's no discovery, there are no depositions, there's no pre-trial," says Bruce Zucker, a law professor at California State University, Northridge. You get a court date and it's going to be about a five or 10 minute hearing, and you have a judge who's probably also tried to call customer service and gotten nowhere."The stakesFacebook and Instagram and WhatsApp [have] become crucial marketplaces where people conduct their business, where people are earning a living," Forrest said. And if you are locked out of that account, business or personal, it can lead to severe financial damages, and it can disrupt your ability to sustain your livelihood."One such person whose finances were enmeshed with Meta's products is Valerie Garza, the owner of a massage business. She successfully sued the company in a San Diego small claims court in 2022 after a hack which cost her access to personal Facebook and Instagram accounts, as well as those associated with her business. She was able to document thousands of dollars in resulting losses.A Meta legal representative contacted Garza a few weeks before her small claims court hearing, requesting she drop the case. She declined, and when Meta didn't show up to her hearing, she won by default. "When we went through all of the loss of revenues," Garza told Engadget, "[the judge] kind of had to give it to me."But that wasn't the end of Garza's legal dispute with Meta. After the first hearing, the company filed a motion asking the judge to set aside the verdict, citing its own failure to appear at the hearing. Meta also tried to argue that its terms of service set a maximum of $100 liability. Another hearing was scheduled and a lawyer again contacted Garza offering to help get her account back.He seemed to actually kind of just want to get things turned back on, and that was still my goal, at this point," Garza said. It was then she discovered that her business' Instagram was being used to advertise sex work.She began collecting screenshots of the activity on the account, which violated Instagram's terms of service, as well as fraudulent charges for Facebook ads bought by whoever hacked her account. Once again, Meta didn't show up to the hearing and a judge ordered the company to pay her the $7,268.65 in damages she had requested.I thought they were going to show up this time because they sent their exhibits, they didn't ask for a postponement or anything," she says. My guess is they didn't want to go on record and have a transcript showing how completely grossly negligent they are in their business and how very little they care about the safety or financial security of their paying advertisers."In July of 2023, Garza indicated in court documents that Meta had paid in full. In all, the process took more than a year, three court appearances and countless hours of work. But Garza says it was worth it. I just can't stand letting somebody take advantage and walking away," she says.Even for individuals whose work doesn't depend on Meta's platforms, a hacked account can result in real harm.Palena, who flew cross-country to challenge Meta in court, had no financial stake in his Facebook account, which he claimed nearly 20 years ago when the social network was still limited to college students. But whoever hacked him had changed the associated email address and phone number, and began using his page to run scam listings on Facebook Marketplace.I was more concerned about the damage it could do to me and my name if something did happen, if someone actually was scammed," he tells Engadget. In his court filing, he asked for $10,000 in damages, the maximum allowed in California small claims court. He wrote that Meta had violated its own terms of service by allowing a hacked account to stay up, damaging his reputation. I didn't really care that much about financial compensation," Palena says I really just wanted the account back because the person who hacked the account was still using it. They were using my profile with my name and my profile image."A couple weeks later, a legal rep from Meta reached out to him and asked him for information about his account. They exchanged a few emails over several weeks, but his account was still inaccessible. The same day he boarded a plane to San Mateo, the Meta representative emailed him again and asked if he would be willing to drop the case since the access team is close to getting your account secure and activated again." He replied that he intended to be in court the next day as he was still unable to get into his account.Less than half an hour before his hearing was scheduled to start, he received the email he had spent months waiting for: a password reset link to get back into his account. Palena still attended the hearing, though Meta did not. According to court records reviewed by Engadget, Palena told the judge the case had been tentatively resolved," though he hasn't officially dropped the case yet.The hurdles of small claimsWhile filing a small claims court case is comparatively simple, it can still be a minefield, even to figure out something as seemingly straightforward as which court to file to. Forrest notes that Facebook's terms of service stipulates that legal cases must be brought in San Mateo County, home of Meta's headquarters. But, confusingly, the terms of service for Meta accounts states that cases other than small claims court must be filed in San Mateo. In spite of the apparent contradiction, some people (like Garza) have had success suing Meta outside of San Mateo.Each jurisdiction also has different rules for maximum allowable compensation in small claims, what sorts of relief those courts are able to grant and even whether or not parties are allowed to have a lawyer present. The low barrier to entry means many first-time plaintiffs are navigating the legal system for the first time without help, and making rookie mistakes along the way.Shaun Freeman had spent years building up two Instagram accounts, which he describes as similar to TMZ but with a little more character." The pages, which had hundreds of thousands of followers, had also been a significant source of income to Freeman, who has also worked in the entertainment industry and uses the stage name Young Platinum.He says his pages had been suspended or disabled in the past, but he was able to get them back through Meta's appeals process, and once through a complaint to the California Attorney General's office. But in 2023 he again lost access to both accounts. He says one was disabled and one is inaccessible due to what seems like a technical glitch.He tried to file appeals and even asked a friend of a friend who worked at Meta to look into what had happened, but was unsuccessful. Apparently out of other options, he filed a small claims case in Nevada in February. A hearing was scheduled for May, but Freeman had trouble figuring out the legal mechanics. It took me months and months to figure out how to get them served," Freeman says. He was eventually able to hire a process server and got the necessary signature 10 days before his hearing. But it may have been too late. Court records show the case was dismissed for failure to serve.Even without operator error, Meta seems content to create hardship for would-be litigants over matters much smaller than the company's more headline-grabbing antitrust and child safety disputes. Based on correspondence reviewed by Engadget, the company maintains a separate "small claims docket" email address to contact would-be litigants.Ron Gaul, who lives in North Dakota, filed a small claims suit after Meta disabled his account following a wave of what he describes as targeted harassment. The case was eventually dismissed after Meta's lawyers had the case moved to district court, which is permissible for a small claims case under North Dakota law.Gaul says he couldn't keep up with the motions filed by Meta's lawyers, whom he had hoped to avoid by filing in small claims court. I went to small claims because I couldn't have a lawyer," he tells Engadget.Ryan, an Arizona real estate agent who asked to be identified by his first name only, decided to sue Meta in small claims with his partner after their Facebook accounts were disabled in the fall of 2022. They were both admins of several large Facebook Groups and he says their accounts were disabled over a supposed copyright violation.Before a scheduled hearing, the company reached out. They started basically trying to bully us," says Ryan, who asked to be identified by his first name only. They started saying that they have a terms of service [and] they can do whatever they want, they could delete people for any reason." Much like Gaul, Ryan expected small claims would level the playing field. But according to emails and court records reviewed by Engadget, Meta often deploys its own legal resources as well as outside law firms to respond to these sorts of claims and engage with small claims litigants outside of court. "They put people that still have legal training against these people that are, you know, representing themselves," he said.In the end, Meta's legal team was able to help Ryan get his account back and he agreed to drop himself from the small claims case. But two months later his partner had still not gotten back into hers. Meta eventually told her that her account had been permanently deleted and was no longer able to be restored. Meta eventually offered $3,500 - the maximum amount for a small claims case in Arizona. He says they wanted more, but Meta refused, and they felt like they were out of options. Ryan claims they had already lost tens of thousands of dollars in potential sales that they normally sourced from Facebook. We were prepared to go further, but no lawyer would really take it on without a $15,000 retainer and it wasn't worth it."While it may seem surprising that Meta would give these small claims cases so much attention, Zucker, the Cal State Northridge professor, says that big companies have their own reasons for wanting to avoid court. I don't think places like Google or Meta want to have a bunch of judgments against them ... because then that becomes a public record and starts floating around," he says. So they do take these things seriously."Without responding to specific questions about the substance of this story, Meta instead sent Engadget the following statement:
Instagram is rolling out another way for users to engage with a smaller group of friends and followers starting today. Close Friends on Instagram Live does what it says on the tin: you'll be able to limit the viewership of livestreams to just your list of Close Friends. Up to three other people will be able to join your more-intimate broadcasts.This could help users plan trips, collaborate on homework or simply catch up, Instagram suggests. The update will also give influencers an option for hosting livestreams for a private (and perhaps paid-up) audience.Since November, users have been able to limit the reach of posts and Reels to their Close Friends. According to Instagram, users are looking for ways to connect with friends and followers more privately. The popularity of features like DMs, Close Friends and Notes attests to that.Speaking of Notes, Instagram has flagged a couple of under-the-radar aspects of that feature that it introduced in recent months. You can now essentially post a video as a note. This will temporarily replace your profile photo. You'll also see an Easter egg (in other words, confetti animations) when you wish a friend a happy birthday in a note. This will appear when you include the words happy birthday" or use birthday-related words while @-mentioning a pal.Last but not least, Instagram has introduced a welcome feed update. You now have the option to add music to carousel posts that include videos. Until now, it was only possible to add music to carousels comprised solely of photos.InstagramThis article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/you-can-now-restrict-instagram-lives-to-close-friends-150023794.html?src=rss
European Union officials have delayed talks over proposed legislation that could lead to messaging services having to scan photos and links to detect possible child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Were the proposal to become law, it may require the likes of WhatsApp, Messenger and Signal to scan all images that users upload - which would essentially force them to break encryption.For the measure to pass, it would need to have the backing of at least 15 of the member states representing at least 65 percent of the bloc's entire population. However, countries including Germany, Austria, Poland, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic were expected to abstain from the vote or oppose the plan due to cybersecurity and privacy concerns, Politico reports. If EU members come to an agreement on a joint position, they'll have to hash out a final version of the law with the European Commission and European Parliament.The legislation was first proposed in 2022 and it could result in messaging services having to scan all images and links with the aim of detecting CSAM and communications between minors and potential offenders. Under the proposal, users would be informed about the link and image scans in services' terms and conditions. If they refused, they would be blocked from sharing links and images on those platforms. However, as Politico notes, the draft proposal includes an exemption for accounts used by the State for national security purposes."EU Council leaders are said to have been trying for six months to break the impasse and move forward negotiations to finalize the law. Belgium's presidency of the Council is set to end on June 30, and it's unclear if the incoming leadership will continue to prioritize the proposal.Patrick Breyer, a digital rights activist who was a member of the previous European Parliament before this month's elections, has argued that proponents of the so-called "chat control" plan aimed to take advantage of a power vacuum before the next parliament is constituted. Breyer says that the delay of the vote, prompted in part by campaigners, "should be celebrated," but warned that "surveillance extremists among the EU governments" could again attempt to advance chat control in the coming days.Other critics and privacy advocates have slammed the proposal. Signal president Meredith Whittaker said in a statement that "mass scanning of private communications fundamentally undermines encryption," while Edward Snowden described it as a "terrifying mass surveillance measure."Advocates, on the other hand, have suggested that breaking encryption would be acceptable in order to tackle CSAM. "The Commission proposed the method or the rule that even encrypted messaging can be broken for the sake of better protecting children," Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency Vra Jourova said on Thursday, per EuroNews.The EU is not the only entity to attempt such a move. In 2021, Apple revealed a plan to scan iCloud Photos for known CSAM. However, it scrapped that controversial effort following criticism from the likes of customers, advocacy groups and researchers.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/eu-delays-decision-over-scanning-encrypted-messages-for-csam-142208548.html?src=rss
Instagram is recommending Reels with sexual content to teenagers as young as 13 even if they aren't specifically looking for racy videos, according to separate tests conducted by The Wall Street Journal and Northeastern University professor Laura Edelson. Both of them created new accounts and set their ages to 13-years-old for the tests, which mostly took place from January until April this year. Apparently, Instagram served moderately racy videos from the beginning, including those of women dancing sensually or those that focus on their bodies. Accounts that watched those videos and skipped other Reels then started getting recommendations for more explicit videos.Some of the recommended Reels contained women pantomiming sex acts, others promised to send nudes to users who comment on their accounts. The test users were also reportedly served videos with people flashing their genitalia, and in one instance, the supposed teen user was shown "video after video about anal sex." It took as little as three minutes after the accounts were created to start getting sexual Reels. Within 20 minutes of watching them, their recommended Reels section was dominated by creators producing sexual content.To note, The Journal and Edelson conducted the same test for TikTok and Snapchat and found that neither platform recommended sexual videos to the teen accounts they created. The accounts never even saw recommendations for age-inappropriate videos after actively searching for them and following creators that produce them.The Journal says that Meta's employees identified similar problems in the past, based on undisclosed documents it saw detailing internal research on harmful experiences on Instagram for young teenagers. Meta's safety staff previously conducted the same test and came up with similar results, the publication reports. Company spokesperson Andy Stone shrugged off the report, however, telling The Journal: "This was an artificial experiment that doesn't match the reality of how teens use Instagram." He added that the company "established an effort to further reduce the volume of sensitive content teens might see on Instagram, and have meaningfully reduced these numbers in the past few months."Back in January, Meta introduced significant privacy updates related to teen user protection and automatically placed teen users into its most restrictive control settings, which they can't opt out of. The Journals' tests were conducted after those updates rolled out, and it was even able to replicate the results as recently as June. Meta released the updates shortly after The Journal published the results of a previous experiment, wherein it found that Instagram's Reels would serve "risque footage of children as well as overtly sexual adult videos" to test accounts that exclusively followed teen and preteen influencers.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/instagram-is-reportedly-recommending-sexual-reels-to-teens-as-young-as-13-121626058.html?src=rss
The California Civil Rights Department has revealed that Snap Inc. has agreed to pay $15 million to settle the lawsuit it filed "over alleged discrimination, harassment, and retaliation against women at the company." California's civil rights agency started investigating the company behind Snapchat over three years ago due to claims that it discriminated and retaliated against female employees. The agency accused the company of failing the make sure that female employees were paid equally despite a period of rapid growth between 2015 to 2022.Women, especially those in engineering roles, were allegedly discouraged to apply for promotions and lost them to less qualified male colleagues when they did. The agency said that they also had to endure unwelcome sexual advances and faced retaliation when they spoke up. Female employees were given negative performance reviews, were denied opportunities and, ultimately, were terminated."In California, we're proud of the work of our state's innovators who are a driving force of our nation's economy," CRD Director Kevin Kish said in a statement. "We're also proud of the strength of our state's civil rights laws, which help ensure every worker is protected against discrimination and has an opportunity to thrive. This settlement with Snapchat demonstrates a shared commitment to a California where all workers have a fair chance at the American Dream. Women are entitled to equality in every job, in every workplace, and in every industry."Snapchat denies that the company has an issue with pay inequality and sexual discrimination. In a statement sent to Politico and Bloomberg, it says it only decided to settle due to the costs and impact of a lengthy litigation. "We care deeply about our commitment to maintain a fair and inclusive environment at Snap, and do not believe we have any ongoing systemic pay equity, discrimination, harassment, or retaliation issues against women. While we disagreed with the California Civil Rights Department's claims and analyses, we took into consideration the cost and impact of lengthy litigation, and the scope of the CRD's other settlements, and decided it is in the best interest of the company to resolve these claims and focus on the future," the company explains.Under the settlement terms, which still have to be approved by a judge, $14.5 million of the total amount will go towards women who worked as employees at Snap Inc. in California between 2014 and 2024. The company will also be required to have a third-party monitor audit its sexual harassment, retaliation and discrimination compliance.California's Civil Rights Department was the same agency that sued Activision Blizzard in 2021 and accused the company of fostering a "frat boy" culture that encouraged rampant misogyny and sexual harassment. The agency also found that women in the company were overlooked for promotions and were paid less than their male colleagues. It settled with the video game developer in late 2023 for $54 million, though it had to withdraw its claims that there was widespread sexual harassment at the company.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/snap-will-pay-15-million-to-settle-california-lawsuit-alleging-sexual-discrimination-120019788.html?src=rss
The Senate has passed a sweeping bill that includes a lot of incentives for nuclear energy. The Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act passed in a vote, 88 to 2. The earlier version of the bill also garnered bipartisan support in the House of Representatives earlier this year.Those incentives will include financial awards for the first companies to upcycle recycled nuclear waste. The bill will change the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, streamlining the application and regulatory process for new reactors. Following the bill's passage, US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works chairman Tom Carper said in a statement: "The ADVANCE Act will provide the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with the tools and workforce it needs to review new nuclear technologies efficiently while maintaining the NRC's critical safety mission and creating thousands of jobs."Senators Bernie Sanders and Ed Markey were the two opposing votes, with the latter arguing that the ADVANCE Act turns the NRC into a facilitator rather than a regulator. "This bill puts promotion over protection, and corporate profits over community clean-up," Markey stated.Environmental groups have reacted strongly both for and against the bill. Dr. Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) said in a statement: Make no mistake: This is not about making the reactor licensing process more efficient, but about weakening safety and security oversight across the board, a longstanding industry goal."- Mat SmithThe biggest stories you might have missedPornhub to leave five more states over age-verification lawsMore than 1,000 students pledge not to work at Google and Amazon due to Project NimbusSennheiser Momentum Sport review: Fitness earbuds that lack finesseYou can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!Logitech Keys-To-Go 2 reviewA super slim travel companion for almost any gadget.EngadgetFor just $80, Logitech's Keys-To-Go 2 is a surprisingly versatile universal travel keyboard. Its battery lasts a long time, it has a handy built-in cover, and it is easy to use between multiple devices. It's also incredibly thin. Niche, yes. Good, yes.Continue reading. California Governor Gavin Newsom wants to restrict phone use in schoolsHe's seeking a statewide school phone ban.Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, has issued a statement supporting efforts to restrict the use of smartphones in schools within the state. He did so mere hours before board members of Los Angeles' school district voted to pass a proposal for a school phone ban. Newsom said he will work with lawmakers "to restrict the use of smartphones during the school day" this summer, because children and teens "should be focused on their studies - not their screens." While LA's board members ultimately passed the proposal for a phone ban, two members voted against it. One told The New York Times that he voted no because teachers are already having difficulties imposing existing restrictions. He added that parents need to be able to contact their children during emergencies, like school shootings. And that is bleak.Continue reading.Tales of the Shire is a cozy village sim where you can't run, but you can skipBilbo Crossing.WeraThe march of big-budget Tolkien fantasy has hit gaming yet again. While ignoring Gollum's misadventures, another game, Tales of the Shire, offers a gentler, low-stakes way to play in the universe of Bagginses, lembas bread, and Gandalf. Don't expect fighting of any kind, but if you're looking for a gentle Animal Crossing / Stardew Valley experience, this might hit the spot.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-congress-clean-energy-bill-passes-with-major-focus-on-nuclear-111554248.html?src=rss
If your iPhone is digitally bulging at the seams from all those photos on it, Proton has a new way to back them up with Photo Backup for iOS. Photo Backup has been available for Android users since December and it officially migrated to Apple devices.The Swiss company isn't just offering another way to automatically upload your photos to a new online storage space. Proton also promises they will be securely stored with secure end-to-end encryption so no else can see or access them.Proton also promises seamless integration with your iPhone and photo library. The feature can automatically upload and sync your photo and video collection, and provides simultaneous access on the web and mobile devices. There's also an Available offline" mode so you can keep your access to certain photos and videos without internet access while maintaining its encrypted safety status.Proton's Photo Backup offers free storage up to 5 GB and a $4/month plan for 200 GB of storage space. The Proton Unlimited plan offers 500GB of storage space for $10 per month and access to other Proton services such as Proton Mail and Proton VPN.Proton started in 2014 as Proton Mail, an encrypted email service funded by a successful IndieGoGo campaign that raised over $550,000 from more than 10,000 backers. Since then, the Swiss company added new encrypted services such as a VPN, cloud storage and a calendar and rebranded itself simply as Proton. The company reinvented itself against on Monday by announcing it would transition to a non-profit model because a Swiss non-profit structure provides additional security, which a corporation alone cannot achieve," according to a company blog post. Specifically, the company says that it has no venture capital investors and also noted that Swiss foundations don't have shareholders, so setting itself up in this new model could be beneficial for the company to stay afloat in a world where Google, Microsoft and Apple's offerings are dominant.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/proton-can-now-back-up-photos-and-videos-on-your-iphone-with-100036501.html?src=rss
Pornhub will cease operating in five more states this summer due to new legislation that requires age verification on adult entertainment websites. The move is in response to a wave of recently-passed laws that require porn websites and other platforms with explicit adults-only content to collect proof of their users' ages. In all of these states, that means people would need to upload a copy of their driver's license or other government ID, or register with a third-party age verification service, in order to use sites like Pornhub.A blog post from Pornhub said that its latest locations for shutdowns are Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky and Nebraska. The site said it would end operations in those states in July 2024. The website closed in Texas last week, and has also blocked access to its site in Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Utah, and Virginia in response to similar state legislation.Lawmakers from these states who supported age-verification laws said the rules would keep children from viewing explicit content. For example, the Kentucky bill framed pornography as a public health crisis" with a corroding influence" on children.Pornhub parent company Aylo has countered that the approach taken by these laws puts users' privacy at risk and may not actually prevent minors from seeing explicit content. After Louisiana enacted a similar law last year and Aylo remained in operation with a government-supported age verification service, Pornhub traffic in the state dropped 80 percent."These people did not stop looking for porn," Aylo told the IndianaCapital Chronicle. "They just migrated to darker corners of the internet that don't ask users to verify age, that don't follow the law, that don't take user safety seriously, and that often don't even moderate content." The company advocates a device-based age verification solution rather than state legislation to keep minors off of adults-only sites.The Electronic Frontier Foundation also raised privacy concerns around these bills, noting that no age-verification method is completely foolproof. "No one should have to hand over their driver's license just to access free websites. That's why EFF opposes mandated age verification laws, no matter how well intentioned they may be," the organization said in a 2023 statement.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/pornhub-to-leave-five-more-states-over-age-verification-laws-194906657.html?src=rss
The United States has taken a significant step towards becoming a nuclear reactor hub. On Tuesday, June 18, the Senate passed the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act in an 88 to 2 vote. A version also garnered bipartisan support in the House of Representatives, passing 365 to 33 earlier this year, leaving the path clear for the bill to reach President Biden's desk.The past decade has seen over a dozen reactor closures and only two new ones open - a pair that launched last month in Georgia to the tune of over $30 billion in expenses. The ADVANCE Act aims to expand the nation's nuclear energy industry by creating incentives and reducing the time and cost of building nuclear reactors. These attempts include financial awards for the first companies to reach certain goals, such as implementing upcycling of recycled nuclear waste.Much of the ADVANCE Act centers on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), an independent government agency that monitors nuclear use, including commercial nuclear power plants. The bill shifts the NRC's role, requiring it to create a new mission statement that states "licensing and regulation of the civilian use of radioactive materials and nuclear energy be conducted in a manner that is efficient and does not unnecessarily limit the benefits of civilian use of radioactive materials and nuclear energy technology to society." It further instructs the NRC to accelerate its licensing review process and hiring of staff, along with improving "its process for approving the export of American technology to international markets."In a statement following the bill's passage, US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works chairman Tom Carper stated, "The ADVANCE Act will provide the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with the tools and workforce it needs to review new nuclear technologies efficiently, while maintaining the NRC's critical safety mission and creating thousands of jobs."However, not everyone is in favor of the bill, with critics warning it comprises safety. Senators Bernie Sanders and Ed Markey were the two opposing votes, with the latter arguing that the ADVANCE Act turns the NRC into a facilitator rather than a regulator. "This bill puts promotion over protection, and corporate profits over community clean-up," Markey stated. "The ADVANCE Act, as attached to the Fire Grants and Safety Act, includes language that would require the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to rewrite its mission to state that its regulation and oversight should 'not unnecessarily limit' civilian nuclear activity, regardless of whether it is beneficial or detrimental to public safety and national security. The NRC shouldn't be the Nuclear Retail Commission."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/congress-passes-sweeping-pro-nuclear-energy-bill-140035295.html?src=rss
Sennheiser could have just trotted out a set of wireless earbuds that were rated IP55 and called it the Momentum Sport ($330), but it went further, adding heart-rate and body-temperature sensors to the made-for-exercise earbuds. These additions give you more insight into workouts, but also feed data to your existing third-party activity apps. Of course, the Momentum Sport also has to excel at the normal earbud stuff, and offer an ergonomic design, active noise cancellation (ANC), touch controls and other common features. Sennheiser has a solid track record with sound quality, but now it has to balance that with the expanded capabilities of the Momentum Sport. What's good about the Sennheiser Momentum Sport The Momentum Sport's overall shape is what I wish Sennheiser used for the Momentum True Wireless 4. The former's rounder profile fits my ears better and feels more comfortable even though they're slightly larger. Without the fit wing, the Sport version still rests nicely in my ears, though that extra part definitely helps keep them in place during workouts. Simply put, this design feels more refined and I'd love to see the company take a similar direction on its flagship model. Sennheiser says it aimed for vivid sound and impressive bass" that would help amp up a workout and it delivered. The stock tuning has noticeably more low-end thump on Justice's Hyperdrama, bracing the electronic tunes with a thicker layer of tone. That's definitely something that assists with your energy levels during physical activity. But, as I'll discuss later, the extra bass isn't always a good thing. The Momentum Sport's marquee features, which are heart-rate and body-temperature tracking, work well. Thanks to the earbuds' secure fit, you can get constant, dependable readings in Sennheiser's Smart Control app. Heart rate figures matched those on my Apple Watch, and I confirmed my temperatures with a forehead scan. The Momentum Sport's readings were consistent with the other devices every time, which means the earbuds are as reliable as other at-home alternatives. Billy Steele for Engadget What's more, there's tight integration with apps like Polar, Peloton, Strava and Zwift, so you can use the Momentum Sport with their devices and not just Sennheier's app, which is mostly designed to tweak settings. However, only Polar's Flow supports the Momentum Sport's body-temperature tracking. Sennheiser says this is because Polar is the only company with an ecosystem that keeps tabs on that metric and supports the appropriate sensors. No matter which third-party app you prefer, you'll probably want to sync the Momentum Sport to one of them, since the Smart Control software only displays real-time readings and won't keep tabs on trends or monitor stats during workouts. Although it has to power more sensors, the Momentum Sport still delivers solid battery life. Sennheiser says a single charge offers five and a half hours of playback, and that claim holds up. I didn't have any issues hitting that figure during my testing of looping audio at about 65-70 percent volume. That's with ANC on normal mode and heart-rate and body temperature sensors active. The company says you can extend the battery on the Momentum Sport by 30 minutes if you enable Eco Mode in its app. This feature disables aptX audio and both of the body-tracking sensors. What's not so good on the Momentum Sport The Momentum Sport lets you tap your cheek for playback and call controls. This is convenient when running, for example, since you don't have to find the exact location of the touch panel while on the move or if you're wearing gloves. The downside is that it can be activated by chewing. It is intensely annoying. During my tests, chewing gum or food frequently triggered the controls. Sennheiser says this is because I have strong jaw muscles (yay?) in close proximity to the sensor, but that doesn't make it any less maddening. I chew gum during both runs and lifting sessions, so this is a dealbreaker. Just clenching my jaw didn't trigger it, so at least there's that. The only way to remedy the issue is to turn off the onboard controls entirely, which disables both the cheek tapping and more common earbud tapping gestures. The Momentum True Wireless 4's ANC performance is solid but not amazing and that holds true on the Momentum Sport. Both sets of earbuds perform similarly with constant noise sources, lowering the volume of the external roar rather than blocking it completely. Like a lot of the competition (and the True Wireless 4), the Momentum Sport struggles with human voices. Overall, neither of them offer the kind of robust, world-silencing power that Bose and Sony muster. Billy Steele for Engadget Transparency mode on the Momentum Sport is serviceable, but it's far from great. The earbuds let in your surroundings well, but don't pipe in enough of your voice and I found myself getting shouty during a few calls. There's also an anti-wind mode that comes in handy during outdoor workouts, but it's a tool nearly all new earbuds are equipped with these days. Unfortunately, good audio performance isn't universal on the Momentum Sport. While some albums are detailed and crisp despite the added bass, others are missing punchy highs and a strong mid range. The sound profile compresses things like grungy, distorted guitars and bass lines. Vocals consistently cut through, but the more prominent kick drum in songs like Knocked Loose's chaotic Suffocate" relegates guitars to the backseat. In fact, guitars across a range of styles - including alternative, rock and country - lack the depth and detail the Momentum 4 provide. By dialing up the low-end tone, Sennheiser has sacrificed some of the dynamics that usually give its earbuds such great audio. And in a set of earbuds that cost over $300, that's a shame. Lastly, let's discuss the case, which is less sophisticated than Sennheiser's previous designs. These earbuds cost $330 and the charging case shouldn't feel this flimsy. The lid closes securely most of the time, but the hinge is just a piece of rubber so the case doesn't stay open unless you lay it all the way flat. The soft-touch coating feels nice, but compared to the accessories that come with the Momentum line, this case is what I'd expect with a set of earbuds that cost half as much. The good news is, there is wireless charging support and the case is rated IPX4, so it's not all a loss. Wrap-up The Momentum Sport presents a dichotomy. On one hand, they're excellent workout earbuds that reliably track biometric stats for an inside look at your training regime. On the other, they lack the overall sound quality I've come to expect from Sennheiser's Momentum lineup and the overly sensitive controls are an extreme nuisance. The earbuds could improve with some software fine-tuning, but for now, they're too expensive to buy just for workouts and don't even perform consistently enough to be your go-to set. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sennheiser-momentum-sport-review-fitness-earbuds-that-lack-finesse-130036233.html?src=rss
The march of big-budget Tolkien fantasy has hit gaming yet again. While ignoring Gollum's misadventures, another game, Tales of the Shire, offers a gentler, low-stakes way to play in the universe of Bagginses, lembas bread, and Gandalf.Set somewhere between the end of The Hobbit, but before it all kicked off in Lord of the Rings, Tales of the Shire sees you settling into Bywater, helping fellow villagers achieve their tasks and dreams. That involves fishing, farming vegetables and cooking up a storm to improve your relationships and unlock new recipes and possibly other activities.The game's simple but effective home decoration system allows you to move a single book or an entire table (and everything on it). In fact, the whole of Tales of the Shire seems designed as a gentle introduction to cozy gardening game mechanics, with its cooking and general good-neighborly activities. A cute system of bluebirds helps you navigate the snug but packed hamlet. (If it's not a village, it's a hamlet, right?). And when you run - you don't run, you skip.If anything, it's a bit too familiar. You can fish, farm and cook some dishes, and these activities offer rewards that can all be tracked elsewhere in the village, just like countless other farming and village life sims. The overarching aim is to help turn Bywater into a bonafide village by helping your neighbors with their various projects and challenges. During a brief demo, I was tasked with developing a new menu for the local inn. I had to pick my ingredients and seasonings carefully to hit the right flavor profile of dishes representing the story of Bilbo Baggins' adventures to steal treasure from a dragon. But Tales of the Shire isn't reinventing the genre.The Tolkien references are present but not overwhelming - this is another cute countryside village that needs a bit of help - just that everyone has hairy big feet. The development team told me their writing team included a Tolkien expert" to make sure that sidequests, stories and characters still fit cohesively into the author's vision. I think that generally means maximum whimsy. Expect lots of food-based chilling by the riverbanks and cozy errands.WetaEven the relationship mechanism between your customizable character and the rest of the village is based on making dinner to forge bonds and deepen connections. Hosting a mean dinner party opens up more quests, and - just as crucial - more potent recipes for schmoozing and feeding other villagers. Meal crafting itself is a relatively short minigame in which you can riff off base ingredients to incorporate your guests' favorite flavors. Some fish, for example, may have a salty or hot flavor profile, improving your odds of making a new friend. A little graph guides your cooking prep as you aim for the best consistency and texture for your culinary creations.According to the team behind it, Tales of the Shire is intentionally slow-paced. It aims to be forgiving and doesn't punish the player if they mess up a task or fail to complete it. Time passes slowly, giving the player enough time to walk (or skip) to other parts of the village. My demo was a relaxing, if predictable, jaunt around the Shire, but could be a tempting new game for Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley fans, all with the cultural pull of Tolkien.Tales of the Shire will be released later this year for PC, Nintendo Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tales-of-the-shire-is-a-cozy-village-sim-where-you-cant-run-but-you-can-skip-130027018.html?src=rss
Amazon Games has revealed when it will bring free-to-play MMO Throne and Liberty to the Americas, Europe and Japan. The company will release the NCSoft-developed title in those regions on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on September 17. There will be full cross-platform support. An open beta will take place in July and you can sign up for that through the game's website.Throne and Liberty, which was originally supposed to be a direct sequel to the original Lineage, debuted in Korea last year after a lengthy development process. It has both player vs. player and player vs. environment combat, and you can join guilds and form alliances to help you succeed. Amazon says battles can accommodate thousands of players at the same time.The action takes place in an open world called Solisium, where the weather can impact the effectiveness of your weapons and even open up new routes. Your character can shapeshift into creatures that can navigate the sea and air more quickly. You'll even be able to transform into slain bosses to help out your side in battles.Amazon signed a deal with NCSoft in 2023 to publish Throne and Liberty in North America, South America, Europe and Japan on the heels of Lost Ark's success. That game, from South Korean developer Smilegate, turned out to be a huge hit, with a peak of 1.3 million concurrent players on Steam. Over two years later, Lost Ark is still going strong, with an average Steam concurrent player count of nearly 56,000 in May.Despite how well Lost Ark (and before that, New World) performed for Amazon Games, the division has gone through some rough spells over the last several years. Soon after its first in-house game Crucible debuted in May 2020, Amazon pulled it back into beta status before completely shutting down the free-to-play shooter outright a few months later. Last year, Amazon laid off around 300 workers from its games division as part of a broader downsizing.Even so, Amazon has some other notable games in its pipeline. It's working on a Lord of the Rings MMO and it's publishing the next Tomb Raider game (it's bringing a live-action Tomb Raider series to Prime Video too).This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazons-throne-and-liberty-mmo-is-coming-to-the-west-in-september-123028015.html?src=rss
Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, has issued a statement in support of efforts aiming to restrict the use of smartphones in schools within the state. As The New York Times reports, the governor aired his stance merely hours before board members at the Los Angeles Unified School District voted to pass a proposal for a school phone ban. Newsom said he will work with lawmakers "to restrict the use of smartphones during the school day" this summer, because children and teens "should be focused on their studies - not their screens."The governor also mentioned and agreed with the US Surgeon General's op-ed published by The Times, wherein he said that social media platforms should be required to display warning labels from his office because they can significantly harm teenagers' mental health. In his piece, Vivek Murthy explained that the label "which requires congressional action, would regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe."Newsom said the rules he develops will build upon the directive he signed in 2019, which authorizes (but doesn't require) districts to adopt phone bans. If California does pass a law to ban the use of phone during school hours, it'll join Florida and Indiana in the list of states with similar legislation. Florida's schools are required to prevent their students from using their phones during class time, and some districts even require them to ban phone use until it's time for the students to go home. Other states are poised to follow suit. New York City designated social media as a public health hazard earlier this year, and Governor Kathy Hochul previously said that she would pursue phone restrictions for schools in the New York state next year.While LA's board members ultimately passed the proposal for a phone ban, two members voted against it. One told The Times that he voted no because teachers are already having difficulties imposing existing restrictions in schools. Perhaps more importantly, he said that parents need to be able to contact their children during emergencies, like school shootings, echoing the concerns of parents who opposed phone bans in the past.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/california-governor-gavin-newsom-wants-to-restrict-phone-use-in-schools-120012532.html?src=rss
Nintendo sidestepped sharing the spotlight with all the other gaming companies at Summer Game Fest last week, promising its own Direct later in June. And that happened yesterday, teasing a lot of new games with Nintendo favorites. Mario games, yes. Zelda games, yes, and even a new Metroid game, confirmed. (More on that below the fold).The funny thing is the new Zelda game is all about... Zelda. You play as the princess in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. It opens where most Zelda games finish, with Link defeating Ganon. But just as he frees Princess Zelda, our usual hero is sucked into an alternate dimension. The game is played top-down and borrows the art style of the Link's Awakening remake. However, Zelda's main weapon and tool is the trirod. With this, she can copy many items and use these echoes" to navigate the world. You can even create echoes of monsters to fight for Zelda.Nintendo's 40-minute update also included release dates for the forthcoming Dragon Quest remake, a new Mario Party title and news that feline adventure Stray is coming to Switch.Quick note: We're updating our newsletter distro, and we apologies for any formatting hiccups on the way. And if you're reading this on the site, why not sign up for this very newsletter? Subscribe right here!- Mat SmithThe biggest stories you might have missedHere are all of the just-announced Copilot+ PCs with Snapdragon X chipsBlack Myth: Wukong is pretty, intriguing and as challenging as it looksBeats Solo Buds reviewExactly what you'd expect for $80.EngadgetThe Solo Buds cover the basics, but that's about it. Audio quality is flat, unless you're listening to Dolby Atmos content in Apple Music, but at least the earbuds are comfy with long battery life. Then again, they only cost 80 bucks.Continue reading.EV maker Fisker declares bankruptcyThe company halted production in early 2024.Fisker has officially declared bankruptcy. The US-based startup filed for Chapter 11 protections and plans to restructure its debt and sell its assets. This means the Alaska EV with a designated cowboy hat space - not a joke - will likely never happen. Fisker revealed in a recent report that it had produced 10,193 units of its sole EV available, the Ocean SUV, in 2023, but only delivered 4,929 vehicles.Continue reading.Habbo Hotel Origins brings the original PC game back to life2005 is back.Habbo Hotel: Origins, on Mac today, revives the 2005 PC game in all its nostalgic glory. If you never played Habbo Hotel 20 years ago, the game is an online community, in the format of, well, a hotel. Your avatar can chat with your friends in the virtual hotel lobby and spend in-game credits on furniture and accessories.Continue reading.Metroid Prime 4 exists and will launch in 2025And we got a trailer.After 18 years and a complete reboot, Samus Aran will return in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, next year. We got our first glimpse of the game too, with Samus duking it out with aliens in typical Metroid style. The teaser ends with the reveal of a new big bad. It's wearing a suit like our hero but is flanked by two floating metroids. Ominous? Yes.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-the-biggest-announcements-from-nintendo-direct-111547910.html?src=rss
No Tech for Apartheid (NOTA), a coalition of tech workers demanding big tech companies to drop their contracts with the Israeli government, is close to reaching its goal for a campaign asking students not to work with Google and Amazon. As Wired reports, more than 1,100 people who identified themselves as STEM students and young workers have taken the pledge to refuse jobs from the companies "for powering Israel's Apartheid system and genocide against Palestinians." Based on its website, NOTA's goal is to gather 1,200 signatures for the campaign."As young people and students in STEM and beyond, we refuse to have any part in these horrific abuses. We're joining the #NoTechForApartheid campaign to demand Amazon and Google immediately end Project Nimbus," part of the pledge reads. Google and Amazon won a $1.2 billion contract under Project Nimbus to provide the Israeli government and military with cloud computing, machine learning and artificial intelligence services. A Google spokesperson previously denied that the company's Nimbus contract deals with "highly sensitive, classified or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services."As two of the biggest tech companies on the planet, Google and Amazon are also two of the biggest employees of STEM graduates. Wired says the campaign's pledgers include undergraduate and graduate students from Stanford, UC Berkeley, the University of San Francisco and San Francisco State University - institutions located in the same state as Google's HQ.NOTA had also organized actions protesting tech companies' involvement with Israel in the past, including sit-ins and office takeovers that had led Google to fire dozens of workers. In March, one of its organizers was fired from Google after interrupting one of its executives at an Israeli tech conference in New York and loudly proclaiming that he refuses to "build technology that powers genocide or surveillance."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/more-than-1000-students-pledge-not-to-work-at-google-and-amazon-due-to-project-nimbus-042439081.html?src=rss
The California Labor Commissioner's office has fined Amazon $5,901,700 for infractions related to a law designed to protect warehouse workers. Under the state's AB-701 law, large companies are required to tell warehouse or distribution center workers in writing what their expected quotas are, including how often they should perform particular tasks, and what consequences they may face for failing to meet those quotas.This law was a reaction to stories from Amazon workers who said they would skip bathroom breaks or risk injury in order to maximize their output. "The hardworking warehouse employees who have helped sustain us during these unprecedented times should not have to risk injury or face punishment as a result of exploitative quotas that violate basic health and safety," Governor Gavin Newsom said when he signed the bill in 2021.According to the California Labor Commissioner, Amazon failed to meet those rules at two of its facilities in the cities of Moreno Valley and Redlands, with 59,017 violations logged during the labor office's inspections. It's one of the first big fines levied thanks to AB-701, which took effect in January 2022. The tech giant claimed it did not need to provide written information because it uses a "peer-to-peer system.""The peer-to-peer system that Amazon was using in these two warehouses is exactly the kind of system that the Warehouse Quotas law was put in place to prevent," Labor Commissioner Lilia Garcia-Brower said in an official statement. "Undisclosed quotas expose workers to increased pressure to work faster and can lead to higher injury rates and other violations by forcing workers to skip breaks."The AB701 bill was passed by the state in September 2021, headed up by State Assembly rep Lorena Gonzalez. She was also a part of passing California's AB-5 bill in 2019 to seek better protections for gig workers at companies such as Uber and Lyft.Amazon spokesperson Maureen Lynch Vogel told Engadget, however, that the company disagrees with the allegations made in the citations and have already appealed the fines. "The truth is, we don't have fixed quotas," Vogel continued. "At Amazon, individual performance is evaluated over a long period of time, in relation to how the entire site's team is performing. Employees can - and are encouraged to - review their performance whenever they wish. They can always talk to a manager if they're having trouble finding the information."Update, June 18, 2024, 8:48PM ET: We've updated this post's headline to correct the fine Amazon is facing. We regret the error. We've also added a statement from Amazon.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-faces-nearly-6b-in-fines-over-california-labor-law-violations-203238513.html?src=rss
Netflix announced that Dalla and King of Prussia, Pennsylvania will host the first incarnations of its Netflix House entertainment complex concept. The Netflix blog Tudum posted the announcement Tuesday morning along with an artist's rendering of one of the locations. Both will open sometime next year.Netflix House is the streaming giant's first attempt at a brick-and-mortar retail business. The Dallas and King of Prussia locations will offer dining, live events and interactive sets and experiences based on some of Netflix's most popular shows and movies.The experiential entertainment venue" will let fans of shows like Bridgerton, Money Heist, Stranger Things and Squid Game interact with some of its most iconic scenes and settings. The announcement promises that guests can do things like waltzing with your partner to an orchestral cover of a Taylor Swift song on a replication of the Bridgerton set." Then you can enter another area of Netflix House and compete in the Glass Bridge challenge from Squid Game" presumably without experiencing a really messy death in the end.Presumably, no high concept entertainment experience is complete without taking a forced path through a gift shop. You can pick up special merchandise like a Hellfire Club T-shirt, a copy of The Queen's Gambit board game or an I survived a rich guy's game of death" coffee mug from Squid Game. Don't forget to check out the clearance bin for a Too Hot to Handle oven mitt.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflix-house-will-open-two-locations-in-texas-and-pennsylvania-in-2025-213033751.html?src=rss
The Federal Trade Commission has referred its complaint against TikTok to the Justice Department after a long-running investigation into the company's privacy and security practices. Our investigation found reason to believe that TikTok is violating or about to violate the FTC Act and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)," FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a post on X.In a longer statement shared by the FTC, the regulator noted its investigation into TikTok after a 2019 privacy settlement related to Musical.ly, the app acquired by ByteDance that eventually became TikTok. The FTC also investigated additional potential violations of COPPA and the FTC Act," it said. It's not clear exactly what the FTC turned up, though Politico reported earlier this year that the regulator was also looking into whether TikTok had misled users about whether their personal data was accessible to people in China.The statement itself is a somewhat unusual move for the FTC, which acknowledged that it doesn't typically publicize its referral decisions. It said it believed doing so in this case was in the public interest." The referral is likely to ramp up pressure on TikTok, which is also fighting a legal battle against the US government to avoid a potential ban. Lawmakers and other officials have alleged the app poses a national security threat due to its ties to China.A TikTok spokesperson told Engadget in a statement that the company was disappointed" with the FTC's decision. "We've been working with the FTC for more than a year to address its concerns," the spokesperson said. We're disappointed the agency is pursuing litigation instead of continuing to work with us on a reasonable solution. We strongly disagree with the FTC's allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed. We're proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we've done to protect children and we will continue to update and improve our product."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-ftc-has-referred-its-child-privacy-case-against-tiktok-to-the-justice-department-211542778.html?src=rss
Finnish developer Sulake has officially launched Habbo Hotel: Origins on Mac today, reviving the 2005 PC game in all its nostalgic glory. If you never played Habbo Hotel 20 years ago, the game is an online community that is very much a pixelated version of Roblox or Club Penguin where your avatar can chat with your friends in the virtual hotel lobby, spend in-game credits on furniture and accessories, decorate your Guest Room with said digital furniture and invite people over to your Guest Room for a chat. You could also message your friends with a little virtual phone. Now you can experience the game as it was originally made in Habbo Hotel: Origins thanks to the game's creator Macklebee stumbling across the files by sweet serendipity.After discovering an old decrepit server with some long-lost files at the beginning of this year, over the past six months or so long-time Habbo developer and player Macklebee has lovingly restored an old version of Habbo Hotel first released in 2005," the developer said in a blog post.Sulake said Habbo Hotel: Origins is developed with a fresh, community-led approach." This means they have converted Infobus Park from the original game into a kind of democratic forum" where they'll answer players' questions about the game's development and direction. Infobus Park was a Public Room that served as a waiting area for players to board the bus, which only operated for a few hours a day.Habbo Hotel: Origins sets the age limit to create a new account for 18 instead of 13. This is because the chat rooms in the original game were filled with pornographic and graphic messages, as a Channel 4 News reporter discovered while playing the game posing as an 11-year-old girl in 2012. There were also phishing scams, one of which resulted in a Dutch teenager getting arrested for stealing 4,000 worth of virutal furniture. If you played Habbo Hotel back then, you'll probably want to keep your kids away from this revival.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/habbo-hotel-origins-brings-the-original-pc-game-back-to-life-205536943.html?src=rss
Paradox Tectonic, the Berkeley, California studio behind the unreleased life simulator game Life By You, has been shuttered by its parent company Paradox Interactive. All 24 employees have lost their jobs, according to a press release.The news of Paradox Tectonic's closure comes just one day after Paradox Interactive announced its decision to cancel the release of Life By You. The game's troubled development was punctuated by blown deadlines on three different early access release windows before the title was scrapped entirely.This is difficult and drastic news for our colleagues at Tectonic, who've worked hard on Life By You's Early Access release," Paradox Interactive Chief Executive Officer Fredik Wester said in a released statement. Sadly, with cancellation of their sole project we have to take the tough decision to close down the studio. We are deeply grateful for their hard work in trying to take Paradox into a new genre." Wester said in a separate statement that the life simulation did not meet our expectations" and could not deliver a version that we'd be satisfied with" in time for release.Paradox Interactive has good reason to be wary of releasing a bad game. The studio is still feeling the blowback from Colossal Order's Cities: Skylines II. The game had a number of bugs following its release in October that put a huge strain on PC graphics cards making it difficult to play in 4K. The sequel also failed to launch with promised features like mod support, and its Beachfront Property asset led to an Overwhelmingly Negative" review on Steam that forced Colossal Order to issue refunds.It's also the third major publisher to close a game studio in just the last week. Embracer Group announced on Monday that it would close Pieces Interactive following its release of the Alone in the Dark reboot. Galvanic Games, the Seattle based developer behind Wizard with a Gun, announced its dissolvement on Friday.These closings are also just the latest bits of bad news in a year that's already full of layoffs and studio closures. Obsidian Publishing's Games Industry Layoffs tracker estimates that this year will see 10,800 layoffs, an alarming number that's already outpacing last year's totals.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/paradox-interactive-closes-life-by-yous-studio-after-canceling-the-life-sim-game-201135761.html?src=rss
Quicken Simplifi, one of Engadget's favorite budgeting apps, is on sale for half off right now. The user-friendly money management service is on sale for $2 per month, billed annually at $24. The financial planning and tracking service is one of our top picks for replacing Mint. Its clean and simple interface recalls memories of its now-defunct competitor. Simplifi has a scrolling landing page with a detailed overview, including balances, net worth, spending, upcoming payments and other financial stats. The service makes it easy to connect with your financial institution (optionally) for easier tracking. You can also invite a partner or financial advisor to co-manage the account. It has a few limitations. Unlike some of its competitors, it doesn't offer Zillow integration for home value tracking. (You can still do that manually.) In addition, it doesn't offer free trials, and we ran into a few minor errors in miscategorizing expenses, although they were in line with the small flubs the competition also makes. It also doesn't allow Apple or Google sign-ins, so you'll have to create or log into a Quicken account to get started. We already consider Simplifi's standard $48 annual pricing to be a solid deal that aligns with market expectations. But for $24 for the whole year, you can try it for much less. Just remember to cancel before it renews if you aren't enjoying it enough to renew for a second year at full price. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/quicken-simplifi-subscriptions-are-half-off-right-now-183002570.html?src=rss
The newest title in the Mario Party series was revealed in this morning's Nintendo Direct stream: Super Mario Party Jamboree is rolling its way over to Nintendo Switch on October 17.Super Mario Party Jamboree will feature 110 minigames and five new game boards that are part of a large island resort: Rainbow Galleria, Roll Em Raceway, King Bowser's Keep, Mega Wiggler's Tree Party and Goomba Lagoon. Each board presents different gameplay mechanics and environmental hazards. For example, a lucky roll of the Turbo Dice allows you to move up to 40 spaces in Roll Em Raceway, while the tide can change your route in Goomba Lagoon. Some minigames will have you shake the Joy-Con controllers, while others require you to tilt them.To spice things up, Mario's Rainbow Castle from Mario Party and Western Land from Mario Party 2 are being added as maps for fans to revisit. What's more, up to 20 players can play with each other online in a new competitive racing mode called the Koopathlon.Super Mario Party Jamboree will arrive just over six years since the last main entry in the series - Super Mario Party - and three years after Mario Party Superstars, which updated classic boards from the Nintendo 64 era. Those boards include Peach's Birthday Cake and Space Land from the first two games, the former of which inspired the ice cream flavor Superstar Sprinkle Blast at Cold Stone Creamery in 2022.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/super-mario-party-jamboree-comes-to-switch-in-october-181055353.html?src=rss
Meta is finally making the Threads API available to developers. The company began testing the developers tools with a handful of companies back in March, but is now throwing the door open to more creators and app makers.For now, the Threads API functionality is somewhat limited. It enables third-party apps to publish posts to Threads and view and manage replies and interactions with their posts. So far, this has enabled Threads integrations with social media management software like Hootsuite and Sprout Social. The Threads API has also enabled tech news aggregator Techmeme to automatically post to the platform.These kinds of tools are widely used by brands, marketers and power users who rely on more advanced analytics and other specialized capabilities. Interestingly, Meta also suggests that creators could also be interested in using the new Threads API for their own unique integrations" with the platform.Meta hasn't talked much about its future plans for the Threads API, or if it would ever support third-party client apps the way that Twitter did before Elon Musk's take over of the service. The API could also play an eventual role in Meta's plans to interoperate with the fediverse, though Meta has said it's still early days for its plans to make Threads interoperable with decentralized platforms.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-makes-the-threads-api-available-to-all-developers-174946709.html?src=rss
The idea of Beats wireless earbuds for under $100 is certainly compelling. Until now, the company has operated in the $150-$200 range, except for the $70 Beats Flex, which offers a great collection of features with good sound quality and a comfy fit. However, much of the competition has been keen to offer buds for considerably cheaper prices, doing so by limiting functionality to the basics. With the Solo Buds ($80), Beats has its cheapest true wireless earbuds yet and manages to retain much of its product DNA. But, the company had to dial things back to bring the price down, so don't expect these earbuds to wow you with performance. Beats Solo Buds design The Solo Buds carry the same overall earbud design that Beats has favored for a while now. A key difference between these and the Studio Buds +, though, is that the Solo Buds are slightly larger to accommodate its bigger batteries. The new model still offers the onboard controls on an angled flat panel, complete with the company's trademark b" branding. The good news is that this earbud shape has always been comfortable to wear for long periods of time and that hasn't changed here. And despite the closed acoustic architecture of the Solo Buds, added micro vents relieve that plugged feeling that can plague earbud wearers after several minutes of use. Where the Solo Buds deviate from Beats' previous models is the case. This thing is tiny. In fact, according to the company it's 40-percent smaller than the Studio Buds + case, which wasn't enormous by any means. This is because Beats removed the battery from the case. The company claims that doing so makes the Solo Buds more environmentally friendly and it's one less battery to worry about degrading over time. If you're into the clear version of the Studio Buds +, you're in luck. There's a transparent red option for the Solo Buds. But, there's also some bad news: only the case is transparent; the buds themselves are opaque Software and features Like other recent Beats products, all of the software for iPhone owners is baked into iOS. On Android, you'll need the Beats app to customize the touch controls or download software updates. On both platforms, you'll get one-touch pairing, fast pair and location-tracking help for lost earbuds. iOS users get the benefit of iCloud pairing with other devices, Apple Watch hand-offs, as well as audio sharing with AirPods and Beats products. On Android, you'll be able to automatically pair with any device on your Google account and take advantage of multipoint Bluetooth pairing. Since the Solo Buds only have the most basic features, there's not much else to list out. However, the company does allow you to reconfigure the press-and-hold control to adjust volume. By default, this action summons your device's voice assistant on both earbuds. And that's really the extent of things. There's no hands-free Siri, no transparency mode, no active noise cancellation (ANC), no wear detection and no support for Apple's Adaptive EQ. Sound quality on the Beats Solo Buds The Studio Buds + vs. the Solo Buds. Billy Steele for Engadget For a set of $80 earbuds, the best sound quality you can expect is slightly above average. Most of the time, you get something that's serviceable, but not necessarily tuning you'd use to listen to the finer details of an album. Beats is on a good run with sound quality on the Studio Buds line and the Beats Fit Pro, but it understandably had to cut corners in places to slash the price on the Solo Buds. It turns out that audio performance is one of those areas. The Solo Buds still retain some decent detail in the sound profile, but overall, the tuning doesn't offer the dynamics of the Studio Buds +. Songs are flat and the mix is subdued, lacking punchy highs or booming bass at times. Bilmuri's Emptyhanded," for example, has some loud, distorted guitars that provide the rhythm of the track. Those instruments typically soar and have plenty of texture on pricier earbuds, but here they lack dimensionality and stand out less from the rest of the mix than usual. These aren't the earbuds in the company's lineup you'll want to choose if sound quality is of utmost importance. Instead, the Solo Buds get the job done in a workman-like fashion, without much flash or excitement. One advanced sound feature that Beats did include is Spatial Audio. It's automatic and works with songs from Apple Music that are available in Dolby Atmos. Albums like Justice's Hyperdrama and Wyatt Flores' Half Life have more robust bass and clarity, sounding less compressed than some other regular" albums on the Solo Buds. It's still not flagship-level audio performance, but it's noticeably improved compared to non-Atmos content. Call quality When it comes to calls, Beats only employs one microphone on each side on the Solo Buds. This definitely impacts voice quality and you'll sound like you're on speaker phone more so than on pricier sets of earbuds. The company does a great job of blocking background noise, but during my tests in loud environments, that battle against distractions further degraded call performance. In a room with a loud fan, my voice was choppy compared to in a quieter spot with minimal environmental roar. Beats Solo Buds battery life Billy Steele for Engadget Beats claims the Solo Buds will last up to 18 hours on a charge, which is double or, in some cases, triple what much of the competition offers. The company opted for larger batteries in the earbuds and removed the one from the case, so there's no extended time to be gained from docking the buds. When they're dead, you have to put them in the case and plug the case into an outlet with a USB-C cable. During my tests, I came in one hour shy of Beats' stated figure. This isn't too much of a disappointment since I still got 17 hours, and it's likely due to my setting the volume at 75 percent and leaving the Solo Buds unused for over 24 hours. If you find yourself in a pinch, you can get an hour of playback in five minutes of charging. What's more, you can use your phone to get the tunes going again with charging via a USB-C connection on both iPhone (15 and up) and Android devices. Since there's no battery in the case, there isn't an LED indicator to show you the charging status of the Solo Buds. You can get that info on your phone by tapping the onboard controls while the earbuds are in the case and close by. It's inconvenient, but you do get an exact figure instead of just a green or red light. The competition Beats has entered an increasingly crowded market for earbuds under $100. Not only are big names like Bose or Sony dropping new flagship models every year, but the likes of Anker, JLab and Jaybird are also debuting more ultra-affordable options on a regular basis. And some of them cost less than $50. The current best budget earbuds, according to my colleague Jeff Dunn, is the Anker Soundcore Space A40. Currently available for $50, the A40 offers solid ANC, multipoint Bluetooth and respectable sound quality. Battery life is 10 hours and the buds are rated IPX4 for water-resistance, but there's no wear detection and the A40 isn't great for calls, either. Wrap-up The Solo Buds are a smart play for Beats, and I have no doubt the company will sell a lot of them. They're good enough for most people, even without features like active noise cancellation, transparency more and wear detection. There's some solid audio performance with songs in Apple Music, but overall sound quality is flat and lacks the oomph on the Studio Buds + or Beats Fit Pro. However, long battery life and a comfy fit mean you can wear these all day long, and those two things alone might be enough to make up for the Solo Buds' sonic shortcomings - especially for $80. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/beats-solo-buds-review-exactly-what-youd-expect-for-80-170742296.html?src=rss
Stray, one of Engadget's favorite games of 2022, is coming to Switch. The title, which lets you play as an orange tabby cat exploring a dystopian cyberpunk setting, arrives on Nintendo's console this holiday season.The trailer shows familiar action in the two-year-old game from BlueTwelve Studio. You'll see the feline protagonist rolling in a barrel, facing a robotic enemy and knocking objects off ledges (as cats tend to do).BlueTwelve Studios / NintendoUnfortunately, its graphical fidelity appears noticeably downgraded compared to its console brethren, but that's to be expected. Switch developers can do a lot with the seven-year-old system, but they aren't miracle workers.Stray arrived on PS5/PS4 and PC (Steam) in 2022, followed by an Xbox port last year. The Switch version will round things out sometime around the holidays. You can check out the announcement trailer below.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/stray-is-coming-to-switch-this-holiday-season-163611672.html?src=rss
Square-Enix's old-meets-new reworking of Dragon Quest III arrives on November 14 on Switch. In addition, the HD-2D remake will be joined next year by reissues of its two predecessors in the trilogy, Dragon Quest I and Dragon Quest II, using the same innovative engine. The announcements came in Tuesday's Nintendo Direct, which also brought news of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Metroid Prime 4 and Donkey Kong Country Returns.The Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake trailer and screenshots showcase the game engine's marvels, combining 16-bit-style sprites and textures with modern environmental effects. The engine stays true to vintage games' original look and feel but uses modern touches to make them prettier. Square-Enix has already used the tech in Octopath Traveller and its sequel, along with Triangle Strategy, the Live a Live remake and the opera scene in Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster.Square-EnixLaunching the third game in the trilogy first sounds odd, but the prequel, originally released in 1988, was the first chronologically within the game's universe. The HD-2D remakes of the first two entries, initially available in 1986 and 1987, will arrive as one game sometime in 2025.You can check out the nostalgic-meets-modern Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake trailer below. It launches on November 14 and will be available on Switch, PS5/PS4, Xbox Series X/S and PC (Steam).This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-dragon-quest-3-hd-2d-remake-arrives-on-november-14-160136678.html?src=rss
It's been about a decade since Nintendo released a new game in the Donkey Kong Country series -and while there isn't a new one coming any time soon, there is a port of one you may have missed on its way. Donkey Kong Country Returns, originally released for the Wii in 2010, is hitting the Switch on January 15, 2025. It was a fine game for its time, and I'm hopeful it'll hold up well some 15 years later. At the very least, the controls should be simpler, as Nintendo won't be forcing motion controls into the mix with this remaster as they did with the Wii original.This game joins Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze as the other modern-ish interpretation of the franchise. Tropical Freeze was first released for the Wii U in 2014 - but since no one owned that poor console, its arrival on the Switch in 2018 meant that a much larger audience got to give the game a shot. That's not exactly the case with Donkey Kong Country Returns, which sold well for the original Wii. Still, Donkey Kong Country fans are starved for a new game, so this will have to do for now. I'm sure it's been years since many people have checked it out, so hopefully it'll feel somewhat fresh.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/donkey-kong-country-returns-originally-released-for-the-wii-in-2010-is-coming-to-the-switch-153629092.html?src=rss
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