Samsung's T7 Shield is a ruggedized version of our favorite portable SSD, offering IP65-rated water and dust resistance and a durable rubber casing on top of steady data transfer speeds. As part of the company's latest round of discounts on its various storage devices, both the 1TB and 2TB versions of the drive are priced lower-than-usual at Amazon, Best Buy and Samsung's own online store. The former is down to $80, which matches its all-time low, while the latter is on sale for $130, which is the best price we've seen outside of a very brief drop to $120 last August. For reference, the 1TB model has sat at this price for the last couple of weeks, but it's still about $10 below the average going rate we've seen in recent months. The 2TB model, meanwhile, has typically retailed around $150 as of late.The T7 Shield isn't the only good portable SSD in this price range, as other USB 3.2 Gen 2 drives like the SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD and WD My Passport SSD can squeeze out a bit more performance and have longer five-year warranties (Samsung gives a three-year warranty). But the speed differences aren't huge, and while all SSDs are more durable than older HDDs, the T7 Shield's rugged shell should provide extra peace of mind if you often bring your laptop on the road and need to transfer or backup files. For many, the best option is whatever's cheapest at the time; right now, that's the T7 Shield.Samsung has a few other noteworthy deals on storage gear. The 256GB Samsung Evo Select is down to $19, which is an all-time low for a quick and reliable microSD card. If you don't need as much space, the 128GB Pro Plus microSD card is a bit faster and down to a low of $14. And while the ultrafast speeds of a PCIe 4.0 SSD like the 990 Pro aren't necessary for most, the 1TB version of that drive is available for a low of $100 for those building a higher-end PC (just make sure its firmware is up-to-date).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/samsung-t7-shield-portable-ssd-is-down-to-an-all-time-low-of-80-152254959.html?src=rss
After a teaser last year, Google is ready to help you save space on your phone by shelving unused apps. The company is rolling out an auto-archive feature that removes key parts of apps without erasing personal data. So long as an app is still available on the Play Store, you just have to tap its icon to re-download the missing pieces. This can free as much as 60 percent of an app's space, Google says.You'll get the auto-archive option if you try to install an app when your device doesn't have enough remaining storage. If you want to look for unused apps, you can visit the Apps section of settings. The software will typically say that it hasn't been opened for more than a few months. Developers have to publish their apps using the App Bundle format for the feature to work, but that shouldn't be an issue as it's been required since 2021.The concept isn't new. Apple has offered custom recommendations to pull unused apps since iOS 11's release in 2017. However, the addition may be particularly helpful on Android, which powers a wider range of phones, including low-end models. You may not feel as much pressure to upgrade a budget handset if you know you can simply archive apps until you're ready to use them.Google adds that this could help developers. If users can auto-archive apps, they're less likely to completely uninstall those apps. Creators may be more likely to hold on to users, even if those customers seldomly return.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/android-can-automatically-archive-apps-you-arent-using-150337942.html?src=rss
Sony-owned Media Molecule has revealed it will stop active development of Dreams later this year. After a final update in September, live support for the game creation platform will come to an end, though the studio will still deploy critical bug fixes when necessary.The decision means that Dreams will not be updated to include multiplayer support, as had long been the plan. Nor will Media Molecule release versions of Dreams for PlayStation 5 or PlayStation VR2. Dreams arrived on PS4 in early 2020 and Media Molecule added PSVR support a few months later.Dreams will remain on sale and it’ll still be possible to create experiences and check out ones made by other folks. As part of a server transition, though, Media Molecule will impose new storage limits on player creations. Users will have an online storage capacity of 5GB, but existing projects don’t count toward the limit.Moreover, Media Molecule will stop running its own Dreams events that were designed to shine a spotlight on some of the most impressive and captivating community creations. The studio is also nixing some features, including native Twitch support (but you’ll likely still be able to stream what you’re doing in Dreams via console-level Twitch integration).
Numerous car companies are trying their hands at digital assistants, but Mini is planning something more... characterful. The automaker has unveiled Spike, an English Bulldog-inspired helper coming to future Mini models. While his exact functionality is still unknown, he'll walk you through the "operating concept" of a given car and is meant to foster an "emotional connection." We suspect this pup won't seem so loveable when you're in a hurry, but it might beat the personality-free assistants from other makes.Spike will make his debut in the cabin of the Mini Concept Aceman at the Shanghai auto show beginning April 18th. He'll appear on both the OLED-based infotainment display and the dashboard. You'll learn more about the canine companion's features later in the year, the company says.Introduced last year, the Concept Aceman is a compact electric crossover with a minimalist design (there's only a handful of analog controls) and an emphasis on personalization. There are projections on the dashboard, light animations on the nose and a variety of "experience modes" meant to liven up your commute. We wouldn't expect many of these ideas to reach production Minis, but the more angular body, recycled plastic interior and emphasis on tech may translate to the upcoming lineup. Mini has already teased an electric Countryman E with a 313HP dual-motor system and an estimated 280-mile range.The strategy isn't surprising for parent company BMW, whose concept cars frequently center around a personalized digital experience — see this year's i Vision Dee as an example with its dash-length HUD, voice commands and color-changing exterior. Theoretically, you'll develop an attachment to Spike that keeps you buying Mini cars for the assistant inside, not just the performance on the road.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/minis-future-cars-will-feature-a-dog-as-a-digital-assistant-141506882.html?src=rss
Polestar has confirmed that its latest — and fastest production — EV, the Polestar 4, will debut at the Shanghai auto show on April 18. The new generation will join the Polestar 3 and an updated Polestar 2, with the new model's design expected to fall somewhere between the two.The Polestar 4 is slightly smaller than the Polestar 3 and a bit higher from the ground than the Polestar 2. It’s also expected to have a battery life of about 373 miles and offer four-wheel and rear-wheel drive, according to Autocar. Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar CEO, also emphasized that it is not a modified version of its first SUV: "Instead, we reconsidered the entire design to create a new breed of SUV coupé."The showcase news comes before the Polestar 3 has even hit the roads. The 3 should be available in the last quarter of 2023, with preorders ongoing, and the Polestar 5 is set for release sometime in 2024.The company's first design, the Polestar 1, debuted only a few years ago in 2019, but ceased production just two years later with the company claiming the hybrid was designed as an introduction to the brand. Since then all new Polestar cars have been pure electric.There’s no word yet on the Polestar 4's cost or availability, but with the Polestar 2 starting at $45,900 and the Polestar 3 at $85,300, it's not likely to be cheap.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-polestar-4-will-be-the-companys-fastest-production-car-131532690.html?src=rss
Both Canalys and IDC estimate worldwide computer shipments dropped 29 to 33 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023. That's a steep drop, and none of the major PC brands escaped the worst of the downturn. Second-place HP escaped relatively lightly with a 24 percent drop in shipments, while fourth-place Apple felt the most pain with a plummet of more than 40 percent. Economic instability and inflation have been blamed for the drop, with most analysts predicting that PCs will bounce back, to some degree, within the year.– Mat SmithThe Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.The biggest stories you might have missedThe best kitchen gadgets for 2023'Star Wars: Visions' Volume 2 trailer teases Aardman's take on WookieesMicrosoft Teams adds Snapchat AR Lenses to video chats YouTube Premium on iOS will soon work with SharePlay The Pirate Bay TV drama goes into production this fall 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' sets box office recordsIt’s the highest grossing video game movie.NintendoThe Super Mario Bros. Movie hit theaters last week and broke records with the release raking in just over $146 million domestically. As Deadline says, that makes it the highest-grossing opening weekend for any video game-based movie. It's not just animated and video game movies it's stacking up against, either. The Super Mario Bros. Movie had the historically third-highest Easter weekend sales after Batman vs. Superman's $181 million and Furious 7's $161 million.Continue reading.Twitter bug makes some private Circle tweets publicYour secret tweets may be visible to strangers.Twitter users have discovered a bug that exposes at least some private Circle posts to outsiders. They frequently show up in followers' For You recommendations, but some say the content is reaching total strangers. As you might imagine, that could be problematic if you're discussing a sensitive topic or want to minimize harassment.It’s the latest technical issue since Elon Musk bought the company and laid off many employees. There have been multiple outages, troublesome API changes and confusion over feature rollouts and removals.Continue reading.Netflix is making an animated 'Stranger Things' spin-offAdd it to a VR game and a stage play.NetflixNetflix has announced an animated series based on one of its biggest hits. The company hasn't revealed many details about the latest spin-off just yet. Glitch Techs and Fanboy & Chum Chum creator Eric Robles and Flying Bark Productions are developing the animated series."We’ve always dreamed of an animated Stranger Things in the vein of the Saturday morning cartoons that we grew up loving, and to see this dream realized has been absolutely thrilling," the Duffer brothers told Variety. "We couldn’t be more blown away by what Eric Robles and his team have come up with — the scripts and artwork are incredible, and we can’t wait to share more with you!" The fifth and final season of the original show has been confirmed, but that’s unlikely to stop them wringing every last drop of content from the series.Continue reading.Museum creates a 20-foot ‘Donkey Kong’ cabinet with a little help from NintendoAnd you’ll be able to play it.Strong MuseumThe Strong National Museum of Play in New York unveiled an absolutely massive Donkey Kong arcade cabinet that's nearly 20 feet tall. Donkey Kong, the character, is co-starring in the biggest movie in the world right now, so it is only fitting he also gets an equally gargantuan arcade cabinet.The museum indicated in a tweet that Nintendo helped out with the massive arcade cabinet, and visitors will be able to use it after it’s fully installed on June 30th. You’ll have to climb a ladder to play it, which is a very Donkey Kong thing to do.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-worldwide-pc-shipments-plunge-by-a-third-111627241.html?src=rss
IKEA is launching a new interior design service that gives customers one-on-one assistance in decorating — and furnishing — their rooms. The product-centric company is moving further into service offerings, moving from putting the work in customer's hands with apps to letting "IKEA designers" take care of everything. IKEA says they’ll hold your hang through everything from picking out products to having them shipped over. It's also leveraging its ownership of TaskRabbit to link customers with DIY experts to put ordered furniture together when it arrives.Clearly, IKEA thinks everyone has gotten comfortable enough with video calls over the last few years, as everything is done digitally, but the process does seem pretty straightforward: It starts with a questionnaire on the IKEA USA site and then three one-on-one video calls. Customers get a mood board and initial plans for the space to align the vision, followed by a meeting to approve ideas and products. They come out of it with 3D renderings, a mood board, floor plan, drawings, a list of products and material options.IKEA already offers something similar for kitchens, with customers able to schedule an appointment for their kitchen to be measured and designed for free with an IKEA kitchen planner. Anyone living in the US can opt for an online meeting for this service, as well.The new interior design service does come at a cost, with meetings with an IKEA interior designer cost $99 per room for an individual and $299 per room for businesses. The prices aren't bad considering the average interior designer will cost anywhere between $50 and $500 per hour, according to Forbes. Though IKEA also profits from any furniture chosen with the interior designer and, while their offerings aren't designer prices, they can still add up to a sizeable bill.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ikeas-latest-idea-is-an-online-design-a-room-service-104553216.html?src=rss
Google has called Bard an "experimental conversational AI service" since first announcing it earlier this year. The company says it's constantly tweaking its models, but without a central place to learn what’s changed, it can be hard to know what it's actually capable of. In an attempt to be more open about Bard's development, Google has created a new "experiment updates" page where anyone can find information on recent updates to Bard, including new features and bug fixes.So far each update posted includes a "what" and a "why." For the updates page itself, Google says it was created so "people will have an easy place to see the latest Bard updates for them to test and provide feedback."Google added two other announcements in the same post. The first one explains there are now additional search options when a person clicks "Google it." The other is an update to Bard's math and logic skills, with Google explaining that Bard isn't always giving the right answers there — something the company is attempting to fix. This improvement comes shortly after Google switched Bard to a more advanced language model.While the breakdowns are pretty short and vague as to exactly how Google is creating these updates, it's definitely a start in the right direction for giving the public more insight into their thought process. Plus, at a time when both industry professionals and people in general are openly worrying about unregulated advancements in AI technology, Google's transparency is likely to win them a few trust points.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-bards-new-experiment-updates-page-lets-you-know-whats-new-091039433.html?src=rss
Since 2017, Jade – aka the face of the Lofi Girl YouTube channel – has been a near-constant companion for fans of quiet, contemplative music. Now, she is missing. At approximately 1PM ET, Jade and her ginger tabby simply disappeared, and not since a false copyright claim took down the YouTube channel for a few days last year has the Lofi Girl fandom been this abuzz.In her absence, the stream began to slowly zoom in on a window found on one of the buildings opposite Jade’s home. A blinking blue light produced a morse code that fans found points to www.lofiworld.com. As of the writing of this article, there’s not much to see. Clicking the “Launch” button redirects you to a second Lofi Girl stream that’s playing ambient music. The stream features a clock that’s counting down to April 11th at 1PM ET. Outside of that, there’s not much to go on. The room is bathed in blue light and filled with early aughts memorabilia, including a Gunpla model from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing and a Nintendo GameCube. What it all points to, no one knows yet other than an elaborate marketing campaign.Earlier in the day, Team AMW, the marketing agency that represents the Lofi Girl channel, published a press release promising a “surprise” on April 11th that would take the channel’s “immersive experience to new heights.” As Polygon notes, there’s already official Lofi Girl merch you can buy, so there’s probably something more involved on the horizon. Either way, we’ll find out how this mystery ends tomorrow.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lofi-girl-is-at-the-center-of-a-very-relaxing-mystery-224022657.html?src=rss
Konami announced today that the latest installment in the long-running Bomberman franchise arrives this September. Super Bomberman R 2, initially revealed last year, marks the series’ 40th anniversary by taking the foundations of its 2017 predecessor and adding level-building and a wacky 15 vs. 1 mode.For this installment, Konami added Castle mode, featuring “attack vs. defend” gameplay where you try to overtake or protect a fortress. Teams of 15 will try to open all the treasure chests to unlock passages into the castle; the lone keeper tries to keep at least one locked before the game’s end. It looks every bit as chaotic as you’d imagine. In addition, the returning game modes include Standard (classic gameplay), Story mode (a single-player adventure), Battle 64 (battle royale) and Grand Prix (“compete for crystals and knock out other players”).Meanwhile, the new Stage Editor lets you create and share your Castle mode stages. Following the trend set by franchises like LittleBigPlanet and Mario Maker, Konami envisions a robust community of online creators giving you virtually unlimited content.Super Bomberman R 2 launches on September 12th (although digital versions arrive a day later) and is available for pre-order now. It will support the Nintendo Switch, PS 5/ 4, Xbox Series X / S, Xbox One and Steam.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/super-bomberman-r-2-delivers-level-building-and-15-vs-1-chaos-this-september-213029904.html?src=rss
For the first time, the US Federal Trade Commission has fined an organization for “review hijacking.” In February, the agency accused The Bountiful Company, maker of the Nature’s Bounty brand of vitamins, of deceiving consumers. Between 2020 and 2021, Bountiful abused a feature of Amazon to make it seem like some of its newer supplements had higher product reviews and ratings than they did in reality.If you have ever bought something on Amazon, you’ve almost certainly interacted with the feature Bountiful attempted to game. Some listings include a set of icons that highlight different “variations” of that same product. For example, if you visit the page for Sony’s popular WH-1000XM5, the feature will highlight that the headphones are available in three different colors. By design, Amazon designed this feature to be narrow. Sellers are supposed to use it to showcase that a product they offer is available in a different color, size, quantity or flavor.That’s not what The Bountiful Company did. According to the FTC, Bountiful used the feature to give newer products a boost from older, more well-established ones with different formulations. In one internal email the agency obtained, Bountiful lamented that “people did not love” one of its new vitamins but noted sales “spiked the second we variated the pages and they continue to grow.”On Monday, the FTC said it voted unanimously to approve a consent order that carries a $600,000 fine for Bountiful and bars the company from employing such tactics in the future. “Boosting your products by hijacking another product’s ratings or reviews is a relatively new tactic, but is still plain old false advertising,” said Samuel Levine, the director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.“There’s no place for fraud in Amazon’s store. We have proactive measures in place to prevent listing abuse and we continuously monitor our store,” an Amazon spokesperson told Engadget. “Our policies prohibit reviews abuse including offering incentives like gift cards to write positive reviews. We suspend, ban, and take legal action against those who violate these policies and remove inauthentic reviews.”According to Amazon, “more than 99 percent” of the products people view on its marketplace “contain only authentic reviews.” If you find what you think is a fake review, the company recommends tapping the “Report” button so it can investigate and take action. The spokesperson added Amazon would continue working with FTC and other enforcement agencies to combat fraudsters.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ftc-fines-supplement-maker-600000-for-review-hijacking-amazon-listings-210142185.html?src=rss
Don't count on your Twitter Circle tweets being limited to a close-knit group, at least for the time being. Users have discovered a bug that exposes at least some private Circle posts to outsiders. They frequently show up in followers' For You recommendations, but some say the content is reaching total strangers. As you might imagine, that could be problematic if you're discussing a sensitive topic or want to minimize potential harassment.Twitter is unavailable for comment as it has disbanded its public relations team. Creator Theo Brown tellsTechCrunch Twitter may be failing to filter Circle tweets out of its recommendation system before they're shared with other users.
The Strong National Museum of Play in New York unveiled an absolutely massive Donkey Kong arcade cabinet that's nearly 20 feet tall. Donkey Kong is co-starring in the biggest movie in the world right now, so it is only fitting that he also gets an equally gargantuan arcade cabinet.The museum indicated in a tweet that Nintendo actually helped out with the massive cabinet, which makes sense as the company is protective of its IPs. Donkey Kong, after all, was the first appearance of a certain Italian plumber, even if he went by the names Jumpman and Mr. Video back then.The impressively large arcade cabinet will be available for actual play by museum visitors once it is fully installed on June 30. As you can see in the design, there is a control interface at a normal height so you don’t have to climb a ladder to reach the joystick and buttons.
Like Vecna's creepy, encroaching tendrils, the Stranger Things universe is continuing to expand. Netflix has announced an animated series based on one of its biggest hits. The company hasn't revealed many details about the latest spin-off just yet. Glitch Techs and Fanboy & Chum Chum creator Eric Robles and Flying Bark Productions are developing the animated series. Stranger Things creators the Duffer brothers and producer Shawn Levy are also involved."We’ve always dreamed of an animated Stranger Things in the vein of the Saturday morning cartoons that we grew up loving, and to see this dream realized has been absolutely thrilling," the Duffer brothers told Variety in a statement. "We couldn’t be more blown away by what Eric Robles and his team have come up with — the scripts and artwork are incredible, and we can’t wait to share more with you! The adventure continues…"The original show has been renewed for a fifth and final season, but that and the animated show are far from the only Stranger Things projects in the pipeline. A VR game is slated to arrive later this year, while a stage show prequel is set to debut on London's West End in late 2023. Netflix also announced a live-action spin-off show last year.The Duffer brothers certainly have a lot of plates in the air. Along with Stranger Things, they're working on a live-action Death Note series (following a separate movie that hit Netflix several years ago), as well as an adaptation of The Talisman, a book by Stephen King and Peter Straub.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflix-is-making-an-animated-stranger-things-spin-off-173732745.html?src=rss
The PC market has been reeling for months, but it just got worse. Both Canalys and IDC estimate that worldwide computer shipments dropped between 29 to 33 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2023. That's a steeper drop than during the holidays, and this time none of the major brands escaped the worst of the downturn. Second-place HP escaped relatively lightly with a 24 percent drop in shipments, while fourth-place Apple felt the most pain with a drop of more than 40 percent. ASUS, Dell and Lenovo all took a roughly 30 percent hit.The explanations may sound familiar. Customers are reluctant to buy PCs in a turbulent economy where inflation is running wild, and the pandemic-era boom in remote work is still winding down. People either can't afford new machines or already have ones that are good enough. There's no comment on why Apple struggled more than its peers, but it generally targets the high-end market and is more vulnerable to poor economic conditions. TechCrunch also notes that Apple's transition to in-house chips helped it avoid the tough times that Windows vendors faced in recent years, but that the honeymoon period may be over.Analysts are optimistic. Canalys believes this is the worst drop the PC market will see in 2023, while both research groups expect to see recovery as soon as the second half of 2023. Old computers will be due for upgrades, including Chromebooks at schools, while businesses will update to Windows 11 systems. IDC also sees the slowdown as giving manufacturers a chance to move some production outside of China.There's still a note of caution. IDC warns that the PC industry could be in for a "slog" if recessions continue into 2024. Although the sharpest declines may be over, it could take a long time for the market to bounce back. Don't be surprised if brands play it relatively safe with computers they know are likely to sell, rather than experimenting with unusual designs.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/worldwide-pc-shipments-plunged-by-a-third-in-the-first-quarter-172543016.html?src=rss
Microsoft and Snap have teamed up to bring Snapchat Lenses to Teams. The next time you hop onto a call with colleagues or friends, you'll be able to pick from one of 26 popular Lenses to add some visual flair to your video chats. You'll be able to turn yourself into a cartoon character, add virtual snow and slap a variety of backgrounds onto your webcam feed. That said, it's probably best to make sure you don't accidentally leave a Lens on during more serious conversations.Snap and Microsoft say the library of Lenses will rotate to keep things fresh. You can switch on a Lens in Teams by selecting the Video Effects option, then Snapchat. The Lenses will slowly roll out to everyone starting today. Most users should have access to them in Teams in the coming days.The companies tapped into Snap's Camera Kit (a software development kit) to bring the latter's augmented reality tech to Teams. Microsoft previously used Camera Kit to add Snap's AR features to its video learning platform, Flip, where educators try to kickstart video discussions among students by providing them with prompts. According to Snap, since Microsoft added the integration to Flip, teachers and students have been 60 percent more likely to post videos to the platform.Snap used to have its own desktop app that enabled folks to use Lenses on third-party video calling services. However, the company shut down the app, Snap Camera, earlier this year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-teams-adds-snapchat-ar-lenses-to-video-chats-163057951.html?src=rss
Amazon is running a sale on its Blink video doorbells and cameras, so folks who've been looking to add smart home devices to their setup may be interested in checking out these deals. Several of the gadgets have dropped to all-time-low prices, including a bundle of the Blink Video Doorbell and Sync Module 2. That will currently run you $58, which is 31 percent off the regular price of $85.The doorbell offers live video at 1080p resolution with infrared capabilities for nighttime use and two-way audio. Amazon says the device will be able to run for up to two years on a pair of AA batteries. Setup should be straightforward enough through the Blink app. Amazon also notes that the doorbell is weather resistant and it has a seal that offers protection against water.Naturally, you'll be able to use Alexa to manage the doorbell. You can use the voice assistant to operate the two-way audio function, arm and disarm the device and get chime and motion alerts. On an Alexa-powered display or your phone, you'll be able to access a live feed of what the doorbell's camera can see.The Sync Module 2, meanwhile, enables users to control Blink devices from the Blink Home Monitor app. Plug a USB storage drive into the Sync Module 2, and you'll be able to save recordings of motion-activated video clips. You'll be able to view the footage via the Blink app or by plugging the flash drive into your computer.Elsewhere in the sale, Amazon has dropped the price of a Video Doorbell (without a bundled Sync Module 2) to $35. That's 30 percent off the regular price of $50 and also marks a record low.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/blink-video-doorbells-and-cameras-drop-to-record-low-prices-154509799.html?src=rss
Now is a good time to buy a high-performance tablet for your springtime travel — or some very early back-to-school prep. Microsoft is running a spring sale that offers up to $300 off Surface Pro 9 models, while Amazon is roughly matching many of those prices. Almost all versions are discounted, whether they're Intel- or ARM-based, and the bargains get larger with more advanced configurations. An Intel Core i7 model with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is down to $1,600 (normally $1,900), while a Qualcomm SQ3 variant with 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and 5G has dropped to the same price.Buy Surface Pro 9 at Amazon - starting at $1,000Other deals are still worth exploring. A $100 discount effectively gives entry-level Surface Pro 9 buyers a free upgrade to a 256GB SSD, and the sweet-spot Core i5 model with 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD is down to $1,300. If you simply must have the best, a Core i7 tablet with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD is down to $2,300. Surface Pro Signature Keyboards are up to $75 off, too.The Surface Pro 9 unified Microsoft's Intel- and ARM-powered tablet designs for the first time, and the results are mostly positive. This is a surprisingly thin slate that still has the power for serious multitasking, and you can even upgrade the SSD (a rarity in tablets) if you need more storage. The SQ3 version also includes 5G support to keep you connected while you're camping or traveling on business.We'll be frank: you'll probably want an Intel-based Surface Pro 9. It's not only faster than its ARM equivalent, but compatible with a much wider range of software. And yes, the virtually mandatory keyboard attachment isn't included in the price. Still, this is one of the precious few tablets that can truly be called a laptop replacement. It's fast enough for serious work, yet portable enough for note-taking (with the optional pen) and other handheld duties.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-surface-pro-9-is-up-to-300-off-during-microsofts-spring-sale-151513214.html?src=rss
Did you ever want to see how the creators of Wallace and Grommit would handle the Star Wars universe? You're about to get your chance. Disney has released a trailer for Star Wars: Visions Volume 2, and it includes a peek at Aardman's short film "I Am Your Mother." To no one's surprise, it includes the studio's characteristic humor and ridiculously cute stop-motion animation — let's just say that Wookiee rage has never been more endearing.The nine-short anthology includes projects from a wider selection of countries than the first collection. Pixar veteran Rodrigo Blaas is involved, as are accomplished outlets like Studio Mir and Triggerfish. As before, these aren't canonical tales — they're explorations of the Star Wars universe using a range of animation styles and storytelling formats.Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 reaches Disney+ on May 4th (aka Star Wars Day). To some degree, this is Disney's way to fill the gap between marquee live action shows like The Mandalorian season three and Ahsoka. You might not mind, however, if you'd like to see some fresh takes on an otherwise familiar space fantasy.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/star-wars-visions-volume-2-151355507.html?src=rss
Google announced a feature drop today for YouTube Premium users. Perhaps the most anticipated addition is iOS SharePlay support, which follows the release of Google’s equivalent feature in Meet video calls.The company says iOS SharePlay support will arrive “in the coming weeks” for YouTube Premium subscribers. Apple launched SharePlay in 2021 in the wake of pandemic lockdowns, allowing people to watch media together through Apple’s video-calling service. However, YouTube is late to the party as a long list of video streaming services — including Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu and many others — have been compatible with SharePlay for months, if not years. (Netflix is a remaining holdout.) Assuming YouTube SharePlay works like Google Meet Live Sharing, only the person setting up the call would need a Google account subscribed to YouTube Premium; other participants wouldn’t.Google is also adding YouTube video queuing to mobile devices. Premium subscribers can now add new videos to watch next — like they’ve been able to on the web since 2019. The mobile version of the feature initially appeared late last year in beta under the Android app’s “Try new features” section.Also arriving “in the coming weeks” is enhanced 1080p streaming for YouTube Premium subscribers on iOS. Google acknowledged the feature was under testing in February after a small group of users reported seeing the option. It uses a higher bitrate (YouTube sends more data per second), which should lead to a better-looking picture. During the beta test, Google claimed the quality of standard 1080p streaming would be unaffected, meaning it wouldn’t nerf video quality for free users to drive subscriptions.Premium subscribers on Android, iOS and the web will also soon see a new feature that lets them easily pick up YouTube videos where they left off on another device. Additionally, the new Smart Downloads feature on mobile will automatically add recommended videos to your library (when connected to WiFi) for offline viewing. Of course, if you don’t want to waste storage, you can turn off the feature in the app’s settings menu.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtube-premium-on-ios-will-soon-work-with-shareplay-143057377.html?src=rss
Now that many phones don't come with chargers, you might need one — and thanks to an Amazon sale, you won't have to pay much to get more than the basics. The retailer is offering Anker charging equipment for up to 44 percent off, including wired and wireless options. Most notably, the Anker 637 MagSafe charging station is down to a record-low $64, or $36 off. You can wirelessly charge your iPhone while also powering two USB-C devices (up to 65W), two USB-A devices and three AC-powered items.Many of the other deals revolve around the travel gear you'll want for camping or vacations. The PowerCore 10000 Redux portable battery is down to $30 (normally $40), while the Anker 511 USB power strip is the most steeply discounted item at $20 (44 percent off). If you need USB-C cables to connect everything, you can buy a two-pack of 60W-capable cables for only $10 (usually $16).You'll need at least an iPhone 12 to make use of the 637's wireless charging. If you have the right handset, though, it's an excellent way to charge multiple devices. You don't have to plug your phone in at the end of the day, and you won't have to run cables to a power strip that's likely sitting on the floor. Think of this as a dock for the MacBook Air and other thin-and-light laptops that may not have many spare ports for recharging all your other gadgets.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/anker-charging-gear-is-up-to-44-percent-off-right-now-133045978.html?src=rss
Disney's Star Wars: The Bad Batch is coming back for one last ride with a third and final season with Lucasfilm announcing the news on the fourth day of the Star Wars Celebration 2023 event. The show follows the Clone Wars, depicting a group of experimental clone troopers, each with their own skill, who break away from their army units to form a mercenary groupExecutive producers Athena Portillo, Jennifer Corbett, and Brad Rau shared the news during a panel at the celebration, available to watch through a recorded stream of the Star Wars Celebration. The teaser trailer debuted during the panel, but it hasn't been independently released yet.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie hit theaters last week and broke records with the release raking in just over $146 million domestically. As Deadline says, that makes it the highest grossing opening weekend for any video game-based movie, knocking Sonic The Hedgehog 2, which previously held the record with $141 million, off the top spot. Mario has been a hit the world over, with global takings already more than $377, making it the biggest opening of the year so far.Illumination and Universal's The Super Mario Bros. Movie bring the beloved Nintendo game to the big screen. The story follows Mario (voiced by Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day), two failing plumbers from Brooklyn as they face Jack Black's Bowser after finding themselves somehow transported to the Mushroom Kingdom. Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) rounds out the classic characters in this nostalgia-filled story. It's the video game's first movie adaptation since the 1993 widely disliked live-action film, Super Mario Bros.The newest film is available in 3D, IMAX, and other premium formats, which made up 38 percent of sales. According to Rich Gelfond, IMAX CEO, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the company's highest grossing animated film, making $21.6 million worldwide.It's not just animated and video game movies it's stacking up against, either. The Super Mario Bros. Movie had the historically third highest Easter weekend sales after Batman vs. Superman's $181 million and Furious 7's $161 million.With opening sales like these, it’s fairly likely we’ll see an animated Mario sequel at some point in the future, and this might open the door to further big-budget adaptations of beloved Nintendo properties. Get ready to explore Boo's mansion or Donkey Kong's jungle in the next inevitable spin-off.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-super-mario-bros-movie-sets-box-office-records-as-the-highest-grossing-video-game-movie-100838234.html?src=rss
Apple appears to have taken its most aggressive step yet to warn its retail employees against unionizing. According to Bloomberg, the company recently held meetings at all of its roughly 270 stores across the United States meant to “discuss the risks of unionization.” The tone of the gatherings was “consistent” across Apple’s retail footprint. Managers reportedly opened with a prepared statement from corporate leadership before turning to the state of union negotiations in Towson, Maryland, the location of the company’s first unionized store in the US.According to Bloomberg, Apple management cast the election at Towson, and the slow progress workers at the store have made toward securing a collective bargaining agreement “as a bit of a cautionary tale.” Managers leaned on talking points that criticized union dues and the unionization process, including the collection of authorization cards. “While Apple didn’t say it, the underlying message to the company’s tens of thousands of retail employees: if your store unionizes, you may be at a disadvantage,” according to Bloomberg.Apple did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the union that represents workers at the company’s Townson Town Center location in Maryland, said it would share a statement on Monday.Bloomberg suggests some employees saw the meetings as a “scare tactic” and an attempt to “pour cold water on the idea” of unionization. Last May, Apple Store employees in Atlanta accused the company of subjecting them to anti-union captive audience meetings. For decades, companies were allowed to hold such gatherings until 24 hours before a union election begins. In 2022, however, National Labor Relations Board general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo claimed captive audience meetings were a violation of the National Labor Relations Act."Forcing employees to listen to such employer speech under threat of discipline — directly leveraging the employees’ dependence on their jobs — plainly chills employees’ protected right to refrain from listening to this speech," Abruzzo wrote last April. At the end of the year, the agency found had Apple violated federal law with its efforts to discourage workers at its Cumberland Mall store in Atlanta from unionizing.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-reportedly-held-anti-union-meetings-at-all-of-its-us-stores-223528059.html?src=rss
Tesla is building a new battery factory in Shanghai. On Sunday, the automaker announced it would start construction on a new Megapack facility later this year. Once the plant is complete sometime before the second half of 2024, it will be capable of producing 10,000 Megapacks annually. Each container-sized battery can store enough energy to power about 3,600 homes for one hour. Tesla told Bloomberg it plans to sell the Megapacks it makes in China globally. The company has built Megapack installations in a few locations around the world, including Texas and South Australia.
In a reversal of a limitation the platform put in place earlier in the week, Twitter is once again allowing users to interact with Substack links freely. At least for the time being, you can retweet, reply to and like posts that feature a link to a Substack newsletter. The platform also won’t issue a safety warning if you click those links. However, as of the writing of this article, searching for “substack” still produces results involving the word “newsletter.”“We’re glad to see that the suppression of Substack publications on Twitter appears to be over,” Substack tweeted late Saturday evening. “This is the right move for writers, who deserve the freedom to share their work.”
Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts have shared one final look at Star Wars Jedi: Survivor ahead of the game’s release later this month. Released on Sunday during Disney’s ongoing Star Wars Celebration event in London, the clip offers a mix of story and gameplay highlights. Specifically, you can see protagonist Cal Kestis use his new crossguard lightsaber in combat, and join forces with a few non-playable companions, including Merrin from Jedi: Fallen Order, to take out a KX-series security droid. I won’t spoil the best part of the trailer, but I will mention it involves a speeder bike. If you want to go into the game blind, note that the trailer points at a few story beats – though Respawn suggests “not all images appear in-game.”I got a chance to preview Jedi: Survivor at the end of last month. The game feels like a better, more polished version of Jedi: Fallen Order, with more things for the player to do and discover. If you’re a fan of the first game, or Star Wars more generally, I suspect you’ll want to check the game out. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor arrives on April 28th on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/new-star-wars-jedi-survivor-trailer-offers-one-final-look-before-its-april-28th-release-153506254.html?src=rss
It's never been about safety as much as it has control, serving and protecting only to the benefit of the status quo. Clearview AI, PredPol, Shotspotter, they're all Carolyn Bryant Donham's testimony behind a veneer of technological validity — a shiny black box to dazzle the masses while giving the police yet another excuse to fatally bungle their search warrants. In More than a Glitch, data journalist and New York University Associate Professor of Journalism Dr. Meredith Broussard, explores how and why we thought automating aspects of already racially-skewed legal, banking, and social systems would be a good idea. From facial recognition tech that doesn't work on dark-skinned folks to mortgage approval algorithms that don't work for dark-skinned folks, Broussard points to a dishearteningly broad array of initiatives that done more harm than good, regardless of their intention. In the excerpt below, Dr. Broussard looks at America's technochauavnistic history of predictive policing.MIT PressExcerpted from More than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias by Meredith Broussard. Reprinted with permission from The MIT Press. Copyright 2023.Predictive policing comes from the “broken windows” era of policing and is usually credited to William Bratton, former New York City police commissioner and LAPD chief. As NYC police commissioner, Bratton launched CompStat, which is perhaps the best-known example of data-driven policing because it appeared as an antagonist called “Comstat” on season three of HBO’s The Wire. “CompStat, a management model linking crime and enforcement statistics, is multifaceted: it serves as a crime control strategy, a personnel performance and accountability metric, and a resource management tool,” writes sociologist Sarah Brayne in her book Predict and Surveil. “Crime data is collected in real time, then mapped and analyzed in preparation for weekly crime control strategy meetings between police executives and precinct commanders.” CompStat was widely adopted by police forces in major American cities in the 1990s and 2000s. By relying heavily on crime statistics as a performance metric, the CompStat era trained police and bureaucrats to prioritize quantification over accountability. Additionally, the weekly meetings about crime statistics served as rituals of quantification that led the participants to believe in the numbers in a way that created collective solidarity and fostered what organizational behaviorists Melissa Mazmanian and Christine Beckman call “an underlying belief in the objective authority of numbers to motivate action, assess success, and drive continuous organizational growth.” In other words: technochauvinism became the culture inside departments that adopted CompStat and other such systems. Organizational processes and controls became oriented around numbers that were believed to be “objective” and “neutral.” This paved the way for the adoption of AI and computer models to intensify policing—and intensify surveillance and harassment in communities that were already over-policed.Computer models are only the latest trend in a long history of people imagining that software applied to crime will make us safer. In Black Software, Charlton McIlwain traced the history of police imagining that software equals salvation as far back as the 1960s, the dawn of the computational era. Back then, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., the head of IBM, was trying to popularize computers so more people would buy them. Watson had also committed (financially and existentially) to the War on Poverty declared by President Lyndon Johnson upon his election in 1964. “Watson searched for opportunities to be relevant,” McIlwain writes. “He said he wanted to help address the social ills that plagued society, particularly the plight of America’s urban poor... He didn’t know what he was doing.”6 Watson wanted to sell computers and software, so he offered his company’s computational expertise for an area that he knew nothing about, in order to solve a social problem that he didn’t understand using tools that the social problem experts didn’t understand. He succeeded, and it set up a dynamic between Big Tech and policing that still persists. Software firms like Palantir, Clearview AI, and PredPol create biased targeting software that they label “predictive policing,” as if it were a positive innovation. They convince police departments to spend taxpayer dollars on biased software that ends up making citizens’ lives worse. In the previous chapter, we saw how facial recognition technology leads police to persecute innocent people after a crime has been committed. Predictive policing technology leads police to pursue innocent people before a crime even takes place.It’s trIcky to write about specific policing software because what Chicago’s police department does is not exactly the same as what LAPD or NYPD does. It is hard to say exactly what is happening in each police agency because the technology is changing constantly and is being deployed in different ways. The exact specifications tend to be buried in vendor contracts. Even if a police department buys software, it is not necessarily being used, nor is it being used in precisely the way it was intended. Context matters, and so does the exact implementation of technology, as well as the people who use it. Consider license plate readers, which are used to collect tolls or to conduct surveillance. Automated license plate readers used by a state transportation authority to automatically collect tolls is probably an acceptable use of AI and automated license plate reader technology—if the data is not stored for a long time. The same license plate reader tech used by police as part of dragnet surveillance, with data stored indefinitely, is problematic.Every time the public has become aware of some predictive policing measure, controversy has erupted. Consider the person-based predictive policing enacted by the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office in Florida, which created a watchlist of people it considered future criminals. Tampa Bay Times reporters Kathleen McGrory and Neil Bedi won a Pulitzer for their story about how the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office generated lists of people it considered likely to break the law. The list was compiled by using data on arrest histories and unspecified intelligence, coupled with arbitrary decisions by police analysts. The sheriff’s department sent deputies to monitor and harass the people on the watchlist. Often, the deputies lacked probable cause, search warrants, or evidence of a crime. In five years, almost 1,000 people were caught up in the systematic harassment labeled “Intelligence-Led Policing.” Notably, a large percentage of the people on the watchlist were BIPOC.The Pasco program started in 2011, shortly after Chris Nocco took office as sheriff. Nocco came up with the idea to “reform” the department with data-driven initiatives. “For 10 years, nobody really understood how this worked, and the public wasn’t aware of what was going on,” said Bedi, explaining the reporting project.8 The sheriff built a “controversial data-driven approach to policing. He also built a wide circle of powerful friends,” including local and national politicians, who didn’t question his actions.The harassment didn’t stop there, however. Separately, the Sheriff’s Office created a list of schoolchildren it considered likely to become future criminals. The office gathered data from local schools, including protected information like children’s grades, school attendance records, and child welfare histories. Parents and teachers were not told that children were designated as future criminals, nor did they understand that the students’ private data was being weaponized. The school system’s superintendent initially didn’t realize the police had access to student data, said Kathleen McGrory.Once the investigation was published, civil liberties groups denounced the intelligence programs. Thirty groups formed a coalition to protest, and four of the targeted people brought lawsuits against the agency. Two bills were proposed to prevent this kind of invasion and misuse in the future. The federal Department of Education opened an investigation into the data sharing between the Sheriff’s Office and the local school district. Fortunately, as a result, police analysts will no longer have access to student grades.Many people imagine that using more technology will make things “fairer.” This is behind the idea of using machines instead of judges, an idea that surfaces periodically among lawyers and computer scientists. We see it in the adoption of body-worn cameras, an initiative that has been growing since LAPD officers brutally assaulted Rodney King in 1991 and the attack was captured on a home camcorder. There’s an imaginary world where everything is captured on video, there are perfectly fair and objective algorithms that adjudicate what happens in the video feed, facial recognition identifies bad actors, and the heroic police officers go in and save the day and capture the bad guys. This fantasy is taken to its logical conclusion in the film Minority Report, where Tom Cruise plays a police officer who arrests people before they commit crimes, on the recommendation of some teenagers with precognition who are held captive in a swimming pool full of goo. “It’s just like Minority Report,” a police officer marveled to sociologist Sarah Brayne, when the two were discussing Palantir’s policing software.What makes this situation additionally difficult is the fact that many of the people involved in the chain are not malevolent. For example, my cousin, who is white, was a state police officer for years. He’s wonderful and kind and honest and upstanding and exactly the person I would call on if I were in trouble. He and his family are very dear to me and I to them. I believe in the law, and I believe in law enforcement in the abstract, in the way that many people do when they have the privilege of not interacting with or being targeted by law enforcement or the courts.But the origins of policing are problematic for Black people like me, and the frequency of egregious abuses by police is out of control in today’s United States. Police technology and machine fairness are the reasons why we need to pause and fix the human system before implementing any kind of digital system in policing.The current system of policing in the United States, with the Fraternal Order of Police and the uniforms and so on, began in South Carolina. Specifically, it emerged in the 1700s in Charleston, South Carolina, as a slave patrol. “It was quite literally a professional force of white free people who came together to maintain social control of black, enslaved people living inside the city of Charleston,” said ACLU Policing Policy Director Paige Fernandez in a 2021 podcast. “They came together for the sole purpose of ensuring that enslaved black people did not organize and revolt and push back on slavery. That is the first example of a modern police department in the United States.” In her book Dark Matters: Surveillance of Blackness, scholar Simone Brown connects modern surveillance of Black bodies to chattel slavery via lantern laws, which were eighteenth-century laws in New York City requiring Black or mixed-race people to carry a lantern if out at night unaccompanied by a white person. Scholar Josh Scannell sees lantern laws as the precedent for today’s policy of police using floodlights to illuminate high-crime areas all night long. People who live in heavily policed neighborhoods never get the peaceful cloak of darkness, as floodlights make it artificially light all night long and the loud drone of the generators for the lights makes the neighborhood noisier.The ACLU’s Fernandez draws a line from slave patrols maintaining control over Black people to the development of police departments to the implementation of Jim Crow–era rules and laws to police enforcing segregation during the civil rights era and inciting violence against peaceful protestors to escalating police violence against Black and Brown people and leading to the Black Lives Matter movement. Fernandez points out that the police tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed peaceful protestors in the summer of 2020, fired rubber bullets at protestors, charged at protestors, and used techniques like kettling to corner protestors into closed spaces where violence could be inflicted more easily.The statistics paint a grim picture. “Black people are 3.5 times more likely than white people to be killed by police when Blacks are not attacking or do not have a weapon. George Floyd is an example,” writes sociologist Rashawn Ray in a 2020 Brookings Institute policy brief about police accountability.14 “Black teenagers are 21 times more likely than white teenagers to be killed by police. That’s Tamir Rice and Antwon Rose. A Black person is killed about every 40 hours in the United States. That’s Jonathan Ferrell and Korryn Gaines. One out of every one thousand Black men can expect to be killed by police violence over the life course. This is Tamir Rice and Philando Castile.” When Derek Chauvin, the police officer who killed George Floyd, was found guilty, it was remarkable because police are so rarely held accountable for violence against Black and Brown bodies.Reform is needed. That reform, however, will not be found in machines.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hitting-the-books-more-than-a-glitch-meredith-broussard-mit-press-143009017.html?src=rss
Twitter has removed a label that designated NPR as a “US state-affiliated” media outlet mere days after first applying the label earlier this week. As of Saturday, the company now lists the public broadcaster as a “government funded” organization. NPR tech reporter Bobby Allyn was the first to report on the change. He said Elon Musk told him Twitter would apply the “government funded” designation to other institutions in the coming days. “Tesla, which has received billions of dollars in government subsidies over the years, does not appear to have the label,” Allyn added.
Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi is heading back to theaters. At its Star Wars Celebrations event in London, Disney announced today it would rerelease the classic film in cinemas in the US, UK and other parts of the world on April 28th. The theatrical rerun will give Star Wars fans the chance to celebrate the movie ahead of its 40th anniversary on May 25th.
Joseph Staten, one of the creatives most closely associated with the Halo franchise, is leaving Microsoft. News of the departure was first reported on Friday by IGN. “We’re grateful for Joseph’s contributions to the Halo franchise and Xbox as a whole," Microsoft told the outlet. “We wish him all the best in his new adventure.” Staten later confirmed the news that same day. "Hey folks, I am indeed leaving Microsoft,” he said on Twitter. “I'll have more info to share soon, but for now, I'd just like to thank all my Xbox colleagues for all their understanding and support as I embark on a new adventure."
SpaceX could conduct Starship’s first orbital flight test as early as the week after next. On Thursday, the private space firm tweeted new photos of the super heavy-lift rocket at its Boca Chica facility in Texas. “Starship fully stacked at Starbase,” SpaceX said of the images. “Team is working towards a launch rehearsal next week followed by Starship’s first integrated flight test ~week later pending regulatory approval.” That same day, SpaceX owner Elon Musk offered an even more aggressive timeline. “Starship is stacked & ready to launch next week, pending regulatory approval,” he said on Twitter.
If you missed the chance to buy the PlayStation 5 God of War: Ragnarok bundle when it was $50 off last month, now you have another opportunity to do so. Amazon is again offering the bundle for $509, down from $560. With the discount, you’re effectively getting God of War: Ragnarok for $10 since the disc variant of the PS5 will set you back $499 on its own.Before this year, Sony’s latest console was notoriously tricky to find in stores and online due to pandemic-related supply shortages. That meant the console rarely went on sale, so while $50 off is not much of a discount, it is an all-time low price for the disc version of the PS5. The fact you get God of War: Ragnarok, one of the PlayStation 5’s best games, in the bundle makes this an even better deal. Now is also the perfect time to play the game. Sony’s Santa Monica Studio recently released a hefty update for Ragnarok that added an NG+ mode, alongside new armor and enhancements for players to collect.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/sonys-ps5-god-of-war-ragnarok-bundle-is-50-off-again-153846267.html?src=rss
On the surface, ChatGPT might seem like a tool that can come in useful for an array of work tasks. But before you ask the chatbot to summarize important memos or check your work for errors, it's worth remembering that anything you share with ChatGPT could be used to train the system and perhaps even pop up in its responses to other users. That's something several Samsung employees probably should have been aware of before they reportedly shared confidential information with the chatbot.Soon after Samsung's semiconductor division started allowing engineers to use ChatGPT, workers leaked secret info to it on at least three occasions, according to The Economist Korea (as spotted by Mashable). One employee reportedly asked the chatbot to check sensitive database source code for errors, another solicited code optimization and a third fed a recorded meeting into ChatGPT and asked it to generate minutes.Reports suggest that, after learning about the security slip-ups, Samsung attempted to limit the extent of future faux pas by restricting the length of employees' ChatGPT prompts to a kilobyte, or 1024 characters of text. The company is also said to be investigating the three employees in question and building its own chatbot to prevent similar mishaps. Engadget has contacted Samsung for comment.ChatGPT's data policy states that, unless users explicitly opt out, it uses their prompts to train its models. The chatbot's owner OpenAI urges users not to share secret information with ChatGPT in conversations as it's “not able to delete specific prompts from your history.” The only way to get rid of personally identifying information on ChatGPT is to delete your account — a process that can take up to four weeks.The Samsung saga is another example of why it's worth exercising caution when using chatbots, as you perhaps should with all your online activity. You never truly know where your data will end up.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/three-samsung-employees-reportedly-leaked-sensitive-data-to-chatgpt-190221114.html?src=rss
Substack users woke to a strange surprise today when trying to share links on Twitter, finding an error message when interacting with any tweet featuring a Substack link. Tweets with an outgoing link to Substack cannot be retweeted, replied to or even liked. The error message states that “some actions on this tweet have been disabled by Twitter.” The loss in functionality even extends to tools like TweetDeck.
Outdoor pizza ovens are having a moment. The compact, portable models have become popular for both novice and pro cooks alike, allowing them to host casual pizza parties or cater events as part of a restaurant business. While the wood- and gas-burning ovens can be fun to use for all skill levels, they have to remain outdoors, and using wood or charcoal requires more attention.After making some of the best outdoor pizza ovens, Ooni introduced its first electric model designed for indoor use in March. The Volt 12 ($999) encompasses everything from the company’s existing product line, from high-heat cooking to consistent results, and adds ease of use and baking versatility to the mix. This beast is big and expensive, but it also makes some damn good pizza.DesignPhoto by Billy Steele/EngadgetThe Volt 12 looks like what I’d expect an electric pizza oven from Ooni to look like. It bears the most resemblance to the Karu 16, one of the largest models the company offers. The gray and black color scheme is on every current Ooni model, except for the all-silver multi-fuel Karu 12. Rather than a rectangle, the Volt 12 has angled corners, making it more of a flat octagon than a boring box. Ooni says the exterior is powder-coated and weather resistant so you can take it outdoors – not that you would want it to get too wet. Since this model is more of a countertop appliance than its open-flame predecessors, the Volt 12 has short, stubby legs rather than the longer, folding ones on the wood- and gas- burning units.Only three Ooni models have glass doors that allow you to watch the entire cooking process. As an electric, indoor oven, the Volt 12 is one of those. Unlike the Karu 16 and Karu 12G, this panel is gloss black instead of metal. The door has a robust black handle that remains cool to the touch, even at 850 degrees, and a row of three control dials sit beneath the glass window. The only other button is an on/off switch on the left side of the front. This turns off the power completely. When this is switched on, the oven sits in standby mode until you hit the power button on the front that actually gets the Volt 12 ready to use.On the left is the time dial with the power button above it. The center control is for temperature, which ranges from 350 to 850 degrees Fahrenheit. Lastly, the far right dial is for “balance,” allowing you to shift how much power is given to the top and bottom heating elements. In other words, you can put more emphasis on the stone for a crisper crust or more on the top for a bit more browning/char. The balance control also activates a boost feature that can be used to get the stone to return to target temp quickly between pizzas (it takes about 45 seconds). All three controls are flanked by white lights for precise level indications. During pre-heating, for example, the temperature dial starts at 350 and slowly moves around to your target, blinking along the way at the current status.The bottom heating element sits underneath the stone – a 13-inch square cooking surface that can accommodate a variety of pans in addition to 12-inch pizza. There’s also an interior light that stays on the whole time, making it very easy to see how things are progressing without having to open the door.Setup and usePhoto by Billy Steele/EngadgetBefore the first use, you’ll need to season Volt 12. This requires you to run the oven at full blast (850) for 20 minutes and then allow it to cool before preheating to launch your first pizza. The cooldown takes quite a bit longer than the preheating or 20-minute burnoff, so you’ll want to do thing well before you need to actually cook. The cool down time on the Volt 12 takes a while. While the exterior will be back to room temp sooner, it takes a while for the inside to do the same since the Volt 12 is so well-insulated. This means you’ll have to wait at least an hour to safely store it or put the cover on.Ooni says the 1,600-watt Volt 12 can hit 850 degrees in 20 minutes where it can cook a pizza in 90 seconds. This makes it slightly slower to achieve max temperature than its wood- or gas-burning counterparts. The Karu 16, for example, can reach 950 degrees Fahrenheit in 15 minutes. Still, 20 minutes is remarkably quick, and in my experience, the Volt 12 actually hit 850 faster than that.The key advantage the Volt 12 has over its wood-burning siblings is convenience. Those models make great pizza with the subtle flavor of wood fire, but the flames require supervision whereas the Volt 12 is very much set it and forget it. You don’t have to worry about maintaining the fire in between stretching dough, topping pizzas and launching them into the oven. The Volt 12 also sets the balance dial based on your cooking temperature, but you can adjust it if you need to. Most outdoor Ooni ovens have an optional gas burner (propane and natural gas models), which would also remedy some of the headaches with temperature regulation.Making the pizzaPhoto by Billy Steele/EngadgetAll of this sounds great on paper, but it would be for naught if the thing didn’t make good pizza. Thankfully, Ooni has translated its formula for excellent outdoor cooking to its electric oven. The Volt 12 produces comparable results to any of the company’s other models, right down to the char and leoparding on Neapolitan pies. Since the temperature dial gives you more precise control, it’s easier to achieve the desired cook on everything from New York style to thin-and-crispy. With the extra space inside, you can also make Detroit pan pizza, as well as roast and bake other items with ease. The Volt 12 did well with any type of crust I threw at it, churning out tasty pies consistently in just a few minutes.Running wide open at 850 degrees, the Volt 12 makes excellent Neapolitan-style pizza. You’ll need to make sure you have a proper dough recipe (Scott Deley’s The Ooni Pizza Project is a great guide), but assuming you're starting with a good base, the oven will do its thing well. I found that the Volt 12 is a little more forgiving with rotating the pies than the open-flame outdoor models, so you don’t need to babysit it quite as much. These pizzas were light and airy with a slight crispness to the bottom and the requisite leoparding. New York-style pizzas baked at 650 were also great, with crisp edges and bottom, with a pleasant chewiness to the crust.Photo by Billy Steele/EngadgetThere are some downsides to the Volt 12, the big one being the price. It’s $999, and I’ll be the first to tell you that excellent pizza is achievable with your main oven and a baking stone or steel that costs a fraction as much. The second thing is it’s huge. The Volt 12 takes up the entire depth of the counter and is 20 inches wide. It also weighs just under 40 pounds. That’s not too heavy, relatively speaking, and the Volt 12 can easily be chucked in the backseat for a nearby party. Ooni did design it with built-in handles on the sides though, which makes the task of moving it slightly easier.The competitionIn the US, Ooni’s main competition for the Volt 12 is the Breville Pizzaiolo. This oven has been on the market for a few years at this point, with a design that looks more like one of the company’s toaster ovens. It’s an all-stainless steel aesthetic, with a glass door for viewing and easy-to-use controls up front. Out of the box, the Pizzaiolo runs on a variety of presets for different styles, but Breville also equipped it with a manual mode to give you full control over the top and bottom heating elements.The three strikes against this alternative are cost, a confining cooking surface and the lack of interior lighting. The Pizzaiolo is $999.95, so unless you find one on sale, you won’t save any money over the Volt 12. The stone on the Pizzaiolo is circular instead of square, so you’ll only be able to use 12-inch round pans in addition to your pizza. And lastly, there’s no light inside, so it can be a challenge to keep tabs on the cooking process. You’ll almost certainly have to open the door at some point for a closer inspection.Wrap-upWith the Volt 12, Ooni enters new territory by bringing its formula for stone-baked pizza indoors. While the results are consistently great across a range of styles, this is the company’s most expensive product to date, and I can see that being prohibitive for some – no matter how good the pizza is. A Karu 16 with the additional purchase of a gas burner is $920 or $950 (propane vs. natural gas), which would give you the convenience of a control dial with option of cooking with wood. Still not cheap, but that oven is big enough to do more than just pizza, so it’s also quite versatile. What it really comes down to is where you’ll be cooking most often – inside or out – or if you’re just fine upgrading your pizza game with accessories for your kitchen oven. And there’s absolutely no shame in doing that.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ooni-volt-12-review-180019262.html?src=rss
Google announced end-of-life dates today for products relying on the Nest app that won’t carry over to the new Google Home. If you own any Nest Secure or Dropcam home-security products, you have a year to use them before they become paperweights. Phasing out old and incompatible hardware could signal that the arrival of Google’s more customizable new Home app is drawing near.Nest Secure will continue to work until April 8th, 2024. To ease the blow, Google is offering some freebies to customers — as the company often does when its products head to the Google Graveyard. Nest Secure users will receive an offer for a free ADT Self Setup System (up to a $485 value); alternatively, they can opt for $200 in Google Store credit. Google says it will send an email with redemption instructions to eligible users.Dropcam products will also cease to work after April 8th of next year. Google advises users to download and save their video history before this date to avoid losing it. As consolation for Dropcam customers, the company is offering a free Nest Cam (indoor, wired) for those with a Nest Aware subscription; those without a subscription can take 50 percent off the same camera.DropcamFinally, Works With Nest, the API system allowing third-party integrations with otherwise incompatible smart home accessories, will stop working after September 29th. Google points customers to Assistant-based routines in the Google Home app as a replacement, and it plans to launch a script editor “in the coming months” to make up for other lost features. The company says it’s also “working closely” with partners to provide replacement integrations.Google announced an updated Home app last October that could be the primary source for today’s hardware cutoff announcements. The updated Home app integrates Matter, including its Fast Pair feature. It’s available now in a public preview.Nest Secure launched in 2017 as a fresh take on smart home security. Designed to compete with legacy brands like ADT (which Google later invested in), the system included a Guard base, motion-detecting sensors for windows and doors and tag keychains, which let you quickly enable or disable the system. Google announced in 2020 it had discontinued the platform but promised it would continue working for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, Dropcam began as a pioneering smart home security brand, launching some of the first cloud-connected cameras. Google / Nest bought the startup in 2014 for $555 million, a move that founder Greg Duffy later described as a “mistake.”This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nest-secure-and-dropcam-products-will-stop-working-in-april-2024-172925431.html?src=rss
NASA has launched an innovative air quality monitoring instrument into a fixed-rotation orbit around Earth. The tool is called TEMPO, which stands for Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution instrument, and it keeps an eye on a handful of harmful airborne pollutants in the atmosphere, such as nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde and ground-level ozone. These chemicals are the building blocks of smog.TEMPO traveled to space hitched to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. NASA says the launch was completed successfully, with the atmospheric satellite separating from the rocket without any incidents. NASA acquired the appropriate signal and the agency says the instrument will begin monitoring duties in late May or early June.
For the fifth time in just over three months, Tesla has slashed the prices of its electric vehicles in the US, as Reuters reports. The company has cut prices by up to six percent across its lineup. The Model 3, for instance, is $1,000 less expensive than it was yesterday. It now starts at $41,990, according to Tesla's website.There are bigger discounts on higher-end configurations. The Model Y Long Range and Performance models have dropped by another $2,000 to $52,990 and $56,990, respectively. The Model S and Model X have already seen major price cuts this year and have dipped by an extra $5,000 to starting prices of $84,990 and $94,990. As Electrek points out, the price of the base Model S has tumbled by $20,000 since 2022, while the Model S Plaid is over $25,000 less expensive than it was a few months ago.Tesla said this week it delivered almost 423,000 EVs in the first three months of 2023 amid the initial waves of price cuts in the US, China and other countries. That figure marked a company record, as deliveries increased by four percent from the previous quarter. However, Tesla again missed analyst estimates.The company aims to deliver 1.8 million EVs this year. It's not on track to do that yet based on the first-quarter figures. Although the multitude of price cuts could ultimately boost demand and make Tesla more competitive in an increasingly crowded sector, analysts have noted that the discounts could eat into the company's profit margins given the relatively small increase in deliveries they've spurred to date.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tesla-cuts-ev-prices-for-the-fifth-time-this-year-161008384.html?src=rss
EA will release the mobile free-to-play Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth on May 10th, marking its first LOTR game since 2009's The Lord of the Rings: Conquest. It also unveiled the first real trailer, showing gameplay, menus and more. It's one of five LOTR games currently in development from Embracer (which bought the rights last year), including the much anticipated Lord of the Rings: Gollum set to arrive shortly afterwards.The trailer features a "stylized realism art style," EA wrote, leaning into existing lore with wanderers, warriors, wizards and other classic LOTR characters. AT the same time, it creates "a more diverse and inclusive Middle-earth," the company said, while showing off Story, PVP and other gameplay modes.Heroes of Middle-earth includes characters from both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, along with collection systems, turn-based combat and more. In a previous news release, EA said that players will experience "iconic stories from the world of Tolkien and take up the fight against the great evils of Middle-earth." Given the free-to-play aspect, there are of course microtransactions.Heroes of Middle-earth is set to arrive on iOS and Android on May 10th, with pre-registration now open. Meanwhile, Lord of the Rings: Gollum will launch on consoles and PC May 25th, and Embracer reportedly has three additional titles in development for the next two years.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/lord-of-the-rings-heroes-of-middle-earth-arrives-may-10th-160018567.html?src=rss
It's Friday, which means it's time for another roundup of good tech deals. Today's highlights include Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite back down to $100, which is within $5 of the popular e-reader's all-time low. Apple's AirPods Pro are $50 off their list price at $200, while the Apple Watch SE is a good value at $219. Beyond that, we're still seeing a handful of deals on Super Mario games for the Nintendo Switch, as well as discounts on Samsung storage gear and Logitech's MX Keys Mini keyboard, among others. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.Amazon Kindle PaperwhiteAmazon's Kindle Paperwhite is on sale for $100, which is $5 more than the e-reader's all-time low but still $30 or so less than its usual street price. We gave the "Signature Edition" of the Paperwhite a review score of 97 in late 2021; by comparison, this model has less storage (8GB instead of 32GB), no Qi wireless charging and a slightly less advanced front light. Those shouldn't be dealbreakers, though, as the standard Paperwhite still provides a sharp 6.8-inch display that's easy on the eyes, a lightweight and waterproof design with a USB-C port and access to the same mammoth e-book library.There are excellent alternatives here: Kobo's Clara 2E, the top pick in our guide to the best e-readers, is a similarly capable device for those who'd rather not shop in Amazon's closed-off ecosystem, while Amazon's base Kindle offers a more affordable entry point into the Kindle library. Both of those models have six-inch displays, though. if you'd prefer a larger screen and don't mind buying your e-books from Amazon, the Paperwhite is still highly comfortable — and a good value at this price.Samsung Evo SelectSamsung's Evo Select is a dependable way to add more storage space to a Nintendo Switch, Raspberry Pi, GoPro or any other gadget that supports microSD cards. The 256GB model is currently available for $19, which is a new low. This V30- and U3-rated card isn't the absolute fastest you can buy, but it's quick enough to run games and record 4K video with minimal issues, and it's backed by a 10-year warranty. Most importantly, it's affordable. For reference, this variant typically retails around $25.Nintendo Switch game saleA handful of deals from Nintendo's Mario Day sale last month are scheduled to end on Saturday, but recommended games like Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Mario Maker 2, and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe are still down to $40 for now. While these are not massive discounts, they bring each game about $10-15 lower than usual. Nintendo is still fairly stingy when it comes to discounting first-party Switch games, so if this week's release of the The Super Mario Bros. Movie has you itching for more Mario at home, this is a decent chance to save.Nintendo has a few other Switch game deals of note going on this week. The acclaimed FPS games Doom and Doom Eternal are down to all-time lows of $10 and $13, respectively, while a bundle that pairs the beloved RPGs Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden is $10 off at $30. The latter is the first discount we've seen for those Switch ports. Portal Companion Collection, which includes the classic first-person puzzler Portal and its co-op-friendly sequel Portal 2, is down to a low of $12 as well.Logitech MX Keys MiniLogitech's MX Keys Mini is a compact wireless keyboard we recommend in our guide to the best iPad accessories. It has a slim profile, but its backlit and well-spaced keys are more comfortable to type on than most portable keyboards we've tested. Typically priced around $100, the MX Keys Mini is currently available for $66 at Lenovo when you use the code EXTRA5 in your cart prior to checkout. This deal technically applies to the Business version of the device, which means it comes with a different USB receiver that isn't compatible with many older Logitech devices. However, the keyboard can still pair with and quickly swap between three separate devices over Bluetooth.Apple AirPods ProWe've seen Apple's AirPods Pro fall to $200 multiple times in recent months, but this discount still comes within a dollar of the lowest price we've seen. Normally, the noise-cancelling earbuds go for around $225. We gave the second-gen AirPods Pro a score of 88 in our review last year, and they're currently the "best for iOS" pick in our guide to the best wireless earbuds. There are more well-rounded pairs out there with better battery life and mic performance, but Apple's in-ears still deliver impressive ANC and sound quality, and they're particularly easy to use with other Apple devices.Samsung Galaxy S23The unlocked, 128GB version of Samsung's Galaxy S23 is down to $700, which is a $100 discount for a phone that launched in February. The S23 isn't a top pick in our guide to the best smartphones, and it's not as strong of a value as Google's Pixel 7, but it's worth considering if you specifically want a smaller handset with flagship-level features. It's fast and well-built, and its 6.1-inch, 120Hz OLED display should be smooth and vibrant. The camera isn't top-tier in low-light settings but still far from poor overall, and Samsung is promising four years of OS upgrades, with an extra year of security updates.The S23 isn't the phone to buy for battery life, though, as its smaller size means there's less space for a battery that can last longer than a day. We gave the 6.6-inch Galaxy S23+ a review score of 86 earlier this year: Apart from the larger frame, that phone comes with twice as much storage by default, faster charging support and a bigger battery, but the two devices are otherwise similar.Fully Cora standing desk converterThe Fully Cora is a simple standing desk converter that we've previously recommended. It's meant more for a laptop and a handful of accessories than a full keyboard and monitor setup, but if you just want a way to sit less while working, it's a relatively unobtrusive, lightweight and easy-to-adjust tool for doing that. The device is currently available for $90 as part of a wider sale at Fully's online store. It's technically been at this price for a few weeks, but it's still half off Fully's MSRP. Just note that you may have to invest in a separate stand to keep your laptop at a more comfortable eye level.Apple Watch SEThe Apple Watch SE has dropped to $219, which is within $10 of the lowest price we've seen. This isn't the first time we've seen the smartwatch hit this price, but it's still $30 below Apple's MSRP. We gave the latest SE a review score of 89 last September, and we currently recommend it for first-time and budget-conscious wearable buyers in our guide to the best smartwatches.Compared to the pricier Apple Watch Series 8, the top pick in our guide, the SE lacks an always-on display mode, fast charging and premium features like a skin temperature sensor, ECG monitor and blood oxygen sensor. Its display is a smidge smaller, too. That said, it still provides most of the core Apple Watch feature set for way less money, with support for notifications, heart-rate monitoring and crash detection. It also uses the same processor as the Series 8, so it doesn't feel slow in everyday use.Samsung 980 Pro SSD with HeatsinkThe 1TB model of Samsung's 980 Pro SSD with an integrated heatsink is on sale for $87, which is a new all-time low. On average, the device has run closer to $120 in recent months, though its price has steadily dipped over time. We recommend this speedy PCI Express 4.0 drive in our guide to the best SSDs for the PS5, as it meets Sony's strict requirements for upgrading that console's storage.It's best if you buy the 980 Pro for that specific purpose, though. If you simply want a new SSD for an aging PC and don't care about gaming, a less expensive PCIe 3.0 drive should be a better value. For that market, SK Hynix's Gold P31 is a well-regarded option that's currently down to $72 for a 1TB model.Apple + Target gift card bundleHere's a simple one: If you buy a $100 Apple gift card at Target, the retailer will throw in a $10 Target gift card for no extra cost. As a reminder, an Apple gift card can be used on purchases at the company's physical retail shops, the App Store and Apple services like iCloud and Apple Music. Target has run this promotion several times before, but if you plan on shopping at Apple and Target in the near future anyway, it's effectively a bit of free money. Target says the offer will end on April 8.Blue Yeti NanoThe grey model of the Blue Yeti Nano is on sale for $53 at Amazon. Outside of a very brief drop to $50 last year, that's the lowest price we've tracked. The Yeti Nano is a compact USB microphone we've recommended in the past. There are certainly clearer-sounding options for those looking to get into more professional recordings, but if you just want a mic upgrade for your work calls that's easy to set up and won't take up a ton of room on your desk, the Yeti Nano is a decent value when it's discounted to this extent. If space is less of a concern, note that the standard Yeti is down to $80; that mic is bigger but sounds better and offers more pickup patters to accommodate different types of recordings.Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K MaxAmazon's Fire TV Stick 4K Max is back down to $35, matching the lowest price we've tracked. The 4K media player has regularly bounced between this deal price and its MSRP of $55 in recent months, but for less than $40 it's a good value for those who want to add more streaming services to their TV. The device itself is reasonably fast and supports most of the major apps and HDR formats. (Compared to the standard Fire TV Stick 4K, the speed upgrade is enough to make the 4K Max a better buy.) It has voice search functionality built into its remote, which is convenient. For tinkerers, it's also easier to sideload unsupported apps here than it is with similarly priced streamers.The caveat is that the Fire TV UI tends to advertise Amazon's own content over shows and search results from other apps. That means the 4K Max will work best if you regularly use Amazon services like Alexa and Prime Video. If you aren't as beholden to Amazon, Roku's Streaming Stick 4K and Google's Chromecast are close alternatives that we recommend in our guide to the best streaming devices. The former has a simpler and more neutral interface, while the latter is generally more accurate at searching and better about personalizing its UI to your viewing habits.Ninja DZ401 Foodi air fryerNinja's DZ401 Foodi is the "best dual-zone" pick in our guide to the best air fryers, offering two baskets that allow you to cook two foods in two different ways at the same time. Not everyone needs something this hefty, but if you often have to cook for a large family, it can be useful. The 10-quart model is down to $180, which is roughly $20 below its usual going rate. The device dropped as low as $130 during the holidays last year, but this discount matches the lowest price we've seen in 2023.Master & Dynamic MW75A recommendation from our guide to the best wireless headphones, Master & Dynamic's MW75 is on sale for $419 with the checkout code GIVEGET30. Normally, this noise-cancelling pair goes for $599. Even at 30 percent off, it's hard to call the MW75 a great value, as its ANC can't really match less expensive alternatives like the Sony WH-1000XM5 or Bose QuietComfort 45. But the pair stands out for its decidedly upscale design, which uses a premium-feeling blend of leather, aluminum and tempered glass. It sounds nice as well, though some may prefer a bit less treble presence by default.Either way, we don't see the MW75 drop this low very often, so if you've got cash to burn and are particular about aesthetics, it's worth considering. The code above is applicable to various other Master & Dynamic headphones as well; the company says the sale will run through April 10.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/amazon-kindle-paperwhite-falls-back-to-100-best-tech-deals-this-week-150031378.html?src=rss
The latest edition of Star Wars Celebration is underway and, along with some fresh details about shows coming to Disney+ over the next year or two, Lucasfilm revealed more info about what's ahead for the movie side of the franchise. It announced three Star Wars films, one of which will feature the return of Daisy Ridley as Rey.That film will take place 15 years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, the final movie in the Skywalker saga and the most recent Star Wars movie to hit the big screen. It will center around Rey forming a new Jedi Order. Academy Award winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Ms. Marvel, Saving Face) will direct the film.A movie from James Mangold (Logan, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) will delve into the origins of the Force and the Jedi. It will be set 25,000 years before anything else we've seen in the Star Wars universe to date, according to The Hollywood Reporter.Meanwhile, Dave Filoni will finally get a shot at directing a live-action Star Wars movie. Filoni has been at the heart of the franchise for many years. He directed the 2008 animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars and has been deeply involved with the recent spate of Disney+ shows, such as The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka and Skeleton Crew. Fittingly, the movie he's set to direct will tie the stories of those shows together and put a bow on them.Disney and Lucasfilm haven't revealed release dates for any of these films. However, Disney's current slate includes holiday 2025 and 2027 dates for untitled Star Wars flicks.After the last three Star Wars films (The Last Jedi, Solo and The Rise of Skywalker) didn't exactly receive wide acclaim, Disney and Lucasfilm walked back on their plans to release a movie every year. They have made several attempts to get other Star Wars films off the ground, including Patty Jenkins' Rogue Squadron, a trilogy from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, another trilogy from The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson and entries from Taika Waititi and Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige.All of those projects have either been canned or deprioritized, according to reports. Disney and Lucasfilm are evidently hoping these three freshly announced films will reignite Star Wars' success in movie theaters, even if we'll have to wait at least a couple of years to see the first of them.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/three-new-star-wars-movies-are-coming-including-one-with-daisy-ridley-as-rey-144805449.html?src=rss
AI Chatbots are relatively old by tech standards, but the newest crop — led by OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard — are vastly more capable than their ancestors, not always for positive reasons. The recent explosion in AI development has already created concerns around misinformation, disinformation, plagiarism and machine-generated malware. What problems might generative AI pose for the privacy of the average internet user? The answer, according to experts, is largely a matter of how these bots are trained and how much we plan to interact with themIn order to replicate human-like interactions, AI chatbots are trained on mass amounts of data, a significant portion of which is derived from repositories like Common Crawl. As the name suggests, Common Crawl has amassed years and petabytes worth of data simply from crawling and scraping the open web. “These models are training on large data sets of publicly available data on the internet,” Megha Srivastava, PhD student at Stanford's computer science department and former AI resident with Microsoft Research, said. Even though ChatGPT and Bard use what they call a "filtered" portion of Common Crawl's data, the sheer size of the model makes it "impossible for anyone to kind of look through the data and sanitize it,” according to Srivastava.Either through your own carelessness or the poor security practices by a third-party could be in some far-flung corner of the internet right now. Even though it might be difficult to access for the average user, it's possible that information was scraped into a training set, and could be regurgitated by that chatbot down the line. And a bot spitting out someone's actual contact information is in no way a theoretical concern. Bloomberg columnist Dave Lee posted on Twitter that, when someone asked ChatGPT to chat on encrypted messaging platform Signal, it provided his exact phone number. This sort of interaction is likely an edge case, but the information these learning models have access to is still worth considering. "It’s unlikely that OpenAI would want to collect specific information like healthcare data and attribute it to individuals in order to train its models," David Hoelzer, a fellow at security organization the SANS Institute, told Engadget. “But could it inadvertently be in there? Absolutely.”Open AI, the company behind ChatGPT, did not respond when we asked what measures it takes to protect data privacy, or how it handles personally identifiable information that may be scraped into its training sets. So we did the next best thing and asked ChatGPT itself. It told us that it is "programmed to follow ethical and legal standards that protect users’ privacy and personal information" and that it doesn't "have access to personal information unless it is provided to me." Google for its part told Engadget it programmed similar guardrails into Bard to prevent the sharing of personally identifiable information during conversations.Helpfully, ChatGPT brought up the second major vector by which generative AI might pose a privacy risk: usage of the software itself — either via information shared directly in chatlogs or device and user information captured by the service during use. OpenAI’s privacy policy cites several categories of standard information it collects on users, which could be identifiable, and upon starting it up, ChatGPT does caution that conversations may be reviewed by its AI trainers to improve systems.Google's Bard, meanwhile, does not have a standalone privacy policy, instead uses the blanket privacy document shared by other Google products (and which happens to be tremendously broad.) Conversations with Bard don't have to be saved to the user's Google account, and users can delete the conversations via Google, the company told Engadget. “In order to build and sustain user trust, they're going to have to be very transparent around privacy policies and data protection procedures at the front end,” Rishi Jaitly, professor and distinguished humanities fellow at Virginia Tech, told Engadget.Despite having a "clear conversations" action, pressing that does not actually delete your data, according to the service’s FAQ page, nor is OpenAI is able to delete specific prompts. While the company discourages users from sharing anything sensitive, seemingly the only way to remove personally identifying information provided to ChatGPT is to delete your account, which the company says will permanently remove all associated data.Hoelzer told Engadget he’s not worried that ChatGPT is ingesting individual conversations in order to learn. But that conversation data is being stored somewhere, and so its security becomes a reasonable concern. Incidentally, ChatGPT was taken offline briefly in March because a programming error revealed information about users’ chat histories. It's unclear this early in their broad deployment if chat logs from these sorts of AI will become valuable targets for malicious actors.For the foreseeable future, it's best to treat these sorts of chatbots with the same suspicion users should be treating any other tech product. “A user playing with these models should enter with expectation that any interaction they're having with the model," Srivastava told Engadget, "it's fair game for Open AI or any of these other companies to use for their benefit.”This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/what-do-ai-chatbots-know-about-us-and-who-are-they-sharing-it-with-140013949.html?src=rss
Super Mario Bros. is an almost perfect kids film. It's stunningly animated, it has enough momentum to keep youngins from being bored, and almost every character is unique and likable (even Bowser himself, thanks to the comedic stylings of Jack Black). It's clear that Nintendo didn't want to repeat the mistakes of that other Mario movie, the live-action 1993 film that's ironically beloved by some '90s kids (it's all we had!), but ultimately failed to capture the magic of the games. This film, meanwhile, is chock full of everything you'd remember from NIntendo's ouvre. It's a nostalgic romp for adults, and it's simply a fun time for children.But boy is it safe. Maybe I'm a bit spoiled by the excellent non-Pixar animated films we've seen over the last decade, especially the ones that Phil Lord and Chris Miller have touched (The Lego Movie! Into the Spider-Verse!). But it's glaringly obvious Nintendo didn't want to take any major creative risks with this adaptation. The script from Matthew Fogel is filled with enough humor and references to keep us from feeling bored, and directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic deliver some inspired sequences. But it's almost like the film is trapped in a nostalgia castle thanks to the whims of an aging corporate dinosaur. (Bear with me.)Nintendo/IlluminationThat wasn't a problem for the kids in my matinee audience, but it's a bit disappointing if you've waited decades to see a truly great Mario adaptation. It's in line with the recent live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie — Super Mario Bros. is "fine." There's no attempt to achieve anything deeper than the basics: Mario (voiced by Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) are two floundering Brooklyn plumbers who are inexplicably transported to the Mushroom Kingdom. Luigi, ever the scaredy-cat, is almost instantly captured by Bowser's minions, and it's up to Mario and Princess Peach (an effervescent Anya Taylor-Joy) to save him. Big bad Bowser, meanwhile, has plans to either marry Peach or, barring that, take over the kingdom.The film bombards you with an endless series of references from the start – just look at all those Punch-Out! characters on the wall! – something that will either delight longtime Nintendo fans or make your eyes roll. Personally, though, I mostly enjoyed seeing how all of the nostalgia fodder was deployed (the adorably fatalistic Lumalee from Mario Galaxy practically steals the film). The filmmakers also show off plenty of visual flair, like an early scene in Brooklyn that rotates into a 2D chase sequence. If only some of the musical choices were more creative. (A Kill Bill reference? Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero" during Mario's training montage? Come on.)It's always nice to see kids movies reach far beyond our expectations — The Lego Movie wrestled with the prison of capitalism, the importance of pushing against restrictive social expectations and how fandom can ruin the thing you actually love, all in addition to being a fun adventure for kids and injecting a dose of smart humor for adults. In Super Marios Bros., Mario learns to eat mushrooms because they literally make him big and strong. What subtext!At the same time, I can still respect a movie that simply accomplishes its goal of entertaining children. Over the years, I've been subjected to plenty of truly awful kid's films with ugly animation and production design, lazy writing, and zero creative vision. I wish I could reclaim the time I spent watching Space Jam: A New Legacy or the 2011 Smurfs movie. The Super Mario Bros. may be a bit basic and safe, but it's not a waste of time.For one, we've never seen Mario and the Mushroom Kingdom look this good. Illumination may not have the stellar track record of Pixar, but this movie is filled with gorgeously detailed characters, vibrant worlds jam-packed with detail and some of the most fluid animation I've seen in years. It's a visual feast, and it makes me long for the day when a Mario game can look so lush (as much as I loved Super Mario Odyssey, it's visuals are held back by the Switch's aging hardware).And for the most part, the voice acting kept me invested. Jack Black is inspired as Bowser, a hopeless romantic who can only express his feelings through song and world domination. Charlie Day basically plays his usual harried persona, but it fits Luigi, a character who mainly exists to support his little bigger brother. And Anya Taylor-Joy makes for a perfect Princess Peach, a leader who has to feign bravery to protect her adorable Mushroom Kingdom people.Nintendo/IlluminationFor all of Chris Pratt's hype about his Mario voice, though, it's merely serviceable. The movie jokes about Charles Martinet's original problematic accent (Martinet also voices two characters in the film), but Pratt's spin on it just feels like someone pretending to be a schlubby Brooklynite. That's particularly surprising since Pratt injected so much life into his Lego Movie lead.What's most disappointing about The Super Mario Bros. Movie is that it's so close to being genuinely great. If the film had more time to build up its characters, or if it made room for Jack Black unleash his full Tenacious D talents as Bowser, it would easily be stronger. Why not go a bit harder on that Mario Kart sequence? (Even Moana managed to fit in a Mad Max: Fury Road reference!) Why not spend a bit more time on the rivalry/budding bromance between Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen) and Mario?With a projected opening weekend of $150 million or more, it's clear that Nintendo has a hit on its hands. A sequel is inevitable. I just hope that the company loosens up the next time around. After all, what fun is a Mario adventure without taking a few creative leaps over chasms of uncertainty?This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/super-mario-bros-movie-review-fun-safe-romp-135146207.html?src=rss
At the Star Wars Celebration in London, Lucasfilm has unveiled a raft of news, trailers and more on its numerous upcoming streaming series, Variety has reported. That starts with a first look at The Acolyte showed to the ExCel Center crowd (but not online yet) and a launch date window of sometime in 2024.First revealed at Disney's Investor Day 2020, The Acolyte takes place in the High Republic era of the Star Wars universe (100 years before the franchise’s prequel trilogy) during a period called the Golden Age of the Jedi. The cast includes Jodie Turner-Smith, The Good Place star Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Rebecca Henderson and Carrie-Anne Moss.The first look showed footage of a Jedi temple, fighting with Moss, a gold lightsaber, and a shots of the Jedis lighting up their sabers in unison. "This is about power and who is allowed to use it," a tagline read. The show is reportedly a "mystery thriller" seen from the perspective of the Siths, with the term "acolyte" describing soldiers of Sith Lords, according to Variety.
This week, Cherlynn and Devindra dive into our review of Amazon's Halo Rise and look into the role it plays in the company's overall strategy as a healthcare provider. Then, our hosts contemplate the cancelation and possible end of E3, as well as the spate of odd news around April Fools day, including Twitter's doge-ification and ASUS' ill-timed gaming handheld 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 podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!Subscribe!
Samsung has warned of plummeting profits and plans to cut back on memory chip production in response to falling demand, The Korea Herald has reported. It expects to earn just 600 billion won ($455 million) for the first quarter of 2023, a drop of 96 percent from the same period last year. It blamed falling demand for memory chips, a situation that could be a bad sign for the tech industry as a whole."We’re adjusting to lower memory production to a meaningful level... in addition to optimizing line operations that are already underway,” Samsung said in a statement. It added that it would continue to invest in clean room infrastructure and expand R&D spending, as it sees improved memory chip demand in the mid- to long-term.Although it trails Taiwan's TSMC in other areas, Samsung is the global leader in DRAM and NAND flash memory chip production with 40.7 and 31.4 percent shares respectively. Such chips are used in consumer devices of all kinds, ranging from smartwatches to mobile phones and laptops. The oversupply of memory chips is therefore a sign that demand for such products has fallen significantly due to an ongoing global economic slowdown.The slowdown comes just a short time after one of the biggest tech industry booms of all time, powered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since late in 2021, however, memory prices have dropped through the floor, with DRAM and NAND prices down by 20 and 15 percent in just the last quarter alone. One bright spot for Samsung has been sales of its new Galaxy S23 smartphone, which helped bolster profits, the company said. It will reveal more details in its earnings report set to drop at the end of April.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsung-warns-of-lower-profits-amid-falling-demand-for-memory-chips-113551159.html?src=rss
Apple's Mac Mini M2 computers are the cheapest way to get the company's latest processors, and now Amazon is offering them at the lowest prices we've ever seen. You can buy the 256GB version for just $500 ($100 off the regular price) and the 512GB model for $690, or $110 off — both all-time lows.In our Engadget review, we gave the Mac Mini a solid score of 86, lauding the performance and classic aluminum design. It's tiny but mighty, with the M2 processor easily powerful enough for productivity chores and multitasking. The chip combines computing operations, like CPU, GPU, input/output interfaces and certain memory processes into one "system on a chip," allowing for faster processing speeds.On top of that, you get killer connectivity, with two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C connections, HDMI 2.0 (with 4K 240Hz and 8K 60Hz output), two USB-A ports, a headphone jack and gigabit Ethernet (upgradeable to 10 gigabit). The M2 Pro model adds two additional USB-C ports, making it even more useful for creatives with a ton of accessories.The Mac Mini M2 won't replace your gaming machine, but it can handle nearly everything else you throw at it. We wouldn't recommend the overpriced storage or RAM upgrades either, as the M2 is much more efficient with RAM than typical PCs. Still, if you're looking for a cheap but powerful Mac, this is the way to go.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/apples-mac-mini-m2-models-fall-to-new-all-time-lows-100512675.html?src=rss
Google will soon start rolling out WebGPU, a new feature that will allow Chrome browsers to use your graphics card to accelerate games, graphics and AI, the company announced. It'll be enabled by default in Chrome 113 set to arrive in a few weeks for Windows PCs (via Direct3D 12), MacOS (Metal) and ChromeOS (Vulkan).WebGPU will give web apps better access to your graphics card, Google said, allowing developers to achieve the same level of graphics with far less code. That could make for new and interesting Chrome browser-based 3D apps, and without a doubt, better games.At the same time, it will power over "three times improvements in machine learning model inferences," the company added. That could pave the way for machine learning apps that run locally, like NVIDIA Broadcast's strange "eye contact" feature.Google calls the initial release a "building block for future updates and enhancements," as developers begin to dig into it and create new applications. The API has been in development for over six years, and should be available to Firefox and Safari down the road (Edge often gets features at the same time as Chrome), and expand to more operating systems like Android. You can try the feature for yourself if you're on the Chrome Beta track using a demo called Babylon.js, which already offers full WebGPU support.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/googles-webgpu-is-coming-to-chrome-to-boost-online-gaming-and-graphics-085305456.html?src=rss
Twitter has finally shut off its free API and, predictably, it’s breaking a lot of apps and websites. The company had previously said it would cut off access in early February, but later delayed the move without providing an updated timeline.But, after announcing its new paid API tiers last week, the company seems to have started cutting off the thousands of developers relying on its free developer tools. Over the last couple days, a number of app makers and other services have reported that the Twitter API is no longer functioning. Mashable reported the shutoff seems to have started Tuesday morning, though many developers are still trying to understand what’s happening as Twitter doesn’t seem to have communicated with most developers about the changes.The ending of Twitter’s free API comes after the company abruptly changed its rules to ban third-party Twitter clients as part of a larger shakeup of its developer strategy. But, as we’ve previously reported, third-party clients were only a small fraction of the developers, researchers, bot makers and others who relied on Twitter’s APIs.For example, apps and websites that used Twitter’s API to enable sharing of content to and from Twitter are now seeing that functionality break. WordPress reported Tuesday that it was no longer able to access the API, rendering its websites unable to automatically share posts to Twitter. (The issue has since been fixed, according to the company.)
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