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The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has slapped Meta with a $101.5 million (91 million) fine after wrapping up an investigation into a security breach in 2019, wherein the company mistakenly stored users' passwords in plain text. Meta's original announcement only talked about how it found some user passwords stored in plain text on its servers in January that year. But a month later, it updated its announcement to reveal that millions of Instagram passwords were also stored in easily readable format.While Meta didn't say how many accounts were affected, a senior employee told Krebs on Security back then that the incident involved up to 600 million passwords. Some of the passwords had been stored in easily readable format in the company's servers since 2012. They were also reportedly searchable by over 20,000 Facebook employees, though the DPC has clarified in its decision that they were at least not made available to external parties.The DPC found that Meta violated several GDPR rules related to the breach. It determined that the company failed to "notify the DPC of a personal data breach concerning storage of user passwords in plaintext" without undue delay and failed to "document personal data breaches concerning the storage of user passwords in plaintext." It also said that Meta violated the GDPR by not using appropriate technical measures to ensure the security of users' passwords against unauthorized processing."It is widely accepted that user passwords should not be stored in plaintext, considering the risks of abuse that arise from persons accessing such data. It must be borne in mind, that the passwords the subject of consideration in this case, are particularly sensitive, as they would enable access to users' social media accounts," DPC's Deputy Commissioner, Graham Doyle, said in a statement.The DPC has also given the company a reprimand in addition to the penalty. We may know more about what that means for Meta exactly when the commission publishes its full final decision and other related information in the future.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/meta-fined-102-million-for-storing-passwords-in-plain-text-110049679.html?src=rss

With the rights to content from big studios and franchises like Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic, Disney+ is a streaming service that everyone knows and loves - so much so that it nabbed a spot as one of the best streaming services in our guide. Whether you look forward to sitting down on your couch ready to be whisked away to Marvel's multiverse of TV shows, like the highly anticipated Agatha All Along, or want to keep the kids entertained with hit classics like Bluey, or Inside Out 2, Disney+ has great content for adults and kids alike. However, the service has not been immune to price hikes, that's why this deal is a good opportunity to save $24 over three months. Through the end of the day on September 27, you can get Disney+ Basic (with ads) for just $2/month for three months - that's less than a cup of coffee. There are a few different Disney+ plans available, but since Disney+ doesn't offer a free trial, the Basic (with ads) is the cheapest option to gain access to all your favorite content, including TV shows and films. With Disney+ Basic, you can stream over 500 films, 15,000 episodes and 80 Disney+ Originals, including The Acolyte, Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour (Taylor's Version), Percy Jackson and the Olympians and more. In addition to full library access, Basic also supports 4K content and streaming across multiple devices at once. Although Disney+ offers an abundance of content suitable for most people, it's a fantastic streaming service for families. Once you've signed up and installed the app (on your TV, smartphone, PC or tablet), you can add up to seven profiles so you don't have to fight over what to watch, or risk spoilers when someone in your household binge watches the latest season of Grey's Anatomy that you haven't seen. There's also a bunch of parental controls like Junior Mode, PIN protection and content ratings, which can help parents ensure their little ones aren't exposed to anything they don't want them to be. 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/deals/its-the-last-day-to-get-three-months-of-disney-basic-for-only-6-100001652.html?src=rss

While the latest wireless earbuds from Apple, Sony, Bose and other big-name brands may dominate the headlines, you absolutely do not need to spend triple digits to get something good. These days it's more than possible to find a clean-sounding, richly-featured pair for well under $100, but navigating the bargain bin still brings its share of challenges.

As extreme weather events become ever more common, climate risks are playing a role in many people's long-term decision-making. And few things are more long-term than buying real estate. In response, Zillow has announced a new partnership to bring climate risk information to its for-sale listings.Property listing pages in the US will include data about flood, wildfire, wind, heat and air quality risks at that location. This section will also list any climate-related insurance requirements for that property. The information is being provided by First Street, a specialist in climate risk financial modeling. The climate data is rolling out this year to the Zillow website and iOS app, while Android is expected to get the update early next year. Some locations have already been updated to show climate data on the web.Those five risk categories are also being applied to Zillow's interactive map search view. Each of the different climate concerns has a color-coded visualization to show the risk levels across the country or in a smaller region. It's valuable information for anybody in a position to make that big homebuying leap. For everybody else, it may add simply a touch of gloomy reality to the gleeful experience of scrolling through absurd and/or overpriced houses.Zillow also introduced improvements to its AI search feature earlier this month.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/zillow-is-adding-climate-risk-data-to-all-us-for-sale-listings-220038971.html?src=rss

California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed AB 2426, a new law that requires digital marketplaces to make clearer to customers when they are only purchasing a license to access media. The law will not apply to cases of permanent offline downloads, only to the all-too-common situation of buying digital copies of video games, music, movies, TV shows or ebooks from an online storefront. The Verge spotted the development, which could see marketplaces facing fines for false advertising in the state if they don't use clear language to explain the limitations of what access entails. In other words, you won't be seeing language like "buy" or "purchase" once the law takes effect in 2025.The move to digital storefronts has raised new parallel concerns about ownership and preservation for media in the modern age. Ubisoft's move to delete The Crew from players' libraries after the game's servers shuttered is one of the most recent examples of how customers can suddenly lose access to media they felt they owned. The new California law won't stop situations like The Crew's disappearance from happening, and it won't stop those losses from hurting. But it does make clearer that ownership is a pretty rare and intangible thing for digital media.Governor Newsom is having a busy week. He also signed the state's "click to cancel" bill yesterday and last week signed two bills with protections against unwanted AI likenesses of actors, both living and deceased.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/new-california-law-will-force-companies-to-admit-you-dont-own-digital-content-203053750.html?src=rss

Square Enix's terrific Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series has finally made its way to Xbox. The 1980s and '90s classics, which arrived on PC and mobile starting in 2021 and Switch and PS4 last year, are now available on Xbox Series X/S. The Xbox Store sells the six-game series in a $75 bundle ($60 for a limited time). Alternatively, you can buy the individual installments for prices ranging from $12 to $18 (on sale now for $9.59 to $14.39). The series remasters Final Fantasy I through Final Fantasy VI with updated pixel graphics designed to pop on modern HD displays. The games also have remastered soundtracks (and the option to switch back to the chiptune-tastic originals). You can also choose between updated fonts and the originals. Square Enix Gameplay customizations include options to boost experience gains (up to 4x) or turn off random encounters for a breezier play-through. For an even easier run, you can turn on auto-battle. Along with the Final Fantasy classics, Square Enix's Trials of Mana ($50) and Legend of Mana ($30) are also now on Xbox. In addition, the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is available for pre-order ($60) ahead of its November 14 release date. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/the-final-fantasy-pixel-remaster-series-finally-arrives-on-xbox-200713407.html?src=rss

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has officially issued its full recommended fine against political consultant Steve Kramer for a series of illegal robocalls using deepfake AI technology and caller ID spoofing during the New Hampshire primaries. Kramer must pay $6 million in fines in the next 30 days or the Department of Justice will handle collection, according to a FCC statement.Kramer violated the Truth in Caller ID Act passed in 2009 that prohibits anyone from knowingly transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information with the intent to defraud, cause harm or wrongfully obtain anything of value," according to legislative records. The law preceded the widespread usage of AI, but the FCC voted unanimously to have it apply to such deepfakes this past February.The phony robocalls delivered pre-recorded audio of President Biden's voice using deepfake AI technology to New Hampshire residents leading up to the 2024 presidential primary election. The phony President Biden told voters not to vote in the upcoming primary saying Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday," according to an earlier report from CBS New York. The robocalls were spoofed so as to appear to originate from the former chairwoman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, according to the New York Times.Kramer hired New Orleans magician (no, really, an actual magician) Paul Carpenter to make the phony recordings. Carpenter showed NBC News how he made the deepfake audio files of President Biden using an AI voice generator called ElevenLabs. The recordings, he claims, only took around 20 minutes to make. Carpenter says Kramer paid him through Venmo and he thought the work he was doing was authorized by President Biden's campaign. Eleven Labs has since shut down Carpenter's account.Kramer claims he sent the robocalls to raise awareness about the dangers and misuse of the technology. His apparent experiment only cost him $500 but, according to the political consultant, resulted in a massive return. For me to do that and get $5 million worth of exposure, not for me," Kramer told CBS New York. I kept myself anonymous so the regulations could just play themselves out or begin to play themselves out. I don't need to be famous. That's not my intention. My intention was to make a difference."Kramer doesn't just face a hefty FCC fine, he's also facing criminal charges. New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella announced last May that Kramer received 13 felony counts of voter suppression and 13 misdemeanor counts of impersonation of a candidate.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/fcc-fines-political-consultant-6-million-for-deepfake-robocalls-190050186.html?src=rss

Researchers have spotted an apparent downside of smarter chatbots. Although AI models predictably become more accurate as they advance, they're also more likely to (wrongly) answer questions beyond their capabilities rather than saying, I don't know." And the humans prompting them are more likely to take their confident hallucinations at face value, creating a trickle-down effect of confident misinformation.They are answering almost everything these days," Jose Hernandez-Orallo, professor at the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Spain, told Nature. And that means more correct, but also more incorrect." Hernandez-Orallo, the project lead, worked on the study with his colleagues at the Valencian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Spain.The team studied three LLM families, including OpenAI's GPT series, Meta's LLaMA and the open-source BLOOM. They tested early versions of each model and moved to larger, more advanced ones - but not today's most advanced. For example, the team began with OpenAI's relatively primitive GPT-3 ada model and tested iterations leading up to GPT-4, which arrived in March 2023. The four-month-old GPT-4o wasn't included in the study, nor was the newer o1-preview. I'd be curious if the trend still holds with the latest models.The researchers tested each model on thousands of questions about arithmetic, anagrams, geography and science." They also quizzed the AI models on their ability to transform information, such as alphabetizing a list. The team ranked their prompts by perceived difficulty.The data showed that the chatbots' portion of wrong answers (instead of avoiding questions altogether) rose as the models grew. So, the AI is a bit like a professor who, as he masters more subjects, increasingly believes he has the golden answers on all of them.Further complicating things is the humans prompting the chatbots and reading their answers. The researchers tasked volunteers with rating the accuracy of the AI bots' answers, and they found that they incorrectly classified inaccurate answers as being accurate surprisingly often." The range of wrong answers falsely perceived as right by the volunteers typically fell between 10 and 40 percent.Humans are not able to supervise these models," concluded Hernandez-Orallo.The research team recommends AI developers begin boosting performance for easy questions and programming the chatbots to refuse to answer complex questions. We need humans to understand: I can use it in this area, and I shouldn't use it in that area,'" Hernandez-Orallo told Nature.It's a well-intended suggestion that could make sense in an ideal world. But fat chance AI companies oblige. Chatbots that more often say I don't know" would likely be perceived as less advanced or valuable, leading to less use - and less money for the companies making and selling them. So, instead, we get fine-print warnings that ChatGPT can make mistakes" and Gemini may display inaccurate info."That leaves it up to us to avoid believing and spreading hallucinated misinformation that could hurt ourselves or others. For accuracy, fact-check your damn chatbot's answers, for crying out loud.You can read the team's full study in Nature.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/advanced-ai-chatbots-are-less-likely-to-admit-they-dont-have-all-the-answers-172012958.html?src=rss

In a surprise 30-minute event today that could have been an email, Samsung unveiled new additions to its portfolio of devices this year, including the Galaxy S24 FE and the Galaxy Watch FE LTE. The highlight of today's news has to be the new Galaxy Tab S10 tablets, though, since they've long been regarded as the best premium Android tablets around. The Galaxy Tab S10+ and Tab S10 Ultra start at $1,000 and $1,200 respectively (the same price as the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max) and are available for pre-order today before they retail on October 3. With the Tab S10 series, Samsung proclaims it has brought its Galaxy AI to the category, thus making AI available for all. Features introduced on its flagship S24 phones earlier this year like Circle to Search and Sketch to Image are now supported on the tablets, and those that worked with the S Pen on the S24 Ultra, like Handwriting Assist and Note Assist, are here too. I spent some time with the new hardware and, though it's too early to tell if these updates work well, I can still say these are probably going to remain the best Android tablets around. When I picked up a Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra at Samsung's event today, I once again marveled at how thin and light it was, despite having already experienced the same feelings with all of Samsung's previous tablets. To recap, the Tab S10 Ultra has a 14.6-inch screen, while the Tab S10+ comes in at 12.4 inches. Both these AMOLED panels have anti-reflective finishes, and the devices are rated IP68 for durability, despite being so satisfyingly slim. They feel like blades you could potentially use to slice very soft sponge cakes with. I was able to pick up a Tab S10 Ultra with very little effort or muscle strain, and though it's usually difficult to maneuver such a wide screen, the fact that I could easily wield it with one hand made things easier. Cherlynn Low for Engadget There's not much that's changed compared to the Galaxy Tab S9, other than that the S10 series uses MediaTek's Dimensity 9300+ processors, instead of Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips. I'm not convinced that these chips have the power or energy efficiency to multitask or execute AI tasks efficiently, but that's not something I can determine at a hands-on event. Samsung's AMOLED panels remain vibrant and bright, providing excellent media consumption experiences. It was hard to gauge how effective the anti-reflective treatment was under the harsh lights set up for the event, but for the most part I found things easy to see. And though I didn't linger too long on any of the Galaxy AI features on the Tab S10 series, I can tell you I've had fun playing with the very same tools on the S24 flagships we've reviewed throughout the year. Whether it's the S24 Ultra with an S Pen or the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6, Samsung's slate of hardware this year have all received the Galaxy AI suite of writing and photo editing tools. We've already had time to ruminate how useful any of these things really are in the real world, and in general our impressions have been a resounding "meh." I have been impressed with how Sketch to Image has been able to transform crappy drawings of animals into realistic looking beasts in photos, and Circle to Search is a Google tool that makes it easier to look up items by drawing a ring around them. Many of the other Galaxy AI features, like most generative AI tools today, are only moderately helpful. We'll need to spend more time with the Tab S10 Ultra, Tab S10+, Galaxy S24 FE and even the Galaxy Watch FE LTE to determine if they're worth spending your money on. But for now, I have to admit that it's nice to see Samsung roll out all its Galaxy AI features across its lineup, resulting in a sense of cohesion and parity even in its lower cost offerings. Apple Intelligence, meanwhile, will require an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Pro, and won't work if you only have an iPhone 15. It's clear we're deep into the generative AI age, and will not be able to avoid them much longer, especially now that they're getting more prevalent across the Android ecosystem. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/galaxy-tab-s10-ultra-hands-on-ai-arrives-on-samsungs-premium-android-tablet-171105485.html?src=rss

StarCraft: Remastered and StarCraft II: Campaign Collection are coming to PC Game Pass, as announced by Xbox at Tokyo Game Show. Both titles will be available on November 5 to anyone with a PC Game Pass or Game Pass Ultimate subscription.The multiplayer components of both games are already free-to-play on PCs, but this will allow people to experience the single-player campaigns. Starcraft II: Campaign Collection, for instance, includes over 70 missions pulled from all of the various DLC, like Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm, among others.StarCraft: Remastered adds some modern goodies to the original game, like 4K visuals, enhanced audio and newly-designed leaderboards. This update has been floating around since 2017, but Game Pass availability should introduce the iconic 1998 real-time strategy (RTS) title to a new audience.Despite getting a bit long in the tooth, both games still have active multiplayer communities. This also holds true in the world of professional competitive gaming. Many credit StarCraft II, which released back in 2010, with assisting in the rise of live streaming.This isn't the only Blizzard-centric news to come out of Tokyo Game Show. Overwatch 2 is getting (probably very expensive) skins based on the anime My Hero Academia. This promotion goes from October 17 to 30.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/starcraft-remastered-and-starcraft-ii-are-coming-to-pc-game-pass-170133814.html?src=rss

If you're a fan of getting flagship-quality features at more affordable prices, Samsung's FE series is meant for you. Today, the company revealed its two latest entries: the Galaxy S24 FE and Galaxy Watch FE LTE. Both devices pack in tools from the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy Watch, including things like AI-powered photo editing, fitness tracking and more. Additionally, they'll both be available next week, so you won't have to wait long to buy them. Galaxy S24 FE Like previous FE devices, the Galaxy S24 FE offers many of the attractive features from the regular S24 at a more affordable price. Starting at $650, the phone packs a 6.7-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. Inside, a Exynos 2400e processor and 8GB RAM run Android 14 and One UI 6.1. Of course, there a number of AI-powered features here, including Circle to Search, Interpreter, Live Translate, Composer and Note Assist. Knox security in onboard once more, as is a 4,700 mAh battery and IP68-rated design. Cameras are always a big deal on phones and the S24 FE is no exception. The device runs Samsung AI-driven ProVisual Engine to improve low-light performance, zoomed image quality and Super High Dynamic Range (HDR) color optimization. There are also AI features like Generative Edit, Portrait Stuiod, Edit Suggestions and Instant Slow-mo. Stills and video are captured by a 50MP wide and 12MP ultra wide cameras. There's also an 8MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom. Around front, a 10MP sensor snaps your selfies. Samsung also says the S24 FE is well-suited for gaming. Thanks to the Exynos processor, the phone offers ray tracing and the 120Hz display has a Vision Booster tool so color and contrast remain "clear and comfortable" outdoors. There's also a larger vapor chamber compared to the S23 FE, which improves overall cooling performance. The Galaxy S24 FE will be available on October 3 in blue, graphite, gray and mint color options in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB storage configurations. Pre-orders start today. Galaxy Watch FE LTE Samsung already debuted a Galaxy Watch FE this summer, but now the company is back with an LTE version. Starting at $250, this model allows you to call, text and more when you're away from your phone. You'll get a a 1.2-inch Super AMOLED display along with fitness and sleep tracking, heart-rate monitoring and more - all powered by Wear OS. It's basically a Galaxy Watch 7 with LTE, as my colleague Cherlynn Low describes it. The Galaxy Watch FE LTE will be available on October 3. Pre-orders start today. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/samsung-debuts-the-galaxy-s24-fe-and-galaxy-watch-fe-lte-163530908.html?src=rss

Samsung is once again expanding its tablet lineup, and this time, the company is doing so with AI at the forefront. Today, Samsung revealed the Galaxy Tab S10 series, two models that it says are "built with AI enhancements available right out of the box." The 14.6-inch Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra and 12.4-inch Galaxy Tab S10+ both pack anti-reflective Dynamic AMOLED 2X displays, a quad speaker setup with AI Dialogue Boost and a robust IP68 durability rating. Both tablets will be available next month. Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra Powered by Android 14, the Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra's Dynamic AMOLED 2X display offers a 120Hz refresh rate and 2960 x 1848 resolution. A MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ processor and either 12GB or 16GB RAM runs the AI tools and other features, which include Circle to Search, Handwriting Assist, Note Assist and Sketch to Image - all done with the included S Pen. The stylus also enables Air Command with AI so that you'll get access to powerful features without having to toggle through a menu. The Tab S10 Ultra can act as a "home AI hub" for all of your SmartThings devices, providing a 3D Map View and Insight Messages to assist with on-going monitoring. The Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra is equipped with 13MP and 8MP ultra wide rear cameras and 12MP and 12MP ultra wide front-facing cameras. It has Wi-Fi 7, 5G and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity and a 11,200 mAh battery. With one click, you can situate the tablet as a second screen and Samsung Knox security is available as well. In addition to the S Pen, the optional accessories include two keyboard covers, a smart book cover and an outdoor cover. The Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra will be available in Moonstone Gray and Platinum Silver starting at $1,200 for the 256GB model. 512GB and 1TB options will also be on the menu. If you need even more space, a MicroSD slot offers up to 1.5TB. Pre-orders start today. Galaxy Tab S10+ The spec sheet for the Tab S10+ is almost identical to the Tab S10 Ultra, but there are some key difference. The smaller, 12.4-inch display offers a resolution of 2800 x 1752, but maintains the 120Hz refresh rate. The camera array is also the same on the rear, but the front only carries a 12MP ultra wide sensor. Both storage configurations of the Tab S10+ have 12GB of RAM and this smaller tablet has a smaller 10,090 mAh battery. The Galaxy Tab S10+ will be available in Moonstone Gray and Platinum Silver starting at $999 for the 256GB model. A 512GB option will also be available and the MicroSD slot is here as well (up to 1.5TB). Pre-orders start today. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/samsungs-galaxy-tab-s10-ultra-and-galaxy-tab-s10-are-tablets-built-for-ai-162633747.html?src=rss

September 26 is The Last of Us Day and to mark the occasion, HBO has dropped the first proper trailer for season two of its misery simulator TV adaptation. This expands on a sizzle reel we saw several weeks ago, which included the first glimpses of Catherine O'Hara's character (seemingly a therapist) and Kaitlyn Dever as a pivotal newcomer, Abby. There's more of both here, including that terrifying sequence of infected nearly crushing Abby under a chain-link fence.There are quite a few other recognizable moments from The Last of Us Part II in the new clip, including an encounter between Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and an infected in an abandoned supermarket and a famous scene of her playing guitar for Dina (Isabela Merced). The game's subway segment is featured, along with the Seraphites and Jeffrey Wright, who reprises his Part II role as the leader of a militant faction. Of course, Joel (Pedro Pascal) is featured throughout the trailer too - he plays guitar with Ellie and sheds a tear, seemingly while in a therapy appointment with O'Hara.Unfortunately, the clip doesn't narrow down the release date for the season, which will air in 2025. However, HBO boss Casey Bloys recently indicated it will arrive in the first half of next year to make it eligible for the next Emmy awards (the same goes for the next season of The White Lotus).Elsewhere, Naughty Dog is marking TLoU Day in its own way with some new merch and other tidbits. There's a new bunch of TLoU-related avatars and emoji you can pick up using Steam Points, along with a thematic Steam Deck startup video. Meanwhile, PS Plus Extra and Premium members have access to the PS5 remake of the first game at no extra cost starting today.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-last-of-us-season-two-trailer-shows-ellie-in-danger-and-joel-in-therapy-160401898.html?src=rss

You can now upload YouTube videos and audio files to NotebookLM, an AI-powered summarizing tool for education and research. The update means Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro-powered virtual assistant can now handle Google Docs, PDFs, text files, Google Slides, YouTube video URLs, audio files and web pages. This expands NotebookLM's potential sources to include lecture recordings, informative YouTube content and group discussions. Google claims that it securely stores all information uploaded to NoteBookLM and does not use it to train AI.Google launched the virtual research assistant in the summer of 2023 and upgraded it to run on Gemini 1.5 Pro this past June. Alongside the AI-powered bump, Google expanded NotebookLM to be available in over 200 countries and territories. Most recently, Google added Audio Overview to NotebookLM. The tool has two AI hosts - hopefully not foreshadowing what hosting will look like in the future - discuss your sources, summarize material and "banter." Google is now adding the ability to share Audio Overviews with others through a public URL.The irony here is that the reason we'd need an AI to briefly summarize a YouTube video in the first place is because Google incentivized the creation of ever-longer videos.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/notebooklm-can-now-summarize-youtube-videos-160037375.html?src=rss

The iPhone 16 is currently available and, well, these handsets are expensive. Investing in a case is never a bad idea and Apple makes some solid offerings. The company's silicone MagSafe iPhone 16 cases are on sale via Amazon for $42, which is a discount of 14 percent. The sale includes eight colorways, so as to better match the hue of the phone itself. As previously mentioned, these cases are made by Apple specifically for the iPhone 16, so the fit will be perfect. It's made from recycled silicone, with a microfibre lining on the inside for more protection. This is a MagSafe case, meaning it allows for wireless charging by setting it on a Qi2 or Qi-certified charger. It's also been designed with the iPhone 16's camera button in mind. The company says the case includes a sapphire crystal, coupled to a conductive layer" that communicates finger movements. Translation? All of those neat swipey gestures will still work. This case is only for the standard iPhone 16. It won't fit the iPhone 16 Plus, the Pro or the Pro Max. It goes without saying that it also won't squeeze over any handsets from previous generations. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice in the lead up to October Prime Day 2024.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-silicone-magsafe-iphone-16-cases-are-14-percent-off-in-this-early-prime-day-deal-152546345.html?src=rss

Here's a tasty offer for anyone who's been on the fence about picking up the Google Pixel Buds Pro 2. If you snap up the earbuds from Amazon, you can claim a free $30 gift card. There's no discount on the earbuds themselves, unfortunately, as they still cost $229. That's not a huge shock, since they were only just released. Still, you'll at least get a $30 gift card that you can spend on whatever you want on Amazon. We gave the Google Pixel Buds Pro 2, the company's first earbuds with a Tensor chip built-in, a score of 88 in our review. Engadget senior reporter Billy Steele appreciated the comfortable design and the sound quality (citing the "punchy bass, full mids, crisp highs"). Those features alone make the upgrade worthwhile. Having a longer battery life than the previous model is a definite plus, while you'll get hands-free access to Gemini AI on a compatible device. On the downside, spatial audio is only available for video-streaming apps for the time being, but not audio, so that's odd. You'll also need to be more precise when it comes to using the touch controls, as there's a smaller panel to work with. Google has also increased the price with the latest version of the Pixel Buds Pro, but at least the $30 gift card offsets that. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice in the lead up to October Prime Day 2024.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/early-prime-day-deal-bundles-a-free-30-gift-card-with-the-google-pixel-buds-pro-2-earbuds-150229486.html?src=rss

Sony's PlayStation 5 Pro is almost here. The upgraded console is available to pre-order today with a whopping $700 price tag, thanks to new features like a more powerful GPU, better ray tracing and a narrower gap between graphical fidelity and performance. But that isn't far beyond your console budget, you can reserve pricey powerhouse before its November 7 launch. And, as to be expected, you'll probably want to do so immediately since the console already sold out in the UK. Here's everything you need to know about the new console and how to pre-order the PS5 Pro. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sonys-ps5-pro-is-available-to-pre-order-today-115549437.html?src=rss

LG has started showing screensaver ads on all its smart TVs, even expensive OLED models, according to an LG press release and a FlatpanelsHD report. The placements appear before the regular screensaver activates.On top of an ad for LG's own streaming channel, one FlatpanelsHD reviewer spotted third-party ads. The screensaver ads will appear "across the home screen, LG Channels and Content Store on LG smart TVs," according to LG. These are now turned on by default but can be disabled in the settings.LG Ad SolutionsLG didn't promote the new "feature" to the public, but it did herald it on its LG Ad Solutions site. The company said it "found that screensaver ads drove on average 2.5 times higher lift in brand awareness... challenging the assumption that that a viewer's attention is limited once the television screen is idle."It may be great for advertisers, but buyers paying up to $4,500 for a high-end TV may not be so keen. Many TV owners never bother to turn off the motion smoothing "soap opera effect" on their TVs, so LG may believe they won't dive into the menus to turn off the ads, either.LG is already poking into the viewing habits of its buyers by vacuuming up content-recognition tracking data gathered from its TVs and handing it to the ratings company Nielsen. That type of revenue potential in a business with tight margins prompted it to launch the LG Ad Solutions division earlier this month, with aim of finding new ways to show ads and track smart TV users. Other companies are guilty of presenting ads in their smart TV ecosystems as well, including Samsung, Roku, TCL and others.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/lg-smart-tvs-bring-ads-to-the-screensaver-131445950.html?src=rss

Google's latest 4th-gen Nest Learning Thermostat is on sale, just one month after the product was released. The device is $20 off via Wellbots, which brings the price down to $260. Just enter the code 20ENGNLT4" at checkout. This is a record low price, mostly because the thing just came out. This is not an iterative improvement over the previous Nest Learning Thermostat. It's a full redesign, with a new look and plenty of updated features. The LCD display is 60 percent larger than what's found with the antiquated third-gen device, and there's a curved front that eliminates the appearance of bezels. The whole thing is basically a screen now. This larger display allows for plenty of personalization, with customizable faces like a smartwatch. It can even look like a regular analog clock. The UI automatically adjusts what's displayed on the screen depending on how far you're standing from the thermostat, thanks to integrated Soli radar sensors. The new Nest is packed with AI, which is intended to provide more accurate readings and to offer potential actions to save money on that monthly utility bill. This is a smart thermostat, so it can be programmed to take actions on its own, depending on the ambient temperature and other factors. To that end, it ships with a wireless temperature sensor that can be placed anywhere within range. Each Nest can integrate with up to six of these sensors, and more are available at $40 a pop or three for $100. The item also ships with a trim plate to cover paint and drywall imperfections and a steel plate for electrical box installations. It's also likely to be relatively future-proof, as the third-gen Nest came out in 2015. 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/deals/get-20-off-googles-new-4th-gen-nest-learning-thermostat-130023124.html?src=rss

I have slowly turned into that frustrating person who won't go somewhere before checking its reviews on Google Maps. However, I also get suspicious when the reviews are too good - there's no pleasing me, apparently - so I'm relieved to hear that Google is making it easier to spot fake ones. Google is now issuing a warning for applicable businesses, stating, "Suspected fake reviews were recently removed from this place."Google has previously come under fire with the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which opened an investigation into their handling of fake reviews in 2021. A user on X (formerly Twitter) first spotted the change in review handling on a Maps page for a company in the UK (possibly a coincidence).Google has yet to confirm the feature or where it will be available, but Search Engine Roundtable reports Google recently updated its relevant support page to apply globally.Google outlines possible restrictions that can be placed on businesses violating its Fake Engagement policy. One point is that the "business profile will display a warning to let consumers know that fake reviews were removed." Other temporary restrictions include not receiving new ratings or reviews, or having existing ones unpublished. If any of these actions occur, business owners will receive an email from Google and can appeal the decision.While fake reviews can come from businesses in an attempt to boost their ratings, they can also derive from people hoping to tank them. If a business reports these fake reviews, it's unclear whether the same warning will come up (as the wording certainly makes the business seem at fault).This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-maps-will-flag-businesses-with-potentially-fake-reviews-123133579.html?src=rss

Update 9/26 8:20am ET: Woot has undercut Amazon by a little bit on both AirPods 4 models. You can snag the ANC AirPods 4 for $159 or the standard AirPods 4 for $109 for the next five days, or until they sell out. These types of deals are not uncommon at Woot, but they often do sell out before the sale period ends. It has been less than a week since Apple released the AirPods 4, and there's already a small sale available on them. Ahead of October Prime Day, you can pick up the AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation for $169, down from $179. The AirPods 4 without ANC are also $10 off, with an eight percent discount dropping their price to $119 from $129. The markdowns aren't significant but could be the extra push you need if you've been sitting on the fence. Apple announced the two AirPods 4 models at its iPhone 16 event on September 9. The fourth-generation AirPods with ANC garnered an 86 in our review, while the standard version fared a bit better with an 88. The ANC model has improved fit and sound quality and offers Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, and wireless charging. It also has perks like a speaker in the case that beeps when you activate Find My - though the AirPods only support proximity view, not precision finding like the AirPods Pro 2. The AirPods 4 without ANC share a big con with their sister device: no onboard volume controls. They also don't have wireless charging or Conversation Awareness. What they do give you is a good, comfortable fit and much better sound quality than their predecessor. This model also offers Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking, Voice Isolation and Adaptive EQ. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice in the lead up to October Prime Day 2024.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-airpods-4-are-already-on-sale-in-this-early-prime-day-deal-133057269.html?src=rss

Intel says it has determined four scenarios that could lead to voltage stability issues in its Core 13th and 14th-gen processors, and it has released another new update to address the issue. Its customers have been having issues with those processors since 2022, but it was only in July this year that the company figured out that their instability problems were caused by elevated operating voltage. The company explained back then that microcode algorithms have been sending incorrect voltage requests to its processors. Microcodes, or machine codes, are sets of hardware-level instructions. Intel promised in the same announcement to release microcode patches to address the "root cause of exposure to elevated voltages."In its new post on its community page, Intel enumerated the four scenarios that could cause voltage instability, starting with the motherboard's power delivery settings exceeding its power guidance. Another scenario is that a microcode algorithm had been allowing its processors to operate at higher performance states even at high temperatures. The company already released a microcode patch for this back in June. The third scenario involves another microcode algorithm requesting high voltages at a frequency and duration which can trigger the issue. Intel had also released a patch for this in August.The latest microcode patch it has released, codenamed 0x12B, addresses the fourth scenario. Apparently, the processors could make elevated core voltage requests during light activity or while the computer is idle. Intel has distributed this patch to motherboard manufacturers, since it has to be loaded as a BIOS update. The company is already working with its partners, but it could still take several weeks for the manufacturers to roll out the fix to its products.The voltage stability issues plaguing Intel's Core 13th and 14th-gen processors have been causing computers to crash and fail completely. And based on previous reports, installing the patches Intel has released will not fix PCs that have already started showing symptoms of the problem. Shortly after announcing that it had determined why its processors were failing, Intel extended their warranties by two years so that customers can get theirs replaced. That was very much welcome, seeing as even PCs that work well at first could start showing issues and give out in the end.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/intel-rolls-out-another-fix-for-its-cpu-voltage-issues-120026958.html?src=rss

Meta Connect is over for another year, leaving nought but some paper plates on the floor and a raft of new AR/VR gear on the table. Because we're nice, we've prepared a comprehensive list of all the goodies announced at the show for you to peruse at your leisure.The headline act is the Quest 3S, a stripped-down version of the Quest 3 that's $200 cheaper than its namesake. Getting the base price down to $300 has meant some compromises, however, like removing the pancake lenses, dropping 4K and reducing the storage.The 3S seems like a smart idea, since cost remains the second biggest barrier to getting VR/AR gear into people's homes. The first, of course, being there's still not a truly killer use case to convince the vast majority of people.To further lever users toward the Quest 3 series, Meta also announced the Quest 2 and Quest Pro will soon shuffle off the stage. Naturally, given longstanding developer gripes that it's difficult to develop for both the Quest 2 and 3, this makes plenty of sense.MetaThe other big news to come out of the show is the announcement of the Orion Smart Glasses, Meta's new prototype AR wearable. These, the company admits, aren't ready to go on sale yet, but it's working with developers to refine the technology for some unspecified future release.I'll be honest: I'm forever skeptical about the potential for AR to be as smart and useful as I'd need it to be. I'm not going to invest until it's at least as useful as Jeeves - from PG Wodehouse, not the search engine - even if it's never going to be able to fold my laundry.- Dan CooperAll the tech news you might have missed.

Mira Murati has departed OpenAI, where she had been the chief technology officer since 2018. In a note shared with the company and then posted publicly on X, Murati said that she is exiting "because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration."Murati gained additional visibility as a face for the AI company when she briefly assumed CEO duties in November 2023 when the board of directors fired Sam Altman. Altman returned to the helm and Murati resumed work as CTO. However, her departure follows on two other notable exits. Last month, president and co-founder Greg Brockman and co-founder John Schulman both announced that they would be stepping away from OpenAI. Brockman is taking a sabbatical and Schulman is moving to rival AI firm Anthropic.Here is the full text of Murati's statement:

Struggling with dead spots in your home network can be frustrating - especially when you're trying to stream your favorite show or finish up some work in a quiet corner of the house. That's where the best Wi-Fi extenders come in. These handy gadgets help boost your Wi-Fi signal by extending the coverage of your wireless network, so regardless of whether you have a new wireless router or not, you can get online in every corner of your home and maybe even the backyard.

The biggest reveal at Meta's Connect event was its long-promised AR glasses, Orion. As expected, the prototype, each of which reportedly costs around $10,000, won't be ready for the public any time soon.In the meantime, Meta offered a glimpse of its new holographic avatars, which will allow people to talk with lifelike holograms in augmented reality. The holograms are Meta's Codec Avatars, a technology it's been working on for several years. Mark Zuckerberg teased a version of this last year when he participated in a podcast interview in the metaverse."That technology may now be closer than we think. Following the keynote at Connect, I sat down with Mark Rabkin, a VP at Meta leading Horizon OS and Quest, who shared more about Meta's codec avatars and how they will one day come to the company's VR headsets as well.Generally, pretty much everything you can do on Orion you can do on Quest," Rabkin said. The Codec Avatars in particular have also gotten much easier to create. While they once required advanced camera scans, most of the internal avatars are now created with phone scans, Rabkin explains.It's an almost identical process in many ways in generating the stylized avatars [for VR], but with a different training set and a different amount of computation required," Rabkin explained. For the stylized avatars, the model has to be trained on a lot of stylized avatars and how they look and how they move. [It has to] get a lot of training data on what people perceive to look like their picture, and what they perceive to move nicely."For the Codec avatars ... it's the same process. You gather a tremendous amount of data. You gather data from very high-quality, fancy camera scans. You gather data from phone scans, because that's how people will be really creating, and you just build a model until it improves. And one of the challenges with both problems is to make it fast enough and computationally cheap enough so that millions and millions can use it."Rabkin said that he eventually expects these avatars to be able to play in virtual reality on the company's headsets. Right now, the Quest 3 and 3S don't have the necessary sensors, including eye tracking, necessary for the photorealistic avatars. But that could change for the next-generation VR headset, he said: I think probably, if we do really well, it should be possible in the next generation [of headset]."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/metas-orion-holographic-avatars-will-eventually-be-in-vr-too-235206805.html?src=rss

The Federal Trade Commission is taking action against DoNotPay, alleging that the AI-powered company billing itself as "the world's first robot lawyer" failed to back its claims that it could replace human legal representation. The agency's complaint argues that DoNotPay did not conduct tests to assess whether its AI chatbot was equivalent to a human lawyer, and that the company did not hire or retain any attorneys of its own. DoNotPay has agreed to a proposed settlement that would see it face fines of $193,000. In addition, the settlement will require DoNotPay to inform customers who subscribed to its service between 2021 and 2023 about the limitations of its offerings.This proposed settlement is part of an FTC program called Operation AI Comply, which is targeting businesses that leverage artificial intelligence to make deceptive claims. "Using AI tools to trick, mislead, or defraud people is illegal," FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said. "The FTC's enforcement actions make clear that there is no AI exemption from the laws on the books. By cracking down on unfair or deceptive practices in these markets, FTC is ensuring that honest businesses and innovators can get a fair shot and consumers are being protected."In addition to promising legal services, DoNotPay also claimed it could get accounts unbanned from social media platforms. The company postponed its first attempt to use its AI chatbot in a court setting in 2023 after multiple state bar associations intervened in the case.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/donotpay-robot-lawyer-fined-193k-by-the-ftc-for-not-being-a-lawyer-223227153.html?src=rss

A major shakeup is in the works at OpenAI. Reuters reported that the artificial intelligence research company is restructuring its business from a non-profit board into a for-profit corporation. The publication also says Sam Altman would be given equity in the new corporation.OpenAI's move to for-profit wouldn't eliminate its non-profit entity entirely. The non-profit would own a stake in the new for-profit venture but it won't have nearly the power as it did. An OpenAI spokesperson gave a statement that's identical to the one they gave to Fortune's initial report about the restructuring. Couldn't they at least have used OpenAI's software to word a different statement?

Employees at an Apple Store in Oklahoma City's Penn Square Mall have voted to ratify their first collectively-bargained contract. The store's workers are part of the Communications Workers of America, operating as Apple Retail Union-CWA Local 6016. The employees' three-year agreement with Apple includes the following, according to a press release from CWA:

Although Meta Connect 2024 lacked a marquee high-end product for the holiday season, it still included a new budget VR headset and a tease of the magic glasses" Meta's XR gurus have been talking about for the better part of a decade. In addition, the company keeps plowing forward with new AI tools for its Ray-Ban glasses and social platforms. Here's everything the company announced at Meta Connect 2024.Orion AR glassesMetaToday's best mixed reality gear - like Apple's Vision Pro and the Meta Quest 3 - are headsets with passthrough video capabilities. But the tech industry eventually wants to squeeze that tech into something resembling a pair of prescription glasses. We'll let you judge whether the Orion AR glasses pictured above pass that test, but they're certainly closer than other full-fledged AR devices we've seen.First, the bad news. These puppies won't be available this year and don't have an official release date. A leaked roadmap from last year suggested they'd arrive in 2027. However, Meta said on Wednesday that Orion would launch in the near future," so take what you will from that. For its part, Meta says the full-fledged product prototype is truly representative of something that could ship to consumers" rather than a research device that's decades away from shipping.The glasses include tiny projectors to display holograms onto the lenses. Meta describes them as having a large field of view and immersive capabilities. Sensors can track voice, eye gaze, hand tracking and electromyography (EMG) wristband input.The glasses combine that sensory input with AI capabilities. Meta gave the example of looking in a refrigerator and asking the onboard AI to spit out a recipe based on your ingredients. It will also support video calls, the ability to send messages on Meta's platforms and spatial versions of Spotify, YouTube and Pinterest apps.Meta Quest 3SMetaThis year's new VR headset focuses on the entry-level rather than early adopters wanting the latest cutting-edge tech. The Meta Quest 3S is a $300 baby sibling to last year's Quest 3, shaving money off the higher-end model's entry fee in exchange for cheaper lenses, a resolution dip and skimpier storage.The headset includes Fresnel lenses, which are familiar to Quest 2 owners, instead of the higher-end pancake ones in Quest 3. It has a 1,832 x 1,920 resolution (20 pixels per degree), a drop from the 2,064 x 2,208 (25 PPD) in the Quest 3. Meta says the budget model's field of view is also slightly lower.The Quest 3S starts with a mere 128GB of storage, which could fill up quickly after installing a few of the platform's biggest games. But if you're willing to shell out $400, you can bump that up to a more respectable 256GB. (Alongside the announcement, Meta also dropped the 512GB Quest 3 price to $500 from $650.)The headset may outlast the Quest 3 in one respect: battery life. Meta estimates the Quest 3S will last 2.5 hours, while the Quest 3 is rated for 2.2 hours.Those ordering the headset will get a special Bat-bonus. Quest 3S (and Quest 3) orders between now and April 2025 will receive a free copy of Batman: Arkham Shadow, the VR action game coming next month.The Quest 3S is now available for pre-order. It begins shipping on October 15.Out with the oldTo celebrate the arrival of the Meta Quest 3S, Meta is kicking two older models to the curb. The Quest 2 and Quest Pro will be discontinued by the end of the year. The company says sales will continue until inventory runs out or the end of the year, whichever comes first.The company now views the Quest 3S, with its much better mixed reality capabilities, as the new budget model, so the $200 Quest 2 no longer has a place. The Quest Pro, which never gained much traction with consumers, has inferior cameras and passthrough video than the two Quest 3-tier models. The Pro launched two years ago as a Metaverse-centric device - back when the industry was pounding that word as hard as it's pushing AI" now. The headset launched at a whopping $1,500 and was later reduced to $1,000.Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses updatesSam Rutherford for EngadgetAlthough the hardware stays the same, Meta is adding new AI features to its tech-filled sunglasses. The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses will get an updated AI assistant.The assistant will now let you set reminders based on objects you see. For example, you could say, Hey Meta, remind me to buy that book next Monday" to set an alert for something you see in the library. The glasses can also scan QR codes and dial phone numbers from text it recognizes.Meta's assistant should also respond to more natural commands. You'll need to worry less about remembering formal prompts to trigger it (Hey Meta, look and tell me"). It will let you use more casual phrasing like What am I looking at?" The AI can also handle complex follow-up questions for more fluid chats with the robot friend living in your sunglasses.According to Meta, the glasses' live translation is also getting better. While last year's version struggled with longer text, the company says the software will now translate larger chunks more effectively. Live translations will arrive in English, French, Italian and Spanish by the end of 2024.Meta AI updatesMetaThe company said Met AI now supports voice chats. Although this capability existed before, it was limited to the Ray-Ban glasses.Meta also partnered with celebrities to help draw customers into its chatbots. That's right, folks: You can now hear Meta's chatbot responses in the dulcet tones of the one and only John Cena! Other celebrity voices include Dame Judi Dench, Awkwafina, Keegan Michael Key and Kristen Bell.Meta's AI can now edit photos with text prompts, performing tasks like adding or removing objects or changing details like backgrounds or clothes. AI photo editing will be available on Meta's social apps, including Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.Meanwhile, Meta's Llama 3.2 AI model introduces vision capabilities. It can analyze and describe images, competing with similar features in ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude.Catch up on all the news from Meta Connect 2024!This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/everything-announced-at-meta-connect-2024-202733568.html?src=rss

Disney announced a new rule intended to curb password sharing among its streaming subscribers, following through on plans initially shared last month in an earnings call. Today's blog post from the company explained that Disney+ is getting a Paid Sharing feature. For an additional $7 a month on Disney+ Basic or $10 a month on Disney+ Premium, an account holder can provide access to their plan to one person outside their household, dubbed an Extra Member. Paid Sharing is rolling out today in the US, Canada, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Europe and Asia-Pacific.With the upcoming price increases - $10 a month for Basic and $16 a month for Premium - the Extra Member route is still cheaper than buying a separate Disney+ plan. However, the Paid Sharing option comes with several caveats. For starters, only one Extra Member is allowed per account. And if your plan is part of a Disney Bundle, you don't have access to the Extra Member feature at all. Ditto for any subscribers billed through Disney's partners, meaning bundle customers are out of luck. The post says those restrictions apply "at this time," but doesn't give any hint as to whether the company is considering a policy change in the future.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/disney-account-sharing-crackdown-starts-today-in-the-us-201102641.html?src=rss

Blumhouse, the horror production company behind such big cinematic hits as Get Out, M3GAN and the Insidious films, has extended its creepy tentacles to scary shows and movies to scary video games.Fear the Spotlight is Blumhouse Games' first entry into gaming with the help of the indie developer Cozy Game Pals. The horror game will get a full release on October 22 and there's a demo currently available for PCs on Steam.Fear the Spotlight is a third-person horror adventure game that takes place in a high school after hours. Two curious teens Vivian and Amy sneak into Sunnyside High, a school with a dark, mysterious history, in the dead of night to perform a seance. A deadly creature with a bright, glowing gaze rises and starts roaming the halls of the school. The spotlight monster separates the girls and it's up to Vivian to unravel the school's mystery, find Amy and make it through the darkness alive.The game uses PS1 style, polygonal graphics, which just adds to the game's creepy aesthetic like some of those early horror classics including Nightmare Creatures and the first Silent Hill game. There's just something about a square-ish head that sends a shiver down my spine. It's one of many reasons I'm not looking forward to the new Minecraft movie.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/blumhouse-games-fear-the-spotlight-set-for-release-on-october-22-194907647.html?src=rss

No Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas is complete without viewing one of the holiday adjacent Peanuts specials. These days, Apple TV owns the television rights to It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and A Charlie Brown Christmas but it appears that Apple TV wants everyone to have a chance to enjoy these Peanuts specials this year.Apple announced that it's making all three Peanuts specials available to everyone regardless of whether or not they have an Apple TV subscription. Apple TV will make each of the Peanuts holiday specials available on two days each month before Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown will be free to stream on October 19 and 20. The Peanuts Halloween special features Linus waiting up for the return of the Great Pumpkin while Charlie Brown only gets rocks while trick or treating.A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving will be available to stream on November 23 and 24. This Thanksgiving special features Peppermint Patty inviting the whole gang to a Thanksgiving feast while Snoopy puts together his own Thanksgiving meal.A Charlie Brown Christmas will stream for free on December 14 and 15. It's perhaps the most famous Peanuts special with too many iconic moments to count from Snoopy's prize winning holiday display to that sad little tree that the gang turn into a mighty Christmas tree just by waving their arms around it. It also features one of the greatest musical scores ever written for television by Lee Mendelson and Vince Guaraldi.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/apple-tv-will-make-three-classic-peanuts-specials-free-to-stream-190041263.html?src=rss

Google and Roblox have teamed up to create a game that teaches kids how to spot internet scams and to increase caution regarding the sharing of personal information online. The suite of experiences is called, and I quote, Be Internet Awesome World. Did Melania Trump name this thing?This gameplay experience" exists within Roblox, which Google says helps it reach kids where they're already spending time to teach them the basics of online safety." It brings kids to the magical world of the Internauts" which is home to a number of minigames that address various aspects of internet safety. Some of the games focus on phishing attempts, while others emphasize practicing kindness online." Good luck with that last one.In any event, Be Internet Awesome World is available right now within Roblox, which leads us to the elephant in the room. Roblox may be a great place to reach kids, with nearly 80 million daily active users and many of them children. It's also been accused of being an unsafe space for the younger gamers among us.Turkey banned the app entirely on the grounds that it allows for the exploitation of children. Sony didn't even want to bring the game to PlayStation consoles for similar reasons, before finally relenting last year.There have also been accusations of kids being financially exploited on the platform, according to reporting by The Guardian. Popular creations can make the designers a lot of money, and the userbase is mostly children under 16. This has led many to accuse the app's developers of gaining notoriety through an influx of child labor. The Roblox tagline, after all, used to be Make anything. Reach millions. Earn serious cash."Roblox takes around 30 percent of all money made via the platform, so it has a vested interest in the creative contributions of children. Studio head Stefano Corazza once told Eurogamer that the ability for teenagers to make money on the platform represented the biggest gift" and that these kids didn't feel like they were exploited."You can say, Okay, we are exploiting, you know, child labor,' right? Or you can say: we are offering people anywhere in the world the capability to get a job, and even like an income," Corazza continued.All this is to say that perhaps Roblox should get its own house in order before trying to teach kids about how to avoid scams online. Roblox CEO and co-founder David Baszucki has started to address these concerns, heading to Washington DC earlier this year to discuss child safety with lawmakers.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/google-and-roblox-teamed-up-on-a-weird-game-to-teach-kids-about-internet-safety-190007350.html?src=rss

iRobot's Roomba Combo Essential bundle is available for $280 right now via QVC. This is a discount of $170 for a combo pack that includes the Roomba Combo 2 robovac and the self-emptying base. The vacuum typically costs $280 all by its lonesome, so this basically gets you a free base. However, the vacuum is available for just $200 right now via Amazon without the base. This is certainly a budget-friendly entry in the company's lineup of robot vacuums, but it gets the job done. The company says this model outperforms the Roomba 600 Series, with 20 times more suction power. It's also a vacuum/mop hybrid, so it can handle all aspects of floor cleaning. It accesses the same smart navigation algorithm as other iRobot vacuums, which allows it to move freely around the space without bumping into things or falling down stairs. The battery life is also on point, allowing for around two hours of use per charge. Of course, it'll return to the charging base on its own when the battery gets low. It also integrates with the company's proprietary app, which lets people customize a whole host of settings and dictate cleaning schedules. The only major downside of this vacuum is that it doesn't typically come with a self-emptying base, but this bundle does. It holds up to 60 days of debris, so that's two glorious months of laying on the couch without having to do a dang thing. 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/deals/irobots-roomba-combo-essential-with-self-emptying-base-is-170-off-right-now-184650126.html?src=rss

You can strike one game off of the busy fall 2024 calender. Ubisoft has delayed Assassin's Creed Shadowsuntil February 14. It was originally supposed to hit PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Mac and iPad on November 15.You can probably guess the main reason why Ubisoft is pushing the latest entry in the saga back by a few months. While all of the features are largely set, the company needs more time to iterate on them and to polish the game as a whole."We understand this decision will come as disappointing news, especially to those who've been waiting patiently for an Assassin's Creed game inspired by Feudal Japan, but we sincerely believe this is in the best interest of the game, and ultimately your experience as a player," Assassin's Creed executive producer Marc-Alexis Cote wrote in a statement on X.

Google filed a complaint against Microsoft with the European Commission on Wednesday. In it, Google accused Microsoft of making it prohibitively expensive for cloud customers to move their work from Azure to other providers, like Google Cloud.Google claims Microsoft's cloud licensing terms restrict European customers from switching to competing cloud platforms despite no technical barriers to doing so." In a blog post explaining its complaint, Google wrote that Microsoft's practices have significantly harmed European companies and governments," costing European businesses 1 billion ($1.1 billion) annually, wasting taxpayer money and stifling competition.Amazon's AWS leads Europe's cloud market. Microsoft's Azure is second, followed by Google in third. Oracle, Salesforce and IBM rounded out the top six in Q2 2024.On Wednesday, a European Commission spokesperson confirmed to Engadget that the EU governing body received Google's complaint. We will assess it according to our standard procedures," EC spokesperson Lea Zuber wrote.Google's complaint referred to a settlement this summer between Microsoft and CISPE (Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe), the trade body for Europe's cloud industry. The latter filed a complaint against Microsoft in late 2022, accusing the company of anti-competitive practices with Azure (strikingly similar to Google's complaints from today). The full details of the settlement, which led to CISPE withdrawing its complaint, weren't made public. CISPE wrote in July that Microsoft would make changes to address its concerns. Those included releasing an enhanced version of the Azure Stack HCI, which would bring features that Microsoft's customers enjoy to European cloud providers.In a statement to Engadget, Microsoft was optimistic that the EC would dismiss Google's complaint. Microsoft settled amicably similar concerns raised by European cloud providers, even after Google hoped they would keep litigating," a Microsoft spokesperson wrote, referring to a Bloomberg report that Google offered a $500 million alternative deal to keep the antitrust complaint alive. Having failed to persuade European companies, we expect Google similarly will fail to persuade the European Commission," Microsoft's spokesperson wrote.Google says Windows Server is at the heart of its complaint. Describing it as a must-have workhorse in many IT environments," the company says Microsoft changed its practices after cloud computing became a more lucrative business. But as Azure faced more competition, Microsoft introduced new rules that severely limited customer choice," Google wrote.Google said the licensing terms Microsoft adopted in 2019 imposed extreme financial penalties" on companies who wanted to use Windows Server software with Azure competitors like AWS and Google Cloud. Microsoft's own statements indicate that customers who want to move their workloads to these competitors would need to pay up to five times more," Google wrote, citing an archived 2023 webpage comparing Azure pricing to that of AWS. Google said Microsoft also limited security patches and created other barriers to choice in cloud providers.Google also linked to research from Professor Frederic Jenny, a French economist and chair of the OECD Competition Committee. The study claims that European companies and government organizations pay unfair, additional costs" to customers who license software to run on cloud infrastructure from independent service providers. Professor Jenny claimed those choosing non-Microsoft cloud providers sucked an additional 1,010,394,489 out of the European economy in 2022."Google Cloud's Head of Platform Amit Zavery wrote on Wednesday that Microsoft's practices lock customers into Azure, hurt cybersecurity and limit innovation. Zavery also spoke with CNBC, advocating for a more open market for cloud providers. Today the restrictions [do] not allow choice for customers," he said. Zavery wants Microsoft's restrictions to be removed and allow customers to have and choose whatever cloud provider they think is best for them commercially and technically."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-files-eu-antitrust-complaint-against-microsoft-183050473.html?src=rss

Meta just announced an intriguing tool that uses AI to automatically dub Reels into other languages, complete with lip-sync. This feature was revealed at the annual Meta Connect livestream event and was introduced by CEO Mark Zuckerberg.Zuckerberg showed this off during the keynote, and everything seemed to work flawlessly. The technology not only translates the content, according to Meta, but will also simulate the speaker's voice in another language and sync their lips to match." It's worth noting, however, that this didn't appear to be a live demo, but was still pretty impressive.As for a rollout, the company says the feature will arrive first to some creators' videos" in English and Spanish in the US and Latin America. Meta didn't give a timetable here. It just said the US and Latin America will be getting it first, which indicates that it'll be tied to English and Spanish at launch. The company did mention that more languages are coming soon.That wasn't the only AI tool spotlighted during Meta Connect. The company's AI platform will now allow voice chats, with a selection of celebrity voices to choose from. Meta AI is also getting new image capabilities, as it will be able to change and edit photos based on instructions from text chats within Instagram. Messenger and WhatsApp.Catch up on all the news from Meta Connect 2024!This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-will-use-ai-to-create-lip-synced-translations-of-creators-reels-175949373.html?src=rss

Alongside the Quest 3S and AI updates, we got a glimpse of Meta's future at Meta Connect. After teasing the device several times in recent months, the company finally gave the world a proper look at its "full holographic" augmented reality glasses, which it's currently calling Orion. Meta is packing a lot of tech into those chunky frames, which aren't coming to market just yet.The company first revealed five years ago that it was developing holographic smart glasses, but it has actually been working on the project for a decade. It claims that this is "the most advanced pair of AR glasses ever made" and results from "breakthrough inventions in virtually every field of modern computing." For one thing, it uses itty bitty projectors to display holograms onto the glasses.These glasses appear far less cumbersome to wear than previous mainstream AR products such as Magic Leap, Microsoft's Hololens and even Google Glass. They also don't block you out from the rest of the world like a virtual reality headset (though Meta's headsets do allow you to see what's around you via the onboard cameras). As a result, you can see wearers' full faces, eyes and expressions without having to resort to a weird, eerie workaround like Apple is doing with EyeSight on the Vision Pro.MetaMeta said Orion is lightweight and works both indoors and outdoors. The company claims that the glasses allow for "digital experiences that are unconstrained by the limits of a smartphone screen" as they overlay holographic elements on top of the real world. In addition, Meta said Orion integrates contextual AI to help you gain a better understanding of the world around you.The company added that you'll be able to look inside a fridge with the glasses on and get Meta AI to come up with a recipe based on what you have. You should be able hop onto video calls via Orion and view and send messages on Messenger and WhatsApp. Based on images that Meta shared, there will also be holographic versions of various other apps, such as Spotify, YouTube and Pinterest.MetaYou're likely going to have to wait a few years to get your hands on this device (or at least a version of it). For the time being, Meta employees and "select external audiences" are able to use Orion. That's in order to help the company learn more and iterate on the product as it works toward a consumer version of the AR glasses.Still, Meta claims that Orion is not just a research prototype but is instead "one of the most polished product prototypes we've ever developed, and is truly representative of something that could ship to consumers." By continuing to work on the product internally, "we can keep building quickly and continue to push the boundaries of the technology, helping us arrive at an even better consumer product faster," the company said. Part of that iteration includes bringing down the price of the glasses to make them more affordable, according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.A roadmap that leaked last year indicated that Meta planned to release its first consumer AR glasses in 2027, though the company says it's aiming to do so "in the near future." As it happens, Snap also recently debuted its fifth-gen AR Spectacles, but for now those are only available to developers who are willing to pay a monthly $99 fee.Catch up on all the news from Meta Connect 2024!This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/meta-reveals-its-orion-smart-glasses-175353381.html?src=rss

Meta's AI assistant has always been the most intriguing feature of its second-generation Ray-Ban smart glasses. While the generative AI assistant had fairly limited capabilities when the glasses launched last fall, the addition of real-time information and multimodal capabilities offered a range of new possibilities for the accessory.Now, Meta is significantly upgrading the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses' AI powers. The company showed off a number of new abilities for the year-old frames onstage at its Connect event, including reminders and live translations.With reminders, you'll be able to look at items in your surroundings and ask Meta to send a reminder about it. For example, hey Meta, remind me to buy that book next Monday." The glasses will also be able to scan QR codes and call a phone number written in front of you.In addition, Meta is adding video support to Meta AI so that the glasses will be better able to scan your surroundings and respond to queries about what's around you. There are other more subtle improvements. Previously, you had to start a command with Hey Meta, look and tell me" in order to get the glasses to respond to a command based on what you were looking at. With the update though, Meta AI will be able to respond to queries about what's in front of you with more natural requests. In a demo with Meta, I was able to ask several questions and follow-ups with questions like hey Meta, what am I looking at" or hey Meta, tell me about what I'm looking at."When I tried out Meta AI's multimodal capabilities on the glasses last year, I found that Meta AI was able to translate some snippets of text but struggled with anything more than a few words. Now, Meta AI should be able to translate longer chunks of text. And later this year the company is adding live translation abilities for English, French, Italian and Spanish, which could make the glasses even more useful as a travel accessory.And while I still haven't fully tested Meta AI's new capabilities on its smart glasses just yet, it already seems to have a better grasp of real-time information than what I found last year. During a demo with Meta, I asked Meta AI to tell me who is the Speaker of the House of Representatives - a question it repeatedly got wrong last year - and it answered correctly the first time.Catch up on all the news from Meta Connect 2024!This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/metas-ray-ban-branded-smart-glasses-are-getting-ai-powered-reminders-and-translation-features-173921120.html?src=rss

Meta just revealed the budget-friendly Quest 3S VR headset at its annual Connect keynote event, but it also made a sad announcement about some of its previous headsets. The company will stop selling both the Quest 2 and the Quest Pro by the end of the year. With Quest 3S on the shelf, we're officially winding down sales of Quest 2 and Pro. We'll be selling our remaining headsets through the end of the year or until they're gone, whichever comes first," the company wrote in a blog post that also announced the pending launch of the Quest 3S. The company will be selling Quest 2 and Pro accessories for a bit longer" after the stock of headsets runs out. This includes the carrying case, the Touch Pro controllers and bundles like the Quest 2 Active Pack. Meta recently lowered the price of the Quest 2 to $200, and it's still a decent headset for beginners. The Quest 3S is better in every way, but it starts at $300, while the standard Quest 3 costs $500. It's the end of an era for the Quest 2. This was a hugely successful headset, as it launched during the dog days of COVID-19. For many, it became a crucial item to survive endless isolation, along with stuff like Zoom and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It's the end of an error (see what I did there?) for the Quest Pro. This headset never caught on, likely because it was originally priced at $1,500 before being quickly lowered to $1,000. It still costs a grand from Meta, but can typically be found for around $900 via Amazon and other retailers. As they say, out with the old and in with the new. The Quest 3S is, essentially, the new Quest 2. It starts at $300, boasts the same CPU as the original Quest 3 and handles full-color passthrough. Catch up on all the news from Meta Connect 2024!This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/meta-will-stop-selling-the-quest-2-and-quest-pro-by-the-end-of-the-year-173704500.html?src=rss

Over the last year, Meta has made its AI assistant so ubiquitous in its apps it's almost hard to believe that Meta AI is only a year old. But, one year after its launch at the last Connect, the company is infusing Meta AI with a load of new features in the hopes that more people will find its assistant useful.One of the biggest changes is that users will be able to have voice chats with Meta AI. Up till now, the only way to speak with Meta AI was via the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. And like last year's Meta AI launch, the company tapped a group of celebrities for the change.Meta AI will be able to take on the voices of Awkwafina, Dame Judi Dench, John Cena, Keegan Michael Key and Kristen Bell, in addition to a handful of more generic voices. While the company is hoping the celebrities will sell users on Meta AI's new abilities, it's worth noting that the company quietly phased out its celebrity chatbot personas that launched at last year's Connect.In addition to voice chat support, Meta AI is also getting new image capabilities. Meta AI will be able to respond to requests to change and edit photos from text chats within Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. The company says that users can ask the AI to add or remove objects or to change elements of an image, like swapping a background or clothing item.Meta is testing AI-generated content recommendations in the main feed of Facebook and Instagram.MetaThe new abilities arrive alongside the company's latest Llama 3.2 model. The new iteration, which comes barely two months after the Llama 3.1 release, is the first to have vision capabilities and can bridge the gap between vision and language by extracting details from an image, understanding the scene, and then crafting a sentence or two that could be used as an image caption to help tell the story." Llama 3.2 is competitive" on image recognition and a range of visual understanding tasks" compared with similar offerings from ChatGPT and Claude, Meta says.The social network is testing other, potentially controversial, ways to bring AI into the core features of its main apps. The company will test AI-generated translation features for Reels with automatic dubbing and lip syncing." According to Meta, that will simulate the speaker's voice in another language and sync their lips to match." It will arrive first to some creators' videos" in English and Spanish in the US and Latin America, though the company hasn't shared details on rollout timing.Meta also plans to experiment with AI-generated content directly in the main feeds on Facebook and Instagram. With the test, Meta AI will surface AI-generated images that are meant to be personalized to each users' interests and past activity. For example, Meta AI could surface an image imagined for you" that features your face.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-ai-can-now-talk-to-you-and-edit-your-photos-172853219.html?src=rss

Google's Pixel Buds series has always been a worthy companion for its Pixel phones. The company only lacks a set of over-ear headphones to offer similar options to what Apple provides for iPhone users. Of course, Google got a later start than its rival, but like its Silicon Valley counterpart, the company has designed its earbuds to work best with its own devices. You'll need both a phone and earbuds from Google to get the best features. That's unlikely to change anytime soon. Like Apple, Google is now on version 2.0 of its Pro-series earbuds. The first model debuted in 2022, and delivered active noise cancellation (ANC) for the first time on a set of Pixel Buds. There were notable features missing at launch, like spatial audio, so the inaugural set of Pixel Buds Pro weren't yet at their full potential. With the Pixel Buds Pro 2 ($229), Google has its ducks in a row, shipping its new flagship earbuds with a powerful Tensor chip for the first time and providing a hands-free conduit to Gemini AI. There's a new design, longer battery life and updated acoustics, but once again, the company is asking you to pay more than the previous version for all of the new features. Design The first thing that struck me about the Pixel Buds Pro 2 is how small they are. While a 27 percent size reduction doesn't sound like a huge drop, it certainly is here. This model is tiny compared to the previous one, and Google shaved 1.5 grams off of the overall weight as well. The result is a much smaller earbud that sits more comfortably and securely in your ear. Google redesigned the overall shape here, too. To help trim down the overall size, the IP54-rated Pixel Buds Pro 2 are now more compact rather than elongated like their predecessors. Like many audio companies, Google says it analyzed millions of ear scans to arrive at this new shape. Additionally, the company conducted real-life wear tests" to make sure the earbuds wouldn't fall out easily. To keep the buds in place, Google opted for a twist-to-adjust stabilizer" on the back. Everyone's ears are different, and on mine, I don't feel like this adds any extra security. As far as I can tell, it doesn't tuck into the curves of my ears when I twist to lock in" as Google suggests. But, once I found the best ear tip size for me, a secure fit wasn't an issue as the Pixel Buds Pro 2 stayed in place just fine. What's more, the tiny footprint kept things comfy for long wear sessions, which hasn't always been the case for Google's earbuds. There's still a robust suite of onboard controls on the Pixel Buds Pro 2, but the smaller-sized earbuds will require some adjustments to your taps. Since the buds aren't as big, the touch panel offers less real estate. This means you'll need to be more precise with your fingers, which took some time for me to master. If there's an upside to larger earbuds, it's that you don't have to be as accurate with your control inputs to get them to register. Gemini AI and Tensor power Billy Steele for Engadget The Pixel Buds Pro 2 are Google's first earbuds with a Tensor chip. Apple has always been keen to discuss the audio processor inside AirPods by name, but this is the first time I can remember Google doing the same. Thanks to the Tensor A1, the company says it can provide ultra-low latency audio processing, including multi-path signal handling. Google says it created a highway lane" for music so that it's unbothered by the processing required for ANC. The chip's efficiency also allowed the company to increase battery life (slightly) despite the overall reduction in earbud size. Google is hyping the Pixel Buds Pro 2 as the first earbuds to work with Gemini AI. But, since Gemini has replaced Google Assistant on the Pixel 9, that's a bit like saying they're built for Assistant. Clearly, all Pixel Buds share that ability, so you'll want to look past the marketing-speak. It's true that the Pixel Buds Pro 2 work with Gemini for hands-free help with more complex tasks than Assistant and Gemini Live is here for more conversational interactions. Of course, you don't need the earbuds to use any of this, as you can just use a Pixel 9 on its own. Tensor and Gemini aren't the only notable features on the Pixel Buds Pro 2. You'll also get Conversation Detection, Hearing Wellness tracking, multipoint Bluetooth and the ability to customize the long press option (only two choices there though). You can also automatically switch between devices linked to your Google account, which won't be tremendously convenient if you prefer Pixel phones and MacBook Pros. Inside the Pixel Buds app, which is also accessible from the Bluetooth settings menu, you'll see battery levels and get ANC controls if you need to change those from your phone. Pixel Buds Pro 2 sound quality Overall sound quality on the original Pixel Buds Pro was an improvement over the Pixel Buds (2020) and the A-Series, both of which lacked sufficient low-end tone. There's plenty of bass on the Pixel Buds Pro 2 when a song demands it, but it's not constant or overbearing. Google says it redesigned the entire audio system to overhaul the acoustics and drivers for maximum efficiency. Its goal was to pass the audio signal to your ear as cleanly as possible so you get accurate, immersive sound without having to make further adjustments. I'm not sure the audio is a huge leap over the Pixel Buds Pro, but there is a noticeable improvement. That bass performance thumps when a Deftones alt-metal track or Kaytranada's electronic hip-hop beats demand it. There's not as much nuance to the low-end tone as on the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4, which are my current pick for best overall sound quality. There's enough to get the job done though, so the Pixel Buds Pro 2 remains a significant sonic improvement over Google's more affordable earbud models, especially when you factor in the crisp highs and adequate mid-range on display here. The synth-heavy tracks on Justice's Hyperdrama, for example, envelope you with gritty, textured riffs and driving beats. If you do feel the need to make audio adjustments, Google offers a full 5-band EQ in the Pixel Buds settings. There are also five presets, but none of those sound great. In fact, I think they all make things worse. There's also the ability to tweak the volume balance, if you need the volume to be louder in one ear than the other. Unlike the Pixel Buds Pro, this model is shipping with Spatial Audio ready to be put to work. However, there are some big caveats here. First, the immersive sound requires a Pixel 6 and up, and it doesn't work with A-Series devices. What's more, Spatial Audio is only available on compatible video apps. You won't be able to use it for music. And when it comes to Netflix, the streaming service requires that you also turn on head tracking. Google should've made things straightforward here, but instead, it's a mess. It's a solid addition if it works when you want it, but there will certainly be times when that's not the case. ANC performance Billy Steele for Engadget For the ANC setup on the Pixel Buds Pro 2, Google says it cancels twice as much noise thanks to its so-called Silent Seal 2.0 system. The company explains that it does this by blocking a wider variety of sounds than it did on the previous model, including higher frequency distractions. It's true that the Pixel Buds Pro 2 perform well with low-to-mid-range noise, blocking the constant roar of a car interior (passenger seat, obviously), loud fans and more. Where the Pixel Buds Pro 2 still struggle is with things like human voices. To be fair, lots of earbuds and headphones stumble trying to block out a noisy neighbor. Unless you've got music or a podcast going, you'll be able to hear nearby conversations, albeit moderately muffled. Call quality For calls, Google once again employs AI to make things sound better. And that applies to both ends of the call. The company says its Clear Calling feature has been improved, further reducing background noise on your end and any would-be distractions near the person you're talking to when the Pixel Buds Pro 2 are paired with a compatible Pixel phone. The earbuds do a good job of blocking background noise on their own. Even when you record a voice note or do some other activity that doesn't use Clear Calling, the AI-powered system reduces the roar to where you can barely hear it. What's more, Clear Calling doesn't just apply to phone calls, it works with apps like Google Meet and some third-party software (over Wi-Fi). And while I don't think the Pixel Buds Pro 2 will make you sound pristine, the heavy lifting they do (with the aid of a Pixel phone) to keep you clear of background commotion is commendable. Battery life on the Pixel Buds Pro 2 Google promises up to eight hours of battery life on a charge with ANC enabled on the Pixel Buds Pro 2. When you factor in the case and the buds, you're looking at up to 30 hours of noise-canceling use. During my tests, I didn't keep ANC on the entire time, but I also used transparency mode during calls and times I needed to listen out for my kids or the doorbell. I got just over eight hours with the volume at around 50-75 percent, which varied depending whether I was streaming from my Pixel 9 or MacBook Pro. The IPX4-rated Pixel Buds Pro 2 case supports both wired and wireless charging, so you've got an alternate option there. What's more, a 15-minute rest in the case will give the earbuds enough juice to last for up to three hours. The competition Pixel Buds Pro 2 are the best-sounding and most comfortable option in Google's earbud lineup. This makes them the best choice if you're into all of the integrations for Pixel phone owners. If you can live without all of that stuff, you'll find better sound quality and more advanced features elsewhere. Sony's WF-1000XM5 is my current top pick, thanks to the fit, audio performance, ANC quality and other tools the company offers. You'll get Speak-to-Chat automatic pausing for short convos and DSEE Extreme upscaling to recover detail that's typically lost to Bluetooth compression. There's also the ability to automate sound settings based on activity or location. If pure sound performance is what you're after, Sennheiser's Momentum True Wireless 4 is the best bet. These earbuds don't have the robust feature set that Sony has amassed, but the audio quality is the best in my opinion. The company also recently added Auracast support and a Find Headphones feature that's akin to Google's Find My Device. Wrap-up Like the Pixel Buds Pro were in 2022, the second version of Google's pricier earbuds are the best the company has to offer. They're more expensive than their predecessor, but they're also more powerful, more comfortable and last longer. There are some confusing caveats with Spatial Audio and the onboard controls may take some getting used to, but the Pixel Buds Pro 2 are an improvement in the places where it really matters. The same truth remains as it did two years ago though: these are earbuds built for Pixel phone die-hards, so if you're not one of those, you can find better audio performance and expanded features elsewhere. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/pixel-buds-pro-2-review-tiny-earbuds-with-big-sound-and-a-direct-line-to-gemini-170016328.html?src=rss

You do not need a PS5 Pro. The Pro is Sony's latest version of the PS5, offering more power and storage, faster Wi-Fi, and expanded support for tricks like advanced ray tracing, all for the audacious price of $700. That's nice, but if you already have a PS5, you do not need to rush out and snag the new console. The PS5 Pro is similar to the Steam Deck OLED in this way: It's a noticeable upgrade, but its existence doesn't diminish the appeal of the original model. The PS5 you've had for years remains very cool and impressive, and if you're content with it - or if you don't have the cash to spare - maybe just stop reading right here and go play Astro Bot with your bliss intact. Now that it's just us, let's really get into it. If you regularly play PS5 games and can afford to waste (at least) $700 on a more powerful console with extra gills, you absolutely should get a PS5 Pro. The PS5 Pro will ship on November 7 with a 2TB SSD, Wi-Fi 7, faster memory, improved rendering capabilities, and support for VRR, advanced ray-tracing and 8K gaming." With the Pro, Sony has introduced a proprietary upscaling system called PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, which fills out details at the pixel level using machine-learning technology in a similar fashion to NVIDIA's DLSS. There's also PS5 Pro Game Boost, an enhancement suite that can apply to backward compatible PS4 games, stabilizing or upgrading their performance on the fresh hardware. Sony says this can also improve the performance of supported PS5 titles. These upgrades theoretically mean players no longer have to choose between a premium resolution and high, consistent framerates, so long as the game you're playing is updated to take full advantage of the console. On the standard and Digital Edition PS5s, players generally pick between Performance mode, which activates 60 fps or 120 fps at a lower resolution, or Fidelity mode, which offers crisp resolution at 30 fps. The Pro, thanks to the increased power and upscaling system, can easily handle simultaneous 4K output and 60 fps, and then some. PS5 Pro games In action, this means games look and feel exceptional on the PS5 Pro. I played a handful of titles on the Pro over two hours at Sony's San Mateo studio, and many of the setups included a second screen with the game running on existing PS5 hardware, for comparison's sake. Overall, the standard PS5 games never looked bad, but the Pro screens definitely looked better. More than anything though, the Pro games felt better. Hopping from 30 fps on the standard PS5 to 60 fps on PS5 Pro - at the same or an even higher perceivable resolution - was all the convincing I personally needed. The Last of Us Part II Remastered offered a poignant demonstration of this difference: I played for a minute in Fidelity mode at 4K/30, and then swapped over to the Pro at 4K/60, and the shift instantly felt right. I questioned how or why I'd ever played a game at 30 fps in my life. Why choose between image quality and framerate when you can have both, you know? Each developer approached the Pro's power from a bespoke angle. With Spider-Man 2, for instance, Insomniac was focused on improving draw distance and upgrading the resolution of far-away objects in expansive cityscapes. The result is a crisply detailed web-slinging experience around downtown Manhattan with none of the slight fuzziness that the standard version offers. Hogwarts Legacy developers at Avalanche Software wanted to improve the game's lighting and reflections, and they did: The Pro version presents a castle filled with slick stones and vibrant stained glass rainbows that ripple realistically as the player moves. F1 24, meanwhile, can now handle ray-tracing at 4K/60 during races, and the team at Codemasters built new fences and implemented more realistic, auto-generated reflections on the tracks. The difference between ray-tracing and none is stark, and the game's Performance mode can hit 4K at 120 fps on the Pro, rather than maxing out at 1440p on current models. A new Resolution mode outputs in 8K/60, but to experience that one, you'll first have to get your hands on an 8K TV. As with the last generation of upgraded consoles - the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro - a lot of the responsibility for making the PS5 Pro worthwhile lands at the feet of publishers and developers. At yesterday's State of Play event, Sony announced a second batch of titles that will be upgraded for PS5 Pro, including Stellar Blade, Alan Wake 2, Resident Evil Village and Dragon Age: Veilguard. That's a solid start, but anyone spending $700 on a console will rightfully expect many more upgrades over time. Talking with all of the developers at the event, there was a shared sentiment: This is an exciting era of experimentation and customization, and the Pro represents a chance for studios to create the definitive console versions of their games. We've only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Pro improvements - and, therefore, the future of console experiences in general. Designwise, the Pro is big, but then again, so is every version of the PS5. It looks enormous next to the updated Slim PS5, but side on and standing vertically, the Pro is the same height as the launch PS5 and it's only as wide as the current Slim version. This makes for an elongated, skyscraper kind of aesthetic that only highlights how intrusive the console truly is, but if you're a PS5 player, this is nothing new. The black gills slicing through the top half of the Pro do little to dispel the visual heft, but on top of providing necessary ventilation, they nicely mirror the look of the wider PS5 line. Jessica Conditt for Engadget The stand that allows the Pro to be positioned vertically is sold separately and costs $30. There's also an option to add an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive to the new console, just like the Digital Edition, and that costs $80. So if you're in the market for the full Pro package, you'll have to throw down $810. It's a beastly price tag for a beastly console, but thankfully that descriptor applies to performance as well as appearance. Sony is mining a niche market with the Pro, targeting dedicated PS5 players who happen to have money to burn. It's not for everyone, and Sony will need to convince lots of developers to support this small audience. But for the type of console player who doesn't balk at dropping $200 on a controller or $700 on a console - me, for instance - it feels like a worthwhile upgrade. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/ps5-pro-preview-i-dont-need-it-but-i-want-it-150042508.html?src=rss

We first covered the Samsung 990 Evo SSD in January and noted its speed and efficiency. Just eight months after its release, Samsung has now revealed its 990 Evo Plus SSD. The company claims it's 50 percent faster than the previous model and is suitable for gaming, business and creative tasks.Samsung says the drive uses its 8th generation V-NAND technology, with a maximum sequential speed of 7,250MB/s for the 990 Evo Plus' 4TB model and a write speed limit of 6,300 MB/s. The SSD has a nickel-coated heat shield to prevent overheating and the company says it's 73 percent more efficient. For those looking for the random read and write speeds, they're 1,050K IOPS and 1,400K IOPS, respectively.Other than the 4TB model mentioned above, the SSD can come in 1TB and 2TB models. All three come with Samsung Magician Software and are capable of AES-256-bit full disk encryption.All the new drives will be available this fall from select retailers and Samsung's official website. The 1TB model will sell for $110, the 2TB model for $185 and the 4TB model costs $345.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/samsungs-new-990-evo-plus-ssd-is-50-percent-faster-than-its-predecessor-164354770.html?src=rss

Meta has secured deals with several actors, including Kristen Bell, John Cena and Judi Dench, to use their voices for the Meta AI chatbot, Reuters reports. Users will be able to talk to the chatbot while listening to answers in the voice of their favorite celebrities. Other celebrities include Awkwafina and Keegan-Michael Key, a source told Reuters.Besides these five voices, the source also said that there are more generic voice options if users prefer them. All voices will be available this week in the US and other English-speaking regions, though the source didn't give any other specific locations.The news follows a report from last month which claimed Meta was negotiating with actors to secure the rights to use their voices for its AI projects. Now, the deals have reportedly been struck, and the chatbot found when using Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp could feature these famous voices soon. The company had intended to finalize agreements before the Connect conference, where Reuters' source says it will announce the new voice options.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/metas-ai-chatbot-will-soon-speak-in-the-voices-of-john-cena-and-other-celebrities-160603365.html?src=rss

Starting on October 1, you'll be able to play Dead Space for free with your PlayStation Plus membership. Sony Interactive Entertainment has revealed additional titles to its PS Plus lineup, which includes the remake version of the sci-fi/horror classic. Dead Space for the PS5 (as well as for PCs and Xbox Series X|S) adds voiced lines for the previously silent protagonist Isaac Clarke. It was built from scratch to feature better graphics and lighting, new gameplay mechanics and a transition system that does away with loading screens between levels. Like the original release, the remake still revolves around Clarke, a starship engineer, as he explores an abandoned spacecraft taken over by undead monsters.In addition to Dead Space, subscribers will also get free access to WWE 2K24 for the PS4 and the PS5, particularly the "40 Years of WrestleMania" edition that comes with retellings of historic WrestleMania moments over the past four decades. Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!will also be added to the PS Plus Library. While its promotional materials make it look like an anime dating sim, it's actually a psychological horror with some pretty disturbing themes. Finally, those paying for the more expensive PlayStation Plus extra and premium subscriptions will also get access to The Last of Us Part I starting on September 26.SIE has announced new iridescent DualSense wireless controller and PS5 console cover color options, as well. Chroma Pearl, it says, moves through a range of chic pinks and creams, while Chroma Indigo shifts colors from deep blues to vivid purples, depending on how you look at it. Both options will be available on November 7. And then there's Chroma Teal, which was designed to look like anything from yellow-green to blue-green and will be released on January 23 next year. The new controller options will sell for $80, while the console covers will set you back $65.Sony Interactive EntertainmentThis article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/dead-space-leads-sonys-playstation-plus-lineup-for-october-160042239.html?src=rss

Update, September 25, 11:15AM ET: It's Meta's big day! You can follow the event as it happens with commentary from Karissa Bell and Devindra Hardawar in our Meta Connect 2024 live updates story. The original article follows below.In the past, the biggest AR/VR event of the year has been known alternately as Oculus Connect and then Facebook Connect. But whatever the name, Meta's fall event its primary showcase for the company's latest and greatest achievements in the virtual reality and mixed reality space. Much like last year, we can likely predict the biggest news coming out of Meta Connect 2024 with just two acronyms: AI and AR.Like every other big tech firm this year, Meta will be desperate to demonstrate how it plans to stay relevant in a future powered by AI. And now that we're seven months beyond the launch of Apple's Vision Pro, which arrived alongside a short-lived spike in interest in augmented reality (AR), Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is likely eager to show off his own plans to make AR a reality.While Zuckerberg isn't as hot on the metaverse as he was when he renamed his company, the union of AI and AR is one way he can still make the dream of persistent virtual worlds come true. It might look less like Ready Player One, but if AR glasses actually take off, they could still let Meta control another piece of our digital world. And to help get them there, delivering an updated inexpensive VR headset couldn't hurt.With all of that in mind, here are a few things we expect to see at Meta Connect 2024, which kicks off virtually tomorrow - September 25 - and runs for two days. The show starts with a 1PM ET livestream, which is expected to run about an hour.Orion AR glassesAfter reportedly killing a pricey next-generation mixed reality headset, which was meant to compete with the Apple Vision Pro, Meta is instead focusing on a pair of augmented reality glasses, codenamed Orion, as its next innovation. As seen in the background of one Mark Zuckerberg photo (above), and later somewhat confirmed by him, Orion resembles a pair of chunky hipster frames.MetaUnlike the Quest 3, which fully consumes your vision and uses cameras to show you a low-quality view of the world, Orion could let you see the real world like a normal pair of glasses. But, like Magic Leap and Microsoft's HoloLens before it, Meta's glasses could layer holographic imagery on top of your reality. The key difference, of course, is that it appears to be far less cumbersome than those devices.The glasses are, I think, going to be a big deal," Zuckerberg said in an interview on the Blueprint Podcast (via RoadtoVR). We're almost ready to start showing the prototype version of the full holographic glasses. We're not going to be selling it broadly; we're focused on building the full consumer version rather than selling the prototype."Back at Meta Connect 2022, Zuckerberg showed off how the company was thinking of AR glasses, together with an intriguing wrist-based controller:"It's probably our most exciting prototype that we've had to date," Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth told The Vergelast year. "I might get myself in trouble for saying this: I think it might be the most advanced piece of technology on the planet in its domain. In the domain of consumer electronics, it might be the most advanced thing that we've ever produced as a species."According to a leaked Meta roadmap, the company plans to release a new pair of Ray-Ban smart glasses next year which would add a small built-in screen alongside its existing camera, speaker and microphone. That would be followed by Meta's first pair of consumer AR glasses in 2027. It makes sense that we'll see some sort of concept device this year. Much like Apple's Vision Pro was effectively that company's version of an AR/VR concept car to introduce developers to its notion of "spatial computing," Meta will need to give developers a way to use its platform so they can build their own AR experiences. Competitor Snap just debuted its fifth-generation AR Spectacles, and this version is oriented at developers (with a $99/month subscription fee).A cheaper Quest 3 variantInstead of an upgraded headset, all signs point to Meta releasing a stripped-down version of the Quest 3 called the Quest 3S, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Recent leaked images from Meta's own Quest Link application has confirmed the headset's existence. According to Gurman, the company is aiming to make it much cheaper than the current version, reportedly considering price points of $300 or $400, while still delivering an experience close to the Quest 3.Meta via Gary_the_mememachine/RedditThe latest leak suggests it'll start at just $299. A Reddit user shared a clip of an Amazon ad reportedly shown on Peacock that features the Quest 3S, complete with a price and storage (h/t UploadVR). Per the ad, the 128GB Quest 3S will cost $299, but there may be other storage options as well. It could potentially replace the Quest 2, which remains in the product line priced at $299 long after its 2020 release.So why would Meta do this? There's a huge performance gap between the Quest 3 and Quest 2, which makes life difficult for developers. With a cheaper device that's similar to the Quest 3, potentially using the same processor, it would be easier to build games that can scale across two price points. According to Bloomberg's Gurman, Meta has also considered releasing some models of the new headset without any bundled controllers, which would push the price down even further.More AI, of courseExpect Meta to show off even more ways it's taking advantage of AI across its Quest headsets and the Ray-Ban smart glasses. The company rolled out multi-modal AI search capabilities on those glasses in January, which allowed you to ask the Meta AI about objects or landmarks you were looking at, or for a quick translation. Based on our testing, though, those features were surprisingly half-baked.Meta will likely discuss ways it's improving those existing features by implementing its Llama 3.1 large language model (LLM), which it's positioning as an open source competitor to Google and OpenAI's LLMs. In particular, the company notes that Llama 3.1 offers dramatically improved translation, math and general knowledge capabilities. There's certainly room for Meta to introduce new AI capabilities powered by Llama 3.1 in the Ray-Ban smart glasses, but given their limited processing power and battery life, we'll probably have to wait for an updated model before we see anything truly groundbreaking.Karissa Bell contributed to this report.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/meta-connect-2024-cheaper-quest-3s-ai-ar-and-everything-else-you-can-expect-at-the-metaverse-event-130011659.html?src=rss