We're ringing in 2025 with everything we're expecting to see at CES! That includes new video cards from AMD and NVIDIA, a holographic windshield from Hyundai and potentially more satellite enabled phones. AI will still be a major topic - like the next generation of AI PCs - but it also seems like we'll be hearing a lot more about classic CES stories. In addition, we explore why Meta wants to start adding AI users to Facebook and Instagram.Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!Subscribe!
The Sixth Circuit US Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that the FCC does not have the "statutory authority" to implement net neutrality rules.Since the rules were established in 2015, the FCC argued that classifying ISPs as "telecommunication services" gives it broad authority to regulate them. The decision to redefine ISPs as "information services" during the first Trump Administration led to the repeal of net neutrality in 2017.The current FCC voted to restore net neutrality on April 25 last year. The difference between 2015 and now is the Supreme Court's recent, radical reinterpretation of an important legal doctrine. The Chevron doctrine said that if Congress doesn't weigh in on an issue, courts are supposed to defer to the interpretation of government agencies. Now, interpretation falls to the individual judge, and the Sixth Court doesn't agree with the FCC.This is the end of the road for the FCC's attempts to wrench a little bit of the power from internet providers and carriers and level speeds and access regardless of service. Net neutrality rules will remain in California and other states, but anything at the federal level will require either an act of Congress or, for this case, be appealed to (and succeed in front of) the Supreme Court.- Mat SmithGet this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!The biggest tech stories you missed
Apple is kicking off 2025 with a new wave of updates to Apple Fitness+. This time, the company is not only adding new content to the service's yoga, strength training, and meditation programs, but also offering a new integration with another popular fitness app: Strava.If there's any problem with Fitness+'s offerings up until this point, it's that they primarily cater to beginners. Yoga Peak Poses could be one way that changes. Apple is adding yoga retreat-inspired workshops focused on specific, challenging yoga poses like Dancer or Crow. For each pose, there's a 10-minute prep flow to warm users up," Apple says, followed by a corresponding 10-minute practice session." You can use the workshop to build on your skills and hopefully end up pulling off a tricky pose in the process.If strength training is more your speed, Fitness+ is also getting a new three week-long progressive strength training program Apple has dubbed Three Perfect Weeks of Strength." The program is spread across a dozen 30-minute workouts, with the first week focused on "Progressive Overload," the second on "Time Under Tension," and the third on "Dynamic Power." Apple says its designed the program to be repeatable so you can run through it again with different weights as you grow stronger. Don't expect it to be as in-depth as Peloton's new strength training app, but it's nice to have more options.AppleOne of the more interesting new additions in this update is how Fitness+ will integrate with Strava. When you share a Fitness+ workout to Strava, the app will now display things like the Fitness+ workout you performed or trainer who led it, on top of your normal health metrics. Apple is offering Strava subscribers up to three months of Fitness+ at no additional costs in a savvy bit of cross-promotion, too.Alongside these new additions is a grab bag of other new features, like an Intro to Breath Meditation class, a selection of workouts designed around training for pickleball, a new slate of Apple's celebrity-led Time to Walk audio stories, and workout playlists focused on Janet Jackson (on January 13), Coldplay (on January 20), Bruno Mars (on January 27) and Kendrick Lamar (on February 3).This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/apple-fitness-gets-strava-integration-and-new-workouts-120013064.html?src=rss
When Samsung unveiled the world's first 27-inch 4K gaming OLED monitor on Thursday, Engadget's Igor Bonifacic predicted that other vendors would soon follow suit. (After all, Samsung is also the biggest supplier of OLED gaming monitor panels.) Sure enough, MSI followed suit the same day at CES 2025 with two monitors with familiar specs: a 27-inch 4K QD-OLED display and a 27-inch QD-OLED one with a crazy-smooth 500Hz refresh rate.First up: the 27-inch 4K QD-OLED one, marketed to perfection as the... MPG 272URX QD-OLED. (Sure, why not!) MSI is differentiating its monitor as the first one to combine that panel with DisplayPort 2.1a, which can provide a better combination of resolution and frame rates. Like Samsung's equivalent (the G81SF), it has a 240Hz refresh rate and should look nice and crisp at 166 PPI.MSI says this panel significantly reduces color fringing," which should help with the poor text clarity too often customary of QD-OLED screens. As my colleague Igor points out, this could be an ideal do-it-all monitor for gaming, work or anything else you can throw at it.It supports NVIDIA's G-SYNC tech, so smooth gameplay won't likely be a concern. The MPG 272URX QD-OLED even took home a CES 2025 Innovation Award.The 27-inch QHD QD-OLED model also has a catchy and memorable name: the MPG 272QR QD-OLED X50. (Yes!) MSI is marketing this monitor to all the mainstream gamers out there," likely due to its lower (2,560 x 1,440) resolution. It also uses DisplayPort 2.1a and (like Samsung's) can have a 0.03ms gray-to-gray pixel response time. It received VESA ClearMR 21000 certification, so motion blur shouldn't be an issue when enjoying its blistering 500Hz refresh rate.MSI hasn't yet shared pricing or release date info for either model.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/msi-also-has-a-27-inch-4k-qd-oled-gaming-monitor-at-ces-2025-221902190.html?src=rss
Net neutrality may have hit its final roadblock. In a new decision filed today, the Sixth Circuit US Court of Appeals has ruled that the FCC does not have the "statutory authority" to implement net neutrality rules. The court first blocked the rules in August 2024 when the lawsuit at the center of today's ruling was filed.Net neutrality broadly seeks to prevent internet service provides (ISPs) from giving preferential treatment to specific users or content. That prevents things like a service provider charging a streaming service for faster speeds, or the throttling of a specific website. Every app, website, and user is supposed to be treated equally under net neutrality, making the rules integral to a free, fair and open internet.Since net neutrality rules were first put in place in 2015, the FCC's argument has been that its classification of ISPs as "telecommunication services" under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 gives it broad authority to regulate them. The decision to redefine ISPs as "information services" during the first Trump Administration led to the repeal of net neutrality in 2017.The current FCC voted to restore net neutrality on April 25 last year, but the difference between 2015 and now is the Supreme Court's recent, radical reinterpretation of an important legal doctrine. In June 2024, the Supreme Court filed two rulings that overturned the Chevron doctrine, a framework that basically said that if Congress doesn't weigh in on an issue, courts are supposed to defer to the interpretation of government agencies. Now, interpretation falls to the individual judge, and the Sixth Court doesn't agree with the FCC's argument.Net neutrality rules will remain in California and other states, but anything at the federal level will require either an act of Congress or for this case be appealed to (and succeed in front of) the Supreme Court. Engadget has reached out to the FCC to see if it plans on appealing and will update this article if we hear back."Consumers across the country have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open, and fair," FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement following the ruling. "With this decision it is clear that Congress now needs to heed their call, take up the charge for net neutrality, and put open internet principles in federal law."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/us-court-of-appeals-rules-against-effort-to-restore-net-neutrality-205617210.html?src=rss
Nick Clegg, the former British deputy prime minister turned Meta executive, is leaving after a seven-year stint with the social media company. Clegg announced his departure in posts on X and Threads, saying that this is the right time for me to move on from my role as President, Global Affairs at Meta."Clegg will be replaced by Joel Kaplan, a longtime policy executive and former White House aide to George W. Bush known for his deep ties to Republican circles in Washington. As Chief Global Affairs Officer, Kaplan - as Semafor notes -will be well-positioned to run interference for Meta as Donald Trump takes control of the White House.Clegg joined Meta in 2018, a year after the British public deemed the former leader of the Liberal Democrats unelectable. The company then known as Facebook was looking to improve its political relationships after Cambridge Analytica and other scandals. In 2022, he was promoted to President of Global Affairs, a position that reported directly to Mark Zuckerberg (his previous role was overseen by Meta's then-COO Sheryl Sandberg).The former politician played a key role in some of Meta's most significant and controversial decisions. He publicly defended the company's decision not to apply its fact checking policies to politicians and authored its public statements about the suspension and reinstatement of Donald Trump's Facebook account. More recently, Clegg has criticized the European Union's handling of tech regulation, arguing that the bloc is hampering advancements in AI.My time at the company coincided with a significant resetting of the relationship between big tech' and the societal pressures manifested in new laws, institutions and norms affecting the sector," Clegg wrote in a post on Threads. I hope I have played some role in seeking to bridge the very different worlds of tech and politics - worlds that will continue to interact in unpredictable ways across the globe."Clegg said in a Facebook post that he will spend the next few months" working with Kaplan and representing the company at a number of international gatherings in Q1 of this year" before he formally steps away from the company. He didn't indicate what he may do next.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/nick-clegg-is-leaving-meta-after-7-years-overseeing-its-policy-decisions-204207077.html?src=rss
The best thing about the start of a new year isn't the goal-setting or the aspirational self-improvement - it's watching Awesome Games Done Quick. AGDQ is one of the premiere events for speedrunning, with an entire week of high-skill gameplay and loads of heart as gamers raise money for charity. The organization's winter beneficiary is the Prevent Cancer Foundation, which runs programs intended to stop cancer before it starts, emphasizing early detection and prevention.The fun begins on January 5 and there is a lot to see. GDQ events highlight a great mix of modern and retro games across just about every genre. Expect plenty of platformers like Astro Bot, one of our favorite new game releases of 2024, which will be run on January 5 at 6:30 PM ET.Games Done Quick / Richard NgoWednesday is packed with good stuff, such as New Super Mario Bros. Wii with the unusual category of "Any% While Playing Piano," which you can catch at 4:43 PM ET. The beloved and hilarious awful block is also on January 8, kicking off with the truly terrible game Superman 64 at 11:24 PM ET. And the entire finale day is looking excellent, with another intriguing musical category of "Saxophone-Controlled Boss Showcase" happening for Elden Ring. Groovy!Be sure to keep an eye on the schedule during the week. It displays your local time zone and will be updated with any shifts that happen from delays or extra zippy world records. All the action happens on the Games Done Quick Twitch channel, which is also embedded below. The pre-show begins on January 5 at 11:30 AM ET and the stream will be live 24/7 until the final run calls time.Update, January 2, 2025, 3:09PM ET: Corrected misstated start date of the event.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/how-to-watch-awesome-games-done-quick-2025-191752532.html?src=rss
Samsung just announced pending US availability for a new smartphone and fitness tracker. The Galaxy A16 5G and Galaxy Fit3 are both modest devices that are just about perfect for the budget-conscious. These gadgets will be available for purchase in the US on January 9, after becoming available in other parts of the world a couple of months back. The Galaxy A16 5G is a step up from its predecessor in nearly every way. This is a very good thing, as the Galaxy A15 5G easily found a spot in our list of the best budget Android phones. The A16 features a thinner design and slimmer bezels, all while including a slightly larger screen. This 6.7" FHD Super AMOLED display boasts 800 nits of peak brightness and a 90Hz refresh rate. It comes equipped with an Exynos 1330 processor, a 5000mAh battery with 25W fast-charging and up to 8GB of RAM. Customers can also choose up to 256GB of internal storage, though it supports microSD cards. As with many modern smartphones, the cameras are the real stars of the show here. There's a 50MP rear camera, a 5MP ultra-wide, a 2MP macro lens and a 13MP front camera. That's a pretty good setup for the price, which starts at just $200. The A16 5G will be available in black and light gray. Samsung The Galaxy Fit3 is a fairly bare-bones health tracker that's described as the perfect entryway for anyone seeking to begin their health journey." It offers some decent capabilities, like fall detection and sleep tracking. It even monitors blood oxygen levels, which is something not many trackers do at this price point. The battery life is great, at 13 days, and the IP68 rating means that it should be able to handle being submerged in water, so long as it's not taken too deep. The tracker pairs with the Samsung Health app, which allows access to 100 different workout types. The Fit3 costs $60 and comes in a few colors, including gray, silver and gold. These colors apply to both the band and the tracker itself. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/samsungs-galaxy-a16-5g-phone-and-fit3-tracker-are-coming-the-us-193710051.html?src=rss
You can now play Jeopardy! on your Fire TV Stick. Volley, the developer of the Alexa version of the game show, launched a new edition for Amazon's streaming device on Thursday. Unlike the voice assistant edition, this one lets you see the clues onscreen, which I have to imagine makes it much more enjoyable. Of course, you also get a familiar view of the 60-year-old show's iconic game board. The game is only available through the developer's new Volley Games app for Fire OS, which requires a $13 monthly subscription. Jeopardy! is exclusively voice-powered, apart from holding the voice button on the Alexa Voice Remote when you want to answer (in the form of a question, of course). Volley Although the photo above hints that the game might support local multiplayer, the developer says the feature won't be available at launch but will be coming soon." (However, it's hard to imagine how that will work without buying extra remotes so everyone can buzz in.) For now, the only way to play with friends is to work as a team or take turns with the remote. Jeopardy! only works on the Fire TV Stick, Fire TV Stick 4K and Fire TV Stick 4K Max. So, you're out of luck if you have a Fire TV Cube or television with Fire TV baked in. However, Volley says it has plans to expand compatibility. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/this-is-jeopardy-on-your-fire-tv-stick-170008005.html?src=rss
Tesla has reported its first-ever decline in annual deliveries. The total number of deliveries for 2024 hovers at around 1.78 million, but the company delivered 1.81 million vehicles in 2023. Company shares fell by as much as seven percent at the news, but has since rallied a couple of points. This follows similar news from Q1 of 2024, but that was just for a single quarter.Q4 showed a slight uptick in deliveries, with 495,000 this year and 484,000 in 2023. However, analysts had predicted a more robust final quarter, according to reporting by CNBC. These analysts expected Q4 deliveries to be somewhere in the range of 506,000. Tesla doesn't publish actual sales numbers in the US, so these delivery metrics are the closest we get.Numbers are also down in Europe, with a 14 percent decline in 2024 when compared to last year. This is according to registration data from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association.We don't have a concrete reason as to why Tesla deliveries have started to falter, but there are a myriad of options. The company still hasn't made a budget-friendly EV, instead focusing its energies on the oft-maligned Cybertruck and dreams of robotic taxis. Patrick George, editor in chief of InsideEVs, told CNBC that Cybertrucks have begun piling up on used car lots."
Ahead of the official start of CES, Samsung has announced a trio of new Odyssey gaming monitors. Of the bunch, the G81SF is the most interesting. Samsung says it's the first 4K, 27-inch OLED gaming monitor. The panel features a 240Hz refresh rate and 0.03ms gray-to-gray pixel response time.At 4K and 27 inches, pixel density clocks in at 165 pixels per inch, meaning the G81SF should produce an incredibly sharp image. As Samsung is the main supplier of QD-OLEDs, the G81SF's panel will almost certainly make its way to other gaming monitors released this year. With CES 2025 about to kick off, some of those could be announced as early as sometime in the next few days.If you don't want to sacrifice motion clarity for sharpness, Samsung has you covered there too. The second new Odyssey gaming monitor the company announced, the G60SF, features a 500Hz refresh rate. Resolution is limited to 2,560 x 1,440 on this model, but both the G6 and the G8 detailed above will offer VESA True Black 400-certified HDR performance, so the G60SF will still be great for single player games and exceptional for competitive titles like Overwatch 2 and Valorant, thanks to that 500Hz refresh rate.SamsungRounding out the new Odyssey monitors Samsung announced today is something of a curio and a CES throwback. The 27-inch G90XF has a lenticular lens attached to the front of its panel and stereo camera, meaning you can use it to watch 3D content without wearing 3D glasses. The G90XF includes AI software Samsung says can convert 2D video to 3D, but if we had to guess, the resulting footage won't look great.If you primarily use your computer for productivity, Samsung hasn't forgotten you and the company's new offerings here aren't any less interesting. First, there's the Smart Monitor M9 (M90SF). It features a 32-inch 4K OLED panel that offers True Black 400 HDR performance. It also comes with Samsung's space-saving Easy Setup Stand, but what separates the M90SF from all the other monitors Samsung announced today are the couple of AI features that come included with it. The first, dubbed AI Picture Optimizer, analyzes the input signal from your PC to automatically adjust the M9's display settings to produce the best image possible for the content you're consuming, be that a game, movie or productivity app. The other feature can upscale lower-resolution content to 4K.Lastly, there's the ViewFinity S8. It's not an OLED, but at 37 inches, it's the largest 16:9 4K monitor Samsung has ever offered. It offers 99 percent sRGB color gamut coverage, a built-in KVM switch and 90W USB-C power delivery. It's not the most exciting monitor in Samsung's new lineup, but it should appeal to design professionals who want the biggest possible screen but would rather not deal with the line distortion produced by an ultrawide.Samsung did not share pricing and availability information for any of the monitors it announced today. Expect those details to come sometime after CES.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/the-first-27-inch-4k-gaming-oled-monitor-is-here-courtesy-of-samsung-155118244.html?src=rss
The US Treasury Department told lawmakers in a letter back in December that its documents and workstations were accessed by an external party in a security breach. It described the attack as "a major cybersecurity incident" and attributed it to a "China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat actor." Now, The Washington Post has reported that the bad actors infiltrated a "highly sensitive office" within the Treasury in charge of deliberating and administering US government sanctions.As The Post explains, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is in possession of some important information that could be very useful to another country's government. While the hackers were only able to steal unclassified data, they could still have gotten their hands on the identities of potential sanction targets. They could also have stolen pieces of evidence that the agency had collected as part of its investigation on entities that the government is thinking of sanctioning. Overall, the attackers could have gotten enough information to give them the knowledge of how the US develops sanctions against foreign entities.In addition to OFAC, the Office of the Treasury Secretary and the Office of Financial Research were also affected by the breach. The attackers infiltrated the Treasury's systems by gaining access to a key used by BeyondTrust, a cloud-based service that provides the department with technical support.The US government has attributed numerous cyberattacks on its agencies and American companies to China state-sponsored actors over the years. Just last year, the FBI blamed "PRC-affiliated actors" for a massive hack on US telecom companies. The actors, a group known as Salt Typhoon, reportedly targeted the mobile devices of diplomats, government officials and other people linked to both presidential campaigns. According to The Post, Chinese officials called claims that their country was involved in the attack on the Treasury Department "groundless" and insisted that their government "has always opposed all forms of hacker attacks."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/china-linked-attack-on-us-treasury-department-reportedly-targeted-its-sanctions-office-150033082.html?src=rss
Telegram has introduced a new third-party account verification system as part of its latest app update, the company announced in a blog post. The idea is to let public figures or companies that are already verified by Telegram in turn verify others, for instance employees in the organization. "This decentralized platform for additional verification will help prevent scams and reduce misinformation - with a unique proactive solution that sets a new safety standard for social platforms," Telegram wrote.Individuals or groups that want to be able to verify others must already have an official bot verified by Telegram. Once that happens, they can apply to become a third-party verifier on Telegram. They're also required to have a unique icon (simple and. minimalistic in a solid color) that will appear next of the names of accounts they verify.Any accounts verified in this way will have that logo next to their name, and opening their profile will show a detailed explanation of that status and what it means. The company emphasized that this type of verification is "completely separate" from its internal verification, and provided more details in a guide.Telegram also introduced new search filters that let you refine a list of results only from private chats, group chats or channels. It also added custom emojis for folder names, reactions for service messages and the ability to upgrade gifts to NFTs.The company also announced that it reached profitability for the first time thanks to monetization features like Premium subscriptions, ads, Telegram Stars and more. Not all has been rosy for the company of late, though: In August last year, the founder of the chat app, Pavel Durov, was arrested over charges that the company hadn't done enough to stop illegal activity on the app.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/telegram-introduces-third-party-verification-and-new-search-filters-140013424.html?src=rss
Welcome to 2025. Wave farewell to yesteryear with the biggest losers in tech. Picking our favorite villains in 2024 was challenging when it simply wasn't a great time for tech. With the depressing spiral that is social media, the will-they-or-won't-they dance of banning TikTok in the US and the neverending edited and deepfaked content, it's just so noisy. Is it the internet of slop? Is it exhaustion? Is it AIs talking to AIs about AIs? In between all that, there's the obsolescence of connectors past, Intel's major struggles to turn around its fortunes, and, ugh, those AI assistants.EngadgetAnd, because it's a new year, we'll be making some changes to the Engadget newsletter in the next few weeks. We'll still be hitting the biggest tech stories and events, but also fold in more context, more writers and editors and even some features from Engadget's past. Is there something you'd like to see in your inbox? Get in touch.- Mat SmithThe biggest tech stories you missed
It's the start of a new year, which means a fresh crop of creative works have entered the public domain. Today, many materials that were copyrighted in 1929, along with sound recordings from 1924, become fair game to freely adapt, reuse, copy and share. The Center for Public Domain at Duke Law School collected some of the more notable properties that entered public domain with the start of 2025.This is a big year when it comes to film, with several seminal directors debuting their first projects with sound, such as Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail and Cecil B. DeMille's Dynamite. 1929 was also the year when Walt Disney directed the iconic Skeleton Dance short animated by Ub Iwerks, as well as when Mickey Mouse starred in his first talkie. The intrepid Tintin and original Popeye characters have arrived in the public domain as well.The compositions for several great songs joined the public domain today. There are memorable show tunes like Singin' in the Rain and An American in Paris alongside jazz standards Ain't Misbehavin' and (What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue and classical hits like the masterwork Bolero. On the recording side are tracks like George Gershwin's beautiful Rhapsody in Blue and the legendary singer Marian Anderson's take on My Way's Cloudy.Finally, several authors had titles in the Duke Law roundup. Noir fans will be happy to see Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon and Red Harvest here. Other notable literary works now in public domain include A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemmingway, Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie and The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. And for the verse lovers, the original German version of Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet is also on the list.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/thanks-to-public-domain-tintin-can-now-skeleton-dance-to-rhapsody-in-blue-230014559.html?src=rss
CNBC is getting in on the streaming game with a service called CNBC+. The platform will have a global livestream with financial news happening in the US, UK and Asian markets. Subscribers can also watch full show episodes on demand. The service is available via iOS and Android apps or on cnbc.com.According to Variety, CNBC announced the news and pricing plans for CNBC+ on January 1 in an email to people who had signed up for the network's digital offerings. Seems odd to announce a brand new property intended for business and financial professionals on a day when most companies are closed. CNBC is also one of the properties current owner Comcast is planning to spin off into a new company, which makes this a potentially challenging time for the network to launch an expensive new endeavor.And expensive is the key word. Not only is it costly to run a digital platform like this, but CNBC+ also doesn't come cheap for viewers. A regular subscription will cost $15 a month, while the Pro tier bundles in additional stock ratings and picks as well as a My Portfolio feature for $35 a month or $300 a year. For the truly committed fans, there is also an All Access plan that includes participation in an online investment club led by CNBC personality Jim Cramer. That plan costs a staggering $600 annually.This isn't the first time cable news has tried a streaming standalone. Warner Bros. Discovery launched a CNN+ service in March 2022, only to immediately pull the plug mere weeks later. We'll see if CNBC+ can last longer.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/cnbcs-new-streaming-service-can-cost-up-to-600-a-year-211554221.html?src=rss
Sony just revealed the first set of PlayStation Plus games in 2025 available for all subscribers, regardless of what service tier they're signed up for. Up this month are Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered and The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe. I can't say it's the most exciting set of games, but at the very least The Stanley Parable is a classic, albeit an old one - the game was first released way back in 2011 as a mod for Half-Life 2. The game then got a proper full release in 2013, and the Ultra Deluxe version was released for modern consoles in 2022.Original creators Davey Wreden and William Pugh put together the Ultra Deluxe edition, with an expanded script and a number of other new changers that the developers weren't exactly forthcoming about: "Everything you remember has been recreated, yet it's different somehow. We've been here before, haven't we?" Broadly speaking, though, the game expands on the original with more choices, more dialog and more choices for the player to navigate. If you haven't given the game a shot, you now have no excuse not to check it out.Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered is another oldie - released originally in 2010, but updated for the PS4 in 2020. That's the version available here, with full career modes for either a racer or cop, depending on which side of the law you feel like being on. This version also includes multiplayer modes and all the DLC that was released for the original game.Finally, the newest game in the batch is Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, a live service game that went through multiple delays, got largely negative reviews and reportedly cost Warner Bros. some $200 million. Adding insult to injury, developers announced that the current season of content would be its last, though there are no plans to shut the game down yet. Given that it only came out this past February, that's a pretty short lifespan. I'm not sure that I'd want to jump onto the sinking ship at this point, but at least you can give it a shot without shelling out the $70 it still costs.All these games are available as of January 7 to PS Plus subscribers, and you have until then to add December's games to your library.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/the-first-playstation-plus-games-of-2025-include-the-stanley-parable-and-suicide-squad-172531311.html?src=rss
Regardless of how 2024 went for you, 2025 is another chance for all of us to make the new year better than the one that came before it. New Year's resolutions are usually set with the best intentions, but it's no secret many people fail after just a few weeks - old habits die hard. It's important to have a support group, people who can cheer you on during those particularly hard days. But it's also important to have the right tools to make achieving your goals easier. Whether you're trying to get healthy, be more organized, read more or anything in between, there are tech tools that can make your journey smoother and more enjoyable. Fitness tracker If you're attempting to turn over a new, healthier leaf, you're not alone. Fitness trackers (and their companion apps) are highly sought after this time of year because they can help you stick to those new movement, hydration and sleep habits you're trying to build. The Xiaomi Mi Band 8 is a good option, not only because it's affordable at $50, but because it does pretty much everything a beginner needs. It tracks daily steps, calories, sleep and more, and it has a two-week battery life so you can keep it on all the time and rarely have to remember to charge it. If you're already a runner or a cyclist (or want to be one), we recommend upgrading to the Fitbit Charge 6 instead. You'll get all of the basic fitness tracking features you'd expect like daily step, sleep and activity tracking, along with onboard GPS for mapping outdoor workouts and Fitbit Pay for contactless payments. That way you'll be able to go for a run in the morning and stop to grab a coffee without bringing your phone or your wallet with you. Smartwatch If you'd rather invest in an all-purpose wearable that also has serious fitness chops, the Apple Watch SE is a good choice. While it doesn't include all the bells and whistles that the pricier Series 10 does, it still offers the same core experience. It tracks all-day activity and heart rate, and watchOS finally offers basic sleep tracking, too. In addition to built-in GPS for outdoor workouts, it tracks dozens of exercises and supports fall detection, as well as high and low heart rate alerts. It's also quite good at automatically recognizing when you're working out and prompting you to start tracking your efforts. On top of all that, the Apple Watch excels when it comes to table-stakes smartwatch features: You'll be able to send and receive text messages from the device, as well as control music playback, smart home devices and more. Android users should consider the Fitbit Versa series of smartwatches. The latest model, the Versa 4, has many of the same features as Apple's most affordable wearable including all-day activity tracking and heart rate monitoring, built-in GPS and even more advanced sleep tracking capabilities. It also has a lot of features you won't find on an Apple Watch like Alexa voice control, Google Maps and Wallet integration and a days-long battery life (up to six days to be precise). There are smart alerts as well, so you'll get notified when your phone receives calls and texts. At $200, the Versa 4 is decently priced on a regular day, but you can often find it on sale for close to $150 - that could make it a good options for anyone on a budget, not just those with Android phones. Workout classes Finding exercise classes that you actually enjoy can make working out feel like less of a chore. You may prefer going through your local gym - that push to get out of the house and into a dedicated exercise space can be really effective for some - but there are plenty of on-demand fitness classes as well that you can participate in from the comfort of your living room. I've tried my fair share of these services and my favorite has been Peloton. No, you don't need one of the company's expensive bikes or other machinery to take advantage of their classes. Access to the app-only version costs $13 per month and it lets you take HIIT, strength, yoga and even outdoor running classes, many of which require little to no equipment. If Peloton isn't your speed, Apple Fitness+ is a good alternative, especially now that anyone with an iPhone can subscribe and take classes, regardless of whether they own an Apple Watch. Alo Moves is another good option for those who prefer yoga and pilates workouts. If you can't afford another monthly subscription fee, the internet has tons of free exercise resources - you just have to work a little harder to find the ones you jibe with most. I highly recommend Fitness Blender, a free website where you can watch hundreds of workout videos and even set a schedule for yourself, assigning routines to specific days of the week. I like the quality and consistency of their videos, but you may connect more to YouTube workouts if they're taught by instructors you like; Heather Robertson and Move with Nicole are two personal favorites. Habit tracker Accountability is key when you're trying to build new habits, so keeping track of your progress is crucial. While you could go deep down the bullet-journal rabbit hole, a habit-tracking app is probably the easier option. Done and Strides are two iOS options that let you log when you've completed a new habit you're trying to build or when you avoided a bad habit that you're trying to break. You can get pretty granular, customizing how often you want to do a task, set reminders to log, review stats and more. Both apps have paid tiers you'll be asked to subscribe to after you create a few trackable habits. If you'd rather avoid yet another subscription, consider an app like Streaks, which can be all yours for a one-time fee of $6. As for Android, there's Habitica, which turns habit tracking to an 8-bit RPG game where you level-up your custom avatar by checking things off your list. To-do list apps The new year provides an opportunity to get back on track, and one way to do that is by finding organizational tools that work for you - and making sure they're as uncomplicated as possible. The worst thing that could happen is that your to-do list or note-taking system ends up being so cumbersome that you avoid using it. Keeping all of your necessary tasks in your head may work on easy days, but it can quickly get overwhelming when you have a million things to handle in both your personal and professional life. I'm a fan of Todoist and Things (the latter of which is for iOS and macOS only) because both are detailed enough for big work projects, but simple enough for personal tasks. Both also have a Today view, which will show everything across all of your projects that need attention immediately. While Todoist has a free tier, you'll pay $80 to get Things for iOS, iPadOS and macOS. Microsoft's To Do is an alternative that, while less involved than Things, is free and works on almost every platform including Windows, iOS and Android, among others. You can keep it simple and just have a task list and a grocery list, or you can go deeper and add due dates, sub-tasks and even share lists with family members. If you don't want to bother with another service, you can always opt for the reminders app that (most likely) came preinstalled on your phone. That would be Reminders for iOS users and Google Keep for Android users. Google Keep also doubles as a note-taking app, which will be a better solution if you've been jotting down ideas for new projects on Post-It notes you inevitably lose. Apple Notes is the default option for this on iOS devices, and it's come a long way in recent years with new features like interlinked notes, inline and annotatable PDFs and native support for scanning documents using the iPhone's camera. Password manager If you're looking to up your digital security game in the new year, a password manager is a great place to start. I'm partial to 1Password (as are we as a whole at Engadget), but there are plenty of other options including Bitwarden, NordPass and Dashlane. After saving all of your passwords for various accounts, you only need to remember one (hence the name) to log in to your 1Password account and access all of the others. The service has browser extensions Chrome, Edge and others that will let you seamlessly log in with just a few clicks, and 1Password has apps for most platforms including iOS and Android, so you can use it on all of your devices. The Password Generator feature helps you create a new, secure password whenever one of yours has expired. LastPass has this too, and Dashlane even has a free tool that anyone can use to make more secure passwords. Not only does this take the onus of coming up with a strong key off your shoulders, but it also makes it easy to override old credentials with new ones. Cable and accessory organizer One of the consequences of the past few of years is the dual-office life. Many of us now work both from home and from an office, and the last thing you want to do when you arrive in either place is rummage around your backpack only to realize that you've left your mouse, charging cable or dongle at your other desk. An organizer bag can prevent this before it happens - we recommend BagSmart tech organizers thanks to their utilitarian, water-repellent designs and their multiple pockets and dividers. They also come in different sizes, so you can pick the best one for your commuter bag. If you want something a bit more elevated, Bellroy's Desk Caddy is a good option. It's pricier but for the money you get a more elegant silhouette, higher-quality materials and a design that sits upright when full and has a front panel that fully folds down to give you a good view of what's inside. Computer docking station It's all too easy for your work-from-home setup to get really messy really quickly. When you're going through your busiest times at work, the last thing you're thinking about is cable management, but dedicating a bit more effort to tidying up your workspace can make your day to day more efficient and more enjoyable. We recommend some sort of docking station to keep your laptop, monitors, accessories and the like in check. There are plenty of options out there, regardless of if you use a macOS or Windows machine, or even a Chromebook. We like Satechi's Dual Dock for MacBooks thanks to its unique design that allows it to sit under your laptop, and the fact that it plugs into two USB-C ports at once. This means you can connect to two external displays (provided you have an M2-powered MacBook or later), which will be handy if you have an elaborate workstation on your desk. Kensington's Thunderbolt 4 dock is a good all-purpose option for other non-macOS laptops. There are also USB-C hubs and adapters out there that can give you similar organization while on the go, albeit in a less elegant package. UGreen's Revodok Pro is an affordable solution that includes an HDMI port, microSD and SD card readers, an Ethernet slot, two USB-C connections and three USB-A sockets. It also supports 100W power pass-through, so you can charge your laptop through the hub while using it. Multicookers and air fryers Eating healthier, or even just avoiding takeout multiple times a week, can be challenging in part because it usually means cooking more at home. This can be hard to even start if you're not used to cooking for yourself and don't have the basic tools to do so. On top of that, cooking takes time - much more time than ordering a meal from an app on your phone. But tools like an Instant Pot can cut your active cooking time down drastically. You can find a plethora of recipes where you simply throw a bunch of ingredients into the pot, set it and forget it until it's time to eat. We recommend the Instant Pot Duo for beginners because it's relatively affordable and combines seven different cooking methods into one appliance, including rice cooking, steaming, pressure cooking, slow cooking and more. If you're primarily cooking for yourself and a partner, the three-quart model will serve you just fine, but we recommend the six-quart model if you're routinely cooking for four or more. Whereas the Instant Pot and multicookers as a whole had their moment a few years ago, air fryers are the big thing now thanks in part to the fact that they let you cook so many different foods quickly and with less oil or other fat. The best air fryers come in all shapes and sizes (and from many companies), but our top pick also comes from Instant Brands. The Instant Vortex Plus air fryer doesn't take up too much space on a countertop, includes six cooking modes and it comes with an odor-removing filter that prevents too much of that cooking smell from wafting out of the machine as it runs. We also appreciate that, unlike most other air fryers, this one has a window that lets you see into the machine during cooking so you can keep an eye on the doneness of your food. Recipe organization One of the best things about cooking at home is finding recipes that you love so much that you want to make over and over again. You'll want to keep those recipes safe and readily available so you can refer to them when you need a quick weeknight meal or a dish to bring to your next family reunion. Recipe cards are a great way to do this, and you'll build up your rolodex of delicious meals over time. If you'd rather have a cookbook of sorts that you fill in yourself over time, opt for a recipe book instead. If you'd rather keep your arsenal of recipes accessible at any time, anywhere from your phone, Paprika's recipe management app is the best solution I've tried. The $5 app basically acts as your digital recipe box, allowing you to enter your own as well as save them from the internet. You know those hundreds of words that precede online recipes, in which the author divulges their entire life story before telling you their secret to making deliciously moist cornbread? Paprika strips all of those unnecessary bits out and only saves the ingredient list and the instructions. You can also make grocery lists and keep track of pantry staples in the app, so don't be surprised if it quickly becomes one of your most-used kitchen tools. Reading apps Don't take your habit of doom-scrolling into the new year. You could instead use the internet to find other things to read and the free Libby app is a good place to start. Powered by Overdrive, it connects you with your local library's digital collection, allowing you to borrow and download all kinds of e-books, audiobooks, magazines, graphic novels and more. Libby also has a tag system that you can use to save" titles for later without actually putting a hold on them (although you can do that in the app, too). If you find a bunch of audiobooks you eventually want to get to, you can give them all a TBR" tag so you can quickly find them and borrow one when you need new reading/listening material. As someone who uses Libby on a regular basis, I love how easy it is to borrow from my local library without leaving my home. However, there have been numerous times in which my library doesn't have a title I'm looking for. If that happens to you often, you may want to consider a subscription service like Kindle Unlimited or Everand (formerly Scribd), both of which give you unlimited access to a wide library of e-books for $10 per month. And for audiobook lovers, your options are Amazon's Audible or Libro.fm, the latter of which lets you choose the local bookstore you want to support with your purchases. Ereader Ereaders are still around because so many people recognize how much better it can be to read e-books on a dedicated device - especially one with an high-contrast, e-paper display. Sure, you could read on your smartphone or a tablet, but staring at those screens all day long can be tiring for your eyes. An ereader like the Kobo Clara Colour or the Amazon Kindle is a better choice not only for its more comfortable display, but also because it focuses your attention on reading. (If you've ever picked up your smartphone intending to finish a chapter only to be distracted by email or Facebook, you know how crucial this is.) The Clara Colour is our current top pick in our best ereader guide, thanks to its 6-inch color E Ink display, adjustable brightness and temperature, weeks-long battery life and handy Overdrive integration for checking out digital library books. But if you already get most of your e-books through Amazon, the latest Kindle is the best option. You can listen to Audible audiobooks, too, if you connect a pair of wireless earbuds to the ereader. Kobo's device primarily gets books via the Kobo Store, but it also supports various file types like EPUB, PDF and MOBI.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tech-to-help-you-stick-to-new-years-resolutions-150034002.html?src=rss
Squid Game has set a new high for Netflix's television programming. Variety reported that the second season of the Korean show drew in 68 million views over its first four days. That's the biggest debut for a TV show on the streaming platform, besting the 50.1 million set by Wednesday in 2022. The first season of Squid Game also held the crown as the top-watched Netflix series for a while; 142 million households had watched it as of October 2021. The third and final season could deliver a hat trick of record results for the company when it airs next year.While the show offers a skewering critique of capitalism, Netflix has been turning Squid Game into quite the cash cow. The streamer launched a less deadly reality show spinoff, an in-person pop-up experience and a multiplayer mobile game based onthe TV series.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/squid-games-second-season-is-officially-netflixs-biggest-tv-debut-205113266.html?src=rss
There's no longer any question that Threads and Bluesky have created the most viable alternatives to the platform once known as Twitter. But while the two services may share some of the same goals, they've shown very different visions for how text-based social networks should operate.Threads, of course, is controlled by Meta, which is controlled by Mark Zuckerberg. And though the company has claimed to embrace public conversation," it has also consistently put its thumb on the scale to encourage certain types of speech over others. The company throttled political" content in an election year, forcing users to tweak their settings to enable posts about elections or social topics" to appear in their for you" feed.This desire to limit any of what Meta described as "potentially sensitive" content has also led to some questionable moderation decisions. For months, the app prevented users from searching for some topics, including those related to COVID-19 and vaccines. Those limits have since been lifted, but there have been numerous and inexplicable instances of other moderation failures on Threads.In October, Instagram head Adam Mosseri admitted the company had found mistakes and made changes" after users reported their accounts had been penalized for using mundane words like saltines" and cracker." Earlier this month, Meta's communications director Andy Stone apologized after users noted that searches for posts about Austin Tice, the American journalist who disappeared in Syria in 2012, were blocked on the app because the content may be associated with the sale of drugs." Stone didn't offer an explanation but said the issue has been addressed.Bluesky, on the other hand, has taken less of a top-down approach to moderation. While the company employs some of its own moderators to enforce baseline moderation," users have a lot of control over how much questionable or harmful content they want to see. Blueksy also allows people to create their own moderation services for an even more custom experience.Moderation is in many ways, like governance," Bluesky CEO Jay Graber told me earlier this year. And setting the norms of a social space, we don't think one person or one company should be unilaterally deciding that for an entire ecosystem where people are having public conversations important to the state of the world."That philosophy plays out in other important ways. Twitter was never a major source of traffic for most publishers, even before Elon Musk's takeover. But the platform once played a vital role in the news ecosystem. At a time when Elon Musk has acknowledged that X penalizes posts with links and Threads' top exec has said that Meta doesn't want to encourage" hard news, Bluesky's leaders have actually tried to foster link sharing, and several publishers have reported seeing significantly more traffic from Bluesky, compared with Threads and X.But perhaps the most obvious difference between Meta and Bluesky's approach is in what order posts even appear. Bluesky defaults to a reverse chronological feed that shows posts from accounts you follow. Users can also choose to add custom feeds based on hundreds of different topics. For example, I follow a cat pics" feed that surfaces posts with photos of cats and a trending news" feed that surfaces links to news stories that are being shared widely on the platform.And while Meta has recently come out with its own version of custom feeds, the app still defaults to an algorithmic for you" feed that surfaces a mix of content users actually want and unasked-for drivel that's so random and bizarre it's been compared to a gas leak. (Meta said it would test allowing users to make their following feed the default, but hasn't provided an update.) It's also telling that even the content creators getting paid hundreds or thousands of dollars to post on Threads don't really understand the platform.There are even more significant changes coming in 2025. While both Threads and Bluesky have so far been blissfully ad-free, both services will need to eventually make money.Bluesky has so far experimented with other ways of making money, including selling custom domains and an upcoming subscription service that will offer extra features to paying users. Though Graber hasn't entirely ruled out advertising, she's also been clear that she doesn't want to enshittify" the service for the sake of advertising.Threads, on the other hand, is already attached to Meta's multi-billion dollar ad machine, an entity so intrusive many people believe the company's apps literally listen to their conversations (a theory that's been repeatedly debunked.) Though Zuckerberg has indicated the company isn't in a rush to turn Threads into a very large business," it could see its first ads in January, according to reports, and there's little reason to believe Meta won't eventually employ the same playbook it has with all its other services.All this makes Bluesky even more of an underdog. Threads is already more than 10 times its size and Meta has made it clear it has no problem using its copy-or-kill tactics against the upstart.But that's also exactly why so many Bluesky users fervently believe that the platform is the one that has the juice." While Threads and X put public conversations in the hands of autocratic billionaires, Bluesky is an independent entity and has structured its platform much more democratically. The platform has had its share of moderation controversies, but it puts far more control in the hands of its users. It's welcomed developers, who have created dozens of third-party apps for the service.All that may not ultimately be enough to fend off Meta, which can afford to throw billions of dollars at Threads. But Bluesky's vision for an open-source decentralized platform is about much more than becoming the next big social media site. We set out to change the way social media works from the bottom up," Graber said during a recent press event. I want us to have choice over what we see."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/bluesky-and-threads-showed-us-very-different-visions-for-a-post-x-future-171046336.html?src=rss
When it comes to new horror games, there are times of feast and famine, and this past year we gorged until our bellies bulged and our mouths dripped with gruesome grease. In 2024, we received a rich spread of dark experiences from solo creators, indie teams, AA developers and AAA studios in a vast array of genres and visual styles. There was a fantastic Silent Hill 2 remake and beefy updates to contemporary classics like Phasmophobia, Alan Wake 2 and The Outlast Trials, and there was also a steady cadence of brand-new horror franchises expanding the genre in unexpected ways.First, let's take a moment to celebrate a sampling of the year's fresh horror universes. In 2024, we got the following new titles:
It's no secret that Russia has been slowly working towards eschewing as much Western technology as it can and developing its own, and its latest effort seems to be related to video games. On December 25, Anton Gorelkin, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, revealed some information on a domestic video game console being developed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, as reported by TechSpot. The theoretical console will have an Elbrus processor and be powered by either Aurora or Alt Linux, both Russian forks of the popular Linux operating system.According to TechSpot, the Elbrus processor was developed by the Moscow Center of SPARC Technologies and primarily designed for defense, critical infrastructure and other applications. This processor isn't up to what Intel, AMD and Arm produce right now, and it certainly won't reach PS5 or Xbox levels of power. Despite the weaker chipset, Gorelkin stressed that the console isn't designed to play ports of older games, but will play domestic video game products." Presumably, this means Russia will also need its own developer community to design these games.There's also another console called Fog Play in development, but it's more of a cloud-gaming device. Users with high-end computers can rent them out to Fog Play owners, who play games on these computers through the cloud.These potential consoles are only one aspect of Russia's broader technological sovereignty plans. Ever since its invasion of Ukraine and subsequent Western sanctions, Russia has been trying to make this a reality - but digital isolation is making this difficult.The adoption of Astra Linux in government, intelligence, military and even educational computers is another Russian effort to develop its own technology. To this end, Russia is also trying to replace file and website scanner VirusTotal (owned by Google) with its own Multiscanner platform in fears of US government infiltration.Despite this progress, Russia is still heavily reliant on China's technology. Chinese smartphones are popular there, and Chinese electronics and dual-use technology continue to enter Russia even as the Middle Kingdom no longer exports them to the US.Russia is likely unable to achieve true technological independence, in video gaming or other crucial areas, as it relies too much on China and doesn't have the capabilities to produce PS5 or Xbox-level chips. The two Russian video game consoles serve as a good example of the challenges the country faces given its poor relations with many of the world's superpowers. Just like the Elbrus processor isn't going to truly compete against the best consoles, Russia will likely continue to struggle for technological sovereignty.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/russia-is-trying-to-make-its-own-game-consoles-in-a-bid-for-technological-independence-151358041.html?src=rss
Terraforms Labs CEO Do Kwon spent the last day of 2024 getting extradited to the US, Reuters reports. Kwon faces charges in the US for "orchestrating a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud involving an algorithmic stablecoin and other crypto asset securities." The Terraforms co-founder has been held in Montenegro since March 2023, when he tried to board a flight with a forged passport - six months after Interpol put out a "red notice" warrant for his arrest.South Korean-based Terraforms Labs wiped out $40 billion from the crypto market when its TerraUSD and Luna stable coins turned out to not be so stable and collapsed in May 2022. Kwon had already fled South Korea the month before.The US announced its charges in February 2023, with the SEC chair Gary Gensler stating, "We allege that Terraform and Do Kwon failed to provide the public with full, fair, and truthful disclosure as required for a host of crypto asset securities, most notably for Luna and TerraUSD. We also allege that they committed fraud by repeating false and misleading statements to build trust before causing devastating losses for investors." South Korea has issued similar charges.Montenegro doesn't have extradition treaties with the US or South Korea. The request played out in court over the last year and a half, with Montenegro's Justice Minister Bojan Bozovic ordering Kwon's extradition last week. Terraform Labs filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US last January.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/terraform-labs-co-founder-do-kwon-will-face-securities-fraud-charges-in-the-us-142734704.html?src=rss
The tricky thing about naming the year's biggest losers in tech is that in 2024, it once again felt like everyone lost. Amid the depressing spiral that is social media, the will-they-or-won't-they dance of banning TikTok in the US and the neverending edited and deepfaked content that has everyone questioning what's real, the world lost. And it is lost.But a few areas this year stood out as particularly troubling. Specifically, AI and dedicated AI gadgets proliferated more than ever, spreading not only to our digital assistants and search engines but to our wearables as well. We also saw more deterioration in Intel's standing and bid farewell to a robot maker, as well as Lightning cables. I'm pretty happy about that last one, though.Our annual collection of the worst tech developments each year is shorter than usual, but that might be because we're all exhausted. And also because most of the bad things can be attributed to AI, social media or misinformation. Still, we journey down this nightmarish memory lane, hopefully so we can avoid similar pitfalls in future.Generative AI in every possible crevice2024 was a year in which consumer-facing AI tools became harder and harder to ignore. That's thanks to the tech giants Google, Meta and finally Apple baking AI tools into some of the most-used software on the planet. And in this push to get AI in front of everyone, I cannot help but stop and wonder who exactly is asking for this, and is anyone actually using it?In the past few months, I've been testing a Samsung Chromebook with a host of AI tools built-in as well as trying the various Apple Intelligence features that have rolled out through the autumn. It all came to a head in one of Engadget's Slack channels in early December, just after Apple launched its generative emoji and Image Playground features. Getting Image Playground to spit out AI-created pictures was easy enough, and Genmoji does feel like the logical next step after Apple introduced its personalized Memoji back in 2018. But across the board, the results felt uninspired, off-putting and - perhaps worst of all - extremely lame.Since I take so many pictures on my iPhone, there are tons of images categorized under my name in the Photos app (it will group together similar faces for years, if you let it). With hundreds of images to pick from, Image Playground should have no problem making a convincing facsimile of me... playing the guitar on the moon, right? Well, yes and no.In this image, as well as ones created of my colleagues Cherlynn Low, Valentina Palladino and Sam Rutherford, there are a few facial characteristics that made me feel that the AI-generated cartoon I was looking at was at the very least inspired by these people. But they all gave off serious uncanny valley vibes; rather than being a cute digital cartoon like we all built with Bitmoji back in the day, these results are soulless representations with no charm and mangled fingers.In a totally different vein, I just had occasion to try out Google's "help me read" summarization features on a 250-page government report. I knew I did not have time to read the entire document and was just curious what AI could do for me here. Turns out, not much. The summary was so brief that it was essentially meaningless - not unreasonable, as it tried to parse 250 pages into about 100 words. I tried this trick on a review I was writing recently, and it did a much better job of capturing the gist of the article, and it also accurately answered follow-up questions. But given that the final product amounted to maybe four pages, my impression is that AI does a decent job of summarizing things that most people can probably read themselves in the span of five minutes. If you have something more complex, forget it.I could go on - I've been having a blast laughing at the ridiculous notification summaries I get from Apple Intelligence with my co-workers - but I think I've made my point. We're in the middle of an AI arms race, where massive companies are desperate to get out ahead of the curve with these products well before they're ready for primetime or even all that useful. And to what end? I don't think any AI company is meaningfully answering a consumer need or finding a way to make people's lives better or easier. They're releasing this stuff because AI is the buzzword of the decade, and to ignore it is to disappoint shareholders. - Nathan Ingraham, deputy editorPhoto by Cherlynn Low / EngadgetHumane AI Pin and other AI gadgetsThis year, no two devices arrived with more manufactured hype than the Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1. And no two devices were more disappointing either. Both Humane and Rabbit made the argument that people were ready to drop their phones for something smarter and more personal, but neither of their devices were actually good or useful.Of the two, Humane was easily the biggest loser of 2024. The company achieved the ignominious honor of reaching net negative sales because former buyers began returning the AI Pin faster than new units could be sold. I wish I could say its troubles stopped there, but they didn't. After Humane first warned customers that the AI Pin's charging case was a fire risk, it issued a formal recall in October. In the intervening months, the company has reportedly tried to find a buyer without success.Rabbit has certainly faced its own share of troubles, too. After being roundly panned by reviewers in May, a hacker group announced in June that the R1 had huge security holes. In July, it came to light that user chats with the R1 were logged with no option for deleting.Last I checked, Humane has since pivoted to making an operating system that it expects other companies will want to add to their devices, but here's the thing: poor software was a big part of what made the AI Pin bad in the first place. You have to give the company points for trying, but at this point, I would be surprised if Humane is still in business by this time next year. - Igor Bonifacic, senior reporterGoogle Search and AI OverviewsThis observation has been making the rounds all year long, but if you compare Google from 10 years ago to what it is now, the difference is stark. With the introduction of AI Overviews this year, it felt like Google finally made search results utterly impossible to use without scrolling. Forget sponsored results, newsboxes and discovery panels and all the different modules taking up the top half of the results page for any given query - in 2024, Google decided to add yet another section above everything, pushing the actual list of websites even further down.Since its initial release in the US in March, AI Overviews told people it was okay to put glue on pizzas or to eat rocks. In spite of the general tendency for AI to get facts wrong, Google continued to expand the feature to more countries, while admitting that the overviews could be "odd, inaccurate or unhelpful."Not only that, it also began to add ads to Overviews, meaning that in addition to the unreliable AI-generated results at the top, people could pay to put what they want to promote in that precious real estate, too. Throw in the fact that the actual results boxes and rankings are all susceptible to SEO gaming by websites trying everything they can to garner a higher spot on the list, and you'll find that Google's search results are basically pay-for-play at this point. And while that will continue to earn the company billions of dollars, it makes finding actually good, high-quality results much more arduous for the discerning user.It gets worse when you consider the priority Google's search engine has on iPhones and Android devices. This year, the US government declared Google a search monopoly, saying the company paid the likes of Apple, Samsung and Mozilla billions of dollars a year to be the default search engine on their devices and browsers. Then there's Chrome, which is the world's most popular browser with its own dubious history around tracking users in Incognito mode. Can we even trust what we see on Google Search any more?People have begun to quit using Google Search altogether, with the rise of alternatives like DuckDuckGo and Kagi, a search engine you'd pay $10 a month to use, as well as OpenAI's SearchGPT, which launched this year. But I'm not convinced that the vast majority of users will switch to these options, especially since one of them costs money and another involves more AI. I can understand that it's hard to make a product that adapts to your users' needs while also keeping your shareholders happy. If only Google (or any big company, really) could re-rank its priorities and bring back a search engine that simply connects people to the best that the internet has to offer. - Cherlynn Low, deputy editorIntelThe road to every great tragedy is paved with people making the most self-serving decisions at the worst possible times. Which brings us neatly to Intel as it burns through its last remaining chances to avoid becoming a business school case study in failure.Earlier this month, it fired CEO Pat Gelsinger halfway through his ambitious plan to save the chip giant from its own worst instincts. Gelsinger was an engineer, brought in to fix a culture too beholdened to finance types who can't see beyond the next quarter.Sadly, despite telling everyone that fixing two decades' worth of corporate fuck-ups would take a while and cost money, it came as a surprise to Intel's board. It ditched Gelsinger, likely because he was trying to take a longer-term view on how to restore the storied manufacturer's success.It's likely the accursed MBA-types will now get their way, flogging off the company's foundry arm, kneecapping its design team in the process. It'll take Intel a decade or more to actually feel the consequences of ignoring Gelsinger's Cassandra-like warnings. But when TSMC reigns alone and we're all paying more for chips, it'll be easy to point to this moment and say this was Intel's last chance to steer out of its own skid. - Daniel Cooper, senior editorPhoto by Cherlynn Low / EngadgetFans of Apple's Lightning connectorsWe knew the writing was on the wall when the iPhone 15 debuted with USB-C in 2023, but this year put Lightning's shambling corpse in the grave. The Apple-only connector was a revelation when it debuted in 2012's iPhone 5, replacing the gigantic iPod-era 30-pin connector. Unlike the then-ascendant micro-USB port that dominated Android phones and other small devices in the early 2010s, Lightning was thinner and - this was key - reversible, so there was no wrong way to plug it in.It eventually made its way to a large swath of devices in the Apple universe, including AirPods, iPads, Mac accessories and even a Beats product or two. But even Apple relented and started flipping new products to the similarly sized (and likewise reversible) USB-C, albeit years after it had become the dominant standard for data and power connections worldwide. With even holdouts like the AirPods Max and the Mac input devices getting USB-C retrofits in 2024, only a handful of legacy Lightning devices - the iPhone SE, iPhone 14 and old Apple Pencil - are left on Apple's virtual shelves, and all will doubtless be gone by this time next year. That's OK: Lightning served us well, but its time has passed. All hail our universal Type-C overlords.So while the death of Lightning is a flat-out win for cross-device charging for the whole world going forward, anyone whose home is still bristling with soon-to-be-replaced Lightning charging stations can be forgiven for feeling a pang of nostalgia in the meantime. - John Falcone, executive editorMoxie the robot diesWhen I wrote about Moxie, the child-friendly robot from Embodied, I was charmed by its adorable design and chatty demeanor. It was meant to serve as a companion to children, something that could help them read or simply have conversations. I was less charmed by its $1,499 to $1,699 price, alongside an eventual $60 a month subscription. And now Moxie is officially dead, as Embodied announced it's shutting down operations due to financial challenges" after a failed funding round.Dead home robots aren't exactly a new phenomenon (remember Jibo?), but Moxie's demise feels particularly rough, since it was a device mainly meant to help kids. Imagine having to tell your child that their robot friend had to shut down because of financial challenges." Embodied said it would offer customers age appropriate guidance to help discuss the shutdown, but no matter how you spin it, it'll be a tough (and possibly traumatizing) conversation for your youngin. Perhaps it's good to learn early though that all of your smart devices will die. (Not our pets though, they are immortal.) - Devindra Hardawar, senior editorThis article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/techs-biggest-losers-in-2024-140039822.html?src=rss
We're wrapping up 2024, so why not do it with some frivolous CES announcements? Like this premium (it has to be premium!) microwave from LG, with a touchscreen bigger than your iPad. I'm not sure what you'll watch in the three-and-a-half minutes it takes to heat that butter chicken curry, but you can do it in glorious full HD resolution.LGThe touchscreen integrates with LG's ThinQ Smart Home Dashboard if you think it's the right time to change channels on your TV or tinker with compatible Matter and Thread devices, like smart lights and er, and other things. It can also pair with the company's induction range oven to display cooking progress if you struggle to crane your neck from your microwave to your kitchen burners. It's no washing machine inside a washing machine, but still, you gotta love CES.LG is on a trip this year.- Mat SmithGet this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!The biggest tech stories you missed
Mobile gaming may still be thought of as a casual pastime, but it doesn't have to be that way. There are plenty of action titles like Call of Duty Mobile, Fortnite, Dead Cells and PUBG Mobile to tackle, and you don't have to settle for imprecise touch controls. When it comes to close combat you're going to want to invest in a good mobile gaming controller, and these are the ones we'd recommend based on quality and price. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/best-mobile-game-controllers-140023505.html?src=rss
LG's Gram laptops are back for another round of updates ahead of CES 2025. A decade into the thin and light lineup's existence in LG's portfolio, the latest models load up on AI (surprise!) and boost performance while maintaining their trademark portability.Four new models are launching at CES: two variants of the Gram Pro, a new Gram Pro 2-in-1 and the entry-level Gram Book. The first version of the Gram Pro has an Intel Core H-series (Arrow Lake) processor under the hood for more traditional laptop tasks (including some gaming). A second model uses an Intel Core Ultra V-series (Lunar Lake) chip for AI tasks. The latter is a Microsoft Copilot+ PC with all the AI goodies expected from that line, including Recall, Live Captions, Cocreator and Windows Studio Effects.Even if you don't opt for the Copilot+ variant, you'll still get LG's AI features in most of the new models (all but the Gram Book). These are split into two camps: on-device and cloud-processed AI tasks. On-device features include a scaled-down chatbot derived from LG's EXAONE large language model. It also adds LG's Time Travel, a feature similar to Microsoft's Recall that can call up web pages, documents, videos and audio files you've visited or used. It's unclear if or how LG's version will avoid the privacy pitfalls Microsoft ran into with Recall.The cloud-based AI features include Gram Chat Cloud, a more robust chatbot (powered by GPT-4o) that can integrate with your calendar and email services.The Gram Pro has a 17-inch (Arrow Lake) or 16-inch (Lunar Lake) screen with a 2,560 x 1,600 LCD screen. Its variable refresh rate maxes out at 144Hz. Both variants have up to 32GB (LPDDR5X Max 8,400MHz, Dual Channel) of RAM and 2TB of storage.The Arrow Lake model should make for a solid gaming laptop with RTX 4050 graphics. The AI / Lunar Lake model only has integrated Intel graphics. But at least the latter is lighter and thinner, weighing 2.73 pounds. compared to the Arrow Lake model's 3.26 pounds.LGLG snagged a CES 2025 Innovation Award for the latest Gram Pro 2-in-1. The top-line configuration has a 16-inch screen with a 2,880 x 1,800 OLED display (120Hz variable refresh rate); cheaper variants are limited to a 2,560 x 1,600 LCD (144Hz VRR). The 2-in-1 ships with a wirelessly rechargeable stylus and - as its name suggests - can be folded back into tablet mode.Finally, the Gram Book is an entry-level model LG is launching to expand its US market presence." Its screen is a more compromised 1,920 x 1,080 15.6-inch LCD at a mere 60Hz. Its Intel Core i5 CPU with integrated Intel graphics and a maximum of 16GB of RAM combine to make it the most underpowered of the bunch. It's also the heaviest at 3.75 pounds.Unfortunately, we don't know how entry-level" it is: LG hasn't yet announced pricing information (or release dates) for any of the new laptops.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/lg-updates-its-gram-laptop-line-ahead-of-ces-2025-090049429.html?src=rss
Documents and workstations at the US Treasury Department were accessed during a cyberattack, The New York Timesreports. The attack was linked to a "China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat actor" and has been characterized as "a major cybersecurity incident."According to a letter the Treasury Department shared with lawmakers (via TechCrunch), US officials were made aware of the issue on December 8, when BeyondTrust, a third-party software company, shared that a security key used to provide technical support was used to access workstations and unclassified documents.The Treasury Department said that it has worked with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI to understand the full scope of the breach, but hasn't shared how long files and workstations were accessible or what was actually accessed. Engadget has contacted the US Treasury Department and will update this article once we know more.The cyberattack follows a similarly concerning, but separate breach of US telecom carriers that came to light in October 2024. That cyberattack was perpetrated by a Chinese hacking group referred to as "Salt Typhoon." Attackers gained access to unencrypted SMS messages and call logs of politicians, government officials and others for months before the breach was discovered.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/the-us-treasury-department-says-it-was-hacked-in-a-china-linked-cyberattack-230114104.html?src=rss
A Volkswagen software subsidiary called Cariad experienced a massive data leak that left 800,000 EV owners exposed, according to reporting by the German publication Spiegel Netzwelt. The leak allowed personal information to be left online for months, including movement data and contact information.This included precise location data for 460,000 vehicles made by VW, Seat and Audi. According to reports, the information was accessible via the Amazon cloud storage platform. There's a silver lining here. Cariad says that, despite being available, no bad actors accessed the exposed data. The good-faith hacking association Chaos Computer Club (CCC) spotted the leak on November 26 and brought it to the company's attention.VW said in a statement reviewed by the German press agency DPA that the error has since been rectified, so that the information is no longer accessible. Additionally, the company noted that the leak only pertained to location and contact info, as passwords and payment data weren't impacted. It added that only select vehicles registered for online services were initially at risk, stating that "the data was accessed in a very complex, multi-stage process."According to Volkswagen, the CCC hackers group was only able to access pseudonymized vehicle data that didn't allow for any conclusions to be reached regarding specific customers. This was done only by bypassing several security mechanisms, which required a high level of expertise and a considerable investment of time."In other words, the impacted customers shouldn't be too worried about their location data being harvested by dark web ne'er-do-wells. The company has started an investigation into the matter and will make a decision regarding further steps when that is concluded.As modern vehicles get more and more online, it opens them up to a myriad of new risks. It was just last year when a viral TikTok challenge taught Hyundai users how to hack their vehicles, resulting in more than a dozen crashes and eight deaths.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/huge-volkswagen-data-leak-exposed-the-locations-of-460000-ev-drivers-194000006.html?src=rss
You'll be able to stream as much of The Morning Show as your body can physically handle this weekend, thanks to a new Apple TV+ promotion. After teasing some kind of Apple TV+ news on social media, Apple has confirmed that from January 3 to 5 you'll be able to watch the company's original shows and movies without a paid subscription, provided you have an Apple ID.Apple calls out shows like Silo, which is in the back half of its current season, and Severance, which will premiere its long-awaited second season on Jan 17 (you can watch the first eight minutes of the premiere now) but there's a solid catalog of tv shows and movies beyond the well-known hits. Why not stream the three-hour director's cut of Napoleon? Or the tragically slept on cult baby horror series Servant? All of it is theoretically on the menu.While this kind of promotional experiment is new for Apple, Netflix has offered free weekends in the past as a way to gin up interest in subscriptions. One way to look at Apple's streaming strategy is that it's speedrunning lessons streamers like Netflix and Hulu spent years learning, from the risks of spending serious money on auteurist passion products, to now withdrawing from theatrical distribution, one of the few things that made Apple unique from its competitors. Maybe a free weekend picks up the company a few more subscribers, but at the very least it's a good opportunity to binge some solid shows.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/you-can-stream-apple-tv-for-free-this-weekend-191702667.html?src=rss
Aside from the global shutter on Sony's A9 III and some cool mirrorless options - the Fujifilm X100 VI, Panasonic S9 and Canon EOS R5 II come to mind - 2024 was a dull year for cameras full of small tweaks and minor improvements. Except for DJI's Neo. For $200, aerial photography is now finally in reach for just about anyone.DJI's very good, not-so-great yearDJI released its product lineup this year with a sword of Damocles hanging over its head: the US government was planning to ban sales of the company's products by the end of 2024 over potential fears of spying. It was only at the last minute that DJI gained a reprieve, thanks in large part to lobbying by public safety groups that heavily rely on its drones. It now has until the end of 2025 to prove that its products don't pose a risk.The company's list of 2024 camera gear started with the Avata 2, an FPV drone that improved nearly everything from the popular original at a reduced price. DJI then announced it the $299 Mini 4K. We also saw the Action 5 Pro, DJI's best action cam to date, along with the Air 3S, a highly capable drone with a relatively large 1-inch sensor camera and the Mic Mini, an affordable wireless mic system.Its biggest launch, though, was the Neo drone, announced in September. It took the idea of a simple drone for creators, first pioneered (then dropped) by Snap with the Pixy, while lowering the price and adding AI technology.Steve Dent for EngadgetThe Neo is a very lightweight drone that can be piloted without a license and is people-safe thanks to its shrouded propellers. It's ready to use for beginners straight out of the box without any training - simply place it in your hand and press a button, then it'll fly off and capture cool programmed shots like dronies".Just because the Neo is approachable doesn't mean it's basic, though. If you want to pilot the Neo manually, it supports DJI's controllers, FPV goggles and can even be flown using a smartphone. It can hit speeds up to 18 MPH or even faster in manual mode, and is highly maneuverable. Thanks to the built-in AI features, it can track you while you walk or bike, making it a vlogger's best friend. Finally, it can capture all your footage at 4K 30p, with surprisingly good quality considering the price point.My main sore point with the Neo is the banshee-like noise it generates, which can be tricky in public places. Overall, though, it's a highly useful product at a great price point and managed to capture the zeitgeist like no other camera product this year.Canon and Fujifilm were the best of the restMy favorite mirrorless camera this year was Canon's EOS R5 II. That's not because of any spectacular new tech, but the fact that it's nearly a perfect hybrid camera.Steve Dent for EngadgetThat starts with the new 45-megapixel stacked sensor that offers a blend of speed and resolution we've only ever seen on the Sony's A1 or the Nikon Z9 - both considerably more expensive. It also has the company's most advanced AI autofocus system. All that allows ultra-fast shooting speeds up to 30fps in RAW mode. Its advanced AF system makes blurry photos a rarity even at those speeds. At the same time, the 45-megapixel photos deliver exceptional detail and relatively high dynamic range, with accurate, pleasing colors.At the same time, it offers incredible video powers, with 8K RAW shooting at up to 60fps and 4K 120p. As with photos, video quality is exceptional thanks to the new CLog 2 capture that allows for higher dynamic range. Beyond all that, the EOS R5 II is just a great camera to use, with near-perfect ergonomics.The other camera I really enjoyed using was Fujifilm's X100 VI compact. The camera deserved the large amount of press it received this year, because its stripped down nature, vintage looks, film simulations and great handling really bring fun back to photography. At the same time, it's a technological marvel with a higher-resolution 40-megapixel sensor, decently fast shooting speeds, stabilization and solid video specs.Finally, I think Panasonic's S9 deserves a shoutout for trying something new. It's one of the smallest full-frame cameras I've ever seen, yet offers features like 6K video and in-body stabilization. But the primary new trick is built-in LUT simulations- kind of like Fujifilm's X100 VI, but for video. That, combined with the large sensor, makes it an interesting camera.What to expect in the camera world for 2025Steve Dent for EngadgetDespite a potential US ban, DJI is likely to continue its ambitious product release schedule in 2025. According to rumors, it's working on a foldable model called the DJI Flip and is also likely to release a successor to the Mavic 3 Pro sometime next year, according to recent FCC filings. Apart from that, it tends to have rapid upgrade cadence for most of its drones and cameras, so expect to see successors for its Action 5 Pro cam, Mini 4 Pro drone and other models.Elsewhere, one intriguing rumor has Fujifilm releasing a one-inch, half-sensor compact that would be like a digital version of the popular Pentax 17 film camera and may even allow for diptych (side-by-side) photos.Otherwise, Sony is due to release an update for its popular A7 IV launched in 2021 with higher shooting speeds and other specs to better line up with the competition. Canon is very likely to release a new camera in that same price category, the R6 III, also with improved specs. We could see a new Nikon Z5 III model with improved performance. And Panasonic is due to refresh its S1 and S1R models. Manufacturers may jump on the compact train, now that Fujifilm has proved its a viable category - something that would be good news for all photographers.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/in-2024-the-camera-of-the-year-was-a-drone-185108008.html?src=rss
The Apple Watch Series 10 is down to its Black Friday price. You can pick one up for $329 via Amazon, which is a discount of $70 and nearly 20 percent off. Even better? This deal is available for multiple band colors, including jet black, rose gold and more. This is the company's latest and greatest smartwatch and it easily topped our list of the best Apple wearables. It's thinner and lighter than the Series 9, which is something that we were impressed by in our official review. We also appreciated the larger wide-angle OLED display, which makes some things easier to read. This is particularly useful when trying to navigate via Maps. There's a brand-new depth gauge, for snorkeling and swimming, and sensors that support sleep apnea detection. The speakers are even much-improved over previous generations, so the Apple Watch Series 10 is a decent option for checking out a podcast. It's just a watch, however, so we can't recommend using the speakers for extended listening. Other people will hear you and music will sound tinny and dull. The battery life still maxes out at 18 hours. This is somewhat annoying, but the Series 10 can get to 80 percent in just 90 minutes by using a fast-charge-certified charger. That means you just have to find an hour or so to plug it in toward the end of the day if you want to track sleep. 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/the-apple-watch-series-10-is-back-down-to-its-black-friday-price-173850202.html?src=rss
LG just unveiled its latest microwave ahead of CES 2025. The LG Signature model features a 27-inch FHD display. We can finally watch stuff during the 90 seconds it takes popcorn to pop. Let us never be without screens!This is a touchscreen display that's being described as an immersive entertainment experience right in the kitchen." The microwave also connects to Wi-Fi, for streaming content, and has built-in speakers. We don't know what OS it runs on or if it can access every streaming platform out there. Traditional LG smart TVs run webOS, so maybe the same is true here.The company has also remained mum as to whether this screen is ad-supported or not. Putting a bunch of ads right in the kitchen sure sounds like something a boardroom of execs would salivate over. LG already shows full-screen ads on many of its televisions when they are idle.The touchscreen does integrate with LG's ThinQ Smart Home Dashboard, which allows control over compatible Matter and Thread devices. It can also pair with the company's induction range oven to display cooking progress metrics, thus eliminating the need to bend down and check the oven manually." What a scourge, all of that bending down.LG hasn't revealed pricing or availability for this snazzy new appliance. It's likely we'll learn more when CES 2025 starts in earnest on January 7. We'll be there and will report back as to what it feels like to watch Arcane while standing in front a microwave.LGThe company is in love with screens right now. It also announced a new refrigerator with an OLED display and a washer/dryer with an LCD. I'm all for increased entertainment options but, uh, what happens when those displays break? It seems like buttons and knobs would be easier to repair or replace than a giant touchscreen.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/lg-slapped-a-27-inch-touchscreen-on-its-latest-microwave-162736550.html?src=rss
Meta is reportedly working on an issue with a software update that bricked some Quest 2, Quest 3 and Quest 3S headsets, the company announced. The company originally upset customers by not only releasing a faulty update, but then telling buyers affected that they wouldn't address the problem because the headsets were out of warranty, as The Verge reported.Now, Meta appears to be making good on the issue, saying it's working on a fix "for all users" and said customer support has "new directions on how to support users." Some buyers said on Reddit that they received an email confirmation that the company would provide out-of-warranty service for its mistake."We've discovered a software update issue that caused some Quest 2/3/3S headsets to be unresponsive and unable to start up correctly" Meta wrote in its help center. "We are actively working on resolving the issue for all users, but in most cases, you are now able to use your device normally. If you have a device that is still unresponsive, we're here to help. If you have a Quest 3S, click the button below for next steps. Quest 2 or 3 users, please reach out to us to get support."The problem date back to December 6th, when Meta said software updates were effecting Quest 3S devices at the time. The update includes features like a virtual desktop, faster hand tracking, easier pairing with Windows 11 PCs and more.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/meta-is-working-on-a-fix-for-a-software-update-that-bricked-quest-headsets-140025378.html?src=rss
YouTube is testing a new "Play Something" floating action button, borrowing a now-defunct Netflix feature of the same name. It works in much the same way, playing a random video that's likely based on your previous selections, 9to5Google reported.Hitting the button starts a video in the Shorts player, but content isn't limited to Shorts, as it will also play regular videos in a vertical format with black bars at the top and bottom. As with any Shorts video, there are buttons to the right for like, dislike, comments and sharing. You can only play one video using the button, as the interface closes when a Shorts video opens.The new feature looks like a way for YouTube to keep viewers engaged, particularly in the Shorts platform. The platform has previously tested similar features including a "Play Something" banner. Netflix retired the feature (later called "Surprise Me") two years after launching it due to low usage.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/youtube/youtube-copies-netflixs-old-play-something-button-in-new-test-130017283.html?src=rss
As 2025 approaches, we're reviewing all our... reviews. Yes, everything we poked, prodded, and critiqued this year. Alongside inevitable smartphone and laptop upgrades (it was a particularly strong year for Pixel phones, while Apple continues to offer a premium phone experience on its pro iPhones), it was also a year of impressive drones and cameras, keeping Steve Dent very busy.Unfortunately, we can't test everything, so we try to balance devices from companies with a track record for making things folks buy and the weird, fascinating, doing-something-different products and services. We've included the best gaming laptop of 2024 and Apple's continued strong form with its Apple Silicon-powered MacBooks.Oh, and we included the other side of the coin: two of the worst products we tested. Surprise! They heavily feature AI.- Mat SmithGet this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!The biggest tech stories you missed
What qualifies a video game as depressing?" The most obvious answer is that game you simply cannot beat no matter how hard you try, but that's not what we're talking about here. Instead, we're looking at games that just have a pall over them, whether it's directly from story beats or a more subtle vibe given off by the visuals, music or activities the player has to participate in.
As is tradition, LG is announcing several of its new OLED monitors before CES 2025 kickoffs in earnest. The new UltraGear GX9 series all feature curved WOLED panels, webOS and an anti-glare, low reflection coating that should make them pleasant to look at wherever your desk is stationed.LG is positioning the 45GX990A or LG UltraGear OLED Bendable Gaming Monitor as the star of this new lineup. It's a 45-inch, 5K2K bendable screen that can move "from completely flat to a 900R curvature within seconds," according to LG. Like the 32-inch UltraGear OLED LG introduced in 2023, this new model has the company's Dual Mode feature for quickly toggling between resolutions and refresh rates with the push of a button, along with a 0.03ms GtG response time for smoother visuals when you do decide to play games.LGIf you'd prefer a screen that doesn't move, the LG UltraGear OLED Gaming Monitor (45GX950A) gives you the same 45-inches of screen real estate along with a 21:9 format, 5K2K resolution, and ultra slim bezels. LG says the monitor also supports DisplayPort 2.1, HDMI2.1 and USB-C with 90W power delivery, and certified to work with AMD FreeSync and NVIDIA G-Sync.For a smaller (and likely more affordable) option, the LG UltraGear 39GX90SA still gets you a curved display, but in a 39-inch size with a 21:9 aspect ratio. The monitors OLED panel means you'll get "nuanced colors and deep, dark blacks," according to LG, and the multiple USB-C ports means you'll actually be able to connect the 39GX90SA to multiple devices at once. Having a smaller option might be a good thing too - finding extra desk space for last year's LG 49 UltraGear gaming monitor was one of the biggest problems with it.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/lgs-new-ultragear-lineup-includes-a-bendable-5k-oled-010028431.html?src=rss
Hackers were reportedly able to modify several Chrome extensions with malicious code this month after gaining access to admin accounts through a phishing campaign. The cybersecurity company Cyberhaven shared in a blog post this weekend that its Chrome extension was compromised on December 24 in an attack that appeared to be targeting logins to specific social media advertising and AI platforms." A few other extensions were hit as well, going back to mid-December, Reuters reported. According to Nudge Security's Jaime Blasco, that includes ParrotTalks, Uvoice and VPNCity.Cyberhaven notified its customers on December 26 in an email seen by TechCrunch, which advised them to revoke and rotate their passwords and other credentials. The company's initial investigation of the incident found that the malicious extension targeted Facebook Ads users, with a goal of stealing data such as access tokens, user IDs and other account information, along with cookies. The code also added a mouse click listener. After successfully sending all the data to the [Command & Control] server, the Facebook user ID is saved to browser storage," Cyberhaven said in its analysis. That user ID is then used in mouse click events to help attackers with 2FA on their side if that was needed."Cyberhaven said it first detected the breach on December 25 and was able to remove the malicious version of the extension within an hour. It's since pushed out a clean version.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/hackers-injected-malicious-code-into-several-chrome-extensions-in-recent-attack-220648155.html?src=rss
Marvel just dropped the first trailer for its upcoming animated series, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, which will bring us back to Peter Parker's early days as a high school superhero. The art leans into a classic comic book style, and it looks like the story itself will be a departure from the MCU version of things, in contrast to how the show was initially described back in 2021 when it was first announced. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man will have 10 episodes, and debuts on Disney+ on January 29.Peter Parker is voiced by Hudson Thames. The cast also includes Colman Domingo as Norman Osborn, who we see in the trailer stepping in as Spider-Man's mentor, along with Zeno Robinson (Harry Osborn), Grace Song (Nico Minoru) and Charlie Cox (Daredevil). Hugh Dancy voices Otto Octavius aka Doctor Octopus. The animated series was first teased at Disney+ Day three years ago under a different name, Spider-Man: Freshman Year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/check-out-the-first-full-trailer-for-your-friendly-neighborhood-spider-man-190300960.html?src=rss
A set of new requirements proposed by the US Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office for Civil Rights could bring healthcare organizations up to par with modern cybersecurity practices. The proposal, posted to the Federal Register on Friday, includes requirements for multifactor authentication, data encryption and routine scans for vulnerabilities and breaches. It would also make the use of anti-malware protection mandatory for systems handling sensitive information, along with network segmentation, the implementation of separate controls for data backup and recovery, and yearly audits to check for compliance.HHS also shared a fact sheet outlining the proposal, which would update the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Security Rule. A 60-day public comment period is expected to open soon. In a press briefing, US deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology Anne Neuberger said the plan would cost $9 billion in the first year to execute, and $6 billion over the subsequent four years, Reuters reports. The proposal comes in light of a marked increase in large-scale breaches over the past few years. Just this year, the healthcare industry was hit by multiple major cyberattacks, including hacks into Ascension and UnitedHealth systems that caused disruptions at hospitals, doctors' offices and pharmacies.From 2018-2023, reports of large breaches increased by 102 percent, and the number of individuals affected by such breaches increased by 1002 percent, primarily because of increases in hacking and ransomware attacks," according to the Office for Civil Rights. In 2023, over 167 million individuals were affected by large breaches - a new record."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/healthcare-organizations-in-the-us-may-soon-get-a-cybersecurity-overhaul-220933165.html?src=rss
NASA said on Friday that it received a signal from the Parker Solar Probe confirming that the spacecraft had survived its closest ever flyby of the sun. The approach took it just 3.8 million miles from the surface, passing within the sun's corona and allowing for unprecedented data collection in the vicinity of a star. A few million miles might seem like a pretty great distance, but to put things in perspective, NASA explains, If the solar system was scaled down with the distance between the sun and Earth the length of a football field, Parker Solar Probe would be just four yards from the end zone."The probe's current orbit takes it closest to the sun about every three months. It'll swing back around for two more close flybys in 2025, on March 22 and June 19. The probe is expected to transmit the data from its latest close approach soon, once it's in a better location to do so. The data that will come down from the spacecraft will be fresh information about a place that we, as humanity, have never been," said Joe Westlake, the director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. It's an amazing accomplishment."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/parker-solar-probe-survived-its-close-approach-to-the-sun-and-will-make-two-more-in-2025-180350510.html?src=rss
Blue Origin's New Glenn heavy-lift launch vehicle is now ready for its first flight. The company has conducted - and successfully completed - a wet dress rehearsal or a full run-through of the rocket's launch countdown. As The New York Times reports, Blue Origin had to attempt the countdown several times over a few hours, but the company managed to ignite and fire New Glenn's seven engines for 24 seconds in the end.New Glenn's tanks were filled with fuel and the rocket was fitted with a 45,000-pound payload mass simulator as if it truly was heading to space. Blue Origin says this is the first time it operated the vehicle as an integrated system, with New Glenn SVP Jarrett Jones calling the test's completion a "monumental milestone." The Federal Aviation Administration has also granted the company a launch license for New Glenn, which means it's now truly ready to go.The company describes New Glenn as a "giant, reusable rocket built for bigger things." It also said that it was "engineered with the safety and redundancy required to fly humans," though its inaugural flight will be uncrewed. Its first flight was supposed to take place in October carrying two NASA satellites heading to Mars, but it had to be scrapped because the rocket wasn't ready by then. New Glenn will now fly for the first time with the company's Blue Ring Pathfinder, part of its Blue Ring platform that will offer spacecraft services to clients like the Pentagon, instead. While Blue Origin didn't announce a new launch date for the rocket, it's expected to be the company's first flight for 2025 and could take place as early as January 6.
President-elect Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to delay the law that could ban TikTok until after his inauguration. In an amicus brief, Trump's attorney D. John Sauer wrote that the future president wants the opportunity to find a solution to the problem through political means."The law requiring a ban or sale of TikTok is set to take effect on January 19, 2025, just one day before Trump's inauguration. The brief calls the ban date unfortunately timed"and argues the incoming president should have more time to work on a deal with TikTok. TikTok's legal team cited a similar concern in its requests for a delay of the ban. The brief also cites Trump's dealmaking" experience and his social media platform Truth Social.President Trump alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the Government-concerns which President Trump himself has acknowledged," Sauer writes.Trump's stance on a TikTok is much different from the one he took in his first term, when he pursued a ban of the app in 2020. He also floated the idea that Microsoft could work out a deal, an appropriate deal, so the Treasury of the United States gets a lot of money" without explaining exactly how such a deal would work.President Trump reversed his opinion on a TikTok ban during his second campaign. He told CNBC's Squawk Box in March that banning TikTok would make Facebook bigger and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media."The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the ban on January 10.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/donald-trump-asks-the-supreme-court-to-delay-the-tiktok-ban-235703094.html?src=rss
2023 was the hottest year on record. This past year is on track to beating it and it caused more problems this past year than just spiking thermometers.The World Weather Attribution (WWA) released its annual Extreme Weather" report showing how the record-breaking 34.34 Fahrenheit increase in man-made warming from the past year caused unrelenting heatwaves, drought, wildfire, storms and floods." The WWA estimates that climate change was responsible for at least 3,700 deaths and 26 weather events in 2024 that led to the displacement of millions."The report recorded a total of 219 events from 2024 that met its trigger criteria" for identifying impactful weather events. Many of the events were influenced by the natural climate pattern known as El Nino (which has only become stronger under the effects of climate change) but the WWA studies found that climate change played a bigger role than El Nino in fueling these events, including the historic drought in the Amazon."Climate change added on an average 41 additional dangerous heat days and fueled record-breaking rain and flooding across the globe. A study of 16 floods found all but one of them were caused by warming atmospheres that retained more moisture leading to heavier rainfall. These climate conditions can also fuel bigger and deadlier hurricanes and typhoons such as the Helene, the Category 4 Hurricane that hit America in September. North Carolina's Office of State Budget and Management estimates that Helene caused $53.8 billion in damage in its state alone.Two of the world's most important ecosystems were also hit hard by climate change in 2024," according to the WWA report. The Amazon rainforest and the Pantanal Wetland, the largest tropical wetland in the world, experienced severe droughts and wildfires that created huge biodiversity loss" in the past year.Both areas are critical for maintaining the strength of the Earth's ecosystems, climate and economies. The Amazon's plant life removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and releases water into the atmosphere that helps control the climate and circulate ocean currents. The Pantanal Wetland houses tens of thousands of species of wildlife and provides much needed flood control for the region and creates global economic activity for cattle ranching and soy production, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).The WWA's report set some critical resolutions for 2025 to combat the rising influence of climate change. The report calls for a faster shift" away from fossil fuel usage, improvements in early warning systems for extreme weather events, a greater focus on reporting of heat related deaths and financing for developing countries and regions hit hardest by the effects of climate change.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/2024-is-on-its-way-to-being-the-hottest-year-ever-211524257.html?src=rss
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is reportedly investigating Microsoft like it's 1998. In the waning days of the Biden administration, outgoing chair Lina Khan's probe is said to be picking up steam, according to ProPublica. The FTC is particularly concerned with Microsoft's bundling of ubiquitous Office products with cybersecurity and cloud computing services. That includes a deal to upgrade government bundles for a limited time, which essentially had the effect of using a government cybersecurity crisis to sell more licenses.It adds more detail to reports from Bloomberg and the Financial Times in November about an FTC probe into the Windows maker. The publications said Microsoft's competitors complained that its bundling of its popular software with cloud services made it harder to compete. ProPublica says FTC attorneys have recently interviewed and scheduled meetings with Microsoft's competitors.Microsoft confirmed to ProPublica that the FTC issued a civil investigative demand (essentially a subpoena), forcing the company to hand over information related to the case. A Microsoft spokesperson told the publication - without providing on-the-record examples - that the FTC document is broad, wide ranging, and requests things that are out of the realm of possibility to even be logical."The investigation follows a separate ProPublica report from November about how Microsoft appeared to exploit a series of cyberattacks to sell more licenses to the US government. Following a meeting with President Biden in the summer of 2021, the company was said to have offered to upgrade the government's existing bundles (including Windows and its Office suite) to a more expensive version that added its advanced cybersecurity products. Microsoft also sent consultants to install the upgrades and train employees to use them.Many divisions of the US government accepted - including all of the Defense Department's military services - and then began paying for the more expensive bundles after the trial ended. (The hassle of switching to a different cybersecurity product after the trial ended practically guaranteed that would be the case.) ProPublica's account essentially paints Microsoft as exploiting a cybersecurity crisis to expand sales and pad its bottom line. Just late-stage capitalism things, y'all.MicrosoftIronically, the sales tactic resulted from security lapses from - you guessed it - Microsoft. Biden's request from Big Tech leaders to boost government cybersecurity followed the SolarWinds attack that exploited a vulnerability in a Microsoft identity service. The company reportedly knew the app contained a security nightmare" that let hackers spoof legitimate employees and probe sensitive information without raising suspicion. But patching the flaw would add friction to government logins when the company was competing for US contracts. Microsoft reportedly opted to stay mum instead of risk losing business.According to experts who spoke to ProPublica, the government trial sales scheme could have violated regulations on contracting and competition. The publication reported that even Microsoft's attorneys worried the deal would spark antitrust concerns.If this sounds familiar, it echoes the government's 1998 antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft. Bundling was also a star of that show, with the FTC accusing the company of engaging in anticompetitive practices by including Internet Explorer with Windows, a move viewed in those early days of the internet as stifling rivals like Netscape.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-ftcs-microsoft-antitrust-probe-reportedly-focuses-on-software-bundling-193545163.html?src=rss
If you've tried to use Xbox Cloud Streaming and experienced issues loading games or unexpected disconnects, you're not alone. Microsoft's game streaming services has been experiencing issues since Thursday and is still not totally back online 24 hours later.Users on r/xcloud, the subreddit devoted to Xbox Cloud Gaming, have reported unusually long wait times to get a game to load, stretching a process that's supposed to be instantaneous into a 50 minute or longer wait. On Microsoft's status page, the company says "you may have trouble starting cloud games or be unexpectedly disconnected from a game after it begins."
The second season of the smash hit sci-fi drama Severance finally premieres on January 17. However, Apple just threw us a bone by dropping the first eight minutes of the season. It's been nearly three years since season one completed its run, so this is a nice little holiday gift.You can find the exclusive preview on the Apple TV+ app under the Bonus Content section of the Severance page. There will be no spoilers here, but the snippet does get into the fallout of the events of season one and may even touch on that surprising cliffhanger.For the uninitiated, Severance is a sci-fi take on work/life balance in which certain employees at a shadowy corporation sever" their work selves from their regular selves. This results in a harrowing, and occasionally hilarious, treatise about human identity and the lengths our corporate overlords will go to make a buck. It's very good. Best of all? Newbies won't have to wait three full years to watch season two.Apple TV+ also just posted a bunch of images to social media that heavily imply its planning on a free weekend of sorts for non-subscribers, scheduled for January 4 and 5. The images are all tagged with slogans like see for yourself" and save the date."
I've lost count of the number of things we reviewed this year at Engadget. In 2024, the types of products we tested ranged from the typical phones, laptops and headphones to AI wearables, robotic lawnmowers and handheld gaming consoles, alongside games and shows. It can feel hard to keep track of it all, but thankfully, our scoring system helps us highlight the best (and the worst) devices each year. Our team of reviewers and editors evaluate products based on their performance, value and how they hold up against the competition, and at least two people weigh in on every score before it's published. If something gets a result of 80 and up, it's considered a "Recommended" product, while those scoring 90 and more are awarded "Editors' Choice." The latter means they're the best in their class, beating out most of the competition. Since we have to be very judicious about what we review (there's only so much time in the world), most of the gadgets we call in are from established companies with a track record of making things people will actually consider buying. That's the main reason most of our scores sit between 80 and 90, though we still test the occasional device that ends up getting a number below 70. As we look back on the year in gadgets, here are the 12 highest-scored reviews we published. Unsurprisingly, they're mostly of Apple and Google products, with a smattering of cameras and drones. I'm also including some honorable mentions for good measure, as well as a pair of the lowest-rated devices all year. May we have only excellent gadgets to review next year, and may there be less e-waste all around. Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL I'm honestly shocked. For the first time in years, we've given a Google phone a higher score than an iPhone in the same year. Maybe it has something to do with Gemini AI launching earlier than Apple Intelligence, or the fun colors and solid build of the Pixel 9 Pro series. But as I discussed the scores with our reviewer Mat Smith, a few things added up. Arguably the biggest advantage Google has over Apple this year is battery life - the Pixel 9 Pros generally last about two days on a charge, while the iPhone 16 Pro series typically clocks just around 20 hours. We also love Google's cameras and the bright, smooth displays. The gorgeous palette of pastel color options is just icing on a satisfying cake, with Gemini AI bringing a tasty side treat. DJI Avata 2 Though there is looming concern over DJI's longevity in the US, the company has otherwise had a relatively successful 2024. This year saw many DJI products scoring more than 90 in our database, which makes sense as they are arguably the best drone maker around. Steve was most impressed by the Avata 2, though, thanks to its great video quality and maneuverability for a lower price than its predecessor. It even has better battery life, to boot. iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max Apple Intelligence wasn't available when the iPhone 16 series launched and only recently rolled out, so our review score might still change, But as it is, and after months of using the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max in my daily life, I stand by my evaluation. Though there's a lot to like about Apple's latest flagships, I was just so disappointed by the relatively poor battery life that I could not score it higher than the Pixel 9 Pro series. This is more noticeable on the iPhone 16 Pro, though, as the Pro Max generally lasts a few more hours than its smaller counterpart. I also wish the generative-AI features were ready for the public at the time of my review, but now that I've spent more time with Genmoji, Image Playground and notification summaries, I'm pretty sure my verdict remains the same. These Apple Intelligence features are fun, but not game-changing, and with or without them the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max are still the best options for anyone on iOS. Canon EOS R5 II We've got a slew of reviews by Steve on this list, mostly for products in cameras and drones that ranked well in their categories. As a Canon girl myself, I was happy to see the EOS R5 II get such a good rating, especially since competition has been heating up. Sadly, the EOS R5 II also heats up when shooting high-res video, but on pretty much every other aspect, it performs respectably. According to Steve, this camera "puts Sony on notice," and I'm glad to see it. Sony A9 III Reviewed much earlier in the year, the Sony A9 III caught Steve's attention for its speedy global shutter, which brought fast and accurate autofocus. It also delivered smooth, high-quality video in a body with excellent handling thanks to Sony's comfortable new grip. Steve also loved the viewfinder, and though it's very expensive at $6,000, the A9 III is a solid product that holds the title of "fastest full-frame camera" - at least, until something faster comes along. DJI Air 3S and DJI Neo What lightweight $200 drone shoots good 1080p video but also screams like a banshee? That would be the DJI Neo, which, despite Steve's evocative description, is something I'm considering buying for myself. Not only is it reasonably priced, but it also promises to capture smooth aerial footage at a respectable resolution. Steve also found it beginner-friendly, which is important for a lousy pilot like me. And sure, maybe I'll scare some wildlife or neighbors with its loud screeching, but maybe that's part of the fun? If you want something that can avoid people or obstacles and deliver cinematic shots, the DJI Air 3S is a solid option thanks to its LiDAR and larger camera sensor, both of which improve performance and obstacle-detection in low light. You'll have to pay about five times the Neo's cost, of course, but aspiring Spielbergs might find that price worthwhile. MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2024) and MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2024) I'm not surprised that the only laptops to make it to this list are this year's M4 MacBook Pros. Apple has demonstrated over the last few years that its M-series processors deliver excellent performance and battery life, and it's continued to prove its point in 2024. This year's model features brighter screens and improved webcams, as well as slight bumps in RAM and storage. I'm a Windows user, but even I have to admit that what Apple is doing with the MacBooks is something that Microsoft and all its partners on the PC side have struggled to fully replicate. ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) What PC makers do excel at is power and creativity. When it's not experimenting with dual-screen laptops, ASUS is pushing out capable gaming laptops in its Republic of Gamers (ROG) brand. This year, our reviewer Sam Rutherford's top-scored product is the ROG Zephyrus G14, which he declared "the 14-inch gaming laptop to beat." Sam hasn't given out a higher score at all this year, so it stands to reason we have yet to see a gaming notebook steal that crown. The Zephyrus G14 won Sam over with its beautiful OLED screen, attractive yet subtle design and generous array of ports. Though he's not a fan of its soldered-in RAM and ASUS' Armoury Crate app, Sam still found plenty to like, calling it "both pound for pound and dollar for dollar the best choice around." Honorable mention: reMarkable Paper Pro There are plenty of products that might have received the same score as the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 and iPhone 16 Pro, but we have to cut the list somewhere. It's worth mentioning that other devices we awarded a score of 91 include the DJI Osmo Pocket 3, the Analogue Duo, the Fujifilm X100 VI and the iPad Air (2024). And when it comes to things that got 90 points, we've got the base iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, the Apple Watch Series 10, NVIDIA's RTX 4070 Super graphics card, the Meta Quest 3S headset, as well as appliances like Ninja's Creami ice-cream maker. But I wanted to shout out Daniel Cooper's review of the reMarkable Paper Pro. It's a gadget that's brought back waves of nostalgia and sentimentality in a time when we're all tired of constantly being wired in. It's one of the highest-rated products of its kind, not only because it's a capable writing tablet, but also because it is a color e-paper tablet that has a bigger screen and faster performance than its monochrome predecessor. At $580 to start, it's certainly a significant investment, but one that might free us from feeling chained to our laptops and phones. Worst products we reviewed this year: Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1 In all my 8-plus years at Engadget, I can only remember one other time we've awarded anything a sub-60 score, and that was when Fisher-Price's Sproutling wearable baby monitor gave our editor's baby an eczema outbreak. The Sproutling got an appropriately all-time low score of 41, and this year, the Rabbit R1 broke that bottom when Devindra decided it deserved only 40 points. The Rabbit R1 first made waves at CES 2024, when it showed up out of nowhere and enticed many of us with its cute looks and bright orange color. Its Teenage Engineering heritage was even more alluring, and we all wanted to try out the Playdate-esque scroll wheel for ourselves. The square device also came with an onboard camera, two microphones, rotating camera and a 2.88-inch display. But its biggest promise was, as with everything in 2024, all about AI. And with many things in 2024, the AI promise fell flat. Rabbit made bold claims about its "large action model," but in actuality, at the time of our review, the R1 could barely execute tasks to completion. Instead of letting you easily make orders via DoorDash, for example, it would "often deliver the weather when I asked for traffic," according to Devindra's review. Worse, "sometimes it would hear my request and simply do nothing." Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget I had a similarly frustrating experience when testing the much-hyped Humane AI Pin. It was a shiny chrome square that you could attach to your clothes and interact with either by voice, touch or via a futuristic-looking projector that beamed a display onto your palm. You were supposed to be able to simply talk to the Humane AI assistant to get it to remember things for and about you, eventually coming to rely on it like a second brain. Instead, we got a hot mess. Quite literally. The Humane AI Pin would frequently run so hot that it would stop working, with the device saying it needed to cool down for a bit before you could use it again. When it did work, it was barely smart enough to answer questions, and though the projector was cool visually, using it to do anything was frustrating and just led to sore arms and crossed eyes. Not only did it not do enough to justify the effort involved in using it, the Humane AI Pin also cost $700 - way too much for a product this finicky. It gets worse (or better, depending on how you're reading this). Shortly after it was widely criticized by reviewers in April, leaked internal documents showed that people appeared to be returning the AI Pins faster than the company was selling them. In October, Humane had to issue a recall for its charging case due to overheating, with the Consumer Product Safety Commission saying it posed "a fire hazard." I gave the Humane AI Pin a score of 50 in my review, in large part due to the intriguing projector display. Right now, though, it seems these AI gadgets are, at best, struggling to take hold. At worst, they're on fire.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-12-best-gadgets-we-reviewed-this-year-173024990.html?src=rss
Beats updated its high-end flagship wireless headphones last year, bringing a slew of upgrades over the Studio 3 Wireless, the model it replaced. The Beats Studio Pro has better sound, active noise cancellation (ANC), Spatial Audio and more. But at $350, it didn't necessarily stand out among stiff competition from Sony and Bose. Well, today at Amazon, the premium headphones have a new draw that those rivals don't: They're on sale for a mere $170. That's 51 percent off and only $10 more than the record low. Although the Beats Studio Pro doesn't look starkly different from the Studio 3 Wireless it replaced, it adds subtle aesthetic touches like new colors, a tone-on-tone finish and UltraPlush memory foam (wrapped in leather) earpads. Of course, you still get the brand's iconic lower-case b" logo on each earpiece. But the biggest changes are on the inside. Using Beats' second-gen audio chip and new 40mm drivers with a two-layer diaphragm, micro vents and acoustic mesh, they have improved clarity and a more balanced profile than the Studio 3 Wireless. Although Beats was once known for overpowering bass at the expense of mids, highs and clarity, that's no longer the case. Engadget's audio guru, Billy Steele, found that the cans produced even-handed tuning and attention to precision once unheard of in the brand's pre-Apple days. The Studio Pro also has Spatial Audio, familiar to anyone who's used Apple's recent AirPods. (Bose also added its equivalent in its Ultra line.) The technology simulates 64 speakers around you, creating a more distinct separation between instruments and voices. You can choose between head-tracked and fixed modes, too. However, the digital trickery's effectiveness can vary depending on the track, ranging from breathing new life into old tracks to hardly providing a noticeable difference in some other genres. The headphones also let you listen to high-resolution and lossless music via USB-C wired listening - up to 24-bit / 48kHz. They also have a transparency mode, up to 40 hours of listening with ANC off (or around 24 hours with ANC or transparency mode on) and a fast-fuel feature that gives you four hours of playback after just a 10-minute charge. If ANC isn't your priority, you may want to look at the cheaper Beats Solo 4, also on sale. Offering better sound quality and longer battery life over the Solo 3, this 2024 model is on sale at Amazon for $100 - half off. 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/the-beats-studio-pro-headphones-are-half-off-right-now-172541818.html?src=rss
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