The biggest theater chains in the US and Canada are giving their cinemas a major upgrade in hopes of enticing more people to watch movies outside of their homes. According to Variety, they're planning to spend $2.2 billion to modernize 21,000 screens over the next three years - even adding activities audiences can do, like pickleball and ziplining. Michael O'Leary, the president and CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), told the publication that the industry feels it has "turned a corner" and that "audiences are coming back to the theaters." However, they have to do more to make the shared cinematic experience more enjoyable.People have become used to waiting for films to come out on streaming over the past years, after all, and they're not going out for movies they don't feel compelled to see as soon as they come out. The total US domestic revenue for this year's summer box office, for instance, is over 10 percent lower than last year's. Variety says AMC, Regal Cinemas, Cinemark, Cineplex, Marcus Theatres, B&B Theatres, Harkins Theatres and Santikos Entertainment have all told NATO that they're investing money to better their facilities.The companies are expected to spend their budgets on upgrading their laser projectors and their sound systems, as well as on installing more comfortable seating, better AC, lighting and carpeting. And, yes, they're adding new attractions like pickleball courts, arcades, ziplines and bowling alleys, which could change what it means to go to the movies. The image above is a pickleball court at a B&B Theatre cinema. "This investment of resources is the next step in our industry's ongoing commitment to ensuring that going to the theater remains a unique and special experience for generations to come," O'Leary said. Whether the strategy works or not remains to be seen, but that these companies are willing to spend a collective amount of $2.2 billion in upgrades signifies that they're at least in a better place than they were in at the height of the pandemic.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/theater-chains-will-spend-22-billlion-to-lure-you-back-to-the-movies-140054935.html?src=rss
The Apple Watch has been around for ten years. Looking at pictures of the device then, it might not seem like much has changed - even the apps drawer seems identical. But subtly and quietly, the Apple Watch - the company's first new product line of the post-Steve Jobs era - has evolved to become capable of so much more today. Over the last few years, there have been some big leaps forward for the Apple Watch's feature set, up to and including wrist-based ECG and heart-rate readings that were once the purview of science fiction. We've heard many testimonials, mostly from Apple at its events, about how the Apple Watch has saved lives - whether it be by detection of a fall or atrial fibrillation. Smartwatches as a category have matured and found their place, it seems, and the Apple Watch has carved out a comfy spot within the space. So color me surprised when the Series 10 launched to very little fanfare last week. I guess I was expecting Apple to be a bit more self-congratulatory, but the company seemed to gloss over the product's birthday. Instead, we got to learn about the device's thinner profile and bigger screen with greater viewing angles. It also has smaller onboard speakers, apps for water sports enthusiasts and health features like the new sleep apnea monitoring and alerts. It may sound underwhelming compared to the seemingly futuristic features we were seeing in the Apple Watch's early days, but the Series 10 is just following in the footsteps of the iPhone. It's a mature product that's traded massive annual overhauls for iterative updates that add up over time. For a smartwatch that has consistently been called the best in its class, the Series 10 largely continues that tradition, even as it walks back a feature or two thanks to ongoing copyright litigation. Design and display Compared to the Series 9, the latest Apple Watch is ever so slightly bigger and noticeably thinner and lighter. It's not such a great difference that you'll notice without having the two side by side, but every time I pick up the Series 10 I definitely feel a tiny spark of joy. The squatter shape, slimmer profile and more rounded corners somehow make the new watch feel a bit like a biscuit, while the Series 9 comes off more like a smaller mahjong tile. Both sizes of the mainstream Apple Watch have grown ever so slightly, with the 41mm version now coming in at 42mm and the 45mm one sitting at 46mm. I've worn the smaller Series 10 and Series 9 on both wrists for a few days now and genuinely don't find there to be a major difference in daily use. As significant as I think the thinner body and lighter weight is on the Series 10, it's not like I was having trouble squeezing its predecessor through jacket sleeves before. I will say that the new model will certainly be more comfortable under the snuggest of my cuffs. Apple cutting the Series 10 down to just 9.7mm thin is certainly a feat, considering the Pixel Watch 3 is still a pretty chunky 12mm thick. Samsung's Galaxy Watch 7 is the same height, so Google needs to play a bit of catch-up here. The Series 10's bigger screen does make some things easier to see, like road names on Maps and the clock when you're in Spotify. You'll likely find greater gains here by choosing larger font sizes, which is a bit of an obvious note but at least on the Series 10 you'll have more room to work with. If you need something even bigger, you should consider the Watch Ultra 2, which has a 49mm screen. Apple's also using a wide-angle OLED this year to make things easier to read even if your wrist is simply resting on the table, not held up in front of your eyes. Again, in my side by side observations, the change is noticeable but not in a huge way. There does appear to be greater contrast between the digits of the time against the photo in the background, too, which makes the clock more visible at an angle. Cherlynn Low for Engadget However, it's worth pointing out that when you're staring at the Series 10 face on, you might find its bezels noticeably thicker than on the Series 9. Even if you're planning on upgrading from a Series 9, where you'll be most primed to feel the bigger bezels' impact on design, it's still a tiny complaint, if at all. Thicker borders don't really affect the watch's performance. Apple introduced some new watch faces with the Series 10, as it does with every successive generation. This time, the Flux face is supposed to make full use of the display's wider angle view as it spills over the sides (sort of). There's also a bit of an animation that mimics a second hand ticking across the screen, which is nice, but doesn't add much to the experience. There are other small design changes around the watch. For example, instead of an inch-long slit on the left edge for the speaker output, there now sits two half-inch grilles which blend more seamlessly into the watch. I'd also be remiss if I didn't at least mention the new jet black case color option, as well as the polished titanium models that replace the previous stainless steel ones. They're nice options to have, if you can afford the $300 upgrade for the new lighter material. Finally, part of why the Series 10 got thinner is its redesigned metal back, which allowed Apple to integrate the antenna into the case and compress two layers into one. There's also a little so-called isolation circle to help maintain cellular performance. This isn't something you'll feel necessarily, but it does contribute to the Series 10's overall thinness. The Apple Watch Series 10's speaker Something Apple brought to the Series 10 is the ability to play music and podcasts through the watch's onboard speaker. It might seem silly to want to use the tiny device for any sort of media, especially things like songs where you'd like at least some semblance of sound quality for the experience to be enjoyable. In the few days I've had the Series 10, I never found the need to stream songs from the speaker on the watch, until I had to test it. At the maximum loudness in a quiet conference room, I enjoyed listening to Running Through the Night by Seori and Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter. It wasn't as bass-heavy as I'd like for a regular listening session, but given the circumstances and the size of the watch, the mids and trebles were plenty clear and punchy. You're not meant to rely on this for long periods anyway, and it's just there to scratch an itch if or when it arises. With noisier environments, though, it's a struggle. Screenshots The Apple Watch Series 10 vs. sleep apnea Arguably the biggest feature coming to the Series 10 is sleep apnea monitoring (though that feature is also available on the Series 9 and Ultra 2 via watchOS 11). This is only for people who haven't been diagnosed with sleep apnea, meaning if you already know you have this condition, it's not designed to help you see if your CPAP machine is effective, for instance. I've not been diagnosed with sleep apnea, and might very well be one of the 80 percent of people that has the condition and don't know it. Still, it would be nice to know for certain and when watchOS 11 dropped yesterday, those of us on iOS 18 with compatible Apple Watch models were able to opt in to notifications. I went to the Health app to set this up, answered a series of questions about my age and whether I'd been diagnosed with sleep apnea, and was informed I was set up for the feature. In the explanation Apple provides during the onboarding process, it says Apple Watch tracks your breathing while you're asleep and records any disturbances in a 30-day period." It can notify you if those disturbances are suggestive of sleep apnea," so you can go to a doctor for a proper diagnosis. It's been only about a week since Apple announced sleep apnea notifications were coming, and clearly 30 days haven't passed. I have yet to glean enough information for any alerts, and cannot yet gauge the impact of this feature. The Apple Watch Series 10 as a health and fitness tracker Barring changes that come with watchOS 11, which older Apple Watches will also get, the Series 10 is essentially the same as its predecessor when it comes to tracking your activity. As long as you've set things up right, you'll get reminders to log your mood, take your meds and move after you've been idle too long. Having just reviewed Google's Pixel Watch 3, I can't help but wish Apple were a tad more sensitive and consistent at automatically prompting me to start logging a walk. There's no real guidance as to how long you have to have been active for the watch to suggest you'd been working out. That leads to some confusion and pure frustration when you think you'd walked or run enough for the auto detection to kick in, but only to find out you maybe hadn't moved in the right way or for long enough. I've been a yearslong Apple Watch user, so I've grown extremely familiar and reliant on its interface and the data it collects. I like diving into my calendar view and looking proudly at all the days I closed my rings. The Health app does a good job of presenting my recent trends and how that compares with my performance a year ago, subtly shaming me into realizing I should maybe take a few more walks a week. The Series 10 doesn't differ much from the Series 9 in that way, and if you're already in Apple's ecosystem, this will largely feel extremely familiar. Cherlynn Low for Engadget The Apple Watch Series 10's water-sports features There are some new tools on the Series 10 that are borrowed from elsewhere in the family, though. Apple's brought the Watch Ultra's Depth app over and introduced a new Tides app across the Series 10 and Watch Ultra 2 that should be helpful for those who spend a lot of time in the water. I'm not a big water sports girl, but I do occasionally hang out at beaches. Whether it's Long Island's pristine, sandy shores or the rocky terrain of Red Hook's Valentino Pier, I've certainly encountered sudden swells in water level that I've had to run to avoid. It's not the biggest problem, of course, but I can see how the Tides app would help anyone plan a day. I launched the app, and in a few seconds, the Series 10 located the closest beach, informing me that the tide was falling and that water levels would hit their lowest at about 2:07AM. I didn't verify this by going to Newport Beach at 2:07AM to measure water levels, but even from my brief testing it appears to be a helpful app for those who need to know this information for a full day of surfing, for example. It's also useful for those who want a convenient way to locate the closest body of water, since the map view shows beaches around you. It's hard to imagine the Depth app being useful for a non-snorkeler or non-scuba diver like me, as I've watched one too many videos of underwater cave diving gone wrong. But the Depth app and water temperature sensor could theoretically be useful in other scenarios. If you have a deep enough tub, you could potentially stick the Series 10 on your wrist into the bottom and get a reading for whether the water is too hot for your kid. Unlike on the Apple Watch Ultra (1 and 2), which go down to 40 meters (131.2 feet), the Series 10's depth gauge will only provide readings up to 6 meters. That does mean you won't want to take this scuba diving, and it's not rated for that, either. All three models I mentioned here offer the same water temperature capability, though. The Apple Watch Series 10's battery life and charging speed In the few days I've had the Apple Watch Series 10, it's generally outlasted the Series 9, not usually by much. One day, after a cross-training workout at 8AM followed by a GPS-enabled walk and a day full of Slack and Telegram alerts, the Series 10 still managed to have 46 percent left at 11:45PM when I got home. The Series 9 was struggling at 19 percent, and both had the same display and Always On settings. This is one aspect that I'd like more time testing to better understand, but considering the new watch's slimmer profile and bigger screen, the fact that it even has similar runtime at all would be respectable. Apple also updated the charging setup on its latest smartwatch, which should bring the Series 10 back to 80 percent in 30 minutes. It's worth noting you'll have to use a fast-charge-certified accessory, such as a charging cable from the Series 7 or later, which you can tell by confirming that the wire is braided. Faster recharge speeds are nice, since they make up for any shortfalls in battery life by making sure you don't need to wait too long for your device to get back up to a healthy level. Still, considering many devices from Garmin, Fitbit and even Samsung can last longer than two days and even up to seven days per charge, the Apple Watch's day and a half feels like a number that could be higher. If the company were looking for ways to push the envelope further, battery life is certainly the area to investigate. I don't mind charging my watch every morning (or night), but some people want to be able to go camping over a long weekend and not have to worry about bringing along chargers. Don't tell them to buy an Apple Watch Ultra for that benefit. Wrap-up It's hard to sum up how I feel about the Apple Watch Series 10. On one hand, I definitely still need more time to form a conclusion about things I don't feel familiar with yet, like sleep apnea alerts. On the other, I feel like I already know this product very well, thanks to its similarity to its predecessor(s). Plus, with watchOS 11 bringing a lot of similar features to the Series 9, Watch Ultra 2 and more, it feels difficult to recommend anyone with a recent device spring for an upgrade. Some of my friends considering the Series 10 are coming from the Series 8 or older, and for them Apple's latest certainly feels worthwhile. However, those using an older model should be aware that upgrading to a newer Apple Watch would cost them access to the blood oxygen detection features. The company has yet to bring back the Blood Oxygen app that it removed from the Series 9 and Ultra 2 that it sells in the US, as a result of a patent lawsuit filed by Masimo. It's entirely possible the company is able to revive this feature simply through a software update, but if this measurement is crucial to your daily life, it might be worth sticking with your Series 8. Those looking for a huge leap forward because of the number 10" in the device's name should be prepared to be underwhelmed. But just because the Series 10 isn't a reinvention of smartwatches doesn't mean it isn't still an excellent companion device and well-rounded health-tracker. If you're simply looking for a new Apple Watch or don't care for SpO2 readings, and are coming from a model that's at least two years old, the Series 10 will feel like a solid upgrade. And it's still the best for any iPhone owner.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/apple-watch-series-10-review-legacy-and-sequel-in-equal-measure-120021405.html?src=rss
The AirPods story actually begins with the iPod.With Apple's popular personal music player, the company shipped its first set of earbuds. Sure, they were wired and very basic, but the accessory laid the groundwork for what would eventually become AirPods. Along the way, the EarPods would be bundled with the iPhone in 2007, and a 2012 redesign produced something more akin to what would eventually become the first-gen AirPods in 2016. The work the company did to improve the fit of EarPods continues to pay off as Apple prepares to ship the noise-canceling AirPods 4.We had started trying to learn a bit about human physiology and what shapes would fit better in people's ears," Apple's Vice President of Hardware Engineering Kate Bergeron told me about those early days. We started doing some MRI scans and trying to figure out how to gather data, but we didn't have a sense of how many scans we'd be looking for, or how many different kinds of ears we needed."Over the years, Apple has developed more efficient methods for gathering data, so it was able to build out its database of ear shapes quicker than in the early days of EarPods. Bergeron explained that she expects the company to be continuing that journey" forever when it comes to developing new versions of AirPods.Billy Steele for EngadgetDuring what Bergeron described as the dark days of COVID," a small group from the AirPods team was trying to solve a dilemma. They wanted to bring effective active noise cancellation (ANC) to the open design of the regular" AirPods. The crew had already successfully done so on two models of the AirPods Pro and on the AirPods Max headphones. But this time around, it was essential that the open nature of the AirPods remain while also providing the technology to block out distractions.So in 2021, over the course of several days, Bergeron and AirPods marketing director Eric Treski met up at one of Apple's acoustic labs for a demo. At that point, the team was unsure if they had anything viable, but they wanted the executive's feedback on it nonetheless.We were just blown away," Bergeron recalled. We said we absolutely have something here, we need to go after this and we've got to make it happen.'" Acoustic and computational work that was required for an effective ANC algorithm was happening simultaneously with iterations on improving the fit and overall comfort for the AirPods 4.After testing the AirPods 4, I can say that the fit and comfort have improved since the third-gen model. But Apple also expanded the earbuds' capabilities with the H2 chip and microphones from the AirPods Pro 2. This combination of advanced tech enables Apple to continuously monitor fit in a user's ear, updating the ANC algorithm in real time so that the noise blocking is still effective even as the AirPods move around.It's even computationally more intense in many ways than it is with the AirPods Pro," Bergeron said. The ear tip gives you a fit that's pretty consistent."Apple's journey with ANC began with the development of the first-generation AirPods Pro that debuted in 2019. Effective active noise cancellation was usually more common on over-ear headphones, with a few exceptions, but Apple realized that making a distraction-free listening experience pocketable" was attractive to its users. Of course, the company would follow up with its own headphones, the AirPods Max, before the powerful second-gen AirPods Pro.Treski explained that the ANC setup, or the third generation of Adaptive EQ as he described it, is constantly managing and adjusting any equalizers for both active noise cancellation and audio quality at the same time - and in real time. So in addition to the revised shape, the acoustic architecture of the AirPods 4 is also instrumental in providing effective ANC on the open earbuds.It's really, really hard to create this great ANC quality in a non-ear-tip product," he said. The power of the H2 allows that, so we're actually doing a lot with the H2 chip to manage ANC quality and listen from the mics for environmental noise to make sure we're canceling as much as possible."Billy Steele for EngadgetThe lack of an ear tip on the AirPods 4 also creates a challenge for transparency mode. Treski noted that it's arguably even harder" than mastering ANC on open earbuds since you're having to blend ambient sound from the microphones with what you're hearing naturally through your unplugged ears. There's a perfect mix that will seem real to your brain, but also it has to all be done with extremely low latency so the automatic adjustments don't lead to any delays in what comes through the AirPods.The new shape for the AirPods 4 also provided an opportunity to improve overall sound quality on the earbuds. The front end of the buds, which Bergeron revealed the team calls the snorkel," is very different from the AirPods 3. Since the previous model was more open, she said, the engineers had more freedom to operate. With the new version, the driver had to be adjusted so that it didn't reflect sound to the internal microphone that monitors noise inside your ear. That's why the drivers are now pointed down your ear canal, and why they're slightly recessed.In order to get the improved fit, that necessitated adjusting the driver and the front of the product," she said. The mechanical engineers are doing the packaging of the entire product, trying to fit everything in. Acoustic engineers are saying, okay, based on those constraints, this is the best place that we can put the driver.'"The design overhaul on the AirPods 4 extends to the case as well. Apple was able to slim down the accessory while also simplifying how you interact with it. The end result is the same magic experience," Bergeron noted, but the lack of a button allowed engineers to eliminate overall thickness and rely on an accelerometer. Removing the button also gets rid of one place where liquid could potentially get in, so the case has the same IP54 rating as the new AirPods.We get a double win there for sure," Bergeron said.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/weve-got-to-make-it-happen-how-apple-designed-airpods-4-for-effective-anc-130008844.html?src=rss
It may seem like Apple is behind the competition a lot of the time. The company appeared to be slow to developments like widgets, bezel-less displays with camera notches and screens with high refresh rates. And with the iPhone 16 Pro, it appears to once again be late to the party, bringing generative-AI features and a real button for the camera to its 2024 flagship. But if you'll allow me to play therapist for a moment, I think it's not that Apple is slow. I think Apple is cautious. Perhaps overly so. Caution on its own isn't a bad trait - in fact, it could be considered thoughtful. Rather than rush to the cutting edge with its peers, Apple deliberates, usually finding a slightly different approach that is often an improvement on what's out there. Just look at the Vision Pro headset or Apple Silicon. Or even the iPod, the iPad and the AirPods, which were far from the first of their kind when they launched. With the iPhone 16 Pro, the focus is on cameras and Apple Intelligence. The problem is, Apple Intelligence isn't quite here yet. We can test some features in the developer beta that's currently available, but that's not necessarily the same as the experience the public will get when the update rolls out in October. It's not unprecedented for new iPhones to launch without some marquee features, sure, and thankfully there's still plenty that the iPhone 16 Pro brings. From Camera Control, the Fusion Camera and other video-related updates to slightly bigger displays and iOS 18, the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max are intriguing successors, even absent the vaunted Intelligence features that are still to come. Video review of the iPhone 16 Pro The iPhone 16 Pro's design and displays I'm getting deja vu. Looking back at my review of the iPhone 15 Pro, I see a picture of that phone and its predecessor lined up side by side to show just how much thinner the bezels are. Apple has once again trimmed the borders on its flagship phones, but while doing that enabled it to reduce the handsets' size in 2023, this year it allowed the company to cram in larger screens without much change in footprint. The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max displays have increased in size from 6.1 inches and 6.7 inches up to 6.3 inches and 6.9 inches, respectively. Both handsets have grown ever so slightly, too, by just under 1mm in width and about 3mm in height. Basically, the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max are a hair wider and taller than their predecessors, but maintain the same 8.25mm (0.32-inch) profile. And yet, in spite of this minimal change, you won't be able to keep your old cases if you're upgrading from an iPhone 15 Pro to an iPhone 16 Pro. Not only would the cases not quite fit, you'd also need something with either a cutout or a sapphire crystal and conductive layer to be able to use the new Camera Control. Of course, Apple sells compatible cases, as do some third parties like Otterbox, so you have plenty of options. I've spent most of this year's hardware review season remarking how Samsung and Google's flagships feel like iPhones, and I've now reached a strange inception point. As I've been comparing competing phones for this review, I've been surrounded by about a dozen handsets from all these different companies on my couch, including last year's iPhones, the Galaxy S24 Plus and the Pixel 9 Pro and Pro XL. Trying to figure out which one is the iPhone has become more confusing than ever, as they all feel similar in build. The best way to verify at a glance is looking at their camera arrays or my wallpaper. All that is to say that the iPhone 16 Pro feels similar to its predecessor, which is what these other companies have been attempting to emulate. Apple would be right to feel flattered by this imitation, and yet I have to wonder if it's time to do something different. Google's Pixel 9 Pro is actually a whole six grams lighter than the iPhone 16 Pro at 221 grams (7.79 ounces), and I'm absolutely smitten by its rich pink hue and shiny edges. Though I like the new golden Desert color for the iPhone 16 Pro, I do wish Apple's premium flagship had more fun and vibrant exteriors. That said, I do love the base iPhone 16 in pink, teal and Ultramarine. Brian Oh for Engadget Camera control is (not) just a button Arguably the biggest change to the iPhone 16 lineup, not to mention the iPhone 16 Pro, is the introduction of Camera Control. This is a button on the right side of the device, which has touch and pressure sensors on it to enable greater control with swipes and semi-presses. (That's in addition to the Action Button on the top left that was added to last year's Pros, and carries over to the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, too.) One of the things this was supposed to do was let you push lightly on the button to trigger focus, similar to what half pressing a DSLR shutter button would do. That function won't be available at launch, so I can't say if it's effective. But by and large, Camera Control is a very Apple approach to a feature that has been around for years. From phones by Sony and Nokia with dedicated shutter buttons to Android handsets with hardware-based double-click shortcuts, the notion of quick access to your camera without having to futz with the screen is a popular one. For good reason, too - I've hated having to swipe or long-press the icon on my iPhone's lock screen in the past, and even though I could set the iPhone 15 Pro's Action button to open the camera, it just wasn't positioned well and I'd have to give up my mute button. So Apple isn't breaking new ground with its hardware shortcut for a frequently used app. But it does do a few things differently with the touch sensor. You can swipe on it to tweak things like exposure, zoom levels and tone, and the half-press still works as a way to select options or go back out of menus within the new Camera Control interface. In theory, it's a nice way to make changes on the fly. In reality, there were a few issues, and they largely have to do with placement. The button sits a little farther from the base of the phone than I'd like, so my fingers have to reach a bit more to press it, whether I was in landscape or portrait mode. This wasn't usually a problem when I had both hands free and could steady the iPhone with my other hand and readjust my grip. But if you're trying to take a quick shot with just one hand, the button's location can feel unintuitive. Of course, everyone has different finger lengths and ratios, so it's entirely possible that other people find this logical. It also depends on your grip - if you're cradling the bottom of the device in your palm, it's harder to maneuver. If you're covering part of the screen and reaching for the button head on, it's slightly easier to use camera control. Brian Oh for Engadget Still, even for those with the strongest claws, swiping and half-pressing and double-half-pressing on the sensor is tricky. I was only ever really able to do that if I had my thumb holding up the bottom edge and my middle, ring and little fingers steadying the right end of the phone. Maybe this is a new camera grip I just need to relearn for this button. The awkward placement is a minor gripe compared to what I found most annoying: the button's touch sensor. Not only was it difficult to swipe through different settings when holding the device with one hand, it also reacts to accidental touches and swipes. Sometimes, the phone would slide down my palm and change the exposure or zoom level, completely ruining the vibe. I should point out that you can go into accessibility settings to either tweak the swipe sensitivity or turn it off altogether, if it really bothers you. Honestly, if you're planning on making adjustments with Camera Control, it's best to have time, patience and both hands free. In those situations, I had a lot of fun editing settings and watching them be reflected in the viewfinder in real time. I also liked zooming in and out of subjects, recomposing a shot and tweaking exposure till I liked what I saw, before then pushing down to snap the picture. (This action does lead to some small issues, but more on the actual photo quality later.) I especially loved this while recording video, since it makes slowly zooming in or out of a subject smoother than using the onscreen slider. Then again, for scenarios where I just want to fire off a quick shot without worrying about exposure or zoom settings, the pain of finagling with the sensor mostly goes away. In exchange, being able to rapidly snap pictures is a joy. I found myself taking more pictures than ever thanks to camera control, which if you know me is a feat worthy of the Guinness Book of Records. A random person cut me off in line? Click. Funny sign on a building I pass by in a Lyft? Click, click. From your lock screen, you'll have to press the button twice - once to wake the phone up and once to open the camera. Then press again to take the photo. It's not ideal, but not too far off the same process on a Pixel phone, for instance. Plus, you can long-press the iPhone's button to start recording a video, and it'll automatically stop when you let go. Cherlynn Low for Engadget This sort of rapid access to the camera is the best thing about the new button, and I could see it being potentially useful not just for shutterbugs like me, but for the upcoming Visual Intelligence feature that Apple teased at its launch event. The company's version of Google Lens could allow people to ask questions about things in the real world around them. But of course, since this wasn't available during my review period, I wasn't able to test it. For now, you can go into Settings to either change the number of clicks it takes to trigger the camera app, remap it to a Code scanner or the Magnifier tool or disable it altogether. Since you can also set up the Action button to do these things, you have more choices now over where you want your camera shortcut or free up the former volume slider to do something else. The iPhone 16 Pro: Fusion camera for fast and slow moments Even if you're not a glutton for buttons, there are still some camera updates that might intrigue you. This year's flagships sport what Apple calls a 48-megapixel Fusion Camera, which has a faster quad-pixel sensor. This enables what the company describes as zero shutter lag," which is wording it has used repeatedly over the years. In this case, it's referring to how quickly the camera will capture a shot after you press the shutter button (onscreen or hardware). I will admit I was initially confused by this update, in part because it requires relearning some behaviors I had adopted to mitigate the shortfalls of older cameras. Basically, the iPhone 16 Pro's cameras are now so fast that when I asked someone to throw something so I could capture it in motion to see how still the images were, my shots ended up being of the person holding the object. Our video producer and I were very confused, and it wasn't until the zero shutter lag" concept was explained clearer to me that I got it. I had become used to pressing the shutter early since cameras, in my experience, would be fractions of a second slow. Apple has become so fast that it actually captured the literal moment I tapped the button, instead of the split second after, when the object was in mid-air. Brian Oh for Engadget This is going to change how people take jump shots, I'm sure, but basically if you and your friends are taking pictures of yourselves floating in the sky, the photographer doesn't have to hit capture before telling you to jump. I know this is a very specific and silly example, but it's also the most relatable illustration of how much quicker the Fusion camera is. Also, why can't camera stories be silly and fun? That's what a lot of the best moments in life are, and some of the new features are great in those situations. The support for 4K video at 120 fps in Dolby Vision, for example, led to some beautiful high-quality, rich and colorful clips of my friend's adorable pomeranian trotting along on a walk. Her little tongue slowly peeking out as she bounded towards the camera looked crisp and smooth when I played it back at 25 percent and 20 percent speeds, too. The iPhone 16's new Photographic Styles are excellent Depending on your mood, the new Photographic Styles can be fun or serious. Apple's tweaked the built-in camera filters to not only offer more options but give you greater control. Due to how the company has refined its processing each year, there's also an improved depth map captured when it detects a face in the scene. This, combined with a greater focus on color science around skintone, has led to what might be my favorite new iPhone 16 feature. Whether I shot them in Portrait mode or not, photos of people that I took using the iPhone 16 Pro were a dream to edit. Simply switching between the Standard, Natural, Luminous, Quiet or Ethereal styles already resulted in improvements to the colors and shadow, but I could also tap on each thumbnail to access the new editing touchpad and drag a dot around. This let me more precisely tweak the hues and contrast levels, and an additional slider below let me adjust how warm the image was. Cherlynn Low for Engadget An ugly selfie with my cousin in the hideous overhead lights of a meeting room became a beautiful snapshot after I switched to the Ethereal or Luminous styles. Both of those are quickly becoming my favorites, but I'm more impressed with how well Apple was able to segment the subject from the background. In almost every shot I edited, adjusting the slider mostly only changed the background, keeping people and their complexions within the realm of reality instead of applying harsh oversaturation or extreme contrast levels to them. They also added a background blur that lent a pleasant soft focus effect, and most of the time the system accurately identified outlines of people in the scene. Perhaps my favorite part is the fact that you can change between styles after you've shot the photo on the iPhone 16. As someone who dwells on her Instagram filters and edit tools for some time before each post, I definitely appreciate how much nicer Apple's versions are and only wish I could retroactively apply them to photos I had taken at a recent wedding. Alas, since the edits are dependent on information captured when the photos were taken, these new retouching features will only work for pictures taken with an iPhone 16 or 16 Pro. Audio Mix on the iPhone 16 is... mixed One final camera update I'll touch on before telling you about actual photo quality is Audio Mix. This uses the spatial audio now recorded by default with the new studio mics on the iPhone 16 Pro (or even the system on the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus) to understand the direction of sound sources in your footage. Then, when you edit the clip, you can choose between Standard, In-frame, Studio and Cinematic mixes, as well as drag a slider to reduce background noise. You'll have to be recording in fairly specific acoustic scenarios to get the most out of Audio Mix. I tested it in a variety of situations, like my cousin talking on his phone on a busy New York street, me interviewing my fellow gym buddies after a tiring workout with the background music quietly playing or my friend talking to me while his wife talks about something else off-camera in their fairly quiet kitchen. For the most part, going to Cinematic or Studio modes from Standard resulted in a noticeable reduction in environmental noise. My favorite is Studio, which generally seemed to improve voice clarity as well, making people sound like they could be talking on a podcast. In-frame, however, rarely did what I expected and occasionally produced some warped distortion. It appears there might need to be more distance between various sources of sound for this to work best, and I have to spend more time testing to better understand this tool. You can check out our review video for examples of a clip with different audio mixes, but for now, while the promised improvements aren't what I expected, there at least appears to be some benefit to Audio Mix. Cherlynn Low for Engadget The iPhone 16 Pro's photos versus the Pixel 9 Pro On to the actual photos and how they hold up against the competition. I've long considered Google's Pixel phones to be the gold standard in smartphone photography, since I prefer the company's color and detail processing. I know some people feel that Google tends to oversharpen, so bear in mind that, as with most things, your preference may be different from mine. When I compared photos I took with both phones on the same laptop screen, the differences were minimal. Occasionally, Google would expose better, being more able to retain shadows near a bright light source than the iPhone 16 Pro. But the Pixel's nightscape shots had more light leakage into the sky, whereas Apple was more adept at keeping the background dark against the outline of a skyscraper. Honestly at this point we're really nitpicking and pixel-peeping to find differences. Both companies deliver great cameras, and though I still prefer Google's approach to Portrait shots, Apple has been slowly but surely closing the gap with improvements to its depth maps every year. I will mention, though, that a lot more of the photos I shot on the iPhone 16 Pro came out blurrier than the Pixel 9 Pro, and it might have to do with the fact that I was using the Camera Control to snap them. This was the issue I alluded to earlier, where using a physical button to take a picture is more likely to introduce shake than a software shutter. It's not like Samsung or Google phones are immune to this problem, though I will say that the way Camera Control is built, where the recessed button depresses into the phone's frame, does leave it a bit more vulnerable to this than, say, using a volume rocker might. Cherlynn Low for Engadget Oh and finally, a quick note for my Gen Z readers: I know how much you all prefer flash photography compared to night modes in low light scenarios. (Thanks to my much younger cousin for the valuable insight.) I've done the testing and can say that I prefer Google's Pixel 9 Pro for its software, warmer flash compared to the iPhone 16 Pro's, which is stronger and brighter, leading to my face looking washed out. iOS 18 is here, but not Apple Intelligence It's been about two months since the public beta for iOS 18 was released, and it was nice to get a taste of upcoming features like the new customizable home pages, expanded Tapback reactions and the redesigned Photos app. With the iPhone 16 launch, iOS 18 is basically ready for primetime... with some caveats. This year, more than ever, it's hard to figure out what's coming to your iPhone and what isn't. With the release of Apple Intelligence slated for October, features like writing tools, Cleanup for photos and the redesigned Siri won't be ready till next month. And even then, your non-pro iPhone 15 won't be compatible. Plus, some features that were teased at WWDC, like Genmoji, still haven't been added to the iOS 18.1 developer beta, which is where most Apple Intelligence features have been arriving as a preview for app makers. Within the iPhone 16 lineup, too, there are things coming only to the Pro models, like multilayer recording in Voice Memos. It's confusing, and can make choosing your iPhone a trickier decision. But for this review, at least the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max are getting everything. I cannot wait to try out multi-track recording in Voice Memos, and I hope Apple sees this yearning as a sign that it should bring this to more devices. It was nice to get time with iOS 18, even in the absence of Apple Intelligence. Honestly, I'm not even sure I'd like those features that much. In a similar way, Gemini AI was nice on the Pixel 9 Pro series, but didn't feel like must-haves. Some of the new iOS 18 touches I noticed immediately were the refreshed Control Center, which took some getting used to as I had to re-learn how to swipe back to the home page, since there are more pages to scroll through now. I especially enjoyed seeing the new little chat bubble appear on my voice recordings, indicating that a transcript had been generated for them. And though I haven't exchanged messages with Android-toting friends yet, I'm glad to see RCS support is finally live this week. Brian Oh for Engadget Though I was excited for the new custom routes tool in Maps, I struggled to actually create them. You can set your start and end points and have the app close the loop for you, or just tap landmarks or points on the map to get the route to basically connect the dots. Unfortunately, no matter how many times I tried to get the route to cut through a building where I knew a pedestrian walkway existed, Maps resisted me at every turn, forcing the route to go through more established (and therefore more crowded) paths instead. It's not unreasonable, but certainly not the open-world route-creation feature I was envisioning. The best thing about iOS 18, and also some new features in the iPhone 16 lineup (like in the camera controls) is the customizability. I do appreciate that if you don't like something, you can usually turn it off. With the new ability to place apps outside of a rigid grid, you can now lay your home screen out just the way you like. The redesigned Photos app lets you create and pin collections so you can more easily find the pictures most important to you. And again, I'm glad Apple is giving people the option to turn off Camera Control altogether or adjust its sensitivity. Performance and battery life The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max are powered by Apple's A18 Pro chip, which are built on second-generation 3-nanometer technology and [feature] a new architecture with smaller, faster transistors." All this is meant to deliver unprecedented efficiency," according to Apple's press release. Some small software glitches aside, I've never run into slowdown on the iPhone 16 Pro, but I was certainly surprised by the smaller handset's battery life. In general, the iPhone 16 Pro would barely last a full day, which is reminiscent of the iPhone 15 Pro, too. It's worth noting that before this review I was primarily using an iPhone 15 Pro Max as my daily driver, which usually gets through a day and a half with no problem, so the drop in endurance is even more pronounced for me. Most days, I'd pick up the iPhone 16 Pro at about 9AM and would get to about 9pm before getting low battery alerts. If I started the day a bit later, closer to 11AM for instance, I got to 1am before the iPhone 16 Pro ran completely dry. On Sunday, I unplugged the phone at about 9:30AM and was shocked on the train home to get a warning that remaining power was at just 20 percent. It was only 6:50PM, and the night had barely just started! You'll get significantly better battery life on the iPhone 16 Pro Max, which delivers the same almost two-day runtime as its predecessor. And sure, a phone with a smaller battery not lasting as long makes mathematical sense. But considering the Pixel 9 Pro is a comparably sized handset and manages to last about two days, there's no excuse for the iPhone 16 Pro to conk out before the night is up. Brian Oh for Engadget Which iPhone 16 should you get? One of the best things about the iPhone 16 Pro lineup is that, unlike last year, there isn't much of a tradeoff in cameras if you opt for the smaller device. The iPhone 15 Pro Max had a 5x telephoto zoom camera, while the iPhone 15 Pro only went up to 3x. As a budding photographer of skittish wild animals, I opted for the Max, especially since it was much lighter than its predecessor thanks to the titanium build. With the iPhone 16 Pro having essentially the same camera system as the Pro Max, I thought it was time for me to go back to a size that was much easier on my hands. Alas, with the disappointing battery performance, I might just have to stick with a Max, and you might too. There's also the non-Pro iPhone 16 models to consider, and you can check out my colleague Billy Steele's review of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus for more details. Just as there were fewer differences than ever between the Pro and Pro Max, the tradeoffs aren't as significant this year, either. Apple brought the previously Pro-exclusive Action button to the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, while also including the Camera Control on its less-premium phones. The main things that set the two lines apart this year are processors, screen quality, camera sensors and onboard mics. You'll lose support for ProRaw photos and multi-layer recording by opting for the cheaper devices, too. Basically, if you want all the best features Apple has to offer, or you plan on using your phone to create high-quality videos and get 5x telephoto zoom in your photos, the Pros are the way to go. Otherwise, you'll still have all the iOS 18 and Apple Intelligence features coming to the Pros, as well as spatial audio recording, which enables the Audio Mix I described in the camera section earlier. Cherlynn Low for Engadget Wrap up Apple's caution is sometimes warranted. Especially at a time when mistrust of AI-generated content runs rampant, the company taking its time to get Apple Intelligence right is understandable. But its deliberation doesn't always lead to winners. While I appreciate the attempt to differentiate camera control with the touch sensor for more versatility, I'm not yet convinced of its usefulness. The good news is, and I cannot stress this enough, you have the option to tune it to your liking. And that's a theme I'm seeing in recent Apple features that hint at more thoughtfulness than usual. If you don't like something, or if something isn't right for your needs, you can adjust or disable it. In iOS 18, you have greater control over your home screen's app layout and can pin custom collections for easier reach in the Photos app. The Action button introduced last year could have been a spectacular fail had Apple not let you still keep it as a mute switch, but it managed to give people more functionality while maintaining the status quo for those who are just as resistant to change. Change is scary. Change is hard. But without change there is no progress. Apple's cautious approach is a tricky balancing act that's evident on the iPhone 16 Pro. Some new features, like Audio Mix and custom routes in Maps, deliver mixed results. Others, like Photographic Styles, are hits. Then there are the basic ingredients, like good battery life and durable, attractive designs, that Apple cannot neglect. The iPhone 16 Pro's subpar battery life holds it back from beating the competition, which is stiffer than ever this year, especially from Google. Luckily for Apple, most people who have iPhones are going to stick with iPhones - it's just easier. For those already sucked into the ecosystem, the iPhone 16 Pro (and particularly the Pro Max) are worth the upgrade from a model that's at least two years old. If you already have an iPhone 15 Pro (or even a 14 Pro), for the sake of our planet and your wallet, you might prefer to hold off on upgrading, especially since this year's devices aren't that much different.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/iphone-16-pro-and-pro-max-review-apple-focuses-on-cameras-and-customization-120052459.html?src=rss
The regular" iPhone has become like a second child. Year after year, this model has gotten the hand-me-downs from the previous version of the iPhone Pro - the older, smarter sibling. The iPhone 15 received the iPhone 14 Pro's Dynamic Island and A16 Bionic processor, and the iPhone 14 before that got the A15 Bionic chip and a larger Plus variant with the same screen size as the iPhone 13 Pro Max. For the iPhone 16 ($799 & up), there are trickle-down items once more. But this time around, that's not the entire story for the Apple phone that's the best option for most people. Surprisingly, Apple gave some of the most attractive features it has for 2024 to both the regular and Pro iPhones at the same time. This means you won't have to wait a year to get expanded camera tools and another brand new button. Sure, Apple Intelligence is still in the works, but that's the case for the iPhone 16 Pro too. The important thing there is that the iPhone 16 is just as ready when the AI features arrive. So, for perhaps the first time - or at least the first time in years - Apple has closed the gap between the iPhone and iPhone Pro in a significant way. ProRAW stills and ProRES video are still exclusive to the priciest iPhones, and a new studio-quality" four-microphone setup is reserved for them too. Frustratingly, you'll still have to spend more for a 120Hz display. But, as far as the fun new tools that will matter to most of us, you won't have to worry about missing out this time. New buttons, new bump, old design Another year has passed and we still don't have a significant redesign for any iPhone, let alone the base-level model. As such, I'll spend my time here discussing what's new. Apple was content to add new colors once again, opting for a lineup of ultramarine (blueish purple), teal, pink, white and black. The colors are bolder than what was available on the iPhone 15, although I'd like to see a blue and perhaps a bright yellow or orange. Additionally, there's no Product Red option once again - we haven't seen that hue since the iPhone 14. The main change in appearance on the iPhone 16 is the addition of two new buttons. Of course, one of those, the reconfigurable action button above the volume rockers, comes from the Pro-grade iPhones. By default, the control does the task of the switch it replaces: activating silent mode. But, you can also set the action button to open the camera, turn on the flashlight, start a Voice Memo, initiate a Shazam query and more. You can even assign a custom shortcut if none of the presets fit your needs. While Apple undoubtedly expanded the utility of this switch by making it customizable, regular iPhone users will have to get used to the fact that the volume control is no longer the top button on the left. This means that when you reach for the side to change the loudness, you'll need to remember it's the middle and bottom buttons. Of course, the action button is smaller than the other two, so with some patience you can differentiate them by touch. Billy Steele for Engadget Near the bottom of the right side, there's a new Camera Control button for quick access to the camera and its tools. A press will open the camera app from any screen, and a long press will jump straight to 4K Dolby Vision video capture at 60 fps. Once you're there, this button becomes a touch-sensitive slider for things like zoom, exposure and lens selection. With zoom, for example, you can scroll through all of the options with a swipe. Then with a double light press," which took a lot of practice to finally master, you can access the other options. Fully pressing the button once will take a photo - you won't have to lift a finger to tap the onscreen buttons. Around back, Apple rearranged the cameras so they're stacked vertically instead of diagonally. It's certainly cleaner than the previous look, and the company still favors a smaller bump in the top left over something that takes up more space or spans the entire width of the rear panel (Hi Google). The key reason the company reoriented the rear cameras is to allow for spatial photos and videos, since the layout now enables the iPhone 16 to capture stereoscopic info from the Fusion and Ultra Wide cameras. Photographic stylin' The iPhone 16 and 16 Plus have a new 48-megapixel Fusion camera that packs a quad-pixel sensor for high resolution and fine detail. Essentially, it's two cameras in one, combining - or fusing, hence the name - a 48MP frame and a 12MP one that's fine-tuned for light capture. By default, you'll get a 24MP image, one that Apple says offers the best mix of detail, low-light performance and an efficient file size. There's also a new anti-reflective coating on the main (and ultrawide) camera to reduce flares. The 12MP ultrawide camera got an upgrade too. This sensor now has a faster aperture and larger pixels, with better performance in low-light conditions. There's a new macro mode, unlocked by autofocus and able to capture minute detail. This is one of my favorite features as sharp images of smaller objects have never been in the iPhone camera's arsenal (only the Pros), and the macro tool has worked well for me so far. The iPhone 16, like its predecessors, takes decent stills. You'll consistently get crisp, clean detail in well-lit shots and realistic color reproduction that doesn't skew too warm or too cool. At a concert, I noticed that the iPhone 16's low-light performance is noticeably better than the iPhone 15. Where the previous model struggled at times in dimly lit venues, my 2x zoom shots with this new model produced better results. There wasn't a marked improvement across the board, but most of the images were certainly sharper. Macro mode on the iPhone 16 camera is excellent. Billy Steele for Engadget The most significant update to the camera on the iPhone 16 is Photographic Styles. Apple has more computational image data from years of honing its cameras, so the system has a better understanding of skin tones, color, highlights and shadows. Plus, the phone is able to process all of this in real time, so you can adjust skin undertones and mood styles before you even snap a picture. Of course, you can experiment with them after shooting, and you can also assign styles to a gallery of images simultaneously. Photographic Styles are massively expanded and way more useful, especially when you use them to preview a shot before you commit. My favorite element of the updated workflow is a new control pad where you can swipe around to adjust tone and color. There's also a slider under it to alter the color intensity of the style you've selected. For me, the new tools in Photographic Styles make me feel like I don't need to hop over to another app immediately to edit since I have a lot more options available right in the Camera app. As I've already mentioned, Camera Control is handy for getting quick shots, and the touch-sensitivity is helpful with settings, but I have some gripes with the button. Like my colleague Cherlynn Low mentioned in her iPhone 16 Pro review, the placement causes issues depending on how you hold your phone, and may lead to some inadvertent presses. You can adjust the sensitivity of the button, or disable it entirely, which is a customization you might want to explore. What's more, the touch-enabled sliding controls are more accurately triggered if you hold the phone with your thumbs along the bottom while shooting. So, this means you may need to alter your grip for prime performance. Like I noted earlier, the new camera layout enables spatial capture of both video and photos on the iPhone 16. This content can then be viewed on Apple Vision Pro, with stills in the HEIC format and footage at 1080p/30fps. It's great that this isn't reserved for the iPhone 16 Pro, but the downside (for any iPhone) is file size. When you swipe over to Spatial Mode in the camera app, you'll get a warning that a minute of spatial video is 130MB and a single spatial photo is 5MB. I don't have one of Apple's headsets, so I didn't spend too much time here since the photos and videos just appear normal on an iPhone screen. I'd argue the most significant advantage of Spatial Mode is Audio Mix. Here, the iPhone 16 uses the sound input from the spatial capture along with advanced intelligence" to isolate a person's voice from background noise. There are four options for Audio Mix, offering different methods for eliminating or incorporating environmental sounds. Like Cherlynn discovered on the iPhone 16 Pro, I found the Studio and Cinematic options work best, with each one taking a different approach to background noise. The former makes it sound like the speaker is in a studio while the latter incorporates environmental noise in surround sound with voices focused in the center - like in a movie. However, like her, I quickly realized I need a lot more time with this tool to get comfortable with it. iOS 18 is still waiting on Apple Intelligence Billy Steele for Engadget Apple proudly proclaimed the iPhone 16 is "built for Apple Intelligence," but you'll have to wait a while longer to use it. That means things like AI-driven writing tools, summaries of audio transcripts, a prioritized inbox and more will work on the base iPhone 16 when they arrive, so you won't need a Pro to use them. Genmoji and the Clean Up photo-editing assist are sure to be popular as well, and I'm confident we're all ready for a long overdue Siri upgrade. There's a lot to look forward to, but none of it is ready for the iPhone 16's debut. The iOS 18.1 public beta arrived this week, so we're inching closer to a proper debut. Sure, it would've been nice for the excitement around the new iPhones to include the first crack at Apple's AI. But, I'd rather the company fine-tune things before a wider release to make sure Apple Intelligence is fully ready and, more importantly, fully reliable. Google has already debuted some form of AI on its Pixel series, so Apple is a bit behind. I don't mind waiting longer for a useful tool than rushing a company into making buggy software. What will be available on launch day is iOS 18, which delivers a number of handy updates to the iPhone, and many of which deal with customization. For the first time, Apple is allowing users to customize more than the layout on their Home Screen. You can now apply tint and color to icons, resize widgets and apps and lock certain apps to hide sensitive info. Those Lock Screen controls can also be customized for things you use most often, which is more handy now since the iPhone 16 has a dedicated camera button on its frame. There's a big overhaul to the Photos app too, mostly focused on organization, that provides a welcome bit of automatization. Performance and battery life The iPhone 16 uses Apple's new A18 chip with a 6-core CPU and 5-core GPU. There's also a 16-core Neural Engine, which is the same as both the iPhone 15 and the iPhone 16 Pro. With the A18, the base-level iPhone jumped two generations ahead compared to the A16 Bionic inside the iPhone 15. The new chip provides the necessary horsepower for Apple's AI and demanding camera features like Photographic Styles and the Camera Control button. I never noticed any lag on the iPhone 15, even with resource-heavy tasks, and those shouldn't be a problem on the iPhone 16, either. But, we'll have to wait and see how well the iPhone 16 handles Apple Intelligence this fall. Of course, the A18 is more efficient than its predecessors, which is a benefit that extends to battery life. Apple promises up to 22 hours of local video playback on the iPhone 16 and up to 27 hours on the 16 Plus. For streaming video, those numbers drop to 18 and 24 hours respectively, and they're all slight increases from the iPhone 15 and 15 Pro. Starting at 7AM, I ran my battery test on the iPhone 16 and had 25 percent left at midnight. That's doing what I'd consider normal" use: a mix of calls, email, social, music and video. I also have a Dexcom continuous glucose monitor (CGM) that's running over Bluetooth and I used the AirPods 4 several times during the day. And, of course, I was shooting photos and a few short video clips to test out those new features. While getting through the day with no problem is good, I'd love it if I didn't have to charge the iPhone every night, or rely on low-power mode to avoid doing so. On a related note, Apple has increased charging speeds via MagSafe, where you can get a 50 percent top up in around 30 minutes via 25W charging from a 30W power adapter or higher. Wrap-up With the iPhone 16, Apple has almost closed the gap between its best phone for most people and the one intended for the most demanding power users. It's a relief to not pine for what could be coming on the iPhone 17 since a lot of the new features on the iPhone 16 Pro are already here. And while some of them will require time to master, it's great that they're on the iPhone 16 at all. There are some Pro features you'll still have to spend more for, like ProRAW photos, ProRES video, a 120Hz display, a 5x telephoto camera and multi-track recording in Voice Memos. But those are luxuries not everyone needs. For this reason, the regular iPhone will likely suit your needs just fine, since splurging on the high-end model has become more of an indulgence than a necessity. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/apple-iphone-16-and-iphone-16-plus-review-closing-the-gap-to-the-pro-120050824.html?src=rss
To commemorate PlayStation's 30 years in the game, Sony revealed some nostalgia-tinged redesigns of both the PS5 and the forthcoming PS5 Pro. With that classic gray colorway and the old-school logo, there's a similarly styled DualSense controller and even a chunky retro-designed cable wrapped around the typical USB-C connector.SonyThe PS5 Pro bundle even includes a standard controller, a DualSense Edge and a retro cover for the optional disc drive and the charging stand. Even the PlayStation Portal is getting a 1994 colorway.Pre-orders start on September 26 through the company and at participating retailers, launching on November 21. Sony has me trapped: Design it in the colors of my childhood gaming memories, and I will probably buy it - especially when early impressions of the PS5 Pro show it could be capable of some leaps in game engine performance.- Mat SmithThe biggest tech stories you missed
At its in-person fan event for Geeked Week this year, Netflix has shown teasers and sneak peeks of its upcoming shows, including the second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender. In addition to revealing that the new season is already in production, Netflix has also announced that Miya Cech (Are You Afraid of the Dark?) is playing earthbending master Toph.
During Netflix's Geeked Week event, some more details about Monument Valley 3 emerged. Developer Ustwo Games says the long-awaited sequel builds on its predecessors in several ways, especially in terms of the gameplay, art style and story.Perhaps the biggest change in Monument Valley 3 is the introduction of sailing. You'll be able to move the boat in almost any direction and, as such, "the game is no longer restricted to geometric spaces," game director Jennifer Estaris said during a call with reporters. Along with unfolding cubes that shift new protagonist Noor onto different planes, Monument Valley 3 is in large part about "deconstructing what we know," Estaris said.Naturally, those changes allow for fresh puzzles and visuals as players navigate impossible-looking, MC Escher-style architectural spaces. Aligned with that, Ustwo has evolved the art style with softer and more abstract shapes (you are going to be navigating rivers after all). The result is something that looks very familiar, but like a hazy memory. Meanwhile, the soundtrack from an 18-piece orchestra might just stir up some emotions.While the original game was about forgiveness and its sequel was a coming-of-age tale, Monument Valley 3 focuses on the themes of hope, togetherness and resilience. Noor is a lighthouse keeper's apprentice who is tasked with searching for a new source of power before light fades away from the world forever. It's the "most ambitious story" to date for a Monument Valley game, according to Ustwo marketing manager Jamie Wotton.All three Monument Valley games are standalone titles with their own stories. That means you'll be able to glide right into Monument Valley 3 without playing the previous two entries. But there's plenty of time to check those out first (or revisit them). You won't have to pay extra for those mobile gaming classics if you have a Netflix subscription. There are no ads or in-app purchases in the company's games.Monument Valley is available to Netflix subscribers on iOS and Android starting today, and its sequel will arrive on the service on October 29. Monument Valley 3 will then debut as a Netflix mobile exclusive on December 10.Netflix revealed some other mobile gaming news during Geeked Week. Its multiplayer take on Battleship(which includes special weapons and ranked modes) will drop on September 24. Subscribers will soon be able to play Civilization IV and Street Fighter IV CE on their mobile devices at no extra cost - the Netflix version of the latter will offer cross-play between iOS and Android.Meanwhile, Netflix provided another peek at Squid Game: Unleashed before that multiplayer tie-in game arrives later this year. Last but not least, there was a first look at Blood Line: A Rebel Moon Game, based on Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon movies. The Netflix-exclusive co-op action game from Vainglory developer Super Evil Megacorp will debut in 2025.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/monument-valley-3-breaks-the-series-old-boundaries-by-adding-a-sailboat-013638578.html?src=rss
The ripples from Concord's seismic implosion are still fanning out since Sony decided to take the game offline earlier this month. Now, the game's director has reportedly decided to bow out gracefully. Kotaku reported that game director Ryan Ellis of Firewalk Studios told staff members that he's stepping down from his position. Ellis, who cofounded Firewalk after a stint as the creative director of Destiny 2, will remain with the studio but only in a support role.Meanwhile, the staff at Firewalk are still waiting to hear what Sony plans to do with their underperforming game. Just two weeks after Concord's release, Sony pulled the team shooter offline on September 6 and issued refunds to everyone who bought the game for the PlayStation 5 or PC from Steam and the Epic Games Store. Sony said in a statement that it pulled the game in order to explore options, including those that will better reach our players." Naturally, Kotaku reports that a lot of Firewalk's staffers are worried about the status of their jobs in the wake of Concord's disappointing release.The extremely poor sales of Concord make it one of the biggest bombs in industry history. Analysts estimate that it only sold 25,000 copies on Steam and for PS5 in its first six days.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/concords-disastrous-launch-reportedly-leads-to-its-directors-self-demotion-215515013.html?src=rss
Get ready to question humanity's control over the technology that surrounds us because another season of Netflix's Black Mirror is in the works. Earlier today, the official Black Mirror X page revealed the cast of the new season coming next year along with some other interesting clues and Easter eggs.The video features an old, flickering computer screen that appears to unload a complete data dump of the entire cast for season 7. Some of the names that jumped out at us includes Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti, Doctor Who star and Oscar winner Peter Capaldi (he won in 1995 with his live action short film Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life), Awkwafina, Issa Rae, Tracee Ellis Ross and Rashida Jones.The list also included some of the cast who played virtual crew members of the USS Callister from the iconic fourth season episode of the same name. The names from the USS Callister episode that appeared on the list include Cristin Milioti, Jimmi Simpson, Billy Magnussen, Milanka Brooks and Osy Ikhile.We've known for a while now that series creator Charlie Brooker has been planning to revisit the crew of the USS Callister. The season 4 opening episode starred Jesse Plemmons as the chief technology officer named Robert of a top tier game studio and a big fan of a Star Trek-esque TV show called Space Fleet. By day, he gets pushed around and little credit for the company's success from his colleagues and staff. He uses immersive virtual reality technology to play as Space Fleet Capt. Robert Dalyaway from work on a virtual starship and takes out his frustrations and anger on the crew in increasingly cruel and inhumane ways. The crew members were replicated in the game using his boss and staff members' DNA that Robert obtained without their permission or knowledge. The crew revolt and escape to the open Internet while leaving a seething Capt. Robert" stranded in the game.
An Austin-based startup best known for its VR and mixed reality workspace software for other companies' headsets now has hardware of its own. The Immersed Visor appears to sit somewhere between a Vision Pro Lite and Xreal Plus: a lightweight head-worn device that creates a high-resolution spatial computing environment on the cheap (well, relatively speaking).Teased to death for months, Immersed founder Renji Bijoy finally unveiled the Visor at an Austin event on Thursday. The device, a bit more than glasses but much less than a full headset, gives each eye the equivalent of a 4K OLED screen. It has a solid 100-degree field of view. It supports 6DoF tracking (meaning it responds to motion on different axes, not just simple head rotations), and it offers hand and eye tracking and support for over five screens in a virtual or mixed reality environment.ImmersedIn the presentation, Bijoy revealed that the Immersed Visor only weighs 186g, slightly less than an iPhone 16 Pro. It's 64 percent lighter than the Meta Quest 3 (515g) and around 70 percent lighter than the Apple Vision Pro (600 to 650g). Weight and ergonomics have been drawbacks for many early adopters of VR and mixed-reality tech. (That includes some customers of the $3,500 Vision Pro.) So, trimming the Visor's weight to about the same as a high-end smartphone could, in theory,help it succeed where competitors struggled. Part of that comes from (in borrowing a trick from Apple) a wired battery pack you stash in your pocket.But unlike those devices, the Immersed Visor doesn't include an app store or onboard experiences like games. Instead, it's tailored for work: link it to your Windows, macOS or Linux computer (wirelessly or wired), and get stuff done on its immersive array of virtual screens. Its 6DoF tracking means you can stand up, lean or twist, and the virtual screens will remain planted where you put them, rather than awkwardly following you through space.Like the company's workspace app for Meta Quest and Vision Pro, you can operate either in a passthrough view of your space or an entirely virtual one. (It includes pleasant virtual environments like a mountaintop ski resort by a cozy fire.) You can also work with others in a shared space.The device runs on the Qualcomm XR2+ Gen 2 chip, which debuted at CES 2024. The chip supports up to 4.3K per-eye resolution and can handle content up to 90fps.ImmersedImmersed has chosen an unconventional pricing scheme. The device starts at $1,050 to buy outright. But you can get it for $400 upfront if you agree to a subscription model: $40 monthly for 24 months or $60 monthly for a 12-month term. Oh, and that model doesn't ship until six months after" October, meaning April 2025. If you want a device that starts shipping next month - i.e., the Founder's Edition" - that price increases to $1,350 outright or $700 plus the monthly subscription fee (same prices as the later-shipping version).In theory, the Immersed Visor could hit a sweet spot for many spatial computing-curious folks who want something cheaper than the Vision Pro, with a higher resolution than the Meta Quest 3 and that's (perhaps) less like a beta product than Xreal's AR glasses. Whether it succeeds on those points, well, we won't have a clue until we get some hands-on time. As far as I can see, no major media outlets (including Engadget) have shared hands-on demos of the device. As this year's wave of absurdly hyped AI gadgets reminded us, big promises mean nothing if you end up with a $1,000 paperweight.You can watch the presentation below and, if it tickles your fancy, pre-order from Immersed's website.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/the-immersed-visor-aims-for-spatial-computings-sweet-spot-201031456.html?src=rss
One day after X started to come back online for some people in Brazil, the country's Supreme Court is threatening the social media company and Elon Musk-owned Starlink with hefty daily fines. In a new order posted online, Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered regulators to reactivate" blocking of X and said that the two companies could be hit with close $1 million a day in fines for not complying.The latest order from Moraes, who has been publicly sparring with Musk for months, comes after X became accessible again in Brazil for many users on Wednesday. The company said in an earlier statement the change was "an inadvertent and temporary service restoration" that happened as a result of changing network providers.Following Brazil's ban last month, X reportedly shifted to using Cloudflare's servers in the region, which made it more difficult for Brazilian ISPs to carry out the block. The company said Wednesday it made the change in network providers in order to to provide service to Latin America" and that it expected its service in Brazil to go offline again soon."Now, Moraes says that X could be fined the equivalent of $921,000 a day, beginning September 19, for each day of non-compliance" with the ban. Starlink, which previously saw its Brazilian bank accounts frozen amid the dispute, faces joint liability" if X doesn't pay, according to the order. Moraes also ordered the country's internet regulator to take immediate measures to prevent access to the platform by blocking the CDN Cloudflare, Fastly and EdgeUno' servers, and other similar ones, created to circumvent the court order that suspended the operation of the old Twitter in Brazil."X didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/brazil-threatens-daily-fines-for-x-and-starlink-for-non-compliance-with-ban-194542476.html?src=rss
Google has found another way to turn your eyeballs into money: by turning paused YouTube videos into a new real estate for ads. A YouTube communications manager told The Verge they've seen strong advertiser and strong reviewer responses" since they rolled out Pause ads to all advertisers."YouTube first started looking at using ads on pause screens in 2023 with select advertisers. Google's chief business officer Phillip Schindler announced last April that advertisers loved the new ad concept. YouTube's viewers aren't as enthusiastic about the idea.Reddit users posted screenshots of the new pause screen ads and to say they aren't happy with the ads is the understatement of the year.The new ads aren't just showing up on the website. Ads also pop up when you pause videos on the YouTube mobile app, according to others on the site.Pause screen ads are not a new concept. Streaming services like AT&T's DirecTV and Hulu show ads when the screen is paused if you have one of the lower tier subscription plans. Some Amazon products like the Fire tablets also show ads on the lock screen and Amazon announced last May that it plans to expand its ad space offerings for living-room devices, according to Amazon's official blog.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/youtube/youtube-is-now-showing-ads-when-you-pause-videos-193622495.html?src=rss
Autonomous vehicle outfit Cruise is slowly returning to operation in California following an incident in which a pedestrian was struck and dragged by a robotaxi for approximately 20 feet in October 2023. The company posted on X that it is reintroducing human-operated mapping vehicles to the streets in Mountain View and Sunnyvale. Its next stated goal is "to progress to supervised testing with up to 5 AVs later this fall."The past year has not been a pretty picture for Cruise, which was acquired by GM in 2016. On October 2 last year, a pedestrian in San Francisco was hit by a human driver who fled the scene, but the impact put her in the path of a Cruise driverless taxi that dragged her 20 feet and ultimately stopped on top of her leg. After the incident, Cruise was stripped of its license to operate autonomous vehicles in California. The company stopped all operations of both its driverless cars and its manned robotaxi service in order to engage in a comprehensive safety review.CEO Kyle Vogt resigned in November, followed by the exit of co-founder and chief product officer Daniel Kan. GM announced plans to slash Cruise's funding and to restructure leadership based on external safety reviews. Nine more members of Cruise leadership were dismissed in December, and nearly a quarter of the company's workforce was also cut that month. The final blow was an investigation by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission in January 2024, questioning whether the company failed to disclose additional details about the accident during reviews with regulators.Since then, however, Cruise has gradually been bouncing back. Vehicles with drivers returned to Arizona in April and to Houston in June. The re-emergence in Texas was paired with an announcement that GM would invest $850 million into Cruise in support of its operational costs. Now it's rejoined the California market, if in an extremely attenuated capacity. These new excursions have all been preliminary and none of the driverless cars have returned to the streets yet. But Cruise still has a long road ahead to prove its safety credentials and win back public trust.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/cruise-resumes-operations-in-california-thankfully-with-human-drivers-191522681.html?src=rss
The long-awaited PC port of God of War: Ragnarok is out. This comes nearly two years after the game was released for PS4 and PS5 to positive reviews. This is a pretty big deal on its own, but the port has a feature that not even the original console release had. Players can finally tell Kratos' son Atreus to shut the heck up, as first reported by Kotaku.In the original release, Atreus was like Ocarina of Time's Navi on Adderall. He was, in a word, talkative. Even worse? He tended to ruin puzzle solutions by offering up hints unprompted. Many players complained that this happened even when they weren't attempting a puzzle.In any event, the settings tab includes an option to reduce puzzle hints. This applies to the babbling Atreus, but also other companions throughout the game. I'm no game designer, but adding a mute button to some characters doesn't seem like a difficult fix. In other words, bring this to the console versions Sony. Digital children should be seen and not heard.The PC port also brings some other features to the table. There are now audio descriptions for the game's cinematics and a set of streamer gifs to use on Twitch or YouTube. Of course, the port integrates with both NVIDIA and AMD's upscaling tools, with support for ultrawide monitors. Let's hear it for playing games as nature intended, with a ridiculous aspect ratio of 32:9.The port needs a massive amount of hard drive space, anywhere from 175GB to 190GB, so start the install early in the morning for an afternoon play session. It's available now via Steam and the Epic Games Store. As a bit of bad news, the PC specs required to play this game are on the beefy side, so performance on the Steam Deck will likely be underwhelming. Redditors are saying that it runs, but is only playable in 30FPS on the lowest settings.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/god-of-war-ragnaroks-pc-port-is-out-and-it-fixes-one-of-the-games-most-annoying-quirks-185925455.html?src=rss
Apple Intelligence is edging closer to being ready for primetime. Apple has released the public beta of iOS 18.1, which includes some of the major generative AI features that the company has been talking up over the last few months.We'll have to wait a few more weeks for the public versions of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 18.1 to bring Apple Intelligence features to everyone with a compatible device. The public betas should be more stable and less risky to install than the developer betas, but it's still definitely worth backing up your data to your computer and/or iCloud before putting this build of iOS 18.1 on your iPhone.Right now, the only iPhones that support Apple Intelligence are the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, but that will change on Friday when Apple ships the iPhone 16 lineup. M-series iPads and Macs will support Apple Intelligence too.For now, you'll need to have your device and Siri language set to US English to access Apple Intelligence tools. If you want to use Apple Intelligence in a language other than English (or in a localized version of English), you may need to wait until at least December for the public versions of the operating systems that support it.Apple is gradually rolling out Apple Intelligence tools over the coming months, so not all of them will be available right away. The initial wave of features includes the ability to transcribe phone calls (and audio notes in the Notes app) and get summaries of the key details. Writing tools (rewriting, proofreading and summarizing), email prioritization and smart replies, notification summaries and photo clean up features are also on the docket. You'll be able to create memories in the revamped Photos apps and check out the first incarnation of the redesigned, glowing Siri (including the ability to type requests to the assistant).You'll need to wait longer for certain other features, including ChatGPT integration, Genmoji, Image Playground (i.e. image generation) and Siri's ability to better understand personal context. Apple will roll those out over the coming months.How to get the new Apple Intelligence featuresOn your iPhone, go to Settings > General > Software Update > Beta Updates and select the iOS 18 public beta option. Once the iOS 18.1 public beta is available for your device, you'll be able to see it on the software update page. You might need to free up some space before you can install the beta. To enable Apple Intelligence, go to Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > Join the Apple Intelligence waitlist.The public beta installation process is almost identical on iPad. On your Mac, you'll need to go to System Settings > General > Software Update. Click the info symbol next to the "Beta updates" option and you should be able to install the iOS 18.1 public beta from there when it's available.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/the-ios-181-public-beta-is-here-bringing-apple-intelligence-almost-to-the-masses-175248580.html?src=rss
Google is rolling out a really useful update for Google Password Manager, allowing users to sync passkeys across their many devices. Up until this point, folks could only save passkeys to Google Password Manager on Android, so the cross-device utility was limited. It was possible to use the passkeys on other devices, but it would require users to scan a QR code.The update allows for passkey saving via Google Password Manager on Windows, macOS, Linux and, of course, Android. ChromeOS is currently being beta tested, so that functionality should come sooner rather than later. Google also says that iOS support is coming soon."Once saved, the passkey automatically syncs across other devices using Google Password Manager. The company says this data is end-to-end encrypted, so it'll be pretty tough for someone to go in and steal credentials.For the uninitiated, a passkey is slightly different from a password. A passkey is a digital credential that allows users to sign in to an account without using a password. The company's been using passkeys across its software suite since last year.Today's update also brings another layer of security to passkeys on Google Password Manager. The company has introduced a six-digit PIN that will be required when using passkeys on a new device. This would likely stop nefarious actors from logging into an account even if they've somehow gotten ahold of the digital credentials. Just don't leave the PIN number laying on a sheet of paper directly next to the computer.Google passkeys can already be used with the company's productivity software, of course, but also with Amazon, PayPal and WhatsApp. Google Password Manager is built right into Chrome and Android devices.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/google-passkeys-can-now-sync-across-devices-on-multiple-platforms-160056596.html?src=rss
The FTC just published results of a sweeping study of social media sites that has been going on for four years. The organization said that many social media sites and streaming services engage in vast surveillance of consumers in order to monetize their personal information." This mass surveillance impacts adult users, but also children and teens.This isn't exactly surprising. After all, the old saying goes if you're not paying for the product, you are the product." Still, the study suggests a level of surveillance that could shock even the most cynical among us. According to the FTC, these entities collect and indefinitely retain troves of data." The companies also engage in broad data sharing" with woefully inadequate" security measures.The report also found that some companies didn't delete all user data in response to deletion requests. That's not a good look. Additionally, some companies were found to be using privacy-invasive technologies like tracking pixels to facilitate advertising to users based on preferences and interests."But wait, there's more. The report found that users (and even non-users) had little or no way to opt out of how their data was used by automated systems, like algorithms, data analytics and AI. The FTC found that these companies employed different, inconsistent and inadequate approaches to monitoring and testing the use" of these automated systems.Finally, the report found that social media and video streaming services didn't adequately protect children and teens on their sites." The study goes on to suggest that social media, and digital technology as a whole, contributes to negative mental health impacts on young users." This is nothing new, though some social media companies are putting tools in place to protect kids. Instagram just made it mandatory for teen accounts to include parental controls.The FTC says that all of these issues boil down to the profit models of the big social media and streaming companies. These business models mandate the mass collection of user data to monetize, especially through targeted advertising." This is in tension" with privacy concerns as, well, privacy doesn't make money.The study concludes that self-regulation has been a failure." To that end, the FTC has issued several recommendations to help solve these problems. It wants Congress to pass comprehensive privacy legislation to limit surveillance and to offer baseline protections." It also wants social media and streaming companies to limit data collection and data sharing with third parties.The FTC also recommends that these companies actually delete consumer data when it's no longer needed or upon request and to stop using invasive ad tracking technologies like pixels. It also wants these entities to address the overall lack of transparency regarding their methods. As for kids and teens, the FTC says these organizations should recognize teens are not adults and provide them greater privacy protections." Finally, it urges Congress to pass federal privacy legislation for teens over the age of 13.Again, none of this information is new, but it's pretty damning to see it all laid out this way. You can read the full report right here. The services involved in the study include X, TikTok, Reddit, Discord, Twitch, YouTube, Instagram and several others.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/sweeping-ftc-study-finds-that-social-media-sites-engage-in-vast-surveillance-of-its-users-155846997.html?src=rss
Amazon is joining Hollywood's top lobbying group as its seventh member. To be precise, Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios will become part of the Motion Picture Association on October 1, alongside six other heavy hitters in Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix (which became a member in 2019).Amazon was already involved with the MPA, having worked with its Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, an anti-piracy coalition, as a governing board member since 2017. MGM (which Amazon bought in 2022) was previously an MPA member from 1928 until 2005.The MPA is the global voice for a growing and evolving industry, and welcoming Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios to our ranks will broaden our collective policymaking and content protection efforts on behalf of our most innovative and creative companies," Charles Rivkin, MPA chairman and CEO, said in a statement. MPA studios fuel local economies, drive job creation, enrich cultures and bolster communities everywhere they work. With Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios among our roster of extraordinary members, the MPA will have an even larger voice for the world's greatest storytellers."Amazon's involvement with the MPA speaks to the foothold that the company has in entertainment. The fact that Amazon and Netflix are both members also highlights the major influence of streaming over the industry at large.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/amazon-joins-the-motion-picture-association-highlighting-its-power-in-hollywood-155129973.html?src=rss
Folks who like to escape to the block-filled, creeper-infested universe of Minecraft in virtual reality soon won't be able to do that on PlayStation VR. Developer Mojang is winding down support on that platform.Our ability to support PlayStation VR has come to an end, and will no longer be in updates after March of 2025," Mojang said in the latest Minecraft patch notes, as spotted by Eurogamer. You will no longer be able to use your PlayStation VR with Minecraft as it will no longer be supported in the latest updates."Mojang added PSVR support in 2020 as an update to the PS4 version of Minecraft - there hasn't been an equivalent update for PS5 and PS VR2 as yet. The studio says it will continue to update Minecraft on PS4. From this point on you can keep building in your worlds, and your Marketplace purchases (including Tokens) will continue to be available," the Microsoft-owned studio said. Still, if you really want to keep playing Minecraft on PSVR, you can use the headset to display PS4 games on a virtual 2D screen.It's not all that unusual for games that are constantly updated to wind down support on older platforms that players have drifted away from. It's typically not sustainable for studios to keep updating titles for the benefit of a dwindling audience. But the end of Minecraft on PSVR is still notable, not least because it's the best-selling game of all time. That said, you'll soon have a brand new way to experience the Minecraft universe, as a movie based on the game is coming in April.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/minecraft-will-no-longer-work-on-psvr-after-march-144038123.html?src=rss
Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair in Tokyo. Pocketpair is the Japanese video game developer behind Palworld, a game people have been describing as a Pokemon parody, featuring cute gun-toting monsters. The game, released in Early Access form on January 18, was an instant hit, selling 15 million copies on Steam and crossing 25 million players within just a month.The Pokemon Company said a few days after Palworld came out that it was going to investigate a game "released in January 2024" and will "take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to Pokemon." Looks like the investigation is over, and it has decided to take legal action."This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights," Nintendo said in its announcement of the lawsuit.Pocketpair previously said that its game is more like Ark Survival Evolved and Valheim than Pokemon. Company CEO Takuro Mizobe claimed that Palworld "cleared legal reviews" and that no lawsuits were filed against Pocketpair regarding its development. While Palworld's monsters would look familiar to Pokemon fans, it takes on a darker tone. You can choose to play as a friend to the monsters known as "Pals" and fight off the poachers trying to kill them. But you can also kill and eat Pals, make them fight to the death and even sell them into slavery.Shortly after Nintendo announced its lawsuit, Pocketpair responded. "At this moment, we are unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon, and we have not been notified of such details," the company wrote. "It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit. However, we will do our utmost for our fans, and to ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas."Update, September 19 2024, 9:40AM ET: This story has been updated with Pocketpair's response to Nintendo's lawsuit.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-and-the-pokemon-company-are-suing-palworld-creator-pocketpair-031320550.html?src=rss
DJI has been chipping away at GoPro's action cam dominance and just took another big step with the launch of the Action 5 Pro. With a new "next-gen" sensor, it promises improved video quality, along with extended battery life, bigger displays and a new feature, subject tracking and centering. The 1/1.3-inch sensor is the same size as the one on the Action 4, but DJI says it now boasts 13.5 stops of dynamic range, "making it the first action camera with specs that rival professional cameras." Maximum photo resolution is 40 megapixels (MP), up from 10MP on the Action 4. The lens has the same 155 degree field of view and f/2.8 aperture as the last model. Steve Dent for Engadget You can shoot 4K at up to 120p in 16:9 as before, but it now supports 4K 120p capture at 4:3 (3,840 x 2,880 pixels) - so slow ultra-slow-mo can be captured to the entire sensor if you want to crop the image later. Resolution is still capped at 4K UltraHD, though, where the GoPro 13 supports up to 5.3K 8:7 (5,312 xs 4,648) capture, giving users more cropping options. As before, images can be recorded in 10-bit D-Log M and HLG to boost dynamic range. DJI says you can shoot "high-dynamic, low-light video" at 4K/60fps to retain shadow details without overexposing highlights. It also comes with a SuperNight mode that uses AI noise reduction to yield relatively clean video in low light. Steve Dent for Engadget The new 1950mAh has a higher capacity than the previous 1770mAh model, which allows for up to 4 hours of continuous use or around 50 percent more than before (the Action 5 Pro can still use the previous model's batteries, too). Also helping that is a new 4nm chip and algorithm that optimizes for energy savings. "Even in temperatures as low as -20 C (-4F), the camera can reliably record video for up to 3.6 hours," DJI adds. A key new feature is subject centering and tracking that lets creators shoot without a gimbal. As with other DJI products (ActiveTrack on drones), it intelligently detects a subject's position and dynamically adjusts the composition to keep the subject centered in the frame. This is done digitally, obviously, and resolution is reduced to 2.7K - but it could still be a great benefit for extreme sports and other creators. As before, it offers "robust stabilization" and HorizonSteady that keeps the camera level through 360 degrees of motion. Steve Dent for Engadget The Action 5 Pro is EN13319 certified to be waterproof without a case down to 20m (66 feet), 2m more than before. It can start recording automatically as soon as you're underwater and comes with an interesting new feature: a pressure gauge to record underwater depth, duration and altitude data to ensure user safety. Though the body is the same size as before, both OLED screens are larger thanks to smaller bezels, up 16 percent. The larger rear screen is now 2.5-inches diagonally, up from 2.25 inches and the largest on any mainstream action cam, according to DJI. As before, the Action 4 works with the DJI Mic 2 for high-quality sound recording and you can simultaneously use the built-in mic for ambient sound. Steve Dent for Engadget Another nice addition is 47GB of built-in storage and 80MB/s transfer rates via Wi-Fi 6.0 or USB 3.0. Other features include an updated Mimo app, Wi-Fi livestreaming, timecode for multiple camera syncing and a pre-record feature. I've had the Action 5 for a short time and it largely resembles the previous model, other than larger power and record buttons, a different internal mic opening and a hole at the bottom for the pressure sensor. Other features like the magnetic mount are carried over from the Action 3. The improvements look promising, so stay tuned for a more detailed review (where I hopefully won't wreck my face). Steve Dent for Engadget Perhaps the best news about the Action 5 is that it's cheaper than the Action 4 at $349 in the Pro Combo package that includes the camera and one battery, a protective frame, quick-release adapter mount and more. The Action 5 Pro Adventure Combo adds two more batteries and a charger along with a 1.5m extension rod for $449. Both are now available at DJI's store and most authorized retail partners. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/dji-launches-the-action-5-pro-camera-with-subject-tracking-and-improved-video-130006706.html?src=rss
A documentary on Oprah Winfrey is no longer coming to Apple TV+. Why, you might ask? Well, Winfrey, herself, bought back the rights to it, PageSix reports. Allegedly, Winfrey and filmmaker Kevin Macdonald clashed on the final product, with the latter not making requested edits.A spokesperson for Winfrey put things a bit nicer: "As the Apple TV+ deal was coming to an end, Ms. Winfrey bought back the rights to her docu-series and has since decided to put the doc on hold. Ms. Winfrey believes Lisa Erspamer and Kevin MacDonald are incredibly talented filmmakers and is grateful for the time and energy they put into the project." Erspamer previously worked with Winfrey for a long time at OWN but was let go in 2012.Winfrey was initially very involved in Apple TV+, even speaking at its launch. She signed a multi-year deal with the platform, launching shows such as The Oprah Conversation, but the agreement ended in 2022. It's unclear how much Winfrey, a billionaire, had to spend to get the rights back, with some sources saying it was in the millions and others claiming just six figures.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/oprah-buys-back-her-apple-tv-documentary-to-lock-it-away-130002869.html?src=rss
Getting a passport in the US can be quite the rigmarole, but it is about to get a bit simpler. The State Department has announced that online passport renewal is officially available to the public, following multiple pilot programs. In a statement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken credited increased staffing and technological improvements with fueling both this advancement and reduced passport waiting times.Until now, applying for a new passport required mailing a printed form, a passport-sized photo, a photocopy of a valid ID, a person's most recent passport and a check. Americans could also bring the documents to a passport acceptance facility and potentially pay with cash or a credit card.However, online passport applications won't be available to every American citizen. Individuals are eligible if they reside in the US, are over the age of 25 and their passport expired after 2019 or will expire in the next year. This means that anyone getting their first passport in more than five years, who lives abroad or is under 25, won't benefit from the change. The new system is also not available to anyone changing their name or gender.These restrictions could change in the future. "This is not going to be the last thing that we do," Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Rena Bitter said in a briefing."We want to see how this goes and then we'll start looking at ways to continue to make this service available to more American citizens in the coming months and years." For now, if you quality, follow the steps for online passport renewal here.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/us-citizens-can-now-apply-for-their-passport-online-124330791.html?src=rss
The European Commission is done waiting for Apple to comply with the rules of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). It has started proceedings designed to ensure that the company complies with its interoperability obligations as one of DMA's designated gatekeepers, which are made up of the industry's largest and most important players. The commission explained that under the DMA, it has the right to "adopt a decision specifying the measures a gatekeeper has to implement to ensure effective compliance," and it's giving Apple six months to comply with the measures it comes up with if it doesn't want to face huge fines.One of the areas the commission will focus on is iOS connectivity for connected devices, such as smartwatches, headphones and virtual reality headsets. The manufacturers of these products "depend on effective interoperability with smartphones and their operating systems," the commission said. It plans to specify how Apple should provide effective interoperability that would allow non-Apple devices to easily pair and connect with iPhones, as well as to get notifications. The commission will also look at the process Apple set up to address developers' requests for third party interoperability with iOS and iPadOS."Today is the first time we use specification proceedings under the DMA to guide Apple towards effective compliance with its interoperability obligations through constructive dialogue," EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. "We are focused on ensuring fair and open digital markets. Effective interoperability, for example with smartphones and their operating systems, plays an important role in this. This process will provide clarity for developers, third parties and Apple. We will continue our dialogue with Apple and consult third parties to ensure that the proposed measures work in practice and meet the needs of businesses."Back in June, the commission issued its preliminary findings for an investigation it opened on Apple. It found that Apple breached DMA rules because it wouldn't allow App Store developers to freely tell users about alternate payment options outside of its ecosystem. The company told Engadget that time that it "has made a number of changes to comply with the DMA in response to feedback from developers and the European Commission" over the preceding months.Apple has made several changes to its system to avoid getting fined in the EU, including opening up iOS and iPadOS to third-party app stores and allowing developers access to its NFC technology. It has also withheld new features from European users due to DMA rules, however, including Apple Intelligence, iPhone Mirroring on the Mac and SharePlay Screen Sharing.The company told Bloomberg that it has conjured ways that would allow developers to request additional iOS and iPadOS interoperability while protecting its users' security. It added that undermining its systems' protections would put its European users at risk. As the news organization notes, the commission could launch an investigation into Apple if the company doesn't comply with the measures it comes up with over the next six months. If found guilty, the company could face a fine worth 10 percent of its global annual revenue.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-eu-gives-apple-six-months-to-make-cross-device-interoperability-easier-140030456.html?src=rss
In late June and early July, Iranian hackers sent unsolicited emails to people associated with President Biden's camp. Those emails contained excerpts from materials not available to the public that had been stolen from former President Trump's campaign, according to a joint statement issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The feds clarified that there's no evidence that those recipients replied to the sender. In addition, the bad actors sent stolen materials to news publications, including The Washington Post and Politico.The Post reported in August that the FBI was investigating Iranian hackers' attempt to infiltrate both Trump's and Biden's (now Kamala Harris') campaigns using spear-phishing techniques. Feds didn't find any evidence that anybody from the Democratic Party fell for their scheme. But the bad actors were reportedly able to take control of an email account owned by Roger Stone, a long-time Trump adviser, which they then used to send more emails with spear-phishing links to his contact list."As the lead for threat response, the FBI has been tracking this activity, has been in contact with the victims, and will continue to investigate and gather information in order to pursue and disrupt the threat actors responsible," the authorities said in their announcement.The stolen materials were sent from an AOL account through emails signed with the name "Robert," according to The Post. When asked by the publication, they denied that they were connected to Iranian cyber attackers. While the feds didn't say what materials were sent out, The Post says they include the Trump campaign's research on Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance, as well as internal poll results.Trump's camp is now calling for the Harris camp to disclose what materials it received, while asking news publications not to publish the stolen information. Harris spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein said the Democratic campaign is cooperating with authorities, since some of their people were also targeted on their personal emails, but they're "not aware of any material being sent" to them directly.Microsoft previously found evidence that a group linked to the Iranian government created a website that throws attacks and insults at former President Trump. But Iran isn't the only country that's attempting to interfere with this year's presidential election in the US. Microsoft recently reported that Kremlin-affiliated Russian troll farms are running disinformation campaigns focused on discrediting Harris and her running mate Tim Walz. These Russian troll farms have been releasing inauthentic videos showing the Democratic nominees in a bad light, including one that used a fake actor to accuse Harris of being involved in a 2011 hit-and-run incident that paralyzed a 13-year-old girl.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/iranian-hackers-tried-to-send-trump-leaks-to-biden-campaign-120017606.html?src=rss
With the iPhone 16 Pro, the big announcements were the cameras and Apple Intelligence. The problem is Apple Intelligence isn't quite here yet. We can test some features in the developer beta, but that's not necessarily what we'll get when the update rolls out in October. So our focus is more on iOS 18 (deep dive on the beta here) and the hardware changes.The big hardware change is the camera button. But it's not just a button, really. Located on the right side of the device, it has touch and pressure sensors to give greater control with swipes and semi-presses. (That's in addition to the Action Button, which is still on the left edge of the iPhone).EngadgetIt was meant to (and eventually will) let you push lightly on the button to trigger focus, similar to half-pressing a DSLR shutter button. Sadly, that function isn't available at launch. You can swipe the button to tweak exposure, zoom levels and tone, and with the half-press, you can still select options or leave menus in the new Camera Control interface.Without Apple Intelligence features at launch, however, the iPhone 16 Pro seems like a more incremental update than most years. But if you've held out on upgrading for a year or two, the camera improvements (and eventual AI features) might tempt you.- Mat SmithThe biggest headlines you might have missed
Solid-state batteries have the potential to make EVs far more affordable and practical, but their commercial development has a record of false promises that would make Tesla's full self-driving blush. That means reporting on them is tricky, but we're seeing some promising news from Imec, a well-established R&D giant based in Belgium.As part of its SOLiDIFY project, the EU-supported firm and its 13 partners have manufactured a prototype solid-state battery with a 1070 Wh/L energy density, nearly 25 percent higher than the best lithium-ion cells (800 Wh/L). Better still, it uses a manufacturing process that works at room temperature, is adaptable to current lithium-ion battery product lines and is projected to cost less than 150 euros (about $167) per kWh, compared to about $140/kWh for current batteries. "This process holds promise for affordable industrial transfer," Imec wrote in a press release.The breakthrough was something called "liquid-to-solid" solidification. That means the prototype's solid electrolyte uses a "doped polymerized ionic liquid" in a thin 50 micrometer layer. The electrolyte is flanked by a high-capacity composite cathode on one side and a thin lithium metal anode on the other, resulting in a compact battery cell stack.The consortium was able to boost the cell's charge rate to three hours and lifetime to 100 cycles, overcoming mechanical strength and cathode impregnation challenges. Use of cobalt was also reduced thanks to the application of nanometer-thin protective coatings.Clearly the charging times and number of cycles need to improve (modern li-ion car batteries can be charged 2000 times and some in well under an hour). In addition, the technology requires further upscaling to be practical on an industrial level. It's worth the effort, though, as solid-state batteries could eventually deliver improved energy density, lower charging times and better safety, all at a lower price.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/solid-state-battery-prototype-boosts-energy-density-by-nearly-25-percent-080057028.html?src=rss
A new update for Mortal Kombat I (MK1) is less than a week away from release that will add new character skins, new finishing moves and (eventually) new fighters to its kombatant" selection screen. NetherRealm Studios released a preview of the karnage" that's koming" around the korner" (OK, we'll stop with the unnecessary K's).The new trailer released on Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon's X page shows some of the new stuff MK1 players can expect from the Khaos Reigns pack scheduled for release on September 24 and future updates. The base game costs $49.99 for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC on Steam and $39.99 on the Nintendo Switch. The Khaos Reigns DLC costs (gasp!) $49.99 for the PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC on Steam and $39.99 for the Nintendo Switch The Khaos Reigns Kollection bundle that includes the Khaos pack and base game will set you back $89.99 for the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S or $69.99 for the Nintendo Switch.
X is back online for many people in Brazil, more than two weeks after the service was blocked in the country. The change, though, isn't because Brazil's government has reversed its stance on the Elon Musk-owned platform. Instead, it seems that X has begun using Cloudflare's DNS service, which is for now helping the social network avoid the Brazilian government's restrictions, though it's unclear how long that will be the case.In a statement, a spokesperson for X described it as "an inadvertent and temporary service restoration" in the country and that is expects to become inaccessible again "soon." X has been blocked in Brazil since the end of August, when the Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered internet service providers in the country to block X following months of publicly feuding with Musk over X's refusal to block certain accounts. The spat also affected SpaceX-owned Starlink, which had its Brazilian bank accounts frozen amid the dispute."When X was shut down in Brazil, our infrastructure to provide service to Latin America was no longer accessible to our team," a spokesperson X said in a statement. "To continue providing optimal service to our users, we changed network providers. This change resulted in an inadvertent and temporary service restoration to Brazilian users. While we expect the platform to be inaccessible again in Brazil soon, we continue efforts to work with the Brazilian government to return very soon for the people of Brazil."The New York Times reported that X started to come back online for many people in Brazil Wednesday, though the service was still somewhat inconsistent. The Times reported that it was the company's move to Cloudflare that at least temporarily enabled it to come back. As it stands, Brazilian ISPs are likely figuring out how to continue to complying with the court order. Should they fail, Brazilian authorities are likely to look for new ways to enforce the block. Regulators in the country have imposed steep fines for users who attempt to get around the country's ban by using VPNs.Update September 18, 2024, 9:05 PM ET: This story has been updated with additional information from an X spokesperson.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/x-is-reportedly-back-online-for-some-people-in-brazil-225813745.html?src=rss
In an effort to quell monopoly concerns in the EU, Google reportedly offered to sell its AdX advertising marketplace. Sources told Reuters that European publishers rejected Google's offer, arguing that the company would have to divest more in order to dismantle the conflicts of interest in its online advertising operations. Lawyers familiar with the antitrust cases said this was the first time Google had offered to sell off an asset in response to this type of lawsuit.Despite this alleged sale offer, Google is publicly standing firm about its adtech business. "As we have said before, the European Commission's case about our third-party display advertising products rests on flawed interpretations of the ad-tech sector, which is fiercely competitive and rapidly evolving. We remain committed to this business," a Google rep told the publication. We've reached out to Google and will update this story if we receive any additional comment from the company.Google's control over online advertisements has raised concerns around the globe. Regulators have questioned whether the company's activity in multiple stages of the adtech supply chain allows it to favor its own businesses, creating an unfair advantage that could hurt competition and increase advertising prices.The European Commission began this push against the company's ad arm last June. The UK's competition watchdog also raised the alarm over a possible Google ad monopoly earlier this month. Google is also currently being sued by the Department of Justice over the same topic in the US.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/report-google-offered-to-sell-adx-to-end-eu-antitrust-suit-203612819.html?src=rss
AppleAppleApple on Monday released its new iOS 18 for all compatible iPhones to install - here's how download and install the new update. iOS 18 will already come installed on the new iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro models (see our iPhone 16 Pro review), which will hit shelves on September 20. But not every iPhone will be able to run iOS 18, and even the ones that can won't have all the bells and whistles of the new Apple Intelligence features.That update stratification is nothing new. Generally each year, some older iPhone models are removed from Apple's iOS eligibility list. Last year, for instance, the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X were left off the compatibility list. That meant those iPhone owners couldn't update to iOS 17 and missed out on some notable features. On the flip side, some older hardware will get major new features: Consider the upcoming software update that effectively turns existing AirPods Pro headphones into a hearing aid, complete with a built-in hearing test. (Apple just received FDA authorization to release that feature later this year.)We'll help you find out if your iPhone will support iOS 18, as well as Apple Intelligence. In addition, Apple has also released a firmware update for AirPods Pro 2. If you want a full list of all the new iOS 18, check out Apple's exhaustive list in PDF form (via MacRumors). Still catching up on everything new that Apple announced at its September 9 launch event? Check out our full AirPods 4 review, along with hands-on previews of the Apple Watch Series 10, iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro.iPhones compatible with iOS 18We have good news: If you had an eligible phone last year when you updated to iOS 17, that device should still be compatible with iOS 18, according to Apple. That means you won't have to buy a new phone to check out most of the new software features.
The Game Devs of Color Expo 2024 kicks off on Wednesday. Now in its ninth year (and fourth as an all-virtual conference), the event celebrates and highlights the game industry's creators of color. The event's Direct livestream today will include over 30 new game announcements and updates (and there will be a corresponding Steam sale!) You can watch the stream here at 4PM ET.Today's Direct will include exclusive reveals, the latest launches, and more updates" and will highlight a diverse group of industry creators from around the world.The event is orchestrated by Game Devs of Color, a nonprofit that has run the annual conference since its 2016 debut. The group aims to amplify the creative power people of color hold in games. Creators of color make great games but are often pushed to the margins," the nonprofit's webpage states. We fight to create a better games industry that is intersectional and equitable."The event runs from Wednesday through Saturday. Tickets are still available for the whole week of discussions, panels and interviews. Standard pass pricing starts at $50, but a $20 option is available for those who can't afford the regular ticket cost.You can check out the kickoff stream below at 4PM ET:This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/watch-the-game-devs-of-color-expo-direct-livestream-here-at-4pm-et-193040011.html?src=rss
If you grew up in the age of the NES and SNES consoles, you might be positively giddy to learn that one of the greatest video game crossovers since Marvel vs Capcom is available on the Nintendo Switch.Nintendo announced the addition of four new SNES titles to its Switch Online service including the 1993 beat em up Battletoads/Double Dragon. This rare meeting of mayhem between the fly-gulping trio and the martial arts duo Billy and Jimmy Lee takes players through both games' universes as they plow through unique waves of fist-flinging enemies.The crossover begins when the Evil Queen from the Battletoads' universe cuts a deal with the Shadow Boss from the Double Dragon universe on Earth. She sends a massive ship called the Colossus to take over our planet so Zitz, Rash and Pimple pick up the Double Dragons with the Battlecopter and intercept the ship to stop it from reaching Earth. The game features seven levels that take place on the Colossus and on Earth as the Battletoads and Double Dragons smash, kick and ram enemies and bosses from both video game franchises.The latest Switch Online game update also brings three more SNES games to the Nintendo Switch. The update includes the Tetris-inspired Cosmo Gang The Puzzle, the Jaleco rally racer Big Run and the Super Famicon port of Kunio-kun no Dodgeball da yo Zen'in Shg! (It's Kunio's Dodgeball, Assemble Everyone!).This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/battletoadsdouble-dragon-headbutts-its-way-onto-nintendos-switch-online-library-193034766.html?src=rss
Neuralink says the Food and Drug Administration has designated its experimental Blindsight implant as a "breakthrough device." The company is developing the technology in an attempt to restore blind people's sight.Manufacturers who apply to the FDA's voluntary breakthrough devices program and receive the designation from the agency are granted "an opportunity to interact with FDA experts through several different program options to efficiently address topics as they arise during the premarket review phase." The FDA also prioritizes breakthrough devices for review. Ultimately, a breakthrough device designation can accelerate development of a technology. Last year, the FDA gave the designation to 145 medical devices.Blindsight is separate from Telepathy, its implant that enables patients with spinal cord injuries to control computers using their thoughts, allowing them to play video games and design 3D objects. Neuralink owner and founder Elon Musk said in August that the company had implanted the chip into a second human patientMusk claimed back in March that Blindsight "is already working in monkeys. Resolution will be low at first, like early Nintendo graphics, but ultimately may exceed normal human vision." (Federal investigators have reportedly looked into Neuralink's animal testing practices but Musk said in March that "no monkey has died or been seriously injured by a Neuralink device.")
YouTube's creator-focused broadcast, Made On YouTube, is here again, and there's plenty to talk about. From more AI integration to Communities, YouTube seems to be gearing up to compete against rivals like TikTok and Netflix. Here are five things that genuinely interested us among the deluge of updates and new features.YouTube is introducing the Hype system, which lets viewers go beyond" liking and sharing a video. The idea is to allow fans to give more visibility to smaller creators - so hyping is only allowed for videos from creators under 500,000 subscribers, and only on videos under a week old. Content with the most hype will end up on a new leaderboard of the 100 most hyped videos in their country. Fans can only hype three times in a week for now, though additional uses will eventually be purchasable in the future.YouTube Shorts creators will be able to employ Google DeepMind's Veo video generator model later this year. Veo can generate six-second clips after reading a prompt, and all creations will have a label showing that generative AI was used, along with SynthID watermarking. Veo integration will exist parallel to (but doesn't replace) YouTube's Dream Screen - another AI video generation tool - which was introduced last year.The Community tab is getting a revamp, slated to come out in early 2025. Currently, only the channel owner can post in the Community tab, but the new experience will allow subscribers to create posts, with a tab to view only creator posts if necessary. Of course, subscribers can post images to prompt conversation. Some creators interact with their viewers currently through other platforms (like Discord) and this seems to be an attempt to create an in-house alternative.Some of us lament being unable to understand creators using languages we don't speak, but YouTube intends to fix that by implementing auto-dubbing. With the help of AI, viewers can now listen to machine-translated audio in their preferred language. YouTube promises that the audio will sound natural, taking intonation into account along with the creator's surroundings.Finally, the YouTube TV app will have an update mirroring Netflix's current layout. Creators will be able to organize their content in seasons and episodes, and there will be previews before users play any content. According to The Hollywood Reporter, we can expect to see these new features starting next year, though no concrete date was announced.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/youtube/five-features-that-caught-our-eye-from-todays-youtube-livestream-171537530.html?src=rss
The film adaptation of the immensely popular sci-fi novel Mickey7 has been in the works for years, but now we finally have a trailer and it's filled with surprises. For one thing, it's now called Mickey17 and, well, fans of the book know exactly what that implies. It means they're in for an even crazier experience than what's written on the page.The movie is written and directed by one of the modern masters, Bong Joon Ho, who seems to have taken some liberties with the source material. Light spoilers, but the book follows a series of clones of the titular Mickey as they perform the grunt work of colonizing an exoplanet. The book chronicles seven (ish) Mickey variants, but the movie is amping this up to at least 17. This will give us plenty more darkly hilarious clone deaths, which the trailer shows quite a lot of.The novel is right up Bong Joon Ho's alley. Clones are basically second-class citizens who exist to die for their corporate overlords. This leaves plenty of room for social satire in the vein of both Snowpiercer and Parasite. The trailer leans into this stuff and the results look truly entertaining and, believe it or not, really funny. We love to see unique IPs in the cinema, don't we folks?The various Mickeys are played by Robert Pattinson, so that'll get some butts in the seats. The cast also includes Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo. As a book reader, I know who everyone is playing except for Ruffalo. That looks like a brand-new character, though he could be an amalgamation of a couple of minor players. Adaptations require some dark alchemy at times.This could be the first big hit of 2025. It arrives in theaters on January 31. There's also some franchise potential here, as the book already has one sequel and author Edward Ashton has been toying with ideas for a third entry.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/bong-joon-hos-mickey17-trailer-is-even-crazier-than-the-book-170004844.html?src=rss
We knew Amazon would revive its Prime Big Deal Days sale event this fall, but we didn't know the exact dates until today. The online retailer announced that the sale event will return this year on October 8 and 9, giving us all the more reason to call it October Prime Day as we have done in years past. This is the third iteration of the fall sale event that Amazon has used as its (un)official kickoff to the holiday shopping season, and there are already discounts to be had as we see early October Prime Day deals pop up.Prime Day in July remains Amazon's marquee sale event for Prime members, but ever since its debut in 2022, October Prime Day provides subscribers with thousands of exclusive deals to shop during the two-day window. In turn, it also provides Amazon a way to boost sales during the same time period and, arguably more importantly, increase the number of overall Prime subscribers. While we expect most of the deals during Prime Big Deal Days to be exclusively for Prime members, there are always a few thrown in that are available to all Amazon shoppers.As for the deals we expect, it's a safe bet that Amazon's own devices will be on sale: things like Echo speakers, Kindle ereaders, Blink security cameras and more. We usually see tech like wireless earbuds, speakers, robot vacuums and SSDs go on sale during events like this as well. While it might feel too early to even think about holiday shopping, it's a good idea to entertain. If history is any indication, the sale prices we see during October Prime Day will be similar (and in some cases, the same) as those we see during Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year. If you can shop early and cross a few things off your list, we recommend doing so.You can also expect to see some Lightning deals" happen during October Prime Day. Thankfully, these are usually clearly labeled with the amount of time remaining to grab the sale price noted on the product page. In our experience, only a handful of these flash deals are actually worth your money - but if you see something that's been on your wishlist drop in price for only a few hours, it's in your best interest to grab it immediately.To give you an idea of what we could expect to see during October Prime Day this year, these are a few of the standout deals we saw during the 2023 event:
An attack in Lebanon reportedly killed eight people and injured over 2,700. Hundreds of pagers belonging to Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously on Tuesday, leading the Iran-backed militant organization to blame Israel. The New York Times reported that Israel was behind the attacks and conducted it by hiding explosive material inside the pagers. A second wave of attacks, these targeting handheld radios used by Hezbollah members, was reported on Wednesday by The Washington Post.A day after Israeli leaders warned of escalating its military campaign against Hezbollah, pagers belonging to the Lebanese group's members exploded at once. Witnesses reported seeing smoke emanating from the victims' pockets, followed by sounds reminiscent of fireworks or gunshots.Lebanon's health minister said 200 of the injured were in critical condition. He added that many victims had facial injuries, especially to the eyes. Hand and stomach injuries were also common, according to the health minister. Among those wounded was Mojtaba Amini, Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, according to Iranian state media.A second wave of attacks across different areas of Lebanon on Wednesday reportedly killed one person and injured over 100 others. The latest attacks reportedly targeted wireless devices." One of the explosions, triggered by a handheld radio, was reported at a funeral for four victims of Tuesday's blasts. Anyone who has a device, take out the battery now!" The Washington Post reported that Hezbollah security members yelled at the mourners. Turn off your phones, switch it to airplane mode!"Israel hasn't commented on the attacks. But NYT reports that officials (including American ones) briefed on the operation said Israel was behind them. They claim as little as one to two ounces of explosive material were planted next to each pager's battery, along with a switch allowing for remote detonations. At 3PM in Lebanon on Tuesday, the pagers received a message (appearing to be from Hezbollah leadership) that triggered the coordinated explosions, according to officials. The devices allegedly beeped for several seconds before detonating.The Washington Post reports that the logo of Taiwanese pager maker Gold Apollo was seen on the sabotaged pagers. However, Gold Apollo claimed the devices were entirely handled" by a Hungarian company, BAC Consulting Kft, which was authorized to use Gold Apollo's branding in some regions. That product isn't ours," Gold Apollo's founder and president, Hsu Ching-Kuang, told The New York Times. They just stick on our company brand."Officials speaking with NYT claimed the devices were tampered with before reaching Lebanon. Most were Gold Apollo's AR924 model, which the company displayed an image of on its website before removing them on Wednesday.The attacks sparked a wave of fear of using mobile devices. NYT reports some in Lebanon were scared to use their phones after Tuesday's attacks, with one resident crying out, Please hang up, hang up!" to their caller.The Times reports that Hezbollah, long suspicious of cellphone use near the Israeli border due to the devices' geolocation capabilities, recently switched from mobile phones to pagers. In February, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah reportedly warned the group that their phones were dangerous and could be used by Israel as spy tools. He advised the group that they should break or bury them."Experts reportedly don't yet know precisely how the pagers were distributed to Hezbollah's members. They say that Iran, given its history of supplying Hezbollah with arms, tech and other military aid, would have been pivotal to their adoption and delivery.Update, September 18, 2024, 11:48AM ET: This story has been updated to add new details about Tuesday's attacks and the second wave of reported blasts on Wednesday.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/pagers-explode-simultaneously-in-hundreds-of-hezbollah-members-pockets-190304565.html?src=rss
Earlier this year, Behaviour Interactive teased a few Dead by Deadlight spinoff games. One has since been released to relative acclaim, The Casting of Frank Stone, and What the Fog kinda came and went. That leaves one game unaccounted for. Today, we can scratch that one out for good. The company just announced that the spinoff known only as Project T has been canceled.
A lawsuit on behalf of five unnamed contestants who participated in YouTuber MrBeast's Beast Games was filed on September 16 in Los Angeles against MrBeast as well as Amazon, which plans to distribute the show. It's also seeking class-action status.Beast Games is the brainchild of Jimmy Donaldson, also known as MrBeast. This game show had participants go through challenges for a shot at $5 million in cash. There would only be one winner out of 1,000 participants, so the money would only go to the last person standing.When the five contestants participated in the game show, they each wanted to win the money, but nothing prepared them for the poor conditions, mistreatment and harassment they experienced. Among the 14 complaints are failure to pay minimum wages, sexual harassment, false advertising and failure to provide uninterrupted meal and rest breaks.The plaintiffs filed this lawsuit on behalf of all Beast Games contestants besides themselves. Much of the lawsuit's content is hidden, including the contestants' names and the exact details of their mistreatment. Of note were the female contestants' experiences. The lawyers claimed that the work environment there fostered a culture of misogyny and sexism where Production Staff did nothing."The contestants were considered employees under California law, but MrBeast and Amazon allegedly misclassified them to obtain a tax credit of around $2 million. They also arrived on set to discover that instead of 1,000 total competitors, there were far more people playing for the prize, thus lowering everyone's chances of coming out a winner. According to the New York Times, the total number of contestants was about 2,000, something MrBeast said was the plan all along. The plaintiffs claimed this significantly reduced anyone's chances of winning and was considered false advertising. Even worse, the show organizers did not grant them meal and rest breaks as required by California law. According to the lawsuit, some of the show participants developed injuries that continue to persist and will persist from the future."This isn't the first time MrBeast has been involved in a lawsuit. Last year, he sued Virtual Dining Concepts (VDC) for making subpar MrBeast Burgers, ruining his reputation. VDC countersued MrBeast, seeking $100 million in damages.According to a report from Variety, MrBeast and Amazon have yet to comment on the lawsuit, with the former refusing to. Beast Games, slated for an Amazon Prime Video release,still has no announced release date.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/mrbeast-and-amazon-are-being-sued-by-contestants-of-their-planned-competition-show-152613641.html?src=rss
Remember when the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and SAG-AFTRA went on strike for months, in great part to get protections against AI? Well, while they did get some stipulations in there, it's not stopping AI from coming to Hollywood anyways. Lionsgate, the studio behind the John Wick and Hunger Games franchises, has struck a deal with AI startup Runway, the Wall Street Journal first reported and Runway confirmed in a press release. The arrangement will allow Runway access to Lionsgate's content library in exchange for a fresh, custom AI model that the studio can use in production and editing.The deal is similar to recent (and equally icky feeling) ones with publishing houses such as TIME and Dotdash Meredith, but it is the first of its kind for the film and TV industry. Vice chairman of Lionsgate Studio, Michael Burns, said that in recent months, he feared falling behind competitors without a step like this. "Runway is a visionary, best-in-class partner who will help us utilize AI to develop cutting edge, capital efficient content creation opportunities," Burns stated. He then claimed, "Several of our filmmakers are already excited about its potential applications to their pre-production and post-production process."There's also the small matter that he expects the company will save "millions and millions of dollars" through this agreement. Whether that money will come out of creatives' paychecks is something we can only speculate about now, but it wouldn't be surprising.As for Lionsgate's new bedfellow, like many AI companies, Runway has faced accusations of pilfering content to train its system. A former employee came forward in July with alleged internal spreadsheets demonstrating that Runway used YouTube videos from the likes of Disney, Netflix and popular media outlets to train its Gen-3 model. A group of artists are also suing Runway and other players like Stability AI for copyright infringement, reports Artnet. The plaintiffs garnered a win in August, with California District Judge William Orrick finding they had reasonably argued these companies had violated the artists' rights.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/lionsgate-signs-a-deal-with-the-devil-an-ai-startup-151046341.html?src=rss
Substack is adding a live video component to its newsletter service. In its announcement post, the company positioned this feature as providing real-time audience engagement for creators. At launch, the feature will only be available to people with Substack's Bestsellers badges, but the company said it plans to roll it out to all users in the coming months.Creators can begin live videos within the Substack app. As with written material on the platform, a creator can set whether the audience for a live video is everyone, all subscribers or paid subscribers. Any channel subscribers will be notified when a live video begins. There's also an option for collaboration, inviting other Substack members into the live broadcast. For now, only iOS users can issue invitations; Android users can accept an invite for now, and are slated to receive access to the full feature "soon." After a live broadcast finishes, a recording will be saved in post drafts so the video can be used in a future newsletter. There's also a clipping tool for light video editing tasks.Substack has been making a push to bring video content creators to its platform from TikTok, which doesn't seem like an obvious competitor to the company's existing offerings or an obvious match for the community it has cultivated. Emails are asynchronous communication that can be read whenever it's convenient, the polar opposite of must-watch-now live videos. The option to include recordings in newsletters is useful, but adopting the live viewing as a regular part of their Substack routine may be a big ask for current users. In short: there's no guarantee that the new feature will function well, or that most newsletter creators and readers are interested in engaging with video content.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/substack-a-newsletter-service-is-now-also-a-live-video-company-150004585.html?src=rss
The rollout of Apple Intelligence will be fairly slow-paced, with Apple gradually adding new features and support for more languages over the coming months. The company has now confirmed support for several more languages as Apple Intelligence will be available in German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese and Vietnamese in 2025. That's in addition to previously announced support for Chinese, French, Japanese and Spanish.Apple will initially offer Apple Intelligence in the US in English with the release of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1 in October. As such, you won't have access to the tools immediately if you pick up an iPhone 16 when Apple's latest smartphone lineup ships on Friday.The tools will be available in localized English in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK in December. Apple will also start rolling out the features in India and Singapore in English next year. Further language support is to be announced.There is one key thing worth noting as part of the Apple Intelligence rollout, however. Apple is not planning to broadly offer the tools in the European Union or Chinese mainland right away. So while you'll be able to use Apple Intelligence in Portuguese or French, you might not necessarily be able to do so while you're in Portugal or France.Apple Intelligence will not currently work if you are in the EU and if your Apple ID Country/Region is also in the EU," Apple notes in a support article. If traveling outside of the EU, Apple Intelligence will work when your device language and Siri language are set to a supported language."Also, as things stand, Apple Intelligence won't work on phones bought on the Chinese mainland. Those traveling to China with an iPhone they bought elsewhere also won't have access to the tools if their Apple ID Country/Region is set to mainland China.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/apple-confirms-expanded-language-support-for-apple-intelligence-in-2025-140548274.html?src=rss
Starting today, General Motors is starting to sell approved North American Charging Standard (NACS) DC adapters for its electric vehicles. GM originally announced it would support Tesla's NACS connector 15 months ago, but it's taken them until today to get adapters out to the market. Models from Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC will all be able to use this new adapter.Previously, GM electric vehicles weren't compatible with Tesla Superchargers, as they were outfitted with a different proprietary charging port. Those who own these EVs can purchase an adapter for $225 using your vehicle brand's mobile app. The app can also help owners locate the closest Supercharger station.These NACS DC adapters will first be available to US customers, while Canadian EV owners will have to wait until later this year. Moving forward, GM vehicles will now come with NACS DC adapters, meaning future owners won't have to fork $225 over for the ability to recharge. To ensure all GM EV owners can power up their vehicles, the company is working with multiple supplies to provide enough adapters for all.Earlier this year, Ford EV owners started being able to charge their vehicles at Tesla's Superchargers. Subaru, Hyundai and basically every other major automaker in the US also made similar announcements last year. That GM took well over a year to release adapters could be due to Tesla firing its entire Supercharger team in April, according to a report from Forbes.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/gm-electric-vehicles-can-finally-recharge-at-tesla-supercharger-stations-135228213.html?src=rss
While I'm a MacBook gal myself, the appeal of investing in an iMac has crossed my mind now and again - all that display space is just so enticing. One of the major reasons I've resisted is the price of getting a new iMac, but a record-low price is giving me a change of heart. Right now, the 2023 iMac with M3 chip is down to $1,100 from $1,300 thanks to a 12 percent discount and a $49 coupon. This model offers an 8-core CPU and 256GB of storage but no AppleCare+. In our review, we gave the newest iMac an 86, thanks mostly to the M3 chip. In our tests, the iMac never slowed down or struggled with browsing, photo editing, or games. Overall, it gave us all the quality and speed we could need for day-to-day use. Plus, it's great to have 24GB of RAM versus the M1's 16GB. The display is also top-notch, and the device is super lightweight, at under 10 pounds and less than 11.5mm in thickness. At the same time, the 2023 iMac isn't a big upgrade from its predecessor. As we said then, "If you've seen a 24-inch iMac before, you've seen this one." It doesn't have a larger option or vertical screen adjustment. Plus, that 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM still make this feel overpriced, even with the markdown. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice in the lead up to October Prime Day 2024.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-m3-imac-is-down-to-a-record-low-price-ahead-of-october-prime-day-132441743.html?src=rss
So far, Bose has delivered two versions of its "regular" QuietComfort Earbuds: one in 2020 and another in 2022. The company followed up last year with the QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, debuting its take on spatial audio that doesn't rely on carefully recorded content. Now, Bose is jumping back to that "regular" model with a new version of the QuietComfort Earbuds. While it's actually the company's fourth set noise-canceling wireless buds, the new QC Earbuds will offer an entry-level option that's much more affordable than the premium Ultra. For the new QuietComfort Earbuds, Bose says the design is meant for "everyday use." There's a collection of ear tips and stability bands to help you find the perfect fit, and the IPX4 rating should be enough to withstand sweaty workouts. The shape of the outer panel has been refined, looking more like older Bose earbud models than its recent efforts. The company says you can expect its "best-in-class" active noise cancellation (ANC) to be on display here, as well as "satisfyingly rich" sound. Each earbud is equipped with three microphones for both ANC and voice pickup, so the latest QuietComfort model should be a decent option for calls. Bluetooth 5.3 with multipoint connectivity is also on the spec sheet, where Bose is promising up to 30 feet of wireless range. Bose Bose increased the battery life from the QC Earbuds II from six to eight and a half hours on this new version. Plus, the case holds another two and a half charges. You can get three hours of use in 20 minutes and a full charge takes 90 minutes. The QuietComfort Earbuds will work with the Bose QC Earbuds app for features and customization. Here, you can reconfigure the onboard tap controls on each earbud, with the ability to switch ANC settings between Quiet, Aware (transparency mode) and off right on the buds. A Voice ID tool can fine-tune the QC Earbuds for "performance and accuracy" while a five-band adjustable EQ offers some flexibility with the tuning. Bose has also included a Remote Selfie feature that allows you to use the earbuds as a remote camera trigger. Additionally, there's a low-latency audio mode for gaming and a Battery Prediction tool to track power consumption. The new QuietComfort Earbuds are available today for $179 in black, white and purple color options. That's $100 less the previous two QC Earbuds models and $120 less than the QC Ultra Earbuds. This new model isn't exactly a budget option, but the price is much more attractive than the company's current $299 flagship set. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/boses-new-noise-canceling-quietcomfort-earbuds-are-more-affordable-at-179-130046607.html?src=rss
Bose has a new soundbar for the fall shopping season, and it includes a few neat tricks for owners of the company's clip-on earbuds. The Bose Smart Soundbar is a small, sleek" model with AI Dialogue Mode and a Personal Surround feature for owners of the Ultra Open Earbuds. The Bose Smart Soundbar has five transducers, including two side-firing (racetrack-shaped) ones, a center tweeter and two up-firing transducers. This arrangement helps with Dolby Atmos content, with the side-facing ones focused on horizontally positioned audio and the upward-facing ones bouncing sound off the ceiling for an overhead illusion. The center tweeter handles dialog. If your content doesn't support Dolby Atmos for a spatial surround experience, the soundbar's TrueSpace feature can mix them in real time to create a faux surround effect. Bose claims the process produces sound just as effectively" as Dolby Atmos with similar spaciousness." Bose Owners of Bose's Ultra Open Earbuds - the $299 clip-on doodads that leave your ears uncovered - the soundbar can deliver a more personalized surround experience for one person. Designed to add dimension to content, the feature uses the earbuds as rear surround speakers. Unlike most earbuds, the Ultra Open model doesn't obstruct your ears, allowing you to still hear the soundbar's audio. Bose describes the combined effect as a sonic experience of sound all around you." The Personal Surround Sound feature launches with this model but will arrive on the (more expensive) Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar later this fall. The soundbar also supports the AI Dialogue Mode from the company's Smart Ultra Soundbar. The feature uses AI to automatically adjust the audio mix in real time when it detects speech, making voices easier to hear without losing any impact of immersive sound effects." The Smart Soundbar is 27 inches long, 2.2 inches high and 4.1 inches deep. It has a black matte body with a wraparound metal grille. On the connection front, it supports HDMI eARC (required for Dolby Atmos) and standard optical cables. You can set it up to work with Google Assistant and Alexa, and it works with other Bose smart speakers (including bass modules) for enhanced living room or multi-room setups. The Bose Smart Soundbar is available on Wednesday for $499. You can order it on Bose's website. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/speakers/boses-latest-soundbar-can-use-the-ultra-open-earbuds-as-rear-speakers-130002782.html?src=rss
The amount of fines Google has to pay in Europe may have become just a bit smaller. It has successfully convinced the European Union's General Court to annul the 1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) penalty levied against it back in 2019 for what the European Commission described as "abusive practices in online advertising." According to the Financial Times, the General Court agreed with the commission's assessment that Google did block rival advertisers from its platform. However, it argued that the commission failed to take into account "all the relevant circumstances" when it assessed how long the company had implemented anti-competitive practices.The commission, under competition chief Margrethe Vestager, found back in 2019 that Google had prohibited publishers from placing search adverts from competitors on its search results pages from 2006 until 2009. It changed its rules slightly in 2009, but it wasn't until 2016 that it removed the clause pertaining to the restriction in its contracts. The fine for this particular case was larger than expected, because the commission said it took into account "the duration and gravity of the infringement.""This case is about a very narrow subset of text-only search ads placed on a limited number of publishers' websites," Google said in a statement to the Financial Times. "We made changes to our contracts in 2016 to remove the relevant provisions, even before the commission's decision. We are pleased that the court has recognized errors in the original decision and annulled the fine. We will review the full decision closely." Meanwhile, the commission told the publication that it "will carefully study the judgment and reflect on possible next steps." It could still appeal the court's decision.This is just one of the multiple antitrust fines the European Commission has slapped against Google over the past years. Earlier this month, EU's highest court upheld a different $2.7 billion penalty against the company. The commission imposed that fine on Google back in 2017, because it found that the company, as Vestager explained, "abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results, and demoting those of competitors."Vestager is stepping down from her role as the European Union's commissioner for competition within the next few weeks. She has been tough on big tech companies throughout her run, and the market abuse cases she has filed over the years led to the creation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a regulation meant to prevent the largest players in the industry from abusing their market power.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-wins-appeal-against-17-billion-eu-fine-for-abusive-advertising-practices-123006698.html?src=rss
Apple has slowly been making its devices easier to fix, but the iPhone 15 fell short in a couple of key areas, according to the repairability site iFixit. Namely, the battery was hard to remove and the device suffered from a "parts pairing" issue that meant you couldn't easily replace the LiDAR sensor with one from another phone. With those two problems, iFixit gave the iPhone 15 a relatively low 4/10 repairability score.Apple has now released new updates on iPhone 16 repairability and appears to have addressed both those issues and a bunch more. Saying it tries to strike a balance between durability and repairability, it focused particularly on the "repairability" aspect with its latest devices.There's now an entirely new way to remove the battery that's supposed to make it easier. By running a low voltage electrical current through the new ionic liquid battery adhesive (using a 9V cell, for instance), the battery will release itself from the enclosure. This makes removal faster and safer compared to previous stretch release adhesives, according to the company.At the same time, Apple made changes to the Face ID sensor hardware starting with the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro. Now, the TrueDepth Camera can be swapped from one unit to another without compromising security or privacy. Before, only Apple was able to do that type of repair.Another big change is the new Repair Assistant, designed to address parts pairing issues. That lets customers and repair professionals configure both new and used Apple parts directly on the device, with no need to contact Apple personnel. Repair shops previously needed to order official components directly from Apple and get on the phone with an employee before iOS would accept individual parts replacements.Apple added newly repairable modules too, saying the TrueDepth Camera can now be configured on-device for iPhone 12 and later, eliminating the need for a tethered Mac. In addition, the LiDAR scanner on iPhone Pro models is now serviceable with the rear camera model.Another big change is on-device access to diagnostics. Starting with iOS 18, Apple diagnostics for repair will be available on device, so customers can determine which parts need to be replaced without the need for a second device.Finally, the company announced new support for third-party and used Apple parts. If a third-party part can't be calibrated on Apple's cloud-based servers, the iPhone or other device will try to activate the part and operate it to its full capability, while showing the repair history within settings. Used Apple parts can soon be calibrated and will appear as a "used" part in the device's repair history. Another future update will enable True Tone for third-party displays and battery health for third-party batteries. In addition, the LiDAR Scanner and front camera will still work when the module is replaced and left unconfigured.All told, the iPhone 16 series looks to have one of the biggest jumps in repairability yet, with improvements in physical access, parts compatibility and parts pairing. We'll soon see if that's reflected in iFixit's impending repairability score.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/apple-reveals-how-its-made-the-iphone-16-series-much-easier-to-repair-120055256.html?src=rss
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