So a shoe company turned into an AI company…. That’s it, that’s the joke. In this episode, Devindra chats with Engadget’s Daniel Cooper about Allbirds’ sudden transformation and what it says about the AI economy. Also, they chat about the Artemis II moon mission, Meta being warned about the dangers of facial recognition (again) and how teens think social media is really shaping them.
I went into 2025 incredibly amped to review ASUS's 2.2-pound ZenBook A14, only to be disappointed by the lackluster performance of its Snapdragon X chip. I'm still a bit heartbroken, to be honest. But now ASUS is back with a revamped A14 and a larger 16-inch ZenBook A16, both of which sport new Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme chips. The A16 is slightly heavier at 2.6 pounds and 2.9 pounds, but it still competes with LG’s Gram Pro 16. And thanks to Qualcomm's new hardware, it's actually speedy enough to compete with Intel and AMD ultraportables.
Take everything I initially liked about the ZenBook A14 last year — its thin design and portability, its smooth "Ceraluminum" case and its bold OLED screen — stretch it out a bit, and you've got the ZenBook A16. There's an understated beauty to its design that's far more intriguing than ASUS's mainstream notebooks, like the ZenBook 14 OLED from a few years ago, and it's not trying as hard to impress as ASUS's typical gaming notebooks. It's similar to the company's gorgeous Zephyrus G14 and G16 machines, which feel high-end without needing too much gaming bling.
What struck me first about the A14 last year remains the most intriguing aspect of the A16: It just seems impossibly light for its size. The model I’m testing, which will also be sold at Best Buy, weighs 2.9 pounds due to its glass touchscreen cover. But you can also get a slimmer 2.6-pound version of the A16 at ASUS’s online store.
ASUS's Ceraluminum material, which feels like a blend of ceramic and metal, also exudes quality and warmth when you hold it. There's no shock of cold metal on your lap like you'll find with most premium laptops, including Apple's MacBook Pro. But it's also just as sturdy as those machines, with no discernible creaks or flex when stressed. ASUS claims its Ceraluminum cases are also scratch and fingerprint resistant, and so far that seems to be true of my review unit after a few weeks of testing.
ASUS Zenbook A16
Devindra Hardawar for Engadget
The ZenBook A16's stunning 16-inch 3K OLED screen is its defining feature, and it delivers everything you'd expect from OLED. Colors look bold and bright, and it offers inky dark black levels. It delivers an eye-popping sense of contrast you won't find on most LCD screens (unless they have Mini LED backlights, like the MacBook Pro). Text appears crisp and sharp, and the large screen size does a great job of making video playback feel immersive (especially if you're laying in bed, trying to catch up on The Pitt).
Personally, I'd still opt for the A14 because of the weight difference, but if you prefer big screens this is certainly one of the most intriguing options around. The A16 also has a full-sized SD card reader and HDMI connection, both of which the smaller model lacks entirely. ASUS also included a healthy amount of other ports, including two USB-C 4.0 connections, one USB Type A 3.2 port and a headphone jack. From a productivity perspective, you can certainly get a lot more done with the ZenBook A16's connectivity.
The same holds true for Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X2 Elite chips in the A16. Both the X2E94100and X2E96100 are 18-core chips with a single core boost speed of 4.7GHz, which is a big leap over the 8-core X1 chip in last year's A14. The X2 Elite-equipped A16 also comes with a whopping 48GB of RAM, which feels downright luxurious given our current RAM availability crisis, as well as a new 80-TOPS NPU for AI workloads.
Geekbench 6 CPU
Geekbench 6 GPU
Cinebench 2024
ASUS Zenbook A16 (Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E94100)
3,262/20,808
43,849
98/1,238
ASUS Zenbook A14 (2025, Qualcomm Snapdragon X1)
2,113/10,316
9,603
96/540
Apple MacBook Air (M5)
4,193/17,270
47,656
N/A
Microsoft Surface Laptop (2024, Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite)
2,797/14,400
19,963
123/969
I immediately felt the difference in power when I booted up the ZenBook A16. The awkward sluggishness while browsing the web or perusing Evernote entries on the A14 was gone. Instead, the A16 always felt incredibly responsive and ready to work, like an eager puppy that never gets tired of playing fetch. Benchmarks also revealed the massive speed differences: The X2 Elite A16 scored 1,200 points higher in Geekbench 6's single-core CPU test, and its multi-core performance was twice as fast.
The comparison is a bit unfair, I'll admit, because the A14 I reviewed last year was stuck with the most basic X-series Snapdragon chip, whereas the A16 touts Qualcomm's latest and greatest hardware. That also makes the A16 a bit more expensive than last year's A14: Best Buy lists it at $1,600, whereas the A14 initially sold for $1,100.
ASUS Zenbook A16
Devindra Hardawar for Engadget
But at least the ZenBook A16 delivers the performance you'd expect for its price range. In the PCMark 10 Applications benchmark, it scored 17,264 points, which is 1,000 points higher than Dell's Premium 16 (aka last year's XPS 16) with Intel's Core Ultra 7 255H chip. It's also leagues ahead of the old ZenBook A14, which scored a meager 12,127 points.
Benchmarks never tell the whole story, of course, but those huge performance gaps are the sort of thing you immediately notice in everyday performance. I was able to load up the ZenBook A16 with dozens of tabs, Evernote, 4K YouTube video streams and large Audacity jobs, and it never broke a sweat. Since it's an ARM-based Snapdragon system, though, be aware older apps may run into issues, or fail to work entirely.
That Qualcomm hardware also made gaming a major problem for the first generation of Snapdragon X Elite chips, which didn't perform well and were also incompatible with games that required kernel-level anti-cheat. Updates to the Windows on Arm platform fixed the latter issue, and Qualcomm also launched its Snapdragon Control Panel to deliver faster driver updates. Now all Snapdragon X Elite chips can play Fortnite, Roblox and Tencent titles. Qualcomm claims that 90 percent of games will run on the Snapdragon Elite X2 chips.
ASUS Zenbook A16
Devindra Hardawar for Engadget
And that includes demanding titles like Cyberpunk 2077. I was able to reach 80 fps in that game, while playing with medium settings in 1080p, along with enabling AMD's FSR frame generation. This wouldn't be my ideal way to play Cyberpunk, but it's a sign that the ZenBook A16 can at least hold its own in gaming. Unfortunately, it wouldn't load Arc Raiders, because there's still no support for its anti-cheat tech. Fortnite launched just fine, though, and for some people that'll be enough.
But really, anyone buying the ZenBook A16 isn't doing it to play shooters, you're doing it to get one of the lightest productivity machines around. ASUS's keyboard was comfortable to type on, though I would have liked to see more key depth akin to the Surface Laptop. Its trackpad is large and responsive, but it's also mechanical, which means you can only click along the lower two-thirds. In this price range, I'd expect ASUS to use a haptic trackpad with full coverage.
The ZenBook A14's battery life (18 hours and 15 minutes) was one of its truly impressive features. ASUS repeats history here with the A16 clocking in 21 hours and 35 minutes in our rundown test. That's the immediate benefit of having a chip based on mobile ARM architecture. During my testing, the A16 drained down to 80 percent after around four hours of continuous work.
Compatibility issues aside, the ZenBook A16 delivers just about everything I want in an ultraportable. It’s got a gorgeous OLED screen and all of the ports you need. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite chips also give it a much-needed power boost. And best of all, it's one of the lightest and sleekest 16-inch Windows laptops I've come across. Just be prepared to pay a bit extra over other ultraportables for its slim size.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/asus-zenbook-a16-review-a-surprisingly-light-and-powerful-16-inch-ultraportable-140000914.html?src=rss
HarperCollins is tapping into AI to bring some of its book franchises to life. Specifically, the publisher is teaming up with Toonstar, an AI animation studio, to turn them into digital shows. The first project will be an adaptation of Lisa Greenwald’s “Friendship List” series, which will also be joined by a graphic novel.
You’d be forgiven for being unaware of Toonstar, a studio that received some buzzy early on for simplifying typically complex animation pipelines with AI, but has mostly remained under the radar. Its biggest claim to fame is producing StEvEn and Parker YouTube series, which has amassed 3.38 million subscribers and sometimes has episodes reaching around a million views. It’s not something I’ve heard animation fans speaking about, though. And honestly, it was tough to sit through a few minutes of its sub-South Park animation.
“By leaning into the [AI] technology, we can make full episodes 80 percent faster and 90 percent cheaper than industry norms,” Toonstar co-founder John Attanasio, told The New York Times last year. In that same interview, the company revealed that it uses AI across its production, including having it dub dialog for international audiences, as well as working on storylines.
Toonstar initially pitched itself as an animation studio leaning into Web3 and NFTs, but those technologies seem virtually absent from the company’s presence today. Space Junk, one of its early series, was “put on hold for a variety of reasons,” a representative told Engadget. “It’s possible we’ll resurrect the concept in the future,” they added. Its original domain now points to a crypto gambling site.
“We’re honored to bring Friendship List to life as an animated series,” Attanasio said in a press release. “Our artist-centered approach ensures these beloved characters and stories stay true to the author’s vision, while our Ink & Pixel production technology enables fast, high-quality production at scale which unlocks the ability to meet audiences where and when they enjoy content today.”
Toonstar has certainly proved it can make “content” for YouTube. Can it actually produce an enjoyable animat edshow? That’s another question entirely.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/ai-animation-studio-toonstar-will-turn-books-into-digital-shows-for-harpercollins-211419155.html?src=rss
I realized something was genuinely wrong with The Super Mario Galaxy Movie about 30 minutes in: I hadn't laughed even once. My audience of around 15 people, including a few families, was dead silent as well. The guy sitting behind me, a Nintendo fan decked out in Mario gear, was so bored he fell asleep. Sure, this is made for kids, but as a Nintendo devotee myself, and someone who has to watch a ton of children's films on repeat, even the Despicable Me films are more entertaining.
To be fair, there's the pretense of a plot: Koopa Jr. and Peach are on parallel tracks to reconnect with a sense of family, in their own ways. But the movie leaps from scene to scene joylessly, with no sense of storytelling or characterization, glued together by the "oh I remember that guy"-ness of empty corporate nostalgia. It's even less of a movie than the previous Pratt-led popcorn flick.
Luigi, Yoshi, Mario and Toad in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
Nintendo and Illumination
Take the discovery of Yoshi, which takes place early in the film. Mario and Luigi just find him in a cave and he immediately becomes part of the crew, no questions asked. There's a brief creative sequence where Yoshi wreaks havoc in the real world, but it's far too short. Yoshi's got plot duties to fulfill, after all! He’s the perfect sidekick, with no desires of his own and the bare minimum of characterization (thanks to Donald Glover’s voice, oddly enough. Dude's got range!)
I argued that the first Mario film felt a bit too safe, but at least it had a few moments to shine: Like an early side-scrolling sequence, and Jack Black's endearingly musical take on Koopa. The only truly inventive sequence in this movie involves Star Fox's Fox McCloud, voiced with just the right dose of attitude by current Hollywood "it guy" Glen Powell. He briefly recounts his story in anime form, and yes, he does a barrel roll or two.
Bowser Jr. and Bowser in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
Nintendo and Illumination
Now it doesn't make much sense why Fox is actually in the film, but a few half-hearted fight sequences throughout makes it seem like Nintendo is setting up an eventual Avengers-style Smash Bros. movie. What better way to cram in even more characters and references! Isn't that what franchise filmmaking is all about?
I'd like to think Nintendo and its collaborators can do better. This is a company known for the thoughtfulness of its game designs, for delivering quirky and inventive player experiences and for not always following the competition. None of that applies to The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. There’s little in the way of creativity. It barely respects the audience’s time. And it is, in every sense, just following the More, Louder, Busier playbook for unfocused franchise sequels.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is so soulless, it makes me worried about the upcoming Legend of Zelda film (which at least has a far more respectable creative team). Sure, it’s hard to expect genuine cinema from a Mario film. But we live in an era of great kids movies – Pixar’s Hoppers was an absolute hoot wrapped in an environmentalist message; The Lego Movie (and its sequel and side stories) manage to deliver both laughs and heart. Kids deserve better than an empty sequel moneygrab.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-super-mario-galaxy-movie-is-a-black-hole-of-entertainment-154406362.html?src=rss
For a 50-year-old company, Apple remains pretty hip and nimble. This week, Devindra and Senior Reporter Igor Bonifacic dive into Apple's big birthday, the state of the company today and what the next 50 years could bring. It remains one of the few PC companies that’s still firmly committed to the idea of personal computing. Also, we celebrate the successful launch of NASA's Artemis II mission, which will bring us back to the Moon (but just for a close look).
Apple at 50: Why it’s still all about personal computing – 1:16
Artemis II is safely on its way to the moon, but they’re having problems with Outlook – 37:48
SpaceX files for the largest IPO ever, what’s driving their hopes for a 1.75 Trillion valuation? – 40:52
Another Starlink satellite broke up in orbit, the second in 6 months – 47:21
Anthropic accidentally leaked source code for Claude Code – 52:17
FCC issues ban on all foreign-made WiFi routers – 57:18
Around Engadget – 1:02:09
Working On – 1:07:18
Pop culture picks – 1:08:20
Credits
Hosts : Devindra Hardawar and Igor Bonifacic Producer: Ben Ellman Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/engadget-podcast-how-apple-keeps-redefining-personal-computing-at-50-122121591.html?src=rss
If you're feeling anxious about AI and what it means for the future of humanity, you should watch The AI Doc: Or, How I Became an Apocaloptimist. As I noted in my review, the film aims to deliver some clarity amid all the hype. Now that it's in theaters, we sat down with director Daniel Roher, who won an Oscar for his film Navalny, to dive deeper into his complicated feelings around AI.
The entire topic made him nervous, Roher said, so he decided to team up with similarly anxious colleagues to demystify AI using film. He describes the goal of the project to be a sort of "first date" with AI, a way to hear about its potential benefits from AI boosters, while also taking in the many negatives brought up by critics. It’s probably too late to stop AI entirely, but he thinks we can at least try to find ways to limit the worst impulses of the tech industry.
"I wanted to make this movie because I was scared shitless, that's the crux of it," he said in an interview on the Engadget Podcast. "I didn't understand what AI was. I didn't understand why everyone was talking about it and why it seemed to be this thing that came outta the woodwork and all of a sudden, people were talking about it like it was the apocalypse or like it was gonna be the most optimistic, greatest thing ever."
Ultimately, Roher arrived at the term “apocaloptimist,” which balances the contradictory ideas that AI can both seriously harm society, and that we can still shape the future by criticizing or outright rejecting it. "It's a worldview. It's choosing not to buy into a binary that's asking us to see this as either apocalypse and the end of the world, or through the rose-colored glasses of unvarnished optimism, which is also sort of a fallacy," he said.
On the one hand, he's well aware the major players pushing AI are, at best, flawed. When I mentioned Marc Andreessen’s recent comments about proudly having no inner thoughts, Roher added,” They're just fucking weird. They're just nerds who became billionaires because they were born at the right time and they had the right interests. They're brilliant in their own way and they have abilities, but they don't understand what it is to exist. They don’t know what real human beings navigate and go through.They have a very narrow worldview that's callous and cold and calculated.”
For many, the overnight ubiquity of this largely untested technology and the collective wealth and power of those supporting it means rampant negative externalities are all but guaranteed. But Roher's apocaloptimism (we'll see if the term quite catches on) chafes against cynicism and doomsaying. He points to OpenAI’s Sora video generation app, which was heavily criticized as a tool that could lead to more realistic deepfakes, but was unceremoniously killed last week.
"I think people were [made] uncomfortable by it, and good,” Roher said. “And, shame on OpenAI for releasing this thing without any thoughtfulness. I guess the low bar of like, at least they had the decency to pull back and retract it, but only after public condemnation." He added, "to the cynical people saying we're all fucked, I'm like, no fuck you, we're not. Collective action matters.”
And notably, the entire goal is to think more deeply about the uses of technology than the people actually creating it. "These guys, when you actually sit down with them, they don't have clarity, they can't make you feel better. They don't know themselves. They're just motivated by the unbridled optimism of the greatest profit-making technology in the history of humanity. "
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-ai-docs-director-was-scared-shitless-by-ai-so-he-made-a-movie-about-it-145747961.html?src=rss
Against all odds, A24’s adaptation of The Backrooms actually looks like a proper elevated horror movie. Hell, it’s even got Oscar winner Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave, Serenity) and Cannes favorite Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value) onboard. Judging from the film’s fist trailer, which combines The Backrooms creepypasta-born dread around liminal spaces, and A24’s slick horror aesthetic, you couldn’t tell that its director can’t even legally drink in the US yet. Yes folks, Kane Parsons is just 20.
Parsons, AKA Kane Pixels, made a splash four years ago with his original Backrooms shorts, the first of which has amassed over 73 million views on YouTube. Those were relatively simple episodes created in Blender, but they did an admirable job of feeling genuinely creepy. More recently, Parsons has also dabbled in horror shorts with his series The Oldest View.
While Parsons certainly has a ton of internet clout behind him, he also has a strong eye for slow-burn horror. This trailer alone is making me feel uneasy about heading into my dimly lit basement office. He also won’t be the first internet creator to reach cinemas this year. Markiplier’s adaptation of the indie game Iron Lung was particularly notable, since he funded both the production and theatrical distribution on his own.
The Backrooms joins Genki Kawamura’s adaptation of the game Exit 8 as another new horror film about spooky liminal spaces. It’ll be interesting to see how the two compare. The former started as 4chan stories and images around eerily empty buildings, while the latter was a game where you slowly walked through a repetitive Tokyo subway. There’s more room for Parsons to turn The Backrooms into a narrative of his own, whereas Exit 8 is somewhat restricted by the original game.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-backrooms-trailer-combines-creepypasta-dread-and-a24-prestige-horror-213602238.html?src=rss
Anxiety, more so than technological rigor, sits at the heart of The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist. Director Daniel Roher is anxious about the future he's bringing a child into — will it be an AI-driven utopia? Or does it spell certain doom, something explored in countless sci-fi stories. To figure it all out, he interviewed some of the most well known AI proponents and critics, including The Empire of AI author Karen Hao, AI researcher Emily Bender and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.
The AI Doc, which hits theaters this weekend, doesn't really shed new light. For that, I'd recommend reading Hao's industry-defining book, which chronicles the rise of OpenAI and the precarious nature of its business. But I don't think tech-heads are the main audience for this film. Instead, Roher is trying to break down the state of AI for mainstream audiences, the folks who may occasionally use ChatGPT or Google's Gemini, but aren't aware of why they're controversial. In particular, the film exposes the near-religious devotion many in the tech world have around AI.
It's not a spoiler to say that Roher ultimately adopts an "apocaloptimist" viewpoint. He's aware of the potential dangers of AI, and that it will likely have some serious societal impact. But, he also thinks humans have the ability to shape where it's headed. AI proponents have a near-religious belief in the eventuality of artificial general intelligence (AGI), or AI that can match and surpass human capabilities. But AGI isn’t inevitable, and Roher argues there’s room for critics and the public to push back.
The AI Doc splits its narrative between true believers — like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei — and prominent AI critics — like Tristan Harris, the co-founder and president of the Center of Humane Technology, as well as linguistics professor Emily M. Bender. It's easy to feel a bit of whiplash when the film moves from people who genuinely think AI will lead to some sort of utopia (and who will also become insanely rich in the process), and the extreme critics who think it will mean the end of humanity. At one point, Harris mentions that some of his friends working in AI risk assessment believe that their kids "won't see high school." There's that anxiety again.
While The AI Doc squeezes an impressive amount of notable interviews in its hour-and-43-minute runtime, I would have liked to hear more from critics like Timnit Gebru, a former Google AI researcher who also ties the development of AI into a rise of "techno-fascism" in Silicon Valley. She appears briefly in the film, but her perspective isn't fully fleshed out. The AI Doc doesn't dig very deeply into the driving forces behind AI, whereas Ghost in the Machine, this year's other major AI documentary, draws a direct line between the rise of eugenics and Silicon Valley. (Ghost in the Machine is headed to theaters this summer, and will air on PBS in the fall.)
It's the sort of energetic, animation-heavy documentary that wants to make sure the audience is never bored. But the threat of AI deserves more nuance and critical scrutiny. At worst, The AI Doc may make more people question the value of AI as the tech industry becomes more desperate to make it a success.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-ai-doc-explores-how-we-can-survive-an-uncertain-ai-future-154341735.html?src=rss
It turns out people don't actually love having Copilot shoved into their faces. This week, Devindra and PCWorld Senior Editor Mark Hachman discuss Microsoft's surprising plan to "fix" Windows 11 by refocusing on customization and core features, instead of bringing Copilot AI into tons of apps. Is there any enthusiasm left for Windows? Or will most people be better off considering macOS or Linux?
Microsoft hits the reset button on Windows 11, de-emphasizing Copilot AI – 1:03
OpenAI pulls the plug on its Sora video generation app after just 5 months – 25:23
Meta’s terrible week in court, part 1: $375 million ruling in New Mexico child engagement case – 33:58
Meta’s terrible week in court, part 2: Meta and Google lose landmark social media addiction suit – 38:49
OpenAI puts erotic chat on hold indefinitely – 43:49
Update your iPhones: iOS exploit ‘Darksword’ released on GitHub – 46:39
Epic games lays off 1,000 workers after Fortnite engagement dips – 47:48
Honda and Sony kill off their Afeela EV collaboration – 49:26
Listener Mail: Which Mac Mini to get for a budding pro photographer – 55:15
Pop culture picks – 57:52
Credits
Host: Devindra Hardawar Guest: Mark Hachman Producer: Ben Ellman Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/engadget-podcast-can-microsoft-fix-windows-11-by-dumping-ai-122601592.html?src=rss
It turns out people don't actually love having Copilot shoved into their faces. This week, Devindra and PCWorld Senior Editor Mark Hachman discuss Microsoft's surprising plan to "fix" Windows 11 by refocusing on customization and core features, instead of bringing Copilot AI into tons of apps. Is there any enthusiasm left for Windows? Or will most people be better off considering macOS or Linux?
Microsoft hits the reset button on Windows 11, de-emphasizing Copilot AI – 1:03
OpenAI pulls the plug on its Sora video generation app after just 5 months – 25:23
Meta’s terrible week in court, part 1: $375 million ruling in New Mexico child engagement case – 33:58
Meta’s terrible week in court, part 2: Meta and Google lose landmark social media addiction suit – 38:49
OpenAI puts erotic chat on hold indefinitely – 43:49
Update your iPhones: iOS exploit ‘Darksword’ released on GitHub – 46:39
Epic games lays off 1,000 workers after Fortnite engagement dips – 47:48
Honda and Sony kill off their Afeela EV collaboration – 49:26
Listener Mail: Which Mac Mini to get for a budding pro photographer – 55:15
Pop culture picks – 57:52
Credits
Host: Devindra Hardawar Guest: Mark Hachman Producer: Ben Ellman Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/engadget-podcast-can-microsoft-fix-windows-11-by-dumping-ai-122601592.html?src=rss
