If the real world isn’t grim enough for you, Ukranian developer 4A Games has your back: Metro 2039 has been announced and is scheduled to arrive this winter. And based on the developer’s first look at the title, Metro 2039 looks to be an even darker affair than previous titles in the series. A tall order, but the real-world turmoil that has enveloped 4A Games since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sounds like it has turned into a painful inspiration for the developer.
The lengthy cinematic reveal, which also contains a brief bit of gameplay at the end, doesn’t give much of the story away. But it does serve to place you right in the ruined, terrifying world of the Metro series. Metro 2039 arrives about 25 years after a nuclear apocalypse wiped out most life on the planet. The series focuses on survivors who live in Moscow’s ruined metro system. 4A says that this time out, the different underground factions have been united by a group known as “the Novoreich,” complete with a new ruler, the Spartan known as Hunter.
Despite Hunter promising “salvation and a new life” for the survivors left on the surface, things aren’t exactly rosy underground. As you might expect, this supposedly “united” society is still a complete disaster, with propaganda, authoritarian rule and violence the hallmark of the regime.
Screenshot from Metro 2039.
4A Games
The Metro series is based on novels by Dmitry Glukhovsky, a Russian author who has been in exile due to his public denouncement of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 4A Studios says that while this new game isn’t based specifically on one of his works, they worked in collaboration with Glukhovsky on the story for Metro 2039 “shaped by shared values of freedom and truth, and informed by the harsh realities of the world today.”
In statements from the studio, 4A directly acknowledges the conditions that Metro 2039 was created under. “Many developers continue to work from multiple locations, facing daily challenges never anticipated,” the studio says. “Through power outages, reliance on generators, and disruptions from missile and drone attacks, development has continued – driven by resilience, shared support, and a commitment to the work.”
It goes on to state that: “The war has directly shaped the development of Metro 2039, with its story focused acutely on choices, actions, consequences, and the cost of securing a future. While told from a distinctly Ukrainian perspective, Metro 2039 remains an authentic Metro story.” While the Metro series has been unfailingly bleak, it’s not hard to imagine how Russia’s invasion could have influenced the storytelling coming out of a Ukranian studio with an exiled Russian being part of the story team. But the limited bit of the game we’ve seen so far doesn’t make anything too explicit.
Screenshot from Metro 2039's reveal trailer.
4A Games
The trailer shows off the new player-character known as The Stranger, the first voiced protagonist in the series (though we don’t hear him do anything but scream in the preview). The Stranger has apparently been surviving in the above-ground wasteland but is forced to return to the metro. The little bit of gameplay we saw was the standard first-person shooter view of The Stranger heading underground to be immediately ambushed by a pretty horrific monster that he barely escapes from — he’s then dragged to “safety” by a group of survivors who just get the doors to their shelter shut before being overrun by a larger horde. Creepy stuff.
The rest of the preview largely feels like a dream (or nightmare) sequence — but while it’s hard to put together what is going on, there’s no doubt that the detail in the environments and characters is top-notch. Given that the last metro game, Metro Exodus, was released way back in 2019, it’s fair to say that we’re getting a more graphically impressive rendering of ruined Moscow and the tunnels beneath it.
There’s no exact release date yet, but 4A Games says Metro 2039 will arrive this winter for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/a-first-look-at-metro-2039-shows-how-its-ukrainian-developer-turned-the-darkness-up-to-11-171500713.html?src=rss
Pinball video games have been around for years — I cut my teeth on Space Cadet 3D Pinball, which was pre-loaded on Windows 95. They range from realistic recreations of pinball tables you’ll find at arcades to games that could never exist in real life like 2019’s Demon’s Tilt or older ones like Metroid Prime Pinball for the Nintendo DS or Pokémon Pinball for the Game Boy Color.
I didn’t expect to find a detailed pinball game for the humble and delightful Playdate, but a pair of developers working under the name Amano pulled it off with Devils on the Moon Pinball, which arrived last week. It’s the developer’s third game for the Playdate, and Mario and JP (who make up Amano) pointed directly to Pokemon Pinball as the inspiration for this game. “I think one of my most-played games is Pokemon Pinball,” JP said. “But the idea to make a pinball game came from Mario… he came to me and say ‘JP, I want to make a custom engine for Playdate and we should make a pinball game.’”
I love playing pinball in real life, but owning a full-size table is extremely expensive and takes up a ton of room. But Devils on the Moon completely scratches the itch. The controls are extremely simple: pressing left on the d-pad flips the left fipper, A flips the right flipper, and pressing down on the d-pad launches the ball. Amano also included tilt controls; pressing right or up on the d-pad or the B button shakes the table in a particular direction so you can try and save the ball. Sadly, the crank doesn’t come into play, but I can’t say I have a good idea for how it would be used.
A screenshot from Devils on the Moon Pinball.
Amano
I was impressed with both the physics and table design of Devils on the Moon after playing for just a few minutes. Despite not having analog control, the way the ball reacted when I hit the flippers felt consistent and smooth, and while I was often surprised at some of the bounces it took, it never felt unfair. When I drained a ball, it was almost always something I could have avoided if I knew the game better or had faster reflexes — just like a good, real-life pinball table.
JP and Mario described the game as using “stylized physics” rather than it being fully realistic. “It may not necessarily be accurate to real life,” JP said. “But since the screen is wider than it is tall unlike actual pinball, we needed the ball to feel a little bit floaty and not fall as fast because then it would just zoom straight down the screen.”
The table design feels both grounded in reality while also taking advantage of its virtual nature. There are three vertical “levels,” each with its own set of flippers. The 2D nature of the game means there aren’t any true ramps like you’ll on most pinball tables, but having three separate sections of the game to get used to makes up for that. And provided you complete various modes in the game, you can reach boss battles where you’re tasked with whacking a giant enemy repeatedly to drain away their health bar. Physical pinball tables often have similar encounters, but they have to be worked into the design of the game — in this case, your ball essentially ports to an entirely different space when you battle a boss.
The full three-stage board layout for Devils on the Moon pinball.
Amano
“It's kind of playing like the old pinball machines where the rules are really simple,” Mario said.". "You just have a few things to do. In our case, it ended up going beyond our original scope, but it’s still quite simple compared to an actual pinball machine in terms of rules.” He said the design intent was to make the game friendlier to people who might try it out without a lot of pinball experience while still putting enough challenge into it.
The audio and visual presentation is top-notch for a Playdate game, too. Perhaps most crucially for a pinball game, there’s no lag or stuttering. The game also has a distinct visual identity, something that’s always important for pinball to draw you into the world of the playfield as much as possible. The game’s page cheekily promises “ at least (1) songs” and it delivers on that with a solid theme for the main game that serves well as background music that doesn’t get old if you’re playing for a while, and the beeps and boops the table makes as you play feel well-suited to the game. It doesn’t “sound” like a real pinball table — but it isn’t one, so that’s okay.
A screenshot of Devils on the Moon Pinball.
Amano
I haven’t played a video pinball game in a long time, but the Playdate feels like an ideal platform for this. I can bring it with me anywhere and play a round or two (provided there’s decent light) or settle in for a longer play session. The game is challenging enough that you’ll need to practice a lot to get the hang of it, but there’s enough variety to the three-tiered table to keep players interested for the long haul. After all, the fun of pinball isn’t necessarily playing a table for the first time — it’s learning it inside out so you can maximize your score. I’m looking forward to getting to that point with Devils on the Moon.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/devils-on-the-moon-brings-the-score-chasing-of-pinball-to-the-playdate-130000414.html?src=rss
The horrible winter of 2026 is behind us in New England; now we’ve moved on to the season where there’s a threat of rain basically every day. Given that, the updated Storm Radar app from The Weather Company (owners of the Weather Channel app) caught my eye. There are tons of good weather apps out there, and I’m the kind of nerd that likes to try them all, and Storm Radar feels pretty unique to me.
The main interface is, as you’d expect, your local radar. Tapping on any point of the map calls up a detailed forecast for that exact point, with data coming via The Weather Company’s “gridded forecast on demand” (FOD) system. The default view is precipitation, but there are multiple other layers you can add including temperature, cloud cover, nearby lighting strikes, wind and so forth. There are also overlays for storm cells being tracked; you can tap on those and see things like the direction, speed and range of the storm.
In addition to that standard radar view, Storm Radar has just added something called high-res single site radar. As the name suggests, it pulls data specifically from a single weather station in much greater detail than the typical radar map; The Weather Company says the standard view is based on its FOD system which uses a variety of sources, including the company’s own APIs.
The single-site radar, on the other hand, includes reflectivity data, which measures the amount of energy returned to a radar receiver from precipitation. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says reflectivity is “he most frequently used product by forecasters to indicate where precipitation and severe weather is occurring.” That's a level of specificity I find delightful.
Naturally, there’s some AI baked into the updated app as well. In my testing, it responds pretty clearly to natural language questions like “what’s the best time to go for a run.”There’s a more conversational element to the AI experience that should be rolling out in the coming weeks, as well.
Like the standard Weather Channel app, you can use Storm Radar for free, but its most advanced featuers require a premium subscription. $4 a month or $20 per year unlocks all of Storm Radar’s features; you can also get a Weather Channel Premium Pro subscription for $5 a month or $30 a year which includes Storm Radar as well as removing ads and providing more detailed data (like hourly forecasts for eight days rather than two). That pricing is about in line with what other weather apps are charging for premium features these days. So if the basic iPhone weather app isn’t cutting it, Storm Radar may be worth a look. It’s only on iOS for now, but it’ll eventually come to Android too.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/the-new-storm-radar-app-is-a-treasure-trove-of-data-for-weather-nerds-133646812.html?src=rss
We’ve written about the Swiss company Proton’s moves to take on Google and Microsoft with an expanding variety of privacy-focused internet services, and the company is announcing yet another new tool today. Proton Meet, as the name suggests, is a video-calling service that sounds comparable to Zoom, Microsoft Teams and, naturally, Google Meet.
As with everything Proton does, Meet is end-to-end encrypted, but the company is taking extra steps towards security and anonymity here. You don’t need a Proton account to join a Meet call, which should help service gain traction — you can use Proton and not totally throw off everyone else who’s still using other systems. Proton says that Meet can be used anonymously and no logs are kept. The company even says that a Proton account isn’t needed to host a meeting. If you visit the Proton Meet site, you can start an anonymous call with up to four participants for free.
Proton says that anyone with an account (even a free one) can start Meet call with up to 50 participants for up to one hour, but it is also offering a dedicated Meet Professional plan for $8 a month with fewer restrictions (though we don’t have the specifics yet).
Meet joins the other core Proton tools including Mail, Calendar, VPN, Drive and a password manager. Drive in particular has gotten some notable upgrades recently — it offers collaborative documents and spreadsheets, just like Google. With the addition of Meet, Proton has most of the core services that Google offers covered. There’s even a little AI bot if that’s your thing.
Proton is using this launch as an opportunity to rebrand its services, gathering them all under the new Proton Workspace (another name pulled directly from Google’s offerings). In addition to the dedicated Meet Professional plan, Proton is offering Workplace Standard for $13 per month (billed annually) or $15 a month (billed monthly). That includes the aforementioned tools and 500GB of space by default. There’s also a Premium plan ($20/month annually or $25/month billed monthly) that adds more storage, access to the Lumo chatbot, expanded Meet participant limits and a few other tidbits.
The company says it’ll continue offering its other plans, including a Mail-only option that costs $36 a year as well as other bundles for an individual, two users or a whole family. But Proton is obviously looking to expand its business client base with Meet in addition to growing its user base (currently more than 100 million). Proton says it has about 100,000 enterprise customers, and adding a tool like Meet to its portfolio should make it easier to court companies as well as individuals.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/proton-adds-a-secure-video-conferencing-service-called-meet-to-its-toolbox-121729143.html?src=rss
It’s been a rough couple of years for Sonos. In mid-2024, the company released a redesigned and thoroughly busted update to its app, which Sonos owners need to set up new products, manage their speaker groups, play music and access a host of other crucial features. The fallout from that was far-reaching — the company replaced its CEO, canceled a few planned products and released no new hardware in 2025.
The Sonos Play, announced earlier this month, is the company’s reset button, a way to remind people what the company does well. The Play is a portable speaker that sits between the $499 Sonos Move 2 (which is large, expensive and extremely loud) and the $179 Roam 2 (the cheapest Sonos speaker and tiny enough to bring anywhere). The $299 Play sits right in the middle of the company’s portable lineup in both size and price — and after spending a few weeks listening to it, I think it’s a very smart addition to the collection. Thanks to its impressive sound quality, versatility and portability, the Play is immediately one of the best speakers Sonos sells. The timing couldn’t be better, either, with warmer weather finally on the way.
Feature set
Like all other Sonos speakers, the Play is a Wi-Fi smart speaker that can stream audio from dozens of services; you can also play content on it via AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect and Bluetooth. The USB-C port on the back also lets you connect to turntables, CD players and other audio devices via a line-in dongle, or you can also use that port for an Ethernet connection (again with the corresponding dongle). Finally, you can also control the Play via Amazon Alexa or the Sonos Voice Assistant. And like the Roam, the Play is IP67 rated for water and dust resistance.
That’s all standard fare at this point, but I appreciate that Sonos included Ethernet and line-in capabilities, two things the Roam doesn’t support. It makes the Play a much more versatile option for being a centerpiece of your indoor setup as well as something you can take on the go. And since the Play comes with a wireless charging base, it’s easy to keep it charged up during indoor duty and equally simple to just grab it and go without fussing with cables. (Strangely enough, it does not come with a power adapter, so you’ll need to provide your own USB-C brick.)
The real panel of the Sonos Play.
Nathan Ingraham for Engadget
Physically, the Play reminds me of the Sonos Era 100 with its width squished down to make it more portable. Unsurprisingly, it comes in the same white and black color options; I had been hoping for a few more options like the vibrant Roam colors. The one touch of color you’ll see is on the light green grab loop attached to the back; you can remove it if you’re not a fan. At 7.6 inches, it’s slightly taller than the Era 100, but it’s much thinner and lighter. Based on the initial product renders, I expected the Play to be larger than it is in reality, but it feels quite compact and easy to move around. It’s not a “throw in your bag and forget it” speaker like the Roam, but it’s far more portable than the Move. The Move is a speaker I’d really only use in my house or in the backyard, whereas I’d toss the Play into a backpack and take with me — unless I really needed to save space or weight.
The Era 100 (left) and the Play (right).
Nathan Ingraham for Engadget
Side view of the Sonos Era 100 and Play.
Nathan Ingraham for Engadget
Its diminutive size is even more impressive when you consider the audio components Sonos packed inside. The Play features a speaker array nearly identical to that of the larger Era 100. It has two tweeters angled at 90 degrees for some stereo separation, along with a mid-woofer and two passive radiators for bass performance. The passive radiators are unique to the Play, specifically included to help bass levels in settings where there aren’t walls for the sound to reflect off of — like anywhere outside you might take a portable speaker.
Two Sonos Play speakers paired in stereo.
Nathan Ingraham for Engadget
Audio quality
The Play’s flexibility only matters if it sounds good. Fortunately, Sonos has never struggled with producing a speaker that’s a pleasure to listen to, and the Play certainly fits the bill. My top-level and unscientific analysis is that the Play sounds nearly as good as the Era 100, an impressive feat considering its comparatively small frame.
I tested a single Play speaker as well as a stereo pair in my small office, where I typically listen to music through a stereo pair of Era 100 speakers. I also used them in stereo on my larger and more open first floor, both streaming music and playing on my turntable via the line-in jack. Finally, I got to test them outside on my deck on a few lovely early Spring days that the Boston area was graced with recently. I used the auto Trueplay tuning feature throughout; it uses the Play’s built-in microphone to optimize audio for whenever you’ve placed the speaker. Sonos has offered various versions of Trueplay for over a decade now and it consistently makes its speakers sound better. And given you don’t have to do the old “wave your phone around the room” method to use Trueplay, there’s really no reason not to have it on.
While in my office, I did a lot of A/B testing of the Era 100 vs. the Play, typically playing Apple Music lossless via the Sonos app, but I also tried AirPlay and Spotify Connect as well as other music services including YouTube Music and Bandcamp. The biggest differences I noticed between the two speakers are the Era 100 is louder and has a more pronounced mid-range. The Play comparatively feels like its EQ is “scooped,” and it just isn’t quite as loud at the same volume level. The Play also doesn’t maintain quality quite as well through the full volume range — I wouldn’t say that it got distorted when I was playing it at 75 percent volume, but it’s not as clear as the Era 100 either.
These differences I mostly only noticed when I was flipping back and forth between the two speakers — when I just sat back and listened, I was extremely happy with the Play’s sound. When listening to a single Play, the angled tweeters did provide a small degree of stereo separation when things were hard-panned to the left or right channels. For example, the backing vocals in the chorus of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” jump from one channel to the other, and I did pick up on that effect.
Top controls on the Sonos Play.
Nathan Ingraham for Engadget
The Play sounds very well-balanced and neutral, capable of reproducing songs without over-emphasizing any particular frequency. My usual listening habits include a ton of ‘90s-era alternative and more modern indie rock, plus some modern pop and the occasional film or video game score, and the Play sounded great across the board. Daughter’s “Be On Your Way” is an atmospheric track juggling strings, electronic underpinnings, reverb-drenched guitar and a gorgeous vocal track, and all those elements shined here. The dance-influenced beats of Nine Inch Nails’ “Less Than” had appropriate thump and power behind them, and “Stay Down” by Boygenius sounded great, whether it was the acoustic-tinged intro or the layered, full-band climax. Heavier fare like Metallica’s “Battery” and Tool’s “Fear Inoculum” hit with the appropriate intensity as well, particularly when I was running two Play speakers in stereo.
My go-to film score for these kinds of tests is Howard Shore’s Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and it’s often the case that doesn’t sound as majestic on smaller speakers. But the Play did a great job with the intricate orchestral arrangements that jump between delicately intimate moments and full-throated majesty — the first song “Glamdring” has all these elements in less than four minutes, and it sounded excellent. I also love Gustavo Santaolalla’s score for The Last of Us with its tortured strings and host of organic acoustic sounds alongside unsettling electronics, and all its various elements were faithfully conveyed here.
The line-in connection on the Sonos Play.
Nathan Ingraham for Engadget
Using the speaker’s line-in capabilities with a USB-C to 3.5mm audio input worked easily as well. The only real issue I noticed is that my particular turntable’s output meant I had to turn the Play up much louder than I would when streaming music, so its top volume level is much lower. That wasn’t exactly a problem, but if you really want to push a lot of volume from a line-in source, this might not be the speaker for you. I was also worried that I’d switch from line-in to streaming and forget to adjust the volume down, but the speaker is smart enough to re-adjust from the line-in volume down to wherever it was set previously.
While the Play isn’t the loudest speaker out there, it has plenty of power when outside. I set the volume to around 60 and walked from my porch to the sidewalk and could still faintly hear the music (though not loud enough to be too offensive to passers-by or neighbors). Back up on the deck, the Play maintained its detailed profile despite the lack of surfaces for the sound to reflect off. It feels like a great device to have playing in the background when you’re entertaining outdoors, but something like the Move 2 will do better if you want music to be the centerpiece of a gathering.
The Play’s Wi-Fi connection is strong enough that I didn’t need to switch to Bluetooth when I was outside, but it’s simple to use if you need it. There’s a dedicated Bluetooth button on the back; pressing it turns it on, while holding puts the speaker in pairing mode. Bluetooth is probably the easiest way to give someone else control over your Sonos system. If you start streaming music to it, you can then group other speakers with the Play to get those tunes anywhere in the house without having to give a guest access to your Sonos system.
The Sonos Play and its charging base.
Nathan Ingraham for Engadget
Sonos included a new Bluetooth feature with the Play that they’re also bringing to the Move 2. If you’re away from Wi-Fi and playing audio via Bluetooth, other Play or Move 2 speakers can join a group just by pressing and holding the play/pause button. This works with Play or Move 2 speakers that have previously been set up on the same Sonos system, and it’s as simple as it sounds. I just paired my phone to one speaker, started playing some music and then held the play/pause button on the second speaker to get them in sync.
As for battery life, the Play is a huge step up over the Roam’s rather paltry 10-hour estimate. The Play is rated for up to 24 hours of playback, same as the Move 2, and I think Sonos just about hit that mark. I spent several work days playing music for eight-plus hours and the Play’s battery only dropped about 30 percent each time. Your mileage may vary, but I think the Play has plenty of battery life considering its smaller size — and given how easy it is to just drop on a charging base when you’re done, I don’t think most people will run its battery down too often. Sonos also made the battery in the Play user-replaceable, a good option to keep the speaker running for years to come.
Side-by-side comparison of the Sonos Era 100 and Play.
Nathan Ingraham for Engadget
Competition
While there are loads of portable Bluetooth speakers out there, the Play’s position as a Wi-Fi speaker that can group with others in a household as well as be used on-the-go with Bluetooth makes it a rather unique option. The $269 Bose SoundLink Plus sounds great, can be paired in stereo or grouped in “party mode,” and is a similar size as the Play. But its battery doesn’t last as long and, more crucially, it only works via Bluetooth. Some people won’t care, but I prefer the much wider variety of playback options that the Play provides. JBL also has a host of portable Bluetooth speakers, as well as Wi-Fi enabled options meant for home use — but again, the combo of Wi-Fi playback and portability seems to be mainly limited to Sonos right now.
As such, the main competition for the Play comes from Sonos itself, with the Move 2, Roam and Era 100 all offering different pluses and minuses depending on what you’re looking for.
Sonos Play speaker sitting outside.
Nathan Ingraham for Engadget
Wrap-up
If it isn’t obvious, I’m a pretty big fan of the Sonos Play. While it’s not quite as portable as the tiny Sonos Roam, it sounds significantly better than the smallest Sonos speaker while still being easy to carry around. It’s probably the most versatile speaker in the Sonos lineup right now, and a smarter choice than the $499 Move 2 for most people. Unless you really need massive outdoor volume, the Play is the best portable Sonos speaker.
The only catch is its price. $299 is fair when you consider its sound quality and feature set. But it’s also $80 more than the Era 100, or $110 more than the Era 100 SL (which drops the microphone but is otherwise identical to its more expensive counterpart). So you’ll have to decide how much portability is worth to you. For me, the Play is an excellent addition to my existing setup. But if you’re likely to do most of your listening indoors, the Era 100 and its superior sound quality might make more sense.
To be clear, that’s not a knock against the Play. The latest Sonos speaker offers impressive sound quality, flexibility and portability, and it’s the kind of product that can help Sonos rebuild its reputation after its recent difficulties.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/speakers/sonos-play-review-the-companys-best-portable-speaker-so-far-130000688.html?src=rss
The AirPods Max 2 are almost here. Apple announced this morning that the first true update to its over-hear phones are up for pre-order on March 25 and will be shipping in early April. They look identical to the predecessor, with large, colorful earcups and a matching headband. But inside is the H2 chip that Apple first introduced with the AirPods Pro 2, which enables a host of new features. Chief among those is improved noise cancelation — Apple says with the H2 and improved audio algorithms, the AirPods Max 2 are 1.5 times more effective at reducing noise than the old model.
From an audio perspective, there’s a new amplifier on board here as well for clearer music and improved spatial audio performance. If you want lossless music, you can get that by using the included USB-C cable.
There are also a host of new features for the AirPods Max 2 enabled by the H2. These include an “Adaptive Audio” mode that balances between transparency and ANC modes depending on the environment so you can hear things when you need to while still blocking extraneous noise. Similarly, the conversation awareness features lower the volume of your content and increase transparency when your’e speaking. Live Translation comes to the AirPods Max 2 as well, a feature that uses your AirPods and iPhone to translate incoming speech to and from the language of your choosing.
Apple AirPods Max 2 colors
Apple
Essentially, the AirPods Max 2 now have almost all the features you’ll find in the AirPods Pro 3, just in an over-ear design. What hasn’t changed is the price — AirPods Max 2 still cost $549, notably more than most of the competition. Despite the high price, the first AirPods Max did sound exceptional — they’ve just been hard to recommend for years because of the aging feature set and cost.
Given that the first AirPods Max were released in 2020, these new headphones are long overdue and are probably what we should have got in 2024 when Apple added USB-C but otherwise didn’t change anything besides refreshing the colors.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/apple-announces-the-airpods-max-2-with-improved-noise-cancelation-and-h2-chip-133319594.html?src=rss
It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost four years since Apple gave the MacBook Air a serious glow-up. The 2022 model was a total redesign that bumped its performance with the M2 chip and also improved a number of key components. It was also the first MacBook Air to drop the signature tapered design, and Apple added a 15-inch model one year later to boot. Since then, Apple’s primarily focused on making sure it has a new chip every year — we’re already up to the M5, if you can believe it.
As such, the latest MacBook Air is an expected update that doesn’t change the game. Not that it needed changing: it’s been our favorite ultraportable laptop for years now. But the Air’s place in Apple’s lineup has changed with the simultaneous introduction of the $599 MacBook Neo. And unfortunately, Apple didn’t keep the $999 price that last year’s M4 MacBook Air hit; it’s back up to $1,099, the same price as the M2 and M3 models. Now that there’s the new, inexpensive MacBook Neo out there, who is the MacBook Air for? While I haven’t used the Neo yet, I’m pretty comfortable answering that question: it’s still for almost anyone.
The essentials haven’t changed
While the latest MacBook Air is physically unchanged from its 2022 revision, I don’t have a problem with that. I find the Air to be the Platonic ideal of a laptop that most people will be hard-pressed to find issues with. The 13.6-inch (or 15.3-inch, if you opt for the bigger size) display isn’t the most cutting edge screen out there, but it’s still sharp, bright and colorful. It’s stuck at a 60Hz refresh rate at a time when many PC manufacturers are using faster screens, but for the Air’s audience I don’t think that’s a problem. I may be miffed that the iPad Air similarly only has a pedestrian 60Hz refresh rate — but I think it’s less crucial on a Mac, where you’re not literally touching the screen (at least for now).
Other minor quibbles include the fact that Apple still hasn’t put a USB-C port on the right side of the computer in addition to those on the left, and the screen notch is still weird if you focus on it too much. But other than that, I can’t really come up with any issues here. At 2.7 pounds, the Air isn’t the lightest laptop out there, but I’ll take the extremely solid feel of the unibody aluminum case over a lighter and possibly flimsier plastic.
MacBook Air M5
Nathan Ingraham for Engadget
The keyboard and trackpad remain delightful, as well. My main laptop is a 14-inch MacBook Pro, and I can perceive the Air’s comparatively thinner case when typing on it. It’s not bad at all, it just feels slightly different. But after a short adjustment period, I really didn’t think about it and typed away without a care in the world. It’s baffling to me that a company that made a keyboard this good also made the horrific butterfly keyboards of yore, but fortunately that era is far in the past. The haptic-powered trackpad is huge, smooth and responsive, just like the ones on all other recent Mac laptops. Altogether, the input experience is great, and I rarely find myself really feeling like I need an external keyboard or mouse. I know people have strong feelings about that, so do as you wish, but it’s not really something I think about anymore.
The MacBook Air’s speakers and webcam are also still excellent. Last year, Apple upgraded the 1080p webcam in the Air to a 12-megapixel Center Stage model that can follow your movements to keep you in frame or switch to a “desk view” that shows a top-down viewpoint of the area in front of the laptop. The old 1080p webcam was already pretty solid, and while this one doesn’t magically repair your wrinkles, it’s definitely more versatile and detailed. The speakers, meanwhile, remain one of those things that Apple has absolutely nailed with this generation of its laptops. They’re relatively loud and well-balanced, providing far better sound than I’d expect from such a thin enclosure.
MacBook Air M5
Nathan Ingraham for Engadget
Enough power to last for years
All of this is well-known, though. The big change this year is the M5 chip, which has been available for a while already in the MacBook Pro and iPad Pro. So, we have a good idea of what to expect here as well. I’m testing the 13-inch model with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage that costs $1,299. It’s hard to perceive a difference between the M5 and last year’s M4 in my normal routine (dozens of tabs, Slack, Lightroom, Apple Music streaming and a bunch of lightweight apps like Bear notes, Todoist and so on). And based on my history with Apple’s M-series chips, the M5 will be a great performer for years to come. My work-issued MacBook Pro with an M1 Pro chip still runs like a champ almost five years after it was released, for example.
That said, users who do more than the basics with their laptop and have one with a chip older than 2022’s M2 will likely find the M5 Air to be a nice upgrade. Geekbench 6 benchmarks show the M5 is 11 percent and 17 percent faster than the M4 Air in single-core and multi-core tests (both with 16GB of RAM and 1TB SSDs). There were bigger GPU gains this year, with the M5 scoring 31 percent higher than the M4.
Few people out there are likely looking to upgrade from an M4 Air. But the M5 could be a noteworthy upgrade from the M3, depending of course on your workload. The M5 is 31 percent and 43 percent faster than the M3 in single- and multi-core testing. And the GPU is a whopping 56 percent faster as well. If you’re interested in doing things like video editing, music creation, gaming or AI tasks, you’ll definitely appreciate these performance gains.
MacBook Air M5
Nathan Ingraham for Engadget
Finally, these benchmarks illustrate the gap between the MacBook Neo and the Air. The M5 is about 24 percent faster than the A18 Pro in the single-core test, but it demolishes the Neo’s chip in multi-core (105 percent) and GPU (144 percent) performance. This just reiterates what we already know — the Neo is best-suited for basic tasks, while the Air should have more than enough power until you get into more specialized use cases.
And while no one will mistake the MacBook Air for a gaming laptop, Apple has had increasing success at getting developers to bring big titles to the Mac. Games like Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Cyberpunk 2077, Lies of P, Control and Resident Evil Village, along with indies like Neva, Stray and Balatro, are available here. That’s not to mention the many quality games worth checking out on Apple Arcade. All this is to say that Macs may still not be the premiere gaming platform, but people who don’t have access to a PlayStation, Xbox or more powerful gaming PC can still try a lot of great games on the platform.
Thanks to the M5, these games play pretty well to boot. I tried Cyberpunk 2077, one of the more notoriously demanding games out there, and had a stutter-free experience. Most graphically intense Mac games default to a “for this Mac” setting so you don’t really need to worry about optimizing settings. Cyberpunk 2077 stayed pretty well locked at 30 fps in my experience — obviously not as good as what you’ll get on a high-end PC or PlayStation 5, but I never felt like I was having a degraded experience. It was smooth, responsive and looked gorgeous. Getting that kind of performance from an ultraportable like the MacBook Air is hard to complain about.
Finally, battery life was close to Apple’s expectations. The company promises 18 hours of streaming video playback or 15 hours of web browsing. In my test, I looped a locally-stored 4K video file with my screen at half brightness and got… exactly 18 hours of playback before the laptop died. I’m sure it would have been less if I was streaming the video, but still. Under my usual working conditions running a variety of apps, I got more in the 10-hour range, which is more than good enough for me.
MacBook Air M5
Nathan Ingraham for Engadget
Wrap-up
Even with the MacBook Neo showing its chops despite its relatively humble hardware, I think the MacBook Air is by far the best Apple laptop for most people. Sure, Apple’s continued insistence on limiting screens with higher refresh rates to its most expensive hardware is increasingly frustrating. But other than that, the MacBook Air punches above its weight in just about every aspect — particularly when it comes to performance. The M5 is extremely powerful now and should make this year’s Air a useful computer for five years or even longer, depending on what you do with it. The MacBook Air is so mature and well-engineered at this point that it’s not the most exciting thing to review. But if you use one for a bit, it’s easy to appreciate just how good of a laptop it is.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/macbook-air-m5-review-same-but-faster-120000685.html?src=rss
Sonos has just announced its first new products since 2024, when the company’s plans went sideways after a disastrous update to its app. First up is the Sonos Play, the company’s latest portable speaker. Long-time Sonos watchers will recognize the name from the old Play:1, Play:3 and Play:5 speakers, but this new model has little to do with those products of the past. The $299 Play is a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth speaker that sits between the $179 Roam 2 and $499 Move 2 and could be the “goldilocks” speaker in the company’s portable lineup, at least based on what I know so far.
The closest comparison for the Play is the excellent Era 100, which Sonos released back in 2023. At 7.6” tall, 4.4” wide and 3” deep, it’s much thinner than the Era 100 which is over 5 inches deep. And compared to the Move 2 (9.5” x 6.3 x 5”) it’s much more portable. That goes for weight, too — the Play is less than 3 pounds, compared to over 6.5 pounds for the Move 2. It’s not the kind of speaker you’ll throw in your bag and forget about, like the tiny Roam 2, but it’s far more portable than the Move 2. Finally, the Play is IP67 rated, just like the Roam 2. That means it can be submerged in up to a meter of water for up to 30 minutes; it’s also dustproof.
The grab handle on the back of the Sonos Play.
Sonos
From a speaker component perspective, it’s again quite similar to the Era 100. It has two tweeters positioned at a 90-degree angle for stereo separation paired with one midwoofer; it also has two additional passive radiators to increase the bass response in its relatively small case. The Era 100 lacks those passive radiators but is otherwise identical. Obviously, we’ll have to listen to the Play before saying how closely it compares to the Era 100, but this speaker should significantly outperform the Roam 2 simply due to the increased size of its components. The Move 2, on the other hand, is extremely loud and will likely still be the best choice for people who want a speaker to cover a large outdoor space.
You’ll find familiar controls on the Sonos Play, which comes in black or white. (Fingers crossed for future color options like the lovely trio that Sonos offers on the Roam.) On the top surface are buttons for play/pause, volume up and down and a microphone toggle. On the back is a power button, a Bluetooth button and a physical switch that disconnects the microphone for increased security. Finally, there’s a new feature here: a removable plastic grab loop.
Sonos was keen to note that the Play is a full-featured member of the Sonos ecosystem. Like all of its other speakers, that means you’ll see all Sonos speakers in the app and can group them as you see fit, or have different music playing on different speakers throughout the house. You can also pair two of these in stereo. If you remove one from your network (say you’re outside and away from Wi-Fi), you’ll need to re-pair them though. In addition to controlling playback via the Sonos app (which, in my testing, is functioning fine and recovered from the 2024 debacle), you can stream music via AirPlay 2 or Spotify Connect. The Sonos Voice Assistant as well as Amazon Alexa are also on board here for anyone who likes to shout at their speakers.
The Sonos Play on its wireless charging base.
Sonos
There’s a new trick here for both the Play and Move 2, as well. For the first time, you can group Sonos speakers together through Bluetooth. After pairing a Play to your phone via Bluetooth, you can press and hold the play/pause button on three more Play or Move 2 speakers to add them to the group. If you want to cover a larger outdoor space with multiple speakers, this sounds like a pretty handy way to do so.
The Play also has line-in via its USB-C port, and you can use it for Ethernet as well; both features require a separate adapter. You can even use the USB-C port to top up your phone if you’re so inclined. And while you can also charge via the USB-C port, the Play comes with a wireless charging dock which makes for a nice home base for the speaker’s primary location. Annoyingly, Sonos did not include a charger, so you’ll need to provide your own USB-C brick.
A pair of Sonos Era 100 SL speakers with a turntable.
Sonos
Sonos is also adding a second, much simpler speaker to its lineup today: the Era 100 SL. Like the One SL before it, the Era 100 SL is identical to the Era 100 with one key difference. There are no microphones on it at all. As such, the Era 100 SL is also a bit cheaper, coming in at $189 compared to $219 for the standard model.
Otherwise, there are no differences in acoustic architecture or feature set here. As its most affordable speaker besides the portable Roam 2, Sonos is positioning the Era 100 SL as the ideal entry point into its products. I can’t really argue with that, as the Era 100 still sounds outstanding and is also quite flexible with features like line-in and Bluetooth as well as all the standard streaming options. Both versions of the Era 100 are compatible with each other, too — so if you get an SL and then decide you want a stereo pair, a standard Era 100 with a mic will work there and bring voice control to your system as well.
Both the $299 Play and $189 Era 100 SL are up for pre-order now, and Sonos says they’ll be shipping on March 31.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/speakers/the-sonos-play-puts-the-best-parts-of-the-era-100-in-a-portable-speaker-133000129.html?src=rss
Anthropic has filed a lawsuit to prevent the Pentagon from adding the company it a national security blocklist. This comes days after the Department of Defense sent a letter to Anthropic confirming the company was labeled a supply chain risk; at the time CEO Dario Amodei had all but guaranteed Anthropic would fight back with legal action.
The lawsuit claims the designation is unlawful and violated free speech and due process rights. “These actions are unprecedented and unlawful. The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech," Anthropic said in a statement published by Reuters.
Engadget received the following statement from an Anthropic spokesperson:
“Seeking judicial review does not change our longstanding commitment to harnessing AI to protect our national security, but this is a necessary step to protect our business, our customers, and our partners. We will continue to pursue every path toward resolution, including dialogue with the government.”
The lawsuit characterizes the government’s actions as an “unprecedented and unlawful [...] campaign of retaliation.” It goes on to say that “the Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech. No federal statute authorizes the actions taken here."
Today’s legal action comes after several weeks of back-and-forth between the AI company and the government. In late February, news broke that the Department of Defense and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were pressuring Anthropic to remove certain safeguards from its AI systems, but Amodei made it clear the company would refuse to allow its model to be used for mass surveillance or development of autonomous weapons.
On the February 27 deadline, Amodei refused to budge, leading Hegseth to threaten the company with the supply chain risk designation; he also said the US government would cancel its $200 million contract with the company. The same day, President Trump ordered all federal agencies to cease using Anthropic as well. Despite all this, according to the lawsuit, Anthropic had agreed to “collaborate with the Department on an orderly transition to another AI provider willing to meet its demands.”
Anthropic rival OpenAI stepped into this chaos and quickly made a deal with the Department of Defense. At the time, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that two of OpenAI’s most important safety principles are “prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous weapon systems” — the same issues that got Anthropic in hot water. OpenAI then doubled down on the surveillance issue, writing into its contract that “the AI system shall not be intentionally used for domestic surveillance of U.S. persons and nationals.”
Depsite this, OpenAI’s head of robotics hardware resigned from the company this weekend in response to the Defense Department deal. Caitlin Kalinowski wrote on X that “surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/anthropic-sues-us-government-over-supply-chain-risk-designation-152838128.html?src=rss
Anthropic has filed a lawsuit to prevent the Pentagon from adding the company it a national security blocklist. This comes days after the Department of Defense sent a letter to Anthropic confirming the company was labeled a supply chain risk; at the time CEO Dario Amodei had all but guaranteed Anthropic would fight back with legal action.
The lawsuit claims the designation is unlawful and violated free speech and due process rights. “These actions are unprecedented and unlawful. The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech," Anthropic said in a statement published by Reuters.
Engadget received the following statement from an Anthropic spokesperson:
“Seeking judicial review does not change our longstanding commitment to harnessing AI to protect our national security, but this is a necessary step to protect our business, our customers, and our partners. We will continue to pursue every path toward resolution, including dialogue with the government.”
The lawsuit characterizes the government’s actions as an “unprecedented and unlawful [...] campaign of retaliation.” It goes on to say that “the Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech. No federal statute authorizes the actions taken here."
Today’s legal action comes after several weeks of back-and-forth between the AI company and the government. In late February, news broke that the Department of Defense and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were pressuring Anthropic to remove certain safeguards from its AI systems, but Amodei made it clear the company would refuse to allow its model to be used for mass surveillance or development of autonomous weapons.
On the February 27 deadline, Amodei refused to budge, leading Hegseth to threaten the company with the supply chain risk designation; he also said the US government would cancel its $200 million contract with the company. The same day, President Trump ordered all federal agencies to cease using Anthropic as well. Despite all this, according to the lawsuit, Anthropic had agreed to “collaborate with the Department on an orderly transition to another AI provider willing to meet its demands.”
Anthropic rival OpenAI stepped into this chaos and quickly made a deal with the Department of Defense. At the time, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that two of OpenAI’s most important safety principles are “prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous weapon systems” — the same issues that got Anthropic in hot water. OpenAI then doubled down on the surveillance issue, writing into its contract that “the AI system shall not be intentionally used for domestic surveillance of U.S. persons and nationals.”
Depsite this, OpenAI’s head of robotics hardware resigned from the company this weekend in response to the Defense Department deal. Caitlin Kalinowski wrote on X that “surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/anthropic-sues-us-government-over-supply-chain-risk-designation-152838128.html?src=rss
