Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings film trilogy came out right around the time movie studios decided everything needed to be a big franchise that exists in perpetuity. From that perspective, it’s a little surprising that Warner Bros. Discovery hasn’t milked Tolkien’s work more than they already have. That’ll change soon, though, as the company just announced that there are two new Lord of the Rings films in the works (you can read the full press release here).
The first is tentatively titled Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, and it’s being directed by Andy Serkis — you may remember him for his landmark performance as Gollum in Jackson’s prior movies. The fact that Serkis is on board, and working from a script by Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens (who co-wrote the prior Middle-earth movies along with Jackson) has me feeling a bit better about this not being simply a crass cash grab. Peter Jackson, along with Walsh and Boyens, are set to produce as well. Serkis previously served as second unit director on The Hobbit films and also directed 2022’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
Given the working title of the film, you won’t be surprised to learn that Serkis is also starring again as the titular Gollum. While part of me was interested to see how another actor might take on the character, Serkis so defined Gollum for the big screen that it’s almost impossible to put anyone else in the role. As for what the movie will cover, there’s no official word yet — but again, the title indicates it’ll take place between the events of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings as Gandalf and Aragorn search Middle-earth for Gollum, trying to learn more about the ring that Bilbo and then Frodo possessed.
Given Hollywood’s insatiable thirst for Content based on Popular Franchises, it’s a little surprising something like this didn’t happen sooner. Jackson and company followed up the original trilogy of films nine years later with the bloated and overly CGI-reliant film series based on The Hobbit and corresponding events from Tolkien’s LOTR appendices. And, of course, Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series debuted in 2022. And before The Hunt for Gollum arrives, we’ll see another intriguing project: an anime-style film called The War of the Rohirrim. That movie arrives this December and covers events in Rohan a few hundred years before The Lord of the Rings.
As a massive Lord of the Rings fan, I’m both skeptical and excited by this announcement. The sad reality of the entertainment world is that projects like this are going to happen no matter what; there’s too much money wrapped up in things like Lord of the Rings to not try and extract more. But Serkis seems like an excellent choice to direct this movie, and hopefully they’ll find a tight, self-contained story that works as a standalone film. The mess that was made in the Hobbit films has me wary, but even in those movies I found plenty of things to enjoy — and this feels like a good opportunity to chart a positive course forward for more movies in Middle-earth.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-new-lord-of-the-rings-film-the-hunt-for-gollum-will-hit-theaters-in-2026-140141386.html?src=rss
Compared to the iPad Pro, the changes Apple made to the iPad Air are more modest. Rather than a total redesign, the iPad Air is getting some expected and slightly overdue changes: a new screen size, a new processor and a front-facing camera that is placed on the landscape side of the tablet.
Yes, that's some faint praise, but there's a lot to like about the new iPad Air. It's long been the best overall iPad, straddling the line between the budget entry model and the wildly powerful and expensive Pro lineup. That's the case here, again. But now that the 13-inch iPad Pro is even more pricey than before, it's good to see a large-screen iPad that doesn't cost well over $1,000.
The 11-inch iPad Air is identical in size and weight to the old one, though the screen is .1 inches bigger this time. So there's not a whole lot to say about that one. The 13-inch Air, however, feels quite a bit like the old 12.9-inch iPad Pro that was just replaced today. Indeed, it's identical in all dimensions, but a little bit lighter (1.36 pounds instead of 1.5).
Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
That makes it a little more approachable as a hand-held tablet, though I still feel like an iPad this large is best suited to either be used in a keyboard dock or flat on a table with an Apple Pencil. That said, Apple says that about half of iPad Pro sales were for the larger model, so there's clearly an appetite for this bigger screen. There's definitely something luxurious about using such a large screen tablet, provided it's easy to handle, and that's the case with the iPad Air (at least in the limited time I've had so far to handle the device).
I also got to try the new Apple Pencil Pro, which is compatible with the new Air. As I said here, the new tricks like barrel roll for changing the shape of your brush and a squeeze feature to bring up tools like a brush picker are solid additions, and I'm glad that Apple didn't increase the Pencil's price given these new features.
Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
These tablets might not have the wow factor that I experienced when checking out the iPad Pro, but that's OK. From my first look, it feels like the iPad Air lineup offers most of the same experience that you'll get with an iPad Pro — at least in ways that normal buyers will recognize. And I think Apple did well on pricing this time out. The 11-inch iPad Air costs $599, same as before, but it now has a more reasonable 128GB of storage. The 13-inch model is priced at $799, an expected price bump for the larger screen. It's the first time you can get a large-screen iPad for less than a grand, and I'm definitely curious to see if that helps to improve iPad sales.
You can read my first impressions of the new iPad Pro M4 right here.
Follow all of the news live from Apple's 'Let Loose' event right here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hands-on-with-the-ipad-air-m2-a-big-screen-ipad-that-doesnt-break-the-bank-160655629.html?src=rss
The new 11- and 13-inch iPad Pro models that Apple just introduced may be completely redesigned from the outside in, but they still feel a lot like their predecessors. That's not a bad thing, as the old iPad Pro design was outstanding. But there's no doubt Apple is flexing its hardware engineering muscles with these new tablets, not just with the M4 chip inside.
Both tablets are noticeably thinner and lighter than the ones they replace, something I didn't really think was possible before. It's frankly a little absurd to see such a thin and light device with such an advanced display and powerful processor. It still feels like the prior iPad Pro, just in a more refined package. My big question is around durability, something Apple mentioned during its keynote — I'd be a little worried about bending these iPads, but hopefully this is something Apple rigorously tested for. But it has had issues with thin products bending before (albeit a long time ago).
Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
After the impressive physical specifications, the next thing you can't miss is the OLED screen. Technically, it's a "Tandem OLED" screen, a display layer that is thinner than the one in the old iPad Pro which helped Apple achieve the wild thinness here. In Apple's extremely bright demo area, the iPad Pro screen showed its quality — everything was extremely clear, blacks were pitch-black and colors really popped. After looking at the iPad Air display, it was obvious how much better these screens are. The viewing angles were particularly impressive to me, as images on the screen remained sharp, bright and clear no matter how I positioned the tablet.
I also got a chance to check out the Apple Pencil Pro, which looks and feels nearly identical to the second-generation Apple Pencil revealed way back in 2018. That's OK, as the form factor is fine with me. It still connects to the side of the iPad Pro to charge and pair; all of its new tricks are under the hood. Squeezing the Pencil gives you a little burst of haptic feedback and pulls up a pane for selecting what brush you want to use in the FreeForm app demo I tried. But that action is customizable by third-party developers so the squeeze can do whatever is appropriate for the app you're using. The gyroscope, meanwhile, lets you spin the Pencil as you draw to change angles of your brush on the fly.
Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
Unfortunately, we didn't get to try the new Magic Keyboard Apple is producing for the iPad Pro, but Apple says it's thinner and lighter than the old model. That older one will still be available for the iPad Air.
Between the display, the M4 processor and the new dimensions of the iPad Pro, this feels like a major update for Apple's best tablet, with a price to match. Both the 11- and 13-inch iPad Pro are $200 more than their predecessors: the 11-inch model starts at $999, while the 13-inch is a whopping $1,299. But hey, at least storage now starts at 256GB! That pricing firmly puts these iPads out of reach for normal humans, and that's OK — most people will be more than happy with a tablet like the iPad Air. If you want this wildly impressive screen, though, you're going to pay for it.
You can also read my first impressions of the new M2-powered iPad Air right here.
Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
Follow all of the news live from Apple's 'Let Loose' event right here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ipad-pro-m4-hands-on-absurdly-thin-and-light-but-the-screen-steals-the-show-153641259.html?src=rss
If you use Sonos speakers, chances are you’ve used their app and encountered at least a little frustration at some point. I don’t think it’s a bad app when you consider the many functions it needs to juggle: finding and playing music from dozens of services, managing multiple connected speakers, running people through setup and troubleshooting and so on. But at the very least, it’s fair to suggest that it’s a little long in the tooth. Sonos knows this, too, and is announcing a totally new app for Android and iOS that was written from the ground up. It’ll be available on May 7.
I spoke to Sonos VP of user experience and user research Neil Griffiths about the redesign, and he said that it came as a result of talking to hundreds of customers about their listening habits and the way they want to use the app. From those conversations came two principles the company followed for the new app. One was to make it easier for people to play back whatever audio content they have, whether it’s streaming music, podcasts, radio, audiobooks, devices plugged into Sonos speakers like TVs or turntables and more. The second is making the app into a hub that’s better-suited to getting to exactly what you want to hear.
The end result is a much simpler app — the old one had the usual five tabs along the bottom, three of which could be used to find music. Now, there’s a single, customizable home screen with a persistent search bar and rows of content. By default, you’ll see a “recently played” section at the top that pulls things in from any service you use; below that you’ll see a carousel of the different services you have hooked up to Sonos. There’s also an area that controls different inputs, like line-in to speakers that support it or TVs plugged into soundbars. That way, you can tap those to switch between streaming music and playing back the connected device.
Sonos
There’s still a “now playing” bar at the bottom of the app that you can tap to get the full playback controls and volume adjustments, but if you swipe up from the bottom of the screen you’ll instead get a view of your whole Sonos system. This shows all your speakers and what’s playing where; you can adjust volume for each from here or group speakers together.
Easily the best thing about this new app is the customizable home screen, though. Not only can you change the order of things that appear there, you can also pin content directly from within different apps so you can get to it immediately. For example, Spotify, Apple Music and basically every other music service typically have a “new releases for you” section that shows recent albums based on your listening habits. If you always want to see that, you can pin it straight to your home screen and it’ll dynamically update when Spotify has new picks. And you can re-order these carousels so your most-used one is right at the top of the screen.
The old Sonos home screen had a recently played section at the top and let you pin songs, albums, playlists and stations from across your services, so it had some degree of flexibility. But being able to add full, dynamically updating sections from the apps you use feels like a major step forward. I can easily see pinning a half-dozen lists from different apps to my home screen, which will make the process of starting music from the Sonos app itself a lot more fluid. I still mostly use AirPlay or Spotify Connect to broadcast to my speakers, but I think it’ll be worth setting up my home in this new app and see if I use it more. Pulling together content from the too many streaming apps I use in one place sounds like a nice improvement over jumping in and out of apps depending on what I want to hear.
Sonos also made it easier to jump right into the service of your choice. All of the streaming apps that you’re logged in to will appear in a carousel as well, with your default / favorite option always at the beginning of the list. The same goes for search — when you open the search bar and type something in, you’ll get the results from your favorite service first.
Sonos
The company is also replacing its existing desktop controller app for Mac and Windows with a web app that'll offer the same functionality and design as you get on your phone. That's probably a good call, as the Sonos controller feels pretty out of step with the company's current design and feature set, though I'm sure some will bristle at it being a web app. That should also start rolling out on May 7, and the existing Mac and Windows app will eventually be shut down.
For a lot of people, I wager the Sonos app will still be a “set it and forget it” kind of thing, used to get speakers set up and then tucked away in case something goes wrong. If you only have one or two speakers and do nearly all your listening through Spotify, for example, it’ll probably be preferable to just use the Spotify app itself still. But people who have a more involved speaker setup and use multiple sources for audio should find a lot to like here when the app arrives in a few weeks.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-rebuilt-sonos-app-focuses-on-getting-you-to-your-tunes-faster-130022601.html?src=rss
There are a frankly ridiculous number of Chromebooks on sale to choose from, but Google's Chromebook Plus initiative that launched last fall has gone a long way towards standardizing some key specs for ChromeOS devices. That in turn has made it a little easier to pick ones that'll provide a consistent quality experience without breaking the bank. Acer's latest Chromebook Plus 514, which the company just announced today, is a good example — at first glance, it looks like it checks most of the boxes I'm looking for when recommending a basic Chromebook that'll work for most people.
To make things confusing, Acer already sells a few Chromebook Plus 514 models; this one is the CB514-4HT and is priced at $399. Look for that SKU if you want to make sure you're getting the latest one. This laptop is powered by Intel's 13th-gen Core i3-N305 processor and pairs that with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage — that latter spec is a bit of surprise and is a lot more storage than I'd expect to see on a $400 Chromebook. To meet the required Chromebook Plus specs, this laptop includes a 1080p webcam with a privacy shutter. While the resolution is pretty solid, not all webcams are equal so we'll have to see how this one performs in real life.
Acer
The display is a 14-inch, 1080p touchscreen, so it's not quite as tall as the 1,920 x 1,200 screens that I've seen on a number of other Chromebook Plus laptops. But again, at the price I'm not going to complain too much. It has a decent selection of ports, too: two USB-C and USB-A slots along with a microSD card reader. I wouldn't have minded seeing HDMI here, as the USB-C ports could quickly be taken up by power and a monitor, but I just keep reminding myself this computer is only 400 bucks.
Acer says that this laptop will hit stores in early May, though the specific SKU we're talking about here should also be at Costco as early as next week. The company also says it'll have some other configurations available in the near future, though they didn't say what'll change. I wouldn't be surprised to see a model with less storage or perhaps no touchscreen, which could drive the price down even more. If so, this might be a great budget option. But even as is, you should get a pretty good laptop here for the price.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/acers-new-399-chromebook-plus-514-hits-the-mark-for-a-solid-budget-laptop-130058747.html?src=rss
I vividly remember Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone on January 9, 2007, a device he dubbed a touchscreen iPod, mobile phone and “internet communicator” all in one product. I immediately looked at my Motorola Razr with a burning sense of hatred. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, it’s pretty easy to say the iPhone launch was the most transformative event in the last 20 years of consumer technology. Even though the original model was lacking in a lot of important ways, its impact was so immediate and monumental that the history of consumer technology was instantly split into two eras: PreiPhone and Post iPhone.
Take the personal computer revolution, for example. Moving room-sized computers from research institutes into something a regular person could buy and use in their home was undoubtedly a huge advance, but there were multiple inflection points in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s that helped usher in modern computing. The trinity of the Apple II, Tandy TRS-80 and Commodore PET 2001 in the ’70s represented the first wave, followed by the rise of the IBM PC and Macintosh in the ’80s. Things really took hold in the ’90s with the dominance of Microsoft Windows; the arrival of Windows 95 was a particularly transformative moment. In more recent history, the laptop became a viable and then dominant in the late ’90s and 2000s, which changed how most people think about computing. These were all events that moved the personal computing marketplace forward, but it’s hard to say one was more important than the others. It was more of a gradual rise and fall of various technologies that brought us to the modern era.
But the mobile phone market was completely reshaped by the iPhone, even if it took a few years for the effects to play out. Companies like BlackBerry, Palm and Nokia clung to the pre-iPhone conception of a smartphone for too long, focusing on business users and physical keyboards and not materially improving the software experience. Those companies are gone or irrelevant to mainstream consumers now. Palm’s introduction of its own webOS and Microsoft’s purchase of Nokia to push Windows Phone forward were reasonable efforts to challenge the iPhone, but they were far too little, too late. Hardware and software quality was hit or miss in both cases, but the main issue was that developers never embraced either platform, largely because consumers adopted iPhone and Android so quickly. The best iPhone apps usually never hit those devices, leading to inevitable doom.
On the other hand, Google and Samsung went all-in on Android almost immediately and quickly reaped the rewards of having an alternative to the iPhone. Android had enough similarities to iOS while also offering enough differentiation to capture a new part of the market. That’s particularly true internationally, where the massive variety of price points and devices was a huge advantage in markets where most people were priced out of Apple’s products. And given that Android arrived just a few months after Apple launched the iPhone App Store meant developers quickly started writing apps for both platforms, giving Android the support it needed. Essentially, everyone either followed in Apple’s footsteps or quickly went extinct.
It goes without saying that the iPhone reshaped a number of other businesses as well. The late aughts were awash with single-function gadgets, from obvious things like digital cameras, portable gaming devices and the iPod. (Also consider what phones have done to watches, paper calendars, lists and address books.) In the Post iPhone Era, consumer-grade digital cameras and portable music players are extremely niche — the iPhone’s camera is more than good enough for most people, and the iPhone itself quickly cannibalized the iPod.
Portable gaming systems are enjoying a bit of a resurgence, but the popularity of games on a phone that anyone can pick up and play is unmatched. If Nintendo’s Wii made its mark by offering casual gaming, the iPhone and the App Store quickly took that concept on the go. Both Call of Duty Mobile and Candy Crush Saga have peaked at about 500 million players, while Minecraft is the top-selling game of all time, with 300 million copies sold. Most AAA blockbuster titles don’t crack 50 million copies sold.
Moving from that Razr to an iPhone was a breath of fresh air. Watching YouTube and movies I had purchased via iTunes transformed my plane rides or commutes. Being able to browse real web pages and use a solid enough email client on the go made me more productive (and began my crippling information addiction). The “touchscreen iPod” felt like a futuristic and intuitive way to navigate my music library. It took until the iPhone 4 in 2010 for Apple to really focus on camera and image quality, but that didn’t stop people from shooting tons of photos and uploading them to Facebook. Even 2009’s iPhone 3GS took respectable enough snapshots and videos that my photo library started growing exponentially, and I’m glad to have a lot of those old, grainy shots from my late 20s.
And about a year after the first iPhone, the App Store blew open the doors on what was possible. Games, productivity tools, better messaging apps, social media, streaming music and everything else we associate with a modern smartphone quickly burst forth. Some people didn’t really consider the first iPhone a “smartphone” since you couldn’t install third-party apps, and Apple wisely saw the writing on the wall and fixed that glaring omission.
Whether all of the changes that followed the iPhone’s rise are a good thing is debatable. Having near-unlimited access to the internet at all times often feels like more than we can handle, and smartphones have enabled all kinds of digital abuse. Our privacy has gone out the window as these devices log vast amounts of data about our movements and desires and spending habits and search histories on behalf of the biggest companies in the world, who monetize it and try to keep us addicted. Steve Jobs almost certainly did not have all of this in mind when he pulled the iPhone out of his pocket in 2007, and the technology advanced so quickly we didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into.
The ramifications of all this will take decades to fully play out, and to some degree, many of us are already pulling back from the “always connected, sharing everything” mindset the iPhone enabled. The specter of government regulation, at least from the EU, coming for companies like Apple and Google is impossible to ignore, though it’s hard to imagine much happening to loosen their dominance in the near term. Regardless of what changes, there’s no doubt we live in a world where, thanks to the iPhone, the most important computer in people’s lives is the one in their pocket.
To celebrate Engadget's 20th anniversary, we're taking a look back at the products and services that have changed the industry since March 2, 2004.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-iphone-changed-tech-overnight-almost-20-years-later-nothing-else-has-come-close-140041198.html?src=rss
Proton, the privacy-focused company that offers a variety of internet tools like mail, calendars, online storage and a password manager, continues to built out its portfolio. As of today, Proton's desktop mail app for Windows and macOS is out of beta and now available to all its paid users. At the same time, Proton is also releasing its app for Linux users in beta.
If you've used Proton Mail before (or any recent / modern mail client), the app won't be a surprise —it's the standard three-pane view, with different folders on the left, a list of message in the middle and a preview of the message contents on the right. Like in Gmail, there's a right-hand rail that has icons for your contacts and calendar that'll expand to show the selected item if you click them. But for more calendar details, there's a button to switch the whole window view from mail to calendar and back. Proton Drive and Proton Pass already have a desktop app, but for now Proton is keeping it separate from mail and calendar, which makes sense. Those two tools go hand-in-hand, but storage is kind of its own thing.
Proton
While the new mail app doesn't improve on or change the design of Proton's web tools in any major way, I can say that the beta app felt quite responsive in a little testing I did. And while I wouldn't mind more than a slightly tweaked web wrapper (being able to draft an email in its own window would be nice), I do prefer keeping my email out of my browser window. I'm sure there are other Proton users who feel the same way and will find this app pretty handy for that.
If you're not currently paying for Proton Mail, you can give the new app a try for two weeks, but after that you'll need to upgrade your account to keep using it. The Mail Plus plan costs $4/month if you sign up for a year, or you can get Proton Unlimited for $10 per month with a year plan that includes 500GB of storage (instead of 15GB for Mail Plus) and Proton Drive, Pass and VPN.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/protons-windows-and-macos-mail-app-is-out-of-beta-and-available-now-110010822.html?src=rss
Our review of Apple’s new MacBook Airs is out, and our esteemed reviewer Devindra Hardawar gave them both equal scores of 90. That’s a very good score! But I think Devindra’s underselling the 15-inch MacBook Air, which is the best laptop I’ve used in years. It deserves at least an extra point or two, in my humble opinion. For me, it’s a Goldilocks laptop, just right, and I think a lot of people would feel the same way if they managed to realize that a 13-inch laptop isn’t the end-all, be-all form factor that Apple has cast it as over the last decade.
For years now, the 13-inch Air has been Apple’s best laptop for most people, with an undoubtedly excellent combo of power and portability. After a total redesign in 2022, though, there’s not much to differentiate this year’s Air. That’s not bad in and of itself, as it’s a sign of a product that has matured over the years to near-perfection; this year’s model has a new chip to keep performance as fresh as possible.
At some point, due in large part to the MacBook Air’s decade-plus dominance, the 13-inch form factor became the de-facto laptop size for most people. Particularly those who wanted a Mac, because in the last ten years the 16-inch Macbook Pro (and the 15-inch model that preceded it) got way too expensive for most. As such, a large screen became a “pro” feature, not something most people could afford.
Fortunately, Apple addressed that last summer with the 15-inch MacBook Air, a computer that retains everything we like about the 13-inch model in a slightly larger and heavier package. In exchange for a little more cash and a slightly bulkier device, I got a bigger screen that I really appreciated when using the Air as my primary computer without a monitor. To me, 15 inches is the ideal laptop size. If you ever felt the same way but got priced out by Apple, you should definitely check out the 15-inch MacBook Air.
The 13-inch model will almost certainly remain the default option for most people — in part because it’s cheaper. And if you travel a lot, you’ll probably be happier with a smaller and lighter machine. But I believe that a lot of people would be much happier with the larger screen, because the 15-inch Air is still extremely thin and light. Devindra disagrees, noting the bigger laptop is a half-pound heavier, “more unwieldy” and a little “annoying to carry.” That’s fair — I didn’t have the same experience because I never used the 15-inch alongside the 13-inch. Instead, I compared it to Apple’s two MacBook Pro models, and the Air is lighter than both. In fact, it’s more than a pound lighter than the 16-inch MacBook Pro.
While I already believe that most people would be just as happy with the 15-inch Air, if not happier, there are a few use cases worth pointing out to hammer home the point. Devindra said the Air did pretty well playing some of the newer games available for it like Lies of P and Death Stranding. If you’re into games, whether they’re titles like those or more casual options from Apple Arcade, there’s little doubt they’re more fun on a larger display.
The 15-inch MacBook Air is also a great option for older users, or people with visual impairments (or, honestly, anyone who prefers bigger elements on their screen). When I use the 15-inch Air, I enjoy having more pixels to show more of whatever apps I’m using. But, you can just as easily scale up screen elements so you have the same canvas as the 13-inch Air, just on a greater scale. Naturally, the screens on the Air series aren’t as pixel-dense and sharp as the MacBook Pros, but they’re still lovely and won’t look overly pixelated if you decide to scale up the UI.
Forget about specific use cases, though. To put it simply, I’m a fan of the 15-inch Air. It just feels right — much more portable than a computer with a 15-inch display has any right to be. I don’t feel like I’m giving up screen size for something that’s easier to carry around; instead, it’s a computer that I can take anywhere and not feel constrained while using it. Maybe I’m overestimating the appeal — you can just plug the 13-inch Air into a monitor at home to get a bigger screen and then have a smaller computer when you’re on the go. But for someone who likes the idea of a single computer that can work in any context, the 15-inch Air fits my bill.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/why-the-15-inch-m3-macbook-air-is-the-best-macbook-air-150020238.html?src=rss
Our review of Apple’s new MacBook Airs is out, and our esteemed reviewer Devindra Hardawar gave them both equal scores of 90. That’s a very good score! But I think Devindra’s underselling the 15-inch MacBook Air, which is the best laptop I’ve used in years. It deserves at least an extra point or two, in my humble opinion. For me, it’s a Goldilocks laptop, just right, and I think a lot of people would feel the same way if they managed to realize that a 13-inch laptop isn’t the end-all, be-all form factor that Apple has cast it as over the last decade.
For years now, the 13-inch Air has been Apple’s best laptop for most people, with an undoubtedly excellent combo of power and portability. After a total redesign in 2022, though, there’s not much to differentiate this year’s Air. That’s not bad in and of itself, as it’s a sign of a product that has matured over the years to near-perfection; this year’s model has a new chip to keep performance as fresh as possible.
At some point, due in large part to the MacBook Air’s decade-plus dominance, the 13-inch form factor became the de-facto laptop size for most people. Particularly those who wanted a Mac, because in the last ten years the 16-inch Macbook Pro (and the 15-inch model that preceded it) got way too expensive for most. As such, a large screen became a “pro” feature, not something most people could afford.
Fortunately, Apple addressed that last summer with the 15-inch MacBook Air, a computer that retains everything we like about the 13-inch model in a slightly larger and heavier package. In exchange for a little more cash and a slightly bulkier device, I got a bigger screen that I really appreciated when using the Air as my primary computer without a monitor. To me, 15 inches is the ideal laptop size. If you ever felt the same way but got priced out by Apple, you should definitely check out the 15-inch MacBook Air.
The 13-inch model will almost certainly remain the default option for most people — in part because it’s cheaper. And if you travel a lot, you’ll probably be happier with a smaller and lighter machine. But I believe that a lot of people would be much happier with the larger screen, because the 15-inch Air is still extremely thin and light. Devindra disagrees, noting the bigger laptop is a half-pound heavier, “more unwieldy” and a little “annoying to carry.” That’s fair — I didn’t have the same experience because I never used the 15-inch alongside the 13-inch. Instead, I compared it to Apple’s two MacBook Pro models, and the Air is lighter than both. In fact, it’s more than a pound lighter than the 16-inch MacBook Pro.
While I already believe that most people would be just as happy with the 15-inch Air, if not happier, there are a few use cases worth pointing out to hammer home the point. Devindra said the Air did pretty well playing some of the newer games available for it like Lies of P and Death Stranding. If you’re into games, whether they’re titles like those or more casual options from Apple Arcade, there’s little doubt they’re more fun on a larger display.
The 15-inch MacBook Air is also a great option for older users, or people with visual impairments (or, honestly, anyone who prefers bigger elements on their screen). When I use the 15-inch Air, I enjoy having more pixels to show more of whatever apps I’m using. But, you can just as easily scale up screen elements so you have the same canvas as the 13-inch Air, just on a greater scale. Naturally, the screens on the Air series aren’t as pixel-dense and sharp as the MacBook Pros, but they’re still lovely and won’t look overly pixelated if you decide to scale up the UI.
Forget about specific use cases, though. To put it simply, I’m a fan of the 15-inch Air. It just feels right — much more portable than a computer with a 15-inch display has any right to be. I don’t feel like I’m giving up screen size for something that’s easier to carry around; instead, it’s a computer that I can take anywhere and not feel constrained while using it. Maybe I’m overestimating the appeal — you can just plug the 13-inch Air into a monitor at home to get a bigger screen and then have a smaller computer when you’re on the go. But for someone who likes the idea of a single computer that can work in any context, the 15-inch Air fits my bill.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/why-the-15-inch-m3-macbook-air-is-the-best-macbook-air-150020238.html?src=rss
The next Nintendo Direct is scheduled for this Wednesday, the company just announced. It's being billed as a "partner showcase," with Nintendo saying it'll show off Switch games coming in the first half of this year from "our publishing and development partners." It'll kick off on February 21, bright and early at 9AM ET.
While Nintendo holds these showcases on a regular basis, this one is potentially more significant than usual. Last week, Microsoft made an expected but still surprising announcement that it would begin bringing some of its titles to "other consoles," a phrase that's hard not to interpret as games coming to the Switch (and Sony's PlayStation 5 as well).
Nintendo says it'll be a 25-minute presentation, so there's a chance we'll hear about some games from other developers, as well. But we're all expecting to see some news about what games Microsoft is going to bring over to the Switch. Microsoft only said that it would be bringing four games to other platforms but didn't name them; the latest rumors cite Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, Halo and Gears of War as likely options to make the move.
This comes at a time when Nintendo doesn't have a lot of its own first-party games scheduled for the platform (that we know of, anyway). There's also the looming specter of a Switch 2 console; reports just said that the hardware is getting pushed back to 2025 after an expected launch at some point this year.
A #NintendoDirect: Partner Showcase is coming! Watch on-demand via YouTube on 2/21 at 6am PT for around 25 mins of info focused on #NintendoSwitch games coming in the first half of 2024 from our publishing and development partners.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wednesdays-nintendo-direct-will-focus-on-upcoming-third-party-releases-221910223.html?src=rss