There are a slew of keyboards and apps that help people learn how to play the piano, but a small company called PopuMusic is showing off an intriguing set of products at CES to make the process easier. PartyKeys and PartyStudio are a 36-key MIDI keyboard and MIDI / Bluetooth speaker that pair together in seamless fashion. The PartyStudio is particularly interesting because it has a built-in library of 128 instrument tones and more than 50 different drum machine patterns. Naturally, it works with the PartyKeys, but any MIDI keyboard can connect to it and use those sounds.
The PartyStudio and PartyKeys both use NFC to connect to each other — you can just tap and hold the keyboard up to the speaker for pairing. You can connect up to three devices using MIDI over Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE MIDI) as well as a fourth using a wired connection. If you have more than one keyboard, meanwhile, you can connect them together with NFC as well — you can pair three keyboards together total, giving you a huge 108-key surface to play.
Both the PartyStudio and PartyKeys have an understated but appealing look to them (they’re available in black or white) and feel quite substantial and well-made. PopuMusic has been releasing hardware via Kickstarters campaigns for a few years now, so even though they’re a relatively small and new company they have some experience in this department. The speaker seems to hit a nice balance of portability and power; it has two tweeters and two woofers and weighs in at 3.75 pounds. It’s about 13.5 inches wide, 5.2 inches tall and 4 inches deep, so it’s not a tiny speaker you’ll just throw in your bag, but it still feels easy to tote around thanks to its attached handle.
The other trick that the PartyStudio and PartyKeys have is on the software side. Using a companion app, multiple people can play along with a song. The light-up keyboard can show you what to play, and if you have multiple people playing each keyboard can display complimentary parts. It starts with simple three-key chord voicings, but I also saw a demo that used a familiar Guitar Hero-style interface of different notes flying down the screen, making for a more involved and advanced performance.
The PartyKeys are up for order on Kickstarter now for $199, while the PartyStudio costs $349. The company says they’re on track to ship both products in Q1 of 2026.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/partystudio-is-a-wireless-midi-speaker-with-128-built-in-instrument-sounds-015511003.html?src=rss
There are way too many online services and subscriptions to keep track of these days, but the flip side is there’s a tool for just about everything. Time is just about up to get a physical gift shipped in time for the holidays, so below we’ve pulled together some of our favorite digital gifts and subscriptions, including time-tested video, music and gaming services as well as tools to clear your mental space and learn new skills. There are also a few subscriptions that provide ongoing, IRL deliveries, if you think your giftee will appreciate the nostalgic charm of a physical object.
Best digital gifts and subscription gifts
Gaming subscriptions
Game consoles are certainly among the most popular gift ideas this time of year. If you know someone who’s been so good that they’re getting a new Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S, one of these subscriptions will make their shiny toy immediately playable out of the box.
There’s no doubt that Microsoft has changed the value proposition for its Game Pass subscription service service. It recently raised the price for its most comprehensive Ultimate tier by 50 percent, to $30 a month. That’s a bitter pill to swallow — but devoted players who have an Xbox as their main (or only) console will still get a ton of value out of Game Pass.
The aforementioned Ultimate tier provides access to more than 500 games that’ll work on Xbox, PC and other supported devices. It’s also the only way to get “day one” release games like Hollow Knight: SilksongNinja Gaiden 4, The Outer World 2, Call of Duty Black Ops 7; in recent years other high-profile day one releases have included Doom: The Dark Ages, Starfield, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Forza Motorsport and numerous others. Game Pass Ultimate subscribers also have access to the highest quality and fastest game streaming Xbox offers. For a slightly less hardcore Xbox fan, though, the $15-per-month Premium tier is also worth considering.
Nintendo’s Switch Online subscription has gotten some nice upgrades in 2025, the year of the Switch 2. As it has for years, Nintendo offers two different Switch Online plans. The basic $20-per-year plan unlocks online play and enables Switch 2 owners to use the system's GameChat capabilities. It also includes more than 100 Game Boy, NES and Super NES games, cloud backups of your saved games as well as the occasional special offers. It also includes access to the rather silly but enjoyable Nintendo Music app, so you can listen to your favorite Zelda or Mario tracks at any time.
The $50 “expansion pack” adds a collection of N64, Game Boy Advance and Sega Genesis games as well as some DLC for games like Mario Kart 8, Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Splatoon 2. But most interesting are the new additions for Switch 2 owners: there’s a small but growing library of GameCube games, including classics like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and F-Zero GX. Switch 2 owners who have the expansion pack subscription can also upgrade to the Switch 2 versions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom for free.
A PlayStation Plus subscription is a must-have for any PS5 owners. That’s partially because you need one to play multiplayer games online, but there are plenty of other significant benefits. PS Plus comes in three tiers, but the middle “Extra” plan ($15/month or $135/year) is probably best for most gamers. In addition to cloud storage for saves, online multiplayer support and a couple of free games for your library every month, you get access to the PlayStation Plus catalog, which includes more than 400 PS4 and PS5 games.
There are a number of heavy hitters here, including The Last of Us Part I and II, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War Ragnarok, Death Stranding, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered and Returnal alongside lower-profile hits and indie games such as Citizen Sleeper, Sayonara Wild Hearts, Dave the Diver and Humanity. If you know someone who loves older games though, the “Premium” tier ($18/month or $160/year) adds a bunch of titles from the PS1 through the PS4 as well as perks like game trials and PS5 game streaming from the cloud.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-subscription-gifts-to-send-to-your-loved-ones-this-christmas-disney-bundle-masterclass-field-notes-and-more-141830326.html?src=rss
Chromebooks have quietly become some of the most useful laptops for everyday tasks. They boot fast, stay secure with automatic updates and often cost far less than traditional Windows or Mac machines. Modern Chromebooks also look and feel better than ever, with brighter screens, stronger processors and designs that range from simple clamshells to flexible 2-in-1s.
Whether you need a laptop for school, streaming or a portable option for travel, there is likely a Chromebook that fits your routine. After testing the top models, we picked the best Chromebooks you can buy today to help you find something that balances performance, price and reliability.
What is Chrome OS, and why would I use it over Windows?
This is probably the number one question about Chromebooks. There are plenty of inexpensive Windows laptops on the market, so why bother with Chrome's operating system? Glad you asked. For me, the simple and clean nature of Chrome OS is a big selling point. Chrome OS is based on Google’s Chrome browser, which means most of the programs you can run are web based. There’s no bloatware or unwanted apps to uninstall like you often get on Windows laptops, it boots up in seconds, and you can completely reset to factory settings almost as quickly.
Of course, simplicity will also be a major drawback for some users. Not being able to install native software can be a dealbreaker if you’re a video editor or software developer. But there are also plenty of people who do the majority of their work in a web browser, using tools like Google Docs and spreadsheets for productivity without needing a full Windows setup.
Google and its software partners are getting better every year at supporting more advanced features. For example, Google added video editing tools to the Google Photos app on Chromebooks – it won’t replace Adobe Premiere, but it should be handy for a lot of people. Similarly, Google and Adobe announced Photoshop on the web in 2023, something that brings much of the power of Adobe’s desktop apps to Chromebooks.
Chromebooks can also run Android apps, which greatly expands the amount of software available. The quality varies widely, but it means you can do more with a Chromebook beyond just web-based apps. For example, you can install the Netflix app and save videos for offline watching. Other Android apps like Microsoft Office and Adobe Lightroom are surprisingly capable as well. Between Android apps and a general improvement in web apps, Chromebooks are more than just portals to a browser.
What do Chromebooks do well?
Put simply, web browsing and really anything web based. Online shopping, streaming music and video and using various social media sites are among the most common daily tasks people do on Chromebooks. As you might expect, they also work well with Google services like Photos, Docs, Gmail, Drive, Keep and so on. Yes, any computer that can run Chrome can do that too, but the lightweight nature of Google Chrome OS makes it a responsive and stable platform.
As I mentioned before, Chrome OS can run Android apps, so if you’re an Android user you’ll find some nice ties between the platforms. You can get most of the same apps that are on your phone on a Chromebook and keep info in sync between them. You can also use some Android phones as a security key for your Chromebook or instantly tether your 2-in-1 laptop to use mobile data.
Google continues to tout security as a major differentiator for Chromebooks, and it’s definitely a factor worth considering. Auto-updates are the first lines of defense: Chrome OS updates download quickly in the background and a fast reboot is all it takes to install the latest version. Google says that each webpage and app on a Chromebook runs in its own sandbox as well, so any security threats are contained to that individual app. Finally, Chrome OS has a self-check called Verified Boot that runs every time a device starts up. Beyond all this, the simple fact that you generally can’t install traditional apps on a Chromebook means there are fewer ways for bad actors to access the system.
If you’re interested in Google’s Gemini AI tools, a Chromebook is a good option as well. Every Chromebook in our top picks comes with a full year of Google’s AI Pro plan — this combines the usual Google One perks like 2TB of storage and 10 percent back in purchases from the Google Store with a bunch of AI tools. You’ll get access to Gemini in Chrome, Gmail, Google Docs and other apps, Gemini 2.5 Pro in the Gemini app and more. Given that this plan is $20/month, it’s a pretty solid perk. Chromebook Plus models also include tools like the AI-powered “help me write,” the Google Photos Magic Editor and generative AI backgrounds you can create by filling in a few prompts.
As for when to avoid Chromebooks, the answer is simple: If you rely heavily on a specific native application for Windows or a Mac, chances are you won’t find the exact same option on a ChromeOS device. That’s most true in fields like photo and video editing, but it can also be the case in law or finance. Plenty of businesses run on Google’s G suite software, but more still have specific requirements that a Chromebook might not match. If you’re an iPhone user, you’ll also miss out on the way the iPhone easily integrates with an iPad or Mac. For me, the big downside is not being able to access iMessage on a Chromebook.
Finally, gaming Chromebooks are not ubiquitous, although they’re becoming a slightly more reasonable option with the rise of cloud gaming. In late 2022, Google and some hardware partners announced a push to make Chromebooks with cloud gaming in mind. From a hardware perspective, that means laptops with bigger screens that have higher refresh rates as well as optimizing those laptops to work with services like NVIDIA GeForce Now, Xbox Game Pass and Amazon Luna. You’ll obviously need an internet connection to use these services, but the good news is that playing modern games on a Chromebook isn’t impossible. You can also install Android games from the Google Play Store, but that’s not what most people are thinking of when they want to game on a laptop.
What are the most important specs for a Chromebook?
Chrome OS is lightweight and runs well on fairly modest hardware, so the most important thing to look for might not be processor power or storage space. But Google made it easier to get consistent specs and performance late last year when it introduced the Chromebook Plus initiative. Any device with a Chromebook Plus designation meets some minimum requirements, which happen to be very similar to what I’d recommend most people get if they’re looking for the best laptop they can use every day.
Chromebook Plus models have at least a 12th-gen Intel Core i3 processor, or an AMD Ryzen 3 7000 series processor, both of which should be more than enough for most people. These laptops also have a minimum of 8GB of RAM and 128GB of SSD storage, which should do the trick unless you’re really pushing your Chromebook. All Chromebook Plus models have to have a 1080p webcam, which is nice in these days of constant video calling, and they also all have to have at least a 1080p FHD IPS screen.
Of course, you can get higher specs or better screens if you desire, but I’ve found that basically everything included in the Chromebook Plus target specs makes for a very good experience.
Google has an Auto Update policy for Chromebooks as well, and while that’s not exactly a spec, it’s worth checking before you buy. Last year, Google announced that Chromebooks would get software updates and support for an impressive 10 years after their release date. This support page lists the Auto Update expiration date for virtually every Chromebook ever, but a good rule of thumb is to buy the newest machine you can to maximize your support.
How much should I spend on a Chromebook?
Chromebooks started out notoriously cheap, with list prices often coming in under $300. But as they’ve gone more mainstream, they’ve transitioned from being essentially modern netbooks to some of the best laptops you’ll want to use all day. As such, prices have increased: At this point, you should expect to spend at least $400 if you want a solid daily driver. There are still many Chromebooks out there available at a low price that may be suitable as secondary devices, but a good Chromebook that can be an all-day, every-day laptop will cost more. But, notably, even the best Chromebooks usually cost less than the best Windows laptops, or even the best “regular” laptops out there.
There are a handful of premium Chromebooks that approach or even exceed $1,000 that claim to offer better performance and more processing power, but I don’t recommend spending that much. Generally, that’ll get you a better design with more premium materials, as well as more powerful internals and extra storage space, like a higher-capacity SSD. Of course, you also sometimes pay for the brand name. But, the specs I outlined earlier are usually enough, and there are multiple good premium Chromebooks in the $700 to $800 range at this point.
This was our pick for best overall Chromebook for years, and it’s still one of the better options you can find for a basic laptop that doesn’t break the bank. It’s a few years older than our current top pick, so its processor isn’t fresh and it only has 128GB of storage. It also won’t get updates from Google as long as newer models. But it still combines a nice screen and keyboard with solid performance. This laptop typically costs $500, which feels high given its a few years old and Acer’s Chromebook Plus 514 is only $350, but if you can find it on sale and can’t find the Acer it’s worth a look.
ASUS CX15
This Chromebook is extremely affordable – you can currently pick it up for only $159 at Walmart. That price and its large 15.6-inch screen is mainly what it has going for it, as the Intel Celeron N4500 chip and 4GB of RAM powering it does not provide good performance if you’re doing anything more than browsing with a few tabs open. If you’re shopping for someone with extremely basic needs and have a small budget, the CX15 might fit the bill. But just be aware that you get what you pay for.
Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus
Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook Plus, released in late 2024, is one of the more unique Chromebooks out there. It’s extremely thin and light, at 0.46 inches and 2.6 pounds, but it manages to include a 15.6-inch display in that frame. That screen is a 1080p panel that’s sharp and bright, but its 16:9 aspect ratio made things feel a bit cramped when scrolling vertically. Performance is very good, and the keyboard is solid, though I’m not a fan of the number pad as it shifts everything to the left. At $700 it’s not cheap, but that feels fair considering its size and capabilities. If you’re looking for a big screen laptop that is also super light, this Chromebook merits consideration, even if it’s not the best option for everyone.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/best-chromebooks-160054646.html?src=rss
Another CES is nearly upon us, another year where we’ll see new gadgets aplenty from giant companies and tiny ones you’ve never heard of. And the not-so-secret secret of CES is that many of these things never make it to market — but usually it isn’t things companies like Samsung show off. But here we are, nearly six years since Samsung first showed off its Ballie personal robot and it is nowhere to be found.
For those who may not recall, Ballie is an adorable circular robot that can putter around your house and project things onto the floor and wall. It’s kind of a virtual assistant on the go. Samsung first revealed this tiny robot at CES 2020, but it was more of a prototype than something anyone expected to purchase. And then there was a global pandemic and we all sort of forgot about weird ball-shaped robots for a few. But Samsung triumphantly unveiled a larger and more refined Ballie at CES 2024, saying it would be on sale that year!
Well, that didn’t happen, but a year later Ballie was back at CES again. Samsung promised it would go on sale in 2025, and followed up with a press release this past April saying it was on track for a summer launch in Korea and the US. As far as I can tell, that’s the last we’ve heard of it.
But with CES looming again, I can’t help but feel like Samsung will roll Ballie out once more, trying to sell the dream of a cute robotic companion who just gets you. I spent some time watching Ballie do its thing in a carefully controlled demo at CES 2024, and I can’t say I was overwhelmed by its purported usefulness or thought there’d be much of a market for this thing. I now can’t help but wonder if Samsung has data backs up my intuition. If this thing was going to sell like gangbusters, it likely wouldn’t be subjected to such a long and public gestation period.
It reminds me a little of one of my favorite Samsung gaffes, the Galaxy Home smart speaker. It was announced at a time when Apple and Google were challenging Sonos and Amazon with voice-activated speakers of their own, moving Siri or the Google Assistant from your phone to a more omnipresent place in your home.
The first rumor of the Galaxy Home happened way back in 2017, and the speaker was officially revealed and briefly shown off by Samsung in August of 2018. My immediate reaction was that this product made very little sense for both Samsung and potential customers — Bibxy sucked, and there were plenty of speakers with better voice assistants. Apparently, Samsung agreed. After multiple years of vague commitments and references to the Galaxy Home, Samsung just… stopped talking about it. Oddly enough, a Galaxy Home Mini speaker was briefly released in South Korea, part of a promotion for people who pre-ordered the Galaxy S20. But I don’t think you could ever just walk into a store and buy one, and the larger Galaxy Home never materialized at all.
Ballie isn’t quite the abandonware situation that the Galaxy Home was, at least not yet. After all, it’s only been about eight months since Samsung dropped that press release claiming it would arrive soon. The company has definitely pushed Ballie in a more public way than the Galaxy Home, making it a little harder to just drop entirely. Maybe we’ll see a revamped Ballie with even more weird tricks next month, or maybe we’ll just get another vague promise that it’ll arrive in 2026. After failing to deliver two years in a row, though, I’m not going to expect Ballie to show up as a real product until I can punch in my credit card and pre-order it... not that I’d do that anyway. Ballie needs to show that it’s a lot more than a cute rolling robot before Samsung gets my cash.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/where-the-hell-is-samsungs-ballie-robot-151112829.html?src=rss
It’s been 18 years since the last Metroid Prime game, but I felt right at home in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Almost too at home. Whether fighting my way through a volcano, exploring a research base in a frozen tundra or getting lost in a vast desert, I couldn’t shake the feeling I’d done this before. As the fourth game in a series, that’s not a huge surprise, but it was my main disappointment in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Think about the leap Nintendo took going from 2011’s The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and 2017’s Breath of the Wild. They were both recognizably Zelda games, but Nintendo redefined what that means between those two games.
No such reinvention has happened with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a great time — it executes the template for a Metroid Prime game extremely well. It’s thrilling to see the series finally make the jump to HD, iconic bounty hunter Samus Aran has some intriguing new powers, there’s a badass motorcycle to shuttle her around the game’s open world hub and the game’s design and art direction show Nintendo at its best. It's everything you’d expect from a Metroid Prime game — no more, no less. Whether that’s a good thing is up to you to decide.
If you haven’t played the previous Metroid Prime games before, fear not. There isn’t anything story-wise that you need to know before you jump into this adventure. As with all Metroid games, you take control of acclaimed bounty hunter Samus Aran, an ultra-powerful warrior with a mechanized suit full of fun tricks. The vast majority of the game takes place in first-person view where you can lock on to the many creatures trying to kill you and blast away with an ever-expanding arsenal. The other main interface is your scan visor, where you can learn about your surroundings and enemies to find weaknesses and figure out what you need to do to advance.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
Nintendo
Beyond throws you right into a firefight that serves as a solid tutorial for the game's varied control schemes. A Galactic Federation outpost is under attack, and Samus flies in to help defend the troops and keep a secret artifact safe. This somewhat bombastic intro is a great way to show off the Switch 2's power. Sure, we're not talking about a PS5 Pro here, but this is perhaps the most visually-advanced game Nintendo has released. With a Switch 2 docked to a TV, you can play it at either 4K / 60fps or 1080p / 120fps (in handheld mode, that drops to 1080p or 720p with the same frame rates). I don’t have a huge TV, so I mostly went with “performance mode,” but in either case the game felt extremely fluid with no frame rate drops and looked outstanding.
The game starts as Samus Aran flies in to help the Galactic Federation fight off an invasion, and that opening cut scene shows off with some HDR-enhanced explosions and a detailed environment of a space base in chaos. There are little fires and explosions everywhere; it's visually busy but in a good way that serves the setting, and it all looks vibrant and life-like. As with basically all Nintendo games, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond isn't aiming for realism, but it's closer to a game like Horizon Forbidden West or Cyberpunk 2077 than any other Nintendo titles I can think of. Things like the textures of metal installations, the leaves on alien trees or Samus' gloves all have a level of textural detail you don't usually see in Nintendo's games. Often, that's due to a conscious art direction choice to go in a more cartoonish direction, but the Switch 2's hardware is helping make the game as lifelike as possible.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
Nintendo
(Note that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is also available on the original Switch. I didn’t play it there so I can’t comment on how things like frame rates and textures hold up on that much older console. If you’re thinking about trying this game on the first Switch, it’s probably a good idea to see how other reviewers find that experience before shelling out $60.)
The aforementioned intro sets up the big conflict in Beyond. As Samus comes in to try and help the troops defend a mysterious artifact, the game’s big bad Sylux shows up and everything hits the fan. Samus and some other Galactic Federation forces are mysteriously transported to the planet Viewros, where Samus comes into contact with a near-excinct society called the Lamorn. A Lamorn elder telepathically pleads with Samus to try and save the society from being totally forgotten — indeed, she may be able to bring them back from the brink of extinction if all goes well. They’ve been waiting for a “chosen one,” you see, and Samus is naturally it.
As part of this intro, Samus gains her signature new physic powers in Beyond. These allow her to interact with otherwise-hidden parts of the environment to solve puzzles. The most significant is the Control Beam. When you charge your arm cannon while in the psychic scan visor mode (a slight tweak on the environmental scanning feature that has been a major part of all Metroid Prime games), you can fire a beam that slows time down and can be controlled with the right joystick. That means you can pass the Control Beam through multiple targets, something you’ll need to do periodically to weaken enemies or unlock the way forward.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
Nintendo
For the most part, though, the psychic powers besides the beam are just repackaging of already-familiar tools. Metroid veterans will be familiar with the Spider Ball, an upgrade to the Morph Ball that lets Samus magnetically attach to tracks that help her get to out-of-reach areas. In Beyond, you instead get the “Psychic” Spider Ball — that does essentially the same thing. Occasionally, you’ll find Psychic Ball Tracks that you have to scan to reveal; they’ll then blast Samus into a secret area that usually has a weapon upgrade or energy tank. Even Samus’ main weapon gets a fancy “Psychic Beam” name — but the description of it in the inventory admits that it’s the same weapon. “The Psychic Beam’s strength and performance are equal to the standard Power Beam.” While the Control Beam adds a fun wrinkle to the gameplay, the psychic abilities don’t otherwise change the Metroid Prime formula in any significant way.
The main task Samus faces is collecting five Teleporter Keys that can get her off the planet. Those keys are hidden in various environments around Viewros that are all connected by Sol Valley, a large desert that holds lots of upgrades and side quests that you’ll need to clear to advance in the game. The desert is more of a hub than an open world — there are small areas to explore dotted around it, but the main action happens in places like Ice Belt, Volt Forge, Flare Pool and several others you’ll find your way to as you collect those teleporter keys.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
Nintendo
As those names suggest, Ice Belt is a frozen area where you explore an abandoned research facility, while Flare Pool is inside of a volcano. And, as you might expect, you’ll need certain weapons to advance in those areas. In addition to her standard beam and missile weapons, Samus collects the obligatory freeze ray and fire blaster sort of weapons. This is where the game really started to remind me of the original Metroid Prime — the three elemental weapons she collects are essentially the same as those in the first game, and environments like a frozen wasteland or a fiery volcano are nearly identical to ones you’ll find in that game. The Lamorn, meanwhile, reminded me a lot of the departed Chozo tribe you’ll find on Tallon IV in the first Metroid Prime. Of course, that game came out all the way back in 2002, and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will likely be the first game of the series many play. A little recycling of classic elements is forgivable.
That said, I was a bit disappointed that the game has a tightly-scripted flow. After the intro and the first mission on Viewros, you hit the desert with multiple locations where Teleporter Keys are believed to be hidden. But you can’t tackle them in any order you choose. This is a Metroid game, after all, and that means exploring to find powers that let you explore a new area that was previously closed off. Part of me was hoping for the freedom of a game like Breath of the Wild where you could tackle areas in any order you choose. But after playing through nearly the entire game, I appreciate the excellent execution of the familiar formula.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
Nintendo
Another thing that’ll be familiar to those who’ve played the older Metroid Prime games is the control scheme. For the most part, you can pick up the controller and get right to it, as the main control layout employs a two-joystick first-person view that should be pretty easy to get the hang of. But there are definitely times where I found myself wishing for more precision. You can lock onto enemies and targets with the ZL button and start blasting away with your chosen weapon, but many of the boss battles require you to lock on to a large creature and then use the right stick to adjust your aim to hit very specific targets. This took some getting used to, because I was used to the lock-on target vulnerable areas. Doing it with a Switch Pro Controller made things much easier, but using the standard Joy-Cons could get frustrating in a hurry. If I was playing in handheld mode, I would often pause before a big battle and wait until I could hook up to my TV and use a proper controller. I’d recommend you do the same — it’ll make for a much more enjoyable experience.
Beyond also offers the option of using one Joy-Con in “mouse” mode for aiming while using the other for moving around. For me, this isn’t a viable option. I tried it a few times and immediately felt completely disoriented and far worse at aiming than I was with the right stick. I can appreciate the idea behind offering mouse-like controls for a first-person FPS game, but it just did not feel well executed. That said, this might be on me. I haven’t played a game with a keyboard and mouse in years; nearly all of my gaming is on a twin-stick controller, so I’m just more comfortable with that setup. I’m thinking about starting from the beginning and seeing how I adapt to mouse mode and will update this review if my opinion changes.
There are a few things that Beyond does that are completely new to the series. The most obvious one is Vi-O-La, the wild robotic motorcycle that Samus rides. You’ll unlock that early in the game, and its primary utility is to get around Sol Valley. For anyone worried that the game is overly focused on an element that admittedly feels a bit anachronistic to the usual Metroid vibe, fear not. You’ll use it a bunch, but it’s more about fast transportation and exploration than something that has detailed mechanics you need to master. There are a few segments where it’s a major part of the mission, but for the most part it’s just another tool in your arsenal rather than something that steals the focus of the game.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
Nintendo
The same can be said for the motley crew of adventures you assemble. One of the loudest bits of feedback that came out of the preview Nintendo offered the press a few weeks ago was “what’s the deal with Myles MacKenzie?” You see, in the first hours of the game you come across MacKenzie, a bumbling engineer type who you rescue in the jungles of Viewros shortly after landing on the planet. You then have to escort him around a bit, during which he makes some pretty bad and occasionally obnoxious jokes. This led many who played the preview to worry about MacKenzie shattering the quiet and lonely solitude the Metroid series is known for.
Don’t worry — Samus is on her own for the vast majority of the game. You’ll encounter a few more stranded Galactic Federation soldiers throughout the game, but they usually only stick around for short segments before returning to the home base you establish with Myles. And as for Myles himself, he’ll help upgrade your weapons and is available on the radio to give you hints on where you need to go, something that I honestly didn’t mind. I’d rather have hints at hand than spend all my time wandering lost throughout the vast world of Beyond. But I can also see that the hint system is occasionally too aggressive in dropping details on where to go next.
As a seasoned player, Beyond mostly felt challenging but fair. Games in the Metroid Prime series are notorious for moments of serious difficulty, but this one feels a little more forgiving. When battling bosses, there were plenty of ammo and energy drops that helped me even the score. I usually died a handful of times while figuring out my strategy or getting a feel for their attacks, but it wasn’t overly frustrating or tedious. That said, there were two bosses near the end (including the final boss) where the difficult curve spiked in a way that felt completely unreasonable.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
Nintendo
There were also a few times when I felt wildly lost, with no useful information about my next step to be found anywhere on the map. Myles told me to find a member of the crew “out in the desert.” And while Sol Valley isn’t the same open-world scale of some bigger games, it’s still a pretty big space to explore without any other indication of where to go. I wasted far too much time riding my motorcycle across dunes aimlessly figuring out where to go. It wouldn’t be a Metroid game if you didn’t get hopelessly stuck at some point, though.
For the most part, I enjoyed the addition of some people helping Samus along her way. It helps flesh out the world of the game in small ways, giving some perspectives on everything going on from people who aren’t ultra-powerful, silent bounty hunters. It did make Samus’ never-ending silence feel a bit awkward, but it also fits with her otherworldly, not-quite-human presence.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
Nintendo
In some ways, it’s easy to sum up Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. It’s the Metroid Prime experience, modernized. The graphics are better, the world is bigger, experiences like Vi-O-La and Samus’ psychic abilities offer a greater variety of gameplay experiences. But it’s also very much a Metroid Prime game at its core, with the familiar but effective mix of biomes to exploration, giant enemies to dispatch and weapon upgrades to find. And, of course, there were moments of immense frustration when things just got too difficult, another hallmark of the series. Seriously, the final battle is wildly frustrating. Maybe I just need to get good, but it felt so far out of sync with the entire rest of the game that it almost ruined the fun that came before.
That intense moment of frustration aside, anyone who played earlier games in the series will find a lot to love here. But, they also might be disappointed that Nintendo didn’t push the series further. However, there are also a lot of people who’ve never played a Metroid Prime game in the last two decades or so — those people will find that the formula Nintendo engineered in the 2000s still holds up here. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is far more unique than your average first-person shooter, it was worth the long wait, and it’s a must-play for anyone who is up for the challenge.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/metroid-prime-4-beyond-review-an-excellent-modernization-but-not-a-total-reinvention-150000082.html?src=rss
To the surprise of few, the new iPad mini that Apple announced last week is a small update rather than a major reinvention. It may have been three years between iPad mini updates, but the 2021 model was the first to ditch the formerly ubiquitous home button in favor of smaller bezels. Apple certainly wouldn’t redesign the iPad mini only to do so again after a single generation, so this is another example of a new Apple product that looks the same on the outside but has some notable upgrades on the inside.
What’s new here can be summed up quickly: more storage, support for the Apple Pencil Pro and, most crucially, a more powerful chip. The A17 Pro allows the iPad mini to use Apple Intelligence features when they launch later this month, which is probably why this tablet exists at all. Apple clearly wants to get as many people as possible using these features, and now every iPad the company sells (except for the entry-level model) will work with Apple Intelligence. Of course, that makes fully evaluating the iPad mini tough, because Apple Intelligence isn’t here yet. But there’s still plenty to know if you’re thinking about Apple’s newest tiny tablet.
What’s the same?
As is often the case with new iPads, no one will know whether you’re using the 2021 iPad mini or this one unless they’re an astute study of Apple’s color schemes. This year, extremely mild shades of blue and purple replace the richer pink and purple options — my test iPad mini is purple, but looks like a pretty straight silver in a lot of light. I really wish Apple would provide more bold color options in more of its products, but here we are.
Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
There isn’t a lot to complain about when it comes to the iPad mini’s design. It feels perfectly in line with the other iPads Apple sells, with modest bezels (that are starting to feel a bit thick) surrounding its screen and stereo speakers when held in landscape orientation. Those speakers sound much better than you’d expect given the mini’s small size; Apple has been putting surprisingly great speakers in all its products for a few years now and I’m glad this trend continues here.
The camera is still portrait-oriented, unlike all the other iPads you can buy. That doesn’t really bother me, because you’re rarely, if ever, going to put this tiny iPad in a keyboard dock and take a video call. I imagine most people making FaceTime calls will just hold it like they would a phone.
As with the prior mini and non-Pro iPads, there’s no Face ID array here. You’ll have to make do with the Touch ID sensor on the power button, which is fast and convenient enough, but still not quite as smooth as Face ID. It also has the same front- and back-facing cameras as the last iPad mini. The 12-megapixel camera on the rear takes surprisingly decent shots in low light and should work fine for scanning documents or QR codes. But as usual, just use your phone to take images and videos — chances are it has a better camera than the iPad mini.
Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
Same goes for the front-facing shooter. It’s fine for FaceTime calls, but photos are lacking in detail. That’s because it’s a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera that then crops them into a more standard field of view. Long story short: this camera is just good enough for a tablet camera, but not much else. And that honestly doesn’t bother me.
The 8.3-inch screen on the iPad mini is about on par with the one on the iPad Air. It supports the P3 wide color gamut, has an antireflective coating and is fully laminated to the front glass, unlike the screen on the entry-level iPad. All these specs, including its resolution and 326 pixel-per-inch density, are unchanged from the last model. It’s a very nice screen, but it’s still a standard LCD display with a now-pedestrian 60Hz refresh rate. I’m not at all surprised by this, as Apple has kept its best screen technology for the iPad Pro. But very soon it’s going to need to up the refresh rate on other iPads (and iPhones if we’re being honest) besides the Pro models.
One bit of good news about the screen is that it seems Apple has fixed the “jelly-scrolling” problem that plagued the prior iPad mini. Jelly-scrolling occurs when one side of a screen doesn’t refresh at exactly the same rate as the other, and this effect was noticeable in portrait mode with the old iPad mini. It’s not something that I ever noticed while using the new iPad mini. I am curious to see if the issue has been totally resolved or if my eyes just didn’t catch it, but I’ll continue using the iPad mini in the coming weeks to see if I spot any display issues.
Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
What’s new?
The headlining new feature here is the A17 Pro chip, which Apple says is 30 percent faster than the A15 in the prior iPad mini. The 5-core GPU is 25 percent faster and supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing. One odd programming note: the A17 Pro in the iPad mini is slightly different from the one in the iPhone 15 Pro series. The chip in the iPhone 15 Pro has six graphics cores, while the one in the iPad mini only has five. It’s a weird bit of minor nerfing, but I also cannot imagine that anyone buying this iPad will notice or care about this slight potential performance difference.
Benchmarks from Geekbench 6 back this up. The A17 Pro in the iPad mini is ever so slightly less performant than the one in the iPhone 15 Pro, but not enough so that it’ll make any real difference in how you use the tablet. It still trails M-series chips and the brand-new A18 series, but provides more than enough juice for an iPad mini.
Some might have hoped for an M2 processor here, or even this year’s A18, but I’m confident that the A17 Pro is more than capable for basically anything you might do with the iPad mini. Given its small size, I never once thought about using it as a laptop replacement like I do with the iPad Pro. Instead, it made a comfortable couch companion for browsing the internet, messaging friends, triaging email, playing games and occasionally editing some photos. The A17 Pro was more than capable of all those tasks, with no slowdowns or stutters to note. Perhaps more importantly, it has the overhead to be capable for years to come.
Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
The other big change for the iPad mini is support for the Apple Pencil Pro that was introduced earlier this year. I’m glad to see that Apple now supports the Apple Pencil Pro on every iPad it sells aside from the entry-level model. The Pencil lineup was a bit of a mess for a while, but now there are just two options to consider: the $79 USB-C Apple Pencil and the more capable $129 Pencil Pro. Apple still sells the first- and second-generation Pencils for older iPads, but the lineup has thankfully been streamlined going forward.
The Apple Pencil Pro is quite a bit more capable than the standard one. It has pressure sensitivity, haptic feedback, a gyroscope so you can roll the pencil in your hands to change your brush width, a double-tab control to change tools, a “squeeze” feature to bring up the whole tool palette, support for the Find My app and magnetic charging and pairing when you snap it to the side of the iPad mini.
That’s a lot of bonuses for the extra $50, and the combo of the Apple Pencil Pro and iPad mini makes for a tiny but extremely capable digital notebook and canvas. It’s also the same price as the reMarkable Paper Pro tablet and stylus, though the devices have completely different screen types and the iPad does a whole lot more. Depending on what you’re looking for, that might not be a good thing, as a big part of the reMarkable experience is a lack of distractions that can pull you out of focus as well as a better writing experience than you’ll get with a glass LCD screen.
Finally, the iPad mini has 128GB of storage at the $499 price, double what it had before. This is a long-overdue change and makes it possible to recommend someone just grab that base model. There’s also a 512GB option for the first time. And, as usual, you can add 5G connectivity for an extra $150. The model I tried was a top-of-the-line 512GB model with 5G, which retails for a somewhat crazy $949.
Oh, and the new iPad mini supports Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E. Not a game-changer, but good to have the latest wireless specs for future-proofing.
What’s an iPad mini for?
I haven’t used an iPad mini for an extended period of time in years, and as I settled in to testing it, Billie Eilish’s sultry voice drifted into my head, asking “what was I made for?” Yes, this is a highly ridiculous anecdote, but that was what I set out to find: what’s an iPad mini best-used for? It’s definitely not meant to be a laptop replacement, like the much larger and more capable 13-inch iPad Air and iPad Pro I reviewed earlier this year. Instead, it’s an enjoyable secondary device that I mostly used after the workday was done, in place of my MacBook Pro or iPhone.
The iPad mini, on top of an 11-inch iPad Pro, on top of a 13-inch iPad Pro.
Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
Reading
It’s a perfectly sized device for reading, whether it’s articles on websites, posts from Substack or novels using the Kindle or Apple Books apps. I still prefer a paper book or a Kindle device, as they’re both much more comfortable than reading on an LCD screen, but the iPad mini is overall a far better reading device than any other iPad. However, this was also one place where I wished the iPad mini had a higher refresh rate. Vertically scrolling through long articles is noticeably jerkier than doing so on my iPhone 14 Pro or an iPad Pro, both of which have 120Hz refresh rates.
Messaging
Its size also makes it a great messaging device, with the portrait-oriented keyboard totally comfortable for two-handed typing. If you’re chatting away in a messaging app, having immediate access to your conversations makes jumping from one contact to another a lot easier. I wouldn’t want to write an article on this, but it was fine for firing off messages. And again, it’s far better suited to this use than bigger iPads.
Gaming
Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
The iPad mini also became my go-to Balatro device. The game just hit iOS a few weeks ago and I’ve been completely sucked in, like many of my co-workers. It’s a little cramped on my phone, but feels great on the iPad mini. Other casual games like those you’ll find on Apple Arcade also feel great on the iPad mini, but I did have a tougher time with more fast-paced titles like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. The on-screen controls felt a little too cramped, something that can of course be alleviated by pairing a Bluetooth controller.
Thanks to the A17 Pro chip, the iPad mini can also play a handful of AAA games that you’d typically expect to see on a console or PC like Death Stranding and Assassin’s Creed Mirage, both of which were announced for the iPhone 15 Pro in September 2023. Only the iPhone 15 Pro and 16 Pro can play these games, along with iPads that have at least an M1 processor. Now that the iPad mini has (essentially) the same chip as the iPhone 15 Pro, those games are available. I haven’t had a chance to test them yet, but I’ll update this review once I get a chance to see how they hold up on this hardware.
Apple Pencil Pro
I’m no visual artist, but I can imagine people who love to draw finding the iPad mini to be a great portable sketchbook. Sometimes, having the larger canvas you can get on an iPad Air or Pro is preferable, but when it comes to something you can throw in your bag and forget about, the iPad mini is unrivaled. I got in the habit of using it as a digital notebook — just pulling the Apple Pencil Pro off the side and tapping the screen opened up a blank note document I could jot my thoughts and to-do items onto.
Watching video
While the iPad mini makes for a fine portable video player, it’s one scenario where I missed a bigger screen. If I was flying cross-country or over the Atlantic, I’d definitely prefer something larger. The standard iPad or the 11-inch iPad Air and Pro are slightly heavier, but they’re well-balanced enough that they aren’t a burden to hold and watch a movie on. If that’s a primary use case for you, consider stepping up to an iPad with a bigger screen.
Battery life
As for battery life, I didn’t always hit the 10 hours Apple promises. Using a variety of the apps and workflows I’ve described, I’d get around eight hours before needing a charge. Of course, those routines typically included a fair bit of gaming, which definitely takes a hit on the battery (even if it’s just casual things like Balatro). I haven’t had time yet to do a video playback battery test, but my guess is that one will come out a lot closer to the standard 10 hours.
Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
Wrap-up
This year’s iPad mini is one of those typical Apple updates that focuses on software and internal hardware rather than a flashy redesign. But that’s OK. If you bought the prior iPad mini, you can safely ignore this one unless you’re really all-in on Apple Intelligence. Anyone else who has a smaller iPad that still has a home button will get a ton of value out of this update. It has one of Apple’s best mobile chips and Apple Pencil Pro support makes it easy to recommend for anyone who wants a portable sketchbook.
I wouldn’t hate an improved display with smaller bezels and a higher refresh rate, and I wouldn’t have said no to an M2 or A18 Pro chip inside, but those are the only things I’d change here. And both would surely make the iPad mini more expensive. As it is, it’s a solid performer for $499. If you just want a little couch computing companion, or a tablet so small and light that you can take it everywhere with you, the iPad mini remains your best choice.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/ipad-mini-7-review-safe-boring-and-everything-i-want-in-a-small-tablet-130039378.html?src=rss
A digital photo frame shouldn’t be complicated. At its best, it’s just a good-looking screen that can be set up quickly that reliably shows the photos you care about. Unfortunately, that’s not always how things play out. The market is flooded with cheap digital frames that promise simplicity but end up delivering washed-out displays, clunky apps and a frustrating experience — leading you to abandon it after a week.
That’s a shame, because a good digital frame can be really enjoyable. Most of us have thousands of photos sitting on our phones that never make it beyond the camera roll, even though they’re exactly the kind of moments worth seeing every day. A solid frame gives those images a permanent home, whether it’s family photos cycling in the living room or shared albums updating automatically for relatives across the country. We’ve tested a range of smart photo frames to separate the genuinely useful options from the forgettable junk, and these are the ones that are actually worth putting on display.
Best digital picture frames for 2026
What to look for in digital picture frames
While a digital photo frame feels like a simple piece of tech, there are a number of things I considered when trying to find one worth displaying in my home. First and foremost was screen resolution and size. I was surprised to learn that most digital photo frames have a resolution around 1,200 x 800, which feels positively pixelated. (That's for frames with screen sizes in the nine- to ten-inch range, which is primarily what I considered for this guide.)
But after trying a bunch of frames, I realized that screen resolution is not the most important factor; my favorite photos looked best on frames that excelled in reflectivity, brightness, viewing angles and color temperature. A lot of these digital photo frames were lacking in one or more of these factors; they often didn't deal with reflections well or had poor viewing angles.
A lot of frames I tested felt cheap and looked ugly as well, which isn’t something you want in a smart device that sits openly in your home. That includes lousy stands, overly glossy plastic parts and design decisions I can only describe as strange, particularly for items that are meant to just blend into your home. The best digital photo frames don't call attention to themselves and look like an actual “dumb” frame, so much so that those that aren’t so tech-savvy might mistake them for one.
Perhaps the most important thing outside of the display, though, is the software. Let me be blunt: a number of frames I tested had absolutely atrocious companion apps and software experiences that I would not wish on anyone. One that I tried did not have a touchscreen, but did have an IR remote (yes, like the one you controlled your TV with 30 years ago). Trying to use that with a Wi-Fi connection was painful, and when I tried instead to use a QR code, I was linked to a Google search for random numbers instead of an actual app or website. I gave up on that frame, the $140 PixStar, on the spot.
Other things were more forgivable. A lot of the frames out there are basically Android tablets with a bit of custom software slapped on the top, which worked fine but wasn't terribly elegant. And having to interact with the photo frame via touch wasn't great because you end up with fingerprints all over the display. The best frames I tried were smart about what features you could control on the frame itself vs. through an app, the latter of which is my preferred method.
Another important software note: many frames I tried require subscriptions for features that absolutely should be included out of the box. For example, one frame would only let me upload 10 photos at a time without a subscription. Others would let you link a Google Photos account, but you could only sync a single album without paying up. Yet another option didn't let you create albums to organize the photos that were on the frame — it was just a giant scroll of photos with no way to give them order.
While some premium frames offer perks like unlimited photos or cloud storage, they often come at a cost. I can understand why certain things might go under a subscription, like if you're getting a large amount of cloud storage, for example. But these subscriptions feel like ways for companies to make recurring revenue from a product made so cheaply they can't make any money on the frame itself. I'd urge you to make sure your chosen frame doesn't require a subscription (neither of the frames I recommend in this guide need a subscription for any of their features), especially if you plan on giving this device as a gift to loved ones.
How much should you spend on a digital picture frame
For a frame with a nine- or ten-inch display, expect to spend at least $100. Our budget recommendation is $99, and all of the options I tried that were cheaper were not nearly good enough to recommend. Spending $150 to $180 will get you a significantly nicer experience in all facets, from functionality to design to screen quality.
Digital frames FAQs
Are digital photo frames a good idea?
Yes, as long as you know what to expect. A digital picture frame makes it easy to enjoy your favorite shots without printing them. They’re especially nice for families who want to display new photos quickly. The key is understanding the limitations. Some frames have lower resolution displays or need a constant Wi-Fi connection to work properly, so they’re not a perfect replacement for a high-quality print on the wall. But if you want a simple way to keep memories on display and up to date, they’re a solid choice.
Can you upload photos to a digital frame from anywhere?
Most modern digital frames let you do this, but it depends on the model. Many connect to Wi-Fi and use apps, cloud storage or email uploads, so you can add photos from your phone no matter where you are. Some even let family members share directly, which is great for keeping grandparents updated with new pictures. That said, a few budget models only work with USB drives or memory cards, so check how the frame handles uploads before buying.
Georgie Peru contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/best-digital-frame-120046051.html?src=rss
It's been about a year since Google first announced its Chromebook Plus initiative, a higher spec of hardware that also comes with software features you won't find on more basic Chromebooks. Google's getting into a pretty consistent every-six-month cadence with these updates, so today we're hearing more about some new hardware as well as some AI-powered features coming to various Chromebooks.
New Chromebook Hardware
Probably the most interesting update we're hearing about today is new hardware from Samsung: the Galaxy Chromebook Plus. I've liked some of Samsung's attempts at making high-end Chromebooks in the past, so I'm curious to see how this one performs. Google says its the thinnest and lightest Chromebook Plus, at 2.58 pounds and less than a half-inch thick. Despite that small size, it includes a 15.6-inch OLED screen, making it sound like this laptop will be similar to the 15-inch MacBook Air in feel.
Samsung
From a specs perspective it has an Intel Core 3 100U, 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM, specs that should be more than enough for a good Chrome OS experience. Samsung claims 13-hour battery life, something I'd like to believe but don't yet. Too many Chromebooks tout long battery life and completely miss the mark, so I'm looking forward to seeing if any notable improvements have been made here.
Google
This is also the first Chromebook with a new key called the "Quick Insert" key. It replaces the existing Launcher key (where you'll find Caps Lock on most laptops), and it brings up a glorified right-click menu that does feel potentially more modern and useful. You'll find options for Gemini-powered "help me write," emoji and GIF search, a list of recently-opened websites, a Google Drive search field and a few other tools. Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus is the first laptop with this key, but older Chromebooks can also pull up the menu with a keyboard shortcut (launcher key + F).
The Galaxy Chromebook Plus costs $699, making it the most expensive Chromebook Plus model we've seen yet. There's no exact release date yet, but it should be available this month.
Lenovo also has a new device, the Chromebook Duet 11". As the name suggests, it's a small convertible device, an update to one Lenovo originally released back in 2020. It keeps the same small form factor and detachable keyboard but has a newer MediaTek Kompanio 838 processor along with up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. I'd recommend making sure you get that 8GB / 128GB combo, as anything less won't cut it in 2024. Lenovo also has seemingly slimmed down the bezels quite a bit compared to the original model, which should make the already-small package feel even more compact.
Lenovo
You can also get a stylus and use it with a free three-month Goodnotes subscription. Google says that Goodnotes has been optimized for Chrome OS, so it should provide a smoother experience now. That said, most Chromebook stylus apps haven't been terribly great, so this is another case when we'll want to try it out to see how it works. Lenovo says that the option with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage will cost $340, while the 8GB / 128GB model costs $390. Both come with the keyboard and stylus.
Google
AI perks and other software updates
At each of the last two Chromebook showcases Google has held, the company has teased new software features that would come in the future. And just as it did in May, Google is making good on some things it talked about in the past.
Probably the biggest is the Gemini-powered "help me read" feature which can, in Google's words, "summarize PDFs, articles or websites, all with a right click." It's something Google has talked about for a bit, and this first implementation of the feature is definitely not its final form — Google says that an update next year will let you highlight specific paragraphs and sentences you want more detail on.
Google
Other new features include Live Translate, which uses AI to automatically generate captions for whatever is on your computer, including video calls, movie files or a live YouTube stream. Similarly, the Recorder app can automatically create transcripts from what it records, complete with different speaker IDs and a summary. Live Translate is already available on Pixel phones, and the Recorder app is also on Android phones so it's not a big surprise to find them here.
Finally, Google is making audio and video quality on calls better. The "studio-style mic" feature uses AI to reduce noise and reverberation, and your video output can be automatically adjusted for better lighting. These features will work across any video call platform you can use on a Chromebook.
Google
The above features are exclusive to Chromebook Plus models, but Google has a handful of updates coming to all Chrome OS updates. For starters, all new Chromebook purchases come with three months of the Google One AI Premium plan, which includes Gemini Advanced, 2TB of storage and Gemini in Docs, Sheets, Slides and Gmail. (Chromebook Plus buyers still get it for a whole year, as announced in May.) Given that that's a $20/month plan, it's a solid perk.
Related, Google is making it easier for Chromebook users to use Gemini by including a shortcut to Gemini chat right in the Chrome OS taskbar. Hey, if you want people to try new features, you might as well put them directly in your face, right?
Two other features Google is introducing were first teased back in May. One is a focus timer, which implores you to pick an urgent task, a playlist and a timer. You'll then go into do not disturb mode while you work on what you're trying to get done. There's also a "Welcome Back" feature that pops up when you log in to your laptop. It pulls together apps and pages it thinks go together so you can resume what you were working on previously.
Like the hardware announced today, there's no specifics on when exactly this will all start rolling out, but you can expect to see it this month.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/samsungs-latest-premium-chromebook-combines-a-big-screen-with-a-thin-and-light-body-130012477.html?src=rss
I grew up on two of the most classic games in the Legend of Zelda series: A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening. And while there have been a handful of Zelda games with the classic overhead view, those have been mostly relegated to systems like the Game Boy Advance and the 3DS. Mainline Zelda games that are a big event in the gaming world are in the 3D style so successfully introduced to the series way back in 1998 with Ocarina of Time.
All this is to say that it’s been years since I’ve played an entirely new Legend of Zelda game in the style of those classics I love so much. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (out tomorrow) has brought me right back. The game takes great advantage of the art style that Nintendo brought to the series with the Link’s Awakening remake, but don’t let the cute look fool you — this game is much tougher than Link’s Awakening. And while it could serve as a good entry point for younger players, the challenge level and puzzle-solving skills needed means adults will have their work cut out for them as well.
Nintendo
Part of that challenge is because Echoes of Wisdom has a wildly different set of mechanics compared to any other Zelda game, 3D or not. That’s because you’re not controlling Link, the protagonist of literally every game in the series. Instead, you are finally in control of Princess Zelda herself as she tries to rescue Link (!) and bring peace to Hyrule.
The big plot device this time out is a series of otherworldly rifts that have opened up throughout Hyrule, swallowing up huge parts of the land and the people who reside there. Zelda soon meets an adorable but ghostly creature named Tri who can heal the rifts. Tri gifts Zelda the Tri Rod, the single piece of equipment that makes this game so different from the rest. With the Tri Rod, Zelda can create echoes of dozens of objects and creatures she encounters throughout the game and use them to solve puzzles and battle monsters.
Nintendo
It’s hard to overstate how much this fundamentally separates this game from all the rest in its series. Instead of gearing up with a sword and shield and augmenting them with a variety of other weapons and tools, Zelda is unable to directly fight at first. She can, at least, throw a rock or two at the first enemies she meets to defeat them. But once you defeat an enemy, you can clone it to your heart's content with the Tri Rod — and unleash those creatures on other monsters.
Before long, I was in control of a gang of sword-wielding Moblins, or I could summon spiders to climb the walls to attack out-of-reach enemies. In underwater segments, I could deploy anglerfish to light the way forward. Above ground, I could summon birds to take on other aerial enemies. And while some monsters are more vulnerable to certain kinds of attacks than others, I’m pretty sure that everyone will end up with different strategies that work for their own playing style.
Another power that Tri grants you is the ability to grab and move many objects around the world, letting you get around physical obstacles like giant rocks with ease. You can also grab monsters and echoes you create, an ability that isn’t required but can make dealing with certain baddies easier (grabbing a Deku plant by the head and giving it a tug is a satisfying way to take them out).
Nintendo
Nintendo clearly put a ton of thought into designing how players could use echoes to both battle monsters as well as traverse the terrain of Hyrule. But there are also a host of frustrations that come along with this completely new system, making me more divided about this game than almost any Zelda game I’ve played. First off, relying on echoes of various monsters to do your battling for you can be incredibly frustrating. Put simply… they’re just kind of stupid. They’re often slow to attack and very hard to control. You can target enemies with the ZL trigger, and I’ve found that if you target and then summon an echo, it’ll do a better job of honing in on that target, but it’s a very imprecise system. I often found myself running around trying to dodge attacks while waiting for my monsters to do their dirty work.
It’s entirely possible that I wasn’t picking the right monsters for the particular job, but that gets to a second problem. There are just entirely too many echoes in this game. I currently have more than 75 echoes in my notebook, and it’s just very hard to remember them all or know what the right situation to use them is. For example, I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out how to make a mini-boss vulnerable to my attacks. I ended up feeding it an explosive bombfish (yup, it’s a fish with a bomb in its mouth!), and it felt like an obvious solution in retrospect. But there are so many echoes that it’s just hard to remember what’s at your disposal at any given time.
Nintendo
You can pull up your list of echoes by holding right on the d-pad and scrolling through them; it’s similar to how you can quickly pull up all your items in Tears of the Kingdom if you want to bind something to your arrows. As in that game, though, this menu contains so many items that it’s a little cumbersome to dig through. You can sort by most-used, most recently used and a few other options, but those two are probably the most helpful. And you can always hit the plus button to jump into the game’s menus to find exactly the right echo you’re looking for. But the tyranny of choice here is real.
Despite times where the game felt more like a frustration than a challenge, Echoes of Wisdom is also packed with tons of great “a-ha!” moments when you naturally figure out exactly where the game is nudging you. But because of the completely different mechanics this game uses, it feels like a nice evolution of the standard Zelda format — even if it did give me moments of agita.
Nintendo
I should note that Zelda does get to wield a sword and shield, but it’s different than in previous games. In the first dungeon, Zelda gains the ability to switch to “swordfighter” mode, and she plays essentially like Link would in a similar game. However, Zelda has an energy meter that keeps her from staying in that form indefinitely. I definitely loved using that when I was overrun with enemies, and it’s essential for slaying some of the bigger monsters you’ll find in the game. But the energy meter keeps you from relying on it constantly, a limitation that I appreciated (even though I really wanted to just slash my way through baddies as much as possible).
My main quibble with this mode is that the energy meter only refills when you pick up little light crystals dropped by defeated enemies — but as far as I can tell, these only appear when you’re exploring the rifts around Hyrule or inside of a dungeon. And even then, it’s easy to run out and find yourself unable to switch modes. There are potions you can purchase to refill your energy meter, but I wish it was a little easier to find those crystals in the Hyrule overworld. The game really doesn’t want you spamming the sword, basically.
Nintendo
There’s a lot more to Echoes of Wisdom than these new mechanics, though they’re the most significant change here from the standard Zelda formula. By and large, the game feels like a solid remix of some of the Zelda series’ greatest hits. The Hyrule overworld will feel familiar to anyone who played A Link to the Past, though it’s hardly a one-to-one recreation. There’s an extensive beach that isn’t found in the older game, and there are new settlements for creatures like the Deku Scrubs and two varieties of Zora, just to name a few changes.
As in many previous games, the main play pattern of “explore area, find dungeon, clear dungeon” is intact, but the game also takes a nod from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. The quests usually prod you to investigate a few different areas, which you can do in whatever order you prefer. After clearing a set, the story advances and you get a new group to discover.
There’s a formula leading up to each dungeon, though. You generally visit a settlement around Hyrule where a rift has opened and swallowed up residents and buildings — and the dungeon you need to explore to close the rift is hidden away inside. So there’s a bit of pre-dungeon rift exploration to do, after which grateful citizens will generally give you what you need to progress to the dungeon proper.
These rifts remind me most of the Dark World first introduced in A Link to the Past. They’re shadowy worlds where pieces of the land are strewn about willy-nilly. There are some fun physics puzzles thrown in, as sometimes parts of the world that would usually be horizontal instead ascend vertically. So you’re jumping up the sides of trees or swimming “up” through water. It’s a little hard to put into words, but the game does a good job of introducing these areas without making them immediately too confusing to know which direction to go.
I’ve glossed over the visual design of this game, partially because it’s a continuation of what Nintendo did in the Link’s Awakening remake a few years ago. But as the first entirely new game to use this adorable style, it’s worth digging into. It’s a top-down Zelda game for sure, with a similar view, albeit one that isn’t quite as bird’s-eye as the older games. This gives the world more depth for its design to shine. It’s colorful and detailed, with houses, characters, enemies and environments that feel like tiny toys; the tilt-shift style blurring at the top and bottom of the display adds to that effect.
I feel like Nintendo’s developers drew inspiration from The Wind Waker, not so much in the cel-shaded graphics of that title but in the whimsy found in the world. Both games could easily be described as “cute, but not childish.” Echoes of Wisdom definitely skews “younger” in its presentation than any other Zelda short of Link’s Awakening, but the level of detail and polish is something adults will appreciate.
The music, as usual, is also outstanding throughout. Unlike the fairly minimal scoring that accompanies most of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, there’s a rousing overworld composition that cleverly highlights the Princess Zelda-specific motif that has often accompanied the character for years now. It’s a worthy entry into the long list of excellent overworld tunes, and each dungeon has its own score that fits its particular brand of creepiness well.
It’s not a surprise to say that this adds up to yet another delightful Zelda game that breaks the mold in a number of ways, despite the occasional frustrations. Echoes of Wisdom has far more of a classic linear structure than Tears of the Kingdom, but that’s not a bad thing. Nintendo has changed up enough other parts of the formula for the game to feel both familiar and fresh.
Being able to actually play as Zelda is long overdue, and I’m hopeful that we’ll see her appear as a playable character in more games in the future (perhaps even in a massive, open-world style adventure). But a future title in the vein of Echoes of Wisdom would be welcome, too. I imagine Nintendo will learn a lot from Zelda’s first proper adventure and use that to smooth out the rough parts in the echo system. But fans of the series shouldn’t hesitate to check out Echoes of Wisdom — it’s not perfect, but it’s still a fresh and enjoyable remix of a classic Zelda game.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/the-legend-of-zelda-echoes-of-wisdom-is-as-familiar-as-it-is-fresh-120025682.html?src=rss
I grew up on two of the most classic games in the Legend of Zelda series: A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening. And while there have been a handful of Zelda games with the classic overhead view, those have been mostly relegated to systems like the Game Boy Advance and the 3DS. Mainline Zelda games that are a big event in the gaming world are in the 3D style so successfully introduced to the series way back in 1998 with Ocarina of Time.
All this is to say that it’s been years since I’ve played an entirely new Legend of Zelda game in the style of those classics I love so much. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (out tomorrow) has brought me right back. The game takes great advantage of the art style that Nintendo brought to the series with the Link’s Awakening remake, but don’t let the cute look fool you — this game is much tougher than Link’s Awakening. And while it could serve as a good entry point for younger players, the challenge level and puzzle-solving skills needed means adults will have their work cut out for them as well.
Nintendo
Part of that challenge is because Echoes of Wisdom has a wildly different set of mechanics compared to any other Zelda game, 3D or not. That’s because you’re not controlling Link, the protagonist of literally every game in the series. Instead, you are finally in control of Princess Zelda herself as she tries to rescue Link (!) and bring peace to Hyrule.
The big plot device this time out is a series of otherworldly rifts that have opened up throughout Hyrule, swallowing up huge parts of the land and the people who reside there. Zelda soon meets an adorable but ghostly creature named Tri who can heal the rifts. Tri gifts Zelda the Tri Rod, the single piece of equipment that makes this game so different from the rest. With the Tri Rod, Zelda can create echoes of dozens of objects and creatures she encounters throughout the game and use them to solve puzzles and battle monsters.
Nintendo
It’s hard to overstate how much this fundamentally separates this game from all the rest in its series. Instead of gearing up with a sword and shield and augmenting them with a variety of other weapons and tools, Zelda is unable to directly fight at first. She can, at least, throw a rock or two at the first enemies she meets to defeat them. But once you defeat an enemy, you can clone it to your heart's content with the Tri Rod — and unleash those creatures on other monsters.
Before long, I was in control of a gang of sword-wielding Moblins, or I could summon spiders to climb the walls to attack out-of-reach enemies. In underwater segments, I could deploy anglerfish to light the way forward. Above ground, I could summon birds to take on other aerial enemies. And while some monsters are more vulnerable to certain kinds of attacks than others, I’m pretty sure that everyone will end up with different strategies that work for their own playing style.
Another power that Tri grants you is the ability to grab and move many objects around the world, letting you get around physical obstacles like giant rocks with ease. You can also grab monsters and echoes you create, an ability that isn’t required but can make dealing with certain baddies easier (grabbing a Deku plant by the head and giving it a tug is a satisfying way to take them out).
Nintendo
Nintendo clearly put a ton of thought into designing how players could use echoes to both battle monsters as well as traverse the terrain of Hyrule. But there are also a host of frustrations that come along with this completely new system, making me more divided about this game than almost any Zelda game I’ve played. First off, relying on echoes of various monsters to do your battling for you can be incredibly frustrating. Put simply… they’re just kind of stupid. They’re often slow to attack and very hard to control. You can target enemies with the ZL trigger, and I’ve found that if you target and then summon an echo, it’ll do a better job of honing in on that target, but it’s a very imprecise system. I often found myself running around trying to dodge attacks while waiting for my monsters to do their dirty work.
It’s entirely possible that I wasn’t picking the right monsters for the particular job, but that gets to a second problem. There are just entirely too many echoes in this game. I currently have more than 75 echoes in my notebook, and it’s just very hard to remember them all or know what the right situation to use them is. For example, I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out how to make a mini-boss vulnerable to my attacks. I ended up feeding it an explosive bombfish (yup, it’s a fish with a bomb in its mouth!), and it felt like an obvious solution in retrospect. But there are so many echoes that it’s just hard to remember what’s at your disposal at any given time.
Nintendo
You can pull up your list of echoes by holding right on the d-pad and scrolling through them; it’s similar to how you can quickly pull up all your items in Tears of the Kingdom if you want to bind something to your arrows. As in that game, though, this menu contains so many items that it’s a little cumbersome to dig through. You can sort by most-used, most recently used and a few other options, but those two are probably the most helpful. And you can always hit the plus button to jump into the game’s menus to find exactly the right echo you’re looking for. But the tyranny of choice here is real.
Despite times where the game felt more like a frustration than a challenge, Echoes of Wisdom is also packed with tons of great “a-ha!” moments when you naturally figure out exactly where the game is nudging you. But because of the completely different mechanics this game uses, it feels like a nice evolution of the standard Zelda format — even if it did give me moments of agita.
Nintendo
I should note that Zelda does get to wield a sword and shield, but it’s different than in previous games. In the first dungeon, Zelda gains the ability to switch to “swordfighter” mode, and she plays essentially like Link would in a similar game. However, Zelda has an energy meter that keeps her from staying in that form indefinitely. I definitely loved using that when I was overrun with enemies, and it’s essential for slaying some of the bigger monsters you’ll find in the game. But the energy meter keeps you from relying on it constantly, a limitation that I appreciated (even though I really wanted to just slash my way through baddies as much as possible).
My main quibble with this mode is that the energy meter only refills when you pick up little light crystals dropped by defeated enemies — but as far as I can tell, these only appear when you’re exploring the rifts around Hyrule or inside of a dungeon. And even then, it’s easy to run out and find yourself unable to switch modes. There are potions you can purchase to refill your energy meter, but I wish it was a little easier to find those crystals in the Hyrule overworld. The game really doesn’t want you spamming the sword, basically.
Nintendo
There’s a lot more to Echoes of Wisdom than these new mechanics, though they’re the most significant change here from the standard Zelda formula. By and large, the game feels like a solid remix of some of the Zelda series’ greatest hits. The Hyrule overworld will feel familiar to anyone who played A Link to the Past, though it’s hardly a one-to-one recreation. There’s an extensive beach that isn’t found in the older game, and there are new settlements for creatures like the Deku Scrubs and two varieties of Zora, just to name a few changes.
As in many previous games, the main play pattern of “explore area, find dungeon, clear dungeon” is intact, but the game also takes a nod from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. The quests usually prod you to investigate a few different areas, which you can do in whatever order you prefer. After clearing a set, the story advances and you get a new group to discover.
There’s a formula leading up to each dungeon, though. You generally visit a settlement around Hyrule where a rift has opened and swallowed up residents and buildings — and the dungeon you need to explore to close the rift is hidden away inside. So there’s a bit of pre-dungeon rift exploration to do, after which grateful citizens will generally give you what you need to progress to the dungeon proper.
These rifts remind me most of the Dark World first introduced in A Link to the Past. They’re shadowy worlds where pieces of the land are strewn about willy-nilly. There are some fun physics puzzles thrown in, as sometimes parts of the world that would usually be horizontal instead ascend vertically. So you’re jumping up the sides of trees or swimming “up” through water. It’s a little hard to put into words, but the game does a good job of introducing these areas without making them immediately too confusing to know which direction to go.
I’ve glossed over the visual design of this game, partially because it’s a continuation of what Nintendo did in the Link’s Awakening remake a few years ago. But as the first entirely new game to use this adorable style, it’s worth digging into. It’s a top-down Zelda game for sure, with a similar view, albeit one that isn’t quite as bird’s-eye as the older games. This gives the world more depth for its design to shine. It’s colorful and detailed, with houses, characters, enemies and environments that feel like tiny toys; the tilt-shift style blurring at the top and bottom of the display adds to that effect.
I feel like Nintendo’s developers drew inspiration from The Wind Waker, not so much in the cel-shaded graphics of that title but in the whimsy found in the world. Both games could easily be described as “cute, but not childish.” Echoes of Wisdom definitely skews “younger” in its presentation than any other Zelda short of Link’s Awakening, but the level of detail and polish is something adults will appreciate.
The music, as usual, is also outstanding throughout. Unlike the fairly minimal scoring that accompanies most of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, there’s a rousing overworld composition that cleverly highlights the Princess Zelda-specific motif that has often accompanied the character for years now. It’s a worthy entry into the long list of excellent overworld tunes, and each dungeon has its own score that fits its particular brand of creepiness well.
It’s not a surprise to say that this adds up to yet another delightful Zelda game that breaks the mold in a number of ways, despite the occasional frustrations. Echoes of Wisdom has far more of a classic linear structure than Tears of the Kingdom, but that’s not a bad thing. Nintendo has changed up enough other parts of the formula for the game to feel both familiar and fresh.
Being able to actually play as Zelda is long overdue, and I’m hopeful that we’ll see her appear as a playable character in more games in the future (perhaps even in a massive, open-world style adventure). But a future title in the vein of Echoes of Wisdom would be welcome, too. I imagine Nintendo will learn a lot from Zelda’s first proper adventure and use that to smooth out the rough parts in the echo system. But fans of the series shouldn’t hesitate to check out Echoes of Wisdom — it’s not perfect, but it’s still a fresh and enjoyable remix of a classic Zelda game.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/the-legend-of-zelda-echoes-of-wisdom-is-as-familiar-as-it-is-fresh-120025682.html?src=rss
