Disney+ screws UK Doctor Who fans with global release strategy

The latest series of Doctor Who will debut on iPlayer and globally on Disney+ at midnight in the UK. The first two hour-long episodes land on May 11, which will then air on BBC One later that day in prime time. Those who know how time zones work will have already guessed that Doctor Who will now be available to view in the US on May 10 at 7pm ET and 4pm PT.

There are plenty of sucky things about living in the UK, one of which is that we’re a day behind the US TV schedule. Buzzy shows like Lost were often spoiled by the internet long before it was legally available to view here. To curb the rampant piracy, shows like Game of Thrones and Succession were broadcast at 2am or 3am.

That way, ardent viewers could DVR those airings and watch them before they got to work lest it be spoiled. Because, if you didn’t, you’d have to be extremely careful when you were treading around on the internet. There were very few shows I didn’t have spoiled for me given that I work on the internet all the damn day.

So you can imagine my dismay to learn that Doctor Who, one of the crown jewels in the British TV firmament, will now be treated the same way. It’s hard not to feel annoyed given that the bulk of the series’ funding comes from the license fee paid by the majority of TV owners in the UK. It seems mad, to me, that the global simulcast isn't tied to the UK broadcast, rather than this obvious tweak to ensure the US gets it first. Especially when the alternative is to stay up until 2am on a Saturday morning. 

(Yes, I know there’s precedent for this, The Five Doctors aired on PBS two days before the UK airing, and the TV movie aired on Fox twelve days earlier. But that was in the pre-internet heyday when you didn't have every big moment from the show shared by its own official social channels mere seconds after it aired.)

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/disney-screws-uk-doctor-who-fans-with-global-release-strategy-155040558.html?src=rss

Chatbots promise a future that will never arrive

Conversing with your computer has been a dream of futurists and technologists for decades. When you look at 2004’s state of the art, it’s staggering to see how far we’ve come. There are now billions of devices in our hands, and homes that listen to our queries and do their very best to answer them. But for all of the time, money and effort, chatbots of any stripe have not swallowed the world as their creators intended. They’re miraculous. They’re also boring. And it’s worth asking why.

Chatbot is a term covering a lot of systems, from voice assistants to AI and everything else in the middle. Talking to your computer in the not-so-good old days meant typing into a window and watching the machine attempt a facsimile of the act of conversation rather than the real thing. The old ELIZA (1964 to 1967) trick of restating user inputs in the form of a question helped sell this performance. And this continued even as far as 2001’s SmarterChild chatbot. The other branch of this work was to digitize the analog with voice-to-text engines, like Nuance’s frustrating but occasionally wonderful product.

In 2011, the ideas in that early work joined up to make Siri for the iPhone 4S, which was quietly built on Nuance’s work. Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, saw Siri’s promise early and launched a large internal project to make a homegrown competitor. In 2014, Alexa arrived, with Cortana and Google Assistant following in subsequent years. Natural language computing was now available on countless smartphones and smart home devices.

Companies are largely reticent to be specific about the price of building new projects, but chat has been costly. Forbes reported in 2011 that buying the startup behind Siri cost Apple $200 million. In 2018, The Wall Street Journal quoted Dave Limp, who said Amazon’s Alexa team had more than 10,000 employees. A Business Insider story from 2022 suggested the company pegged more than $10 billion in losses on Alexa’s development. Last year, The Information claimed Apple is now spending a million dollars a day on AI development.

So, what do we use this costly technology for? Turning our smart bulbs on and off, playing music, answering the doorbell and maybe getting the sports scores. In the case of AI, perhaps getting poorly summarized web search results (or an image of human subjects with too many fingers.) You’re certainly not having much in the way of meaningful conversation or pulling vital data out of these things. Because in pretty much every case, its comprehension sucks and it struggles with the nuances of human speech. And this isn’t isolated. In 2021, Bloomberg reported on internal Amazon data saying up to a quarter of buyers stop using their Alexa unit entirely in the second week of owning one.

The oft-cited goal has been to make these platforms conversationally intelligent, answering your questions and responding to your commands. But while it can do some basic things pretty well, like mostly understanding when you ask it to turn your lights down, everything else isn’t so smooth. Natural language tricks users into thinking the systems are more sophisticated than they actually are. So when it comes time to ask a complex question, you’re more likely to get the first few lines of a wikipedia page, eroding any faith in their ability to do more than play music or crank the thermostat.

The assumption is that generative AIs bolted onto these natural language interfaces will solve all of the issues presently associated with voice. And yes, on one hand, these systems will be better at pantomiming a realistic conversation and trying to give you what you ask for. But, on the other hand, when you actually look at what comes out the other side, it’s often gibberish. These systems are making gestures toward surface level interactions but can’t do anything more substantive. Don’t forget when Sports Illustrated tried to use AI-generated content that boldly claimed volleyball could be “tricky to get into, especially without an actual ball to practice with.” No wonder so many of these systems are, as Bloomberg reported last year, propped up by underpaid human labor.

Of course, the form’s boosters will suggest it’s early days and, like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said recently, we still need billions of dollars in more chip research and development. But that makes a mockery of the decades of development and billions of dollars already spent to get where we are today. But it’s not just cash or chips that’s the issue: Last year, The New York Times reported the power demands of AI alone could skyrocket to as much as 134 terawatt hours per year by 2027. Given the urgent need to curb power consumption and make things more efficient, it doesn’t bode well for either the future of its development or our planet.

We’ve had 20 years of development, but chatbots still haven’t caught on in the ways we were told they would. At first, it was because they simply struggled to understand what we wanted, but even if that’s solved, would we suddenly embrace them? After all, the underlying problem remains: We simply don’t trust these platforms, both because we have no faith in their ability to do what we ask them to and because of the motivations of their creators.

One of the most enduring examples of natural language computing in fiction, and one often cited by real-world makers, is the computer from Star Trek: The Next Generation. But even there, with a voice assistant that seems to possess something close to general intelligence, it’s not trusted to run the ship on its own. A crew member still sits at every station, carrying out the orders of the captain and generally performing the mission. Even in a future so advanced it’s free of material need, beings still crave the sensation of control.


Engadget 20th anniversary banner

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/chatbots-promise-a-future-that-will-never-arrive-140033258.html?src=rss

Blink’s new Mini 2 offers a built-in spotlight and person detection for $40

Blink is once again attempting to challenge conventional wisdom about how good a $40 security camera can be. The Amazon-owned company is today announcing the Blink Mini 2, which crams in plenty more smart features into that relatively tiny body. Headline features include better image quality day and night, as well as a built-in LED spotlight for color night vision.

Image of a Blink Mini 2 that's comically small compared to the wooden table and vase it's on and next to.
Blink

Paired with Blink’s custom system-on-chip, the Mini 2 will also offer smart notifications and person detection. Those features will require a Blink subscription which, for $3 a month, will get you cloud recording, 60 days of video history and live streaming. You’ll also need to pony up some more to use the Mini 2 outside — $49.98 will get you the camera and the necessary weather proof power adapter.

The Blink Mini 2 is available today in the US and Canada.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/blinks-new-mini-2-offers-a-built-in-spotlight-and-person-detection-for-40-130055057.html?src=rss

The Morning After: Is the M3 MacBook Air any good?

Engadget’s resident laptop expert Devindra Hardawar put the 13- and 15-inch M3 MacBooks Air through their paces. Fundamentally, both are fantastic machines but probably lack some of the gosh-wow factor the M2 Airs had when they debuted in 2022. After all, the M2 heralded a new industrial design and far better internals, while the M3 is more of an iterative update. Think of it like the iPhone S-years, when a dramatic redesign (the iPhone 4, say) was followed by a more refined model (the 4S) the following year.

Consequently, reviewing the M3 is an exercise in spotting the small differences, like the faster Wi-Fi (6E), brighter display and quicker processing speed. Benchmarking saw both machines get out ahead of the M2, but you probably won’t notice if you’re using this machine casually. And Devindra’s clearly getting a kick out of being able to run games like Death Stranding on a fanless ultraportable. You can — and should — read on to find out if the M3 is a must-buy.

— Dan Cooper

The biggest stories you might have missed

Nikon buys high-end cinema camera company RED

You can write long-form articles on X if you pay for Premium+

Leica’s SL3 mirrorless camera offers a 60-megapixel sensor and 8K video

Spotify is mad at the French government and is taking it out on users

Prime Video’s latest Fallout trailer deftly captures the tone of the games

Microsoft’s neural voice tool for people with speech disabilities arrives later this year

Why Jack Dorsey thought Elon Musk could fix Twitter

This luxury handbag is made from the material NASA uses to collect comet dust

SpaceX lawsuit claims repeated instances of gender discrimination and basic safeguarding failures

Microsoft is holding a Surface and Windows AI event on March 21

​​You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!

Sony A6700 review: The company’s best APS-C camera yet

It’s great for video, less ideal for everything else.

Image of a black Sony A6700 on a black textbook in front of a blurred background with an orange flash.
Steve Dent for Engadget

Steve Dent, who knows more about cameras than I know about literally anything, has been using Sony’s A6700 and is now ready to lay down his verdict. He’s never been too much of a fan of Sony’s 6000-series models, which he says aren’t as good looking or usable as Fujifilm’s alternatives. The A6700 is an attempt to remedy this situation, and Steve says it’s a far better camera than its predecessor. But is it good enough for him to want to use it as his daily driver? You’ll have to read on to find out.

Continue Reading.

TikTok is encouraging its users to call their representatives about attempts to ban the app

Can the US Government withstand the stan army?

The geopolitical quagmire surrounding TikTok isn’t letting up, which has led the platform to use its secret weapon: its Stan Army. TikTok has started sending push messages to users telling them to speak to their representative lest the immensely addictive platform be shut down. It’s one way to get attention, but it may not endear the company to US lawmakers if it can so easily incite millions of people to start scrutinizing the political process all at once.

Continue Reading.

The real fight isn’t Tyson vs. Paul — it’s Netflix vs. its live streaming infrastructure

And the loser will probably be… humanity itself.

Netflix is devolving into the very thing it sought to destroy. It’s been stepping into the live broadcast space for a while and yesterday announced it would air a live punch fight between two people with extensive Controversies and Legal Issues sections on their Wikipedia pages. Given the high-profile nature of the participants and, presumably, people’s desire to see one or both get punched in the face, it should be a massive event. And it’s going to be the sternest test of Netflix’s capacity to use the internet to deliver millions of simultaneous streams of live TV.

Continue Reading.

The Tesla Model S shook the industry, but its echo is fading

It upended the EV world in so many ways, at least at the time.

Image of a Tesla Model S with its wheels horizontally-mounted to resemble a flying car from 'Back to the Future' on a green starscape.
Koren Shadmi for Engadget

Engadget is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a series of articles looking back on the biggest changes in the tech world over that time. The wonderful Tim Stevens is in the spotlight today to talk about the Tesla Model S and his experiences when it debuted. It’s a tale of the car’s innovations, its highs, lows and how the EV industry has changed in the ensuing years.

Continue Reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-is-the-m3-macbook-air-any-good-121558687.html?src=rss

The Morning After: Is the M3 MacBook Air any good?

Engadget’s resident laptop expert Devindra Hardawar put the 13- and 15-inch M3 MacBooks Air through their paces. Fundamentally, both are fantastic machines but probably lack some of the gosh-wow factor the M2 Airs had when they debuted in 2022. After all, the M2 heralded a new industrial design and far better internals, while the M3 is more of an iterative update. Think of it like the iPhone S-years, when a dramatic redesign (the iPhone 4, say) was followed by a more refined model (the 4S) the following year.

Consequently, reviewing the M3 is an exercise in spotting the small differences, like the faster Wi-Fi (6E), brighter display and quicker processing speed. Benchmarking saw both machines get out ahead of the M2, but you probably won’t notice if you’re using this machine casually. And Devindra’s clearly getting a kick out of being able to run games like Death Stranding on a fanless ultraportable. You can — and should — read on to find out if the M3 is a must-buy.

— Dan Cooper

The biggest stories you might have missed

Nikon buys high-end cinema camera company RED

You can write long-form articles on X if you pay for Premium+

Leica’s SL3 mirrorless camera offers a 60-megapixel sensor and 8K video

Spotify is mad at the French government and is taking it out on users

Prime Video’s latest Fallout trailer deftly captures the tone of the games

Microsoft’s neural voice tool for people with speech disabilities arrives later this year

Why Jack Dorsey thought Elon Musk could fix Twitter

This luxury handbag is made from the material NASA uses to collect comet dust

SpaceX lawsuit claims repeated instances of gender discrimination and basic safeguarding failures

Microsoft is holding a Surface and Windows AI event on March 21

​​You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!

Sony A6700 review: The company’s best APS-C camera yet

It’s great for video, less ideal for everything else.

Image of a black Sony A6700 on a black textbook in front of a blurred background with an orange flash.
Steve Dent for Engadget

Steve Dent, who knows more about cameras than I know about literally anything, has been using Sony’s A6700 and is now ready to lay down his verdict. He’s never been too much of a fan of Sony’s 6000-series models, which he says aren’t as good looking or usable as Fujifilm’s alternatives. The A6700 is an attempt to remedy this situation, and Steve says it’s a far better camera than its predecessor. But is it good enough for him to want to use it as his daily driver? You’ll have to read on to find out.

Continue Reading.

TikTok is encouraging its users to call their representatives about attempts to ban the app

Can the US Government withstand the stan army?

The geopolitical quagmire surrounding TikTok isn’t letting up, which has led the platform to use its secret weapon: its Stan Army. TikTok has started sending push messages to users telling them to speak to their representative lest the immensely addictive platform be shut down. It’s one way to get attention, but it may not endear the company to US lawmakers if it can so easily incite millions of people to start scrutinizing the political process all at once.

Continue Reading.

The real fight isn’t Tyson vs. Paul — it’s Netflix vs. its live streaming infrastructure

And the loser will probably be… humanity itself.

Netflix is devolving into the very thing it sought to destroy. It’s been stepping into the live broadcast space for a while and yesterday announced it would air a live punch fight between two people with extensive Controversies and Legal Issues sections on their Wikipedia pages. Given the high-profile nature of the participants and, presumably, people’s desire to see one or both get punched in the face, it should be a massive event. And it’s going to be the sternest test of Netflix’s capacity to use the internet to deliver millions of simultaneous streams of live TV.

Continue Reading.

The Tesla Model S shook the industry, but its echo is fading

It upended the EV world in so many ways, at least at the time.

Image of a Tesla Model S with its wheels horizontally-mounted to resemble a flying car from 'Back to the Future' on a green starscape.
Koren Shadmi for Engadget

Engadget is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a series of articles looking back on the biggest changes in the tech world over that time. The wonderful Tim Stevens is in the spotlight today to talk about the Tesla Model S and his experiences when it debuted. It’s a tale of the car’s innovations, its highs, lows and how the EV industry has changed in the ensuing years.

Continue Reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-is-the-m3-macbook-air-any-good-121558687.html?src=rss

The Morning After: More fallout from the Digital Markets Act

The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) limits the power of big platform holders, but it may have also created a new revenue stream (and some drama) for those same big names. Google has followed Apple’s lead in imposing extra charges on developers who want to circumvent its own app storefront. Companies luring users outside the Play Store will need to pay Google a cut of in-app purchases and subscriptions. I’m sure everyone will treat this as rationally as when Apple announced it too.

At the same time, Apple has once again suspended Epic Games’ developer access, concerned the games giant isn’t going to play by its rules. The iPhone maker pointed to tweets made by (Epic CEO) Tim Sweeney, suggesting a lack of faith in the company’s rules. Apple more or less said out loud it couldn’t trust Epic, especially given its track record of agreeing to work within Apple’s rules and then very publicly breaking those rules.

— Dan Cooper

The biggest stories you might have missed

41 state attorneys general tell Meta to fix its customer support for hacking victims

Rivian R2 specs leak from the automaker’s website

Meta explains how third-party apps will hook into Messenger and WhatsApp

Twitch will overhaul its mobile app for the first time since 2019

​​You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!

FDA approves the first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor

You can buy one without a prescription in the summer.

The FDA has approved Dexcom’s Stelo Glucose Biosensor as the first wearable continuous glucose monitor to be sold over the counter. Sales of the device will begin this summer to help people who aren’t using insulin to manage their diabetes and also for more general use. I was surprised to learn these weren’t available to buy already since, in the UK, a startup called Zoe has been selling implantable monitors as part of its weight loss program for ages.

Continue Reading.

Microsoft engineer who raised concerns about Copilot image creator pens letter to the FTC

Shane Jones has blown the whistle on AI images before.

Microsoft’s rush to incorporate AI into so many user-facing products has driven whistleblower Shane Jones to the FTC. They wrote to the body, saying Copilot Designer can be used to create inappropriate images and should be removed until better safeguards are in place. The Windows giant and OpenAI have both previously said robust tools exist to steer the model away from creating some of the gruesome images Jones has alleged to have generated.

Continue Reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-more-fallout-from-the-digital-markets-act-121534557.html?src=rss

The Morning After: More fallout from the Digital Markets Act

The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) limits the power of big platform holders, but it may have also created a new revenue stream (and some drama) for those same big names. Google has followed Apple’s lead in imposing extra charges on developers who want to circumvent its own app storefront. Companies luring users outside the Play Store will need to pay Google a cut of in-app purchases and subscriptions. I’m sure everyone will treat this as rationally as when Apple announced it too.

At the same time, Apple has once again suspended Epic Games’ developer access, concerned the games giant isn’t going to play by its rules. The iPhone maker pointed to tweets made by (Epic CEO) Tim Sweeney, suggesting a lack of faith in the company’s rules. Apple more or less said out loud it couldn’t trust Epic, especially given its track record of agreeing to work within Apple’s rules and then very publicly breaking those rules.

— Dan Cooper

The biggest stories you might have missed

41 state attorneys general tell Meta to fix its customer support for hacking victims

Rivian R2 specs leak from the automaker’s website

Meta explains how third-party apps will hook into Messenger and WhatsApp

Twitch will overhaul its mobile app for the first time since 2019

​​You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!

FDA approves the first over-the-counter continuous glucose monitor

You can buy one without a prescription in the summer.

The FDA has approved Dexcom’s Stelo Glucose Biosensor as the first wearable continuous glucose monitor to be sold over the counter. Sales of the device will begin this summer to help people who aren’t using insulin to manage their diabetes and also for more general use. I was surprised to learn these weren’t available to buy already since, in the UK, a startup called Zoe has been selling implantable monitors as part of its weight loss program for ages.

Continue Reading.

Microsoft engineer who raised concerns about Copilot image creator pens letter to the FTC

Shane Jones has blown the whistle on AI images before.

Microsoft’s rush to incorporate AI into so many user-facing products has driven whistleblower Shane Jones to the FTC. They wrote to the body, saying Copilot Designer can be used to create inappropriate images and should be removed until better safeguards are in place. The Windows giant and OpenAI have both previously said robust tools exist to steer the model away from creating some of the gruesome images Jones has alleged to have generated.

Continue Reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-more-fallout-from-the-digital-markets-act-121534557.html?src=rss

The best thing about the M3 MacBook Air is… the M2 MacBook Air

Apple has upgraded the 13 and 15-inch MacBook Airs with the M3 and a few new bells and whistles. But while I expected the company to keep the M1 around as its budget option, it swapped it out for the base model M2. Someone at Cupertino’s going to regret that, because the M2 Air is, despite its limitations, a damn fine machine. I don’t know if anyone needs the added performance the M3 Air provides, but I do know you can’t afford to ignore the base model M2.

Historically, Apple has kept a MacBook below a thousand dollars to hook price-sensitive buyers. A grand is a lot to spend on a machine if you’re broke, especially if there are cheaper low-end Windows machines (even if they are crap). Even then, the $999 MacBook is the “cheap” option, and Apple will hobble it just enough to upsell you to the $1,200 model it really wants you to buy.

That’s why I cynically expected the M1 to remain in place, because the slower chip and decade-old chassis was a nice compromise in exchange for a cheaper machine. Yes, the M1 would allow you to join the Apple SIlicon world, but you’d have to deal with a design that’s barely changed since 2017. The M2, by comparison, is less than two years old and is regarded as one of Apple’s best ever machines: The fact it’s available as the budget option is almost a flex.

This morning, I reread my colleague Devindra Hardawar’s great review of the M2 Air from 2022, and I still want one. The M2 has a wonderfully sleek design and comes equipped with plenty of great hardware. A fantastic 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display with a 500-nit backlight, a 1080p webcam, quad-speakers with support for Spatial Audio and Atmos. The better quality of stuff you got was probably Apple’s rationale for holding on to the M1, and charging $1,200 for the base M2 (which itself could be upsold for more with the better add-ons).

Then there’s the M2 silicon itself which, in this variation, has an 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD. Look, I know that 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD are both major drags on the M2’s overall performance. But I can’t stress enough that this is an ultraportable without a fan designed for lower power tasks. If you buy a machine this thin and get annoyed that it can’t render a two hour 4K movie as efficiently as a Pro model, the computer isn’t the problem, no matter what it's running.

Of course, the sticks you could use to beat the M2 MacBook Air are the same ones for a lot of Apple Silicon machines. Limited external display support, limited port selection, no ability to add upgrades further down the road and nonexistent repair support. But some or all of those issues are probably not top of your list if you’re looking for a good machine to live your life with.

Ah, but what about the AI performance which Apple says is so much better on the M3 than its immediate predecessor? I’ll be honest, I don’t know how many people are doing AI-intensive tasks on a machine like this, or even beefier ones. After all, most people are more than happy to engage with generative AIs through a web client, which requires no local grunt at all.

Not to mention that the M2 has often been offered with a hefty discount through sellers like Amazon. I’d reckon that while the $999 is a bargain, someone will probably knock another hundred off that figure the next time there’s a shopping holiday. Who needs an M3 Air?

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-thing-about-the-m3-macbook-air-is-the-m2-macbook-air-144543065.html?src=rss

The best thing about the M3 MacBook Air is… the M2 MacBook Air

Apple has upgraded the 13 and 15-inch MacBook Airs with the M3 and a few new bells and whistles. But while I expected the company to keep the M1 around as its budget option, it swapped it out for the base model M2. Someone at Cupertino’s going to regret that, because the M2 Air is, despite its limitations, a damn fine machine. I don’t know if anyone needs the added performance the M3 Air provides, but I do know you can’t afford to ignore the base model M2.

Historically, Apple has kept a MacBook below a thousand dollars to hook price-sensitive buyers. A grand is a lot to spend on a machine if you’re broke, especially if there are cheaper low-end Windows machines (even if they are crap). Even then, the $999 MacBook is the “cheap” option, and Apple will hobble it just enough to upsell you to the $1,200 model it really wants you to buy.

That’s why I cynically expected the M1 to remain in place, because the slower chip and decade-old chassis was a nice compromise in exchange for a cheaper machine. Yes, the M1 would allow you to join the Apple SIlicon world, but you’d have to deal with a design that’s barely changed since 2017. The M2, by comparison, is less than two years old and is regarded as one of Apple’s best ever machines: The fact it’s available as the budget option is almost a flex.

This morning, I reread my colleague Devindra Hardawar’s great review of the M2 Air from 2022, and I still want one. The M2 has a wonderfully sleek design and comes equipped with plenty of great hardware. A fantastic 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display with a 500-nit backlight, a 1080p webcam, quad-speakers with support for Spatial Audio and Atmos. The better quality of stuff you got was probably Apple’s rationale for holding on to the M1, and charging $1,200 for the base M2 (which itself could be upsold for more with the better add-ons).

Then there’s the M2 silicon itself which, in this variation, has an 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD. Look, I know that 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD are both major drags on the M2’s overall performance. But I can’t stress enough that this is an ultraportable without a fan designed for lower power tasks. If you buy a machine this thin and get annoyed that it can’t render a two hour 4K movie as efficiently as a Pro model, the computer isn’t the problem, no matter what it's running.

Of course, the sticks you could use to beat the M2 MacBook Air are the same ones for a lot of Apple Silicon machines. Limited external display support, limited port selection, no ability to add upgrades further down the road and nonexistent repair support. But some or all of those issues are probably not top of your list if you’re looking for a good machine to live your life with.

Ah, but what about the AI performance which Apple says is so much better on the M3 than its immediate predecessor? I’ll be honest, I don’t know how many people are doing AI-intensive tasks on a machine like this, or even beefier ones. After all, most people are more than happy to engage with generative AIs through a web client, which requires no local grunt at all.

Not to mention that the M2 has often been offered with a hefty discount through sellers like Amazon. I’d reckon that while the $999 is a bargain, someone will probably knock another hundred off that figure the next time there’s a shopping holiday. Who needs an M3 Air?

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-thing-about-the-m3-macbook-air-is-the-m2-macbook-air-144543065.html?src=rss

The Apple Car never felt real

Apple has reportedly pulled down the shutters on Project Titan, its initiative to build the future of transportation. If the reports are accurate, the project chewed through billions of dollars and several high-profile leaders as its mission shifted and shifted again. What may have started as a control-free autonomous vehicle was eventually scaled down to a generic EV but, ya know, made by Apple. But, I’ll be honest, I never believed we’d see an Apple Car in the real world, because it seemed so impossibly far-fetched as to be fictional.

I'm not saying Titan itself didn't exist, because every company has speculative projects, and I'm sure the reporting around what it achieved is accurate — Tim Cook definitely wrote "Car?" on a whiteboard at some point. If any company could walk in, learn the skills needed to build and launch a car and do it well (and profitably), it would be Apple. Other tech companies, like Sony, are making a real noise about entering the field, albeit in partnership with Honda. But, from a lot of logical angles, the idea that Apple would start making cars was impossible to fathom.

There’s a line in The Unbearable Lightness of Being where kitsch – a German word for bad or tacky art – is defined as a denial of the realities of life. Apple fits that description because while it’s wildly successful, it’s often despite decisions made that fly in the face of common sense. A watch that lasts for less than a day on a charge. A slippery, easily-dropped phone with a glass front and back that’s nightmarishly difficult to repair. A mouse that is still being sold with the charging port on its underside so you can only charge it when it’s not in use.

Even the most environmentally-friendly car still needs to lubricate its workings, wheels that leave rubber on the road, brake pads that wear down. Seats that have to deal with spilled coffee and toddler vomit when you’re on a long road trip, the grime you only seem to find when you’re loading IKEA boxes into your trunk. Can you imagine Apple’s design team, who were behind the FineWoven case, who had to be dragged kicking and screaming toward bigger batteries, USB-C and waterproofing, thinking about such considerations?

Not to mention that while Apple can exert a lot of control over its devices now, cars aren’t so neatly closed off. Imagine how hard it would be for a company obsessed with control to cede so much to the auto shops of the world. Yes, you need to take your Tesla back for major repairs but can you imagine not being able to replace your tires when you get a flat? Unless, of course, Apple is planning to build garages in every major population center to overcharge you when it comes time to get a routine service. 

And that’s before you get to the idea that Apple, who is quite obsessive about its brand, would have its logo plastered on the internet every time one of its cars so much as kissed a lamppost. Car accidents are currently an unfortunate fact of life that we, as a society, are not prepared to tackle the way we should. But all it would take is one fatality in an Apple car and the company would be demonized — and opened up to a raft of lawsuits all looking to get a piece of Apple’s cash pile.

A car also would muddy the company’s stance on environmental matters, and I can already picture the internal contortions. The executives driving their convertible Mercedes into Apple Park’s rarified subterranean parking garage would, I’m sure, quite like an Apple car. But I imagine the company’s teams who have to look at figures around energy consumption, emissions and climate change don’t. If Apple’s fine words about looking after the environment mean anything, it would throw its weight and expertise behind something better like scooters or e-bikes.

I’ve also struggled to fathom out how Apple would justify charging $100,000 for a limited-run EV when its real wins have come in the mass market. EVs take enormous amounts of capital and labor to assemble and it’s nowhere near as profitable as what Apple does today. In Q3 of 2023, VW — the world’s biggest car maker — made a net profit of about $4.7 billion, or about a quarter of what Apple made in the same period. How many luxury EVs would Apple be able to get out of the door and how many would it need to sell in order to justify that initial investment?

In fact, I suspect a lot of people piled a lot of unreasonable hopes on Project Titan's shoulders despite Apple's repeated scaling back. 'We'll make a car without a wheel, it'll be great,' you can imagine them saying, 'okay, maybe it'll have a wheel...' they added, years later, 'oh okay so, how about it's just a car that's not as autonomous as a Mercedes.' It hardly screams the sort of class-leading ambitions you normally see with an Apple product, does it?

And yes, there may have been lots of pretty renders of what an Apple car would look like made by talented graphic designers looking to bulk out their portfolio. And lots of wishful chat on social media about Apple buying another EV maker like Tesla or Rivian to slap its brand on top of — despite the fact that Apple buying a name-brand company outright has only happened once or twice in a decade. But, until the NDAs lapse and we get a tell-all book with internal imagery, I’m going to say that, despite the reported billions of dollars poured into it, the Apple Car never got close to being a real thing.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-apple-car-never-felt-real-163058168.html?src=rss