Tag Archives: region|US

The Beats Studio Pro headphones are more than half off for Prime Day

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Amazon Prime Day has momentarily taken over the internet, and as part of the offerings, you can grab a pair of Beats' higher-end headphones for the lowest price we've seen. The Beats Studio Pro headphones are down to just $170, which is a whopping 51 percent off. October Prime Day has also brought the Beats Solo 4 headphones down to just $100 — half off their usual going rate.

The Studio Pros were originally released last year. We heaped a whole lot of praise on these cans in our official review, calling out the impressive sound profile. These headphones sound great, especially when compared to previous iterations. This is due to new 40mm drivers and an advanced two-layer diaphragm.

We also enjoyed the robust transparency mode and Spatial Audio features, which include dynamic head tracking. They also feature USB-C connectivity for wired use, hands-free Siri, one-touch pairing, Find My compatibility and a bunch of other iOS bells and whistles. Remember, Beats is an Apple company.

There’s no automatic pausing, which is something of an oversight. These aren’t the most comfortable over-ear headphones, which has become a Beats hallmark. Also, we bristled at the original asking price, but that complaint has faded with today’s sale..

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice, and stay tuned to Engadget.com for all of the best tech deals coming out of October Prime Day 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-beats-studio-pro-headphones-are-more-than-half-off-for-prime-day-151149224.html?src=rss

Zoom’s latest feature update focuses heavily on its AI assistant

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Zoom’s Zoomtopia 2024 feature drop is, perhaps unsurprisingly, focused on actively integrating AI even more into its platform, especially for Zoom Workplace and Zoom Business Services. There’s plenty to talk about, but we’ll focus on Zoom AI Companion 2.0 for Zoom Workplace since this appears to be the biggest news the company is announcing today.

AI Companion 2.0 promises to be a persistent presence in a Zoom Workplace window, and it will even remember previous conversations and come up with citations for statements users made. Since it’s connected to the web, it can work with external apps like Gmail, Google Calendar and Microsoft Office. Other functions include summarizing documents, email chains and generating content drafts.

AI Companion is an assistant designed to help workers find important points in messages, take notes, create post-call summaries and help compose emails. It can also generate content like speaker biographies, event descriptions and messages.

If you haven’t encountered it before, Zoom Workplace is a paid plan designed for companies that have many remote workers. The plan has functions designed to improve collaboration and communication. Besides organizing meetings, Zoom Workplace lets teams schedule events, write on virtual whiteboards and even send clips of meetings to keep members up to speed. It also has features that compete directly with Google like mail, calendars and docs. In short, it’s Zoom for remote and hybrid teams.

AI Companion 2.0 isn’t ready for release yet, but it should be downloadable next month for free if you’re paying for a Zoom Workplace account. It won’t be available for all regions or industries, but Zoom wasn’t more specific about where exactly you can use it.

If the standard AI Companion feature set isn’t enough, there’s Zoom AI Studio, which lets users tailor the companion to their liking. For example, you can teach the AI your company’s unique vocabulary and jargon. It can also reference company HR resources or documentation to provide answers. The custom AI Companion add-on costs $12 per user each month, and it will be available in the first half of 2025. Some features will be available for preview in the next few months.

While the AI Companion works for online meetings, it can also listen in on in-person meetings. Based on available office data, it can provide meeting summaries and even recommend specific days for employees to go into the office.

Besides the many new AI features, Zoom is branching out but offering industry-specific AI functions. So far, there’s Zoom Workplace for Frontline, Healthcare, Clinicians and Education. Zoom Workplace for Education uses AI for lecture summaries, live-generated notes, personalized feedback and more. Frontline users have access to shift summaries, insights, communications and more. Zoom Workplace for Clinicians and Healthcare will each have specialized features that benefit workers in those sectors.

Those interested in these Zoom updates can tune in to Zoomtopia 2024 today if in the US. Another session on the 10th will also be tailored for Asian-Pacific, Middle Eastern and Japanese time zones.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/zooms-latest-feature-update-focuses-heavily-on-its-ai-assistant-170013512.html?src=rss

Shinobi is the latest video game to get the big screen treatment

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Back in the old days, there was no sure-fire indicator of box office poison more than a video game adaptation. The two mediums just didn’t gel. That has changed in recent years and now all kinds of gaming mascots are getting their chance to appear in a major motion picture or, at the very least, a streaming series. Case in point? They’re now making a movie based on Shinobi, as reported by Deadline.

For the uninitiated, Shinobi is a famous hack-and-slash game developed by Sega in which you play as a ninja. There have been plenty of sequels throughout the years, though they mostly share the same basic story. Joe Musashi, the ninja, must beat up a bunch of very bad dudes. That’s pretty much it.

In other words, this is a blank canvas in which the filmmakers can do pretty much whatever they want without angering the online lore-keepers. Sam Hargrave has been tasked to direct the film for Universal, which is actually a decent choice. He made both Extraction films, with a third one on the way. These are solid action flicks and Shinobi is an action game.

Ken Kobayashi is writing the screenplay, after working on the extremely underrated Sunny for Apple+. He was also involved with Moonfall and the Marvel adaptation Hit Monkey. Sega’s Toru Nakahara, who has produced everything from the Sonic the Hedgehog cinematic universe, is also onboard.

Shinobi is still in the early stages of development, just like how most Shinobi players only get past the early stages of the game because it’s so dang hard. We don’t know when it’ll come out, nor do we have any casting news. We are, however, only a couple of months out from Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Keanu Reeves is in that one.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/shinobi-is-the-latest-video-game-to-get-the-big-screen-treatment-164013985.html?src=rss

Breville’s Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro is $100 off for Prime Day

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If you’re looking for a versatile oven and have a little counter space to spare, this Prime Day deal may be for you. Amazon has the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro on sale for $100 off. The stainless steel appliance that can do everything from toasting and roasting to slow cooking and dehydrating usually costs $400, but today, you can get it for a mere $300.

The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro is Engadget’s pick for the best budget air fryer toaster oven. The appliance has a versatile skillset, including (deep breath) toast, broil, bake, roast, warm, pizza, proof, air fry, reheat, cookies, slow cook, keep warm and dehydrate. It has an internal capacity of one cubic foot — enough to fit a 14-pound turkey, five-quart Dutch oven, 9 x 13-inch pan or 12 muffin trays.

The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro makes for a terrific second oven. But you could even use it as your primary one if you aren’t in the habit of cooking things like a giant rib roast or full-sized New York-style pizza. However, it does take up a decent amount of counter space (at least as far as toaster ovens go), so make sure you can accommodate the 21.5-inch wide x 17.5-inch deep x 12.7-inch high appliance.

The oven has an LCD to indicate which mode you’re using, and you control it with a snazzy-looking series of knobs and buttons. It supports temps from 80 to 480 degrees Fahrenheit and includes a feature that automatically begins counting down the cooking timer when it finishes pre-heating. One thing to note is the appliance isn’t app-friendly despite its “smart” branding. For that, you would need the Joule upgrade model, which (unfortunately) isn’t on sale.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice, and stay tuned to Engadget.com for all of the best tech deals coming out of October Prime Day 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/brevilles-smart-oven-air-fryer-pro-is-100-off-for-prime-day-163111071.html?src=rss

Prime Day deals include the latest Beats Pill for $50 off

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With the days drawing shorter and the weather cooling, you may not be spending as much time outside so you might not have a great need for a portable speaker to take to the back yard, park or beach. Still, it's handy to have one that you can easily move throughout the house. You can always take advantage of a good deal to start preparing for next summer too. Apple revived the Beats Pill line just a few months ago, but the portable speaker is already getting a hefty discount for Prime Day. You can snap one up for a record low price of $100. That's $50 off the regular price.

This is one of the best portable Bluetooth speakers in this price range. We gave it a score of 83 in our review in July.

There's a marked improvement in bass performance compared with previous Beats Pill speakers. While the Pill+ had a dual-tweeter and dual-woofer setup, the latest model has one of each. The new woofer is larger and pill-shaped to match the speaker's body and it "provides more robust bass with less total harmonic distortion (THD) and a lower frequency range," according to Engadget senior reporter Billy Steele.

At higher volumes, the audio suffers, but the Beats Pill gets loud enough long before you crank it all the way up. When the speaker is plugged into an audio source via USB-C, it can deliver lossless audio. You can also boost the sound by placing two Beats Pills next to each other or pair them for stereo audio.

The battery life is definitely a plus, as it's double that of earlier models at 24 hours. This model is more rugged than the Beats Pill+ too.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice, and stay tuned to Engadget.com for all of the best tech deals coming out of October Prime Day 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/prime-day-deals-include-the-latest-beats-pill-for-50-off-160254307.html?src=rss

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead can hear real-world sounds through your controller’s microphone

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A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead is set for an October 17 release, making it the first video game spinoff from the Quiet Place franchise. The premise involves sound-sensitive creatures that hunt by listening for prey, and one wrong move spells disaster, making it perfect for a horror game adaptation. The developers have just announced that A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead will feature noise detection support.

Fans of the films already know that silence is the most important thing about this franchise. The characters try to move around without making noise because any sound will attract aliens with an extraordinary sense of hearing. To boost immersion, developer Stormind Games is implementing a “Microphone Noise Detection” feature. If you make a sound in real life, the aliens can hear you through your microphone and potentially kill you.

Playing without the microphone can be challenging enough since movement and interaction with objects make noise. But by activating it, the difficulty is sure to skyrocket. We expect increased heart rates and lots of screaming. The game is set to arrive on Steam, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and you can pre-order it for $30 now.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/a-quiet-place-the-road-ahead-can-hear-real-world-sounds-through-your-controllers-microphone-153821754.html?src=rss

Meta AI will launch in six more countries today, including the UK

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Meta AI is beginning a big international rollout. The AI assistant will arrive today in Brazil, Bolivia, Guatemala, Paraguay, Philippines and the UK. It is also slated to debut in Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Thailand, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and Yemen over the coming weeks, although the company did not offer specific dates for those countries.

This expansion is also adding new language support to Meta AI. Starting today, it is getting support for Tagalog, while Arabic, Indonesian, Thai and Vietnamese will join the assistant "soon." Customers can use the Meta AI assistant on the web or within the company's social media apps: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. 

The final element of today's announcement is that Meta AI will be launched on Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses in the UK and in Australia. The UK launch will only include voice support for now; Meta did not provide a timeline for when UK customers might get the full multimodal capabilities on the glasses.

The EU is a notable absence in this expansion. Meta said this summer that it would not introduce multimodal AI services in the EU due to concerns over regulation in the bloc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been public with critiques of how European regulators are handling the proliferation of artificial intelligence.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-ai-will-launch-in-six-more-countries-today-including-the-uk-150057934.html?src=rss

A pair of DeepMind researchers have won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

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A day after recognizing former Google vice president and engineering fellow Geoffrey Hinton for his contributions to the field of physics, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has honored a pair of current Google employees. On Wednesday, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and senior research scientist John Jumper won half of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, with the other half going to David Baker, a professor at the University of Washington.

If there’s a theme to the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, it’s proteins. Baker, Hassabis and Jumper all advanced our understanding of those essential building blocks of life that are responsible for functions both inside and outside the human body. The Nobel Committee cited Baker’s seminal work in computational protein design. Since 2003, Baker and his research team have been using amino acids and computers to design entirely new proteins. In turn, those chemicals have contributed to the creation of pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and more.

As for Hassabis and Jumper, their work, and that of the entire DeepMind team, on AlphaFold 2 led to a generational breakthrough. Since the 1970s, scientists have been trying to find a way to predict a protein’s final, folded structure based solely on the amino acids that form its constituent parts. With AlphaFold 2, DeepMind created an AI algorithm that could do just that. Since 2020, the software has been able to successfully predict the structure of 200 million proteins, or nearly every one known to researchers.

“One of the discoveries being recognized this year concerns the construction of spectacular proteins. The other is about fulfilling a 50-year-old dream: predicting protein structures from their amino acid sequences,” said Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry. “Both of these discoveries open up vast possibilities.”

More broadly, the 2024 Nobel Prizes highlight the growing importance of artificial intelligence in modern science. Moving forward, it's safe to say advanced algorithms will be essential to future scientific discoveries and breakthroughs. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/a-pair-of-deepmind-researchers-have-won-the-2024-nobel-prize-in-chemistry-145056306.html?src=rss

The Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 technical alpha happens this month

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Those looking forward to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024’s November 19 release may get an early taste of what the flight simulator feels like. The developers have opened up sign-ups for the software’s technical alpha test. We still don’t know when the alpha will be online, but Microsoft is saying it will be on a weekend this October. Additionally, this test is confined to PC only.

The image below includes Microsoft’s minimum, recommended and ideal PC specs. Your PC should at least reach the minimum requirements for a chance of selection. Spots are also limited, so not everyone who signs up will be selected. Microsoft says that all who sign up must run a DxDiag test and provide their PC specs. Selected participants will be informed of the test dates via email, and access should be limited to two or three days.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Specs
Microsoft

If you weren’t selected, you’ll have to wait until the game launches on November 19. The full release, for Xbox Series X/S as well as PC, should be a much better experience.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/the-microsoft-flight-simulator-2024-technical-alpha-happens-this-month-144231252.html?src=rss

Nintendo’s latest hardware is Alarmo, a $100 motion-sensing alarm clock (not the Switch 2)

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Anyone waiting for a new hardware announcement from Nintendo might be a little disappointed that the company's latest product isn't the successor to the Switch. However, that dismay may not last for long given how delightful the Nintendo Sound Clock: Alarmo looks.

Yes, Nintendo made a smart alarm clock that's designed to make your morning routine a little more joyful than waking up to interminable beep of a regular alarm clock or a favorite song you'll eventually get sick of. Alarmo has motion sensors that let you snooze it based on your movement. There is a physical snooze button you can hit too, but that's boring. 

You can choose from dozens of scenes that are inspired by Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 3, Pikmin 4 and Ring Fit Adventure and set a wake-up time. Alarmo will try to rouse you with music and sounds from those games. Nintendo plans to add scenes from other games as free updates.

Nintendo alarm clock
Nintendo

You'll be able to choose between two wake-up modes. The steady option will make the alarm more intense the longer you stay in bed (perhaps with an appearance from a certain arch-nemesis of Mario if you keep ignoring it). The gentle mode keeps the alarm at a consistent intensity level. When you do get up, you'll hear a victory fanfare, hopefully with Mario shouting "Wahoo!"

Sleep tracking proponents will be pleased to hear that you'll be able to check how much you move around while you sleep (if you want a Nintendo-flavored way to measure how long you snooze, Pokémon Sleep may do the trick). Alarmo can also lull you to sleep with soothing sounds and music at your set bedtime. I'll have to see how well that fares against my usual strategy of listening to an hour-long YouTube video of thunderstorms.

Nintendo published a fascinating deep dive into the Alarmo featuring interviews with the team behind it. The project started as part of the company's research into motion sensors. In fact, the developers didn't initially set out to make an alarm clock. 

"We knew that the theme was to support people during their sleep, and we were looking for a way to achieve this," said Yosuke Tamori, a producer for Alarmo who previously worked on the original Splatoon and Nintendo Labo. "However, it was only after a lot of technical trial and error and building many prototypes that we decided to focus on alarm clocks." 

The team even experimented with using hand gestures to control Alarmo, which was very different in earlier prototypes. One looked similar to Google's Nest Audio speaker:

Nintendo alarm clock with a dot matrix display
Nintendo

If you're a Nintendo Switch Online member in the US and Canada, you'll get first dibs. You can order the $100 Alarmo now and of course I did so immediately. Nintendo says it will be available at retail early next year. You can also buy it from the Nintendo store in New York. While Nintendo includes a USB power cable, you'll need to use your own AC adapter, which is annoying.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/nintendos-latest-hardware-is-alarmo-a-99-motion-sensing-alarm-clock-not-the-switch-2-140142746.html?src=rss