Spotify announced the price hikes less than a year after its previous one last July. Before that, Spotify hadn't raised its fees since launching a decade and a half ago. I guess it was too optimistic to hope the next increase would also take that long, especially with Spotify's continued focus (and money dump) on audiobooks.
Premium subscribers should receive an email from Spotify in the next month detailing the price hike and providing a link to cancel their plan if they would prefer to do so. Users currently on a trial period for Spotify will get one month at $11 after it ends before being moved up to a $12 monthly fee.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spotify-is-raising-the-cost-of-premium-subscriptions-again-123058485.html?src=rss
The first crewed launch of Boeing’s Starliner was scrubbed less than four minutes before liftoff after a computer failed to launch the correct countdown. It’s the squillionth setback for the craft, (our math may be out a little) which should support the next generation of spaceflight. NASA says it’ll target June 5 for its next launch attempt. At this point, we’ll believe it when we see it.
ASUS knows how to make a good PC, so it’s no surprise to see its second-generation gaming handheld is an improvement on the original. Sam Rutherford has been trying out the ROG Ally X, for which only the display and chip are unchanged from the original. And while you can guess what his impression is from the headline, you should still click through to see if it’s worth buying.
Unsurprisingly, 20-year-old Facebook isn’t what young adults flock to. But bless Meta for trying to change that. In an update, Tom Alison, who heads up the Facebook app for Meta, says the service is shifting to reflect an “increased focus on young adults.” Meta executives have been trying to win over young adults for years. Mark Zuckerberg said almost three years ago he wanted to make them the company’s “North Star.”
Alison’s note makes no mention of the metaverse beyond using AI in its products (without getting remotely specific) — I’m not sure how Facebook plans to appeal to those young adults.
Dyson continues to experiment in the robot vacuum arena. The Dyson 360 Vis Nav has been available in other parts of the world for a while, but it recently came stateside to the tune of $1,200. The company claims a 360-degree vision system, with cameras and LED lights, along with suction power similar to its stick vacuum. Is it good in real life? Yes. Is it perfect? No.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-starliners-crewed-flight-gets-scrubbed-111519077.html?src=rss
ASUS announced a trio of new releases in its ProArt line of laptops at this week’s Computex expo in Taipei. These devices are generally thinner, lighter and more portable than previous generations, though that’s where the similarities end. Let’s get into it.
The ProArt 16 is a thinner and lighter version of the ProArt Studiobook, which we absolutely loved. The refreshed design is based on the chassis found with the ROG G16, but with some crucial differences. There’s a 4K 60Hz screen and a virtual dialpad instead of the physical knob found on the Studiobook. It features a nano black coating that is said to be fingerprint-resistant.
ASUS
As for specs, it comes with AMD's all-new Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor that can deliver 50 TOPS of NPU performance. For added power, it also offers an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, for a combined 321 TOPS score. That makes it "the first AI PC of its kind built for advanced AI workflows across creativity, gaming, productivity and more," NVIDIA claims.
There's a 16-inch 4K OLED display and it can be souped up with up to 64GB of RAM and 4TB of solid-state storage. It's also a Copilot+ PC, so it has the button to call up Microsoft’s digital assistant and plenty of other AI bells and whistles like the company’s StoryCube file management software.
ASUS
The ProArt PX13 is a different beast entirely. This laptop is a 2-in-1 hybrid that’s based on the same chassis as the ROG Flow X13. It also comes equipped with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor and up to an Nvidia GeForce 4060 GPU. There’s a 2.8K OLED touch display that supports HDR content. This hybrid has also been slimmed down, coming in at just three pounds.
The PZ13 is also resistant to dust and water, thanks to a rubber splash cover with an IP52 rating. It even comes with a full-size SD card reader, which is a rarity with convertibles, and a 5MP front camera with IR support and a 13MP rear-facing camera. Just like all of these ProArt laptops, this one is light at 1.8 pounds.
The ASUS ProArt P16 (H7606) is now on pre-order at the ASUS Store or Best Buy, starting at $1,900. The ProArt PX13 (HN7306) is also available for pre-order at the ASUS or Best Buy websites, while the Qualcomm-powered ASUS ProArt PZ13 will arrive in Q3 of 2024.
Steve Dent contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/asus-slimmed-down-proart-laptops-focus-on-ai-features-100831698.html?src=rss
ASUS unveiled a bunch of new laptops at this week’s Computex tech expo in Taipei, including a Zenbook refresh. The Zenbook S16 is as sleek and well-designed as ever, but comes with a spate of iterative improvements and a couple of major updates.
It's equipped with AMD's Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, announced just hours ago. That chip promises improved laptop AI performance with 50 TOPS of processing power, triple AMD's previous laptop hardware. That makes it suitable for Copilot+, meaning Qualcomm isn't the only game in town for Microsoft's AI assistant.
ASUS
One thing worth pointing out is that this laptop is extremely thin and light for a 16-inch model, clocking in at just over three pounds with a thickness of just 1.1cm or 0.4 inches. The cooling system has also been revamped, with a new top vent and an ultra-thin vapor chamber. Better laptop cooling is always much appreciated.
It still features the same signature aluminum ceramic coating as found with last year’s Zenbook 14X, but ASUS changed the name of the finish to, wait for it, Ceraluminum. What a portmanteau!
There’s a 16-inch 3K OLED touchscreen with a max refresh rate of 120Hz. The 78Wh battery makes it a great option for all-day use and the six-speaker setup from Harman Kardon will certainly pump out the jams. It also supports Wi-Fi 7, includes up to 2TB of solid-state storage and can be specced out with up to 32GB of RAM.
The ASUS Zenbook S16 starts at $1,400 and is now available to pre-order at Best Buy in white or gray colors.
Steve Dent contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-asus-zenbook-s16-laptop-boasts-an-ultra-thin-design-and-amds-latest-ai-chip-093745114.html?src=rss
Microsoft's Copilot+ initiative for super-charged AI PCs is becoming more of a reality at Computex 2024. Today, AMD announced its next major chip platforms, Ryzen AI 300 for notebooks and Ryzen 9000 for desktops, which respectively target beefier laptop AI performance and fast gaming on desktops. Notably, Ryzen AI 300 chips feature a revamped neural processing unit (NPU) with 50 TOPS (tera operations per second) of AI performance, more than three times AMD's previous laptop hardware. The new desktop processors, meanwhile, are reportedly 16 percent faster than their predecessors when it comes to overall performance.
The key takeaway from these announcements is that Qualcomm is no longer the only company able to gloat about fast AI hardware for Copilot+ PCs. That initiative, which Microsoft unveiled a few weeks ago, sets a new baseline specification standard for AI PCs. Copilot+ PCs require an NPU with at least 40 TOPS of AI performance, 16GB of RAM and 256GB SSDs to qualify as Copilot+ notebooks. Microsoft also tied together long battery life with the initiative, but it's unclear if the Ryzen AI 300 chips will be able to touch the reported twenty-plus hours from Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon processors. (We're also expecting Intel to respond with more details about its Lunar Lake Copilot+ chips later today at Computex.)
AMD
So far, AMD's new laptop chips include two models: The 12-core Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, and the 10-core AI 9 365. As usual, we expect the company to fill out its lineup over the next year with mid-tier and lower-end offerings. Both Ryzen AI 9 chips reach at least 5GHz max boost speeds, and they also feature built-in RDNA 3.5 Radeon 890M and 880M graphics. According to AMD's benchmarks, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is 98 percent faster than Apple's M3 chip in Blender, and it's 73 percent faster than Intel's Core Ultra 185H. (It's worth noting company tested its hardware with 32GB of RAM against Apple and Intel systems with 16GB of RAM, according to its testing footnotes.)
AMD
Powering both the Ryzen AI 300 and Ryzen 9000 chips is AMD's Zen 5 architecture, which is a "sweeping update" for the company, Senior Processor Technical Marketing Manager Donny Woligrosky said in a media briefing. He claims it offers better branch prediction (which helps with accuracy and latency), higher overall throughput and up to two times better instruction bandwidth. For regular users, that means you can expect Zen 5 systems to feel a bit more responsive and be better primed for handling large data loads.
AMD
While AMD's new AI chips are the star of the show, the company isn't leaving desktop users behind. The new Ryzen 9000 chips top out with the 16-core Ryzen 9 9950X, which edges close to the 6GHz dream with 5.7GHz boost speeds. It's a power-hungry beast though, requiring 170 watts, so more reasonable hardware nerds might want to opt for the Ryzen 9 9900X (120W TDP) or the eight-core Ryzen 7 9700X (65W). These new chips don't include NPUs like the Ryzen 8000G, but at this point, gamers and demanding PC users can make do with the raw computational power from desktop CPUs and powerful GPUs. (NVIDIA is also trying to power some AI features with its RTX GPUs, which eschews the need for a standalone NPU.)
Alongside these new desktop chips, AMD is also unveiling the X870E and X870 AM5 chipsets. They include the next-gen PC features you'd expect, including PCIe 5, USB4, WiFi 7 and DDR5. For its older AM4 hardware, AMD also unveiled the 16-core Ryzen 9 5900XT and eight-core Ryzen 7 5800XT, which can both hit 4.8GHz speeds.
We're still awaiting pricing details on AMD's new hardware, but the company says we can expect to see Ryzen AI 300 systems and Ryzen 9000 chips in July. Those new laptops include the ASUS ZenBook S 16 and Zephyrus G16, as well as the MSI Stealth A16 AI+.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amd-unveils-ryzen-ai-300-cpus-for-copilot-laptops-030033575.html?src=rss
You can get Apple’s third-generation AirPods for under $150 right now. In a deal on Amazon, the AirPods are back down to their record-low price of $140, a 17 percent discount. This model normally costs $170. The third-generation AirPods were released in 2021 and brought some big improvements over the previous version, with a more compact and comfortable design, and much better sound quality.
The third-generation AirPods earned a score of 88 in our review and marked a notable upgrade over their predecessors in the line of regular AirPods. They feature a shorter stem and more angled earbud placement that’s meant to give the sound a more direct path into your ear, on top of fitting more comfortably. They also brought an IPX4 rating to the regular AirPods, making the earbuds and the charging case sweat and water resistant.
This model is powered by Apple’s H1 chip, which allows for features like always-on Siri and one-touch fast pairing. The chip also enables some more advanced features in the sound department like Adaptive EQ, spatial audio and dynamic head tracking. Audio quality got a big boost in the third-generation AirPods. Engadget’s Billy Steele found that “the sound is bigger and more immersive” than with the earlier AirPods, which by comparison offer sound that seems “compressed and downright boring.”
The third-generation AirPods have pretty good battery life too, lasting about six hours on their own and up to 30 with the charging case. They also support quick charging with the case, which allows for about an hour of additional use after just five minutes in the case.
ASUS was the first major PC maker to try its hand at making a gaming handheld. And despite a few issues like a wonky microSD card reader, the ROG Ally succeeded at giving people a powerful way to take their games on the go. But after about a year on the market, ASUS’ portable is getting a major revamp and it feels like it’s becoming the device we wanted all along.
Now just to be clear, the Ally X isn’t a true sequel to the original, it’s more of a mid-cycle refresh similar to what Nintendo did for the Switch back in 2019. Except I’d argue ASUS has done more to boost the new model’s capabilities. That’s because while the Ally X has the same Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip and 7-inch 120Hz LCD screen used in its predecessor, nearly everything else on the system has been tweaked or improved in some way.
Inside, ASUS doubled the size of the Ally X’s battery to a whopping 80Wh, up from 40Wh on the old model. Same goes for storage, with the handheld featuring a 1TB M.2 SSD (up from 512GB). Unlike before, it’s a full-size 2280 module, so anyone planning on adding a larger drive later on will have lots of options for third-party add-ons. Even its memory is getting a big bump up to 24GB (up from 16GB) of faster LPDDR5X 75000 RAM. And to keep everything cooled properly, ASUS installed a new fan system that the company says is 23 percent smaller while delivering 24 percent better airflow.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
Now all this would be a more-than-welcome change, especially when it comes to performance and battery life. But ASUS didn’t stop there. The Ally X also features a new black exterior and it’s a touch thicker than before, which allows for more pronounced grips and a slightly more ergonomic button layout. There’s also a new precision D-Pad, which is something I’m happy to see as the previous one felt a bit numb and spongy. And while ASUS didn’t opt for Hall Effect joysticks, the company says it switched to stiffer springs, which should increase durability and make them feel more responsive.
Finally, around back, the Ally X features smaller rear paddles that should be harder to press by accident. However, one of my favorite changes is that in addition to a new third vent on top, ASUS also ditched its proprietary XG mobile connector in favor of a second USB-C port. And because this one supports both USB 4 and Thunderbolt 4, it’s fast enough to use with an external GPU (if you’re into that kind of thing) while leaving the other jack open for charging or other wired accessories.
In a lot of ways, it feels like ASUS has finally made the Ally X the handheld I wanted all along. The bigger battery solves one of the main issues with the previous model, which often conked out after a little more than an hour when playing modern games. Then there’s the addition of a second USB-C port, which makes the system a lot more versatile and better equipped to pull double duty as a pseudo desktop in a pinch. And I can’t say enough about the larger grips. That’s because even though the X is only a few millimeters thicker than before, it’s way more comfortable, which is obviously super important for any handheld device.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
But potentially the biggest impact of all this is that ASUS is turning its first mover's advantage into an even bigger lead. Because while rivals like the Legion Go are still on their first model (not to mention others like the MSI Claw that arrived way late to the party, stayed tuned for my review coming coon), ASUS is already iterating on its handheld. And that’s coming from a device with a solid foundation. For anyone who has been as enamored with the recent wave of gaming handhelds as I have, it’s really encouraging to see these devices mature so quickly. Plus, starting at $800, which is just $100 more than the original Ally, the Ally X feels very reasonably priced.
The ROG Ally X is available for pre-order today from Best Buy, with official sales set to begin sometime in July.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-asus-rog-ally-x-improves-on-the-original-in-all-the-right-ways-090008278.html?src=rss
During its Copilot AI and Surface event in May, Microsoft unveiled Recall, an AI-powered feature for Windows created to help you find anything you've ever looked at on your PC. The feature, Microsoft said, is exclusively available on the recently launched and future Copilot+ PCs, which are devices that come with onboard neural processing units (NPUs) for AI tasks. Now, someone using the pseudonym Albacore has released a console Windows app on Github called Amperage that will allow users to run Recall even on older computers that the feature doesn't officially support.
The tool can only enable Recall on computers with Arm64-based SoCs, which means they have to be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon, a Microsoft SQ or an Ampere chipset. Users also have to make sure they're running Windows 11 version 24H2 build 26100.712, because older and newer beta versions of the OS don't have the components needed to activate the feature. As The Verge notes, though, future iterations of the tool may be able to unlock Recall for more devices, seeing as AMD- and Intel-based Copilot+ PCs are expected to be available later this year.
I was able to get Recall working on this bad boy 😎 Snapdragon 7c+ Gen3, 3.4 GB of RAM, no NPU in sight
Will cook up a tutorial soon, it's surprisingly good even on something this low spec 😊 If you have any questions I'll do my best to answer them ✍️ pic.twitter.com/zzswm44Hy1
Recall works by taking snapshots of the PC while the user is on it, storing them locally on the computer and then using local multi-modal small language models to recognize text, images and videos on them. If a user wants to find something they previously looked at on their PC — whether it's an image, a website, a document or an email — they can search the Recall timeline. Microsoft said it will work even if the user types in vague contextual clues in case they can't remember exact phrases or descriptions. And since the snapshots Recall takes are stored locally and offline, users' data are supposed to remain private and secure.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/this-tool-unlocks-windows-ai-powered-recall-feature-for-unsupported-pcs-110046086.html?src=rss
When you think of the 20-year-old social network that is Facebook, its popularity among “young adults” is probably not what comes to mind. Naturally, Meta wants to change that and the company is once again telling the world it intends to reorient its platform in order to appeal to that demographic.
In an update from Tom Alison, who heads up the Facebook app for Meta, he says that the service is shifting to reflect an “increased focus on young adults” compared with other users. “Facebook is still for everyone, but in order to build for the next generation of social media consumers, we’ve made significant changes with young adults in mind,” he wrote.
If any of this sounds familiar, it’s because Meta executives have been trying to win over “young adults” for years in an effort to better compete with TikTok. Mark Zuckerberg said almost three years ago that he wanted to make young adults the company’s “North Star.” And Alison and Zuckerberg have both been talking about the Facebook app’s pivot to a discovery-focused feed rather than one based on users’ connections.
That shift is now well underway. Alison said that the company’s AI advancements have already improved recommendations for Reels and feed, and that “advanced recommendations technology will power more products” over the next year. He added that private sharing among users is also on the rise, with more users sharing video (though no word on the once-rumored plan to bring messaging back into the main app).
Notably, Alison’s note makes no mention of the “metaverse,” which Zuckerberg also once saw as a central part of the company’s future. Instead, he says that “leaning into new product capabilities enabled by AI” is a significant goal, along with luring younger users. That’s also not surprising, given that Meta and Zuckerberg have recently tried to rebrand some of the company’s metaverse ambitions as AI advancements.
But it’s also not clear how successful Meta will be in its efforts to win over young adults. Though Alison says Facebook has seen “five quarters of healthy growth in young adult app usage in the US and Canada,” with 40 million young adult daily active users, that’s still a relatively small percentage of the 205 million daily US Facebook users the company reported in February, the last time it would break out user numbers for the app.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-says-the-future-of-facebook-is-young-adults-again-203500866.html?src=rss
When you think of the 20-year-old social network that is Facebook, its popularity among “young adults” is probably not what comes to mind. Naturally, Meta wants to change that and the company is once again telling the world it intends to reorient its platform in order to appeal to that demographic.
In an update from Tom Alison, who heads up the Facebook app for Meta, he says that the service is shifting to reflect an “increased focus on young adults” compared with other users. “Facebook is still for everyone, but in order to build for the next generation of social media consumers, we’ve made significant changes with young adults in mind,” he wrote.
If any of this sounds familiar, it’s because Meta executives have been trying to win over “young adults” for years in an effort to better compete with TikTok. Mark Zuckerberg said almost three years ago that he wanted to make young adults the company’s “North Star.” And Alison and Zuckerberg have both been talking about the Facebook app’s pivot to a discovery-focused feed rather than one based on users’ connections.
That shift is now well underway. Alison said that the company’s AI advancements have already improved recommendations for Reels and feed, and that “advanced recommendations technology will power more products” over the next year. He added that private sharing among users is also on the rise, with more users sharing video (though no word on the once-rumored plan to bring messaging back into the main app).
Notably, Alison’s note makes no mention of the “metaverse,” which Zuckerberg also once saw as a central part of the company’s future. Instead, he says that “leaning into new product capabilities enabled by AI” is a significant goal, along with luring younger users. That’s also not surprising, given that Meta and Zuckerberg have recently tried to rebrand some of the company’s metaverse ambitions as AI advancements.
But it’s also not clear how successful Meta will be in its efforts to win over young adults. Though Alison says Facebook has seen “five quarters of healthy growth in young adult app usage in the US and Canada,” with 40 million young adult daily active users, that’s still a relatively small percentage of the 205 million daily US Facebook users the company reported in February, the last time it would break out user numbers for the app.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-says-the-future-of-facebook-is-young-adults-again-203500866.html?src=rss