Much like Half-Life: Alyx, Thief's long-awaited return is a VR exclusive. The game was announced in June, but now we know when it will arrive. You can play the pioneering stealth franchise's new chapter, Thief VR: Legacy of Shadow, on December 4.
Thief VR takes place about halfway between the events of the original trilogy and Thief (2014). You play as Magpie, a cunning thief (duh), who discovers a legendary eye artifact with a mysterious connection to the past. You're operating in a city that's under the grip of Baron Ulysses Northcrest, "a tyrant who crushes rebellion before it can take root." That all sounds like an ideal backdrop for sneaking around and stealing shit.
Publisher Vertigo Games offered a glimpse at Meta Quest gameplay, which you can watch below. Thief VR will also be available on PS VR and SteamVR when it arrives on December 4. The title has a $30 list price on Steam and Meta, but can be pre-ordered now for $27. The PlayStation Store version doesn't yet have pricing or reservation info.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/thiefs-vr-revival-arrives-in-december-181506849.html?src=rss
We learned last month that Call of Duty would be making the leap to the big screen with a planned motion picture project. Today, Deadline reported that two of the main creative forces behind the movie will be Taylor Sheridan and Peter Berg.
Sheridan and Berg previously both worked on the 2016 film Hell or High Water and 2017's Wind River. Berg was a producer on those projects, but he's perhaps better known as a writer for the football drama Friday Night Lights. Sheridan's most recent endeavor was TV series Yellowstone, and he also worked on Lioness, Mayor of Kingstown and Tulsa King. For Paramount's Call of Duty adaptation, both will produce and co-write, while Berg is currently on board to direct.
Since the writers and director have only just been locked down, there still hasn't been any public discussion of what era of the lucrative CoD franchise the movie will tackle. Based on the duo's past work, something contemporary seems most likely, but it may be awhile before we have any confirmation of the story or casting.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/paramounts-call-of-duty-movie-taps-the-writers-of-yellowstone-and-friday-night-lights-175331091.html?src=rss
Black Friday deals are here, and a great one to check out is at Dyson. The discounts on Dyson's site right now are some of the best we've seen; one of those is $600 off the Dyson 360 Vis Nav robot vacuum, which is down to a record low of $400.
Dyson was pretty late to the robot-vacuum party, but its entry was (and remains) one of the strongest in the category. It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles like a self-emptying base or mopping capabilities, but it makes up for that by having probably the best suction power of any robovac we've tested. All kinds of debris will fall in its path: dirt, dust, food crumbs, pet hair and more. It also has excellent obstacle avoidance, so you'll rarely — if ever — have to dislodge it from getting stuck on the edge of a carpet or wedged in between furniture. Dyson's mobile app is easy to use as well, so if you're looking for a robot vacuum that does its main job incredibly well and you don't mind skipping on some extras, the 360 Vis Nav is a great option.
Cordless vacuums are also a part of the sale. Take the Dyson V9 Motorbar cordless vacuum on sale for just $270 at both Dyson and Amazon, which is a discount of $330. That's more than half off. Dyson devices are all over our list of the best cordless vacuums, and for good reason. The company makes effective products. The V9 Motorbar has been designed to clean all floor types, in addition to upholstery. It's also been engineered to squeeze into tight spots, which is great for hitting those oft-neglected parts of the home.
The suction power is on point and the battery lasts for 40 minutes before requiring a charge. That's just enough time to vacuum a standard-sized home if you don't stop for too many breaks. The V9 is getting a bit long-in-the-tooth. If you want a newer model, the V11 Extra is on sale for $400, which is a discount of $260. This one boosts the suction power and increases the battery life to 60 minutes.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/dyson-black-friday-deals-robot-vacuums-and-cordless-vacuums-are-up-to-600-off-right-now-173533897.html?src=rss
Unless you're a PC nerd like me, chances are you're not familiar with Fractal Design. The company has made a name for itself in recent years by designing some of the best cases you can buy for a DIY build. In a space known for its gaudy aesthetics, Fractal's products stand out for their simplicity. Now the company is entering the crowded audio space with the $200 Scape, a gaming headset that not only looks sophisticated, but also sounds surprisingly great too.
Design
The Fractal Scape features an attractive mix of materials.
Igor Bonifacic for Engadget
I mentioned the design of the Scape first, and for good reason. It shows attention to detail, with a lot of thoughtful flourishes. The best of those is the dock that comes included with the headset. It charges the Scape inductively, so there's no need to align any charging pins, and it cleverly houses the headset's 2.4GHz wireless transmitter. When connected to your main PC, the dongle can sit inside the dock, ready to go when you want to use it with your PlayStation 5, PS4, Nintendo Switch or another PC or Mac (sorry, Microsoft fans, there's no Xbox support). The base also has wire channels to make cable management easy.
Those same thoughtful design touches extend to the headset itself. On the back are four buttons, a dial and a toggle that cover nearly every function of the Scape. You can adjust the volume, mute the built-in mic, switch between 2.4GHz and Bluetooth connectivity, power the headset on or off, turn the RGB lighting on or off and switch between three EQ presets. What’s more, all of the controls feel distinct and are easy to use. There's also a USB-C connection for wired audio and a three-pole headphone jack for the detachable microphone.
The headset is primarily made of plastic, with a touch of brushed metal. Fractal offers the Scape in two colors — the aptly named light and dark — and despite the company's choice of materials, the headset feels undoubtedly premium. Tilt adjustment is limited — it's not possible to lay the ear pads flat on a table, for example — but the headband offers a fair amount of resistance, adding to the high-end feel.
That said, the Scape could be more comfortable. Clamping force feels just about right, but there's not enough padding along the top of the headband. I found I could wear the headphones for a few hours, but I eventually had to take them off to relieve the pressure that had built up on the top of my head. I'm also not a fan of the fabric Fractal used for both the headband and ear pads. It feels scratchy and it's not great at dissipating heat. Thankfully, the high-density memory foam beneath is plush and the pads were deep and wide enough to comfortably accommodate my ears.
Fractal has made it easy to swap the ear pads if needed; they come right off with just a small amount of force. For the time being, the company isn't selling replacements, but a spokesperson told me Fractal will send customers who need new pads a set for free. You just need to contact their support team.
Sound quality
The Scape comes with a set of custom-tuned drivers.
Igor Bonifacic for Engadget
Out of the box, the Scape's dynamic drivers are tuned to a soft v-shaped curve, with an emphasis on accuracy over character. Bass frequencies are punchy without being bloated, and there's nice detail to mid-focused instruments like guitars. To my ear, the one issue with the Scape's default tuning were the upper mids and treble frequencies. They weren't shouty to the point of being sibilant, but there was definitely a harshness to the vocals of singers like Jeff Buckley and Caroline Polachek who are known for their falsetto. Thankfully, this was easy to fix with the Scape's built-in EQ settings.
I'll have more to say in the software section of this review, but Fractal's Adjust app allows you to make parametric EQ adjustments. This is different to most gaming headsets, which often limit people to restrictive fixed-band tweaks. Even when I used just five potential points of customization, I found I had a great deal of control over the tonality of the Scape.
Overall, for casual music listening these are excellent headphones capable of covering many different genres. When it comes to gaming, they're great too — with some caveats. For singleplayer games, the default tunings are an excellent match. Playing Ghost of Tsushima, the Scape did a great job of reproducing the game's immersive sound design, allowing me to soak in all the little audio details Sucker Punch packed into its rendition of 13th century Japan. The soundstaging isn't as expansive and lush as I'm used to with my Sennheiser HD 600, but for a pair of closed-back headphones, it's above average.
When it comes to competitive first-person shooters, some tweaks are required. I found all the default presets produced too much bass to easily isolate sound cues in games like Valorant. Again, Fractal's software made this simple to fix; however, the Scape can only store three presets. Some gaming headsets, particularly those from Steelseries, come with tunings for hundreds of different games. For the ultra-competitive gamer, this can be useful since every game has a different sound engine. I'm not one of those people, so I found the Scape had just the right amount of customization.
A closeup of the Scape's volume dial.
Igor Bonifacic for Engadget
One feature you won't find on these headphones is active noise cancellation (ANC). Don't get me wrong, ANC is great, but I also didn't feel like the Scape was a worse product without it. My girlfriend is a Pelton fanatic and she does all of her daily classes without wearing headphones in our small apartment. In that situation, the Scape's passive noise isolation was enough to block the loud music coming from those workouts.
That said, the one area where the Scape could have been better is Bluetooth connectivity. It's a 5.3 headset, but codec support is limited to SBC and AAC. If you've ever tried a pair of wireless headphones only to be disappointed by how they sounded, SBC was probably to blame. When I used the Scape over Bluetooth, there was a subtle difference, but in a beat 'em up like Absolum, the game's excellent sound design was less effective because it sounded more compressed, with more lag between what was happening on-screen and the effects that followed.
I would have liked to see Fractal support more modern codecs like aptX Adaptive, but given that you need a dongle like the Creative BT-W6 to get access to those protocols on PCs and consoles, I can't fault the company for its decision. Also missing from the Bluetooth equation is multipoint support, meaning I wasn't able to connect the Scape to my PC or Switch and my iPhone at the same time.
The Scape's detachable microphone is fine but uninspiring. In listening back to a chat I had with some friends over Discord, I found the Scape compressed my voice to the point where there wasn't a lot of life or nuance to it. The optional noise cancellation algorithm does a good job of filtering out nearby commotion, but does so at the expense of adding more compression. You can flip the microphone to mute yourself, and if you're feeling lazy, the Scape also has a built-in mic — though it sounds about as good as you might imagine. Still, it's handy in a pinch.
Software
Fractal's Adjust app is web-based and easy to use.
Igor Bonifacic for Engadget
I mentioned Fractal's Adjust software, but what I didn't note is that it's not an app you need to install on your computer. Instead, it's a website you can access through any Chrome-based browser. It's a small thing, but one I really appreciate. I can't count how many times I've had to troubleshoot issues with Windows that were caused by a conflict created by Logitech G Hub or NZXT Cam.
The web-based software itself is simple, with two pages, named Lighting and Audio, encompassing all the options you can tweak. The Scape comes with 10 lighting themes out of the box, and like the headset itself, these presets are understated and classy. Naturally, you can also create your own lighting schemes, and the tool for doing so is fairly robust.
A closeup of the Fractal Scape's EQ button
Igor Bonifacic for Engadget
When it comes to the EQ adjustments you can make with the Adjust app, the one thing I'll add here is any presets you save are stored on the Scape, so they're available everywhere you want to use the headset. That was great because it meant I didn't need to Alt-Tab out of a game to switch the headset to a more competitive tuning.
The one area where Fractal's software feels lacking is when it comes to microphone controls. It's possible to adjust sidetone (the volume of your mic input as heard through the headset) and enable microphone noise cancellation, but that’s it. It'd be nice if it was possible to configure those settings for the two mics independently of one another, but the software doesn't support that right now.
Battery life
According to Fractal, the Scape can go up to 40 hours on a single charge with RGB lighting off. With the feature turned on, battery life drops to about 26 hours. I'll be honest, I had a tough time putting those claims to the test because of how easy it is to charge the headset. As best as I can tell, those estimates are accurate. I managed to get three days of battery life from the Scape with the RGB lights turned on and about eight hours of use each day.
One nice touch: when you tap the power button, the RGB lights will briefly illuminate to indicate how much battery life the Scape has left. Those same lights will turn off when you place the headset to charge so that they're not distracting.
The competition
With the Scape, Fractal has entered a crowded market. That said, the Scape is competitive with some of the best gaming headsets you can buy right now. At $200, it's $100 cheaper than the Audeze Maxwell, Engadget's pick for the best premium gaming headset. The Scape doesn't sound as good as the Maxwell or offer LDAC support for Bluetooth connectivity, but it's lighter and charging is easier thanks to the included charging base. If you ask me, the Scape also looks a lot better too.
If you can't live without ANC, your best bet is Razer's BlackShark V3 Pro, but it costs $50 more and doesn't sound as good as the Scape. You also need to put up with Razer's annoying Synapse software. For the best mic on a gaming headset, my longstanding recommendation has been the $199 Drop PC38X. It also has one of the best default tunings for competitive gaming. However, it's a wired headset, and Drop doesn’t offer a wireless option.
Wrap-up
The charging station also houses the Scape's 2.4GHz transmitter.
Igor Bonifacic for Engadget
If you can't tell by now, I think the Fractal Scape is a great gaming headset. There are models like the Audeze Maxwell that beat it in one or two categories, but for $200 the Scape is an excellent all-around package. Nitpicks about comfort aside, the Scape sounds and looks great. It's also a tremendous first effort by Fractal, and I can't wait to see what the company does next in the audio space and beyond.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/fractal-design-scape-review-a-stellar-debut-173000007.html?src=rss
Immersive productivity for Windows 11 is now available on the Meta Quest 3 and 3S with the latest release of Meta's Horizon OS. The feature, called Mixed Reality Link, was available on a limited basis after public previews began last year. The Windows virtual desktop experience is now rolling out to all users.
After installing Mixed Reality Link on their Windows 11 PC, users will pair the machine with their Meta Quest headsets. Mixed Reality Link also supports portable, cloud-based solutions such as Windows 365 Cloud PC, Azure Virtual Desktop, Microsoft Dev Box and others. The virtual environment, which displays the equivalent of multiple high-resolution monitors, is similar to the Apple Vision Pro.
The stark difference in cost between the headsets makes this a far more approachable virtual working tool for the average consumer. The Meta Quest 3S starts at $300, while the Apple Vision Pro comes out of the gate at a hefty $3,500.
Facebook parent company Meta has been investing heavily in virtual reality and augmented reality technology. The company recently teased a futuristic VR headset that it says will offer VR experiences “indistinguishable from the physical world” as well as Ray-Ban smart glasses with Meta AI live translation and 3K video recording.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ar-vr/mixed-reality-link-for-windows-11-and-meta-quest-headsets-is-now-available-to-everyone-165545794.html?src=rss
On Thursday, Samsung launched a desktop version of its web browser. Why bother putting its mobile browser on Windows? Well, the company offers a hint in describing Samsung Internet as "evolving from a PC browser that waits for input to an integrated AI platform." So, surprise, surprise: It's about AI.
As one would imagine, Samsung Internet on Windows supports cross-platform syncing of data like bookmarks, browsing history and autofill. The company says it also prioritizes privacy and security, offering standard features like tracker blocking and a privacy dashboard.
But those aren't likely the main reasons Samsung is launching a desktop web browser in 2025. (Incidentally, Samsung briefly launched Samsung Internet for Windows in 2024, before pulling it from the Microsoft Store without fanfare.) Instead, this launch appears to be about positioning it in the rapidly emerging landscape of AI browsers.
AI browsers have been all the rage lately. Samsung's move follows the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT Atlas, Microsoft's Edge Copilot Mode updates, Opera Neon's early access and general availability for Perplexity's Comet browser. Samsung says its cross-platform browser will advance its "vision for ambient AI," anticipating your needs and offering more personalized assistance. If Samsung wants to be part of that fray, it makes sense for its software to be available on the desktop, too.
Samsung Internet is available (via a beta program) for Windows 11 and Windows 10 (version 1809 and up). You can sign up on the product page.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/samsungs-web-browser-arrives-on-windows-with-an-ai-future-on-its-radar-163526726.html?src=rss
It's been around three and a half years since season four of Stranger Things premiered. We finally have an actual trailer for the fifth and final season of Netflix's retro-soaked adventure series. It's a good thing, as the first batch of episodes drop on November 26.
As previously mentioned, this is a real trailer with tons of footage and not a teaser. It's over two minutes of Hawkins-based goodness. This is an action-packed affair that's heavy on emotion and light on the type of 1980s-style humor the show has become known for. That seems right, given the stakes are higher than ever.
If you just clicked on this and don't plan on actually watching the trailer, this is when I go into some light spoilers. It looks like the gang is trapped in Hawkins following the events of season four. There's a military enclosure around the city and, surprise, Vecna is back and looking for vengeance.
There's a very scary scene in which the entity looks to be controlling or torturing poor Will and we don't even know if he has a cassette player loaded with Kate Bush just out of frame. It's all very tense.
While the show premieres on November 26, this isn't a one-and-done season drop like many Netflix shows. It's being split into three installments. The first batch of episodes are set for November 26, with another batch dropping on December 25. The final episode will air on December 31 and is even coming to some movie theaters. It's a holiday miracle.
The showrunners do promise that this season will finally tell us exactly what the upside down is, which is something to look forward to. While Stranger Things is ending, the franchise will continue on. Netflix has some spinoffs planned for the future, but they won't have series creators the Duffer Brothers on board as showrunners. The pair recently signed a deal with Paramount.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/we-finally-have-a-real-deal-trailer-for-stranger-things-season-five-160222670.html?src=rss
Pinterest is adding a new way to find clothes, furniture and other sources of aesthetic inspiration through its app. It's called Pinterest Assistant, and it's an AI-powered search and recommendation tool that uses knowledge of your Pinterest activity to tailor its responses.
Whereas other search features work best when you have a specific thing you're looking for in mind, Pinterest says the Pinterest Assistant is meant to handle more open-ended requests. Asking for pillows that match your "living room decor" is supposed to be enough for the AI to surface interesting results. To do that, the Pinterest Assistant looks at the items you've saved and the boards you've created (for example, a board full of living room decor inspiration), compares it with the things Pinterest users with similar taste have saved and displays visual results tailored to you.
You start a search with Pinterest Assistant by tapping on the mic icon.
Pinterest
Pinterest appears to be specifically interested in the multimodal aspect of this new feature. The main way the company imagines you'll interact with Pinterest Assistant is via a mic icon in the Pinterest app that starts a voice search. The AI assistant then takes that audio prompt and uses it to filter and analyze visual content to find the best fit. Besides surfacing items you might not have found on your own, Pinterest says the whole process should be "closer to how people shop in real life."
Rolling out its own AI features puts Pinterest in an interesting place when it comes to AI content on its platform. Users have complained that the growing amount of AI-generated material on Pinterest has made it hard to find real things to buy or add to a board. In May, the company started labeling AI content in the app to make finding real items easier, and earlier in October it added a way to "dial down" the amount of AI generated content users see in the app. Pinterest Assistant isn't necessarily a solution for an AI slop problem the company is struggling to solve, but it might help users who are sick of sifting through AI content anyway.
Pinterest Assistant begins rolling out in beta today to users in the US who are 18 and over, with wider availability coming in the next weeks and months.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/pinterest-has-its-own-ai-assistant-now-160000183.html?src=rss
Social media conversations can be vastly more enjoyable when you pick and choose who you're talking with. Today, Threads is adding more controls that let users determine who can reply to their posts.
One new feature is Reply Approvals, where the user will get a first look at responses before allowing them to appear publicly. The approval option can be turned on for individual posts rather than as a blanket policy for more granular control over replies. Threads is also adding new filters for viewing post replies. Now you can look at replies just from other Threads users you follow or sort them by mentions.
Threads has already had a busy week. Earlier this week, the social network introduced its take on ephemeral "ghost" posts, akin to the limited-time visibility features on Instagram Stories and many other platforms. According to parent company Meta's third-quarter earnings call, Threads has grown to 150 million daily active users.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/threads-is-making-it-easier-to-hide-replies-you-dont-like-154500456.html?src=rss
This particular model easily made our list of the best microSD cards for the Nintendo Switch 2. It even made our list of the best Switch 2 accessories. It just gets the job done. We loved the speed on offer here. It was the fastest of all the cards we tested when transferring games and loading games.
We also found that it performed admirably at just about every test we threw at it. The card was always consistently right near the top, thanks to outstanding sequential read and write performance. This was backed up by benchmark testing with PC tools like CrystalDiskMark.
The Switch 2 only works with SD Express cards, so this covers that. Luckily, this card isn't just for Nintendo's latest console. It'll work with just about everything, if you ever find it outstays its usefulness as a storage container for Mario and friends. Elsewhere when it comes to microSD Express cards on sale: PNY's 256GB card is down to $50, as is Lexar's Play Pro 256GB card, and Samsung's P9 512GB card is 25 percent off and down to $75.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/switch-2-black-friday-deals-these-microsd-express-cards-are-up-to-25-percent-off-151331318.html?src=rss
