It's Saturday morning and I'm still thinking about the end of E3, once the biggest gaming show on earth, and the teenage dream destination for many Gen Z / Millennial gamers, by which I mean: me. Will there be a gaming (or tech) show in 2024 that will match my enthusiasm (in the past) for E3? Probably not.
Apple is also testing out improved anti-theft software for iPhone users — just don't get your phone stolen before the feature gets out of beta.
Social media account takeovers continue to happen, and with many reliant on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for their income, an attack can derail everything. High-level hackers still tend to seek entities with deep pockets, targeting them with highly complicated attacks. But much of the cyber criminality today is social engineering jobs, aimed at mid-level creators with less experience (and resources). Katie Malone reports on how some victims have lost much to social engineering hacks.
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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-the-sad-end-of-e3-140035020.html?src=rss
Meta Quest users will now be able to write reports, edit spreadsheets and create presentations — if they event want to do any of those tasks on a VR headset, that is. Android Central reports that support for the basic Microsoft Office suite has arrived on the original Oculus Quest, the Meta Quest 2, the Meta Quest Pro, and the latest model, the Meta Quest 3. Users can now download Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint from the Meta Quest store for free.
The company first revealed that it was going to launch Microsoft 365 app experiences for its headsets during its Connect 2022 event. It also promised users access to Outlook, Teams and a Windows experience as part of its partnership with Microsoft. To be able to use the basic Office suite apps on their device, users will need to have and log into their Microsoft account. The app files are pretty small because they run on the cloud, so they're quick to download and can run side by side for the multitaskers out there.
According to The Verge, though, the apps aren't exactly optimized for virtual reality, so users may have to contend with tiny icons and other elements that don't work as well in the environment. In addition, it's not easy typing on the Quest's onscreen keyboard, so users may have to link Bluetooth accessories if they need to get some serious work done.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-office-apps-arrive-on-meta-quest-vr-headsets-123030297.html?src=rss
If you used Apple’s Family Sharing feature with at least one other person and bought a subscription to an app through the App Store between 2015 and 2019, you might just get a settlement of up to $50 from the company. MacRumorsreports that Apple will pay $25 million to settle a class action lawsuit that accuses the tech giant of misleading customers over Family Sharing.
The feature lets up to six family members share app subscriptions with each other but allows individual developers to forbid people from sharing a single subscription if they wish to. The lawsuit, which was filed in 2019, accuses Apple of not being transparent about this and misleading customers by making them think they could share a subscription to every app available in the App Store. “[The] vast majority of subscription-based apps” did support Family Sharing, the lawsuit claims.
The complaint also alleges that Apple placed ads on the landing pages of some subscription-based apps that didn’t support Family Sharing. This led “millions of customers” to download subscription-based apps believing they would be able to access them through their Family Sharing subscription, it says, citing YouTube Red and a puzzle game called Brainwell as examples of apps that didn’t support sharing their subscriptions with family members.
Apple has reportedly denied any wrongdoing and has only agreed to settle the case to avoid the potential costs associated with a jury trial. The company did not respond to a request for comment from Engadget.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-is-settling-a-class-action-lawsuit-over-family-sharing-for-25-million-235208522.html?src=rss
The holiday shopping season is reaching the home stretch, but we're here to help if you're looking for a good deal on a last-minute tech gift. The Xbox Series X, for one, is back on sale at several retailers. Walmart has the game console down to an all-time low of $349, but if stock runs dry there, you can still grab it for $399 at Microsoft, Amazon and other stores. Beyond that, a four-pack of Apple's AirTag trackers is $19 off, the latest AirPods Pro are $50 off and a number of Sonos devices are discounted as part of a big holiday sale. We're also seeing price drops on recommended gaming laptops, MacBooks, tablets, microSD cards and more. Here are the best deals from this week that you can still buy today. Just be aware that not everything may ship in time for Christmas.
The Xbox Series X is available for $349 at Walmart at the time of writing, though stock appears to be spotty. If that deal runs out for good, a bundle that pairs the beefy game console with the action-RPG Diablo IV is down to $399 at Microsoft. That's $160 less than the usual cost of buying each separately. Amazon, GameStop and others have the console alone for $399 as well. While the Series X remains a bit light on must-play exclusives, the Xbox library includes a diverse collection of games we like, from blockbusters like Forza Horizon 5 to quirkier hits like Hi-Fi Rush to smaller-scale gems like Pentiment. The hardware itself is powerful enough to play games at a steady 4K/60 fps, with some titles capable of reaching higher frame rates. Unlike the less powerful Xbox Series S — which is $60 off itself — it also includes a disc drive. There's at least some chance we see a Series X refresh in 2024, but the current machine is an easier sell when it's discounted to this extent.
A four-pack of Apple's AirTags is back down to $80 at Amazon, Walmart and other retailers. That's about $9 off its usual street price and $19 less than buying from Apple directly. The AirTag is the "best for iPhones" pick in our Bluetooth tracker buying guide, as its ultra-wideband wireless tech and ability to tap into Apple's Find My device network make it particularly convenient for locating lost items. Its battery is easily replaceable, too, plus it's water-resistant. It lacks any built-in adhesive or keyring hole, however, so you'll need to buy an extra accessory if you want to attach it to an item.
The USB-C version of Apple's AirPods Pro is once again on sale for $200 at Amazon and Best Buy. We saw these noise-canceling earphones fall $10 cheaper during Black Friday, but this is still $20 below their average street price and $49 below Apple's list price. The AirPods Pro continues to offer effective active noise cancellation, pleasingly warm sound and a host of Apple-device-specific conveniences, which is why they're the "best for iOS" pick in our guide to the best wireless earbuds. Note, however, that Apple started selling this model's USB-C charging case on its own earlier this week, so if you're sitting on a Lightning-based pair and want to make the conversion, you can now do so without having to buy a whole new set.
You can get a $10 Amazon.com credit for no extra cost when you buy a digital Apple gift card worth $100 or more. Just use the code HOLAPP at checkout. If you'd rather shop at Target, that retailer is offering a $10 Target gift card alongside the same purchase until December 16. As a refresher, you can put an Apple gift card toward services like Apple Music and iCloud, App Store credit and purchases at Apple.com or Apple retail stores. We see promos like this periodically, but any bit of bonus money should be welcome if you often shop at these stores anyway.
Sonos is running a holiday sale that brings many of its smart speakers, soundbars and home theater devices back to the prices we saw on Black Friday. The flagship Sonos Arc soundbar is $180 off at $719, for one, while the mid-range Sonos Beam and budget-level Sonos Ray are down to $399 and $223, respectively. All three are picks in our soundbar buying guide. Beyond that, the Sonos Era 100 is $50 off at $199 — with a two-pack discounted by $120 — while the larger Sonos Five is $110 off at $439. Both of those make our guide to the best smart speakers. Other devices like the Sonos Sub, Sub Mini and Roam are also cheaper than usual.
All Sonos speakers generally provide the same perks: clean sound quality relative to other devices in their price range, easy pairing with other Sonos speakers, uncomplicated setups, AirPlay support and access to various streaming services through the Sonos app. They aren't cheap, and their connectivity can be limited, but they should suit most people looking to build a multi-room audio system. Just note that new Arc, Roam and other devices could arrive in 2024, according to a recent Bloomberg report.
The Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet is back on sale for $60, which is $5 more than its all-time low but $40 off Amazon's list price. That price applies to the model with 32GB of storage; if you want more space (and don't have a microSD card), the 64GB model is available for a low of $70. The Fire HD 8 is far from an iPad in terms of performance and app support, but it may be the cheapest competent tablet for most people. It's light, it lasts 10 or so hours on a charge and it's quick enough for basic web browsing and video streaming. Amazon's Fire OS still includes lock screen ads and heavily pushes the company's own services, but it's hard to do better at this price.
The 10.1-inch Fire HD 10 is also $50 off and down to $90, which is a $10 more than its Black Friday price. That one has the same software issues, but it's faster than the Fire HD 8 and features a sharper 1080p display.
If you'd prefer a more premium Android slate, the Google Pixel Tablet is discounted to $399 at Amazon, Best Buy and others. We've seen this deal pop up a few times over the last month, but it matches the lowest price we've tracked. The Pixel Tablet earned a score of 85 in our review earlier this year. It's a perfectly solid 11-inch tablet in its own right, but what sets it apart is its included charging speaker dock. Pop the tablet onto that and it'll function like a pseudo-smart display. It's not the exact same as a Nest Hub Max, but you can use it to control smart home devices, stream music, display photos and the like. This discounted model includes 128GB of storage, but the 256GB version is also $100 off and available for $499.
A 6.56-foot strip of the Govee LED Strip Light M1 is on sale for $40, which matches the lowest price we've seen. Normally, it retails around $60. We recommend the Strip Light M1 in our smart lights buying guide. It's simple to set up and delivers impressively bright colors to any area of the house where you'd like to add ambient lighting. You can apply different effects to separate parts of the strip through Govee's app, plus it's compatible with the Matter smart home standard. It can be an eyesore when it's not lit up, however, so you may not want to stick it out in the open.
The 256GB version of Samsung's Evo Select microSD card is still on sale for $15, which is within 60 cents of the lowest price we've seen. Normally, it retails around $18. The Evo Select is the "best value" recommendation in our microSD card buying guide: It's not as fast as our top picks, but it's quick enough for most tasks — expanding a Nintendo Switch's storage, for instance — and it provides a better cost-per-gigabyte ratio than most cards.
If you're looking to stock up on a few new PC games, the Epic Games Store has kicked off its latest Holiday Sale. The key here is the Epic Coupon, which takes 33 percent off most games in the store as long as your cart totals $14.99 or more. The coupon will renew after each use, and you can apply it to games that are already discounted as part of the sale. This brings several new-ish titles down to the lowest prices we've tracked: The acclaimed survival horror game Alan Wake 2 is down to $27 with the coupon, for instance, while the shooter Remnant II and the action game Star Wars Jedi: Survivor can be had for lows of $20 and $23, respectively. Others like The Last of Us Part I, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Mortal Kombat 1 are also down to all-time lows. Epic says the sale will run until January 10.
A version of the Apple Watch Ultra 2 with a small Olive Alpine Loop is available for $699 at Amazon with a clippable coupon. That ties the lowest price we've tracked and takes $100 off Apple's MSRP. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 puts all the software benefits of the Series 9 in a more rugged design with a bigger and brighter display, twice the rated battery life and a customizable "Action Button" that you can use to quickly start a task. It also offers better waterproofing, more accurate GPS, a depth sensor and a loud siren for emergency SOS purposes. It is entirely too much smartwatch for most people, but this price makes it a little more appealing for endurance athletes with money to burn.
A variant of the 15.3-inch MacBook Air with an Apple M2 chip, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is available for $1,449 at Amazon and Best Buy. That's $250 off Apple's list price and the best price we've seen outside of a couple of special offers for My Best Buy Plus members. We gave the 15-inch Air a review score of 96 in June and currently recommend it in our laptop buying guide. The M2 chip remains plenty fast for everyday tasks, and the chassis is still supremely well-built, with a crisp display, comfortable keyboard, reliable touchpad, long-lasting battery and lively speakers.
We recommend starting with 16GB of memory, but if you really need to save cash, configs of the 13- and 15-inch Air with less RAM and storage are also $200 to $250 off. You should only buy this if you need a new laptop right now, though; according to a report from reliable Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, Apple plans to roll out updated MacBook Airs with its new M3 chip in a few months, potentially in March.
Best Buy has a configuration of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 with an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 GPU on sale for $1,100. That's the lowest price we've tracked and $100 less than the deal we saw on Black Friday. This model also includes a 14-inch display with a 1440p resolution and a 165Hz refresh rate. The ROG Zephyrus G14 is the top pick in our guide to the best gaming laptops: This config is plenty capable for playing modern AAA games but, at 3.6 pounds, it's not a complete anchor to carry around. A solid keyboard and trackpad help, too, though the 720p webcam could be sharper and there's a good bit of bloatware installed by default. The 512GB SSD isn't especially large either, though you can upgrade the storage if needed.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-xbox-series-x-is-discounted-again-plus-the-rest-of-the-weeks-best-tech-deals-172230913.html?src=rss
The OnePlus 12 has officially launched in China and now the company’s most powerful phone is coming to the rest of the world. OnePlus has announced global availability for January 23, including the US. All told, the company ways the phone will be available in 50 markets worldwide. If you’ve been intrigued by the company’s latest flagship smartphone, you won’t have long to wait until getting your hands on one.
This phone certainly has mouth-watering specs. You can soup it up with up to 24GB of RAM, which is more than I have in my work laptop and the same amount as my music and video-making desktop. The base model ships with 12GB of RAM, which is still plenty. As a comparison, the iPhone 15 boasts just 6GB of RAM.
These phones also offer up to 1TB of storage and come outfitted with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile chipset. Charging speeds are also great on paper, offering support for 100W wired fast charging and 50W wireless charging. Incidentally, the OnePlus 11 didn’t have wireless charging at all.
There’s a new Sony LYT-808 sensor for the 50-megapixel main camera and a 64-megapixel periscopic telephoto camera. The 6.82-inch 120Hz AMOLED display is a 2K panel manufactured by China’s BOE Technology Group.
The aesthetics resemble its predecessor, but the camera island’s color now matches the body. In addition to glossy white and classic matte black colorways, you can also purchase a OnePlus 12 in green. There’s no pricing yet, but in China this thing costs the equivalent of $610 for the base model and $820 for the high-end version with 24GB of RAM and 1TGB of storage.
The OnePlus 12 is being released as part of the company’s 10th anniversary. This isn’t the only big news to come out of that celebration. OnePlus has also announced it’ll be selling the OnePlus 12R smartphone in other parts of the world beyond China and India, a first for the “R” series. However, OnePlus hasn’t announced any specs or information about the 12R. The OnePlus 11R was a slightly underpowered and budget-friendly version of the flagship phone, so maybe the 12R will follow suit.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/oneplus-12-with-snapdragon-8-gen-3-will-be-available-globally-january-23-162610102.html?src=rss
Shopping for a home theater setup typically means buying a soundbar, subwoofer and rear speakers separately. Some companies may include a sub with the soundbar, but you don’t always get everything you’ll need for the most immersive sound in the same box with high-end models. Samsung includes all of those additional speakers with the HW-Q990C soundbar ($1,900), though you’re obviously paying a premium. The company offers Dolby Atmos along with a range of audio options and two HDMI inputs, beaming crisp 11.1.4-channel sound into your living room. The Q990C is a significant investment, but it’s also one-stop shopping.
Design
As the Q990C is Samsung’s high-end soundbar in its current lineup, it’s also the biggest. It’s 48.5-inches wide, which is actually about three inches less than the Sony HT-A7000. Of course, companies need the extra space on the flagship models to pack in all of the speakers. In Samsung’s case, the Q990C houses 11 front-facing drivers (including some side-firing), four up-firing drivers and an internal subwoofer. The separate wireless sub is also substantial at 16 x 16 x 8 inches and weighing in at 26 pounds. The wireless rear speakers aren’t huge, but they do have a three-driver setup with front-, side- and up-firing drivers where other companies might only have one.
Samsung opted for a mesh plastic covering for both the soundbar and rear speakers. It’s easier to keep clean than the typical speaker fabric. Samsung also kept things simple on the soundbar itself, putting just four buttons up top. Here, you’ll find a multi-function button that either turns the speaker on or cycles through the input sources. Volume controls and a microphone mute. From the front, a small display on the right side will show you input information, volume level and other settings. Instead all 90-degree angles the Q990C’s side panels follow the position of the side-firing speakers.
Setup
The initial setup for the Q990C is among the easiest I’ve ever completed for a home entertainment bundle. Once you power on the soundbar and connect it to the SmartThings app, the subwoofer and rear speakers are automatically added when you turn them on. There’s no waiting for anything to sync and I didn’t have to connect each thing individually. There are buttons on the sub and rears if you need to manually connect to the soundbar, but I never had to use them. The whole thing was quick and frustration-free, which gets you to the music and movies soon after unboxing.
Like many flagship soundbars, Samsung has included two additional HDMI inputs on top of the HDMI eARC jack you’ll use to connect your TV. Many more affordable, more compact models only have the eARC connection so you have to rely on your TV’s ports, but the pricier models typically offer additional options for connecting directly to the soundbar. Samsung says you can expect 4K/60 and HDR10+ passthrough on the Q990C, but not 4K/120 as the unit doesn’t have HDMI 2.1. That’s a big omission in a $1,900 soundbar being sold in 2023.
There’s also an optical input on the Q990C as well as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. The latter brings Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect and AirPlay to the mix. It also allows you to connect wirelessly to a compatible Samsung TV for audio. This means you can get Dolby Atmos to the soundbar with no cables running from your television, which is handy if you’ve already mounted the display flush with the wall. And if you have a compatible Samsung phone, you can enable Tap Sound which connects to the Q990C via Bluetooth when you gently touch the speaker with the handset. As an iPhone user, I wasn’t able to test this.
SmartThings app and other features
One of the rear speakers
Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget
In addition to helping with setup, the SmartThings app is where you can tweak the Q990C’s settings. The current input and volume controls are the most prominent on the device screen, with sound modes, EQ and woofer level just below. There are also options for SpaceFit Sound, which automatically tunes the audio to the room, and Active Voice Amplifier, which combats room noise by optimizing on-screen dialog. The advanced settings menu offers voice and bass enhancement alongside a Night Mode, but all of these are on or off toggles with no further customization. SmartThings allows you to choose either Bixby or Alexa for the voice assistant you want to employ on the soundbar.
Samsung lets you choose between Standard, Surround, Game Pro and Adaptive Sound modes. The first doesn’t tweak the audio at all and it’s the only mode where the fully adjustable EQ is available (just bass and treble on the rest). For all of the others, the Q990C upscales 2.0, 5.1 and 7.1 audio to the 11.1.4-channel output the soundbar offers. Of course, all Dolby Atmos and DTS:X content is beamed out at 11.1.4, too. Surround mode is self-explanatory while Game Pro creates more immersive audio with 3D-optimized sound specifically for gaming. Adaptive Sound is the option I used most as it analyzes audio in real time to keep dialog sounding clear across a range of volumes for movies, news and sports. I found it the best-sounding preset for music, too.
In addition to selecting a sound mode in the app, you can cycle through them with a dedicated button the included remote. It also gives you access to SpaceFit Sound, Active Voice Amplifier, Voice Enhancement and more with a Sound Control button that’s labeled with the settings/gear icon. A Channel Level button lets you adjust the volume of each speaker, with Center level, Side level, Wide level, Front Top level, Rear level, Rear top level and Rear side level among the choices. There’s also a button for Tone Control, putting bass and treble tweaks just a few button presses away. These are all in addition to the standard power, input, volume (overall and subwoofer only), mute, pairing and playback options soundbar remotes typically have.
Sound quality
Thanks to the Q990C’s upscaling abilities, nearly every movie or TV show sounds more immersive than if you were listening in stereo or even with a 5.1 setup. Netflix’s Drive To Survive, which is offered in Dolby Atmos if you have the priciest Ultra HD plan, is still amazing with this soundbar for those of us on the more affordable monthly rate. The whir of the cars as they zoom past, pitlane noise and crunching crashes make the meticulously-shot series even better. Marvel shows and movies on Disney+ are available with Atmos and they sound amazing.
I can confidently say this is the closest I’ve come to a movie theater-like experience in my living room. The additional drivers in the rear speakers undoubtedly elevate the overhead sensation, contributing significantly more to directional audio than normal single-driver units. Fight scenes like the one that opens The Falcon and the Winter Soldier are loud and chaotic, but they sound more like you’re watching in real life, taking in the thud of each punch, the fire of every gun and the drone of choppers navigating the canyon.
The Q990C is also a great option for music. Crisp, clear highs and powerful, punchy bass compliment nearly every genre. Even at lower volumes, tunes like Sia’s “Everyday Is Christmas” come across layered rather than compressed. Vocals cut through clear and the bassline doesn’t overpower. The same goes for Turnpike Troubadours’ A Cat in the Rain where each member of the band stands on their own, with snare hits and country-rock vocals slicing through the mix. Bass from the large subwoofer is present but restrained, only as bombastic as it needs to be and never muddy or dull.
The full set that comes with the Q990C
Samsung
The sound on those albums was impressive and I wasn’t even streaming them in Dolby Atmos. Tunes in the immersive format sound even more incredible on the Q990C. TesseracT’s prog-metal War Of Being is soaring and atmospheric, with the staccato guitars and slapped bass on tracks like “The Gray” showing off the dimensional quality of Atmos Music. Less intense genres like Tyler Childers’ Rustin’ In The Rain come across more like live performances than streamed albums. The sound is full, crisp and envelopes the room with guitars, piano, steel guitar and perfectly calculated drum hits, all supporting Childers’ trademark eastern Kentucky vocals.
This soundbar system works well in a multi-room setup, too, and you don’t need other Samsung speakers to do it. Thanks to AirPlay, you can easily select the Q990C and other speakers on your Wi-Fi network. I was able to consistently link the soundbar with a HomePod in another room with just a few taps in Apple Music. The audio performed consistently once the two speakers were linked and I never heard any dropouts or clipping when they were used in tandem.
One audio feature that I wasn’t able to test is Q-Symphony. This uses the speakers inside Samsung TVs in addition to the drivers in the soundbar setup. The company promises it “can optimize all the channels” for a “masterfully orchestrated sound experience.” I don’t have a Samsung TV, but the soundbar system sounds great without it. What’s more, this sort of thing isn’t unique to Samsung devices as Sony offers a similar tool called Acoustic Center Sync with its soundbars and TVs.
The competition
Sony’s HT-A7000 is the best alternative to the Q990C. It also does Atmos and music very well, but everything you add to it is an additional purchase. At current prices, the soundbar, the cheapest sub and rear speaker options will cost you $1,600 while soundbar alone is $1,000. There are better choices for both the woofer and rears, but those significantly raise the price.
The A7000 offers a lot of what the Q990C has on its spec sheet. That includes the two HDMI 2.1 inputs with 4K/120 passthrough. Sony includes compatibility with both Hi-Res and 360 Reality Audio alongside various pieces of virtual surround tech and a number of sound modes. The key differences between this and the Q990C is that the A7000 is a 7.1.4-channel setup, versus 11.1.4, and the aforementioned HDMI 2.1 support.
The Q990C is currently on sale for $1,400, but it’s unclear if that price cut is permanent. The $500 savings make the all-inclusive Samsung setup even more attractive, if you can live without HDMI 2.1.
Wrap-up
Samsung’s latest flagship soundbar is a sonic powerhouse. And, perhaps more importantly, it comes with the subwoofer and rear speakers you’ll need to make the most of it in the box. For the cost of what you’d pay for a soundbar alone from some of the company’s main competitors, you get the complete package, and one that’s easy to set up and customize as needed. The sound quality is great and Atmos content is as crisp and immersive as ever, so long as you have space to accommodate the bundle. The lack of HDMI 2.1 hinders performance for gamers, and that’s a glaring omission on a premium soundbar these days. The Q990C isn’t cheap, even at the current discounted price, but at least you’re getting everything you need in one go.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsung-hw-q990c-soundbar-review-an-all-inclusive-atmos-setup-160049530.html?src=rss
Space lasers, once a mere futuristic joke, have become a real tool in building technology up there and making improvements for all of us down here. There's been NASA's use of space lasers to study plankton, plans to blast space junk and, now, a satellite network courtesy of Amazon. The company has announced that its Project Kuiper has built up its optical inter-satellite links (OISLs) capabilities to create a substantial mesh network of high-speed laser cross-links. This technology could result in faster data transmission to even the most remote places back on earth.
In October, Amazon launched two prototype satellites and reported successful tests one month later, with the pair dispatching and retrieving data at speeds of up to 100 gigabits per second. "These tests demonstrated our ability to establish a single bi-directional link between two satellites, and initial data indicates that our design will be able to maintain cross-links between multiple satellites at once—the critical feature of a next-generation mesh network in space," the company stated.
To successfully use OISLs, laser links had to maintain contact at a distance up to 1,616 miles while also contending with spacecrafts moving at a speed of 15,534 miles per hour. Plus, Amazon had to minimize light spreading in order to maintain the signal and account for any additional dynamics of all these moving pieces — something it says has been successfully done.
Amazon also claims the mesh network moves data about 30 percent faster than terrestrial fiber optic cables can. "Amazon's optical mesh network will provide multiple paths to route data through space, creating resiliency and redundancy for customers who need to securely transport information around the world," Ricky Freeman, vice president of Kuiper Government Solutions, explained in a statement. "This is especially important for those looking to avoid communications architectures that can be intercepted or jammed, and we look to forward to making these capabilities available to public sector customers looking to move and land data from remote locations to their desired destination." Basically, anyone from a cruise ship passenger to a multi-day hiker should be able to get a connection if this is successful.
Project Kuiper started in 2019 but has seen a real boost in the last few months. With these successful tests completed, Amazon states that Project Kuiper is starting satellite production, with "full-scale deployment" beginning in the first half of 2024. It also predicts that early customer pilots will begin in the second half of the year. Notably, Amazon signed a deal with SpaceX to launch more Project Kuiper satellites at a faster rate.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-boosts-its-satellite-internet-network-with-the-help-of-space-lasers-123535946.html?src=rss
Just a week after AMD revealed its own Ryzen 8040 hardware, Intel has entered its own AI PC era. The company’s new Core Ultra notebook chips, codenamed Meteor Lake, are Intel’s first processors to include an NPU, or neural processing unit, for accelerating AI tasks.
Intel claims the Core Ultra chips use up to 79 percent less power than AMD’s last-gen Ryzen 7840U while idling in Windows, and they’re also up to 11 percent faster than AMD’s hardware for multithreaded tasks. Intel, however, didn’t have the upcoming Ryzen 8040 chips to test against. They use the company’s new Intel 4 (7nm) process and should be “the most efficient x86 processor for ultrathin systems.”
As for AI workloads, Intel says Core Ultra chips can reach up to 34 TeraOPS when combining performance across the NPU, GPU and CPU. The big difference is the NPU: It’ll enable features like Windows 11’s Studio Effects, which can blur backgrounds and improve video lighting without hurting your battery life much. With more creative AI workloads, Intel says the Ultra 7 165H is 70 percent faster than the rival Ryzen 7 7840U in Adobe Premiere Pro.
Check out the rest of the specs and benchmark tests from Intel over here, and expect to hear more “AI PC” bluster in 2024.
Oh, and nothing to do with Intel’s chips, but be ready for everyone to be playing with AI-generated backgrounds on Instagram this week.
Meta finally rolled out searchable tags for all users on Threads, its microblogging Instagram offshoot, and users are taking advantage of a design quirk for a bit of dumb fun. Threads’ “topic tags” are a lot like hashtags, but not entirely the same. For one, there’s no hash (#). It’s pretty basic stuff… which makes the effectiveness of a new prank feel all the more absurd.
Someone can create a Threads post, ideally with a lot of text, then slap a “Show more” tag at the end, seemingly in the middle of a word or sentence. You, the unwitting victim, will then click “Show more” expecting to see the rest of the post, but — surprise! — it’ll direct you to the page for that tag instead.
Ah, pranks. Just in time for Thread’s awaited Europe launch…
Other features, such as audio descriptions, are also delayed.
When Insomniac Games launched Spider-Man 2, it didn’t yet have features like New Game+ and audio descriptions. Community and marketing director, James Stevenson, shared that New Game+ “should” arrive before the end of 2023. But Insomniac has now released a statement explaining it’s targeting the next Spider-Man 2 update for early 2024. Insomniac went on to explain it’s adding more “highly requested features” to the game, such as replaying missions and changing the time of day.
Gaming laptops have been some of the most intriguing portable PCs for the past few years. They’ve gotten thinner and lighter, but also vastly more powerful and efficient, thanks to advanced CPUs and GPUs. Gaming laptops are where PC makers can get adventurous, with things like rotating hinges and near desktop-like customizability. We lay out the specs that matter, the price you can expect to pay and some of our standout favorites.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-intel-unveils-its-first-chips-built-for-ai-work-121504827.html?src=rss
Google is creating a new, more sophisticated Android AI assistant called Pixie set to arrive with its Pixel 9 phone, according to a report from The Information. Based on the company's new Gemini large language model (LLM), it'll be able to perform "complex and multimodal tasks" like giving you directions to the nearest store to buy a product you photographed on your smartphone.
The assistant will be exclusive to Google's Pixel devices and use data from Google products like Gmail and Maps. That would help it "evolve into a far more personalized version of the Google Assistant," the report states. It appears to be a separate product from Google's Assistant with Bard showed off at Made By Google in October.
If accurate, the report on the update shows Google making whiplash changes to its AI roadmap to keep rival OpenAI in its sights. Google only just revealed its Gemini AI last week as an answer to GPT-4, calling it "the most capable model we’ve ever built." It also announced that Gemini would come to Android via a new product called Nano, giving your phone the capability to do things like summarize conversations and calls without the need to be online.
As a reminder, Gemini launched last week as an integrated multimodal AI, rather than multiple models stacked together (parts of Google's Gemini demo were reportedly staged, however). That will supposedly allow it to "seamlessly understand and reason about all kinds of inputs from the ground up, far better than existing multimodal models." With Pixie powered by Gemini, it could be a far more sophisticated personal assistant than, say, Google Assistant. Gemini will also power the next generation of Bard, Google's AI chat assistant.
As with past Google products, though, it's going to be hard for consumers to grok (see what I did there) all the different AI offerings. We've now got Pixie, Bard, Gemini, Gemini Nano (for smartphones), Gemini Pro (for Chrome, API calls and more) and Gemini Ultra, coming in 2024. By contrast, OpenAI has kept things relatively simple with GPT-4 being its LLM, ChatGPT being the chat assistant, and DALL-E the image generator. Most savvy consumers have at least heard of those things, but Google has once again made it hard for people to keep up with its own product family.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/googles-pixel-9-could-arrive-with-a-sophisticated-pixie-ai-assistant-094448458.html?src=rss
Agility Robotics shared a demo video Wednesday of one of its Digit robots upgraded with AI. Although that may conjure terrifying pop-culture images of sentient sci-fi machines taking over the world, the demo video reveals something much more pedestrian, if not boring. The bipedal warehouse robot ploddingly works to complete a slightly puzzling task without direct human control or detailed guidance. In the clip, it slowly but successfully interprets and executes the command, “Take the box that’s the color of Darth Vader’s lightsaber, and move it to the tallest tower in the front row.”
The company, which added a “head” and “hands” to Digit earlier this year, pitches the demonstration as a glimpse into how large language models (LLMs) can enhance its humanoid machines. It suggests it’s a natural fit, describing Digit as “a physical embodiment of artificial intelligence.”
“We created a demo space with a series of numbered towers of several heights, as well as three boxes with multiple defining characteristics,” Pras Velagapudi, Agility Robotics’ vice president of innovation and chief architect, explained in the clip. “Digit was given information about this environment, but was not given any specific information about its tasks. Just natural language commands of varying complexity to see if it could execute them.”
Agility Robotics
The clip shows Digit’s beat-by-beat inner monologue overlaid on the screen as the robot thinks its way through the task. For example, “I should find out what commands I can use,” “I should first assess the environment to see what items and locations are available,” and “Darth Vader’s light saber is red, and so the red box (box2) is the one I need to move. The tallest tower in the front row is tower4. I will first move to the location of box2.”
After moving to the location of the red box, Digit continues. “Now that I’m at the location of box2, I should pick it up,” it reasons. It continues, “Now that I have box2, I should move to the location of the tallest tower in the front row, which is tower4” and “Now that I’m at tower4, I should place box2 on it.” Finally, it declares its work finished: “I believe I have completed the task, as I have moved the box that is the color of Darth Vader’s light saber (red, box2) to the tallest tower in the front row (tower4).”
Agility Robotics, which pitches Digit as sparing human workers from the most taxing physical activities, says it created the demo to “show how LLMs could make our robots more versatile and faster to deploy.” The company is building an Oregon factory to produce 10,000 humanoid robots annually. It has also inked a deal with Amazon for the retailer to test Digit in a Seattle-area facility. Fiction-fueled fears aside, the robots are much more likely to hurt humans by stealing their warehouse jobs than by shapeshifting, murdering innocents or reenacting other Hollywood-fueled dystopian nightmares.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/agilitys-digit-warehouse-robot-understands-natural-language-commands-thanks-to-ai-smarts-214415066.html?src=rss