Google’s Waze is adding some quality-of-life navigation features in the coming weeks and months. New options can help you find parking garages (and learn how much they’ll cost), alert you when the speed limit is about to decrease and guide you through roundabouts.
Partnering with the Flash parking app, Waze will soon provide information about nearby parking garages. It can show you prices, whether it’s covered or open-air, wheelchair accessibility options, valet services and EV charging stations. Waze says you can also reserve a parking space from the app. The feature will roll out “in the coming weeks.”
The Flash app only averages 1.5 out of 5 stars on the App Store and 2.2 out of 5 on the Play Store. (Many customers complained about its bugginess and unreliable scanning at parking kiosks.) Hopefully, Waze’s integration won’t replicate the apparent rough spots from its new partner’s app.
The Waze app will also let you know when the speed limit is about to drop. After the feature rolls out this month, the navigation screen will show a speed limit sign at the spot in the road where it’s about to slow down, giving you time to prepare. An alert at the screen’s bottom will count down how many feet away the speed reduction is. (The app won’t show when speed limits are about to increase, presumably to avoid encouraging people to punch it and get a head start.)
Waze
Waze will soon give you more information about your favorite routes to places you often travel to, like home, work or go-to coffee shops. Starting this month, when you start navigation, the app will compare your favorite routes with the fastest ones. It will use live traffic updates to contrast ETA estimates and help you decide if your favorite pathway is too backed up to be worth it.
Making your way through roundabouts will be easier, too. When you approach a traffic circle, Waze will help you figure out where to enter, which lanes to use and where to exit. The feature arrives on Android this month, but iPhone owners will have to wait until “later this year.”
Building on the app’s community-sourced approach, another new feature will alert you to upcoming hazards. These include sharp curves, speed bumps and toll booths. This “navigate like a local” feature will land on Android and iOS this month.
Finally, Waze now notifies you when emergency vehicles are stopped ahead. When navigating, an emergency icon will sit on the virtual road ahead alongside an alert and countdown (measured in feet) as you approach it. This is the only new feature Waze says is available now (in the US, Canada, France, Mexico and France) on Android and iOS. The feature will support more countries soon.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/waze-will-soon-help-you-find-parking-garages-and-zip-through-roundabouts-180340271.html?src=rss
The deadline for compliance with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) is this Thursday and Google just dropped a document outlining exactly what changes it has made (or will make) to keep up with the law. These 20+ adjustments vary in scope, and impact search users, advertisers and third-party app developers.
One of the big search changes will be the inclusion of price comparison results from external aggregators when looking up things like flights or hotels. For example, searching Google for a one-way to Paris typically pulls up a module called the Google Flights unit — that's the company's own internal pricing aggregator. Competitor aggregators, like Kayak and Tripadvisor have been vocally displeased to have Google stomping around in their backyard for over a decade. In the EU at least, starting Thursday, these sorts of results will now show some results from these aggregators alongside Google's own Flights results.
Android users are getting an easier way to switch out the search engine or browser, so as to not prioritize Google's products above others. These choice screens appear when you set up the device for the first time, in the settings and at various intervals during use. The company's already been doing this since 2021, but now there will be more choice screens to choose from. Google says this option is also coming to desktop Chrome users and iOS users in the near future.
Digital consent for advertising is a major part of the DMA. Google users will now have to opt into sharing data across the company’s various services for the purpose of personalized advertising. This is done via the settings page. Additionally, users may encounter consent banners while browsing, which will ask if they want to link data across Google services.
The DMA requires app stores to offer alternative billing systems for in-app purchases. To comply, Google recently launched user-choice billing (UCB) as an option for developers to offer their own billing systems. This program is expanding to game developers this week. Of course, Android devices could always run third-party apps with their own billing systems, but now they'll be easier to implement.
Google has said that as part of its DMA compliance it will begin to provide advertisers with "some additional data, which is shared in a way that protects user privacy and customers’ commercially-sensitive information." We've reached out to the company for any information on what that data might be. On Thursday, the company will also be launching its Data Portability API so that users can move their data off Google's products more easily.
Of course, Google couldn’t help but drop a bit of shade in its compliance announcement, telling users that “some of the features that we have developed to help people get things done quickly and securely online — like providing recommendations across different products — won't work in the same way anymore.” Daddy corporation knows best.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-just-outlined-exactly-how-its-changing-ahead-of-thursdays-dma-deadline-174518625.html?src=rss
The deadline for compliance with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) is this Thursday and Google just dropped a document outlining exactly what changes it has made (or will make) to keep up with the law. These 20+ adjustments vary in scope, and impact search users, advertisers and third-party app developers.
One of the big search changes will be the inclusion of price comparison results from external aggregators when looking up things like flights or hotels. For example, searching Google for a one-way to Paris typically pulls up a module called the Google Flights unit — that's the company's own internal pricing aggregator. Competitor aggregators, like Kayak and Tripadvisor have been vocally displeased to have Google stomping around in their backyard for over a decade. In the EU at least, starting Thursday, these sorts of results will now show some results from these aggregators alongside Google's own Flights results.
Android users are getting an easier way to switch out the search engine or browser, so as to not prioritize Google's products above others. These choice screens appear when you set up the device for the first time, in the settings and at various intervals during use. The company's already been doing this since 2021, but now there will be more choice screens to choose from. Google says this option is also coming to desktop Chrome users and iOS users in the near future.
Digital consent for advertising is a major part of the DMA. Google users will now have to opt into sharing data across the company’s various services for the purpose of personalized advertising. This is done via the settings page. Additionally, users may encounter consent banners while browsing, which will ask if they want to link data across Google services.
The DMA requires app stores to offer alternative billing systems for in-app purchases. To comply, Google recently launched user-choice billing (UCB) as an option for developers to offer their own billing systems. This program is expanding to game developers this week. Of course, Android devices could always run third-party apps with their own billing systems, but now they'll be easier to implement.
Google has said that as part of its DMA compliance it will begin to provide advertisers with "some additional data, which is shared in a way that protects user privacy and customers’ commercially-sensitive information." We've reached out to the company for any information on what that data might be. On Thursday, the company will also be launching its Data Portability API so that users can move their data off Google's products more easily.
Of course, Google couldn’t help but drop a bit of shade in its compliance announcement, telling users that “some of the features that we have developed to help people get things done quickly and securely online — like providing recommendations across different products — won't work in the same way anymore.” Daddy corporation knows best.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-just-outlined-exactly-how-its-changing-ahead-of-thursdays-dma-deadline-174518625.html?src=rss
Here's a quick PSA for anyone who has been meaning to add more storage to a gaming handheld, GoPro, security camera or cheaper Android device: A handful of Samsung microSD cards we recommend are back on sale. The discounts include the 256GB Samsung Pro Plus and 128GB Samsung Pro Ultimate for $20 and $17, respectively. Neither of those are all-time lows, but they both come within $2 of the best deals we've tracked, and they're both a few bucks cheaper than the cards' usual street prices over the last two months. The Pro Plus is the top overall pick in our microSD card buying guide, while the Pro Ultimate is a faster upgrade pick. These deals are also available at other retailers, including B&H and Samsung.com.
If you're willing to trade some performance for more space, the 512GB Samsung Evo Select, the top value pick in our guide, is also down to $25 at Amazon. We saw this deal last month, but it still matches the card's lowest price to date. Typically, it's retailed around $30 over the last few months.
Which one of these is the "best" deal depends on what you're looking to do. The Pro Ultimate may be worth it if you plan to regularly stress the card in a device that can take advantage of its higher speeds. It was faster than the Pro Plus across the board in our benchmark tests, so it can save you some time if you often have to, say, move files to and from a computer. That said, the Pro Plus' sequential and random speeds weren't too far off, so it'll still be quick for recording 4K video, loading video game levels and the like. If you need a higher-capacity card but still value performance, it'll probably be worth the extra $3. For reference, the 256GB version of the Pro Ultimate is now going for $35, which is a fair bit extra.
If you just want a big chunk of space on the cheap, meanwhile, just go with the Evo Select. It's a clear step down from the other two cards in both read and write speeds, but it's performant enough for more casual tasks, and this deal gets you much more space per dollar. Many devices, such as the Nintendo Switch, can't fully take advantage of the faster transfer speeds of cards like the Pro Plus anyway. Like the higher-end cards, the Evo Select also comes with a 10-year limited warranty. None of the cards on sale here will be as fast as Samsung's upcoming SD Express models, but we'd expect those to be relatively expensive when they arrive later this year.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsungs-latest-microsd-card-deals-include-the-256gb-pro-plus-for-20-161535375.html?src=rss
Here's a quick PSA for anyone who has been meaning to add more storage to a gaming handheld, GoPro, security camera or cheaper Android device: A handful of Samsung microSD cards we recommend are back on sale. The discounts include the 256GB Samsung Pro Plus and 128GB Samsung Pro Ultimate for $20 and $17, respectively. Neither of those are all-time lows, but they both come within $2 of the best deals we've tracked, and they're both a few bucks cheaper than the cards' usual street prices over the last two months. The Pro Plus is the top overall pick in our microSD card buying guide, while the Pro Ultimate is a faster upgrade pick. These deals are also available at other retailers, including B&H and Samsung.com.
If you're willing to trade some performance for more space, the 512GB Samsung Evo Select, the top value pick in our guide, is also down to $25 at Amazon. We saw this deal last month, but it still matches the card's lowest price to date. Typically, it's retailed around $30 over the last few months.
Which one of these is the "best" deal depends on what you're looking to do. The Pro Ultimate may be worth it if you plan to regularly stress the card in a device that can take advantage of its higher speeds. It was faster than the Pro Plus across the board in our benchmark tests, so it can save you some time if you often have to, say, move files to and from a computer. That said, the Pro Plus' sequential and random speeds weren't too far off, so it'll still be quick for recording 4K video, loading video game levels and the like. If you need a higher-capacity card but still value performance, it'll probably be worth the extra $3. For reference, the 256GB version of the Pro Ultimate is now going for $35, which is a fair bit extra.
If you just want a big chunk of space on the cheap, meanwhile, just go with the Evo Select. It's a clear step down from the other two cards in both read and write speeds, but it's performant enough for more casual tasks, and this deal gets you much more space per dollar. Many devices, such as the Nintendo Switch, can't fully take advantage of the faster transfer speeds of cards like the Pro Plus anyway. Like the higher-end cards, the Evo Select also comes with a 10-year limited warranty. None of the cards on sale here will be as fast as Samsung's upcoming SD Express models, but we'd expect those to be relatively expensive when they arrive later this year.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsungs-latest-microsd-card-deals-include-the-256gb-pro-plus-for-20-161535375.html?src=rss
Apple has upgraded the 13 and 15-inch MacBook Airs with the M3 and a few new bells and whistles. But while I expected the company to keep the M1 around as its budget option, it swapped it out for the base model M2. Someone at Cupertino’s going to regret that, because the M2 Air is, despite its limitations, a damn fine machine. I don’t know if anyone needs the added performance the M3 Air provides, but I do know you can’t afford to ignore the base model M2.
Historically, Apple has kept a MacBook below a thousand dollars to hook price-sensitive buyers. A grand is a lot to spend on a machine if you’re broke, especially if there are cheaper low-end Windows machines (even if they are crap). Even then, the $999 MacBook is the “cheap” option, and Apple will hobble it just enough to upsell you to the $1,200 model it really wants you to buy.
That’s why I cynically expected the M1 to remain in place, because the slower chip and decade-old chassis was a nice compromise in exchange for a cheaper machine. Yes, the M1 would allow you to join the Apple SIlicon world, but you’d have to deal with a design that’s barely changed since 2017. The M2, by comparison, is less than two years old and is regarded as one of Apple’s best ever machines: The fact it’s available as the budget option is almost a flex.
This morning, I reread my colleague Devindra Hardawar’s great review of the M2 Air from 2022, and I still want one. The M2 has a wonderfully sleek design and comes equipped with plenty of great hardware. A fantastic 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display with a 500-nit backlight, a 1080p webcam, quad-speakers with support for Spatial Audio and Atmos. The better quality of stuff you got was probably Apple’s rationale for holding on to the M1, and charging $1,200 for the base M2 (which itself could be upsold for more with the better add-ons).
Then there’s the M2 silicon itself which, in this variation, has an 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD. Look, I know that 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD are both major drags on the M2’s overall performance. But I can’t stress enough that this is an ultraportable without a fan designed for lower power tasks. If you buy a machine this thin and get annoyed that it can’t render a two hour 4K movie as efficiently as a Pro model, the computer isn’t the problem, no matter what it's running.
Of course, the sticks you could use to beat the M2 MacBook Air are the same ones for a lot of Apple Silicon machines. Limited external display support, limited port selection, no ability to add upgrades further down the road and nonexistent repair support. But some or all of those issues are probably not top of your list if you’re looking for a good machine to live your life with.
Ah, but what about the AI performance which Apple says is so much better on the M3 than its immediate predecessor? I’ll be honest, I don’t know how many people are doing AI-intensive tasks on a machine like this, or even beefier ones. After all, most people are more than happy to engage with generative AIs through a web client, which requires no local grunt at all.
Not to mention that the M2 has often been offered with a hefty discount through sellers like Amazon. I’d reckon that while the $999 is a bargain, someone will probably knock another hundred off that figure the next time there’s a shopping holiday. Who needs an M3 Air?
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-thing-about-the-m3-macbook-air-is-the-m2-macbook-air-144543065.html?src=rss
Apple has upgraded the 13 and 15-inch MacBook Airs with the M3 and a few new bells and whistles. But while I expected the company to keep the M1 around as its budget option, it swapped it out for the base model M2. Someone at Cupertino’s going to regret that, because the M2 Air is, despite its limitations, a damn fine machine. I don’t know if anyone needs the added performance the M3 Air provides, but I do know you can’t afford to ignore the base model M2.
Historically, Apple has kept a MacBook below a thousand dollars to hook price-sensitive buyers. A grand is a lot to spend on a machine if you’re broke, especially if there are cheaper low-end Windows machines (even if they are crap). Even then, the $999 MacBook is the “cheap” option, and Apple will hobble it just enough to upsell you to the $1,200 model it really wants you to buy.
That’s why I cynically expected the M1 to remain in place, because the slower chip and decade-old chassis was a nice compromise in exchange for a cheaper machine. Yes, the M1 would allow you to join the Apple SIlicon world, but you’d have to deal with a design that’s barely changed since 2017. The M2, by comparison, is less than two years old and is regarded as one of Apple’s best ever machines: The fact it’s available as the budget option is almost a flex.
This morning, I reread my colleague Devindra Hardawar’s great review of the M2 Air from 2022, and I still want one. The M2 has a wonderfully sleek design and comes equipped with plenty of great hardware. A fantastic 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display with a 500-nit backlight, a 1080p webcam, quad-speakers with support for Spatial Audio and Atmos. The better quality of stuff you got was probably Apple’s rationale for holding on to the M1, and charging $1,200 for the base M2 (which itself could be upsold for more with the better add-ons).
Then there’s the M2 silicon itself which, in this variation, has an 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD. Look, I know that 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD are both major drags on the M2’s overall performance. But I can’t stress enough that this is an ultraportable without a fan designed for lower power tasks. If you buy a machine this thin and get annoyed that it can’t render a two hour 4K movie as efficiently as a Pro model, the computer isn’t the problem, no matter what it's running.
Of course, the sticks you could use to beat the M2 MacBook Air are the same ones for a lot of Apple Silicon machines. Limited external display support, limited port selection, no ability to add upgrades further down the road and nonexistent repair support. But some or all of those issues are probably not top of your list if you’re looking for a good machine to live your life with.
Ah, but what about the AI performance which Apple says is so much better on the M3 than its immediate predecessor? I’ll be honest, I don’t know how many people are doing AI-intensive tasks on a machine like this, or even beefier ones. After all, most people are more than happy to engage with generative AIs through a web client, which requires no local grunt at all.
Not to mention that the M2 has often been offered with a hefty discount through sellers like Amazon. I’d reckon that while the $999 is a bargain, someone will probably knock another hundred off that figure the next time there’s a shopping holiday. Who needs an M3 Air?
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-thing-about-the-m3-macbook-air-is-the-m2-macbook-air-144543065.html?src=rss
Passkey availability has been on the rise and is only continuing to grow. The latest example comes from 1Password, the aptly named password manager, which has announced support for passkeys on Android devices. Now, anyone using a phone or tablet with Android 14 or higher can access 1Passwords's passkeys right on their device's apps. Last September, the company made passkeys available on iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 devices, along with browsers such as Chrome and Safari.
So, what is a passkey anyway? Unlike a password that someone can guess or potentially obtain in a hack, passkeys consist of public and private keys. The public key belongs to whatever site an account is made with, while the private key exists solely on the device and is never seen by the involved company. Basically, it works as a puzzle of sorts, and instead of typing in a password, it uses an API to connect the private and public keys.
Users will need to download the 1Password app and, when creating new accounts, choose to make one with a passkey instead of a password. To clarify, this function is currently only available for Android apps, not Chrome for Android. According to 1Password, Google is in the midst of building a new API that will allow for passkeys on mobile Chrome.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/1password-adds-passkey-support-for-android-140058482.html?src=rss
Passkey availability has been on the rise and is only continuing to grow. The latest example comes from 1Password, the aptly named password manager, which has announced support for passkeys on Android devices. Now, anyone using a phone or tablet with Android 14 or higher can access 1Passwords's passkeys right on their device's apps. Last September, the company made passkeys available on iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 devices, along with browsers such as Chrome and Safari.
So, what is a passkey anyway? Unlike a password that someone can guess or potentially obtain in a hack, passkeys consist of public and private keys. The public key belongs to whatever site an account is made with, while the private key exists solely on the device and is never seen by the involved company. Basically, it works as a puzzle of sorts, and instead of typing in a password, it uses an API to connect the private and public keys.
Users will need to download the 1Password app and, when creating new accounts, choose to make one with a passkey instead of a password. To clarify, this function is currently only available for Android apps, not Chrome for Android. According to 1Password, Google is in the midst of building a new API that will allow for passkeys on mobile Chrome.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/1password-adds-passkey-support-for-android-140058482.html?src=rss
Nothing says its latest device – the Phone 2a – is a mid-range handset. And just going by its specs, which include a 6.5-inch 120Hz OLED screen, up to 12GB of RAM and a big 5,000 mAh battery, that seems right. But starting at $349, it’s positioned more like a budget offering which makes it even more appealing. That’s because in a category where device makers often cut corners to hit a specific price, the Phone 2a combines solid components with a unique design to deliver a handset that looks good and is big on value. So while there are a couple of hiccups for potential buyers in the US, Nothing has created an engaging option in a sea of boring budget phones.
Design and display: Definitively distinctive
Nothing’s aesthetic is unmistakable. It’s inspired by ‘90s retro gadgets with translucent plastic like old Gameboys but remixed with a more modern and cohesive finish. This lets you see a number of its components like NFC antennas (which is the disc surrounding the rear cameras) without it becoming distracting. That said, on the Phone 2a, Nothing switched things up by moving its cameras to the middle and rearranging its Glyph lights, which gives the back more of a face while a small red accent provides a pop of color. It’s available in black and white color schemes, with the former sometimes making me feel like I’m looking at Wall-E’s emo cousin.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Another departure from Nothing’s previous handsets is that the Phone 2a features a polycarbonate back instead of a glass one. Now this might seem like a bad thing, but this device is a reminder of how nice plastic can be when it’s done well. Nothing says the phone’s subtly rounded edges wouldn’t be possible to do with glass. While I’m not sure that feature is a bona fide selling point, it does feel good. Additionally, the choice of material results in something that feels a lot lighter than it looks, which is nice compared to traditional glass bricks. The Phone 2a weighs just 6.7 ounces (190 grams), which is less than a Pixel 7a (6.82 ounces/193.5 grams) despite the latter boasting a significantly smaller 6.1-inch display.
As for the screen itself, the 6.5-inch OLED panel delivers punchy colors and surprisingly good brightness of around 700 nits during normal use with peaks of up to 1,300 nits. The only thing I struggled with was the in-screen fingerprint reader, which took a few registrations to get it dialed in before it would unlock every time.
Performance: More than good enough for the money
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Nothing is bucking conventional wisdom by opting for a Mediatek Dimensity 7200 Pro chip instead of something from Qualcomm. Memory starts at 8GB, though in the US, the only config features 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. And while its Geekbench 6 scores (1,123 single-core and 2,603 multi-core) were a bit behind what I got from a Pixel 7a (1,442 single-core and 3,639 multi-core), it felt speedy and responsive during normal use. The only small issue is that sometimes scrolling through websites or social media wasn’t quite as smooth compared to more expensive rivals. But unless you’re hoping to do some serious mobile gaming, the Phone 2a has more than enough oomph to go around.
Cameras: Better than your average budget handset
A challenge for both budget phone makers and smaller companies like Nothing is keeping up with big names like Samsung and Google. But unless you’re a real stickler for image quality, the Phone 2a is good enough. It did a fine job during the day of producing pics that you won’t be embarrassed to post on social media. Both the main and ultra-wide cameras are based on 50-megapixel sensors that capture warm tones and produce color saturation that’s a touch richer than what I got from a Pixel 7a. That said, if you zoom in, you’ll notice that Google’s phone delivers slightly sharper photos with more detailed textures. At night, when budget phones tend to struggle a bit more, the Phone 2a’s images were slightly darker than similar shots taken with a Pixel 7a, as expected, but they were still more than serviceable. Sometimes, Nothing’s pics were actually less grainy than Google’s.
Battery life: 5,000 mAh goes a long way
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Thanks to its large 5,000 mAh battery, the Phone 2a turned in one of the best times we’ve seen from a budget handset. On our video rundown test, it lasted 23 hours and 47 minutes, which is just shy of the Nothing Phone 2’s mark of 24:25 and way better than similarly priced rivals like the Pixel 7a (17:41).
When it comes to charging, though you don’t get support for wireless power (which is understandable on a phone in this price range), the Phone 2a does support wired charging at up to 45 watts, which is faster than some flagship phones like the Pixel 8.
US availability and carrier info
One of the biggest bummers about the Nothing Phone 2a is that while it will be readily available online in Europe, folks in the US should know that there are a few extra hurdles to jump through. The first is that in order to buy one, customers will need to sign up for the company’s Developer program. Thankfully, this can be done for free and as soon as you do, you’ll get a link to purchase the Phone 2a directly from Nothing. Additionally, while the handset does support 5G on T-Mobile via the N41 band, you won’t get any 5G on AT&T or Verizon, which severely limits the appeal for people on those networks.
Wrap-up
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
On paper, the Phone 2a has pretty much everything I look for in a good budget device. It’s got a solid build including IP54 water resistance, a bright screen and excellent battery life. While its performance isn’t earth-shattering, it still feels snappy even when compared to slightly more expensive rivals. But what really elevates the Phone 2a is that it accomplishes all this without erasing its personality in the name of cost-cutting. There simply isn’t another handset in this price range that looks this good. Nothing also pays attention to small details like the phone’s crunchy pseudo-analog sound effects that help marry its distinctive design with its custom UX and dot-matrix-inspired widgets. I just wish the Phone 2a was easier to buy and had better 5G support in the US.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nothing-phone-2a-review-a-budget-phone-thats-packed-with-personality-123040337.html?src=rss