Tag Archives: author_name|Daniel Cooper

Ring uses generative AI to cut down on unnecessary alerts

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Ring is today announcing Single Event Alert, the company’s new approach to cutting down on unnecessary notifications. Rather than a ping every time the camera watches something unfold, the system uses generative AI to group recurring events together.

Historically, whenever your Ring camera detected something happening in its field of vision, it’d let you know. Hell, in the earliest days of Ring’s doorbells, you’d get a little tinkling motion alert even if a sufficiently big truck went past your door enough to change the light levels.

The company uses the example of your kids playing in the back yard, which would previously trigger an alert every time it detected motion. Now, once it’s identified that it’s just your kids playing, it’ll tell you once and then let you get back to whatever else you were doing.

This is the latest in a series of turns toward AI Ring has enabled in the last year or so, including Smart Video Search and AI Video Descriptions. Like those features, Single Event Alert is rolling out to Ring Protect Home subscribers in the US (except IL) and Canada from today.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/ring-uses-generative-ai-to-cut-down-on-unnecessary-alerts-150033561.html?src=rss

The best mesh Wi-Fi systems of 2026

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If your Wi-Fi struggles to reach every corner of your house, it’s probably not your internet plan that’s the problem. A single router can only do so much, especially in larger spaces or homes with thick walls. That’s where the best mesh Wi-Fi system comes in, replacing one overworked router with a Wi-Fi mesh network designed to deliver high-speed coverage across your entire home.

A whole home mesh Wi-Fi setup uses multiple nodes that act as shared access points, spreading your connection more evenly and reducing slowdowns as you move from room to room. Compared to basic range extenders, mesh systems handle traffic more intelligently, balance bandwidth between devices and usually offer easy setup through companion apps. Many support dual-band Wi-Fi and newer standards, making them better suited for households full of phones, laptops, TVs and smart home devices.

We’ve tested today’s leading mesh systems to see which ones actually deliver consistent speeds and reliable coverage. Whether you’re trying to eliminate dead zones in a small apartment or blanket a large, multi-floor house with fast, stable Wi-Fi, these are the mesh systems worth considering.

Linksys’ CEO Jonathan Bettino told Engadget why mesh systems are an “advancement in Wi-Fi technology” over buying a single point router. With one transmitter, the signal can degrade the further away from the router you go, or the local environment isn’t ideal. “You can have a small [home], but there’s thick walls [...] or things in the way that just interfere with your wireless signal,” he said.

Historically, the solution to a home’s Wi-Fi dead zone was to buy Wi-Fi range extenders but Bettino said the hardware has both a “terrible user experience” and one of the highest return rates of any consumer electronics product. Mesh Wi-Fi, by comparison, offers “multiple nodes that can be placed anywhere in your home,” says Bettino, each acting as an access point that works together as part of a whole home mesh Wi-Fi system.

Rather than having one main router in your home, having a “router in every room” is the biggest selling point for mesh Wi-Fi given how reliant we all are on the internet. Each node is in constant contact with each other, broadcasting a single, seamless network to all of your connected devices. There’s no separate network for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, just a single name that you connect to.

It’s a good time to buy a mesh Wi-Fi system since the latest standard, Wi-Fi 6E, represents a big leap in the technology. Matt MacPherson, Cisco's Chief Technology Officer for Wireless, said Wi-Fi 6E is a big “inflection point,” using much more of the wireless spectrum than its predecessors. “If you’re using that spectrum with a Wi-Fi 6 [device],” he said, “you’re going to get significant gains [in speed.]”

MacPherson added Wi-Fi 6E will likely “carry you for a long time” thanks to the fact its “top throughputs now typically exceed what people can actually connect their home to.” In short, with a top theoretical per-stream speed of 1.2 Gbps, Wi-Fi 6E is fast enough to outrun all but the fastest internet service.

I’m sorry folks, we need to get boringly technical for one paragraph, but I promise you it’s worth it.

Wi-Fi is governed by International Standard IEEE 802.11, and every few years a letter gets added onto that name when the technology evolves and improves. Until 2019, routers were sold under their IEEE name, leaving users to pick through the word soup of a product labeled 802.11 b/g/a/n/ac and so on.

Mercifully, wiser heads opted to rebrand the letters as numbers, so rather than 802.11 b/g/a/n/ac, we have Wi-Fi 1, 2, 3 4 and 5. Right now, we’re in the middle of one of those Wi-Fi generations, with most of the gear on sale right now supporting either Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E.

Wi-Fi uses chunks of the radio frequency spectrum, with Wi-Fi 6 using the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands to pump data around. In fact, back in the old days, it was likely your home router would offer you the choice of the 2.4GHz or the 5GHz network, as separate bands to access. These days, all of the spectrums are tied together as one thing, and Wi-Fi 6E has the added ability to use the 6GHz band as well. That’s a big chunk of extra wireless real estate that isn’t as cluttered up as the 2.4 and 5GHz bands.

Each Wi-Fi band had tradeoffs, because the slower radio frequencies have greater range but less speed. 2.4GHz signals will travel a long way in your home but aren’t quick, while 6GHz is blisteringly fast but can be defeated by a sturdy brick wall. A lot of Wi-Fi-enabled gear you own, like smart home products, only use the 2.4GHz band because the range is better and it’s a lot cheaper. But it means that the band is also overcrowded and slow, making it great for your doorbell and robovac, but lackluster for Twitch streaming.

Right now, the market is full of mature Wi-Fi 6 and 6E devices, and most new systems available to buy are capable of taking advantage of the faster speeds they offer. This guide focuses on Wi-Fi 6E gear since it’s what we think it’s more than enough to satisfy almost everyone’s at-home Wi-Fi needs.

We’re now seeing the first generation of Wi-Fi 7 devices available to buy, but we don’t recommend you do so immediately. The Wi-Fi 7 standard is still so new that there’s little to no reason for you to rush out and buy one for your home. The hardware is tremendously expensive and while Wi-Fi 7 will, eventually, offer some great benefits over 6E, it’s not as transformative an upgrade as 6E. Not to mention, Wi-Fi 7 is so new that almost none of your home’s devices will be able to take advantage of its big-ticket features. I’d estimate you won’t need to worry about upgrading to Wi-Fi 7 for at least five years, if not longer.

All Wi-Fi routers boast a theoretical broadcast range and a theoretical top speed, and in some cases external antennas to boost signal directionality — but these figures don’t mean much. After all, manufacturers can’t control your ISP’s real speed, the materials and layout of your home or where you put your Wi-Fi gear. Raw speed isn’t everything, either, and you likely need less peak speed than your provider advertises. What matters more is consistent bandwidth and stable performance throughout your entire home. After all, Netflix needs just 15 Mbps to push a single 4K video stream to your home. As cool as it is to say you’ve got all these hundreds of Mbps, factors like latency and reliability are far more crucial to a happy internet life. And unless you have Gigabit internet that can reach speeds of up to 1 Gbps, you won’t need a mesh router that offers that spec.

Mesh Wi-Fi systems work by connecting every hardware node to a single wireless network, letting them all communicate with each other. Imagine four people in a busy, noisy restaurant all trying to order their dinner from a weary staff member, all at once. Now imagine, while this is going on, that four more people at that same table are also trying to tell a funny anecdote. It’s no surprise that it might take a long time for the right information to reach its intended destination.

To combat this, higher-end mesh routers offer dedicated wireless backhaul, allowing nodes to communicate without eating into the high-speed bandwidth your devices rely on. So rather than everyone talking at once in the same space, the conversations are essentially separated, reducing the invisible clutter in the air. Because there’s less confusing cross-chatter, everything moves faster, offering a significant performance boost to those systems.

These days, even your washing machine can have a wireless connection, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore the joys of wired internet. No matter how fast Wi-Fi is, a hard line will always be faster, and wired connections can significantly improve Wi-Fi mesh network performance when used for backhaul. Plenty of routers can also use these hard connections as backhaul, eliminating further wireless clutter.

It’s convenient for spread-out systems and power users, but it will mean running more wires through your home. The most common standard is Cat 5e, or gigabit ethernet which, unsurprisingly, has a top speed of 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps). Since Ethernet cables are backward compatible, you should be able to easily find one that works with your system. However, to get the most out of your mesh routers, it’s worth investing in an Ethernet cable that meets the standard your router uses — if it’s Cat 5e, use a Cat 5e cable. You can check your router’s specs via the manufacturer’s website to be sure.

Mesh routers enable you to add (or subtract) modules from your home network to suit your needs. D-Link’s Alan Jones said users should “check how scalable the prospective product is” before you buy. This sense of scale doesn’t just apply to the number of nodes on the network, but how many simultaneous connections it can handle.

It’s also worth looking at ASUS’ AiMesh products, which can combine mesh Wi-Fi gear and its standard “spider” Wi-Fi routers. If you’ve got a tricky part of your home, you can bolt on an ultra-power standalone Wi-Fi router to a compatible mesh.

Mesh networks replace one big piece of hardware with a series of identical nodes that you scatter around your home, each acting as a shared access point to maintain coverage throughout the entire home. You connect one to your modem (usually over ethernet), and then scatter the rest around the place for the best coverage. A good rule of thumb is to place each node no more than two rooms away from the last one, rather than sticking them at the far ends of your home.

Bear in mind, every physical obstacle between a Wi-Fi node, its siblings and your devices will hurt your overall performance. You should aim to place them, at the very least, at waist height on furniture in open air, without too many obstructions. The reason many mesh Wi-Fi products are designed to look like an inoffensive white doodad is so you don’t feel compelled to hide them behind your TV.

Eero built its reputation on easy to use yet powerful mesh systems that offer a lot of good in a relatively small and affordable package. Setup is effortless, the app running things is clean and simple, and you get the added benefit of backwards compatibility with older hardware. Sadly, the issue with every Eero system is that so many basic management features, like parental controls, are paywalled behind the company’s Eero Plus subscription for $100 a year.

Eero Pro 6E is an “easy” device, the sort a total novice can set up on their own and thrive with for years on end. There’s little brainwork required to get things set up, and the app has a clean UI with plenty of hand-holding. But, as with the Eero Pro 7, the fact that so many basic management tools are paywalled irks me, especially since you can get plenty of them for free with Google’s rival offering.

The Orbi 96T0 (RBKE963) is Netgear’s flagship mesh Wi-Fi product, which the company calls the “world’s most powerful Wi-Fi 6E system.” It’s also one of the most expensive consumer-level kits on the market, setting you back $1,499.99 for a three pack. It's a fantastic piece of gear, but it's worth saying that the subset of people who could, would or should buy it remains far smaller than you might expect. Ultimately, I feel that if you’re paying luxury prices, you should expect a luxury product. There were plenty of times during testing that I went looking for a feature that was either only available via the web client, or behind a paywall. While, yes, much of your cash is going to the superlative hardware, but for this sort of money, the fact you have to pay extra for some table-stakes features is insulting. If you’re looking for a new Wi-Fi system and aren’t prepared to spend almost $1,500, it’s worth considering our other top picks for the best Wi-Fi routers and mesh systems.

My home covers around 2,200 square feet across three stories with the office on the third floor. It’s relatively long and thin, with the living room at the front of the house, the kitchen at the back and the three bedrooms on the first floor. Its age means there are a lot of solid brick walls, old-school lathe and plaster as well as aluminum foil-backed insulation boards to help with energy efficiency. There are two major Wi-Fi dead zones in the house: The bathroom and the third bedroom behind it, since there’s lots of old and new pipework in the walls and floors.

For mesh routers with two nodes, I place the first in my living room, connected via ethernet to my cable modem with the second on the first floor landing in the (ostensible) center of the house. For three-node sets, the third goes in my kitchen, which I’ve found is the optimal layout to get the bulk of my house covered in Wi-Fi. Fundamentally, my home poses enough challenges that if it succeeds here, it stands a very good chance of succeeding in your place.

Each mesh is judged on ease of setup, Wi-Fi coverage, reliability, speed and any additional features that it advertises. I look at how user-friendly each companion app is from the perspective of a novice rather than an expert given you shouldn’t need to be a network engineer to do this sort of thing. Tests I do include checking for dead zones, moving from room to room to measure consistency of connectivity and streaming multiple videos at once to replicate common usage patterns.

This is the section of our mesh Wi-Fi buyer’s guide where we talk about the stuff that most people just glide past. If you’re not familiar with technology, it can be intimidating if people talk about these things as if you’re expected to already know. So here’s a very simple, very basic rundown of some of the stuff you might have missed in very basic terms.

A Wi-Fi router is a box that usually sits close to wherever the internet comes into your home and pumps out information over radio waves. A mesh router, meanwhile, is a set of smaller devices, one of which sits next to your internet connection while the rest are scattered around your home. A single Wi-Fi router is great if your home is small, your needs aren’t too demanding, or if your home doesn’t have many radio-blocking obstructions that mean those signals can’t reach every corner of your home. But, much like standing next to a radio transmitter and then walking away from it in a straight line, after a while, the signal will degrade.

That’s the problem a mesh system is designed to solve, since it will take the signal from your modem and pump to the other mesh devices, known as nodes, in your home. That way, instead of having one big router in one part of your home, you have several small ones that ensure you have good Wi-Fi connectivity all over. It also helps ensure that there’s no risk of dropping your connection as you move around — a mesh router system makes it easy to, for instance, walk from room to room watching Netflix and know you won’t miss a single frame.

Oh boy. Wi-Fi extenders, or repeaters, are small devices designed to push Wi-Fi a little further than your Wi-Fi router can stretch. They’re cheap, compact and often come in the form of little boxes that sit on your plug sockets with the hope of pushing Wi-Fi to a signal-sparse corner of your home. They are, and I can’t put this delicately enough, often a big pile of rubbish and are often not worth your time. Especially since the price of mesh routers has fallen to within most people’s budgets.

As we explained above, mesh Wi-Fi systems work by connecting every hardware node to a single wireless network, letting them all communicate with each other. Imagine four people in a busy, noisy restaurant all trying to order their dinner from a weary staff member, all at once. Now imagine, while this is going on, that four more people at that same table are also trying to tell a funny anecdote. It’s no surprise that it might take a long time for the right information to reach its intended destination.

To combat this, higher-end mesh routers offer dedicated wireless backhaul; a slice of the spectrum for node-to-node communication. So rather than everyone talking at once in the same space, the conversations are essentially separated, reducing the invisible clutter in the air. Because there’s less confusing cross-chatter, everything moves faster, offering a significant performance boost to those systems.

This is a great question that doesn’t have a simple answer.

It is (almost) always preferable to connect devices with a wire, in this case Ethernet, than to use Wi-Fi. The speeds are faster, it’s more reliable and your data is less vulnerable to the slings and arrows of the laws of physics. Hell, I spent about a year trying to work out how to build an iPhone to Ethernet connector back in the bad old days of Wi-Fi.

But your ability to do so depends on your level of DIY skills and / or how much money you want to spend on contractors. Wiring your home for Ethernet if you don’t have the infrastructure already can be a costly and time-consuming process. Particularly if you don’t want ugly wires running along your baseboards and under your carpets or across your hardwood floors.

If you’re building your own home or can do some serious DIY, then hard wiring is a fantastic thing to have. It goes wonderfully hand-in-glove with mesh networks too, since you’ll be able to hook up your nodes to the network for even better speeds.

But if I’m honest, advances in Wi-Fi technology mean I’d only go for hard wiring if I really believed I needed the sort of speed it offers. Unless you’re a Twitch streamer running your own 24/7 content studio, it’s probably overkill.

When we started renovating our 140-year-old home, I had Ethernet installed in the living room, the master and second bedroom and in my office, all at the front of the house. I can’t use it for my mesh since I’d need to put the wiring through the middle of the house. If I ever had the wiring done again, I would do so as I know I’ll instantly see a meaningful improvement in both my connection speed and reliability. But I wouldn’t spend several thousand pounds to have it done just for the sake of it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/best-mesh-wifi-system-130028701.html?src=rss

Rode’s latest wireless microphones now work with digital cameras

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Rode’s range of tiny, portable microphones are a mainstay for creators looking for crisp audio on their phone videos. The company knows that those using digital cameras probably want that same blend of portability and performance for their own footage. That’s why it’s launching the new Wireless Micro Camera Kit, which outputs audio over USB-C or via a 3.5mm line-in.

As with the Wireless Micro, the new set includes a pair of microphones and a transmitter that all sit in a portable charging case. You’ll also find a pair of furry wind screens should you need to film in less than favorable weather. But unlike that model, the receiver comes with both a cold shoe mount and a 1.1-inch AMOLED screen. That will let you configure the audio setup on the fly, plus you’ll get battery data for all three units and an on-screen visualizer.

Image of the Rode Wireless Camera Kit attached to a DSLR
Rode

It would appear that Rode noticed user gripes that its own kit was being shown up by DJI’s Mic Mini, which had a transmitter with its own 3.5mm jack and shoe mount for camera connection. In addition, Rode has added Bluetooth Direct Connect to the microphones so they’ll connect to your iOS phone directly via the Rode Capture App. Which, like the 3.5mm, was a notable omission from the older hardware.

In terms of battery life, Rode says the kit and the charging case will hold up to 21 hours of use before you need to head back to an outlet.

Plus, to sweeten the deal, Rode is also throwing in one of its first-generation USB-C smartphone receivers into the package for free.

Rode’s Wireless Micro Camera Kit is available to purchase today for $149.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/rodes-latest-wireless-microphones-now-work-with-digital-cameras-025338766.html?src=rss

Withings’ $380 toilet-mounted urine analyzer is finally ready to buy

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It’s been nearly three years since Withings first showed off U-Scan to a bemused world, and now it’s finally on sale. U-Scan is the company’s at-home urinalysis gizmo which sits in your toilet bowl and tests your first splash of the day. The device runs a tiny sample through a microfluidic to test, depending on what cartridge you use, either your nutritional or kidney health. These results are then sent to the Withings app, letting you track the quality of your urine over time. Your humble narrator holds the dubious honor of being the first reporter to test the U-Scan during its debut, and found the results pretty interesting.

There are two cartridges available at launch, the first dubbed Nutrio, which looks at your body’s response to nutrition. It will look at your urine’s pH, specific gravity, ketones and the presence of vitamin C over time. Those factors can help you understand if your diet is too acidic, how much fluid you’re drinking on a regular basis, if you’re burning fat, and your anti oxidant intake. The company says that Nutri will be of special interest to people taking GLP-1 medication for weight loss to help them monitor changes to their nutrition levels. Calci, meanwhile, will track your urine’s pH, specific gravity and calcium levels, to keep an eye on your risk of developing kidney stones.

Naturally, such a tool will not be the most affordable in the world, and you can expect to pay a hefty price to own one. Pay $379.95 and you’ll be able to get a U-Scan, a single cartridge that will last for three months, and access to Withings+. The options are then split across “Proactive” and “Intensive” Plans, with the former giving you 2-4 analyses per week, while the latter runs near-daily. If you want the closer monitoring, then $449.96 will get you two cartridges and Withings+ access, which will last you the same three month window. As for replacement cartridges, those on the Proactive tier will spend $99.95 every quarter, while those in team Intensive will pay $179.95. As part of signing up for Withings+, you’ll get a free coaching session with a registered dietician available in all 50 states.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/withings-380-toilet-mounted-urine-analyzer-is-finally-ready-to-buy-040146049.html?src=rss

The Morning After: It’s Black Friday!

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Black Friday is finally upon us, willing us to purchase some much-needed tech with some degree of a discount. Our Black Friday hub has been collecting the best deals available, so you can save a bundle in the run-up to the holidays. And while there have been some tasty deals in the last few days, the real blockbusters have now dropped.

That includes $75 off the PlayStation 5 Slim, with a decent chunk sliced off the price of a PS5 wireless DualSense controller. Sony has also knocked $100 from the price of its class-leading XM5 headphones, which you can snag for $298. Not to mention, you can grab the brand-new M4 Mac Mini with 16GB RAM and 256GB storage for $500.

There are plenty more where that came from, which is why we have the Black Friday hub. So go and get all the biggest and best deals without having to lift a finger.

— Dan Cooper

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News In Brief

Promotional image for WhatsApp's new VM transcripts.
WhatsApp

Voice messages: You either love them or feel you’re being forced to listen to the world’s least engaging podcast. Someone at WhatsApp must feel similarly given the platform has now added a way to transcribe the voice messages you receive. The feature is rolling out globally in the coming weeks, with more languages incoming.

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Amazon may face an EU antitrust investigation next year, with regulators curious if it promoted its own products at the expense of competitors. The continent has stringent rules around big tech platforms that act as both the marketplace and a player in the same space. If found to have given its own gear preferential treatment, the fines under the Digital Markets Act can be hefty.

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The New York Times and OpenAI are battling it out in court, with the former accusing the latter of plagiarism. During the discovery phase, OpenAI created two virtual machines that the NYT’s lawyers could examine to gather evidence. But after 150 hours of research, some of that data was erased, which OpenAI blamed on a glitch.

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Image of a person using a wheelchair.
Neuralink

Canada has given its blessing for Neuralink to conduct human trials of its brain implant in the country. The Elon Musk-owned company has already opened the door for would-be trialists to apply to be the first Canadian to receive the implant. It’s asking for volunteers with quadriplegia caused either by a spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

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Image of the Rabbit R1
Photo by Devindra Hardawar / Engadget

The Rabbit R1 was a neat-looking pocketable AI doodad that sadly didn’t really do enough to justify buying one. Since it stumbled out of the gate, however, a raft of software updates has added many of the features initially promised at launch. The latest is Teach Mode, which lets users automate tasks on any website, which is nice.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-121559120.html?src=rss

The Morning After: Amazon’s got a 21-inch Echo Show

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As our homes (and lives) get smarter, the need for some sort of digital hub big enough to run things becomes more urgent. It’s why Amazon surprise-released a new 21-inch version of its Echo Show that does everything the Show 15 did, but biggererer. It gets a built-in smart home hub with Thread, Zigbee and Matter control, Wi-Fi 6E and a better camera for video calls.

I bought an Echo Show 8 on a whim to use as a screen for my Ring doorbell and found it quite underwhelming. But the idea of having a 21-inch screen that could theoretically lay out to-do lists and calendar tasks on the daily is quite appealing. Having two small kids makes being able to marshal all our schedules on one device quite desirable.

— Dan Cooper

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The best Black Friday deals

Xbox Promotional Image
Microsoft

Microsoft now allows you to stream select games you own to devices that support Xbox Cloud Gaming. From the outset, Stream Your Own Game will support 50 titles, including Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3 and Balatro. If there’s a catch, it’s that you still need to be a Game Pass Ultimate member to only stream games you own digitally.

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Kabletown Comcast, parent company of NBC Universal, will spin out the bulk of its cable TV empire into a new entity. The as-yet unnamed business will incorporate USA, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, E!, Syfy and the Golf Channel alongside Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes. However the decision is justified, it just looks like Comcast is getting out of the cable business. After all, you probably watched more Suits on Netflix than you did when it first aired on the USA Network.

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Image of a MacBook Pro on a table
Photo by Devindra Hardawar / Engadget

Apple has released a raft of security updates for Macs, iPhones, iPads, the Vision Pro and Safari. The company says the updates close a zero-day security hole that could enable malicious code. When you get the little pop-up asking you to update your machine, don’t ignore it.

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The UK is launching an inquiry into the role social media played during the 2024 summer riots. Its chair, Chi Onwurah MP, intends to call Elon Musk to speak, given X was a key vector for the distribution of AI-generated images designed to whip up hate. Musk will likely relish the chance to speak — after all, his tweet during the UK riots was “Civil war is inevitable.”

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-amazons-got-a-21-inch-echo-show-121502524.html?src=rss

The Morning After: DOJ wants Google to sell Chrome

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The Department of Justice is reportedly planning to make Google sell its Chrome browser to address its search monopoly. It’s in response to a 2020 lawsuit filed by the DOJ and several US states that was finally ruled upon in August. Google has, naturally, said such a sale would be a terrible idea and would harm American competitiveness in the tech industry. I’m more curious about how much inherent value Chrome has without the backing of its parent company.

— Dan Cooper

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News in Brief

Image of a proposed Minecraft Theme Park
Merlin Entertainments

The company behind Legoland is teaming up with Mojang to build Minecraft theme parks in the US and UK. Both locations will have interactive attractions based on the game, as well as rides, gift shops and restaurants designed to milk cash out of weary parents. The announcement came on the same day as the first full trailer for A Minecraft Movie, another sign of the game’s growing cultural dominance. Given I can’t move in my own home without hearing famous Minecraft YouTuber Aphmau screech-shouting at the top of her lungs, I can’t wait to grind my teeth into powder taking my kids to enjoy both.

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Image of the PlayStation Portal held aloft.
Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

Someone at Sony has finally noticed the PlayStation Portal was shipped without its raison d’être: cloud streaming. The company is pushing a software update for users to test the feature with more than 120 PS5 Plus games. It only took them a whole damn year to get around to it.

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Over the weekend, two undersea data cables in Europe were cut, with one German politician claiming sabotage. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has gone public with his belief the two lines were deliberately cut, but admits he has no proof to support his claim. Both Germany and Finland, two of the countries affected, say a thorough investigation is in progress.

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Sonos
Sonos

Sonos hasn’t had a great year, but one highlight has been the Arc Ultra soundbar, the first model to debut its Sound Motion technology. Now, I bet you’re wondering what that tech is and what it does, which is why Engadget’s audio expert Billy Steele has cooked up this guide. He’ll talk you through what it’s good for, why Sonos spent $100 million to own it and what it means for the future of your home audio.

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Snippet from the cover art from Warcraft
Blizzard Entertainment

I’ve got fond memories of playing Warcraft II as a kid, with “They’re destroying our city!” a regular rallying cry in me and my friend Shane’s playground games. Engadget’s Igor Bonifacic has a similar love for the series and leapt in to play the recently released remaster. Sadly, it looks like Blizzard phoned this one in, prompting Igor to look a little closer at what’s going on.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-121538152.html?src=rss

The Morning After: Get ready for Black Friday

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Black Friday is upon us once again, and the internet’s awash with gonzo deals on the world’s most sought after tech. Naturally, you’re too busy living your actual life to check if the deals on offer are as good as they’re made out to be. That’s why Engadget employs a crack team of spreadsheet nerds to comb through what’s hot and what’s not. If you’re in the market for a new device, keep your eyes on our guide of the real deals.

For instance, a big chunk of change has been knocked off the M3 MacBook Airs to clear room for the M4s. Given the M3 was already a superlative-exhausting piece of equipment, that you can now snag one for as little as $899 is staggering. If I was in the US and in the market for a new machine, I’d have whipped my credit card out before writing this newsletter. I’m asking the universe for Fujifilm to offer an even tastier discount for the X-T50 in the coming days.

— Dan Cooper

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News in Brief

FCC Official Portrait of Brendan Carr
FCC

President-elect Trump has named Brendan Carr as incoming head of the Federal Communications Commission. Carr is a Trump man through and through, having previously served as an aide to Ajit Pai, and Trump appointed him to the FCC board in his first tenure. He also drafted the FCC portion of the infamous Project 2025 manifesto, is against Net Neutrality and pushes the myth Big Tech suppresses conservative speech. All in all, a swell guy.

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If anyone still believes the myth social media platforms suppress conservative speech, then this latest Pew report will… probably be dismissed as fake news. The thinktank has researched the state of “news influencers” who have stepped in to fill the void vacated by traditional news media. It found the most popular names online are more likely to skew right than left, and that a concerning number of people would rather get their news from individuals over publications with commitments to things like fact checking and proving what they claim.

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A crucial but unseen part of our internet infrastructure is the network of undersea cables that carries data between countries. Two of those, one between Lithuania and Sweden and one between Finland and Germany, were cut during the weekend. Officials haven’t yet made their findings public, but the hints are of sabotage by a hostile foreign power.

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A story from the pages of ‘What, you weren’t doing that already!?’ magazine.

Image of Roblox' mobile parental controls
Roblox

Roblox is adding new restrictions to younger children’s accounts to beef up its nonexistent safety credentials. This includes plans to limit users under the age of 13 sending private messages to other users without parental permission. The company has also announced parents will be able to monitor their kids’ Roblox use from their phones.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-get-ready-for-black-friday-121500820.html?src=rss

I’m kinda in awe of this goofy solar scooter

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This is Lightfoot, a solar scooter conceived by San Francisco-based R&D outfit Otherlab that, it claims, will be available to buy in the US from January. The most eye-catching feature are the two side panels covered in solar cells that will hopefully keep you from needing a charger. In the gap between the two, however, is a fairly capacious cargo compartment with almost 1.6 cubic feet of space. That should be more than enough to haul your gear to and from work, or to pick up some groceries when you’re out and about. The padded seat and footplates, too, are designed to carry the rider and an additional passenger when required, too. 

Specs-wise, there’s a pair of 750W brushless DC motors with a top speed of 20 miles per hour, generating 90Nm of peak torque, which should hopefully be enough to scale the hills around SF (and wherever you are). They’re wired up to a 1.1kWh battery that the company promises will deliver a range of 37 miles on a single charge. The two 120W panels on either side will trickle charge the battery when on the road or parked up outdoors. Otherlab claims this idle solar charging will add three miles of charge per hour, or 18 miles if you leave it for a whole day.

Image of the Lightfoot Solar Scooter with the cargo door open.
Lightfoot / Otherlab

Aside from the solar hardware, Otherlab claims that you — or a qualified technician — will be able to keep this running without any outside assistance. It said most of the components are off-the-shelf motorcycle parts and that they can be repaired or replaced just as easily. There’s also a one-year whole-bike and two-year mechanical guarantee, as well as a no-question buy back policy. We’ll reserve judgment on every facet of this until we’re able to test it for ourselves, but we’re looking forward to doing so just to see what this thing feels like to ride.

Pre-orders for the Lightfoot are opening today for $4,995, with Otherlab pledging to make the first deliveries in January 2025.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/im-kinda-in-awe-of-this-goofy-solar-scooter-150041980.html?src=rss

Bridge Command lets you live out your starship fantasies

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In 2016, I dragged my Engadget colleagues to preview Star Trek: Bridge Crew, a VR title letting you live out your fantasies of sitting on the bridge of a starship. Sadly, despite having two fans in the team, we failed miserably at the game, a wound I’ve been nursing ever since. When Bridge Command, London’s latest attraction, asked me if I wanted to try out its real world equivalent, I leapt at the chance. After all, this wasn’t just me testing out a new sci-fi themed event, it was a shot at redemption.

Bridge Command sits in the space between an escape room, team-building exercise, live-action roleplay and immersive theater. It’s essentially a paid-for LARP taking place on a custom-built starship set which cost £3 million (around $4 million) to play space captain. In order to survive and succeed, each player must work with their team, communicate and solve problems on the fly for the better part of two hours.

ASIDE: There’s plenty of existing bridge simulator roleplaying games and a small, but vibrant community that supports it. Digital platforms like Thorium Nova, Artemis and EmptyEpsilon are all platforms that enable folks to gather around to play in teams. Bridge Command itself is built on top of EmptyEpsilon’s platform, albeit with some degree of customization on top.

Effort has been taken to ensure Bridge Command isn’t a one-and-done experience, and creator Parabolic Theatre hopes to build a base of recurring fans. There are two different “ships” players can crew, the smaller UCS Havock and the far larger UCS Takanami, which do two different jobs in the fleet. In terms of capacity, both vessels can take up to 14 players at a time but the ideal figure is around nine. There are four different mission types, too:

  • Exploration: Involving discovery and adversity.

  • Military: Space dogfighting.

  • Intrigue: Espionage and more subtle action.

  • Diplomacy: Making nice with alien races.

With two ships and four missions, you can play the game eight times and theoretically get a new experience every time. But creators Parabolic Theatre will look to develop the game’s running story over time, like a long-running D&D campaign. The game even tracks your performance as your career progresses, and can receive promotions after a particularly successful mission.

I dragged a Trek-loving friend along to one of the previews, which set us on a Military mission on the UCS Havock. We were tasked with escorting a resupply mission to a large warship on assignment, a rather mundane assignment. It’s not much of a spoiler to suggest our gang of plucky underdogs might wind up in over their heads on a far grander mission. Or that they’ll need to take the under-equipped ship to go toe-to-toe with the baddies and win out against impossible odds.

Both “ships” are fully-realized starship sets, which are probably better-assembled than what you’ll see on most sci-fi series. They’re designed to withstand the regular punishment that can only occur when crews of friends come to play spaceships. But once you’re onboard, you’re essentially in a self-contained environment for the duration of the mission. And it’s a pretty impressive piece of set design.

The vibe is distinctly Star Voyage (Not Infringing Any Copyright, Promise!), with the Havock laid out like the USS Defiant, but with the paint job from Red Dwarf’s first two seasons. A trio of terminals line each side wall, with the captain’s chair on a raised dais in the middle. There’s a helm console up front that’s pointed directly at the imposing viewscreen that dominates the room. There’s a ready room off to one side of the bridge and a toilet on the other, while the corridor behind the bridge is the ship’s engineering bay, bunkroom and brig.

Everything from the terminals and the set is linked up, so if a subsystem takes damage you’ll not just have it grayed out on your screen. Built-in dry ice machines will emit “smoke” when something goes wrong or you take a nasty hit from an enemy vessel. If the lights had flashed at the same time, I’d have been tempted to start jostling myself around in my seat to add to the immersion.

Image of the UCS Takanami (c) Alex Brenner. No use without credit.
The bridge of the (larger) UCS Takanami.
Alex Brenner / Bridge Command

There were seven of us in the party, including some other journalists and some regular players who were coming for a regular session. Your humble narrator took the helm, figuring that I’d played enough Star Trek: Tactical Assault and Star Trek: Bridge Commander to be useful. We had an acting captain, and folks manning the radar, communications, engineering, laser and torpedo stations.

If you’ve ever used a touchscreen in your life then you won’t feel too unmoored from the role you’ve got to do here. Not to mention the first half hour of the game is little more than a tutorial to ensure that everyone is fluent with what they’ve got to do.

My helm station, for instance, offers you a picture of the ship with a 360-degree coordinate ring around it. There are two sliders, one for impulse power and one for warp, and a small square that lets you make some small evasive maneuvers. This is fine when the ocean-going liners you find in Star Trek are just heading from waypoint to waypoint, but pretty rubbish for combat. And I’m still annoyed you’re locked to a flat plain when space offers so much room for verticality.

Spoiler warning: The following three paragraphs outline my mission in greater detail.

The story begins while you’re putting on your military-issue space boilersuit, with a fictional newsreel playing in the background setting the scene. Once you’ve “transported” from the entrance to the space station, you’re then given a mission briefing and a send-off from the Earth president. Our mission, as outlined, was to escort a freighter on a resupply mission to a battle fleet which was dealing with pirates on the edge of the system.

A member of the Bridge Command team starts as our captain, giving us a tour of the ship and assigning roles for us to play. After we all get used to the basics in what might as well be called the tutorial stage, the captain then departs to help elsewhere. We’re then sent off to scout for incoming threats in nearby nebulas that, quelle surprise, are full of pirates. Naturally, the closer we get to the battle group, the harder the attacks we have to repel, forcing our chief engineer to race around repairing and repowering systems.

We limped to the battle group, repairing and re-armoring before we hatched a plan to play Possum to lure out the pirates. That plan worked spectacularly well, and with our hull integrity at just three percent, we were able to take out the pirates command and control vessel. After being congratulated by the top brass we were escorted back to the space station for a debrief and a drink in the bar.

End of Spoiler Warning: The following paragraphs do not contain any spoiler material.

It’s important to be aware of one’s own privilege and preferences when reviewing something like this. I found Bridge Command to be enormous fun, and if I lived in London, I suspect it would quickly become a hobby I indulged in with like-minded friends on a monthly basis. At £40 ($50) a session, the cost is a little steep but, even so, you could easily make this a long-running roleplaying game. And I’m sorely tempted to go a few more times when I can just to try and gain those promotions.

If there’s a downside (and it’s not even really a downside per-se), it’s that there are phases of play where you’re not doing anything. Or, at least, you’re a present and useful member of the team waiting for your colleagues to fulfill their parts of the mission. I found, given the need for clear oral communication and cooperation, that there were plenty of times where the best thing I could do to help my team was shut up and wait.

Given that focus on communication, I suspect it might be a turn-off if you’re a little shy or quiet of voice. The game doesn’t work unless everyone’s talking to share information between consoles and so it’s nearly-impossible to sit quietly in the corner. That’s not to say you need to bring any Big Theater Kid energy along, but I can imagine how this would feel like mandatory fun if you were dragged along by your friends or on a work team-building exercise. It’s a damn sight more fun and less painful than paintball, so maybe count your blessings there.

Bridge Command is located at St. George’s Wharf which is next to Vauxhall tube station in London. It is open for most of each day through to late evening, with ticket prices starting at £40 (around $50) at off-peak times for a single session.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/bridge-command-lets-you-live-out-your-starship-fantasies-140046532.html?src=rss