There’s a concern that electrifying supercars will kill their spirit. A breed of vehicle known for massive roars, outrageous designs, and cornering that smooshes your internal organs from side to side while the vehicle sticks to the road.
But electrification is coming and how that’s handled can mean the difference between a vehicle that wins over naysayers or one that fails and gives the gas-or-nothing crowd one more piece of evidence that everything is ruined when a battery is added. McLaren’s Artura is not only an engineering marvel built upon a brand-new architecture; it’s also sure to get everyone on board with the idea of cramming an electric motor into a supercar.
The Artura can do zero to 60 in three seconds. That’s EV fast, and it’s thanks to the supercar’s plug-in hybrid setup. Wedged between a twin-turbo V6 and the 8-speed transmission sits a tiny electric motor that’s powered by a 7.5kWh battery pack. It adds low-end torque at launch and while exiting corners while the gas engine catches up.
On the more environmental side, according to the EPA the Artura can travel 11 miles while in EV-only mode. McLaren noted that it could get up to 15 with more surface street driving. It’s not in the league of the other PHEVs on the market, which offer ranges above 30 miles per charge. Remember though, it’s a supercar with all the joy and excitement that comes with that package.
We got a chance to try it out on the roads around Las Vegas, Nevada, and ended the day with 14 laps around a track. In both situations, it impressed. Watch the video below for the full story.
Jeep's first foray into electrified vehicles hasn't gone quite as smoothly as planned. The brand has recalled 62,909 Wrangler 4xe off-roaders over a fault that leads to unexpected shutdowns of the 2.0L plug-in hybrid engine. The powerplant may switch off when the diagnostic system reacts to a loss of communication, possibly leading to a crash if the failure occurs mid-drive.
The flaw affects Wrangler 4xe variants from the 2021 through to 2023 model year vehicles produced before August 17th, 2022, when Jeep started shipping units with updated control software. The National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) says there have been two crashes and one injury potentially linked to the problem, as well as customer assistance instances, warranty claims and field reports.
Jeep will fix the affected Wranglers by updating calibration software for their hybrid control and transmission processors. It expects to formally notify owners starting January 12th. The NHTSA started investigating reports as early as September 2021, but it wasn't until November this year that the investigation wrapped and Jeep's parent Stellantis decided to launch a voluntary recall.
The glitch is unlikely to represent a major setback to Jeep's electric vehicle push. However, the timing is less than ideal. It comes just a few months after Jeep unveiled Grand Cherokee and Wrangler Willy PHEV models, and previewed its all-electric Avenger SUV. The Stellantis-owned badge is just now trying to establish its EV reputation, and a recall won't help matters.
Your "right to be forgotten" (or rather, right to erasure) in the European Union now extends to bogus claims about you. The EU's Court of Justice has ruled that Google and similar providers must remove search results on request when they're "manifestly inaccurate." People making the demands will have to prove that there are significant falsehoods, but they'll only have to provide evidence that can be "reasonably" required. They won't have to obtain a judicial ruling, in other words. The search engine creator can't be forced to actively participate in the investigation.
The judgment is a response to a case where two investment managers asked Google to delist search results for their names that linked to articles criticizing their business model. The managers argued the claims were false, and also objected to thumbnail images that were allegedly taken out of context. Google declined to honor the request, contending that it didn't know if the information was accurate.
In a statement to Politico, Google said it "welcome[d]" the ruling and would review the Court of Justice's decision. It stressed that the affected search results and thumbnails haven't been available for a long while.
The determination could help shape interpretations of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). You'll not only have the right to remove search data on privacy grounds (such as reports of an old conviction), but to pull content that's demonstrably false. This could theoretically help European residents reduce access to misinformation and slander, even if they're uninterested in filing lawsuits.
There are questions that remain. Notably, the court decision doesn't directly address parody. It's not clear if someone could ask Google and other search engines to delete content that's fake, but intended as a joke. It's also unknown if this could be used to hide content that's largely accurate, but includes a glaring error. A complainant could theoretically use this to minimize criticism by targeting less-than-perfect stories. However, the ruling at least lays a groundwork that could be used for future disputes.
Google is rolling out two new modes for Chrome that are designed to make the browser less of a drain on your system's battery and memory. It says that, with the Memory Saver mode, Chrome will reduce its memory usage by up to 30 percent on desktop. The mode frees up memory from open tabs that you aren't using. Google says this will help to give you a smoother experience on active tabs. Chrome will reload inactive tabs when you switch back to them.
As for Battery Saver mode, Google says that can kick in when you're using the browser and your device's battery level drops to 20 percent. Chrome will then limit background activity and visual effects on tabs with videos and animations to help keep your device up and running for longer.
These features will be available as part of the m108 Chrome for desktop build. Google says all users will have access to them in the coming weeks and that it's starting to roll out the build today. You'll be able to turn off these modes in the settings and make certain sites exempt from Memory Saver.
The next game from Scavengers Studio is something completely different. Scavengers is the Montreal-based indie team behind Darwin Project, the online survival game that was a low-key and short-lived cult hit in 2020. Darwin Project offered a twist on battle royale gameplay, dropping a small group of players onto a shrinking map, and arming them each with just an axe and a bow. It was all about crafting, looting and surviving the elements, while also hunting the other players and watching your own back. Darwin Project went live as a free early access game in 2018, it launched in January 2020, and it was essentially shut down by November that year.
Scavengers' follow-up to Darwin Project is Season: A letter to the future, a single-player bicycle-riding adventure game about exploration and preservation at the end of the world. In Season, a young woman leaves her secluded village for the first time, just as a cataclysmic event is set to destroy everything around her.
She rides her bike across gorgeous landscapes, meeting new people, observing their rituals and documenting her journey. Players collect sound samples, take photographs and transcribe the habits of the wider world, collecting everything in one place before it all disappears.
Season looks like a slowly unraveling mystery set in a beautiful environment and built for just one player at a time. It's the opposite of Darwin Project, and for that reason it feels like a delicious surprise from a studio that's still hungry to prove itself.
Season: A letter to the future is coming to PlayStation 4, PS5, the Epic Games Store and Steam on January 31st, 2023. It'll cost $25 on PC and $30 on PlayStation platforms. On PS5, players will use the DualSense's adaptive triggers to pedal their bicycle, with varying resistances as the roads rise and fall, and the controller's haptic feedback will mirror the texture of the path forward.
The new mesh router from Google, Nest WiFi Pro, launched back in October and is just now seeing its first discount. If you've been thinking about stepping up to the newly opened 6GHz WiFi band or are curious to see how Google's new smart home industry standard, Matter, will operate once it launches, this might be the time to add the routers to your cart.
You'll get the best deal with the two-pack, which is 17 percent off, making it $250 for the set. The three-pack and the single unit are both 15 percent off, bringing them down to $340 and $170, respectively. We're seeing discounts for all three packs at Amazon, but you can also head over to Wellbots and snag the three-pack for the same $340.
Google currently makes three different routers, Google WiFi, Nest WiFi and the new Nest WiFi Pro, which has a shiny new design and is the only one running WiFi 6E. If you're curious what that means, in a nutshell, in 2020 the FCC opened up more airwaves in the 6Ghz band for WiFi to run on, which allows your home WiFi to get better wireless connections with less congestion.
Google states that WiFi 6E will be up to twice as fast as the previous WiFi 6 standard. Of course, only devices that are WiFi 6E compatible will be able to access the new airwaves. But since these routers are tri-band, they also provide access to the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz frequency bands, meaning any device that currently runs on your WiFi will also run on these routers. Also keep in mind that these don't replace your modem, one router plugs into your ISP's modem or gateway (a combined modem router).
A single Nest WiFi Pro unit will extend coverage to a home up to 2,200 square feet. With three routers, you'll get up to 6,600 square feet of coverage. The routers are also ready to act as a hub that will work with Matter, Google's forthcoming smart home industry standard that's intended to bring more universal connectivity (as in, working with Apple, Samsung and Amazon devices) to the smart home landscape. It'll also make new smart home devices easier to set up and use. Matter is scheduled for this Fall and these Nest WiFi Pro routers will be ready when the service launches.
If you want to keep using Disney+ at the same price you've been paying each month since March last year, you'll need to put up with some ads starting today. The Disney+ Basic plan is now live and it costs $8 per month. To keep using the streaming service without ads, you'll need to pay $11 per month, which marks an increase of $3. That's now called the Premium plan and an annual membership costs $110.
Unlike Netflix's ad-supported plan, Disney+ Basic offers access to the platform's full library as well as high-quality streaming in 4K, Dolby Vision and the IMAX Enhanced format. The Netflix's Basic with Ads plan, which went live last month, costs $7. It limits streams to a resolution of 720p and some titles aren't available. However, neither company's ad-supported plan includes offline viewing. Disney+ Basic currently lacks other features that are available to Premium subscribers, including GroupWatch, SharePlay and Dolby Atmos.
Disney does offer some streaming bundles. For $10 per month, you'll get access to Disney+ Basic and Hulu with Ads. You'll pay $6 less per month than you would by subscribing to them individually. If you want to include ESPN+ in your bundle, there are three options. If you don't mind dealing with ads on all three services, you can subscribe to them for $13 per month. For an extra $2 per month, Disney+ will ditch the ads. For access to ad-free versions of all three streaming services, you'll pay $20 per month.
Disney announced the price changes before it canned former CEO Bob Chapek and brought back Bob Iger, who oversaw the Disney+ launch as well as the takeovers of Fox studios and cable channels, Pixar, Marvel and LucasFilm. Although the total number of Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ subscriber numbers rose to 235 million under Chapek's watch, the company has dealing with some business difficulties.
Disney lost $1.5 billion on the streaming side of the business last quarter, more than doubling the operating loss of $630 million from the same quarter in 2021. It attributed the steeper loss to higher production and technology costs, as well as greater marketing expenses. The introduction of the ad-supported plan and Premium price hike could help to make the streaming business profitable, though consumers may have to give the company more of their money or time to do so.
The idea of sitting in front of a massive 55-inch gaming monitor all day sounds like heaven. Being able to twist it into a towering portrait mode? The stuff of my multi-tasking dreams. That's the pitch behind Samsung's 55-inch 4K Odyssey Ark Monitor. As we saw during our first preview, it's a genuinely unique behemoth of a display, one that can easily immerse you in both Microsoft Flight Simulator and towering Excel spreadsheets.
Sure, you could just plug a 55-inch TV into your PC, but without the Ark's extreme curve, it would be too wide to comfortably use as a monitor. You also won't find any 4K TVs with the Ark's blazing fast 165Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time, let alone its surprisingly solid sound system. The Odyssey Ark stands alone. But is it actually worth $3,500? That depends on if you're able to live with its many annoyances (and if you don't think too hard about the price).
Annoyance number one? This thing is a bear to set up. Even with the help of two delivery workers, it took around 20 minutes to get the (very heavy) Ark monitor correctly attached to its (equally heavy) base. The entire unit weighs 91.5 pounds when put together, so be sure to have a sturdy desk at the ready. If that sounds a bit obscene, well, you'd be correct. Samsung's 55-inch QN90B NEO QLED TV weighs almost half as much (48.3 pounds), while LG's 65-inch C2 OLED TV clocks in at 72 pounds. Extreme heft is the unfortunate price you'll have to pay for a rotating monitor stand.
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
As soon as I sat in front of the Odyssey Ark, I understood why Samsung dared to build it. We've already seen its extra-wide 49-inch gaming monitors in action. And, of course the company that pushed the limits of phone screens would do the same for PCs. Given Samsung's robust TV business, it makes sense to explore the many other ways it could use 55-inch Mini LED panels. (The TV side is where we also saw Samsung debut screens that could rotate into TikTok-friendly portrait mode.) The Ark may not be entirely practical, but for Samsung it serves as a showcase for many of its display innovations.
Design-wise, the Odyssey Ark resembles Samsung's TVs more than its gaming monitors. It has a sturdy metal base (as it should, given its size), as well as a smooth metal case surrounding the curvy screen. It even comes with Samsung's One Connect breakout-box, one of the company's more intriguing TV inventions. It connects to the Ark over a single cable, while the box itself handles power and all of your typical connections (four HDMI 2.1 ports, an optical audio connection, 3.5mm headphone jack and two USB ports). While it was originally meant for screens you'd be mounting on walls, it's a welcome addition to the Odyssey Ark — nobody wants to push a near 100-pound beast around just to get to HDMI ports.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Samsung includes two ways to control the Ark: A simple remote with a directional pad and shortcuts for streaming apps like Netflix, as well as a dial for quickly managing the Ark's many different viewing modes. Both controllers are solar powered, so you'll just need to make sure they get a bit of light to keep running. I'd imagine that could be an issue in window-less offices like mine, but it wouldn't be that tough to place the remotes by a window every few months. On the plus side, they should be able to run indefinitely if you're lucky enough to have some light. (Solar cells can be charged by artificial lighting, but not very efficiently.)
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
The Ark's odd shape, as well as a few LED lighting strips on the rear, are the major signs that it's not a mere TV set. I've been in front of plenty of curved screens before, but nothing this extreme. The sides of the display almost seem like they're trying to embrace you with 4K Mini-LED goodness. It's an effective bit of immersion while you're viewing the Ark in its standard widescreen mode, reminiscent of specialized theaters like LA's Cinerama Dome. And unlike most TVs and monitors, the Ark's large frame allows it to house a six speaker sound system (four tweeters and two woofers), which delivers the audio punch of a medium-sized soundbar.
The combination of expansive sound and a wonderfully immersive picture make the Odyssey Ark a truly unique viewing experience. Movies, TV shows, and even trailers felt like they were drawing me into the action, so much so that I barely noticed the slight distortion from the curved sides of the screen. But while the Ark's sweet spot is indeed very sweet, showing off the added brightness of Mini-LED and the expansive color range from its Quantum Dot display, its viewing angle is incredibly limited. Just a few steps off the center and you immediately lose color and clarity. The curve giveth, the curve taketh away.
When it comes to software, the Ark is a curious device, sitting somewhere between what you'd expect from a smart TV (it has apps for Netflix, YouTube and everything else you'd expect), and a computer monitor. On the PC side, it can reach up to a 165Hz refresh rate, allowing for frenetic gaming at incredibly high framerates. Samsung has baked in multiple ways to take advantage of its massive screen size: Its "Multi View" mode lets you display up to three different apps at once. That can include a single HDMI video input, as well as a device mirrored wirelessly (using AirPlay or the Android equivalent). Additionally, there's a "Flex View" mode that lets you shrink an input down so it doesn't fill up the whole screen.
Now why would you want to do that? I quickly learned that playing fast-paced shooters like Overwatch 2 and Halo Infinite were overwhelming when sitting a few feet away from a 55-inch screen. Sure, I could see more detail, but moving the camera around quickly and trying to track potential enemies was nausea-inducing. I didn't mind sitting close to the screen for slower-paced games like A Plague Tale: Requiem, but for shooters I'd prefer moving the screen further back. Unfortunately, that just wasn't possible in my cramped basement office, so I occasionally used Flex View mode to shrink faster games down to size.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
The Ark also features built-in apps for every major game streaming service: Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Geforce Now, Amazon Luna, and yes even Google’s short-lived Stadia (that dies next month). You can easily pair Bluetooth controllers with the Ark directly, allowing you to treat it like an oversized console. I had no trouble signing into Game Pass and going through a few races in Forza Horizon 5, but as usual, your streaming experience will depend on the quality of your internet.
On the non-gaming front, I learned that moving to a 55-inch screen still required a bit of an adjustment. I typically use a 34-inch ultrawide monitor, which gives me a decent amount of horizontal space without being too overwhelming vertically. But sitting in front of the Odyssey Ark almost felt like sitting directly in front of the monolith from 2001 — there's just so much screen. After 30 minutes or so, I got used to using Slack, Evernote and my many browser tabs on a big screen. But when it came to focused writing and other work, the Ark was overkill. I wrote this review on the Ark during small sessions, but I just couldn't stick with it for too long.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Samsung's unique portrait view, or "Cockpit Mode," was similarly overpowering. It's easy to rotate the Ark between that and its typical landscape mode — you just have to push the screen to the top of the base and push along its left side — but I found the taller view genuinely off-putting. Instead of a warm embrace, it was honestly a bit threatening, as if my body was instinctively worried about the Ark toppling over.
It's easy to make Windows 11 recognize a portrait display, but I didn't find it too useful for my typical work. (Though I'd imagine some Flight Simulator fans may enjoy trying to tweak the game for a genuine cockpit view). Instead, the portrait orientation was better suited to the Ark's Multi View mode, allowing me to play a PC game in a small 31-inch square while I left a YouTube video running in another window on top, and my phone mirrored right above it. It's just a shame that Multi View mode doesn't currently support streaming video apps like Netflix. Also, you can only hear audio from up to two sources at once. (And if this sounds like pure information overload, well, it is.)
For whatever reason, the Ark did an awful job of downscaling my PC's desktop in Multi View mode, even after tweaking the resolution several times. Text was hard to read and images were blurry, as if I was looking at everything through a pair of dirty glasses. Fighting with that feature also made it clear how the Ark often pales in comparison to having a typical multi-monitor setup. It's not that hard to have another monitor sitting beside your standard screen, and that also wouldn't involve any sort of distortion. You're also more free to tweak the way external monitors are positioned and laid out, rather than working within the confines of Samsung's software.
Most importantly, though, a multi-monitor setup would be vastly cheaper than the Odyssey Ark's $3,500 retail price. (It's currently marked down to $2,500 for the holidays, but it's unclear if that will stick.) You could easily pick up a 55-inch OLED TV and a few PC monitors for less than $2,5000. Or my personal recommendation: Get Alienware's fantastic QD-OLED ultrawide monitor for $1,299 and an assortment of other screens. Whichever direction you go, it'll be far more practical than having a single 55-inch display on your desk.
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
As my honeymoon period with the Odyssey Ark faded, I was left with nothing but questions. Where are the DisplayPort or USB-C connections on Samsung's breakout box? Why, exactly, can't it display more than two HDMI connections at once? Is the extreme curve worth losing any sort of off-angle viewing? Really, who is this thing actually for? Will gamers be able to live with its downsides to take advantage of a 55-inch monitor? Can they stomach a $3,500 price? And how many people will have desks sturdy enough to hold this thing?
Anyone buying the Odyssey Ark is basically paying to be a beta tester for Samsung. In general, we recommend against serving as consumer guinea pigs. But if you've been dying to have an impossibly gigantic curved gaming monitor, your wish has finally been granted.
The European Union has set a firm deadline by which time manufacturers will need to adopt USB-C charging for most electronic devices sold in the region. New phones, tablets, headphones, portable speakers and many other types of devices will need to adopt that standard for wired charging as of December 28th, 2024. There’s no impact on devices that only support wireless charging.
EU member states have until December 28th, 2023 to publish regulations to govern the bloc’s directive on USB-C charging. They’ll have to start applying those rules one year later. The EU previously said the rules would come into force by the end of 2024 and it stuck to that timeline when it published the legislation in the Official Journal.
It is official ‼️#CommonCharger published in the 🇪🇺 Official Journal. The rules will enter into force before the end of the year & start to apply before the end of 2024! @alexagiussaliba@EP_SingleMarket
Laptop makers have a bit longer to comply with the rules, as The Verge notes. If they haven’t already done so, they’ll need to switch to USB-C by April 2026. In addition, devices with fast charging support will have the same charging speed, the EU says. As such, users will be able to charge devices at the same speed with any compatible charger.
Although it’s not like the company had much of a choice, Apple has said it will comply with the rules and put USB-C charging ports in iPhones sold in the EU (unless, that is, it were to switch to fully wireless charging). Technically, Apple wouldn’t have to adopt USB-C charging in iPhones until sometime in 2025, but reports suggest the company may make the switch as soon as next year.
Motorola is churning out another budget Android phone today with the Moto G Play (2023). The $170 handset runs an eight-core MediaTek Helio G37 chipset, the same entry-level processor from the latest Moto G Power. Unfortunately, although the new Moto G Play offers decent-enough specs on a budget, it also underscores Motorola’s habit of churning out endless rehashes of cheap phones.
The Android 12 handset has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage (expandable to up to 512GB with a microSD card). Its IPS TFT LCD 6.5-inch display has a mere 720p resolution but a fast 90Hz refresh rate, something you won’t always see in this price range.
The phone has three cameras on its back, a first for the Moto G Play series. A 16MP main lens gets help from 2MP macro and depth sensors to produce extreme closeups and portraits with blurred backgrounds. In addition, the rear camera and 5MP front sensor can each record full HD footage at 30 fps.
Motorola
Motorola says the phone’s 5,000mAh battery lasts up to three days and supports 10W rapid charging via USB-C. It has IP52 water protection, so it should withstand light splashes and spills. Continuing a familiar cost-cutting measure, the Moto G Play lacks NFC and 5G.
The phone’s unlocked version launches on January 12 at Best Buy, Amazon and Motorola. UScellular and Canadian carriers will have it on the same day, with various US regional carriers following later.
