You're not alone if you're unable to check your Instagram feeds. Instagram has confirmed that some users are "having issues" accessing their accounts. The social network hasn't identified a cause as of this writing, but some users have received notices that their accounts were suspended, while others have seen their follower counts drop.
We've asked Instagram for further comment on the outage and will let you know if we hear more. Reports of failures started spiking on Downdetector shortly before 9AM Eastern. They're not consistent, however, as many users (including here at Engadget) aren't running into problems.
We're aware that some of you are having issues accessing your Instagram account. We're looking into it and apologize for the inconvenience. #instagramdown
This isn't the first significant outage in the past year. Meta's social networks suffered a major outage roughly a year ago after a bug disconnected key parts of the social media giant's backbone network. More recently, Instagram fixed a bug in early October that prevented iOS users from accessing the service. These hiccups aren't frequent, but they suggest Instagram still has teething troubles as it continues to grow.
Currently, few things make people's eyes roll harder than the metaverse. As someone who grew up reading sci-fi novels and dreaming about what virtual worlds might look like in the future, that's kind of sad, but I get it. Mark Zuckerberg is so thirsty to make those dreams a reality that he’s betting billions of dollars and the survival of his company on the metaverse being The Next Big Thing. Meanwhile, the average person is still wondering what the point of having a VR headset really is, aside from maybe smashing some polygons in Superhot or Beat Saber.
However, even though it feels like VR headsets have been around forever, we're still very much in the early days of virtual reality. It was only a couple of years ago when the company previously known as Facebook brought VR to the masses with the Quest 2. And now with the Quest Pro, Meta is trying to foster a new baseline level of tech designed to make digital worlds feel more lifelike, intuitive and immersive. And honestly, I think Meta has done it, because while its $1,500 price is hard to justify, it’s easy to see the potential of what this hardware can support.
Hardware and optics
Packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ chip, 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, the Quest Pro delivers 50 percent more performance than the Quest 2, according to Meta. However, the real challenge in designing this headset was blending its standalone design with something that's simple and comfortable to wear, and I think Meta has struck an almost ideal balance.
By switching to new pancake lenses, the company was able to reduce the thickness of the headset while still delivering a relatively high resolution of 1,800 x 1,920 pixels per eye. For comparison, that's higher than what you get from the Valve Index (1,440 x 1,600 per eye) but a bit less than the Vive Pro 2 (2,448 × 2,448 per eye). Though topping out with a 90Hz refresh rate, the Quest Pro’s visuals aren’t quite as fast as most of its high-end PC-based rivals. For me, that hasn't been a huge deal, as graphics and gameplay have been smooth and stutter-free. But I should mention I've never really had problems with VR-related motion sickness, so your experience may vary.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
My one nitpick is that I wish the Quest Pro's 96-degree vertical field of view was a little bit taller. I've found that due to the headset's visor-like design and its FOV, you tend to always have a bit of the real world peeking in across the bottom of your eye line. Thankfully, its 106-degree horizontal FOV is pretty much as good or better than all of its rivals except for the Vive Pro 2's 116 degrees.
Elsewhere, the Quest Pro features 10 sensors on the interior and exterior of the device. The five outward-facing cameras support full-color passthrough, hand-tracking and stuff like scene understanding without the need for additional external sensors. Meanwhile, the five inward-facing sensors track eyes and face movements for features like foveated rendering and enhanced avatar animations, but more on that later.
Design and fit
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
To balance the trade-off between power and fit, Meta cleverly used a curved battery built into the back of the headset, so there's no need for wires or a belt-mounted power cell. And when combined with a soft forehead cushion and a handy dial for adjusting the headband, you get a headset that's extremely easy to put on and wear. Further adjustments are provided via a small dial in front that changes lens distance, while IPD (interpupillary distance) adjustment is handled by simply moving each eyepiece left and right as needed. All told, it's an incredibly straightforward setup, and thanks to the Quest Pro's fit calibration feature, the headset can remind you to adjust your settings if it notices things aren't quite right. And when it comes to sound, you get speakers that support spatial audio built into the arms of the headset, though if you prefer to use your own headphones, there’s a 3.5mm jack too.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
That said, even with all the attention Meta paid toward creating a comfortable and balanced headset, the Quest Pro's heft can still be a bit of an issue. If you're hopping in and out of VR, you might not notice much. But with a weight of just over a pound and a half, in longer sessions, I noticed my forehead sometimes got a bit sore. Usually fiddling around with how the Quest Pro sat on my head was enough to relieve excess pressure. But I also wouldn't be surprised if this setup gave some people a low-grade headache during extended use. And I'd also be remiss not to mention the sweat factor, as the leather forehead pad can get damp depending on your activity, and sometimes I wonder if having active cooling on a VR headset is what we need. Heck, developers could even use fans to mimic a breeze in a game or movie, which could be kind of nice.
Controllers
The other big part of the headset's kit is the new Touch Pro Controllers. Meta is using the same basic design as what we got on the Quest 2. The big difference this time is that instead of relying on a big light ring with LEDs, the controllers now have their own built-in sensors for both hand and finger tracking. Not only does this help streamline their design, but I also found a noticeable upgrade in accuracy and responsiveness.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
The controllers also have much-improved haptics that adds an extra level of immersion, especially in apps where you can flip the controllers over to use as a stylus. For example in Painting VR, brushes use a variety of rumbles and vibrations to convey a sense of size and weight. The overall effect feels much like HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch's Joy-Con, but with even better fidelity for force feedback.
I also appreciate the controller’s subtly textured rubberized grips that make things feel secure even in the heat of virtual battle. However, I kind of miss the hand straps Valve uses on the Index controllers which allow you to quickly switch between buttons and finger or hand gestures without needing to set the controllers down.
General performance and apps
Of course the real magic happens when hardware meets software, and at least out of the gate, the Quest Pro offers some pretty impressive performance. The headset’s optics are sharp while eliminating nearly any hint of the screen door effect. Text is also very legible and I had no trouble writing part of this review in VR. Next, when my colleague Cherlynn Low visited my virtual office in Horizon Workrooms, I think the combination of Quest Pro’s eye and facial tracking to deliver more lifelike expressions on my avatar might have been convincing enough to get her to spend more time in VR. And on my end, support for spatial audio makes working in VR feel less like floating in a simulation and more like actually working in an office with someone else.So even though Cherlynn was sick that day, we were able to collaborate without me risking catching what she had, and it felt kind of heartwarming in a weird, nerdy way.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
On top of that, a lot of tent-pole features like Meta's scene understanding just kind of work, at least most of the time. I found that the Quest Pro was pretty good at automatically detecting the position of floors and walls, so I didn't have to constantly redraw the boundaries for my room-scale guardian. It even automatically detected some objects like my desk (and remembered them in subsequent sessions), which makes it easier to set up a virtual workspace that mimics what I have IRL. Though I did notice in rooms that were more cluttered, things didn't always work quite as smoothly.
The Quest Pro's full-color passthrough is also really impressive. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still not as good as using your eyes to navigate meatspace. But it's more than accurate enough to let me walk from room to room to grab a glass of water without taking off the Quest Pro or bumping into anything.
In apps like Cubism, I had a blast positioning blocks to solve puzzles in three dimensions and in I Expect you to Die I got to live out my childhood fantasy of being a secret agent. And in Tribe XR, I was able to enjoy the basics of mixing and beat-matching while using the same equipment pro DJs use, at least virtually. The improved three-window multitasking in the Quest Pro’s desktop mode even makes it easier to switch between apps and stay connected while you're in VR. Or, well, it would be if there was a wider availability of 2D apps.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
And that kind of brings me to the big issue with the Quest Pro: there just aren't a lot of optimized apps that really take advantage of its upgraded capabilities. For traditional 2D apps, while important stuff like Slack is supposedly on the way, there isn't even support for messaging software like WhatsApp. So if you're like me and aren't a frequent user of Instagram or Facebook Messenger, things can still feel a bit disconnected.
But perhaps the more telling thing is currently how few apps there are in the Quest Pro section of the store. Titles like Nanome, which lets you view molecules in VR are really neat and interesting, but rather niche. I don't know about you, but I don’t really spend a ton of time staring at various compounds and conformations in my free time – and I was a bio major in college.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
This is sort of to be expected, as it's going to take a while for developers to take advantage of the Quest Pro's new features. This headset kind of feels like the Nintendo Switch at launch but without a tentpole game or app like Breath of the Wild to pair with it. Sure, you can go back and enjoy all the old Quest apps, as the Pro is fully backward compatible with existing software. But when you're spending $1,500 on a VR headset, you kind of want something you can lose yourself in for the next month or more.
My other gripe is that, while a lot of the big-ticket features work surprisingly well, a lot of the finer details seem half-baked. For example, it took almost an hour for Cherlynn to successfully visit my office in Horizon Workrooms. Because this is VR, you can't just send a link to a meeting like you would in Zoom, which meant she had to bounce back and forth between her headset, phone and laptop just to find where to accept my invite. And when I wanted to upload an image to pin on my virtual whiteboard, first I had to go back to my fake chair at my fake desk just to upload something, before needing to move back to the whiteboard again to post it. That's just convoluted, and that’s even with my having already set up Meta’s Remote Desktop app. And while Meta says it's working on it, there are other little frustrations like being limited to a single virtual desktop (which you can’t even move by the way, at least not right now) when connected to a Windows PC while Mac users get three.
Charging and accessories
While Meta doesn't provide official battery life claims for the Quest Pro, I've found that you're looking at between two and a half and three and a half hours on a charge, depending on the use case. This is typically longer than I want to be in VR in a single sitting, but if you need to be jacked in for extended periods, the Quest Pro also comes with a six-foot USB-C cable you can use to keep it running.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Other bundled accessories include a protective silicone cover and two light blockers that attach magnetically to the side of the headset, which helps cut down on potential distractions from the physical realm. But if you really want that complete VR-dive experience, you'll have to shell out $50 for Meta's Full Light Blocker. Or you opt for the low-tech solution and just move to a dark room. You also get two Quest Touch Pro controllers along with two wrist straps and stylus nibs that can be attached to the bottom of the gamepads to suit your needs.
When it comes to keeping everything juiced up, there's a really handy wireless charging dock that holds both the headset and the controllers. Admittedly, getting the controllers to sit properly in the dock is a bit tricky at first. But the secret is holding them as if you're using them, before twisting your wrists inwards and then dropping them on the dock. If you did it right, you'll feel a little rumble and see the tiny indicator lights fire up. There's also a dedicated cable for charging the controllers, but you only get one. So if you're traveling with the Quest Pro and you leave the dock at home, you'll need to charge the controllers one at a time.
Wrap-up
Look, trying to review a next-gen VR headset feels kind of like evaluating a Mars colony based on the spaceship that takes you there: Ultimately the Quest Pro is a vessel to experience fancy new software that doesn’t exist yet. And right now, there just aren't enough apps to really say if that colony is a utopia or Autobot city after Megatron attacks – burned down and wasted.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
But if we can ignore that issue for a minute, at least on a hardware level, there's a lot to like about the Quest Pro. It offers similar or, in some situations, better performance than other high-end consumer headsets — all without the need for wires or a beefy PC. You can switch between controllers and hand gestures at a whim, while the plethora of sensors makes the headset a really great standalone device. You get sharp visuals, a streamlined design and surprisingly good battery life — not to mention a really handy charging dock.
But for now, we're going to have to wait for the headset’s software and experiences to catch up, which is a lot to ask when it costs this much to strap on the goggles. Purchasing a Quest Pro, at least for now, is something you do on faith, because you believe in the promise of VR and where it might go in the not-too-distant future. So while the Quest 2 can handle basic VR, the Quest Pro adds power and finesse in a way that could unlock how people explore virtual worlds. The tech is there but are you willing to fork over big money to try it?
Twitter started verifying public figures to prevent scammers from distributing fake news. New owner Elon Musk, however, thinks the blue check is just a status symbol, and one people should pay for. The platform’s new owner has reportedly decided users will need to sign up for Twitter Blue to maintain verification, which will increase to $20 a month. It’s also reported Musk has given Twitter employees until November 7th to implement the changes, or he’ll start firing people.
I’m sure the blue check is, for some, little more than a bragging right, but it’s also Twitter’s fix to a fairly knotty problem. Back in the day, it was easy enough to create an account posing as a respected newswire to pump out fake stock information. The speed of Twitter’s platform means people can retweet something controversial about a stock price to their followers before they’ve clocked it came from the Well Street Jourral. Although, given Twitter’s new owner was responsible for the Funding Secured tweet, maybe that’s just allowed now.
If you were hoping to snag a 14- or -16-inch M2 MacBook Pro before the holiday season, brace yourself. A new report suggests while Apple had planned to launch the high-end machines this fall, the company has kicked things back. Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman now believes we won’t see those models until March at the earliest. Hopefully, nobody is losing too much sleep over it, especially given just how much power the existing models are still throwing around.
Netflix’s popular adaptation of The Witcher is getting a fourth season, but without the star power of its original leading man. Henry Cavill, who played Geralt of Rivia for the show’s first three seasons, is (reportedly) freeing up his schedule to once again play Superman. Taking his place on the show is Liam Hemsworth, the youngest member of the Hemsworth acting clan, with a jaw that’s only marginally less square than his predecessor.
If Bob Ross were alive today, this is the sort of news that, I’m sure, would put a big ol’ smile on his big ol’ face. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has captured an image of the sun where it looks like it’s smiling. The cause of this is little more than the coincidental clustering of coronal holes, but it’s sufficiently cute that we imagine it’ll be everyone’s desktop background for the next month at least.
Use of live facial recognition (LFR) by UK police forces "fail[s] to meet the minimum ethical and legal standards," according to a study from the University of Cambridge. After analyzing LFR use by the Metropolitan (Met) and South Wales police, researchers concluded that the technology should be banned for use in "all public spaces."
LFR pairs faces captured by security cameras to database photos to find matches. China and other non-democratic regimes have used the technology to as part of their state surveillance tools.
UK police have been testing its use in multiple situations to fight crime and terrorism. In two cases, LFR was used by MET and South Wales police to scan crowds and compare faces to those on a criminal “watch list." In another, officers used FRT smartphone apps to scan crowds and identify "wanted individuals in real time," according to the paper.
In those cases, the team found that police "kept from view" information about how they use the data and information about demographics. That has in turn made it difficult to determine whether the tools are promoting racial profiling, while raising questions about accountability. "Police forces are not necessarily answerable or held responsible for harms caused by facial recognition technology," said lead author Evani Radiya-Dixit.
The Met has claimed that the latest algorithms have improved LRF accuracy, with false alerts less than .08 percent, according to The Guardian. They boasted of a 70 percent success rate up to 2020, but an expert from the University of Essex hired by the police force found it was actually just 19 percent. "That the court of appeal explicitly stated in 2020 that South Wales police use of this technology was 'unlawful' makes it difficult to argue this technology should be used," he said.
However, the Met said its work was supported by law. "LFR is regulated by a number of sources of law. These sources of law combine to provide a multilayered legal structure to use, regulate and oversee the use of LFR by law enforcement bodies," it told The Guardian. UK's parliament has yet to weigh in, even though it's created legislation around internet privacy.
950V CoolMOS PFD7 Family with an Integrated Fast Body Diode to Address Industrial SMPS Applications
Infineon Technologies has developed a new CoolMOS PFD7 high-voltage MOSFET family that combines outstanding performance with state-of-the-art ease of use and features an integrated fast body diode ensuring a robust device and in turn reduced bill-of-material (BOM). Tailored to ultrahigh-power density and the highest efficiency designs, these new products are primarily addressing lighting systems, along with consumer and
With Elon Musk in charge, Twitter is planning to boost the price of its Blue subscription plan from $5 to $20 per month and make it mandatory for verified users, according to Platformer's Casey Newton and The Verge. If it launches the plan, verified users (celebrities, politicians, journalists, etc.) will have to sign up to the service within 90 days or they'll lose the blue check mark. And employees working on the project have reportedly been told they'll be fired unless they implement the changes by November 7th.
Twitter launched Blue late last year in the US for $3 per month, but boosted the price in July to $5. It offers subscribers features like top articles, custom icons and, most recently, the ability to edit tweets. The company hasn't revealed subscriber numbers, revenue or other details for Twitter Blue, but the vast majority of its revenue (89 percent) comes from advertising, according to Investopedia.
Musk telegraphed the move yesterday, tweeting that "the whole verification process is being revamped right now." As Newton pointed out, Twitter's @verified currently follows around 428,000 accounts that carry the blue check, a fraction of the site's 206 million daily actives users.
A lot of those folks have tweeted about the change, and many wouldn't pay $20 to keep their verified status. At the same time, users have pointed out that the new system could increase Twitter's bot and spam issues that Musk seems to hate. "The point of Twitter verification is that... it's useful to be able to verify their statements are coming from them," tweeted cosmologist and writer Katie Mack. "It's supposed to help combat disinformation, not be a status symbol."
Musk has been busy in the few days he's been "chief twit." He has reportedly ordered company-wide layoffs, according to The New York Times. On Saturday, the SpaceX and Tesla boss reportedly told managers to begin drawing up lists of employees to cut.
As the 2022 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) trade show kicks off Monday in Las Vegas, Mopar — Stellantis' OEM accessory division — unveiled a trio of intriguing concept vehicles, led by an electrified Jeep CJ. Even more exciting, the battery electric technology behind it could portend a restomod revival of classic American muscle cars.
Stellantis
“The Jeep CJ Surge concept explores a future zero-emission propulsion system kit and supports the Jeep brand’s mission to become the leading electrified SUV brand in the world," Mark Bosanac, North America senior vice president, Mopar service, parts and customer care, said in a prepared statement Monday. "Separately, our Ram 1500 Backcountry X and TRX Gold Shot concepts showcase a truckload of innovative Mopar accessories for our award-winning full-size trucks."
The CJ Surge is what's known as a restomod (a portmanteau of "restoration" and "modification"), in that they cleaned up an late model CJ7 (the resto part) and swapped out the internal combustion engine for battery-electric propulsion (the mod part). Restomods aren't strictly electrifications — we've been doing them with crate engines for decades — but with automakers swiftly transitioning to battery power from gas, demand from the classic car community for similar capabilities has grown in recent years. In response, Ford has begun prototyping a BEV restomod system called the Eluminator. The Surge is Mopar's first steps in the same direction.
Stellantis
So rather than an inline-six or v-eight that the CJ7s originally came with, Mopar has dropped in a "scalable 400-volt, 200-kW Electric Drive Module" that provides four-wheel drive capabilities. That powerplant is backed by a 24-module Li-ion battery that sits in a "custom shell mounted in the rear of the passenger cabin," which you can see as the giant silver box dominating the trunk space in the image above. And rather than a traditional manual transmission, the Surge replaces the stick shift with a Wrangler JK center console and rotary shifter knob.
Stellantis
There's no word on performance numbers, much less when — or even if — this will ever come to market. If you want to check out the Surge for yourself, you'll need to get to the Las Vegas Convention Center before November 4th.
It’s been a busy week for NASA in the days leading up to Halloween. In the spirit of the season, the agency recently released a new image of the Eagle Nebula captured by the James Webb Space Telescope where the Pillars of Creation look like a ghostly hand. By coincidence, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory managed to capture a similarly spooky image of the sun.
Say cheese! 📸
Today, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the Sun "smiling." Seen in ultraviolet light, these dark patches on the Sun are known as coronal holes and are regions where fast solar wind gushes out into space. pic.twitter.com/hVRXaN7Z31
On Wednesday, the agency shared a capture of the sun “smiling.” As The Guardian points out, more than a few Twitter users were quick to point out how the star looks like a carved pumpkin in NASA’s image. There’s a bit of interesting science behind the resemblance. “Seen in ultraviolet light, these dark patches on the sun are known as coronal holes and are regions where fast solar wind gushes out into space,” according to NASA. The sun is constantly sending out solar winds. At times, these geomagnetic storms have been known to knock power out here on Earth, as was the case in part of Canada in 1989.
This isn’t the first time the Solar Dynamics Observatory has captured an interesting image of the sun. In 2016, NASA released an animation of the sun doing a somersault. The capture was the result of a seven-hour maneuver the SDO completes once a year to take an accurate measure of the star’s edge.
Robot vacuums can be a godsend if vacuuming is one of your least favorite household chores. In recent years, new models from iRobot and Shark have become more intelligent, more powerful and, best of all, less expensive. Still, a robot vacuum is an investment, and it helps when they go on sale like iRobot’s models are right now on Amazon.
To start, the retailer has discounted the Roomba 694, one of our favorite budget picks. After a 35 percent discount, the robot vacuum is $179. The 694 is great if you want a no-frills option. It features WiFi connectivity, allowing you to connect to it through iRobot’s easy-to-use companion app. The software makes setup and creating a vacuuming schedule easy. Add a powerful motor and decent battery life, and you have a robot vacuum that meets the needs of most people. One of the few downsides of the 694 is that it doesn’t come with spare parts, so you’ll be forced to pay extra when you need a replacement filter or brush. But when you’re saving almost $100 off the price of the 694's usual price, that’s less of a concern.
For those with a bigger budget, Amazon has also discounted the Roomba j7+ and Roomba s9+. The former is $599 after a $200 price cut, while the latter is $799, instead of $1,000, thanks to a 20 percent discount. Of the two, the j7+ is the better pick for most people. It features Roomba’s latest computer vision software, making the vacuum better at avoiding obstacles like pet poop. The more expensive s9+ isn’t as smart as its newer sibling but features 40 times the suction power of a standard Roomba. If you have a lot of carpet in your home, the s9+ will leave your floors noticeably cleaner than the company’s other vacuum robots. Both models ship with a docking station where they’ll automatically empty their canisters at the end of a cleaning session. So if that’s a feature you’re set on, you don’t need to upgrade to the s9+.
