Sony's LinkBuds S offer a more traditional true wireless fit as opposed to the open wear design of the original model. The company debuted the follow-up back in May, filling out the features list with active noise cancellation (ANC) and a host of other handy items from Sony's premium audio products. Like the first LinkBuds, the S model was built to wear all the time, thanks to they're small size, comfy fit and capable transparency mode. LinkBuds S were already being made with recycled plastics from automobile parts, but today the company has announced an Earth Blue variant made from even more reclaimed materials.
Sony says the body and case for this version of the LinkBuds S are made from "factory-recovered plastic and reclaimed water bottles." The recycled materials are what give the exterior surfaces a marble pattern. The company explains that the idea originally came from design exploration around new uses for recycled water bottles. Of course, the earbuds aren't entirely make from reclaimed substances, but the main shell of the buds and the case have the swirl look from the process. Like the existing LinkBuds S colors, the packaging for this new version uses no plastic.
The $200 LinkBuds S feature ANC and transparency mode that allow you to tune out or tune into the world as you see fit. Sony added a tool called Auto Play to these earbuds that allows you to set up certain times audio will begin automatically — like after a video call or when you're on the go. The company's Adaptive Sound Control from other earbuds and headphones is here too, automatically changing sound modes based on your location or activity. You can expect up to six hours of battery life on a charge with ANC enabled and another 14 hours in the case. IPX4 protection also means you can wear these during workouts without fear of sweat damage and a handy Speak-to-Chat feature pauses audio when you begin to talk to assist with quick conversations.
The new Earth Blue variant will be available at the end of October from Sony, Amazon and other retailers, joining the black and white options in the LinkBuds S lineup. We've seen these earbuds for as low as $148, although you might have to wait a while for a deal on this new version.
Nothing only just released its first phone months ago, but that isn't stopping the company from establishing a physical retail presence. The company is opening its first Nothing Store on 4 Peter Street in London's fashion-oriented Soho neighborhood sometime "before Christmas" this year. The company is promising a "boutique" rather than the usual tech shop experience, and touts design flourishes inspired by classic chains like Italy's Olivetti.
The store will offer all of Nothing's currently small lineup, including the Phone 1, Ear 1 and upcoming Ear Stick. To no one's surprise, there will be incentives to line up for opening day — you can get free merch and buy one of 100 limited edition Ear Sticks.
The store is a gamble for a two-year-old startup competing against heavyweights in audio and mobile, some of which (such as Apple and Samsung) have much larger retail presences. While Nothing's store won't be big, it's also sitting in one of the posher parts of London. Where the average retail rent in the city is about £64 per square foot, Soho's is estimated at just under £150. That's a lot to spend when it's unclear how customers will respond.
This strategy is familiar, mind you. Apple has long focused on opening stores in high-traffic (and sometimes iconic) locations to catch the eyes of shoppers who wouldn't otherwise browse technology, and other companies have used similar approaches. Nothing Stores could theoretically make the brand more recognizable, not to mention reinforce its style-oriented image.
The BBC and Disney have announced future seasons of Doctor Who will stream on Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland. It’s the validation of a longstanding rumor that the UK’s public broadcaster was looking to move the show from its traditional distribution network.
Back in July, Bloomberg reported that Disney was looking for “established” brands to bolster its streaming platform. The world’s longest-running science-fantasy series, with its own global fanbase, certainly counts as a big draw for any global streamer.
Naturally, new series of Doctor Who will continue to air on the BBC’s own channels and streaming platform, iPlayer, in the UK and Ireland. The series will return in November 2023 with a run of specials to celebrate the show’s 60th anniversary, followed by a new series in 2024.
At the same time, the BBC has announced a new logo and branding that will feature on the show when it returns in 2023, as well as its vast catalog of merchandise. The new logo is a 21st century update of the classic “diamond” logo, designed by Bernard Lodge in 1973.
It's one of the most recognizable images in the show's long history, and while the diamond's shelf-life in the series proper stretched from 1973 to 1980 (for all but one year of Tom Baker's Tenure) — it was also plastered on merchandise from the early '70s all the way through to 1996. (Ironically, it was supplanted by a revamped version of the show's 1969-1974 logo.)
Back in 2018, the BBC recruited branding agency LittleHawk to revitalize the show’s image with a look covering both its Classic and New Series eras. The fact that, so quickly afterward, the show has opted to switch back to an older look stands as a repudiation of LittleHawk’s work. Not to mention the fact it’ll cause much consternation to the buyers of the show’s flagship Collection Blu-Ray boxsets. Who will, once again, have to deal with an inconsistent run of spines running along their shelves and are, arguably, the real victims in all of this.
Google is on the hook for another nine-figure fine after India’s antitrust agency said the company abused the dominant position of the Play Store. The regulator told Google to pay 9.36 billion rupees ($113.5 million) and to allow Play Store developers to use third-party payment systems for app and in-app purchases.
After a lengthy investigation, the Competition Commission of India said Google's requirement for Play Store developers to use its billing system “constitutes an imposition of unfair condition,” as TechCrunchreports. The regulator found that Google didn't use the billing system for its own apps, which it said constituted an “imposition of discriminatory conditions.”
The agency has ordered Google to open up the Play Store to third-party payments within three months. It said Google can't impose any anti-steering provisions on app developers and mustn't hinder them from promoting apps and services to users. Likewise, the company can't restrict users from accessing developers' services and features.
The Competition Commission also stated that Google must be fully transparent with Play Store developers and that it can't impose any condition on them "which is unfair, unreasonable, discriminatory or disproportionate to the services provided to the app developers." Furthermore, Google will need to have a clear and transparent data collection policy, and it will not be allowed to use "competitively relevant transaction/consumer data of apps generated and acquired" through the Google Play Billing System to its competitive advantage.
The regulator has determined that Google has a dominant position in the spheres of licensable smartphone operating systems, app stores, web searching, video hosting platforms and "non-OS specific" mobile web browsers. Last week, the Competition Commission fined the company $161.9 million after finding that Google abused Android's dominance. It said smartphone makers shouldn't have to preinstall Google's apps and that the company shouldn't withhold Play Services APIs and monetary and other incentives from other parties.
Google reportedly has a 97 percent smartphone market share in India, while Google Play is one of the most popular payments services. India is the company's largest market in terms of user numbers. Google told TechCrunch that its legal team was reviewing the most recent ruling.
Shutterstock is eager to embrace AI-generated art. As The Vergereports, the photo provider has widened its deal with OpenAI to begin selling stock images built using the DALL-E 2 AI generator. The approach will offer "direct access" to DALL-E through the Shutterstock website, and compensate creators whose pictures played a role in developing the technology through a new Contributor Fund. The company also plans to pay royalties to artists when the AI uses their work.
OpenAI licensed Shutterstock pictures and data to train DALL-E's text-to-image generation models in 2021. The expanded deal represents one of the first practical uses of the tech through OpenAI's programming kit.
The DALL-E integration will be available sometime in the "coming months." Crucially, Shutterstock will also ban AI-generated art that wasn't produced through OpenAI's platform. That will protect the companies' business models, of course, but it will also ensure that Shutterstock can identify the content used and pay the producers accordingly. Payments will arrive every six months and include revenue from both training data and image royalties.
This is the first major compensation-based deal of its kind, and could help settle questions of whether or not AI-generated art is borrowed or stolen. Other companies have been more cautious. Shutterstock rival Getty Images has completely banned AI-made images over copyright concerns, and is even using filters to stop that content from getting through. Google, meanwhile, is keeping its Imagen tool private until (and unless) it can find a "responsible" way to make the system available to the public.
There are lingering issues. It's not clear just how Shutterstock will pay creators. Artists will likely earn less from these AI-licensing payments than if customers pay for the original images DALL-E uses to create its amalgamations. While this deal is a step toward harmony between AI and the creative world, it's not the definitive solution.
Your Venmo money is now useful for much more than covering your share of last night's pizza. As promised last year, Amazon is rolling out the option to use either your Venmo balance, a linked bank account or an associated debit card for payments. You can make Venmo the default if you like, and that service's purchase protection still applies in addition to Amazon's own safeguards.
The Venmo option is available to some Amazon shoppers today. It should be widely available in the US by Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving), the company says. You can add the choice through Amazon's website or mobile app.
The support doesn't come as a shock. Venmo has close to 90 million users as of this writing. The new payment choice could encourage that large audience to use Venmo more often in general, especially for shopping. For Amazon, meanwhile, this opens the door to customers who rarely use conventional payment methods.
This Amazon move also comes as PayPal increasingly makes Venmo a catch-all platform. You can use Venmo to pay for Lyft rides, manage cryptocurrency and even cash checks. Now, you can do a large chunk of your online shopping. Venmo still isn't a full-scale replacement for traditional banking at this stage, but it's noticeably closer.
A new Bayonetta game is like the circus rolling into town. Bayonetta is the ringmaster, of course, and she shows up out of the blue with boxcars of strange beasts, weird friends, dangerous spells, magnificent clothing and endless promises to impress. Her stories don’t always make sense, but they’re filled with melodrama and action, magic and gunfire, and once Bayonetta enters the spotlight, there’s no looking away. Especially not when she’s dancing her way through a spell in an outfit made of her own hair, while 40-storey monsters fight to the death at her back.
Bayonetta 3 is full of classic Bayonetta madness, all of it amped up by one degree. The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been, the enemies are absolutely massive, Bayonetta’s magic is incredibly powerful, her outfits are outstanding, and the fights don’t stop coming. A loose plot holds the entire game together – an army of man-made bioweapons called Homonculi is threatening the existence of the multiverse – but it’s just an excuse to throw Bayonetta and friends into an endless string of battles in a variety of crumbling cities. In that way, Bayonetta 3 isn’t very different from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though PlatinumGames’ latest installment has way more witchcraft, silliness and shoe-operated guns than anything helmed by Robert Downey Jr.
Structurally and mechanically, Bayonetta 3 is as rich as its predecessors. Bayonetta acquires new skills and weapons throughout her quest; she collects fragments of fallen enemies to purchase items, consumables and accessories in the Gates of Hell shop, while orbs unlock abilities on her skill tree. Combat is all about performing stylish combos and executing well-timed dodges, and each fight is infinitely replayable if you’re chasing high scores. There are also plenty of challenges and secrets to find in each level.
Bayonetta 3 is a Switch exclusive, and it struggles as much as any fast-paced action game on that console: At times, inputs feel sluggish and it becomes difficult to track which moves are actually lined up. The game does a fine job of providing visual indicators for attacks and there is a rhythm to be found in the fray, but the entire thing runs in Switch Reaction Time (does not adhere to daylight saving).
For fans of the series, there’s nothing missing in Bayonetta 3 – in fact, there’s just more. More weirdness, more one-liners, more swag, and more combat mechanics. For instance, one section puts players in control of Bayonetta’s witchy buddy, Jeanne, for a side-scrolling action sequence with 1960s espionage flair. Another mechanic allows Bayonetta to control time in short bursts, at times reverting to her younger self. Throughout the game, the Demon Masquerade ability adds hellish features to Bayonetta’s weapons and allows her to transform into various demons, while the Demon Slave skill allows her to summon and control giant creatures of hell, each with a specific moveset.
Most of Bayonetta’s demons are inspired by classically spooky animals like moths and spiders, but one of her forms is a literal train. A little over halfway through the game, Bayonetta is infused with the energy of Satan’s choo-choo and she’s able to summon a hellish tank engine during fights. Attacking as the train with Demon Slave slows down time temporarily, allowing players to quickly draw a track and indicate points of damage along the route, ideally in the path of nearby enemies. Let go of the Demon Slave button and the train barrels down the ghost track in real time, dealing hefty damage to anything it hits. Bayonetta also acquires the ability to turn into a literal train-witch hybrid through Demon Masquerade, rushing forward with heavy-duty chainsaw-like attacks. Because of course she does.
Nintendo/PlatinumGames
By the time the train demon appears, it actually fits into the rest of the game nicely. Bayonetta’s world has always been wacky, and 3 is no exception. If you can handle the idea of Umbra Witches and bartending angels, you can deal with some light locomotive play.
I don’t take Bayonetta games too seriously and this feels like the right move, especially after playing the third installment. The series’ sense of combat is rich and its storyline is incredibly intricate, involving divine wars and parallel universes, and yet it all just feels like an excuse to make Bayonetta dance her way through a spell while massive monsters fight in the background. Thankfully, this is the best part of the series – Bayonetta is powerful and fighting in her (gun)shoes feels great, but her personality is what makes this franchise a cult hit. Bayonetta is confident, sarcastic and always correct; her outfits are stunning and so are her friends; she dances like an angel; she never has a hair out of place and her one-liners never stop. She’s a drag queen in a universe loosely held together by witchcraft, and the chaos of this combination is truly magical.
Bayonetta 3 is ridiculous and slightly disjointed, but that's precisely what makes it so wonderful. It builds on a multiverse of weird and witchy ideas, and it delivers exactly what fans of the series expect – something totally unexpected.
Apple surprised us last week with two new iPads. We’ve spent a bit of time with the new entry-level iPad ($449) which has been redesigned to match the rest of the iPad family with flat edges, USB-C and a Touch ID-enabled power button. Unusually, it also has a landscape selfie camera. Inside, there’s an A14 chip, which might not match the M1 in the iPad Air (let alone the M2 in the new iPad Pro), but it’s still a powerful enough processor.
So far, Engadget’s Nathan Ingraham is pleasantly impressed, although there are other corners cut – it still only supports the first-generation Apple Pencil. Expect our full review and verdict soon. For now, read up on our first impressions here.
– Mat Smith
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Two agents may have tried to bribe a US law enforcement official.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Wednesday that two spies from the People's Republic of China attempted to interfere in a criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice into Huawei. According to a Bloomberg report, Guochun He and Zheng Wang were working for the benefit of Huawei. The two agents attempted to bribe a law enforcement official to provide them with information on the Justice Department's investigation. Starting in 2017, they allegedly sought to obtain details about witnesses, evidence and possible additional charges that could be filed against Huawei, unaware that they were talking to an FBI double agent.
Apple has raised the prices of Apple Music and Apple TV+. Music now costs $11 per month for individual plans (up from $10) in the US, or $109 per year. The Family plan now costs $17 per month instead of $15. TV+ sees the largest relative jump — the price has increased from $5 per month to $7, and from $50 per year to $69. Apple has also increased prices for its multi-service One bundles. You'll now pay $17 per month for an Individual plan versus the earlier $15.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has released audio of what our planet's magnetic field sounds like. While it protects us from cosmic radiation and charged particles from solar winds, it turns out that the magnetic field has an unnerving rumble. Scientists from the Technical University of Denmark converted data collected by the ESA's three Swarm satellites into sound, representing both the magnetic field and a solar storm.
Urtopia’s mission seemed pretty clear, to make the most feature-rich, connected bike the world has ever seen. Its ebike packs in a 4G SIM, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, a fingerprint reader and even mmWave sensors for collision detection. However, when we tested an early prototype, we didn’t get to see how all that came together, software-wise. Now, we got to test the bike along with its companion app and some of its unique ideas. Thanks to the 4G radio, you should get a log of your ride in the app every single time you go out. We say “should” as it often didn’t work for Engadget’s James Trew.
Don’t spend a fortune on an autonomous dirt sucker.
In a change from just a few years ago, there are now plenty of budget robot vacuum options to choose from. We consider anything under $300 to be cheap in this space and you may be surprised to see how many there are to choose from. And if you’re new to the world of robot vacuums, you may find that one of these budget gadgets does everything you expected and more. We’ve got our favorite picks from the likes of Roomba, Shark and even Anker.
hi, i known how use mcp2515 with arduino , but i dont how i can use with msp430fr series for CAN communication. i want to read info from a device that use CAN. Do you have any document or idea for begginers. how i can do it ?
Last June, NASA announced that it would convene a panel to study "unidentified aerial phenomena" (UAP), aka UFOs — while saying it doesn't believe they're "extraterrestrial in origin." Now, the space agency has unveiled the 16-member panel that will focus on "unclassified sightings and other data collected from civilian government and commercial sectors."
Chairing the panel is David Spergel, former head of astrophysics at Prince University. Other members include Anamaria Berea, a research affiliate at the SETI (Search for Intelligence Life) Institute in Mountainview, California; retired NASA astronaut and test pilot Scott Kelly; and others ranging from oceanographers to astrophysicists to science journalists.
The panel is separate from a Pentagon group investigating UAPs reported by military pilots and investigated by US defense and intelligence officials. Now, the US government is effectively running two tracks of UFO probes after keeping such work behind closed doors for years.
Conspicuously absent are special effects experts like Corridor Crew skilled at spotting fake and altered clips. In a recent video, the group debunked a number of famous videos UFO clips, even from the Pentagon, ascribing them to ordinary occurrences like a camera's iris, a bird and an infrared lens flare.
NASA itself doesn't seem to believe there's much going on with these videos and sightings, either. However, it said the panel can still serve an important role in determining how to classify them — even if there are no aliens involved.
"Understanding the data we have surrounding unidentified aerial phenomena is critical to helping us draw scientific conclusions about what's happening in our skies," said NASA associate administrator Thomas Zurbuchen. "Data is the language of scientists and makes the unexplainable explainable."
