Teenage Engineering's latest drum machine probably isn't one that you're going to use to add percussion to your next piece. The company teamed up with designer Love Hulten to create CHD-4 in the aim of raising awareness about congenital heart disease.
The drum machine has four modules that produce rhythms based on the echocardiogram (ECG) scans of four children with heart defects. The scan results revealed the shape, pace and BPM of their heartbeats, Teenage Engineering said. It added the data to a four-track circular sequencer. The patterns can be played together or individually in order to create sounds that exemplify "each child's irregular heartbeat." A video gives a sense of the kinds of haunting soundscapes the machine can create:
"Drum machines are defined by order – beats, pace, and rhythm," Hulten said. "This machine disrupts that system, the same way life is disrupted when a child is born with congenital heart disease." The machine also has an OLED screen that depicts the audio and beat in a similar fashion to a proper ECG machine.
It's an art project, no doubt, but it's a fascinating one that's raising awareness of an important issue. If you're lucky, and have deep enough pockets, you might be able to add CHD–4 to your collection. It will be auctioned on Valentine's Day (February 14th), with all proceeds going to the Swedish Heartchild Foundation.
Apple's alleged union busting has prompted federal action. As The New York Timesreports, the National Labor Relations Board has issued a complaint against Apple following accusations it broke multiple laws trying to thwart union organizers at the World Trade Center store in New York City. The Communications Workers of America (CWA) union claims Apple surveilled and questioned staff, limited access to pro-union fliers and made employees listen to anti-union speeches.
The NLRB found enough merit in two of the claims. A judge will hold a hearing on December 13th if there's no settlement.
We've asked Apple for comment. In a statement to The Times, a spokesperson said the iPhone maker disputed CWA's allegations and was anticipating "presenting the facts." In the past, Apple has maintained that unionization would hinder labor improvements and prevent "direct engagement" between the company and store workers. Apple told staff it would increase pay, but also that unionization could lead to fewer promotions and fixed hours.
There's no certainty the NLRB complaint will lead to change in Apple's labor practices. However, it comes as teams at multiple US stores have made unionization bids. While people at an Atlanta location gave up their efforts, Towson, Maryland workers voted to unionize this spring. Oklahoma City employees vote next week. There's mounting pressure on Apple to act, if just to minimize similar complaints.
Pure, the British e-scooter company founded by Adam Norris (father of F1 wunderkind Lando, pictured) is launching three new scooters. The Pure Advance, Advance+ and Advance Flex offer new features that, it’s hoped, will make it easier for novices to start using them.
The major innovation is the new, lower central chassis, with a fold-down footplate on either side to let riders stand with their feet side-by-side. Most e-scooters ask you to stand like a skateboarder, with one foot in front of the other, with all of the stability problems that can sometimes cause.
With a change in stance comes a number of other benefits, like a lower ride height and a lower center of gravity. Pure says it’s developed a new stabilization technology that makes steering more intuitive, and safer, than the shuddery wobblefests currently on the market.
All three scooters have 500W motors with a peak output of 710W, which the company says will offer strong speed and even better hill climbing. The range option on the Advance and Flex will be 40km, or around 25 miles, while the Advance+ has a top range of 50km, or 21 miles.
Pure Electric
The difference with the Flex, as the name implies, is that it will fold down much like a bike for commuter use. With a five-step process, the Flex can be folded down to fit in a car boot, train rack or if your apartment is a little on the snug side.
It’s not just the stance that has changed — all three have 10-inch air-filled tyres which should make ride quality a lot nicer. And to join a new, more powerful headlight, the scooters get turn and brake lights as standard, the latter of which are activated when you pull on the new disc brakes.
The UK has been something of a hotbed of e-scooter development of late, with Pure following Bo’s own attempt to redesign the form. We tested the former this summer, and found that the improvements in ride quality are a world apart from what’s currently on the market. Ironic, really, given that the country still hasn’t actually legalized the use of private scooters on public roads.
We don’t have word on pricing or availability for the new Pure scooters, but expect them to be competitive. Pure’s existing models are more-or-less equal to Xiaomi’s offerings, and that’s key in such a tight market.
Spotify has bought a company it says will help it detect and address harmful content on the platform. Kinzen uses machine learning and human expertise to analyze possibly harmful content and hate speech across multiple languages, Spotify said in a statement. It added that Kinzen will "help us more effectively deliver a safe, enjoyable experience on our platform around the world" and that the company's tech is especially suited to podcasts and other audio formats.
Looking for signs of harmful audio content across hundreds of languages is a difficult task, particularly since there may be nuances that certain systems and non-native speakers may not pick up on. As such, Spotify says Kinzen will help it to "better understand the abuse landscape and identify emerging threats on the platform."
The two companies have actually been working together since 2020, with the aim of preventing misinformation in election-related content. They forged their partnership before Joe Rogan started spreading COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on his Spotify-exclusive show, which is said to be the most-listened-to podcast on the planet.
There was a significant backlash against Rogan and Spotify earlier this year. Hundreds of doctors and scientists urged Spotify to enact a policy to stem the spread of misinformation. Weeks later, Spotify started adding a content advisory to podcast episodes that included discussions about COVID-19 and made its content guidelines public.
Several prominent artists pulled their music from Spotify in protest against Rogan, including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. The host and editor of Spotify-owned podcast Science VS also pledged to stop making episodes (except ones in which it fact-checked Rogan and countered misinformation on the platform) unless the company did more to stem the flow of harmful falsehoods.
It may be the case that Spotify sees employing Kinzen's tech as a means to help it avoid similar PR catastrophes in the future. However, it's unclear how effective it will be in preventing the spread of misinformation. Were harmful content to be featured on a popular podcast, it may gain traction on social media and in press coverage before Spotify can act. Still, at least it's trying to do more to stamp out misinformation.
Now that Google is shutting down Stadia, at least one of its exclusives is headed elsewhere. Eurogamerreports that Tequila Works is bringing Stadia's first exclusive, Gylt, to other platforms sometime in 2023. The Rime creator didn't say just which systems would get their turn, but it won't be surprising if consoles are included.
The third-person horror game has you playing Sally, a tween who ventures into a dark alternate world to rescue her cousin. You have to complete quests and solve spatial puzzles while hiding from (or illuminating) sludge monsters. While Gylt isn't the most original title, we found it was a good introduction to horror gaming for older kids who might not be ready for something as intense as Dead Space.
This isn't a stunning development, as you might have guessed. Gylt certainly isn't Tequila Works' only recent project (it's working on the League of Legends spinoff Song of Nunu), but it will effectively cease to exist when Stadia goes offline in January. A multiplatform launch could help Tequila revive interest in Gylt and continue making money after Google's cloud gaming service is gone.
The question is whether or not other Stadia exclusives will make the leap. Splash Damage said it would "evaluate the options" for its competitive multiplayer title Outcasters, but other developers have remained silent. While these cloud gaming projects weren't must-play blockbusters, they'll fade into complete obscurity if they aren't ported elsewhere.
Amazon is running a sale on Blink security cameras, and many of the devices and bundles are available for a steal at up to 54 percent off. Several have dropped to their lowest price to date, including the Blink Outdoor. That camera is currently $60, which is $40 off the regular price of $100.
Blink Outdoor is a wireless device and Amazon says it will run for up to two years on two lithium AA batteries. As long as you have the right mount, you should be able to position Blink Outdoor just about anywhere around your home. The weather-resistant camera records footage at up to 1080p resolution and it has infrared night vision.
You'll receive a notification when the Blink Outdoor detects motion, and there's two-way audio support, so you'll be able to speak with someone who's in front of the camera. Naturally, since it's an Amazon device, Blink Outdoor works with Alexa, so you can use voice commands to stream live video to compatible devices and to arm or disarm the camera.
Next up, a two-pack of the Blink Mini can be all yours for $30. The bundle has returned to the lowest price we've seen for it to date. These are wired cameras, so they'll need to stay inside and close to an outlet. Still, they have many of the same features as other Blink devices, including 1080p video capture, infrared night vision, motion sensors, Alexa support and two-way audio — which could be useful if you don't feel like yelling from the other side of the house to speak to someone.
Also worth noting is the Whole Home Bundle. This includes the Video Doorbell, Blink Outdoor, Blink Mini and the Sync Module 2, which can store recordings locally. The bundle has dropped by $70 to $140, which is a 33 percent discount. Again, this is an all-time-low price.
You probably never saw the NES as a productivity machine, but some clever developers beg to differ. Hackaday and Ars Technica note Inkbox Software has released a graphical operating system, NESOS, for Nintendo's console. The mid-'80s technology restricts the OS to two apps (a word processor and settings) and eight 832-byte files, but you have an honest-to-goodness pointer, movable icons and customizable interface colors.
Inkbox primarily had to overcome the NES' very limited memory and storage. NESOS fits into just 48K, and the files have to sit inside the 2K of NVRAM that retains data when the console turns off. Graphics memory was a particularly large hurdle. Nintendo's system only has two sprite memory grids (one each for the foreground and background), and it can only display 64 sprites at any time — that's why many NES games flicker at busy moments. The creator had to combine sprites into larger shapes.
The project is available in a ROM that you'll likely use through an emulator (unless you make your own cartridge). You won't be writing a novel in NESOS. The memory prevents any kind of substantial content creation, and typing with the NES controller involves very slowly cycling through characters. This is more about defying expectations, and it's significant that Inkbox didn't have to modify the console to achieve its feat.
Those who have a robot vacuum on their gift list this year can pick up a few iRobot machines for less right now. Arguably the best for most people is the Roomba 694, which is 27 percent off at Amazon (which now owns iRobot) and down to only $199. While this model has dropped to $179 in the past, this is the best deal we've seen on it since June. Also discounted are the higher-end Roomba j7+ and Roomba s9+, which are going for $599 and $799, respectively.
The Roomba 694 topped our list of best budget robot vacuums because it combines all of the essential features you'd expect in one of these machines with a relatively slick design and an easy-to-use mobile app. It cleans both hard and carpeted floors well, and it'll run for about 90 minutes (depending on floor surfaces) before it automatically returns to its dock to recharge. Its three-stage cleaning system did a pretty good job sucking up dirt, debris and even pet hair, and it navigates around furniture well, too.
You can control the device using the physical buttons on it, but the iRobot app is where you'll have more customization options. In it, you can check on the status of the robot's current job, plus set cleaning schedules, manually send the robot home and more. And when you don't even want to lift a finger, you can use Alexa or the Google Assistant to control the machine. While the Roomba 694 doesn't have the bells and whistles of the brand's more expensive devices, it has all the necessities and will be easy for first-time users to figure out.
If you're looking to invest in something more powerful, or just know you'll need stronger suction power, either the Roomba j7+ or the s9+ would be great picks. The j7+ is the newer of the two, debuting last year, and it has advanced obstacle avoidance that should help it navigate around a robo-vac's worst enemy — pet poop. It also has 10x the suction power of a standard Roomba and smart mapping abilities, plus it comes with a clean base into which it automatically empties its bin after every job. The Roomba s9+ takes it even further with 40x the suction power, a more corner-friendly design, obstacle detection, smart mapping and an included clean base.
Tesla has announced that it's phasing out ultrasonic sensors (USS) used in its EVs to detect short-range obstacles, Electrek has reported. While other automakers use LiDAR, radar and other sensors on top of cameras, Elon Musk's company is determined to use only cameras in its Tesla Vision driver assistance system.
It will remove the ultrasonic sensors from Model 3 and Model Y vehicles over the next few months, then eliminate them in Model S and Model X models by 2023. They're mainly used for parking and short-range collision warnings, Tesla said.
With the changes, new vehicles not equipped with USS will have some features limited or disabled, including Park Assist that warns of surrounding objects when traveling under 5 MPH, along with Autopark, Summon and Smart Summon. The features will be restored via over-the-air updates "in the near future," once the features perform just as well with the camera-only system, the company said. It believes the changes will not affect the crash safety ratings of these vehicles.
Last year, Tesla started phasing out radar sensors in favor of vision-only Autopilot, tweeting at the time that "vision has much more precision [than radar]." And Musk has previously told employees that if humans can drive cars with binocular vision only, machines should be able to as well, The New York Times reported last year.
However, Tesla's radar was able to detect potential accidents "two vehicles ahead" that drivers couldn't even see, so that appears to be a safety benefit lost. And when radar was discontinued, the company had a spate of "phantom braking" accidents where the system mistakenly calculated a car was about to collide with something — triggering an NHTSA probe.
It’s embarrassing to admit, but I frequently get lost. Even in the middle of well laid-out Manhattan, my friends cannot trust me with directions. So while the idea of wandering in the wilderness with nothing but the stars and a compass to guide me is alluring, I’ve never dared to actually do it. When Apple launched the Watch Ultra and showed off its navigation and compass-based features, I was intrigued. And though I’m not a fan of underwater activities, I was still impressed to learn about the diver-specific features.
But Apple didn’t just design the Watch Ultra for explorers and divers. It also built some special features for endurance athletes, like dual-frequency GPS for more accurate route tracking and pace calculations. The Watch Ultra is packed to the brim with tools for various outdoor use cases, but are all the bells and whistles worth its $800 price?
Design
My immediate thought when I first saw the Watch Ultra was “This is the Cat phone of smartwatches.” It’s a monster truck of a watch. Not only does it have a bigger screen than most wearables on the market, it’s also heavier. The Watch Ultra weighs a whopping 61.3 grams (2.16 ounces), which is almost 20 grams (0.7 ounces) more than Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. Meanwhile, the stainless steel 45mm Series 8, which is the next heaviest Apple Watch, comes in at 51.5 grams (1.81 ounces).
But despite sporting a 49mm screen, the Watch Ultra actually feels less clunky than Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, which uses a 45mm titanium case. I found the Watch 5 Pro uncomfortable compared to the Ultra. This is most likely because Samsung’s lugs and band curve in a way that makes it feel like a cuff. Even if you swapped out the band for something thinner, the curve is built into the frame and hugs your wrist like a vice grip.
Meanwhile, the Apple Watch Ultra’s underside is just like those on the Series 8 and SE. It’s mostly flat with slightly curved edges, and you attach straps by sliding them into a groove. I used the company’s ocean band when I first started testing the Ultra, and its “tubular geometry” (Apple’s words, not mine) is supposed to help it stretch over wetsuits while resisting water.
The bright yellow version I received is eye-catching and feels like a series of small rubber straws glued together. It makes a statement and is a conversation starter, but it wasn’t stretchy enough to simply pry off my wrist. Personally, I prefer the alpine loop strap. It still isn’t very stretchy, but it has a lower profile than the ocean band and is adjustable enough to fit my wrist perfectly. Finally, you can choose to get your Watch Ultra with the Trail Band, which is a more typical strap with velcro attachment and a pull tab that makes it easier to adjust. If none of these appeal to you, the good news is you can also use one of the bands for the standard watches instead.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
Regardless of the band you pick, the Watch Ultra’s case is, to use the technical term, a chonkster. For my relatively small wrist, it looks overwhelming and covers pretty much the entire width of my arm. On others with larger wrists, though, the Ultra looked comparable to a regular timepiece.
I don’t mind that it’s chunky, but some of the Ultra’s other design elements were frustrating. Apple added a titanium guard to the side to protect the digital crown from accidental rotations, which makes sense since the crown is also about 30 percent bigger than the Series 8 and has coarser grooves. The company did this to make the dial easier to rotate with gloves on, and it also raised the side button for the same reason.
When I tried using these controls with a pair of thick work gloves on, they were indeed easy to maneuver. But they frequently got triggered by accident, causing a lot of frustration.
On the Watch Ultra’s left side sits an orange Action button and a speaker grill. The titanium case extends straight up to surround the sides of the sapphire crystal screen, which is flat instead of slightly curved like the Series 8 or SE. This gives it a weird shape, but only if you look at it from the side. From the top down, the Ultra looks just like a 45mm Series 8.
Hiking with the Watch Ultra
To get a better sense of the Watch Ultra as a companion for outdoor adventurers, I went on a moderate hike in New Jersey’s South Mountain reservation without a map. I was accompanied by our video producer Brian, who had a 3.2-mile trail downloaded to his phone on AllTrails, but that was for backup purposes only. I was hiking blind.
I activated the Backtrack feature on the Watch Ultra and created a Waypoint at the parking lot just before we embarked on the trail. I also started a hiking workout to help monitor the time and distance we’d covered.
Even with a map as a failsafe, we got lost a few times. On one of those occasions, we only realized we were going the wrong way when I noticed that the watch was showing us going in a straight line. Brian heard me say that, recalled that we should have made a pretty sharp left turn a little while ago and pulled up his map to confirm. Would we have gotten hopelessly lost had I not been checking the Watch Ultra? Probably not. We would have noticed we weren’t where we were supposed to be at some point. But the device saved us some time and kept us on the right track.
Midway through the hike, we tested the new Siren feature that uses the Ultra’s two onboard speakers that Apple said make it 40 percent louder than the Series 8. The company said one of the speakers was specifically designed to also function as an emergency siren, playing a pattern of beeps and alarms to alert your companions or nearby emergency responders to your location.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
I asked Brian to walk away before I went and hid behind a tree. Then I played the siren and did my best to stay out of sight. Brian found me within five minutes. Granted, I didn’t go very far, and there weren’t huge trees with thick trunks. Brian said that the siren initially sounded like a bird, and indeed, the first few sounds the watch plays are a series of shrill chirps. But they give way to wailing patterns and the morse code beeps for SOS, so people eventually won’t mistake them for anything natural.
The siren seemed plenty loud to me, but from Brian’s perspective, it got somewhat lost in the sound of leaves rustling and a nearby gurgling stream. Obviously, the closer Brian got to me, the clearer he heard the siren. But don’t count on the Watch Ultra to draw rescuers to your exact location from a mile away.
During our hike, we came across a cute little creek and wanted to mark it in case we decided to come back. Since I had set the Watch Ultra’s action button to set a waypoint, I pressed it once to drop a pin, and the system prompted me to label the spot. I didn’t have to start from scratch — the watch had already filled in a suggested name, and I could use the onscreen keyboard to edit it. With the Ultra’s roomy screen, by the way, typing is surprisingly less cumbersome than on smaller wearables.
Thanks to its increased brightness of up to 2,000 nits, the Watch Ultra’s screen is easy to see in direct sunlight. A lot of this also has to do with Apple’s interface, which mostly uses bold, colorful fonts against a dark background.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
Though I found it convenient to quickly set a waypoint with the Action button, I often accidentally pressed it when trying to push the digital crown. My thumb would naturally rest along the side of the case while my index finger reached for the dial, which frequently caused both buttons to be pushed at once. This meant that I kept getting the screen for creating a waypoint instead of going to the home page, for instance.
It was more annoying after I had set the action button to start a workout. The number of two-second hikes that are now in my activity history are testament to how easy it is to hit the action button. Over time, I learned to place my thumb where the strap connects to the case. But if you’re really struggling you can always set the action button to do nothing (though that would defeat its entire purpose altogether).
When we were nearing the end of our trail, Brian and I decided to use the waypoint we had created for the parking lot to find the exit. It was slightly confusing to find the page that would show us the directions — we had to rotate the crown while in the Compass app to zoom in and out of different views. The Orienteering view, which appears after you twist the dial all the way in, shows the route you’ve been taking and your waypoints. Tapping one of these flags brings up a list of your saved sites and you can choose one to navigate to. The Watch Ultra will show how far away you are from the spot, as well as in what general direction (left or right) you should head.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
I followed the onscreen instructions towards the parking area, which the Watch said was just 400 feet away. I’ll confess: At this point I could already tell where the car was, so it was hilarious when, hundreds of feet away from the vehicle, the Watch buzzed to tell me I had arrived.
The GPS wasn’t super accurate, but I wasn’t expecting it to bring me within inches of the car. I also took this opportunity to check on the Backtrack feature to see if the Watch Ultra could reliably bring me back through the trail we had completed.
Once again, I found the interface confusing. Tapping the footsteps symbol on the bottom right of the Compass app brought up options to retrace or delete the steps I had saved. When I tapped retrace steps, it took awhile for me to realize which direction to turn and how to follow the orange line on the screen. I finally caught on when I started walking back in the direction I had come from, and saw some progress on the watch. In general, I find the Waypoint feature more useful than Backtrack, as it creates a more direct path to where I want to go, as opposed to making me retrace my entire journey.
We didn’t trek into the night, but had it gotten dark, we could have also used the Night mode version of the Wayfinder watch face. This changes the interface so all onscreen elements are in red while the background is black, which makes it easier for you to see in the dark.
Regular health and fitness tracking
In pretty much every other respect, the Watch Ultra behaves exactly like a typical Apple Watch. It’ll still automatically track your outdoor runs and walks. Although, thanks to its improved dual-frequency GPS runners should be able to get more accurate results even in cities dense with high-rises.
I’m not a big runner, but I can imagine how helpful it must be to set the Action button to launch a workout and program subsequent presses to mark laps and segments or change sports. But since most of my exercises involve weights, the watch’s oversized hardware actually got in my way.
In fact, the most frustrating thing about using the Watch Ultra as my daily driver has surprisingly been during my daily workouts. In the past, when testing the Series 8 and Samsung’s watches, I bragged about never needing to flip the screens inside my wrist to prevent damaging them when racking weights.
I can’t say the same about the Watch Ultra, though, and not because I’m worried about cracking the display. It’s because whenever I was doing burpees, planks or mountain climbers, my wrist would keep pressing into the dial and cause the Ultra to stop tracking my workout. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve screeched obscenities at the watch midway through a HIIT class, causing my classmates to look around in confusion. Eventually, I gave up and started turning the watch inside my wrist before each class — it’s that or lose time during each session I track. Thankfully, in spite of this minor inconvenience, I was still able to lose 4 percent body fat during a six-week challenge and gain 2.8 pounds of muscle. (Yes, this is a not-so-humble brag.)
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
Because the Watch Ultra is humongous, wearing it to bed is understandably less comfortable than the smaller Series 8 or SE. I definitely felt it weighing my wrist down, which made it harder to fall asleep. Like the Series 8, the Ultra has an onboard skin temperature sensor that allows for retroactive ovulation tracking. You’ll need to set up a sleep schedule and focus before the Watch will log your rest.
You’ll also find other watchOS 9 features like medication logging, as well as crash detection via the onboard high-g accelerometer, and you can set the Action button to turn the screen into a flashlight, which is easier to find in the dark than a phone.
Performance and battery life
Though I was concerned about the Watch Ultra’s battery drain during our hike, in daily use the device lasted longer than expected. I usually got almost three days out of it before having to recharge, and that’s with it tracking my daily walks and workouts, as well as controlling my soundtrack. That more than lines up with Apple’s promised 36-hour runtime, and I never worried about running out of juice.
I did completely forget to check the battery level one day and found myself working at a cafe with just 20 percent left. I enabled Low Power Mode, which turned off the Always On Display and features like background heart rate measurements, heart rate notifications, irregular rhythm alerts and blood oxygen measurements. It also disabled the Wi-Fi and cellular connections, which led to notifications being delayed.
With this on, Apple said you can get up to 60 hours on a charge. Since I only enabled Low Power Mode at 4:30pm with 17 percent left, I wasn’t expecting the watch to last another day. But, four hours after I turned it on, the Watch Ultra still had 14 percent of juice.
Wrap-up
The Apple Watch Ultra might be the ultimate smartwatch. Sure, it doesn’t have the same long-lasting battery as some Garmin or Fitbit wearables, and it lacks some of the exercise-tracking features those two offer like rep-tracking or recovery stats. Those looking to track their sleep might prefer the lower profile of the Series 8 or SE. People who don’t dive, hike, bike or run outside regularly also don’t need to spend the extra cash on the Ultra — the Series 8 is more than capable as a daily fitness tracker. But with a durable build, helpful tools for specialized use cases and watchOS’ general capability as a mainstream smartwatch platform, the Watch Ultra is a powerful companion that most outdoor enthusiasts can rely on.
