Now's a good time to pick up a few AirTags while you can get a four-pack for one of the best prices we've seen. Amazon has the multipack of Apple's Bluetooth trackers for $89, or 10 percent off their usual rate. While the bundle briefly dropped to $85 on Prime Day last week, this $89 sale price is still a good deal, especially for those that have more than one item they'd want to keep track of with the gadgets. If a single AirTag is enough for you, you can pick one up for $27.50 right now.
While Apple has competition from Tile, Chipolo and even Samsung to a degree in this space, those steeped in the Apple ecosystem will find a lot of advantages to AirTags. They pair quickly and seamlessly when placed next to iPhones, and then you can label them and track their locations using Apple's Find My network. You can force your AirTag to emit a chime, which should help guide you to your missing things, and those who have newer iPhones can use the ultra-wideband feature to be guided to their things using on-screen directions.
A slight downside to AirTags is their lack of keyring hole, which makes them a bit less versatile than competing trackers on their own. You'll have to buy a holder of some sort if you want to hook the AirTag to your keys, but the coin-sized devices can easily slip into a bag or wallet without taking up too much space.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service plans to substantially increase the number of electric-powered vehicles it’s buying to replace its fleet of aging delivery trucks, officials said Wednesday.
The Postal Service anticipates boosting electric vehicles from 20 percent to 50 percent in its initial purchase of 50,000 vehicles — with the first of them rolling onto delivery routes next year. It also proposes buying an additional 34,500 commercially available vehicles over two years, officials said.
The proposal, to be posted in the Federal Register on Thursday, came after 16 states, environmental groups and a labor union sued to halt purchases of next-generation delivery vehicles under the initial plan that was skewed heavily toward gas-powered trucks.
The new environmental proposal effectively pauses the purchases at 84,500 total vehicles — 40 percent electric — even as the Postal Service seek to buy up to 165,000 next-generation vehicles over the next decade to replace aging delivery trucks that went into service between 1987 and 1994.
Future purchases would focus on smaller amounts of vehicles in shorter intervals than the original 10-year environmental analysis, officials said.
The goal is to be more responsive to the Postal Service's evolving operational strategy, technology improvements and changing market conditions, the Postal Service said in a statement. A public hearing on the new proposal will be held next month.
The next-generation delivery vehicles are taller to make it easier for postal carriers to grab packages and parcels that make up a greater share of volume. They also have improved ergonomics and climate control.
You no longer have to be part of a small club to try OpenAI's clever DALL-E image generator. The consortium has launched a beta that will make DALL-E available to 1 million people from a waitlist in the weeks ahead. If you get in, you'll receive 50 free image credits in your first month and 15 every following month. Each credit offers four pictures based on one original prompt, or three if you offer an edit or variation prompt. A bundle of 115 credits is available for $15 if the freebies aren't enough.
The beta also expands the usage rights to include commercial projects. You can print the images on shirts or children's books, for instance. OpenAI will still reject DALL-E image uploads that include realistic faces, named content (like a specific person or venue) and "explicit" material, though. The consortium is still concerned that people might abuse the technology for misinformation, deepfakes and other harmful purposes.
DALL-E garnered buzz thanks to its ability to generate eye-catching images based solely on a casual description. It doesn't require that you provide every last detail. You can also tweak certain parts of an image to achieve an intended effect. It's both a showcase for AI's potential as well as a surprisingly capable creative tool — you don't need to know the first thing about art to produce something special.
The final episode of Space Explorers: The ISS Experienceis available starting today and it's closing things out with a bang. The four-part series, which debuted in October 2020, wraps up with the first spacewalk filmed in ultra high-resolution cinematic virtual reality. The episode, which is called "Expand," includes the arrival of a SpaceX crew on the International Space Station for the first time as well. Meanwhile, the astronauts are forced to reckon with the impact of COVID-19 back on Earth.
You can check out "Expand" on Meta Quest and Meta Quest 2 headsets for free. The other Space Explorers: The ISS Experience episodes are still available too. Meanwhile, Felix & Paul, the studio behind the series, plans to livestream the Artemis I launch in VR. The launch of an uncrewed mission to the Moon is currently slated for August 29th, September 2nd or September 5th.
DoorDash is rolling out a new requirement for alcohol deliveries across the US. The delivery person will need to scan a customer's ID with the DoorDash app to make sure the buyer is of legal drinking age. They'll also check for signs of intoxication before handing over the booze (couriers are not allowed to deliver alcohol to someone who is visibly intoxicated).
The identity verification measure builds on DoorDash's existing alcohol delivery rules. You'll still need to scan your ID into the app before you can complete an order for hooch. Until now, customers only had to show their ID to the delivery person. DoorDash's goal with the scanning requirement is to make it harder for users aged under 21 to receive alcohol. DoorDash delivers alcohol in 23 states, as well as Puerto Rico, Canada and Australia.
DoorDash
The company tested the dual ID verification measure in several cities. It said the feature made it easier for couriers to verify the user's identity and age before giving them the order. When it comes to ensuring ID details remain secure, DoorDash says it has "implemented administrative, organizational, technical and physical security controls that are designed to safeguard personal information." According to the privacy policy, it will permanently delete biometric information that's no longer needed.
“At DoorDash, safety is a top priority and our goal is to deliver alcohol in the safest and most responsible way possible,” DoorDash’s general manager of alcohol Erik Ragotte said in a statement. “With today’s announcement of two-step or dual ID verification, we’re setting a new industry standard for responsible alcohol delivery. The new safety measures will help ensure alcohol is delivered to people over the age of 21. We will continue to innovate and find even more ways to promote responsible alcohol delivery.”
I’m not sure what pulled me back into Overwatch. Correction: It was all Jessica Conditt’s fault. Her incisive overview on the Summer Game Fest, which noted the lack of fresh updates on AAA games – those major games we’re all excited about – got me thinking about which games I’m waiting to play.
One of those is Overwatch 2. Which is coming this year, has a release date and is just wrapping up its public beta. Oh, and it's completely rid of loot boxes. Rejoice!
The fact that the original Overwatch will evolve into its sequel, which will be free-to-play, rewired my brain. Before I knew it, I was back in the game's lobby waiting my turn to play as all of the popular characters (now categorized as Damage players).
I was already used to the notion that your team of heroes had to strike a balance between support (healers), Tank (damage sponges) and Damage (your, er, damage dealers). This dynamic makes for more strategic fights, even in casual match-ups. But it means I often don’t get to play with some of my favorite characters.
Blizzard
In casual games, there seems to be a dearth in Support players, sadly. (Luckily for me, Moria is one of my go-to characters.) Hopefully, Overwatch 2 will redistribute characters across those three categories — not to mention new additions and new skills and supers. Of course, these mandatory squad layouts were one of many major changes and shifts in Overwatch since it first arrived back in 2016.
Once upon a time, the dwarfy, Torbjörn had an upgradable turret gun and threw out armor packs, Reaper had to collect little orbs of death to gain health from his kills. Symmetra, one of the relatively late additions to the game, has had her abilities and ultimates reshuffled several times. At one point, she had two ultimate options, while another changed nerfed her sentry turret down from six turrets down to three. Outrageous!
The most controversial change was made to everyone’s go-to healer, Mercy. In the early stages of Overwatch, her ultimate attack would revive all KOed heroes in range. It was… rather overpowered. These days, it’s a more sensible single-person revive that charges faster – but some may never get over some of these shakeups. (They should.) [Ed. note: I won't.]
There are big changes afoot in Overwatch 2, too. After weeks of playing the beta, I was relieved that many of my primary characters really haven’t changed at all – at least, not yet. It’s unusual to see Bastion wheeling around as a tank (and I’m now bad at playing as Bastion?), while I’m still acquainting myself with Orisa’s changes, which completely shake up her playstyle (no shield?!). This will take some time. A few new skill effects are also a little hard to decipher visually. (You can check out my colleague Jessica’s deeper thoughts on the beta right here.)
I maintain, despite (or thanks to) the many, many additions, that Overwatch has the most iconic character roster of a game since Street Fighter 2. Still, I don’t like having to really dig for the lore and character backgrounds outside of the game to understand the motivations — or, at least, the sassy asides they say to each other. It’s funny I mention SF2, because the beta feels a little like Super Street Fighter 2, which gave us four new characters, a few more locales, but didn’t exactly reinvent the wheel.
The beta remains limited to standard versus matches, though you will occasionally get to test out the cute robot-tug-of-war matches every now and then. It’s mostly the same Overwatch experience. The two new characters, Junker Queen and Sojourn, are both compelling additions to the roster so far (even if there are still too many Damage characters). The Junker Queen, in particular, seems to offer some intriguing new moves to shake up the competitive meta.
I’m still hoping for more beyond the base game matchups though, whether that’s more cooperative set-pieces or something entirely new and different. Is that too much to ask from what will be a free-to-play game? Hopefully, Overwatch 2 will also better expand on narrative bits and pieces.
The addictive ebb-and-flow of the fights feel the same, but I wonder if Blizzard can continually evolve and expand the experience to keep me hooked this time, just like Roadhog would have wanted.
Google Drive is an incredibly powerful tool for storing and organizing all sorts of data. And best of all, it’s available to anyone with a Google account for free (at least to start). Additionally, because Drive holds all your files in the cloud, it offers some important advantages compared to stashing everything locally on your phone or PC. Drive also works on practically any device with an internet connection, which makes it easy to use at home, at school, in the office and everywhere in between.
However, if you’re new to Drive, there are some important basics you should know before you transfer over all your data and files. So here’s a quick rundown covering the most critical things about Google’s popular cloud storage service.
Storage and pricing
Every Google Drive user gets 15GB of free storage. However, any data you have saved in Google Photos also counts towards that limit. So if you’re using that to back up your pictures , you may not have a ton of room left over for documents and files. That said, you can increase your storage in Drive via a Google One subscription, which starts as low as $1.99 a month (or $20 a year) for 100GB of storage and goes up to $9.99 for 2TB of storage (or $100 a year).
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
For most people, 100GB is more than enough to stash important files, work docs, and family photos. But if you’re planning on using Drive as a way to backup all your data, you’ll probably want to go with one of the bigger plans. The nice thing is that even though the basic $20 a year plan is relatively cheap, there are a number of ways to get additional storage for free, at least temporarily. For example, anyone who buys a new Chromebook will get 100GB of space in Drive free for a year, while customers new to Google One may get offers to test the service out with a free one-month subscription.
So before you start uploading all your files, you’re going to want to figure out how much storage you need and how much that may (or may not) cost you.
Uploading, support files, and organization
Once you’ve figured out how much storage you need, you can begin uploading or transferring your files to Drive. For single files or data stored locally on your device, you can simply tap the New button and select the option for File or Folder upload. On a computer, you can also drag and drop files into your browser window when you are on the Drive website. Drive supports a wide variety of file types including most of the most popular formats like .JPGs, .PNGs, .GIFs, .MP3s, and more. For a full list of support file types, check out Google’s official Help Center here.
After you have all your files uploaded, you can manage them just like you would locally on your phone or computer. You can create nested folders and drag and drop files from one place to another. And of course, you can look for a specific file or folder by typing in the search box, though it’s important to remember that if you’re storing a lot of files in Drive, it may take a bit longer to find them (especially if your internet connection isn’t very speedy). So if you’re able to create a general directory of folders for important projects or data sets on day one, you’ll probably save yourself a lot of time and headaches later.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
It’s also important to note that while you can create new Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc. directly within Drive on PC, on mobile you need to install both Drive and the specific productivity program you want individually. That’s because while they all work together, they are considered separate apps.
Another good way to use Google Drive to organize your work is to save templates for various projects in Docs. This allows you to start writing a script or create forms without starting from scratch every time. You can also save templates for things like bibliographies, potentially saving students time when trying to cite sources for a research paper.
Alternatively, instead of using dedicated apps, you can share a Google Sheet with roommates to help figure out the cost of utilities and other shared expenses. And while it wasn’t strictly designed for this, students have discovered that when places like schools ban or put restrictions on typical messaging apps, you can still chat with friends using Google Docs. All you have to do is invite people to a blank doc and then use real-time collaboration to talk and respond to each other. And once you’re done, you can simply delete the doc, or keep it around for another day.
Collaboration
In addition to making cloud storage simple and easy to use, one of Google Drive’s most powerful features is its range of collaboration tools. Sharing a file or document with someone else is as simple as hitting the share button and entering their email. Alternatively, Drive can generate a link to send via text, social media or your messaging app of choice. Once someone has access, you’ll be able to view or edit the file with them in real-time.
That said, it’s important to know who you’re sharing your files with and how they are using them. For example, it might be really helpful to give editing permission to a teacher or mentor if you’re looking for help with an essay, but less so if you’re just sharing an ebook with a friend. In addition to the owner of the file, Drive offers three different levels of access: viewer, commenter and editor. And if something goes wrong and you ever want to see an older copy of a Google Doc, Sheet or Slide, you can open the File menu and select the option that says Version history.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Viewers are only able to see and read the document, but don’t have the ability to change any of the content. Commenters can view and surface thoughts and questions about the content by using Google’s Comment tool, while editors can make changes just like the owner of a doc.
If you want to see files that others have sent you recently, you can click on Google Drive’s Shared with me tab. And if you have a Google Workspace account through school or work, you can also open the handy Activity Dashboard by clicking on the squiggly icon. (It’s in the top right next to the blue Share button on a desktop.) Finally, if you want a fast way to see which files you’ve shared with others, you can type “to:” into Drive’s search box.
Accessing files offline
While Google Drive is intended primarily as a way to manage docs and files stored in the cloud, it does support offline access, which can be handy when you don’t have a good internet connection. However, there are some steps you need to take before you can get the full benefit of using Drive offline.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
First, you need to make some changes to your Drive’s settings while connected to the internet before going offline. On a computer, you need to click the gear icon in the top right corner of your Google Drive browser tab, hit Settings and then check the box next to the Offline menu option. On mobile, you’ll need to open the Drive app, find a specific file and then designate for offline access by enabling the option from the More icon (it's the one that looks like three vertical dots). Once you do that, you’ll be able to access, edit and save any changes you make. And the next time your device connects to the internet, it will automatically sync any changes you made to the offline doc to the one saved in the cloud. Meanwhile on a Chromebook, all you have to do is open up your Google Drive settings, scroll down, check the box next to the Offline option and hit Done.
Hello Games shows no signs of slowing down when it comes to No Man's Sky. The studio just released the 20th major update, which is called Endurance. The previous big update, titled Outlaws, dropped in April. The focus this time is on fleets and freighters.
With Endurance, Hello Games has overhauled freighters. There's a new bridge with a quick-access teleporter that will take players to and from the new-look hangar in a jiffy. There's the option to teleport between the capital ship and a fleet to carry out repairs on frigates too.
You'll be able to quickly put together a space base with new parts and customizable themed rooms. Cultivate crops in a dedicated chamber, or add a catwalk, observation deck or glass corridor to gaze out at the cosmos. Using the Planetary Probe freighter module, you can remotely discover all celestial bodies in a given solar system.
Players can hire captains and pilots, and they may see engineers, biologists and technicians walking around their freighter. Hello Games upgraded freighters' exterior visuals as well. Additionally, there are new effects for black holes and visual enhancements for nebulae — a perfectly timed update after NASA released the first batch of full-color images from James Webb Space Telescope last week.
Asteroids have been improved too. They're more varied in shape and size and you may see thousands of them on screen simultaneously. Some may even nest creatures. Also new are procedurally generated organic frigates, which you can add to your fleet and deploy on missions. The game already had living starships, which can now leech energy from enemy vessels.
Hello Games
Elsewhere, a new expedition called Polestar will start soon. You'll be tasked with taking your capital ship across the galaxy on a cruise. Rewards include new base parts (such as a flaming barrel), a jellyfish companion and a unique cape design. The update introduces new multiplayer missions too.
In the coming months, No Man's Sky will arrive on yet more platforms. It's coming to Nintendo Switch on October 7th and macOS sometime this year. A PlayStation VR 2 version is in the works as well.
Discord voice chats are coming to Xbox. Starting today, those enrolled in Microsoft's Xbox Insider beta program can test the functionality before a wider rollout later this year. The feature allows Discord users on Xbox, PC and mobile to join the same voice channel, thereby making it easier to communicate when playing cross-platform games like Halo Infinite. That said, the integration isn’t as seamless as simply downloading Discord on your Xbox.
You first need to connect your Xbox Account to Discord. If you previously did that so that your Discord contacts could see your Gamertag, you’ll need to do so again to grant the app voice permissions on your Xbox console. You’ll find the option to connect your accounts within Discord’s User Settings. Click or tap the cog icon, navigate to the “Connections” menu, select the Xbox icon and then follow the on-screen instructions.
Discord
Because the entire process works through a series of hand-offs, you’ll then need to download the Xbox mobile app. To talk with your friends, join a voice channel through Discord, where you'll see a new “Join on Xbox” button. Tap that and the Xbox app will automatically open on your phone, solely to ask what console it should forward the call audio to. Now imagine doing that every time single time you want to use Discord on your Xbox One or Xbox Series X/S.
It’s not the most elegant process, but it’s still something Discord users have been waiting for the company to add since it first announced Xbox integration in 2018. The integration may also offer a glimpse at how Sony plans to add Discord voice chat to its PlayStation consoles. Discord did not say exactly when voice chat would be available to all Xbox users, though the feature is expected to arrive sometime later this year.
It took a bit of time, but you can now stream Xbox games from your TV without a Microsoft console in sight. As long as you have a Samsung TV. The Xbox app is now available on Samsung’s latest smart TVs and monitors, alongside apps for rival gaming services like Stadia and NVIDIA’s GeForce Now. It’s bigger news, however, when a console maker — and its huge catalog of games on Game Pass Ultimate – offers game streaming straight from your TV.
I had an extended play session during a launch showcase at Samsung’s London event space, and it made me, a PlayStation gamer, an offer I can’t refuse: Play Xbox games from the cloud with no additional hardware, aside from a Bluetooth-connected controller. I can even use my DualSense controller because I’m that kind of person.
This will be familiar news to anyone that’s already streamed games with Xbox Cloud or Google’s Stadia, but, all the games I tried were smooth, with incredibly swift load speeds. Some early previews of Samsung’s Gaming Hub kept gaming media to familiar hits, but with Xbox rolling out the entire Game Pass experience, I got to test its limits with Flight Simulator, a game that benefits from speedier load times and avoiding those pesky huge patch files.
On a big TV, even while standing up, playing Flight Simulator turns into a meditative experience. Type in your destination for an exploration flight (or, easier on a controller, set your cursor on the world map), and just fly and fly and fly. That’s what I did, and I started to hate that I’ll never be able to do this on my PS5. I’m sold on the idea already – I just don’t have a 2022 Samsung TV. Damn you, Microsoft.
Xbox
It’s not perfect, of course. Don’t expect 4K or variable refresh rates beyond 60 fps – this is still cloud gaming, although we get 4K streams on Stadia... The bigger question is whether Xbox’s games can stream on Samsung’s Game Hub, stably, for several hours on end, and that’s something that can only be answered after extensive testing. What if your connection hiccups and you lose that major progress made in Red Dead Redemption 2?
For now, the hub is limited to Samsung’s 2022 TVs and monitors, and it’s unclear exactly how Microsoft will deliver Xbox Cloud to other big screens not connected to its consoles. For Samsung’s part, its spokesperson said the company hoped to “extend the device coverage in the near future”.
Microsoft’s own streaming stick, similar to a Chromecast, seemed like the obvious solution, but the company said earlier this year that it was taking a 'new approach' with its game streaming devices, so that’s not happening for a while at least. It hasn’t elaborated further, besides teasing “a new approach that will allow us to deliver Xbox Cloud Gaming to more players around the world in the future."
That could mean a dedicated device, or it could be exactly what I’m testing today, the TV app, coming to more TVs. Hopefully some that already exist. Hopefully mine? Buying a new TV to avoid paying $300 for a new console seems more than a little circuitous. For now, I’m left waiting for a way to stream Xbox Cloud to my TV without a console. Barring some particularly laborious workarounds, it seems I’ll be waiting a little longer.
