ArduinoMania

Sony has released two ultra-high-end Walkman MP3 players aimed squarely at audiophiles — and no-one else. The headliner, the $3,700 NW-WM1ZM2 (pictured left), combines an S-Master HX digital amp with "fine-tuned" capacitors, thick Kimber Kable (to link the amp to the headphone jack) and a 99.99 percent pure gold-plated, oxygen-free copper chassis. It’ll have 256GB of expandable storage. Sure.

Sony

A lower-cost model, the $1,400 NW-WM1AM2 (shown right), offers similar functionality to the ZM2, but in an aluminum alloy body with 'just' a low-resistance oxygen-free copper cable. You'll also have to make do with 128GB of expandable space. At that price.

Both Walkman models are available now.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

• Amazon's 3-for-2 sale includes 'Elden Ring,' 'Nintendo Switch Sports' and more

• FDA clears Rune Labs to use the Apple Watch to monitor Parkinson's

• Apple's 2021 iPad Mini falls back to an all-time low of $400

• SpaceX faces more Starship delays as NASA seeks launch safety assurances

• Astra's latest mission to deliver NASA weather satellites ends in failure

• Microsoft Teams is using AI to prevent awkward interruptions in video calls

Crypto lending giant Celsius pauses withdrawals after token value plunges

The company's token has lost nearly all its value in one year.

Another big name in crypto finance is taking drastic steps in the wake of plunging currency values. Celsius Network has paused all withdrawals, inter-account transfers and Swaps in response to "extreme market conditions." Celsius has struggled like much of the cryptocurrency market. Its CEL token was worth $7 roughly a year ago but tumbled to $3 by early April and was worth just 21 cents yesterday.

Customers, meanwhile, might pay the price. Unlike a conventional bank, Celsius doesn't have FDIC insurance to protect users.

Continue reading.

Street Fighter 6's modern controls could make you OK at Street Fighter

Button mashers, rejoice.

Capcom

The updated control scheme in Street Fighter 6 turns button-mashing into an effective art. Senior Editor Jessica Conditt never felt so capable playing Street Fighter. The modern control type unleashes special moves by pressing a direction and a face button and simplifies behaviors like throws and the game’s new Drive moves, activating them with a single button press. When playing Ryu, it’s possible to Hadoken with just one button. This is Smash Bros.-style gameplay but, still, Street Fighter.

Continue reading.

Netflix confirms 'Squid Game' is returning for a second season

The service’s most-viewed show of all time is coming back.

It was never truly in doubt that Netflix would bring back its most popular show of all time back, but the company has at last officially greenlit season two of Squid Game. It hasn't revealed when the next batch of episodes will hit the streaming service.

Continue reading.

How to buy a used car online

Much has gone digital but you'll still need to kick some tires.

We’re awash with cars (276 million registered in the US as of 2020), with around 40 million used cars sold annually. Between the stiff competition, a short supply of autos (thanks COVID) and a rapidly evolving market split between online and dealer lots, car buyers face some daunting prospects. But there are still deals around, you just need to know where and how to look.

Continue reading.

These are the games included with PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium

Expect a mix of big-name titles and indies.

Sony

Sony published its game catalog for PS Plus' two higher-end plans. As hinted earlier, the company is offering big-name hits, classics (for Premium users) and lower-profile titles.

You can expect well-known games like Death Stranding, several Final Fantasy releases and Red Dead Redemption 2 alongside major PS4 and PS5 offerings like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Demon's Souls, Ghost of Tsushima and Spider-Man: Miles Morales. There are some curious choices: You can play Uncharted 4 and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy in the mid-priced Extra tier, but you need Premium to revisit the series' roots through the Nathan Drake Collection.

Continue reading.

While low-contrast, blue-on-slightly-less-blue 16-character by 2-line LCDs are extremely popular, they really are made specifically for alphanumeric use. They do an admirable job of displaying a few characters, but they don’t exactly spring to mind as a display for non-character purposes. But displaying video on a 16×2 LCD is possible, as long as you’re willing to stretch the definition of “video” a bit and use some imagination while watching.

Normally, a 16×2 display can only display a single character in each spot, chosen from a fixed character set. But [arduinocelantano] was able to leverage the eight custom character slots the display allows to build up images from arbitrary 5×8 pixel bitmaps. After using ffmpeg to scale the original video to a viewport of eight characters, a Python program was used to turn every frame of the scaled video into code to generate the custom bitmaps for each chunk of the viewport. Even with the low refresh rate of the display and the shrunken frame size, the result is a recognizable video, helped no doubt by the choice of the shadow-puppet Bad Apple!! video. Check it out after the break to see how it looks.

We saw a similar rendering of the same video on LCD a while back; that effort was amazing in that it was an EEPROM-only implementation, along with a somewhat bigger LCD with better contrast. That project served as inspiration for [arduinocelantano]’s build here, which in some ways we think looks a bit better — perhaps it’s the inverted pixels. Either way, hats off to both builders for pushing past the normal constraints and teaching us something interesting.

The HackadayPrize2022 is Sponsored by:

Wireless headphones have gotten better at connecting to multiple devices in recent years. But pairing can still be kind of a hassle, especially if you’re gaming on a range of devices including consoles, phones and PCs. But after testing out its new Cloud Mix Buds, it feels like HyperX has come up with a simple and elegant way of supporting wireless audio on a bunch of different gadgets, regardless of if you’re gaming or just relaxing to music.

The main thing that separates the Cloud Mix Buds from similar headphones is that in addition to Bluetooth 5.2, the earbuds also come with their own dongle that sends audio over a dedicated 2.4Ghz channel. So not only do you get lower latency compared to Bluetooth – which is extremely useful when you’re playing fast-paced games – you also get a stronger signal that’s less likely to cut out.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

The thing I like the most about the Cloud Mix Buds’ kit is that because the dongle has a USB-C connector, it worked seamlessly with every gaming system I tested including more oddball ones like the Steam Deck. And I didn’t even need to install HyperX’s free Ngenuity app either. The one exception is that, while the Cloud Mix Buds are compatible with both Android and iOS devices, PCs and consoles at large, because Microsoft uses a proprietary wireless audio protocol, the earbuds don’t work with Xboxes.

That makes switching wireless audio as easy as moving the dongle from one device to another. In my experience, the best way to take advantage of buds’ dual-mode wireless connectivity was by keeping them paired with my phone over Bluetooth (where latency isn’t as big a concern) and attaching the dongle to whatever I’m gaming on at the time. The USB-C adapter even has a handy button that you can press to mute its mics.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

As an added bonus, HyperX includes a small extension adapter and a USB-C to USB-A cable with the earbuds. This allows the buds to work with an even wider range of devices like the Nintendo Switch, whose lone USB-C port is occupied when docked. So instead of plugging the dongle into the console itself, you can connect the extension adapter to the USB-A port on the Switch’s dock, and then plug the dongle into that. This also worked really well for my desktop PC, which doesn’t support Bluetooth (it has an older mobo without built-in WiFi or BT) and lacks easily accessible front-side USB-C ports.

As far as audio quality goes, the Cloud Mix Buds 12mm drivers deliver crisp sound including a bit deeper bass than what I get from Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Pro. And while it’s subtle, the reduced latency you get with the 2.4GHz connectivity is noticeable in shooters where reaction times really matter. Unfortunately, because I’ve been using the buds prior to their official release, I didn’t have the chance to dive deeper into the Ngenuity app’s more advanced features, which include support for virtual 7.1 surround sound, customizable EQs and adjustable touch controls.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

The Cloud Mix Buds feature above-average battery life with around 10 hours of runtime using Bluetooth (or closer to 8 hours when using the 2.4GHz dongle), with another 20 to 22 hours in the case. HyperX also includes a protective silicone sleeve for the charging case and a choice of three different ear tips (small, medium and large). For me, the default medium tips offered a snug fit that blocked a lot of ambient noise without being too tight.

Finally, while you don’t get support for wireless charging, my favorite little design element is being able to plug the 2.4GHz dongle into the bottom of the case when traveling so you don’t lose it. For a device that’s meant to be used both at home and on-the-go, that’s a really thoughtful touch. The downside is that the dongle is so wide, it can block nearby ports like the front USB-A jack on a PS5.

Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Now I admit getting earbuds to play nice with a lot of different gaming devices is sort of a first-world problem. But for those who have the luxury of jumping between multiple consoles or systems (sorry Xbox), HyperX’s Cloud Mix Buds makes all that a breeze, while still offering good battery life, a simple design, and solid audio quality. And with a price of $150, that’s an appealing combo for big-time gamers that appreciate the freedom of wireless sound.

Meta is introducing new parental supervision features for Quest virtual reality headsets and Instagram. The VR safety tools, which were announced in March, are rolling out worldwide. 

The parental supervision process needs to be initiated on a teen's account (the minimum age to have a Facebook account is 13). A Parent Dashboard in the Oculus app will allow parents and guardians to block apps (including web browsers), see a list of apps on the teen's account and view their friends list. A teen can ask to buy an age-restricted app, then their parent can approve or deny the request. Parents can also view headset screen time, receive alerts when an app is purchased and block the Link and Air Link features to stop teens from using PC content on their headset.

On top of that, Meta is debuting a parent education hub, which includes information about the VR supervision options. The company says it worked with industry experts, teens, parents and policymakers on these controls. It will refine the tools over time.

At the start of this year, the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK said it would hold talks with Meta over how Quest 2 complies with a children's code that's designed to protect young users. These new measures could go some way toward addressing the watchdog's concerns.

Meanwhile, Instagram's parental supervision tools, which launched in the US in March, will arrive in the UK, Japan, Australia, Ireland, Canada, France and Germany this month with some expanded options. Parents can now invite teens to set up supervision tools (rather than requests solely coming from teen accounts).

Parents and guardians can limit access to Instagram at certain times by scheduling breaks. They can view more details about an account or post their teen reports, including the person in question and the type of report. They can also see which users their teen follows and who follows them. Instagram plans to roll out the tools globally later this year.

In the UK and Ireland, Instagram is testing a nudge feature. Teens will be encouraged to look at different posts if they spend too much time with the same kind of content in the Explore tab. The aim is to prompt them to be more mindful of their Instagram use. As part of a different test, teens in certain countries may see a prompt to turn on the Take a Break feature after watching Reels for a while.

Elsewhere, Instagram is adding more resources to its educational Family Center. There's a new page that provides teens with details about privacy settings for Quest, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger. Parents and guardians can access information about how to talk to kids about online safety issues.

The UK government has ended its plug-in car grant program effective immediately, it announced. The scheme first launched in 2011 with grants up to £5,000 ($6,089) or 25 percent of the cost of the car, but were gradually reduced to £1,500 ($1,827) where they sat until today. The grant ends on future sales, but will still be honored for any buyers that already applied for it. 

The program had achieved its goal of kickstarting the UK's electric revolution, the Department for Transport (DfT) said in a press release. It noted that sales of EVs increased from less than 1,000 in 2011 to nearly 100,000 in the first five months of this year alone. It added that EVs now offer "significant savings" over ICE vehicles due to the high cost of gasoline and diesel, and that owners can still get tax and other incentives. 

"The government has always been clear the plug-in car grant was temporary and previously confirmed funding until 2022-23," the government said. "Successive reductions in the size of the grant, and the number of models it covers, have had little effect on rapidly accelerating sales or on the continuously growing range of models being manufactured."

The DfT now plans to focus on charging stations, but didn't say if it planned to boost the £1.6 billion budget it had already set aside. It also pledged £300 million ($365 million) toward incentives on plug-in taxis, motorcycles, vans, trucks and wheelchair-accessible vehicles.

The UK promised to eliminate ICE vehicles by 2040 as part of its Road to Zero strategy designed to cut harmful emissions. However, some EU countries like Sweden or Ireland have more ambitious plans to hit that goal by 2030 and even earlier. 

After the maximum rebate was cut from £2,500 to £1,500 just six months ago and restricted to eligible EVs to models under £32,000, the plug-in car grant program appeared to be on life support. Critics decried the reduction at the time and are likely to be scathing toward the grant's complete elimination. Potential EV buyers motivated by record gasoline prices are also likely to be unhappy about the decision.

"We need to move the market even faster... which means we should be doubling down on incentives," an industry rep told Autocar late last year. "Other global markets are already doing so whereas we are cutting, expecting the industry to subsidize the transition, and putting up prices for customers. UK drivers risk being left behind on the transition to zero-emission motoring."

• Read more about In-Vehicle System-On-Chip Solution for Secure Car Access CCC Release 3 Compliant
• Log in or register to post comments

• Read more about New Mass Flow Controllers Coupled with Multi-Gas Calibration and Exchangeable Fittings
• Log in or register to post comments

The downloadable content Capcom had promised for Resident Evil Village last year now has a release date: It's called Winters' Expansion, and it will be available starting on October 28th. Capcom started developing the extra content in 2021, just a few weeks after the game was released, due "popular demand." Now Capcom producer Tsuyoshi Kanda has revealed some pertinent details about the three features included with the DLC, including the Third-Person Mode that gives you a way to play the main story in a new perspective. If you choose to play in third-person, you'll get to see Ethan as he explores the village in search of his missing daughter and shoots the undead.

Winters' Expansion also comes with The Mercenaries Additional Orders. Mercenaries Mode, an arcade-style shooting experience, unlocks after you beat the game for the first time. The DLC will add new stages to it, as well as new playable characters, including Chris Redfield and everyone's favorite nine-foot tall antagonist, Lady Dimitrescu. Finally, the expansion will show what happens to Rose, Ethan's missing daughter, 16 years after the original campaign. Rose's story will show her struggle with her "terrifying powers" and her search for a way to break free from her curse. 

Aside from the DLC, Resident Evil Re:Verse — the multiplayer freebie for the game that was supposed to come out in July 2021 — will also be available on October 28th. The PS5 versions of Resident Evil 7, Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 have already dropped, though, and you can get them for free if you already own copies for the PS4.

• Read more about Why Fabless Semiconductor Firms Witnessing a Huge Growth in 2022?Defines Experts
• Log in or register to post comments

The FAA wants SpaceX to address a number of environmental concerns before it approves an expansion of the Starbase launch facility, located on Texas’s Gulf Coast. The agency asked SpaceX to make more than 75 changes — according to an environmental impact assessment released today — before the company can use the South Texas site to launch flights to the Moon and Mars. Located near Boca Chica, Texas, the launch site has been the center of controversy after SpaceX founder Elon Musk revealed his plans to incorporate the surrounding area to support lunar missions.

As Space Newsnoted, this seems to be more of a “yellow light” than a “red light” from the FAA. The agency issued a “Finding of No Significant Impact” for SpaceX’s plans to conduct orbital launches with its Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket. In a nutshell, the agency found there would be no significant environmental consequences — but is asking SpaceX to take some steps to mitigate environmental harms before it is officially cleared.

The FAA’s review will only clear SpaceX for five orbital launches per year, as well as five suborbital launches and tests. Many of the proposed changes involve Boca Chica Beach, a nearby public beach that has been subject to closures during Starship tests. The closures prompted the Sierra Club and other groups to sue government officials over what they believe is a violation of the state's constitution. SpaceX will be barred from closing the road during 18 different holidays, and will be limited to five weekend closures per year. The FAA also calls for SpaceX to limit closures to 500 hours a year for normal operations, with an added allowance of 300 hours to address any emergencies.

SpaceX seemed to take the FAA’s review in stride. “One step closer to the orbital flight test of Starship,” the company tweeted earlier today.