ArduinoMania

Your TikTok habits may vary, but I’ve sometimes pulled myself out of a fugue of lengthy viewing, hopping and browsing on the social app, barely recalling what I just spent 15 minutes doing. For me, and possibly you, a new watch-history feature could offer some insight to exactly what we’re wasting our time on.

According to Hammond Oh, TikTok is testing a watch-history tool to show you a list of videos that previously appeared in your For You feed, making it easier to rediscover clips (and creators) you may have not liked or followed.

There are other ways to seek out your TikTok watch history, but they’re not exactly easy to use. One method involves navigating to the Discover page, tapping search, entering an asterisk and toggling on the “watch videos” option in the search filters tab. As is the case with random feature tests on TikTok, Instagram and others, this might not make its way to all users, but keep an eye on your For You feed — just in case.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

• SpaceX is ending Crew Dragon production

• HP buys Poly, the company formerly known as Plantronics

• Apple's AirPods Max fall to $439 at Amazon

• The best budget robot vacuums you can get

• Instagram's latest test makes it easier to support social causes

OnePlus as we knew it is dead. Here's what’s next

The company is chasing mainstream appeal.

OnePlus began as a startup making smartphones with high-end specs at relatively reasonable prices. In an age of black slabs, the company was able to forge an identity for itself, backed by devoted fans and a strong online presence. But now, after 10 generations of flagship phones, Sam Rutherford feels like the OnePlus we knew is gone, and it's probably not coming back.

Continue reading.

Samsung's $700 Smart Monitor M8 is now available to pre-order

You can control smart home devices using the 32-inch 4K display.

Samsung

Samsung's latest Smart Monitor is now available to pre-order. The kinda-familiar-looking Smart Monitor M8 has support for streaming services including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV, as well as cloud gaming platforms. You won't necessarily need to connect to external speakers, with two built-in 5W speakers and a tweeter that delivers 2.2-channel audio. The Smart Monitor M8 starts at $700 for the white model. The spring green, sunset pink and daylight blue models will cost you a little extra at $730.

Continue reading.

Amazon Games’ chief is leaving the company

Just after finally achieving some success with 'Lost Ark' and 'New World.'

The Amazon Games struggle bus was finally going somewhere, but now studio head Mike Frazzini is stepping down. On LinkedIn, Frazzini cited the desire to spend more time with family. "While there’s never really a perfect time to step away from a great role, now is a good time," he wrote. Amazon’s MMORPG New World was one of 2021's biggest moneymakers on Steam.

Continue reading.

Spotify adds promised COVID-19 content advisory

This follows the drama with Joe Rogan's podcast.

Getty

Spotify has finally acted on its promise to add a COVID-19 content advisory label. You'll now see a tab for a COVID-19 Guide when you visit podcasts and other content discussing the coronavirus. Tap it and you'll visit a section that points you to authoritative sources (such as the World Health Organization and the UK's National Health Service) as well as trustworthy content from the likes of The Guardian and the BBC.

Continue reading.

8BitDo's Pro 2 was already great value at its regular price of $50, but now the controller has dropped to an all-time low on Amazon. It's on sale for $42.50, which is 15 percent off the usual price.

As with the excellent SN30 Pro+, the Pro 2 is compatible with Nintendo Switch, Windows, macOS, Android and Raspberry Pi. This time around, the controller has two back buttons. Like all of the other inputs, those buttons on the handles (where your ring finger or pinky might rest naturally) are fully customizable through a Windows, Mac, Android and iOS app. The controller has a profile configuration switcher as well, so you can swap between three input configurations without having to fire up the app.

It's a little disappointing that the controller isn't compatible with iOS devices, PlayStation or Xbox. For those who game on pretty much every other major platform, though, the 8BitDo Pro 2 is well worth checking out, particularly if you pick up a cheap smartphone clip so you can more easily play cloud gaming titles just about anywhere.

Razer

Elsewhere as part of Amazon's gaming accessory sale, you can save on Razer's wired Wolverine V2 Chroma controller. It also dropped to an all-time low. At $127.50, the white variant is slightly cheaper than the black model ($130). The controller usually costs $150.

The Wolverine V2 Chroma is compatible with Xbox consoles and PC. It's a worthy alternative to Microsoft's Elite Wireless Series 2 controller.

It has six more buttons than a standard Xbox controller and they're all remappable. Those could be useful for swiftly building structures in Fortnite (once that becomes a thing again) or executing rapid combos. There's also full RGB support via Razer's Xbox controller app, swappable thumbsticks and a hair-trigger mode that could give you an advantage over your rivals.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

The long-awaited current-gen versions of Apex Legends are almost here. Respawn Entertainment will release native PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of the battle royale when the Warriors Collection event goes live today.

All three consoles will support 4K output and full 60Hz gameplay as well as HDR. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions are getting higher-resolution shadow maps and larger level-of-detail distances (so you can see objects from further away).

Some features players might have been expecting at the outset will arrive in future patches. Those include support for 120Hz gameplay, adaptive triggers and haptic feedback on PS5, as well as audio and visual improvements.

Not having 120 fps capabilities at the jump will be disappointing for many, given the fast pace of Apex Legends matches and the fact the developers have long been discussing that feature as one of their goals for the current-gen versions. Still, after the native PS5 and Xbox Series X/S editions land, it should be somewhat easier for developers to roll out updates across all platforms, so hopefully it won't be long before 120 fps support is added.

Thanks to Microsoft's Smart Delivery tech, the Xbox Series X/S versions of Apex Legends should automatically download if you have the Xbox One edition installed. PS5 players will need to download their console's version manually from the options menu on the Apex Legends game page or from the PSN store if they don't have the PS4 edition on their system.

Beyond the current-gen versions, there's a lot more for Apex Legends players to check out later today. The 9v9 Control mode, which proved popular when it debuted earlier this year, is back until April 12th. The Caustic Treatment area of King's Canyon is getting some changes so it can act as a Control battleground.

There's a new map called Drop-Off for the 3v3 Arena team deathmatch mode. A collection of 24 limited-time cosmetics will be available during the Warriors Collection event, including skins. Collect them all and you'll unlock a new sword Heirloom item for Crypto.

Respawn Entertainment/EA

Last year, Amazon revealed one of the more original products we've seen, the kid-focused Glow that does video calls and projects a touch-sensitive play space onto a flat surface. Now, the company has announced that the Glow is available for all customers in the US, complete with a 1-year subscription for books, visual arts activities, play options and more. 

The Amazon Glow combines an 8-inch LCD teleconferencing display with a projector that creates a 19-inch, touch-sensitive interactive space. Parents and others can connect to the device via the Glow mobile app that lets them speak with kids and interact with the projected play space remotely. In the original announcement video, for example, Amazon shows kids doing puzzles, drawing and playing reading games, while parents and grandparents are able to see what the kids are seeing. 

"We know a majority of parents say it’s challenging for their kids to stay engaged on traditional video calls, and, let’s be honest, stay in one place," said Glow GM Joerg Tewes. "For parents who are miles or minutes away from home for work, Glow provides a new way to say good morning or good night to keep those important relationships strong."

The device comes with "nearly 100 games and visual arts activities" through Amazon Kids+, Amazon said. Those include Chess, Checkers, go Fish, Whac-A-Mole and others. It also includes thousands of books, different play options (remote or side-by-side), the ability to interact with Disney characters (Anna and Elsa, Woody and Buzz, etc.) and more. Parents, friends and others can use the Glow app on their existing Android and iOS smartphones/tablets or on the 2021 Fire HD 10 tablets. 

Glow looks like a pretty cool product, but it isn't exactly cheap. You can now pick one up at Amazon, BestBuy.com and Target.com starting at $300, with a mat and mat case plus a 1-year Amazon Kids+ subscription included. It's also available with a Fire HD 10 tablet for $380.  

French audio maker Devialet is best known for speaker collaborations, unique designs – and often heady prices. Having experimented with UK broadcaster Sky, the sound company is ready to launch its first solo soundbar for TVs, the Dione. And it’s huge.

Devialet pitches the Dione as a high-end soundbar, offering Dolby Atmos 5.1.2, as well as the ability to upscale stereo content into an approximate 5.1.2 audio signal, offering a richer sound stage and augmented spatial effect even if what you’re watching isn’t primed for Atmos. During a preview event in London, I got to listen to the new soundbar, with its eye-catching “orb” detail and well, it sounds deeper, crisper and outright louder than the mid-range soundbars I’ve owned myself. And pretty much any other soundbar I’ve heard

There’s also the reality that it’s likely as wide as your new 4K TV. And as deep too. That’s because it houses 17 speaker drivers – including eight subwoofers, all custom-built to Devialet’s specifications. This means, according to the company, that there’s enough oomph to sidestep a separate subwoofer unit, with the built-in woofers reaching bass levels as low as 24Hz, and attempting to fill the company’s aim of, as CEO Franck Lebouchard told me, “bringing everything to one object”. 

As is the case for most modern soundbars, there are increased processor demands, and Devialet is using a Qualcomm SoC (System on a chip), which helps with room calibration and several of the company’s proprietary sound engineering features, like adaptive volume level (AVL), which automatically adjusts sound levels to help you hear speech, or avoid getting blasted by loud ads in the middle of quieter programs. 

The most impressive trick is still the upmixing. I watched a nature documentary, first in stereo, then in Devialet’s SPACE upmixed mode, which attempts to add the richness and breadth of 5.1.2 audio to stereo audio. It works – even if this might not be true 5.1.2 audio. I could hear a richer soundstage, with the background rustles of the jungle, and the separate tweets of two birds in the midst of a courtship dance. Switching back to stereo, and everything sounds narrower, tighter.  

Besides this movie mode, which is available when connected through HDMI or optical input, there’s also “spatial mode”, which attempts to upgrade audio from wireless sources (Spotify Connect, AirPlay or Bluetooth) and a voice mode which boosts, well, voices. This is aimed at news programming and podcasts.

You can switch between the modes through the companion app, as well as use the app for volume controls. There’s also a standalone controller from Devialet – sold separately – which looks like a smart thermostat. Because of course.

Mat Smith/Engadget

The company’s new Advanced Dimensional Experience (ADE) is its take on beamforming audio. According to the company’s white paper on the tech, this helps to optimize the surround audio, boosting soundwaves from certain angles and “rejecting” other soundwaves in an attempt to optimize audio for the listener in front of the soundbar. 

The Dione can be laid beneath a TV or mounted on the wall. The aforementioned “orb” rotates to match this, but the bar can detect its orientation with its built-in gyroscope. The soundbar has specific audio profiles for either orientation. The orb, a nod to its Phantom speaker, also houses one active speaker and two passive radiators. 

Devialet wants the attention of audiophiles – as well as those not looking to place multiple speakers around their living space. It’s difficult to compare to most of the smaller, cheaper products. The best comparison may be Sennheiser’s Ambeo, a $2,500 6.1.2 Atmos bar with plenty of tricks of its own. The Dione is a substantial investment, priced at $2,400 in the US, or £1,800 in the UK.

It’s another all-in-one solution, but at these specs, size and price, it’s for those interested in upgrading their entire viewing experience. What’s the point of a 4K OLED TV if everything doesn’t sound as good as it looks?

Intel has unveiled the Core i9-12900KS "Special Edition" CPU claiming it's "the world's fastest desktop processor." Like the Core i9-12900K, it comes with 16-cores, including eight Performance cores and eight Efficient cores, along with 24 threads and 30MB of L3 cache. However, Intel boosted the clock speed from 5.2Ghz to 5.5Ghz (on up to two cores) by bumping the power from 125 to 150 watts. 

AMD recently said that its $449 Ryzen 7 5800X3D was the world's fastest gaming processor, claiming that its 3D V-Cache would allow it to beat the Core i9-12900K. However, Intel has a good case that its latest model is now on top, as it has a much higher maximum clock speed (5.5Ghz compared to 4.5Ghz).

We'll have to wait for benchmark tests to see whether Intel is right, and the lead might change hands again when AMD releases its much anticipated Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 desktop chips in the second half of 2022. It would be a bit of a pyrrhic victory for end users, however, as the Core i9-12900KS will cost (at least) $739 when it arrives on April 5th — nearly $300 more than the AMD model. That's a pretty high price to pay for bragging rights, particularly when they could be short lived. 

Sometimes a YouTube video deserves more nuanced feedback than a simple comment, or a “thumbs up” or a “thumbs down”. YouTube today is testing timed-specific emoji reactions for a small group of users. Viewers can throw out an emoji when a specific moment in a video resonates with them (or doesn’t). 

Users can also get a feel for how others reacted throughout the duration of a video. There will be a separate reaction panel in the comment section of each video that will display emoji reactions by the moment, similar to features already offered by Facebook Live and Twitch. 

“If you’re watching a video that is part of this experiment, you can react and see crowd reactions by opening the comment section of the video and tapping into the reaction panel. The test will also show you which moments other viewers are reacting to (which will be anonymized – we won't show who sent each reaction). We're testing multiple sets of reactions and will add or remove reactions based on how the experiment goes!,” wrote Meaghan, a representative from Team YouTube.

Google frequently experiments with new features on YouTube, but they don't always become permanent. YouTube recently tested letting users time their comments to specific points in a video and hiding the “dislike” button. As far as user engagement goes, YouTube is relatively light on options. 

Emoji reactions have been hit-or-miss on other social media platforms. Twitter experimented with emoji reactions to tweets last year, and reactions were largely ambivalent. But unlike tweets, videos are a lengthier medium and more likely to elicit a multitude of reactions. YouTube creators are likely to receive more detailed user feedback via emoji as well, such as being able to nail down if a joke landed or bombed.

YouTube is testing emoji reactions on a small number of channels to start but will expand the feature depending on the reception. Users will have a wide array of emoji reactions at their disposal, including the face with tears of joy, a heart, the shocked face, the celebration party poppers, the “keep it 100” sign, a question mark, the idea light bulb and a screaming cat.

You might be mistaken for thinking Rode already made headphones. And that’s fair enough, it feels like something the company would already be doing. Yet, here we are with the first set from the Australian brand, the NTH-100. The $150 over-ear headphones might have been a long time coming, but if you’ve been following the company over the last couple of years, you’ll know it’s making a conscious effort to dominate the podcast and streaming world, and that’s who these headphones are aimed at.

At a glance, the NTH-100 seem pretty straightforward. An all-black pair of studio headphones with no Bluetooth or noise cancellation frills. Just a comfortable set of wired cans designed for home studio use. And for the most part, that’s exactly what they are, but Rode has tried to add enough details here to make them stand out in an otherwise busy segment.

Rode states that the drivers in the NTH-100 have been designed for accurate frequency response which makes sense if you are pitching these to streamers and creators. They certainly don’t sound overly loaded at the lower end and the mid-highs don’t artificially stand out which can often be the case in this category.

In fact, the NTH-100 sound surprisingly neutral. I was expecting them to be weighted toward… something, but they don’t seem to be doing much to the source material at all. I’ve worn them for everything from Zoom calls to Podcast recording and of course endless music listening and they serve each of these purposes well. I particularly like them for monitoring. I’m not sure why, but my dull voice seems to be accurately dull when I listen through these and I appreciate their honesty (it allows me to better spice it up at the edit stage, which is the whole point).

James Trew / Engadget

They also aren’t distracting to look at and that’s no bad thing. Bar the small circular gold Rode logo the only other aesthetic detail is the overly large “Ø” debossed into the side of each matte earcup (in gloss). It’s a little too large for my taste and feels a little conspicuous in an otherwise understated design but given it’s also black it doesn’t spoil their discreet look too much.

Neutral and discreet is cool and all but surely there’s a little seasoning here to make them interesting? And there is, mostly in their comfort. The Alcantara covering on the earpads feels luxurious, but it’s the “CoolTech” gel underneath that is the real treat. Rode states that this makes them colder on the ears and thus reduces wearing fatigue. I was skeptical, but when I put them on they really do feel noticeably chilly and that makes a big difference. Given these are aimed at editors, creators and streamers it’s entirely possible you’ll be wearing them for longer stretches so details like this can make a difference.

Likewise, a clever detail called “FitLock” removes the need to adjust them every time you put them on. Once you have them set just right, there’s a locking clip that will prevent them from accidentally re-adjusting them every time you handle them. It actually took me a little bit to get used to the idea that I might not have to check if they are positioned right every time I put them on.

Given that you’ll likely be wearing these at a desk, Rode saw fit to make sure you can attach the cable on either side. It’s a small detail, but one that can quickly induce buyer’s remorse if you have to decide between reorganizing your desk to have your audio interface on the other side or dealing with awkward cable spaghetti.

James Trew / Engadget

What’s less of a surprise is that Rode has designed the NTH-100 to slot right into its existing creator ecosystem. If you own a Rodecaster Pro or use Rode Connect or maybe just bought the “Colors” accessory for your NT-USB Mini you’ll know that the company is centering a lot of its products around multi-person podcasting and streaming and including colorful ways to mark which microphone (or headphones) belong to which audio channel and/or host . The NTH-100 are no exception with color tags included in the box.

If you want to take that a step further, or merely want to customize them a little so they’re not entirely black you will also be able to buy replacement cables in each of Rode’s four bright chosen colors. That’s an extra spend though of course.

All in all for $150 everything feels decidedly more expensive. The plastic material on the earcups might not be the most luxurious, but the overall build and sound quality should make them an appealing choice for those looking for something comfortable while getting some work done.

The NTH-100 are available starting today.

After a weekend of connection issues, Among Us is back online. “Ok servers look stable and good now!” developer Innersloth tweeted on Monday at 3:37PM ET. “Hopefully the sabotages don't come back – will keep u updated if anything changes.”

For much of the weekend, Among Us players in North America and Europe could not connect to the game’s servers to play the popular Mafia-style title. When the connection issues first started, Innersloth blamed the problem on a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. According to the game’s official Twitter account, the attack began late Friday afternoon, and it seemed to take most of the weekend for Innersloth’s small team to address the situation. “Can’t believe I’m working on a Saturday right now, I was supposed to go and get a croissant,” the studio said in one poignant but lighthearted tweet.

Following its meteoric rise in popularity at the start of the pandemic, Among Us has seen its fair share of disruptive attacks. Before this weekend’s DDoS attack, the most significant incident involved a hacker named Eris Loris who targeted the game with a spam campaign that may have affected as many as 5 million players.