ArduinoMania

Arc, a browser initially built just for the Mac, has been expanding lately. The Browser Company announced a beta of its Windows version last month, and today they're bringing the Arc experience to the iPhone with Arc Search. As the name implies, the new app is focused on searching — when you open the app, you're met with a keyboard and search field, not your usual collection of tabs. And rather than just serving up simple search results from Google or your engine of choice, Arc scans the internet for various sources and creates a "page for me" that pulls together a bunch of info on your desired query.

For example, I just searched for "What happened in the Detroit Lions game?" and was met with details about a controversial two-point conversion that was overturned and how it ultimately affected the game's outcome, which was a three-point Lions loss. It follows with some top search results, team reactions, more details about the referees involved in the confusing call, fan sentiments and more links to dive into. 

It's not dissimilar to the sort of summaries you get in Google's generative AI search results, but so far I find results to be very hit or miss. For example, in the above-mentioned Lions query, the actual final score of the game was nowhere on the page that Arc generated. That's pretty basic info that you'd expect to see up top. Other queries I tried brought back a decent overview but not a whole lot of deep detail, and sometimes there weren't other links to click on to continue researching. That felt odd, because the results I received were far from comprehensive. 

If you aren't interested in these sorts of summary pages, however, you can still just type in a query and hit the "go" button on the keyboard to search Google; you only get the Arc-created summary pages if you tap the "browse for me" button. You can also just put a URL right into the search field and go straight to a site if you're so inclined. Like the desktop Arc browser, the Arc Search app archives your tabs after 24 hours so you don't rack up a never-ending log of sites you're not going to go back to (you can also choose to have tabs stick around as long as 30 days, if you need more time with what you've pulled up). And there's a nice "reader" mode like you'll find in Safari that strips away the mess found on many modern websites to make it easier to read an article. It also blocks trackers, ads and banners by default, which is pretty handy.

From what I can tell, there's no way to sync Arc Search with the desktop browser — there's no way to see opened tabs from another machine, and I don't even think there's a way to sign into Arc Search with the account you make for your desktop browser. The only thing you can do with your open tabs is star one so it doesn't get closed, but there's otherwise no bookmarking or "read later" features. 

As the name suggests, it's a way to search and find info you need on your phone without offering the expected tools you'd get in a full-featured web browser. This makes it a bit of a tough sell to me — I love Arc on my Mac, and this so far feels like a significantly less useful experience than the full version of Arc, not to mention Safari or Chrome on iOS. While there's something to be said for the simplicity, I don't think the AI-generated summaries are worth making this my default mobile web browser.

That said, the Browser Company likes to get things into the wild so its users can test them and prod them and figure out what isn't working, so I'm sure iteration and improvements will come quickly. The company already says its working on sync with desktop, and they also plan to merge the app with features found in the "Arc Mobile Companion" app that launched last spring. That app, which has now been removed from the App Store, only shows you what tabs you have open on other devices and bounces them to Safari (or other apps) for viewing. So it's safe to say that the new Arc app will be more capable soon. And even though it's not something I want to use as my default browser yet, Arc's quirky view on how a browser works is enough for me to keep an eye on it and see how it grows.

Amazon and iRobot, maker of the Roomba vacuum line, just announced that they would be dropping their proposed merger. The potential acquisition was announced back in August of 2022 and was immediately the target of antitrust watchdogs, particularly in the EU. The European Commission (the EU's executive branch) officially announced it was looking into the $1.4 billion dollar deal last July and it raised formal concerns over the potential impact on competition in November. 

iRobot also just announced a large round of layoffs now that the deal isn't going through. The company says it is laying off about 350 employees, which represents 31 percent of iRobot's workforce.

Unsurprisingly, Amazon's statement on the matter blasts regulators for the "innovation" that would come with Amazon scooping up yet another company. "This outcome will deny consumers faster innovation and more competitive prices, which we're confident would have made their lives easier and more enjoyable," said Amazon SVP and General Counsel David Zapolsky in a statement. "Mergers and acquisitions like this help companies like iRobot better compete in the global marketplace, particularly against companies, and from countries, that aren't subject to the same regulatory requirements in fast-moving technology segments like robotics."

iRobot's statement was more muted. "The termination of the agreement with Amazon is disappointing, but iRobot now turns toward the future with a focus and commitment to continue building thoughtful robots and intelligent home innovations that make life better, and that our customers around the world love," said Colin Angle, Founder of iRobot.

While the companies didn't mention the pressure from the EU specifically, Bloomberg notes that a veto looked likely. And while that might not have immediately killed the deal, Amazon and iRobot appear to have decided to shut things down completely rather than work through any proposed changes to make the deal more palatable to regulators. 

Earlier in January, the European Commission was said to have warned Amazon that the deal was on thin ice. However, according to Reuters, the company declined to offer any potential remedies to soothe the bloc's concerns over the acquisition. As outlined in the original agreement, Amazon is paying iRobot a $94 million termination fee now that the deal is dead.

This isn't exactly the first time Amazon and the EU have butted heads. They previously squared off over the company's handling of third-party seller information. In 2022, the two sides reached an agreement over Amazon's treatment of third-party sellers.

Apple's 15-inch MacBook Air M2 is already the company's most affordable laptop with this size screen. Now, you can grab the 256GB model at Amazon for just $999 (in Starlight), back down to the lowest price we've seen to date. And if you need more storage, the 512GB model is available for $1,199 ($300 off in Midnight), also an all-time low price.

The 15-inch MacBook Air is more than just a larger version of the 13-inch model, as Engadget's Nathan Ingraham discovered during his review. While it's still as thin and light as you'd expect, he found that the combination of the large screen and powerful processing made it good enough that he could see using it as his only computer.

That's in large part due to Apple's M2 chipset that gives the 15-inch Air a great price to performance ratio. It also offers a comfortable keyboard and trackpad, plus battery life that actually exceeded the company's 18 hour spec for video playback during out testing. The bigger screen has a 2,880 x 1,864 resolution, but it shares the same pixels per inch (224) as that of the 13-inch version. Though it lacks the punch of the mini LED displays found on the MacBook Pros, the Liquid Retina panel still offers 500 nits of brightness and a 60Hz refresh rate.

While Apple's M2 chipset is a year old at this point, the 15-inch Air model is the most recent model in the lineup. If your focus is content creation, a MacBook Pro might be a better choice. But if you do a mix of things from productivity to video editing, the 15-inch Air is an great choice — especially for road warriors who want to carry the least amount of weight possible. If you want to grab either the 256GB or 512GB models, it's best to act soon, though, as stock tends to run out fast.

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Japan's lunar lander has regained power a full nine days after it landed on the moon's surface nearly upside down and was subsequently switched off, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) announced. A change in the sun's position allowed the solar panels to receive light and charge the probe's battery, allowing JAXA to re-establish communication. 

Things were looking dire shortly after the SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) touched down. The agency immediately noticed a problem with power generation, but was able to launch a pair of probes onto the moon's surface. The Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2 (LEV-2) snapped an incredible photo of SLIM, showing it to be upside down with its panels pointing away from the sun. The cause was found to be a malfunction of the main engine.

JAXA thought there was a chance the probe could recover once the sun's rays pointed more toward the solar panels, and that's exactly what transpired. Shortly after power was regained, it snapped another picture of a previously imaged rock formation called "toy poodle" using a multi-band spectral camera. The team is also targeting several other rocks with canine-themed names, including "St. Bernard," "Bulldog" and "Shibainu."

The upside-down landing may have seemed like an unrecoverable fault, but it looks like the mission can now proceed more or less as planned. While the baseball-sized LEV-2 explores the surface (relaying data via the LEV-1 probe, which also has two cameras), SLIM will grab whatever science it can. 

In any case, the mission was already deemed a success, as the primary goal was a precision landing. It did just that, hitting a spot just 55 meters (180 feet) of its target. It's not known how much longer SLIM can function, as it was never designed to survive a solar night and the next one happens on Thursday. 

As generative AI (and access to AI tools) continues to grow, expect to see more things like the tumult over “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead.” Released on (then pulled from) YouTube, it’s framed as an hour of new “material” by the comedian, who died in 2008. Of course, it's not that. It isn't based on old notes or lost routines, either, like recent releases from the Beatles, and George Carlin’s estate has filed a lawsuit against the makers.

Initial reports from NPR said the AI was trained on thousands of hours of Carlin routines to create the material. Dudesy, the channel that created and posted the video, was later approached by The New York Times, and their spokesperson said the video was “completely written by Chad Kultgen” — one of the channel’s hosts.

Both hosts, comedian Will Sasso and writer Kultgen, are named in the suit. They claim the AI-created Carlin is like an impressionist. (Although, it’s really not a great one…)

The complaint seeks unspecified damages and the immediate removal of “any video or audio copies” of the special.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

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Seeking Mavis Beacon is a Sundance doc about the search for a lost tech icon

Sony’s WH-1000XM5 ANC headphones fall to $328

X plans to hire 100 content moderators

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Fossil gives up on smartwatches

But will keep releasing updates for a few years.

Fossil

Fossil is officially out of the smartwatch business. Its Wear OS smartwatch lineup hasn’t seen a new model since 2021, and the company has now confirmed it’s getting out of wearables. If you own a Fossil-branded watch (which covers several fashion brands like Skagen, Michael Kors, Diesel and even Emporio Armani), you should get updates for the next few years.

But let’s be clear: It probably wasn’t the Pixel Watch that landed the finishing blow.

Continue reading.

Tesla recalls 200,000 vehicles because of a faulty backup camera

A software issue keeps it from activating when vehicles are in reverse.

Tesla is recalling 200,000 vehicles in the US, following reports the backup cameras wouldn’t engage when cars were put in reverse — which is the whole point of the things. Tesla has processed 81 warranty claims potentially related to the issue, according to Autoblog. The recall includes certain Model Y, Model S and Model X vehicles from 2023. Tesla says it delivered 1.8 million vehicles last year, so this recall accounts for more than 10 percent of the company’s yearly output. If this sounds familiar, well, it comes six weeks after Tesla recalled over two million vehicles after serious safety issues with its Autopilot feature.

Continue reading.

X blocked Taylor Swift searches to ‘prioritize safety’

After pornographic deepfakes of the singer went viral last week.

Reuters / Reuters

X confirmed it’s preventing users from searching Taylor Swift’s name after pornographic deepfakes of the artist began circulating on the platform. Visitors to the site started noticing on Saturday that some searches containing Swift’s name would only return an error message.

The platform’s handling of the issue has been slow. After the images went viral last Wednesday, Swifties took matters into their own hands (of course!) mass-reporting the accounts that shared the images and flooding the hashtags relating to the singer with positive content. Do you not remember the snake emoji saga?

Continue reading.

Engadget Podcast: The Mac turns 40

And we review the Framework Laptop 16.

Thoughts, feelings and facts this week on the Mac hitting middle age, the modular laptop capable of gaming and the realization that the Apple car dream is still alive. This week, Devindra is joined by News Editor Nathan Ingraham. 

Listen here.

Sony's WH-1000XM5 headphones are some of the most popular on the market, thanks to the improved sound quality, comfortable fit and highly effective active noise cancellation (ANC). If you've been looking at buying a pair, now is a good time to act. They're currently on sale at Amazon in black, midnight blue and silver for $328, a solid 18 percent off the list price. 

The WH-1000XM5 scored an excellent 95 in our Engadget review, thanks to improvements in nearly every way over our previous favorite headphones, the WH-1000XM4. Perhaps the biggest is in fit and comfort thanks to the more optimal weight distribution, synthetic leather ear cups and slightly reduced weight.

Sound quality also went up, due to the new 30mm carbon fiber drivers that deliver punchier bass. We also saw more clarity that helps you hear fine detail, along with improved depth that makes music more immersive. And Sony's DSEE Extreme sound processing recovers detail lost to compression, without any noticeable impact on sound quality.

The ANC is equally impressive. With double the number of noise cancellation microphones found in the M4, along with a new dedicated V1 chip, the M5 does a better job at minimizing background noise. And in terms of the microphone, we found that the M5 offers superior call quality over its predecessor. Moreover, you get 30 hours of listening time with ANC enabled, enough for the longest of flights.

The main drawbacks of the WH-1000XM5 headphones compared to the previous model is that they no longer fold up, and don't have the granular ANC adjustment found on other models like Bose's QuietComfort Ultra. The other issue is the $400 price tag, but at $328, they're a solid deal — and that price applies to all the main colorways.

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I'm not gonna pretend I've figured you, the Engadget reader, out. Trying to predict what is gonna get your little nerd hearts all a flutter is kind of a crapshoot. But, I'm pretty confident that a Tamagotchi in a guitar pedal is right up your alley. Ground Control Audio showed up to NAMM 2024 with the UwU virtual pet buffer pedal.

Now buffer pedals are about the least exciting piece of gear you can buy for your pedal board. Probably even less so than a tuner. But, if you've got a particularly large board or long cables, a buffer can dramatically improve your tone. Basically all it does is take the signal coming in and give it a little boost so you don't lose precious high end to tone suck. Like I said, not exciting.

What UwU does is no different, except that it has a Tamagotchi-style virtual pet and a handful of mini-games built in. As you play, your new pedalboard buddy dances and gains experience points. As the little cat like creature gains experience it evolves over 30 levels with unique animations. As for what happens once you cross that 30 level threshold, well, the company hasn't decided just yet. But there is still time to decide that since the pedal isn't set to start shipping until March. 

If simply having a new little virtual friend on your board isn't enough whimsy for you, the UwU also has three mini-games built in. There's Long Cat (a snake clone), Fishy Blox (vaguely Tetris-like) and Neko Invader. The tiny monochrome OLED and small buttons aren't exactly ideal for playing games (and neither is hunching over a pedalboard I might add), but it feels true to its inspiration in old cellphone games.

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

If you're sitting there wondering, "why?" Well, first off, why not? Secondly, to keep you playing, obviously. Finding the time and drive to play or practice guitar can be tough. Especially if you're teen with a hectic life of extra curriculars or, like me, a busy dad of two with a demanding day job. The UwU gives you a reason to play beyond just knowing you should. Carving out a few minutes every day to play will keep your adorable little UwU happy and healthy. Frankly, if I had one of these when I was younger and stubbornly clinging to my belief that I didn't need to know music theory or technique, maybe I'd be a more proficient guitarist.

Of course none this would matter if the UwU was a crappy buffer. But it's got 18v headroom and doesn't color your tone at all. It's even super tiny, so finding room for it on even the most crowded of pedalboards shouldn't be too difficult. 

The UwU virtual pet buffer is available now for preorder directly from Ground Control Audio for $139.

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

X’s head of business operations Joe Benarroch said the company plans to open a new office in Austin, Texas for a team that will be dedicated to content moderation, Bloomberg reports. The “Trust and Safety center of excellence,” for which the company is planning to hire 100 full-time employees, will primarily focus on stopping the spread of child sexual exploitation (CSE) materials. 

X CEO Linda Yaccarino is set to testify before Congress on Wednesday in a hearing about CSE, and the platform at the end of last week published a blog post about its efforts to curb such materials, saying it’s “determined to make X inhospitable for actors who seek to exploit minors.”

According to Bloomberg, Benarroch said, “X does not have a line of business focused on children, but it’s important that we make these investments to keep stopping offenders from using our platform for any distribution or engagement with CSE content.” The team will also address other content issues, like hate speech and “violent posts,” according to Bloomberg. Elon Musk spent much of his first year at X taking steps to turn the platform into a bastion of “free speech,” and gutted the content moderation teams that had been put in place by Twitter before his takeover.

X has confirmed it’s preventing users from searching Taylor Swift’s name after pornographic deepfakes of the artist began circulating on the platform this week. Visitors to the site started noticing on Saturday that some searches containing Swift’s name would only return an error message.

In a statement to the Wall Street Journal on Saturday night, Joe Benarroch, X’s head of business operations, said, “This is a temporary action and done with an abundance of caution as we prioritize safety on this issue.” This step comes days after the problem first became known.

X’s handling of the issue from the start has drawn criticism that it’s been slow to curb the spread of nonconsensual, sexually explicit images. After the images went viral on Wednesday, Swift’s fans took matters into their own hands to limit their visibility and get them removed, mass-reporting the accounts that shared the images and flooding the hashtags relating to the singer with positive content, NBC News reported earlier this week. Many of the offending accounts were later suspended, but not before they’d been seen in some cases millions of times. The Verge reported on Thursday that one post was viewed more than 45 million times.

In a statement posted on its platform later that day, X said, “Posting Non-Consensual Nudity (NCN) images is strictly prohibited on X and we have a zero-tolerance policy towards such content. Our teams are actively removing all identified images and taking appropriate actions against the accounts responsible for posting them. We're closely monitoring the situation to ensure that any further violations are immediately addressed, and the content is removed. We're committed to maintaining a safe and respectful environment for all users.”

But it was still possible to find the images in days after. 404Media traced the likely origin of the images to a Telegram group known for creating nonconsensual AI-generated images of women using free tools including Microsoft Designer. In an interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt on Friday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the issue highlights what is the company’s responsibility, and “all of the guardrails that we need to place around the technology so that there’s more safe content that’s being produced.” He continued to say that “there’s a lot to be done there, and a lot being done there,” but the company needs to “move fast.”

Annapurna is delaying the release of its upcoming narrative adventure game, Open Roads, by a few weeks so the team can do a little more refining. It’s now scheduled for release on March 28 instead of the originally planned date of February 22. The decision was made to “ensure the most polished experience for players,” a spokesperson for Annapurna told Engadget. 

Open Roads, which we had a chance to preview earlier this month, is a nostalgia-heavy experience that follows 16-year-old Tess Devine (voiced by Kaitlyn Dever) and her mother, Opal (Keri Russel), on a road trip to explore their family’s past. It features hand-drawn animations and, of course, carries the promise of deep, dark family secrets to unearth. It’ll be available for Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and PC.