Apple’s Stolen Device Protection is a new feature that protects iPhone data and makes it harder for thieves to wreak havoc. Introduced in iOS 17.3, the feature requires a combination of Face ID (or Touch ID) scans and time delays before using payment features or changing account security when the device is away from familiar locations. Here’s precisely how Stolen Device Protection works.
What is Stolen Device Protection for iPhone
Stolen Device Protection takes a bad situation — someone stealing your iPhone — and reduces the chance of it spiraling into something much worse. When activated, the feature will prompt you to perform a biometric scan (Face ID or Touch ID) when you’re away from familiar locations, like home or work. In those situations, it won’t allow you (or an iPhone snatcher) to use your passcode as a backup method. It also incorporates time delays for some security-related features.
The tool may have been inspired by a Wall Street Journalreport from early 2023 about an increasingly common practice of thieves spying on users while entering their passcode — right before snatching the phone and taking off.
If the perp has both the phone and its passcode (without Stolen Device Protection activated), they could reset the Apple ID password, turn off Find My, possibly steal payment info or passwords and factory reset the iPhone. If they’re experts, they could theoretically do all that within minutes (if not seconds) before you can log onto Find My and report your device as lost.
With Stolen Device Protection turned on, a thief in the same situation would be largely stymied. Requiring Face ID or Touch ID and time delays would prevent them from accessing your passwords and payment information, changing security features (to lock you out and further hijack your device) and factory resetting it. This gives you precious time to find another device, report your phone as lost in Find My, change your password and file a police report.
How does it work?
Stolen Device Protection requires a biometric (Face ID / Touch ID) scan — without the passcode as a backup option — for the following situations when your phone is away from your familiar locations:
Turning off Lost Mode
Performing a factory reset (“Erase all content and settings”)
Using or stealing saved passwords or passkeys for online accounts
Using payment methods saved for “autofill” in Safari
Using your phone to activate a new Apple device (Quick Start)
Viewing your Apple Card’s virtual card number
Applying for a new Apple Card
“Certain Apple Cash and Savings actions in Wallet” (examples include transferring money to or from Apple Cash or Savings)
In addition, the following actions require an extra time delay. With Stolen Device Protection activated, if someone away from your familiar locations tried to do anything on the list below, they would have to perform a Face ID (or Touch ID) scan, wait an hour and authenticate again with a second biometric scan:
Turning off Find My
Turning off Stolen Device Protection
Changing your Apple ID password
Signing out of your Apple ID
Adding or removing Face ID or Touch ID
Changing your phone’s passcode
Changing Apple ID account security (examples include creating a Recovery Key / Recovery Contact or adding / removing a trusted device)
Resetting all the phone’s settings
One thing missing from the list is Apple Pay. Someone with your stolen iPhone and passcode could still make Apple Pay purchases using only your passcode, which isn’t ideal.
How to turn on Stolen Device Protection
Before activating the feature, make sure your device is updated to iOS 17.3 (or higher). Head to Settings > General > Software Update on your iPhone to check for updates and ensure you’re on the latest software. (If your device is stuck on pre-iOS 17 software and won’t update past that, your model is too old to run the latest software.)
Once you’re running (at least) iOS 17.3, do the following on your iPhone:
Open the Settings app
Scroll down and tap Face ID & Passcode (it will be called Touch ID & Passcode on older models and the iPhone SE)
Enter your passcode
Scroll down until you see Stolen Device Protection
Tap Turn On Protection
If you ever want to deactivate the feature, follow the same steps — except you’d tap Turn Off Protection in step five. It would perform a Face ID or Touch ID scan to confirm the change.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-turn-on-stolen-device-protection-on-your-iphone-to-secure-your-data-182721345.html?src=rss
As a matter of fact, the kitchen gadget ruled the roost at this year’s CES. It made our list of the best devices unveiled at the event and was a regular topic of conversation. A kitchen gadget has to be pretty special to garner buzz when competing with the latest laptops, smart TVs and bunny-shaped anthropomorphic AI assistants. In other words, GE’s Profile Smart Indoor Smoker delivers.
We praised the appliance for offering home cooks a legitimate way to smoke meats indoors, which is something that was previously out of reach for apartment dwellers and the like. The GE device ditches an open flame for electric heating elements to bring low-and-slow smoking indoors.
We also liked the built-in filtration system that prevents odorous smoke from wafting throughout the entire home. As for techy components, this smoker connects to Wi-Fi for remote cooking and monitoring, a feature we admired in our official hands-on with the unit. We got our hands on some brisket prepared by the unit and it sure was delicious.
The primary downside to this device is the price. Spending $1,000 on a smoker is likely to empty bank accounts and speed along divorce proceedings. This discount to $700 makes it a more reasonable purchase option. We'll have an official review of the smoker published soon.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-new-ge-profile-smart-indoor-smoker-is-300-off-right-now-173049256.html?src=rss
With the news that Blizzard and ESL FACEIT are preparing to launch a new esports circuit for Overwatch 2, mere months after the death of the Overwatch League, it's a good time to take stock of the entire esports scene. Things are looking slightly frantic, at least in North America. League of Legends and Rocket League are particularly messy, entering their 2024 seasons with lean budgets and major shakeups. Meanwhile, an expansion of the open-qualifiers model should provide more opportunities for everyday players to compete in Valorant, Overwatch 2, Rocket League and all manner of fighting games. Get those fingers ready, folks.
This week's stories
Xbox lineup in 2024
Xbox held its first showcase of 2024 last week, highlighting a handful of games that have been in development for years. Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is due out later in 2024, and it comes from Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus studio MachineGames. The new footage showcased lots of whipping, quipping and Nazi punching, just like Indy would want.
Next, Obsidian’s big fantasy RPG, Avowed, will hit PC and Xbox in the fall. Obsidian is the studio that made Fallout: New Vegas and The Outer Worlds, and Avowed looks like its spin on an Elder Scrolls game.
Finally, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II will come out on May 21, nearly five years after it was announced alongside the reveal of the Xbox Series X.
Esports are back and smaller than ever
2024 is a moment of reckoning for esports, especially in North America. Blizzard killed the Overwatch League last year and it’s trying to start a new series with the ESL, viewership of North American League of Legends is on the decline, and Rocket League’s RLCS tournament is in a state of upheaval.
League of Legends is the king of esports, and in 2023, its World Championship tournament broke viewership records, driven by legendary performances from Korean and Chinese teams — OK, mostly Faker. But no matter how hard I cheer for them, North American League of Legends teams are still kind of a joke on the world stage. Last year, the Korean summer split attracted 1.5 million concurrent viewers, while the LCS summer tournament peaked at 223,000 viewers, and that was down from 370,000 in 2022. The 2024 season kicked off this month with regional tournaments, and the North American LCS looks like a brand new beast. The number of teams competing in the LCS has been cut from 10 to 8, meaning Evil Geniuses and Golden Guardians are gone, and the league is using a faster-paced best-of-one format in the regular season. We’ll see how this all pays off at MSI in May.
In the Rocket League Championship Series, budgets are tight and teams are scattered. There will be two major tournaments this year instead of three, plus the World Championship, and there are fewer spots reserved for both North America and Europe. Six established casters were dropped from this year’s events and it looks like only North America and Europe will have hosted tournaments, in English only. The RLCS prize pool is also smaller this year, down from $6 million to $4.3 million. A handful of teams lost sponsorships heading into 2024 and there was a ton of player shakeup among existing orgs. To top it all off, the game’s most famous player, Squishy, announced plans to retire from pro play to focus on streaming. It’s just a confusing time in Rocket League esports.
One side effect of esports shrinkage is a shift to open qualifiers. Rocket League swapped to open qualifiers this year, meaning basically anyone could compete for a spot in the RLCS, rather than teams buying in for the season. The RLCS prize pool is deeper, even though it’s also smaller, and the top 128 teams in North America will receive small payouts.
The Valorant esports scene has been steadily solidifying since the game’s launch in 2020, with a peak of 1.4 million viewers for the 2023 Valorant Champions Tour. The VCT has always featured open qualifiers, and this year that system is expanding with Premier, an in-game competitive track that acts as another funnel for everyday players to compete on the main stage. (As a side note, the VCT Game Changers series highlights players of marginalized genders and it’s really awesome, check it out sometime.)
Just this week, Blizzard announced the Overwatch Champions Series, a multi-region esports tournament for Overwatch 2. Unlike the deceased Overwatch League, the Champions Series will have open qualifiers. The new series is produced by ESL FACEIT, which is owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which makes me sad.
Meanwhile, the fighting game community has been all over open registration for a while. EVO is the biggest fighting game tournament of the year, and in 2023 it hosted more than 9,000 players competing across eight titles. As a one-on-one genre, fighting games often find themselves on the frontlines of experimentation in esports, and EVO is always a good time.
I think open registration is a cool move for esports in general — it allows more people from diverse backgrounds to participate and provides a sustainable entry point for young pros. This is how talent pipelines are built.
Now Playing
After taking a few months off to play other games, I’m back on Cult of the Lamb. The free Sins of the Flesh update landed last week, and it’s big and sexy, adding layers of debauchery and plenty of new content to the game. As Engadget weekend editor Cheyenne MacDonald said in her review, “We’re having a great time sinning, my followers and I.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/esports-are-messy-in-2024-this-weeks-gaming-news-170043963.html?src=rss
The Mac, formerly the more austere Macintosh, turns 40 today, putting Apple’s longest-running product squarely in middle age. But like someone who sees the back half of their life approaching and gets in marathon-runner shape, the Mac is in the strongest place it’s been for decades. From a revenue perspective, Mac sales declined precipitously in 2023, but that came on the heels of four years of growth that was likely the product of pent-up demand for an improved Mac lineup.
In 2020, Apple finally started delivering on that, thanks in large part to Apple Silicon arriving in the Mac, ushering in the era we’re in now. While the Mac was on shaky ground prior to Apple Silicon, it would now be pretty silly to suggest the Mac won’t make it to its 50th birthday. That wasn’t always a given, though. While the Mac is Apple’s oldest product, it’s also gone through numerous moments where it appeared to be on the brink of irrelevance or complete disaster. Through most of the ‘90s, before CEO Steve Jobs returned to lead the company he had founded, the Macintosh was a mess.
It was too expensive for the power it delivered, Apple’s product lineup was confusing and cluttered and Windows PCs now had both the GUI and performance to make the Mac a poor choice for most people. And even after Jobs returned and introduced the iMac and iBook while revitalizing the Power Mac and Powerbook lines, the G3 and G4 still lagged behind PCs in most tasks. Ironically, the move to Intel in 2006 helped make the Mac more relevant, even as it held Apple back a decade later, as the company chased thin and light laptop designs with “innovations” like the Touch Bar and butterfly keyboard that held it back while letting its power languish.
But in 2014, when the Mac turned 30, it was in a pretty good place. Apple had spent the recent years focusing on the iPhone and then the iPad, with former CEO Steve Jobs famously comparing PCs to trucks — an implication that the iPad would be the more mainstream car for most people. But at least as far as laptops go, the Mac was fairly compelling. The MacBook Air had finally become what Jobs had wanted when he pulled it out of an envelope on stage in 2008. It was a thin, light and reasonably powerful laptop with a reasonable price, and the spill-over effect from people buying iPods and then iPhones had helped the MacBook Air become ubiquitous in coffee shops and college campuses. The MacBook Pro, meanwhile, was well-suited to the creative professional Apple marketed towards, with a great screen, plenty of ports and enough power for it to be a compelling mobile studio.
However, there were plenty of weak spots in the lineup if you looked closely. Perhaps the most obvious was the strange saga of the Mac Pro. For years, Apple’s tower-style computer had gotten more and more expensive, clearly priced out of the range of most consumers. That wasn’t a bad thing on its own, but Apple failed to recognize what its target market was looking for when it released the cylindrical Mac Pro redesign in 2013 — and then failed to meaningfully upgrade it for years. Between the lack of updates and a design that limited expandability, the Mac Pro was a bit of a joke in Apple’s lineup for the better part of a decade.
Apple then made a similarly disastrous change to the MacBook Pro in 2016. Let us count the ways Apple dropped the ball with this generation of laptops. First, the unreliable butterfly keyboard, which existed seemingly only so Apple could make these laptops as thin and light as possible. Then there was the removal of useful ports like HDMI, USB-A and an SD card slot in favor of just four USB-C / Thunderbolt ports, one of which was needed for charging. There’s also the Touch Bar, a thin OLED strip on the keyboard that dynamically changed depending on what app you were using. A neat idea, though one that failed to gain much traction with developers or end users, and the lack of a physical escape key baffled users for years to come.
Finally, while Apple managed to make the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pro models much thinner and lighter than their predecessors, it came at a performance cost. Plenty of users experienced overheating and CPU throttling, as if the extremely thin enclosure combined with the powerful chips was a bad combo.
Meanwhile, the venerable MacBook Air was left to languish for years with minor updates and a design and low-resolution screen that were quickly becoming uncompetitive. The iMac and Mac mini chugged along as solid options for users looking for a desktop machine, but picking a Mac laptop at the time was an exercise in compromise and paying for something that probably did not check all the boxes.
Things showed signs of turning around in 2019, when Apple introduced a new, tower-style Mac Pro with increased expansion options. But more significantly, Apple reversed course on the terrible butterfly keyboard and brought back scissor-style keys to the MacBook Pro and, a few months later, the MacBook Air (which had since been updated with a Retina display and more current Intel processors). Amazingly enough, Apple made the revamped 16-inch MacBook Pro thicker and heavier than the one it replaced, something that showed the company was moving away from thinner and lighter at all costs, especially in products like this where it just didn’t make sense to chase a smaller form factor at the expense of performance.
However, the Mac really rebounded in late 2020, when Apple released the first Macs running on the company’s own custom silicon. Apple had been designing chips for years, ever since the A4 first arrived in the iPhone 4 and original iPad in 2010, and the combo of efficiency and power the company had hit on had proven to be a big advantage for the company. And the first round of Macs running Apple Silicon included some of Apple’s most popular models, like the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro.
The improvements were immediately obvious — when we reviewed it, we said the M1-powered MacBook Air “redefines what an ultraportable can be.” The combo of huge performance gains alongside wildly impressive battery life made the MacBook Air a no-brainer. Meanwhile, the Mac mini provided a ton of bang for the buck if you were looking for an inexpensive desktop computer.
The next big move for the Mac came in late 2021, when Apple fully fixed the MacBook Pro issues it introduced with the 2016 model. The totally redesigned 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models brought back a lot of the ports that Apple initially removed, banished the Touch Bar and utilized new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips that boosted the multicore performance of these laptops far beyond their Intel-based predecessors.
The last major piece of the puzzle came into place in March of 2022, when Apple introduced the Mac Studio. While the Mac Pro lingered on with Intel chips, the new Mac Studio represented a middle ground between the Pro and mini. The $2,000 model included the M1 Max chip, which you can also get in a MacBook Pro if you were willing to pony up the cash, but the $4,000 model basically strapped two of those chips together to make the M1 Ultra. That monster processor had up to 64 GPU cores, while the M2 Ultra that replaced it lets you get up to a 76-core GPU to go along with its 24-core CPU and 32-core Neural Engine for machine learning tasks. Plain and simple, it’s the kind of power Apple hadn’t offered in its computers for a long time.
Since 2022, Apple has mostly been in a refine, upgrade and iterate mode, with many Macs moving on to the M3 architecture. But there are a few places that could still use an overhaul — the Mac Pro moved to Apple Silicon late in the transition to these new chips, only arriving this past June. And while it has an expandable tower-style case, it runs the same M2 Ultra that you can get in the Mac Studio but costs a whopping $3,000 more. There’s a pretty big opportunity for Apple to put in an even higher-end workstation-class — maybe it can just bolt two of the M3 Ultras that are surely coming together to further separate the Mac Pro from the Studio.
On a more consumer-focused level, Apple has recently made another stab at making Mac gaming a thing, with the company bringing popular, mainstream titles like Death Stranding and Resident Evil 4 to the platform. But the company still isn’t in the same realm of gaming on Windows, despite the massive power Apple Silicon offers. If the company can figure out a way to make porting games easier, developers could have a whole new market to sell to — and Apple would have another feather in its cap. If the company has any ambitions of really pushing past PCs the way the iPad came to dominate the tablet market, they’ll need to push even harder to get big games on the Mac.
And, of course, we’re just a week away from Apple releasing its first new platform in almost a decade, the Vision Pro. While it’s launching as a wildly expensive, standalone device, it’s not hard to imagine the market expanding if the form factor catches on. If that happens, we might see a Vision device that runs Mac apps natively, instead of just viewing them. Apple has long held the belief that its platforms should stand on their own, though — witness the futile calls for a touchscreen Mac or a version of MacOS for the iPad Pro. But in this case, maybe we’ll be talking in 10 years about how spatial computing was the next thing to move the Mac forward.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-mac-turns-40-how-apple-silicon-cured-its-midlife-crisis-161520642.html?src=rss
I’ve come to expect certain things from Audio-Technica earbuds and headphones. First, there’s the company’s warm, soothing sound profile that’s easy to listen to for hours at a time. It’s usually good, but not necessarily great, though the company typically combines it with a solid overall experience thanks to features and performance. That all holds true on the ATH-TWX7: a $199 set of wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation (ANC) and a host of handy tools that rival more expensive competitors. Some work better than others, but the company has done well over the years to expand its capabilities, even though the ATH-TWX7 lacks one basic item.
Design
Despite their stickbud appearance, the ATH-TWX7 looks more refined than most similarly-priced earbuds. Audio-Technica opted for a mix of black and silver (or white/silver or gray/silver) that makes the earbuds look similar to high-end headphones. The main housing is quite small, which translated to a more comfortable fit in my ears. The case also has a unique teardrop shape that allows the earbuds to sit at an angle rather than standing up or laying completely flat while charging. There’s no real benefit here, but it is a departure from the norm worth pointing out.
Audio-Technica did something for the onboard controls on the ATH-TWX7 that’s rare in earbuds. It uses both touch and physical buttons for playback, calls, sound modes and to summon a voice assistant. Typically you see this on headphones where the playback controls are touch and the noise cancellation and transparency modes are assigned to a button, but I don’t recall seeing both on earbuds like this before. Granted, I’ve been reviewing audio gear for several years at this point, so I hesitate to proclaim Audio-Technica as the “first” to do so.
To help you find the ideal fit, Audio-Technica includes two different types of ear tips. One is labeled “soft,” and it’s designed to be more comfortable, while the standard option is meant to offer a more secure fit. I expected the “soft” version to be foam, or at least partially foam, but they’re almost identical. One is slightly thinner, but they both seem to be the same silicone material you see in most earbuds, and neither really feels softer than the other.
The last thing I’ll point out in terms of the ATH-TWX7’s design is its ingress protection (IP) rating. These are only rated IPX4 against water splashes and they’re not built to withstand spray jets or submersion. That’s probably enough for workouts, and while it’s about average for mid-range earbuds, slightly more expensive models venture into IPX7 territory.
Software and features
Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget
When I reviewed the ATH-CKS5TW earbuds in late 2019, Audio-Technica’s app was so limited there was really no reason to ever fire it up. Unless it was to install a firmware update, it didn’t offer anything useful and even the onboard control customization was restricted. I’m happy to report that’s no longer the case as the A-T Connect software now offers a much more robust list of settings and reconfigurable tools than before.
The app's home screen is devoted to options for changing the music codec, EQ and sound mode, as well as showing the battery life for each earbud. Tapping the image of the ATH-TWX7 takes you into the detailed settings, divided into Audio and System sections. All of this is standard fare with access to everything the onboard controls offer in the app, including the ability to remap the touch and physical buttons as you wish. But despite letting you set an automatic power off timer when there’s no audio, the ATH-TWX7 doesn’t have automatic pausing when you take them out of your ears. That’s a big omission in 2024 when almost every set of wireless earbuds does this.
I will point out a couple of things that are pretty novel. First, under the Call Microphone settings, Audio-Technica goes a step further with an in-app call test so you can hear what you’ll sound like before you dial. This is in addition to features like Natural Mode for quiet locations or Noise-Reduction Mode for windy or loud environments. The latter isn’t very original, but will still come in handy. You can disable the touch controls and just rely on the tiny physical buttons on the earbuds. What is a bit innovative is the ability to tweak the sensitivity of those panels, set to medium by default with low and high options if you need ‘em.
The inclusion of both touch and physical buttons gives you a lot of flexibility in terms of how you set those up. Everything on the ATH-TWX7 is reconfigurable, which means you can move things from the buttons to the touch panels and vice versa, or add things that aren’t there by default. In addition to options for playback, calls, voice assistant and noise cancellation settings, you can add Talk-Through, Low Latency Mode and Check Battery Level. Audio-Technica didn’t reinvent the wheel in terms of what these earbuds can do, but the greater customization gives you way more options for assigning tasks in a way that makes the most sense for you.
Sound quality and noise cancellation
Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget
Nearly every set of Audio-Technica earbuds and headphones I’ve ever tested has a similar sound profile. It’s a warm, inviting tone that’s pleasant to listen to for hours on end, mostly because the dynamics aren’t exhausting. The ATH-TWX7 is more of the same, for better or worse, with some exceptions.
Softer, acoustic-driven styles are excellent, with crisp details in drums and guitars that lend texture to tracks like Zach Bryan’s “Heavy Eyes” and Charles Wesley Godwin’s “Family Ties.” The ATH-TWX7 also does well with jazz and synth-heavy pop, rock and instrumental tunes. Hip-hop is nice as well, but the earbuds start to struggle with hard rock, metal and more chaotic, bombastic genres. Better Lovers’ “30 Under 13” is still the gritty, raucous hardcore I know and love, but everything sounds flat and has less energy than on other earbuds. The sound on this album and other metal selections like Gojira’s Fortitude is more compressed than with other genres, with less space for everything to open up – especially guitars that typically soar around in your head.
Like a lot of ANC earbuds, the active noise cancellation on the ATH-TWX7 does well with constant noise, but struggles with things like human voices. This model had no trouble combatting the roar of the noisy heating unit in my Las Vegas hotel during CES, and the same goes for white noise machines and fans at home. It’s not Bose-level sound blocking, but it’s definitely above average.
Sound quality in Hear-Through or transparency mode is also quite good. There’s a nice, natural element to it that doesn’t seem as compressed or muted as some of the competition. However, the ATH-TWX7 doesn’t pipe in your voice like the AirPods Pro, so the overall effect isn’t as if you aren’t wearing earbuds at all. I assumed the Talk-Through feature would assist with this, but instead that tool simply lowers the volume or mutes content. Confusingly, despite offering two options to let in your surrounding sound, this tool doesn’t let you simply pause. It’s Hear-Through adjacent rather than a truly helpful setting for a quick chat. Because your voice isn’t beamed back to your ears, you’ll still feel the need to speak up, which means you’re more likely to get shouty if you aren’t careful.
Call quality
Props to Audio-Technica for the easiest way to check call performance ever on the ATH-TWX7. Thanks to that in-app call test, you can get an idea of how you’ll sound before answering or dialing in, which is way better than hoping you sound okay to your caller. I also found this helpful in assessing which setting worked best for where I was at the time, even if I was at home.
Noise-Reduction Mode lives up to its name, but it also sacrifices some voice quality. Natural mode sounds the best, but it picks up background noise easily. If you’re in a quiet spot though, the ATH-TWX7 gives you above-average voice performance that’s noticeably clearer than the typical speakerphone-like quality most earbuds offer.
The ATH-TWX7 also seems to struggle a bit with automatic switching via multipoint Bluetooth, but only when it comes to calls. If I was hopping from my phone to my laptop for music or some other audio, the changeover was quick and seamless. However, if I was listening to something on my MacBook Pro and got a call, there were a few times the earbuds had trouble swapping over to it. Since this is the most likely scenario in which I’d need that auto switching, this was disappointing. Best case scenario was for me to tap to change the audio from my iPhone to the ATH-TWX7 after answering, but that’s not really an ideal workflow.
Battery life
Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget
Audio-Technica promised up to 6.5 hours on the earbuds themselves with two additional charges in the case. It doesn’t specify if that’s with ANC on or off, but during my tests I had no trouble hitting the stated figure while blocking background noise. That’s doing a mix of music and calls, with the occasional few minutes of Hear-Through mode and leaving the ATH-TWX7 to automatically turn off twice. I could reliably eke out 30 minutes more than the company claimed, and a few minutes extra is always a good thing.
The competition
In the $200 price range, an apt comparison for the ATH-TWX7 are Sony’s LinkBuds S. An honorable mention on our best wireless earbuds list, these have similar battery life and the same IPX4 rating, but are more comfortable to wear and have some trademark Sony features. Those include support for DSEE Extreme upscaling in addition to Quick Attention Mode that’s handy for quick chats in the office, coffee shop or airport. What’s more, the LinkBuds S can automatically pause when you speak and an adaptive sound mode can be configured to change settings based on activity or location. Plus, they’re available for $200 at full price.
iPhone owners will be more satisfied with the second-gen AirPods Pro over the ATH-TWX7. Currently available for under $200, the 2022 version of the earbuds are the best option if your life is intertwined with iOS, iPadOS and macOS. New features like Adaptive Audio bring automatic adjustments to your day and Apple’s take on transparency mode continues to be the best in the business. Lastly, they’re more comfortable for a longer period of time than the ATH-TWX7.
Wrap-up
There’s plenty to like about the ATH-TWX7. A robust set of features brings a lot of convenience to your day. But a few of those tools could still use some fine-tuning and the lack of automatic pausing in 2024 is a head scratcher. Still, the audio is mostly good, albeit inconsistent at times, and transparency mode is better than most. Add in the solid call quality and the in-app voice test and the ATH-TWX7 are a worthy consideration, especially at this price. Too bad it falls short of being a more complete package some of the competition offers for a slightly larger investment.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio-technica-ath-twx7-review-good-earbuds-with-frustrating-flaws-160054450.html?src=rss
Nintendo has revealed exactly when most remaining online services for the 3DS and Wii U will come to an end. After 7AM ET on April 8, it will no longer be possible to jump into a multiplayer match on the original Splatoonor check out other players' levels in Super Mario Maker. Online co-op play, leaderboards and data distribution are among the features that won't be available on either console (unless you find an adequate homebrew solution). The Badge Arcade feature, which allows players to customize their Nintendo 3DS home menu, is going away too.
Nintendo previously said that online services on the systems would end in early April, but hadn't shared a specific date until now. It also warned that it may "have to discontinue services earlier than planned" — some players had difficulty accessing them late last year.
Update: as of 4/8, online play and other functionality that uses online communication will end service for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software. Thank you very much for your continued support of our products.
Single-player games and modes will continue to work on both platforms. Nintendo said there will be some exceptions to the end of online services and suggests that players of third-party games contact publishers to check whether they'll keep servers running. The company also notes that Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter features will remain available for now, and you'll still be able to download updates and games you've previously purchased on either system for the foreseeable future. Nintendo shut down the eShop on both 3DS and Wii U last March.
One other feature that will remain is StreetPass on 3DS, since that connects to other 3DS units over local communication. SpotPass will be discontinued, however, as that requires an internet connection.
Meanwhile, the company says that 3DS and Wii U owners have until 1AM ET on March 12 to merge their Nintendo Network ID and Nintendo Account. If they do, they can spend any unused balance on either system's eShop on Nintendo Switch games, DLC and other digital content.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nintendo-will-shut-down-most-wii-u-and-3ds-online-services-by-april-8-150807925.html?src=rss
Remember the Apple car rumors? Project Titan, as it’s apparently called, is still progressing, with perhaps, a dose of reality. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says the company’s decade-old project has shifted from creating a fully self-driving car to an EV more like Tesla’s. The car’s autonomous features have reportedly been downgraded from a Level 5 system (full automation) to a Level 4 system (full automation in some circumstances) — and now to Level 2+ (partial automation). For context, Tesla’s Autopilot is Level 2. Level 2+ doesn’t have a formal description yet.
Some rumors and reports posited a vehicle without a traditional steering wheel or pedals, but it might end up a more traditional car now. Apple has apparently talked with potential manufacturing partners in Europe about its updated plans. Bloomberg says the company still wants to offer a Level 4 autonomous system... at some point.
Some of us can wait. Some of us have been writing about it since 2015.
The Commission said Intuit’s actions were misleading.
Intuit is, again, facing consequences for misleading advertising. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is banning TurboTax’s maker from claiming services are free when most customers will have to pay. The FTC said in a statement: “We find that Intuit’s ads on their face, expressly or by strong implication, conveyed to reasonable consumers the message that they can file their taxes with TurboTax for free”.
Framework has already proved it can build compelling modular laptops, but can the Laptop 16 cram in powerful graphics, a fast display and other components to keep up with the likes of Alienware, Razer and ASUS? Sort of. Hardware quirks abound, battery life is mediocre and it still looks like an incredibly generic laptop. But how many other notebooks could let you completely upgrade your CPU or GPU in a few years’ time?
It’s also half off on iPhone, iPad and Mac if you pre-order.
Hideo Kojima’s walking simulator — the director’s cut — will be available on iPhone 15 Pro models and iPads and Macs with M-series chips on January 30. This version of the gloomy open-world adventure will run you $40. However, if you pre-order, you’ll save up to 50 percent. And you’ll be ready for the forthcoming sequel when it arrives.
OnePlus has announced Western pricing and availability for its flagship OnePlus 12. While it’s been on sale in China for a while, you’ll still have to wait till February 6 to get one. Prices start at $799 for the 256GB version, with the 512GB model priced at $899. The base model is $100 more than last year’s, so what’s changed?
The OnePlus 12 has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip and a new camera system. This has a 50-megapixel main camera and a 64-megapixel periscopic telephoto lens, capable of 3x optical zoom. This is the first OnePlus flagship to feature its new Aqua Touch screen technology, where you’ll still be able to operate the device even if it’s covered in rain or water.
Spotify will go through massive changes when the European Union's Digital Markets Act goes into full effect on March 7. The audio streaming service says EU residents will finally be able to purchase a Premium subscription or upgrade from Individual to a Duo or a Family plan from within the app itself. Spotify hasn't allowed users to pay for a subscription through Apple's in-app payment system since 2016 and has long been a vocal critic of the 30 percent cut the iPhone-maker takes from app developers. Last year, it even stopped accepting Apple payments altogether — it used to let iOS users who've had a subscription since before 2016 to keep paying through Apple's in-app system.
And since Spotify is launching its own in-app payments, users will also be able to easily purchase audiobooks while browsing titles within the application, as well. Yes, customers will be charged the actual amounts for subscriptions and purchases and will no longer have to pay extra to cover Apple's commission. The users who used to pay through Apple's in-app system were charged $3 on top of Spotify's subscription prices, but EU's DMA prohibits the practice.
In addition to being able to implement its own in-app payment system, Spotify will also be able to put prices in the app. At the moment, it shows a note for its products where the price is supposed to be, telling users that they can't be purchased from within the application. When the DMA takes effect, Spotify will display its products' pricing, and it will also be able to start informing iOS users about deals and promotions from within the application.
"It should be this easy for every single Spotify customer everywhere," the company said in its announcement. "But if you live outside certain markets, you will continue to encounter frustrating roadblocks because of Apple’s ridiculous rules. That's why developers everywhere are continuing to ask other governments to pass their own laws like the DMA."
Spotify
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spotify-will-launch-its-own-in-app-payment-system-for-ios-users-in-the-eu-110046271.html?src=rss
Tesla is reportedly working on compact crossover EV codenamed "Redwood" with production set to start in June 2025, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The company reportedly sent requests for quotes for the new model to suppliers last year, predicting a weekly production volume of 10,000 vehicles.
The rumor lines up with Elon Musk's comments at a May 2023 shareholder meeting that Tesla was working on two new EV models that could sell up to 5 million a year combined. "Both the design of the products and manufacturing techniques are head and shoulders above anything else that is present in the industry," he said at the time.
Tesla has also been promising a $25,000 car for some time, with Musk dropping the idea then reviving it due to high consumer interest rates (the cheapest Model 3 is $38,990). However, Reuters' sources didn't mention the price of the vehicle set to arrive in 2025.
The report arrives at a convenient time for Tesla, as critics have recently been after the company for sitting on its haunches with the relatively stale Model 3 and Y designs. The timing of any new EVs was one of the most voted questions from investors for Tesla's earnings call, set for this afternoon (January 24).
If the new vehicles live up to Musk's description, they could help allay those concerns. At the same time, Tesla is starting to ship its Cybertruck EV to decidedly mixed reviews, with some users decrying quality issues and others lauding the performance and audacity of the vehicle.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tesla-is-reportedly-building-a-compact-crossover-codenamed-redwood-103223757.html?src=rss
