ArduinoMania

For better or worse, it isn't January if it's not a month focused on fitness and staying active. Fortunately, tracking your progress is a bit more accessible right now, thanks to an 18 percent discount on the 41mm Apple Watch Series 9. The sale on our favorite Apple Watch of 2024 brings it from $399 to $329 — an all-time low price other than the fluke instance when just two colors dropped to $310 in December. The Apple Watch Series 9 is available for $329 in the small to medium and medium to large models in five of the nine colorways. 

The Apple Watch Series 9 is one of the gems in its lineup and an excellent option for anyone looking to spend decent money on a solid smartwatch. It garnered a 92 in our review by impressing us with new features like Raise To Speak and Double Tap. Raise to Speak allows you to elevate your wrist in order to activate Siri (though it didn't work every time). These Siri requests are now processed right on the watch instead of going through another device, like your iPhone. This update means you can still use Siri when offline or away from your phone. 

Double Tap is a bit more interactive feature. The update lets you tap your index finger and thumb together (the ones on the same side as the watch) twice to complete specific actions. You can use it to answer or end calls or reply with dictation, among other commands. 

As for the health and fitness aspect, the Apple Watch Series 9 monitors your heart rate and will send a notification if it notices any irregularities. It also tracks your sleep stages and overall well-being through features like temperature sensing. Plus, it's water-resistant, so you don't have to worry if it gets all sweaty. 

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

• Read more about Global Geopolitical Uncertainties, Deepening Macro Situations can be an Impediment to the Growth of Chip Industry
• Log in or register to post comments

• Read more about Murata's SCH16T-K01: Next Generation 6DoF Inertial Sensor with Digital SPI Interface Designed for High Precision Machine Control and Positioning Applications
• Log in or register to post comments

There may be a lot more real-money gaming (RMG) apps available in the Google Play Store before the year ends — at least in certain locations. Google initially started allowing apps that deal with real money in its store back in 2021, but only if they fall under a game type that's regulated by the government. Now, the company has announced that it's tweaking its rules to allow more "game types and operators not covered by an existing licensing framework." That will open the Play Store to games that aren't that popular or aren't played widely enough for local governments to create laws around them. 

Google says it conducted several pilot programs in different parts of the world since 2021 to determine how to support more real-money game operators and game types. In India, for instance, its pilot tests included apps offering Rummy card games and Daily Fantasy Sports. The company will enforce its new policy in India, Mexico and Brazil starting on June 30. After that, operators part of its pilot programs can release their current applications — and other types of real-money gaming apps — like any other developer, so long as they're in compliance with local laws. 

The company said it has plans to expand the availability of RMG apps in other regions in the future, but it clarified that its age requirements to be able to access those games will remain in place. Also, developers will still be required to geo-fence their products, so that they'll only be available where they're legal. It has also revealed that it's "evolving its service fee model" for real-money gaming apps to "help sustain the Android and Play ecosystems." As 9to5Google notes, RMG apps can't use Google Play billing, but that's likely set to change if the company intends to take a cut of developers' earnings. 

Following a cryptic tease during CES 2024, Ayaneo has revealed its Next Lite gaming handheld and it's a confusing product, to say the least. It's designed to compete with Steam Deck, but it doesn't run Valve's official SteamOS — rather, it uses a forked version called HoloISO. It will be priced at a decent $299 and while the controls and screen look good, it packs a less-than-potent processor. 

The Next Lite is equipped with a seven-inch 800p screen, 16GB of RAM and and a 47Wh battery, close to the battery size in the $549 Steam Deck OLED. However, it runs either a Ryzen 7 4500U or 4800U processor with Vega 8 graphics, rather than the Ryzen 7 5825U found on the Next. The former chips are several years old now, so the Next Lite is likely to lag well behind the original Steam Deck, currently priced at $349. 

It also uses Hall effect joysticks to eliminate drift and has a copper heat pipe cooling system. It's equipped with three USB-C 2.3 Gen 2 ports on the top and bottom, along with a slot for full-length M.2 2280 NVMe SSDs. If you'd rather run Windows like most other handhelds, it supports that option and will offer required drivers on the company's official website. 

Ayaneo

The earlier press release was puzzling because Ayaneo talked about a "subscription," but it turns out that it was just about subscribing to get more information. The company also initially said it would ship with SteamOS, which got everyone excited, but it turns out that it won't officially support Valve's operating system. Since then, the initial post has been modified to say that it'll use HoloSO, a third-party SteamOS fork. 

So what does that mean in terms of Steam Deck gaming? Ayaneo said that HoloISO "attempts to bring the Steam Deck's SteamOS Holo redistribution into a generic, installable format, and provide a close-to-official SteamOS experience." In other words, there may not be a guarantee that games will work, given the lack of official support from Valve. 

As mentioned, the Ayaneo Next Lite will cost $299 and come in "vibrant colors" including seafoam green. It's set to start shipping ahead of Chinese New Year on February 10th, 2024. 

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

• Read more about CES 2024: Intel Announces plans To Drive The Company’s AI Everywhere Strategy Into The Automotive Market
• Log in or register to post comments

• Read more about New LCD Bias Power ICs Extend Battery Life and Video Display Lifetime in Smartphones and VR Headsets
• Log in or register to post comments

Realme, a sister brand of Oppo and OnePlus, made its CES debut this year by unveiling a new mid-range phone with a photography twist. The Realme 12 Pro+, due to launch later this month, is apparently the first in its price segment to not only offer a 3x periscope zoom camera with optical stabilization, but also one with a relatively larger sensor to improve low-light performance. The candybar is the work of Swiss luxury watch designer Ollivier Savéo, complete with a golden fluted bezel surrounding a stunning polished sunburst dial, garnished with a 3D jubilee bracelet over vegan leather — in blue or white.

The periscope zoom camera here is powered by a 64-megapixel OmniVision OV64B, which comes in at 1/2 inches large. Realme says compared to the 3x zoom camera on the iPhone 15 Pro (12 megapixels) and the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (10 megapixels), the Realme 12 Pro+'s sensor is at least over 2.6 times as large, thus enabling over 1.8 times the amount of light it takes in. In other words, telephoto cameras don't get much love on mainstream flagship phones. The comparison photos we saw at the launch event were very convincing, with Realme's preserving an impressive amount of detail even at full crop, but we'll obviously wait for our own hands-on later.

With such improvement, this mid-range phone can stick to its periscope camera even in darker environments, while other phones with conventional 3x telephoto cameras (read: smaller sensors) would automatically switch to its main camera and rely on digital zoom instead. But of course, there's still a limit as to how dark this camera can handle; you'll want a flagship-level 3x periscope zoom camera with an even bigger sensor for something more impressive, namely the 1/1.56-inch sensor on the likes of Realme's GT5 Pro, Oppo's Find X7 Ultra and apparently the OnePlus 12 as well.

The Realme 12 Pro+ also packs a decent 50-megapixel main camera, which features a 1/1.56-inch Sony IMX890 sensor (as seen on the OnePlus 11), f/1.8 aperture and optical stabilization. This phone also packs a 0.6x ultra-wide camera, though Realme stopped short at sharing further information. Likewise, the Chinese brand wouldn't share which Qualcomm mid-range processor is powering this device, but it's custom made to enable Realme's "MasterShot Algorithm" computational photography capabilities here. This is what enables RAW processing which, until now, is largely exclusive to flagship smartphones, meaning even mid-range devices will be able to leverage more editing options in the near future.

Photo by Richard Lai / Engadget

The rest of the Realme 12 Pro+ — including the remaining specs and pricing — is still under wraps. Even though the brand isn't present in most locations of our readership, Realme's aggressive growth in recent years should be influential enough to set a benchmark for mid-range phones of 2024. Hopefully this will also put pressure on the likes of Apple and Samsung to put more effort into improving essential features on their own flagships.

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

We always find some strange gadgets at CES. There's no way around it, with thousands of exhibitors peddling their wares, trying to find a market for things no one has dreamed up before. From startups to giants like Samsung, there are plenty of things that make us pause, chuckle, and shake our heads. Here's a few favorites from CES 2024. Keep in mind, weird doesn't necessarily mean bad. It just means weird.

Sightful's Spacetop AR Laptop

Photos by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

If you squint, you can see how a laptop paired to AR glasses could provide a much more expansive and immersive experience than a standard 14-inch laptop screen. Unfortunately, the narrow field of view, spongy keyboard and high price make this a bit of a non-starter.

Samsung Ballie

Engadget

Yes, Ballie is definitely cute. We got a kick of out seeing it roll around its demo area at Samsung's CES booth. But it's still pretty weird to have a tiny robot follow you around so it can project a workout video on the ceiling while you work your abs. 

Shift Robotics Moonwalkers

Photo by Daniel Cooper / Engadget

The Moonwalkers have a highbrow premise: by propelling the human wearing them a little bit further than they'd normally go when they take a step, this could add up to much more efficient walking over the course of a day, week or lifetime. The new "X" model is lighter and has fewer wheels, making it theoretically easier to produce. But the original Moonwalker cost about $1,400, a wild amount of money. You're probably just better off walking a little quicker.

Volkswagen's ChatGPT-generated dinosaur story

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

While we can see the potential use cases for having a more intelligent voice assistant in your car, one powered by ChatGPT, having the car tell us a story about dinosaurs was a pretty weird way to go about demonstrating it.

ZooGears TheButter — a "piano" for dogs

Photo by Daniel Cooper / Engadget

We've all seen videos of dogs "playing" an instrument, but this might be the first one purpose-built for a pet. "Teach" your dog to "play" this "piano" and you'll surely get hours of entertainment. The $299 device even comes with an automated feeder to encourage your dog to keep going.

One by One — downtempo music for dogs

One By One

Turns out downtempo music music soothes pets and cartoons studying endlessly alike. We love the research showing this, but that still doesn't explain why this is better than just letting your dog listen to your Spotify account.

Flappie AI cat door

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

C'mon, just look how cute this is! Let the poor guy in, your cruel and arbitrary cat door.

Adam-X CPR dummy

Photo by Daniel Cooper / Engadget

Let's be clear: "weird" does not necessarily mean "bad" or "useless." Adam-X certainly does look useful for medical training. But, well, it's also just a bit off-putting. 

LG’s Labs department often takes technology and existing products and spins them into lifestyle-heavy ideas and notions. LG Labs was responsible for the Dukebox, a vacuum tube-driven speaker with a transparent OLED screen, an LG Gram with two displays, and several other projects. But the LG Bon Voyage concept trailer is a little more involved, packing so many of LG’s CES “greatest hits,” retooled and restyled for near-future camping that’s both incredibly comfortable and… unlikely.

The trailer is 2 meters by 3.8 meters, measuring up to a height of 2.2 meters. LG’s explanation suggests you’d be able to pick and choose which appliances and features are included.

Photo by Mat Smith/Engadget

This is an upgraded concept trailer from LG, this time it’s taken feedback from customers (though it’s never gone on sale, so it must mean prospective customers). The redesign is aimed at better use of space, and practically every corner has LG tech crammed into it.

A touchscreen panel on the trailer door runs webOS, offering an interface to the trailer alongside pertinent information like weather, charge capacity and more. A spokesperson said the concept trailer here at CES 2024 housed a 10kWh battery.

Photo by Mat Smith/Engadget

LG Labs’ inexplicable capsule coffee machine, the Duobo, which looks like a moon lander, is nestled away inside the trailer, alongside a microwave. The fridge, however, is accessed on the outside. A pull-out table, on the other side of the door includes a built-in inductive burner. This trailer may possibly have more cooking options than your home. Somewhere inside, although I wasn’t able to see it, was a water purifier and a row of detachable light bars can be set up outside the trailer when you actually want to spend time in the great outdoors.

And a blast from CES past, LG included its Styler device — a clothes refresher that jostles and steams clothing, into the trailer too, because you can’t be glamping without glamor. There’s also a shower and toilet, but neither feature any connected technology, as far as I could tell.

LG is considering including solar to power all that technology, but there’s a giant charging port on the rear. It’s going to need a lot of power. Beyond lifestyle devices, the left side of the Bon Voyage features a giant OLED screen above another pull-out surface. Oh, and at the rear of the trailer, there’s a portable karaoke set, with two wireless mics and speaker. Oh and cocktail accouterments on either side. Do I have to repeat myself? Glamping.

Photo by Mat Smith/Engadget

LG plans to continue developing the Bon Voyage. And if Sony can make a car, why can’t LG launch a trailer?

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.