ArduinoMania

New Year’s resolutions are usually set with the best intentions – I may have already failed at one of mine already — but the right tools (and resolution, if I’m honest) can make achieving those goals easier.

Naturally, with all the wearables and smartwatches around, there’s a fitness theme to half of our guide, but smartwatches can help nudge you into better habits and even remind you to meditate, which is something I’ve set up on my Apple Watch this week.

We’ve also got to-do list app recommendations, cable organizing advice (that is a weak-ass New Year resolution) and help on how to cultivate a new reading habit in 2024.

What are your resolutions for the coming year? And what will you do (or buy) to achieve them?

– Mat Smith

​​You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!​​

The biggest stories you might have missed

The Morning After: The biggest tech stories of 2023

The biggest winners in tech in 2023

How to find and cancel your unused subscriptions

Some Vizio TV owners can claim a share of a $3 million settlement

CES 2024: What we expect to see in Las Vegas this year

Wireless TV, plug-and-play solar and next-gen headphones.

The Engadget team is prepping itself for another tour (in military terms) of Las Vegas. CES is back again. Alongside the glory of huge TVs in every size, new autonomous car tech and weird robots that will never make it outside of tech trade shows, we’ve compiled a few predictions for all the tech companies and startups planning to attend. We’ve got next-gen headphones, new display technology and more.

The show officially runs from January 9 - 12, though we'll be on the ground well before that. The first CES-related events will kick off on January 7, so get ready!

Continue reading.

LG is bringing a 4K projector with a weird handle to CES 2024

The CineBeam Qube weighs just 3 pounds.

LG

LG’s latest 4K projector looks a little like, well, I’ll say it: an objet d’arte from TJ Maxx. I say that from a place of love: I’d love a projector that looks like this. I mean, it has a handle that looks like a crank! The style does betray the high-tech insides. The CineBeam Qube can blast 4K images that measure up to 120 inches, with an RGB laser light source, a 450,000:1 contrast ratio and 154 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut.

Continue reading.

Meta's Quest 2 headset is about to get even cheaper

The price has dropped permanently to $249 following the launch of the Quest 3.

Meta is permanently cutting the price of its Quest 2 VR headset to $250 following the launch of the Quest 3, according to Meta’s official Quest blog. The Quest 2 has been on sale at that price since Black Friday anyway, but a new official retail price might spell even better deals for the previous-gen model in the next few months.

Continue reading.

Take a look at this dreamy timelapse of Mars

From NASA’s Curiosity rover.

NASA

NASA’s robotic Mars explorers were given some time off, as a natural phenomenon would likely interfere with communications. Leading up to the pause, the Curiosity rover was put in park — but its Hazard-Avoidance Cameras (Hazcams) kept snapping away. By the end of the period, Curiosity recorded the passage of a Martian day over 12 hours from its stationary position, as the sun moved from dawn to dusk. 

Take a look.

The developers of Tekken 8 are boosting the upcoming game's accessibility with color blind options, but some experts and users say some of the settings may cause more harm than good. One filter in particular that displays horizontal and vertical black and white lines appears to be causing headaches and vertigo, and may even "hospitalize players (or worse), in the same way as the infamous Pokémon episode," said gaming accessibility specialist Ian Hamilton in a post on X. (We have embedded a still from the game at the bottom of the article. Viewer discretion is advised.)

The various filters were posted by X user @itwhiffed, who said "why is no one talking about the color blind accessibility of Tekken 8." His post thread shows multiple filters for red, green and blue blindness, with different strength settings for each. However, one set of filters also shows characters as vertical and horizontal lines, with different white or black backgrounds. 

"Accessibility folks, please stop directly sharing the tweet showing Tekken characters as striped lines," said EA's senior GM for accessibility, James Berg. "The video autoplaying is giving folks migraines. Due to it having parallel lines moving unpredictably, covering much of the screen, I'd expect it's doing worse as well." 

He went on to add that "patterns of lines moving on a screen creates a contiguous area of high-frequency flashing, like an invisible strobe... [and] human meat-motors aren't big fans of that." That was verified by some users on X, with one saying the filter "gave me instant vertigo just from a 2-3 second clip that accidentally saw." Tara Wake Voelker, Xbox Game Studios accessibility lead, meanwhile, suggested the Tekken 8 team use EA's photosensitive epilepsy safety testing tool. 

Tekken's director Katsuhiro Harada responded to the outcry, saying "a few people, albeit very few, have either misunderstood the accessibility options we are trying, or have only seen the video without actually trying them out in the demo play." 

He added that the game features "multiple types of color vision options" for players with color blindness, not just one pattern, and that there is "quite a range of adjustment." He also noted that the feature received positive feedback from many demo play participants. 

"The intent here is fantastic — it's great to see Tekken becoming more accessible," said Berg. "Please take the advice from Ian and Tara's posts. We all want to see this succeed." Harada and the Tekken 8 team still have time to do that, as the game is due out on January 26th. 

Bandai Namco

It's a new year and you're going to need fresh tools to accomplish all those goals for 2024. A new iPad is a great way to keep track of and produce lots of tasks, especially when touting a 22 percent discount. That's right, the 10th-generation Apple iPad 64GB model is back down to its Black Friday all-time low of $349, dropping from $449. The $100 savings is available in the Silver, Blue and Pink versions, with the Yellow model available for $399. 

Apple's 10th-gen iPad came on the scene at the end of 2022 with an entire new design — namely removing the home button, a 10.9-inch screen and moving Touch ID to the lock button. We gave it an 85 in our review thanks to those updates and additional features like an A14 Bionic chip. It's an upgrade from the 9th-generation's A13 model but still falls behind the M1 and M2 in the iPad Air and Pro. 

Notably, the 10th-gen iPad also introduced a landscape edge to its front-facing camera — the first instance of this across any model. This update is a big deal for anyone who uses their iPad to take video calls. The battery is solid as well, lasting 11 hours and 45 minutes while playing a movie from the iTunes store and nearly 10 hours when it (and an attached keyboard) were in work mode all day. Speaking of the keyboard, this model's Magic Keyboard Folio comes in two pieces and is an improvement from the 9th-gen's version. However, it's not very stable for lap use and retails for a steep $250 — though it's on sale right now for $219. 

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

Meta is permanently cutting the price of its Quest 2 VR headset to $250 following the launch of the Quest 3, according to a Quest Blog update spotted by TechCrunch. The Quest 2 has been on sale at that price since Black Friday anyway, but the new retail price might spell even better deals for the previous-gen model. 

"We knew we could do even more to make VR more affordable and bring even more people into the community... that's why we’re permanently lowering prices on Quest 2 and its accessories, effective January 1," the company wrote. To wit, the 128GB Quest 2 is now $250, while the 256GB model is $300. Meta is also dropping the prices for refurbished units to $230 and $270, respectively. Similar pricing can be found on Amazon. 

Quest 2 accessories are also carrying lower prices, with the Elite Strap with battery receiving the biggest drop from $120 to $90. The regular Elite Strap is now $50, the carrying case has dropped to $45, the Active Pack is now $60 and the Quest 2 Fit Pack falls from $50 to $40. 

The Quest 2 became one of the more popular VR headsets thanks to the low $300 launch price, but the buzz died down when Meta jacked the price to $400 in mid-2022. The Quest 3 was a big step forward with improved screens and lenses, a more compact design, faster performance, mixed reality cameras and more. 

With hundreds of VR titles available — including Resident Evil 4, the new Roblox game and ever-popular Beat Saber — the Quest 2 is still a great entry into the world of VR, though. It's now even more attractive at that price, and we might see it drop even lower via sales over the next year. 

NVIDIA may have figured out a way to go around the US export restrictions on China, but apparently ASML, the Dutch firm behind the key chipmaking equipment, isn't having much say on this end. According to Bloomberg, Biden's administration reportedly reached out to ASML "weeks before" the January 1, 2024 export ban deadline, requesting the firm to halt some pre-scheduled shipments of its deep ultraviolet lithography (DUV) machines to its Chinese customers. This came after the revelation that SMIC used ASML tech to manufacture Huawei's latest flagship processor, the 7nm HiSilicon Kirin 9000S.

In addition to DUV machines, ASML also manufactures extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines for making more advanced chips — with node processes of 5nm or less — for the likes of Apple and Qualcomm. While ASML was never allowed to sell EUV equipment to China, the Dutch government did grant licenses to the firm for shipping DUV machines to China until the end of 2023.

Bloomberg reports that things changed when the US government — National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, specifically — allegedly contacted the Dutch government regarding some of ASML's final shipments to China, to which his team was asked to reach out to ASML directly. "Shipments of a limited number of machines" were affected.

While China had been able to source lithography machines from elsewhere, they tended to be off less advanced methods. Not to mention the joint effort between the US, Japan and the Netherlands on limiting China's access to such equipment. That said, China had since been pushed to beef up its own silicon ecosystem, to the point where it surprised the world with its homegrown 7nm mobile 5G chip. It's no wonder the US was desperate to halt ASML's final DUV shipments to China, though doing so before the agreed deadline may be a questionable move. 

A few weeks ago, NASA’s robotic Mars explorers were given some time off from hard work while the agency waited out Mars solar conjunction, a natural phenomenon that could interfere with their communications. Leading up to the pause, the Curiosity rover was put in park — but its Hazard-Avoidance Cameras (Hazcams) kept snapping away. In a first for the rover, Curiosity recorded the passage of a Martian day over 12 hours from its stationary position, capturing its own shifting shadow on the landscape as the sun moves from dawn to dusk. It held onto the images until after the conjunction ended on November 25.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Curiosity was given instructions to record the 12-hour sequences a few days before the conjunction began in mid-November, according to NASA. The idea was to see if it could catch any weather events that might crop up. That didn’t end up happening, but the images Curiosity snapped on November 8 are still pretty enchanting. They’ve been pieced together in two videos showing the view from its front and rear Hazcams.

Curiosity’s Hazcams are normally used to help drivers avoid terrain that could be dangerous to the rover. But with the rover parked ahead of its pause in duties from November 11 to November 25, the cameras were freed up for a bit of sight-seeing. Curiosity recorded from its position at the base of Mars’ Mount Sharp from 5:30AM to 5:30PM. It and the other Mars explorers have since resumed their normal activities.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Vizio TVs’ “effective” refresh rates have been confusing customers for years, and the company may now owe payments to some buyers who were misled by the term. As spotted by The Verge, Vizio recently agreed to settle a class action lawsuit in California over what plaintiffs claim is “false and misleading” advertising. While some Vizio TVs are marketed as having a “120Hz Effective Refresh Rate” or “240Hz Effective Refresh Rate,” that describes a result achieved using motion clarity technology. Their actual, native refresh rate in most cases is 60Hz.

Vizio has denied any wrongdoing on its part, but agreed to a $3 million settlement covering all Vizio TVs purchased in California that were advertised with the above descriptions, going back to April 30, 2014 and up until the final court judgment. The final approval hearing is right now set for June 20, 2024. People may be entitled to payments of up to $50, but claims must be in by March 30, 2024. The claim form can be found here. Vizio also agreed to stop marketing its TVs this way and to “provide enhanced services and a limited one-year warranty to all Settlement Class Members.”

NASA’s campaign to gather names for a sort of “message in a bottle” that will fly with its upcoming Europa Clipper mission closes after this weekend, so if you were hoping to participate but haven’t yet made your submission, you’d better hurry up and do so. The signatures will accompany a poem written for Europa by US Poet Laureate Ada Limón, which will be engraved in Limón’s handwriting on a metal plate attached to the spacecraft. Europa, one of Jupiter’s largest moons, is thought to have a deep saltwater ocean beneath its icy crust — and there, the conditions could be suitable for microbial life.

To enter the Message in a Bottle campaign, you just need to go to NASA’s website and fill out a short signup form. The deadline is tomorrow, December 31. So far, more than 2.4 million people have added their names. According to NASA, the names of everyone who participated will be stenciled in tiny, tiny letters onto microchips using an electron beam that can create lines of text smaller than 1/1000th the width of a human hair. These microchips will be affixed to the plate containing the poem.

The Europa Clipper spacecraft is scheduled to launch in October 2024, and it’ll be another six years from then before it reaches Jupiter’s orbit. Once there, it’ll investigate Europa’s potential habitability through a series of close flybys. Europa is one of an estimated 95 moons circling Jupiter and among the longest known to humanity. 

What do you do when the tech world mostly grinds to a halt at the end of December? You reheat your hot takes, force a narrative thread on a company's ups and downs and edit it all up for consumption. 

Yes, it's a little quiet at the end of the year (barring Apple Watch bans), but that won't stop TMA from finding something for me to talk to himself about. We’re looking at a few of the major stories from the last 12 months and .. some other things where I just has to say my piece. And if not on a short YouTube video that's clipped, cropped and pushed into socials, then where? On X? Pschh.

This week:

🤖💬🤖 How OpenAI's ChatGPT has changed the world in just a year

📲🔋 Apple's switch to USB-C on the iPhone 15 brings more cable confusion

🎮🎮🎮 Microsoft officially owns Activision Blizzard

And read this:

I couldn't cover all the big things in tech in one tiny video. I'd recommend taking a look at all of the big tech wins in 2023 (and all the big losses), and it's definitely worth reading through our picks of the best games of the year. 

Like email more than video? Subscribe right here for daily reports, direct to your inbox.

A few days ago, Microsoft released a standalone Android app for Microsoft Copilot, giving you a quick way to access the AI assistant. Turns out the iOS and iPad versions weren't far behind, because they're now available from Apple's App Store. Just like in Copilot on desktop and other AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, you can type in your question and wait for responses generated by artificial intelligence. In Copilot's case, you'll get responses spun by OpenAI's GPT-4, the company's latest large language model. The free version of ChatGPT, in comparison, is powered by the older ChatGPT-3.5, and you'll need to pay for ChatGPT Plus to get access to the newer model. 

In addition, Copilot on iOS has the capability to turn your words into images. That particular feature is powered by OpenAI's DALL-E 3 text-to-image AI system, which the company previously said is "significantly better" at being able to grasp the final product you want to achieve with the text prompt you type in. DALL-E 3 was also designed to be better at rendering the elements its predecessors were having trouble with, such as human hands. 

This is but the latest Copilot product Microsoft has released since it rebranded Bing Chat. The company also brought Copilot to Windows 10 and then to Windows 11, giving around a billion devices — based on the platforms' user numbers — access to the AI chatbot. With these mobile rollouts, Microsoft is expanding Copilot's reach even more, especially since the apps are free to use.