The Meta Quest 3 is here, and it’s the best standalone VR headset we’ve ever seen. But is that enough to make people care about virtual reality? In this episode, Devindra and Senior Writer Sam Rutherford chat with Tested’sNorm Chan about the Quest 3 and Meta’s mixed reality future. While the company’s vision of the metaverse is pretty sterile, it’s still nice to see Meta learning from the mistakes of the Quest Pro. (Be sure to check out Norm's hour-long review of the Quest 3 as well!)
Sam also dives into his Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro reviews, as well as his thoughts about the Pixel Watch 2. We also dive into Wired’s retraction of an op-ed claiming that Google manipulated your search queries, as well as Twitter/X’s complete inability to deliver accurate news during the Hamas and Israel conflict.
Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!
The fight to keep DVD sales going is taking another big hit. Best Buy is allegedly ending all physical media sales — that means Blu-ray, DVD and 4K Ultra HD — in-store and online, The Digital Bits reported. Multiple sources claim the move will occur in early 2024, possibly as soon as the first quarter. The news of Best Buy's decision comes only a few weeks after Netflix ended its 25-year DVD delivery service, sending out its final copies on September 29.
Best Buy's exit from the DVD and Blu-ray market leaves limited options in the United States. Walmart (which has a 45 percent share of the market) and Target still offer the discs at their physical stores, while Redbox is holding on to 29,000 rental kiosks. Amazon stands as a major player online, with Paramount recently releasing their Blu-ray and 4K Steelbook exclusive titles on the site versus Best Buy.
Disc purchases have been dropping since streaming came on the scene. According to the Digital Entertainment Group, the first six months of 2023 saw a 28 percent drop in physical products sold compared to the same period in 2022. Scondhand stores may be the best place to find DVDs for the time being, unless they come back in fashion like vinyls.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-buy-may-end-dvd-and-blu-ray-sales-early-next-year-121318167.html?src=rss
DIY Thermal Camera: Build your Own Infrared Imaging Device with ESP32 and MLX90640 Sensor
Thermal Cameras are widely used in a wide range of industrial applications such as thermal performance monitoring, detecting temperature anomalies, thermal benchmarking and many more. We even use thermal imaging for defense and military applications. The most common application that we may come across might be the electronics repair industry. In the repair industry, thermal cameras are a very important tool that can make hardware debugging much easier especially where there are shorted parts are involved.
Netflix is reportedly planning to open several bricks-and-mortar venues, called Netflix House. The stores will sell merchandise for hit Netflix shows, hopefully of a higher quality than that Target Squid Game tee you sleep in. Talking of Squid Game, the two initial locations will reportedly feature obstacle courses based on the hit show, entirely missing the point of the show’s scathing view of modern capitalism.
There will also be rotating hit-show art installations and live performances to excite fans. Additionally, an in-house restaurant will serve themed cuisine and drinks from Netflix’s food-based reality shows. I can’t get enough of themed restaurants, so count me in. The first two will be in the US, but more will appear across the world.
Netflix has dabbled in real-world events and venues before. It opened pop-up experiences across the planet to celebrate shows likeStranger Things and many of its reality shows. In the UK, Netflix’s Stranger Things: The First Shadow theater production will begin performances at the Phoenix Theatre in London this November.
— Mat Smith
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The UK’s antitrust regulator has given Microsoft the green light to buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. The regulator called Microsoft’s concession to sell cloud gaming rights to Ubisoft a “gamechanger that will promote competition.” With the last major obstacle out of the way, the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) has now largely cleared the path for the companies to close the biggest merger in gaming history. The decision was widely expected after the watchdog said in September the company’s revised merger agreement “substantially addresses previous concerns and opens the door to the deal being cleared.”
Three areas are getting the X-Class upgrade to start.
Comcast is upgrading its residential cable internet service to offer upload and download speeds of up to 2 Gbps through decades-old coaxial cables. The company says it’s the first ISP in the world to offer multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds to customers through DOCSIS 4.0 technology, which it’s powering through the Xfinity 10G network. Comcast has been working on this technology for several years, and it aims to offer 2 Gbps symmetrical service in more than 50 million homes by the end of 2025.
A global team of researchers investigating the statistical and physical nuances of coin tosses worldwide concluded that a coin is 50.8% likely to land on the same side it started on. The authors of the new paper conducted 350,757 flips, using different coins from 46 currencies to eliminate a heads–tails bias between coin designs. (They also used a variety of people to rule out biased flipping techniques.) Regardless of the coin type, the same-side outcome could be predicted at 0.508, which rounds up to 49/51 odds.
The Swedish capital joins other low-emission zones in Europe.
While we wait for electric vehicles to be the dominant engines on the road, some areas have taken it upon themselves to solve the issue of air pollution related to combustion engines. Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, just announced a ban on diesel and petrol-powered vehicles throughout its city center, starting in 2025. The ban doesn’t impact the entire capital city, only the 20-block city center.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-netflixs-next-big-thing-is-branded-retail-stores-111551264.html?src=rss
New Raspberry Pi-Powered Robot, Diablo, Makes Waves in the Tech World
A groundbreaking robot, Diablo, has taken the tech world by storm, offering a fusion of robotics and the Raspberry Pi. Diablo, created by Direct Drive Tech, is the world's first direct drive self-balancing wheeled leg robot, and it's impressively versatile. This innovative creation boasts adjustable height, gyroscopic stability, and operates on a Raspberry Pi 4, in conjunction with a controller board.
Cruise has been testing its self-driving vehicles in Houston since May, and it started giving employees, along with select friends and family members, fully driverless rides in August. Now, it's offering the public the chance to catch a ride to their destinations on robotaxis with no drivers behind the wheel. The company is now onboarding Houston residents who signed up for its waitlist, and it's also encouraging those who've yet to do so to visit its website and send in a request for access. Those who do get in early will be able to hail a driverless ride through its app for a flat fare of $5 for a limited time.
Initially, Cruise will have the authority to operate seven days a week from 9PM to 6AM only in Downtown, Midtown, East Downtown, Montrose, Hyde Park and River Oaks neighborhoods. The company typically begins by deploying a small fleet of vehicles to cover a limited number of locations in a city, but it eventually expands its vehicles' availability.
It will probably take some time before the company can operate around the clock in Houston, though. In San Francisco, for instance, Cruise was only given permission to offer paid daytime rides in August, months after staff members started testing its 24/7 service. It's worth noting that while Cruise was able to secure permission for the expansion, the company still faces pushback from critics raising concerns about the safety of autonomous vehicle tech. One of the commissioners from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) even voted against allowing the company to operate during daytime hours, arguing that the agency didn't have enough information to accurately evaluate the impact of autonomous vehicles on first responders.
Shortly after the CPUC gave the company permission to offer paid daytime rides, the California DMV opened an investigation into a Cruise robotaxi's collision with a fire truck. The agency then asked Cruise to cut its fleet in half and to limit its driverless vehicles in operation to 50 during daytime and 150 at night while the investigation is ongoing.
Howdy, Houston 👋 Starting today we will be welcoming members of the public to our driverless service.
Meta has shared an updated content monitoring action plan as the devastating Israel-Hamas war continues. It follows a stern letter from Thierry Breton, the European Union's (EU) regulatory commissioner, to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg about misinformation concerns (such as deep fakes) and compliance with the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA). The company had 24 hours to respond.
In its statement, Meta said that it created an ever-evolving operations center with experts fluent in Hebrew and Arabic: "Since the terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel on Saturday, and Israel's response in Gaza, expert teams from across our company have been working around the clock to monitor our platforms while protecting people's ability to use our apps to shed light on important developments happening on the ground." Meta claims this new setup lets them remove content and fight misinformation faster.
Meta reportedly took over 795,000 distinct pieces of content in Hebrew or Arabic and removed or marked them with a disturbing label in the three days following the terrorist attack by Hamas. Seven times more content across these two languages was removed daily for violating its Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy compared to the two months leading up to the conflict.
Hamas is listed under Meta's Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy and banned from all of the company's platforms — as is any content praising the terrorist group. However, "social and political discourse," such as news articles and general discussion, are allowed.
Further actions by Meta include restricting certain hashtags that are regularly associated with content that violates its policies and removing any content that clearly identifies a hostage (though blurred images are allowed). The company has also lowered the threshold for its monitoring technology, ideally reducing the chances of it recommending harmful content to users. "We want to reiterate that our policies are designed to give everyone a voice while keeping people safe on our apps," Meta's statement continued. "We apply these policies regardless of who is posting or their personal beliefs, and it is never our intention to suppress a particular community or point of view."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-responds-to-eu-misinformation-concerns-regarding-israel-hamas-conflict-102640126.html?src=rss
The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has reached a settlement with Apple and Broadcom over Wi-Fi chips, ending a billion-dollar patent dispute that started in 2016, Reuters has reported. In a filing, Caltech said that it's dismissing the case with prejudice, meaning it can't be filed again.
The saga has taken several turns. Caltech initially alleged that millions of iPhones, iPads, Watches and other Apple devices with Broadcom chips infringed its Wi-Fi based patents. The institute initially won a $1.1 billion jury award, with Apple ordered to pay Caltech $837.8 million and Broadcom to pay an additional $270.2 million.
However, Apple appealed, and a federal appeals court overturned the decision, calling the award "legally unsupportable." Specifically, the judge rejected Caltech's argument that it could have negotiated licenses with both Broadcom and Apple for the same chips.
The jury then ordered a new trial — though it also upheld the original jury's findings that Apple and Broadcom infringed two Caltech patents. That trial was supposed to take place this June, but was postponed indefinitely. The parties told the court last August that they had reached a "potential settlement," but didn't disclose any other information.
The technology is vital to the 802.11n and 802.11ac WiFi standards, though its inventor said that the patents (related to data transmission tech), weren't originally designed for WiFi. Broadcom remains a major Apple supplier, having recently signed a $15 billion agreement to furnish chips for upcoming iPhones and other products. Caltech recently settled a similar lawsuit against Samsung, and still has Wi-Fi patent cases pending with Microsoft, Dell and HP.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/caltechs-seven-year-wi-fi-patent-battle-with-apple-and-broadcom-is-over-082546571.html?src=rss
Qualcomm has just notified the California Employment Development Department that it's eliminating 1,258 positions within the state, according to Bloomberg. That's around 2.5 percent of the company's entire workforce, which is approximately 50,000 strong, but the job cuts will only affect workers from Qualcomm's San Diego and Santa Clara, California offices. Based on Bloomberg's report, no position is safe: More than 750 of the affected employees will reportedly come from the chipmaker's engineering team, including director-level personnel. The remaining affected roles will come from across different departments and will include internal technical and accounting staff.
The chipmaker is required by law to notify the California agency of impending job cuts. But since many other places don't have the same rule, it's unclear if Qualcomm is planning to eliminate positions in other offices within and outside the US. It's worth noting that these job cuts, while unfortunate, don't come as a surprise: The company announced in its quarterly earnings report (PDF) released in August that it was going to take "additional restructuring actions."
Back then, the chipmaker had admitted that it expects these "restructuring actions" to consist "largely of workforce reductions." It said that the move will enable it to make "continued investments in key growth and diversification opportunities" in the face of "continued uncertainty in the macroeconomic and demand environment." As Bloomberg notes, Qualcomm still makes most of its money from smartphone sales, and market performance continues to decline. In fact, analysts said global smartphone shipments for the year are on track to be the worst in a decade. Qualcomm itself could see its revenue shrink by roughly 19 percent in the current fiscal year.
The company will start removing personnel sometime in mid-December, and it expects to be done with the restructuring changes it has to make in the first half of fiscal year 2024.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/qualcomm-is-cutting-over-1200-jobs-in-california-073034572.html?src=rss
With the last major obstacle out of the way, the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) has now largely cleared the path for the companies to close the biggest merger in gaming history. That move was widely expected after the watchdog said in September that the company's revised merger agreement "substantially addresses previous concerns and opens the door to the deal being cleared."
In April, the CMA blocked the deal on the grounds of a belief that it would make Microsoft too dominant of a player in the cloud gaming space. However, as other dominoes that were preventing the deal from happening fell, the CMA gave Microsoft a second chance to resolve its concerns. The companies extended their merger agreement by three months to give them time to smooth things out with the CMA.
Microsoft later submitted a modified deal to the watchdog that will see it sell Activision Blizzard game streaming rights to Ubisoft if the merger goes through. Ubisoft would then handle cloud streaming rights in perpetuity for current titles and any others that Activision Blizzard releases over the following 15 years. Given that the CMA's misgivings over the original deal, Microsoft evidently hoped that the concession would be significant enough to resolve the regulator's concerns. Evidently, that's exactly what happened.
The CMA said last month that it had "residual concerns" about enforcement of Microsoft's revised proposal. However, it noted that "Microsoft gave undertakings that will ensure that the terms of the sale of Activision's rights to Ubisoft are enforceable by the CMA."
The regulator touted its role in forcing Microsoft to make concessions. "With the sale of Activision’s cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft, we’ve made sure Microsoft can’t have a stranglehold over this important and rapidly developing market," CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said in a statement. "As cloud gaming grows, this intervention will ensure people get more competitive prices, better services and more choice. We are the only competition agency globally to have delivered this outcome."
There were suggestions that European Union antitrust regulators might review the amended deal. EU officials approved the acquisition in May after Microsoft made some cloud gaming concessions. According to Bloomberg, the bloc's competition regulators didn't see cause for concern with the amended deal that would prompt another investigation.
After a US court rejected the Federal Trade Commission's attempt to temporarily block the deal pending an administrative trial, the CMA and both companies in question asked a tribunal to delay Microsoft's appeal against the UK regulator's initial decision. The tribunal agreed and, after reviewing the updated proposal from Microsoft, the CMA has rubberstamped the merger. It now seems like just a matter of time until this is a done deal and one of the biggest tech mergers in memory is in the books.
There is one significant potential hurdle remaining, however. The FTC is moving forward with its attempt to challenge the deal. That effort won't stop Microsoft from closing the acquisition, but there's a chance that the FTC could force the company to divest some or all of Activision Blizzard.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/uk-regulator-approves-microsofts-687-billion-purchase-of-activision-blizzard-063625038.html?src=rss
