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In the latest proof that satire is no match for today’s reality, The DOJ announced that a YouTuber pled guilty on Wednesday to obstructing a federal investigation by destroying the wreckage of an airplane he intentionally crashed for views and sponsorship money. Trevor Jacob, a 29-year-old former pro snowboarder turned YouTuber, recorded and uploaded his staged (yet very real) crash landing in Santa Barbara County, CA, in November 2021.

Jacob pled guilty to one count of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, as first reported by Gizmodo. He admitted in his plea agreement that his motive was profiting from a wallet promotion attached to the video.

Before taking flight, Jacob equipped the plane with video cameras while arming himself with a parachute, video camera and selfie stick. He ejected himself from the aircraft about 35 minutes into the flight, recording himself parachuting to the ground as the plane crashed into a dry brush area in Los Padres National Forest. (A dry brush area in wildfire country sounds like a terrific place to send an aircraft to its fiery demise.) He then hiked to the crash scene to recover his cameras and recordings.

YouTube

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of Jacob’s wallet-shilling shenanigans. He then waited two days to report the incident to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB); in the report, he incorrectly described it as an accident. Then, after the NTSB told him he was responsible for preserving the wreckage for examination, he returned to the crash scene by helicopter, which he used to airlift the wreckage to a local vineyard and winery. There, he loaded it onto a trailer attached to his pickup truck and hauled it to Lompoc City Airport, where he cut the plane’s remains into pieces, dumping them into nearby trash bins. Around this time, he lied to investigators, telling them he didn’t know where the wreckage was.

Still wanting to ensure the wallet sponsorship money made its way to his wallet, Jacob uploaded the YouTube video “I Crashed My Airplane” on December 23rd, 2021. The video is still up and has tallied 3.3 million views. During a clip of his long hike back to civilization after the landing, Jacob says, “I’m so past the point of even saying I’m exhausted… but I saw a cow.”

Horror collection ‘Layers of Fear’ is getting a Steam demo that launches on May 15th. Developer Bloober Team revealed the demo on Twitter and noted that it’ll be available from the 15th until May 22nd. The forthcoming collection includes the original Layers of Fear, Layers of Fear 2, various DLC content and a brand-new chapter that promises to provide a new perspective on the first game’s story.

The developer already teased this demo with an 11-minute gameplay video back in March, but now you can actually play it instead of watching a YouTube clip. Bloober Team reworked these titles in Unreal Engine 5, so the visuals look impressive and atmospheric, not to mention eerie as all get out. The refresh is packed with modern graphical touches like ray-tracing, HDR and volumetric lighting. 

The Layers of Fear collection officially releases in June on PC via Steam, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. This is not Bloober Team’s only foray into horror, as it’s also busy crafting a Silent Hill 2 remake. The original Layers of Fear came out back in 2016 and has been lauded for its unique take on psychological horror and emphasis on exploration. 

It’s no secret that the Nintendo Switch is showing its age, making it difficult to port games over from more powerful consoles. The latest hurdle for third-party publishers? Hogwarts Legacy developers just announced that the Nintendo Switch version of the open-world wizard simulator is getting another significant delay, all the way until November 14th.

This isn’t the first delay the port’s faced, as it was originally supposed to release in April after being pushed back to July 25th. At that time, all of the last-gen ports got hit with a delay, but the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions have since been released. The title originally launched for PS5, Xbox Series X and PC back in February.

Developers said the Switch delay is so it can provide the “best possible experience” for players. It’ll be interesting to see how the game performs when it eventually launches and what changes are made to accommodate the aging hardware. For those looking for a portable version of Hogwarts Legacy right now, instead of six months from now, the game is verified for the Steam Deck.

Despite some controversy,Hogwarts Legacy has become a bona-fide hit for Avalanche Software and Warner Bros. Games, selling over 15 million copies and generating over $1 billion in revenue.

The well-reviewed, yet pricey, PlayStation VR2 headset is now widely available after a two-month stint of exclusivity at Sony’s Direct consumer storefront. Last month, the company shared the news on Twitter, but did not set an official date, nor did they announce what lucky retailers would get their mitts on the PS5-adjacent headset. As of today, you can pick up the PSVR2 at Amazon, GameStop, Best Buy and other retailers.

Beyond making it easier to score a PSVR 2 headset, wider availability could very well lead to sales and discounts. At $550, the PS5 accessory is more expensive than the actual PS5. Sony has not disclosed any sales numbers for the headset but it did halve sales expectation numbers ahead of the February launch due to fewer-than-anticipated preorders. Having the headset locked behind an exclusive web portal for a while likely did it no favors.

The PSVR 2 has been praised for its fantastic visuals, updated controllers and haptic feedback abilities, though the games library is on the anemic side (right now). Here is to hoping increased availability will bring the headset into more homes, hastening mainstream adoption and giving the Meta Quest platform a true run for its money. This could only be a good thing for VR in general.

Tesla's latest large-scale recall effectively covers its entire output for one nation. China's market regulator has ordered a recall of over 1.1 million Tesla cars, or nearly all the vehicles it has sold in the country, over a reported flaw in the regenerative braking system. As drivers can't set the intensity of regenerative braking or receive alerts with a sustained press of the accelerator, officials believe there's a risk owners might misuse the pedals (as they can't hear a revving engine) and crash.

The EV maker will fix the issue through a software update that both tweaks the default regenerative braking level and lets users customize the system's strength. Tesla will also notify drivers who press the accelerator for a long time. The recall covers Model 3 and Model Y cars made in China between January 2019 and April this year, as well as some imported Model 3, Model S and Model X examples.

Tesla has disbanded its PR team and hasn't commented on the recall. Bloombergpoints out that Chinese drivers have complained multiple times about acceleration and braking issues. One driver used the 2021 Shanghai auto show to highlight a serious crash where her father nearly died after the brakes failed. Tesla apologized, but didn't acknowledge a glitch and noted the high speed before the collision.

As with most Tesla recalls, the software update won't significantly disrupt the company's business in the short term. However, it's not a good look for a brand that has had numerous recalls in recent years, including 80,000 in China last fall for software and seat belt problems. Tesla depends heavily on China for revenue — it's home to the giant Gigafactory Shanghai, which currently produces more than half of the firm's cars each year. Tesla can't afford to alienate either customers or officials.

On Thursday, Twitter CEO Elon Musk said he had appointed someone to take over from him as CEO, and it didn't take long for that person's identity to be confirmed. Less than a day later, Musk confirmed that NBCUniversal's head of ad sales Linda Yaccarino is taking on the job. Yaccarino is expected to start her new role in around six weeks.

Yaccarino "will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design and new technology," Musk wrote. "Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app."

Shortly after Musk said he is giving up the CEO gig to become Twitter's chief technical officer and executive chair, reports suggested that Yaccarino was in talks for the position. On Friday, NBCU confirmed that Yaccarino was leaving the company. That's not exactly ideal timing for NBCU given that the company is set to show off its upcoming programming slate to advertisers early next week. 

Under Yaccarino's watch, NBCU has continued its close ties with Twitter. The two sides recently expanded their partnership for the 2024 Olympic Games, which will see Twitter host video from the event. Yaccarino tweeted at Musk around the time news emerged of the companies' renewed partnership. "“Hey, @elonmusk, here’s an idea for our new partnership: Periscope for Paris 2024. Let’s just go hi-res first," Yaccarino wrote.

Yaccarino could help Twitter to smooth over its fractured relationships with some advertisers. In the months after Musk assumed control of Twitter, reports suggested that many of the company's top advertisers had temporarily stopped spending ad dollars on the platform. Some were said to have expressed concern about their ads appearing next to hate speech and misinformation under Musk's looser approach to content moderation.

Musk bought Twitter in October and his tenure has been chaotic, to say the least. From swiftly firing the former leadership team and laying off thousands of workers to moving forward with a plan to purge inactive accounts (including those of the deceased), it seems like barely a day has gone by over the last seven months without something happening around Elon Musk and Twitter.

Back in December, Musk posted a poll on Twitter, asking users if he should remain as CEO or bring someone else in. More than 17.5 million votes later, the majority (57.5 percent) voted in favor of Musk stepping down. Musk promised to do just that and focus on the technical side of Twitter's operations as soon as he could find someone to take over. Five months later, it seems he has stuck by his word.

Shortly after Musk said he is stepping away from Twitter's top job, Tesla's share price jumped up. With Tesla falling behind on its goal of delivering 1.8 million vehicles this year despite a litany of price cuts, and the Cybertruck perhaps being pushed back again due to a battery production delay, Musk may need to pay closer attention to that company. Stockholders appear to be pleased that he may be able to devote more time to Tesla — but rumors suggest he might be moving on from the CEO position at that company too.

The biggest news in tech this week came from Google's annual developer conference on Wednesday. They announced three new devices: The Pixel 7a smartphone, the Pixel Tablet and the Pixel Fold. Discounts on brand new products don't happen often, but both Amazon and Google were quick to bundle Pixel 7a orders with a $50 Amazon gift card, or a free pair of Pixel Buds, respectively — not sales per se, but free stuff is still compelling for anyone already planning on getting a new phone. Of course, there were deals unrelated to Google too, like savings on Amazon devices including the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, Echo speakers, and nearly all Kindle models. There's also a sale on Anker charging devices and Apple AirPods Pro. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today. 

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max

As part of a larger sale on Fire streaming devices, Amazon's Fire TV Stick 4K Max is on sale for $35, which is a 36 percent discount and matches the lowest price the streaming device has gone for, including during Black Friday sales. If the screen you plan to use with the stick isn't 4K, you probably don't need this model. The Fire TV Stick Lite is also on sale, going for just $20 after a 33 percent discount. Our commerce writer, Nicole Lee, named it the best budget streaming device in our guide. It grants access to the latest Fire TV interface and includes an Alexa voice remote so you can find content and change channels just by asking. Keep in mind that the Fire TV Stick Lite isn't able to control your TV's power or volume, so you'll need to use two remotes.

Google Pixel 7a

Google officially announced the Pixel 7a towards the end of its I/O event on Wednesday. Within minutes, both Google's storefront and Amazon had the new smartphone for sale. Now both are sweetening the deal with add-ons. Amazon is bundling the phone with a free $50 gift card and Google is throwing in a phone case and a pair of Pixel Buds A-Series (which have an MSRP of $99).

The $499 mobile is a budget alternative to the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro, coming in $100 cheaper than the base model Pixel 7. It features the same Tensor G2 chip as its pricier siblings and actually has higher-res cameras and a slightly bigger battery. Our senior writer, Sam Rutherford, already published his review, and says, "it's got everything you need and more." The Amazon deal has one caveat: that bright coral color option you see in Sam's review isn't available on Amazon because it's a Google Store exclusive.

Anker 735 charger

Anker has earned numerous accolades from us in our charging and battery guides, so it's nice to see the brand putting on a wide sale like this one. The Anker 735 Charger is $38.41, which is a 31 percent discount and only a dollar more than its lowest price ever. It will deliver up to 65W of power as it charges up your devices, which should be enough for fast-charging smartphones and tablets. A slightly newer version of the charging brick, confusingly also called the 735 Charger, won a top spot in our fast-charger guide. It's down to $48 after a 20 percent coupon. Just be sure to click the coupon box as you add the charger to your cart. 

If it's time to replace the cable you use for your iPhone, you may want to consider the six-foot PowerLine II UBC-C to Lightning cord, which is just $9 after a 31 percent discount. 

Apple AirPods Pro

The second-gen AirPods Pro are back on sale for $200, which is a record low. There really is no better pair of wireless earbuds out there right now for iPhone users. The AirPods Pro pair quickly with iPhones and switch between it and other Apple devices quickly. We also appreciate the hands-free Siri access it offers, so you can get questions answered, respond to texts and more just by using voice commands. The latest model offers excellent sound quality and active noise cancellation, plus much-improved Transparency Mode.

Apple AirTags

A four-pack of AirTags is down to $89 again at Amazon, which is close to the lowest price we've seen. These Bluetooth trackers let you keep track of items like your keys and wallet from within Apple's Find My app. And the latest iPhone can even lead you directly to your lost things, provided you're still within Bluetooth range. Just make sure to pick up a case or a holder for your AirTags when you buy, since they do not have built-in holes for keyrings.

Beats Fit Pro

Sometimes the best colors aren't included in a promotion, but this time, even the flashy colors of the Beats Fit Pro are 20 percent off (unfortunately, the earth-toned Kardashian shades are only 10 percent off). That makes the Coral Pink, Tidal Blue and Volt Yellow shades just $160, which is the lowest price we've seen yet. 

We named the Beats Fit Pro our favorite earbuds for working out and gave them an 87 in our review thanks to their secure and comfortable fit. They've got enough bass to get your exercise playlists pumping and the six-hour battery life will get you through a workout and well beyond. It's worth noting that they don't support wireless charging and they tend to work better with iPhones than Android phones, possibly because Apple owns the Beats brand. 

MOOD MK1

The MOOD MK1 effects pedal from Chase Bliss is down to $245 at Reverb and directly from Chase Bliss, which is a 30 percent discount off the usual $350 price tag. Our managing editor Terrence O'Brien wrote about a different pedal from the brand last year and was impressed by the hardware. The MOOD MK1 is similarly well-regarded and one of the more popular pedals out there. It was discontinued and replaced by the MK2 this year, which is why the deal only lasts as long as units remain, but it still a worthy music-making companion — particularly at this price. 

Samsung T7 Shield SSD

Samsung 1TB T7 Shield SSD is on sale for just $75 at Amazon, which handily beats the original $160 list price. Of course, as is the way with storage devices, the price has been steadily dropping since it was released last year, but it's still a great way to expand the capacity of your devices. This is a more rugged version of the SSD we named the best portable option in our guide. The discount is part of a larger Samsung storage sale that also includes the internal 980 Pro SSD 2TB drive, which is $20 off and down to $140 and the 256GB EVO Select microSD memory card which is perfect for tablets and handheld gaming devices with a memory card slot. It's on sale for $18, which is 55 percent off the list price. 

Eargo 7

As part of a Mother's Day sale, the Eargo 7 is $300 off right now at the brand's website. an over-the-counter hearing aid made by a brand that acts more like a tech company than a stodgy medical device organization. Our editor-at-large James Trew tested them out, and found them to be pretty comfortable after an hour or so of wear and appreciated the battery life that was enough to get through a full day of use. They don't over emphasize sharp sounds or emit feedback like other hearing aids, and they adequately amplify sound. In the end he said, the Eargo 7s prove that "OTC hearing aids don’t have to mean scrimping on features and performance."

Roborock Q5 Robot Vacuum Cleaner

A bunch of Roborock robot vacuums are on sale at Amazon right now, so you can pick one up for as low as $280. One of our favorite robo-vacs, the Roborock S7+, has a $270 clippable coupon that will bring the final price down to a record low of $680. While its mobile app left much to be desired, the S7+ is a solid dirt-sucker with handy zone-targeting and cleaning schedule features. It also has extra perks like a child lock and a "pin and go" option, which lets you send the machine to a specific location in your home for more precise cleaning.

Apple HomePod (2nd gen)

Apple's latest HomePod is $20 off and down to a record low of $279. While not a huge discount, it is the first we've seen on this model that came out earlier this year. Apple fixed one of our biggest complaints about the original HomePod here — lackluster Siri capabilities. The new model can now recognize multiple users, play music from voice commands from a number of difference services, create recurring smart home automations and more. That, combined with the HomePod's excellent audio quality, clean design and lower price led us to give it a score of 84 in our review.

Apple Pencil (2nd gen)

The second-gen Apple Pencil is back on sale for an all-time low of $89. If you have a higher-end iPad, it will come as no surprise that this is the stylus you should get to use with it. It's one of the best iPad accessories you can buy, and it will be useful for artists, note-takers and even those who just want a bit more precision when interacting with their tablet. It has little to no latency, and it magnetically attaches to the side of your iPad so you can keep it handy all the time.

Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition

Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite Signature is down to $145, which is close to a record-low price. It's likely overkill for most people, but the Signature has a lot of perks that avid readers of ebooks will appreciate including a larger, more responsive screen, automatic brightness and warm light adjustments and wireless charging. We also appreciate its USB-C charging port and slim bezels. You can also save money on other Kindle models right now, too, including our favorite budget ereader, the 2022 Kindle, and the Kindle Kids version.

Google Pixel Buds Pro

You can still get Google's Pixel Buds Pro for only $145 at Wellbots when you use the code 55ENGAD at checkout. Google's answer to Apple's AirPods Pro earned a spot on our list of best wireless earbuds thanks to their solid sound quality, comfortable design, reliable touch controls and wireless charging. The buds also have a number of Android-specific features, including fine-tuned Google Assistant perks and automatic switching between Android devices.

Amazon Echo Show 8

The Echo Show 8 is down to $75 right now, which is only $5 more than it was during the holiday shopping season last year. This is one of our favorite smart displays, and it will be best for those who already use Amazon's Alexa or prefer that virtual assistant over others. Its 8-inch size is just right for most rooms of the home, and it will be better for watching TV shows and video chatting than other, smaller smart displays. We also appreciate that it has an upgraded camera with a physical shutter that you can use when you need more privacy.

Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II

The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II are down to $249 right now, which is close to their record-low price. These buds earned a spot on our list of best wireless earbuds for many reasons, but the standout is their noise cancellation performance. They are, by far, the best earbuds you can get today if you want to block out the world. They also have a comfortable design and great ambient sound as well. The discount on these buds is part of a larger sale on Bose headphones at Amazon, which also includes the QuietComfort 45 headphones for $279.

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“It all came about at 11:30PM on a random Wednesday.”

Penelope Bourbon CEO and founder Michael Paladini admitted that late-night calls are a regular occurrence for him. After his wife goes to bed, the kids are asleep and there are no emails hitting his inbox, he has time to get creative. One of these evening brainstorming sessions was with Robert Crandell, a regional sales manager for Tonnellerie Radoux and Pronektar. Radoux is a French cooperage that has been making barrels for decades. The company has been operating in the US since 1994, based in wine country California. What’s more, Radoux has conducted extensive research into the chemical composition and tannins of French oak.

Since 2008, Radoux has completed over 300 trials containing over 10 million analyses to observe polyphenols in the wood that can impact the appearance, taste and smell of wine. The result is a tool that can instantly measure these properties with Near Infrared Spectrometry, rather than using the time-consuming process of taking random samples from various batches of staves. The technology is called OakScan.

Tonnellerie Radoux

“French oak can be wildly inconsistent,” Crandell noted.

All of the variation in French oak can lead to unintended results without careful planning. Combine that in with the fact that the wood is more expensive than American oak and companies using it to age wines and spirits can greatly benefit from knowing how their liquid is going to react to the wood. It’s long been known that trees from different forests that are made into barrels will have different chemical compositions (the concept of terroir), and thus different levels of tannins. There can also be significant variation in trees just a few feet apart or from staves made from different parts of the same tree. What’s more, there can be distinctions in the grain width, which affects the extraction time for getting the tannins out of the wood.

“Even if you’ve gone to great lengths and you bought wood from the same forest, you still aren’t getting the same sort of precision and consistency [as with OakScan],” Crandell said. When Radoux uses OakScan to analyze staves bound for production, each piece of wood is assigned a barcode and a letter corresponding to its “tannic potential,” according to the cooperage. This not only helps with sorting, but it allows the company to build barrels with a specific polyphenolic index (PI), ensuring the wood is suitable for the style a winery or vineyard is trying to make. And since every stave is scanned, there’s uniformity of the tannin content of each barrel and all the data makes the end result repeatable.

OakScan also allows customers to select wood from different forests, but not by sourcing actual staves from those places. Instead, Radoux can build the tannin profile and replicate the terroir in a much more consistent way.

“If someone wanted a Voges-style barrel, we could work that out based on tannin level,” said Radoux national sales manager Craig Holme. “We can be more precise on what [the results are] going to be. Someone else will get a barrel that may be from two different trees [in that forest], and they might be completely different.” According to Holme, Radoux can pull 100,000% extracts from the staves that they can then put in a sample of a prospective customer’s product to show them what it’s going to do.

Originally developed exclusively for wine making, OakScan was initially used to analyze the chemical characteristics of barrel staves. Once the system was developed and fine-tuned, Radoux began using the same technology for tank staves. Thinner than a barrel stave, these pieces of wood allow for a quicker extraction process, which at the time was intended for larger volumes of wine. Where barrels are only toasted on the inside, tank staves are finished on all six surfaces and they’re designed to be completely submerged.

“Typically, the toasting process for wine is much more precise than the charring process for spirits,” Crandell explained. “So we came up with something very precise and very repeatable.” However, OakScan hadn’t really been used extensively in the spirits industry, he continued, except for a “small, experimental project” he had done a few years ago. Eventually, Crandell said he started working with Penelope and another micro-distiller to see if the detailed analysis of French oak could work for spirits.

Penelope Bourbon

Penelope isn’t your traditional bourbon maker. The company doesn’t actually distill anything. Instead, it sources aged bourbon from MGP: a producer of distilled spirits with operations in ​​Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, in addition to Mexico and Northern Ireland. MGP has its own brands of spirits (it actually announced the acquisition of Penelope earlier this week), but it also sells bourbon, rye whiskey, gin and more to other companies to package and sell on their own. Penelope buys bourbon of various ages and mashbills from MGP and blends it to their specifications. Sometimes they’ll bottle those blends as-in (Four Grain Bourbon and Barrel Strength Bourbon), while others undergo additional aging before they’re packaged.

While Radoux primarily caters to vineyards in France, Italy, Spain, the US and more, its colleagues at Speyside Cooperage (both owned by TFF Group) typically work with breweries and distilleries. Paladini and Penelope COO and founder Daniel Polise initially worked with Crandell to secure Rosé casks for secondary aging of its bourbon. They then collaborated with Speyside Cooperage to source toasted American oak barrels for a secondary finishing of its bourbon. For that treatment, Penelope would create a blend of aged bourbon and put it in barrels with varying char and toast levels for a period of time. In the end, Paladini and Polise discovered that even with the same bourbon in the same barrels, samples from each would be very different.

“It would go in completely different, wild directions,” Paladini observed. “We found that to be great, and that’s why that product was incredible.” Indeed, Penelope Toasted Series Bourbon won gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2022. The company leaned into the variation in the aging results, indicating the char and toast levels on the bottles of each batch. Of course, that means each batch is quite different.

Following the challenges of the Toasted Series, Polise tried using some of the OakScan staves in some samples. “We have so many different products that show up and people want us to try and use them,” he admitted. “I finally tried it and I was just shocked.” Polise explained that the OakScan French oak “stood out from the others greatly.”

Thus the idea for Penelope’s Architect Bourbon was hatched. The company was hoping to tap into the success of Toasted Series by once again being transparent about the types of wood they were using for secondary aging. But while OakScan can create the ultimate consistency batch to batch, Paladini says he and Polise weren’t sure they really wanted that.

Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget

“Our first thought was to take an exploratory approach and highlight the actual flavor profile on the back of the label. That profile is coming directly from the oak engineer in France when they run the OakScan process,” said Paladini. On each bottle of Architect, there’s a spider graph that illustrates the characteristics of that particular “build.” The company is playing up the idea of constructing a flavor profile, so it calls each batch a “build” instead. Hence the name Architect.

With Architect, Penelope has created six different “builds” or stave selections and they’re all different. However, they’re still consistent, as Crandell explained. “We can make a build again, it’s repeatable,” he noted. And that’s because OakScan allows for that consistency rather than the company hoping they can recreate a hit. They will, of course, need to replicate the blended bourbon from MGP that undergoes the secondary aging in order to do so. Even if they can’t, the company can still give a new blend the same “build” as a previous version of Architect. Since the wood analysis gives them so much control over the end result, the combinations – and the creative potential – are seemingly endless.

“[OakScan] not only gives you the ability to be precise, but it also gives you the ability to be creative,” Crandell said. “If you know what the end result is going to be, you can change the end result – you can control the end result.”

For Penelope, French oak that’s been analyzed with OakScan is only being used in Architect right now. But, Paladini and Polise aren’t ruling out using the staves for another product in the future.

“We’re constantly playing with different woods and finishes,” Polise noted. “So whatever matches next, we may release. It just works like that.”

Now's the time to go shopping if you've been tempted by Bose's QuietComfort Earbuds II but were put off by the high initial price. As part of a broader sale on Bose products, Amazon is selling the premium wireless earbuds for $249, or $50 off. That's the best price we've seen all year, and puts them into more direct competition with the AirPods Pro and similar rivals. If you prefer over-ear headphones, the QuietComfort 45 headphones are down to $279.

The QuietComfort Earbuds II are a good choice if you value active noise cancellation (ANC) first and foremost. It's strong enough that you can block even loud noises — ideal for a flight or train ride. The buds have a more dynamic and open sound than their predecessors, and they're more comfortable than before. If you mainly listen to music to escape the pressures of everyday life, they're worth considering.

There are caveats. You won't find multipoint connectivity or wireless charging like you do with other wireless earbuds in this class. Call quality is mediocre, too. It's still hard to top the ANC performance, though, and the sale price eliminates our main objection to Bose's offering.

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Fortnite creator Epic Games' Unreal Engine 5 allows anyone to quickly build 3D worlds, so it's great not just for games, but Hollywood virtual sets and more. Until now, recent Mac users have relied on Rosetta technology to run it, but Epic has just released a new update, version 5.2, that works natively on Apple Silicon. That should allow for significantly improved performance on M1 and M2 Macs. 

There's more news for Apple users as well. Epic unveiled a new iPad app (below) for virtual productions that works with the Unreal Engine's ICVFX (In-Camera VFX) editor. It offers "an intuitive touch-based interface for stage operations such as color grading, light card placement, and nDisplay management tasks from anywhere within the LED volume," the company said. In other words, it lets DPs, VFX folks and others tweak lighting and more on virtual sets from a simple, portable interface.

Epic Games

The update is interesting in the context of Apple's antitrust dispute with Epic Games over Fortnite commissions on the App Store. Apple largely won that fight, as an appeal panel found that the company wasn't a monopolist in the distribution of iOS apps. Back in 2020, Apple tried to suspend Epic Games' developer account, but that move was later blocked by a judge. 

Other new features introduced with the Unreal Engine 5.2 update include a "Procedural Content Generation framework" that lets you populate large scenes with the Unreal Engine assets of your choice, making it faster to build large worlds. And another feature called Substrate allows material creation with more control over the look and feel of objects used in in real-time applications like games or for linear content creation. Epic demonstrated that using its previous Rivian demo, giving a metallic-looking paint job to the R1T electric pickup.