ArduinoMania

A few big names in the smart home space, iRobot and Shark in particular, have jumped on the robot-vacuum-and-mop bandwagon as of late. The two companies recently came out with their first 2-in-1 devices, and now you can pick up Shark's at its best price yet. The Shark AI Ultra robot vacuum and mop is 36 percent off at Amazon right now, bringing it down to $450, which is less than it was during the holiday shopping season last year. If you're an iRobot fan, the Combo j7+ is also on sale, but it's much more expensive at $899.

It's important to note that we at Engadget have not had the chance to test Shark's new machine yet, but we have had great experiences with all of the Shark robo-vacs we've tried to this point. Shark devices make appearances in both of our robot vacuum guides, with the standard AI Ultra vacuum taking one of the top spots on our list of overall favorites. The new 2-in-1 device seems to take a lot of notes from the standard model: you're getting a disk-like robot vacuum along with a bagless, self-emptying base into which the machine will dump the contents of its dustbin after every job.

The big difference here is the included water reservoir and the washable, reusable mopping pads that come with the 2-in-1 machine. It'll employ those when cleaning hardwood floors using a sonic mopping technique that supposedly scrubs floors up to 100 times per minute. If you have a mix of carpet, hardwood, tile and other flooring in your home, a 2-in-1 device like Shark's will make it more convenient to clean all of those surfaces in one go.

In addition to that new feature, this Shark robot vacuum has improved suction power, flexible silicon "fins" on its underside that help pick up more dirt and debris, obstacle avoidance and smart home mapping. Like most other robot vacuums, you can set cleaning schedules within Shark's companion app, which we think will be easy to use for both the tech-savvy and newbies alike. And we especially like that its base is bagless — that means you don't have to buy proprietary trash bags to fill it with like you do with some competitors.

Shark's device joins a number of other robo-vacs on sale right now. As we mentioned previously, iRobot's Combo j7+ is $200 off right now, plus you can get the Roomba s9+ for $200 off as well or the much more affordable Roomba 694 for only $179.

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

Apple discontinued its original HomePod smart speaker in 2021, choosing instead to focus on the cheaper mini version of the device. Today, the company has resurrected the bigger unit with several notable upgrades along the way, including upgraded audio, an S7 chip, more smart home abilities and a lower price. The overall design, however, is mostly unchanged from the first speaker that debuted in 2018.

Developing...

The "official" start of grilling season may be a few months away, but Weber is unveiling its 2023 lineup with plenty of time to spare. Today, the company revealed a trio of new models covering smart pellet grills, griddles and a compact electric unit. Weber also has new options when it comes to accessories it hopes will help you expand the utility of a grill you may already own.

First, the company has a new version of its SmokeFire smart pellet grill. Dubbed the Sear+, this model carries all of the features of last year's Stealth edition. That includes an all-black exterior with interior lighting. The key difference here is the Sear+ is better equipped for — you guessed it — searing. A two-sided porcelain enamel searing grate gives you the ability to cook both larger cuts and more delicate items. Also inside, a removable, folding top cooking grate adds more capacity. When you don't need it, Weber has added grate hooks for storage outside. There's also an additional side shelf on the left which should give you more room to prep foods before they go on the grill.

Of course, the versatility that's been constant since the SmokeFire line was introduced in 2020 is still here. Like most pellet grills, these can handle low-and-slow barbecue, high-heat searing and everything in between with a temperature range of 200-600 degrees Fahrenheit. However, the key piece of Weber's pellet grills is its Connect smart cooking tech. The system works with an app on your phone to give you step-by-step guidance for a massive library of recipes. It will even tell you when to wrap a pork butt or flip your steaks. The tech also calculates estimated completion times on top giving you the ability to monitor food and grill temps from afar. You can even adjust the cooking temperature from your couch if needed.

The SmokeFire Sear+ will be available in 24- and 36-inch sizes (ELX4 and ELX6 model names) from Weber and other retailers this spring for $1,399 and $1,599 respectively. 

Weber

When it comes to the Weber Connect smart cooking tech, the company is planning a big overhaul for 2023. In addition to more content and optimization for the app, the company plans to add recipes for flat top or griddle cooking. That's because Weber is debuting griddle inserts for its Genesis and Spirit gas grills ($199, $249 and $299), some of which have Weber Connect built in. Existing Connect programs will still work even if you're using the flat top, but more fine-tuned cook profiles are coming. The company also revealed a standalone gas griddle that comes in 3- and 4-burner options (28- and 36-inch cooking surfaces) starting at $449. Weber Connect doesn't come on that unit though, but you can use the standalone Smart Grilling Hub if you're looking for some guidance or remote monitoring. Both the griddle insert and the new Weber Griddle will be available this spring. 

The third piece of news from Weber to begin 2023 is a compact electric grill it calls Lumin. Designed to be used in places like porches and balconies where open flames aren't allowed, this model can hit temperatures of over 600 degrees Fahrenheit. Weber says Lumin can be ready for high-heat searing in 15 minutes. Grill controls are simplified to four modes — grill, smoke, steam and warm — with accessories available to help with each cooking method. Unlike a lot of electric grills, Weber has left the heating element exposed, so when juices drip they will help flavor your food like they would on a charcoal or gas grill. 

The Weber Lumin is available today in six color options and in two sizes. The "compact" model is $429 for black and $459 for additional colors while the "full-size" version is $479 in black and $519 in other hues.

Weber

Getty Images announced it’s suing Stability AI, makers of the AI art tool Stable Diffusion, over alleged copyright violations. "It is Getty Images’ position that Stability AI unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright and the associated metadata owned or represented by Getty Images absent a license to benefit Stability AI’s commercial interests and to the detriment of the content creators," the company wrote in a press statement released Tuesday. The lawsuit will reportedly include copyright and site TOS violations, like web scraping. The company wants to establish a favorable precedent, rather than chase monetary damages.

Text-to-image generation tools, like Stable Diffusion and Dall-E, are trained to do what they do using massive databases of annotated images, pulling together thousands of commonalities. That’s why Getty’s huge stable of images is so compelling. An independent study last August concluded that a notable portion of Stable Diffusion's data was likely pulled directly from the Getty Images site. The art tool had a tendency to recreate the Getty watermark in its generated images. I think that’s what they call evidence.

– Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

• What happens when smart bulbs meet dumb software?

• Canon EOS R6 II review: An excellent hybrid camera with few flaws

• Amazon has a big sale on TP-Link routers and smart home gadgets

• 'The Last of Us' is HBO's third largest debut of the streaming era

• What we bought: Topre’s Realforce keyboard is totally impractical, but I can’t go back

• Microsoft could lay off as many as 11,000 employees this week

• The best cheap Windows laptops for 2023

Apple's M2 Pro and M2 Max chips finally arrive for MacBook Pro and Mac mini

Sometimes the rumors are right.

Apple has unveiled its new M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, which will arrive very soon in new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini computers. The new models will be up to 40 percent faster and should also offer superior battery life. The new entry-level processor is the M2 Pro, which has 10- or 12-core CPUs, including eight high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, boosting performance by up to 20 percent over the 10-core M1 Pro CPU. The new MacBook Pro models are now available to pre-order at Apple and other retailers, starting at $1,999 for the MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and $2,499 for the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro. The new Mac mini starts at $599, with the M2 chip or $1,299 with the M2 Pro. All are available to pre-order now, with shipping to start on January 24th.

Continue reading.

Samsung’s new 200-megapixel camera will probably appear in the Galaxy S23 Ultra

Better low-light performance incoming.

Samsung is continuing its "more pixels is better" mantra with the launch of its latest 200-megapixel (MP) sensor. The ISOCELL HP2 is a relatively large (for a smartphone) Type 1/1.3 sensor (around 12mm diagonally). The HP2 uses something Samsung calls Dual Vertical Transfer Gate (D-VTG) technology. This essentially doubles the number of electrons from each photodiode, "boosting the pixel's full-well capacity by more than 33 percent," the company wrote. That means a pixel can hold more charge before saturating, reducing overexposure. Last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra "only" had a 108MP sensor, but rumors suggest the S23 Ultra will have a 200MP sensor – and the HP2 fits the bill. Samsung is set to reveal the Galaxy S23 series in just two weeks, on February 1st.

Continue reading.

Watch the latest ‘The Mandalorian’ season three trailer

It’s all about redemption.

Disney

Disney+ released a new trailer for The Mandalorian during the NFL Wild Card Game on ESPN and ABC. It shows Pedro Pascal's character, Din Djarin, and Grogu reunited on their next adventure. Not that we have long to wait – season three will be streaming on Disney+ starting March 1st.

Continue reading.

Twitter admits it’s breaking third-party apps, cites ‘long-standing API rules’

It didn't explain which rules developers had violated.

Several days after Twitter abruptly cut several third-party apps off from its API, the company has quietly acknowledged the move. “Twitter is enforcing its long-standing API rules,” the company tweeted from its developer account. “That may result in some apps not working.” However, the company offered no explanation which “long-standing API rules” developers of apps like Twitterrific and Tweetbot were violating. It also doesn’t address why some smaller third-party Twitter apps are still up and running. Some have speculated that Twitter made the decision because third-party clients don’t show ads and may be perceived as siphoning off already declining ad revenue from the company.

Continue reading.

Twitter is now offering a yearly discount on its Blue subscription service, according to a new support page spotted by The Verge. Web users can now sign up for $84 per year ($7 per month) and save a buck over the monthly $8 price. Similar discounts are available in other countries that offer Twitter Blue, including the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. 

Until now, Twitter Blue users only had the option of an $8 per month subscription via the web, or $11 month on iOS (passing Apple's 30 percent fee onto the user). However, iOS users can still sign up on the web to save the extra $3. In that case, the new yearly subscription would save them 36 percent compared to signing up directly on iOS. 

A Twitter Blue subscription offers a number of perks, including a blue "verified" checkmark, higher ranking replies, 60-minute video uploads and more. Users can also undo and edit tweets, customize app icons, themes and navigations, bookmark tweets and more. You'll need a phone number to sign up, and Twitter is supposed to verify your account to assure it's not fraudulent or fake — something it failed at recently. 

The Elon Musk-owned social media network seems to need as many subscriptions as possible. According to a recent report on The Information, more than 500 of Twitter's advertisers have paused spending on the site, and daily revenue on January 17th was down 40 percent compared to last year. 

In the first quarter of 2022 before Musk's acquisition was finalized, Twitter reported sales of $1.2 billion, with $1.1 billion of that in advertising, and subscriptions (plus other revenue) making up the rest. 

If you visit any of CNET's AI-written articles, you'll now see an editor's note at the top that says: "We are currently reviewing this story for accuracy. If we find errors, we will update and issue corrections." The publication has added the note after being notified of major errors in at least one of the machine-written financial explainers it had published. 

If you'll recall, CNET editor-in-chief Connie Guglielmo recently admitted that the publication had put out around 75 articles about basic financial topics since November last year. Guglielmo said the website decided to do an experiment to see if AI can truly be used in newsrooms and other information-based services in the coming months and years. Based on Futurism's report, it looks like the answer is: Sure, but the pieces it generates need to thoroughly fact-checked by a human editor. 

Futurism combed through one of the articles Guglielmo highlighted in the post, namely the piece entitled "What Is Compound Interest?", and found a handful of serious errors. While the article has since been corrected, the original version said that "you'll earn $10,300 at the end of the first year" — instead of just $300 — if you deposit $10,000 into an account that earns 3 percent interest compounding annually. The AI also made errors in explaining loan interest rate payments and certificates of deposit or CDs. 

You'll find a huge difference in quality when comparing CNET's articles with machine-written pieces in previous years, which read more like a bunch of facts thrown together rather than coherent stories. As Futurism notes, the errors it found highlight the biggest issue with the current generation of AI text generators: They may be capable of responding in a human-like manner, but they still struggle with sifting out inaccuracies. 

"Models like ChatGPT have a notorious tendency to spew biased, harmful, and factually incorrect content," MIT's Tech Review wrote in a piece examining how Microsoft could use OpenAI's ChatGPT tech with Bing. "They are great at generating slick language that reads as if a human wrote it. But they have no real understanding of what they are generating, and they state both facts and falsehoods with the same high level of confidence." That said, OpenAI recently rolled out an update to ChatGPT meant to "improve accuracy and factuality." 

As for CNET, a spokesperson told Futurism in a statement: "We are actively reviewing all our AI-assisted pieces to make sure no further inaccuracies made it through the editing process, as humans make mistakes, too. We will continue to issue any necessary corrections according to CNET's correction policy."

TikTok is expanding its use of labels for state-run media accounts, the company announced. The app is now bringing the tags, which identify “accounts run by organizations whose editorial output or decision-making process is subject to control or influence by a government,” to dozens of markets.

The company is relatively late to adopt such labels compared with most of its counterparts. YouTube added similar labels in 2018, while Meta and Twitter adopted them in 2020. TikTok only began labeling state-run media accounts last March, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But the labels, which the company described as a “pilot,” only applied to accounts from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

Now, TikTok says it has formalized its policy and “will begin applying our state-controlled media label in a phased approach, starting immediately with over 40 markets across multiple regions.” And while the company’s announcement doesn’t name specific countries, a TikTok spokesperson confirmed the labels will appear on accounts run by Chinese state media outlets.

TikTok

That’s notable as TikTok has long been viewed with suspicion by lawmakers and government officials over concerns about the company’s perceived ties to the Chinese government. Though TikTok has long pushed back on claims that its service could be a national security threat, the issue has proved to be a rare source of bipartisan agreement, and the app has recently been banned on federal government devices and some college campuses. Congress has also introduced bills for more sweeping bans, though their future is uncertain.

But by finally expanding its state-run media labels, TikTok can now claim it’s treating accounts affiliated with Chinese government entities the same as other state-controlled media organizations. Of course, the labels alone are unlikely to dispel critics’ suspicions of the company. TikTok has partnered with Oracle to review its recommendation and content moderation systems. Oracle has also partnered with the company on a broader effort, known as Project Texas, to restrict employees’ access to US user data.

Logitech has unveiled a colorful, budget-oriented line of 1080p webcams, the $70 (£75) Brio 300 series. The aim is to help users struggling with "poor lighting conditions, unflattering camera angles and low-quality sound," the company said. 

To that end, the Brio 300 for consumers and business-oriented Brio 305 models feature high dynamic contrast, auto light correction (via the company's RightLight 2 tech) and a digital microphone with noise reduction. It also comes with a privacy shutter that rotates around to block the lens. It supports 1080p at up to 30 fps and 720p at 60 fps and connects to any USB-C port (you'll need to buy an adapter for USB-A). Logitech promises Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet certification. 

The Brio 300 is priced the same as Logitech's C920s Pro HD webcam, but has a funkier cone-shaped design and comes in Rose, Off-White or Graphite colors. Compared to the $130 Brio 500, it's missing the stereo microphones, has a narrower field of view (70 versus 90 degrees) and no auto-framing. But it's also nearly half the price — the Brio 300 is now available for $70 at Logitech's store. 

• Read more about Why Global Semiconductor Revenue Witnessed a Growth of Only 1.1% in 2022; Explains Gartner
• Log in or register to post comments

• Read more about DIY Motorized Solder Paste Dispenser for Automatic Solder Paste Application
• Log in or register to post comments