Withings is today announcing yet another in its range of class-leading smart scales, Body Comp. The device is pitched as a “complete body assessment scale” which can look at the sort of facets of our bodies normally reserved for clinical settings. That includes weight, muscle mass, fat mass, water percentage, bone mass, BMI and visceral fat counts. You’ll also get information on your standing heart rate and your vascular health (based on PulseWave Velocity), as well as analyzing your nerve health. And, of course, it’s the first Withings product that will be sold to be compatible with Health+, the company’s other new announcement.

Health+ is Withings’ new subscription platform, since recurring revenue is now the one way that most hardware businesses make money these days. It promises to “unlock additional features in the Health Mate app,” offering insights on how to strive for a better body. These include six week habit-forming modules, all of which is contextualized with the data offered by your Withings devices. They will also be offered meal plans and suggested workouts to help them achieve their goals faster. (Health+ will set you back $79.95 after the first year of use, and is only compatible so far with this and any future Withings' products.)

Now, this is actually a different product to Body Scan, the scale that Withings announced back in January which came with its own electrode handle. That, much like other high-end body composition scales, asks you to hold the handle at waist height in order to better read your vital statistics. Armed with the data, it’ll tell you the fat and water ratios in your arms, legs and torso, as well as monitoring your nerve activity. That product hasn’t actually hit stores yet, but it’s already clear that Body Comp will offer the bulk of the same features with a little less fine grain data.

There is now a significant number of devices that have Withings and Body in the name and you’d be forgiven for struggling to keep them all straight in your head. The existing flagship is the Body Cardio, which has all of the current bells and whistles, including weight, BMI, body composition, heart rate and vascular age. Below that, the Body+ offers weight, BMI and body comp, while the vanilla Body just offers weight and BMI.

If there was ever a fundamental divide between Twitter’s leadership and its users, it was about the existence, or lack, of an edit button. The company has for most of its life been against the ability for users to amend tweets after they were published. That changes, more or less, from today, since Twitter has announced that it will indeed be rolling out an edit button to its users. As The New York Times reports, it marks the most fundamental shift in how the platform works since 2017, when it doubled the character limit of a message from 140 to 280 characters.

In a statement, Twitter said that it was hoping that the presence of an edit button would make the act of tweeting a little less stressful. Unfortunately, the button isn’t yet ready to roll out to the platform’s several hundred million users just yet, and is currently still in testing by employees. Later this month, access will be granted to Twitter Blue users, who pay $5 per month to remove in-feed ads and undo a tweet that you might want to change before it’s seen by everyone. The company added that the test will be localized to a single country, and will expand worldwide slowly so that the company can make sure the feature is being used as intended.

One of the reasons that Twitter resisted an edit button for so long was the risk of bad actors abusing the system. For instance, you could amend a tweet that was widely retweeted or embedded in other sites, changing the meaning for something its boosters did not intend. That’s why there will be guardrails put in place — like the fact that edits can only be made 30 minutes after the initial publication. And edits will be labelled as such to ensure people know you’ve been tweaking your text — with the revision history also available for everyone to view. Still, it's one way to at least spare some of your blushes when you send a Tweet that's got on3 or twoo annoyeeng typizos. 

The United Kingdom’s antitrust regulator is concerned that Microsoft’s blockbuster purchase of Activision Blizzard could create a monopoly in the nascent cloud gaming space. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which began investigating the deal back in July, says that it’s not yet reassured by the promises Microsoft has made to get the deal done. It feels that, once Activision is a part of Microsoft, the Xbox maker could use its “control over popular games like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft” to “harm rivals” by boxing them out of access to popular titles. Microsoft has already publicly committed not to hoard exclusives, (and said that Actiblizz's library isn't all that anyway) but sweet words haven’t appeased the officials.

In a statement, it said that it was giving Microsoft and Activision five days to submit proposals that would address its concerns. If those did not pass muster, however, then the office will open a lengthy “Phase 2” investigation involving an independent panel to scrutinize the deal in greater depth. That will likely delay any completion of the deal, which would then only be rubber-stamped if regulators were convinced that the deal would not cause a “substantial lessening of competition.” It’s likely that, whatever happens, Microsoft will need to commit to not using its growing clout to hurt other companies in the space by depriving them of key franchises.

Microsoft’s gaming chief Phil Spencer has already responded to the announcement, affirming the previous pledge not to pull Call of Duty from PlayStation, for instance. Spencer pointed to the cross-platform appeal of Minecraft, a title Microsoft purchased in 2014, as evidence of the company’s good faith. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick published an open letter to employees, saying that the company will “fully cooperate” with regulators, which are taking “appropriate” steps to ensure that there are no risks to competition.

If you ever want a reminder of how hard it is to run a financial institution, check out this unfortunate error made by Crypto.com. It accidentally refunded one of its customers around $7.2 million, rather than the $68 she was expecting. Even worse, the company didn’t discover the expensive snafu until nearly seven months after the transfer. Given the basic tenets of crypto-libertarianism and its philosophical resentment of institutions, you might have expected the site to just write-off the loss. But the platform has instead gone to the courts to get the cash back, forcing the woman to return it, with interest.

– Daniel Cooper

The biggest stories you might have missed

• Microsoft found a severe one-click exploit in TikTok’s Android app

• Sony and Tencent now own almost a third of ‘Elden Ring’ studio FromSoftware

• LG's OLED Flex is a flat panel and a curved display in one

• Samsung’s first QD-OLED gaming monitor arrives later this year

• Starlink will deploy satellite broadband on Royal Caribbean cruise liners

• Apple releases rare iOS 12 update to address security flaw on older iPhones and iPads

• Chinese tech giant NetEase is buying Quantic Dream as its first European game studio

'The Last of Us Part I' is a gorgeous, faithful, expensive remake

It’s the same game, but far better looking.

Naughty Dog

If there’s one sign The Last of Us is already in the pantheon of greatest games ever made, it’s the fact it’s already leapt across two console generations. The title is just nine years old, yet it’s already on its second remaster, this time a ground-up remake for the PlayStation 5. Our resident TLoU fan Nathan Ingraham got to play the new edition before launch, and says it’s the same game, spared from much of the tinkering that has plagued some remakes we could mention. Instead, developers have taken the original and dramatically improved the visuals, including the performance and facial animation to make the story hit harder than it did before.

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ASUS' Zenbook 17 Fold OLED laptop will start at $3,500

It’s an early adopter price for an early adopter product.

ASUS

ASUS’ Zenbook 17 Fold is an all-screen foldable tablet PC borne out of the company’s Project Precog prototype. It was announced at CES, all the way back in January, but it’s only now the company has announced a price for this groundbreaking machine. $3,500 is the starting price for one of these beasts when they roll out towards the end of the year. It’s early adopter money, but you wouldn’t expect anything less for a 17.3-inch laptop with a foldable OLED display, would you?

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The best gadgets under $50 for students

Save some cash in the back-to-school rush.

Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

Dr. Richard Carlson once told the world not to “sweat the small stuff,” a command for us to stop worrying about the minutiae of our lives. Sadly, our legion of product geniuses can’t help but obsess over the gadgets you can purchase for less than $50. So why not take advantage of their failings by picking up some sweet bargains during back-to-school season. If they’ve already spent the time sweating, it makes sense for you to take advantage of it, right?

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Snap confirms it's laying off around 1,300 employees

It’s also canceled almost all of its original series.

Snap has announced a savage round of job losses and project cancellations as part of a major cost-cutting drive. The company behind Snapchat will lay off 20 percent of its workforce, around 1,300 people, and cancel almost all of its original content projects. Standalone apps like Zenly and Voisey close, and development work on its lackluster, if cute, Pixy selfie drone will stop. Snap hopes it can save around $500 million as a result, although losing so many reasons to stick around might cause users to desert the platform as well.

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Meta is shutting down the standalone Facebook Gaming app

The Twitch competitor was popular, but not popular enough.

Facebook Gaming, the social giant’s attempt to gain a foothold in the live gaming space, is closing down. Two years after launch, the standalone app is being shuttered, but the functionality will remain inside the main app’s gaming tab. It’s thought Facebook snipped the app to cut costs ahead of the looming economic downturn, but the company opted not to share its rationale.

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What we bought: An NVIDIA RTX 3070, two years late

Was it worth the wait?

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

Engadget’s Igor Bonifacic has spent the better part of two years trying to snag NVIDIA’s drool-worthy graphics card, the RTX 3070. Cryptocurrency miners have held the graphics card market in their fist for years, and so it’s taken this long to find one available at an affordable price. He said it was worth the wait, especially now they can play games with the settings dialed up to 11 without breaking a sweat.

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Ring is today announcing Intercom, its twist on the video and audio entry systems found in many apartment blocks. It’s designed to replace the hardware that’s already wired in to these buildings, and will work with a number of existing audio intercom handsets already in place. But unlike those systems, users will be able to communicate with visitors via their phone, and can offer specific access rights to frequent visitors. Similarly, you can give a pass to your local Amazon driver who will be able to drop a parcel off at your building without you needing to be in.

Ring

I would assume that Intercom would be predominantly targeted at building owners rather than renters, but the company has said it's easy enough for anyone to install. More interesting is that Ring Intercom won't come to the US until 2023, and will instead make its debut in the UK and Germany, with shipping due to start on October 26th. That's mostly common-sense, since there's significantly more apartment blocks in Europe than in the US, and it'll hit Spain, France and Italy in early 2023 as well. The unit will be sold for £120, or as a bundle with some extra battery gear for £150, although you might find an introductory deal knocks that price down by some margin. Americans looking to add one of these to their own apartment, or building, are encouraged to register for updates on Ring’s website.

Earlier this month, Logitech said it was working on a gaming handheld to hook into your cloud gaming service of choice. Now, leaked images of the G Gaming Handheld have danced their way across the internet. Looking like a slimmer Steam Deck (or Switch), the image shows icons for Xbox, GeForce Now and Steam, as well as Chrome and YouTube. On one hand, it looks a lot like so many of those clip-on braces that pair with your existing smartphone, like the Kishi. On the other, if this offers an affordable way to play AAA titles on the road while preserving your smartphone’s battery life, Logitech could sell a bundle. (And while you wait for it to launch, you can always upgrade your mouse situation, as Logitech upgraded those, too.)

– Daniel Cooper

The biggest stories you might have missed

• Tom Hanks created a trivia game, and it's coming to Apple Arcade this Friday

• 8BitDo reveals wireless versions of its Xbox-style Ultimate Controller

• AMD's Ryzen 7000 desktop CPUs will start shipping on September 27th

• Sony's new premium 3.1-channel Dolby Atmos soundbar costs $700

• Elon Musk has a backup plan to kill his Twitter takeover

• Elon Musk is trying to stall his Twitter trial by a month

Sony has cut the PS5's weight after raising its price

The disc model now weighs the same as the digital model did at launch.

The PlayStation 5 was famously swole at launch, which was a problem for the company that made it (and those that deliver it). But the quiet program of corporate weight-shedding Sony has put the console on has started to bear fruit, with an updated model. The new digital version is 200 grams lighter than its predecessor, and the disc version has dropped 300 grams. That means the disc model weighs the same as the digital one did when the console made its debut. We shouldn’t expect a PS5 slim any time soon, but it gives us hope that Sony is working hard to bring one to reality.

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The best budget TVs and streaming gadgets for students

Get the best for your return to school.

Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

I get it – the easiest and most convenient thing to do when you’re in a dorm room is to watch TV on your phone. But let’s be honest, your eyes (and ears) deserve better, and there are enough decent, affordable options to improve your home entertainment time. Our Back to School buyer’s guide has a bunch of good TVs, streaming sticks and audio gear to do what you need, without breaking the bank.

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Twitter planned to build an OnlyFans clone, but CSAM issues reportedly derailed the plan

Employees said the company doesn’t do enough to tackle harmful content.

A lengthy report has detailed Twitter’s plans to build its own OnlyFans-style subscription content platform. The project hit the buffers, however, because the company couldn’t implement an effective-enough system to filter out CSAM and other non-consensual image sharing. Twitter insiders said its filtering platform is out of date, inefficient and not up to the task of keeping the platform safe for users at large. The company responded, saying the report is not reflective of where the platform is at right now, and it has stepped up efforts to tackle CSAM on its platform.

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The Sense75 is Drop's play for the premium mechanical keyboard market

It’s presented as an alternative to the Glorious GMMK Pro.

Drop

Don’t believe the haters who keep telling you to stop using them in the library – mechanical keyboards are cool. And Drop is launching its first premium unit, the Sense75. Looking very much like the Glorious GMMK Pro, the 75 is a 75 percent tenkeyless deck with Holy Panda X switches, DCX keycapa and a rotary dial. Be warned, while Drop normally aims for affordability, a pre-built one of these will set you back either $349 or $399, depending on the color you pick.

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Webb and Hubble telescopes join forces to capture multi-spectrum image of Phantom Galaxy

Two telescopes are better than one.

NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope

Look at this! Isn’t it magnificent? This is a new image of the Phantom Galaxy (M74), 32 million light years away from Earth. The image offers an unprecedented look at a spiral galaxy that first bewitched astronomers in 1780. What’s even cooler is the image is a composite, pulling data from both the brand-new James Webb and the positively ancient Hubble space telescopes. It’s a testament to the longevity of Hubble, the improved power of Webb and the value of friendship and teamwork.

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A blockbuster court case centering on who had access to a celebrity’s Instagram Stories will be the subject of a new documentary on Disney+. Wagatha Christie will tell the story of broadcaster Coleen Rooney, who is married to former Manchester United and England football superstar (and current DC United coach) Wayne Rooney. After stories about the Rooney’s life were leaked to the press, stories that were only apparently communicated via private Instagram Stories messages, Coleen opted to do some detective work. After a lengthy winnowing process, Rooney believed that the source of the leaks was Rebekah Vardy, the wife of Leicester and former England star Jamie Vardy.

The case, which has taken on a new and distinct character thanks to social media, was then prompted after Rooney publicly announced that Vardy was the source of the leaks. In a single tweet containing a screenshot essay, Rooney explained how she had narrowed down the options with a series of fake stories targeted at increasingly-small Instagram close friends groups. The disclosure prompted Vardy to sue Rooney for defamation, but Vardy managed to substantially weaken her own case after failing to produce data called for as part of the trial.

(Oh, for those not in the know: WAG is an abbreviation of “Wives and Girlfriends,” a derisory term used to denote the soccer player’s partners, often while playing for the national team. Agatha Christie is the author of a number of famous detective stories, including the Poirot and Miss Marple series. Don’t say the British don’t love a good pun every now and again.)

After months of innuendo, speculation and rumor, German car giant Audi has announced that it will join Formula One from the 2026 season. The VW-owned company says it will build a new hybrid engine for the competition at its facility in Neuburg. Audi said that technical changes made by the sport’s governing body, the FIA, to prevent cost overruns and improve sustainability prompted it to sign up. It’s hoped Audi will help push the sport to its ambitious goal of being climate neutral by 2030.

Broadly speaking, the FIA’s new engine specifications require a V6 engine designed to run on a more sustainable fuel blend. Paired with that will be a 400kW electric motor with an output of around 544 horsepower, making it almost as powerful as the V6 itself. Audi added that its project will be led by Adam Baker, who has previously served as the FIA’s Safety Director, and had stints with Cosworth (another F1 engine maker) and BMW.

Audi said it will announce which team it will work with “by the end of this year,” but most F1 fans feel it’s already a done deal. The longstanding rumor is that Audi will buy a majority stake in Swiss motorsport company Sauber, which currently races under the Alfa Romeo livery. As Planet F1 reports, Sauber has already been the subject of takeover talks this year and could benefit from a big auto giant’s backing.

Given the fact we’re still some years away from Audi’s first race, it’s not clear how any of this will impact the storylines on Drive To Survive, which I know is what most of you are worried about. Whatever happens, I’m sure Christian Horner will find a way to be face-punchingly smug about it.

It’s been a hot minute since Fitbit really showed off an updated wearable that wasn’t a slender fitness tracker. The Sense, Inspire 2 and Versa 3 all debuted in 2020, with only the Charge 5 and Luxe appearing between then and now. Today, however, the Google-owned company is sharing details about a trio of new devices: The Inspire 3, Versa 4 and Sense 2. As usual, Fitbit’s emphasis is on comfort and battery life, as well as some much-needed additions for life on the go.

It makes sense to talk about the Sense 2 and Versa 4 as one, since both are getting plenty of useful iterative updates. Both offer continuous heart rate monitoring paired with activity, stress and sleep tracking, boasting of more than six days worth of battery life. But these new models will also soon hook into Google Maps allowing you to see turn-by-turn directions on your wrist. The pair also get access to Google Wallet, and while it's not mentioned in the release, you might think that Fitbit Pay will be left on the wayside as a consequence. The Sense 2 also grabs a continuous electrodermal activity sensor, much like the one found on the Charge 5. Oh, and the pusher, which had been excised from the Versa 3, has returned for the 4.

Naturally, with wearable hardware all much of a muchness these days, Fitbit is hoping that it has the edge on its rivals on the software and services side. Premium subscribers with both devices can take a look at Sleep Profile, which uses 10 different metrics to identify how you sleep, and offer ways for you to improve your shut-eye. Similarly, a Stress Management Score will help you keep an eye on your tension levels while at work, telling you when you take a breather.

The Sense 2 and Versa 4 are both up for order right now, with the former setting you back $299.95 and the latter $229.95 — buyers can expect a six-month trial of Fitbit Premium thrown in for good measure — with deliveries expected to begin in the fall.

Fitbit

Meanwhile, the Inspire 3 tracker is the company’s latest entry-level device, with a slender-er design, 10 days of battery life and six months of Premium thrown in for good measure. As before, you shouldn’t expect many of the gee-whizz features found on Fitbit’s other devices, and you’ll lean pretty heavily on the companion app to log your vital statistics and check your vital signs. That’ll set you back $99.95, and will begin shipping at some point in September.

A group of Apple employees is pushing back against a looming deadline demanding they return to working in the office. The Financial Times has seen a petition, circulated by employee group Apple Together, requesting more flexibility around remote work. It’s in response to an edict that demanded workers return to working in the company’s Santa Clara Valley offices for at least three days a week starting September 5th, 2022.

It’s the latest in a series of attempts by Apple to return to the status quo ante after COVID-19 forced it to adopt home working. Tim Cook has always emphasized the important nature of in-person collaboration as fundamental to Apple’s business and success. Apple Together, however, says that the company’s culture of secrecy makes chance moments of inspiration impossible, and that workers are happier and more productive with a more flexible arrangement.

The announcement of a new working model has already seen a tweak after pushback — the original plan was to enforce office working on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Now, the order is for Tuesday and Thursday, with the third office to be set by both the employee and their manager. Even so, the rigidity of the announcement has already seen Apple’s head of machine learning, Ian Goodfellow, quit the company (to go to Google) in search of more flexible work.

Apple Together has become a powerful voice inside a company that has previously been famed for its culture of secrecy. Revelations published earlier this year say that the company retaliated against women who reported incidents of misconduct, including sexual assault. Ashley Gjøvik was fired after attempting to blow the whistle about unsafe working conditions at an office in Sunnyvale. The company also stands accused of union busting after its retail employees at several locations across the US started discussing forming a union.