Framework launched last year with the promise of building laptops that you could upgrade yourself with little more than a screwdriver and some patience. Now, 12 months after making its debut, the company is shipping out its first round of upgrade kits to keep those machines up to date. It’s a good start, as the outfit makes good on its pledges to make a modular, repairable machine and to bring existing users along with any future tweaks to the system. After almost breezily swapping out a first-generation mainboard for its replacement, I can say that we’re getting close to a brand new era for computing.

In order to show off how easy it is to upgrade, Framework sent over its 2021-era model, which was powered by an 11th generation Intel Core chip. In the package, but in a separate box, was a brand new 12th generation (Alder Lake) Intel Core chip attached to a mainboard. The idea, put simply, is that you can pull out the mainboard which holds the CPU and I/O, while preserving pretty much everything else. The existing RAM, SSD, WiFi card, battery, audio gear, screen et cetera, can all be reused until they break or otherwise need upgrading as well.

Upgrading or replacing any component inside Framework’s chassis requires you to use a Torx T5 screwdriver (included in the box). Naturally, replacing the mainboard is the most involved upgrade you can make since it requires you to pull apart everything else to gain access to it. Thankfully, Framework produces iFixit-style guides for you to follow, and every component is either color-coded or labeled. And there are QR codes on each unit which link to tutorial videos and support pages to help you get where you need to go.

The company announced earlier this year that it would offer a trio of new mainboard options catering for different budgets. $499 gets you a 12th generation i5-1240P, while $699 gets you an i7-1260P. If you are eager to live on the cutting edge at all times, and have the cash to spare, you can opt for the Core i7-1280P for $1,049. That’s steep, but the argument goes that buying a whole new laptop would cost you more. That said, I don’t expect users to go mad for these annual upgrades, but more likely look for a new mainboard every two or three years to keep up to date.

As for the upgrade process, I have, not necessarily a gripe, but a couple of things that are worth flagging. If you are coming to this as a novice, you’re going to take far longer than the 15 minutes promised in the how-to guide. With practice, you’ll get faster, but I think these guides need to be a teensy bit friendlier to the unenlightened amateur. Similarly, I’m not a big fan of ZIF connectors, which require you to gently slide in a ribbon cable no bigger than your fingernail into the necessary fixing. Especially since they’re small, and I’d be worried that one mis-timed sneeze would wind up costing you $699 of your own money.

Daniel Cooper

At the same time, Framework is launching two other products that show its commitment to listening to its users and making sure that OG purchasers aren’t left behind. The first is that the company is releasing its first new expansion card, which is a 2.5-gigabit Ethernet adapter. This is, in a word, very cool, ditching the standard all-metal body for a transparent plastic shell that makes it look like one of those special edition Game Boys from the ‘90s. The cyberpunk aesthetic also helps to cover the fact that, in order to accommodate the Ethernet port itself, it’s significantly larger than the rest of the expansion cards – it sticks out the side of your laptop, but in a cool way.

That came in pretty handy during my installation, since a missing WiFi driver (thanks, Microsoft) meant I couldn’t connect to the internet after my initial upgrade. (This has since been resolved, but one of the pitfalls of testing hardware long before it reaches the public). Being able to slam in an Ethernet port and hook it up to my network to resolve the issue was a godsend. Not to mention that, like all of the spare expansion cards the company offers, it’s another step toward making the laptop something more like a Swiss Army knife.

And then there’s the top cover. Now, I didn’t have many complaints about the amount of flex in the machine when it launched last year. But Framework’s engineers weren’t happy, and so redesigned the display enclosure to be CNC-milled from a solid block of aluminum. It adds some extra rigidity to the frame, and is available as standard on all new Framework laptops sold going forward, as well as being bundled in the mainboard replacement kits. But, again, rather than leave existing customers who don’t want a new CPU on the fence, you can also buy a standalone top cover for $89, and if the company can keep with this commitment of always bringing existing buyers along, then it’s going to earn a devoted, and loving fanbase.

Finally, with the upgrade finished, there’s the small matter of what users will do with the now discarded mainboard. Framework is offering users open-source plans to build desktop-style enclosures for the boards to encourage re-use, and hobbyists are already using them as the basis of their own super-cool modding projects. GitHub user Penk, for instance, has built this retro Mainboard Terminal that looks like it’s fallen out the back of a copy of Fallout. If I didn’t have to send all of this back, and I had any sort of skill at building things, I’m fairly sure I’d be trying to build something super-cool myself.

And perhaps that’s the other gift that Framework can keep giving — the notion that users should feel empowered to get their hands dirty after being told that their machines have been off limits for so long.

Have you ever wanted to see your own face on the body of a Power Ranger or a Ghostbuster? Thanks to an ingenious partnership between Hasbro and 3D-printing specialists Formlabs, now you can. The Hasbro Selfie Series will let would-be heroes take a scan of their face with their phone and have a custom-made, look-a-like action figure delivered at some point afterward. In this initial blast, you can opt to become an X-Wing Pilot, Ghostbuster, Power Ranger or Snake Eyes from GI Joe, amongst others.

It’s part of Formlabs’ growing project to turn 3D printing into a technological cul-de-sac into a viable way of making customized, mass-market products. The company has already teamed up with Sennheiser to make 3D-printed earbuds, and has branched out into making jewelry moulds, ventilator parts and false teeth. It also teamed up with Gillette to create customized razor handles which were manufactured using Formlabs’ industrial printers. 

Hasbro's Brian Chapman explained that, a few years ago, the company ran a competition at a comic-con to make custom action figures for five winners. They found the interest in the promo was so enormous that the company has always had an eye on developments in the 3D printing market. 

The Hasbro Selfie Series launches today, with figures priced at $60, plus taxes. In order to start, you'll need to download Hasbro Pulse, the company's dedicated mobile app, and then make sure your face is ready to be immortalized. Once scanned, you can check your face and hair looks good, and then sit back and wait for the six-inch "collector-grade" figure to arrive, with shipping expected to begin in the Fall. Unfortunately, for now, the offering is only available to customers in the US, but hopefully over time, we'll see this make its way across the world. 

The current head of the United States Secret Service, James Murray (pictured), will leave his role to head up security at Snap. Murray, who joined the Secret Service in 1995 and assumed the mantle of director in April 2019, will step down on July 30th. The Washington Post reports that Murray was looking to retire from public service for some time, and that his departure is unrelated to any recent scandals. The Verge reports that Murray will start at Snapchat on August 1st, working on employee protection and acting as a liaison with law enforcement when necessary.

The Secret Service has come under fresh scrutiny in recent years after a number of high-profile incidents dulled some of its reputation. This includes a series of security breaches during President Obama’s tenure, agents soliciting sex workers while on duty. Politico reports that Murray’s decision to allow service agent Anthony Ornato to take a role as White House political advisor to the previous administration was problematic for a body that is meant to be above politics.

A UFO-obsessed Republican Congressman has introduced an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act to offer new protection for UFO whistleblowers. Rep. Mike Gallagher has pushed for a new rule to establish a process for receiving reports concerning Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP). It’s hoped that, with these in place, soldiers and contractors will feel more comfortable sharing details of unexplained phenomena they see on the battlefield.

The Drive suggests that this could be a way of resolving the ever-present rumors that the government has evidence of extra-terrestrial life. Those who come forward should feel comfortable that they will not be breaking secrets laws, and will be protected from reprisals. There are some on the UFO speaker circuit, for instance, who say they have proof of alien life but can’t reveal it for fear of imprisonment.

The notion that the US has had secret dealings with alien life is something of a hobby-horse for Gallagher. Back in May, Politico reported that Gallagher used a House Intelligence Committee meeting to needle Pentagon officials about a glowing orb floating over Montana that briefly shut down a nuclear weapons facility in 1967. That story apparently comes from the book Unidentified: The UFO Phenomenon, from former USAF airman Robert Salas. At the time, Pentagon officials denied that there was any secret trove of evidence concerning alien life.

In 2020, the Pentagon released a series of videos that it had received concerning UAPs, showing pilots capturing something moving across their view. But officials added that there was nothing more to share, and that it has not been able to prove to anyone's satisfaction that the events featured are the result of alien incursion. 

The folks in charge of some of the biggest gaming events in the US will now be running the biggest one of them all. ReedPop, organizers of the various PAX events, as well as New York Comic Con and Star Wars Celebration, has been tapped to produce next year’s E3. In a statement, the Electronic Software Association said that it was looking for its long-awaited return to the LA Convention Center in the second week of June 2023.

The ESA had already pledged that E3 would return as a hybrid event next year, after COVID-19 disrupted plans for the last two years. ReedPop may also have to address questions of how best to revitalize an event, so famous as the gaming industry’s major showcase, whose influence may now be on the wane. After all, Sony and Nintendo have both watered-down their involvement over the years, preferring to launch product through their own channels.

When it debuted back in 2019, Hydrow’s creators said that they were looking to build the Peloton of smart rowing machines. Now, four years later, the company is unveiling its second-generation ergometer, Hydrow Wave, with a lower price and a smaller footprint. What hasn't changed, however, is the computer controlled resistance that's designed to make your rowing feel as close to being in the water as possible. 

The first and most obvious difference is the size, since Wave is about 30 percent smaller than its predecessor. In order to shrink the hardware, the Hydrow’s 22-inch screen has been slimmed down to a 16-inch HD fixed position display. Hydrow has also responded to feedback that the first model was too big to store in a small apartment by enabling this model to be wall-mounted. Granted, you’ll need to invest in a Vertical Anchor kit, but the company says the unit will occupy a 27-inch by 30-inch space when stored. 

The other benefit of all this size-reduction, is that the unit can now be shipped via UPS rather than with a dedicated delivery service. That might be one of the factors that's helped shave some weight from the price, which is significantly cheaper than the first-generation Hydrow. Whereas the first model was an eye-watering $2,495, its replacement is an easier-to-swallow $1,495. 

The following article contains really significant spoilers for ‘A Quality of Mercy.’

We’re living in the age of the prequel, with studios exploiting every scrap of existing material where there’s an audience already in place to enjoy it. But the low-hanging fruit and easy cash a prequel promises severely limits the storytelling opportunities for those properties. Obi-Wan Kenobi can’t die (or do anything of consequence) during his own prestige miniseries since his fate was preordained in 1977. Ewan McGregor has to age into Sir Alec Guinness and die at Darth Vader’s hand, and that’s that. Sure, there are some things creative teams can play fast and loose with, but the big things – the ones that permeate the culture at large – are set in stone.

Ever since Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was announced, it was blighted by this same hard stop, one dictated back in November 1966. Movies aside, until 2018, Christopher Pike was little more than a pub trivia answer to the question “Who was the first captain of the Enterprise?” (It’ll provoke an argument between the folks who just about remember Jeffrey Hunter was there before William Shatner, while the folks who know Robert April was first sit smugly on the sidelines.) But Pike’s fate wasn’t necessarily immutable until the second season of Discovery reaffirmed that he was going to get his radiation dose. But that didn’t matter until the fans, production team and executives found that they liked Anson Mount, and could easily watch a whole series of pre-Kirk adventures with him on the Enterprise.

I wouldn’t have been surprised if the creative team looked for a way to prolong the series beyond its narrative end point. The show has already dangled a few ways that Pike could survive the incident, and made it clear that there are still seven years left to go. Seven years being the old-fashioned point where a TV show could make it in syndication, and the duration that all three Silver Age Trek series reached. Strange New Worlds could just as easily slow its timeline down and spend five, seven, ten or seventeen seasons filling the next six years of Pike’s life or find a way to remove such an arbitrary deadline.

And yet, the show’s season finale “A Quality of Mercy” decides to take advantage of the limits imposed upon it, making it clear to both Pike, and us, that there are no get outs. We begin at a base on the edge of the Romulan neutral zone, where the son of Commander Hansen will, when he grows up, be one of the cadets who dies in the radiation leak. Pike decides that it’s only logical to dissuade the kid from joining Starfleet and, therefore, save his life, but as he’s writing a letter to the boy to warn him of his fate, an older Pike appears in his quarters. And we know he’s older, because he’s wearing one of Robert Fletcher’s gorgeous 2278-era Starfleet uniforms, albeit restyled to suit the nu-Trek era.

Sadly, Admiral Pike isn’t here to congratulate his younger self on a job well done, but warn him of the consequences of futzing with time. Thanks to a Klingon Time Crystal from Boreth, Pike gets All Good Things-ed into his own future, six months after the radiation leak. If your fan antennae started tingling at the date, it’s because Pike is running the Enterprise in 2266, during the first season of classic Star Trek. In fact, it’s worse than that, because he’s been thrust straight into the episode of “Balance of Terror”, except he has to win the way his way instead of Kirk’s. As Pike says, the only way to discover why this future is terrible, is to live it.

(“Balance of Terror” is widely regarded to be one of the top three best episodes from the classic series. It’s the one where the Enterprise plays a tense game of cat-and-mouse with a new Romulan warbird equipped with a cloaking device and a powerful weapon capable of shredding starships in one shot.)

Now, if there’s one thing this episode does better than, well, most of nu-Trek, it’s the fact that all of the characters make smart choices. Pike, thrown into the future, instantly confides in Spock and when he’s met with resistance, immediately recommends a mind-meld. Caught up to speed, Spock becomes Pike’s co-confidant in the altered future, helping him to work out what exactly he needs to do here.

Pike’s survival has caused plenty of things to change in the timeline: James Kirk is the captain of the USS Farragut, which has survived in this version of the future. And, mercifully, the ship is in the vicinity, meaning that Kirk and Pike get to work together to solve the problem of the rogue Romulan Warbird with its devastating new weapon. Meanwhile, the beats from “Balance of Terror” get replayed – with Ortegas replacing Lt. Stiles as the on-bridge racist with angry eyes pointed at Spock.

Understandably, given the conflicts between Pike’s folksy diplomacy and Kirk’s more action-y approach, nobody wins. The Romulans get a signal out to the fleet, who realize that the Federation is weak enough to wage total war upon. In many ways, this episode serves up its own indictment of Pike, showing that his don’t-shoot-first approach has a limit. (And it also puts some clearer water between Pike and Kirk, since one was the replacement for the other back in the ‘60s.) Naturally, the episode ends with Pike opting to return to his own time and understand that he can’t simply back out of his preordained fate.

This is the second episode of Strange New Worlds co-written by the polarizing Akiva Goldsman, and many of his hallmarks are on full show here. There’s the misplaced reverence for franchise iconography, Great Man Of History mythologizing (this time with Spock) and a face off between two copy-and-paste CGI space fleets. Even so, given the risk of what this episode could have been, especially threading a new narrative through one of the sacred texts of the original series, this worked pretty well. (Given Goldsman’s previous Trek work, I’m giving all of the credit to showrunner and co-writer Henry Alonso Myers here.)

I can’t really give much comment on Paul Wesley’s performance as Kirk here, since he’s handed the most poisoned of chalices. William Shatner, even at his worst, never played Kirk as big as the stereotype has become, and Chris Pine’s performance dialed down Kirk’s bookish, warrior-poet side. Go too far on either side and it’ll become an impression, especially since he’s only got around 10 minutes of screentime in the whole episode. That’s why he essentially plays Kirk as someone who is both stalwart but also endlessly looking for a third option, emphasizing his inventiveness.

The episode ends with a twist – somehow, Number One’s past has been revealed (like when she just told everyone who would listen in "Ghosts of Illyria"), and she’s arrested by Starfleet. Pike nearly breaks a security guard’s hand preventing the arrest but is talked down by Una on the pad before he declares that things aren’t over. I’ll be very curious to see how this particular storyline gets resolved, especially considering my perpetual wondering about Rebecca Romijn’s absence from the show. The fact that Paul Wesley was tipped to recur in season two might suggest Kirk’s coming on board as her replacement, but that feels a bit too excessive in its fan service. 

Fundamentally, however, Strange New Worlds wraps up its first season with something that’s better than it had any right to be. As I wrote back at the beginning, the first five episodes all have something good going on, but often trip over their own shoelaces. Ever since “Spock Amok”, however, the show has started to find its feet, with less awkward dialogue, a more relaxed groove and the courage to go for high camp and comedy just as regularly as it does high drama. Every episode in the back half of the first season has been better than its immediate predecessor, even if there’s some very obvious kinks that still need to be worked out. Whisper it, friends, but, Strange New Worlds might actually be good?

A massive raft of renders, purporting to show off Samsung’s Galaxy Watch5 have made their way to the desk of 91Mobiles. The site reports that we’ll see two models, apparently confirming a higher-end Pro model that will top the range. That unit, codenamed Project X, will come in black or gray titanium and get a single case option, but users can opt for a version with, or without, LTE.

The vanilla Watch5, meanwhile, will supplant the Watch4 as the more fitness-focused device in the lineup. Much like it’s predecessor, you’ll apparently get a choice of two case sizes and the option of an LTE modem, as well as a far broader variety of colors to choose from. Both units are expected to run a skinned version of wearOS 3.5, although there’s no word on if there’s any device-specific features coming at this early stage.

The rumors are pointing to these being unveiled at Samsung’s now-customary summer Unpacked event, which is expected to take place in early August. Between then and now, we can hope for a few more details about these watches filtering out of Samsung’s corporate shield. And for anything else about the range of flagship devices expected to drop at the event, as well.

After it spun out from Huawei, Honor wanted to make a splash with its first flagship, the Magic3 Pro. One of the biggest features the company boasted about was the camera, saying it was good enough to shoot a proper movie with. Armed with one, we’d all be turned into miniature Tom Cruises, shooting TikToks as if they were destined for the multiplex. Unfortunately, the phone never left its native China, but Honor is using the same pitch for its successor, the Magic4 Pro, which has arrived in Europe.

Certainly, Honor distinguished itself with the spec list, which reads like the company threw the kitchen sink, then the kitchen, then the dining room at the handset. The Pro model has a 50-megapixel primary camera paired with a second 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera with a 122 degree field of view. On top of that, there’s a 64-megapixel telephoto with 100x digital zoom and an 8x8 Direct Time of Flight sensor, giving it whip-fast focusing.

The “IMAX-enhanced” phone’s cinematic credentials go further: Honor enlisted the help of a professional colorist to devise specific hue palettes for video. Bryan McMahan created a series of Look Up Tables (LUTs) for the phone which act like an Instagram filter for your video. These range from a Sunny mode that makes your footage look like it was shot at the height of summer, and a Gloomy mode which makes everything look like it’s been through a bleach-pass. One of my favorites was Focus, which dials down all the colors except for skin tone, at least for my caucasian limbs, making everything look like an ‘80s music video.

But the phone’s real point of interest is its claimed ability to shoot in Log, which is the standard that most Hollywood movies are shot in. Now, technically, it’s a custom format – MagicLog – which Honor designed to work with mobile devices, but the point remains the same. Log is short for Logarithmic, and it’s a way of filming something that preserves as much of the dynamic range and tone as possible. It’ll preserve scenes in high contrast, as well as shadows, highlights and whites that a conventional digital camera might try to smooth out or just straight-up fail to capture properly.

Unfortunately, it has not been plain sailing by any stretch of the imagination – some of the takes I shot for my piece to camera were plagued by strobing. Which was odd, since my LED bulbs shouldn’t be strobing, and the camera only seems to pick up on it every now and again. The sound, too, leaves a lot to be desired and I had to record all of my audio on an external microphone. (Yes, this is common for most professional cameras, but the point here is that people are going to be using this as the camera for their vacation videos, right?)

Being able to shoot Log means you could also hand over your footage to a colorist and get perfect footage. In theory. The first test shots I took were very flat, and it was hard to pull out a lot of the detail and dynamic range that should be there. Now, I’m not a professional colorist but my colleague, Engadget’s Steve Dent is, so I sent him the phone, and all of my footage, for him to run his trained eye all over.

He said that there was a significant amount of clipping, which means that there’s a lot of detail in the footage that can’t be accessed. This is likely a consequence of compression since MagicLog is designed to be mobile-friendly, after all. But it means that my clips couldn’t, after treatment, get the good pops of color that we were hoping to tease out. Not to mention that Honor doesn’t appear to offer a standalone LUT for editing software, which meant that Steve couldn’t simply run it through the standard model (which is table stakes for other pro cameras).

Shooting with the Magic4 Pro is also, in Steve’s words, difficult for a couple of other fairly big reasons. First, because it clips highlights, you have to expose for them and not the shadows, which means that there’s some guesswork involved. Then there’s no easy way to tell if you’re shooting safe footage as there’s no built-in Display LUT to give you an idea of what’s coming. There’s also no video level display, so shooting in MagicLog involves a lot of hitting and hoping.

Now, that’s not to say that the Magic4 Pro is terrible, awful and a general waste of your money – because it isn’t. Shooting in the standard mode is easy enough and the results were good enough for me to use as a pro-quality video for Engadget. But fundamentally it feels like until Honor really finishes building out the Log offering, with a display LUT, video level display and making it easier for non-pros to color-correct afterward, this isn’t something novices should be playing with and expecting good results.

Today, after months of negotiations and procedural hurdles, the European Union has passed a pair of landmark bills designed to rein in Big Tech’s power. The Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act are intended to promote fairer competition, improve privacy protection, as well as banning both the use of some of the more egregious forms of targeted advertising and misleading practices.

The Digital Services Act, for instance, focuses on online platforms like Facebook, Amazon and Google. They will be tasked with being more proactive both with content moderation and also to prevent the sale of illegal or unsafe goods being sold on their platforms. Users will also be able to learn how and why an algorithm recommended them a certain piece of content, and to challenge any moderation decision that was made algorithmically. Finally, companies will no longer be able to use sensitive personal data for ad-targeting, sell ads to children, or use dark patterns — deceptive page design that can manipulate you into saying yes to something even when you'd much rather say no, such as joining a service or preventing you from leaving one you no longer wish to use.

These obligations operate on a sliding scale, and so the largest platforms will have the greatest obligations placed upon them. Platforms with 45 million or more monthly users will be subject to independent auditing to ensure they are preventing fake news and illegal content. Those platforms will also have to open up their algorithms and data to (approved) researchers to enable them to study the effects, and potential harm, the systems can cause.

The Digital Markets Act, meanwhile, is more focused on preventing dominant platform holders, like Google, Microsoft and Apple, from abusing their scale. This includes offering better interoperability with smaller, rival services, ensuring files can be sent between systems. There is also a large carve-out for app storefronts, with developers now entitled to contact their customers about deals without going via the platform holder in question. And platform holders will no longer be able to give their systems favorable treatment, such as when Google promoted its own shopping service over that of rivals.

The EU has given both bills plenty of teeth, and can dole out a maximum penalty of 10 percent of its total worldwide turnover from the previous year, should regulators find non-compliance. This figure will, however, jump to 20 percent of worldwide turnover if officials find “repeated non-compliance.” That’s a hefty figure big enough that not even Apple would be able to stomach losing on a regular basis. Although, as with GDPR regulation, the EU still has questions to answer about how much effort, time and money it’s prepared to put behind a body to monitor big tech.

Now that they have been passed, the Digital Services Act will come into force by 1st January 2024 (unless some procedural stuff delays it) while the Digital Markets Act will come into force at some point soon after, and major platforms — dubbed “Gatekeepers” will have a further six months to get their houses in order before the new rules apply to them.