During its iPhone 15 event, Apple released a sketch where CEO Tim Cook and VP Lisa Jackson bragged about the company’s environmental goals with Octavia Spencer’s Mother Nature. It was a flex to help bolster the marketing around the Apple Watch 9, some versions of which are sold as carbon neutral. It’s the first product to carry the branding, but others will follow as Apple pushes toward its goal of becoming entirely carbon neutral by 2030. It was after the event, however, that I wondered how much of this was Apple smugly congratulating itself for work that it’s meant to be doing.

There are plenty of companies in the mobile space, and not all of them are as adept at making a song and dance about bread-and-butter stuff as Apple. So, I figured I’d read all the companies’ sustainability reports from the last year to see if that bluster was worth puncturing. But, much as we may want to sneer at Apple for indulging in its smugness, it turns out no major manufacturer is close to snatching that halo. In fact, I’ve had a fairly miserable few days learning how little, even now, some of the biggest names in the space are doing.

Apple’s goals are aggressive, and they are matched by some of its domestic rivals, although they have far smaller hardware businesses. Facebook owner Meta, at one extreme, which is primarily a services company, achieved net zero in its global operations in 2020, and wants to reach net zero across its entire value chain by 2030. Microsoft’s goals are even bigger, as it pledges to become a carbon negative company by 2030. Google, meanwhile, is hoping to reach carbon-free energy in every place it operates by 2030 but it believes it’ll only halve its emissions by that same deadline. And Amazon, which has been the highest-profile laggard in addressing sustainability, has pledged to reach net zero by 2040.

Before we dig in, it’s worth noting there’s no guarantee of consistency between different companies’ reports and the figures aren’t always comprehensive. And we can’t ignore the big financial disparity between Apple and its largest competitor in mobile, Samsung. Similarly, the financial gap between Samsung and the lower-end players in the market is stark, and caring about the environment costs money. But, even so, the limp pledges made by these companies aren’t even as good as they appear to be. (Earlier this year, the New Climate Institute gave Samsung’s climate pledges a failing grade for transparency and integrity, and called out the paucity of its ambition.)

I won’t bore you with every statistic — although I really could — but Apple is standing head and shoulders above pretty much everyone. Take e-waste, where Apple claimed to direct more than 40,000 tons of disused gadgets to recycling rather than landfill. It doesn’t get into specifics of how much was recovered from that, but it’s a fairly standout figure nevertheless. Samsung seems to have collected about a quarter of that figure, and by my wonky math, recovers around 80 percent from that to be reused.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi, the third biggest mobile player in 2022, proudly reported that it had directed 4,500 tons of e-waste to recycling. That figure looks good compared to Oppo, the world number four, which managed to do the same for just 195 tons. Transsion, the parent company of TECNO and Infinix, has merely pledged to run recycling programs. It’s worth remembering that the WEEE Forum predicted, across 2022, that up to 5.3 billion mobile devices would fall out of use, essentially becoming trash.

I was surprised at Apple’s willingness to even mention emissions from supplier factories since it contracts out its manufacturing. It would have been easy enough to launder its dirty emissions onto other companies’ balance sheets and point to its corporate usage alone. Instead, it has received commitments from many suppliers pledging to use 100 percent renewable energy. Apple says its supply chain now has 13.7GW of renewable energy, with a further 6.3GW due in the near future. Samsung, meanwhile, says that it’s looking to move to 100 percent renewable energy at all of its business sites by 2027, and that it already uses green power for 31 percent of its needs. Xiaomi doesn’t appear to have made a commitment to making a firm transition to renewable energy, while Oppo believes that it’s not yet hit its carbon emissions peak until next year.

If there’s one place that Apple still lags alongside the rest of the industry, at least for right now, it’s in repair. Until we know how easy it is for an end-user to replace common components on the iPhone 15, at least, then Apple remains as bad as everyone else. Its self-service repair platform remains frustratingly complex, and it’s still overcharging for basic repairs. (Or just refusing to repair devices as a precursor to getting buyers to replace their devices.) Samsung made a fairly big deal about repairability in its own report, pointing to the Galaxy S23 as an example. It’s worth noting that the gurus at iFixit rated the S23 a 4/10 for repairability, given that while the battery is replaceable, it’s also glued into place.

NIC COURY via Getty Images

For its part, Apple is making some fairly bold claims about how the Watch Series 9 deserves its classification. It says the device comprises 30 percent recycled or renewable materials, including a case made out of 100 percent recycled aluminum. The watch was created in factories using 100 percent renewable energy and at least half of them are shipped by sea, rather than air. The company added it’s not just paying for clean energy for its devices to be made, but has also invested in power generation equal to what users may consume while charging it, too.

The company said that its baseline for the timepiece’s manufacturing emissions was 36.7kg based on its own metrics. From there, it’s managed to reduce the emissions cost from energy altogether, as well as reducing the materials and process emissions. The Series 9, as far as Apple is concerned, only emits 8.1kg into the atmosphere, which is then offset with carbon credits.

In its materials, the company cites the Restore Fund, a project Apple founded, which invests in “high-quality, nature-based carbon removal projects.” Restore Fund is operated in partnership with Conservation International, Goldman Sachs and HSBC, but it isn’t entirely philanthropic. Goldman’s own website describes the fund as designed to be profit-bearing, offering a “future potential financial return from harvesting activities and the sale of properties.”

It’s worth being cynical about offset purchasing, especially since the industry isn’t as clean as you may hope. Earlier this year, The Guardian published an investigation into Verra, the body which verifies carbon offset programs run by a wide variety of big corporations. It found many of the credits bought by companies to reduce their emissions did not translate to real-world action at all. The report suggested that of the 94.9 million carbon credits purchased, there were only real emissions reductions of 5.5 million MTCO2e (metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent). Verra disputed these findings.

It’s worth reiterating that Apple is in something of a privileged position here, given it has a staggering amount of cash on hand. It can use that power to make the sorts of headline grabbing investments in renewable energy its competitors may not have. But its wealth is also a target for progressive critics, including bodies like Population Matters, who point out the company’s annual marketing budget alone could bring clean water to the UN’s 46 least developed countries.

But, from a general view, there’s only one company in the mobile devices space that can stand head and shoulders above Apple in the green stakes: Fairphone. It's still a relatively niche player, but has made building an ethically and environmentally responsible device its guiding mission. The big question is how long it’ll take for all of the biggest players to catch up to where this one small company is right now.

Last year Devialet, the French luxury audio company known for mighty speakers with even mightier price tags, launched its first pair of earbuds. Gemini carried many of the usual Devialet features, including good design, excellent sound and noise cancellation. But it also had some quirks around fit, weird audio modes and a bulky charging case that turned off plenty of reviewers. It’s those pain points that the company is addressing with its second-generation edition, the Gemini II.

The first and most welcome change is to the charging case, which was awkward and bulky last time out. Now, it’s a lot smaller, and uses the same pocket-friendly lozenge design you’ll find with pretty much every other pair of good TWS earbuds. Inside, the company has added a new custom driver and designed a new Active Wind Reduction mode to help screen out more unwanted sound. And to resolve the issues around fit, the buds are smaller and have been redesigned to better “fit any ear.”

You’ll also spot plenty of quality-of-life improvements like wireless charging and Bluetooth 5.2. But there has been a few spec-drops compared to the last version, with promised battery life falling from 24 hours on the first model to 22 hours here. The per-charge life has also dropped, with the Gemini II pledging five hours on a single charge, down from the six on the original.

This is Devialet, of course, which means you can pick up the standard version from today in black or white, each model costing $450. But you can also get an Opéra de Paris edition, which adds a 24-carat PVD gold plating onto the white case and earbuds, priced at $650. That way, when you’re strutting down the Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, everyone will know how classy you are.

If you don’t want a smartwatch but you do want a smart watch, then Withings is probably your best option. It’s spent the last decade producing classy hybrids which resemble old-fashioned Swiss watches to the untrained eye. Three years after launching the ScanWatch, the company is ready to show off its follow-up, the ScanWatch 2. At the same time, it’s also announcing the ScanWatch Light, a more wallet-friendly version that is really not much to write home about.

ScanWatch 2 is the most iterative of upgrades, with a new temperature sensor which could identify the early signs of infection. The rest of the sensors have been improved for greater accuracy and better power efficiency, but that’s about it on the hardware front. The only other change is that people can track their menstrual cycle by inputting the data to their wrist. That will, after a few months, start offering predictions but it’s surprising this doesn’t work in tandem with the temperature tracking.

At first blush, it doesn’t look as if much has changed in the case or face designs either, with the same options from the first generation on show here. There’s a 38mm or 42mm body with a pick of a thick or thin bezel and lugs attached to a black or white face in the steel bodies. You’ll get the choice of a stone or dark blue face and band combo with the rose gold variations, same as before. It’s a shame that we didn’t get a Horizon version – which puts the same internals in a diver’s watch body – at the same time, but I’m sure that’ll come next year.

In Withings’ defense, there isn’t much it could add to the ScanWatch that it didn’t already have. A few years back, I explained there are only so many pieces of data the laws of physics and biology can monitor from the wrist. Much as I could damn the ScanWatch 2 for a dearth of new features, it’s not Withings’ fault it did such a good job last time out. Let’s not forget its elegant analog and digital subdials, the depth and quality of its tracking and the 30-day battery life. Not to mention Health Mate, which remains the preeminent fitness-tracking platform in its class.

A focus on period tracking raises concerns for users living in a post-Roe US, where that data can be weaponized. Withings told Engadget its customer data is stored with a France-based provider, which is subject to EU law. Backups of its consumer data is held on Google Cloud but those backups are encrypted, with Withings the only entity able to decrypt them. This, however, may not be enough to prevent the enforced handover of data concerning a US citizen via the CLOUD Act.

The ScanWatch Light, meanwhile, is a ScanWatch with many of the existing bells and whistles taken out. There’s basic activity, sleep and heart-rate monitoring, but you lose the ECG, SpO2 and temperature-tracking tools. The hardware’s been downgraded, too, with the Sapphire Glass crystal replaced with Gorilla Glass and a less-accurate accelerometer. Given their respective prices, it’s probably better to hunt for a discounted first-generation ScanWatch if you can. This, to me, screams of an attempt to offer a lower-cost model that makes its pricier sibling look good.

Both the ScanWatch 2 and ScanWatch Light are available to pre-order from today with shipping expected to begin in October. Prices for the ScanWatch 2 start at $349.95 for the 38mm model, while the smaller ScanWatch Light will set you back $249.95.

The following article discusses the fourth season of Star Trek: Lower Decks.

There’s a risk, using a word like “should” that we’re a short hop away from a tantrum to police the borders of What Proper Star Trek(™) is. But after watching most of Star Trek: Lower Decks’ fourth season, it does feel as if the show’s outlook is the most Star Trek of the bunch. Part of this is because the show is mature enough to laugh at itself, and part of it is because it’s now letting its characters grow. This is a sitcom, so its first duty is to be funny rather than weighty, but it’s a welcome sight to see the quartet escape the bottom rung.

I don’t think that’s much of a spoiler, because it’s in the trailer, the press material and the cast’s promotional interviews with TrekMovie. At the start of season four, some of the quartet get their promotions to Lieutenant Junior Grade, and out of their shared bunk. Now they’re expected to lead away missions, take on real real responsibilities and actually lead other people. It affects them all differently, with Boimler struggling to grow into his role, and Mariner fighting every urge in her body not to self-sabotage, with varying degrees of success. And it’s here, I think, that we see the side of Star Trek that so often gets overlooked in its other properties.

After all, Starfleet is an organization of people coming together to do better for other people, but also to improve themselves. For every daring scientific experiment and skin-of-the-teeth rescue, we see more of the senior officers’ desire to actually nurture their charges. This, too, helps to broaden the series’ focus, to include T’Lyn, the fan-favorite who joined the Cerritos at the end of last season. The broader view also gives Captain Freeman more of a central role in several episodes, especially highlighting the times when her knowledge is ignored by her superiors. For all we’ve seen of the dung rolling downhill and landing in Beta Shift’s trench, it’s not as if those higher up the chain don’t get their fair share of excrement, too.

I wonder if its status as Star Trek’s officially-sanctioned Class Clown gives it room to be more subversive than anyone gives it credit for. Time and again, both in this series and before, we see totems of Star Trek’s past commoditized and packaged for sale. It’s an easy way to milk fans’ nostalgia glands, but it’s also potentially a subtle critique about the nature of nostalgia. As much as Lower Decks was created by a Next Generation fan who wants to recapture some of that magic, it’s also a commentary on that very same desire. And the show’s creative team is clear-eyed enough to notice that series’ blind spots and mine them for comedy.

But, for all of this high-falutin’ talk, this remains Lower Decks, a series that can have you in tears at the sight of a pair of dueling [SPOILERS] trying to out-compliment each other. And, if nothing else, it’s a pleasure to spend more time with Starfleet’s horniest and weirdest crew.

The first two episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks will be available to watch on Paramount+ on Thursday, September 7. A new episode will arrive on subsequent Thursdays.

It’s been years and years since the bleeding edge of the smartphone world was truly exciting. The industry may want us to salivate over its latest 5G, 108-megapixel, folding-screen masterpiece, but my mouth remains bone dry. To me, it’s because the ceiling of what’s possible hasn’t risen much in the last four or five years, but the floor has maintained its slow creep northward. On paper, the just-announced Fairphone 5 has the specs you’d expect from a mid-range handset. But now that’s not really a penalty since you’re also getting a modular, sustainably-made and potentially upgradeable handset built by people paid a fair(er) wage for doing so. It’s just a smartphone, like any other. On one hand, that makes the new Fairphone 5 boring, but from this perspective, boring can be good.

Ten years into its mission to build a “better” smartphone, it’s not clear if Fairphone still needs a full introduction. For the unaware, the Dutch social enterprise makes devices that are “fairer” than the competition. That means paying factory workers a living wage, sourcing “ethical” raw materials, using recycled materials and keeping the hardware out of the trash for as long as possible. To that end, each device is modular, easy-to-repair, sometimes upgradeable and often far longer lasting than its competition. It’s less fancy than, say, Google’s long-mourned Project Ara, but it’s a damn sight more real than that imagined dream of a modular, upgradeable phone. Here, it’s not just possible, but easy, to pick up a Philips 00-head screwdriver and fit a new component in a matter of minutes.

The Fairphone 5 doesn’t stray far from the template laid down by its immediate predecessor in size and style. It has the same hefty chassis intercut with antenna lines, the same camera housing, the same fingerprint-sensing power button and the same easily removable backplate. Like a lot of phones released in 2023, the changes are nips and tucks to reflect where the industry is at. So, the battery is more capacious, the display a little bigger, and the cameras are a hair more powerful now than they were a generation ago. Fairphone has also made it possible to swap out each camera separately, making it easier and cheaper to fix or upgrade one down the line.

You’ll be able to grab plenty of spare parts, with only the main chassis frame not being available separately. The product list includes the 90Hz, 6.46-inch LG-made POLED display, 4,200mAh battery and all three cameras. You can also get a spare earpiece, loudspeaker, USB-C port and a top unit containing the Time of Flight sensor, as well as the SIM and SD-card slots. If a part on this phone breaks, you’ll be able to pick up almost everything you could need for not that much cash. The priciest component is the display, priced at €99.95 (around $108), which is about half what Samsung charges, and almost a third of what Apple asks for.

To make good on its promises of sustainability and longevity, Fairphone 5 uses Qualcomm’s octa-core QCM6490 SoC. It’s an industrial-grade IoT chipset that, far as I can tell, is used in only one other phone: AGM’s thermal-camera equipped G2 Guardian. There’s only one SKU here, with the Fairphone 5 coming with 8GB RAM and a very generous 256GB storage, expandable to 2TB with the right microSD card. Fairphone says the choice was dictated by the chipset’s blend of premium features like 6G, WiFi 6E and on-chip AI processing. Not to mention Qualcomm promises to support its industrial grade silicon for longer than it does its mobile chips. To that end, Fairphone is committing to support the (almost) stock install of Android 13 and “at least five operating system upgrades after.” (Given Android 14’s forthcoming launch, you should expect that to be heading to your phone in the near future.) The company says it expects to offer software support until 2028 at the very least, but hopes it’ll keep things running until 2033.

And Fairphone has now established a track record of being able to keep its phones going for a fair old while. The Fairphone 2 was launched in 2015 with Android 5.1 and got its final security patch in March 2023 with an Android 10 update. Seven or so years of software support is a good reason to switch, especially when Samsung pledges four years of software and five years of security updates for “select” handsets.

Photo by Daniel Cooper / Engadget

In my limited time playing with the new model, I’ve found the performance to be a lot snappier than on older Fairphones. Animations and transitions in the OS itself don’t appear at this early stage to be laggy, and Fortnite on Epic mode played perfectly at 30fps. I certainly noticed how much faster it is to unlock this phone compared to the last one, both using my face and my fingerprint. At first blush, this appears to be more than capable of meeting your expectations for normal phone use. Well, if your idea of normal phone use is texting, emails, social media, YouTube, TikTok and the odd deathmatch.

I’d describe the Fairphone 5’s imaging as solid, although I’m worried that to do so is to damn it with faint praise. The primary 50-megapixel, f/1.88, OIS-equipped camera backed by Sony’s IMX800 sensor is more than enough for most people’s photography needs. It may not have the software smarts of some devices in its class, but it’s no slouch, especially with video. Glance at the Fairphone 5’s back and you’ll spot a circle the same size as the camera lenses, which is the ToF sensor. It’s this phone’s secret weapon, especially when it comes to the lightning-fast autofocus when you’re shooting video.

It’s not all good: The phone gets a little warmer than I’d like when running heavy load, but that feels par for the course in the 5G era. The built-in speakers, meanwhile, are so tinny I’d never recommend using this for audio if you have headphones to hand. I also think the solid black cover will be far better at resisting smears than the transparent edition in my loan unit. And I wish, as well as the black, transparent and sky blue colorways, the company had offered the same green and orange paint job that is so wonderful on the Fairbuds XL.

It’s also a shame we’re not yet seeing a wide release for the Fairphone 5 in the US, at least not at the same time as it comes to Europe. The Fairphone 4 is available to buy in the States with a “deGoogled” OS courtesy of privacy-focused startup Murena. I’m sure the 5 will make a similar journey in future, but it’d be nice to see a simultaneous release so people aren’t left waiting for a year or more to get the updated hardware.

I’ve said before that Fairphone has always carried the whiff of a compromise choice, the cork and hemp sneaker you buy to assuage your guilt over all the sweatshop-made kicks you own. But, both thanks to Fairphone’s efforts to improve its product, and the general stagnation in the mobile industry more generally, the delta between what’s hot and what’s not has closed by a lot. If you’re looking to pick up a mid-range handset that you can keep going for twice as long as any other phone on the market, and you want to do a bit of good in the process, this is probably the phone for you. It’s not often the view from the moral high ground is this comfortable.

The Fairphone 5 is available to pre-order today, August 30, from the company’s website and a number of major European carriers. It is priced at €699 (around $750), with shipping expected to commence September 14 from Fairphone and the majority of its carriers.

If one thing kept me coming back (and back) to Homeworld, it was skirmish mode. Setting up a quick (“quick”) battle against the CPU would often rob me of a whole weekend while at college. Homeworld 3 sees a new mode arrive on the second sequel, a roguelike-inspired multiplayer co-op called War Games. It pits one, two or three players against the enemy in a series of randomized challenges where you only progress if you can survive. I’ve spent the last few days playing an early build of the mode, and it’s impressive enough, especially given the fact I find the phrases “roguelike” and “multiplayer co-op” to be a massive turn-off.

Each campaign starts with a predetermined fleet – you get the choice of one early on, and more options are unlocked the more XP you accrue. You then have to run through a trio of missions, each one in a new environment, until you defeat the opponent’s carrier. These missions include escorting friendly transports from one side of the map to the other, rescuing captured civilians or attacking enemy positions. You need to balance your attacking and defending needs against the drive to research ship upgrades while managing resources – which are more scarce here than in previous Homeworld titles.

During each campaign, players will collect artifacts, which are randomized bonuses for your ships. These include a boost, like faster ships or more effective weapons, but at the cost of defensive stats or each vehicle’s responsiveness. Once you’ve completed your mission, you’ll get the option to hang around to repair your fleet and load up on resources. But doing so risks you becoming quickly overwhelmed by the enemy, which constantly increases their attacking intensity the longer you’re around. As soon as the objectives are done, a big hyperspace jump button will hover over your screen, encouraging you to get the heck out of dodge.

Blackbird Interactive / Gearbox

It’s possible to play War Games solo, but I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s far more enjoyable with other people, with more emphasis on coordination and cooperation. As a traditional loather of any multiplayer game, this is one of those rare times where I’d rather play with friends. Not to mention that War Games is the sort of experience where it feels really good to share the mental load.

It’s not clear how much War Games is indicative of how Homeworld 3 itself will play but it’s hard not to want to draw a conclusion. If you’ve got decades of muscle memory then the differences here are more than a little jarring, at least in the short term. It does benefit from nearly 20 years of improvements, with stellar graphics that lean even harder into the ‘70s sci-fi aesthetic the games have always gestured toward. One part of Homeworld 3’s evolution is the combat, which takes place not in open space but amongst the destroyed remains of alien megastructures. It’s here that I struggled the most: It’s hard to identify the pin-pricks of your ships against the texture of these magnificent backdrops.

Blackbird Interactive / Gearbox

The announcement of War Games is but one part of a drip feed of announcements to build hype for Homeworld 3’s launch. (Series prequel Deserts of Kharak is currently free on Epic Games Store.) The latest story trailer has outlined the shape of the plot, which is set a generation after the events of Homeworld 2. Opening the hyperspace gates heralded a bold new era of peace and prosperity, but not everyone was as happy with this state of affairs. A series of missing ships and anomalies saw Karan S’Jet and the Pride of Hiigara investigate, but the ship never returned. Now, several years later, new Fleet Command Imogen S’Jet will be installed in a new mothership, but her shakedown cruise is interrupted by a new enemy, the Incarnate.

Homeworld 3 is broadening out its narrative focus to look at how all of this impacts people below the very top. Blackbird Interactive has promised we will see inside the mothership for the first time and how these missions affect the individuals sent out to fight them. New character Isaac Paktu is a seasoned battle commander who will be leading missions, and both he and Imogen will have their backstories fleshed out with short stories published on the Homeworld website. Given the rather sterile way that Fleet Command of old would notify you of a lost unit, giving the characters on the front lines more development should help boost the stakes.

As for War Games, you can imagine its combination of co-operation and punishment will catch on with a small but deeply hardcore portion of the fanbase.

Blink is today announcing its latest external security camera, the Blink Outdoor 4, which boasts better image quality, improved low-light sensitivity and a wider field of view. For the quality claims, the proof will be in the viewing, but in terms of hard figures, the field of view has increased from 110 degrees to 143 degrees. It says the better image quality both in day, and night, are thanks to the company’s latest slice of custom silicon, which offers on-device computer vision. What hasn’t changed is the claim of two years’ battery life before you’ll need to replace the pair of AA batteries nestled inside.

It’s the second Blink device to offer person detection after its wired floodlight camera, which was announced around this time last year. But that feature is only available if you opt for Blink’s add on subscription plan, which will set you back $3 a month or $30 for the year. Do so and you’ll also get the ability to get dual-zone motion detection and more fine-grain alerts depending on what’s going on in your yard. It’s available to order today, with $119.99 getting you one camera and a Sync Module 2, which enables you to hook the device to your local WiFi network.

At the same time, the company has taken the time to brag about its surge in popularity in the last year. It claims a more than 40 percent increase in sales, with more than 60 percent of that being to customers new to the brand. Of course, that’s probably aided in part by its focus on affordable hardware that’s been supercharged by Amazon’s regular, and generous, discounts on its first-party devices.

Fisker has shed some more light on its Alaska electric pickup, which it says will have a base price of just $45,400. The Alaska is a work-friendly vehicle, letting you run your business from the cockpit. It has dedicated work glove and cowboy hat storage, a slide-out laptop tray and a cup holder big enough to hold a day’s worth of water.

The default flatbed is 4.5 feet, but you can drop the partition to increase that to 7.5 feet. Lower the seats and the liftgate and you can push it to 9.2 feet, big enough to haul several sheets of plywood from one job to the next. But much as Fisker may promise this will be one of the lightest and cheapest EVs in its class, we’ll wait to see how much it actually costs when it debuts in 2025 before making a judgment.

– Dan Cooper

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It’s a Swiss Army-microphone for audio pros on a budget.

Photo by James Trew / Engadget

Professional microphones are as unique as the instruments they’re built to record, each with their own voices. The Sphere LX is a $1,000 modeling microphone designed to alter its qualities to ape the voices of several extremely expensive studio microphones. James Trew explores what it’s like to use this chameleonic device, comparing it to several of the pro microphones it’s trying to impersonate. I may not find the technical intricacies of audio engineering that gripping, but James’ in-depth report is a must-read, even for me.

Continue Reading.

The Xbox 360 store will close in July 2024

Farewell, old friend.

After nearly two decades of faithful service, the Xbox 360 store will close for good on July 29, 2024. Microsoft’s Movies & TV app will stop working on the same day as the company pulls the last vestiges of support for its console. The company has already promised games compatible with newer consoles will stay on the Xbox One and Series X/S storefronts. And media bought via the Xbox 360 will stay in your library, so you shouldn’t lose too much of anything.

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Lenovo's leaked Legion Go is part Steam Deck, part Nintendo Switch

It’s got detachable controllers!

Windows Report

With the Legion Go, Lenovo may have its own rival to the Steam Deck, Ayaneo and ASUS’ ROG Ally. A leak, including product renders, suggests it’s a PC gaming handheld equipped with AMD’s new Phoenix processors and a pair of Switch-like detachable controllers. It looks very possible to prop this thing on a table, addressing the issues of hand fatigue so common with other PC-class handhelds. Just a shame it won’t be able to play Tears of the Kingdom.

Continue Reading.

Acura's ZDX EV has an estimated 325 miles of range and starts around $60,000

If those range claims are accurate, it’s pretty compelling.

MullenLowe

The Acura ZDX is the latest all-electric vehicle from Honda’s premium brand, due to launch in early 2024. The ZDX boasts CarPlay, Android Auto, a Bang & Olufsen audio setup and an as-yet unofficial range of 325 miles on a single charge. The base model is likely to cost around $60,000, and it’s certainly a pretty-looking way to get around.

Continue Reading.

Newly unsealed court filings reveal how much data Xwitter has handed over to the January 6 investigation. This includes all tweets sent, drafted, liked and retweeted – even if they were subsequently deleted – by Donald Trump’s official account. This cache also included DMs sent, received or stored in draft form, as well as linked accounts used on the same device. Even more interesting is the company handed over records of all searches made by the account, too.

We already knew Xwitter had fought the order tooth-and-nail, leading to a court battle and a hefty fine. But the list of what was available should also serve as a warning to everyone else that the platform stores a lot more data on its users than you might expect. The fact it could serve up location history, deleted DMs and a list of searches might make you wonder what else it has on you.

– Dan Cooper

You can get these reports delivered daily, direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!​​​​

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Scientists recreate an iconic Pink Floyd song by scanning listeners' brains

It could eventually help people with speech challenges.

Researchers claim to have found a way to extract a song from a person’s brain by analyzing their neural activity. A group of test subjects with drug-resistant epilepsy, who already have implants in their brains, were played Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1. Using the implants, the team monitored how the brains responded to the stimulus and used AI to recreate what they heard. The result is a bit like listening to a Pink Floyd cover band playing down the street while you’re swimming, but it’s recognizable enough. It’s hoped the discovery could be used as a jumping-off point to develop tech to help people with atrophied speech communicate.

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Intel walks away from its $5.4 billion takeover of Tower Semiconductor

Rumors suggest Chinese regulators were slow to agree to the deal.

Intel Corporation

Intel has withdrawn its $5.4 billion offer to buy Israeli chip fabricator Tower Semiconductor after failing to get regulatory approval. Tower is not a bleeding-edge manufacturer; it makes chips for industrial and automotive applications using older processes. Intel wanted it as part of its plan not to just make its own chips but to manufacture third-party designs in its facilities. It’s thought the major roadblock was China, which refused to give its blessing in a “timely manner.” It’s not clear if China’s inaction was part of the current geopolitical brouhaha over the future of chip making, but it probably hasn’t helped.

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GM’s latest investment could speed development of cheaper EV batteries

It is putting $60 million into a US-based battery company.

Karl Nielsen for General Motors

GM has a vested interest in making batteries both cheaper and more efficient, which is why it just dropped $60 million into Mitra Chem’s pocket. Mitra Chem is working on a US-made battery using cheaper, more common metals than are presently employed. It’s also looking to speed up research into new battery technologies using software that could eliminate much of the early gruntwork.

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Google is working to improve Bard's soulless life advice

But not everyone on the project thinks it’s a good idea.

A Google contractor developing Bard, the search giant’s AI chatbot, has enlisted a score of experts to improve the system’s ability to dole out life advice. It’s in response to users asking the platform for help with intimate issues, like how to back out of a destination wedding. The work has caused alarm in some parts of the company, where workers feel people shouldn’t be asking an AI those sorts of questions.

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Snapchat's My AI chatbot glitched so hard it started posting Stories

It shouldn’t be able to do that.

Snapchat’s in-app digital assistant experienced a malfunction so great it started posting its own stories. My AI is a chatbot you can access if you subscribe to Snapchat Plus for $3.99 a month, but it shouldn’t have access to your stories at all. In a statement, the company explained the system had a “temporary outage” and there’s nothing to worry about. For now, at least.

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Tesla has quietly launched new – much cheaper – Model S and X variants with a shorter quoted range. Standard Range Teslas are around $10,000 less than the base model, but with ranges cut by 80 and 79 miles, respectively. Both cars are half a second slower 0 to 60, so you might expect your overall responsiveness to drop as well. It’s not clear if the vehicles are the base models with some of the capacity software-locked, or if there’s really a much-smaller battery under the floor.

It’s also not clear when development work began on the models but, at the end of July, Reuters suggested Tesla had overstated its range figures, especially when its EVs are fully charged. It said the vehicles would only report honest range targets when the battery had fallen to 50 percent, at which point the numbers would fall dramatically. And that Tesla had a team set up in Las Vegas to deflect user queries about diminished range when they tried to arrange a service appointment. That report has already triggered the start of a class action lawsuit in California, accusing the company of fraud.

— Dan Cooper

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Lamborghini teases a fully electric supercar ahead of its August 18 reveal

It looks pretty, shrouded in shadow.

Lamborghini

On August 18, Lamborghini is expected to unveil its first all-electric super-(hyper? mega?) car concept. Ahead of the event, the company has dropped this teaser, showing off the very clean lines of the model. Details are scarce, but we do know it’ll be an entirely new vehicle rather than an electrified version of an existing whip. You’ll have time to save up to buy one; we’re not expected to see a road-ready version for several years.

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Xbox adopts an 8-strike suspension policy

It’s clarified and expanded how it enforces community standards.

Photo by Aaron Souppouris / Engadget

Microsoft’s updated Xbox community standards have moved to an eight-strike policy. Minor infringements will get day-long suspensions from Xbox social features, while the gaming giant will ban repeated and persistent rule breakers for a whole year. Users will also be able to see their enforcement history, to make sure the process is transparent.

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Comcast debuts Storm-Ready WiFi device ahead of hurricane season

Stay connected when the power’s out.

Comcast has launched Storm Ready WiFi, a backup connection device that uses cellular data to keep you connected when things get rough. The battery-powered unit will run for up to four hours on a charge – twice as long as the average US power cut. It’s available to select Xfinity users for $7 a month, and might be useful come hurricane season.

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The best DACs for Apple Music Lossless in 2023

Get HiFi audio on the go.

Photo by James Trew / Engadget

Apple’s belated embrace of high-resolution audio means there’s a lot more interest in how to get the best out of their audio service. Sound expert James Trew has put together this guide of the best DACs that deliver crisp audio both at home and on the go. He’s also added options that work well with Qobuz, Tidal and Deezer, if those are where your musical loyalties lie.

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X is slowing down links to websites Elon Musk has publicly feuded with

Because of course it has.

Xwitter appears to be intentionally slowing outbound links to rival platforms and organizations its founder doesn’t like. In recent days, users clicking links to The New York Times, Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads and Substack have been delayed by five seconds before going through. The list of targets, and the consistency at which the delay is applied, suggests it’s a deliberate attempt to sandbag the targets of Musk’s ire.

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