Apple's watchOS 10 will officially be available on September 18, the company announced during its iPhone 15 launch event today. The update is simultaneously one of the biggest facelifts ever for watchOS, while also being a throwback to the original "Glances" feature from the original Apple Watch. Instead of focusing on individual apps, WatchOS 10 relies on widgets in every watch face — just turn the Digital Crown and you'll have quick access to things like timers, music, or a podcast episode that you're listening to.
Given how confusing multitasking has been in watchOS for some time, it makes sense for Apple to reorient the platform around simple tasks, rather than have you flip through multiple app screens. (Maybe Apple just noticed that people really like using the Siri watch face, which offered a similar array of widgets.)
As we saw during WWDC, watchOS 10 will come equipped with two new watch faces — a colorful view called Palette, and one featuring Woodstock and Snoopy — and includes a slew of other upgrades. You'll be able to add corner shortcuts to the Activity app, for one, while the Compass app will automatically log where you last had cellular connectivity (in case you need to backtrack for an emergency call).
watchOS 10 will be available on the Apple Watch Series 4 or later, and it also requires an iPhone XS running iOS 17.
Follow all of the news live from Apple's 'Wonderlust' event right here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/watchos-10-brings-widgets-to-your-apple-watch-on-september-18-173827349.html?src=rss
Up to three times the bandwidth of Thunderbolt 4. Support for multiple 8K displays, as well as gaming monitors running at up to 540Hz. 240 watts of charging power. These aren't just the highlights of my PC connectivity dreams: They're key features of Thunderbolt 5, Intel's latest stab at creating the ultimate PC cable. And this time, the chip maker may actually succeed.
When Thunderbolt 4 dropped in 2020, it mostly seemed like a refined version of Thunderbolt 3. It had the same maximum bandwidth of 40 gigabits per second, but its increased efficiency allowed Intel to standardize support for multiple 4K screens, as well as double storage device speeds. At the very least, Intel required at least one Thunderbolt 4 to support USB-C charging.
Thunderbolt 5, on the other hand, is a major leap forward. It's built on the USB4 v2 spec, which offers the same speed improvements, but Intel is making key features a requirement. That includes a baseline speed of 80 Gbps and support for 120 Gbps using bandwidth boosting (USB4 requires 20 Gbps); support for dual 6K screens (Thunderbolt 4 requires dual 4K monitors); and a minimum of 140 watt charging and a more powerful 240W mode.
Since it was originally known as Light Peak, Intel's goal with Thunderbolt was to develop a single cable that could handle all of your data and power needs. This latest version should satisfy even more demanding PC users. With up to 240W of charging, for example, some gaming laptops and workstations wouldn't need a separate power port. That means fewer cables to carry, as well as the assurance that you could always borrow someone else's USB-C cable and adapter to juice up.
Intel
As Intel previously announced, Thunderbolt 5 will also support the DisplayPort 2.1 and PCI Express Gen 4 standards. The latter should be particularly helpful with external GPUs, which have been significantly bandwidth limited until now. We can also expect that additional bandwidth to support new accessories like external AI accelerator, as well as far faster external storage.
Intel says that Thunderbolt 5 accessories and PCs will be available in 2024. It'd be nice to have a clearer time frame, but Intel may be trying to avoid scaring off people from buying new systems this year.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/intel-thunderbolt-5-launch-130006804.html?src=rss
Starfield is here! It’s just too bad we only like some of it. This week, Devindra chats with Senior Editor Jessica Conditt about Bethesda’s latest massive open world title, and why it just feels like Fallout 4 in space. Also, we dive into reports around Nintendo demoing the Switch 2 at Gamescom, and we dream up what our ideal sequel console could be. (Just call it the Super Switch!)
Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!
It wouldn’t be the end of summer if we weren’t gearing up for another iPhone launch! This week, Devindra and Cherlynn are joined by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the purveyor of many Apple rumors, to discuss what we expect from the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro. Based on Gurman’s reporting so far, the iPhone 15 will likely get Apple’s Dynamic Island and improved tech from last year’s Pro phone. The iPhone 15 Pro, meanwhile, will see thinner bezels, a titanium frame and a periscope camera for the Pro Max.
You can also expect Apple to finally move over to USB-C for both of these phones, which should improve data (and potentially charging) speeds. Be sure to subscribe to Mark’s Bloomberg newsletter, Power On, to follow his reporting.
Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!
Samsung made backyard barbecues a bit more fun when it unveiled the Terrace outdoor TV line in 2020 — now, it's going bigger and brighter. Today, the company announced an 85-inch Terrace Full Sun set which will retail for an eye-watering $20,000. For the money, you'll get a Neo QLED screen which should remain bright in direct sunlight, as well as "Direct-Sun Protection" to keep the TV safe. Samsung claims it's protected "up to six hours in sunlight at 700 watts and 104 degrees Fahrenheit," but it may decrease brightness to deal with higher temperatures and sun conditions.
That heat threshold might seem high, but given that more than a dozen Southern US cities broke their high temperature records this year, it may not be enough to protect your $20,000 TV. The 85-inch Terrace also features an improved IP56 rating to deal with water and dust. (Maybe just think twice about having a movie night during a heat wave or summer storm.)
If you don't need such an enormous screen outside, you've also got some other options from Samsung. The 65-inch Full Sun Terrace is now on sale for $6,500, while the 75-inch goes for $9,000. You can also save a bit more with Partial Sun Terrace sets, which are meant for shaded areas and start at $3,000 for the 55-inch model.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsung-85-inch-outdoor-terrace-tv-costs-20000-160004982.html?src=rss
Not since The Wizard hyped up an entire generation for Super Mario Bros. 3 has a film about video games felt as naked a marketing ploy as Gran Turismo. Based on an improbable true story, the movie follows Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe), a 20-something Gran Turismo fanatic who wins a Nissan-sponsored contest to race professionally. Even more improbable (and this is technically a spoiler, but hell, it's also real life), he manages to hold his own in the racing world. The original story was already a dream marketing win for Nissan and Sony, but now the two companies can milk it once again to bolster the mythology of Gran Turismo. Don't call it a game – it's a driving simulator.
Cynicism aside, the Gran Turismo film, directed by Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Chappie), successfully hits every mile marker you'd expect. Mardenborough doesn't have much support from his parents early on, but he ultimately proves them wrong. There's an entitled rival racer from the Cobra Kai school of villainy who you can't help but hate. And the movie sports genuinely thrilling race sequences, thanks to Blomkamp's inventive camera work and use of visual effects. Gran Turismo even manages to get some genuinely moving performances from David Harbour and Djimon Hounsou. It's the very definition of a crowd pleaser.
But the film also constantly reminds you that it's meant to sell you Sony products in an alien reality where Apple doesn't exist. No joke: One character is inexplicably attached to his Walkman cassette player, and he only moves on when he's gifted a modern Walkman digital music player in an overwrought emotional moment. (Outside of Hideo Kojima's Twitter feed, I've never seen a normal human use one of those things.) (Ed note: It’s debatable whether or not the guy who created Death Stranding is a “normal human”.)
Had Sony just relaxed a bit, the film would have seemed less like a desperate marketing ploy. But as it stands, I couldn't help but cringe every time we encountered another moment of corporate promotional synergy. Even before we're introduced to Mardenborough, the movie begins with a short promo reel hyping up Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi, who spent five years developing the first game in the series. It's the sort of over-produced clip you'd expect during one of Sony's PlayStation Showcase events or the Game Awards – not a theatrically released film.
Sony also doesn’t trust the audience to view actual footage from the Gran Turismo games. We see Mardenborough playing early on, but it looks far too sharp to be Gran Turismo 5 on the PS3 – the title he actually competed with in real life. Instead, we're shown footage that looks closer to the incredibly realistic PlayStation 5 version of the game (though I wouldn't be surprised if it's all CG generated, instead of showing us actual gameplay). Rather than lean into the incredible lengths Sony pushed the PlayStation 3 at the time, the film sells a beautiful lie.
Of course, you can argue that every adaptation is ultimately a marketing ploy. But even the incredibly safe Super Mario Bros. Movie didn't feel as desperate as Gran Turismo. Sure, Mario was filled with oodles of references for fans, but there was a level of confidence in that movie that Gran Turismo lacks. Nintendo didn't need to push new hardware or games through that movie, its mere existence promoted the company's overall brand.
Sony Pictures Entertainment
It’s almost a miracle that Gran Turismo still manages to be enjoyable. It’s more fun than the forgettable Uncharted movie, and you can’t help but root for Mardenborough. He achieves the ultimate gamer dream: What if you could actually bring your virtual skills to the real world? It’s just a shame that the true story is fundamentally a PlayStation ad, and Sony couldn’t help but use the film to sell itself even more.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gran-turismo-movie-review-neill-blomkamp-153939839.html?src=rss
The PSP is back! Sort of. This week, Sony announced the PlayStation Portal, a $200 handheld that can only stream games from your PS5. In this episode, Devindra and Producer Ben Ellman try to figure out what the heck Sony is doing. Is the Portal something gamers actually want? Or did Sony completely miss an opportunity to build a better portable? Also, we discuss why we’re excited for Armored Core VI and some serious big mecha action.
Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!
208 episodes of The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. Three Tales of the Jedi shorts. Two episodes of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. One movie. That's everything you'll need to see to truly understand everything going on in the new Ahsoka series on Disney+. For Star Wars diehards, especially those raised on the animated shows spearheaded by Ahsoka creator Dave Filoni, it's everything they've hoped for. Everyone else, though, may find themselves adrift.
Ahsoka deftly brings animated characters to live action — Rosario Dawson remains a beguiling Ahsoka, and she's joined by Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla, and Natasha Liu Bordezzo as the impulsive Sabine Wren — and it wastes no time introducing intriguing villains (especially Baylan Skoll, a former Jedi portrayed by the late Ray Stevenson). The series is a direct sequel to Rebels in almost every way. But while that's great news for fans, the downside is that newcomers to the wider Rebels verse, even those who've seen Ahsoka in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, will have a hard time finding any emotional stakes.
Photo by Lucasfilm
With the previous live action Star Wars TV shows (including the enjoyable-yet-unneccessary Obi-Wan Kenobi series), Filoni and co-producer Jon Favreau tried to ease general audiences into deeper aspects of Star Wars lore. That was most successful in the first season of The Mandalorian, which was filled with new characters and simple emotional stakes. (Protect Baby Yoda, no matter what it takes!) But Filoni eventually managed to bring in some characters from his animated shows, including the nefarious bounty hunter Cad Bane.
For better or worse, Ahsoka feels like a riskier project than any of those other live action shows. Almost everyone refers to events and major characters from Rebels, without explaining much about who they are. We know that Grand Admiral Thrawn seems like a major new antagonist, but the show never says why. We later learn that Ahsoka is driven to find him because that may reveal the location of Ezra Bridger, the main character of Rebels who disappeared at the end of that series. Sabine and Ahsoka share some pensive moments reflecting on their lost friend, but we don't get much about their shared relationship beyond that.
Photo by Lucasfilm
At times watching Ahsoka is like being invited to a party where everyone else are old friends, and who refuse to explain their in-jokes or shared history. It's not their problem if you're not having as much fun as them. Deal with it. I had similar issues with The Mandalorian's third season relying too much on The Book of Boba Fett, but at least those were shows airing in close proximity. Ahsoka hinges on direct continuity from an animated series that began in 2014 and ran for four years.
Of course, the series may get better down the line. Ahsoka is Filoni's baby, after all, and he's too talented of a storyteller to have her tread water for a season. And I'll admit, even the excellent Andor took a few episodes to really rev things up. I just hope this show weaves character motivations into its plot more effectively moving forward.
In the first two episodes, Ahsoka is basically sent on a fetch quest when a new trio of villains pops up. There’s some investigative work that sheds light on the post-Empire world (would former members of the Empire really want to support the New Republic?), but much of the time I felt like I was waiting for something, anything to happen. At least the handful of action scenes spice up the proceedings – Dawson’s months of training really show in her lightsaber duels. And there are hints of interesting character dynamics moving forward.
In the years since Rebels ended, it turns out Ahsoka started training Sabine as a Jedi, but then abandoned her. It’s a reflection of Ahsoka’s own story, where she started as Anakin Skywalker’s padawan before a (very complicated) series of events pushed her out of the Jedi Order. Can Ahsoka make up for her mistakes, or is she doomed to fail her student like her master failed her?
At the very least, Ahsokai’s first two episodes are far more intriguing than the Book of Boba Fett or Obi-Wan’s intros. Both of those shows felt superfluous – did we really need Boba Fett’s backstory and redemption tale? Did seeing another Obi-Wan and Darth Vader duel really accomplish anything? At least Ahsoka is trying to push Star Wars into new territory. It’s just too bad that everyone isn’t invited for that journey.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ahsoka-review-star-wars-disney-193023619.html?src=rss
Last year, NVIDIA unveiled DLSS 3 with frame interpolation, which used its AI-driven rendering accelerator to add extra frames to games. Now at Gamescom it's introducing DLSS 3.5, which adds Ray Reconstruction, a new feature that will use the company's neural network to improve the quality of ray traced images. It'll be available for all RTX GPUs—unlike DLSS 3's frame interpolation, which only works with RTX 40-series cards.
NVIDIA says Ray Reconstruction will replace "hand-tuned denoisers with an NVIDIA supercomputer-trained AI network that generates higher-quality pixels in between sampled rays." That's similar to NVIDIA's original pitch for DLSS — making low-res textures look better thanks to AI — and it could potentially lead to better ray tracing performance as well. In images shown to media, Ray Reconstruction appears to deliver sharper reflections and textures in supported titles. (See comparisons below.)
According to the company, Cyberpunk 2077 in Overdrive Mode (its most powerful ray tracing offering) hit 108 fps with DLSS 3.5 and Ray Reconstruction, while the same system reached 100fps with DLSS 3 alone, 63fps with DLSS 2 (which lacks Frame Generation) and 20fps without any DLSS help.
Just like previous DLSS releases, developers will have to manually implement support for Ray Reconstruction. Cyberpunk 2077 (and its expansion Phantom Liberty) will be the first DLSS 3.5 title in September, followed by Portal RTX and Alan Wake 2. NVIDIA will be showing off Ray Reconstruction at Gamescom this week, and hopefully we'll get a look ourselves sometime soon.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nvidias-dlss-35-makes-ray-traced-games-look-better-with-ai-130012143.html?src=rss
After voicing Mario for the past 27 years, Charles Martinet will no longer be playing the character, Nintendo announced in a tweet this morning. He'll be moving onto a newly created "Mario Ambassador" role where he'll "continue to travel the world sharing the joy of Mario," the company said. There's no word about a replacement voice actor yet. Nintendo also announced that there will be a special video message featuring Martinet and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto coming in the future.
Developing...
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mario-voice-actor-charles-martinet-steps-down-143213923.html?src=rss
