Every year, companies like Canon and Nikon push camera technology forward with new models that add features like 8K video recording and 30 fps shooting speeds. But the batteries powering those cameras haven’t changed nearly as much during the mirrorless era.

Enter Chinese manufacturer Nitecore with its newly announced replacement for Sony’s NP-FZ100. First spotted by Gizmodo, the UFZ100 features a built-in USB-C port so that you don’t need to use a proprietary Sony power adapter to charge it. The battery also includes a handy LED indicator to tell you when it’s below 10 percent charge. That same LED will indicate when the UFZ100 is below half power, above 50 percent and finally fully topped up, with a constant green light indicating the final state. With a 2,250mAh capacity, it’s only slightly smaller than Sony’s 2,280mAh NP-FZ100 and works with many of the company’s most recent camera models, including the A6600 and A7 IV.

USB-C charging has been a standard feature on Sony cameras for a few years now, so it’s not like you couldn’t live without one of the company’s proprietary power adapters before. But having a USB-C port on the battery does make things more convenient since you don’t need access to a wall outlet. With enough cables, you could also more easily charge multiple batteries simultaneously.

One thing we don’t know about the UFZ100 yet is how much it will cost. Third-party battery manufacturers tend to price their offerings lower than Sony, Canon and Nikon to entice consumers to buy their products, but the added USC-C port on the UFZ100 could make it more expensive.

Nearly two decades into the life of World of Warcraft, Blizzard has just announced the MMO’s ninth expansion. Dragonflight will allow players to explore the Dragon Isles, the ancestral home of Azeroth’s dragonflights. It’s been a while since WoW’s shapeshifting dragons have been the star of its narrative. A cinematic trailer the studio released today recounts the history of the continent.

Consisting of five new zones, the Dragon Isles will introduce the Dracthyr, a new playable race of dragons that can take on a humanoid form. Dracthyr characters can join either the Alliance or Horde, and they’re the only race that can access the expansion’s new Evoker class. As an Evoker, you can either specialize in healing your allies or fighting as a mid-range damage dealer.

Dragonflight will also introduce Dragonriding. While World of Warcraft has had flying mounts since 2007’s Burning Crusade, the new expansion looks to add more dynamism to the activity with special maneuvers drakes can execute while in the air. For instance, you can pull off a swooping divebomb to quickly descend down the edge of a cliff.

In addition to those features, Blizzard said the expansion will ship with quality of life improvements, including a redesigned user interface players can personalize to their liking. There’s also a new talent system for class customization and tweaks to the game’s crafting mechanics.

World of Warcraft Dragonflight does not have a release date yet but expect Blizzard to share more information about the expansion in the coming weeks and months. The studio announced today it also plans to rerelease 2008’s Wrath of the Lich King for World of Warcraft Classic.

Amy Hennig’s Skydance New Media studio is working on not one but two new games with Disney. Following last year’s Marvel announcement, Hennig and company revealed today they’re working on a AAA Star Wars game with Lucasfilm Games. And just like the studio’s Marvel collaboration, fans can expect a “narrative-driven, action-adventure” experience. Lucasfilm Games said the title would tell a new original story set within the Star Wars galaxy but offered few other details on the project, including a release date or target platforms.

“I’ve often described how seeing Star Wars in 1977 essentially rewired my 12-year-old brain, shaping my creative life and future indelibly,” said Hennig, whose previous credits include the Uncharted series from Naughty Dog. “I’m elated to be working with Lucasfilm Games again to tell interactive stories in this galaxy that I love.”

For Hennig, Tuesday’s announcement marks a return to the Star Wars franchise. Before founding Skydance New Media, she worked at EA’s Visceral Games studio on a Star Wars game that was ultimately canceled by the publisher. Her game is one of a handful of new Star Wars titles currently in development. Respawn Entertainment is working on three new games, including a sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Fans can also look forward to Star Wars: Eclipse from Detroit: Become Human developer Quantic Dream.

Apple Store employees attempting to form a union at the company’s flagship Grand Central Terminal location in New York City want the tech giant to pay workers at least $30 per hour. According to CNBC, the group leading the effort, Fruit Stand Workers United, made the request on Monday in an update posted to its website.

“For pay, we seek a minimum $30 for all workers, built up on a matrix based on role, tenure and performance,” the group said. “For benefits, we seek more robust changes, like increased tuition reimbursement, faster accrued and more vacation time, and better retirement options, including higher match rates for 401(k) and enrollment into pension plans.”

According to TheWashington Post, the first outlet to report on the Grand Central Terminal unionization effort, Apple pays retail employees between $17 and up to $30 per hour, depending on their role, experience and location. “We are fortunate to have incredible retail team members and we deeply value everything they bring to Apple,” the company said. “We are pleased to offer very strong compensation and benefits for full time and part time employees, including health care, tuition reimbursement, new parental leave, paid family leave, annual stock grants and many other benefits.”

Organizers with Fruit Stand Workers United recently began collecting signatures from their co-workers. If at least 30 percent of the approximately 270 eligible employees at the store express interest in forming a union, the group can file with the National Labor Relations Board to hold an election. At least three other stores are attempting to form a union, according to The Post.

At the start of the year, Apple announced it would offer additional benefits to all of its US retail employees. As of April 4th, the company’s expanded benefits include increased vacation and sick days, paid parental leave and more. Like many other retailers throughout the pandemic, Apple has had a time tough hiring and retaining frontline workers. Over that same period, the company’s retail employees have complained of difficult working conditions, including issues with low pay, stressful workloads due to staffing shortages and poor morale.

Over the last week, the Elden Ring community has been entranced by Let Me Solo Her, a player whose skill at the tough-as-nails game is matched only by their fashion sense. The legend of LMSH was born when a Reddit user recently shared their experience of battling Malenia, an optional boss you can find toward the end of FromSoftware’s latest game.

The Blade of Miquella is a tough challenge even for the most seasoned Soulsborne veterans. She’s agile with an expansive moveset that becomes more deadly when she enters her second stage. After falling to her katana dozens of times, Reddit user Sazed813 turned to the game’s summoning functionality to call for help.

Like with most of FromSoftware’s recent titles, you can invite other players to assist you with the game’s most challenging boss fights. And when Sazed813 used that feature, Let Me Solo Her answered. For a series known for its fashion police, LMSH immediately stood out. They came into Sazed813’s game with nothing but a pot on his head, two katanas and a loincloth. But what they then went on to do was even more impressive. True to their name, Let Me Solo Her took on Malenia on his own and did so flawlessly.

Since becoming famous, Let Me Solo Her has inspired no shortage of fan art, including a piece that Berzerk creatorKentaro Miura would surely approve of if he were still alive today. And now there’s even a mod for players who want to bring the swordmaster on their adventures.

As Polygon notes, Elden Ring modder Garden of Eyes has created an addon that tweaks the Lone Wolf Ashes, an early-game item you can use to summon a trio of spectral wolves to your side, to instead call forth a computer-controlled version of Let Me Solo Her. You’re not getting the legend himself, but the beauty of the mod is that you can use it almost anywhere where it’s possible to use spirit summons, including fights out in Elden Ring’s open world. The catch is that Garden of Eyes is currently only offering the mod to those who subscribe to their Patreon for $5 per month. But if you ask us, that’s a small price to get a taste of Let Me Solo Her.

Samsung’s Galaxy A52 5G wasn’t the best midrange phone you could buy in 2021, but it did possess some standout features, including a responsive display and versatile camera. It was easy to imagine the company iterating on the A52 5G to make it the top of its class. Sadly, the Galaxy A53 5G is not dramatically different from its predecessor. Samsung has made a handful of tweaks by adding a more efficient processor and a bigger battery. But, at best, they feel like window dressing. Worse, in some ways, the phone feels like a step back.

Display

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

Let’s start with what hasn’t changed. The A53 features a 6.5-inch Super AMOLED display with a 2,400 by 1,080 resolution, 800 nits of peak brightness and a 120Hz refresh rate. That screen is the main reason to buy the A53 — it’s big, vibrant, fast and makes everything from scrolling through social media to watching videos enjoyable. It doesn’t support HDR or offer a variable refresh rate like some of Samsung’s more expensive phones, but that’s not much of an issue. Even with the display set to 120Hz, I could get nearly two full days of moderate use and light gaming from the 5,000mAh battery.

Cameras

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

The A53 also comes with the same quad-camera system as the A52 5G. The standout here is the 64-megapixel main sensor with an f/1.8 aperture lens and optical image stabilization. On a sunny day, the camera and Samsung’s imaging software consistently capture photos with saturated colors. It’s also surprisingly good at preserving both shadow and highlight detail in high contrast scenes. The main camera struggles when there isn’t a lot of light, producing images with a noticeable amount of noise, but that’s something you see on a lot of midrange phones.

A supporting 5-MP depth sensor helps the A53’s main camera take pleasant portrait shots. The A53 also includes one of the better macro modes I’ve used on a midrange device, thanks to an interface that makes it easy to ensure you’ve nailed the focus on your subject. With ample light, the 32-MP selfie camera is likewise capable of capturing flattering photos. By default, Samsung’s beauty filter applies a moderate amount of smoothing, which you can adjust by tapping the “magic wand” icon at the top.

Then there’s the 12-MP ultra-wide camera that feels like an afterthought. It does a decent job of capturing scenes that are too big for the main lens, but there’s a noticeable drop in quality due to its lower resolution. One quirk I noticed across all of the A53’s cameras is that they’re not great at adjusting for color temperature. Many of the shots I took showed a noticeable green or purple tint. They were easy enough to fix with an editing app like Snapseed, but not everyone has the patience for that.

Overall, the A53 features a capable camera system, but I think it’s a missed opportunity. With the A52 5G, Samsung was already behind the curve. Sure, it offered versatility, but phones like the Pixel 5a could take consistently better photos. The A53 does nothing to better position Samsung against the competition in the midrange market and it’s likely to feel even more outdated when the Pixel 6a comes out.

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

There are things Samsung has changed, though, starting with the phone’s exterior. The company has shaved 0.3 millimeters off the A53 to make it 8.1mm thick. At the same time, it removed the headphone jack. As of this review, Samsung is offering a free set of Galaxy Buds Live when you buy the A53 through its website, so at least the company is helping ease the transition? Still, it’s a shame to see the headphone jack go, because it made the A52 5G somewhat unique.

What makes the external tweaks even more disappointing is that Samsung hasn’t addressed any of the issues we had with the A52 5G’s finish. The matte material on the back of the phone is still a magnet for fingerprints and smudges. Also, in the US, Samsung is again only offering the phone in boring black.

Performance

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

I could overlook Samsung removing the headphone jack and leaving the camera as is, if the A53 was fast. Mediocre performance was one of the main reasons we didn’t recommend the A52 5G, and the one notable update the A53 brings to the table is a new chipset. Samsung has equipped this year’s model with its own Exynos 1280 SoC, and it is by far the most disappointing thing about the phone.

Simply put, it’s not much of an upgrade over the A52 5G’s Snapdragon 750G. In my testing, the A53 frequently stalled when I tried to switch between apps, and there was consistent stuttering in regular use. It was also slow to launch and operate the camera app, with a seconds-long delay between my pressing the shutter button and the camera firing. It was even worse when I tried to play games.

Samsung claims the Exynos 1280 offers up to 33 percent faster graphics than the Snapdragon 750G, but I saw regular frame rate drops in games like League of Legends: Wild Rift and Genshin Impact. I suspect some of the A53’s performance woes boil down to the phone only coming with 6GB of RAM. Unfortunately, Samsung doesn’t offer an 8GB variant in the US.

The A53 comes with Android 12 and the latest version of One UI, along with a promised four years of platform updates and five years of security fixes. That’s among the best support you’ll find on a device at this price and Samsung should be applauded for this. But I doubt you will want to hold on to this phone for that long. I can see myself getting fed up with the slow processor within a year.

Wrap-up

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

At $450, the A53 costs $50 less than the A52 5G. That may seem like a bonus, but Samsung doesn’t ship the phone with a wall charger anymore and it hasn’t added wireless charging. The company’s 25W power adapter costs an extra $20. In addition to the Galaxy Buds Live promotion I mentioned earlier, the company is currently offering up to $100 off the A53 if you trade in your existing device.

The A53 is a good purchase if you want the best display you can find for under $500, but there are better all-around options. For instance, the Pixel 5a features a cleaner version of Android, faster updates, as well as a headphone jack and more consistent camera.

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget

If you’re set on a Samsung phone and have an extra $100 to spend, consider the Galaxy S21 FE. At $700, it was overpriced. But nowadays, you can regularly find it for about $550. It offers a much faster processor with WiFi 6 support. Those are things that will make it feasible to keep the S21 FE for longer than you would the A53.

Had Samsung done more to future-proof the A53, it would be easier for me to recommend. But with a middling chipset and a camera that feels stuck in the past, you’re better off spending your money on a phone that you’ll be happy with for years to come.

The day has finally arrived. Following an eleventh-hour delay late last year due to a "critical" battery issue, Panic has begun shipping its long-awaited Playdate portable (spoiler warning: we love it). In an email it sent out on Monday, the company said "Group One" customers will see their handheld shipped out "today and in the coming weeks." If you were among some of the first people to preorder the device back in 2021, Panic says you'll get an email the moment it sends out your unit. 

"We'll ramp up our shipping volume every day to make sure all of our systems are working smoothly," the company said. "We think we can get Group One out the door during the next month." Panic promised to share more information about Group Two orders, including details about delivery estimates, in the future. 

Unfortunately, if you decide to order the handheld today, you're in for a lengthy wait. "We've filled our production capacity for 2022, but we're ramping up to make even more systems," the company says on its website. "The queue for 2023 is quickly growing, so preorder now, and secure your place in line!" 

In court documents filed late Friday, a group of Tesla shareholders said a federal judge recently ruled Elon Musk made “false and misleading” statements in 2018 when he said he was considering taking the company private at $420 per share, reports Reuters. Musk’s now-infamous “funding secured” tweet landed the executive in trouble with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, eventually leading to a $40 million settlement with the agency that he’s now trying to end.

According to those documents, US District Court Judge Edward Chen concluded at the start of the month that Musk had “recklessly made the statements with knowledge as to their falsity.” The investors involved in the class action suit have asked the court to block Musk from continuing his “public campaign to present a contradictory and false narrative” of the episode. The filing comes in the same week Musk shared his version of what went down during a widely watched appearance at the TED 2022 conference.

“The SEC knew that funding was secured but they pursued an active, public investigation nonetheless at the time,” Musk said during the interview. “I was forced to concede to the SEC unlawfully… Now it makes it look like I lied when I did not in fact lie. I was forced to admit I lied to save Tesla’s life, and that’s the only reason.” In the same segment, Musk called officials with the commission’s San Francisco office “bastards.”

On Saturday, Musk’s attorney dismissed the claims made by the investors. “Nothing will ever change the truth which is that Elon Musk was considering taking Tesla private and could have,” he told CNBC. According to the outlet, damages from the lawsuit could amount to billions of dollars that would have to be paid out by Musk and Tesla. The case is currently set to go to trial on May 31st.

Apple Store employees at the company’s flagship Grand Central Terminal location have begun collecting signatures to form a union, according to The Washington Post. In a recent update to their website, the organizers leading the effort say they voted on February 21st to affiliate themselves with Workers United. That’s the same labor union that has helped Starbucks employees across the US unionize.

“Grand Central is an extraordinary store with unique working conditions that make a union necessary to ensure our team has the best possible standards of living in what have proven to be extraordinary times with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and once-in-a-generation consumer price inflation,” the group, known as the Fruit Stand Workers United, said.

Apple declined to tell The Post whether it would support the unionization effort. Those involved in the drive accused the company of employing “union busting” tactics, including messaging that has tried to convince workers that unionization is against their best interests.

“We are fortunate to have incredible retail team members and we deeply value everything they bring to Apple,” a spokesperson for the company told The Post. “We are pleased to offer very strong compensation and benefits for full time and part time employees, including health care, tuition reimbursement, new parental leave, paid family leave, annual stock grants and many other benefits.”

Apple operates more than 270 stores in the US alone. According to The Post, at least three other retail locations are in the process of attempting to form a union. Organizers at the company’s Grand Central location are handing out signature cards. If at least 30 percent of the store’s workers say they’re interested in exploring unionization, Fruit Stand Workers United can petition the National Labor Relations Board to hold an election. 

Amid a pandemic that has had a disproportionate effect on essential workers, many workplaces across the US have begun to unionize, including, most notably, Amazon’s JFK8 fulfillment center on Staten Island. At the start of April, a majority of workers at the warehouse voted to form the first-ever Amazon union. The effort was successful despite the company spending $4.3 million on anti-union consultants in 2021.

After multiple attempts to complete a critical fueling test of its next-generation Space Launch System, NASA has decided to finish the rocket’s “wet dress rehearsal” at a later date. On late Saturday evening, the agency announced it would move the SLS off from its launch pad and back to the Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building to give one of its gaseous nitrogen suppliers time to complete a critical upgrade. Nitrogen supply issues had delayed two previous countdown rehearsals, according to Space News.

NASA will also use the opportunity to replace a faulty helium check valve and repair a minor hydrogen leak technicians found in one of the “umbilical” fuel lines running from the rocket’s mobile launch tower. “During that time, the agency will also review schedules and options to demonstrate propellant loading operations ahead of launch,” NASA said. It promised to share more information about the decision, as well as its plans moving forward, during a press conference scheduled for April 18th.

Since April 1st, NASA has tried three times to complete a “wet dress rehearsal” of the Artemis 1 Moon mission. The test is designed to replicate the countdown procedure the SLS will undergo when the mission hopefully gets underway later this year. NASA most recently attempted to complete a modified version of the test on April 14th, but that trial was cut short after it discovered the aforementioned hydrogen leak in the rocket’s mobile launch tower. Initially, the agency left the door open for another attempt as early as April 21st but then had a change of mind.

The delay may have a domino effect on the timeline for the Artemis 1 Moon mission. NASA has yet to set a date for the flight, and won’t do so until the SLS wet dress rehearsal is complete. Despite all the issues NASA has run into with its next-generation rocket, the agency remains confident it will fly. "There's no doubt in my mind that we will finish this test campaign, and we will listen to the hardware, and the data will lead us to the next step," said Artemis launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson on Friday. "And we will take the appropriate steps, and we will launch this vehicle.”