New Year’s resolutions are usually set with the best intentions – I may have already failed at one of mine already — but the right tools (and resolution, if I’m honest) can make achieving those goals easier.

Naturally, with all the wearables and smartwatches around, there’s a fitness theme to half of our guide, but smartwatches can help nudge you into better habits and even remind you to meditate, which is something I’ve set up on my Apple Watch this week.

We’ve also got to-do list app recommendations, cable organizing advice (that is a weak-ass New Year resolution) and help on how to cultivate a new reading habit in 2024.

What are your resolutions for the coming year? And what will you do (or buy) to achieve them?

– Mat Smith

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

The biggest stories you might have missed

The Morning After: The biggest tech stories of 2023

The biggest winners in tech in 2023

How to find and cancel your unused subscriptions

Some Vizio TV owners can claim a share of a $3 million settlement

CES 2024: What we expect to see in Las Vegas this year

Wireless TV, plug-and-play solar and next-gen headphones.

The Engadget team is prepping itself for another tour (in military terms) of Las Vegas. CES is back again. Alongside the glory of huge TVs in every size, new autonomous car tech and weird robots that will never make it outside of tech trade shows, we’ve compiled a few predictions for all the tech companies and startups planning to attend. We’ve got next-gen headphones, new display technology and more.

The show officially runs from January 9 - 12, though we'll be on the ground well before that. The first CES-related events will kick off on January 7, so get ready!

Continue reading.

LG is bringing a 4K projector with a weird handle to CES 2024

The CineBeam Qube weighs just 3 pounds.

LG

LG’s latest 4K projector looks a little like, well, I’ll say it: an objet d’arte from TJ Maxx. I say that from a place of love: I’d love a projector that looks like this. I mean, it has a handle that looks like a crank! The style does betray the high-tech insides. The CineBeam Qube can blast 4K images that measure up to 120 inches, with an RGB laser light source, a 450,000:1 contrast ratio and 154 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut.

Continue reading.

Meta's Quest 2 headset is about to get even cheaper

The price has dropped permanently to $249 following the launch of the Quest 3.

Meta is permanently cutting the price of its Quest 2 VR headset to $250 following the launch of the Quest 3, according to Meta’s official Quest blog. The Quest 2 has been on sale at that price since Black Friday anyway, but a new official retail price might spell even better deals for the previous-gen model in the next few months.

Continue reading.

Take a look at this dreamy timelapse of Mars

From NASA’s Curiosity rover.

NASA

NASA’s robotic Mars explorers were given some time off, as a natural phenomenon would likely interfere with communications. Leading up to the pause, the Curiosity rover was put in park — but its Hazard-Avoidance Cameras (Hazcams) kept snapping away. By the end of the period, Curiosity recorded the passage of a Martian day over 12 hours from its stationary position, as the sun moved from dawn to dusk. 

Take a look.

New Year’s resolutions are usually set with the best intentions – I may have already failed at one of mine already — but the right tools (and resolution, if I’m honest) can make achieving those goals easier.

Naturally, with all the wearables and smartwatches around, there’s a fitness theme to half of our guide, but smartwatches can help nudge you into better habits and even remind you to meditate, which is something I’ve set up on my Apple Watch this week.

We’ve also got to-do list app recommendations, cable organizing advice (that is a weak-ass New Year resolution) and help on how to cultivate a new reading habit in 2024.

What are your resolutions for the coming year? And what will you do (or buy) to achieve them?

– Mat Smith

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

The biggest stories you might have missed

The Morning After: The biggest tech stories of 2023

The biggest winners in tech in 2023

How to find and cancel your unused subscriptions

Some Vizio TV owners can claim a share of a $3 million settlement

CES 2024: What we expect to see in Las Vegas this year

Wireless TV, plug-and-play solar and next-gen headphones.

The Engadget team is prepping itself for another tour (in military terms) of Las Vegas. CES is back again. Alongside the glory of huge TVs in every size, new autonomous car tech and weird robots that will never make it outside of tech trade shows, we’ve compiled a few predictions for all the tech companies and startups planning to attend. We’ve got next-gen headphones, new display technology and more.

The show officially runs from January 9 - 12, though we'll be on the ground well before that. The first CES-related events will kick off on January 7, so get ready!

Continue reading.

LG is bringing a 4K projector with a weird handle to CES 2024

The CineBeam Qube weighs just 3 pounds.

LG

LG’s latest 4K projector looks a little like, well, I’ll say it: an objet d’arte from TJ Maxx. I say that from a place of love: I’d love a projector that looks like this. I mean, it has a handle that looks like a crank! The style does betray the high-tech insides. The CineBeam Qube can blast 4K images that measure up to 120 inches, with an RGB laser light source, a 450,000:1 contrast ratio and 154 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut.

Continue reading.

Meta's Quest 2 headset is about to get even cheaper

The price has dropped permanently to $249 following the launch of the Quest 3.

Meta is permanently cutting the price of its Quest 2 VR headset to $250 following the launch of the Quest 3, according to Meta’s official Quest blog. The Quest 2 has been on sale at that price since Black Friday anyway, but a new official retail price might spell even better deals for the previous-gen model in the next few months.

Continue reading.

Take a look at this dreamy timelapse of Mars

From NASA’s Curiosity rover.

NASA

NASA’s robotic Mars explorers were given some time off, as a natural phenomenon would likely interfere with communications. Leading up to the pause, the Curiosity rover was put in park — but its Hazard-Avoidance Cameras (Hazcams) kept snapping away. By the end of the period, Curiosity recorded the passage of a Martian day over 12 hours from its stationary position, as the sun moved from dawn to dusk. 

Take a look.

What do you do when the tech world mostly grinds to a halt at the end of December? You reheat your hot takes, force a narrative thread on a company's ups and downs and edit it all up for consumption. 

Yes, it's a little quiet at the end of the year (barring Apple Watch bans), but that won't stop TMA from finding something for me to talk to himself about. We’re looking at a few of the major stories from the last 12 months and .. some other things where I just has to say my piece. And if not on a short YouTube video that's clipped, cropped and pushed into socials, then where? On X? Pschh.

This week:

🤖💬🤖 How OpenAI's ChatGPT has changed the world in just a year

📲🔋 Apple's switch to USB-C on the iPhone 15 brings more cable confusion

🎮🎮🎮 Microsoft officially owns Activision Blizzard

And read this:

I couldn't cover all the big things in tech in one tiny video. I'd recommend taking a look at all of the big tech wins in 2023 (and all the big losses), and it's definitely worth reading through our picks of the best games of the year. 

Like email more than video? Subscribe right here for daily reports, direct to your inbox.

Google’s Chrome has long featured the ability to launch the browser in Incognito mode, offering a seemingly blank slate for your internet browsing, away from your usual cookies, forms and web history. But that seemingly didn’t mean Google wasn’t keeping an eye on where you were browsing.

The company faced a lawsuit in 2020 that accused it of tracking Chrome users' activities even when they were using Incognito mode. Google has now agreed to settle the complaint that originally sought $5 billion in damages, after failing to get the suit dismissed.

The plaintiffs said Google used tools like its Analytics product, apps and browser plug-ins to monitor users. By tracking someone on Incognito, the company was falsely making people believe that they could control the information that they were willing to share with it.

The lawsuit's plaintiffs revealed internal emails that allegedly showed conversations between Google execs proving that the company monitored Incognito browser usage to sell ads and track web traffic. Which does sound like a thing Google would do. According to Reuters and The Washington Post, neither side has made the details of the settlement public.

– Mat Smith

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

The biggest stories you might have missed

This is the future of generative AI, according to generative AI

Apple reportedly faces pressure in India after sending out warnings of state-sponsored hacking

Russia will assist NASA with ISS space flights through 2025

The best PS5 accessories for 2024

Xiaomi says its EV can outperform Porsche and has more tech than Tesla

It tapped former BMW and Mercedes designers.

Xiaomi

Xiaomi, best known for its smartphones, smart home peripherals, and many other things, has made an EV. Unveiled at a Beijing event yesterday, the Xiaomi SU7 — pronounced "soo-chee" in Chinese — is a sedan that will come in two flavors: the dual-motor all-wheel-drive SU7 Max, and the single-motor rear-wheel-drive SU7.

Xiaomi claims the SU7 Max has a range of up to 800km and a 0-100km/h acceleration of just 2.78s, both of which apparently beat Tesla's Model S and Porsche's Taycan Turbo. There’s also a lot of tech splashed around, with a dedicated in-car entertainment system, ports for your (Xiaomi, of course) tablets and headlamps designed to look like the chinese character for rice – also the ‘mi’ in Xiaomi. We’ve chewed over all the details below.

Continue reading.

Apple is selling its contested Watch models again

Both the Series 9 or Ultra 2 are available again from the company’s website.

The Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 are back on sale, after a federal appeals court in Washington D.C. granted a temporary pause on an import and sales ban. However, Apple’s wearables aren’t out of the woods just yet: the ban could be reinstated on January 10, when the International Trade Commission (ITC) decides on whether to grant Apple a longer pause.

The ban could also return on January 13, when the same agency makes a decision regarding Apple’s redesign of both smartwatches. The original ban lasted a little more than a day.

Continue reading.

Look at LG’s two-legged robot

It’ll feature AI-powered skills and face recognition.

LG

Yes, CES is in a couple of weeks. Why do you ask?

Continue reading.

​​

It was an amazing year for games. While there were no new consoles,we did get new VR headsets and a wave of new handheld PCs offered even more options for playing games on the go (or at least on the couch). That’s reflected in many of our picks for best games of the year, with several PC-only choices.

The year kicked off with a fantastic remake of space horror Dead Space and the breakout success, Pizza Tower. But there were so many more. Obvious selections? Yes: the latest Zelda epic is there, as is Baldur’s Gate 3. If you’ve got some time between Christmas and New Year, there may be no better way to spend it than with one of these games. I’ve got Cocoon waiting for me.

— Mat Smith

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

The biggest stories you might have missed

The Right to Repair movement won its biggest victories in 2023

Deathloop is free on PC for Amazon Prime members

The first EV with a lithium-free sodium battery hits the road in January

The Apple Watch import ban is paused — for now

What happens next depends on the ITC's response.

Urgh, tech news whiplash. A federal appeals court in Washington D.C. has allowed Apple to continue importing the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 models. This was just a day after Apple filed its appeal against the International Trade Commission’s decision to ban imports of both models of the Apple Watch due to a patent dispute. But you probably read all about that – multiple times.

Continue reading.

The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement

The AI companies used the newspaper's articles for training.

The backlash on AI companies and their tools continues to grow – these AI models need information from somewhere. The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft for using its news articles to train its artificial intelligence chatbots without an agreement that compensates it for its intellectual property. It alleges more than 66 million records, ranging from breaking news articles to op-eds, published across the NYT websites and other affiliated brands were used to train the AI models. The NYT also says these AI products can generate output that “mimics its expressive style.” This mirrors complaints from comedians and authors like Sarah Silverman and Julian Sancton.

Continue reading.

Swedish Researchers develop ‘electronic soil’ that speeds up plant growth

‘eSoil’ is here.

Thor Balkhed/Linköping University

Researchers from Linköping University in Sweden have developed a ‘bioelectronic soil’. It can apparently speed up the growth of plants in hydroponic spaces, or farms that grow plants in environments made up of mostly water. After integrating the engineered ‘eSoil’ into the framework where seedlings grow, researchers discovered that sending electrical signals through the soil made barley plants grow 50 percent more on average.

This is done through a conductive polymer within the soil and applying a voltage as small as 0.5V on the eSoil to stimulate the roots electrically.

Continue reading.

Microsoft, a notoriously conservative and slow-moving giant, is bringing artificial intelligence right into the heart of Windows. But. after investing a total of $13 billion in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI (and acquiring a 49 percent stake in the process), will AI actually make its products better?

Microsoft went to town. Bing Chat officially kicked off its year of AI, while Copilot, assisting with its AI smarts, subsequently launched on Edge, Microsoft 365 products like Word and Powerpoint and eventually Windows 11.

While the AI interactions aren’t perfect, the one constant around AI is that everything is changing incredibly quickly. Microsoft has already announced Copilot will be upgraded with the more powerful GPT-4 Turbo and Dall-E 3 models.

– Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

How the EU forced tech companies to change in 2023

The best Xbox Series X and Series S accessories in 2024

CBS and Paramount’s parent company reports hack affecting over 80,000 people

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Amazon's Prime Video will start serving ads on January 29, 2023

You'll have to pay $3 a month on top of your subscription to get rid of commercials.

Amazon is telling its Prime Video subscribers that they have to pay extra if they don't want their viewing experience interrupted by commercials. It will start showing "limited advertisements" with its service's movies and shows starting on January 29. If they want to keep it ad-free, they’ll have to pay an extra fee of $3 a month on top of their Prime subscription or their standalone $9-a-month Prime Video membership. The company says it’s all for “increasing investment” in its shows and movies. Lord of the Rings doesn’t pay for itself.

Continue reading.

Apple appeals ban on Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2

It went into effect today, but the company says it's taking “all measures” to reverse course.

Engadget

Apple filed its appeal to the International Trade Commission (ITC), attempting to reverse a ban on US sales of the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2, according to court records. The company’s also requesting an emergency stay on the ban until a decision is reached regarding proposed redesigns of both smartwatch models. The matter even went before President Biden, with Apple hoping in vain for a veto. The ban officially goes into effect today, though Apple started pulling smartwatches from its digital and physical storefronts last week.

Continue reading.

Fan-made Fallout: London is finally coming this April

It has been described as a ‘DLC-sized mod for Bethesda’s Fallout 4’.

Team Folon

An impressive-looking Fallout: London mod has been on our radar for a couple of years, and now the fan-made adventure has an official release date of April 23. The team behind it claim it’s a “DLC-sized mod” for Bethesda’s Fallout 4, built from the bones of the 2015 sequel. The trailer shows off a post-apocalyptic London, with iconic locations like Big Ben, Shakespeare's Globe and Trafalgar Square,

Continue reading.​​

A video of Taters the cat beamed across 19 million miles of space because NASA had to try it. It was a successful demonstration of new laser communication technology, through which NASA beamed an ultra-high-definition video across deep space, from the Psyche spacecraft back to Earth. The signal from the video, sent on December 11, made it to Earth in 101 seconds.

That data speed — through space — is faster than most broadband connections on Earth.

— Mat Smith

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

The biggest stories you might have missed

How we built a less-explodey lithium battery and kickstarted the EV revolution

The best books we read in 2023

Engadget Podcast: Diving into the Apple Watch sales ban

The best budgeting apps to replace Mint

Apple reportedly wants to team up with news publishers to train its AI

It’s offering publishers deals worth at least $50 million, according to The New York Times.

Apple has apparently started negotiating with major publishers and news organizations to use their content to train its generative AI system. The company doesn’t expect to get its hands on content for free, though, and The New York Times says it’s offering them multi-year deals worth at least $50 million. While some of the publishers are reportedly concerned about the repercussions of letting Apple use their news articles throughout the years, the company is building goodwill simply by asking for permission and showing willingness to pay.

Continue reading.

Humane Ai Pin orders will start shipping in March

The next-gen wearable, which taps into artificial intelligence, starts at $699.

Humane

The Humane Ai Pin is expected to start shipping in March. On Friday, the company posted on X that “those who placed priority orders will receive their Ai Pins first when we begin shipping in March.” The company previously gave an “early 2024” estimate for the screen-less, $66 wearable device, which Humane believes is the next-gen hardware to replace smartphones.

Instead of a screen, the Ai Pin relies on voice cues and a projector that beams info onto the user’s hand.

Continue reading.

Mint Mobile says hackers accessed customer information during a security breach

Affected customers have been notified by email.

Mint Mobile, the prepaid mobile carrier backed by Ryan Reynolds, notified customers via email this weekend that their information may have been stolen in a security breach. That information includes names, phone numbers, email addresses and SIM and IMEI numbers. Hackers did not access customers’ credit card information, which Mint says is not stored, nor were passwords compromised.

Continue reading.

It's Christmas Eve Eve, so I've phoned in this week's TMA and shouted "Lost In Space!" to myself. What a time to be alive. I'm also stoking the flames of the console wars in 2023. Yes, Sony announced its sold 50 million PS5 consoles so far. Xbox doesn't offer its own official figures (because of this eventuality?) but analysts say, during this year, Sony outsold Microsoft consoles three to one. 

There's also an outright ban on Apple Watches — at least the two newest models — over patent issues. Apple needs President Biden himself to turn the ban around, but it doesn't look like he will before the ruling come into power. 

This week:

⌚️⛔️ The Apple Watch ban is here

🤳🧑🏽‍🔧 Samsung adds foldables to its self-repair program for the first time

🎮🕹️ Sony has sold 50 million PS5 consoles over three years

And read this these:

We're wrapping up our year with a barrage of features and editorials on the year that was 2023. Want to know how X declined and declined and declined? How about the sudden pause on autonomous taxis and the many disasters in the last 12 months? Or how about a year of layoffs and acquisitions across a lot of gaming industry? There are more stories, of course, but you'll have to wait for next week to read those.

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Along with a countdown showing the next Unpacked will be on January 17, leaker Evan Blass shared a spec sheet that purports to break down the components of the Galaxy S24 lineup. Just like the S23 (pictured above), expect three Galaxy devices: the regular model, an S24+ and an S24 Ultra. All three are slated to run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

The leak suggests Samsung will offer Space Zoom of up to 30x and dual telephoto zoom of up to 3x in the Galaxy S24 and S24+, while Ultra will probably have a beefier camera system. If the leak proves true, it will have a 200MP main lens, with up to 10x quad telephoto and 100x Space Zoom.

So far, the Samsung S24 lineup isn’t likely to have any terribly exciting upgrades in designs and pure specs. These are likely to include the company’s own Gauss generative AI systems, so as with Google’s Pixel series, the hardware may only tell half the tale. Let’s see what appears next year.

— Mat Smith

​​

The biggest stories you might have missed

How China’s chip production boomed in 2023 despite sanctions 

Netflix milks Squid Game again with a $39 in-person ‘experience’

Why Apple is no longer selling the Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra

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

Hyperloop One is shutting down

No high-speed transportation system between Europe and China.

David Becker via Getty Images

Hyperloop One had once dreamed of building a high-speed freight link between Europe and China, one that could take cargo from one end to the other in a single day. But the dream is pretty much dead. Hyperloop One is shutting down, a staff member has confirmed to Engadget after Bloomberg reported its closure. Which Hyperloop company was this again? From 2017 until 2022, it was known as Virgin Hyperloop One due to an investment from Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. Virgin quietly pulled its branding last year when the company abandoned its plans to transport passengers to focus on a cargo-only service. The company couldn’t secure a contract to build a working hyperloop system.

Continue reading.

Beeper says it’s done playing cat and mouse with Apple over its iMessage app

It issued one last fix for current users.

Beeper versus Apple has been our own little David and Goliath matchup, but it looks like the saga’s coming to a close. The Beeper Mini chat app, which lets Android users send iMessage missives to its iOS buddies, has issued yet another fix after Apple once again disabled access to the iMessage platform. The company says this will be the last fix released. Beeper wrote in a blog post today that it’s done “playing a cat-and-mouse game with the largest company” on the planet. Be warned: It’s… convoluted.

Continue reading.

GTA 6 hacker sentenced to an indefinite hospitalization after mental health assessment

He hacked Rockstar Games from a hotel with a Fire TV stick.

Rockstar

A London judge has sentenced the teenage hacker who infiltrated Rockstar Games, leaking Grand Theft Auto VI footage, to an indefinite hospitalization. Arion Kurtaj breached Rockstar’s servers from a Travelodge hotel while under police custody, using only an Amazon Fire TV Stick, smartphone, keyboard and mouse. (He was promptly re-arrested.) Kurtaj was a central member of the Lasus$ international hacking group.

The two accomplices (the other is 17 so can’t be named) are the first Lapsus$ members to be convicted. Authorities believe others in the group (suspected to be primarily teenagers in the UK and Brazil) are still at large. It isn’t clear what kind of payoff the hackers got from the ransom requests, if any, as none of the affected companies have admitted to ponying up.

Continue reading.

Microsoft is nixing its Windows mixed-reality platform

This shouldn’t impact the Hololens 2.

Microsoft is shutting down its Windows Mixed Reality platform, according to an official list of deprecated Windows features. This includes the garden variety Windows Mixed Reality software, along with the Mixed Reality Portal app and the affiliated Steam VR app. The platform isn’t gone yet, but Microsoft says it’ll be “removed in a future release of Windows.”

Microsoft first unveiled Windows Mixed Reality back in 2017 as its attempt to compete with rivals in the VR space, like HTC and Oculus (which is now owned by Meta.) We were fascinated by the tech when it launched as it offered the ability for in-person shared mixed reality. But uptake seemingly wasn’t big enough. Thank goodness I can still use MS Office on my Quest headset…

Continue reading.

The European Union says three porn sites are now subject to stricter rules under the Digital Services Act (DSA). It has designated Pornhub, Stripchat and XVideos as “very large online platforms” (VLOPs) after determining they each have an average of more than 45 million monthly users in the EU. This means they will face the same rules as Facebook, X, and TikTok. (Is the discourse in comments really worse than parts of X? Yes. Probably.)

The three porn sites have four months to comply with additional obligations. That includes measures to prevent the spread of illegal content, which includes “child sexual abuse material and content affecting fundamental rights, such as the right to human dignity and private life in case of non-consensual sharing of intimate material online or deepfake pornography.”

The penalties for failing to comply with the DSA’s requirements are severe. Platform holders can be fined up to six percent of their annual global revenue.

— Mat Smith

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

The biggest stories you might have missed

What we bought: How YNAB gives me financial peace of mind

Tesla knew some of its parts had high failure rates but reportedly blamed drivers anyway

How to create stickers on the iPhone using your photos in iOS 17

E-scooter rental company Bird files for bankruptcy

It will continue to operate as usual, for now.

REUTERS/Mike Blake

After laying off nearly a quarter of its staff last year, e-scooter rental company Bird has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Bird launched in multiple cities in 2017, amid a lot of hype framing e-scooters as a sustainable urban mobility solution. The company continued to expand despite a lack of profitability (following the Uber model), but the COVID pandemic forced the company to halt operations in multiple locations around the world. Since then, cities have also become more hostile to e-scooter rentals. This filing doesn’t affect Bird Canada or Bird Europe, which are separate organizations. Unfortunately. So, I can expect to keep tripping over the e-scooters dotted around London in 2024.

Continue reading.

Watch an AI robot learn to demolish humans at a marble maze game

CyberRunner beat Labyrinth faster than any previously recorded time.

ETH Zurich

ResearSo I can expect to keep tripping over e-scooters dotted around London in 2024.chers have developed an AI-powered robot they claim can beat Labyrinth, the physical marble game, faster than humans. The aim of these games is to guide a marble through a maze without falling into any holes, using two dials to angle the board. Thomas Bi and Raffaello D’Andrea of ETH Zurich created CyberRunner, which combines model-based reinforcement with the dexterity needed to beat the game. The joke is on AI, though — marble mazes are boring.

Continue reading.

Sony has sold 50 million PS5 consoles so far

It’s estimated to have outsold the Xbox Series X and S by three to one this year.

The PlayStation 5 has officially hit the 50 million sales milestone, despite all the supply chain issues that kept PS5s in limited supply. Oh, and a pandemic. Fun fact: It took the PS5 a week longer than PlayStation 4 to reach 50 million sales. According to the Financial Times, Sony has also outsold the Xbox Series X and S by almost three to one this year, based on data from Ampere Analysis. While Microsoft doesn’t release official Xbox sales numbers (I wonder why…), Ampere estimated Microsoft sold 7.6 million next-gen systems this year, while Sony’s sales reached 22.5 million units.

Continue reading.