Finding weird pet-related technology is a CES tradition, and this year is no exception. Take Flappie, for example. The Swiss start-up is showing off an AI-powered cat door that automatically locks if your kitty tries to bring in prey it caught from the outside. 

On the side of the door facing the outside, you'll find a motion sensor and night-vision camera. Flappie says it has compiled a "unique and proprietary" dataset over the years, with a focus on diversity — this means getting lots of different kinds of cats as well as prey, filmed in a variety of different lighting conditions. The company says that its AI-powered detection system is accurate more than 90 percent of the time, which means your cat could still get a mouse inside. But hopefully that'll happen a lot less frequently. 

There are some manual switches on the inside of the door so you can lock and unlock it any time you want as well as turn off the prey-detection system. Eventually, Flappie says that pets are likely to be trained that they can't enter when carrying something, and when they drop the prey the door will promptly unlock so they can get inside. (One of Flappie's co-founders admitted that a smart cat might figure out to drop the mouse, get the door open, pick it back up and then run in. But no solution is foolproof, right?)

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Flappie also included chip detection in its cat door. So if your pet has been microchipped, you can make it so the cat door only opens for your specific pet. And, of course, there's an app so you can control the door from your phone. But if you're not inclined to hook the Flappie door up to the internet, it'll still work via the controls on the door itself. 

For starters, Flappie plans to launch its pet door in Switzerland, Zurich and Germany later this spring, with plans to expand from there once it gets production scaled up. A US launch is part of the roadmap, but there's no word yet on when that'll happen, or how much the Flappie door might cost when it gets here.

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

Mui is no stranger to CES — the company's first wooden smart home control board was shown off way back in 2019, and the company has been working on a second generation model for at least a year now. But, finally, it looks like the new Mui Board will be something you can order, and hopefully get before the end of 2024.

Like the original, the new Mui Board is a wooden, touch-sensitive surface that lets you control smart devices around your home. When it's not in use, it looks like a minimalist little wooden ledge, but when you tap it, the display lights up. It's kind of like a classier, less obtrusive version of a Nest Hub. The smart home controls apply, like adjusting thermostats, turning lights on, locking doors, starting the charger for your electric car and more. Perhaps the most significant change with this new board is that it works with Matter, the smart home standard that may have broad enough support to finally be successful. So while it's a little early to say exactly how that'll affect its usefulness, chances are good it'll be a lot more compatible with your smart home than the original was. 

Despite the fact that the second-generation Mui Board has been in the works for a while, the company says it won't be shipping until the end of 2024. But a Kickstarter campaign for the device opens up on the morning of January 8, with the Board sporting a $499 price tag. Mui's latest feels like a classic CES product from a small company, something with a nice design and intriguing features that is far from guaranteed to be something that makes sense for many people. But if Mui can make its utility can match its whimsy (c'mon, look at these adorable pixelated animals enjoying the forest!), it might be worth having in your home.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

We're reporting live from CES 2024 in Las Vegas from January 6-12. Keep up with all the latest news from the show here.

It’s been four years since Tesla first announced the Cybertruck, a hideously ugly electric pickup truck that didn’t seem to actually improve on EVs or pickups in any meaningful way. Instead, the 6,600-pound mass of “stainless super steel” seems to be more the culmination of one man's bizarre fantasy, and that man just so happened to own an entire company he could leverage to birth that fantasy, with all its sharp angles and unnecessary lighting bars, into reality.

Today, Tesla finally delivered the first, long-delayed production Cybertrucks to 10 buyers in a livestream on CEO Elon Musk’s decimated X platform, the first of an unknown number of wealthy consumers who have bought into his grim vision of the future. It's a car that promises — for only those who can afford them — a blank check for vehicular manslaughter and unnecessary survivability from semi-automatic firearms. Its tagline ("more utility than a truck, faster than a sports car") speaks almost poetically to two distinct but orthogonal archetypes of threatened masculinity: the tacti-cool milspec dork, and the showboating rich guy.

A “bulletproof” body has been a key feature since the Cybertruck's introduction in 2019; today Musk admitted it was there for no good reason. “Why did you make it bulletproof?” Musk said. “Why not?” he said with a broad grin, before metaphorically waving his genitals at the cheering crowd, while also promising metaphorically larger genitals to anyone who buys the Cybertruck. “How tough is your truck?” Musk smirked.

This admission came alongside video footage of a Cybertruck being sprayed with rounds from a .45 caliber tommy gun, a Glock 9mm and a MP5-SD submachine gun, which also uses 9mm rounds. We'd ask Tesla what cartridges they were firing and if they were being shot from within the effective range of any of these weapons, but the company dissolved its PR team in 2019.

It was a stupid but expected bit of showboating from Musk during his rambling presentation. Right before the gunfire demo, Musk touted the truck’s overall toughness, noting that its low center of gravity made it extremely difficult to flip in an accident. A video also showed the Cybertruck barely moving after a much smaller vehicle moving at 38 mph collided with it. To that, Musk commented that “if you’re ever in an argument with another car, you will win,” glibly encouraging Cybertruck owners to engage in such "arguments."

In a country where both traffic fatalities and gun violence have surged in recent years, it’s a little galling to see Musk promoting his vehicle as some sort of tool for rich people to survive the apocalypse, or even just the inconveniences of a world where their lessers occupy space at all. (All-wheel drive Cybertrucks start at about $80,000; a $60,000 RWD model is supposedly arriving in 2025.) “Sometimes you get these late civilization vibes, the apocalypse could come along at any moment, and here at Tesla we have the finest apocalypse technology,” Musk mused.

Beyond that is the simple fact that SUVs and trucks have gotten dramatically bigger and heavier in the past decade or so. EVs naturally weigh more because of their batteries, but auto manufacturers have been making the fronts of cars larger and taller in recent years, too. That’s a combo that makes these vehicles more dangerous for pedestrians and other drivers alike.

“Whatever their nose shape, pickups, SUVs and vans with a hood height greater than 40 inches are about 45 percent more likely to cause fatalities in pedestrian crashes than cars and other vehicles with a hood height of 30 inches or less and a sloping profile,” research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety states. It also noted that pedestrian crash deaths have risen 80 percent since a low in 2009. Anyone who walks or bikes around a city has probably felt that danger before, and it’s even more startling when the wall of a truck stops short when you’re crossing the street. Finally, it’s well known that the speed of a car dramatically impacts the survivability of a pedestrian, which isn’t great when an extremely heavy car also can do 0-60 in less than three seconds.

Now that the Cybertruck is nearly ready for public consumption, it looks like Musk has basically built a vehicle that, for a steep price, enables the worst impulses of US drivers and gives them the “freedom” to do whatever they want. It doesn’t matter if the Cybertruck’s lightbar headlights blind the drivers of smaller vehicles; they should get the hell out of the left lane. And if someone else on the road pisses off a Cybertruck driver, who cares? Other drivers should just accept that they’re about to lose a very expensive and potentially life-threatening “argument” with the Cybertruck’s front fender.

This all should have been obvious right from the start. From day one, the Cybertruck has alluded to a cyberpunk future, a genre with cool haircuts and hacking and slightly problematic orientalism, yes — but also one where wealth inequality is even worse than it currently is, and the rules don’t apply to those with money. The implicit promise of the Cybertruck has always been a vehicle that waives societal standards for people who can afford it, and today’s spectacle made that explicit. To that end, maybe this marketing is as much genius as it is nonsense.

“If Al Capone showed up with a Tommy gun and emptied the entire magazine into the car door, you’d still be alive,” Musk crowed at one point, either promising to revive the dead or oblivious to the terrifying number of human beings who use guns to commit acts of violence. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to live in a world where being swiss cheesed by lethal armaments is something I need to consider when I’m buying a car. Maybe the rich survivalists playing out Blade Runner meets Mad Max in their Cybertrucks haven't considered that when everything burns down, the power grid will go down too.

Google has been trying to make it easier for people to secure their accounts for years now. The company is one of several that are pushing a transition to passkeys from passwords, and they have also sold physical keys for unlocking accounts that support FIDO standards. Today, Google has updated its lineup of Titan security keys with some features that'll make them work better with passkeys as well as passwords.

As before, Google is offering two Titan keys, one with USB-C and another with USB-A. Both keys still support NFC so they can be used to unlock accounts on compatible smartphones as well as through the physical port. The new key supports FIDO2 specifications for password-free sign-ins and can store up to 250 passkeys. 

Google is using this as an opportunity to push people towards using passkeys to protect their Google account — as part of the set-up process, you'll be encouraged to create a passkey and store it on the Titan key rather than continue using your password. At that point, you'll also set up a PIN that can be used in conjunction with the security key to unlock your Google account. But the Titan key can work with any supported account, not just Google. And, of course, you can use it as a two-factor authentication device alongside traditional passwords, as well.

These new Titan keys are on sale today on the Google Store and cost the same as the ones they're replacing. The USB-A model is $30, while the USB-C key costs $35. 

YouTube Premium may have gotten more expensive in the last year (like basically every other streaming service), but the company at least has adding features pretty frequently as well. YouTube Music in particular has gotten a lot of upgrades in 2023, but today YouTube is announcing a number of experimental features and offers for subscribers to check out.

Probably the most significant is that YouTube's "enhanced" 1080p playback feature is coming to everyone, regardless of what device you're using. It started out as an iOS-only feature, but is now available on Android, the web and smart TVs too. This quality setting provides an improved bitrate that YouTube says has more information per pixel. The enhanced 1080p setting started rolling out to some users on the web this summer, but it should be available to all Premium subscribers regardless of what device you're using.

In the same vein, a "continue watching" feature that YouTube launched for phones and on the web is rolling out to tablets and smart TVs as well. Basically, if you're watching a video on one device, all your other ones will remember what you're watching and where you left off so you can seamlessly continue the video. 

You'll also be unsurprised to learn that YouTube is starting to bring AI-generated content into the Premium experience. Earlier this month the company announced it was testing out AI-generated summaries of comment sections as well as a chatbot that can attempt to answer questions about what you're watching. The company didn't do a full announce then, just dropping some info on a YouTube support page, but with today's news you can sign up for a spot to try the chatbot out. YouTube says that only a limited number of people will get into the test, so don't hesitate if you want to give it a shot. You can find the details about YouTube's experimental features here.

YouTube also has a handful of decent perks available for Premium subscribers at the moment. Among them are three-month trials to Discord Nitro, Walmart+, and Game Pass for PCs (the last one is "coming soon"). There's also a four-month subscription to the Calm meditation and sleep app and an "in-game loot bundle" for Genshin Impact. Finally, there are some cute new achievement badges highlighting how much you've watched or listened, among other things. 

As part of the announcement, YouTube also noted that it now has 80 million paid and free trial users of Premium around the world. None of these new features are exactly the kinds of things that'll drive more people to try the service, but existing subscribers should try and get as much as they can out of it — particularly people who are new to Premium in the face of YouTube's recent crackdown on ad blockers.

On the surface, Apple’s new iMac is easy to evaluate. It’s almost identical to the 2021 iMac, with its lovely 24-inch screen and multicolor exterior. In fact, the only difference between the new iMac and the old one is a new chip, the M3 processor. 

As such, everything that we liked about the iMac in 2021 holds true here. It's an extremely well-designed machine, the screen looks lovely, and But the issues we had with it — particularly the specs of the lower-end model — are harder to ignore.

First, the good news. The M3 chip inside the new iMac (paired with 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage in the model I tested) provides more than enough power for my daily workflow. Of course, as a journalist my needs are moderate. I don’t edit 4K movies or run intense music-creation software, and most things I do can be accomplished in a browser. But a ton of Safari tabs coupled with my usual apps like Messages, Photos, Slack, Bear, Apple Music and Trello never slowed it down. More power-hungry apps like Lightroom or Photomater never stuttered either, as I edited and exported RAW photos. I’m particularly glad that the M3 iMac supports up to 24GB of RAM this time around, up from 16GB on the M1 model.

The M3 iMac is also capable of running modern games, at least those that are available for it. In a tale as old as time, game options on the Mac lag far behind what you’ll find on Windows, but the situation is improving. Titles like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Lies of P are the kinds of games you usually wouldn’t expect to see on a Mac. That’s part of an overall trend this year, with other big blockbuster games like the Resident Evil 4 remake, Resident Evil Village and Death Stranding either available now or coming soon.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Both Baldur’s Gate 3 and Lies of P ran well on the iMac. They weren’t running at the highest resolution, but they were still totally playable. And other games from the Mac App Store like NBA 2K24 Arcade Edition and Skate City from Apple Arcade worked without a hiccup — but given those games have to run across a huge variety of lower-powered devices, good performance is basically a given. While no one is going out there buying a Mac with cutting-edge gaming in mind, I am still glad that there are more options than there were a few years ago.

Benchmarks show the M3 is a modest improvement over the M2, which is not a big surprise. The M3 is also almost identical in single-core performance to the M3 Max, which we tested on the new 16-inch MacBook Pro. Of course, that computer blows past the iMac in multi-core performance. But given the iMac’s intended purpose as a family computer, the M3 should be more than enough for most people. Apple Silicon is so performant that people who bought the M1 iMac two and a half years ago likely won’t have much reason to upgrade.

What hasn't changed

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

As for literally everything else: if you’ve seen a 24-inch iMac before, you’ve seen this one. Mine came in a lovely shade of blue — dark and metallic on the back and a more pastel shade on the front. There are six other colors available, all the same as what Apple offered before, and they all make me wish Apple used these bold shades on more of its products. (Seriously, this year’s iPhone 15 colors are terrible.) The display has a 4.5k resolution, splitting the difference between the old Intel-based 21.5- and 27-inch models. I generally find that to be enough, though I do miss the expansive canvas you got on a 27-inch iMac. I’m not alone, but Apple has made it clear that that computer isn’t coming back. If you want a bigger screen, you’re better off checking out a Mac mini or Mac Studio and pairing it with the monitor of your choice.

Despite occasionally wishing it was larger, this panel remains great, with 500 nits of brightness, Apple’s TrueTone technology for adjusting color temperature to your environment and support for the Wide P3 color gamut. It’s not the most advanced display ever since it uses a time-tested LED panel but, once again, the people that Apple is targeting with this computer won’t mind.

The iMac is still extraordinarily thin at 11.5mm and weighs less than 10 pounds. I actually wouldn’t mind if it was just a little heavier. It’s easy to accidentally move the whole computer when I adjust the tilt of the display. And feline owners beware: my cats liked to jump on the desk and nuzzle the iMac, sliding it across my desk. But its minimal weight also makes it easy to move around the house. 

It mostly sat on my desk, but I also brought it down to the bedroom to watch a movie when I was feeling under the weather. My colleague Devindra Hardawar (who reviewed the M1 model in 2021) also sang the iMac’s praises as a computer you can drop in your kitchen, which is not something I could do with my relatively limited counter space. But the point is that this remains the most portable iMac ever, and that opens up some interesting uses.

Apple has done a good job of putting surprisingly solid speakers into its laptops, and it’s also worked out an impressive speaker system to go in the svelte iMac. It has six speakers total with two force-canceling woofers, and this results in clear and relatively loud audio. I prefer using dedicated speakers as I’m a bit of a music nerd, but for casual listening or watching YouTube, this system is far better than you’d expect from such a thin device. The speakers also support Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio for Apple Music, movies and shows via the Apple TV app. Those effects aren’t the most obvious on this system; songs sound different, though not necessarily better, but I’ve found that to be the case no matter what device you’re using to play Spatial Audio.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

As before, the iMac comes with a color-matched keyboard and mouse (and/or trackpad, your choice), a subtle but really nice touch. Mechanical keyboard enthusiasts will scoff, but I continue to find the Magic Keyboard extremely comfortable to type on for extended periods of time, and I love that you can get Touch ID built in now. The Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad are the same ones Apple has been selling for years, and they’re very reliable (though plenty of people are not fans of the mouse’s shape). 

However, Apple really missed a good opportunity to redesign these accessories to use USB-C for charging. Instead, they use the same old Lightning connector that has been on iPhones and other devices for years now. With Lightning’s days clearly numbered, this would have been a perfect time to move to USB-C. At least the included Lightning cable is also color-matched.

Base specs are a big downside

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Most of the things Apple didn’t change with the new iMac don’t bother me — the design and screen all make sense, even if some people wish things were a little different. What doesn’t make sense are the corners Apple is cutting to offer the iMac at a starting price of $1,299. That configuration comes with a paltry 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, which was stingy two and a half years ago and now is completely unacceptable. I can’t in good conscience recommend anyone spend more than $1,000 on a computer with only 8GB of RAM in 2023.

There are other cuts to the entry model that aren’t quite as egregious but are still disappointing. Apple doesn’t include the power adaptor with a gigabit ethernet port, the Magic Keyboard doesn’t have Touch ID, the GPU has eight cores (compared to 10 in the $1,499 model), it only has two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports (the more expensive iMac also has two more USB-C ports) and it only comes in four colors rather than seven. The base iMac might exist mostly as a more affordable model for education, but there’s no reason to handicap yourself with only 8GB of RAM if you’re buying this computer for yourself or your family.

That means you’re spending at least $1,499 to get a computer with 16GB of RAM and all the aforementioned compromises. That’s the same price as the middle-tier iMac, which includes the gigabit ethernet adapter, Touch ID and so on — but it also only comes with 8GB of RAM. Stepping that computer up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, the minimum specs I’d consider for a desktop, comes to a whopping $1,899.

This isn’t a new problem. The company’s entry models often feel artificially limited to push you toward a more expensive option. Just look at the $1,099 MacBook Air, which is also hamstrung by 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, but it feels slightly more forgivable on a laptop. With the iMac, you don’t get improved portability in exchange for poorer specs. In fact, in many ways (except the screen), the iMac is a more limited and more expensive computer than the MacBook Air.

Fortunately, Apple also sells the Mac mini. You can pick up that tiny desktop with an M2 chip, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage for $999, add a nice 4K monitor and you’re good to go for less than $1,500. Of course you lose the niceties of an all-in-one, which aren’t insignificant — I’ve really enjoyed the complete lack of cord clutter on my desk while using the iMac.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Wrap-up

Thanks to Apple Silicon, Apple’s desktop computer lineup is in stronger shape than it’s been in years. For a while, the iMac had to be both a simple all-in-one for those with basic needs as well as a more powerful, pro-focused machine (remember the iMac Pro?). But now, the Mac mini and Mac Studio are compelling options for people who want better performance, leaving the iMac to serve a smaller audience. And it does it well — the screen is great, the M3 is powerful, and the whole thing is shockingly compact. If you want the simplest and easiest Mac experience, the iMac is still the way to go. Just make sure you bump up the RAM.

It's been rumored for years, but Nintendo still managed to surprise us with a late-day announcement: a live-action film based on The Legend of Zelda is in the works, directed by Wes Ball. Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto is producing the film along with Avi Arad, and the film is being co-financed by Nintendo and none other than Sony Pictures Entertainment. You know, part of the same company that owns PlayStation.

Developing...

For my money, web-swinging around New York City in Marvel’s Spider-Man is perhaps the singular best game mechanic I’ve come across in the last decade or so. It feels so incredibly right, and almost everything else in that game is built off it. I never really wanted to use fast-travel features, because swinging around was much more fun, and finding hidden missions and helping citizens in trouble as you traverse NYC is almost as rewarding as following the game’s main story. Of course, a great mechanic isn’t enough to make a great game, but Spider-Man is one of the most successful open-world style games I can think of, because it felt packed without being overwhelming.

My first impressions of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was that developer Insomniac Games turned everything up to 11, packing in more. The map is about twice as big as the original, adding in a chunk of the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens to go along with Manhattan, and the web wings offer a new way of traversing the huge map. There are more playable characters, as you spend nearly equal time jumping between OG Spider-Man Peter Parker and his protégé Miles Morales. Peter and Miles have more special moves than ever before to turn the tides in combat, and there are more skills for them to learn. Conversely, enemies have a lot more ways to mess you up, if you’re not careful.

As such, my main concern for Spider-Man 2 was that Insomniac tried to pack in too much — take what happened to the Assassin’s Creed series with AC: Valhalla as a cautionary tale. However, now that I’ve finished the game, and completed about 75 percent of all the activities and quests available, I can confidently say that Insomniac has built a tight, compelling game with a storyline that ends up with serious momentum, making it all but impossible to put down through the second half. It’s just as satisfying as ever to play as the two Spider-Men, whether you’re flying around NYC or taking on hordes of bad guys. And while the story sucked me in, there are hosts of other things for a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man to do for the city’s citizens, including substantial side quests and smaller activities that enhance the story and your capabilities.

Sony / Insomniac Games

Just like the first game, Spider-Man 2 wastes no time hitting you with a bombastic action sequence that kicks off the game’s main plot. This time, Pete and Miles take on classic villain Sandman, who escapes transport to the city’s prison for super-villains and rampages throughout the streets, getting larger and more difficult to manage. As with the intro of most games, this is meant to teach you the capabilities of the two playable characters, and it does so without feeling too heavy-handed or disconnected from the main meat of the game.

It’s not long before we learn of a new threat to the city: Kraven and his band of hunters are tracking down super-villains for sport and causing plenty of distress while they do so. Perhaps most significantly, they’re trying to return Dr. Curt Connors to his menacing alter-ego, The Lizard, a move that has serious implications for Peter, Miles, Pete’s girlfriend MJ Parker and their friend Harry Osborne. Harry was mentioned but not seen in the first game, as he was ill and in recovery through some very experimental treatment that has returned him to his friends in this episode.

Sony / Insomniac Games

In the first third of the game, the traditional action sequences are augmented by a few flashbacks as well as sections of the game that are more about atmosphere and character-building – like one where teenaged Pete and Harry sneak through their high school, or a sequence where Pete, MJ and Harry enjoy a night at a lovingly-rendered version of the Coney Island boardwalk before things inevitably go awry. Those sequences were a little hit or miss, as they did steal away a bit of momentum – but they also provided a break from the pattern of “travel across the city, investigate, beat up bad guys.”

I won’t spoil how it happens, but the unofficial first act ends with Peter coming into possession of the fabled black symbiote suit, which greatly enhances his powers in combat in a way that’s both fun and also a little distressing. If you know anything about Spider-Man lore, you probably know where the story is going. But without going too deep, I can say that Insomniac created a familiar take on the tale of Spider-Man and Venom that nonetheless has a number of unexpected twists. Like I said earlier, I was positively glued to the game, particularly in the second half. The combination of the compelling story and outstanding gameplay elements simply made it hard to stop playing.

Let’s get into that gameplay. Sony and Insomniac have made a big deal about the fact that you can quickly swap between Peter and Miles to have different Spidey-experiences, and it’s as simple as holding a button down when you’re in the open-world part of the game. But the structure of the story dictates that you’re usually either Peter or Miles as the “lead” character for the main quests. The same goes for some of the side quests and activities you’ll find around NYC; there are plenty that you can achieve as either Pete or Miles, but some require you to switch to a specific character.

Sony / Insomniac Games

There are a number of major set-pieces throughout the game, including the Sandman intro, that blend action between the two Spider-Men. You’ll shift seamlessly between the two characters depending on what the action calls for, but you can’t just switch on the fly. It’s all pretty scripted, which makes sense but is still a little bit of a bummer. And while Miles and his crew of friends that were introduced in 2020’s mini-sequel Spider-Man: Miles Morales get plenty of screen time, the story and action lean slightly more towards Peter. If I had to guess, I’d say you control him for 60 percent of the main story. Miles fans shouldn’t be too disappointed, though, because you get to control him through a few of the game’s most intense and thrilling moments.

Insomniac did a great job of both streamlining and expanding combat. Peter and Miles each have four special attacks you can slot that regenerate through combat, giving you some options for discovering and picking your favorite moves. A lot of the gadgets from the first game return, but they’re easier than ever to access. Previously, if you wanted to use a gadget you’d have to hold R1 and switch from your web-shooters to another option. Now, web-shooters are always triggered by mashing R1, but you can hold R1 and hit one of the four face buttons to activate your slotted gadgets. It’s a great quality of life improvement that makes it a lot easier to deploy everything in your arsenal when you’re in a big battle.

The special attacks are likewise triggered by holding L1 and pressing a face button, and these are the main ways to differentiate between Peter and Miles. Otherwise, their combat skills and abilities are pretty similar, and there are lots of upgrades you can make to increase your health bar or the amount of damage you deal that apply to both characters. There’s a shared Peter and Miles skill tree as well as individual ones for each character that focus on their particular special moves. I was worried managing all this was going to get old and overly complicated, but I never felt overburdened by the variety of choices I could make, thanks partially to the fact that the game is generous about dolling out skill points to redeem.

Sony / Insomniac Games

Some of those skill upgrades relate to traversal — how far you travel when swinging from a web line or how fast you boost off an object. There’s a new skill you can use to web-slingshot yourself into motion, which is great to use when you’re on the ground and want to get moving quickly. But the web wings are the biggest change to how you get around NYC, and they’re a delight to use. Tapping X deploys the wings, and you can search for wind tunnels and updrafts to keep you moving quickly and well above street level.

Web-swinging is still my favorite move, but the wings come in extremely handy for some specific missions, including the wild on-the-river chase that Sony showed off a few months ago. Using the wings almost makes piloting the Spider-Men feel like you’re driving a race car, as you can turn corners a lot quicker and with more precision than I anticipated. It’s a totally different experience than web-swinging, and eventually I found myself switching between both techniques to build up speed or tackle certain geographical challenges as I explored the map.

Probably my biggest complaint with the gameplay is something I remember noticing in the first game: There are more than a few moments where the big climax of an action sequence takes place only in a cutscene, where the player has no control or input into what’s on the screen. I get that there are some sequences that are so far outside of the move set players have that they need to be cutscenes, but the game is otherwise so good at immersing you in large-scale conflicts that it’s jarring to be completely pulled out of the action.

Unlike the previous two games, Spider-Man 2 is exclusive to the PS5;the original was built for the PS4 while Miles Morales had a simultaneous release on both consoles. Insomniac didn’t waste any of the horsepower it had to play with here: the game looks incredible. As with many AAA games, you can pick a “fidelity” mode that runs at 30 fps with full 4K graphics and effects like ray tracing, or scale things down a bit for a higher frame rate (up to 120 fps, if your TV supports it) in “performance” mode. As usual, I went for high frame rates, but spent time in both. Rest assured that, whatever your preference, this game is a graphical stunner, with intricately detailed character models — massive bad guys like the Lizard are particularly stunning.

Sony / Insomniac Games

The city, meanwhile, looks gorgeous whether it’s at sunset or in the train, whether the streets are filled with tourists and pedestrians or deserted from the latest calamity. Local landmarks like Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden and Avengers Tower are rendered lovingly, and the new boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn have their own distinct identities in the game just as they do in real life. I’m looking forward to spending more time just exploring the cities and taking in all the detail Insomniac included, probably while using the expansive Photo Mode for some virtual photography.

Insomniac also took advantage of the DualSense controller’s features like adaptive triggers and impressive haptic feedback. There’s a pleasing amount of tension when using the triggers to swing around the city, as well as a number of times when you’ll need to perfectly balance the amount of pressure you’re putting on the triggers to execute a move. As with most games, the DualSense features don’t radically change the experience, but they enhance it in ways that you might not immediately realize but would notice if they went away.

Sony / Insomniac Games

In the last few years, I’ve had an increasingly hard time coming up with original ways to describe Sony’s first-party games. In the PS4 generation, games like Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War and Spider-Man all combined excellent storytelling with huge worlds and outstanding gameplay. As such, the recent sequels have all felt like they had to up the stakes and make longer, more complicated games. While I love God of War Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West, I also occasionally felt they were just trying to do too much.

That’s not the case with Spider-Man 2. It’s a perfectly balanced game with gorgeous graphics, delightful combat and traversal systems, a compelling storyline and characters, plenty of challenge and a huge map to explore. Perhaps most importantly, though, it’s just fun. In a year where I’ve struggled to connect with games that I expected I’d love, it was a relief to play Spider-Man 2 and immediately get sucked into the world. Whether or not you’ve played Insomniac’s earlier Spider-Man games, anyone should be able to jump into Spider-Man 2 and immediately feel like a superhero.

Google’s pitch for Chromebooks has been pretty straightforward for a while now. They’re laptops that don’t require a lot of fuss, with easy set-up, fast boot times and a simple software update process. They’re also secure from things like viruses and malware, and Google recently committed to 10 years of automatic software updates.

The hardware side of things isn’t quite as simple. Chromebooks started as cheap computers meant mostly for web browsing, but both Chrome OS and the laptops themselves have gotten a lot more advanced since then. There are still plenty of budget models out there, many with questionable build quality or specs; there are also lots of “premium” Chromebooks with powerful internals, high-end screens and great industrial design.

Then there’s a middle ground: utilitarian but well-designed laptops with powerful enough hardware for most users that don’t break the bank. In the last few years, I’ve had a hard time finding that sweet spot, but today Google is announcing the Chromebook Plus initiative to make that easier.

Essentially, Chromebook Plus devices have a guaranteed set of specs to ensure a consistent and quality experience. That means every Chromebook Plus has an Intel Core or AMD Ryzen (7000 series) processor, at least 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. A full 1080p IPS display and 1080p webcam also come standard.

Google

Google and four OEM partners are announcing a total of eight Chromebook Plus models today: two each from HP, Acer, ASUS and Lenovo. With the exception of two 15.6-inch models from Acer and HP, all of these devices will feature 14-inch screens, making them solid all-around options for most people. And while the “Plus” name might imply that we’re strictly talking about premium hardware, like HP’s $999 Dragonfly Pro Chromebook, these devices start at $399. That’s not the absolute cheapest price we’ve seen for a Chromebook, but quality can be hit or miss below that price – but with the Plus initiative, buyers will hopefully be a lot more secure in what they’re purchasing.

Chromebook Plus devices will also get access to a handful of software tricks, including a Material You design, dynamic wallpapers and the Magic Eraser tool in Google Photos. Some of the AI-powered tricks Google uses to improve calls in Meet will also work on other video call platforms, as well. Specifically, you’ll be able to use the auto “improve lighting” and “noise cancellation” features on Meet as well as Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

Google

There’s also a new File Sync feature that’ll automatically keep files from Google Drive locally available for when you’re offline. Google says that’s thanks in part to the minimum 128GB of storage available on Chromebook Plus models, but it’s not clear how the system will decide what to download or how much space to use up. But expanding offline utilities for Chromebooks should nonetheless be handy. Google says that all the software improvements it announced as part of Chromebook Plus will be coming to all Chromebooks that meet these minimum specifications soon, as well.

Google

Google is also smartly partnering with Adobe, who just announced Photoshop for the web last week. While the company acknowledges that it’s a “streamlined” app for the web, it still represents the first time that Chromebook users will get a taste of the Photoshp experience. (It’s worth noting that existing Photoshop customers get access to Photoshop on the web as part of their subscription.)

Adobe and Google are giving Chromebook Plus buyers a three-month trial of Photoshop on the web, along with access to the Adobe Express creation tool that lets you quickly build things like animations, logos, flyers and so forth. Express users Adobe’s Firefly generative AI models, and Chromebook Plus owners will get to try that out too.

Google

Google also teased a slew of AI-powered software improvements coming to Chromebook Plus laptops next year. One is a text composer that understands the context of the tool you’re using, whether it’s something like YouTube video descriptions or short-form comments on social media. There’s also going to be a generative image AI that’ll let you make custom wallpapers for your Chromebook with text prompts. Similarly, you’ll also be able to generate image backgrounds for when you’re on video calls.

The initial eight Chromebook Plus models will be released on October 8. Lenovo will offer two Intel-powered 14-inch models, the IdeaPad Slim 3i and the IdeaPad Flex 5i for $550 and $500, respectively. Acer has a 14-inch Chromebook Plus 514 with a Ryzen 3 or Ryzen 5 processor and the 15.6-inch Chromebook Plus 515, with an Intel Core i3, i5 or i7 processor. Both models are priced at $400.

Google

HP also has a 15.6-inch model with an Intel Core i3 processor for $600 and the Chromebook Plus x360 14 inch with a 360-degree hinge and up to a Core i5 processor for $750. Finally, the ASUS Chromebook Plus CX3402 includes up to an Intel Core i5 processor and a 14-inch screen, while the Chromebook Plus CM34 Flip has a 360-degree hinge and a more rugged design. (ASUS didn’t provide pricing for these models as of publish time.) Obviously there are a lot of smaller details that differentiate all these devices, and we’ll be looking forward to getting our hands on them soon so we can see what this all translates to in terms of the end user experience. But if Google can standardize solid specs across a wider range of price points, it’ll be a lot easier for people who want to give Chromebooks a shot.

When Sonos released its first portable speaker, the Move, four years ago, it was an anomaly. Previously, the company had looked down on Bluetooth as low-quality and unreliable, and all of the speakers it sold required a power outlet. The Move, on the other hand, used Bluetooth or Wi-Fi and had a 10-hour battery.

In 2023, these tricks have proliferated across the Sonos lineup. The more affordable Roam speaker brought the Move’s feature set to a much smaller device, while recent home speakers like the Era 100 and 300 both support Bluetooth, as well. As such, the recently-announced Move 2 doesn’t suggest a new direction for future Sonos products — it simply brings the company’s latest tech and design cues to an existing product.

And, as usual, it’s more expensive — at $449, it’s the same price as the Era 300, which is capable of spatial audio playback. It’s also more expensive than buying an Era 100 and a Roam. Given how Sonos has changed since the original Move, I’ve been trying to figure out what place — if any — the Move 2 has in the company’s lineup.

What hasn’t changed

At first glance, the Move 2 looks nearly identical to its predecessor. It’s a chunky and rather heavy speaker, weighing just over 6.5 pounds, and it’s noticeably bigger than the Era 100. That said, it’s identical in size and weight to the original Move, despite having redesigned internals. Given the speaker’s size and weight, I still see its potential use cases the same as four years ago: you can lug it around the house with the built-in handle and get loud, quality sound anywhere, or bring it outside to power a party in the backyard. But it’s clearly not a speaker you’ll take with you anywhere, like the tiny Roam, which you can tuck in a bag and mostly forget about.

As before, and like all other Sonos speakers, the Move 2 can stream audio over your Wi-Fi network from dozens of services through the Sonos app. If you have other speakers, you can stream the same music to all of them at once, or play different things on each. If you have two Move 2 speakers, you can set up a stereo pair. And for when there’s no Wi-Fi, the Move 2 has Bluetooth.

The Move 2 also has built-in microphones so you can command the speaker with either Alexa or Sonos’ own voice assistant. These also let the speaker automatically tune audio output to optimize sound quality. This auto Trueplay feature first arrived on the Move four years ago and is now available on many of the company’s products. In my experience, it definitely improves the speaker’s output, so I always turn it on. It’s particularly useful on a portable speaker that is constantly used in different spots.

Finally, the Move 2 is built to withstand the elements; its IP56 rating means it is dust- and water-resistant. You can’t actually drop it into a body of water (unlike the smaller Roam, which can survive a dip in the pool), but it’s just fine getting hosed down. It can also withstand a wide temperature range — Sonos said the first Move worked between 14 degrees F and up to 131 degrees F (-10 to 55 Celsius) and confirmed that the Move 2 has the same weather resistance as the original. That’s not something most people will need to worry about, but the Move 2 should survive a night outside in the winter if you forget to bring it in.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

What’s new

While you’d be forgiven for mistaking the Move 2 for the original, there are some significant changes on the inside (and some subtle ones on the outside). The speaker’s top touch controls have been redesigned to match the layout Sonos introduced earlier this year with the Era 100 and 300. Flanking the play / pause button are track forward and back buttons. Previously, you had to double-tap the play button to skip songs, and this is definitely easier. The volume controls are now a slider, but you can also tap the left or right side of the volume area for little adjustments. Finally, there’s a button to mute the speaker’s microphones. And for extra security, there’s also a physical switch on the back of the speaker that cuts power to the mics entirely.

There’s also a USB-C port in the back that can be used for charging or, with the right dongle, as a line-in jack. I hooked the Move 2up to my turntable with no issues, same as I did with the Era 100 and 300. My slight annoyance at needing a dongle is more than tempered by having this option at all — a year ago, only the $550 Sonos Five speaker had line-in, and now it’s available on most of the music-focused speakers Sonos sells.

Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Oh yeah, and the Move 2 comes in olive green in addition to black and white!

Ultimately, there are two big changes that define the Move 2: an improved battery and all new speaker components. Sonos says that the Move 2 should last for “up to 24 hours” — and it seemed to blow past that in my testing. I had the speaker playing music over Wi-Fi for 22 hours and 50 minutes when I went to bed, and the speaker still had a whopping 46 percent of its battery left. When I checked in again 10 hours later, the battery was depleted, so it died sometime between those check-ins. But it’s safe to say you should get the 24 hours Sonos promises and more. That’s more than double the old Move, and more than sufficient for a speaker like this. I’m still testing the Move’s battery and will try and be awake when it dies next time so I can get a better handle on just how long it lasts.

Sonos again included a charging “ring” that you can just place the Move 2 in to power it up. It’s an elegant solution that requires no fiddling with cables. At first, I considered that it might be good to have two of them around the house, but honestly the battery lasts so long that I didn’t find it necessary to set up two “home base” spots. And you can charge it via USB-C, too. It’s not as clean and aesthetically pleasing as using the charging ring, but useful in a pinch.

The new speaker components seem to be inspired by the Era 100. Like that speaker, there are two angled tweeters to provide a semblance of stereo sound, as well as one midwoofer. The original Move, on the other hand, had a single downward-firing tweeter and a midwoofer. Thanks to the two tweeters, the Move 2 is technically a stereo speaker — but as with the Era 100, it’s nothing like the stereo separation you get from a pair of speakers. The fact that there’s no left-right balance control in the app for the Move 2 indicates that there’s only so much true separation between the two channels here, a fact of life given how close together the two tweeters are.

My go-to track for testing these stereo capabilities is “Such Great Heights” by The Postal Service, and the ping-ponging electronic intro and hard-panned vocals that jump between the left and right channels still more or less sounded like they were coming from a single spot. There’s a little space between them, but it doesn’t sound all that different from playing the song through the mono Sonos One speaker.

That quibble aside, the two tweeters in the Move 2 provide improved clarity over the original. It’s a clear, well-balanced speaker that faithfully reproduces sound across all ranges of the spectrum. Bass is prominent but not overdone, and the high end is distinct and detailed, especially compared to the original Move, which could get muddier than I liked. The Move 2 replicated the intricate details in delicate albums like Daughter’s Stereo Mind Game and End, the latest from Explosions in the Sky, and dance floor tracks like Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now” and Tove Lo’s “No One Dies From Love” had plenty of low end power.

It’s also a very loud speaker – inside the house, I never really needed to turn it above 50 percent, except when I simply wanted to hear what it could do. Going much above 70 percent gets downright startling. But as with the old Move, Sonos gave this speaker extra oomph for outdoor spaces where sound dissipates much easier.

The main issue with the Move 2 is that you still sacrifice sound quality for portability. The Move 2 costs $449, the same price as the Era 300. That speaker has four tweeters and two woofers and can play back audio in Dolby Atmos. The whole spatial audio experience can be hit-or-miss depending on the quality of the mix, but even without that, there’s no doubt in my mind that the Era 300 is a more capable speaker.

Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Another way you could spend that $449 would be to get an Era 100 ($249) and Roam ($179). That gets you an indoor speaker that sounds just as good as the Move 2 plus a portable speaker that’s much smaller and easier to take with you. To be clear, the Move 2 is far more powerful than the Roam, with better sound quality and the volume to fill a large outdoor space. The Roam, on the other hand, is for portable, personal use. It comes down to what you think you’ll need more: portability or power.

Despite my feelings that the Move 2 is somewhat of a niche device, a quick look at the market shows there are plenty of competing products with similar price points and features. Speakers like the JBL Boombox 3, Ultimate Ears Hyperboom and Bose Portable Smart Speaker all offer similar feature sets to the Move 2, and the Move 2’s vastly improved battery life means it should fare better than the earlier device in these comparisons.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Wrap up

Due to its price and size, the Move 2 isn’t the ideal portable speaker for everyone. But that’s OK, because it does succeed as a speaker that you can rely on for high-quality and seriously loud audio. It’s well-suited to being your main speaker inside the house as well as something you can take to the porch or backyard to power a party. And while it won’t comfortably slip into a backpack, it should make a good road trip companion. I could definitely see tossing it in the car and bringing it on my summer vacation with me.

The battery and speaker upgrades make it a worthy improvement over its predecessor, as well, though I am disappointed to see Sonos raise the price yet again on one of its products. But if you’re looking for one speaker that can cover as many bases as possible, the Move 2 fits the bill — and it’ll be that much more useful if you have other Sonos products to pair it with.