Collaboration is a huge part of Google Docs, letting multiple users chip in edits, comments and more. Now, you can include not just text in your comments but emoji reactions, much as you can in messages or on social media. "The new emoji reactions feature provides a less formal alternative to comments to express your opinions about document content," Google said in a blog post announcing the feature.
Google
The new option appears when you highlight text in a document while in "editing" mode. From there, you'll see a new "add reaction" icon smiley face icon that lets you place emojis in the editing comments section. Google notes that emojis used will be shared with Google chat, "so any preferences set in one app will be reflected in the other." Both apps can also be used to update emoji preferences via the picker.
Google recently feted the 15th anniversary of Docs (along with Sheets). It has gradually boosted the feature set over that time, with the last update allowing you to draft emails in Docs and then send them using Gmail.
Emoji reactions on a Google Doc could be an easy way to add feedback, but then again they may not fly in some business environments. Either way, the feature can't be disabled by the user and "there is no Admin control for the feature," according to Google. The feature started officially rolling out yesterday, but it may take some time to appear depending on your domain type and region.
If you were trying to watch Drake, Taylor Swift, Lil Nas X, The Weeknd, Eminem, Ariana Grande, Harry Styles, Kanye West, Michael Jackson and other artists on YouTube this morning, you may not have seen what you expected. Music video network Vevo was reportedly attacked by someone with the Twitter handle @lospelaosbro, who uploaded some extremely strange clips, The Verge reported. Those included video of a rapper called Lil Tjay and a man called Paco Sanz who was sent to jail for scamming donations after lying about having cancer.
Vevo acknowledged the incident to The Verge, saying that "some videos were directly uploaded to a small number of Vevo artist channels earlier today by an unauthorized source." It added that no pre-existing content was accessible to the attacker and said that it would be "conducting a review of our security systems."
Vevo is owned primarily by music labels Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. The company says it controls "the largest network of music channels on YouTube," and essentially acts like a contractor, allowing distributors to merge Vevo channels with existing channels as "Official Artist Channels." Google supplies ads for Vevo videos and also owns a small stake in the service.
According to a Vevo FAQ, artists don't post their videos directly, but send them to "content providers" for uploading. Content providers include major labels like Universal Music Group and Sony Music, along with independent distributors. The hacked artist channels belong to multiple labels and Vevo said that they have now been secured and the incident is resolved.
The price for an Amazon Music Unlimited plan is going up from $8 to $9 for Prime members, Amazon has confirmed. It's also raising the price for a "Single Device" subscription from $4 to $5, as spotted byConsumer Reports reporter Nicholas De Leon. Non-Prime members will continue to pay $10 per month and the Family Plan will still cost $15 per month for Prime members only.
The news means that Prime subscribers are barely getting any kind of deal on Amazon Music Unlimited, whereas Prime Video is still included for free in the plan. The price is still a bit cheaper for Prime members than you'd pay for Apple Music ($10 per month) or Spotify ($10 per month). Amazon also offers Music Prime for free to Prime members, but you're limited to 2 million songs and can only play on one device at a time.
Amazon Music Unlimited is obviously best if you're a Prime subscriber and have an Echo or other Alexa device, though it works on tablets, smartphones, TVs, Amazon Fire devices, PCs and so on. However, the user interface is generally considered subpar compared to Apple Music or Spotify, lacking things like biographies in artist profiles. Some of the benefits include downloads for offline listening and HD, Dolby Atmos and Sony 360RA streaming at no extra cost.
With Sony and Canon dominating headlines, Nikon has been the forgotten company in the mirrorless race. That’s set to change, though, with the launch of the 45.7-megapixel Z9. It’s an innovative professional camera that offers awesome speed, incredible detail and outstanding 8K video capabilities.
Nikon is breaking some new ground with this camera, too. It’s the first mirrorless model with no mechanical shutter, relying instead on a fast sensor to minimize the jello effect that can happen with an electronic shutter.
The Z9 is not without some flaws, though. It’s quite heavy compared to rival models like Sony’s A1 and the lack of a fully articulating screen makes it a hard sell for videographers. At $5,500 for the body only, it’s quite expensive — let’s see how it measures up to the competition.
Design and handling
The Z9 is, honestly, a chunky camera. It weighs around 1,340 grams, or just 60 grams less than Nikon’s D6 DSLR. By contrast, the Canon EOS R3 weighs 1,015 grams and Sony’s A1 is a mere 737 grams. A camera that heavy can be fatiguing but then again, many professional photographers prefer big, heavy cameras for stability.
The large size meant Nikon could include a nice big grip that imparts a feeling of security, particularly with a big lens attached. Like Canon’s EOS R3, you can rotate it 90 degrees and get matching controls and a grip, allowing for easy operation in portrait mode.
The Z9 has a generous array of manual controls, but I’m not a big fan of the layout. The AF button is positioned on the left side next to the lens, which I find awkward. The top display also takes up space that could’ve been used for more buttons. On the plus side, it has a large number of programmable buttons, so you can set it up the way you like. If you’re a longtime Nikon user, you might enjoy the layout more than I did.
Compared to Sony and Panasonic’s latest cameras, the menu system is a bit too complicated. Rather than dividing things into subcategories, you have to scroll down for a while on certain menus to find what you need. Your best bet to avoid any hassle is to program the custom menus and buttons to do what you need.
Steve Dent/Engadget
With 2.09 million dots, the 3.2-inch touchscreen is relatively sharp and bright, but there are a few drawbacks. As mentioned, it only tilts up and out to the right, so self-shooting or vlogging is impossible unless you have an external display. Sony’s A1 also lacked a fully articulating display, but Canon has finally included one in its professional EOS R3 model.
The EVF’s resolution is a bit disappointing for a camera this expensive, at just 3.69 million dots, compared to 9.44 million on the Sony A1. Considering the high-res sensor, that seems like a miss. On the plus side, it uses “Dual-Stream” tech to send data to the sensor and EVF simultaneously. As a result, you get blackout-free performance during all shooting, and according to Nikon, that comes with zero frame skipping or repeating. That’s likely a light dig at some Sony cameras, which drop the EVF resolution under certain shooting conditions.
Nikon has gone all-in on CFexpress for the Z9, with two CFexpress and no SD card slots. This is smart for a couple of reasons. There’s no compromise on speed for burst shooting or video, which is crucial for high frame rates required for ProRes HQ and, down the road, RAW video. It also means that professional shooters can record to two cards at once for a backup, with no compromise on speed. The downside, of course, is that CFexpress and XQD cards are much more expensive than SD cards.
Other features include a huge EN-EL18D battery that delivers a solid 740 shots on a charge and over two hours of 4K video, as well as backward compatibility with D6 and other Nikon pro DSLR batteries. It also comes with a USB-C 3.2 slot for both transfers and storage, mic and headphone jacks, an Ethernet port for remote shooting and a full-sized HDMI jack. While the Z9 doesn’t have a mechanical shutter, it does have a cover to protect the sensor when you change lenses.
Performance
Steve Dent/Engadget
The Z9 is Nikon’s fastest mirrorless camera to date. You can shoot up to 20 RAW frames per second at full resolution, 30 JPEGs or a blindingly-fast 120 JPEGS per second at a lower11-MP resolution. Again, all of those speeds are in electronic shutter mode, because there’s no mechanical shutter. You can, of course, shoot in silent mode, or activate a simulated shutter sound if you really need to hear that “click.”
That’s fast, but I managed just 40 lossless RAW photos with a very fast CFexpress card before the buffer filled. If you’re fine using the lossy “high-efficiency” modes, however, you can shoot anywhere from 70 to nearly infinite photos without stopping.
The hybrid phase-detect autofocus is a big improvement over the last model, too. Nikon has brought 3D tracking over from its DSLRs, but it’s far better in the Z9 because it has 493 AF tracking points, far more than the others have.
It delivers very reliable subject tracking most of the time. Normally, you just set the tracking point on an athlete or other fast-moving subject, and the AF will keep them in focus. Occasionally, it will drop the subject and focus on the background or something else, particularly with birds or other fast objects. In general, it works as well or nearly as well as the subject-tracking AF on Sony’s latest A1 and A7 IV models.
Steve Dent/Engadget
The new face, eye, vehicle and animal detection is incredibly fast and accurate as well, even if the subject is a good distance away. In fact, the Z9 can recognize nine types of subjects automatically: human eyes, faces, heads and upper bodies; animal eyes, heads and bodies; and cars, planes, trains and motorbikes. I didn’t have a chance to test all of those, but for several different subjects, even at high burst speeds, most of my shots were in focus.
With no mechanical shutter, fast readout speeds are key to reducing skew and other issues. Happily, the Z9’s stacked, backside-illuminated CMOS sensor is up to the job. I never saw any rolling shutter unless I really whipped the camera around. So even for sports or bird photography, you’re not likely to see any issues.
At the same time, the 5-axis in-body stabilization reduces blurry shots due to camera movement or hand shake. The six stops of shake reduction are well below the Canon EOS R3’s 8 stops, however.
Image quality
With 45.7 megapixels on tap, the Z9 delivers sharp images with very high dynamic range. In fact, next to all rivals, it’s second only to Nikon’s own Z7 II, which is the current dynamic range champion and packs a similar sensor. All RAW images are now captured with 14-bit color depth, giving you plenty of room to tweak them in Adobe Lightroom or Nikon’s NX Studio.
Color accuracy is better than I’ve seen on previous models, possibly thanks to the Nikon Z9’s new Expeed 7 processor that brings improvements to white balance. However, skin tones aren’t quite as warm as with Canon’s R3 or R5. JPEG images look nice straight out of the camera, though they can be slightly over-sharpened with the default settings.
The Z9 has a wide ISO range of 64-25,600, expandable to 32-102,400. The low 64 setting is nice to have in bright sunlight if you want to avoid completely closing down the iris (which can hurt image quality). It performs pretty well in low-light, too. Grain is well-controlled up to about ISO 6,400, and shots are usable at ISO 12,800. Beyond that, noise starts to get distracting. The Z9 is about the same as Canon’s R5 in that regard, but not up to the level of Sony’s A7R IV or A1.
Video
The Z9 is Nikon’s most competent video camera to date, and by far. For starters, it can record 8K H.265 for up to two hours without any overheating or other issues. That’s something Canon’s smaller EOS R5 can’t do, though it is $1,600 cheaper. The Z9 can shoot very sharp 4K at up to 30 fps by oversampling the full width of the sensor, and up to 120 fps with continuous autofocus and sound.
Right now, you can record 4K using ProRes 4:2:2 HQ, a widely used format that creates large files, but is easy to edit. It also records in H.265 10-bit mode for 8K and 4K video. Meanwhile, Nikon’s N-Log mode lets you max out dynamic range, so you can easily adjust shadows and highlights when editing.
There’s more to come, though. In a future firmware update, Nikon will offer 8K 60p internal RAW video using a format called TicoRaw. When it arrives later this year, it’ll let you capture 11 minutes of lossless 12-bit 8K RAW video and 54 minutes of visually lossless 8K to a 1TB card.
As with photos, video autofocus is fast, reliable and can track a subject’s face even if they’re fairly far away. It also follows subjects smoothly when they’re moving toward the camera, though you may have to tweak the AF speed. Unfortunately, the only way to find or use that setting is to dive into the menus. Hopefully, Nikon will let you assign it to a button in a future upgrade.
Steve Dent/Engadget
Rolling shutter is more prominent in video than stills, particularly at the 8K and 4K oversampled resolutions. However, it’s still not nearly as bad on some cameras (looking at you, Sony’s A7 IV) thanks to the extremely fast sensor readout speeds. It’s not even really noticeable unless you whip-pan the camera or have a fast-moving subject.
8K and 4K oversampled video is extremely sharp. Quality drops a hair at the higher frame rate 4K settings, when pixel-binning kicks in, but it’s nothing you’d notice unless you’re looking for it. Colors are accurate, but again, skin tones aren’t quite as pretty as on Canon’s latest models.
Dynamic range is also top notch, particularly in the 400-800 ISO range in ProRes mode, making it easy to adjust shadows and highlights in post. If you love shooting ProRes footage, be sure to get some high-capacity CFexpress cards, because the file sizes can get huge; they take around 132GB for 10 minutes of 4K 60p ProRes HQ footage.
Wrap-up
Steve Dent/Engadget
The Z9 is Nikon’s most versatile and powerful mirrorless camera yet, and the lack of a mechanical shutter is a non-issue. It’s particularly strong for video, and will be a powerhouse once the RAW video firmware update arrives. However, Nikon’s decision to not use a fully articulating screen is a shame, considering all this awesome video capability.
The Z9’s main rival is Sony’s $6,500 A1, which offers similar shooting speeds, resolution and video capabilities. The Z9 is $1,000 cheaper and will (eventually) have higher 8K frame rates with the upcoming firmware update. However, your choice may come down to whether you prefer Sony or Nikon’s camera systems.
Another option is Canon’s $6,000 EOS R3. With just a 24-MP sensor, though, it’s designed primarily for sports, so it’s not ideal for studio or landscape work. Overall, the Z9 is a great choice for pros who don’t want to compromise on any kind of shooting, whether that’s photos or video.
GM and Honda will co-develop a series of affordable EVs using a global architecture and GM's Ultium battery technology, the companies announced. They promised to build vehicles in multiple product segments, including the compact crossover category, calling it a "new chapter" in their partnership. That significantly expands on previous news that Honda would create two EVs using GM's battery technology.
"GM and Honda will share our best technology, design and manufacturing strategies to deliver affordable and desirable EVs on a global scale, including our key markets in North America, South America and China,” said GM CEO and chair Mary Barra.
The companies promised to share technology, design and sourcing strategies, while working toward "standardizing equipment and processes to achieve world-class quality, higher throughput and greater affordability," GM's press release states. The companies will also discuss EV battery collaboration in an effort to drive down costs and improve performance and sustainability.
The Honda E
Engadget
The word "affordable" comes up a lot in the press release, as both companies emphasized the idea of building cheaper EVs than are currently available. "Honda and GM will build on our successful technology collaboration to help achieve a dramatic expansion in the sales of electric vehicles," said Honda president & CEO Toshihiro Mibe.
The tie-up makes a lot of sense, particularly for Honda, which has lagged way behind rivals in terms of EV development. By joining forces with GM, it can share development costs and contribute its considerable BEV and hybrid expertise. The two automakers previously announced a collaboration in 2018 to produce autonomous vehicles, with Honda taking a stake in GM's Cruise self-driving division. The companies also joined force on hydrogen fuel cells.
Honda recently showed that it can build EVs with the Honda E, a cute and technologically advanced vehicle with limited battery range, designed mostly for urban use. More recently, it unveiled a pair of vehicles it's developing with GM including the Prologue, to be launched in early 2024, followed by Acura's first EV SUV.
GM, meanwhile, continues to develop its Ultium battery tech that uses pouch- and prismatic-style cells rather than cylindrical cells like Tesla. The aim to use it in up to 30-plus vehicles over the coming years, with the first models arriving in 2023. GM affirmed that it would release "a new all-electric product for North America positioned at a price point lower than the upcoming Chevrolet Equinox EV, building on the 2 million units of EV capacity the company plans to install by the end of 2025."
Following a sale on the Apple Watch Series 7 models, Amazon is now focusing on the more value-oriented Watch SE. All four models are available with discounts of $49, with the 40mm GPS Watch SE starting at just $230, or 18 percent off. That's near an all-time low price, and the best deal on the Watch SE we've seen this year.
With solid performance, a familiar design and support for numerous apps, the Watch SE scored a solid 88 in our Engadget review. It looks nearly identical to the Watch SE Series 6 and 7, and delivers smooth performance despite the slightly older processor. Most importantly, it offer all the same features you'd get in the more expensive models, like all-day heart rate monitoring, built-in GPS, fall detection, Apple Pay support, sleep-tracking and more.
It doesn't include a blood oxygen sensor or ECG, nor the always-on display of the Series 6 or Series 7 models. If those things aren't terribly important, you'll still get a full Watch experience. The other main drawbacks with all Watch models are sleep tracking that doesn't quite measure up to the competition, and less than a full day of battery life.
Google's Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are great phones on paper, but they've been beset by bugs and problems that have annoyed a fair number of users. Google's April update has now arrived (on time, for once) with fixes for several key issues around charging, the camera and security, 9to5Google has reported.
On the camera side, Google said the update fixes "issues causing front-facing camera preview in certain apps to appear zoomed in." It's also addressed an issue that occasionally caused a green screen to appear in the camera preview. On the wireless charging side, there's a patch for performance issues with "certain accessories," an issue that popped up on Reddit and elsewhere with various Qi charging stands.
It also fixed various UI issues and bugs (with all Pixel devices from the 3XL up), including crashes that happen in Picture-in-Picture (PIP) mode, error messages with certain live wallpapers, incorrect animation displays and more. It also includes security fixes, particularly for a "high security vulnerability in the Framework component that could lead to local escalation of privilege," as detailed in a security bulletin.
After arriving two weeks late, the March security bulletin fixed a number of key bugs related to WiFi connectivity issues, battery management and fingerprint recognition. However, it also made haptic vibration weaker, generating user complaints on various forums. Google acknowledged the issue, but there's no word yet on a fix or update. Meanwhile, the April update is now rolling out "over the next week in phases depending on carrier or device," Google said, so you should see it soon.
Alphabet's Wing division has announced that it's launching a drone delivery service in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metroplex on April 7th. "With this service, the DFW area will be the largest metro in the world, and the first in the United States, with access to on-demand drone delivery," a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Wing's primary launch customer is Walgreens, which will deliver health and wellness products directly to customer's homes. For that, it will use a new operational model where drones are staged at one of its own store parking lots, rather than a Wing facility. It will also be delivering ice cream from Blue Bell Creameries, Easyvet prescription pet medications (yep) and first aid kits from Texas Health.
"This will be America’s most scalable drone delivery operation to date, as Walgreens team members will process their own orders and load packages onto drones themselves – while Wing oversees the delivery from a remote location," the company said.
In a press release and video (above) from last year, Wing explained exactly how that would work. "The aircraft will arrive in small containers that serve as tiny hangars, allowing each store to quickly and easily deploy a small, dedicated fleet from its parking lot, on its roof, or in small spaces adjacent to the building."
Wing uses a hybrid multi-rotor/fixed-wing drone of its own design. It can carry packages no heavier than 1.5kg (3.3 pounds) on round trips up to around 10km (6 miles) away. The drones are autonomous, but are monitored by pilots who can take control if something goes awry. There are redundant motors, batteries and navigation systems to help prevent accidents.
Wing has been doing drone deliveries in Australia (its launch market) since early 2019, and started making drones deliveries in the US later that year. The company noted that it has made 200,000 real deliveries to date, but those were largely done in smaller communities — so the city launch is a big deal. "This is an important milestone for Wing and drone delivery in the US," the company said in a press release.
Deliveries will start on April 7th for "tens of thousands" of homes in Frisco and Little Elm, both north of Dallas. "I do want to set clear expectations: not everyone who lives within range of our drones will be able to order on Day 1. We’re going to invite customers in groups to make sure everyone has a good first experience with drone delivery," said Wing CTO Adam Woodworth.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk now owns 9.2 percent of Twitter after purchasing $2.89 billion in stock, according to a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing spotted by CNBC. The purchase follows recent criticism by Musk over the social media site's free speech policies. "Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy," he tweeted last week.
Musk is a prolific Twitter user and has over 80 million followers, but the platform has also brought him trouble. Most famously, in 2018 he tweeted that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private at $420 a share, setting off an SEC lawsuit that cost him $20 million and his spot as chairman of the board. Musk recently challenged the settlement, saying that the SEC overstepped its authority. He's asking a federal judge to terminate his agreement requiring some tweets to be vetted by a lawyer.
Along with the comment, Musk launched a Twitter poll last week with the question "Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this [freedom of speech] principle?" He also mused about the idea of starting his own social media platform, saying he was giving it "serious thought."
In a follow-up tweet, Musk said that "the consequences of this poll will be important," and that prediction has now apparently come true. His stake in Twitter is still a passive one, but he could up the stakes somewhat. "This eventually could lead to a buyout," analyst Dan Ives told CNBC. Twitter shares have reportedly surged more than 25 percent in premarket trading, according to CNBC.
If you've been eyeing the latest Apple Watch Series 7 but are waiting for a deal, it may be time to act. No less than four models, including the 41mm and 45mm models with and without cellular, are on sale at Amazon at all-time low prices. Each model (in multiple color choices) is discounted by $69, letting you grab one for as little as $330 for today only.
The Apple Watch 7 is a moderate evolution over the Series 6, but the larger screen makes it easier to see the time and other info at a quick glance during workouts or if you're on a bad date. It also has faster charging, making it more convenient if you like to use your Watch continuously, even while you sleep. It's also the first Apple Watch to be certified as IP6X for dust resistance, making it more useful for mountain runs, for example. You also great a rich app ecosystem and tight integration with Apple apps like Fitness+, Music and so on.
It does have a few drawbacks, including lackluster sleep tracking, and might not be the best choice for dedicated athletes. It's also designed specifically for iPhones, so Android users need not apply. Finally, battery life is good for a day at best, and not weeks like rival models from Withings and others. That said, the Apple Watch is far and away the best-selling smartwatch for a good reason, because it does everything well and looks great doing it. It's best to act fast, however, as Amazon's deal is available for today only.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
