The US Federal Reserve is continuing its research into a "digital dollar" and has unveiled a technical specification for how it might work, The Washington Post has reported. Researchers designed a system that can handle more than 1.7 million transaction a second and settle payments in under two seconds, while operating 24/7 without service outages, according to a new paper on the subject. 

The "Project Hamilton" research into a central bank digital currency (CBDC) was developed strictly to test the feasibility of a digital currency and not to give any recommendations as to whether the Fed should create one. It's based on the open-source research software OpenCBDC, according to the researchers from MIT's Digital Currency Initiative and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. 

The team said they aimed to solve the technical challenges of an CDBC, while making it flexible, depending on how policymakers decided implement a digital currency. If it was ever adopted, it could allow people who lack bank accounts to gain financial services, while making cross-border payments easier and more secure. The work is still in the early stages, however, and issues like privacy and ease of exchange with foreign currencies still need to be studied. 

The Federal Reserve has been publicly investigating a digital currency for just a short time, having announced plans to carry out research in May of last year. The US has been behind other nations, particularly China, with the development of digital currencies. Central banks control CBDCs, making them more stable than cryptocurrencies, which can have wild swings in value over short periods of time. 

Last month, the Fed released a study detailing the pros and cons of a central bank currency. It deliberately avoided taking a stance on whether it should pursue the technology, as any such decision would be made by Congress and other policymakers. Rather, it focused on the potential benefits and pitfalls. It said on the one hand that a digital currency could make financial services more inclusive, but also warned that it would need to protect privacy, guard against financial crimes and be resilient. 

Along with the results, the researchers have open-source code for the platform, with the aim of gaining input from the public. "There are still many remaining challenges in determining whether or how to adopt a central bank payment system for the United States," said MIT's Digital Currency Initiative director Neha Narula. 

Twitter is expanding its test of a "downvote" button to a select group of users around the world, it announced. The company said it received "positive feedback" from its initial experiments last July. "We learned a lot about the types of replies you don't find relevant and we're expanding this test –– more of you on web and soon iOS and Android will have the option to use reply downvoting," the company said in a tweet.

Twitter said that as before, the number of downvotes a reply gets will not be visible to the public, and users' downvotes will only be visible to them. In the first round of tests, Twitter offered different versions of downvoting. Some saw upvote and downvote buttons, while others only saw a downvote button next to the heart/like option. A third version showed testers thumbs up and down buttons instead. Twitter didn't say if the new global tests would offer the same options.

Twitter said that a majority of users "clicked the down arrow... because the reply was perceived as offensive, or because they perceived it as not relevant, or both." Downvoting also became the most frequently used way for people to flag content they don't want to see, the company added. 

Reddit has used downvotes since it started in 2005, as it referenced in a tweet reply to Twitter's initial downvote experiment. Facebook also tested downvotes back in 2018, but it never became a permanent feature. Instagram, meanwhile, lets users hide likes as a way to remove some of the negative pressure associated with the service.

Like, dislikes, downvotes and reaction emojis are often cited by social media critics as features that can either improve conversations or make them more toxic. So far, according to Twitter, the experiment has been positive. "People who have tested downvoting agree it improves the quality of conversations on Twitter," Twitter Safety said. "We're excited to see how others think of it as it becomes available to more of you."

After Sony released the A7 III way back in 2018, I wondered if Canon and Nikon could ever catch up to its autofocus and other technology. With the launch of the 24-megapixel EOS R3, however, it’s Canon that’s on the cutting edge with its “eye control” AF that lets you focus on a subject just by looking at it.

The R3 is also Canon’s first camera with a backside illuminated, stacked sensor. That gives it burst shooting speeds in silent mode of up to 30 fps with autofocus and auto-exposure enabled. Plus, it has top flight video specs with RAW capture at 6K up to 60 fps.

Here’s the rub, though: For $6,000 it has relatively low resolution, while Canon’s own 45-megapixel EOS R5 costs more than $2,000 less. So, who is this camera good for exactly? And is the eye control AF a useful feature, or just a toy? With some help from my pro photographer friends, I spent some time with a final production model to find out.

Body and handling

The first thing you’ll notice on the R3 is the big camera grip body that makes it look like a DSLR and mirrorless camera mashup. Much like the 1DX Mark III that inspired it, it has dual controls for both landscape and portrait shooting modes, including a matching shutter button, dials and joystick.

Despite the big body, the EOS R3 is relatively light at 2.3 pounds including a battery and memory card. The 1DX Mark III, by contrast, tips the scales at 3.17 pounds, while the EOS R5 is 1.6 pounds.

As you’d hope for a big camera, it has a big grip. That gives a feeling of security when you’re holding it, and it handles great even with big telephoto lenses like Canon’s RF 70-200mm f/2.8.

The R3 also packs plenty of dials and buttons so that you can operate the camera without diving into the menus, for the most part. The control layout is similar to the 1DX Mark III and uses the same infrared control button. That lets you set the focus point just by sliding your thumb over it – faster than a joystick, but easier to activate inadvertently until you get used to it.

Steve Dent/Engadget

A dedicated button lets you switch easily between photo and video modes, while giving you separate settings and menus for each mode. However, it uses the same old Canon menus, which aren’t quite as intuitive as on the latest models from Sony, Nikon and Panasonic. You can control it in a variety of ways, though, using the dials, joystick or touchscreen. That makes it quick to get to a setting, once you figure out where it is.

The big 3.2-inch touch display has a crisp 4.15-million dot resolution, nearly double that of the R5. For scrolling through menus, browsing photos and more, it’s extremely responsive – much more so than Sony’s A1 or any other camera I’ve tried for that matter. The display also flips out for low-angle shooting or vlogging, though the R3 is a bit heavy for the latter.

The 5.76-million dot OLED EVF is similarly sharp and offers a smooth 120 Hz refresh rate. It doesn’t stack up on paper to the 9.4-million dot, 240Hz EVF found on the A1, but I couldn’t see much difference between them, to be honest.

It uses the same huge LP-E19 battery from the 1DX Mark III that delivers up to 620 shots on a charge or about two and a quarter hours of 4K 30p video shooting. Depending on how you shoot, you may easily be able to exceed those figures, however.

For storage, you get one fast CFexpress type B and one SD UHS II slot. It’s nice to have the SD option if you prefer to shoot with those cards. However, if you want to back up the CFexpress card with SD, it’s going to slow performance. Since this is mostly a pro camera, Canon should have offered dual slots for both like Sony does, or perhaps two CFexpress slots.

Steve Dent/Engadget

It has a new hotshoe interface that supports Speedlite and other flashes along with accessories like Tascam’s new XLR 4-channel microphone interface. That finally matches what Sony and Panasonic have offered for years now.

The fiddly micro-HDMI port is not ideal for video shooters, and it’s an odd decision considering Canon had space with the R3’s big body. It also comes with USB-C for data transfers and in-camera charging, though you’ll need another optional accessory if you want to power the camera externally while you shoot.

Now, let’s talk about Canon’s new eye control feature. It’s only really useful if you calibrate it, but luckily that’s easy to do – you just stare at five dots. You might need to calibrate it multiple times depending on whether you’re wearing glasses and contacts, or even for different environments. Luckily, you can save up to six different settings.

Once it was calibrated, I could select an object to focus on just by looking at it. Even if the eye control circle wasn’t quite on a subject, the autofocus would usually select it if it was close. From there, the face, eye or subject tracking would kick in as needed to track the subject.

It worked even in tricky environments with lots of subjects or movement, though it turns off once you hit the focus button and start shooting. It worked fine for me, but didn’t function at all for my photographer friend with light blue eyes and an astigmatism. So if you’re interested in the feature, you may want to test it out before making a purchase, as the functionality seems to depend on your eye color and other factors.

Performance

Steve Dent/Engadget

First and foremost, the EOS R3 is a speed demon. That starts with the shutter, which goes all the way up to 1/64,000th of a second in electronic mode, faster than any other consumer camera. It also supports some of the fastest bursts we’ve seen, up to 30 fps in silent mode or 12 fps with the mechanical shutter. Unlike some recent Sony models, you get those full speeds with uncompressed and not just lossy RAW files.

You can take a lot of shots in those modes, too. At 30 fps with the electronic shutter, you can shoot 150 shots to an SD UHS II or CFexpress card before the buffer fills, according to Canon. However, I was able to shoot many more than that with a fast CFexpress card, with just a slight reduction in shooting speeds after the 150 frame mark. It’ll handle 1,000 RAW uncompressed photos or more with the mechanical shutter before stopping.

The Dual Pixel autofocus can keep up with those speeds too, so I had very few photos that weren’t sharp. Face and eye detection is fast and fluid for people, though a bit less reliable for animals or birds. The EOS R has a car tracking feature that’s mainly designed for race cars, and unfortunately I didn’t have access to a Bugatti Chiron during testing.

Shooting sports is this camera’s forte, and at an indoor soccer game with decent lighting, Samuel, the pro photographer I was working with, had only a few out-of-focus shots. It didn’t perform quite as well as the A1 did for birds, but it was still better than most cameras I’ve tried. Overall, the EOS R3 has a very powerful AF system that puts Canon right up there with Sony.

The IBIS system can deliver 8 stops of shake reduction with supported lenses, more than any rival camera. That allowed me to get sharp shots handheld at low shutter speeds when shooting in low light. And thanks to the sensor’s fast readout speeds, rolling shutter is well controlled and only noticeable on fast-moving subjects or quick pans.

Image Quality

The EOS R3 may be Canon’s best mirrorless camera yet for image quality, particularly when it comes to dynamic range. The new 24-megapixel sensor offers at least a stop more dynamic range than the EOS R5, giving you more room for adjustment with RAW images. JPEGs also look great straight out of the camera, with sharpness and noise reduction well balanced.

Canon’s color science is still the best out there, delivering stellar color accuracy and natural skin tones. As usual with Canon, it has a slight bias toward warm tones.

The R3 really shines in low light, too. Noise is nearly non-existent up to ISO 3200, with hardly any noticeable drop in dynamic range. It remains well controlled up to ISO 12,800, and images are usable at ISO 25,600 and even higher if you expose them perfectly.

The biggest downside is the lowish 24-megapixel resolution. With the 45-megapixel EOS R5 or 50-megapixel Sony A1, you can shoot birds or wildlife at a longer distance and still have room to crop in. The R3 is far more limited if you want to retain detail.

Along with my own testing, I loaned the EOS R3 to professional photographer Samuel Dejours from Studio NathSam in Gien France, to get his opinion. "The EOS R3 really handles great, though it's quite heavy. The Sony A1 is our usual camera and it's much lighter," he told me. "However, it does feel better balanced when you use a large telephoto lens. I really liked the infrared autofocus control button; I found it to be much quicker than using the joystick."

"I was excited to try the eye autofocus. However, despite all attempts of calibration, etc., it simply didn't work for me. Perhaps with my light-colored eyes, it didn't work. Hopefully that's something they can fix with a firmware update."

"It was nearly at the same level of the A1 for autofocus, though the A1 was perhaps more rapid for certain types of shooting. It was great for sports, with pretty astonishing speed and AF that almost always nailed focus. In terms of image quality, I'm not sure I'd be able to tell the A1 and EOS R3 apart if I didn't know which was which. That makes other things become more important, like the resolution, speed, etc. Overall, it was an excellent experience, and it shows that Canon is really close to Sony for speed, autofocus, video and image quality."

Video

For a sports camera, the R3 is a surprisingly strong for video. You can shoot DCI 6K RAW at up to 60 fps using the full width of the sensor. It also supports full-frame 4K shooting at up to 120 fps using All-I capture, albeit with subsampling that can reduce detail. Both of these modes also require a CFexpress card as SD-UHS II is too slow.

All other 4K modes at 60p, 30p or under support full sensor oversampling, allowing for extremely sharp video with fine detail. You can also use an APS-C crop for natively sampled (pixel-for-pixel) 4K footage that’s just a touch less sharp, if you need to zoom in slightly for example.

What about overheating? Luckily, the EOS R3 has far fewer restrictions in that regard than the R5 or R6. Regular, oversampled 4K is not temperature limited, and 6K RAW or 4K 60p is good for at least an hour. 4K at 120 fps does have a 12-minute limit, but that’s an exotic use case that would affect very few users. While using the camera, albeit in coldish weather, I received no temperature warnings – even during long takes.

Steve Dent/Engadget

The camera’s excellent high ISO performance is handy for video, allowing more flexibility for indoor shooting. Skin tones are natural and colors accurate, even in relatively low light. The R3 also supports Canon Log 3 or PQ, along with RAW or RAW light, letting you max out the dynamic range. That in turn gives you options to create HDR videos or adjust images in post.

Complimenting all that is the Dual Pixel, AI-powered AF. As we’ve seen before with Canon’s system, it reliably nails focus without any hunting or other annoying issues. Eye tracking is generally fluid and reliable as well.

It’s not quite as sticky as the AF on Sony’s A1, however. It occasionally focused on the background rather than foreground subjects or missed focus altogether. This might be fixable in a future update, though. Keep in mind that the eye control AF function only works with photos and not video.

As for the in-body stabilization with video, it’s only really good for stable handheld shooting and you’ll need a gimbal for anything else. If you try any sudden moves, the system has a tendency to jolt the image, potentially ruining shots. The electronic IBIS mode helps, but it’s not quite as smooth as I’ve seen on cameras like the A1. Meanwhile, rolling shutter is present, but it’s better controlled than on the R5.

Wrap-up

Steve Dent/Engadget

The EOS R3 is a speed demon with lowish resolution, solid video chops and a high $6,000 price tag. With that odd mix, it’s mainly designed for news or sports journalists. Other users would do better with higher megapixel cameras like the $6,500 Sony A1 or Canon’s $3,900 EOS R5.

It’s actually Canon’s best mirrorless camera yet for video, which is something I didn’t expect. Though it doesn’t have 8K like the R5, it does offer 6K 60p and has far fewer limitations. It’s hard to justify the price for video alone, however, considering other options out there like the A1, $2,500 EOS R6 or Canon’s all-new $4,500 EOS R5C cinema camera.

Still, it could be a hit in the pro market if Canon can pry the 1DX Mark III and other DSLRs out of photojournalists’ hands. For the rest of us, the EOS R3’s awesome speeds and video capabilities are hopefully a preview of what’s to come in more affordable models down the road. Most importantly, the innovative eye control AF feature, while limited, shows us that Canon can beat Sony at the technical innovation game when it tries.

A website called HitPiece that has been selling music-related NFTs has temporarily closed after artists accused it of appropriating their work without permission, Rolling Stone has reported. Outraged social media posts were issued recently from artists including Jack Antonoff, Eve 6, and Sadie Dupuis. "Any [Bleachers] NFTs are fake," Tweeted Jack Antonoff. "I do not believe in NFTs so anything you see associated with me isn't real."

The HitPiece website is apparently built on top of Spotify's API. Before shutting down, it appeared to be offering NFTs of songs and albums from the likes of John Lennon and BTS, including photos and album artwork, according to the Internet Archive. 

Like many other NFT business models, however, it's not clear what HitPiece was selling, exactly. "This particular grift doesn’t really affect artists in that HitPiece wasn’t even selling files of the songs — just the receipt of purchase to the general idea of them," Infant Island guitarist and grad student Alex Rudenshiold told Rolling Stone. "It's still copyright infringement. It's re-commodifying the metadata (art, song and album titles, etc.) to make money without permission." 

HitPiece, founded by former indie label owner Rory Felton, issued a statement. "Clearly we have struck a nerve and are very eager to created the ideal experience for music fans," it said on Twitter. "To be clear artists get paid when digital goods are sold on Hitpiece. "We are continuing to listen to all user feedback and are committed to evolving the product to fit the needs of the artists, labels and fans alike." 

However, artists are skeptical of HitPiece's claim that they will be paid. "They steal your music, auction NFTs of it on their site, and when they get caught they say don’t worry you 'get paid,'" the group Deerhoof tweeted. "I get that corporate types are simply greedy and cruel on principle but what kind of mind could even imagine that doubletalk like this could somehow make it OK?"

While Sony's holiday console sales were down due to parts shortages, Nintendo managed to have a strong quarter with the Switch. Thanks to what it called a "good start" by the OLED Switch, it sold 10.67 million units in Q3 (October to December), far surpassing the 3.9 million PS5 units sold by Sony. That takes total Switch sales to 103.54 million since it launched in 2017, allowing it to surpass the Wii's lifetime sales of 101.63 million. 

Not all was perfect, though. Switch sales were still down eight percent over last year, and Nintendo revised its yearly forecast down by a million units. It now believes it will sell 23 million units, down from the 24 million it forecast last quarter. Through the first nine months, its sales are 6 percent lower over last year to $11.52 billion. 

As for software, Nintendo said it saw the highest quarterly sell-through (consumer) sales since the launch of the Switch. Pokémon remasters Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are leading Nintendo's game sales with 13.97 million units total over the last nine months. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has sold 7.96 million units, Mario Party Superstars sold 5.43 million units and Animal Crossing: New Horizons 4.99 million.

Metroid Dread, introduced just last year, has managed 2.74 million units since it went on sale. Nintendo also has a couple of new titles that will count for its next quarter, including Pokémon Legends Arceus that arrived on January 28th. That title got off to a good start in the UK, surpassing Animal Crossing sales in its first week. Nintendo also has Kirby and the Forgotten Land coming on March 25th. 

SpaceX has revealed a new tier for its Starlink satellite internet service with higher performance but pricing that might make your eyes water, The Verge has reported. Called Starlink Premium, it offers speeds between 150 and 500Mbps with 20 to 40 milliseconds of latency, up from 50 to 250Mbps with the same latency. Upload speeds are also up, from 10 to 20Mbps on the standard plan to 20 to 40Mbps on Premium.

For a performance boost of roughly double, you'll pay five times more, however. Starlink Premium will cost $500 a month compared to $99 per month for the standard plan. You'll also pay $2,500 for the antenna and other hardware, compared to $499 for base plan, and will need to leave a $500 deposit to reserve the Premium dish.

SpaceX said the new service will work better in "extreme weather conditions" and customers will get priority 24/7 support. It's likely to be the only high-speed internet option available in many remote places, where the extra weatherproofing could come in handy. 

SpaceX announced that Starlink would come out of beta last October, and recently unveiled a new rectangular satellite dish that's much smaller and thinner than the original round one. The new Premium antenna is apparently larger than that and it supposedly "helps ensure bandwidth for critical operations even during times of peak network usage," SpaceX said. 

Starlink has launched over 2,000 satellites as of mid-January, with around 1,500 in operational orbit. The current system is authorized for up to 4,408 satellites, around triple the current number. If you're interested in the Premium tier, orders are now open with deliveries set to start in Q2 2022. 

Sony is still struggling to make enough PlayStation 5 consoles to keep up with demand. During its key holiday fiscal quarter, it shipped 3.3 million units for a total of 17.3 million since launch, the company said in its earnings report. That's considerably behind the 20.2 million units the PS4 had managed at the same point in its life cycle.

Because of that, Sony reported 813.3 billion yen ($7.09 billion) in revenue for its gaming division, down from 883.2 billion yen ($7.703 billion) over the same quarter last year. However, operating profit rose 12.1 percent to $810 million, because Sony actually loses money on each PS5 console sold. 

Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki said in an analyst webcast that people want to buy PS5 consoles, but partners can't supply components due to the ongoing chip shortage. Sony expects that situation to continue during the coming year, meaning PS5s may not be any easier to find, particularly in the first half of 2022. 

Sony lowered its forecast for PS5 shipments for the fiscal year to 11.5 million units, down from 14.8 million. As such, it dropped its full year revenue estimate for its Game & Network Services (G&NS) division by 170 million yen ($1.48 billion). At the same time, it expects 6 percent more profit despite lower game sales, thanks to the aforementioned unprofitable consoles.

Sony's gaming division is its biggest money maker, accounting for around a quarter of its overall revenue and profits this quarter. However, its imaging division also fared well in fiscal Q3, with a 22 percent increase in revenue year-over-year, thanks to sales of its premium smartphone image sensors. Its movie division, meanwhile, saw a large jump in revenue to $4.02 billion due in large part to the success of Spider-Man: No Way Home. 

Tesla is issuing an over-the-air update to recall a "Full Self-Driving" (FSD) beta feature that allowed cars to roll through stop signs, ABC News has reported. The function first appeared in FSD 10.3 with the addition of the so-called Assertive profile. It allows vehicles to illegally roll through stop signs at 4-way intersection at speeds of up to 5.6 MPH, according to ABC.  

Tesla reportedly agreed to the recall after two meetings with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) officials. It affects nearly 54,000 vehicles including 2016-2022 Model S and X EVs, 2017-2022 Model 3s and 2020-2022 Model Ys. "Failing to stop at a stop sign can increase the risk of a crash," the NHTSA wrote in the recall report. Tesla said it doesn't know of any injuries or crashes caused by the feature, however.

Tesla previously reverted its FSD 10.3 software due to "some issues" including a regression with left turns, phantom forward-collision warnings and auto-steering bugs. The company was also forced to recall 300,000 cars in China due to Autopilot issues, while issuing recalls elsewhere for camera and trunk defects, separating suspensions and other issues.

As we've previously mentioned, the name "Full Self-Driving" is misleading because that term generally refers to true Level 4 self-driving, while Tesla's system simply offers Level 2 advanced driver assistance. An OTA release to disable rolling stops is expected to be sent out by early February. 

India is introducing a battery swapping policy as part of a push to boost EV sales, Reuters has reported. "Considering the constraint of space in urban areas for setting up charging stations at scale, a battery swapping policy will be brought out," said India's Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman. 

The idea is change out depleted batteries for freshly charged ones, potentially saving time compared to charging. You may have first heard about the idea when Tesla launched battery swapping stations in 2014, then quietly dropped the idea due to lack of use.

India plans to reduce "interoperability standards," presumably so that battery-swapping tech can be used between different EV makes and models. "The private sector will be encouraged to create sustainable and innovative business models for battery and energy as a service, improving the efficiency of the EV ecosystem," said Sitharaman. 

India's Sun Mobility and Honda recently set up a battery sharing service in India, starting with three-wheelers, but it's still in a very early phase. The idea has gained some traction elsewhere with scooters from Gogoro, which recently launched its battery swapping tech in China. Gogoro reportedly plans to enter the Indian market in partnership with the country's largest two-wheeler manufacturer Hero MotoCorp. 

India's push for EVs is a key component of its Paris agreement commitment to reduce carbon emissions by up to 35 percent by 2030. It plans to give $6 billion worth of incentives to companies that build clean vehicles and produce batteries locally. The country has nearly 975,000 registered EVs, but only 1,028 public charging stations, according to the Hindustan Times. 

Meta is ending its Express Wi-Fi program designed to provide low-cost internet in developing countries through partnerships with local communities, mobile operators and businesses. Launched in 2016, it wasn't free like Meta-owned Facebook's failed Free Basics program, struck down by Indian courts for violating net neutrality. Instead, it was designed to be inexpensive, starting at around 15 cents for 100MB or $5 for 20GB. 

Facebook partnered with satellite companies, ISPs and others in places like India, South Africa and the Philippines. Retailers were able to sell hotspots at reasonable rates decided by them and the operator, rather than Facebook. Meta would benefit, of course, by gaining access to new customers it no doubt hoped would create Facebook accounts. As with Google, most of the company's recent growth has come from developing countries where people are getting online for the first time. 

Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that glitches in Meta's free internet services were creating unwanted charges for users in countries like Pakistan. Meta was also reportedly favoring its own content on its free-data Discover service to the detriment of other sites. 

Meta said that while it's winding down Express Wi-Fi, it's focusing on other projects around internet access. "While we are concluding our work on this program to focus on developing other projects, we remain committed to working with partners across the telecom ecosystem to deliver better connectivity,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. It promised to work with Express Wi-Fi partners to "minimize the impact to their businesses while keeping networks running."