The Bose QuietComfort lineup of headphones is known for its terrific noise cancellation and all-day comfort. In an early Black Friday deal, Amazon has the latest model in that line, the Bose QuietComfort 45, on sale for $249. That’s $80 off the usual price for the high-end wireless cans.

The Bose QC45 was released last year with some of the best ANC we’ve tested, and they’re super comfortable to wear throughout a long flight or day at the office. They have the battery life to support that, with our review unit lasting over 22 hours on a single charge. If you forget to charge them before heading out, Bose includes a quick-charge feature that gives you three hours of use after only 15 minutes of charging.

Although their “Dad on a business trip” design may look a bit dated, you can choose from black, white, gray and blue color options to find a variant that matches your style. They also offer impressive audio with Bose’s signature warm, crisp and balanced tuning that can work well with just about any musical genre. At launch, we criticized the Bose QC45 headphones for lacking equalizer controls, but the company added EQ adjustments in a firmware update earlier this year.

The QC45 does still have some notable omissions. For example, they don’t automatically pause your music when you remove them and won’t automatically switch playback between paired devices. They also lack speak-to-chat and don’t automatically adjust noise canceling based on your activity or location. If those features are deal breakers for you, you may want to check out the excellent Sony WH-1000XM5, currently on sale for $350.

Amazon’s QC45 deal isn’t quite an all-time-low price — they dropped to $229 during the Prime Early Access Sale last month — but this is still a solid deal on one of our top recommendations for wireless headphones.

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If you’re looking for extra peace of mind while away from home, you may want to look at Amazon’s early Black Friday sale on its own Blink security cameras. You can grab a two-pack of the Blink Mini for $30, which matches the lowest price we’ve seen on the indoor camera bundle.

Blink Mini is a wired camera, so remember you’ll need to keep the pair plugged into nearby outlets. They offer standard Blink features like 1080p video capture, infrared night vision, two-way audio and optional smartphone alerts if their motion sensors are triggered.

Setup is easy, only requiring plugging in the cameras, connecting them to WiFi and following setup instructions in the Blink app. You can also integrate them with Alexa, using Amazon’s voice assistant to see a live view and arm or disarm your camera. The cameras are available in black and white, and the deal applies to both color options.

Amazon also has the Blink Video Doorbell for $35, which is $15 off its sticker price. It also provides 1080p HD streaming and recording, infrared night vision and two-way audio. You’ll need to buy a Sync Module to use live view or two-way audio without a doorbell press or motion detection. Amazon’s early Black Friday deals also include a bundle with the Blink Video Doorbell and Sync Module 2 for $55.

Blink Outdoor cameras are also on sale at Amazon starting at $60, down from their usual $100 starting price. This wireless camera is weather-resistant, records up to 1080p resolution, and has night vision. In addition, Amazon says it can run for up to two years on two AA batteries. Finally, you can also snag Blink’s Outdoor + Floodlight bundle for $70. Usually priced at $140, the Floodlight’s LEDs blast 700 lumens of light onto your chosen outdoor area.

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In the latest example of what seems like daily Big Tech job cuts, Roku announced plans today to lay off around 200 employees, nearly seven percent of its workforce. The streaming company wrote in an SEC filing that it plans to cut the jobs in the US due to “economic conditions.” The company estimates it will pay between $28 and $31 million for the reductions, primarily because of severance payments, notice pay (where applicable), employee benefits contributions and related costs.

Roku says most of the layoffs will happen in Q4, with the remaining cuts expected to be “substantially complete” by the end of Q1 2023. In a statement released today, Roku said, “Taking these actions now will allow us to focus our investments on key strategic priorities to drive future growth and enhance our leadership position.”

These layoffs follow a warning from Roku in its latest quarterly results that it anticipates a year-over-year revenue decline for Q4. The company’s shares dropped almost three percent today in trading before the bell.

Big Tech job cuts have become an unfortunate trend in recent months. Roku’s layoffs follow downsizing from Meta, which laid off 11,000 employees last week; Twitter, which cut approximately 3,800 jobs earlier this month; plus Amazon and Microsoft. Although Apple has so far remained an exception, it imposed a hiring freeze expected to continue into late 2023. Likewise, Disney is reportedly freezing hiring and anticipating cuts, while Netflix laid off around 300 people back in June. Streaming-focused companies — Roku included — have faced the dual challenges of an uncertain economy and a revenue decline following a boom during the coronavirus pandemic.

If you’ve been on the fence about Apple’s latest 11-inch iPad Pro, now is a good time to consider taking the plunge. Amazon currently has the entry-level 128GB model with WiFi for $729. Although that’s still a steep price, this model was only released a few weeks ago. Also, keep in mind the deal only applies to the Silver model.

This new iPad Pro is a minor update over its 2021 predecessor. Powering it is Apple’s updated M2 chip — the same silicon inside the latest MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro. The new chip makes the tablet a bit zippier than the last model, powering through heavy multitasking, media editing and the most demanding games.

The 2022 iPad Pro also adds a new hover feature that lets you hold the second-gen Apple Pencil over the screen to preview inputs and effects. Although that alone isn’t reason enough to upgrade, it’s a fun detail that could become integral as software developers tailor their apps for it. The high-end tablet also supports WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 networking.

If you own the 2021 iPad Pro, this probably isn’t the generation to upgrade. The M2 chip and hover feature are welcome additions, but everything else is unchanged from last year’s model. That includes the screen, chassis, cameras and battery — it’s a minor update to a tablet that was already overkill for most people’s iPad workflows.

Still, this model is the company’s best 11-inch model and an impressive hybrid device when you add the Magic Keyboard. In addition, the M2 chip runs smoothly with Stage Manager, Apple’s answer to persistent criticisms about iPadOS software not keeping up with cutting-edge iPad hardware. Stage Manager lets you keep up to four apps open in a single group with resizable, overlapping windows. Although the multitasking feature still feels like a work in progress, we expect Apple to keep tweaking and refining it in future software updates.

If you consider upgrading to this model from an older iPad Pro, this will also be your introduction to Center Stage. The feature uses machine learning to track your (and others’) faces during a video call in apps like FaceTime and Zoom. The frame follows you if you move to the side or go from sitting to standing. And if someone else enters the frame, it also pans out to bring them into the shot.

Should you prefer a bigger screen, Amazon also has the 12.9-inch model for $1,069, which is $30 off what you’d pay at Apple. Although that’s less of a price cut, that model’s screen is bigger and more vibrant with mini-LED tech.

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With widespread misinformation, echo chambers and dubious fact-checking — not to mention Twitter appearing on the verge of collapse — you might expect today's teenagers to view social media as a cesspool. But a survey released today by the Pew Research Center paints a significantly less dire picture of how today’s teens perceive social media’s effect on their lives.

The Pew Research Center polled 1,316 American teens ages 13 to 17 between April 14th and May 4th, 2022. Much like a previous version of the poll from 2018, the adolescents reported a more nuanced — and often rosier — experience than adults who grew up in pre-social-media eras may expect.

Eighty percent of teens surveyed say what they view on social media makes them feel more connected to their friends’ lives, while 71 percent report that it gives them a place to express their creativity. Sixty-seven percent answered that it connects them with people who support them during tough times, while fewer — 58 percent — say it makes them feel more accepted.

Most teens describe social media as a largely neutral experience, with 59 percent saying it has neither a positive nor negative effect on them. Still, it skews more positive than negative as more adolescents say it’s been more favorable (32 percent) than unfavorable (nine percent).

Pew Research Center

However, some of the teens polled expressed concerns. Thirty-eight percent said they feel overwhelmed by the platforms’ daily drama, while one-third say they feel like their friends are leaving them out of things. Another 29 percent report pressure to post content receiving many likes or comments, and 23 percent describe social media apps as making them feel worse about their lives. As The Wall Street Journal reported in 2021, Meta knew its product made teen girls feel worse about themselves — and proceeded to downplay it.

Online privacy is a hotbed issue in today’s climate, and teens don’t report high levels of confidence — or concern — about social media companies harvesting their data. Sixty percent of teens say they feel little to no control over how companies collect and use their data. However, only 20 percent report feeling very or extremely concerned about data collection. More than double that (44 percent) describe having little or no concern about how much social-media companies like TikTok and Meta know about them.

Only one in ten teens polled say they use social media to encourage political action or post about social issues. An even lower rate (seven percent) reported posting hashtags related to political or social causes. (Not being old enough to vote may be the simplest explanation for that.) However, among those who engaged in online activism, that rate more than doubled among Democrat or left-leaning teens (14 percent) compared to Republican or right-leaning teens (six percent).

Teen girls report feeling overwhelmed at higher rates than their male counterparts: 45 percent to about one third. Higher rates of girls also answered that social media has made them feel left out. Older girls report more caution about posting content that others could use against them: Half of girls aged 15 to 17 say they often or sometimes decide not to post content out of fear of embarrassment. Lower rates of younger girls and adolescent boys report the same.

Self-reporting surveys can illustrate the polled groups’ perceptions about how social media affects them. Still, it would be a mistake to assume that it always reflects reality. Past studies focused more on measurable effects have concluded it depends primarily on how you use it. For example, those who use social media to connect with others benefit more than those who passively read content.

One issue the survey didn't address was the rate of teens using social media. Although Gen Z — to which most of today's teens belong —still has high social media usage, it's the only generation showing declining use. Maybe growing up on social media has led to a generational indifference.

AI-generated art is a new frontier rife with potential. But for every thorny question about copyright and the potential for widespread manipulation, generated art can also inspire wonder and awe. For example, look no further than this AI-powered experiment that creates kaleidoscopic visual landscapes for composed music.

A collaboration between quirky synth and hardware brand Teenage Engineering and design studios Modem and Bureau Cool, the project draws inspiration from the neurological condition synesthesia. This rare phenomenon leads the brain to perceive sensory input for several senses instead of one. For example, a listener with synesthesia may see music instead of only hearing it, observing color, movement and shape in response to musical patterns. Conversely, a synesthetic person may taste shapes, feel words from a novel or hear an abstract painting.

The audiovisual experiment uses the Teenage Engineering OP-Z sequencer as the music source that is then translated into AI art. In real-time, Modem and Bureau Cool’s “digital extension” translates musical properties into text prompts describing colors, shapes and movements. Those prompts then feed into Stable Diffusion (an open-source tool similar to DALL-E 2 and Midjourney) to produce dreamy and synesthetic animations.

Modem co-founder Bas van de Poel sees the experiment as fuel for artists’ imaginations. “With the project, we see the potential for musicians to explore new forms of creativity, facilitating a joint performance between human and machine,” van de Poel told Engadget today.

If you’re a musician who owns Teenage Engineering’s OP-Z, you can’t yet use the extension yourself — but that may eventually change. Van de Poel tells Engadget that the companies are “exploring the potential of launching a public version.”

This AI-based project isn’t the first to bring synesthetic properties to the masses. Last year, Google Arts & Culture created an exhibition that flipped the concept around, bringing machine-learning-produced sound to Vassily Kandinsky’s paintings.

In YouTube’s latest move to woo TikTok creators onto YouTube Shorts, the streaming giant announced today that short-term video creators would soon be allowed up to a minute of copyrighted music in their Shorts. The change is a significant boost from the previous 15-second limit for any licensed song.

YouTube says its short-form creators will be able to use between 30 and 60 seconds of licensed music “for most tracks.” However, some songs will remain on the previous 15-second limit, with licensing agreements determining which tracks fall in which window. Creators can quickly see how much time each song allows in the YouTube app’s audio picker. The new song-length options begin rolling out today and will continue “over the next few weeks” on iOS and Android.

As user-created videos have exploded during the past decade, aggressive DMCA takedown notices have become a headache for streamers on all platforms. Record labels often automate their copyright enforcement, leading to overzealous claims. For example, creators have seen their videos flagged for accidentally including a few seconds of copyrighted audio from a passing car’s stereo. Some police officers have even exploited the DMCA to their advantage, blasting Taylor Swift songs to prevent bystanders from sharing their legally recorded videos.

The song-limit boost is YouTube’s latest attempt to woo TikTok creators (and therefore viewers and ad dollars) onto Shorts. In September, the company announced an ad-revenue sharing program to give qualified creators a 45 percent cut of ad revenue, regardless of whether they use music. TikTok launched a similar sharing program earlier this year following widespread complaints about its previous “static pool of money” approach.

YouTube’s aggressive approach appears to be paying off, with Shorts tallying views from over 1.5 billion logged-in users per month. As of September 2021, TikTok had racked up 1 billion monthly users. However, given YouTube’s overall dominance in the video space, those numbers likely include people who were already on YouTube watching other content. TikTok’s numbers, on the other hand, more clearly include people looking for its distinctive short-form videos — an audience that YouTube and other media giants like Meta are continuing to chase.

Today, muscle atrophy is often unavoidable when you can't move due to severe injury, old age or diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and multiple sclerosis (MS). However, Harvard researchers see hope in soft robotics that could someday stretch and contract the muscles of patients unable to do so themselves.

The Harvard engineers tested a new mechanostimulation system on mice, successfully preventing or assisting in their recovery from muscle atrophy. The team implanted the "soft robotic device" on a mouse's hind limb, which they immobilized in a cast-like enclosure for around two weeks. While the control group's untreated muscles wasted away as expected, the actively stimulated muscles showed reduced degradation. The researchers believe their system can eventually lead to implants helping humans with atrophy.

Its promise stems from its ability to induce a small mechanical muscle strain that mirrors natural stimulation during exercise. Moreover, while keeping atrophy at bay, the device didn't lead to any severe tissue inflammation or damage.

"There is a good chance that distinct soft robotic approaches with their unique effects on muscle tissue could open up disease or injury-specific mechano-therapeutic avenues," said David Mooney, Ph.D., the paper's senior author and Harvard's Wyss Institute engineering faculty member.

Wyss Institute

Dubbed MAGENTA (short for "mechanically active gel-elastomer-nitinol tissue adhesive"), the anti-atrophy system includes an engineered spring made from nitinol, a shape memory alloy (SMA) that can rapidly actuate when heated. Researchers control the spring with a wired microprocessor unit that determines the frequency and duration of muscle contractions and stretches.

The system also includes an elastomer matrix forming the device's body and providing insulation for the heated SMA. In addition, a layer of "tough adhesive" keeps MAGENTA aligned with the muscles' natural movement axis while transmitting stimulation deep into muscle tissue.

"While untreated muscles and muscles treated with the device but not stimulated significantly wasted away during this period, the actively stimulated muscles showed reduced muscle wasting," said first-author and Wyss Technology Development Fellow Sungmin Nam, Ph.D. "Our approach could also promote the recovery of muscle mass that already had been lost over a three-week period of immobilization, and induce the activation of the major biochemical mechanotransduction pathways known to elicit protein synthesis and muscle growth."

The team also experimented with a wireless version, using laser light rather than electrical wiring to actuate the SMA spring. Although this approach showed reduced effectiveness due to fat tissue absorbing some of the laser light, the researchers believe this approach still holds potential and warrants further research.

A documentary crew searching for World War II-era aircraft wreckage recently discovered historical artifacts of a more modern variety. After reviewing the footage, NASA has confirmed that underwater wreckage filmed off the Florida coast is from the disastrous final flight of the space shuttle Challenger, in which seven people were killed.

Divers working on the documentary noticed “a large human-made object covered partially by sand on the seafloor.” It had a modern construction, including eight-inch square tiles, commonly used in shuttles’ thermal protection systems. That tipped off the crew members that the wreckage may be NASA-related, and they contacted the space agency, which looked over the footage and confirmed its origin. NASA says it is considering what additional actions to take regarding the debris.

The tragic Challenger flight took off on January 28th, 1986, breaking apart only 73 seconds into its journey. All six crew members and school teacher Christa McAuliffe were killed in the explosion or resulting impact. McAuliffe was selected from over 11,000 applicants for the position of NASA's Teacher in Space. The launch was broadcast live on national television, and it stands as a tragedy so infamous that many people remember exactly where they were when it happened.

In addition to McAuliffe, the mission took the lives of commander Francis R. “Dick” Scobee; pilot Michael J. Smith; specialists Ronald E. McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, and Judith A. Resnik; and payload specialist Gregory B. Jarvis. In 2018, ISS astronauts completed the science lessons McAuliffe had planned for the trip.

An investigation into the explosion revealed that O-ring seals in the solid rocket booster segment joints had stiffened from unexpectedly cold temperatures the night before. Despite concerns from O-ring manufacturer Morton Thiokol’s engineers, the company’s management submitted a recommendation to launch. The tragedy ultimately grounded the space shuttle program for 32 months and led to the creation of the agency’s Office of Safety, Reliability and Quality Assurance.

In Search of The Bermuda Triangle, the documentary revealing the wreckage, is set to air on Tuesday, November 22nd, on The History Channel.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement on Thursday: “While it has been nearly 37 years since seven daring and brave explorers lost their lives aboard Challenger, this tragedy will forever be seared in the collective memory of our country. For millions around the globe, myself included, January 28th, 1986, still feels like yesterday. This discovery gives us an opportunity to pause once again, to uplift the legacies of the seven pioneers we lost, and to reflect on how this tragedy changed us. At NASA, the core value of safety is — and must forever remain — our top priority, especially as our missions explore more of the cosmos than ever before.”

If you think of robots in the military, your mind may conjure dystopian images of science-fiction battlefields with AI-powered machines trading laser fire. But in a much more humane application, UK researchers are developing a potentially lifesaving medical system equivalent to a VR triage video call.

University of Sheffield researchers are working on a telepresence system to treat military personnel during combat. The plan is for offsite medics to don virtual reality headsets and control a battlefield robot. The machine can take the patient's vitals with the same technology used in robotic surgery.

Currently, injured combatants often have to see medical technicians with limited on-hand resources. These paramedics often do their jobs at significant personal risk (and, if contagious diseases and contamination are factors, a risk to others as well). If the patient needs further care, moving them to a safe location with proper resources could take hours or days.

The planned telepresence system would allow medical technicians to work offsite, using the robot to gather data like the patient's temperature or blood pressure. For example, the machines could take mouth swabs and draw blood samples from the patient's arm. In addition, it could send photos and videos of injuries to the offsite medical workers, allowing them to assess and perhaps even treat the patient remotely.

Project co-lead Sanja Dogramadzi, a professor at the University of Sheffield's Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, sees the initiative as a lifesaving measure. "Developing a remotely-operated robotic system would significantly improve safety by reducing the amount of danger military personnel are exposed to on the frontline. Our platform uses the latest technology and would integrate it in a way that hasn't been done before."