European lawmakers have gotten the EU's 27 member states to agree to a plan that effectively bans the sale of gas-powered cars and vans by 2035. They've come to an agreement to approve the Commission's revised reduction targets for passenger cars' and light vehicles' carbon dioxide emissions. The Commission's proposal, which European lawmakers had voted in favor of back in June, aims to reduce the emissions produced by new vehicles in those categories by 100 percent in 13 years' time. That wouldn't be achievable without stopping the sale of gas-powered vehicles and selling zero-emission models only.
European Parliament's lead negotiator Jan Huitema said:
"[P]urchasing and driving zero-emission cars will become cheaper for consumers. I am pleased that today we reached an agreement with the Council on an ambitious revision of the targets for 2030 and supported a 100% target for 2035. This is crucial to reach climate neutrality by 2050 and make clean driving more affordable."
Under the deal, new cars from 2030 must also comply with a 55 percent cut on carbon dioxide emissions compared to 2021 levels. Vans must comply with a 50 percent cut. In addition, the agreement states that existing EU funding should be spent on transitioning to zero-emission vehicles and related technologies going forward. The Commission also vows to publish a report every two years detailing the region's progress towards zero-emission road mobility starting in 2025.
The European Parliament and Council will still have to approve the agreement before it becomes official, and changes could be introduced before then. According to Reuters, the EU intends to draft a proposal on how to sell cars running on carbon dioxide-neutral fuels after 2035. That said, automakers have been preparing for the shift to zero-emission vehicles for a while now, as governments around the world adopt laws to combat climate change. The list of carmakers pledging to go fully electric over the coming years continue to grow: Ford, for instance, announced last year that its consumer vehicles will be fully electric by 2030, while GM aims to eliminate emissions from all its new "light-duty vehicles" by 2035.
Almost two years after Netflix tweeted (and deleted) about an animated Sonic the Hedgehog series that's coming to the streaming service, the show has a release date. Season one of Sonic Prime will hit the platform on December 15th. The first season will have 24 episodes.
Alongside the release date announcement, Netflix unveiled character posters for Sonic, Amy Rose, Shadow, Knuckles, Rouge, Big the Cat and, of course, Eggman. The company will offer another look at the show during the weekly Geeked: Toon-In show, which will be broadcast at 8PM ET today on the company's Twitch channel. The latest teaser will likely pop up on Netflix's YouTube channel and elsewhere soon after.
Don't miss the NEW teaser trailer on "Geeked: Toon-In" on Twitch tonight at 5pm PT! pic.twitter.com/UaBIcj1Los
Samsung has reported a record consolidated revenue of 76.78 trillion Korean won (US$54 billion) for the third quarter of 2022, but it has also posted a decline in profit from the previous quarter and year-over-year. The tech giant's operating profit (KRW 10.85 trillion or US$7.6 billion) has declined 23 percent from the second quarter and around 31.4 percent from the same period last year. Samsung's operating profit from July to September 2021 was KRW 15.82 trillion, which was 26 percent higher than the quarter prior to that. In its earnings report, the company said its various divisions have been grappling with weak demand in the midst of global economic instability.
Weak demand for consumer products and customers' inventory adjustments caused its Memory business' earnings to shrink. Its LSI business' earnings fell due to weak demand for phones and TVs, as well, though revenue from SoCs grew due to an increased portion of 5G. Samsung's Visual Display Business was also affected by low demand and increased costs.
Samsung's Mobile eXperience (MX) business was its bright spot last quarter. Together with the company's Networks business, it posted KRW 32.21 trillion (US$22.6 billion) in consolidated revenue and KRW 3.24 trillion (US$2.27 billion) in operating profit, which are both higher than the previous quarter's. The company attributes the MX business' success to sales of the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4, both of which showed stronger growth than their predecessors. Further, the Galaxy S22 series was able to maintain "solid sales momentum."
The tech giant expects its mobile business to perform even better in the fourth quarter as demand for smartphones and wearables increases due to year-end seasonality. And since the smartphone and wearable markets are expected to grow as a whole next year, Samsung's mobile business might continue bringing in solid profits. Another division that did well in the third quarter is the tech giant's Foundry business, which delivered record earnings (KRW 23.02 trillion or US$16 billion in consolidated revenue and KRW 5.12 trillion or US$3.6 billion in operating profit) thanks to solid demand from global customers.
On the same day that it released its third quarter earnings, Samsung has also formally named Jay Y. Lee as its executive chairman. It's mostly a symbolic move, seeing as Lee is the company's de-facto leader anyway. But as Bloomberg notes, the title could help make things smoother for Lee as he closes deals with other companies around the world in an effort to expand Samsung's semiconductor and biotechnology businesses. Lee, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2017 after being found guilty of bribing public officials, received a presidential pardon in August so he could help South Korea overcome the economic crisis.
Shortly after news broke Wednesday afternoon that its self-driving subsidiary Argo AI would be wound down, Ford CEO Jim Farley joined in on the company's Q3 earnings call and spoke at length about how senior management came to that decision. "It's estimated that more than a hundred billion has been invested in the promise of level four autonomy," he said during the call, "And yet no one has defined a profitable business model at scale."
In short, Ford is refocusing its investments away from the longer-term goal of Level 4 autonomy (that's a vehicle capable of navigating without human intervention though manual control is still an option) for the more immediate short term gains in faster L2+ and L3 autonomy. L2+ is today's state of the art, think Ford's BlueCruise or GM's SuperCruise technologies with hands-free driving along pre-mapped highway routes, L3 is where you get into the vehicle handling all safety-critical functions along those routes, not just steering and lane-keeping.
"Commercialization of L4 autonomy, at scale, is going to take much longer than we previously expected," Doug Field, chief advanced product development and technology officer at Ford, said during the call. "L2+ and L3 driver assist technologies have a larger addressable customer base, which will allow it to scale more quickly, and profitability."
"It’s taking that investment and putting it towards a business where we think we will have a sizable return in the near term relative to one that’s going to have a long arc," he added. The company didn't elaborate on a specific timeframe for when it would potentially be ready, thought Farley did stress that developing the foundational technologies needed for Level 4 will not be won quickly. "We don’t expect a single ‘Aha!’ moment like we used to,” he said.
Farley anticipates updated L2+ and L3 systems to arrive in the coming years alongside the company's second cycle of EVs in 2023 - 2025. "Ford is completely refreshing it's EV lineup globally, introducing fully updatable electrical architectures and in-house software development for controlling the vehicle," Farley noted.
Fields stressed the importance of keeping much of the back end functions of these evolving ADAS technologies in-house. "We will have a core team that can integrate a system, understand its performance at the system level," he said. "And we will own the software. It is really important that we also own the connection to these vehicles. L3 is a connected technology, so the ability to have a pipeline that collects data and makes the system better and better — we must own that."
"That's a problem that actually doesn't exist in L4 and is a huge opportunity for us to create a Ford experience that's really unique." Fields said.
Samsung's The Frame — the smart TV that looks like art when it's off — just hit a record low price. As part of Samsung Week, a deals event running through November 1st, the 55-inch Samsung Frame comes in at $998, which is hundreds lower than it was Prime Day a few weeks ago. While these sets are still on the expensive side when on discount, they're hard to beat if you want a TV that blends into your space better than a standard black box.
As a TV, the Frame delivers the vivid, high-res quality with a QLED 4K panel, along with the intuitive smart TV interface of Samsung's Tizen OS. But the real draw here happens when the TV is off. In Art Mode, The Frame displays images from an extensive gallery of artwork. Pick from classic oil paintings from artists you'd find in the Louvre or modern photography from rising stars. I have an earlier model of The Frame and have surprised more than one visitor when I switched my "art" to an episode of Owl House.
One caveat is you'll need a Samsung Art Store subscription (currently $8 per month) to access the entire collection, as only a small subset is available for display without it.
To really sell the idea that you're displaying art instead of a TV, The Frame comes standard with anti-reflective glass and a separate CPU to keep a low, flush-mounted profile. The CPU connects via a thin cable that's hard to spot, especially if you drop it behind the wall when mounting the TV.
Getting a sub-$1,000 price point on the 55-inch model was unheard of before now. And currently, all sizes, up through the massive 85-inch, are deeply discounted. If the Frame isn't your style, or you're looking for an outdoor-friendly TV, Samsung Week discounts have also knocked down the prices of the Terrace TV and even some of the company's projectors.
Sony has launched the $3,900 A7R V, its latest mirrorless camera designed to shoot portraits, landscapes and other subjects that require as much resolution as possible. The new model carries the same 61-megapixel resolution as the A7R IV, but has a much more powerful new Bionz XR processor that allows for improved AI autofocus, better shake reduction and 8K 24p video.
The key improvement is in the autofocus, as the A7R V is Sony's first camera to introduced something called "human pose estimation." The system can see 20 different points in the human body and and thus figure out where the eye is supposed to be. That allows it to accurately track someone who might be moving and turning away from the camera, and keep tracking them even if they disappear from view for a moment. On top of that, it can now pick out different subjects like cars, trains, plains, animals and insects.
Though the A7R V is primarily targeted at photographers, it's much better at video than ever, too. Where the A7R IV was limited to 8-bit 4K at 30fps with either cropping or line-skipping, the A7R V now shoots 8K video at up to 24 fps, along with 6.2K without line-skipping or pixel binning. With the same heatsink as the A7S III, it allows for unlimited 4K recording and up to 30 minutes of 8K capture.
It can also handle supersampled 10-bit 4K video using the entire sensor width at up to 30 fps, or at 60fps with a 1.2x crop. You can also capture 16-bit RAW video to external recorders at up to 4K 60p.
Sony has upgraded to the in-body stabilization (IBS) system from 5.5 to 8 stops, now matching what Canon can do with its similarly-priced EOS R5. And in lieu of the tilting display used in the A7R IV, the new model has a fully articulating screen that makes it more useful for high-angle shooting, video and more.
The A7R V shoots at the same 10fps speeds as before, which is impressive for such a high-resolution camera. However, it can now shoot compressed RAW files rather than just uncompressed as before. The buffer can also handle up to 583 shots, letting you shoot for a large amount of time in a burst.
Sony
It has a long list of other attractive features, including a class-leading 9.44-million-dot electronic viewfinder (EVF) and dual card slots that accept either speedy (but expensive) CFexpress Type A or UHS-II cards. Another new feature is pixel shift multishot (tripod use only) for compositing 16 shots into one 240.8-megapixel image using AI processing to automatically detect and correct movement between frames.
The list continues with AI-powered white balance, focus stacking of up to 299 frames for increased depth of field, Sony's Cinetone color profile for a more film-like look, an updated body with dials and controls similar to the A7 IV, USB-C charging with Power Delivery and native webcam compatibility. The Sony A7R V is set to arrive in December for $3,900.
Sony isn't just upgrading its wireless earbuds with eco-friendly plastic. The company now promises that its LinkBuds, LinkBuds S and WF-1000XM4 models will receive multipoint audio support this fall. As with some rival buds, this lets you juggle the audio between two Bluetooth devices. You can switch to a call on your phone while you're watching video on your tablet, for instance.
The improvement requires new firmware available through Sony's Headphones Connect app. The LinkBuds family will get the multipoint update by November, while the WF-1000XM4 should make the leap sometime this winter.
As The Vergepointed out, the WF-1000XM4 upgrade is somewhat unexpected. Sony started selling that model in mid-2021, and hadn't even teased the prospect of a multipoint update. While the news still won't be much consolation if you own budget buds like the WF-C500, this at least ensures that you won't feel left out if you splurged on wireless audio in the past year.
The upgrade gives Sony an edge over some of the competition, at least. While you'll get seamless audio switching on challengers like Apple's AirPods lineup, you're frequently limited to one brand's ecosystem. Sony's multipoint functionality could make more sense if you don't want to be tied to certain platforms or products just to avoid wading through Bluetooth device menus.
Back in July, Samsung began testing a new privacy feature on Galaxy S21 phones in Korea. Dubbed Maintenance Mode, the tool allowed users to secure their personal information – including photos, messages and contacts – when sending their device in for repair. Now Samsung says the feature is ready for primetime.
Starting today, the company has begun rolling out Maintenance Mode to Galaxy devices with One UI 5 installed. Broader availability will follow in 2023. In other words, Galaxy S22 users will receive access to the feature first.
Once Maintenance Mode arrives on your phone, you’ll find the option to enable it within the “Battery and device care” section of the Settings menu. It will create a separate account on your phone for a technician to use while working on your device. In addition to protecting your personal information, Maintenance Mode prevents a technician from seeing what apps you have installed. They can use the Galaxy Store to download any diagnostic software they need, but once they’re done, your phone will automatically wipe any new data and apps. When your phone is back in your possession, you can disable Maintenance Mode by authenticating your identity.
Sony's LinkBuds S offer a more traditional true wireless fit as opposed to the open wear design of the original model. The company debuted the follow-up back in May, filling out the features list with active noise cancellation (ANC) and a host of other handy items from Sony's premium audio products. Like the first LinkBuds, the S model was built to wear all the time, thanks to they're small size, comfy fit and capable transparency mode. LinkBuds S were already being made with recycled plastics from automobile parts, but today the company has announced an Earth Blue variant made from even more reclaimed materials.
Sony says the body and case for this version of the LinkBuds S are made from "factory-recovered plastic and reclaimed water bottles." The recycled materials are what give the exterior surfaces a marble pattern. The company explains that the idea originally came from design exploration around new uses for recycled water bottles. Of course, the earbuds aren't entirely make from reclaimed substances, but the main shell of the buds and the case have the swirl look from the process. Like the existing LinkBuds S colors, the packaging for this new version uses no plastic.
The $200 LinkBuds S feature ANC and transparency mode that allow you to tune out or tune into the world as you see fit. Sony added a tool called Auto Play to these earbuds that allows you to set up certain times audio will begin automatically — like after a video call or when you're on the go. The company's Adaptive Sound Control from other earbuds and headphones is here too, automatically changing sound modes based on your location or activity. You can expect up to six hours of battery life on a charge with ANC enabled and another 14 hours in the case. IPX4 protection also means you can wear these during workouts without fear of sweat damage and a handy Speak-to-Chat feature pauses audio when you begin to talk to assist with quick conversations.
The new Earth Blue variant will be available at the end of October from Sony, Amazon and other retailers, joining the black and white options in the LinkBuds S lineup. We've seen these earbuds for as low as $148, although you might have to wait a while for a deal on this new version.
A new Bayonetta game is like the circus rolling into town. Bayonetta is the ringmaster, of course, and she shows up out of the blue with boxcars of strange beasts, weird friends, dangerous spells, magnificent clothing and endless promises to impress. Her stories don’t always make sense, but they’re filled with melodrama and action, magic and gunfire, and once Bayonetta enters the spotlight, there’s no looking away. Especially not when she’s dancing her way through a spell in an outfit made of her own hair, while 40-storey monsters fight to the death at her back.
Bayonetta 3 is full of classic Bayonetta madness, all of it amped up by one degree. The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been, the enemies are absolutely massive, Bayonetta’s magic is incredibly powerful, her outfits are outstanding, and the fights don’t stop coming. A loose plot holds the entire game together – an army of man-made bioweapons called Homonculi is threatening the existence of the multiverse – but it’s just an excuse to throw Bayonetta and friends into an endless string of battles in a variety of crumbling cities. In that way, Bayonetta 3 isn’t very different from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though PlatinumGames’ latest installment has way more witchcraft, silliness and shoe-operated guns than anything helmed by Robert Downey Jr.
Structurally and mechanically, Bayonetta 3 is as rich as its predecessors. Bayonetta acquires new skills and weapons throughout her quest; she collects fragments of fallen enemies to purchase items, consumables and accessories in the Gates of Hell shop, while orbs unlock abilities on her skill tree. Combat is all about performing stylish combos and executing well-timed dodges, and each fight is infinitely replayable if you’re chasing high scores. There are also plenty of challenges and secrets to find in each level.
Bayonetta 3 is a Switch exclusive, and it struggles as much as any fast-paced action game on that console: At times, inputs feel sluggish and it becomes difficult to track which moves are actually lined up. The game does a fine job of providing visual indicators for attacks and there is a rhythm to be found in the fray, but the entire thing runs in Switch Reaction Time (does not adhere to daylight saving).
For fans of the series, there’s nothing missing in Bayonetta 3 – in fact, there’s just more. More weirdness, more one-liners, more swag, and more combat mechanics. For instance, one section puts players in control of Bayonetta’s witchy buddy, Jeanne, for a side-scrolling action sequence with 1960s espionage flair. Another mechanic allows Bayonetta to control time in short bursts, at times reverting to her younger self. Throughout the game, the Demon Masquerade ability adds hellish features to Bayonetta’s weapons and allows her to transform into various demons, while the Demon Slave skill allows her to summon and control giant creatures of hell, each with a specific moveset.
Most of Bayonetta’s demons are inspired by classically spooky animals like moths and spiders, but one of her forms is a literal train. A little over halfway through the game, Bayonetta is infused with the energy of Satan’s choo-choo and she’s able to summon a hellish tank engine during fights. Attacking as the train with Demon Slave slows down time temporarily, allowing players to quickly draw a track and indicate points of damage along the route, ideally in the path of nearby enemies. Let go of the Demon Slave button and the train barrels down the ghost track in real time, dealing hefty damage to anything it hits. Bayonetta also acquires the ability to turn into a literal train-witch hybrid through Demon Masquerade, rushing forward with heavy-duty chainsaw-like attacks. Because of course she does.
Nintendo/PlatinumGames
By the time the train demon appears, it actually fits into the rest of the game nicely. Bayonetta’s world has always been wacky, and 3 is no exception. If you can handle the idea of Umbra Witches and bartending angels, you can deal with some light locomotive play.
I don’t take Bayonetta games too seriously and this feels like the right move, especially after playing the third installment. The series’ sense of combat is rich and its storyline is incredibly intricate, involving divine wars and parallel universes, and yet it all just feels like an excuse to make Bayonetta dance her way through a spell while massive monsters fight in the background. Thankfully, this is the best part of the series – Bayonetta is powerful and fighting in her (gun)shoes feels great, but her personality is what makes this franchise a cult hit. Bayonetta is confident, sarcastic and always correct; her outfits are stunning and so are her friends; she dances like an angel; she never has a hair out of place and her one-liners never stop. She’s a drag queen in a universe loosely held together by witchcraft, and the chaos of this combination is truly magical.
Bayonetta 3 is ridiculous and slightly disjointed, but that's precisely what makes it so wonderful. It builds on a multiverse of weird and witchy ideas, and it delivers exactly what fans of the series expect – something totally unexpected.
