Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook 2 360 has arrived in the US market today as a 2-in-1 version of the Chromebook 2, with a price and features tailored for students. The key feature is a flip-around 2,560 x 1,600 WQXGA 12.4-inch touch display that can output 340 nits of brightness, making it decently viewable in bright sunlight. Depending on the position, that lets you use it in laptop, tent or flat tablet modes.
It's designed to be durable and shock resistant and is relatively lightweight at 1.28 kg (about 2.8 pounds), with a relatively slim 16.9mm profile and smallish bezels. Connection-wise, you get a pair of USB Type-C, one USB 3.2 type A, a microSD slot and a headphone/mic port. For any remote learning activities, it offers a decent 720P front-facing webcam.
Samsung
The WiFi 6 feature should deliver fast connection speeds at school or in the dorm. If you want even better connectivity and have a mobile plan that allows for extra devices, you can add LTE connectivity. Samsung also offers some Galaxy-related features like Nearby Share and Phone Hub that lets you control your smartphone, even if it's buried in a backpack.
Aside from that, the Chromebook 2 360 isn't exactly a spec monster. It comes with 4GB of LPDDR4x RAM (8GB optional), up to 128GB of storage, an Intel Celeron N4500 CPU (with Intel UHD graphics) and a 45.5 Wh battery. Those specs are absolutely fine for Chrome OS and its ecosystem of Chrome and Android apps, however. The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 360 goes on sale today starting at $430 for the 4GB/64GB WiFi 6 model. We don't have pricing on the LTE model yet, but it's an £80 (about $100) upgrade in the UK.
Like an ambitious butcher trying to cleave a dollar of meat out of a ten cent steak, Major League Baseball announced on Thursday that it is carving out a bit more of its television broadcast rights, renewing its four season-old deal for the "MLB Game of the Week Live on YouTube" with the Alphabet property. But unlike other recently struck deals, these streaming exclusives will be free to watch and without local blackout restrictions.
Beginning with the Rockies-Nats game on May 5th (first pitch 3:10 ET), YouTube will once again be home to more than a dozen MLB games throughout the 2022 season. Broadcasters Scott Braun and Yonder Alonso return to call the play-by-play. The full lineup is as follows:
Washington Nationals at Colorado Rockies — Thursday, May 5 @ 3:10 ET
Milwaukee Brewers at Cincinnati Reds — Wednesday, May 11 @ 12:35 ET
Arizona Diamondbacks at Chicago Cubs — Friday, May 20 @ 2:20 ET
Detroit Tigers at Minnesota Twins — Wednesday, May 25 @ 1:10 ET
Kansas City Royals at Cleveland Guardians — Wednesday, June 1 @ 1:10 ET
Toronto Blue Jays at Kansas City Royals — Wednesday, June 8 @ 2:10 ET
Minnesota Twins at Seattle Mariners — Wednesday, June 15 @ 4:10 ET
YouTubeTV subscribers will be able to find these games on the service's dedicated Game of the Week channel while everybody else will see them on the MLB YouTube page. Fans will be able to interact with the broadcasts either via the live chat, "featuring game commentary from MLB superfan YouTube creators," as well as in-game polls and, for subscribers, access to real-time game stats.
The 2022 MLB season is riddled with exclusive broadcast deals. Beyond the standard local blackout rules, 18 Sunday games will be only available with a $10/month Peacock subscription, AppleTV+ ($6/month) gets the Friday Doubleheaders, and ESPN has dibs on Sunday Night Baseball. There's also MLB.TV which has rights to everything but is far more expensive than its alternatives, at least until the All-Star break.
Amazon is bringing two mobile games to its subscription-based entertainment platform for children. Known as Amazon Kids+, the $2.99 per month service has served as sort of a one-stop shop for kid-friendly books, TV shows, movies, games and more. The first game, Super Spy Ryan is a multiplayer game based on the children’s TV show Ryan’s World. It’s available today on both the Google Play and Apple app stores in the US, UK and Ireland. The title will be available later this year in Canada, Germany and Japan, but Amazon hasn’t specified a release date.
Another mobile game, Do, Re & Mi, is a musical education game designed for the preschool set. The show is based on the Amazon Kids+ show of the same name, which stars Kristen Bell and Jackie Tohn. That game will be available for iOS soon in the US, UK, Canada and Ireland.
Kids can play both games on either their mobile phone or Amazon Fire tablet. These are the first mobile games to be available on the Kids+ service, and more will soon follow.
“We are always looking to bring joy and fun into the homes and lives of millions of families. That’s why, two years ago, we began looking at how we could reach even more kids and bring the magic and thoughtfulness of Amazon Kids+ original content to mobile phones,” said Natasha Lipovac, global head of the content division of Amazon Kids+.
If you’ve ever purchased a Kindle Kids e-reader for your child, you’re likely already familiar with Amazon Kids+ (the devices come with a free one-year subscription to the service). Amazon has made a serious effort to corner the children’s market in recent years. Given the sheer number of parents who are Prime subscribers, this makes sense. Last month the company released Amazon Glow, a kid-friendly video conferencing tablet that also includes games. We’re likely see much more children’s focused content from Amazon in the future, designed to work across all its different devices.
Nikon has released the firmware 2.0 update for its flagship mirrorless Z9 camera that gives it significant new video powers including 8.3K 60p RAW. It also offers benefits to photographers with autofocus and EVF enhancements along with a new feature that pre-captures photos before you hit the shutter button.
The 45-megapixel Z9 was already a powerful mirrorless camera for video, but the new enhancements put it ahead of all rivals, including Sony's A1 and Canon's EOS R5, at least on the spec sheet. The biggest update is the addition of 12-bit RAW video at up to 8.3K 60p using Nikon's new RAW video format called N-RAW, along with 12-bit ProRes RAW HQ capture at up to 4.1K 60p.
Nikon
N-RAW "records a vast amount of scene information, yet is a significantly smaller file size, allowing for much more recording time and [a] less intensive workflow," Nikon wrote in a press release. The files take up about half the space of equivalent ProRes RAW HQ files (ProRes RAW HQ 12-bit, 4K 24p video has a data rate of 80-140 MB/s).
A company called IntoPix previously said that Nikon would be using its TicoRAW technology for RAW video. When the firmware is released, N-RAW will be supported on DaVinci Resolve and Edius, but not Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro or other editing apps.
On top of 8.3K 60p, the Z9 can capture N-RAW 4.1K 120p, 60p, 30p and 24p (plus equivalent PAL formats) in full frame FX mode, 5.3K 60p, 30p and 24p with a 1.5X crop and 3.8K 120p with a 2.3X crop. It also creates an MP4 proxy file, allowing for "previews, quick transfers or edits on the fly," according to Nikon.
If you'd rather shoot ProRes RAW HQ, 8K isn't an option as capture is limited to 4.1K 60p, though crop options are available. Nikon has also introduced an "extended oversampling mode" delivering 2:1 oversampled 4K 60fps footage from an 8K capture. That setting requires a very fast CFexpress card, limited to ProGrade's Cobalt 650GB or 325GB memory cards. Nikon also launched its own CFexpress card today, the 660GB MC-CF660G, arriving in June 2022 with up to 1700 MB/s and 1500 MB/s read/write speeds.
Video operation is also improved with several new features. The most requested is the addition of a waveform display that greatly helps visualize exposure, particularly with in log modes. You can also put a red frame around the display during recording and adjust the magnification. Other features include finer ISO increments for smoother transitions and a "Fast AF On" function that lets you quickly change the AF speed without diving into menus — another much-asked-for setting.
Nikon
On the photography side, the Z9 now has a pre-buffer option for JPEGs only, at 30fps full resolution and 11-megapixel 120 fps modes. It captures buffered images when the shutter button is half press pressed, keeping up to a second of images when you fully press it. It also retains up to 4 seconds afterwards.
Meanwhile, Nikon boosted the EVF's refresh rate to a smoother 120 fps, bringing it in line with rivals like Sony and Canon — though enabling the setting will reduce battery life. It also added custom Wide AF zones, letting you select which parts of your scene are active and create two user-defined zones. That way, you can keep the AF and subject tracking in a defined area to improve focus reliability.
The update is one of the most impressive I've seen and significantly improves the $5,500 Z9's functionality and desirability. Features like MP4 proxy recording are usually only seen on pro video cameras. However, Nikon has nothing to lose by making the Z9 a limit-free video powerhouse, because unlike Sony and Canon, it has no professional video lineup to cannibalize. The firmware 2.0 upgrade will be available to download for free starting on April 20, 2022 at Nikon's website.
Just a couple weeks after Kia announced a European release window for its EV9, the automaker has revealed when US drivers will be able to get behind the wheel of the electric SUV. It said at the New York Auto Show that the EV9 is coming Stateside in the second half of 2023.
Kia didn't announce any more details at the show, as Autoblognotes, meaning pricing is still unknown. Still, at least the timeframe has been narrowed down.
The automaker hasn't spilled the beans on how the road-ready version of the EV9 differs from the boxy concept model. In November, Kia offered an early look at the concept EV9, which had a 27-inch dashboard display and a yoke-style wheel. It said the EV offered up to 300 miles of range and 350kW charging that boosts the battery level from 10 percent to 80 percent in 30 minutes.
The Kia Niro has long been a staff-favorite here at Engadget. On Wednesday, the Korean automaker took to the NYIAS 2022 stage to show off its latest iterations of the popular compact sport utility, one for every kind of driver.
Hyundai Motor Group
The second-generation, 2023 Niro will arrive in dealer showrooms in all 50 states later this summer, available as either as a hybrid-electric (HEV), plug-in hybrid, or battery electric vehicle. The HEV version pairs a 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine with a 32kW permanent magnet synchronous e-motor producing a total 139 horsepower and 195 lb ft of torque with 53 mpg combined and an estimated 588-mile range. The PHEV doubles the size of the companion e-motor to 62kW, outputting a total of 180 HP and 195 lb ft of torque. Its 11.1 kWh battery refills completely in under 3 hours on a level 2 (home) charger and can propel the vehicle up to 33 miles on its own (a 25 percent improvement over last year's model).
The full EV (which qualifies for the federal $7,500 tax rebate) will offer a 64.8 kWh battery powering a 150kW (201 HP) motor with a range of 253 miles. On a level 3 (DC fast charge) connection, it can replenish 10 to 80 percent in under 45 minutes, but only at a rate of 85 kW. On a level 2 charger, that same operation will take just under 7 hours.
Hyundai Motor Group
For this model year, Kia is introducing a new drive mode as well. In addition to the standard Sport and Eco modes, the Green Zone setting automatically switches the HEV and PHEV into all electric mode when in residential areas or nearby schools and hospitals. Also new for this year, the Niro will feature the same V2L bidirectional charging found on the EV6.
Hyundai Motor Group
The Niro is also growing. It's wheelbase is longer in 2023, measuring 107 inches, with a total vehicle length of 174 inches. This translates into additional cargo space behind the rear seats — "8 more cubic feet of passenger cabin room and 50 percent more cargo room than the Tesla Model 3," according to the company. The cabin is designed with sustainability in mind with a headliner composed of recycled wallpaper, seats covered with bio polyurethane and Tencel made from eucalyptus leaves, and BTX-free paint on the exterior door panels. And despite its larger size, the Niro boasts a .29 drag coefficient.
Hyundai Motor Group
Similar to the EV6's interior, the 2023 Niro offers "a tech-focused environment in all configurations and trims," including dual 10.5-inch infotainment/instrument displays, an optional Head-Up Display, Apple CarPlay / Android Auto support, and all the ADAS features we've come to expect like forward collision warnings, lane keeping assist, and a menagerie of random warning alarms. An eight-speaker Harman/Kardon sound system is optional.
Back in January, Samsung launched a portable projector called Freestyle at CES. We thought the product was a solid choice for the product category, seeing it only weighs 1.83 pounds and has auto focus and auto leveling features to help align whatever it is you're watching. However, at $900, it was quite a bit more expensive than similar portable projectors like Anker's. If you've keeping an eye out for deals on the device, you my want to head over to Woot: You can get the Samsung Freestyle for only $650, $250 off its regular price, from the website.
The Freestyle has a stand that can rotate almost 180 degrees, so you can position your image wherever you want, whether it's the ceiling or the wall. If you use a base accessory, it can connect to a standard E26 lightbulb socket, as well. The device can project images with a 1080p resolution as small as 30 inches or as big as 100 inches — plus, it supports HDR content and has 360-degree audio. It also comes with built-in Alexa, Google Assistant and Bixby, so you can turn up the volume and issue other voice commands to control the projector.
You can only get the Freestyle from Woot at that price for a limited time (less than 20 hours, as of this writing) or until stocks last. If you're an Amazon Prime member, you can get it shipped for free upon purchase. Just take note that Woot has a different return policy than its parent company.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
Robosen Robotics' Optimus Prime robot can automatically transform into a truck just like the movie/cartoon versions, but the breathtaking $900 price makes it more a toy for collectors than children. Now, Hasbro and Robosen have launched a companion Trailer and Roller set for Optimus Prime with equally cool auto-conversion features and an equally steep $750 price.
Based on the G1 design, the trailer measures an impressive three feet (1 meter) in length, fully extended. Using Robosen's clever robotics, it automatically unfolds and tilts vertically into a nearly flat rectangular shield, complete with an integrated, articulating sentry blaster. In truck mode, it houses the Roller vehicle and human sidekick Spike "who is ready to jump into action or enjoy the ride." The blaster can also be mounted for "further firepower and support," according to Robosen.
You can open the Trailer's rear swing doors with a voice command, or control the truck and Roller car using an app. It auto-converts in seconds, and you can, of course, tow it with Optimus Prime, "exposing the sentry weapons to fire on the Decepticons during the chase."
The trailer and Optimus Prime robotic are expensive, but unlike other collectibles, the price appears to be justified. The company promises "meticulous" craftsmanship, high-grade metal allow parts and cutting-edge robotics tech. It uses 18 of Robosen's proprietary servo motors and 60 microchips, with over 2,000 components in total.
Robosen
Pre-orders are now open for the $750 Trailer and Roller Set, though deliveries won't start until around November 2022. The package includes a protective storage case with handle for easy transportation, along with a collectible pack including an individualized serial number, Autobot magnetic car badge, metal challenge coin and sticker pack.
Hasbro and Robosen also released a limited number of Flagship Optimus Prime robots selling for $750, though that deal already seems to be gone. Despite all the cool features, the combined $1,500 price means it's likely that many of these items will stay in their collectible protective cases, never to transform into anything but cash.
Highly acclaimed sci-fi mystery 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim has arrived on Nintendo Switch. Until now, the game from Atlus and Vanillaware had only been available on PlayStation 4 (and PS5 through backward compatibility).
13 Sentinels knits together 13 stories and features a beautiful hand-painted art style. It combines 2D side-scrolling adventure elements with top-down, real-time strategy battles against kaiju. You'll be able to customize your mechs' loadouts to best fit the environment and enemy types.
Atlus released 13 Sentinels in Japan in 2019 and the rest of the world in 2020. It received glowing reviews, particularly for its story and visuals. Long-time players might be glad to have the option to play it while they're on the go, while Atlue and Vanillaware might be able to find a new legion of fans on Switch. Both the digital and physical editions cost $60, though the latter comes with bonus art cards.
For the base XLE model with front-wheel drive, the bZ4X will start at $42,000 while providing 252 miles of range on a single charge. Meanwhile, if you prefer a slightly more premium kit, you can upgrade to the Limited package (which starts at $46,700) that adds more luxurious satin and soft-touch finishes and upgraded seats, with Toyota offering FWD and X-MODE AWD drive options across both trim levels.
Toyota
While similar in size to the Toyota's popular RAV4 (it's 3.7 inches longer but two inches shorter), the bZ4X is going for a sleeker, more futuristic design featuring an emphasis on aerodynamics and improved driver visibility thanks to a lower hood height. On the base model, Toyota is claiming 0-60 times of 7.1 seconds, or 6.5 seconds for the AWD version. That said, the AWD model's speedier acceleration does come with slightly reduced range, topping out at around 228 miles on a charge.
Inside, the car offers seating for five passengers and an infotainment system with a 12.3-inch touchscreen that supports wireless CarPlay and Android Auto. And for those who really want to stay connected, you can also pay for a Wi-Fi Connect subscription that will add hotspot functionality powered by AT&T's 4G network. You'll also get a handful of USB ports (both Type-A and Type-C), a built-in wireless charger and a three-year trial for Toyota's Remote Connect service, which allows owners to control things like the car's temperature controls, horn, window defroster and more from an app on their phone.
Toyota
Finally, when it comes to recharging, the bZ4X will come with an included 6.6kW adapter that should be able to bring the car from low to full in about nine hours when connected to a Level 2 charger, with new owners even getting the option to purchase ChargePoint Home Flex charger direct from select dealers. And as an added bonus, for anyone who buys or leases a 2023 bZ4X, Toyota is throwing in one free year of unlimited complimentary charging at all EVgo charging stations nationwide.
