If you’ve performed a Google search lately, you’ve undoubtedly come across an AI Overview in your search results. This tool, powered by Google’s Gemini, tries to save you some clicks by aggregating information from the links populated in your search results and succinctly delivering what it believes to be the information you’re looking for. The accuracy of these overviews, however, often leaves a lot to be desired, and the tool has been plagued with hallucinations since its launch (with varying degrees of hilarity).

Now Google is bringing the tool to YouTube, testing a video version of AI overviews for a small number of YouTube Premium members in the US across limited English search queries. While Google search results show LLM-generated text summaries, YouTube’s AI overviews will function as something of a highlight reel for certain videos.

In a post on YouTube Community forums, Google said that, "This new feature will use AI to highlight clips from videos that will be most helpful for your search query…This is most likely to show when you search for more information about products you’re shopping for (such as 'best noise cancelling headphones'), or when you search for more information about locations or things to do in those locations (such as 'museums to visit in San Francisco')."

This raises some questions about the revenue model for creators on YouTube and how AI-generated clip reels would affect their incomes. A major concern with AI overview in search is Google’s own summary absorbing traffic that would otherwise have gone to the publications shown in the search results. Bringing these tools to YouTube is likely to raise the same concerns for video content creators.

Google will be collecting feedback on these overviews from Premium members, who can vote with a thumbs up or thumbs down on the AI-generated highlight clips. Google hasn’t said how long this pilot will run for, or whether Google intends to expand YouTube’s AI overview to anyone beyond Premium subscribers.

The Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 are on sale right now for $179, which is a discount of $50. Just head on over to Wellbots and pop in the code ENGAD50 to score the deal.

This is Google’s latest and greatest audio product and easily made our list of the best wireless earbuds. They are smaller and more comfortable than the previous version, which is great. Despite the product shrinkage, the sound has also been improved. The bass is punchy and the highs are crisp.

The battery life is also slightly improved when compared to the original earbuds. You can expect eight hours of use with ANC on, but this increases to 30 hours when you consider the included charging case. These are the company’s first earbuds with a Tensor chip, which allows for ultra-low latency audio processing and multi-path signal handling.

Other perks include conversation detection, multipoint Bluetooth and the ability to customize what long-pressing the button does. These earbuds can also automatically switch between devices linked to a Google account, which is great for Android users but doesn’t do much for Apple fans.

For those on a serious budget, the Google Pixel Buds A-Series earbuds are also $50 off via Wellbots. Enter the same ENGAD50 code to bring the price down to just $49.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

The EU will be mandating new labels on smartphones and tablets that indicate how repairable the device is. These labels will also include ratings for energy efficiency and durability. They will start showing up on devices on June 20 and will be similar to pre-existing ones for home appliances and TVs.

The labels display a product’s energy efficiency rating on a scale from A to G and will also display battery life and the number of available charge cycles. There will be letter grades for durability and repairability, in addition to an IP rating for dust and water-resistance.

European Commission

Covered products also include cordless landline phones, but smartphones with rollable displays are exempted. This is fairly odd because, well, there aren’t any rollable phones available for consumers just yet. Windows-based tablets will be covered by a separate mandate for computers.

This isn’t the only change the EU has announced regarding device sales. Hardware will now have to meet new "ecodesign requirements" to be sold in the region. This includes a requirement to make any applicable spare parts available for repair.

Other ecodesign requirements include batteries that retain at least 80 percent of their capacity after 800 charging cycles and scratch and drop protections that exceed minimum standards. Finally, manufacturers must provide OS updates within six months of the source code becoming available.

The Spacetop AR laptop made a splash when it debuted a few years ago with an intriguing pitch: What if you could have a notebook that works entirely through augmented reality glasses, without a built-in screen of its own? Unfortunately, we found the Spacetop experience to be underwhelming, and the hardware seemed like a tough sell for $1,900. Last Fall, Spacetop's creator Sightful told CNET that it was abandoning the screen-less laptop altogether and instead focusing on building AR software for Windows PCs. Now, we have a clearer sense of what Sightful is up to. 

Today, Sightful is officially launching Spacetop for Intel-powered Windows AI PCs, following a short trial launch from January. For $899 you get a pair of XREAL's Air Ultra 2 glasses and a year of Spacetop's software. Afterwards, you'll have to pay $200 annually for a subscription. The software works just like the original Spacetop concept — it gives you a large 100-inch AR interface for doing all of your productivity work — except now you're not stuck with the company's middling keyboard and other hardware.

Spacetop might be compelling to AR fanatics who already own Intel AI PCs like the Surface Laptop Pro for Business, or a Dell XPS machine with the Core Ultra 7 chip. But if you don't have one of those computers, you'll have to add it to Spacetop's already high cost. And don't forget about prescription lenses: Those will run you $50 for single-vision and $150 for progressive.

Spacetop doesn't support Intel chips without NPUs, as its AR interface requires constant AI processing. It doesn't work AMD or Qualcomm's AI CPUs, either. The company partnered with Intel to optimize Spacetop for its platform, which included help with understanding Intel's NPU architecture as well as tweaking its chips to help the AR software run better. In a conversation with Engadget, Sightful CEO Tamir Berliner noted that the company might pay more attention to other chip platforms if it gets similar attention. 

As for Mac support, Berliner said in a statement to Engadget: "Yes, we plan to create a version of Spacetop for Mac — the timing is still TBD based on a lot of different factors regarding laptops, silicon, compute power, glasses, and more. We will be excited to share more news when we are able.”

Given its price and the strict PC requirements for using it, Spacetop clearly isn't meant for a wide audience. But there are potential benefits for early adopters. Its large AR screen could make it easier to multitask without large monitors, and it's also easier to focus on your apps since Spacetop vastly simplifies the Windows 11 interface. There are some obvious privacy benefits, too, since no one else can see what you're looking at in AR.

The big downside, though, is that you'll have to get used to wearing Xreal's large Air 2 Ultra glasses. When we demoed it at CES, we found it to be an improvement over previous Xreal frames, thanks to their sharp 1080p micro-OLED displays and wider field of view. The Air 2 Ultra are also notable for having 6DoF tracking, which allows you to move around AR objects. While sleeker than the Vision Pro, the glasses are still pretty clunky, and you'll also have to snap in additional prescription frames if necessary.

I'll need to see this latest iteration of Spacetop in action before making any final judgments, but it's clearly a more viable concept as an app that can work on a variety of laptops. Nobody wants to buy bespoke hardware like the old Spacetop laptop, no matter how good of a party trick it may be.

Apple TV+ has a ton of popular originals like Ted Lasso, Severance, Slow Horses, For All Mankind, Foundation and Silo. If you've been meaning to check them out, you can do so for less right now. Apple TV+ is on sale right now for $3 per month for the first three months, bringing the total cost to just $9 for the entire period. That saves you a total of $21 off the standard $10 monthly cost of the subscription that we consider to be one of our favorite streaming services. But the deal expires on April 24, so you only have a bit more time to grab it.

Apple's shows won 10 Emmy Awards in 2024, including a Slow Horses victory for outstanding writing in a drama series. Although its films weren't up for anything at this year's Oscars, it received 13 nominations in 2024, including Best Picture nods for Killers of the Flower Moon and Napoleon.

Both new and qualified returning subscribers (those who haven't been subscribed for the past 30 days) are eligible for this deal. You also must sign up via Apple directly and not through a third-party provider or your mobile wireless provider. If you don't want to pay full price after three months, just remember to cancel before the renewal date.

Check out our coverage of the best streaming deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

I liked Logitech's MX Creative Console when I tested it last year, but one of biggest issues was a lack of support for specific content creation and other apps. The company has rectified that with a major update now available on the company's Logi Marketplace. It expands the console's compatibility to several key apps including DaVinci Resolve, Adobe Lightroom and Figma. 

As a reminder, the MX Creative Console is a control panel that connects to your Mac or PC and is designed to speed up creative chores for apps like Adobe Premiere and Photoshop. It's more compact than rival consoles and features a modern design and a pair of slick control dials, along with dynamic display keys that change depending on the app and page you’re looking at.

A key new addition is support for Adobe's Lightroom, rather than just Lightroom Classic as before. It lets you use the dial controller on the MX Creative Console to straighten images or adjust brightness, contrast and clarity. The buttons can also be set up to do things like rate and flag images for quicker processing. 

Logitech also worked with Blackmagic Design to get the console working with DaVinci Resolve, a popular editing and effects app that's an alternative to Adobe Premiere Pro. You can now use the console to navigate the timeline, cut, trim and retime clips and navigate Fusion's effects nodes efficiently. 

It added similar functionality for Apple's Final Cut Pro, while also letting you do precise color grading via the app's Color Wheels. For the interface design tool Figma, the MX Creative Console lets you quickly access essential tools and actions, manage assets, text alignments, spacing and layout adjustments and adjust text size, weight and height with the dial. 

Logitech got into creative control surfaces in a big way when it purchased Steam Deck rival Loupedeck in 2023. The $200 MX Creative Console arrived a year later, and though it took Adobe nearly seven months to release a major update, support for the new apps makes the console far more versatile. "Adding these highly requested plugins will unlock the MX Creative Console’s potential for a broader range of creative professionals,” noted Logitech GM Anatoliy Polyanker.

Google is under the microscope following a court ruling last year that it has a monopoly over online search, but the future of its vast suite of digital services is still uncertain at this stage. Last month, the Justice Department suggested that Google would need to sell off the Chrome browser; if the tech giant does make that move, there's already at least one interested buyer.

Bloomberg reports that Nick Turley, head of ChatGPT, spoke at a hearing today about the Google monopoly situation and was asked whether OpenAI would be interested in acquiring Chrome. “Yes, we would, as would many other parties,” he said. Users can currently use the ChatGPT AI assistant in Chrome through a plugin, but Turley said there could be deeper integrations if OpenAI owned the browser. Under OpenAI's hypothetical ownership, Chrome could "introduce users into what an AI first experience looks like."

Chrome isn't the only property Google may lose control over. A separate judge determined earlier this month that Google has also been engaged in anti-competitive behavior over online ad tech. It's no surprise that any other major tech operation would be interested in acquiring one of the many popular services Google has developed over the years. The real question is which one of them landing a purchase wouldn't create a new monopoly. For now, the DOJ is allowing Google to continue its AI investments amid the break-up talk, but adding the browser to OpenAI's holdings may raise new concerns. Since the wheels of justice often turn slowly, it may be a while before we learn the outcomes of the recent Google rulings. 

Apple’s annual developer shindig kicked off with its traditional keynote outlining all the new tricks its products will soon do. There are big changes for iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia and watchOS 11, not to mention visionOS 2. Some highlights include a standalone Passwords app, better health metrics on the Watch and Apple Intelligence, its own spin on AI. There’s more to learn about, so keep reading to learn all the biggest stories from the show.

— Dan Cooper

The biggest stories you might have missed

Blackmagic is developing a camera for immersive Apple Vision Pro videos

Yes, iOS 18 will include RCS support

Apple’s new AI-powered Siri can use apps for you

Apple may integrate Google’s Gemini AI into iOS in the future

iOS 18 embraces Apple Intelligence, deeper customization and a more useful Siri

macOS Sequoia will let you see your iPhone mirrored on your Mac’s screen

iPadOS 18 is getting a big boost with Apple Intelligence

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Apple’s first attempt at AI is Apple Intelligence

A for Apple… A for Artificial… I get it!

Apple

Apple has finally bowed to pressure, bringing AI to its devices in the form of Apple Intelligence, powered by OpenAI. The system will bolster Siri, offering its generative AI smarts to write emails, summarize news articles and offer finer-grain control of your apps. It’ll be interesting to see, given Apple’s long-held distaste for machine learning gimmicks, if this can win where Google and Microsoft have floundered.

Continue Reading.

Apple brings a full-featured Passwords app to the Mac, iPhone, iPad and Windows

Let’s see how third-party password managers respond.

Apple

Apple already has a dedicated password manager buried in its operating systems, but now it’ll be its own app. Passwords will act as a standalone password manager across every Apple platform and will even work on Windows via iCloud. Like iCloud Keychain, it’ll generate and record passwords to all of your sites and services, locking them behind biometric security.

Continue Reading.

Apple's spin on AI is finally here, and it already seems smarter than Microsoft Copilot and Google Bard. Apple Intelligence focuses on privacy and "personal intelligence," with a bit of an assist from ChatGPT. While we haven't tested it ourselves yet, Apple appears to be avoiding the pitfalls of Microsoft's Recall feature, as well as Google Bard's unfortunate early gaffes. The company isn't trying to capture everything you're doing on your computer, and it's being careful about how it's using larger AI models like ChatGPT. 

Shortly after the WWDC 2024 keynote ended, Engadget's Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar discussed why they think Apple is taking a more thoughtful approach to AI.

For years, Apple has touted privacy as its major advantage over rivals like Google and Microsoft. Instead of relying on cloud processing to improve or organize your images, which requires sending your photos to Google's servers, Apple handles those tasks directly on your device. But with the advent of Apple Intelligence, the company's take on artificial intelligence, the company is stepping out of its comfort zone with "Private Cloud Compute." It says "private" right in the name, so it has to be secure, right?

While Apple AI will run some models locally, it will occasionally have to send data to Apple's servers for complex requests. So how is the company squaring this with its previous security stance? 

According to Craig Federighi, Apple's SVP of Software Engineering, the company is being very careful about how its sending your data to its servers. "You're putting a lot of faith in the cloud... with Private Cloud Compute, the stakes are even higher," he said in a WWDC 2024 conversation with Apple's AI head, John Giannandrea, and YouTube influencer iJustine.

During the WWDC keynote, Federighi showed off how Apple AI could help him reschedule a meeting and determine if he could still attend his daughter's dance recital. Apple AI was able to determine who his daughter actually was, where her event was located, and the estimated travel time from his meeting.

Federighi says Apple isn't sending all of your data to the cloud, instead it's only uploading the most important bits of information relevant to your Apple AI query. Additionally, your server request is anonymous, since it's using the same IP masking technology as iCloud Private Relay. Federighi also noted that Apple's cloud servers have no permanent storage and don't have the ability to keep logs. 

To make things even more secure, Federighi says Private Cloud Compute servers are running software with published images for security researchers to audit. Apple Intelligence devices can only talk with servers running those approved images — if there are any changes to the servers, the local devices will also need to be updated to see them.

That process may a bit restrictive, but that's precisely the point. Federighi calls it "a step up" in the level of trust you can have with server computing. "It's essential that you know no one—not Apple, not anyone else, can access the information used to process your request," he said.