Charging is usually one of the least exciting parts of driving an EV, but the FIA thinks it can make these pauses more engaging. As part of updated regulations, Formula E will trial a 30-second "Attack Charge" during some races in the ninth season. New battery technology will give cars 4kWh of energy from the half-minute session thanks to a 600kW booster. The charging stop will be mandatory at a specified point in the race, but drivers will receive two "enhanced" Attack Mode periods later in the race as compensation.
The quick charge is tied to the Gen3 cars making their debut in the new season. The current Attack Mode, where drivers can activate a momentary power boost, will still be available in those races where Attack Charge isn't in use. The modified Attack Mode isn't what was originally planned. According to The Race, the FIA had originally hoped to revive pit stops, but the necessary system wasn't ready in time. Those more conventional stops are expected to come, but not for a while yet.
The upcoming season also makes fundamental changes to the league's competitive format. Races now take place over a set number of laps, rather than a fixed amount of time. If there are safety car and full course yellow disruptions, organizers will add more laps. Teams will also have to complete a minimum of two Free Practice 1 sessions with rookie drivers to help them experience Formula E. And don't expect to play a role in your favorite driver's victory — the spectator-driven Fanboost is going away.
Season nine and Gen3 will launch in Mexico City this January. It's too soon to say if Attack Charge will spice up races in real-world conditions. However, it might point to the future of roadgoing EVs. Even the fastest-charging street models take at least a few minutes to get a meaningful amount of range from a charging session. Hyundai's Ioniq 5 needs five minutes on a 350kW charger for 53 miles of driving, for instance. While 600kW chargers won't become mainstream for a while (Geely's Viridi brand only unveiled its tech this September), Formula E's testing hints at a day when your EV might only need a brief stop to recover enough range for a long drive.
It's now much simpler to participate in a Microsoft Teams meeting if you have hearing issues. Microsoft has introduced a sign language view that lets people who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well as their interpreters, prioritize each other during meetings. Those video feeds will remain in consistent locations, at sizes large enough for sign language to be visible. You'll see as many as two other signers throughout a meeting, and video will remain large even when slides or screen shares are visible.
The view also makes preferences "sticky" thanks to a new accessibility settings pane, Microsoft says. You won't have to worry about pinning interpreters or enabling captions every time a Teams call begins. You can jump directly into a meeting instead of tweaking options.
The sign language view and accessibility pane are currently available only through a Public Preview available on a user-by-user basis. They'll roll out to all commercial and government customers in the "coming weeks," Microsoft says. It could take a while before everyone can use the functionality. Still, this promises to greatly simplify meetings for anyone with limited hearing — and might make Teams more viable if alternatives like Zoom (which only recently added support for interpreters) aren't up to the task.
There’s another opportunity to pick up Amazon’s Echo speakers at their lowest prices to date as part of the company’s early Black Friday sales. In many cases, they’ve dropped back down to the prices we saw during the fall edition of Prime Day. For one thing, the regular Echo is $50, which is half off the usual price. The latest Echo Dot is down from $50 to $25, and the fifth-gen Echo Dot with clock is a third off at $40. The Echo Dot kids' version is down 50 percent to $30 as well.
Amazon hasn't refreshed the standard Echo since 2020, but $50 is still a good price for this speaker. In our review, we lauded it for the great sound quality, while the inclusion of a 3.5mm audio jack is very welcome. You can pair two Echo speakers for stereo audio. Given the current price, you'd essentially be getting two for the price of one anyway.
Echo Dot recently got a refresh with a larger driver and, Amazon claims, double the bass of the previous model as well as clearer vocals. The latest Echo Dot with clock can now flash information like the artist and title of a song that it's playing on its display.
The Echo Dot kids' version comes with a one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+. This includes access to child-friendly Audible books and interactive games, as well as educational Alexa skills. Alexa will give responses that are kid-friendly, while the smart speaker will filter explicit songs. There are parental controls available too.
Twitter may not be restoring Blue verification for a couple of weeks, but it hopes to be more careful when the feature comes back. The social network has updated its FAQ site to warn that new accounts will have to wait 90 days before they can subscribe to Blue. The company also says it reserves the right to demand waiting periods "at our discretion without notice."
The new policy comes shortly after Twitter blocked new accounts from joining Blue. Within two days of Twitter adopting its pay-to-verify system, the social media service grappled with a flood of impersonators and trolls using their new checkmarks to confuse users. The firm tried using a secondary "official" checkmark for public figures and organizations, but new Twitter owner scrapped the system mere hours after it launched.
Musk added that a "new release" would discourage fraudsters by dropping the Blue checkmark if they change their name — they wouldn't get it back until Twitter confirmed that the new handle honored the Terms of Service. There isn't yet any official policy to this effect, however.
There's plenty of pressure for revised policies like these. Senator Ed Markey has grilled Elon Musk over the ease of creating fake accounts under the new verification system, and suggested that Congress might intervene if the entrepreneur doesn't fix Twitter and his other brands. Twitter is also dealing with internal chaos as employees resign en masse in response to Musk's demands for "long hours" from "hardcore" staff.
You're not alone if you've waited until Black Friday to scope out deals on the latest MacBooks. Considering these are some of the best (and most expensive) laptops out there right now, plenty of people will be looking for the best MacBook deals over the holiday shopping period. We me be still one week out from Black Friday proper, but we're already seeing some solid deals on machines like the new MacBook Air M2, and even the high-powered 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros.
While you'll likely get the best deal by shopping at a retailer like Amazon, B&H Photo, Adorama and others, Apple does have it's own holiday sales as well. However, you'll have to wait until Black Friday for those, plus they give you up to a $250 Apple gift card with purchase rather than a discounted price. If you know you'll use that gift card, that may be the best option for you. But if you'd rather the instant gratification of a couple hundred dollars off, we've collected the best MacBook deals here so you don't have to go searching for them.
MacBook Air M1
The 2020 MacBook Air with Apple's M1 chipset is at an all-time low right now — only $800 for the base model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. While, yes, the M2 chip in the latest model will give you a slight performance boost, the M1 processor is still quite powerful. It'll certainly be an upgrade for anyone coming from an older, Intel-powered MacBook. We gave the M1 Air a score of 94 when it first came out for its incredibly fast performance, excellent keyboard and trackpad, lovely Retina display and its lack of fan noise.
MacBook Air M2
The latest and greatest MacBook Air, the 2022 model with the M2 chipset, is $150 off and down to a record low of $1,050. This laptop looks and feels quite different from the 2020 version thanks to Apple redesigning the machine to have a uniformly thing frame all around (no more wedge) and its screen is slightly larger at 13.6-inches. We also appreciated its quad-speaker setup and its excellent performance overall, so much so that we called it Apple's "near-perfect" Mac.
13-inch MacBook Pro
Apple's most compact Pro laptop, the 13-inch MacBook Pro, is on sale for $1,149 right now, or 12 percent off its normal rate. It sits, somewhat confusingly, in the middle of the company's notebook lineup. While it has solid performance thanks to the M2 chipset, a long battery life and stellar build quality, it's hard for us to recommend outright. Most people would be better served by the M2 MacBook Air, or jumping up to the 14-inch MacBook Pro for even more power. But if you're set on the 13-inch size and want the efficiency provided by an internal fan (which the Air doesn't have), this MacBook Pro is your best bet.
14-inch MacBook Pro
The 2021 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M1 Pro processor, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage is a whopping $400 off and down to a record low of $1,600. This machine has the most advanced features of any Apple laptop (aside from its larger, 16-inch sibling), including a Liquid Retina XDR display, remarkable performance using that Pro chipset, excellent battery life and a bevy of ports that make connecting all of your peripherals and accessories much easier. Apple is overdue for a MacBook Pro refresh, though, but it's likely that those machines won't launch until early 2023.
16-inch MacBook Pro
The biggest of Apple's laptops, the 16-inch MacBook Pro, is cheaper than ever at $2,000 thanks to a $500 discount. That still-hefty price gets you an M1 Pro chipset, a 10‑core CPU and 16‑core GPU, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. This model is essentially an enlarged version of the 14-inch Pro, sharing most of the same features with it. You're getting a Liquid Retina XDR display, a bunch of ports including an SD card slot, a fantastic keyboard and great battery life.
The digitization of the music industry leveled the playing field for artists. An album can be written, recorded and released from a bedroom without an expensive recording studio or predatory record label. This DIY ethic isn’t new. Bands have been recording and releasing albums on their own or out of friendly record stores for decades.
Digitization has also created a glut of available music, which can make it difficult for new bands or artists to break through the noise. Plus, popular artists with record deals still get the lion’s share of the attention. I’m pretty sure every Beyonce release is now a national holiday. For every other artist, the resurgence of vinyl and cassette has revived the ability to give or sell something tangible to their fans – a physical keepsake that could offer a tighter emotional bond with the music. While making copies of tapes has been an at-home pastime since the 1980s, vinyl has required a third party that specializes in cutting records. At least, until recently.
Teenage Engineering’s $149 PO-08 Record Factory combines the nostalgia of a Fisher-Price turntable with the utility of a machine that can actually cut vinyl. You’ll have to assemble it yourself and master each song specifically for the device. Even after all that work, your music probably will sound like it’s being played through an AM radio. That might sound like a nightmare for some, yet is potentially wonderful for others.
Roberto Baldwin / Engadget
The PO-08 is a rebranding of magazine publisher Gakken’s "Easy Record Maker" — a record cutter/player designed by Yuri Suzuki. Teenage Engineering worked with Suzuki for its version and even includes an interview with the designer in the supplied magazine/instruction booklet.
Though the turntable looks like a toy, Teenage Engineering tells you (again and again) that it’s not recommended for kids under the age of 12. It’s really built for “children” between the ages of 17 and 64 — for the type of person that has three bands, strong opinions about direct drive turntables, a very active Discogs account and a DIY attitude. Oh, and also the patience needed to fiddle with tiny parts for hours to create a single, not-so-perfect mono copy of a song. Yes, it works, but it’s a lo-fi representation of a professionally created record; The Factory is an EZ bake oven for vinyl.
Building the Record Factory takes about 60 to 90 minutes, and it helps give you the confidence to disassemble it when you realize that, say, you didn’t attach the cable for the needle securely. I had to do exactly that when there was no audio after I first put the device together – everything seemed to be working but there was no actual sound.
Having to assemble the device also lends insight into the Record Factory’s inner workings, which are quite clever. The cutting needle vibrates via a tiny speaker to engrave your audio onto one of Teenage Engineering’s blank discs. A tiny gearing system moves the needle along and after three to four minutes (depending on the recording speed), your song is inscribed onto the vinyl.
But everything leading up to that is a series of adjustments. If you’re the type of person that requires a thing to “just work” without much tinkering, stay far away from the PO-08.
You begin with your original recording and at the end of the inscription, you get a mono representation. The single-channel audio is a technical limitation of the device. To make sure the audio going in is mono, the Record Factory comes with a minijack cable that takes the left and right channels of your stereo signal and merges them together. You also end up losing fidelity, which is another technical limitation. The top and low ends of a song can get muddy easily and too much bass actually causes the cutter needle to jump.
Roberto Baldwin / Engadget
You can try to fix this yourself, but it’s smarter to use Teenage Engineering’s online audio mastering tool. Just upload the file, wait a few minutes and the site spits out something that works better with the device. This process does result in the loss of all the intricate details of your song. The low end becomes slightly muddy or disappears altogether while the high end loses its bite. If you’re looking for crisp, exact copies, skip the PO-08 entirely.
A whole 45 minutes after mastering your audio, you get to cut a record. In that time, you’ll be adjusting the pressure of the cutting arm, listening very carefully to the audio being sent to the device to make sure it’s not distorting and if it is, turning down the volume. But you can’t go too low, or the signal wont be strong enough to engrave. That means you have to open up the equalizer and make adjustments (so many adjustments) until the audio sounds good (enough).
Now you’re ready to put it on wax (as they used to say in the olden days). Except before you create a record you can share, you need to cut audio onto a test vinyl. You record 10 seconds, wash the disc with water to get all the excess bits out of the grooves, then switch the Record Factory to play mode and listen to your masterpiece.
Roberto Baldwin / Engadget
The test record isn’t that a big deal until you realize that Teenage Engineering has sold out of the discs needed for the turntable and hasn’t shared information on when they’ll be back in stock. This makes testing all the more important.
A word of caution: the cutter slows down the turntable, so when played back at regular speed it might sound a little higher pitched. Like low-level Chipmunks high. So make sure you drop your file into the relevant tools online to adjust your song. Except it likely still needs work if you want the closest representation of your song available from the PO-80, which means you’ll have to, surprise surprise, make more adjustments. I conducted five test cuts before I was finally ready to create my first at-home vinyl record of a song.
On top of all that, the turntable itself isn’t a great player, either. It sounds like you’re listening to music from under the sea. It’s fun to create and play on the same device, but it’s best to take the disc to a proper turntable. On my Technics SL-1200 MK2, the mono audio with the high and low-end cut-off sounded a bit far away compared to the original and the fidelity is nowhere near the quality of professional vinyl in my collection. Yet, it’s exactly what I anticipated and I’m happy with the end result.
The Record Factory lives or dies by its owner’s expectations. There are two types of people in this world: those that lose their minds and patience dealing with even the tiniest inconvenience and those that live for tinkering and experimenting.
Roberto Baldwin / Engadget
The second group are people like me, and are excited about the difference in sounds between an at-home produced record, a cassette and a digital file. My band typically records on a digital eight-track but I also use a cassette four-track from the late 80s. There’s something special about sending a fan a vinyl recording that was produced at home. The PO-08 is for people that find beauty in the inherent potential for errors in DIY analog recordings.
The Record Factory will find its niche of users that happily spend hours creating the perfectly imperfect vinyl copy of their song. Unfortunately, if someone doesn’t already have a PO-08 turntable they will have to find one of these beauties on eBay or Craigslist. The power move is to search for the Gaken branded version on eBay. Those turntables are much cheaper (under $100) than the Teenage Engineering version.
Teenage Engineering told Engadget that it has no plans to produce more of the sold-out turntables which is a shame. Not every musician can afford to have hundreds of records produced by a third party. But, if they can find a Record Factory (they’re currently selling from $250 to $500) they can cut one-of-a-kind vinyl they can share with friends and fans while they wait to make it big. As long as they are happy doing that on a toy built for very patient music nerds that are happy trading fidelity for something real.
YouTube has created own signature launch sound and slick animation just like Netflix's "Tudum" and detailed exactly how it made it in a new blog post. The mini-fanfare has already appeared in the YouTube app on TVs, playing each time you start the app.
The platform went into a lot of detail about how it built the sound in partnership with Antfood, a "sonic branding" studio. It aimed to make something "human," "connected," "expressive" and "story-driven," by marrying together a variety of sounds. You can hear it for yourself below:
In fact, each part of the mix has its own name, like "deep dive," "upward flourish," "melodic signature," "tactile motion" and "sentimental harmony." A lot of thought (and no doubt, money) went into all of this. For instance, YouTube said that "sentimental harmony" is a major 7th chord that "represents the way YouTube allows you to explore the things you really love."
So that's all well and fine, but how does the three-second piece sound? Putting on my tiny music critic hat, it's certainly pleasant and harmonious, though not nearly as memorable as "Tudum." The accompanying animation is equally well executed but also a bit boring. It's early days, though, so it could grow on me.
YouTube didn't come up with a catchy name for it like Netflix did, calling it simply the "YouTube sound," and I can't think of any onomatopoeia that would do it justice. In any case, YouTube said that the sound and animation will appear "in more places over the next few weeks and months."
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.
This week, Cherlynn and Devindra chat with Senior Commerce Editor, Valentina Palladino, about our massive Holiday Gift Guide. If you’re looking for a decent laptop to gift, or maybe some budget gear for yourself, we’ve got you covered! Also, they dig into the FTX debacle (which got much worse than last week!), and Elon Musk’s ongoing fail whale Twitter acquisition. And on a surprising note, we end up having strong feelings about Amazon’s chat-based virtual healthcare service.
Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!
Cherlynn got to try Apple’s SOS satellite text message service – 28:56
Qualcomm announces Snapdragon chips with hardware-accelerated ray tracing – 34:33
Tuvalu turns to the metaverse to save its culture from climate change – 38:38
Meta axes its Portal video chat device – 40:21
FTX continues to collapse as regulator investigations begin – 43:15
Elon Twitter is a mess: your weekly update – 48:36
Working on – 1:02:47
Pop culture picks – 1:05:59
Livestream
Credits Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar Guest: Valentina Palladino Producer: Ben Ellman Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos Graphic artists: Luke Brooks and Brian Oh
Amazon's Black Friday deals have started going live, and its Echo Show displays, Fire tablets and Fire TV devices are already being sold at a discount. Also on sale? Its Kindle e-readers, some of which are now listed for the lowest prices we've seen for them on the website. The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, for instance, is currently priced at $130 or 32 percent off retail, which is an all-time low for what we once called "the best e-reader" in a review. It has a bigger and more responsive screen (6.8 inches) compared to the previous generation, similar to the base fifth-gen Paperwhite. But the Signature edition also comes with 32GB of storage instead of 8GB. That's four times the space for your ebook collection.
The Signature edition has no ads and comes with a wireless charging capability on top of USB-C charging, as well. It can also automatically adjust the screen's brightness and has warm lighting options to choose from. And now, it costs just as much as a regular-priced base Kindle Paperwhite. Meanwhile, the base Kindle Paperwhite model will set you back $95, which is also 32 percent less than retail and an all-time low for the device. If you don't find wireless charging and auto-adjusting backlights important, don't think you can use up 32GB of storage and don't mind seeing ads on the lock screen, then this may be the better choice.
But if you've been waiting for a deal on Amazon's most expensive e-reader, the Kindle Oasis, then this is a great time to get one. It's also on sale for $255 — that's $95 less than retail and is also an all-time low for the device. The 7-inch e-reader has 32GB of storage and adjustable warm light. Unlike any of the other models in the Kindle lineup, though, it has page turn buttons and free cellular connectivity, so you can download books even without WiFi. If you have a non-US shipping address, it's also worth noting that the international, no-ads version of the Kindle e-readers are on sale, as well.
