Dyson's first robot vacuum, the 360 Eye, was a tallish robot vac that brought several new tricks to automated floor cleaning, for a price. Now, the UK company is trying again with the 360 Vis Nav robovac, which just launched in Australia and should come to the US later this year.

The motor speed has increased from 78,000 RPM on its predecessor to 110,000, which supposedly delivers six times the suction of other robot vacuums. It also has a "triple-action" brush bar for optimal cleaning on different surfaces. Namely, it uses soft nylon for hard floors, anti-static carbon fiber filaments for fine dust and stiff nylon bristles for carpets.

The company has also added an arm that pops out and redirects suction, picking up dirt at the edges. With all that suction power, it can clean for up to 50 minutes before automatically going back to the dock to charge. There's no word on pricing or US availability yet, but the 360 Vis Nav just launched in Australia for $AUD 2,399 (about $1,590), more than the 360 Eye was at launch ($1,200) and much more than many high-end rivals.

– Mat Smith

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The biggest stories you might have missed

Windows 11 finally gets native RAR support

Amazon has a big sale on Razer gaming accessories and peripherals

White House reveals its next steps toward 'responsible' AI development

Comcast launches $20 live TV streaming service with 60 channels

AI heads to the Microsoft Store on Windows

Warner Bros.' Max streaming service launches with new $20 4K tier

The new Ableton Push is an MPE-enabled standalone music production powerhouse

Sony's ZV-1 II has a wide lens so you can fit your whole face in while vlogging

The best sleep apps and gadgets for a better night's sleep

Netflix starts charging for account sharing in the US

You'll need to pay $8 per month for users outside your household.

Netflix is now notifying American customers they need to pay $8 per month for viewers outside of the household who want to share the account. As in other countries, you can add one extra member with the Standard plan, and two with the Premium tier. You can still watch outside your home, but you'll have to establish the household's boundaries either manually through a smart TV app (which looks for devices on the same WiFi network) or automatically (based on IP addresses, device IDs and activity).

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Microsoft’s Panos Panay sees Windows and AI as an ‘opportunity’

Windows Copilot is just the beginning.

After debuting its AI-infused Bing search engine and Microsoft 365 Copilot for Office apps, Microsoft is making the inevitable next step: making AI an integral part of Windows 11. The new Windows Copilot tool lives in the Windows sidebar and, just like Bing's AI chat, you can use it as a super-powered search engine by typing in general questions. But true to its name, it's also deeply integrated with Windows. In an interview with Engadget, executive vice president and chief product officer Panos Panay told us: "AI is going to be the single largest driver of innovation for Windows in the years to come. It's going to change the way you work.” Windows Copilot will be available to preview in June.

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NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti (8GB) review

Better 1080p ray tracing for $399

We loved NVIDIA's RTX 3060 Ti. It was the ideal balance of price and performance. So with its RTX 40-series cards skyrocketing to pricey new heights, is NVIDIA drifting away from affordable GPUs? Fortunately, the $399 RTX 4060 Ti proves NVIDIA can still deliver plenty of value under $500. We put it to the test.

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Amazon's latest Fire tablet is a $230 Android-powered 2-in-1

The total cost comes up to $330 with a keyboard case and stylus.

Amazon

Following Google's official launch of the Pixel Tablet last week, Amazon has unveiled a new Fire tablet called the Max 11. For just $230, the Fire Max 11 offers an 11-inch LCD screen, slim aluminum frame and smart home controls courtesy of Alexa. While the company's previous slates have found a niche as affordable, kid-friendly mobile entertainment devices, the Max 11 is going for a more grown-up audience. The Fire Max 11 seems solid value. It's certainly cheaper (when you include the price of the keyboard case) than the Galaxy Tabs, Surfaces and iPads that have long dominated the tablet market. Expect our full verdict in the coming weeks.

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Adobe adds generative AI editing to Photoshop

Generative Fill arrives in beta today.

Adobe

Adobe announced a new Generative Fill feature is coming to its photo-editing software later this year, and it’s available to play with in beta now. The company promises “a magical new way to work” as the Firefly-powered feature lets you add, remove and extend visual content based on natural-language text prompts. Adobe says the feature matches the original scene’s perspective, lighting and style, so you can alter images with minimal effort.

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Amazon's Fire TV devices are currently on sale, with its Fire TV Cube reaching a new all-time low price at $120, down from $140. The third-generation model has been hovering around $125 since it dropped in September, so the latest discount is another $5 off. It's not a significant change, but you can use that leftover money to grab some batteries or even snacks for your next watch.

The third-gen Amazon Fire TV Cube has a 2GHz octa-core processor that claims to be twice as powerful as the Fire TV Stick 4K Max. It also features Wi-Fi 6E support, though you might need a compatible router to fully benefit from it, and has support for Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos audio and HDR. Plus, you can use Alexa to start video calls, change channels and more.

Amazon is also offering sales on a range of Fire TV Sticks with the 4K Max back down to its all-time low at $35 — a 36 percent discount, and quite a bit cheaper than the Fire TV Cube. It still supports Dolby Vision and Atmos audio, HDR and HDR10+, with a 1.8GHz quad-core processor and offers Wi-Fi 6.

The other Fire TV Sticks are also on sale for close to their lowest recorded prices, with the Fire TV Stick Lite dropping to $20 and the standard model offering the biggest deal, at 38 percent off, down to $25.

Canon has unveiled its cheapest R-series camera yet, the $480 EOS R100 that's similar to the old EOS M50 II with a new mount. It's "designed for new, first-time mirrorless camera or existing interchangeable camera users who previously enjoyed EOS Rebel or EOS M cameras," the company said. For that price, though, it's missing some key features that you'd expect on a modern mirrorless camera. 

The EOS R100 has a 24.2-megapixel APS-C sensor, and and offers slowish 6.5 fps burst speeds and Dual Pixel AF with face and eye detection. To frame your subjects, it offers a basic but respectable 2.36 million dot OLED electronic viewfinder. 

Canon

The 1.04 million dot rear LCD display is where Canon really cut corners to make that price point, though. It doesn't even tilt, let alone articulate, and is a non-touch screen. That means you'll need to set the focus point using the D-Pad and navigate menu choices via the buttons. The EOS M50 II, by contrast, had a fully articulating touch display for $120 more at launch. 

Like the M50 II, you can shoot 4K video at up to 24 fps, though it has a significant crop and you only get contrast-detect autofocus at 4K. 1080p can be shot at up to 60fps and does use the Dual Pixel AF system. Canon didn't specify the crop, but it's a significant 1.5X on the M50 II. 

Other features include support for a single SD-UHS I memory card, microphone and HDMI micro inputs, Bluetooth/WiFi and a tiny 356 gram (12.56 oz) weight. 

As Canon mentions, the main advantage compared to a smartphone is the ability to use multiple lenses. To wit, the company also unveiled a new pancake lens, the full-frame $300 RF28mm f/2.8 that should be great for tourism and street photography. If fixed to the R100, the latter would still be lighter than most mirrorless cameras at about 480 grams. 

The R100 is as basic as it gets, but if you're looking for a new mirrorless camera, it's the cheapest one by far at $480. What's more, you can get it in a kit with the RF-S18-45mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM lens for $600, still cheaper than the EOS R50, or $829 with that lens and the RF-S55-210mm f/5-7.1 IS STM. Neither has stellar quality, but would give beginners a solid range of focal lengths plus the R100 for less than the price of most camera bodies. That being said, if you can afford $200 more, Canon's EOS R50 is a much better choice. 

Canon

Apparently, the PlayStation VR2 sold way better than its predecessor in the weeks after it became available. During a business presentation, Sony has revealed (PDF) that it sold almost 600,000 PS VR2 units within its first six weeks of availability. That's around 8 percent more than its PS VR sales for the same time window. As PushSquare notes, that number only covers sales until the beginning of April, so Sony has most likely already crossed the 600,000 threshold. Especially since the headset is now available at retailers after being exclusively sold for two months at Sony's website. 

In addition to announcing PS VR2's successful launch, Sony has also shared some information on its future plans. Apparently, the company intends to put more and more money into developing new franchises for the PlayStation over the next few years. By fiscal year 2025, it's aiming for a 50-50 split of PlayStation Studios investments' between old and new IPs. Based on the graph it presented, it's mostly been focusing on well-known franchises for the console, such as God of War and Horizon, these past years. In 2019, for instance, it only put 20 percent of its investments on the development of new properties. For fiscal year 2023, its focus is still on current IPs, though not by much: 40 percent of its PlayStation Studios investments will go towards new franchises. 

One other area that Sony intends to put more money in is live service games like Destiny 2 and MLB: The Show. By fiscal year 2025, it expects 60 percent of its PS5 investments to go towards live services and 40 percent towards traditional games. Further, the company expects sales from add-on or downloadable content to keep growing in the future. Sony has also revealed that it expects the PS5 to overtake the PS4 on all key metrics very soon. It believes the PS5 would have more monthly active users playing more hours on the newer console by February 2024. To note, Sony sold more PS5 units than it predicted for fiscal year 2022 after it solved its supply chain crisis to release more consoles. 

If you’ve been looking to get a new gaming headset, or your very first, Logitech has a few new options. The company is today updating its Pro gaming headset with a few notable changes that not only makes it a better gaming headset, but potentially a great set of all-purpose headphones.

First and foremost, the new Pro X 2 headset features a new 50mm Pro-G Graphene audio driver. Why is that important? Graphene drivers are typically more power efficient, which is likely why Logitech claims the new headset nets up to 50 hours on a single charge. That’s over twice the battery life compared to the outgoing model’s 20 hours.

The headset is more versatile as well. In addition to Logitech’s own proprietary Lightspeed wireless codec, the Pro X 2 now supports Bluetooth audio and a wired connection over the standard 3.5mm audio connector (previously, you had to choose whether you wanted a wired or wireless headset, not both). The headset also now supports the standard DTS headphone:X 2.0 spec, for an immersive surround sound experience.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a headset if we didn’t talk about microphones. The Pro X 2 features a detachable 6mm cardioid microphone with Logitech’s own Blue “VO!CE” filters to help reduce background noise for crisp and clear vocals. The filters are available via the same G Hub software as the original headset.

The Pro X 2 features an aluminum and steel frame with swappable earpads. The earpads are made out of both leather and velour, making them a great choice for long term use. Swappable earpads are great as it makes it super easy to replace them if they’re starting to peel.

The Logitech G Pro X 2 Lightspeed retails for $249 and will be available starting today in the US and Canada.

While SpaceX completed the first fully integrated flight test for its Starship vehicle in April, the event wasn't exactly a complete success. The company blew up the spacecraft on the launch pad due to a separation failure, and that caused debris to shoot out across hundreds of acres of land that contained sensitive habitats. It also started a 3.5-acre fire on state park land. In response, environmental and wildlife nonprofit groups filed a lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), accusing the agency of failing to assess the Starship program's environmental impact around SpaceX's Texas launch site in Boca Chica. And now, SpaceX has filed a motion in court, requesting to be allowed to join the agency as a defendant. 

If you'll recall, the groups suing the FAA claimed that the agency had violated the National Environment Policy Act when it allowed SpaceX to launch its super heavy-lift vehicle without conducting an environmental impact statement (EIS) assessment. The FAA did conduct an environmental review of SpaceX's launch site and asked SpaceX to make more than 75 changes, but it didn't push through with an EIS assessment, which is a much more involved and in-depth process that could take years to finish. 

In its motion, SpaceX detailed the lawsuit's potential impact on the company. The plaintiffs, after all, are requesting for its launch license to be revoked and for the FAA to push through with an EIS assessment. SpaceX said "further licensing of the Starship/Super Heavy Program could be significantly delayed" by the lawsuit, which could also damage "substantial national interest." SpaceX has existing contracts with NASA and the military, and a Starship variant is expected to take Americans to the moon. 

The company also argued that the FAA "does not adequately represent [its] interests," so it has to step in and defend itself. According to the CNBC, the plaintiffs aren't opposed to SpaceX joining the fray, as it is "standard and expected for the applicant to intervene in a case where their permit is at issue." 

During a subscriber-only Twitter chat over the weekend, company chief Elon Musk reportedly said regarding the explosion: "To the best of our knowledge there has not been any meaningful damage to the environment that we're aware of." SpaceX has been preparing for more tests before Starship's next launch attempt and recently rolled out the vehicle's latest prototype to a suborbital pad at Starbase in Texas for an upcoming static fire test.

Last August, SoundCloud cut its workforce by 20 percent, citing "the challenging economic climate" for the layoffs. That's been a common refrain among companies reducing staff in recent years — with companies like Google, Meta, Amazon and more framing layoffs as restructuring or cost cutting measures. Now, SoundCloud says it will be cutting staff by an additional 8 percent, telling staff that the reduction is a "challenging but essential decision to ensure the health of our business and get SoundCloud to profitability this year."

That goal was baked into the company's last round of layoffs too, with the 2022 cuts being positioned as putting SoundCloud on "a path to sustained profitability." This new "headcount reduction" seems to be the next step in that plan, with sources telling Billboard that the company hopes to be profitable by Q4. SoundCloud leadership has also reportedly said that it's courting new investors.

Although SoundCloud's layoffs follow the same gruesome pattern we've seen across different tech brands recently, the company has actually been slowly reducing staff for some time. In addition to last year's cuts, the company slashed its workforce by 40 percent back in 2017.

Check out Engadget's look at the biggest tech layoffs of 2023 for more details.

Microsoft Build 2023 kicked off with an opening keynote from CEO Satya Nadella, followed by two other keynote sessions. Surprising absolutely no one, there was a big focus on AI. While we have coverage of all the big news, if you want to hear the updates straight from the source without watching the entire thing, you can check out our supercut below.

Perhaps the biggest announcement is that Microsoft will soon embed AI deeply into Windows 11. Windows Copilot, which you'll be able to try a preview of next month, can be used in a similar way to Bing AI. So, you can ask it general questions like you would of the search engine chatbot. However, you can also use text prompts to change Windows settings, summarize documents and carry out a host of other tasks on your desktop.

Also on the Windows 11 front, AI will power live captions for more languages and Microsoft will roll out Bluetooth Low Energy Audio support for compatible devices. Elsewhere, the company will infuse AI into the Microsoft Store and Edge. On top of that, Bing Search will soon be integrated into ChatGPT, while Microsoft plans to help third-party developers build their own AI apps and copilots that are compatible with ChatGPT.

The Microsoft Build developer’s conference has been heavily focused on all things AI, per usual, but the company’s making announcements in other spaces, including a particularly useful update for Windows 11 users. The operating system is finally getting native RAR support, ending the tyranny of third-party apps like WinRAR.

This is an open-source solution powered by the multi-format libarchive project. Microsoft says this not only offers a native option to handle RAR files, but additional formats like tar, 7-zip, gz and many others, as reported by The Verge. It also touts “improved functionality” regarding compression when compared to third-party apps.

The company hasn’t announced an official launch date for the feature, but Windows 11 is getting a robust update tomorrow with support for Bluetooth LE and more, so maybe it’ll get tacked onto that. We’ll let you know. It’s always nice to have options when it comes to compressing and unzipping files. Here’s hoping this new tool is easy to use and, most importantly, fast.

The White House has made responsible AI development a focus of this administration in recent months, releasing a Blueprint AI Bill of Rights, developing a risk management framework, committing $140 million to found seven new National Academies dedicated to AI research and weighing in on how private enterprises are leveraging the technology. On Tuesday, the executive branch announced its next steps towards that goal including releasing an update to the National AI R&D Strategic Plan for the first time since 2019 as well as issuing a request for public input on critical AI issues. The Department of Education also dropped its hotly-anticipated report on the effects and risks of AI for students.

The OSTP's National AI R&D Strategic Plan, which guides the federal government's investments in AI research, hadn't been updated since the Trump Administration (when he gutted the OSTP staffing levels). The plan seeks to promote responsible innovation in the field that serves the public good without infringing on the public's rights, safety and democratic values, having done so until this point through eight core strategies. Tuesday's update adds a ninth, establishing "a principled and coordinated approach to international collaboration in AI research," per the White House. 

"The federal government plays a critical role in ensuring that technologies like AI are developed responsibly, and to serve the American people," the OSTP argued in its release. "Federal investments over many decades have facilitated many key discoveries in AI innovations that power industry and society today, and federally funded research has sustained progress in AI throughout the field’s evolution."

The OSTP also wants to hear the publics thoughts on both its new strategies and the technology's development in general. As such it is inviting "interested individuals and organizations" to submit their comments to one or more of nearly 30 prompt questions, including "How can AI rapidly identify cyber vulnerabilities in existing critical infrastructure systems and accelerate addressing them?" and "How can Federal agencies use shared pools of resources, expertise, and lessons learned to better leverage AI in government?" through the Federal eRulemaking Portal by 5:00 pm ET on July 7, 2023. Responses should be limited to 10 pages of 11-point font.

The Department of Education also released its report on the promises and pitfalls of AI in schools on Tuesday, focusing on the how it impacts Learning, Teaching, Assessment, and Research. Despite recent media hysteria about generative AIs like ChatGPT fomenting the destruction of higher education by helping students write their essays, the DoE noted that AI "can enable new forms of interaction between educators and students, help educators address variability in learning, increase feedback loops, and support educators."