The Bigscreen Beyond is miraculous. I expected the first hardware from Bigscreen, a company known mainly for its VR movie-watching app, to be merely a noble effort. You know, a brave attempt by a newcomer to make a splash in the niche world of VR – something that deserves golf claps and little more. They say hardware is hard for a reason; how can a small software company take on titans like Valve and Meta?

Despite everything stacked against it (and it's not without some freshman stumbles), the Bigscreen Beyond stands out. It's less a headset like the original Oculus Rift, and more akin to an oversized pair of glasses that can still immerse you. Consequently, it's the most comfortable VR solution I've ever tested. It also has some of the sharpest displays I've ever seen, thanks to cutting-edge Micro-OLED panels (Meta, meanwhile, has fallen back on cheaper LCD displays for the Quest 3).

Somehow, a small VR app company built a truly compelling upgrade from the Valve Index, which is still one of the best VR headsets around. That deserves more than just golf claps.

With all that being said, the Bigscreen Beyond also isn't something I can recommend to most people. The average gamer doesn't need a Ferrari, after all. While Meta is aiming for the masses with the $299 Quest 2 and $499 Quest 3, the $999 Bigscreen Beyond is squarely targeted at Valve Index owners and VR enthusiasts who demand more comfort and better screens. It's meant for a niche of the niche. The Beyond is even harder to justify if you're stepping into high-end VR for the first time, since it requires two SteamVR base stations ($300 for a pair) and Valve Index controllers ($279). A $1,578 setup isn't exactly the best introduction to VR.

Nothing about the Beyond is easy. That makes it best suited for people who are already used to the inconveniences and indignities of PC VR. Upon ordering it, you'll need to create a 3D scan of your face via a mobile website. That process took around five minutes for me, but it requires an iPhone – Android users will need to borrow one or sneakily scan their faces at an Apple Store.

Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Once your face is scanned, Bigscreen 3D prints an eyepiece cushion that's built specifically for you. That process also determines the interpupillary distance, or IPD for the headset's lenses. Instead of being adjustable like some competitors, Bigscreen has 18 (!) different models of the Beyond to fit IPDs between 55 millimeters and 72mm. The company says being so rigid about IPD sizes allows it to reduce weight – I can only imagine the logistical nightmare that creates. (That extreme customization also means it’ll be tough to share the Beyond with others.)

I'll admit, I was shocked how well it fit the first time I tried the Beyond. It barely felt like I was wearing anything at all, since the weight was evenly distributed across my face. There was no pressure around my eyes, or on the bridge of my nose, issues I've come to expect from heavy VR headsets. There was also no light leakage either, something that can easily kill immersion, and the cushions easily clamp onto the headset using magnets.

Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

According to Bigscreen founder and CEO Darshan Shankar, the company developed a unique skin-safe foam material for the face cushion. It can be washed with soap and water, making it potentially more sanitary than the sweat-absorbing pads on other headsets. Shankar says he's been using one foam pad for several years, and, surprisingly enough, he doesn't try to protect it while traveling. If you do need a replacement, though, you can order one from Bigscreen for $49.

Given how small it is, the Beyond also doesn't have room to fit glasses like the Quest 3. Instead, prescription glasses wearers will have to order custom lenses from the company. I can't speak about that ordering process much — Bigscreen just shipped me prescription lenses alongside my review unit — but it’ll involve plugging in your prescription alongside your order. (Snagging lenses for the Quest 3 from Zenni Optical is no different than ordering a normal pair of glasses.) The Beyond's lenses magnetically snap onto its displays without any effort, and they're also easy to remove for cleaning.

You can tell that the Bigscreen Beyond isn't like any other VR headset on the market with one glance. Imagine chopping off the top and bottom of the Valve Index, leaving only the displays behind. It looks suitably futuristic, with transparent plastic alongside the front and a few LEDs to let you know when it's powered up. It also weighs just 127 grams (0.28 pounds), slightly more than a deck of playing cards. In comparison, the Valve Index comes in at 1.8 pounds, while the Quest 3 weighs 1.1 pounds. The Beyond ships with a rear head strap, which was tight enough to stay secured on my head, but there's also a top strap in the box for those who need it.

Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

If you look closely at Bigscreen's promotional photos for the Beyond, you may notice something that's missing: Headphones. It doesn't include any built-in speakers of its own, so you'll have to come up with your own solution. I was able to fit Arctis's Nova Pro headphones on top of the Beyond, but that defeats the purpose of having such a light headset. I eventually paired my AirPod Pros to my Windows PC — something I never do otherwise — and that worked just fine. Bigscreen plans to release a $129 audio strap later this year but, for now, Beyond buyers should plan to have wireless earbuds handy.

So clearly Bigscreen managed to create a unique headset, but how well does it handle VR? Simply put, it's far better than I expected from the company's first stab at hardware. Its Micro-OLED displays are bright and feature far more contrast than the Quest 3's LCD panels. They’re also noticeably sharper than the Index's. The Beyond offers 2,560 by 2,560 pixels per eye, while the Valve headset delivers 1,440 by 1,600 pixels per eye.

That difference was particularly stark while replaying Half-LIfe: Alyx, a game I've already spent dozens of hours immersed in while testing the Index years ago. On the Bigscreen Beyond, it felt more like I was stepping into Alyx's dystopian world. I could barely feel the headset on my face, and everything just looked more realistic. I had a far easier time reading small text on newspapers strewn about the game—something that took a lot of squinting on the Index.

True to Bigscreen's original mission, the Beyond is also a fantastic headset for watching Netflix, YouTube or a handful of 3D films. It's not quite as relaxing as my home theater, since I'm stuck in an office chair tied to my computer, but it's certainly the best PC VR headset I've encountered for watching media. It's tough for me to choose between the Beyond and the Quest 3, though. Bigscreen's headset has far better optics, but I can't lay on the couch or in bed while wearing it. Meta probably wins when it comes to sheer convenience.

As great as the Beyond's screens are, they still occasionally display reflections and artifacts like every other VR headset. Shankar says that's a symptom of the Beyond's pancake lenses — the Quest 3 and Quest Pro also have similar reflections. Older headsets like the Index often exhibited "god rays" in bright scenes, which typically showed up as extra glare. I can live with visual imperfections during genuine VR experiences, but they're distracting while watching movies, which look far more pristine on a big screen TV and home theater projector.

Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Ironically enough, Bigscreen managed to create a VR headset that's better at gaming than it is for watching media. But if you're stuck in an apartment without room for a large TV, or you want to recreate the experience of sitting front row in a theater using the Bigscreen app, the Beyond still delivers a decent sense of immersion. It's sort of like going to a theater with a projector on the fritz — you learn to live with it just to see something on an enormous screen.

I'll reiterate: Most people should not buy the Bigscreen Beyond. The Meta Quest 3 is right there! (And the Quest 2 is even cheaper!) But if you're a VR fanatic for something lighter, brighter and sharper than the Valve Index, it's a genuinely compelling upgrade… As long as you don't mind shelling out another $999.

Intel may have downplayed a killer feature for its new 14th-gen processors, which can reach 6GHz. The company hasn’t marketed the chips’ new Intel Application Optimization (APO), but an enterprising Reddit user (via Tom’s Hardware) reports that it offers attention-grabbing performance boosts for supported games. Why the lack of advertising for such a potent feature? One guess is that APO seemingly only supports two older titles at launch: Rainbow Six Siege (2015) and Metro Exodus (2019).

One of the more dramatic examples of APO upgrading performance was detailed in the Intel subreddit by u/LightMoisture. With their setup using the Intel i9-14900K, the feature boosted Metro Exodus’ frame rate from 273 FPS to 339 FPS, a 24 percent increase. Rainbow Six Siege had even more eye-opening gains, going from 659 FPS to 867 FPS, a nearly 32 percent enhancement.

The Redditor notes that they ran the games in 1080p resolution on low settings with a high-end memory setup to test what APO can do in ideal conditions. It won’t likely reproduce those numbers on higher settings, and we don’t know how it would handle newer and more graphically demanding games.

The Verge’s Tom Warren tested the feature on “very high” presets at 1080p resolution. APO boosted Rainbow Six Siege (with a Core i9-14900K system and an RTX 4090 GPU) from 615 FPS to 688 FPS, nearly a 12 percent increase. Meanwhile, Metro Exodus Enhanced on the same rig rose from 177 FPS to 207 FPS, almost a 17 percent rise. Those numbers aligned closely with Intel’s guidance, which estimated a 13 percent increase in Rainbow Six Siege and a 16 percent increase in Metro Exodus.

Intel

Unfortunately, in addition to APO’s slight problem of supporting just two games at launch, the feature also has a clunky setup. You’ll need to track down motherboard drivers (always a fun task) that support Intel’s Dynamic Tuning. (To make matters worse, not all vendors have posted them online.) Once you find and install the right ones, navigate to your PC’s BIOS settings to enable the feature.

After that, you’ll want to install the APO app from the Microsoft Store, which lets you manage settings and toggle it quickly. Adding even more joy to the task, several Redditors reported that following external links to the Microsoft Store won’t work and that you’ll need to open the storefront and search for Intel APO manually. In addition, if you haven’t installed all of the necessary drivers, the app installation will reportedly fail. However, once set up, the feature should automatically detect compatible games (hopefully more than two before long) once you launch them. If future setups are easier and Intel adds new game support regularly, it could wind up outshining 6GHz as the new chips’ marquee attraction.

Apple has released iOS 17.1. The iPhone update, which is available now for all users, brings improvements to AirDrop, more control options for StandBy, new Apple Music features and further customization for Photo Shuffle on the Lock Screen. It also brings a slew of bug fixes.

The iOS 17.1 update is available now for all recent iPhones (2018 and later), and can be downloaded by going to Settings > General > About > Software Update. The most notable addition with iOS 17.1 is an improvement to AirDrop that will allow content to continue transferring over the internet even if you leave AirDrop range, which should help to cut down on the headache of failed transfers.

It also brings some new features for Apple Music, now giving users the option to add songs, albums, and playlists to their Favorites, and have these show in their library. Apple Music is also getting new color-changing cover art collections, and song suggestions at the bottom of playlists. These features are also coming to Apple Music on Mac with the macOS Sonoma 14.1 update, which was released today as well.

With iOS 17.1, Apple has also added Home key support for Matter locks, fixed a pairing issue with the Apple Watch that caused users’ Significant Location privacy setting to reset and resolved issues with keyboard responsiveness, among other things. Apple released iOS 17.1 today alongside watchOS 10.1, which brings the Double Tap gesture to the latest Apple Watch lineup, and macOS Sonoma 14.1.

Apple is planning to update its entire lineup of AirPods in 2024 and 2025, Bloomberg reports. The company will apparently begin with new versions of its "regular" AirPods and AirPods Max headphones next year. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman also reports that a new AirPods Pro model will follow in 2025.

The company's current lineup includes the second-generation AirPods that debuted in 2019, priced at $129, and the third-gen model that arrived in 2021. The more recent version is pricier at $169, but it comes with an updated design, longer battery life, wireless charging and better sound quality of its own. However, Bloomberg explains that customers don't see the benefit in the third-generation model as the cheaper second-gen version and the noise-canceling AirPods Pro are better sellers.

For this reason, Apple will reportedly replace both the second- and third-gen models in 2024 with two new versions with more varied spec sheets. Bloomberg reports that the two new models will have a design that blends the 2021 AirPods with the look of the AirPods Pro and both with have short stems. What's more, the more expensive version will offer active noise cancellation (ANC) and speakers in the case for Find My sounds — both of which are features of the current AirPods Pro. Both of the new models will have a better fit, but Bloomberg reports that neither of them are expected to have replaceable tips. Unsurprisingly, the fourth-gen models will make the switch to USB-C on the charging cases following this year's update to the Pro.

Rumors of an AirPods Max refresh have been circulating for a long time now, mostly focusing on the timing of an updated model rather than any real details. Bloomberg reports that Apple will make the change to USB-C for its over-ear headphones late next year, with some new colors but not much else. A new version of the AirPods Pro isn't coming until 2025, according to the report. The outlet explains that Apple is working on new health features for AirPods Pro centered on hearing. The company debuted its H2 chip in the second-gen AirPods Pro last year, a component that powers features like Adaptive Audio, Personalized Volume and Conversation Awareness.

Engadget has reached out to Apple for comment and will update this article if we hear back.

Apple’s buy now, pay later system is finally available to all customers in the US after its soft launch back in March. To pay later and begin making equal payments over the course of six weeks, you must be set up on Apple Pay with an eligible debit card.

There is a limit, though. Pay Later only works for purchases that cost between $75 and $1,000 made on iPhone or iPad through a vendor that accepts Apple Pay. The company says during the repayment period you won’t accumulate interest and there are no late fees. However, in the fineprint, Apple says your bank could charge you extra fees “if your debit card account contains insufficient funds to make loan repayments.” After opting to finance a purchase during checkout, your Pay Later loan and payment history gets shared with credit bureaus.

In a video tutorial, Apple breaks down how to start. Simply choose between paying in full through Apple Pay or paying later. If you choose the latter, the tool will automatically tell you how much each payment will cost every two weeks, which is subject to approval. You need to confirm your personal information and ‘Agree & Apply’ before beginning a repayment program.

Apple

Once you start making payments, Apple makes it easy to track your progress. Your total remaining balance, upcoming and previous payments are all laid out through the Wallet app. Here, you can set up autopay and change the bank or debit card you're sourcing your payments from and if you’d like to, tap to pay early. Apple also integrated the calendar tool with the Pay Later feature so that an iPhone user can see everything they owe in a single place to keep tabs on progress.

The introduction of Pay Later puts Apple in competition with other digital repayment apps like Afterpay, Klarna and Affirm, which partnered with big tech giants like Amazon to expand their services. Roughly three in four US iPhone users have activated Apple Pay, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The popularity of the company's tap-to-pay tool among iPhone users could help it gain a foothold in this new market.

The latest version of watchOS 10 is here and it brings a key feature to Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2. The Double Tap capability that Apple showed off when it revealed the new devices in September is now available.

Double Tap affords you some control of your watch without having to touch the display or the Digital Crown. The idea is to make it easier for you to carry out the primary action in an app when your other hand is perhaps occupied.

Let's say you wear your Apple Watch on your left wrist. If you're, for instance, carrying groceries in your right hand but want to answer (or end) a call or pause what you're listening to, all you'll need to do is to tap your left thumb and forefinger together twice. You can also use Double Tap to call up Smart Stack widgets while your watch face is active and do things like snooze alarms and start or stop timers.

We weren't able to spend much time testing out Double Tap before publishing our Watch Series 9 review, but it seems like a useful feature (especially to help get used to Apple moving more toward gestures as a way of controlling devices). However, it might take you a little while to learn the right cadence for triggering an action with a Double Tap.

It's worth noting that Double Tap follows the accessibility-minded Assistive Touch feature that arrived on Apple Watch devices in 2021. Apple designed this to help folks with a range of mobility needs to more easily use their Watch by using hand gestures. There's long been a similar feature on iOS.

If your Apple Watch is set up for automatic updates, you can wait for your device to install watchOS 10.1. If you want to check out Double Tap sooner, there are a couple of ways to install the update manually.

On your iPhone, open the Apple Watch app. Tap the My Watch tab, then General > Software Update. You may need to enter your iPhone or Watch passcode during the installation process.

To update watchOS directly on your Apple Watch, you'll first need to make sure that you're connected to a Wi-Fi network. Open the Settings app, then tap General > Software Update > Install. The latter prompt will be available whenever there's a new software update ready to download.

Back in May, Google announced it was working on a feature called “about this image” that gives users verified data regarding any photo on the internet. Well, it just rolled out as part of search, so you won’t be able to get away with passing off somebody else’s photo of a 1988 Burger King Alf plushie as your own.

Here’s how it works. Just use Google Search, select an image and click on the three dots on the right-hand corner to access the tool. You’ll receive a whole gob of useful information, including when the image was originally published, if it’s been published since then and where it’s popped up throughout the years. A veritable cornucopia of metadata.

Google

The obvious use case scenario for this is verifying whether or not an image used to accompany a news event is legit, or if it’s been taken out of context from something that happened in 2007 to drum up misinformation. To that end, the tool also shows you how other sites use and describe the image, similar to how search already handles factual information via the “perspectives” filter and the “about this result” tab. Google says you can also access the feature by clicking on the “more about this page” link, with more options to come.

Of course, there’s a little thing sweeping the world right now called artificial intelligence. The images generated by AI platforms can be tough to distinguish from the genuine article, so Google’s tool also lets you know if an image has been AI-generated or not. However, this depends on the metadata including this information, so the original image creators would have to opt-in. Google says its own AI-generated images will always feature the appropriate metadata.

That’s not the only tool Google’s rolling out to provide increased nuance for image searches. Fact Check Explorer, a handy app for journalists, will soon expand to include images. As for non-image based searches, the tech giant also announced software that creates AI-generated descriptions of websites, helping users research lesser-known entities.

Apple is jacking up the prices of several of its subscription services. The price increases to Apple TV+, Apple Arcade and Apple News+ will take effect immediately for newcomers. It's not yet clear when existing subscribers will start paying the higher rates.

In the US, the price of Apple TV+ is going up by $3 per month to $10. The annual TV+ plan has risen from $69 to $99. Apple Arcade is now $7 per month instead of $5. As for Apple News+, that'll now run you $13 per month for a standalone subscription, up from $10. Apple Music and Apple Fitness+ pricing remains the same.

As MacRumors points out, these are the first price increases for Apple Arcade and Apple News+ since the company debuted those services nearly four years ago. The cost of an Apple TV+ subscription last changed in October 2022, when it went up from $5 per month to $7, meaning that the price of the service has doubled in just over 12 months.

In line with the increases on individual services, Apple is also modifying the prices of Apple One plans. An individual subscription now costs $19.95 per month (up by $3) and it includes Apple Arcade, Apple Music, Apple TV+ and 50GB of iCloud storage. A family plan, which is shared between up to six people and includes 200GB of total iCloud storage, is now $25.95 per month (also an increase of $3).

The highest Apple One tier is Premier, which folds in Apple Fitness+ and Apple News+ access and bumps up iCloud storage to 2TB for up to six people. That now costs $37.95 per month, which $5 more than before.

Services such as these have become an increasingly important part of Apple's business over the last few years. In the second quarter of 2023, Apple's Services revenue (which also includes things like AppleCare and the App Store) hit an all-time high of $21.2 billion. Services are second only to the iPhone when it comes to Apple's moneymakers these days.

Apple announced the price increases just ahead of revealing its earnings for the July-September period, which it will do on November 2. The company has also lined up another product event for October 30, during which we're expecting to see new MacBook Pro and iMac models.

DJI's Osmo Pocket 3 gimbal camera has arrived with major updates over the previous model, adding a much larger 1-inch sensor that should greatly improve quality. In addition, the new model offers 4K 120p video, the company's latest tracking, face detection, dynamic framing and a very handy rotating display. It's also significantly more expensive than the Pocket 2 was at launch. 

The most noticeable feature is the new 2-inch display with 4.7 times the area of the last model. It offers 314 x 556 resolution, with 700 nits of brightness and 100 percent coverage of the P3 HDR color gamut. This does make the Pocket 3 larger than the previous model, though it's still small enough to stow in, well, a pocket. It's about the height of an iPhone 12/13, the company notes. 

What's extra nice, though, is the fact that you can rotate the display 90 degrees, which automatically shifts the camera from portrait to landscape mode. That allows you to fill the screen to see more detail, whether you're capturing 4K widescreen video or 3K video (square or 9:16) for social media — while making it easier to switch modes, as well.

Steve Dent for Engadget

Larger sensors usually have a direct correlation with image quality, and DJI sent me a pre-production model (a full review is coming soon). The new 1-inch sensor is considerably bigger, nearly three times the area of the Pocket 2's 1/1.7-inch sensor — the same found on Sony's ZV-1, for instance. From what I've seen so far, it retains color clarity right up to the normal ISO 6400 limit, while keeping noise manageable as well. Video does get noisy at the upper ISO 16000 limit used in the low-light video mode, but it's far better than any previous Pocket model.

The Pocket 3 now offers 4K 120p video (along with 2.7K 120p and 1080p at 240 fps), making the Pocket 3 a great option for ultra slow motion shooting. It uses DJI's D-LogM mode found on drones like the Mini 4 Pro, which also allows for 10-bit capture with much improved dynamic range — along with 10-bit HLG HDR recording. It also offers "full-pixel fast focusing" for quick autofocus, which is more critical with a larger sensor.

DJI introduced what it calls a "face-priority strategy," meaning it automatically fine-tunes exposure for different skin tones. And to improve those skin tones, it includes DJI's "Glamour Effects 2" that allows smoothing, slimming, brightening, etc.

Steve Dent for Engadget

It's also the company's latest device using ActiveTrack 6.0 with facial recognition (following the Osmo Mobile 6), along with three-axis mechanical stabilization. The latter allows for smooth movement in all kinds of tracking scenarios, whether you're shooting widescreen or portrait video. As such, it's useful for tracking shots of kids and pets, timelapse shots, travel and more. As with past Pocket models, it works very well.

ActiveTrack 6.0 on the Pocket 3, meanwhile, is useful for a bunch of different scenarios. Solo vloggers can set the camera up on its mini tripod (or attach it to a regular tripod), then track themselves automatically as they move around. You could also track a subject with little effort, as the camera automatically keeps them centered in the frame. It also has a feature called dynamic framing that allows for more flexible composition, while still locking the subject in the frame. 

Steve Dent for Engadget

It also has some new and very useful audio features. The stereo mic can be switched from omnidirectional to forward and backward, and it includes a windscreen to help block noise. The more interesting feature, though, is support for DJI's upcoming wireless Mic 2. The Pocket 3 has a built-in receiver for that product, so you can automatically record audio from the Mic 2's transmitter. In fact, a DJI Mic 2 transmitter is included in the "Creative Combo" bundle, giving users a fast and high-quality way to record VO or interview subjects. (No, the Mic 2 hasn't been officially announced yet, but it's apparently coming soon.)

Other features include creative modes like SpinShot (a quick 180-degree flip with one hand), Motionlapse timelapse, up to a 4x digital zoom and Panorama photos. The built-in 1,300mAh battery supports 120 minutes of 4K 60fps shooting, though you can extend that with the battery handle accessory by around 70 percent.

The Osmo Pocket 3 is now available to order at DJI's store and authorized real partners, with shipping starting today. That brings us to the not-so-good part, the price. It costs $520 in the US (£489 in the UK), which is $170 more than the Pocket 2 cost at launch. You can also get it for $669 in the Creator Combo bundle, which includes a DJI Mic 2 transmitter, Pocket 3 battery handle, mini tripod, carrying bag, wrist strip and USB-C cable. Are the larger sensor and other features worth it? I'll find out when I review it over the next few weeks. 

Amazon’s Blink Outdoor 4 camera, which became available in August, is on sale right now for $72, down from its original price of $120. The deal is only on for a short period, starting on October 25 and ending November 5.

The Outdoor 4 captures 1080p HD footage of the camera’s view and allows you to view that footage from your smartphone. It supports live view as well, along with enhanced motion detection and two-way talk. The kicker for Blink cameras, though, is that they’re wireless, making them very easy to place inside and outside of your home. Plus, each has a battery life of about two years before you need to change their two AA cells. If you purchase the single camera system, you will get access to a free 30-day trial of the Blink subscription plan that allows you to store and share security cam footage in the cloud, and enable features like person detection.

The Blink Mini bundle, which includes three cameras, three mounting kits with stands, USB cables and power adapters is also on sale. The bundle, which originally sells for $100 will be made available for $40. Blink Mini cameras can also stream 1080p HD video and record footage using night vision, but they have to be plugged in. Like the Blink Outdoor devices, these indoor cameras are ideal for Alexa fans — the cameras can be controlled through voice to arm and disarm the system. The Blink Mini allows you to customize notifications for motion detection so get alerts for zones that you care about most. The deal on this Mini set is a great entry point for building a home security system if you don't already have one.

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