Sony has reportedly begun rolling out a cloud streaming beta for PS Plus Premium subscribers — and it supports up to 4K resolution. Announced in June as being in the “early stages” of development, the feature will support PS Plus catalog titles, game trials and “supported digital PS5 titles that players own.” The feature could help PlayStation owners avoid lengthy downloads that take up precious storage.

An alleged PlayStation email to an invited tester, posted on Reddit, reads, “We’re excited to unveil PS5 cloud streaming, and your help testing it means a lot to us.” The beta period uses exclusive invite codes that can’t be shared with other users. The email notes that features could change before cloud streaming’s official launch.

User ArashiGames wrote on ResetEra that they tested God of War: Ragnarok at 2160p with “no issues so far.” They described resolution options ranging from 720p to 2160p for that title, and they said Returnal streamed in 4K. “There’s a new section in the PS+ menu that is for Streaming PS5 Games,” the beta-tester wrote. “Just click the game and it loads in a few seconds.” They listed Horizon Forbidden West, Fortnite, Destiny 2 and Death Stranding (among others) as streaming options. 4K resolution could prove a competitive advantage against Xbox Cloud Gaming, which maxes out at 1080p resolution and 60fps.

Sony’s upcoming “Project Q” streaming handheld will have an 8-inch, 1080p screen with a 60Hz refresh rate. The accessory is confirmed to use Remote Play (streaming directly from a console rather than the cloud) but could theoretically support cloud streaming as well. The device is set to launch later this year for an as-yet-unknown price.

Game streaming will be exclusive to PS Plus Premium members. The $18 / mo. service already supports cloud gaming for PS4, PS3 and select “classic” titles. It lets you stream available games to PS5, PS4 or PC.

Netflix’s push into video games continues, as the company just dropped a dedicated controller app for iOS devices. The app, simply called “Netflix Game Controller,” lets you use your phone or tablet as a gamepad once you pair the device with your TV. This will allow you to play games available through Netflix’s service on the TV, while controlling things from your mobile device.

Though the app is already available for download, further news remains scant. For instance, we don’t know what games it will support or any details surrounding the pairing process. We also don’t know if and when this will be followed up by an Android app. The app’s description just teases that the gamepad functionality is “coming soon to Netflix.”

This isn’t a huge surprise, given the company’s expanding growth as an indie game publisher. Netflix Games has published or hosted nearly 70 titles in the past two years, some of which are accessible via the regular Netflix streaming app with others available on mobile devices and gaming consoles. These aren’t throwaway titles, either, as games like Oxenfree II: Lost Signals released to critical acclaim. Oxenfree developer Night School has gone on to become Netflix’s first in-house studio.

Other titles coming to the Netflix platform in the coming months include indie standouts like Storytellers, Paper Trail and the Monument Valley series. There’s also an Assassin’s Creed game in the works, along with a port of the mobile title LEGO: Legacy Heroes Unboxed. It’s a safe assumption that you should be able to use the recently-launched controller app to play some of these games. Engadget reached out to Netflix to inquire about compatibility and the possibility of an Android release. A company spokesperson said that it isn't making comments at this time. 

Apple is testing variants of the M3 chip, according toBloomberg, with the first Macs running the new Apple Silicon potentially arriving as early as October. The high-end laptop chip, the M3 Max, will reportedly have four more high-performance CPU cores and at least two additional graphical cores compared to the M2 Max, which only arrived in January.

The company is reportedly testing new iMacs, 13-inch MacBook Pros, 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Airs and Mac minis — all running the M3 chip and expected within the next 12 months. Updated 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M3 Pro and M3 Max chips won’t likely arrive until 2024.

The company could move on an aggressive Mac release schedule as its desktop and laptop computer line struggles to regain its sales footing after a pandemic-era boom. Although it launched a 15-inch MacBook Air in June and new models of the MacBook Pro and Mac mini in January, we could see more new Mac hardware this fall. (The company hinted in its earnings call last week that new Macs wouldn’t arrive until after the fiscal fourth quarter, which concludes at the end of September.) Bloomberg reports Apple is indeed planning an October product launch.

The base M3 chip will reportedly use the same configuration as the M2: eight processor cores and up to 10 graphical cores. However, the M3 Pro will start at 12 CPU cores and 18 graphical cores, and test logs suggest the M3 Max will include 16 CPU cores and 40 graphics cores. Of course, Apple is likely testing multiple variants of core-count options, and we don’t yet know which versions will make it to consumers.

The M3 chip has been long-rumored to shift to TSMC’s upcoming 3-nanometer process for expected performance and efficiency improvements over the 5nm process used in the M2. Apple is also widely expected to use the 3nm process for the A17 chip in the upcoming iPhone 15 series.

Taking a screenshot comes in handy for multiple reasons, which is why it’s so easy to do on several devices, including Macs. When it comes to saving what's on your display, the answer lies in your keyboard. All you need to remember are a few keyboard shortcuts and you’ll be able to take a screenshot on Mac easily — and there are even ways to save only portions of your display and screen record, too. Here are all of the ways to take a screenshot on a MacBook or Mac desktop.

How to take a screenshot of your entire screen

If you just want a screenshot of your entire screen, just press: Command (⌘), Shift and 3. By default, that image will appear on your desktop for easy access.

Photo by Julia Mercado / Engadget

How to capture a portion of your screen

If you want to save a portion of your screen, hit Command + Shift + 4. A crosshair cursor will appear and you can select which part of the screen you want to capture within the gray box.

If you hold the Spacebar after selecting a portion of the window, then you can move your cursor to choose what part of the screen you want to capture.

To take a screenshot of an entire window, select Command + Shift + 4, hover over the window in question and then tap the Spacebar. A camera icon will appear and the window will turn gray to show it’s selected. Click on the screen and you will get an image of the window you chose. (Select option (⌥) in order to get rid of any border edges.)

How to customize your screenshot experience

If you can’t remember the keys to screenshot an entire window or a certain portion, Macs have an even easier way to screenshot. Press Command + Shift + 5 to bring up the toolbar (or simply open the screenshot tool from Spotlight).

Photo by Julia Mercado / Engadget

This will give you several options, such as taking screenshots of videos and even recording the screen. For a more customized experience, click on Options in order to set a timer for your screenshot and select the folder in which you want to save the image or video. This toolbar also allows you to do the basics like take a screenshot of the entire screen or just a specific window.

A bonus for Touch Bar MacBooks

Photo by Julia Mercado / Engadget

MacBooks with a Touch Bar have the ability to screenshot the bar itself: hit Command + Shift + 6 to do so.

If you're running out of storage on a device like your phone or computer, but want to pay less for more, then now is your chance. A range of Samsung's Memory Chips and Drives are currently on sale, including the Samsung PRO Plus 512GB MicroSD. This new storage device is currently down to $35 from $60 — a 42 percent discount. It reads content at about 180MB per second and writes at 130MB per second. It also stores premium 4K video with UHS-I, V30-rated speed and A2 rating. We like it so much that we named it one of the best SSDs to buy this year. 

Other notable Samsung items on sale include the 970 EVO Plus SSD 2TB and the T7 Shield 1TB. The 970 EVO plus is more advanced than the PRO Plus microSD, reading at a rate of 3,500MB per second and writing at 3,300MB per second. It also has the latest V-AND technology backing it up and a Dynamic Thermal Guard. The 970 EVO Plus SSD 2TB is down to $80 from $100 — a 20 percent discount.

The TV Shield 1TB is also $80, but with a standard price of $160, it's a solid 50 percent discount. The device keeps cool in warmer temperatures and also comes outfitted with a Dynamic Thermal Guard. It's dust and water-resistant and available across PCs, consoles, tablets and more. You can check out the entire list of Samsung Memory Cards and Drives on sale here to find the best one for your lifestyle.

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Late last year, Nikkei Asia reported that Japan was planning to add thousands of personnel to its military cyber defense unit. Now, we might know why — according to a report from the Washington Post, hackers in China had "deep, persistent access" to Japanese defense networks. When the National Security Agency is said to have first discovered the breach in late 2020, NSA Chief and Commander of US Cyber Command General Paul Nakasone flew to Japan with White House deputy national security advisor Matthew Pottinger to report the breach to officials.

Despite briefings that reached as high as Japan's prime minister, the Washington Post reports that hacking from China remained an issue for several months, persisting through the end of the Trump administration and well into early 2021.

US Cyber Command initially offered Japan assistance in purging its systems of malware but were reportedly rebuffed because the country was not comfortable with another nation's military accessing their systems. Instead, Japan elected to use domestic commercial security firms to find vulnerabilities, relying on the US only for guidance on what those firms found. Japan would eventually adopt a more active national security strategy, which is said to include a new cyber command to monitor networks around the clock, and as many as 4,000 active cybersecurity personnel.

Microsoft wasn't subtle in announcing its plans to add AI functionality to any and all of its existing products. On Monday, the company announced that, in addition to its availability on the Edge mobile browser, as well as standalone Android and iOS apps, Microsoft's Bing Chat AI chatbot will now be accessible through third-party browsers like Safari and Chrome.

The news comes as part of Microsoft's six-month commemoration of Bing Chat's public availability. The company also notes that in that time, users have engaged in more than a billion conversations with the AI and have had it generate three-quarters of a billion images. 

"This next step in the journey allows Bing to showcase the incredible value of summarized answers, image creation and more, to a broader array of people," the company release reads. Features like "longer conversations [and] chat history" remain Edge mobile exclusives, however. 

Microsoft began opening access to Bing Chat in late July, when it became available on 3rd-party desktop browsers. That version is limited as well, offering only 2,000 words per prompt on Chrome and Safari versus 4,000 on Edge. 

Bing Chat is powered by ChatGPT-4 from OpenAI but offers more up-to-date information than the system its built on, thanks to Bing Chat's access to Bing Search, which allows it access to information on events that have happened since the model was trained. In addition to the third-party browser access, the newest version of Bing Chat will also offer multimodal search, meaning users will be able to upload a photo and have the AI answer specific questions about its contents, as well as a dark mode for after-hours AI queries.  

If you’ve been meaning to stock up on Sony’s DualSense controllers for your PS5, today is a good day to shop. The massively-popular gamepad is on sale for $49 via Amazon and other retailers, matching the previous low price. In other words, you likely won’t get a better deal than this. DualSense controllers typically sell for around $70, so this is a discount of more than 30 percent. The sale ends on August 20th. 

This is the same deal for the DualSense that pops up around Black Friday, so you’ll likely have to wait until then to nab a controller at this price if you miss the sale. The deal is available in just about every color option, from white to red, and even camouflage, though the deal doesn’t apply to the fancy DualSense Edge gamepad. 

This is the same controller that comes with the PS5 and is generally considered one of the preferred gamepads on the market, along with other fantastic accessories for the console. There's haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, a built-in microphone, an integrated headphone jack and that iconic Sony button/control stick layout. If you are looking for the perfect controller for couch co-op sessions, this will certainly get the job done. 

As previously mentioned, the sale is for the OG DualSense, and not the revamped DualSense Edge controller. The Edge brings some new features to the table, like adjustable trigger buttons, removable rear paddles and joysticks, a cable-locking mechanism and a nifty hardshell case. However, it costs $200, which is a far cry from $49. As for the console itself, the disc-based PS5 is currently on sale for $450, a discount of $50.

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Amazon is running another sale on its Fire TV Stick media streamers, with the Fire TV Stick 4K Max available for $27. We've seen the 4K streaming stick fall as low as $25 in recent weeks, but this deal is still roughly $20 below the device's average street price. The standard Fire TV Stick is also on sale for $25, but since the Max brings a performance boost for only a couple dollars more, we recommend getting the higher-end model instead.

Though it's a couple years old, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max is still relatively fast to load menus and switch between apps. Its remote has Alexa support baked in, so it can tie neatly into other Alexa-compatible smart home devices. It supports just about all the major streaming services and HDR standards, as well as Dolby Atmos audio. Unlike the base Fire TV Stick 4K, it also includes a WiFi 6 radio, though you'll need a compatible router and a particularly fast internet connection to see any advantage from that.

The main caveat, as with most Fire TV devices, is software. Compared to similarly-priced streamers from Roku and Google, Amazon's Fire OS is generally more aggressive about displaying ads on the home screen and nudging you toward the company's own services throughout the UI. You'll get the most out of it if you already use services like Prime Video on a regular basis. There's also no support for Google Cast (unlike Google's Chromecast) or Apple AirPlay (unlike various Roku streamers). 

We broadly recommend the Roku Streaming Stick 4K and Google Chromecast to most people in the market for an affordable streaming stick for those reasons. Right now, though, both of those devices cost about $20 more. If all you need is a cheap and quick way to get more streaming apps on your TV, the Fire TV Stick 4K is still a fine value at this price.

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It's early August and that means the back-to-school season is closing in on us fast. For those looking to invest in a new laptop for the upcoming semester, Amazon has a sale on the latest 15-inch MacBook Air that brings many models down to their lowest price yet. At the time of writing this, every color of the 256GB MacBook Air M2 is $200 off and down to $1,099, and the 512GB model in starlight is also $200 off and down to $1,299. Regardless of the size you get, the Air M2 is one of our favorite laptops at the moment, and it's even better when you can grab it on sale like this.

The 15-inch MacBook Air takes everything we loved about the 13-inch model and make it just a little bit bigger. Like it's smaller sibling, the 15-inch laptop has impressive performance thanks to Apple's M2 chipset, a comfortable keyboard and trackpad and a battery life that exceeded the 18 hours that the company promised in our video playback testing.

The bigger screen has a 2,880 x 1,864 resolution, but it shares the same pixels per inch (224) as that of the 13-inch version. Although it's not a mini LED display like you'll find on the MacBook Pros, it's still a lovely Liquid Retina panel with 500 nits of brightness and a 60Hz refresh rate. The extra screen space will definitely come in handy in a lot of different workflows, and since the 15-inch MacBook Air is nearly as thin and light as the 13-inch model, it's remains quite portable.

The biggest gripe with the 15-inch Air that we should call out, especially now, is that Apple's M2 chipset is one year old at this point and there's a possibility that we see new, M3-powered Macs debut this fall. This time of year, it's worth waiting to pick up a Mac if you absolutely must have the latest and greatest. However, it's likely that Apple will not retire the M2 MacBooks even if it launches M3 machines in the fall; the company currently sells the M1 MacBook Air alongside the M2 laptops, so we expect the M2 machines to stick around for a while even after the latest devices come out.

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