It seems that guitar amp companies making Bluetooth speakers could be the newthing. UK-based Orange Amps has just launched a duo of Bluetooth speakers called the Box and Box-L. The first is a battery-powered portable model, while the latter is a wired option that’s more of a homebody. Both echo the design of this iconic brand’s guitar amplifier and speaker series, using the same colors, logo and control panel style. The specs hint at decent stereo sound in the $300-$350 price range with Bluetooth 5.0, aptX support, a Class D amp for the subwoofer and Class AB analog amplifiers to help the full-range drivers produce a warmer sound. There are some deviations from what you'd expect, however, like the absence of USB charging, a front-facing only design and the lack of any weatherproofing or IP rating.

The Orange Box is the slightly smaller of the two models at 11 x 6.9 x 6.7-inches and 6.6 pounds with a vegan-leather carrying strap. You can choose between the classic orange exterior or a black version and it's priced at $299 (£275). There’s a 4-inch subwoofer powered by a 30W Class D amp and a pair of 2-inch full-range drivers powered by dual 10W Class AB analog amplifiers for a warmer sound.

Orange Amps

The specs for the battery-powered Box list a charging time of three hours until full and a runtime of 15 or more hours. It also lists a 2,600mAh li-ion battery, so we’re interested in a real world test. There’s no USB port, so you’re stuck with the DC19.5V charging cable that comes in the box.

The wired model is called the Box-L and it’s slightly larger at 13.8 x 7.9 x 7.9-inches and 9.6 pounds. It’s also available in orange or black and priced at $345 (£315). As mentioned, there’s no onboard battery, so it’s more of a sedentary beast. You can expect a slightly beefier sound, however, with a larger 5-inch subwoofer powered by the Class D amp and two 2-inch full-range drivers powered by dual 10W analog Class AB versions.

Orange Amps

Both models have a 50W RMS output and a frequency range of 35Hz - 20kHz, so we expect they’ll probably have a decent amount of bass. They also support Qualcomm aptX for high resolution audio, alongside AAC and SBC.

The general physical design is the same for both the Box and Box-L. At the top you get a control panel with knobs and switches, much like those found on the brand’s line of guitar amps. There’s a power toggle, battery indicator light, knobs for bass, treble and volume adjustment, as well as a 3.5mm aux input. In addition, there’s a Bluetooth pairing button that does double duty as a play/pause control and a small audio limiter light to let you know if you're driving the system too hard. The company claims to support the right to repair and will offer replacement parts in case you just can’t help yourself from pushing the speaker too hard and break something.

Both models are available today in the USA, UK and the rest of the world at the Orange Amps website as well as Amazon. Although, in Australia you may have to stick with ordering through either Amazon or the company’s regional distributor Australis Music Group. The portable Orange Box is priced at $299 (£275) and the wired Orange Box-L is $345 (£315).

Apple is expected to launch a collection of new products at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in a few days, and two of them might be new Mac desktop computers. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the tech giant has been testing a couple of high-end Macs powered by its new M2 Max processor and the M2 Ultra chip that the company has yet to announce.

If you'll recall, Apple debuted the M2 Max on its 14- and 16 MacBook Pro laptops, as well as its Mac mini computer earlier this year. The desktop PC with the chip will reportedly have 8 high-performance cores, 4 efficiency cores and 30 graphics cores. It will also have 96 GB of RAM and will run macOS 13.4, the company's latest software for computers, out of the box. 

Meanwhile, the unannounced M2 Ultra chip is supposed to be the more powerful option between the two, with twice as many processing cores. Specifically, the chip is expected to have 16 high-performance, 8 efficiency and 60 graphics cores, though Bloomberg says the company will offer a more powerful version with 76 graphics cores. Apple is even reportedly testing the computer with M2 Ultra in configurations with 64GB, 128GB and 192GB of memory. 

Gurman also says that the M2 Ultra was originally designed for future versions of the Mac Pro, which still uses Intel processors. But the Mac Pros are testing at the momentare codenamed Mac 14,8, while the new high-end desktops with the M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips are codenamed Mac 14,13 and Mac 14,14. Presumably, that means they're a different desktop PCs altogether, perhaps new models of the Mac Studio that's currently powered by the M1 Max or the M1 Ultra. 

In addition to high-end desktop computers, Apple might also launch new laptops at WWDC. Some possibilities include a 15-inch MacBook Air that could be powered by a processor "on par" with the tech giant's current-gen M2 chip, as well as a more affordable version of the 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Instagram is, once again, trying to explain how its recommendations work in an attempt to dispel “misconceptions” about how the app’s algorithm works and whether or not the company engages in “shadowbanning” of certain creators. In a new blog post from Instagram’s top exec Adam Mosseri, he offers one of the most detailed explanations to date on how the app ranks content in various parts of the app.

“Instagram doesn’t have a singular algorithm that oversees what people do and don’t see on the app,” Mosseri explains. Instead, he says, there are multiple algorithms and ranking systems underpinning different aspects of the app, like Explore, Reels, Stories and search. Each of these uses a variety of signals to determine how content is ranked for each user.

For example, the order of posts in your main feed is determined by your past activity, as well as previous interactions with the person who made each post. Likewise, Stories posts take into account viewing history as well as “closeness,” or “how likely you are to be connected as friends or family.” On the other hand, recommendations in Explore are largely based “posts you’ve liked, saved, shared and commented on in the past,” but are more likely to come from accounts you’ve never interacted with.

One of the more interesting sections of Mosseri's blog post is titled “addressing shadowbanning.” Mosseri notes that there isn’t a universal definition for the word, but acknowledges that many creators “use the term to imply that a user’s account or content is limited or hidden without a clear explanation or justification.” And he says that the company is working to increase transparency around when creators’ content or accounts are blocked from the app’s recommendations.

Specifically, he calls out the app’s “account status” feature, which can alert users if one of their posts or their account is considered “ineligible” for recommendations. The feature also offers an appeals process. While it’s not the first time Instagram has addressed the issue, which has been the subject of much speculation and conspiracy theories over the years, there has been a notable shift in the way the company is talking about “shadowbanning.”

In a similar post from two years ago, Mosseri wrote that “the truth is most of your followers won’t see what you share, because most look at less than half of their Feed.” Now, he says Instagram is working on increasing transparency in cases when a creator’s content isn’t widely distributed due to a policy violation. “If anything makes your content less visible, you should know about it and be able to appeal,” he wrote.

He added that Instagram is testing “new notifications to help creators understand when the reach of their reel may be limited due to a watermark” (the company has tried to discourage users from posting recycled TikToks to Reels for years).

While some creators may still find these explanations unsatisfying — and there are more than a few who fall into that camp, judging by the comments on Mosseri’s own Instagram post — the new details underscore just how central algorithmic recommendations are becoming to Instagram. While the app re-introduced an optional chronological feed, Mark Zuckerberg has said his goal is to transform Instagram and Facebook into a “discovery engine” more focused on recommendations than posts from friends.

Reddit’s recently-announced plan to charge for API access could price out the developer of one of the most popular third-party Reddit apps. The developer of Reddit client Apollo is raising the alarm on the new API pricing, saying the changes would require him to spend millions of dollars to keep his app going in its current form.

Reddit announced sweeping changes to its API rules last month, citing the rise of AI companies using their platform to train large language models. “The Reddit corpus of data is really valuable,” Reddit CEO Steve Huffman told The New York Times. “But we don’t need to give all of that value to some of the largest companies in the world for free.”

But it now seems that independent app makers will also be subject to the pricier new plans, which are set to take effect June 19th. While Reddit hasn’t officially disclosed its API pricing, Christian Selig, Apollo’s sole developer, says he would have to pay $20 million to keep his app going “as-is” under the new policies.

“50 million requests costs $12,000, a figure far more than I ever could have imagined,” he wrote in a post on Reddit, citing multiple conversations he’s had with Reddit representatives about the upcoming API changes. “Apollo made 7 billion requests last month, which would put it at about 1.7 million dollars per month, or 20 million US dollars per year.”

That pricing leaves Selig and Apollo, which has been widely praised for its design details and for providing functionality beyond Reddit’s native app, in a tough position. While the app does offer subscriptions, its current revenue isn’t enough to cover the steep API cost. He says that the average user makes about 344 API calls a day, which would require him to raise subscription prices to at least $2.50 a month (currently, he says, most subscribers pay $0.99 a month). Furthermore, that wouldn’t account for Apollo’s power users, who use the app at much higher rates, or the app’s free users. “Even keeping the existing, subscription only users I would be SUBSTANTIALLY in the red each month,” Selig tells Engadget.

In a statement, a Reddit spokesperson said that Selig was provided “pricing per 1,000 API calls, not a monthly bill,” but declined to share details. “Our pricing is based on usage levels that we measure to be as equitable as possible,” the spokesperson said. “We’ve been, and will continue, to work with third-party apps to help them improve efficiency, which can significantly impact overall cost.”

If all of this sounds oddly familiar, there are striking similarities between Reddit’s new developer rules and the drastic changes Twitter has made to its API policies under Elon Musk. In Twitter’s case, the company decided to ban third-party client apps while simultaneously making its API extraordinarily expensive for the researchers and businesses that previously depended on higher levels of access to Twitter data.

Of note, Reddit hasn’t been as outwardly hostile to developers. Selig notes that he’s had multiple calls with Reddit and that reps he’s spoken to have been “communicative and civil” about the changes. And a Reddit spokesperson suggested the company wants to keep third-party apps around.

“We’re committed to fostering a developer ecosystem around Reddit – developers and third-party apps can make Reddit better,” the spokesperson said. “Our Data API has powered thousands of applications, such as tools to make moderation easier, and utilities that help users stay up to date on their favorite topics, and games. Developers are incredibly valuable to the Reddit ecosystem, so much so that we recently updated our Developer Platform.”

Still, Selig said he’s uncertain about how he will handle the changes. “I hope it goes without saying that I don't have that kind of money,” he shared on Reddit. “This is going to require some thinking.”

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference regularly sets the tone for the company’s future, and that may be truer than ever for 2023. Many expect the company to introduce its first mixed reality headset at the event, with a new platform to match. However, the wearable is far from the only major announcement believed to be coming at WWDC this year. Rumors have included a larger MacBook Air, a major watchOS update and even app sideloading on iOS. Here’s what you’re likely to see when executives take to the digital stage on June 5th.

Mixed reality headset

Minh Pham on Unsplash

Apple’s first foray into mixed reality hardware (that is, a blend of real and virtual worlds) is one of the company’s worst-kept secrets. The tech giant has been acquiring headset-friendly startups for years, and Tim Cook hasn’t been shy about his interests in augmented and virtual reality. Now, though, a headset appears to be ready for a WWDC debut — Apple’s event logo even hints at a lens.

If the rumors are accurate, Apple’s stand-alone device (possibly called Reality Pro) may be more powerful than the Meta Quest Pro and many other high-end headsets. It might offer a 4K resolution per eye, with at least six cameras providing a view of the outside world as well as full body motion tracking. It could also use an M2 chip that outperforms the mobile processors you typically see in stand-alone headsets. Expectations are that it will require an external battery pack and last for just two hours on a charge, but it would be relatively light and slim.

The true star might be the software, though. The Apple headset will reportedly run a new platform (possibly called xrOS) designed with mixed reality in mind. Rather than rely on controllers, you would use hand gestures, gaze detection and Siri voice commands to navigate the interface. An Apple Watch-style crown would toggle between AR and VR, and you could type in mid-air.

This initial device is believed to be focused on productivity, with VR-ready versions of Apple apps like Pages, iMovie and GarageBand supposedly in the works. You could even have one-on-one FaceTime video calls with full-body avatars, or make simple apps using Siri. There could still be plenty of more entertaining options, though, including meditations, workouts, immersive video viewing and games. Many existing iPad and iPhone apps are said to work with only slight modifications, so you might not have to remove the headset just to use your favorite software. Just don’t expect a metaverse — Apple has apparently ruled out a persistent virtual space.

Apple’s headset isn’t expected to ship until later in the year. Not that it will necessarily be viable for many fans. Rumors suggest this first model will cost around $3,000, or three times the price of the Quest Pro. A more affordable variant is supposedly in development, but the first product could be aimed squarely at developers, professionals and early adopters.

15-inch MacBook Air

Cherlynn Low/Engadget

Until now, you’ve had to spring for a high-end MacBook Pro to get an Apple laptop larger than 14 inches. That might not be necessary after WWDC. Rumors and developer logs suggest Apple is on the cusp of launching a 15-inch MacBook Air that puts big-screen portable Macs within reach of more people.

While the current-generation 13-inch MacBook Air is roughly a year old, the rumored 15-inch version would continue to use a variant of that system’s M2 chip and might come with 8GB of RAM in a base configuration. You could see a higher resolution display. similar to that of the 14-inch MacBook Pro (albeit without a 120Hz refresh rate), and it won’t be surprising if the larger chassis allows for a bigger battery.

iOS 17 and iPadOS 17

Cherlynn Low/Engadget

This year, Apple’s most important software upgrade for the iPhone and iPad may expand user choice. Rumors have persisted for months that iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 will enable sideloading – that is, installing apps outside the App Store – to honor European Union competition rules. Just like on Android, you could download apps directly from the web or through third-party stores. That would allow for things that aren’t possible under Apple’s existing rules, such as web browsers that use their own engines instead of WebKit.

Sideloading might not be the only notable feature. MacRumorsclaims iOS 17 will revamp the Control Center. You could also see a Day One-style life journaling app and mood tracking in the Health app. There have also been reports the company will expand the functionality of the iPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island, give Maps a new lock screen interface and streamline the Music and Wallet apps. The iPad may play catch-up in some areas, with iPadOS 17 rumored to inherit iOS 16’s lock screen customization and include a tablet-native Health app.

Accessibility may play an important role, as well. Apple recently previewed a series of iOS features that make the iPhone more usable for people with disabilities. Assistive Access provides a simplified interface for people with cognitive issues, while Live Speech and Personal Voice have iOS speak written text during calls. You can even have your phone speak what it sees on text and buttons. Apple hasn’t explicitly said iOS 17 will introduce these features, but a release “later this year” suggests that’s more than likely.

WWDC may also represent Apple’s opportunity to detail the next-gen CarPlay interface it teased at last year’s conference. While the company previously said the platform could control more in-cabin systems, it has yet to explain those capabilities. The first cars using this experience are due to arrive late this year, so Apple doesn’t have much time to prepare developers for the upgrade.

iOS and iPadOS updates typically launch in September or October. Public betas should be available considerably sooner, though, and have historically arrived within weeks.

WatchOS 10

Photo by Cherlynn Low/Engadget

The Apple Watch may be due for the largest software update in its history. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman claims watchOS 10 will be redesigned around widgets, bringing back traces of the Glances from the original OS with elements of the Siri watch face. Apps aren’t expected to go away, but they may be deemphasized in favor of quick peeks at information. Gurman speculates that Apple could make the interface optional at first to help users adjust to the revamp.

MacOS 14

Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Very little is known about the next major Mac platform update, but it’s safe to presume macOS 14 will make its debut at WWDC. Apple’s computer platform updates typically include some features borrowed from its iOS equivalent. Upgrades tend to arrive in October, with betas available in late spring or early summer.

Wildcards: M3 and more Macs

Photo by Cherlynn Low/Engadget

Most buzz around WWDC suggests Apple won’t debut its M3 system-on-chip at WWDC — hence the 15-inch MacBook Air apparently using the M2. With that said, we can’t completely rule out an introduction. If so, the new chip is poised to deliver performance and efficiency improvements thanks in part to a denser 3-nanometer manufacturing process.

If the M3 does show up, it won’t be shocking to see other Macs premiere alongside the Air. Gurman says a refreshed 13-inch Air is in the works, and an M3-powered iMac might ship in the second half of 2023. Pro machines aren’t likely, though. Gurman doesn’t believe an M3 Pro-based MacBook Pro will surface until 2024, and we wouldn’t count on Mac Pro or Mac Studio upgrades.

Samsung's The Frame is a smart TV that has a nifty trick up its sleeve. When you're not watching something, it looks like a piece of art. It's an intriguing alternative to the standard gloomy black box that can dominate a living room when a big-screen TV is turned off. Now, over at Woot, you can snap up a Frame TV at a discount. The retailer is running a sale on several 2022 models and it has dropped prices by up to 33 percent.

You'll need to make up your mind whether to take the plunge relatively quickly, as the sale will run for nine days or until the smart TVs are sold out. The biggest discounts, percentage wise, are on the 50-inch and 75-inch models, as both are a third off. The 50-inch model has dropped by $430 to $870, while the 75-inch model is $1,000 off at $2,000.

When Art Mode is enabled, The Frame can display the artwork of your choice. Some of the pieces are available at no extra cost, though you'll have access to a wider selection with a Samsung Art Store subscription. The options range from iconic works such as the Mona Lisa and The Starry Night to modern photography. The Frame has a low profile and anti-reflective matte glass to bolster the illusion that you're looking at framed art instead of a TV. The bezel is customizable too.

When you do want to tune in to a show or movie, you'll be able to watch in 4K, unless you opt for the 32-inch model, which doesn't have a QLED 4K display. The Frame also has the Alexa voice assistant built in and it uses Samsung's Tizen OS.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

If you're in the market for a fast NVMe SSD for your PC or console, Amazon has some great options in its latest sale. The WD_Black SN850 and P40 models are on sale with steep discounts as high as 56 percent, with sizes ranging from 1TB to 4TB. The best deal is on the latest WD_Black 1TB SN850X NVMe with a heat sink that offers speeds up to 7300/6300 MB/s (read/write) and PS5 compatibility. It's priced at just $80, a savings of 56 percent ($100) over the regular price. 

The latest SN850X is available in sizes up to 2TB, with read speeds a bit faster (6,600 MB/s) on the 2TB model. Both come with a heatsink and support Game Mode 2.0, and are compatible with PlayStation 5 consoles. They also make great storage and media drives on PCs, thanks to high speeds that allow quick program loading and the ability to play back 8K video.

If you don't need PS5 compatibility or a heat sink, Amazon has the regular SN850X on sale as well in four sizes, at $80, $175 and $350 for the 1TB, 2TB and 4TB models, respectively. The best deal is on the 4TB unit, priced at just $350 for a savings of 50 percent off the regular price — a nice deal if you need a very fast SSD with high capacity.

Finally, if it's USB-C storage you're looking for, the WD_Black 1TB and 2TB P4 Game Drive SSDs carry significant discounts as well. The 1TB model is available for $100, or 44 percent off the regular price, while the 2TB version is on sale for $160, saving you a full 52 percent. These models are compatible with both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles, giving you a speedy archiving option (up to 2,000 MB/s) that lets you save space on your main drive and quickly restore games. 

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

With the rise of AI language models and tools like ChatGPT and Bard, we've heard warnings from people involved, like Elon Musk, about the risks posed by AI. Now, a group of high-profile industry leaders has issued a one-sentence statement: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

That’s… heavy. It was posted to the Center for AI Safety, an organization with the mission "to reduce societal-scale risks from artificial intelligence," according to its website. Signatories include OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and Google DeepMind head Demis Hassabis. Turing Award-winning researchers Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, the godfathers of modern AI, also put their names to it. Hinton recently left Google over ethical concerns.

It’s not the first statement like this. In March, Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and more than 1,000 others called for a six-month pause on AI to allow industry and the public to effectively catch up to the technology. "Recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict or reliably control," the letter stated. No specific scenarios elaborate on how AI could threaten humanity, but there’s been more than enough science fiction to make me think of worst cases. Thanks, The Matrix.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

The biggest stories you might have missed

Twitter is testing Community Notes for images

Apple Music's dedicated classical app arrives on Android

Sony's new WH-CH720N wireless headphones drop to $128 on Amazon

The best Nintendo Switch controllers for every player level

The best mobile microphones for 2023

‘Diablo IV’ review

A mechanically perfect romp through a shallow world.

Blizzard

The story of Diablo IV opens decades after the end of Diablo III, with the world still reeling from the events of that game. Your character is in pursuit of Lilith, the daughter of Mephisto, one of the Prime Evils you defeated in Diablo II. Sometimes, you’ll discover some interesting lore or a named enemy that will drop an item with unique flavor text. Still, those moments are few and far between, according to Engadget’s Igor Bonifacic. Diablo IV will be available on PC, PlayStation and Xbox on June 6th.

Continue reading.

Amazon ditches Alexa’s celebrity voices

You can no longer set an alarm or order Tide Pods with Melissa McCarthy.

Amazon is ditching all of its Alexa-enabled celebrity voices, including Shaquille O’Neal, Melissa McCarthy and Samuel L. Jackson. The celebrity voice assistant features were fairly limited when compared to Alexa’s full feature set as the celebs won’t do reminders and don’t integrate with many skills. They do, however, tell jokes, answer questions and complete simple voice-assisted tasks. Why get rid of the voices now? Reports suggest Amazon is building its own large language model (LLM), like ChatGPT, to transform Alexa radically, and celebrity voices may no longer fit that setup.

Continue reading.

Razer's new gaming earbuds include a low-latency dongle

The Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed lets you skip Bluetooth.

Razer has introduced Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed buds that include a 2.4GHz RF adapter to plug into the USB-C port (there's an included USB-A adapter) on your computer or console. This expands support to more devices, of course, but it also drops latency to 40ms versus 60ms for the Bluetooth-based Gaming Mode. The Hammerhead Pro Hyperspeed earbuds are available now for $200.

Continue reading.

Google's Pixel Watch 2 will reportedly have significantly improved battery life

A switch to a Snapdragon chip could solve complaints about longevity.

engadget

A report from 9to5Google claims the Pixel Watch 2 will switch from Samsung's 2018-era Exynos 9110 to one of Qualcomm's much newer Snapdragon W5 models. Although the battery in the new smartwatch isn't significantly bigger, the longevity is supposed to be much improved. Reportedly, it can last over a day with the always-on display enabled. The Pixel Watch 2 could also house the same health sensors as the Fitbit Sense 2 – Google owns Fitbit now, remember? That could introduce ways to measure stress, skin temperature and other metrics. When might we see it? Well, a previous rumor hinted the Pixel Watch 2 will debut alongside the Pixel 8 this fall.

Continue reading.

Garmin has just announced a pair of new smartwatches intended for explorers and extreme fitness enthusiasts. However, these are high-end gadgets with high-end specs and, accordingly, high-end price tags.

First up, the Epix Pro series. The main draw of these watches is that they ship with a bright and crisp AMOLED display, a design choice Garmin has begun to fully embrace, providing a vivid picture without drawing too much battery life. There’s also a built-in flashlight with multiple intensities and a strobe mode, a red-only visual display option for darker conditions and plenty of advanced fitness features.

To that end, the Epix Pro series includes “dozens” of new, preloaded activities like soccer, basketball, horseback riding, racquet sports and plenty more. The fitness trackers now offer endurance scores and hill scores for advanced metrics. Runners and walkers will also receive notifications regarding points of interest along the route. There are new weather map overlays to view local environmental conditions and upgraded shading for making it easier to understand elevations within topographic maps. The Epix Pro line is available now and launches in three sizes (42mm, 47mm and 51mm.) Prices start at $900.

The Fenix 7 Pro series is for serious explorers, with solar charging, a powerful LED flashlight, mapping upgrades and a red safety light, all of which are intended to provide greater awareness when training in the dark, like a ninja. The heart rate sensor also got a significant boost, with new optical sensors and sport-specific algorithms that track your pulse rate across a diverse array of activities. There's no ECG app, however, so you'll have to look elsewhere if that's a primary concern.

The new endurance score feature measures how easy it is to engage in prolonged physical activities, combining V02 sensors, hill scores and previous training data. Just like the Epix Pro, the Fenix 7 boasts an updated mapping system with weather overlays, points of interest and improvements to topographic maps. There’s also new preloaded activities like whitewater rafting and motocross. The Fenix 7 Pro is available in multiple sizes and designs, starting at $800.

Logitech already makes some of the best productivity peripherals around, but with a few key upgrades, the company may have just created an almost perfect travel mouse. And after using the new $80 MX Anywhere 3S for the last week and a half (including on a trip of my own), I’m not sure I want to use anything else ever again.

On the outside, the MX Anywhere 3S features the same basic design as its predecessor, including a similar palette of color options (graphite, pale gray, and rose). The differences are on the inside, where the mouse features a new 8K DPI optical sensor that’s more accurate than before and works on practically any surface you can think of (wood, cloth, glass, et cetera). You also get a new set of super quiet mouse buttons similar to what you find on its larger sibling – the MX Master 3S – which might not sound all that important, but it’s very a welcome feature for families where multiple people are studying/working from home. Finally, as part of Logitech’s efforts to increase the sustainability of its products, the MX Anywhere 3S is made from up to 78 percent post-consumer recycled plastic (though that figure is around 61 percent for the gray and pink models).

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engagdet

Between its new features and the already fantastic foundation, the MX Anywhere 3S is simply a delight to use. Weighing just 95 grams, it's lighter than pretty much everything aside from a handful of gaming mice while boasting a rechargeable battery that lasts up to a whopping 70 days. You still get the ability to pair the mouse with up to three different devices (PCs, laptops, tablets and more), and thanks to a very travel-friendly ambidextrous design, it works great in tight situations. And while Logitech’s free-spinning MagSpeed mouse wheel isn’t new, scrolling actually feels a tiny bit smoother than before too.

The one big departure from previous MX Anywhere mice is that the 3S doesn’t come with a dongle. Instead, for this model (and likely going forward), Logitech is relying entirely on Bluetooth. One reason for this change is that Logitech believes modern Bluetooth connectivity has gotten good enough that a dedicated wireless receiver simply isn’t necessary, and after using this thing for more than 10 days, I get it. I haven’t had a single laggy mouse stroke or delayed reaction the entire time I’ve used it and even on Bluetooth you still get support for Logitech’s multi-device Flow software. Besides, for frequent travelers, a dongle is just one more thing to keep track of (or lose entirely).

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

That said, the main reason why the MX Anywhere 3S doesn’t come with a dongle is because Logitech’s Bolt receiver is still only available as a USB Type-A receiver, and with most new laptops these days only having USB-C, it doesn’t make a ton of sense to include something requires an adapter to use. Logitech says that because USB-C ports are so small, there isn’t enough room to fit the electronics without making the whole thing unusually bulky. Meanwhile with USB-A, Logitech is able to build tiny circuit boards that fit inside the connector itself. So while the company is still trying to figure out a solution, we’ll have to wait a little longer for a USB-C version of Logitech’s Bolt receiver. That said, while there are situations where having one would be useful, I haven’t missed having a physical dongle at all when using the MX Anywhere 3S.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Aside from its new mouse, today Logitech also has a couple of other refreshed devices. On the $110 MX Keys S, new features include more control over backlighting brightness and automatic activation settings, an updated function row with additional videoconferencing controls (and that always handy emoji key), and a fresh pale gray model to match the rest of the MX family. Alternatively, for people who need a new suite of office peripherals, Logitech has created a productivity bundle called the MX Keys S Combo which includes the MX Keys S, an MX Master 3S mouse and the MX Palm Rest – all in one box for $200. And while the MX Master 3S and the wrist wrest aren’t new, considering that those three devices would typically cost $230 if purchased separately, this bundle is a nice way to get a discount.

Screenshot by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Lastly, while it’s been in beta for some time, today alongside the MX Keys S, Logitech’s Smart Actions feature is finally getting an official release. Available inside the Logi Options+ app, Smart Actions is a neat tool for automating various repetitive tasks across multiple programs with a single keystroke. That means you can create a silence command that will do stuff like mute zoom, turn off your microphone and pause your favorite music app all with a single tap. By default, there are a number of basic templates you can browse, though they can also be customized as needed. And while I’m still testing out the limits of Smart Actions, so far my favorite way to use it has been creating what I call my “game time” command, which opens apps like Steam, Discord, Battle.net and more all with a single shortcut. And the nice thing is that if you don’t want to create your own Smart Actions, Logitech made them easy to share and import. So if you see someone else with a shortcut you like, you can just ask them to send it to you.

The MX Anywhere 3S, the MX Keys S and the MX Keys S Combo are all available today priced at $80, $110 and $200, respectively.