Ahead of the next inevitable round of herp de derp "Skynet iz here" hot takes on social media, Boston Dynamics showed off more of its Atlas robot's stunning agility and dexterity in a new demo video Wednesday morning. This time, the humanoid machine had to deliver a tool bag to the top of some scaffolding using only its roboparkour powers.  

In the video above, Atlas shows a surprising amount of forethought, grabbing and placing a wooden plank across a large gap before heading over to pick up the tool bag itself. From there, it's a simple matter of climbing a set of stairs, balancing across said plank, hopping up a couple ledges, jump spinning in place to turn around and gently hucking the bag over its head to the platform above. That's all before it shoves a box off its platform — carefully avoiding not tilting over the side itself and then, "dismounting with an inverted 540-degree flip that project engineers have dubbed the Sick Trick,'" according to Wednesday's release.

“Parkour forces us to understand the physical limitations of the robot, and dance forces us to think about how precise and dexterous the whole-body motion can be,” Robin Deits, a software engineer on the Atlas controls team, said in that release. “Now, manipulation is forcing us to take that information and interpret it in terms of how we can get the hands to do something specific. What’s important about the Atlas project is that we don’t let go of any of those other things we’ve learned.” 

Except none of that is "a simple matter." At the start of the decade, bipedal robots would wilt if you looked at them sideways, much less asked them to climb a set of stairs. In 2015, robots were still so janky that we ran supercuts of them falling down. And today, they — well Boston Dynamics' at least, Elon's robot is barely more than a skinny guy in a suit — can outrun, outjump, and outclimb the average sedentary American. It's a damn good thing the company, along with six other robotics industry leaders, has pledged not to use its legion of bag-delivery bots for war. 

But don't expect an Atlas to replace your local UPS driver anytime soon (for one, their union would never allow it) because for as impressive as this video is, it took a substantial amount of time and effort to develop. As you can see in the behind-the-scenes video above, Atlas suffered dents, scrapes, scratches, and more than a few tumbles in learning this routine. 

"This is more a demonstration of some of the robot’s new control capabilities, and a fun connection to our prior work,” Scott Kuindersma, Atlas team lead said. “Our hope is that, if we can build the foundational technology that allows us to easily create and adapt dynamic behaviors like these, we should be able to leverage it down the road to perform real, physically-demanding jobs with hustle. There are many pieces required to deliver a complete solution in a domain like manufacturing or construction—this video highlights a narrow slice of what we’re working on.” So maybe it isn't so much the hyper-agile acrobots we need to worry about as it is the EOD machines armed with high explosives and piloted by the cops. 

You might not need to buy the second-generation large HomePod to get additional smart home features — they could already be present in the speaker you have. MacRumorsnotes that Apple's HomePod product comparison section (scroll to the bottom) now says the HomePod mini has a temperature and humidity sensor, just like its more expensive counterpart. Given that the sensor has been dormant since the mini launched in 2020, it appears that Apple is activating the functionality on the more affordable hardware. We've asked Apple if it can provide more details.

The temperature and humidity sensor lets you control smart home devices based on interior conditions. You can automatically close your smart blinds when it gets too hot, for instance. The HomePod mini is already known to be getting the sound recognition update that can detect smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and send notifications. That software arrives in the spring.

There are still reasons to buy the bigger HomePod besides raw speaker quality. You don't get room sensing or spatial audio with the HomePod mini. For everything else, though, the mini should do the trick. The question is whether or not any expanded functionality is enough to clinch a purchase. Amazon Echo speakers have had temperature sensors for years, and they can also play Apple Music. Google's Nest Audio doesn't have the sensor tech, but it should sound better. The mini makes the most sense if you like its tighter integration with the Apple ecosystem.

A few big names in the smart home space, iRobot and Shark in particular, have jumped on the robot-vacuum-and-mop bandwagon as of late. The two companies recently came out with their first 2-in-1 devices, and now you can pick up Shark's at its best price yet. The Shark AI Ultra robot vacuum and mop is 36 percent off at Amazon right now, bringing it down to $450, which is less than it was during the holiday shopping season last year. If you're an iRobot fan, the Combo j7+ is also on sale, but it's much more expensive at $899.

It's important to note that we at Engadget have not had the chance to test Shark's new machine yet, but we have had great experiences with all of the Shark robo-vacs we've tried to this point. Shark devices make appearances in both of our robot vacuum guides, with the standard AI Ultra vacuum taking one of the top spots on our list of overall favorites. The new 2-in-1 device seems to take a lot of notes from the standard model: you're getting a disk-like robot vacuum along with a bagless, self-emptying base into which the machine will dump the contents of its dustbin after every job.

The big difference here is the included water reservoir and the washable, reusable mopping pads that come with the 2-in-1 machine. It'll employ those when cleaning hardwood floors using a sonic mopping technique that supposedly scrubs floors up to 100 times per minute. If you have a mix of carpet, hardwood, tile and other flooring in your home, a 2-in-1 device like Shark's will make it more convenient to clean all of those surfaces in one go.

In addition to that new feature, this Shark robot vacuum has improved suction power, flexible silicon "fins" on its underside that help pick up more dirt and debris, obstacle avoidance and smart home mapping. Like most other robot vacuums, you can set cleaning schedules within Shark's companion app, which we think will be easy to use for both the tech-savvy and newbies alike. And we especially like that its base is bagless — that means you don't have to buy proprietary trash bags to fill it with like you do with some competitors.

Shark's device joins a number of other robo-vacs on sale right now. As we mentioned previously, iRobot's Combo j7+ is $200 off right now, plus you can get the Roomba s9+ for $200 off as well or the much more affordable Roomba 694 for only $179.

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Getty Images announced it’s suing Stability AI, makers of the AI art tool Stable Diffusion, over alleged copyright violations. "It is Getty Images’ position that Stability AI unlawfully copied and processed millions of images protected by copyright and the associated metadata owned or represented by Getty Images absent a license to benefit Stability AI’s commercial interests and to the detriment of the content creators," the company wrote in a press statement released Tuesday. The lawsuit will reportedly include copyright and site TOS violations, like web scraping. The company wants to establish a favorable precedent, rather than chase monetary damages.

Text-to-image generation tools, like Stable Diffusion and Dall-E, are trained to do what they do using massive databases of annotated images, pulling together thousands of commonalities. That’s why Getty’s huge stable of images is so compelling. An independent study last August concluded that a notable portion of Stable Diffusion's data was likely pulled directly from the Getty Images site. The art tool had a tendency to recreate the Getty watermark in its generated images. I think that’s what they call evidence.

– Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

• What happens when smart bulbs meet dumb software?

• Canon EOS R6 II review: An excellent hybrid camera with few flaws

• Amazon has a big sale on TP-Link routers and smart home gadgets

• 'The Last of Us' is HBO's third largest debut of the streaming era

• What we bought: Topre’s Realforce keyboard is totally impractical, but I can’t go back

• Microsoft could lay off as many as 11,000 employees this week

• The best cheap Windows laptops for 2023

Apple's M2 Pro and M2 Max chips finally arrive for MacBook Pro and Mac mini

Sometimes the rumors are right.

Apple has unveiled its new M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, which will arrive very soon in new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini computers. The new models will be up to 40 percent faster and should also offer superior battery life. The new entry-level processor is the M2 Pro, which has 10- or 12-core CPUs, including eight high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, boosting performance by up to 20 percent over the 10-core M1 Pro CPU. The new MacBook Pro models are now available to pre-order at Apple and other retailers, starting at $1,999 for the MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and $2,499 for the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro. The new Mac mini starts at $599, with the M2 chip or $1,299 with the M2 Pro. All are available to pre-order now, with shipping to start on January 24th.

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Samsung’s new 200-megapixel camera will probably appear in the Galaxy S23 Ultra

Better low-light performance incoming.

Samsung is continuing its "more pixels is better" mantra with the launch of its latest 200-megapixel (MP) sensor. The ISOCELL HP2 is a relatively large (for a smartphone) Type 1/1.3 sensor (around 12mm diagonally). The HP2 uses something Samsung calls Dual Vertical Transfer Gate (D-VTG) technology. This essentially doubles the number of electrons from each photodiode, "boosting the pixel's full-well capacity by more than 33 percent," the company wrote. That means a pixel can hold more charge before saturating, reducing overexposure. Last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra "only" had a 108MP sensor, but rumors suggest the S23 Ultra will have a 200MP sensor – and the HP2 fits the bill. Samsung is set to reveal the Galaxy S23 series in just two weeks, on February 1st.

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Watch the latest ‘The Mandalorian’ season three trailer

It’s all about redemption.

Disney

Disney+ released a new trailer for The Mandalorian during the NFL Wild Card Game on ESPN and ABC. It shows Pedro Pascal's character, Din Djarin, and Grogu reunited on their next adventure. Not that we have long to wait – season three will be streaming on Disney+ starting March 1st.

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Twitter admits it’s breaking third-party apps, cites ‘long-standing API rules’

It didn't explain which rules developers had violated.

Several days after Twitter abruptly cut several third-party apps off from its API, the company has quietly acknowledged the move. “Twitter is enforcing its long-standing API rules,” the company tweeted from its developer account. “That may result in some apps not working.” However, the company offered no explanation which “long-standing API rules” developers of apps like Twitterrific and Tweetbot were violating. It also doesn’t address why some smaller third-party Twitter apps are still up and running. Some have speculated that Twitter made the decision because third-party clients don’t show ads and may be perceived as siphoning off already declining ad revenue from the company.

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Logitech has unveiled a colorful, budget-oriented line of 1080p webcams, the $70 (£75) Brio 300 series. The aim is to help users struggling with "poor lighting conditions, unflattering camera angles and low-quality sound," the company said. 

To that end, the Brio 300 for consumers and business-oriented Brio 305 models feature high dynamic contrast, auto light correction (via the company's RightLight 2 tech) and a digital microphone with noise reduction. It also comes with a privacy shutter that rotates around to block the lens. It supports 1080p at up to 30 fps and 720p at 60 fps and connects to any USB-C port (you'll need to buy an adapter for USB-A). Logitech promises Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet certification. 

The Brio 300 is priced the same as Logitech's C920s Pro HD webcam, but has a funkier cone-shaped design and comes in Rose, Off-White or Graphite colors. Compared to the $130 Brio 500, it's missing the stereo microphones, has a narrower field of view (70 versus 90 degrees) and no auto-framing. But it's also nearly half the price — the Brio 300 is now available for $70 at Logitech's store. 

Apple is already working on a more affordable version of its yet-to-be-announced mixed reality headset, according to Bloomberg and The Information. Based on previous reports about the long-rumored mixed reality device, it will cost around $3,000, which is double the price of the Quest Pro headset Meta released last year. Apple's engineers are reportedly working to develop a more budget-friendly version that's closer to the price of the Quest Pro and are already discussing strategies to achieve that goal, such as using cheaper components. 

While the flagship device will have 4K internal displays for each eye, its more affordable counterpart will likely use ones with lower resolution. The company's engineers are also considering the use of fewer cameras and slower processors, which would, in turn, eliminate the need for internal fans. Apple might ask users to manually adjust their field of view for the cheaper headset instead of equipping it with a motor that can automatically do that. It might choose not to equip the device with its custom H2 wireless chip that would allow it to work better with AirPods, as well. A Bloomberg report earlier this month claimed the tech giant is developing its own Bluetooth and WiFi chip to replace Broadcom's by 2025. The Information said Apple could also choose to use that in-house chip to prevent a third-party company from affecting the device's pricing.

The cheaper mixed reality headset is in its very early stages, the sources reported, and Apple has yet to build a working prototype. According to Bloomberg, though, the majority of Apple's 1,000-person Technology Development Group is working on the two headsets and that the company could release it next year or in 2025. As a result of this dual-device strategy, though, Apple has reportedly put its plans to launch lightweight augmented reality glasses on hold. The company's original vision was to create AR glasses that could one day replace the iPhone, but it has now scaled back work on the project. It's now apparently unclear if the AR glasses will ever launch. 

As for Apple's flagship mixed reality headset, Bloomberg previously said that the company plans to formally announce it this spring ahead of WWDC in June. 

In 2023, there are cameras and microphones that match and surpass the capabilities of human sight and sound. But for all of our technological advancements, humans haven’t quite managed to build a better nose. After all, evolution has had millions of years to perfect the receptors humans, animals and inspects use to identify odors. But, with the help of nature, scientists may have made a breakthrough on that front.

In a study published Monday in the journal Biosensor and Bioelectronics, a group of researchers from Tel Aviv University (via Neuroscience News) said they recently created a robot that can identify a handful of smells with 10,000 times more sensitivity than some specialized electronics. They describe their robot as a bio-hybrid platform (read: cyborg). It features a set of antennae taken from a desert locust that is connected to an electronic system that measures the amount of electrical signal produced by the antennae when they detect a smell. They paired the robot with an algorithm that learned to characterize the smells by their signal output. In this way, the team created a system that could reliably differentiate between eight “pure” odors, including geranium, lemon and marzipan, and two mixtures of different smells. The scientists say their robot could one day be used to detect drugs and explosives.

A YouTube video from Tel Aviv University claims the robot is a “scientific first,” but last June researchers from Michigan State University published research detailing a system that used surgically-altered locusts to detect cancer cells. Back in 2016, scientists also tried turning locusts into bomb-sniffing cyborgs. What can I say, after millennia of causing crop failures, the pests could finally be useful for something.

Several days after Twitter abruptly cut a number of third-party apps off from its API, the company has quietly acknowledged the move. “Twitter is enforcing its long-standing API rules,” the company said in a tweet from its developer account. “That may result in some apps not working.”

However, the company offered no explanation which “long-standing API rules” developers of apps like Twitterrific and Tweetbot were violating. It also doesn’t address why some smaller third-party Twitter apps are still up and running. Twitter no longer has a communications team.

The company’s two-sentence acknowledgement that it had cut off access to several longtime developers follows a report in The Information that the moves was an “intentional” one. Some have speculated that Twitter made the decision because third-party clients don’t show ads and may be perceived as siphoning off already declining ad revenue from the company. Twitter, under Elon Musk, likely has less enthusiasm for supporting its developers. As Twitterrific’s creator pointed out, many of the company’s employees overseeing the developer platform were cut in mass layoffs.

Our current favorite budget robot vacuum is $95 off its usual price at Amazon right now. iRobot's Roomba 694 usually retails for $274 but is seeing a 35 percent discount, putting it just $4 above its all-time low of $174, which the vac dipped to in advance of Black Friday. If you've been curious about automated floor cleaning, but were waiting for a good deal, now might be a great time to see whether a robot vac is for you. We've tested a number of these machines over the years and this model is our current "best overall" pick in our budget robot vacuum guide. 

What really sets the Roomba 694 apart from other budget vacuums is the easy-to-use app. While the unit has three physical buttons that allow you to start, stop and dock the unit, you'll mostly be controlling it through the app via a WiFi connection and your smartphone. After following the setup instructions, you can set schedules so the vac runs regularly and keeps your floors clean with minimal input on your part. 

The 694 can run for 90 minutes on hard floors, but we got about half that using the vac on a mixed landscape of carpet and tile. It automatically returns to the dock when the battery runs low, so it can handle larger homes with a pit stop to recharge. We found the Roomba 694 did a good job picking up dirt and debris, but it did get tripped up if charging cables were left on the floor. Getting those out of the way and emptying the unit when it's full are two of the times you'll need to physically interact with the unit. Keep in mind that this one doesn't come with extra brushes, you'll need to order them when the time comes. 

If you want to interact with your robot vac even less frequently, you could opt for a self-emptying model, like the iRobot Roomba j7+. You also get better obstacle detection and customized room mapping options. Of course you'll pay more for these upgrades, but right now the j7+ is 25 percent off, bringing the $800 unit down to $600. The Roomba s9+ is also on sale. It's our current pick for a premium robot vacuum in our guide, and right now the $1,000 unit is down to $800, or 20 percent off. 

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The official Philips Hue app sucks.

You'd think that, being the oldest name in the smart lighting world, Philips would have the best app on the market. More than a decade of iterative improvements and a mature hardware world would see the app rise proudly above its competitors. Sadly for me, and every other Hue user, the company seems to have fallen asleep behind the wheel.

(Yes: I know that Philips Lighting rebranded itself as Signify, but let’s not confuse matters here.)

I picked up a Hue starter kit and some additional Lux bulbs back in 2013, and was very impressed with the setup for at least ten minutes. It very quickly became one of those gadgets that only really got used to show the power of your smart home to visitors. And they rather quickly tired of my ability to change my living room lights from white to purple, and back again. In fact, I mostly used the bulbs as glorified dimmer switches, which wasn’t enough to justify the high cost of the initial investment.

At some point, the app started insisting I replace the v1 (round) Bridge for the v2 (square) model. And I bristled, already feeling aggrieved that Hue was all mouth and no trousers, I resented having to pay when the existing system worked perfectly well. Especially since I could have used that money to buy more Hue bulbs and further lock myself into Philips’ ecosystem.

No tears were shed when the Bridge eventually got smashed by one (or both) of my kids when I was out of the room. I decided, in a tiny flurry of COVID-19 lockdown-induced Marie Kondo-ing, that I’d toss the box into the trash and be done with it. After all, it was broken, and changing the color of my bulbs did not spark the joy I was expecting, not to mention the fact that Philips loves to charge a lot of cash to sync your lighting to a movie playing on your TV.

Last month, my wife asked me why we weren't able to use Hue any more, and I explained the situation. She asked how much it would cost to fix it, and found a sealed, unused, second generation Bridge available on Facebook Marketplace for half the price at retail. So we snapped it up, obviously making the usual security checks about buying second hand IoT gear before plugging it into our network.

That was, however, when the troubles began, since you can’t just sign in to your existing Hue account, hook it up to the new Bridge, and be done. Nobody at Philips seems to have imagined that it might be worthwhile building out the ability to revive an account tied to a dead bridge. In fact, there’s no way to connect anything without a fresh login, and the bulbs themselves are tied to the old one. The app also doesn’t provide any way to hard reset a bulb, or in fact do anything beyond leave you staring at a splash screen.

For about half an hour, I did wonder if I’d just wasted some cash on a new Bridge but never to get things working again. I felt a frustration, a powerlessness, the sort that comes when you’re locked and bolted out of a building at 2am in an unfamiliar city and your phone’s out of charge. My login wouldn’t work, because my bridge wasn’t connected to the internet. A new login won’t even acknowledge the presence of the expensive hardware all over my house. My hands got very itchy.

This is the kicker: I’m not the first person to learn how bad Philips’ software development is, because there’s a whole army of third-party Hue apps out there. Much in the same way that charity is an indictment on behalf of the state, the depth and breadth of Hue apps available is a massive critique on Philips’ lackluster app development. You’re paid to do this, and there’s no available function in the app to be able to fix what could be a fairly common problem.

I opted to use Hue Lights, one of many independent apps that offered the ability to hard reset a bulb. All I had to do was bring each bulb close to the bridge (you’ll need a lamp handy), turn it on, and hard reset each unit individually. Then I could reconnect them to the new bridge and, as if by magic, could then start using them with the official Hue app. Not that, I’ll be honest, I really want to. Because this third-party, very simple app has more power than the official Philips app and it’s easier to use. If you haven’t tried it, I heartily recommend that you do. At least until Philips gets its act together.