Microsoft has been pushing Bing pop-up ads in Chrome on Windows 10 and 11. Windows Latest and The Verge reported on Friday that the ad encourages Chrome users (in bold lettering) to use Bing instead of Google search. “Chat with GPT-4 for free on Chrome! Get hundreds of daily chat turns with Bing Al”, the ad reads. If you click “Yes,” the pop-up will install the “Bing Search” Chrome extension while making Microsoft’s search engine the default.

If you click “Yes” on the ad to switch to Bing, a Chrome pop-up will appear, asking you to confirm that you want to change the browser’s default search engine. “Did you mean to change your search provider?” the pop-up asks. “The ‘Microsoft Bing Search for Chrome’ extension changed search to use bing.com,’” Chrome’s warning states.

Directly beneath that alert, seemingly in anticipation of Chrome’s pop-up, another Windows notification warns, “Wait — don’t change it back! If you do, you’ll turn off Microsoft Bing Search for Chrome and lose access to Bing Al with GPT-4 and DALL-E 3. Select Keep it to stay with Microsoft Bing.”

Essentially, users are caught in a war of pop-ups between one company trying to pressure you into using its AI assistant / search engine and another trying to keep you on its default (which you probably wanted if you installed Chrome in the first place). Big Tech’s battles for AI and search supremacy are turning into obnoxious virtual shouting matches in front of users’ eyeballs as they try to browse the web.

There doesn’t appear to be an easy way to prevent the ad from appearing.

Microsoft reportedly confirmed the pop-up’s authenticity in statements to Windows Latest and The Verge, cringingly painting the move as an opportunity for users. “This is a one-time notification giving people the choice to set Bing as their default search engine on Chrome,” a company representative wrote. “For those who choose to set Bing as their default search engine on Chrome, when signed in with their MSA [Microsoft account] they also get more chat turns in Copilot and chat history.”

In a reminder of how friendly its intrusive ads supposedly are to user freedom, it added, “We value providing our customers with choice, so there is an option to dismiss the notification.” Engadget emailed Microsoft for independent verification, but the company didn’t immediately respond. We’ll update this article if or when we hear back.

Windows Latest described the advertisement as coming from a “server-side update” and said the ad wasn’t part of a Windows update. Instead, the outlet speculated that it’s linked to BCILauncher.EXE or BingChatInstaller.EXE, two processes Microsoft reportedly added to “some Windows systems” on March 13.

The M1 MacBook Air has dropped to its lowest price ever, thanks to a sale at Walmart. You can pick one up for just $700, which is $50 cheaper than the previous low and a whopping $300 discount from the original asking price. If you’re looking for an entry-level Apple laptop, this is a mighty fine option.

Now, the M1 Air is over three years old and a full two generations behind the newly-released M3-equipped laptops. Despite getting a bit long in the tooth, the M1 chip is still no slouch, so this MacBook Air is plenty capable. It’s a solid machine that excels with basic everyday computing tasks, like streaming content and surfing the web. It’ll even do fine with light video editing and music production. We called it “faster than most PCs” in our official review back in 2020.

That doesn’t exactly track anymore (the march of progress and all) but the M1 Air features a gorgeous Retina display and no fan noise to speak of, in addition to an excellent keyboard and trackpad. The battery life is great, going for over 16 hours before having to hit the outlet. That’s only an hour or two shorter than the new M3 MacBook Air computers.

Apple Silicon chips are pretty dang impressive, but the M1 will struggle when you go beyond everyday computing tasks and into the worlds of serious video editing and AAA gaming. Also, the M1 laptop still has that wedge-shaped design, whereas the newer models feature a uniformly flat design. Some people actually prefer the wedge, but I’m not one of them.

This is the bare-bones standard M1 Air with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. The 720p webcam isn't going to win any visual clarity awards, but it’ll get the job done. This isn’t the most future-proof computer around, as Apple recently discontinued it, but it’s also $700. The M3 MacBook Air starts at $1,100 and the M2 starts at $1,000. 

Best Buy has the M1 Air on sale for even cheaper, at $650. This is one heck of a deal but it looks to be tied to specific locations. The retailer's also offering open box models.

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

Less than four months after debuting its mid-range Accentum headphones, Sennheiser revealed another version at CES that remains more affordable than its flagship Momentum set. Dubbed the Accentum Plus, this more-expensive model swaps the physical buttons for touch controls while offering revised active noise cancellation (ANC), wear-detection and other conveniences the first version didn’t. All of the additions come at a price, though, as the Plus ($230) costs $50 more than the regular Accentum. For a set of headphones that mostly looks the same, are internal updates enough to justify a bigger investment?

Design

It’s difficult to tell the Accentum Plus and Accentum apart at first glance. That lack of physical controls on the older model is what primarily distinguishes the two. The Plus version still has one button which manages power, pairing and voice assistants, but all of the audio and call controls are touch-based and located on the outside of the right ear cup. They work well, from taps for playback to swipes for volume, but depending on your preferences, ditching the physical controls for touch may be a turn off. The other difference is that the Plus has a 3.5mm aux jack along with a USB-C connection whereas the first Accentum only has the latter.

A nearly identical design means Sennheiser didn’t address my key criticism of the first Accentum. The headphones remain almost entirely made out of plastic, which gives them a cheap look and feel. Plus, it doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in the build quality for a set of $230 headphones. The company introduced its new design style on the Momentum 4 in 2022, which it continued with the overall look on the Accentum line. But, the latest Momentums are a bit more polished than these two more recent models.

Software and features

For the most part, the Sennheiser Smart Control App offers the same features for the Accentum Plus as it does for the Accentum. Almost everything you’d need is on the main screen, with battery percentage at the top. Below that sit connection management for multipoint Bluetooth and My Sound audio customization. There, you can adjust a five-band EQ, select a prebuilt sound preset or make your own. The company also offers Sound Personalization that calibrates the audio based on your responses to a few samples in the app.

Sennheiser’s Sound Zones are here as well, giving you the ability to configure specific audio settings based on your location. You can create up to 20 of these for places like home, work, gym and more. Of course, you have to give the app permission to track your location, which could be a nonstarter for some users.

The last item on the main interface of the app is ANC control. Here, you can disable the automatic “adaptive” adjustment to the Accentum Plus’ noise cancellation and leave “regular” noise cancellation on. There’s a slider to blend of ANC and transparency as you see fit. You can cycle between ANC and transparency mode with a double tap on the right ear cup, but that action doesn’t allow you to activate any preferred blends. Instead, it only turns on full ANC or complete transparency.

Sound quality

Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget

Sennheiser’s flagship earbuds and headphones have consistently offered the best sound quality among all of the products I’ve tested. The company has a knack for a well-tuned audio profile that's dynamic, but not overbearing, and that offers plenty of fine detail thanks to excellent clarity across the EQ. That trademark crispness returns on the Accentum Plus, but it’s at its best at around 65-75 percent volume. Knock that level down to around 50 percent and sound quality begins to suffer.

There’s a pleasant airy, atmospheric quality to tracks on Fever Ray’s Radical Romantics on the Accentum Plus, enveloping you the way the sound on more expensive headphones would. However, when you decrease the volume to about 50 percent, bass begins to overpower some of the details and the audio profile begins to muddy. The clarity that makes Sennheiser’s headphones so good is gone at this point, which is a bummer for those of us who don't always desire louder listening.

While there’s ample bass that’s offset by crisp highs throughout most genres, more chaotic styles like metal can be a mixed bag. Boomy bass is still there on Texas In July’s Without Reason and Better Lovers’ God Made Me An Animal, but finer details in guitars and drum textures start to get lost. The overall performance is a bit flat with all of the instruments coming across compressed compared to other sets. Switch over to something more mellow like Charles Wesley Godwin’s Live From Echo Mountain and it’s like you put on different headphones. It feels much more like you’re in the room where this was recorded.

ANC performance

Sennheiser says the Accentum Plus has hybrid adaptive ANC where the Accentum just has hybrid ANC. This means that the Plus model adjusts to changes in environmental noise while the regular model has just one level of blocking ability. During my tests, I struggled to tell a big difference between the two, even when switching quickly from one set to the other. The overall ANC performance is solid in most circumstances, but it’s far from what you’d get on the best that Bose, Sony and even Sennheiser have to offer. And since the Plus version is more expensive, I expected an obvious improvement.

Call quality

Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget

Like most over-ear headphones, the Accentum Plus is just fine for calls. The audio quality isn’t pristine, but it’s certainly passable for most uses. That includes work calls, although I’d suggest something with a better mic if you’re actually leading the presentation. Overall, the voice quality comes across compressed and a bit tinny. It’s not the worst, but it’s also probably not what you want when how you sound really matters. You can choose to have the headphones automatically switch to transparency mode when you take a call. However, the Accentum Plus doesn’t pipe in your voice, so the overall audio isn’t as natural as more-expensive options like the AirPods Max.

Battery life

The Plus’ battery life remains unchanged from the regular Accentum at 50 hours. That’s definitely not a bad thing. In fact, I exceeded that figure during my tests, notching 57 hours of use with ANC enabled. This included a mix of listening and calls, and during the latter I switched to transparency mode instead of noise cancellation. There were also a few days in between sessions where the headphones sat unused. When you do find yourself out of juice, you can get five hours of listening time after plugging in for only 10 minutes.

The competition

Given that the upgrades on the Plus are marginal, it’s hard to recommend them over the cheaper Accentum. Both carry Sennheiser’s crisp, clear sound that performs well most of the time. The ANC improvements aren’t enough to justify spending more and the only thing you may truly benefit from is automatic pausing that wear-detection brings. The company’s Momentum 4 would definitely be an upgrade over either Accentum, but that costs around $300. Plus, Sennheiser’s flagship headphones still have its newer, more-boring design – albeit with a few refinements.

If you’re in the market for affordable noise-canceling headphones that don’t cut too many corners, consider the Sony’s WH-CH720N. Currently available for $105, this budget option won’t win any design awards as it’s also all-plastic, but it’s more comfortable and has great audio for the price. Noise cancellation is just okay, though Adaptive Sound Control allows you to automate audio settings based on activity or location and there’s support for Sony’s 360 Reality Audio.

Wrap-up

Sennheiser’s attempt to improve on its initial mid-range Accentum offering is a mixed bag. For all of its updates, the Accentum Plus isn’t the massive improvement you’d expect with its higher price. Sure, the sound is great at times and the ANC will get the job done, but the best thing about this Plus version is the better-than-expected battery life. However, you can get that same play time on the regular Accentum for $50 less. Some small design refinements and a more-obvious step up in terms of audio quality and ANC performance would’ve made a larger impact. But, as it stands, the Accentum Plus isn't a significant upgrade over last year’s model.

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds are now $250 on Amazon. This is a discount of 17 percent, as they typically cost $300. It also happens to be a record-low price for the wireless earbuds, though they’ve only been on the market since September of last year.

The earbuds boast some of the best active noise cancellation around, rivaling many over-ear headphones. That’s the primary reason why the Bose QuietComfort Ultra line made our list of the best wireless earbuds.

However, there’s plenty more to like here. We called out the spatial audio capabilities in our official review, which doesn’t require specially-made content, thanks to virtualization software that works to put the listener right in the middle of the acoustic sweet spot. The battery life is on point, the sound quality is great and the touch controls let users easily change the volume, skip songs and answer calls. These are dang good earbuds.

They aren’t, however, perfect earbuds. As mentioned, the battery life is great, getting anywhere from 16 to 24 hours before needing juice, when you factor in a few trips to the charging case. However, using the spatial audio feature drastically reduces the battery life, so be cautious when enabling different modes. There’s no wireless charging out of the box, as this feature requires a $50 silicone cover for the charging case. Still, today’s discount saves $50, if wireless charging is an absolute must.

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

Folks who like controlling aspects of their home using their voice or an app may be pleased to learn there’s a sale on Google Nest gear at Amazon ahead of the retailer’s Big Spring Sale. There are some solid discounts here, including one on the Google Nest Thermostat, which is down to $100. That’s $30 off the usual price. While that's not the lowest price we've seen for the thermostat (it has dropped to $80 in the past), it's still a solid deal.

The Nest Thermostat has been around for a few years now. It's a more affordable version of the Nest Learning Thermostat, which usually costs $249 but is also on sale for $190. Both are designed to help save energy and cut down on heating and air conditioner costs. The Energy Star-certified Nest Thermostat can automatically adjust the temperature when you leave your home to avoid wasting energy on heating or cooling.

You can use the Nest app to adjust the settings remotely, so if you're getting back earlier than usual or unexpectedly staying out late, the temperature will be just right. You can also control the thermostat using Google Assistant or another Matter-certified voice assistant (such as Alexa or Siri) as long as you have a compatible smart device. Meanwhile, the Savings Finder feature will offer you tips on how to adjust your temperature schedule to reduce costs even further.

Several Nest cameras are on sale too. The Indoor Nest Cam is down to $80, which is $20 off. If you’d prefer a camera for the exterior of your residence, the Outdoor Nest Cam has dropped from $180 to $140. Those looking for a smart doorbell, meanwhile, may want to consider the Nest Doorbell Wired. That's $20 off at $150.

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

Conversing with your computer has been a dream of futurists and technologists for decades. When you look at 2004’s state of the art, it’s staggering to see how far we’ve come. There are now billions of devices in our hands, and homes that listen to our queries and do their very best to answer them. But for all of the time, money and effort, chatbots of any stripe have not swallowed the world as their creators intended. They’re miraculous. They’re also boring. And it’s worth asking why.

Chatbot is a term covering a lot of systems, from voice assistants to AI and everything else in the middle. Talking to your computer in the not-so-good old days meant typing into a window and watching the machine attempt a facsimile of the act of conversation rather than the real thing. The old ELIZA (1964 to 1967) trick of restating user inputs in the form of a question helped sell this performance. And this continued even as far as 2001’s SmarterChild chatbot. The other branch of this work was to digitize the analog with voice-to-text engines, like Nuance’s frustrating but occasionally wonderful product.

In 2011, the ideas in that early work joined up to make Siri for the iPhone 4S, which was quietly built on Nuance’s work. Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, saw Siri’s promise early and launched a large internal project to make a homegrown competitor. In 2014, Alexa arrived, with Cortana and Google Assistant following in subsequent years. Natural language computing was now available on countless smartphones and smart home devices.

Companies are largely reticent to be specific about the price of building new projects, but chat has been costly. Forbes reported in 2011 that buying the startup behind Siri cost Apple $200 million. In 2018, The Wall Street Journal quoted Dave Limp, who said Amazon’s Alexa team had more than 10,000 employees. A Business Insider story from 2022 suggested the company pegged more than $10 billion in losses on Alexa’s development. Last year, The Information claimed Apple is now spending a million dollars a day on AI development.

So, what do we use this costly technology for? Turning our smart bulbs on and off, playing music, answering the doorbell and maybe getting the sports scores. In the case of AI, perhaps getting poorly summarized web search results (or an image of human subjects with too many fingers.) You’re certainly not having much in the way of meaningful conversation or pulling vital data out of these things. Because in pretty much every case, its comprehension sucks and it struggles with the nuances of human speech. And this isn’t isolated. In 2021, Bloomberg reported on internal Amazon data saying up to a quarter of buyers stop using their Alexa unit entirely in the second week of owning one.

The oft-cited goal has been to make these platforms conversationally intelligent, answering your questions and responding to your commands. But while it can do some basic things pretty well, like mostly understanding when you ask it to turn your lights down, everything else isn’t so smooth. Natural language tricks users into thinking the systems are more sophisticated than they actually are. So when it comes time to ask a complex question, you’re more likely to get the first few lines of a wikipedia page, eroding any faith in their ability to do more than play music or crank the thermostat.

The assumption is that generative AIs bolted onto these natural language interfaces will solve all of the issues presently associated with voice. And yes, on one hand, these systems will be better at pantomiming a realistic conversation and trying to give you what you ask for. But, on the other hand, when you actually look at what comes out the other side, it’s often gibberish. These systems are making gestures toward surface level interactions but can’t do anything more substantive. Don’t forget when Sports Illustrated tried to use AI-generated content that boldly claimed volleyball could be “tricky to get into, especially without an actual ball to practice with.” No wonder so many of these systems are, as Bloomberg reported last year, propped up by underpaid human labor.

Of course, the form’s boosters will suggest it’s early days and, like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said recently, we still need billions of dollars in more chip research and development. But that makes a mockery of the decades of development and billions of dollars already spent to get where we are today. But it’s not just cash or chips that’s the issue: Last year, The New York Times reported the power demands of AI alone could skyrocket to as much as 134 terawatt hours per year by 2027. Given the urgent need to curb power consumption and make things more efficient, it doesn’t bode well for either the future of its development or our planet.

We’ve had 20 years of development, but chatbots still haven’t caught on in the ways we were told they would. At first, it was because they simply struggled to understand what we wanted, but even if that’s solved, would we suddenly embrace them? After all, the underlying problem remains: We simply don’t trust these platforms, both because we have no faith in their ability to do what we ask them to and because of the motivations of their creators.

One of the most enduring examples of natural language computing in fiction, and one often cited by real-world makers, is the computer from Star Trek: The Next Generation. But even there, with a voice assistant that seems to possess something close to general intelligence, it’s not trusted to run the ship on its own. A crew member still sits at every station, carrying out the orders of the captain and generally performing the mission. Even in a future so advanced it’s free of material need, beings still crave the sensation of control.

To celebrate Engadget's 20th anniversary, we're taking a look back at the products and services that have changed the industry since March 2, 2004.

Aside from who’d win in a fight between Elon Musk and the ghost of Steve Jobs, the question I’m asked most is how to find the best budget-friendly smartphone.

Samsung

As an insufferable early adopter/power user, I’m used to spending $1,000-plus on my daily addiction, but you don’t have to get a great capable phone in 2024. This time around, our top picks cost between $100 and $300, so we truly mean cheap. (In fact, our picks undercut my go-to recommendation of the Pixel 7A, which is hovering above $400.)

Take a look at our guide, which includes devices from OnePlus, Samsung and Moto.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

Where to recycle your used and unwanted gadgets

The Steam spring sale is here to raid your wallet

Unicorn Overlord is a must-play for tactics fans

​​You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!

No more Pornhub for Texas

The parent company blocked access to all its other adult entertainment websites.

You’ll have to get your kicks elsewhere, Texas. Pornhub is now inaccessible in the state, after the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled Texas can enforce its age-verification regulations for porn websites. If you try, you’ll be met with a message: “Dear user, as you may know, your elected officials in Texas are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website.” As you might have guessed, Texas now tops the list of states for VPN searches as its residents look for a workaround to access their favorite adult content.

Continue reading.

Google I/O 2024 takes place on May 14

What’s next for Android and the company’s AI products.

Google

Google revealed the date for this year’s I/O conference in really annoying fashion. It asked folks to complete a tedious logic puzzle. Once enough people finished all 15 levels and got a marble to its destination repeatedly, they got the date.

The keynote will give us a look at upcoming Pixel and Android features — and maybe a bit of hardware. Please?

Continue reading.

SpaceX’s third Starship test launch takes off successfully

Next, the company plans to test relighting its Raptor engine in space.

SpaceX

The third time’s the charm as SpaceX attempted another test of its Starship rocket. The Starship launched at 9:25AM ET on Thursday morning. Shortly after launch, it completed the hot-staging separation from its Super Heavy Booster, and the Starship successfully ignited the second-stage Raptor engines. While SpaceX said both the booster and Starship were going to return to Earth at “terminal velocity,” thus making any recovery of them impossible, it looks like Starship didn’t make it to splashdown, breaking up on re-entry (according to initial data).

Continue reading.

If you're one of the — apparently few — remaining people still doing watch parties now that the pandemic lockdowns are way behind us, we're sorry to say that watching Prime Video shows with your pals on Twitch will no longer be an option soon. The Amazon subsidiary is removing the Prime Video Watch Party feature from its online streaming platform on April 2, almost four years after it became available to all of its users. Twitch introduced the feature in a closed beta test back in 2019 and then rolled it out to US streamers in 2020, shortly after the world pretty much shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

You might have used watch parties as a way to connect with other people those days, so that you could still be together even if you couldn't be at the same place. It may have been a godsend if you'd spent those lockdowns alone and may have helped you get through some really tough, isolating days. According to Variety, almost one-fifth of adults in the US had participated in a virtual co-viewing experience back in 2020. But your habits may have changed after the lockdowns had lifted. You may no longer be using that Peloton bike and home gym setup... and you may no longer be hosting or attending watch parties as often anymore, or at all. Not when you can go to the gym or go to actual theaters with friends. 

In Twitch's announcement, it said that the feature's usage on its platform has "declined over the years." Instead of thinking of ways on how to make it more appealing, the company has decided to remove it altogether and to invest its resources in other features. 

One day after a bill that could lead to a ban of TikTok in the United States passed the House of Representatives, the company is doubling down on its strategy of urging users to call lawmakers. The app began pushing new in-app messages to users asking them to "tell your Senator how important TikTok is to you” and to “ask them to vote not on the TikTok ban.”

The new alerts are the second such message TikTok has pushed to users about the bill. Prior to the House vote, the company prompted users to call their representatives in the House. The step may have backfired as lawmakers accused the company of trying to “interfere” with the legislative process as Congressional offices were reportedly overwhelmed with calls, many of which came from somewhat confused teenagers.

The latest notifications are even more direct. “The House of Representatives just voted to ban TikTok, which impacts 170 million Americans just like you,” it says. “Now, if the Senate votes, the future of creativity and communities you love on TikTok could be shut down.” Like the previous alerts, users can choose to “call now,” and the app will find phone numbers if a zip code is provided.

Screenshot via TikTok

TikTok didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. But the message underscores just how big a threat the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” is to the company. If passed, TikTok would have about six months to sell itself or face a ban in the US. Though there have been several previous attempts to ban the app or force a sale, no measure has received as much bipartisan support so quickly. If passed by the Senate, President Joe Biden has said he would sign it into law.

TikTok CEO Shou Chew has also appealed directly to users, telling them to “protect your constitutional rights” and promising that the company would “do all we can including exercising our legal rights to protect this amazing platform.”

The FCC has raised the speeds required to describe internet service as “broadband” for the first time since 2015. The agency’s annual high-speed internet assessment concluded that 100 Mbps downloads and 20 Mbps uploads will be the new standard. The news will likely irk ISPs who would love to keep pointing to 25 Mbps / 3 Mbps speeds (the previous standards) and convincing people they’re getting high-speed broadband.

The FCC’s report broke down several areas where the country’s online infrastructure falls short. The agency concluded that broadband isn’t being deployed quickly enough to serve Americans, especially those in rural areas and those living on Tribal lands. “These gaps in deployment are not closing rapidly enough,” the agency wrote in its report.

More specifically, the agency said fixed terrestrial broadband service (not including satellite) has yet to be deployed to around 24 million Americans, including about 28 percent of people in rural areas and over 23 percent of those living on Tribal lands. On the mobile front, it added that about nine percent of Americans (including 36 percent in rural areas and over 20 percent on Tribal lands) lack adequate 5G cellular speeds of at least 35 Mbps down / 3 Mbps up.

The report set a long-term goal of broadband speeds of 1 Gbps down / 500 Mbps up “to give stakeholders a collective goal towards which to strive.” Those numbers may hint at where the Commission would like to move the goalposts the next time it updates them. In 2015, when the commission set the 25 Mbps / 3 Mbps requirements, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel commented, “Frankly, it should be 100 Mbps”—the benchmark the agency finally moved to today, nine years later.

The FCC can’t police ISPs to force them to boost their speeds, but this type of move may be the best card it can play. What it can do is prevent them from marketing their services as “broadband” internet if they don’t meet these thresholds. It remains to be seen whether the companies providing the infrastructure play ball or opt for other marketing buzzwords to sell customers on glacial and outdated internet speeds.