The Ford Mustang Mach-E GT suffers from long-name syndrome. Most of it has to do with cramming with the word “Mustang” onto the front, which has really angered some Mustang owners on the internet. They can be mad all they want because the GT is a great addition to the Mustang lineage, even though it’s an electric SUV.
Starting at over $60,000, the GT is not cheap fun, but it is exhilarating enough that if you’re in the market for a Mach-E and crave an all-wheel-drive torque machine, you owe it to yourself to hop in the driver’s seat for a road test. As for the tech, it’s getting better but there are a few issues we hope Ford will rectify in the future.
We've now tested every version of Apple's M1 processor, from the first M1 chip in the 13-inch Macbook Pro all the way up to the M1 Ultra in the new Mac Studio, and the chip's ability to scale performance is pretty incredible. The M1 Ultra fuses two M1 Max chips together to get you a processor with 20 CPU cores and 64 GPU cores, along with up to 128GB of RAM, and it's one of the fastest processors we've ever tested.
We asked what tests you'd like to see run on the M1 Ultra and assembled quite a list, including Adobe Lightroom and Premiere Pro, Davinci Resolve and Fusion, 3D modeling in Blender, machine learning tests like TensorFlow and Pytorch, and even some gaming.
Amazingly, the M1 Ultra really does seem to be around twice as fast as the M1 Max in most applications. Whatever overhead is required to shuffle data around such a large chip, it rarely impacts CPU performance. The GPU scaling doesn't fare quite so well. The M1 Ultra was typically 40-80% faster than the M1 Max, still speedy, but not quite as impressive in its scaling as the CPU.
The M1 Ultra does best when its hardware accelerators can kick in. These are the parts of the chip built to speed up specific tasks, namely video rendering and AI processing. In a test processing ten 8K video clips at once, the M1 Ultra did the job in just 29 seconds when its accelerators were able to help out. This was about twice as fast as the PC we were testing, despite it having a 16-core AMD 5950X processor and Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti graphics card.
Apple's M1 ecosystem does at times feel unfinished. There were more strange bugs than I'd expected, and software compatibility can still be a problem, but it's improving rapidly. The M1 Ultra wasn't always faster than my PC, but in some tests it was two or three times quicker, and in only a few cases was it significantly slower. If you use Apple and need a high-end desktop, there's really no decision, and for everyone else looking for a workstation, the M1 Ultra Mac Studio is a contender.
Check out the video above for the full details of our testing.
Never mind reading generic guides or practicing with friends — Google is betting that algorithms can get you ready for a job interview. The company has launched an Interview Warmup tool that uses AI to help you prepare for interviews across various roles. The site asks typical questions (such as the classic "tell me a bit about yourself") and analyzes your voiced or typed responses for areas of improvement. You'll know when you overuse certain words, for instance, or if you need to spend more time talking about a given subject.
Interview Warmup is aimed at Google Career Certificates users hoping to land work, and most of its role-specific questions reflect this. There are general interview questions, though, and Google plans to expand the tool to help more candidates. The feature is currently only available in the US.
AI has increasingly been used in recruitment. To date, though, it has mainly served companies during their selection process, not the potential new hires. This isn't going to level the playing field, but it might help you brush up on your interview skills.
Apple Music will start livestreaming some concerts from major artists this week as part of a new series. Apple Music Live kicks off with a Harry Styles show that subscribers in 167 countries will able to watch live and at no extra cost on May 20th. The company says Apple Music Live is a way to "give the biggest stars in music the biggest possible platform to flaunt how they connect with audiences and how their songs translate to live performance."
The concert takes place at UBS Arena in Long Island, New York. It's effectively a record release party for Styles, whose third album, Harry's House, comes out on the same day. Apple Music's landing page for the event includes an interview with Styles about the making of the album, a link for users to pre-add Harry's House to their library and a bunch of playlists focused on the performer.
This seems like a smart way for artists to both promote new releases and give people a sense of what their live shows are like to perhaps sell some more tickets. It could also help Apple Music persuade fans of artists whose shows it streams to sign up for the service.
Styles' gig, titled "One Night Only in New York," will be available to stream at 9PM ET on Friday. So that folks in other parts of the world can catch the show at a more reasonable time, there will be encore streams on May 22nd at noon ET and May 26th at 5AM. That suggests the concert won't be available on demand after the fact. Engadget has asked Apple for clarification.
Several other platforms have streamed live shows to viewers. YouTube has broadcast performances from Coachella over the last several years. As it happens, Styles was one of the festival's headliners this year. Hulu just inked a deal to stream the Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo and Austin City Limits music festivals this year and next. Amazon Music has baked in artists' Twitch streams, while Amazon has streamed live shows on a ticketed basis and offered them to Prime Video subscribers afterward.
Apple has some experience in livestreaming concerts too. In 2007, it started running the iTunes Festival (later known as the Apple Music Festival) in the UK before expanding it to the US in 2014. Apple announced in 2017 that the festival had come to an end.
Netflix is turning to a conventional strategy to improve its originals: the focus group. Variety has learned Netflix has been screening movies and TV shows in advance to obtain feedback from subscribers invited to participate. Customers reportedly watch several titles over the course of six months and fill out a survey to indicate what they liked, hated or would change.
The company confirmed that it's running focus groups, but only in the US. The panels have reportedly been active for roughly a year.
These screenings have been mainstays in Hollywood for decades, and are used to make edits when producers want a title to reach the broadest possible audience. Terminator 2's ending was changed after a focus group rejected the initial version, for instance. As in those cases, Netflix is using the groups to make sure its originals are received well and keep viewers coming back.
The company is very familiar with experimentation. It has tested everything from random show selection through to mobile games. However, testing show content is relatively new. While it's not clear what prompted the new approach, Netflix is facing mounting pressure from rivals who are chasing awards and the customers that sometimes follow.
ASUS has refreshed its gaming laptop lineup to add the latest components from AMD, Intel and NVIDIA. Of the two computers it announced today, the more intriguing one is the ROG Flow X16. It builds on the company’s previous gaming 2-in-1s by adding an enviable display to the mix.
The X16 will come with a mini-LED panel. According to the company, the QHD screen features a 165Hz refresh rate and a 3-millisecond pixel response time, in addition to 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage and 1,100 nits of peak brightness. With 512 local dimming zones, the X16’s display secured VESA’s DisplayHDR 1000 certification. When it comes to gaming monitors, you’ve typically have had to choose between speed and HDR performance. With the Flow X16, ASUS is promising a no-compromise display, and that’s exciting if you play a mix of competitive titles and immersive single-player games.
ASUS
Internally, you’ll have the option to configure the X16 with the latest Ryzen 6000 series CPUs from AMD, including the eight-core 6900HS. Also on offer are NVIDIA’s recently announced RTX Ti GPUs for laptops. ASUS hasn’t forgotten about DDR5 either. It’s possible to configure the X16 with up to 64GB of fast 4,800MHz DDR5 RAM, and as much as 2TB of PCIe storage.
To cool all those components, ASUS has equipped the Flow X16 with its “Pulsar” heatsink and an additional fan. The company says those components will help keep the computer cooler for longer. Powering everything is a 90Wh battery with fast charging support built-in, and the entire laptop weighs just under four-and-a-half pounds.
On the I/O front, you can look forward to HDMI 2.1 connectivity, allowing you to plug the Flow X16 into the latest 120Hz TVs to play games at 120 frames per second just like you would with a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. The X16 also comes with a single USB 4.0 port that can act as a DisplayPort 1.4 connection. For good measure, the laptop will also ship with stylus support and a Windows Hello-compatible Full HD web camera. Pricing on the Flow X16 will start at $1,950, increasing to $2,700 for the top-spec model.
On Tuesday, ASUS also announced an updated version of its ROG Strix Scar 17 laptop. The company claims the new "Special Edition" model features among the “most powerful” components you’ll find on a portable PC. You can configure the computer to feature Intel’s 16-core i9-12900HX CPU in combination with a GeForce RTX 3080Ti. What’s more, the SE includes a Turbo Mode, allowing both components to draw more power than they normally would, in turn boosting their performance. For cooling, the CPU and GPU feature a thermal metal interface, which ASUS claims keeps the components up to 15 degrees Celsius cooler than traditional thermal paste. Additionally, the company says the SE won’t produce more than 40 decibels of noise when in its Performance mode.
ASUS
Unfortunately, the laptop won’t come with a mini-LED display like the Flow X16, but it will feature an IPS panel with a QHD resolution, 240Hz refresh rate and a 3-millisecond pixel response time. Just like the X16, it also comes with up to 64GB of 4800MHz DDR5 RAM, HDMI 2.1 connectivity and a 90Wh battery. Unique to the SE is an invisible ink finish ASUS says it spent six months developing. The finish produces a blue and green glow when under UV light.
Pricing for the Strix Scar 17 SE starts at an eye-watering $3500. ASUS expects both models to go on sale before the end of the first half of the year.
If you choose to leave a WhatsApp group that has become increasingly noisy or irrelevant, the app will post a notification that anybody can see in-chat. It's probably not a big deal in most instances... unless it's a group with relatives or friends who are inclined to ask why you'd left. According to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is working on an upcoming feature that could prevent awkward confrontations by letting you exit groups without posting a notification everybody could see.
To note, the app will still notify the group admins that you're leaving when the feature becomes available, but everybody else wouldn't know unless you tell them. WABetaInfo first talked about the feature when Meta discussed experimenting with Communities, which people can use to combine separate group chats "under one umbrella with a structure that works for them," back in April. Now, the publication has obtained a screenshot of WhatsApp beta on desktop that shows an exit prompt that reads: "Only you and group admins will be notified that you left the group." Hopefully, the feature will also roll out for WhatsApp on mobile when it becomes available on desktop.
And in case you don't want specific contacts to add you back or to add you into another group chat with them, don't forget that you can always block them from doing so. Under your Privacy settings in Account, you can choose the people who can add you to groups, with the options being "Everyone," "My Contacts" and "My contacts except..." the people you exclude.
Global Accessibility Awareness Day is this Thursday (May 19th) and Apple, like many other companies, is announcing assistive updates in honor of the occasion. The company is bringing new features across iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch, and the most intriguing of the lot is systemwide Live Captions.
Similar to Google's implementation on Android, Apple's Live Captions will transcribe audio playing on your iPhone, iPad or Mac in real time, displaying subtitles onscreen. It will also caption sound around you, so you can use it to follow along conversations in the real world. You'll be able to adjust the size and position of the caption box, and also choose different font sizes for the words. The transcription is generated on-device, too. But unlike on Android, Live Captions on FaceTime calls will also clearly distinguish between speakers, using icons and names for attribution of what's being said. Plus, those using Macs will be able to type a response and have it spoken aloud in real time for others in the conversation. Live Captions will be available as a beta in English for those in the US and Canada.
Apple is also updating its existing sound recognition tool, which lets iPhones continuously listen out for noises like alarms, sirens, doorbells or crying babies. With a coming update, users will be able to train their iPhones or iPads to listen for custom sounds, like your washing machine's "I'm done" song or your pet duck quacking, perhaps. A new feature called Siri Pause Time will also let you extend the assistant's wait time when you're responding or asking for something, so you can take your time to finish saying what you need.
Apple
The company is updating its Magnifier app that helps people who are visually impaired better interact with people and objects around them. Expanding on a previous People Detection tool that told users how far away others around them were, Apple is adding a new Door Detection feature. This will use the iPhone's LiDAR and camera to not only locate and identify doors, but will also read out text or symbols on display, like hours of operation and signs depicting restrooms or accessible entrances. In addition, it will describe the handles, whether it requires a push, pull or turn of a knob, as well as the door's color, shape, material and whether it's closed or open. Together, People and Door Detection will be part of the new Detection mode in Magnifier.
Updates are also coming to Apple Watch. Last year, the company introduced Assistive Touch, which allowed people to interact with the wearable without touching the screen. The Watch would sense if the hand that it's on was making a fist or if the wearer was touching their index finger and thumb together for a "pinch" action. With an upcoming software update, it should be faster and easier to enable Quick Actions in assistive touch, which would then let you use gestures like double pinching to answer or end calls, take photos, start a workout or pause media playback.
But Assistive Touch isn't a method that everyone can use. For those with physical or motor disabilities that preclude them from using hand gestures altogether, the company is bringing a form of voice and switch control to its smartwatch. The feature is called Apple Watch Mirroring, and uses hardware and software including AirPlay to carry over a user's preset voice or switch control preferences from their iPhones, for example, to the wearable. This would allow them to use their head-tracking, sound actions and Made For iPhone switches to interact with their Apple Watch.
Apple is adding more customization options to the Books app, letting users apply new themes and tweak line heights, word and character spacings and more. Its screen reader VoiceOver will also soon be available in more than 20 new languages and locales, including Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Ukrainian and Vietnamese. Dozens of new voices will be added, too, as is a spelling mode for voice control that allows you to dictate custom spellings using letter-by-letter input
Finally, the company is launching a new feature called Buddy Controller that will let people use two controllers to drive a single player, which would be helpful for users with disabilities who want to partner up with their care providers. Buddy Controller will work with supported game controllers for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV. There are plenty more updates coming throughout the Apple ecosystem, including on-demand American Sign Language interpreters expanding to Apple Store and Support in Canada as well as a new guide in Maps, curated playlists in Apple TV and Music and the addition of the Accessibility Assistant to the Shortcuts app on Mac and Watch. The features previewed today will be available later this year.
I am not a chef. I’m not a cook. I’m barely a functioning male adult, but I wanted an air fryer. Not because I live on chicken fingers and fries but because there’s no quicker way for me to make crispy gyoza from frozen, to make relatively healthy (not-quite) fried chicken and douse it in fiery Korean sauces and sesame seeds. More broadly, air fryers have expanded my kitchen repertoire without forcing me to heat up my oven and time things meticulously.
The Engadget team called in a bunch of air fryers, complained about cleaning some of them and highlighted the best. The boring, measured advice is that the best air fryer for you depends on your own circumstances. Got plenty of kitchen space? Get the convection oven-styled ones. Living alone? You can get 80 percent of the benefits with the smallest pod air fryers.
My pro-tip? Reheated pizza. Try it in the air fryer and never look back.
In February, Apple unveiled Tap to Pay, a new feature for merchants to accept payments with only an iPhone. The company is already testing the feature in the wild… sort of. Staff are using the feature at the Apple Park visitor center in Cupertino, where customers can make an Apple Pay payment directly to an Apple staffer’s iPhone, with no payment terminal in sight.
Alongside ‘Ghost of Tsushima,’ there are some classics from the past.
Sony has revealed the first games to arrive with the launch of its new PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium subscription services. PlayStation Studios titles include Demon's Souls and Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut, along with third-party games like Assassin's Creed Valhalla and NBA 2K22. Those games will arrive in the "launch time frame," starting May 24th.
Premium members will also get access to classic games "with some titles that will show improved frame rates and higher-quality resolution compared to their original launch versions," Sony wrote. Think Ape Escape, Hot Shots Golf, Tekken 2 and Worms Armageddon, along with remasters like Dark Cloud and Rogue Galaxy.
Apple has released iOS 15.5 and its iPadOS 15.5 counterpart, with improvements to both Apple Cash and Podcasts. Cash users can now send and receive money from their card, while Podcasts users can automatically limit episode storage based on criteria like the number of shows or time since release. Oh, by the way, have you subscribed to The Morning Edition?
Uber Eats is testing autonomous deliveries, hard. The first pilot is an autonomous vehicle partnership with Motional, originally announced in December, and the second is with sidewalk delivery firm Serve Robotics, a company that spun out of Uber itself. Both in Los Angeles.
Trials are limited for now, with deliveries from just a few merchants, like the Kreation Organic Kafe and Juicery. Serve will do short delivery routes in West Hollywood, while Motional will take care of longer deliveries in Santa Monica.
Casting is underway for the upcoming episodes, according to 'Variety.'
Black Mirror is coming back. Variety reports Netflix has greenlit a sixth season, with more episodes than season five. It seems casting is in progress for an even more cinematic season than before.
Elon Musk is continuing to clash with Twitter over the accuracy of its bot count and hinted yesterday that he may try to renegotiate the $44 billion deal. According to a Bloomberg report, Musk told attendees at a Miami conference that a deal at a lower price wasn’t “out of the question."
Google has finally opened its Bay View campus to employees almost 10 years after revealing its initial plans for the new facility back in 2013. It's the first Google campus the company has developed itself, and it definitely doesn't look like the traditional offices you're used to. One of the first things you'll probably notice about the new HQ, for instance, is its roof that looks like dragonscales from afar.
This "dragonscale skin" design is actually made up of 90,000 silver solar panels capable of generating almost seven megawatts of energy, or up to 40 percent of the new offices' energy needs. Wind farms nearby will also provide the energy needed to run the all-electric HQ that has two kitchens equipped with electric equipment instead of gas. In addition, the campus has automated window shades to let a lot of natural lighting in during the day and a ventilation system that uses 100 percent outside air.
The new campus also houses the largest geothermal installation in North America that will help heat and cool the campus without the use of fossil fuels. It even reduces the amount of water used for cooling by 90 percent. This geothermal pile system uses pumps to absorb heat from the ground during wintertime and to send heat into the ground in the summer.
Google only recently started transitioning its workforce to a hybrid work schedule that would require employees to work in its offices a few times a week. The Bay View HQ's natural lighting, greenery and wide open spaces could help make the transition easier for people who've been working from home these past two years.
