The GoPro Hero 10 Black may look the same as the previous model, but it has a lot of changes under the hood like improved image quality, a faster UI and more slow-motion and frame rate options. The main drawback has been the $500 price, but if you just want the camera alone with no subscription attached, you can now pick one up from Amazon at $450, or $50 off the regular price.
The Hero 10 achieved a 92 Engadget score, thanks to 5.3K maximum resolution (up from 5K) at up to 60fps, 4K at 120 fps and 2.7K at 240fps. It also comes with the updated HyperSmooth 4.0 that stabilizes even rough jolts, along with new tone mapping and noise reduction that further boost image quality. All of that was made possible thanks to GoPro's new GP2 processor that offers double the speeds.
As before, it has a front screen for framing yourself when looking at the camera, but it's been boosted to a smoother 30 fps, up from 20 fps. Other features include a new horizon leveling option and faster navigation. The main downside is lower battery life compared to the GoPro 9.
While Amazon has discounted the standalone Hero 10 price to $450, you can still pick one up cheaper directly from GoPro. If you're willing to sign up for a one-year subscription, you can get both the Hero 10 and the subscription for $400. As such, Amazon's deal is more for folks who really just want the camera with no strings (or forgotten subscriptions) attached.
iRobot's Roombas are arguable the most sought after robot vacuums, but they're also some of the most expensive ones out there. We recommended the $275 Roomba 694 in our budget robot vacuum guide because it did a good job cleaning hard and carpeted floors and has a straightforward mobile app experience that even newbies will learn quickly. Now, you can grab that robo-vac at the best price we've seen it — an early Black Friday sale at Amazon has knocked the Roomba 694 down to $180, or $94 less than usual.
This model just came out earlier this year and it replaces the older Roomba 675. The two vacuums are mostly the same, albeit for the refined design on the Roomba 694. It's a sleek, all-black robot with three buttons on its top in the center, which allow you to manually control it whenever that's easier than using the companion mobile app. It uses iRobot's three-stage cleaning system to suck up dirt on both hard floors and carpet, while navigating around furniture and other obstacles. It also goes a good job sensing problem areas — like pockets of dust or small piles of dirt — and focusing on those until they're gone. It even has a spot-clean feature that you can activate by pressing one of the on-device buttons.
The Roomba 694 connects to WiFi and works with iRobot's mobile app, which lets you turn on the robot, set schedules and more. iRobot's app is clean and easy to use, so if you're thinking about gifting this to a less tech-savvy person, they shouldn't have a problem figuring out how to use their new robo-vac. The Roomba 694 also works with Alexa and the Google Assistant, so you can activate it without even opening the app — just ask your preferred voice assistant to get it to start cleaning. This model should run for about 90 minutes when cleaning hard floors before it automatically returns to its base for a recharge. The Roomba 694 was already a great choice for those on a budget who wanted an iRobot device to clean their homes, but now it's a steal at this early Black Friday price.
This week, Devindra and Engadget’s Jessica Conditt dive into Facebook’s big metaverse moves. Is it more than a name change? Is Meta a smart bet on where the future of computing is going? Also, Devindra and producer Ben chat about the Google Wave-like additions to Microsoft Office, and Samsung’s jeans for the Z Flip 3.
Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!
Last month, Konami dropped Pro Evolution Soccer in favor of the new free-to-play eFootball franchise with the promise of decent gameplay on the cheap. Unfortunately, the launch was nothing short of woeful, with bad player models, numerous glitches and an uproar over a $40 DLC that couldn't even be redeemed until a big version 1.0 update originally scheduled for this month.
Now, Konami is saying that this update is being pushed way back to spring of 2022. As such, it's refunding players who pulled the trigger on that DLC and forcing them to reinstall the game. "If you have pre-ordered the Premium Player Pack and wish to continue to play eFootball 2022, you will need to re-download the core game after the pre-order has been cancelled. We apologize for the inconvenience," the company wrote.
Konami
To make the game more usable in the near term, Konami released an update (v0.9.1) "to fix numerous bugs sequentially on each platform starting today (November 5th)," it wrote. Left unsaid there is the severity of the glitches, which make for some pretty cringe reading. Choice ones include "the referee may be shown as being trapped on the surface of the pitch," "pitch grass is not shown three-dimensionally," and "players may get caught up in the goal net when performing a goal celebration close to the goal."
It's hard to be optimistic given the issues Konami has had with its football games, but the company did buy itself some more time. We now have to wait until spring 2022 to see if it can do anything to turn eFootball around.
Zero Motorcycles’ new electric motorbike is taking a thoroughly 2020s approach to upgrades. Revealed yesterday, its 2022 SR will allow you to ‘push’ software-based upgrades to the ride.
The bike includes a Cypher Store, and if you plan to get the most out of the 2022 SR, you’ll need to spend some time (and money) in it. At first, the Cypher Store will offer a mix of performance and comfort upgrades. It will later expand to sell purchases that enable features like a park mode, heated grips and faster charging. Naturally these capabilities will be possible on any bike, but the software will ‘unlock’ them for users. Zero says how much you’ll pay for those extras will depend on the model you own.
The 2022 SR, with a top speed of 104 miles per hour will start at $17,995 when it debuts at dealerships in the first quarter of 2022. But with a $1,795 in-app purchase, power output increases, allowing the 2022 SR to go as fast as 124MPH.
AT&T spun off its WarnerMedia division and merged it with Discovery in a $43 billion agreement. The deal, on track to close by mid-2022, could lead to its two streaming services becoming a combined service for subscribers. According to Gizmodo, president and CEO of Discovery Streaming and International, JB Perrette, has discussed the steps to get there. It might start with offering HBO Max and Discovery+ as a bundle, before entirely merging the pair. One less streaming app, right? But also one less option…
These gadgets will help them make better content and stand out online.
You don’t have to understand the world of social media to buy gifts for the TikTokers, Instagrammers, YouTubers and live streamers in your life. We guide you through some possibly major upgrades for those that live in front of a green screen. Or a green screen, if they don’t have one yet!
Blue Origin has failed in its lawsuit against NASA over SpaceX's lunar-lander contract. CNBC reports the Federal Court of Claims has ruled against Blue Origin, dismissing the company's claims. Blue Origin's case revolved around accusations NASA ignored "key flight safety requirements" when handing the Human Landing System to SpaceX.
In a tweet, Bezos said: "Not the decision we wanted, but we respect the court’s judgment, and wish full success for NASA and SpaceX on the contract." NASA said it would resume work with SpaceX "as soon as possible" following the decision.
You can ‘own’ a historic moment from the club’s century-long history.
FC Barcelona, one of football’s biggest clubs, is auctioning off NFTs “based on some of the club’s historic moments.” Details are scarce for now, but it appears the club will allow fans to bid on clips of highlights in a style similar to that of NBA Top Shot.
Barcelona’s decision to begin selling NFTs may have been prompted by the debt crisis the club is currently in, with debts reported around $1.56 billion this summer. The club’s previous leadership is accused of reckless spending on high wages on a number of players that have subsequently underperformed. This summer, the club was forced to release Lionel Messi, one of the world’s most successful players.
Movie robots are known for helping (or hindering) humans, but in the real world, they have pretty limited social skills. MIT's CSAIL computer science researchers are trying to fix that by teaching robots how to interact with other robots to to further their own goals, according to a new paper. The research could lead to improved human-robot interactions in assisted living facilities, for instance, and even help psychologists better measure social interactions between humans.
To study these interactions, the researchers created a simulated 2D environment that allowed virtual robots to pursue both social and physical goals. For instance, a physical goal might be to navigate to a tree at a certain point on a grid, while a social goal is guessing what another robot is trying to do and then acting based on that, "like helping another robot water the tree," according to CSAIL.
The robot is rewarded for actions that get it closer to its goals, with a matching reward for helping and an opposite reward for hindering it. The team created three types of robots: The first has only physical goals, the second has physical and social goals, but assumes all robots only have physical goals. The third one assumes the others all have social and physical goals, so it can take more advanced actions like joining with others to achieve a goal.
Even young infants seem to understand social interactions like helping and hindering, but we don’t yet have machines that can perform this reasoning at anything like human-level flexibility.
The team created 98 different scenarios with all three types of robots. Twelve humans watched nearly 200 video clips of the robots interacting, and then had to estimate the physical and social goals. "In most instance, their model agreed with what the humans thought about the social interactions that were occurring in each frame," the researchers said.
The researchers hope that the results will act as a "benchmark" that allows others to work on similar social interactions. Next, they plan to create more complex environment with 3D agents that allows more types of interactions. The eventual aim is to not just teach robots how to interact better socially, but "dig deeper into the human aspect of this," said senior author Andrei Barbu. "Can we make an objective test for your ability to recognize social interactions? Maybe there is a way to teach people to recognize these social interactions and improve their abilities."
The company formerly known as Facebook has been discussing the possibility of opening retail stores way before it rebranded itself as Meta, according to The New York Times. Apparently, discussions about opening brick-and-mortar shops started last year, though nothing has been finalized, and the project could still end up being scrapped. If Meta does open physical outlets, however, they will reportedly be more like experience stores introducing people to devices developed by its Reality Labs division rather than outright retail shops.
Those devices include the Oculus Quest (soon to be Meta Quest) virtual reality headsets and the Portal gadgets, which were designed primarily for video calling. The stores could also showcase the augmented reality smart glasses called Stories that Facebook developed with Ray-Ban. Based on the documents The Times saw, Meta's goal is to spark "curiosity" and "closeness" with its stores, as well as provide customers with a welcoming atmosphere where they can have a "judgment free journey" while experimenting with headsets.
Those same documents show that Meta envisions shops with a modern, minimalist aesthetic and subtle branding placement. The company considered a lot of possible names, such as Facebook Hub, Facebook Commons, Facebook Innovations, Facebook Reality Store and From Facebook. It eventually settled on Facebook Store, but that will mostly likely change now that the company has been renamed.
If Meta does push through with this plan, its first retail/experience store will be located in Burlingame, California, where there's a Reality Labs office. The Times says the project could eventually span the world, though, with locations in various countries and regions.
At least year's CES, Shure presented its first true wireless earbuds called Aonic 215 — it even released the model's second-gen version this September. Both pairs, however, comes with earhooks. Now, the company has launched a new true wireless earbud model with a more "traditional" design you'd now associate with the product category. It's called the Aionic Free, and while it may be larger than its rivals on the market, it is indeed hook-free.
The Aionic Free blocks noise from entering your ears with its foam buds and its angled design. It can last for up to seven hours of listening, while its carrying case can provide up to two full charges for a total of 21 hours of battery life. The earbuds also have a fast charge feature that enables an hour of playback within 15 minutes in the case.
You can control volume and playback, as well as take calls with a single press on either earbud. If you want to customize button functions, you can do so using the company's app. The app will also let you personalize how much noise you want to let in when Environment Mode is switched on, customize notifications and let you play standard and hires music files. Shure's Aionic Free is now available from retailers and the company's website for $199.
Twitter wants to expand Spaces' potential audiences, so it's making audio conversations available to anyone — even those who'd rather not sign up for an account. Now, hosts and listeners can send anybody a direct link to a Spaces audio broadcast, and those with no Twitter accounts can listen to it on the web without having to log in. They won't be able to participate, but it could still lead to more listeners and a wider reach.
have friends not on Twitter? that's weird but now you can share direct links to your Spaces and they can listen in via web without being logged in
The website has been adding more and more features to make Spaces easier to share and discover ever since it launched live audio conversations. In July, it allowed users to compose new tweets directly from the Space, which will link to the audio chat and any accompanying hashtags. It introduced a Spaces tab on iOS in October, giving users a way to find audio shows in one place. Then, it opened up hosting duties to everyone, which potentially means more audio shows people can listen to.
Since not everyone can tune it to live broadcasts, Twitter also rolled out the ability to record Spaces audio to a limited number of iOS hosts. By recording their sessions, hosts will be able to link to it and share it for 30 days, and listeners on the platform can watch it right on their timeline.
DJI is best known for drones, but it's possibly the most inventive camera company right now. After unveiling the outrageous full-frame Ronin 4K camera/gimbal last month, it has now launched the $2,200 Mavic 3 drone with not just one, but two innovative camera systems.
As rumored, there are two models in the Mavic 3 family, the Standard and Cine models, along with a "Fly More" combo that bundles more accessories. The main difference is that the Mavic 3 Cine has a built-in 1TB SSD and supports Apple ProRes 422 HQ video recording — highly desirable for professional film productions. The latter is also considerably more expensive, as I'll discuss shortly.
The Mavic 3's main 24mm (35mm-equivalent) f/2.8 - f/11 Hasselblad-branded camera has a Four Thirds sensor that's considerably larger than the 1-inch sensor on the current Air 2S model. And yet, the camera module doesn't look much bigger and the Mavic 3 weighs slightly less than the Mavic 2 (895g compared to 907g).
Steve Dent/Engadget
Four Thirds is the same size as the Micro Four Thirds sensor on Panasonic's BGH1 box camera, for example, so it should allow for more cinematic video and photos. The variable aperture, along with optional ND filters, will make it easier to shoot in a variety of lighting conditions. It also comes with a new autofocus system called Vision Detection that supposedly optimizes focusing speeds.
With the main camera, it now shoots 5.1K video at 50fps, or 4K at 120 fps — up from 5.4K 30fps and 4K/60p video on the Air 2S. DJI claims a native dynamic range of 12.8 stops, thanks to the 10-bit D-Log color profile. As for still images, it can shoot 20-megapixel photos in 12-bit RAW.
If you need to get in much, much closer, DJI has squeezed in a second camera directly above the main camera. This one has a half-inch 12-megapixel sensor and 162mm tele lens (35mm equivalent), which is around a 4X zoom, or claimed 28X hybrid zoom. The aperture is fixed at f/4.4, and it offers strictly automatic, rather than manual exposure control. It can capture 4K video at up to 30 fps.
Steve Dent/Engadget
DJI has confirmed that the Mavic 3 will have up to 46 minutes of autonomy in ideal conditions (40 minutes of hover), as leaks had suggested. That's up pretty massively from the Mavic 2 Pro or Air 2S, both of which offer 31 minutes of flying time. It can also fly a bit faster too, at 47 MPH compared to 45 MPH. Those capabilities were enabled by a higher-capacity battery, more energy-efficient motors/propellers and a more streamlined shape on the Mavic 3's arms, body and gimbal. "Wind tunnel testing shows Mavic 3 produces 35 percent less drag than previous generations," DJI wrote.
The Mavic 3 also offers enhanced flight safety thanks to its updated APAS 5.0 system that uses inputs from six fish-eye vision sensor and two wide-angle sensors to detect and avoid obstacles. Meanwhile, the ActiveTrack 5.0 system has new options for tracking subjects no matter which way they're moving, and it can even continue to track a subject if it moves out of frame and pick it back up when it reappears. All of that allows "more fluid and diverse drone and camera movement," DJI said.
It also comes with an improved RTH (Return to Home) system by automatically calculating the shortest, safest and most energy-efficient route to land back at its home point. It can take into account wind speed and power required to calculate the path, giving users a bit more flying time before triggering the RTH action. Another updated feature is O3+ signal loss prevention that allows for a maximum control range of 15 km. Mavic 3 is also DJI's first drone with a 1080p 60fps transmission speed on the live feed, meaning "the camera view is displayed at a resolution close to what the camera actually records," DJI notes.
Steve Dent/Engadget
Along with the drone, DJI introduced a number of new accessories, including a new DJI RC Pro smart controller, a 65W Portable Charger that's compatible with notebooks and smartphones and allows for fast charging (around 96 minutes), a wide-angle lens and two sets of ND filters (ND4/8/16/32 and ND64/128/256/512) that allow for shooting in bright sunlight. It also introduced a carrying bag that converts into a backpack that can fit the drone, a laptop and other accessories.
Engadget received the drone just yesterday, so we haven't had a chance to fly it yet — stay tuned for a full review. However, I'm impressed so far by the design and small details like the storage cover that protects the camera, gimbals and propeller (below). It's also clear that DJI has put a lot of thought into the new charging system and batteries that should make operation more practical. Even the carrying bag/backpack is well conceived, with pockets and sleeves for the batteries, ND filters and more.
Steve Dent/Engadget
As you may have noticed, the drawback with the Mavic 3 is the relatively high price. Rather than $1,600 as was rumored, the Mavic 3 starts at $2,200 for the Standard model, which includes the Mavic 3 drone, storage cover, one battery and charger, the RC-N1 remote control "and other essential items." The $3,000 Mavic 3 Fly More Combo adds two extra batteries (three total), a three-battery charging hub, the ND4/8/16/32 filter set and the fancy bag/backpack.
Finally, the $5,000 Mavic 3 Cine Premium Combo gives you the aforementioned 1TB SSD and Apple ProRes 422 HQ recording (arriving in January 2022). It adds a few more accessories to the Fly More Combo as well, including the RC Pro remote, ND64/128/256/512 filters and the DJI 10Gbps data cable. Five grand is obviously lot of money, but it's aimed more at pro film producers. All three drones are now available to order from DJI's website and authorized partners.
