Spotify has long had plenty of tricks up its sleeve when it comes to providing recommendations, and its latest one is about making your playlists even more banging. The Enhance feature offers personalized suggestions of tracks to add to your playlists.

Premium users in some markets will soon see an Enhance button at the top of each playlist. If you turn on the feature, Spotify will add suggested songs to the list, one after every two tracks and up to 30 in total. If you like the recommendation, just tap the plus button to keep it on your playlist permanently. The feature is designed to add suggestions that match songs you already have on the playlist.

Spotify is rolling out Enhance on iOS and Android in 40 countries over the coming month, including the US, UK, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and much of Europe. It plans to expand the feature, which will evolve over time, to other countries later.

The company has added other playlist features in recent months, including Blend, a playlist that brings together songs from your listening history and a friend's. Also relatively new is the curated Notable Releases playlist, which includes new tracks from prominent producers and songwriters.

Google has announced a new water stewardship target that will see the company commit to replenishing on average 120 percent of the water it consumes at its data centers and offices by 2030. To that end, the search giant says it will use freshwater alternatives to cool its server farms. In places like Douglas County, Georgia, the company already uses reclaimed wastewater to keep its servers running. Moving forward, it will work to double down on that practice by finding more opportunities to use wastewater and seawater.

At its offices, meanwhile, the company plans to use more on-site water sources, such as collected stormwater, for things like landscape irrigation and toilet flushing that don't require potable water. Google points to its Bay Area campuses and a landscaping project where it worked with local ecologists as an example of an initiative where it's already thinking about its water use.

"Our water stewardship journey will involve continuously enhancing our water use and consumption," said Google sustainability officer Kate Brandt in a blog post.

In its efforts to replenish more water than it consumes, the company says it will also invest in community projects working to address local water and watershed challenges in places where the company has data centers and offices. As an example of the work Google plans to do here, the company points to a partnership it already has in place with the Colorado River Indian Tribes to reduce the amount of water removed from Lake Mead. The reservoir, the largest in the US, faces a pressing water shortage due to a combination of overuse and extended drought.

Lastly, the company plans to continue working with communities, policymakers and planners to help them with tools and technologies they need to measure and predict water availability and needs. Here, the company references work it did with the United Nations Environment Programme to create the Freshwater Ecosystems Explorer. It's a tool that tracks national and local surface water changes over time.

Today's commitment comes after Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced the company would attempt to run all of its data centers and offices entirely on carbon-free energy by 2030. Pichai described the effort as a "moonshot," noting it would be tricky in some instances to achieve due to the remote location of some of Google's facilities.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a huge shift toward remote working, though many people are still eager to return to the office. As such, the future of work may be a hybrid environment. To help account for that, Microsoft Teams is getting a bunch of features to bolster hybrid meetings.

Among these is the Cameo feature for presentations in PowerPoint Live. You'll be able to add your Teams camera feed to your deck, and you can choose how and where you want to appear in slides. Microsoft plans to roll out this tool early next year.

Microsoft

Also arriving in early 2022 is an AI-powered feature called speaker coach, which listens to your speech and offers tips on your pace and when to check in with the attendees, as well as offering a reminder when you interrupt someone.

Microsoft will add an automatic lighting correction tool in the coming months. In the same timeframe, it will update companion mode in Teams mobile. The latter will let in-person attendees have easy access to features such as chat and live reactions, as well as controls for the meeting and connected devices, such as cameras.

Speaking of which, Microsoft Teams will soon support intelligent cameras from the likes of Jabra, Neat, Poly, and Yealink. AI-powered active speaker tracking will use visual cues as well as audio to help determine who is speaking and focus on them. Multiple video streams will place meeting participants who are in the same physical space into their own video pane. The people recognition tool, meanwhile, can identify meeting participants and display their profile name below their video pane.

Manufacturers will have access to those features in the coming months. Microsoft expects the tools to roll out as updates over the next year. They could play a key role in putting all hybrid meeting participants on a level playing field, whether they're at home or in a conference room.

Elsewhere, an Outlook RSVP feature that'll arrive in early 2022 will let you flag whether you're attending a meeting in person or remotely to help organizers prepare (Google Calendar added a similar feature in July). You'll be able to mark when and where you're working in your working hours too. You may also be able to reserve shared workspaces through Outlook or Teams.

Meanwhile, Apple CarPlay will get audio-only support for Teams starting later this month. So, if you get stuck in traffic when a meeting starts, you can still join in via Siri.

Microsoft

Amazon is acting on its promise to improve its treatment of employees, but not necessarily in the way you'd expect. The online shopping giant has pledged to pay full college tuition for its operations (effectively, warehouse) workers in the US beginning in January. The company didn't reveal the full criteria required, but some staff are eligible if they've been with Amazon for just three months.

The firm will also cover high school diplomas, GEDs and English as a Second Language certifications. And no, workers won't have to wait until they've finished a semester to get compensation. Amazon said it would pay tuition and other fees in advance, and would offer annual funds as long as people remain employees.

Staff will also have access to a trio of new "tuition-free" skill programs that will help train for positions in Amazon Web Services, IT support (such as Amazon Robotics) and user experience design. Not surprisingly, Amazon is using pay as an incentive — those on the IT track can make another $10,000 per year, the company claimed.

The incentives for Amazon are clear. This will help it not only recruit more workers for its office roles, but attract and retain workers who were either wary of working for Amazon or want assurances of upward career mobility once their schooling is done. Amazon might lose some of those tuition recipients to other companies, but that could be a small price to pay if it leads to more internal candidates and a more stable workforce.

This won't satisfy many of Amazon's critics. Politicians and labor rights activists have blasted Amazon over tough workplace quotas, constant employee monitoring and higher injury rates at automated facilities, among other issues. There are also allegations Amazon has interfered with unionization votes that could improve conditions and pay. Free education while you work is only useful so long as you're happy with the work itself, and this plan won't change much.

There's also the question of Amazon's outsized influence. The company said it was the "largest job creator" in the US, with 400,000 people having joined since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Paid tuition could give Amazon influence much like that of the military, where people sometimes sign up to defray education costs. As welcome as many might find the gesture, it could give Amazon more clout in society than regulators might like.

I’ve spent much of the last week trying out Ray-ban Stories, the new smart glasses made by Facebook and Ray-Ban owner Luxottica, and I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about them.

Here’s what I do know: I don’t hate them. I might actually kind of like them, and I suspect others will too. Yet there are many valid reasons why you’d want to avoid ceding yet another surface of your life — much less your face — to Facebook. As with everything Facebook, it comes down to privacy and whether or not you trust the company (it doesn’t help that Ray-Ban Stories’ privacy settings leave a lot to be desired.)

But, purely as a set of “smart glasses,” they offer a pretty intriguing look at what non-AR “smart glasses” can be.

Ray-Ban Stories

I’ve spent quite a bit of time with the first three versions of Snapchat’s Spectacles, and Facebook has undoubtedly benefited from watching Snap experiment with sunglasses over the last five years. Even the name, Ray-Ban Stories, feels like some kind of subtweet at Evan Spiegel.

But while Spectacles always felt a little conspicuous and toy-like, these mostly look and feel like, well, a pair of Ray-Bans. Yes, they are a bit heavier, and the cameras are difficult to ignore; but from a distance, they could easily pass as any other pair of WayFarers. That’s a good thing for Facebook. Ray-Bans might not be for everyone, but they are certainly more appealing — and influencer-friendly — than anything with a Facebook logo (there is Facebook branding on the packaging).

Karissa Bell

Besides the look, one major difference between Ray-Ban Stories and Spectacles is that the Ray-Ban glasses also have audio capabilities built in. Each arm has a tiny speaker so you can stream music or podcasts, while being able to hear your surroundings. Much like the Bose Frames, it essentially turns the glasses into bluetooth headphones (there are also onboard mics so you can pick up calls). Though the audio functionality is more of a secondary feature, so far it’s been my favorite part of wearing the glasses.

The open-ear speakers means you get much more ambient sound than you do with say, AirPods Pro in transparency mode, so going for a walk while listening to music feels pretty natural. But I’ve also been pleasantly surprised with the audio quality, which is much better than I expected.

Music sounds rich, and calls and podcasts are clear — at least when you listen at about mid-range volume. The audio quality degrades significantly if you crank the volume to full blast, but that also kills the whole letting-ambient-noise-in thing. They aren’t the same as a decent pair of earbuds, but I’d have no hesitation about wearing these in place of my normal AirPods for a quick run or stroll around the park (they aren’t water resistant so I’d probably leave them at home on longer runs when sweat could be more of an issue).

The cameras (and yet another Facebook app)

But the main reason why Facebook and Luxottica want you to spend $300+ is for the cameras. Facebook says it crammed a lot of processing power into the 5-megapixel cameras to help them punch above their weight and it mostly works. The videos I shot had good stabilization even when I was walking or in a moving car. The photos were considerably less impressive, but passable if all you’re looking for is something to share to your Instagram Story.

Unsurprisingly, they seemed to shoot better in bright light — the photos I took in direct sun were much more clear than those I took on a slightly more overcast day. In slightly more shady conditions, everything looked a bit dark and underexposed. But these are sunglasses, after all, so it makes sense they’d be optimized for sunnier days.

Viewing and sharing your photos and videos requires a separate app, called Facebook View. The app, which requires a Facebook login, allows you to view your shots and make some basic edits before downloading them to your phone or sharing to another app.

For now, the app feels a bit overlooked compared with the glasses. There are some barebones editing controls for adjusting the crop, brightness, saturation and a few other elements. The cameras don't actually shoot 3D photos, but you can use the app to add some depth effects that add a bit of motion to the shot, similar to how you can share “3D photo” in News Feed. There’s also an option to make a video collage, set to a preset soundtrack, with up to 10 clips at a time.

While I appreciated the ability to do a bit of fine-tuning, the effects are limited and so cheesy I briefly wondered if Facebook and Luxottica were hoping to market the glasses to Boomers rather than Gen Z. But, purely as an app for dumping photos, Facebook View gets the job done — and you can always edit your shots in a separate app.

My other major complaint was with the voice commands, which allows you to shoot photos and videos hands-free. It worked fine the few times I tried it, but I mostly steered clear of the feature. I feel goofy enough talking to any digital assistant outside of my home, but there’s something deeply uncomfortable about saying “Hey Facebook, take a photo,” in public.

Privacy

Which brings us to the elephant in the room: privacy. Facebook’s official line is that Ray-Ban stories were designed with “privacy in mind” but we all know the company has a pretty dismal track record when it comes to privacy.

Here’s what you need to know about Ray-Ban Stories and privacy:

There are no ads in the Facebook View app, and Facebook says it won’t use the contents of your photos and videos for advertising purposes. But, as is so often the case with Facebook, merely using the product can inform the company’s ability to “personalize” your experience, according to a disclaimer when you first set up the Facebook View app. “We use this data to improve and personalize your experience with facebook products,” it says. You can opt out of this data sharing, but it’s on by default.

And remember those hated voice commands? Facebook also stores those transcripts by default, according to the app. The transcripts and “related data” are stored and accessible by “trained reviewers.” And, as with other voice-activated assistants, there will inevitably be occasions when something is captured even when the wake word (in this case “hey Facebook) isn’t uttered. I’ve only intentionally used voice commands twice, and yet there are already four transcripts saved in the app.

Thankfully, you can opt out of both storing transcripts and sharing “additional” info with facebook. The app also lets you delete transcripts of voice commands it’s captured, but both are unfortunately enabled by default.

If any of that makes you uneasy, then you’ll likely want to steer clear of not just Ray-Ban Stories but the eventual AR glasses that come next. There’s also the price. At a starting price of $299, they are considerably more expensive than a standard pair of WayFarers, though they’re still less than Ray-Ban’s priciest frames. (And nearly $100 less than the starting price of Snapchat’s third-gen Spectacles.)

Whether or not you’re willing to make that investment largely depends on how you feel about Facebook and what you are hoping to get out of a pair of “smart glasses.” At best, they feel like a better, more polished version of Snapchat's Spectacles. It’s still a novelty, but with decent audio, smart glasses are starting to feel a lot more useful. At worst, the glasses are yet another reminder of Facebook's dominance.

Facebook's first foray into the world of smart glasses is here. Confusingly dubbed Ray-Ban Stories, they start at $299 and bring together much of the technology we've already seen in smart eyewear. They'll let you take first-person photos and videos on the go, like Snap's Spectacles. And, similar to Bose and Amazon's speaker-equipped glasses, you'll be able to listen to media, as well as take calls.

But what's most impressive is that Facebook and Ray-Ban owner Luxottica have crammed the hardware components into frames that look and feel almost exactly like a pair of typical designer glasses. The only difference is that the pair of cameras mounted along the corners. 

The Ray-Ban Stories in the iconic Wayfarer style — those chunky '50s-era frames that still look fashionable today — weigh just five grams more than the standard version. And that's including its dual 5-megapixel cameras, Snapdragon processor, touchpad, speakers, three-microphone array and other hardware. I'll be honest, I was a bit shocked when I learned how much they weighed. We're used to smart glasses being thick and heavy, even when they're coming from major brands like Bose. The Ray-Ban Stories look, well, normal.

I suppose that shouldn't be too surprising, though, as both Facebook and Ray-Ban ultimately want to normalize smart frames to the point where they're as common as wireless earbuds. That also helps the companies avoid the mistake Google made with Glass: Those things looked so alien and Borg-like that they were almost instantly reviled. 

Ray-Ban and Facebook

Privacy remains a concern with all smart glasses, though. The Ray-Ban Stories have a bright LED that lights up when you're taking photos and video, but I could see many people taking issue with the subtle camera placement. We're all used to people capturing everything with their smartphones these days, but doing so still requires more effort than tapping your glasses or issuing a voice command to an all-seeing social network. 

If Facebook can successfully deliver the first smart glasses that don't make the wearer feel like a joke, and which the general public doesn't want to throw in a fire, it could gain a serious foothold in the augmented reality market. And, well, we know how much Mark Zuckerberg wants to transform it into a "metaverse company." 

In addition to the Wayfarer style, Ray-Ban Stories will be available in the brand's Round and Meteor frames, five different colors, and your typical array of lenses: Clear, sun, prescription, transition and polarized. I'm surprised Ray-Ban isn't offering polarized sunglass lenses by default though, which can reduce glare far better than lenses that are just tinted dark. As for battery life, Facebook claims the Ray-Ban Stories will last for around a day of use (around three hours of audio streaming), while the bundled charging case adds another three days of use.

As ambitious as they may seem, Ray-Ban Stories are also yet another example of how Facebook seemingly can't help but imitate Snapchat, which has been dabbling in smart glasses since 2016. Even their name hearkens back to the social story format that Snap kicked off and was later copied by Facebook, Instagram and pretty much every other social media outfit. But at this point, I don't think Facebook cares if everyone calls them copycats if it ultimately leads to more engagement.

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

After testing out the Ray-Ban Stories for a few days, I found them far more compelling than any smart glasses today. They don't look as goofy as the Snap Spectacles, and they're far more comfortable to wear than Bose and Amazon's Frames. I could only use the Stories in limited situations though, since I need prescription lenses to actually see well.

Still, I was surprised by how smooth video footage looked; it reminded me of YouTube professionals like J. Kenji Lopez-Alt who use head-mounted GoPros. It was also nice to have both hands free to capture fleeting moments of play with my daughter. I was less impressed with the Stories' photo quality, but I suppose it could be useful if you wanted to take a pic without pulling out your phone. You can import your photos and videos from the smart glasses into Facebook View, a new app that lets you quickly edit your media and share it to practically every social media site (yes, even Snapchat!).

Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

While I didn't expect much when it comes to audio playback, the Stories surprised me with sound that was good enough for listening to light tunes or podcasts. I could see them being particularly useful while jogging or biking outdoors, where you want to maintain situational awareness. During the day, I'm never too far from my wireless earbuds, but being able to get a bit of audio from my glasses in a pinch could be genuinely useful.

To control the Ray-Ban Stories, you can either invoke the Facebook assistant by saying "Hey Facebook" or by tapping the button on the right arm, or swiping on the side touchpad. Personally, I never want to be caught in public talking to Facebook, so I mostly relied on touch controls. But the voice controls worked just fine during the few occasions when nobody could hear my shame.

Ray-Ban and Facebook

While they're not exactly perfect, the Ray-Ban Stories are the first smart glasses I'd recommend to someone looking for a pair. But the Facebook of it all is still concerning. While the company says the glasses will only collect basic information to be functional — things like the battery level, your Facebook login and Wi-Fi details — who knows how that'll change as its future smart glasses become more fully featured. Perhaps that's why there's no Facebook branding on the Ray-Ban Stories case and frames: It's probably better if people forget these are also Facebook-powered products.

You'll be able to buy Ray-Ban Stories today in 20 different styles in the US, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy and the UK. Even though the Ray-Ban Stories may seem to have limited availability right now, Facebook and Luxottica have a multi-year partnership that will result in even more products. It's likely that true AR glasses, which can display information on your lenses, aren't far off. And you can be sure of that, since Snapchat has already shown off its own AR Spectacles. 

When Football Manager 2022 debuts on November 9th, it will be available through Xbox Game Pass on day one, Sega announced on Thursday. Both the Windows and Xbox Edition versions of the game will launch on the same day. The former will be available through Game Pass for PC while the latter is coming to Game Pass for consoles. However, if you’re an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriber, you get access to both titles.

Microsoft has offered Football Manager titles through Game Pass before but this is the first time a new entry in the series will be available on the service from day one. It’s a big get for Microsoft given the popularity of the franchise. Series director Miles Jacobson shared at the start of the year that the Football Manager series had cumulatively sold more than 33 million copies.

Sega didn’t say whether the Xbox Edition of Football Manager is based on the Touch version of the game, as was the case last year. But the publisher promised to share more details about new features and upgrades in the coming weeks. If you don’t have a Game Pass subscription, you can buy Football Manager 2022 from Steam, the Epic Games Store and Microsoft Store.

Shure is ready to take another pass at true wireless earbuds, and this one might be worth a look if the first version didn't live up to your expectations. The company has introduced an Aonic 215 Gen 2 that boasts the same sound profile and (still unusual) choice between wired and wireless listening, but also tackles some glaring omissions. For one, they're IPX4 sweat- and water-resistant — you can wear these during workouts without fear.

Gen 2 also addresses some creature comforts. There's now a hardware EQ you can define through Shure's mobile app. Calls finally come through both ears, and the four beamforming mics promise to improve your voice quality during calls. Volume controls are finally on the earbuds themselves, complete with personalization, and you no longer have to manually power on your earbuds when you remove them from the rugged charging case.

Shure

Battery life is still healthy at eight hours for the buds themselves, and another 24 from the case. Shure still promises support for a range of audio codecs, including aptX, AAC and SBC.

The updated Aonic 215 is available in black and blue color schemes for $229. If you want to convert other Shure earbuds to wireless, you can buy a Gen 2 Secure Fit Adapter for $189.

Streaming app FuboTV is now available on Vizio SmartCast smart TVs. The service offers tens of thousands of sports events each year, as well as news and entertainment options, through more than 100 channels and on demand.

Subscribers can set up profiles, through which up to six users can have their own cloud DVR recordings and personalized recommendations. There are options to easily record an entire series or every game for a specific team.

FuboTV is available on other devices and smart TVs, including models from Hisense, LG, Roku and Samsung. Although Vizio has reportedly lost some market share over the last couple of years, it's still one of the top TV brands in the US. It's a solid opportunity for FuboTV to get its app in front of more potential users and give existing subscribers another way to access the service.

Vizio has also been expanding the number of apps on SmartCast. Last week, HBO Max arrived on the platform.

Cameras keep getting better, but it sometimes feels like the pace of improvement has slowed. You can look at photos from the original Canon 5D, released in 2005, and they look pretty good! In some tests of performance, sensors seem to have barely changed in the past decade. However, there have been big advancements in noise reduction, dynamic range and how fast sensors can be read, which have not only improved image quality, but enabled photographers to work in more challenging environments and shoot in new ways. While the original 5D could capture three 13-megapixel images per second at a native ISO 1600, Sony's latest a1 can shoot 30 50-megapixel images at a native ISO 32,000 in the same timeframe.

In the latest episode of our Upscaled series, we explain how sensors work, and how camera makers have overcome the physical challenges of trying capture a lot of light in a very short time. For the full story, check the video below.