As expected, Sony is gradually opening up access to the PS5's empty M.2 expansion slot. Starting today, a new system software update gives beta users in the US, Canada and parts of Europe the ability to boost local storage with select SSD drives. But, the process isn't as straightforward as previous reports suggested.
We already knew the required read speeds would be 5,500MB/s or higher, which limits you to PCIe Gen4 SSDs. Of course, there are plenty of drives that can manage that: The Samsung 980 Pro, Western Digital SN850, Corsair Force MP600, Seagate Firecuda 530, Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus, to name a few.
To make things more complicated, Sony says that you'll also need to take into account the PS5's cooling mechanism. That means you can either attach a heatsink to your SSD, either in a single- or double-sided format, or purchase a compatible SSD with the cooling structure built-in. But, even then, it needs to be the right-sized heatsink that matches the required dimensions. The total size including the cooling structure needs to be smaller than 110mm (L) x 25mm (W) x 11.25mm (H) or, in inches, smaller than 4.33in (L) x 0.984 in (W) x 0.442in (H).
Basically, you can forget just popping the cover and slotting in just any Gen 4 SSD. For instance, the Corsair Force MP600 has a heatsink which is too high to fit (though you can purchase it without one and use your own thermal solution). Whereas the WD Black SN850 heatsink should be fine.
Beyond the M.2 SSD support, the PS5 beta software also includes additional software and improvements. Among them is 3D audio support for built-in TV speakers that can boost sound by measuring the acoustics of a room using the DualSense controller. You can switch it on or off from the sound menu in the console's system settings. What's more there are a bunch of control customization options in the Control Centre. Here, the Game Base will also let you message friends and parties and see how many friends are online.
While PS4 and PS5 games will also be labeled accordingly and appear separately in the home screen and game library. The update also packs a trophy tracker for quick access to up to five trophies per game via the Control Center, the option to pick between 720p and 1080p on PlayStation Now and the ability to enable automatic video clips in challenges for high scores. The software update is also rolling out in Japan, UK, Germany, and France.
Who is a powerful miniature desktop for? That was the question running through my mind when I reviewed Intel's NUC 9 Extreme last year. It was the company's most powerful compact PC kit (NUC stands for "next unit of computing") at the time. But it was so wildly expensive — especially since you need to add your own RAM, storage, GPU and OS — it didn't make sense for anyone but mini-PC obsessives. The new NUC 11 Extreme, AKA "Beast Canyon," is pretty much the same story. But it's at least a bit cheaper and more flexible, thanks to its faster 11th-gen Intel CPU and support for full-sized GPUs.
I'll get this out of the way up front: Yes, this NUC is dramatically larger than any previous units we've seen. The 5-liter NUC 9 Extreme already seemed to be pushing the limits of a compact PC, but at 8 liters, the NUC 11 Extreme is what you'd call a Big Boy. Sure, it beats making space for a mid-tower PC on your desk, but it's still pretty substantial. You can't blame Intel too much: Gamers wanted full-sized GPUs in a NUC, this is just the most efficient way to make that happen.
The NUC 11 Extreme screams "gamer" before you even turn it on. Its black metal case sports mesh air vents along the sides, giving you a peek at the GPU within and three large case fans up top. For a small box, it's clearly meant to push a lot of air. Hit the power button and it springs to life with an LED skull along the front panel, as well as underside LED lighting. I'm not one for too much gamer bling, but Intel's lighting comes is relatively subtle compared to many other PC makers.
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
Our review unit featured Intel's 11th-gen i9 Compute Element, a modular card with an eight-core 11900KB CPU. It can also be purchased separately as an upgrade for NUC 9 Extreme customers. That was always the dream for Intel's NUC Extreme platform, which also includes Razer's Tomahawk mini-PC. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just yank a card out in a few years to get a new CPU? There are some compromises, though. According to Intel, there's no front panel audio support when using the new Compute Card on the NUC 9 Extreme, and there's no guaranteed PCIe 4.0 either. The company also says compatibility with other boxes depends on how the their NUC base board was designed. (We've reached out to Razer to see if the Tomahawk can be upgraded.)
To help speed up our review process, Intel sent along a unit pre-configured with Windows 10 Pro, 16GB of RAM, a speedy 512GB NVMe SSD, and an ASUS RTX 3060 GPU. Remember, you'll need to gather all of that gear too if you you a NUC kit for yourself (or just buy one pre-built from resellers like SimplyNUC).
While I've appreciated all of Intel's previous performance-oriented NUCs, including 2018's "Hades Canyon" model and 2016's "Skull Canyon," they've always been held back by their notebook processors. The NUC 11 Extreme, though, runs more powerful CPUs with a 65-watt TDP. That means it can tap into more power like a traditional desktop gaming chip. And based on our benchmarks, you can definitely see the benefits of that boost.
In PCMark 10, the NUC easily outpaced every Windows PC we've seen this year. It was slightly faster than ASUS's ROG Strix G15, which was running AMD's powerful Ryzen 9 5900HX. Admittedly, we haven't looked at any gaming notebooks with 11th-gen Intel chips, but based on that AMD comparison I'd still expect the NUC 11 to come out ahead of those. We also haven't tested comparable 11th-gen desktop CPUs yet, but I'd wager they'll perform better since they can draw more power.
Apple's M1 iMac was the only computer we've reviewed that beat the NUC when it came to single-core performance in Geekbench 5, but Intel's machine still came out ahead in multithreading. The NUC 11 Extreme also impressed me when it came to transcoding a 4K video clip into 1080p. It managed to do that in 41 seconds, beating the speedy ROG Strix G15 by 6 seconds.
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
I'm mainly focusing on CPU-bound benchmarks, because the NUC 11's graphics scores will ultimately depend on the GPU you plug into it. But I couldn't review a gaming PC without actually playing some games, could I? I'm happy to report that it reached 150 fps to 160 fps in Overwatch with epic graphics settings at my ultrawide monitor's native resolution (3,440 by 1,440 pixels). I was even able to get Control running in 1440p between 60 and 70 fps with medium ray tracing settings and graphics set to high. (Thanks to a healthy DLSS assist, of course.)
Basically, the NUC 11 Extreme does everything I expect it an RTX 3060-equipped gaming desktop to do. And despite the tight quarters, temperatures didn't suffer much either. The GPU never went above 75 celsius while gaming, and the CPU stayed under 80 celsius as well. The fans were noticeable under load, but they were never as whiny as the ones you'd find on some gaming laptops. (Larger fans can push more air without making as much noise, naturally.)
This being the ultimate DIY PC kit, I also had to tear it open to see just how modular it actually was. The side panels came off easily enough, but I had to spend a few minutes prodding the NUC to make its top panel flip over. That revealed its innards, but I still had to lift up the rear panel to remove the screws securing the Compute Element, its plastic blower, and the GPU. It took around 10 more minutes to fully disassemble the system.
The entire process felt easier than on the NUC 9 Extreme, simply because there was more room to work with. But it's still not completely intuitive. I also accidentally tore apart the fan temperature sensors attached to the Compute Element, because a mere tug split them in half. If you've built PCs before, you should be able to intuit all of the cables and PCIe release levers you need to find. But I'd recommend taking some photos of all of the tiny wires connected to the Compute Element, because it's easy to mistake where they go and genuinely tough to plug them back in.
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
The Compute Element card was similar to the one I held last year, except now there's a bigger fan and a beefier heatsink. Given the small workable space, I was also interested in seeing how more powerful GPUs would fit into the NUC 11. NVIDIA's massive RTX 3070 Ti and 3080 had no trouble fitting, and the Radeon RX 6800 dropped in just fine too. The bulkier RX 6800 XT was a no-go, unfortunately. Its heat sink was just a bit too large to fit in properly. Intel says the NUC 11 Extreme should fit GPUs up to 12 inches long, but be wary if you're planning to use anything with a bulky heatsink.
I'll admit, I was surprised that this NUC could actually fit some of the fastest graphics cards on the market. That makes it far more useful than the last model, which was limited to shorter 8-inch long GPUs. Now, you can have a NUC that could genuinely offer most of the speed you'd get with a full-sized desktop. Or maybe you just want a secondary computer to power your game streaming. Based on what I've seen, the NUC 11 Extreme can handle most anything.
But, it's still very expensive. Intel expects the Core i7 and i9 models to be priced between $1,150 and $1,350. (It's nixed plans for an i5 model.) You can also get the Compute Elements separately between $780 and $980 — a lot to pay for a card that's essential a cradle for CPUs that cost half the price. And, once again, you'll also have to shell out for all of the additional hardware and software you need for a Windows PC. All told, you can expect to pay at least another $1,000 if you want 16GB of RAM, 1TB of NVMe SSD storage and a decent GPU.
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
That may sound ridiculous, but keep in mind the Core i9 NUC 9 Extreme kit started at $1,639 last year. I couldn't fathom why anyone would pay out the nose for a compromised desktop that couldn't fit a full-sized GPU. But the NUC 11 Extreme fixes those issues, and it includes a far faster CPU.
Intel's vision for a world where desktop computers can be both powerful and tiny is slowly coming into focus. Now, with the NUC 11 Extreme, Intel finally has a beefy miniature PC that I could actually recommend (assuming you've got deep pockets).
How do you stand out as a new tech company when the dominant players have huge budgets, thousands of employees and decades of product R&D? That is Nothing’s challenge, and its first product, a pair of true wireless earbuds, makes a pitch for a simplified kind of tech, designed to stand out from the likes of Apple AirPods, Samsung Galaxy Buds and their myriad clones.
Design appears to be very important to Nothing, which has already published several blog posts dedicated to its philosophy and direction — and that’s before the company even launched anything. This is the result. The $100 Ear 1 buds feature active noise cancellation, touch controls, a wireless charging case and a particularly eye-catching see-through design, coming to the US mid-August.
This transparency — a design choice that I love — seemingly resonates with Nothing’s mission to make technology less obvious and more seamless. It makes a statement.
Engadget, Mat Smith
This styling extends to the charging case, which reminds me a lot of Apple’s old wired headphones that used to come packaged with iPhones. They also came in a half-transparent case. Nothing’s Ear 1 case is predictably more complex. The see-through shell has three indented bubbles that keep the buds in place. There’s a red dot both on the right headphone and its socket inside the charger.
Like most wireless earbuds, tiny magnets pull the buds into place, but this time they’re visible. Nothing apparently had to find suppliers to make sure its transparent design would work. The company needed glue that was either invisible or at least more aesthetically pleasing, and according to a spokesperson, these tiny, polished magnets were apparently hard to come by.
So yes, the Ear 1 is all about attention to detail. The case shuts with a satisfying thud, and the snippets of text across the hardware and even the companion app pay homage to retro technology — or perhaps computer interfaces on Alien. These feel like a tribute to see-through tech we’ve seen in the decades past. You might immediately think of those see-through Game Boys from the early ‘90s, but also Apple’s early 2000s eMac all-in-one PC, with transparent casing laid onto white and metal.
Surprisingly, the price is reasonable. These are sub-$100 earbuds, which would put them up against Beats’ latest truly wireless buds and make them cheaper than Apple’s entry-level AirPods. What do you get at this price, though?
While I haven’t had enough time to fully scrutinize sound quality, the Ear 1s sound decent, although there’s no spatial audio functionality which isn’t great for new headphones in 2021. Teenage Engineering, which worked with Nothing on these buds, was responsible for tuning the headphones. The sound is generally clear, but seems to lean toward the mid-range frequencies rather than treble and bass, though you can adjust the equalizer to ramp up either of those levels.
At this price, they predictably don’t stack up against more expensive earbuds like Sony’s WF-1000XM4 ANC buds or Apple's AirPods Pro. But, perhaps thanks to the silicone tips, they definitely sound better than the original AirPods. The Ear 1s are plenty loud, too.
Each bud weighs under five grams, making them lighter than those more expensive options, while still packing active noise cancellation — something Google’s similarly priced Pixel Buds A lack. After several months using the AirPods Pro, Nothing’s debut earbuds definitely feel more comfortable to me.
Despite the lightness, Nothing claims you should get four hours of listening with ANC on, and up to 5.7 hours (340 minutes) with ANC off. The case — which is wider but slimmer than most charging cases — can add up to a total of 34 hours of listening. There’s some fast-charge tech, too: After 10 minutes in the case you can get about another hour of listening time.
The case can be charged through USB-C or Qi wireless charging — another notable addition at this price. The earbuds are also rated IPX4 for sweat and dust resistance, so they can handle workouts that don’t involve too much rain or perspiration. There are touch controls on both buds, and you can slide your finger up and down the stem for volume control, while a single tap will play/pause and a triple tap will skip a track.
Nothing’s buds are compatible with both Android and iOS devices, and you don’t gain or lose anything depending on which mobile OS you prefer. That is, apart from fast pairing, which is coming to Android devices but isn’t yet enabled at the time of writing.
As much as I love the aesthetics of the Ear 1, my first impressions of these earbuds weren’t great. When trying to connect to my iPhone, pairing was a struggle. Once the buds were eventually connected to my phone, Nothing’s headphone app said that the fully charged case was empty — or not even detect it at all. Similar chaos ensued when I tried to shift pairing to my PC and Android phone. Bluetooth connections can be messy — this just seemed like a messier than it should be. The case itself seems to have its own Bluetooth profile, separate from the buds. That might be what makes pairing the headphones so frustrating.
Nothing’s companion app not only offers a different way to switch between noise cancellation modes, but also a way to reassign touch controls on the Ear 1. It’s a refreshing, uncomplicated app. Having wrestled with other headphone apps from Sony and the rest, though some audiophiles might find it a little restrictive.
There are four equalizer presets: balanced, more treble, more bass and voice. However, you can’t adjust the equalizer manually. The Ear 1 does offer a little more flexibility with noise cancellation with light and maximum settings you don’t often see on earbuds.
The Ear 1 has three high-definition mics for voice calls, with Nothing’s own “clear voice technology,” which utilizes algorithms that apparently help isolate and amplify your voice on calls. It should also help cut out wind noise.
I had a mixed experience with the Ear 1 for phone and video calls. With my handset, the three built-in mics coped with the noise of coffee shops and busy streets fine — in fact the people I talked to said my voice sounded particularly clear. When pairing with my Mac, however, audio quality seemed notably worse than other wireless buds and even the MacBook’s built-in mic.
The Ear 1 buds are an impressive debut device. Nothing’s first product launch is all about selling you on its cool — the company offered a limited run of hardware on StockX that seemed plainly targeted at Hypebeasts and early adopters. The design is compelling, and even the specifications are impressive at this price point. Nothing needs to improve on connectivity hiccups and sound quality if it wants to be mentioned in the same tier as Apple, Samsung and Sony, but it’s a bold start.
Tesla is adding another popular streaming service to its in-car infotainment system. As part of its latest software update, you can now watch Disney+ when you have some downtime during charging. Tesla's Theater Mode already offers Netflix, Disney-owned Hulu, YouTube and Twitch. All it's missing is HBO Max, Peacock and Paramount+ before it can call itself a true video hub. A Tesla owner shared screenshots of the "2021.24" update, which includes several additional features, in a Reddit post.
Another highlight is the new "Car Wash Mode" that secures the vehicle for a scrub down. Once activated, it can close or disable everything from the windows to wipers to sentry mode and the parking sensor chimes. For car washes with conveyor belts, the mode can switch the free roll option to neutral to prevent the car from auto-braking if you leave.
There's also a new dashcam auto-save that automatically stores clips whenever the vehicle detects a safety event (like a collision or airbag deployment). To stave off any more damagingprivacy concerns, Tesla has chosen to make the feature opt-in. Clips will also be stored locally and never shared with the automaker.
Rounding out the new additions are auto-dimming for mirrors, more battery info, remain connected to WiFi in drive, along with language support for Russian, Romanian and Hungarian. As usual, the quality of life improvements are designed to keep Tesla owners satisfied long after they've shelled out thousands on an EV.
As part of new restrictions on sexual content, Google is banning what it calls "compensated sexual relationships (i.e. sugar dating)," from its Android app store, starting September 1st, 2021. Google’s wording on its inappropriate content policy isn’t live yet, but on Google Play, even now, there are plenty of sugar-daddy-style apps that fit this description, including Elite Millionaire Singles, SeekingArrangement and Spoil. (Many of these apps are already unavailable on iOS.)
This is unlikely to stop the existence of these apps and networks, however, but as is often the case with removed games and apps in the past, devout sugar daddies, mommies and their fans will be able to either sideload the app (without secure Google-approved updates) or use web apps on Chrome or their web browser of choice.
Krispy Kreme has come up with the Nexus Level donut as part of a new Xbox cross-promotion in the UK and Ireland. With a giant green X and a dusting of sugar, there’s no word on whether there are lime flavors at play or perhaps even — shudder — Mountain Dew. For now, it’s just “Coming Soon.” Continue reading.
It's the company's fastest-selling console to date.
With nary a pastry in sight, Sony revealed it has sold 10 million PS5 consoles as of July 18th, eight months after the system's November 12th debut. This makes it the fastest-selling Sony console in history, despite long-term supply constraints, a global pandemic and rival donut promotions.
The biggest selling games at this point tend to be enhanced versions of games available for the PS4, like Spider-Man: Miles Morales, which has sold 6.5 million copies so far. Continue reading.
Nura might be a relatively new name in headphones, but the personalized-audio specialist is already revealing its third model: the Nuratrue. They’re wireless earbuds you can tune precisely to your listening profile.
The ability to create personal hearing profiles is Nura’s whole thing, but according to James Trew, Nura’s is the simplest and most reliable. Just pop the buds in your ears, walk through the profile creation process in the app and the headphones do everything else. James really did hear the difference. Whereas “unpersonalized” buds may be technically balanced on a graph, when your hearing isn’t perfect, Nura can fill in the gaps. Continue reading.
A new robot known as the Dominator has set a Guinness World Record for placing 100,000 dominos in just over 24 hours. Created by YouTuber and former NASA engineer Mark Rober, the Dominator is the result of more than five years of work. But hey, let’s see the mural making in action. Apparently, the secret is a lot of Hot Wheels track. Continue reading.
The worlds of fashion and gaming are cozying up to one another. From Gucci selling digital items in Roblox to Vogue's virtual fashion spread starring Gigi Hadid, the two industries are increasingly overlapping to capture a young, tech-savvy audience. Now, Louis Vuitton is jumping on the bandwagon by releasing a mobile video game to celebrate its founder's 200th birthday. Louis: The Game stars the fashion house's mascot Vivienne, a wooden doll embellished with the company's flower insignia, on a journey through the brand's history, reports Austrian newspaper Kurier.
The iOS and Android game reportedly tasks players with exploring a colorful world by completing various quests — all pretty generic so far. Whether it turns out to be more than just an unashamed bit of promotional fluff remains to be seen. The game drops on August 4th. If LV goes all-out psychedelic like it did with its recent UFO-style speaker, then it could be worth a look.
Rocket Lab has successfully launched a US military satellite in its first mission since its 20th Electron launch ended up in failure back in May. The company's Electron rocket made its way to space from its New Zealand launch site, carrying a small demonstration satellite from the US Space Force called the Monolith. Peter Beck, Rocket Lab founder and CEO, tweeted shortly after the event that the payload was deployed and praised the team for a "flawless" launch.
Monolith's target location is in low-Earth orbit around 370 miles above our planet. The satellite will demonstrate the use of a deployable sensor, "where the sensor's mass is a substantial fraction of the total mass of the spacecraft, changing the spacecraft’s dynamic properties and testing ability to maintain spacecraft attitude control," Rocket Lab explained in the official mission webpage. The results from the demonstration will help companies build more affordable satellites within shorter timeframes.
Rocket Lab's 20th mission failed in May when it suffered an "anomaly" after the second stage ignition. The company lost both its Electron rocket and BlackSky's Earth observation satellite payloads as a result of its second launch failure within the span of a year. After investigating the issue, Rocket Lab determined that the root cause was a problem with the second stage engine igniter system that "induced a corruption of signals within the engine computer." The company says it has since implemented fixes "to prevent any future reoccurrence."
Facebook's booming business is dominated by digital ads, but it also has hardware ambitions beyond VR. During the company's latest earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said its next product release would be a pair of smart glasses from Ray-Ban.
"The glasses have their iconic form factor, and they let you do some pretty neat things," the Facebook co-founder said. "So I'm excited to get those into people's hands and to continue to make progress on the journey toward full augmented reality glasses in the future."
Facebook's sunglasses have been the subject of rumors since 2019. Back then, sources told CNBC that Facebook was working with Ray-Ban owner EssilorLuxottica on AR eyewear nicknamed "Orion." The glasses were billed as a full-fledged phone replacement on which you could take calls, see information and even broadcast livestreams. That inevitably drew comparisons to Google Glass (another Luxottica collab) instead of the phone-tethered Spectacles from Snap. Last year, Hugo Barra, then VP VR at Facebook Reality Labs, confirmed that the glasses would land in 2021. But, we haven't heard much since.
For Facebook, the glasses hold the key to its future. Alongside virtual reality, augmented reality (AR) is integral to building the "metaverse," Zuckerberg said. In the future, Facebook will morph into a shared, liveable platform that lets you "teleport" between different social experiences using VR and AR, Zuckerberg explained.
The term metaverse is the latest buzzword seized upon by Silicon Valley and futurists. While the concept has been around for well over a decade, it gained traction after the breakout success of multiplayer game creation platforms like Fortnite and Roblox. Earlier this week, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella mentioned an "enterprise metaverse" on his company's earnings call.
For Facebook, the metaverse is more than just a fad. The company is spending billions in order to build its shared universe, which will be populated with Facebook users and digital ads, according to Zuckerberg. In order for it to become a reality, the company needs more people to buy its computing hardware. Therefore, the plan is to make those devices more affordable.
"Our business model isn't going to primarily be around trying to sell devices at a large premium or anything like that because our mission is around serving as many people as possible," Zuckerberg noted. "So we want to make everything that we do as affordable as possible, so as many people as possible can get into it and then compounds the size of the digital economy inside it. So that's kind of at a high level how I'm thinking about this."
Sunglasses aren't the only hardware Facebook is reportedly working on. Multiple reports have claimed Facebook is developing a smartwatch with a built-in cellular connection and a detachable display. Initially, it was believed that the watch would be first out the gate, but it seems Zuckerberg had other plans.
If you have an older Amazon Kindle with 3G internet, take note that you may not be able to wirelessly access and download new content anymore starting in December. As The Verge reports, Amazon has sent out emails to owners with old Kindles, telling them that previous-generation devices will lose internet access after mobile operators transition from 2G and 3G networks to 4G and 5G.
The e-commerce giant listed the particular devices that will be affected by the switch in its FAQ page. It noted that the first- and second-generation Kindles, as well as the Kindle DX, won't be able to connect to the internet at all since they don't have WiFi connectivity to fall back on. The other devices in the list are the Kindle Keyboard (3rd Generation), Kindle Touch (4th Generation), Kindle Paperwhite (5th, 6th and 7th Generation), Kindle Voyage (7th Generation) and Kindle Oasis (8th Generation), all of which have WiFi connection.
You'll still be able to access your books on an older device and can do wired transfers if you want, though. And if you have a newer 4G or WiFi-only Kindle, you won't be affected at all. In its email, Amazon included a code customers can use to get $50 off a new Kindle Paperwhite or Oasis, along with $15 in eBook credits. You may want to check your inbox to see if you got the company's notice in case you've been looking to upgrade anyway.
The term "sugar daddy" entered the lexicon in force back in 2015 when a massive data breach exposed a list of clients on the dating app Ashley Madison. Now, we're hearing about it again via Google's latest Play store policy update, as Android Police has reported. As part of new restrictions on sexual content, it's banning what it calls "compensated sexual relationships (i.e. sugar dating)," effective September 1st, 2021.
If you weren't aware, a "sugar daddy" is someone (a wealthy, older man, usually) who is willing to spend money in exchange for sexual favors. A quick scan shows that there are plenty of sugar daddy style apps on Play, including a number that are literally called "Sugar Daddy." Others have names like Elite Millionaire Singles, SeekingArrangement and Spoil.
Spoil spells it out pretty clearly, as PhoneArena notes. "Here you can find other wealthy sugar daddies who are looking for a discreet arrangement, and you can also meet other attractive girls who are looking for generous men," the description reads. Presumably, this app and all the others will be removed by September 1st, though as with any other Android app, they would still be available via sideloading.
