This week on the show, Cherlynn is joined by guest co-host Sam Rutherford to talk about the newly launched OnePlus 10T. Why did the company choose to sacrifice an alert slider, wireless charging and some other features in exchange for extreme speed? How does the OnePlus 10T stack up against other midrange phones like the Pixel 6a? Then, our hosts discuss the cloud-gaming handheld that Logitech and Tencent are working on, as well as the curiousheadlines that permeated the consumer tech news cycle this week.
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!
Logitech and Tencent are working on a handheld cloud gaming console – 24:15
It’s not just you: Uber receipts are actually crashing Outlook – 30:34
Spotify finally adds a play button that doesn’t shuffle, but only for premium users – 32:22
PlayStation Accolades feature is being discontinued because online gamers aren't nice – 36:09
Microsoft negs Activision Blizzard’s game library amid acquisition process – 37:33
No, Google Stadia isn’t shutting down – 39:28
Discovery+ merger leaves HBO Max’s future in doubt, and Batgirl cancellation – 43:04
Working on – 51:58
Picks – 53:12
Video Stream
Credits Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Sam Rutherford Producer: Ben Ellman Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos, Luke Brooks Graphics artists: Luke Brooks, Brian Oh Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien
Amazon just took a big step toward cornering the market for household robots. The company has reached a deal to acquire iRobot, the creator of Roomba robot vacuums. The purchase is worth $1.7 billion in cash and will maintain Colin Angle as iRobot's CEO. The two firms didn't say when they expected the deal to close, but that will depend on the approval of both iRobot shareholders and regulators.
In announcing the deal, Amazon didn't outline its exact plans. Amazon Devices Senior VP Dave Limp focused on iRobot's ability to "reinvent how people clean," and said he looked forward to inventing products. Angle said Amazon shared iRobot's "passion" for innovative home products and felt the internet giant was a good fit.
A successful merger will end 32 years of independence for iRobot. The company was founded in 1990 by MIT researchers, and initially focused on military robots like PackBot. It marked a major turning point in 2002, when it unveiled the first Roomba — the robovac quickly became popular and had sold a million units by 2004. The company expanded its lineup to include products like robotic mops (Braava), and became so successful that it sold its military business in 2016.
YouTube has quietly introduced an experimental feature called pinch to zoom exclusively for Premium users, Android Policehas reported. It lets you zoom into the video player and then pan around to look at different parts of the screen, both in portrait or full-screen landscape view, as shown below.
If you're a Premium user, you can try it out by tapping your profile photo and hitting "Your Premium benefits," opening the "Try new features" section and enabling the zoom function. It might take a while for the feature to kick in, but once it's active you can zoom in at up to 8x.
YouTube
In the past, YouTube tested interesting features like picture-in-picture with random users and beta app testers. In 2020, though, it launched experimental features for Premium users, letting them try out new options before anyone else. Several experimental features have made their way to the Premium app, including easier playlist management and browser-based voice search. The new feature will be available until September 1st and is only supported on Android devices for now.
Are you ready for Samsung’s summer salvo of foldables, wearables and peripherals? Yes, it’s that time again, and the company’s Unpacked event is likely to share two foldable smartphones, a new Pro wearable and probably some new software tricks.
Judging by the leaks, it won’t be a major shakeup, but the new Galaxy Z Fold may borrow design cues from the S22 Ultra, ensuring a more contemporary look. The next-gen Galaxy Z Flip, the clamshell one, looks even more like its predecessor, so we’re waiting on confirmation on exactly what has changed. This is the series helping Samsung sell its foldable family to the world — hopefully, the company has ways to capitalize on this enthusiasm. And throw in a bigger battery.
Samsung looks set to reveal its Galaxy Watch 5 Pro next week, too. You might not get the knurled bezel of previous Samsung smartwatches, but the Pro would upgrade from a steel case to light-but-strong titanium. Samsung inadvertently hinted at the Pro name in its Health app, although it didn’t provide further clues.
Samsung Unpacked will stream on Wednesday, August 10th at 9 AM ET, and we’re reporting live on all the big reveals. We’ll probably have some minty fresh opinions on foldable phones, too.
The Switch continues to approach the status of Nintendo’s best-selling “home console” ever — and seven Switch games have already outsold the Wii U console. It’s thanks to the Switch’s unique hybrid format and an ever-growing game library with uncharacteristically strong third-party support. However, the Switch's online store isn't the easiest to navigate, so this guide helps the uninitiated start their journey on the right foot, once again updated for 2022.
It's not just leaning on Star Trek. Well, not completely.
ViacomCBS has revealed that Paramount+ added 3.7 million subscribers in the second quarter, with more than 43 million total users. And that's after withdrawing from Russia. The company partly credited the surge of expansions to more countries, including the UK, Ireland and South Korea. These gains are good, but the overall Paramount+ subscriber count is still tiny compared to Netflix (220.7 million) and Amazon Prime Video (over 200 million).
Sure, it sounds like some bleak sci-fi premise, but it’s happening. According to scientists, midnight on June 29th arrived 1.59 milliseconds sooner than expected. It was the shortest day in over half a century. Scientists believe earthquakes, stronger winds in El Niño years, ice caps melting and refreezing, the Moon and the climate could all affect rotation speed. Some have suggested the Chandler wobble — a small deviation in the Earth’s point of rotation — may be having an effect, too.
After months of rumors, Microsoft is starting to test an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate family plan in the wild. Xbox Insiders in Colombia and Ireland can try out the new offering that allows them to add up to four other people to their plan, as long as they're in the same country. Those folks will get access to all the benefits of Game Pass Ultimate, including a library of hundreds of titles for console, PC and cloud gaming. If you're in either country, you can buy the Xbox Game Pass — Insider Preview plan from the Microsoft Store, though enrolment is limited.
The app started a public test of NFTs in feed posts, messages and Stories in May.
Once we’ve all collectively sighed, Instagram is doubling down on digital collectibles. After a test launch in May, the app is expanding its NFT features to more than 100 countries across Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and the Americas. Instagram users can include NFTs in their feed and messages, as well as in augmented reality stickers in Stories. NFT creators and collectors are automatically tagged for attribution. You can't buy or sell NFTs on Instagram just yet, but the company has strongly hinted it's working on a marketplace. Perfect timing, Meta: The non-fungible token (NFT) market just fell off a cliff.
Google searches with quotes just became much more useful if you're looking for the exact place words appear on a page. The internet giant has updated quote-based searches with page snippets that show exactly where you'll find the text you're looking for. You might not have to scroll through a giant document just to find the right phrase.
There are limitations. Searches with quotes might turn up results that aren't visible (such as meta description tags) or only show up in web addresses and title links. You might not see all of the mentions in a snippet if they're too far apart. You'll "generally" only see bolded mentions on desktop, and you won't see the bolding at all for specialized searches and results (such as image searches and video boxes). You may have to use your browser's on-page search feature to jump to the relevant keywords.
The company characterized the change as a response to feedback. It hesitated to make snippets for these searches in the past, as documents didn't always produce readable descriptions. This is an acknowledgment that people using quotes to search are sometimes "power users" more interested in pinpointing words than reading site descriptions.
Samsung is holding its next Unpacked livestream on August 10th, and expectations are running high. The company has used previous summer events to introduce new foldable phones, smartwatches and earbuds, and the company has effectively confirmed a repeat in 2022. Just what will appear this time around, though? Don’t worry — we’ll let you know what you’re likely to see when Samsung takes to the virtual stage.
How to watch Unpacked
Samsung
It will be easy to follow Samsung’s announcements. The company is streaming Unpacked live on August 10th at 9AM Eastern. You can watch on Samsung’s website, and you’ll usually find a broadcast on the brand’s YouTube channel. Naturally, you can expect event coverage from Engadget.
Galaxy Z Fold 4
Evan Blass/91Mobiles
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is nearly a year old, so it’s arguably due for an update — and Samsung’s own Unpacked teasers hint that one is coming. With that said, we wouldn’t expect a Z Fold 4 to represent a major overhaul. If leaks are correct, the new model will represent a refinement of the marquee foldable.
Rendered images shared by OnLeaks and Smartprix, as well as Evan Blass and 91Mobiles, suggest the Galaxy Z Fold 4 will mate the series’ phone-slash-tablet formula with design elements from the S22 Ultra. You’d get Ultra-like rear camera bumps and slightly tweaked dimensions, but it would otherwise be very familiar. Not that we’d rule out functional changes. Leaker Ice Universe claims the Z Fold 4 would have less prominent display creases, for example.
Performance upgrades could be more substantial, if predictable. Noted leaker Yogesh Brar says the Z Fold 4 would use the new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip paired with 12GB or 16GB of RAM. You’d see an upgraded 50-megapixel main rear camera as well as a much sharper 16-megapixel under-display inside cam. You could expect familiar 12MP ultra-wide and 3X zoom sensors on the back, and a 10MP outer selfie shooter. There is a dispute over the storage, though. While Brar maintains that the Z Fold 4 would start with 256GB of space, Evan Blass has discovered references to a 128GB edition.
That storage question may affect the price. While YouTuber Jon Prosser and others believe the Galaxy Z Fold 4 will reach stores August 26th, it’s not clear how much the device will cost. A 128GB variant could lead to a lower starting price than the $1,800 of its predecessor. Just don’t expect higher capacities than last year when there hasn’t been a mention of storage options beyond 512GB.
Galaxy Z Flip 4
Evan Blass/91Mobiles
There’s even less mystery to the next Galaxy Z Flip. Samsung’s teaser video for the Unpacked event very clearly shows a new version of the clamshell phone, so it’s really just a question of what the Z Flip 4 will offer versus its predecessor.
Don’t expect a major redesign. If the OnLeaks and Evan Blass images (plus a removed TechTalkTV video) are accurate, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is virtually a carbon copy of the Flip 3 with similar rear cameras, a slightly larger external display and different colors. That isn’t necessarily a problem, but it might prove disappointing if you were looking for a brand new look. The less pronounced screen creasing of the Fold 4 might carry over, too.
The under-the-hood upgrades would be subtler than those of the Fold 4, according to rumors. Yogesh Brar claims the Z Flip 4 would make the leap to a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, but would still include 8GB of RAM, up to 256GB of non-expandable storage and a 6.7-inch 120Hz display. You’d get a larger 3,700mAh battery (versus 3,300mAh in the Flip 3) and 25W charging (versus 15W), though, so the Flip 4 might last longer. The previous phone’s dual 12MP rear cameras and 10MP selfie camera would carry over to the new model.
Samsung typically releases new Galaxy Z Flip and Z Fold models at the same time, and Prosser has heard that the Flip 4 will reach stores on August 26th like its higher-end counterpart. If so, the cost might be the only mystery left. There’s no certainty the Flip 4 will stick to its ancestor’s $999 price. If there is a 128GB model, though, we wouldn’t expect the latest device to be much more expensive, if at all.
Galaxy Watch 5 and 5 Pro
Evan Blass/91Mobiles
The Galaxy Watch 4 marked a revival of Samsung’s smartwatch strategy with its switch to Wear OS and a sleeker design. The company might be eager to preserve that momentum, as there are signs it’s readying a Galaxy Watch 5 family with a few notable twists.
If 91Mobiles’ shared renders are authentic, Samsung will drop its higher-end Classic model in favor of a more modern-looking (if still posh) Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. You might not get the knurled bezel of the previous smartwatch, but the Pro would upgrade from a steel case to light-but-strong titanium. Samsung inadvertently hinted at the Pro name in its Health app, although it didn’t provide further clues.
The regular Galaxy Watch 5 wouldn't be as big a departure. You could expect the same minimal, fitness-oriented design as before. SamMobilefloated a rumor that the wristwear would have a 10 percent larger battery than its year-old counterpart, but it’s unknown if that will translate to a longer-lasting timepiece. It’s still unclear if Samsung will implement a new processor or body sensor that could affect battery life.
You may have to pay more than you might expect. WinFuture’s Roland Quandt heard in June that the regular Galaxy Watch 5 would start around €300 (about $306) for a 40mm Bluetooth mode and top out at €400 ($409) for a 44mm LTE unit. Titanium is a historically expensive watch case material, and that would bump the price of the 5 Pro to about €490 ($502) for a 45mm Bluetooth model and €540 ($552) for its LTE equivalent.
New Galaxy Buds Pro
Evan Blass/91Mobiles
The basic Galaxy Buds 2 premiered at last year’s Unpacked, and Samsung might follow that up with a higher-end option. Evan Blass and 91Mobiles recently posted renderings of what they say are the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro.
Cosmetically, the true wireless earbuds would look nearly the same as the existing Galaxy Buds Pro introduced in January 2021. 9to5Googlesources claim you’d get questionably useful 24-bit audio support, and there have been murmurs of a larger battery. Otherwise, Samsung might play it safe with familiar active noise cancellation and multi-device pairing support.
Be ready to pay more. A 9to5 retail tipster maintains that the Buds 2 Pro will cost $230, or a significant $30 more. While that still makes them more affordable than rivals like the AirPods Pro (officially $249), you might not save much by springing for Samsung’s in-ears.
Wildcards
Billy Steele/Engadget
We wouldn’t rule out a surprise or two at the August Unpacked event, but don’t count on any either. There aren’t any signs of a replacement for the Galaxy Buds 2 or other earbuds. Similarly, Samsung updated the Galaxy A and S series earlier this year. The company’s next hardware updates are very predictable at this stage, and any unusual announcements will likely be reserved for follow-up presentations.
Canon launched the EOS R7 and R10 APS-C RF-S mount cameras earlier this year, finally introducing lens compatibility between crop-sensor and full-frame mirrorless cameras. That puts the future of its current APS-C EOS-M line in doubt, however.
Much like it did with the pioneering EOS-R, Canon made some interesting design decisions with the R7 body, and used a non-stacked, non-backside illuminated sensor. The R7 has a strong feature set, though, offering fast burst speeds, powerful AI autofocus and strong video capabilities. I checked it out with some help from my pro photographer friend, and here’s what we found.
Body and Handling
The EOS R7 has a classic Canon look, and while it’s not quite as pretty as the X-T4, I like the design more than Sony’s boxy APS-C cameras. It looks small in hand but is actually fairly hefty at 612 grams – not much less than the full-frame R6 and considerably more than the 503 gram A6600. The big mount supports both RF and the new RF-lenses designed for the R7 and R10.
It has a deep grip that’s comfortable and provides stability, even with big lenses. There’s a control dial on the front of the grip as usual, but Canon tried a new approach with the rear dial. Instead of putting it on the right where the on/off/video switch is now located, it’s well to the left of that and in a vertical position, wrapped around the joystick.
I wasn’t too sure about that when I first saw it. It didn’t take long to get used to it, though, and Sam noticed that it was easier to change settings or move the focus point one-handed while still keeping a solid grip.
The lack of a third dial for changing things like ISO is an issue, though. It’s certainly manageable through some dedicated buttons, and you can reprogram the control ring on any Canon RF lens, including the two new models, to change the aperture or other settings. Apart from that, the R7 handles nearly as well as the X-T4, and a lot better than any of Sony’s current APS-C cameras.
The 54mm RF mount also used on full-frame cameras looks cartoonishly big on the small body, but it means you can attach RF lenses like the $2,300 50mm f/1.2 That’s good, because Canon has only two RF-S lenses so far, the 18-150mm f/3.5-6.3 and the 18-45mm f/4.5-6.3. Neither is fast nor particularly sharp, but they’re inexpensive and versatile for casual users.
If you do need a faster prime right now, Canon’s $180 RF 50mm f/1.8 or $500 RF 35mm f/1.8 Macro are possible options, but both have an equivalent 1.6 times focal length due to the crop factor. You can also use any EF lenses you have lying around with Canon’s RF to EF adapter.
Steve Dent/Engadget
The R7 has a fully articulating, responsive 1.62-million dot display that gives you full control of the menu, playback, autofocus and other things via touch. The menus are typical Canon, which Sam actually prefers to Sony. I’m less fond of them, as I still have trouble finding settings.
The OLED viewfinder is a bit disappointing, though. You get just 2.36 million dots of resolution, compared to 3.68 million on the X-T4 and GH5-II. For things like bird shooting that require a sharp view to judge focus, this may be an issue.
Canon made a good choice using the same battery from the R5 and R6, rather than the smaller one found on the R10. It allows for a solid 660 shots on a charge, or well over 90 minutes of oversampled 4K 24p video recording.
It has both headphone and microphone jacks, along with a micro-HDMI port that’s unfortunate but par for the course with APS-C cameras. Finally, it has a nice dual UHS-II card setup for easy backups and relatively fast shooting.
Performance
Steve Dent/Engadget
The R7 is a speed-demon of a camera, shooting 15 fps bursts with continuous autofocus using the mechanical shutter and an incredible 30 fps using the electronic shutter. Those are the same maximum frame rates as the $6,000 EOS R3, which makes it great for sports or wildlife shooting, particularly as it has a built-in zoom with the 1.6 times crop factor.
There’s a large caveat on the electronic shutter mode part, though. Not being stacked, the sensor doesn’t read out particularly quickly, so it can produce skewed photos in electronic mode with fast subjects or excessive camera movement. The mechanical shutter is fast enough to be a good option, but it makes a loud clunking noise that could scare away that white-tailed deer or draw unwanted attention at a high-school basketball game.
You’ll get a decent number of frames before they kick you out, though. It delivers 100 shots at 15 fps with the mechanical shutter or about 70 with the electronic shutter before the buffer fills. If you have a fast UHS-II card, the buffer clears out fairly quickly and you can get back to shooting again.
Steve Dent/Engadget
Like other Canon cameras, the R7 uses Canon’s Dual Pixel autofocus with deep learning AI tech. In regular single-point continuous AF mode, it nails shots even with fast moving subjects. And the subject tracking is top-notch, requiring very little fussing. If you select a subject in any AF area mode, it’ll lock on and track it tenaciously. If the subject is a human, animal, bird or even a car, it’ll track their head, body or eyes.
It worked reliably and rapidly for myself and pro photographer Samuel, keeping kids, cats, birds and other quick-moving subjects in focus. Though it can fail to lock into subjects like birds behind a branch, Canon has a “foreground” setting that can help. Canon also offers four AF cases, allowing standard photos, subjects that may appear quickly, subjects that speed up or slow down quickly, and the aforementioned foreground setting. Overall, the AF is right up there with Sony, and superior to Fujifilm and Nikon.
The R7 is one of the smaller bodies available with five-axis in-body stabilization, as well. That system reduces shakes up to 8 stops with select lenses, which allowed me to take sharp shots down to an eighth or even a quarter of a second.
Image quality
While the new 32.5-megapixel image sensor isn’t very fast, image quality is top-notch thanks to the updated DIGIC X image processor, high-megapixel count and Canon’s color science. Compared to the usual 24 megapixels, 32.5 provides a noticeable jump in sharpness and lets you crop into photos more if necessary.
JPEG quality is perhaps the best of any APS-C Canon camera yet, with sharper, more natural images than the M6 Mark II, which also has a 32.5-megapixel processor (though not the same one, Canon says). Samuel said he took several studio photos that he could have given to the client as JPEGs with no processing.
Canon offers both lossy and non-lossy compressed 14-bit RAW files, but it’s hard to see the difference unless you really punch in. Both deliver good dynamic range, with the ability to retain detail in high-contrast scenes. Dynamic range doesn’t quite hold up to Nikon’s Z fc, but it’s not far off.
The R7 has decent but not great low-light shooting capability with usable images up to ISO 6400 or even ISO 12800 if the exposure is good and you don’t try to boost the shadows much in post. Sony’s APS-C cameras are a bit better in that regard, but the resolution is also lower.
Video
For video, the R7 is superior to most APS-C cameras except perhaps Fujifilm’s aging X-T4 and the new $2,500 X-H2S, which offers up to 6.2K shooting. And it’s far better than any of Sony’s APS-C cameras, which lack 10-bit, high frame rates and other features.
You can shoot pin-sharp supersampled 4K using the entire sensor width at up to 30 fps. It also offers 4K at 60fps using either line-skipping or a 1.8 times crop (on top of the 1.6 times crop). Both modes are softer, but the quality is usable for most projects and the rolling shutter issues are less severe.
The R7 also features C-Log3 or PQ HDR video with 10-bit color for increased dynamic range. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have an All-I mode for easy editing, so you’re limited to IPB “long gop” codecs with a regular mode and Lite mode that takes up about half the storage.
Sample video frame
Steve Dent/Engadget
What about overheating? Canon does have some guidance on that, but I never ran into any warnings, even on several warm days. The oversample 4K at 30fps is the most demanding, but Canon says you can shoot at least an hour straight in that mode with no issues.
As with photos, video is sharp and color-accurate with Canon’s trademark warm skin tones. C-Log3 is easy to color grade and offers extra dynamic range for tricky, contrasty shooting situations. I wouldn’t push the ISO to more than 3200 in low-light situations for video, as noise becomes a serious issue.
With in-body stabilization and a flip-out display, the EOS R7 is a good vlogging camera. However, you’ll need to avoid jerky movements, particularly in the oversampled mode, to avoid rolling shutter. You’ll also need a fairly wide lens due to the crop. The two kit lenses barely do the job at the 18mm wide end, particularly with enhanced video stabilization.
Wrap-up
Engadget/Steve Dent
With the $1,500 R7, Canon has largely nailed its first stab at an APS-C RF mount camera. It’s fast, delivers accurate autofocus, and offers solid video capabilities. The biggest problem with it is the rolling shutter due to the relatively slow readout speeds of the non-stacked sensor.
Its main APS-C competition is the $1,600 Fujifilm X-T4 and $1,400 Sony A6600. The R7 is better in most ways than the A6600 and mostly a match for the X-T4 – offering better autofocus but worse rolling shutter. Panasonic’s $1,700 GH5-II has a smaller sensor but is better for video. You can actually find several full-frame cameras cheaper, including the $1,300 Nikon Z5 and Canon’s $1,000 EOS RP, which has no in-body stabilization. The new EOS R10 is less capable, but also much less expensive at $980.
What’s attractive about the R7 compared to most of those models is that Canon has put in all its latest tech from models like the R3, delivering a speedy and dependable camera that’s surprisingly easy to use. Samuel, who uses exclusively Sony gear, put it best – he said that Canon is closing in rapidly on Sony’s technological lead, and if Sony doesn’t respond, it could quickly lose his business.
Microsoft has finally released a version of Teams optimized to run Apple Silicon Macs, it announced. "For Mac users, this means a significant boost in performance, ensuring efficient use of device resources and an optimized Teams experience even when using multiple high-resolution monitors during calls or meetings," wrote Microsoft's Anupam Pattnaik.
The updated app comes nearly two years after Apple revealed its first Silicon-powered M1 devices. So far, Teams has run using Rosetta 2 translation, resulting in performance issues like slow startup times, lag and more. One workaround has been to run the progressive web app version of Teams, which requires the Microsoft Edge Mac browser.
Other Microsoft apps including the Office suite were available not long after Silicon-powered Macs debuted. However, the company only first started beta testing a version of Teams optimized for the new chips back in April.
The new versions of Team will be released as a universal binary that runs natively on both Intel and Silicon-powered Macs. However, you'll still have to wait a bit — Microsoft plans to release it "in increments over the coming months."
Google is moving forward with its merger of Duo and Meet, if not quite as elegantly as some might like. TechCrunchreports Google is rebranding Duo for Android and iOS as the Meet app, complete with the video calling-centric logo. The company had already migrated many of Meet's features. However, the old Meet app isn't going away for now — instead, it will be rebranded as "Google Meet (original)."
All Duo users should see the rebrand by September. You'll have to use your Google account for any meeting features, but familiar elements (like effects and contacts) will remain intact. The original Meet app will continue to work, but won't get ad hoc calling and will eventually disappear.
As a spokesperson explained in June, the merger is meant to adapt to the "evolving needs" of video calling, including meetings, by providing a unified experience. To some extent, it's also further acknowledgment that Google's communication app mix had grown too complex. The tech firm plans to shut down Hangouts this fall to focus on Chat, for instance, and it dropped Allo in early 2019. While the old Meet's existence could still prove confusing, it should soon be clearer as to just which Google apps you should use for work meetings or keeping up with friends.
Winamp is the music software that just won't die, apparently. Pitchforknotes that the developers recently released the classic MP3 program's first update (5.9 RC1 Build 9999) in four years. While it isn't a dramatic change on the outside, the producers described it as the "culmination" of years of hard work, including two teams and a pandemic-dictated hiatus. There are significant under-the-hood changes, including a migration to a much newer development platform.
The software has a long history. Winamp gained fame as the playback software of choice during the early music download era — it was the home for all the MP3s you (or possibly your parents) got from fledgling digital stores and peer-to-peer apps. It played numerous common formats, and was well-known for its highly customizable interface skins and visualizers.
Parent company AOL (formerly Engadget's owner) shut down work in 2013, years after rival apps and streaming options like Spotify took hold, but that wasn't the end. Radionomy bought Winamp in 2014 to aid its online music plans. and the team has lately promised a "totally remastered" experience with podcast and radio features as well as a closer connection to artists.
Winamp's return won't revive the turn-of-the-millennium digital zeitgeist. Streaming still dominates, and there's a chance you listen on your phone or smart speaker more than you do your PC. If the llama-themed startup sound is permanently etched in your brain, though, this could be a welcome dose of nostalgia.
