Facebook is taking another step to encourage users to create original content for its TikTok clone. The company introduced a new “sharing to Reels” feature to allow users of third-party apps to post directly to Facebook Reels.

The update allows outside developers to add a “Reels button” to their app so users can post clips directly to Reels while taking advantage of Reels’ editing tools, Facebook wrote in a blog post. Initial developers to use the feature include Smule, which makes a popular karaoke app and video editing apps Vita and VivaVideo.

The move is yet another sign of the growing importance of Reels, and how Facebook has tried to borrow from the same playbook it used with Stories. Facebook has pushed Reels into nearly every part of its service in recent months just as it once did with Stories when the company viewed Snapchat as its chief rival. Now, with Facebook losing users to TikTok, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has staked a lot on the success of Reels. He said last fall that Reels would be “as important for our products as Stories” and that reorienting its service to appeal to younger users was the company’s “North Star.”

But incentivizing users to post original content, not just ripped off TikTok clips, has been somewhat of a challenge for the company. Instagram, which has had Reels the longest, said a year ago that it would stop promoting videos with other apps’ watermarks, but the service is still filled with recycled TikToks. Adding a “Reels” button to other content creation apps is unlikely to solve that overnight, but it could help bring in some fresh, non-TikTok-created clips.

Block disclosed today that a security breach involving a former employee impacts 8.2 million Cash App users. In an SEC filing, the company reported that an ex-employee on December 10th downloaded a number of reports with information on customer information. The exfiltrated data included full names, brokerage account numbers, brokerage portfolio value, brokerage portfolio holdings and reports of stock trading activity.

According to the filing, only customers that used Cash App’s stock function are potentially included in the breach. While Cash App got its start as a peer-to-peer payment app, its customers can also use it to buy stocks and Bitcoin. No other Cash App features outside of stocks were involved in the breach, nor did it include any customers outside of the US, according to the company. 

“The reports did not include usernames or passwords, Social Security numbers, date of birth, payment card information, addresses, bank account information, or any other personally identifiable information. They also did not include any security code, access code, or password used to access Cash App accounts. Other Cash App products and features (other than stock activity) and customers outside of the United States were not impacted,” wrote Block in the filing.

Block has launched a formal investigation into the incident and has contacted law enforcement. It also plans on notifying all 8.2 million customers involved in the breach by email.

According to the filing, the ex-employee once had access to the customer information as an employee at CashApp. But by the time the breach occurred, they had already been gone from the company for several months. It’s unclear how a former employee was still able to retrieve such highly sensitive information. Engadget has reached out to Block for a response, and will update if we hear back.

For today only, you can get $50 off the Xbox Series S through camera retailer Adorama. With the discount, Microsoft’s entry-level ninth-generation console costs $250. That matches one of the best prices we’ve seen for the system to date. To take advantage of the offer, you’ll need to input the code“XBOXS2250” at checkout. Today’s promotion is only available until midnight.

Engadget awarded the Series S a score of 85 when it was first released in November 2020. We liked the console for its compact design and expansive library of Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One games accessible through Microsoft’s backward compatibility program. Since then, its library has only grown with the release of first-party exclusives like Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5 and Psychonauts 2.

We called the Series S the next-gen starter pack when it came out. That aptly highlights some of its shortcomings. It only comes with 512GB of internal storage. You’ll need to buy one of Seagate’s expensive expansion cards to add additional space, and those start at $139 for the 512GB model. The Series S is also limited to 1440p and doesn’t offer the same backward compatibility experience as its more expensive sibling. We don’t think those are deal-breakers, but if you have the money to buy the Series X, it’s the more capable console.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Epic Games has built a mobile app that can turn photos into 3D scans. Capturing Reality, a company Epic bought last year, created photogrammetric software called RealityCapture. It can quickly convert laser scans or images into 3D scans of assets. With the RealityScan app, Epic is hoping to give users access to the same tech right on their phone. 

The idea is that creatives will be able to scan real-world objects at any time to use in their projects. After you sign in with your Epic Games account, the app will prompt you to take at least 20 photos of an item. You can also hold down your finger on the capture button as you move around the object. 

After the app processes the images and turns it into a 3D object with the help of RealityCapture's servers, you can export the scan to Sketchfab (a 3D asset platform Epic also bought in 2021).

You'll then be able to sell the asset to other creatives or use them for your own 3D, virtual reality and augmented reality projects. Game developers might find the app particularly useful if they're in need of a particular item to place in a virtual environment. As it happens, Epic just opened up access to Unreal Engine 5.

Epic is testing a beta of the app with a limited number of iOS users before a broader, early access rollout on iPhone this spring. An Android version of RealityScan will arrive later this year.

Opera has long offered a free VPN to its browser's Android users, but now it's hoping you're willing to pay up. The software maker has launched a beta VPN Pro service for Android that, for a fee, secures connections across the entire device. That sounds much like any other paid VPN service, but Opera is promising a few advantages.

You can subscribe using an existing Opera browser and account, so you won't have to download a separate app if you're already using the free option. Opera also won't maintain data logs that might be used to track your activity. It's too soon to know if the company will live up to promises of "high-speed servers," but you can combine Opera's data-saving mode with VPN Pro to avoid running into any carrier data caps.

The VPN Pro beta is available now if you're using at least Android 6.0 and Opera for Android Beta 68.2. The price may be appealing, too. Early adopters can subscribe for $2 per month if they commit to three months, or $3 for one month. This won't be enough if you want VPN service across every device your own, but it might do the trick if you either value a more secure phone or just want to stream services in other countries.

As an audio company, JLab is known for producing affordable but interesting products. Take one of its more recent releases, the Go Air Tones. It worked with nail care brand ORLY to create a set of earbuds available in seven Pantone colors designed to match various skin tones. Its new JBuds Air Pro offer a different value proposition. Priced at $60, they feature 6mm drivers with AAC codec support built-in, IP55 certification and up to 36 hours of playtime with the included charging case. But according to JLabs, the highlight of the JBuds Air Pro is the inclusion of Bluetooth multipoint connectivity.

That feature allows you to connect the JBuds Air Pro to two devices simultaneously. In that way, you can listen to music on your computer and then answer a call that comes to your phone without jumping into the Bluetooth settings of either device.

JLab is positioning Bluetooth Multipoint as a value-add you won’t find on more expensive earbuds like the AirPods Pro. But the reality is more complicated than that. Multipoint connectivity has been a part of Bluetooth since its 4.0 release more than a decade ago, but you have to go out of your way to find headphones that support the feature. Part of that is that it’s challenging to pull off correctly. For instance, on Sony’s excellent WH-1000XM4, multipoint connectivity only works when the headphones connect to a device via AAC. Still, it’s a handy feature and one you won’t find on many earbuds, particularly ones that cost $60.

The JBuds Air Pro are available to order today from the JLab website.

As part of its hybrid work event, Microsoft revealed some system-wide features designed to improve virtual meetings on Windows 11. Some are hardware-dependent, however, so if you have an under-powered machine, they might not necessarily be available on your PC.

The features include automatic framing (which will refocus your camera on you when you move around), voice focus, voice clarity and background blur. An AI-powered feature called eye contact could make people seem more present in meetings too.

In February, Microsoft started testing a system-wide live captions feature, which could prove helpful for deaf and hard of hearing folks, as well as those for whom a meeting isn't being held in their first language. The tech generates captions for any audio content, including audio from microphones and web-based audio (such as from video platforms like Twitch and YouTube).

Microsoft

The upgrades might seem familiar to those who've spent time in video calling apps over the last couple of years. The likes of NVIDIA, Dolby, Zoom,Skype and Google Meet have tackled issues like environmental noise and visual background distractions. 

Microsoft itself announced some intelligent camera features for Teams in September and has been working to improve meetings in Teams. Integrating these features at the OS level, though, should make virtual meetings more accessible and user-friendly for more people.

With road trip season about to commence, Google Maps is getting an update that should help make vacation planning a bit easier thanks to enhanced details and a new feature that will calculate estimated toll prices. 

Previously, while Google Maps could tell you which routes had tolls or not, you didn't get much info beyond that. But now, in an update rolling out later this month that will cover more than 2,000 roads across the US, India, Japan and Indonesia, users will be able to see estimated toll pricing sourced from local authorities.

Google

This means you should have more information when trying to figure out the cheapest way to get to your destination, with Google Maps even factoring in things like different payment methods (e.g. paying with a pass versus cash/credit), the day of the week or even the specific time you're expected hit a toll. And of course, if you want to save as much money as possible, Google will still surface toll-free routes and provide an option to completely block routes with tolls from being displayed.

Google

On top of that, to help make driving through unfamiliar territory a bit less scary, Google Maps is also getting enhanced details. Soon, you'll be able to see things like traffic lights and stops signs along with additional info regarding nearby points of interest and even more precise building outlines. Google also says that in select cities, users will be able to spot details like the shape of the road, including features such as medians and islands. The update is slated to roll out to Android, iOS, Android and CarPlay throughout select countries in the coming weeks. 

Finally, for those with iOS devices, Google is adding a few extra features for use across Apple's ecosystem. On iPhones and iPads, Maps is getting a new trip widget that will let you pin your next trek to your home screen. Additionally, the standard Google Maps search widget is also getting a size reduction, so you can quickly lookup a destination without the widget taking up too much screen real estate. 

Google

Meanwhile, for those who want to travel super light, Google is adding deeper support for Google Maps to the Apple Watch. This will allow you to look up a destination and even see directions on your wrist, all without ever having to pick up your phone. Additionally, iOS Spotlight, Siri and the Shortcuts app are also getting Google Maps integration in the coming months, so you can more easily search for a place using voice commands. 

With Sony and Canon dominating headlines, Nikon has been the forgotten company in the mirrorless race. That’s set to change, though, with the launch of the 45.7-megapixel Z9. It’s an innovative professional camera that offers awesome speed, incredible detail and outstanding 8K video capabilities.

Nikon is breaking some new ground with this camera, too. It’s the first mirrorless model with no mechanical shutter, relying instead on a fast sensor to minimize the jello effect that can happen with an electronic shutter.

The Z9 is not without some flaws, though. It’s quite heavy compared to rival models like Sony’s A1 and the lack of a fully articulating screen makes it a hard sell for videographers. At $5,500 for the body only, it’s quite expensive — let’s see how it measures up to the competition.

Design and handling

The Z9 is, honestly, a chunky camera. It weighs around 1,340 grams, or just 60 grams less than Nikon’s D6 DSLR. By contrast, the Canon EOS R3 weighs 1,015 grams and Sony’s A1 is a mere 737 grams. A camera that heavy can be fatiguing but then again, many professional photographers prefer big, heavy cameras for stability.

The large size meant Nikon could include a nice big grip that imparts a feeling of security, particularly with a big lens attached. Like Canon’s EOS R3, you can rotate it 90 degrees and get matching controls and a grip, allowing for easy operation in portrait mode.

The Z9 has a generous array of manual controls, but I’m not a big fan of the layout. The AF button is positioned on the left side next to the lens, which I find awkward. The top display also takes up space that could’ve been used for more buttons. On the plus side, it has a large number of programmable buttons, so you can set it up the way you like. If you’re a longtime Nikon user, you might enjoy the layout more than I did.

Compared to Sony and Panasonic’s latest cameras, the menu system is a bit too complicated. Rather than dividing things into subcategories, you have to scroll down for a while on certain menus to find what you need. Your best bet to avoid any hassle is to program the custom menus and buttons to do what you need.

Steve Dent/Engadget

With 2.09 million dots, the 3.2-inch touchscreen is relatively sharp and bright, but there are a few drawbacks. As mentioned, it only tilts up and out to the right, so self-shooting or vlogging is impossible unless you have an external display. Sony’s A1 also lacked a fully articulating display, but Canon has finally included one in its professional EOS R3 model.

The EVF’s resolution is a bit disappointing for a camera this expensive, at just 3.69 million dots, compared to 9.44 million on the Sony A1. Considering the high-res sensor, that seems like a miss. On the plus side, it uses “Dual-Stream” tech to send data to the sensor and EVF simultaneously. As a result, you get blackout-free performance during all shooting, and according to Nikon, that comes with zero frame skipping or repeating. That’s likely a light dig at some Sony cameras, which drop the EVF resolution under certain shooting conditions.

Nikon has gone all-in on CFexpress for the Z9, with two CFexpress and no SD card slots. This is smart for a couple of reasons. There’s no compromise on speed for burst shooting or video, which is crucial for high frame rates required for ProRes HQ and, down the road, RAW video. It also means that professional shooters can record to two cards at once for a backup, with no compromise on speed. The downside, of course, is that CFexpress and XQD cards are much more expensive than SD cards.

Other features include a huge EN-EL18D battery that delivers a solid 740 shots on a charge and over two hours of 4K video, as well as backward compatibility with D6 and other Nikon pro DSLR batteries. It also comes with a USB-C 3.2 slot for both transfers and storage, mic and headphone jacks, an Ethernet port for remote shooting and a full-sized HDMI jack. While the Z9 doesn’t have a mechanical shutter, it does have a cover to protect the sensor when you change lenses.

Performance

Steve Dent/Engadget

The Z9 is Nikon’s fastest mirrorless camera to date. You can shoot up to 20 RAW frames per second at full resolution, 30 JPEGs or a blindingly-fast 120 JPEGS per second at a lower11-MP resolution. Again, all of those speeds are in electronic shutter mode, because there’s no mechanical shutter. You can, of course, shoot in silent mode, or activate a simulated shutter sound if you really need to hear that “click.”

That’s fast, but I managed just 40 lossless RAW photos with a very fast CFexpress card before the buffer filled. If you’re fine using the lossy “high-efficiency” modes, however, you can shoot anywhere from 70 to nearly infinite photos without stopping.

The hybrid phase-detect autofocus is a big improvement over the last model, too. Nikon has brought 3D tracking over from its DSLRs, but it’s far better in the Z9 because it has 493 AF tracking points, far more than the others have.

It delivers very reliable subject tracking most of the time. Normally, you just set the tracking point on an athlete or other fast-moving subject, and the AF will keep them in focus. Occasionally, it will drop the subject and focus on the background or something else, particularly with birds or other fast objects. In general, it works as well or nearly as well as the subject-tracking AF on Sony’s latest A1 and A7 IV models.

Steve Dent/Engadget

The new face, eye, vehicle and animal detection is incredibly fast and accurate as well, even if the subject is a good distance away. In fact, the Z9 can recognize nine types of subjects automatically: human eyes, faces, heads and upper bodies; animal eyes, heads and bodies; and cars, planes, trains and motorbikes. I didn’t have a chance to test all of those, but for several different subjects, even at high burst speeds, most of my shots were in focus.

With no mechanical shutter, fast readout speeds are key to reducing skew and other issues. Happily, the Z9’s stacked, backside-illuminated CMOS sensor is up to the job. I never saw any rolling shutter unless I really whipped the camera around. So even for sports or bird photography, you’re not likely to see any issues.

At the same time, the 5-axis in-body stabilization reduces blurry shots due to camera movement or hand shake. The six stops of shake reduction are well below the Canon EOS R3’s 8 stops, however.

Image quality

With 45.7 megapixels on tap, the Z9 delivers sharp images with very high dynamic range. In fact, next to all rivals, it’s second only to Nikon’s own Z7 II, which is the current dynamic range champion and packs a similar sensor. All RAW images are now captured with 14-bit color depth, giving you plenty of room to tweak them in Adobe Lightroom or Nikon’s NX Studio.

Color accuracy is better than I’ve seen on previous models, possibly thanks to the Nikon Z9’s new Expeed 7 processor that brings improvements to white balance. However, skin tones aren’t quite as warm as with Canon’s R3 or R5. JPEG images look nice straight out of the camera, though they can be slightly over-sharpened with the default settings.

The Z9 has a wide ISO range of 64-25,600, expandable to 32-102,400. The low 64 setting is nice to have in bright sunlight if you want to avoid completely closing down the iris (which can hurt image quality). It performs pretty well in low-light, too. Grain is well-controlled up to about ISO 6,400, and shots are usable at ISO 12,800. Beyond that, noise starts to get distracting. The Z9 is about the same as Canon’s R5 in that regard, but not up to the level of Sony’s A7R IV or A1.

Video

The Z9 is Nikon’s most competent video camera to date, and by far. For starters, it can record 8K H.265 for up to two hours without any overheating or other issues. That’s something Canon’s smaller EOS R5 can’t do, though it is $1,600 cheaper. The Z9 can shoot very sharp 4K at up to 30 fps by oversampling the full width of the sensor, and up to 120 fps with continuous autofocus and sound.

Right now, you can record 4K using ProRes 4:2:2 HQ, a widely used format that creates large files, but is easy to edit. It also records in H.265 10-bit mode for 8K and 4K video. Meanwhile, Nikon’s N-Log mode lets you max out dynamic range, so you can easily adjust shadows and highlights when editing.

There’s more to come, though. In a future firmware update, Nikon will offer 8K 60p internal RAW video using a format called TicoRaw. When it arrives later this year, it’ll let you capture 11 minutes of lossless 12-bit 8K RAW video and 54 minutes of visually lossless 8K to a 1TB card.

As with photos, video autofocus is fast, reliable and can track a subject’s face even if they’re fairly far away. It also follows subjects smoothly when they’re moving toward the camera, though you may have to tweak the AF speed. Unfortunately, the only way to find or use that setting is to dive into the menus. Hopefully, Nikon will let you assign it to a button in a future upgrade.

Steve Dent/Engadget

Rolling shutter is more prominent in video than stills, particularly at the 8K and 4K oversampled resolutions. However, it’s still not nearly as bad on some cameras (looking at you, Sony’s A7 IV) thanks to the extremely fast sensor readout speeds. It’s not even really noticeable unless you whip-pan the camera or have a fast-moving subject.

8K and 4K oversampled video is extremely sharp. Quality drops a hair at the higher frame rate 4K settings, when pixel-binning kicks in, but it’s nothing you’d notice unless you’re looking for it. Colors are accurate, but again, skin tones aren’t quite as pretty as on Canon’s latest models.

Dynamic range is also top notch, particularly in the 400-800 ISO range in ProRes mode, making it easy to adjust shadows and highlights in post. If you love shooting ProRes footage, be sure to get some high-capacity CFexpress cards, because the file sizes can get huge; they take around 132GB for 10 minutes of 4K 60p ProRes HQ footage.

Wrap-up

Steve Dent/Engadget

The Z9 is Nikon’s most versatile and powerful mirrorless camera yet, and the lack of a mechanical shutter is a non-issue. It’s particularly strong for video, and will be a powerhouse once the RAW video firmware update arrives. However, Nikon’s decision to not use a fully articulating screen is a shame, considering all this awesome video capability.

The Z9’s main rival is Sony’s $6,500 A1, which offers similar shooting speeds, resolution and video capabilities. The Z9 is $1,000 cheaper and will (eventually) have higher 8K frame rates with the upcoming firmware update. However, your choice may come down to whether you prefer Sony or Nikon’s camera systems.

Another option is Canon’s $6,000 EOS R3. With just a 24-MP sensor, though, it’s designed primarily for sports, so it’s not ideal for studio or landscape work. Overall, the Z9 is a great choice for pros who don’t want to compromise on any kind of shooting, whether that’s photos or video.

Olive Union has started taking pre-orders for Olive Max, its new pair of hearing aids that doubles as a pair of ordinary wireless earbuds. The company says the model was built-on top of the success of Olive Pro, the 2-in-1 hearing aids/earbuds it released back in 2020. While Olive Pro looks like a pair of Apple AirPods, Max uses a custom-built design that wraps around the top the wearer's ear for a "more stable listening experience." The new model also serves as a the debut product for Olive's adaptive hearing technology, which is apparently its most requested feature. 

Olive's adaptive hearing tech is powered by an AI that learns and improves the feature the more a user wears the device. It then uses machine learning tech to automatically customize Max's sound settings to suit the wearer's current environment. The new model also comes with a new voice auto-focus feature and a new sound engine that give it the capability to detect voices better, as well as to more effectively reduce and filter background noise. Olive claims Max is capable of separating voices from noises with such "incredible accuracy" that it won't distort the user's own voice while it's filtering out ambient sounds. 

The Olive Max is an FDA Class 2 hearing aid that works for people with mild to severe hearing loss. It can last for up to 8 hours on a single charge, though its charging case can extend its battery life for up to 18 hours. It also only takes five minutes to set up using its accompanying iOS or Android app. The model is now available for pre-order for $299 and will start shipping in the fourth quarter of 2022. After the promo ends, Olive Max will be sold for $549.