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08.04.2025 02:50 Rumors circulated today that robotaxi company Waymo might use data from vehicles' interior cameras to train AI and sell targeted ads to riders. However, the company has tried to quell concerns, insisting that it won't be targeting ads to passengers. The situation arose after researcher and engineer Jane Manchun Wong discovered an unreleased version of Waymo's privacy policy that suggested the robotaxi company could start using data from its vehicles to train generative AI. The draft policy has language allowing customers to opt out of Waymo "using your personal information for training GAI." Wong's discovery also suggested that Waymo could use that camera footage to sell personalized ads to riders. Later in the day, The Verge obtained comments on this unreleased privacy policy from Waymo spokesperson Julia Ilina. "Waymo's systems are not designed to use this data to identify individual people, and there are no plans to use this data for targeted ads," she said. Ilina said the version found by Wong featured "placeholder text that doesn’t accurately reflect the feature’s purpose" and noted that the feature was still in development. It "will not introduce any changes to Waymo’s Privacy Policy, but rather will offer riders an opportunity to opt out of data collection for ML training purposes." Hopefully Waymo holds to those statements. Privacy and security are huge concerns as AI companies try to feed their models as much information as possible. Waymo is owned by Alphabet and Google is developing its own AI assistant, Gemini, as well as other AI projects with its DeepMind division.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/waymo-has-no-plans-to-sell-ads-to-riders-based-on-camera-data-225340265.html?src=rss

08.04.2025 02:50 Consumer electronics brand Framework announced today on X that it will temporarily suspend US sales of select laptop models as a result of the global tariffs enacted for the country last week. The company said it will remove the Ultra 5 125H and Ryzen 5 7640U versions of its Laptop 13 systems from its website. At the time of publish, that Ultra 5 Intel model is not listed, but the Ryzen 5 one with the AMD chip appears to still be available for purchase. In a follow-up post, the company said that it originally priced its laptops based on a 0 percent tariff for goods from Taiwan. With the current 10 percent tariff, the products would be sold at a loss. "Other consumer goods makers have performed the same calculations and taken the same actions, though most have not been open about it," Framework said. Given the language of the initial post, this doesn't seem to be the end of US customers' chances to buy Laptop 13 models. But the sweeping tariffs on imports enacted by President Donald Trump last week have already sparked other industries to rethink their US sales and pricing. UK-based Jaguar Land Rover also paused shipments to the US as a result of the tariffs, while Japan's Nintendo has delayed pre-orders for the Switch 2 gaming console, although the launch date appears unchanged.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/framework-pauses-some-us-laptop-sales-due-to-tariffs-221115971.html?src=rss

08.04.2025 02:50 After an internal investigation, The White House has come up with a likely explanation for how Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was included in a Signal chat filled with Trump officials planning to bomb the Houthis. The Guardian reports that the issue came down to National Security Advisor Mike Waltz not understanding how his iPhone works. Apparently, after Goldberg attempted to contact the Trump campaign about a separate issue in 2024, Brian Hughes, a Trump spokesperson, shared Goldberg's contact information and email signature with Waltz. It only took a few wrong taps after that to lay the groundwork for "Signalgate," The Guardian writes: Waltz did not ultimately call Goldberg, the people said, but in an extraordinary twist, inadvertently ended up saving Goldberg’s number in his iPhone – under the contact card for Hughes, now the spokesperson for the national security council. So Waltz didn't realize his iPhone was updating a contact rather than creating a new one, and meant to add Hughes to the group chat rather than Goldberg. This explanation doesn't change the fact that the kind of planning happening in the "Houthi PC small group" probably shouldn't have taken place on an encrypted messaging app — and especially without Congress weighing in. But this discovery does add a new flavor of grim stupidity to the whole affair. Not long after Signalgate, the Pentagon warned against using Signal because it's vulnerable to Russian phishing attacks, but clearly the Trump administration likes the app's security and the instantaneous communication it allows. Having a more secure option reportedly hasn't stopped Waltz from using Gmail, though.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/the-white-house-has-reportedly-settled-on-an-explanation-for-how-signalgate-happened-212107380.html?src=rss

08.04.2025 02:50 Players are gearing up for the arrival of the Switch 2 this summer, and we've been piecing together details about how game ownership and sharing will work. The picture is coming together, and in true Nintendo fashion, it's a bit odd. Developers who release projects on the Switch 2 will have the option to sell their work as a "Game-Key card," which looks like a traditional physical game cartridge, but has no game data stored on it. Instead, when slotted into a Switch 2, game-key cards will automatically present instructions on how to download the title in question. The hardware will need an Internet connection and enough space for the game files on its system memory or microSD Express card. Once the download is complete, that Switch 2 can run the game whenever the game-key card is inserted into the system. The Switch no longer needs an Internet connection once the title has been downloaded, unless the game separately requires you to be online to play. We've now learned via GameSpot that game-key cards won't be automatically connected to a single console or to a user's Nintendo account. It's an unusual hybrid approach, and with many hybrid concepts, you get the best and worst of both worlds. For instance, storage is going to be at a premium in the Switch 2 and game-key card downloads will eat into that limited space. And unfortunately, game-key cards don't future-proof customers against the day when Nintendo might decide to shut down the servers for the Switch 2, as it did with other sunsetted hardware like the Wii U and 3DS in 2024. If and when that happens, the game-key cards will be essentially useless. But there are some upsides, particularly when it comes to sharing or reselling games. We already knew that Nintendo would have an option called GameShare that supports local multiplayer with only a single purchased copy of the title, while Virtual Game Cards offer digital sharing . The addition of game-key cards that aren't tied to a single person's Nintendo account makes it easier to pass a game off to a friend once you've finished with it, or to resell it and recoup some of the $80 price tag of major releases. And in case you were wondering: yes, the game cartridges will still taste terrible.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/switch-2-game-key-cards-wont-be-tied-to-your-nintendo-account-204735286.html?src=rss

07.04.2025 21:50 Jackbox has been making fun party games for well over a decade at this point, but it just held its first-ever direct livestream event. The company had plenty of news to share, including the pending release of both a new minigame collection and a standalone trivia title. The Jackbox Party Pack 11 includes "five brand-new game concepts to bring the party game experience to the next level." These include an audio-based game in which players compete to make the best sound effects. There’s also a fantasy-themed trivia title and a head-to-head joke-writing game. The pack is rounded out by a social deduction game that’s centered around a court trial and a "cozy drawing game." That last one tasks players to create designs based on "bizarre prompts." If it’s anything like Drawful, which is a fantastic drawing-based game by Jackbox, we will be extremely pleased. The Jackbox Party Pack 11 will be available this fall for just about every platform. If you feel like you haven't heard from Jackbox Games in a while, that’s because it didn’t release a party pack last year. The company said it took a year off to "innovate and deliver some long-requested products for fans." The showcase concluded with the reveal of Trivia Murder Party 3, the next entry in the franchise. This one brings online matchmaking into the mix, though folks can still play locally via the classic Jackbox room code. This installment is set in a summer camp with a serial killer on the loose. Only answering trivia questions can stop the murderous rampage. It will be available as an early access title on Steam later in the year, with a general release date set for 2026.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/jackbox-is-back-with-new-party-games-including-one-based-on-sound-effects-184524066.html?src=rss

07.04.2025 21:50  With the last Mission: Impossible film, Dead Reckoning, the long-running franchise officially entered science fiction territory by making intelligent AI its villain. We've seen Tom Cruise's Ethan hunt jump off of buildings and hang from the side of planes, but how can he fight a computer program? The latest trailer for the series' next film, and potentially the last to feature Hunt, doesn't answer that question, but clearly it will involve even more death-defying stunts , geeky gadgets and Tom Cruise running inhumanly fast. As I wrote in my review of Deck Reckoning: "As much as I love other action film franchises – like John Wick’s increasingly elaborate choreography, or the sheer ridiculousness of the Fast and the Furious – Mission: Impossible remains uniquely enjoyable. It’s committed to delivering astonishing practical stunt work. It’s self-aware just enough to poke fun at itself. And a part of me hopes that somehow, a team of geeks can also fight back against the excesses of AI." Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning hits theaters on May 23.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/tom-cruise-gears-up-to-save-us-from-ai-in-the-latest-mission-impossible---the-final-reckoning-trailer-181032815.html?src=rss

07.04.2025 21:50 When the AirPods Max arrived in late 2020, there wasn’t much spatial audio content for Apple’s high-end headphones. What’s more, there wasn’t any support at all for lossless audio. The company hadn’t added Dolby Atmos and lossless tunes to Apple Music yet, but even when those arrived, Apple still hadn’t solved my biggest problem with the $549 headphones. With iOS 18.4 and a firmware update for the AirPods Max with USB-C, Apple has finally put the finishing touches on its only headphones with lossless audio. Let’s back up a few months. Last September, Apple gave the AirPods Max its only significant update since the original launch: it swapped the Lightning jack for a USB-C port. The headphones are still running on the aging H1 chip when the rest of the current AirPods lineup has moved on to the more recent and more capable H2. I wasn’t upset that the company didn’t take the opportunity to update the AirPods Max design, but the failure to upgrade that chip was a head scratcher. Now that lossless audio is here on the lightly refreshed AirPods Max, the headphones feel more complete. But that took over four years to finally happen, and if you bought the 2020 model you won’t be able to use this newly added capability. You’ll need the USB-C version of the AirPods Max that arrived last year and either iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4 or macOS Sequoia 15.4 to unlock lossless and ultra-low latency audio. How to get lossless audio on AirPods Max with USB-C Billy Steele for Engadget Once you’ve updated one of your Apple devices to iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4 or macOS Sequoia 15.4, connect your AirPods Max to it via Bluetooth. You’ll then want to plug the headphones into a power outlet or USB-C port with the included cable. If you keep the two gadgets in close proximity for about 30 minutes, the AirPods Max firmware update should download. To check, hop into the AirPods Max settings and scroll down to the About section. Here, you’ll want to see version 7E101 to confirm you’ve got the goods. You’ll want to keep that cable handy. Lossless audio on the AirPods Max is only available for wired use. You will still need to establish a Bluetooth connection for all of the smart features like hands-free Siri. Apple also sells a new $39 USB-C-to-3.5mm cord if you want to go that route, but either way, you’ll need a cable due to the limitations of high-res audio over Bluetooth. Why isn’t lossless audio available on the original AirPods Max? If you bought Apple’s $549 headphones in 2020, I can understand your frustration that you aren’t privy to this update. However, I wouldn’t assume Apple made this decision just to drive sales. There are hardware limitations with the Lightning port that hinders lossless audio, specifically a data throughput constraint on the previous version. Apple made some changes to the DAC inside the AirPods Max to make lossless happen, which wasn’t possible on the older model either. Does lossless audio make a difference? I’ve heard some people say they can’t tell the difference between normal songs and lossless tunes. I’d argue it depends on what you’re listening to. If it’s a recent pop tune from Dua Lipa or Sabrina Carpenter, you’re better off with the Dolby Atmos mix and likely won’t pick up any more detail for high-resolution streaming. For bass heavy, chaotic genres like metal, I notice a better balance to the mix. Vocals on Spiritbox’s Tsunami Sea rise above the booming drums and thrashing guitar, and the bass is a little more subdued. Same for Underoath’s The Place After This One, where all the instruments seem to have more separation from the vocals. And overall, the bombastic tracks on this album feel bigger and more immersive. Lossless audio on the AirPods Max particularly elevates acoustic genres like bluegrass and folk, in addition to other mellow styles like jazz. I might as well have been inside the acoustic guitar on Julien Baker TORRES’ “Sugar in the Tank” as I felt like I could hear every percussive detail on every string. I can’t imagine the sound would’ve been much better on Jason Isbell’s Foxes in the Snow if I was actually in the room at Electric Lady Studios during the recording. That 1940 Martin 0-17, the only instrument on the album, is so pure and true. Jump to Miles Davis’ Birth of the Blue where the horns, piano, bass and drums all seem a little livelier and a little more energetic, with Davis’ trumpet belting out its verse-like cadence throughout. Do you have to use Apple Music? Apple First, let’s talk about what’s available on Apple Music. Since June 2021, the service has offered lossless audio to subscribers at no additional cost. This starts at CD quality, which is 16 bit at 44.1 kHz, and goes up to 24 bit at 48 kHz. That latter rate is the maximum that AirPods Max can now support via the USB-C connection, and Apple says there are now 100 million songs available on its service in lossless quality. There is also a collection of Hi-Resolution Lossless content on Apple Music, which goes up to 24 bit at 192 kHz. You’ll need extra gear like a USB DAC in order to listen at that level, though. You aren’t limited to just Apple Music. Anywhere you can stream lossless audio up to 24 bit at 48 kHz you can do so with these headphones. There are other services that offer this , or you can play locally stored files. The only requirement is a USB-C cable; your source isn't limited to Apple. Wrap-up It’s always nice when a company directly addresses one of your complaints. It’s not great when it takes over four years to do so. Now that lossless audio is here for the AirPods Max, I can no longer argue that the headphones feel incomplete, which is a big improvement from where they were at launch. I keep going back and forth over whether or not this update is enough, though. It’s the first time Apple has expanded the capabilities of the AirPods Max in over four years, and it could only do so for the minimally updated 2024 version. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who has a solid track record with Apple product scoops, reported in November that the company had “no real plan to meaningfully update AirPods Max.” He said the headphones don’t sell well enough to justify much R&D, but they’re not a big enough failure to be permanently shelved. With that in mind, this update, which adds ultra-low latency for gamers in addition to lossless audio, is actually a lot bigger than it ordinarily would be. But to continue to demand $549 for what’s essentially 2020 hardware, Apple needs to trot out these types of updates regularly. While you can find these headphones on sale for as low as $449, that's still a steep investment. Even then, the AirPods Max would be tough to recommend to anyone other than iPhone and Mac die-hards with deep pockets. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/how-to-use-lossless-audio-on-the-airpods-max-180026218.html?src=rss

07.04.2025 21:50 The Hugo Awards began honoring video games for the first time back in 2021. This week, the organization revealed the list of six finalists for the 2025 awards ceremony. It’s a cornucopia of critically-acclaimed titles from the past year or so. Let’s go over the nominations. Two AAA titles are up for the award. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Echoes of Wisdom changes up the franchise formula, casting players as the titular Zelda. The gameplay involves summoning monsters and items to solve puzzles and do battle. It’s pretty awesome. We especially loved Dragon Age: The Veilguard, calling it "BioWare at its best." The graphics are fantastic and the gameplay is more action-oriented than previous entries in the franchise. It continues the story of the decade-old Dragon Age Inquisition. The Hugos are also honoring a spate of smaller titles. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes got a nom, and this was one of our favorite games of 2024. It’s a near-perfect puzzle game that subverts the genre at every turn. We said it was the perfect game "for fans of puzzles, narrative twists and David Lynch." Caves of Qud is an incredibly deep and lore-heavy roguelike set in a fantasy realm. It was actually in early access for a full 15 years before getting an official release last year. 1000xRESIST is a sci-fi adventure game that was praised primarily for its engaging story. Finally, Tactical Breach Wizards is a turn-based RPG starring, you guessed it, wizards. Some reviews have called it the best strategy game since XCOM 2. The final winner will be announced at the 83rd World Science Fiction Convention in Seattle on August 16. Previous winners include Hades and Baldur’s Gate 3.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/2025-hugo-award-game-finalists-include-zelda-echoes-of-wisdom-and-dragon-age-the-veilguard-171135638.html?src=rss

07.04.2025 21:50 Google is bringing AI Mode to more people in the US. The company announced on Monday it would make the new search tool, first launched at the start of last month, to millions of more Labs users across the country. For uninitiated, AI Mode is a new dedicated tab within Search. It's essentially Google's answer to ChatGPT Search. It allows you to ask more complicated questions of Google, with a custom version of Gemini 2.0 doing the legwork to deliver a nuanced AI-generated response. Labs, meanwhile, is a beta program you can enroll your Google account in to gain access to new Search features before the company rolls them out to the public. In addition to bringing AI Mode to more people, Google is unlocking the tool's multimodal capabilities. Starting today, you can snap and upload images to AI Mode, allowing you to ask questions about what you see. The feature brings together AI Mode with Google's Lens technology. "With Gemini's multimodal capabilities, AI Mode can understand the entire scene in an image, including the context of how objects relate to one another and their unique materials, colors, shapes and arrangements," Google explains. "Using our query fan-out technique, AI Mode then issues multiple queries about the image as a whole and the objects within the image, accessing more breadth and depth of information than a traditional search on Google." AI Mode's new Lens integration is available through the Google app on Android and iOS.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-ai-mode-rolls-out-to-more-testers-with-new-image-search-feature-160054334.html?src=rss

07.04.2025 21:50 HBO’s The Last of Us took a riveting action game bolstered by intimate human moments and made a richly human drama supported by terrifying action. In returning for season two, and now using the sequel game as source material, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann had quite a bit more work cut out for them. The first season greatly expanded the emotional depth and breadth of Joel and Ellie’s cross-country journey while also fleshing out the stories of many others they meet along the way, and the cast was outstanding. That was over two years ago, and now it’s encore time. Season two premieres on HBO this Sunday, April 13, and I am once again happy to report that the show does a faithful job of capturing the first part of a complex story while also fixing a few of the minor complaints I had about the first season. The show picks up exactly where season one concluded. Joel and Ellie return to the settlement of Jackson, Wyoming, where Joel’s brother Tommy is part of a peaceful, well-fortified commune — a rare oasis of relative safety in a destroyed world. This comes about a year after the Fireflies — a militia group searching for a cure for the zombie infection — tasked Joel with smuggling Ellie across the country. Over the ensuing journey, Joel bonds with Ellie and comes to treat her as a surrogate daughter, replacing the one he lost at the beginning of the outbreak 20 years prior. Ellie’s immunity to the infection gave the Fireflies hopes she holds the key to finding a cure — but when Joel learns it would kill her, he wipes out a whole platoon of soldiers and the doctor who was trying to carry out the procedure, before fleeing with Ellie back to Jackson. As far as she knows, there was no way to make a cure and Joel rescued her when raiders descended on the Firefly complex. Kaitlyn Dever in HBO's The Last of Us season twoPhotograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO We immediately learn that Joel’s rampage against the Fireflies is going to have major repercussions right from the jump, as we meet Abby and her small crew of young Fireflies in Salt Lake City in the days following the massacre. Things then jump forward five years; Ellie and Joel are well-integrated into the Jackson community and living a relatively normal life — though Joel’s therapy sessions with Gail show that he and Ellie have had some degree of falling out. Whether it’s just her being a 19-year-old or something deeper remains to be seen. Without spoiling anything, the sequel game, The Last of Us Part II, is a far less linear affair than its predecessor. Events are shown out of order through multiple flashbacks. Perspectives shift. The playable character changes at various points. I’ve spent much of the last year wondering exactly how Mazin and Druckmann would translate that structure to TV — what events would be shown in what order, and what things might get cut or expanded on? But surprisingly, the show closely mirrors the game’s chronology. The core of the season remains Joel and Ellie, the fallout from season one and how it affects everyone around them. A handful of events, including an infamous town festival in Jackson and the reveal of Abby’s motivations throughout the season, are moved up sooner in the series to give viewers more context for why things are happening. It’s a change the creators said was made to compensate for the change between the interactivity of playing characters like Abby and Ellie versus watching them. Pedro Pascal and Catherine O'Hara in HBO's The Last of Us season twoPhotograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO The season’s structure worked — the multi-pronged plot didn’t ever feel hard to stick with, and I think the show did a better job this season at balancing out action and drama. As the cast and creators have alluded to, Ramsey and Pascal don’t get as much time together as they did in season one, which is a shame given their absolutely fantastic chemistry. But both actors make the most of Joel and Ellie’s fracturing relationship, and they also do wonderful work with other scene partners. Both Joel and Ellie spend significant time with Dina , who ends up being something of another daughter to Joel and a best friend / love interest for Ellie. She brings a completely different attitude to these scenes — like anyone in the world of The Last of Us, you know she’s seen her fair share of horrible things, but she combines a cool confidence with vulnerability in a way that keeps Ellie delightfully off balance. One of the key new events in the show that didn’t take place in the game is a massive siege of Infected attacking the town of Jackson . At first, it felt like an on-the-nose response to complaints that the Infected didn’t feel like much of a threat in season one, but the way the large-scale battle is juxtaposed with a much more intimate threat in the same episode plays out perfectly. That episode was followed by one that was far more peaceful and character-driven, a cadence I appreciated after the siege’s intensity. Naturally, things ramp up as the season draws to a close, but the balance feels measured and thoughtful. Isabela Merced and Bella Ramsey in HBO's The Last of Us season twoPhotograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO Overall, the Infected are more present in this season than the last, and they’re as deadly and terrifying as ever. In the game, the player might think nothing of taking on five or six in one go, but in the show even a one-on-one encounter feels fraught with danger. Of course, as in season one, the humans are the more unpredictable and threatening part of the world. Other new characters and events, like the fate of Gail and her husband Eugene , once again serve to enrich and enhance the world of The Last of Us. And beyond individual characters, the show also delves deeply into bigger warring factions, similar to the Kansas City “liberators” in season one. We get multiple views of how groups band together and try to survive against the Infected, and each other, and the show does a good job of not portraying any one way as right or wrong. Ellie makes her own judgments as the story progresses, and she starts to lose herself in a cycle that she can’t seem to get out of, even as her friends distance herself from her actions. Ramsey plays this extremely well — though they have a slight and small frame, they play Ellie’s ferocity in a way that’s convincing and frightening. That side of her is flipped on its head in more vulnerable moments when the weight of Elle’s choices start piling up, and it’s fascinating and disturbing to watch. Mazin said that the reasoning behind Ellie’s quiet fascination with violence and being protected would play out in season two, and a lot of small moments definitely start paying off here. Pedro Pascal in HBO's The Last of Us season twoPhotograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO Unlike season one, which is a self-contained affair, season two leaves much up in the air. Again, that’s something the creators have told us already; Mazin said that telling the story of the second game would take at least two seasons. There’s a lot of story still to be told here, and thus things end on a very different vibe than season one. I’m hoping that Mazin, Druckmann and the cast can get back to doing season three a little quicker than last time, as another two-plus years will feel like an exceedingly long wait for some resolution. With only seven episodes, season two has a shorter run time than season one, which already felt a bit rushed to me. The finale in particular blew through some of its script in rapid-fire fashion that felt almost sloppy. It could have easily done with an extra 10 minutes without losing any momentum. And given that Mazin has already said the next season will be “significantly larger,” my hopes for a quick turn-around are probably not realistic. Bella Ramsey in HBO's The Last of Us season twoPhotograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO In the end, that might not be a bad thing for most viewers. The Last of Us can be a grueling and emotional watch, season two even more so than the first. There are some moments of extreme violence that are hard to watch. The show does strike a thoughtful balance between implied and graphic violence,, but it can still be harrowing, and a few moments made me feel almost ill . It’s a little hard to evaluate season two in a vacuum, given it’s only the first half of some fairly messy, non-linear source material. That’s not a major knock; plenty of shows don’t wrap everything up every year in a tidy package. And given the quality infused in every episode of this show, from the acting to the script to the set design and VFX, I’m confident in saying that anyone who enjoyed season one should get on board for what’s to come here, even if it takes a long time to get any resolution. Just as with the game that it’s based on, the journey of The Last of Us season two is intense and asks a lot from viewers, but it’s still a journey worth taking.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-last-of-us-season-two-review-amplified-action-and-crushing-drama-160007751.html?src=rss

07.04.2025 21:50 Movies based on video games have become a pretty big deal in recent years. Just look at those box office returns for A Minecraft Movie for proof of that. This means that more films are coming down the pike, including a motion picture based on Hideo Kojima’s delivery simulator Death Stranding. We first learned this was coming back in 2022, but now there’s a writer and director attached to the project. The production company A24, which is helping to finance the film, just announced that it will be written and directed by Michael Sarnoski. He isn’t a household name, but he did co-write and direct A Quiet Place: Day One. He also co-wrote and directed that delightfully weird Nicolas Cage romp Pig. A24 says that the movie will explore the "catastrophic series of events that blurred the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead," thus creating the fragmented society of the game. There’s no casting information yet, but one would hope that Norman Reedus would be involved in some capacity. A cameo from Conan O'Brien also wouldn’t hurt. Kojima Productions is involved with the movie. There’s no release date yet, as filming hasn’t even started. This wasn’t the only Death Stranding news to drop recently. The video game Death Stranding 2: On the Beach will be released on June 26, which will be accompanied by a world-wide concert tour and, inexplicably, a luxury watch.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-death-stranding-movie-now-has-a-writer-and-director-153029985.html?src=rss

07.04.2025 21:50 Later than expected, Google has begun rolling a pair of new Gemini Live features to Pixel 9 and Samsung Galaxy S25 devices. The company first previewed Gemini live video and screensharing during Mobile World Congress in March. As you might have guessed from their names, the two features allow you to take advantage of Gemini's multi-modal capabilities to ask Google's chatbot questions about what you see in front of your or on your phone's screen.

07.04.2025 17:03 While the Nintendo Switch 2 had its splashy debut last week, including details about the hardware and launch games, there's still lots about the console that Nintendo has yet to clear up. For instance, the company hasn't gone into specifics about the CPU and GPU that are powering the Switch 2, other than to touch on the performance enhancements that they offer over the Switch . However, since last Wednesday's blockbuster Direct, Nintendo has touched on some new Switch 2 details in interviews with the press. For one thing, Nate Bihldorff, Senior Vice President of Product Development Publishing at Nintendo of America, told Nintendo Life that the console's Joy-Con 2 controllers do not use Hall effect tech. "The Joy-Con 2's controllers have been designed from the ground up," Bihldorff said. "They're not Hall effect sticks, but they feel really good." Switch 2 producer Kouichi Kawamoto separately said that the Joy-Con 2 joysticks "are quieter and don’t make noise, even when they’re moved quickly to the edge." The company is referring to them as "smooth-gliding sticks." Engadget has asked Nintendo why the company opted not to use Hall effect tech in the Joy-Con 2. We've also asked whether the Switch 2 Pro Controller foregoes Hall effect sensors as well. This technology is becoming increasingly common in the thumbsticks of third-party gamepads, but Nintendo has yet to implement it in its own joysticks . The idea behind Hall effect sensors is that they reduce the likelihood of stick drift. This problem was so pervasive on the original Switch's Joy-Cons that Nintendo offered free, unlimited repairs for stick drift in Europe. So it's not clear why Nintendo would opt out of having Hall effect sensors in the Joy-Con 2 to help mitigate such problems. Meanwhile, Nintendo has confirmed US pricing for a few Switch 2 experiences. The company told IGN that the upgrades for two The Legend of Zelda games — Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom — cost $10 each for those who already own either game. However, Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers get access to the upgrades at no extra cost. The Switch 2 upgrades include visual fidelity and framerate enhancements, along with the inclusion of HDR support and faster loading times. You'll also be able to use the Switch mobile app as a Sheikah Slate of sorts, helping you to find hidden items with voiced directions. In addition, Nintendo has revealed that Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, which seems like a tech demo that will take you through all the features of the console, will cost $10. As for why Nintendo is charging 10 bucks for this as opposed to offering it for free , Nintendo of America's Vice President of Product and Player Experience Bill Trinen had this to say to IGN: For some people, I think there are people who are particularly interested in the tech and the specs of the system and things like that, for them I think it's going to be a great product. It's really for people that want more information about the system rather than necessarily a quick intro to everything it does. And for that reason and just the amount of care and work that the team put into it, I think it was decided that, 'Yeah, this feels like $9.99 is not an exorbitant price. It feels like a good value for what you're getting out of the product.'This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-says-the-switch-2-joy-con-controllers-dont-have-hall-effect-thumbsticks-145541771.html?src=rss

07.04.2025 17:03 I appreciate devices that don’t try to do too much. There are too many products throwing too many features at the consumer in the hope one or two sticks. I’m reminded of the recently revived Pebble, which offers a pared down way to check your phone’s notifications from your wrist, and little else. That’s the best way to describe Even Realities’ G1 smart glasses, which puts a second screen for your smartphone on your face. G1 is almost aggressively low-tech, putting in your line of sight a dot matrix display that’ll leap into life when required. You’ll be able to see the time, phone notifications, calendar, stock and news updates from a handful of chosen publishers. Tap the temple tips and you’ll be able to speak to an AI to answer questions or dictate a note without touching your phone at all. Open the app to activate heads-up turn-by-turn directions, access real-time translation and use the glasses as a portable teleprompter. On devices like this, the limited feature set goes hand-in-hand with lowered expectations: If it promises the basics and delivers them, all good, right? Problems arise when it fails to do them well, or if it’s obvious to anyone there are features that would work here but have been omitted. The G1 doesn't stumble on the essentials, but I do find myself flip-flopping about how much praise they should get. They’re useful right now, but I’d love to see how much better they’ll get in a year or two. Hardware Daniel Cooper for Engadget Until the laws of physics change quite dramatically, smart glasses will always be noticeably bigger and heavier than their siblings. But the G1 is hardly an embarrassment in those stakes, and while chunky, they’re not comically oversized. The frame is built from magnesium and titanium alloy and weighs in at 44 grams. That’s more than the 26 grams my regular glasses weigh, but not to such an extent that it’s burdensome. It’s no surprise to learn some of the company’s leadership team came from the glasses industry, including stints at high-end eyewear brand Lindberg and Mykita. Each lens houses a rectangular waveguide with a 25-degree field of view displaying a 640 x 200 20Hz dot matrix green monochrome screen. It brings to mind the old workstation terminals from the early 1990s. This isn’t shameless hipsterism, since green is more easily seen by the eye, and it also reduces the display’s power consumption, which is useful since the maximum brightness is 1,000 nits, and you’ll need all of it to see your screen on a bright day. Much of the hardware is housed in the temple tips — the bits sitting behind your ears, if you’re not au fait with glasses terminology. These chunky boxes include the wireless charging gear, 160mAh battery, Bluetooth LE 5.2 radio and the touch control sensors. As for the rest, the projector and microphones are housed in the end pieces , and that’s it. There’s no camera, speakers, headphones, bone conduction audio or any touch surface along the arms themselves, because the makers expect you to have your own camera and audio gear. In the box, you’ll get the glasses and USB-C charging case, the latter of which has its own 2,000mAh battery which the company says will charge your glasses two and a half times before you need to head back to a socket. You can also get a pair of clip-on sunglass lenses for your specs to ensure you can wear them outdoors. I had initially presumed, given the heft of the original investment, that the clip-on glasses were thrown in but no, they’ll set you back an additional $100 in the US, €100 in Europe or £85 in the UK. Glasses need to be up to the challenge of withstanding the same conditions the rest of your head is exposed to. Even Realities says the G1 can resist a “splash" or "light rain,” but doesn’t include a specific IP rating, so you may need to baby them a little. There is only one size of the G1 available, and the company says it’ll suit anyone with a pupillary distance between 54 and 80. The temples can be adjusted to go looser or tighter, depending on the unique topography of your skull. But the frames are fairly stylish, and if you prefer the rounded “Panto” style of glasses, or a squarer one, you can opt for the B1 model instead. Naturally, glasses aren’t a one-and-done deal, with most folks changing their prescriptions on a bi-annual basis. Even Realities says that you should be able to send your glasses back to HQ when your eyesight changes, along with your updated prescription, for up-to-date lenses. In the EU that’ll cost €230, or if you’re further abroad, €240 . Random musing about Smart Glasses vs AR I’ve deliberately not referred to the G1 as a pair of augmented reality glasses because I don’t think they fit the description. The dictionary says AR is anything that puts a digital view in front of the real world, but that’s too broad a definition. After all, if I held a paper map in my line of sight I wouldn’t be augmenting my reality as the map doesn’t engage with its environment. And it’s the same thing here — just because the display in question is transparent doesn’t, for me, move the needle enough for it to be classified as AR. In-use Daniel Cooper for Engadget Charge the glasses, download the app and you’ll walk through the brief setup and tutorial process. Software updates take around five minutes each time, surprisingly long given the low-tech nature of the system. Put the glasses on and you’ll notice the waveguide prisms add a slight tint to whatever you’re looking at. For instance, when staring at a white page on my computer, the prism adds a hint of gold that’s noticeable compared to the white around it. The glasses are deactivated by default, behaving like any regular pair of specs as you go about your day. If you want to look up at the dashboard, which is your home screen, you’ll need to tilt your head up. This is the first thing you’ll define in the settings: How far you need to move your head up to trigger the dashboard. I found I had to tweak it regularly, given my head naturally drift upwards more often when I'm, say, relaxing against the sofa versus standing at my desk. Daniel Cooper for Engadget The dashboard is the first sign the G1 has some limitations. You only have three layout options for what you can see, one of which is the Status Pane, which is always on. Status shows you the time, date, temperature, a notification indicator and low battery warnings. You can add one widget or two, but if you pick two, one of those widgets will default to your calendar. The other widgets include News, Stocks, QuickNotes or a Map. News, Stocks and Maps feel like the default options you get with every gadget while its makers work out what its users really want and need. The news feed pulls from a handful of outlets and you can select from which categories you want to see. The map view gives you a little peek at your location to the nearest 25, 50 or 100 meters, which I’m sure is helpful for some folks, like delivery drivers. But I’m not sure there are many folks who want or need to have this information so immediately at hand. Notifications You’ll be able to gatekeep which apps you can permit to be put through to your glasses, and when you get a message, a speech bubble will pop up on your blank display. When it appears, you can just flick your head up to see the message, or tap the temple tip while in Dashboard. It’s the same limited message you would get with any basic wearable connected to your iPhone. The obvious benefit is removing the need for you to get your phone out of your pocket or look at your wrist. On a Saturday jaunt into the city, several of my group chats sprung into life and I was able to keep abreast of the conversation without having to look at my phone. That was a real benefit, as I’d have been frustrated if I’d have had to check my pocket on the regular for messages that didn’t entirely concern me. The only downside is that you can’t do anything with the messages, like respond to them, unless you do finally succumb to your phone. Teleprompt, Transcribe and QuickNote Even Realities Even if you’re comfortable speaking off the cuff, using the G1 as a teleprompter is a staggeringly good idea. As soon as I started using it, I was thinking they would be great for shooting review videos, as well as giving presentations and acting. Hell, I’ve recited the Gettysburg Address a few too many times in the last week. The glasses will also offer a way to turn what it’s hearing into text, either with the dedicated Transcription setup, or the QuickNote action. For the latter, all you need to do is touch a temple tip and you can then speak, with the system picking up your words and turning them into text. You’ll then be able to read the note, and play back the audio recording in the app, although you can only share the text of what you’ve said. It’s perhaps a lot more pertinent to journalists than other folks but the ability to have such easy access to a tool like this is exciting. Translation The G1s presently support real-time translation of 24 languages, including the major European languages, Arabic, Cantonese, Hindi, Japanese, Korean and Turkish. After you open the app, select the language in question and activate the feature, you’ll get a translation two or three seconds later when someone talks to you. I’ve tested the feature with native French and Turkish speakers and while the translations did at times miss a word, the overall sentiment was well conveyed. Without a doubt, this is one of the glasses’ most eye-catching and useful features, since it subtitles the real world. But while the idea and implementation is all there, it’s not as sci-fi perfect as it could or should be, and that’s a problem. For a start, there’s the obvious moment you have to wait for while the system translates what your counterpart has said. Then there’s the fact it’ll translate anything it can hear, so when I asked my Turkish friend to speak to me, and then I read out the translation in English, the glasses tried to translate my response back into English. Everything’s far more reliant on the app than it could be — you can’t activate the feature or swap languages without having the phone in your hand. If you were able to switch the options around with a tap on the touch sensor, you could theoretically have a conversation just with the glasses. But as soon as you need the phone in your hand, it’s easier to just open up Google Translate and harness the power of conversation mode. Navigation The ability to project basic information in your line of sight is enormously helpful when it comes to navigation. After all, if you’re wandering around unfamiliar streets, then you probably don’t want to appear to look like you’re lost. Certainly, the spate of phone thefts where well-prepared poachers snatch devices from people’s hands is a sign of that. Much like every other feature, you’ll start by… opening the app, activating the navigation pane and setting your destination. You can pick walking or cycling directions, and you’ll get a turn-by-turn layout on the phone as well as in the glasses. Once the route has been calculated, which will take a second, you can put the phone in your pocket and start moving around. On the left, you’ll get the road name, an arrow for your direction and the distance in meters before the next move. In the middle, you’ll get the projected journey time and distance, and on the right a mini-map showing you the route. Look up and you’ll get a full sized route map showing your progress as well as an indication of your speed. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t adore this feature and would love to test it out while roaming an unfamiliar city, because it’s supremely effortless. Even AI Rounding out the spec list is Even AI which, at the tap of the left temple tip, will be available for you to ask questions. Even AI is essentially just an interaction layer for either Perplexity, which is the default AI client, or ChatGPT. Press the button and you’ll be able to ask it questions, the answers of which will then be displayed in your field of view. If you have a beginner’s knowledge of AI, by which I mean a fundamental distrust of anything it says, then this might be useful. Defining words, answering basic questions like “Who is Florence Nightingale” and looking up facts like the price of Bitcoin are all easily done. But that’s all, I think, I’d trust any AI to do, given how generally incapable of providing useful information it is. Controls There are two buttons, one on each temple tip, which will let you engage EvenAI or QuickNotes and scroll through notifications. Two buttons, however, even with the ability to accept multiple taps, is a little too few input mechanisms for a device this sophisticated. I keep thinking about the ways you can control true wireless headphones with all of that rhythmic tapping and that’s just for audio playback. It means you’ll be relying on your phone a lot more than you may like, and while it’s not a deal breaker, it is an issue. After all, if these glasses offer a way of spending more time engaging with the world around me, then I don’t want to be constantly snatching up my phone. I imagine this is another area that, as the software develops and more commands can be incorporated into the buttons, things will get easier. But it is, for now, a fairly significant frustration. Battery Life I’d consider myself a fairly heavy user, and I would regularly get a day and a half’s worth of life from the G1 glasses before needing a recharge. It’s vexing in the extreme that the glasses don’t have an off switch, so they’ll be draining an admittedly small amount of power when not in use. I suspect, if I was living with these full time, I’d get into the habit of keeping them in their charging cradle on the nightstand while in bed to avoid any inadvertent losses of power while out and about. Price Even Realities’ G1 is available in two different frame styles: The G1A with the “panto” round-rim style and the G1B, with a rectangular frame. If I’m honest, I’d have preferred to test the G1B, which is more in keeping with my regular glasses preference, but c’est la vie. The glasses on their own cost $599, with corrective lenses costing you an extra $150 and the sunglass clip an additional $100. It puts these glasses in the same sort of territory as the highest-end designer frames you can get at LensCrafters. I’m not sure there’s a mainstream competitor sitting in exactly the same category as the G1. There are similar headsets, like TCL’s RayNeo, but that has a far higher resolution display since it promises real AR. The Frame by Brilliant Labs, perhaps, but that only has a display in one lens and relies far more upon AI to operate. Captify’s glasses use binocular vision but are only designed to offer real-time captioning for users with hearing loss. Vuzix’s Z100 only has the display in one lens and, as far as I understand it, Meizu’s Myvu glasses are only available in eastern countries. Which means, for now, Even Realities is your one stop for a product like this. And while they’re not in the same category at all, it feels negligent to not even mention Meta and Ray-Ban’s Wayfarers. The retail price may be cheaper but, once you’ve added prescription lenses they’ll set you back around $600, putting them close to the G1. But they’re obviously a very different product, with no heads-up display and a greater emphasis on AI and photography. Wrap-Up Daniel Cooper for Engadget I really like Even Realities’ G1 for what they can do right now, but I’m also hopeful that it’ll get far more useful in the future. It seems to me there are so many things that could be tweaked, primped and plumped to make these far more appealing. I’d love to be able to switch the translation mode with a press of the temple tip, so I could get a translation of what’s said, flip it to translate my English to the other language and then say it back to them so we could actually have a conversation. Adding reminders and other options to the dashboard would make it a lot more desirable to use. Hell, imagine a future dashboard update that pulls your step count from your phone so you can see how well you’re moving. Not to mention the ability to offer some form of real-time captioning for users who may have hearing issues. I’m not going to judge the G1 on its potential but for what it offers now, and what it offers now is plenty good enough. The biggest obstacle is the price, but what can you expect for a first generation product in a niche category? When speaking to friends about them, many said if the price wasn’t that much more than a regular pair of glasses, they’d struggle to say no to what’s on offer here. And I agree, once you’ve had a taste of the functionality that’s on show here, it’s hard to go back to normal.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/even-realities-g1-review-limited-but-effective-smart-glasses-140059586.html?src=rss

07.04.2025 17:03 Nothing has enough storage these days. Whether it's a Mac or a PS5, it feels like everyone I know spends far too much time deleting things on their devices to clear up space. That annoyance is what makes SSDs so appealing, especially the Crucial X9 Pro. We find the Crucial X9 Pro to be the best portable SSD for most people and, right now, the 1TB model is down to $70 from $101. The 31 percent discount brings this device to only $10 more than its all-time low price. If you need even more storage then pick up the 2TB option for $120, down from $180, or the 4TB one for $210, down from $279. The Crucial X9 Pro is our favorite portable SSD for a few reasons, including excellent performance for its speed class and its very compact size. It uses a USB-C cord to connect with devices like an Xbox, PC, PS4 or 5, Mac and more. Plus, it offers a five-year warranty. One of our biggest quips with the Crucial X9 Pro is the price, but the sale really takes care of that. Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/our-favorite-portable-ssd-is-up-to-33-percent-off-right-now-140645047.html?src=rss