Sony has acquired Bluepoint Games, the Austin-based studio best known for remaking Demon’s Souls and Shadow of the Colossus. Financial terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed. Rumors that Sony was buying Bluepoint started to spread online right around the time the company acquired Returnal developer Housemarque in late June. Sony didn’t say whether Bluepoint will continue to focus its efforts on remastering past titles or if it will work on an entirely new IP now that it’s part of the PlayStation Studios family.
“PlayStation has such an iconic gaming catalog and for us there’s been nothing better than to bring some of gaming’s masterpieces to new players,” said Marco Thrush, the president of Bluepoint Games. “Becoming a part of PlayStation Studios empowers our team to raise the quality-bar even further and create even more impactful experiences for the PlayStation community.”
With the announcement of today’s deal, Sony has acquired three studios in the past year. That number increases to four over more than two years if you include its 2019 purchase of Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games. That’s a significant change of pace for a company that was previously much slower to buy up external developers to bolster its first-party lineup. But then a lot has changed in just the last year. Microsoft’s recent $7.5 billion deal to buy Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media means many highly anticipated games like Starfield aren’t coming to PlayStation anymore. Sony needs the kind of talent that’s at Bluepoint to keep pace.
If you've wanted to add to your Google Assistant home setup without spending too much money, Best Buy has a new way that you could do that. The retailer has the original Nest Hub smart display for $40, or $50 off its normal price. This gadget came out in 2018 and has since been replaced by the sleep-tracking, second-generation Nest Hub — but if you're willing to skip a few new features, you can get a largely similar device for one of the best prices we've seen.
We gave the original Nest Hub, formerly known as the Google Home Hub, a score of 87 when it first came out for its lovely 7-inch display, charming minimalist design and extra privacy thanks to a lack of a camera. It makes a good smart alarm clock, even if it is slightly larger than something like the Echo Show 5, but it also won't look out of place on your kitchen countertop. It can even act as a digital photo frame if you use Google's Live Albums feature. Plus, you can control smart home devices from its touchscreen, and it'll show feeds from Nest security cameras so you can check in on any area of your home more easily.
So what will you miss out on if you opt for the previous-generation device instead of the new, $100 Nest Hub? It comes down to three main things: the Soli motion sensor, improved audio and a speedier Google Assistant. The Soli sensor enables gesture controls as well as sleep tracking, so you could position the new Nest Hub on your nightstand and it will track things like time asleep, sleep quality and snoring. We weren't super impressed by the device's nighttime tracking abilities, but we expect improvements to be made in future software updates.
As for sound and the Assistant, the new Nest Hub has the same audio system as the Nest Audio speaker, so it's a big improvement over the original. Plus, the onboard machine-learning chip allows the Assistant to respond more quickly to queries and commands. Overall, the latest Nest Hub is an improvement on the original, but the first-generation device remains a solid option if you're on a strict budget or if you feel you can safely skip the latest upgrades.
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In the last year alone, almost 1.5 million podcasts have been added to Spotify. Fishing out something good from that ocean of content might not be easy, but Spotify wants to help you find a keeper. To mark International Podcast Day, it created a quiz to help listeners discover a show that matches their taste.
Users in the US, UK, Germany and Australia can now check out the Find The One tool. It asks questions such how a podcast can win you over — perhaps you prefer a conversational show or a narrative-driven murder mystery one — and how serious you like things to be. Spotify will then make a recommendation that's partly based on your listening habits.
The company says it found correlations between some artists and podcasts. Lil Nas X, for instance, has a lot of gamer fans who also listen to the likes of the TommyInnit Podcast, while Olivia Rodrigo and Call Her Daddy have a shared audience. Spotify also discovered that many BTS and Queen fans listen to podcasts about… BTS and Queen.
Apple says the basic iPad is its most popular tablet. And why not? Back in 2017, the company introduced its cheapest-ever iPad as a budget option for schools or people who don't need top-of-the-line specs. This device has always used hardware that’s a few years old — but Apple’s chips are so powerful that this hasn’t been an issue. Now in its ninth generation, though, the form factor is starting to feel stale; it's virtually unchanged from the iPad Air that Apple released back in 2013. Then again, at this price who cares?
It’s not a tablet meant for early adopters like me. It’s for those who want a fast, lightweight tablet with a nice display and tons of apps, without having to spend too much or consider whether a device like the iPad Pro is the future of computing. As such, there are just a few basic questions I want to answer with this review. If you have an old iPad, what’s new and better about this one? And if you don’t have an iPad, is this the one to buy?
What’s new
To make that evaluation, let’s recap what’s new about the ninth-gen iPad. The processor powering it is Apple’s A13 Bionic chip, which first appeared in inside the iPhone 11 from 2019. It’s one year newer than the A12, which powered last year’s iPad, and it’s faster and more efficient than its predecessor. Naturally, it’s slower than the newer chips powering the iPad Air and the just-updated iPad mini, but it still delivers more than enough horsepower for a $330 tablet.
I didn't experience any noticeable slowdowns, whether I was multitasking between Slack, writing this review in Google Docs, juggling various tabs in Safari or playing Apple Arcade games. Since this iPad has less RAM than the iPad Pro I use as my daily driver, I noticed that apps needed to refresh their content more frequently when I was heavily multitasking. But everything was quick to load up and I was back on my way again in no time.
For most people’s “standard iPad” use cases — browsing the web, editing photos, playing games, watching movies, messaging, drawing or taking notes with the Apple Pencil, writing emails or working on documents with the Smart Keyboard folio — the A13 Bionic is more than powerful enough. In fact, in our review of last year’s iPad, we found the device capable of easily transcoding and exporting 4K video into 1080p clips. It wasn’t as fast as the iPad Pro, but it was still faster than we anticipated. The A13 will only help if you’re the kind of person who likes to push their hardware.
Another new thing about the 2021 iPad is you get double the storage for the same amount of money. That means the $329 iPad has 64GB of storage this year, while the $479 comes with a healthy 256GB. As usual, you can also add LTE connectivity to these devices for an additional $130. (I reviewed the 256GB model with LTE, which costs $609.) This change is easy to evaluate: More storage is better, and it was sorely needed, particularly on the base model. 64GB should be enough for most people, but if you want to load up the iPad with games and save a lot of movies and photos to local storage, spring for the 256GB model.
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
The iPad’s display is essentially unchanged from the prior two models. It’s a 10.2-inch touchscreen with 2,160-by-1,620 pixel resolution. There is one change to the screen, though: It has Apple’s True Tone technology for the first time, which automatically adjusts the color temperature based on the ambient light in the room around you. Apple has offered this feature on more expensive iPads and all of its iPhones for years now, so it’s nice to see it finally in use at the lower end.
The display otherwise looks good whether you’re watching videos, playing games or browsing the web. It’s not nearly as good as the screens on the other iPads that Apple sells, though. I’m used to my iPad Pro screen, which is laminated directly to the front glass and has a 120Hz refresh rate with support for the wide P3 color gamut. But, after just sitting down and using the new iPad, I mostly didn’t think about these things. For a $330 device, it’s perfectly usable; pleasant, even. I did notice the “air gap” on the new iPad that comes from not having its display bonded to the glass, but I can accept that as a cost-cutting measure.
Finally, Apple put a new front-facing camera on the new iPad. In a somewhat surprising move, it’s the same one used on the iPad Pro (minus all the depth sensors and extra hardware needed for Face ID). It’s also identical to the one inside the new iPad mini. It’s a 12-megapixel shooter with an extremely wide field of view. That wide angle enables a feature Apple calls “Center Stage.” When you’re on a FaceTime call, the camera automatically crops in around you, rather than show the full 122-degree field of view. But since the camera has all that space to work with, it can follow you as you move around the frame. It’s an interesting feature, though usually I’m stationary during video calls. It does do a decent job of making up for the fact that the iPad’s front camera is off-center when you’re using the iPad in landscape mode, though.
I imagine Center Stage is something that will feel handy once you start to use it regularly, and I’m generally glad to see that Apple seems to have recognized that the iPad needed a better front camera. The 1.2-megapixel FaceTime camera on older iPads just doesn’t cut it in this current moment where we're all constantly on video calls.
What’s old
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
Everything else about the new iPad remains unchanged. It’s the same size and weight as the last two models and features the same size screen. It has the same sizable bezels, 8-megapixel back camera, Lightning port for charging (not USB-C) and a home button with Touch ID built in. It works with the first-generation Apple Pencil (sold separately for $99), which Apple has offered since late 2015, plus the Smart Keyboard folio ($159) that Apple built for the 10.5-inch iPad Pro back in 2017. There are still two speakers at the bottom when you’re holding it in portrait orientation, which means audio still comes at you from one off-center spot when you’re watching a video. But, there’s a headphone jack!
This means it’s not the most exciting device for someone like me, but there are otherwise a lot of benefits to Apple keeping things unchanged. For one, someone replacing an iPad they bought a few years ago will be able to use the same chargers and accessories as before — something that’s particularly important for education programs and other institutions that bought iPads in bulk.
As always, Apple says the iPad’s battery lasts for 10 hours of browsing the web or watching videos over WiFi. I got a little less than that when using the iPad and its keyboard for a full day of work, but the iPad far surpassed that estimate when I was watching videos. I got closer to 14 hours before the battery finally kicked it. Naturally, you’ll enjoy less runtime when doing more intensive tasks like gaming.
Living with iPadOS 15
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
Despite the ho-hum design, the user experience felt fresh, thanks largely to iPadOS 15. I’ve been using the updated software in beta since the summer, and I’m glad to say that the final release is solid. Apple addressed the biggest problems I had with iPadOS 15 (some illogical design changes to Safari), and many of the changes make the iPad experience significantly better.
Quick Notes is a great feature for Apple Pencil users and makes the iPad a much better note-taking device. Obviously, it’s handy to be able to quickly summon a new space to scribble in, but the fact that Notes recognizes when you’re on a website or specific Map location and lets you save them to the note is particularly useful.
Now that Safari has restored a traditional tab view instead of the cramped compact view from iPadOS 15 betas, I can appreciate some of the other changes this year to the browser. Tab Groups are a convenient way to organize things when you want to separate out what you’re browsing by category; I often use it to keep research for stories all in one place. And being able to find links that were shared with me through the Messages app is handy, too.
The variety of new multitasking gestures took a little getting used to, but they make it easier to set up various spaces with the right combination of apps for what you’re trying to do. The iPad’s 10.2-inch screen is almost too small for doing much in multitasking mode, but it’s still useful to have a bunch of my most-used apps a swipe aways in Slide Over. And the new “shelf” that appears when you launch an app to show you other spaces the app is running in is another smart addition I’ve been using a lot.
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
Other new changes are taking me longer to set up the way I’d like. The notification summary feature, which lets you set up a time for notifications from specific apps to be delivered, is a clever idea in theory. But I haven’t yet figured out which apps I want to relegate to the summary and which ones I'd rather show up immediately. Similarly, the new Focus features let you set up multiple do not disturb scenarios, each of which can have its own schedule, apps or people allowed or blocked and home screens that are hidden or active. It’s extremely flexible, but I haven’t yet figured out how to make the most of it.
The learning curve aside, iPadOS 15 is a solid release, and it runs well on the new iPad. If you buy this tablet now, it should receive similar updates for years to come, which will go a long way toward keeping it fresh even though it was never a cutting-edge device.
Wrap-up
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
Coming from the iPad Pro, I was pleasantly surprised at how capable the new iPad is. I’ve gotten used to using the Magic Keyboard and its trackpad for work, so I found the new iPad’s $159 Smart Keyboard folio lacking. Between that and the smaller screen, it’s not my first choice for tasks that require me to keep an eye on multiple things simultaneously.
But it was a great device for drafting this review plus all the “iPad things” I want to do when I’m not working. I found myself using the iPad handheld, with its keyboard tucked away, more often than I expected. Being able to quickly flip back the keyboard t and use the iPad with two hands and then switch to typing when I wanted to bang out an email or reply to a message became a pretty common couch workflow.
Overall, I could do just about everything I can with my iPad Pro on the new iPad. There are a few slight changes and compromises here — but for the consumers Apple is targeting, those things might be moot. The iPad remains a very good tablet at a fair price. If you want something more modern, I don’t blame you, and would instead point you toward the iPad Air, which hits a sweet spot of performance, features and price.
If you’ve bought an iPad in the last two years, there’s no need to upgrade — but people with one older than the fall 2019 iPad will find some significant improvements here. If you’ve never bought one before, the new iPad delivers a surprisingly deep experience, despite its aging design.
In the same week it began public tests of Xbox Cloud Gaming on consoles, Microsoft is expanding the project formerly known as xCloud in other ways. Cloud Gaming is going live in Brazil and Mexico today, and in Australia and Japan on October 1st.
The company started testing xCloud in those four nations last November. It seems the preview proved popular, as players in Brazil packed out the Cloud Gaming servers even before Microsoft formally announced the test.
The expansion means that more than a billion people in 26 countries now have access to Xbox Cloud Gaming. All they need is a Game Pass Ultimate subscription, a compatible device (like a computer, smartphone or tablet) and a strong-enough internet connection. Folks don't necessarily need a controller, as there are a bunch of games that have touch controls.
Microsoft made the announcement at Tokyo Game Show, where it had some other news up its sleeve. Action JRPG Scarlet Nexus just landed on Game Pass, for one thing. You can play it on consoles, PC and Cloud Gaming with touch controls.
The company is also localizing Starfield and Redfall, two major upcoming first-party games, for Japan. The Starfield localization is the biggest translation project Bethesda has ever tackled, as it involves more than 300 actors and north of 150,000 lines of dialogue.
The following contains minor spoilers for season two, episode eight of 'Star Trek: Lower Decks.'
The subject of “canon” has come up a lot recently. Marvel’s What If…? is a show that plays around but still mostly adheres to it, while Star Wars Visions disregards it almost completely. Meanwhile, Star Trek: Lower Decks is a humorous show that wasn’t expected to follow canon and yet, the writers seem to have made it their mission to fill out the gaps in Star Trek continuity. And this might be the cartoon’s greatest strength.
CBS
The show’s willingness to reference past adventures is on full display this week, as the USS Cerritos is tasked with running drills to test crew efficiency. Seeing a Starfleet crew put through its paces is something we’ve seen many times before, though this time around it’s for a particularly non-Starfleet-like reason: Captain Freeman accidentally leaves our core four cast members behind when jetting off on a rescue mission. To be fair, the quartet of ensigns did forget to sign their magnet boots out, which would have let their senior officers know they weren’t on the ship. But still, it’s a screw-up we don’t often see on Star Trek.
In response, the entire crew is gathered in a cargo bay to be tested by a Pandronian instructor — a species never seen in any live-action Star Trek productions, but familiar to anyone who’s watched the 1973 animated series. Pandronians are colony creatures that can split into three pieces, something that was harder to create when special effects were far less sophisticated. Animation has fewer limitations, and Lower Decks has taken advantage of that plenty in its two seasons to showcase species like the Caitians, Ariolo and Kzinti.
CBS
Though it utilized many of the cast and crew of the original series, the canonized status of the animated Star Trek was always a nebulous thing, with some writers saying that episodes like “Yesteryear” were in continuity, but no real on-screen confirmation of the show’s place in the timeline. One of show creator Mike McMahan’s stipulations for Lower Decks was that it take place in-canon, and he’s used that status to cement the 1973 cartoon in as well.
However, Lower Decks also has plenty to offer live-action fans, and this week’s episode is heavy on the references, with the Cerritos crew taking on simulations with names like “Natural Selection,” “Chain of Command'' and “Naked Time.” These aren’t just generic descriptions but also the names of episodes, and long-time fans will delight in seeing Mariner take on the Mirror Universe or Boimler face off against the Borg. We might be familiar with the scenarios, but seeing how these particular characters handle them adds a new twist.
CBS
While the whole drill plot might seem like a cheap way to pander to old-school fans, it’s also similar to how the military works in real life, with students often asked to study historical tactics and run tests based on real events. We’ve seen the holosuites used to recreate battles at the Alamo, Thermopylae and the Battle of Britain on Deep Space Nine, while Riker even used the holodeck to observe the Enterprise NX-01’s final mission. (And let’s not forget the time Troi had to kill Geordi to earn a promotion to commander.) From the beginning, Lower Decks has been a show that embraces Starfleet’s naval trappings more fully than we’ve ever seen, and putting the crew to the test here seems to be the logical endpoint of that.
But where Lower Decks shines brightest of all is when it chooses to glue the disparate parts of the Star Trek franchise together. The Star Trek universe is extremely weird and complex but, instead of rebooting the entire franchise (DC Comics) or throwing out huge swathes of past story (Star Wars), Star Trek has embraced the mess. The universe is weird, so it’s okay if everything doesn’t neatly fit together. It’s just funnier this way.
Spotify's quest to make podcasts more interactive is expanding. Today, the streaming service announced the polls and Q&A features that it has been testing will be available to all creators through Anchor, the podcast production service it also owns. Though the tools are open to everyone, Spotify explains podcast producers and listeners will see them in 160 countries.
On the listener side, questions will appear at the bottom of episode pages in the Spotify app on both Android and iOS. From there, you'll be able to respond directly in the app to any prompts related to the show. As you might expect, you'll see on-going results of polls, but Q&A responses will only be seen by the show's creator. Producers and hosts will have the option of pinning certain responses below the question alongside the corresponding username in a stories-like format.
Spotify has been testing polls for a year and it added a Q&A option to the trial in January. At the time, the company said 90 percent of users would see polls even though the number of shows on which they appeared was very limited.
Chinese company Nreal has launched a new model of augmented reality glasses called Air, which was designed with streaming shows and playing mobile games in mind. Nreal released its first model, the Light mixed reality glasses, to consumers a year ago after fending off Magic Leap's accusation that its founder stole trade secrets to build his own company. Air still needs to be tethered to a phone like the Light, but it it's a lot lighter (77 grams to Light's 106 grams) and looks more like an ordinary pair of sunglasses than its predecessor does. Nreal says it also has a better display, which has the capability to project a massive virtual screen up to 201 inches in size.
The device's display has a 46-degree Field of View and is powered by a micro-OLED chip for AR devices. It has a high density of colors, with up to 49 Pixels Per Degree, and a refresh rate of up to 90Hz. In comparison, the Light has a 52-degree FOV and a 60Hz refresh rate. One significant feature the Light has and the Air doesn't is inside-out tracking. The new model has no motion tracking at all, and a company spokesperson told us that based on Light's usage, Nreal expects most owners to use the Air simply to watch shows on Youtube. They said:
"People we know will use Nreal Air (a large number of them) for simply watching shows on YouTube, streaming content on local streaming platforms (like Magenta by Deutsche Telekom) based on Nreal Light's usage, which is why the tradeoff makes sense. The other bulk of users are using it for actual development. With that said, one of the biggest demands we saw was for using Nreal Light for a longer period of time (meaning lighter weight), and a more brilliant display. Those two would be the key features that were of paramount importance and the basis for how Nreal decided to strike a balance."
A feature the Light doesn't have, however, is Air's "Adjustable 3-Step Rake System" that allows users to adjust the viewing angle by tilting the lens and the elastic temples. In addition, the Nreal Air can pair with Apple's iPhones and iPads and not just with Android devices. That could increase the possibility of users finding others with the model, so they could take advantage of its new shared digital space that allows multiple people to watch shows at the same time on a single AR screen.
Nreal Air will initially be available in Japan, China and South Korea in December 2021 in partnership with leading carriers. It will roll out to other markets in 2022, though the company didn't specify the additional regions where the device will be available. The firm recently raised $100 million to fund its international expansion, though, so the new model will likely be easier to purchase than the Light, which is only shipping in a handful of countries. Those interested will have to wait for the company to reveal how much the device will cost, though it did say that the Air will "retail at a fraction of the price of Nreal Light."
I didn't expect much from the second-generation Sonos Beam. It has the same exact speaker components as the original, a device we already loved. The main difference is that the new Beam also has more processing power to handle Dolby Atmos surround sound. I tend to want more in a sequel, especially since in this case Gen 2 costs $50 more at $450. But even though it's more of a revision, the new Beam still manages to deliver a wider, more immersive soundscape than before. It proves that having a dollop of Dolby Atmos can go a long way.
The original Sonos Beam was a predictable hit. Consumers were hungry for soundbars to beef up their flatscreen TVs, and it turned out that many people also wanted a cheaper alternative to Sonos's two TV solutions at the time , the aging Playbar and the awkwardly shaped PlayBase, both priced at $699. Enter the $400 Beam: it was compact enough to fit in small living rooms; featured Amazon Alexa built in; and, most importantly, it sounded great. It was an accessible entry point into Sonos's family of connected speakers, pluss an easy upgrade for existing customers.
The new Beam looks almost the same as before; the only difference is that it has a perforated plastic grille around its curved exterior, a departure from the thin cloth covering on the previous-gen model. It's still surprisingly small, measuring just 25.6 inches wide and weighing a mere six pounds. It has the same rear ports, too: Ethernet, HDMI and power. You'll need to plug it into an HDMI ARC/eARC socket on your TV to tap into the power of Dolby Atmos and TrueHD. (But if you've got an older set, you can get basic Dolby Digital decoding with the bundled HDMI to optical adapter.)
Speaking of Atmos, that was a major deficiency on the earlier Beam. When that speaker was released in 2018, soundbar makers like Vizio were already exploring what was possible with Dolby's new technology. Typically, that involved using upward-firing speakers to bounce sound off of your ceiling. And, despite seeming like a bit of an audio hack, in my experience those speakers do a decent job of replicating what you get from Atmos-equipped cinemas, which have dedicated hardware built into their ceilings. There are limits, though: Upward-firing Atmos speakers tend to max out with 15-foot ceilings, and they work best with flat surfaces.
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
Given the additional hardware and room requirements, why go through the trouble of getting Atmos hardware at all? Simply put, it makes for more room-filling surround sound than traditional 5.1 solutions like Dolby Digital and DTS. Those earlier technologies sent sound to specific channels — left, right, center, two rears and a subwoofer. Atmos is different: It's object based, allowing engineers to map sounds in 3D (XYZ) space coordinates. That lets an Atmos mix automatically scale up anywhere from two speakers (or basic stereo support) to 64 in cinemas.
Sonos is no stranger to Atmos soundbars: It's the defining feature on the $899 Arc. But what makes the second-generation Beam unique is that it doesn't even have upward-firing speakers. It has the same basic hardware as before: a center tweeter, four mid-woofers for mid-range sound, and three passive radiators to handle the low-end. Instead, it's relying entirely on audio processing to simulate the Dolby Atmos experience. The additional CPU speed allows it to power two additional channels: height and surround for both the left and right speakers.
When Sonos first announced the second-gen Beam, I immediately wondered how the heck it could provide any height channels without adding more speakers. It turns out, the company leaned even more heavily into psychoacoustics, or the science of how we perceive sound. According to Scott Fink, the product manager behind all of Sonos's home theater gear, the company can tweak the audio timing and frequency to make it seem as if sound is coming from the side, or slightly above you. It's no replacement for having actual speakers dedicated to blasting height channels, but it worked surprisingly well in my testing.
During the opening chase in Baby Driver, for example, I could hear cars whizzing by my ears, the roar of powerful engines and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's "Bellbottoms" filling my family room. That same scene on the original Beam sounded fine, but there was no sense of enveloping surround sound. The second-generation model just sounded like a richer experience, as if cotton balls were removed from my ears.
The same was true while revisiting 2015's (seriously underrated) The Man from U.N.C.L.E., or the epic car-turned-motorcycle chase in MIssion Impossible: Rogue Nation. The new Beam is a tiny speaker meant to make a meal of bombastic action sequences, and it does so without distorting or breaking a sweat. Sonos also focused on making dialog clearer too, something I appreciated when conversations were happening amid those huge set pieces.
Mostly, though, I was impressed by what Sonos was able to do with such a small device. You can find soundbars and wireless surround sound systems for less than $450, and many will deliver bigger sound. But Sonos offers things other systems don't. For one, it's easy to set up: You just plug it into the appropriate ports and step through the process on Sonos's app. With competing products, you may also have to find spots to hold rear speakers, which still need to plug into power. As great as the new Beam sounds, though, it's no match for the Atmos capabilities of the Arc. But for half the price, I wouldn't expect it to.
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
When it comes to synchronized audio throughout your home, Sonos is still the connected speaker company to beat. There's no easier way to program music for house parties (and outdoor shindigs with the portable Roam and Move speakers). The second-gen Beam is a solid addition to the family when it comes to music, though it's less of an immediate upgrade compared to movies. It'll support Dolby Atmos on Amazon Music later this year, but that service currently doesn't have a huge number of Atmos tracks. Sonos isn't saying when it'll support Atmos on Apple Music, but there's technically nothing stopping that from happening down the line.
The new Beam sounded fine while playing back some of my favorite albums, like Bjork's Homogenic and Janelle Monae's The Electric Lady, with a decent sense of presence and some thumping low-end. But it didn't sound dramatically different like it did with action movies. Amazon Music's Ultra HD mix of Marvin Gayes' "What's Going On" sounded very crisp and clear, but I'll be more interested in hearing what the Atmos version of that song sounds like eventually. On my Echo Studio, that Atmos mix almost sounds like Gaye is performing a live concert right in front of you.
And speaking of Echo devices, the Beam’s Alexa integration still works well. Its far-field microphones can hear me from the other side of my large family room, and it supports all of the same commands as Amazon’s own devices. It could easily replace an Echo in the same room, but you can also just mute the microphone and keep your Amazon account unlinked if you don’t want to have it listening in.
The Sonos Beam excels at being a simple and compact soundbar that'll give you a large soundstage for movies. But I'd recommend sitting back and thinking about what's really important to you. Do you care more about having a clean TV setup without many wires? Or do you want a soundbar system with more realistic surround sound? (Actual rears, a subwoofer and upward-firing Atmos speakers.) If so, you've also got great options like Vizio's M-series 5.1.2 for around $500.
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
You could eventually build a Sonos surround sound system around the Beam by adding two One speakers as rears, as well as the company's wireless subwoofer. But those two pieces of hardware alone would run you another $1,150 (or you could buy them all bundled together for $1,499). If you're going that route, you might as well jump straight to the $899 Arc to have the best possible Sonos system.
The second-generation Sonos Beam isn’t a huge leap ahead of the original, but it’s still a better soundbar overall thanks to the addition of Atmos. If you already own a Beam, you don’t need to run out and grab one. But it’s a solid sub-$500 soundbar if you want to take your movie watching up a notch.
Note: Sonos is a former sponsor of my movie podcast, The Filmcast, but that hasn't stopped me from being critical of the company.
After introducing cross-messaging between Messenger and Instagram last year, Facebook has made it more useful with the addition of cross-app group chats. With the new feature, you'll be able to start a group chats and loop in both Messenger and Instagram contacts. In addition, you'll be able to run Messenger-style polls in both Instagram DMs and cross-app group chats if your group needs to decide whether to get pizza, tacos or both, for instance (both, obviously).
Meanwhile, Instagram gets an exclusive new feature called "Watch Together." To use it, you just start a video chat within Instagram, scroll to the post you want to share then click on the share button and "Watch Together." Instagram has added some new content from Steve Aoki, Travis Barker and Cardi B.
Other new additions include group typing indicators available in cross-app group chats for both Messenger and in Instagram DMs. Facebook also brought in new chat themes for Messenger and Instagram DMs, including "Cottagecore" and a theme centered around Columbian singer J Balvin. There's also a new Astrology art suite, with an Astrology group chat theme, AR effect and sticker pack. The new features roll out for Messenger and Instagram today.
Cadillac has dropped quite an important feature from the 2022 Cadillac Escalade. According to Motor1 and Roadshow, the model won't come with Super Cruise, GM's hands-free driver-assistance technology. A spokesperson from the brand has confirmed to the publications that the Super Cruise would be "temporarily unavailable at the start of regular production," though they expressed the possibility that it would be available for vehicles manufactured later on. The spokesperson also revealed that the reason for this change is none other than the global chip shortage born out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cadillac's whole statement reads:
"Super Cruise is an important feature for the Cadillac Escalade program. Although it's temporarily unavailable at the start of regular production due to the industry-wide shortage of semiconductors, we're confident in our team's ability to find creative solutions to mitigate the supply chain situation and resume offering the feature for our customers as soon as possible."
The company also told Roadshow that it was only able to build "a few" CT4 and CT5 sedans scheduled for release this year with the capability to use Super Cruise. It had to postpone the full launch of its driver assistance system in the sedans until model year 2022, which will start shipping next year.
The global semiconductor shortage has had an extensive effect on the tech and auto industries. GM, Cadillac's manufacturer, had to suspend production at all but four of its North American factories due to supply constraints. Nissan, Ford, BMW and Honda had to cut vehicle production, as well. In Ford's case, it led to the delay in shipments of the Mach-E electric vehicle.
GM has big plans for Super Cruise and previously announced its plans to bring the technology to 22 vehicles by 2023. It's unclear if these delays and adjustments caused by the chip shortage would affect the timeline it set for itself.
Swiss company ABB, which supplies EV chargers to Ionity and Electrify America, has unveiled what it calls the "world's fastest electric car charger," Reuters has reported. As its name suggests, the Terra 360 has a 360 kW capacity, meaning it could fully charge a (theoretical) EV in 15 minutes. More realistically, it can charge four vehicles simultaneously, saving space at charging stations.
The Terra 360 isn't the most powerful charger by much, as companies like Electrify America, Ionity and EVGo have been using 350 kW chargers manufactured by ABB and others since at least 2018. However, it's the "only charger designed explicitly to charge up to four vehicles at once," the company said. "This gives owners the flexibility to charge up to four vehicles overnight or to give a quick refill to their EVs in the day." They also have a relatively small footprint, allowing installation in small depots or parking lots.
There aren't a lot of EVs that can handle that kind of charge. The only two approaching it are Porsche's Taycan, with 270 kW of charging capacity and the new Lucid Air, which allows for up to 300 kW fast-charging. Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y EVs can charge at up to 250 kW, while Hyundai's Ioniq 5 is rated for 232 kW DC fast charging.
Such high charging levels aren't necessarily great for an EV's battery. Porsche, for instance, has a battery preservation setting on its Plug & Charge Taycan feature that lowers power to 200 kW from the maximum 270 kW allowed — so it's essentially acknowledging that faster charging degrades the battery. On top of that, extreme charging levels don't necessarily save you much time, as Car and Driver found. Tesla recently promised to upgrade its own Supercharger V3 network from 250kW to 300kW.
ABB's new chargers will be able to add 100 km (62 miles) of range in less than three minutes. They'll arrive in Europe by the end of the year and start rolling out in the US and elsewhere in 2022.
Update 9/30/2021 4:08 PM ET: The post originally stated that the Hyundai Ioniq had fast-charging capacity of 350 kW, but the correct number is 232 kW. The post has been updated with the correct information.
This post contains spoilers for episode eight of Marvel's 'What If…?'
In physics there’s what’s known as the “observer effect,” wherein an object or system is changed merely by observing it. On Marvel’s What If…? each episode has been witnessed by an apparently omniscient narrator known as The Watcher, who seemingly believes himself to be above this simple rule. He’s seen the Avengers murdered, zombies overrun the galaxy and Steven Strange completely destroying his own universe, but the Watcher has always refrained from doing anything that would change the outcome — until now.
The twist in this episode is that in Age of Ultron, the titular villain managed to get control of the Vision body before it awakened as the hero we all know and love, taking it over and then, the world and even gaining the Infinity Stones. Somewhere in all this the Avengers are killed, with the exception of Natasha and Clint, finally giving us that Black Widow and Hawkeye adventure we should have had years ago. I haven’t been the biggest fan of either character, but here they’re a lot of fun despite the grim circumstances.
Marvel Studios
The real star here, however, is Jeffrey Wright’s Watcher character. We still know little about him, or the faction he serves. The Watchers, as a group, have only appeared in live-action during a brief scene in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. What If…? has been our first proper introduction to the concept and, after eight episodes, we’re still mostly in the dark about them.
But this week’s installment did shed some light, at least. We know that our Watcher has taken an oath to never interfere with the things he sees, though to whom we still don’t know, nor are we made aware of possible consequences of breaking that vow. And we now know he’s emotionally invested in the universes he observes, if only based on his reaction to Clint not finding the folder they need in the KGB archives (luckily, Natasha is there to save the day).
Marvel Studios
However, that observer effect comes into play regardless of the Watcher’s intentions, as his omniscient narration is overheard by the powered-up Ultron, who seeks him out and attacks. In the process Ultron becomes aware of the multiverse, which explains his sudden appearance at the end of last week’s episode. Previews for the finale hint at some sort of multiversal team-up, one involving Captain Carter, Party Thor and the other altered characters we’ve met over the first eight episodes.
While it’s certainly a fun concept — there’s an entire comic series called Exiles about a multi-reality team such as this — it raises questions about what, exactly, season two will be about. It’s already been confirmed, but Marvel has shown it’s not really interested in running What If…? as an anthology series like the comic it’s based on. The instance on making it part of the larger canon has led to the show having its own internal continuity, though it’s unlikely it will be needed to understand the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Marvel Studios
At least we hope it remains a side-story of the MCU: the power levels in the battle between The Watcher and Infinity Ultron puts even the massive conflicts shown in the last two Avengers films to shame. (Especially after Thanos is offed rather unceremoniously.) It’s a weird escalation in scale given that the teased villain of Phase IV, Kang the Conqueror, hasn’t even made a proper appearance yet.
Marvel Comics has a deep, expansive mythology and it’s nice to see the MCU finally explore some of those outer reaches. But right now the current approach to continuity feels a little cramped, and in danger of getting in its own way. Hopefully, next week’s finale will see the Watcher fully break free of his oath, and maybe help What If…? shed its remaining ties to its live-action counterparts to do something truly new.