Category: Tutorials

Even people who don't own Samsung devices can now enjoy its ad-supported streaming service. According to Protocol, the tech giant launched TV Plus — something that used to be exclusively available on the the brand's TVs and mobile devices — for the web in May. 

It was likely a soft launch, as the publication called it, seeing as Samsung has yet to formally announce its web version and has yet to include it in any marketing material for the streaming service. While there was zero fanfare surrounding TV Plus' web expansion, a company rep confirmed to Protocol that Samsung did indeed roll out a web version of the service in the second quarter. 

Samsung launched TV Plus back in 2016, and it has since evolved into its current cable-like free ad-supported form. It's accessible in 23 countries, and in the US, it gives viewers access to 140 channels that include ABC News Live and Vice. Samsung Electronics SVP Sang Kim told Protocol that the company streams "billions of minutes every month," so it's clearly pretty popular with users. Its reach has been limited to Samsung customers up until now, though, and it remains to be seen whether the web version's availability can add a substantial number of new users to the service. 

Netflix has shared a new trailer for Spriggan, its upcoming adaption of Hiroshi Takashige and Ryoji Minagawa’s seminal manga of the same name. The streaming giant first announced series in 2019, at which point it said it would release the show in 2021. Spriggan is now slated to debut next year, following production delays related to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Spriggan manga ran between 1989 and 1996 and was most recently adapted into a movie in 1998 that was overseen by Akira director Katsuhiro Otomo. The source material might not be familiar to most anime fans in the West, but if you follow the medium there’s a good chance you’ve seen the work of some of the people who are working on the new series. David Productions, the studio behind Jojo’s Bizare Adventure, is on animation duties, with Hiroshi Kobayashi (Kill la Kill) directing the project and Hiroshi Seko (Attack on Titan, Mob Psycho 100) penning the show's screenplay.

CD Projekt Red will release its free next-gen update for the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt later this year, the studio announced today at its joint WitcherCon event with Netflix. What’s more, CDPR will release free DLC inspired by Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski's books. What that downloadable content will look like, the developer didn’t say, but key art the studio shared mentions “extra items.” Take that as you will.

When CD Projekt Red first announced it was developing native versions of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for the new current generation consoles, it said the ports would include features like ray tracing and faster loading times. On Friday, it promised to share more information “soon.” In 2020, the studio said those who already own the game on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One would get the new release for free. We’ll also note here that CDPR plans to release a next-gen update for Cyberpunk 2077 sometime later this year as well.

Outside of an excuse to replay The Wild Hunt, fans can also look forward to watching Nightmare of the Wolf — an animated prequel film centered on Geralt’s mentor, Vesemir — next month, and, at long last, season two of The Witcher in December.

Fans of the Witcher won’t have to until the end of the year to see something new from the franchise. At WitcherCon, Netflix announced it will debut Nightmare of the Wolf on August 23rd. The company first announced the animated prequel movie at the start of last year and shared today it will focus on Geralt’s mentor, Vesemir. Korean animation house Studio Mir, best known for its work on The Legend of Korra, worked on the project, as did The Witcher showrunner Lauren Hissrich.

The film should give fans of The Witcher something to enjoy while they wait for Netflix to release season two of The Witcher. Following multiple delays, the new season of the live-action series is slated to hit the streaming service on December 17th.

Earlier this year, a nearly perfect copy of Super Mario Bros. for the NES sold for $660,000. Now, a mere three months later, The Legend of Zelda has shattered that record. On Friday, a rare, early production version of the NES classic sold for $870,000 at auction.

Outside of a single sealed copy from its original manufacturing run, it's believed the game that sold this week is one of the earliest known sealed copies of The Legend of Zelda in existence. According to Heritage Auctions, the cartridge sold on Friday comes from the game's "NES-R" production run. Nintendo only made that version of the game for a handful of months in late 1987. "Essentially, this copy is the earliest sealed copy one could realistically hope to obtain," the auction house said of the game before it went on sale.

Still, $870,000 is a lot of money to spend on a collectible, whether it's in mint condition or not. To put the price in perspective, Heritage Auctions sold a copy of The Legend of Zelda from the game's more common 1988 "Rev-A" production run for $50,400 last year.

The Witcher will return to Netflix almost exactly two years after the fantasy series debuted. You can stream all eight episodes of the show's second season starting on December 17th. Season one premiered on December 20th, 2019.

Season two of The Witcher will pick up where the first batch of episodes left off. Following some COVID-related delays, filming for season two wrapped in April. The release date was revealed during WitcherCon. Netflix teamed up with CD Projekt Red for an event that celebrates both the show and CDPR's games.

Netflix also revealed the titles for the season two episodes. However, the finale's title remains top secret for now. There's no sign of a proper trailer just yet, but WitcherCon (which is still running at the time of writing) will close out with an interview with star Henry Cavill and the tease of a surprise or two.

OnePlus is readying a new version of its low-cost in-ear headphones. In a post spotted by 9to5Google on the company’s Lab website, OnePlus says it’s looking for fans to test the Nord 2 and “Buds Pro.” Beyond the name, the company doesn’t say much about the earbuds. But based on that information alone, there’s a good chance they’ll include active noise cancellation. In any case, with OnePlus slated to launch the Nord 2 on July 22nd, we won’t have to wait long to find out more details.

We’ll also point out here Nothing, the company started by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei, will unveil its Ear 1 true wireless earbuds on July 27th. So at the very least, fans of OnePlus will have plenty of options. If you want to test the OnePlus Buds Pro, you have until July 17th to apply to take part in the Lab program.

TikTok will use automation to detect and remove many of the videos that violate its policies. For the past year, the service has been testing and tweaking systems to find and take down such content. It will roll out those systems in the US and Canada over the next few weeks.

To start with, the algorithms will be on the lookout for posts that violate policies related to the safety of minors, violence, graphic content, nudity, sex, illegal activity and regulated goods. If the systems detect a violation, they'll yank the video immediately and the user who posted it can appeal. Users can still flag videos for manual review as well.

Automated reviews will be "reserved for content categories where our technology has the highest degree of accuracy," TikTok said. Only one in 20 of the videos that have been automatically removed were false positives and should have remained on the platform, according to the company. TikTok hopes to improve the algorithms' accuracy levels and notes that "requests to appeal a video's removal have remained consistent."

TikTok says automation should free up its safety staff to focus on content that requires a more nuanced approach, including videos containing bullying, harassment, misinformation and hate speech. Crucially, the systems could reduce the number of potentially distressing videos that the safety team have to watch, such as those containing extreme violence or child exploitation. Facebook, for one, has been accused of not doing enough to protect the wellbeing and mental health of content moderators who are tasked with reviewing often-disturbing content.

Elsewhere, TikTok is changing how it notifies users after they're caught breaking rules. The platform now tracks the number, severity and frequency of violations. Users will see details about those in the account updates section of their inbox. They can also view information about the consequences of their actions, such as how long they're suspended from posting or engaging with anyone else's content.

After nearly two years, Amazon’s highly public legal feud with the US government over the Pentagon’s decision to award Microsoft a $10 billion cloud contract in 2019 is over. According to Reuters, a federal judge dismissed the challenge on Friday with no objection from the company. The dismissal follows Tuesday’s announcement that the Department of Defense had canceled JEDI, the program at the center of the legal battle, to pursue a new multi-vendor project that would see both Amazon and Microsoft awarded contracts.

"We understand and agree with the DoD’s decision,” an Amazon spokesperson told Engadget after the announcement. “Unfortunately, the contract award was not based on the merits of the proposals and instead was the result of outside influence that has no place in government procurement."

When Amazon first challenged the Defense Department’s handling of JEDI, it alleged the Pentagon had shown "unmistakable bias" in the evaluation process. The company accused former President Donald Trump of improperly pressuring the agency to award the contract to Microsoft due to his dislike of Jeff Bezos and The Washington Post. In 2020, The Pentagon’s inspector general released a report that said it had found no evidence that the Trump administration had interfered with the procurement process but noted at the same time that several White House officials had not cooperated with the probe.

Volvo has made no secret of its plans to go green by 2030, first unveiling the XC40 Recharge SUV in 2019, then partnering with the Geely corporation to develop its performance EV Polestar line. And come early next year, the XC will be joined by a sleeker, curvier sibling dubbed the C40 Recharge. The C stands for coupe.

Understand, the XC40 and C40 are very much the same vehicle, at least under the hood. The two — along with the Polestar 2 — all share the same Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) platform that Volvo plans to build its future EV fleet on top of. As such, the C40 and XC40 offer literally identical performance profiles. They share a 78 kWh (75 kWh effective) battery pack which produces 408 HP and 486 lb-ft of torque across all four wheels, giving both cars a 0-60 time of 4.7 seconds, a 112 mph top speed and an estimated 210 miles of range.

Volvo

And, like its predecessor, the C40 Recharge will do so at rates up to 150kW on an L3 DC charger, enabling it to refill its power cells from basically dead to 80 percent capacity in 40 minutes. The C40 Recharge can also accept power from Level 2 (220V) sources, requiring around 8 hours to fully charge. You can, technically, charge the C40 on a standard 110V outlet — Volvo includes an adapter for doing so standard — but the company is positioning that charging level as more of a trickle-charge, topping-off option than one for actually, fully refilling a completely depleted battery.

As a Volvo rep explained to Engadget on Wednesday, the company envisions drivers using Level 3 DC fast charging stations located along their commutes more as quick recharge points — stopping for 5-10 minutes at a time, grabbing a cup of coffee as they wait — while using an in-home L2 charger to fully replenish the charge overnight, like an drivable cell phone.

Volvo

On the outside, the C and XC are easily discernible. While the XC40 adheres to the classic tenets of SUV styling, the C actually stands around 3 inches shorter overall and features a broadly curved roofline that falls away into an upturned spoiler — resulting in the coupe designation. I for one am smitten with the styling, especially the Fjord Blue paint scheme, which mimics the color of Sweden's local waters, as well as the all-glass roof.

The interior is even more impressive. For one thing, you won’t find a speck of leather in there. The floor mats are produced from recycled water bottles, as are the startlingly realistic faux-suede seats. “It's a very practical, sustainable solution, trying to get us away from traditional luxuries,” Volvo’s design rep told Engadget. “I think our future of luxury is more about the simplicity of something. Not, how many layers of wood and how many buttons you can have, it's more about the experience.” One unique aspect of that experience are the highlight panels that run throughout the C40 Recharge’s cabin, which depict topographical features of a Swedish national park.

Volvo

The cabin itself is quite minimalist though you’ll find a host of storage spaces subtly placed around the front seats with slick holders for everything from travel mugs to credit cards. The dashboard consists of the front-and-center Android Auto infotainment system, a series of physical buttons and knobs controlling the audio playback, front and rear defrost, and hazards sit just below. While I personally am a fan of tactile controls, C40 drivers won’t have a whole much use for them on account of the ever-present Android Assistant. You’ll be able to control the stereo, make calls, send texts, adjust the climate controls and even turn on the heated steering wheel. The Assistant’s knack for locating and evaluating charging stations along your route should prove especially helpful to range-wary EV adopters, Volvo reps explained on Wednesday, by not only alerting drivers to where these stations are but also what kind of connections they offer and the status of the vehicle’s battery once it arrives.

Volvo has yet to officially announce its MSRP for the C40 Recharge so it’ll be interesting to see how it might compare to its expected competition, assuming the C40 ends up being priced roughly around $54,000 like its XC predecessor. For example the Model Y Long Range starts from $52,490 and gets a 100 miles-plus more distance using an equivalently sized battery pack. The Audi Q4 e-tron on the other hand manages to achieve the same range on a surprisingly tiny 52 kWh pack. To be fair though, its 0-60 is 9 seconds flat and they’re only for sale in Europe for the moment. Then you’ve got the ID.4 which starts at $40,000 and boasts 50 miles more range but, in my opinion at least, doesn't offer quite the same level of refinement that I saw in the C40 Recharge.

Volvo

The C40 is expected to hit US streets in the first quarter of 2022 but it will not be available for sale through Volvo dealerships. You’ll be able to see them at the dealership, sure, as well as test drive them, pick yours up from there and get it serviced there if you buy one. However the purchase process itself happens exclusively online. You can reserve one today for $500 at the Volvo website.

This is but the second step in Volvo’s efforts to transition to EVs. The company plans to release a new electric model every year until 2025 as part of its larger goal of becoming completely carbon neutral by 2040. Rumored to be coming next: a fully-electric XC90 Recharge.

Volvo has made no secret of its plans to go green by 2030, first unveiling the XC40 Recharge SUV in 2019, then partnering with the Geely corporation to develop its performance EV Polestar line. And come early next year, the XC will be joined by a sleeker, curvier sibling dubbed the C40 Recharge. The C stands for coupe.

Understand, the XC40 and C40 are very much the same vehicle, at least under the hood. The two — along with the Polestar 2 — all share the same Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) platform that Volvo plans to build its future EV fleet on top of. As such, the C40 and XC40 offer literally identical performance profiles. They share a 78 kWh (75 kWh effective) battery pack which produces 408 HP and 486 lb-ft of torque across all four wheels, giving both cars a 0-60 time of 4.7 seconds, a 112 mph top speed and an estimated 210 miles of range.

Volvo

And, like its predecessor, the C40 Recharge will do so at rates up to 150kW on an L3 DC charger, enabling it to refill its power cells from basically dead to 80 percent capacity in 40 minutes. The C40 Recharge can also accept power from Level 2 (220V) sources, requiring around 8 hours to fully charge. You can, technically, charge the C40 on a standard 110V outlet — Volvo includes an adapter for doing so standard — but the company is positioning that charging level as more of a trickle-charge, topping-off option than one for actually, fully refilling a completely depleted battery.

As a Volvo rep explained to Engadget on Wednesday, the company envisions drivers using Level 3 DC fast charging stations located along their commutes more as quick recharge points — stopping for 5-10 minutes at a time, grabbing a cup of coffee as they wait — while using an in-home L2 charger to fully replenish the charge overnight, like an drivable cell phone.

Volvo

On the outside, the C and XC are easily discernible. While the XC40 adheres to the classic tenets of SUV styling, the C actually stands around 3 inches shorter overall and features a broadly curved roofline that falls away into an upturned spoiler — resulting in the coupe designation. I for one am smitten with the styling, especially the Fjord Blue paint scheme, which mimics the color of Sweden's local waters, as well as the all-glass roof.

The interior is even more impressive. For one thing, you won’t find a speck of leather in there. The floor mats are produced from recycled water bottles, as are the startlingly realistic faux-suede seats. “It's a very practical, sustainable solution, trying to get us away from traditional luxuries,” Volvo’s design rep told Engadget. “I think our future of luxury is more about the simplicity of something. Not, how many layers of wood and how many buttons you can have, it's more about the experience.” One unique aspect of that experience are the highlight panels that run throughout the C40 Recharge’s cabin, which depict topographical features of a Swedish national park.

Volvo

The cabin itself is quite minimalist though you’ll find a host of storage spaces subtly placed around the front seats with slick holders for everything from travel mugs to credit cards. The dashboard consists of the front-and-center Android Auto infotainment system, a series of physical buttons and knobs controlling the audio playback, front and rear defrost, and hazards sit just below. While I personally am a fan of tactile controls, C40 drivers won’t have a whole much use for them on account of the ever-present Android Assistant. You’ll be able to control the stereo, make calls, send texts, adjust the climate controls and even turn on the heated steering wheel. The Assistant’s knack for locating and evaluating charging stations along your route should prove especially helpful to range-wary EV adopters, Volvo reps explained on Wednesday, by not only alerting drivers to where these stations are but also what kind of connections they offer and the status of the vehicle’s battery once it arrives.

Volvo has yet to officially announce its MSRP for the C40 Recharge so it’ll be interesting to see how it might compare to its expected competition, assuming the C40 ends up being priced roughly around $54,000 like its XC predecessor. For example the Model Y Long Range starts from $52,490 and gets a 100 miles-plus more distance using an equivalently sized battery pack. The Audi Q4 e-tron on the other hand manages to achieve the same range on a surprisingly tiny 52 kWh pack. To be fair though, its 0-60 is 9 seconds flat and they’re only for sale in Europe for the moment. Then you’ve got the ID.4 which starts at $40,000 and boasts 50 miles more range but, in my opinion at least, doesn't offer quite the same level of refinement that I saw in the C40 Recharge.

Volvo

The C40 is expected to hit US streets in the first quarter of 2022 but it will not be available for sale through Volvo dealerships. You’ll be able to see them at the dealership, sure, as well as test drive them, pick yours up from there and get it serviced there if you buy one. However the purchase process itself happens exclusively online. You can reserve one today for $500 at the Volvo website.

This is but the second step in Volvo’s efforts to transition to EVs. The company plans to release a new electric model every year until 2025 as part of its larger goal of becoming completely carbon neutral by 2040. Rumored to be coming next: a fully-electric XC90 Recharge.

Roland’s Go:Mixer series has found a fanbase with musicians looking for a pocket-friendly recording solution — and for good reason. The tiny mixers are lightweight, offer bags of connectivity and won’t break the bank. The latest model, the “Pro-X,” brings some modest but important upgrades from the original Go:Mixer Pro.

The main newness here is less about the audio and more about compatibility: Roland claims the Pro-X adds better support for Android phones and iOS devices. Don’t worry, there is some extra audio functionality. Namely, a new gain “pad” for guitars (to attenuate volume on active pickups) and the headphone/monitor port is now bi-directional (i.e. it’s also an input). Roland pitches the latter as a way to record the inline mic in your headphones, but you can also plug in a lavalier/3.5mm source too, if you can live without monitoring.

The rest of the Pro-X is the same as the Pro before it. There’s a single XLR combi port on the right hand side for microphones and 1/4-inch devices. Also on this side you’ll find the phantom power switch (for when using condenser microphones), a smartphone/line level 3.5mm input and a guitar/bass port. The front edge hosts two more 3.5mm line level inputs, that new pad switch, the updated dual-directional headphone port and the phone loopback switch. The left hand side has just a pair of 1/4-inch instrument inputs and the battery cover for four AAA cells needed for the phantom power.

In short, if it has, or can be converted to, a 3.5mm port, a quarter-inch jack or an XLR connector you can likely use it here.

On the top face of the Pro-X is where you’ll find all the gain rotaries for each input. A few things to note though: the “smartphone” 3.5mm input doesn’t have a gain control, you’ll need to adjust that on the phone itself. Although, you can also plug a phone into one of the quarter-inch ports with an adapter, in which case you will have volume control with one of the ports if that’s important. It’s also worth mentioning that the master volume is also the monitor gain which is a little inconvenient if you want high monitoring levels but low gain on your recording or vice versa.

James Trew / Engadget

Given that the Pro-X has been designed to work with your phone, there’s a handy ridge along the battery compartment that doubles as a slot for your handset. Obviously this means you don’t need to have your phone lying around like a tethered paperweight, but it also provides a good position for the camera should you wish to livestream a performance. My iPhone 12 with a case doesn’t quite fit in the groove perfectly, but enough that the phone is steady when using it.

If there’s one immediate thing I would change, it’s the “peak” indicator. Unlike a DJ mixer where you would have a full strip of LEDs indicating the volume of each channel and a separate one for the master volume, the Pro-X has a single LED that will flash red when any input goes over the maximum threshold (i.e. clipping). It’s quite possible to set your levels so that there’s no red light showing during your checks, and then just one plosive can send it over. If there was a way to constantly see how close you are to 0dB that would be much more helpful.

Worse than that, though, I found that some of my recordings that didn’t trigger the red light could be a little distorted on playback. While speaking into the microphone, everything looked fine, but the recording was often “crunchy” in louder sections. Thankfully, you can actually hear this in your headphones while it’s happening, so you can adjust the levels before hitting record, but ultimately what’s the clipping light for if it’s not reliably preventing you from overdriving things? It made me pretty nervous about each recording until I had experimented with various levels and put more confidence in the monitoring.

After some testing with different mics, it became clear that dynamic mics are fine, but any condenser I tried needed much more headroom to avoid sounding harsh. It’s not clear whether this is a pre-amp or phantom power issue, or just the extra sensitive nature of condensers. When I tested with a Shure SM59 (dynamic/no phantom power), for example, I was able to — in fact almost had to — set the gain to full, and even if the master volume was at 75 percent there was still plenty of headroom.

And that brings us back to the fact that the monitor level control is the same as the master gain. You probably want your levels quite modest to make sure you don’t clip, but in doing so, your monitoring levels are also low, making it harder to hear your mix is how you want it, you know, kinda important things.

I largely avoided this issue by making sure that I was recording into something that showed more detailed levels. Rode’s Reporter app, for example, has a nice, broad meter showing you how hot your signal is and it was much easier to use that as a gauge of the aggregate output.

Teething problems aside, once you’re all set, it’s all very straightforward. Like I mentioned above, I preferred plugging in a phone (or any other 3.5mm source to be fair) via the Guitar port. Having the rotary dial for volume allows you to adjust the volume on the fly much more fluidly, which is handy if you want to use music beds or other such sources where you might want to dynamically alter the volume.

James Trew / Engadget

Likewise, if you want to use two XLR microphones — say for a podcast or a vocal and a mic’d instrument) — you can co-opt one of the 3.5mm ports with something like an iRig Pre 2. This means spending out on another bit of gear, but if you record often, having an XLR-to-3.5mm adapter/interface is pretty handy to have around.

As for that new ability to record with the inline mic on your headphones, all I can say is… it works? Those inline mics are never any good, but it’s never a bad thing to have more inputs, and might work well for more conversational podcasts or just recording phone interviews. As already mentioned, you can actually feed in other inputs here if you don’t need to monitor, say if you’re recording a voice over or something for a multitrack piece you want to edit later.

Perhaps the most interesting thing, for me, is what else can I use this for? Its credentials as a portable mixer for musicians are obvious. But I also feel like it’s just something handy to have around if you work with audio in any way. I’ve become something of an audio-adapter collector. I have all sorts of cables, interfaces and various types of microphones. Something like the Pro-X appeals to me as a simple way to put lots of those together into a portable setup.

The wealth of inputs means it’s pretty flexible, too. That’s a pretty compelling combo right there. The levels issue I mentioned earlier is more about learning how to set things up. Once I figured it out it was rarely a problem after that.

I do wish that the monitor volume was separate from the master volume for those occasions where you really do want to record low but still hear how the mix sounds together. Maybe that’s something we can hope for in a future model.

Whether you’re a garage band, an artist on the move or a podcaster that likes to get out in the big wide world there’s a lot to like here. At $150, it’s also a relatively modest investment for something you can easily fit in your back pocket.