NASA's Juno probe has provided a better, deeper look at Jupiter's atmosphere. Researchers have produced the first 3D view of Jupiter's atmospheric layers, illustrating how its turbulent clouds and storms work in greater detail than before. Most notably, it's clearer how cyclones and anticyclones behave. They're much taller than expected, with the Great Red Spot (an anticyclone) running 200 miles deep. They're either warmer or colder at the top depending on their spin, too.
Juno helped fill out the data using a microwave radiometer that offered a peek below the clouds' surfaces. For the Great Red Spot, the team complemented the radiometer data with the gravity signatures from two close passes. The radiometer info also showed Earth-like circulation cells in northern and souther hemispheres, not to mention ocean-like changes in microwave light.
There are still mysteries left, such as the atmospheric mass of the Great Red Spot. With that said, the 3D imagery is already producing a more cohesive picture of how jovian planets like Jupiter behave. It might not take much more effort to solve more of Jupiter's mysteries.
You'll have to go large if you want an Intel-powered Mac desktop. 9to5Macreports Apple has quietly discontinued the 21.5-inch iMac about half a year after introducing the M1 model. The company had been selling a lone dual-core model for $1,099 through a relatively hard-to-find page, but YouTube Tech God noticed that it disappeared sometime on October 29th.
We've asked Apple for comment on the move. The company has a long history of keeping legacy Macs around for a while before silently dropping them, but it seldom elaborates on those decisions. A notable exception came in March this year, when Apple confirmed it was winding down iMac Pro sales.
This won't thrill educational customers that may still want the 21.5-inch iMac for its relatively low price, small size and legacy ports. You'll have to buy at least a 27-inch iMac or a $1,099 legacy Mac mini if you're not ready to leap to Apple Silicon. This does signal Apple's confidence in its processors, though — it clearly believes its mainstream desktop customers are ready to make the switch.
You'll have to wait a little bit longer to watch SpaceX's third crewed NASA mission. NASA has delayed the launch of Crew-3 from early on Halloween to 1:10AM Eastern on November 3rd. The agency pinned the setback on "unfavorable" weather. There probably won't be another delay, though, as officials are predicting an 80 percent chance of good weather for the new date. Live overage of the launch on NASA's channel will start November 2nd at 8:45PM.
Crew-3 will bring NASA astronauts Raja Chari (the mission commander), Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron to the International Space Station alongside the ESA's Matthias Maurer. They're expected to dock at 11PM Eastern on November 3rd and will stay until late April 2022.
Crewed SpaceX flights are still relatively rare. Crew-1 launched in November 2020, while Crew-2 didn't lift off until April 2021. Crew-3 and the recent all-civilian Inspiration4 mission are steps toward making these occupied flights relatively routine — ideally, they'll soon be as uneventful as SpaceX's other flights.
NEW LIFTOFF DATE: NASA's @SpaceX Crew-3 mission is now targeting 1:10am ET (05:10 UTC) on Wed., Nov. 3, for its next launch attempt due to weather along the flight path.
It hasn't been a good weekend for Roblox players. The Vergenotes that the gaming platform has been down since 7PM Eastern on October 28th (nearly two days as of this writing), with no resolution in sight. It's not clear what prompted the failure beyond an "internal system issue," but Roblox Corporation stressed that it wasn't due to a Chipotle promo that launched just half an hour earlier. This wasn't linked to "any specific experiences or partnerships," Roblox explained.
The promo offers a total $1 million in free Chipotle burritos to players as part of a Halloween event. That could prompt a spike in activity on Roblox, but it's not likely to disrupt a game with over 40 million daily users.
The outage certainly won't help the platform, though. Over half of Roblox players are pre-teens, and its surge during the early pandemic helped fuel high-profile concerts and platform-exclusive games. Failures like this could easily anger kids (and their families) that spend much of their time in Roblox's virtual universe. While the downtime likely won't hurt the platform's long-term reputation, the company clearly can't afford many incidents like this.
Still making progress on today's outage. We'll continue to keep you updated. Once again, we apologize for the delay.
We know that this outage was not related to any specific experiences or partnerships on the platform.
Apple may have given us a glimpse of what the new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros' insides look like, but it had a surprise waiting for the folks at iFixit nonetheless. The iFixit team said removing batteries from recent MacBook Pros required "infinite patience, a bottle of isopropyl alcohol, and an optional bottle of human-friendly alcohol." They expected the same from this generation of laptops but were pleasantly surprised by the presence of pull tabs instead when they tore down the new MacBook Pros.
The outer battery cells have noticeable pull tabs that you can, well, pull to detach them from their adhesive underneath. Even the central battery cells have pull tabs — they're just harder to find inside the laptop chassis beneath the trackpad. iFixit was able able to confirm that the laptops will recognize and work with battery replacements just fine.
In addition, most of the laptops' ports, except for the SD card reader and the HDMI port, are modular. That means they can be easily and cheaply replaced if they suddenly break or malfunction. Conversely, the laptops' keyboard will still be hard to replace, but hey, at least the days of Apple's butterfly keyboard are now over. You can watch iFixit's teardown process in the video below, and it also has more photos of the laptops insides on its website if you want to have a better look at their components. iFixit also took apart Apple's $19 polishing cloth, in case you're wondering what makes it more expensive that its typical counterparts.
Patreon doesn't let creators offer crypto coins for the sake of profit, but that might change before long. TechCrunchreports Patreon executives Jack Conte and Julian Gutman said at The Information's latest summit that the company was "evaluating" the use of crypto, including a previously hinted-at possibility of allowing "creator coins" that fans can buy to show support. You could invest in creators and reap rewards if they hit the big time, or access special content reserved for coin owners.
Conte wouldn't say if Patreon had staff devoted to crypto projects, but did say the company was "thinking about it." The company had discussed the possibility of allowing creator coins during an online September discussion, but it was sidelined as the company grappled with the implications of Mastercard's tougher adult content standards.
Gutman added that Patreon was "interested" in studying the potential benefits of NFTs and related technologies for creators looking to sustain a business. NFTs have boosted the value of digital art, sometimes leading to sales worth millions, but there are also widespread concerns about the highly speculative nature of the market and the blockchain-based technology's environmental impact.
It wouldn't be surprising if Patreon embraced coins, NFTs or both. Patreon has fared well despite early pandemic jitters and raised $90 million just a year ago, but there's little doubt the service is trying to court as many creators as possible. A new stance on crypto might entice content producers who currently have to go elsewhere if they want to dabble in the technology.
This week, we tested out new flagship smartphones, high-powered laptops and much-improved earbuds. Devindra Hardawar reviewed the latest 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros and reports back that they provide almost everything one could want out of a powerful laptop. Billy Steele spent time listening to the third-generation AirPods and concluded they sound much better than the previous version. And Cherlynn Low used Google's Pixel 6 and 6 Pro and found that the camera-heavy handsets have a lot more to offer, including a great starting price.
Devindra Hardawar says the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros are precisely what media professionals have been waiting for: speedy M1 Pro and Max processors, a comfortable keyboard, serious battery life and great speakers. They also feature most of the crucial ports MacBooks have been missing for years, including (finally!) an SD card reader, though the laptops are thicker and heavier as a result. And of course, all that comes with a high starting price of $1,999.
Devindra was particularly impressed by the Liquid Retina XDR displays, which come close to 4K resolutions, and have mini-LED backlighting to produce up to 1,600 nits of brightness. He was also pleased to find support for 120Hz refresh rates, and by the benchmark testing in which both MacBook Pros blew away competing Windows PCs. However, while the laptops were able to speedily convert a 4K video clip to 1080p, Devindra doesn't think they'd make the best gaming machines — trying to load Borderlands 3 produced an unplayable mess. Overall though, he says these computers have practically everything one, especially a creative professional, would want in a powerful notebook — as long as you can stomach the price tag.
Apple's latest AirPods have been almost completely redesigned from the previous version; the buds themselves have a new look, courtesy of the contoured shape which reduces weight and features a tapered silhouette and an angle to increase comfort. Billy Steele says the company's efforts to build better AirPods have paid off: the new buds are more comfortable and and have much better audio quality, with bigger and more immersive sound that remained open and airy. That's thanks to a custom driver paired with a high-dynamic-range amplifier, as well as the new H1 chip and the inward facing mic. Billy says these changes made the AirPods something he actively wanted to listen to music with.
The new AirPods also have an IPX4 rating so they'll survive sweaty workouts or small splashes. They can also detect skin which, combined with the built-in accelerometer, makes for more accurate pausing and extends battery life. The new chip means you can listen to tracks in Dolby Atmos on Apple Music, and the spatial audio is available with dynamic head tracking to change the position of the audio when you turn your head. However, the latest AirPods still lack active noise cancellation and Transparency mode as these features are still reserved for the pricier AirPods Pro. While Billy acknowledges that these earbuds aren't for everyone, he says they continue to offer Apple users features that are well integrated with iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Cherlynn Low says the newest Google phones — the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro — are the most intriguing phones that the company has made in years. Featuring the first Google mobile processor, Tensor, the two handsets also have improved camera hardware, lovely OLED screens, speedy refresh rates (120Hz for the 6 Pro, 90Hz for the 6), and decent speakers. Cherlynn says the best feature is the surprisingly low starting price — only $599 — which makes some of the drawbacks more forgivable.
One of the issues she had with the phones was the laggy under-screen fingerprint sensor, which requires the display to be on before it unlocked — a process that she says doesn't need to have two steps. She was more impressed by the new voice keyboard, which did an excellent job of transcribing speech, and the additional camera features. The sensors are sharper and bigger with larger pixels, producing bright, clean photos — and special camera features, like Magic Eraser and Face Unblur, give users a lot of control over their photos. The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro excelled in our battery tests, too, lasting 20.5 hours and 17 hours, respectively. Overall, Cherlynn calls the handsets a superb return to form, showing off Google's strengths in the software and photography departments.
You'd think global supply shortages would hit Apple's tech products the hardest, but that's apparently not the case. As The New York Timesreports, Apple's most backordered new release is its $19 Polishing Cloth. Order the microfiber cloth from the company store as of this writing and you'll wait 10 to 12 weeks — in other words, you won't get your Apple-branded polishing experience until January 2022 at the earliest. You could buy a new MacBook Pro and wait another two months to (officially) wipe smudges off the screen.
It's not clear what prompted the backlog, but it might be sheer popularity. An anonymous Apple official talking to The Times said the company wasn't surprised by high demand, and that the cloth was both specially designed (it was originally meant for the nano-texture glass on the Pro Display XDR) and particularly effective.
It's no secret that you can find far, far less expensive alternatives if you're cleaning a regular screen. Amazon is selling a six-pack of MagicFiber cloths for $9, and even the pricer options tend to offer better value. However, the shortfall illustrates both the cachet of the official product and the sheer range of supply constraints affecting tech, sometimes in unexpected ways. If you can't even count on getting a polishing cloth in a timely fashion, you know the industry is struggling with broad supply issues.
Facebook made it pretty clear that it's focusing on the metaverse when it rebranded itself as Meta, and its latest acquisition is part of that effort. Jason Rubin, the company's VP of Metaverse Content has revealed that Meta is acquiring Within, the creator of immersive virtual reality workout app Supernatural for Oculus Quest headsets. A rep for Within previously described Supernatural to Engadget as "part Beat Saber, part Dance Dance Revolution, part Guitar Hero with your whole body.
In a separate announcement (via TechCrunch), Within CEO Chris Milk and Head of fitness Leanne Pedante said that its coaches, choreographers and managers will continue being part of the team. They'll work on VR fitness experiences for Supernatural independently under Meta's Reality Labs. While Within will have to answer to its new parent company going forward, Milk's and Pedante's statement says the the acquisition will give them access to more resources, including more music, more features and more social experiences.
In Supernatural, you'll have to hit colored orbs flying at you from its various VR environments using your controllers. The balls will shatter if you hit them with enough force, but they'll only float away if you don't — you'll get scored at the end based on how you do. Supernatural has a 30-day free trial period, after which it'll cost you $19 a month for continued access.
Vaccine misinformation has been pervasive issue on Facebook for years, and it wasn't until earlier this year that the website finally introduced policies that would address the problem. Now, the social network has expanded those policies and its COVID-19 vaccination efforts to include kids shortly after the FDA authorized the emergency use of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children ages five to eleven.
In the coming weeks, it will send in-feed English and Spanish reminders to users in the US that the COVID-19 vaccine is now available for kids. Those reminders will also include a link that'll help users find the nearest vaccination site. Perhaps, more importantly, it will expand its anti-vaccine misinformation policies to remove claims that COVID-19 vaccines for kids do not exist and that the vaccine for children is untested. It will also remove any claim that COVID-19 vaccines can kill or seriously harm kids, that they're not effective for children at all and that anything other than a COVID-19 vaccine can inoculate children against the virus.
Facebook says its fight against vaccine misinformation is part of an ongoing effort in partnership with the CDC, WHO and other health authorities. It promises to keep on updating its policies and ban any new claim about the COVID-19 vaccine for children that will emerge in the future. The website, which now operates under its parent company Meta, says it has removed more than 20 million pieces of content from Facebook and Instagram since the beginning of the pandemic. As of August 2021, it has also banned 3,000 accounts, groups and pages for repeatedly breaking its health misinformation policies.
Prepare to toss a coin to your favorite witcher. Netflix has shared the first full trailer for season two of The Witcher ahead of its December 17th debut. Unsurprisingly, the clip sees Geralt fighting plenty of monsters, including vampires, gargoyles and even a leshen at one point toward the end. It also reveals plenty of details about the story arc of the show's sophomore season, teasing an escalating war between Nilfgaard and the Northern Kingdoms, Ciri's training at Kaer Morhen and the return of Jaskier.
After the show's initial success, a second season isn't the only piece of Witcher content Netflix has in the pipeline. The streaming giant released The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, an animated prequel film starring Geralt's mentor Vesemir, earlier this year. It also recently greenlit a third season of the show, announced a second animated movie and a "kids and family" series.
Since 2019, Engadget has recommended the SteelSeries Arctis 7 as one of the best gaming headsets you can buy. At this point, it's iconic but with a design that hasn't changed much since 2016, it recently started to show its age. Thankfully, SteelSeries just announced the Arctis 7+ and Arctis 7P+.
The tweaks the company has made are modest, but they're ones current Arctis 7 owners will appreciate. Most notably, SteelSeries has replaced the finicky micro USB port you used to charge the headset with a more modern USB-C connection. Using the new port, it's possible to get three hours of uptime after 15 minutes of charging.
SteelSeries
On that note, battery life is also improved. SteelSeries claims you can get up to 30 hours of gameplay on a single charge, up from the approximately 24 hours you got from the previous version. As for the differences between the 7+ and 7P+, there aren't many. You can buy the latter in both black and white colorways where the former is only available in black. Additionally, the 7P+ includes support for the PlayStation 4 and PS5's 3D Audio functionality. That said, you can use both headsets with pretty much any system or device other than Xbox consoles.
The Arctis 7+ and Arctis 7P+ are available to buy today from the SteelSeries website. They'll both set you back $170. That's an increase from the $150 MSRP of Arctis 7 and 7P, but what's an extra $20 when you don't have to deal with micro USB anymore.
Tesla is recalling 2,791 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles over concerns that their front suspension lateral link fasteners may loosen, potentially shifting the wheel alignment and increasing the risk of a crash. The affected vehicles are 2019, 2020 and 2021 versions of the Model 3, and 2020 and 2021 editions of the Model Y.
Tesla has notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the recall and plans to mail notification letters to affected owners on December 24th. The company will tighten or replace the fasteners free of charge. The number for this recall is SB-21-31-003.
This is far from the first recall on Tesla's books, and in the grand scheme of things, it's a small one. Tesla has issued a handful of recalls this year alone, including one in February that affected 135,000 vehicles in the US and another in June affecting 6,000 US vehicles. German regulators issued an additional recall of 12,300 Model X EVs in February of this year, citing trim-adhesive concerns. That issue sounded eerily similar to one that led to a US recall of more than 9,000 cars in November 2020.
Amazon owns a 20 percent stake in electric transport startup Rivian, according to a recent SEC disclosure spotted by Bloomberg. As of September 30th, the company said it held equity investments, "including preferred stock of Rivian Automotive," valued at $3.8 billion, up from $2.7 billion at the end of 2020. That Amazon should own a fifth of Rivian is not surprising. In 2019, the retailer led a $700 million investment round in the automaker, contributing about $440 million to that total.
That same year, it announced as part of its 2040 climate pledge it would purchase 100,000 electric delivery vehicles from Rivian. The first of those EVs, a cutesy van, began making deliveries in Los Angeles at the start of the year. Amazon hopes to have 10,000 of its Rivian EVs on the road by the end of 2022.
As you might imagine, that has put pressure on Rivian to deliver for its biggest customer. Per Bloomberg, the company has prioritized manufacturing vans for Amazon at the expense of its consumer vehicles like the R1T and R1S. The former was supposed to debut in 2020, but following a series of pandemic-related delays, the first customer-ready vehicle only rolled out of the company's Normal, Illinois factory this past September.
Valorant players are getting another hero to use in Riot's free-to-play shooter. As described by character producer John Goscicki, Chamber plays the "gentleman assassin" role, a Sentinel-class character who "bunkers down, and holds a location by getting frags." He can do this through a skill and weapon set that includes a trap that scans for enemies, a heavy pistol and a sniper rifle that can take enemies out with one perfectly-placed shot. Chamber will go live in Valorant with Patch 3.10 on Nov. 16.
Riot Games
Given that his abilities are focused around "highly lethal, pinpoint accuracy," as Goscicki says, they wanted his style to match. "A person like that would care about the finer things in life as well—from the cut of his vest, to the color of the threading, and how shoes would bring the whole outfit together." If that description speaks to you, Chamber might be an agent worth trying out.
That patch comes a few weeks after Riot is set to release the Valorant Episode 3, Act III Battlepass, which goes live on November 2nd and will be available for 10 weeks. It comes with five free and nine paid "Marquee Items," and the pack itself costs 1,000 Valorant Points, the game's in-game currency. According to Riot associate art director Sean Marino, the Battlepass is focused on bringing some fall holiday vibes to the game. Given that one of the items Marino mentioned is meant to fit in with Halloween, it's a little bit of a bummer that this doesn't launch until after the holiday. But hey, why limit Halloween to just one month?
It's been a while since we've heard any news from Amy Hennig, but now we know what the former Naughty Dog and Visceral Games writer and creative director has been working away at since going indie in 2018. On Friday, Marvel announced its working with Hennig's Skydance New Media studio on a new narrative-driven action-adventure game set in its comic book universe. Details on the project are sparse, but the Disney-owned company teased the title will feature a "completely original story and take on the Marvel Universe."
After holding our cards close to the vest for so long, we're excited to finally be able to share the news! We're having a blast working with @MarvelGames on our first project at @Skydance New Media, and can't wait until we can share more. Excelsior! https://t.co/opj87SJwQ6
"I can't imagine a better partner than Marvel for our first game," said Hennig. "The Marvel Universe epitomizes all the action, mystery and thrills of the pulp adventure genre that I adore and lends itself perfectly to an interactive experience. It's an honor to be able to tell an original story with all the humanity, complexity, and humor that makes Marvel characters so enduring and to enable our players to embody these heroes that they love."
In some ways, it's a surprise to find out Hennig is working on a AAA title. When she left EA after the publisher shut down Visceral, it seemed like she wanted a change of pace. "I would love to have a little company of about six to eight people, 15 at the most, and then do smaller projects," she said at the time. But then the possibility of working with Marvel may have been too difficult to ignore, especially for a new studio working on its first-ever game. Much like it's done in Hollywood, the company has started to pull in talent from every corner of the gaming industry. Between Eidos Montreal, Firaxis and now Skydance New Media, some of the best studios are working on Marvel properties.
With the eyes of the world firmly focused upon humanity's disastrous planetary stewardship to date and wondering what might be done to rectify our past pollution, leading tech companies in recent weeks have become increasingly vocal in their pledges to reform business operations to help "save the planet."
Apple, for example, announced the launch of 10 new environmental projects as part of its Power for Impact initiative as well as that 175 of its suppliers will switch to using renewable energy, the company said in a statement Tuesday, and that, by 2030, every device the company sells will have a net-zero climate impact. The company also noted that it has already reduced its carbon emissions by 40 percent over the past five years.
Google, on the other hand, pointed to its goal of achieving net zero emissions "across all of our operations and value chain by 2030," according to a blog post published on Monday. The company also called out its efforts to assist its partners with reducing their own emissions, such as through the Environmental Insights Explorer (EIE) program which helps cities map their pollution data, air quality and solar power potential. Google also made sure to mention just how sustainable its products actually are for consumers.
Microsoft
Microsoft made even loftier claims on Tuesday: to be "carbon negative by 2030 and by 2050 remove from the environment all the carbon the company has emitted, either directly or by electrical consumption since it was founded in 1975," before expounding on the rapidly increasing efficiencies of its massive data centers.
Amazon, for its part, announced that its $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund investment program has selected three low-carbon startups: Resilient Power, which produces transformer-based EV charging technology; CMC Machinery, an order-specific-sized shipping box manufacturer; and Infinium, which devised "ultra-low carbon fuels that can be used in air transport, marine freight, and heavy truck fleets," per the company's blog post.
But do these protestations of environmental progress signify a legitimate effort by Big Tech to clean up its collective act or are they simply more PR spin seeking to offset their bad behavior? Because we've seen this sort of behavior before. It's called greenwashing.
What is Greenwashing?
Merriam-Webster defines greenwashing as "expressions of environmentalist concerns especially as a cover for products, policies, or activities." The term was first coined in 1986 by environmentalist Jay Westerveld in an essay examining the hotel industry's practice of leaving placards in guest rooms admonishing them to reuse their towels to help "save the environment." Back then, people got their news from three places: newspapers, television and radio — the same sources for virtually all advertising at the time. This information availability imbalance created a system wherein corporations could promote themselves in any flattering shade they wished, regardless of their actual actions, with little fear of the public actually realizing that a deception had even occurred.
The practice of greenwashing in America goes as far back as 1953 — though it wasn't called as such at the time — when beverage manufacturers launched the Keep America Beautiful campaign, reminding the public to be good environmental stewards and not litter, in what was actually an effort to forestall incoming regulations on the use of disposable containers. Greenwashing metastasized in the 1980s as Big Oil companies ladled out their own laudations while they sought to minimize their own liability and culpability in environmental pollution scandals and global warming. These companies went so far as to work to actively prevent the government from passing clean energy laws. But you wouldn't know it from their television ads.
The spot above is from Chevron's People Do campaign. It should be noted that many of the programs promoted in that campaign were actually government-mandated actions and that while this campaign was running, Chevron was repeatedly found in violation of the Clean Air and Water Acts, and was caught dumping oil in wildlife refuges.
Exxon's actions through the '90s were equally abhorrent. The company continually muddied the waters around humanity's role in climate change, knowing full well how the burning of fossil fuels inflamed the growing crisis.
In 2017, a Harvard study of ExxonMobil's climate change communications (both internal memos and public-facing advertorial newspaper content) produced between 1977 and 2014 found that while more than 80 percent of internal documents acknowledged that human activity was largely responsible for global warming, just 12 percent of the company's advertorials did the same.
"Within hours of publishing our study, ExxonMobil responded with ad hominem attacks," Harvard Research Associate Geoffrey Supran, told Client Earth last year. "I was invited by the European Parliament to testify about ExxonMobil's history of climate denial. The day before, they sent a private memo (which has now been leaked) to Members of Parliament to try to discredit me. If these experiences tell us anything, it's that the Exxon tiger hasn't changed its stripes."
Take bottled water, for instance. Nestle alone has spent millions of ad dollars over recent years in an effort to convince the public that, as it claimed in 2008, "bottled water is the most environmentally responsible consumer product in the world." This despite the fact that barely 31 percent of plastic water bottles actually get recycled and the rest end up cluttering landfills and the ocean — scientists estimate that around 8 million metric tons of plastic entered the ocean annually.
And they are far from alone. Coca-Cola came under fire in 2015 in Australia when it rolled out Coke Life, a supposedly light sugar variant packaged in a bright green can. Sure it made consumers feel like they were making a health conscious purchasing decision but that was despite health advocates pointing out that "the reduction to 10 teaspoons of sugar in a 600ml bottle made little difference in terms of health impacts." More recently the company launched its World Without Waste campaign which, at its essence, pushed consumers to simply recycle more, rather than actually adjust the way the company conducts its business.
The fashion industry is a huge contributor to the climate-and ecological emergency, not to mention its impact on the countless workers and communities who are being exploited around the world in order for some to enjoy fast fashion that many treat as disposables. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/pZirCE1uci
So why do companies insist on greenwashing their operations rather than actually reform themselves? Because it is far more profitable to simply adjust public perception than it is to make meaningful reforms. A 2015 Nielsen poll found that 66 percent of respondents would be willing to pay a premium for "environmentally sustainable products" and among those willing to pay more more than 50 percent were influenced by sustainability factors such as "a company being environmentally friendly (58 percent), and company being known for its commitment to social value (56 percent.)"
It's also because we, collectively, keep falling for it. Consumers' desires to help address the climate crisis, especially in the face of barely tepid responses from world governments, primes us to view virtually any action on that account as a positive one. "SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals] and 'net zero' have kind of created an opportunity for a lot more greenwashing, because it allows you to describe yourself as a green company when you're doing a thing that's fundamentally not green," Dave Powell, co-presenter of the Sustainababble podcast and the former Head of Environment at the New Economics Foundation, told Client Earth. "You effectively buy your way out of trouble, for example, by promising to plant large numbers of trees."
"As part of their climate strategies, many companies are relying on voluntary carbon offsetting. However, if not done well, offsetting can result in greenwashing," Dr. Aoife Brophy Haney, Research Lecturer at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford, added. "To mitigate this risk, government and society at large should support the use of best practice guidelines, such as the recently released 'Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting', to help ensure offsetting is done in a rigorous and credible way that ultimately contributes to net zero goals."
However, cracks in the greenwashing facade may be beginning to show, starting in the financial sector, as regulators' interest in ESG fund (environmental, social and governance) oversight grows. As Financial News London reported Monday, German asset manager DWS has recently been investigated by both US and German regulatory agencies after a former employee accused the company of fudging the environmental credentials in its 2020 annual report.
"You have to be careful, as there is a big reputational risk," an unnamed senior executive at a European asset manager, told FN London. "We're not saying we were bulls***ing before, but there's a recognition now that it's more complicated."
"Most have probably been a bit too pushy in marketing their alleged ESG expertise and they are now applying more caution," Philip Kalus, managing partner at consultancy Accelerando Associates, added. "Some would even say there is panic in the house. Nobody wants to be the next one being accused, but it is an important and overdue wake-up call for the industry."
That's not to say that environmental pledges made by Apple, Google, Microsoft or Amazon are meant to intentionally gaslight the public (though Exxon, Shell and Chevron absolutely did). These companies have a vested financial interest in at least appearing as positively as possible to their customers because, frankly, nobody's going to have time to talk about the slick new features of the Pixel 8 or iOS 15 when we're in the midst of a global climate meltdown-slash-water war.
Is Google's "moonshot goal" of operating its data centers and campuses entirely on carbon-free energy by 2030 going to make more than a blip of difference when it comes to mitigating the impacts of climate change? Probably not, definitely not on its own and certainly no more so than Microsoft's promise to reduce water use in its data centers by 95 percent by 2024 or Apple's plan to build robots to more effectively recycle old handsets. But these claims do not, in and of themselves, constitute greenwashing. Their changes may not be enough to make a noticeable impact at this point, but these good faith efforts attempt to do something, anything, to stave off what could well be humanity's self-inflicted extinction. And given how America's most recent effort to invest in environmentally responsible energy technologies was single-handedly killed off by the coal-loving Senator from West Virginia, these sorts of corporate initiatives may likely be the best we'll soon see.
The last time we saw Spot dance, it was with the entire Boston Dynamics family at the end of last year. That was mostly a showcase of how much Atlas, the company's bipedal robot, had come from the days when it could barely walk. In a new solo display, we get to see it move to "Start Me Up" from The Rolling Stones in honor of the 40th anniversary of their 1981 album Tattoo You. And if you thought Spot dancing was too close to the uncanny valley, wait until you see it lip-sync. It is truly the stuff of nightmare fuel.
Boston Dynamics releases these types of videos at a regular cadence almost as if to remind those watching, "Yes, we still exist." Earlier in the year, Hyundai completed its acquisition of the company, making it the third owner of the firm in the span of a decade. More recently, the automaker detailed how it would put Spot to work at its assembly plants in South Korea. Bet Spot isn't doing too much dancing there.
Countess Alcina Dimitrescu isn't technically a vampire, but she's definitely an icon.
From the moment she appeared in an early trailer for Resident Evil: Village, Lady Dimitrescu captured the attention of the internet: her towering, sultry frame; her sickly-sweet smile; her massive hat; her proper yet authoritative tone. Viewers were instantly obsessed, labeling her "tall vampire lady" and demanding to know everything about her, which prompted Capcom to reveal her exact height — 9'6" including her hat and heels — months before Village launched in May.
In-game, Lady Dimitrescu commands three fly-infested, murderous daughters, and hunts the main character, Ethan Winters, across the opulent rooms of her castle. She crouches through doorways and slices at Ethan with long, blade-like fingernails, hurling insults like "rat" and "man-thing" at him the entire time, a mutant dominatrix in a flowing white dress.
Twilight Sparkle
The intrigue surrounding Lady Dimitrescu has persisted since Village's launch, and fans are betting (or maybe just hoping really hard) that the game's first bit of DLC will focus on her specifically.
Until then, and in the spirit of Spooky Season, we have insight into Lady Dimitrescu's creation from Village presentation director Masato Miyazaki, the person in charge of the game's motion-capture process. Earlier this year, Miyazaki shared details with Engadget about how Lady Dimitrescu came to be, from concept to mocap, including the ways actress Maggie Robertson brought her to legendary life.
Engadget: Did Lady Dimitrescu's design change throughout development?
Masato Miyazaki: Alcina Dimitrescu's incredible height was conceived from the beginning and was not changed during development. The same goes for her wide brim hat and her white dress as well. However, the characteristic of her long protruding nails was something added part way through the development process. It was an idea that was implemented later as a means of adding physical elements that would make her more terrifying when you encounter her.
Lady Dimitrescu is alluring and seductive — was she always meant to be a sultry character, or did that emerge during mocap?
In the early stages of development, she was described as a bewitching character who would capture and toy with her victims. She was designed to embody equal parts beauty and horror. Based on this, the scenario writer fleshed her characterization out even further with dialogue, but she wasn't fully realized just yet. It was through Maggie's performance that the character was finally given life.
As with any character, I believe that the moment the script is handed over to the actor, the character becomes theirs. The character's personality and intentions are very much refined by the actor. The character Lady Dimitrescu was truly realized and came to fruition with each of Maggie's performances.
Capcom
What tricks did you use to make Maggie Robertson as tall as possible during mocap sessions?
Although Maggie Robertson is quite tall herself, she still cannot reach the height that we envisioned for Lady Dimitrescu. Utilizing some means of extending out her height would jeopardize her performance, so it wasn't something we could consider. We asked Maggie to act naturally. However, that still left us with the height difference between Maggie and Lady Dimitrescu that had to be addressed. We devised a few methods to counteract this issue.
First off, we shot with a mixture of backgrounds according to two standards: human scale and Lady Dimitrescu scale. While other characters performed with surroundings that fit human scale, Lady Dimitrescu's acting was done in front of a background that fit her scale. Everyone performed with one another, but with this mixture of environments. We figured this would be the best means of allowing the actors to give their best performances without any kind of impediment. We made sure the furniture was laid out in a way so that the actors would be facing each other.
The other aspect that we made sure to stay conscious of was making sure the actors' lines of sight were in the right positions. We set up markers so that the actors could imagine the correct height. These markers show the correct position of the eye lines and where the limbs actually are. It's a simple adjustment, but it makes a big difference in the actors' performances.
How the sausage gets made part 2: This is what we used to mark Lady D's actual size and eye lines. Clearly, she's grumpy after chasing people around the castle all day. 💅 #thegrumpystandin#LadyDimitrescu#ResidentEvilVillage
The third adjustment was the rig itself. We carefully set up the rigs of the CG characters to gracefully handle as much of the physical differences between the character and actor as possible. We wanted to make sure that we set things up so that the animators would have a relatively easier time handling any kind of miscalculations that happened along the way.
What was the strangest prop you used throughout the mocap process?
There are several, but there are two that I would like to mention. The first is the cane carried by the old woman we meet at the beginning of the village. When you see it in the game, it's a strange artifact with a lot of components jingling about. The studio crew crafted a prop that resembles the design.
The second is the goggles that our actor Todd wore as he played the role of Ethan Winters. Since the game is from a first-person perspective through the eyes of Ethan Winters, the camera movements are based on the movements of Todd's head. Todd reprises his role as Ethan from the previous game and his performances are absolutely excellent, but there were moments where the camera would go wild during more heated scenarios. In order to suppress this from happening, the studio engineer created a pair of special goggles by hand.
They actually turned out to look very similar to swimming goggles. The assumption was that the narrower field of vision would result in less head movement. I'm still not entirely sure how effective they ended up being, but the engineer's enthusiasm and Todd having fun wearing the goggles are one of the many wonderful memories I have from the whole experience.
Today's commercial airliners are not exactly fuel efficient. The average 747, for example, burns through a gallon of kerosene-based fuel every second that it flies. And with 8.2 billion people expected to take to the skies annually by 2037, carbon-free alternatives to Jet A-1 will be necessary in order to offset the industry's impact on global warming. We are nearing the age of electric airplanes.
Pioneering researchers, scientists and entrepreneurs have been working on the dream of electrified flight since the latter part of the 19th century when heavy lead-acid batteries were loaded onto early airships to power their propellers. We've also seen a number of, ahem, novel means of powering aircraft while in-flight throughout the years, from conductive tethers stretching back down to the ground to solar panels to microwave energy transmission but it wasn't until the advent of relatively more power-dense Nickel-cadmium (NiCad) battery technology that human-scale free-flying electric planes became technically feasible.
But even as battery chemistries have evolved and energy densities have risen over the past few decades, today's state of the art Lithium-ion cells pose the same quandry to the aviation industry as they do to the automotive: how to properly balance the energy-to-weight ratio of their batteries.
"If a jumbo jet were to use today's batteries, 1.2 million pounds of batteries would be required just to generate the power of the jet engine it would be replacing," University of Houston Energy Fellow, Emily Pickrell, opined in Forbes earlier this year. "This weight would effectively need an additional eight jet planes just to carry that weight!"
And as Li-ion technology has fully matured, further increases to its energy density have fallen to below five percent with each annual iteration, which is why a number of researchers and battery companies are already looking for the next breakthrough battery chemistry — whether that's Sodium-ion (Na-ion), Lithium-metal (Li-metal), Lithium-Sulphur (Li-S), or Zinc-air (Zn-air).
Regardless of composition, batteries need to get a whole lot lighter and more energy dense if they're going to attack and dethrone jet fuel which, with an energy density of 9.6 kWh/L, makes the flammable liquid about 50 times as energy dense as today's best li-ions. To be fair though, due to inefficiencies inherent to internal combustion engines, that figure drops to around 14 times the energy density of a li-ion battery if you're comparing equal weights of fuel and batteries.
For example, a Tesla Model 3's li-ion-based battery boasts an energy density of 260 Wh/kg while CATL announced earlier this year that it had built a sodium-ion battery with 160 Wh/kg density (though it hopes to get that up to 200 Wh/kg by 2023). Lithium-sulfur batteries have shown the capacity to hold up to 600 Wh/kg, though that technology faces significant longevity hurdles (i.e. the chemistry tends to eat through electrodes) before they can be widely used. Currently, 2- and 4-person small aircraft outfitted with electric power systems typically operate at 250-270 Wh/kg of specific energy but industry experts expect energy densities will have to hit 350 - 400 Wh/kg before the electric aviation industry really takes off — something that could happen within the next few years, according to Tesla CEO, Elon Musk.
400 Wh/kg *with* high cycle life, produced in volume (not just a lab) is not far. Probably 3 to 4 years.
Preventing and mitigating thermal runaway is another critical test for electric aviation. When a battery cell, or even an area within a single cell, malfunctions due to mechanical, thermal, or electrochemical failure, its temperature can rise beyond safe levels causing the cell to first produce lithium off-gasses, causing the cell walls to bulge, then rupture, releasing the entirety of its energy reserve. When a cell bursts it can damage and overheat surrounding cells, setting off a cascading failure that results in explosion and fire. When that happens to a Chevy Volt, the car will likely be a write off (fingers crossed it didn't also set your house on fire) but if such a failure were to occur in-flight on an electrified 747, the loss of life would be catastrophic.
To minimize the chances of a full-blown runaway from occurring, early detection of cell failures is key. As off-gassing typically occurs minutes before a cell ruptures, the presence of a monitoring system which compares sensors positioned close to a li-ion battery against those collected by a reference sensor further away can alert for the presence of a failing cell. And to negate any gases that have already been released, fire suppression systems armed with inert gas — to prevent the offgasses from reaching combustible levels when mixed with atmospheric oxygen — can be employed as well. Of course regular maintenance and robust inspections also help prevent cell failures before the situation becomes explosive.
Rolls-Royce
Battery electric planes will also provide unique challenges in balancing air speed and range, though for Rolls-Royce, it's not even a question — speed all the way. Over the past few years, Rolls-Royce has been quietly working on Project ACCEL (accelerating electrification of flight), building a battery-powered racing plane, dubbed Spirit of Innovation, in an effort to set a new world air speed record.
The record was previously set in 2017 when an electric-powered Extra 330LE, using a Siemens eAircraft-built power plant, notched a 209.7 mph (337.5 kph) top speed over a 3-kilometer-long course. The feat was certified by the World Air Sports Federation (FAI) as the fastest electrically powered flight by an aircraft weighing less than 1,000 kg at takeoff, beating the previous record (set in 2013) by just over 8 mph (13 kph).
In addition to the 3-kilometer record, Rolls-Royce has the opportunity to also set FAI records for a 15km distance and "time to altitude," basically how quickly the plane can take off and reach a specific height. "It needs to be a significant number," Rolls-Royce Director of Engineering and Technology – Civil Aerospace, Simon Burr, told Aerosociety. "We're planning to fly over 300mph. We'll see how high we can get to."
Rolls-Royce
For its attempt, Rolls-Royce — which is partnering with the UK's YASA electric motor manufacturer and start-up Electroflight, which makes bespoke battery systems — has acquired a pair of Sharp Nemesis NXT twin-seat air racers. One has been used for ground testing while the second will conduct the actual flights. The Nemesis NXT already holds the 3km FAI record with a recorded top speed of 415mph (667.8km) using a 400hp Lycoming internal combustion engine.
The Rolls-Royce team has swapped that Lycoming engine out for a trio of YASA 750v electric motors producing around 400kW (530hp) while the fuel tank has been replaced with three independent battery packs.
Rolls-Royce
"The main challenge of electrification is weight," Rolls-Royce Flight Test Engineer Andy Roberts said during a September media briefing. Not only did the 6,000-cell battery system aboard the Nemesis NXT shift the aircraft's center of balance, the 450kg battery system also doesn't get lighter over time as conventional fuel tanks would, which could impact the plane's performance during the later stages of the run. The batteries are so substantial that Rolls-Royce Chief Test Pilot Phill O'Dell had to lose 2kg of bodyweight to help keep the overall aircraft weight within operating margins.
Thermal runaway is a very real concern for the Rolls-Royce team, as they'll be pushing these batteries to their absolute limits during the flight. In order to mitigate this issue cells are separated by liquid-cooling plates and stored in cork-wrapped fireproof cases (the porous cork material helps diffuse heat). Should a cell overheat to the point of venting off-gasses, the plane is equipped with an inert gas suppression and ventilation system as well.
On September 15th, the Spirit of Innovation made its maiden test flight from the UK Ministry of Defence's Boscombe Down airfield, flying for 15 minutes. The company hopes to have the Nemesis ready for an official run at the record before the end of this year.
"The first flight of the Spirit of Innovation is a great achievement... We are focused on producing the technology breakthroughs society needs to decarbonize transport across air, land and sea, and capture the economic opportunity of the transition to net zero," Warren East, Rolls-Royce CEO, said in a statement. "This is not only about breaking a world record; the advanced battery and propulsion technology developed for this programme has exciting applications for the Urban Air Mobility market."
Rolls-Royce is far from the only company pursuing electric aircraft technology, no matter how much faster it is than the competition. From tiny startups to industry stalwarts — even NASA — companies and governments around the world are racing to develop commercially viable electric aircraft both for passenger flights and cargo hauling.
Guglielmo Mangiapane / reuters
Bye Aerospace, for example, builds electrified 2-seat trainer planes called the eFlyer, similar in function to Diamond Aircraft's eAircraft. Slovenian aircraft manufacturer Pipistrel has been selling its $140,000 Alpha Electro, the first electric plane to earn FAA certification, since 2018. On the other end of the spectrum you have aerospace giants like Airbus developing the Air Race E, which the company claims is the world's first all-electric air race series when it starts up later this year (better get with the times, Red Bull Air Race), and demonstrators like the City Airbus, a 4-seat eVTOL. These electric vertical take off and landing capable vehicles have become a popular option for fossil fuel-free air travel, such as Cadillac's single-seater concept, the build-it-yourself Jetson Aero, China's EHang AAV, Uber's since-abandoned air taxi scheme or Volocopter's ongoing air taxi scheme.
Unfortunately, despite all the research into and hype surrounding electrified air travel, many industry experts remain skeptical that we'll see its widespread adoption for at least a few more decades — at least for large-scale airframes like the Boeing 787 or Airbus A350. Until battery technologies become sufficiently robust, we'll most likely see eVTOLS restricted to short-hop intracity duties for the foreseeable future, eventually expanding out to inter-city jaunts and regional commuter jets. Still, it beats sitting in traffic.
This week, the federal government awarded a team that includes Boeing a contract to build a prototype 300-kilowatt laser weapon for the US Army. The military will "demonstrate" the design sometime next year. The prototype will "produce a lethal output greater than anything fielded to date," said General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, the other company working on the project. "This technology represents a leap-ahead capability for air and missile defense that is necessary to support the Army's modernization efforts and defeat next-generation threats in a multi-domain battlespace."
Even if it's only a demonstration, the system represents a significant step up from the lasers the military has had access to in the past. Back in 2014, the US Navy deployed the experimental Laser Weapon System (LaWS) on the USS Ponce. That system could reportedly output a 30-kilowatt beam, making it mostly useful for shooting down drones and other small craft. Per the New Scientist, a 300-kilowatt laser could potentially take down missiles, in addition drones, helicopters and even airplanes. The announcement comes as the global weapons race intensifies following China's successful trial of a hypersonic missile.
November is right around the corner and, if you weren't already thinking about all of the gifts you have to buy this year, now's the time to start. Black Friday sales have started earlier than ever, and we anticipate more to come once November 1st hits. This week, we saw the updated AirPods Pro with the MagSafe wireless charging case drop to $220, while Samsung knocked hundreds off one of its high-end projectors. Blink home security cameras have hit near record-low prices and you can still grab a Shark robot vacuum for $150 off. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.
AirPods Pro (with MagSafe case)
Billy Steele / Engadget
Apple's updated AirPods Pro with the new MagSafe charging case are $30 cheaper right now, bringing them down to $220. The earbuds themselves have not changed, but now you'll be able to magnetically attach them to MagSafe wireless chargers. We gave them a score of 87 for their better fitting design, good ANC and handy Siri access.
Apple's latest MacBook Pros are already $50 less on Amazon even though they just became available this week. We gave the laptops a score of 92 for their excellent performance, lovely Liquid Retina XDR displays, good battery lives and new bevy of ports.
The 1TB 11-inch iPad Pro is $200 off right now, bringing it down to $1,300. It's still quite expensive, but with that much storage, this iPad could make a great laptop replacement with the right accessories. We gave the 2021 iPads a score of 87 for their powerful performance and new Center Stage cameras.
The second-generation Apple Pencil is on sale for $100 right now, which is an all-time-low price. It works with all iPads except for the latest 10.2-inch entry-level model, which still supports the first-gen stylus. It's a must-have if you plan on taking notes or creating artwork with your iPad.
Shark's AV970 robot vacuum is $150 off, bringing it down to a near record-low price of $250. It has a self-cleaning brush roll, IQ navigation and Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands, plus an extra-large bin that will hold more debris than other robo-vacs.
You can still grab a 55-inch The Frame smart TV for less than $1,000 in Samsung's latest early Black Friday sale. These TVs use Art Mode to show artwork and photos when you're not actively watching something, and they support 4K QLED set with 100 percent color volume, 4K AI upscaling and Alexa voice commands.
Samsung's high-end Premiere Projector is on sale for as low as $2,498. That's for the model with a 2.2 channel sound system, but the one with a 4.2.2 channel system is a whopping $1,500 off, bringing it down to $4,998. Both projectors support HDR10+ and up to 2,800 lumens of brightness, plus they both have separate red, green and blue lasers to cover the full Rec.2020 color range.
Amazon knocked up to 33 percent off Blink security cameras this week and you can still get a camera for as low as $25. Blink Outdoor and Indoor cameras are wireless and support 1080p video, motion detection, two-way audio and Alexa commands. If you plan on watching over the outside of your home, the weatherproof Outdoor cameras as they ones to get.
Arturia has a promotion going on right now that gives you three plugins for free when you buy a MiniLab MkII, KeyLab Essential or KeyLab MkII controller. The plugins themselves are worth over $400, so they're solid freebies to grab if you're already set on getting one of the company's devices.
NordVPN, one of our favorite VPNs, is running a sale on a two-year subscription. You can sign up and pay $99 for two years, plus you'll get an extra three months free. We like NordVPN for its speed, its no-logs policy, the thousands of servers it has to choose from and that one account supports up to six connected devices.
Another one of our top VPN services, Tunnelbear, is offering a two-year subscription for $100. You'll save 58 percent if you sign up with this deal, and we think Tunnelbear is one of the easiest VPNs to use, especially for those that don't want to go crazy configuring their connections.
On Friday, Microsoft announced the acquisition of Two Hat, a company best known for its AI content moderation tools. Financial details have not been disclosed, but Microsoft did share its vision for how they'll work together moving forward. Over the years, the two companies have frequently collaborated to make Xbox Live and other gaming communities safer, and by the sounds of it, that will be the focus of Two Hat moving forward.
"We have partnered with Xbox and the Microsoft team for several years and share the passion and drive to make meaningful change in the advancement of online civility and citizenship," said Two Hat founder Chris Priebe and CEO Steve Parkis in a joint statement. "We are committed to ensuring safety, inclusion and online health and wellness are always at the forefront of our work and through joining Microsoft, we can provide the greatest concentration of talent, resources and insight necessary to further this vision."
Before today's announcement, Microsoft was only one of Two Hat's customers, and that won't change following the acquisition. "This is a deep investment in assisting and serving Two Hat's existing customers, prospective new customers and multiple product and service experiences here at Microsoft," the company said. "With this acquisition, we will help global online communities to be safer and inclusive for everyone to participate, positively contribute and thrive."
Since 2019, Microsoft has placed an emphasis on combating toxicity and abuse. "Gaming is for everyone," Xbox chief Phil Spencer said at the time. This acquisition should tie in nicely with that goal.
If you've been holding out for a better price on a high storage capacity iPad Pro, Amazon may have you covered. The latest 11-inch iPad Pro with 1TB of storage is $200 off right now, bringing it down to $1,299. That's the best price we've seen and $100 cheaper than its previous low.
There are very few differences between this year's 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pros. The larger model has Apple's new Liquid Retina XDR display, which will improve your video-watching experience. But just because the 11-inch model doesn't have the latest display tech doesn't mean it has a paltry screen. You're still getting a 2,388 x 1668 resolution Liquid Retina panel with ProMotion and True Tone technology, which is to say, it's still a lovely screen.
Otherwise, the 2021 iPad Pros are much the same. Both run on M1 processors, giving them powerful performance and making them the best laptop alternatives Apple has made yet. They also have 5G support, a USB-C port that double as a Thunderbolt connector with USB 4.0 compatibility and new Center Stage cameras. The latter works to keep you in the center of the frame when on video calls, and that will make a big difference whether you're on a Zoom meeting or just FaceTiming with your family.
Most people probably don't need 1TB of space, but it'll be useful if you're a creative professional using the iPad Pro for both work and play, or someone who wants to ditch their old laptop for a hybrid device. Paired with the right accessories, this iPad Pro would make a solid laptop replacement.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
This past April, Toyota teased the bZ4X, the first of seven "Beyond Zero" fully electric vehicles the automaker said it would debut by 2025. Other than to reveal it was working with Subaru to develop the SUV and that it would include its upcoming e-TNGA powertrain, the company didn't share many details about the bZ4X. On Friday, it changed that by unveiling the production version of the vehicle.
Toyota will offer the bZ4X in front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive variants. The former will feature a single 150 kW capable of accelerating the car from zero to 100 kilometers per hour in 8.4 seconds. Per the WLTC standard, the automaker claims the FWD model's 71.4 kWh battery will allow it to travel approximately 500 kilometers or 310 miles on a single charge. Expect that estimate to decrease once the EPA tests the car. It's also worth noting these measurements come from the Japanese model, which may end up featuring different specifications to whatever model(s) Toyota releases in the US.
Toyota
The battery will support 150 kW DC fast charging, allowing it to go from dead to 80 percent after about 30 minutes of charging. As for the AWD model, it will feature two 80kW motors, one built into each axle, for a total power output of 160 kW. It can accelerate from zero to 100 kilometers per hour in 7.7 seconds. Toyota estimates the ranges of the AWD model at 460 kilometers or 285 miles on a single charge. In both variants, the battery is integrated into the chassis, a design choice the automaker helps lower the SUV's center of gravity and improve the rigidity of the chassis.
Toyota also plans to equip the bZ4X with some nifty extra features. One of those is a solar roof the automaker says will generate about 1120 miles worth of free power generation. It will also offer a steer-by-wire system that removes the mechanical connection between the steering wheel and front wheels. Both features will be available in select models.
The bZ4X will debut in the US and other markets in mid-2022.
Cricket is no longer reserving 5G for its priciest service tier. As of today, 5G is enabled for all of the prepaid carrier's plans. As you might guess, the provider is also doing away with the modest 8Mbps cap on most of its plans. You can pay as little as $30 per month (for one line) for 5G, to put it another way — important if you're more interested in raw speed than anything else.
There are some caveats. Cricket isn't changing data caps for its two lowest-priced plans, so you could burn through the modest 2GB or 10GB allotments that much sooner. You also don't have many choices for 5G phones if you buy directly from Cricket, including the iPhone 13 range as well as a handful of low-end Motorola and Samsung models. You'll still have a strong incentive to use the higher-end tiers, and you may want to bring your own phone.
It's no secret as to why AT&T is making Cricket more appealing, though. Cricket added 2 million customers (now 12.4 million total) in just the past two years. While AT&T's regular service clearly has more overall subscribers, Cricket is the hotter property in terms of relative growth. Adding 5G to more plans could keep that momentum alive. And simply speaking, Cricket needed to catch up. Rivals like Boost Mobile and T-Mobile's Metro already offer 5G across multiple tiers. Your choice of prepaid carriers may now boil down to specific plan features and network quality.
Assassin's Creed Infinity won't be a free-to-play online game, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has confirmed during the developer's latest earnings call. Bloomberg first reported about the project's existence back in July, and the company has shared details about it bit by bit since then. The publication said that AC Infinity, which is the project's name that could change upon release, will be a live online service similar to Grand Theft Auto Online that requires you to own the base game. According to Gamespot, Guillemot also said:
"This game is going to have a lot of narrative elements in it. It's going to be very innovative game, but it will have what players already have in all the other Assassin's Creed games, all the elements that they love... right from the start. So it's going to be a huge game. But with lots of elements that already exist in the games that we published in the past."
Unlike other Assassin's Creed games with a single narrative story, Infinity will reportedly have multiple settings that will feel and look different from each other but will still be connected in some way. That means Infinity could have several games in one package, though how that will resonate with long-time fans remains to be seen. The original Bloomberg report also called it a massive online platform with room to expand in the months and years after its launch, so we may see new content hit the service as campaigns or seasons.
Ubisoft pooled its resources and unified the Montreal and Quebec teams, which previously worked on separate Assassin's Creed titles, to develop Infinity. Guillemot said it's still in its very early stages, however, and previous reports said its soonest possible release won't be until 2024.
It's been a busy week! For our special 100th episode, Cherlynn and Devindra dive into their MacBook Pro and Pixel 6 reviews, answer audience questions, and they chat with Engadget's Karissa Bell about what we've learned from the Facebook Papers. (Unfortunately, this episode was recorded before Facebook renamed itself to Meta, but we'll be chatting about all of that next week!)
Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!
Credits Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar Guest: Karissa Bell Producer: Ben Ellman Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos,Luke Brooks Graphics artists: Luke Brooks, Kyle Maack Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien
Canon has unveiled the PowerShot PX, a stationary camera that uses facial recognition and auto-subject search to automatically capture 11.7-megapixel images or 1080p60 video. It's based on the PowerShot Pick, an experimental, crowdfunded camera that was released only in Japan.
The PowerShot PX has pan-and-tilt functionality (340 degrees horizontally and 110 degrees vertically) and a 19-57mm (35mm equivalent) focal length range. The idea is that you you can place it a strategic spot, like on a table during a family picnic, for example. The camera can then scan the scene, find people's faces and automatically determine the best moment to capture a photo. "The best photos aren't always the posed smiles.... the PowerShot PX captures a huge range of looks and precious reactions that you might not capture," Canon wrote.
It can frame subjects "intelligently to capture natural expressions and reactions," Canon says. You can also prioritize specific faces, like if it's someone's birthday. In theory, that would allow you to enjoy a gathering without the need to break away and take photos, knowing that it will be done automatically. You can also grab photos manually via an app or voice control.
Following an event, you can use the PowerShot PX's iOS or Android apps to get recommendations on the best photos to keep. Those are then stored on a memory card, where they can be uploaded to a computer. It supports WiFi and Bluetooth for smartphone connections, so you can control images with no need to check the device, Canon said. It can also double as a webcam via Canon's webcam utility app. (It runs on batteries with charging via USB-C.)
The PowerShot PX is coming to Europe and the UK in November 2021 for £500/€500 (around $585). There's no word yet on a release to North America or elsewhere.
