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• The Morning After: ASUS’ ROG Phone 6 has a clip-on thermoelectric cooler
• Amazon's smart thermostat falls to a new all-time low of $42 ahead of Prime Day
• Amazon is giving Prime subscribers a free year of Grubhub+ deliveries
• Netflix says 'Stranger Things 4' racked up over 1 billion hours viewed
• Meta sues a site cloner who allegedly scraped over 350,000 Instagram profiles
• Twitter sues India to challenge government order to block content
• NASA's CAPSTONE satellite has gone dark
• Respawn finally patches an 'Apex Legends' input lag issue on Xbox Series X/S
• The Kindle Kids e-reader hits new low of $50 before Prime Day
• Ubisoft will drop details on Assassin's Creed and more games on Sept. 10th
• Games Done Quick bans speedrunning cheater from future events
• Ubisoft will reveal updated 'Skull and Bones' gameplay this week
• Early Prime Day deals knock the Echo Show 5 down to $35
• Amazon's Echo Dot drops to $20 ahead of Prime Day
• Suda51’s ‘Lollipop Chainsaw’ is getting a remake
• Xbox Games with Gold will no longer include Xbox 360 titles
• Jabra's Elite 7 Pro earbuds drop to a record low of $140
• The best streaming boxes and sticks you can buy
• European Union passes landmark laws to rein in big tech
• The ASUS ROG Phone 6 has a ‘wireless’ thermoelectric cooler add-on
• England’s health service will use drones to deliver vital chemotherapy drugs
• The Morning After: Xiaomi's flagship phone has a Leica camera with a massive one-inch sensor
• Geely buys majority stake in troubled phone maker Meizu
• The latest Apple TV 4K is $150 right now

The Morning After: ASUS’ ROG Phone 6 has a clip-on thermoelectric cooler Posted: 06 Jul 2022 04:15 AM PDT In a nutshell, ASUS' new powerful gaming phone is all about bigger specs and faster performance. It has a 165Hz 6.78-inch display, with 720Hz touch sampling rate, up to 18GB of RAM and a bigger 6,000mAh battery. Engadget The most notable change is the revamped clip-on cooler that's arriving alongside the ROG Phone 6. You can toggle between four cooling settings in the updated Armoury Crate app's console, with a "Frozen" mode that pushes its Peltier chip to the max. This is only available when there's external power plugged into the device but ASUS claims the AeroActive Cooler 6 can lower the ROG Phone 6's surface temperature by up to a staggering 25 degrees Celsius (that's 77 Fahrenheit), which sounds more like a portable air cooler than a smartphone accessory. As far as availability goes, ASUS says the ROG Phone 6 series will start from €999 (around $1,000) in Europe. US availability remains TBC. -Mat Smith The biggest stories you might have missed Suda51's 'Lollipop Chainsaw' is getting a remake | Engadget Netflix says 'Stranger Things 4' racked up over 1 billion hours viewed | Engadget The best streaming boxes and sticks you can buy NASA's CAPSTONE satellite has gone dark This wasn't part of the plan. NASA Well, that's taken a turn. Just yesterday we reported on NASA's latest steps towards getting a human back on the Moon, but the agency has lost contact with CAPSTONE, a tiny satellite that left Earth's orbit on July 4th. The small satellite stopped communicating with engineers shortly after deploying from an Electron rocket bus and exiting Earth's orbit. Handlers are attempting to re-establish contact with the cubesat. Continue reading. European Union passes landmark laws to rein in big tech The Digital Markets and Services Acts are designed to level the playing field. The European Union has passed a pair of landmark bills designed to rein in Big Tech's power. The Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act are intended to promote fairer competition, improve privacy protection, as well as banning many forms of targeted advertising. The EU has given both bills plenty of teeth, and can dole out a maximum penalty of 10 percent of its total worldwide turnover from the previous year, should regulators find non-compliance. This figure will, however, jump to 20 percent of worldwide turnover if officials find "repeated non-compliance." Continue reading. Meta sues a site cloner who allegedly scraped over 350,000 Instagram profiles The company also filed a complaint against a scraping-for-hire firm. On Tuesday, Meta filed separate federal lawsuits against a company called Octopus and an individual named Ekrem Ateş. According to Meta, the former is the US subsidiary of a Chinese multinational tech firm that offers data scraping-for-hire services to individuals and companies. Octopus also sells software that allows people to carry out their own data collection campaigns. According to Meta, this program first compromises the Facebook and Instagram accounts of the user by providing their authentication information to Octopus before proceeding to scrape all the data accessible to that individual's accounts. Continue reading. Ubisoft will drop details on Assassin's Creed and more games on September 10th 'Beyond Good and Evil 2', please? Ubisoft Back in June, Ubisoft confirmed it would share information about the future of Assassin's Creed during a special event in September, and this appears to be that. The company is currently working on two Assassin's Creed projects: one is a live multiplayer experience spanning multiple time periods code-named Infinity, and the other is a standalone series installment code-named Rift. Continue reading.

Amazon's smart thermostat falls to a new all-time low of $42 ahead of Prime Day Posted: 06 Jul 2022 03:25 AM PDT Amazon has already started selling a bunch of its smart home devices at a discount, almost a week before Prime Day even begins. One of the most notable deals that's already available is Amazon's smart thermostat, which you can get for $42 — as long as you're a Prime member. That's 30 percent off its regular retail price of $60 and a new all-time low for the device. Amazon's smart thermostat debuted in September 2021, giving you an affordable option to control your home temperature.  Buy Amazon Smart Home Devices - up to 67 percent off It's not quite as feature-rich as its more expensive counterparts, like the Google Nest thermostat. But it's Energy Star-certified and can save you an average of $50 on your electric bills every year. Plus, it's Alexa-compatible and allows you to use the voice assistant to set custom routines for heating and cooling. The thermostat itself doesn't have a speaker or a microphone, though, so you'll need to use the Alexa app or another Alexa-enabled device like an Echo speaker to do so.  That brings us to another deal you can get right now: Amazon's smart thermostat bundled with an Echo Dot speaker. The bundle with a fourth-gen Echo Dot speaker will set you back $62, or $48 off its usual price, which is the lowest we've seen for it on the website. Meanwhile, the smart thermostat bundle with a second-gen Echo Show 5 smart display is also on sale for $77, or $68 lower than its retail price. That's also a new all-time low for the duo. In case you're mainly looking to buy Amazon's Alexa-powered speakers, you can get a fourth-gen Echo Dot with an Amazon smart plug for $25. You'll save $50 if you get the bundle, which typically sells for $75 and has never been discounted this deeply before. Amazon's smart plug adds Alexa voice control to any outlet, allowing you to control any non-smart device plugged to it, such as lights, fans and other appliances.  Finally, you can get the fourth-gen Echo Dot for Kids bundled with an Echo Glow multicolor smart lamp with Prime for $36. That's 60 percent or $54 off its retail price and also includes a year-long Amazon Kids+ subscription.  Get the latest Amazon Prime Day offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter.

Amazon is giving Prime subscribers a free year of Grubhub+ deliveries Posted: 06 Jul 2022 01:34 AM PDT Amazon has announced a handful of new perks for Prime members ahead of Prime Day this month, including free deliveries from nearby restaurants. All Prime members in the US will now get access to a one-year Grubhub+ membership, which typically costs $10 a month, for free. Amazon used to have a restaurant delivery service of its own in an attempt to create a homegrown UberEats rival, but the company ultimately shut it down in the UK and the US. This time, it's teaming up with an established delivery service. Grubhub+ members enjoy $0 food delivery fees, so long as their orders go over $12. They also get rewards that include free food and discounts on their orders. Prime subscribers can redeem their free Grubhub+ membership by going to the official perk page on Amazon, activating the offer and then sharing their Prime status with the delivery service. Even existing Grubhub+ users can claim the freebie, with their free year kicking in after their current billing cycle ends. People who cancel their Prime membership will also lose access to their free year of Grubhub+, while those who stick around will be charged $10 a month for the delivery service after 12 months. This partnership is part of the commercial agreement Amazon has entered with Just Eat Takeaway.com, the Dutch parent company of Grubhub. Under the agreement, Amazon will receive stock warrants worth 2 percent of Grubhub's fully-diluted common equity. It follows a similar deal where Amazon invested in UK food delivery service Deliveroo and also offered UK Prime subscribers a full year of deliveries. Grubhub says it "continues to actively explore the partial or full sale" of the company, but whether Amazon will swoop in with an offer remains to be seen.  Adam DeWitt, CEO of Grubhub, said in a statement: "I am incredibly excited to announce this collaboration with Amazon that will help Grubhub continue to deliver on our long-standing mission to connect more diners with local restaurants. Amazon has redefined convenience with Prime and we're confident this offering will expose many new diners to the value of Grubhub+ while driving more business to our restaurant partners and drivers."

Netflix says 'Stranger Things 4' racked up over 1 billion hours viewed Posted: 05 Jul 2022 09:49 PM PDT Stranger Things 4 has become the most popular English-language series on Netflix with the premiere of its last two episodes. The streaming giant has revealed that the show has racked up 1.15 billion hours of viewing time within the first 28 days of each part's release. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, the first seven episodes had a viewing time of 930.32 million hours within 28 days of the show's debut. Meanwhile, episodes 8 and 9 reached 221 million hours viewed in the week of June 27th to July 3rd.  That makes the series second only to Squid Game, which crossed 1.65 billion hours viewed within its first 28 days of release and which currently holds the title for the most-viewed show in Netflix history. It even has the potential to overtake the Korean hit, seeing as it has only been a few days since the last two episodes came out.  Netflix, however, has yet to reveal whether Stranger Things 4's popularity has had a significant impact on its subscriber numbers. In 2021, the company said it posted its best subscriber growth of the year during the third quarter, thanks in part to Squid Game. But in April this year, Netflix admitted that it lost about 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022 due to several issues, such as stiffer competition and account sharing. The company said back then that it's taking steps to turn things around, but we'll have to wait for its next earnings report to find out whether Eleven and the rest of the Hawkins crew were of any help.

Meta sues a site cloner who allegedly scraped over 350,000 Instagram profiles Posted: 05 Jul 2022 02:30 PM PDT Meta is taking legal action against two prolific data scrapers. On Tuesday, the company filed separate federal lawsuits against a company called Octopus and an individual named Ekrem Ateş. According to Meta, the former is the US subsidiary of a Chinese multinational tech firm that offers data scraping-for-hire services to individuals and companies. Octopus also sells software people can use to carry out their own data collection campaigns. According to Meta, this program first compromises the Facebook and Instagram accounts of the user by providing their authentication information to Octopus before proceeding to scrape all the data accessible to that individual's accounts. The software can then obtain phone numbers, dates of birth and other personal information about every Facebook and Instagram friend connected to a particular Octopus customer. Meta alleges Octopus violated its terms of service and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by offering an automated scraping service and attempting to avoid detection by the company. "Companies like Octopus are part of an emerging scraping industry that provides automation services to any customer — regardless of who they target and for what purpose they scrape," Meta said. "This industry makes scraping available to individuals and companies that otherwise would not have the capabilities." As for Ekrem Ateş, the individual Meta sued, the company says he used automated Instagram accounts to collect information on more than 350,000 Instagram users and later published that data on a series of clone sites where one could view the data of those individuals without their consent. Since the start of 2021, Meta says it has taken multiple enforcement actions against Ateş, including sending him a cease and desist letter and revoking his access to its services. This isn't the first time Meta has used legal action to try and stop data scraping. In 2020, for instance, the company sued a Turkish national who scraped more than 100,000 Instagram profiles.

Twitter sues India to challenge government order to block content Posted: 05 Jul 2022 12:40 PM PDT After more than a year of rising tensions over the country's sweeping 2021 IT law, Twitter is suing India's government. The New York Times reports the company filed a complaint on Tuesday with the Karnataka High Court in Bangalore to challenge a recent order to censor content within the country. According to Twitter, it had until Monday to block about a dozen accounts and posts or face possible criminal action. While the company complied with the order, it's now also seeking legal relief. Twitter declined to comment. The challenge comes after the company reportedly told the Indian government last summer it was compliant with the country's IT rules. As part of the law, Twitter was required to hire a domestic compliance officer and a point of contact for local authorities. Before that point, Twitter's relationship with India had been strained for much of 2021. In February, the government threatened to jail Twitter employees unless the company removed content related to the farmer protests held that year. Two months later, India ordered Twitter to pull tweets that criticized the country's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. More recently, the government ordered Twitter to block tweets from Freedom House, a nonprofit organization that said India was an example of a country where freedom of the press is on the decline. "Freedom House is concerned that the Indian government ordered Twitter to restrict our tweets last year," the group said. "We think that both governments and tech companies should uphold free expression, privacy and other fundamental freedoms."

NASA's CAPSTONE satellite has gone dark Posted: 05 Jul 2022 12:26 PM PDT NASA has lost contact with CAPSTONE, a tiny satellite that left Earth's orbit on July 4th. CAPSTONE is a cubesat weighing just 55 pounds, and it's headed for the Moon as part of NASA's plan to get humans back on the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years.  The small satellite stopped communicating with engineers on July 4th shortly after deploying from an Electron rocket bus and exiting Earth's orbit. A NASA spokesperson told Space.com that the team has solid trajectory information for CAPSTONE and handlers are attempting to re-establish contact with the cubesat.  "If needed, the mission has enough fuel to delay the initial post-separation trajectory correction maneuver for several days," the spokesperson told the site. CAPSTONE spent six days building up speed in-orbit on a Rocket Lab Electron booster and finally deployed yesterday, on a path to the Moon. The plan is for CAPSTONE to enter a near rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon on November 13th, serving as a test for NASA's Artemis mission. With Artemis, NASA plans to install a space station called the Lunar Gateway in the Moon's orbit, serving as a permanent floating base for lunar visitors, complete with living quarters and a laboratory. NASA plans to kick off its Artemis 1 mission between August 23rd and September 6th with the deployment of an unmanned Orion module, which will orbit the Moon and provide data about how the trip might affect the human body. After that, four astronauts will take off for the lunar satellite. Finally, some time after 2025, NASA plans to put humans on the Moon again.

Respawn finally patches an 'Apex Legends' input lag issue on Xbox Series X/S Posted: 05 Jul 2022 11:59 AM PDT Apex Legends players on Xbox Series X/S haven't been too impressed with the game over the last two weeks. Since Respawn Entertainment rolled out a large update on June 22nd, players on those consoles have been complaining about an input lag issue that seemingly made the battle royale very slow to register button presses. Thankfully, the developer may have finally resolved the matter. "We just pushed a small update to [Apex Legends] to help address issues with input lag on Xbox Series X and S consoles," Respawn wrote on Twitter. "Thank you for your patience here, legends." My buttons are all maybe registered half the time. Works randomly whenever the game decides to. Single fire 301 to show what I'm talking ab. FIX THIS, PLEASE.@PlayApex / #ApexLegends#APEXpic.twitter.com/JVCPieApaV — Reaiming (@Reaiming) July 1, 2022 It's not clear why the issue only seemed to affect current Xbox consoles, but some folks claimed it made Apex Legends practically unplayable. A Twitch streamer named Reaiming shared a clip of them rapidly pressing the trigger but the game clearly wasn't registering all their inputs. Members of the community found workarounds to mitigate the problem until Respawn issued a fix, such as rolling back the firmware on certain controllers. Here's hoping today's update resolves the issue so Xbox Series X/S players have a better chance of becoming champions. Failing that, fingers crossed they can at least enjoy the game again. I've driven 18 straight hours from San Francisco now through Wyoming on my way to Denver only stopping for gas. And it's still a more enjoyable experience than Apex Legends with the input lag — GG Thordan Smash (@Thordansmash) June 30, 2022

The Kindle Kids e-reader hits new low of $50 before Prime Day Posted: 05 Jul 2022 11:30 AM PDT There's no need to wait for Prime Day for a decent deal on a Kindle, especially if you're looking to pick one up for a younger person in your life. Prime members can pick up the Kindle Kids edition for $50, which is $10 cheaper than the previous all-time-low price. The usual price of the e-reader is $85. Buy Kindle Kids (Prime exclusive) at Amazon - $50 It's a 10th-gen Kindle that comes with a two-year worry-free guarantee. Amazon will replace the device if it breaks for any reason. It's a proper e-reader, not a rugged toy, so that guarantee might come in handy. Kindle Kids does, however, come with a kid-friendly cover. You'll also get one year of access to Amazon Kids+, which includes access to thousands of kid-friendly books, including the Ramona Quimby and Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Parents can view their kids' reading progress and set educational goals. Amazon Kids+ usually costs $5 per month. Meanwhile, you can also pick up the 2019 edition of the Fire 7 without breaking the bank, since that's also down to a record low. The tablet is currently $30, which is 40 percent off the regular price. It's another low-cost device that could be a solid option for a child, especially if you pick up a kid-friendly case for it. Buy 2019 Fire 7 (Prime exclusive) at Amazon - $30 This model comes with 16GB of storage, which you can expand with a microSD card. Amazon says it will run for up to seven hours on a single charge, which could make it useful for watching movies in the back seat during a road trip. There are parental controls you can use to make sure little ones aren't doing anything they're not supposed to. Get the latest Amazon Prime Day offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter.

Ubisoft will drop details on Assassin's Creed and more games on Sept. 10th Posted: 05 Jul 2022 11:16 AM PDT Ubisoft will share updates and announcements about its roster of projects in a showcase on September 10th at 3PM ET. The event will be streamed on Ubisoft channels on YouTube, Twitch and the studio's official website, and it'll include news on "multiple games and projects from Ubisoft teams around the world," according to spokesperson Youssef Maguid. Back in June, Ubisoft confirmed plans to share information about the future of Assassin's Creed during a special event in September, and this appears to be that. Ubisoft is currently working on two Assassin's Creed projects: one is a live multiplayer experience spanning multiple time periods codenamed Infinity, and the other is a standalone series installment codenamed Rift. Early reports indicate Rift started out as an expansion to Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and it stars Basim Ibn Ishaq from that title. Alongside Assassin's Creed, Ubisoft is the caretaker of Far Cry, Rabbids, Beyond Good & Evil, Just Dance, Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, Rayman and Prince of Persia. A remake of the original Prince of Persia has been bouncing around Ubisoft's studios for a few years and is now in development in Montreal, due out some time after April 2023. Ubisoft is also hosting a broadcast for its open-world, online pirate simulator Skull and Bones on July 7th at 2PM ET. Skull and Bones has been kicking around since 2017 and it was even playable in 2018, but updates since then have been few and far between.

Games Done Quick bans speedrunning cheater from future events Posted: 05 Jul 2022 10:38 AM PDT Games Done Quick has banned a speedrunner from future events after they admitted to cheating during last week's marathon. Russian player Mekarazium appeared to complete a Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance expansion in a world record time. Instead of live gameplay, though, Mekarazium showed a pre-recorded video that was pieced together using parts of separate runs. They reacted to the footage in real-time to sell the ruse. While Summer Games Done Quick took place as an in-person event for the first time since 2019, some speedrunners participated remotely. Mekazarium was one of those, which allowed them to cheat, as PCGamesN reports. The player initially sped through the main campaign of MGR: Revengeance in a seemingly legitimate run, before taking on the Blade Wolf DLC after a charity donation goal was met. However, viewers noticed discrepancies in the Blade Wolf playthrough. Some noted there were barely any audible instances of Mekarazium pressing keys on the keyboard (which could be heard as he played the main game). At one point, Mekarazium lifts their right hand up while their character was looking around, though they claimed they controlled the mouse with their other hand. Mekarazium also downplayed the record-breaking aspect of their run after the fact. You'd think a speedrunner would be delighted to beat their own world-best time by 25 seconds. "The Blade Wolf DLC run incentive people paid for is a pre-recorded, segmented run," Mekarazium told the GDQ enforcement team in a message obtained by PCGamesN. "It was supposed to be a real-time run, but I've changed my mind at the last second after switching the saves." Mekarazium said they wanted to show off the potential of the Blade Wolf run. However, they apologized and acknowledged they did "an actual bad thing." They worried about the impact on other speedrunners too. "I acted selfishly and I haven't put more time thinking about others," they added. "Yesterday, we were made aware that Mekazarium played a segmented video for his DLC run at Summer Games Done Quick 2022," GDQ told Engadget in a statement. "Mekazarium has since admitted to this, both to some members of the community as well as directly to GDQ staff. He contacted our staff with a document detailing that he had planned this for over a month, demonstrating this was planned and intentional. "This is absolutely unacceptable and attempts to undermine the integrity of the speedrunning community that we love and support," GDQ added. "The exact result they desired was unclear from the document, but it is clear that they believed we would not be willing to speak out about their behavior. However, we believe it is in the community's best interests to know why this run was removed by GDQ. We have removed Mekazarium's runs from our YouTube archive, and will not permit him to run in the future." The incident puts an unfortunate stain on another largely successful GDQ event. Speedrunners and viewers raised just over $3 million for Doctors Without Borders. There were some other hiccups, however. Some runs went longer than expected, which led to organizers cutting a couple of games from the schedule. However, they found room to add an extra Pokémon game on the final day in a bid to maximize donations.

Ubisoft will reveal updated 'Skull and Bones' gameplay this week Posted: 05 Jul 2022 10:30 AM PDT After years of delays, Ubisoft is finally ready to offer a fresh look at Skull and Bones. The publisher announced on Tuesday it plans to host a showcase dedicated to the open-world multiplayer pirate game on July 7th at 2PM ET. Ubisoft will livestream the event on YouTube and Twitch. The company is widely expected to announce a new release date then. If you haven't kept track of Skull and Bones' troubled development, we don't blame you. Ubisoft first announced the title at E3 2017, with an original release window planned for 2018. It then pushed the game back to 2019, mid-2020, 2021 and then finally its fiscal 2022-2023 year. Tune-in July 7th at 11am PT / 8pm CEST for the worldwide Gameplay Reveal of #SkullandBones on Twitch and Youtube. You might also discover other hidden treasures along the way… https://t.co/xAxsCDfJo0#UbiForwardpic.twitter.com/J5wYPGf2Dd — Skull and Bones (@skullnbonesgame) July 5, 2022 In 2020, Elisabeth Pellen, the game's creative director, attributed the delays to a change of vision. The original premise of Skull and Bones was simple. It was supposed to adapt the sailing mechanics from 2013's Assassin's Creed IV:Black Flag and strip all the narrative threads and stealth mechanics that made that game unapproachable for some. "The answer is that we simply needed more time. We dreamt something bigger for Skull and Bones, and these ambitions naturally came with bigger challenges," Pellen said at the time. "As Skull and Bones evolved from its original idea to what it is now, it was also necessary to have some fresh eyes join the team." Ubisoft also announced today it plans to hold a separate event on September 10th that will feature multiple games and projects from the company's teams.

Early Prime Day deals knock the Echo Show 5 down to $35 Posted: 05 Jul 2022 09:45 AM PDT Amazon has announced good deals on more devices ahead of Prime Day. This time around, some smart displays are getting deep discounts. The Echo Show 5, for instance, has dropped to just $35 for Prime members. That's $10 less than the previous all-time low and $50 below the list price. Buy Echo Show 5 (Prime exclusive) at Amazon - $35 The second-gen Echo Show 5 emerged last summer. We gave the smart display, which has a 5.5-inch screen, a score of 85 in our review. It's a solid choice for a bedside table device, particularly given that there's a tap-to-snooze function. The decent audio quality doesn't hurt either. On the flip side, we found the interface less intuitive than it perhaps ought to be. The webcam, meanwhile, is only 2MP, though that's still an improvement over the one Amazon used in the first-gen Echo Show 5. Amazon has slashed the price of the Echo Show 8 as well. It's down from $110 to $55. However, it's worth noting the deal is for the first-gen version of the device, which was released in 2019. An updated model followed in 2021. Buy Echo Show 8 (Prime exclusive) at Amazon - $55 The eight-inch smart display has a camera shutter (as does the Echo Show 5) and stereo sound. It's Alexa-powered and supports video calls, but it only has a 1MP webcam — the second-gen Echo Show 8 has a 13MP webcam. Still, $55 is not a bad price if you're looking to pick up an inexpensive smart display with a larger, higher-resolution screen than Echo Show 5. Get the latest Amazon Prime Day offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter.

Amazon's Echo Dot drops to $20 ahead of Prime Day Posted: 05 Jul 2022 09:31 AM PDT Prime Day is still a week away, but Amazon is getting the jump on one of its biggest events of the year by putting a bunch of its own products on sale a little early. One of those is the fourth-gen Echo Dot. The company has slashed the price of the Alexa-powered smart speaker by 60 percent for Prime members. It's down to $20, which is $30 off the regular price. That's the best price we've seen to date. Buy Echo Dot (Prime exclusive) at Amazon - $20 We gave the Echo Dot a score of 88 in our review, lauding it for the decent audio quality, a 3.5mm audio out jack and the option to tap it to snooze the alarm. We also liked the spherical design. It's worth bearing in mind that it's been almost two years since Amazon released the fourth-gen Echo Dot. Dropping the price to just $20 is an indicator that the company is clearing out stock ahead of a possible new model this fall. In addition, there's a decent deal on the regular fourth-gen Echo. That's down from $100 to $60. The larger version of the Alexa smart speaker also has a 3.5mm audio out jack. We gave it a score of 89 in our review, largely because of the great sound quality. Buy Echo (Prime exclusive) at Amazon - $60 If you were already considering buying an Echo, note that you can pair two of the smart speakers together for stereo audio. Paying an extra $20 on top of the regular price will net you two of the speakers at the minute. Again, though, the fourth-gen Echo was announced in September 2020, so it's due for a refresh. Get the latestAmazon Prime Dayoffers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter.

Suda51’s ‘Lollipop Chainsaw’ is getting a remake Posted: 05 Jul 2022 09:07 AM PDT Publisher Dragami Games has announced a remake of Lollipop Chainsaw, which will arrive next year. The 2012 original was a cult hit. It's a hack-and-slash title from the minds of producer Yoshimi Yasuda, creative director Goichi "Suda51" Suda (of No More Heroes fame) and Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, who was a writer on the game. Lollipop Chainsaw focuses on Juliet Starling, a cheerleader who battles zombies in a California high school. Surprisingly enough, Juliet wields a chainsaw that she can use in various ways (including ranged attacks). She can also collect lollipops to restore her health. Juliet is accompanied on her quest by the disembodied head of her boyfriend. A serious game this is not.  Dragami Games is led by Yasuda. who will also produce the remake. The development team includes some other folks who previously worked on Lollipop Chainsaw. As IGN notes, some aspects will be different in the remake. Yasuda said the new version will take advantage of current-gen console hardware to deliver "a more realistic approach to the graphics." It will have new music as well, due to licensing issues. Dragami acquired the intellectual property of Lollipop Chainsaw and other titles from original publisher Kadokawa Games (Dragami recently split off from the latter). "Unfortunately, various factors resulted in things making it so that fans can no longer easily play Lollipop Chainsaw, and it has been some time since players have not been able to access the game on current consoles," Yasuda wrote in a statement on Twitter. "We, the original development staff on Lollipop Chainsaw, think of the game as very precious to us, and did not want to leave it in limbo, where players who want to play it cannot." Lollipop Chainasaw Remake の発表に関する Producer message をお届けします…!!! Please check Producer message about Lollipop Chainsaw Remake.#lollipopchainsaw#ロリポップチェーンソーpic.twitter.com/ILeLTKNVZ3 — 安田善巳 (@yasudaD5) July 5, 2022

Xbox Games with Gold will no longer include Xbox 360 titles Posted: 05 Jul 2022 08:54 AM PDT As of October 2022, Microsoft will stop offering free Xbox 360 titles through Games with Gold. The company announced the change in an email sent out to Xbox Live Gold subscribers in the US, Canada and other parts of the world. "We have reached the limit of our ability to bring Xbox 360 games to the catalog," the company states in the message. "However, Games with Gold will continue to include exciting Xbox One titles and exclusive savings each month." The email adds that Xbox users can redownload any 360 titles they claimed through Games with Gold regardless of whether they continue to subscribe to Xbox Live Gold.  "No other Xbox Live Gold benefits will be impacted by this change," a Microsoft spokesperson told Engadget. "We're always looking at ways to evolve the Xbox experience based on community engagement, feedback and shifting company priorities. We have reached the limit of our ability to bring new games to the catalog from the past due to licensing and technical constraints. We will continue to focus on providing Xbox One titles through the Games with Gold program." Microsoft Introduced in 2013, Microsoft added Games with Gold to Xbox Live Gold in response to the success of Sony's PS Plus service, which was the first to offer free monthly games to customers. Microsoft later extended the perk to include the Xbox One. In recent years, the allure of the bonus has waned with the introduction of Xbox Game Pass. After Microsoft recently dropped the Xbox Live Gold requirement to play free-to-play games online, it felt like the company was preparing to reconfigure the service, and this announcement adds to that. See the full email from Microsoft above. Update 12:47PM ET: Added comment from Microsoft.

Jabra's Elite 7 Pro earbuds drop to a record low of $140 Posted: 05 Jul 2022 07:32 AM PDT Amazon has been busy dropping prices on its own products ahead of Prime Day and several other manufacturers are getting in on the action too. One of them is audio brand Jabra. Its Elite 7 Pro noise-canceling earbuds have dropped to $140 on Amazon. That's 30 percent off the regular price of $200. It's also the lowest price we've seen to date for the titanium black model. Buy Jabra Elite Pro 7 at Amazon - $140 Jabra announced the true wireless earbuds last August. They were pegged as a successor to the Elite 85t (which were previously the brand's smallest earbuds), with a smaller, retooled design. The company says the earbuds use bone conduction in concert with microphones and algorithms to improve voice performance. The idea is that Jabra's algorithms detect when the microphones pick up certain kinds of background audio and activate the bone conduction function when necessary. The Elite 7 Pro's active noise cancellation (ANC) levels are adjustable. Jabra says you'll get up to nine hours of use on a single charge if ANC is switched on and up to 11 hours without that feature. The case (which can be charged wirelessly) can provide another three charges.  In addition, you can configure the on-device controls via Jabra's Sound+ app. Earlier this year, Jabra rolled out support for multipoint Bluetooth connectivity, allowing you to connect the earbuds to two devices at the same time — a handy feature for those who often take calls during their workday when they're usually listening to their computer's audio. Get the latest Amazon Prime Day offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter.

The best streaming boxes and sticks you can buy Posted: 05 Jul 2022 06:30 AM PDT If you're in the market for a new streaming device, chances are you want to improve your home entertainment experience. Maybe you've been relying on your phone or tablet for binge-watch sessions, or perhaps your TV's built-in operating system just isn't cutting it anymore. Streaming dongles and set-top boxes are ubiquitous at this point, but sussing out the differences between them can be challenging. Plus, they're not the only gadgets that can deliver your latest Netflix obsession to your TV screen. Let us break down all of the streaming device options you have today and give you our picks for the best you can buy. Who needs a streaming device? It's worth pointing out that if you only use a couple of streaming services (say, Netflix and Hulu), you might not need a standalone streaming device. Most modern televisions ship with a basic selection of apps that usually include the most popular streaming services. Some TVs and soundbars run on built-in Roku or Fire TV operating systems, which offer a robust selection of apps without the need for a separate device. But if your TV is on the older side, adding a streaming stick is obviously much cheaper than shelling out for a new television. Also, a dedicated streaming device typically has access to a lot more streaming services and apps, while content is often presented more intuitively. Some devices also offer better search features, including voice control. Cord cutters in particular will benefit from this sort of streaming hardware, as live TV services like Sling and Hulu Live aren't always available in basic TV interfaces. How to pick a streaming device The most important things to keep in mind when choosing a streaming device are platform, price and what you already have in your home. Currently, the most popular streaming platforms are Roku, Amazon's Fire TV, Apple TV and Google TV (which is an overlay on top of Android TV). All of them offer a similar selection of streaming services, with the primary differences being the user interface. Roku, for example, has a basic grid layout, while Fire TV and Google TV emphasize personalized recommendations. The prices for streaming devices typically start at around $30, and can go all the way up to $200 (like the 64GB Apple TV 4K, for example). Sticks or dongles are generally more affordable, while set-top boxes tend to be pricier. The main reason to opt for a box over a dongle is if you need Ethernet connectivity. Some models also have additional features like Ethernet ports and faster wireless connections. (Roku's set-top boxes, for example, have Dolby Vision, while its sticks don't.) Another benefit of a set-top box is that they're faster than older TV processors and are easier to upgrade over time. There are some feature differences, too. Fire TV uses Alexa for voice commands, for example, while Google TV uses Google Assistant. In fact, when it comes to devices from Amazon, Google and Apple, it's generally best to pick one that belongs in a previously chosen ecosystem. So if you're already a committed iTunes user, an Apple TV would make more sense than the Fire TV. This isn't a hard-and-fast rule, of course: If you depend more on streaming services than buying or renting shows, the ecosystem question isn't quite as relevant. We'll get more into the details of each system later in this guide. Below are some recommendations for the best streaming sticks and other budget-friendly options. We also included suggestions for set-top boxes and devices geared toward gamers. Engadget picks The best streaming stick: Roku Streaming Stick 4K Will Lipman for Engadget The Roku Streaming Stick 4K, plus earlier iterations like the Streaming Stick+, has long been an Engadget favorite, and for good reason: It packs a lot of features into a small and affordable package. It has a straightforward user interface along with the widest selection of streaming options. All you need to do to set it up is plug it into your TV's HDMI input and attach the power cable to your TV's USB port. After that, you can finish the rest of the installation process via the TV interface and Roku remote. As mentioned, Roku has a large selection of content. According to the company, you can choose to stream from more than 500,000 movies and TV episodes. Another useful feature is Roku's universal search, which can find shows across a variety of platforms without prioritizing one over another. In contrast, Amazon's streaming platform prioritizes search results from its own Prime video service. The Roku Streaming Stick 4K also supports AirPlay 2, so it's great for those who want to stream from Macs or iOS devices. Additionally, the Roku Streaming Stick 4K supports 4K, HDR streaming and Dolby Vision. We especially like Roku's private-listening feature that lets you listen to shows using headphones, which is useful if you don't want to disturb other members of your household. You can do this via the Roku app, which is available on both iOS and Android. The app also works as an alternative to the physical remote control. This is especially handy for entering login and password information, which is a lot easier to do with a smartphone keyboard than having to hunt and peck using the remote. In addition to the remote, the Roku Streaming Stick 4K also responds to voice commands, which you can use to search for your favorite shows, adjust the volume or enable closed captioning. If you want an upgraded remote, consider upgrading to the Roku Streaming Stick 4K+. It has all the features of the Streaming Stick 4K, except it comes with the rechargeable Roku Voice Remote Pro as well. You can find your lost remote by saying "Hey Roku, where's my remote?" and it has a built-in 3.5mm headphone jack so you can use the private listening feature without the app. It is almost $20 more than the Streaming Stick 4K, however, so unless you really need that fancy remote, we recommend the Streaming Stick 4K instead. Buy Roku Streaming Stick 4K at Amazon - $50 Also great: Chromecast with Google TV Engadget For years, Google's Chromecast was a dongle without a remote. It was simply used to stream shows from your phone or laptop to the TV. The new Chromecast with Google TV, however, is completely different. Not only does it now have a dedicated remote control, but it ushers in a brand new menu interface plus Google Assistant smarts. While the Roku might be our overall pick, the Chromecast is best for those who like a more personalized interface and robust voice controls. The highlight of the new Chromecast is Google TV, which is actually a revamped version of Android TV. The home screen is personalized based on your watching habits. There's a rotating carousel of trending shows, curated top picks as well as category headers like "Continue watching" and "Trending on Google." We especially appreciate the "Continue Watching" row as it offers a quick shortcut to catch up on programming you were — you guessed it — already watching. There are also algorithm-generated recommendations such as "Shows about aliens" or "Shows about murder." What's nice is that most of the suggested shows are from services you're already subscribed to. If you're a YouTube TV subscriber, you'll appreciate the Live TV tab, which acts as a channel guide for the service. Google has said, however, that the tab should eventually work with other live TV services such as Sling or Hulu Live. We also like that Google TV gives a lot of information about a specific show or movie, such as the Rotten Tomatoes rating and all of the different ways you can watch it. You can also add it to your watchlist right from the show page, regardless of what streaming service it's on. Renting or buying the show can only be done from the Google Play Movies & TV store, however. One of our favorite features of the new Chromecast is Google Assistant integration. You can make general queries, like asking for a five-day weather forecast. Best of all, contextual queries like "Find movies with Bill Murray" and "Show me true crime documentaries" all turn up highly relevant results. You can also control the TV entirely with voice commands, including powering it on and off and adjusting the volume. The Chromecast with Google TV supports 4K HDR as well as Dolby Vision. However, it doesn't support AirPlay 2 so it's not quite as compatible with Macs and iOS devices. It also doesn't currently carry Apple TV+ or iTunes videos. We should also note that unlike other streaming sticks, the latest Chromecast can't be powered by a TV's USB port; you'll have to use the included 7.5-watt power adapter instead. Buy Chromecast with Google TV at Amazon - $50 The best budget streaming device: Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite Amazon If price is of the utmost importance and you don't need 4K, Amazon's Fire TV Stick Lite is a decent alternative. At $30, it's one of the cheapest streaming sticks on the market (it's also frequently discounted, too). It supports FHD streaming with HDR and, just like its higher-end siblings, comes with an Alexa voice remote. One of the reasons this is considered "Lite" is that this particular Fire TV Stick can't control your TV; you still have to use your television remote to power it on and off or to adjust its volume. That's not that big a deal, especially if it helps save you a few bucks. In comparison, the standard Fire TV Stick typically retails for $40, while the Fire TV Stick 4K costs $50. Amazon's Fire TV supports nearly all of the popular streaming services, including Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, YouTube, YouTube TV and Hulu, among others. The Live page features Twitch out of the box. While you can't use Alexa to control the TV, the Fire TV Stick Lite does let you use Alexa to search for shows and ask general questions like the weather forecast or the latest scores for your favorite sports team. Despite its low price, the Fire TV Stick Lite is a decent streaming dongle. It comes with the updated Fire TV interface that adds features such as user profiles, a new main menu navigation bar with show recommendations, plus a scrolling list of your favorite streaming apps. The layout isn't quite as intuitive as Google TV's and is more complicated than Roku's, but it's still easy enough to figure out. That said, the interface tends to prioritize Amazon Prime Video content, and there are a lot more ads than on other streaming platforms. It's not the best streaming device out there, but it's a good, inexpensive choice if you want to update an older TV set while spending as little as possible. For a little more money, you could also upgrade to either the Fire TV Stick 4K or the Fire TV Stick 4K Max. Both feature 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, but the Max has WiFi 6 support and a faster processor. Buy Fire TV Stick Lite at Amazon - $30 Also great: Roku Express Roku The Roku Express has the same user interface as the Streaming Stick+, but it's housed in a compact set-top box instead. It doesn't support 4K or HDR and the remote control lacks a voice command button. But if all you want is a capable HD streaming device, the Express fits the bill. If you insist on having 4K, however, consider the Roku Express 4K+, which retails for $40. It's very similar to the Express, except it carries support for 4K, HDR and AirPlay, and it comes with a voice remote as well. That could well make it worth the extra money. Buy Roku Express at Amazon - $30 The best set-top box: Roku Ultra Roku The Roku Ultra has the same features of the Streaming Stick+ and then some. There's a wide selection of content, a simple user interface and support for 4K HDR streaming, AirPlay2 and voice commands. On top of that, the Ultra adds Dolby Vision support along with HDR 10+, USB connections, a microSD slot for external media, and Ethernet connectivity. Like the Streaming Stick 4K+, the Ultra comes with Roku's Voice Remote Pro. The remote also features a couple of programmable shortcut keys that you can map to specific commands, like "Launch YouTube" or "Play classical music." Best of all, the Ultra features a remote finder in case you lose it in between your couch cushions. The Ultra is definitely the most capable Roku device on the market, but you'll have to pay quite a bit more for it. Buy Roku Ultra at Amazon - $100 The best premium device: Apple TV 4K Apple For those who want a slightly higher-end option and have a lot of Apple devices, the Apple TV 4K could be worth a splurge. It can stream in 4K HDR and Dolby Vision, plus it supports AirPlay 2 for streaming from Mac and iOS devices. The tvOS platform has an attractive and clean user interface that's also easy to use. There's also a "One Home Screen" feature that lets you sync apps and their layout across multiple Apple TVs, and you can use Siri to search for your favorite shows. As you might expect, the Apple TV is also the only set-top box that works with the entire Apple ecosystem. This means that you can use the Apple TV to buy and rent movies from iTunes, access music and podcasts, play games from Apple Arcade and run apps like Fitness+, Apple's line of workout classes. iPhone owners in particular are likely to benefit from owning an Apple TV. You can hold your handset up to the box during setup to transfer all of your settings and enter passwords directly through the Remote app, which is itself easily accessible via iOS's control center. Plus, if you spring for the new 2021 model, you'll get the improved Siri remote and new features like high-frame rate playback. Buy Apple TV 4K at Amazon - $180 The best for gamers: NVIDIA Shield TV Pro NVIDIA For those who want an all-in-one device that lets you stream movies, run a PLEX media server and play games, consider NVIDIA's Shield TV Pro. It currently runs Android TV, which is a little outdated at this point, but there's a possibility that it could be upgraded to Google TV in the future. Thanks to its capable TegraX1+ processor, the Shield TV Pro can stream in native 4K and it can also upscale 720p and 1080p video to 4K with the company's AI neural network. It also supports Dolby Vision and HDR10, has 3GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and two USB-C ports. Additionally, there's a gigabit Ethernet port, an HDMI socket and a microSD card slot. Since it runs on Android, you can use it to play most games from the Google Play Store. The main reason you'd choose the NVIDIA Shield TV Pro over other machines is that it gives you access to NVIDIA's GeForce Now cloud gaming service. As long as you have a relatively speedy internet connection, you can play top-tier PC games that are streamed online to your Shield TV Pro. Buy NVIDIA Shield TV Pro at Amazon - $200 The best gaming console for streaming: Xbox Series X Engadget Even though both Sony's PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X can stream video, it's the Xbox that we think is the best gaming console for the job. It can play 4K Blu-Rays and supports all of the usual streaming video apps including Apple TV+ and Disney+. However, the PS5 can't stream Disney+ in 4K or Dolby Atmos, which is disappointing if you ever want to watch The Mandalorian in all its cinematic glory. Fortunately, that's not the case with the Xbox Series X. On top of that, the Xbox Series X (and S) also support Dolby Vision for streaming video, which is especially great for people with newer TVs. Of course, the Xbox is also a pretty great gaming machine, and it offers access to Game Pass, Microsoft's subscription service that has a large library of titles. Buy Xbox Series X at Microsoft - $500

European Union passes landmark laws to rein in big tech Posted: 05 Jul 2022 06:18 AM PDT Today, after months of negotiations and procedural hurdles, the European Union has passed a pair of landmark bills designed to rein in Big Tech's power. The Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act are intended to promote fairer competition, improve privacy protection, as well as banning both the use of some of the more egregious forms of targeted advertising and misleading practices. The Digital Services Act, for instance, focuses on online platforms like Facebook, Amazon and Google. They will be tasked with being more proactive both with content moderation and also to prevent the sale of illegal or unsafe goods being sold on their platforms. Users will also be able to learn how and why an algorithm recommended them a certain piece of content, and to challenge any moderation decision that was made algorithmically. Finally, companies will no longer be able to use sensitive personal data for ad-targeting, sell ads to children, or use dark patterns — deceptive page design that can manipulate you into saying yes to something even when you'd much rather say no, such as joining a service or preventing you from leaving one you no longer wish to use. These obligations operate on a sliding scale, and so the largest platforms will have the greatest obligations placed upon them. Platforms with 45 million or more monthly users will be subject to independent auditing to ensure they are preventing fake news and illegal content. Those platforms will also have to open up their algorithms and data to (approved) researchers to enable them to study the effects, and potential harm, the systems can cause. The Digital Markets Act, meanwhile, is more focused on preventing dominant platform holders, like Google, Microsoft and Apple, from abusing their scale. This includes offering better interoperability with smaller, rival services, ensuring files can be sent between systems. There is also a large carve-out for app storefronts, with developers now entitled to contact their customers about deals without going via the platform holder in question. And platform holders will no longer be able to give their systems favorable treatment, such as when Google promoted its own shopping service over that of rivals. The EU has given both bills plenty of teeth, and can dole out a maximum penalty of 10 percent of its total worldwide turnover from the previous year, should regulators find non-compliance. This figure will, however, jump to 20 percent of worldwide turnover if officials find "repeated non-compliance." That's a hefty figure big enough that not even Apple would be able to stomach losing on a regular basis. Although, as with GDPR regulation, the EU still has questions to answer about how much effort, time and money it's prepared to put behind a body to monitor big tech. Now that they have been passed, the Digital Services Act will come into force by 1st January 2024 (unless some procedural stuff delays it) while the Digital Markets Act will come into force at some point soon after, and major platforms — dubbed "Gatekeepers" will have a further six months to get their houses in order before the new rules apply to them.

The ASUS ROG Phone 6 has a ‘wireless’ thermoelectric cooler add-on Posted: 05 Jul 2022 05:30 AM PDT Following the ROG Phone 5 and 5s, ASUS decided to skip Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in favor of the more efficient 8+ Gen 1, which brings us to the new ROG Phone 6 series today — almost a year after the 5s. In a nutshell, this beastly gaming phone is all about its faster 165Hz 6.78-inch display, 720Hz touch sampling rate, up to 18GB of RAM, up to 512GB of storage, bigger 6,000mAh battery, enlarged internal cooling system and IPX4 splash resistance, in addition to its handy ultrasonic triggers and proven audio performance by Dirac. The most notable change, however, lies within the revamped clip-on cooler, which has now integrated a thermoelectric chip and yet doesn't require external power. This new AeroActive Cooler 6 is noticeably bulkier than before, partly because of its larger, more ergonomic physical buttons — and there are now four of them instead of just two. It also has a bigger kickstand that flips out from the bottom (though not necessary), and there's a spring-loaded clamp at the top to secure (and activate) the cooler. The new Peltier cooling chip inside — positioned right over the phone's processor when mounted — is sandwiched between the fan and a large piece of copper plate, and there's also a humidity sensor nearby to help avoid condensation. Richard Lai/Engadget You can toggle between four cooling modes in the updated Armoury Crate app's console: "Smart" is basically automatic, "Cool" is fan only, "Frosty" is fan plus Peltier chip, and "Frozen" is pushing the Peltier chip to the max, but this is only available when there's external power plugged into the cooler. ASUS claims that in "Frozen" mode, the AeroActive Cooler 6 can lower the ROG Phone 6's surface temperature by up to a staggering 25 degrees Celsius. The cool air blowing out of the two sides serves as a nice bonus for gamers with sweaty palms (like me). The company also provided some figures from more realistic scenarios. After a 60-minute session in the notoriously resource-intensive Genshin Impact (at 60Hz), "Frosty" mode lowered the phone's surface temperature from 44.8 degrees Celsius to 37.2, and "Frozen" mode took it down further by one degree. Under the same test environment, the ROG Phone 6 was apparently able to maintain an average frame rate of 59.7 fps while staying cool at 37.2 degrees Celsius in "Frosty" mode, whereas the iPhone 13 Pro Max apparently reached a lower 56.8 fps but higher 46.3 degrees Celsius, and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra allegedly only managed 47.3 fps while reaching 47.9 degrees Celsius. This goes to show how cooling is key to maintaining a stable frame rate over a long period.  Richard Lai/Engadget Sadly, the AeroActive Cooler 6 — along with its own bumper case — is an optional accessory for the ROG Phone 6 series, so you'll likely have to pay extra for this handy piece of kit. But there's some good news for existing fans: ASUS plans to release a variant of this attachment for the ROG Phone 5 and 5s as well, and it'll make use of the old pogo pins instead of the USB-C side port. Release date to be announced later. The ROG Phone 6 series comes in two flavors: the regular ROG Phone 6 and the higher-end ROG Phone 6 Pro, with the main difference being the latter has the small "ROG Vision" PMOLED display on the back for showing off customizable animation graphics, as opposed to just having an RGB-illuminated ROG logo. Internally, the Pro packs up to 18GB of LPDDR5 RAM instead of just 16GB. The trade-off — if you want to call it that — on the Pro is that it only comes in "Storm White," while the regular model also offers a "Phantom Black" version. Save for the different camera module layout, "ROG Vision" positioning and printed graphics, the two ROG Phone 6 variants bear a strong resemblance to their immediate predecessors — to the point where they can share the same glass screen protector and ROG Clip controller.  Richard Lai/Engadget The modular Kunai 3 Gamepad — now available in white as well as black — has once again been granted a life extension by way of a bumper designed for the ROG Phone 6. If you already have this controller since the ROG Phone 3 or 5, you'll only need to get the new bumper in order to attach these Joy-Con-like sticks. Or you can just slot them into the same old gamepad grip and use the entire assembly wirelessly via Bluetooth. The ROG Phone 6 packs an improved (apparently) main camera featuring a 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 sensor, along with a 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera and a 5-megapixel macro camera. On the other side, there's a 12-megapixel selfie camera with a Sony IMX663 sensor — as seen on the compact Zenfone 8. The main rear camera is capable of shooting videos at up to 8K@24fps, though I'd imagine most people would default to 4K@60fps to get the best of both worlds. Richard Lai/Engadget On the software side, the ROG Phone 6 runs on Android 12 with ROG UI (you can switch to the less flashy Zen UI), with ASUS promising at least two major OS updates and at least two years of security updates. There's the usual Armoury Crate app which is mainly for accessing your game library, as well as the console for customizing your system lighting, the rear "ROG Vision" screen (6 Pro only, of course), the AirTriggers and more. When in a game, you can toggle the redesigned "Game Genie" dashboard by swiping in from any of the two top corners of the screen while in either orientation. Here, you can quickly toggle the screen frame rate, key mapping, screen recording, performance modes, do not disturb, crosshair and more. The new AirTriggers 6 now lets you map up to 14 specific touch points, and you get a total of nine input methods with these two ultrasonic buttons, including the new "press and lift" — basically toggling one set of actions for pressing down on the trigger, and then toggling another set of actions when lifting from the trigger. That said, casual gamers like myself will likely just use the classic tap (to fire) and maybe slide (to reload). If needed, you can also map motion gestures with touch points in Armoury Crate. Richard Lai/Engadget The ROG Phone 6 series includes a bumper case and a 65W USB-PD charger (which takes just 42 minutes for a full charge). As far as availability goes, ASUS has only shared that the ROG Phone 6 series will start from €999 (around $1,000) for the 12GB RAM + 256GB storage configuration in Europe, whereas the ROG Phone 6 Pro will only have one version in Europe: 18GB RAM with 512GB storage for €1,299 (around $1,300). Prices and models will obviously vary across different countries, so stay tuned for further updates.

England’s health service will use drones to deliver vital chemotherapy drugs Posted: 05 Jul 2022 04:35 AM PDT The UK's National Health Service has announced that it will test delivering vital chemotherapy drugs via drone to the Isle of Wight. The body has partnered with Apian, a drone technology startup founded by former NHS doctors and former Google employees. Test flights are due to begin shortly, and it's hoped that the system will reduce journey times for the drugs, cut costs and enable cancer patients to receive treatment far more locally. The Isle of Wight is an island two miles off the south coast of England with a population just under 150,000. Due to the short shelf-life of most chemotherapy drugs, medicines are either rushed onto the island or patients take the ferry to the mainland. This journey can take up to four hours, while a drone flight can run from Queen Alexandra Hospital to St. Mary's Hospital in half an hour. Not long after and an additional pilot scheme will take place in Northumbria to see if it's possible to deliver vital medical supplies at ultra-short notice. It's not the first time that drones have been used to deliver vital medicines faster than a conventional courier. Merck and drone company Volansi began testing the delivery of cold-chain medicines to patients in rural North Carolina. Similarly, drone technology has helped move blood supplies across Rwanda, deliver prescriptions to senior citizens in Florida and help with supply drops during COVID-19. Similarly, the UK's Royal Mail has tested using autonomous delivery drones to get packages to remote areas. That includes getting vital supplies to the islands of Scilly, Shetland, Orkney and the Hebrides. Much like the NHS trial, Royal Mail said that using drones would reduce carbon emissions and speed up delivery times, especially in far-flung regions where infrastructure costs are too excessive to even think about.

The Morning After: Xiaomi's flagship phone has a Leica camera with a massive one-inch sensor Posted: 05 Jul 2022 04:15 AM PDT Just six months after its last flagship launch, Xiaomi has announced another one. The Xiaomi 12S Ultra packs a massive one-inch, 50.3-megapixel Sony IMX989 main sensor. And unlike the Sony Xperia Pro-I, the Xiaomi 12S Ultra apparently uses the entirety of its one-inch sensor. And the camera unit itself? Well, it looks gigantic. Xiaomi Inside, there's a Leica Summicron 1:1.9-4.1 / 13-120 ASPH camera system that combines three rear cameras: a 50.3-megapixel main camera (23mm, f/1.9), along with the 48-megapixel ultra-wide camera (13mm, f/2.2) and the 48-megapixel periscopic camera (120mm, f/4.1). Both 48-megapixel cameras use a half-inch Sony IMX586 sensor. The circular camera island (continent?) has a special coating to mitigate lens glare and improve image consistency. Oh, and there's a 23K gold rim as well. Because excess. The Xiaomi 12S Ultra is now available for pre-ordering in China, ahead of retail launch on July 6th. The 12S Ultra starts at 5,999 yuan (around $900). Leica has spread its bets over the years in mobile imaging partnerships. It has previously collaborated with Sharp, Huawei and Panasonic — Chinese phone makers are quick to pal up with renowned photography brands. In late 2020, Vivo joined forces with Zeiss, while Oppo and OnePlus released handsets jointly developed with Hasselblad. The result has, broadly, meant better smartphone cameras from these companies looking to go toe-to-toe with the iPhones and Galaxy Ss of this world. — Mat Smith The biggest stories you might have missed Crosby, Stills and Nash return to Spotify after COVID-19 misinformation boycott The best smartphones you can buy right now The best midrange smartphones out there How to survive the inevitable CD revival WhatsApp may soon let you hide your online status We're heading for a messy and expensive breakup with natural gas Hacker claims they stole police data on a billion Chinese citizens A sample of the data included crime reports going back to 1995. A hacker (or group of hackers) claims to have stolen data on a billion Chinese citizens from a Shanghai police database. The hacker is attempting to sell 23 terabytes of data for 10 bitcoin, worth just over $198,000 at the time of writing. The data includes names, addresses, birthplaces, national IDs and phone numbers. The Wall Street Journal reports the hacker provided a sample of the data, which included crime reports dating as far back as 1995. Continue reading. Amazon starts making deliveries by e-bike and on foot in London It's opening several hubs across the UK to replace some van trips. Amazon Amazon UK is now delivering packages by cargo e-bike and on foot as it progresses toward its climate goals. The company has opened a micro mobility hub in Hackney, central London, and says the walkers and e-bike riders will make more than a million deliveries a year. It claims those trips will replace thousands of van deliveries. The e-bikes and on-foot couriers will deliver across more than a tenth of the city's ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ). Continue reading. HBO Max halts original productions across large parts of Europe Part of cost-cutting measures following its split from AT&T. HBO Max is halting original productions across much of Europe, according to Variety. The streaming service confirmed it'll no longer produce originals in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Central Europe, the Netherlands and Turkey, leaving only Spain and France untouched. The step is part of a plan from parent Warner Bros. Discovery to cut some $3 billion in costs following its split from AT&T. Continue reading. NASA's CAPSTONE satellite breaks from Earth's orbit and heads toward the Moon The CubeSat is critical to the first Artemis mission. NASA's grand plan to take humans back to the Moon for the first time in over half a century has taken another step forward. The 55-pound CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) CubeSat has broken free of Earth's orbit and is on its way to the Moon. Rocket Lab launched CAPSTONE on an Electron rocket last week. Following six days of orbit-raising burns to build up enough speed, the pathfinding satellite set out toward the Moon. It's a slow trip. It won't reach the Moon until November. Continue reading.

Geely buys majority stake in troubled phone maker Meizu Posted: 05 Jul 2022 03:20 AM PDT Chinese car giant Geely has purchased a majority stake in the now-small smartphone maker Meizu. Bloomberg reports that Meizu will be run as an independent company under Xingli Technology, another tech brand under Geely's umbrella. That said, the pair are expected to work together on new products, and Xingli has already expressed plans to make a big splash in the AR/VR space. If you've been reading Engadget for long enough, you'll have likely seen Meizu's early rise at the dawn of the smartphone boom. Unfortunately, it found its lunch being eaten by other Chinese upstarts, including Xiaomi, and wound up remaining a small player. Back in 2015, Alibaba decided to take a stake in the company just as it found itself distracted by various boondoggles, including the baffling-in-retrospect decision to build phones with Ubuntu. Geely, meanwhile, is perhaps best known in the West as the controlling owner of Volvo, Polestar and Lotus, all of which have been pushed towards electrification. Of course, with cars becoming more like phones (and phones becoming such a crucial part of most cars) the idea of automakers buying in to the phone space makes plenty of sense. As Reuters reports, both the mobile and car businesses are slowing down, and so deeper integration might be one way to corner the market.

The latest Apple TV 4K is $150 right now Posted: 05 Jul 2022 02:29 AM PDT With so many streaming services now available, finding the right box or dongle to view them on can be a challenge. Apple's own streamer, the uniquely-named Apple TV, is one of the best on the market, but its price can often put people off. With Prime Day just days away, Amazon has dropped the price of both the 32GB and 64GB models, dropping them by $29 to $150 and $170, respectively. That's not quite the low of $130 we saw last month for the 32GB version, but it's a great price nonetheless. Buy 2021 Apple TV 4K (32GB) at Amazon - $150Buy 2021 Apple TV 4K (64GB) at Amazon - $170 Devindra Hardawar gave the 2021 Apple TV 4K a score of 90 in our review. The new model irons out some of the kinks from what was already a powerful media box. The updated remote is a lot more intuitive in the hand and the beefier A12 Bionic chip delivers both HDR video at 60 frames per second (if the content you're playing supports it) and better game performance.  If it's just basic streaming you're after, the Apple TV is expensive compared to Google's Chromecast, Amazon's Fire TV and Roku's range of media players. However, if you're already invested in Apple's ecosystem and want one of the best streamers available at its second-lowest price ever, now might be time to pull the trigger. Get the latest Amazon Prime Day offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter.

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