Category: Technology

Earlier this year TP-Link launched its Tapo line of smart home devices that revolve around budget 2K security cameras, introducing several models ranging from $30 to $60. Now, the company has launched a pricier but more impressive indoor/outdoor 2K night vision security camera, the Tapo C40S2. 

The new model is battery-powered, weatherproofed and wire-free, offering up to 180 days on a charge in both indoor and outdoor environments. It packs an 850nm IR sensor, along with an f/1.6 aperture lens that allows it to see up to 49 feet in the dark, according to the company. With 2K resolution (2,048 x 1,080) a hair above Full HD, TP-Link promises “pristine images, even in low-light conditions.”

It also comes with AI features that allow it to distinguish between humans, pets, vehicles and packages, providing notifications when someone steps into the property or user-defined activity zones. Other features include a built-in siren and light alarm, microSD and cloud storage with 30 days of video history and motion detection with snapshots and more. The Tapo C420S2 is now available through TP-Link’s website or on Amazon at $200 for a two-pack — a reasonable price for a wireless night-vision camera. 

 

There’s no doubt that air fryers have been having a moment, but they haven’t pushed the humble multicooker completely out of the limelight yet. If you somehow haven’t jumped on the Instant Pot bandwagon yet, you can give it a try for much less right now. Amazon has discounted the six-quart Instant Pot Duo by 50 percent, bringing it down to $50. We’ve seen this model dip slightly cheaper in the past ($48), but this is the best price we’ve seen in many months.

The benefit of a multicooker like this one is that it can do many things, acting as a jack-of-all-trades in your kitchen. The Duo in particular has seven cooking modes: pressure cook, slow cook, rice cooker, steamer, sauté, yogurt maker and warmer. It also has 13 customizable “smart programs” that take a lot of the guesswork out of preparing common foods like soup, beans, rice, poultry and more.

Both kitchen newbies and seasoned home cooks can make use of an Instant Pot like this. For those just getting into cooking, it’ll help you prepare new foods that you may have never tried before, sometimes even more quickly than you could do just with a pot on stove. For those who cook all the time, it’ll make it easier to prepare a lot of food during the holidays by giving you another countertop machine to employ when your other appliances are in use. Plus, it’s a great tool for meal prepping. 

It’s also worth noting that the model on sale has a six-quart capacity, which sits in the middle of the Duo’s lineup. It’s a great size for most families as it’s able to make food for up to six people at once. If you decide to take the plunge into the Instant Pot world, be sure to check out our guide for tips and tricks, recipe inspiration and more.

Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter.

 

Tuvalu’s foreign minister, Simon Kofe, told the COP27 climate summit yesterday that Tuvalu would look to the metaverse to preserve its culture and history. With global temperatures expected to rise as much as 2.8 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, the Pacific island nation is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels. At last year’s COP26 summit, Kofe addressed the conference while standing knee-deep in seawater to highlight the climate change threat. Climate scientists anticipate the entire country will be underwater by the end of the 21st century.

Addressing the climate summit, Kofe said: “As our land disappears, we have no choice but to become the world’s first digital nation. Our land, our ocean, our culture are the most precious assets of our people. And to keep them safe from harm, no matter what happens in the physical world, we’ll move them to the cloud.”

To achieve the 1.5C target put forward by the Paris Agreement, the world has eight years to reduce annual global emissions by a further 45 percent, compared with projections based on current policies.

– Mat Smith

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Lucid unveils its less expensive Air EV models

The Pure and Touring bring Air prices closer to Earth.

The Lucid Air is a fantastic first car from a new automaker, but it’s also a very expensive EV out of most people’s reach. At the LA Auto Show, Lucid revealed the Lucid Air Pure and Touring EVs. The Pure is the first and only Air to come in under $100,000, starting at a still pricey $87,400, with a range of around 410 miles. Yes, the Air is still a luxury vehicle. The Touring is slightly more expensive at $107,400 and can drive for an EPA estimated range of 425 miles. While the Pure wasn’t quite ready for testing, we did get behind the wheel of the Touring for a quick jaunt around Lucid’s headquarters.

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MIT solved a century-old differential equation that will help AI

It could help with weather forecasting and autonomous vehicle driving.

Last year, MIT developed an AI algorithm capable of learning and adapting to new information on the job, not just during its training. These “liquid” neural networks are ideal for time-sensitive tasks, like pacemaker monitoring, weather forecasting, investment forecasting or autonomous vehicle navigation. But all that data can create computational bottlenecks, which makes scaling these systems prohibitively expensive. On Tuesday, MIT researchers announced they have a solution, using a differential equation that has stumped mathematicians since 1907. By decoding this equation at the neuron level, the team is hopeful it’ll be able to construct models of the human brain that measure in the millions of neural connections, something not possible today.

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NVIDIA RTX 4080 GPU review

A (slightly) more practical 4K gaming titan.

NVIDIA’s RTX 4080 is a solid upgrade over the 3080 Ti, with faster overall performance and far better ray tracing, thanks to DLSS 3. It’s notably cheaper and less power hungry than the 4090. But it’s still $1,199. If paying more than $1,000 for a video card seems insane to you — and let’s be clear, it should — sit tight to see what NVIDIA’s future cards look like.

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Apple reportedly plans to use US-made chips starting in 2024

It also intends to source chips from Europe in the future.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple hopes to be using US-made chips in a few years’ time. Company CEO Tim Cook reportedly made the revelation during a meeting with local engineering and retail employees in Germany, telling them Apple “already made a decision to be buying out of a plant in Arizona.” As Gurman notes, it would lessen Apple’s reliance on factories in Asia, particularly Taiwan, where 60 percent of the world’s processors are produced. Cook also apparently told staff: “I’m sure that we will also source from Europe as those plans become more apparent.”

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Apple lets you practice sending emergency SOS texts via satellite

It’s also bringing the service to France, Germany, Ireland and the UK.

One of the most noteworthy updates Apple brought to the iPhone 14 series this year is Emergency SOS via satellite. It lets you send text messages to emergency services over satellite if you need help and are outside cellular coverage. If you’re unfamiliar with the feature – most of us probably are – Apple is rolling out a demo mode of Emergency SOS via Satellite, so members of the public can see how it works.

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Boston Dynamics sues rival Ghost Robotics for allegedly copying its robot dog

Ghost’s designs are supposedly too much like Spot.

Boston Dynamics is suing Ghost Robotics for allegedly infringing seven patents linked to its Spot quadruped. The Spirit 40 and Vision 60 purportedly borrow key technologies from Spot, including systems for self-righting and climbing stairs. Boston Dynamics says it asked Ghost Robotics to review Spot-related patents in July 2020, five months after the launch of the Spirit 40. After that, Boston claims to have sent two cease-and-desist letters, asking Ghost to stop marketing its robot canines. In a statement, Boston Dynamics claimed it “welcome[s] competition” but would crack down on anyone violating its intellectual property rights. The Hyundai-owned company is seeking unspecified damages as part of the suit. Ghost Robotics hasn’t yet responded to our requests for comment.

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Genesis has unveiled the X Convertible concept, showing off its design chops with an EV that builds on the previous Genesis X and X Speedium Coupe vehicles. It shares the architecture and electric powertrain with those cars, but uses a folding hardtop roof and is meant to evoke “design purity” and uses what Genesis calls an “anti-wedge parabolic” design. 

Gone are the extra bulgy fenders and aggressive front end, replaced by a more subtle design and cleaner, longer lines. That length is further accentuated by the short front overhang that gives it a protruding nose. The triangular headlights from the X Speedium are carried over, as are the double taillights. The hardtop roof has an integrated moonroof, offering drivers a view of the stars even when it’s closed up.

The interior is very similar to the previous two concepts, with the dashboard screen curving across and down toward the right armrest. It uses recyclable wool fabrics and leather seats, with the interior Giwa Navy and Dancheong Orange colors “inspired in part by traditional Korean roof architecture,” according to Genesis. 

We still don’t know anything about the battery or drivetrain. It would make sense, though, to use the E-GMP platform found in Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 and the Kia EV6. Genesis could then dial up the power and battery size so that range and performance would meet the expectations of luxury car buyers. 

Genesis says the X Convertible is a “beacon for the brand” that will presumably inspire future designs. It’ll likely never be built in this form, but the company wants to show buyers what’s possible. “We have to utilize this opportunity to inject more adrenaline in the brand,” it told TechCrunch. “If somebody believes that electric vehicles cannot be sexy, Genesis will demonstrate the exact opposite.”

 

Twitter might lose even more employees following the mass layoffs that halved its workforce and shortly after the company fired engineers who publicly called out its new owner. According to The Washington Post, Elon Musk gave remaining staff members an ultimatum and asked them to commit to an “extremely hardcore” Twitter going forward. “If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below,” he reportedly wrote in an email that links to an online form. 

So what does an “extremely hardcore” Twitter mean? The report didn’t quite delve into the specifics of Musk’s expectations, but the executive apparently said that it means “working long hours at high intensity.” He added: “Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.” It’s not quite clear if the move is legal for workers in countries that have rigorous labor laws. Regardless, the email said that those who don’t sign the form by 5PM Eastern on Thursday, November 17th, would be let go and would receive three months of severance pay. 

In addition to reporting about the Musk’s email, The Post said that Twitter will be doing a postmortem on the launch of its $8 Blue subscription over the next couple of weeks, in an effort to understand why and how it had led to an influx of impersonators. If you’ll recall, things got so bad that Twitter had to suspend its subscription service, which offered instant verification and, hence, gave fake accounts a semblance of legitimacy. Musk had just announced yesterday that the company is pushing back the return of Blue verification to November 29th to make sure that it’s “rock solid.”

The Post also saw internal information and data externally compiled by a software developer that showed Twitter Blue only had around 150,000 users by the time the website paused subscriptions. That’s a tiny fraction of the 238 million daily active users Twitter said it had in the second quarter of 2022 and would only bring in $14.4 million in annual revenue. 

Further, the new Blue subscription could potentially impact the website’s ad revenue. Twitter earned 79 percent of its ad revenue in the US from merely 10 percent of its most valuable users, with the top 1 percent earning the website $40 a month. They’re also the ones most likely to pay for a subscription, however, which means they’re bound to see fewer ads as one of the perks they’re paying for. 

 

NASA’s Artemis 1 mission has finally launched after several delays caused by engine problems, fuel leaks and Mother Nature giving the agency no choice but to reschedule due to tropical storms. This is the first time NASA’s Space Launch System, its most powerful rocket yet, and Orion crew vehicle are flying together — it also officially marks the beginning of the agency’s Artemis program, which aims to take humanity back to the Moon. 

There was a tense moment before this latest (and successful) launch attempt when NASA was unsure if the rocket would lift off. The launch team discovered a leak on the launch tower’s liquid hydrogen replenish valve, and it took some time to tighten the bolts around it. In addition, the US Space Force had to fix the radar that was going to track the rocket’s launch, because it suddenly went offline. In the end, the ground crew managed to fix the hydrogen leak, and Space Force found that the radar issue was caused by a bad Ethernet switch.

NASA had to push back Artemis 1’s launch by around an hour, but that was the last time the mission got delayed. By 1:50AM Eastern, SLS was leaving its launchpad. The Orion capsule successfully deployed its solar arrays a few minutes later, and the core stage’s engines powered down so it could break away and fall into the Atlantic Ocean. The rocket’s second stage will then fire its engine to send Orion on a trajectory to the Moon. It will also ultimately break away, leaving the crew vehicle to go on a four-week journey around the Moon before coming back to Earth. Somewhere along the way, the capsule will deploy 10 CubeSats designed to perform their own science investigations meant to help future deep space missions.

Artemis 1 will give NASA the data it needs to ensure that astronauts can safely fly to the Moon aboard the Orion capsule. It will also give the agency the opportunity to see whether the vehicle’s heat shield can adequately protect the astronauts onboard when it re-enters our atmosphere and splashes down into the Pacific Ocean. If everything checks out, NASA will be able to start planning for Artemis 2, which will be Orion’s first crewed mission and will send astronauts on a lunar flyby.

 

Apple is gearing up to source chips from a factory in the US within the next couple of years, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Company CEO Tim Cook reportedly made the revelation during a meeting with local engineering and retail employees in Germany, telling them that Apple “already made a decision to be buying out of a plant in Arizona.” As Gurman notes, it would lessen Apple’s reliance on factories in Asia, particularly Taiwan, where 60 percent of the world’s processor is produced. “Regardless of what you may feel and think, 60 percent coming out of anywhere is probably not a strategic position,” Cook added.

The CEO is most likely talking about Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s Arizona plant, which is currently under construction. TSMC is Apple’s exclusive chip-making partner, though it also counts NVIDIA, MediaTek, AMD and ARM as some of its customers. The Arizona plant is expected to start running in 2024, with an output of 20,000 chips a month and the ability to produce 5-nanometer processors. 

According to previous reports, Apple plans to adopt TSMC’s new 3-nanometer chipmaking process, which is its latest and most advanced yet, for future devices. The Financial Times says the A17 mobile processor Apple is currently developing for its 2023 iPhone lineup will be mass produced using the new technology. It’s unclear if Apple only intends to use the Arizona plant for older and less sophisticated chips or if TSMC has plans to update the factory. TSMC is already thinking of building a second plant next to its $12 billion facility in Arizona, but it told Bloomberg that it hasn’t made a final decision yet. 

As the publication previously reported, TSMC has been expanding to other countries over the past year in an effort to meet the needs of customers in countries encouraging domestic semiconductor production. President Joe Biden, for instance, recently signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law. Under the new law, the US government is offering $52 billion in funding and incentives for firms building chips in the country.

In addition to revealing that Apple will start sourcing US-made processors, Cook also reportedly told staff members: “I’m sure that we will also source from Europe as those plans become more apparent.” While that’s all he shared at the meeting, Bloomberg previously reported that TSMC is in talks with the German government to open facilities in the country. Europe, like the US, also looking to entice semiconductor manufacturers to open plants in the region and introduced the EU Chips Act in April to “bolster [its] competitiveness and resilience in semiconductor technologies and applications.”

 

NASA is once again preparing to launch Artemis 1 after technical issues and hurricanes upended previous attempts. The next launch window for the uncrewed test flight around the Moon will be open for two hours, starting at 1:04AM ET on November 16th. In case NASA has to scrub it once again, the agency has scheduled another backup launch window, which opens at 1:45AM on November 19th.

The agency had penciled in a launch attempt for November 14th, but Hurricane Nicole forced a slight delay to those plans. NASA kept the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft on the launch pad as the hurricane battered the Kennedy Space Center. They sustained minor damage, but not enough to force a lengthier delay.

NASA first tried to send Artemis 1 into space on August 29th, but engine issues and a hydrogen fuel leak forced the agency to scrub the initial launch attempts. The next stab at a launch in late September didn’t work out either. NASA took the SLS and Orion back to the Vehicle Assembly Building to protect them from Hurricane Ian. Here’s hoping NASA can finally send them on their way this time.

You can watch a livestream of the latest launch attempt below. Alternatively, you can watch the launch in virtual reality. If you happen to be in Florida or the south east region of Georgia, you may be able to see the SLS and Orion soar into the skies by going outside, if conditions are favorable enough.

 

AI-generated art is a new frontier rife with potential. But for every thorny question about copyright and the potential for widespread manipulation, generated art can also inspire wonder and awe. For example, look no further than this AI-powered experiment that creates kaleidoscopic visual landscapes for composed music.

A collaboration between quirky synth and hardware brand Teenage Engineering and design studios Modem and Bureau Cool, the project draws inspiration from the neurological condition synesthesia. This rare phenomenon leads the brain to perceive sensory input for several senses instead of one. For example, a listener with synesthesia may see music instead of only hearing it, observing color, movement and shape in response to musical patterns. Conversely, a synesthetic person may taste shapes, feel words from a novel or hear an abstract painting.

The audiovisual experiment uses the Teenage Engineering OP-Z sequencer as the music source that is then translated into AI art. In real-time, Modem and Bureau Cool’s “digital extension” translates musical properties into text prompts describing colors, shapes and movements. Those prompts then feed into Stable Diffusion (an open-source tool similar to DALL-E 2 and Midjourney) to produce dreamy and synesthetic animations.

Modem co-founder Bas van de Poel sees the experiment as fuel for artists’ imaginations. “With the project, we see the potential for musicians to explore new forms of creativity, facilitating a joint performance between human and machine,” van de Poel told Engadget today.

If you’re a musician who owns Teenage Engineering’s OP-Z, you can’t yet use the extension yourself — but that may eventually change. Van de Poel tells Engadget that the companies are “exploring the potential of launching a public version.”

This AI-based project isn’t the first to bring synesthetic properties to the masses. Last year, Google Arts & Culture created an exhibition that flipped the concept around, bringing machine-learning-produced sound to Vassily Kandinsky’s paintings.

 

Elon Musk has set a new date for Twitter Blue’s paid verification to return: November 29th. The new date comes just a few days after the company paused the roll out and halted new sign-ups after the site was overrun by pranksters and scammers impersonating brands, celebrities and other high-profile accounts.

Musk said the return date was set to give the company enough time “to make sure that it is rock solid.” Musk didn’t say what changes may come with Blue’s relaunch, but the company has already brought back “official” labels in an effort to reassure advertisers. Musk added that verified Twitter users will be unable to change their display names without losing their checkmark “until name is confirmed by Twitter to meet Terms of Service.”

Twitter, which was losing advertisers even before paid verification launched, has seen even more brands pull back from the platform since the botched rollout of Twitter Blue. In addition to the “official” labels, Musk has proposed other was companies may be better able to identify official accounts, including a suggestion that organizations will be able to “identify which other Twitter accounts are actually associated with them.” It’s unclear how that idea might fit into Twitter’s revamped verification plans.

We’ve reached out to Twitter for more information, but the company no longer has a communications team.