Category: Technology

Now might be a good moment to splurge on music-making tools. Arturia is running a Black Friday sale that offers 50 percent off its “flagship” virtual instruments, effects and software. The 33-instrument V Collection 9 set has dropped from $599 to $299 for newcomers, while FX Collection 3’s 26 effects plugins are $199 instead of the usual $399. And if you’re looking for an accessible synthesizer, Pigments is down from $199 to $99. The promo runs until December 6th, and you’ll get personalized offers if you already use the company’s products.

We’ve considered these tools to be valuable even at their regular prices. V Collection 9 offers a range of pianos, classic synths and other instruments that offer substantial flexibility, including new items like a Korg MS-20 emulator and the cinematic Augmented Strings. FX Collection 3 brings vintage distortions and lo-fi effects. Pigments, meanwhile, encourages you to create synth sounds from scratch with the help of extras like a distortion module.

You can use the V Collection and Pigments tools by themselves, but all of the software on sale can work with other digital audio workstations through support for formats like AAX, Audio Unit, NKS and VST. With these discounts, Arturia’s audio packages could make more sense if you’re either new to music production or determined to expand your toolset for the lowest price possible.

 

There are more Apple Watches than ever before. Between the Series 8, Watch Ultra and second-gen SE, shopping for a smartwatch is a lot trickier than in years past. Are the Watch Ultra’s outdoors-friendly features worth the $800 and bulkier size? What differentiates the Series 8 from the new SE? Check out the video below detailing how they compare against each other to help you make your decision if you’re in the market for a new Apple Watch.

 

With global temperatures expected to rise as much as 2.8 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, the island nation of Tuvalu says it has no choice but to build a digital version of itself. On Tuesday, Simon Kofe, the country’s foreign minister, told the COP27 climate summit Tuvalu would look to the metaverse to preserve its culture and history amid rising sea levels (via Reuters).

“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,” Kofe said in a video that sees the camera slowly zooming out to reveal that he’s in front of a greenscreen recreation of his home.

At last year’s COP26 summit, Kofe famously addressed the conference standing knee-deep in seawater to highlight the existential threat climate change poses to island nations like Tuvalu. In his latest address, the metaverse is framed as a potential home for all countries if there’s not a global effort to address the problem.

“Only concerted global effort can ensure that Tuvalu does not move permanently online and disappear forever from the physical plane,” he said. “Without a global conscience and a global commitment to our shared well-being, we may soon find the rest of the world joining us online as their lands disappear.

Tuvalu is an archipelago consisting of nine islands located between Australia and Hawaii. It’s home to approximately 12,000 people. Climate scientists anticipate the entire country will be underwater by the end of the 21st century.

To achieve the 1.5C target put forward by the Paris Agreement and avoid significantly worse climate outcomes, the world has eight years to reduce annual global emissions by a further 45 percent, compared with projections based on current policies. To limit the rise in temperatures to under 2C, an extra 30 percent reduction in emissions is needed.

 

Last year, MIT developed an AI/ML algorithm capable of learning and adapting to new information while on the job, not just during its initial training phase. These “liquid” neural networks (in the Bruce Lee sense) literally play 4D chess — their models requiring time-series data to operate — which makes them ideal for use in time-sensitive tasks like pacemaker monitoring, weather forecasting, investment forecasting, or autonomous vehicle navigation. But, the problem is that data throughput has become a bottleneck, and scaling these systems has become prohibitively expensive, computationally speaking.

On Tuesday, MIT researchers announced that they have devised a solution to that restriction, not by widening the data pipeline but by solving a differential equation that has stumped mathematicians since 1907. Specifically, the team solved, “the differential equation behind the interaction of two neurons through synapses… to unlock a new type of fast and efficient artificial intelligence algorithms.”

“The new machine learning models we call ‘CfC’s’ [closed-form Continuous-time] replace the differential equation defining the computation of the neuron with a closed form approximation, preserving the beautiful properties of liquid networks without the need for numerical integration,” MIT professor and CSAIL Director Daniela Rus said in a Tuesday press statement. “CfC models are causal, compact, explainable, and efficient to train and predict. They open the way to trustworthy machine learning for safety-critical applications.”

So, for those of us without a doctorate in Really Hard Math, differential equations are formulas that can describe the state of a system at various discrete points or steps throughout the process. For example, if you have a robot arm moving from point A to B, you can use a differential equation to know where it is in between the two points in space at any given step within the process. However, solving these equations for every step quickly gets computationally expensive as well. MIT’s “closed form” solution end-arounds that issue by functionally modeling the entire description of a system in a single computational step. AS the MIT team explains:

Imagine if you have an end-to-end neural network that receives driving input from a camera mounted on a car. The network is trained to generate outputs, like the car’s steering angle. In 2020, the team solved this by using liquid neural networks with 19 nodes, so 19 neurons plus a small perception module could drive a car. A differential equation describes each node of that system. With the closed-form solution, if you replace it inside this network, it would give you the exact behavior, as it’s a good approximation of the actual dynamics of the system. They can thus solve the problem with an even lower number of neurons, which means it would be faster and less computationally expensive.

By solving this equation at the neuron-level, the team is hopeful that they’ll be able to construct models of the human brain that measure in the millions of neural connections, something not possible today. The team also notes that this CfC model might be able to take the visual training it learned in one environment and apply it to a wholly new situation without additional work, what’s known as out-of-distribution generalization. That’s not something current-gen models can really do and would prove to be a significant step towards the generalized AI systems of tomorrow.

 

If you’re itching for a new pair of AirPods but have strict holiday-shopping budget to stick to, you’re in luck. You can pick up the second-generation AirPods for only $90 right now at Amazon, which is 43 percent off their normal price. While we did see them $10 cheaper during Amazon’s October Prime Day, this remains a great sale price that doesn’t come around very often.

These buds are a bit old at this point, but any AirPods are hard to beat if you live within the Apple ecosystem. The second-gen buds pair almost instantly with your iPhone during setup, and then they’ll switch seamlessly between other Apple devices as you use them. That means you can go from taking a call on your iPhone to listening to music from your MacBook without any hiccups. Apple’s H1 chip inside the AirPods also enables hands-free Siri access, allowing you to call upon the virtual assistant to answer questions, send messages and do other tasks without touching your AirPods at all.

Unlike the AirPods Pro, the standard AirPods have a fit that’s akin to Apple’s old-school EarPods, so if you always liked those that used to come with new iPhones, you’ll probably like the fit of these buds, too. Sound quality is decent and wireless connectivity has been improved since the original versions of the buds. As far as battery life goes, you’ll get five hours of listening time on a single charge, and a total of 24 hours of use when you employ the charging case that comes with the buds. Just keep in mind that these AirPods do not come with a wireless charging case, so you’ll have to power them up with a Lightning cable.

The most compelling reason to pick up the second-gen AirPods is their sale price. They’re the cheapest Apple earbuds you can get right now — but if you’re willing to spend a bit more, you’ll get a lot more in return. Apple’s third-gen AirPods are currently on sale for $160, and they provide much better audio quality, Adaptive EQ, spatial audio, six hours of battery life on a single charge and up to 30 hours of use overall. And if you want active noise cancellation, a more custom fit and a wireless charging case, you’ll have to spring for the AirPods Pro, which are currently on sale for $230.

Buy AirPods (3rd gen) at Amazon – $160Buy AirPods Pro at Amazon – $230

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

 

Sure, we all want NVIDIA’s RTX 4090, but it’s tough to stomach its $1,599 starting price (if you can even find it at that price) or its massive power demands. That leaves impatient PC gamers with only one other new NVIDIA option this year: the $1,199 RTX 4080 with 16GB of VRAM. While $400 isn’t exactly a huge discount in the world of high-end PC gaming (certainly not as significant as the $899 12GB RTX 4080 that NVIDIA “unlaunched.”), it may tempt some gamers.

After all, it’s faster than the RTX 3080 Ti that launched at the same price earlier this year, and it works with NVIDIA’s powerful new DLSS 3 upscaling technology (which is limited to 4000-series GPUs). If you can live without the bragging rights of having a 4090, the RTX 4080 is a powerful GPU that’ll satisfy anyone who wants to game in 4K with ray tracing. For those stuck with lower resolution monitors, though, you’re probably better off waiting for the eventual 4070 and 4060 cards, as well as AMD’s upcoming RDNA 3 GPUs.

Surprisingly enough, the RTX 4080 Founders Edition we reviewed shares the exact same design as the 4090. They both take up three PCI-e slots, sport massive vapor chambers, and they retain the unique pass-through fan design from NVIDIA’s previous GPUs. I was expecting something a bit smaller, to be honest. At least the 4080 only needs three 8-pin PSU cables to function, whereas the 4090 demands four. (Both cards can also be powered by a single PCIe 5.0 PSU cable, but those power supplies are pretty rare at the moment.)

The 4080’s power cables also hint at one of its major advantages: It has a 320-watt thermal design profile (TDP) and requires a 750W PSU, whereas the 4090 has a far more demanding 450W TDP. Unless you already have an 850W power supply, upgrading to the 4090 may involve getting a new unit and rewiring power throughout your entire system. These cards won’t always use their maximum power loads, but you’ll still need to be ready for the rare moments when they need more juice.

While it may look just like the 4090, the RTX 4080 is a dramatically different beast under the hood. It’s powered by 9,728 CUDA cores, 16GB of GDDR6X VRAM and offers a base clock speed of 2.21GHz (with boost speeds to 2.51GHz). The 4090, on the other hand, has 16,384 CUDA cores, slightly higher clock speeds and a whopping 24GB of VRAM. Compared to the 3080 Ti, the 4080 wins out with NVIDIA’s new Ada Lovelace architecture, significantly faster speeds and 4GB more VRAM. (The 3080 Ti technically has around 500 more CUDA cores, but they’re also inherently slower and less efficient than NVIDIA’s new platform.)

So what do these numbers mean in practice? The RTX 4080 scored around 3,500 fewer points in 3DMark’s TimeSpy Extreme benchmark compared to the 4090. But if that more powerful card didn’t exist, the 4080 would be the most capable GPU we’ve ever reviewed. Its TimeSpy Extreme score was about 50 percent higher than the 3080 Ti, and it reached a comfortable 130fps while playing Halo Infinite in 4K with all of its graphics settings maxed out. Seeing Cyberpunk 2077 hit 74fps in 4K with ultra ray tracing settings (and the help of DLSS 3) nearly brought a tear to my eye.

None

3DMark TimeSpy Extreme

Port Royal (Ray Tracing)

Control

Blender

NVIDIA RTX 4080

12,879

17,780/82fps

4K (Native) High RT: 42 fps

9,310

NVIDIA RTX 4090

16,464

25,405/117.62 fps

4K (Native) High RT: 107 fps

12,335

NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti

8,683

12,948/59.95fps

4K (Native) Med RT: 43 fps

5,940

AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT

7,713

9,104/42.15fps

4K (Native) No RT: 28-40 fps

N/A

A word on DLSS 3: It’s NVIDIA’s latest AI solution that can take lower-quality imagery and upscale it to higher resolutions. But in addition to intelligently sharpening edges and upgrading textures, DLSS 3 can also inject interpolated frames to smooth out 4K gameplay. While I can occasionally spot issues with particularly low quality DLSS upscaling, I didn’t notice any unusual framerate hiccups while testing Cyberpunk and A Plague Tale: Requiem with the technology enabled.

The only real downside to the RTX 4080 is that I can’t help but compare it to the 4090. That same Cyberpunk ray tracing benchmark was almost twice as fast on the 4090, reaching an eye-watering 135 fps. It also hit a 40-fps-higher average framerate in the 3DMark Port Royal ray tracing benchmark. Still, these are the sorts of gains only the most dedicated gamers will notice, the exact market for the 4090. When it comes to actual 4K gameplay, even with ray tracing in demanding games like Control, I never felt held back by the RTX 4080.

And if you’re looking for more performance, overclocking is always an option. I didn’t have a chance to do so myself, but the 4080’s thermal performance makes me think there’s plenty of room for pushing things harder. It never climbed beyond 61 celsius during my testing, around 10 degrees cooler than the 4090. That’s a testament to NVIDIA’s excellent cooling setup (and perhaps partially due to my office being slightly cooler this month).

The real question: Is it worth settling for the 4080 if there’s a chance you’ll actually be able to buy the 4090 for $1,599? At the moment, most online retailers are selling 4090 cards for well above $2,000. It sounds crazy to say it, but the $1,199 card seems like a steal with that gulf. But, of course, who knows how long you’ll be able to find the RTX 4080 at its launch price. It likely won’t be too long before it creeps towards the 4090’s higher tag.

And 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. We’re definitely expecting RTX 4070, 4060 and 4050 cards eventually, but the the question is when. (Also, what the heck will NVIDIA do with its planned $899 4080 GPU? Does that become the 4070?) AMD’s flagship RDNA 3 GPUs will launch below $1,000, and at the entry level, Intel’s new Arc GPUs are surprisingly compelling.

All in all, the RTX 4080 is exactly what I’d want from an RTX 3080 Ti successor. It’s faster and has plenty of new features to make it a demonstrable leap from the previous cards. I’m not saying you should be upgrading your 3080 anytime soon, but if you somehow stumble onto $1,199, I wouldn’t blame you for being tempted by the 4080.

 

The Lucid Air is a fantastic first car from a new automaker. It’s also a very expensive EV out of the reach of most people. The company has promised less expensive versions of the Air and today those vehicles are finally being unveiled.

During the Los Angeles auto show, Lucid took the wraps off the Lucid Air Pure and Touring. The two vehicles might not hit 60 in under two seconds, but these are likely the trim levels that will dominate the automaker’s sales.

The Pure is the first and only Air to come in under $100,000 starting at a still pricey $87,400. It’s best to remember that the Air is still a luxury vehicle. While it won’t hit 500 miles between charges, it has an EPA target of 410 miles and can charge at 250kW on a compatible DC fast charger.

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 were able to get behind the wheel of the Touring for a quick jaunt around the Lucid headquarters. Watch the video below for the full story.

 

Everyone wants their home tidy, organized and safe, but it’s not always easy to keep it that way. Fortunately, there are gadgets that can help make all of it a little easier. We often review smart speakers, robotic vacuums and more here at Engadget, and for the holiday season we’ve compiled a list of favorites that will make excellent gifts for you or your loved ones. Plus, they don’t need to be super tech savvy to use these either – most of our suggestions are simple enough for those new to the smart home world.

Instant Vortex Plus

Air fryers might seem like just glorified convection ovens, but in our tests, we found that they do produce astoundingly crisp foods, with results that are either better or comparable to convection toaster ovens. The Instant Vortex Plus is easily our favorite, thanks to its clear viewing window so your giftee can see the food while it’s cooking, plus there’s an odor-removing filter that helps reduce cooking smells. It’s roomy enough to fit four large chicken thighs and it heats up much faster than a conventional oven. Best of all, clean-up is near effortless – the rack is dishwasher-safe and the non-stick drawer basket can be washed with soap and water.

Buy Instant Vortex Plus at Amazon – $133

Arlo Essential Video Doorbell

If your loved one frequently complains about stolen packages or simply wants a way to see who’s at the front door without opening it, consider gifting them a video doorbell. Our favorite is the Arlo Essential Video Doorbell, which is compatible with Google Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa and Apple Homekit. They’ll be able to get a 180-degree view of their visitor from head to toe, plus it alerts your phone with a video call whenever someone rings the bell. It comes with a three-month trial to Arlo’s Smart subscription service right out of the box, which also includes motion detection that differentiates between a person, package, vehicle or animal.

Buy Arlo Essential Video Doorbell at Amazon – $150

Google Nest Hub (2nd gen)

Google’s Nest Hub smart display is a great device to have around the home — especially if your gift recipient already uses the Google Assistant. It works as a digital photo frame and they can use it to watch YouTube and Netflix. It can also make calls via Google Duo and offers recipe videos along with step-by-step cooking instructions. If the user so chooses, they can track their sleeping patterns if they place the device next to their bed. Additionally, if they already have a Nest Doorbell camera, they can easily use the display to see who’s at the front door.

Buy Nest Hub at B&H – $100

Amazon Echo Show 8

For those who prefer Alexa over the Google Assistant, the Echo Show 8 is a great alternative to the Nest Hub. It also works as a digital photo frame and its 8-inch display is a good size for streaming shows from Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hulu while prepping dinner. It can also be used to keep up with the news, check the weather and control smart home devices. Since Amazon has a partnership with Allrecipes and Food Network Kitchen, users can find assorted recipes and instructional videos as well.

Buy Echo Show 8 at Amazon – $130

Blink Indoor camera

Blink’s indoor camera offers the gift of peace of mind in a compact and affordable package. Your loved one will appreciate the fact that Blink is wireless and battery-powered; since they don’t have to place it near an electrical outlet, it can sit almost anywhere. They also won’t have to worry about recharging the camera since it can last up to two years on its two included AA batteries. Aside from just letting them monitor their home, it also features customizable motion alerts so they’ll only get alerted when they want to. There’s also two-way audio so they can hear and speak to the person (or pet) on the other end.

Buy Blink Indoor at Amazon – $80

iRobot Roomba 694

Maybe you have someone in your life who could use a little help cleaning up after themselves. For that, we recommend getting them one of our favorite robot vacuum cleaners, the iRobot Roomba 694. It can suck up dirt and debris from both hardwood and carpeted floors, with an edge-sweeping brush taking care of dusty corners. The companion app lets them control it remotely, or they can set up a cleaning schedule so the little robot can do its thing at a set time. It even automatically docks and recharges itself if it’s low on battery.

Buy Roomba 694 at Amazon – $274

August WiFi smart lock

Smart locks are a great way to add security and convenience to any home. We recommend August’s WiFi smart lock because it’s easy to use, and since it fits over an existing deadbolt, it’s great for homeowners and renters alike. It lets your loved ones unlock the door completely hands-free, which is handy if they have their arms full of groceries. They can set it so that it automatically locks once the door is closed, or after a set period of time. If someone’s at the door but they’re at the office or in the backyard, they can easily let them in with a single finger tap. They can also grant access for specific friends or family members, which means they might never need to put the key under the doormat ever again.

Buy August WiFi smart lock at Amazon – $230

Mila air purifier

Air purifiers are great gifts for anyone who has allergies, lives in a polluted area or just wants to breathe easier at home. And if you want to give someone a smarter air purifier, consider the Mila Air. It ships with one of seven pre-configured HEPA filters that can filter out particles and allergens like pollen and dust. It also has a ton of customization options: There’s a “Housekeeping Service” mode that goes full blast when no one’s in the room, a “Sleep Mode” that turns the lights off and reduces the fan speeds at night, plus a “White Noise” option that mimics soothing sounds like waterfalls. The Mila also has a bevy of sensors that can tell you if there’s carbon monoxide in the air, or if the humidity is too high.

Buy air purifier at Mila – $349

TP-Link Kasa smart plug

With a smart plug, any appliance can be part of a connected home for not a lot of money. TP-Link’s Kasa smart plug is a particularly good one because it is both affordable and incredibly compact (and if you’re really short on space, there’s a mini version that’s even smaller). Together with its companion app, they can schedule a timer to turn on and off anything from Christmas lights to a coffee maker. It’s also compatible with both Alexa and Google Assistant, which lets them add voice control to any outlet.

Buy Kasa smart plugs at Amazon – $30

Eero 6 WiFi Mesh router

With most of us having so many gadgets and smart home devices, perhaps the best thing you can give your loved one is the gift of better WiFi to keep things running smoothly. Amazon’s Eero routers will deliver just that. The latest models support WiFi 6, the latest and fastest WiFi standard, and will support 75-plus devices simultaneously. It also covers up to 1,500 square feet with WiFi speeds up to 900 Mbps, so it’s unlikely they’ll ever have to deal with dead spots or buffering again. The Eero 6 also comes with a built-in Zigbee smart home hub that lets them connect compatible devices without having to purchase a separate device.

Buy Eero 6 at Amazon – $89

Philips LED Smart Bulb starter kit

Add some color to your loved one’s life with the Philips LED smart bulb starter kit, which comes with four multi-color bulbs plus a Hue Hub that connects them all together. The bulbs can fill the room with millions of different colors so they can choose from warm moody lighting for a cozy atmosphere or rainbows for parties. In the companion app, they can create timers and routines so that their lights gradually turn on in the morning or off in the evening. And it’s scalable: They can eventually have up to 50 lights connected to one Hue Hub, giving them the freedom to outfit their whole home with smart lights if they wish.

Buy Philips Hue starter kit at Amazon – $200

 

After announcing it would share ad revenue with Shorts creators earlier this year, YouTube is experimenting with new revenue streams for the service. The platform plans to introduce TikTok-like shopping features to Shorts, allowing users to shop directly for products promoted by influencers through links in videos, The Financial Times has reported. 

YouTube plans to roll out two separate schemes starting in 2023. The first is an affiliate marketing system that would pay a commission to select US-based creators who promote products. Meanwhile, users in the US, India, Brazil, Canada and Australia would be able to shop through Shorts via links. All of that in on top of the aforementioned system that will see creators take a 45 percent share of ad revenue starting early next year

“It is very much an endorsement model, versus a more traditional advertising model or a paid-placement model,” YouTube Shopping’s GM Michael Martin told the FT. “Our goal is to focus on the best monetization opportunities for creators in the market.”

YouTube’s Shorts channel, which recently got its own tab, now has 1.5 billion monthly users, surpassing the 1 billion users now on TikTok. Despite that success, though, Alphabet revealed in its last earnings report that YouTube ad sales revenue was down and missed expectations.

As such, YouTube is experimenting with new sources of revenue already being exploited by TikTok and Meta. However, the endorsement approach hasn’t worked as well in the US as other countries, so YouTube plans to focus its direct shopping schemes in markets where it has worked, like South Korea. 

 

Descript aims to simplify video editing by making it a matter of tweaking transcripts, but now you don’t even need to have ready-made audio. The company has redesigned Descript with a new interface that includes a writing tool. You can write a script in Overdub on the fly and either use text-to-speech to vocalize your narration or replace it with your own recording later. This could mainly be helpful if your content doesn’t have any spoken-word material, but it might also come in handy if you’re not comfortable speaking.

The app as a whole now centers on “Scenes,” or distinct visual segments (pictured above). You effectively treat moments in a video like you would slides in a presentation, with each getting its own overlays and titles. The concept is potentially easier to grasp than working with a conventional video editor’s timeline. Accordingly, there are now templates with ready-made layouts, title sequences and social clips.

Other additions revolve more around features you might expect from established media editing tools. The Descript recorder is now built into the editor, with separate tracks for your screen and the camera. Color control lets you modify elements like exposure and white balance, while AI-powered chroma keying allows to remove backgrounds like you would using a green screen. And if you need a pre-made soundtrack or B-roll footage, you now have access to stock media from providers like Giphy, Storyblocks and Unsplash.

The new Descript is available now for Macs and Windows PCs. How much you’ll pay depends on how you intend to use it. The tool is free for three hours of transcription and other core features, but you’ll need to pay $12 per month for watermark-free video exports and 10 hours of transcription. Heavy-duty users will want to spend $24 per month to get unlimited Overdub, 30 hours of transcription per month and pro versions of tools like Audiograms and filler word removal.

As before, Descript makes the most sense if you’re working with either dialogue-heavy videos or podcasts. You may still want to stick to a conventional timeline-based editor to produce the next great movie or TV show. However, the new version may be appealing if you need to produce a reasonably polished video in a hurry.