Category: Technology

Google’s new generative AI experiment lets you create music “inspired by” over 100 instruments worldwide. Instrument Playground starts by asking for a simple prompt containing a musical instrument’s name, optionally preceded by an adjective like “upbeat,” “strange” or “gloomy.” It will then spit out a 20-second audio clip as a starting point to compose (often extremely offbeat or abstract) music that may or may not include the sound of the specific instrument you entered.

Simon Doury, an Artist in Residence at Google Arts & Culture Lab, designed the experiment. It taps into Google’s MusicLM, a text-to-AI tool it made available to the public in May.

Instrument Playground invites you to “choose one of over 100 instruments from around the world you’d like to play,” suggesting some lesser-known to Americans like the veena from India, dizi from China or mbria from Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, prefixing your instrument prompt with an adjective lets you suggest styles like “moody,” “happy” or “romantic.”

The experiment works less literally than you might expect. For example, “angry tuba” doesn’t generate the aggressive brass solo you’d expect. Instead, it sounds more like a synthesized pipe organ with tuba aspirations. Similarly, “strange didgeridoo” came out like an ominous section of a Hans Zimmer score. The results seem like abstract compositions with layers of sound that (sort of) capture the feeling — more than the specific sound — of the prompt.

It also rejects some adjectives for inexplicable reasons. When I enter “quirky” or “psychedelic,” an error pop-up tells me it doesn’t allow prompts referencing specific artists.

Once the experiment generates a clip you like for a starting point, you can choose from “Ambient,” “Beat” and “Pitch” to control different aspects of the composition, turning it into something more uniquely yours. If you want to add more instruments (or whatever sounds it makes in response to instrument-based prompts), an advanced mode opens a sequencer to layer and loop up to four tracks for your oddball musical masterpiece. Finally, you can download a .wav file of your track once you’re happy with it.

Google included the following holiday-themed example to inspire you to get started. If that looks like something you want to play with, you can visit Instrument Playground and log in with your Google account to begin composing.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/googles-new-ai-experiment-composes-abstract-musical-clips-inspired-by-instruments-203732054.html?src=rss 

The acclaimed Analogue Pocket multi-system portable handheld console is a bona fide hit. It’s so popular, in fact, that it’s been sold out for weeks. Have no fear, would-be purchasers. Analogue just announced a major restock. The consoles will be available to buy on December 4 at 11AM ET. The company promises that these orders will arrive in time for the holidays.

This restock only applies to the original black and white designs, and not those nifty limited edition colors, most of which remain sold out. If you miss the window on December 4, the company is doing another restock on December 8 at 11AM ET, but those won’t ship until February.

Analogue also announced a new operating system for the console, set to arrive in the next few days. Analogue Pocket OS v.1.2 fixes a bunch of bugs, adds support for new controllers, updates the music-making app Nanoloop and allows for new openFGPA developer tools. That’s just the first update. Analogue Pocket OS v2.0 arrives before the end of the month and gives third-party developers access to the original display modes, like the iconic Game Boy aesthetic, among other features. These updates follow last year’s OS v1.1.

It’s not just the Pocket getting some love. The Analogue Duo is finally shipping on December 11, three years after the original announcement and over six months after pre-orders went live. The Duo is an all-in-one system that promises to play every TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine title, even Bonk’s Adventure, a game that gave me no end of stress in childhood for obvious name-related reasons. The Duo plays both cartridges and compact discs. It’ll even run games that originally required the Arcade RAM add-on included as part of the Japan-only SuperGrafx console. Again, Analogue promises deliveries by the holidays.

The company’s also selling a limited-edition white dock for the Pocket, which also goes on sale December 4. However, this freshly-hued dock is more expensive than the original black model, at $130 instead of $100.

It’s not all good news for fans of retro gaming. Analogue announced a delay for the Pocket Adapter Set until February. This set adds new consoles to the lineup, so the system will be able to play TurboGrafx-16 cartridges, Neo Geo Pocket Color cartridges and Atari Lynx carts.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-big-analogue-pocket-restock-is-coming-but-cart-adapters-are-delayed-again-191423716.html?src=rss 

Cyber Monday may have come and gone, but quite a few of the deals are still live. We’re also seeing new discounts and bundles pop up that weren’t previously listed. If you didn’t get everything you need during the frenzy of Black Friday sales, you can still save on Amazon Echos, Dyson vacs, Google Nests and Sony headphones. Amazon has the most deals remaining at the moment, but other retailers, including Sonos, Wellbots, Target and Walmart, still have some worthy sale prices too. There’s no telling how long these leftover savings will last, so you may not want to wait much longer to shop. Here are the best Cyber Monday tech deals you can still get today. 

Amazon Echo Dot

The Echo Dot is Amazon’s most popular smart speaker and for Cyber Monday, it’s down to $23. That matches the all-time low it hit for the last two Prime Days. The Dot is one of our favorite smart speakers because it has surprising volume and audio quality for its size. It’s also a dead simple way to get Aexa’s help around the house. It can set timers, tell you the weather and remind you about things on your to-do list. It’s also a great to control your other smart home devices like smart plugs.

Sony WH-1000XM5

The Sony WH-1000XM5 is down to $328 at Amazon and B&H. That’s a $72 drop from the MSRP and matches the low price it went for on Black Friday. This is the top pick in our guide to the best wireless headphones, and it earned a review score of 95 from us last May. We like the powerful noise cancelation and the comfortable fit. You can get up to 30 hours of listening on a charge and the app lets you customize the EQ levels. It also has useful features like Speak-to-Chat that automatically pauses your music when you start speaking and location-based settings that can, for example, enable ambient mode when you’re in the office. 

Echo Pop with a smart bulb

Amazon is bundling its smallest speaker, the Echo Pop, with a Sengled smart bulp. The set is down to $18, which is a 70 percent discount and matches the all-time low the bundle sold for on Black Friday. The colorful half-sphere is is a great candidate for a voice-operated smart home controller, and you can use it to operate the bulb just by speaking. Alexa can also tell you the weather and news, set reminders and even play some music, though the sound quality won’t be as high as it would with a larger speaker. The bulb is an honorable mention in our guide to smart bulbs thanks to its easy, if slightly unpolished app, and the fact that it outputs millions of colors on any schedule you’d like.

Apple Watch Series 9

The new Apple Watch Series 9, which Apple lists at $399, is seeing a $70 discount that brings it to $329 after you clip the on-page coupon at Amazon. That’s the same low price it hit for Black Friday, and an early discount for a wearable that debuted alongside the iPhone 15 only as far back as September. The big change this time around is a new SiP (system in package) chip that allows for a Double Tap feature that lets you tap your thumb and forefinger together to answer calls and more. It also allows for the onboard processing of Siri requests, making simple demands (like starting a timer or a workout) happen faster.

Google Pixel Buds Pro 

The Google Pixel Buds Pro earbuds are just $120 from Wellbots when you use the code ENGBUDS80 that’s a savings of $80, which puts the buds just $3 more than their all-time low. We called these earbuds the company’s best effort to date in our official review, praising the deep and punchy bass, the useful touch controls, wireless charging options and more. And they’re currently our top pick for Android users in our guide to the best wireless earbuds.

Sonos Roam

The portable and waterproof Sonos Roam is 25 percent off and down to $134, which is the same as it went for during Black Friday. It’s our top pick for a portable smart speaker. You can stick it anywhere inside or out and it’ll deliver tunes and help from Alexa or the Google Assistant to control other devices, answer questions or kick off playlists. It works on Wi-Fi or via Bluetooth to play from your phone when you’re away from home. And while the sound isn’t as big as larger speakers, it still packs a surprising amount of bass and emits distinct highs.

A few other Sonos speakers and bundles are still on sale too. That includes the Roam bundled with the Ray for $45 off. The Ray is one of the recommendations in our soundbar guide thanks to its easy setup, compact size and great sound quality.  

Blink doorbell and Outdoor camera bundle

Prime members who would like some extra eyes on their property may want to check out Amazon’s bundle of two Blink Outdoor 4 smart security cameras with a Blink video doorbell. It’s down to $100 for the set, which is an impressive $215 off the full price of the three items bought separately. We saw a similar deal back in September, but it was for an earlier generation of the Outdoor cameras. The new fourth-generation model has improved image quality, better low-light sensitivity and an expanded field of vision. They run on two AA batteries so you can mount them just about anywhere and can run up to two years on a set. Both the cameras and doorbells let you hear and speak with whoever is outside. And the included Sync Module 2 lets you store clips locally. 

Samsung Pro Plus microSD card

If you need a new microSD card for your Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck or GoPro, a trio of Samsung microSD cards we recommend are also down their lowest prices to date. The 128GB version of the Samsung Pro Plus is down to $11 at Amazon, B&H and others, while the 256GB and 512GB models are down to $18 and $32, respectively. The Pro Plus is the top overall pick in our microSD card buying guide, as it consistently ranked among the fastest cards we tested despite its relatively affordable price tag.

Amazon Echo Show 5

The Echo Show 5 is Amazon’s smallest smart display and was completely refreshed back in May of this year. The processor and audio quality were improved, but the device is largely the same, acting as a screen-enabled bedside alarm clock or a handy kitchen display for recipe videos and the like. It’s currently down to $40 which is $50 off and a discount it has hit twice in the past couple months.

TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug Mini

The smart plug we recommend for most homes is TP-Link’s Kasa Smart Plug mini. A four-pack is on sale for $35 which is about $3 more than it sold for during Amazon’s October Prime day sale, but still a decent $15 savings. Plugs like these are a simple way to add some smart capabilities to any home, letting you turn on lights with just your voice, set automated schedules and create routines triggered by other activities. These would make a great stocking stuffer for anyone you know who’s curious about smart home connectivity but hasn’t yet taken the plunge.

Logitech Litra Glow streaming light

Logitech’s Litra Glow is our recommendation for a game streaming light and right now it’s cheaper than it’s ever been, thanks to an extra $10 coupon atop the 17 percent discount. The USB-powered light clips onto your monitor, near your webcam, to cast a soft glow without harsh shadows and helps you look better and more professional when you’re on camera. It’s highly adjustable too, giving you option for the brightness, warmth of the light, as well as the tilt and angle. 

TP-Link Deco EX75 Wi-Fi 6E mesh router

TP-Link’s Deco EX75 mesh router system with two beacons is down to $220, which is $80 off, but about $20 more than it went for on Cyber Monday. But if you missed the big sale, it’s still a decent savings on our top pick for a Wi-Fi 6 mesh router system. The two-pack should cover up to 5,500 square feet with stable connectivity. When we tested the three-pack, we were impressed by how well the system balances power with user friendliness. Its network is reliable and fast, and its companion app is easy to use and clearly shows you things like all of the devices connected to your network, current speeds and more.

Google Nest Hub

Google’s Nest Hub dropped to $50 for Cyber Monday, but has now gone back up to $60, which is still a 40 percent discount, at Target and Walmart. That’s $20 higher than its all-time low. The Nest Hub is the top overall pick in our smart display buying guide, and we gave it a review score of 89 back in 2021. It has a 7-inch screen, so it’s a bit bigger than the Echo Show 5 but should still be compact enough to fit neatly in a bedroom or small office. While it lacks a built-in camera, that may be a selling point for those who especially sensitive to their privacy (though no smart display is truly privacy-conscious). 

Bose Soundlink Flex

Bose’s SoundLink Flex dropped down to $119 for Black Friday and the deal is still live at Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and from Bose. The $119 price matches the low we saw for Amazon’s Prime sale in October, though it’s gone as low at $110 elsewhere. We recommend this portable speaker in our guide for the sub-$200 category. It delivers a good amount of bass for its size and is IP67 rated to handle the elements and even a splash when you’re by the pool or at the beach next summer.

Vitamix Explorian blender

The Vitamix E310 is on sale for $289 at Amazon, Target and directly from Vitamix, and while that’s not an all-time low, it’s still a $60 discount on a particularly powerful blender. It’s our favorite blender from our guide to kitchen tech because it goes beyond smoothie duty to create salsas, sauces, dips and even soups (which the blender can heat to steaming in the container due to shear friction). Anyone coming from a standard blender will be impressed with the way it renders even the hardest, chunkiest ingredients silky smooth.

Solo Stove Cyber Monday deals

Solo Stove’s Cyber Monday deals knocked up to $245 off fire pit bundles, up to $100 off fire pits by themselves and even more. And most of those deals are still live. One standout is the Ranger Backyard Bundle 2, which is $145 off and down to $320. It includes the company’s most compact fire pit along with its accompanying shield, stand, lid and shelter. Everything you’d need for an easy setup right out of the box is included in this bundle, and the 2.0-version of the Ranger includes a removable base plate and ash pan, both of which make the fire pit much easier to clean.

Audible Cyber Monday sale

A Cyber Monday deal on Amazon’s audiobook subscription service brings a Premium Plus membership down to just $6 per month for the first four months — that’s more than half off the typical $15-per-month cost of access. Audible’s Premium Plus subscription comes with one credit every month to purchase a new or best-selling title. It’s a great digital gift to get friends or family if you’re not going to see them in person this holiday season.

ProtonVPN Cyber Monday deal

Our favorite VPN service, ProtonVPN, is having a rare sale for Cyber Monday that brings a monthly subscription down to only $4 for a total of 30 months. That means you’ll pay $120 for two and a half years of access, which is a pretty good deal. ProtonVPN passed our tests with high marks, but what made it stand out among other VPN security services was its independently audited no-logs policy, and the fact that the company has proven they don’t comply with law enforcement requests to reveal data. If you want to jump in head-first with Proton services, the company has discounted Proton Unlimited, which includes access to VPN, Mail, Calendar, Drive and Pass, to just under $9 per month for the first year.

Bose QuietComfort Ultra

The latest flagship noise-cancelling headphones from Bose, the QuietComfort Ultra is seeing a $50 discount at Amazon, Walmart and Bose direct, among others. These headphones debuted last month and retail for $429 at full price. One of our concerns in our review was that higher MSRP, so this deal takes some of the sting out of the purchase. We found this pair to offer exceptional ANC, a comfortable fit and sound quality that has more bass plus “increased clarity and enhanced warmth” compared to previous generations of the QC cans.

Dyson Cyber Monday deals

Dyson deals include a $250 discount on the Dyson V15 Detect Absolute, bringing the cordless vacuum down to $500. It’s hard to tell if this is a record-low price, but considering the standard V15 Detect is going for between $650 and $750 across the internet, we consider this to be a good deal. In addition to its strong cleaning power, the V15 Detect has a laser-powered optic cleaner head that illuminates the floor before you as you’re cleaning so you can see dust and grime more clearly. It also has a piezo sensor, which sizes and counts dust particles as you clean and shows you that information on its LCD display.

iRobot Roomba 694

The Roomba 694 went on sale for $159 on Cyber Monday and the deal is still live today. It’s our current favorite budget robot vacuum thanks to its strong suction power, easy to use mobile app and handy spot-clean function. It doesn’t come with a clean base, but it has Wi-Fi connectivity and voice control with Alexa.

Shark AI Ultra 2-in-1 robot vacuum

This Shark AI Ultra robot vacuum is on sale for $298, or half off its regular price. Shark makes some of our favorite robovacs, and this one has strong suction power, a self-cleaning brush roll and support for home mapping and voice control with Alexa and the Google Assistant. Shark’s machines also stand out because their self-emptying bases, like the one included here, are bagless, so you don’t have to constantly buy proprietary garbage bags to use with them.

PS5 + Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 bundle

If you or someone you love hasn’t gotten their hands on a PS5 yet, this bundle pairs the $500 console with the new (and critically acclaimed) Spider-Man 2 game for no extra cost. The PS5 remains one of the best gaming consoles you can get right now, and we found the open-world game to be even better than its predecessor in our review. In it, you can swap between playing as Peter Parker and Miles Morales, and it includes expanded combat mechanics.

Logitech G535

The Logitech G535 is another honorable mention in our gaming headsets guide, one that should specifically appeal to those who want a wireless option for less than $100. If that’s you, good news: It’s available for just under $80 at Amazon, B&H and Best Buy, which is about $25 off its usual street price. The G535’s noticeably light frame, relatively balanced sound and Bluetooth support all impress for the price; just note that it doesn’t work with Xbox, and that its mic sounds a bit thinner than the wired headsets highlighted above. Its battery life clocks in at 30 to 35 hours per charge, which is decent but not great.

Meta Quest 2 VR headset

The Meta Quest 2 VR headset is $50 off and down to $249 at several retailers. Despite the launch of the impressive Quest 3, we still consider the Quest 2 to be one of the best VR headsets available right now — precisely because of its more affordable price. It’s still the best way to jump into VR without spending a ton of money, and the Quest 2 has the perks of being completely cordless and comfortable to wear for long sessions. The hardware includes fast-switching LCDs with a smooth 90Hz refresh rate, and it comes with Meta’s sold motion controllers.

Roku Streaming Stick 4K

Our top recommendation in our streaming devices guide is the Roku Streaming Stick 4K, which is 40 percent off and down to $30 at Target and directly from Roku. That’s about $5 more than it was last Cyber Monday, but still a decent savings on a dongle that will turn any screen into a smart TV, complete with Roku’s intuitive interface and its simple universal search function. The Roku Express 4K is on sale for $25. It has a shorter Wi-Fi range, lacks support for Dolby Vision and has a different format (a small set-top box instead of a stick that hides behind your TV) but is otherwise pretty similar for $5 less. 

Fire TV Stick 4K Max

The latest generation of the Fire TV Stick 4K Max was just announced in September during Amazon’s Devices and Services event and it’s now down to its lowest price yet, which is $40 and a 33 percent discount off the $60 list price. In addition to handling 4K video, it also supports Wi-Fi 6E and has a faster processor and bigger storage capacity compared to the previous generation. It’ll also support Amazon’s latest Fire TV feature, the Ambient Experience which displays art and shows widgets for weather, calendars, reminders and more when the TV is in standby. 

Apple MacBook Air M1

The older 13-inch MacBook Air that was released in 2020 and uses Apple’s M1 chip is on sale, with an entry-level config available for $750 if you click the on-page $99 coupon. We’ve seen this deal a handful of times over the last few months, but it matches the lowest price we’ve seen. It’s really worth stepping up to the M2 Air if you can: It’ll get you a more modern design, a faster chip, a sharper webcam and improved speakers. The 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD in this config is only suitable for casual use, and this model will almost certainly be discontinued when we get the inevitable M3 refresh. But if you’re on a stricter budget and really want a MacBook, the M1 Air is still well-built, long-lasting and fast enough for the essentials. We currently highlight it in our guide to the best budget laptops.

Samsung T9 SSD

The latest Samsung T9 portable SSD is on sale for $110 right now for a 1TB drive, which is the best price it’s been since it came out last month. You can snag this deal from Amazon or Samsung directly. The T9 is the newest iteration of Samsung’s popular portable drive that we’ve long been fans of, and it supports read and write speeds of up to 2,000 MB/s. It also has dynamic thermal guard to prevent overheating, plus it comes with a USB-C to C and USB-C to A cords so you can use it with a variety of devices.

Apple AirTag 

A four-pack of Apple AirTags is $79 right now at Amazon, thanks to a 19 percent discount. They go for $29 each at full price, so the deal will save you $9 a pop. AirTags are our top picks for Bluetooth trackers for iPhone users as they tap into Apple’s disturbingly vast FindMy network, using other Apple mobiles to find your lost stuff. 

Tile Mate

The Tile Mate Bluetooth tracker is one of our recommended affordable gifts and now it’s more affordable at just $16.50 instead of $25 at Amazon. It will keep tabs on your keys or anything else it’s attached to, allowing you to ping and track items with your phone. It’s supported by the Tile 360 Life app, which is far smaller than Apple’s Find My network, but in our tests, it still managed to find our “lost” item in around ten minutes of being marked as lost.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/all-the-best-cyber-monday-deals-that-are-still-live-on-amazon-right-now-164349983.html?src=rss 

Perplexing name aside, the Sony WH-1000XM5 is our favorite pair of wireless headphones for most people, and now the noise-canceling cans are back on sale for $328. This deal has popped up multiple times in the past year, most recently during the many Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales held over the course of November, but it still takes $72 off Sony’s list price. While there’ve been a few steeper discounts since the headphones arrived in May 2022, we don’t see them with much regularity. This offer is available at Amazon, Adorama and B&H; Sony also has it for $2 more.

Engadget Senior News Editor and audio expert Billy Steele gave the WH-1000XM5 a score of 95 in his review last year. This pair’s active noise cancellation (ANC) is still among the better options we’ve tested, and its lightweight, well-constructed design should be comfortable for most to wear over extended periods. Battery life sits at a decent 30 or so hours per charge, the built-in mics are perfectly solid for phone calls and the whole thing can connect to two devices at once. The default sound profile emphasizes the bass, so it’ll work best with hip-hop and pop music, though you can rein that in to something more neutral if you’re willing to use the EQ tools in Sony’s app. That app is home to a few other useful bonus features as well, including “Speak to Chat,” which automatically pauses whatever you’re playing when you start speaking.

The XM5 isn’t without flaws: The design can’t fold up (unlike the older Sony XM4s), and you can’t manually adjust the strength of the ANC to the extent that you can on other pairs. Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra delivers more powerful ANC on the whole, while Apple’s AirPods Max can still offer more conveniences to iPhone owners. You can get better sound for the money, too. Taken as a complete package, however, the XM5 remains our top pick. 

If you want a pair of noise-canceling earphones, meanwhile, the Sony WF-1000XM5 has dropped back to $248. Again, that’s a deal we’ve seen for much of the last month, but it matches the price we saw on Black Friday. The WF model tops our guide to the best wireless earbuds, as it provides most of the features noted above in an in-ear design that isolates a good chunk of outside noise even when the ANC isn’t turned on.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sonys-wh-1000xm5-headphones-are-back-on-sale-for-328-160516896.html?src=rss 

The just-released Apple MacBook Pro M3 is already on sale. You can snag the 14-inch model for $1,600 via Amazon. That’s a savings of $200, or 11 percent for the math fanatics out there. Not bad for a laptop that launched just three weeks ago.

Here are the pertinent specs. This model includes an 8-core CPU, a 10-core GPU and a 14.2-inch XDR display. You also get 8GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage. These are average, if not spectacular, metrics, aside from that bountiful terabyte of storage. You can snag it in silver or Apple’s proprietary Space Gray.

If the power and screen are a bit lacking, Amazon has another MacBook Pro M3 on sale. This one has a 16.2-inch screen, a 12-core CPU and an 18-core GPU. That’s a good amount of power. You also get 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage, with availability in black and gray. This model has been discounted to $2,300 from $2,500, another savings of $200.

These are Apple’s latest and greatest laptops. We admired the company’s newest MacBook in our official review, calling out the fast and efficient M3 chipset and the gorgeous display. The screen won’t beat a dedicated OLED, but it gets really close thanks to MiniLED backlights. We also liked the excellent keyboard and trackpad, and the overall form factor. These are, after all, MacBook Pros, the crown in Apple’s laptop lineup.

Remember, it’s near-impossible to make internal changes to these laptops once purchased, so check and double check on your likely RAM and storage requirements. The base model ships with just 8GB of RAM, which could slow you down in the long run.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-macbook-pro-m3-is-on-sale-for-200-off-162051385.html?src=rss 

The long-awaited sci-fi strategy sequel Homeworld 3 at last has a release date. It’s now slated to arrive on March 8. That’s another slight delay, given the February release window that developer Blackbird Interactive and publisher Gearbox were aiming for, but at least there’s now a concrete date. Those who pick up the Fleet Command edition, meanwhile, will get access 72 hours earlier.

In a short behind-the-scenes video, Blackbird CEO and co-founder Rob Cunningham said this was “really our original dream of Homeworld 2. The problem was, in the late ’90s, early 2000s, the vision for Homeworld 3 was utterly impossible to make.” Homeworld 2 debuted in 2003. Cunningham noted that Blackbird had to wait 20 years to achieve the kind of scale and scope it wanted.

The team has revealed a few more details about what’s in store. Players will have a choice between the classic Homeworld control scheme or a more modern setup that should be familiar to fans of other real-time strategy games or MOBAs — you’ll just need to click on an element in the environment to get there. There’s also a focus on cover-based tactics. You can use a larger ship to protect yourself or even flank enemies.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sci-fi-rts-sequel-homeworld-3-will-arrive-on-march-8-153139081.html?src=rss 

YouTube recently took dramatic action against anyone visiting its site with an ad blocker running — after a few pieces of content, it’ll simply stop serving you videos. If you want to get past the wall, that ad blocker will (probably) need to be turned off; and if you want an ad-free experience, better cough up a couple bucks for a Premium subscription.

Although this is an aggressive move that seemingly left ad blocking companies scrambling to respond, it didn’t come out the blue — YouTube had been testing something similar for months. And even before this most recent clampdown, the Google-owned video service has been engaged in an ongoing conflict — a game of cat-and-mouse, an arms race, pick your metaphor — with ad-blocking software: YouTube rolls out new ways to serve ads to viewers with ad blockers, then ad blockers develop new strategies to circumvent those ad-serving measures.

As noted in a blog post by the ad- and tracker-blocking company Ghostery, YouTube employs a wide variety of techniques to circumvent ad blockers, such as embedding an ad in the video itself (so the ad blocker can’t distinguish between the two), or serving ads from the same domain as the video, fooling filters that have been set up to block ads served from third-party domains.

It’s not that YouTube is alone in these efforts; many digital publishers make similar attempts to stymie ad blockers. To some extent, YouTube’s moves just get more attention because the service is so popular. As AdGuard CTO Andrey Meshkov put it in an email, “Even when they run a test on a share of users… the number of affected people is very high.”

At the same time, according to Ghostery’s director of product and engineering Krzysztof Modras, it’s also true that “as one of the world’s largest publishers, YouTube constantly invests in circumventing ad blocking.” And that those investments have been effective. Many of the most common ad blocking strategies, including DNS filtering (filtering for third-party domains), network filtering (which Modras described as “more selective” and better at blocking first-party requests) and cosmetic filtering (which can blocks ads without leaving ad-shaped holes in the website content) no longer work on the site.

Now, Modras said, YouTube seems to be “adapting [its] methods more frequently than ever before. To counteract its changes to ad delivery and ad blocker detection, block lists have to be updated at minimum on a daily basis, and sometimes even more often. While all players in the space are innovating, some ad blockers are simply unable to keep up with these changes.”

Keeping pace with YouTube will likely become even more challenging next year, when Google’s Chrome browser adopts the Manifest V3 standard, which significantly limits what extensions are allowed to do. Modras said that under Manifest V3, whenever an ad blocker wants to update its blocklist — again, something they may need to do multiple times a day — it will have to release a full update and undergo a review “which can take anywhere between [a] few hours to even a few weeks.”

“Through Manifest V3, Google will close the door for innovation in the ad blocking landscape and introduce another layer of gatekeeping that will slow down how ad blockers can react to new ads and online tracking methods,” he said.

For many users, the battle between YouTube and ad blockers has largely been invisible, or at least ignorable, until now. The new wall dramatically changes this dynamic, forcing users to adapt their behavior if they want to access YouTube videos at all. Still, the ad blocking companies suggest it’s more of a policy change than a technical breakthrough — a sign of a new willingness on YouTube’s part to risk alienating its users.

“It’s not that YouTube’s move is something new, many publishers went [down] this road already,” Meshkov said. “The difference is [the] scale of YouTube.” That scale affects both the number of users impacted, as well as the number of resources required to maintain these defenses on the publisher’s side. “Going this road is very, very expensive, it requires constant maintenance,” he added, “you basically need a team dedicated to this. There’s just a handful of companies that can afford it.”

As ever, ad blockers are figuring out how to adapt, even if it’s requiring more effort from their users, too. For example, Modras noted that “throughout much of October, Ghostery experienced three to five times the typical number of both uninstalls and installs per day, as well as a 30 percent increase in downloads on Microsoft Edge, where our ad blocker was still working on YouTube for a period of time.” All of this activity suggests that users are quickly cycling through different products and strategies to get around YouTube’s anti-ad block efforts, then discarding them when they stop working.

Meanwhile, uBlock Origin still seems to work on YouTube. But a detailed Reddit post outlining how to avoid tripping the platform’s ad-block detection measures notes that because “YouTube changes their detection scripts regularly,” users may still encounter the site’s pop-up warnings and anti-adblock wall in “brief periods of time” between script changes (on the platform’s end) or filter updates (on uBlock’s side.) uBlock Origin may also stop working on Chrome next year thanks to the aforementioned Manifest V3. And if you’re hoping to use it on a non-Chrome browser, Google has allegedly begun deprecating YouTube’s load times on alternate browsers, seemingly as part of the anti-ad block effort. While 404 Media and Android Authority, which both reported on this issue, were not able to replicate these artificially slowed load times, users were seemingly able to avoid them through the use of a “user-agent switcher,” which disguises one browser (say, Firefox) as another (in this case, Chrome).

Why do some ad blockers still work? The answer seems to boil down to a new approach: Scriptlet injection, which uses scripts to alter website behavior in a more fine-grained way. For example, Meshkov said an ad blocker could write a scriptlet to remove a cookie with a given name, or to stop the execution of JavaScript on a web page when it tries to access a page property with a given name.

On YouTube, Modras said, scriptlets can alter the data being loaded before it’s used by the page script. For example, a scriptlet might look for specific data identifiers and remove them, making this approach “subtle enough” to block ads that have been mixed in with website functionality, without affecting the functionality.

Scriptlet injection also plays a role in an increasingly crucial part of the ad blocker’s job: escaping detection. AdGuard’s Meshkov said this is something that teams like his are already working on, since they try escape detection as a general rule — both by avoiding activity that would alert a website to their presence, and by using scriptlets to prevent common fingerprinting functions that websites use to detect ad blockers.

Scriptlet injection seems to be the most promising approach right now — in fact, Modras described it as currently “the only reliable way of ad blocking on YouTube.”

Meshkov said that assessment is accurate if you limit yourself to browser extensions (which is how most popular ad blockers are distributed). But he pointed to network-level ad blockers and alternative YouTube clients, such as NewPipe, as other approaches that can work. A recent AdGuard blog post outlined additional other steps that users can try, such as checking for filter updates, making sure multiple ad blockers aren’t installed and using a desktop ad-blocking app, which should be harder to detect than an extension. (AdGuard itself offers both network-level blocking and desktop apps.)

At least one popular ad blocker, AdBlock Plus, won’t be trying to get around YouTube’s wall at all. Vergard Johnsen, chief product officer at AdBlock Plus developer eyeo, said he respects YouTube’s decision to start “a conversation” with users about how content gets monetized.

Referencing the now independently run Acceptable Ads program (which eyeo created and participates in), Johnsen said, “the vast majority of our users have really embraced the fact that there will be ads […] we’ve made it clear we don’t believe in circumvention.”

Similarly, a YouTube spokesperson reiterated that the platform’s ads support “a diverse ecosystem of creators globally” and that “the use of ad blockers violate YouTube’s Terms of Service.”

As the battle between YouTube and ad blockers continues, Modras suggested that his side has at least one major advantage: They’re open source and can draw on knowledge from the broader community.

“Scriptlet injection is already getting more powerful, and it’s becoming harder for anti-ad blockers to detect,” he said. “In some ways, the current situation has spurred an arms race. YouTube has inadvertently improved ad blockers, as the new knowledge and techniques gained from innovating within the YouTube platform are also applicable to other ad and tracking systems.”

But even if most users grow frustrated with the new countermeasures and decide to whitelist YouTube in their ad block product of choice, Modras suggested that ad blockers can still affect the platform’s bottom line: “If users disable ad blocking on only YouTube and maintain their protection on other websites as they browse, the platform will quickly learn that they are still unable to effectively target ads to these users,” since it won’t have data about user activity on those other sites.

Regardless of what YouTube does next, he suggested that other publishers are unlikely to build a similar wall, because few if any services enjoy the same chokehold on an entire media ecosystem — not only owning the most popular video sharing service, but also the most popular web browser on which to view it. “YouTube is in a unique position as it is de facto a monopoly,” he said. “That’s not true for most of the other publishers.”

Even against those odds, ad block diehards aren’t dissuaded in their mission. As Andrey Meshkov put it bluntly: “YouTube’s policy is just a good motivation to do it better.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/inside-the-arms-race-between-youtube-and-ad-blockers-140031824.html?src=rss 

If you’ve been meaning to pick up an Xbox Series X but weren’t able to grab one on Black Friday, good news: Walmart has a bundle that pairs the powerful console with a digital copy of the (divisive) action-RPG Diablo IV for $349. That’s the largest discount we’ve tracked and a full $151 off the Series X’s normal going rate. The game, meanwhile, normally goes for $70. This deal also tops the best deals we’ve seen for the device over the past week; on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, this bundle mostly sat at $440.

If the bundle runs out of stock — and given the extent of the discount, we expect it will fairly quickly — Walmart also has the console alone on sale for that same $349. Again, though, you’ll likely want to move fast to secure the deal.

As a refresher, the Series X is the highest-end model of the two current Xboxes; it packs a stronger GPU and 6GB more RAM than the entry-level Series S, allowing it to play demanding games at higher frame rates and resolutions more consistently. It also comes with a disc drive and 1TB of storage as default. Microsoft has had some struggles producing first-party hits, but the Xbox library is still home to plenty of titles we like, and Xbox Game Pass remains one of the better values in gaming if you like to sample a wide range of games. It’s worth noting the massive leak earlier this year that included details of a potential Series X refresh, which may arrive in 2024, but the current system remains a strong value when it’s discounted to this extent.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-xbox-series-x-is-down-to-just-349-right-now-133430874.html?src=rss