Category: Technology

Hertz is once again growing its EV fleet, announcing Tuesday that it has struck a deal with General Motors to purchase 175,000 electric vehicles from the automaker’s Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac and BrightDrop brands over the next five years. Customers will see the first offerings, namely the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Bolt EUV, arrive on Hertz lots beginning in the first quarter next year. 

The deal, which runs through 2027, will bring a wide variety of models to Hertz’s growing EV herd. Between now and 2027, the rental company expects its customers to drive about 8 billion miles in said EVs, preventing an estimated 3.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from being released. Hertz plans to convert a quarter of its rental fleet to battery electric by 2024. 

This news follows Hertz’s 65,000-vehicle order from Polestar in April, which the performance EV maker has already begun deliveries on. An earlier announcement in 2021 had many believing that Tesla would be supplying the Hertz fleet with 100,000 vehicles, worth an estimated $4.2 billion, was quickly kiboshed by Tesla CEO, Elon Musk. Hertz is already planning to rent 50,000 Tesla EVs to Uber drivers, which now operate in 25 North American cities, there’s no word on whether GM’s vehicles will be offered under similar terms.

 

Apple has another bug to quash in iOS 16. Senior manager Ron Huang told a MacRumors reader that the company will fix the frequent permissions prompts when you try to copy and paste content between apps. This is “absolutely not expected behavior,” Huang said. While Apple didn’t spot the problem internally, the manager acknowledged that others were dealing with the problem.

Huang didn’t provide a timeline for a patch. Apple is already testing iOS 16.1 betas that could include a fix, but hasn’t said when it expects to deliver the release.

The flaw is the latest in a handful of problems affecting iOS 16 since its debut earlier this month. iPhone 14 Pro owners have complained of camera rattling with some third-party apps, as well as unresponsiveness when transferring data from another iPhone. Apple even had to issue a day-one patch for iPhone 14 models that couldn’t properly activate FaceTime or iMessage. Launch bugs certainly aren’t unheard of for operating systems, but these have been more irksome than usual.

 

Amazon is partnering with Infinium to test the use of so-called electrofuels (e-fuels) in its middle-mile diesel fleet, it announced. The company invested in Infinium last year as part of its goal to reach net-zero carbon by 2040. “We’ve been developing this technology for the better part of a decade, and we expect our electrofuels to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by approximately 95 percent over traditional fossil fuel,” said Infinium CEO Robert Schuetzle in a statement. 

As part of this, Infinium plans to build one of the first-ever electrofuel production facilities in Texas, using renewable-generated hydrogen and around 18,000 tons of recycled carbon waste per year.

A quarter of greenhouse gas emissions are created by the transportation industry, Amazon notes. Infinium’s e-fuels supposedly help combat that by combining green hydrogen (from electrolysis) with captured CO2 that would otherwise be emitted by industrial plants. The CO2 and hydrogen are combined into “syngas,” which is then converted to liquid fuels via catalysts. The resulting “drop-in” fuel can be used directly in existing, unmodified diesel vans.

The vans still emit carbon emissions, but those would have been produced anyway by the industrial plants, so it’s supposedly a net-zero operation. The electrofuels are about twice as expensive as traditional fuels, Infinium has explained. 

There are clearly some issues that come to mind — the first being that the renewable power used to create hydrogen would be put to much better use in battery-electric vehicles. And neither Amazon nor Infinium explained where they got the 95 percent reduction figure, so I’d take that with a large grain of salt. Finally, despite the 2040 net-zero pledge, Amazon’s emissions increased dramatically last year — and that’s likely a drastic undercount. 

Still, it could serve as an intermediate step. Infinium has previously noted that Amazon will “need liquid fuels for a long time” for ground, marine and air travel. Amazon is also taking other measures, like using green hydrogen (rather than grey hydrogen derived from fossil fuels or other fossil fuels) to power 30,000 forklifts and 800 heavy-duty trucks. It’s also investing in companies that develop more efficient hydrogen electrolyzers and has ordered 100,000 electric delivery vehicles from Rivian. 

 

Just a few years ago, the case for smartwatches wasn’t clear. Today, the wearable world is filled with various high-quality options, and a few key players have muscled their way to the front of the pack. Chances are, if you’re reading this guide, you’ve probably already decided that it’s time to upgrade from a standard timepiece to a smartwatch. Maybe you want to reach for your phone less throughout the day, or maybe you want to stay connected in a more discrete way. The list of reasons why you may want a smartwatch is long, as is the list of factors you’ll want to consider before deciding which to buy.

Engadget Picks

Best overall:Apple Watch

Best budget:Fitbit Versa 2

Best for Android users:Samsung Galaxy Watch 5

Stylish options:Fossil, Michael Kors and Skagen

What to look for in a smartwatch

Compatibility

Apple Watches only work with iPhones, while Wear OS devices play nice with both iOS and Android. Smartwatches made by Samsung, Garmin, Fitbit and others are also compatible with Android and iOS, but you’ll need to install a companion app.

The smartwatch OS will also dictate the type and number of on-watch apps you’ll have access to. Many of these aren’t useful, though, making this factor a fairy minor one in the grand scheme of things.

Price

The best smartwatches generally cost between $300 and $400. Compared to budget smartwatches, which cost between $100 and $250, these pricier devices have advanced fitness, music and communications features. They also often include perks like onboard GPS, music storage and NFC, which budget devices generally don’t.

Some companies make specialized fitness watches: Those can easily run north of $500, and we’d only recommend them to serious athletes. Luxury smartwatches from brands like TAG Heuer and Hublot can also reach sky-high prices, but we wouldn’t endorse any of them. These devices can cost more than $1,000, and you’re usually paying for little more than a brand name and some needlessly exotic selection of build materials.

Battery life

Battery life remains one of our biggest complaints about smartwatches, but there’s hope as of late. You can expect two full days from Apple Watches and most Wear OS devices. Watches using the Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor support extended battery modes that promise up to five days on a charge — if you’re willing to shut off most features aside from, you know, displaying the time. Snapdragon’s next-gen Wear 4100 and 4100+ processors were announced in 2020, but only a handful of devices – some of which aren’t even available yet – are using them so far. Other models can last five to seven days, but they usually have fewer features and lower-quality displays. Meanwhile, some fitness watches can last weeks on a single charge.

A few smartwatches now support faster charging, too. For example, Apple promises the Series 7 can go from zero to 80 percent power in only 45 minutes, and get to full charge in 75 minutes. The OnePlus Watch is even speedier, powering up from zero to 43 percent in just 10 minutes. (Mind you that turned out to be one of the only good things about that device.)

Communication

Any smartwatch worth considering delivers call, text and app alerts to your wrist. Call and text alerts are self explanatory, but if those mean a lot to you, consider a watch with LTE. They’re more expensive than their WiFi-only counterparts, but data connectivity allows the smartwatch to take and receive calls, and do the same with text messages, without your phone nearby. As far as app alerts go, getting them delivered to your wrist will let you glance down and see if you absolutely need to check your phone right now.

Fitness tracking

Activity tracking is a big reason why people turn to smartwatches. An all-purpose timepiece should log your steps, calories and workouts, and most of today’s wearables have a heart rate monitor as well.

Many smartwatches also have onboard GPS, which is useful for tracking distance for runs and bike rides. Swimmers will want something water resistant, and thankfully most all-purpose devices now can withstand at least a dunk in the pool. Some smartwatches from companies like Garmin are more fitness focused than others and tend to offer more advanced features like heart-rate-variance tracking, recovery time estimation, onboard maps and more.

Health tracking on smartwatches has also seen advances over the years. Both Apple and Fitbit devices can estimate blood oxygen levels and measure ECGs. But the more affordable the smartwatch, the less likely it is that it has these kinds of health tracking features; if collecting that type of data is important to you, you’ll have to pay for the privilege.

Music

Your watch can not only track your morning runs but also play music while you’re exercising. Many smartwatches let you save your music locally, so you can connect wireless earbuds and listen to tunes without bringing your phone. Those that don’t have onboard storage for music usually have on-watch music controls, so you can control playback without whipping out your phone. And if your watch has LTE, local saving isn’t required — you’ll be able to stream music directly from the watch to your paired earbuds.

Always-on displays

Most flagship smartwatches today have some sort of always-on display, be it a default feature or a setting you can enable. It allows you to glance down at your watch to check the time and any other information you’ve set it to show on its watchface without lifting your wrist. This will no doubt affect your device’s battery life, but thankfully most always-on modes dim the display’s brightness so it’s not running at its peak unnecessarily. Cheaper devices won’t have this feature; instead, their screens will automatically turn off to conserve battery and you’ll have to intentionally check your watch to turn on the display again.

NFC

Many smartwatches have NFC, letting you pay for things without your wallet. After saving your credit or debit card information, you can hold your smartwatch up to an NFC reader to pay for a cup of coffee on your way home from a run. Keep in mind that different watches use different payment systems: Apple Watches use Apple Pay, Wear OS devices use Google Pay, Samsung devices use Samsung Pay and so forth.

Apple Pay is one of the most popular NFC payment systems, with support for multiple banks and credit cards in 72 different countries, while Samsung and Google Pay work in fewer regions. It’s also important to note that both NFC payment support varies by device as well for both Samsung and Google’s systems.

Best overall: Apple Watch

The Apple Watch has evolved into the most robust smartwatch since its debut in 2015. It’s the no-brainer pick for iPhone users, and we wouldn’t judge you for switching to an iPhone just to be able to use an Apple Watch. The latest model, Apple Watch Series 8, has solid fitness-tracking features that will satisfy the needs of beginners and serious athletes alike. It also detects if you’ve been in a car crash, can carry out ECG tests and measures blood oxygen levels. Plus, it offers NFC, onboard music storage and many useful apps as well as a variety of ways to respond to messages.

There aren’t a ton of differences between the Series 8 and the Series 7 that came before it. The design is largely unchanged, and while the Series 8 runs on a newer S8 SiP, it didn’t feel dramatically faster in our testing. It lasted a little bit longer, and we were impressed by Apple’s new low-power mode, which kept the watch going for an additional two hours after already being down to 20 percent battery life.

There are two other options now at the opposite ends of the spectrum. The new Apple Watch Ultra is probably overkill for most people, but it has a ton of extra features like extra waterproofing to track diving, an even more accurate GPS and the biggest battery of any Apple Watch to date. Apple designed it for the most outdoorsy among us, but for your average person, it likely has more features than they’d ever need.

The $250 Apple Watch SE, on the other hand, is less feature-rich than the Series 8, but it will probably suffice for most people. We actually regard the Watch SE as the best option for first-time smartwatch buyers, or people on stricter budgets. You’ll get all the core Apple Watch features as well as things like fall and crash detection, noise monitoring and emergency SOS, but you’ll have to do without more advanced hardware perks like an always-on display, a blood oxygen sensor, an ECG monitor and a skin temperature sensor.

Buy Apple Watch Series 8 at Amazon – $399Buy Apple Watch Ultra at Amazon – $799Buy Apple Watch SE at Amazon – $249

Best budget: Fitbit Versa 2

Dropping $400 on a smartwatch isn’t feasible for everyone, which is why we recommend the Fitbit Versa 2 as the best sub-$200 option. It’s our favorite budget watch because it offers a bunch of features at a great price. You get all of these essentials: Fitbit’s solid exercise-tracking abilities (including auto-workout detection), sleep tracking, water resistance, connected GPS, blood oxygen tracking and a six-day battery life. It also supports Fitbit Pay using NFC and it has built-in Amazon Alexa for voice commands. While the Versa 2 typically costs $150, we’ve seen it for as low as $100.

Buy Fitbit Versa 2 at Amazon – $150

Best for Android users: Samsung Galaxy Watch 5

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 on a wrist, showing the device’s body composition tool with some results displayed. The screen says Body fat is 24.3 percent, while Skeletal Muscle is 60.7 percent. A button at the bottom says “Measure.”

Samsung may not have brought many upgrades to the latest version of its popular Galaxy Watch, but that doesn’t mean the Watch 5 isn’t still the best smartwatch for Android users. Improvements like a more durable screen and refined curvature don’t sound exciting, but they make the Watch 5 more resilient and reliable. Plus, the Galaxy Watch offers the most comprehensive health and fitness tracking on Wear OS, and the company added a sleep coaching feature this year that is meant to help guide you towards better rest.

If you don’t mind oversized watches, consider the Watch 5 Pro. It’s more expensive at $450, but comes with a larger 45mm titanium case, a more durable screen and a larger battery. Though Samsung markets it as an outdoor-oriented device, you’re better off thinking of it as a big timepiece that lasts longer than the standard model. It has all the same features as the 40mm and 44mm versions, except it supports the GPX route format for workouts so you can get turn-by-turn directions while you hike and bike.

All three watches are also water-resistant so they can track swims or survive a sudden storm, and last more than a day (without the Always On Display enabled). They also run Wear OS 3.5, which is so similar to Samsung’s previous Tizen OS that longtime wearers won’t need to worry about adjusting to a new system. Ultimately, the Galaxy Watch 5 series is a capable, well-rounded set of smartwatches that will serve most Android users well.

Buy Galaxy Watch 5 at Amazon – $280Buy Galaxy Watch 5 Pro at Amazon – $450

Fashion-forward options

Yes, there are still companies out there trying to make “fashionable” smartwatches. Back when wearables were novel and generally ugly, brands like Fossil, Michael Kors and Skagen found their niche in stylish smartwatches that took cues from analog timepieces. You also have the option to pick up a “hybrid” smartwatch from companies like Withings and Garmin – these devices look like standard wrist watches but incorporate some limited functionality like activity tracking and heart rate monitoring. They remain good options if you prefer that look, but thankfully, wearables made by Apple, Samsung, Fitbit and others have gotten much more attractive over the past few years.

Ultimately, the only thing you can’t change after you buy a smartwatch is its case design. If you’re not into the Apple Watch’s squared-off corners, all of Samsung’s smartwatches have round cases that look a little more like a traditional watch. Most wearables are offered in a choice of colors and you can pay extra for premium materials like stainless steel. Once you decide on a case, your band options are endless – there are dozens of first- and third-party watch straps available for most major smartwatches, allowing you to change up your look whenever you please.

Cherlynn Low contributed to this guide.

 

Comcast plans to start running live tests of its 10G multi-gigabit symmetrical internet services later this year before starting to offer it to customers in 2023. The company has been working on ways to boost home internet speeds over the existing cable network over the last couple of years and the final piece of the puzzle appears to be coming together.

The original aim was to hit speeds of speeds of 10Gbps and higher and Comcast is edging closer to that benchmark. It recently tested the last component required to offer 10G- and DOCSIS 4.0-powered multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds across its whole network. In the test, which was conducted with newly designed Full Duplex DOCSIS 4.0 (FDX) amplifiers, engineers achieved download speeds of 6Gbps and upload speeds of 4Gbps “across a complete six-amplifier cascade,” according to a press release. The download speed is 50 percent faster than what Comcast was able to reach with 10G tech early last year.

“This architecture is inclusive of the vast majority of the Comcast network and is easily and quickly replicated where network environments may differ,” Comcast said. “As a result, the successful test is key to delivering 10G to all Comcast customers.”

This month, Comcast started rolling out 2Gbps internet service in four states. However, upload speeds are initially restricted to 200Mbps on the Gigabit 2x plan. When Comcast starts offering 10G services next year, users will theoretically be able to download and upload files at multi-gigabit speeds. The company aims to provide the 2Gbps service to more than 50 million US households by the end of 2025.

 

Don’t fret if you’ve been looking for an external SSD that can handle a few knocks. Amazon once again has the 1TB Samsung T7 Shield on sale for $100, well below its official $160 price. The 2TB version has also dropped to $200 (normally $280). The savings apply regardless of color, so you can buy a beige drive if black or blue seems too pedestrian.

Buy Samsung T7 Shield at Amazon – $100

The hook, as before, is the durable design. The T7 Shield can survive up to a 9.8-foot drop, and the IP65-rated chassis can resist dust and water while offering a rubberized grip to stay in your hands. Simply put, this is a solid drive for field photographers or anyone worried their data might not survive life on the road.

The USB-C drive doesn’t offer stunning performance with sequential read and write speeds of 1,050MB/s and 1,000MB/s respectively. This is more for everyday backups and extended storage than demanding creators who need every last ounce of throughput. The T7 Shield is still much faster than a conventional spinning hard disk, though, and the peace of mind from the hardened design could be worth any tradeoffs.

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Portal 3 may never happen, but at least we’ve got a new way to experience the original teleporting puzzle shooter. Today during his GTC keynote, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang announced Portal with RTX, a mod that adds support for real-time ray tracing and DLSS 3. Judging from the the short trailer, it looks like the Portal we all know and love, except now the lighting around portals bleeds into their surroundings, and just about every surface is deliciously reflective. 

Similar to what we saw with Minecraft RTX, Portal’s ray tracing mod adds a tremendous amount of depth to a very familiar game. And thanks to DLSS 3, the latest version of NVIDIA’s super sampling technology, it also performs smoothly with plenty of RTX bells and whistles turned on. This footage likely came from the obscenely powerful RTX 4090, but it’ll be interesting to see how well Portal with RTX performs on NVIDIA’s older 2000-series cards. Current Portal owners will be able to play the RTX mod in November.  

Huang says the company developed the RTX mod inside of its Omniverse environment. To take that concept further, NVIDIA is also launching RTX Remix, an application that will let you capture existing game scenes and tweak their objects and environments with high resolution textures and realistic lighting. The company’s AI tools can automatically give materials “physically accurate” properties—a ceiling in Morrowind, for example, becomes reflective after going through RTX Remix. You’ll be able to export remixed scenes as mods, and other players will be able to play them through the RTX renderer. 

 

Following months of anticipation and controversy among its add-in board partners, NVIDIA’s 40 Series GPUs are finally here. The company unveiled the GeForce RTX 4090 and GeForce RTX 4080 today at its GTC 2022 keynote. Taking full advantage of its new “Ada Lovelace” architecture, NVIDIA says the two GPUs offer significantly better ray tracing performance. The company worked with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to co-develop a new “4N” fabrication process that NVIDIA says is up to two times more power efficient. 

Ray tracing performance is significantly improved thanks to Ada Lovelace featuring NVIDIA’s new third-generation RT Cores, and the inclusion of a new rendering technique called Shader Execution Reordering and DLSS 3.0. In some games, NVIDIA said you can expect two to three times better ray tracing performance than what was possible with its Ampere GPUs. The company demoed Cyberpunk 2077 running at a near consistent 100 frames per second with all of the game’s ray tracing features set to max. NVIDIA said rasterization performance is up to two times faster thanks to the new architecture.  

The first of NVIDIA’s new Ada Lovelace GPUs will arrive next month when the GeForce RTX 4090 goes on for sale for $1,599 on October 12th. With 24GB of GDDR6X memory, NVIDIA claims its latest flagship is two to four times faster than the 3090 Ti while consuming the same amount of power. Good thing too because it’s starting at $100 more than its predecessor. Inside of the RTX 4090, NVIDIA has managed to fit 16,384 CUDA Cores clocked at a base speed of 2.23GHz.   

Alongside the 4090, NVIDIA will offer two different variants of the RTX 4080. The base model, starting at $899, features 12GB of GDDR6X memory, while the 16GB version will set you back a cool $1,199. Both configurations will arrive sometime in November. However, NVIDIA will only sell a Founders Edition model of the more expensive model. For the 12GB version, you’ll need to look to the company’s partners. 

In terms of performance, the 16GB 3080 features 9,728 Cuda Cores and a base clock of 2.21GHz, with a maximum boost clock of 2.51GHz. Meanwhile, the 12GB model features a more modest 7,680 CUDA Cores but a higher 2.31GHz base clock. Thankfully, you probably won’t need to upgrade your power supply if you plan to upgrade from a 3070 or 3080, with NVIDIA recommending a 700-watt PSU for the 12GB variant and a 750-watt power supply for its more powerful sibling. However, should you decide to buy a new PSU, you’ll want to wait until more ATX 3.0 PSUs arrive later this year. That’s because at least the Founders Edition models will support the new PCIe Gen-5 16-pin connector standard. That said, NVIDIA will also include an 8-pin adapter for those who don’t want to rewire their system.         

Developing…

 

AMD has unveiled its first Ryzen 7000 laptop processors, but they’re aimed at a very different audience than the enthusiast desktop chips. The newly introduced Ryzen 7020 mobile series is billed as a performance boost for budget laptops that combines AMD’s older Zen 2 architecture with a few newer technologies, including RDNA 2 graphics (the Radeon 610M) and LPDDR5 memory. It also promises a healthy, if unspectacular, 12 hours of peak battery life.

The result theoretically outruns comparable Intel-based systems. AMD claims a 2.4GHz quad-core Ryzen 3 7320U model with 4GB of RAM offers 58 percent quicker multitasking and 31 percent faster app launching than a dual-core Core i3-1115G4 machine with 8GB of RAM. We’d have pitted the new Ryzen against a six-core 12th-gen Core i3 instead, but this still suggests you’re getting solid performance for relatively little money.

On top of the Ryzen 3 variant, there’s also a Ryzen 5 7520U with a 2.8GHz base clock. Both have 6MB of total cache. Particularly cost-conscious buyers can also spring for a two-core Athlon Gold 7220U with a 2.4GHz base, 5MB of cache and the same Radeon 610M graphics. All three chips offer a thermal design power of 15W, so they’re suitable for thin-and-light systems.

You won’t have to wait long to buy a portable using any of these chips. AMD expects the first Ryzen and Athlon 7020 series laptops to arrive in the fourth quarter of this year (that is, October through December) starting at $399. Acer is promising 14- and 15-inch Aspire 3 systems with the new Ryzen inside, while an HP “17-inch Laptop PC” and refreshed Lenovo IdeaPads are also in the works. That entry price is important — AMD is targeting everyday users who won’t spend much, but still want solid capabilities.

 

Deathloop, a terrific time-loop puzzle box in the guise of a first-person shooter, is now available on Xbox. Until now, Arkane Lyon’s most recent game had been a PlayStation 5 console exclusive (it was available on PC too). As of today, though, it’s playable on Xbox Series X/S through Xbox Game Pass, as well as on Xbox One, tablets, phones and desktop browsers through cloud gaming. PC Game Pass subscribers can check it out at no extra cost on their gaming rig too. In addition, PS Plus Extra and Premium members now have access to Deathloop on PS5 as part of their subscription.

It’s not exactly surprising that Deathloop landed on Xbox Game Pass after the PS5 exclusivity window closed. Arkane Lyon and publisher Bethesda Softworks are now owned by Microsoft, which honored Sony’s exclusivity deals for Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo after completing its acquisition of ZeniMax Media.

Meanwhile, Arkane has rolled out a free Deathloop update called Goldenloop. It introduces cross-play for player vs. player matchmaking across all platforms, as well as cross-saves across Xbox and PC. There’s a new ability called Fugue, a projectile that can slow down and confuse targets to briefly make them harmless. There are four Fugue upgrades to discover, including one that allows you to deploy the projectile as a proximity mine on a surface. Julianna’s Masquerade ability now has some upgrades too.

Players will have access to a new weapon called the Halps Prototype. This is a laser-style rifle with a beam that you can bounce off of turrets and security cameras to hit enemies from surprising angles with bank shots. The Paint-Bomber is a fresh enemy that will run toward you with paint-filled explosives strapped to them. Elsewhere, there are new 2-in-1 trinkets that combine the effects of two previous trinkets to beef up your loadout and perhaps free up some space in your inventory for other perks. Arkane also said the update brings an extended ending and some new secrets to Deathloop.

In addition, Microsoft revealed details on some more titles that are coming to Game Pass in the coming weeks. Among them is Hardspace: Shipbreaker, a puzzle game that sees you cutting up old spaceships for salvage. That’s available for Xbox Series X/S and via the cloud today. Slime Rancher 2 is coming to PC, Series X/S and Xbox Cloud Gaming through Game Pass on its release date of September 22nd. As for smash hit survival title Valheim, that will land on PC Game Pass on September 29th ahead of an upcoming console version.