Category: Technology

Razer just launched a new premium gaming mouse, the Cobra Pro, that’s packed with buttons and customization options, all wrapped in an eye-pleasing symmetrical design. There’s seven buttons at the top of the device, two on the side and one on the bottom, adding up to ten. As is traditional with modern mice, each button is fully customizable. However, Razer takes this customization to the next level.

The Cobra Pro stores five memory profiles that allow you to instantly swap between customization options to suit whatever game you’re playing. Additionally, the mouse integrates with Razer’s Hypershift feature, which temporarily adds a secondary set of functions to each button.

The symmetrical design is nifty, but this is a modern gaming mouse, so there’s plenty of customizable RGB lighting. As a matter of fact, the Cobra Pro boasts 11 individually addressable Chroma RGB zones, which Razer says is the most zones available in its class. There’s nearly 17 million colors to choose from, so it’s highly unlikely your mouse’s lighting scheme will match your neighbors.

As for regular specs, the Cobra Pro continues some of the traditions present with the company’s well-regarded Basilisk V3. There’s a Focus Pro 30K optical sensor and next-generation optical mouse switches. The Cobra Pro integrates with the Razer Mouse Dock Pro (sold separately) that amps the polling rate up to 4000 Hz.

The built-in battery allows for 100 hours of use when connected via the company’s HyperSpeed Wireless technology and 170 hours when using traditional Bluetooth. It ships with a USB-C cable for quick-charging.

In addition to the Cobra Pro, the company also launched a bare-bones version for budget-conscious gamers. The standard Cobra mouse is wired and boasts eight customizable buttons. Both options are available now, with the Cobra Pro costing $120 and the standard Cobra coming in at just $40.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/razers-new-gaming-mouse-can-seamlessly-flip-between-five-profiles-174107137.html?src=rss 

Annapurna Interactive has a terrific track record, and we’ll soon learn more about what’s next from the highly regarded publisher. It’s running a Summer Game Fest-affiliated showcase today, and you can watch the stream on YouTube and Twitch at 3PM ET.

The presentation will include “reveals, spotlights and one of our biggest announcements yet,” Annapurna says. The publisher is cooking up a bunch of projects, including Cocoon (the most captivating game we tried at Summer Game Fest earlier this month) and story-driven RPG Thirsty Suitors. My dream of a Sayonara Wild Hearts sequel remains on hold at least for now while Simogo works on murder mystery game Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, and perhaps we’ll learn more about that today as well.

Elsewhere, Neon White is coming to Xbox at some point, so we may learn during the showcase exactly when that’ll happen. Rumors suggest the wonderful Stray is bound for Xbox as well.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/watch-annapurna-interactives-showcase-here-at-3pm-et-180020145.html?src=rss 

Meta isn’t the only internet heavyweight removing news content in response to Canada’s newly enacted Bill C-18 (aka the Online News Act), which requires that tech companies negotiate compensation with publishers for linked material. Google now says it will pull links to Canadian news stories from its search, News and Discover services in the country. It will also stop operating its News Showcase in Canada when C-18 takes effect in six months.

Google’s government affairs VP Cris Turner claims C-18 remains “unworkable legislation,” and that Canada’s soon-to-be law is unduly harsh. The European Union allows free use of links and short extracts, for example, while the Czech Republic’s stricter interpretation of the EU still allowed headlines and links. In Australia, where the law requires that some online services pay for news, Google has negotiated deals that keep its news features available and avoid falling under the law’s requirements.

The company maintains that it believes a “vibrant journalism industry” is crucial, and has floated policy ideas it believes will help. These include consultation with experts, investing in newsroom progress and support for conventional news outlets as they transition to digital. The approach dictated by C-18 purportedly leads to “uncertainty” for product strategy and “uncapped” financial penalties.

The move comes just days after Meta said it would remove access to all news content from Facebook and Instagram in Canada. When it balked at similar moves by Australia and New Zealand, it claimed that such legislation lets the government unfairly decide who has to pay, and how much publishers get paid.

As with Meta, Google is using the threat of blocking news as a bargaining tool. Turner says the company still plans to “participate in the regulatory process,” and wants the government to develop a “viable path forward.” The tech firm is hoping for at least a partial change of heart, to put it simply.

There’s no guarantee of a compromise. Politicians drafted Bill C-18 after concerns about a steep drop in ad revenue for publications over the past two decades. Google and other companies have invested in newsroom projects, offered free tools and highlighted news in a bid to support publishers, but legislators clearly aren’t convinced these efforts go far enough.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-will-pull-news-links-in-canada-in-response-to-new-law-174838196.html?src=rss 

Niantic is joining the long list of companies laying off employees. The studio published an “organizational update” (after the internal memo was leaked toKotaku) announcing that it would let go of 230 employees. In addition, the company is shutting down its Los Angeles studio and canceling two licensed games: NBA All-World and Marvel: World of Heroes. The only good news for fans is that Pokémon Go, still its flagship product, will live to fight another day.

“I have made the decision to narrow our focus for mobile game investments, concentrating on first party games that most strongly embody our core values of location and local social communities,” wrote CEO John Hanke. “The mobile gaming market is very mature and only the best and most differentiated titles have a chance to succeed. We also want to increase our focus on building for the emerging class of MR devices and future AR glasses.”

Although nobody likes hearing about layoffs, Hanke’s letter seems forthcoming and candid about the company’s challenges and the mistakes he and the leadership team made. He attributes the downsizing to the studio growing its expenses faster than its revenue. “In the wake of the revenue surge we saw during Covid, we grew our headcount and related expenses in order to pursue growth more aggressively, expanding existing game teams, our AR platform work, new game projects and roles that support our products and our employees. Post Covid, our revenue returned to pre-Covid levels and new projects in games and platform have not delivered revenues commensurate with those investments.” The CEO expects the reductions to “bring expenses and revenue back into line” without shuttering its most valuable property.

On that topic, Hanke said, “The top priority is to keep Pokémon Go healthy and growing as a forever game. While we made some adjustments to the Pokémon Go team, our investment in the product and team continues to grow.” The phone-based AR game launched in the summer of 2016 and instantly became a viral sensation; it also enjoyed a resurgence in popularity during pandemic lockdowns as homebound gamers used the explorative game as an excuse to connect with a world beyond their overly familiar four walls. Just last year, the studio launched a social app for the game that lets players organize and chat.

The letter adds that the AR market “developing more slowly than anticipated” was another factor. Niantic’s games would be ideal for on-the-go AR, which the industry eventually expects to materialize as smart glasses that can pass for standard prescription specs. However, as Apple’s Vision Pro made clear, that future is still likely a ways off. Today’s wearable AR, also including the Meta Quest Pro, is home-based gear designed for work and entertainment in the comfort of your home or office. Although adaptations of Pokémon Go types of experiences may work there to some degree, the company’s trademark approach is tailor-made for AR that isn’t yet available. Niantic may well end up waiting five to 10 years to see consumer-friendly versions of that type of augmented reality — and apparently, that required some reconfiguring.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/pokemon-go-developer-niantic-is-laying-off-230-employees-180438129.html?src=rss 

The Steam Summer Sale is now live, and it includes a solid deal for those who’ve been on the fence about buying a Steam Deck. Along with thousands of games, the device is on sale until July 13th. The 64GB model has dropped by 10 percent to $359.10, while the variant with 256GB of faster NVMe storage is down to $449.65, 15 percent off the regular price. The 512GB version, which has an anti-glare screen, is 20 percent off at $519.20. The Steam Deck Dock is also 20 percent off, down to $71.20.

This is one of Steam’s two biggest sales of the year alongside the winter edition, so there are bargains galore. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, one of the biggest games of the year so far, is already on sale for 25 percent off ($52.49). Elden Ring is 30 percent off at $42, while the price of Red Dead Redemption 2 has dropped by two thirds to $19.79. Cyberpunk 2077, No Man’s Sky, the Halo Infinite single-player campaign and Forza Horizon 5 are all half off at $30 each. Meanwhile, instead of buying Dying Light 2 for that price, note that there’s a $27.88 bundle that includes Payday 2.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is down 45 percent to $38.49 and Amazon’s MMORPG New World is 60 percent off at $16. Persona 5 Royal has dropped by 40 percent to $36, while Cities Skylines is currently $9, which is 70 percent less than usual. 

Sleeper hit Dredge is 20 percent off at $20 and you can save 30 percent off the Dead Space remake, which is down to $42. Civilization VI is a whopping 90 percent off at $6, while you can snap up all three mainline Witcher games for under $17 and Stray for $22.49 (25 percent off).

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is 75 percent off at $10. Several PlayStation Studios titles are on sale too, including Uncharted: A Legacy of Thieves Collection and God of War ($30 each, down 40 percent), along with Horizon Zero Dawn and Days Gone ($16.49 each, down 67 percent). Both Spider-Man games are 33 percent off with the original dropping to $40.19 and Miles Morales down to $33.49.

As ever, we’re barely scratching the surface of the mammoth sale. There are hidden gems all over the place. For instance, I’d never heard of Not For Broadcast until scouring the list of deals, but was curious enough to pick it up. Therein lies the pitfall of Steam sales. There are always tons of compelling deals that threaten to leave your wallet significantly lighter. But hey, you do need things to play on your new Steam Deck.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-steam-deck-is-up-to-130-off-during-the-steam-summer-sale-183053314.html?src=rss 

After building to this point for over a decade, Virgin Galactic has completed its first commercial flight. After launching aboard the mothership VMS Eve, the spaceship VSS Unity reached an altitude of around 52 miles, or the edge of space. It landed nearly 15 minutes later at the company’s Spaceport America base near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, completing the Galactic 01 research mission. 

The company’s first client was the Italian government, which had the aim of conducting microgravity research. Aboard were Air Force colonel Walter Villadei, Air Force lieutenant and flight surgeon Colonel Angelo Landolfi, and Pantaleone Carlucci, a research council member acting as flight engineer and payload specialist. Unity was piloted by retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Michael Masucci and Nicola Pecile, with Virgin Galactic trainer Colin Bennett also on board.

Prior to the commercial flight, Virgin Galactic had conducted five crewed spaceflights in total, the last in late May with four employees aboard. However, the company has gone through a lot of pain getting to that point.

After several successful tests of its SpaceShipTwo spaceplane aboard the mothership WhiteKnightTwo back in 2013, Virgin Galactic’s VSS Enterprise crashed in 2014, killing the co-pilot and seriously injuring the pilot. Flight testing resumed with VSS Unity’s glide test back in 2016, and the ship finally reached space in 2018. 

The company’s first fully crewed spaceflight took place in 2021, when Unity hit an altitude of 53.4 miles with founder Richard Branson on board. However, commercial service was delayed multiple times for different reasons, most recently due to issues in upgrading the mothership VMS Eve.

From a financial perspective, the launch was crucial for Virgin Galactic. With no paying customers until now, the company has lost money for years, including more than $500 million in 2022 alone. It advertises seats at $450,000 per ticket, and previously set a goal of having 1,000 reservations prior to its first commercial launch. 

Virgin Galactic’s main rival in the suborbital tourism space race is Blue Origin, which uses a conventional rocket rather than an airplane mothership. Blue Origin CEO (and Amazon founder) Jeff Bezos has said that Virgin Galactic fails to deliver a true spaceflight experience, compared to Blue Origin’s system that tops 62 miles in altitude, past the Kármán line often used to mark the beginning of space. Others consider 50 miles the threshold.

Blue Origin has had problems of its own. Last year, one of its New Shepard rockets suffered from a booster failure about a minute after takeoff, forcing the company to deploy its escape system for the uncrewed capsule, which worked as designed. 

Another rival, SpaceX, offers a far different experience — its Falcon 1 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule take customers into a true orbit. SpaceX has even flown a private crew to the International Space Station on a 10-day mission, reportedly for a $55 million fee.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/virgin-galactic-completes-its-first-commercial-spaceflight-161701356.html?src=rss 

A decent smartphone used to cost upwards of $500, but those days are thankfully over. Now it’s possible to find something that meets most of your needs for as little as $160. However, navigating the budget phone market can be tricky. Many options that look good on paper often aren’t great in use, and some handsets will end up costing you more when you consider many come with restrictive storage. This guide will help you find a bargain and highlight our top picks for the best cheap phones you can buy right now.

What to look for in a cheap phone

For this guide, our recommendations cost between $100 and $300. Anything less and you might as well go buy a dumb phone or high-end calculator instead. Since they’re meant to be more affordable than their flagship and midrange siblings, entry-level smartphones involve compromises; the cheaper a device, the lower your expectations around performance and experience should be. For that reason, the best advice I can give is to spend as much as you can afford. In this price range, even $50 or $100 more can get you a dramatically better product.

Second, you should know what you want most from a phone. When buying a budget device, you may need to sacrifice a decent camera for a long-lasting battery or trade a high-resolution display for a faster processor. That’s just what comes with the territory, but knowing your priorities will make it easier to find the right phone.

It’s also worth noting some features can be hard to find on cheap handsets. For instance, you won’t need to search far for a device with all-day battery life — but if you want a great camera, you’re better off shelling out for one of the recommendations in our midrange smartphone guide, which all come in at $600 or less. Wireless charging and waterproofing also aren’t easy to find in this price range and forget about a fast processor. On the bright side, all our recommendations come with headphone jacks, so you won’t need to get wireless headphones.

iOS is also off the table, since the most affordable handset Apple sells is the $400 iPhone SE. That leaves Android as the only option. Thankfully, in 2023, there’s little to complain about Google’s OS – and you may even prefer it to iOS. Lastly, keep in mind most Android manufacturers typically offer far less robust software support for their budget devices. In some cases, your new phone may only receive one major Android update and a year or two of security patches beyond that. That applies to the OnePlus and Motorola recommendations on our list. If you’d like to keep your phone for as long as possible, Samsung has the best software policy of any Android manufacturer in the budget space, offering four years of security updates on all of its devices.

The best budget phone: OnePlus Nord N30 5G

The recently announced $300 OnePlus Nord N30 5G offers the best value of any of the smartphones on our list. No other phone in the price bracket features a processor as fast as the N30’s Snapdragon 695 5G. Moreover, OnePlus has specced the N30 with a generous 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, meaning you probably won’t need to budget for a microSD card or cloud storage. It also comes with a 120Hz IPS display, a feature that’s great for both gaming and everyday use. Best of all, the N30 ships with a 50W power adapter that you can use to get a full day of battery life in 30 minutes. The N30 would be almost perfect if it had waterproofing and OnePlus had committed to pushing more than one major Android update to the phone.

Another great option: Samsung Galaxy A14 5G

Don’t let the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G’s modest price and uninspired design fool you — it has a lot to offer. For $200, you get a phone that is surprisingly fast and features a competent camera. Additionally, it has NFC connectivity for contactless payments, something you won’t find on a lot of phones in this price range. Battery life is also excellent, coming in at two days with moderate use. Plus, there’s that great software policy I mentioned above, with Samsung promising to support the A14 with two major Android updates and four years of security patches. The only thing missing from the A14 is waterproofing, so you may want to opt for something sturdier if you live by the beach or like to doomscroll in the tub.

An ultra-budget pick: Samsung Galaxy A03s

If you want to spend as little as possible but still want something from a reputable brand, the $160 Samsung Galaxy A03s is your best bet. Thanks to its MediaTek Helio P35 processor, the A03s performs better than you would expect. Unfortunately, the phone feels about as cheap as it costs and the camera isn’t much better. Oh, and did I mention the A03s ships with a measly 32GB of internal storage? In other words, be prepared to buy a microSD card to store all your photos and music. Thankfully, the A03s, like its more expensive sibling, will receive four years of security updates from Samsung. You won’t find that kind of software support on any other handset in the sub-$200 category.

Honorable mention: Motorola Moto G Stylus

The $200 Motorola Moto G Stylus offers something none of the other picks on this list do: a built-in stylus. If you love doodling and jotting down notes, then this is the cheap phone to buy. Thankfully, it has a few other things going for it too. The Moto G Stylus sports a big and responsive 6.5-inch display and a long-lasting 5,000mAh battery. Plus, it’s available in two lovely colors: midnight blue and glam pink.

As with other options in this price range, it would be nice if the Moto G Stylus came with a more capable camera, a fast charger and better protection against water. One word of advice: steer clear of Moto G Stylus 5G. It doesn’t offer enough of an upgrade to justify costing $400.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-cheap-phones-130017793.html?src=rss 

After years of testing and delays, Virgin Galactic’s first commercial spaceflight is finally taking off — today, if the company’s plan goes as intended. Galactic 01 is scheduled to launch from the company’s Spaceport America facility in New Mexico past 11AM Eastern time, and you can stream the event live on Virgin Galactic’s website or through the video below.

The mission will carry a three-person crew from the Italian Air Force and the National Research Council of Italy to suborbital space aboard the VSS Unity. That’s Virgin Galactic’s second SpaceShipTwo space plane, which first reached space back in 2018. The flight will last for 90 minutes, during which the crew will conduct 13 scientific experiments. A particular experiment requires one of the passengers, Col. Walter Villadei, to wear a state-of-the-art smart suit to measure his physiological responses and biometric data in space. 

Virgin Galactic posted a net loss of $159.4 million for the quarter ending in March 31st this year, almost twice the loss it posted for the same period a year ago. Galactic 01’s success will lead to more and frequent launches in the future, and that could eventually lead to profitability. If this mission goes off without a hitch, the company plans to launch Galactic 02 with a private crew in early August. After that, the company plans to launch suborbital flights on a monthly basis, charging passengers $450,000 a seat. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/watch-the-launch-of-virgin-galactics-first-commercial-spaceflight-143027267.html?src=rss 

Shark makes some of the best robot vacuums around and you can currently save quite a bit on a self-emptying model. The device is 50 percent off as it has dropped to $300 at Amazon. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen for it to date.

Robot vacuums are an excellent quality of life upgrade for many people compared with having to clean floors manually with a standard vacuum. Shark’s RV1001AE model has several features that make it a strong option. It has a bagless, self-emptying base that Shark says can hold up to 45 days worth of muck. You won’t need to buy disposal bags like you would with other models.

The vacuum is able to map out your home. You can schedule cleanings for your entire home or ask the robot to take care of a certain room or area immediately using the SharkClean app, Alexa or Google Assistant.

Shark says the vacuum has powerful suction as well as a self-cleaning brushroll that can pull debris and hair from carpets and hardwood floors. The Shark IQ Robot uses a row-by-row cleaning method. When it’s done, it returns to its dock to recharge.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-self-emptying-shark-robot-vacuum-is-half-off-right-now-150001668.html?src=rss 

You knew it was just a matter of time before Polestar echoed Volvo’s adoption of Tesla’s charging technology. The EV-oriented brand has confirmed that it will use Tesla’s NACS connector in North America. You’ll see “convenient” CCS-to-NACS adapters for existing cars in mid-2024, and cars released in 2025 onward will have the standard built-in. An adapter will help those future models charge at CCS stations.

The news complicates the expansion of Polestar’s lineup. The Polestar 3 SUV and Polestar 4 SUV coupe are expected in 2024, while the Polestar 5 grand tourer and Polestar 6 roadster are coming later. In other words, some models will have as little as one year of CCS-native charging before moving to Tesla’s port while others will ship with NACS from the outset. You may have to decide if it’s worth dealing with an adapter just to get an EV as soon as it’s available.

The reasoning behind the switch is the same as for Volvo: using NACS gives Polestar drivers access to Tesla’s much larger (not to mention more reliable) Supercharger network in North America, with over 12,000 charge points available so far. This could “greatly increase” EV uptake in the area, Polestar chief Thomas Ingenlath argues. You could buy a Polestar 3 knowing you’d have enough charging stations to complete a long-distance trip.

Volvo and Polestar aren’t alone. Ford, GM and Rivian have also committed to using Tesla’s tech in North America, while Hyundai and Stellantis have said they’re evaluating that move. For Polestar, however, the decision may be more symbolically significant than for other marques. It’s considered one of the closest competitors to Tesla — the Polestar 2 is an obvious Model 3 alternative. This isn’t an outright capitulation to Tesla, but it is an acknowledgment that access to the Supercharger network is a major advantage that sways customers.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/polestar-will-join-volvo-in-switching-to-teslas-ev-charging-standard-144653065.html?src=rss