Category: Technology

Apple’s iPad lineup is both more interesting and more complicated than it’s been in years. After October’s launch of the 10th-generation iPad and the M2-powered iPad Pro, Apple now sells three tablets in the 11-inch range that pack broadly similar designs but have key differences when it comes to internal components and accessory support. Last year’s 10.2-inch iPad remains on sale, but seemingly targets a different market than its “next-generation” successor of the same name. The iPad mini is still doing its thing, too.

If you’re confused about which to buy, you’re not alone. The decision isn’t as cut-and-dry as it has been in the past, so we’re here to break down the pros and cons, detail how they compare to each other and help make your decision a bit easier.

Engadget’s picks

Best for most: iPad Air

Best budget: iPad (9th gen)

Best for one-handed use: iPad mini

Best for power users: iPad Pro 12.9-inch

Best for most: iPad Air

Of the six iPad models currently on sale, the iPad Air is the closest to being universally appealing. We gave it a review score of 90 earlier this year: It has the same elegant and comfortable design language as the iPad Pro while costing less, with a bright, sharp and accurate 10.9-inch display surrounded by thin bezels and flat edges. It comes with a USB-C port, similar to what you’d find on a MacBook and many other non-iPhone devices, and while it’s not a Thunderbolt connection as on theiPad Pro, simply being able to charge the Air with the same cable you use with your other gadgets is a plus.

Apple refreshed the Air earlier this year with its M1 system-on-a-chip, which is the same silicon found in the entry-level MacBook Air. This isn’t Apple’s newest SoC, but it’s still more than powerful enough for virtually any task you can throw at it, and an increasing number of iPadOS features are exclusive to M-series chips.

The iPad Air is also compatible with Apple’s best accessories, including the second-generation Pencil stylus and the (excellent) Magic Keyboard, just like the 11-inch iPad Pro. These add a good bit of cost to the bottom line, but for digital artists or frequent typers, they’re there.

The middle of Apple’s iPad lineup is a bit congested. If you need more than the Air’s default 64GB of storage, you might as well step up to the 11-inch iPad Pro, which starts at 128GB and packs a better 120 Hz display and M2 chip for not much more than a higher-capacity Air. (The display on the 2021 iPad Pro is better, too.) The new 10.9-inch iPad isn’t bad, either, but with its non-laminated display and lacking accessory support, it’s a harder sell unless you see it on deep discount. Still, while it’s not cheap, the iPad Air is Apple’s best blend of price and performance for most.

Best budget: iPad (9th generation)

If you can’t afford the Air, or if you just don’t use your tablet heavily enough to warrant spending that much, it’s perfectly safe to get the 9th-gen iPad instead. Starting at $329 for a 64GB model — and regularly available for less than $300 — it’s by far the most wallet-friendly way into iPadOS. While its hardware is an obvious step down from the models above, it’s still more than capable for the essentials.

We gave the 9th-gen iPad a review score of 86 last year. This is the only “current” iPad to follow Apple’s older design language: It’s just a tiny bit thicker and heavier than the 10th-gen iPad and iPad Air, but its wider bezels mean there’s only enough room for a 10.2-inch display. Like the 10th-gen iPad, that screen isn’t laminated and more susceptible to glare, though it’s just as sharp. There’s a Home button located on the bottom bezel that also houses a Touch ID fingerprint scanner, and the device charges via Lightning port rather than USB-C. Its speakers don’t sound as nice, either, but it’s the only iPad to still have a headphone jack, and its 12MP front camera is fine (though, it’s not landscape-oriented as on the 10th-gen iPad).

The 9th-gen iPad runs on Apple’s A13 Bionic, which is the same SoC used in 2019’s iPhone 11 series. It won’t be as fluid or futureproof as the M1, but it’s plenty quick for casual tasks. In terms of first-party accessories, the tablet supports Apple’s Smart Keyboard and first-gen Pencil stylus. Those are less convenient than the company’s newer options, but they’re at least there.

In the end, it’s all about the price. The 9th-gen iPad is the most affordable model in Apple’s lineup, and those savings go a long way toward papering over its issues.

Best for one-handed use: iPad mini 

The iPad mini is exactly what it sounds like: the small iPad. It’s easily the shortest (7.69×5.3×0.25 inches) and lightest (0.65 pounds for the WiFi model) of every current iPad, with an 8.3-inch display that’s more comfortable to operate with one hand.

We gave the iPad mini a review score of 89 last year. Its design follows closely after that of the iPad Air: squared-off edges, thin bezels, no Home button, a Touch ID sensor in the power button, stereo speakers, solid cameras and a USB-C port. Its display is technically sharper, but otherwise gives you the same max brightness, lamination, anti-reflective coating and wide color gamut. It doesn’t have a “Smart Connector” to hook up Apple-made keyboards, but it does support the second-gen Apple Pencil.

The mini runs on Apple’s A15 Bionic SoC, the same as the one in 2021’s iPhone 13 phones. This is technically faster than the chip inside the 10th-gen iPad and, again, more than powerful enough for most tasks, though it’s a step behind the laptop-grade M1 or M2.

The mini has an MSRP of $499 for the 64GB model and $649 for the 256GB model. That’s a lot, though in recent months we’ve seen both SKUs available online for up to $100 less. If you specifically want a smaller tablet — whether it’s to easily stuff in a bag, use with one hand or treat like a high-end e-reader — this is the only option Apple sells, and the best tablet in its size range, period.

Best for power users: iPad Pro 12.9-inch

The 12.9-inch iPad Pro exists in something of its own realm within Apple’s tablet lineup. It starts at $1,099 for 128GB of storage, which is $100 more than the M1 MacBook Air. That’s well beyond what anyone needs to pay to do the vast majority of iPad things, and quite a chunk of change for a platform that still has issues with laptop-style productivity. But the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is the best pure piece of tablet hardware that Apple makes.

We gave the latest iPad Pro a review score of 87 in November. The display here can get brighter than the Air’s, and it has a 120 Hz refresh rate (the Air is limited to 60 Hz). The 12.9-inch Pro’s display is more of an upgrade than the 11-inch model, though, as it’s the only iPad to use mini-LED backlighting, which can deliver higher peak brightness, improved contrast and a generally more realistic image. Beyond that, the Pro runs on Apple’s new M2 SoC, which isn’t a huge upgrade over the M1 in real-world use but offers more performance overhead going forward. The iPad Pro has the same 12MP rear camera as the Air, but adds a 10MP ultrawide lens and an LED flash (plus a LIDAR scanner for AR apps). The 12MP front cameras, meanwhile, can take shots in portrait mode.

Beyond that, the Pro has a faster Thunderbolt USB-C port, more robust speakers and Face ID support. With its latest refresh, it can now recognize when an Apple Pencil is hovering above the display and preview would-be inputs. There are more storage options, going all the way up to 2TB, with the 1TB and 2TB models doubling the RAM from 8GB to 16GB (at a super high cost). And it works with all of Apple’s best accessories.

It’s a powerhouse, and if you do want to use an iPad more heavily for work, the roomier display on the 12.9-inch Pro should make it the most amenable option for all-day, laptop-style use. You’ll want to add a keyboard to get the most out of that, but if you’re spending this much on an iPad to begin with, that may not be as big of a deal.

Like the iPad mini, this is very much a niche device. It’s prohibitively expensive, and its hulking size makes it less portable than other iPads. Certain creatives have made it work as a laptop replacement, but for most, iPadOS still makes multitasking and other computer-y tasks more convoluted than they’d be on a similarly priced MacBook. It’s only a minor upgrade over last year’s model, too. Still, as a tablet, the 12.9-inch Pro is deeply powerful.

 

Valve’s Steam Deck is a great way to get PC games out of your office and on to your couch, back patio, or anywhere. As we said in our review, it’s worth having around even if you just play it a few times a month for a couple hours at a time. But I wound up using mine a little differently: I play the Steam Deck several times a day for just a few minutes per session.

And it’s almost the only reason I play video games at all anymore.

I’m no less interested in games than I used to be, but since becoming a father, I’ve found I have a lot less time. For the first year of my daughter’s life, setting aside an hour to play a game felt impossible. Then, Metroid Dread came out, and I found myself using the Nintendo Switch’s sleep mode in short bursts. 5 minutes while the baby played with a new toy. 10 minutes as I waited for her to fall asleep.

As I chipped away at Metroid Dread’s short 10-hour story, I found myself thinking about the Steam Deck. Not only was Valve’s gaming handheld a portable gaming system like the Switch, but it promised to give my Steam library something I had never experienced from PC gaming before: the ability to quickly suspend and resume a game. It’s a standard quality of life feature on home consoles, but trying to resume a game after putting a PC to sleep is hit or miss.

When my Steam Deck arrived four months later and the feature actually worked, it changed everything. I spent my first day with the handheld slowly playing through the Deck’s showcase demo: Valve’s Desk Job, casually picking the handheld up for just 5 minutes every few hours. When that worked, I got more ambitious — finishing Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order over the course of two weeks.

I started using the Steam Deck to play games in the margins of my day. Picking it up for a few random battles in Final Fantasy IV after the baby fell asleep on my chest, doing a deep space cargo run in Rebel Galaxy Outlaw as I watched her nap on the baby monitor, or sneaking in a few puzzles in Baba is You before turning in for the night. Suddenly I was finishing games I never thought I would have time for.

The suspend trick even works with non-Steam games and older titles: I spent hours experimenting in Lutris, an alternative Linux game launcher, getting the year 2000’s Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force to run smoothly on Steam Deck. A week or two later, I finally finished a game I abandoned when I was 16 years old.

That isn’t to say I haven’t had longer play sessions on Steam Deck. Online-only games like Final Fantasy XIV or Knockout City tend to disconnect the player when thrown into suspend mode — but I often still prefer playing them on Valve’s portable than on my big gaming desktop. Yes, an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X with 64GB of RAM and a GTX 980 GPU can soundly outperform the Deck’s custom AMD APU. It runs games at higher resolution with better graphic settings, but it’s wasted power.

I’ve grown to love having my library of PC games detached from the writing and video editing workstation that lives at my desk. You might say that’s what more powerful traditional game consoles are for, but the Deck’s Switch-like portability makes all the difference. Playing games on the couch, in bed, or while rocking the baby to sleep beats out having maxed out graphics settings every time. I’m not even sure if I’m going to upgrade that aging graphics card anymore. The Steam Deck may be less powerful, but at today’s GPU prices, it’s a far better value.

Not all of my games work smoothly on Steam Deck, but it turns out that’s a plus for me as well. I love tinkering with gadgets and fiddling around with power user settings. So when I’m forced to drop into the Deck’s desktop mode to manually install a non-Steam game, which inevitably involves configuring alternative Wine compatibility layers, I enjoy the challenge almost as much as the game I’ll eventually play. And when I do get those games running, they almost always work with Steam OS’ suspend and resume feature.

It feels a little silly to laud the Steam Deck for what’s an otherwise standard feature on most modern gaming devices, but I can’t help it. Sometimes one good feature can change everything. Before the Steam Deck, playing a game from my PC library was a chore that required sitting at a desk, booting up Windows, launching Steam and, finally, loading up a game. When you might only have minutes of free time during an entire day, that simply doesn’t work. Add in the possibility that a crying baby might call you away from that hard-earned game session at a moment’s notice, and you can start to see the appeal of a gaming device you can take anywhere, one that lets you instantly stop and start a high-end PC game with the touch of a single button.

Suspend and resume had a rough start on the Xbox One and PS4, but eventually they became kind of an expected fare. Even so, it’s a killer feature that PC gamers have largely been missing out on. I never really appreciated how much of a game changer it could be until I really needed it. The Steam Deck brings that feature to the PC crowd in a natural, user-friendly package that we’ve never had before. And being a portable system is just the icing on the cake. The Steam Deck is certainly pricey, but being able to catch up on PC games with a baby in my arms is priceless.

 

Starting next year, a lot more Netflix viewers will reportedly be able to watch its originals before they become available for streaming. According to The Wall Street Journal, the streaming service is expanding its pool of preview viewers early next year to include as many as tens of thousands of subscribers around the world from its current group of around 2,000 people. 

When Variety reported about the company’s focus group earlier this year, the publication said that Netflix has been asking subscribers if they want to join “a community of members to view and give feedback on upcoming movies and series” since at least May 2021. “It’s simple, but an incredibly important part of creating best-in-class content for you and Netflix members all around the world,” the email reportedly said. Apparently, Netflix asks members of the group to watch several unreleased shows and movies over the course of six months. They then have to fill out a survey form to tell the company what they liked and what they didn’t. 

In The Journal’s newer report, it said the streaming service calls the group the “Netflix Preview Club” and that the Leonardo DiCaprio/Jennifer Lawrence starrer Don’t Look Up was one of the movies that benefited from its feedback. The movie was initially too serious, the preview group’s members reportedly told Netflix, and the film’s creators chose to listen to them and ratcheted up its comedic elements. 

As The Journal notes, Netflix is known for giving creators a lot of creative freedom — even if it doesn’t always lead to great content — so running a preview group has been tricky. The company has apparently been careful when it comes to sharing feedback with creators and has not been forcing changes. It’s still the creators’ decision whether to incorporate changes based on the previewers’ response. 

 

Whether you know someone who just got an iPad Pro or you want to experiment with using the premium tablet as a laptop in the new year, Apple’s Magic Keyboard is one of the best typing solutions out there. However, like most first-party Apple accessories, it’ll cost you. But now you can get the 12.9-inch model for $100 less than usual from Amazon — the online retailer has the white keyboard for $250, which is the lowest price we’ve seen it.

There are a number of other keyboard options out there for all iPad models, but the Magic Keyboard is, without a doubt, the most luxurious. The 12.9-inch model on sale attaches magnetically to the back of the iPad Pro, keeping the tablet “hovering” above and slightly behind the keys and trackpad. The accessory feeds data to the iPad via the rear smart connector, and that also means that you don’t have to worry about charging it separately or pairing it via Bluetooth to the tablet like you would with many other third-party keyboards. We found the Magic Keyboard to be pretty sturdy, and it provides an excellent typing experience. Somewhat surprisingly, the trackpad wasn’t as cumbersome to scroll with as we thought it might be (since it’s much wider than it is tall) and it provides much more precise control than you’d ever get with the iPad’s touchscreen alone.

Overall, the Magic Keyboard is one of the best iPad accessories if you really want to get work done on your iPad Pro. With the advancements Apple has made in recent years with iPadOS, it is feasible to use the company’s tablets (especially the iPad Pros) as laptop replacements, and the Magic Keyboard will go a long way to making the tablet feel even more like a traditional laptop.

But we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out a few of the accessory’s flaws. The Magic Keyboard provides limited range of motion for the iPad — roughly 90 to 130 degrees — which is much less than you’d get from a standard laptop. It’s also not the slimmest solution and, while it gets close to replicating the feeling of working on a laptop, it’s not exactly the same. Plus, the Magic Keyboard adds a lot to the cost of an already expensive gadget. In this case, you probably already spent $1,000 or more on a 12.9-inch iPad Pro — adding another $350 to that is a big ask. But it’s at least a bit easier to stomach when you can get the Magic Keyboard at a discount.

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

 

We’ve talked a few times about the appeal of capable digital styluses and e-ink note-taking. Surely, it’s the perfect study tool? This time, Amazon tries it out. The Kindle Scribe, at $340, is costlier than a basic e-ink reader, but it has stylus input, high latency and a few more tricks.

This is Amazon’s first Kindle that supports stylus input, and according to Engadget’s Cherlynn Low, it offers an excellent reading and writing experience. There’s definitely room for improvement, though: Don’t expect handwriting-to-text conversion or sophisticated note-taking and syncing tools, like we’ve seen on other (usually more expensive) devices with stylus input.

This isn’t a Galaxy S22 Ultra or an iPad Pro, but it’s e-ink, sensitive to your chicken scratches and a different Kindle for Amazon. We’ve only really seen niche e-ink tablets until now. If you’re intrigued, check out our full review.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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Spotify’s 2022 Wrapped is a music-focused personality test

Myers-Briggs, but music.

It’s December, so all your streaming services are very eager to tell you which artists, songs and albums you listened to most in 2022, (it’s probably Beyoncé.) While Apple and YouTube Music already rolled out their annual nostalgia wrap-ups, Spotify’s 2022 installment of Wrapped debuts today. The company likes to put a new spin on its personalized top lists each year, and this one is no different. A new feature called Your Listening Personality offers some insight into what the music you stream says about your taste. Spotify’s invented 16 listening personality types, including The Replayer, The Specialist, The Adventurer and The Fanclubber. Why yes, we are all insufferable.

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Starlink nearly doubles satellite internet terminal prices in Ukraine

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The price of a Starlink satellite terminal has almost doubled in Ukraine, jumping from the equivalent of $385 to about $700, according to The Financial Times. The monthly rate isn’t as expensive as it once was (as high as $100), but it’s crept up from $60 to $75. It’s not known if prices have also jumped for the Ukrainian government, which gets Starlink from a variety of sources that include SpaceX itself, foreign governments and even crowdsourcing. Ukraine’s cellular networks are apparently buckling under the strain of Russian attacks on the country’s electrical grid. In some cases, Starlink is the only way for locals to reach the internet.

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Samsung may debut its Galaxy S23 flagship phone in early February

Its Unpacked event is expected to take place in San Francisco.

Samsung will unveil its Galaxy S23 devices in the US in the first week of February 2023, according to news outlet Korea JoongAng Daily, which cites an anonymous company executive. And we’ve heard other corroborating reports. While Samsung has yet to formally announce an Unpacked event for the Galaxy S23, the timeline reported by the publications is consistent with the previous flagships’ launch dates. Samsung revealed its Galaxy S22 phones on February 9th earlier this year.

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South Dakota bans TikTok from government-owned devices

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If you weren’t able to grab Apple’s 2022 iPad on Black Friday, don’t worry: It’s on sale right now for an even cheaper price. You can get the blue and the silver variants of the 64GB WiFi-only iPad right now for only $419 on Amazon, which is $30 less than retail. The yellow version of the tablet isn’t quite that cheap, but you can still get it for the device’s Black Friday price of $426. Those aren’t quite all-time lows for the 10th-gen iPad, but you’re not constricted by a time limit or by the need for a Prime subscription this time. 

Buy 2022 Apple 10.9-inch iPad (Wi-Fi, 64GB) at Amazon – $419

Apple gave the 2022 iPad a redesign to set it apart from its previous base tablets and bring its looks closer to the iPad Air and the iPad Pro. The tech giant removed the Home button and moved its Touch ID to the lock button. Its bezels are thinner, its display is bigger and its front-facing camera has been moved to the landscape border. Another big change is that the device now comes with a USB-C charging port instead of a Lightning port like previous models. 

The tablet is powered by an A14 Bionic chip, and while it’s a modest upgrade from last year’s A13, it does improve the device’s performance. When we reviewed the device, we also found that its battery life met or exceeded the 10-hour estimate Apple provides for every iPad: It lasted 11 hours and 45 minutes when we used it to play movies purchased from the iTunes Store. 

It’s unclear when the tablet’s price will go back to retail, but this is a great chance to purchase one for the coming holiday season either for yourself or as a gift. 

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

 

You have quite a few streaming choices for this year’s upcoming Game Awards, but Valve is making its Steam TV coverage more enticing than most by giving away a ton of Steam Deck consoles. The video game developer and distributor has announced that it’s giving away one 512GB Steam Deck every minute during the live airing of the awards show on December 8th. To be eligible, you’ll have to be watching the event on Steam TV, which starts at 7:30PM ET, and you’ll have to register on the giveaway’s official page beforehand to enter the drawing. 

One factor that could potentially prevent you from joining the draw is your location: You can only register and win if you’re in the US, Canada, UK or the EU, where the console is currently available for sale. In addition, you must have made a Steam purchase between November 14th, 2021 and November 14th, 2022 to verify your country and prove that your account is not limited and is in good standing. Valve will draw a random name from the pool of registrants every minute during the event and will be announcing winners in chat as each drawing takes place. To note, the show is expected to run for around two-and-a-half hours, so that’s over a hundred Steam Decks to be won. 

The 2022 Game Awards will not only stream online but will also offer a live “IMAX Experience” in select cities in the US, Canada and other regions. This year’s event also introduces a new category for best adaptation featuring projects that translate games to movies, TV shows, podcasts and books.

 

LastPass CEO Karim Toubba has revealed that the password manager has been breached again. Toubba said the company detected an unusual activity within a third-party cloud storage service that it shares with its parent company GoTo, which was formerly known as LogMeIn. To investigate the incident, LastPass has teamed up with security firm Mandiant. Together, they’ve determined that the unauthorized party got into LastPass’ cloud service by using information obtained from the security breach it suffered in August this year. Further, they’ve discovered that the bad actor was able to access “certain elements” of its customers’ information.

If you’ll recall, LastPass was hacked back in August, and Toubba admitted after an investigation that the unauthorized party had internal access to its systems for four days. The hacker was able to steal some of the password manager’s source code and technical information, but LastPass said customers’ data and encrypted password vaults remained untouched. Apparently, the hacker’s access was limited to the service’s development environment. While the unauthorized party was able to access some user information this time, LastPass said customers’ passwords remain safely encrypted. 

In an announcement of its own, remote work and collaboration tools provider GoTo has admitted that bad actors gained entry into its development environment. Like LastPass, the company has assured customers that its products and services are fully functional despite the breach. The password manager and its parent company are still investigating the incident to understand its scope, so we’ll likely hear more details in the coming months. 

 

YouTube has revealed its top videos and creators of 2022. At the top of the US trending video list is the final video from Technoblade, a Minecraft creator who died after a battle with cancer. Technoblade wrote a farewell message to fans that his father read in the video, which has more than 87.6 million views.

In second place is The Guardian‘s uncensored version of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock during the Oscars ceremony, which has 103 million total views. Another popular Minecraft creator, Dream, revealed his face for the first time in a video that racked up 47 million views. The list also includes the Super Bowl LVI halftime show, the culmination of Mark Rober’s anti-porch pirate glitterbomb series and that Try Guys mess.

The trending video list is based on US video views, which explains why MrBeast’s recreation (and giveaway) of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory is in fifth place despite having 126 million total views. YouTube also excludes Shorts, music videos, trailers and children’s videos from this list.

Speaking of MrBeast, he was the top creator based on the number of subscribers gained in the US. That’s not too surprising, since he has the most subscribers of any individual creator (Indian music label T-Series has the most overall). YouTube says that list doesn’t take into account artists, brands, media companies or children’s content.

Elsewhere, YouTube revealed the top songs in the US for 2022 (featuring tracks released this year or older ones that saw a significant uptick in views). “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Disney’s Encanto topped the list with 503 million views. Bad Bunny and Karol G each had two songs on the list.

 

It’s been six years since Tesla, SpaceX (and now Twitter) CEO Elon Musk co-founded brain-control interfaces (BCI) startup, Neuralink. It’s been three years since the company first demonstrated its “sewing machine-like” implantation robot, two years since the company stuck its technology into the heads of pigs — and just over 19 months since they did the same to primates, an effort that allegedly killed 15 out of 23 test subjects. After a month-long delay in October, Neuralink held its third “show and tell” event on Wednesday where CEO Elon Musk announced, “we think probably in about six months, we should be able to have a Neuralink installed in a human.”

Neuralink has seen tumultuous times in the previous April 2021 status update: The company’s co-founder, Max Hodak, quietly quit just after that event, though he said was still a “huge cheerleader” for Neuralink’s success. That show of confidence was subsequently shattered this past August after Musk reportedly approached Neuralink’s main rival, Synchron, as an investment opportunity. 

Earlier in February, Neuralink confirmed that monkeys had died during prototype testing of its BCI implants at the ​​University of California, Davis Primate Center but rejected accusations by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine of animal cruelty. Musk responded indirectly to those charges on Wednesday. 

“Before we would even think of putting a device in an animal, we do everything possible we with rigorous benchtop testing, We’re not cavalier about putting these devices into animals,” he said. “We’re extremely careful and we always want the device, whenever we do the implant — whether into a sheep, pig or monkey — to be confirmatory, not exploratory.”

In July, Synchron beat Neuralink to market when doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York successfully installed the company’s inch-and-a-half long device into a person living with ALS. The patient, who has lost their ability to move and communicated independently, should be able to surf the web and send text messages using the device to translate their thoughts into computer commands. That same month, an affair Musk had with a Neuralink executive, who is now pregnant with his twins, also came to light. 

Neuralink is still working towards gaining FDA approval for its implant, though the company was awarded the agency’s Breakthrough Device Designation in July 2020. This program allows patients and caregivers more “timely access” to promising treatments and medical devices by fast tracking their development and regulatory testing. As of September, 2022 the FDA has granted that designation to 728 medical devices. 

The FDA has also updated its best practices guidance regarding clinical and nonclinical BCI testing in 2021. “The field of implanted BCI devices is progressing rapidly from fundamental neuroscience discoveries to translational applications and market access,” the agency asserted in its May guidance. “Implanted BCI devices have the potential to bring benefit to people with severe disabilities by increasing their ability to interact with their environment, and consequently, providing new independence in daily life.”

“In many ways it’s like a Fitbit in your skull, with tiny wires,” Musk said of Neuralink’s device during the 2021 livestream event. The device relies on as many as 1,024, 5-micron diameter leads “sewn” into a patient’s grey matter to form connections with the surrounding neurons, providing high-resolution sampling of the brain’s electrical emissions and translating between analog electrical impulses and digital computer code. Theoretically, at least. So far, all Neuralink has accomplished is getting a monkey to play Pong without a joystick.

“We are all already cyborgs in a way,” Musk quipped during his opening remarks, “in that your phone and your computer are extensions of yourself.” However, those devices pose significant limitations on our ability to communicate, he argued. “If you’re interacting with a phone, it’s limited by the speed at which you can move your thumbs, or the speed at which you can talk into your phone.” He notes that this method can only transmit “tens, maybe a hundred” bits of data per second while “a computer can communicate at, you know, gigabits, terabits per second.”

“This is the fundamental limitation that I think we need to address to mitigate the long-term risk of artificial intelligence,” he said, credulously.