Category: Technology

The past year was stellar for handheld gaming, no matter the size of your actual hands. Between the Steam Deck, Playdate and an explosion of retro consoles, we received an embarrassing amount of mobile gaming goodness in 2022, and cloud play is only encouraging more innovation. Even though Sony still hasn’t revived the Vita, it feels like the handheld market is in the throes of a renaissance — so let’s celebrate the milestones of the year right here.

December is a historic month for handheld gaming. Sony released the PlayStation Portable in Japan on December 12th, 2004, and then debuted the Vita in Japan on December 17th, 2011. Both of these consoles were hits with players, critics and developers, but a disorganized marketing scheme and failed cloud ambitions kept Sony from investing in handheld gaming after the Vita. RIP, etc. Basically, for the past decade we’ve been waiting (very patiently, mind you) for a breakthrough mobile device to finally make this industry viable again.

Finally in 2022, the handheld market is flush. The Switch paved the way for mobile play over the past few years, and massive corporations like Valve are finally getting in on the action. Cloud gaming has found its foothold, and the market for portable Android and Linux devices is buzzing, with major names like Razer getting involved. Meanwhile, more underground companies like Analogue, Ayaneo and Panic are quietly churning out high-quality handhelds for retro, PC and indie gaming.

But of course, Valve’s Steam Deck dominated the portable conversation in 2022. The Steam Deck is big, it’s heavy, it doesn’t have a great battery life – and it’s everything PC players have been waiting for, apparently. Valve started rolling out the Steam Deck in February, and by October it had shipped more than 1 million of these beasts across the western world, with plans to expand into additional regions. Steam Deck comes in three flavors ranging from $400 to $650, which makes it more affordable than existing handheld PC devices from companies like Ayaneo. It comes with Steam pre-installed, but it’ll also run Windows if you really want to spend an afternoon screaming why? at the machine in your lap.

Imperfect though it may be, Steam Deck proved there’s heat in the handheld PC market in 2022. It’s a relatively accessible way to play PC games on a portable screen, and it successfully combines the Steam software with decades of hardware research at Valve. The Steam Deck is a great start from a company that’s known to lose focus easily, so hopefully it doesn’t all end here.

Even if Valve gets too distracted to make a Steam Deck 2.0, plenty of other companies are eager to pick up the thread in the mobile PC space. The most prominent name is Ayaneo, a brand that took off in 2021 thanks to an Indiegogo campaign that raised more than $2 million. Today, Ayaneo is continuing to iterate on its original PC device with sleek, Switch-sized machines capable of running titles from Steam, the Epic Games Store, Game Pass and other hubs. The Ayaneo Air Pro starts at $700 and can technically handle high-fidelity games, though you’ll likely have to lower your framerate, resolution and expectations. The beefiest Ayaneo, the Next Pro, starts at $1,500 and it’ll run anything a Steam Deck can, but without the extra bulk.

Ayaneo makes extremely cute gadgets and the company is emerging as Valve’s main competitor for portable PC glory. The Ayaneo 2 is poised to pack even more power into a sleek package, though it’ll have a price tag of $1,000, at least. The exciting thing here is that there’s actual competition in the handheld space – companies are investing in mobile hardware more than ever, and not just when it comes to PC play. Recent upgrades in mobile processors are powering a ton of new devices built specifically for retro and cloud gaming.

At the end of 2022, the market for retro handhelds is lush, covering every era from NES to GameCube at relatively affordable prices. On the NES to PSP side of things, this year we got the Miyoo Mini and Retroid Pocket 3: The Miyoo Mini costs about $60 and has a modern dual-core processor that can handle even some PS1 games, while the Pocket 3 is an Android-powered handheld that costs $120. For more modern emulation experiences, there’s the Odin by Ayn, which can run PS2 and GameCube titles at 1080p on a 5.9-inch screen. The Odin costs between $200 and $290, depending on the model. For retro handhelds, the general rule is the hardware gets more expensive as the era progresses.

In the honorable mention section, we have the Analogue Pocket, which plays actual physical cartridges from the Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance, and is unsurprisingly about the size of a classic Game Boy. Analogue started shipping the Pocket at the end of 2021 and it enjoyed a sold-out year, with more orders and accessories due in 2023. Pocket is a special little handheld that breathes new life into classic cartridge libraries, and it comes with a price tag of $220 – which is just about what a Game Boy would cost in today’s coin.

OK, that’s enough about the past. If 2022 has proven anything, it’s that portable gaming has a strong future, and this is going to include cloud and phone play. Cloud technology has finally become reliable enough that even Sony figured it out this year, and Microsoft has continued to grow its enormous cloud network, which is intrinsically tied to Game Pass. Our slowly encroaching subscription-based future has created a rich environment for Android- and Linux-based handhelds that don’t need a ton of on-board processing power, as the Steam Deck does. Logitech recently dropped the G Cloud Gaming Handheld, which costs $350, while the Razer Edge is an Android-based handheld starting at $400 and expected to start shipping in January.

This year Razer also released the Kishi V2, which is a $100 gamepad that essentially turns your smartphone into a cloud gaming device. Backbone makes a similar product for iPhone and Android players, and this year the company rolled out an officially licensed PlayStation gamepad just for iPhone. As mobile processors continue to evolve and cloud technology further stabilizes, smartphone gaming is only going to grow as an industry, and already mainstream entertainment companies like Netflix are joining the fray. Netflix specifically has ushered acclaimed games like Kentucky Route Zero, Into the Breach and Spiritfarer onto mobile devices this year, and it’s introduced gems like Poinpy and Hello Kitty Happiness Parade.

Finally, I’d like to take a moment to honor Playdate. This brilliant business-card-sized indie gaming machine came out in April; it costs $180, it has a crank, and it doesn’t fit into any existing video game category. Playdate exemplifies innovation. It’s an open-source, crank-powered piece of magic offering some of the most unique experiences the video game industry has to offer, distilled on a miniscule, monochromatic screen. Playdate is pure joy in a tiny yellow package, and for me, it’s the standout handheld of 2022.

And that’s a wrap. Here’s to you, handheld gaming. Thank you for a fantastic year, and may the momentum of 2022 continue to generate creative ideas in this space. To the years and games ahead, cheers.

 

One of the most convenient things about Apple’s AirPods is their ability pair quickly with other Apple devices. But sometimes things don’t always go as planned — Bluetooth connections get interrupted, a snafu occurs and you may find yourself scratching your head a bit before you can listen to your favorite playlist. To help in those situations, we’ve put together a guide to getting your AirPods to pair up with your iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. We’ve also included advice on how to connect your buds to non-Apple devices, as well as how to reset your AirPods if you ever need to start from scratch.

How to connect AirPods to an iPhone or iPad

If you’re trying to pair your AirPods to a new iPhone or iPad, and your buds are already connected to an older model, the connection should automatically transfer to your new device, provided you use the same Apple ID on your new device.

New AirPods, on the other hand, should automatically pair with your iPhone or iPad simply by holding the AirPods case near your device with the lid open. When an image of your new AirPods appears at the bottom of the screen tap the Connect button.

But that doesn’t always happen. If your AirPods don’t automatically connect, follow these steps:

1. Swipe down from the upper right corner of your iPhone or iPad’s screen to open the Control Center.

2. Long press the Bluetooth icon to expand the connections window. (Don’t tap, as this toggles Bluetooth on and off.)

3. Long press the Bluetooth icon again.

4. With your AirPods in the case and the case lid open, bring them near your iPhone. If your AirPods show up in the list of Bluetooth devices, tap their name. If they don’t show up, tap Bluetooth Settings at the bottom of the window.

5. With your AirPods in the case and the case lid open, press and hold the button at the back of the case until the light at the front of the case flashes white. When you see AirPods in the list of devices, tap their name to connect.

6. If your AirPods still don’t connect, go back to your home screen (swipe up from the bottom edge of your screen), close the lid on the AirPods, wait 15 seconds, then try the steps again. Make sure both your phone and AirPods are charged and you’re running the most recent version of iOS, which you can check by going to the Settings app, scrolling down to General and tapping on Software Update.

How to connect AirPods to a Mac

Unlike iPads and iPhones, Macs don’t automatically connect to AirPods. To connect them manually, follow these steps:

1. Click the Apple icon in the upper left corner of your screen, select System Preferences, then click the Bluetooth icon.

2. With your AirPods in the case and the case open, bring them near your Mac and press and hold the button on the back of the case until the small light on the front of the case flashes white.

3. Your AirPods should show up in the Bluetooth window on your Mac. Click the Connect button to pair your AirPods.

4. If your AirPods don’t show up in the Bluetooth dialog box, shut the AirPods case and wait 15 seconds, then open the case and press the back button again. You may have to try the pairing process a few times before your AirPods show up on the list. If you still have trouble, make sure the AirPods are fully charged and you have the latest OS version installed on your Mac. Restarting your computer can also help.

How to connect AirPods to an Apple Watch

Like connections with iPhones and iPads, pairing your AirPods to your Apple Watch typically happens automatically. If you need to manually link them, follow these steps:

1. Depress the crown to bring up your Home Screen, aka the screen that shows all your apps. If you have grid view turned on, drag the grid around until you find Settings. If you have list view enabled, scroll or turn the crown to find the Settings icon. (Apps appear in alphabetical order.)

2. In Settings, scroll down to Bluetooth and tap on it. You should see a list of available nearby Bluetooth devices, regardless of whether they’re connected.

3. With your AirPods in the case and the case lid open, bring your AirPods near your watch. Tap the name of your AirPods in the list of Bluetooth devices. They should automatically connect.

4. If they don’t automatically connect, make sure both your AirPods and Apple Watch are charged. Check that your Apple Watch is updated to the latest software version, which, again, you can do by navigating to Settings, tapping General and then Software Update. Finally, make sure Bluetooth is turned on, which is a toggle switch at the bottom of the Bluetooth menu.

Other Bluetooth devices

Your AirPods and AirPods Pro will connect to many Bluetooth-enabled, non-Apple devices. You won’t be able to use Siri, but you can hear and talk, and the press-to-pause button on the stem typically still works. While some devices will vary, the procedure for most devices is as follows:

Open the Bluetooth menu on your device. For Chromebook, this is in the Quick Settings panel. For Windows, it’s in the Settings section of your Start menu. On Android phones, swipe down from the top of the screen and long press the Bluetooth icon.

With your AirPods in the case and the lid open, bring your AirPods near your device.

When your AirPods show up in the list of Bluetooth devices, tap their name.

If the AirPods don’t show up, keep the lid open and press the button at the back of the case until the light at the front flashes white.

When your AirPods appear in the list, tap their name. If they don’t appear, make sure your earbuds and device are charged. Shut the lid for 30 seconds and try again. Restarting your device and repeating the process can also help.

How to switch AirPods between devices

As of iOS 14, AirPods and AirPods Pro automatically switch between your iPhone and iPad, depending on which device is playing audio. For example, if you’re watching a show on your iPad and you get a call on your iPhone, the AirPods will switch over to your phone to answer the call.

If you want to manually switch your AirPods from device to another, follow these steps. Of course, these instructions only apply if you’ve already connected your AirPods to the device. If you haven’t done that, follow the steps above.

On an iPhone or iPad:

To make your AirPods switch to your iPhone or iPad, follow the same steps one through three in the pairing instructions above, with a different step four:

Swipe down from the upper right corner of your iPhone or iPad’s screen to open the control center.

Long press the Bluetooth icon to expand the connections window. (Don’t tap, as this toggles Bluetooth on and off.)

Long press the Bluetooth icon again.

In the list of devices that appears, select your AirPods.

On a Mac:

Switching your AirPods to your Mac is easiest to do through the Control Center by following these steps:

1. Click on the Control Center icon in your menu bar in the upper left corner.

2. Click on the text that says “Bluetooth” (not the Bluetooth icon, which toggles Bluetooth on and off). 

3. Select your AirPods from the list of available devices.

On an Apple Watch:

To connect your AirPods to your Apple Watch, follow the same steps one through two in the pairing instructions above, with a different step three:

Press the crown to bring up your home screen and tap on Settings.

Scroll down to Bluetooth and tap on it.

Select your AirPods from the list of devices.

How to reset your AirPods

If your AirPods won’t charge, won’t pair, or if you’re giving your buds to a new owner, you may want to do a factory reset. Here’s how:

Put your AirPods in the case, shut the lid, wait 30 seconds, then open the lid.

Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad and tap on Bluetooth.

Tap the blue, circled “i” next to your AirPods.

Tap Forget This Device at the bottom of the AirPods’ details screen.

Tap the red Forget Device button that appears at the bottom of the screen.

Confirm you want to remove your AirPods in the pop up window.

7. To reconnect your AirPods, don’t navigate away from the Bluetooth screen.

8. Open the lid and bring the case (with your AirPods inside) near your iPhone or iPad.

9. Press and hold the button at the back of the case until the light on the front flashes white.

10. Your AirPods will either show up in the list of Bluetooth devices, or you’ll see a pop up window with an image of the AirPods and a Connect button. Tap your AirPods name or the Connect button.

 

Mercedes isn’t tip-toeing into electrification. The automaker put together an aggressive plan and it shows no sign of slowing down. That’s why every few months it seems like there’s another Mercedes-Benz EV being announced.

In all this removal of gas-powered engines, Mercedes still needs to make sure to build vehicles that exude the luxury customers have come to expect from the automaker. It started with the EQS as the electric version of the S-Class sedan and followed that up with the EQS SUV. A taller vehicle with more headroom, off-road capabilities and the number one feature wanted by the US market: it’s an SUV.

While the parity of tech features between the EQS and EQS SUV is impressive, the one thing that S-Class owners moving to an electric luxury vehicle will notice is the increased headroom in the EQS SUV. There’s also the design, which looks better on the SUV, and if you opt for all-wheel-drive the off-roading capabilities are there for when the second home happens to be up a dirt road.

Still, we put the EQS SUV to the test and found that overall it’s an impressive entry into the luxury EV SUV market, even with its weird regenerative brake pedal. Watch the video below for the full story.

 

So how do you categorize a beast like gaming on the PC? With decades of titles to pluck from (and the first port of call for most indie titles, too), there’s so much to choose from. Gaming on your PC adds the benefits of (nearly always flawless) backward compatibility and console-beating graphical performance — if you’ve got the coin for it. The whole idea of what a PC is and where you can play it is shifting, too, with the rise of handheld “consolized” PCs like the Steam Deck. We’ve tried to be broad with our recommendations here on purpose – there are so many great games out there for your PC, consider these some starting points.

Rollerdrome

Rollerdrome is lush. It’s incredibly stylish, taking cues from 1970s Hollywood sci-fi but with an attractive cel-shaded filter over every scene. Even better than its stunning visuals, Rollerdrome has smooth, precise mechanics that allow players to fall into a flow in every level. The game is all about gliding through the environments on rollerblades, picking up speed and doing tricks while dodging and shooting enemies, managing weapons and controlling time – and it all comes together in a thrilling dystopian bloodsport.

It’s a joy to dodge, dodge, dodge and then leap into the air, slow down time and take out the people shooting at you, refilling ammo and collecting health in the process. Meanwhile, an unsettling story of corporate greed unfolds naturally beneath the rollerblading bloodshed, keeping the stakes high. Rollerdrome was a sleeper hit of 2022, so if you’ve been napping on this one, now’s the time to wake up and play.

Stray

Stray a perfectly contained adventure game that has you embodying a cat in a post-apocalyptic world humans have left behind. It has plenty of fresh ideas, each one pared down to its purest form. Plenty of actions in Stray exist simply because they make sense for a cat protagonist (and probably because they’re cute as hell). There’s a discrete button to meow, and the robots the cat shares its world with react with shock and frustration when you cut across their board game, throwing pieces to the floor. It’s possible to curl up and sleep basically any time, anywhere – even directly on top of a robot stranger. When the cat gets pets and cuddles from the robots, it purrs and the DualSense’s haptics fire up in response. The environmental puzzles take advantage of this cat-level perspective, inviting players to look at the world with different, light-reflective eyes.

As well as puzzle-solving, ledge-leaping and blob-dodging, Stray introduces a world of lighthearted dystopia, where robots don’t hate the humans that came before them. Instead, they attempt to cultivate plants that can survive in the dark, just because people would have liked that. Compared with most dystopian cyberpunk games, Stray is downright joyful.

Overwatch 2

Even though Blizzard has improved the onramp for new players this time around, Overwatch 2 still has a steep learning curve. Stick with it, though, and you’ll get to indulge in perhaps the best team shooter around. Overwatch 2 has a deceptively simple goal — stand on or near an objective and keep the other team away long enough to win. It’s much more complex in practice. To the untrained eye, matches may seem like colorful chaos, but Overwatch 2 has a deceptively simple goal — stand on or near an objective and keep the other team away long enough to win.

It’s much more complex in practice. Blizzard reduced the number of players on each team from six to five. That, along with across-the-board character tweaks, has made gameplay faster-paced and more enjoyable compared with the original Overwatch. There’s a greater emphasis on individual impact, but you’ll still need to work well with your teammates to secure a victory.

Now featuring a cast of more than 30 heroes, each with distinct abilities and playstyles, you’ll surely find a few Overwatch 2 characters that you can connect with. The first batch of new heroes are all a blast to play. There are many great (though often fairly expensive) new skins to kit them out with too. The game looks and sounds terrific too, thanks to Blizzard’s trademark level of polish. At least until you figure out how to play Overwatch 2, you can marvel at how good it looks.

Beat Saber

Beat Saber is a euphoric gaming sensation that makes the most of virtual reality. You’ll swing your unofficial lightsabers at incoming boxes, slicing and slamming them to the beat of the soundtrack. Similar to iconic rhythm-rail-shooter, Rez, which has its own VR iteration, Beat Saber often makes you feel like you’re creating the music as you hit your cues. We might have had initial reservations on the soundtrack at launch but new tracks and customizations continue to add to the challenge. There’s even a level creator for PC players, making this the definitive version.

Control

Take the weird Twin Peaks narrative of Alan Wake, smash it together with Quantum Break‘s frenetic powers and gunplay, and you’ve got Control. Playing as a woman searching for her missing brother, you quickly learn there’s a thin line between reality and the fantastical. It’s catnip for anyone who grew up loving The X-Files and the supernatural. It’s also a prime example of a studio working at their creative heights, both refining and evolving the open-world formula that’s dominated games for the past decade.

Disco Elysium Final Cut

Disco Elysium is a special game. The first release from Estonian studio ZA/UM, it’s a sprawling science-fiction RPG that takes more inspiration from D&D and Baldur’s Gate than modern combat-focused games. In fact, there is no combat to speak of, instead, you’ll be creating your character, choosing what their strengths and weaknesses are, and then passing D&D-style skill checks to make your way through the story. You’ll, of course, be leveling up your abilities and boosting stats with items, but really the game’s systems fall away in place of a truly engaging story, featuring some of the finest writing to ever grace a video game.

With the Final Cut, released 18 months after the original, this extremely dialogue-heavy game now has full voice acting, which brings the unique world more to life than ever before. After debuting on PC, PS5 and Stadia, Final Cut is now available for all extant home consoles – including Nintendo’s Switch.

Halo Infinite

Master Chief’s latest adventure may not make much sense narratively, but it sure is fun to play. After the middle efforts from 343 Industries over the last decade, Halo Infinite manages to breathe new life into Microsoft’s flagship franchise, while also staying true to elements fans love. The main campaign is more open than ever, while also giving you a new freedom of movement with the trusty grappling hook. And the multiplayer mode is wonderfully addictive (though 343 still needs to speed up experience progression), with a bevy of maps and game modes to keep things from getting too stale. The only thing keeping it from greatness is its baffling and disjointed story.

FTL: Faster Than Light

Who hasn’t wanted to captain their own spaceship? Well, after a few hours of FTL: Faster Than Light, you might be rethinking your life goals. FTL is a roguelike, which means every game starts from the same spot. All you have to do is travel through a number of star systems, recruiting crew members and collecting scrap as you make your way towards a final showdown against a stupidly overpowered ship. Gameplay is roughly divided between a map view, where you can take as much time as you like to chart the most efficient route to your goal, and combat events which play out in real-time (although you can and will be using a pause button to slow things down).

Where the real fun comes in is in the narrative, which plays out in two ways. There’s the structured side, where every so often you’ll be asked to make decisions that may improve or hinder your chances of survival. And then there’s the natural story you create for yourselves, as you’re forced to decide, for example, whether it’s worth sacrificing a crew member for the greater good.

Hades

Hades was the first early access title to ever make our best PC game list. It’s an action-RPG developed by the team behind Bastion, Transistor and Pyre. You play Zagreus, son of Hades, who’s having a little spat with his dad, and wants to escape from the underworld. To do so, Zagreus has to fight his way through the various levels of the underworld and up to the surface. Along the way, you’ll pick up “boons” from a wide range of ancient deities like Zeus, Ares and Aphrodite, which stack additional effects on your various attacks. Each level is divided into rooms full of demons, items and the occasional miniboss.

As Hades is a “roguelike” game, you start at the same place every time. With that said the items you collect can be used to access and upgrade new weapons and abilities that stick between sessions. Hades is on this list not for any reason other than it’s super accessible and very, very fun. You can jump in for 30 minutes and have a blast, or find yourself playing for hours.

Half-Life: Alyx

Half-Life: Alyx feels like a miracle. After 13 years away from the franchise, Valve delivered a genuinely thrilling prequel to Half-Life 2 while also charting new territory for VR gameplay. The gravity gloves, its key new feature, is the closest I’ve ever felt to having telekinetic powers. It gives you multiple movement options so you don’t get sick trotting around the expansive environments. Oh yeah, and it’s also absolutely terrifying, banking on the claustrophobic nature of VR. There’s no looking away when a facehugger leaps at you from the dark, or when a horrifically deformed zombie gets in your face. It might sound a bit hyperbolic, but Alyx might end up being one of the most important titles of this generation. Building a big-budget game for a niche VR market doesn’t make much sense for most companies, but for Valve, it’s Tuesday.

Nier Automata

Nier Automata takes the razor-sharp combat of a Platinum Games title and puts it in a world crafted by everyone’s favorite weirdo, Yoko Taro. Don’t worry, you can mostly just run, gun and slash your way through the game, but as you finish, and finish and finish this one, you’ll find yourself pulled into a truly special narrative, that’s never been done before and will probably never be done again. It’s fair to say that the PC release, as is unfortunately often the case, wasn’t exactly the best and is still remarkably lacking in options, but it’s at least stable now, and trust us when we say this one is unmissable.

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator came out at the perfect time, when the world was on lockdown and airline travel was an impossibility for most people. Not only does Flight Sim let players pilot a vast array of aircrafts, but it presents the world on a platter in stunning, ridiculous detail. It’s an escape, it’s educational and it’s entertaining – is that what they mean by E3? – and there’s really nothing else on its level when it comes to realistic physics simulations. Pandemic or no, Microsoft Flight Simulator is an incredible achievement with a long tail both inside and outside of the video game industry.

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Many were ready to write off the Resident Evil series after the disaster that was Resident Evil 6. What started as the horror game on the original PlayStation had become a bloated mess of an action game. Instead of throwing the whole franchise in the trash and forgetting about it, Capcom took a hard look at what wasn’t working, which — surprise! — was basically everything, and thoroughly rebooted the formula. Borrowing from Kojima’s PT and, in some ways, Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is horror through powerlessness. For the majority of the game, you’re basically unable to do anything but run from or delay your foes. And that’s what makes it so good.

Return of the Obra Dinn

This is an unforgettable ghost-story-slash-murder-mystery with a distinctive old-school graphical style. It’s unlike any game we’ve played in a while, with a low-key musical score and a style of puzzle solving that’s like one satisfying, grisly riddle. In Return of the Obra Dinn, you’re put aboard a ship, alone. There is, however, a corpse near the captain’s cabin. As you track the deceased’s final footsteps, leading to yet more grisly ends, you need to figure out what happened. Who killed who? And who is still alive? Special mention to the sound effect that kicks in every time you solve the fates of three of the crew. Goosebumps.

The Witcher 3

It might be the best open-world RPG out there. Despite now being several years old, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a dense action game that acknowledges the maturity of the player with multiple — occasionally harrowing — storylines, choices that have consequences and almost too much game to wrestle with. It’s not perfect; the combat system is rough, frustrating death comes in the form of falling from just a few feet and there’s a lot of quest filler alongside many incredibly well thought out distractions. The scope and ambition on display will have you hooked, and once you’re done, there are some excellent expansions to check out.

Forza Horizon 5

Forza Horizon 5 deftly walks a fine line by being an extremely deep and complex racing game that almost anyone can just pick up and play. The game has hundreds of cars that you can tweak endlessly to fit your driving style, and dozens of courses spread all over a gorgeous fictional corner of Mexico. If you crank up the difficulty, one mistake will sink your entire race, and the competition online can be just as fierce.

But if you’re new to racing games, Forza Horizon 5 does an excellent job at getting you up and running. The introduction to the game quickly gives you a taste at the four main race types you’ll come across (street racing, cross-country, etc.), and features like the rewind button mean that you can quickly erase mistakes if you try and take a turn too fast without having to restart your run. Quite simply, Forza Horizon 5 is a beautiful and fun game that works for just about any skill level. It’s easy to pick up and play a few races and move on with your day, or you can sink hours into it trying to become the best driver you can possibly be.

 

Twitter Blue has enabled new perks for subscribers including “prioritized rankings in conversations” and video uploads up to 60 minutes in length, according to an updated feature list spotted by TechCrunch. Both features were promised by Elon Musk last month when he said Blue subscribers who pay $8 per month would get “priority in replies, mentions & search” and the ability to post long videos. 

Reply priority is now in effect, with the support page stating that “this feature prioritizes your replies on Tweets that you interact with.” That seems to be the case on severaltweets I looked at, with Twitter Blue subscribers (many with few followers) appearing as the top replies. It’s not clear if users paying $8 per month will always appear at the top in replies, or whether or factors are also used.

Twitter support said earlier that priority rankings will “help lower the visibility of scams, spam and bots.” However, some users have expressed concern that the new system will lower the experience for non-paying users, or that paid priority might help spammers, trolls and others amplify their messages. 

The new video rules will boost length from 10 minutes and 512MB to 60 minutes and 2GB at up to 1080p resolution, though only on the web — the 10-minute rule still applies to Android and iOS users. Twitter also notes that it may “modify or adapt your original video for distribution, syndication, publication or broadcast by us and our partners” or change the bitrate/resolution depending on a viewer’s internet speeds. 

Musk said that Twitter will eventually pay creators for uploaded videos, noting that it might even exceed the 55 percent cut that YouTube offers. However, it hasn’t said whether that will be done with ads or other means. It’s also not clear how it may address piracy issues, given that much of its moderation team has been let go or quit. 

 

YouTube is ready for some more football. The streaming service has snagged the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket package, which offers access to out-of-market games that air on Fox and CBS each Sunday. DirecTV, the current home of Sunday Ticket, has held the rights since 1994, but the bundle will move to Google’s streaming service next season. YouTube and the NFL didn’t announce the terms of the deal, but according to The Wall Street Journal, YouTube will pay $2 billion per year in a seven-year pact – around $500 million more per season than DirecTV is paying.

Having exclusive rights to a bundle with many out-of-market NFL games should draw even more users to YouTube. Live sport coverage is turning into the next battleground for streaming. Amazon Prime Video has an 11-year deal to stream Thursday Night Football games that started this season. Meanwhile, Apple is pushing further into live sports as well, with a 10-year deal to stream every Major League Soccer game via Apple TV starting in 2023.

– Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

ByteDance fired four employees who accessed US journalists’ TikTok data

The best PlayStation 5 games for 2023

Google is making its internal video-blurring privacy tool open source | Engadget

Rank and file tech workers have been fed up. In 2022, they organized

2022 was a surprisingly great year for monitors

The best shows to binge-watch over the holidays in 2022

Catch up on some of these excellent shows.

2021 was a bit of a reset for the entertainment industry, with more of us returning to theaters and plenty of must-watch TV shows hitting streaming networks. If you’ve gotten used to catching up on everything on your couch, don’t worry — there’s still plenty to watch over the holidays. We’ve covered HBO Max, Disney Plus, Netflix and the rest.

Continue reading.

How to permanently delete all your Facebook and Meta-owned accounts

Breaking up with Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp can be complicated.

‘Tis the season to be done with social media. For Facebook, Instagram and other Meta-run services, deleting an account entirely isn’t necessarily straightforward, either, with no single centralized way to delete all your Meta-associated accounts. We run through how to download all your data and digitally clean up after yourself, just in case you need something fun to do over the holidays.

Continue reading.

The Lastpass hack was worse than the company first reported

Because of course it was.

Password manager app Lastpass announced on Thursday the most recent hack was much more damaging than initially reported. The attackers made off with users’ password vaults in some cases – that is, entire collections of encrypted personal data, if not the immediate method to unlock them. “No customer data was accessed during the August 2022 incident,” LastPass CEO Karim Toubba, explained. However, some of the app’s source code was lifted and then used to spearphish a Lastpass employee into giving up their access credentials, those keys were then used to decrypt and copy off, “some storage volumes within the cloud-based storage service.” That data could include basic customer account information like company names, billing, email and IP addresses and telephone numbers.

Continue reading.

Tesla reveals an angular $300 wireless phone charger

I preferred the flamethrower.

The latest baffling peripheral from Tesla has nothing to do with its cars – even if it’s inspired by the boxy angles of the Cybertruck. It’s a wireless charger that can juice multiple compatible devices, with a suede-ish finish and a tiny Tesla logo on the edge. It’s also $300. You could buy a new phone for that, or subscribe to Twitter Blue for over two years.

Continue reading.

 

Last week, Twitter banned Jack Sweeney’s @ElonJet account that tracked Elon Musk’s private jet, then unveiled a new policy against sharing live locations shortly afterward. Now, Sweeney is back with a new account called @ElonJetNexDay that still tracks Musk’s aircraft, but adds a 24-hour delay to the location, TechCrunch has reported.

It appears to be Sweeney’s effort conform to Twitter’s new rules, which state that it’s permissible to share “publicly available information after a reasonable time has elapsed, so that the individual is no longer at risk for physical harm.” The account has only been online for a short time, however, so it remains to be seen whether Twitter will see it the same way

Sweeney and his @ElonJet account have been on Musk’s radar for a while. In January, a few months before Musk announced a deal to buy Twitter, he offered Sweeney $5,000 to delete the account. Sweeney rejected the overture, instead asking for $50,000. As CNBC notes, @ElonJet had more than half a million followers. 

The ban came about after Elon Musk said a car carrying his son X Æ A-12 was followed by a stalker in Los Angeles. Twitter soon told Sweeney that his account “broke Twitter rules,” though didn’t specify which ones. Musk later said that “legal action” would be taken against Sweeney and “organizations who supported harm to my family.”

Sweeney’s @ElonJet tracker bot now has 67,000 followers on Mastadon and tracks jets belonging to Musk and others on Facebook and Instagram. The bans are part of a large amount of Twitter drama around Musk that recently culminated in one of Musk’s famous Twitter polls, with a decisive number of users voting that he should step down as CEO of Twitter. 

 

Fallout from Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal continues over four years after it was first exposed. Parent company Meta has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a long-running class-action lawsuit accusing Facebook of allowing Cambridge Analytica and other third parties to access user’s private information, Reuters has reported. 

The settlement resolves user claims that Facebook violated federal and state laws by allowing the company’s preferred vendors and partners to harvest their personal data without consent. It’s reportedly the largest ever in a US data privacy class action and the most Meta has ever paid to resolve a class-action lawsuit. 

“This historic settlement will provide meaningful relief to the class in this complex and novel privacy case,” the lead lawyers for the plaintiffs said in a statement. 

Meta admitted no wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which is still subject to approval by a federal judge. “Over the last three years we revamped our approach to privacy and implemented a comprehensive privacy program,” Meta said in a statement, adding that the settlement “was in the best interest of our community and shareholders.” 

Cambridge Analytica, now defunct, worked for Ted Cruz and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaigns. It accessed the personal data of up to 87 million people by an app (thisisyourdigitallife) and used the information gathered to target individuals with personally tailored messages. The scandal was exposed by The New York Times and The Guardian in 2018, thanks in large part to whistleblower Christopher Wylie.

In 2019, Facebook agreed to pay a $5 billion fine following a Federal Trade Commission investigation and $100 million to settle US Securities and Exchange Commission claims. It also paid £500,000 (about $644,000) in fines to the UK, a pittance compared to what it would have paid had the GDPR been in place when the scandal occurred. 

Facebook hasn’t put Cambridge Analytica behind it yet, either. The company is still fighting a lawsuit by the Washington DC attorney general, as well as a number of state attorneys general. 

 

This is a wireless phone charger that holds not one, not two, but three entire phones! And charges them wirelessly! Tesla makes it! For just $300! Shut up and take my money! Are you kidding me?! This is phenomenal! JANET! HEY JANET, GET MY WALLET, IT’S ON THE NIGHTSTAND. 

“Inspired by the angular design and metallic styling of Cybertruck,” with 15W of power! That sounds like a lot! I should see what my normal charger does, bet it’s not half as much as this thing. Stupid normal charger, not even modeled after a truck that’s not even in production yet. 

And look at this build quality. It’s got everything: aluminum housing, an alcantara surface (who doesn’t love the feel of a suede-like microfiber material?) and a detachable magnetic stand that both lays flat and sits at an angle! This way I can never not be looking at my three phones, even when they’re charging. This is going to be so awesome. Best three hundred dollars plus tax I’ll probably ever spend. JANET, WHERE ARE WE WITH THAT WALLET?

Hell yeah, it uses FreePower technology, that means I’ll be able to just throw a few grand worth of Qi-compatible earbuds, mobile devices, smart watches and accessories on this thing all willy-nilly. Won’t have to line them up or anything because that’s how I do it. I’m the type who moves fast and breaks things.

Aw, whaddya mean it’s not coming out until February? In Tesla months that could be years from now! JANET! IX-NAY ON THE ALLET-WAY!

 

After being hacked for the second time in as many years this August, password manager app Lastpass announced on Thursday the most recent intrusion was much more damaging than initially reported with the attackers having made off with users’ password vaults in some cases. That means the thieves have people’s entire collections of encrypted personal data, if not the immediate method to unlock them.

“No customer data was accessed during the August 2022 incident,” LastPass CEO Karim Toubba, explained. However, some of the app’s source code was lifted and then used to spearphish a Lastpass employee into giving up their access credentials, then used those keys to decrypt and copy off, “some storage volumes within the cloud-based storage service.”

Among the encrypted data obtained by the hackers included basic customer account information like company names, billing, email and IP addresses; and telephone numbers, Toubba continued. “These encrypted fields remain secured with 256-bit AES encryption and can only be decrypted with a unique encryption key derived from each user’s master password using our Zero Knowledge architecture,” Toubba said. “As a reminder, the master password is never known to LastPass and is not stored or maintained by LastPass.” 

Still, you’re going to take the company’s word for it? I’m not. It’ll be a pain but swapping out all of your various existing site passwords for new ones — as well as picking a new master password — might ultimately prove necessary to regain your online security. Or you could just tell Lastpass to go kick rocks and switch over to 1Password or Bitwarden.