Category: Technology

There’s a reason that, month after month, Vampire Survivors has been the most-played game on Steam Deck: it’s a blast. Your character auto-fires weapons as thousands of enemies invade the screen. All you have control over in the heat of the moment are the character’s movement and their weapon and item loadout (there are persistent powerups you can unlock as well). It’s one of those games that you have to play to really get the appeal, and it’ll soon be far easier for many people to check it out.

Vampire Survivors will make its console debut on November 10th, when it will hit Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X. The game will also be available on Xbox Game Pass. While it only costs $5, this will lower the barrier to entry even further. 

The fact that Microsoft is bringing one of this year’s biggest breakout hits to Xbox Game Pass isn’t a big surprise. Vampire Survivors was already available to PC Game Pass members.

Also coming to Xbox consoles and Game Pass this month is Return to Monkey Island. The revival of the adventure series landed on PC and Switch in September. It’ll be available on Xbox, PC Game Pass and Xbox Cloud Gaming on November 8th.

The console edition of Football Manager 2023 will hit cloud, console and PC on the same date. The full-blown PC version of the game will land on Game Pass then as well. On the flip side, Football Manager 2022 and Football Manager 2022 Xbox Edition will leave Game Pass on November 8th.

There’s a lot of other stuff for Game Pass members to look forward to this month. A 2D metroidvania game called Ghost Song, which sees you exploring a distant moon, will arrive on cloud, console and PC on November 3rd. Obsidian’s Pentiment, one of the few remaining first-party Xbox exclusives for this year, will land on all three platforms on November 15th. Somerville, from a studio cofounded by Inside and Limbo executive producer Dino Patti, will debut on the same day.

Meanwhile, you can play the full seasons of The Walking Dead: A New Frontier and The Walking Dead: Michonne on PC Game Pass as of today. Sidescrolling beat-’em-up The Legend of Tianding just landed on console, cloud and PC as well.

Elsewhere, Halo Infinite‘s winter update will arrive on November 8th. That will finally bring online campaign co-op and Forge mode to the game, along with new maps, a fresh game mode and (at last) a way to earn XP just by playing multiplayer games. On November 11th, Microsoft Flight Simulator 40th Anniversary Editionwill be available as a free update. Helicopters, gliders and a true-to-life airliner are among the additions.

 

So you’ve got all the gifts you need for the kids, your family and the friends who really matter. But it’s been a tough year, surely you deserve some joy as well. Maybe it’s time to upgrade that HDTV to a 4K OLED, or replace a not so great early-gen 4K set. And we’re sure you’ve been thinking of moving on from sad TV speakers. It’s time to treat yourself, in true Parks and Rec fashion. Here are some of the best home theater gadgets we’d recommend when budget isn’t an issue.

Apple TV 4K

While the latest Apple TV model isn’t a massive leap over its predecessor, there are a few updates that make it worthy of a holiday splurge. The redesigned Siri remote is a big improvement over the previous version, both app and streaming performance is quicker than ever and there’s support for Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. As always, there’s deep integration with iOS, and HomeKit compatibility is a nice bonus. And when you tire of music and movies, the Apple TV also works as a gaming console with access to Apple Arcade and support for Bluetooth gamepads. — Billy Steele, Senior News Editor

Buy Apple TV 4K at Amazon – $129

BenQ HT2050A projector

A projector is a great gift for any of the cinephiles or gamers in your life, and for around $700, the BenQ HT2050A is the best budget 1080p projector available. Its DLP tech delivers where it counts with the best contrast (ANSI 1,574:1) and color accuracy in its class, and is reasonably bright as well, with 2,200 lumens in “vivid” mode. On top of that, it comes with a 1.3x zoom and vertical lens shift option for maximum installation flexibility. It’s also a nice option for gaming, thanks to the relatively low 16-millisecond input lag. The drawbacks include slightly excessive fan noise, rainbow effect and red-tinted 3D. — Steve Dent, Associate Editor

Buy BenQ HT2050A projector at Amazon – $799

65-inch LG C2 OLED TV

If you’re looking for the best possible TV to buy, there’s no question: Pick an OLED model. Personally I’d stick with LG’s C2, the latest generation of the company’s astounding OLED screens. Unlike LCD TVs, which rely on backlights, pixels on OLED TVs can turn themselves on and off individually. That allows them to capture inky blacks and deliver better contrast than most LCD panels. The C2 is only a slight revision of last year’s C1, but that’s mainly a testament to how great the previous model was. It has a 120Hz refresh rate for speedy gaming, as well as support for G-SYNC and Freesync to avoid annoying frame stuttering. Its wide viewing angles also mean everyone can get a perfect picture, no matter where they’re sitting. — Devindra Hardawar, Senior Editor

Buy 65-inch LG C2 OLED at Amazon – $1,799

Monoprice Monolith THX Atmos home theater speakers

Sometimes, a soundbar just doesn’t cut it. No matter how many drivers you can cram in, or how good the virtual surround sound is, nothing beats the immersion of a full home theater speaker setup. Monoprice’s Monolith series is one of the best options around: It sports a powerful center channel, your choice of towers or bookshelf speakers with upward-firing Dolby Atmos drivers, and subwoofers powerful enough to rattle your walls. There are tons of surround sound systems to choose from, but the beauty of the Monolith line is that it has all of the latest speaker tech and it’s reasonably priced, at least compared to other Hi-Fi systems. It used to be that you had to mix and match speakers to create an affordable surround setup. You can start small with a few towers and a subwoofer—and once you’ve got a complete system, you may never need to go to the cinema again. — D.H.

Buy Monolith speakers at Monoprice starting at $250

Formovie Theater

If you’re looking at a trendy Ultra Short Throw projector for a lucky loved one at Noel, the model that offers the best performance and features for the price is from a new brand. The $3,500 Formovie Theater 4K projector is a triple-laser model with up to a 150-inch projection size, 2,800 lumens of brightness and an excellent 107 percent Rec.2020 color gamut. It offers several features only found on much more expensive models, most notably Dolby Vision support. It also features Bowers & Wilkins speakers with Dolby Atmos sound, along with built-in Android TV 11. The biggest issue is that it doesn’t support the Netflix app right now, but that can be fixed with a $50 Chromecast or other device. — S.D.

Buy Formovie Theater at Amazon – $3,500

Roku Ultra

If you’re not a fan of the Apple TV, the Roku Ultra is the only other set-top box worth considering. It’s fast enough to stream 4K video with Dolby Vision, and it supports just about every streaming app you’d want. It also has a solid remote with voice-search capabilities, and you can still access all of Apple’s streaming video via the Apple TV app. And while Roku’s interface isn’t pretty, it’s fast and gets the job done. — D.H.

Buy Roku Ultra at Amazon – $90

Sonos Ray

Don’t let the smaller size of the Sonos Ray fool you, it offers the same stellar sound quality you’d expect from the company. It’s more compact than the beam but it can still handle TV and music audio with ease. There’s a good amount of bass for a speaker this size and the initial setup is a breeze. If you or someone on your list has a smaller space that needs an audio boost, this is a great option to compliment your watching and listening habits. Plus, it’s only $279 – a reasonable price for a speaker that offers as much as the Ray. — B.S.

Buy Ray at Sonos – $279

Sony HT-A7000 soundbar

Sometimes when you’re shopping for the holidays, you’re willing to splurge for the best. When it comes to soundbars, Sony’s HT-A7000 is hard to beat. The 7.1.2-channel unit beams immersive Dolby Atmos and DTS:X audio around your living room. It’s also equipped with Sony’s own tech like 360 Spatial Sound Mapping, automatic room calibration, Vertical Surround Engine and S-Force Front Surround. When paired with the company’s Bravia TVs, you can harness Acoustic Center Sync that allows the television speakers to act as the center channel. The A7000 doesn’t come with a subwoofer, but Sony offers two compatible models as well as multiple rear speaker options, so you can add-on to fit your giftee’s needs. — B.S.

Buy Sony HT-A7000 at Amazon – $1,400

LG CineBeam portable projector

LG’s CineBeam FP50KA portable home projector has been around awhile now, but it’s still the best portable projector for watching outdoor movies – a fun activity for the holidays. It’s highly portable and runs on batteries, but can deliver 100-inch, Full HD video for up to 2.5 hours. It packs a 30,000-hour LED lamp to maximize brightness and battery life, offers a generous array of ports (two HDMI and USB-C) and has LG’s webOS Lite Smart TV platform built in. At 2.1 pounds it’s light enough to take camping or schlep to a presentation and it’s reasonably priced at $500. — S.D.

Buy LG CineBeam FP50KA at Amazon – $500

Valencia Theater Seating Verona seats

Where your butt sits is just as important to your home theater as your screen and sound setup. You’ll want seats that you can lounge in for hours without hurting your back, and they need to be sturdy enough to survive real-world usage with pets and kids. Valencia’s Verona seats are a solid option if you want to replicate the experience of high-end theaters with reclining seats. They’re made out of genuine leather, and they offer separate reclining options for your back and head. And sure, they’re pricey, but a decent couch will set you back just as much as three Veronas. And, let’s face it, they’ll be far more comfortable for movie watching and gaming than your typical West Elm option. — D.H.

Buy Verona seats at Amazon – $1,800

 

Amazon Prime members can now listen to much more music without any ads — as long as they do so in shuffle mode. They’ll have access to Amazon Music’s full catalog of more than 100 million songs (50 times more than before) without ads. Prime users can also check out on-demand All-Access playlists that are personalized for their tastes. It’s possible to download these for offline listening.

It’s not quite as positive a step forward as full ad-free listening, but it’s still a change for the better. Amazon still needs to keep some features locked behind an Amazon Music Unlimited subscription, after all. Those include on-demand access to the full catalog, more than 100 million songs in HD quality and an expanding selection of music in the Ultra HD fidelity and spatial audio lineups.

Elsewhere, the Amazon Music app is getting a redesign and a new feature called “podcast previews.” You’ll be able to listen to curated clips from podcast episodes. These could help you figure out if a show might be for you before listening to a full episode. Amazon offers some podcasts ad-free, including its exclusives, shows that premiere on its servicesbefore they’re available elsewhere and other third-party shows, such as ones from The New York Times, ESPN and NPR.

 

You’re getting another shot at grabbing Amazon’s larger Echo Show smart displays for prices much lower than retail if you missed their Prime Day deals. Prices for both Echo Show 10 and Echo Show 15 have fallen back to the lowest we’ve seen for them on the website. The third-gen Echo Show 10 in Glacier White and Charcoal is currently listed for $170, or 32 percent off its retail price of $250. Same for the Echo Show 15, which you can also get right now for $170 or $80 off its usual price. 

Buy Echo Show smart displays at Amazon – up to 59 percent off

The Echo Show 15 is Amazon’s first smart display that you can mount on your wall, and the company expects it to be used as a picture frame or a bulletin board. And since having a 15.6-inch screen means you can also use it to play movies or shows, say, while you’re cooking in the kitchen, the e-commerce giant announced in September that it’s also rolling out the Fire TV experience to the device as a free update.

We praised the Echo Show 15 in our review for having a beautiful picture frame design, with its 0.7-inch white bezel and its black metal enclosure. We also found its screen to be the best out of all the Echo Shows’. It was so bright and sharp that Engadget Editor Nicole Lee was able to clearly see what’s displayed from about nine feet away. You can also clearly see the information on your widgets at a glance, thanks to its large screen. 

If you’d rather get a smart display with a smaller display, though, then the Echo Show 10 is the better option for you. It has a 10.1-inch HD screen and a 13-megapixel video camera that has auto-framing, so it can keep you at the center during video calls. You can use it as a photo frame, but you can also use it as a cooking companion — it can serve you daily personalized recipes and step-by-step instructions for them. 

In addition to those two models, Amazon is also selling the Echo Shows 8 and 5, as well as the fourth-gen Echo speaker at discounted prices. You can get the second-gen Echo Show 8 for $70, which is 46 percent off retail, and the second-gen Echo Show 5 for $35 to $40 (for the Kids’ version) or almost 60 percent off their usual prices.

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

 

Starship’s first orbital test flight could finally take place next month. Mark Kirasich, a senior NASA official overseeing the development of the Artemis moon program, has revealed the information during a livestreamed NASA Advisory Council meeting. According to Reuters, Kirasich said that NASA tracks four major Starship flights and that the first one is coming up in early December. 

Based on the plans SpaceX previously released, the Starship spacecraft with its Super Heavy booster will launch from the company’s Boca Chica facility in Texas. The booster will break off three minutes into the flight and splash down in the Gulf of Mexico, while the Starship vehicle itself will go into orbit before reentering and making an ocean landing near Hawaii. The company expects the entire test flight to last for 90 minutes. 

SpaceX has been planning Starship’s first orbital flight since mid-2021, but it kept getting pushed back due to various technical and regulatory reasons. The space corporation’s launch facility in Boca Chica, for instance, only recently cleared the FAA’s environmental assessment. And even then, the FAA required the company to make more than 75 changes to mitigate the environmental impact of its flights before it grants the company a launch license for the site. 

An FAA spokesperson told Reuters that the agency will grant the company a launch license “only after SpaceX provides all outstanding information and the agency can fully analyze it.” As SpaceNews notes, SpaceX must also conduct and clear more tests before the flight, including a static fire test of all 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster. 

A static fire test of the Starship in July ended up in flames when propellants ignited under the booster. SpaceX’s next attempt in August went smoothly, but the company only fired a single Raptor engine on the Super Heavy that time. In addition, Starship must go through a full wet dress rehearsal, wherein a rocket that’s loaded with propellants go through the launch countdown without actually taking off. 

 

Meta has spent the GDP of a small country trying to make the metaverse a thing, and now we get to see the latest device designed to take us there. The Meta Quest Pro is a $1,500 flagship VR headset that should offer the best experience Mark Zuckerberg’s money can buy. And our Sam Rutherford has spent plenty of time with one and is full of praise for it.

Rutherford lauded the comfort, the design, the power and pretty much everything else about it, at least on a hardware level. The sting, of course, is that fancy hardware doesn’t mean much if there isn’t compelling software to back it up. And while there are some cool new apps able to take advantage of the Pro’s more muscular performance, it’s still a pretty thin selection.

As someone who would love to spend more time in VR but can’t find a headset that offers the right combination of eye (and neck) comfort, I’m excited to try the Pro. But, like many people, I’ll wait a year or two before investing in one, lest I wind up with a very pretty, very expensive piece of furniture gathering dust on my side table.

– Dan Cooper

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Who wants, or needs, a luxury Chromebook?

A luxury Chromebook has always been a bit of a paradox because Chrome is designed to work on the dirtiest of dirt-cheap hardware. HP’s Elite Dragonfly Chromebook fits the category, however, with a base model costing more than a grand, and our review model topping $1,500. Naturally, our Chromebook expert, Nathan Ingraham, put it through its paces and had plenty of nice things to say about it. Sadly, no matter how nice it is, it’s still 1,000-plus dollars for a Chromebook.

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UK police fail to use facial recognition ethically and legally, study finds

The process isn’t transparent, with a massive accountability gap.

The UK has been playing around with live facial recognition technology (LFR) for several years, but not in a way that’s ethical or legal. That’s the conclusion made by University of Cambridge researchers after analyzing its use by police forces in London and South Wales. The findings, published in a new study, said key information about how data is used has been “kept from view,” leaving unanswered questions around if the technology is used as a cover to justify racial profiling. Not to mention its overall efficacy, which third-party experts say is far lower than the forces themselves like to boast about.

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Bizarre Instagram outage left some thinking they were banned

Users also saw drops in follower counts and disrupted feeds.

An Instagram bug caused users to receive notices their accounts were suspended without cause. The issue also saw individual follower counts fall, as well as disruptions to the platform’s main image feed. Around eight hours later, Instagram said it had fixed the bug but declined to elaborate on what caused it. It’s the second high-profile service disruption to the image-sharing network in a month, and another sign not all is well inside Meta’s gilded walls.

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FTC says ed tech company Chegg exposed data belonging to 40 million users

Including students’ religions, sexual orientations and their parental income ranges.

Education provider Chegg is in the FTC’s sights after it exposed the personal information of more than 40 million users. Officials have filed a complaint accusing the company of treating private data “carelessly.” That included letting employees access databases with a single sign-in, storing data in plain text and using outdated password encryption. Chegg has already responded to the complaint, saying it takes its obligations seriously and will fully comply with the FTC’s order when it’s issued.

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In its latest earnings drop, Sony said it sold 3.3 million PlayStation 5s this quarter, matching exactly what it did last year and bringing total units sold since launch to 25 million. Its numbers this quarter are far short of what it needs to hit the 18 million PS5 sales target for fiscal year 2022, though. Sales halfway through the fiscal year (ending March 31st) are now at 5.7 million, which is also nearly the same as 2021 at this point (5.6 million). 

Despite the equal number of PS5s sold, revenue was up significantly over last year (12 percent) to 727 billion yen ($4.92 billion), thanks in part to a PS5 price increase earlier this year. However, profit was down by 49 percent due to the company’s recent acquisition of Bungie, along with game developer cost increases. 

Sony sold 11.5 million consoles last year, so it’s a good bet that 2022 sales will be about the same . However, a lot depends on holiday sales and whether it can keep production up with demand. That’s a problem that has plagued the PS5 since it arrived, due to the pandemic and other issues. In May, Sony said that it will finally be able to ramp up production to meet PS5 demand as supply chain issues ease. While it hasn’t given any numbers in that regard, anecdotally it appears that the console has been easier to find in recent months. 

Meanwhile, software sales fell to 62.5 million units from 76.4 million this time last year. Digital downloads accounted for 63 percent of that, up slightly from last year. PlayStation Plus subscriber numbers declined for the second consecutive quarter. 

Sony has revised its revenue projection for next quarter downward to due an expected drop in first-party game sales. However, it’s bullish on the next fiscal year, aiming to ship 23 million PS5 units in that time. Interestingly, it also still expects to 18 million units by the end of the fiscal year (March 2023), so it may still have something up its sleeve. 

 

Twitter became the target of a coordinated trolling campaign shortly after Elon Musk took over the company last week. Yoel Roth, the company’s head of safety and security, said that the organized effort was to make people think that Twitter has weakened its policies. Roth also said that the company was working on putting a stop to the campaign that had led to a surge in hate speech and hateful conduct on the website. Now, the executive has tweeted an update to the Twitter’s cleanup efforts and said that it has made “measurable progress” since Saturday and has removed over 1,500 accounts involved in the trolling.

Roth explained that those 1,500 accounts didn’t correspond to 1,500 people. “Many were repeat bad actors,” he tweeted. The executive also said that Twitter’s primary success measure for content moderation is impressions — that translates to the times a piece of content is seen by users — and the company was able to reduce impressions on the hateful content that flooded its website to nearly zero. 

In addition to providing an update about dealing with the recent trolling campaign on Twitter, Roth also talked about how the website is changing how it enforces its policies regarding harmful tweets. He explained that the company treats first person and bystander reports differently: “Because bystanders don’t always have full context, we have a higher bar for bystander reports in order to find a violation.” That’s why reports by uninvolved third parties about hateful conduct on the platform often get marked as non-violation evens if they do violate its policies. 

Roth ended his series of tweets with a promise to reveal more about how the website is changing how it enforces its rules. However, a new Bloomberg report puts into question how Twitter’s staff can enforce its policies in the coming days. According to the news organization, Twitter has frozen most employees’ access to internal tools used for content moderation. 

Apparently, most members of Twitter’s Trust and Safety organization have lost the ability to penalize accounts that break rules regarding hateful conduct and misinformation. This event has understandably raised concerns among employees on how Twitter will be able to keep the spread of misinformation in check, when the November 8th US midterm election is just a few days away. 

Bloomberg said the restriction placed upon the employes’ access to moderation tools is part of a broader plan to freeze Twitter’s software code, which will prevent staff members from pushing changes to the website as its changes ownership. The organization also said that Musk asked the Twitter team to review some of its policies, including its rule regarding misinformation that penalizes posts containing falsehoods about politics and COVID-19. Another rule Musk reportedly asked the team to review is a section in Twitter’s hateful conduct policy that penalizes posts containing “targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals.”

 

Earlier this year, Sony PlayStation boss Jim Ryan said that Microsoft’s promise to support Call of Duty on PlayStation for three more years was “inadequate on many levels.” Now in comments to the gaming podcast SameBrain, Xbox chief Phil Spencer appears to have extended that timeframe to forever, or at least as long as PlayStation exists as a platform.

“We’re not taking Call of Duty from PlayStation,” he said. “Our intent is not to do that, and as long as there’s a PlayStation out there to ship to, our intent is that we’d continue to ship Call of Duty on PlayStation, similar to what we’ve done with Minecraft since we’ve owned that. 

“We’ve expanded the places where people can play Minecraft, we haven’t reduced the places, and it’s been good. It’s been good for the Minecraft community—my opinion—and I want to do the same as we think about where Call of Duty can go over the years.”

Spencer made the comments just as the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a “Phase 2 investigation” into Microsoft’s proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision. One specific reason cited is concern that Microsoft could restrict Call of Duty from PlayStation consoles. In response, Microsoft accused the UK regulator of specifically adopting Sony’s complaints in its initial probe. Despite that, Spencer said Microsoft is confident that the deal will be approved by the end of its fiscal year in June 2023.

 

Elon Musk’s vision for Twitter may include bringing back Vine, the short-form video app the company shuttered in 2016. According to Axios, Twitter’s new “Chief Twit” told a group of engineers to work on a reboot that could be ready by the end of the year. The Verge’s Alex Heath, who was among the first to report that Musk was considering making the company’s Twitter Blue subscription mandatory for verified users, corroborated the news.

“I have also heard this, though unclear if Vine will actually be relaunched at this point,” he said. “Musk also has a lot of people telling him to just bake the experience into core Twitter.”

While we’re probably at the stage where Musk is contemplating any and all options, there’s certainly some evidence to suggest he is seriously considering bringing back Vine. Earlier today, he polled his 112 million Twitter followers to ask them if the company should reboot the app. When MrBeast, one of the most popular YouTube stars on the planet, said it would be “hilarious” if Musk did that and Vine went on to compete with TikTok, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO asked him “what could we do to make it better than TikTok?” Bringing back the platform would also certainly seem to align with Musk’s stated goal of transforming Twitter into a “super app” akin to China’s WeChat.

However, the timeline, like the one Musk reportedly set for monetizing Twitter’s verification feature, is likely unrealistic. According to Axios, the company hasn’t updated Vine since it shut down the app more than six years ago. “It needs a lot of work,” one source told the outlet, referring to the software’s codebase. At this stage, it’s also hard to see the platform competing with TikTok and YouTube Shorts, even if it does come back. So much of TikTok’s success is a result of its “For You” algorithm which always seems to know what videos will keep you glued to the app. Vine never had anything comparable, and many of its most prolific creators have moved on to other platforms.