Category: Technology

Well we didn’t get the iPhone SE fourth-gen this week — instead Apple debuted the iPhone 16e, a $599 model based on the iPhone 14’s design. It has a 6.1-inch OLED screen and the A18 chip for Apple Intelligence, but should we really consider it a cheap iPhone? In this episode, Devindra and Cherlynn dive into the iPhone 16e and how it compares to the rest of the iPhone 16 family.

Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!

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Topics

Apple unveils its SE successor, the iPhone 16e for $599 – 1:22

Trump administration planning on 25 percent tariffs on auto and semiconductor imports – 32:02

Acer to raise prices by 10 percent following tariff talk – 34:26

Humane AI sells to HP, pin will go offline February 28 – 36:42

Microsoft’s new quantum computing chip runs on topological qubits – 41:14

Working on – 47:28

Pop culture picks – 50:06

Credits 

Hosts: Devindra Hardawar and Cherlynn Low
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/engadget-podcast-hello-599-iphone-16e-rip-iphone-se-123035392.html?src=rss 

We learned in December 2022 that a production company had signed on to turn Sloclap’s excellent martial arts game Sifu into a film. Today, the news dropped that Netflix is involved with the project, which seems to have caused some personnel shuffling behind the scenes.

The initial announcement saw Story Kitchen, which has since amassed a huge catalog of video game adaptations, securing a treatment of Sifu with John Wick creator Derek Kolstad attached as the writer. Story Kitchen is still working on the film, but Kolstad is no longer serving as the screenwriter and T.S. Nowlin has instead been tapped for that role. Nowlin’s past credits include the screenplays for the Maze Runner adaptations and most recently he was a writer for Netflix’s splashy Ryan Reynolds vehicle The Adam Project.

However, there is still a John Wick connection with Sifu. The director for all four John Wick films, stunt performer Chad Stahelski, has joined the producer team, as have members of Stahelski’s 87Eleven Entertainment company. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/netflix-hops-aboard-sifu-movie-adaptation-assigns-a-screenwriter-225324526.html?src=rss 

Samwise Gamgee said, “It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.” But then, he hadn’t been exposed to the world of video game development. Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game, a cozy take on the most idyllic pocket of Middle Earth, has been delayed. The new launch date is July 29. According to a post from the devs at Wētā Workshop Game Studio, this delay is about ensuring that all the project’s supported platforms “can enjoy the same cozy experience.” It is currently slated to launch on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Steam and Xbox Series X.

This project has taken a couple tough hits over the past several months. The release date had already been pushed back in September, and it was axed from Netflix’s planned game lineup earlier this month. Will there be more hurdles before we can finally enjoy our happy hobbit alternate lives? As a wise wizard once said: “Who knows? Have patience.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/cozy-lord-of-the-rings-game-tales-of-the-shire-is-delayed-to-july-213500109.html?src=rss 

Elon Musk has a problem with Community Notes, the crowdsourced fact-checking feature that started as Birdwatch, and launched at scale after he purchased Twitter.

“Unfortunately @CommunityNotes is increasingly being gamed by governments & legacy media,” Musk posted. “Working to fix this…” Based on the rant his tweet descends in to afterwards, his issue appears to be with how X’s Community Notes contributors have been treating misinformation about President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the war in Ukraine. Musk quotes a post from an X account that claims polls showing Zelenskyy has a 57 percent approval rating in Ukraine are “not credible.” Information like that being challenged on X doesn’t jive with President Trump’s description of Zelenskyy as a “dictator” or Musk’s desire to use the platform as an unofficial arm of the current administration.

What “fixing” Community Notes will look like remains to be seen, but Musk uncritically quoting a post that cites no sources beyond an image with small text that says “Accuracy Confidence: Normal” is hopefully evidence enough that Community Notes are the bare minimum needed. Ragging on the feature of course fits the larger pattern of Musk’s tenure at X, which has been characterized by him manipulating the platform’s algorithm and eliminating features that helped determine credibility, like verification. If he thinks you can’t even trust crowdsourced fact-checks, there’s really no source of truth left on the platform.

The concept of Community Notes is no longer unique to X — Meta recently opened up the waitlist to use the feature on its platforms — but how long Community Notes exists its current form is apparently now an open question.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/elon-musk-wants-to-fix-community-notes-on-x-212310412.html?src=rss 

Among Us VR has proven itself to be a major hit since first being released back in 2022. Now, developers Innersloth and Schell Games have announced they are rejiggering the virtual reality title for traditional PC players. Among Us 3D is playable without a headset and will be available via Steam in the near future.

This title keeps the core gameplay loop from the original, but shifts to a first-person perspective. It’s basically a new way to keep sabotaging your friends and family. Among Us 3D is for four to ten players and includes native proximity voice chat, with no need for a third-party platform. All of the minigames are returning, though there’s also some new ones coming down the pike. Innersloth is holding off on those details for now.

It features crossplay with Among Us VR, but not with the original game. That’s a bummer, but understandable. There will be, however, an expanded costume selection to offer “an endless number of cosmetic customization combinations.” There’s a new in-game currency called Stardust that will, presumably, be used to purchase some of those outfits.

There’s no release date yet, other than “soon.” However, a demo will be available to US players as part of Steam Next Fest from February 24 to March 3. Preorders for the full game are already live on Steam.

This is just the latest cool thing that developer Innersloth has announced. The company recently revealed a publishing arm called Outersloth. There’s also an Among Us cartoon coming sometime in the near future.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/among-us-vr-is-being-transformed-into-a-traditional-3d-game-for-pc-194545497.html?src=rss 

ChatGPT has surpassed 400 million weekly active users. “We feel very fortunate to serve 5 percent of the world every week,” OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap said on X about the new audience stat. This figure is twice the weekly active user count reported by the company in August 2024, which was double the figure it posted in November 2023.

The latest milestone for the AI assistant comes after a huge uproar over new rival platform DeepSeek earlier in the year, which raised questions about whether the current crop of leading AI tools was about to be dethroned. OpenAI is on the verge of a move to simplify its ChatGPT offerings so that users won’t have to select which reasoning model will respond to an input, and it will make its GPT-4.5 and GPT-5 models available soon in the chat and API clients. With GPT-5 being made available to OpenAI’s free users, ChatGPT seems primed to continue expanding its audience base in the coming months.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/chatgpt-reaches-400m-weekly-active-users-203635884.html?src=rss 

After announcing its plan to end third-party fact-checking in January 2025, Meta’s crowdsourced replacement is finally starting to take shape. You can now join a waitlist to be a Community Notes contributor on Facebook, Instagram and Threads when the feature rolls out in the coming months.

Contributors are expect to provide context via a note when a post on one of Meta’s platforms “might be inaccurate or confusing,” according to the company’s sign-up page. Community Notes will be able to be added to “most public content across Facebook, Instagram and Threads” and must be 500 characters or fewer. Any note is also subject to Meta’s Community Standards and the judgment of other contributors. Meta expects contributors to rate notes so that the correct context gets displayed under posts.

To sign-up, you need to be based in the US, be over the age of 18, have a Meta account that’s more than six months old and in good standing and have either a verified phone number or two-factor authentication. Meta says contributors will start to be taken off the waitlist once the Community Notes beta launches. The company hasn’t given a hard date for the launch, but does mention that Community Notes will be phased in “over the next few months.”

Meta started testing Community Notes on Threads a little over a month ago. The feature, in name and basic functionality, is inspired by X’s Community Notes, which originally launched in 2022 when the company was still known as Twitter. Community Notes and other crowdsourced pseudo-fact checks have been tested on Google platforms like YouTube and Search as well, and they all have the same general weakness. A crowdsourced answer doesn’t come with the same guarantee of accuracy as one provided by someone whose sole job it is to be an impartial fact-checker. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/you-can-now-sign-up-to-be-a-contributor-to-metas-community-notes-feature-190814234.html?src=rss