Kalakshar US

If you’ve been waiting for a reason to finally grab a headset to watch 360-degree videos on YouTube or have an exceptionally immersive experience with first-person shooter games, Amazon’s early Black Friday sale on the Meta Quest 2 VR headset might be your gateway into the world of VR. The Quest 2 with 128GB of storage is getting a $50 price cut in a Black Friday pre-sale, bringing it to $250. This record low price, which normally sells for $300, is worth considering, especially since Engadget hailed it as one of the best VR headsets your money can buy.

Despite being an older model, we still consider the Meta Quest 2 the best budget VR headset, and for good reason. Most competitors, including its successor, start at around $500 and can go for as much as $1000. The Quest 2’s screen resolution of 1832×1920 per eye, when coupled with a 90Hz refresh rate, makes activities like gaming a more pleasurable experience. And because the Quest 2 operates using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR2 processor and packs 6GB of RAM, the device can dabble with more demanding games. If you are already a console user, things like Xbox Cloud gaming pair quite nicely.

The Quest 2 Active bundle, which includes the 128GB headset and accessories for VR workouts, is also on sale on Amazon for $319. But if you want to go big and invest in the 256GB version of the Quest 2, Amazon’s deal on that model will make the device $300, knocking off $50 bucks from its $350 starting point.

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-meta-quest-2-vr-headset-drops-to-an-all-time-low-of-250-during-amazons-early-black-friday-sale-181828211.html?src=rss 

Volvo has unveiled its first fully electric minivan, which is geared toward comfort. So much so, the brand describes the EM90 as a “living room on the move.” While it might be comfy enough to travel in while wearing PJs, Volvo is pitching the EV as an option for those who want a space where they can get work done too.

The EM90 is infused with sound isolation and road noise cancellation tech, while Volvo claims that dual chamber air suspension and silent tires will offer the driver and passengers a smooth ride. If that works as promised, you’ll be able to get the most out of an audio system that has 21 Bowers & Wilkins speakers.

Along with a 15.4-inch infotainment screen for the driver, there’s a roof-mounted 15.6-inch HD display to which you can cast shows and movies from your phone. Attach a compatible camera, and the screen can be used for video calls. 5G connectivity will come in handy for business-minded users too.

Many of the EM90’s functions can be controlled with your voice, including the audio and interior lighting. With a voice command or by flicking a switch, the car’s screens, seats, windows, air conditioner and lighting can be adjusted for theater or meeting room use — or even a bedroom setup for the rear seats, Volvo says.

If the EM90 looks familiar, that’s because it’s based on the 009 from Zeekr, Volvo’s sibling brand, as Electrek points out. It has a 200 kW electric motor that can take it from 0 to 100 kmph (62.1 mph) in 8.3 seconds. The EV has a 116 kWh battery (with bi-directional charging support) that Volvo claims can charge from 10 to 80 percent in under 30 minutes.

On top of all of that, the EM90 has an impressive range, at least on paper. Volvo says it has a range of up to 738 km (459 miles) based on China’s CLTC testing cycle. The vehicle will only be available in China at first and it starts at around $114,000. It’s unclear if or when the EV will arrive elsewhere.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/volvos-em90-living-room-on-the-move-minivan-has-up-to-450-miles-of-ev-range-164051908.html?src=rss 

As part of a Black Friday deal, you can get two MasterClass annual memberships — one for yourself and one to give away as a gift — for the price of one. Memberships start at $120 per year, which lets you watch on one device at a time, $180 grants access to two devices simultaneously and allows for downloads, and a Family membership covers six devices. The free membership for gifting will be at the same level you buy for yourself. The deal is available now and ends at midnight on Black Friday.  

If you’re looking for something that’s not a “thing” to gift this year, MasterClass makes a nice option. A membership includes access to 180 different big name instructors teaching on topics they know a lot about. Classes on offer sound like an A-list roll call: Martin Scorsese and Jodie Foster teach lessons on filmmaking, Samuel L. Jackson and Helen Mirren cover acting, Questlove shows you how to DJ, and Margaret Atwood gives a seminar on writing. 

Classes range from around two to six hours and are broken up into shorter lessens, usually between 10 and 20 minutes. There are even exercises and community forums to get you actually doing the things the teachers teach. Recently, MasterClass added series as part of its lineup, such as GOAT, which are 20 minute episodes covering a single topic (such as making a grilled cheese or playing pickleball) that feel more like a mini documentary than a lesson. The mobile app also offers series of short, swipeable videos, for a highly polished TikTok feel. 

When I tried out MasterClass, it struck me that the learning platform was more like a streaming service than anything else — a really smart streaming service, where you get to watch masters talk about how they go about their craft. Even if you don’t see yourself becoming a comedian, watching Steve Martin tell you how it’s done is riveting nonetheless.  

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/this-masterclass-black-friday-deal-gives-you-two-memberships-for-the-price-of-one-170010173.html?src=rss 

Meta now lets Threads users avoid automatically sharing their posts with its other apps. When activated, the opt-out feature prevents Meta’s Twitter clone from sharing posts to Instagram and Facebook without user consent. Software engineer Alessandro Paluzzi spotted early signs of the privacy toggle earlier this month.

Threads users can turn off automatic cross-platform content sharing by heading to their profile page, selecting the menu at the top right, then Privacy > Suggesting posts on other apps, and toggling off Instagram and Facebook individually. Note that changing this feature only prevents your posts from being used in cross-promotions; you’ll still see other people’s Threads posts on Instagram and Facebook, irrespective of your privacy settings.

Some Threads users were upset about Meta automatically sharing their content from the nascent X competitor, mainly because people often use the apps to connect with different crowds (for example, Threads for news and politics with strangers, Facebook for extended family and old friends). TechCrunch highlighted several comments from people describing Threads posts automatically posted on other platforms as odd clickbait seemingly “designed to get comments” by stripping bold statements of context. In October, the company said it was “listening to feedback” in response to a Threads user’s complaint about automatic sharing to Meta’s more established platforms.

Meta is no stranger to using its existing stockpile of social apps to turbocharge its newest ones. It used easy onboarding and promotion via Instagram to vault Threads to the fastest app to reach 150 million downloads. Although growth appeared to slow after that, CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently said Threads had tallied nearly 100 million users. The Facebook founder said he sees a path for the Twitter clone to reach the one-billion user milestone.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/threads-users-can-now-opt-out-of-automatically-sharing-posts-to-facebook-and-instagram-172807726.html?src=rss 

The hype surrounding emerging technologies like generative AI creates a wild west, of sorts, for bad actors seeking to capitalize on consumer confusion. To that end, Google is suing some scammers who allegedly tricked people into downloading an “unpublished” version of its Bard AI software. Instead of a helpful chatbot, this Bard was reportedly stuffed with malware.

The lawsuit was filed today in California and it alleges that individuals based in Vietnam have been setting up social media pages and running ads encouraging users to download a version of Bard, but this version doesn’t deliver helpful answers on how to cook risotto or whatever. This Bard, once downloaded by some rube, worms its way into the system and steals passwords and social media credentials. The lawsuit notes that these scammers have specifically used Facebook as their preferred distribution method.

Google’s official blog post on the matter notes that it sent over 300 takedown requests before opting for the lawsuit. The suit doesn’t seek financial compensation, but rather an order to stop the alleged fraudsters from setting up similar domains, particularly with US-based domain registrars. The company says that this outcome will “serve as a deterrent and provide a clear mechanism for preventing similar scams in the future.”

The lawsuit goes on to highlight how emerging technologies are ripe for this kind of anti-consumer weaponization. In this case, the alleged scammers said that Bard is a paid service that required a download. In reality, it’s a free web service.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-sues-scammers-that-allegedly-released-a-malware-filled-bard-knockoff-162222150.html?src=rss