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JBL just released two new pairs of headphones in its pre-existing Live line. There’s the over-ear Live 780NC and the on-ear Live 680NC.

Both sets of headphones have similar specs, despite the difference in design. The biggest news here is likely the battery life. They max out at 80 hours per charge with regular use, which is a fantastic metric. This shrinks to 50 hours when using ANC, but that’s still fairly remarkable. We truly live in a golden age of wireless headphone batteries.

JBL’s new headphones can also fully charge in just two hours, which is nice. They also offer the option for multi-point connections. There are two dedicated microphones for phone calls, with clarity assisted by an AI algorithm.

Both can stream high resolution audio via Bluetooth or a wired connection. The models even look similar, with availability in the same seven colorways. The 680NC, however, is slightly lighter.

There is one major difference between the two. The 780NC includes six microphones for ANC, while the 680NC features four. This likely means that ANC performance will be better with the former, which will be assisted by the design itself. Over-ear headphones offer passive noise isolation.

Those extra microphones do boost the price up a bit. The JBL 780NC headphones cost $250, while the JBL 680NC headphones cost $160. Both are available for purchase right now, with shipments going out by March 15.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/jbls-two-new-live-headphones-offer-80-hours-of-battery-each-120044416.html?src=rss 

In recent weeks, Google has been busy adding AI features to all of its most popular apps. Following Gmail and Chrome, Maps is now the latest service to get a Gemini makeover, with a redesign of the driving experience headlining the update.       

Google is billing the new “Immersive Navigation” mode as the most significant update to driving directions in Maps in about a decade. Now instead of displaying a 2D map of the area around your car, Maps will render the surroundings in 3D. Google believes this transformation will make it easier for drivers to orient themselves, with the new view giving greater depth to nearby landmarks like buildings and overpasses. 

Behind the scenes, the company’s Gemini models power the experience, deciding how to render elements to remove distractions. Pulling information from Google’s Street View database and aerial photos, Google says its models are also smart enough to know when to highlight road elements like crosswalks, traffic lights and stop signs to ensure you don’t miss an off ramp or important turn. At the same time, Google has made the voice guidance in Maps sound more natural. For instance, when you’re driving along the highway, looking for where you need to get off, the voice assistant will say something along the lines of “go past this exit and take the next one.” I imagine this will be especially helpful when driving in a foreign country with unfamiliar road names. 

The new intelligence Google has built into the redesigned navigation experience extends to alternative routes. Now, when the app suggests taking a different way of getting somewhere, it will detail the associated tradeoffs with that route. For example, it might tell you it might take longer to travel but you’ll encounter less traffic along the way. Before you start your journey, Maps will now also provide a Street View preview of your destination and recommend where to park.     

This being a new release in Google’s self-proclaimed Gemini era, the company has naturally found a way to add its chatbot to Maps. Inside the app, you’ll find a new icon labelled Ask Maps. Tap the icon, write a natural language prompt and Gemini will use all the information contained within Maps to craft a response. 

Google is pitching the feature as a way to get information no traditional map can provide. For example, you could ask Gemini to find you a place where you can charge your phone and grab a cup of coffee, all without having to wait a long time in line. Google suggests finding the answer to a specific question like that would have previously required sifting through countless reviews. Not so anymore. The results Gemini produces through Ask Maps will contain personalized results based on places you searched for and saved in the past. You can also act on any recommendations Gemini surfaces, making it easy to book restaurants, save locations and more.

Google is starting to roll out the new immersive driving experience today in the US, with availability to expand over the coming months to Android and iOS devices, as well as CarPlay, Android Auto and cars with Google built-in. Ask Maps, meanwhile, is rolling out to Android and iOS devices in the US and India, with desktop support coming soon.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-maps-brings-a-3d-map-to-your-driving-directions-123000843.html?src=rss 

Uber has teamed up with UK self-driving car startup Wayve and Nissan to launch a pilot program for a robotaxi service in Tokyo in late 2026. The program will use Nissan Leaf EVs powered by Wayve’s AI Driver automated vehicle technology, which will then be connected to Uber’s platform. Trained drivers will be behind the wheel at first, as the deployed vehicles gather real-world data to be able to navigate Tokyo’s driving conditions and complex streets that are also a lot narrower than the roads in the US.

Another company backed by Uber, Nuro, will also test its vehicles on Tokyo’s challenging streets soon. Nuro has been trialing its self-driving tech in the US for years now and plans to launch a robotaxi service, as well. They’re not the first companies to take on Tokyo streets, however: Waymo deployed its Jaguar I-PACE autonomous vehicles in the metropolis last year to collect data on its roads and the driving patterns of locals.

The pilot program in Tokyo is just part of Wayve’s and Uber’s plan to roll out a robotaxi service in more than 10 cities around the world. In the future, the companies are planning to offer self-driving vehicles as an option in the city through a licensed taxi partner in Japan.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/uber-is-piloting-a-robotaxi-service-in-tokyo-112133871.html?src=rss 

Google Play has introduced a new feature called Game Trials, which will let you play a portion of paid games for free before you commit to buying them. It’s now rolling out to select paid games on mobile, and it’s coming soon to Google Play Games on PC. Titles that offer Game Trials will show a button marked “Try” on their profile pages. When you click it, you’ll see how long you can play the game before you have to buy it. In Google’s example, the survival and horror game Dredge will give you 60 minutes of free play time, after which you’ll get the option to either buy the game or delete it from your device.

Google has also announced that it’s releasing more paid indie games over the coming months, including Moonlight Peaks, Sledding Game and Low-Budget Repairs. It has launched a new section in the Play store, as well, to feature games optimized for Windows PCs. You can wishlist the games from that section to get a notification when they’re on sale.

Finally, the company is rolling out Play Games Sidekick, the Gemini-powered Android overlay it announced last year, to select games downloaded from Play. Sidekick can show you relevant info and tools for whatever game you’re playing without having to do a search query. But if you’d rather ask other people for gaming advice instead of an AI, you can also look at a game’s Community Posts, a feature now available in English for select titles on their Play pages.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/google-play-will-let-you-try-a-game-before-you-buy-it-051854016.html?src=rss 

In 2024, Microsoft caused a lot of head-scratching and general bemusement with the launch of its “This is an Xbox” marketing campaign. Now, though, it appears the quandary over what is and isn’t an Xbox has been resolved. Game Developer noticed that the original blog post on Xbox Wire that kicked off the whole affair has been removed. It seems Xbox will be going a new direction with its future promotions.

Maybe since the new Project Helix hardware it has in the works is more definite attempt to blur console and PC gaming, “This is an Xbox” might have been truly confusing as a tagline. Maybe with the recent changing of the guard at the company, the top brass decided that it was the right time to start fresh with a less meme-able marketing plan. Whatever the reason, we have enjoyed this opportunity to learn about the existential philosophy behind being an Xbox. And fortunately, although the blog post may be gone, the video trailer still exists whenever we need to remind ourselves of the many things that can be Xbox-ified.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/i-guess-this-wasnt-an-xbox-after-all-230154314.html?src=rss 

Superhuman has taken its writing assistant Grammarly on quite the merry-go-round ride regarding its approach to AI tools. In August, the company launched a feature called Expert Review that would offer feedback on your writing, offering AI-generated feedback that would appear to come from a famous writer or academic of note. These recreations were based on “publicly available information from third-party LLMs,” which sounds a lot like web crawlers of dubious legality were involved. 

The suggested experts would be based on the subject matter and could be anyone from great scientific minds to bestselling fiction authors to your friendly neighborhood tech bloggers. Living or dead, these writers’ names appeared on Grammarly without their permission or knowledge. “References to experts in this product are for informational purposes only and do not indicate any affiliation with Grammarly or endorsement by those individuals or entities,” the company hedged in a disclaimer on the service. 

As one might imagine, once people took notice, a large number of the living contingent of those writers were none too pleased with Grammarly and Superhuman. The company initially attempted to address the complaints by allowing writers to opt out of the platform. Which I’m sure was a big relief to the deceased contingent and to those living ones who aren’t closely following AI news and might still not know they were being cited by the tool. 

Today, Superhuman CEO Shishir Mehrotra wrote in a LinkedIn post that the company will disable Expert Review while it reassesses the feature. “The agent was designed to help users discover influential perspectives and scholarship relevant to their work, while also providing meaningful ways for experts to build deeper relationships with their fans,” he said. Yes, Carl Sagan must be bemoaning the lack of deep relationships with his fans from the afterlife.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/grammarly-has-disabled-its-tool-offering-generative-ai-feedback-credited-to-real-writers-201614257.html?src=rss 

It must be 2017 because loot boxes are back in the news again. Two weeks after New York’s attorney general sued Valve over its use of the gimmick, the company has responded. In short, the Steam maker essentially said, “See you in court.”

New York’s lawsuit accuses Valve of promoting illegal gambling through its games. AG Letitia James called the loot boxes found in titles like Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2 “addictive, harmful and illegal.” The state seeks to “permanently stop Valve from continuing to promote illegal gambling in its games” and pay relevant fines.

In its defense posted on Thursday, Valve likened its mystery boxes to kids buying packs of physical trading cards. “Players don’t have to open mystery boxes to play Valve games,” the company wrote. “In fact, most of you don’t open any boxes at all and just play the games — because the items in the boxes are purely cosmetic, there is no disadvantage to a player not spending money.”

That last point, while applicable within the game itself, isn’t quite that cut and dry once you zoom out beyond that. As James pointed out, players can trade the cosmetic items they win from loot boxes on Steam’s marketplace or sell them on third-party marketplaces. Rarer ones can sometimes fetch lucrative sums.

A CS2 gun skin listed for $20,000 on DMarket

Here, too, Valve defended the profitable practice by rolling out the trading card comparison. “We think the transferability of a digital game item is good for consumers — it gives a user the ability to sell or trade an old or unwanted item for something else, in the same way an owner can sell or trade a tangible item like a Pokémon or baseball card,” the company wrote. “NYAG proposes to take away users’ ability to transfer their digital items from Valve games. Transferability is a right we believe should not be taken away, and we refuse to do that.”

Valve is also facing a new class-action lawsuit over its loot boxes.

Some of Valve’s points land a bit more than its righteous defense of a gaming gimmick that, well, isn’t exactly beloved. The company accused the NYAG of proposing that Valve collect additional user information to prevent VPN use. In addition, the state allegedly “demanded that Valve collect more personal data about our users to do additional age verification.” Privacy experts have been sounding the alarm about the recent push for online age verification.

Valve also addressed James’s erroneous and outdated statement that video games encourage real-world violence. “Those extraneous comments are a distraction and a mischaracterization we’ve all heard before,” the company wrote. “Numerous studies throughout the years have concluded there is no link between media (movies, TV, books, comics, music and games) and real world violence. Indeed, many studies highlight the beneficial impact of games to users.”

The company says that, while it may have been cheaper to settle the suit, it deemed the NYAG’s demands user-hostile. “Ultimately, a court will decide whose position — ours or NYAG’s — is correct. In the meantime, we wanted to make sure you were aware of the potential impact to users in New York and elsewhere.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/valve-defends-loot-boxes-in-response-to-new-yorks-lawsuit-190655554.html?src=rss