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Samsung expanded its self-repair program for Galaxy devices today, adding the latest flagship smartphones and, for the first time, PCs. As you may remember, the initiative is a team-up with iFixit, which provides tools and online self-repair guides.

Starting today, you can order repair kits for the 15-inch models of the Galaxy Book Pro and Galaxy Book Pro 360. Supported PC repairs include the display, battery, touchpad, case (front and rear), power key with fingerprint reader, and rubber foot. Additionally, Samsung added the Galaxy S22, S22+ and S22 Ultra kits. It supports repairs for the display assemblies, rear glass and charging ports for those phones.

The newly supported models join the program’s initial lineup of the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S21 and Galaxy Tab S7+. The new kits still include a free return label to help you send used parts to Samsung for recycling. All the new kits are available starting today.

Apple’s Self Service Repair program

While Apple’s program covers more components (including cameras and SIM trays), it also requires you to rent or buy a separate toolkit and talk with someone on the phone to complete the process. With Samsung’s kit, you only need to buy the part and follow the instructions.

Samsung frames its self-repair program as being about convenience and the environment — and it can be beneficial for both of those things. But the elephant in the room is Right to Repair legislation on federal and state levels. New York and Massachusetts have passed laws mandating self-repair programs, while the White House has also pushed for it. In 2021, President Biden ordered the FTC to tackle “unfair anti-competitive restrictions on third-party repair or self-repair of items” in the farming and technology industries. So although Samsung’s and Apple’s programs are good for consumers, it’s a stretch to think this would happen without the threat of government legislation.

 

There are two points I want you to take away from this article. The first: An overwhelming majority of people do not need to pay $300 for a keyboard. Easy enough. But I’m about to wax poetic about one particular $300 keyboard that has made my life better, and I don’t want it to be mistaken for a universal endorsement. There are several perfectly competent keyboards available for a tenth of this price, and many excellent models – some would even say “premium” – are available for as little as $100. You have to be a particularly warped kind of consumer, one who has invested too much time in forums populated by eternally unsatisfied keyboard enthusiasts, to take this sort of plunge.

And yet!

I am incredibly privileged to be able to test and write about tech products for a living, but it’s exactly those two things – using a bunch of products, and doing a bunch of writing – that led me to buy Topre’s Realforce R2 PFU keyboard a few years back. I’ve tested several keyboards for work over the years, from compact and mobile-focused options to all sorts of mechanical models. Many of these were great for the right person, but none of them totally fit my needs as someone who has to spend most of the week typing and editing. Some had keys that didn’t travel enough, some were too fast, some were too loud – either in noise and RGB-addled design – some felt too slick to the touch.

Taste in keyboard feel is fully subjective, but, as with food or art, the more you obsess over it, the more in tune with your preferences you become. Topre keyboards have had something of a cult following for a long time now, so after not totally meshing with the various mechanical (Cherry, Kailh, Razer, Logitech, et al.) and non-mechanical keyboards I had used over the years, I dipped into my savings and talked myself into believing I’d be converted as well. There are various Realforce models – plus a handful of keyboards that use Topre switches but aren’t sold by the Japanese firm itself – but, as someone who uses the number pad, I decided to go all the way with the full-size R2 PFU.

You don’t have to know how a Topre keyboard works to enjoy one, but I’ll try to explain. For most, mechanical keyboards sit at the top of the keyboard pleasure food chain, with membrane or rubber dome keyboards all the way at the bottom. Topre’s electrostatic capacitive switches exist kind of between the two, but really in their own realm off to the side. They do use a rubber dome, but not in the same, simple way as many cheaper/laptop keyboards. They also don’t work like mechanical switches, which slide particularly-shaped pieces of plastic and metal against each other to create a distinct feel with each keypress.

Instead, a Topre switch has a conical spring inside its rubber dome and a special capacitive sensor underneath the spring. At a certain point as the spring is compressed, the sensor recognizes that the switch has been actuated electrically and registers the keypress. The rubber dome component provides most of the key’s tactile feel and resistance, but there’s more going on under the hood in a Topre switch than there is in a simpler rubber dome switch, which must be physically “bottomed out” for a keypress to register.

What does all of that actually mean? That’d be my second point: Topre switches are a joy.

Touch typing on the Realforce R2 PFU is consistently smooth and satisfying. It’s fast enough but not too fast. Each press requires just enough force and returns just enough even resistance to give my fingers a distinct, bouncy response but not fatigue them over hours of work. Fully pressing a key here has a noticeably softer “landing” than you’d get on a typical mechanical keyboard. (My particular model has 45g switches, but there are also options with heavier 55g switches or switches with varying weights for different keys.)

This Realforce uses Topre’s “silenced” switches, which aren’t dead silent, but have a pleasingly muffled sound that doesn’t call attention to itself and is still far quieter than most mechanical keyboards. With my wife and I working out of the same one-bedroom apartment for the past three years, being able to keep the noise down has been a necessity. With this, I don’t need to sacrifice a richer typing feel in the process. That said, many Topre owners enjoy the more pronounced but still mellow thock sound of the non-silenced versions of these switches.

The Realforce is also just a well-made piece of hardware. The keycaps have a matte PBT finish that feels durable and avoids virtually all finger grease. The lettering is cleanly legible, and after years of use the dye has shown zero sign of smudging. The keys at the bottom of the board are gently sloped upward in a way that makes them easier to locate without looking. None of the keys feel loose, and there’s no “pinging” sound that you might get if you slam down on a cheaper mechanical board.

The outer casing is made of plastic, but it’s thick and smooth, and it doesn’t creak as you press down. (It can flex a little if you go out of your way to squeeze the sides of the board, but there’s no real reason to do that in the first place.) The kickstands on the back are tightly wound in place, and the whole board has a robust sense of heft that keeps it firmly in place. Topre says each switch can survive 50 million keystrokes, which is lower than the ratings for some mechanical switches but still enough to last decades. And while the ivory-and-gray finish of my model won’t fly with everyone, I dig the more professional, ‘80s IBM-style aesthetic. I don’t need showy RGB lighting to signify to myself that I enjoy video games.

On the feature side, this model can also swap between three different actuation points – the idea being that a shorter actuation distance will result in faster key presses for tasks like gaming. I’ve barely messed with that, though, as the default setting has given the right balance between speed and accuracy. All of this is still perfectly serviceable for casual gaming, and it comes with n-key rollover, meaning it’ll recognize any new keypress regardless of how many keys you may already be holding down at once.

There are still many reasons to not get a Topre keyboard. This particular model has nothing in the form of backlighting, for one. Its USB-A cable isn’t detachable, and it only has one kickstand setting. Realforce keyboards generally aren’t compatible with most third-party keycaps, either, so your customizations are far more limited than most mechanical keyboards. And, hello, they usually cost between $220 and $300. The fact that these switches are relatively complex, not in super-high demand and manufactured (and tested) by one company in Japan almost guarantees a high premium.

I also have to note that the Realforce R2 family of keyboards I’m talking about here is technically outdated, as Topre introduced a newer R3 series several months ago. As of this writing, however, those are still not easily available in the US. For now, the R2 models carry all the same general benefits and downsides but are more readily in stock. Broadly recommended third-party models like the Happy Hacking Keyboard are still around as well.

Regardless, any Topre keyboard is a niche device, best suited for enthusiasts who regularly spend long stretches typing and are willing to pay a premium for it to feel consistently pleasant. For better or worse (for my bank account), that’s me. I can’t say it was the most responsible purchase, but the Realforce has made years of work a little more soothing and subtly luxurious, one keypress at a time. If you find yourself in a similarly wanting state, it’s worth finding a way to try one out.

 

Sony and Canon are locked in a pitched battle for the full-frame mirrorless camera market, and Canon’s latest salvo is the $2,500 EOS R6 II. It’s not just a key rival to Sony’s like-priced 33-megapixel A7 IV, but gives Canon the opportunity to rectify overheating flaws in the otherwise excellent EOS R6.

The new 24-megapixel sensor promises more resolution and image quality than the 20-megapixel R6. It also offers faster shooting speeds, improved 4K video specs, an improved viewfinder and more. The competition in this category is getting tough, though. Panasonic also recently announced the $2,000 Lumix S5II and $2,200 S5IIX, its first cameras with phase-detect hybrid autofocus.

I saw the R6 II last last year in prototype form, but I’ve now got my hands on the final version. Can it keep up with the competition, and are the overheating issues solved? I tried it in a variety of shooting situations to find out.

Body and handling

Canon has experimented with the controls of past cameras, introducing things like a touch bar, but users didn’t like it. Fortunately, the R6 II uses Canon’s tried and tested form factor, with buttons, dials and the joystick right where you’d expect to find them. The grip is big, comfortable and has a rubber-like material, giving a sure hold with no discomfort even after a day’s use.

There are a few welcome changes over the R6, though. The power switch is now at right for easier access, with a “lock” setting that prevents accidental control activation (you can specify which controls to lock out).

Canon also introduced a dedicated photo and video switch. Flipping it changes all the settings for each button, as well as the main and quick menus. If you flip from photos to video, though, it uses whatever is set on the mode dial (M, S, A, P, etc.), so you have to remember to change that. All other settings, though, remain separate.

As before, it has a fully-articulating 1.62-million dot display that makes the R6 II useful for vlogging, selfies, etc. And Canon has updated the EVF from 2.36-million to 3.67-million dots, matching the A7 IV and getting rid of one of my biggest complaints about the original R6. It’s not quite as sharp as the 5.76-million dot EVF on the X-H2S, for instance, but it’s relatively sharp and fast with a 120 fps refresh rate.

Where the R6 had a single fast UHS-II card slot and a slower UHS-I slot, the R6 II now has two UHS-II slots. Unlike the A7 IV or Panasonic GH6, though, it lacks any kind of a CFexpress card slot which does affect burst speeds and video capture options.

It uses the same LP-E6NH battery as before, but endurance is up significantly from 510 shots max on the R6 to nearly 760 on the R6 II. I’ve taken well over 2,000 shots in a day (with a mix of electronic and mechanical shutter), and shot video for nearly two hours.

Naturally, it has microphone and headphone ports, along with a “next-generation” 21-pin digital interface at the hot shoe (Canon has shown images with the Tascam XLR2d-C audio interface and its newly launched Speedlite EL-5). Sadly, it uses a fragile micro instead of a full HDMI port. That’s unfortunate considering the RAW video output, as micro HDMI cables (and ports) tend to be fragile and finicky.

In terms of connectivity, you can run the camera off the USB-C via the power delivery feature. It also offers Bluetooth 5 and 5GHz Wifi, and you can use it directly as a PC or Mac webcam over USB-C using the built-in industry-standard UVC and UAC video and audio drivers built into Windows and MacOS.

Performance

As I saw in San Diego while shooting sports, the R6 II is fast. It can fire bursts at 12 fps with the mechanical shutter, which is already a touch faster than the A7 IV. However, switching to electronic mode brings that pace up to a frenzied 40 fps, making it the sportiest full-frame camera in this price category by far.

Using electronic mode means you’ll shoot fewer shots though (it also impacts the quality, but more on that shortly). You can get about 75 compressed RAW/JPEG frames before the buffer fills, and fewer with uncompressed RAW. In mechanical shutter mode, by contrast, you can shoot around 1,000 compressed RAW/JPEG frames before it stops, or about 140 uncompressed RAW photos.

Speaking of the buffer, an interesting new feature is the Pro Capture mode. If you activate that setting and half press the shutter button, it will continuously record and store several seconds worth of photos in the buffer. Then, when you full-press the shutter button, you’ll capture a few seconds of action that occurred right before you did so. The idea, of course, is that if you weren’t quite quick enough, you’ll still get a shot.

Rolling shutter is well controlled, about half that of the original R6 and significantly less than the A7 IV, as you can see in tests performed by Gerald Undone. I’d hesitate to use it for fast-moving sports at full-frame, but it’s very minimal in cropped 1.6x mode.

The Dual Pixel autofocus on the R6 II is also quicker and more reliable than the R6. Using it in single-point mode with no face/eye detection, it could keep up with the 40 fps burst speeds, missing just the odd shot. In 12 fps mechanical shutter mode, I rarely had a shot out of focus. In this aspect, it’s nearly on par with the EOS R3, which uses a stacked sensor.

There are 4,897 focus detect positions for photos and 4,067 for video, with up to 100 percent coverage depending on the lens. That means you can track subjects even at the edge of the frame. Selecting a subject is relatively easy using the multi-controller joystick or touchscreen.

On top of face and eyes, the R6 II can detect people’s bodies, plus animals and vehicles, including motorcycles, cars, trains and horses. It also comes with a new auto-select mode that lets the AI choose the subject type. It can also track user-selected subjects not in those categories.

While it can occasionally get confused by the background, the R6 II is good at locking onto human faces and eyes. It’s a bit less dependable for animals and other subjects. Tracking fast-moving subjects works well, though I had to dive into the settings to boost speeds for quicker movement. Touch to track works well if the subject is well defined, but isn’t as reliable as face tracking.

In general, autofocus is excellent and second only to Sony. As mentioned, I shot thousands of images per day at Canon’s shooting sessions (on a prototype camera), and most of them were in focus, with very little fiddling required on my part.

Image Quality

The new 24-megapixel sensor (neither backside illuminated nor stacked) is the biggest improvement in this camera, offering improved image quality, better low-light sensitivity and more. Images are of course sharper, but Canon has also boosted the dynamic range, allowing for improved image quality as well.

JPEGs have good levels of detail without excessive sharpening. Color accuracy is good and skin tones more pleasing than other cameras I’ve tried recently. If you want to boost quality a bit but not shoot RAWs, you can also shoot using the 10-bit HEIF (high efficiency image file) format, which offers a wider color range and less likelihood of banding.

With an ISO range of 100-102400 (50 to 204800 expanded), the R6 II is actually better than the original R6 in low light, despite the extra resolution. I had no qualms about shooting at ISO 12800 using some light noise reduction, and even ISO 25,600 images were usable if I exposed correctly. Anything above that had low usability, however.

RAW images retain extra detail, especially in shadows. That makes images easier to edit should you underexpose them. It has perhaps a bit less dynamic range than Sony or Nikon full-frame cameras, but it’s still very good. Beware that dynamic range drops in electronic shutter mode, though, as the R6 II shifts from 14-bit to 12-bit capture – so that extra speed does come at a slight loss in dynamic range.

Video

The EOS R6 II offers supersampled, full-frame 4K video all the way up to 60 fps. By contrast, the A7 IV and Panasonic’s S5 II both crop 60p video. Much like the A7 IV, 10-bit quality is available only in C-Log3 mode, with 8-bit in the regular video modes. That’s too bad, as regular 10-bit video provides extra headroom in shadows and highlights, without the hassle of applying LUTs or doing other color correction. All resolutions are available in 1.6X crop mode, with just a slight loss in sharpness.

You can do super slow mo in 1080p at up to 180fps, though the footage is barely usable. It’s more acceptable at 120fps, which still slows the action way down. And finally, you can shoot up to 6K in 12-bit ProRes RAW to an external Atomos Ninja V+ recorder. That delivers the best quality and easiest-to-edit video, if you don’t mind the hassle.

With the original R6, heating issues were a showstopper for many. You could shoot no more than 40 minutes of video at 4K 30fps, or 30 minutes at 60p. On top of that, you had to wait at least 10 minutes for it to cool down, and then you could only shoot for another 10 minutes or so.

Fortunately, those problems are largely gone. I shot supersampled 4K 30p video for nearly two hours until the battery died with no heating issues. In 60p supersampled mode, Canon says you can shoot for up to 50 minutes and get back to shooting again more quickly and for a longer time.

Those numbers are actually conservative, as I was able to shoot 4K 60p for over an hour (albeit, in 50 degree F temperatures). If you start and stop 4K 60p capture, there are no problems. If you really need continuous 4K 60p video, get another camera, but otherwise overheating issues are largely gone.

Quality is excellent, with sharper video than the competition at 4K 60p. Dynamic range in CLog3 mode isn’t quite as good as Sony’s A7 IV or the Panasonic S5 II, though. Much of that is lost in shadows, so it’s better to slightly over than underexpose when shooting C-Log3. It’s nothing you’d notice for regular non-log video, though.

Low-light video is good at ISOs up to 6400 and you can get away with 12800 if you’re careful with exposure. If not, boosting shadows can create some serious noise. Still, it’s one of the better full-frame cameras in low light, making it useful for things like concerts or plays.

One unfortunate omission compared to rivals is the lack of easy-to-edit intra-frame (all-intra or ProRes) codecs. That makes it pretty much mandatory to convert to ProRes or another format afterward, as even fast editing systems don’t like LongGOP. Sony’s A7 IV, meanwhile, supports all-intra capture at up to 600 megabits per second, which is one reason it has a CFexpress Type A card slot.

Video autofocus is a strong point for Canon. With single-point autofocus for run and gun shooting, interviews and the like, I rarely had out-of-focus shots. Human face and eye-tracing is incredibly reliable for videos. It stays locked on the subject and keeps them in focus as they move, though again, Sony’s A7 IV is slightly quicker.

As with photos, it also offers reliable animal and vehicle tracking, with the same “auto” mode that lets the camera’s AI choose the subject type. Overall, the R6 II is another reliable Canon camera in terms of video autofocus – something I think is really important for most video shooters, especially vloggers or documentary filmmakers..

Canon beats all rivals in rolling shutter. It’s noticeably better than on the Sony A7 IV, even in fully-downsampled mode. In 1.6 crop mode, it’s barely detectable, even if you whip the camera around. Like bad autofocus, excessive rolling shutter can ruin shots, so for me this is another key feature.

In-body stabilization is fine for stationary handheld shots or small movements. Anything more can be jerky, even in enhanced digital IS mode, however. The R6 II is about the same as the A7 IV in this regard, but Panasonic’s new S5II has massively improved stabilization designed for video and looks like it will beat both cameras.

Finally, Canon has introduced a digital focus breathing feature, much like Sony has on the A7 IV. This allows you to “rack” focus from one subject to another without either changing in size, by essentially using digital zoom to counteract the optical zoom. It works well, but only with a handful of lenses for now.

Wrap-up

Canon’s $2,500 EOS R6 II is a formidable hybrid mirrorless camera, with fast shooting speeds, accurate autofocus and strong video capabilities. The overheating issues have largely been fixed, unless you really need to shoot continuous 4K 60p full-frame video. The main downside is a lack of dynamic range compared to rivals.

Sony’s $2,500 A7 IV has more resolution but slower shooting speeds, particularly in electronic mode. Rolling shutter is a more serious issue on that camera as well. On the plus side, it offers slightly better image quality and autofocus that’s a touch faster.

Panasonic’s $2,000 S5 II has slightly better video specs, but it remains to be seen if autofocus can keep up. The S5 IIx, coming in May, looks like a better mirrorless camera for video and it’s less expensive at $2,200. And finally, if you’re willing to drop down to an APS-C sensor, the $2,500 X-H2S has a stacked sensor and better video chops, but slightly inferior autofocus. If you shoot both photos and video equally, I’d choose the EOS R6 II over all those models.

 

As rumored, Apple has unveiled is new M2 Pro and M2 Max chips that will arrive very soon in new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini computers. The new models will get get up to a 40 percent performance boost with the new processors, which have up to 12 CPU and 38 processing cores. Better still, they’ll be available to buy as early as next week. 

The new entry level chip processor is the M2 Pro, which offers 10- or 12-core core CPUs including eight high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, boosting performance by up to 20 percent over the 10-core M1 Pro CPU. The GPU, meanwhile, goes up from 16 to 19 cores, promising faster processing for content creation apps like Photoshop or compiling in Xcode.

Meanwhile, Apple calls the M2 Max “the world’s most powerful and efficient chip for a pro laptop” with the same 12 cores as the M2 Pro, but an increase from 34 to 38 GPU cores. More impressively, it supports up to 96GB of fast unified memory. With all that, Apple is processing graphic speeds up to 30 percent higher than the M1 Max chip, for chores like visual effects, machine learning and more. 

The new MacBook Pro 14- and 16-inch models carry the same designs as before, but offer considerably more performance and battery life, plus up to an incredible 96GB of unified memory in the M2 Max model. As mentioned, Apple is promising up to a 30 percent boost in graphics performance with the M2 Max model and a more modest boost on the M2 Pro. 

One of the main benefits, though, is battery life, as the MacBook Pro can now run up to 22 hours — the longest ever on a Mac, Apple claims. And as rumored, it now supports WiFi 6E, which offers up to twice the speed of the previous generation. Another new feature is an HDMI port that supports 8K for the first time. 

The models have similar designs the late 2021 M1 Pro/Max versions, so you get features like a MagSafe power connector and Liquid Retina XDR displays. The rumored touchscreens are not on these models but expected to come in a couple of years. The new MacBook Pro models are now available to preorder starting at $1,999 for the MacBook Pro with M2 Pro, and $2,499 for the 16-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro. Shipping will start on January 24th. 

These chips will also appear in Apple’s new Mac mini, which comes with either an M2 or M2 Pro chip. With that, Apple is promising considerably faster graphics processing and AI speeds for content creation, gaming, music and more. The new Mac mini starts at $599 with the M2 chip or $1,299 with the M2 Pro, and is now available on preorder with shipping set to start on January 24th.

 

Uber is expanding its electric car rentals to Europe. The ridesharing service has expanded its deal with Hertz to provide up to 25,000 EVs to European capital cities by 2025, including those from Polestar and Tesla. The rollout will begin in London this month, and will reach hubs like Amsterdam and Paris as soon as 2023. Rates and other details will be available in “due course,” Uber says.

The companies first teamed up in late 2021, when Hertz pledged to offer up to 50,000 Tesla rental EVs to Uber drivers in the US. Last spring, Hertz said it would add as many as 65,000 Polestar EVs to its fleet within five years. The rental car agency claims its Uber partnership in North America has been successful — almost 50,000 drivers have rented Tesla vehicles so far.

Both firms see the European expansion as key to furthering their goals. Uber says it plans to be a “zero-emissions platform” in London by 2025, and completely electric in Europe and North America by 2030. Hertz, meanwhile, has set out to offer “one of the largest” EV fleets worldwide.

Neither brand may have much choice, however. The UK and European Union intend to ban sales of new fossil fuel cars by 2035, and the EU agreement also demands cutting new car emissions by 55 percent from 2030. Many automakers operating in Europe, like Ford and Volvo, expect to drop combustion engines by 2030. Uber and Hertz will have to adopt EVs in the next several years, and these rentals could help ease the transition for drivers who can’t justify buying the technology at this stage.

 

Willow, a company that makes smart breast pumps, is looking to make it easier for users to monitor and control their pumping sessions. The Willow 3.0, a wearable wireless pump, now has an Apple Watch companion app. As such, you won’t necessarily need your phone to manage pumping sessions (though your iPhone will still need to be within 30 feet of both the pumps and your watch).

The app enables users to start and pause sessions, switch between stimulation and expression pump modes and adjust suction levels, all from their wrist. Your watch will also let you know when your last session ended, display your per-pump milk output in real-time and show the battery level of each pump.

More than half of Willow users “regularly use an Apple Watch and many want to control their pumps with their smartwatches,” the company’s CEO Laura Chambers said in a statement. Chambers added that Willow designed the app to give users more “ease and control” over pumping sessions. You’ll need an Apple Watch Series 3 or above and at least watchOS 8 to use the Willow 3.0 app.

 

If you’re looking for new routers, mesh WiFi systems and smart home devices, such as lights and plugs, TP-Link is selling quite a few at a discount on Amazon. The TP-Link Archer AX73 WiFi 6 router is currently available for $140, which, while not quite its lowest price on the website, is still 30 percent off retail. The company says it was designed with 8K streaming in mind. If you’re a frequent and serious gamer, TP-Link’s Archer GX90 WiFi 6 Gaming router is also on sale for $200, which is the lowest we’ve seen it go for on the website. 

Buy TP-Link modems, routers and smart home devices at Amazon – up to 53 percent off

Archer GX90 is a tri-band router, which provides a 4.8 Gbps dedicated band for your gaming needs. It can detect and optimize game streams, and it comes with eight detachable antennas that give it the power to provide WiFi coverage for a four-bedroom house. Meanwhile, TP-Link’s Archer AXE300 Quad-Band WiFi 6E router has dropped back down to its all-time low of $480. It can deliver WiFi speeds of up to 15.6 Gbps and provide access to a new 6 GHz band. Like the Archer GX90, this router also comes with eight antennas to ensure WiFi coverage for big homes. But if you still need mesh WiFi systems to help boost coverage, there are a couple on sale right now, as well. 

You can get a three-pack bundle of the TP-Link Deco P9 Hybrid Mesh WiFi system, which can provide coverage for a 6,000 sq. ft. home, for $150. That’s 35 percent less than its typical price. Meanwhile, a two-pack bundle of the TP-Link Deco X20 is on sale for $104 or 42 percent lower than retail. The two WiFi 6-capable mesh devices can cover over an area up to 4,000 sq. ft. in size. 

If you’re looking for smart home devices, you can also find Kasa and Tapo by TP-Link-branded products in the list. The Kasa Smart Plug Mini is on sale for $13, down $7 from retail. It can add voice control support to any outlet, particularly for Alexa and Google Assistant. The device also allows you to switch off electronics from anywhere using the Kasa app and to monitor the consumption of anything that’s plugged into it. In addition, the TP-Link sale includes Kasa Smart Bulbs for $35 (22 percent off), as well as Kasa and Tapo light strips for up to 44 percent off. 

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

 

While other US states (and the rest of the world) inch towards goals of banning gasoline-powered cars, Wyoming is going in the opposite direction. The state’s legislature is considering a resolution that calls for a phase-out of new electric vehicle sales by 2035. Introduced on Friday, Senate Joint Resolution 4 has support from members of the state’s House of Representatives and Senate. The resolution says the state would need to build “massive amounts of new power generation” to “sustain the misadventure of electric vehicles.” Its goal is to phase out the sales of EVs entirely by 2035. Yes, EVs.

In the proposal, a group of lawmakers led by Senator Jim Anderson says Wyoming’s “proud and valued” oil and gas industry has created “countless” jobs and contributed revenue to the state. They add that a lack of charging infrastructure in Wyoming would make the widespread use of EVs “impracticable.” The legislation may partially be a political stunt, but Wyoming produced 85.43 million barrels of oil in 2021 – it’s a crucial part of the state’s economy. But, Wyoming’s Carbon County also has one of the largest wind farms in the US.

– Mat Smith

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

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They could be the first Macs with WiFi 6E.

Multiple sources suggest Apple is prepping new MacBook Pro models for launch very soon. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman teased last fall that these systems would share the same design as the M1 variants released in late 2021. They would center around new M2 Pro and M2 Max chips that would feature up to 12 CPU cores and 38 GPU cores in the Max. Don’t expect a touchscreen or other major revisions. At least, not yet. They might be the first Macs to include WiFi 6E, though.

Continue reading.

Your Stadia controller won’t just be a paperweight after the service shuts down

Google’s game-streaming service shutters tomorrow.

Google has confirmed it will release a tool to enable Bluetooth support on the Stadia controller. You’ll have to wait until next week to download it, but this should make the device useful for just about any title with gamepad support. Stadia as we know it is about to end, but Google’s Immersive Stream for Games should ensure the cloud functionality lives on for other companies offering game streams. The team behind Stadia has also released a Snake clone, Worm Game, as a final gift to users.

Continue reading.

High-powered lasers used to steer lightning strikes

The technology could protect rocket launchpads and power plants.

Lightning rods, your time is up. European researchers have successfully tested a system that uses terawatt-level laser pulses to steer lightning toward a 26-foot rod. It’s not limited by its height and can cover much wider areas – in this case, 590 feet – while penetrating clouds and fog. The laser ionizes nitrogen and oxygen molecules, releasing electrons and creating a plasma that conducts electricity. As the laser fires at a very quick 1,000 pulses per second, it’s more likely to intercept lightning as it forms.

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Disney+ has released a new trailer for The Mandalorian during the NFL Wild Card Game on ESPN and ABC Network. It shows Pedro Pascal’s character Din Djarin and Grogu reunited and going on their next adventure. Din also reveals in the trailer that he’s going back to the planet Mandalore in an effort to redeem himself after removing his helmet and showing his face to other people by the end of season 2. As revealed in previous episodes, Din is a member of the religious sect Children of the Watch that views removing one’s helmet in the presence of others a serious transgression.

While Din is dealing with the consequences of his decision, the New Republic is struggling: “There’s something dangerous happening out there,” Captain Carson Teva warned. “And by the time it becomes big enough for you to act, it’ll be too late.” The trailer also shows Grogu exhibiting better control of the Force after leaving with Luke Skywalker in the previous season to train at his Jedi Temple. 

Disney released its first teaser trailer for the show at last year’s D23 Expo, showing us that everybody’s favorite Star Wars family will indeed get reunited for season 3. Now this newer trailer gives us a taste of what Din and Grogu will encounter. Not that we have long to wait for the next season to drop — season 3 will be available for streaming on Disney+ starting on March 1st.

 

Samsung is continuing its “more pixels is better” mantra with the launch of its latest 200-megapixel (MP) sensor. The ISOCELL HP2 is a relatively large (for a smartphone) Type 1/1.3 sensor (around 12mm diagonally) with a pixel pitch of 0.6 micrometers (μm) — in between the 200-megapixel HP1 and HP3 sensors. It offers more light gathering than past sensors along with new HDR features and will likely be used in Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone. 

The HP2 uses something Samsung calls Dual Vertical Transfer Gate (D-VTG) technology. This essentially doubles the number of electrons available from each photo diode, “boosting the pixel’s full-well capacity by more than 33 percent,” the company wrote. That means a pixel can hold more charge before saturating, reducing overexposure and improving color reproduction in bright light conditions. 

As before, it can transform into either a 1.2μm 50MP or 2.4μm 12.5MP sensor by binding either four or 16 neighboring pixels, allowing for better performance in low light. It can shoot up to 8K 30 fps video in 50MP mode (up from 24 fps on the Galaxy S22) to minimize cropping while still allowing for sharp video. It also uses something called Smart-ISO Pro to capture 12.5MP HDR images and 4K HDR at up to 60 fps. And as before, each pixel acts as a focus agent to allow for quick autofocus, even in low-light situations.

Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra “only” had a 108MP sensor, with the 200MP HP1 chip used in other devices like the Motorola 30 Edge Ultra and Xiaomi 12T Pro. However, rumor has it that the S23 Ultra will have a 200MP sensor, and the HP2 fits the bill as it’s already in mass production, Samsung said. The Galaxy S23 is set to be revealed in just two weeks on February 1st, 2023.