Kalakshar US

Apple can rarely leave well enough alone. A year ago, I thought each of the four tablets in the iPad lineup was differentiated well from the others, and it was fairly easy to see what features you got as things got more expensive. The new 10th-generation iPad throws a wrench in things, though. It’s a complete redesign from last year’s model that cribs heavily from the iPad Air while also bringing a handful of compromises to upsell potential customers on Apple’s more expensive tablets.

But the new iPad also contains a few puzzling decisions and a $120 price hike — the base model now costs $449. Muddying the waters further, last year’s iPad remains available at $329. And while I think the improvements Apple made to the 10th-generation iPad are significant, I’m not sure how many people in the market for an inexpensive tablet will find these changes worth their cash.

Unlike last year’s iPad, which looked essentially identical to the basic tablet Apple has been selling since 2017, this year’s model has been completely redesigned. The Home button is gone, Touch ID has moved to the lock button, the bezels are smaller, the display is bigger, the edges are squared off and the front-facing camera has been moved to the iPad’s landscape edge. It’s a significant set of changes — but only if you haven’t seen an iPad Pro or Air in recent years. Apple has been making tablets with most of these design elements since 2018, so it’s not exactly a fresh look. While it’s slightly thicker and larger than the iPad Air I reviewed earlier this year, it feels essentially identical in the hand, with the exact same size screen.

A14

Inside the iPad is an A14 Bionic chip (first seen in 2020’s iPhone 12 lineup), a modest update over the A13 in last year’s model. It’s a strong performer, but it wasn’t all that slow to begin with. Of course, if you’re going to raise the price, you had better increase the performance. My modest work needs (Slack, Safari, Google Docs, Todoist, Gmail, etc.) didn’t tax the iPad in the least. Nor did any of the Apple Arcade games I played, and more advanced tasks like editing RAW photos in Lightroom or transcoding and exporting 4K video clips in 1080p were similarly smooth. Sure, the A14 trails the M1 in the iPad Air and the M2 in the new iPad Pro, but the vast majority of iPad buyers will be plenty happy.

There is one catch with the A14: this iPad can’t use the new Stage Manager multitasking and window-management features that are in iPadOS 16, as they’re limited to iPad Pro models from 2018 and later or the M1-powered iPad Air.

As for battery life, Apple continues to meet or exceed its 10-hour estimate it provides for every iPad. This model lasted 11 hours and 45 minutes while playing back a movie purchased from the iTunes Store. I didn’t quite hit 10 hours when using the iPad and its keyboard for work all day long, but it was close enough that I’m not complaining. Of course, more intensive tasks like gaming or editing video will reduce that time significantly.

Screen

Compared to last year’s iPad, the screen here is definitely bigger, but not better in any measurable way. It’s the same 10.9 inches as the iPad Air (up from 10.2 inches), and that does make working with multiple apps feel a bit less cramped. And a bigger screen in a body that’s essentially the same size is always a nice improvement. But, this display still lacks a lot of the niceties you’ll find on the Air. Specifically, the display isn’t laminated to the front glass, it’s missing an anti reflective coating and it doesn’t support the P3 wide color gamut.

These missing features were easier to ignore when it cost $329, but this new iPad only costs $150 less than the Air. That’s not to say this display is bad, but it’s clearly the worst in the iPad lineup — and its deficiencies are a lot more glaring at a higher price. I noticed the air gap between the screen and cover glass less than I expected, but it was a lot more noticeable when I held the iPad in my hands and moved compared to using it with the Magic Keyboard Folio.

Keyboard

Speaking of the keyboard, the new iPad has its own redesigned accessory here. The Magic Keyboard Folio is two separate pieces: a back that magnetically attaches and has a kickstand, and a keyboard that attaches to the side of the iPad. It then uses the Smart Connector located on its edge to sync and power the keyboard.

The folio design has one big deficiency compared to the Magic Keyboard for the iPad Air and Pro. That keyboard is much better for lap typing. The folio, on the other hand, is not nearly as stable on your lap. Fortunately, the typing experience itself is much better than the old Smart Keyboard Cover that works with last year’s iPad. These keys have 1mm of travel, there’s a 14-key function row up top (the first Apple-made iPad keyboard to offer them) and the trackpad is large and responsive. It’s even bigger than the trackpad on the more expensive Magic Keyboard.

While I don’t care to use a folio-style keyboard on my lap, it was totally fine for long typing sessions at my desk. And the bigger trackpad and function keys are major improvements that I hope to see implemented on other iPad keyboards soon.

The elephant in the room is that this keyboard costs a truly painful $250; this means that the basic iPad with 64GB of storage and this Magic Keyboard Folio would cost $700. That’s a wild amount of money, and you could get an iPad Air and the second-generation Apple Pencil for just a little bit more, or pick up a solid Windows laptop if you’re going to be doing a lot of typing.

Cameras

Apple also made some significant improvements to the camera system on the new iPad. It now has the same 12-megapixel back camera as the Air. It’s not the best camera out there; as I always say, chances are good the camera on the phone in your pocket is better. But for anyone who wants to shoot video, it now offers 4K capture while last year’s model maxed out at 1080p.

More significant is the front-facing camera. Oddly enough, it’s exactly the same as last year’s – with one notable exception. Apple finally put the front-facing camera on the landscape edge of the iPad, which means your face will actually be centered if you’re taking a video call with the iPad in its keyboard folio (or just propped up with the kickstand). Amazingly, this iPad is the only one with this feature. The iPad Pro, the best tablet Apple sells, still has its camera on the portrait edge. Basic iPad buyers win out here.

Pencil

As you have already likely noticed, Apple has made some compromises to keep this iPad from infringing too much upon the Air and Pro. Nowhere is that more obvious than the fact that this tablet still uses the first-generation Apple Pencil, introduced way back in 2015. While the original Pencil is still a capable tool for drawing and note-taking, it has a number of issues. It has a built-in Lightning connector on the back; to charge it, you literally plug it into the Lightning port on your iPad (or use a dongle to connect it to a cable). It’s a very awkward setup, compounded by the fact that you can easily lose the cap that covers the charging end of the Pencil. It’s also a perfect circle, which means it rolls away easily, and there’s nowhere to store the Pencil on the iPad itself when you’re not using it.

All these problems persist. But now, the iPad uses USB-C for charging – which means there’s no Lightning port to plug the Pencil in for charging. Instead, you have to attach the Pencil to a new Lightning to USB-C adapter, plug that mess into a USB-C cable, and then plug that into your iPad. It goes without saying, but: this is far from a good experience. Yes, it’s good that people who have an original Apple Pencil can still use it, but the much-improved second-generation model is the future. It has a flat edge that snaps magnetically onto the side of the iPad for charging and storage, solving all the problems I outlined.

Every other iPad Apple sells (besides last year’s budget model) uses this accessory now, making this an obvious case of upsell. The second-generation Pencil is so superior to this setup that I would recommend anyone who is interested in using the Apple Pencil just buy the iPad Air instead. For $150 you get a more powerful processor, a significantly better Pencil experience, and a better screen.

iPadOS 16

iPadOS 16 was just released a few days ago, but I’ve been dabbling with it in beta for months. It’s mostly made of of tweaks that came to iOS 16 a month ago, with features like unsending and editing messages, undo send and scheduling messages in Mail, an iCloud Photo Library you can share with your family members, extensive collaboration features, the ability to copy text straight from a video and a number of other features we’ve covered in the past.

None of these things fundamentally change the experience of using an iPad, but there are still a number of useful features here. Of course, the one thing that does change the iPad experience is Stage Manager, the new multi-tasking and windowing system. But that’s only available on iPads with the M1 or M2 chip (as well as a few older iPad Pro models). As such, this new iPad is limited to the same Split Screen and Slide Over multitasking capabilities Apple has offered for years now. Given the smaller screen and the fact that Stage Manager is going through some growing pains, this likely won’t be a huge loss for most people.

How does it fit?

In a vacuum, the new iPad is an obvious improvement over its predecessor in a number of ways. By that measure, it’s probably worth the extra cash Apple is asking for it. A bigger screen, better cameras, a more powerful chip and a more modern design are all solid, and in some cases badly needed updates.

But putting it in context with the rest of Apple’s iPad lineup makes it a harder sell. If you have an older iPad, you’ll need new accessories, and both the iPad and keyboard folio cost more than older options. And Apple didn’t upgrade the Pencil, which isn’t bad if you already have one — but it’s going to have to cut the cord on the old one at some point, and this would have been a smart time to do so.

If you want the basic iPad experience and don’t want to spend too much money, last year’s model is still easy to recommend. And if you’re an artist who wants to make extensive use of the Apple Pencil, you’re better off saving up for the iPad Air or Pro.

This iPad is more like an “Air lite,” and it’s a common strategy for the company. In 2020, Apple took the iPad Pro design and put it in the iPad Air and subsequently bumped the price. Now Apple is doing that again, taking the Air design, putting it in the base model, and making it more expensive. My hope is that within a year or two, Apple adds support for the second-generation Pencil to this model and cuts the price below $400 again. That would make for an iPad that is easy to recommend. But for now, despite a number of improvements, this iPad is sandwiched between two models that probably make more sense for most buyers.

 

Twitter no longer lets you charge users to listen to live Spaces conversations. The social media heavyweight tells The Information in a statement that it has indefinitely “paused” its Ticketed Spaces test. The move will let Twitter concentrate on improving the “core Spaces experience,” the company says. It’s not clear how many eligible hosts were using the service.

The company started public testing of Ticketed Spaces in August last year, three months after it unveiled the feature. Effectively, it was a way for creators to put audio chats behind a paywall. An industry figure could hold a TED-style talk from home, while a star could hold discussions with their most loyal fans. Notably, Twitter’s potential profit was relatively low — it would take just a 3 percent cut from revenue below $50,000, and only demand 20 percent beyond that. While that fee include Apple and Google payouts, it still meant that hosts would take most of the revenue.

This isn’t to say Twitter is shying away from Spaces in general. The company is experimenting with support for live chats inside Communities, and is working on projects like themed stations and daily digests. However, the end to Ticketed Spaces comes as social audio pioneer Clubhouse (the inspiration for Spaces) has been rethinking its strategy and laying off staff. The live voice chat field just isn’t as hot as it was during the early pandemic, and that could make it harder to attract paying users.

What happens next isn’t clear. While the discontinuation of Ticketed Spaces isn’t connected to Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the incoming leader has promised sweeping changes to the company as he tries to make it a “town square” while boosting its bottom line. We wouldn’t expect paid chats to come back, but they’re not necessarily dead.

 

NASA has released another image that the James Webb Space Telescope has captured of the Pillars of Creation. While the picture that the agency offered up last week provided a detailed look at stars forming in the region, the latest one is a spookier and more ethereal image.

Bathed in orange and black, the image that Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) captured is certainly timely, given that Halloween is just a few days away. NASA says the rendering provides a fresh perspective on the Pillars of Creation, with a focus on the region’s gas and dust.

Last week’s image was captured with Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which was able to look through the columns of dust to observe thousands of new stars in the region in more detail than before. However, many of the stars aren’t bright enough to shine through at the wavelengths MIRI focuses on.

NASA says that, with this image, astronomers have mid-infrared light data at higher resolution than has been available in the past. The agency notes that researchers will look at more precise dust movements to form a fuller 3D landscape of the Pillars of Creation. This will help to develop a deeper understanding of how stars form.

The Pillars of Creation is in the Eagle Nebula, some 6,500 light years away. In case you’re wondering how vast the whole thing is, take a look at the bright red star that juts out from the right side of the top pillar, around halfway up. NASA says the star and its dusty shroud are bigger than our entire solar system, which may or may not spark an existential crisis or two. Have a wonderful Halloween weekend.

 

Now’s your chance to get a pair of solid noise-cancelling headphones without the usual high price. Amazon is selling the WH-XB910N with active noise cancellation (ANC) for $123, or a hefty 51 percent off. That’s a better deal than we saw earlier this year, and makes them an easy pick if you’re shopping in the sub-$150 range.

The WH-XB910N headphones may not match the stellar audio fidelity of Sony’s flagship WH-1000XM5 headphones, but they don’t have to at this price. You still get clear mid- and high-range sounds, strong bass and 360 Reality Audio (aka spatial audio) for services like Amazon Music HD, Deezer and Tidal. You’ll also get robust noise cancellation, a healthy 30 hours of claimed battery life and support for voice control through Alexa and Google Assistant.

These are good commuter headphones, too. The WH-XB910N can amplify your voice when you make calls in noisy environments, and an ambient sound mode lets you hear crosswalk traffic or a subway stop announcement. They’re particularly helpful if you want to quickly head out after a long day at work — 10 minutes of charging will deliver 4.5 hours of listening. Throw in the included carrying case and you can easily bring these with you.

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

 

European lawmakers have gotten the EU’s 27 member states to agree to a plan that effectively bans the sale of gas-powered cars and vans by 2035. They’ve come to an agreement to approve the Commission’s revised reduction targets for passenger cars’ and light vehicles’ carbon dioxide emissions. The Commission’s proposal, which European lawmakers had voted in favor of back in June, aims to reduce the emissions produced by new vehicles in those categories by 100 percent in 13 years’ time. That wouldn’t be achievable without stopping the sale of gas-powered vehicles and selling zero-emission models only. 

European Parliament’s lead negotiator Jan Huitema said:

“[P]urchasing and driving zero-emission cars will become cheaper for consumers. I am pleased that today we reached an agreement with the Council on an ambitious revision of the targets for 2030 and supported a 100% target for 2035. This is crucial to reach climate neutrality by 2050 and make clean driving more affordable.”

Under the deal, new cars from 2030 must also comply with a 55 percent cut on carbon dioxide emissions compared to 2021 levels. Vans must comply with a 50 percent cut. In addition, the agreement states that existing EU funding should be spent on transitioning to zero-emission vehicles and related technologies going forward. The Commission also vows to publish a report every two years detailing the region’s progress towards zero-emission road mobility starting in 2025.

The European Parliament and Council will still have to approve the agreement before it becomes official, and changes could be introduced before then. According to Reuters, the EU intends to draft a proposal on how to sell cars running on carbon dioxide-neutral fuels after 2035. That said, automakers have been preparing for the shift to zero-emission vehicles for a while now, as governments around the world adopt laws to combat climate change. The list of carmakers pledging to go fully electric over the coming years continue to grow: Ford, for instance, announced last year that its consumer vehicles will be fully electric by 2030, while GM aims to eliminate emissions from all its new “light-duty vehicles” by 2035.

 

You won’t have to pay much extra to get Apple’s latest thin-and-light laptop. Amazon is once again selling the base MacBook Air configuration with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD for $1,049, significantly below the official $1,199 price. The savings only apply to the silver and midnight hues, but you probably won’t mind if you were previously considering the M1 model. You can also save $150 on 512GB versions if you need the extra storage.

The M2-powered MacBook Air is, simply put, one of the best general-purpose laptops we’ve tried. It’s extremely slim and fanless, but still performs well and lasts a very long time on battery. Add a high-quality display and surprisingly powerful speakers and you have a portable that can travel most anywhere, but still has the power to handle serious tasks like video editing.

There are some important considerations. The storage in the 256GB configuration isn’t as quick as for the 512GB edition — it’s just fine for everyday use, but may prove a bottleneck if you’re routinely working with very large files (such as major 4K video projects). And while the absence of a fan is rarely an issue in typical circumstances, you may want to spring for the 13-inch MacBook Pro M2 if you regularly subject your computer to sustained heavy workloads. Otherwise, the MacBook Air is a great pick — it’s even better than the Pro if you need more ports (as MagSafe frees up one) or prefer physical function keys over the Touch Bar.

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

 

Apple earned plaudits for making the iPhone 14 more repairable compared to its predecessors, but the question of who can make those repairs remains. It appears the company has added an additional, seemingly-unnecessary layer of friction to the process of replacing a broken display. Much like in 2019, even genuine Apple screens are causing repaired iPhones to malfunction. Sources within the third-party repair community, who have asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, say that while tearing an iPhone 14 may be easier, getting it to work properly after is considerably harder.

Our sources say the new issue centers on the iPhone 14’s Always-On Display (AOD), which uses the phone’s two Ambient Light Sensors (ALS) to calibrate display brightness. In order to conserve battery life, when at night or when the phone is in your pocket, the display will shut down, leveraging the automatic brightness. If your display breaks, and you don’t use an Apple-authorized service center to replace it, however, the ALS shuts down, leaving the screen permanently black unless you can remember the position of the slider, and then you’ll be stuck manually adjusting your brightness.

(The Ambient Light Sensor has been an issue with previous iPhone releases, down to where its controller was sited. On the iPhone 12, for instance, it was mounted on a sensor flex itself that leant itself to mechanical failure. On the 13, it was moved to a new component cluster, reducing the risk of it breaking unexpectedly. Our source says that the iPhone 14’s sensor is in a similar place, and so any failure must be a software-related issue.)

YouTuber Hugh Jefferys posted a video about the problem, swapping the logic board between two brand new iPhones (both for the 14 and 14 Pro). Despite the fact that every component is new and Apple-made, the phones erupted into a chorus of error messages and broken features. FaceID, Battery Health, True Tone and Auto Brightness, as well as the forward-facing cameras are all disabled. When Jeffreys swapped them back, the problems persisted, and the phones were only “fixed” after he had downgraded to iOS 16.0.

The cause of this failure is Apple’s policy of “Parts Pairing,” tying individual components to the phones that carry them. A display – a commonly broken part – will have a unique ID logged in its hardware that the iPhone checks for whenever it boots. As far as the phone is concerned, it will only work properly if it has its “own” display attached, and if it’s not detected, it won’t work. Users will instead see a bunch of error messages urging them to go to their local Apple support technician. These messages will, eventually, stop, but your device will be marked as hosting unauthorized components.

The only way to prevent this is for an Apple-authorized technician to manually sanction the pairing with an in-house software tool. Our source said that this process requires a technician connecting to Apple’s private network over the internet, a process that is kept “under lock and key” by the company. Until the iPhone 13, there was a workaround for this with third-party repair stores using custom EEPROM programmers. These devices would read the part ID code from the paired display and write it to its replacement, which would often be a refurbished, genuine Apple-made display. Unfortunately, while this worked on previous iPhones, it does not remedy the issues for the iPhone 14.

The result of this is that repair stores outside of Apple’s own network will soon be left unable to make repairs on any new iPhones. The costs of joining Apple’s network, however, are high enough that many businesses have had second thoughts about doing so. “The Independent Repair Programme (IRP) is not profitable enough, as an independent repairer, to maintain as a retail operation” said one individual who asked not to be named.

Apple has been historically resistant to the idea that users should be able to fix their own gear. It has backed anti-Right to Repair groups and tries to keep all repairs within its own service process. That has led to situations where Apple grossly overcharged for basic repairs that did not require a machine to be sent away to be serviced. The most infamous example, as reported by CBC, was when a Genius Bar quoted $1,200 to make a fix a third-party store charged $75 for.

Apple withholds repair manuals and spare parts from third-party stores, despite the volume of iPhones that require basic fixes, like display and battery replacements. Instead, the only non-Apple outfits that can fix iPhones are Authorized Service Providers (ASPs) where Apple can exert some control. The company’s critics say boxing out third parties who can make simple repairs and forcing people back to the Genius Bar helps turn a tidy profit. Apple denies this, and told the US Antitrust subcommittee that in 2019, since 2009, “the costs of providing repair services has exceeded the revenue generated by repairs.” Although Apple did not explain if that constitutes the whole of its repair operations, or just those made under warranty.

But the company, through a combination of regulator and activist pressure, has been forced to loosen its grip on repairs. In 2019, it said it would allow third-party repair stores to become “verified,” enabling it to receive the same tools, parts and manuals as its ASPs. The process subsequently expanded this program to include Mac repair as well as for iPhones (and iPads). And, on November 17th, 2021, the company announced a self-service repair program where it would make tools, parts and manuals available to users.

This process, however, as detailed in depth by The Verge, revealed that enabling a user to fix their own iPhone display on Apple’s terms wasn’t that easy. The company handed over 79 pounds of tools, including a hot plate to melt the glue holding the display in place. If that wasn’t bad enough, the repair isn’t validated until the iPhone is connected to Apple’s own service team, which can then set the new part as legitimate. And in order to do it, a user has to lay down a deposit of $1,200 to ensure they return the tools within seven days.

The end result of this is that consumers have to pay a significantly higher price to keep their iPhone running than they should, or could. In one example, a third-party store that used genuine Apple displays charged around £140 ($157) to repair an iPhone 11 display, whereas that same repair at an Apple-authorized store would cost closer to £220 ($247). Compare that to aftermarket display replacements, made by third-party companies, which are priced at £95 ($106).

Jason Eccles is General Manager of SimplyFixIt, a chain of independent repair stores across Scotland. “The idea that someone can buy a device outright, but the manufacturer can still control the functionality of it for years to come is mind-blowing,” he said. “It’s frustrating for us, because we want to offer the best possible repair, but Apple appears to have arbitrary rules around what we can do, sometimes even creating new issues with iOS updates.” Eccles does not have an issue with iOS devices knowing that it was repaired with aftermarket parts, however. “Consumers getting relevant information in iOS that a component has been replaced is a good thing, but I think it’s difficult to say that reducing the functionality of the phone, even if we use genuine parts, is good for customers.”

Eccles added that it’s important to repair existing equipment from a sustainability standpoint as much as anything else. “We still regularly repair MacBooks and iMacs that are ten years old,” he said, “it shows plenty of Apple devices are out there that would be perfectly usable after a little repair.” Not to mention that responsible independent repair technicians should be welcomed by Apple with open arms. “If everyone had to pay £349 ($403) for a new screen, there would be a lot more people switching to Android for their next phone. Apple might not want to admit it, but we’re helping people stay in their ecosystem.

iFixit has tested and confirmed the issue to Engadget, saying that there is an issue related to the always-on display. Liz Chamberlain, iFixit Director of Sustainability, said that the practice of using software locks is an “insidious threat to repair as we know it.” And that this new issue is a greater demonstration of the fact that “repairability requires the ability to access software locks, not just hardware.” She added that, either by accident or intention, Apple has “proved [it] can’t be trusted with a parts pairing kill switch.” And that unless lawmakers step in to ensure there is a federally protected right to repair, there’s the possibility that Apple could “disable all phones that have undergone independent repair.”

Engadget contacted Apple for a comment on the story but none was made available by the time of publication.

If there’s a hope, it’s that pushes for Right to Repair legislation on both sides of the Atlantic make strong progress. Earlier this year, President Biden said it was a common problem that a person owns a product, but doesn’t “have the freedom to choose how or where to repair [it.]” And the FTC has recently moved to enforce legislation that sees major manufacturers – including Harley Davidson – from using warranty provisions to prevent owners seeking independent repair for their products.

And the EU, currently taking the lead in many elements of tech regulation, is also looking at laying down better right to repair provisions. Its “Ecodesign” initiative is in its infancy right now, but will focus on producing rules that will ensure devices sold there are more repairable. One of the key clauses in its earliest draft is to provide “appropriate information for users, repairers and recyclers” (Para 4). And that these requirements are designed to enable “repair operations by end-users,” (Para 15), something Apple allows, but doesn’t make easy. We can only hope, that when these rules are agreed, that the balance of power is swung back towards user repair.

 

Twitter, like Facebook and Instagram, might also roll out NFT integration in the future. The now-Elon Musk-owned website has announced an experimental feature that prominently displays NFT listings when users tweet a link to them, so long as they’re from one of its partner marketplaces. An NFT Tweet Tile, as the company is calling it, displays a large photo of the digital artwork, along with its title and creator. It also comes with a button that takes users straight to the marketplace listing where they can purchase it or sell their own collectibles. 

At the moment, Twitter has four partners: multi-chain NFT marketplace Rarible, Solana-and-Etherium-focused marketplace Magic Eden, Dapper Labs (the team behind Top Shot) and Jump.trade, which is where people would go for digital cricket collectibles. In its announcement, Twitter said that “some” links from those four will show up as NFT Tweet Tiles for those chosen to participate in the test. As Decrypt notes, the marketplaces cover several blockchain networks that include Flow, Polygon and Tezos.

The company told the publication that it’s testing the integration “with select Twitter users across iOS and web” and that it’s not limited to Blue premium subscribers. Twitter previously gave paying members access to another experimental feature that allowed them to connect their crypto wallets to their accounts. After they do so, they’ll be able to display an NFT as their profile photo, which will show up with an icon indicating that they’re the official owner of the digital artwork. 

 

This week, Devindra and Deputy Editor Nathan Ingraham dive into Apple’s latest iPad and iPad Pro. The new base iPad seemingly justifies its price, but it also leaves out plenty of consumers who were well-served by the old $329 iPad. We hope that model sticks around for a long while. Also, we discuss if anyone needs M2 power in an iPad Pro (why not just get a MacBook?!), and we prepare for Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. (Note: When this episode was recorded, his acquisition wasn’t finalized yet.)

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 podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!

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Topics

1:40: iPad and iPad Pro (2022) reviews

25:50: Surface Pro 9 5G review

37:10: Elon Musk is buying Twitter, for real

50:20: Brief thoughts on God of War Ragnarok

52:50: Pop culture picks: Barbarian is on HBO Max, thoughts on Bad Sisters

Credits
Hosts: Devindra Hardawar and Nathan Ingraham
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien

 

After a months-long legal battle that has engulfed Twitter since Elon Musk first offered to buy the company for $44 billion in April, the deal is done, and Musk is already ringing in the changes. Musk, who has criticized Twitter’s leadership, fired CEO Parag Agrawal and Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, as well as several more top executives. He’s also likely to let more staff go, though he has told employees the cuts won’t be as high as 75 percent.

Musk spent time in Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters this week, where he met with employees. Bloomberg reported that he brought in some Tesla engineers to help “assess” Twitter’s code. The new owner wants to loosen moderation rules and even make the social network “open source” so users can better understand what Twitter is recommending. Longer term, Musk has mentioned turning Twitter into “the everything app” akin to WeChat in China, and even the possibility of charging companies for tweet embeds.

– 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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Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G (SQ3 chip) review

Not this one.

The Surface Pro 9 with 5G makes it clear that Microsoft has learned some lessons since its first tablets – the original Surface launched ten years ago. The company’s latest hybrid is impeccably designed and can tap into speedy 5G networks. Unfortunately, it also retreads some errors of the past. These boil down to the custom SQ3 ARM system-on-a-chip, which isn’t as good as the Intel silicon found in the other Surface Pro 9. According to Engadget’s Devindra Hardawar, this custom chip leads to generally slow performance, compatibility issues and disappointment. It’s also more expensive than the faster Intel model.

Continue reading.

Samsung posts a 23 percent profit decline due to weak demand

But its mobile business still had a stellar third quarter.

Samsung has reported a record consolidated revenue of 76.78 trillion Korean won ($54 billion) for the third quarter of 2022, but this included a decline in profit from the previous quarter and year-over-year. The tech giant’s operating profit (KRW 10.85 trillion or $7.6 billion) has declined 23 percent from the second quarter. This was due to less demand for its component business, but the company’s phone and networks arm had a great quarter, attributed to sales of the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4, both of which showed stronger growth than their foldable predecessors.

Continue reading.

Apple pulls gambling ads from App Store product pages following backlash

It’s paused the ads for now.

On October 25th, Apple started displaying more ads in the App Store, particularly in the “Today” tab and at the bottom of app listings. Since then, multiple developers have complained about seeingads for gambling under their listings’ “You Might Also Like” section, when they have nothing to do with their applications. Apple told MacRumors that it has “paused ads related to gambling and a few other categories on App Store product pages.”

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NASA’s InSight lander detected a meteoroid impact on Mars

This may be InSight’s last big accomplishment before it shuts down.

Researchers learned that a quake detected by the lander in Mars’ Amazonis Planitia region on December 24th, 2021 was actually a meteoroid impact — the first time any mission has witnessed a crater forming on the planet. The meteoroid is believed to have been somewhere between 16 and 39 feet long. It would have burned up in Earth’s skies, but it was large enough to survive Mars’ extra-thin atmosphere.

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Netflix’s animated Sonic series will arrive on December 15th

And our first look at ‘Sonic Prime’.

Almost two years after Netflix tweeted (and deleted) about an animated Sonic the Hedgehog series that’s coming to the streaming service, the show has a release date. Season one of Sonic Prime will hit the platform on December 15th. The first season will have 24 episodes. Netflix has also tweeted a teaser for the series.

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UN warns there’s currently ‘no credible pathway’ to keep temperature rise under 1.5C

It says societal and infrastructure overhauls are needed.

The United Nations has issued another stark warning that, under current policies, the planet is falling far short of the Paris Agreement goal of keeping the rise in global temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius. That’s the threshold scientists say we have to remain under in order to mitigate extreme, life-threatening weather events, such as heatwaves, droughts and tropical storms. The statement added there was “no credible pathway to 1.5C in place.” The 13th edition of the Emissions Gap Report reiterates that major changes are required. It laid out the necessary actions across electricity supply, industry, transport and buildings, along with food and financial systems. The report noted that we’d need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a further 45 percent by 2030.

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