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Pokémon Scarlet and Violet launched with plenty of glitches, to put it mildly, but the developers are at least trying to make amends. Alongside an update, Nintendo said it was aware of performance problems and was taking player feedback “seriously” as it planned fixes. The patch both introduces Season 1 of Ranked Battles and addresses numerous bugs, including inconsistent music playback during key events.

The creature-collecting game routinely suffers from poor frame rates, particularly in busy areas like cities. It’s also common to encounter crashes, visual flaws and showstopping bugs like getting stuck in the terrain. Autosaves lessen the sting, but this still isn’t the polished experience you expect from first-party Switch titles. The sometimes mediocre graphics don’t help, either.

Not that Nintendo is likely worried about the flaws affecting sales. As IGNnotes, Nintendo recently boasted that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet sold a combined 10 million copies worldwide in their first three days. The feat made them the fastest-selling Nintendo game on any of the company’s platforms. Japan’s Pokémon fandom played a major role, as domestic sales topped 4 million in those early days.

Those numbers also suggest Nintendo is still faring well against its biggest console rivals. Sony’s fastest-selling PlayStation game, God of War: Ragnarok, ‘only’ managed to move 5.1 million copies during its first week. That’s not completely shocking given the brutal brawler’s narrower audience, and Sony is unlikely to complain much when third-party releases like the Call of Duty series routinely sell well. However, it’s telling that the Switch can still rally massive demand five years later.

 

Microsoft has revealed its first wave of Game Pass additions for December and the headliner is a major game that debuted earlier this year — Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. You’ll be able to play through all nine core films in the Star Wars franchise and you can choose which trilogy to begin with. It’s maybe the best Star Wars game I’ve played. It’s gorgeous, the gameplay is a blast and it’s very funny, with clever twists on many of the series’ most memorable moments. It’s coming to Game Pass on December 6th and you can play it on Xbox, PC and Xbox Cloud Gaming.

A few games have joined Game Pass today, including Eastward, a charming indie RPG that debuted last year. It has a lovely art style that takes inspiration from Earthbound. Both that and The Walking Dead: The Final Season are now available on Game Pass via console, PC and the cloud. Also hitting PC Game Pass today is Totally Reliable Delivery Service, a ragdoll physics game about terrible package couriers.

Looking further ahead, Hello Neighbor 2 (console, PC and cloud) will hit Game Pass on December 6th, followed by Chained Echoes (all three platforms) two days later. An Xbox One version of Metal: Hellsinger will be available on Game Pass on December 8th too — subscribers can already access it on Series X/S, PC and the cloud.

One of the last big Xbox exclusives of the year, High On Life, will arrive on Game Pass on December 13th. The sci-fi first-person shooter from Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland is coming to console, PC and cloud gaming. “Alchemist simulator” Potion Craft will be available on console and PC via Game Pass on the same day. On December 15th, subscribers can check out Hot Wheels Unleashed – Game of the Year Edition (which I’ve heard great things about) and puzzle-platformer Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan on console, PC and Xbox Cloud Gaming at no extra cost.

On the other side of the coin, several games are leaving Game Pass on December 15th, so you have a couple more weeks to check them out before you’d need to buy them (though you’ll get a 20 percent discount if you’re a Game Pass subscriber). The titles that will soon depart the library are:

Aliens: Fireteam Elite (cloud, console and PC)

Breathedge (cloud, console and PC)

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (cloud, console and PC)

Firewatch (cloud, console and PC)

Lake (cloud, console and PC)

One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 (cloud, console and PC)

Neoverse (cloud and console)

Race with Ryan (cloud, console and PC)

Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth (cloud, console and PC)

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour (console) 

Transformers: Battlegrounds (cloud, console and PC)

 

Don’t worry if you missed Samsung’s Black Friday TV sales — there are still good deals to be had. Woot is running a sale on Samsung’s 2022 Frame TVs that includes some of the best prices we’ve seen. The best value is the 50-inch model, which is down to $870 — a healthy 33 percent off. You’ll see steep discounts across the range, though, including the sweet-spot 55-inch and 65-inch models (now $1,100 and $1,490). Even the gigantic 85-inch version has dropped to $2,998 versus the usual $4,298.

Buy 2022 The Frame TV (50-inch) at Woot – $870

The appeal, as with past Frame models, is turning your TV into a piece of living room art. Wall-mount your set (the kit is included) and it becomes a dynamic painting when you’re not using it. You can even use custom bezels to help it match your decor. The 2022 version is a big leap forward for the series with a more canvas-like matte display that cuts reflections. The color-accurate 4K HDR picture (1080p on the 32-inch set), game mode and voice assistant support also ensure that you won’t compromise much to get always-on artwork.

If there’s a catch, it’s that there are extra costs involved in getting the Frame TV’s look just right. You’ll need Art Store purchases or a subscription to get world-famous paintings from Da Vinci or Van Gogh, and those custom bezels add to the cost. With that said, these prices are low enough that you might justify spending extra to see your favorite artwork in between streaming video marathons.

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

 

Disney researchers have developed an artificial intelligence system that seemingly makes it far easier to make an actor appear younger or older in a scene. While artists will still be able to make manual adjustments to make sure the effect looks as realistic as possible, the AI tool could take care of most of the heavy lifting. It’s said to take the AI just five seconds to apply the aging effects to a single frame.

Re-aging an actor is typically an expensive and laborious process that requires artists to go through a scene frame-by-frame to manually change the character’s appearance. Attempts have been made in the past to automate the process with neural networks and machine learning. Disney’s researchers note that, while they might work well for still images, other systems “typically suffer from facial identity loss, poor resolution and unstable results across subsequent video frames.” They claim their solution offers “the first practical, fully-automatic and production-ready method for re-aging faces in video images.”

The team wrote in a paper that it would be impossible to train the FRAN (face re-aging network) neural network on a dataset of real people. That would require pairs of images showing a subject with the same facial expression, pose, lighting and background at two different and known ages. Instead, the researchers created a database of several thousand randomly generated faces. They re-aged those synthetic faces using existing machine learning aging tools, then fed the results of that process into FRAN.

The neural network can analyze a headshot and predict which parts of a face would be affected by aging and then it applies effects like wrinkles or skin smoothing as a layer on top of the original face. As Gizmodo notes, the researchers claim this approach allows FRAN to re-age the performer with their identity and appearance intact, even when their head or face is moving around or the lighting changes in a shot. Unlike with other methods, FRAN doesn’t require an extra face alignment step either.

There are many good reasons why Disney would want to develop such a tool. It could lessen visual effects artists’ workloads and speed up the process, for one thing. In addition to helping productions without blockbuster budgets age their actors up or down, it might help keep ballooning budgets in check. A significant chunk of The Irishman‘s budget, which reports suggest was as much as $200 million, went toward making Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci look younger.

Disney has been de-aging performers in its own projects, notably with Mark Hamill in Star Wars. When Harrison Ford returns as Indiana Jones next summer, he’ll also look a little younger than you’re used to seeing him — at least for the opening sequence. Disney’s new re-aging tool should make it faster for effects artists to take years off such performers’ faces in the future.

 

I don’t know about your LinkedIn experience, but each time I visit the website I find my inbox flooded with messages. Most aren’t even worth reading, but a few inevitably promise new career opportunities and the chance to work with interesting people.

LinkedIn wants to make it easier to find those messages quickly. Starting today, the social network is rolling out a new feature called Focused Inbox. It separates your inbox into two tabs titled “Focused” and “Other.” A machine learning algorithm will then do its best to flag messages that include the most relevant outreach to you and push them to the top of the Focused tab. If you don’t find the feature useful, you can switch to the old interface at any time.

LinkedIn’s hope is that the feature helps people be more productive. The Focused Inbox comes at a time when the company says more of its users are turning to its instant messaging feature to communicate. In the last year, LinkedIn says it has seen a 20 percent increase in those types of chats.

 

The price of entry into the world of modular synthesis has been trending downward for sometime. Moog even recently released the Mavis, a DIY Eurorack-compatible synth for just $350 – a shockingly low price from the company. But Cre8Audio seems to think that prices haven’t come down fast enough. It has been setting the pace in an incredible race to the bottom – and I don’t mean that as a bad thing.

In May, Cre8Audio announced the East Beast and West Pest – its first pair of self-contained synths for just $250. They’re some of the cheapest analog semi-modular synths that I’m aware of, save for the Korg Volca Modular, which is sort of a weird dead end on the synth family tree.

What they share

Unsurprisingly, the East Beast and West Pest have a lot in common. The basic chassis is the same, both have a 20-point patchbay, a 32-step sequencer, an arpeggiator, a one-octave keyboard, an LFO and a digital multi-mod tool. Even the core oscillator is very similar, with the West Pest having most of the same waveshapes and a slightly “buzzier” tone. It’s the rest of the sound-shaping modules that set the two apart from each other, with the East Beast and West Pest predictably leaning into East Coast and West Coast synth styles, respectively.

The build quality on both is about what you’d expect from something at this price point. There’s a lot of plastic and don’t seem like they’re designed with the rigors of your life in mind. They don’t feel cheap or toy-like, though; they just feel like what they are: entry level synthesizers. The larger knobs are easier to handle than the tiny ones on a Volca and the overall package feels a touch more robust than an IK Multimedia Uno. They’re also a lot more fun looking than those instruments. I know that the almost comicbook-esque aesthetic here won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I quite enjoy it. It’s playful and a bit silly, and let’s not forget – synths should be fun.

The keyboard is a welcome inclusion, perfect for auditioning patches or punching in sequences and arps. But, like the one on Moog’s Mavis, I wouldn’t want to actually rely on it for performance. The keys are small and a little wobbly. Plus most of the keys have two additional shift functions for controlling various features.

Honestly, the better bet is to use an external controller and set the built-in keyboard to default to the yellow / green functions instead. This is made easier by the fact that both the East Beast and West Pest have MIDI inputs and MIDI to CV converters for controlling other parameters. That’s not unheard of on a budget semi-modular synth, but it’s not a given either. Even some of Moog’s more expensive instruments like the DFAM don’t have MIDI support. I will make one minor note here though, MIDI notes were quite a few octaves higher than expected straight out of the box and I was initially a bit confused until I found the instructions for changing the octave offset in the manual.

One of the more unique shared features is the digital multi-mod tool. Since they only have one LFO and one envelope generator (or “dynamics section” in the case of the West Pest), this gives the instruments an extra set of controls to draw on. This can be an additional LFO, envelope, random generator or MIDI-to-CV output. There are some limitations, for instance you can only map a single MIDI CC, and the envelope is a simple decay envelope with seven preset rates, but it’s a nice addition nonetheless.

It’s a similar story with the sequencer and arpeggiator. They get the job done, and I’m glad they’re here, but both are pretty basic. The arpeggiator only has two modes – as played and random. While the sequencer can be 32 steps, you basically just add notes to the end until you’re happy with it. If you make a mistake your only option is to clear the whole thing and start over.

While dialing in basic sounds and patches is pretty straightforward, there are a bunch of options and features hidden behind those shift functions. And navigating them isn’t always intuitive. Obviously, I’m not expecting a giant display with detailed graphics on a $250 synth, but the “4-bit display” (read: four LEDs in a line) can feel arcane at times. I’ve had both for over a month now and I still have to refer to the manual to remember that the first two LEDs mean I’m dividing the clock by two for the LFO; or that the first, third and fourth lights mean I’ve set the swing to 64 percent. This is obviously not a deal-breaker by any means. But if you’re the type of person who proudly refuses to read manuals you might feel frustrated at times.

East Beast

Let’s dig into the more “normal” of the two instruments. This is probably what most people envision when they think of a synthesizer. A big rich oscillator, a filter for shaving off harmonics and an ADSR envelope for controlling amplitude. While this doesn’t really sound like a Moog, it clearly shares a similar lineage.

The multi-mode filter and oscillator are straight from boutique synth makers Pittsburgh Modular which gives this decidedly budget affair some serious street cred. The oscillator has sine, triangle, saw and square waves, and you can combine two of them to deliver thicker, more unique sounds when needed. It’s something that Pittsburgh Modular has been perfecting for around 10 years. It does sound pretty massive.

Being a mono synth, you’re not gonna get compelling pads out of the East Beast, but it shines as a lead and bass machine. It can do big room shaking low end, thick creamy solos and delicate high-end plucks. It even has pulse width modulation for the square wave, which gets you wonderful video game noises, and FM for harsher, more bell-like tones. I actually think it’s at its best playing softer leads, using the filter to shave off a lot of the high end.

The filter is probably the star of the show, by the way. Often it’s what brings the most character to the sound of a synth, and this one delivers. It’s variable state, going from low pass, to band pass to high pass. But it can also combine those in interesting ways. It does acid bass lines and nasal reedy sounds. There’s a reason the filter cutoff knob is about four times larger than all the other controls on the front panel: It’s probably the most powerful tool here for shaping your sound.

Both Cre8Audio and Pittsburgh Modular like to brag that this unique filter has “no dead spots”, that it’s really “all one large sweet spot”, and you know what, they’re probably right. I had a real hard time making this filter sound bad. No matter how much you crank the resonance, in every mode, even with the filter mod set to ludicrous levels, it’s surprisingly musical. It doesn’t self-oscillate, which might be a bummer for some, but it doesn’t bother me too much.

West Pest

The West Pest is sort of like the East Beast’s hippy cousin. It’s a tad strange, and has to do everything a little differently, but it’s no less compelling – just a bit tougher to tame. It has many of the same features and a very similar oscillator, but it trades the variable state filter and ADSR envelope for a lowpass gate and adds a wave folder.

I’d venture to say that, similar to the East Beast, the Pest is most comfortable with bass and plucky leads. But the timbre is completely different. It’s more aggressive and sharp, trading in the creamy goodness of its counterpart for the plasticky weirdness more often associated with Buchla synths.

Because it travels in less familiar territory, it can feel a little harder to make work in an arrangement. But, it can be a more satisfying solo instrument. Both synths have robust randomization features, including randomly cycling through oscillator waveforms and generative sequencing capabilities, but those feel more at home on the West Pest.

Setting the digital mod tool to random, and connecting it to the release mod jack will alter how long notes ring out. Then using the random pattern generator with morphing will play a continuously evolving sequence. And then you can get the oscillator wave to change for every note, giving you something truly unpredictable. Feed that through an epic reverb pedal and you’ve got a custom, soothing soundtrack for working or reading to.

Yes, you could accomplish a similar thing with the East Beast since it has most of the same randomization tools (save the release mod), and it’s probably the more versatile instrument, but I find the results on the West Pest more pleasing. And, honestly, this is one of the ways I often use synths in my studio – passively as a sort of fidget toy or to set a mood while I plug away on editing articles for Engadget.

With other gear

The one thing I will say is that the West Pest does need a little external help to shine, more so than the East Beast. Its rubbery bass sounds are pretty usable on their own, but once you start getting into the higher frequencies, reverb and delay become a must.

But what you’re probably more interested in is how they interact with other modular gear. The 20-point patchbay makes it simple to integrate into a larger Eurorack (or compatible) setup – whether these are your gateway drug or just the latest symptom of your incurable GAS (gear acquisition syndrome).

I would say the patchbay is probably where you make the most trade-offs here, though. While there are indeed 20 patch points (evenly divided between ins and outs), four of them are dedicated to MIDI functions and one is the audio output. So that leaves 15 points for internal patching. Now, that both of these act as a MIDI to CV interface is extremely useful, and can simplify controlling other gear that isn’t MIDI compatible. For instance, you could feed MIDI from your computer to the West Pest then pass those controls on as CV to something like Moog’s Mavis. But it does eat into the options available to you for sound design on board.

It would be great to have access to the LFO rate or resonance level on the patch bay, for example. Or to have a few utilities like a mult. Cre8Audio crams a lot of versatility into the patchbay, through the multi mod tool, which gives you an extra envelope, LFO or a random generator, though it also has limitations. There’s enough power here to get you exploring the basics of patch design, but you’ll probably start wishing for a few more ins and outs sooner than later.

Wrap-up

The East Beast and West Pest are both undeniably impressive values. At this price point there’s simply nothing like them on the market. They are usable and musical semi modular synths with unique and compelling features. What’s more they’re easy to integrate with other modular gear, and you can even take them out of their cases and mount them in a larger Eurorack set up. They’re near ideal choices for someone that’s looking to learn synthesis.

That is different from saying they’re an ideal first synth, full stop. If you’re just looking to pull up some great sounding presets and get on with your day, these are not for you. Cre8Audio’s instruments demand exploration and experimentation. And recalling a patch will require you to take copious notes. However, if you’ve ever watched a YouTube video of someone’s monstrous modular rack with unbridled jealousy, these are a good place to start your journey.

 

Google is quickly joining Apple in recognizing the top apps of the year. The company has announced the Google Play Best of 2022 awards, and this year’s biggest winners clearly reflect the cultural zeitgeist. The best Android app of the year is Wombo’s Dream, an AI art generator — yes, one of the trendiest technologies of the year took top honors. The user’s choice winner, meanwhile, is the social media phenomenon BeReal.

Respawn swept the top game awards. Apex Legends Mobile won both Google’s nod as well as the user’s choice pick. Todoist is Google’s favorite app for Wear OS smartwatches, while Pocket’s reading tool is the top tablet-friendly app. The best software for good was The Stigma App, a community platform dor discussing mental health.

Notably, Google significantly expanded the categories this year — if partly to promote its own platforms. There’s now awards for Chromebook-friendly apps, including best app (the music maker BandLab) and best game (the metaverse-like Roblox). Very Little Nightmares is Google’s favorite Play Pass game. The game list has expanded, too. The Android port of Papers, Please won the best story award, while the gacha game Genshin Impact took the distinction of the best ongoing game.

As with Apple, Google’s year-end list is as much about driving downloads as anything else. The internet giant’s Best of 2022 section on the Play Store is effectively a one-stop shop for Android and Chromebook newcomers looking to expand their app libraries. However, it does give a feel for the cultural pulse of a mobile world where AI, the metaverse and online gaming dominate.

 

Apple’s iPad lineup is both more interesting and more complicated than it’s been in years. After October’s launch of the 10th-generation iPad and the M2-powered iPad Pro, Apple now sells three tablets in the 11-inch range that pack broadly similar designs but have key differences when it comes to internal components and accessory support. Last year’s 10.2-inch iPad remains on sale, but seemingly targets a different market than its “next-generation” successor of the same name. The iPad mini is still doing its thing, too.

If you’re confused about which to buy, you’re not alone. The decision isn’t as cut-and-dry as it has been in the past, so we’re here to break down the pros and cons, detail how they compare to each other and help make your decision a bit easier.

Engadget’s picks

Best for most: iPad Air

Best budget: iPad (9th gen)

Best for one-handed use: iPad mini

Best for power users: iPad Pro 12.9-inch

Best for most: iPad Air

Of the six iPad models currently on sale, the iPad Air is the closest to being universally appealing. We gave it a review score of 90 earlier this year: It has the same elegant and comfortable design language as the iPad Pro while costing less, with a bright, sharp and accurate 10.9-inch display surrounded by thin bezels and flat edges. It comes with a USB-C port, similar to what you’d find on a MacBook and many other non-iPhone devices, and while it’s not a Thunderbolt connection as on theiPad Pro, simply being able to charge the Air with the same cable you use with your other gadgets is a plus.

Apple refreshed the Air earlier this year with its M1 system-on-a-chip, which is the same silicon found in the entry-level MacBook Air. This isn’t Apple’s newest SoC, but it’s still more than powerful enough for virtually any task you can throw at it, and an increasing number of iPadOS features are exclusive to M-series chips.

The iPad Air is also compatible with Apple’s best accessories, including the second-generation Pencil stylus and the (excellent) Magic Keyboard, just like the 11-inch iPad Pro. These add a good bit of cost to the bottom line, but for digital artists or frequent typers, they’re there.

The middle of Apple’s iPad lineup is a bit congested. If you need more than the Air’s default 64GB of storage, you might as well step up to the 11-inch iPad Pro, which starts at 128GB and packs a better 120 Hz display and M2 chip for not much more than a higher-capacity Air. (The display on the 2021 iPad Pro is better, too.) The new 10.9-inch iPad isn’t bad, either, but with its non-laminated display and lacking accessory support, it’s a harder sell unless you see it on deep discount. Still, while it’s not cheap, the iPad Air is Apple’s best blend of price and performance for most.

Best budget: iPad (9th generation)

If you can’t afford the Air, or if you just don’t use your tablet heavily enough to warrant spending that much, it’s perfectly safe to get the 9th-gen iPad instead. Starting at $329 for a 64GB model — and regularly available for less than $300 — it’s by far the most wallet-friendly way into iPadOS. While its hardware is an obvious step down from the models above, it’s still more than capable for the essentials.

We gave the 9th-gen iPad a review score of 86 last year. This is the only “current” iPad to follow Apple’s older design language: It’s just a tiny bit thicker and heavier than the 10th-gen iPad and iPad Air, but its wider bezels mean there’s only enough room for a 10.2-inch display. Like the 10th-gen iPad, that screen isn’t laminated and more susceptible to glare, though it’s just as sharp. There’s a Home button located on the bottom bezel that also houses a Touch ID fingerprint scanner, and the device charges via Lightning port rather than USB-C. Its speakers don’t sound as nice, either, but it’s the only iPad to still have a headphone jack, and its 12MP front camera is fine (though, it’s not landscape-oriented as on the 10th-gen iPad).

The 9th-gen iPad runs on Apple’s A13 Bionic, which is the same SoC used in 2019’s iPhone 11 series. It won’t be as fluid or futureproof as the M1, but it’s plenty quick for casual tasks. In terms of first-party accessories, the tablet supports Apple’s Smart Keyboard and first-gen Pencil stylus. Those are less convenient than the company’s newer options, but they’re at least there.

In the end, it’s all about the price. The 9th-gen iPad is the most affordable model in Apple’s lineup, and those savings go a long way toward papering over its issues.

Best for one-handed use: iPad mini 

The iPad mini is exactly what it sounds like: the small iPad. It’s easily the shortest (7.69×5.3×0.25 inches) and lightest (0.65 pounds for the WiFi model) of every current iPad, with an 8.3-inch display that’s more comfortable to operate with one hand.

We gave the iPad mini a review score of 89 last year. Its design follows closely after that of the iPad Air: squared-off edges, thin bezels, no Home button, a Touch ID sensor in the power button, stereo speakers, solid cameras and a USB-C port. Its display is technically sharper, but otherwise gives you the same max brightness, lamination, anti-reflective coating and wide color gamut. It doesn’t have a “Smart Connector” to hook up Apple-made keyboards, but it does support the second-gen Apple Pencil.

The mini runs on Apple’s A15 Bionic SoC, the same as the one in 2021’s iPhone 13 phones. This is technically faster than the chip inside the 10th-gen iPad and, again, more than powerful enough for most tasks, though it’s a step behind the laptop-grade M1 or M2.

The mini has an MSRP of $499 for the 64GB model and $649 for the 256GB model. That’s a lot, though in recent months we’ve seen both SKUs available online for up to $100 less. If you specifically want a smaller tablet — whether it’s to easily stuff in a bag, use with one hand or treat like a high-end e-reader — this is the only option Apple sells, and the best tablet in its size range, period.

Best for power users: iPad Pro 12.9-inch

The 12.9-inch iPad Pro exists in something of its own realm within Apple’s tablet lineup. It starts at $1,099 for 128GB of storage, which is $100 more than the M1 MacBook Air. That’s well beyond what anyone needs to pay to do the vast majority of iPad things, and quite a chunk of change for a platform that still has issues with laptop-style productivity. But the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is the best pure piece of tablet hardware that Apple makes.

We gave the latest iPad Pro a review score of 87 in November. The display here can get brighter than the Air’s, and it has a 120 Hz refresh rate (the Air is limited to 60 Hz). The 12.9-inch Pro’s display is more of an upgrade than the 11-inch model, though, as it’s the only iPad to use mini-LED backlighting, which can deliver higher peak brightness, improved contrast and a generally more realistic image. Beyond that, the Pro runs on Apple’s new M2 SoC, which isn’t a huge upgrade over the M1 in real-world use but offers more performance overhead going forward. The iPad Pro has the same 12MP rear camera as the Air, but adds a 10MP ultrawide lens and an LED flash (plus a LIDAR scanner for AR apps). The 12MP front cameras, meanwhile, can take shots in portrait mode.

Beyond that, the Pro has a faster Thunderbolt USB-C port, more robust speakers and Face ID support. With its latest refresh, it can now recognize when an Apple Pencil is hovering above the display and preview would-be inputs. There are more storage options, going all the way up to 2TB, with the 1TB and 2TB models doubling the RAM from 8GB to 16GB (at a super high cost). And it works with all of Apple’s best accessories.

It’s a powerhouse, and if you do want to use an iPad more heavily for work, the roomier display on the 12.9-inch Pro should make it the most amenable option for all-day, laptop-style use. You’ll want to add a keyboard to get the most out of that, but if you’re spending this much on an iPad to begin with, that may not be as big of a deal.

Like the iPad mini, this is very much a niche device. It’s prohibitively expensive, and its hulking size makes it less portable than other iPads. Certain creatives have made it work as a laptop replacement, but for most, iPadOS still makes multitasking and other computer-y tasks more convoluted than they’d be on a similarly priced MacBook. It’s only a minor upgrade over last year’s model, too. Still, as a tablet, the 12.9-inch Pro is deeply powerful.

 

Valve’s Steam Deck is a great way to get PC games out of your office and on to your couch, back patio, or anywhere. As we said in our review, it’s worth having around even if you just play it a few times a month for a couple hours at a time. But I wound up using mine a little differently: I play the Steam Deck several times a day for just a few minutes per session.

And it’s almost the only reason I play video games at all anymore.

I’m no less interested in games than I used to be, but since becoming a father, I’ve found I have a lot less time. For the first year of my daughter’s life, setting aside an hour to play a game felt impossible. Then, Metroid Dread came out, and I found myself using the Nintendo Switch’s sleep mode in short bursts. 5 minutes while the baby played with a new toy. 10 minutes as I waited for her to fall asleep.

As I chipped away at Metroid Dread’s short 10-hour story, I found myself thinking about the Steam Deck. Not only was Valve’s gaming handheld a portable gaming system like the Switch, but it promised to give my Steam library something I had never experienced from PC gaming before: the ability to quickly suspend and resume a game. It’s a standard quality of life feature on home consoles, but trying to resume a game after putting a PC to sleep is hit or miss.

When my Steam Deck arrived four months later and the feature actually worked, it changed everything. I spent my first day with the handheld slowly playing through the Deck’s showcase demo: Valve’s Desk Job, casually picking the handheld up for just 5 minutes every few hours. When that worked, I got more ambitious — finishing Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order over the course of two weeks.

I started using the Steam Deck to play games in the margins of my day. Picking it up for a few random battles in Final Fantasy IV after the baby fell asleep on my chest, doing a deep space cargo run in Rebel Galaxy Outlaw as I watched her nap on the baby monitor, or sneaking in a few puzzles in Baba is You before turning in for the night. Suddenly I was finishing games I never thought I would have time for.

The suspend trick even works with non-Steam games and older titles: I spent hours experimenting in Lutris, an alternative Linux game launcher, getting the year 2000’s Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force to run smoothly on Steam Deck. A week or two later, I finally finished a game I abandoned when I was 16 years old.

That isn’t to say I haven’t had longer play sessions on Steam Deck. Online-only games like Final Fantasy XIV or Knockout City tend to disconnect the player when thrown into suspend mode — but I often still prefer playing them on Valve’s portable than on my big gaming desktop. Yes, an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X with 64GB of RAM and a GTX 980 GPU can soundly outperform the Deck’s custom AMD APU. It runs games at higher resolution with better graphic settings, but it’s wasted power.

I’ve grown to love having my library of PC games detached from the writing and video editing workstation that lives at my desk. You might say that’s what more powerful traditional game consoles are for, but the Deck’s Switch-like portability makes all the difference. Playing games on the couch, in bed, or while rocking the baby to sleep beats out having maxed out graphics settings every time. I’m not even sure if I’m going to upgrade that aging graphics card anymore. The Steam Deck may be less powerful, but at today’s GPU prices, it’s a far better value.

Not all of my games work smoothly on Steam Deck, but it turns out that’s a plus for me as well. I love tinkering with gadgets and fiddling around with power user settings. So when I’m forced to drop into the Deck’s desktop mode to manually install a non-Steam game, which inevitably involves configuring alternative Wine compatibility layers, I enjoy the challenge almost as much as the game I’ll eventually play. And when I do get those games running, they almost always work with Steam OS’ suspend and resume feature.

It feels a little silly to laud the Steam Deck for what’s an otherwise standard feature on most modern gaming devices, but I can’t help it. Sometimes one good feature can change everything. Before the Steam Deck, playing a game from my PC library was a chore that required sitting at a desk, booting up Windows, launching Steam and, finally, loading up a game. When you might only have minutes of free time during an entire day, that simply doesn’t work. Add in the possibility that a crying baby might call you away from that hard-earned game session at a moment’s notice, and you can start to see the appeal of a gaming device you can take anywhere, one that lets you instantly stop and start a high-end PC game with the touch of a single button.

Suspend and resume had a rough start on the Xbox One and PS4, but eventually they became kind of an expected fare. Even so, it’s a killer feature that PC gamers have largely been missing out on. I never really appreciated how much of a game changer it could be until I really needed it. The Steam Deck brings that feature to the PC crowd in a natural, user-friendly package that we’ve never had before. And being a portable system is just the icing on the cake. The Steam Deck is certainly pricey, but being able to catch up on PC games with a baby in my arms is priceless.

 

Starting next year, a lot more Netflix viewers will reportedly be able to watch its originals before they become available for streaming. According to The Wall Street Journal, the streaming service is expanding its pool of preview viewers early next year to include as many as tens of thousands of subscribers around the world from its current group of around 2,000 people. 

When Variety reported about the company’s focus group earlier this year, the publication said that Netflix has been asking subscribers if they want to join “a community of members to view and give feedback on upcoming movies and series” since at least May 2021. “It’s simple, but an incredibly important part of creating best-in-class content for you and Netflix members all around the world,” the email reportedly said. Apparently, Netflix asks members of the group to watch several unreleased shows and movies over the course of six months. They then have to fill out a survey form to tell the company what they liked and what they didn’t. 

In The Journal’s newer report, it said the streaming service calls the group the “Netflix Preview Club” and that the Leonardo DiCaprio/Jennifer Lawrence starrer Don’t Look Up was one of the movies that benefited from its feedback. The movie was initially too serious, the preview group’s members reportedly told Netflix, and the film’s creators chose to listen to them and ratcheted up its comedic elements. 

As The Journal notes, Netflix is known for giving creators a lot of creative freedom — even if it doesn’t always lead to great content — so running a preview group has been tricky. The company has apparently been careful when it comes to sharing feedback with creators and has not been forcing changes. It’s still the creators’ decision whether to incorporate changes based on the previewers’ response.