Technology

Fujifilm’s X100 V became a surprising viral hit thanks to influencers who loved not only its performance but also its retro-chic cool factor. Now, the company has launched its successor, the similar-looking but more-capable X100 VI. It’s only been on sale a short time, but retailers are already reporting months-long waiting lists.

It features some key improvements over the previous model, including a much higher-resolution 40-megapixel sensor, in-body stabilization and better video. At the same time, it retains the looks and compact size people loved about the X100 V.

I couldn’t wait to get a hold of one to check out the performance for myself and see if it’s worth a purchase or upgrade. To test, I hopped on the Eurostar over to London with my French photographer friends to see if it’s worth the high price and considerable wait.

Body and handling

The X100 series is beloved in large part because of the vintage rangefinder camera styling, and Fujifilm didn’t mess with that. In addition to the near-identical looks, the X100 VI’s button and dial layout is unchanged. Fujifilm also kept the previous model’s 23mm f/2 lens.

To accommodate the in-body stabilization, the X100 VI is slightly chunkier and weighs 18.4 ounces, about 1.4 ounces more than before. That’s not much, but every bit counts for a camera designed to be carried around all day.

The control design with dedicated dials for ISO, shutter, aperture and exposure compensation is a bit old-fashioned compared to modern cameras. But it does serve a purpose, showing settings at a glance. That’s a must for shooting on the fly.

The X100 VI isn’t just cosplaying as a rangefinder, either. On top of the 3.69-million dot electronic viewfinder (same as the last model), it offers a rangefinder-style optical finder and a hybrid of the two with a picture-in-picture EVF. The last setting is for people who still want a digital security blanket, and it works very well.

Also unchanged is the rear display, allowing basic up and down tilting for high or low angle shooting. That’s not great for selfies or vlogging, but perfect for shooting from the hip.

The menu system is mostly the same, which is a good thing as it’s relatively easy to find key settings. To avoid diving in, though, you can use the quick menu and numerous buttons and dials for easier adjustments. It’s also customizable and I’d advise buyers to set it up to their preferences to avoid any shooting errors.

The X100 VI has a single slot that only supports slower UHS-I cards, unfortunately, along with a USB-C port for charging and data. The MicroHDMI port also lets you use external recorders, though the tiny camera looks awkward with one attached. Finally, the battery is the same smallish one as before, unfortunately — more on that in a bit.

Performance Samuel Dejours for Engadget

Despite the higher resolution, the X100 VI still shoots at a decent 11 fps, with buffer space for about 17 uncompressed RAW frames. JPEG bursts are a bit faster at 13 fps in electronic shutter mode and the buffer size jumps to 37 frames in that case.

Unless you really need total silence, the mechanical shutter is your best bet. It’s very quiet, and you’ll see considerable rolling shutter in electronic mode.

Autofocus is much-improved compared to the V. It’s more reliable for subject tracking and adds new autofocus modes for animals, birds, cars, motorcycles, airplanes and trains. Fuji’s eye- and subject-detection are in separate modes though, forcing you to change settings.

Fujifilm’s AF system was already middling, lagging behind Sony and Canon. The X100 VI is even less effective than Fujifilm’s larger X-H2 and X-T5, due to the slowish motors on the fixed lens. That means focusing on moving subjects is a bit hit or miss. That said, burst shooting is not what this camera is for and the fact that it’s decent at all is a bonus.

Steve Dent for Engadget

In-body stabilization might be the biggest improvement to come to the X100 lineup. With six stops of shake reduction, you can get sharp photos down to about a quarter second. That lets you blur motion to make interesting, creative shots.

The optical finder takes some getting used to, as it’s not a direct view through the lens like with DSLRs. It’s off to the side of the lens, so this parallax means subjects that are close to the camera may not be framed the way you expect. That’s why the EVF insert mode is so handy as it supplies a second true view of the scene.

One issue is battery life, with only 450 shots on a charge or 310 if you use the EVF. I found that one battery wasn’t enough for a full day’s shooting, so factor extra ones into your buying decision. You may also want an external charger, as Fujifilm doesn’t supply one in the box.

Image quality

The 40MP sensor obviously delivers a big boost in resolution over the X100 V’s 26MP. The extra pixels are also handy if you need to crop in, which is a common requirement with a fixed wide-angle lens camera. And while the lens is the same as before, it’s sharp enough to resolve the extra detail.

If this sensor seems familiar, that’s because it’s the same as the one on the X-T5 and X-H2, so the image quality here is similar to those. In-camera treatment of JPEG and 10-bit HEIF files is handled well, with pleasant, accurate colors and a nice balance of noise reduction and detail. You can often share photos straight out of the camera, too, something that’s important to street photographers who do little to no post-processing.

The 14-bit RAW photos offer plenty of room for fine-tuning, even in bright or dark areas. However, if you underexpose shots and try to boost levels, noise can get out of hand compared to a full-frame camera.

The higher resolution doesn’t hurt image quality much at higher ISOs. Noise is well controlled up to ISO 6400, and you can go up to 12800 if exposure is set correctly. I was impressed with the quality when shooting in bars and other dark environments.

And of course, the X100 VI offers Fujifilm’s full array of film simulation modes. You can experiment with popular looks like Velvia, Eterna or Acros black and white, and still have a full-color RAW backup. As the only major camera company also selling 35mm film, Fuji’s simulations are the most pleasing and realistic.

Video

The X100 VI’s excellent video specs are another bonus. It has nearly the same feature set as the X-T5, so you can shoot 6.2K at 30 fps with a 1.23x crop, or 4K at up to 60 fps with line-skipping and a 1.14x crop. The camera also offers sub-sampled 4K at up to 30p using the full sensor width, or high-quality 4K 30p with a 1.23x crop. Fujifilm also introduced 10-bit and F-Log2.

Samuel Dejours for Engadget

It took me a while to get used to the different modes and cropping levels. At 6.2K and 4K HQ, rolling shutter is pronounced so you’ll need to be aware of that. At the same time, full-sensor sub-sampled 4K is noticeably more low-res than the HQ mode.

Video autofocus matches what I saw with photos, meaning it was decent but not super reliable for moving subjects. The AI-powered AF did lock onto subjects, but again, couldn’t always keep up to flying birds, animals or vehicles.

Handheld video is now a realistic option with in-body stabilization. It worked well as long as I didn’t move around much, and offers a “boost” mode that smooths out jiggles further. Digital stabilization is also an option, but isn’t supported with the 6K or HQ modes, and doesn’t really reduce jolts for walking or fast movements.

Video quality is solid for a small compact camera, offering the same accurate colors you see in JPEG photo modes. Shooting in 10-bit F-Log makes it possible to adjust footage considerably in post or get creative. You can also shoot video using the film simulation modes if you want a specific look straight out of the camera.

Wrap-up Samuel Dejours for Engadget

Fujifilm has made all the right moves to keep the X100 VI’s popularity high by tucking a very competent street and travel camera into a beautiful retro-cute body. The extra resolution, in-body stabilization and new video features should be more than enough to tempt owners to upgrade.

At $1,600, the X100 VI doesn’t have a lot of competition — which is odd, given its success. Leica springs to mind with the Q3, though that costs a whopping $6,000. Another option is the $1,000 Ricoh GR IIIx, which also offers in-body stabilization and an ND filter. However, resolution is lower at 24MP and it lacks the X100 VI’s high-end video features.

Sony’s ZV-1 II is also in this compact category, but it’s mostly designed for video. Keep an eye on Panasonic, as it may release a new compact camera, according to recent rumors. In any case, if you’re in the market for a high-end compact and can afford the X100 VI, I wouldn’t hesitate — there’s a lot of camera inside that beautiful body.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fujifilm-x100-vi-review-a-one-of-a-kind-camera-for-street-photography-and-travel-133004951.html?src=rss

Enlarge / The crew of Polaris Dawn from L to R: Anna Menon, Scott Poteet, Jared Isaacman, and Sarah Gillis. (credit: John Kraus/Polaris Program)

Over the weekend the crew of the upcoming Polaris Dawn mission shared a wealth of details about the intriguing private mission that will send humans farther than they have flown from Earth in half a century.

Commanded and funded by private astronaut Jared Isaacman, the mission seeks to test new technologies that will further the expansion of humanity into space. Among the objectives are pushing the performance of the Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket, performing the first commercial spacewalk in a new spacesuit developed by SpaceX, and testing Starlink laser-based communications in space.

"Our first objective is to travel farther from the Earth and the last time humans walked on the Moon with Apollo 17, more than 50 years ago," Isaacman said during an online chat hosted by the social network site X. "So we target an apogee of 1,400 kilometers. That puts us just inside the Van Allen radiation belt. It's an awesome opportunity for us to get some data, but really it's about pushing beyond our comfort zone."

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Newsletter platform Substack is ramping up its video ambitions and trying to lure TikTok stars to its service. The company announced a new “creator studio” that will offer a group of creators free promotion and other services if they “ turn their TikTok channels into Substack shows and communities.”

The program is part of a larger effort by the newsletter company to expand beyond text newsletters. The timing also happens to come just weeks after a bill that could ban TikTok in the United States became law, though Substack claims its plans are unrelated to the measure. “We’re not introducing this fellowship because of panic over a TikTok bill or ever-changing algorithms,” Substack’s Austin Tedesco writes in a blog post. Instead, he says, it’s about finding a replacement for all “ad-based platforms” which he says are “unreliable partners” for creators.

It’s not clear how Substack intends to create a better home for creators, though the experience of participants in the creator studio will presumably inform its future plans. For now, the company is recruiting ten TikTok creators for the program. Those who are accepted will receive production help and PR services, as well as access to “exclusive features” and “white glove service” from Subsatck’s partnerships team.

The company says creators in the program can still post on TikTok, Instagram and other social channels but that Substack should be the “primary home base for free and premium content.” Creators will also be expected to engage with subscribers on Substack Chat.

Substack has been pushing video features for awhile, but the announcement is the clearest sign yet that it wants to expand its service to creators typically found on traditional social media platforms, rather than writers who may also dabble in video. The company also likely won’t be the last to try to take advantage of TikTok’s uncertain future in the United States. And while YouTube and Instagram may be better-positioned to scoop up TikTok’s talent, Substack may be able to carve out a space for creators looking to offer paywalled content.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/substack-is-trying-to-lure-tiktok-stars-to-its-platform-130052380.html?src=rss

Enlarge / The Atlas V rocket and Starliner spacecraft on their launch pad Monday. (credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams climbed into their seats inside Boeing's Starliner spacecraft Monday night in Florida, but trouble with the capsule's Atlas V rocket kept the commercial ship's long-delayed crew test flight on the ground.

Around two hours before launch time, shortly after 8:30 pm EDT (00:30 UTC), United Launch Alliance's launch team stopped the countdown. "The engineering team has evaluated, the vehicle is not in a configuration where we can proceed with flight today," said Doug Lebo, ULA's launch conductor.

The culprit was a misbehaving valve on the rocket's Centaur upper stage, which has two RL10 engines fed by super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants.

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China is accused of hacking the payroll system for the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence. The BBC and Sky News report that the severe data breach exposed the personal information of active military personnel and veterans. The information mainly consists of full names and bank details, but in some cases, it might also include personal addresses.

Affected individuals are being notified, and Defence Secretary Grant Shapps should provide MPs with a more detailed update today. He is anticipated to outline a plan of action for protecting anyone whose data was compromised. All salaries are expected to be paid as usual this month.

In a statement, China's foreign minister said the country "firmly opposes and fights all forms of cyber attacks" and "rejects the use of this issue politically to smear other countries." However, this isn't the first time the UK and China have clashed over security concerns. In March, UK Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden accused China of being behind an August 2021 hack of the Electoral Commission, as the BBC reported at the time. The UK also banned TikTok — owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance — from all government devices in March 2023, claiming protective measures.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-uks-ministry-of-defence-was-hacked-and-the-country-is-reportedly-blaming-china-121954779.html?src=rss

Apple is adding a bunch of new titles to its Arcade video game subscription service next month, including Return to Monkey Island. It's the first new entry in the franchise by series creator Ron Gilbert since Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, which was released way back in 1991. The game still revolves around the pirate Guybrush Threepwood who's on a journey to unearth the secret of Monkey Island. You'll see some familiar locations from the older games in the new title, which also features Threepwood's wife Elaine Marley and his arch-enemy, the zombie pirate LeChuck. Return to Monkey Island is already available on the App Store, but it's coming to Apple Arcade on June 6 where subscribers can access the whole game, including the in-app purchases non-subscribers would have to buy.  

Ubisoft's Rabbids: Legends of the Multiverse by Ubisoft is also arriving on the subscription service on the same date, along with Tomb of the Mask by Playgendary and Fabulous - Wedding Disaster by GameHouse. Before those games become available on Arcade, though, Where Cards Fall will make its way to the Apple Vision Pro first. The award-winning puzzle game with a coming-of-age narrative will feature tactile controls designed especially for the mixed reality headset. Players will have to use natural gestures to build bridges, pathways and other structures with a house of cards so that they can get around various landscapes. Where Cards Fall for the Apple Vision Pro will be available on May 30. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/return-to-monkey-island-comes-to-apple-arcade-in-june-120016947.html?src=rss

Google’s big developer showcase, encompassing software, hardware and all its consumer AI projects, is fast approaching. Google I/O’s opening keynote is on May 14, and we’ve got a good guess on what you can expect.

To begin, Android 15’s first beta is already out. We know there will be enhanced privacy features, partial screen sharing and system-level app archiving. But they’re not the most thrilling updates — hopefully, Google has some spicy features in its back pocket. Redesign something!

AI-wise, lots of stuff. Gemini AI is now firmly established, but what about an AI assistant? Reportedly, Pixie, as it’s currently called, could debut on the Pixel 9. We’re also expecting the company to ramp up its generative AI — but where will it start? More editing features in Google Photos? More text help in Google Docs? Something AI with Google Maps?

What about a new Pixel phone? Traditionally, those appear in the fall, but what about a Pixel 8a? Maybe.

Before all that, we’ve got an iPad event in just a few hours today. Make sure to watch and read along here on Engadget.

— Mat Smith

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Hades II is now available in Early Access on PC It’s on Steam and the Epic Games Store. Supergiant

Hades II is in Early Access for PC players. The roguelike is out now for $30. Hades II builds on the themes and gameplay of the 2020 timesink original. We’re getting a new protagonist, and apparently, there’s no need to have played through Hades. (Confession: I never quite beat Hades…) The game will eventually land on PlayStation and Xbox too.

Continue reading.

Sonos’s long-rumored wireless headphones have leaked They’re called the Sonos Ace. Schuurman

Sonos’s long-awaited debut headphones are dropping in June. That’s according to Dutch company Schuurman, which has published information and images of the headphones ahead of time. Schuurman listed the device for €403.58 ($435) with cushion replacements, which is pretty near the $449 pricing Bloomberg reported previously.

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NASA’s first Boeing Starliner crewed flight launch gets scrubbed More bad news for Boeing.

NASA’s Boeing Starliner crew flight test was meant to blast off to the International Space Station yesterday. Sadly, Boeing scrubbed the first Starliner crew fight test two hours after it was scheduled to launch. The launch control teams detected “anomalous behavior.” Astronauts were already onboard and had to exit the vehicle. The company has yet to announce a new launch schedule. It’s the latest delay of many previous delays.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-what-to-expect-at-google-io-2024-111531002.html?src=rss

Meta’s Oversight Board is taking up a new set of cases that touch on the commentary surrounding the Israel-Hamas conflict. The board says it will review three cases involving Facebook posts that used the phrase “from the river to the sea.”

Though use of the slogan predates the current conflict by several decades, it’s received renewed attention and scrutiny since the October 7 attacks. “On the one hand, the phrase has been used to advocate for the dignity and human rights of Palestinians,” the board writes in a statement. “On the other hand, it could have antisemitic implications, as claimed by the users who submitted the cases to the Board.”

The board notes that in all three cases, Meta found that the posts didn’t violate its policies around promoting violence, hate speech or terrorist content. The Oversight Board says it will “consider how Meta should moderate the use of the phrase given the resurgence in its use after October 7, 2023, and controversies around the phrase’s meaning.”

It's not the first time the Oversight Board has considered cases related to the Israel-Hamas conflict. The group previously took on a pair of cases on the removal of posts about the October 7 attacks and a subsequent airstrike in Gaza. In those cases, the group’s first-ever “expedited reviews,” the board blamed Meta’s automated moderation tools for mistakenly removing posts that should have been left up.

Notably, the board says all three posts in its latest cases were originally shared last November. And, unlike the earlier cases related to the conflict, the Oversight Board won’t be expediting its decisions. That means it could be several weeks before a decision is published. Meta will then have 60 days to respond to any policy recommendations that come out of the case.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/metas-oversight-board-will-rule-on-from-the-river-to-the-sea-100041727.html?src=rss

Nintendo will unveil a successor to the Switch sometime "within this fiscal year" ending March 2025, president Shuntaro Furukawa wrote in a post on X. That differs slightly from reports that the next-gen console would be announced this year, as it could also be revealed early in 2025. 

The company added that it will not release any details on the Switch 2 (or whatever it'll be called) at its upcoming Nintendo Direct event in June, so we won't hear anything until at least the second half of 2024.  

"It will have been over nine years since we announced the existence of Nintendo Switch back in March 2015," Furukawa wrote. "We will be holding a Nintendo Direct this June regarding the Nintendo Switch software lineup for the latter half of 2024, but please be aware that there will be no mention of the Nintendo Switch successor during that presentation."

This is Furukawa, President of Nintendo. We will make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year. It will have been over nine years since we announced the existence of Nintendo Switch back in March 2015. We will be holding a Nintendo Direct…

— 任天堂株式会社（企業広報・IR） (@NintendoCoLtd) May 7, 2024

Nintendo also dropped its earnings report that contained both good and bad news. The company had already boosted its Switch sales forecast for the last fiscal year to 15.5 million units, but it bested that figure with 15.7 million units sold for the full year ending March 2024. While down compared to the previous year (17.97 million units), it helped Nintendo grow sales and operating profit by 4.4 and 4.9 percent, respectively, year over year.

Things won't be so rosy in fiscal 2025, though, as the company projects that Switch sales will drop to 13.5 million units for the year ending in March 2025. That will result in a 19.3 percent and 24.4 percent drop in net sales and operating profit, respectively. 

Nintendo has done a good job maintaining Switch sales, considering that the console went on sale over seven years ago. That was helped in large part last year by games including bestsellers The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Bros. Wonder.  

Now that Nintendo has given a timeframe for the launch of the new console, however, interest in buying the current Switch is bound to wane. The company no doubt hopes that several upcoming titles, including Paper Mario (May 23) and Luigi's Mansion 2 (June 27), will help juice sales. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nintendo-to-announce-switch-successor-before-march-2025-091457457.html?src=rss

A smart light bulb can totally change the feel of a room. With their ability to shine in millions of colors, change from warm to cool white light and more, smart light bulbs can help you set the mood for your next movie night, study session or gaming livestream. What’s better is that these are some of the most affordable smart home devices you can get (a single bulb can cost as little as $10), and they’re typically pretty easy to install — just screw it into your fixture and go. But there are dozens available now, making it hard to figure out which are actually worth your money. We’ve tested out a number of the most popular smart light bulbs, and other smart light fixtures, to figure out exactly that — these are our favorites.

What to look for in smart light bulbs Connectivity (To hub or not to hub)

One of the biggest appeals of smart lights is being able to control them from your phone. Most of them are able to do so by connecting to it via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, or via an external hub, which handles the connection for them. Bluetooth connectivity limits the range in which you’ll be able to control the light, so it’s only best for a limited number of bulbs and ones you don’t expect to control when you’re away.

Wi-Fi smart lights are easy to set up and can be cheaper overall since they don’t require a hub to connect them. However, having something like a central Zigbee hub can make your whole system more reliable since its connection is separate from your home’s Wi-Fi network. For that reason, hub-based bulbs tend to be more expandable, so we mainly recommend those if you want to eventually have dozens of smart lights around your home.

White or color?

Most smart bulbs you’ll find today are “white and color” bulbs, meaning they can glow in vibrant blues, pinks, greens and everything in between, as well as shine with different temperatures of white. But there are some white-only bulbs out there, and they are often a bit more affordable than their color counterparts. While we recommend springing for the white-and-color devices, if you’d prefer white only, make sure you’re getting a bulb that can span the color temperature spectrum (typically from about 2000 to 5000 Kelvin), offering you various levels of warm and cool white light.

App features

One of the perks of smart lights is the amount of control you have over them thanks to their various app-connected capabilities. Most companion apps let you do things like set lighting schedules and timers, group individual lights into room designations and create your own custom light “scenes” with different colors. But we have seen other features that aren’t as ubiquitous like vacation mode for automatically turning lights on and off to enhance your home security, and sync with media, which changes the colors of lights depending on the music you’re listening to or the game you’re currently live-streaming.

Smart home compatibility

If you use a smart assistant like Amazon’s Alexa or the Google Assistant regularly, make sure the smart lights you get work with your favorite. All of the bulbs we tested supported both Amazon’s and Google’s virtual assistants, allowing you to use voice commands to turn lights on and off, dim them and more. The wildcard here is Siri and Apple’s HomeKit; while numerous smart bulbs have added HomeKit support, not all lights are compatible with Apple’s smart home system.

Expandability

We alluded to this above, but you’ll want to consider how many smart lights you eventually want in your home. Some brands and lighting systems are easier to expand than others, and we generally recommend going for hub-based bulbs if you plan on putting smart lights in every room in your home. If you’re only looking to deck out your home office or living room with some fancy lights, Wi-Fi options should serve you well. Thankfully, these are some of the most affordable smart home devices you can get, so even if you don’t have a clear answer to this question now, you can reconsider your options down the line if you do decide to outfit your home with multiple smart bulbs.

Other smart bulbs we’ve tested Nanoleaf Smarter Kit

While we’ve recommended Nanoleaf’s Smarter Kits in guides in the past, they’re a bit more niche than other smart lights on this list. They’re best for adding flare to your living room or game-streaming setup as they come in different shapes like hexagons and triangles and can sync with music. In addition to different colors, light animations and schedules, Nanoleaf’s Smart Kits also support Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands.

FAQs What’s the best smart light bulb for Alexa?

There is no best smart light bulb for Alexa. Amazon doesn’t make its own smart bulbs (like it does for smart plugs and thermostats), but rather there are dozens of smart lights made by third-parties that work with Alexa — including all of the ones we tested. Before picking the best smart light bulb for you, make sure to check the voice assistants that the contenders support. You’ll find that most smart light bulbs available today work with Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Assistant, and plenty of them also have support for Apple’s Siri and HomeKit.

Can you put a smart bulb in any lamp?

Smart light bulbs can go into most modern light fixtures — but just like regular bulbs, they need to be the right shape/size for the fixture. A standard A19 smart light bulb should work properly in most table, floor and other lamps. If you have a fixture that takes a specific type of bulb, look for smart bulbs that will fit properly.

Do smart light bulbs use electricity when off?

Smart light bulbs do use a negligible amount of electricity when their fixtures are turned off. This is due to the fact that the smart bulb needs to stay in constant contact with your home’s internet connection or Bluetooth in order to work properly. However, their energy-saving benefits usually outweigh the small amount of power they consume even while turned off.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-smart-led-light-bulbs-143022856.html?src=rss

Bloomberg had reported back in February the Sonos' long-rumored and long-awaited headphones are dropping in June, a month later than the company originally intended due to a software issue. While Sonos itself has yet to release details about the device, its Dutch authorized dealer Schuurman seems to have published information and images of the headphones ahead of time. A Redditor in the Sonos group has discovered Schuurman's listings (via The Verge) after someone else found out that the wireless headphones will officially be called the Sonos Ace. 

Sonos

Based on the images, the Ace device package will come with the headphones, some wires and a carrying case. It looks like the headphones themselves will have buttons and a toggle switch on the earphone parts of the device. The images are pretty low-quality, so we can't comment on how premium the model looks, but it does seem like the device is going to be a pair of over-ear headphones. Schuurman has listed the device package for €403.58 ($435), which is pretty near the $449 pricing Bloomberg mentioned in its previous report.

As the news organization said at the time, Sonos CEO Patrick Spence is hoping that launching the new device category can help fuel growth for the company known for its speakers and sound bars after years of sluggish sales. The upcoming Ace headphones were reportedly designed to work with the company's existing devices and can stream audio directly from TVs and music streaming services using its built-in Wi-Fi connection. Bloomberg said that Sonos is also looking into the possibility of releasing an in-ear model in the future to compete with Apple's AirPods and other similar products.

Schuurman

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/heres-what-the-long-rumored-sonos-wireless-headphones-will-look-like-054450404.html?src=rss

Enlarge / I can see the code that controls the Tetri-verse! (credit: Aurich Lawson)

Earlier this year, we shared the story of how a classic NES Tetris player hit the game's "kill screen" for the first time, activating a crash after an incredible 40-minute, 1,511-line performance. Now, some players are using that kill screen—and some complicated memory manipulation it enables—to code new behaviors into versions of Tetris running on unmodified hardware and cartridges.

We've covered similar "arbitrary code execution" glitches in games like Super Mario World, Paper Mario, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in the past. And the basic method for introducing outside code into NES Tetris has been publicly theorized since at least 2021 when players were investigating the game's decompiled code (HydrantDude, who has gone deep on Tetris crashes in the past, also says the community has long had a privately known method for how to take full control of Tetris' RAM).

Displaced Gamers explains how to reprogram NES Tetris within the game.

But a recent video from Displaced Gamers takes the idea from private theory to public execution, going into painstaking detail on how to get NES Tetris to start reading the game's high score tables as machine code instructions.

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Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Researchers have devised an attack against nearly all virtual private network applications that forces them to send and receive some or all traffic outside of the encrypted tunnel designed to protect it from snooping or tampering.

TunnelVision, as the researchers have named their attack, largely negates the entire purpose and selling point of VPNs, which is to encapsulate incoming and outgoing Internet traffic in an encrypted tunnel and to cloak the user’s IP address. The researchers believe it affects all VPN applications when they’re connected to a hostile network and that there are no ways to prevent such attacks except when the user VPN runs on Linux or Android. They also said their attack technique may have been possible since 2002 and may already have been discovered and used in the wild since then.

Reading, dropping, or modifying VPN traffic

The effect of TunnelVision is “the victim's traffic is now decloaked and being routed through the attacker directly,” a video demonstration explained. “The attacker can read, drop or modify the leaked traffic and the victim maintains their connection to both the VPN and the Internet.”

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Enlarge / Google Fit seems like it's on the way out. (credit: Ron Amadeo / Google)

Google is killing off the Google Fit APIs. The platform originally existed to sync health data from third-party fitness devices to your Google account, but now it's being killed off. Deprecation of the APIs happened on May 1, and Google has stopped accepting new sign-ups for the API. The official shutdown date is June 30, 2025.

The Google Fit API was launched in 2014, just a few weeks after Apple announced Healthkit in iOS 8. The goal of both platforms is to be a central repository for health data from various apps and services. Instead of seeing steps in one app and weight in another, it could all be mushed together into a one-stop-shop for health metrics. Google had a lot of big-name partners at launch, like Nike+, Adidas, Withings, Asus, HTC, Intel, LG, and app makers like Runtastic and RunKeeper.

Fast-forward to 2024, and we get the familiar story of Google being unable to throw its weight behind a single solution. Today, Google has three competing fitness APIs. There is a "Comparison Guide" on the Android Developer site detailing the differences between the "Health Connect" API, the "Fitbit Web API" and the "Google Fit REST API."

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Enlarge / Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder and chief executive officer of Inflection AI UK Ltd., during a town hall on day two of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024. Suleyman joined Microsoft in March. (credit: Getty Images)

Microsoft is working on a new large-scale AI language model called MAI-1, which could potentially rival state-of-the-art models from Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI, according to a report by The Information. This marks the first time Microsoft has developed an in-house AI model of this magnitude since investing over $10 billion in OpenAI for the rights to reuse the startup's AI models. OpenAI's GPT-4 powers not only ChatGPT but also Microsoft Copilot.

The development of MAI-1 is being led by Mustafa Suleyman, the former Google AI leader who recently served as CEO of the AI startup Inflection before Microsoft acquired the majority of the startup's staff and intellectual property for $650 million in March. Although MAI-1 may build on techniques brought over by former Inflection staff, it is reportedly an entirely new large language model (LLM), as confirmed by two Microsoft employees familiar with the project.

With approximately 500 billion parameters, MAI-1 will be significantly larger than Microsoft's previous open source models (such as Phi-3, which we covered last month), requiring more computing power and training data. This reportedly places MAI-1 in a similar league as OpenAI's GPT-4, which is rumored to have over 1 trillion parameters (in a mixture-of-experts configuration) and well above smaller models like Meta and Mistral's 70 billion parameter models.

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Enlarge / Astronauts Suni Williams (left) and Butch Wilmore (right) inside a Starliner simulator at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. (credit: NASA/Robert Markowitz)

If you want to know what it's like to take a new spacecraft on its first test run in orbit, there are only three people in the Western world you can call.

That fact should drive home the rarity of debuting a new human-rated spaceship. When Boeing's Starliner capsule lifts off Monday night, this group of three will grow to five. Veteran NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, both former US Navy test pilots, will be at the controls of Starliner for the ride into low-Earth orbit atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.

"The first crewed flight of a new spacecraft is an absolutely critical milestone," said Jim Free, NASA's associate administrator. "The lives of our crew members, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, are at stake. We don’t take that lightly at all."

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The US government has pressured telcos to rip out network gear made by Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE but has allocated only about 38 percent of the money needed to replace equipment with non-Chinese hardware, the Federal Communications Commission said.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote to Congress Thursday, urging lawmakers to fully fund the program. Congress allocated $1.9 billion for replacements of Chinese gear that must be removed as early as this month, but the needed reimbursements add up to nearly $5 billion, Rosenworcel wrote.

"I am writing... to emphasize again the urgent need for full funding of the Reimbursement Program," she wrote. Rural mobile carriers could have to withdraw from the reimbursement program or even shut down networks if the funding shortfall isn't closed, the letter said.

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Proton’s encrypted password manager, Proton Pass, has received a significant update with an emphasis on security. This comes in the form of a new toolset called Pass Monitor, which will alert users of account weaknesses and data breaches.

This is done automatically and the system will even guide users through solutions in the event of a data leak from a third-party service, which happens a whole lot. It also scours the dark web and alerts people if Proton addresses, email aliases and up to ten custom email addresses have been leaked and used for nefarious purposes. If this happens, you’ll get an alert so you can take action.

Pass Monitor includes a password health feature that flags any weak or reused passwords that could use an update. The inactive two-factor authentication portion of the toolset is an additional layer of security that identifies various accounts that offer the option for 2FA.

Finally, the company’s bringing its Proton Sentinel feature into Pass Monitor. The service uses a combination of AI and human analysts to detect and block account takeover attacks.

The password health and 2FA checks are available to free users, but monitoring of the dark web and Proton Sentinel are only for paying members. Luckily, Pass Plus memberships are currently on sale for $2 per month. These new tools, available on Windows, Android and iOS, will roll out to current users in the “next few days.”

Proton is actually a fairly new entrant in the password security game, as the password manager just celebrated its one-year birthday. The company is more famous for its stellar VPN software, which topped our list of the best VPNs.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/protons-new-password-monitor-update-will-scour-the-dark-web-on-your-behalf-183914473.html?src=rss

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Continuing its crackdown on cryptocurrency exchanges, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may potentially sue Robinhood Markets over securities violations alleged in the popular investing app's crypto unit, Robinhood Crypto said Monday.

In a recent SEC filing, Robinhood Markets Chief Financial Officer Jason Warnick confirmed that Robinhood Crypto has received investigative subpoenas from the SEC regarding its "cryptocurrency listings, custody of cryptocurrencies, and platform operations."

Despite Robinhood cooperating with these investigations, the SEC sent a "Wells Notice" on Monday, the filing said. The notice alerted Robinhood that SEC staff had made a "preliminary determination" recommending that the SEC "file an enforcement action" alleging that Robinhood Crypto had violated the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

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Enlarge (credit: Karol Serewis/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

On Sunday night, even more Tesla workers learned they were no longer employed by the company as it engaged in yet another round of layoffs. Multiple former employees posted on LinkedIn and other sites to relay the news that they were no longer with the company.

"Well, tonight I have learned that my nearly 8 year journey leading and designing Service products at Tesla has come to an end," wrote one former employee.

"For the past Month, most Tesla Employees have had the ritual of keeping a close eye on one's personal email on Sundays and to check it before heading into work on Monday, as layoffs have been increasing. I was spared last October when we had layoffs and also for the last 3 weeks of layoffs. However, I too received the dreaded 'Tesla Employment Update' email today," wrote another.

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