Month: February 2024

You can fast travel to various spots all across Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s multiple regions, but there are some limitations that you should know about.

Mobile World Congress 2024 has been packed with exciting new products, and it was tough choosing the best. Here are our six top picks from the show.

If you’ve been looking to pick up a set of Apple’s AirPods Pros, today might be a good day to pounce. The latest version of the noise-canceling wireless earphones, which arrived last September and includes a USB-C charging case, is back down to $190 at Amazon and Best Buy. We’ve seen this discount several times over the last few months, but it still comes within a dollar of the lowest price we’ve tracked. For reference, Apple sells the pair for $249, though it’s regularly available for less at third-party retailers. Note that this offer may be available for Thursday only, as Best Buy lists it as a 24-hour “Deal of the Day” and Amazon is likely price-matching.

We gave the second-generation AirPods Pro a score of 88 back in September 2022. That review applied to the model with a Lightning charging case; this USB-C model is virtually identical, only it has slightly better dust resistance and technically supports lossless audio with Apple’s Vision Pro headset. Otherwise, it continues to offer effective active noise cancellation (ANC), a stellar ambient sound mode and pleasantly warm sound with slightly elevated bass. Its biggest perk, though, is still how well it works with other Apple devices. With those, you get a simpler pairing process, faster device switching, an adaptive EQ, hands-free access to Siri, automatic ear detection, Find My tracking and spatial audio support. The pair’s settings menu and battery life indicator are baked into iOS as well. 

All of that makes the AirPods Pro the “best for iOS” pick in our wireless earbuds buying guide, but you need to an iPhone to get the most out of them. Even then, their six-ish hour battery life is just OK, their call quality could be better and their touch controls may take some getting used to. The Beats Fit Pro offers a mostly similar feature set in a more workout-friendly design, while Sony’s WF-1000XM5 remain our favorite wireless earbuds overall. It’s also worth noting that Apple may release new AirPods later this year, according to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, while those who just need the USB-C case can buy that separately. Still, if you’re a dedicated Apple user who needs new earbuds today, this is a solid deal.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-apple-airpods-pro-are-back-on-sale-for-190-152417164.html?src=rss

The two primary fears around AI are that the information these systems produce is gibberish, and that it’ll unjustly take jobs away from people who won’t make such sloppy mistakes. But the UK’s current government is actively promoting the use of AI to do the work normally done by civil servants, including drafting responses to parliamentary inquiries, the Financial Times reports.

UK Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden is set to unveil a “red box” tool that can allegedly absorb and summarize information from reputable sources, like the parliamentary record. A separate instrument is also being trialed that should work similarly but with individual responses to public consultations. While it’s unclear how quickly the AI tool can perform this work, Dowden claims it takes three months with 25 civil servants. However, the drafts would allegedly always be double-checked by a human and include sourcing. 

The Telegraph quoted Dowden arguing that implementing AI technology is critical to cutting civil service jobs — something he wants to do. “It really is the only way, I think, if we want to get on a sustainable path to headcount reduction. Remember how much the size of the Civil Service has grown as a result of the pandemic and, and EU exit preparedness. We need to really embrace this stuff to drive the numbers down.” Dowden’s statement aligns with hopes from his boss, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, to use technology to increase government productivity — shockingly, neither person has offered to save money by giving AI their job. 

Dowden does show some restraint against having AI do everything. In a pre-speech briefing, he noted that the government wouldn’t use AI for any “novel or contentious or highly politically sensitive areas.” At the same time, the Cabinet Office’s AI division is set to grow from 30 to 70 employees and to get a new budget of £110 million ($139.1 million), up from £5 million ($6.3 million).

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/uk-government-wants-to-use-ai-to-cut-civil-service-jobs-140031159.html?src=rss

X’s audio chat rooms called Spaces can now broadcast live video, but only for those hosting the session. As The Verge reports, a Dogecoin designer posted an official walkthrough of the feature on the platform formerly known as Twitter. Hosts will now be able to choose whether to enable video and switch on their cameras when they create a Space. They can then broadcast with either their front or rear cameras and in vertical or landscape orientation. We’re still not seeing the option to enable video in Spaces on Android, but it’s reportedly already available for iOS devices. 

The platform already has a separate feature allowing users to broadcast live video, but that option’s not quite as interactive as a Space. In a Space session, participants can still speak or co-host, even though only the host has the capability to broadcast live video.

Based on follow-up posts by some users, X has to fix a few bugs and other issues for the feature to work smoothly. Enabling video apparently introduces quite a lengthy lag into chat sessions, and broadcasting in landscape makes it impossible to manage a Space, since the video takes up the screen. Also, participants on desktop don’t have the ability to see videos yet. Mobile users that do see videos are shown an interface that prominently displays the host’s visual feed next to participants’ user icons. The Verge says videos only live inside the chat sessions as they happen in real time and that users will have to join to see them, which means recorded Spaces are still audio-only at the moment. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/x-enables-live-video-broadcasts-in-spacesye-133051972.html?src=rss

Exploring differences in work preferences between generations, how to recruit top talent and how to ensure organizations can embed a work culture across the workforce.

Iffi Wahla, CEO and Co-Founder of global hiring platform Edge, discusses the best way to structure a remote team.

New generative AI chatbot will help SMBs to create invoices, pay bills, project cash flow and more.

Arm and Samsung join forces to deliver the next generation Arm Cortex-X CPU and beyond.