Tag: tech

The Makita Impact XPS Mag Boost and Wera Screw Gripper are two simple-but-useful tools I wish I had known about years ago.

The Google Pixel 8a has been announced, and it could be your next midrange phone. Keep it safe from damage with the best Google Pixel 8a screen protectors.

When nothing but the very best for your home theater setup will do, the best 8K TV deals are where you should turn for some savings.

When will Apple give the MacBook Pro an M4 chip, and what kind of performance and features can we expect? We’ve got everything you need to know right here.

The iPad Pro has always struck me as a baffling device. It’s significantly more expensive than the (very capable!) iPad and iPad Air. iPadOS still isn’t a great environment for multitasking. And Apple hasn’t yet justified why, exactly, you’d want a super-powerful tablet in the first place (simplified versions of Final Cut Pro and Audition aren’t enough!). If you’re trying to get serious work done, you’re better off buying a slightly used last-gen MacBook Pro, instead of shelling out $1,000 or more on a souped-up tablet.

And yet, something about this year’s iPad Pros compels me.

Apple

Taken individually, most of the tablet’s new features seem inessential. It’s the first device with Apple’s M4 chip, which has vastly better AI performance than its earlier M-series hardware. It has a “tandem” OLED display, which stacks two OLED panels together for better performance. And both the 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pros are incredibly thin and light (the latter model is the slimmest device Apple has ever made, measuring 5.1mm).

But when you wrap all of those advancements together and pair them up with a redesigned, MacBook-like Magic Keyboard, the M4 iPad Pro is starting to look more and more like the ultra-light computer of my dreams. A super-powerful machine that’s easy to take anywhere, with a gorgeous screen for binging TV shows and a capable keyboard for writing on the go. Maybe I’m just charmed by the side profile of the iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard, which looks like it could have been designed by Syd Mead in the ’90s, imagining how laptops could be transformed in a few decades.

I’ll admit, the new iPad Pro looks very similar to the 2022 model. But, as the kids say, it just hits differently now. This year’s iPad Pro is thinner than I ever thought possible, and the revamped Magic Keyboard solves most of the problems I’ve had with earlier versions, thanks to its aluminum top cover, function keys and larger touchpad.

Part of the appeal, for me at least, is that Apple has also taken the idea of a tablet PC a step further than Microsoft’s Surface tablets. While those devices can function as genuine PCs and run full Windows apps, Microsoft hasn’t improved its keyboard covers or overall design in years. If you want to hold a Surface on your lap, you’ll still have a kickstand digging into your legs and a pretty flimsy typing experience. The M4 iPad Pro, on the other hand, now more closely resembles an actual laptop.

Now I realize part of this gadget lust comes from covering Apple’s recent launch event. I’ve been thinking far too much about iPads over the past few days, and it’s taken a toll. You could potentially get a laptop-like PC experience from either the entry-level iPad or iPad Air when paired together with a keyboard case. But, then again, I’ve already bought a 10th-gen iPad with Logitech’s Slim Folio keyboard and I don’t actually use it much for typing. It’s fine for jotting down something short like emails, but the unsatisfying keys makes it tough to get into a writing flow.

I’d also feel better about jumping on the iPad Pro bandwagon once iPadOS becomes an even better platform for multi-tasking. Stage Manager is a start, but it’s a bit clunky and hard to navigate. Sure, Apple is constrained by what’s possible on smaller displays, but I could imagine iPads (along with iPhones and Macs) becoming far more functional once the company starts rolling out its rumored local AI models.

What if Siri could accurately note down your shopping list, pull in prices from local stores and share it with your friends. What if it could automatically edit your vacation videos to post on Instagram? Now imagine you could do those things without losing focus from the email on your screen, or your company’s Slack channel. Multitasking doesn’t necessarily need to involve jumping between several apps. With AI enhancements down the line, we could potentially complete complex tasks with natural language, and our devices could better anticipate what we actually need.

Apple

The iPad Pro M4’s price problem

Price is another obvious problem facing the iPad Pro. It has always been expensive, but Apple is really pushing the boundaries of acceptability with these new models. Both the 11-inch and 13-inch tablets are $200 more than before, starting at $999 and $1,299 respectively. While it’s nice to see them come with 256GB of storage by default (up from 128GB), creative professionals will probably want to spend another $200 to get 512GB.

If you want the full 10-core CPU power of the M4 chip, though, you’d have to shell out for at least 1TB of storage, which makes the 11-inch iPad Pro $1,599. Want nano-textured glass for additional glare reduction? That’s another $100. Oh, and don’t forget the Magic Keyboard! That’s $299 or $349 more, depending on the size. If you actually wanted to spec out the iPad Pro like a laptop, it’s easy to hit a price near $2,000.

Alternatively, you could just get a $1,299 MacBook Air, or $1,599 14-inch MacBook Pro. Maybe add another $200 to get 16GB of RAM. At least with those machines, you’ve got larger screens, excellent keyboards, the full desktop power of macOS and more than a single port for connectivity. If you really want an iPad Pro experience, you could always keep an eye out for used or refurbished 2022 models, which come with the very capable M2 chip.

Given just how expensive it is, I likely won’t be buying a new iPad Pro anytime soon. But the desire is certainly there, sitting somewhere deep within me, ready to take over my cognitive functions the minute these tablets get cheaper.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/oh-no-i-think-i-want-an-ipad-pro-now-170041331.html?src=rss

Speedrunning video games is a time-honored tradition, and this is especially true when it comes to retro titles. Nintendo is getting in on the trend with a fairly bizarre forthcoming Switch game called Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, which drops on July 18. It’s all about speedrunning through the classics, like Legend of Zelda, Metroid and Super Mario Bros., among others.

This comes in the form of 150 speedrunning challenges pulled from 13 NES games, which seems mightily familiar to those cool NES Remix releases from the Wii U era. There will be global online leaderboards, to give it a tournament feel, and local 8 player co-op. The game will also include an automatic rewind feature, letting people try and try until they get it right.

If the name Nintendo World Championships sounds familiar, that’s because it’s taken from the company’s semi-regular esports tournament. This has been the company’s branding for in-person competitions since 1990, when Nintendo visited 29 cities throughout the country. That first national tournament also spawned an ultra-rare NES cartridge with minigames based on Super Mario Bros., Tetris and Rad Racer. Only a few hundred were made and they currently sell on eBay for, no joke, $175,000. The last time we covered this cartridge, it was selling for $5,000 to $10,000. Retro-flation is real, ya’ll.

Pre-orders for the digital version are available right now on the eShop, but there is a physical edition coming. This version will include 13 art cards, five pins and a physical game cart. It’ll also include a gold commemorative NES cartridge, though it’s sadly nonfunctional. Come on Nintendo! Make that thing functional so I can sell it for $175,000 in 30 years. The digital version of Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition costs $30 and the deluxe physical pack costs $60.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nintendo-just-revealed-a-nes-speedrunning-collection-inspired-by-an-ultra-rare-1990-cartridge-164607841.html?src=rss

Amazon has the Google Pixel Watch 2 on sale for $70 off. The Wear OS 4-powered smartwatch arrived last fall with a new stress-tracking feature, slightly longer battery life and a better heart sensor, as Google’s flagship wearable inches closer to rivals Apple and Samsung. Its current $330 sale price is a record low.

The Pixel Watch 2 works with Android phones, so you’ll want to sit this deal out if you use an iPhone and don’t plan on switching. But those with the right setup get a sleek device with a round (1.2-inch) screen. The watch’s 41mm case (one size only) is lighter than its predecessor, thanks to its recycled aluminum material. It also has an IP68 water and dust resistance, meaning it has dust protection and can withstand half an hour of submersion in 1.5 meters of water.

This latest model includes a stress-tracking feature that uses the watch’s continuous electrodermal activity (cEDA) sensor to track changes in your skin’s electrical activity. “This new sensor can point to possible signs of stress using a machine learning algorithm that incorporates heart rate, heart rate variability and skin temperature,” Google explains. “When the algorithm picks up on physical indicators of positive and negative stress, including excitement, the Body Response feature will send you a notification.”

Fitness tracking is likely one of the main reasons to buy a wearable like this, and Engadget’s Cherlynn Low found the watch’s Fitbit integration performed very well in our full review. “I’ve been wearing the Pixel Watch 2 alongside the Apple Watch Series 9 to all my workouts this week, and they generally showed similar results,” she wrote when the smartwatch arrived last fall. It includes automatic workout start and stop prompts in case you forget to set up or end a session.

The Pixel Watch 2’s $330 sale price is for the LTE version of the Pixel Watch 2, so once you set it up with your wireless carrier, it can stay connected without needing you to keep your phone nearby. If you prefer the Wi-Fi-only version, it’s available for $300, which is $50 off its usual price.

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

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-google-pixel-watch-2-has-never-been-cheaper-162729942.html?src=rss

Paramount+ with Showtime annual subscriptions are half off right now, bringing the yearly cost down to $60 down from $120. You have to pay for the year up front, which is never fun, but the offer is available to both new and returning subscribers. That’s not a bad deal, considering you get content from two streaming services that have joined in a blessed union to become one.

Paramount+ is home to all things Star Trek, yet that particular bonus seems to be shrinking all of the time. It’s also home to the surprisingly funny Sonic-adjacent Knuckles TV show, which has a crazy fight scene featuring the 80-year-old, yet still iconic, Stockard Channing. Other notable releases on the streamer include the dad-approved Tulsa King, Jeremy Renner’s Mayor of Kingstown and that Halo adaptation that people compare unfavorably to Fallout. It’s one of our favorite streaming services, even if Halo isn’t quite up to snuff. 

Showtime has been around for decades and has a diverse lineup of shows, like Yellowjackets, Billions, Dexter, House of Lies and the list goes on and on. It’s also home to Twin Peaks: The Return, my favorite show of the 2010s. The Chi just returned, which is a big deal to fans, and Ewan McGregor’s A Gentleman in Moscow looks decent. It’s Showtime. You know the deal.

This offer ends on July 14, so you have plenty of time to think about if you want to revisit Shameless or check out that Frasier reboot. Just remember to cancel once the year is up, as the subscription will auto-renew at the full price of the plan.

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

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/paramount-with-showtime-annual-subscriptions-are-half-off-right-now-151032749.html?src=rss

FTX has filed a plan with a bankruptcy court to pay back creditors who held cryptocurrency at the embattled exchange. The vast majority of customers are set to get their money back with interest, though they (and the debtors) missed out on major gains in the crypto market since FTX’s dramatic collapse in November 2022 — the price of Bitcoin has more than tripled since then.

FTX aims to fully pay back non-governmental creditors based on the value of their claims as determined by the bankruptcy court. That means 98 percent of creditors (those who have up to $50,000 in claims) will get 118 percent of the amount of their allowed claims. Other creditors will get their money back, plus what FTX describes as billions of dollars in compensation “for the time value of their investments.”

Government creditors are in line for payouts with a nine percent interest rate. The Internal Revenue Service and Department of Justice are among the stakeholders with which FTX has agreed settlements.

The company suggests that, if its plan of reorganization is rubber stamped, it would be able to resolve disputes with private and government stakeholders “without costly and protracted litigation.” All told, FTX says that it will be able to distribute between $14.5 billion and $16.3 billion in cash.

But, you may be wondering, where exactly is all this money coming from? After all, when FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection 17 months ago, it held just 0.1 percent of the Bitcoin and 1.2 percent of the Ethereum that its customers thought it had.

FTX said it was able to monetize “an extraordinarily diverse collection of assets, most of which were proprietary investments held by the Alamedaor FTX Ventures businesses, or litigation claims.” As TechCrunch reports, the assets that FTX CEO John J. Ray III and his team tracked down included around $8 billion in real estate, political donations and venture capital investments.

The company filed the updated plan of reorganization just a few weeks after co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (aka SBF) was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was found guilty in November of charges including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ftx-plans-to-refund-defrauded-customers-with-interest-143555536.html?src=rss

Apple has lots of new products on the way and is officially discontinuing its ninth-generation iPad. But, before the curtain falls on this reliable device, you can pick it up for a steal. Our favorite budget iPad for comes with two years of AppleCare+ and is down to $298 from $398 — a 25 percent discount. This deal is for the 64GB model with Wi-Fi in either Silver or Space Gray. 

If you’re looking for a more affordable entry point into the world of iPads or want to grab one as a gift then the ninth-gen model gives you a solid balance of quality and cost. We gave it an 86 in our review when it first debuted in 2021 thanks to updates like True Tone technology and color changing based on ambient light. It also has a 12-MP front camera, Apple’s A13 Bionic chip and up to 10 hours of battery life while in use. 

If you’re looking for a more advanced iPad then check out everything we know about the new iPad Pro and iPad Air that Apple just announced. They will be available on May 15, but you can pre-order them now. 

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

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/pick-up-the-9th-gen-ipad-with-two-years-of-applecare-for-only-298-140951353.html?src=rss