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Somehow, Apple made a $599 laptop that's actually a joy to use. In this episode, Devindra and Deputy Editor Nathan Ingraham chat about what makes the MacBook Neo so great. And they also dive into the new M4 iPad Air, M5 MacBook Air and M5 Pro/Max MacBook Pros. Also, Roberto Baldwin, SAE International's Sustainability Editor, joins us to chat about the state of EVs today as gas prices explode. Subscribe! iTunes Spotify Pocket Casts Stitcher Google Podcasts Topic MacBook Neo review: Apple puts $60

Apple is lowering its developer fees in China following discussions with the Chinese regulator. From March 15, the commission rate for standard in-app purchases (IAPs) will be reduced from 30 percent to 25 percent on its mainland China App Store storefront for both iOS and iPadOS. In a Developer blog , Apple also said that developers belonging to its App Store Small Business or Mini Apps programmes will also have their fees reduced by 3 percent, from 15 to 12 percent. This applies to the commiss

Apple's new family of laptops might have a cringeworthy name, but don't let it fool you. Despite the MacBook Neo running on a built-for-iPhone A-series processor and being limited to 8GB of RAM, it delivers on what Macs do best. It has a capable screen, keyboardand trackpadand its overall build quality should embarrass other laptop-making rivals that have compromised on those areas with their $600 laptops. Engadget Don't expect a gaming rig it struggled predictably to run Lies of P , but for mo

Meditation is often touted as a mental cure-all, purported to help with stress, sleep, mood, focus and even certain medical conditions. Ive been meditating most of my adult life. Ive done silent retreats. Ive been formally trained in various techniques. Ive had someone in my contacts list who I referred to as a guru. So I feel Im relatively qualified to give some bad news: Meditation wont fix your life, despite what David Lynch says. However, theres also some good news: Despite not actually bein

Ubers and Motional's Hyundai Ioniq 5 autonomous EVs will start appearing as an option for riders in Las Vegas. Passengers requesting for an UberX, Uber Electric, Uber Comfort or Uber Comfort Electric ride may be matched with a Motional robotaxi. They will not be forced to take it, though, and will be notified and given the option to decline and choose a regular ride instead. But if they want to try it, they can boost their chances of getting matched with a robotaxi ride by opting in via the Ride

Its hard to believe that its been almost four years since Apple gave the MacBook Air a serious glow-up. The 2022 model was a total redesign that bumped its performance with the M2 chip and also improved a number of key components. It was also the first MacBook Air to drop the signature tapered design, and Apple added a 15-inch model one year later to boot. Since then, Apples primarily focused on making sure it has a new chip every year were already up to the M5, if you can believe it. As such,

Apple's exclusive deal for US broadcast rights of Formula 1 was a big shift to streaming from ESPN's cable coverage of the past, but after the first race (the Australian Grand Prix), it seems to be going well. The 2026 Formula 1 season on Apple TV is off to a strong start, with fans responding positively and viewership up year over year for the first weekend, exceeding both F1 and Apple expectations, Apple VP Eddy Cue told The Hollywood Reporter . Apple didn't give any ratings or other details,

Bandai Namco has announced a new Little Nightmares game, this time for virtual reality. Little Nightmares VR: Altered Echoes is developed by Iconik and not by Tarsier Studios, but its still connected to the beloved titles Little Nightmares I and II . Remember Dark Six, the protagonist Sixs dark doppelganger from the previous games? Well, in this installment, you will control her as she goes on a journey to reunite with the actual Six in order to reunited with her and become whole. The adventure

Many of us remember the halcyon days of being a kid in the 90s, spending a weekend afternoon with remote control in hand and a seemingly endless well of stuff to watch on TV. Now you can relive the experience thanks to the appropriately named Channel Surfer web app. It's essentially a YouTube discovery tool that surfaces interesting videos, but presented in a retro homage to the cable channel screen. Channel Surfer is the work of developer Steven Irby. He has 40 channels on the app right now, mo

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the union that covers warehouse workers, drivers and a diverse collection of other laborers, has come out against Paramount Skydance's merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. In a press release , the Teamsters announced that it has submitted a report to the US Department of Justice's Antitrust Division outlining its concerns about the impact of the deal, and is urging the DOJ to intervene in the merger. This merger threatens the livelihoods of the very wor

The newly verified X account for Iran's supreme leader could be putting the company on the wrong side of US sanctions, according to a watchdog group. The Tech Transparency Project, which last month published a report on X granting premium perks to sanctioned officials in Iran, now says that the verified account for the country's new leader raises fresh questions about the issue. The TTP notes that the X account for Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, appears to be paying for an X premiu

Adobe's long-time CEO has shared that he plans to step down. Shantanu Narayen has been the chief exec at the tech company for 18 years, a tenure where he led Adobe in the major shift to become a software-as-a-service provider. The exact timeline for his exit is still up in the air, as Narayen will depart when the board of directors names his successor. He will remain on the board as its chair after leaving the CEO post. While Adobe was not the first to take the SaaS route, it was one of the firs

NASA will soon give it another go on April Fools' Day. On Thursday, NASA said it's targeting April 1 at 6:24 PM ET for the Artemis II mission's next launch attempt. In case that date doesn't pan out, NASA added April 2 at 7:22 PM as a secondary launch opportunity. If necessary, the agency foresees several more openings between April 1 and 6 to get the Orion rocket into space. Within those six days between the first and the sixth, we can't always turn around every day for an attempt, NASA acting

We've been seeing all sorts of warnings about how RAMaggedon is nigh. The latest horseman signalling a disaster is the International Data Corporation, which had already cautioned that things were looking bad at the end of 2025. Today, the organization further cut its forecasts for the PC market in 2026, anticipating that global shipments would fall 11.6 percent. The previous report projected that this year would see a falloff of up to 8.9 percent due to ongoing memory shortages. And the new figu

KPop Demon Hunters is getting a sequel, Netflix and Sony have announced . Sony Pictures Animation handed the rights to the film to Netflix in 2021 as part of a larger licensing deal, but neither company could have expected how much of a hit it would ultimately become. Besides being Netflix's most-watched movie of all time, KPop Demon Hunters is also nominated for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song at the 98th Academy Awards , and stands a good chance of winning. Maggie Kang and Chris A

Instagram has long limited users' ability to share links, restricting link-sharing to Stories, Reels and user profiles. But that might now be changing. The company has started to test clickable links inside of post captions for subscribers to Meta Verified. The new feature, which has been a long-requested update from creators, was spotted by blogger Andrea Valeria, who posted screenshots of a clickable Substack link she was able to add to an Instagram post. According to Valeria, an in-app messag

European regulators are continuing to crack down on loot boxes and gaming features it classifies as interactive risk categories. The Pan-European Game Information, better known as PEGI, is rolling out new rules that will apply age ratings based on the presence of loot boxes and other in-game purchases or systems that could be tied to gambling or addictive behavior. The exact policies are as follows: Purchases of in-game content: games with time-limited or quantity-limited offers will be classifi

Bumble is testing an AI dating assistant called Bee that it hopes will get users on dates without them having to swipe through profiles, Bloomberg writes . The company announced the AI assistant during its fourth quarter earnings , and intends to use the AI in a new experience it calls Dates. When a user opts in to Bumble's Dates feature, Bee performs an onboarding chat where it learns about the users' values, relationship goals, communications style, lifestyle and dating intentions, and then at

Ankers Soundcore projectors have become an attractive option for buyers thanks to models like the P1 and Nebula X1 that combine performance and portability. Now, the company has added affordability to that equation with its latest model, the $369 P1i . Instead of being detachable like on the P1, its speakers fold out toward listeners, promising better and louder sound than most cheap projectors. The P1i also delivers 1080p video, Google TV for streaming and the same easy screen fit setup as othe

Its already been a busy year for high-profile Microsoft departures, with longtime Xbox chief Phil Spencer bowing out last month alongside his expected successor Sarah Bond. Today its the turn of Microsoft's head of Experiences + Devices, Rajesh Jha, who leaves after more than 35 years at the company. Jha, who oversaw some of Microsofts most important products and services, including Windows, Office and Teams, said in a press release that hes been planning for his succession alongside CEO Satya N

Amazon just unveiled a new personality type for Alexa+ . The sassy option is reserved for adults and the company claims it will throw out censored curse words from time to time. Amazon describes this option as a combination of unfiltered personality and razor-sharp wit, playful sarcasm and occasional censored profanity. We aren't yet sure how the chatbot handles the censoring. Does it use a garden variety bleep or a replacement word like fudge or something? I managed to get it to say damn and he

Fancy yourself as one of those folks who stands in front of an expensive touchscreen display on a news network on election night, zooming in and out of counties while bleating about polling and voting data? If so, you might get a kick out of BallotGuessr . This is a riff on GeoGuessr that tasks you with guessing how a county voted in the 2024 presidential election. All you have to go on to figure out the identity of each county are contextual clues from Google Street View images. You can move ar

Ukraine's four-year war with Russia has made it the world leader in battlefield drone technology. One byproduct of that is that the data it collects has become one of the country's most valuable assets. On Thursday, Ukraine played that card, saying it will begin sharing its battlefield data with allies to train drone AI software. In modern warfare, we must defeat Russia in every technological cycle, Ukraine Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov wrote on Telegram (translated from Ukrainian). Artifici

After spending many years as the public face of Overwatch , Jeff Kaplan stayed well out of the limelight after leaving Blizzard in 2021 . Five years later, the former Blizzard vice president and Overwatch lead director is back with his own studio and a new game, which you might be able to play pretty soon. The Legend of California is billed as an open-world, action-survival shooter. It looks like a mix of Red Dead Redemption and Rust (Rust Dead Redemption, if you will). It's set during the gold

With Claude enjoying a moment of newfound popularity among regular people , Anthropic is previewing an update designed to make its chatbot better at explaining some concepts. Starting today, Claude can generate charts and diagrams as part of its responses, either when asked directly or when it decides visuals might be helpful to the user. For example, try asking Claude what's the best way to fold a paper plane. Where previously it was limited to text, now it can show you step by step how to fold

Honda has announced it is canceling three electric vehicles it was months from starting production on at its EV Hub in Ohio . The Honda 0 SUV, the Honda 0 sedan and the Acura RSX are all being wound down. The company showed off all three models, and touted them as in near-production form at CES 2025 . Unlike the Honda Prologue and Acura ZDX , which run on GM's Ultium platform, the scrapped models were built on Honda's own Zero platform and would have been its first fully in-house EVs. Honda in p

Flash floods are notoriously difficult to predict , but Google might have a novel solution. The company just revealed Groundsource , a prediction tool for flash floods that uses Gemini to source data from old news reports. This is the first time it has used a language model for this type of work. Flash flood prediction models need historical data and model training that often doesn't exist. Our solution: Groundsource, a new AI-powered methodology that uses Gemini to transform 5M+ global reports

Microsoft has unveiled Copilot Health , an AI-powered tool it claims can help make sense of your medical records, health history and fitness data from wearables, should you grant it access to that information. The company said it will be in a separate, secure space in the Copilot app and that the idea is to help provide you with more context and insights so you can ask your doctor the right questions when you see them. Copilot Health is designed to help you better understand your medical informa

Uber has launched a new invite-only luxury ride experience called Uber Elite. Aimed at executives, frequent travelers, and riders looking for a more elevated experience, it sounds like an upgraded version of Uber Black for the, well, uber-rich. A ride booked through Uber Elite will be operated by a professional chauffeur driving a new-model luxury vehicle less than three years old. An Elite-only Meet and Greet feature allows riders to pre-arrange to be picked up in the airport terminal they arri

Ahead of its official release later this spring, today Rivan is announcing full pricing and trim levels for its long-awaited R2 electric SUV. The rollout for the company's first mid-size (two-row) offering will be similar to its previous vehicles, with more expensive premium models hitting the road first this spring, followed by more affordable configurations becoming available later this year and into 2027. This timeline is especially important for anyone hoping to snag the $45,000 base model o

Its not just the major social platforms that know how effective an endless scroll of short videos is at hijacking your dopamine system. Disney+ is adding Verts, a selection of short vertical clips you can scroll through to keep your brain chemistry happy when you are in the bathroom so inclined. The company says its a dynamic feed to help users quickly find their next favorite watch, letting you jump straight in to see the full movie or TV show the clip hails from. Not to mention the side benefi

The first season of a TV show is a tricky thing. It has to convince people to watch it and justify the shows existence to the network (or streaming service) execs. It has to deal with actors and writers who may not have fully dialed into the characters and world yet. There are some shows with absolutely stellar first seasons Stranger Things , Veronica Mars and Ted Lasso are a few but many other hit shows stumbled out of the gate, like The Office and Supernatural . Star Trek is not immune to th

Google has announced that GFiber is merging with Astound Broadband, in an agreement that sees Astounds parent company Stonepeak become the majority owner, with Alphabet retaining a minority stake. No financial specifics were detailed in a press release, but the new combined business will be an independent provider led by GFibers executive team, who Google says will use its expertise in high-speed fiber innovation to manage the combined network footprint. Astound already serves over one million c

JBL just released two new pairs of headphones in its pre-existing Live line . There's the over-ear Live 780NC and the on-ear Live 680NC. Both sets of headphones have similar specs, despite the difference in design. The biggest news here is likely the battery life. They max out at 80 hours per charge with regular use, which is a fantastic metric. This shrinks to 50 hours when using ANC, but that's still fairly remarkable. We truly live in a golden age of wireless headphone batteries . JBL's new h

We're all holding onto our phones for longer now, and in order to do that, you'll need some protection. Now, with so many good phone cases on the market, you don't have to compromise if you're also trying to live a more eco-conscious life. The best eco-friendly phone cases offer a great blend of durability and sustainability, helping to reduce plastic waste and better the planet. Made from natural materials like biodegradable plastics, recycled ocean waste or even sustainable bamboo, eco-friendl

Uber has teamed up with UK self-driving car startup Wayve and Nissan to launch a pilot program for a robotaxi service in Tokyo in late 2026. The program will use Nissan Leaf EVs powered by Wayves AI Driver automated vehicle technology, which will then be connected to Ubers platform. Trained drivers will be behind the wheel at first, as the deployed vehicles gather real-world data to be able to navigate Tokyos driving conditions and complex streets that are also a lot narrower than the roads in t

US self-driving startup Nuro , which is backed by the likes of NVIDIA, Toyota and Uber, has started testing its autonomous vehicles on Tokyo's challenging streets, Bloomberg reported. The company, which plans to launch a robotaxi service with Uber and Lucid in San Francisco this year, will be testing a handful of vehicles in the city. Human safety drivers will be at the wheel, as is required by Japanese law. Tokyo presents a challenge for autonomous vehicles, given its narrow, crowded streets an

Google Play has introduced a new feature called Game Trials, which will let you play a portion of paid games for free before you commit to buying them. Its now rolling out to select paid games on mobile, and its coming soon to Google Play Games on PC. Titles that offer Game Trials will show a button marked Try on their profile pages. When you click it, youll see how long you can play the game before you have to buy it. In Googles example, the survival and horror game Dredge will give you 60 minu

In 2024, Microsoft caused a lot of head-scratching and general bemusement with the launch of its This is an Xbox marketing campaign. Now, though, it appears the quandary over what is and isn't an Xbox has been resolved. Game Developer noticed that the original blog post on Xbox Wire that kicked off the whole affair has been removed.It seems Xbox will be going a new direction with its future promotions. Maybe since the new Project Helix hardware it has in the works is more definite attempt to blu

Apple still hasnt confirmed a foldable iPhone, and the companys latest round of product announcements didnt change that. Apple launched several new devices last week, but there was still no mention of a folding iPhone. Even so, the steady stream of leaks and analyst reports hasnt slowed. Over the past few months, supply-chain sources and leakers have continued to sketch out Apples possible plans, with most signs still pointing to a launch in the second half of 2026. As with any unannounced Apple

The Steam Machine is back from the dead. Not as a Valve-supported program for manufacturers to create living room PCs, but instead as a home console sibling to the Steam Deck . Valve introduced its second attempt at ruling the living room in a surprise hardware announcement in November 2025, and paired the new Steam Machine with a new Steam Controller and a wireless VR headset it calls the Steam Frame . Since the announcement, as is often the case with Valve, some details remain elusive, however

Superhuman has taken its writing assistant Grammarly on quite the merry-go-round ride regarding its approach to AI tools. In August, the company launched a feature called Expert Review that would offer feedback on your writing, offering AI-generated feedback that would appear to come from a famous writer or academic of note. These recreations were based on publicly available information from third-party LLMs, which sounds a lot like web crawlers of dubious legality were involved. The suggested e

It must be 2017 because loot boxes are back in the news again. Two weeks after New York's attorney general sued Valve over its use of the gimmick , the company has responded. In short, the Steam maker essentially said, See you in court. New York's lawsuit accuses Valve of promoting illegal gambling through its games. AG Letitia James called the loot boxes found in titles like Counter-Strike 2 , Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2 addictive, harmful and illegal. The state seeks to permanently stop Valve f

TikTok will soon let you stream full songs in its app via a new integration with Apple Music . The company's new Play Full Song feature makes it possible to link your Apple Music account toTikTok, and play any song that strikes your fancy directly in the app while you're scrolling. Starting a song is as simple as tapping a button in the Sound Details page or your For You page. Assuming you pay for Apple Music, TikTok will then open up a streamlined version of Apple's music player, which you can

Microsoft first debuted its full screen Xbox experience for Windows in the ROG Ally Xbox handheld , in a bid to compete with Steam's nearly 15-year-old Big Picture Mode . That Xbox interface eventually made its way to other Windows 11 gaming portables last year. Today at GDC, Microsoft revealed that its big screen Xbox UI is headed to all Windows 11 devices (including laptops and desktops) in April. Oh yah, and it's now simply called Xbox Mode. Xbox Mode will only be available in select markets

Microsoft plans to begin shipping early units of its next generation console, codenamed Project Helix , to game studios starting sometime next year. We're sending alpha versions of Project Helix to developers starting in 2027, said Jason Ronald, vice-president of next generation for Xbox, according to IGN , which was present at the companys GDC 2026 presentation where it shared early details about the new device. Ronald did not clarify what he meant by alpha version, but given the keynotes devel

A new company called Musical Beings has officially unveiled the Tembo , which might be the cutest drum machine ever made. Just look at this thing! It's got a wooden chassis that resembles a standard drum machine, but with one key difference. The sequencer is tactile. Users arrange beats by placing magnetic pucks that trigger samples. This seems like a really good way to introduce the basics of sequencing and beatmaking to kids and young adults, being that DAWs and grooveboxes can feature a steep

Meta has announced that its introducing parent-managed accounts on WhatsApp. Designed to allow young people under the age of 13 to use the messaging platform more safely, these accounts feature new controls that enable a parent or guardian to restrict who can send them messages. Parent-managed accounts can also only be used for messaging and calling, so additional features like Channels, location sharing and Meta AI integration arent included. To set up an account, youll need to put your phone n

Eight of the 10 most popular AI chatbots were willing to help plan violent attacks when tested by researchers, according to a new study from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), in partnership with CNN. While both Snapchat's My AI and Claude refused to assist with violence the majority of the time, only Anthropic's Claude reliably discouraged these hypothetical attackers during testing. Researchers created accounts posing as 13-year-old boys and tested ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot,

Sony has announced its latest additions to the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog. While they might not top last month's introduction of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 , Extra and Premium subscribers are still getting access to some notable games. In March, the new additions include Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (PS5) , one of Engadget's picks for the Best Games of 2024 , and Persona 5 Royal (PS5 and PS4). The PS4 version of Persona 5 Royal Ultimate Edition , the complete version of one of Atlus' most pop