You have until March 6th to try and nab a working Nintendo PlayStation prototype — one of the rarest relics of lost gaming history — and it’ll only cost you a few hundred thousand dollars. The current high bid for this retro prototype at auction is $300,000 (plus a buyer’s premium of $60,000), which, yeah, doesn’t exactly sound like a steal. At one point, though, the Nintendo PlayStation commanded even bigger offers — think a $350,000 top bid, which worked out to well over $400,000 with the buyer premium factored in. And even before this thing went to auction, an unknown party from Europe offered to pay owner Terry Diebold as much as $1.2 million for the prototype, though the money never actually changed hands.
This week, it’s all about Samsung’s chonky boi, the Galaxy S20 Ultra. Cherlynn gives us a preview of her review for the new flagship phone — including its 5G performance in NYC and its “100X” camera — while Devindra wonders what’s the point of an incredibly heavy $1,400 brick. Also, we chat about how the coronavirus is continuing to affect the tech world (and why that’s not stopping anytime soon.
Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!
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Credits Hosts: Devindra Hardawar and Cherlynn Low Producer: Ben Ellman Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien
Clinton herself was inspired to develop a show by other podcasts, Politico says, particularly ones which had her as a guest in the past. She was apparently struck by how different a long podcast interview feels compared to short TV and radio guestings when she and daughter Chelsea Clinton sat with Conan O’Brien for Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend. Clinton reportedly enjoyed the relaxed environment at Howard Stern’s studio when he had her as a guest, as well, to the point that they ended up recording for two-and-a-half hours.
The show doesn’t have a launch date yet — more information is expected in the coming weeks — but podcast veterans Kathleen Russo (creator of Alec Baldwin’s Here’s the Thing) and Julie Subrin are said to be producing it. Clinton has reportedly already started recording from a studio in Manhattan and will feature chats with “people of grit and determination.”
The series, in particular, revolves around a town that’s built above “The Loop,” a supermassive particle accelerator that can make things previously only possible in science fiction possible in real life. It was created by Nathaniel Halpern (Legion), but Stålenhag will co-executive produce with Matt Reeves (10 Cloverfield Lane, The Batman, War for the Planet of the Apes). The show will star Rebecca Hall (Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Iron Man 3), Paul Schneider (Parks and Recreation) and Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes, Game of Thrones), among other actors.
You can watch Tales from the Loop’s trailer below:
Between 2005 and 2010, data center electricity consumption increased by a lot more (56 percent), as the New York Times reported. So what happened after that? According to the study, data centers shifted from smaller computer centers over to much larger facilities run by Google, Microsoft, Amazon and other tech giants.
These companies are highly motivated to save money. Google generates seven times more computing power than it did in 2015, but uses no extra energy, according to Google’s technical infrastructure VP, Urs Hölzle. He wrote that the company found those savings by designing high-efficiency Tensor Proessing Units and using machine learning to optimize cooling.
Companies like Apple and Google have also taken steps to make data centers carbon neutral by developing solar farms or using green power to offset energy usage. As it stands now, data centers use about one percent of the world’s electricity, equivalent to 17 million US households. That figure is barely rising, and scientists expect it to stay that way for another three or four years.
The 48-megapixel “gimbal camera” below the zoom camera is rather fascinating. As the name suggests, Vivo managed to stuff some sort of “gimbal-like structure” into this camera, so that “it achieves optical stabilisation in the front-back and left-right inclined directions with enhanced performance.” This design was actually inspired by the chameleon’s eyeball, which steadily rotates in a way that helps the reptile lock onto its prey. Think of it as OIS (optical image stabilization) on steroids, if you want, with Vivo’s lab tests claiming that compared to the traditional OIS, this implementation extends the stabilisation angle by 200 percent.
You may recall that last year’s APEX lacked a selfie camera. Well, just as I predicted, Vivo has indeed been working on under-screen camera technology as well. Much like Oppo’s experimental implementation, when the hidden 16-megapixel front camera is activated on the APEX 2020, the screen area right above the camera becomes transparent. This part also features much larger display pixels to allow for better light transmittance — in this case, it’s six times that of the normal parts of the screen.
The rest is then handled by algorithms to make up for any optical interference, and it can also use 4-in-1 pixel-binning to boost sensitivity. I wasn’t convinced by the results I got on Oppo’s prototype device back in December, but if Vivo is still betting on this technology, then maybe there’s still hope.
In addition to camera hardware, this concept phone also has the ability to remove background passersby while filming in real time, meaning strangers will no longer be able to photobomb you, be it intentional or not. Vivo claims that this feature works well “no matter how complicated the background environment is,” so we’ll believe it when we see it.
There’s also another feature called “Voice Tracking Auto-Focus,” which makes use of the phone’s three microphones — two for picking up sound and one for acoustic “auto-focus” — along with image recognition to better focus on the audio of your desired subject. This sounds very much like the “Voice Bokeh” feature on the recent LG V60 ThinQ 5G and is somewhat similar to Samsung Galaxy Note 10’s “Zoom-in Mic.”
Following last year’s waterfall screens on Vivo’s very on NEX 3 5G and Huawei’s Mate 30 Pro, this year the APEX 2020 has brought us a “120-degree FullView Edgeless Display.” It’s rather self-explanatory: this 6.45-inch 2,330 x 1,080 AMOLED panel wraps around both edges at 120 degrees, thus beating the 88-degree bend on the waterfall screens and rendering the bezels truly invisible when viewed from the front. In fact, you can even just about see this screen’s two glowing edges from the back of the phone.
As cool as this looks, there’s the inevitable question of whether this would increase the chances of damaging the screen — along with the virtual pressure-sensing buttons on the sides — when dropped. Perhaps it won’t make much of a difference compared to existing curved screens (except for Xiaomi’s indefinitely-delayed Mix Alpha), but such an exaggerated bend does make it a lot more difficult to find suitable screen protectors, if any.
Another new feature hidden underneath the screen is Vivo’s third-generation Screen SoundCasting technology, which eliminates the need of speaker holes and thus improving protection against liquids plus dust. Rather than casting sound through the glass body like on last year’s APEX, this time it’s the screen that’s doing the job (remember the LG G8?), and apparently this new solution delivers better bass as well as sound directivity.
One problem I had with the APEX 2019 was the use of pogo pins on the otherwise clean glass body. Luckily, those are gone on the APEX 2020 thanks to Vivo’s impressive “Wireless Super FlashCharge 60W.” Until now, the fastest wireless charging available out there is Xiaomi’s 30W solution, and Oppo has also shown off its very own 30W wireless VOOC demo, with Huawei’s 27W solution for the Mate 30 Pro being the runner-up. 60W is obviously a huge leap from those figures, though for some reason, Vivo only used a 2,000mAh battery as an example for charging time: 20 minutes. We can’t just double this figure to get an estimation for a proper phone battery, but knowing that Xiaomi’s 30W solution takes 69 minutes to fully charge up a 4,000mAh cell, chances are Vivo’s upcoming tech will take much less than that.
It should be no surprise that the APEX 2020 runs on Android 10 and is powered by Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 865 chipset, which is paired with a 5G modem. Not that this matters since the device will never hit the market, but it packs 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage space — maybe those are the bare minimum for this year’s flagships, in Vivo’s view. Hopefully we’ll be seeing some of these next-gen features on a new smartphone some time this year.
BMW also recently tested the iNext in freezing conditions in remote Sweden. It looks less dramatic but more production ready than the concept, as designers have eliminated the jagged window line, cut out the body facets and boosted the size of the headlights. The center grill still looks pretty large, but it’s a hard to tell as it’s hidden under the camouflage body wrap.
The iNext should retain its unusual polygon-shaped steering wheel and curved touchscreen. It’ll also have 5G connectivity thanks to a partnership with Samsung. So far, there’s no word on the all-important range and performance figures, however.
BMW is also working on the iX3 sports activity vehicle, which will come in gas, diesel, PHEV and pure electric options. Meanwhile, Engadget will be on hand to report BMW’s global debut of the Concept i4 sedan happening on March 3rd at the Geneva Motor Show. As for the iNext, BMW said that production on it will commence at its Dingolfing plant starting in 2021.
Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi said in a statement:
“Telecommunications equipment from certain foreign adversaries poses a significant threat to our national security, economic prosperity, and the future of US leadership in advanced wireless technology. By establishing a ‘rip and replace’ program, this legislation will provide meaningful safeguards for our communications networks and more secure connections for Americans. I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for coming together to help move this bill to the President’s desk.”
A Huawei rep criticized the legislation, telling WSJ that it’s “considerably underfunded” and will “simply reduce the ability of broadband providers to provide the most secure network equipment and in turn hurt local consumers and businesses.”
The FCC has also just started collecting information from carriers receiving Universal Service Fund subsidies regarding the Huawei and ZTE equipment they use. It will use the data it collects to help make its reimbursement program feasible and to figure out if it needs to apply certain measures to ensure a smooth transition.
It has a 5.5kWh battery under the floor that can run for 44 miles on a single charge — you can simply plug the EV into any standard 220v outlet and wait three hours to fill its battery. You can also only drive up to 28 mph. Yes, you can’t replicate Fast and Furious stunts with it, and it doesn’t have a lot of range, but the Ami was designed for city driving and narrow streets anyway.
Citroën has various purchasing options to choose from if you’re interested. You can pay €20 (US$22) per month for a long-term rental of two years if you make an initial payment of €2,644 ($2,900), though you can also buy one outright for €6,000 ($6,600). In case you want to try it out first before buying, you’d also be able to rent one from the Free2Move car-sharing service in Europe for €0.26 (29 cents) per minute. Citroën will start accepting orders for the Ami on March 30th in France, followed by Spain, Italy, Belgium, Portugal and Germany a few months later. The first deliveries are expected to arrive to French buyers in June.
The multiplayer is built for use on a single device (and with gamepads, if you have them) or across multiple devices, with tons of collectibles and procedurally generated levels that promise a different run every time. Snagging the spinoff to an already-popular game is one way to make sure people are still paying attention to Apple Arcade’s subscription package, although it’s disappointing for anyone who’d like to play on non-Apple platforms. As it is, you’ll have to try it to find out if the game holds up to its predecessor and can make our list of the best Arcade titles.
