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Get a PS4 Pro and three of its best games for $300 on Amazon

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If you’re going to get a PS4 at this stage, the Pro is what you want. On top of being 4K-capable (though not for Blu-ray discs), it simply offer more performance and visual quality than the standard system. You can buy this knowing that PS4 titles will run as well as possible, and the three included titles in this bundle will easily make the most out of the console.

As with any PS4 purchase this season, though, it’d be wise to remember that the PlayStation 5 arrives in “holiday 2020.” While existing games are likely to run on the new system, it’s not certain how long developers will continue to make new PS4 titles. At this stage, the Pro is best if you’re primarily interested in digging through the PS4’s extensive back catalog.

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Oculus Go is on sale for $120 at Amazon for Cyber Monday

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The same caveats apply. The Go is limited to tracking head movements, not body movements like the Oculus Quest, and the lone remote is relatively simple. You’ll want to pass if you dream of playing Beat Saber. We found the Go ideal for basic apps and videos, however. It’s easy to use, comfortable and has a wide selection of titles. Consider it an introduction to VR that might just lead you to make a bigger investment in the long run.

Buy Oculus Go on Amazon – $120

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Engadget readers can get DJI’s Osmo Action 4K for just $249

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For that, you get features like 4K video at 60 fps, HDR (a feature missing on the Hero 7 Black), 12-megapixel photos and very effective electronic stabilization. What’s more, the Osmo Action 4K has similar resolutions and quality to the camera on DJI’s Mavic drone, so it’s easy to match up both cameras on the same project.

You can get the DJI Osmo Action 4K camera today only for $279 instead of $379, and by adding the code ENGADGETCAM at checkout, you’ll get an extra $30 off — bringing the final price to $249.

If you’re looking for a gimbal instead, Wellbots has another good deal. You can grab DJI’s Ronin-S (a larger and more rugged version of the Ronin-SC) for $629 instead of $749, a $120 discount. And by adding ENGADGETCAM code at discount, you’ll again get another $30, bringing the price down to $599. DJI’s popular gimbals aren’t marked down this much very often, so if you’re in the market, today’s the day.

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Apple’s tap-and-go Express payments come to London public transport

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Apple’s Express Mode can now be used on all Transport for London (TfL) services, including buses, trams and the underground system. Users only need to tap their phone or Apple Watch against the yellow card reader to pay for their journey.

Apple Pay typically uses biometric data like Touch ID or Face ID to authorize payments, which makes it slower than competing service Google Pay. Now, with Express Mode, customers can choose a default card to use for TfL journeys so they don’t need to authenticate the payment each time they board a bus or walk through a barrier.

The system works with iPhone 6 and above or Apple Watch. Similar systems are already in place in other locations including New York, Portland, Beijing, Shanghai and cities across Japan.

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Facebook’s new data tool lets you transfer your media to Google Photos

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A new feature allows users to transfer their Facebook photos and videos to another online service, beginning with Google Photos. It comes as part of the Data Transfer Project, an agreement between Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter to make it super easy to transfer information between services.

Facebook has attempted to counter the impression that it doesn’t care about privacy and get ahead of proposed legislation regarding data portability. Three US senators recently introduced a bill that would force social media companies to allow users to port their data from one platform to another. Last year, Facebook-owned Instagram confirmed it would allow users to transfer their data off the platform as well.

The photo transfer tool will be available to users in Ireland first, before rolling out worldwide in the first half of 2020. To access the tool, go the the Facebook settings in Your Facebook Information.

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Chinese companies want to help shape global facial recognition standards

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The report details how Chinese companies including ZTE, Dahua and China Telecom are proposing standards for facial recognition to the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the body responsible for global technical standards in the telecommunication industry.

Usually, the standards set by the ITU are technical in nature, but human rights campaigners say the proposals under discussion in this case are more like policy recommendations. The standards proposed include recommendations for use cases, suggesting that facial recognition can be used by police, by employers to monitor employees, and for spotting specific targets in crowds.

The concern is that the technical standards will be adopted by developing nations, particularly those in Africa which lack the resources to develop their own standards. That puts China in a position of power to control the market for the technology.

For example, a standard for smart street lights that was accepted in June was proposed by ZTE and China Mobile, and it reflects ZTE’s smart streetlight product deign, including an option to add video monitoring capabilities to lampposts. Similar technology has been used in Hong Kong against pro-democracy protestors.

China is a major power in the world of facial recognition, and the technology is widely used in the country by law enforcement and to monitor public housing projects. This has led accusations of human rights abuses, with facial recognition used to monitor ethnic minorities as part of on ongoing repression of Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang province.

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Europe’s space agency approves the Hera anti-asteroid mission

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Hera will carry two CubeSats that can fly extremely close to the asteroid’s surface before touching down. Those briefcase-sized spacecraft will act like drones, capturing vital data about the impact crater and giving scientists data including the mass of the asteroid that will help them deduce its composition. The aim, ESA said, is to “turn asteroid deflection into a well-understood planetary defense technique.”

Since Didymoon orbits its larger companion, scientists should be able to measure DART’s effect on its trajectory, even if it’s very small. The smaller asteroid is the size of the Great Pyramid, so it could destroy an entire city if it impacted Earth. However, it’s a pretty tricky mission, because both asteroids are still relatively small and no spacecraft has ever flown to such tiny space bodies before.

While an asteroid collision is a pretty unlikely event, it’s actually preventable, unlike an earthquake or volcanic explosion. “We really need to follow carefully [around 2,000 near-Earth objects] so as not to join the collection of wonderful dinosaurs here in Berlin,” Max Planck Institute researcher Holger Sierks told Space.com earlier this month.

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Astronomers find stellar black hole so large it shouldn’t exist

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The team used China’s Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) to find stars orbiting objects that are seemingly invisible — a technique that had been proposed back in 1783, but hadn’t really been possible until recently. They then used both the US’ Keck I telescope and Spain’s Gran Telescopio Canarias to determine the properties of both the star (in a tight, 79-day orbit) and its companion black hole. Previous detection methods required looking for holes eating gas from a star, making sightings relatively rare.

Expectation-shattering discoveries aren’t new, even in recent memory. Astronomers recording gravitational waves have found that the colliding black holes producing the waves are far larger than usual. However, this could force a significant rethink of how stellar black holes are born. That, consequently, could change how humanity understands galactic activity on a broader level.

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China now requires face scans to sign up for phone service

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There are privacy issues beyond that, too. China is known to use facial recognition to track and suppress ethnic minorities, and also uses it against virtually everyone to spot travelers and cars that are on a state-run blacklist. It’s not clear that China will get rid of face scans after the verification process, potentially adding more sensitive data to the mix. Whether or not the scans are immediately useful for surveillance, they might also represent prime targets for hackers who want photos to help commit fraud.

There is evidence of mounting opposition to widespread facial recognition in China, whether it’s on social networks or lawsuits against companies that try to make it mandatory. Even the government promised to tone things down after a university tested facial recognition to monitor student attendance. However, it’s doubtful the Chinese government will back down on face scans that help stifle political opposition.

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TCL’s 65-inch 6 Series 4K TV drops to $700 at Best Buy

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Most notably, the TV’s built-in audio processing can introduce significant delays if you’re passing content through the set to a speaker system. Beta software has improved that somewhat, but you’re probably best off connecting game consoles and other lag-sensitive gear directly to those speakers. The TV’s legs are placed at the very edges of the set, making this a difficult fit unless you have a truly wide stand. We’ve also noticed image quality hiccups switching from a Dolby Vision picture to HDR10, although that’s not a major problem for most viewers.

At $700, though, you might be willing to forgive these limitations. This is a set that punches above its weight at its regular price, let alone at a $200 discount. The money you save on buying a pricier TV could be rolled into a slew of accessories, whether it’s a soundbar or a streaming media player.

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