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This Angry Birds ‘Venting Machine’ is made for you to attack

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It’s all part of Rovio’s “Bring the Anger” campaign, which also includes the “Rage Rider” electric scooter. In Angry Birds 2, Rovio is pushing players to take out as many pigs as they can during November, which will lead to a $100,000 donation to UNICEF’s Education in Emergencies fund. It turns out, those irate birds can also lead to a bit of social good.

During a brief demo at the 10xBeta labs in Brooklyn, where the Venting Machine was built, it made a striking first impression. It looks like a giant version of Red, the most iconic Angry Birds character, complete with a pair of bouncy feathers up top. The machine is covered in a soft foam material, with extra padding along the front to withstand your fists, and it has a large screen in the center. It’s comfortable to punch, and every hit also lights up an LED to show you’ve made some damage. (Kicking isn’t allowed, since it’ll be too hard to clean regularly for a public event.)

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Ask Engadget: What browser plug-ins will help with holiday shopping?

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Matt Brian

Matt Brian
Managing Editor, UK

Most people know about CamelCamelCamel (Caemlizer) which is good for tracking price changes on Amazon, and can be useful particularly if you have a product in mind and are waiting for it to drop in price.

However, the one one I use most is Honey, which is a solid weapon in your deals arsenal. As a browser extension, it sits unobtrusively in the background until you visit a retailer where it detects various coupon codes or cash back rates for shopping there.

You could be unaware that retailer has discounts, but when you get the checkout it’ll automatically enter them into the voucher code text box until it finds one that works. I think even if it doesn’t find you anything; it sometimes gives you a Honey currency for shopping there that once it hits a certain level could result in actual real money back. I don’t use it religiously but it’s certainly saved me a few dollars here and there.

There are also some apps that track cash back when you visit via their tracking cookie, but be warned that the other ones I know about (Quidco, TopCashback) are UK-only.

Jon Fingas

Jon Fingas
Associate Editor

I also like Honey because it scours the web and automatically combs loads of coupon sites, and makes it clear how much you’ll save. It works across many desktop browsers, which is helpful. I also like that it doesn’t cost you money, doesn’t harvest your data and it doesn’t feel like they’re trying to sell you on something else (since the companies help fund Honey, not customers).

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Pirelli’s 5G tire warns other vehicles about dangerous road conditions

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The Cyber Tire system works by collecting data from a vehicle as it drives, such as whether there is water on the road that could cause aquaplaning. This data is sent from the vehicle to a central hub via 5G, which enables low latency transmission. Then, data on current road conditions and aquaplanning risks can be sent to other cars in the nearby area, also via 5G.

The Pirelli tires come in to play as they are the only part of the car which is in direct contact with the road. That means the sensors in the Cyber Tire can collect information about road surfaces, and in the future they’ll also be able to detect factors like the distance traveled on the tires and the dynamic load.

Pirelli debuted the connected tire at the “5G Path of Vehicle-to-Everything Communication” event in Turin, Italy this week, along with partner manufacturers Ericsson, Audi, Tim, Italdesign and KTH. The company has not yet announced when the tires will be generally available, but it has said that the new technology should improve both road safety and car performance.

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‘The Expanse’ season 4 trailer shows the world beyond the Ring Gate

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As well as the cast of familiar characters including the crew of the Rocinante, Bobbie, Drummer and Chrisjen, there are some new faces including Burn Gorman of Torchwood and Pacific Rim fame, plus Lyndie Greenwood who you may remember from Sleepy Hollow. There’s even a tantalizing shot of the almost-certainly-deceased Joe Miller, though whether he’s a ghost, a vision or something else remains to be seen.

This season is set to examine what lies on the other site of the Ring Gate which the Rocinante passed through at the end of last season, and the “blood-soaked gold rush” to control the new territory. It looks to be as political as ever, with Belter refugees claiming the world on the far side of the gate as their own and Earth forces looking to seize control of the planet for themselves, along with horror elements and the usual rich world building.

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Facebook quietly released a meme creation app called Whale

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NPE (which stands for New Product Experimentation) was set up a few months back to work on, you guessed it, experimental Facebook apps. The team’s previous efforts include Bump, a chat app that helps strangers connect over simple ice breaker questions, and Aux, a group listening app that lets you pick songs and compete for their group’s virtual auxiliary cable. All three applications are targeting younger smartphone owners — the type who are currently obsessed with TikTok and Twitch. While the Instagram team adds TikTok-inspired features to its app, it makes sense for Facebook to place a few smaller and arguably more original bets on mobile.

Will Whale ever be released worldwide? We wouldn’t bet on it. Facebook is quick to launch experimental apps and even quicker to shut them down (remember Slingshot?) if they don’t take off in their initial test markets.

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Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ TV show is already renewed for season two

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While season one of Amazon’s Lord of the Rings TV series hasn’t started filming yet, Deadline reports there’s already plans for season two. In fact, the industry outlet reports that the plan right now is to shoot the first couple of episodes of season one, then take a “four to five month break” while working out scripts and approach for the rest of the first two seasons.

Recently, we saw Apple had signed up early for second seasons of its original TV shows, and Variety reports that while Amazon greenlit the show for two seasons, it wasn’t fully locked in until now. Like the movies, the series will film in New Zealand and production won’t be cheap, so it’s important to get everything right before the cameras roll. From what we’ve heard, it will cover a time period well before the books and movies, and the cast still hasn’t been fully filled out. Deadline speculated that renewing the show early and planning a long hiatus in the middle of shooting could let the streamer squeeze footage for season two in during S1, or shoot both seasons back-to-back.

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Blackstone HyperTek electric motorcycle smashes all molds

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BST HyperTek E-Moto

The HyperTek’s mechanicals hang from a one-piece carbon fiber monocoque and billet subframe. The water-cooled, DHX Hawk motor produces 105 hp and 88.5 pound-feet of torque, powered by a 4.75-kWh battery. BST claims the battery can be fully recharged in 30 minutes on a fast charger, with a range of 186 miles on a charge. That’s almost certainly on the more generous European standard, and we suspect the range claim includes the supplemental battery pack; a Zero S motorcycle, for instance, packs a 7.2-kWh battery and lists an 89-mile range in city riding. On the HyperTek, the standard pack sits inside the metal box ahead of the frame. The gray box of the supplemental battery can be seen in a couple of photos hanging underneath that, featuring a cell pattern along the front, otherwise replaced with green, logoed fairings.

The custom front end molds the triple clamp and down tubes in a single piece of carbon fiber. The front suspension was inspired by the Horst Leitner unit on an ATK motorcycle, the rear suspension is a mono-shock slipped inside a single-sided swingarm akin to that on the Terblanche-designed Moto Guzzi V12 concept from 2009. The package sits on BST’s 17-inch Rapid Tek wheels with a wheelbase of 58 inches, and the bike weighs 450 pounds.

BST HyperTek E-Moto

There’s no cockpit instrumentation. Riding vitals are instead beamed to a heads-up display inside the Cross X1 helmet. The HUD shows a rear-view camera image, too. Another novelty is the electronically modulated clutch that enables revving, burnouts and wheelies thanks to “Wheelie & Traction Control.” Cruise control eases the highway miles, hill stop eases inclined launches, and a built-in sound generator gets attention in urban environments.

Bike EXIF says BST wants to start production on the HyperTek in 18 months, and each example will cost $80,000. Those are steep numbers, but HyperTek’s design, technology and pedigreed backers convince us to say “Yes.”

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iFixit pulls apart the 16-inch MacBook Pro and sees little has changed

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Beyond the revamped keyboard, the biggest changes in this 2019 model have to do with its thermal management system and the battery cells. The exhaust holes are bigger than those of the outgoing 15-inch model, while inside the new fans with bigger blades allow for more performance. Also, the batteries are similar to previous cells, except they’re each just a bit thicker, all contributing to an extra 16.2 Wh of energy capacity.

The bad news arrives for anyone hoping that this model would allow for easy servicing by anyone other than authorized Mac repair techs. Unlike the latest laptops and tablets from Microsoft, Apple has continued to avoid making its designs more modular or easily accessible. If that’s part of your purchasing decision then you’ll have to wait and see if it changes in a future revision, otherwise you can just find out what the inside of this laptop looks like simply by clicking through.

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Apple’s latest iOS 13 update fixes Mail, background download glitches

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Less than two weeks after the last iOS 13 update, Apple is back with another minor tweak, this time raising the version number to iOS 13.2.3. iOS 13.2 was the most recent major update, when it added support for Deep Fusion photography and the AirPods Pro last month. This one gives iPads and iPhones fixes meant to address issues with the built-in Mail, Files and Notes apps, as well as a problem that could stop apps from downloading information in the background — Apple didn’t mention any fixes for security issues.

iOS 13.2.3 includes bug fixes and improvements for your iPhone. This update:

  • Fixes an issue where system search and search within Mail, Files, and Notes might not work
  • Addresses an issue where photos, links, and other attachments might not display in the Messages details view
  • Fixes an issue that could prevent apps from downloading content in the background
  • Resolves issues that may prevent Mail from fetching new messages, and fail to include and quote original message content in Exchange accounts

None appear to be as pressing as the last update that solved some major multitasking headaches, but you may want to install it sooner rather than later to avoid missing any messages.

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