California air quality officials have passed two new measures aimed at reducing pollution from diesel trucks and ships. One rule introduces new emissions standards for heavy-duty diesel trucks, while the other requires more ships docked at ports to either plug into electric power or use other technology to reduce harmful emissions. The state has the worst-polluted air in the country, The Los Angeles Times reported.
The “Heavy-Duty Low NOx Omnibus Regulation” requires truck manufacturers to comply with tougher emissions standards, revamp engine testing procedures, and further extend engine warranties to ensure emissions are reduced, according to a statement from the California Air Resources Board. The rule targets nitrogen oxides, which are a major component of smog. Once the rule is fully phased in by 2031, CARB expects it will reduce nitrogen oxide emissions in the state by more than 23 tons per day.
Not to be confused with Prime Gaming, channel plans give you access to select perks when watching a specific streamer. For instance, you’ll have access to custom chat emotes, a badge that identifies you as a subscriber and ad-free viewing in select channels. You can also apply the discount to tier two and tier three subscriptions, which feature perks like additional emotes.
While you get a discount on the cost of a subscription, the streamer you support will receive the same amount of money had you signed up normally. There’s also no limit to the number of channels you can help this way — though you can’t use the promotion to save money on one of your current subscriptions. Also keep in mind that once your plan renews, its cost goes back up.
As Twitch points out, when you proactively decide to support a channel for three or six months at a time, it makes it easier for that creator to manage their finances. That’s something that can help lesser-known streamers. The promotion will run through to the end of September.
Google is making it easier for Assistant users to donate to an organization working to address racial bias in policing. Using your phone, ask Assistant to “donate to racial justice,” and the digital helper will then take you through contributing to the Center for Policing Equity. You’ll also find a dedicated card in Google Assistant’s Snapshot. Whatever way you go about donating, 100 percent of every contribution goes to the organization. The Center for Policy Equity employs a data-driven approach to help communities and police organizations create a more equitable public safety model.
Google quietly added the ability to make donations with Assistant in 2019, but today’s update streamlines the process by focusing on one nonprofit. Moving forward, the company says it plans to expand the donation feature to help other specific organizations and nonprofits in the future.
Google is allowing ads that show misleading information regarding voting by mail, The Washington Post reported. The tech giant reportedly took five days to review the ads in question before approving them. Now, some are questioning the ad policies and whether Google is prepared to respond to election-related misinformation.
The ads, created by a group known as Protect My Vote, appeared after people in certain states — including Florida, Michigan, Iowa, Arizona, Texas and Georgia — searched for “mail-in voting.” One of them has text that reads, in part, “think mail-in voting and absentee voting are the same. Think again! There are different safeguards for each.” This, the Post points out, isn’t true. In Texas, for example, there are not distinct processes for absentee voting and voting by mail. Clicking on the ads leads to the group’s website, which contains further misinformation. Facebook already removed similar ads from the same group.
The game places you in the role of Ember, a small creature who wakes up in a mysterious forest, and has to figure out how he can get back home. Along the way, he finds the remains of other beings like him, and by solving puzzles he helps their spirits find peace. It’s a game that’s ultimately about the search for meaning and hope when things seem particularly rough — so it couldn’t be more fitting for the state of the world today.
Hello Games
Even though it was developed by a team of three — Burgess, Chris Symonds, and James Chilcott — The Last Campfire doesn’t feel like a small game. Its environments are colorful and richly detailed, and every screen is distinct in some way. The instrumental score and gentle narration also makes Ember’s journey feels like something out of The Lord of the Rings. In many ways, The Last Campfire couldn’t be more different than No Man’s Sky — it sets you down linear paths, and there’s little room for exploration. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it makes the game feel like an interactive storybook.
Sean Murray, the founder of Hello Games, tells us that the company also approached The Last Campfire’s controls with touchscreens in mind first. “With Joe Danger, we’d come from doing a console game, and we rebuilt it pretty much completely to make it feel at home on the phone,” he said. “This time around… I think we’re at a point where the controls feel really intuitive and at home on a touchscreen.”
While we wait for the full, official details to emerge, let’s take a look at what we already know about the most unusual iPhone launch in Apple’s history.
This story was first published on August 28, 2020, and last updated on the same day.
What’s new this year?
Oh boy — a lot, by the looks of things. Some new features, changes, and additions will be specific to the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro lines and we’ll dig into those shortly — let’s begin with the updates we expect to appear across the board this year.
For one, Apple is said to be using OLED screens across all versions of the iPhone 12. This shift will be especially noticeable to people coming from devices like the iPhone XR and iPhone 11, which used Apple’s “Liquid Retina” screens. Those were always pretty good by LCD standards, but going forward, people who don’t want to pay for Apple’s most expensive phones should still get some improved image quality.
More importantly, these new iPhones will also use the company’s latest mobile chipset, which we expect to be called (what else?) the A14 Bionic. While it’ll still be weeks before Apple explains its benefits in full, chipmaker TSMC offered something of a preview in the form of comments made during a recent earnings call. The A14 is all but certainly based on TSMC’s 5nm fabrication process, which the company said should result in roughly 15 percent faster performance while saving 30 percent in power consumption. That’s nothing to sneeze at, especially when you consider last year’s A13 Bionic was already the fastest smartphone chipset out there. And that reduced power consumption should prove especially helpful now that Apple is finally embracing 5G.
2020 is the year 5G is finally starting to matter in the real world, so it’s little surprise that all of Apple’s new iPhones will support those next-gen networks. Well, some of them, at least. There are two kinds of 5G networks taking root around the world: sub-6 and mmWave. (Their names broadly refer to the swathes of electromagnetic spectrum each type of network operates in, but you don’t need to worry about that.) All of Apple’s new iPhones will play nice with the former since sub-6 networks are more common and cover more ground.
The bigger question is which models will support the world’s faster — but more geographically limited — mmWave 5G networks. Rumors originally suggested that this feature would be exclusive to the iPhone 12 Pro line, but later reports insisted that all versions of the iPhone 12 could tap into all 5G networks. For now, that appears to be the case, but the matter is still being hotly debated.
Facebook is testing the feature with a handful of publishers, ranging from The Atlantic to the Winnipeg Free Press, and early test results are promising. In June, subscribers who linked their Facebook accounts made 111 percent more article clicks compared to those who didn’t link their accounts, Facebook said in a blog post.
“People have account and password fatigue and so it is not surprising that one of our most common reader complaints is that they have to login too often, and of course when it happens they do not remember their username, or password,” Christian Panson, VP of digital at Winnipeg Free Press, said in a statement. “Once a reader has linked their subscription, any visit to us from Facebook delivers a seamless and frictionless experience directly to the content they expect.”
Ideally, promoting reliable news on the platform will help Facebook take back control from rampant misinformation. The feature could also let publishers deliver more personal experiences and recommendations on Facebook, or it could be another way for the giant to get its hands on more of your data.
Screen size is a good place to start when judging gaming notebooks. In general, 15-inch laptops will be the best balance of immersion and portability, while larger 17-inch models are heftier, but naturally give you more screen real estate. And sure, there are some 13-inch gaming notebooks, like the Razer Blade Stealth, but paradoxically you’ll often end up paying more for those than slightly larger 15-inch options.
But these days, there are plenty more features to consider than screen size alone. Consider refresh rates: Most monitors refresh their screens vertically 60 times per second, or 60Hz. That’s a standard in use since black and white NTSC TVs. But over the past few years, displays have evolved considerably. Now, 120Hz 1080p screens are the bare minimum you’d want in any gaming notebook — and there are faster 144Hz, 240Hz and even 300Hz screens. All of those ever-increasing numbers are in the service of one thing: making everything on your screen look as smooth as possible.
For games, higher refresh rates also help eliminate screen tearing and other artifacts that could get in the way of your frag fest. And for everything else, it just leads to a better viewing experience. Even scrolling a web page on a 120Hz or faster monitor is a stark difference from a 60Hz screen. Instead of seeing a jittery wall of text and pictures, everything moves seamlessly together, as if you’re unwinding a glossy paper magazine. Going beyond 120Hz makes gameplay look even more responsive, which to some players gives them a slight advantage.
Steve Dent/Engadget
Not to make things more complicated, but you should also keep an eye out for NVIDIA’s G-SYNC and AMD’s FreeSync. They’re both adaptive sync technologies that can match your screen’s refresh rate with the framerate of your game. That also helps to reduce screen tearing and make gameplay smoother. Consider them nice bonuses on top of a high refresh rate monitor — they’re not necessary, but they can still offer a slight visual improvement.
One more thing: Most of these suggestions are related to LCD screens, not OLEDs. While OLED makes a phenomenal choice for TVs, it’s a bit more complicated when it comes to gaming laptops. They’re limited to 60Hz, so you won’t get the smoother performance you’d find on a high refresh rate screen. And they’re typically 4K panels; you’ll need a ton of GPU power to run games natively at that resolution. OLED laptops still look incredible, with the best black levels and contrast on the market, but we think most shoppers would be better off with an LCD gaming laptop.
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
A few other takeaways:
Get at least 16GB of RAM. And if you’re planning to do a ton of multitasking while streaming, 32GB is worth considering.
Storage is still a huge concern. These days, I’d recommend aiming for a 512GB M.2 SSD, which should be enough space to juggle a few large titles like Destiny 2. Some laptops also have room for standard SATA drives, which are far cheaper than M.2’s and can hold more data.
Normally we’d recommend getting your hands on a system before you buy, but that’s tough as we’re in the midst of a pandemic. I’d recommend snagging your preferred system from a retailer with a simple return policy, like Amazon or Best Buy. If you don’t like it, you can always ship it back easily.
If you can’t tell by now, we really like the Zephyrus G14. It’s compact, at just 3.5 pounds, and features AMD’s fast new Ryzen 4000-series chips paired together with NVIDIA’s graphics. It’s a shockingly compact machine, and while its 14-inch screen is a bit smaller than our other recommendations, it looks great and features a fast 120Hz refresh rate. We also like its retro-future design (some configurations have tiny LEDs on its rear panel for extra flair). The G14 also starts relatively cheap, at around $1,050, but we’d recommend the specced-up Ryzen 9/RTX 2060 model for $1,450. The only downside: It doesn’t have a webcam, which can be inconvenient in the era of never-ending Zoom calls. Still, it’s not that tough to attach an external camera.
We’ve been fans of Dell’s G5 line ever since it first appeared a few years ago. Starting at just $824, it features all of the latest hardware, like Intel’s 10th-generation CPUs and NVIDIA’s GTX and RTX cards. (You can also find AMD’s Ryzen 7 and Radeon RX 5600M graphics in the special edition model whenever that’s back in stock.) It’s a bit heavy, weighing over five pounds, but it’s a solid notebook otherwise. And you can even bring it into mid-range gaming territory if you spec up to the RTX 2070.
Razer continues to do a stellar job of delivering the latest hardware in a sleek package that would make Mac users jealous. The Blade 15 has just about everything you’d want, including NVIDIA’s fastest mobile GPU, the RTX 2080 Super Max-Q, as well as Intel’s 10th-gen octa-core CPUs and a 300Hz 1080p screen. You can easily save some cash by going for a mid-range option like the ASUS G14, but those won’t feel nearly as polished as the Blade.
A solid all-around option: Acer Predator Triton 500
Starting price: $1,700
While we’ve seen some wilder concepts from Acer, like its 360-degree hinge-equipped Triton 900, the is a more affordable bread and butter option that doesn’t break the bank. It’s relatively thin, weighs under five pounds, and it can be equipped with Intel’s latest 10th-gen CPU and NVIDIA’s RTX 2080 Super Max-Q. Acer’s build quality is as sturdy as ever, and it has most of the standard features you’d need in a gaming notebook.
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
The most configurable gaming notebook: Alienware Area 51m r2
We were excited about the Area 51m when Alienware first introduced it last year. Mostly, because Alienware was positioning it as a gaming notebook that would be as configurable as a desktop. You could upgrade its CPU, graphics and other components down the line. While we had our issues with the first generation model, the second-gen R2 has the advantage of coming with even faster hardware, as well as the option of moving between AMD and NVIDIA GPUs. While there are limits to how much you can upgrade the Area 51m, it’s still a great option if you want a machine that’s also easily repairable.
EV startup Bollinger Motors isn’t scheduled to start production on its rugged utility trucks until next year, but it’s already looking toward the future. It’s given the first glimpse of its electric delivery van, the Deliver-E. Bollinger has only released renders of the EV’s design for now, but they give a taste of what the company is planning.
Bollinger
Bollinger will offer the van in several sizes with different battery pack configurations, with a maximum range of up to 200 miles. The company said it’ll offer variants that are “engineered to fit Classes 2B, 3, 4, and 5.” That flexibility could help Bollinger stand out from its many rivals in the electric vanmarket.
Apple’s standard AirPods are a good alternative to AirPods Pro if you don’t want to spend a lot and you were happy with the fit of the company’s EarPods. AirPods with the wired charging case are discounted to $129 on Amazon, which is $30 off their usual price. The latest models earned a score of 84 from us thanks to their improved wireless performance and solid battery life.
AirPods are designed to work best with iOS devices, but Samsung’s Galaxy Buds+ work well on both iOS and Android. The Galaxy Buds+ are discounted to $130 at Amazon as part of a Samsung sales event, and they’re a great alternative if AirPods aren’t your style, or you’re an Android user that wants affordable true wireless earbuds that pack a lot of value. Not only do the Galaxy Buds+ sound good, but they’re smaller than many other wireless earbuds and that makes them more comfortable to wear for hours on end. The new iOS app makes them easier to use with Apple devices, and they even come with a wireless charging case at no extra cost.
Samsung’s T7 portable SSD is another solid item to have for the new semester and now you can get the 500GB model for only $80 at Amazon and Best Buy. Samsung released this version of its credit-card sized SSD earlier this year, and while it doesn’t have a fingerprint sensor like the T7 Touch does, it’s still a secure device thanks to its shock-resistant body and password protection software. It also supports USB 3.2 Gen 2 with read and write at speeds around 1,000MB/s, making it roughly twice as fast as the older T5.
The Osmo Mobile 3 dropped to $98 on Amazon just one day after DJI announced the newest version of its smartphone gimbal, the OM4. Luckily, there aren’t many differences between the model on sale and the new $150 version. The biggest thing is that the OM4 lets you attach your smartphone magnetically to the gimbal, whereas the Osmo Mobile 3 has a traditional clamp mount. If you can live without that newfound convenience, the Osmo Mobile 3 is an excellent gimbal that’s capable of shooting 15 hours of video before needing a recharge and it’s compact enough to neatly fit into a small bag. Not only is the gimbal itself on sale, but you can get a combo kit with that includes bunch of accessories for $20 off as well.
Walmart has a bundle that includes two Google Home Mini smart speakers plus a four-month free trial of the music streaming service Tidal for $40. That price is great for the two smart speakers alone, but the Tidal subscription sweetens the deal, especially if you’ve been interested in giving it a shot. While, yes, these are the older versions of the current Nest Mini smart speaker, the two devices are quite similar. You won’t be missing out on any major features by opting for the Google Home Mini, although the Nest Mini does sound a bit better thanks to hardware improvements that Google made.
Roku’s Streaming Stick+ is down to $40 at Best Buy, which is $10 off its normal price. While not the lowest it’s ever been, it’s a good sale that we see only every couple of months. This tiny stick will turn any TV into a smart one with Roku’s operating system and the included remote that supports voice commands. It also supports streaming content in 4K — as long as you hook it up to a 4K TV. If Amazon’s Fire OS is more your speed, the Fire TV Stick 4K is also on sale right now for $40.
