Researchers from MIT, Argentina, and South Africa have published a paper looking into the heard activity of dinosaurs. The study found that dinosaurs did move in herds and that they moved in herds much earlier than previously believed. Researchers now believe dinosaurs lived in social herds as early as 193 million years ago. The researchers detail the discovery of a … Continue reading
Amazon’s deal of the day is all about Samsung today, with products on sale ranging from laptops to Galaxy S smartphones to storage. That includes a 30 percent discount on Samsung’s thin and pretty 13.3-inch Galaxy Book Pro laptop with an OLED display (on sale for $840), the Galaxy S21 Plus smartphone at $750 ($250 off), and the Galaxy Watch 4 priced at $220 — $90 off the regular $310 price.
Some of the best deals are on Samsung’s laptops. The Galaxy Book Pro stands out not just because it’s pretty, thin and light but because of that gorgeous AMOLED display. The 13.3-inch model in “Mystic Blue” is the standout deal, priced at just $840 for a savings of $360 (30 percent). It weighs in at just 1.92 pounds, offering an Intel 11th-gen Core-i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM, 512GB of storage and 21 hours of battery life.
Another great option that’s far more on the budget side is Samsung’s 11.6-inch Galaxy Chromebook 4, available for $179 or 28 percent off. It comes with 64GB of storage, 4GB RAM, Gigabit WiFi, Chrome OS and an HD Intel Celeron Processor N4000.
As for smartphones, the deals are focusing on Samsung’s high-end Galaxy S21 models. First up is the Galaxy S21 Plus that comes with a big 6.7-inch Full HD+ display and variable refresh rate up to 120Hz. It’s just as capable under the hood, with a Snapdragon 888 processor, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, 8K video and 5G capability. The regular price for that model is a cool $1,000, but you can get one today in Phantom Violet or Phantom Silver for $750, a 25 percent savings.
If you want the very best Galaxy device, that would be the Galaxy S21 Ultra. The camera in particular is more capable, with a 108-megapixel sensor and Samsung’s 100X “Space Zoom,” along with 8K video and other features. It’s got a larger, higher-resolution 3,200 x 1,440 display, a bigger battery, and more RAM and storage (12GB and 256GB, respectively). Normally priced at $1,200, that model is available at $950 in Phantom Black or Phantom Silver, 21 percent off the normal price.
Samsung smartphone sale at Amazon
Next up is watches and wireless earphones. We found Samsung’s latest Galaxy Watch 4 model to be the best Android watch you can get, in part because it’s using a new version of Wear OS built in collaboration with Google. It looks nice, offers comprehensive health tracking, has a bright and crisp screen, supports more third-party features and offers Samsung’s touch-sensitive rotating bezel. Amazon’s $220 sale price is not only the cheapest we’ve seen, but you get a free wireless charger, to boot.
In our Engadget review, we said that Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Pro were its best earbuds yet, thanks to the comfy fit, good sound quality and wireless charging capability, with the main drawbacks being mediocre battery life and the lack of an iOS app. Amazon’s selling them today for $140, which isn’t quite the lowest price we’ve seen, but still a good 30 percent off. If you’re willing to risk it, you could hold out for possibly a better Black Friday deal in about a month.
Samsung watch and earphone sale at Amazon
Finally, if you’re looking for storage, Samsung has you covered there, too. Samsung’s T7 portable SSDs are popular for their relative portability and incredible USB 3.2 Gen2 write/read speeds of around 1,000 MB/s/1,050 MB/s — ideal for video editing and fast storage transfers. The T7 portable 1TB model is a particularly good deal, priced at $130 instead of $170 for a savings of 24 percent.
And if you need a smartphone storage bump without compromising performance, Samsung’s EVO Select microSDXC UHS-I cards deliver 100MB/s, allowing fast photo transfers and video capture. The Samsung 512GB EVO Select model is now on sale for $55, for a savings of 21 percent.
After a long run of teasing the RGB-lit Zephyr mask, Razer is finally ready to sell it to die-hard fans — or possibly cosplayers. The Zephyr costs $100 or there’s a $150 Starter Pack with three replacement filter kits. Alas, the Starter Pack is already listed as “out of stock,” and the mask by itself is still “coming soon.”
Yes, you can customize the lighting through a companion app, but the highlight is a dual-fan active air filtration system with N95 filters — something I’d never thought I’d be writing about a Razer device.
— Mat Smith
Microsoft’s dual-screen ambitions continue to struggle. Upgraded hardware and a new Glance Bar don’t mean much when the Duo 2 is still plagued with inconsistent, finicky software. The new triple-camera array is held back by an atrocious camera app, and thermal issues cause the device to hang. All of this will cost you $1,500.
Yes, Sony is finally releasing an Uncharted movie after trying to make one for over a decade. Sony Pictures included a handy reminder at the end of the trailer about a remastered bundle of Uncharted 4 and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy that’s coming to PlayStation 5 and PC in early 2022.
Gaming chairs have proliferated over the past few years, and until now, they’ve tended to be overpriced and visually unappealing. Think: lurid colors, Bond villain lair aesthetics and giant drink holders. As Buyer’s Guide Editor Kris Naudus puts it, Razer’s new Enki chair is still a bit over the top, but at least it’s a more affordable kind of over the top.
NVIDIA has unveiled its next-generation cloud gaming platform called GeForce Now RTX 3080 with “desktop-class latency” and 1440p gaming at up to 120 fps on PC or Mac. The service is powered by a new gaming supercomputer called the GeForce Now SuperPod and, at $200 for a year, costs double the price of the existing Priority tier, which recently doubled to $100.
Sony has finally revealed its mainstream $2,500 Alpha A7 IV full-frame mirrorless camera, and it looks to have been worth the wait. Borrowing technology from the recent A1 and A7S III models, it has some substantial improvements over the A7 III introduced well over three years ago. There’s an all-new 33-megapixel sensor, 4K 10-bit 60 fps video, new AI autofocus tricks and a lot more, including some new live streaming and sharing features, though they’re not quite up to the level we’ve seen on other recent cameras. You can do video and audio streaming over USB-C at up to 1080p 60 or 4K 15p if resolution is a priority over smooth video.
The A7 IV is clearly a massive leap forward for Sony’s “basic” full-frame mirrorless camera series, putting it on par — or ahead of — most rivals. The only deterrent is the $2,500 price tag ($2,699 with a kit lens), which is $500 more than the A7 III cost at launch.
With the pandemic still upon us and Work From Home directives continuing, a monitor is one of the most important computer buying decisions you can make. Luckily, there’s never been more choice, and we’ve seen vast improvements in color accuracy, size and resolution since our last update. Steve Dent is here to help with your buying decision. Do you need HDR, and if so, how bright should your monitor be? What size do you need? Let’s dive in.
iFixit’s Apple Watch Series 7 teardown shows the same display tech as iPhone 13
We can make the steel of tomorrow without the fossil fuels of yesteryear
The new 16-inch MacBook Pro offers a speed-enhancing High Power Mode
Apple will require unvaccinated employees to test for COVID-19 daily
Trump plans to launch his own social media platform in early 2022
Raspberry Pi announces first-ever price increase due to component shortages
Microsoft and AMD will give away a ‘Halo Infinite’ Radeon RX 6900 XT GPU
Seagate now offers a 2TB expansion card for your Xbox Series X/S
Lyft has finally published its first safety report (PDF), which sheds light on the rate of sexual assault and abuse cases on the service in the US over the course of three years. From 2017 until 2019, Lyft received a total of 4,158 sexual assault reports. The company’s safety team divided all sexual assault and misconduct incidents into 21 categories, but the cases included in this report only include five of the most serious categories of sexual assault.
Those categories are non-consensual kissing of a non-sexual/sexual body part, non-consensual touching of a sexual body part, attempted non-consensual sexual penetration and non-consensual sexual penetration. There are lesser categories of sexual assault that weren’t included in the total number of cases.
Among the five, the most commonly reported incidents fall under the non-consensual touching of a sexual body part category. The team recorded 360 incidents of rape within that period. Lyft said that it included any incident reported over the three-year period regardless of when it actually happened, because sexual assault is chronically underreported. Further, it intentionally used broad definitions for the sub-categories.In addition to sexual assault cases, Lyft has also reported 105 motor vehicle fatalities and 10 fatal physical assaults.
The company explained that it doesn’t proactively report safety incidents to law enforcement, knowing that it’s a deeply personal decision, especially for survivors of sexual assault. “This policy gives survivors as much agency as possible when deciding whether and how to report an incident,” it wrote.
Lyft has been promising to release a safety report since 2018, and when CNN asked about it earlier this year, the company cited an issue with the California Public Utilities Commission for the delay. According to the news organization, at least 72 individuals are suing the ride-hailing service over alleged sexual assault incidents. Some of those cases accuse Lyft of knowing that its drivers were raping passengers and failing to take steps to protect its customers.
Uber, on the other hand, published its first safety report in 2019. The company revealed nearly 6,000 reports of sexual abuse over 2017 and 2018, as well as 19 fatal physical assaults.
The world’s largest Triceratops skeleton ever discovered was sold at auction for roughly $7.7 million on Thursday, according to a new report from Reuters. The auction estimate before bidding started was that it would only fetch about $1.7 million.
A prosecutor said he believes that the narrative of people filming the attack but not calling police is false.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Elijah Wood, Nathalie Emmanuel and Patricia Arquette led tributes to Halyna Hutchins.
Western countries might be majority inoculated, but what about the global South?
One of the biggest challenges facing people who have a disease severe enough to require an organ transplant is finding a donor organ. For the first time ever, surgeons have successfully transplanted a kidney from a pig into a human without immediate rejection by the immune system. This is hailed as a major advance with the potential to alleviate the … Continue reading
The pandemic currently impacting most of the world has resulted in significant production shortages for many types of products, particularly those that rely on microchips. Those who like to tinker with electronics often turn to the inexpensive and small Raspberry Pi device. However, some Raspberry Pi developer boards have become difficult to find, and the company has now announced it … Continue reading
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