Hasta La Gadget!

Our end-of-year coverage kicks off this week, covering the major tech stories of the year (hi, billionaires in space) and, closer to Earth, the gear that the Engadget team spent their money on in the last eleven-and-a-half months. It runs the gamut from Apple Watches to smart bike trainers and, er, socks.

Engadget

I discuss my love for the OLED Switch, which I upgraded to from my launch edition of Nintendo’s hybrid console. The screen is gorgeous, as are the white Joy-Cons, but the biggest boon coming from the first Switch iteration is the substantial battery boost. It also seems like Nintendo’s stock of the new Switch is a little more stable, so chances of getting one this holiday season seem better than earlier this year. Oh and Metroid Dread runs like a dream on it.

— Mat Smith

Ford’s Extended Range F-150 Lightning has a massive 131 kWh battery pack

The Standard Range models will carry a ‘mere’ 98 kWh battery.

Ford quietly revealed the battery capacities available on its Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup, Auto Evolution reported. To start with, the Standard Range model, with a projected 230 miles of range, will come with a 98 kWh battery pack. Meanwhile, the optional Extended Range version (300 miles targeted) will have a massive 131 kWh battery.

Continue reading.

LG’s first gaming laptop comes with an NVIDIA RTX 3080 GPU and 11th-gen Intel CPU

Other specs include a 300Hz 1080p display and 93Wh battery.

LG

LG is best known for its lightweight Gram 17 laptop, but now it wants some of that gaming PC pie. It’s revealed what it calls its “first gaming laptop” with some high-end specs. The 17-inch UltraGear 17G90Q model packs an 11th-generation Intel Tiger Lake H CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Max-Q graphics, up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. A 300Hz 1080p IPS display should keep the battery life suitably lengthy, while the design aesthetic seems heavily inspired by Razer’s laptop series and other existing gaming PCs. There’s no pricing yet, but LG will reveal more details at CES 2022 on January 4th.

Continue reading.

In 2021, billionaires headed to the stars

Unfortunately, they all came back 30 minutes later.

Virgin Galactic

Instead of the two most powerful empires on the planet vying to be first to the moon, we now have corporations — Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic — boasting a future filled with exo-planetary tourism. In 2021, the heads of these private companies finally made good on their myriad promises, successfully launching civilians, astronauts and, in two cases, themselves into the uppermost reaches of Earth’s atmosphere. Andrew Tarantola plots the launches, delays and drama of the civilian space race.

Continue reading.

Meta is trying to find the people who created more than 39,000 phishing sites

The company filed a lawsuit in California to uncover the identities of those behind the attacks.

Meta has filed a federal lawsuit to “uncover the identities” of a group of people that created more than 39,000 websites designed to trick users into coughing up their login credentials for Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

People were redirected to bogus websites in a way that allowed the hackers to hide their actions. “This enabled them to conceal the true location of the phishing websites, and the identities of their online hosting providers and the defendants,” Meta said.

Continue reading.

EPA announces strictest fuel efficiency standards ever

It’s reversing the Trump-era rollback.

By 2026, the Environmental Protection Agency will require that automaker fleets travel an average of about 55 miles per gallon, up from the 37 miles per gallon standard they’re held to as of this year.

The agency estimates the policy will save American drivers between $210 billion and $420 billion through 2050 on fuel costs. Over the life of a model year 2026 vehicle, that should translate to about $1,080 in individual consumer savings. It marks President Biden’s most significant climate action to date. As of 2019, the transportation sector remains the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the US.

Continue reading.

The biggest news stories you might have missed

Democrats press Amazon for details on tornado warehouse deaths

T-Mobile says it blocked 21 billion scam calls in 2021

The PS Plus version of ‘FF7 Remake’ can be upgraded to ‘Intergrade’ after all

Beats Studio Buds are down to $100 at Adorama

Here’s why Greek letters are used to name new variants, why some are skipped and what happens when we reach the end of the alphabet.

Some etiquette rules are just plain snobby, but others actually serve a purpose.

Avoid these mistakes and save yourself an emergency room visit.

Tesla’s big holiday update for the year has started making its way to the automaker’s fleet of electric vehicles, and it adds quite a large list of improvements and new features. For those addicted to scrolling on TikTok, perhaps the biggest addition is the TikTok app on Tesla Theater. According to the update notes posted by Electrek, they’ll now be able to scroll the platform’s short-form videos — on repeat, if they want — right on their vehicle’s screen, so long as their car is parked. 

In Toybox, owners will now also find the Light Show feature that Tesla introduced as an Easter Egg on the Model X back in 2015. For the Model X, a choreographed light show includes both flashing lights and opening falcon wing doors, but other models will have to make do with the former. Tesla has made its app launcher customizable, letting owners drag and drop their favorite apps onto the bottom menu bar. It’s also simplifying navigation to make most the common primary controls, such as charging and windshield wipers, easier to access.

To automatically see a live camera view of their blind spot when they activate their turn signal, drivers can activate the new “Automatic Blind Spot Camera” option under Autopilot in Controls. Plus, drivers can now edit Waypoints to add stops or to initiate new navigation routes with updated arrival times. The holiday bundle has updates that fit the season, as well, including automatic seat heating that can regulate the front row seat temperatures based on the cabin environment, along with other cold weather improvements. 

In addition, drivers can now delete dashcam clips directly from the touchscreen and hide map details to remove distractions if they want. Finally, in the entertainment department, Tesla has added Sonic the Hedgehog and Sudoku to its Arcade — though we strongly suggest playing any Arcade game only while parked. Earlier this month, The New York Times reported that Tesla allowed drivers to play some games in moving cars, a concern that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is discussing with the company. The agency told Engadget in a statement: “Distraction-affected crashes are a concern, particularly in vehicles equipped with an array of convenience technologies such as entertainment screens. We are aware of driver concerns and are discussing the feature with the manufacturer.”