Hasta La Gadget!

Razor is once again blurring the lines between an e-scooter and a small cargo bike with its latest offering, the EcoSmart Cargo. It looks like a more advanced, and complete version of the company’s EcoSmart Metro, but with a beefy rear rack that holds either a basket or an adult passenger seat, letting you take a friend along for the ride.

The rider, meanwhile, will stick their feet on a wide bamboo deck (covered in grip tape) that holds a 1000W motor paired with a 46.8V battery underneath. Razor says it can reach speeds of 19.9 miles per hour, and has a range of around 16.6 miles, or up to 50 minutes of continuous run time. That’s not a huge range, but is likely just enough for someone’s commute to work (or school) and back.

Razor

That power will be driven, via a chain, to a rear wheel equipped with a disc brake which can be controlled with a standard bike brake on the handlebars. Rounding out the package is a built-in LED headlight and tail light, and 16-inch pneumatic tyres for a smoother ride off-road.

The EcoSmart Cargo is available to order from today, priced at $1,099.99, with deliveries expected to begin towards the middle of September.

A statement by the palace said the Queen “remains comfortable” at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where she remains “under medical supervision.”

Apple’s long-awaited Far Out event was a showcase of all the gadgets the company is now ready to sell us. The new iPhone 14 was blessed with a super-size sibling, and the iPhone 14 Pros ditched the notch for a lozenge-shaped punch hole in its display. Sorry, the people at Apple are insisting we call the hole a “Dynamic Island,” since the screen around it will change size for notifications. The new Apple Watch was joined by the Watch Ultra, with all of the added ruggedization extreme-sports types have been waiting for. Plus, the AirPods Pro got touch-sensitive controls and better noise cancellation, thanks to the addition of the H2 chip. It was very much a show focused on quality-of-life tweaks for these devices, with some features you might consider neat, but nothing you might feel compelled to camp outside an Apple Store to be first in line to buy.

– Daniel Cooper

The biggest stories you might have missed

• Apple’s new AirPods Pro have touch controls

• Bose’s QuietComfort Earbuds II automatically customize sound and ANC

• The James Webb Telescope captures the Tarantula Nebula in stunning detail

• The first US video game studio to unionize is shutting down

• Apple Fitness+ is coming to iPhone this fall in 21 countries

• iOS 16 will be available on September 12th

• Apple’s Photonic Engine technology improves low-light camera performance

• watchOS 9 will arrive on September 12th

• The iPhone 14 can connect to satellites for emergency SOS features

• Apple Watch Series 8 has a temperature sensor and crash detection

iPhone 14 and 14 Plus hands-on: A bigger screen and small camera updates

The iPhone Mini is no more.

Billy Steele / Engadget

There are two iPhones 14: the 6.1-inch standard model and its 6.7-inch Plus variant, harking back to the old regime of one “regular” sized device and one super-sized version. (Sadly, the iPhone Mini’s poor battery life made the unit a poor seller, so Apple has swung the axe.) Engadget’s Cherlynn Low got her hands all over the new handsets, which focus on better camera upgrades. The rear camera has a larger 12-megapixel sensor (with bigger 1.9-micron pixels) as well as autofocus on the forward-facing lens, for better selfies. Despite the phone’s size, the 14 Plus is lighter than its Pro siblings, a small mercy if you’ve ever dropped a phone on your face in bed.

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iPhone 14 Pro hands-on: Don’t call it a notch

The always-on display is an exciting feature.

Billy Steele / Engadget

Apple saved most of the big upgrades for the iPhone 14 Pro and Max as it tries to put more water between its flagship handset and those in the ultra-premium tier. There’s a new A16 Bionic chip and a Super Retina XDR display that can run at 1Hz, giving users an always-on display for the first time. Plus, the Dynamic Island, a punch hole housing FaceID and the camera that can bleed into the display around it, making it look more like a notification window. The rear lens also got an upgrade, with a 48-megapixel primary sensor backed by Apple’s promise it’ll have dramatically improved low-light performance.

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Apple kills off the SIM tray on the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro in the US

This may impact travelers pretty hard.

The iPhones 14 will be the first in the range to ditch the physical SIM tray in favor of eSIM technology. On paper, this is a smart move – another hole in the phone you can eliminate for better waterproofing and security. But it’s also a bit of a thumbed nose for travelers who might prefer to swap SIMs when on the go to take advantage of cheaper local rates. Plus, if you smash your device, you can’t simply put your SIM in an old phone you’ve got lying around.

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Apple Watch Ultra hands-on: Built for the great outdoors

The Watch 8 gets some sensor upgrades but looks much like its predecessor.

Billy Steele / Engadget

Engadget’s Billy Steele spent some time with Apple’s new Watch Ultra, with its, uh, interesting design and additional action button on the side opposite the digital crown. The 49mm timepiece gets a 2,000 nit display, good for rough environments, an 86-decibel emergency siren and more accurate GPS. Given Apple products are always a little less rugged than we might hope, the promises the company made here are going to be well worth testing. Can this device really replace the hardcore Garmin for your extreme sport of choice? Only time will tell.

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The workers managing Apple’s iCloud datacenter in China, employees of Apple-partner Guizhou Cloud Big Data, haven’t been able to see their families in a week, thanks to a lockdown of the city of Guiyang over covid-19 concerns, according to a new report from Bloomberg News.

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The Artemis III mission will take humanity back to the Moon and will have two astronauts conducting up to four spacewalks on its surface. Now, NASA has picked the company that will be building the spacesuits Artemis astronauts will wear when they leave their spacecraft and explore the lunar landscape. The agency has announced that Axiom Space will develop the mission’s moonwalking system and has been awarded an order with a value of at least $228.5 million.

Axiom is one of the two companies that NASA named as its official Artemis spacesuit partners back in June, with the other one being Collins Aerospace. For this particular order, the agency said it reviewed proposals from the two vendors and had decided on Axiom to design, develop, certify and ultimately produce Extravehicular Activity Services (xEVAS) spacesuits and equipment for Artemis III. 

Axiom’s xEVAS will build off on NASA’s Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) spacesuits that the agency designed for Artemis missions. They will accommodate a wide range of crew members, the company said in its announcement, and will be built with increased flexibility and specialized tools for exploration. 

That Axiom is building the spacesuit to accommodate a wider range of bodies is of particular importance as we prepare to explore the Moon and other deep space locations. If you’ll recall, a planned all-female spacewalk back in 2019 was cancelled due to the lack of properly fitting gear, and it put a spotlight on spacesuit design and the availability of various sizes. Artemis III is intended to put the first woman on the lunar surface, and Axiom has confirmed in its announcement that it will be making an xEVAS spacesuit for that female astronaut.

Michael Suffredini, Axiom Space President & CEO, said in a statement:

“Our modernized, evolvable spacesuits will enable rapid upgrades to implement better, safer technologies over time, ensuring our astronauts are always equipped with high performing, robust equipment. We look forward to providing our space pioneers with advanced tools needed to further humanity’s permanent expansion off the planet.”  

This particular order is for the Artemis III landing only. The vendors are expected to compete for future task orders that include spacesuits for recurring lunar landings, as well as the development of spacesuits for use outside the ISS in low-Earth orbit.