There have been no shortage of AirPods Pro deals in the past, but the previous-generation models have been hovering at $180 for the past few months. Now, you can pick them up for $160, which is only about $10 more than their all-time-low price. While, yes, Apple put some decent upgrades into the second-generation earbuds that just came out, those will set you back at least $240 right now. If you’re trying to stick to a budget, this is a good time to pick up the previous version — or the second-gen AirPods, which are back on sale and down to $90.
These AirPods Pro still have a lot going for them, despite the introduction of their predecessors. They have good sound quality and solid ANC, which will block out a lot of environmental noise around you. Their IPX4 water resistance makes them good workout companions, as they’ll withstand sweat pretty well, and we like that they provide hands-free Siri access for when you need to set timers, make calls and do other things without pulling out your iPhone.
And, if you didn’t already know, the AirPods Pro do work best with iPhones and other Apple devices. They’ll quickly pair when you first unbox them, and you’ll be able to switch between taking a call on your iPhone to listening to music on your MacBook fairly seamlessly. As for battery life, you’ll get about five hours of use in one go, and with the included charging case, you’ll get a total of 24 hours of listening time. Also, these AirPods Pro come with a MagSafe case, so you can wirelessly power them up if you have a compatible charger.
If you’re looking to spend even less, the second-gen AirPods are a good option now that they’re on sale for $90. We saw them briefly drop to $79 earlier this week, but that deal came and went within hours. This remains a good sale price for these buds, which provide decent sound quality, a good battery life and convenient Apple-ecosystem features like fast pairing and switching.
Google showcased the Pixel 7 lineup and Pixel Watch today, which of course meant it had updates on the Assistant front. For one thing, Google’s Recorder app will be more helpful for those who use it to transcribe conversations between multiple people. Starting later this year, the app will automatically add speaker labels on Pixel 7. It will transcribe each person’s words separately.
Other AI-powered transcription services, such as Otter, generate labels for speakers too. It’s not yet clear if the speaker labels will be available on Pixel 6 or earlier devices at a later date. In addition, Pixel 7 will be able to transcribe audio messages.
Meanwhile, Google announced some updates to At a Glance, an Assistant-powered feature that automatically surfaces helpful information. You may see weather alerts if rain or snow is likely to fall in the next hour. That could help you know when to look for cover or whether to grab an umbrella as you head out. Other At a Glance updates include notifications of package deliveries from your Nest doorbell, as well as travel information, such as the weather forecast for your destination, flight updates and which baggage claim carousel to go to.
Google
Follow all of the news from Google’s Pixel 7 event right here!
Tesla’s long-delayed semi-truck has started production, and the company will begin making deliveries as soon as December 1st, Elon Musk has announced on Twitter. When the automaker unveiled the Tesla Semi way back in 2017, it expected to start manufacturing the electric big rigs by 2019. While that obviously didn’t happen, Musk told employees in an email back in early 2020 that the vehicle was already in limited production and that it was “time to go all out and bring the Tesla Semi to volume production.” In April that year, however, the automaker announced in an earnings call that it’s delaying deliveries yet again to 2021.
Alas, 2021 wasn’t the Semi’s year either. Tesla notified shareholders in another earnings call that deliveries would be delayed to 2022 due to the global supply chain shortages affecting the tech and auto industries, as well as its then-limited production capability for the vehicle’s 4680 style battery cells. Musk didn’t say outright that the company’s component shortage issues for the semi-truck have already been addressed. But if it has started building the vehicles, and there’s already an expected delivery date, Tesla must have at least enough parts to build Semis for its first customer.
The first batch of Semis will be delivered to Pepsi, which ordered 100 vehicles from the company back in December 2017. As TechCrunch notes, other big companies had also ordered trucks from the automaker, including Walmart and UPS. And in May this year, the automaker opened reservations to more customers for a deposit of $20,000. A Semi costs between $150,000 and $180,000, depending on the range, and it could go as far as 500 miles on a single charge.
There are already good deals for Google’s Pixel 7 family mere hours after its debut. Amazon is including a free $100 gift card when you order the regular Pixel 7 by October 24th at 2:59AM Eastern. And if you’d rather buy the Pixel 7 Pro, Amazon is offering a free $200 card. This applies regardless of capacity, so it might do the trick if you want to buy a case or wireless earbuds to go with the Android flagship.
Both Pixel 7 models deliver modest but welcome improvements. On top of a more powerful Tensor G2 chip suited to AI-heavy tasks, they promise upgraded camera quality versus the Pixel 6 (particularly for zoomed shots, selfies and video). The 7 Pro gets the most comprehensive update with a 5X telephoto camera that purportedly maintains sharp photography across multiple zoom levels. There are subtler tweaks, too, including a more hand-friendly 6.3-inch screen on the base 7 and a flatter, brighter (1,500-nit) 6.7-inch panel on the 7 Pro.
You probably won’t want to upgrade from the Pixel 6 or other recent higher-end Android phones. If you’re coming from an older device, though, the appeal is clear — either Pixel 7 variant is a capable, ‘pure’ Android handset that undercuts the price of some comparable rivals. The gift cards just make the switch a little easier.
There weren’t a lot of surprises in store at today’s Google event in Brooklyn — after all, the company started teasing its Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro smartphones, the Pixel Watch and the Pixel Tablet months ago. Regardless, we now have all the details on Google’s latest hardware, all of which you can pre-order now in advance of the October 14th launch date (with the exception of the Pixel Tablet, which Google still says will launch sometime in 2023). In the meantime, here’s what you need to know about these new phones and watch.
The Pixel 7
Google
Just like last year’s Pixel 6, the Pixel 7 is priced at $599, making it a phone that should give you a great bang for your buck. The display is just a tiny bit smaller than last year’s model, at 6.3 inches, but it has the same 1,080 x 2,400 resolution. Also like last year, there are two camera modules on the back: a 50-megapixel standard camera and a 12-megapixel ultrawide option. The front-facing camera got a nice upgrade, though — it’s a 12-megapixel shooter with bigger pixels and a wider field of view than last year’s model. It can also be used to unlock your phone, but there’s still an under-display fingerprint sensor if you prefer.
As expected, the new Tensor G2 chip is on board here, enabling a handful of notable features as well as improving overall performance. For example, the Pixel 7 has a new feature called Photo Unblur, which uses the chip’s AI smarts to do exactly what it says — make your blurry photos more legible. You can even do this to older photos in your Google Photos library, so you can touch up old memories that you might have shot on other phones or cameras. It also powers the Super Res Zoom features so you can shoot 2x photos that come in at a full 12.5-megapixel resolution, a trick that Google’s had around for a while now. But as usual, the results will probably be better this year than before.
From a design perspective, the Pixel 7 largely keeps the look from last year’s model, with the prominent camera bar on the back. It comes in three colors (snow, obsidian and lemongrass) and the aluminum body is made from 100 percent recycled material.
The Pixel 7 Pro
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Of the two new phones, the Pixel 7 Pro is probably the more exciting thanks to its three-lens camera system on the back. Both the 12-megapixel ultrawide camera and the 48-megapixel telephoto camera have been upgraded; the telephoto camera has the same Quad Bayer PD technology as the main 50-megapixel sensor. What this means is that, combined with the aforementioned Tensor G2 chip, the Pixel 7 Pro’s Super Res Zoom capabilities should be significantly improved.
The camera itself has a 5x optical zoom compared to the main camera, and the high resolution sensors mean you can pull a 10x zoom picture here at 12.5-megapixels. Overall, Google says you can zoom in as far as 30x if you want — we’ll have to review this phone before we can say how good these shots look in reality, but it’ll be fun to see just how well this camera can perform in the wild. The ultrawide camera also has a new macro photography mode, thanks to the wider field of view and autofocus feature.
Video shooting has also been upgraded, as all the cameras on the Pixel 7 Pro (and the Pixel 7, for that matter) can shoot 4K video at 60 fps. There’s also a new Cinematic Blur feature that automatically blurs the background in videos to make your subject pop more, not unlike what you can do with photos in portrait mode.
As for the rest of the hardware, the Pixel 7 Pro sports the same 6.7-inch screen as the Pixel 6 Pro. Like last year, it supports variable refresh rates up to 120Hz, compared to the 90Hz the Pixel 7 tops out at. Naturally, it also has the same Tensor G2 chip as the Pixel 7; the Pro does come with 12GB of RAM, compared to the 8GB in the standard model. It comes standard with 128GB of storage, but you can step up to 256GB or 512GB if you’re going to shoot a ton of video or otherwise save a lot of content on it.
At long last, the Pixel Watch
Cherlynn Low / Engadget
The Pixel Watch has been rumored for years, and we finally know a lot more about it ahead of its launch next week. It comes in a single 41mm size case, but you can get it in three stainless steel finishes (silver, black and gold). As for other customization features, Google says it’ll launch with 20 different bands and 19 different watch faces. It has a Gorilla Glass 5 crystal on top, a haptic crown and a second side button, the same essential controls you’ll find on the Apple Watch.
Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of Fitbit integration here for activity and health tracking. Notably, the Pixel Watch continuously tracks your heart rate every single second, and it also has an ECG app and can track your sleep quality overnight. GPS means it can track activities like running without your phone, and Google says there are a total of 40 different exercise modes you can use to log different workouts.
Google says the Pixel Watch will last up to 24 hours with its always-on display, and it can be fast-charged to 50 percent in only 30 minutes. The basic model costs $349, while the LTE-capable Pixel Watch costs $50 more. While the Pixel Watch is naturally designed with Pixel phone users in mind, it’ll work with any phone running Android 8.0 or higher. You’ll also get six free months of Fitbit Premium and three months of YouTube Music Premium.
A quick update on the Pixel Tablet
Google
After a very brief tease earlier this year at I/O, Google gave us a little more detail on the upcoming Pixel Tablet. Unlike the other devices announced, the Pixel Tablet won’t arrive until sometime in 2023. Unsurprisingly, we know it’ll use the Tensor G2 chip found in Google’s latest smartphones, but we didn’t get any other spec details. We did, however, learn a bit about it’s design. Google’s vice president of product management Rose Yao told Engadget that the company developed a new “nano-ceramic coating” that she said is inspired by “the feel of porcelain” for the Pixel Tablet. She said it feels like the coating on a Le Creuset dutch oven, with tiny pieces of ceramic embedded in the tablet’s recycled aluminum frame. Ultimately, this should make for a device that has a good grippy feel.
Another neat feature we saw for the first time is the Pixel Tablet’s docking station, which essentially turns the device into a Nest Hub. This magnetic stand holds and charges the Pixel Tablet and also provides it with improved speakers for a better audio experience, whether that’s listening to tunes or making video calls. Unsurprisingly, it also has a photo frame feature, again similar to the Nest Hub.
There’s no word on release date or pricing yet, so we’ll have to be patient; hopefully we’ll hear more about the Pixel Tablet early in 2023. But, it wouldn’t surprise me if we have to wait until May for the next I/O conference to get all the details on this device.
A lot more people will soon be able to do what was once unthinkable: edit tweets. Twitter has begun to roll out its new tweet-editing feature to Twitter Blue subscribers in the United States. The expansion follows a launch in Canada, New Zealand and Australia earlier this week.
The feature gives users a 30-minute window to make changes to their tweets. A version history is also available, so others — regardless of whether they subscribe to Twitter Blue — can see a record of all the changes that have been made.
plus, a version history is available on every edited Tweet so you know what changed pic.twitter.com/E3eZSj7NsL
For now, the feature is part of Twitter’s $4.99/month subscription service, which also provides access to NFT profile photos and other specialized features. The company hasn’t confirmed if the edit button will ever be available outside of Twitter Blue, though the feature is categorized as part of “Twitter Blue Labs,” and Twitter has previously said some “Labs” features will eventually be available more widely.
Twitter first announced that it was working on the long-requested edit button back in April, following a poll from Elon Musk, who had recently become the company’s largest shareholder. The company said its work on an edit button predated Musk’s involvement with Twitter, which newly released text messages from Musk seemed to confirm. Interestingly, Musk’s messages also revealed that he was not a fan (to put it mildly) of Twitter Blue, at least in its original form. No word yet on if he has the edit button.
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