Dec 30
Dec 30
Planning for the end of the world might sound like a conspiracy, but it’s not always. Here’s a look at everything we know about the U.S.’ $223M doomsday plane.
Dec 30
Engadget Podcast: CES 2023 Preview
Posted in: Today's ChiliCan you believe CES is just a week away? For our final episode of 2022, Cherlynn, Devindra and Senior Writer Sam Rutherford dive into their expectations for CES 2023. We’ll definitely hear more from Intel and AMD when it comes to CPUs, as well as AMD and NVIDIA’s latest mobile video cards. But we’re always keeping our eyes out for the weird stuff at the show, like Lenovo’s wild swiss army lamp (a combination webcam, facelight and USB hub!). And of course, there will likely be tons of news around new TVs, PCs and cars.
Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!
Subscribe!
Topics
PC hardware to look forward to – 5:06
Phones and mobile at CES – 22:16
New TVs and gaming monitors to expect – 28:11
Wearables at CES 2023 – 35:38
Other news – 42:07
Working on – 44:47
Pop culture picks – 46:06
Livestream
Credits
Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Devindra Hardawar
Guest: Sam Rutherford
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien
Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos
Graphic artists: Luke Brooks and Brian Oh
Dec 30
The release comes in the waning days of Democrats’ control of the House and as Trump’s fellow Republicans prepare to retake power in the chamber.
Dec 30
Scum, froth — whatever you want to call it — do you really need to remove it?
Dec 30
The Morning After: New York’s governor signs a weakened right-to-repair bill
Posted in: Today's ChiliNew York governor Kathy Hochul has finally signed a right-to-repair bill into law, over half a year since the state legislature was passed. Representatives for Microsoft and Apple pressed Hochul’s office for changes, as well as industry association TechNet, which represents many notable tech companies, including Amazon, Google, Dell and HP. Critics say the amendments will weaken the law’s effectiveness. The bill’s revised language excludes enterprise electronics, like devices used in schools and hospitals. Home appliances, motor vehicles, medical devices and off-road equipment were also previously exempted.
Whatever aims the right-to-repair bill had when first proposed have been weakened. Public Interest Research Groups (PIRG), a collective of consumer rights organizations, said in a statement to Engadget: “Such changes could limit the benefits for school computers and most products currently in use.” It continued: “The bill now excludes certain smartphone circuit boards from parts the manufacturers are required to sell and requires repair shops to post unwieldy warranty language.”
– Mat Smith
The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.
The biggest stories you might have missed
TikTok will be banned on most US federal government devices
Included in a mammoth $1.7 trillion bill that President Biden just signed.
TikTok will be outlawed on almost all devices issued by the federal government after lawmakers passed a $1.7 trillion spending bill. Officials recently added the No TikTok on Government Devices Act (what a name) to the bill, which the Senate unanimously approved last week. The mammoth 4,155-page legislation was fast-tracked to avoid a partial government shutdown. It will fund the government through September. The legislation requires the Biden administration to establish rules to remove TikTok from government devices by mid-February. The bill carved out exceptions for elected officials, congressional staff, law enforcement agents and other officials. However, the House of Representatives separately banned TikTok on devices it owns and manages.
Samsung’s new smart fridge has a massive 32-inch display
Think of it like a smart TV with a fridge attached to it.
Samsung
CES is nearly here, which means we’re once again writing about refrigerators. With its Family Hub Plus, Samsung has boosted the touch display size to 32 inches from 21 inches, although it’s still a vertical screen. Samsung has added support for Google Photos, along with the OneDrive integration seen on past models. There’s also a new SmartThings hub so you can control multiple smart home devices from your… kitchen, including robot vacuums, air conditioning, lighting and more. It also supports Amazon’s Your Essentials service, letting you order groceries and other products directly from the touchscreen. Those groceries go inside.
The EV revolution became an eventuality in 2022
It’s been a busy year for the industry.
It’s been a decade since the first Tesla EV made its commercial debut and the electrification of American automotive society began in earnest. Over the past ten years as battery capacities have grown and range anxieties have shrunk, electric vehicles have become a daily sight in most parts of the country. Now, virtually every notable automaker on the planet has jumped on the electric bandwagon with sizable investments in battery and production technologies and pledges to electrify their lineups within a decade or so.
Not even recent years’ production slowdowns and supply chain disruptions brought on by the COVID pandemic managed to stall the industry’s momentum. The International Energy Agency in January reported that EVs had managed to triple their market share between 2019 and 2021 with 6.6 million units being sold globally last year. And as eventful as 2022 turned out to be, 2023 and beyond could be even bigger for the EV industry. We’re expecting EV debuts including the VW ID.3; the Lucid Gravity, Polestar 3, Jeep (one of four!) and Honda’s Prologue SUVs.
Dec 30
The panel released interviews with 19 additional witnesses on Thursday.
Dec 30
Ex-Trump Aide Gives Brutal Review Of Kayleigh McEnany In Jan. 6 Panel Interview
Posted in: Today's ChiliIn transcripts released by the House select committee, Alyssa Farah Griffin called her ex-colleague a “liar” and “opportunist.”
Dec 30
Google Voice has made it easier to filter out spammers trying to call your number. The tech giant has announced that the service will now flag suspected spam calls and will clearly label them as such, complete with a big red exclamation mark. Spam calls and texts have been a huge issue for a years, and they aren’t going away anytime soon — according to the FCC, consumers in the US receive approximately 4 billion robocalls per month and that Americans had lost nearly $30 billion to scam calls in 2021. Google says the feature was designed to help protect you “from unwanted calls and potentially harmful scams.”
The new label that says “suspected spam caller” will show up not just on the incoming call screen, but also in call history for future reference. If you confirm that the call is spam, any future call from that number will head straight to voicemail, and all its call history entries will be sent to the spam folder. But if you confirm that the number is legitimate and isn’t a spam caller, the warning will never be displayed for it again. Here’s what the label would look like on the call screen:
Google
Google uses the same artificial intelligence that’s in charge of identifying spam calls across its ecosystem to pinpoint spam callers for this feature. Apparently, that AI has been filtering out billions of spam calls a month for the tech giant. To note, the new label will only appear if your spam filter setting under Security is turned off. If it’s on, all calls Google suspects to be spam are sent to voicemail from the start.
Dec 30
“If I have to meet ’em on the front door with my friends and a shotgun, I’ll do that,” said the man who led armed takeover of Malheur National Refuge.
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