Hasta La Gadget!

The first crewed launch of Boeing’s Starliner was scrubbed less than four minutes before liftoff after a computer failed to launch the correct countdown. It’s the squillionth setback for the craft, (our math may be out a little) which should support the next generation of spaceflight. NASA says it’ll target June 5 for its next launch attempt. At this point, we’ll believe it when we see it.

— Dan Cooper

The biggest stories you might have missed

This tool unlocks Windows’ AI-powered Recall feature for unsupported PCs

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The IRS is making its free Turbo Tax alternative permanent

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The ASUS ROG Ally X improves on the original in all the right ways

Only the screen and chip are unchanged.

Engadget

ASUS knows how to make a good PC, so it’s no surprise to see its second-generation gaming handheld is an improvement on the original. Sam Rutherford has been trying out the ROG Ally X, for which only the display and chip are unchanged from the original. And while you can guess what his impression is from the headline, you should still click through to see if it’s worth buying.

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Meta says the future of Facebook is young adults (again)

But how to get their attention?

Unsurprisingly, 20-year-old Facebook isn’t what young adults flock to. But bless Meta for trying to change that. In an update, Tom Alison, who heads up the Facebook app for Meta, says the service is shifting to reflect an “increased focus on young adults.” Meta executives have been trying to win over young adults for years. Mark Zuckerberg said almost three years ago he wanted to make them the company’s “North Star.”

Alison’s note makes no mention of the metaverse beyond using AI in its products (without getting remotely specific) — I’m not sure how Facebook plans to appeal to those young adults.

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Dyson 360 Vis Nav robot vacuum review

Superior suction at a steep price.

Engadget

Dyson continues to experiment in the robot vacuum arena. The Dyson 360 Vis Nav has been available in other parts of the world for a while, but it recently came stateside to the tune of $1,200. The company claims a 360-degree vision system, with cameras and LED lights, along with suction power similar to its stick vacuum. Is it good in real life? Yes. Is it perfect? No.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-starliners-crewed-flight-gets-scrubbed-111519077.html?src=rss

Microsoft’s Copilot+ initiative for super-charged AI PCs is becoming more of a reality at Computex 2024. Today, AMD announced its next major chip platforms, Ryzen AI 300 for notebooks and Ryzen 9000 for desktops, which respectively target beefier laptop AI performance and fast gaming on desktops. Notably, Ryzen AI 300 chips feature a revamped neural processing unit (NPU) with 50 TOPS (tera operations per second) of AI performance, more than three times AMD’s previous laptop hardware. The new desktop processors, meanwhile, are reportedly 16 percent faster than their predecessors when it comes to overall performance.

The key takeaway from these announcements is that Qualcomm is no longer the only company able to gloat about fast AI hardware for Copilot+ PCs. That initiative, which Microsoft unveiled a few weeks ago, sets a new baseline specification standard for AI PCs. Copilot+ PCs require an NPU with at least 40 TOPS of AI performance, 16GB of RAM and 256GB SSDs to qualify as Copilot+ notebooks. Microsoft also tied together long battery life with the initiative, but it’s unclear if the Ryzen AI 300 chips will be able to touch the reported twenty-plus hours from Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon processors. (We’re also expecting Intel to respond with more details about its Lunar Lake Copilot+ chips later today at Computex.)

AMD

So far, AMD’s new laptop chips include two models: The 12-core Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, and the 10-core AI 9 365. As usual, we expect the company to fill out its lineup over the next year with mid-tier and lower-end offerings. Both Ryzen AI 9 chips reach at least 5GHz max boost speeds, and they also feature built-in RDNA 3.5 Radeon 890M and 880M graphics. According to AMD’s benchmarks, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is 98 percent faster than Apple’s M3 chip in Blender, and it’s 73 percent faster than Intel’s Core Ultra 185H. (It’s worth noting company tested its hardware with 32GB of RAM against Apple and Intel systems with 16GB of RAM, according to its testing footnotes.)

AMD

Powering both the Ryzen AI 300 and Ryzen 9000 chips is AMD’s Zen 5 architecture, which is a “sweeping update” for the company, Senior Processor Technical Marketing Manager Donny Woligrosky said in a media briefing. He claims it offers better branch prediction (which helps with accuracy and latency), higher overall throughput and up to two times better instruction bandwidth. For regular users, that means you can expect Zen 5 systems to feel a bit more responsive and be better primed for handling large data loads.

AMD

While AMD’s new AI chips are the star of the show, the company isn’t leaving desktop users behind. The new Ryzen 9000 chips top out with the 16-core Ryzen 9 9950X, which edges close to the 6GHz dream with 5.7GHz boost speeds. It’s a power-hungry beast though, requiring 170 watts, so more reasonable hardware nerds might want to opt for the Ryzen 9 9900X (120W TDP) or the eight-core Ryzen 7 9700X (65W). These new chips don’t include NPUs like the Ryzen 8000G, but at this point, gamers and demanding PC users can make do with the raw computational power from desktop CPUs and powerful GPUs. (NVIDIA is also trying to power some AI features with its RTX GPUs, which eschews the need for a standalone NPU.)

Alongside these new desktop chips, AMD is also unveiling the X870E and X870 AM5 chipsets. They include the next-gen PC features you’d expect, including PCIe 5, USB4, WiFi 7 and DDR5. For its older AM4 hardware, AMD also unveiled the 16-core Ryzen 9 5900XT and eight-core Ryzen 7 5800XT, which can both hit 4.8GHz speeds.

We’re still awaiting pricing details on AMD’s new hardware, but the company says we can expect to see Ryzen AI 300 systems and Ryzen 9000 chips in July. Those new laptops include the ASUS ZenBook S 16 and Zephyrus G16, as well as the MSI Stealth A16 AI+.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amd-unveils-ryzen-ai-300-cpus-for-copilot-laptops-030033575.html?src=rss

Just when you thought you had a moment away from any more AI-focused hardware news, AMD is leaping into the “AI PC” arena with its latest mobile laptop chips. The new Ryzen AI 300 series boasts better performance than either Intel or Qualcomm, plus neural processing capabilities.

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Sometimes it’s the simplest games that end up leaving you all teary-eyed and emotional.

When I first downloaded Cool Lemon Club’s The Keyper for Playdate, I didn’t have much in the way of expectations beyond a general sense that it should be pretty good, since lots of people online seemed to be recommending it. The adventure game, which is available on itch.io and the official Playdate Catalog, sees the player searching for the many different keys needed to unlock areas of the mysterious Winchester 21 building after taking over the role of caretaker. The person who formerly held the job is gone, leaving only some cryptic notes behind, and the residents are varying degrees of weird.

On its face, it seems like a pretty standard game of puzzle solving and exploration. It’s effectively frustrating throughout, as you repeatedly retrace your steps trying to navigate the Winchester 21’s several floors and labyrinthine tunnel system to find the keys and the doors they unlock. But as the plot unfolds and you uncover more of the building’s secrets, The Keyper reveals itself to be a game with a lot of heart.

Its charm lies in the strange interactions between you and the people who live in the apartments (and tunnels… and walls) of the Winchester 21. They each have their own little storylines, some of which present new mysteries and side-quests for you to take on. One of these in particular really tugged at my heartstrings, but I wouldn’t dare spoil it for you here.

The Keyper is a little dark, a little funny and just the right amount of challenging. While it does offer the option to save your progress so you can walk away from it and come back later, I’d recommend setting aside a few hours and just playing this through in one shot for the most impact. By the time you reach the end and finally figure out what’s been going on all along, the entire tone of the game has shifted into something a lot more heartwarming than it all first appears. I may even have cried a little during the final scene. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-keyper-is-a-casual-adventure-game-for-playdate-that-unexpectedly-made-me-cry-214640406.html?src=rss

Back in 2018, WB released the CG movie Batman Ninja, its first real foray into anime from production company YamtoWorks and Kamikaze Douga. In the years since, there’s been a lot of animated Batman movies, and you’d be fair in thinking Ninja was just an interesting one-off to have in the Bat-library. And you would end…

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