Hasta La Gadget!

Apple’s most recent Mac mini is down to its lowest price yet in an early Amazon Spring Sale deal. The M4 Mac mini starts at just $499 right now for 16GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage, or 17 percent off the usual price of $599. Other versions are $100 off too, with 16GB/512GB currently going for $699 and the model with 24GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage sitting at $899. You can also get the Mac mini with the M4 Pro chip for $1,299, down from its usual $1,399.

The M4 Mac mini earned a review score of 90 in our review this past fall, impressing us with how much power it packs into its tiny frame. Engadget’s Devindra Hardawar wrote at the time, “The Mac mini was the fastest computer I’ve reviewed this year, at least when it comes to CPU benchmarks.” That it starts at 16GB of RAM (as is now standard for new Macs) is a big plus, and in addition to the connections on the back, it has some useful front ports: two USB-C ports and a headphone jack.

The M4 Mac mini’s diminutive size means you won’t have to sacrifice much desk space for it, but it’ll still be powerful enough for tasks like light video editing and some gaming. Devindra wrote that “the Mac mini impressed me by running Lies of P in 1,440p with maxed out graphics settings at 60fps,” along with Resident Evil 4 and No Man’s Sky, which “also held a steady 60 fps in 1,440p.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/amazon-spring-sale-apple-deals-include-the-mac-mini-m4-for-a-record-low-price-161156926.html?src=rss

Apple’s most recent Mac mini is down to its lowest price yet in an early Amazon Spring Sale deal. The M4 Mac mini starts at just $499 right now for 16GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage, or 17 percent off the usual price of $599. Other versions are $100 off too, with 16GB/512GB currently going for $699 and the model with 24GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage sitting at $899. You can also get the Mac mini with the M4 Pro chip for $1,299, down from its usual $1,399.

The M4 Mac mini earned a review score of 90 in our review this past fall, impressing us with how much power it packs into its tiny frame. Engadget’s Devindra Hardawar wrote at the time, “The Mac mini was the fastest computer I’ve reviewed this year, at least when it comes to CPU benchmarks.” That it starts at 16GB of RAM (as is now standard for new Macs) is a big plus, and in addition to the connections on the back, it has some useful front ports: two USB-C ports and a headphone jack.

The M4 Mac mini’s diminutive size means you won’t have to sacrifice much desk space for it, but it’ll still be powerful enough for tasks like light video editing and some gaming. Devindra wrote that “the Mac mini impressed me by running Lies of P in 1,440p with maxed out graphics settings at 60fps,” along with Resident Evil 4 and No Man’s Sky, which “also held a steady 60 fps in 1,440p.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/amazon-spring-sale-apple-deals-include-the-mac-mini-m4-for-a-record-low-price-161156926.html?src=rss

Console makers and game developers like Microsoft, Nintendo and Electronic Arts have created a new initiative, managed by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), that aims to make it easier to know what accessibility features games have. 

The new Accessible Games Initiative has defined a set of 24 accessibility tags that will appear in participating game storefronts and product pages so players can know what features a game has before they buy it. The tags have easy to understand definitions and cover a range of accessibility features games offer, like subtitles, input remapping for controls, text-to-speech and speech-to-text in chat and narrated menus. All of the tags and definitions are available to view on the Accessible Games Initiative’s website. The ESA also says it will provide developers with criteria for the tags so they can develop accessibility features with them in mind.

The new tags are designed to co-exist with existing accessibility information on product pages, but some companies may choose to focus exclusively on the new “cross-industry” standard. For example, Microsoft plans to “replace existing Xbox Game Accessibility Feature tags with their equivalent Accessible Games Initiative tags” to avoid duplication, while keeping its own tags that aren’t in the initiative’s list.

The idea for the Accessible Games Initiative “was first developed by Electronic Arts, Google, Microsoft, Nintendo of America, Sony Interactive Entertainment and Ubisoft,” according to the ESA, and new companies have joined in time for launch, like “Amazon Games, Riot Games, Square Enix and Warner Bros. Games.” 

Offering some kind of standardized way to know what accessibility features a game has is desperately needed. While developers have gotten better at offering accessibility features in their games by default, players interested in a specific feature have mostly had to rely on third-party resources like Can I Play That? to figure out how well they’ve been interpreted and implemented. These tags should start to fix that. 

The only open question is when they’ll be adopted. The ESA told The Verge that “the timeline for implementation of the tags is company-dependent,” meaning there could be a wait ahead for players hoping to take advantage of the Accessible Games Initiative’s work.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/game-companies-will-standardize-accessibility-labels-on-storefronts-and-product-pages-211335539.html?src=rss

On May 9, AMC Theatres will start showing a sci-fi movie that was shot in Swedish but will look like it was made in English instead. Watch the Skies, which was released in its home country as UFO Sweden, had undergone “visual dubbing” with the help of artificial intelligence. An AI company called Flawless used its technology to digitally alter the film’s images, making the actors look like they were truly speaking in English. Notably, the original actors recorded their own dialogues in English in a sound booth — Flawless AI’s technology merely altered the movements of their lips in the movie. 

On its website, Flawless says its TrueSync AI technology “captures every nuance of an actor’s performance and generates new lip movements that perfectly map to the new language audio, providing the perfect visual dub.” Variety says the tool is compliant with the rules set by SAG-AFTRA, which ended a four-month strike in 2023 after securing a deal with studios that protects members “from the threat of AI.”

Flawless AI’s technology could lower the barrier of entry into foreign films. It could make them more appealing to audiences resistant to watching subtitled movies and could provide a better experience for audiences in countries that normally dub movies in their native language. “Showing our materials to filmmakers, especially over the past year, they realize the potential from going to a local stage to a global stage,” the company’s co-founder, Scott Mann, told Variety. “It’s a huge opportunity to get your work out and it’s been invigorating. They are so excited about showing their work in a wider audience, and especially in America.”

Watch the Skies revolves around a teenager who believes that her missing father wasn’t dead but was abducted by aliens. To uncover the truth about her father’s disappearance, she teams up with UFO Club to look for him. AMC Theatres has committed to showing the film in 100 locations across America. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/amc-theatres-will-screen-a-swedish-movie-visually-dubbed-with-the-help-of-ai-130022232.html?src=rss

After a season that resolved a few key mysteries but still perplexed fans and raised the personal stakes for everyone’s favorite macrodata refiners, it’s not a huge shock that Apple has renewed one of its most successful shows. Just as the second season finale hit Apple TV+, the company confirmed Severance will be returning for a third season.

The company says Severance became the most-watched show on its streaming service during the second season. The sci-fi thriller took the crown from Ted Lasso, which Apple also recently renewed.

All going well, the wait shouldn’t be quite as long between seasons of Severance this time around. Fans had to remain patient for three years for the second season, in large part because of filming delays due to writers’ and actors’ strikes in 2023.

This week, The Information reported that Apple slashed its initial content budget for Apple TV+ by 10 percent from $5 billion to help reign in costs. The company is said to be losing over $1 billion per year on Apple TV+ — purportedly making it the only Apple subscription service that isn’t turning a profit despite reaching 45 million subscribers last year. Still, the company is evidently willing to keep supporting expensive projects like Severance if they keep performing well.

There’s no release window for season three of Severance as yet. In the meantime, I’ll be pretending I’m an innie so I can hopefully forget any spoilers I see until I have a chance to watch the season two finale.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/apple-greenlights-severance-season-three-140954214.html?src=rss