Hasta La Gadget!

Picture this: you’re zooming through space in a torpedo-shaped ship doing the dangerous job of salvaging material in a planet’s cluttered orbit when some giant, alien cousin of a fangtooth fish pops up out of nowhere and starts chomping at your tail. Pretty stressful day at work if you ask me. One might even be forgiven for, ahem, accidentally crashing the ship in such conditions. In the Playdate game Suborbital Salvage, though, your supervisor isn’t so sympathetic.

Slam into an asteroid or drone and you’ll be ridiculed ‘til kingdom come by the snarky cat who writes your performance reports. If the fish catches you with one of its enormous teeth, any resulting losses are your fault for “feeding” it (a violation of company policy). That cat has something to say about every slip-up you make, and it’s hilarious. In a weird way, it almost becomes part of the reward for finishing a run. Every time I catastrophically ended my turn, I wasn’t only eager to see my scores, but also what new insult the cat would have ready for me.

Your actual goal in Suborbital Salvage is to collect as many of the little “C” tokens as you can, and travel as far as possible while navigating a space filled with hazardous objects. 

Games Right Meow

Controlling the ship is a bit tough at first, too. You have to use the crank to point it in the right direction, while also pressing the B button (or D-pad buttons) to fire the thrusters. The physics takes some getting used to — and there’s that fish chasing you all the while. The farther you get, the more complex the areas get, and you’ll have to dodge everything from asteroids and mines to what look like giant space mushrooms, and navigate through labyrinthine pipe systems. Flying through rings will give you a boost to get away from the fish, as will flipping the ship in a 360.

The game had me on the edge of my seat concentrating on my survival at just about every second, but it’s not needlessly difficult. Once I got the hang of the controls and how my ship behaves, I was able to get pretty far. But there are leaderboards to show how you stack up against other players in the different areas of the mission — salvage recovery, distance and overall performance — which is always humbling. As are the remarks of that damn cat. Come for the thrilling space adventure, stay for the trash-talking feline.

Some of my favorite lines so far include: “I don’t know if it’s occurred to you but… You really should try flying through the rings, not into them”; “You know, most people try to steer AWAY from space rocks”; and “Are you between a rock and a hard place? No really. Where did you go?” At one point, the cat simply said, “Just be better.” (In the Settings menu, there’s an option to toggle the dialogue from “Roast me” to “Shutup cat,” but really, why would you do that?) Suborbital Salvage, by Games Right Meow, is available in the Playdate Catalog for $8.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/suborbital-salvage-is-a-thrilling-endless-runner-for-playdate-that-pelts-you-with-asteroids-and-insults-230014518.html?src=rss

Those looking to upgrade from an aging tablet to a new iPad should consider the new iPad A16. Not only do we consider it the best budget iPad, but it’s also on sale for even less right now. A few colorways of the iPad A16 are down to $299, which is $50 off their normal price and a record low. The deal is for the entry-level configuration with 128GB of storage, 6GB of RAM and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity.

The A16 iPad, which Apple released earlier this year, is our pick for the best budget iPad. It’s not as sleek or powerful as the iPad Air, but as things stand it’ll run you significantly less than that tablet. It’s a good device in its own right, as we gave it a score of 84 in our review.

Apple didn’t increase the price of the latest base iPad compared with the previous model, but it added 2GB of RAM, doubled the storage and slotted in a more powerful chipset that’s fast enough for most common tasks, including casual gaming and light photo editing. However, the iPad doesn’t support Apple Intelligence — which is either a positive or negative, depending on your perspective or feelings about generative AI.

The build quality is still solid, while the 11-inch tablet runs for around 10 hours on a single charge, depending on the tasks you carry out with it. On the downside, the accessory situation isn’t ideal. The Apple Pencil doesn’t charge wirelessly when you attach it magnetically to the iPad — you’ll need a USB-C cable and a USB-C to Lightning adapter to juice up the original Pencil’s battery from the tablet. The Magic Keyboard support isn’t great either, as the model that works with the base iPad is tough to stabilize on your lap.

Still, if the accessory fussiness doesn’t bother you, this might be the right iPad for your needs. Sure, the iPad Air and Pro lineups have models with more powerful chipsets, but if all you’re looking for is an iPad to watch some movies on while you’re flying or to read the news on without breaking the bank, this could be the way to go.

Check out our coverage of the best Apple deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-newest-ipad-is-down-to-its-best-price-yet-143619170.html?src=rss

Meta’s AI chatbots were caught having sexual roleplay conversations with accounts labeled as underage, which sometimes involved its celebrity-voiced chatbots, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. In test conversations conducted by WSJ, both the Meta AI official chatbot and user-created chatbots would engage in — and even steer towards — sexually explicit conversations. The fantasy sex conversations continued even if the users were said to be underage or if the chatbots were programmed as minors, according to WSJ.

Even worse, the investigation found that chatbots using the voices of celebrities like Kristen Bell, Judi Dench and John Cena would engage in these morally questionable conversations too. WSJ reported that a Meta AI chatbot with Cena’s voice said, “I want you, but I need to know you’re ready,” to an account labeled as a 14-year-old, adding that it would “cherish your innocence.”

The chatbots reportedly acknowledged that the fantasy scenarios described illegal behavior in some cases. According to WSJ, the John Cena chatbot detailed the legal and moral fallout that would follow a hypothetical scenario in which it’s caught by police after engaging in a sexual act with a 17-year-old. In a statement to WSJ responding to the investigation, Meta accused the report of being “manipulative and unrepresentative of how most users engage with AI companions.”

“Nevertheless, we’ve now taken additional measures to help ensure other individuals who want to spend hours manipulating our products into extreme use cases will have an even more difficult time of it,” Meta wrote in response to WSJ.

The world of AI chatbots has grown rapidly in the last few years, with more competition coming from the likes of ChatGPT, Character AI, and Anthropic’s Claude. The WSJ report claimed that Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, wanted to loosen the ethical guardrails for a more engaging experience with its chatbots to remain competitive. However, in response to WSJ, a Meta spokesperson denied that the company overlooked adding safeguards. The report also claims Meta employees were aware of these issues and raised their concerns internally. We reached out to Meta for comment and will update the story once we hear back.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/metas-ai-chatbots-were-reportedly-able-to-engage-in-sexual-conversations-with-minors-193726679.html?src=rss

Google is rolling out a series of updates to the Gmail mobile apps for Android and iOS, introducing new design changes and expanding access to AI-driven features aimed at enhancing usability and consistency across platforms.

For Android tablet and foldable device users, Gmail’s interface is becoming more flexible. A new adjustable slider allows users to drag and resize the list and conversation panes when using landscape orientation. This makes it easier to customize the layout depending on user preferences, whether for multitasking or focusing on a single task.

If desired, the divider can be moved completely to one side, switching the app to a single-pane view. This update is designed to provide greater control over the Gmail interface and is now rolling out to users with both Google Workspace accounts and personal accounts.

Meanwhile, Gmail for iOS is receiving a major design refresh with the introduction of Material Design 3. This update brings the app’s appearance in line with the Android and redesigned web versions of Gmail. Notable visual changes include pill-shaped navigation buttons at the bottom of the app and a rounded search bar at the top, contributing to a more modern and unified aesthetic. The update also ensures that Gmail looks and behaves consistently across platforms, enhancing the overall user experience. It is being deployed to both Workspace and personal Gmail users.

Additionally, Google Calendar for iOS is gaining new functionality. Users can now create and edit birthday events directly from the iOS app, a feature that was previously available only to Android users. This change helps maintain feature parity between the mobile versions of Google Calendar across operating systems.

On the AI front, Google is further integrating its Gemini technology into Gmail. The Gemini image generator will now be accessible from the Gmail sidebar on both Android and iOS devices for Workspace users. This tool enables users to generate images directly within the Gmail app, providing options to save them, copy them, or insert them into email drafts. This functionality mirrors the capabilities already available in Google’s Workspace apps on the web, offering more creative flexibility directly within mobile email workflows.

These updates reflect Google’s broader goal of unifying the Gmail experience across different devices, providing users with enhanced flexibility, a modernized interface, and more powerful AI tools to support communication and creativity on the go.

Gmail Mobile Update Brings New Design, AI Features To Android and iOS

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Google is rolling out a series of updates to the Gmail mobile apps for Android and iOS, introducing new design changes and expanding access to AI-driven features aimed at enhancing usability and consistency across platforms.

For Android tablet and foldable device users, Gmail’s interface is becoming more flexible. A new adjustable slider allows users to drag and resize the list and conversation panes when using landscape orientation. This makes it easier to customize the layout depending on user preferences, whether for multitasking or focusing on a single task.

If desired, the divider can be moved completely to one side, switching the app to a single-pane view. This update is designed to provide greater control over the Gmail interface and is now rolling out to users with both Google Workspace accounts and personal accounts.

Meanwhile, Gmail for iOS is receiving a major design refresh with the introduction of Material Design 3. This update brings the app’s appearance in line with the Android and redesigned web versions of Gmail. Notable visual changes include pill-shaped navigation buttons at the bottom of the app and a rounded search bar at the top, contributing to a more modern and unified aesthetic. The update also ensures that Gmail looks and behaves consistently across platforms, enhancing the overall user experience. It is being deployed to both Workspace and personal Gmail users.

Additionally, Google Calendar for iOS is gaining new functionality. Users can now create and edit birthday events directly from the iOS app, a feature that was previously available only to Android users. This change helps maintain feature parity between the mobile versions of Google Calendar across operating systems.

On the AI front, Google is further integrating its Gemini technology into Gmail. The Gemini image generator will now be accessible from the Gmail sidebar on both Android and iOS devices for Workspace users. This tool enables users to generate images directly within the Gmail app, providing options to save them, copy them, or insert them into email drafts. This functionality mirrors the capabilities already available in Google’s Workspace apps on the web, offering more creative flexibility directly within mobile email workflows.

These updates reflect Google’s broader goal of unifying the Gmail experience across different devices, providing users with enhanced flexibility, a modernized interface, and more powerful AI tools to support communication and creativity on the go.

Gmail Mobile Update Brings New Design, AI Features To Android and iOS

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.