Online multiplayer has become part and parcel with many video games these days, but finding something you can play on the couch with a loved one has gotten tougher. If you’re looking for some cooperative fun, though, we can help. Below are 25 of the be…
Amazon sale knocks up to $270 off Roborock robot vacuums
If you want more than just a robot vacuum, Roborock’s models provide not just exceptional sucking power but mopping functions as well. Now, you can grab some of the company’s best models at steep discounts thanks to Amazon’s latest sale. Some of the be…
The Morning After: Elon Musk says he’ll step down as Twitter CEO
Twitter news whiplash continues. Elon Musk has said he’ll step down as CEO of Twitter once he’s found a suitable replacement. You might remember Musk ran a poll at the weekend asking if he should leave the role, and the Twitter-using public overwhelmingly told him, well, yes. There was no immediate response to the results of the poll, but by late Tuesday, after suggesting he might change it so only paying users could vote, he seems to be acting on the result. According to his tweet, Musk plans to stay on and run the software and server teams.
The job as Twitter CEO will be viewed by many as a poisoned chalice. Roughly 70 percent of the staff have either been laid off or quit, hate speech and trolls have thrived and many advertisers have dropped or reduced their advertising spending. On top of all that, the company is also now facing increasing pressure from the US government.
– 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.
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Lenovo’s Swiss Army lamp kicks off the weird gadgets of CES 2023
A 4K webcam, wireless Qi charging pad and multiple USB-C ports for $329.
Lenovo
Lenovo’s Go Desk Station with Webcam is for those of us with limited desk space. It’s a webcam, adjustable desk light, Qi wireless charger and expansion hub all in one, and it doesn’t compromise on any of those things. But it is priced accordingly. The primary feature is the Lenovo Go 4K Pro Webcam, which is also available as a standalone camera. It can stream 4K at up to 30 fps and includes autofocus and auto-framing with an adjustable field of view, along with auto ambient light adjustment, via the built-in desk light. That desk light rides on a height-adjustable and rotating arm.
The hub has a full-function 65-watt USB-C port for laptop power, to start with. It also has a 15-watt Qi compliant charging pad for mobile devices, a 20W USB Type-C port, two USB Type-A 3.1 ports and an HDMI 2.0 output for external displays. This beastly peripheral arrives in March 2023, starting at $329.
‘Sifu’ is getting an arena mode
And heading to Xbox and Steam in March 2023.
Sifu’s long-awaited Arenas challenge mode will arrive next March. Developer Sloclap made the announcement through IGN, which shared a trailer for the upcoming DLC. The studio first teased the mode last April when it published a free content roadmap for Sifu. Sloclap told IGN: “Completing the new Arenas challenges will also unlock new cheats and exclusive new outfits.” The Arenas mode update will coincide with the game’s release on Xbox and Steam.
NASA’s InSight lander says goodbye from Mars
“This may be the last image I can send,” the InSight Twitter account said.
NASA
This is likely the final photo NASA’s Mars InSight lander will ever send back to Earth. Since landing on the planet in November 2018, the robot has been snapping pics and gathering data about the Martian environment, accumulating dust on its solar panels that entire time. As NASA predicted earlier this year, the layer of debris has finally become too thick for the solar panels to operate. The InSight Twitter account officially said goodbye on December 19th with a final image from the surface of Mars.
“My power’s really low, so this may be the last image I can send,” the tweet reads. “Don’t worry about me though: My time here has been both productive and serene. If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will – but I’ll be signing off here soon. Thanks for staying with me.”
How Meta flunked its first year as a metaverse company
Meta finishes in a much worse place than it started.
This time last year, the company once known as Facebook had finished rebranding as Meta, with Mark Zuckerberg explaining: “From now on, we’re going to be metaverse-first, not Facebook first.”
The company has lost billions of dollars on Reality Labs, the division overseeing its metaverse work. Its stock has cratered. The company has, for the first time, shed thousands of employees in mass layoffs. Perhaps most crucially, given its new goals, Meta hasn’t articulated what the metaverse is or effectively made the case for why we should care. Karissa Bell breaks down Meta’s first year.
Lionel Messi’s World Cup celebration is now the most-liked post on Instagram
The legendary footballer took the record away from a photo of an egg.
Hannah Mckay / reuters
Soccer legend Lionel Messi posted a slideshow of him and his Argentinian teammates celebrating after winning the World Cup and, at the time of writing, the post has more than 68.7 million likes, breaking the record for the most-liked post on Instagram. The previous record-holder, a stock photo of an egg, claimed the top spot in early 2019 and currently has north of 57.3 million likes.
The best Xbox games for 2023
A series of missteps put Microsoft in second place before the Xbox One even came out. With the launch of the Xbox Series X and S, though, Microsoft is in a great position to compete. Both are well-priced, well-specced consoles with a huge library of ga…
Lenovo’s IdeaPad Flex 3i Chromebook offers a larger display and optional 1080p webcam
Lenovo has launched the IdeaPad Flex 3i 2-in-1 Chromebook with improved features over last year’s Flex 3i Chromebook, along with a higher price tag. The 16:10 12.2-inch display is an inch larger than before, and it can be used as a laptop, tablet or ma…
A fan reverse-engineered 1995’s ‘Star Wars: Dark Forces’ to make it easier to play on modern systems
By modern standards, 1995’s Dark Forces doesn’t look like much, but it’s rightfully considered one of the more important Star Wars games ever released. Not only did it introduce important technical innovations to the first-person shooter genre, but it …
The best Nintendo Switch games for 2023
Just five years ago, Nintendo was at a crossroads. The Wii U was languishing well in third place in the console wars and, after considerable pressure, the company was making its first tentative steps into mobile gaming with Miitomo and Super Mario Run….
What we bought: Our favorite gadgets of 2022
While plenty of gadgets cross our desks, we at Engadget also end up buying a lot of things for ourselves throughout the year. In 2022, some of us upgraded our TVs while others invested in new cookware and deskaccessories that upped our productivity. Bu…
OnePlus 11 5G and Buds Pro 2 event set for February 7th
OnePlus has revealed when it will formally show off its flagship products for 2023. The Cloud 11 event will take place in New Delhi, India, on February 7th. The company will showcase the OnePlus 11 5G, OnePlus Buds Pro 2 and more.
Along with revealing the event date, OnePlus said it would bring a couple of fan-favorite features back for its next flagship smartphone. The OnePlus 11 will once again feature the company’s Alert Slider, which offers an easy way to shift between silent, vibrate and alert modes. You can expect Hasselblad tuning for the camera system as well. Both features were available on the OnePlus Pro 10, but neither were present on the more budget-friendly 10T.
As for the OnePlus Buds Pro 2, the company said they’ll offer “a full-bodied, stereo-quality audio experience with crystal clarity.” OnePlus said it will have more to reveal beyond the smartphone and earbuds.
OnePlus, which recently promised four years of major OS updates for some of its 2023 phones, will be looking to make a splash with its next batch of flagship devices. Although the company’s original ethos was to build competitive smartphones it could sell at a lower price than market leaders, it has edged further into the premium category since then. The OnePlus 10 Pro, for instance, cost $899.
The brand has scheduled the event during a relatively busy time of the year. While CES will be over and done with a few weeks beforehand, OnePlus will debut the flagship products right around the time Samsung is expected to show off the Galaxy S23 lineup. Despite major recent changes for the brand, OnePlus may once again get lost in the shuffle.
California invests $2.6 billion to build 90,000 EV chargers
The California Energy Commission (CEC) will spend $2.9 billion to accelerate the state’s zero-emission transportation strategy. In an announcement spotted by Reuters, the agency detailed an investment plan it estimated would result in California buildi…