Gadgets, Game & Mobile News

Compression socks aren't just for nurses and athletes -- they're helpful for anyone who sits or stands for a long time. We tested over 15 brands to find the best picks.

The last supermoon of 2023 is one of the most well-known full moons of the year, helping anyone in the northern hemisphere say goodbye to summer.

The partnership is the latest way the retail giant is investing in AI.

Your options for home internet service in Nebraska will depend on where you live. Here’s a look at the best internet providers to serve the Cornhusker State.

Fiber internet is the best connection type, and these are the top fiber internet providers. The best of the best.

Bought a mattress from Costco recently? Check the law tag to ensure you aren't sleeping on a recalled mattress.

Getty is officially getting into the AI image business, after banning AI art a year ago. The company's generative AI tool is particularly unique because it's trained on Getty's own database of images, and the resulting content also comes with a royalty-free license. That means you won't have to worry about potential copyright issues down the line. 

While Getty has seemingly been on an anti-AI bent — it's also suing Stable Diffusion maker Stability AI over scraping its data — it's no surprise the company has figured out a way to get into the market. Competing photography services have already announced their own AI solutions: Shutterstock is tapping into Open AI's DALL-E model, while Adobe's Stock is relying on its own Firefly tool as well as accepting some AI generated art.

Getty's Generative AI tool is powered by NVIDIA's Edify AI model from its Picasso cloud service. It'll be interesting to see how those results compare against the improved DALL-E 3 model, but for now it's basically just a way for Getty to dip a toe into the world of AI. As part of this new endeavor, Getty is also launching a "contributor compensation model for AI licensing," Gizmodo reports. Creators will be paid based on the amount of images they've uploaded, together with their existing licensing earnings.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/getty-is-going-to-offer-ai-generated-images-after-all-140138829.html?src=rss

The new feature turns voicemails into a kind of text-based answering machine you can read in real time.

Grassroots organizations like NYC Mesh want to close the digital divide, one rooftop at a time.

Last year, DJI showed what was possible in a small drone with the Mini 3 Pro by fitting tons of technology and a high-quality camera into a sub-250 gram drone. Following that up was never going to be easy, but now (after numerous leaks) it’s unveiled the Mini 4 Pro with a long list of new features.

Aside from one improvement, the camera is largely the same. However, it has new omnidirectional obstacle sensors that eliminate the blind spots on the Mini 3 Pro. It also comes with a new feature called ActiveTrack 360 that lets you program camera moves when tracking a subject.

Small drones are the best way to track fast-paced action, as they’re maneuverable and less prone to damage when crashing. With all the improvements, the Mini 4 Pro is better and safer at that than its predecessor — at least on paper. Now, let’s find out if it lives up to that in the real world.

Design

The Mini 4 Pro is still under 250 grams so it can be flown without a license or registration in many regions, but it has subtle design changes all around. The four forward- and rear-facing sensors are now placed so that they can see to the sides as well, and the body is a bit more streamlined. It has larger cooling vents, slightly smaller rear arms and new landing feet at the front. The camera/gimbal shield is smaller and easier to put on, and it has a new guard that protects the propellers when it’s stored.

As before, the gimbal tilts up 60 degrees and down 90, and the camera flips 90 degrees to give you full vertical resolution for social media. At the rear is a microSD port, and the Mini 4 Pro has 2GB of internal storage for emergencies.

The Mini 4 Pro comes with one of two controllers, the basic RC-N2 that requires a smartphone, and the RC2 with a built-in screen. Since it uses DJI’s new Ocusync 4 transmission, first introduced with the Air 3, it only works with the new controllers and not the older models — for now, anyway.

You can buy it with a $55 ND filter set for sunny days, which I’d recommend if you can afford it. DJI also offers a wide-angle 18mm equivalent lens attachment ($40), but it has significant barrel distortion and can cause focus issues.

The drone also supports DJI’s Lightcut, an editing app that lets you generate quick videos for social media. As DJI says, it allows “one tap generation of captivating videos by merging ActiveTrack, MasterShots, and QuickShots footage,” while automating sound effects and more. It also works wirelessly, so there’s no need to download footage to your smartphone.

Performance

Given its small size and maneuverability (and the same sensor as DJI's Action 4), you can think of the Mini 4 Pro as a flying action camera. The light weight (and low price compared to, say, a Mavic 3 Pro) also makes crashes less consequential.

Maximum speed is a decently fast 35 MPH in sport mode, or 26 MPH in regular operation. It can handle winds up to 24 MPH, an impressive figure for a sub 250 gram drone. In operation, it can look like it’s being buffeted fairly hard by the wind, but you wouldn’t know it from the footage thanks to DJI’s gimbal and stabilization technology.

Steve Dent for Engadget

The Mini 3 Pro was effectively blind on the sides, but the Mini 4 Pro offers protection all around like the Mavic 3 Pro and Air 3 — thanks to four new omnidirectional sensors on top and two on bottom (along with a time-of-flight sensor). It also uses DJI’s APAS, which offers automatic braking and obstacle bypass for extra security.

If you’re spending $760+ on a drone, you may not want to test the obstacle detection limits. That's my job, so working with my drone pilot friend, I had it follow me while I walked and biked among trees and other potential snags. I did have a few crashes, but here’s what I learned on how to avoid them.

The sensors are visual, so they don’t work in dim light. And dense forest with fine branches is a no go — the omni sensors can miss those, but the propellers won’t. Finally, the Mini 4 Pro detects obstacles best when traveling forward, less so when going sideways, and worst of all when flying backwards.

It did work around well-spaced trees with thick branches and plenty of leaves, near buildings and generally around well-defined obstacles. It was able to maneuver around those, choose decent routes and reacquire subjects if they disappeared. That helped me capture some nice action footage, though one should always remain wary of accidents.

Steve Dent for Engadget

ActiveTrack 360 adds camera moves to the usual subject tracking to create dramatic shots. It looks confusing at first, but the idea is pretty simple. You use the so-called steering wheel to “draw” a route on concentric circles, and the drone will follow it, ducking any obstacles it encounters.

You can change parameters including the inner and outer radius, inner and outer height, camera speed and ground proximity. That makes it possible to get a wide variety of shots. The tricky part was figuring out which side the drone considered to be forward and backward — DJI should work on this to make things clearer.

If you plan carefully you can get some gorgeous, swooping ActiveTrack shots. The usual obstacle caveats apply, though, and it also adds complexity — because you have to figure out where the drone is going to be when you arrive at your end point. With all that, it’s best to practice in an open area before trying it in a complex environment.

Of course, the Mini 4 Pro still has DJI’s automatic modes aimed at social media users, like MasterShots, QuickShots and Panorama along with Hyperlapse. It even includes the Waypoint feature from the Mavic 3 Pro, which lets you pre-program complex drone moves and repeat them — a sophisticated feature for a small drone.

Steve Dent for Engadget

For the latter feature, you launch the drone and select the Waypoint function, fly to a spot of interest and set the correct camera angle. Once there, you tap “+” on the screen (or hit the C1 button the RC2 remote) to program a waypoint. Repeat that process through all your points of interest, and once you’re done, you can play back the sequence. The drone will smoothly fly to each point the same way each time, so you use it to show a scene during the day and then later at night, for instance.

The Mini 4 Pro uses Ocusync 4 transmission first seen on the Air 3 that sends 1080/60p video up to 20 km, compared to 1080/30p over 12 km with Ocusync 3. Those distances are lower here in Europe because of transmitter power rules.

In use, it provides a noticeable improvement in connectivity, with fewer dropouts and much greater range — even if the drone goes behind obstacles. The change is very noticeable here in Europe with smoother video and dropouts now very rare. It should be even better in the US, where you could send the Mini 4 Pro on a pretty long trip.

Steve Dent for Engadget

The standard 2,590 mAh Intelligent Flight Battery has a bit more capacity than the Mini 3 Pro’s 2,453 mAh cell, but range remains the same at 34 minutes. In real-world flying, we saw about 25 minutes before hearing the return-to-home warning, so plan accordingly.

If you have a Mini 3 Pro, its cells appear to be compatible with the new drone, so that’s a good thing if you already own that model. In the US, you can get the Plus batteries that provide up to 45 minutes of range, but local rules block their use in Europe.

The RC-2 first seen on the Air 3 is DJI’s third screen controller after the RC and the RC Pro. It’s significantly better than the RC, with a brighter screen, better feel and more precise controls. The other option is the non-screen RC-N2 (requiring a smartphone), which is similar to the RC-N1 model but with O4 compatibility.

CameraSteve Dent for Engadget

The Mini 4 Pro’s camera has the same 1/1.3 dual ISO sensor as its predecessor, using an identical 24mm equivalent lens with a fixed f/1.7 aperture. That’s a pretty sizable sensor for such a small drone, just a bit smaller than the 1-inch sensor on the Mavic Air 2S.

The difference is that it now supports 4K slow-mo at up to 100 fps, or 1080p at 200 fps. The motion is embeded 30fps, but it’s still a nice feature for wildlife, crashing waves and more. That’s on top of 4K at up to 60fps and 1080p at 120fps. It has a two times digital zoom for 4K and four times at 1080p, with a slight loss in sharpness.

There’s also support for DJI’s D-LogM, which boosts dynamic range and gives you more flexibility in post. DJI has a LUT that makes it easy to convert it to regular video — but some editing is required for best results. You can also shoot in DJI’s HLG mode, which again boosts dynamic range. You can see the results right away on an HDR TV, but you’ll need to do an HLG to REC.709 color-space transform to use it with regular video. Both support 10-bit 4:2:0 capture for improved fidelity and reduced banding.

Quality is about the same as a really good smartphone — but not on par with a mirrorless camera or DJI’s pro-level Mavic 3. Video is sharp with accurate colors. The automatic mode delivers nice video, though it sometimes over- and underexposes on sunny or dark days. You can change exposure compensation, but nothing else. Luckily, a fully manual pro mode is available for better control of color balance, LOG, HLG, shutter, ISO and more

The Mini 4 Pro can shoot sharp 48-megapixel images or combine four pixels into one for 12-megapixel images with improved night sensitivity. You can easily fix over- or under-exposed photos if you use the RAW DNG format.

Low-light sensitivity is good but not great —- better than, say, a GoPro 12. Shooting at twilight, video was less clear than a similar scene shot with the Mavic 3 Pro. The drone also offers a “night” mode that effectively boosts dynamic range, making dimly-lit scenes pop better.

In all, image quality isn’t perfect, but remember that this is a $1,000 lightweight drone. It beats all other models in that category, and it’s better than many heavier drones, too.

Wrap-upSteve Dent for Engadget

Once again, DJI’s Mini 4 Pro sets a benchmark for small drones. It has multiple new useful features, including updated obstacle detection, ActiveTrack 360, O4 transmission and Waypoints. All of those make it a solid budget choice for action sports, events, aerial photography, industrial applications and more.

Its main competition is the Autel Evo Nano Plus, currently on sale for $580. That model has a similar 50-megapixel 1/1.27-inch camera sensor, three-way obstacle avoidance, subject tracking, and more. However, it’s limited to 4K 30p and doesn’t offer a remote with a screen. If you have a bit more to spend, DJI’s Air 3 offers more stability and an extra tele camera.

All that said, the Mini 4 Pro isn’t cheap for a budget drone. It’s priced at $759 for the drone with a battery and RC-N2 controller, $959 with the RC2 controller and $1,099 for the Fly More kit with three batteries and a charger, the RC2, a carrying case and extra props. Still, if you’re in the market for a drone in that price range, nothing else can really touch it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/dji-mini-4-pro-review-the-best-lightweight-drone-gains-more-power-and-smarts-130012755.html?src=rss

Several benchmark refinance rates ticked up this week. If you're in the market for a refi, now's a good time to assess your options.

Commentary: Apple's software updates usually add to what you already do, but the new watch update moves the controls without a way to swap them back.

This week, some key mortgage rates ticked up. If you're in the market for a mortgage, see how your payments might be affected by inflation.

Hey, big spender. Tinder Select, the dating app’s most exclusive tier, is rolling out now. It will cost love seekers $500 per month (or $6,000 annually — no bulk discounts) for features like exclusive search and matching.

The company has only offered Tinder Select to the less than one percent of users it considers “extremely active” — does anyone want that label? Tinder told Bloomberg it’ll open applications for Tinder Select on a rolling basis, but it didn’t say exactly when. Tinder’s exclusive membership was originally hinted at all the way back in 2019.

The owners of Tinder, Match Group, have dabbled in exclusive dating apps before, like The League, which it bought in 2022, so it’s not too much of a shock to see Tinder also get reframed for the lonely rich. Is this worse than paying for verification when you have less than 1,000 followers on other social media networks? Yes. Yes, it is.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

What the Elon Musk biography revealed about his tumultuous Twitter takeover

Drop BMR1 PC speaker review: Not bad, but not amazing

The best October Amazon Prime Day early access deals for 2023

Hitting the Books: Beware the Tech Bro who comes bearing gifts

The Morning After: Microsoft’s bad week, and Alexa gets an attitudeLast week’s biggest news meets Engadget’s lens.

Our short-but-sweet YouTube edition of this week’s news covers includes Microsoft’s rough, rough week, a sassier Alexa from Amazon and whether the iPhone 15 Pro is worth the extra bucks. Also: viewers take umbrage at my ‘fake’ glasses. Which are not fake.

Watch here.

Sony ZV-E1 camera reviewThe best vlogging camera, by a big margin.Engadget

I’ve been waiting for this. Sony fully embraced amateur / semi-pro content creators back in 2020, with the launch of the ZV1 camera. It has since added no less than four models to its ZV lineup, and this is the latest: the 12-megapixel full-frame ZV-E1. It uses the same sensor as the $3,500 A7S III, a video-focused camera — and a low-light marvel. However, the ZV-E1 costs $1,300 less. While Sony has cut some minor corners, it combines outstanding video features and AI tricks, and I might have to start saving for one. 

Check out the full review.

Samsung leaks its next family of smartphones, earbuds and tabletsDon’t get too excited. It’s the Fan Edition ones.Samsung

Eagle-eyed visitors to Samsung’s Argentinian website — I visit it weekly — have spotted something a little unexpected: a product page for new Galaxy Buds FE earbuds, along with images of a Galaxy S23 FE smartphone and Galaxy Tab S9 FE tablet. Samsung’s Fan Edition devices have proven popular, packing in solid features for a more reasonable price than Samsung’s flagship models.

The company hasn’t let slip any specs for the phone and tablet yet. However, there are some details on the Galaxy Buds FE, Samsung’s first Fan Edition earbuds. They’re slated to have a single 12mm driver, three microphones in each earbud to bolster active noise cancellation and a three-way speaker.

Continue reading.

The best foldable phones for 2023Are flip phones back?

Foldables have come a long way since the original Galaxy Fold went on sale back in 2019. They’re smaller, they’re tougher and, while they still aren’t a great option for people on a budget, they’re now more affordable too. (Kind of?) We walk through the crucial specs, durability concerns and our favorite picks.

Continue reading.

The Engadget PodcastiPhone 15 Pro reviews, and Microsoft picks AI over Surface.

This week, Cherlynn chats about her experience reviewing the iPhone 15 Pro and Apple Watch Series 9. Does a 5X camera zoom make much of a difference? Meanwhile, Microsoft is basically consolidating all of the Copilot products it’s already announced for Edge, MS 365 and Windows, but maybe this will be less confusing in the long run?

Continue reading.

Correction, 9/25/23 11:45AM ET: As Tinder Select is invite-only, we've updated the headline to reflect that.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-tinders-500-a-month-tier-is-now-open-to-everyone-who-can-afford-it-111517880.html?src=rss

Amazon is investing up to $4 billion in OpenAI rival Anthropic as a way to provide advanced deep learning and other services to its Amazon Web Service (AWS) customers, the company wrote in a press release. In return, AWS becomes Anthropic's "primary cloud provider" to train and deploy its future foundation models. It's the second large investment in the company, founded by former OpenAI executives, following Google's $400 million partnership with the firm. 

The e-commerce company will start with a $1.25 billion investment to gain a minority stake in Anthropic, with an option to boost that to a total of $4 billion. Along with Google and Amazon, Anthropic also counts Salesforce, Zoom, Spark Capital and others as backers. Notably, Anthropic's deal with Google didn't require it to buy cloud services from the search giant. 

Anthropic recently unveiled its first consumer-facing chatbot Claude 2, accessible by subscription much like OpenAI's ChatGPT. The Claude “Constitutional AI” system is guided by 10 “foundational” principals of fairness and autonomy and is supposed to be harder to trick than other AI. Anthropic is also working on a chatbot it calls "Claude-Next" that's supposed to be ten times more powerful than any current AI, according to TechCrunch. 

The startup touts itself as an advocate for responsible AI deployment, and recently formed an AI safety group with Google, Microsoft and Open AI. It has been with AWS since 2021. "Claude excels at a wide range of tasks, from sophisticated dialogue and creative content generation to complex reasoning and detailed instruction, while maintaining a high degree of reliability and predictability," according to Amazon.  

Instead of training their own models, AWS customers will be able to use Anthropic's AI models via Amazon's Bedrock, a service designed specifically for AI development. Amazon Cloud also offers its own AI applications, and with the new partnership, is hoping to position itself as a key player in the field.

Microsoft-backed OpenAI is largely considered to be the leader in AI and chatbot tech, thanks to its ultra-popular ChatGPT chatbot and DALL-E image generation service. Use of AI in business continues to grow exponentially, despite concerns over the legality and ethics of AI-appropriated content — it was considered to be a strong sticking point in the WGA writer's strike, for example. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazons-invests-4-billion-in-anthropic-openai-rival-095321755.html?src=rss

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx seven-year mission to collect rocks and dust from a near-Earth asteroid is complete. The capsule containing the final samples returned to Earth on the morning of September 24th, touching down in the desert at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range at 10:52 am ET.

The device collected around 250 grams of material from a carbon-rich asteroid dubbed “Bennu,” which NASA says hosts some of the oldest rocks in our solar system. The sample gives scientists more information about the building blocks of what planetary makeup looked like 4.5 billion years ago. 

Because asteroids are considered to be natural “time capsules” — due to how little they change over time – they can offer researchers a window into the chemical composition of our early solar system and determine whether or not Bennu carried the organic molecules that are found in life. Now that samples are in the hands of NASA scientists, the agency says its researchers will catalog the collection and conduct in-depth analysis over the next two years. 

NASA

NASA's mission began all the way back in September 2016, launching from Cape Canaveral in Florida. It took just over a year to perform its flyby of Earth before arriving at the Bennu asteroid 15 months later in December 2018. In October 20, 2022, the explorer successfully captured samples from Bennu and began its journey back to Earth on May 10, 2021. Upon its touchdown on September 24th, The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx's full name) had journeyed 3.9 billion miles.

While NASA’s OSIRIS-REx is not the first attempt a space agency has made to deliver an asteroid sample to Earth, this mission’s rendition has the largest sample size. The Bennu sample is estimated to hold about half a pound of rocky material from the asteroid's surface. In a similar vein, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Hayabusa mission delivered specks from an asteroid called Itokawa and in a secondary mission, brought back about 5 grams from another asteroid coined Ryugu in 2021. Japan’s agency shared 10 percent of their samples with NASA at the time. NASA is expected to share a small percentage of its OSIRIS-REx samples from Bennu with JAXA.

While the sample made landfall, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft remained in space. It has now set off on a new mission to explore another near-Earth asteroid called Apophis, which NASA says is roughly 1,200 feet (roughly 370 meters) in diameter and will come within 20,000 miles of Earth in 2029. 

The new project, dubbed OSIRIS-APophis EXplorer (OSIRIS-APEX), will study changes in the asteroid that experts believed in 2004 had a 2.7 percent chance of hitting Earth. The spacecraft’s gas thrusters will attempt to "dislodge dust and small rocks on and below Apophis’ surface," giving experts data on how asteroid's proximity to Earth affected its orbit, spin rate and surface composition. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasas-osiris-rex-successfully-delivers-asteroid-samples-back-to-earth-091107901.html?src=rss

Following marathon negotiations over the last five days, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and major studios have reached a tentative deal to end a 146-day strike that has shut down much of the industry, Variety has reported. "We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional – with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership," the WGA wrote in an email to members.

Picketing has been suspended as of Sunday night, but the strike is still in force until it's ratified and approved by members. "To be clear, no one is to return to work until specifically authorized to by the Guild. We are still on strike until then," the email stated.

One of the last sticking points was reportedly around the use of generative AI in content production. Other details of the contract have yet to be released, including around streaming residuals, staffing levels for shows and more. "Though we are eager to share the details of what has been achieved with you, we cannot do that until the last ‘i’ is dotted," wrote the WGA.

Things were looking bleak for the industry in mid-September, but some high-profile WGA members reportedly pressured leadership to restart negotiations. In addition, four key AMPTP executives (Bob Iger from Disney, NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley, Ted Sarandos and David Zaslav of Warner Bros. Discovery) participated in negotiations for three days. Bargaining resumed on September 20, and the deal was reached five days later.

Considering the strike length and WGA leadership's high level of praise for the deal, a positive vote from membership seems probable. The guild credited membership's solidarity and its willingness to "endure the pain and uncertainty of the past 146 days" as key to clinching the deal. "It is the leverage generated by your strike, in concert with the extraordinary support of our union siblings, that finally brought the companies back to the table to make a deal," it stated in the message.

The labor strife isn't finished yet, though. The SAG-AFTRA actors' guild is still on strike after hitting picket lines on July 14 over issues like likeness rights. "While we look forward to reviewing the WGA and AMPTP’s tentative agreement, we remain committed to achieving the necessary terms for our members," the union wrote in a statement.

Even after the actors reach their own deal, it will take time for TV series, films, talk shows and other productions to get back up to speed — so expect delays in your favorite shows coming back. The AMPTP has yet to comment on the WGA deal. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-hollywood-writers-strike-may-soon-end-after-tentative-deal-is-struck-082357469.html?src=rss

Find out all the info you need to stream Sunday's 4:25 p.m. ET game on Fox between the Chicago Bears and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Find out all the info you need to stream Sunday's 4:25 p.m. ET game on Fox between the Dallas Cowboys and the Arizona Cardinals

Want to watch the Atlanta Falcons play the Detroit Lions? Here's everything you need to stream Sunday's 1 p.m. ET game on Fox.