Monthly Archives: October 2023

Apple’s ENTIRE October MacBook Event was Shot On the iPhone 15 Pro Max

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The company may have announced new MacBooks and iMacs at its latest event yesterday… but what it secretly was doing all along was creating an advertisement for their smartphones. In a rare video uploaded to Apple’s YouTube channel, the tech giant revealed that their entire October 30th Keynote was filmed on the iPhone 15 Pro. The video lifts the curtain on how Apple pulled it off, while being perhaps the greatest act of ‘putting their money where their mouth is’ in terms of proving the iPhone’s top-notch video capabilities.

While it’s easy to think that the true star of the event was Apple’s new M3 chip, in reality it was the USB-C port on its newest iPhone 15 Pro. Unveiled just fifty days ago, the new iPhone 15 Pro’s USB-C port is capable of 10Gb/s transfer speeds, allowing you to move ProRes videos in a snap, and even connect external storage, 4K displays, microphones, among other accessories to augment the iPhone 15 Pro’s overall output.

The entire event was quite different from any of Apple’s events, and that seems to be by design. For starters, it premiered in the evening (or at night depending on which coast you live on), marking a massive departure from all of Apple’s morning events. We heard Tim Cook say the words “Good Evening” for the first time, but just before, we got a tour of the Apple Park at night. The camera flew in from up above, battling not just the tricky conditions of flight and navigation, but also incredibly low-light videography.  The Apple Park was practically drenched in the Halloween spirit, with bats flying, ominous music, smoky/foggy pathways, and dimly lit scenes…  all of which were captured brilliantly on the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s massive sensor.

The pre-Halloween keynote, the evening announcement, all seemed like a brilliant setup for the fact that Apple was planning on shooting the entire event on its latest phone. Sure, Apple could have had the event during the day and still boasted a “Shot On iPhone” disclaimer… but to shoot the entire thing in low-light – there’s no way Apple could resist that massive a flex. The event was also entirely edited on a Mac, as Apple’s way of showing how powerful the two devices are on their own as well as put together.

Anyone deeply familiar with Apple’s Shot On iPhone campaign knows that there’s more than just an iPhone involved. Those massive billboards with beautifully composed and edited photos look great, but a regular user holding an iPhone in their hand could never pull off the same visual mastery. The words ‘Shot On iPhone’ are often followed by ‘with a lot of expensive accessories’, but not many people know that. For Apple’s keynote, the company is at least a little more forthcoming by showing exactly what their rigs looked like… and no, it isn’t just a dude holding an iPhone in front of Tim Cook.

Verge reports that the entire Scary Fast event setup would have probably cost tens of thousands of dollars. The iPhone itself is mounted on a massive hand-carried rig that stabilizes the footage. For more consistent camera paths, the team used a dolly cam setup with trolleys and rails, and for the aerial shots, the Apple team literally built their own drones that held the iPhone 15 Pro Max. There are expensive microphones, monitors, battery units, lights, and a tonne of other equipment used in the picture. To be fair, Apple would still use all that extraneous equipment with a high-end camera… so just the fact that the iPhone could replace that camera does count for quite a lot.

The entire video dump was easily transferred out of the phone using the USB-C connector. Company 3, an American post-production company that handled the filming of the event, mentioned how buttery smooth the entire process was to shoot 4K ProRes with all those accessories and have all that raw footage simultaneously transferred onto an external hard disk without any hiccups. The A17 Bionic’s heavy lifting would then be complemented by Apple’s M2 chips, which were used by the Macs that edited the footage.

A quick glimpse at the hand-made drone used by Apple’s team to shoot all the aerial shots of the Scary Fast keynote.

This isn’t the first time the iPhone was used to shoot professional content. In 2015, a film named Tangerine was highlighted at the Sundance Film Festival for being shot entirely on iPhones. Notably, Olivia Rodrigo shot one of her music videos on an iPhone too, and Indian film director Vishal Bharadwaj collaborated with Apple to shoot a short film, Fursat, entirely on an iPhone. This is the first time Apple’s taken that plunge, and it seems to have paid off rather well. If only they had migrated to USB-C sooner…

 

The post Apple’s ENTIRE October MacBook Event was Shot On the iPhone 15 Pro Max first appeared on Yanko Design.

Belkin’s Newest 15W 2-in-1 BoostCharge Pro MagSafe Stand Has a Contemporary Look

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The iPhone 15-era refresh of Belkin’s 2-in-1 BoostCharge Pro MagSafe charger stand is arriving next week, and (right off the bat) it’s a smooth, stylish mix of contemporary sand (or charcoal) elements complemented by a sort of organic minimalism. In a departure from previous Belkin MagSafe chargers, this compact silicone charging stand incorporates soft, round shapes on both the charger base as well as a new flip-up 15W MagSafe pad. That means it can fit in any modern space, like a living room or a bedroom with a lot of similar organic elements, like stone walls and wooden furniture.

Designer: Belkin (via Apple)

The flip-up design on the top pad allows the Belkin charger to show off the iPhone 15’s screen while StandBy mode is engaged, turning your new iPhone into a piece of room decor like a stationary clock. That same design even lets you adjust the angle of the top pad between 0 and 70 degrees, and of course, you can rotate your iPhone to lay vertically or horizontally on the pad itself while the phone charges.

You can stick your Apple Watch Series 9 (or any other fast-charging Apple Watch, like the Ultra 2) on the second fast-charging pad behind the base, and together the whole thing ends up looking like a really elegant piece of art, adding ambiance rather than sitting around like a high-tech paperweight. Its non-slip base can also help keep it rooted firmly in place during an event such as an earthquake — or an accidental collision between the BoostCharge Pro and a household pet.

Belkin’s new BoostCharge Pro MagSafe chargers for Apple’s newest lineup of iPhone 15s (though iPhone 14s also work with it!) are officially set to release on November 7, alongside the all-new Apple M3 computers announced on October 30. In the box, you’ll find an included 5 ft USB-C cable and 30W USB-C power supply to plug the charger into. You can currently view the new chargers on Apple’s web store, where their $129.95 MSRP is already displayed. It doesn’t seem like either the charcoal or sand colorways are pre-orderable at the moment, though more retail options will become available — including, presumably, from the Belkin store — once the charger officially releases on November 7.

The post Belkin’s Newest 15W 2-in-1 BoostCharge Pro MagSafe Stand Has a Contemporary Look first appeared on Yanko Design.

Tesla’s Autopilot was not to blame for fatal 2019 Model 3 crash, jury finds

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A California jury has found that Tesla was not at fault for a fatal 2019 crash that allegedly involved its Autopilot system, in the first US trial yet for a case claiming its software directly caused a death. The lawsuit alleged Tesla knowingly shipped out cars with a defective Autopilot system, leading to a crash that killed a Model 3 owner and severely injured two passengers, Reuters reports.

Per the lawsuit, 37-year-old Micah Lee was driving his Tesla Model 3 on a highway outside of Los Angeles at 65 miles per hour when it turned sharply off the road and slammed into a palm tree before catching fire. Lee died in the crash. The company was sued for $400 million plus punitive damages by Lee’s estate and the two surviving victims, including a boy who was 8 years old at the time and was disemboweled in the accident, according to an earlier report from Reuters.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that Tesla sold Lee defective, “experimental” software when he bought a Model 3 in 2019 that was billed to have full self-driving capability. The FSD system was and still is in beta. In his opening statement, their attorney Jonathan Michaels also said that the “excessive steering command is a known issue at Tesla.”

Tesla’s defense argued that there was no such defect, and that an analysis cited by the plaintiffs’ lawyers identifying a steering issue was actually looking for problems that were theoretically possible. A fix to prevent it from ever happening was engineered as a result of that analysis, according to the company. Tesla blamed human error for the crash, pointing to tests that showed Lee had consumed alcohol before getting in the car, and argued that there’s no certainty Autopilot was in use at the time.

The jury ultimately found there was no defect, and Tesla was cleared on Tuesday. Tesla has faced lawsuits over its Autopilot system in the past, but this is the first involving a fatality. It’s scheduled to go on trial for several others in the coming months, and today's ruling is likely to set the tone for those ahead.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/teslas-autopilot-was-not-to-blame-for-fatal-2019-model-3-crash-jury-finds-210643301.html?src=rss

Logitech G Yeti Orb Is a Plug-and-Play LIGHTSYNC-Compatible Condenser Mic

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Adorning your home office/PC gaming setup with Logitech’s lineup of LIGHTSYNC RGB products is an honorable goal on its own. But if you already own a LIGHTSYNC keyboard, mouse, headphones, and computer speakers (to be fair, I really love those G560s!), you’re probably dedicated to the bit by this point. Good news: it’s time to expand your RGB setup yet again. Even if you already have those aforementioned accessories — which work remarkably well together, producing quite the lightshow when synced with in-game visuals via the Logitech G Hub software — you’re still going to need a microphone for your desk. And that’s where Logitech’s newest array of LIGHTSYNC-equipped Yeti microphones comes in.

The Logitech G Yeti Orb — and, separately, the Yeti GX — are Logitech’s newest desktop mics, ditching the old Blue brand in favor of Logitech G. Both use cardioid pickup patterns, which is optimal for recording a single speaker, but the Orb is a condenser mic whereas the GX is a fancier dynamic mic, and the latter is a bit more expensive as a result. That said, it sounds like no matter which of the two you get, Logitech’s newest microphones are gorgeous thanks to their LIGHTSYNC RGB integration, and both are easy to install and set up thanks to their reliance on a single USB-C cable.

Designer: Logitech

The Yeti Orb condenser mic is the lower-priced of the two new Logitech mics, and… it’s quite cute. The rather small, orb-shaped microphone stands upright on its packed-in mini tripod, making it perfect to stick on top of a desk alongside a laptop. The mic design itself is cut in two by a matte ring, which features the RGB-backlit “G” letter candidly positioned on top. According to Logitech, this is a carbon neutral design, made with “a minimum of 74% certified post-consumer recycled plastic by weight.” Moreover, Logitech claims the packaging itself is sustainably sourced from FSC-certified forests.

Several reviews of the Yeti Orb condenser mic indicate the audio quality on it is notably clear for the price, with Tom’s Hardware calling out its budget-friendliness at an MSRP of $59.99. The software itself sounds easy to use, especially if you’re already familiar with Logitech G Hub. All you need to do is plug it in, and then you can get started customizing your lighting and audio preferences. It even comes with several voice presets through the integrated BLUE VO!CE mode, which gives you control over the Yeti Orb’s acoustic calibration — even allowing you to do silly things, like apply special effects to make your voice sound extra deep or ethereal.

The post Logitech G Yeti Orb Is a Plug-and-Play LIGHTSYNC-Compatible Condenser Mic first appeared on Yanko Design.

Atari is buying retro game specialist Digital Eclipse

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Atari has agreed to buy developer Digital Eclipse. The acquisition, which is expected to close in the coming days, will be worth up to $20 million based on the performance of Digital Eclipse over the next decade. Atari says that by bringing Digital Eclipse under its wing, it "will be able to further support its retro-focused growth strategy."

Over the last several years, Digital Eclipse has become well-known for its expertise in remastering older titles and releasing them as collections. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection, Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King and the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection are among its more notable projects. 

Digital Eclipse caught the attention of many last year with Atari 50: The Anniversary Collection. That well-regarded compilation pulled together dozens of games from across Atari's 50-year history and placed them in context with the help of marketing and development documents, archival footage and new interviews with former Atari employees. Digital Eclipse built on the "interactive documentary" format with this year's release of The Making of Karateka.

It plans to continue with this Gold Master Series preservation project under Atari's umbrella. It will still have the ability to work with third-party developers and publishers, and there are several non-Atari projects in the works that it has yet to announce.

Atari seems to be on a mission to become a powerhouse in retro gaming and game preservation. It also bought Nightdive Studios, a developer that specializes in remasters, and AtariAge (a community and news site that focuses on Atari) this year. In addition, Atari has been snapping up many gaming franchises from the 1980s and 1990s.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/atari-is-buying-retro-game-specialist-digital-eclipse-195419696.html?src=rss

This LEGO Snow Globe with the Lo-Fi Girl inside is Peak Holiday Wholesomeness!

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It’s truly amazing what people can do with the right combination of LEGO bricks. From building Bugattis to functioning calendars, the bricks have an unmatched versatility, and just in time for the holidays, LEGO-builder BrickAbe came up with yet another perfect LEGO project – a functioning snow-globe! The cherry on the cake, however, is that this snow globe also features YouTube’s most well-known fictional character, the anime girl from the LoFi Girl YouTube channel, known for her endless streams of great downtempo music.

Designer: BrickAbe

The Lo-Fi Girl Snowglobe is an interactive mechanical toy that features elements of Christmas along with the popular LoFi girl character, seen writing in a notebook with headphones on, with a laptop and a lazy ginger cat becoming a standard fixture in the background. BrickAbe’s globe captures these elements beautifully, turning the album art into a full LEGO-based diorama with a ground and first floor. The first floor becomes LoFi girl’s study, while the ground floor transforms into a living room during Christmas season, complete with gifts, and a decked up Christmas tree that rotates when you crank the lever outside!

The entire construction is incredibly wholesome, capturing the Christmas spirit in a rather adorable way. The diorama sits on a red platform that comes with its own Yuletide motifs, including stockings and presents, while being covered with a clear bell jar that is capped off with a snowflake on top!

“My greatest escape with Lo-Fi Hip Hop comes around the holidays. I feel very relaxed sitting next to a glowing fireplace, under a warm blanket, with Lo-Fi music playing in the background,” BrickAbe mentioned. “The idea for the snow globe came from a drawing I made a while back for #lofigirlchristmas. You can see this drawing displayed right above the fireplace. I created a charming loft apartment inside, decorated with holiday joy and Lofi Girl references!”

The post This LEGO Snow Globe with the Lo-Fi Girl inside is Peak Holiday Wholesomeness! first appeared on Yanko Design.

Target has a one-day early Black Friday deal on the Theragun Mini 2.0 at a record low price

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Therabody’s Theragun Mini 2.0 massage device is on sale as part of Target's Black Friday sale for $170. That’s $30 off the MSRP of $200 and matches a previous record-low for the massage gun, so this early Black Friday deal could be your best chance to snag a muscle-soothing percussive therapy gadget on the cheap.

To that end, the deal’s only accessible today and requires a Target Circle membership. Don’t worry. It’s free to sign up, and once you do you’ll get a coupon code you can clip directly on the product page.

This is the second-generation Theragun Mini, with three massage speeds that offer up to 2,400 percussions per minute. It also ships with a trio of attachments designed for different muscle groups and the Mini boasts a rechargeable battery that gets two hours of use per charge. This massage gun actually made our list of the best fitness devices for college students, but you don’t need your head in a text book to appreciate vibration-based pain relief.

Despite being a smaller and more budget-friendly version of Therabody’s other products, we found that the Mini works nearly as well as its larger counterparts when it comes to easing tight muscles. We appreciated its one-handed design, decreased noise level during use and powerful motor.

This is a battery-powered wireless massage gun that gets around two hours of use per charge. It also connects to a proprietary app via Bluetooth that helps you create custom routines to treat specific ailments. It’s also worth noting that the Mini is also around 30 percent lighter than the company’s other massage guns, which helps with that whole one-handed use aspect. Now you’ll never have to admit weakness by asking someone else to help with muscle tightness.

Target is actually selling a few Therabody products at steep discounts, all of which return to their normal prices once Halloween is over. Beyond the Mini in black or tan, you can snag the company’s eye mask massaging device for 15 percent off.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-theragun-mini-20-drops-to-a-record-low-price-in-early-target-black-friday-deal-183342874.html?src=rss

Surface Laptop Studio 2 review: The ultimate all-rounder

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Even among 2-in-1 PCs, Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio offers a unique blend of performance and adaptability. But now on the second model, thanks to refreshed specs plus the addition of a USB-A port and a microSD card reader, it feels like Microsoft has given its mobile workstation the finishing touches it needed all along, resulting in what may be the ultimate all-rounder. Unfortunately with a high starting price and costly upgrades for more RAM and a discrete GPU, the Surface Laptop Studio 2 is hard to recommend for everyone.

Design: Funky but functional

Francis Bacon once said “There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion,” which is a sentiment that feels applicable to the Surface Laptop Studio 2. It features a minimalist aluminum chassis (instead of the magnesium frame on the previous model) but in a somewhat unconventional configuration. The laptop’s lid is divided into two halves, which allows the screen to pivot 180 degrees or tilt down into an easel. Meanwhile, its base features a two-tiered design that allows the laptop to keep its vents away from the sides of the system while also providing a hidden magnetic charging spot for a Surface Slim Pen 2 (which sadly, is not included).

The two biggest changes to the Studio 2’s design are the addition of the USB-A port and a microSD card slot. When combined with the existing dual USB-C jacks, you get a solid range of connectivity options. It means you can transfer files from a camera directly to the laptop and you’ll rarely (if ever) have to worry about carrying around extra dongles for peripherals. That said, Surface Laptop Studio 2’s slightly thicker chassis (but only by one or two millimeters) and the change to aluminum does mean an extra third of a pound in weight (4.18 pounds with integrated graphics or 4.37 with a discrete GPU).

Display: Vivid from any angle

The Surface Laptop Studio 2’s screen hasn’t changed much from the previous model, but that’s not a bad thing. Its 14.4-inch panel features the same 2,400 x 1,600 resolution, along with a dynamic refresh rate that can switch between 60Hz and 120Hz depending on what you’re looking at. However, brightness is a touch better at around 500 nits, or 650 nits with HDR turned on. And you still get full Windows Inking support with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity.

Performance: More than enough power, but it’ll cost you

The break in the middle of the Surface Laptop Studio 2's lid allows its screen to tilt into several positions.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

For the new model, Microsoft streamlined the Surface Laptop Studio 2’s specs by offering a single processor across every config: an Intel Core i7-13700H. From there you can choose a base model with integrated graphics or upgrade to one with either an RTX 4050 or RTX 4060 GPU. The annoying thing is that, to get that 4060, you also have to get 64GB of RAM, which is overkill for most people. That’s unfortunate because that config costs $3,300. An option with only 32GB of RAM and a lower cost would be appreciated.

That said, it’s hard to complain about its actual performance. The Surface Laptop Studio 2 kept pace with similarly specced gaming laptops including the MSI Stealth 14 Studio and Razer Blade 18 across both benchmarks and real-world tests. While it’s not meant to be a dedicated gaming rig, it also hit 62 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1920 x 1200 with high graphics and ray tracing set to ultra (though that is with NVIDIA’s DLSS turned on).

Battery Life: Surprisingly decent

The two big design changes on the Surface Laptop Studio 2 are the addition of a USB-A port on the left and a microSD card reader on the right.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Even with a discrete GPU, the Surface Laptop Studio 2’s longevity is closer to a standard ultraportable than more short-lived gaming notebooks. On PCMark 10’s OpenOffice battery rundown test, it lasted eight hours and 40 minutes. That’s three hours more than both the MSI Stealth 14 Studio and the Razer Blade 16, which lasted 5:19 and 5:10, respectively. However, more typical ultraportables like ASUS’ Zenbook S 13 fared even better with a time of 10:39.

Wrap-up

The two major knocks against the Surface Laptop Studio 2 are its price and limited configurations that top out with NVIDIA RTX 4060 graphics, which makes it feel more like a great all-rounder than an all-out mobile powerhouse. While there’s no defending its cost, I’m not as bothered by the latter, because there’s a lot of value in a system that offers unmatched adaptability.

The Surface Laptop Studio 2 touchpad comes from Sensel and is the best mousing option on any Windows laptop on sale today.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

With its innovative design, brilliant display, above-average battery life and improved connectivity, the Surface Laptop Studio 2 can handle a lot of different assignments with ease. It’s a great system for editing photos and videos, and stylus support makes drawing or taking notes a delight. When you factor in the excellent keyboard, Windows Hello IR cameras and one of best touchpads on a Windows laptop today (courtesy of Sensel), you get an incredibly versatile mobile workstation. And if we revisit that classic line from Shakespeare, “A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one,” which is precisely what we have here with the Surface Laptop Studio 2. I just wish it was a bit cheaper.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/surface-laptop-studio-2-review-the-ultimate-all-rounder-specs-price-180012173.html?src=rss

Floating architecture designs to light up Copenhagen, Maldives

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Water-based architecture is not about boats, yachts, or ships, or at least not just about them. We’re seeing some designers experiment with bringing all kinds of floating structures that residents and tourists can enjoy while basking in breathtaking views. A Copenhagen-based studio is teaming up with the local municipality to bring these unique concepts to life and show different possibilities for this kind of architecture.

Designer: MAST

The first of three projects is a floating sauna and harbor bath where up to fifteen people will be able to have a relaxing time while looking at an aquatic view. They can even plunge directly into the harbor bath after sweating it up in the sauna. It uses eco-friendly materials like cross-laminated timber and wood fiber insulation. This floating sauna is also “portable” in a sense that it can be moved to different locations through a towboat. There is also a small changing room as well as storage facilities and a wooden deck with access to the harbor bath.

The Harbour Cliff is the first free-floating open bouldering gym in the world where visitors can swim to it and then try the different climbing routes within the structure. There are three slightly inverted ledges to do the different challenges, including a 14.8 foot climb where you need to do a particularly hard jump to be able to reach the final spot. It looks like something straight out of an alien invasion movie and I keep expecting a monster to emerge from the structure.

Lastly, if you don’t want to sweat it out in the sauna or do bouldering, you can head over to the Maldives to visit a floating villa. These villas are anchored in protected lagoon areas and have two bedrooms, bathrooms, a loving room, and even a courtyard garden and a roof terrace. As part of their eco-friendly design, they use solar cells, battery packs, on-board sewage treatment and watermakers.

The post Floating architecture designs to light up Copenhagen, Maldives first appeared on Yanko Design.

The Google Pixel 7a is cheaper than ever at $374 in this early Black Friday deal

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Google’s budget Pixel 7a was already a more affordable alternative to the flagship Pixel, but with a 25 percent discount on Amazon right now, it’s an absolute steal. The Pixel 7a is down to just $374 from its original price of $500. It’s the lowest we’ve seen it drop yet, beating even the October Prime Day price by $25. The discounted Pixel 7a is unlocked for all carriers, and available in the colors Charcoal, Sea and Snow.

While it may not have everything you’d get in a flagship, the Pixel 7a is still a really solid smartphone. It has a smooth 90Hz display and a Tensor G2 chip, plus 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The battery life is great, too. In our review, where it earned a score of 90, we found the Pixel 7a’s 4,385mAh battery kept it going for an impressive 17 hours and 41 minutes. The Pixel 7a is also the first in Google’s A series to support wireless charging. It’s not groundbreaking, capping out at 7.5 watts, but it’s still a nice convenience.

The Pixel 7a holds up in just about every category, and we ranked it as the best midrange Android smartphone in 2023. It boasts a 64MP camera on the back which does a great job of preserving detail, and shots taken in Night Sight mode even beat Samsung's Galaxy S23 when comparing white balance. The selfie camera is crisp as well, and now capable of shooting video in 4K.

Designwise, the 7a looks a lot like the flagship Pixel 7, though it’s slightly bulkier and has plastic backing. It’s got a 6.1 OLED screen and a water resistance rating of IP67. It’ll also get years of updates, with at least three OS upgrades and five years of security updates. There are some things it’s missing, being a budget phone — like a dedicated zoom lens — but at only $374, that may not be a dealbreaker.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-google-pixel-7a-is-cheaper-than-ever-at-374-in-this-early-black-friday-deal-173045009.html?src=rss