Nothing just announced a relatively surprising hardware update for its Phone 2a smartphone. The Phone 2a Plus is a modest upgrade, but still significant, being as how the original 2a was just released back in March.Most notably, the 2a Plus has a faster chip than the OG 2a. The originals Mediatek Dimensity 7200 Pro maxed out with a clock speed of 2.8GHz. The 2a Plus boasts a Mediatek Dimensity 7350 Pro that can hit 3.0GHz. Beyond that, the new model features a slightly quicker wired charging speed, at 50W instead of 45W.NothingThats about it. Every other aspect is nearly identical to the 2a. It has the same camera system, the same battery, the same display and similar aesthetics. This isnt a bad thing. We loved the Phone 2a in our official review, calling it a budget phone that's packed with personality.Now onto the bad news. This phone will technically be available to US customers via the companys beta program, though there are some caveats. American customers can only buy the gray version and not the black one. Even more important, the 2a Plus doesnt offer true 5G connectivity with many of the major US carriers. This includes both AT&T and Verizon.The Nothing Phone 2a Plus costs $400 and that gets you 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. Nothing Beta members will be able to order the phone on August 3. UK residents can scoop it up directly from the company on the same day. Nothing says well have to wait until September to find out more details regarding global availability.NothingThe company also released a few tidbits about the upcoming Nothing OS 2.6. There will be an updated Game Dashboard with new features and the ability to block third-party app notifications.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nothing-just-announced-the-phone-2a-plus-a-minor-refresh-of-a-pre-existing-model-093049030.html?src=rss

The Apple Watch is undoubtedly a statement piece, but just like your iPhone or iPad, you can quite easily (and affordably) jazz it up with some of the best Apple Watch accessories. Whether you choose a fancy new Apple Watch band to add your own personal touch, a case to protect it or a portable charger for added convenience, there are plenty of accessories to choose from. And although Apple does offer a few official accessories, they tend to be on the expensive side. Thankfully there are some great third-party options from reputable brands like Spigen, Anker, and Belkin, to name a few. Check out our favorite accessories for the Apple Watch, and get excited about customizing yours. Best Apple Watch accessories 2024 This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-apple-watch-accessories-133025270.html?src=rss

Our pick for the best budget MacBook is back at its all-time low price. Right now, you can get the 13-inch MacBook Air with an M2 chip for its Prime Day price of $799, down from $999. The deal is available on the 256GB models in Silver, Space Gray or Starlight, but doesn't include AppleCare+. We dubbed this MacBook Air a "near-perfect Mac" when it debuted in 2022, giving it a 96 in our review. Some of the features that stood out to us included the M2 chip, which has eight CPU cores and up to 10 GPU cores. Apple might be up to the M4 chip now, but if you're looking for a device that can do all the basics without struggling, then an M2 is plenty strong enough. Apple's 2022 MacBook Air also offers a Liquid Retina Display with a 60Hz refresh rate and 500 nits of brightness. The entire device is also slimmer and sleeker than its predecessor. Plus, it has a quad-speaker system, compatibility with Dolby Atmos and Spatial Audio and a three-mic array. 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/apples-m2-macbook-air-drops-back-down-to-a-record-low-of-799-135526109.html?src=rss

When people type a question into Perplexity, the two-year-old search engine scours the internet and uses information from multiple sources, including online publishers, to synthesize an answer using AI. Soon, Perplexity will start sharing revenue with some publishers as part of an advertising platform it plans to launch around the end of September, the company announced on Tuesday.The initiative, known as the Perplexity Publishers Program, comes less than two months after the San Francisco-based startup backed by investors like Jeff Bezos and NVIDIA, and valued at $3 billion, came under fire from Forbes, Wired, and Cond Nast for allegedly scraping content without permission and ignoring robots.txt, a type of file that websites use to block page-crawling bots.Perplexitys initial partners include TIME, Fortune, The Texas Tribune, Der Spiegel and Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com. Its not clear exactly how much revenue Perplexity will share with publishers. Dmitry Shevelenko, the companys chief business officer, declined to reveal numbers but told Engadget that it would be a meaningful double-digit percentage shared back with the publishers that contributed source input to the answer." He also said that the partnership would extend across multiple years without specifying how many. What this wasnt, Shevelenko insisted repeatedly, was a response to the critical press coverage in the last few months. Weve been talking to publishers since January, he claimed. No aspect of this program is reactive to these recent accusations.For months, publishers around the world have been concerned about the potential of AI-powered search engines and chatbots to decimate traffic by simply sucking up their content and using it to provide people with answers directly instead of having to actually visit their websites. Google has followed suit too the company now sources answers from search results and displays AI-generated versions at the top of the page. But so far, it doesnt compensate publishers.[Our revenue share] is certainly a lot more than Googles revenue share with publishers, which is zero, Shevelenko said. The idea here is that were making a long-term commitment. If were successful, publishers will also be able to generate this ancillary revenue stream. Perplexity, he pointed out, was the first AI-powered search engine to include citations to sources when it launched in August 2022, although the company reportedly redesigned its user interface to show them more prominently after being called out by Forbes in June.AI companies like OpenAI have struck deals with major publishers including TIME, News Corp, Vox, Axel Springer, the Financial Times and others to use their content to train AI models, writing checks ranging from $5 million to $250 million. Perplexitys revenue-sharing program, however, is different: instead of writing publishers large checks, Perplexity plans to share revenue each time the search engine uses their content in one of its AI-generated answers. The search engine has a Related section at the bottom of each answer that currently shows follow-up questions that users can ask the engine. When the program rolls out, Perplexity plans to let brands pay to show specific follow-up questions in this section. Shevelenko told Engadget that the company is also exploring more ad formats such as showing a video unit at the top of the page. The core idea is that we run ads for brands that are targeted to certain categories of query, he said.PerplexityThis makes sense for Perplexity because it does not train its own AI models. Instead, it lets users choose from leading AI models like OpenAIs GPT-4o, Anthropics Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Metas Llama 3.1 to summarize answers from the web. Its very simple, Shelevenko said, if were making money and a publishers content was used on that ad impression, the publisher will get a cut of that revenue.But without knowing how much percentage of ad revenue Perplexity plans to split with publishers, its unclear whether the move will help publishers make up for any revenue lost due to declining traffic as AI-generated search engines and chatbots become more popular. And breaking into an online advertising business dominated by Google and Meta isnt easy. Setting up an ads business takes time, Toshit Panigrahi, founder of Tollbit, a startup that lets publishers monetize content by offering it to AI companies for a fee they can set themselves, told Engadget. Publishers are expected to hand over content today in the hopes that Perplexity sets up a successful ads business and cuts them in.Shevelenko refused to comment on the recent controversies that Perplexity has been involved in with publishers but acknowledged that onboarding them had become harder in the last few months. Some [of our conversations] were in a great place, he said, and then the bad press hit and then they kind of, you know raised more questions.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/perplexity-will-put-ads-in-its-ai-search-engine-and-share-revenue-with-publishers-130052289.html?src=rss

Tesla has issued a recall on 1.8 million vehicles across the United States, Reuters reports, a sizeable number even for a company that is no stranger to this turn of events. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced the recall due to a risk of software failure to notify individuals of a detached hood.A hood that isn't properly secured could detach while a person is driving and block their view. Tesla has issued an over-the-air software update that should fix the issue. The recall is on select Model 3, Model S and Model X vehicles from 2021 to 2024. It also impacts Model Y vehicles from 2020-2024.This year has already seen a range of Tesla recalls. In January, 200,000 cars were recalled because of a malfunctioning backup camera, and in February, the number beat even this recall, with two million vehicles flagged for too small warning light text. May saw 125,000 vehicles with seatbelt issues, and June brought faulty windshield wipers and trim for 12,000 of Tesla's Cybertrucks.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tesla-recalls-18-million-vehicles-over-risk-of-detached-hoods-140049560.html?src=rss

NASA TV is shutting down in August. The space agency is saying goodbye to its cable channel, which is available on Dish, DirecTV and similar services, as well as on local television providers. Going forward, it will put all its focus on NASA+, its on-demand streaming service that will serve as home to all its documentaries and live event coverage.NASA+ has apparently gained four times more viewership than the agency's traditional cable channel since it was launched in November last year. "In a universe where the way we consume information is rapidly changing, NASA+ is helping us inspire and connect with our current generation of explorers: the Artemis Generation," said Marc Etkind from NASA's Office of CommunicationThe agency's streaming service is completely free and doesn't have ads. Viewers can access it via the official NASA app for iOS and Android when they're on mobile devices, but they can also get the agency's app for Roku, Apple TV or Fire TV if they want to watch on a bigger screen. To watch NASA's coverage and shows on a computer, users can visit the official NASA+ website on their browsers.In addition to announcing its cable channel's closure, NASA has also revealed its upcoming lineup for new shows, episodes and live event coverage. One of the upcoming documentaries entitled Planetary Defenders tackles humanity's efforts at asteroid detection and planetary defense, while Our Alien Earth will show NASA scientists' field work in the most extreme environments all over the world to aid in the discovery of extraterrestrial life in the universe.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasa-will-shut-down-nasa-tv-on-cable-to-focus-on-nasa-120015334.html?src=rss