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

When I attended the first hands-off briefing for Star Wars Outlaws at Summer Game Fest 2023, I left Ubisofts demo room on a high, thinking this could be the piece of media that finally pulls me into the Star Wars universe. I loved the focus on a solo protagonist, Kay Vess, and her cute merqaal pet, Nix. I adored the fact that developers said the game would tell a cohesive, linear story, rather than throwing players into an unfocused open world and calling it AAA. I was eager to get my hands on it.Since then, Ive been fortunate enough to access two different previews of Star Wars Outlaws, and my initial excitement has been tempered. Its not completely extinguished, but the slices that Ive played have reinforced a bloaty vibe underpinned by unclear navigation and generic combat. I still think Star Wars Outlaws is a pretty game with interesting character designs and environments, but Im now less hopeful about everything else its offering you know, the elements that havent been plucked directly out of the existing Star Wars universe.UbisoftThe sections Ive played of Star Wars Outlaws span cosmic dogfights, parkour levels in metal-lined space stations and military bases, and stealth missions against roaming Stormtroopers and interstellar criminal factions. I also hopped on a speeder and had a great time flying over the dunes of Toshara with Nix on the back of my bike; one thing Im definitely looking forward to in the full game is entering hovercraft races.As for the bits I actually played, I would describe the overall theme as confusing. I encountered a head-scratching moment in the first minutes of my initial preview at Summer Game Fest 2024 in June: I crawled through a busted, rocky base and found myself at the mouth of a cliffside cave, the mountain too steep to climb down and the ground too far away for a leap of faith. I stood there and searched for an indication of where to go next, scanning the scenery from side to side and top to bottom, but nothing jumped out. So, I jumped.This was the incorrect move, and I died and reset. After searching the edge of the cave for a few more minutes and second-guessing whether I was in the proper location, a Ubisoft spokesperson pointed out a strip of coiled metal high above my head literally as far up as Kays field of view would go and blended in with the foliage. An inconspicuous white label identified it as an interactable object, but the entire thing was incredibly easy to miss. I pushed R3 on the controller and hooked onto it with my grappling gun, feeling incredibly dumb. Unfortunately, this was a repeated experience (and feeling) throughout the preview levels.EngadgetOne of the selling points of Star Wars Outlaws is its parkour-style mechanics, where Kay climbs metal grids, slides along shallow ledges by her fingertips and uses her grappling hook to swing across gaps. However, these mechanics are hit-or-miss, draining the flow from any attempted parkour action. The climbable grids are highlighted in a dull yellow that doesnt exactly stand out against rusted metal walls, and even when Kay jumps directly to them, she sometimes fails to connect. This happened to me during both previews, in different sections of the game, and the second instance led me to think the grid wasnt actually climbable at all. I wasted a good chunk of time farting around the affected area before considering another jump to the grid. It worked, but the loop left me frustrated.I dont mind some enmeshed, not-obvious traversal points in my games, but Star Wars Outlaws seems to take this idea too far.Navigating the environments was also weirdly challenging. I got lost in multiple areas in my previews, even with a responsive HUD and highlighted objective markers on the screen the whole time. The little yellow indicator was difficult to follow through maze-like settlements filled with similar-looking stalls, stairwells and hallways, and tracking objectives only got harder once blaster fights broke out. I never want to wonder where the hell Im supposed to be going in the middle of intense combat, but Star Wars Outlaws served up this situation multiple times.UbisoftI enjoyed some sections of the game just fine, particularly the final mission that I played. On the icy planet Kijimi, I snuck into a protected, two-story ballroom on a mission to steal an object in the center of the space. Nix is always by Kays side and he can be instructed to collect shinies, flip switches, and distract or attack enemies, and I made him do all of these things during this mission. The stealth mechanics in Star Wars Outlaws are straightforward crouch to be sneaky and enemies are generally oblivious unless youre directly in their line of sight. In rooms with two enemies, its best to send Nix after one guard while silently taking down the other, and then finish off the attacked, disoriented foe as Nix scurries away. I employed this tactic to great success, and even once a blaster battle broke out anyway, I had a good time lobbing grenades and landing headshots in this level.My time on Kijimi gives me hope that maybe I just need a few uninterrupted hours with Star Wars Outlaws for the game to really click. Im intrigued by its reputation system, where players can track their standing with various interstellar criminal networks, altering the level of access Kay will have with the associated areas and characters. Hacking doors and safes involves a screwdriver and a little rhythm game, and the process is satisfying every time. The speeder controls well and Im stoked to try out some actual races once I practice a little more. Space battles are dizzying and perfectly serviceable. Nix is adorable in every situation. Theres plenty to look forward to here, but I cant forget the frustration thats seemingly built into the climbing mechanics, grappling hook and nav system.UbisoftIm concerned that Star Wars Outlaws has fallen victim to classic AAA bloat, offering a big universe of mediocre experiences, some of them half-functional and the rest lacking depth or innovation. In the games previews, there are hints that this is the case. As always though, Im prepared to be surprised.If I had advice for anyone interested in Star Wars Outlaws and this still includes me, just barely it would be this: Look up. Like way up.Star Wars Outlaws will hit PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on August 30.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/i-really-want-to-like-star-wars-outlaws-160032476.html?src=rss

Apples AirPods Pro high-end earbuds are on sale via Amazon for just $180. Thats a discount of nearly 30 percent and nearly matches a record-low price. This deal is for the most-recent second-generation device. Theres a reason why these earbuds are the crown jewel of Apples lineup. They are just that good. The AirPods Pro easily made our list of the best wireless earbuds. We called them a huge improvement over the previous models and called out the stellar sound quality and active noise cancellation. The transparency mode is more natural-sounding than rival products and the new swipe gesture works better than one would think. We also heaped praise in our official review on the included charging case. We loved the built-in speaker, which helps locate the earbuds and alerts users to a low battery. The battery life is on-point, with six hours for the earbuds and 30 hours with repeated trips to the charging case. Theres multipoint connectivity, IPX4 water-resistance and a simulated spatial audio. Did we mention they also sound fantastic, particularly for earbuds? On the downside, Apple loves money. The case features a lanyard loop, for instance, but itll cost you $13 to get an official lanyard. The original price is also extremely high, at $250, though this deal alleviates some of that frustration. These arent the only Apple earbuds currently on sale via Amazon. The regular third-gen AirPods are available for $130, instead of $170. Also, the second-gen OG AirPods are available for just $70, which is one heck of a deal. 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-airpods-pro-are-on-sale-for-180-right-now-150952950.html?src=rss

It's the middle of summer for those of us in the northern hemisphere, which means many of us are getting out and about to make the most of the warm weather. But there's little worse than finding yourself mid-hike or with several more acts to go at a festival only to find your phone is out of juice. To help you stay in touch with friends and share envy-inducing photos on Instagram, you might need a portable charger, and a solid Anker options is currently on sale. The Anker 334 MagGo Battery with a 10,000mAh capacity is 21 percent off at $31.49. It typically costs $40. This model is a strong choice for iPhone users as it's MagSafe-compatible. According to Anker, you'll be able to charge an iPhone 15 Pro 1.7 times over and an iPhone 15 Pro Max 1.2 times thanks to its decently sized battery. The company also suggests that the power bank could add up to 22 hours of video playback time to an iPhone 14. The power bank delivers 7.5W of wireless charging. It's unlikely to easily budge from the back of your iPhone as it has 10N of magnetic force, which is more than Apple's own MagSafe charger. On the downside, you'll need a compatible device to use this. The Anker 334 MagGo Battery only works with the iPhone 12 and later models. If you have a case that isn't MagSafe-compatible, you'll need to remove that first too. In addition, wireless charging is slower than simply plugging your phone in, but that's perhaps less of a concern when you're off camping for a weekend. 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/you-can-snag-an-anker-10k-magsafe-power-bank-now-for-32-143426995.html?src=rss

If you're having a little trouble with Microsoft Office or Teams today, you're not alone. The company has reported some Azure-related issues that are preventing some users from accessing certain services. The problems started at around 8AM on Tuesday.Microsoft reported on a status page that "a subset of customers may experience issues connecting to Microsoft services globally." The company deployed several engineering teams to try and resolve the problem as swiftly as possible. "We've identified multiple workstreams and are working to mitigate impacted workstreams by performing failover operations," it said in a statement. "More details will be provided as they become available."For what it's worth, there was a significant spike in outage reports made to Down Detector on Tuesday morning for both Microsoft and Microsoft 365. Here's hoping the issue is resolved soon so you can rejoin Teams calls you never wanted to be on in the first place.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/some-microsoft-services-including-office-are-suffering-from-an-outage-142757596.html?src=rss

Google has rolled out updates for Search with the intention of making explicit deepfakes as hard to find as possible. As part of its long-standing and ongoing fight against realistic-looking manipulated images, the company is making it easier for people to get non-consensual fake imagery that features them removed from Search.It has long been possible for users to request for the removal of those kinds of images under Google's policies. Now, whenever it grants someone's removal request, Google will also filter all explicit results on similar searches about them. The company's systems will scan for any duplicates of the offending image and remove them, as well. This update could help alleviate some of the victim's fears if they're worried about the same image popping up again on other websites.In addition, Google has updated its ranking systems so that if a user specifically searches for explicit deepfakes with a person's name, the results will surface "high-quality, non-explicit content" instead. If there are news articles about that person, for instance, then the results will feature those. Based on Google's announcement, it seems it also has plans to school the user looking for deepfakes by showing them results that discuss their impact on society.Google doesn't want to wipe out results for legitimate content, like an actor's nude scene, in its bid to banish deepfakes from its results page, though. It admits it still has a lot of work to do when it comes to separating legitimate from fake explicit images. While that's still a work in progress, one of the solutions it has implemented is to demote sites that have received a high volume of removals for manipulated images in Search. That's "a pretty strong signal that it's not a high-quality site," Google explains, adding that the approach has worked well for other types of harmful content in the past.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-makes-it-easier-to-remove-explicit-deepfakes-from-its-search-results-130058499.html?src=rss

If you're a dedicated Google Maps user like me, then you know its not perfect. But, Google is now announcing some improvements with a range of new features for Maps and Waze. One of the things I find most exciting is the additional guidance on entering buildings and where to park. In the coming weeks, Maps will start lighting up the destination and entrance to it as you approach, so you (hopefully!) don't have to circle it three times in the dark.Google is also now making it easier to report incidents while using Maps, increasing the size of these icons so you can share quickly and safely while on the go. You can also tap to confirm a previously reported incident after approaching it.Waze is getting three updates, including new camera alerts. Now, Waze will be able to alert you if a camera is approaching and tell you what it's monitoring, whether it be speed, seat belts or accurate carpool lane use. Waze will also notify you if there's a traffic event nearby or close to one of your starred locations. You can then send an alert to a friend or family member. Both of these updates are rolling out now on iOS and Android. Rounding out Waze's updates is the ability to get navigation guidance even when your phone is locked. This feature will launch globally on Android soon, while it will arrive on iOS in the fall.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-maps-will-show-you-where-to-enter-your-destination-130021496.html?src=rss

Meta has explained why its AI chatbot didn't want to respond to inquiries about the assassination attempt on Trump and then, in some cases, denied that the event took place. The company said it programmed Meta AI to not answer questions about an event right after it happens, because there's typically "an enormous amount of confusion, conflicting information, or outright conspiracy theories in the public domain." As for why Meta AI eventually started asserting that the attempt didn't happen "in a small number of cases," it was apparently due to hallucinations.An AI "hallucinates" when it generates false or misleading responses to questions that require factual replies due to various factors like inaccurate training data and AI models struggling to parse multiple sources of information. Meta says it has updated its AI's responses and admits that it should have done so sooner. It's still working to address its hallucination issue, though, so its chatbot could still be telling people that there was no attempt on the former president's life.In addition, Meta has also explained why its social media platforms had been incorrectly applying the fact check label to the photo of Trump with his fist in the air taken right after the assassination attempt. A doctored version of that image made it look like his Secret Service agents were smiling, and the company applied a fact check label to it. Because the original and doctored photos were almost identical, Meta's systems applied the label to the real image, as well. The company has since corrected the mistake.Trump's supporters have been crying foul over Meta AI's actions and have been accusing the company of suppressing the story. Google had to issue a response of its own after Elon Musk claimed that the company's search engine imposed a "search ban" on the former president. Musk shared an image that showed Google's autocomplete suggesting "president donald duck" when someone types in "president donald." Google explained that it was due to a bug affecting its autocomplete feature and said that users can search for whatever they want anytime.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/meta-explains-why-its-ai-claimed-trumps-assassination-attempt-didnt-happen-120002196.html?src=rss

Google has responded to allegations it censored searches about Donald Trump after Elon Musk baselessly claimed the company had imposed a search ban on the former president. Google explained the bugs in its autocomplete feature caused the issues. But Musks tweet, viewed more than 118 million times, has forced the search giant to publicly explain one of its most basic features.Google added that the strange suggestions for president donald were due to a bug that spanned the political spectrum. It also affected searches related to former President Barack Obama and other political figures. Mat SmithThe biggest stories you might have missedThe Senate just passed two landmark bills to protect minors onlineI really want to like Star Wars OutlawsThe best soundbars in 2024You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!Perplexity will put ads in its AI search engineAnd share revenue with publishers.Perplexity will start sharing revenue with some publishers as part of an advertising platform it plans to launch around the end of September. The Perplexity Publishers Program comes less than two months after the startup, valued at $3 billion, came under fire from Forbes, Wired and Cond Nast for allegedly scraping content without permission.Continue reading.Samsung tests its Galaxy Z Flip phones as police bodycamsA pilot scheme is expanding to 25 metro police departments across five states.SamsungA new blog post from Samsung highlights how law enforcement is adopting its Galaxy Z Flip series devices. The line of foldable mobile devices was part of a pilot program, two years ago, in Kimberling City Police and Indian Point Police in Missouri, to test how the phones might improve daily operations. According to Samsung, the program was the first time police used a foldable device as a bodycam. The foldables were customized in collaboration with Visual Labs, a company that repurposes mobile devices as body and dash cameras.Continue reading.This robot dog has a vacuum to clean up trashIt uses AI to pick cigarette butts up from Italys beaches.IITItalian scientists have built a quadruped robot that can identify litter and pick up the smaller bits with its leg-mounted vacuums. The group published a paper in Aprils Journal of Field Robotics on VEROs development. Discarded butts release toxic chemicals and microplastics into the ocean as they break down. Its also the second most common undisposed waste worldwide in areas that are hard to reach for most robots. VERO picked up 90 percent of the cigarette butts identified in testing.Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-google-dismisses-elon-musks-claim-that-autocomplete-interfered-in-the-election-111558485.html?src=rss