Gadgets u don"t need: October 2022

Monday, October 31, 2022

Published on YouTube: 21 INSANELY Cheap and Cool Gadgets You Can Purchase Right NOW!

21 INSANELY Cheap and Cool Gadgets You Can Purchase Right NOW!
21 INSANELY Cheap and Cool Gadgets You Can Purchase Right NOW! Welcome Back to Worldwide Tech, New tech gadgets ...
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Mopar shows off its electrified Jeep 'CJ Surge' concept at SEMA 2022

As the 2022 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) trade show kicks off Monday in Las Vegas, Mopar — Stellantis' OEM accessory division — unveiled a trio of intriguing concept vehicles, led by an electrified Jeep CJ. Even more exciting, the battery electric technology behind it could portend a restomod revival of classic American muscle cars.

“The Jeep CJ Surge concept explores a future zero-emission propulsion system kit and supports the Jeep brand’s mission to become the leading electrified SUV brand in the world," Mark Bosanac, North America senior vice president, Mopar service, parts and customer care, said in a prepared statement Monday. "Separately, our Ram 1500 Backcountry X and TRX Gold Shot concepts showcase a truckload of innovative Mopar accessories for our award-winning full-size trucks."

The CJ Surge is what's known as a restomod (a portmanteau of "restoration" and "modification"), in that they cleaned up an late model CJ7 (the resto part) and swapped out the internal combustion engine for battery-electric propulsion (the mod part). Restomods aren't strictly electrifications — we've been doing them with crate engines for decades — but with automakers swiftly transitioning to battery power from gas, demand from the classic car community for similar capabilities has grown in recent years. In response, Ford has begun prototyping a BEV restomod system called the Eluminator. The Surge is Mopar's first steps in the same direction.

So rather than an inline-six or v-eight that the CJ7s originally came with, Mopar has dropped in a "scalable 400-volt, 200-kW Electric Drive Module" that provides four-wheel drive capabilities. That powerplant is backed by a 24-module Li-ion battery that sits in a "custom shell mounted in the rear of the passenger cabin," which you can see as the giant silver box dominating the trunk space in the image above. And rather than a traditional manual transmission, the Surge replaces the stick shift with a Wrangler JK center console and rotary shifter knob.

There's no word on performance numbers, much less when — or even if — this will ever come to market. If you want to check out the Surge for yourself, you'll need to get to the Las Vegas Convention Center before November 4th.

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Sunday, October 30, 2022

Roomba robot vacuums are up to 35 percent off at Amazon

Robot vacuums can be a godsend if vacuuming is one of your least favorite household chores. In recent years, new models from iRobot and Shark have become more intelligent, more powerful and, best of all, less expensive. Still, a robot vacuum is an investment, and it helps when they go on sale like iRobot’s models are right now on Amazon.

To start, the retailer has discounted the Roomba 694, one of our favorite budget picks. After a 35 percent discount, the robot vacuum is $179. The 694 is great if you want a no-frills option. It features WiFi connectivity, allowing you to connect to it through iRobot’s easy-to-use companion app. The software makes setup and creating a vacuuming schedule easy. Add a powerful motor and decent battery life, and you have a robot vacuum that meets the needs of most people. One of the few downsides of the 694 is that it doesn’t come with spare parts, so you’ll be forced to pay extra when you need a replacement filter or brush. But when you’re saving almost $100 off the price of the 694's usual price, that’s less of a concern.

Buy Roomba 694 at Amazon - $179

For those with a bigger budget, Amazon has also discounted the Roomba j7+ and Roomba s9+. The former is $599 after a $200 price cut, while the latter is $799, instead of $1,000, thanks to a 20 percent discount. Of the two, the j7+ is the better pick for most people. It features Roomba’s latest computer vision software, making the vacuum better at avoiding obstacles like pet poop. The more expensive s9+ isn’t as smart as its newer sibling but features 40 times the suction power of a standard Roomba. If you have a lot of carpet in your home, the s9+ will leave your floors noticeably cleaner than the company’s other vacuum robots. Both models ship with a docking station where they’ll automatically empty their canisters at the end of a cleaning session. So if that’s a feature you’re set on, you don’t need to upgrade to the s9+.

Buy Roomba j7+ at Amazon - $ 599 Buy Roomba s9+ at Amazon - $799

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

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Twitter was targeted by a coordinated trolling campaign following Musk takeover

Following Elon Musk’s takeover, Twitter was the target of a coordinated trolling campaign, according to Yoel Roth, the company’s head of safety and security. In a thread spotted by The Guardian, Roth said late Saturday that Twitter was working to stop an “organized effort” by trolls to make people think the company had weakened its content guidelines. “Bottom line up front: Twitter’s policies haven’t changed. Hateful conduct has no place here,” Roth said, adding the company had seen a “small number of accounts” post “a ton” of tweets that included derogatory language.

Let’s talk for a minute about slurs, hateful conduct, and trolling campaigns.

Bottom line up front: Twitter’s policies haven’t changed. Hateful conduct has no place here. And we’re taking steps to put a stop to an organized effort to make people think we have.
— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) October 30, 2022

In one instance, Roth says the company saw just 300 accounts post more than 50,000 tweets using the same slur. “We’ve taken action to ban the users involved in this trolling campaign – and are going to continue working to address this in the days to come to make Twitter safe and welcoming for everyone,” he wrote.

The news of a coordinated trolling campaign comes after a handful of research groups found evidence of bad actors trying to test the limits of Twitter. On Friday, the Network Contagion Research Institute tracked a 500 percent increase in usage of the n-word. The nonprofit linked the increase to posts on sites like 4chan, where users were encouraging each other to post hateful content.

On Friday, Musk said Twitter would not make any major moderation decisions until the company had the chance to form a council with “widely diverse viewpoints.” Before taking control of the company, Musk had said he wanted to do away with permanent bans, noting he would “err on the side of, if in doubt, let the speech exist.” More recently, he floated the idea of allowing users to split off into different sections of the platform where they could add content ratings to their tweets.

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Apple's M2 MacBook Pros could arrive next March

Apple won’t release any more new Macs before the end of the year. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company had planned to announce new M2 versions of its 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros “as early as this fall,” but Apple now aims to introduce them in the first quarter of 2023. Gurman adds that the launch will likely coincide with the release of macOS Ventura 13.3.

“Apple has rarely launched new products in January or February during recent years, so I’d expect the new Macs to be announced by the first half of March,” he writes. “That aligns with the planned ship dates for the corresponding software, but also makes sense in light of Apple’s recent history of launching new Macs during that month, including the Mac Studio this year.”

Gurman points to Apple’s recent earnings call for supporting evidence. Earlier this week, Tim Cook told analysts the company’s product line for the holiday season was “set.” Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri provided even stronger confirmation, noting he expected Mac revenue to “decline substantially” in December in part because there are no new MacBook Pros to boost sales.

When they finally do arrive, the new MacBook Pros will feature the same design as the current 2021 models. The primary change Apple has planned is the inclusion of its new M2 Pro and M2 Max chipsets. According to Gurman, the M2 Max will feature up to 12 CPU cores and 38 GPU cores.

While Apple users shouldn’t expect any more hardware from the company before the end of the year, the company is still working on new software. Gurman says iOS 16.2 and iPadOS 16.2 should arrive by mid-December. The company is currently testing those updates among developers.

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The 4K Chromecast with Google TV is back on sale for $40

Ever since it was first announced in 2020, Chromecast with Google TV has been a solid and affordable purchase for those looking to add more smarts and streaming options to their existing setup. If you’ve been patiently waiting to buy one, now is a good time to do so. Amazon has discounted the 4K version. After a 20 percent discount, the device is $40, matching its previous all-time low price. The retailer has also cut the cost of the recently announced HD variant. At the moment, you can buy the device for $20. That’s $10 less than its usual $30 asking price.

Buy Chromecast with Google TV (4K) at Amazon - $40 Buy Chromecast with Google TV (HD) at Amazon - $20

As mentioned above, both versions of Chromecast with Google TV are excellent options if you’re on a budget or prefer Google’s approach over competitors like Apple, Amazon or Roku. Engadget awarded the 4K version a score of 86 in 2020, praising the device for its excellent Google Assistant integration, comfortable and easy-to-use remote, as well as Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos support. The more affordable HD version is similarly excellent, offering much the same experience at a lower price point for those who don’t own a 4K TV. If there was a reason to buy a competing streaming stick over the Chromecast with Google TV, it was because the dongle could sometimes be slow. That has since changed, with Google releasing a performance update this past summer.

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Published on YouTube: 25 Mind Blowing Gadgets On Amazon You Must BUY! | Best Tech Gadgets

25 Mind Blowing Gadgets On Amazon You Must BUY! | Best Tech Gadgets
25 Mind Blowing Gadgets On Amazon You Must BUY! | Best Tech Gadgets Welcome Back to Worldwide Tech, There's nothing ...
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Hitting the Books: AI could help shrink America's gender wage gap

Women have faced gender-based discrimination in the workforce throughout history, denied employment in all but a handful of subservient roles, regularly ignored for promotions and pay raises — and rarely ever compensated at the same rates as their male peers. This long and storied socioeconomic tradition of financially screwing over half the population continues largely unabated into the 21st century where women still make 84 cents on the dollar that men do. In her new book, The Equality Machine: Harnessing Digital Technology for a Brighter, More Inclusive Future, Professor of Law and founding member of the Center for Intellectual Property Law and Markets at the University of San Diego, Dr. Orly Lobel, explores how digital technologies, often maligned for their roles in exacerbating societal ills, can be harnessed to undo the damage they've caused.

This article has been excerpted from The Equality Machine: Harnessing Digital Technology for a Brighter, More Inclusive Future by Orly Lobel. Copyright © 2022. Available from PublicAffairs, an imprint of Perseus Books, LLC, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

For years, the double standard was glaring: employers demanded secrecy about salaries while asking prospective employees for their salary histories. Now, we can tackle both ends of this asymmetry. Just as digitization is helping to reverse information flows to foster more transparency in the market about employees’ worth, new laws are also directing employers to not rely as much on past pay levels, which can be tainted by systemic inequality. In 2016, Massachusetts became the first state to pass a law prohibiting employers from asking job candidates about their salary histories. Since then, more than a dozen states have followed suit.

Barring employers from asking prospective job candidates about their salary histories has two goals. The first is breaking the vicious pay gap cycle, which emerges when women are paid less at a previous job and that gap is then replicated by the next employer. The second is addressing gender differences in the negotiation process Salary figures are plagued by gender disparity, and they can perpetuate and further exacerbate existing market disparities. When a woman discloses that she currently earns less than a man, she could be harming her salary trajectory — both in the applied-for position and for the rest of her career. Each time she discloses her current salary to a potential employer, that gap is likely to grow, as recruitment efforts and promotions are often offered as a percentage increase in relation to current base salary. Rather than relying on biased figures, bans on salary history inquiry induce employers to use other ways to determine a potential employee’s worth, including a shift to automated computation. Employers using market and internal data can consider merit-related characteristics when determining pay, such as experience, training, education, skill, and past performance.

And yet, as we have seen, human bias can creep into our algorithms, and an algorithm that is fed data tainted by salary bias is likely to perpetuate that bias itself. Feedback loops are digital vicious cycles that can result in self-fulfilling outcomes. Once again: bias in, bias out. The risk is that an algorithm will learn that certain types or categories of employees are on average underpaid, and then calculate that into salary offers. This is the wrong that recent policy has been designed to eliminate — and that we can program AI to avoid. Removing the anchored numerical figure encourages employers to proactively assess pay based on the company’s needs and the candidate’s fit rather than on a tainted number. At the same time, having pay scale information for a job but not having a salary history on the table can embolden women to ask for more.

What’s more, AI can also help in the future — maybe not even the distant future — by replacing some of the negotiation that takes place in unequal settings. Empirical studies on negotiation differences between men and women have repeatedly shown that women on average negotiate less, and that when they do, employers react negatively. Women don’t ask for higher salaries, better terms, promotions, or opportunities nearly as frequently as men do. In my research, I’ve called this the negotiation deficit. In one study at Carnegie Mellon University, 93 percent of female MBA students accepted an initial salary offer, while only 43 percent of men did. In another study, female participants simulating salary negotiations asked for an average of $7,000 less than male participants. Economists Andreas Leibbrandt and John List have also found that while women are much less likely to negotiate with employers over salary, this difference disappears when all job seekers are explicitly told that pay is negotiable, mitigating the pay gap. My own experimental research with behavioral psychologist and law professor Yuval Feldman, my longtime collaborator, has found that women in some work environments act less as “homo economicus” — that is, as rational economic actors — and more as altruistic social actors, such that women do not demand for themselves as much as men, and are more likely to value non-monetary benefits, such as good corporate culture.

Can these research insights offer us clues for developing new software tools that will spur women to negotiate? Digital platforms can serve employees by providing advice and information on asking for a raise or preparing for an interview. Information on pay—and especially an explicit expectation that pay can and should be negotiated—can empower applicants to negotiate higher salaries before accepting job offers. The digital platform PayScale conducts annual surveys asking thousands of job seekers whether they disclosed their pay at previous jobs during the interview process. PayScale’s 2018 survey found that women who were asked about their salary histories and refused to disclose were offered positions 1.8 percent less often than women who were asked and disclosed. By contrast, men who refused to disclose when asked about salary history received offers 1.2 percent more often than men who did disclose.

Even when women do negotiate, they are treated differently. In my research, I call this phenomenon the negotiation penalty. Women are told to “lean in” and make demands, but the reality is that for centuries, women have been universally viewed as weaker negotiators than their male counterparts. In one series of experiments, participants evaluated written accounts of candidates who did or did not initiate negotiations for higher salaries. The results in each experiment showed that participants penalized female candidates more than male candidates for initiating negotiations, deeming women who asked for more not “nice” or too “demanding.” While qualities such as assertiveness, strength, and competitiveness culturally benefit male negotiators, women who display such characteristics are often considered too aggressive. Another study looked at data from a group of Swedish job seekers and found not only that women ended up with lower salaries than equally qualified male peers, but also that they were often penalized for negotiating like them. Nick Yee and Jeremy Bailenson have shown that attractive avatars lead to more intimate behavior with a confederate in terms of self-disclosure and interpersonal distance. In a second study, they also observed that tall avatars lead to more confident behavior than short avatars in a negotiation task. They term it the Proteus Effect (the Greek god Proteus was known to have the ability to take on many self-representations). The Proteus Effect suggests that the visual characteristics and traits of an avatar are associated with correlating behavioral stereotypes and expectations, including those that affect the way we negotiate.

The eleventh annual competition for artificial intelligence that has been trained to negotiate — the Hagglebot Olympics, as it’s been termed in the popular media — was held in January 2021. Universities from Turkey and Japan won this time. In some experiments involving negotiations with bots, most people did not even realize they were talking to a bot rather than another person — the bots had learned to hold fluent conversations that completely mimicked humans. Using game theory, researchers are increasingly improving the ways bots can negotiate on behalf of humans, eliminating some of the aspects in which we humans are fallible, like trying to factor in and weigh many different aspects of the deal. AI can now predict the other side’s preferences quite fast. For example, an AI listening by microphone to the first five minutes of negotiation is learning to predict much of the eventual deal just from the negotiators’ voices. Following these speech patterns through machine learning, it turns out that when the voice of a negotiator varies a lot in volume and pitch, they are being a weak player at the negotiation table. When the negotiating sides mirror each other, it means they are closer to reaching an agreement. Using AI also has helped uncover the ways in which women are penalized at the negotiation table. A new study out of the University of Southern California used a chatbot that didn’t know the gender identities of participants to evaluate negotiation skills. The study showed that most of us — both men and women — do quite badly at negotiating salaries. Over 40 percent of participants didn’t negotiate at all, and most people left money on the table they could have received. Women valued stock options less than men did as part of their compensation package, affecting women’s likelihood to accumulate wealth over time. These advances can also help with negotiation disparities across different identities. A group of Israeli and American researchers looked at how a smart computer can negotiate with humans from different cultural backgrounds. Without telling the machine anything about the characteristics of people from three countries — Israel, Lebanon, and the United States — they let the AI learn about the patterns of cultural negotiation differences by engaging in negotiation games. They found that the computer was able to outperform people in all countries. These developments are promising. We can envision bots learning about negotiation differences and ultimately countering such differences to create more equitable exchanges, level the playing field, and achieve fair outcomes. They can be designed to tackle the specific distributive goals we have.

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Saturday, October 29, 2022

Netflix renews 'The Witcher,' recasts Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia

While The Witcher won't return until next year, Netflix has already renewed the show for a fourth season and announced a major change. On Saturday, the streaming giant said that Liam Hemsworth, best known for playing Gale Hawthorne in The Hunger Games film series, would replace Henry Cavill as protagonist Geralt of Rivia. The two actors posted about the casting change on social media.

"My journey as Geralt of Rivia has been filled with both monsters and adventures, and alas, I will be laying down my medallion and my swords," Cavill said on Instagram. "In my stead, the fantastic Mr. Liam Hemsworth will be taking up the mantle of the White Wolf. As with the greatest of literary characters, I pass the torch with reverence for the time spent embodying Geralt and enthusiasm to see Liam’s take on this most fascinating and nuanced of men.”

Cavill didn't share a reason for his departure. Earlier this week, the actor confirmed he would continue playing Superman following his recent cameo appearance in Black Adam. Netflix cast Cavill as Geralt of Rivia in 2018. In addition to lending his star power to the series, the actor brought a genuine love of the franchise with him that was apparent whenever he was interviewed about the role. "I really feel a connection to Geralt and who he is and his nature, especially from the books," he told Polygon in 2019. "And having played the game for many, many, many hours, it was something that I had a connection with."

Netflix did not share a release date for season four of The Witcher. Season three began filming earlier this year. At its recent Tudum fan event, the company said the show would return sometime in the summer of 2023. In the meantime, fans can look forward to watching The Witcher: Blood Origin, a prequel series starring Michelle Yeoh, starting on December 25th.

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Google buys an AI avatar startup to take on TikTok

Google has quietly acquired a startup that was working on using AI to generate avatars for social media users and brands. According to TechCrunch, the company recently paid about $100 million to buy Alter. The acquisition went through about two months ago without Google publicly announcing it. On Thursday, the search giant confirmed the purchase but did not disclose the financial terms of the deal. According to TechCrunch, Google bought Alter to better compete against TikTok.

Alter began life as Facemoji, offering a platform that other developers could use to add avatar creation systems to their apps and games. Alter chief co-founder and operating officer Jonathan Slimak recently took to LinkedIn to share he was starting a position “building Avatars at Google.” How Alter’s team and technology could help Google better compete against TikTok is unclear. YouTube Shorts, Google’s take on the short-form video format, is already a success for the company. Following a global rollout in the summer of 2021, Google announced this past June the platform had 1.5 billion monthly active users.

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‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II’ update fixes party-related crashes

If Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II has crashed when you’ve tried to play with a party of friends, you’ll want to download the game’s latest update as soon as possible. In a tweet spotted by Eurogamer, developer Infinity Ward said early Friday morning it was “aware of some players experiencing crashes when partied up.” Later that same day, the studio said it would deploy a “mitigation” on Saturday morning. As of 12:22PM ET, that update is now live and rolling out to Modern Warfare II players. “Players in parties should see significant improvement,” Infinity Ward said.

Thank you for your patience. We will be deploying a mitigation for party related crashes tomorrow morning (PDT). Update to follow. https://t.co/w9ab6BGk8h
— Infinity Ward (@InfinityWard) October 29, 2022

The fix comes as the studio attempts to address a handful of launch issues with Modern Warfare II. One bug, for instance, is preventing players from accessing the game’s menu while in a match. Another issue, since addressed by Infinity Ward, created an audio continuity problem on PlayStation 4. The studio was also forced to disable Modern Warfare II’s ping system after people found it was possible to exploit it to track a single enemy player for the duration of a game.

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Mark Zuckerberg will testify in the FTC’s antitrust case against Meta

The Federal Trade Commission will call on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify in its upcoming case against the company. The FTC sued the social media giant in July in an attempt to block it from buying Within Unlimited, the creator of the popular VR workout app Supernatural.

Reuters reports that the agency listed 18 witnesses, including Zuckerberg and Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth, in a court document filed with California’s Northern District Court on Friday. In addition to answering questions about the potential acquisition, the FTC plans to ask Zuckerberg about Meta’s VR strategy and how the company intends to support third-party developers, according to court documents seen by Reuters.

In July, the FTC accused the company and Zuckerberg of attempting to “illegally acquire” Within. “Instead of competing on the merits, Meta is trying to buy its way to the top,” John Newman, deputy director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said at the time.

Meta has dismissed the FTC’s lawsuit, claiming it is based on “idealogy and speculation, not evidence.” The case could be another costly setback for a company struggling to convince the public and Wall Street of its vision for the future. Earlier this week, Meta disclosed in its latest earnings report that its Reality Labs VR and AR division is losing more money than ever. In Q3 2022, the unit lost $3.7 billion. That’s a trend David Wehner, the company’s outgoing chief financial officer, told investors would continue through 2023.

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Published on YouTube: 18 INSANE Gadgets You Must Buy Before They're GONE! | Best Tech Gadgets

18 INSANE Gadgets You Must Buy Before They're GONE! | Best Tech Gadgets
18 INSANE Gadgets You Must Buy Before They're GONE! | Best Tech Gadgets Welcome Back to Worldwide Tech, We all love the ...
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GM suspends advertising on Twitter to evaluate its direction under Elon Musk

General Motors has temporarily stopped paying for advertisements on Twitter after Elon Musk closed the $44 billion deal to take over the website, according to the CNBC. Musk, as you know, is also the chief executive at Tesla, which overtook GM and all its competitors to become the most valuable carmaker in the US a couple of years ago. The company told the news organization that it's engaging with Twitter to understand its direction under its new owner. Further, it said that it's normal for the company to pause paid advertising in the face of a "significant change in a media platform."

GM said in its emailed statement:

"We are engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership. As is normal course of business with a significant change in a media platform, we have temporarily paused our paid advertising. Our customer care interactions on Twitter will continue."

Over the past couple of years, the company had broadened its commitment to providing consumers more EV options in an effort to better compete with Tesla. The automaker announced an investment of $35 billion for its combined EV and self-driving development efforts in 2021. Earlier this year, the company also revealed that it's building a third Ultium factory in the US that will make batteries for its electric vehicles.

Shortly after he officially took control of Twitter, Musk posted a message to advertisers on his account in a bid to ease their concerns. "There has been much speculation about why I bought Twitter and what I think about advertising. Most of it has been wrong," he wrote. He also said that advertising, "when done right, can delight, entertain and inform you..." For that to be true, "it is essential to show Twitter users advertising that is as relevant as possible to their needs."

Here is Musk's complete statement:

Dear Twitter Advertisers pic.twitter.com/GMwHmInPAS
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022

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Friday, October 28, 2022

Engadget Podcast: iPad and iPad Pro (2022) review

This week, Devindra and Deputy Editor Nathan Ingraham dive into Apple’s latest iPad and iPad Pro. The new base iPad seemingly justifies its price, but it also leaves out plenty of consumers who were well-served by the old $329 iPad. We hope that model sticks around for a long while. Also, we discuss if anyone needs M2 power in an iPad Pro (why not just get a MacBook?!), and we prepare for Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. (Note: When this episode was recorded, his acquisition wasn’t finalized yet.)

Listen below, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!

Subscribe!

Topics

1:40: iPad and iPad Pro (2022) reviews
25:50: Surface Pro 9 5G review
37:10: Elon Musk is buying Twitter, for real
50:20: Brief thoughts on God of War Ragnarok
52:50: Pop culture picks: Barbarian is on HBO Max, thoughts on Bad Sisters

Credits
Hosts: Devindra Hardawar and Nathan Ingraham
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien

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The Morning After: Elon Musk now owns Twitter

After a months-long legal battle that has engulfed Twitter since Elon Musk first offered to buy the company for $44 billion in April, the deal is done, and Musk is already ringing in the changes. Musk, who has criticized Twitter's leadership, fired CEO Parag Agrawal and Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, as well as several more top executives. He’s also likely to let more staff go, though he has told employees the cuts won't be as high as 75 percent.

Musk spent time in Twitter's San Francisco headquarters this week, where he met with employees. Bloomberg reported that he brought in some Tesla engineers to help "assess" Twitter's code. The new owner wants to loosen moderation rules and even make the social network “open source” so users can better understand what Twitter is recommending. Longer term, Musk has mentioned turning Twitter into “the everything app” akin to WeChat in China, and even the possibility of charging companies for tweet embeds.

– 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.

The biggest stories you might have missed

Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G (SQ3 chip) review

Not this one.

The Surface Pro 9 with 5G makes it clear that Microsoft has learned some lessons since its first tablets – the original Surface launched ten years ago. The company’s latest hybrid is impeccably designed and can tap into speedy 5G networks. Unfortunately, it also retreads some errors of the past. These boil down to the custom SQ3 ARM system-on-a-chip, which isn’t as good as the Intel silicon found in the other Surface Pro 9. According to Engadget’s Devindra Hardawar, this custom chip leads to generally slow performance, compatibility issues and disappointment. It’s also more expensive than the faster Intel model.

Continue reading.

Samsung posts a 23 percent profit decline due to weak demand

But its mobile business still had a stellar third quarter.

Samsung has reported a record consolidated revenue of 76.78 trillion Korean won ($54 billion) for the third quarter of 2022, but this included a decline in profit from the previous quarter and year-over-year. The tech giant's operating profit (KRW 10.85 trillion or $7.6 billion) has declined 23 percent from the second quarter. This was due to less demand for its component business, but the company’s phone and networks arm had a great quarter, attributed to sales of the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4, both of which showed stronger growth than their foldable predecessors.

Continue reading.

Apple pulls gambling ads from App Store product pages following backlash

It’s paused the ads for now.

Continue reading.

NASA's InSight lander detected a meteoroid impact on Mars

This may be InSight's last big accomplishment before it shuts down.

Researchers learned that a quake detected by the lander in Mars' Amazonis Planitia region on December 24th, 2021 was actually a meteoroid impact — the first time any mission has witnessed a crater forming on the planet. The meteoroid is believed to have been somewhere between 16 and 39 feet long. It would have burned up in Earth's skies, but it was large enough to survive Mars' extra-thin atmosphere.

Continue reading.

Netflix's animated Sonic series will arrive on December 15th

And our first look at 'Sonic Prime'.

Almost two years after Netflix tweeted (and deleted) about an animated Sonic the Hedgehog series that's coming to the streaming service, the show has a release date. Season one of Sonic Prime will hit the platform on December 15th. The first season will have 24 episodes. Netflix has also tweeted a teaser for the series.

Continue reading.

UN warns there's currently 'no credible pathway' to keep temperature rise under 1.5C

It says societal and infrastructure overhauls are needed.

The United Nations has issued another stark warning that, under current policies, the planet is falling far short of the Paris Agreement goal of keeping the rise in global temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius. That's the threshold scientists say we have to remain under in order to mitigate extreme, life-threatening weather events, such as heatwaves, droughts and tropical storms. The statement added there was "no credible pathway to 1.5C in place." The 13th edition of the Emissions Gap Report reiterates that major changes are required. It laid out the necessary actions across electricity supply, industry, transport and buildings, along with food and financial systems. The report noted that we'd need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a further 45 percent by 2030.

Continue reading.

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Lego is discontinuing its Mindstorms robotics kits by the end of the year

Lego's Mindstorms robotics kits have been on the market since 1998, born from a collaboration between Lego and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Now, Lego has announced it will be discontinuing Mindstorms at the end of the year and providing support for the mobile app for at least another two years beyond that, Gizmodo has reported.

Starting as the Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention System over 24 years ago, the kits used Lego's advanced Technics pieces with gears and other robotics parts, powered by the basic "Brick" processing unit. They took a big step forward in 2006 with the introduction of the company's next generation of Mindstorms kits, dubbed NXT.

Another big jump came in 2013 with the EV3 robotics platform. This new lineup was backwards-compatible with the NXT series, offering enhancements to its sensor load and processing power. Lego also launched dedicated mobile apps, turning iOS and Android devices into remote controls for Mindstorms projects. Finally, it set up a Mindstorms community where users could share their creations and collaborate with other builders.

The last official product was the Robot Inventor lineup from 2020, but with nothing seen since, the writing seemed on the wall for Mindstorms — particularly as Lego was focusing on other educational ventures.

"Now having a number of priorities in LEGO Education and other Build & Code experiences, we have decided to focus our resources and future plans by redirecting our Mindstorms Robot Inventor team and their expertise into different areas of the business," the company said in a statement to Brick Fanatics. "This means the physical Mindstorms Robot Inventor product (51515) and its related elements (88016 and 88018) are to exit our portfolio from the end of 2022, whilst digital platforms—such as the LEGO Mindstorms Robot Inventor App—will remain live until at least the end of 2024."

It was one of the first toys to actively promote STEM learning while getting kids and adults alike interested in robotics. (Engadget collaborated with Lego on a Mindstorms robotics contest in 2014.) While it's the end of an era in robotics education, there are now plenty of kits on the market, including Lego's own Boost robotics kit for beginners. And if you happen to own a Mindstorms robot, it might soon become a collector's item.

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The iPhone 15 Pro may feature haptic solid-state volume and power buttons

The next-gen iPhone 15 Pro models may swap its physical volume and power buttons for solid state versions that use haptic feedback, analyst Min-Chi Kuo wrote in a tweet spotted by MacRumors. The design would be similar to the non-physical home button on the iPhone 7, which used a Taptic Engine to simulate a button press with vibrations. It could also resemble Mac trackpads, which don't move but simulate clicks using similar haptic technology.

Making this work would require additional Taptic Engines on top of the one already in current iPhone models. "There will be Taptic Engines located on the internal left and right sides to provide force feedback to make users feel like they are pressing physical buttons," said Kuo in a tweet thread. "Due to this design change, the number of Taptic Engines used in each iPhone will increase from the current one to three."

(1/6)
My latest survey indicates that the volume button and power button of two high-end iPhone 15/2H23 new iPhone models may adopt a solid-state button design (similar to the home button design of iPhone 7/8/SE2 & 3) to replace the physical/mechanical button design.
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) October 28, 2022

Apple was reportedly planning a similar change for the Watch to increase water resistance, according to a 2018 rumor, but it never happened. It's not clear how a buttonless design would benefit an iPhone, though, as it seems like two additional Taptic Engines would add rather than reduce complexity (a large part of the Watch Ultra's heft is due to the massive Taptic Engine).

Kuo said that the buttonless design and switch to USB-C (which Apple already confirmed) would be two of the major changes for the next iPhone Pro models. Kuo is often right about such things, but the iPhone 15 models are still a year away, so a lot can change in the meantime.

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Thursday, October 27, 2022

The New York Post is the latest news outlet to get hacked

Fast Company isn't the only news outlet to suffer a recent, high-profile security breach. As CNBCreports, The New York Post has confirmed it was the victim of a hack. The perpetrators briefly defaced both the newspaper's website and Twitter account with racist and sexist headlines, including ones targeting New York City Mayor Eric Adams and House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

In a statement, the The Post said only that it was "investigating the cause." No one has taken credit for the hack as of this writing, and it's not clear if the intruders took any sensitive data.

This isn't the first breach targeting The Post this year. In February, News Corp revealed that hackers compromised email accounts and documents for The Post and Wall Street Journal employees, including some journalists. Mandiant, a security firm working for the media giant, believed China was conducting an intelligence gathering operation. It's not certain if there's any relation between the cyberattacks.

The New York Post has been hacked. We are currently investigating the cause.
— New York Post (@nypost) October 27, 2022

The attack comes just weeks after Fast Company fell victim to hacks that let the culprit send racist notifications to Apple News users. The publication went so far as to shut down its entire website while it addressed the incident. The hacker claimed to have exploited weak password security in WordPress that let them steal employee login info, password hashes and draft articles.

There's no known link between the hacks at present. However, they illustrate the potential dangers of site violations like this. On top of the risks to data, they provide easy ways for hackers to spread toxic and partisan messages. It won't be surprising if there are similar campaigns in the near future, especially with the US midterm elections just weeks away.

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UN warns there's currently 'no credible pathway' to keep temperature rise under 1.5C

The UN laid out the dire state of affairs in a report it released just a week before the start of the COP27 climate conference in Egypt. It said that pledges made by national policy makers since COP26, which was held in Glasgow last year, "make a negligible difference to predicted 2030 emissions" and that progress over the last 12 months has been "highly inadequate." In fact, the report suggests that current active policies will lead to a 2.8C rise in global temperatures by the end of the 21st century and that implementing pledges that have been made will only limit the rise to between 2.4C and 2.6C. Even that would require perfect implementation of plans, with wealthier countries helping poorer ones to enact them.

"In the best case scenario, full implementation of conditional NDCs [nationally determined contributions], plus additional net zero commitments, point to a 1.8C rise," Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, said. "However, this scenario is currently not credible."

The 13th edition of the Emissions Gap Report argues that major societal and infrastructure changes are required. It lays out the necessary actions for sectors including electricity supply, industry, transport and buildings, along with the food and financial systems. The report notes that, in order to get on course to meet the 1.5C goal, we'd need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a further 45 percent by 2030, compared with projections based on current policies. To limit the rise in temperatures to under 2C, an extra 30 percent reduction in emissions is required.

"Is it a tall order to transform our systems in just eight years? Yes. Can we reduce greenhouse gas emissions by so much in that timeframe? Perhaps not. But we must try," Andersen wrote. "Every fraction of a degree matters: to vulnerable communities, to species and ecosystems, and to every one of us."

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Elon Musk reportedly tells Twitter he won’t layoff 75 percent of staff

Elon Musk has tweeted a video clip of him entering the Twitter San Francisco headquarters carrying a kitchen sink. "Let that sink in," he captioned. Turns out he may have also talked to staff members and denied reports that he's going let most of them go after he officially takes over as company owner, possibly on Friday. According to Bloomberg, he told Twitter's employees that he doesn't have plans to axe 75 percent of Twitter's 7,500 workers like previously reported by The Washington Post.

Musk is still expected to order layoffs. During a Twitter Town Hall meeting in June, he said he didn't know why low-performing workers should remain employed. But job cuts were going to happen even if Musk completely backed out of purchasing the website anyway. Based on internal documents obtained by The Post, current company leadership was planning a 25 percent workforce reduction, which translates to 1,900 people losing their jobs. Executives were also planning major infrastructure cuts and data center closures.

Musk's Twitter purchase is on track to close by Friday, but it was in limbo for a long while. The executive had wanted to back out of his $44 billion purchase, accusing the company of withholding data that would give him a clearer picture of how many bots and fake accounts are on the website. Twitter, in turn, sued Musk and accused him of wrongfully breaking the agreement. Earlier this month, though, Musk decided to go ahead with the deal, and Twitter agreed with his proposal before their case could go to trial.

Meeting a lot of cool people at Twitter today!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022

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DOJ reportedly investigating Tesla’s Autopilot self-driving claims after crashes

The Department of Justice is reportedly investigating whether Tesla has misled customers and investors by claiming that its Autopilot technology enables full-fledged self-driving capabilities. According to Reuters, the DOJ launched the probe last year following over a dozen crashes, including fatal ones, in which Autopilot was activated. Prosecutors in Washington and San Francisco are examining if Tesla had made unsupported full self-driving claims about the technology, and they could ultimately pursue criminal charges or seek sanctions. But they could also shut the probe down without doing anything if they determine that Tesla hasn't done anything wrong.

Back in August, reports came out that the California DMV had filed complaints against the automaker with the California Office of Administrative Hearings. The state's DMV had accused Tesla of using advertising language on its website for its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving products that aren't based on facts and made it seem like its vehicles are capable of fully driverless trips. One example is part of the Autopilot page on Tesla's website that says "All you will need to do is get in and tell your car where to go." In the same page, there's a video that starts with a note that reads "The person in the driver's seat is only there for legal reasons. He isn't doing anything. The car is driving itself."

But at the same time, Tesla explicitly states in its support page that "Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving Capability are intended for use with a fully attentive driver, who has their hands on the wheel." Those currently enabled features, the company added, "do not make the vehicle autonomous." Its sources told Reuters that Tesla's warnings that drivers should keep their hands on the wheel could complicate any case the DOJ may bring.

Aside from the Justice Department, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is also looking into Tesla's Autopilot system. The agency initiated a probe in 2021 following the report of 11 crashes with parked first responder vehicles since 2018. Those crashes results in 17 injuries and one death. In June this year, the NHTSA upgraded the probe's status and expanded it to cover almost all Tesla vehicles sold since 2014.

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The Morning After: Duolingo is ready to teach you math

Duolingo Math is now available on iOS, over a year since it was first teased. Naturally, the new math app feels a lot like the company’s language app, including colorful animations and interactive exercises all built into gamified lessons.

There are two main components to the app: an elementary-level math curriculum that goes over classroom topics and a brain-training course aimed at adults, with a focus on improving mental math skills. Dr. Kawashima has a lot to answer for. For those anxious about their math skills, it could be a subtle way of brushing up on those multiplication skills. Sadly, mental arithmetic remains not quite as dreamy as learning a second language.

Duolingo’s reputation should help it stand out in a sea of similar apps, and like many rivals, Duolingo Math is free. The app is available on iPhone and iPad, only in English for now. No word yet on when it will be available on Android.

– Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

SpaceX's pricier Starlink internet service for RVs now works on moving vehicles

You'll have to pay $2,500 upfront for the hardware.

SpaceX has launched a new variant of Starlink for RVs called "Flat High Performance" that you can use on moving vehicles. You will have to be willing to pay almost five times as much for the dish needed to be able to access the service. It’s designed for in-motion use, with a bigger rectangular terminal that can see 35 percent more sky than its standard counterpart. It also has enhanced GPS capabilities, giving the dish the ability to connect to more satellites. SpaceX is already taking pre-orders for the new service and will start deliveries in December. The hardware kit, which includes its dish and mount, will set you back $2,500.

Continue reading.

Nothing's $99 Ear Stick earbuds have a fancy twisting case

But there’s no noise cancellation.

Nothing’s second attempt at wireless headphones come in a carry case that tries to combine a cosmetics packaging aesthetic with the glossy white, transparent style of its other devices so far. While the $99 Nothing Ear Stick wireless earbuds are cheaper than its predecessor, these buds lack active noise cancellation. There are no silicone buds this time around, so you can expect more noise bleed-through, too, although some headphone wearers may find them a more comfortable fit. Expect to read our impressions on the buds very soon.

Continue reading.

The best monitors for 2022

HDR, refresh rate, curved screens? Help!

Computer monitors keep evolving rapidly, with new technology like OLED Flex, QD-OLED and built-in smart platforms just in the last year alone. That’s on top of big improvements in things like color accuracy, size and resolution. As there are a lot of products in this market and a lot of features, it can be overwhelming, so we’ve researched the latest models for all kinds of markets, whether you’re a gamer, business user or content creator. Read on to find out which model is the best for you and, especially, your budget.

Continue reading.

'The Callisto Protocol' hands-on

Think ‘Dead Space’, but grosser.

The Callisto Protocol is a new game from a studio with zero releases to its name, but playing it feels familiar - according to Engadget’s Jessica Conditt. It all seems to unapologetically feed off the immersive sci-fi horror concepts of Dead Space. This is the first game out of Striking Distance Studios, a team led by Dead Space co-creator Glen Schofield — so yeah, all the references are coming straight from the source.

Continue reading.

Sony's new high-end camera shoots 8K video with AI-powered autofocus

The high-resolution A7R V uses 'human pose estimation.'

Sony’s $3,900 A7R V is expensive and impressive. Built for shooting portraits, landscapes and other subjects that require as much resolution as possible, it’s plenty capable in other regards, too. The new model carries the same 61-megapixel resolution as the A7R IV, but the key improvement may be in the autofocus. This is Sony's first camera to introduce "human pose estimation." The system can see 20 different points in the human body and thus figure out where the eye is supposed to be, and keep faces in tight focus.

Continue reading.

Google Workspace individual plans jump from 15GB to 1TB of storage

You probably won't run out of Gmail and Drive storage space anytime soon.

Google has some good news for those using its Workspace plans. Users will soon get a significant storage upgrade from 15GB to 1TB at no extra cost. This storage will be accessed through Gmail, Drive and other Google services attached to your Workspace account, and it’s a major space upgrade, and it’ll come at no extra cost.

Continue reading.

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Apple pulls gambling ads from App Store product pages following backlash

On October 25th, Apple started displaying more ads in the App Store, particularly in the "Today" tab and at the bottom of app listings. Since then, multiple developers have complained about getting ads for gambling under their listings' "You Might Also Like" section, when they have nothing to do with their applications. One of those developers was Marco Arment, who posted a screenshot on Twitter showing gambling advertisements on the App Store page for his podcast app Overcast. Other developers reported having the same issue and made it clear that they weren't OK with casino ads in their product pages. Now, Apple has told MacRumors that it has "paused ads related to gambling and a few other categories on App Store product pages."

Now my app’s product page shows gambling ads, which I’m really not OK with.

Apple shouldn’t be OK with it, either.

The App Store has corrupted such a great company so deeply. They make so much from gambling and manipulative IAPs that they don’t even see the problem anymore. https://t.co/MnNlf7k0kT
— Marco Arment (@marcoarment) October 25, 2022

That's pretty much Apple's whole statement. It's not quite clear if the tech giant intends to resume serving gambling ads after the backlash dies down — Apple didn't expound on its decision, and the word "pause" seems to suggest that the change is only temporary. As MacRumors notes, people have been criticizing Apple for serving casino ads as a whole and not just because they're being served within app listings. Florian Mueller of the FOSS Patents blog also argued that by putting ads in app pages, Apple is forcing developers to pony up money to buy those ad spaces. That's because if they don't purchase them, competitors could use them and take potential customers away.

Apple has sold ads in the App Store for years, but the ads space in the Today tab used to be reserved for a curated list of recommendations from Apple's editorial team. Meanwhile, the "You Might Also Like" section where ads are now displayed at the bottom of listings contained suggestion cards for similar apps. Since Apple allows advertisers to target categories different than their own, though, casino ads can show up just about anywhere on the App Store.

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Wednesday, October 26, 2022

The best monitors for 2022

The choice is nice but overwhelming, as there are a lot of products in this market and a lot of features. Buyers now have to consider things like HDR, brightness, color accuracy, type of display technology, input lag and more. And then there are the usual considerations like size, adjustability, inputs and so on.

To help you with all that, we’ve researched the latest models for all kinds of markets, whether you’re a gamer, business user or content creator. Read on to find out which model is the best for you and, especially, your budget.

The basics

Panel type

The cheapest monitors are still TN (twisted nematic), which are strictly for gaming or office use. VA (vertical alignment) monitors are also relatively cheap, while offering good brightness and high contrast ratios. However, content creators will probably want an IPS (in-plane switching) LCD display that delivers better color accuracy, image quality and viewing angles.

If maximum brightness is important, a quantum dot LCD display is the way to go — those are typically found in larger displays. OLED monitors are now available and offer the best blacks and color reproduction, but they lack the brightness of LED or quantum dot displays. Plus, they cost a lot. The latest type of OLED monitor, called QD-OLED from Samsung, just came out this year. The most notable advantage is that it can get a lot brighter, with monitors shown at CES 2022 hitting up to 1,000 nits of peak brightness.

MiniLEDs are now widely used in high-end displays. They’re similar to quantum dot tech, but as the name suggests, it uses smaller LED diodes that are just 0.2mm in diameter. As such, manufacturers can pack in up to three times more LEDs with more local dimming zones, delivering deeper blacks and better contrast.

Screen size, resolution and display format

In this day and age, screen size rules. Where 24-inch displays used to be more or less standard (and can still be useful for basic computing), 27-, 32-, 34- and even 42-inch displays have become popular for entertainment, content creation and even gaming these days.

Nearly every monitor used to be 16:9, but it’s now possible to find 16:10 and other more exotic display shapes. On the gaming and entertainment side, we’re also seeing very wide and curved monitors with aspect ratios like 21:9. If you do decide to buy an ultrawide display, however, keep in mind that a 30-inch 21:9 model is the same height as a 24-inch monitor, so you might end up with a smaller display than you expected. As a rule of thumb, add 25 percent to the size of a 21:9 monitor to get the vertical height you’d expect from a 16:9 model.

4K is nearly a must for content creators, and some folks are even going for 5K or all the way up to 8K. Keep in mind, though, that you’ll need a pretty powerful computer to drive all those pixels. And 4K should be paired with a screen size of 27 inches and up, or you won’t notice much difference between 1440p. At the same time, I wouldn’t get a model larger than 27 inches unless it’s 4K, as you’ll start to see pixelation if you’re working up close to the display.

One new category to consider is portable monitors designed to be carried and used with laptops. Those typically come in 1080p resolutions and sizes from 13-15 inches. They usually have a lightweight kickstand-type support that folds up to keep things compact.

HDR

HDR is the buzzy monitor feature to have these days, as it adds vibrancy to entertainment and gaming – but be careful before jumping in. Some monitors that claim HDR on the marketing materials don’t even conform to a base standard. To be sure that a display at least meets minimum HDR specs, you’ll want to choose one with a DisplayHDR rating with each tier representing maximum brightness in nits.

However, the lowest DisplayHDR 400 and 500 tiers may disappoint you with a lack of brightness, washed out blacks and mediocre color reproduction. If you can afford it, choose a model with DisplayHDR 600, 1000 or True Black 400, True Black 500 and True Black 600. The True Black settings are designed primarily for OLED models, with maximum black levels at .0005 nits.

Where televisions typically offer HDR10 and Dolby Vision or HDR10+, most PC monitors only support the HDR10 standard, other than a few (very expensive) models. That doesn’t matter much for content creation or gaming, but HDR streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and other services won’t look quite as punchy. In addition, most models supporting HDR600 (and up) are gaming, rather than content creation monitors – with a few exceptions.

Refresh rate

Refresh rate is a key feature, particularly on gaming monitors. A bare minimum nowadays is 60Hz, and 80Hz refresh rates and up are much easier on the eyes. However, most 4K displays top out at 60Hz with some rare exceptions and the HDMI 2.0 spec only supports 4K at 60Hz, so you’d need at least DisplayPort 1.4 (4K at 120Hz) or HDMI 2.1. The latter is now available on a number of monitors, particularly gaming displays. However, it’s only supported on the latest NVIDIA RTX 3000- and 4000-series, AMD RX 6000-series GPUs.

Inputs

There are essentially three types of modern display inputs: Thunderbolt, DisplayPort and HDMI. Most monitors built for PCs come with the latter two, while a select few (typically built for Macs) will use Thunderbolt. To add to the confusion, USB-C ports may be Thunderbolt 3 and by extension, DisplayPort compatible, so you may need a USB-C to Thunderbolt or DisplayPort cable adapter depending on your display.

Color bit depth

Serious content content creators should consider a more costly 10-bit monitor that can display billions of colors. If budget is an issue, you can go for an 8-bit panel that can fake billions of colors via dithering (often spec’d as “8-bit + FRC”). For entertainment or business purposes, a regular 8-bit monitor that can display millions of colors will be fine.

Color gamut

The other aspect of color is the gamut. That expresses the range of colors that can be reproduced and not just the number of colors. Most good monitors these days can cover the sRGB and Rec.709 gamuts (designed for photos and video respectively). For more demanding work, though, you’ll want one that can reproduce more demanding modern gamuts like AdobeRGB, DCI-P3 and Rec.2020 gamuts, which encompass a wider range of colors. The latter two are often used for film projection and HDR, respectively.

Console gaming

Both the Xbox Series X and Sony’s PS5 can handle 4K 120Hz HDR gaming, so if you’re into resolution over pure speed, you’ll want a monitor that can keep up. 4K resolution, HDR and at least 120Hz is the minimum starting point, but fortunately there are 27-inch displays with those specs starting at well under $1,000.

Pricing and parts shortages

Though the pandemic has eased, monitor supply is still a bit tighter than pre-pandemic levels due to supply and demand issues. To that end, you may have trouble finding monitors at Amazon, B&H or elsewhere for the suggested retail price. For our guide below, we’re basing our picks on the MSRP, as long as the street price doesn’t exceed that by more than $25.

Engadget picks

Best monitors under $200

Samsung T35F

The monitor with the best balance of size, refresh rate and color accuracy is Samsung’s $160 27-inch 1080p T35F. It’s good for business or light gaming and content work, thanks to the IPS panel and 75Hz refresh rate. Plus, it’s fairly attractive and modern looking. There are some things you don’t get at that price, of course – it can only tilt and has an HDMI 1.4 connection.

Buy Samsung T35F at Amazon - $160

LG 24GL600F

If you’re fine with a smaller display and are more into gaming, another solid option is LG’s 24-inch 24GL600F. It offers a high 144Hz refresh rate with AMD FreeSync support, a 1ms response time and low input lag. You also get HDMI and DisplayPort inputs, but like the T35F, there’s no height adjustment.

Buy LG 24GL60F at Amazon - $200

Best monitors under $350

HP U28 4K HDR Monitor

The $330 28-inch HP U28 4K HDR monitor is a great all around choice, especially for content creators. The 60Hz IPS panel and factory calibration delivers excellent color accuracy and it’s a nice size for creative or business work. It comes with DisplayPort, HDMI and three USB 3.0 ports, along with a USB-C port with 65W of charging for a laptop or tablet. And it’s easy to set just right, thanks to height, swivel and pivot adjustment.

Buy HP U28 4K HDR monitor at Amazon - $330

Gigabyte G27QC

If gaming is more your thing, the $300 Gigabyte G27QC is a top pick. The 27-inch, 1440p curved panel has an ideal size and resolution for gaming, and it has a quick 165Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time. You can connect via HDMI 2.0 or DisplayPort 1.2 connections and get HDR support – albeit, without DisplayHDR certification.

Buy Gigabyte G27QC at Amazon - $300

Best monitor under $400

BenQ 27-inch QHD HDR Monitor

The $400 BenQ 27-inch 2K QHD HDR model is ideal for creative work, particularly photo editing and graphic design. While resolution is limited to 1440p, it covers 100 percent of the sRGB color gamut with a “Delta E” accuracy value of less than 3 for consistent color performance. You also get height, pivot and swivel adjustment (a full 90 degrees), with HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.4 and USB-C daisy chaining and 65W power delivery.

Buy BenQ 2K QHD HDR monitor at Amazon - $400

Best monitors under $500

LG 32UN650-W

The 32-inch LG 32UN650-W is a great 4K monitor for entertainment, creative chores and gaming. The 31.5-inch, 60Hz IPS panel covers an excellent 95 percent of the DCI-P3 gamut with 10-bit color, but also supports AMD FreeSync for gaming. It also supports HDR, albeit with just 350 nits of maximum brightness. It has HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.4 ports, tilt and height adjustments and even built-in speakers.

Buy LG 32UN650-W at Amazon - $500

ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN

Sometimes speed rules over size and resolution, and the $500 24.5-inch 1080p ASUS ROG Swift PG256QN is fast. It maxes out at a 360Hz refresh rate (with NVIDIA G-Sync support) and 1ms GtG response time. At the same time, you get 1.07 billion colors with HDR support (up to 400 nits brightness) so you can see your enemies quickly and clearly. Other niceties include a fully adjustable stand, ASUS’s GamePlus Hotkey Enhancements and a large heatsink.

Buy ASUS ROG Swift PG259QN at Amazon - $500

Gigabyte M28U

Gigabyte’s M28U 28-inch 144Hz 4K gaming monitor sure does a lot. It has an IPS panel with a 2ms (MPRT) response time, 94 percent DCI-P3 coverage, DisplayHDR 400 certification, 2 HDMI 2.1 ports and FreeSync Premium Pro support. It comes in a little bit more expensive than $500, but we've often seen it on sale for $480.

Buy Gigabyte M28U at Amazon - $480

Best monitors under $1,000

ViewSonic ColorPro VP2786-4K

In this price range you can have resolution, color accuracy or brightness, but not all three. The one with the best balance is ViewSonic’s $1,000 ColorPro VP2786 27-inch 4K HDR Monitor. The true 10-bit IPS panel covers 98 percent of the DCI-P3 color palette with an excellent Delta <2 accuracy figure, and is certified for soft-proofing by the demanding Fogra print industry. At the same time, it offers HDR10 support, albeit with a limited 350 nits of output. It even includes a “ColorPro” wheel control compatible with Adobe or Capture One apps.

Buy ViewSonic ColorPro at Amazon - $1,000

Dell G3223Q

The best 4K gaming monitor under $1,000 is Dell’s G3223Q 4K 32-inch HDR 144Hz monitor because of the speed, brightness and compatibility. It has an IPS panel with a 144Hz refresh rate, 1ms GtG response time, 95 percent DCI-P3 coverage and DisplayHDR 600 certification. Plus, it comes with a pair of HDMI 2.1 ports and is both FreeSync and G-Sync compatible.

Buy Dell G3223Q at Amazon - $1,000

Dell P3223QE

Dell’s P3223QE 4K USB-C Hub monitor is productivity-oriented, thanks to the wired Ethernet connectivity and USB-C ports that offer up to 90W of power delivery for laptops. It’s a 4K IPS panel with a 178-degree viewing angle and 350 nits of brightness and support for a billion colors (8-bit + FRC). It offers height, pivot, swivel and tilt adjustment, a VESA mounting interface and DisplayPort/HDMI inputs.

Buy Dell P3223QE at Amazon - $850

Best monitor for Mac users

Apple Studio Display

In general, monitor compatibility issues with MacBooks and Macs are a thing of the past, though you can still experience issues with things like refresh rates, particularly on M1 Macs. If you’d prefer to stay within the Apple family, the most cost-effective option is still the $1,600 27-inch Apple Studio Display. It supports 5K resolution (5,120 x 2,880) with up to 600 nits of brightness, so it can handle creative chores with ease. It even includes a 12-megapixel UltraWide camera that keeps you in frame via Center Stage, along with a three-mic array.

Buy Apple Studio Display at Amazon - $1,600

LG Ultrafine 4K and 5K

The best third-party option is LG’s $700 UltraFine 4 display, also sold on Apple’s Store. With a 24-inch 4K panel, you not only get very high resolution but also 500 nits of brightness (albeit, without HDR capability). It’s color-accurate out of the box, making it great for video- and photo-editing work on a Mac or MacBook. Finally, it supports Thunderbolt 3 with daisy chaining and power delivery, all of which is very useful for Mac users who may want multiple displays.

Buy LG Ultrafine 5K at Apple - $1,300 Buy LG Ultrafine 4K at Apple - $700

Best Ultrawide monitor

LG 34GP950G-B

Ultrawide 21:9 monitors are a great option for some types of content creation, games (particularly driving and flight sims) and productivity work. The best model this year is LG’s 34GP950G-B, a 34-inch 3,440 x 1,440 curved monitor. The curved IPS panel supports HDR10 with 400 nits of brightness and maximum (via overclocking) 180Hz refresh rate. It’s also G-Sync and FreeSync compatible (the latter over DisplayPort only).

Buy LG 34GP950G-B at B&H Photo - $997

Best portable monitor

LePow C2S

For the best balance of performance and price, LePow’s 15.6-inch, 1080p $200 C2S is a solid option. It offers decent brightness (220 nits), solid contrast and a very respectable 96.1-percent sRGB gamut coverage. You get a generous selection of ports (one mini-DisplayPort, one mini-HDMI port and two USB-C ports, along with a headphone jack. The metal stand is solid and practical, and it even has built-in speakers of decent quality.

Buy LePow C2S at Amazon - $200

Best luxury monitor

ASUS ProArt PA32UCG-K

ASUS still holds the prize for best luxury monitor, but it discontinued the previous mini-LED $4,000 ProArt PA32UCX monitor and replaced it with the $5,000 PA32UCG-K display. It uses the same mini-LED tech, but ups the ante with 1,600 nits of brightness via 1,152 backlight zones, an HDMI 2.1 port, 4K 120Hz resolution, 10-bit, 98 percent DCI-P3 coverage and an impressive 85 percent Rec.2020 coverage. Oh, and it’s one of the few monitors out there that supports Dolby Vision, along with HDR10 and HLG.

You’re probably doing it wrong if you’re using a $5K monitor for gaming. However, it does support AMD FreeSync (good for gaming creation) and has a 5-millisecond response time, very respectable for a display essentially designed for professional colorists. And to that end, color accuracy is calibrated to Delta E < 1 and it’s a true 10-bit panel delivering billions of colors. To verify that, it even comes with an X-rite i1 Display Pro color calibrator, normally sold separately for around $500.

On top of this model, ASUS now makes several slightly less bright and less expensive variants, namely the $4,180 PA32UCX-PK, (plus -P, and -K variants with slightly different features), offering 1,200 nits of brightness and a 60Hz (not 120Hz) refresh rate. Specs are nearly identical otherwise.

Buy ASUS ProArt PA32UCG-K at Amazon - $5,000

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