Discover why local and trade publications can build deeper brand trust, stronger relevance, and better long-term visibility than national outlets while supporting your PR strategy for future top-tier coverage. Read more. Read the full article at MarketingProfs
Natural language interfaces (NLIs) are changing how marketers access and analyze data, enabling faster insights, better decision-making, and more efficient workflows. Read more. Read the full article at MarketingProfs
Sony Interactive Entertainment has signed a deal to produce and publish a game from Bad Robot, JJ Abrams production company. The two sides are keeping most of the details close to their chest for now, but the game is a four-player co-op shooter for PlayStation 5 and PC directed by someone who knows a thing or two about that genre: Left 4 Dead creator Mike Booth.Bad Robot Games which is a fully remote studio was formed in 2018 with the help of Tencent. It has lent a hand on games including Weird West (as an investor and creative consultant) as well as interactive streaming series Silent Hill: Ascension. This new game is the first one that Bad Robot Games is developing in-house.A few months back, Booth dropped into the Left 4 Dead subreddit to say that he was working on a new co-op game built on the foundations of what made L4D special. If you enjoyed the teamwork, tension and replayability of my past games, youll probably find this one interesting. It expands on the co-op formula in ways Ive wanted to explore for a long time. He added that, while the game was still in early development, Bad Robot was opening up a waitlist for access to playtests.According to a press release, Bad Robot Games is a dedicated game studio working on new and existing transmedia franchises. So, this project could well be part of an entirely new franchise, but the prospect of co-op shooter from the designer of Left 4 Dead thats set in the Cloverfield universe is pretty darn intriguing. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/playstation-teams-up-with-bad-robot-and-the-creator-of-left-4-dead-for-a-co-op-shooter-144637802.html?src=rss
The Antigravity A1 is what happens when Insta360s 360-degree cameras are given wings and flying feels like a video game. Spinning out as its own brand, Antigravitys debut drone is a big swing: a three-piece set with a drone that captures 8K 360-degree video, FPV goggles and a motion controller.Challenging the dominance of DJIs (many!) consumer drones is a big ask. Antigravitys approach is to play to its strengths in 360-degree video and smartphone-first editing. A lot of the appeal comes from how the A1 captures 8K video in all directions, meaning you can edit, cut and swap around your footage and hopefully rarely miss a moment youre trying to document. Its a lot of fun, too, if you can get through the early teething issues, updates and the learning curve.The droneAntigravity A1 drone reviewImage by Mat Smith for EngadgetThe A1 drone is just 249 grams (0.548 lbs). This helps it bypass some drone regulations, though flying permissions vary by region. The pair of cameras mounted on the top and bottom of the drone's body is one of its unique features. Its difficult to directly compare the A1 against competitor drones, as it offers a mix of features found across different categories and some unique tools of its own.The A1 can capture 360-degree video at up to 8K resolution, and thanks to Insta360s action cam experience, it can magically remove the drone body from video. This means you can capture video and never see propellers or, well, any part of the drone itself.Along the base of the drone, two landing gears automatically lower when you attempt to land the A1, although you will have to manually retract them when youre looking to launch the drone. You can also lower the landing gear from one of the controllers many buttons.The removable battery has a handy one-touch gauge to monitor levels and provides over 20 minutes of flight time, depending on conditions and whether youre recording video. Antigravity suggests it should last up to 24 minutes during normal filming use. My review device came with two spare batteries and a charging dock. Its very easy to swap out the batteries, and the charging dock can fully charge a single cell in 45 minutes and even charge all three slots at once. Theres a microSD card slot on the rear of the drone, alongside a USB-C port for (slowly) charging the battery.Antigravity A1 drone reviewImage by Mat Smith for EngadgetThe cameras have a 1/1.28-inch sensor, f/2.2 lens aperture and an ISO range from 100 to 6,400. To adjust those settings beyond auto, youll have to dive into the menu inside the goggles, which can be laborious to navigate with a gesture-based controller. Fortunately, auto ISO and white balance are usually good enough. Pro-level content creators might want to tinker with levels here, and theres a histogram you can toggle on or even a zebra pattern to highlight overexposed shots and areas. and the A1 can record 8K video at up to 30fps or 4K at up to 100fps. You can also meet in the middle, with a 5.2k recording mode.There are also three different flying modes, which are easy to select on the controller. Alongside Normal mode, Sport mode increases the maximum flight speed and offers enhanced flight performance, improves control sensitivity and turns off obstacle avoidance. Sport mode offers a tangible difference when flying the A1: it doubles the horizontal flight speed compared to Normal mode. Theres also a Cinematic (C) mode, with a lower max speed for smoother video footage.The controller and gogglesAntigravity A1 drone reviewImage by Mat Smith for EngadgetThe flight mode switcher is one of many controls, wheels, buttons and sliders that pepper the surface of the A1s grip controller. Intriguingly, though, the main way to control the A1 drone is through gestures, not joysticks or buttons. Instead of pitching control sticks to the left and right, up and down, its more akin to a video game, where you point the controller where you want to go, shown with a reticle, and pull the trigger. The A1 then shoots off in that direction.The crucial part is that this doesnt have to be where youre looking from the drones POV. This means you can strafe and fly in any direction without your view being constrained by static cameras. Its a sensation unlike any other drone Ive flown. It feels more like playing a video game like piloting a helicopter in GTA 5. Youre able to look in any direction, both while in motion and while hovering stationary.There are controls for recording video, controlling vertical flight and rotating your POV without turning your head. Theres even a RTH (return to home) function that can be accessed by long-pressing the emergency brake button.The included goggles deliver a crisp view of everything, with a pair of 1.03-inch micro-OLED displays with a resolution of 2,560 × 2,560 and a 72Hz refresh rate. Other FPV drone goggles typically offer 100Hz refresh rates, but it wasnt a dealbreaker for me. I feared that latency hiccups could make airsickness an issue while flying the A1, but I didnt experience it. My take is that being able to fully control your view makes nausea less of an issue.Another nice touch, especially if youre flying with friends, is a circular outer display on the goggles, so everyone can see what the A1 sees. Naturally, it cant encompass the entire view of the drone pilot, but theres also nothing duller than watching someone else fly a drone. This offers a mild respite. The other eyepiece is a touchpad for steering through menus inside the goggles without having to point and click with the controller.PerformanceAntigravity A1 drone reviewImage by Mat Smith for EngadgetWhile the Antigravity A1 may offer a more immersie drone-flying experience, in pure numerical terms, it lags behind some competitors. For example, even in Sport mode, the A1 tops out at a maximum speed of just under 36 mph, falling behind the likes of DJIs Avata 2 (60 mph).I was still pleasantly surprised by how responsive the A1 felt, especially in Sport mode. An additional FPV mode (accessible from the goggles) adds more sensitive controls, although I havent been able to test it much since it was introduced in a recent firmware update.For someone with more gaming experience than drone piloting hours, Antigravitys central control system fits like a glove. I could fly where I wanted, confident in the controls and in the knowledge that I would capture what I wanted to. According to Antigravity, you can fly the A1 within a 10km transmission range, although I didnt manage to test that limit in central London.The experience of starting with the drone felt, at times, unnecessarily arduous. Pairing everything together has to be done in a specific order: power up drone, power up goggles, power up controller. And turning off each item isnt a typical long press of the power button. Instead, you use a press-once-press-it-again-and-hold method that I forget pretty much every time.Downloading video from the A1 to your phone is also laborious, but thats not a flaw specific to this drone. Antigravity has attempted some shortcuts, including a microSD card quick reader that connects to your phone or PC via USB-C.However, at the time of testing, manually connecting the microSD is less of an option and more of a necessity. The drone repeatedly failed to connect to the companion app and reliably transfer video files. Some video files recorded seemingly evaporated between firmware updates, only to reappear later. Another file had been converted to two separate circular views, one from each camera, which made it essentially unusable. Hopefully these intial teething problems have been solved by firmware updates and won't be in retail devices.Its a shame everything isnt more stable, especially when both flying the A1 and using Antigravitys editing software are bothis so beginner-friendly. It's something Ive mentioned before with the parent companys action cams, but the ability to create barrel rolls, tilt rotations with just one tap or click is, again, just fun. And because you can reframe and tinker with video warping, create tiny planet effects or simply crop to a more traditional, cinematic camera view, Antigravitys software offers almost infinite ways to present your drone footage. Deeptracking can be done both during recording and editing in post, keeping a moving subject or point of interest centered as the A1 zips around.There are also AI-powered video editing features to chop up your 20 minutes of flying footage into something digestible and engaging with minimal effort. Because its a 360-degree video, the footage can be easily cropped to suit both horizontal and vertical formats.However, with a smaller sensor and 8K resolution spread across a 360-degree view, the A1 is not the best video drone. The video is pleasingly crisp and clear, and while the footage is best recorded in bright daylight or other well-lit locations, murky British November days didnt affect it much. As the A1 has to stitch together its two sensors, theres often a visible seam to your video, but its usually a very subtle glitch. It might stop some video creators from tapping it for their most polished aerial shots though. Recording video later in the day resulted in more noise and less detail. This is when the A1s Cinematic mode (and generally slower flying) is a good idea, but it still wont make up for the fact that this drones sensors are covering such wide angles. More video-centric drones will deliver cleaner video and better performance in less-than-ideal lighting conditions.Wrap-upAntigravity A1 drone reviewImage by Mat Smith for EngadgetThe Antigravity A1 is available now, with a standard bundle including the drone, controller and goggles for $1,599. The Infinity Bundle ($1,999) adds two extra batteries, quick reader dongle, sling bag and a charging dock. That does make it substantially more expensive than rival FPV drones like the DJI Avata 2, but the A1 is also a very different kind of drone.The intuitive controls and ability to look all around you make it unlike anything else currently available. Its a delightful introduction to drones, FPV or otherwise, but a shame that software issues marred my tests. Plus, pairing all the devices can be convoluted and frustrating at times.If Antigravity is thinking about what to do next, Id be intrigued to see a version with the camera bonafides to take on similarly priced DJI drones. But that shouldnt detract from the companys debut model since the A1 is arguably the most intriguing consumer drone since the Mavic Pro.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/antigravity-a1-drone-review-140026021.html?src=rss
If you missed the Black Friday sale on Apple's AirPods 4 with ANC, you're in luck they're back on sale at the same $99 price for a substantial $80 savings (45 percent). What's more, if you're one who frets about damaging your gear, you can grab them with AppleCare+ for $118, saving 43 percent from the normal price.
We think that the AirPods Pro 2 are the best AirPods overall, but the ANC-enabled AirPods 4 are also a solid choice, especially at this price. We gave them a score of 86 in our review.
Apple's AirPods 4 come in two variants, with and without ANC. Though the base model is solid, the version on sale here with ANC offers a number of advantages like Conversation Awareness, Adaptive Audio and Transparency mode. They also have a charging case that supports MagSafe and Qi-compatible wireless charging, along with a built-in speaker that emits beeps when you activate Find My. And as Apple recently announced, AirPods 4 with ANC supports the company's Live Translation feature.
Our main reservation with the AirPods 4 with ANC is that the Airpods Pro 2 are a better noise-cancellation option when they go on sale. At this price, though, the AirPods 4 with ANC are a real bargain if you're looking for new buds especially if you prefer the open-ears type. As mentioned, for extra peace of mind you can also get the Airpods 4 with ANC plus AppleCare+ protection for $118, or 43 percent off.
Check out our coverage of the best Apple deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/apples-airpods-4-with-anc-are-back-on-sale-for-99-140903670.html?src=rss
The UK has fined a porn operator called AVS Group 1 million ($1.33 million) for failing to have strong enough age checks, regulator Ofcom announced. The company which was also hit with an additional 50,000 fine for its failure to respond to information request and now has 72 hours to introduce effective age checks or face a further penalty of 1,000 a day.
In July, the UK government announced it would start checking compliance by websites that publish or display pornographic content to implement a system for "highly effective age checks." Methods approved by Ofcom include credit card checks, photo ID matching and even estimating a user's age with a provided selfie. However, users have been circumventing the age checks via methods like using a VPN and providing a fake ChatGPT-generated photo ID.
The fine is the third such penalty arising from the UK's Online Safety Act designed to protect children and adults from harmful content. In October, 4Chan was also hit with a 20,000 ($26,700) fine for failing to comply with the internet and telecommunications regulator's request for information under the same law.
The UK isn't the only region to have implemented age checks. Around half of US states now require it, as do France, Italy, Australia and China. Australia took things a step further by banning social media use by children under 16, including sites popular with young people like Twitch and YouTube.
Ofcom's safety director, Oliver Griffiths, said the crackdown on weak age verification for adult sites would continue. "The tide on online safety is beginning to turn for the better. But we need to see much more from tech companies next year and well use our full powers if they fall short."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/uk-fines-porn-company-%C2%A31-million-for-weak-age-checks-130056578.html?src=rss
The latest addition to Proton's workplace suite is a spreadsheet tool called Proton Sheets. It will offer real-time collaboration, and users can control who has access to view and edit files. Proton Sheets can also be accessed on any device, including mobile ones. It supports importing CSV and XLS files, and the spreadsheets also support commonly used formulas for calculations.A big part of Proton's pitch is privacy, promising that users' information won't be used for training AI. The company also protects user data with end-to-end encryption by default; the press release pointedly notes that products like Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel don't do the same.The Sheets app will be a part of Proton Drive, which already includes a Docs platform with several features similar to those offered by other productivity tools from big tech brands. Proton also offers a VPN and a Mail app. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/proton-sheets-joins-the-companys-productivity-suite-110000344.html?src=rss
Since reality TV can generate as much daily conversation as any sporting event, Samsung has opened a temporary venue in Stockholm that treats unscripted drama with the same communal reverence typically reserved for soccer matches. Verkligheten Swedish for "the reality" is a pop-up bar in the Södermalm district that responds to a straightforward observation: sports bars are ubiquitous, yet no equivalent exists for fans of reality shows. The concept emerged from social media chatter in Sweden questioning this disparity, prompting Samsung to partner with local bar Lykke Nytorget and create a dedicated space where fans can gather to watch curated reality programming on Samsung screens.Running through mid-December, the venue offers a rotating schedule of iconic and contemporary reality shows, including content from Samsung TV Plus, the company's free ad-supported streaming service. The platform has recently expanded its Swedish catalog to include reality-focused channels such as "World of Love Island" and "Project Runway," underscoring Samsung's push in unscripted entertainment. By integrating Samsung TV Plus into the physical space, the initiative highlights the service's growing offerings while demonstrating that communal viewing experiences shouldn't be confined to sports.TREND BITEBy transforming solitary screen time into a shared social event, Verkligheten challenges the assumption that home entertainment must remain at home. Reality TV thrives on conversation the dissection of drama, the debate over contestants, the collective gasp at plot twists yet most fans experience these shows alone on their couches before taking to social media to find community. Samsung recognized the format's inherent social currency and brought it into the physical world. The pop-up demonstrates how brands can create genuine value by facilitating the human connections their products enable but don't always deliver.
The Oversight Board is getting ready to tackle a new pain point for Facebook and Instagram users. Up to now, users have been able to appeal content moderation decisions related to specific posts to the board, but haven't been able to ask the group to intervene in other situations that affect their accounts. That could soon change. The board says that it will weigh in on individual account-level penalties in a pilot next year. The board noted the change in an impact report recapping its five-year history and what lies ahead in the year to come. "In 2026, our scope expands once more as we pilot the ability to review Metas decisions removing and impacting accounts, something that has created ongoing frustration for platform users," the report says. It's not clear how this process will work, but if the board plans to take on account-level issues like suspensions, it would be a significant expansion of its purview. In an interview with Engadget, board member Paolo Carozza said that Meta is expected to refer a case to the board in January that will deal with an account-level issue. The handling of that case will allow the board to explore how it might take on similar cases in the future. "We're really excited to take it on because we think it's an important area that really affects a lot of users and their interests," he told Engadget. "We all know how many people are constantly coming forward complaining about account-level restrictions or blocking or whatever else, and so if we get it right and it's going to be important to work it out this first pilot we're really optimistic that it's going to help open up a whole new avenue for us to be helpful to the users of [Meta's] platforms."Carozza added that there are a number of "technical aspects" and other questions still being worked out between the board and Meta. So for now, it's too soon to say whether there will ever be an official appeals process for suspensions, like there currently is for post removals. But he says Meta is equally invested in the effort. "It's something we've been talking about with Meta for well over a year," he said. "They've been expressing an openness and a willingness to give us access to those kinds of questions."The Oversight Board's report hints at another way its influence could potentially expand. It notes that the group's work has made it "well-positioned to partner with a range of global tech companies as they navigate issues arising from free speech debates globally." Both Meta and Oversight Board officials have previously floated the idea that "other companies" might want to take advantage of its expertise. Up to now, most other platforms have had little incentive to do so. But Carozza says the rise of generative AI has created some new interest from non-Meta affiliated platforms, and that there have been "really preliminary" conversations with other companies. "It feels like quite a different moment now, largely because of generative AI, LLMs, chatbots [and] the way that a variety of retail-level users of these technologies are facing a whole new set of challenges and harms that's attracting a lot of scrutiny," he said. "We have had conversations in recent months with other tech companies in this space about the possibility that the board might be able to contribute helpful services to them to help navigate some of these really thorny questions."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/metas-oversight-board-wants-to-expand-its-powers-in-2026-100000385.html?src=rss
The Department of Transportation under President Donald Trump is moving to reverse more of the climate policies that had been enacted by President Joe Biden. Under a proposed rulemaking by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks in model year 2031 will be reduced to an average of 34.5 miles per gallon, down from the standard of 50.4 miles per gallon that was part of Biden's plans to encourage more adoption of electric vehicles among US drivers. The move was expected since Trump re-took office. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy ordered the NHTSA to review fuel efficiency standards in January a day after he assumed the title. The current administration also ended a tax credit for buying electric vehicles over the summer. In the meantime, international manufacturers are racing ahead in their progress on building better EVs, offering other markets more exciting models that wont arrive in the US thanks to tariffs.While Trump's announcement today claimed that the change would reduce the average cost of a new car by $1,000 and offer a savings of $109 billion over five years, gas prices are on track to increase if the Environmental Protection Agency does successfully repeal the finding that climate change causes human harm. Plus there's the incalculable financial and human cost of a growing number of catastrophic weather events that have been predicted if the planet continues to get warmer.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/us-department-of-transportation-doubles-down-on-gas-cuts-fuel-efficiency-standards-234542939.html?src=rss
