Instagram has rolled out an update for Reels that will let users go through more of them more quickly. As TechCrunch has reported, the app now allows users to play Reels at 2x the speed by long-pressing on the right or the left edge of the screen. They'd simply have to release it if they'd like to resume watching at normal speed. Some users have had access to the feature for a while now, while others used to have it until Instagram removed it from their accounts, likely because the app was only testing it out. Now, an Instagram rep has told CNET that it's rolling out to everyone. We previously didn't have the feature and can confirm that we've gained access to it within the past few hours.
The representative said that the option has been highly requested by the app's users. Being able to fast-forward Reels has become somewhat of a necessity for a lot of people today, seeing as Instagram's short-form videos are no longer limited to 15 seconds in length like they used to be. Reels can now be as long as three minutes, and there are signs indicating that the app could allow uploads as long as 10 minutes. We wouldn't be surprised if Instagram started allowing Reels that long in the future. Instagram and TikTok have had history of adopting new features previously unveiled by the other, and TikTok allows videos recorded within its app to be 10 minutes long. In fact, TikTok has had the option to watch videos at twice the speed for a while now, which is even more necessary for the app, since its users can upload videos up to an hour in length.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/instagram-will-let-you-watch-reels-at-twice-the-speed-120047663.html?src=rss
The US will append a 25 percent tariff on top of any existing tariffs on all cars produced outside its borders. Additional fees will be imposed on imported components too like engines, transmissions, powertrains and electrical components. Theres a number of carve outs for US-based companies, as well as those sourcing gear from Mexico and Canada. But the move has been taken under the guise of protecting Americas car industry from imports.
Of course, hefty tariffs are no guarantee consumers will flock to buy American if other brands are pricier. Weve been here before: The 70s oil shock meant bulky and inefficient American cars were suddenly money pits. That made light and efficient Japanese cars far more attractive to buyers who didnt want to go broke at the gas pump. And that was despite a tariff regime that, as PBS reported in 2017, was equivalent to a 60 percent levy. Before 1980, Chrysler, GM and Ford were kings now they muscle with Toyota, Honda and Hyundai for a slice of the pie.
Given the new administrations work to undermine the EV transition, its likely well see a big pivot back to gas-powered vehicles. Especially as the one EV company likely to benefit from such a move has potentially diminished its reputation in the eyes of some buyers. The end result, however, may likely erode any sort of advantage the US auto industry has, allowing China the chance to race ahead in the rest of the world.
Dan Cooper
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The biggest tech stories you missed
The Pentagon warns government officials that Signal is being targeted by Russian hackersIm not sure why we should worry, its not as if government officials are secretly using Signal to agree war plans, are they?! Sorry whats that?
The minimalist Light Phone III is officially available for purchaseIt offers private GPS for folks who dont want Google tracking their movements.
No Mans Sky now lets players dig up planets to look for ancient alien skeletons Better charge up that Terrain Manipulator.
A new MEMS tweeter for wireless earbuds doesnt require an amplifier Better sound in a smaller package is always welcome.
Utah just became the first state in the country to pass an age verification law for app storesNobody involved in this law has ever put their thumb on a TouchID sensor to allow an app to download because their kid hasnt shut up about something for three hours.
iPad (2025) with A16 review: No Apple Intelligence, no problem
Plus, its cheap.
Jeff Dunn for Engadget
Engadgets Jeff Dunn has put the new 2025 base-model iPad through its paces, and it comes with no surprises. The new slate gets a faster chip, A16, and 2GB more ram than its immediate predecessor. Naturally, compared to the pricier iPads, its performance isnt going to pull up too many trees, but youre not using a base model iPad for intensive work. Plus, its not going to get any Apple Intelligence features, which Ill take any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
Continue Reading.
Canon goes all in on vlogging with the PowerShot V1 compact and R50 V mirrorless cameras
Its a tank parked on Sonys lawn.
Steve Dent for Engadget
Canon has announced two new compact mirrorless cameras for the vlogging crowd, the R50V Mirrorless and PowerShot V1 Compact. Both are attempts to muscle in on Sonys turf in the videography space, boasting 4K video (1080p as a webcam), fancy autofocus tricks and a fully articulating display (at the expense of an electronic viewfinder). Engadgets Steve Dent will review them in due course, but its hard to wonder if the vlogging space really needs yet more entrants, especially right now.
Continue Reading.
Block reportedly lays off almost 1,000 employees
It has more than 10,000 staff members.
Block, Jack Dorseys payments company which owns Square and Cash App, has laid off 931 workers. The outfit denies the move is to cut costs, saying its to improve efficiency and flatten the organization by eliminating managers. As much as Im sad for those folks who have lost their jobs, Im staggered that 931 workers is only around eight percent of its workforce.
When the tedious bores moaned Twitter was overstaffed, I knew they were talking out of their backsides. After all, a global social network needs bodies to keep the site running, engage with advertisers and moderate such a sprawling platform. And while most financial institutions need plenty of qualified folks to comply with financial laws not that Block has a stellar record in that area 10,000 people to run Square and Cash App seems like a lot.
Continue Reading.
Robinhood is moving into banking services with luxury perks and same-day cash delivery
Im sure Gamestop buyers would love to bank with Robinhood.
This fall, Robinhood will offer banking services to users with a Gold subscription, with all the usual perks banks throw at customers. That includes checking and savings accounts, money transfers to more than 100 countries and same-day cash deliveries to your door. You can even get your own wealth-management service, for all of the vast riches youve got left over once youve paid your rent, your car loan and bought six eggs from your local corner store.
Continue Reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-will-the-us-imported-car-tariffs-work-112509770.html?src=rss
There's a lot in the world to be angry about today. So, why not do like we did in the '90s and channel that aggression into beating the living hell out of bad guys in a delightfully loud and over-the-top arcade game? Marvel Cosmic Invasion takes characters like Spider-Man, Captain America and Wolverine and gives them a beat-'em-up that looks straight out of a grunge-era cabinet.
If this sounds like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, that's no coincidence. Marvel Cosmic Invasion is not only cut from the same cloth; it's from the same team (developer Tribute Games and publisher Dotemu). The idea is to recreate the look, sound and feel of side-scrolling '90s button-mashers like X-Men, The Simpsons and the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with modern touches.
Tribute Games / Dotemu
Like Shredder's Revenge, it exploits the advantages of modern graphical engines without betraying its muses' old-school pixel art. Appropriately, the characters' visual style is inspired by 90s-era Marvel comics.
You'll choose a team of two superheroes and can tag between them mid-fight. At launch, you can play as Captain America, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Storm, Phyla-Vell, Venom and Nova. The developers are mum about which characters we might see in the future, but it's hard to imagine Marvel stalwarts like Thor, Iron Man, Black Panther, Hulk and Black Widow not swooping in at some point.
Tribute Games / Dotemu
Its story sounds as extravagant as you'd want from a '90s-inspired Marvel beat-'em-up. "The immortal Super Villain Annihilus has launched an unprecedented attack across the galaxy, threatening all life as we know it," the description reads. "Fighters both Earth-born and cosmic must now join forces in a star-spanning adventure against the deadly Annihilation Wave. Brawl through the streets of New York City all the way to the depths of the Negative Zone to foil Annihilus' vow to spread death across the cosmos."
You can play with up to four players, local or online. (And it supports crossplay!)
Marvel Cosmic Invasion will be available for PC, Switch, PS5 / PS4 and Xbox. There's no word yet on pricing or an exact release date, but Dotemu says it will arrive later this year. In the meantime, you can check out the announcement trailer below.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/marvel-cosmic-invasion-is-a-90s-style-beat-em-up-in-the-mold-of-shredders-revenge-191110625.html?src=rss
In the final days of our pre-Switch 2 world, Nintendo is trying to rethink how sharing games works. The biggest announcement from the company's latest Direct was its upcoming Virtual Game Cards feature, a new approach to sharing digital games that improves on the company's current system, but still carries limitations that keep it from feeling truly modern.
Virtual Game Cards attempt to make digital games as easy to share as physical ones. That starts with the company visually representing games as "cards" and using the language of loading and ejecting them, and extends to how simple they are to share. Two Switch consoles logged into your Nintendo Account can share any digital game just by "ejecting" it from one and "loading" it on another. The only catch is that the consoles need to be connected over local wireless (as in, be physically near each other) when the trade happens, and be able to access the internet to download the game and run it for the first time.
You can similarly share a Virtual Game Card with anyone in the same Nintendo Account family group for two weeks, after which the game automatically returns. In both cases, saves for each game stay on the console where the game was played, making it simple to share the Virtual Game Card again and keep playing.
In comparison to Nintendo's current system, which requires defining a Switch console as "primary" and able to be used offline and other devices as a "secondary" and needing an internet connection to play shared games, Virtual Game Cards are a meaningful improvement. If you're a parent trying to share games with your kids or a super-fan with multiple Switches (something Nintendo no doubt wants to encourage), Virtual Game Cards have basically solved the problem or at least made it much easier to manage and understand. The company isn't exactly leading the pack here, though.
If I own a game on PlayStation, I can download it on my Playstation 4 and PlayStation 5, and play on either console, without needing to go through the rigamarole of ejecting virtual cards. The same goes for Steam games. Valve even goes further and lets the vast majority of games be shared and played on accounts connected to the same Steam Family, without your computers needing to be near each other when you "hand-off" games.
People are highly sensitive to any kind of DRM. Just ask Xbox, which had big plans to change how loaning games work when the Xbox One was announced, but had to dramatically backtrack after basically everyone complained.
Nintendo isn't pulling an Xbox, per se, but it is pitching something adjacent. Virtual Game Cards are inarguably better than how things work now, but they require an internet connection and they still limit how many people can play a game at once. Nintendo came up with a better mental model for sharing games, but not necessarily a better way to do it.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendos-digital-switch-game-sharing-plan-could-be-so-much-simpler-190353732.html?src=rss
Shadow Labyrinth, an utterly bonkers riff on Pac-Man and sidescrolling Metroidvania games, will hit digital store shelves on July 18. Itll be available for Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
The game casts players as Swordsman No. 8 as he befriends a yellow orb called Puck. For the gaming historians out there, Puck-Man was the original name for Pac-Man. The gameplay involves switching from the classic sword-wielding hero to Puck, with the latter able to crawl on walls and (surprise) gobble up yellow dots. Theres also a third form, a mecha construct called Gaia.
The gameplay looks frenetic and fairly violent, which seems like an odd choice for everyones favorite perpetually hungry orb. Bandai Namco is making the game, however, and it made the very first Pac-Man all of those decades ago. Im going to give them the benefit of the doubt here. In any event, its not as if developers havent experimented with Pac-Man in the past. The famished fiend has been featured in racing games, platformers, endless runners, puzzlers and more. Whats one more genre to add to the mix?
Shadow Labyrinth will be available in the original version and as a Digital Deluxe edition. That one comes with a digital artbook and the soundtrack.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/shadow-labyrinth-the-edgy-pac-man-metroidvania-arrives-on-july-18-185011811.html?src=rss
Ubisoft is continuing its efforts to course-correct after several challenging years. Today, the video game company announced that it will launch a subsidiary centered around three of its most familiar franchises: Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six. The as-yet-unnamed subsidiary will fold in the teams working on those three series, including Ubisoft studios in Montréal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona and Sofia.
This new business will receive an investment of 1.16 billion (roughly $1.25 billion) from its longstanding partner Tencent, granting the conglomerate a minority ownership stake. Following the transaction, Ubisoft will narrow focus to its other franchises, such as The Division and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon.
"Today Ubisoft is opening a new chapter in its history," CEO and Co-Founder Yves Guillemot said. "As we accelerate the companys transformation, this is a foundational step in changing Ubisofts operating model that will enable us to be both agile and ambitious."
Ubisoft has been cutting costs and jobs over the past several months after several of its new projects flopped. There have been hints for a while that the company's leaders were interested in either finding a buyer or exploring a joint venture with Tencent to help reverse its fortunes. It's encouraging that the recent Assassin's Creed: Shadows has already reached 3 million players, but Ubisoft will probably need a few more wins to fully stabilize.
There is some extra good news in the announcement. The description of the new subsidiary does specify that "it will drive further increases in quality of narrative solo experiences." So while we can expect to also see multiplayer and free-to-play offerings from the Ubisoft umbrella, they aren't giving up on single-player games.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ubisoft-spins-out-subsidiary-with-a-billion-dollar-investment-from-tencent-183516992.html?src=rss
Meta has spent the last few years remaking Facebooks main feed into a discovery engine that primarily serves up recommended content from pages, groups and accounts users dont already follow. But while the company has said the change is necessary to compete with TikTok, its also frustrated Facebook users who miss seeing posts from people they actually know.
Now, Meta is trying to remedy this with a revamped Friends section of the app that will only show posts and content related to your Facebook friends. The company says the update is the first of many meant to bring OG features back into the 21-year-old social network.
With the update, the Friends tab of the Facebook app that used to only be for friend requests will now be home to a feed exclusively made up of content related to your friends. This includes feed and Story posts, as well as Reels, birthdays, friend requests and people you may know suggestions.
While Meta is spinning the change as a part of a larger push to make Facebook feel more social, its not the first time the company has offered dedicated feeds for friend only content. In fact, Mark Zuckerberg showed off dedicated friends feed in 2022 amid the companys push to bring more recommendations to users home feeds. That feed, which surfaces posts from friends in reverse chronological order, is still available, though its somewhat buried in the app.
Its not clear what else Meta has in store for other OG Facebook features that could play on nostalgia for the 21-year-old social network. (Facebooks once infamous poke feature already had a brief resurgence last year.) But its apparently a priority for Zuckerberg.
I actually think that there's this whole opportunity that I think is going to be pretty fun to to go after and build which is just to kind of go one-by-one and build up a a bunch of these things that used to be these joyful experiences that people had as part of Facebook that just kind of don't exist on the internet today, Zuckerberg said in a podcast appearance promoting the change.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/mark-zuckerberg-decides-content-from-your-actual-friends-is-an-og-facebook-feature-180803853.html?src=rss
More than a decade after debuting on the iPhone in 2014, the Monument Valley series is making its way to Switch consoles. On Thursday, Nintendo announced Monument Valley and Monument Valley 2 would hit the eShop on April 15, with Monument Valley 3, the most recent entry in the series, arriving sometime this summer.
This isn't the first time Monument Valley and Monument Valley 2 have been available outside of mobile devices. In 2022, series creator Ustwo Games released the two games on PC. The work the studio did then likely made the job of porting the games to Switch a lot easier; there was likely no need to rework the art assets for the console's widescreen display. Both games will come with all the additional chapters, add-ons and DLC Ustwo released over the years.
For most people, this will probably be their first chance to play Monument Valley 3. Although the game has been available on mobile devices since the end of last year, it requires a Netflix subscription to access, and with the cost of the Standard plan increasing at the start of the year to $18 per month, it's understandable if you decided to skip it. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/the-monument-valley-games-are-finally-coming-to-the-switch-171801177.html?src=rss
It might be around that time of year when youre starting to figure out your summer vacation plans. Google has revealed some new features that can help with that, including a handy AI-powered one for Maps.
If you turn on the new screenshot list, Gemini can automatically recognize locations that are mentioned in screenshots you take in the app. You can then save the places you're interested in to a list. These saved spots will appear on the map, and you can share the list with your travel companions. This feature will be available on iOS in English in the US starting this week. It's coming to Android soon.
ever forget about screenshots of places in your camera roll? this new feature was made for you Google Maps turns your screenshots into a list of saved places so you can easily find them for later rolling out this week in the U.S. in English on iOS and coming soon to pic.twitter.com/z8RafkIWcS Google Maps (@googlemaps) March 27, 2025
Google has long offered flight price tracking features, and now the company is expanding that to hotel pricing via its dedicated search tool. If you have your eyes on a destination for particular dates, you can track prices for hotels and get alerts when they drop. Just tap or click the price tracker toggle underneath the search filters. If prices for any of the hotels in the results drop dramatically, you'll get a notification via email. This feature will be available globally this week.
In a blog post announcing these updates, Google also suggests that you could use AI Overviews in Search to help with travel planning. Starting this week with English queries in the US, the tool will offer trip planning for certain regions or whole countries. So if you enter something like "create a foodie itinerary for Japan," AI Overviews should offer some ideas you can export as a list of recommendations in Docs or Gmail. You can save these suggestions in Google Maps as a custom list as well. I'm not sure I'd trust a tool that doesn't know how many days there are in a month to come up with travel ideas for me, but, hey, the option's there.
On that subject, Google is expanding AI Overviews in Lens and Circle to Search. They'll soon be available in Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish, in most of the countries where AI Overviews are accessible.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/google-can-save-locations-you-screenshot-in-maps-to-help-with-travel-planning-170144012.html?src=rss
Todays Nintendo Direct gave us our first real look at the forthcoming Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake, and it sure is easy on the eyes. It uses Square Enixs HD-2D engine, just like last years Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake.
We knew this JRPG was coming, but now we have some actual in-game footage. As the name suggests, this title will include remakes of the first two Dragon Quest titles that were originally released all the way back in the 1980s. This is a very good thing, as the first game is pretty short.
Technically, Dragon Quest 3 is a prequel to the first two titles in the franchise, so this release schedule makes a certain sort of sense. Once this game comes out, the entire Erdrick trilogy will be available to modern players.
Were glad to see so many of you enjoying #DragonQuest III HD-2D Remake! pic.twitter.com/zgDdEWSXPp DRAGON QUEST (@DragonQuest) December 6, 2024
We still dont have a release date, other than later this year. We do know that its coming out for the Switch, PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. These are the same platforms that Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake released for, which ended up being a surprise hit for the company. Square Enix said it sold over two million units globally, as of December. It was also the best-selling game in Japan throughout 2024.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/a-gorgeous-remake-of-the-first-two-dragon-quest-games-hits-switch-this-year-165757991.html?src=rss
