More than four years after Instagram’s founders left the company, they’re back with a new app.
Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger on Tuesday announced the launch of Artifact, an app that promises “a personalized news feed” powered by artificial intelligence.
In an Instagram post, Krieger said he and Systrom “have been working with a talented team” for more than a year to launch the service. “We’re gradually letting people in as we scale up,” Krieger wrote. A wait list to join opened to the public Tuesday.
Unlike Instagram, the app is more focused on articles rather than photos. Artifact will recommend content based on interests and allow for discussion with friends, according to Platformer, which was first to report the launch. A main feed will display popular articles from large media organizations down to smaller bloggers, and a user’s feed will grow more personalized based on what they click on.
Artifact did not respond to CNN’s request for comment on more details.
The launch comes at a time of renewed activity in the social media world. In the wake of upheaval and uncertainty at Twitter under new owner Elon Musk, a number of newer services have found traction helping users get news and personal updates in a feed. Meanwhile, TikTok’s rapid rise continues to push numerous apps, including Instagram, to copy its features.
Platformer described Artifact as “TikTok for text” and possibly “even a surprise attack on Twitter.”
Instagram co-founders Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom during the 2019 SXSW Conference and Festival at the Austin Convention Center on March 11, 2019 in Austin, Texas.
Jim Bennett/WireImage/Getty Images
After launching Instagram together in 2010, Systrom and Krieger sold the app to Meta for $1 billion in 2012. The pair left Instagram in 2018, with reports at the time suggesting the departure was due to tensions with CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the app’s direction and a desire to further incorporate it into Facebook.
“One of the key hallmarks of Instagram has been its independence and uniqueness from Facebook. The founders closely guarded that,” Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst at eMarketer, said to CNN at the time.
Systrom and Krieger have since created a venture focused on social apps of the future, according to Platformer. Artifact is the first product from that venture.
When Apple updated the HomePod mini to 16.3, they added the ability to access the long-hidden humidity and temperature sensors concealed within the speakers. The sensors unlock a number of possibilities within HomeKit, including some great smart home automations you can set up to make your home a bit more comfortable.
HomePod mini temperature and humidity sensors
The sensors aren’t quite perfect. It takes some time to calibrate, and they aren’t the most accurate sensors on the market. Apple notes that playing music at high volumes from the device will further reduce the accuracy. In my experience, though, it’s been consistent with other temperature sensors, and it’s a nice addition to the normally $100 smart home speaker that doesn’t cost anything extra. Both the humidity and temperature sensors are exposed within HomeKit to run automations when a specific temperature or humidity is exceeded. The first and simplest automation I set up was just to turn on a fan to circulate air if it was too warm where the HomePod was located.
HomePod mini is better than ever [Video]
Using HomePod’s sensors in HomeKit
With your phone and HomePod both updated to 16.3, setting up a temperature-based automation is incredibly easy. Just head over to the automation section of the Home app and create a new automation. Choose “A Sensor Detects Something,” select the temperature sensor in the HomePod, and then choose the temperature you want to trigger the automation. You then just select which smart device you want to turn on. This could be a standing or overhead fan, but I selected my ACs fan so that if it got too warm in one part of the house, it would circulate the air throughout the house.
If you want to go through a bit more setup, you can even use the temperature of the HomePod itself to control your AC unit. Why would you want to do this? Well, if you have a single zone AC unit, then just one spot could be controlling the temperature of the house. This can work great, but the temperature can vary a great deal from one room to the next, especially if you have a multilevel home. There are some first-party sensors you can use to seamlessly control the temperature, but some creative automations can control your thermostat from the HomePods sensor exclusively.
You can use one automation to turn on the AC and set the temperature several degrees lower than desired to ensure it will cool the whole house low enough. You can then set a second automation to turn off the AC once the temperature in the HomePod reaches your desired temperature. The AC control is a bit of a hacky solution, but there are plenty of other automations you can set up from those sensors – whether you have it open your blinds if it gets a bit too cold or turn on a humidifier based on the humidity.
9to5Mac’s Take
Of course, there are plenty of options for relatively low-cost temperature sensors, and nobody should buy a HomePod mini exclusively for the sensors. But a HomePod mini or Apple TV is already an essential piece to any HomeKit-based smart home, serving as a Home Hub to let automations run and allow you to control your smart home devices when you aren’t on your local network – in addition to being a pretty good smart speaker. Whether you’re just starting to build out your HomeKit smart home or you already have a HomePod in every room of the house, the software update could both save you the money of buying a sensor and the trouble of dealing with changing batteries – it’s always great when software updates add features to products you already bought. You can regularly pick up a refurbished HomePod on eBay for less than $70.
Nothing’s Carl Pei has confirmed the upcoming Phone 2 will launch in the US later this year. The CEO and co-founder described the 2023 flagship as “more premium” than the Nothing Phone 1, which Engadget saw as “an impressive debut” in our review.
Pei dropped several tidbits in an interview with Inverse. First, he says the Ear 1 earbuds’ US launch was a barometer for US demand. “We’re really excited about the US market because it’s a big country,” said Pei. “If you look at our earbuds sales, about one-third comes from the US. And by not launching our phone in the US, we’re leaving potentially a third of the volume on the table.” Pei describes the Phone 2’s US launch as Nothing’s top priority this year.
Pei suggests declining smartphone sales indicate the US market is ripe for innovation. “From a business point of view, [Apple and Samsung] shouldn’t go very niche and try something completely different because they might alienate current users. That’s where smaller companies like us can come in and try and do something different. It’s not that we’re smarter or that they can’t, but it just doesn’t make sense for them to do it.” However, although stagnation may play a part, the biggest reasons for the nosedive have likely been supply-chain problems, inflation and an unpredictable economy.
Carl Pei in 2019.
Steve Jennings via Getty Images
Pei says red tape was the main reason Nothing didn't launch the Phone 1 in the US. American carriers demand Android manufacturers comply with various adaptations and preinstalled apps, which takes significant resources. But the company’s rapid growth and proven ability to move volume has given it leverage. “When you make a smartphone for the US, you need to work with the carriers on certification and adapting some of their features into your OS,” he said. “We didn’t have the resources for that before, and now we do,” Pei adds that Nothing has grown from 200 employees in 2021 to 400 today.
Although Pei doesn’t spill many secrets about the Phone 2, he hints at a higher-end design than its predecessor. “We’re developing a smartphone that’s more premium than the Nothing Phone 1, and software will be a big focus area for us.” However, he stresses that the Phone 1 was also a flagship handset. “Mobile chipsets have really improved over the last seven to nine years. That’s why I want to avoid calling the Phone 2 a flagship because that would mean that the Phone 1 was not a flagship. Within our own portfolio of smartphones, the Phone 1 was very much a flagship in terms of the amount of care we put into the product. That’s why I used the word ‘premium’ [to describe the Phone 2] instead, which signifies that it’s a more premium step up, but it’s still a flagship just like the Phone 1.”
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Samsung launched the Galaxy A14 5G in India, the US, and a few other markets this month, and the smartphone has now started getting its first software update. In some markets, the device hasn’t even reached consumers, so those buying the device will find the phone ready to install a new update as soon as they boot it up.
The latest Galaxy A14 5G (SM-A146B) software update comes with firmware version A146BXXU1AWA2. The new update brings the January 2023 security patch that fixes dozens of security vulnerabilities, including those in Samsung Knox and Secure Folder. The update might also include general bug fixes, performance improvements, and additional optimizations.
If you have bought the device recently, be sure to check out the latest software update for it. You can do that by heading to Settings » Software update and tapping Download and install. You can also download the new firmware file from our firmware database and flash it manually.
Samsung launched the Galaxy A14 5G a few days ago, and it is the company’s first smartphone launch for 2023. The device comes with Android 13-based One UI 5.0 out of the box. It will get at least two major Android OS updates and at least four years of security updates.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. All prices are correct at the time of publishing.
Less than three months after arriving on store shelves, Meta’s pricy Quest Pro headset is on sale for the first time ever. After a hefty 27 percent discount, the headset is currently $1,100 or $400 off through Amazon and other retailers. That’s an all-time low for a device that typically costs $1,500.
Even with its price tag cut by nearly a third, the Quest Pro isn’t for everyone. Thanks to its Snapdragon XR2+ chipset and 12GB of RAM, the Quest Pro is 50 percent more powerful than the Quest 2. It also features solid built-in speakers with support for spatial audio, meaning you don’t necessarily need to reach for a pair of headphones when using the Quest Pro.
Additionally, it adds a variety of advanced sensors designed to facilitate more lifelike virtual meetings in Horizon Workrooms. However, all of those features come in a package that weighs over a pound and a half, making it less comfortable to wear for extended periods of time than the Quest 2. Battery life also suffers due to those more advanced components, and if you’re looking for a VR headset for gaming, the Quest Pro doesn’t offer a significantly better experience than its more affordable predecessor. Engadget’s Sam Rutherford gave the Quest Pro a score of 83 when he reviewed the headset last October but said the device’s $1,500 price tag made it too pricey for all but the most enthusiastic VR users. At $1,100, that’s still true.
Scientists have created a tiny robotic system that can transition from solid to liquid and back again, bringing a bit of classic sci-fi lore to life while they're at it.
It's been 30 years since killer liquid metal robots entered our nightmares courtesy of 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day. That movie's shape-shifting T-1000 robot could seemingly overcome any obstacle while turning parts of itself into weapons at will.
The specter of Skynet and the robot apocalypse have haunted us ever since, and now an international team of researchers has finally given us a real-world version of a T-1000, although with more altruistic aims.
The team says it was inspired not by Hollywood, but by the humble sea cucumber, which can transition between soft and rigid body states.
"Giving robots the ability to switch between liquid and solid states endows them with more functionality," says Chengfeng Pan, an engineer at The Chinese University of Hong Kong who led the study.
As if to gesture at Terminator-inspired night terrors, Pan and colleagues demonstrate this increased functionality by placing one of their miniature robots in a simulated jail cell and showing how it might escape.
It can be a little tough to see what's going on in the video above, but basically the robot melts itself down to a liquid, flows between the bars and into a waiting mold where it cools, reforms itself and then pops back up. Granted, this escapee is a little less terrifying than a T-1000 since it needs a mold at the ready to reconstitute itself, but it's still enough to agitate any Luddite.
The demonstration is part of a study published Wednesday in the journal Matter.
Senior author Carmel Majidi from Carnegie Mellon University said magnets make all of this futuristic phase transitioning possible.
"The magnetic particles here have two roles... One is that they make the material responsive to an alternating magnetic field, so you can, through induction, heat up the material and cause the phase change. But the magnetic particles also give the robots mobility and the ability to move in response to the magnetic field."
The particles are embedded in gallium, which is a metal with a very low melting point of just 86 degrees Fahrenheit (about 30 Celsius), creating a substance that flows more like water than other phase-changing materials, which are more viscous.
In tests, the mini robots were able to jump over obstacles, scale walls, split in half and re-merge all while being magnetically controlled.
"Now, we're pushing this material system in more practical ways to solve some very specific medical and engineering problems," said Pan.
In other demonstrations, the robots were used to solder circuits, to deliver medication and clear a foreign object from a model stomach.
The researchers envision the system being able to conduct repairs in hard-to-reach spaces and serving as a "universal screw," which melts into a screw socket and solidifies with no actual screwing required.
The team is particularly excited about the potential medical uses.
"Future work should further explore how these robots could be used within a biomedical context," said Majidi. "What we're showing are just one-off demonstrations, proofs of concept, but much more study will be required to delve into how this could actually be used for drug delivery or for removing foreign objects."
Hopefully the list of foreign objects that need removal won't ever include weaponized miniature melting robots, as they might prove difficult to track down and extract.
The next time you find yourself needing to send a text while stuck in the middle of nowhere, you may be able to look to the sky, where low-Earth satellites can help send an SOS, no matter what device you have.
Last year, Apple became the first tech company to offer new satellite texting capabilities to its devices, introducing it with the iPhone 14 as a system to call for help in emergencies. The idea is easy enough: Point your phone at the sky, line it up with a satellite passing overhead and send a text to authorities. You can even send GPS data too.
Now, other companies are poised to jump on board, making satellite texting a new frontier for the phone world.
"I think 2023 is certainly shaping up to be the year of mobile satellite connectivity," said Avi Greengart, an analyst at research firm Techsponential. "Everyone's doing it. Everyone is doing it differently."
Sadly, it's not as easy as adding a satellite texting app and an extra satellite radio to the phone. Low Earth-orbiting satellite systems cost money to run and maintain, just like cellular internet and phone systems do. Apple has said it'll give iPhone owners free access to emergency services for two years after they buy their device, but it hasn't said what happens after. Other satellite texting systems haven't launched yet and seem likely to charge users for the privilege.
There's no debate about whether this technology can be useful. We've already heard stories of people's lives being saved because of it. The question is whether people are willing to pay for it. And if not, will satellite texting be just another fad, like 3D TV?
Currently, satellite tech on our phones is only for emergencies and only in expensive smartphones like Apple's iPhone 14, which starts at $799. That makes the technology a nice-to-have feature that the broader population of phone owners won't have access to for some time. Those that do may never end up in a dire situation without signal when the feature would come in handy -- a group that IDC research director Nabila Popal counts herself among. "I can't remember the last time I didn't have cell service," Popal said.
Given satellite texting's niche use, Popal doesn't believe having it will sway consumers into buying one phone over another. It will certainly appeal to backcountry hikers, desert drag racers and remote truckers who plan to head beyond cell networks. But, for everyone else, it's not an important enough feature to rush out to buy.
Instead, it's more like one more feather in the cap of modern smartphones, which have already bundled together so many other technologies we used to have to carry separately in our bags, like cameras and handheld video games.
For its Snapdragon Satellite feature, Qualcomm went with satellite communications provider Iridium, which has a constellation of 66 orbiting satellites with global coverage.
Iridium
The current state of satellite texting
Satellite phones have been around for decades, showing up in films as far back as Steven Seagal's 1992 classic military thriller Under Siege whenever someone needs to make calls from the middle of the ocean. A satellite phone also played a critical role in getting people off dinosaur-infested island in 2001's Jurassic Park III.
"Where's the phone? Get the phone!" yells veteran dino survivor Alan Grant as it nearly slides off a boat and into a river during a Spinosaurus attack. (Spoilers, he grabs it at the last minute and is able to signal for help.)
The real-life versions aren't as exciting, but they can be just as helpful. They use networks of dozens of satellites orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes or so to relay phone signals to the ground. The first of these systems was Iridium, which launched its service in 1998 and a dozen other satellite networks have survived by offering connectivity to frequent travelers, but the prospect became popular recently after Elon Musk's rocket startup SpaceX borrowed the idea to surround the globe with internet coverage through its Starlink program.
You can still get satellite phone coverage by purchasing a bulky, nearly $900 feature phone and paying a premium of at least $50 for 5 minutes of call time for service from companies that own a private network of satellites. But phone makers are building in the capability to use those orbital networks to send emergency texts because smartphone radios have gotten good enough to communicate with satellites directly, instead of relying on a separate -- and often large -- antenna.
Phone radios have "gotten so good now that you can build satellite connectivity into a phone without needing an external antenna," said Anshel Sag, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.
Now playing:Watch this: I Tried Emergency SOS via Satellite on the iPhone 14
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Among mainstream smartphone makers, Apple was the first with its iPhone 14 line. The company partnered with GlobalStar, which has limited coverage of the US, Europe, Australia and limited parts of South America. Apple only activates this feature in a handful of countries in those continents, and it only works for emergency text messages made outside (it won't reach deep within buildings), but the company pledged that new iPhone 14 owners get two years of service included when they buy the phone.
Earlier this month, Qualcomm revealed a new feature coming in Android phones that will let users send and receive text messages through satellites. It uses the Iridium network and Qualcomm says it will have global coverage, which is more than Apple's services says.
The service, called Snapdragon Satellite, will only be for emergencies to start but will eventually be able to exchange messages socially and even use data, likely as part of a premium service. It's not available yet and will come in phones launching in the second half of 2023 that use Qualcomm's latest premium chips, though the company is leaving it up to phonemakers whether to have the service at all in their phones or if they should charge for the privilege. That leaves lots of unknowns.
And there are smaller players with their own niche devices, like Bullitt, which announced its Motorola-branded rugged phone powered by a MediaTek chipset at CES 2023 that will launch in the first quarter of 2023 for an undisclosed price tag. Bullitt promises two-way satellite texting through connectivity partner Skylo, which leases time on existing satellite constellations. Huawei actually launched its Mate 50 series of phones with satellite texting through China's BeiDou satellite network a day ahead of Apple's iPhone 14 debuted, though Huawei's reach has diminished over the years.
More individual phones coming out with their own ideas of satellite texting will likely follow, and the big US carriers have all selected their own satellite partners to eventually offer mobile service beyond their networks' edges, though none has a firm launch date yet.
Everyone's in on the race because they can see the potential value of providing satellite safety nets as a service, analysts say. Apple could easily add it alongside its subscription services, like the $7 per month Apple TV Plus, $10 per month Apple Music Plus or $17 Apple One bundle. Carriers could use it to sweeten the deal for the priciest subscription plans, betting that the risk-averse among us are willing to pay extra for peace of mind. "It's hard to overstate how important telling someone you're out of gas in the middle of the Gobi Desert or Death Valley or the Adirondacks is," Techsponential's Greengart said.
The text message interface of Apple's Emergency SOS feature.
Kevin Heinz/CNET
Is it a bad thing to be the new phone trend?
Of course, the phone industry doesn't have the best track record with new technologies. Analysts broadly consider the last couple years of transition to 5G wireless to have been a letdown, particularly because coverage has been spotty and speeds are sometimes as slow as the 4G LTE service we've had for years.
Satellite texting could be even more finicky than 5G was, particularly because it depends on the availability of satellites and the yet-untested strain of having many people relaying help requests through them.
Still, early signs seem promising. At CES 2023, Qualcomm took journalists outside Las Vegas to test its Snapdragon Satellite feature, and it worked. CNET phone editor Patrick Holland tested Apple's Emergency SOS feature on his iPhone 14 and found that it worked -- in fact, anyone can try it out without sending an emergency message thanks to a demo mode in the phone's settings.
This seems like the next frontier -- to use satellites to bolster mobile networks and keep people in contact. Even if most people will never have the misfortune to need it, the feature still acts as a safety net, helping the more adventurous phone users who wander beyond cell towers or disaster survivors after mobile networks fail.
Some iPhone 14 owners have reportedly been saved already thanks to the feature, including one man stranded when traveling by snow machine in Alaska above the Arctic Circle. In another case, a couple tumbled down into a deep canyon in a Los Angeles forest and used an iPhone to send for help. In less than 30 minutes, they were rescued. Without the iPhone's satellite texting feature, emergency services wouldn't have been contacted, and "nobody would have known to look for them," Los Angeles County Sheriff Sgt. John Gilbert told The Los Angeles Times.
We've come a long way from needing to buy big, clunky satellite phones if we want to venture safely beyond the range of cell networks. Pretty soon, many smartphones will be able to call for help, whether you've taken a wrong turn in the wilderness or been attacked by dinosaurs on a remote island that you should have just stayed away from.
In Milan, Italy, Samsung has set up an impressive-looking 3D video projection system on its building that’s called Samsung District. The whole building is now showcasing 3D-looking imagery, and as you can see in the video below, Samsung is teasing various Galaxy S23 features on the building. Samsung is focusing on its upcoming smartphones’ camera zoom performance and low-light imaging prowess and is using the “Get ready to light up the night” tagline.
The Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23+, and Galaxy S23 Ultra will be unveiled on February 1, 2023, during the Galaxy Unpacked 2023 event in the US. The upcoming phones are expected to bring much faster performance, thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 For Galaxy processor, LPDDR5X RAM, and UFS 4.0 storage. Low-light imaging and video quality has been increased, and the three upcoming phones could feature an upgraded selfie camera capable of recording 4K 60fps HDR videos.
Samsung will also unveil the Galaxy Book 3 lineup at the launch event. The new lineup should include the Galaxy Book 3, Galaxy Book 3 360, Galaxy Book 3 Pro, Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360, and Galaxy Book 3 Ultra.
As previously announced, the Switch version will be part of the awkwardly named Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership, which costs $50 per year. New footage of that emulated version of the original game shows the same blocky characters, muddy textures, and pixelated sprites that players know (and love?) from the original game. In addition to the previously announced online multiplayer support, the Switch version will also feature a widescreen mode to expand the 4:3 aspect ratio of the original game.
GoldenEye 007 as it will appear on the Nintendo Switch starting Friday.
Xbox One and Series S/X owners, meanwhile, will be able to enjoy GoldenEye 007 as part of an Xbox Game Pass subscription or as a free DLC download that's now included with the purchase of 2005's Rare Replay. The first footage of that Xbox gameplay shows this version's upscaled 4K visuals, which smooth out those low-res original textures and the aliased edges on authentic low-polygon character and object models. This version only promises a "legendary local multiplayer mode," though, in addition to "alternative control options" for a modern Xbox controller.
There's still no indication that a PC release is planned or pending.
Mark your calendars: GoldenEye 007 is set to launch on @XboxGamePass on January 27th! The countdown begins now - only two days until you get to experience Dam with an Xbox controller for the first time. pic.twitter.com/MzLXJxV9BV
GoldenEye 007's original creation was also a bit of a miracle, with a team of rookie developers at Rare making use of what they called "anti-game design" to craft a new kind of console shooter. As author Alyse Knorr put it in her recent book about the game's creation:
GoldenEye was made by playful jokesters in a serious workplace environment—by young, inexperienced rookies who cared a great deal about the quality of their work. It’s this tension that created the game we know and love today: a quirky, goofy, finely tuned work of art. A game as precisely crafted as it is fun to play, with the faces of its perfectionist naughty schoolboy creators etched literally onto the walls and characters and computer screens of every level.
While my setup wasn't ideal, the CineBeam HU915QE still delivered most of what I wanted: A large and luscious dose of cinema in my basement screening room. Almost immediately, I noticed that it produced richer and more vibrant colors than the CineBeam HU85L. Colorful films like Thor Ragnarok looked just fine on the previous projector, but the new model delivered a far bolder dose of cosmic psychedelia. The improved contrast also made the HU915QE better suited for dark scenes, like the spooky nighttime sequences in Nope where you’re trying to make out something floating through the clouds.
The HU915QE is a triple laser projector, relying on red and blue lasers for their respective primary colors, as well as another blue laser shining through a phosphor to create green. That setup works well, but it can only reach 94 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut. Newer UST projectors with three distinct RGB lasers, like the HiSense PX1-Pro, can reach a wider 107 percent of the BT.2020 gamut. Like many other UST units, the HU915QE relies on pixel shifting to achieve a visible 4K resolution. It has a native resolution of 2,716 x 1,528, which is shifted twice to hit 4K. The result is an image that's sharper than cheaper projectors, which typically have 1080p native resolutions with four-phase shifting.
After spending a few hundred hours watching everything from streaming shows like Midnight Mass, to blockbuster action films like Top Gun: Maverick, I found myself preferring the experience of using the HU915QE compared to trekking out to the theater for many films. And, to be clear, that’s a pretty big deal for a movie lover like me. Even with the COVID-19 pandemic threatening the viability of theaters, I’ve held out hope for a comeback. The strong box office performance of the Top Gun sequel and Avatar: The Way of Water makes me think that there’s still room for the true cinematic experience (though as I write this, Regal is shuttering more locations in the US after its parent company Cineworld declared bankruptcy last September). Those films, as well as the recent Dune adaptation, are so large and bombastic that even a 120-inch home projector can’t fully capture their grandeur. But the HU915QE sure comes close.
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
Like most projectors, the CineBeam HU915QE isn’t ideal for gaming thanks to its noticeable input lag. Still, I had a great time playing PS5 titles like God of War Ragnarok, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and even the fast-paced Returnal on my giant screen. LG hasn’t issued any latency figures, but some reviews peg the projector’s input lag between 50ms and 67ms. There’s an auto low-latency mode that cuts off extra processing to speed things up, but you obviously won’t be using this thing for lightning-fast competitive gaming. Based on my experience with the 55-inch Samsung Odyssey Ark, though, that’s not something you’d want to do on a gigantic display anyway. Twitch gaming requires smaller screens so you can actually focus on all of the super-fast action.
When it comes to sound, I can’t imagine that anyone buying a $5,000 projector would be relying on built-in speakers, but it may make sense if you just want to avoid extra clutter in your living room. The CineBeam’s 40-watt 2.2 speaker setup sounds good enough for casual viewing – it’s certainly far better than what you’d get on modern TVs. It’s basically a fairly simple soundbar sitting below the projector, but it delivers clear dialogue and some surprisingly boomy bass. Seriously though, look into surround sound systems if you’re actually buying this thing. You deserve it.
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
While I spent most of my time using an Apple TV 4K, the HU915QE is also powered by LG’s WebOS platform, which offers all of the smart TV apps you’d expect. That’s nice to have, especially if you don’t want to juggle multiple remotes, but I’d wager most home theater fans will stick with their set-top box platform of choice. If you’re used to WebOS from LG’s OLED TVs, you’ll feel right at home with this projector. It even uses the same Magic Remote found on LG’s TVs, which has voice controls and (so-so) motion controls.
As much as I loved the CineBeam HU915QE, it’s not exactly priced competitively against newer entries like the $3,000 Formovie Theater. Sure, that’s not as bright, but at half the price of the CineBeam, that projector delivers Dolby Vision, great sound and excellent image quality thanks to a modern triple-laser setup. You can easily add in an excellent $2,000 surround sound system to match the CineBeam's price . As for other high-end competitors, the HU915QE competes directly with Hisense’s much-lauded L9G, which currently sells for $4,500 to $5,000 depending on the screen you get. Samsung’s Premiere LSP9T triple-laser UST also retailed for $6,500 when it debuted, though it can now be found for around $3,500 at online sellers.
If you’re an LG loyalist, the CineBeam HU915QE is still a very compelling UST projector. It offers enough brightness to use during the day, and it’s vibrant enough in darker rooms to deliver a truly cinematic experience. But it’ll be an even better buy once it comes down in price.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. All prices are correct at the time of publishing.
Samsung Display has unveiled a new OLED panel for laptops. It measures 16 inches diagonally, has a 3K resolution with a 16:10 aspect ratio, and features a 120Hz refresh rate. The company claims that it is the world’s first laptop OLED panel with an integrated touchscreen. It revealed that the panel would be used in Samsung’s next-generation Galaxy Book.
The South Korean display manufacturing firm said that integrating a touchscreen panel into the display reduces the overall thickness and complexity of the screen. It is also better for the environment as it doesn’t need an additional plastic film for the separate touchscreen layer. In 2010, the company introduced the world’s first touchscreen-integrated OLED panel for smartphones, which was used in the original Galaxy S.
While the company didn’t explicitly mention which Galaxy Book will use this new 16-inch OLED panel, it sits well with the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra whose specifications were leaked a few days ago. Samsung Display plans to develop more large-sized OCTA (On-Cell Touch AMOLED) panels for laptops because more laptop brands are equipping newer models with OLED panels.
Hojung Lee, Head of Product Planning Team for Small and Medium-sized Display Division at Samsung Display, said, “The difficulty level of the touch-integrated technology surges greatly as the display area increases, which leads to the increased number of touch sensors required. We were able to achieve the natural feel and touch responsiveness for larger displays through the development of new materials and process technologies.“
"I'm delighted to announce that Quordle was acquired by Merriam-Webster!" Quordle creator Freddie Meyer announced on Twitter Friday. "I can't think of a better home for this game. Lots of new features and fun to come, so stay tuned!"
While Merriam-Webster seemingly didn't even bother with a press release to announce its new game purchase, company President Greg Barlow told Techcrunch that the game is "a favorite of Merriam-Webster editors" and that it "will make a great addition to our lineup of games and quizzes."
A Quordle purchase might seem a bit silly when an outfit like Merriam-Webster could easily have made a copy-of-a-copy version for itself. But the acquisition gives Merriam-Webster access to the Quordle brand name and website, which now redirects to the dictionary maker's Games & Quizzes page. That Quordle site was popular enough to reportedly draw half a million daily players as of last April, and even now, Barlow told Techcrunch that the editors "look forward to playing along with the millions of Quordle fans every day."
Those who want to keep playing without supporting "Big Dictionary" can move over to a number of existing Quordle clones (i.e., Wordle-clone clones) such as Quordle-Wordle, Quordle Game, or even an unofficial iOS app (so much for Apple's "no copycats" policy). If any of those knock-offs of a knock-off are purchased by Roget's Thesaurus or something, we'll be sure to let you know.
Here are some of the most shocking — and fascinating — responses:
1."If you try on those specialty glasses that vertically invert your vision so everything is upside down, your brain will eventually adjust to it, and things will look 'normal.' But when you take those glasses off, everything will still appear upside down until your brain recalibrates again."
2."Bodies will move as they’re coming out of rigor. I’ve been bumped by a few (I’m a coroner). Bodies can also make sounds as the remaining air/gas leaves...2 a.m. in the morgue, and I thought I was in Call of Duty: World At War — Zombies."
5."We don't just have one anal sphincter. When poo comes along, it passes another inner sphincter which isn't under voluntary control. Meaning you can do oOoOoO with your outer sphincter, but not the inner one. (You tried, that's okay.) Sensory cells can detect whether you're about to pass gas or solid. From toddler age on, you can decide to go or not to go. If the time isn't right (e.g. at a friend's house or no toilet nearby), the inner sphincter can push the poo back and store it there for later. That's why sometimes if you need to do a number two but don't go, the urge goes away after about 20 minutes later. (But seriously, go if you can. Constipation risk.)"
6."The front of your tongue is curious, constantly patrolling, and autonomous. It chases the dentist around your mouth and you aren’t even aware of it. So embarrassing and weird/creepy."
"In dental school, I learned this fact when practicing taking impressions on each other. My buddy’s tongue kept licking my finger. I asked him to quit licking me, and he was like, 'I can’t help it!' And then, we switched places, and my tongue wouldn’t leave him alone. And for those of you that don’t think your tongue does this: Some of you are right. But the majority of you just think your tongue is behaving, but it is all over the place without you even knowing."
7."When you get laser tattoo removal, the ink doesn’t disappear — you pee it out (it can also be discarded through your poop or sweat). Your body’s immune system breaks down the pigments of ink, and it flows in your blood stream, gets processed through your kidneys, then you pee out the ink."
8."My favorite fact is that both your eyes have a blind spot, where the optic nerve is. A lot of people don't even know it exists, and even if they do, it is bigger than people often think. And it's also really easy to demonstrate to people if you know how. It's one of my favorite bar tricks: All you need is a pen and a napkin to draw a cross and a dot. Here's an alternate demo."
"If it doesn't work, you're doing something wrong: not getting close enough, the image is too small on your phone, you're not closing the correct eye, or not keeping your gaze fixed on the cross. It isn't because you don't have a blind spot."
9."Sometimes, there are just random extra muscles. You can go your entire life without even knowing it. I've worked as a mortician, and the medical examiners would tell me about some cases like this. Also, there can be random tumors, even when the individual had never been diagnosed. Lastly, skin sounds like plastic wrap when peeled from the body."
12."We ate our own hair (called lanugo) while inside the womb. According to Ovia Health: Fetuses 'eat the lanugo that they shed while in the womb, and it builds up within them to form the substance that makes up their first poop, known as meconium.'"
14."In really bad cases of endometriosis, endometrial-like tissue can grow throughout the body, like the bladder, intestines, near the chest — and even in the brain in rare cases. It’s incredibly painful, since it still tries to ‘shed’ like a normal period but has nowhere to go. Endometriosis can only be confirmed via surgery, since it doesn’t show up on most ultrasounds/MRI scans."
15."Biologist here. When it comes to sunburn, the scary thing about UV damage is that it's not minor radiation damage. It is literally strong enough to cause double stranded DNA breaks. Broken genes that can lead to cancer are largely because the body fails to repair DNA damage (which is directly correlated to copy errors that end up occurring in mitosis as a result). Well, double breaks like this are the hardest to repair. UV damage is no joke. It will also age your skin earlier, too."
16."The intestines are covered by a double 'fleece' of peritoneum. Think of it like a blanket. When your intestines get damaged for whatever reason, this blanket starts moving out of itself and crawling upwards toward the place that has the injury. It will stay there until the injury is recovered, and then it will move on again."
"I've had two of those! The one I had removed when I was 18 was full of different bits of bone, hair, teeth, and when it grew back when I was 29, it was half hair, half sebum."
19."There is a myth that your fingernails continue to grow after death, which is supposed to explain why dead bodies often appear to have long nails. The truth is that the soft tissues in the fingers and hands tend to contract as they lose moisture, leading to the appearance of growing nails."
20."Food that was consumed can sometimes take up to five days to fully pass through your intestines into your colon. So, when people say that you are full of sh*t, they ain't lying."
21."One thing that spun me out was hearing about fallopian tubes after a friend went through emergency surgery. Fallopian tubes are mobile and active parts of your reproductive tract. When one tube isn't there or is 'broken,' the other tube can actually move over to the opposite ovary and 'pick up' an available egg."
22."Human skin is overlaid with a pattern called Blaschko lines, which are stripes covering the body from head to toe. The stripes run up and down your arms and legs and hug your torso. They wrap around the back of your head like a hood and across your face. You just can’t see them."
WOW. Which fact surprised you the most? What are some other "creepy" things about the human body most people don't know? Let us know in the comments below!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
