Times Wonderful News is the latest news and gossip from all the wonderful places in the world. Get your daily dose of what made you happy today.
Author:lisa nichols
Passionate about the power of words and their ability to inform, inspire, and ignite change, lisa Nichols is an accomplished article writer with a flair for crafting engaging and informative content. With a deep curiosity for various subjects and a dedication to thorough research, lisa Nichols brings a unique blend of creativity and accuracy to every piece
Nature’s 2024 photo competition is now live, providing a chance to celebrate the diverse, interesting, challenging, striking and colourful work that scientists do around the world.
Now in its fifth iteration, the competition is open to anyone who isn’t a professional photographer. It’s looking for images that showcase the work that scientists do — anywhere in the world.
To enter, e-mail your favourite picture to [email protected]. You can also use this address to ask any questions. And feel free to share your entry on social-media platforms X or Instagram with the hashtag #WorkingScientist. All entries must reach us by 00:01, UK time, on 28 March 2024.
Winners will be chosen by a panel of Nature staff, including representatives of the art and design team. Winning entries will appear in an April print issue and online. As well as being featured, winners will receive a full, year-long personal print and online subscription to Nature, plus £500 (or equivalent in a different currency) in Amazon vouchers; alternatively, we will make a donation of the same amount to a registered charity of your choice.
We need photos that are of sufficient quality to print — as a general rule, they should be at least 2,000 pixels on their longer edge.
If you need help or advice, read this feature on how to take great photos, written by one of Nature’s media editors (see ‘Capture the moment’). And check out Nature’s award-winning Where I Work section, a series of photo-led profiles of researchers in their workplaces.
Capture the moment
There are no hard and fast rules for taking great photographs, but professional photographers and media editors have some general advice for those who are new to working with a camera.
• Establish a connection with your subject. Make them feel comfortable for a candid shot.
• Understand the environment’s light. Use it to bring out detail in the scene.
• Capitalize on colours. Look for chromatic contrast, union and metaphor in colours.
• Use a tripod. Tools such as these stabilize your camera and will help to avoid blur or framing mistakes.
• Find a clean background. A busy background can distract from the subject.
• Play with camera angles and perspective. Try to be inventive, and look beyond standard ‘stock photography’ images.
• Photograph at the golden hour when shooting outdoors. A low angle of sunlight often creates warm, diffuse light and interesting shading.
• Remember the rule of thirds. Split your frame into thirds, and fill some — but not all — of them with your subject.
• Keep the subject’s eyes in focus. They’re often the best way to bring a viewer close to the subject.
• Shoot, check, re-compose, re-shoot. Take many photos using different angles and ideas to catch the best one.
More inspiration might come from the winners of our 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022 competitions.
Full terms and conditions can be found in the Supplementary information.
Good luck, and we look forward to seeing your photos.
For Engadget’s 20th anniversary, we put together a package of stories about the most pivotal pieces of technology from the past two decades, and mine was on Steam. It’s difficult to overstate how influential Steam is to PC gaming, or how rich the storefront has made Valve. As a private company with infinite piles of Steam cash, Valve has the freedom to ignore market pressure from consumers, creators and competitors. It famously has a flat hierarchy with no strict management structure, and developers are encouraged to follow their hearts.
This has all resulted in an incredibly rich studio that doesn’t produce much. It may be a tired joke that Valve can’t count to three in its games, but we’re not talking about Half-Life today. We’re talking about Valve’s history of buying exciting franchises and talented developers, playing with them for a while, and then forgetting they exist. Real fuckboi behavior — but it’s just how Valve does business.
Let’s take a look at Valve’s history of talent acquisition. One of its oldest franchises, Team Fortress, started as a Quake mod built by a small team in Australia, and Valve bought its developers and the rights to the game in 1998. Team Fortress 2 came out in 2007 and it received a few good years of updates and support. Today, the game has a devoted player base, but it’s riddled with bots and it’s unclear whether anyone at Valve is consistently working on TF2.
Portal began life as a student project called Narbacular Drop, and Valve hired its developers after seeing their demo in 2005. Portal officially came out in 2007, Portal 2 landed in 2011, and both were instant classics. There hasn’t been a whiff of another Portal game since, even though one of the series writers, Erik Wolpaw, really, really wants Valve to make Portal 3.
Of all the Valve franchises that have been left to wither and die, I miss Left 4 Dead the most. Turtle Rock started building Left 4 Dead in 2005, and by the time that came out in 2008, Valve had purchased the studio and its IP outright. Citing slow progress and poor communication, Turtle Rock left Valve before helping the company make Left 4 Dead 2 in 2009. Turtle Rock went on to release Evolve in 2015 and Black 4 Blood in 2021, and is now owned by Tencent. Meanwhile, I’m here, dreaming of that third Left 4 Dead game.
In 2010, Valve secured the rights to the Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients, and hired its lead developer. Dota 2 came out in 2013 and became an incredibly successful esports title. Now, eleven years later, Dota 2 players are complaining about a lack of support and communication from Valve, especially in comparison with games like League of Legends.
Counter-Strike has received the most attention from Valve in recent memory, with the rollout of Counter-Strike 2 late last year. The original Counter-Strike was a Half-Life mod, and Valve acquired it and its developers in 2000. Counter-Strike 2 is the fifth installment in the series, released 11 years after its predecessor, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. After this recent attention, it’s about time for Valve to start ignoring the Counter-Strike community again.
Valve has quietly continued to make acquisitions. In 2018, Valve hired all 12 developers at Firewatch studio Campo Santo, who were at the time working on a very-rad-looking new game, In the Valley of Gods. This could turn out to be another spectacular, genre-defining franchise for Valve’s resume of acquired IP, but there have been no updates from that team in nearly six years. In April 2018, Campo Santo said they were still building In the Valley of Gods at Valve, and promised regular blog posts and quarterly reviews. And then, nothing.
Matt Wood worked at Valve for 17 years, where he helped build Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Portal 2, CS:GO and both episodes of Half-Life 2. He left in 2019 and is now preparing to release his first independent game, Little Kitty, Big City. Wood told me in 2023 that Valve was “sitting on their laurels a little bit, and it’s like they weren’t really challenging themselves, taking risks or doing anything. Steam’s making a lot of money so they don’t really have to.”
Of course, Little Kitty, Big City is coming to Steam.
Steam’s unwavering success has helped turn Valve into a senior resort community for computer science nerds, where game developers go to live out their final years surrounded by fantastic amenities, tinkering and unsupervised. It’s a lovely scenario. At least developers there aren’t getting laid off — and I mean that sincerely. Steam is a great service, and Valve seems at least temporarily committed to the Steam Deck hardware, which is very cool. Still, I miss the games that Valve devoured. I have to wonder if the developers there do, too.
Valve’s treatment of legendary franchises and developers raises questions about its commitment to… anything, including Steam. What happens if Valve decides to pivot, or sell, or Gabe Newell retires and blows everything up? What would happen if Steam shut down? As a service with native DRM, all of our games would instantly disappear. Just like all those game devs.
This week’s news
Playdate update
Playdate is one of my favorite gaming gadgets of the past decade, not only because it has an incredibly cute crank, but also because its low-res screen belies a buffet of strange and beautiful experiences pushing the boundaries of traditional play. Panic held a showcase for new Playdate games last week and the headliner was Lucas Pope’s Mars After Midnight, which is coming out on March 12. Pope is the developer of Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn, two incredible games, and Mars After Midnight is set in the doorway of a crowded alien colony. Pope’s games were made for Playdate, this time literally.
Yuzu and Citra are gone
A week after Nintendo threatened to sue the creators of Yuzu into oblivion, the popular Switch emulator has been pulled off the market as part of a $2.4 million settlement. To make matters worse for the emulation community, the lead developer of Yuzu announced that they are also killing the 3DS emulator Citra. Both emulators were open-source, so it’s likely we’ll see Citra at least maintained by the broader community. It’s not clear whether anyone is willing to take on a fork of Yuzu and risk a lawsuit.
Bonus Content
Ghost of Tsushima will hit PC on May 16. It comes with all of its DLCs, and Sony says it’ll run on anything from high-end PCs to portable PC gaming devices.
Capcom’s Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is apparently coming out this year on PC, PlayStation and Xbox. It debuted at Summer Game Fest and looks pretty unique.
Hadeshits iOS as a Netflix mobile exclusive on March 19. There are currently no plans for an Android version, which sucks for me.
Now Playing
I found This Bed We Made while doing research for the GLAAD Gaming report I covered a few weeks ago, and I’m incredibly pleased about it. This Bed We Made is an exploration and narrative-driven game set in a 1950s hotel, and it’s absolutely oozing drama and mystery. The writing is fantastic, the characters are complex, and there’s a thrilling storyline running through the whole thing. It’s available on PC and consoles now.
Keeping your phone till it dies has got a whole lot more difficult lately, right? Hardware has reached a point in recent years where for once, it’s more likely that you’ll get bored of your phone long before you kill it and phone companies are starting to steer into this, admittedly positive, skid.
That is, unless you are OnePlus. The relatively recent phone launches from Samsung and Google have introduced seven years of Android updates to the flagship norm. But OnePlus isn’t joining the party quite yet. The OnePlus 12 launched with support for only four years of major Android updates but, contrary to belief, this might actually be a good thing.
Sticking to its roots
(Image credit: Peter Hoffmann)
Since its inception, OnePlus has consistently towed the line of high performance without a high price. While its prices have creeped up over the years, it still produces phones that can nip at the best Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra all without a bank-breaking price. The OnePlus 12 continues this trend, and from what I can tell, it makes it all the more enticing.
OnePlus loyalists will often boast of their phone’s capability to match, or even surpass, the quality of its rivals from Samsung and Google, not to mention iPhone. It’s this near cult-like drive for superiority that arguably makes OnePlus’ call to have a reduced lifespan on the OnePlus 12 one of its best decisions yet.
See, with great lifespans, come great boredoms, to badly rephrase an iconic quote. Although this isn’t something that’s necessarily true for all phone users, it’s definitely true for phone lovers, which OnePlus users usually are. The data also supports this: in a UK survey by YouGov, 62% of people said they only expect to use a phone for up to four years. In the US, data from Statista suggests people are changing their phone on average every two to three years, and these aren’t just the OnePlus lovers, this is everyone.
So why would people need seven years of Android updates? Sure, it will serve those who simply choose not to change their phone until it is broken in a way the OnePlus 12 won’t, but, is that the majority right now? I think not.
Finding opportunities
(Image credit: OnePlus)
As ever, there is a small but malleable gap in the smartphone market that OnePlus has cleverly woven its way into. The OnePlus 12 takes the best bits of some of its key rivals such as the Galaxy S24 Ultra and Xiaomi 14 and reworks them to their own model in a way which, arguably, could make you want to spend four years with it, rather than needing to to ensure you get your money’s worth.
The OnePlus 12 features the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 as standard, something which isn’t the case globally for the Samsung Galaxy S24, it has a camera system made in collaboration with Hasselblad to create an improved, yet recognisably OnePlus snapper suite, much like Xiaomi have done with Leica, and it surpasses the both of them in both battery size and charging speeds. That’s before you even consider the advanced cooling tech and battery maintenance engine featured in the OnePlus 12 to help keep it at top performance for longer.
Of course, as you’d expect, the OnePlus 12 does all of this, and still comes in at arguably great value. The basic 12GB RAM 256GB storage model of the OnePlus 12 is £849/$799.99, while the Samsung Galaxy S24 with only 8GB RAM and 128GB storage comes in at £799/$799. So for only £50 more – or absolutely no difference if you’re in the US – you can get more RAM, more storage, and specs that either match or beat the phone which is supposedly the best phone right now. So fundamentally, why wouldn’t you go OnePlus?
Looking forward
(Image credit: Peter Hoffmann)
Don’t get me wrong, seven years of updates is huge. If you can’t afford a new phone, that amount of Android updates will mean there’s all the more reason to look towards the refurbished phone market. It will add resale value to old devices, which will not only improve your bank balance but it will also give people fewer reasons to simply throw out their old phone, reducing electronic waste.
Okay now the environmental bit is mentioned, from a phones point-of-view there is one clear other side for diehard phone lovers, as fundamentally, seven years is a very long time in the tech world right now.
Right now phone advancements have picked up pace again, partly thanks to advancements in AI, yes, but also simply down to the sheer number of improvements we’re seeing in both the hardware and software devices are using. Seven years will simply leave you a long way behind everyone else, with a phone that could well be on its last legs, and a phone bill that will have seen one – or maybe six – too many yearly price increases. And nobody wants that, especially not true phone-lovers; four years however, might just be the sweet spot.
Landmark study contradicts misinformation about brain development and conditions like autism in children.
The COVID vaccine is safe to administer during pregnancy, reports UC San Francisco in an important finding on the safety of the vaccine in infants — despite widespread fear and misinformation.
The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, is the first scientific inquiry into whether infants are at increased risk of neurodevelopmental impairments as a result of maternal vaccination.
The landmark study of more than 2,200 infants from across the country found that in utero exposure to the vaccine caused no abnormal delays when the infants were tested at 12 months and again at 18 months.
“This is a very reassuring finding — pregnant women have been facing unanswered questions around COVID vaccinations for several years,” said first author Eleni Jaswa, MD, MSc, a reproductive endocrinologist and fertility specialist at UCSF Health, noting the investigation started in April 2020. She is also an assistant professor in the UCSF Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences.
First meaningful evidence of maternal vaccination safety during pregnancy
Although pregnant women are considered at increased risk of severe illness with COVID-19, some chose not to get the COVID vaccine due to safety concerns around potential risks to their unborn children.
Some 34% of the participants in the study were vaccinated in the first trimester, about 45% in the second trimester, and nearly 21% in the third trimester. They were asked to complete a 30-item questionnaire assessing whether their infants performed expected milestones.
After adjusting for such factors as maternal age, race, ethnicity, education, income and maternal depression, the researchers found no difference in the risk of infant neurodevelopment at either 12 months or 18 months. They noted an increased risk of delay among male infants at 12 months but the difference was not observed at 18 months.
The study is ongoing.
“Understandably, there’s been concern about the potential impact of maternal vaccination on offspring,” said senior author Heather Huddleston, MD, a UCSF Health reproductive endocrinologist and director of the UCSF Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Clinic (PCOS).
“Despite early safety data as well as recommendations from physicians and health organizations, vaccine hesitancy is still preventing universal use,” she said. “To this day, misinformation continues to abound. People are concerned about such issues as brain development and conditions like autism in children. This is the first meaningful evidence into the safety of vaccination from the standpoint of early offspring neurodevelopment.”
Co-authors: All from UCSF, the paper’s co-authors are Marcelle Cedars, MD; Karla Lindquist, PhD; Somer Bishop, PhD; Young-Shin Kim, MD, MPH, PhD; Amy Kaing, MD; Mary Prahl, MD; Stephanie Gaw, MD, PhD; Jamie Corley, BS; Elena Hoskin, MS; Yoon Jae Cho, MD; and Elizabeth Rogers, MD.
President Xi Jinping at the opening of the second session of the 14th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.Credit: Lintao Zhang/Getty
China’s spending on science and technology is set to rise this year, despite the country’s sluggish economic growth.
The government will spend 371 billion yuan (US$52 billion) on science and technology in 2024 — a 10% increase compared with the previous year — according to a draft budget report by China’s Ministry of Finance. The report was submitted at the annual meeting of the country’s legislative body, the National People’s Congress, this week. Of the total government spending, 98 billion yuan will go to basic research, an increase of 13%, according to the report.
“The government is showing that it is committed to giving scientists more resources to support their research,” says Albert Hu, an economist at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai.
The increase in government spending on science and technology is the largest in five years, says Jing Qian, who heads the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis in New York City. With a drop of 9% in 2020, followed by two years of stalled growth, the government increased its spending by 2% last year.
What Xi Jinping’s third term means for science
The latest boost demonstrates the government’s “genuine commitment to its priorities”, says Qian. China has elevated science on the national agenda in recent years. Li Qiang, the premier of the State Council, reiterated that commitment in the written congress report presented at the opening session on 5 March. “We will move faster to boost self-reliance and strength in science and technology,” states the report.
Economic boost
The increase in money for science comes as the economy is struggling to meet growth targets. “China is in the midst of a structural transition,” says Hu. The country is moving from an economy based on long-established sectors such as real estate, to a greater emphasis on high-tech development, he says.
A race for technological supremacy with the United States is another motivating factor, say researchers. The United States has restricted China from accessing key technologies in areas such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors and quantum computing. This has spurred the country to invest in technological self-reliance, says Marina Zhang, who studies innovation with a focus on China at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia. “To win this game, China has to invest in science and technology, especially in basic research,” says Zhang.
Although the increased spending “represents a bigger commitment by the government towards science and technology”, it is still only a small fraction of the country’s total research and development expenditure, says Hu. Government spending accounts for around 11% of the 3.3 trillion yuan spent on R&D in China, according to official figures. R&D spending currently makes up about 2.6% of China’s overall gross domestic product; the corresponding figure in the United States in 2020 was 3.6%.
The congress session ends on 11 March and will be followed by a meeting of China’s political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, next week.
Whether you commute to a physical campus, take classes online or do a little of both, a laptop is likely the center of your studies. If you’re working with an aging machine, upgrading to a newer model can make all of your academic pursuits a little easier by helping you stay on top of your schedule and multitask better with dozens of tabs devoted to research while you write your essays. While almost every new laptop the comes out is a bit more expensive than the last, there’s good news, too: laptops are lasting longer than ever before, so your new machine should serve you well for years to come. That is, as long as you pick one from a reliable company and with the right specs. To help you find the best buy as you shop, we put together this collection of things to look out for as well as a list of the best laptops for college.
What to expect
Apple has completed its transition to its own Silicon, so you’ll no longer have the option of Intel-powered Macs. Nor should you want to, really, since the M-series MacBooks have proven to be reliable, speedy and long-lasting. And with each new generation of chip, older models get cheaper while still offering excellent performance. This means you’ll have more options to consider without having to stretch your budget.
Meanwhile, new PCs keep getting announced, with the latest models typically powered by 13th-gen Intel processors or the latest AMD Ryzen chips. Though the shift to ARM-based systems has been successful for Apple, the PC industry is still struggling to keep up, and Windows on ARM is basically dead in the water. Don’t waste your time or money on an ARM-based PC; they’re hard to find nowadays anyway.
Speaking of, laptops with top-of-the-line specs can cost you around $1,800 to $2,000 these days. For most college students, though, a midrange machine to use primarily for writing papers and web browsing might be enough. Depending on your field of study, you could get by with an Intel Core i3 processor or equivalent, with at least 6GB of RAM. If you need to run specialized software for design or programming, consider upgrading to a beefier system with more processing power and memory. On the other hand, if you do most of your coursework online or in a browser, getting a Chromebook could save you a lot of money.
You’ll also want to pay attention to a device’s weight, especially if you plan on lugging your laptop to classes in person. There are a lot of premium ultraportables in the 13-inch category, with chips like Intel’s Core i3 or i5, that cost around $1,000. If these light laptops are too expensive, you’ll still have respectable options in the $600 to $800 price range, but they might be heavier and use older, slower processors. I’ve included our recommendations for the best budget laptops in this college-centric guide but we also have more affordable top picks that you can check out as well.
See Also:
With some laptop makers deciding to get rid of headphone jacks, it’s important to check specs lists when you’re shopping for newer machines. If you don’t have wireless headphones or use equipment that plugs into the 3.5mm jack, you’ll want to steer clear of devices like Dell’s XPS 13 Plus.
Finally, while most laptops offer WiFi 6 or 6E and Bluetooth 5.0 or later, you may not have one of the compatible routers or other devices that would enable those faster connections yet. Chances are, your campus WiFi might still be stuck on an older setup, too, so it’s not crucial that you get a system with the latest standards yet. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to get a laptop that’s future-proof, but just know that of all the things to look out for, WiFi 6E shouldn’t be a dealbreaker in your decision-making process.
The best laptops for college students
Photo by Devindra Hardawar / Engadget
Read our full review of the Apple MacBook Air M3
It’s hard to beat Apple’s MacBook Air if you want a powerful machine for college that won’t weigh you down. You have a few good options this year — the 13-inch or 15-inch MacBook Air M3 and the MacBook Air M2. The M3 laptop earned a score of 90 from us for its impressive performance, gorgeous 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display and its thin-and-light design. However, the M2 remains a fantastic machine and, with the launch of the M3 models, it received a $200 price cut. We recommend springing for an M3 Air if you want a more future-proof laptop, but the MacBook Air M2 will likely be enough for most students’s needs.
Apple has officially stopped selling the M1 MacBook Air in its online store, but it’s still floating around the internet for under $1,000. It has the wedge design of older MacBook Airs, larger bezels and only a 720p webcam. But if you’re coming from an Intel machine, the performance gains will be noticeable even if you pick up an M1 machine on clearance. However, we expect stock to become limited as the year goes on.
$1,099 at Amazon
Will Lipman Photography for Engadget
Read our full review of the Dell XPS 13 Plus laptop
The best PC has long been Dell’s well-rounded XPS 13 series and I still recommend it to anyone that doesn’t want a Mac. Yes, the XPS 13 Plus lacks a headphone jack, and some of its buttons are hard to see and use. But the XPS 13 is a well-rounded machine and reliable workhorse that will get you through classes and late-night writing sessions without breaking a sweat.
Like its predecessors, the XPS 13 Plus offers a lovely OLED screen with impressively thin bezels and packs a roomy, comfortable keyboard. It also features a new minimalist design that looks more modern and offers a performance boost over the standard model. The row of capacitive keys at the top in lieu of traditional function keys may irk some as they can be hard to see outdoors, but if you become familiar with where they are you might not need to see where they are to find the right ones. The invisible trackpad can also be tricky since its boundaries aren’t clear.
If you don’t like the changes Dell has made to the XPS 13, or if you definitely need a headphone jack, the older generations are still solid options. There’s also the Samsung Galaxy Book series, which feature beautiful OLED screens and sharper webcams in thin and light frames. I also like Microsoft’s Surface Laptops, and the most recent edition offers great performance and battery life, albeit in an outdated design.
$1,400 at Dell
Will Lipman Photography for Engadget
Read our full review of the Razer Blade 15 gaming laptop
Just because your laptop might primarily be for coursework doesn’t mean you can’t use it for fun, too. Those looking to game on their machines should prioritize responsive screens and ample ports for their favorite accessories that can best help them defeat their virtual enemies. If you’re considering a gaming-first machine that you can use for school, check out our guide to buying a gaming laptop. It covers details about different CPUs and GPUs, minimum specs and more. Our favorite gaming laptop is the Razer Blade 15, which has an Intel Core i7 processor, and an NVIDIA RTX 3070 graphics for $2,500.
At that price point, it’s the most expensive item on this list, but you also get a 15-inch quad HD screen that refreshes at 240Hz. Different configurations are available, depending on your preference, including Full HD 360Hz and 4K 144Hz versions. The Blade series is also one of the most polished gaming laptops around, and Razer consistently updates it with the latest processors, graphics and other hardware advancements. If you really want to go all-out, you could consider the new Razer Blade 16 that has NVIDIA’s RTX 4060 or 4070 GPUs.
Students and gamers looking for something cheaper and more portable should consider the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14, which was our favorite model in 2021. The main reason it got bumped down a notch is because the 2022 refresh is almost $600 more expensive. It’s still a solid gaming laptop though, with an excellent display, roomy trackpad and plenty of ports in spite of its thin profile.
$2,900 at Razer
Will Lipman Photography for Engadget
Read our full review of the Lenovo Flex 5 Chromebook
If you can do most of your schoolwork through web-based apps, a Chromebook is worth considering for your college laptop. Sure they don’t generally look fancy, nor have high-end specs. But they’re often more affordable and have longer battery life. Our favorite Chromebook is Lenovo’s IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook, which Engadget’s resident Chrome OS aficionado Nathan Ingraham described as hitting “the sweet spot for a lot of Chromebook buyers.”
This laptop nails the basics, with a 13.3-inch Full HD touchscreen that’s bright and sharp, an excellent backlit keyboard and an 11th-generation Intel Core i3 processor. The 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage may sound meager, but it’s more than enough for a Chromebook, especially at this price. It’s also nice to see USB-A and USB-C ports, a microSD card slot and eight-hour battery life. Weighing 3 pounds and measuring 0.66 inches thick, the Flex 5i is not the lightest or slimmest laptop around, but hey, at least your wallet won’t also feel light as feathers after buying this.
Notably, the Flex 5i is supposed to receive software and security updates until June of 2029, so it will last you for years to come. That’s nice to see, considering this laptop has been out for more than a year now, and we’re expecting Lenovo to release a replacement soon. When that happens, or if another manufacturer launches a comparable option, we will update this list. The Lenovo Flex 5i is no longer available directly from Lenovo, but you can commonly find it on Amazon for about $400 (as of this writing, it is selling for about $350). That’s an outstanding value.
$365 at Amazon
Will Lipman Photography for Engadget
Read our full review of the HP Pavilion Aero 13 laptop
If you’re looking for a sturdy student laptop under $800, your best bet is the HP Pavilion Aero 13. Yes, it’s almost two years old, but it’s still one of the best cheap laptops for college students available now. For an affordable price, you’ll get a Full HD screen with a 16:10 aspect ratio and surprisingly thin bezels, as well as a comfortable keyboard and spacious touchpad. Importantly, the Aero 13 provides relatively powerful components compared to others in this price range, with an AMD Ryzen 5000 series processor and Radeon graphics. Plus, it has a generous array of ports and enough hours of battery life to last you a full day and then some.
$600 at HP
Will Lipman Photography for Engadget
Read our full review of the Microsoft Surface Pro 9
For those who need their laptops to occasionally double as tablets, the Surface Pro series is a no-brainer. Compared to notebooks or 2-in-1 laptops with rotating hinges, tablets with kickstands are often much slimmer and lighter. The Surface Pro 9 is the most recent model and it features Microsoft’s sleek design with a thinner profile and minimal bezels. The Pro 9 also has a 120Hz display that makes scrolling long documents or spreadsheets feel much faster, and you can drop the refresh rate down to 60Hz if you want to conserve battery life. Just make sure you get an Intel processor rather than an ARM-based configuration, since app compatibility might be an issue on the latter. You don’t want to be the only one in class who can’t install the obscure app that your professor wants everyone to use, do you?
We also like Microsoft’s Type Covers and the Surface Pens, though it’s worth noting that they’ll have to pay extra for both if you want them. Unless you’re bent on sticking to Apple’s ecosystem, in which case an iPad Pro would suit you best, the Surface Pro 9 is arguably the best convertible laptop around.
The Audio Pro C20 has a lot of connectivity options. As anyone familiar with the category of best wireless speakers knows, a box of drivers that’s able to harness your home’s Wi-Fi network can offer superior sound to that afforded by a Bluetooth connection, whether music is accessed via Google Cast, Apple’s AirPlay, ‘connected’ services such as Tidal Connect (which actually lets you stream losslessly in 24-bit hi-res, where AirPlay taps out at 16-bit CD quality) or a dedicated multi-room app such as the Audio Pro Control app. And the Audio Pro C20 offers all of this.
But just quickly, let’s explain why Audio Pro’s latest wireless speaker is worth your time from a technical perspective. First off, pinging music over Bluetooth from phone to speaker incurs compression. Wi-Fi’s higher bandwidth means you can listen in (very) high resolution, up to 24-bit/192kHz. Now, a Wi-Fi enabled speaker accesses your chosen tunes from the internet (or local drive connected to it) rather than from your phone itself – and if you walk into another room or take a call, as long as you stay within range of your Wi-Fi router, the music keeps playing.
Why explain this in the intro to a product review? Because Audio Pro gets it. The Swedish company’s been in the game for 40 years and the firm gets that we want more than one open gate leading to our music. Also, we now have plenty of kit we’d like to physically connect our shiny new speaker to, if possible (and thank you very much in advance). So, on top of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth streaming, Audio Pro has added to the sizeable C20 a compelling array of ports on the back: an RCA in (for turntables with an RIAA amp), a phono MM in (for moving-magnet cartridge decks without a phono stage), an RCA sub out (if you wanted to connect a dedicated subwoofer to it), a Toslink Optical in (for CD players or budget soundbars, say) and the arguably the biggest draw of the lot – an HDMI ARC in, so it can go straight into your TV and challenge some of the best soundbars. So long as it’ll fit beneath it without obscuring the screen, that is.
The grille attaches easily with magnets and offers clean lines, if you want those… (Image credit: Future)
What you need to know is this: this thing sounds fantastic, offering clarity, depth, excitement and finesse, even at higher volumes. The control app is easy to navigate and corrals all of your chosen music streaming services – but of course, you could go into each app on your phone and click the little Google cast or AirPlay icon to see the C20 ready to connect.
Audio Pro calls the C20 the complete solution for music and TV and it’s hard to argue. It’s also hard to imagine a home interior, color scheme or decor style that the Audio Pro C20 couldn’t be friends with – and the grille can remain on or easily be whipped off, if you prefer to see its three talented drivers.
The metal top plate adds an extra touch of class and the buttons click nicely, in a build that feels both reverent to traditional techniques and yet strikingly modern.
The fact that it comes from a long line of hits means it doesn’t come cheap though. I’ve written odes to Audio Pro’s beautiful speakers and I helped review the slightly smaller Audio Pro Addon C10 MkII for TechRadar’s sister site, What Hi-Fi?, so I can personally vouch the five-star rating there (and the multiple awards it subsequently gained), although I fear those likely didn’t do much to keep prices low.
In summary, it’s chic, it’s unique and it’s (virtually) the complete package. Why virtually? If you wanted a 3.5mm in for your headphones (or 4.4mm, 6.35mm, or XLR), you won’t find it – you’d have to go the the FiiO R9 for that. The C20 is for the enjoyment of shared music. And what an experience that is.
Audio Pro C20 review: Price and release date
Unveiled January 8, 2024, shipping from March 2024
$550 / £450 / €550 (around AU$820)
The Audio Pro C20 is available for pre-order now, and ships from March 2024. In the US, it costs $550 and in the UK, it’ll set you back £450, hardly a trifling sum, whatever whistles and bells it sports.
That said, the competition here isn’t much more affordable. Yes, the Q Acoustics M40 HD is (excellent and) a music system squirrelled into a set of speakers, but as far as wireless connectivity goes, it’s a Bluetooth only one. Then, there’s the fantastic FiiO R9, with all of the connectivity and hi-res wireless streaming smarts you could wish for, as long as you’ll provide your own speakers or headphones.
Sonus Faber and Naim also offer similar solutions – see the Naim Mu-so Qb, a 2019 release which doesn’t boast an HDMI ARC input, support, or the Sonus Faber Omnia, which does – but while the former is now available for similar money to the C20, the latter is a lot more expensive…
Audio Pro sports so many connections, it advises you on which to use for different kinds of turntable… (Image credit: Future)
Audio Pro C20 review: Specs
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Drivers
2x 1-inch tweeters, 1x 6.5-inch woofer
Weight
6.2kg
Connectivity (wireless)
Wi-Fi 2.4GHz/5GHz, Bluetooth 5.0, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Google Cast, AirPlay 2, Audio Pro multi-room
Connectivity (wired)
HDMI ARC, Toslink, RCA, Phone, Line, Sub Out
Power
190W (2x 30W and 1x130W Calss D amps)
Audio Pro C20 review: Features
Built in RIAA amplifier
Google Cast, Apple AirPlay and Audio Pro’s own multi-room audio option
HDMI ARC
By adding a phono stage to its latest masterwork, Audio Pro C20 can be plugged straight into your devoid-of-phono turntable (as long as it sports a moving magnet cartridge), allowing you to simply power it on, select ‘phono’ on the Audio Pro’s top plate, lower that needle and get into the groove. Got one of the best turntables with an RIAA amp inbuilt? That’s OK too, there’s a separate RCA line in for you too.
Of course, this is Audio Pro, so the new C20 also features the winning multi-room option triumvirate that the company introduced with the 2021-release Addon C10 MkII: AirPlay 2, Google Cast, plus its own multi-room audio capability. You also get Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect, Bluetooth (v5.0) and HDMI ARC – so you can hook it straight up to your TV.
Thanks to a combination of these these things, you can also re-stream music (including vinyl from your turntable) to other Audio Pro speakers you may have collected from its A, C, or D-series, in a wireless multi-room system around your home (and you don’t even have to start making holes in your walls).
The C20 also offers the option of connecting an external subwoofer via its sub-out (the company would direct you to its own Audio Pro SW-5 or SW10) enabling you to enhance the C20’s bass performance even further, should you wish – although I didn’t find this necessary.
Finally, two C20’s can be set-up as a stereo pair using the Audio Pro app, or even via Apple Airplay 2. I think you’ll agree, that’s a lot of options. If you want a 3.5mm headphone jack, you won’t find it… but do you really?
Features score: 5/5
That’s a lot of options – and six presets (Image credit: Future)
Audio Pro C20 review: Sound quality
Clarity, neutrality and detail in spades
Ample bass clout without muddying the soundstage
Not an omnidirectional solution
Simply put, the Audio Pro C20 sounds very good indeed, whether physically hooked up to your TV or turntable, or when commanded to play music by your phone. You might anticipate having to make a compromise when buying a jack-of-all-trades box – a minor hit on sound in return for something that works with everything – but not so here.
Coheed and Cambria’s In Keeping Secrets of the Silent Earth: 3 accessed on Tidal Connectis a raucous proggy album and the C20 never shies away from any of it, serving indomitable energy across the frequencies in a cohesive but rigorously regimented mix.
Given delicate string progressions such as Joni Mitchell’s A Case of You, Mitchell’s textured vocal soars above her dynamically agile and three-dimensional Appalachian dulcimer (and James Taylor’s emotive acoustic guitar) where each musical passage is given enough space to have the necessary impact the track.
When handling TV content, the C20 is an easy (easy!) step up from anything my Sony TV’s speakers can do, opening out the sound and offering that extra ounce of detail through intakes of breath and clacks of high-heeled shoes on cobbles in Shetland.
It’s not a Dolby Atmos solution, of course, and the sound isn’t particularly omnidirectional (owing to the C20’s design), but there’s a wide soundstage here nonetheless.
However I listened to it across the course of my testing, the C20 continued to delight and entertain with its myriad connectivity perks, ease of use and gifted audio chops.
Sound quality score: 5/5
The remote certainly adds value – although volume adjustment is a slightly blunt affair (Image credit: Future)
Audio Pro C20: Design
2x 30W and 1x 130W digital class D amplifiers
Removable grille
Choice of three finishes
The Audio Pro C20 is available in Soft Satin White, Stylish Grey or Classic Black. The woven fabric front is fixed to the C20 by magnets and can be easily removed, giving the option of two very different looks, depending on your favored aesthetic.
I like to take off the grille off to better hear (and observe) Audio Pro’s iconic eyes-and-nose style driver configuration, as seen in the brand’s beloved T3+, C5 MkII and C10 MkII, for starters. Here, you get two 30W and one 130W Digital Class D amplifiers, powering the C20’s dual 1-inch tweeters and a 6.5-inch woofer.
At 41cm across,19.6cm high and 22cm deep (and weighing in at 6.2kg, which roughly the same as a gallon of paint), the C20 is a substantial thing and while it fits under my wall-mounted TV just fine, those thinking of using it as a soundbar will need to think about that height.
My ‘Stylish Grey’ sample is just that. The gold-tone top plate (with solo LEDs to denote which source you’re using as well as lights around the six preset buttons) also helps and while the gold accent on the grille is gone (as seen on the C10 MkII) I don’t miss it. Do I miss Audio Pro’s glorious rock ‘n’ roll leather handle? A little, but I also concede that this isn’t proposition is not meant to be especially portable.
It’s always been hard to find fault with Audio Pro’s build quality, and the C20 is no exception.
Design score: 4.5/5
You need a bit of clearance, but it works with my TV (Image credit: Future)
Audio Pro C20 review: Usability and setup
Simple, app-guided setup
App can handle your music –or not
No supplied remote
After powering the speaker on (in case it needs to be mentioned, the C20 needs to be plugged in to power at all times), you’re quickly guided to the Audio Pro companion app, which will add the C20 to your Wi-FI network and generally do the rest. During my time with it, it neither crashed nor tripped up even momentarily.
On the app, the ‘Browse’ tab (which seeks to keep your music all in one place) will open Apple Music natively through ‘open on Apple Music’ if using an iOS device, but third-party streaming services (such as Tidal) will require you to login again if going this route. You can also select the C20’s source here, whether that’s Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, phono, line in (I hooked it up to the FiiO R9 before setting it up and it did a fantastic job), optical or TV.
The central ‘Device’ tab in the app is meant to organise your speakers rather than your music, so here you can name your speaker, (either the model, or its placement in your home, such as ‘kitchen’) and with the C20 there’s a three-band EQ tab for bass, treble and subwoofer out.
The third and final ‘Settings’ tab basically lets you choose which services are displayed on ‘Browse’, as well as an FAQ section and details on the app version you’re running.
Audio Pro hasn’t supplied a dedicated remote control in the box (although if you’re using the HDMI ARC to your TV, you can just use your TV’s remote for volume) and honestly, I don’t miss it, because the app does the heavy lifting – or of course, you can use the premium top plate.
Usability and setup score: 5/5
Audio Pro’s companion app makes it really easy to group your music and your wireless speakers for multi-room audio (Image credit: Future)
Audio Pro C20: Value
Obviously, if you don’t have the expendable income to afford such a speaker, it doesn’t matter how good it is – you won’t be buying it.
That said, Sonus Faber will offer you something with a similar spec sheet that’s double the price, while Naim has an older option that offers less in terms of connectivity, but sounds excellent, for similar money (see below for a comparison of these products).
My advice? You will not be disappointed with the sound-per-pound value here.
Value score: 4.5/5
Audio Pro C20 review: Should you buy it?
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
Audio Pro C20: Also consider
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Audio Pro C20
Naim Mu-so Qb (2019)
Sonus Faber Omnia
Price
$550 / £450 (around AU$820)
$899 / £749 (around AU£1300) but can be found for less
$2,000 / £1,600 / AU$3,500
Drivers
2x 1-inch tweeters, 1x 6.5-inch woofer
7-driver array
7-driver array powered by a 490W amplifier
Connectivity (wireless)
2.4GHz/5GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, Tidal Connect, Spotify Connect, Google Cast, AirPlay 2, Audio Pro app for multi-room connectivity
Ethernet (10/100Mbps), Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n/ac), BLE v4.2,Apple AirPlay 2, Chromecast Built-in, UPnPTM, Spotify Connect, TIDAL, Roon Ready, Bluetooth, Internet Radio
2.4GHz/5GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0 (aptX HD), AirPlay, Chromecast, Spotify Connect
Weight
6.2kg
5.6kg
7.6kg
Connectivity (wired)
HDMI ARC in, Phono, RCA line in, Optical Toslink in, Sub out
Optical S/PDIF, USB 2 (type A), 3.5mm jack
Switchable phono/line in (for turntable analog devices), HDMI Arc in, Ethernet port
Audio Pro C20 review: How I tested
Tested across seven days
Used as a TV soundbar, wireless speaker, wired to the FiiO R9, wired to a turntable and as a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth speaker
Listened to a variety of music; watched three episodes of an action-packed TV show
When testing the Audio Pro C20, the only connection I didn’t use was the subwoofer out – because honestly, I really like Audio Pro’s tuning within its speakers and never felt the need to try to augment the low end.
The analogue inputs accommodated both pre-amplified and non-amplified turntables, the digital optical was used for a CD player, the line in for FiiO R9 (as a source device), my TV was hooked up to it… and, of course, Bluetooth and my home Wi-Fi network were handy for using it with my iPhone.
And then it’s the usual: listening to lots of familiar music from my reference playlist, (as well as three episodes of Shetland on TV, which I’m really into and highly recommend – yes, I know I’m late to that particular party) at a variety of volume levels, for the duration of my testing.
As a brief aside, I removed the grilles for the duration of my testing – it’s what I always do whenever possible. Why? The fewer physical obstructions between you and your music, the better…
Sound waves thought to be from a 2014 meteor fireball north of Papua New Guinea were almost certainly vibrations from a truck rumbling along a nearby road, new Johns Hopkins University-led research shows. The findings raise doubts that materials pulled last year from the ocean are alien materials from that meteor, as was widely reported.
“The signal changed directions over time, exactly matching a road that runs past the seismometer,” said Benjamin Fernando, a planetary seismologist at Johns Hopkins who led the research. “It’s really difficult to take a signal and confirm it is not from something. But what we can do is show that there are lots of signals like this, and show they have all the characteristics we’d expect from a truck and none of the characteristics we’d expect from a meteor.”
The team will present its findings March 12 at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston.
After a meteor entered Earth’s atmosphere over the Western Pacific in January 2014, the event was linked to ground vibrations recorded at a seismic station in Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island. In 2023, materials at the bottom of the ocean near where the meteor fragments were thought to have fallen were identified as of “extraterrestrial technological” (alien) origin.
But according to Fernando, that supposition relies on misinterpreted data and the meteor actually entered the atmosphere somewhere else. Fernando’s team did not find evidence of seismic waves from the meteor.
“The fireball location was actually very far away from where the oceanographic expedition went to retrieve these meteor fragments,” he said. “Not only did they use the wrong signal, they were looking in the wrong place.”
Using data from stations in Australia and Palau designed to detect sound waves from nuclear testing, Fernando’s team identified a more likely location for the meteor, more than 100 miles from the area initially investigated. They concluded the materials recovered from the ocean bottom were tiny, ordinary meteorites — or particles produced from other meteorites hitting Earth’s surface mixed with terrestrial contamination.
“Whatever was found on the sea floor is totally unrelated to this meteor, regardless of whether it was a natural space rock or a piece of alien spacecraft — even though we strongly suspect that it wasn’t aliens,” Fernando added.
Fernando’s team includes Constantinos Charalambous of Imperial College London; Steve Desch of Arizona State University; Alan Jackson of Towson University; Pierrick Mialle of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization; Eleanor K. Sansom of Curtin University; and Göran Ekström of Columbia University.
Google has fired a Cloud engineer who interrupted Barak Regev, the managing director of its business in Israel, during a speech at an Israeli tech event in New York, according to CNBC. “I’m a Google software engineer and I refuse to build technology that powers genocide or surveillance!” the engineer was seen and heard shouting in a video captured by freelance journalist Caroline Haskins that went viral online. While being dragged away by security — and amidst jeers from the audience — he continued talking and referenced Project Nimbus. That’s the $1.2 billion contract Google and Amazon had won to supply AI and other advanced technologies to the Israeli military.
Last year, a group of Google employees published an open letter urging the company to cancel Project Nimbus, in addition to calling out the “hate, abuse and retaliation” Arab, Muslim and Palestinian workers are getting within the company. “Project Nimbus puts Palestinian community members in danger! I refuse to build technology that is gonna be used for cloud apartheid,” the engineer said. After he was removed from the venue, Regev told the audience that “[p]art of the privilege of working in a company, which represents democratic values is giving the stage for different opinions.” He ended his speech after a second protester interrupted and accused Google of being complicit in genocide.
A Google Cloud engineer just interrupted Google Israel managing director Barak Regev at Israeli tech industry conference MindTheTech this morning in NY.
“I refuse to build technology that powers genocide!” he yelled, referring to Google’s Project Nimbus contract pic.twitter.com/vM9mMFlJRS
The incident took place during the MindTheTech conference in New York. Its theme for the year was apparently “Stand With Israeli Tech,” because investments in Israel slowed down after the October 7 Hamas attacks. Haskins wrote a detailed account of what she witnessed at the event, but she wasn’t able to stay until it wrapped up, because she was also thrown out by security.
The Google engineer who interrupted the event told Haskins that he wanted “other Google Cloud engineers to know that this is what engineering looks like — is standing in solidarity with the communities affected by your work.” He spoke to the journalist anonymously to avoid professional repercussions, but Google clearly found out who he was. A Google spokesperson told CNBC that he was fired for “interfering with an official company-sponsored event.” They also told the news organization that his “behavior is not okay, regardless of the issue” and that the “employee was terminated for violating [Google’s] policies.”
This article contains affiliate links; if you click such a link and make a purchase, we may earn a commission.
