After first announcing that its cloud-streaming Stadia game service would launch with just 12 titles, Google has nearly doubled that number, according to a tweet from Stadia boss Phil Harrison. The service will now arrive with 10 additional games, bringing the total to 22. The list now includes Football Manager 2020 and NBA 2K2020, giving Stadia a couple of the sports titles it was completely lacking before.
Excited to announce that we are INCREASING the Day One launch line-up of titles for @GoogleStadia - we now have TWENTY TWO games launching with the platform on Tuesday. Huge thank you to our game developer and publisher partners for bringing more titles #stadia
Google took some heat with the initial, very sparse launch list of 12 games, especially considering that Microsoft is launching its xCloud preview with well over 50 titles. Harrison explained on Twitter that "we were perhaps a little conservative in our forecast last week and (most importantly) our partners did an awesome job getting last few kinks ironed out and through testing."
Considering the list of missing features and other launch info revealed during a Reddit AMA, this is a shot of good news for the platform. Google also said that Samurai Showdown will join Destiny 2 as a free game on the platform, which is set to launch tomorrow.
Games initially announced:
Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Destiny 2: The Collection (free with Stadia Pro subscription)
Gylt
Just Dance 2020
Kine
Mortal Kombat 11
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Red Dead Redemption 2
Samurai Shodown (free with Stadia Pro subscription)
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Thumper
Tomb Raider 2013
Games added on Sunday, two days before the November 19th launch:
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People mock Google's messaging strategy. Right now its efforts are scattered across existing tools like Messages, Hangouts and Duo after leaving behind exterminated ones like Allo and Google Talk. My problem with the company is much more basic. I can't rely on Hangouts or Messages on my Google Pixel 4 phone to do simple things like text my wife that I'm picking up our kid from school.
The problem begins with Hangouts. For years, it's been excruciatingly slow to load a conversation about half the time I need to. In the test I performed a few minutes ago, it took about 3 minutes. This problem extends back to the Nexus phone days. Mysteriously, the problem doesn't afflict iPhones I've had, so often I reach for an Apple device to use my Google messaging service.
Given all the bother with Hangouts, I thought I'd try Google's Messages app. Google is investing in it, and it's got the new RCS features. That includes sharing bigger photo and video files, showing receipts after your contact has read your messages, indicating when your contacts are typing, improving group chats and interacting with company accounts.
Messaging on Android could use the help. It's lagged Apple's iMessage technology for years, doing a disservice to the hundreds of millions of us using Android. But messaging is deceptively complicated, and my trouble with Google's services are emblematic of how hard it is to accommodate different carriers, phones and phone makers.
Often when loading a Google Hangouts conversation on Android, I get to watch this throbber spin for minutes.
Stephen Shankland/CNET
I couldn't get Messages to work, but Google straightened me out here: I had to switch off text messages in Hangouts (and maybe fixed the Hangouts waiting in the process). But that just led me to realize that Messages is, for me, a regression. In short, it's incompatible with my multidevice life.
Where Hangouts spans my three laptops, three phones and two iPads, Messages can handle only one laptop and one phone -- one with a SIM card installed.
And on that one laptop, it can run in only one browser at a time. If I want to use it on an iPad or iPhone, I have to do so via a browser. (Google's messages.google.com web interface unhelpfully offers a download link for the Android app when I visit with my iPhone or iPad.)
I tried to set Google Messages as my default SMS app, but it turns out Google Hangouts overrides that setting when you set it to handle SMS.
Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET
I'm a tech journalist, and I know I use way more gadgets and browsers than the average person. But it's not unreasonable to want a service that works on a laptop, tablet and phone. Or on both home and work PCs.
Also, I can't use Messages with my old Android phone, which I use in the evenings and overnight, because it doesn't have a SIM card. And there's no Gmail integration.
To switch the Messages web interface from one device or browser to another, you have to launch the Android app and scan a QR code. It's a pain. It's the kind of thing you'd associate with a carrier or cable TV company trying to prevent you from taking your business elsewhere, not with Google.
Google takes this approach because the phone is where the data is stored. The company says it limits synchronization from that phone to one browser to be sparing with data usage and to preserve battery life.
That's admirable, but I just dumped Messages and went back to Hangouts. Google has always been a cloud-savvy company, exemplified by services like Gmail, G Suite and Google Voice and products like Chrome OS that unchain you from a single device. That's the messaging style I need, and it's what Hangouts delivers.
Hangouts isn't perfect. I worry the cloud-centric approach is incompatible with end-to-end encryption, a privacy feature where Apple messaging still leads. And it doesn't work with the RCS from Google and carriers like AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint.
RCS sounds nice. But I'd be happy with plain vanilla text messages if I could just get them on all my digital devices.
Microsoft rose to dominance during the '80s and '90s thanks to the success of its Windows operating system running on Intel’s processors, a cosy relationship nicknamed “Wintel”.
Now Microsoft hopes that another another hardware–software combo will help it recapture that success—and catch rivals Amazon and Google in the race to provide cutting-edge artificial intelligence through the cloud.
Microsoft hopes to extend the popularity of its Azure cloud platform with a new kind of computer chip designed for the age of AI. Starting today, Microsoft is providing Azure customers with access to chips made by the British startup Graphcore.
Graphcore, founded in Bristol, UK, in 2016, has attracted considerable attention among AI researchers—and several hundred million dollars in investment—on the promise that its chips will accelerate the computations required to make AI work. Until now it has not made the chips publicly available or shown the results of trials involving early testers.
Microsoft, which put its own money into Graphcore last December as part of a $200 million funding round, is keen to find hardware that will make its cloud services more attractive to the growing number of customers for AI applications.
Unlike most chips used for AI, Graphcore’s processors were designed from scratch to support the calculations that help machines to recognize faces, understand speech, parse language, drive cars, and train robots. Graphcore expects it will appeal to companies running business-critical operations on AI, such as self-driving-car startups, trading firms, and operations that process large quantities of video and audio. Those working on next-generation AI algorithms may also be keen to explore the platform’s advantages.
Microsoft and Graphcore today published benchmarks that suggest the chip matches or exceeds the performance of the top AI chips from Nvidia and Google using algorithms written for those rival platforms. Code written specifically for Graphcore’s hardware may be even more efficient.
The companies claim that certain image-processing tasks work many times faster on Graphcore’s chips, for example, than on its rivals using existing code. They also say they were able to train a popular AI model for language processing, called BERT, at rates matching those of any other existing hardware.
BERT has become hugely important for AI applications involving language. Google recently said that it is using BERT to power its core search business. Microsoft says it is now using Graphcore’s chips for internal AI research projects involving natural language processing.
Karl Freund, who tracks the AI chip market at Moor Insights, says the results show the chip is cutting-edge but still flexible. A highly-specialized chip could outperform one from Nvidia or Google but would not be programmable enough for engineers to develop new applications. “They’ve done a good job making it programmable, he says. “Good performance in both training and inference is something they've always said they would do, but it is really, really hard.”
Freund adds that the deal with Microsoft is crucial for Graphcore’s business, because it provides an on-ramp for customers to try the new hardware. The chip may well be superior to existing hardware for some applications, but it takes a lot of effort to redevelop AI code for a new platform. With a couple of exceptions, Freund says, the chip’s benchmarks are not eye-popping enough to lure companies and researchers away from the hardware and software they are already comfortable using.
Graphcore has created a software framework called Poplar, which allows existing AI programs to be ported to its hardware. Plenty of existing algorithms may still be better-suited to software that runs on top of rival hardware, though. Google’s Tensorflow AI software framework has become the de facto standard for AI programs in recent years, and it was written specifically for Nvidia and Google chips. Nvidia is also expected to release a new AI chip next year, which is likely to have better performance.
Nigel Toon, cofounder and CEO of Graphcore, says the companies began working together a year after his company’s launch, through Microsoft Research Cambridge in the UK. His company’s chips are especially well-suited to tasks that involve very large AI models or temporal data, he says. One customer in finance supposedly saw a 26-fold performance boost in an algorithm used to analyze market data thanks to Graphcore’s hardware.
A handful of other, smaller companies also announced today that they are working with Graphcore chips through Azure. This includes Citadel, which will use the chips to analyze financial data, and Qwant, a European search engine that wants the hardware to run an image-recognition algorithm known as ResNext.
The AI boom has already shaken up the market for computer chips in recent years. The best algorithms perform parallel mathematical computations, which can be done more effectively on a graphics chips (or GPUs) that have hundreds of simple processing cores as opposed to conventional chips (CPUs) that have a few complex processing cores.
The GPU-maker Nvidia has ridden the AI wave to riches, and Google announced in 2017 that it would develop its own chip, the Tensor Processing Unit, which is architecturally similar to a GPU but optimized for Tensorflow.
Graphcore’s chips, which it calls intelligence processing units (IPUs), have many more cores than GPUs or TPUs. They also feature memory on the chip itself, which removes a bottleneck that comes with moving data onto a chip for processing and off again.
Facebook is also working on its own AI chips. Microsoft has previously touted reconfigurable chips made by Intel and customized by its engineers for AI applications. A year ago, Amazon revealed it was also getting into chipmaking, but with a more general-purpose processor optimized for Amazon’s cloud services.
More recently, the AI boom has sparked a flurry of startup hardware companies to develop more specialized chips. Some of these are optimized for specific applications such as autonomous driving or surveillance cameras. Graphcore and a few others offer much more flexible chips, which are crucial for developing AI applications but also much more challenging to produce. The company’s last investment round gave the company a valuation of $1.7 billion.
Graphcore’s chips might first find traction with top AI experts who are able to write the code needed to exploit their benefits. Several prominent AI researchers have invested in Graphcore, including Demis Hassabis, cofounder of DeepMind, Zoubin Ghahramani, a professor at the University of Cambridge and the head of Uber’s AI lab, and Peiter Abbeel, a professor at UC Berkeley who specializes in AI and robotics. In an interview with WIREDlast December, AI visionary Geoffrey Hinton discussed the potential for Graphcore chips to advance fundamental research.
Before long, companies may be tempted to try out the latest thing, too. As Graphcore’s CEO Toon says, “Everybody's trying to innovate, trying to find an advantage.”
There's no question that BioWare has struggled with Anthembetween bugs and basic mechanics, and has made significant gameplay changes in a bid to keep its shared world shooter alive. However, the developer might soon resort to more drastic measures. Kotakusources say BioWare and EA are readying a revamp of the Destiny-like game nicknamed "Anthem 2.0" or "Anthem Next." The rethink will "drastically" change basics like mission design, looting and even the world itself. The team spent a few months simply "tearing [Anthem] down" and spent more months rebuilding the title, one tipster said.
Just how you'd get this rework isn't certain. The team is reportedly exploring a number of options, including releasing updates over time, an all-at-once release or even treating it as a brand new game. If there is a full-fledged re-release, though, you probably won't have to pay full price.
EA has declined to comment. This would be an unusual strategy for the publisher, though. It has a reputation for cutting its losses when a studio's game doesn't pan out, in some cases shutting down the studio altogether. This would be a vote of confidence in BioWare's ability to turn Anthem around make it match the hype -- or at least, give Destiny players something they'd enjoy in between seasonal events.
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.
It used to be that Black Friday deals were only available on Friday, but now it's turned into a month-long event that seems to get bigger and bigger each year. While some of the best deals may only be available on Black Friday, and door buster offerings may start as early as the evening of Thanksgiving Day, that doesn't mean that you can't already score some pretty wild deals right this very minute.
Source: Android Central
Retailers are trying to maximize exposure during this time of the year, which means that select items are going on sale ahead of the big day. You may be wondering if the prices will drop lower on Black Friday, or if it's worth shopping early, so let's answer some of your questions, and show you some of the best deals. We are currently just 12 days away from Black Friday, so it's time to get serious here.
Best Black Friday deals available right now!
Product or Service
Deal Price
Google Pixel 3a
$299 at Amazon
Household Essentials
30% Off at Amazon
Dyson V7 Animal Vacuum
$180 at Amazon
Disney Plus
Starting at $7 per month
Meross Smart Garage Opener
$30 at Amazon
IPVanish VPN Subscription
$3.25 per month at IPVanish
Echo Dot w/ Clock + Smart Plg
$45 at Amazon
Amazon Music Unlimited
$1 at Amazon
Mint Mobile
$15 per month at Mint Mobile
AirPods Pro
$235 at Amazon
Amazon Echo Show 8
$100 at Amazon
Roborock S5 Robotic Vacuum
$500 at Amazon
Kindle Unlimited 6-month Subscription
$29.97 at Amazon
SiriusXM Essential 1-Month Subscription
Free at SiriusXM
That's right, some of the advertised Black Friday pricing is available starting right now. You can save pretty big chunks of change on a variety of products. Let's take a look at some of the best deals that you can buy today so you skip the lines later this month.
Google Pixel 3a
The Pixel 3a is one of the best and most affordable Pixel smartphones to ever release. Right now, you can save $100 on the unlocked model, and save an additional $50 if you opt to activate it at Best Buy on your carrier at the time of purchase. We haven't seen a good deal on these phones in a long time, so don't miss out.
This is $100 less than it normally sells for, making it truly the best cheap unlocked phone right now. These discounts are good for today only, so don't miss out.
Household Essentials
These may not be things you give out as gifts, but they are things you use every day so why not save a bit of cash when stocking up. Whether you need Ziploc storage bags, paper plates, dishwasher tablets, air fresheners, or even bait stations, this one-day sale has a little bit of everything. Be sure to check out everything that's available now!
Odds are you use the items in this sale everyday already, so don't skip out and pay full price when you need it next. Stock up today.
Dyson V7 Animal (Renewed Condition)
Dyson makes some of the best vacuums out there, and if you're ready to leave the cord behind you'll want to check this deal out today. This is for a renewed version of Dyson's V7 Animal vacuum and comes with some bonus tools as well. The battery lasts 30 minutes per charge when using the non-motorized tools. Being renewed, Amazon has tried and tested the vacuum and guarantees its performance. It comes with a 90-day warranty.
It isn't brand new, but it's been tested and guaranteed to work and look like it. amazon backs it with a 90-day warranty, and your purchase comes with some free bonus tools.
Disney Plus
Disney+ has finally arrived! Now that the streaming service is ready for members in select countries including the United States and Canda, it's time to figure out the best way to sign up and start streaming! The service is available to download as an app on so many devices, from Roku and Fire TV streaming sticks to smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and more. You can watch it using your computer as well.
It's finally time to start binge-watching all of the new originals, classic TV series, and movies on Disney+! Signing up for a one-year membership drops the monthly cost to $5.83. Meanwhile, Verizon customers can score a full year for free!
Meross Smart Garage Door Opener
If you haven't thought of making your garage door smarter yet, now is the best time to do it. Clipping the $20 off on-page coupon makes this Meross Smart Garage Opener kit the lowest price we've ever seen it go for. You can install it in just minutes and once it's all set up you can get alerts of the garage door status right to your phone, and even open and close it from anywhere in the world without worrying.
This open adds smarts to just about any and every garage door opener system that was installed after 1993. It gives you controls and alerts right from your phone, which is awesome.
IPVanish VPN Subscription
Things are not what they used to be, and unfortunately not everyone can be trusted. Whether you're browsing from home or at a cafe, doing it on an unsecured connection can be dangerous. VPNs have become more popular in the recent years, and there's a good reason for it. IPVanish is one of our favorite services, and thanks to its Black Friday pricing you can get protected for as little as $3.25 a month when you redeem coupon code CYBERDEAL19.
A VPN is a smart choice these days, and you don't need to go broke to add the protection you deserve. Be sure to use coupon code CYBERDEAL19 to get the lowered monthly cost.
Amazon Echo Dot w/Clock + Smart Plug
This updated Dot was only released a few weeks ago but you can already make a killer saving on it. Amazon is offering a bundle with a free smart plug, or you can grab it with a smart bulb instead for just $5 more. This looks just like the 3rd-gen Echo Dot did, with the exception of the built-in LED clock that shows you the time. It's great for night stands, desks, and more.
This is the newest Echo Dot from Amazon, and it's already down to its best price yet. There's a minor shipping delay, so get your order in now!
Amazon Music Unlimited
Ahead of the big Black Friday push, Amazon has discounted its own Music Unlimited streaming service. You can get four months of access, which includes millions of songs that you can access anywhere using an app on your phone or tablet, for just $1. This saves you about $39 compared to the regular price, and makes it a no-brainer choice. It's 25 cents a month, how can you pass that up?
It's four months of access for just $1. It includes millions of songs, hands-free listening with Alexa, and more.
Mint Mobile
Mint Mobile has already kicked off its Black Friday promotion, and it's one of the best carrier deals we will see this month. The carrier is offering 12GB of data for just $15 a month, but you need to prepay for 3 months. That means you pay $45 to get three months of service, after which it renews at regular pricing.
This promo scores you the biggest data allotment that Mint offers at the lowest price we've seen. Don't miss out.
Apple AirPods Pro
Black Friday is sure to bring lots of deals to the AirPods lineup, but one of the best is here right now. The recently-released AirPods Pro are already discounted at Amazon, which is a bit rare. We don't see many discounts on new Apple products, but that's not stopping these from being on sale. There is a shipping delay to make note of, though it's likely that Amazon will have stock available earlier than what's advertised.
These are the newest addition to the AirPods lineup, and you can already save $14 on the purchase. There is a shipping delay, but the savings may be worth it.
Amazon Echo Show 8
Though only released a little over a month ago, Amazon's all-new Echo Show 8 instantly became the best Echo Show of the bunch. Sitting between the Echo Show 5 and the original Echo Show in both size and price, today the decision of which to pick is even easier than usual thanks to a $30 discount on the Echo Show 8 bringing its cost down to just $99.99. This is the first discount to reach this new device, and there's no telling how long it might stick around. It normally sells for $130.
The all-new Echo Show 8 is equipped with an 8-inch HD display and Amazon Alexa's voice assistant which will keep you up to date on the latest news and weather announcements. You can even control other smart home devices, watch TV, and more.
Roborock S5 Robotic Vacuum
The holidays are busy enough, so why not outsource a bit of your cleaning to something else? This robot vacuum uses smart navigation to map our your home and intelligently plan routes to ensure it cleans it all. You can use the free Roborock smartphone app to monitor its progress, set schedules, and much more for it.
This is a $100 markdown compared to its regular price. It's a feature-loaded model that will help you clean without much effort..
Kindle Unlimited
Kindle Unlimited gives you access to over a million titles, spanning from technical documents to cookbooks to fantasy novels to nonfiction. Even some audiobooks are included. Need a self-help book? Want to re-read the Harry Potter books for the seventeenth time? It's all there, and it's all free with your membership. You don't need a Kindle or Fire tablet to read, either. Amazon makes it easy to read thanks to its free Kindle reading apps for iOS, Android, PC, and Mac.
For a limited time, you can score a six-month membership to Kindle Unlimited at 50% off. Unlike previous deals, you don't have to be a Prime member to take advantage of this offer, and it's open to returning customers as well.
SiriusXM Essential 1-Month Subscription
This one doesn't cost you anything, which makes it the best kind of deal. Right now, Sirius is offering a one-month free trial of its Essential Streaming Package, which allows you to listen to its service on your phone, PC, and more. Normally, it's $8 a month, and after the one free month that's how much it will renew at. You get access to 300 channels, which have a mix of music, comedy, talk radio, and more.
Sign up now to get a free 30-day trial of the service. It renews at $8 per month and includes over 300 channels.
Should you shop pre-Black Friday deals?
The answer here is not cut and dry, but in most cases we would say yes. You should absolutely already be shopping sales, and picking up things as you see them on sale. Many retailers have already dropped the Black Friday sale ads, so you can easily compare the pricing listed there to what it's available for right now. If the prices match, click buy now. There is no benefit to waiting for Black Friday and risking the item selling out or forgetting to purchase it, and being stuck then paying full price.
Will Black Friday bring lower prices?
You may or may not find lower pricing than you see right now on Black Friday itself. Retailers don't show off every single item that will be available at a discount and list the price ahead of the event, unfortunately, which means you have to take a risk. You'll need to weigh your options when shopping for some stuff, but keep in mind that making the purchase now is likely less stressful, and you won't have to worry about it selling out before you complete the transaction or missing out on the price you see.
Where should you look for Black Friday deals?
When it comes to Black Friday, just about everyone under the sun will be offering discounts. If you want to keep your searches under control, we'd recommend keeping an eye on Amazon's Black Friday offerings, along with deals at Best Buy and don't forget to check out Walmart during your pricing comparisons. These retailers offer a wide variety of product assortment, and will honestly all probably be price matching eachother during the lead up to Black Friday and on the big day.
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Welcome to your weekend! Now that Apple's new laptop is here, it's time to tear it apart and look inside. Disney is responding to Simpsons fans, and Amazon has a new high-quality Echo speaker. Finally, there's a new episode of the Engadget Podcast and we'll look back at some highlights from this week like our hands-on with Motorola's new foldable RAZR.
Naturally, the teardown team at iFixit was bound to get their hands on the 16-inch MacBook Pro and see exactly how its keyboard works. Just as expected, the new keyboard is nearly identical to the one in the 2015 MacBook Pro as well as Apple's external Bluetooth Magic Keyboard.
In a repeat of an issue that occurred when FXX started playing old Simpsons episodes a few years ago, someone decided to crop and zoom older content so it fills out an HD widescreen frame. In a statement, a Disney spokesperson said that "in early 2020" it will offer a toggle for the first 19 seasons of episodes so people can choose to view them in their original format -- important for many visual gags that extend to the top or bottom of the frame.
After months of thinking, curating, photographing and more thinking, we've come up with a holiday gift guide that covers all the bases (and budgets), from laptops and mobile devices, to toys, to the smart home, to book and media recommendations (only on nerdy subjects, of course). All told, there are more than 150 items in our guide, spanning 13 categories, with advice from 25 of our writers and editors. You know, the people testing and reviewing this stuff all year long.
To get the most out of this Echo Studio, Billy Steele writes that you'll want to consider a high-res streaming plan like Amazon Music HD. The 3D audio options are a bit limited for now, but even regular Spotify sounds great on this thing. It's by far the best-sounding Echo yet, and probably will be for the foreseeable future.
This is the second time this year the company has raised its rate on live television streaming. In February, there was a $5/month hike to $45.99 -- up from the $39.99 price when the service debuted in 2017. Now it's going up to $54.99, as of December 18th.
Even in pre-production form, Roberto Baldwin reports the Taycan Turbo S EV feels solid and ready for everything from cruising around town to tackling the track.
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.
