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As someone allergic to a big sect of food (hey gluten free eaters!), I know how important accurate allergy markers are on a menu. Yet, a new criminal complaint alleges that a former Disney World employee intentionally altered a menu’s allergy information to state foods didn’t contain peanuts that, in fact, did, 404 Media and Court Watch reported in collaboration. 
The complaint alleges that Michael Scheuer was fired by Disney and then used still viable passwords to access a third-party created proprietary menu creation and inventory system. Over the course of his misdoings, he allegedly changed the allergy information along with adding profanity, altering prices and changing the font to Wingdings. Those wingdings were what initially tipped off employees. All menus in the database were deemed unusable and the application went offline for one to two weeks to fix the issues.
Disney changed the passwords, but then Scheuer allegedly broke into multiple of the third-party company’s FTPs, to change the allergy markers and altered QR codes from directing to a menu to a boycott Israel website. He also tried to break into Disney employees’ accounts nearly 8,000 times. Disney claims that the altered menus were identified before being shipped out to restaurants. 
This case is unrelated to a doctor who died of an allergic reaction after eating at a Disney Springs restaurant last year. Notably, Disney tried to get a lawsuit filed by the doctor’s husband thrown out in August, alleging that he had agreed to settle lawsuits out of court through arbitration. The reason? He had signed a terms of service for a one-month Disney+ trial in 2019 and again when making an account to buy park tickets. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-fired-disney-employee-allegedly-altered-menus-to-change-allergy-markers-161549481.html?src=rss

As someone allergic to a big sect of food (hey gluten free eaters!), I know how important accurate allergy markers are on a menu. Yet, a new criminal complaint alleges that a former Disney World employee intentionally altered a menu’s allergy information to state foods didn’t contain peanuts that, in fact, did, 404 Media and Court Watch reported in collaboration. 

The complaint alleges that Michael Scheuer was fired by Disney and then used still viable passwords to access a third-party created proprietary menu creation and inventory system. Over the course of his misdoings, he allegedly changed the allergy information along with adding profanity, altering prices and changing the font to Wingdings. Those wingdings were what initially tipped off employees. All menus in the database were deemed unusable and the application went offline for one to two weeks to fix the issues.

Disney changed the passwords, but then Scheuer allegedly broke into multiple of the third-party company’s FTPs, to change the allergy markers and altered QR codes from directing to a menu to a boycott Israel website. He also tried to break into Disney employees’ accounts nearly 8,000 times. Disney claims that the altered menus were identified before being shipped out to restaurants. 

This case is unrelated to a doctor who died of an allergic reaction after eating at a Disney Springs restaurant last year. Notably, Disney tried to get a lawsuit filed by the doctor’s husband thrown out in August, alleging that he had agreed to settle lawsuits out of court through arbitration. The reason? He had signed a terms of service for a one-month Disney+ trial in 2019 and again when making an account to buy park tickets. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-fired-disney-employee-allegedly-altered-menus-to-change-allergy-markers-161549481.html?src=rss

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The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus Community Edition is Nothing’s latest smartphone, using designs submitted by the community — and it glows in the dark. Depending on your location, you can register for a chance to buy the device starting today, but that doesn’t guarantee a purchase. Only 1,000 of them will be available, and they won’t be sold in North America, Taiwan and Korea.
Nothing first called for the community to design a product back in March. The contest had four stages: creating a new look, crafting wallpapers, designing a new package and then developing a marketing campaign. People would then submit their ideas and the winners chosen later. These entries later went into the final design as seen now. Those who participated in the community event are given priority to register for a Phone (2a) Plus Community Edition, but it will still be sold on a first-come-first-served basis. You can find out how to get one in this post.
Interestingly, those in Malaysia (like me), Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines don’t have to register to potentially purchase one. They can buy one through Nothing’s official partners, although they have to be fast as there are only 25 devices per country. Fans of Nothing’s phones in Japan can also register for the phone, but the ones they’ll get are based on the older Nothing Phone (2a).
Besides buying the phone online, fans in London and Delhi can visit a physical store for one. The Nothing Store in Soho will stock 50 of them starting November 16. However, those in Delhi have to stay tuned for the location, and the phone will become available on November 23.
The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus Community Edition will launch on November 12 and sell for £399, around $430. It comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage space.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/nothings-first-community-designed-smartphone-glows-in-the-dark-152002042.html?src=rss

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus Community Edition is Nothing’s latest smartphone, using designs submitted by the community — and it glows in the dark. Depending on your location, you can register for a chance to buy the device starting today, but that doesn’t guarantee a purchase. Only 1,000 of them will be available, and they won’t be sold in North America, Taiwan and Korea.

Nothing first called for the community to design a product back in March. The contest had four stages: creating a new look, crafting wallpapers, designing a new package and then developing a marketing campaign. People would then submit their ideas and the winners chosen later. These entries later went into the final design as seen now. Those who participated in the community event are given priority to register for a Phone (2a) Plus Community Edition, but it will still be sold on a first-come-first-served basis. You can find out how to get one in this post.

Interestingly, those in Malaysia (like me), Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines don’t have to register to potentially purchase one. They can buy one through Nothing’s official partners, although they have to be fast as there are only 25 devices per country. Fans of Nothing’s phones in Japan can also register for the phone, but the ones they’ll get are based on the older Nothing Phone (2a).

Besides buying the phone online, fans in London and Delhi can visit a physical store for one. The Nothing Store in Soho will stock 50 of them starting November 16. However, those in Delhi have to stay tuned for the location, and the phone will become available on November 23.

The Nothing Phone (2a) Plus Community Edition will launch on November 12 and sell for £399, around $430. It comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage space.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/nothings-first-community-designed-smartphone-glows-in-the-dark-152002042.html?src=rss

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For the second time in less than two years, Dropbox is laying off a substantial portion of its workforce. In a blog post penned by CEO Drew Houston, the company said it would cut its global headcount by 20 percent or 528 employees. 
Dropbox will provide impacted workers with up to 16 weeks of pay, with tenured employees eligible for one additional week of pay for each complete year they worked at the company. All impacted employees will also receive their year end equity vest, and the company will provide dedicated support to immigrant workers with one-on-one consultation and extra transition time.
Per a filing with the SEC, Dropbox anticipates this latest round of layoffs will cost it up to $68 million in cash expenditures. At the same time, the company expects it will recognize between $47 million and $52 million in incremental expenses related to all the severance and benefit payouts it now needs to make before the end of year and into the first half of 2025.
“As CEO, I take full responsibility for this decision and the circumstances that led to it, and I’m truly sorry to those impacted by this change,” Houston wrote. “We continue to see softening demand and macro headwinds in our core business. But external factors are only part of the story. We’ve heard from many of you that our organizational structure has become overly complex, with excess layers of management slowing us down.”
Partway through last year, Dropbox laid off 500 employees, or about 16 percent of its workforce at the time. Comparing the memo Houston shared then with the one he posted today, there’s a common theme: slowing growth.
“First, while our business is profitable, our growth has been slowing. Part of this is due to the natural maturation of our existing businesses, but more recently, headwinds from the economic downturn have put pressure on our customers and, in turn, on our business,” Houston wrote in 2023. “As a result, some investments that used to deliver positive returns are no longer sustainable.”
Unfortunately for Dropbox, things haven’t improved on that front. As TechCrunch notes, the company only added 63,000 users during its most recent fiscal quarter (PDF link). Year-over-year revenue growth also stalled at 1.8 percent, the lowest in the company’s history. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/dropbox-is-laying-off-20-percent-of-its-workforce-151023877.html?src=rss

For the second time in less than two years, Dropbox is laying off a substantial portion of its workforce. In a blog post penned by CEO Drew Houston, the company said it would cut its global headcount by 20 percent or 528 employees. 

Dropbox will provide impacted workers with up to 16 weeks of pay, with tenured employees eligible for one additional week of pay for each complete year they worked at the company. All impacted employees will also receive their year end equity vest, and the company will provide dedicated support to immigrant workers with one-on-one consultation and extra transition time.

Per a filing with the SEC, Dropbox anticipates this latest round of layoffs will cost it up to $68 million in cash expenditures. At the same time, the company expects it will recognize between $47 million and $52 million in incremental expenses related to all the severance and benefit payouts it now needs to make before the end of year and into the first half of 2025.

“As CEO, I take full responsibility for this decision and the circumstances that led to it, and I’m truly sorry to those impacted by this change,” Houston wrote. “We continue to see softening demand and macro headwinds in our core business. But external factors are only part of the story. We’ve heard from many of you that our organizational structure has become overly complex, with excess layers of management slowing us down.”

Partway through last year, Dropbox laid off 500 employees, or about 16 percent of its workforce at the time. Comparing the memo Houston shared then with the one he posted today, there’s a common theme: slowing growth.

“First, while our business is profitable, our growth has been slowing. Part of this is due to the natural maturation of our existing businesses, but more recently, headwinds from the economic downturn have put pressure on our customers and, in turn, on our business,” Houston wrote in 2023. “As a result, some investments that used to deliver positive returns are no longer sustainable.”

Unfortunately for Dropbox, things haven’t improved on that front. As TechCrunch notes, the company only added 63,000 users during its most recent fiscal quarter (PDF link). Year-over-year revenue growth also stalled at 1.8 percent, the lowest in the company’s history. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/dropbox-is-laying-off-20-percent-of-its-workforce-151023877.html?src=rss

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Apple is continuing its week of announcements by revealing the latest MacBook Pro lineup, as well as its new top-of-the-line chip. The M4 Max has a 40-core GPU — double the number of cores found in the M4 Pro that the company revealed this week. It has a 16-core GPU with 12 performance and four efficiency cores and a 16-core neural engine that’s said to be three times faster than the one on the M1 chip. The M4 Max supports up to 128GB of RAM with what Apple claims is 30 percent more memory bandwidth than the M3 Max offers.
The GPU is said to have faster cores and a ray-tracing engine that’s twice as fast as the M3 chips. Apple claims the neural engine is up to twice as fast as the one on the previous-generation chipsets as well. In addition, Apple says the CPU is up to 2.2 times faster than the one in the M1 Max. 
As with the M4 and M4 Pro, the M4 Max is built on second-gen 3nm tech to bolster power efficiency and performance. Like the M4 Pro (which can be used to power the new Mac mini), the M4 Max supports Thunderbolt 5, which should make it faster to move files around as it has a data transfer capacity of up to 120GB per second. And, as with all of Apple’s other M-series Macs, devices running on the M4 Max will support Apple Intelligence features.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/apple-unveils-its-top-of-the-line-m4-max-chip-150241987.html?src=rss

Apple is continuing its week of announcements by revealing the latest MacBook Pro lineup, as well as its new top-of-the-line chip. The M4 Max has a 40-core GPU — double the number of cores found in the M4 Pro that the company revealed this week. It has a 16-core GPU with 12 performance and four efficiency cores and a 16-core neural engine that’s said to be three times faster than the one on the M1 chip. The M4 Max supports up to 128GB of RAM with what Apple claims is 30 percent more memory bandwidth than the M3 Max offers.

The GPU is said to have faster cores and a ray-tracing engine that’s twice as fast as the M3 chips. Apple claims the neural engine is up to twice as fast as the one on the previous-generation chipsets as well. In addition, Apple says the CPU is up to 2.2 times faster than the one in the M1 Max. 

As with the M4 and M4 Pro, the M4 Max is built on second-gen 3nm tech to bolster power efficiency and performance. Like the M4 Pro (which can be used to power the new Mac mini), the M4 Max supports Thunderbolt 5, which should make it faster to move files around as it has a data transfer capacity of up to 120GB per second. And, as with all of Apple’s other M-series Macs, devices running on the M4 Max will support Apple Intelligence features.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/apple-unveils-its-top-of-the-line-m4-max-chip-150241987.html?src=rss

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Not that it’s a huge surprise after Apple’s week of M4 upgrades — first with the 24-inch iMac, then the adorable new Mac mini — but today the company is also bringing its M4 chips to the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro. And, in addition to the base M4 chip and the M4 Pro, they can also be configured with the newly announced M4 Max.
Apple isn’t sneaking in any major tweaks this time around, aside from bringing over the Space Black color option to the 14-inch MacBook Pro. Still, the internal upgrades should be compelling for anyone with an M1 MacBook Pro or an older Intel model. Just like with the M4 iMac and Mac mini, Apple is also making 16GB of RAM the default for the $1,599 14-inch MacBook Pro (fixing one of our biggest issues with that model). You can thank Apple Intelligence for that memory bump, even if you don’t give a lick about AI.

Apple

Apple isn’t saying much about the M4 Max chip yet, but we know it’ll feature up to a 16-core CPU (12 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores), and a 40-core GPU. In comparison, the M4 Pro sports a 14-core CPU and 20-core GPU, while the plain M4 chip comes with either 8 or 10 cores alongside a 10-core graphics chip. The M4 Max chip also supports up to 128GB of RAM with 30 percent more memory bandwidth than the M3 Max.
As for other upgrades, the M4 Pro and M4 Max MacBook Pros will also include three Thunderbolt 5 USB-C ports, just like the M4 Pro-equipped Mac mini. If you’re constantly moving enormous files around, that alone could be a reason to step up, since Thunderbolt 5 can support up to 80 Gbps speeds (it can also reach up to 120 Gbps with its Bandwidth Boost feature). That’s a huge step up from 40 Gbps limit of Thunderbolt 3 and 4, and it also opens the door for better external GPU support, as well as powerful AI accelerators.

Apple

The new MacBook Pros have slightly brighter screens which can reach up to 1,000 nits of SDR brightness (compared to 600 nits before), and there’s also a nano-texture display option. That feature is mainly meant for people working in very bright environments or direct sunlight, as it drastically reduces glare. Both machines are also getting 12MP Center Stage webcams, a huge upgrade over the previous 1080p cameras.
The 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro still starts at $1,599 ($1,499 for education customers), while the M4 Pro model starts at $1,999 ($1,849 for education). The 16-inch MacBook Pro, meanwhile, still starts at $2,499 ($2,299 for education customers). You can pre-order both laptops today, and they’ll be in stores on November 8.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/apples-macbook-pros-get-an-m4-upgrade-including-the-new-m4-max-chip-150055208.html?src=rss

Not that it’s a huge surprise after Apple’s week of M4 upgrades — first with the 24-inch iMac, then the adorable new Mac mini — but today the company is also bringing its M4 chips to the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro. And, in addition to the base M4 chip and the M4 Pro, they can also be configured with the newly announced M4 Max.

Apple isn’t sneaking in any major tweaks this time around, aside from bringing over the Space Black color option to the 14-inch MacBook Pro. Still, the internal upgrades should be compelling for anyone with an M1 MacBook Pro or an older Intel model. Just like with the M4 iMac and Mac mini, Apple is also making 16GB of RAM the default for the $1,599 14-inch MacBook Pro (fixing one of our biggest issues with that model). You can thank Apple Intelligence for that memory bump, even if you don’t give a lick about AI.

Apple isn’t saying much about the M4 Max chip yet, but we know it’ll feature up to a 16-core CPU (12 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores), and a 40-core GPU. In comparison, the M4 Pro sports a 14-core CPU and 20-core GPU, while the plain M4 chip comes with either 8 or 10 cores alongside a 10-core graphics chip. The M4 Max chip also supports up to 128GB of RAM with 30 percent more memory bandwidth than the M3 Max.

As for other upgrades, the M4 Pro and M4 Max MacBook Pros will also include three Thunderbolt 5 USB-C ports, just like the M4 Pro-equipped Mac mini. If you’re constantly moving enormous files around, that alone could be a reason to step up, since Thunderbolt 5 can support up to 80 Gbps speeds (it can also reach up to 120 Gbps with its Bandwidth Boost feature). That’s a huge step up from 40 Gbps limit of Thunderbolt 3 and 4, and it also opens the door for better external GPU support, as well as powerful AI accelerators.

The new MacBook Pros have slightly brighter screens which can reach up to 1,000 nits of SDR brightness (compared to 600 nits before), and there’s also a nano-texture display option. That feature is mainly meant for people working in very bright environments or direct sunlight, as it drastically reduces glare. Both machines are also getting 12MP Center Stage webcams, a huge upgrade over the previous 1080p cameras.

The 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro still starts at $1,599 ($1,499 for education customers), while the M4 Pro model starts at $1,999 ($1,849 for education). The 16-inch MacBook Pro, meanwhile, still starts at $2,499 ($2,299 for education customers). You can pre-order both laptops today, and they’ll be in stores on November 8.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/apples-macbook-pros-get-an-m4-upgrade-including-the-new-m4-max-chip-150055208.html?src=rss

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No, Apple isn’t stuffing an M4 chip into the MacBook Air lineup just yet, but it is giving the ultraportables a healthy memory bump. Starting today, every M2 and M3-equipped MacBook Air will come with 16GB of RAM by default, making them better equipped for multitasking and memory-hungry Apple Intelligence features. Thankfully, Apple isn’t changing its pricing: The M2 model still starts at $999, while the 13-inch M3 MacBook Air goes for $1,099 and the 15-inch variant runs for $1,299. (It’s no wonder we’ve seen the 8GB systems drop as low as $700.)
You’ll still have to live with a paltry 256GB of storage on all of the base MacBook Air systems, but hey, at least Apple is finally listening to our demands. We’ve long argued that it’s worth bumping up to 16GB of RAM for most laptops. That’s particularly true for Apple Silicon systems, which have memory directly built into their SoCs (system on a chip) and can’t expand their RAM down the line.
You can thank AI as the main reason Apple and Microsoft (with Copilot+ AI PCs) are now pushing for 16GB of RAM. While Apple Intelligence requires 8GB of RAM to function, the company previously admitted it may not be enough to run the AI features in Xcode 16. As AI models grow and become more complex, their memory demands will only increase. More than ever, it pays to invest in as much RAM as you can up front.
You can order the refreshed MacBook Airs with 16GB of RAM online today, and they should be available in stores soon.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/every-macbook-air-now-starts-with-16gb-of-ram-at-no-extra-cost-150041320.html?src=rss

No, Apple isn’t stuffing an M4 chip into the MacBook Air lineup just yet, but it is giving the ultraportables a healthy memory bump. Starting today, every M2 and M3-equipped MacBook Air will come with 16GB of RAM by default, making them better equipped for multitasking and memory-hungry Apple Intelligence features. Thankfully, Apple isn’t changing its pricing: The M2 model still starts at $999, while the 13-inch M3 MacBook Air goes for $1,099 and the 15-inch variant runs for $1,299. (It’s no wonder we’ve seen the 8GB systems drop as low as $700.)

You’ll still have to live with a paltry 256GB of storage on all of the base MacBook Air systems, but hey, at least Apple is finally listening to our demands. We’ve long argued that it’s worth bumping up to 16GB of RAM for most laptops. That’s particularly true for Apple Silicon systems, which have memory directly built into their SoCs (system on a chip) and can’t expand their RAM down the line.

You can thank AI as the main reason Apple and Microsoft (with Copilot+ AI PCs) are now pushing for 16GB of RAM. While Apple Intelligence requires 8GB of RAM to function, the company previously admitted it may not be enough to run the AI features in Xcode 16. As AI models grow and become more complex, their memory demands will only increase. More than ever, it pays to invest in as much RAM as you can up front.

You can order the refreshed MacBook Airs with 16GB of RAM online today, and they should be available in stores soon.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/every-macbook-air-now-starts-with-16gb-of-ram-at-no-extra-cost-150041320.html?src=rss

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DJI is a major player in the camera market with its drones and gimbals, so why hasn’t it had the same success with action cams? The answer is simple: GoPro. The company’s Hero lineup has offered superior image quality and stabilization. The same goes for Insta360’s action cams, which have caught the public’s imagination.
Now, DJI’s taking another shot at its rivals with the $350 Osmo Action 5 Pro, which is perhaps the biggest upgrade yet in this series. Nearly everything on the inside has changed, from the sensor to battery life and storage. However, it looks very similar to its predecessor, the Osmo Action 4.

Video quality only goes up to 4K on the new model though, compared to 5.3K for the latest GoPro Hero 13 and 8K for the Insta360 Ace Pro 2 released last week. Still, the Action 5 Pro surpasses its competitors in several key areas and it’s easily DJI’s best action camera yet.
Long battery life and internal storage
The Action 5 Pro now boasts the longest battery life of any action cam and it’s not even close. Thanks to the higher-capacity 1,950 mAh battery (up from 1,770 mAh), it can shoot 4K 60p video for well over two hours and 1080p for four hours. By comparison, the GoPro Hero 13 can only go 88 minutes at 4K 60p with a similar-sized battery. Another rival, the Insta360 Ace Pro 2, can run a bit more than 90 minutes at the same resolution.
With the optional charger (available in the $400 Adventure Combo with two extra batteries), it takes about 30 minutes to fully replenish a battery. Three batteries should be enough for most people to shoot an entire day at 4K 60p without recharging — quite impressive for an action camera.

Steve Dent for Engadget

Another big upgrade on the Action 5 Pro is the 47GB of internal storage, compared to zero before, on top of a microSD slot. This allows you to still capture an additional hour or so of 4K 60p footage when you fill up your memory card. Neither the Hero 13 nor Insta360’s Ace Pro 2 have any internal storage.
At 5.15 ounces, the Action 5 Pro is a bit smaller and lighter than the Hero 23, which weighs 5.6 ounces. On top of that, the Action 5 Pro is waterproof down to 66 feet by itself, which is double the Hero 13’s limit. If you really need to go deeper, DJI’s waterproof case extends the maximum depth for this device to nearly 200 feet.
DJI increased the rear OLED display’s size from 2.25 to 2.5 inches by shrinking the bezels — a small change that makes the touchscreen menus easier to use. The 1.4-inch front OLED panel is also slightly bigger than before. Both screens are sharp and easy to see in sunlight with up to 800 nits of maximum brightness.

Steve Dent for Engadget

The Action 5 Pro’s textured body provides a firm grip, and the record and power buttons are larger and less stiff than on the Action 4. Settings can be changed from the rear display by swiping up and down or side to side, though it can be hard to remember where settings are. You can also connect your smartphone using the Mimo app to operate the camera and gain access to editing features. An interesting addition is the new pressure sensor that shows how deep you’re diving or your altitude when climbing — a useful feature that rival cameras lack.
One thing I’ve loved about DJI’s last few action cameras is the magnetic mounting system. It lets you instantly clip the Action 5 Pro to nearly any accessory, including car, bike, helmet and chest mounts, without the need to fiddle with screws or clumsy brackets. That said, GoPro finally implemented its own magnetic mount on the Hero 13 and the Ace Pro 2 has a similar system as well.
DJI has fallen behind its main rival in the area of optics, though. GoPro’s Hero 13 now supports optional removable lenses, letting you change from a typical wide angle field of view to ultra-wide, macro and more. While they’re fairly expensive, it’s a nice option if you want something other than the usual action camera look.
Sharper video and subject tracking

Steve Dent for Engadget

With a new 1/1.3-inch 40-megapixel sensor, the Action 5 Pro has a sensor that is the same size as its predecessor but is nearly four times sharper. It’s much larger than the GoPro Hero 13’s sensor with more than double the area. That extra size helps the Action 5 Pro produce clearer shots with more detail, especially in lower light.
You can shoot 4K at up to 120 fps, or 1080p at 240 fps for super slow-mo. There’s a new twist, though, with “open gate” 4:3 capture at 3,840 x 2,880 resolution, also up to 120 fps. That squarish frame makes it easier to crop vertically for social media while still retaining full 4K width. Another new feature is 10-bit support for regular video instead of just D-LogM as before. However, the GoPro Hero 13 supports sharper 5.3K video that allows for even more cropping options in post. And the Insta360 Ace Pro 2 can shoot up to 8K 30p video or 4K open gate like the Action 5 Pro.
As with other DJI products, the Action 5 Pro shoots bright and colorful video straight out of the camera. However, to my eye the colors look less natural than on the GoPro Hero 13. Skin tones aren’t as warm, and the colors are too intense for my taste. The ability to shoot 10-bit color in regular mode is a big help, providing extra room to edit without shooting D-LogM, which can be tricky for beginners. My preference is still to shoot D-LogM then apply DJI’s LUT in post. That yields more natural, less saturated colors and gives you up to 13.5 stops of dynamic range in challenging lighting conditions, like shooting in a forest on a sunny day.
Thanks to the bigger sensor, the Action 5 Pro is superior to the GoPro Hero 13 in low light, with far less noise and artifacts. If things really get dark, the new Super Night Mode further brightens video, but the aggressive noise reduction applied can create an artificial look and reduce sharpness. Low-light quality is similar to the Insta360, as both have similar 1/1.3-inch sensors. And while it’s not primarily a photo camera, the Action 5 Pro can shoot 40-megapixel photos compared to 27-megapixel stills for the GoPro Hero 13.

Video stabilization is paramount for action cameras and a big reason why GoPro has dominated for so long. However, the Action 5 Pro is finally up to that level with its latest RockSteady 3.0+ stabilization. I tried it through a mix of sports, including biking, swimming and kayaking and it delivered stable shots with none of the minor weaving or jolting that I’ve seen before. As before, it also offers HorizonBalancing to keep the image level even when the camera tilts up to 45 degrees. Another mode, HorizonSteady, keeps the image level even if you rotate the camera 360 degrees.
A key new feature on the Action 5 Pro is subject centering and tracking that lets creators shoot without a gimbal. As with other DJI products (like ActiveTrack on drones), it detects a subject’s position and dynamically adjusts the composition to keep them centered in the frame. Though it’s limited to 2.7K resolution, it worked well to frame me near the middle of the shot during activities like cycling and swimming.
Finally, let’s talk about audio. On top of the built-in microphones that offer decent quality, the Action 5 Pro connects directly to DJI’s Mic 2 transmitters over Bluetooth (up to two at a time). Those mics allow high quality audio capture and automatically reduce noise, even if you’re filming action like a mountain biker on a gnarly descent. It’s easy to set up and should be a hit with creators, given the popularity of the Mic 2.
Wrap-up

Steve Dent for Engadget

The DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro costs $350, while the Hero 13 Pro and Insta360’s Ace Pro 2 are priced at $400. The DJI beats both in terms of battery life and is on par with its rivals when it comes to stabilization. The Action 5 Pro also offers superior low-light and log footage, though I prefer the GoPro Hero 13’s video straight out of the camera.
Taking price into account, the Action 5 Pro is a very attractive option. It’s one of the best action cameras I’ve used, with battery life well above rivals, a solid waterproof construction and full support for DJI’s Mic 2. If you feel you might benefit from the extra sharpness, then the GoPro or Insta360 might be a better choice. But, if low-light performance is key, head straight for DJI’s Action 5 Pro.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/dji-osmo-action-5-pro-review-finally-a-worthy-gopro-rival-143027778.html?src=rss

DJI is a major player in the camera market with its drones and gimbals, so why hasn’t it had the same success with action cams? The answer is simple: GoPro. The company’s Hero lineup has offered superior image quality and stabilization. The same goes for Insta360’s action cams, which have caught the public’s imagination.

Now, DJI’s taking another shot at its rivals with the $350 Osmo Action 5 Pro, which is perhaps the biggest upgrade yet in this series. Nearly everything on the inside has changed, from the sensor to battery life and storage. However, it looks very similar to its predecessor, the Osmo Action 4.

Video quality only goes up to 4K on the new model though, compared to 5.3K for the latest GoPro Hero 13 and 8K for the Insta360 Ace Pro 2 released last week. Still, the Action 5 Pro surpasses its competitors in several key areas and it’s easily DJI’s best action camera yet.

Long battery life and internal storage

The Action 5 Pro now boasts the longest battery life of any action cam and it’s not even close. Thanks to the higher-capacity 1,950 mAh battery (up from 1,770 mAh), it can shoot 4K 60p video for well over two hours and 1080p for four hours. By comparison, the GoPro Hero 13 can only go 88 minutes at 4K 60p with a similar-sized battery. Another rival, the Insta360 Ace Pro 2, can run a bit more than 90 minutes at the same resolution.

With the optional charger (available in the $400 Adventure Combo with two extra batteries), it takes about 30 minutes to fully replenish a battery. Three batteries should be enough for most people to shoot an entire day at 4K 60p without recharging — quite impressive for an action camera.

Another big upgrade on the Action 5 Pro is the 47GB of internal storage, compared to zero before, on top of a microSD slot. This allows you to still capture an additional hour or so of 4K 60p footage when you fill up your memory card. Neither the Hero 13 nor Insta360’s Ace Pro 2 have any internal storage.

At 5.15 ounces, the Action 5 Pro is a bit smaller and lighter than the Hero 23, which weighs 5.6 ounces. On top of that, the Action 5 Pro is waterproof down to 66 feet by itself, which is double the Hero 13’s limit. If you really need to go deeper, DJI’s waterproof case extends the maximum depth for this device to nearly 200 feet.

DJI increased the rear OLED display’s size from 2.25 to 2.5 inches by shrinking the bezels — a small change that makes the touchscreen menus easier to use. The 1.4-inch front OLED panel is also slightly bigger than before. Both screens are sharp and easy to see in sunlight with up to 800 nits of maximum brightness.

The Action 5 Pro’s textured body provides a firm grip, and the record and power buttons are larger and less stiff than on the Action 4. Settings can be changed from the rear display by swiping up and down or side to side, though it can be hard to remember where settings are. You can also connect your smartphone using the Mimo app to operate the camera and gain access to editing features. An interesting addition is the new pressure sensor that shows how deep you’re diving or your altitude when climbing — a useful feature that rival cameras lack.

One thing I’ve loved about DJI’s last few action cameras is the magnetic mounting system. It lets you instantly clip the Action 5 Pro to nearly any accessory, including car, bike, helmet and chest mounts, without the need to fiddle with screws or clumsy brackets. That said, GoPro finally implemented its own magnetic mount on the Hero 13 and the Ace Pro 2 has a similar system as well.

DJI has fallen behind its main rival in the area of optics, though. GoPro’s Hero 13 now supports optional removable lenses, letting you change from a typical wide angle field of view to ultra-wide, macro and more. While they’re fairly expensive, it’s a nice option if you want something other than the usual action camera look.

Sharper video and subject tracking

With a new 1/1.3-inch 40-megapixel sensor, the Action 5 Pro has a sensor that is the same size as its predecessor but is nearly four times sharper. It’s much larger than the GoPro Hero 13’s sensor with more than double the area. That extra size helps the Action 5 Pro produce clearer shots with more detail, especially in lower light.

You can shoot 4K at up to 120 fps, or 1080p at 240 fps for super slow-mo. There’s a new twist, though, with “open gate” 4:3 capture at 3,840 x 2,880 resolution, also up to 120 fps. That squarish frame makes it easier to crop vertically for social media while still retaining full 4K width. Another new feature is 10-bit support for regular video instead of just D-LogM as before. However, the GoPro Hero 13 supports sharper 5.3K video that allows for even more cropping options in post. And the Insta360 Ace Pro 2 can shoot up to 8K 30p video or 4K open gate like the Action 5 Pro.

As with other DJI products, the Action 5 Pro shoots bright and colorful video straight out of the camera. However, to my eye the colors look less natural than on the GoPro Hero 13. Skin tones aren’t as warm, and the colors are too intense for my taste. The ability to shoot 10-bit color in regular mode is a big help, providing extra room to edit without shooting D-LogM, which can be tricky for beginners. My preference is still to shoot D-LogM then apply DJI’s LUT in post. That yields more natural, less saturated colors and gives you up to 13.5 stops of dynamic range in challenging lighting conditions, like shooting in a forest on a sunny day.

Thanks to the bigger sensor, the Action 5 Pro is superior to the GoPro Hero 13 in low light, with far less noise and artifacts. If things really get dark, the new Super Night Mode further brightens video, but the aggressive noise reduction applied can create an artificial look and reduce sharpness. Low-light quality is similar to the Insta360, as both have similar 1/1.3-inch sensors. And while it’s not primarily a photo camera, the Action 5 Pro can shoot 40-megapixel photos compared to 27-megapixel stills for the GoPro Hero 13.

Video stabilization is paramount for action cameras and a big reason why GoPro has dominated for so long. However, the Action 5 Pro is finally up to that level with its latest RockSteady 3.0+ stabilization. I tried it through a mix of sports, including biking, swimming and kayaking and it delivered stable shots with none of the minor weaving or jolting that I’ve seen before. As before, it also offers HorizonBalancing to keep the image level even when the camera tilts up to 45 degrees. Another mode, HorizonSteady, keeps the image level even if you rotate the camera 360 degrees.

A key new feature on the Action 5 Pro is subject centering and tracking that lets creators shoot without a gimbal. As with other DJI products (like ActiveTrack on drones), it detects a subject’s position and dynamically adjusts the composition to keep them centered in the frame. Though it’s limited to 2.7K resolution, it worked well to frame me near the middle of the shot during activities like cycling and swimming.

Finally, let’s talk about audio. On top of the built-in microphones that offer decent quality, the Action 5 Pro connects directly to DJI’s Mic 2 transmitters over Bluetooth (up to two at a time). Those mics allow high quality audio capture and automatically reduce noise, even if you’re filming action like a mountain biker on a gnarly descent. It’s easy to set up and should be a hit with creators, given the popularity of the Mic 2.

Wrap-up

The DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro costs $350, while the Hero 13 Pro and Insta360’s Ace Pro 2 are priced at $400. The DJI beats both in terms of battery life and is on par with its rivals when it comes to stabilization. The Action 5 Pro also offers superior low-light and log footage, though I prefer the GoPro Hero 13’s video straight out of the camera.

Taking price into account, the Action 5 Pro is a very attractive option. It’s one of the best action cameras I’ve used, with battery life well above rivals, a solid waterproof construction and full support for DJI’s Mic 2. If you feel you might benefit from the extra sharpness, then the GoPro or Insta360 might be a better choice. But, if low-light performance is key, head straight for DJI’s Action 5 Pro.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/dji-osmo-action-5-pro-review-finally-a-worthy-gopro-rival-143027778.html?src=rss

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In 2016, I dragged my Engadget colleagues to preview Star Trek: Bridge Crew, a VR title letting you live out your fantasies of sitting on the bridge of a starship. Sadly, despite having two fans in the team, we failed miserably at the game, a wound I’ve been nursing ever since. When Bridge Command, London’s latest attraction, asked me if I wanted to try out its real world equivalent, I leapt at the chance. After all, this wasn’t just me testing out a new sci-fi themed event, it was a shot at redemption.
Bridge Command sits in the space between an escape room, team-building exercise, live-action roleplay and immersive theater. It’s essentially a paid-for LARP taking place on a custom-built starship set which cost £3 million (around $4 million) to play space captain. In order to survive and succeed, each player must work with their team, communicate and solve problems on the fly for the better part of two hours.
ASIDE: There’s plenty of existing bridge simulator roleplaying games and a small, but vibrant community that supports it. Digital platforms like Thorium Nova, Artemis and EmptyEpsilon are all platforms that enable folks to gather around to play in teams. Bridge Command itself is built on top of EmptyEpsilon’s platform, albeit with some degree of customization on top.
Effort has been taken to ensure Bridge Command isn’t a one-and-done experience, and creator Parabolic Theatre hopes to build a base of recurring fans. There are two different “ships” players can crew, the smaller UCS Havock and the far larger UCS Takanami, which do two different jobs in the fleet. In terms of capacity, both vessels can take up to 14 players at a time but the ideal figure is around nine. There are four different mission types, too:

Exploration: Involving discovery and adversity.
Military: Space dogfighting.
Intrigue: Espionage and more subtle action.
Diplomacy: Making nice with alien races.

With two ships and four missions, you can play the game eight times and theoretically get a new experience every time. But creators Parabolic Theatre will look to develop the game’s running story over time, like a long-running D&D campaign. The game even tracks your performance as your career progresses, and can receive promotions after a particularly successful mission.
I dragged a Trek-loving friend along to one of the previews, which set us on a Military mission on the UCS Havock. We were tasked with escorting a resupply mission to a large warship on assignment, a rather mundane assignment. It’s not much of a spoiler to suggest our gang of plucky underdogs might wind up in over their heads on a far grander mission. Or that they’ll need to take the under-equipped ship to go toe-to-toe with the baddies and win out against impossible odds.
Both “ships” are fully-realized starship sets, which are probably better-assembled than what you’ll see on most sci-fi series. They’re designed to withstand the regular punishment that can only occur when crews of friends come to play spaceships. But once you’re onboard, you’re essentially in a self-contained environment for the duration of the mission. And it’s a pretty impressive piece of set design.
The vibe is distinctly Star Voyage (Not Infringing Any Copyright, Promise!), with the Havock laid out like the USS Defiant, but with the paint job from Red Dwarf’s first two seasons. A trio of terminals line each side wall, with the captain’s chair on a raised dais in the middle. There’s a helm console up front that’s pointed directly at the imposing viewscreen that dominates the room. There’s a ready room off to one side of the bridge and a toilet on the other, while the corridor behind the bridge is the ship’s engineering bay, bunkroom and brig.
Everything from the terminals and the set is linked up, so if a subsystem takes damage you’ll not just have it grayed out on your screen. Built-in dry ice machines will emit “smoke” when something goes wrong or you take a nasty hit from an enemy vessel. If the lights had flashed at the same time, I’d have been tempted to start jostling myself around in my seat to add to the immersion.
The bridge of the (larger) UCS Takanami.Alex Brenner / Bridge Command
There were seven of us in the party, including some other journalists and some regular players who were coming for a regular session. Your humble narrator took the helm, figuring that I’d played enough Star Trek: Tactical Assault and Star Trek: Bridge Commander to be useful. We had an acting captain, and folks manning the radar, communications, engineering, laser and torpedo stations.
If you’ve ever used a touchscreen in your life then you won’t feel too unmoored from the role you’ve got to do here. Not to mention the first half hour of the game is little more than a tutorial to ensure that everyone is fluent with what they’ve got to do.
My helm station, for instance, offers you a picture of the ship with a 360-degree coordinate ring around it. There are two sliders, one for impulse power and one for warp, and a small square that lets you make some small evasive maneuvers. This is fine when the ocean-going liners you find in Star Trek are just heading from waypoint to waypoint, but pretty rubbish for combat. And I’m still annoyed you’re locked to a flat plain when space offers so much room for verticality.
Spoiler warning: The following three paragraphs outline my mission in greater detail.
The story begins while you’re putting on your military-issue space boilersuit, with a fictional newsreel playing in the background setting the scene. Once you’ve “transported” from the entrance to the space station, you’re then given a mission briefing and a send-off from the Earth president. Our mission, as outlined, was to escort a freighter on a resupply mission to a battle fleet which was dealing with pirates on the edge of the system.
A member of the Bridge Command team starts as our captain, giving us a tour of the ship and assigning roles for us to play. After we all get used to the basics in what might as well be called the tutorial stage, the captain then departs to help elsewhere. We’re then sent off to scout for incoming threats in nearby nebulas that, quelle surprise, are full of pirates. Naturally, the closer we get to the battle group, the harder the attacks we have to repel, forcing our chief engineer to race around repairing and repowering systems.
We limped to the battle group, repairing and re-armoring before we hatched a plan to play Possum to lure out the pirates. That plan worked spectacularly well, and with our hull integrity at just three percent, we were able to take out the pirates command and control vessel. After being congratulated by the top brass we were escorted back to the space station for a debrief and a drink in the bar.
End of Spoiler Warning: The following paragraphs do not contain any spoiler material.
It’s important to be aware of one’s own privilege and preferences when reviewing something like this. I found Bridge Command to be enormous fun, and if I lived in London, I suspect it would quickly become a hobby I indulged in with like-minded friends on a monthly basis. At £40 ($50) a session, the cost is a little steep but, even so, you could easily make this a long-running roleplaying game. And I’m sorely tempted to go a few more times when I can just to try and gain those promotions.
If there’s a downside (and it’s not even really a downside per-se), it’s that there are phases of play where you’re not doing anything. Or, at least, you’re a present and useful member of the team waiting for your colleagues to fulfill their parts of the mission. I found, given the need for clear oral communication and cooperation, that there were plenty of times where the best thing I could do to help my team was shut up and wait.
Given that focus on communication, I suspect it might be a turn-off if you’re a little shy or quiet of voice. The game doesn’t work unless everyone’s talking to share information between consoles and so it’s nearly-impossible to sit quietly in the corner. That’s not to say you need to bring any Big Theater Kid energy along, but I can imagine how this would feel like mandatory fun if you were dragged along by your friends or on a work team-building exercise. It’s a damn sight more fun and less painful than paintball, so maybe count your blessings there.
Bridge Command is located at St. George’s Wharf which is next to Vauxhall tube station in London. It is open for most of each day through to late evening, with ticket prices starting at £40 (around $50) at off-peak times for a single session.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/bridge-command-lets-you-live-out-your-starship-fantasies-140046532.html?src=rss

In 2016, I dragged my Engadget colleagues to preview Star Trek: Bridge Crew, a VR title letting you live out your fantasies of sitting on the bridge of a starship. Sadly, despite having two fans in the team, we failed miserably at the game, a wound I’ve been nursing ever since. When Bridge Command, London’s latest attraction, asked me if I wanted to try out its real world equivalent, I leapt at the chance. After all, this wasn’t just me testing out a new sci-fi themed event, it was a shot at redemption.

Bridge Command sits in the space between an escape room, team-building exercise, live-action roleplay and immersive theater. It’s essentially a paid-for LARP taking place on a custom-built starship set which cost £3 million (around $4 million) to play space captain. In order to survive and succeed, each player must work with their team, communicate and solve problems on the fly for the better part of two hours.

ASIDE: There’s plenty of existing bridge simulator roleplaying games and a small, but vibrant community that supports it. Digital platforms like Thorium Nova, Artemis and EmptyEpsilon are all platforms that enable folks to gather around to play in teams. Bridge Command itself is built on top of EmptyEpsilon’s platform, albeit with some degree of customization on top.

Effort has been taken to ensure Bridge Command isn’t a one-and-done experience, and creator Parabolic Theatre hopes to build a base of recurring fans. There are two different “ships” players can crew, the smaller UCS Havock and the far larger UCS Takanami, which do two different jobs in the fleet. In terms of capacity, both vessels can take up to 14 players at a time but the ideal figure is around nine. There are four different mission types, too:

Exploration: Involving discovery and adversity.

Military: Space dogfighting.

Intrigue: Espionage and more subtle action.

Diplomacy: Making nice with alien races.

With two ships and four missions, you can play the game eight times and theoretically get a new experience every time. But creators Parabolic Theatre will look to develop the game’s running story over time, like a long-running D&D campaign. The game even tracks your performance as your career progresses, and can receive promotions after a particularly successful mission.

I dragged a Trek-loving friend along to one of the previews, which set us on a Military mission on the UCS Havock. We were tasked with escorting a resupply mission to a large warship on assignment, a rather mundane assignment. It’s not much of a spoiler to suggest our gang of plucky underdogs might wind up in over their heads on a far grander mission. Or that they’ll need to take the under-equipped ship to go toe-to-toe with the baddies and win out against impossible odds.

Both “ships” are fully-realized starship sets, which are probably better-assembled than what you’ll see on most sci-fi series. They’re designed to withstand the regular punishment that can only occur when crews of friends come to play spaceships. But once you’re onboard, you’re essentially in a self-contained environment for the duration of the mission. And it’s a pretty impressive piece of set design.

The vibe is distinctly Star Voyage (Not Infringing Any Copyright, Promise!), with the Havock laid out like the USS Defiant, but with the paint job from Red Dwarf’s first two seasons. A trio of terminals line each side wall, with the captain’s chair on a raised dais in the middle. There’s a helm console up front that’s pointed directly at the imposing viewscreen that dominates the room. There’s a ready room off to one side of the bridge and a toilet on the other, while the corridor behind the bridge is the ship’s engineering bay, bunkroom and brig.

Everything from the terminals and the set is linked up, so if a subsystem takes damage you’ll not just have it grayed out on your screen. Built-in dry ice machines will emit “smoke” when something goes wrong or you take a nasty hit from an enemy vessel. If the lights had flashed at the same time, I’d have been tempted to start jostling myself around in my seat to add to the immersion.

The bridge of the (larger) UCS Takanami.

There were seven of us in the party, including some other journalists and some regular players who were coming for a regular session. Your humble narrator took the helm, figuring that I’d played enough Star Trek: Tactical Assault and Star Trek: Bridge Commander to be useful. We had an acting captain, and folks manning the radar, communications, engineering, laser and torpedo stations.

If you’ve ever used a touchscreen in your life then you won’t feel too unmoored from the role you’ve got to do here. Not to mention the first half hour of the game is little more than a tutorial to ensure that everyone is fluent with what they’ve got to do.

My helm station, for instance, offers you a picture of the ship with a 360-degree coordinate ring around it. There are two sliders, one for impulse power and one for warp, and a small square that lets you make some small evasive maneuvers. This is fine when the ocean-going liners you find in Star Trek are just heading from waypoint to waypoint, but pretty rubbish for combat. And I’m still annoyed you’re locked to a flat plain when space offers so much room for verticality.

Spoiler warning: The following three paragraphs outline my mission in greater detail.

The story begins while you’re putting on your military-issue space boilersuit, with a fictional newsreel playing in the background setting the scene. Once you’ve “transported” from the entrance to the space station, you’re then given a mission briefing and a send-off from the Earth president. Our mission, as outlined, was to escort a freighter on a resupply mission to a battle fleet which was dealing with pirates on the edge of the system.

A member of the Bridge Command team starts as our captain, giving us a tour of the ship and assigning roles for us to play. After we all get used to the basics in what might as well be called the tutorial stage, the captain then departs to help elsewhere. We’re then sent off to scout for incoming threats in nearby nebulas that, quelle surprise, are full of pirates. Naturally, the closer we get to the battle group, the harder the attacks we have to repel, forcing our chief engineer to race around repairing and repowering systems.

We limped to the battle group, repairing and re-armoring before we hatched a plan to play Possum to lure out the pirates. That plan worked spectacularly well, and with our hull integrity at just three percent, we were able to take out the pirates command and control vessel. After being congratulated by the top brass we were escorted back to the space station for a debrief and a drink in the bar.

End of Spoiler Warning: The following paragraphs do not contain any spoiler material.

It’s important to be aware of one’s own privilege and preferences when reviewing something like this. I found Bridge Command to be enormous fun, and if I lived in London, I suspect it would quickly become a hobby I indulged in with like-minded friends on a monthly basis. At £40 ($50) a session, the cost is a little steep but, even so, you could easily make this a long-running roleplaying game. And I’m sorely tempted to go a few more times when I can just to try and gain those promotions.

If there’s a downside (and it’s not even really a downside per-se), it’s that there are phases of play where you’re not doing anything. Or, at least, you’re a present and useful member of the team waiting for your colleagues to fulfill their parts of the mission. I found, given the need for clear oral communication and cooperation, that there were plenty of times where the best thing I could do to help my team was shut up and wait.

Given that focus on communication, I suspect it might be a turn-off if you’re a little shy or quiet of voice. The game doesn’t work unless everyone’s talking to share information between consoles and so it’s nearly-impossible to sit quietly in the corner. That’s not to say you need to bring any Big Theater Kid energy along, but I can imagine how this would feel like mandatory fun if you were dragged along by your friends or on a work team-building exercise. It’s a damn sight more fun and less painful than paintball, so maybe count your blessings there.

Bridge Command is located at St. George’s Wharf which is next to Vauxhall tube station in London. It is open for most of each day through to late evening, with ticket prices starting at £40 (around $50) at off-peak times for a single session.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/bridge-command-lets-you-live-out-your-starship-fantasies-140046532.html?src=rss

Read More 

The US presidential election is in its final stretch. Before election day on November 5, Engadget is looking at where the candidates, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, stand on the most consequential tech issues of our day.
While it might not garner the headlines that immigration, abortion or inflation do, AI is quietly one of the more consequential issues this election season. What regulations are put in place and how forcefully those rules are enforced will have wide ranging impacts on consumer privacy, intellectual property, the media industry and national security.
Normally, politicians lack clear or coherent policies on emerging technologies. But somewhat shockingly, both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have at least some track record handling artificial intelligence. VP Harris, in particular, has been very hands-on in shaping the current administration’s approach. And Donald Trump was the first president to sign an executive order regarding AI.
That being said, neither has made AI a central component of their campaign, and we’re making some educated guesses here about how either would approach it once in the White House.
Kamala Harris
With Harris’ considerable involvement in the Biden administration’s AI efforts, it’s safe to assume she would move forward with many of those policies. While the White House started laying the groundwork for its AI initiatives in early 2021, it wasn’t until late 2023 that they kicked into high gear, and Harris has often been the public face of those efforts, including holding numerous press calls on the issue and appearing at the Global Summit on AI Safety in London. She has used these venues to draw attention to the potential pitfalls, both large and small, of AI ranging from “cyberattacks at a scale beyond anything we have seen before” to seniors being “kicked off [their] healthcare plan because of a faulty AI algorithm.”
October 2023 saw the issuance of an executive order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence. This order noted the potential for AI to solve broad societal issues as well as its ability to “exacerbate societal harms, such as fraud, discrimination, bias and disinformation; displace and disempower workers; stifle competition and pose risks to national security.” It laid out eight guiding principles focused on creating standardized evaluations for AI systems, protecting workers, consumer privacy and combating inherent bias.
It also called for agencies to name a chief AI officer (CAIO) and directed the federal government to develop policies and strategies using and regulating AI. This included developing technologies for identifying and labeling AI-generated content and building guardrails to prevent the creation of images depicting sexual abuse and deepfake pornography.
Harris helped secure commitments from Apple, Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft, Adobe, Cohere, IBM, NVIDIA, Palantir, Salesforce, Scale AI, Stability and OpenAI to work towards the administration’s goals. She also worked to obtain endorsements from 31 nations of a declaration regarding the responsible creation and use of military AI. At this stage, the latter is merely a commitment to work together to establish rules and guidelines. But there are many absences on that list, most notably Russia, China and Israel.
Because the technology is so new, however, there are still a lot of questions about the specifics of how a Harris administration would handle AI. Besides, without an act of Congress, the White House would be limited in how it could regulate the industry or punish those that run afoul of its policies.
On the campaign trail, Harris hasn’t said much new about the issue, outside of a brief mention at a Wall Street fundraiser, during which she said, “We will encourage innovative technologies, like AI and digital assets, while protecting our consumers and investors.” Harris does have strong ties to Silicon Valley, so it remains to be seen just how much she would try to rein in the industry. But as of now, most of her statements have focused on protecting consumers and workers.
Donald Trump
Donald Trump holds the distinction of being the first president to sign an executive order regarding AI, but his actual public statements on the matter have been limited. In February 2019, he established the American AI Initiative, which created the first national AI research institutes, called for doubling the funding of AI research and set forth broad regulatory guidance. It also called for the creation of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office, which would serve as a central hub for coordinating research and policy across the government.
Unsurprisingly, the executive order signed by former President Trump and the policies set forth by his allies have focused more on encouraging private sector growth and limited government oversight. The official Republican party platform adopted at the RNC in July called for repealing Biden’s October 2023 executive order claiming it “hinders AI Innovation and imposes Radical Leftwing ideas on the development of this technology.” It goes on to call for the development of AI “rooted in Free Speech and Human Flourishing.”
Unfortunately the RNC platform and Trump don’t get much more specific than that. So we’ll have to look at what the former president’s allies at the America First Policy Institute and Heritage Foundation have put forth to get a better idea of how a second Trump presidency might handle AI.
America First began drafting a document earlier this year that called for launching Manhattan Projects for military AI and for reducing regulations. (Currently, there are limited regulations in place regarding AI, as the government is largely in the information-gathering stage of policy development. Congress has yet to pass any meaningful AI legislation.)
It also called for the creation of industry-led agencies tasked with evaluating and securing American artificial intelligence technologies. This is in contrast with the Biden administration’s executive order, which put responsibility for those efforts firmly in the hands of the federal government.
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 (PDF) gets into more specifics, though it is worth noting Trump has tried to distance himself somewhat from that document. Much of the discourse around AI in the 922-page tome is dedicated to China: countering its technological advancements, limiting its access to American technology and preventing it from backing joint research projects with American interests, especially on college campuses. It calls for increasing the use of AI and machine learning in intelligence gathering and analysis, while simultaneously calling for a heavier reliance on the private sector to develop and manage the technology.
The document also spends significant time discussing AI’s potential to “reduce waste, fraud and abuse,” particularly with regards to Medicare and Medicaid. However, it makes almost no mention of protecting consumer privacy, ensuring the accuracy and fairness of algorithms, or identifying abusive or misleading uses of AI, beyond combating Chinese propaganda.
Predictable broad strokes
While both candidates’ platforms lack specifics regarding the regulation of artificial intelligence, they do lay out two clearly different approaches. Kamala Harris has made consumer protections and building guardrails against abuse a cornerstone of her AI policy proposals; Donald Trump has predictably focused on reducing regulation. Neither has suggested they would try to put the proverbial AI genie back in the bottle, not that such a thing would be feasible.
The big question marks are just how much of the America First Policy Institute or Project 2025 proposals a Trump administration would adopt. His own official platform mirrors many policy positions of Project 2025. While it may not reflect any of its AI proposals specifically, there’s little reason to believe his approach would differ dramatically on this specific issue.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/election-2024-how-will-the-candidates-regulate-ai-133045610.html?src=rss

The US presidential election is in its final stretch. Before election day on November 5, Engadget is looking at where the candidates, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, stand on the most consequential tech issues of our day.

While it might not garner the headlines that immigration, abortion or inflation do, AI is quietly one of the more consequential issues this election season. What regulations are put in place and how forcefully those rules are enforced will have wide ranging impacts on consumer privacy, intellectual property, the media industry and national security.

Normally, politicians lack clear or coherent policies on emerging technologies. But somewhat shockingly, both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have at least some track record handling artificial intelligence. VP Harris, in particular, has been very hands-on in shaping the current administration’s approach. And Donald Trump was the first president to sign an executive order regarding AI.

That being said, neither has made AI a central component of their campaign, and we’re making some educated guesses here about how either would approach it once in the White House.

Kamala Harris

With Harris’ considerable involvement in the Biden administration’s AI efforts, it’s safe to assume she would move forward with many of those policies. While the White House started laying the groundwork for its AI initiatives in early 2021, it wasn’t until late 2023 that they kicked into high gear, and Harris has often been the public face of those efforts, including holding numerous press calls on the issue and appearing at the Global Summit on AI Safety in London. She has used these venues to draw attention to the potential pitfalls, both large and small, of AI ranging from “cyberattacks at a scale beyond anything we have seen before” to seniors being “kicked off [their] healthcare plan because of a faulty AI algorithm.”

October 2023 saw the issuance of an executive order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence. This order noted the potential for AI to solve broad societal issues as well as its ability to “exacerbate societal harms, such as fraud, discrimination, bias and disinformation; displace and disempower workers; stifle competition and pose risks to national security.” It laid out eight guiding principles focused on creating standardized evaluations for AI systems, protecting workers, consumer privacy and combating inherent bias.

It also called for agencies to name a chief AI officer (CAIO) and directed the federal government to develop policies and strategies using and regulating AI. This included developing technologies for identifying and labeling AI-generated content and building guardrails to prevent the creation of images depicting sexual abuse and deepfake pornography.

Harris helped secure commitments from Apple, Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft, Adobe, Cohere, IBM, NVIDIA, Palantir, Salesforce, Scale AI, Stability and OpenAI to work towards the administration’s goals. She also worked to obtain endorsements from 31 nations of a declaration regarding the responsible creation and use of military AI. At this stage, the latter is merely a commitment to work together to establish rules and guidelines. But there are many absences on that list, most notably Russia, China and Israel.

Because the technology is so new, however, there are still a lot of questions about the specifics of how a Harris administration would handle AI. Besides, without an act of Congress, the White House would be limited in how it could regulate the industry or punish those that run afoul of its policies.

On the campaign trail, Harris hasn’t said much new about the issue, outside of a brief mention at a Wall Street fundraiser, during which she said, “We will encourage innovative technologies, like AI and digital assets, while protecting our consumers and investors.” Harris does have strong ties to Silicon Valley, so it remains to be seen just how much she would try to rein in the industry. But as of now, most of her statements have focused on protecting consumers and workers.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump holds the distinction of being the first president to sign an executive order regarding AI, but his actual public statements on the matter have been limited. In February 2019, he established the American AI Initiative, which created the first national AI research institutes, called for doubling the funding of AI research and set forth broad regulatory guidance. It also called for the creation of the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office, which would serve as a central hub for coordinating research and policy across the government.

Unsurprisingly, the executive order signed by former President Trump and the policies set forth by his allies have focused more on encouraging private sector growth and limited government oversight. The official Republican party platform adopted at the RNC in July called for repealing Biden’s October 2023 executive order claiming it “hinders AI Innovation and imposes Radical Leftwing ideas on the development of this technology.” It goes on to call for the development of AI “rooted in Free Speech and Human Flourishing.”

Unfortunately the RNC platform and Trump don’t get much more specific than that. So we’ll have to look at what the former president’s allies at the America First Policy Institute and Heritage Foundation have put forth to get a better idea of how a second Trump presidency might handle AI.

America First began drafting a document earlier this year that called for launching Manhattan Projects for military AI and for reducing regulations. (Currently, there are limited regulations in place regarding AI, as the government is largely in the information-gathering stage of policy development. Congress has yet to pass any meaningful AI legislation.)

It also called for the creation of industry-led agencies tasked with evaluating and securing American artificial intelligence technologies. This is in contrast with the Biden administration’s executive order, which put responsibility for those efforts firmly in the hands of the federal government.

The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 (PDF) gets into more specifics, though it is worth noting Trump has tried to distance himself somewhat from that document. Much of the discourse around AI in the 922-page tome is dedicated to China: countering its technological advancements, limiting its access to American technology and preventing it from backing joint research projects with American interests, especially on college campuses. It calls for increasing the use of AI and machine learning in intelligence gathering and analysis, while simultaneously calling for a heavier reliance on the private sector to develop and manage the technology.

The document also spends significant time discussing AI’s potential to “reduce waste, fraud and abuse,” particularly with regards to Medicare and Medicaid. However, it makes almost no mention of protecting consumer privacy, ensuring the accuracy and fairness of algorithms, or identifying abusive or misleading uses of AI, beyond combating Chinese propaganda.

Predictable broad strokes

While both candidates’ platforms lack specifics regarding the regulation of artificial intelligence, they do lay out two clearly different approaches. Kamala Harris has made consumer protections and building guardrails against abuse a cornerstone of her AI policy proposals; Donald Trump has predictably focused on reducing regulation. Neither has suggested they would try to put the proverbial AI genie back in the bottle, not that such a thing would be feasible.

The big question marks are just how much of the America First Policy Institute or Project 2025 proposals a Trump administration would adopt. His own official platform mirrors many policy positions of Project 2025. While it may not reflect any of its AI proposals specifically, there’s little reason to believe his approach would differ dramatically on this specific issue.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/election-2024-how-will-the-candidates-regulate-ai-133045610.html?src=rss

Read More 

Well, it finally happened. After years of waiting and requests, Amazon debuted the $280 Kindle Colorsoft, its first ereader with a color display. The company’s ereaders have dominated this space since the original Kindle came out 17 years ago, but in this case, it feels like Amazon is playing catch-up. Color E Ink displays aren’t novel: we’ve tested and reviewed a number of color ereaders and E Ink tablets from Kobo, Boox and reMarkable in recent years. But Amazon is essentially trying to pull an Apple with the Colorsoft: with claims that color E Ink technology just wasn’t good enough to put into a Kindle until now, Amazon’s promising the Colorsoft gets this implementation right thanks in part to the custom tweaks it made to the display. And, unsurprisingly, Amazon’s ready to charge you a premium for it. So is it all it’s cracked up to be? As you might suspect, the answer isn’t as simple as yes or no.
Screen technology and comparisons
Let’s get the tech details squared away first. The Kindle Colorsoft’s seven-inch screen is based on E Ink Kaleido 3 technology, but a representative from the Kindle team explained to me that they developed a custom display stack for this device. That means they made quite a few changes to the tech in order to achieve things like higher-contrast pigments and improved speeds overall. The Colorsoft’s custom oxide backplane uses 24 driving volts to move pigments around more quickly and it helps those pigments appear with better contrast. Nitride LEDs enhance colors and brightness, and a custom coating in between the display’s layers helps focus light through each pigment so there’s less color mixing. Some of the same tech helps make page-turns quicker and supposedly reduces excessively noticeable screen refreshing when you go from one color page to another, or pinch-and-zoom on an image.

That’s all to say that Amazon would like you to believe that this E Ink Kaleido 3 screen is not like the other girls in this space, and while I do not doubt the Kindle team’s efforts, the differences are not as dramatic as the story would suggest. Until Kobo updates the Sage with color, the closest competitor to the $280 Kindle Colorsoft is the $220 Kobo Libra Colour (in size, platform and overall experience), so I did a lot of side-by-side comparisons of the two.
The biggest difference I saw was that the Kobo’s screen skews warmer than the Kindle’s; I kicked the brightness up to the maximum and turned all warm/natural light settings down to zero on both devices and the difference was noticeable, regardless of if the displays were showing color images, black-and-white text or a mix of the two. This would suggest that the Kindle will show more accurate colors more often since there’s less of a warm lean to its display.
But on the flip side, the Kindle screen’s blue tint was just as noticeable, particularly in low-light situations (like a dark office or a dimly lit living room). At max brightness with warmth down to zero, the Kindle’s screen was borderline uncomfortable to read in those environments — but all it took was a slight adjustment to warmth level four (out of 24) to get it to match the Kobo’s display in warmth almost exactly (at least to my eyes). That made it more comfortable to stare at in dark spaces. I also compared the Colorsoft’s screen to my personal Kindle Paperwhite (previous generation) and the blue skew was noticeable there too.
Ultimately, how much warm or cool light you prefer while reading is up to personal taste. My preferences would lead me to adjust the warmth on the Kindle to be a bit higher than zero, mimicking that of the Kobo. In an unscientific poll of the Engadget staff, both in person and with device photos, everybody preferred the screen on the Kobo. I think the slight added warmth in Kobo’s screen makes colors appear a bit more saturated and more inviting overall. It also gets close to mimicking the look of actual physical pages (as much as one of these devices could, at least), and that’s the experience I’m going for when I read pretty much anything. But I could understand why some hardcore comic fans would want to start off with the most color-accurate baseline as possible, and then adjust from there to fit their preferences.
In addition to adjusting the warm light, the Kindle Colorsoft has vivid mode, which “enhances color in less saturated images.” For the sake of efficacy, most of my time was spent in standard mode when testing the Colorsoft. But in trying out vivid mode, I noticed that its enhanced saturation was most noticeable in warm-toned images: reds appeared ever-so-slightly more striking, while oranges and yellows had a more bronze effect and the like. But I had to turn vivid mode on and off a few times to clock the effect because it’s quite subtle.
Then there’s the question of actually reading words on the Colorsoft. Even the Kindle team representative I spoke with acknowledged that, due to the extra physical layer in the screen that enables color, one might notice a bit less sharpness and contrast in black-and-white text on the Colorsoft’s screen. That’s not unique to this particular Kindle — every color ereader will have this issue to some degree.
When comparing the text-only experience of the Kindle Colorsoft to that of the Kobo Libra Colour, I found both to be quite good and comparable to one another. Where there’s a bigger possibility for discrepancies is in a comparison of the Colorsoft to, say, the new Kindle Paperwhite. I did not have the latter device to compare to, but I did have my personal, previous-generation Paperwhite, and the difference was ever so slight, with the standard Paperwhite having the (small) upper hand in the contrast and sharpness departments.
Reading experience

Photo by Valentina Palladino / Engadget

The color screen is the most consequential thing about the Kindle Colorsoft, and chances are if you’ve had a Kindle in the past, the reading experience on this new device will feel quite familiar. The Kindle UI hasn’t changed much, still dividing the main screen into Home and Library options. The former is basically a space for Amazon to serve you personalized book recommendations and promote new Kindle releases, while the latter shows your entire digital library including books, documents, Audible audiobooks and library loans. The Library page is striking in color and there is something undeniably satisfying about seeing all of your title covers in full-color glory.
While reading a book, you can still customize and save different themes with fonts, font sizes and page layouts that best suit your preferences. You still have the option to quickly navigate within a title by page, location, chapter and even popular highlights. Page turns are speedy and will likely be an improvement for anyone coming from an older Kindle or other ereader.
Annotations and your own highlights are collected in the same place for easy reference, and with the latter, you can filter by highlight color as well. You have four colors to choose from on the Colorsoft — orange, yellow, blue and pink — so if you use the yellow highlighter to mark favorite quotes, you can then filter by just that color. Note that all highlighting and note-taking must be done with your fingers because, unlike the Kindle Scribe, the Colorsoft has no stylus support.
The pinch-to-zoom feature on the Colorsoft is good for those who read a lot of graphic novels and comics. Amazon developed a custom algorithm to make this motion as smooth as possible, and it’s a pretty good experience, albeit not a unique one. You can also pinch to zoom on the Kobo Libra Colour, which mostly helps get in closer to comic panels to read small text or better see minute details.
On both devices, there are full-screen refreshes when you pinch to zoom on color images and the speed of completion is roughly the same. I also found image quality to be quite similar as well, and it’s worth noting that art style can skew your impression of an image’s quality. A comic that employs clean, distinct lines compared to one that’s more grungy and watercolor-like will always come off more crisp.
The Colorsoft, like the regular Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, also has an auto-adjusting front light that promises to illuminate the display just right depending on if you’re reading outside on a sunny day, in the dark cabin of an airplane or anywhere else. It’s a nice hardware perk to have and, with the feature turned on, removes much of manual fiddling that some might find annoying to do when they take their Kindle into different environments.
The competition

Photo by Valentina Palladino / Engadget

While we already went through the screen comparisons for the $280 Kindle Colorsoft and the $220 Kobo Libra Colour, there are plenty of other differences between the two that you should consider when picking your next ereader. I’ve added a spec list below to break down the basics, and the most consequential to me are the fact that the Kobo has page-turn buttons and stylus support.
The former is really a matter of preference — you either love physical buttons or you find no use for them — but the latter is pure added value even if you do have to purchase the $70 Kobo stylus separately. It essentially allows you to turn the Libra Colour into a makeshift Kobo Sage or Kindle Scribe, which could be useful for anyone in academia (students and educators alike) or anyone who just loves the feeling of putting pen to “paper.” Meanwhile, the Kindle has the upper hand in its wireless charging capabilities and its slightly cleaner flush-front design.
When it comes to actual content available on Kindle and Kobo devices, the libraries you can purchase from on both are vast: both have ebooks and audiobooks available, and both the Colorsoft and Libra Colour support Bluetooth, so you can listen to audiobooks directly from the device with your wireless headphones. At the time of writing this review, all of the top five New York Times bestseller titles were available on both platforms at the same prices, with the only discrepancies being one that was on sale as a Kindle ebook and one that was available to read for free for Kindle Unlimited and Kobo Plus subscribers. Both of those monthly subscriptions give you unlimited reading access to thousands of titles, but I would give the advantage to Amazon on this one since Kindle Unlimited has been around for much longer. Amazon also has Prime Reading and Kids+ subscriptions that work with Kindle devices and provide even more content to paying subscribers.
As far as borrowing ebooks from your local library goes, it might be a draw. Kobo integrates elegantly with Overdrive, making it nearly seamless to get borrowed books on your ereader. Simply connect your Overdrive account and library card in the settings menu and you can then either browse your library’s offerings directly on device, or use the Libby mobile app to borrow titles and those will appear automatically on your Kobo. My only gripe with this system is that it works best if you have just one library card, since you can only connect one at a time. I’m a unique case where I have at least three library cards and I switch among them in Libby depending on which has the title I’m looking for.
Those like me might prefer the “send to Kindle” option in Libby, which just takes a couple more clicks to get any book from any library network to your Kindle device. The biggest downside here is that my Colorsoft review unit did not show all of my library book covers in full-color glory on the lock screen. After troubleshooting with a representative from Amazon, it was determined to be a title-specific issue. According to Amazon: “For library books, the lock screen is taken from the designated marketing cover for the book used by the library, which may not be the same as the actual book cover.” So just know that if you get most of your reading material from your local library, there’s a chance some of the covers may not display properly on the Colorsoft.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the $250 Boox Go Color 7, which earned a spot in our best ereaders guide after my colleague Amy Skorheim tested it. First, it’s imperative to know that Boox devices require a bit more tech-savvy than a Kindle or a Kobo, as well as a willingness to experiment. They are full-blown Android tablets after all, and that might be exactly what you’re looking for if you get your reading material from many different sources, since it offers access to the Google Play Store and all of its apps. As for specs, the Go Color 7 has a seven-inch Kaleido 3 display with 300 ppi in black and white and 150 ppi in color (similar to the Colorsoft), along with a warm light, page-turn buttons, a splash-resistant design and 64GB of storage (and a microSD card slot for more space!). It’s even more similar to the Kobo Libra Colour in feature set and price, so it’s another option for anyone willing to think a bit outside the standard ereader box.
The decision between Kindle, Kobo and Boox is infinitely more complicated than choosing between the Colorsoft or the standard Kindle Paperwhite — and that’s precisely because of the stark price difference. The Colorsoft is $120 more than the regular Kindle Paperwhite ($100 more if you pay to remove the lock screen ads from the Paperwhite, and $80 more than the Signature Edition) and aside from the color panel, it only adds wireless charging, the auto-adjusting front light sensor and doubles the storage. Remove color from the equation, and arguably the most useful of all of those is the extra storage but, make no mistake, 16GB of space on the Kindle Paperwhite is nothing to scoff at and will be just fine for most people. Unless you’re 100-percent certain that color will make a huge difference in your day-to-day reading experience, the standard Paperwhite is the better value.
Wrap-up

Photo by Valentina Palladino / Engadget

While it’s very late to the color E Ink party, the Kindle Colorsoft is a solid premium ereader that provides an excellent experience both in color and black and white. I focused a lot on comparisons in this review because most people will not have the opportunity to have the Colorsoft and any of its contemporaries side by side (unless you’re my dad, who buys almost every ereader and small tablet under the sun). But to be clear, the Colorsoft is a good Kindle, and in many ways, Amazon did pull an Apple here. If you’re already heavily entrenched in the Kindle ecosystem and have been holding out for a color ereader, this is the device to get — just be prepared to pay a premium for it.
Also, like Apple and its various operating systems, there’s something to be said about the convenience and ubiquity of the Kindle ecosystem. The library is seemingly endless (with discounts galore), supplemented by Prime Reading and Kindle Unlimited, so it’s easy to get sucked in when you’re already shopping on Amazon for household goods and holiday gifts. But when it comes to value for your money (and a pure spec breakdown), you can get more from Kobo and Boox devices. Kindle isn’t the only name in town anymore for ereaders, and it hasn’t been for a long time, and that seems to be a more pronounced fact now with the introduction of the Colorsoft. If nothing else, Amazon has finally filled a glaring hole in its ereader lineup with this device.
Amazon Kindle Colorsoft vs. the competition

Amazon Kindle Colorsoft
Kobo Libra Colour
Boox Go Color 7

Price
$280
$220
$250

Display size
7-inch color E Ink Kalaido 3 (with custom display stack)
7-inch color E Ink Kalaido 3
7-inch color E Ink Kalaido 3

Pixel density
300 ppi (black-and-white), 150 ppi (color content)
300 ppi (black-and-white), 150 ppi (color content)
300 ppi (black-and-white), 150 ppi (color content)

Storage
32GB
32GB
64GB

Battery life
Up to 8 weeks
Up to 6 weeks
2,300 mAh capacity; “long-lasting” battery life

Page-turn buttons
No
Yes
Yes

Adjustable warm light
Yes
Yes
Yes

Auto brightness adjustments
Yes
No
No

Auto warm light adjustments
No
Yes
No

Waterproof rating
IPX8
IPX8
Not provided

Pinch-to-zoom support
Yes
Yes
Not provided

Stylus support
No
Yes
No

Audiobook support
Yes, Audible audiobooks
Yes, Kobo audiobooks
Yes, via Android apps

Library support
Yes, via Overdrive’s “Send to Kindle” option
Yes, via built-in Overdrive integration
Yes, via Android apps

Wireless charging
Yes
No
No

USB-C charging
Yes
Yes
Yes

Wi-Fi
Yes
Yes
Yes

Bluetooth
Yes
Yes
Yes

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/kindle-colorsoft-review-the-missing-link-in-amazons-ereader-lineup-131529685.html?src=rss

Well, it finally happened. After years of waiting and requests, Amazon debuted the $280 Kindle Colorsoft, its first ereader with a color display. The company’s ereaders have dominated this space since the original Kindle came out 17 years ago, but in this case, it feels like Amazon is playing catch-up. Color E Ink displays aren’t novel: we’ve tested and reviewed a number of color ereaders and E Ink tablets from Kobo, Boox and reMarkable in recent years. But Amazon is essentially trying to pull an Apple with the Colorsoft: with claims that color E Ink technology just wasn’t good enough to put into a Kindle until now, Amazon’s promising the Colorsoft gets this implementation right thanks in part to the custom tweaks it made to the display. And, unsurprisingly, Amazon’s ready to charge you a premium for it. So is it all it’s cracked up to be? As you might suspect, the answer isn’t as simple as yes or no.

Screen technology and comparisons

Let’s get the tech details squared away first. The Kindle Colorsoft’s seven-inch screen is based on E Ink Kaleido 3 technology, but a representative from the Kindle team explained to me that they developed a custom display stack for this device. That means they made quite a few changes to the tech in order to achieve things like higher-contrast pigments and improved speeds overall. The Colorsoft’s custom oxide backplane uses 24 driving volts to move pigments around more quickly and it helps those pigments appear with better contrast. Nitride LEDs enhance colors and brightness, and a custom coating in between the display’s layers helps focus light through each pigment so there’s less color mixing. Some of the same tech helps make page-turns quicker and supposedly reduces excessively noticeable screen refreshing when you go from one color page to another, or pinch-and-zoom on an image.

That’s all to say that Amazon would like you to believe that this E Ink Kaleido 3 screen is not like the other girls in this space, and while I do not doubt the Kindle team’s efforts, the differences are not as dramatic as the story would suggest. Until Kobo updates the Sage with color, the closest competitor to the $280 Kindle Colorsoft is the $220 Kobo Libra Colour (in size, platform and overall experience), so I did a lot of side-by-side comparisons of the two.

The biggest difference I saw was that the Kobo’s screen skews warmer than the Kindle’s; I kicked the brightness up to the maximum and turned all warm/natural light settings down to zero on both devices and the difference was noticeable, regardless of if the displays were showing color images, black-and-white text or a mix of the two. This would suggest that the Kindle will show more accurate colors more often since there’s less of a warm lean to its display.

But on the flip side, the Kindle screen’s blue tint was just as noticeable, particularly in low-light situations (like a dark office or a dimly lit living room). At max brightness with warmth down to zero, the Kindle’s screen was borderline uncomfortable to read in those environments — but all it took was a slight adjustment to warmth level four (out of 24) to get it to match the Kobo’s display in warmth almost exactly (at least to my eyes). That made it more comfortable to stare at in dark spaces. I also compared the Colorsoft’s screen to my personal Kindle Paperwhite (previous generation) and the blue skew was noticeable there too.

Ultimately, how much warm or cool light you prefer while reading is up to personal taste. My preferences would lead me to adjust the warmth on the Kindle to be a bit higher than zero, mimicking that of the Kobo. In an unscientific poll of the Engadget staff, both in person and with device photos, everybody preferred the screen on the Kobo. I think the slight added warmth in Kobo’s screen makes colors appear a bit more saturated and more inviting overall. It also gets close to mimicking the look of actual physical pages (as much as one of these devices could, at least), and that’s the experience I’m going for when I read pretty much anything. But I could understand why some hardcore comic fans would want to start off with the most color-accurate baseline as possible, and then adjust from there to fit their preferences.

In addition to adjusting the warm light, the Kindle Colorsoft has vivid mode, which “enhances color in less saturated images.” For the sake of efficacy, most of my time was spent in standard mode when testing the Colorsoft. But in trying out vivid mode, I noticed that its enhanced saturation was most noticeable in warm-toned images: reds appeared ever-so-slightly more striking, while oranges and yellows had a more bronze effect and the like. But I had to turn vivid mode on and off a few times to clock the effect because it’s quite subtle.

Then there’s the question of actually reading words on the Colorsoft. Even the Kindle team representative I spoke with acknowledged that, due to the extra physical layer in the screen that enables color, one might notice a bit less sharpness and contrast in black-and-white text on the Colorsoft’s screen. That’s not unique to this particular Kindle — every color ereader will have this issue to some degree.

When comparing the text-only experience of the Kindle Colorsoft to that of the Kobo Libra Colour, I found both to be quite good and comparable to one another. Where there’s a bigger possibility for discrepancies is in a comparison of the Colorsoft to, say, the new Kindle Paperwhite. I did not have the latter device to compare to, but I did have my personal, previous-generation Paperwhite, and the difference was ever so slight, with the standard Paperwhite having the (small) upper hand in the contrast and sharpness departments.

Reading experience

The color screen is the most consequential thing about the Kindle Colorsoft, and chances are if you’ve had a Kindle in the past, the reading experience on this new device will feel quite familiar. The Kindle UI hasn’t changed much, still dividing the main screen into Home and Library options. The former is basically a space for Amazon to serve you personalized book recommendations and promote new Kindle releases, while the latter shows your entire digital library including books, documents, Audible audiobooks and library loans. The Library page is striking in color and there is something undeniably satisfying about seeing all of your title covers in full-color glory.

While reading a book, you can still customize and save different themes with fonts, font sizes and page layouts that best suit your preferences. You still have the option to quickly navigate within a title by page, location, chapter and even popular highlights. Page turns are speedy and will likely be an improvement for anyone coming from an older Kindle or other ereader.

Annotations and your own highlights are collected in the same place for easy reference, and with the latter, you can filter by highlight color as well. You have four colors to choose from on the Colorsoft — orange, yellow, blue and pink — so if you use the yellow highlighter to mark favorite quotes, you can then filter by just that color. Note that all highlighting and note-taking must be done with your fingers because, unlike the Kindle Scribe, the Colorsoft has no stylus support.

The pinch-to-zoom feature on the Colorsoft is good for those who read a lot of graphic novels and comics. Amazon developed a custom algorithm to make this motion as smooth as possible, and it’s a pretty good experience, albeit not a unique one. You can also pinch to zoom on the Kobo Libra Colour, which mostly helps get in closer to comic panels to read small text or better see minute details.

On both devices, there are full-screen refreshes when you pinch to zoom on color images and the speed of completion is roughly the same. I also found image quality to be quite similar as well, and it’s worth noting that art style can skew your impression of an image’s quality. A comic that employs clean, distinct lines compared to one that’s more grungy and watercolor-like will always come off more crisp.

The Colorsoft, like the regular Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, also has an auto-adjusting front light that promises to illuminate the display just right depending on if you’re reading outside on a sunny day, in the dark cabin of an airplane or anywhere else. It’s a nice hardware perk to have and, with the feature turned on, removes much of manual fiddling that some might find annoying to do when they take their Kindle into different environments.

The competition

While we already went through the screen comparisons for the $280 Kindle Colorsoft and the $220 Kobo Libra Colour, there are plenty of other differences between the two that you should consider when picking your next ereader. I’ve added a spec list below to break down the basics, and the most consequential to me are the fact that the Kobo has page-turn buttons and stylus support.

The former is really a matter of preference — you either love physical buttons or you find no use for them — but the latter is pure added value even if you do have to purchase the $70 Kobo stylus separately. It essentially allows you to turn the Libra Colour into a makeshift Kobo Sage or Kindle Scribe, which could be useful for anyone in academia (students and educators alike) or anyone who just loves the feeling of putting pen to “paper.” Meanwhile, the Kindle has the upper hand in its wireless charging capabilities and its slightly cleaner flush-front design.

When it comes to actual content available on Kindle and Kobo devices, the libraries you can purchase from on both are vast: both have ebooks and audiobooks available, and both the Colorsoft and Libra Colour support Bluetooth, so you can listen to audiobooks directly from the device with your wireless headphones. At the time of writing this review, all of the top five New York Times bestseller titles were available on both platforms at the same prices, with the only discrepancies being one that was on sale as a Kindle ebook and one that was available to read for free for Kindle Unlimited and Kobo Plus subscribers. Both of those monthly subscriptions give you unlimited reading access to thousands of titles, but I would give the advantage to Amazon on this one since Kindle Unlimited has been around for much longer. Amazon also has Prime Reading and Kids+ subscriptions that work with Kindle devices and provide even more content to paying subscribers.

As far as borrowing ebooks from your local library goes, it might be a draw. Kobo integrates elegantly with Overdrive, making it nearly seamless to get borrowed books on your ereader. Simply connect your Overdrive account and library card in the settings menu and you can then either browse your library’s offerings directly on device, or use the Libby mobile app to borrow titles and those will appear automatically on your Kobo. My only gripe with this system is that it works best if you have just one library card, since you can only connect one at a time. I’m a unique case where I have at least three library cards and I switch among them in Libby depending on which has the title I’m looking for.

Those like me might prefer the “send to Kindle” option in Libby, which just takes a couple more clicks to get any book from any library network to your Kindle device. The biggest downside here is that my Colorsoft review unit did not show all of my library book covers in full-color glory on the lock screen. After troubleshooting with a representative from Amazon, it was determined to be a title-specific issue. According to Amazon: “For library books, the lock screen is taken from the designated marketing cover for the book used by the library, which may not be the same as the actual book cover.” So just know that if you get most of your reading material from your local library, there’s a chance some of the covers may not display properly on the Colorsoft.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the $250 Boox Go Color 7, which earned a spot in our best ereaders guide after my colleague Amy Skorheim tested it. First, it’s imperative to know that Boox devices require a bit more tech-savvy than a Kindle or a Kobo, as well as a willingness to experiment. They are full-blown Android tablets after all, and that might be exactly what you’re looking for if you get your reading material from many different sources, since it offers access to the Google Play Store and all of its apps. As for specs, the Go Color 7 has a seven-inch Kaleido 3 display with 300 ppi in black and white and 150 ppi in color (similar to the Colorsoft), along with a warm light, page-turn buttons, a splash-resistant design and 64GB of storage (and a microSD card slot for more space!). It’s even more similar to the Kobo Libra Colour in feature set and price, so it’s another option for anyone willing to think a bit outside the standard ereader box.

The decision between Kindle, Kobo and Boox is infinitely more complicated than choosing between the Colorsoft or the standard Kindle Paperwhite — and that’s precisely because of the stark price difference. The Colorsoft is $120 more than the regular Kindle Paperwhite ($100 more if you pay to remove the lock screen ads from the Paperwhite, and $80 more than the Signature Edition) and aside from the color panel, it only adds wireless charging, the auto-adjusting front light sensor and doubles the storage. Remove color from the equation, and arguably the most useful of all of those is the extra storage but, make no mistake, 16GB of space on the Kindle Paperwhite is nothing to scoff at and will be just fine for most people. Unless you’re 100-percent certain that color will make a huge difference in your day-to-day reading experience, the standard Paperwhite is the better value.

Wrap-up

While it’s very late to the color E Ink party, the Kindle Colorsoft is a solid premium ereader that provides an excellent experience both in color and black and white. I focused a lot on comparisons in this review because most people will not have the opportunity to have the Colorsoft and any of its contemporaries side by side (unless you’re my dad, who buys almost every ereader and small tablet under the sun). But to be clear, the Colorsoft is a good Kindle, and in many ways, Amazon did pull an Apple here. If you’re already heavily entrenched in the Kindle ecosystem and have been holding out for a color ereader, this is the device to get — just be prepared to pay a premium for it.

Also, like Apple and its various operating systems, there’s something to be said about the convenience and ubiquity of the Kindle ecosystem. The library is seemingly endless (with discounts galore), supplemented by Prime Reading and Kindle Unlimited, so it’s easy to get sucked in when you’re already shopping on Amazon for household goods and holiday gifts. But when it comes to value for your money (and a pure spec breakdown), you can get more from Kobo and Boox devices. Kindle isn’t the only name in town anymore for ereaders, and it hasn’t been for a long time, and that seems to be a more pronounced fact now with the introduction of the Colorsoft. If nothing else, Amazon has finally filled a glaring hole in its ereader lineup with this device.

Amazon Kindle Colorsoft vs. the competition

Amazon Kindle Colorsoft

Kobo Libra Colour

Boox Go Color 7

Price

$280

$220

$250

Display size

7-inch color E Ink Kalaido 3 (with custom display stack)

7-inch color E Ink Kalaido 3

7-inch color E Ink Kalaido 3

Pixel density

300 ppi (black-and-white), 150 ppi (color content)

300 ppi (black-and-white), 150 ppi (color content)

300 ppi (black-and-white), 150 ppi (color content)

Storage

32GB

32GB

64GB

Battery life

Up to 8 weeks

Up to 6 weeks

2,300 mAh capacity; “long-lasting” battery life

Page-turn buttons

No

Yes

Yes

Adjustable warm light

Yes

Yes

Yes

Auto brightness adjustments

Yes

No

No

Auto warm light adjustments

No

Yes

No

Waterproof rating

IPX8

IPX8

Not provided

Pinch-to-zoom support

Yes

Yes

Not provided

Stylus support

No

Yes

No

Audiobook support

Yes, Audible audiobooks

Yes, Kobo audiobooks

Yes, via Android apps

Library support

Yes, via Overdrive’s “Send to Kindle” option

Yes, via built-in Overdrive integration

Yes, via Android apps

Wireless charging

Yes

No

No

USB-C charging

Yes

Yes

Yes

Wi-Fi

Yes

Yes

Yes

Bluetooth

Yes

Yes

Yes

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/kindle-colorsoft-review-the-missing-link-in-amazons-ereader-lineup-131529685.html?src=rss

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