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True wireless earbuds are flimsy, easily lost and prone to battery failure. Given their size and cost, companies would rather you throw them out when they succumb to the inevitable. Fairphone, however, has built a pair of buds with easily replaceable batteries, as well as a swappable cell in the charging case. And, look, if the engineers working at this tiny Dutch company can work this out, then the army of designers in Apple and Samsung’s steel-and-glass cathedrals have no excuse.

Fairbuds are a pair of true wireless earbuds that look like Samsung’s Galaxy Buds, with the outermost surface on both sides being a controller. Fairphone promises six hours of battery life on a charge with an extra 20 hours nestled inside the case. The buds are packing the usual feature list, including ANC, multipoint connectivity as well as an IP54 rating for sweat and water resistance. As usual, the company wants to make the argument (on paper, at least) that just because the devil has the best toys, you can still have fun while wearing a halo.

Fairbuds are the company’s second crack at the true wireless whip after its 2021’s obviously named True Wireless Stereo Earbuds. Those were made with fairtrade gold and 30 percent recycled plastic, but were still more a part of the problem than the solution. At the time, I gave the company grief for launching a product so at odds with its environmental goals. In retrospect, the crap name should have been a clue that these were a stopgap. Since then, the TWS were dumped off, and the company released Fairbuds XL, a pair of over-ear cans that I rather liked.

Fairphone says that the Fairbuds here are made with 70 percent recycled and fair materials, while 100 percent of the rare earth elements and tin are recycled. The company also claims to offer improved pay for factory workers compared to rival manufacturers and works with suppliers to improve working conditions for the people on the production line.

Photo by Daniel Cooper / Engadget

I don’t think it’s unfair to say Fairphone prioritizes repairability over look and feel, so these won’t take a podium at the Beautiful Gadget Awards. I had a pair of AirPods Pro on my desk and, sat beside the Fairbuds, the difference between the two is almost comical. Fairbuds’ case is about twice the size and, while the corners are rounded off, it’s still going to be an unwelcome presence in your jeans pocket. It’s not as if there’s acres of wasted space in the case but it’s a product that the armchair designer in me keeps wanting to slim down.

There are other irritations, like the fact the action button is on top of the charging tray but the status light is on the side by the USB-C port. That’s not a deal breaker but you hope these fit and finish issues are the focus for any future version two. But the point of these irritations is that elegance has been sacrificed on the altar of repairability, and that’s why you’d buy a pair.

I probably need to make clear, for the people who will point to the iFixit guides showing you how to swap the battery in an AirPod and a Galaxy Bud that it is possible to do so. But if the guides ask you to use a heat gun, scalpel, vice, pry bar and glue-dissolving solvent, then that’s not an easy job just anyone can do. When I say that you can swap out the battery on each Fairbud with the same level of ease as you could a ‘90s cell phone battery, I mean it.

In fact, my first attempt took all of 30 seconds since all you need to do is get a small, flat-headed screwdriver to slide off the rubber gasket. Once done, you just need to gently pry out the hinged holder and the battery will slide out easily. Swap in a new cell, slide the rubber gasket back in place (if you’re gentle, it mostly plops back into position without any fussing) and you’re done.

Similarly, the charging case has a replaceable battery held in place with a single philips head screw. A few twists and the charging plate pops out, revealing the 500mAh cell underneath, with users able to buy replacement outer shells, charging trays and case batteries. You can also buy eartips, earbuds and earbud batteries from Fairphone’s online parts store.

Photo by Daniel Cooper / Engadget

It’s likely you’d only want or need to swap the batteries once every three or four years so you won’t benefit from this flexibility on a daily basis. Reading lots of online chatter, a rule of thumb is that most TWS buds last for between two and three years before things start to go wrong. Fairphone, too, offers a three-year warranty on the buds, but I’d hope to see a well-used pair of Fairbuds lasting for twice as long, assuming you don’t lose them in a sewer or leave them in the back of a cab.

Sadly, I can’t be as praiseworthy for the Fairbuds’ sound quality which isn’t as strong as you may hope. They’re not bad by any means, but the default sound profile lacks a dynamism you hear in competitors. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing a lush orchestral piece by Jerry Goldsmith or something beefier, like Korn, you’ll feel the sound is rougher and flatter than other products. It’s like the top and bottom ends of the sounds are being sliced off to keep everything from getting too out of hand.

There are sound profiles in the Fairbuds app that I found similarly lackluster with users able to opt between standard tuning, Bass Boost or Flat. None of them feel distinct. There’s also a Studio option where you can adjust the tuning along eight specific frequency bands. It’s here that you can really improve the sound quality but it’s more time and effort than I’d be happy putting in on a regular basis.

At least the fundamentals are all pretty good: I’ve been testing these for a big chunk of the last five days and I’ve not felt the need to recharge the case battery at all. Even with ANC on, I think I’ve squeezed at least 20 hours out of these things and I’ve still got juice left in the tank. And the ANC itself offers the same background muffling you’ll hear in every other mid-range ANC earbud.

One of the mantras Fairphone has always repeated is that it doesn’t expect to build a phone that will topple the big manufacturers. Its products are designed to appeal to folks who want something a little more ethically made, and to act as a north star for the technology industry more broadly. There are plenty of engineering questions — around durability, bulkiness and ease of use — that linger. But Fairphone’s impact here should be to lay down a challenge to its bigger rivals to use their vast resources to build an earbud that isn’t condemned to live in the trash from the moment it was born.

Fairbuds are making their debut in Europe today from Fairphone as well as a variety of retail partners across the territory. They are priced at €149 and while there’s no word on the matter now, it’s likely that we’ll see them making their way to the US at some point in the future.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fairphones-repairable-wireless-earbuds-put-the-industry-on-notice-080033940.html?src=rss

Local documentary filmmaker Dave Kendall produced "Hot Times in the Heartland" with his company, Prairie Hollow Productions. The film is a comprehensive look at how the climate crisis is impacting the Kansas City region and how local changemakers are working to counter it.

Logitech has unveiled the G Pro X 60, its latest mechanical gaming keyboard. Similar to the peripheral maker's G Pro X TKL from last year, this is a wireless model aimed at competitive-minded gamers first and foremost. Unlike that device, it has a smaller 60 percent layout, which means it lacks a dedicated function row, number pad, arrow keys and nav cluster but takes up much less space on a desk. This can be a boon for games because it leaves more room to flick a mouse around while retaining the most common action keys. Naturally, it’s also more portable.

The G Pro X 60 is up for pre-order today for $179 in the US or €229 in Europe. It’s available in three colors (black, white or pink) with either the linear or tactile version of Logitech’s GX Optical switches. The company says it’ll be available at major retailers in “late April.”

I’ve had the keyboard on hand for a few days prior to today’s announcement and have mostly been impressed, though I’d have a hard time calling it a great value.

Let’s start with the good: This thing is well-built. Its aluminum top plate is surrounded by a plastic frame, but it all feels sturdy, with no real flex or give when you press down. Its doubleshot PBT keycaps are pleasingly crisp and should avoid any of the shininess that'd develop with cheaper ABS plastic over time. The legends on the keycaps are neatly printed and transparent, so any RGB backlight effects you set will come through cleanly. All the keys are angled comfortably, and there’s a set of flip-out feet on the back.

Logitech

I’m not crazy about the side-mounted volume roller — once you’ve blessed your keyboard with a full-on rotary knob, it’s hard to give up — but it’s easy to reach with your pinky, so you can adjust volume without having to lift your other fingers during the heat of a game. There’s also a dedicated switch for flipping on Logitech’s “game mode,” which deactivates keys you might otherwise hit by accident; those include the Windows and Fn keys by default, but you can add others through Logitech’s G Hub software. 

The keyboard can connect over a detachable USB-C cable, Bluetooth or a 2.4GHz wireless dongle. Per usual with Logitech gear, the latter’s connection is rock solid; I’ve had none of the hiccups or stuttering I’ve seen with some wireless keyboards from less established brands, particularly when waking the device from sleep. There are buttons to swap between Bluetooth or the 2.4GHz connection built into the board, as well as a handy compartment for stashing the adapter itself. You can also connect the G Pro X 60 and certain Logitech mice simultaneously using one dongle. Logitech rates the battery life at up to 65 hours; that sounds about right based on my testing so far, but the exact amount will fluctuate based on how bright you set the RGB backlight.

The best thing about the G Pro X 60 might have nothing to do with the keyboard at all — it’s the fact that Logitech includes a hard carrying case in the box. More companies should do this! It makes the device much easier to transport.

Alas, this probably isn't a keyboard you’d want to take to the office. The linear GX Optical switches in my test unit feel totally pleasant: They’re fast enough for gaming, and they come pre-lubricated, so each press goes down smoothly. Since they’re optical, and thus not reliant on any physical contact points, they should also prove durable over time.

Logitech

But they aren’t exactly quiet. Logitech has fit a couple layers of silicone rubber inside the board, but there isn’t the wealth of sound-dampening foam you'd find in some other options in this price range. To peel back the curtain a bit: I received the G Pro X 60 just after testing a bunch of mechanical keyboards for an upcoming buying guide, so I’m a little spoiled on this point. Some people may like the obvious clack of each press here, too. I can’t imagine their coworkers or roommates being as thrilled, though, and some modifier and nav keys like Alt, Ctrl and Tab sound hollower than others.

Besides that, my issues with the G Pro X 60 are more about what's missing than anything the keyboard does wrong. For one, its switches aren’t hot-swappable, so you can’t easily remove and replace them without desoldering. Yes, this is a niche thing, but so are $180 gaming keyboards as a whole. Being able to pop in new switches isn’t just a plus for long-term repairability; it’s half the fun for some keyboard enthusiasts in the first place. Swapping keycaps is straightforward, though. 

Taking a step back, a growing number of the G Pro X 60’s peers have some sort of analog functionality, which means they can respond to varying levels of pressure. The top pick in our gaming keyboard buyer’s guide, the Wooting 60HE+, is a good example: Its magnetic Hall effect sensors let you set custom actuation points, so you can make each key extra sensitive while playing a fast FPS, then make them feel heavier and more deliberate while typing. They also enable a “rapid trigger” feature that lets you repeat inputs faster, which can be helpful for, say, strafing back and forth during an in-game shootout. Other models from Razer and SteelSeries provide similar functionality. But the G Pro X 60 lacks any sort of adjustable actuation or rapid trigger mode. That’s probably not a dealbreaker for most people, but the people who would use those features are the kind of hardcore gamers Logitech is targeting with this device.

Logitech

What is here is a new remapping system called “Keycontrol.” Through G Hub, this allows you to assign several different commands or macros to each key, with three separate control layers. This is a convenient way to get around some of the design’s missing keys: I made it so holding Alt temporarily turns WASD into arrow keys, for example. But it also lets you base different actions on whether you press, hold or release a key, so you could tie complementary actions in a game — casting a couple of buffs in an RPG, perhaps — to one press. Some of the analog keyboards noted above can work like this, too, and you need to have G Hub open for some bindings to stay active. Still, it’s better to have this sort of flexibility than not. Logitech says more of its keyboards will receive Keycontrol support in the future but declined to give more specific details.

All of this makes for a keyboard that’s solid in a vacuum but faces some stiff competition. Rival gaming keyboards like the Wooting 60HE+ and SteelSeries Apex Pro Mini Wireless are a little richer with performance-focused features, while a slightly larger option like the ASUS ROG Azoth sounds better and offers more customizable hardware for keyboard geeks. There are plenty of great non-gaming keyboards that cost much less, too. But the G Pro X 60 isn’t a bad choice if you want something compact and wireless, so it might be worthwhile during a sale.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/logitechs-tiny-g-pro-x-60-gaming-keyboard-has-some-big-competition-070154542.html?src=rss

There are too many streaming services to keep track of today — and with prices steadily rising, you might be asking yourself if it’s still worthwhile at all to subscribe to these services instead of cable. We share those frustrations but have ultimately decided this oversaturated space offers much more than the basic-cable world that came before it. But now, you have to wade through all of those options and figure out which have the content you want to watch, which fit into your budget, which have the most compelling original series, movies and documentaries, and the best live TV streaming services.

We at Engadget wanted to make that process easier so we’ve compiled a list of the best streaming services you can subscribe to right now, with our favorite picks spanning across all content types and budgets. Should you go out and subscribe to all of the services listed here? Probably not, unless you’re a true cord cutter aching for content. But these are the services that offer the best bang for your buck, regardless of whether you’re a live sports buff, a classic movie lover or a general streaming enthusiast.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-streaming-services-154527042.html?src=rss

Back in 2019, the family of Apple engineer Wei Lun Huang (aka Walter Huang) sued Tesla a year after he was killed when his Model X crashed into a median in Mountain View while Autopilot was engaged. That case is officially closed, now that the automaker has settled the lawsuit on the very day jury selection was supposed to take place. According to CNBC and The New York Times, Tesla's lawyers asked the court to seal the settlement agreement so that the exact amount the company paid wouldn't be made public. The company didn't want "other potential claimants (or the plaintiffs' bar) [to] perceive the settlement amount as evidence of Tesla's potential liability for losses, which may have a chilling effect on settlement opportunity in subsequent cases."

Tesla confirmed shortly after the accident that Autopilot was switched on at the time of the crash, but it also insisted that Huang had time to react and had an unobstructed view of the divider. In a statement to the press, the company insisted that the driver was at fault and that the only way for the accident to have occurred was if Huang "was not paying attention to the road, despite the car providing multiple warnings to do so." In the lawsuit, Huang's lawyers pointed to Autopilot marketing materials from Tesla suggesting that its cars are safe enough to use on the road without drivers having to keep their hands on the wheel at all times. We took the image above from a video on Tesla's Autopilot page, showing a driver with their hands on their lap. 

The incident became big enough to attract the attention of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which conducted an investigation and found that Huang previously reported that the car steered away from the highway on prior trips. In fact, his family said that he used to complain about his car swerving towards the exact barrier he crashed into and had even reported it to the Tesla dealership, which couldn't replicate the issue. The agency also concluded that Tesla's collision warning system didn't alert the driver and that its emergency braking system didn't activate as it should have when the car started making its way toward the barrier. 

That said, the NTSB discovered, as well, that Huang was running a mobile game on his phone at the time of the accident. It just couldn't determine whether the phone was in his hands when the crash occurred. The Times said Tesla was preparing to show proof to the court that Huang was playing a game when he crashed, which his lawyers denied. Regardless of who's truly at fault, a trial would've called renewed attention to the safety of Tesla's driver assistance system. Settling puts an end to the case a few months before the company unveils its own robotaxi on August 8.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tesla-settles-lawsuit-over-fatal-model-x-crash-that-killed-an-apple-engineer-054710845.html?src=rss

Enlarge / Baily's Beads are visible in this shot taken by Stephen Clark in Athens, Texas. (credit: Stephen Clark)

"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day."

The steady rhythm of the night-day, dark-light progression is a phenomenon acknowledged in ancient sacred texts as a given. When it's interrupted, people take notice. In the days leading up to the eclipse, excitement within the Ars Orbiting HQ grew, and plans to experience the last total eclipse in the continental United States until 2045 were made. Here's what we saw across the country.

Kevin Purdy (watched from Buffalo, New York)

• 3:19 pm on April 8 in Buffalo overlooking Richmond Ave. near Symphony Circle. [credit: Kevin Purdy ]

Buffalo, New York, is a frequently passed-over city. Super Bowl victories, the shift away from Great Lakes shipping and American-made steel, being the second-largest city in a state that contains New York City: This city doesn’t get many breaks.

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Most of the time, when kids accidentally gulp down a non-edible object, it travels toward the stomach. In the best-case scenarios for these unfortunate events, it's a small, benign object that safely sees itself out in a day or two. But in the worst-case scenarios, it can go down an entirely different path.

That was the case for a poor teen in California, who somehow swallowed a quarter. The quarter didn’t head down the esophagus and toward the stomach, but veered into the airway, sliding passed the vocal cords like they were a vending-machine coin slot.

Radiographs of the chest (Panel A, postero- anterior view) and neck (Panel B, lateral view). Removal with optical forceps (Panel C and Video 1), and reinspection of ulceration (Panel D, asterisks) (credit: NEJM, Hsue and Patel, 2024)

In a clinical report published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors who treated the 14-year-old boy reported how they found—and later retrieved—the quarter from its unusual and dangerous resting place. Once it passed the vocal cords and the glottis, the coin got lodged in the subglottis, a small region between the vocal cords and the trachea.

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We've come a long way since primitive AI music generators in 2022. Today, AI tools like Suno.ai allow any series of words to become song lyrics, including inside jokes (as you'll see below). On Wednesday, prompt engineer Riley Goodside tweeted an AI-generated song created with the prompt "sad girl with piano performs the text of the MIT License," and it began to circulate widely in the AI community online.

The MIT License is a famous permissive software license created in the late 1980s, frequently used in open source projects. "My favorite part of this is ~1:25 it nails 'WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY' with a beautiful Imogen Heap-style glissando then immediately pronounces 'FITNESS' as 'fistiff,'" Goodside wrote on X.

Suno (which means "listen" in Hindi) was formed in 2023 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It's the brainchild of Michael Shulman, Georg Kucsko, Martin Camacho, and Keenan Freyberg, who formerly worked at companies like Meta and TikTok. Suno has already attracted big-name partners, such as Microsoft, which announced the integration of an earlier version of the Suno engine into Bing Chat last December. Today, Suno is on v3 of its model, which can create temporally coherent two-minute songs in many different genres.

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While Englewood Arts offers classes in drawing, ceramics, and glass blowing, it isn't your typical arts center. It's also leading the way for affordable housing in Independence.

Jony Ive, the former Apple designer. (credit: Gary Cohen)

Former Apple design lead Jony Ive and current OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are seeking funding for a new company that will produce an "artificial intelligence-powered personal device," according to The Information's sources, who are said to be familiar with the plans.

The exact nature of the device is unknown, but it will not look anything like a smartphone, according to the sources. We first heard tell of this venture in the fall of 2023, but The Information's story reveals that talks are moving forward to get the company off the ground.

Ive and Altman hope to raise at least $1 billion for the new company. The complete list of potential funding sources they've spoken with is unknown, but The Information's sources say they are in talks with frequent OpenAI investor Thrive Capital as well as Emerson Collective, a venture capital firm founded by Laurene Powell Jobs.

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Gov. Mike Parson on Monday confirmed the state will carry out the scheduled execution of Brian Dorsey on Tuesday, April 9. More than 150 people spoke out in support of sparing Dorsey’s life, including over 70 corrections officers and a retired Missouri Supreme Court judge. Dorsey was convicted of murdering his cousin and her husband in 2006.

Retired Lt. General Ben Hodges discusses potential consequences of an invasion into Rafah by Israeli forces. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) describes the state of a potential Ukraine aid bill and the potential ouster of Speaker Mike Johnson. Benjy Sarlin, former Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) and Matt Gorman join the Meet the Press NOW roundtable to discuss President Biden's student loan forgiveness plan.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | BernardaSv)

The Federal Communications Commission chair decided not to impose Universal Service fees on Internet service, rejecting arguments for new assessments to shore up an FCC fund that subsidizes broadband network expansions and provides discounts to low-income consumers.

The $8 billion-a-year Universal Service Fund (USF) pays for FCC programs such as Lifeline discounts and Rural Digital Opportunity Fund deployment grants for ISPs. Phone companies must pay a percentage of their revenue into the fund, and telcos generally pass those fees on to consumers with a "Universal Service" line item on telephone bills.

Imposing similar assessments on broadband could increase the Universal Service Fund's size and/or reduce the charges on phone service, spreading the burden more evenly across different types of telecommunications services. Some consumer advocates want the FCC to increase the fund in order to replace the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), a different government program that gives $30 monthly broadband discounts to people with low incomes but is about to run out of money because of inaction by Congress.

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Hackers are actively exploiting a pair of recently discovered vulnerabilities to remotely commandeer network-attached storage devices manufactured by D-Link, researchers said Monday.

Roughly 92,000 devices are vulnerable to the remote takeover exploits, which can be remotely transmitted by sending malicious commands through simple HTTP traffic. The vulnerability came to light two weeks ago. The researcher said they were making the threat public because D-Link said it had no plans to patch the vulnerabilities, which are present only in end-of-life devices, meaning they are no longer supported by the manufacturer.

An ideal recipe

On Monday, researchers said their sensors began detecting active attempts to exploit the vulnerabilities starting over the weekend. Greynoise, one of the organizations reporting the in-the-wild exploitation, said in an email that the activity began around 02:17 UTC on Sunday. The attacks attempted to download and install one of several pieces of malware on vulnerable devices depending on their specific hardware profile. One such piece of malware is flagged under various names by 40 endpoint protection services.

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We knew it was coming, but that doesn’t make it any easier to say goodbye. Nintendo shut down the online servers for both the Wii U and 3DS today. This means the end of online multiplayer gaming for both consoles, turning Mario Kart 7 for 3DS and the original Splatoon for the Wii U into single player or couch co-op experiences. The first Super Mario Maker is also effectively dead, as there’s no way to browse for and download player-created levels.

Both consoles are relatively controversial. The 3DS was originally considered a lukewarm follow-up to the barn-busting DS, though it eventually became a success in its own right. This was thanks to a glut of incredible titles, from Super Mario 3D Land and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds to more niche fare like Kid Icarus: Uprising and Fire Emblem Awakening. The portable console also had a robust lineup of online exclusive titles, like Pushmo and BoxBoy!.

The Wii U, on the other hand, never quite found a significant audience and is largely considered one of Nintendo’s biggest missteps. It was the next home console after the culture-defining Wii, so it had large shoes to fill. However, the company went with a name that was an absolute nightmare for the Wii’s core audience of casual gamers. Was it an accessory to the original Wii? A new console? A crappy iPad? Those of us glued to gaming media knew the answer, but the casuals never stood a chance.

There was also the console itself. The company never delivered a compelling use case for the “asymmetric gameplay” offered by the device. Simply put, the Wii U gave you two screens. There was the TV, of course, but also a touchscreen tablet. This was supposed to lead to unique gameplay mechanics that gave the person holding the tablet a different task than those holding traditional controllers, but only a few titles truly explored this concept.

Just like the 3DS, however, the Wii U was buoyed by a robust selection of first-party classics. I found the first-party offerings of the Wii era to be mostly underwhelming, with desperate attempts to shoehorn in finicky and gimmicky waggle. I still get panicked when remembering just how horrible it felt to fly Link around in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. The Wii U, on the other hand, brought Nintendo back to a novel concept called “just make good games.”

The console brought us Mario Kart 8, which is still the gold standard for digital kart racing, and the underrated Super Mario 3D World. There was also Super Mario Maker, a great Super Smash Bros. title, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Pikmin 3 and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, among many others.

Even if you never owned a Wii U, you’ve probably played some of these games. Nintendo knew the console itself was a flop, but the games were good. This led to numerous re-releases on the Switch. It’s worth noting that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was originally developed for the Wii U. Also, it had Miiverse! Nintendo, for the love of Bowser, bring back Miiverse. It was the only pure social network.

Of course, there’s a strong case to be made that both the design of the Wii U and its failure led to the Switch. Both devices allow for portable play, but the Wii U required people to be tethered to a bulky console. The Switch, on the other hand, is the (not bulky) console. Nintendo’s smash hybrid has sold 140 million units, as of December. The Wii U sold under 14 million devices throughout its lifespan.

Nintendo already shut down the online stores for the 3DS and Wii U last year, so this is the final goodbye. Luckily, speedrunners managed to actually beat a Super Mario Maker level that was long thought to be impossible just a few days ago. Life always finds a way. Sleep well, my two old friends.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nintendos-online-servers-for-wii-u-and-3ds-shut-down-today-183513670.html?src=rss

After nearly seven years of activity across PlayStation 4 and PS5, the PlayStation Tournaments platform is getting its first branded competition, and the name at the top of the screen is smothered in tomatillo-red chili salsa. The Chipotle Challenger Series featuring Tekken 8 will kick off on PS5 Tournaments with a qualifier round from April 15 to 26, open to anyone who wants to test their fighting-game skills — or just score some free snacks. All participants in the qualifier round will receive a code for free chips and guacamole from Chipotle. According to the company's official rules, the freebie must be redeemed alongside a full-priced entrée item, purchased online or in-app only. Also, the offer expires on May 31. But, hey, there's still a clear path to free chips and guac via Tekken 8 playtime here.

The Chipotle Challenger Series continues with the closed qualifier and finals on May 3 and 4. First place takes home $5,000 and a trip for two to Evo 2024 in Las Vegas from July 19 to 21, plus free Chipotle for a year. Looking closer, that offer "consists of Chipotle Rewards credits good for one free regular entrée item per week for a year, or a total of up to fifty-two regular entrée items," which actually sounds much healthier than literally eating Chipotle every day for a year like some of you weirdos were already fantasizing about. 

Second place gets $3,500, a trip for two to Evo, and a $300 Chipotle gift card. Third place receives $2,500 plus a $250 gift card. Monetary payouts stop at 16th place ($475), but 17th through 1,250th (!) place will be awarded a free Chipotle entrée code. 

There's also an official Tekken 8 Battle Bowl (which sounds like a just-fine chicken situation) that you can order from the Chipotle app or website to be automatically entered for a chance to win a Tekken 8 Premium Collector's Edition signed by director Katsuhiro Harada. This deal is live from April 8 to 16.

Technically, it feels possible to put together a whole-ass Chipotle order for free from these prizes, and the only requirement is that you play Tekken 8 through PlayStation Tournaments on PS5. You'll have to be better than 1,249 people to claim the full bounty, but that sounds worth a shot. Good luck, fighters.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/get-free-chipotle-chips-and-guac-by-playing-tekken-8-on-ps5-180239947.html?src=rss

Enlarge / The plague bacteria, Yersina pestis, is a close relative of the toxin-producing species studied here. (credit: Callista Images)

Life-forms with no brain are capable of some astounding things. It might sound like sci-fi nightmare fuel, but some bacteria can wage kamikaze chemical warfare.

Pathogenic bacteria make us sick by secreting toxins. While the release of smaller toxin molecules is well understood, methods of releasing larger toxin molecules have mostly eluded us until now. Researcher Stefan Raunser, director of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology, and his team finally found out how the insect pathogen Yersinia entomophaga (which attacks beetles) releases its large-molecule toxin.

They found that designated “soldier cells” sacrifice themselves and explode to deploy the poison inside their victim. “YenTc appears to be the first example of an anti-eukaryotic toxin using this newly established type of secretion system,” the researchers said in a study recently published in Nature.

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Fly Me To The Moon is an upcoming comedy-drama from Columbia Pictures and Apple that goes behind the scenes of NASA trying to improve its image while preparing for the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon. A trailer makes it seem like a lighthearted, fun time at the movies, though conspiracy theorists may have a field day with one of the key plot points.

Scarlett Johansson plays Kelly Jones, a PR expert who NASA brings in to improve public perception ahead of the launch. Along with butting heads with launch director Cole Davis (Channing Tatum) and turning the crew into global celebrities, Kelly is handed a particularly difficult task: to secretly create a fake version of the Moon landing, just in case the mission goes sideways. 

The rest of the cast, which includes Woody Harrelson, looks solid too. For one thing, the delightful Jim Rash (Community) plays the very much not Stanley Kubrick director of the phony Moon landing. The movie's director is Greg Berlanti, who was behind Love, Simon and a string of DC Comics TV shows.

Fly Me To The Moon will arrive in theaters on July 14, almost 55 years to the day after Apollo 11 launched.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fly-me-to-the-moon-trailer-plays-right-into-apollo-11-conspiracy-theorists-hands-174547851.html?src=rss

The Copilot chat feature now includes inline chat improvements, one in preview, along with commit message generation enhancements and workspace creation improvements.

Enlarge / Artistic rendition of a black hole merging with a neutron star. LIGO/VIRGO/KAGRA detected a merger involving a neutron star and what might be a very light black hole falling within the "mass gap" range. (credit: LIGO-India/ Soheb Mandhai)

The LIGO/VIRGO/KAGRA collaboration searches the universe for gravitational waves produced by the mergers of black holes and neutron stars. It has now announced the detection of a signal indicating a merger between two compact objects, one of which has an unusual intermediate mass—heavier than a neutron star and lighter than a black hole. The collaboration provided specifics of their analysis of the merger and the "mystery object" in a draft manuscript posted to the physics arXiv, suggesting that the object might be a very low-mass black hole.

LIGO detects gravitational waves via laser interferometry, using high-powered lasers to measure tiny changes in the distance between two objects positioned kilometers apart. LIGO has detectors in Hanford, Washington state, and in Livingston, Louisiana. A third detector in Italy, Advanced VIRGO, came online in 2016. In Japan, KAGRA is the first gravitational-wave detector in Asia and the first to be built underground. Construction began on LIGO-India in 2021, and physicists expect it will turn on sometime after 2025.

To date, the collaboration has detected dozens of merger events since its first Nobel Prize-winning discovery. Early detected mergers involved either two black holes or two neutron stars, but in 2021, LIGO/VIRGO/KAGRA confirmed the detection of two separate "mixed" mergers between black holes and neutron stars.

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