Category: Tech Trikes

Xbox is thinking about future hardware, and it might not be just another box connected to your TV. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer told Bloomberg that the team is considering its own gaming handheld – but that it will take years.

In an earlier interview with IGN, Spencer mentioned a hypothetical “Xbox Gaming Handheld PC Device”, which now appears to be in the early research and prototyping stage. The Xbox boss said that if Xbox designs a handheld console it would be important to include local play. Compared to existing devices like the Steam Deck, ROG Ally and Legion Go, it’s unclear what unique features the Xbox handheld could offer.

Amazon Haul will be the company’s new discount storefront designed to compete with Temu and Shein. It will be mobile-only and sell goods at “insanely low prices”. Unlike the fast pace of Amazon Prime, Amazon promises that its Haul orders will arrive in less than two weeks. Previously, CNBC mentioned that Amazon is exploring storefronts to sell goods directly from China to US customers.

The Lightfoot is a roughly $5,000 solar scooter built by San Francisco-based R&D outfit Otherlab. Two 120W panels mounted on either side will slowly charge a battery parked on the street or outside. Otherlab claims this passive solar charging will deliver three miles of charge per hour, or 18 miles of charge if left in daylight for a full day.

The ASUS Zenbook A14 feels extremely light, weighing between 2.2 and 2.4 pounds, and has a gorgeous 14-inch OLED screen and a nice array of ports (USB-C, USB-A and HDMI)! What more could you want in a MacBook Air competitor? After years of copying Apple’s MacBooks, ASUS has proven it can outdo Apple without resorting to gimmicks like dual screens or bright lights.

The Zenbook A14 is simply a compact laptop that feels great in your hands, thanks to ASUS’ unique CeraLumin case material. ASUS claims it can last up to 32 hours when playing video, which is way more than Apple’s MacBook Air’s estimate of 18 hours. It might seem strange that the least attractive laptop at CES 2025 is one of our favorites, but sometimes pure practicality can’t be denied.

AMD has confirmed that it’s laying off about four percent of its global workforce, according to reports from TechCrunch and others. It’s not entirely clear how many people will be affected by the move, or what departments the laid-off employees will be drawn from.

We can do some math, though. According to annual filings by AMD, the company had about 26,000 employees last year. Four percent of 26,000 equates to about 1,000 people. That’s a lot.

So that tells us why. You already know the answer. This is a bunch of corporate nonsense. “As part of aligning our resources with our biggest growth opportunities, we are taking a number of targeted steps,” an AMD spokesperson told CRN.

Don’t worry. The company also said it is “committed to treating impacted employees with respect and helping them during this transition.” Engadget reached out to AMD for more details on what that respect and help will be like. We’ll update this story if we find out anything.

This news comes after a fairly mixed Q3 earnings report. According to Wccftech, the company grew revenue and profit, but the gaming division saw a massive 69 percent drop year-over-year. The company has also struggled to compete with NVIDIA in the world of AI chips.

Experts still predict that AMD will earn around $33 billion in 2025, thanks to its upcoming next-generation GPUs. That’s not enough for investors, though, as that’s “only” an increase of around $7 billion compared to 2024. The company’s stock is down around four percent this year, and fell even more today. Capitalism demands massive and endless growth.

Rival (and sometimes best friend) Intel has faced similar challenges. The company announced more than 15,000 layoffs earlier this year.

AMD’s Ryzen AI Max chips came as a huge surprise at CES 2025. They’re basically super-powered versions of the company’s Ryzen AI hardware, with up to 16 CPU cores and 50 RDNA 3.5 graphics cores, plus up to 128GB of integrated RAM. AMD claims the Ryzen AI Max chips will deliver up to 2.6 times faster 3D rendering than Intel’s Core Ultra 9 288V, as well as up to 1.4 times better graphics performance.

Looking a little closer, you might think AMD was taking a little inspiration from Apple Silicon with its powerful CPU cores, graphics, and integrated memory. But according to VP Joe Macri, AMD was working in this direction long before Apple.

“We were building APUs [chips that combine CPUs and Radeon graphics] when Apple was using discrete GPUs. They were using our discrete GPUs. So I don’t give Apple credit for coming up with this idea.” AMD also had experience stuffing too much memory into its Instinct data center GPUs.

Still, Macri credits Apple with proving that you don’t need discrete graphics to sell people powerful computers. “Many people in the PC industry said, well, if you want graphics, it has to be discrete graphics because otherwise people will think it’s bad graphics,” he said. “Apple showed that consumers don’t care about what’s inside the box. They really care about what the box looks like. They care about the screen, the keyboard, the mouse. They care about what it does.”

BlueSky may still be the laggard in the race for an alternative to X, but the once Twitter-connected service is gaining momentum. The company said in an update that the app has passed the 15 million user mark after adding more than a million new users last week.

While BlueSky is still significantly smaller than Threads, its biggest rival with 275 million users, there are signs that Threads users are becoming increasingly curious about this new product.

“BlueSky” has been a trending topic on Threads in recent days and in-app search suggestions show there are more than 19,000 posts about “BlueSky.” BlueSky has also attempted to win over Threads users by posting regularly on the Meta-owned service in recent weeks.

This effort appears to be working. In September, Engadget noted, the service had about 9 million users. A month later, it neared 11 million. Its mobile app holds the top spot in Apple’s App Store, followed by Threads and ChatGPT. Its current success seems to have been driven, at least in part, by frustration with Elon Musk and X following the US presidential election.

A recent report from web analytics company SimilarWeb found that “more than 115,000 US web visitors deactivated their accounts” on November 7, “more than any previous day of Elon Musk’s tenure.” The report also mentions that “web traffic and daily active users for BlueSky increased dramatically in the week leading up to the election, and then increased again after election day,” with BlueSky seeing more web traffic than Threads. (Threads’ mobile usage, however, is still “far ahead” of BlueSky.)

“In the US, BlueSky received more web visits than Threads immediately following the election,” the report states. “For context, it’s important to note that both services are app-focused, even though they support a web user interface.”

For its part, BlueSky seems intent on differentiating itself from its larger, billionaire-controlled rivals. The company, which began as an internal project at Twitter before being spun off into an independent entity, has experimented with new features like custom feeds, user-created moderation services and “starter packs” for new users. “You’ve probably grown accustomed to being stuck in a single algorithm controlled by a small group, but that’s not the case anymore,” BlueSky COO Rose Wang shared in a video for new users on Tuesday.

“On BlueSky, there are about 50,000 different feeds… These feeds provide you with a comfortable place to meet people with similar interests. And you can actually make friends again, because you’re no longer tied to a dominant algorithm that promotes either the most polarizing posts or the biggest brands, and that’s BlueSky’s mandate.”

Google is adding some new features to Maps just in time for the holidays, including the ability to search for specific products right within the app. For example, if you need a sweater for your annual ugly sweater party, new clothes or some last-minute gifts, you can type the item into Maps’ search bar to bring up nearby stores where you can find what you need. From the results that pop up, you can select one of the options and then see directions. Google says you can search for a variety of items from Maps, such as electronics, household goods and even groceries.

The company has updated Maps to let you report and view delays affecting your transit lines, as well as show more details like alternate transit routes and subway station entrances. Maps will also show reports of weather-related disruptions like unplowed or flooded roads and areas with low visibility. In addition, Google is adding the ability to enter your vehicle’s dimensions to its built-in Maps app to show routes that don’t have bridges or tunnels you can’t cross. However, for now, these routes are only available on the 2024 Chevy Tahoe, Chevy Suburban, and GMC Yukon. The company says it will expand the feature’s capability to more vehicle models in the future.

If you’re driving an EV and looking at routes with charging stops on your phone, you can now send the route you planned to your car with built-in Google Maps. Finally, if you want to avoid congestion while out and about, you can check Maps’ popular times information to see traffic trends at specific times.

The ASUS Zenbook A14 feels impossibly light, weighing between 2.2 and 2.4 pounds, and has a gorgeous 14-inch OLED screen and a nice array of ports (USB-C, USB-A and HDMI)! What more could you want in a MacBook Air competitor? After years of copying Apple’s MacBooks, ASUS has proven it can outperform Apple without resorting to gimmicks like dual screens or bright lights.

The Zenbook A14 is a compact little laptop that feels great in your hands, thanks to ASUS’ unique CeraAluminum case material. ASUS claims it can last up to 32 hours when playing video, which is far more than the 18 hours Apple claims for the MacBook Air. It might seem strange that the least bright laptop at CES 2025 is one of our favorites, but sometimes pure practicality can’t be denied.

We’re always on the lookout for brand new, never-before-seen stuff at CES, but sometimes it’s the clever reinterpretations of existing technology that catch our attention. Such is the case with the Backup by Biolite. It’s essentially a cross between a universal power supply (UPS) and a whole-house backup battery, but improves upon both.