Tag: author_name|Mat Smith

The Morning After: iPhone sales are up 50 percent year over year

The curse of buying new tech at the wrong time will get us all. In the last year, I’ve seen fellow Engadget employees buy a Nintendo Switch just before the OLED model broke cover, take the plunge with the iPhone SE just before the iPhone 12 mini was unveiled and…

Read More

The Morning After: Lucasfilm hired a YouTuber with deepfake skills

The power of deepfake tech to hone digital effects into incredibly realistic video can’t be underestimated. We’ve seen a top-level Tom Cruise impersonator transformed with a high-level deepfake artist, and now companies — and film studios — are taking notice. Luke Skywalker's CGI face in The Mandalorian was met with…

Read More

The Morning After: LG adds a mic and speaker to its high-tech air-purifying mask

Remember the high-tech face masks teased during the relatively early days of the COVID-19 pandemic? Not many have made it into stores (or on to our faces) just yet, but that’s given companies even more time to build in upgrades. Like LG, which has used the Tokyo Olympics (and the…

Read More

The OnePlus Nord 2 5G makes another good argument for ignoring expensive smartphones

OnePlus has an unusual problem. It’s making very good flagship smartphones these days — the OnePlus 9 Pro is an incredibly good phone — but at the same time, it’s still chasing its status as flagship phone killer. The company’s Nord series was aimed at undercutting the expensive devices offered…

Read More

The Morning After: How and where to watch the Japan Olympics

The Olympics, a year late, are here. The official start is the opening ceremony on Friday, July 23rd, at 7 AM ET, but a few events have already kicked off. The softball and women’s soccer competitions began yesterday, but the first games aired Tuesday night on the east coast. Softball,…

Read More

The Morning After: Blue Origin’s crew makes it to space

Blue Origin made it beyond the edge of Earth’s atmosphere. Jeff Bezos' space company has successfully completed its first crewed spaceflight, taking the boss himself, his brother, aviation pioneer Wally Funk and (son of) paying customer 18-year-old Oliver Daemen. Blue Origin After reaching 62 miles above Earth, the capsule made…

Read More