Apple surprised us last Wednesday with two new iPads. We’ve spent a bit of timeWith the new entry level iPad ($449), which has been redesigned with flat edges, USB C and a Touch ID enabled power button. The iPad Air also includes a landscape-oriented selfie camera. Inside, there’s an A14 chip, which might not match the M1 in the iPad Air (let alone the M2 in the iPad Pro new), but it’s still a powerful enough processor.
Engadget
So far, Engadget’s Nathan Ingraham is pleasantly impressed, although there are other corners cut – it still only supports the first-generation Apple Pencil. Stay tuned for our full review and verdict. You can read our first impressions of the product here.
– Mat Smith
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These are the biggest stories that you may have missed
Two agents might have attempted to bribe an official of the US law enforcement agency.
Merrick Garland, US Attorney General, stated Wednesday that two spy from the People’s Republic of China had attempted to interfere with an investigation by the US Department of Justice in the case against Huawei. According to a BloombergAccording to reports, Guochun Wang and Zheng Wang worked for Huawei. Two agents tried to bribe a law enforcement officer to provide them with details about the Justice Department investigation. They allegedly tried to get information about witnesses, evidence, and additional charges against Huawei starting in 2017.
Apple One bundles are also more expensive.
Apple has increased the price of Apple Music and Apple TV+. Music costs $11 per monthly for individual plans in the US (up from $10), or $109 annually. The Family plan is now $17 per month, instead of $15. TV+ sees the largest relative jump — the price has increased from $5 per month to $7, and from $50 per year to $69. Apple has increased the prices of its multi-service One packages. An Individual plan costs $17 per monthly, up from $15 earlier.
Scientists have converted data from three Swarm satellites in to ethereal audio.
NASA
European Space Agency (ESA), released audio of how our planet’s magnet field sounds. The magnetic field protects us from cosmic radiation, charged particles from solar wind and other harmful effects. But it also makes us feel uneasy. Scientists at the Technical University of Denmark transformed data from three ESA Swarm satellites into sound. This sounds like both the magnetic field or a solar storm.
There’s a lot packed into it.
Urtopia’s mission seemed pretty clear, to make the most feature-rich, connected bike the world has ever seen. The ebike comes with a 4G SIM and Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, fingerprint reader, and even collision detection mmWave sensors. However, when we tested an early prototype, we didn’t get to see how all that came together, software-wise. Now we had the opportunity to test the bike and its companion app. You should keep a log in the app of every ride, thanks to the 4G radio. We say “should” as it often didn’t work for Engadget’s James Trew.
Don’t spend a fortune on an autonomous dirt sucker.
This is a significant improvement on the options available just a few short years ago. Anything below $300 is considered cheap in this industry. You might be surprised at how many options there are. And if you’re new to the world of robot vacuums, you may find that one of these budget gadgets does everything you expected and more. We’ve got our favorite picks from the likes of Roomba, Shark and even Anker.
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