Category: Technica Aquarius

Enlarge / The 2nd Gen Nest Hub. (credit: Corey Gaskin)

Google’s second-generation Nest Hub smart display is a year old, so it’s time to wonder if a new hardware release is around the corner. 9to5Google has a new rumor to consider: Google is “working on a new Nest Hub for 2022 with a dockable tablet form factor where the screen detaches from a base/speaker.” The site didn’t provide further details, but the idea would fit in Google’s recent product plan.

Since its inception, Google Assistant hardware has essentially copied Amazon’s Echo line. The original Google Home speaker released two years after the Amazon Echo. The Home Mini came out a year and a half after the Echo Dot. The Google Home Hub smart display hit the market a year after the Echo Show. Google Assistant smart clocks launched a year and a half after the Echo Spot. The lack of hardware innovation from Google isn’t a huge deal since Google is generally considered to have a better voice command system, but it’s pretty clear where Google goes shopping for a product roadmap.

And, of course, Amazon has a whole line of tablets that turn into smart displays. In 2018, the company built smart display functionality into Fire OS, Amazon’s fork of Android. Whenever you stick an Amazon tablet into one of the official docks, it automatically transitions into smart display mode. Google experimented with an “ambient mode” for Android phones a year and a half after Amazon’s launch (Google’s timing is remarkably consistent), but the feature was initially only available on specific third-party phones. Ambient mode did not make it to devices like the Pixel 6. The feature also doesn’t make much sense on phones, which generally aren’t readable from across the room. Smart displays typically are. A tablet ambient mode would have been better, but Google’s launch in 2019 was during a dead period for Android tablets.

Enlarge / Don’t let GT7‘s grind rain on your parade, the economy is being fixed. (credit: Sony)

When Gran Turismo 7 launched earlier this month, it was no surprise that the game’s economy was not exactly forgiving. But displeasure among players boiled over a couple of weeks later after a bungled update took down the game servers—and therefore basically the entire game—for more than a day.

Now, the head of Polyphony Digital, Kazunori Yamauchi, has published a post at the PlayStation blog to apologize to players and let them know the studio has been listening:

I would like to apologize for the frustration and confusion caused last week with our patch updates which resulted in not only a server outage but also adjustments to the in-game economy which were made without a clear explanation to our community.

Every player who had a copy of the game by the time the post went live in the early hours of Friday morning will, at some point in the very near future, find an extra million in-game credits in their account as a goodwill gesture.

Enlarge / The device has a touchscreen instead of an integrated keyboard and touchpad. (credit: Scott Yu-Jan/YouTube)

Measuring 7.7 x 7.7 x 1.4 inches and weighing 2.6 pounds, the Mac Mini is more portable than most desktops. But to use it at, for example, a café, you also need to carry some sort of display. Instead of relegating desktop-level work to, well, the top of the desk, one maker has taken matters into his own hands. The “Portable Mac Mini,” as he calls it, is supposed to make it easier to work with the Mac Mini anywhere. It also creates a pseudo-Mac laptop with a handy feature that Apple doesn’t offer in its real clamshells.

Although the Portable Mac Mini that YouTuber Scott Yu-Jan created has a display you can angle and folds shut like a laptop, it has to be plugged in, and it doesn’t have a built-in physical keyboard.

However, the computer does have a screen attached: a 2021 iPad Mini. The tablet brings touch functionality to the Mac Mini via Duet Display, an app that basically turns iPads or iPhones into second screens. Apple doesn’t make any MacBooks with touchscreens, so the result here is a maker-made exclusive.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | SimpleImages)

European regulators have agreed on a Digital Markets Act that would impose a variety of new requirements on Big Tech companies classified as “gatekeepers.” Final votes on the legislation are still pending.

“The text provisionally agreed by Parliament and Council negotiators targets large companies providing so-called ‘core platform services’ most prone to unfair business practices, such as social networks or search engines, with a market capitalization of at least 75 billion euro or an annual turnover of 7.5 billion,” a European Parliament announcement said yesterday. “To be designated as ‘gatekeepers,’ these companies must also provide certain services such as browsers, messengers, or social media, which have at least 45 million monthly end users in the EU and 10,000 annual business users.”

Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook owner Meta, and Microsoft would apparently have to comply with the new rules. “The Digital Markets Act puts an end to the ever-increasing dominance of Big Tech companies. From now on, they must show that they also allow for fair competition on the Internet,” said Andreas Schwab, a member of the European Parliament from Germany and rapporteur for Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee.