April 8, 2024 | View in browser 

 

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IN THIS ISSUE

 

🚗 Tesla boss reveals date for robotaxi unveil
📱 Entry-level iPad and iPad Mini refresh latest
🎧 Spatial audio via headphones
🎬 Weekend box office winner

🕹️ Retro game emulator boost

 
 

COMPUTING

 

Tesla to unveil a robotaxi this summer

 

It'll give the automaker a chance to compete with the current leader in the robotaxi sector, Alphabet-owned Waymo 

 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said the automaker will unveil its first robotaxi this summer. In a message on social media platform X, Musk said, “Tesla Robotaxi unveil 8/8,” without offering further details.

Tesla’s EVs already offer driver-assist capabilities, and Musk previously said that Tesla would one day be able to drive without any human intervention at all. He’s also said that a Tesla robotaxi could allow owners to deploy their car to earn money when they’re not using it, though regulatory hurdles suggest such a scenario is a ways off.

Musk’s message emerged when Apple gave notice to 614 employees after shuttering its own driverless car project earlier this year.

 
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MORE COMPUTING

 
  • OpenAI and Google reportedly trained their AI models on text transcribed from YouTube videos
  • Intel’s new CPU feature boosted my performance by 26% — but it still needs work
  • How to try out Apple's Vision Pro headset yourself
 
 

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MOBILE

 

Refreshed entry-level iPad and iPad Mini should be coming ... later

 

It looks like a long wait for updates to the cheaper tablets, while the new Air and Pro should be here next month

 

New iPad Air and iPad Pro tablets are expected to launch in the second week of May. As for updates to the more budget-friendly entry-level iPad and iPad Mini, the wait looks to be longer.

Apple is working on new versions of these devices, but they "won’t be coming before the end of the year at the earliest," prominent Apple tipster Mark Gurman said in his latest Power On newsletter.

And don’t expect any eye-popping improvements. “The new downscale iPad will probably end up being a cost-reduced version of the 10th generation model from 2022, while the iPad Mini update won’t include much more than a processor upgrade,” Gurman said ...

 
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MORE MOBILE

 
  • I wore a smartwatch that’s unlike any you’ve seen before
  • Last chance to submit a claim for Verizon’s $100 million settlement
  • Snapchat makes changes to new ranking feature after parent concerns
 
 

AUDIO / VIDEO

 

Spatial audio via headphones: how science crams 9 speakers and a subwoofer inside your head

 

If spatial audio formats like Dolby Atmos normally use a bunch of speakers arranged around your room, how can you hear it using headphones? 

 

Spatial audio is having a moment. While the goal of offering a more immersive, 3D-like listening experience may have been born in movie theaters, much of the conversation around spatial audio has switched to music — specifically, the relatively new availability of Dolby Atmos Music tracks via music streaming services.

Spatial audio’s appeal is no mystery. When you combine one of the first novel ways of listening to music since stereo — coupled with Apple’s prodigious marketing might — you get a lot of people wanting to try it.

Something of a mystery, however, is whether there’s a difference between spatial audio from one streaming service to another ...

 
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MORE AUDIO / VIDEO

 
  • LG's new webOS on its latest TVs offers these 3 big upgrades
  • World War II veterans talk to museum visitors with video AI
  • Sony WH-1000XM6: What we want Sony’s next headphones to deliver
 
 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

Box office: Godzilla x Kong stays top

 

Notching up $361M in ticket sales globally in the last two weeks, Godzilla x Kong might beat the $529M global take of 2014’s Godzilla

 

Legendary/Warner Bros' Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire fought off Universal's Monkey Man to take the top spot at the box office this weekend, Deadline reported. The MonsterVerse mash-up earned $31.7 million across Friday and Saturday, down 60% on its opening weekend.

Monkey Man, which Universal picked up after Netflix dropped an initial deal, took $10.1 million, while Sony's Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire placed third with a $9 million take and a running total of $88.8 million across its three weekends.

20th Century Studios' horror revival The First Omen took $8.4 million on its opening weekend, described by Deadline as "well below projections"...

 
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MORE ENTERTAINMENT

 
  • How to watch a live stream of Monday's total solar eclipse
  • Drama that changed British legal history comes to Masterpiece on PBS
  • F1 ace says he regrets turning down Top Gun role
 
 

GAMING

 

Apple changes App Store rules to allow retro game emulators

 

But the company tells developers to be wary of copyright rules 

 

An update by Apple to its App Store rules paves the way for emulators for retro console games, including an option to offer downloadable titles, TechCrunch reported. 

"Android users can already access a ton of emulators to play old classics on their devices," TechCrunch noted, adding that Apple's update "will probably encourage some of those developers to bring their emulators to the App Store."

But the tech giant warned developers keen on bringing retro game emulators to the App Store that they need to follow copyright rules. That means it may come down to the companies that own the rights to the retro games to recreate the titles for Apple's online marketplace rather than developers working solo ...

 
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MORE GAMING

 
  • Unopened NES games selling for ridiculous prices online
  • 'Young people don't vibe with fighting games as much because they don't have teammates you can blame'
  • I smelled the world of Dragon’s Dogma 2 and it was putrid
 

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