Amazon’s kid-centric Glow video call device is now widely available in the US

Last year, Amazon revealed one of the more original products we’ve seen, the kid-focused Glow that does video calls and projects a touch-sensitive play space onto a flat surface. Now, the company has announced that the Glow is available for all customers in the US, complete with a 1-year subscription for books, visual arts activities, play options and more. 

The Amazon Glow combines an 8-inch LCD teleconferencing display with a projector that creates a 19-inch, touch-sensitive interactive space. Parents and others can connect to the device via the Glow mobile app that lets them speak with kids and interact with the projected play space remotely. In the original announcement video, for example, Amazon shows kids doing puzzles, drawing and playing reading games, while parents and grandparents are able to see what the kids are seeing. 

“We know a majority of parents say it’s challenging for their kids to stay engaged on traditional video calls, and, let’s be honest, stay in one place,” said Glow GM Joerg Tewes. “For parents who are miles or minutes away from home for work, Glow provides a new way to say good morning or good night to keep those important relationships strong.”

The device comes with “nearly 100 games and visual arts activities” through Amazon Kids+, Amazon said. Those include Chess, Checkers, go Fish, Whac-A-Mole and others. It also includes thousands of books, different play options (remote or side-by-side), the ability to interact with Disney characters (Anna and Elsa, Woody and Buzz, etc.) and more. Parents, friends and others can use the Glow app on their existing Android and iOS smartphones/tablets or on the 2021 Fire HD 10 tablets. 

Glow looks like a pretty cool product, but it isn’t exactly cheap. You can now pick one up at Amazon, BestBuy.com and Target.com starting at $300, with a mat and mat case plus a 1-year Amazon Kids+ subscription included. It’s also available with a Fire HD 10 tablet for $380.  

Intel says its new 5.5GHz i9-12900KS is the world’s fastest desktop processor

Intel has unveiled the Core i9-12900KS “Special Edition” CPU claiming it’s “the world’s fastest desktop processor.” Like the Core i9-12900K, it comes with 16-cores, including eight Performance cores and eight Efficient cores, along with 24 threads and 30MB of L3 cache. However, Intel boosted the clock speed from 5.2GHz to 5.5GHz (on up to two cores) by bumping the power from 125 to 150 watts. 

AMD recently said that its $449 Ryzen 7 5800X3D was the world’s fastest gaming processor, claiming that its 3D V-Cache would allow it to beat the Core i9-12900K. However, Intel has a good case that its latest model is now on top, as it has a much higher maximum clock speed (5.5GHz compared to 4.5GHz).

We’ll have to wait for benchmark tests to see whether Intel is right, and the lead might change hands again when AMD releases its much anticipated Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 desktop chips in the second half of 2022. It would be a bit of a pyrrhic victory for end users, however, as the Core i9-12900KS will cost (at least) $739 when it arrives on April 5th — nearly $300 more than the AMD model. That’s a pretty high price to pay for bragging rights, particularly when they could be short lived. 

Amazon Games chief Mike Frazzini is leaving the company

Amazon Game Studio head and longtime employee Mike Frazzini is stepping down, he announced in a LinkedIn post. Frazzini cited the desire to spend more time with family and the fact that the studio is finally having some success. “While there’s never really a perfect time to step away from a great role, now is a good time,” he wrote. “We’ve launched two top 10 games in the past six months, and have a growing portfolio of promising new games in the pipeline.”

Amazon Games has struggled over the past few years, notably with the cancellation of its Lord of the Rings MMO and fiasco with its first AAA game, Crucible. The company was also criticized for its policy of claiming ownership of employees’ personal games that one engineer called “draconian.” One former Game Studios manager said some of Amazon’s issues may have come about because Frazzini had no previous experience in gaming, according to the same Bloomberg report. 

However, the company has had hits of late with New World, one of 2021’s biggest money makers on Steam. It has also had ongoing success as the publisher of Lost Ark, made by South Korean developer Smilegate RPG. Frazzini didn’t say what he planned to do next. 

Apple’s AirPods Max headphones fall to $439 at Amazon

Apple’s AirPods Max headphones offer excellent sound, solid active noise cancellation (ANC) and good battery life, but the regular $549 price is a bit hard to swallow. Now, you can pick a pair up at Amazon for just $439, or $110 (20 percent) off. That’s close to the lowest price we’ve seen at Amazon, and you can choose between three colors: Sky Blue, Silver and Pink.

Buy Apple AirPods Max at Amazon – $439

The AirPods Max achieved a solid 84 Engadget review score and made our latest list of favorite headphones, thanks to their high sound quality, effective noise-cancellation and reliable controls. They offer a uniquely Apple-esque design, and despite being slightly heavier than Sony’s WH-1000XM4 cans, are comfortable to wear. Once you get used to it, the rotating crown makes it easy to adjust sound.

Audio quality is more natural than other headphones we’ve tried with bass that’s accurate and not overpowering. Sony’s WH-1000XM4 headphones have more effective ANC, but the AirPods Max come close. Meanwhile, the Transparency Mode lets you quickly disable ANC if you need to hear what’s going on. The biggest drawback is the lack of lossless audio support, but they work great with Dolby Atmos surround sound on most Apple devices. 

The AirPods Max are ideal if you’re in the Apple ecosystem, with the H1 chip letting you quickly switch between an iPhone and a Mac, for example. There’s no question that they’re very expensive at the regular $549 price, so Amazon’s latest discount presents a good buying opportunity if you’ve been eyeing a pair. And if you’ve been looking for wireless earphones rather than headphones, Apple’s third-generation AirPods are still on sale for $150, a savings of $29 and near their lowest price ever. 

Buy AirPods (3rd gen) at Amazon – $150

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Apple becomes the first streamer to win a Best Picture Oscar with ‘CODA’

Three years and three days after it was first unveiled, Apple TV+ has captured the first ever Best Picture Oscar for a streaming service with CODA. The film also took a historical win for Best Supporting Actor, as Troy Kotsur became the first Deaf male actor to win an Oscar. Writer and director Sian Heder also won for Best Adapted Screenplay. 

The film, with a mostly Deaf cast, follows Ruby (played Emilia Jones), a high school student who navigates life as the only hearing member of a Deaf family in Gloucester, Massachusetts. “This is a really big moment for the Deaf community. It’s a really big moment for the disability community,” said Heder in a backstage ABC interview, via an ASL interpreter, as Variety reported. “Marlee Matlin won an Oscar 35 years ago, and not that much has changed in Hollywood, so I want to thank the Academy for making that change. Let this one be the first of many, many films to come out of this beautiful community.”

Apple paid $25 million for the distribution rights to the film, which made a limited theatrical run and is currently streaming on Apple TV+. It beat out Netflix’s The Power of the Dog, which was another favorite in that category.

After a record 27 nominations, Netflix didn’t go away empty-handed, though. Jane Campion took a historic Best Director Oscar for The Power of the Dog, becoming only the third woman to win the award. (Chloé Zhao took the prize last year for Nomadland, while Katheryn Bigelow previously won for The Hurt Locker.) The Power of the Dog was nominated for 12 Oscars, including in the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor/Actress categories, but Campion was the only winner. 

Greig Fraser wins the Oscar for Best Cinematography for
Brian Snyder / reuters

Sci-fi fared particularly well at this year’s Oscars. Dune, released simultaneously in the US on HBO Max and in theaters, won no less than six Academy Awards. The highlight was Greig Fraser’s win for Best Cinematography, presented live during the telecast (above). However, the film’s other awards were presented prior to the ceremony for the first time in Oscar history, something decried by several attendees including Steven Spielberg. They include wins for Best Production Design (Patrice Vermette, Zsuzsanna Sipod), Best Film Editing (Joe Walker), Best Sound (Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill, Ron Bartlett), Best Visual Effects (Paul Lambert) and Best Original Score (Hans Zimmer).

Dune doesn’t count as a streaming release, though, nor do others like Disney’s Encanto, which won Best Animated Feature. Overall, streaming films fared poorer than last year, taking four statues compared to seven at the 2021 Oscar ceremonies.

Google is reportedly planning a Nest Hub that features a detachable tablet

Google is working on a new Nest Hub with a removable tablet that’s due to be released in 2022, according to a report from 9to5Google. The screen could be detached from the hub/speaker base, then presumably be used like any other tablet. The idea would make a lot of sense in terms of boosting Nest functionality, especially since Google recently made the 2nd-gen Nest screen more tablet-like with a new shortcut launcher for web apps and games. 

It’s not yet clear which operating system the device would run, as the 2nd-gen Nest Hub runs the lightweight Google Cast system, and the original Nest Hub was recently updated to Google’s mysterious Fuchsia OS. However, a detachable tablet would likely have the most functionality with Android. As 9to5Google points out, Lenovo offers an Android tablet that docks to a speaker bar, runs Alexa and sells for $270. 

The latest 2nd-gen Nest Hub ($100) and Nest Hub Max ($230) come with 7-inch and 10-inch screens, respectively. Both offer features like sleep tracking, media playback and, of course, control of connected home devices. The Nest Hub Max also comes with a camera that allows for video calls (Duo only) and lets you use it as a Nest camera. The new Nest Hub with a detachable tablet will reportedly launch in 2022, but until it’s official, take this rumor with a megadose of salt. 

Apple’s 10.2-inch iPad with 256GB storage falls to a new Amazon low

With an improved camera, boosted performance and excellent battery life, Apple’s 2021 256GB 10.2-inch iPad is already a solid deal at the regular $479 price. However, you can now pick one up at Amazon in silver or space gray for $429, an all-time low and a full $20 less than the lowest price we’ve seen so far. 

Buy 10.2-inch 256GB iPad at Amazon – $429

Sure, the 2021 iPad has rocked the same design for quite some time now, but that also means Apple has had a long time to polish and refine it. At the same time, there are some significant improvements. The wide-angle front camera works better for video calls, performance gets a big boost thanks to the A13 Bionic chip, and it delivers a solid 10-plus hours of battery life. It even has a headphone jack, and best of all, it’s relatively cheap compared to other iPad models. 

The drawbacks are the lack of a USB-C port, a rather stodgy design (those thick bezels) and no second-gen Pencil support — for that, you’ll need an iPad Air, mini, or Pro. But most of us use an iPad for browsing the web, reading and watching video content. The 256GB model is a better choice than the 64GB version for things like that, so the $50 discount makes it an easy choice. 

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‘Mystery Science Theater 3000’ is back on a dedicated streaming platform

The world never run out of bad ‘B’ movies to mock, apparently, because Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) is back for a 13th season, Variety has reported. Thanks to a Kickstarter campaign last year that raised $6.52 million, a full 13-episode season of the series will arrive on a dedicated streaming platform called Gizmoplex starting on May 6th.

As usual, some ordinary humans have been kidnapped by mad scientists (played by Felicia Day, Patton Oswalt and Mary Jo Pehl) and are forced to watch some terrible B-movies. To survive the process, they create companion robots to help provide a continuous stream of taunting and jokes throughout the entire running length of the films. 

This year there will be three hosts: Jonah Heston, Emily Connor, and original host Joel Robinson. They’ll “be forced to endure some of the cheesiest movies ever to appear on MST3K, including our first-ever Halloween special, our first-ever 3D movie, and a holiday special finale so big it’ll take all three hosts to riff it,” according to the team. The B-movies on the slate include Robot Wars, Santo in the Treasure of Dracula and The Million Eyes of Sumuru. 

The show was created by Joel Hodgson and debuted in 1988. It ran for 10 seasons on Comedy Central and the Sci-Fi Channel until 1999, and was later revived by Netflix in 2017 for two seasons, following another Kickstarter campaign. However, Netflix declined to pick it up for a third season. 

The latest revival will thus air independently on a dedicated MST3K platform called Gizmoplex, which offers a website and apps (iOS, Android, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, and Amazon FireTV). It’ll premiere on May 6th with three episodes released daily from Friday to Sunday. After that, new episodes and one of 12 shorts will arrive every two weeks. The platform will also offer classic MST3K episodes from season 1-10, and for a limited time, they’ll be free and ad-free.

If you want the new episodes, though, you’ll have to sign up (unless you pledged support on Kickstarter). Individual episodes will cost $10, a three-month pass is $50, and a full season from May 22 to February 23 is $135. The latter includes a digital download of season 13. 

Kobo’s Libra 2 e-reader is $20 off right now

We already liked Kobo’s Libra 2 e-reader at the full $180 price, thanks to the physical buttons, high-resolution e-Ink display and support for multiple formats. Now, we’re seeing the first good discount on it, making it all the more attractive. You can pick one up at Amazon for $160, for a savings of $20 or 11 percent.

Buy Kobo Libra 2 at Amazon – $160

The Libra 2 features a large “chin” that houses a pair of physical page buttons, a feature that’s also available on the Kindle Oasis, but for a lot more money. We found that the physical buttons stop hand cramping because it’s easy to switch from one hand to another.

The 7-inch E-Ink Carta 1200 touchscreen is sharp and easy on the eyes. The “ComfortLight Pro” automatically adjusts the brightness and color temperature to match the room, and becomes less blue as the day goes on to help keep you calm before bedtime. It can charge up in a couple of hours and go for days at a time, is waterproof for use in the tub or pool, lets you save articles to Pocket and supports more file types than Kindle.

Finally, the Libra 2 includes Bluetooth functionality, letting you connect a pair of headphones and listen to audiobooks. As for drawbacks? The lack of a plastic cover means that crumbs or particles can get trapped between the screen and bezel, and some users have noticed hiccups while trying to use the highlighting feature. Still, it’s far and away one of the best eReaders out there and a very attractive option at this price.

If you’re looking for a more basic reader, or want to stick with Amazon’s ecosystem, don’t forget that the Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle are still on sale as well, for $105 and $55, respectively. You’ll also find the corresponding Kids tablets for $115 and $65. 

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GIF inventor Stephen Wilhite has died

GIF inventor Stephen Wilhite has died from COVID-19 at the age of 74 with his wife Kathaleen at his bedside, NPR has reported. He worked at CompuServe when he developed the “Graphics Interchange Format,” designed to allow photo transfers over slow modem connections. GIFs have since become synonymous with short meme videos, regardless of how you pronounce it (though it’s “JIF” with a soft “G,” according to Wilhite himself). 

Wilhite invented the GIF in 1987 virtually on his own, according to his spouse. It was designed as an “exchange and display mechanism for graphic images” at a time when internet speeds were glacial compared to today. “He actually did that at home and brought it into work after he perfected it,” Kathaleen told The Verge. “He would figure out everything privately in his head and then go to town programming it on the computer.”

With limitations like 256 colors per animation, the format could easily have died out a long time ago. It had another trick, though — it was designed by Wilhite to store multiple frames, making it natural for short animations. It took on a life of its own after AOL purchased CompuServe and let the patent expire, particularly with artists and Tumblr users, according to a Daily Dot explainer.

Besides developing GIFs, Wilhite made other key contributions to CompuServe that helped it become the internet juggernaut of its time. “I greatly admired his intelligence and perseverance as he consistently created software products that were woven into CompuServe’s tapestry of offerings for corporate, hobbyist, and home consumers,” said co-worker Ty Wait on Wilhite’s obituary page. 

Wilhite retired in 2000 to pursue his hobbies and interests, including travel and model trains. He always came back to his first love of programming, however — he was still doing that just weeks before he was struck ill with COVID, Kathaleen told NPR. “”He was probably one of the kindest, humble men you’ve ever met,” she said. “I’ve been reading about [the responses online] all afternoon, and I can’t even tell you how it comforts you.”