Yesterday, Google officially released version 100 of its Chrome browser, and today it’s following suit by releasing version 100 of Chrome OS. While there weren’t a lot of big features for Chrome 100 besides a new icon, the update for Chrome OS brings a handful of changes worth noting. Probably the most significant is a redesigned app launcher experience. When you press the “everything” button (where caps lock is on most keyboards) or click the circle icon on the lower left side of the screen, the new launcher pulls up in a window on the left side of your display rather than covering all your open windows. Longtime Chrome OS users might remember that this was how the launcher behaved years ago.
Besides that visual change, Google has made it easier to organize the apps you have installed. You can choose to sort them alphabetically or by color, and new apps you add will stick to that organization scheme. From a functional perspective, Google has also improved search results that come up when you type in the launcher, automatically pulling up information for your query without having to open more details in a browser window. The search field also can look through all your open tabs if you’re trying to find a specific site you had open.
The next new feature is purely for fun — the camera app can now create GIFs. When you pop open the camera, you can choose to record a five-second video that’ll automatically be turned into a GIF. Once that’s done, you can share it to pretty much any app on your Chromebook or send it to an Android phone using the nearby share feature.
Google also improved the dictation feature on Chromebooks. Previously, you could dictate text into any text field on your device, but today Google is adding some editing features. Chrome OS now recognizes commands like “delete” to remove the last letter or “move to the next character” to adjust where your cursor is. Asking for “help” will also pull up a list of commands that you can use if you’re not sure how to accomplish a specific task with your voice.
As is usually the case with most Chrome OS updates, these aren’t exactly earth-shattering updates. But as Google now updates Chrome OS and the Chrome browser every four weeks, they’re not all going to bring big features. But there are still a few quality of life improvements worth checking out once the update hits your device — I’ve always found managing the apps in my launcher a bit cumbersome, so I’m hoping today’s update makes things a bit better.
Roli has been building unconventional musical instruments for nearly a decade now — the company’s first product, the rubber-keyed Seaboard piano was first revealed back in 2013. It was originally released as a full size, 88-key piano, but a few years later Roli unveiled the smaller and more affordable Seaboard Rise. But since then Roli has mostly focused on other pursuits. That changes today as the company has just announced the Seaboard Rise 2, a totally revamped version of the older keyboard that is up for pre-order today.
Probably the most significant change here is a new “Keywave 2” playing surface that has what Roli calls “precision frets.” To explain what’s different here, you first need to know how the Seaboard differs from a traditional piano keyboard. Instead of having totally distinct keys for each of the 12 chromatic tones, the Seaboard keys are designed so that you can slide between them seamlessly. Those keys were undoubtably the biggest differentiator between the Seaboard and a traditional keyboard, as they let users easily bend pitches, add vibrato and generally conjure up sounds that are trickery to pull off with normal keys.
That’s all well and good, but not having distinct keys made it challenging to hit a note right in tune, a pretty major concern when you’re trying to play the Seaboard in a more traditional fashion. Roli says that the newly designed keywaves (the term it uses for its version of traditional keys) have been tested to be more precise and intuitive, letting traditional keyboard players have an easier time picking up the instrument and translating their skills to it. Of course, it’s the kind of thing that people will need to test out in person to verify Roli’s claims, but it’s good to note that they’re taking this into account with the new model.
Beyond the new playing surface, the Seaboard Rise 2 has a redesigned aluminum chassis that comes in a “platinum blue” color scheme; from the pics, it looks like a classy dark gray. Either way, Roli says the new casing is more durable than before, something that touring musicians should appreciate. Unsurprisingly, the Seaboard Rise 2 includes USB-C and MIDI ports for connectivity.
Roli
Finally, the keyboard includes several different software suites. The company’s own Equator2 MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE) suite, which costs $249 on its own, is bundled alongside the more basic Roli Studio. The “lite” version of Ableton Live is included as well.
The initial run of the Seaboard Rise 2 goes up for pre-order today, priced at $1,399. The Seaboard Rise 2 comes in a four-octave, 49-key version only. The original Seaboard Rise also had a more affordable 25-key model, but Roli says that the 49-key option was by far the more popular, so they’re only going with that one this time out. As for when it’ll be available, Roli says that batches of keyboards will ship in order of when they’re pre-ordered, and the first group will ship in October.
The Seaboard Rise 2 is also notable as its the first hardware product Roli is releasing since the company filed for administration in the UK, a process similar to filing for bankruptcy in the US. The company reorganized under the brand name Luminary Roli and said at the time it would focus on beginners rather than professional musicians. The launch of the Seaboard Rise 2, definitely a product focused on professionals or advanced music enthusiasts, seems to contradict that a bit. But, Roli still offers its light-up Lumi keyboard, which was originally released alongside software that helps teach users how to play the piano. The company also offers a more advanced model called the Lumi Studio. Regardless of the Seaboard Rise 2 not exactly being a tool for beginners, it’s probably a good sign for Roli’s future that it’s releasing its first new product since filing for administration.
If you were looking forward to playing the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild this year, we have some bad news. Nintendo just announced in a short video that the game will be delayed and the company is now targeting a spring 2023 release after previously saying the game would come out in 2022.
As is usually the case with such delays, Nintendo didn’t offer a ton of details. Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma said that the company decided to “extend our development time a bit” and apologized to those looking forward to playing the new games.
Nintendo
The video also offered a quick look at gameplay for the upcoming release, with a big focus on how this adventure will take place in the skies above Hyrule as well as on the ground. It wasn’t too different from what we saw in the game’s first official trailer that was released at E3 2021, but it is at least a good refresher for what we have to look forward to. One detail that did catch our eye, though, is a scene where Link holds a pretty beat-up looking version of the iconic Master Sword. Your guess is as good as ours as for what that means for the game, though. In the meantime, don’t despair, Switch fans — there are still plenty of great games to look forward to in 2022.
It’s a good week for guitarists who love a classic echo effect. Just a few days ago, Line 6 released the DL4 MkII, a long-awaited update to its DL4 delay and looper pedal, one of the more widely-used effects pedals of the last 20 years. And now Boss, one of the most prolific and well-known manufacturers of guitar effects pedal out there, has just announced the RE-202 and RE-2 Space Echo pedals, both of which are inspired by Roland’s iconic, tape-based RE-201 Space Echo unit that was originally released way back in 1974.
For the uninitiated, the RE-201 Space Echo used three analog tape heads to record and repeat an instrument’s signal. The analog nature of the device meant that it had a number of sonic characteristics that made it unique and highly coveted. That’s still the case — original RE-201 units regularly sell for several thousand dollars.
The new RE-202, on the other hand, retails for $399.99 and offers the exact same set of controls as the original. Given that it’s 2022, we’re dealing with digital modeling recreating all the quirks of the original, rather than analog tape. But Boss built in options to “age” the virtual tape, which means you can recreate the sounds of the RE-201 as it was out of the box, or give it the worn nature and quirks that come with an older unit. The RE-202 has essentially the same front controls as the original, as well, with the 12-position mode selector dial prominently featured.
The new RE-202 and RE-2 pedals, pictured with the original Roland RE-201 unit.
Boss
Naturally, there are a lot of modern conveniences here, too. The delay length you can dial in is twice as long as the original, and there’s a footswitch so you can tap out the delay tempo, something that’s pretty common these days on pedals like this. There’s also a fourth virtual tape head, compared to the three found in the original; this unlocks five additional sound options.
The RE-2 is a less expensive and and slightly less capable version of the RE-202. It’s a smaller, single-footswitch pedal that Boss says captures the same tones as the RE-202 in a more compact design. It’s not quite as full-featured and customizable as the RE-202, but it should provide the same sonic characteristics as the bigger and more expensive pedal. It’s also a good choice if you don’t want to take up quite so much space on your pedalboard.
The RE-2 costs $249.99, $150 less than the RE-202. Both of these pedals are definitely priced in boutique territory. But a faithful recreation of the RE-201 might be worth it for a lot of players, as the original Space Echo has been used on thousands of recordings by some of the most popular artists in history, from Pink Floyd and Radiohead, to Lee Scratch Perry, Underworld and Lauryn Hill. If you want to get the same sound without breaking the bank for a wonky, tape-based original unit, these new pedals are probably worth a look.
If you’re a guitarist, you almost certainly have heard of Line 6 — the company is well-known for building gear like amp and effects modelers, digital tools that can convincingly re-create a vast array of classic sounds. One of its most iconic products is undoubtedly the Line 6 DL4, a pedal that digitally emulates more than a dozen classic delay and echo tones and also includes a looper that lets musicians quickly record and repeat a phrase on the fly. Guitar World said that the DL4 “marked a significant leap forward in the effects world, and was one of the very first multi-function digital effects processors to be released.”
Today, Line 6 announced that the DL4 was getting a sequel. The DL4 MkII is a total redesign that has the same essence as the original in a smaller package: it combines a wide variety of different delay / echo effects and a looper. This time out, though, Line 6 added 15 more delays to go along with the 15 options from the original pedal. As before, you select an effect with the left-most dial, and then adjust its settings with the rest of the dials; once you have it set up the way you want, you can save three different presets, which are accessible using the left three foot switches. The fourth switch lets you tap out the tempo for your delay.
Another crucial part of the DL4 was the looper feature, and it is getting a major upgrade on the MkII. While the original DL4 could only record 14 seconds of audio, the MkII can save up to 120 seconds in stereo or 240 seconds in mono. For players who want even more, you can pop in an SD card — Line 6 doesn’t say what kind of time limits you’ll run into when using an SD card, but it should far exceed what you can do with the build-in storage. There’s also a new looper mode where you can activate it with the fourth foot switch, rather than dialing the pedal in to looper mode (which traditionally uses all four switches to give you more granular control over recording and playback). The DL4 MkII also includes a microphone input for the first time, so that vocalists can take better advantage of the pedal’s looping features.
There are a few other new features on board here, like the ability to add both an expression pedal and external footswitch for more customization, but the biggest highlights here are probably the new delay effects and improved looper. For this, Line 6 is asking $50 more than the original; the DL4 MkII costs $299. Chances are good that loads of guitarists and other musicians will find the premium more than worth it, especially if they’ve been bumping up on the limits of that old 14-second looper. The DL4 MkII is up for pre-order now, but there’s no word on exactly how fast these new pedals will ship.
A week ago, Google somewhat surprisingly announced that Steam was coming to Chromebooks in a very early alpha test format — but aside from a mention of this during the company’s Games Developer Summit keynote, there were no details to be had. Given the somewhat surprising amount of interest around it, Google is now making things a bit more official by releasing instructions on how to get Steam up and running on Chrome OS. The company is also providing details on supported hardware, games that should work and bugs you can expect to run into.
For starters, you’ll need a supported device, and it’s only a handful of Chromebooks. Google says that you’ll need a device with Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 11th-generation Core i5 or i7 processors and at least 8GB of RAM. Google specifically said that configurations with an Intel i3 processor or 4GB of RAM aren’t supported. For the alpha, only the following devices are supported:
● Acer Chromebook 514 (CB514-1W)
● Acer Chromebook 515 (CB515-1W)
● Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (CP713-3W)
● ASUS Chromebook Flip CX5 (CX5500)
● ASUS Chromebook CX9 (CX9400)
● HP Pro c640 G2 Chromebook
● Lenovo 5i-14 Chromebook
Assuming you have supported hardware, Google says you’ll need to switch your Chromebook to the Dev channel, and cautions that you shouldn’t do this with hardware that you rely on for daily use. From there, you’ll need to enable a specific flag in Chrome as well as type a few commands into Chrome OS’s Crosh terminal. Google says you can find full directions here.
Once you have Steam installed, there’s a surprisingly large group of games that Google has tried and suggests testers try as well. Unsurprisingly, it includes a lot of Valve titles like Portal 2, Dota 2, Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life 2. Other games Google suggests trying include Celeste, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (i7 and 16GB of RAM required for that one, with graphics set to medium or lower), Hades, Cuphead, TEKKEN 7, Fallout 4 and more.
Google notes that Steam will default to installing and running a Linux version of your selected game, assuming it’s available (which is why so many Valve games are supported here). But the Steam Play compatibility tool means you can try other games, as well; it leverages the Proton software that allows some Windows-based games to run on Linux. Of course, there are no guarantees this will work, but it’s worth a shot if there’s a particular title you want to try on Chrome OS.
Come to think of it, “there are no guarantees this will work” sums up the vibe of Google’s blog post pretty well. The company took great pains to note this is an alpha release; between the less stable nature of the Dev channel in general and the alpha status of Steam, Google says that “anything can break” and that “you will encounter crashes, performance regressions, and never-before-seen bugs.”
So, this isn’t exactly a release for the faint of heart — but the good news is that it’s extremely easy to roll back Chrome OS to its original state, and most of your settings and preferences are all kept in the cloud. If you have one of the few supported Chromebooks and want to give it a shot, you can do so now, but just make sure you’ve backed up any local files on your device before you take the plunge.
Google just announced that its annual I/O developer conference is taking place at the Shoreline Amphitheater on May 11th and 12th with a “limited live audience.” This would mark the first time there has been any in-person component of I/O since 2019, but that limited live audience will primarily consist of Google employees as well as some partners. Other attendees will have to tune in to the livestream remotely, just like last year.
The “save the date” Google just shared said that the event this year will be “completely free and open to everyone virtually” and encouraged potential attendees to “plan to tune in online.” From the sound of things, Google will just be using the Shoreline Amphitheater as a venue to broadcast from, rather than a place where attendees can gather. Basically, don’t book any plane tickets to California, because chances are you’ll be watching at home.
Google I/O was canceled entirely in 2020 in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2021 event took place virtually, like so many other tech events have in the last two years. While cases in the US have dropped significantly since peaking earlier this year thanks to the Omicron variant, it appears Google is putting safety first.
Update, 7:00PM ET: Added more details on Google’s plans for a limited in-person audience.
Just a few days before Apple announced the 2022 iPad Air, rumors started swirling that it wouldn’t be powered by the expected A15 Bionic processor that’s in the iPad mini and iPhone 13 lineup. No, it would get an M1, the same chip found in a host of Macs and the iPad Pro, devices that cost a lot more than the iPad Air. At the time, I didn’t put much stock into this rumor; the iPad Air and 11-inch iPad Pro were already extremely similar devices. This would make the gap between them even smaller.
I’ll have to eat crow on this one, as Apple went ahead and put the M1 in the new iPad Air. There are a handful of other little changes here, including a much-improved front-facing camera and 5G connectivity, but the M1 is the real upgrade of note. And while the basic experience of using the Air is mostly the same as it was when we last tested one, having the power of an M1 means this is one of the most future-proof iPads you can buy.
What’s the same?
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
The 2020 Air was a total redesign; not so this time. From the outside, the only way anyone will know you’re using the 2022 model is if you have one of the new color options introduced this year. (Apple loaned me a device in a lovely new shade of blue.) Otherwise, it’s exactly the same size and effectively the same weight; Apple’s specs page says it is two hundredths of a pound heavier than the old model, not something anyone would notice. Touch ID is still built into the top button, and it works just fine although I definitely prefer Face ID.
The display is also the same as the last-gen edition, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s a 10.9-inch “liquid Retina” LCD display with Apple’s True Tone feature for optimizing the screen’s color temperature based on ambient light. It’s just perceptibly smaller than the 11-inch screen on my iPad Pro, and the bezel looks a bit chunky, but it doesn’t change the way I use the tablet. It’s clearly not as nice as the mini-LED display on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, but it’s a far better screen than the one on the basic iPad. The main difference between this display and the one on the 11-inch Pro is the latter has the ability to refresh at up to 120Hz, while the iPad Air is stuck at 60Hz. Although I definitely enjoy using Apple’s “ProMotion” screens, I can’t say I noticed much of a difference once I sat down and started using the Air.
Other things that remain unchanged include the price and storage options. $599 gets you 64GB, and you’ll have to pay another $150 to quadruple that storage to 256GB. I wish that the base model came with 128GB, but Apple has to differentiate the iPad Pro somehow. Sixty-four gigs is enough for most people, but if you want to store a lot of videos and games or plan on doing a lot of creative work with it, you’re probably better off just getting 256GB from the jump. As usual, Apple provided us with a top-of-the-line model, with 256GB of storage and built-in 5G.
The back camera, too, is identical to the one from the 2020 Air. It’s a 12-megapixel shooter with a wide-angle lens and no flash. It produces perfectly fine images, but as usual the camera on your phone is probably better in almost any circumstance. Back cameras on tablets have pretty niche use cases, like scanning documents and trying things in AR, and the Air’s camera is just fine for that, but I wouldn’t let it influence your purchase decision.
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
Finally, the new Air uses the same accessories as the old model. That means the two first-party keyboard cases Apple offered for the 2020 Air work fine here. Unsurprisingly, the second-generation Apple Pencil that magnetically snaps to the top of the iPad is supported here, too. Meanwhile, the $299 Magic Keyboard remains jaw-droppingly expensive, but it provides a high-quality typing experience for such a compact keyboard. I’ve been happily using it to draft this review and have used it to write plenty of other things in the past. In fact, with the comfortable keyboard and trackpad this accessory offers, I was able to do just about all of my job using the Air. If you’re someone who makes a living writing, it’s a must-have accessory.
The $129 Apple Pencil is an excellent stylus, but I think you really need to know what you’re going to do with it for it to be worthwhile. It’s comfortable to use and extremely responsive, but unless you really want to take handwritten notes with your iPad or have serious visual arts chops, it’s inessential. But there are loads of wonderful drawing and note-taking apps available for the iPad, so if you are an artist, it’s an excellent tool.
The M1 comes to the Air
Enough about what’s old, though. Let’s get into what’s new here: Apple had the audacity to throw the M1 into the humble iPad Air, a year after putting it in the iPad Pro. This chip also powers machines like the MacBook Air, iMac, Mac mini and 13-inch MacBook Pro. So on the one hand, Apple probably has the manufacturing process down such that getting the chip into the iPad Air wasn’t a major stretch.
On the other hand, this is the kind of flex Apple likes to make with the iPad from time to time. The iPad has very little real competition, and yet Apple just significantly increased the Air’s processing power to an even more impressive level, particularly for this price range.
To drive it home: I ran Geekbench 5 on my iPad Pro, a model that was released about two years ago. It has an A12Z Bionic chip, one that’s only slightly different from the A12X chip used in the 2018 iPad Pro. The M1 in the new Air is significantly faster at both single- and multi-core tasks. The new iPad Air scored 1,706 on the single-core test and 6,966 on the multi-core test. My iPad Pro, meanwhile, only scored 1,113 and 4,149, respectively. This is a testament to how fast Apple has been improving its own chips, because even the A14 in the 2020 Air was a little faster than the chip in my iPad Pro.
What does this mean in practice? The answer depends on what you plan to do with the device. Personally, I use my iPad for writing, web browsing, email and to-do lists, chatting in apps like Messages and Slack, modest photo editing in Adobe Lightroom, playing music and video, and a bit of gaming. None of this taxed the M1 chip in the least — but while the Air beats my iPad Pro in benchmarks, the actual experience of using it isn’t really that different.
That’s more a reflection of my workflow than the power of the iPad Air. The M1 is an incredibly powerful chip for a $599 tablet, and it means that the Air should remain responsive and run whatever apps you want to throw at it for years to come. Or, if you’re the kind of person who plans to do more advanced tasks like editing and exporting video or making music, the Air should more than stand up to your ambitions.
Even with my moderately intense workflow, using an iPad with the M1 chip was a great experience. The Air made short work of any app I tried, including recent Apple Arcade games like NBA 2K22 and Shadow Blade+. I edited a host of RAW photos in Lightroom, and changes were applied almost instantly. I also noticed speedy improvements in more basic tasks where I didn’t necessarily expect it. The Apple Mail app was much faster at deleting all the junk email I get than it is on my iPad Pro, and Safari was quicker to render sites and switch between tabs. Loading different apps into multitasking views like Split View and Slide Over was similarly speedy.
Battery life on the Air is just as good with the M1 chip as it was before. Apple typically always claims any iPad will last about 10 hours, and in this case I think the company undersold the Air’s longevity. In my normal routine, I got close to 12 hours of use before needing to charge the Air, though your mileage will vary depending on what you’re doing. Games took a bigger toll on the battery, but the Air lasted a long time while watching movies. I looped a downloaded movie in the Apple TV app for four hours and the battery only dropped to 75 percent.
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
What else is new?
While the M1 chip is the major update here, there are a few other new things to consider. Unsurprisingly, the iPad Air’s front camera has been upgraded to match the one found in the rest of the iPad lineup. It’s a 12-megapixel ultra wide angle camera that isn’t really designed to be used at its full resolution. Instead, it enables Apple’s “Center Stage” feature, which lets the camera zoom in around the subject and continuously move to keep that person (or people) in the middle of the screen. I feel like most people don’t move around a ton when they’re on video calls, but it’s a handy feature nonetheless.
While the camera is definitely better than on the prior iPad Air, it’s still on the left side of the screen when you use the iPad in landscape mode. Having it up top is fine when you’re holding the iPad in portrait orientation, but it’s definitely awkward if you are doing a video call with the tablet attached to the keyboard.
Optional 5G is another unsurprising addition, given that last fall’s iPad mini and the iPad Pro all have it as well. (The entry-level iPad remains stuck with LTE.) This is a logical update that doesn’t change the experience of using the iPad very much. Most people will probably opt to save the $150 and simply get a WiFi-only iPad Air.
Those who get the upgrade, will surely appreciate having 5G as time goes by. Depending on what network you choose and where you live, 5G coverage can still be pretty hit or miss. And I ran a few different speed tests on the iPad Air while running it on Verizon’s network and actually got faster speeds from LTE than 5G. It’s also worth noting that the Air doesn’t support the mmWave 5G networks, like Verizon’s Ultra Wideband network. Those faster networks are only supported on the iPad Pro.
Those caveats aside, there’s no doubt that wireless carriers will increase the availability of 5G networks, so having it on board here is another good piece of future-proofing, much like the M1 chip. That said, it’s not a reason to upgrade your iPad now.
Finally, the iPad Air has USB-C connectivity that Apple says is twice as fast as its predecessor, with data transfer speeds up to 10Gbps supported. The old USB-C connector was already fast, but faster is always better, right? I didn’t do any precision testing, but the iPad Air pulled RAW photos off my SD card extremely quickly.
Should you buy it?
By now, you probably have the gist of this review: The new iPad Air is a modest upgrade over the previous generation. That’s true, but it’s also damning the Air with faint praise. To be clear, it’s an excellent tablet. It’s extremely fast, has a lovely screen, runs a massive ecosystem of quality apps and will be a capable device for years to come. If I sound unenthusiastic, it’s because this was always true.
It was definitely time for Apple to update the iPad Air, but the company got so much right with the 2020 edition that this new device is a logical improvement to a formula that was already working. As such, anyone who bought the 2020 Air or one of the last few iPad Pros won’t find a ton new or different here. But compared to the 2019 Air, or any base-level iPad from the last few years, the new model is a massive upgrade.
Overall, I think the iPad Air is the best iPad for most people: It’s significantly better than the basic $329 iPad and is nearly identical to the 11-inch iPad Pro that costs $200 more than the Air. If you want a bigger or smaller screen, the iPad mini and 12.9-inch iPad Pro are still great options. But for anyone who wants a premium tablet that’s about as future proof as it gets, the iPad Air is the way to go.
To the surprise of almost no one, Apple is holding its first virtual event of the year on March 8th to show off its latest hardware. We heard rumors about this date for weeks, and the date isn’t the only thing that leaked – as is so often the case, we …
