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The first affordable headphones with MEMS drivers don't disappoint
Solid-state headphones have been on the horizon for years, but the first consumer product to feature it comes from a name you might not have expected.
Creative unveils first true wireless headphones with MEMS drivers
The company partnered with xMEMS on the technology.
Adobe Premiere Pro now uses AI to fit music to your videos
Adobe has updated Premiere Pro with an AI feature that automatically re-times music to fit your video.
Google Docs and Slides get better Adobe Creative Cloud integration
A Gmail Google Workspace add-on now works with more productivity apps.
NTSB says Tesla Autopilot was partly to blame for 2018 crash
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) cited both driver error and Tesla's Autopilot design as the probable causes of a January 2018 crash, in which a Model S slammed into a parked fire truck at about 31 mph. According to the report, the driver was distracted and did not see the fire truck. But NTSB says that Tesla's Autopilot was also at fault, as its design "permitted the driver to disengage from the driving task."
Adobe Lightroom uses AI to edit your photos like a pro
Many photo editing apps have an auto-adjust feature that can improve photos, but pros tend to steer clear of it for a reason -- it's more of a vague guess than an informed edit based on experience. Wouldn't it be nice if it learned from the pros? It does now. Adobe has released updates to Lightroom (both CC and Classic) and Camera Raw that use its Sensei AI to improve photos based on examples. The new Auto mode compares your image to "tens of thousands" of professionally edited shots and uses that wealth of info to make smarter decisions. This doesn't guarantee that you'll have Ansel Adams-grade photos with a couple of clicks, but it could limit your editing to minor tweaks. It's definitely a help for newcomers who want pro-quality shots but don't yet know how to achieve those effects themselves.
Real-time tracking and projection mapping keeps getting better
Japanese creative studio P.I.C.S. have set a mindbending new standard for real-time tracking and projection mapping with their latest visual creation, EXISDANCE. The technology has been around for a while, although it arguably first captured the mainstream public's imagination at the Grammy's last year, when a red bright lightning bolt appeared on Lady Gaga's face during her David Bowie tribute.
Dell hints at its take on a Surface Studio-like creative PC
Microsoft and HP haven't completely cornered the market on creativity-minded desktops, apparently -- Surface Pro Artist noticed that Dell teased its own all-in-one creative PC as part of the AdobeMAX opening keynote. The short clip (below) avoids offering any explicit details, but it's clear that this isn't a direct parallel to the Surface Studio. You're not drawing directly on the computer, to begin with. Instead, Dell will have a Cintiq-style tablet display (it's not certain if this is standard or optional) where you'll create your masterpieces. The prominent chin on the Dell rig is also a sharp contrast to Microsoft's minimalist design. Are those speakers?
Microsoft's reworked Paint app lets you draw with 3D objects
Microsoft is working on an overhaul of its Paint app for Windows 10, and it might just be worth a look if you're a casual creator. WindowsBlogItalia has leaked an early test version of the software that reveals both a much-needed modernization of the interface (it's easier to use with your fingers, The Verge notes) as well as some big feature upgrades. For one, it supports 3D objects -- you can incorporate fish and other shapes to spice up your otherwise flat drawings, including items from the community.
Twitch Collections embrace the randomness of non-gaming streams
Game (and food-eating) broadcasting service Twitch has been in the news quite a bit this week, and here's another instance of that. First up we have a few major additions to the Twitch Creative umbrella. The Creative homepage has undergone a revamp, with each type of stream (cosplay, painting, drawing, etc.) getting its own directory tab. Twitch says that anyone can make a suggestion for adding to these, and that it'll accept "the most active and diverse ones."
Creative pushes for US bans on several smartphone makers
Creative has a long history of wielding its patents against other tech companies (just ask Apple), but its latest effort might top them all. The US International Trade Commission is investigating Creative's complaints that seven smartphone makers (BlackBerry, HTC, LG, Lenovo/Motorola, Samsung, Sony and ZTE) violate its patents. Allegedly, all of the companies are imitating Creative's hierarchical menu system for media playback, much as the iPod supposedly duped Zen players a decade ago. If successful, the ITC dispute would ban the sale of at least some of these companies' devices... and given the sheer scope of the complaint, you'd probably notice the absences on store shelves.
Twitch wants your ideas for TwitchCon 2016
Twitch tipped its hand a bit when it announced that its community meet-up/education expo TwitchCon 2016 would be moving to the roomier climes of the San Diego Convention Center. Now live-streaming behemoth is ready to reveal why it needed all that extra space: The plan is for more of everything. Namely, panels. In the past few months, Twitch Creative has blown up, expanding beyond Deadmau5 making beats and into streaming classic episodes of Bob Ross' painting series and Julia Child's cooking shows. TwitchCon 2016 will reflect that by offering special spaces for the Creative community to interact with each other and even do some arts and crafts.
Palette's modular controller is ready to steer your creative apps
Palette crowdfunded its unique modular controller in the hopes of giving you customizable, hands-on control over your creative apps, and it's finally ready to make that technology available to everyone. As of today, you can pre-order Palette kits that scale up depending on just how much tactile fine-tuning you want. The base is a $199 kit with a dial, two buttons and a slider; the $299 Expert and $499 Professional kits throw in more gear, and you can even snag an $899 limited edition in cherry wood. Of course, you can also buy individual parts if you need more. The controller is mostly useful if you thrive in Adobe software like Photoshop and Premiere Pro, but it's also helpful in MIDI music, gaming and most any other program where keyboard shortcuts just don't feel right.
Use an iPad to start print, web and mobile layouts with Adobe Comp CC
Mobile devices may not be able to handle all of the tasks needed project ready for print, but they are certainly handy for getting work started. Back in the fall, Adobe launched Brush CC, Shape CC, and Color CC that allow you to quickly nab useful bits of smartphone photos for use in full-on desktop applications like Photoshop and Illustrator. Today, the software company announced Comp CC: a new iPad app that pulls items from a user's Creative Cloud Library to get started on print, web and mobile app layouts while on the go.
Google just bought a storytelling app for kids
When Google said it was busy creating a kid-friendly internet, it wasn't joking around. The company just bought Launchpad Toys, best known for its animated storytelling app Toontastic. While it's too soon to know what Google's exact plans are, Launchpad says its going to make "even more amazing creativity tools" for the younger crowd. That may mean web-based tools, knowing Google. Whatever the search provider does, now's a good time to check out Launchpad's apps -- Toontastic and its add-on content are free in the wake of the buyout.
A German man has built a "working" iPhone in Minecraft
Convincing someone to watch a 13-minute video in a language they don't speak is normally a hard sell, but we urge our non German-speaking readers to give this a spin regardless. A German man has built a charming "working" iPhone in the game Minecraft that features its own mini apps and working buttons. Marvel at the calendar feature, check the weather, and enjoy the subtle charms of its built -n "painting" app. Heck it even has a "camera" app. We cannot imagine the amount of work that went into building this "device" but Minecraft fans of all ages will appreciate the end results. Enjoy.
Which portable speakers are worth buying?
While some people like to listen to their favorite music on a quality sound system with a set of high-end speakers or headphones, most people are just fine listening from a cheap headset or the built-in speakers on their phones. But what if you're somewhere in the middle, and want your music to be portable, but still sound great? Plenty of companies have stepped up to give you just that, releasing speakers that deliver solid highs and clear lows, all in a package that you can fit in a bag. There are too many out there for us to review ourselves here at Engadget, so we've pulled together reviews from sources we trust to help highlight some of the better recent options.
Weekends with Engadget: the Moto E, futuristic Army helmets and more!
Welcome to Weekends with Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines from the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. For even more action, subscribe to our Flipboard magazine!
A PC component maker in a post-PC world
If you had a desktop PC during the early noughties, your first encounter with Creative likely involved sound cards. Back then, if you wanted to upgrade the audio on your desktop, a Creative sound card was often the most affordable, or accessible option. If the name Sound Blaster resonates with you at all, there's a good chance you were one of these people. You may have fond memories of enjoying your burgeoning (and possibly illegal) MP3 collection through it. You might also recall lost hours downloading what you hoped were the right drivers to your specific model, only to find they were minutely, yet critically, different from the best match you found on the support website. My experience was mostly the latter. I'll admit I never thought I'd consider buying Creative ever again. There wasn't anything overly wrong with its products -- just nothing overly compelling about them either.
This is what it's like to operate an arcade claw machine using just gestures (video)
We knew gesture cameras will be making their way to computers and mobile devices this year, but seeing one on the classic claw crane was a pleasant surprise for us. This IDF tech demo was courtesy of a Guangzhou company called The Best Sync, and according to Intel VP Doug Fisher, it only took three days to develop this project using Intel's RealSense technology -- as represented here by the Creative Interactive Gesture Camera (co-developed by SoftKinetic). The gestures were simple: move your hand in one of the four directions to position the claw, and clench your fist to drop it on the dolls. The joystick replacement didn't make the game any easier, but it seemed like everyone still had fun with it. Well, at least this author did, as you can see in our video after the break.