Advertisement

The Morning After: Weekend Edition

The one where the thing is happening again.

Bill Nye

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Welcome to the weekend. We have some very familiar presidential election news, plus a leaked pic of Amazon's next big thing. Oh, and Bob Ross is about to become a playable character in Smite.


We're not sure about its looksThis is probably Amazon's touchscreen Echo

Courtesy of AFTVnews and @EvLeaks, we have pictures of what appears to be the touchscreen-equipped version of Amazon's Echo speaker. Earlier rumors indicated it would feature a 7-inch touchscreen, which should give some idea of the footprint. It's clearly designed for bedside/counter top placement and appears to have a camera embedded which could bring some styling features over from the just-unveiled Echo Look or enable video calling.


Instant replayFrench presidential candidate reports a 'massive' hack and leak of emails

This weekend is the second round of presidential elections in France. Just before the start of a legally-mandated quiet period locking down campaigning until the polls close Sunday night, a cache of emails allegedly stolen from candidate Emmanuel Macron's campaign leaked onto the internet. Because of the quiet period, there isn't much information available; however, the campaign said in a statement that false documents might have been mixed in with real ones to sow confusion.


No gimmicks neededMicrosoft unveils the Surface Laptop and Windows 10 S

Now that Windows 10 is firmly in place, Microsoft's next step, apparently, is this laptop that takes on both Chrome OS devices and MacBooks. The Surface Laptop is more traditional than earlier combo devices in the line, with a 13.5-inch screen and advertised 14.5-hour battery life. It launches with Windows 10 S, which will only run Windows Store apps and locks defaults to Microsoft's Edge browser and Bing Search -- unless you upgrade to full Windows 10 (available for free in the first year). With prices starting at $1000 for a Core i5 model with 4GB of RAM, that could be too much of a compromise, but we'll need more time to find out.


And yes, he's bringing the happy treesBob Ross comes to the 'Smite' MOBA next week

'The Joy of Painting' host will be immortalized in the game as a skin for Sylvanus.


1337 but not equal.Bad Password: The enduring myth of the hacker boy-band

Despite what you may have heard, all hackers don't fit the (young, male) stereotype. Columnist Violet Blue reveals who is being erased by lazy media coverage, and how it fails to accurately represent the past, present or future of hacking.


Splitting the differenceNintendo's 2DS XL brings the best of the 2DS without the gimmicks of the 3DS XL

We weren't sure if anyone needed another Nintendo handheld after the 2DS, 3DS XL and Switch, but the New 2DS XL has some notable differences. As Edgar Alvarez found out, it's noticeably lighter than the 3DS XL (for better and worse), and features an easily-accessible microSD slot. Also, it brings larger screens than the 2DS and support for more software.

But wait, there's more...

The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you'll miss if you don't subscribe.