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Ask Engadget: How does one start playing 'Overwatch' as an adult?
The support shared between readers in the our comments section is one of the things we love most about the Engadget community. Over the years, we've known you to offer sage advice on everything from Chromecasts and cameras to drones and smartphones. In fact, our community's knowledge and insights are a reason why many of you participate in the comments. We truly value the time and detail you all spend in responding to questions from your fellow tech-obsessed commenters, which is why we've decided to bring back the much-missed "Ask Engadget" column. We're kicking things off with a question from an adult looking to dip their toes into a game intended for a younger audience. Weigh in with your advice in the comments -- and feel free to send your own questions along to ask@engadget.com! "I am an adult who wants to start playing Overwatch. How should I get into it without being an immediate burden on my team/getting berated by 12-year-olds?"
Hands-on with the Galaxy View: A huge $599 screen for streaming
Is it a TV? Is it a tablet? As far as Samsung is concerned, its enormous new Galaxy View is a little bit of both. We took one home for some hands-on time on our own turf, and after a day the View seems to have struck a decent balance between the two. Don't get us wrong: it's still a little silly and will continue to inspire endless Twitter jokes, but the View has the chance to carve out a curious (and possibly lucrative) new niche.
Samsung's 360-degree wireless speakers take aim at Sonos
Samsung's biggest announcement at IFA 2015 was the Gear S2, its long-rumored round smartwatch. But, as expected, that's not the only thing the company is showing off in Berlin, Germany. The R1, R3 and R5 are new wireless, multi-room speakers designed to take on Sonos. What makes them different than most of the competition, though, is their 360-degree enclosure -- Samsung says the ring-radiator technology powering them helps fill any room with sound. Compared to the last-generation models, the speakers revealed here at IFA are not egg-shaped, but rather feature a more tubular look. (You could always go for the R7, if that's what you're looking for.)
A farewell tour of Google I/O 2015
After two furious days of news -- both expected and not -- Google I/O has finally come to a close. We're still summing up our thoughts about the show and what Google's new future looks like, but we wanted to take you on one last stroll through Moscone West as I/O wound down to see what it's like being in a playground for some of the smartest, craziest people in the world. Join us, won't you?
Follow the Engadget CES Live Stream and the Field Guide
Follow along with Engadget at CES 2015. Check out the Live Stream below for all things CES as it happens: We've also made navigating the Engadget CES 2015 experience easy. Use the Engadget CES Field Guide below for our building by building guide to locate brands, events and topics at CES 2015. Follow all the action right here with Engadget!
Starwood rolls out smartphone-based room keys, starting with 10 of its hotels
Depending on your sensibilities, smart locks might not make much sense in the home -- we don't know, maybe you can't break your keys habit or something. But we think we can all agree on this: Smart locks make a hell of a lot of sense in hotels. Think about it: Those plastic room keys are easy to lose anyway, and they don't always work properly on first swipe. Indeed, the hotel giant Starwood is already on it. Following a pilot test earlier this year, the company is rolling out Bluetooth locks in 10 of its hotels, with more to come early next year.
The Big Picture: That's no moon, that's a movie theater
What do you do after you've retired from running the Official Star Wars fan club and magazine? You recreate the iconic space opera in your own home, of course -- at least that's what Vic Wertz and Lisa Stevens did. Not only is the above home theater a stunning tribute to George Lucas' films, but it was also designed by Doug Chiang: the lead designer of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. In addition to drawing inspiration from Darth Vader's Imperial Star Destroyer, the theater features raised floors and halls that resemble the Death Star, sliding doors, a poster-laden lobby and a door shaped like a carbonite-frozen Han Solo. Most impressive. The project is a few years old, but the designer just posted a fresh gallery on Imgur. Check it out at the source link below.
What you need to know about DARPA, the Pentagon's mad science division
There's a certain entity within the Pentagon that's quite (in)famous for developing terrifying robots, advanced weapons and futuristic tech. It's called the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or, as most people know it, DARPA: the Department of Defense's "mad science" division. While all the machines coming out of the agency make it seem like its sole purpose is to build a killer-robot army, DARPA has many, many other projects to speak of. In fact, DARPA's at the heart of some of the most significant technological advances of our time. Hell, there might not be an internet to read this article on if DARPA didn't create it.
On T-Mobile, you can now stream music without hurting your data plan
Streaming music on your phone would be fantastic -- if it weren't for all those pesky data caps. T-Mobile's latest UnCarrier move addresses this particular pain point: Starting today, you'll be able to listen to all of your favorite jams on popular streaming music services without it counting against your data plan. The catch? It's limited to a few of the most popular offerings, such as Pandora, Spotify, iTunes Radio, iHeartRadio, Slacker, Rhapsody and Samsung's Milk Music. T-Mobile exec Andrew Sherrard explained that the aforementioned services encompass 85 percent of what users listen to, so the list covers the vast majority of the carrier's consumers. That said, Sherrard said that the company plans to reach out for feedback via a social media campaign, so make your voice heard if you're interested in getting services like Rdio or Google Play Music added to the list. If your favorite program is included, feel free to start filling up those playlists to your heart's content.
Apple reveals iOS 8 at WWDC, available for free this fall
We all knew it was coming, and now it's here. Apple CEO Tim Cook just put months of breathless speculation to rest by pulling back the curtain on iOS 8 during the company's WWDC 2014 keynote address in San Francisco. It doesn't look like the sort of quantum leap that iOS 7 was, but Apple's head honcho assures us that it interacts in some fantastic ways with the new version of OS X and that it pairs great end user features with great developer features. Well, we'll be the judges of that. The big keynote just wrapped up -- here's what we know and what it means for you. First things first. There's a lot to dig into, but you'll get iOS 8 as a free update sometime this fall for the iPhone 4s and newer, the fifth-gen iPod touch and the iPad 2 and newer. If you're a developer though, you'll be able to access the iOS 8 beta and SDK today.
Samsung blurs the line between phone and camera (again) with the Galaxy K zoom
Last year, Samsung tried something a little kooky: it made a mash-up of a middling smartphone and a solid point-and-shoot camera (you know, the kind smartphones have nearly driven to extinction). The resulting chimaera was called the Galaxy S4 Zoom, and it was... not great. To absolutely no one's surprise, though, Samsung's fixation on fusion is still going strong and the company's trying to crack the code again with a new camera/phone combo called the Galaxy K zoom. Mildly silly name aside (the "K" stands for "kamera," seriously), the international K zoom packs 2GB of RAM and one of Samsung's hexa-core Exynos chipsets into its chubby, dimpled frame. In this case, the chip combines quad-core 1.3GHz and a dual-core 1.7GHz processors -- the pairing isn't as snappy as a Galaxy S5, but it's still beefy enough to handle most people's daily routines. Toss in 2GB of RAM, 3G and LTE radios, 8GB of internal storage and a spacious 4.8-inch 720p screen and you've got yourself a package that's a bit more robust than most. If the name wasn't a dead giveaway though, the K zoom's 20.7-megapixel BSI CMOS camera sensor is the star of the show here. Samsung's rear shooter is kitted out with optical image stabilization, the ability to shoot 1080p video at 60 frames per second and a slew of software features that aim to make your on-the-go photos less terrible. That all sounds fine enough on paper, but here's the bigger question: what's it like to actually use? Long story short, better than you might expect.
