Now that the Atari VCS team has once again delayed its retro console to give it more powerful innards, it's ready to show what that redesign looks like. The developers have unveiled what they say is the "production-ready" system design, and it pays even more of an ode to the Atari 2600 than before. The main body now floats above the base like the 2600 did, and addresses multiple "practical considerations" in the process. To start, two of the USB ports are now front-facing -- it's much easier to plug in a controller or keyboard.
It's also considerably easier to make, with less wasted plastic and more space for cooling that new embedded AMD Ryzen chip. The VCS will also have a simpler light setup that uses Atari's signature "Fuji" logo for alerts rather than a separate set of four lights.
There is a drawback to this redesign, though. The creators have removed the rear SD card slot, calling it "redundant" when you can plug in a thumb drive or external hard drive. That's not going to please gamers who wanted to quickly transfer data, but the Atari VCS group is betting that you won't mind when most other consoles don't offer the feature.
The VCS is due to arrive in late 2019. It's easy to be cynical about talks of a finished design given the system's history -- it has gone through numerous delays, revisions and even name changes, and it wouldn't be surprising if there was another complication or two before then. However, this may really be an illustration of the dangers of both announcing early and relying on crowdfunding. Projects like this are effectively designed in public, and that means seeing many of the revisions that would normally remain behind closed doors.
Google has a habit of introducing goodies on April Fools that last long after the gags are over, and that isn't changing for 2019. The company has added a Snake game to Google Maps that lets you play the classic title themed around major cities. You'll play as an ever-growing double decker bus snapping up passengers in London, for example, while you'll play as a cable car in San Francisco or a commuter train in Tokyo. You can also choose a "world" map if you'd rather gobble things up on a planetary scale.
Snake will only be available through the menu in Google Maps' Android and iOS apps for "about a week." You won't have to go without it after that, thankfully. Google has also created a dedicated website that will offer the game on desktop and mobile well after the novelty wears off. Think of this more as a long-lasting treat that just happened to launch at the start of April.
Google has a habit of introducing goodies on April Fools that last long after the gags are over, and that isn't changing for 2019. The company has added a Snake game to Google Maps that lets you play the classic title themed around major cities. You'll play as an ever-growing double decker bus snapping up passengers in London, for example, while you'll play as a cable car in San Francisco or a commuter train in Tokyo. You can also choose a "world" map if you'd rather gobble things up on a planetary scale.
Snake will only be available through the menu in Google Maps' Android and iOS apps for "about a week." You won't have to go without it after that, thankfully. Google has also created a dedicated website that will offer the game on desktop and mobile well after the novelty wears off. Think of this more as a long-lasting treat that just happened to launch at the start of April.
The Galaxy S10, S10E and S10 Plus are three of a kind in the best possible way. They're all fast, powerful phones with great cameras and long battery life. They're water resistant, have jacks for your wired headphones and can charge wirelessly. There's a lot to love with all three. No phone's perfect, of course, and this trio has a few rough spots here and there. But for now, let's appreciate where the Galaxy S10 phones soar.
Screen quality
The Galaxy S10 screens range from 5.8 inches to 6.4, with slim bezels all around. The S10 and S10 Plus have rounded edges, while the S10E has a flat screen. The curved edges create a more immersive feel, but I can tap to place my cursor more accurately on the S10E's flat screen.
Either way, the brightness, crispness and outdoor readability of the three phones makes them all a pleasure to use. While the S10 Plus has a total possible resolution of 3,040x1,440 pixels, it's set to 2,280x1,080 pixels by default for battery savings. That'll be just fine for most people, but you can always boost the resolution with a quick trip to the display settings.
Storage options
Storage is one of those things you probably don't think about much until you're running low. But compared to phones such as the iPhone XS and Pixel 3, Samsung's S10 starting options are generous.
The S10E starts at 128GB, and has a microSD card slot to give you potentially up to 512GB more. For people with truckloads of files to store, the S10 Plus can get you all the way to 1TB of storage space (with 12GB of RAM), or 1.5TB with that added microSD card. Is Samsung just showing off? Maybe. But do you really mind?
Galaxy S10 storage options
Galaxy S10E
Galaxy S10
Galaxy S10 Plus
Storage
128GB, 256GB
128GB, 512GB
128GB, 512GB, 1TB
RAM
6GB, 8GB
8GB
8GB, 12GB
Expandable storage
Up to 512GB
Up to 512GB
Up to 512GB
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Camera quality on auto mode
From the more humble Galaxy S10E (two cameras on the back and one on the front) up to the S10 Plus (three on back, two up front), image quality is reliably good. Most phone cameras will take pleasing shots outdoors with ample lighting. A great camera will make photos taken in more difficult lighting situations sing with detailed edges and proper exposure.
Samsung's camera is definitely top tier, and an automatic scene optimizer you can turn on and off with a tap helps bring out the best in your photo. If you're not thrilled with the results, you can tap it off again.
The Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus have three rear cameras apiece.
Angela Lang/CNET
One of my favorite new camera features is the option to swap between the camera lenses from the regular lens to the ultra-wide-angle lens. Another is using the spot-color mode thats part of the portrait photo tool. I love being able to edit photos after taking them and wish there were a few more effects to play with.
The Huawei P30 Pro is the Galaxy S10 Plus' biggest competitor on the camera front right now, especially when it comes to night mode and zoom shots. Here's how the two cameras stack up.
Battery life
All three Galaxy S10 phones have great battery life that will get you through the day. The S10E naturally has the least longevity, being the smallest, but if you're not using it to stream YouTube videos and navigate all day, you should be more than fine.
The Galaxy S10 Plus, meanwhile, has lasted me from early morning through late night. Even after long days using it as a mobile hotspot for my laptop for hours, I had no doubt that I'd have hours of juice left before bedtime.
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Battery life diminishes over time. And the more resource-intensive tasks you throw at your phone, the faster it will drain. But starting with such efficient power management gives me hope that you won't have to top up your S10 every few hours by the time you're ready to buy a new phone.
Wireless PowerShare
This is my favorite new Galaxy S10 feature to talk about by far. Wireless PowerShare is a new feature that lets you turn the phone into a wireless charger to top up Qi-enabled accessories and phones. That's the standard protocol these days so it should work for most new devices that support wireless charging, even iPhones.
Use any Galaxy S10 phone to charge other Qi-enabled devices.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
There's a power management cut-off, which means when your S10 hits 30 percent, it'll stop charging out. This is good news: You won't be left worrying if you've given up too much power to do what you need until you find a cable yourself.
Samsung isn't the first to introduce this type of "reverse charging", but it's a significant addition to Samsung's formidable lineup and its presence could do a lot to spur wireless charging onward. The greater the demand, the more cord-cutting we can all do.
Mason Trinca for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Just because Apple scaled back its self-driving car team doesn't mean it's out of the game. If anything, it made a potentially significant hire. The company has hired Michael Schwekutsch, the Tesla VP overseeing electric powertrains, as a Senior Director of Engineering at the Special Project Group (the division that includes driverless vehicles). There's no mention of what he's doing, to no one's surprise, but his experience speaks volumes.
Electreknoted that Schwekutsch has extensive experience leading the development of electric drivetrains, and not just at Tesla. He played key roles in the second-generation Roadster and the Semi, but he also contributed to the BMW i8, the Porsche 918 Spyder and Fiat 500e, among other EVs and hybrids. He's likely to continue on that path at Apple, then.
This doesn't necessarily mean that Apple is back to producing its fabled car. Apple is believed to be partnering with VW on autonomous shuttles that would ferry employees between its offices. The hire may be focused on bringing that and any other shuttle work to fruition. Schwekutsch would be an unusually high-profile hire for a narrowly focused effort, though, and the timing of his hire (he both left Tesla and joined Apple in March) suggests that he might have been poached. Whatever he's doing, Apple believes he's important.
The initial 5G rollout in the US has been underwhelming, in part because those vaunted gigabit-class speeds have been nowhere to be found. AT&T, at least, is inching closer to that goal. The provider has declared that it's the first US telecom to top 1Gbps on a mobile 5G network, achieving the feat in "multiple cities" using Netgear's 5G hotspot. In an interview with PCMag, the company's Igal Elbaz described it as a virtue of improving software.
On launch, AT&T's 5G service could only make use of a lone 100MHz carrier for your connection, limiting speeds that were frequently not much better (or potentially worse) than LTE. The new approach aggregated four of those carriers, giving it that much more headroom even in real-world conditions. It should get faster still later in the year, when AT&T combines LTE and 5G in a single connection.
The problem, as with virtually any 5G carrier (including Engadget parent company Verizon), is being in a position to take advantage of that speed. AT&T's 5G is only available in certain areas in a handful of cities, and you need an invitation to buy the Netgear hotspot. Even then, the router's WiFi isn't fast enough to guarantee peak speeds. You'll have to wait for 5G smartphones and WiFi 6-equipped hotspots before the technology can live up to is potential. This clearly illustrates 5G's performance -- it's just going to be a long while before can expect to achieve that performance outside of ideal conditions.
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The company says that the game is rolling out now to iOS and Android users globally today, and that it’ll remain on the app for the rest of the week. It also launched a standalone site to play the game if you don’t have the app.
Users can find the game in the menu of the Maps app. To play, you select a city (Cairo, São Paulo, London, Sydney, San Francisco, Tokyo, or the entire world), and swipe to move your train or bus around the map to pick up passengers and landmarks.
