The Morning After: First look at the transparent Nothing phone

As suspected, the first phone from Nothing — Carl Pei’s new company — is going all in on the transparent gadget look. This seems to be Nothing’s design aesthetic, matching its wireless ear(1) headphones from last year.According to snippets of video fr…

Sony Honda Mobility Inc. is the new name of Sony and Honda’s EV business

After Sony and Honda announced plans to form a separate company for their joint electric vehicle partnership, they’ve now given it a name. Yes, the new business is called Sony Honda Mobility Inc. and will be established in Tokyo before the end of 2022, with EV sales set to start in 2025, Sony said in a press release.

Each company holds an equal 50 percent share, with Honda executive Yasuhide Mizuno appointed chairman and CEO, and Sony EVP Izumi Kawanishi president and COO. As Sony detailed previously, the partnership will utilize “Honda’s cutting edge environmental and safety technologies, mobility development capabilities, vehicle body manufacturing technology, and after-sales service management experience.” Meanwhile, Sony will contribute “imaging, sensing, telecommunication, network and entertainment technologies.” 

Honda is far behind rivals in EV development, with its only electric car being the Honda E — but it’s accelerated its plans of late. Earlier this year it unveiled a partnership with GM to co-develop a series of affordable EVs using a global architecture and GM’s Ultium battery technology. The aim is to have Honda and Acura SUVs going on sale in North America by 2024. 

Honda also announced plans last year to shift its entire vehicle lineup to EVs and fuel-cell vehicles by 2040. As part of that, it’s going to invest $40 billion and launch 30 new EVs by 2030. Sony, meanwhile has already showed not just one but two electric vehicles of its own design, the Vision-S EV and Vision-S 02 electric SUV. It’s not clear how all Sony Honda Mobility fits into all these plans, but we should be learning more about it in the near future.

Samsung merges Pay and Pass into a single Wallet app

Samsung is making it easier to store your credit card information and other digital data on your phone. On Wednesday, the company announced the merging of its Pay and Pass apps into a single Wallet platform. With the change, you won’t have to use two d…

DJI’s RS3 mirrorless camera stabilizer unlocks automatically and is easier to balance

DJI has significantly expanded its gimbal lineup with the RS3 and RS3 Pro models designed for mirrorless and cinema cameras. It also launched some other interesting cinema products derived from the innovative Ronin 4D camera gimbal, including a LiDAR f…

Steam games are coming to Nreal’s augmented reality glasses

Nreal users can now play some Steam games on their augmented reality glasses. The Chinese company has released the beta version of “Steam on Nreal,” which gives users a way to stream games from their PC to their AR eyewear. Nreal admits that installing the beta release will require a bit of effort during the setup process, and the current version is not optimized for all Steam games just yet. It will work on both Nreal Light and Nreal Air models, though, and it already supports some popular titles like the entire Halo series. 

To note, users can already play games on Nreal’s glasses by accessing Xbox Cloud Gaming on a browser inside the company’s 3D system called Nebula. But Steam on Nreal will give users who don’t have Xbox accounts the opportunity to see what gaming on the device would be like. Company co-founder Peng Jin said the beta release is “meant to give people a glimpse into what is possible.” He added: “AAA games should be played on a 200-inch HD screen and they should be played free of location restrictions.”

Nreal launched its Light mixed reality glasses in 2020 after a US court ruled in its favor for the lawsuit filed by Magic Leap. The American company accused its former employee Chi Xu of using stolen secrets to set up Nreal, but the court decided that Magic Leap failed to make any viable claim. In 2021, Nreal launched a new model called Air that was designed with streaming shows and playing mobile games in mind. Air looks more like a pair of ordinary sunglasses than its predecessor does, and it also comes with a better display.

In an effort to offer more content and perhaps entice those on the fence to grab a pair of its glasses, Nreal has also announced AR Jam, an online international contest for AR developers that will kick off on June 27th. Developers can compete in various categories that include at-home fitness, art, games and video, with each one having a $10,000 grand prize. Those interested can head over to the company’s Developer page for more information.

Samsung’s Smart Monitor M8 falls back to a low of $600

Samsung is selling its new M8 smart monitor for $100 less than its retail price again. The tech giant made the M8 available for pre-order in March and dropped its price for the first time last month. If you missed that opportunity to buy the M8 at a discount, you now have another chance to grab the white version for $600 from Amazon or the tech giant’s website. The M8’s other color variants have always been $30 more expensive than the white version, and the same is true even for this deal. You can get the pink, green or blue M8 for $630, though that is still $100 less than its retail price. 

Buy Samsung M8 Smart Monitor at Amazon – $600Buy Samsung M8 Smart Monitor at Samsung – $600

The 32-inch display has a 3,840 x 2,160 pixel resolution, supports HDR 10+ and has refresh rates of up to 60Hz. It’s not just a monitor you can use with a desktop computer or a laptop, though: It’s also a WiFi-capable smart TV that supports Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV, as well as cloud gaming platforms. The display has built-in dual 5W speakers and a built-in home hub that allows you to use it to control SmartThings-compatible IoT devices, such as smart lights and thermostats. It even has built-in support for Microsoft 365, so you can edit documents or browse the web without having to connect it to a computer. 

If you work from home or take online classes, you can use the detachable SlimFit Cam it comes with for video calls. Plus, you can change the monitor’s angle and position using its height-adjustable stand. It’s not the biggest display out there, but the M8 makes a great choice if you have limited space in your home or if you’re looking for a computer monitor and a smart TV in one.

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Netflix is creating a real-world competition based on ‘Squid Game’

Netflix isn’t just milking Squid Game‘s success with a second season. Varietynotes the streamer is creating a reality competition show, Squid Game: The Challenge, based on the Korean series. The 10-episode production will pit 456 people against each other in games both “inspired” by the show as well as new events. No one is dying here, thankfully, but there’s still a good reason for entrants to persevere to the end — the winner receives a whopping $4.56 million prize.

The company is casting for English-speaking participants worldwide ahead of filming in the UK. While Netflix didn’t say when Squid Game: The Challenge would premiere, the US casting page notes that candidates may have to commit to as many as four weeks in early 2023. The Circle production house Studio Lambert and ITV’s The Garden are heading up the project.

A reality TV spinoff isn’t exactly shocking. Squid Game remains Netflix’s most popular show of all time, and earned Golden Globe and SAG awards. The company is also eager to turn its fortunes around — it posted its first subscriber loss in a decade last quarter in the wake of fiercer rivalries, limited growth potential and account sharing. The competition could help Netflix reel in subscribers beyond those eager to watch season two.

Ford voluntarily recalls 49,000 Mach-Es due to overheating batteries

Ford has announced a recall for 48,924 Mustang Mach-E EVs and asked dealers to pause deliveries of the vehicle. The company said there’s a possibility of the high-voltage battery connectors overheating, which could prevent the vehicle from starting or cause it to lose propulsion power while on the road.

According to Automotive News, Ford claims it should be able to fix the issue with an over-the-air software update, which will be rolled out next month. Alternatively, owners can take their Mach-E to a Ford or Lincoln dealer and have the update installed there. Affected vehicles were built between May 27th, 2020, and May 24th, 2022 at Ford’s factory in Cuautitlán, Mexico.

There’s no open National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigation into the problem, Ford says, which means this is a voluntary recall. Still, it’s not a great look for the company.

HyperX’s Cloud Mix Buds makes managing multi-device audio a breeze

Wireless headphones have gotten better at connecting to multiple devices in recent years. But pairing can still be kind of a hassle, especially if you’re gaming on a range of devices including consoles, phones and PCs. But after testing out its new Clo…