Apple surprised us with two new iPads last week. We spent a little time with the new entry-level iPad ($449), which has been redesigned with flat edges, USB-C, and a Touch ID-enabled power button to match the rest of the iPad family. Unusually, it also has a landscape selfie camera. Inside is an A14 chip, which might not rival the M1 in the iPad Air (let alone the M2 in the new iPad Pro), but is still a powerful enough processor.
So far, Nathan Ingraham has been pleasantly impressed with Engadget, although there are other downsides – it still only supports the first-generation Apple Pencil. Expect our full review and verdict soon. For now, read our first impressions here.
– Mat Smith
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The Biggest Stories You May Have Missed
Two agents may have attempted to bribe a US law enforcement officer.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Wednesday that two spies from the People’s Republic of China have attempted to interfere in a US Department of Justice criminal investigation into Huawei. according to a Bloomberg According to reports, Guochun He and Zheng Wang worked for the benefit of Huawei. The two agents attempted to bribe a law enforcement officer into giving them information about the Justice Department’s investigation. As of 2017, they were allegedly trying to get details about witnesses, evidence, and possible additional charges that could be brought against Huawei, unaware that they were speaking to an FBI double agent.
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Apple One bundles are also getting more expensive.
Apple has increased the prices of Apple Music and Apple TV+. Music is now $11 per month for individual plans in the US (was $10) or $109 per year. The family plan is now $17 per month instead of $15. TV+ has seen the biggest relative jump – price has gone from $5 per month to $7 and from $50 per year to $69. Apple has also increased the prices of its multi-service One bundles. You now pay $17 per month for an individual plan compared to the previous $15.
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Scientists converted data from three Swarm satellites into ethereal audio.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has released an audio showing what our planet’s magnetic field sounds like. While it shields us from cosmic rays and charged particles from solar winds, the magnetic field turns out to have an unnerving rumble. Scientists from the Technical University of Denmark converted the data collected by ESA’s three Swarm satellites into sound representing both the magnetic field and a solar storm.
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There’s a lot in there.
Urtopia’s mission seemed pretty clear, to build the most feature-rich, connected bike the world has ever seen. The e-bike is equipped with a 4G SIM card, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, a fingerprint reader and even mmWave sensors for collision detection. However, when we tested an early prototype, we didn’t see how all of this fit together in software terms. Now we have to test the bike along with its companion app and some of its unique ideas. Thanks to the 4G radio, you should get a log of your ride in the app every time you go out. We say “should” because it often didn’t work for Engadget’s James Trew.
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Don’t spend a fortune on a stand-alone vacuum cleaner.
Unlike a few years ago, there are now many budget-friendly robotic vacuum options to choose from. We consider anything under $300 cheap in this range, and you might be surprised at how many there are to choose from. And if you’re new to the world of robot vacuums, you might find that one of these budget-friendly devices does everything you expect it to and then some. We have our favorites from Roomba, Shark and even Anker.
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