Author: Shivendra Singh

What the heck is going on in the land of cryptocurrency and NFTs? This week, Devindra and Engadget UK Bureau Chief Mat Smith chat with Manda Farough, co-host and producer of the Virtual Economy podcast, about the massive crypto crash. They discuss how the fall of the Luna cryptocurrency and its sibling, TerraUSD, sent shockwaves through the industry. 

Also, they dive into ICE’s surprisingly robust (and scary) surveillance system, as well the DHS’s stalled misinformation board. Stay tuned for the end of the show for our chat with Tim Miller and Jennifer Yuh Nelson, the co-creator and animation director for Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots.

Listen above, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News!

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Topics

• Terra, Luna, and the recent …read more

Qualcomm is keeping up its habit of releasing speed-bumped chips in the middle of the year, albeit with a couple of twists. The company has introduced a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 system-on-chip that delivers both the usual performance boost and, importantly, battery life. Qualcomm claims a 10 percent processing speed increase and 20 percent higher performance-per-Watt for AI, but it’s also boasting a 30 percent power reduction — in theory, you’ll wring an extra hour of gameplay out of your flagship-class Android handset.

There won’t be a shortage of device partners. Qualcomm expects products to begin arriving in the third quarter (summer) from big-name brands like ASUS, Honor, Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo and Xiaomi. These are more likely to be subtle revisions than major overhauls, but that still means you’ll be getting top-of-the-line processing power.

A second announcement is more of a pleasant surprise for budget buyers. Qualcomm has unveiled the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, a sequel to the 778G aimed at upper-mid-range Android hardware. An upgraded Adreno GPU should be about 20 percent faster, while AI processing is about 30 percent quicker. There are a few firsts for the 7 series, too. You can shoot simultaneously from three cameras, …read more

Qualcomm’s smart glasses technology has come along way in two years. The company has unveiled the Wireless AR Smart Viewer Reference Design, a next-gen pair of augmented reality glasses meant to help hardware partners build their own immersive eyewear. It now tethers wirelessly to a host PC, phone or puck, and it’s 40 percent thinner despite packing a newer (if slightly old) Snapdragon XR2 platform. Add better-balanced weight distribution and the device should be considerably more comfortable than its predecessor, even if it still won’t win any fashion awards.

Each eye gets a 1080p, 90Hz micro-OLED display that reportedly eliminates motion blur. You’ll also have full six-degrees-of-freedom movement thanks to three cameras (two monochrome, one color) as well as hand tracking with gesture recognition. WiFi 6E and Bluetooth help shuffle data quickly while keeping lag under 3ms between the glasses and host device.

A handful of manufacturers already have access to Qualcomm’s new AR design, and more should have their turn within the “coming months.” You won’t buy this exact hardware as an everyday customer. It could, however, lead to a wave of next-generation glasses that you wouldn’t mind wearing for games or work — even they might not …read more