The new cards are currently being tested in South Africa, and MasterCard hopes to roll them out to the rest of the world by the end of 2017. Even if that happens, though, you’ll still have to wait for your bank or financial institution to get on board.

Once the technology is ready for the public, here’s how it should work. Your bank will inform you that the biometric card is available, and if you’re interested, you’ll have to go to an enrollment center (most likely a bank) to get your fingers scanned. An encrypted digital template of your fingerprint is stored on the card’s EMV chip. You can save up to two prints, but they would both have to be yours — you can’t authorize someone else to use your card with their fingers. After your templates are saved, your card is ready to be used at compatible terminals worldwide — merchants don’t have to get new equipment to accept your fingerprint-enabled plastic.

The card itself is surprisingly no thicker than a regular credit card. The fingerprint sensor is a small, thumbnail-sized rectangle that sits at the top right corner, and is easily accessible when you stick the card into a payment terminal.

During a recent demo, I tried to use a MasterCard rep’s biometric card with my finger, and received a “Transaction denied” message from the test payment terminal. When she carried out the faux-purchase, the payment went through, and the machine began printing a receipt. What really surprised me was the speed at which it happened.

When the terminal asks you to insert the card, it’s communicating to the bank information like your identity and the amount of the transaction. Then, it verifies your identity by asking for your fingerprint. The sensor reads your finger, and sends the information to the card’s chip, which determines if you’re the owner. If you are, it sends a “Yes” or “Authorized” message to the bank, which then allows the payment to pass.

At my demo, the authorization process happened almost instantly, which is reasonable given it’s all happening on the card instead of going through the bank. When it was me using the card, however, it took a slight pause to register that I wasn’t certified. I didn’t have trouble learning the new process at all, either — it’s intuitive and straightforward to simply leave your finger on the card as you slide it into a payment dock.

Of course, this method is only compatible with chip-and-pin cards, so it won’t work with stores that only accept the older magnetic stripe models. But embedded chip technology has become increasingly popular in the US, thanks largely to regulations making financial institutions and merchants liable for breaches resulting from a lack of support for chip-and-pin cards. Getting a new biometric card is troublesome, since it would require a trip to the bank and a potentially long wait. But the convenience and the joy you’ll get from waving that fancy new plastic in your friends’ faces may make that agony worthwhile.

The LTE model released first only comes in the Book’s larger 12-inch size and sells for $1,300, but you can only buy them from Verizon. Pre-orders for the WiFi version start on April 21st, with the 12-inch going for $1,130 and the 10.6-inch for $630. Those will be available in select retailers nationwide on May 21st in silver while Best Buy will exclusively offer the Book in black.

Tonight the Wall Street Journal reports that, according to anonymous sources, Google will introduce an ad-blocking feature for Chrome on mobile and desktop platforms. Ad blockers for browsers are hardly a new thing, and Google itself already pays into Adblock Plus’ “Acceptable Ads program, but this is interesting because Google is at its heart an advertising company. Based on the report, Chrome’s ad blocking will target bad advertisements as defined by the Coalition for Better Ads, including pop-ups, autoplaying ads, time countdowns and others.

Video-wise, the A9 can shoot 4K (3,840 x 2,160) with full-frame capture and 1080p at up to 120fps, in case you’re looking to record some slow-motion footage. The body itself resembles a number of Sony’s latest Alpha shooters, such as the A7S II, A7R II and A7 II. Its looks are so similar to these that a few people at the launch event tried to snatch my A7 II thinking it was the A9. There are three physical dials on the top of the camera (exposure, scene and shooting mode), as well as two SD card slots and an Ethernet port. Meanwhile, Sony claims its new Z battery will last you for more than 500 shots.

Sony says its new flagship full-frame is “half the size and weight” as the DSLRs it wants to dethrone, like Canon’s 5D Mark IV or Nikon’s D5. If you’ve ever held one of the Alpha shooters mentioned above, you’ll feel right at home with the A9’s ergonomics. On that note, Sony revealed today that it is now the number two seller of full-frame interchangeable lens cameras in the US, thanks in large part to the A7S II and A7R II. With the introduction of the A9, the company’s hoping that this momentum continues.

Unfortunately, while Sony let us shoot briefly with the A9, we weren’t allowed to use our own SD cards to see what the full-resolution images looked like. That said, stay tuned, as we’ll be spending more time with the A9 before it hits stores May 25th for $4,500 (body-only). And if you want the new $2,500 G Master 100-400mm telephoto lens to go with that, you’ll have to wait until July.

Facebook Spaces was announced at the social network’s F8 conference as a way of blending social media and virtual reality. If you own an Oculus Rift (and Touch controllers), you and four friends can enter a virtual world and hang out together.

Unfortunately, hanging out mostly constitutes of chatting, taking “selfies*” and enjoying the virtual world around you. Oh, and it’s not you, per se, but a cartoon caricature that you control; a dead-eyed digital mannequin that smiles blankly at everyone in the desperate hope that you won’t find it creepy.

Unfortunately, Spaces falls into the same trap that so many other platforms have over the years, assuming that people want the digital world to be a surrogate for the real. And that people have the time and energy to sit around talking to a cartoon with their friend’s voice through thousands of dollars worth of equipment.

Whenever a high-minded tech company makes proclamations about the future of social interaction, I’m reminded of Second Life. Founded more than a decade ago, the title was an open world platform that enabled strangers across the world to come together. It was touted as a digital utopia, a place where you were free to create whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted, however you wanted. Your digital avatar could even fly around the Second Life universe, interacting with people from across the globe.

But in reality, this utopianism was misplaced, and the environment, even during its boom years, was stale and empty. People weren’t all that into into communicating with each other, and the platform gradually became a space for people to develop weird forms of architecture. It became little more than a proto-Minecraft, a gallery space or weird and wonderful designs that few would ever notice. Second Life itself still exists, of course, with around 600,000 monthly active users.

A big part of the internet’s job is to bring people together in ways that we wouldn’t — couldn’t — have conceived a few generations ago. We can now learn so much from people all across the globe and share their experiences, dreams and knowledge. Real-time chat platforms, from IRC to FaceTime, have enabled us to gradually bridge the physical distances that separate us. Still, none are a substitute for real human interaction, face to face, in the real world.

Facebook Spaces, on the other hand, places two more barriers between us and our friends: the bulky VR headset and the digital avatar. Then there are the constraints that Facebook places upon its users. At the moment, Spaces users can’t express sadness or anger. The likelihood of this becoming the new normal for social interactions is about as likely as Disney’s recently shuttered Club Penguin becoming the new Facebook.

Facebook is asking us to take a chunk of our most precious commodity — our attention — and give it entirely to its virtual world. But that world is one step removed from that of the internet, full of (literally) fake people in a fake place. In the demo video, friends gather together a surprise birthday party to take a selfie of themselves on an imaginary boardwalk.

But where is the reality and authenticity in you, and three other people, taking an image of some cartoon avatars in a virtual world? Will you expect that future historians will unearth these images and marvel at the experiences that you pretended to have?

I wonder if I’m wrong, and that people will embrace this in the same way that they have taking pictures from inside video games. But then that, at least, shows a journey that you’re going on — and an appreciation of a particularly engaging sight that’s been created within the game. Imagine the reaction of your friends and family when you show them your vacation shots from the Grand Canyon that you didn’t visit.

Even Mark Zuckerberg knows that Facebook’s Social VR demo, as it is, not the future of how we’re going to interact with one another. Both this year and last, the CEO showed off a rough idea for an augmented reality platform that could work in a pair of glasses. There, you’d never need to buy a TV, just use the AR overlay in the lenses on conjure one up on the wall of your otherwise sparse living room.

Unfortunately, that idea is nowhere near ready for the real world, and Facebook VP Deb Liu told the AP that the journey to that hardware was “just one percent finished.” Imagine, rather than exchanging time-sucking pleasantries with a cartoon avatar while standing on a fake mountaintop, having someone sitting on your couch next to you.

You’d be able to speak to them as if they were in the room, despite being on the other side of the world. But with this (almost) real interaction, you would have real eye contact, real body language and all of the other things that we, as humans, need in order to feel comfortable interacting with one another.

The software and hardware just isn’t there for this sort of platform, and probably won’t be for a very long time. But that, not Facebook Spaces, is the vision of social VR that I can get behind.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from F8 2017!

* Technically not a selfie, since it’s not the person taking a photo.

Sony’s excitement is palpable at the A9 launch event, and for what sounds like good reason. It has by far the best sensor tech on the market, supplying most other camera-makers, but the new model is the first to use its full-frame stacked CMOS sensor, driven by an upgraded BIONZ processor. That allows the A9 to track “complex erratic motion with higher accuracy than ever before,” Sony says. It also yield an ISO range from 100 to 51,200, expandable to 204,800 — not quite in Alpha 7S II range, but the A9 has double the megapixel count.

It’s got a Quad-VGA, 3,686 dot OLED viewfinder, the highest resolution model Sony’s ever used. During shooting, you’ll never get any blackouts, even at 20fps. That’ll give you “all the benefits of an electronic viewfinder … that not even the finest optical viewfinders can match,” Sony claims.

The A9 has a new, compact body with 5-axis image stabilization and a wired ethernet port for studio-based shooters. At the same time, it has over double the battery life of previous full-frame A7 models, two media card slots, including support for high-speed UHS-II SD media in one.

AS for video, as you’d expect, the A9 supports 4K recording, but it reads out the entire full-frame sensor at 6K, and oversamples it to produce “high quality 4K footage with exceptional detail and depth.” That’s a step up from past Sony models, which have only oversampled a smaller, Super-35mm chunk of the frame, though the A9 can do that, too. It can also shoot 1080p video at up to 120 fps with full autofocus tracking.

The A9 will start shipping in the US on May 25th for $4,500 and Europe in June for €5,300 — that’s a lot, but comparable to competitors like the Nikon D5. Pre-orders will open up this Friday. Sony also unveiled the $2,500 G Master 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 telephoto lens designed specifically for the A9, set to arrive in July.

The problem with imaging a black hole is that, by definition, they don’t emit light or radiation. Luckily, large black holes are usually next to other stars and suck away their matter, something astronomers can see. “As [gases from stars] fall towards the black hole, it becomes hotter and hotter and begins to emit radiation. This is a good source of light: the accretion rings shine and illuminate the central black hole,” writes Luminet in his e-Luminesciences blog.

The distinguishing feature of a black hole is its “event horizon” boundary, the point of no return for matter and light. At its periphery, materials sucked in from adjacent stars form an “accretion disk,” famously depicted in Interstellar (below) as two bright, perpendicular disks. That’s just an illusion, though — there’s only one disk at the equator, but the light is bent upward by the black hole’s extreme gravity (via gravitation lensing).

Luminet’s image depicts two other important phenomena not seen in Interstellar. One is the fact that the energy and light are stronger near the edge of a black hole and weaker farther out. Another is the Doppler and Einstein effects caused by the accretion disk’s rotation, which would make light appear to be brighter on one side, depending on the spin direction. In Luminet’s image, the accretion disk spins counter-clockwise, so its light approaches the viewer on the left and recedes on the right, making the left-hand side look brighter.

All that causes the black hole to be much brighter in the center and left, as depicted in Luminet’s image, but not on the “Gargantua” black hole created by Interstellar‘s effects team. “A realistic image must show a strong asymmetry of the disk’s brightness, so that one side is far brighter and the other is far dimmer,” he says. (Interstellar’s black hole expert Kip Thorne was very aware of that, but director Christopher Nolan left it out so as not to confuse the audience.)

Luminet calculated all of that back in 1979 using the IBM 7040 mainframe, an early transistor computer with punch card inputs. The machine generated isolines for his image that were “directly translatable as smooth curves using the drawing software available at the time,” he told Engadget in an email.

To create the final image though, he relied on his other passion: art. Using numerical data from the computer, he drew directly on negative image paper with black India ink, placing dots more densely where the simulation showed more light. “Next, I took the negative of my negative to get the positive, the black points becoming white and the white background becoming black.”

The result is an image that still holds up and is closer to reality than the CGI done by Interstellar’s whiz kids. What’s more, subsequent computer simulations created by NASA Goddard and others still show the same defining elements — a thin “photon ring” at the center, Doppler and Einstin-shifted light and a double accretion disk caused by gravitational lensing. Not bad for someone with just punch cards and India ink.

Samsung didn’t deny the issue and told ZDNet that it can easily be fixed in the settings:

“All Samsung phones undergo thorough testing to meet our high level of quality standards. The Infinity Display on the Galaxy S8 and S8+ has applied Super AMOLED and provides rich and expressive colors, enabling users to enjoy a clearer and more vivid viewing experience.

The Galaxy S8 was built with an adaptive display that optimizes the color range, saturation, and sharpness depending on the environment. If needed, users can manually adjust the color range of the display to change the appearance of white tones, through ‘Settings > Display > Screen Mode > Color balance’.”

An unnamed mobile industry official told Business Korea that a few Note 7 launch units also had a reddish tint brought about by the Super AMOLED display. If fixing color balance doesn’t work, his advice is to go in for a replacement — indeed, some affected users said making color adjustments did nothing for them.

Another insider pointed out to The Korea Herald that it could be caused by the company’s new deep red AMOLED tech. The S8, which is the first phone to use the technology, has two types of joint pixels: red-green and blue-green. Those two greens could cause a color imbalance, so Samsung made the red pixels look stronger and deeper. Whatever the cause is, it seems buyers’ best bet to check their phone against other devices when it arrives and adjust the color balance before panicking and asking for a replacement.

The G413 is a solid piece of kit, with an aluminum plate underneath the keys and a thick braided cord providing USB pass-through so you can plug stuff into it and reduce cable clutter on your desk. Even the feet feel pretty solid and are hard to pull off — and yes, I tried, as I’ve had a few go missing in the past. The keys are easy to remove, which makes the deck super simple to clean, as well as allowing you to swap out buttons if you have replacements on hand.

However, getting new keys isn’t as easy as it would be on rival peripherals that use the fairly common Cherry-brand switches. Like Razer, Logitech uses its own proprietary switches, known as the Romer-G. They don’t feel as sharp as Cherry switches or Razer’s brand, with a slightly soft impression on each key press. But the actuation point is only 1.5mm deep (with a force of 45g), so they’re just as responsive. They’re a huge improvement over the keys in Logitech’s low-cost G213, which was aimed at the same audience with a similar price point. That model wasn’t mechanical, using what the company called “Mech Dome” keys instead. That’s a fancy name for what are essentially high-quality membrane buttons.

Logitech at least supplies a set of contoured WASD replacement keys in the box for more serious gamers. Further customization is also offered via Logitech’s software, allowing users to program the function keys with macros. The ability to customize the lighting is not available, though — Logitech left out multicolored LEDs to bring the price down. This leaves users with an ominous red backlight under each key instead (it can be turned down or off). I was glad to see macro buttons omitted as well, as I have a bad habit of accidentally hitting those extra keys when trying to type. But I admit that I wouldn’t have minded some dedicated media controls at least — I’ve grown rather fond of them after using Corsair’s K95 for so long.

The black keys with their red glow contrast rather nicely with the G413’s backplate, but there’s also a pretty sweet-looking silver version available — however, it’s a Best Buy exclusive. Whatever your preference, both colors will run you $90 and can be picked up today.

Three years ago, Malaysia Airlines flight 370 disappeared over the South China Sea, starting an multinational hunt for the plane. Despite rumors of a sophisticated hijacking or seizure of the aircraft by a foreign government, it was presumed lost in the ocean. To prevent another disaster over open water, the UN pushed for particular plane signal system that can be tracked from the ground or by satellite. But Malaysia Airlines just struck a deal to use a network of the latter that will enable them to monitor their planes anywhere they fly on earth — including over the polar ice caps.

I had the chance to try out Spaces for myself a few hours after it was announced at F8. As soon as I placed the Oculus Rift headset on my head and the Touch controllers were in my hands, I was transported to what appeared like a beautiful park with cherry blossom trees. On my right was my virtual helper, Justin, who appeared in the form of an animated cartoon avatar. In front of me was a tableau of sorts, with a little dashboard in front of me.

Justin told me to select Appearance, and voila, I could customize the appearance of an animated cartoon avatar of myself. You could design one from scratch by customizing individual features like your nose or your hair, but I decided to just have one automatically generated for me. I grabbed one of my profile photos, which were already on display, and Spaces was smart enough to translate it into a cartoon version of me. From there, I also changed the color of my glasses and my shirt, which you can do in the Appearance tab too.

What I noticed almost immediately is how real it seemed, which is really weird considering I was speaking to an animated avatar. Mike Booth, the product manager leading the Spaces development team, says that’s because the Rift and the Touch creates a little motion capture studio. “You get your actual body language,” he said. “It captures head movements, even hand gesticulation.”

What’s more, Spaces also infers what your eyes are looking at, creating what appears to be eye contact, which is integral to face-to-face communications. One of the reasons Spaces can do this so well is because these avatars are stylized and cartoon-like. “They’re not hyper-realistic, where you can find every little flaw,” says Booth.

The same goes with mouth movement. It actually listens to the voice coming through the Rift microphone and then it tries to guess what mouth shapes you’re making. It’s not always accurate — it sort of snaps the mouth around like a Wallace & Gromit cartoon — but that’s entirely on purpose. “We’re not trying to be super photorealistic,” says Booth. “We just want to show that you’re talking.”

There are other fun things you can do with your avatar too. If you point both thumbsticks up, your avatar will laugh. Point them out, and you’ll smile. Place both controllers on your face and you’ll make an “OH” face. Turn them outward, and your avatar will shrug and look confused. Gestures are basically to VR as emojis are to text. “You have to invoke them,” said Booth. “They’re not supposed to be accidental.”

Next, Justin showed me how to share different kinds of media. I could share photos and videos from my own album, or I could share ones from my newsfeed, or I could just share whatever on the web I found interesting. Once selected, I could resize them anyway I want and have them displayed in the background. What’s especially neat is that when you share 360-degree photos and videos, you can sort of throw them in the middle of the tableau and the image will completely envelop the world. It sounds sort of silly perhaps, but when Justin shared a 360-degree video of a CNN documentary of Iceland, I almost felt like we were right there, taking a tour of the glaciers.

You also have the option of using a marker to draw silly doodles, turning them into three-dimensional art. You can toss them around, make duplicates of them or just play silly games with them. And of course, I couldn’t not take a selfie. Yes, there’s a virtual selfie stick, and yes it works just as it sounds. Simply grab the selfie stick, frame the shot you want and snap the perfect shot. From there, you can share it with your friends just like you can with any other photo.

Last but not least, Spaces is also tied in with Messenger. So you can initiate video calls right when you’re in VR. Your friend’s video chat screen will show up in a little floating square (No, they don’t need a VR headset to participate) and only you can hear and see what he or she says — none of your other VR buddies can eavesdrop in the conversation. They can still hear what you say of course, but they can’t hear what your Messenger friend is saying. Facebook tells me there’s no way to enable that just yet, but that functionality might come later in the future.

As cool as all of that is though, what really sold me the most on Spaces are those animated avatars. And they also happen to be one of the factors that was really hard for Facebook to get right. “The biggest challenge was how the avatars were going to look,” said Booth. “You know the uncanny valley? Well the uncanny valley in VR is a lot wider. Anything that’s attached to your head is going to have biological motions; it’s going to seem alive.” That means that anything that was too life-like would look weird.

“Finding the right balance of charming and being human recognizably without being too realistic and creepy, was harder than expected,” said Booth. “One of our early experiments was to have the lips smoothly blend with the shapes, thinking it would be realistic. And it was just way too creepy.” There were also some experiments on non-human avatars, like you’d see on Zootopia, but that was nixed as well. “Facebook is about authentic identity, which is fundamentally about humans.” Still, that doesn’t mean that costumes won’t be an option later on.

“The core of Spaces, the reason it exists, is so you can feel like you’re in person with your friends,” said Booth. “And then it’s having interesting things you can do with your friends. It’s not a chatroom where you’re just talking.

Of course, Facebook Spaces isn’t the only social VR app out there. Oculus even has its own version called Oculus Rooms. The difference between the two, Booth says, is that Oculus’ version is made just for Oculus hardware and is made to drive that particular platform. Facebook Spaces, on the other hand, is supposed to be much more widespread. That’s why even though it’s an Oculus exclusive right now, Booth wants it to be on all VR hardware. Yes, even the Vive.

When I asked what Booth would say to the skeptics of social VR, he said he doesn’t quite know. But what he thinks would really happen, is that VR skeptics would finally be persuaded to use VR because of social. “There are people that are looking at VR, thinking it’s not for me, because they think it’s all about gaming,” he said. “But what we’re trying to build is for everyone.”

“We want to bring you and your friends to VR,” said Booth. “I hope it’ll make more people look at VR as someone that people will actually want.”

Microsoft’s phone sign-in works similarly to Google’s sign-in prompts in that it uses a mobile app (available for iOS, Android and Windows Phone) to confirm your identity, but you’ll never actually need to type a password when signing on to Microsoft services. Once you’ve set up your Microsoft Account in the app, you can enable phone sign-in through the settings menu. The next time you log in to your Microsoft Account on the desktop, you only need to enter your username and you’ll receive a notification on your phone to approve the login. Tap approve, and you’re in. The notifications act as a safeguard against unauthorized login attempts and the app can also create a unique code that works as a second authentication factor for OAuth logins.

Of course, you can always switch back to your password if you’ve somehow been separated from your phone, but Microsoft says the whole process is “easier than standard two-step verification and significantly more secure than only a password.”

If there was still any question why Facebook paid all of that money for Oculus, today’s F8 keynote provided some extra explanation. From AR to social VR and more, the company laid out its plan for the immediate future that involves blending the virtual world with real life. If you missed the hour-long talk earlier today, don’t fret: We’ve compiled all the big news in a 10-minute clip.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from F8 2017!

The full version of Workplace will be free until September 30th, but Facebook plans to charge a modest monthly rate of $3 per person for the first 1,000 people, $2 per person for the next 9,000 users, and $1 per person after that. Slack does offer 5GB of storage and service integrations with its free service, but you’re looking at a minimum of $6.50 per month for perks like additional storage or searching chat archives. That can add up quickly if you’re part of a large outfit.

Workplace is also getting bots that can automate tasks in group chats, such as ordering food for a long meeting or Lyft rides for the trip to an event. You’ll also have the option of broadcasting live video from pro equipment, such as a high-end camera at a presentation.

Should Slack be worried? That’s hard to say at this stage. Facebook’s name and resources will certainly get its foot in the door, but Slack has years of lead time and a presence on virtually every major platform. Also, some organizations may prefer Slack precisely because it isn’t Facebook. You don’t have to think about sharing your Facebook identity with your office, for example. It won’t be surprising if Workplace makes further inroads with its free tier, but it isn’t guaranteed to dominate.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from F8 2017!

Facebook teased how it would create social experiences in virtual reality, and now it’s ready to take things one step further. It just launched a Facebook Spaces beta that lets Oculus Rift owners hang out together (up to four at once) in VR. You can create an avatar that’s as realistic or fanciful as you want, draw 3D objects and show off your personal videos and use 360-degree video backgrounds to liven up your chats. There’s even a selfie stick to take virtual self-portraits. And if a friend can’t use VR, you can bring them into the conversation using Facebook Messenger video calls.

Developing…

Click here to catch up on the latest news from F8 2017!

You can access these objects the same way you get to any of Snapchat’s other lenses — from the camera view, just tap the screen and it’ll scan what’s in front of you. For starters, there are two sets of 3D objects you can try. The first contains emoji-esque graphics like a happy rainbow, sad cloud, sassy coffee mug and so on. Tapping and holding on the object lets you move it around throughout your scene, and its size scales depending on how close or far away you place it in your virtual scene.

Once you place the object in your scene, you can start recording video and walk around it to see it from all angles, just like it’s a real happy rainbow. It’s a neat trick, and it looks like Snapchat even managed to avoid getting offensive this time. In addition to the 3D emoji, you can also drop big text bubbles into your scene; phrases include “OMG,” “hello” and “gross,” for starters. While these new lenses certainly fit into the goofy Snapchat aesthetic, they’re also one of the more interesting tricks we’ve seen from the app in a while — here’s hoping Snap adds more three-dimensional objects to the app soon.

While these cards aren’t enough of an improvement for 400-series owners to upgrade, their hardware changes are worth noting. They’re second-generation Polaris GPUs built on a third-gen FinFET (a type of 3D transistor) architecture. The 400-series cards, meanwhile, were manufactured on a much earlier FinFET process. All of that means AMD was able to make the new cards more efficient, as well as clock them to higher speeds (the RX 580 is around 150MHz faster than the RX 480).

Just like last year, AMD is targeting dedicated gamers who are still running older GPUs, so it’s placing a priority on affordability. Prices will fall in line with the previous models, with the RX 580 going for around $229 with 8GB of RAM and $200 with 4GB. The RX 570, which aims for “maximum” 1080p gaming, will go for around $169, while the slightly slower RX 560 will start at $99. At the lowest end there’s the RX 550, which AMD sees a step up from integrated graphics for $79. The RX 580 and 570 should hit stores today, while the 550 will come on the 20th. You’ll have to wait until May to see the RX 560, unfortunately.

While the 500-series are improvements, they’re still very much mid-range video cards. We’re still waiting for AMD to announce its high-end Vega GPUs, which will likely go toe-to-toe with NVIDIA’s powerful GTX 1080 Ti in the 4K gaming arena. Rumors previously pointed to a Vega announcement in the second quarter, but at this point it seems more likely we’ll get something around E3 in June.

It’s going to be a busy week.
What to expect from Facebook’s annual developer conference

2017 marks the 10th anniversary of F8, and you know that CEO Mark Zuckerberg will want to show off just how far Facebook has come in the past ten years. Covering more Messenger, those Live woes and maybe even a bunch of hardware, here’s a look at what we’ll hopefully see in the days ahead.

Origin’s first budget gaming laptop costs less than a grandThere’s such a thing as a budget gaming laptop?

Origin’s EON15-S laptop has always straddled the line between gaming performance and portability, and this year’s model does that again, but for a bit less cash. For 2017, the PC maker has added NVIDIA’s newish 4GB 1050 Ti graphics card, a model that gives it a (very) mild speed bump over last year’s 980M-based EON15-S. That’s squeezed into a 1-inch, 5-pound case, and costs $999 for the cheapest configuration. However, there’s no high-res screen option this time around — you’re stuck with a 15.6-inch 1,920 x 1,080 IPS panel.

That’s a big number.Netflix explains why it keeps paying Adam Sandler for movies

Yesterday Netflix revealed its quarterly earnings, and said it is close to having 100 million streaming customers. But the most surprising statistic had to be news that subscribers have streamed half a billion hours of Adam Sandler movies since the debut of The Original 6.

It’s only twice the price of a Model 3
Tesla cuts the price on its entry-level Model S by $5,000

Recently, Tesla dropped the cheapest version of its Model S and now it’s followed up by lowering the price of the current entry-level edition. The 75 and 75D are still $1,500 more than the 60/60D was, even after a $5k price cut, but they offer more range and now come standard with features like a glass roof and automatic rear power liftgate.

It’s time to get dirty
Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt take the fight to Airbnb via lobbyists

Inevitably, hotels were going to fight back against “home sharing” apps, and a New York Times report says that time is now. Via lobbyist organizations, the hotel industry is apparently fighting on the “local, state and federal level” to rein in Airbnb and the rest with additional regulation and scrutiny (Of course, some would argue that scrutiny might be necessary).

Distill water, hop oil, or whiskey… if your local laws allow it.
Picobrew’s next goal: A safe and affordable DIY distillery

Picobrew has a new, cheaper countertop beer brewing system. That you already knew. But the company is now dipping its toes into distilling. The Picostill is an add on for the Pico Model C that turns that weird custom designed keg into a countertop distillery. Specifically it’s a reflux still that uses vacuum distillation, which doesn’t look as cool as a pot or column still, but makes far more efficient use of the space.

Finally, a way to revisit Microsoft BASIC 2.0.
Go back to 1984 with Internet Archive’s Macintosh collection

Not content to sit on the sidelines, the Internet Archive recently resurrected something, too. This time, it’s a swath of apps, games and software from the original Macintosh circa 1984. That means stuff like Lode Runner, MacOS System 7.0.1, Microsoft BASIC 2.0 and Space Invaders are on offer in their pixelated, black-and-white glory. Just like the old days.

The Wear24 will set you back $300 with a 2-year activation.
Verizon’s Android Wear 2.0 watch goes on sale May 11th

Verizon’s Android Wear 2.0 smartwatch broke from cover back in February with an scheduled launch for March. Well, that didn’t happen. Today, the wireless carrier announced that its Wear24 device would go on sale both in stores and online May 11th. If you’ll recall, the wearable is priced at $300 with a 2-year activation plus $5 month to tack one on to your data plan.

But wait, there’s more…

With so many fans on Instagram and elsewhere, police kept their eyes on it. “I noticed some chatter on social media about phones disappearing on Reddit,” Indio Police Sergeant Dan Marshall told Gizmodo. “One of the common threads was that they were all losing their phones at the Sahara tent.”

Image credit: Indio Police Department

After police kept extra eyes on that area and failed to find a suspect, it was the fans that came through. “A bunch of people activated their ‘find my phone’ and pointed at, ‘Hey, it’s that guy, my phone, my dot, it’s moving with that guy,’ ” Marshall told SFGate. The fans alerted security, who detained Henao, and the police arrested Henao, 36, for grand theft and possession of stolen property.

Henao had over 130 phones in his backpack, many of which have already been returned to their rightful owners, with the rest turned into Coachella’s lost and found department. Marshall pointed out that cellphones are lost by the hundreds at the festival, but are usually turned in, so the brazen theft stood out. “The kids are just here to have a good time,” he said. To help wannabe victims, the Indio Police Department has posted a memo on its Facebook page with tips like “place your wallet/phone in your front pocket instead of the back.”

To start, well-known leaker Evan Blass understands that the Z2 Force won’t be a Verizon exclusive like its predecessor. It’ll reportedly be available on T-Mobile as well, while Android Authority hears that Sprint has its own version. That’s a big relief if you’re tired of sticking to Big Red just to get the most advanced Moto phone in the US.

As for the design? You’ll still see a 5.5-inch display and the Z series’ signature modular back, but the new Force is reportedly thinner at just under 0.24 inches (versus 0.28in for the original) while borrowing some styling cues from the Moto G5. You’d also get a dual camera system like so many other high-end phones, and a Snapdragon 835 chip should keep things speedy. About the only mysteries are the Z2 Force’s release date and price. We’d expect the Z2 Force to carry a premium like its ancestor did, but whether or not it’s a compelling handset depends on when you can buy it — those specs won’t be so compelling if you have to wait until late in the year.