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The company has sent out emails to users informing them that the feature will shut down in the next two months.

Review information

Time played: 12 hours
Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC

Back when I first loaded up Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine for the Xbox 360, life was good. It was the heady days of 2011, and I was a teenager - a typically broke teenager, obsessed with the dense canon of the Warhammer universe but lacking the funds to purchase all those tiny, ludicrously expensive figurines and the paints with which to adorn them. A used copy of Space Marine, though? That I could afford, and I bloody loved it.

At the time, I thought it was what I'd been looking for: a crunching, brutal simulation of life as one of the God-Emperor's titular supersoldiers. I cleaved my way through swaths of Orks, chainsword buzzing and boltgun cracking. I was a force of nature, a thousand-kilo unstoppable fridge on legs. The ground shook as I marched, slow but inorexable, towards increasingly gory victories. And at the time, I was wrong.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is what I was really looking for. Did you know that Space Marines can fight for five days straight without rest, jump four meters straight up into the air, and run as fast as 90 kilometers per hour? I did, and apparently Auroch Digital (the developers of Boltgun) did too; here, you're not a plodding tank, you're an elephant with rockets strapped to it. 

 Okay, boomer 

Boltgun is what we affectionately refer to as a 'boomer shooter' - a first-person shooter in the vein of 90s classics such as Doom and Quake, and a genre that has enjoyed something of a resurgence in recent years since the latter series' 2016 reboot.

The enormous popularity of Doom 2016 and its speed-metal sequel Doom Eternal spawns plenty of riffs (no pun intended) on the theme. Many of these, like the excellent Dusk and early-access gem Ultrakill, have eschewed modern graphics in favor of a return to the low-poly glory of their forebears, and it is this path that Boltgun treads.

In the style of the very first Doom, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun utilizes both 3D and 2D art styles; blocky, three-dimensional polygons used to build the gameworld, and flat pixel-art sprites for the (extremely numerous) enemies that occupy it. It's a timeless style, and enemy models have the exact right amount of detail to make them visually distinct without compromising the retro aesthetic.

(Image credit: Auroch Digital)

The environments are similarly excellent. Starting out in the snow-blasted outskirts of a derelict industrial fortress, Boltgun mixes things up every time I started to worry my surroundings might be getting stale: military settlements give way to demon-infested catacombs, gothic cathedrals, and cavernous forges dripping with molten metal. Each chapter of the campaign is broken into pleasingly bite-sized levels that can be completed in under an hour apiece.

Sound design wasn’t skimped on, either. The soundtrack provides exactly the sort of pulse-pounding combination of industrial metal and grand orchestral overtures that I’d expect from a Warhammer 40,000 game, and the sound effects - especially those of the guns - are fantastic. I particularly appreciate how much care was taken to differentiate the sounds of different spent bullet casings and shotgun shells hitting the floor; imperceptible in the heat of battle, but perfectly punctuating the final moments of a lengthy gunfight. 

 Fighting the hordes of Chaos 

There’s not much going on in the way of story here, but that’s okay: Boltgun understands that nobody is really here to watch lengthy cutscenes, they’re here to blast demons. You occupy the power-armored boots of the nameless Sternguard Veteran, summoned by an Imperial Inquisitor to investigate suspicious (read: demonic) goings-on down on the surface of a Forge World.

You get an intro cinematic, lovingly rendered in old-school pixel-art stills, and you get occasional expository dialogue from your sole companion - a hovering servo-skull, which for the uninitiated is a human skull turned into a helper drone - but for the most part, the plot takes a back seat to the action, which is fine. There are actually a few interesting little narrative beats later on (which, incredibly, relate in part to the events of 2011’s Space Marine), but I won’t spoil anything here.

(Image credit: Auroch Digital)

Anyone who has played even a single boomer shooter will probably feel right at home here. There’s a sort of beautiful simplicity to Boltgun; you have your guns, your chainsword, and your grenades, and that’s about it. There is a sort of melee charge ability with a cooldown that can apparently stun some enemies, but I found it a bit too unreliable in the heat of combat.

I turned on sprint toggle in the settings menu after playing the first chapter with my finger glued to the shift key, since many of Boltgun’s battles encourage you to keep moving as much as possible. You really are incredibly fast and agile, deepening the power fantasy as you weave between enemy projectiles to deliver a crunching chainsword finisher. Obstacles to getting into this ‘flow state’ are minimized; fall to your death and the game resets you almost instantly. 

 For the Emperor of Mankind 

There’s no minimap (or any other kind of map) but only very rarely did I get lost. Levels are mostly linear, with some of the expected back-tracking and key-hunting here and there but nothing that takes you out of the action for too long. Quite frequently, you’ll find yourself locked in a large room with waves of enemies to clear out before you can progress, but the designs of these arenas are strong and varied enough that this never feels like a chore.

The overall level of challenge feels exceptionally well-balanced. I played on Hard and didn’t die once during the first chapter, but later levels ramped up the difficulty to a point that felt punishing but not unfair. There are a handful of mildly annoying enemies - the flying Screamers can be a pain to deal with - but for the most part, I found Boltgun to provide a sound degree of difficulty throughout.

(Image credit: Auroch Digital)

In a rather amusing juxtaposition to the Imperium’s cold in-lore authoritarianism, there are some solid accessibility features here, including an invincibility mode that allows you to experience the whole game in true power fantasy mode. You can also adjust the ‘retro’ settings to increase pixelation or reduce draw distances, in case you’re roleplaying as a person who lives in 1995.

Naturally, as a classic shooter, Boltgun’s levels are littered with ammo and health pickups, which are frequently placed for player direction. You’ve got armor too, stylized here as holy ‘Contempt’ for the forces of evil. There are also secret items hidden around each level, some of which grant you temporary bonuses like unlimited ammo or boosted damage, which helps to encourage extra exploration.

 Guns, guns, guns 

Speaking of ammo, let’s talk about Boltgun’s boltgun. The first weapon you acquire, this iconic Space Marine sidearm is simultaneously the game’s biggest strength and its greatest weakness.

You see, it’s absolutely awesome. This thing feels so damn good to fire, like a blessed full-auto lovechild of Bulletstorm’s Peacemaker and Doom Eternal’s Heavy Cannon. Rank-and-file enemies explode into showers of pixelated gore with just a few shots, with stellar sound design and physical feedback.

Why is this a problem? Because it’s the first gun you get, and I didn’t feel enthused to use most of the ones that came after. Boltgun has a total of eight weapons, and only one - the highly enjoyable Vengeance Launcher - really reached the same level of enjoyment as the boltgun. I rarely felt compelled to use anything else. In fact, I actively avoided the Heavy Bolter due to its movement speed cap, which felt counterproductive to the fun I was having zooming around at speeds approaching Mach 1.

(Image credit: Auroch Digital)

The problem this creates is that while the Sternguard Veteran’s signature firearm is great fun to use, the game employs the tabletop game’s ‘weapon strength vs enemy toughness’, whereby a weapon will deal reduced damage to an enemy with a higher toughness stat. This system isn’t explained particularly well (there’s very little handholding here) but it’s fairly intuitive provide you keep an eye on the numbers next to enemy health bars.

What this means in practice is that certain strong enemies are less affected by lower-strength guns; the 3-strength shotgun is fine for clearing out packs of lesser demons, but come up against a 5-toughness Chaos Terminator and you’re going to want something like the more powerful plasma gun. The boltgun itself is 4-strength, though - not even the lowest-strength gun in the game - which doesn’t really encourage you to switch off it unless you absolutely have to.

 The annihilation of your enemies 

(Image credit: Auroch Digital)

Really, though, this feels like a bit of a minor gripe for me when the game is just this fun to play. Perhaps other players will love the Heavy Bolter’s slow but relentless stream of leaden death, or find that the charge dash mechanic is actually great for them. 

There’s enough here for every shooter fan to enjoy, and the simple fact is that I had a ton of fun playing Boltgun. It delivers exactly what it promises: high-octane shooter action that draws on some of the best its setting has to offer.

Existing fans of the 40,000 universe are certain to appreciate the dedicated recreation of an Imperium Forge World and all the horrible, demonic, no-good inhabitants you’ll gun down while exploring it, but part of Boltgun’s beauty is that you don’t need to know a damn thing about the Warhammer canon to enjoy it. You’re a supersoldier in power armor and your job is to kill demons. What are you waiting for? Hop to it.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun was reviewed on PC with a code supplied by the publisher. 

The lawyer told the judge he did not know content from the artificial intelligence could be false.

Google Maps has been around for quite some time now, and one of its most useful features called Street View gives a virtual view of your home's own curb appeal making it feel like you are there in person up close. This is an especially great tool if you're going someplace new and want to familiarize yourself with the area and what the landscape looks like first. 

CLICK TO GET KURT’S FREE CYBERGUY NEWSLETTER WITH QUICK TIPS, TECH REVIEWS, SECURITY ALERTS AND EASY HOW-TO’S TO MAKE YOU SMARTER 

However, did you know that you can go back in time and look at what a location looked like years ago? Google Maps has been storing every image taken of every location dating back to 2007, so you can even see what your own home looked like way back when. While some locations won't have updated photos every year, some can go back 10 to 15 years.

Here's how to access this feature. 

MORE: HOW GOOGLE MAPS LETS LOVED ONE KNOW YOU'RE SAFE AT ALL TIMES 

Google Maps has tons of other useful features that you can use too. Here are some of my favorite ones. 

HOW TO CHECK THAT YOU'RE NOT ACCIDENTALLY SHARING YOUR LOCATION

When looking at a location, you can do a lot more than just look at Street View. Google Maps gives multiple different views based on your needs, including a traffic view, transit view, biking view, and more. Here's how to select a different view. 

FOR MORE OF MY TIPS, SUBSCRIBE TO MY FREE CYBERGUY REPORT NEWSLETTER BY HEADING TO CYBERGUY.COM/NEWSLETTER 

Google Maps will also give you tons of useful places located near the location you're searching for, including hotels, restaurants, things to do, and more. Here's how to locate those options. 

MORE: APPLE MAPS FEATURE THAT CAN HELP YOU FIND A PARKING SPACE  

If you need the map with you on the go, you can send the location from your computer to your phone as long as you have a Google account. 

Everyone is a bit nostalgic. So, you'll want to check out Google Maps cool feature that lets you explore images of locations dating back to 2007. Whether you're using a laptop or a phone, you can easily access this feature by searching for a location, selecting the picture of the location, and then choosing the "See more dates" option. It's a fascinating way to see how places have changed over time. And that's not all. Google Maps also offers other useful features like different views (traffic, transit, biking) and recommendations for nearby stores. 

Have you tried these tricks within Google Maps yet? Do you think you or Google should be in control of your home’s publicly stored street images? Let us know by writing us at CyberGuy.com/Contact 

For more of my tips, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to CyberGuy.com/Newsletter 

Copyright 2023 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved. 

Whenever we find out that someone has passed away, whether it's a celebrity or someone we know personally, there's always a feeling of shock followed by a curiosity about how exactly they died. It's natural to see an article with the headline saying that someone has passed away and want to click on it immediately, and scammers know this.

CLICK TO GET KURT’S FREE CYBERGUY NEWSLETTER WITH SECURITY ALERTS, QUICK TIPS, TECH REVIEWS, AND EASY HOW-TO’S TO MAKE YOU SMARTER 

That's why this latest Facebook scam is becoming so popular by exploiting this inherent curiosity among us. Here's what we know about it so far and how you can protect yourself. 

How does this Facebook scam work? 

The way it works is a scammer will first pretend to be a close friend or family member or yours so that you immediately gain their trust. They then will send you a message on Facebook Messenger that says, "Look who died," along with a link to what looks like a legitimate news article. 

However, if you click that link, the page will ask you to type in your Facebook credentials so that you can have access to read the article. This is the scammers' way of getting your username and password so that they can gain access to your account and all the personal data associated with it. Plus, they will be able to look at everyone you're friends with on Facebook so that they can forward the message along to all those people and create one big scamming domino effect. 

TROUBLING MALWARE THREAT SPREADING ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER  

What should I do if I fall for this scam? 

There are a few steps you can take to save your account if you have mistakenly fallen victim to this malicious scam. Here are some of my tips. 

Report to Facebook 

This isn't the first scam that has gone around on the social media platform, and the team at Facebook can only make their security measures better if people say something when they see something. Make sure you report any scammers you see to Facebook so that they can take care of it. 

If you've given your password out to a scammer and can still log into your account, change your password as quickly as possible. This will lock the scammer out again so that they can't do any further damage. Here are the steps for changing your password.

Check your other apps 

You may have given your other social media accounts, like Instagram, Twitter, etc., access to your Facebook account. If the passwords you have for those accounts are the same as the ones you have for your Facebook, change those passwords to something different. You should have different passwords for all your accounts just in case one gets hacked into so that you won't have to worry about all your accounts getting hacked. 

Use a Password Manager

I recommend you use a secure password manager. They are still the safest and most secure way to keep track of all your passwords. It will not only help you to create unique and difficult-to-crack passwords that a hacker could never guess, but it also keeps track of all your passwords in one place and fills passwords in for you when you're logging into an account so that you never have to remember them yourself. The fewer passwords you remember, the less likely you will be to reuse them for your accounts. 

What qualities should I look for in a password manager? 

When it comes to choosing the best password manager for you, here are some of my top tips. 

Check out my best expert-reviewed password managers of 2023 by clicking here. 

Facebook has the option for you to have 2-factor authentication on your account. You should certainly have this feature turned on as an extra precaution to keep hackers out. Here's how to turn on 2-factor authentication. 

Follow the prompts to enable two-factor authentication 

FOR MORE OF MY TIPS, SUBSCRIBE TO MY FREE CYBERGUY REPORT NEWSLETTER BY HEADING TO CYBERGUY.COM/NEWSLETTER

DON'T FALL FOR THIS SNEAKY NOTIFICATION THAT'S FOOLING PEOPLE ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM  

Have good antivirus software on all your devices 

Having antivirus software running on your devices is crucial in protecting yourself from various online threats, such as the Facebook "look who died" message scam, as it can prevent you from clicking on any malicious links or downloading files that may release malware into your device and potentially have your private information stolen. The software will also remove any existing malware from your devices.

See my expert review of the best antivirus protection for your Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices by visiting CyberGuy.com/LockUpYourTech 

Kurt's key takeaways 

The most important thing to remember is to never click on any suspicious links, even if it looks like it could be from someone you trust. Check the profile of the person sending things to you, and always keep your guard up because you never know when it might be someone trying to scam you. Get your passwords in order with a trusted password manager, install antivirus software if you haven't already, and always be on the lookout for suspicious activity. 

Are there any other scams going around on Facebook that you've seen recently? Let us know by writing us at CyberGuy.com/Contact 
 
For more of my tips, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to CyberGuy.com/Newsletter    

Copyright 2023 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved. 

The so-called "godfather of AI" continues to warn about the dangers of artificial intelligence weeks after he quit his job at Google. 

In a recent interview with NPR, Geoffrey Hinton said there was a "serious danger that we'll get things smarter than us fairly soon and that these things might get bad motives and take control." 

He asserted that politicians and industry leaders need to think about what to do regarding that issue right now. 

No longer science fiction, Hinton cautioned that technological advancements are a serious problem that is probably going to arrive very soon. 

BIDEN EDUCATION DEPARTMENT WORRIED AI IN THE CLASSROOM MIGHT BE USED TO SPY ON TEACHERS

For example, he told the outlet the world might not be far away from artificial general intelligence, which has the ability to understand or learn any intellectual task that a human can. 

"And, I thought for a long time that we were like 30 to 50 years away from that," he noted. "Now, I think we may be much closer. Maybe only five years away from that." 

While some people have compared chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT to autocomplete, Hinton said the AI was trained to understand – and it does. 

"Well, I'm not saying it's sentient. But, I'm not saying it's not sentient either," he told NPR. 

"They can certainly think and they can certainly understand things," he continued. "And, some people by sentient mean, ‘Does it have subjective experience?’ I think if we bring in the issue of subjective experience, it just clouds the whole issue and you get involved in all sorts of things that are sort of semi-religious about what people are like. So, let's avoid that." 

SCIENTISTS USE AI TO FIND DRUG THAT KILLS BACTERIA RESPONSIBLE FOR MANY DRUG-RESISTANT INFECTIONS

He said he was "unnerved" by how smart Google's PaLM model had gotten, noting that it understood jokes and why they were funny. 

Google has since released PaLM 2, the next-generation large language model with "improved multilingual, reasoning and coding capabilities."

With the release of such AI swirls fears regarding job replacement, political disputes and the spread of disinformation due to AI. 

While some leaders – including Elon Musk, who has his own stake in the AI sphere – had signed an open letter to "immediately pause for at least six months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4," Hinton does not think it's feasible to stop the research. 

"The research will happen in China if it doesn't happen here," he explained.

He highlighted that there would be many benefits to AI and asserted that leaders need to put a lot of resources and effort into seeing if it's possible to "keep control even when they're smarter than us."

"All I want to do is just sound the alarm about the existential threat," he said, noting that others had been written off "as being slightly crazy."

"You can run but you can't hide," commissioner Thierry Breton warns Twitter over upcoming rules.

Engo 2: One minute review

My calves are aching, and sweat is running down my back and soaking my shorts. I can feel my pulse in my neck: I’m not going a mile a minute, but my heart sure is. Or am I? I flick my eyes to the display in the corner of my mirrored sunglasses to check my splits and heart rate. It ain’t great, but I’m on pace still. For now, anyway.

The display is the important part of the Engo 2 augmented reality glasses, which resemble Arnie’s shades from the Terminator flicks but house a secret. Tucked in around the nose piece is a monochrome OLED display that beams stats from your bike computer or smartwatch directly onto the lens in front of your eyes. 

It’s like the head-up display fighter pilots use, and it’s made by one of the top suppliers. I’m wearing tech designed for F-15 pilots. I am invincible. 

Other augmented reality glasses – like the Nreal Air or Virture One, or even the prototypes we’ve seen from Xiaomi and TCL and Lumus – aim to be platforms that do it all, offering directions, integration with your virtual assistant, the vast database of the Internet at your fingers. They also threaten location-based advertisements (“McDonald’s is just ¼ mile away. How about half price McNuggets?”), which feels as intrusive as it is inevitable. The Engo does one thing and one thing alone: Real time data for endurance athletes.

“We’re not here to facilitate a new advertising context,” Mark Prince, GM and Chief Commercial Officer for the company told me. “We’re here to make people faster, better, smarter.”

It’s a glimpse of the future, the first AR solution that connects directly to the Apple Watch. It also retails for $329.95 – a fair bit of money for sunglasses. Does Engo 2 deliver on that promise? Can it make me a better runner?

Engo 2: Price and availability

Currently, the Engo 2 is available to purchase directly from the Engo website in the US and Europe. Engo 2 is available for in the US for $329.95, and in mainland Europe for €329.00 euros. Although the Europe store ships to the UK, the glasses are not currently available in Australia. 

Engo 2: What's in the box

(Image credit: Jeremy Kaplan)

• Two carrying cases
• One charger
• No manual

The Engo 2 glasses come with a fairly comprehensive collection of components. There’s the glasses, of course, as well as a cloth travel sleeve and a rigid case. The rigid case is quite well designed, with cut outs for the glasses and a spot to store your cords. There’s a microfiber cloth, cleaning brushes to get the gunk around the display components, and a somewhat janky power cord  

The Engo 2 glasses come with a fairly comprehensive collection of components. There’s the glasses, of course, as well as a cloth travel sleeve and a rigid case. The rigid case is quite well designed, with cut outs for the glasses and a spot to store your cords. There’s a microfiber cloth, cleaning brushes to get the gunk around the display components, and a somewhat janky power cord -- more on that later. There’s also a safety manual for some reason, but no user guide.

This absence became a real sore spot for me. A manual handily details the features and functions of a product, walks you through setup, and so on. Somehow, Engo hasn’t made one. There are detailed YouTube videos for Android and iOS set up, and help pages online. These are not a manual. 

The Engo 2 glasses come with a fairly comprehensive collection of components. There’s the glasses, of course, as well as a cloth travel sleeve and a rigid case. The rigid case is quite well designed, with cut outs for the glasses and a spot to store your cords. There’s a microfiber cloth, cleaning brushes to get the gunk around the display components, and a somewhat janky power cord -- more on that later. There’s also a safety manual for some reason, but no user guide.

This absence became a real sore spot for me. A manual handily details the features and functions of a product, walks you through setup, and so on. Somehow, Engo hasn’t made one. There are detailed YouTube videos for Android and iOS set up, and help pages online. These are not a manual.manual for some reason, but no user guide.

This absence became a real sore spot for me. A manual handily details the features and functions of a product, walks you through setup, and so on. Somehow, Engo hasn’t made one. There are detailed YouTube videos for Android and iOS set up, and help pages online. These are not a manual.

• Score: 3/5 

Engo 2: Design and display

(Image credit: Jeremy Kaplan)

• Comparable to ordinary sport glasses
• Hardware neatly concealed
• Power button is an afterthought

From the front, the Engo 2 glasses look more or less like ordinary sports sunglasses, with a mirrored, wrap-around sun visor and black or white plastic temples (I had black). The glasses themselves are state of the art polycarbonate. Turn them around to put them on and you’ll see the magic: Tucked in around the nose bridge is a tiny micro-OLED projector, mirror system, and batteries to power them.

Put the glasses on and you will notice this hardware, but not really by much. Just place your index fingers on either side of your nose and you’ll see that they mostly vanish; the Engo’s hardware works in the same way. Yes, it’s there, but it’s not as intrusive as you might think. Within a day I had forgotten it completely.

The glasses weigh 36 or 41 grams, depending on whether you’ve got the large, full coverage lenses or the slightly smaller streamlined model. (I’ve been testing the large model.) That’s about as much as a standard pair of Oakleys, Prince told me. They feel a bit heavier to me, but not much. But the weight is definitely off center, meaning the glasses will slip down your nose and off your face if you aren’t careful. To offset that, the company includes a bungee cord that slips snugly over the temples and cinches behind your head. It’s a perfect solution.

A bit of background on the display: The Engo 2 glasses come from MicroOLED, which is the largest manufacturer of micro OLED displays outside of Asia, and the second largest globally in certain markets, notably military supply. The company’s displays are in use in most western military organizations today, in things like head-up displays, night vision, scopes, and so on, Prince said.

“It’s kind of a Meow Mix thing. The cats ask for it by name,” he told me. Engo is a wholly owned consumer subsidiary, designed to promote and use these screens in other ways. And they should! Micro OLED screens consume radically less power than micro LED displays, yet most of the big tech initiatives that you read about tend to use micro LED. The power consumption is the reason other advanced eyewear is bulky or has an external battery pack.

At CES 2023, several companies touted AR glasses that use waveguides, wherein a tiny LED beams light through several sets of mirrors embedded in the lens that expand it to fill your field of view. So mirrors, but really, really smart mirrors. “There are two approaches to waveguides,” Dave Goldman, VP of marketing for Israeli-based Lumus, told me. “One is called diffractive, and that’s the other guys. And I mean everybody else.” Everybody else includes the Vuzix Ultralite, Nreal Air, and Virture One. The Lumus Z-Lens prototype uses reflective waveguides, which are much more power efficient.

But they’re all power hogs compared with Micro OLED, a proven tech that exists today. Again, it’s what the military guys use. Sure, LED is brighter, but Micro OLED is bright enough, Prince says. The monochrome display in the Engo 2 glasses was perfectly visible even in bright sunlight, and the glasses don’t require any sort of external power supply. Battery life: 12 hours, Prince says. I’m sold.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Engo 2: Features and setup

(Image credit: Jeremy Kaplan)

• Apple Watch works beautifully
• ActiveLook software needs work
• Not enough support material

Today’s athletes mostly use Apple Watch or Garmin devices, although there’s no shortage of people with Suuntos, Fitbits, and so on. Depending on whether you’re Team Apple or Team Android, you’ll find Engo to be either super simple to set up or maddening as all get out. I set up my Engo 2 glasses with both, and lived to tell the tale. 

In both cases, start by downloading the ActiveLook app. ActiveLook comes from MicroOLED as well, but it’s a third, separate company from the same folks with an API and an SDK and customers of its own. ActiveLook is essentially the bridge between the smart glasses and your sensors, and Prince says the company thinks it could be a platform to itself. 

Using ActiveLook with an Apple Watch is a snap: download, pair, and you’re off to the races. Using it with a Garmin watch is like trying to drink scalding hot coffee on a roller coaster. You can see what’s going on, but dear god, why is it happening? The problem lies in how Garmin surfaces information from devices like the Forerunner 945 I rely upon. Info from the smartwatch is broken down into data fields, which the Engo 2 displays on screens.

By default, the ActiveLook app and Engo 2 come configured with three sets of data fields; one set of defaults, a set for running, and a set for cycling. A carefully concealed page on the ActiveLook.net site reveals how to configure the dashboards. Buried deep within the ActiveLook app is a configuration page that lets you adjust the datafields being passed to the screen, by looking up codes on that webpage. The codes are listed not in numerical order but by type of data (power, heart rate, speed and pace, and so on).  

Any sane human being would long since have thrown a hammer through a plate glass window. Seriously, I’ve reviewed motherboards that have clearer explanations of jumper settings. I’d have liked to see more information than that supplied by Garmin or Apple, beyond pace, time out, and distance. But navigation is only possible with Suunto.

• Features score: 2/5

Engo 2: Performance and ease of use

(Image credit: Jeremy Kaplan)

• Easy to start and connect
• Gesture controls are so-so
• Display is very legible

Press the power button right before your run and the Engo 2 glasses connect instantly, every single time. And once I started running with the Engo 2 glasses, I found the information to be super handy. There’s a dirty secret to smartwatches: Every time you raise your wrist to check your pace or heart rate, you break your stride, slowing you down, throwing off your cadence, and so on. With data directly in front of your face, you merely look to the side and can see it all. 

Even at pace, I had no issues checking the screens for information. The glasses tend to sit close to your face, which means they do steam up a bit from body heat, something I anticipate will worsen in the summer. But they’re easy to clean with microfiber cloth or simple soap and water. 

The glasses support gestures as a way of navigating between screens of information as well. A keystone-shaped sensor right between your eyes can detect when you pass your hands before your eyes and will automatically step between screens. And here’s where a manual would have come in handy, mentioning to me the existence of the gesture support, how to turn it on, and so on. Nope. There isn’t one.

I had the feature enabled through the ActiveLook app, but somehow it hadn’t been turned on in the eyeglasses themselves. I went back into the app, disabled the feature, and as I had been advised, force-quitted the app and disabled Bluetooth entirely before repairing it with my phone. Rinse and repeat to re-enable gestures, and the feature was suddenly up and working, an odd glitch I suppose.

Gestures work acceptably, though not brilliantly. I sometimes found myself passing my hand before my face twice to switch screens, and swiping only works in one direction you can’t go back a screen. 

• Performance score: 4/5

Engo 2: Should I buy? Buy it if... Don't buy it if...

After Microsoft said it plans to discontinue several keyboard models and focus on its Surface brand, the news caused sadness for some devotees

"Once it is placed in the device, the malware tries to bypass the security check of the device and after a successful attempt, it attempts to steal sensitive data, and permissions such as reading history and bookmarks, killing background processing, and reading call logs etc," the advisory said about Daam.

Macworld

Wish you could use cellular data in other countries without having to pay any roaming fees? Then you need to check out Instabridge eSim. And since their subscriptions have been dropped in price during our Memorial Day Sale, there may never be a better time to get it.

Instabridge eSim is the ultimate solution for global data on the go. You just sign up for one of their lifetime subscriptions, bring your own compatible phone, and you’ll get fast and reliable access to the internet within the country that you selected.

And you’ll get a lot of it too — 2GB per month, in fact, with the US-based data plan. And they offer plans for other countries as well that include anywhere from 1GB to 4GB per month, so you can pick the one that best suits your travel needs.

If you plan to travel internationally (for work or vacation) and you want to stay connected, then Instabridge eSim is a must-have. And since you can save on all of their lifetime subscriptions during our Memorial Day Sale — no coupon codes required — it’s as cost-effective as it is practical.

Get a lifetime subscription to Instabridge eSim, normally $149, for just $139.97 until May 31 at 11:59 pm.

 

Instabridge eSIM: Lifetime Plan – $139.97

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Prices subject to change.

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Google has been ordered to pay a $32.5m fine for violating a patent held by Sonos related to grouping speakers to play audio simultaneously. Sonos filed the case against Google after the companies had previously partnered in 2013, claiming that Google copied its patented multiroom-audio technology. The US International Trade Commission ruled in favour of Sonos resulting in a limited import ban on certain Google devices, with Google having to remove features from its range of smart speakers and smart displays. While Sonos previously sued for four other patent violations, only one claim was successful. Google may appeal the decision.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that the banned game BGMI is set to make a comeback in India. A bit of confusion followed about when it will be available and how users could play. Now, Kraft — the developer of the game — has confirmed the availability date of the game.

A US appeals court has reportedly vacated a $570 million award Cognizant had won against rival software provider Atos' Syntel Inc for theft of its trade secrets related to healthcare insurance software. While Cognizant won the lawsuit, the New York-based US Circuit Court of Appeals said that Cognizant was not entitled to the damages under the federal trade secret law and ordered a Manhattan federal court to reconsider based on other grounds, as per a report in news agency Reuters.

Microsoft is challenging Britain's decision to block its $69 billion takeover of 'Call of Duty' maker Activision Blizzard on the grounds of "fundamental errors" in the assessment of the company's cloud gaming services. The software giant has filed an appeal against the UK competition watchdog, Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), decision to block the deal. Last month, CMA vetoed the deal saying that it could hurt competition in the nascent cloud gaming market.

The hacking operation code-named "Volt Typhoon" that targeted critical infrastructure in Guam and other locations in the United States is of "real concern," Microsoft president and vice chair Brad Smith tells "Face the Nation." Watch more of Margaret Brennan's interview with Smith Sunday on "Face the Nation."

The Nasdaq closed out its fifth straight weekly gain and is again outperforming other U.S. indexes as tech stocks are back in favor.

A global network of regulators weigh in on tech deals large and small, forcing divestitures and blocking acquisitions at a challenging moment for the industry.

Elon Musk’s brain chip firm Neuralink has received the US regulatory green light for its first human clinical trial, after earlier controversies.

Google has released a minor update, Android 14 Beta 2.1 to Pixel phones with several bug fixes and improvements. The update addresses issues such as preventing users from completing the device setup after opting a device running Android 14 beta and fixing issues that caused the battery percentage and speaker audio disruptions, system stability issues, Google Photos app crashes, and the icon for the Google Messages app not displaying for notifications. Devices enrolled in the Android Beta for Pixel program will receive the update over-the-air.