Plus, NASA ends a Mars mission and Meta’s still being creepy.
NVIDIA
It’s been a busy week, with Computex and Microsoft Build just two of the raft of big events going on right now. The biggest news story from both was probably NVIDIA’s glossy announcement of its RTX Spark system on a chip… sorry, I mean “superchip.” It’s an integrated CPU/GPU/RAM unit, like AMD’s Ryzen AI Max, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite and Apple Silicon. NVIDIA says it will offer unprecedented levels of AI computing power in a low-power mobile device.
RTX Spark is the portable sibling of NVIDIA’s existing DGX Spark AI mini-desktop, but tailored for Windows notebooks and desktops. It combines a MediaTek-made ARM CPU with 20 cores with an NVIDIA integrated GPU with power similar to that of the RTX 5070. Users can order the system with between 16GB and 128GB of unified memory, and there’s plenty of bandwidth to join the whole chorus together.
NVIDIA says plenty of PC makers are clamoring to get the RTX Spark into their gear, with Microsoft at the head of the line. It announced the Surface Laptop Ultra, a 15-inch notebook which Engadget’s Devindra Hardawar described as a “MacBook Pro clone.” I’m sure he’ll get the Ultra in for testing at some point soon, when we’ll be able to discern if it’s worth any of the hype it’s been getting.
— Dan Cooper
NASA’s Mars MAVEN probe is dead
NASA
NASA has pulled the plug on the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission after it lost contact with the probe. MAVEN launched in 2013 and was originally intended to scan the Martian atmosphere for a single year, but wound up operating for more than a decade. It even did its part to help the Perseverance rover start its mission back in 2020. Alas, NASA lost contact with MAVEN at the start of December, and after six months of silence has decided to wish it well in its future endeavors.
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Nintendo will launch a Switch 2 with replaceable batteries in the EU
Nintendo
Integrated batteries are great, right up to the point where they go wrong and your device needs a costly repair, or an even costlier replacement. It’s why the EU has been laying the groundwork to mandate hardware makers build gear with user-replaceable batteries to cut down on waste. Nintendo has announced that it will be complying with the rules, and will launch a version of the Switch 2 in the territory with a swappable cell. Unfortunately, it didn’t go into specifics about how that would work, or when those units would hit the market, but we suspect they will sell well.
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Wired found code for an unreleased facial recognition feature in Meta’s AI app
Karissa Bell for Engadget
Code purporting to run a facial recognition feature, dubbed Name Tag, has been found lying dormant on Meta’s AI app. The system is reportedly able to capture faces and notify the wearer of their identity, which raises serious privacy and ethics concerns. Meta admitted it was investigating the technology, but said it hadn’t shipped anything to users and had not yet made a final decision on whether to use the technology.
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Marshall Milton ANC review: Making the rare case for premium on-ear headphones
James Trew for Engadget
On-ear headphones are a bit like the under-loved middle child of the headphone world, with most of the attention going to their over-ear and in-ear siblings. James Trew is looking to give the category some attention by reviewing Marshall’s new Milton ANC headphones. It’s a pair of premium on-ear ANC headphones with rock-solid battery life, a great companion app and good sound. But you’ll have to click through and read all of his thoughts before deciding if they’re worth $230 of your hard-earned money.
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