Apple started a repair program for AirPods Pro audio problems

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It's Saturday, October 31, 2020.

You saw the video. The SSC Tuatara hit 331 MPH and set a new speed record for a production car… or did it? Car fans have been dissecting the company’s claim ever since the video was posted, and on further analysis that figure doesn’t seem to hold up.

As a result, SSC North America CEO and founder Jerod Shelby posted a video pledging to run the car again “in the near future” to remove all doubt, and invited YouTubers like Shmee150 to witness the event in person.

-- Richard Lawler

The Engadget Podcast

PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X early impressions

This week, Devindra and Cherlynn are joined by Jessica Conditt to talk about both new consoles -- well, as much as they can say anyway. Jess chats about her PlayStation 5 preview, and we can finally compare it to the Xbox Series X and S final hardware. Also, they dive into what’s up with AMD and NVIDIA’s latest GPUs, the RTX 3070 and Radeon RX 6000 series.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or Stitcher.
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Apple acknowledges some AirPods Pro ear buds have audio problems

The AirPods Pro Service Program will replace affected units for up to two years after they were sold.

When we asked you for your reviews of the AirPods Pro, several people noted crackling problems and weird active noise cancellation problems. Now, according to a notice, in devices manufactured before October of this year, “a small percentage of AirPods Pro may experience sound issues.”

Apple didn’t specify a cause for the issue, but affected units could have problems with a crackling or static sound that increases when other outside noises are present, or the Active Noise Cancellation feature otherwise not working as expected. Within two years of their original sale, you can contact Apple to have them diagnose the issue and replace affected units.
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The best deals we found this week: $50 off AirPods Pro and more

Including early Black Friday pricing from Best Buy.

Valentina Palladino gathered some of the week’s highlights below, including deals like Apple’s AirPods Pro for $200 and Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet with extra storage for $230. Here are the best deals from this week that you can still get today.
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Take great notes with this smart pen and writing pad combo

Roborace engineer explains why a driverless racecar drove into a wall

Maldonado mode.

A video of an unfortunate (albeit kinda hilarious) Roborace incident made the rounds on Thursday. It showed an SIT Acronis Autonomous racecar immediately veering to the right at the start of a lap and crashing into a wall. In a post on Reddit, one of the engineers explained that an error on the initialization lap caused the steering to lock all the way to the right.

“We are looking at the log values and can see that our controller was trying to steer the car back to the left, but the car did not execute the steering command due to a steering lock. The desired trajectory was also good; the car definitely did not plan to go into the wall.
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$149 Playdate handheld is 'ready to go,' orders start in early 2021

Grayscale gaming is back, almost.

Panic’s monochrome handheld console is getting closer to release, as the company announced it will make 20,000 Playdates in the first run, and open orders early next year. The crank-equipped game system will have more games than originally announced, and a slightly refined design over the versions we tested last year.
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