Logitech reveals a $100 Litra Beam key light for creators

Logitech has unveiled two new products aimed at creators, including one designed to help them look their best while streaming or recording videos. Litra Beam is a key light that has a three-way adjustable desktop stand, which should help you find the right height, tilt and rotation for your needs. Logitech notes that, by adding one or more of the lights to their setup, creators can employ various lighting techniques, such as Front, Split, Butterfly or Rembrandt.

The key light employs TrueSoft tech. According to Logitech, that helps to provide “balanced, full-spectrum LED light with cinematic color accuracy for a natural, radiant look across all skin tones.” The company also claims the Litra Beam can do away with harsh shadows thanks to its frameless diffuser. Since it can run on either USB or AC power, you’ll have more flexibility over where to place the device.

There are buttons on the rear, which provide a way to quickly switch between five brightness and five color temperature settings. Alternatively, you can control the Litra Beam via the Logitech G Hub desktop app. From here, you can tweak brightness by percentage value, adjust the color temperature by Kelvins, control multiple key lights at the same time and manage presets.

Logitech Blue Sona XLR microphone attached to a stand with a person speaking into it.
Logitech

You might want your streams, videos and calls to sound good too. Logitech also announced a Blue Sona XLR broadcast mic. It has a built-in preamp that offers a +25dB gain boost, a dual-diaphragm capsule and supercardioid pickup pattern (designed to reduce or eliminate background noise) and a 290-degree swivel mount. It’s available in graphite and off-white finishes with swappable red and graphite windscreens.

The Litra Beam, which follows the $60 Litra Glow light Logitech announced earlier this year, won’t break the bank. It costs $100/£99/€119, so it’s perhaps a more budget-friendly alternative to Elgato’s lights. As for the Blue Sona, that will run you $350/£329/€349. Both products are available starting today in the US, Canada and some European countries.

Ted Lasso and AFC Richmond are coming to ‘FIFA 23’

Ted Lasso is coming to FIFA 23 and he’s bringing AFC Richmond with him. EA teamed up with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to include the stars of Ted Lasso in the game — Warner Bros. is one of the producers and distributors of the Apple TV+ hit. You’ll be able to play as Roy Kent et al in several modes, including Career Mode, Kickoff, Online Friendlies and Online Seasons.

FIFA 23 will make Richmond kits, tifos, manager items (including Coach Beard ones) and other content available to unlock through FIFA Ultimate Team and Pro Clubs. Richmond’s Nelson Road stadium will be in the game too. Hopefully, we’ll hear a Roy Kent chant or two from the crowd.

As for Ted Lasso himself, you’ll be able to select him as the manager of Richmond or any other team in Career Mode. Alternatively, any other manager, including a created one, can take control of Richmond. You can also have your own created player take to the pitch alongside the likes of Jamie Tartt, Sam Obisanya and Dani Rojas. EA released a trailer that features Wayne Rooney, Jack Grealish and Trent Crimm (formerly of The Independent):

“It is so f***ing cool to be in FIFA. I’m not sure this is going to help dispel the CGI rumors but f*** it, totally worth it,” Brett Goldstein, who plays Roy Kent, said in a statement. “I look forward to beating my nephew in a game with me as Roy Kent and him as Jamie Tartt. He’s gonna be furious.”

FIFA 23 is coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC (where it will have EA’s new anti-cheat tech) and Stadia on September 30th. It might not be Ted Lasso’s only appearance in a video game, though. Leaks have suggested he’ll be a playable character in Warner Bros’ crossover fighting game MultiVersus at some point.

Getty Images bans AI-generated art over copyright concerns

Don’t expect to see stock photos from DALL-E and other AI image creation tools. Getty Images chief Craig Peters told The Verge in a statement that his company has banned AI-generated art over the potential for copyright disputes. There are “unaddressed rights issues” with the technology, the CEO said, and this would help customers minimize the risk to their finances and reputations.

Peters didn’t say if Getty had already encountered legal trouble with AI-generated content. He noted there was an “extremely limited” amount of that material on the platform. The company is teaming with the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity to create filters for AI-produced material, and is asking users to flag anything that slips through. Rivals like Shutterstock are already screening at least some imagery.

The move isn’t shocking. While using AI to create an image isn’t necessarily illegal, generators frequently sample images that may be copyrighted. Getty and its customers could face legal repercussions for effectively stealing art and profiting from it. There’s also the chance governments could enact laws and regulations limiting use of the technology.

There’s no certainty the ban will work well in practice. As The Verge notes, it’s not hard to find AI-made pictures on Getty at the moment. However, we wouldn’t the company to change its tune unless it finds AI systems guaranteed to generate completely legal pictures.

Framework made a modular, repairable Chromebook

Framework, the company spearheading a new generation of modular, repairable products, has made a Chromebook. It teamed up with Google to produce a ChromeOS-friendly version of the standard Framework machine with the same promise of modularity and repairability.

Internally, the Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition comes with a 3:2, 2,256 x 1,504 display, a 12th-generation Core i5-1240, 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD. You can order up to 64GB RAM and 1TB SSD, although you’re also at liberty to upgrade those components yourself at a later date.

You’ll also, as before, be able to spec the machine how you want, including USB-C, USB-A, MicroSD, HDMI, DisplayPort and Ethernet. Plus, if you’re looking to bolster the storage beyond the SSD, you can buy dedicated storage expansion cards, blanked-out port modules that can hold a 250GB or 1TB of additional solid-state storage.

The one major change really is the fact that this model comes with the Titan C security chip baked into its chassis. It’s not clear yet if that’ll have any noticeable impact upon your ability to swap out the mainboard when it’s time to upgrade.

The Framework Laptop Chromebook Edition is available to pre-order in the US and Canada from today, with the base model priced at $999. Would-be buyers can expect their shipment in late November or early December, and folks are required to put down a $100 refundable deposit to hold their place in the shipment line.

The $350 Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld will arrive in October

Logitech is hosting an event today, during which it’s revealing some new products for gamers and streamers. Details on one of those leaked in advance as a preorder page for the Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld went live on Amazon Canada a bit early. The company has now officially unveiled the device.

According to the listing, which was spotted by Lbabinz on Twitter, the Cloud Gaming Handheld will arrive on October 18th and cost $400 CAD. Logitech’s press materials, on the other hand, say the product will ship next month. The system will also be available from Amazon in the US, where it costs $350 USD, or $300 if you preorder. That’s fairly pricey for a dedicated cloud gaming handheld, especially considering that a Nintendo Switch OLED is the same price (and can be jailbroken to run cloud gaming services).

Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld
Logitech

The specs and design align with leaked details from late August. You’ll be able to stream games in 1080p at up to 60 frames per second on the seven-inch, 450-nit touchscreen. The handheld, which is a customized Android tablet housed inside a controller unit, offers haptic feedback, gyroscope controls and remappable buttons. It has the inputs you’d expect, including a D-pad, face buttons, dual thumbsticks, bumpers and triggers, along with option buttons on both sides, a G button and a Home button.

Because you’ll be streaming games for the most part, the Cloud Gaming Handheld doesn’t require a ton of processing power. That’s one likely reason why Logitech has been able to limit the weight to 463g, or just over a pound. For comparison, the Nintendo Switch weighs 0.88 pounds (398g) when the Joy-Cons are attached and the Steam Deck weighs around 1.5 pounds (669g).

The device runs on an octo-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G. It has 4GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 64GB of storage, which is expandable through a microSD slot. Logitech claims the battery will run for up to 12 hours on a single charge. If the power’s off, it should fully recharge in around 2.5 hours through a USB-C cable.

There are stereo speakers and a stereo microphone, which offers echo canceling and noise suppression. In addition, the device has Bluetooth 5.1 and USB-C headphone support, as well as, thankfully, a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld
Logitech

Logitech and Tencent (who built the device together) collaborated with Microsoft and NVIDIA to ensure there’s native support for Xbox Cloud Gaming and GeForce Now. You’ll be able to use the Steam Link app to play games from your PC remotely, while the Xbox app supports remote play from consoles. Logitech notes that users will be able to download apps from the Google Play Store. So, you should be able to access the likes of Google Stadia and Amazon Luna, as well as social media apps, Android games and streaming video services such as YouTube and Netflix (you can use the device in tablet mode).

“What we wanted to do was challenge ourselves to build a device that was perfectly optimized for cloud gaming,” Ujesh Desai, vice president and general manager of Logitech Gaming, said in a statement. “This meant precision controls – similar to a high-end Xbox controller – a large HD screen, amazing battery life and lightweight design so players can enjoy long gaming sessions, without any compromises.”

Update 12:12 PM ET: Added more details from Logitech.

Bo’s futuristic e-scooter will gain a solar-powered charging stand in late 2023

British micromobility startup Bo has already realized that its e-scooter of the future needs an equally futuristic charging dock. The company has today announced bo E, a parking spot that combines a small solar panel and battery to help you re-juice your ride for free. Bo E is a dock measuring 1.5 meters (4.9ft) tall by 0.5 meters (1.6ft) wide, and is designed to be anchored to the sunny corner of your home.

The idea is that the dock will, while you’re at work, gently soak up all of the available solar energy and charge its internal battery. Then, when you return home, you can connect up your Bo M scooter and let the electrons flow from one to the other overnight. Bo E also has its own 4G setup, enabling you to keep an eye on your power status when you’re not guarding over the dock itself. The company says that the scooter is sufficiently energy-efficient that such a small charge will be enough to top up its 2kWh battery, but we’ll wait until we can test both in the real world before making any judgment.

Naturally, the biggest concern anyone can have about leaving their $2,400 e-scooter outdoors is security. Bo says that the E lodges high-tensile steel pins into the body of the scooter, making it difficult to remove easily, and anyone who tries will set off a screamy audio alarm. There’s also talk of an insurance product that might help go some way to assuage wary buyers about the risks inherent in leaving a scooter out of doors.

The Bo M is expected to start reaching customers by the end of 2022, and there’s a tentative launch date of Q3 2023 pencilled in for Bo E both in the UK and US. There is, however, no word on price, but you can imagine it’ll be similarly premium 

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