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Feb 18, 2025
Annapurna Interactive is holding a games showcase on February 24. It streams live at 12PM ET via the company's YouTube page. The publisher has released a short teaser video to hold us over until Monday.
This is the first event Annapurna Interactive has held since the entire staff, including the executives, resigned from the company last year. That mass walkout occurred after a failed attempt to spin off the games division from the remainder of the company.
"All 25 members of the Annapurna Interactive team collectively resigned," the team said in a joint statement. "This was one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make and we did not take this action lightly."
Annapurna hired new people to replace those who left, which was pretty much everyone. This is the first time we'll get to see what the revamped publishing house has been working on.
So what can we expect? The company says the showcase will be 30 minutes long and will focus on its 2025 lineup of releases. These include titles like Wanderstop, Skin Deep, Wheel World, Faraway, Lushfoil, To a T and Morsels, among others. We are especially excited for Wheel World,
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Feb 18, 2025
Meta just announced its first-ever LlamaCon, a dev conference dedicated to generative AI. It's scheduled for April 29. Why the llama-based naming convention? The company titled the event after its family of generative AI models.
Meta promises to "share the latest on our open source AI developments to help developers do what they do best: build amazing apps and products." Beyond that vague description, we don't know much. There's no information regarding speakers or potential products being shown. We know that the company's working on Llama 4, with an early 2025 release window, so we'll most likely get a sizzle reel of some kind.
The company notes it'll have more to share about LlamaCon "in the coming weeks." Meta also says t
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Feb 18, 2025
Acer laptops are getting a price hike in the US come March. In an interview with The Telegraph, Acer's chief executive and chairman Jason Chen announced a 10 percent increased cost for all products due to President Trump's tariffs on China.
His straightforward statement is one of the first clear cause and effects of Trump's import taxes. "We will have to adjust the end user price to reflect the tariff," Chen stated. "We think 10 percent probably will be the default price increase because of the import tax. It's very straightforward." Acer's most expensive laptop, the 17-inch Acer Predator Triton gaming laptop, could go up to $4,178 from $3,799.
Trump introduced a ten percent tariff to China this month, the country responsible for about 80 percent of laptop imports to the US. While he had claimed tariffs wouldn't impact consumer prices, he changed his tune last week, admitting that, surprise, surprise, they could.
Time will tell if all items increase in price next month or only recently imported devices. Chen also shared that the company is considering moving some of its manufacturing to other countries, including the US.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/acer-to-raise-prices-by-10-percent-following-president-trumps-tariffs-1653517
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Feb 18, 2025
The Nokia Lumia 1020 is back, well, sort of. An enterprising tech enthusiast (and Redditor) has stuffed the innards of an Apple iPhone SE 3 into a Lumia 1020 case to create something called the "NokiApple LumiPhone 1020 SE." This is a fully-functioning smartphone that, more importantly, looks really awesome.
It's more than just an iPhone SE wrapped in a Lumia case. Redditor OceanDepth95028 kicked the project up a few notches by ensuring that the iPhone internals work with a fingerprint reader on the back of the device. They also added a custom SIM card slot and made the Lightning port look like a micro-USB port, as originally reported by 9to5Mac.
— Antonio Vieira Santos (@AkwyZ) February 17, 2025
Not only does this phone function, it even supports 5G. It also receives OTA updates, which makes sense considering that it's, essentially, a working iPhone SE 3. The maker had to move some buttons around to get everything to fit and they took liberties with the camera button, which can now act as a volume key switch or a shutter button.
The iPhone SE 3
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Feb 18, 2025
In 2018, Nintendo introduced Gold Points, which were earned when you purchased Switch games, either physical cartridges or digitally from the Nintendo eShop. While you needed many purchases to redeem something substantial, you still saved a few dollars regardless if you get a cheaper title or something more expensive. Unfortunately, Nintendo announced that you won't be able to earn Gold Points after 9:30 PM PDT on March 24 if you buy digital copies of games.
All eShop purchases made after that time won't earn Gold Points anymore, though pre-orders for content made before then will still earn Gold Points as long as the pre-order is put in before the deadline. The points will be awarded within the day after each processed transaction.
It's more tricky for physical releases. If you buy a game released on or before March 24, you still earn Gold Points even after that day, but only for games bought within a year of their release dates. Naturally, physical versions of games released after March 24, 2025, won't let you earn any Gold Points. It's also worth noting that Nintendo awards significantly fewer Gold points for physical purchases.
Most people are likely unaware, but you can earn Gold Points by shopping at the Nintendo New York store. This will remain the case until March 24, a
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Feb 18, 2025
It appears X (formerly Twitter) users can once again send Signal.me links, two days after the blog Disruptionist first reported a block. The platform wasn't allowing links of the URL used by encrypted messaging service Signal — it allows people to quickly contact others directly. It came as Elon Musk takes aim at federal workers and organizations, through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Federal workers have used Signal to covertly report relevant and dangerous activities.
Anyone who attempted to post a Signal.me link in a DM, public post or on their profile page received error messages such as, "This request looks like it might be automated. To protect our users from spam and other malicious activity, we can't complete this action right now. Please try again later." Other responses included, "We can't complete this request because this link has been identified by X or our partners as being potentially harmful." Engadget confirmed the block in a test.
Users who tried to click existing Signal.me links got a message stating, "Warning: this link may be unsafe. The link you are trying to access has been identified by X or our partners as being potentially spammy or unsafe, in accordance with X's URL Policy." They could choose to ignore the warning and proceed to the link.
Musk is working with President Trump to cut federal workers across the board. Over 9,500
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Feb 18, 2025
Owners of a Volvo EX90 or Polestar 3 may soon be able to unlock and start their electric vehicle with a Samsung Galaxy phone. Samsung is rolling out Digital Key support for Polestar's SUV in North America, Europe and Asia starting this month. EX90 drivers in those regions and Latin America will get access to the feature in the coming days too. Samsung says it will support more models from each automaker in the future.
You can use the Digital Key to lock, unlock and start a paired car using a supported Galaxy device (S20, Z Fold 2, Z Flip 5G and later). It's possible to share a key with family and friends if they need access to your car, and you can remotely lock or delete a Digital Key from a lost or stolen Galaxy phone. Samsung uses biometric and PIN-based authorization to help make Digital Key use secure.
The company started rolling out Digital Key in 2021 (a similar function is available on recent Google Pixel devices and Android phones). BMW, Genesis, Hyundai, Kia and Mini are among the other brands that support the feature.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/samsungs-digital-key-technology-now-works-with-volvo-and-polestar-evs-160357150.html?src=rss
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Feb 18, 2025
WhatsApp may face greater regulation in the European Union thanks to an increase in users on its open channels. The platform announced Friday that these feeds for news sources, public figures and more averaged approximately 46.8 million users in the EU during the last half of 2024. This increase in users means WhatsApp's open channels, akin to a social network, now qualify as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) under the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA).
The DSA uses the labels very large online platform or search engine when the entity has more than 45 million monthly users in the EU. These designations allow the European Commission greater regulatory power around transparent advertising, content moderation, an annual independent audit, data sharing with the EU and more. Relevant online platforms must also mitigate and assess the risk of damaging and illegal content.
WhatsApp's parent company, Meta, is already designated as a VLOP (and not happily), alongside ByteDance, Amazon, Google and more. The European Commission will now need to determine whether to give Wha
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Feb 18, 2025
The eufy RoboVac 11S Max is one of our favorite budget robot vacuums, and it's now 44 percent off at Amazon, making it only $140. This affordable robot vacuum from a few years back can still trade blows against newer models even without Wi-Fi connectivity.
The 11S Max has three power modes — Standard, BoostIQ and Max, and the company claims a noise level of around 55 dB. Even so, its suction power is nothing to scoff at. And should it accidentally try to swallow a charging cable, the beeping alerts are loud enough to hear from the opposite end of an apartment.
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Feb 18, 2025
xAI has launched its Grok 3 models during a livestream with Elon Musk, who said they were "an order of magnitude more capable than Grok 2." The Grok 3 mini model can answer questions quickly, but it's not as accurate as the other models in the family. Meanwhile, the Grok 3 Reasoning and Grok 3 mini Reasoning models are capable of mimicking human-like reasoning when it comes to analyzing information the user needs.
Other examples of AI models capable of reasoning tasks are DeepSeek's R1 and OpenAI's o3-mini. According to TechCrunch, xAI claimed during the event that Grok 3 Reasoning performed better than the best version of o3-mini on several benchmarks. Grok 3's features will initially be available to subscribers paying for X's Premium tier, which now costs $40 a month in the US. (X raised the Premium tier's pricing from $16 to $22 in December — now, less than two months later, it's almost twice as expensive.) They will also be available through an upcoming separate subscription option for the standalone Grok app and Grok on the web. Based on
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Feb 18, 2025
We've long been fans of ThermoWorks' instant-read thermometers for grilling and all kinds of cooking, and now you can get our favorite for one of the best prices we've seen. Engadget readers can pick up the Thermapen One for only $79 right now thanks to an exclusive deal that knocks $30 off the normal price.
The Thermopen One is calibrated to record temperatures accurately, with an error margin of 0.5 degrees Fahrenheit (0.3 degrees Celsius). It also does this within a second. To help users check the temperature conveniently, the display rotates 360 degrees and has a smart backlight display that brightens when it's covered or in a low-light environment.
The company claims that a single AAA battery in the thermometer will last for 2,000 hours, and it's pa
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Feb 18, 2025
Spotify is rolling out a Music Pro tier later this year that will give users access to higher-quality audio and remixing tools, according to Bloomberg. The tier will reportedly cost users $6 per month on top of their $12 Premium subscription, but they'll be priced differently across regions and will be cheaper in less-developed markets. Many long-time Spotify subscribers, however, will probably say that they'll believe it when they see it. The service teased a high-fidelity streaming option way back in 2017 and had confirmed that it was working to provide users with access to lossless audio in 2021.
Several reports about the feature's availability had come out over the years after the company's confirmation. In 2024, Bloomberg also reported that HiFi streaming is expected to arrive before the year ended as a $5 add-on. The publication's latest report says the pricing and timeline for lossless streaming could still change, because the company hasn't secured rights from all the major music companies yet. It's worth noting that Spotify recently announced new multi-year agreements with Universal Music Group and Warner
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Feb 18, 2025
DJI has unveiled two new smartphone gimbals, the Osmo Mobile 7 and 7P, with the latter offering native app tracking on both Android and iOS thanks to its "Multifunctional Module." That feature is clearly designed to rival Insta360's Flow 2 Pro, which until yesterday only offered native app tracking on iPhones via Apple's Dockkit.
The primary differences between the Osmo Mobile 7 and 7P is that the latter comes with the Multifunctional Module, while the Osmo Mobile 7 doesn't (though it can be purchased separately later if you change your mind). The Osmo Mobile 7P also has a built-in extension rod that's missing on the Osmo Mobile 7. With that said, the products look very similar and have the same folding design carried over from the Osmo Mobile 6. A key
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Feb 18, 2025
Last week, Apple's Tim Cook teed up a new product for launch on February 19 — that's tomorrow. Cook's tweet also included an animated image of a shimmering Apple logo, which made a lot of us assume the reveal could be for a second-generation AirTag. It's been rumored for a while that Apple would introduce a second-gen tracker sometime this year, and the original AirTag landed almost four years ago. So there are plenty of tech upgrades the tracker could benefit from.
Rumors suggest the next AirTag may feature a more tamper-proof speaker to reduce stalking and an improved Ultra-Wideband chip with up to 3x longer tracking range. However, would the CEO of Apple tweet (and hype up) a mere accessory? Probably not. Following a barrage of leaks and rumors, a next-gen iPhone SE seems more likely.
This upgraded entry-level basic iPhone may appear with a design closer to the iPhone 14. That means appearing with a notch, so no Dynamic Island, no home button. It'll likely make the shift to USB-C and probably have enough power to run all those Apple Intelligence features too. (In the past, while SE iPhones have had humble screens and hardware, Apple typically packs them with chips on par with the latest iPhones.)
It could also be a wildcard: Apple's rumored smart display is meant to arrive sometime this year too. Having said all that, there isn't really an Apple device as shiny as an AirTag. We'll find out tomorrow. Hopefully alongside some more tech news because it's been a quiet few days.
— Mat Smith
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Feb 18, 2025
Tablets have become the all-purpose gap-fillers of the gadgets world. If you're on a plane and you want something portable but slightly bigger than your phone for reading comics or watching movies, there's nothing better. Alternatively, if you want a shared device for the living room to control smart home stuff, do a bit of shopping or doomscrolling (it's ok, we're not judging), having a slim little slate that lives on your coffee table is super convenient. And if you want something sleek to carry around for work or school, tablets can totally replace laptops now, too.
That said, one change we've made to this guide for 2025 is adjusting some of the categories, because let's be honest: If you're an Android person, no amount of browbeating is going to convince you to switch ecosystems and buy an iPad. The same goes for all the Apple people or Windows die-hards out there. And that's more than OK. So instead of crowning a best overall, we're simply recommending the most powerful and best tablets for each OS, alongside some additional picks for other use cases.
Table of contents
Important things to consider before buying a tablet
What size screen do I need?
Best tablets for 2025
How we test tablets
Other tablets we tested
Tablet FAQs
Tablet accessories
Important things to consider before buying a tablet
Before you start looking at specific devices, the nu
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Feb 17, 2025
There's nothing worse than trying to get work done offsite and realizing your laptop is nearly dead. OK, there are plenty of worse things, but running out of battery when you're not near an outlet can be seriously inconvenient. Laptop power banks are similar to other rechargeable banks you may have used to top off a smartphone, but with larger capacities and more ports. There's no standard rating to qualify a battery as a laptop-grade brick, but here we only considered versions with at least a 20,000mAh capacity so they can deliver enough charge but under 27,000mAh (99Wh) so the TSA will let you fly with them in your carry-on luggage. After testing a slew of popular options over the past couple of years, we think these are the best laptop power banks you can buy.
Table of contents
Best laptop power banks for 2025
What to look for in a laptop power bank
How we test portable laptop chargers
Laptop power bank FAQs
Best laptop power banks for 2025
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Feb 17, 2025
Sonic the Hedgehog shows no sign of slowing down — so to speak. The blue blur's third movie was a hit at the box office, and it's coming to Paramount sooner than you might have expected. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will land on the streaming service in the US and Canada on February 18 i.e. tomorrow.
The film zoomed into theaters in December and vacuumed up cash faster than Sonic loses his rings when he runs into spikes. To date, it has pulled in over $478 million, making it the second highest-grossing video game film behind one that stars one of Sonic's oldest rivals. The Super Mario Bros. Movie raked in $1.36 billion.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 picks up soon after the events of the Knuckles spin-off series. It sees Sonic and the gang taking on a new opponent, a powerful hedgehog named Shadow (voiced by Keanu Reeves
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Feb 17, 2025
Elon Musk is taking aim at federal workers and organizations, through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Now, Musk-owned X (formerly Twitter) is blocking Signal.me links, a URL used by encrypted messaging service Signal that allows people to quickly contact others directly, the blog Disruptionist reports. Federal workers have used Signal to covertly report relevant and dangerous activities.
Anyone who attempts to post a Signal.me link in a DM, public post or on their profile page receives error messages such as, "This request looks like it might be automated. To protect our users from spam and other malicious activity, we can't complete this action right now. Please try again later." Other responses include, "We can't complete this request because this link has been identified by X or our partners as being potentially harmful." Engadget confirmed the block in a test.
Users who try to click existing Signal.me links get a message stating, "Warning: this link may be unsafe. The link you are trying to access has been identified by X or our partners as being potentially spammy or unsafe, in accordance with X's URL Policy." They can choose to ignore the warning and proceed to the link.
Musk is working with President Trump to cut federal workers across the board. Over 9,500
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Feb 17, 2025
DeepSeek, the massively popular Chinese AI assistant, has been temporarily unavailable from app stores in South Korea since February 15. A press release from the country's data protection authority, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), stated that downloads will resume once the Chinese AI company complies with local data protection laws, while those with the app can still use it. DeepSeek is also blocked on South Korean government and military devices.
DeepSeek only established a local presence in South Korea on February 10. The company also acknowledged that it didn't fully consider South Korea's data protection laws when launching the service globally. Fortunately for South Korean users, the new AI powerhouse intends to cooperate with the PIPC.
The PIPC says that inspecting DeepSeek will take some time. On-site inspections of six AI services from Google, OpenAI, Microsoft and others took around five months. This inspection should take less time because it only involves DeepSeek.
In a statement to TechCrunch, the PIPC revealed that it discovered DeepSeek was transferring Korean users' data to ByteDance, TikTok's parent company. Local users were warned against entering personal information into the app.
Last month, the Italian Data Protection Aut
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Feb 17, 2025
Apparently President's Day was created to honor George Washington's birthday. But now on a Monday in February we celebrate every US president by shopping for deals. Nixon, Taft, Coolidge, Polk, Johnson, Hoover and all those other guys — they'd be quite proud of us. In our searches we found quite a few deals on the tech we recommend, including
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Feb 17, 2025
Tired of losing stuff? Chipolo is selling a four-pack of its One Bluetooth trackers for $67.50. This represents a discount of 32 percent. Just remember to pop in the code "ENGADGET10" at checkout. That brings the sale price of $75 down to $67.50. The discount applies to all colorways, and there are a bunch to choose from. There are also combo packs that include multiple colors.
This gadget not only made our list of the best Bluetooth trackers, but it's our very favorite release in the product category. The One is a near-perfect tracker. The battery lasts two full years, it works great with both Android and iOS devices and the ringer is incredibly loud. This is great news for those who tend to misplace items under mountains of linens or between couch cushions.
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Feb 17, 2025
There's no better time than right now to kickstart those health and fitness goals. Whether you're looking to shed a few pounds, track your muscle gains or stay on top of your wellness routine, a smart scale can be the perfect sidekick. These scales don't just show you your weight; they provide insights into body composition, muscle mass and even your metabolic rate, all the while synching with your favorite health apps.
Smart scales make staying on track easier than ever before, with many able to store multiple user profiles to track everyone in your household's fitness journey. Plus, they're designed for accuracy, giving you more confidence in your overall progress if, in those early days, you can't see the benefits in the mirror. Whether you're a fitness enthusiast, a data geek or just want to feel healthier, there's a smart scale out there to suit your needs.
Table of contents
Smart scale safety
Best smart scales for 2025
What to look for in a smart scale
How we tested and which smart scales we tested
Smart scales FAQs
Smart scale safety
There are valid reasons to weigh yourself but your self-worth shouldn't be defined by what number shows up between your feet. If you're looking to alter your body shape, that figure could go up as your waistline goes down since muscle weighs more than fat.
Some scales go further by providing additional metrics like visceral fat levels, giving you a more comprehensive picture of your health.
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Feb 16, 2025
Viktor Antonov, best known for his work as art lead on Half-Life 2 and Dishonored, has reportedly died at age 52. Half-Life writer Marc Laidlaw broke the news in an Instagram Story, and other former colleagues have since taken to social media to pay tribute as well. "I didn't want to say much till I felt it was confirmed, but I learned today that Viktor Antonov, our visionary art lead on HL2, has died," Laidla wrote in the now-expired post, which was reshared by LambdaGeneration on Saturday night.
Antonov got his start in video games working on Redneck Rampage, and in addition to serving as art director for Half-Life 2 and Dishonored, he went on to consult on titles including Doom (2016) and Fallout 4. The Bulgarian artist just recently appeared in a documentary celebrating the 20th anniversary of Half-life 2 this past November.
"RIP Viktor Antonov. I wish I told you how much admiration I had for you but we get caught in our lives until a surprise like this hits us," Raphael Colantonio, founder of Arkane Studios and Wolfeye Studios, wrote on Bluesky. "You were instrumental to the success of Arkane Studios and an inspiration to many of us, also a friend with whom I
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Feb 16, 2025
Apple Vision Pro may soon get an update bringing Apple Intelligence to the headset, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The first Apple Intelligence features started rolling out to iPhone, iPad and Mac in the fall, bringing features like notification summaries, ChatGPT integration for Siri and Genmoji over the last few months. But Apple's AI hasn't yet made it to the Vision Pro. According to Mark Gurman, that may change with the visionOS 2.4 update, which sources said may arrive in Apr
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Feb 16, 2025
YouTube TV has reached a deal with Paramount to avoid cutting off subscribers' access to certain channels, including CBS, CBS Sports and Nickelodeon. Earlier this week, YouTube TV announced in a blog post that Paramount content would be removed from its platform after February 13 because the two had failed to reach "a fair agreement" that would keep those channels available. On Friday, that deadline was extended, and YouTube TV said in an update on Saturday night that a deal had been reached and access would now go on uninterrupted.
"We're happy to share that we've reached a deal to continue carrying Paramount channels, including CBS, CBS Sports, Nickelodeon and more," YouTube TV wrote in a blog post and on X. "With this agreement, YouTube TV will continue to offer 100 channels and add-ons including Paramount with SHOWTIME and will enable more user choice in the future. To our subscribers, we appreciate your patience while we negotiated on your behalf." BET will also remain available.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/youtube-tv-has-reached-a-deal-with-paramount-to-keep-carrying-cbs-cbs-sports-and-other-channels-154245757.html?src=rss
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Feb 15, 2025
In a blog post on Friday, Perplexity introduced a new tool called Deep Research that it says can conduct "in-depth research and analysis" to deliver detailed reports in response to your questions, and it's free for limited use. It comes just a couple of weeks after OpenAI announced its own Deep Research feature for ChatGPT Pro users… which itself followed Google's December announcement of Deep Research for Gemini. Perplexity's tool is available only on the web to start, but it will hit the iOS, Android and Mac apps soon too.
Deep Research lets you generate in-depth research reports on any topic.
Available to everyone for free—up to 5 queries per day for non-subscribers and 500 queries per day for Pro users. pic.twitter.com/obovx7YEUF
— Perplexity (@perplexity_ai)
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Feb 15, 2025
Nintendo of America announced that it's opened purchases of the game-themed alarm clock, Alarmo, to the public so anyone can snag one, with or without a Switch Online membership. The bright red alarm clock comes with a handful of built-in themes to choose from at the start — Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 3, Pikmin 4 and Ring Fit Adventure — and Nintendo says others, including Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, will be available for free down the line. Alarmo will also be sold in select stores starting in March, as well as online in other regions.
Alarmo first went on sale back in October, but only for Nintendo Switch Online members. That changed on Friday, when the company announced, "Nintendo Sound Clock: #Alarmo is now available on My Nintendo store, no Nintendo Switch Online membership required."
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Feb 15, 2025
New releases we picked up this week that belong on your reading list.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/what-to-read-ali-smith-gliff-dystopian-fiction-horror-comics-creepshow-160016239.html?src=rss
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Feb 15, 2025
If it feels like every piece of home tech is now "smart," you're not far off. The smart home space has grown exponentially in the past few years to include speakers, cameras, locks, lights and even kitchen appliances. There are also different voice assistants and IoT standards to consider, all of which can make it confusing (to say the least) to build your smart home ecosystem from the ground up.
Allow us at Engadget to help with that. We've tested dozens of smart home gadgets over the years and continue to test the latest offerings to see which work well and are worth your money. We recommend, before you even dive in, to resist the urge to outfit your whole home in one go. Not only can this be quite expensive, but also we think it's generally best to buy just one or two items first to see if you like them. You should also pick a preferred voice assistant and stick with it. If you're at the point where you're ready to invest in a few new IoT gadgets, below are the best smart home gadgets you can get right now, plus some advice on how to choose the right voice assistant for your needs.
Best smart home gadgets: Smart speakers
Best smart home gadgets: Smart displays
Best smart home gadgets: Smart lights
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Feb 15, 2025
Uber is suing DoorDash, accusing the biggest food delivery provider in the US of putting pressure on restaurants to exclusively use its services. According to The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times, Uber filed the lawsuit in California on February 14. Uber said it filed the lawsuit after hearing from "restaurants across the country" that were left with no choice but to "cave to [DoorDash's] demands or pay the price."
Both DoorDash and Uber Eats offer their delivery services to restaurants, even for customers who buy from an establishment's own website or app. At the same time, they also offer advertising within t
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Feb 15, 2025
One of our favorite grill accessories, the ThermoWorks Thermapen One, is on sale for $79 right now. This Engadget exclusive sale shaves $30 off this speedy thermometer. While it's not the record low price, $79 is pretty close.
The Thermopen One is calibrated to record temperatures accurately, with an error margin of 0.5 degrees Fahrenheit (0.3 degrees Celsius). It also does this within a second. To help users check the temperature conveniently, the display rotates 360 degrees and has a smart backlight display that brightens when it's covered or in a low-light environment.
The company claims that a single AAA battery in the thermometer will last for 2,000 hours, and it's partly due to how it automatically turns on or off when you pick it up or put it down. An IP67 rating makes it safe to use in wet and dusty locations for a while. (You should still try to keep it clean and dry, though.) If that's not reassuring enough, each Thermapen One comes with a five-year warranty.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-thermoworks-thermapen-one-is-on-sale-for-79-right-now-100052804.html?src=rss
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Feb 14, 2025
Newly restored pages on the websites of government agencies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) now include a disclaimer rejecting "gender ideology," as spotted by 404 Media. The move allows agencies to comply with a recent court order to restore missing webpages, while continuing to push the Trump administration anti-trans executive order that led them to delete those pages in the first place.
You can see the disclaimer — which lifts language directly from President Trump's order — on the
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Feb 14, 2025
Elon Musk launched a $97.4 billion bid to take control of OpenAI. The Wall Street Journal reported a group of investors led by Musk's xAI submitted an unsolicited offer to the company's board of directors on Monday. The group wants to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI's for-profit arm.
When asked for comment, an OpenAI spokesperson pointed Engadget to an X post from CEO Sam Altman. "No thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want," Altman wrote on the social media platform Musk owns.
On Friday, OpenAI's board of directors officially rejected Musk's bid. "OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition," the company said in a response attributed to Bret Taylor, the chair of OpenAI's board of directors.
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Feb 14, 2025
Breaking: Netflix made an oopsie. On Thursday, word spread online that some of its content began appearing in the Apple TV app. The lack of an official announcement (and extremely buggy nature) of the integration was enough to cast doubt on the news. But that didn't stop users from rejoicing and sharing "FINALLY!" GIFs on social media. Unfortunately, your triumphant festivities weren't warranted, as the company has said it was unintentional.
A Netflix spokesperson told The Verge on Friday that the Apple TV app integration was an error that has been rolled back. Indeed, Redditors who had been
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Feb 14, 2025
You could soon pay to access certain subreddits, according to comments shared by Reddit CEO Steve Huffman during a taped video AMA (Ask Me Anything). Huffman has suggested the company might experiment with some kind of Reddit paywall before, and now its apparently happening.
When asked if he could share information about the development of paid subreddits, Huffman said that "It's a work in progress right now, so that one's coming." To a follow up question about new features coming to Reddit in 2025, Huffman said "Paid subreddits? Yes," confirming they're on the list.
Unfortunately there's little detail as to how paid subreddits will actually work when they do launch. It might make sense for only Reddit Premium subscribers to be able to access paid subreddits, for example. As
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Feb 14, 2025
If you look at your Roomba with disgust, thinking about what a far cry it is from the Jetsons' Rosey the Robot, help is on the way. Bloomberg reported on Friday that Meta plans to leverage its advances in AI and augmented reality to build a platform for futuristic humanoid robots that can help with household chores like folding laundry.
Meta is reportedly creating a new team within its Reality Labs hardware division, which handles Quest VR headsets and the long-term Orion AR glasses project. Although it will build robot hardware during development, Meta's long-term goal is more like Android, where Google makes the software platform that almost all of the industry (outside of Apple) uses. Meta would make the underlying sensors, AI and software for other companies to put inside their hardware. In other words, it wants to be the Android of androids.
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Feb 14, 2025
Instagram is testing a new dislike button, which the company has signaled is a way for users to effectively downvote a distasteful or irrelevant comment. The dislike button is only for comments, and not the actual content itself. The platform is testing this with both Reels and Feed posts.
The service will not show a dislike count, though Instagram head Adam Mosseri says that dislikes will eventually contribute to comment ranking. In other words, this feature is most like the Reddit downvote button.
"This gives people a private way to signal that they don't feel good about that particular comment," Mosseri wrote on Threads. "Our hope is that this might help make comments more friendly on Instagram."
A Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch that the primary purpose of the dislike button is to improve the quality of the comment section, echoing Mosseri's post. This is just a test for now, so the button is only available to a "very small group of people." It may get a broader rollout down the line.
Instagram has been busy in recent months. Platform representatives announced that it was working on a video-editing app that looks eerily-similar to TikTok's siblin
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Feb 14, 2025
After being rumored to be in the early stages of the project last year, Meta confirmed today that it's building "Project Waterworth," an over 50,00 km subsea cable that will connect five continents. The company has partnered on other cable projects previously, but this would be the first piece of subsea infrastructure it owns outright.
The project touches land in the US, Brazil, India, and South Africa, and is apparently breaking new ground technically, too. Meta claims Waterworth is the longest 24 fiber pair cable project in the world, and the company is using "first-of-its-kind routing" to place the cables as deep as possible, "at depths of up to 7,000 meters." If cables aren't deep enough, undersea hazards, like boats dropping and dragging their anchors, can cause permanent damage, disrupting service.
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Feb 14, 2025
Apparently President's Day was created to honor George Washington's birthday. But now on a Monday in February we celebrate every US president by shopping for deals. Nixon, Taft, Coolidge, Polk, Johnson, Hoover and all those other guys — they'd be quite proud of us. In our searches we found quite a few deals on the tech we recommend, including
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Feb 14, 2025
You may lose access to CBS and CBS Sports, along with Paramount's other channels, through YouTube TV sometime in the near future. In an announcement, YouTube has revealed that it's in the middle of negotiations with the company to be able to continue offering its channels. YouTube says it's "fighting for an agreement that avoids passing along additional costs" to you, which indicates that they can't agree on a financial deal that works for both of them, as well as one that gives you "more flexibility in how you watch your favorite sports and shows."
In addition to CBS and CBS Sports, the channels affected include Nickelodeon, BET, Comedy Central, MTV and VH1. Several add-ons for YouTube TV, such as Paramount with Showtime, will no longer be available, as well. YouTube started adding Paramount's channels to its lineup in 2020, when YouTube TV still cost $50 a month. Today, the live TV streaming service will set you back $70 a month for the first half year and then $83 a month going forward.
YouTube says that if it can't reach a deal with Paramount, and the company's content becomes unavailable for "an extended period of time," it will give you $8 in credit. Surprisingly, YouTube is advising viewers who want continued access to the networks shows to sign up for the Paramount streaming service, which costs at least $8 a month.
Paramount has also started warning subscribers that they won't be able to access its stations
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Feb 14, 2025
If you're on the market for a new pair of wireless earbuds, the latest sale on the AirPods Pro 2 is a good one to consider. As part of Apple Presidents' Day deals, they're down to $169 at the moment, which is 32 percent off their regular price. While not quite as low as we saw them during the holiday shopping season last year ($154), this is the best price they've been in 2025 so far.
Apple's AirPods Pro 2 came out in 2022 and yet we still rate them the best wireless earbuds for iPhone. At the time, we gave them a
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Feb 14, 2025
I really hate vacuuming and put it off as long as possible. But, my budget isn't very robot vacuum friendly, so, alas I have no choice. However, that might change, as our favorite budget robot vacuum for 2025 is currently 48 percent off thanks to the Amazon Presidents' Day sale. The iRobot Roomba Vac Robot Vacuum (Q0120) is down to $119 from $250 — a new all-time-low price.
There's a reason iRobot's Roomba Vac robot vacuum is across all our best lists (check it out alongside our top smart home gadgets). It's an easy to use, high-performance robot vacuum that's not going to break the bank. For starters, you can control the entire device with iRobot'
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Feb 14, 2025
According to researchers, anyone who knows where to look can spray digital graffiti on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) website. Two web development experts said the site doesn't seem to be hosted on government servers and that the database it pulls from can be modified by those who locate it. At the time of writing, a message reading "these ‘experts' left their database open - roro" is still visible on the DOGE site.
DOGE chief and President Trump consigliere Elon Musk said on Tuesday that his team would be as transparent as possible, with updates on its actions shared to an X account and website. As 404 Media notes, the DOGE website was pretty much blank at the time. Since then, it's been hurriedly assembled to show a feed of posts from the entity's X account, along with details about the federal workforce.
The researchers told 404 that the site appeared to be built on Cloudflare Pages instead of government servers. After looking at the site's architecture and API endpoints, one was able to locate the database containing stats on government employees. They made changes to database entries that were reflected on the DOGE website.
It's not
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Feb 14, 2025
Presidents' Day Apple deals can be few and far between — truthfully, Presidents' Day has never been a boon for tech deals in general. But each year there are a few standout discounts, and this time one of them is on the iPad mini 7. You can grab it for $100 off right now, bringing it down to $499, which is close to its record-low price.
Apple's latest and greatest diminutive tablet easily found a place on our list of the best iPads. It's a solid refresh without any real tradeoffs when compared to the full-sized tablet. It supports the Apple Pencil Pro, the A17 Pro chip is plenty powerful and the overall design is comfortable to hold. It's an iPad mini.
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Feb 14, 2025
The Guardian Media Group, owner of The Guardian and The Observer newspapers, is partnering with OpenAI. The deal will see reporting from The Guardian appear as a news source within ChatGPT, alongside article extracts and short summaries. In return, OpenAI will provide the Guardian Media Group with access to ChatGPT Enterprise, which the company says it will use to develop new products, features and tools.
"This new partnership with OpenAI reflects the intellectual property rights and value associated with our award-winning journalism, expanding our reach and impact to new audiences and innovative platform services," said Keith Underwood, chief financial and operating officer of the Guardian Media Group.
The Guardian Media Group joins a growing list of news publishers that are now working with OpenAI after an initial period of uncertainty over the company and its business model. What started as a trickle with The Associated Press in 2023 has since become a flood, with many of the English-speaking world's leading publishers inking deals with the AI startup.
In some ways, The Guardian has been more proactive than others. In 2023, the newspaper publish an article detailing its approach to generative AI. A year later, it announced a partnership with ProRata, a company that built a platform that allows AI platforms to attribute search results and sh
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Feb 14, 2025
If you're eager to binge-watch shows like Poker Face, revisit classics like The Office or catch the upcoming SNL 50th anniversary special, Peacock is the place for all of that. Presidents' Day streaming deals have made it a bit more affordable to stream Peacock content right now: through February 18, you can snag one year of Peacock Premium for only $30. To recap, we saw the same subscription drop to $20 during the holiday shopping season last year, and this is the best discount since then. Just use the code WINTERSAVINGS at checkout if you don't see the deal price immediately.
It's important to note that, despite the name, this isn't the actual premium tier. It includes ads, which could be a dealbreaker for some. However, there's plenty to watch on this platform for those okay with the occasional long and harrowing commercial about random pharmaceuticals. Peacock, after all, easily made our list of the best streaming services.
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Feb 14, 2025
The recipients of the US government's CHIPS and Science Act awards may not get the amount that they were initially promised. According to Reuters, the Trump administration is looking to assess and change the CHIPS Act's current requirements. After that, it's set to renegotiate some of the deals awarded by the Biden administration. It has also indicated a delay in some of the disbursements that are already scheduled, Reuters said. A spokesperson for Taiwan-based GlobalWafers said the company was notified by the program's office that CHIPS Act policies are under review because certain conditions do not align with Trump's executive orders. GlobalWafers is one of the program's awardees that was set to receive $406 million in grants.
Former president Joe Biden signed the CHIPS Act into law in 2022 to boost semiconductor production in the US. While each awardee has different milestones they need to achieve in order to get grants, the goal is to get them to build new foundries and upgrade existing ones in the country. The Trump administration is reportedly concerned with many of the previous administration's requirements for recipients. They include clauses added into contracts by Biden's team, the news organization's sources said, including requirements to use unionized labor when building factories and to provide factory workers with affordable childcare. The White House also isn't happy that some of the companies, such as Intel, announced expansion plans in China after being chosen as a recipient.
The US government has yet to formally announce any changes to CHIPS Act policies, so it's not yet clear how extensive they will be and how p
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Feb 14, 2025
Wellbots is offering multiple of iRobot's Roomba Combo vacuum and mop machines for 40 percent off, and in one case, over 50 percent off as an early President's Day sale. You can even get the new Roomba Combo 10 Max and its Autowash Dock, which can empty and cleans your robot, for $789, around $410 off its normal $1,199 price. That's a good bit cheaper than the last time it was on sale.
The
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Feb 14, 2025
Apple's artificial intelligence features for iPhones could be available in China as early as May, according to Bloomberg. The company reportedly established several teams in China and the US to make that happen, and it's also teaming up with local companies for its generative AI needs in the country. Joe Tsai, Alibaba Group's Chairman, recently confirmed that Apple will use his company's generative AI technology for Chinese iPhones during an event. Tsai didn't say when Apple intends to roll out the AI features that use Alibaba's tech, but
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Feb 14, 2025
If you detest vacuuming, like I do, a robot vacuum can make it so you have one less chore to do. The good thing is that you don't have to spend a fortune to get a good robot vacuum anymore. In fact, our favorite budget robot vacuum for 2025 is currently 52 percent off: the iRobot Roomba Vac Robot Vacuum (Q0120) is down to $119 from $250 — a new record-low price.
There's a reason iRobot's Roomba Vac robot vacuum is across all our best lists (check it out alongside our top smart home gadgets). It's an easy to use, high-performance robot vacuum that's not going to break the bank. For starters, you can control the entire device with iRobot's very easy
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Feb 14, 2025
Chip designer Arm plans to unveil its own processor this year with Meta as the launch customer, The Financial Times reported. The chip would be a CPU designed for servers in data centers and would have the potential to be customized for clients. Manufacturing would be outsourced to a contract fab plant like TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.) and the first in-house chip could be revealed as early as this summer, according to the FT's sources.
Last month, Arm parent Softbank announced the Stargate project, a partnership with OpenAI to build up to $500 billion worth of AI infrastructure. Arm, along with Microsoft and NVIDIA, is a key technology partner for the project. Arm's chip could now play a role in that project, and also in Jony Ive's mysterious AI-powered personal device, reportedly being developed in collaboration with OpenAI's Sam Altman, according to the report.
Arm's designs power nearly every smartphone and mobile device in the world, along with Apple Mac and Qualcomm-powered Windows PCs. They generally use less power for the same level of compute as Intel and AMD chips, so they've become desirable for data farms that power AI applications as well.
The move would put Arm in direct competition with many of its own customers like
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Feb 14, 2025
We joked about "President Musk" shortly after Donald Trump took office, but it turns out that wasn't far from the truth. Over the past few weeks, Elon Musk and his DOGE team wasted no time in trying to dismantle the American administrative state. They've illegally accessed the Treasury Department's federal payment system, pushed for USAID to be dismantled, and have also infiltrated the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In this episode, we chat with 404 Media's Jason Koebler about what Musk and his young tech cronies are up to, and how it ties into Silicon Valley's approach to the new Trump administration.
Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!
Subscribe!
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Feb 14, 2025
TikTok is once again available in Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store in the United States. The app disappeared from both Apple and Google's stores January 19, 2025, as a nationwide ban took effect. Briefly.
What will ultimately happen to TikTok remains unclear. President Trump wants to strike a "deal" that will allow the company to remain operational in the US, including arrangements that would give the US government a stake in the company.
You know who's probably furious? Every other social media company.
— Mat Smith
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The biggest tech stories you missed
Avowed review: Elder Scrolls? I don't know her
Gemini Advanced can now recall your past conversations to inform its responses
The OnePlus Open 2 isn't happening this year
Apple will introduce its ‘newest member of the family' next week
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Feb 14, 2025
Cordless vacuum cleaners have come a long way, and they're no longer just a convenient alternative — they're genuinely powerful cleaning solutions for many homes. Whether you're tackling daily messes or giving your floors a deep clean, cordless models offer incredible versatility, letting you zip around your home without being tied down by cords. Plus, their lightweight designs make them easy to carry up and down stairs or quickly switch to a handheld vacuum for those hard-to-reach spots.
Modern cordless vacuums now pack impressive cleaning performance, with the ability to handle everything from fine dust to larger debris. Some even come with advanced features like self-emptying bases, reducing your exposure to allergens and making cleaning even simpler. And if you've ever struggled to see hidden messes under furniture, models with a built-in LED light can be a game-changer.
With improved battery life, reduced noise levels and intuitive features like an on/off button in just the right spot, these vacuums are designed for maximum ease of use. Whether you're upgrading from a bulky upright vacuum or looking for a quick, hassle-free solution, these are the best cordless vacuums we've tried.
Table of contents
Best cordless vacuums for 2025
Factors to consider before buying a cordless vacuum
How we test cordless vacuums
Other cordless stick vacuums we tested
Cordless stick vacuums FAQs
Best cordless vacuums for 2025
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Feb 13, 2025
TikTok is once again available in Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store in the United States. The app disappeared from both Apple and Google's stores January 19, 2025, as a nationwide ban briefly took effect. But though the app's service was quickly restored after President Donald Trump promised not to enforce the ban, the app had remained unavailable for download in US app stores.
Apple has now reversed course. Bloomberg reported the company made the decision after a letter from US Attorney General Pam Bondi. Trump previously told the Justice Department in an executive order to delay enforcing a ban for 75 days. Ap
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Feb 13, 2025
TikTok is once again available in Apple's App Store in the United States. The app disappeared from both Apple and Google's stores January 19, 2025, as a nationwide ban briefly took effect. But though the app's service was quickly restored after President Donald Trump promised not to enforce the ban, the app had remained unavailable for download in US app stores.
Apple has now reversed course. Bloomberg reported the company made the decision after a letter from US Attorney General Pam Bondi. Trump previously told the Justice Department in an executive order to delay enforcing a ban for 75 days.
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Feb 13, 2025
Google is making Gemini just a bit better. Starting today, the company's chatbot will recall past conversations in an effort to provide more useful responses. "That means no more starting over from scratch or having to search for a previous conversation thread," Google explains. "Plus, you can build on top of previous conversations or projects you've already started."
Google notes Gemini "may" indicate if it referenced a past conversation to formulate a response. If the idea of a chatbot recalling information about you makes you feel uncomfortable, Google says users can "easily review, delete or decide how long" Gemini retains their chat history. Additionally, it's possible to disable this feature altogether from the My Activity panel.
Gemini is not the first chatbot to include a memory feature. ChatGPT will "remember" things about you in certain contexts. For example, I recently asked OpenAI's chatbot a question about Jeff Buckley's vocal range, to which it later asked me if I was a fan of his music. When I said yes, a notification appeared stating "memory updated."
More broadly, building chatbots with long, reliable memories is part of the "agentic" AI future many companies, including Google and OpenAI, are building towards. At I/O 2024, for instance, Google debuted Project Astra, which featured a built-in memory, though it was limited to a relatively short window of time and could "mis-remember" things.
Gemini's new memory feature has begun rolling out in English to Gemini Advanced
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Feb 13, 2025
The spiritual successor to Life is Strange is heading to the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog as a day-one freebie. The first installment of Don't Nod's Lost Records: Bloom & Rage hits Sony's subscription service later this month, along with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and immersive tennis in TopSpin 2K25. In addition, Sony previewed a couple of other cool-looking day-one titles heading to the service before long: Blue Prince and Abiotic Factor.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage tells the story of four high school friends (and punk rockers!) living in a deceptively picturesque Michigan town in 1995. The narrative adventure jumps between that era and 2022 as we gradually peel back the layers of, well, some freaky-ass stuff the girls uncovered.
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Feb 13, 2025
If you're thinking about getting a live TV streaming service, you're probably looking for some combination of live news, local stations, linear channels and live sports — without having to sign a cable contract. The good news is that, even though YouTube TV, Hulu Live TV, Sling, Philo, DirecTV Steam, and Fubo have all raised monthly subscription prices over the past year, these offerings are still usually ch
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Feb 13, 2025
Meta's Oversight Board is coming under new pressure to respond to the company's recent policy changes on fact-checking and moderation, which were made without input from the advisory group. A coalition of civil society organizations has published an open letter to the Oversight Board saying the group should resign en masse as "recent developments make it clear that the company has abandoned any pretense of oversight and acts with no regard as to the consequences."
The letter, which was first reported by The Washington Post, comes from the Global Coalition for Tech Justice, which is made up of more than 250 human and digital rights advocates, fact-checking organizations and other civil society groups from around the world.
"A mass resignation would be a historic act of conscience — one that makes clear Meta's reckless disregard for human rights cannot be excused, ignored, or concealed behind the curtains of an oversight board that has no real power," the letter says. "By stepping down collectively, you would show solidarity with all those communities impacted by Meta's unconscionable actions, increase public pressure on Meta and demonstrate that true accountability cannot exist within a system designed to suppress it."
Last month, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta would end its long-running fact-checking programs and roll back con
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Feb 13, 2025
Blue Origin, the SpaceX competitor founded and funded by Jeff Bezos, is cutting 10 percent of its employees or about 1,400 people, according to The Seattle Times and CNN. Staff were informed of the news by Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp, in an email reviewed by Engadget, who claims the layoffs are an attempt to address a lack of focus and an excessive amount of bureaucracy at the company.
The areas of the business primarily impacted by the cuts are program and project management, research and development and engineering. Blue Origin is making these changes as it finalizes its annual operating plan, CNN notes, which is focused on increasing manufacturing and the pace at which the company launches rockets. For example, Blue Origin is one of several space companies with commercial moon missions planned for 2025.
The company has been on a bit of a hot streak as of late. Blue Origin
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Feb 13, 2025
The next major expansion for Diablo IV won't come out until 2026, according to remarks made by franchise general manager Rod Fergusson at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas on Wednesday. This isn't too surprising, given that the first expansion, Vessel of Hatred, didn't release until the game had been out for 17 months.
Fergusson announced that Blizzard will drop a 2025 roadmap just ahead of Season 8, but that it won't include any details on the next major expansion. Additionally, he didn't say when in 2026 it was likely to drop, nor did he provide any details.
Blizzard's original plan was to put out a new expansion every year, similar to how Destiny 2 handled things in its early run. That idea went out the window when Vessel of Hatred missed the release window by nearly six months. There were bugs that needed to be fixed and community feedback to incorporate. It's tough maintaining a live-service game.
In any event, I would prefer a polished expansion with plenty of new gameplay mechanics instead of a rushed effort to
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Feb 13, 2025
Those who are in the market for a new game controller that works with pretty much any device outside of a PlayStation or Xbox could do a lot worse than consider the options from 8BitDo. The brand's Pro 2 controller is certainly worth your attention, not least because it's on sale. The black version of the peripheral has dropped from $50 to $38.39. That's a record low price.
The other two colorways — G Classic and Gray — have been discounted as well, but the deals aren't quite as generous there. Those versions have each dropped by $10 to $40, which is still a solid offer.
These discounts are for variants of the Pro 2 with Hall Effect thumbsticks. These should prevent stick drift (an issue that had emerged with Nintendo's own Joy-Con controllers for the Switch) and help you to aim more precisely. In fact, the 8BitDo
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Feb 13, 2025
Sony is giving Days Gone the remaster treatment. Nestled in Sony's latest State of Play event, the company announced that Days Gone Remastered is coming to PlayStation 5 and PC on April 25, 2025, with updated graphics and new content in tow.
Days Gone Remastered features "improved graphical fidelity, increased foliage draw distance, improved shadow and lighting quality" and support for the PS5's 3D audio and haptics-stuffed Dualsense controller. You'll be able to play through the zombie survival story of "former outlaw biker" Deacon St. John as it was originally conceived, and also enjoy a new permadeath mode, a "Horde Assault" mode, accessibility features and some point after the launch of the game, a speedrun mode.
Remastering another PlayStation game isn't out of the ordinary. Sony's done it to
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Feb 13, 2025
The OnePlus Open was a surprisingly good device, especially considering that it was the company's first attempt at making a foldable phone. Unfortunately, in a community note published today, OnePlus announced that a proper follow-up to the Open won't be arriving in 2025.
In the post, OnePlus Open product manager Vale G. said that the company has "carefully considered the timing and our next steps in foldable devices, and we have made the decision not to release a foldable this year." That's definitely a bummer, particularly for fans of devices with flexible displays in the US, who aren't able to easily buy handsets from Chinese brands like Huawei, Xiaomi and OnePlus'
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Feb 13, 2025
The UK's shockingly intrusive order for Apple to create a backdoor into users' encrypted iCloud data doesn't only affect Brits; it could be used to access the private data of any Apple account holder in the world, including Americans. Less than a week after security experts sounded the alarm on the report, US Congress is trying to do something about it.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that, in a rare show of modern Capitol Hill bipartisanship, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) wrote to the new National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, asking her to take measures to thwart the UK's surveillance order — including limiting cooperation and intelligence sharing if the country refuses to comply.
"If Apple is forced to build a backdoor in its products, that backdoor will end up in Americans' phones, tablets and computers, undermining the security of Americans' data, as well as of the countless federal, state and local government agencies that entrust sensitive data to Apple products," Biggs and Wyden reportedly wrote. "The US government must not permit what is effectively a foreign cyberattack waged through political means."
The pair told Gabbard that if the UK doesn't retract its order, she should "reevaluate US-UK cybersecurity arrangements and programs as well as US intelligence sharing with the UK." Wyden sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Biggs is on the House Judiciary Committee and chairs the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance.
Wyden reportedly began circulating a draft bill that, if passed, could at least make the process harder for UK auth
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Feb 13, 2025
Peacock's adaptation of the PlayStation classic Twisted Metal was surprisingly fun and I was fairly excited when it got a season two renewal. Now we have an actual trailer for the new batch of episodes and, lo and behold, it focuses almost entirely on the titular tournament.
The first season had a lot going for it. Co-leads Anthony Mackie and Stephanie Beatriz were charming and the episodes were short, focused and fun. One thing fans were left waiting on, however, was the actual Twisted Metal demolition derby. After all, that's the whole point of the games. The show's creators, which include folks behind Cobra Kai and Deadpool, have fixed this glaring omission, as season two looks to focus exclusively on tournament-based vehicular combat.
In other words, we can expect a truckload of off-the-wall nonsense when the second season premieres this summer. The trailer shows off plenty of new faces, many of which are culled from the games, and even spotlights the iconic host Calypso (played by Anthony Carrigan from Barry.) The franchise's mascot, killer clown Sweet Tooth, also returns, still voiced by Will Arnett and performed by the wrestler Samoa Joe.
For the uninitiated, the first season took place in a post-apocalyptic version of the US and involved a cross-country trip. Despite the dystopian
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Feb 13, 2025
Amazon is holding an event on February 26 at 10AM ET, and that's unusually early in the year for the company, which typically has its launches in the fall like the rest of its peers. However, considering the last time Amazon had a "devices and services" showcase was in September 2023, this one is overdue. (Yes, there was a Kindle launch in October last year, but that doesn't really count.) While we don't exactly know what the company plans on showing off, we certainly have some educated guesses. Let's get into it.
First of all, the company's hardware chief, Panos Panay, and his devices and services team will be on hand. This indicates the presence of new gadgets at the event. However, the main focus will likely be more information on the long-promised next-gen Alexa.
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Feb 13, 2025
Major publishers, including Politico and Vox, and their parent companies are suing the AI startup Cohere for copyright and trademark infringement, according to the Wall Street Journal. This is another salvo in the ongoing war between the people that make stuff and the AI algorithms that mimic the stuff that people make.
The various publishers, which also include The Atlantic and The Guardian, have accused Cohere of improperly using more than 4,000 copyrighted works to train its large language model. Additionally, the startup has been accused of passing off large segments of entire articles to its users without proper attribution.
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Feb 13, 2025
It seems Apple is ready to show off something new. In a tweet on Thursday, CEO Tim Cook told Apple aficionados to "get ready to meet the newest member of the family." What that product is remains a slight mystery, though we won't have to wait too long to find out what Apple has up its sleeve. The reveal will take place on Wednesday, February 19. In case there was any ambiguity, Cook's tweet included an #AppleLaunch hashtag.
Cook's tweet also featured an animated image of a shimmering Apple logo on what appears to be the outline of an AirTag. It's been rumored for a while that Apple would introduce a second-gen tracker sometime this year. The purported AirTag 2 is expected to have a longer range and a speaker that's more difficult to remove, as well as Apple Vision Pro integration.
Wednesday, February 19. #AppleLaunch pic.twitter.com/0ML0NfMedu
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) February 13, 2025
In addition, reports s
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Feb 13, 2025
Amid stiff competition, Baidu says it's making its AI chatbot free to use. Starting on April 1, ERNIE Bot will be available to users at no cost. Baidu says it will also issue refunds to users in some cases. The company cited reduced costs and tech improvements as reasons for making ERNIE Bot free across desktop and mobile.
Moreover, Baidu plans to roll out an advanced search function on the same day, per Reuters. This will also be available for free and is said to include upgraded reasoning capability.
Baidu started offering premium features in its search engine in late 2023. Those were powered by advanced AI models such as ERNIE 4.0. The company charged around $8 per month (59.9 yuan) for those features.
While Baidu was one of the first major Chinese companies to deploy its own AI chatbot amid the rise of ChatGPT, ERNIE is said to have struggled to find widespread adoption. By contrast, Reuters reports that domestic rivals such as the Doubao chatbot from ByteDance and upstart DeepSeek (which offers its AI assistant for free) have seen stronger user adoption, according to a third-party data tracker.
This article originally appear
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Feb 13, 2025
A new investigation from The Markup claims the parent company of Tinder, Hinge, OKCupid and other dating apps turns a blind eye to allegedly abusive users on its platforms. The 18-month investigation found instances in which users who were repeatedly reported for drugging or assaulting their dates remained on the apps.
One such case involves a Colorado-based cardiologist named Stephen Matthews. Over several years, multiple women on Match's platforms reported him for drugging or raping them. Despite these reports, his Tinder profile was at one point given Standout status, reserved for popular profiles and often requiring in-app currency to interact with. Matthews wasn't removed from the platform until two months after one survivor went to the police. Match Group subsequently dragged its feet when Hinge received a search warrant, complying after seven months. He was eventually sentenced to 158 years to life in prison.
How was something like this allowed to happen? According to internal company documents cited in the investigation, since 2016, Match Group has been aware of which users were reported for assaulting, drugging or raping their dates. In 2019, Match Group's central database, Sentinel, began recording each user reported for either assault or rape on any of its apps. Company insiders reported that, three years later, the system registered hundreds of incidents weekly. But the system was reportedly ineffective and easy to game.
Not only could users easily evade bans by signing up with different contact information, but "internal company documents show information on IP addresses, photos, and birthdate were not used to ban a user if they appear on another Match dating app." A Tinder user banned for reports of rape could simply jump ship to Hinge without issue. The
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Feb 13, 2025
Apple will use Alibaba's generative AI to power artificial intelligence features for iPhones meant for sale in the Chinese market. Joe Tsai, Alibaba Group's Chairman, has confirmed the companies' partnership at the World Governments Summit in Dubai. He revealed that Apple talked to a number of other companies in China for a potential partnership, but it decided to team up with Alibaba in the end. Apple Intelligence features are not accessible in China at the moment, and even those who purchased their iPhones outside the country will not be able to use those features once they change their region
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Feb 13, 2025
After announcing initial plans two years ago, Formula E is finally ready to deploy its fast-charging pit stops in an official race. At the Jeddah E-Prix in Saudi Arabia this weekend, the all-electric series will debut Pit Boost, a mandatory 34-second stop what will add 10 percent additional energy (3.85kWh) via a 30-second charge. No more than two crew members can work on the car during this process, with a third dedicated to stopping and releasing the car with visual cues to the driver.
Pit Boost is independent of Attack Mode, an in-race power increase which Formula E has been using in races for years to heighten the strategic aspects of its events. Attack Mode is currently deployed twice during each E-Prix when a driver activates the added energy by driving over a certain area of the track. This area is typically off the main racing line, so drivers usually sacrifice position in favor of Attack Mode.
There's no doubt Pit Boost will give teams yet another major race element to manage. Plus, teams can only bring in one car at a time as the Formula 1-style "double stack" is against the regulations laid out by Formula E and the series' governing body, the FIA (Federation Internationale de l'Automobile). And not only is there the process of making pit stop to manage, but teams also have to account for the fact that it takes 34 seconds. That's an eternity in auto racing, especially when you compare with a sub-three-second stops in F1. Formula E says the FIA will determine the Pit Boost window for each event, an
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Feb 13, 2025
You may no longer have access to CBS and CBS Sports, along with Paramount's other channels, through YouTube TV after today, February 13. In an announcement, YouTube has revealed that it's in the middle of negotiations with the company to be able to continue offering its channels. YouTube says it's "fighting for an agreement that avoids passing along additional costs" to you, which indicates that they can't agree on a financial deal that works for both of them, as well as one that gives you "more flexibility in how you watch your favorite sports and shows."
In addition to CBS and CBS Sports, the channels affected include Nickelodeon, BET, Comedy Central, MTV and VH1. Several add-ons for YouTube TV, such as Paramount with Showtime, will no longer be available, as well. YouTube started adding Paramount's channels to its lineup in 2020, when YouTube TV still cost $50 a month. Today, the live TV streaming service will set you back $70 a month for the first half year and then $83 a month going forward.
YouTube says that if it can't reach a deal with Paramount, and the company's content becomes unavailable for "an extended period of time," it will give you $8 in credit. Surprisingly, YouTube is advising viewers who want continued access to the networks shows to sign up for the Paramount streaming service, which costs at least $8 a month.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/yout
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Feb 13, 2025
On March 3, Mobile World Congress will kick off in Barcelona, Spain. While it's not the premier show it once was, many of the smartphone industry's leading players still attend the conference and frequently announce new devices there. Below, you'll find a list of the more notable phones we expect to be announced at MWC 2025.
Nothing Phone 3a series
At MWC 2022, Nothing's Carl Pei showed off a prototype of what would become the company's first handset, the Nothing Phone 1, behind closed doors, and at last year's event, Nothing announced the Phone 2(a). This year, we're definitely getting at least one new device from the company at MWC, with Nothing teasing something for March 4, the second day of the show.
I say at least one device because Nothing's invite says "Phone 3a Series." To add to that,
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Feb 13, 2025
Sorry, beefcakes, but this review isn't for you. All the fighters and rangers out there will still get a sense of how phenomenal Avowed is, the lushness of its environments, the clarity of its combat systems and the depth of its conversation trees — but at its core, this is the review for Avowed players who want to spend their time in the Living Lands learning how to become a master of mushroom-powered magic. This is the Avowed review for wizards. And, sure, all of their friends.
To be clear, I would happily play Avowed as any mixture of classes, and I'm likely going to boot up a new campaign and do exactly this very soon. But in my first runthrough, I wanted to see if the game would let me live out my fantastical spell-slinging dreams, and it absolutely did.
Avowed is a first-person, open-world RPG from Obsidian and it's a spin-off of the studio's Pillars of Eternity series, but it introduces an entirely fresh storyline and map, and doesn't require any existing knowledge of that universe. You are the envoy to the powerful Aedyran empire and you've just landed on the shores of the Living Lands, a lawless region occupied by outcasts, criminals and refugees from the wider world. Aedyr and its goon squad, the Steele Garrote, are making inroads in this land and attempting to wrest control of its settlements in the name of law and order. You know, classic colonizer shit. However, that's not why you're here — you're on a mission to uncover the source of the Dreamscourge, a rapidly spreading illness that consumes the minds of people and animals, covering their bodies in bright fungal growths and turning them into
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Feb 13, 2025
We called 2023's Galaxy Watch 6 a "modest upgrade" from the Galaxy Watch 5, which itself also got described as "very similar" to its predecessor, the Watch 4. So it's perhaps not surprising that Samsung's latest smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch 7, represents yet another minor improvement over the last generation. That's just the nature of a yearly update cycle for a device that is already doing most things right.
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Feb 13, 2025
Sony just had its best holiday season ever in terms of PlayStation 5 console sales with 9.5 million sold over the last three months (2024 Q3), the company announced in its earnings release. That's 1.3 million more than it sold in the same quarter last year (its previous best holiday quarter) and raises all-time PS5 sales to 74.9 million. The launch of the PlayStation 5 Pro last fall likely provided a boost for the quarter, but Sony didn't break out numbers for that console specifically.
The record quarter means that the PS5 is just 1.5 million units behind where the PS4 was at the same time in its sales life cycle. It also propelled Sony to a higher-than-expected 469.3 billion yen ($3.05 billion)
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Feb 13, 2025
A great phone doesn't need to cost a fortune. In 2025, features once exclusive to high-end devices - big batteries, multi-camera arrays, high refresh rate displays and more - have trickled down to more affordable models. Sure, you'll still need to buy a flagship smartphone to get the best camera or fastest processor, but you don't need to compromise nearly as much anymore if you're looking for a great handset at a reasonable price. If you have less than $600 to spend, let us help you figure out what features to prioritize when trying to find the best midrange smartphone.
The best midrange phones for 2025
What is a midrange phone, anyway?
While the term frequently appears in articles and videos, there isn't an agreed-upon definition for "midrange" beyond a phone that isn't a flagship or an entry-level option. Most of our recommendations cost between $
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Feb 13, 2025
The market for true wireless earbuds has exploded, and while that means more choices, it also means more confusion when it comes to picking the best wireless earbuds for your needs. From premium options like the AirPods Pro 2, which combine sleek design with impressive active noise cancellation, to models that prioritize exceptional sound quality, there's a pair of Bluetooth earbuds for everyone. These compact devices also now offer features that rival traditional, over-ear headphones, which can make them the go-to choice for music lovers, commuters, gym-goers and many in between.
I've tested and reviewed dozens of sets of earbuds a year for Engadget, constantly pitting new models against the previous best across all price ranges to keep this list of the best true wireless earbuds up to date. This guide explains why my current selections for the best wireless earbuds made the cut, and offers some shopping advice in terms of everything you need to know before choosing the best true wireless earbuds for your needs.
If earbuds aren't your jam, however, you can check out our best headphones buying guide, covering our favorite wireless, over-ear headphones, noise-canceling headphones and more.
Table of contents
Best wireless earbuds of 2025
What to look for in wireless earbuds
How we test wireless earbuds
Other wireless earbuds we tested
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Feb 13, 2025
Nissan and Honda have officially called off their plans to merge into a single automaker, less than two months after they confirmed the rumors that they were indeed looking to join forces. In an announcement, the companies said that they'd "agreed to terminate" the memorandum of understanding (MOU) they signed in December 2024. If they'd gone through with it and also brought Nissan-controlled Mitsubishi on board, the new entity would've had a net worth of around $50 billion.
The automakers said that their CEOs and other members of their management teams have discussed what they wanted to achieve with the merger, as well the structures they wanted in place after the integration. They explained that they considered various options when it comes to the final structure of the merged entity. Honda proposed several options, including establishing a joint holding company, wherein the automaker would be the one appointing the CEO and majority of directors. However, it also proposed a structure wherein Honda would be the parent company, whereas Nissan would be the subsidiary.
The Financial Times reported in early February that Honda presented the structure that would make Nissan its subsidiary as a "take it or leave it" offer. Majority of Nissan's board members reportedly rejected the deal back then during a meeting, but Nissan chose to wait until mid-February to make a formal announcement. The automakers said that they chose to cease their discussions "to prio
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Feb 12, 2025
X has reached a settlement with President Donald Trump in a lawsuit over the president's 2021 suspension from Twitter. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Elon Musk-owned company has agreed to pay "about $10 million" to settle the long-running case.
Trump sued Twitter, along with Meta and YouTube, more than three years ago after the companies booted him off their platforms following the riots on January 6, 2021. His lawyers claimed that the suspensions were a violation of his First Amendment rights. The lawsuit against Twitter was dismissed by a judge in 2022, but Trump's lawyers appealed that decision.
X's settlement comes shortly after Meta also reached an agreement with Trump. The company
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Feb 12, 2025
Other than a Days Gone remaster, Sony's first State of Play stream of the year was fairly light on first-party games. At least that was the case until the very end of the showcase.
The company announced the long-awaited next game from Returnal developer Housemarque. The third-person action title is called Saros, and it stars the always-delightful Rahul Kohli. The actor plays Arjun Devraj, "a powerful Soltari Enforcer searching for answers on a lost off-world colony," per the trailer's YouTube description.
The clip shows Arjun waking up on a beach with a gun by his side. "Every time the sun dies, madness reigns," he says as an ominous eclipse occurs. Moments later, a giant being with eight arms and a broken, pointy headpiece emerges from the depths. The creature summons balls of fire in its hands as Arjun readies himself to battle it.
Housemarque/PlayStation Studios
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Feb 12, 2025
Borderlands 4 is coming this fall. Developer Gearbox revealed that the latest entry in the Borderlands series is launching on September 23, 2025 at Sony's latest State of Play event, and the game will receive a standalone State of Play this spring where you can get an in-depth look at it in action.
Like past Borderlands games, Borderlands 4 has shooting and looting, though with much looser and faster-paced movement. You'll be able to double jump, dodge and grapple your way through the game, and play as four new vault hunters looking to make their fortune.
Borderlands 4 was originally announced during
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Feb 12, 2025
As the world turns, so do the console generations. The Nintendo Switch is over seven years old, so it's due for a refresh. Nintendo Switch 2 rumors have been swirling for years, but now we have some signs of life. The company officially revealed the sequel to its most successful home console ever in a brief trailer on January 16.
The Switch 2 looks functionally very similar to the original system, albeit with a larger display, magnetic Joy-Cons and a sleeker design. The company also reaffirmed that the upcoming console will be backwards compatible with Switch games.
While the reveal did confirm some rumors and have a few interesting details for those who were paying close attention, Nintendo is still largely keeping its cards close to its chest. We'll have to wait until a special Nintendo Direct at 9AM ET on April 2 for all the juicy information. Annoyingly, that date is a Wednesday and not a Two-sday.
The Nintendo Switch 2 was announced on January 16
The rumor mill had
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Feb 12, 2025
Blizzard is making some major changes to Overwatch 2 for its Season 15 update, including adding all new gameplay in the form of a perks system and the return of loot box rewards, on top of the new heroes and skins.
Overwatch 2 has been through several changes since it left early access in 2023, many of which brought the game from the revamped structure that made it a sequel to something that works more like a free-to-play version of the original Overwatch. Perks are legitimately new, though. Now during a match you'll be given two opportunities to pick a perk for your hero. One minor perk after leveling up for the first time, which adds smaller upgrades like a passive ability or a cooldown reduction, and one major perk that can alter the play style of your her
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Feb 12, 2025
OpenAI's upcoming GPT-5 release will integrate its o3 reasoning model and be available to free users, CEO Sam Altman revealed in a roadmap he shared on X. He said the company is also working to simplify how users interact with ChatGPT.
"We want AI to 'just work' for you; we realize how complicated our model and product offerings have gotten," Altman wrote. "We hate the model picker as much as you do and want to return to magic unified intelligence."
In its current iteration, forcing ChatGPT to use a specific model, such as o3-mini, involves either tapping the "Reason" button in the prompt bar or one of the options present in the model picker, which appears after the chatbot answers a question. If you pay for ChatGPT Plus or Pro, that dropdown menu can get pretty long, with multiple models and intelligence settings to choose from.
We want to do a better job of sharing our intended roadmap, and a much better job simplifying our product offerings.
We want AI to "just work" for you; we realize how complicated our model and product offerings have gotten.
We hate…
— Sam Altman (@sama) February 12, 2025
As for the company's roadmap, Altman says GPT-4.5 will be OpenAI's "last non-chain-thought model," meaning everything that comes after will feature the capability to solve problems by brea
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Feb 12, 2025
Google will start testing a feature this year that uses machine learning to weed out children trying to access adult content on YouTube. The "machine learning-based age estimation model" will try to predict whether a user is under 18 and, if so, apply appropriate age filter settings to their account. The announcement came amid a flurry of Google child safety announcements as the US Senate considers a bill that would ban pre-teens from social media.
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan first mentioned the ML age restriction feature on Tuesday in his letter about the platform's "bets" for the coming year. "We'll use machine learning in 2025 to help us estimate a user's age — distinguishing between younger viewers and adults — to help provide the best and most age-appropriate experiences and protections," he wrote.
A YouTube spokesperson clarified to Engadget that the model will make its predictions using data like the types of info the person searches for, the categories of videos they watch and the age of their accounts. For example, if someone frequently searches for info about mortgage lending or taxes, that probably points to the person being over 18. Ditto for an account that's over 20 years old.
If the ML model predicts that someone is underage, YouTube will apply its
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Feb 12, 2025
After years of waiting, the Apple TV app is finally available natively on Android devices. This version was "built from the ground up" to take advantage of the Android operating system and is currently ready for download from the Google Play Store. It was designed for smartphones, tablets and foldables.
This is a full version of the app, with all of the stuff Apple users have come to expect. There's a feature for picking up a show where you left off and a tool for downloading content to watch offline. It works via Wi-Fi or cellular.
The app allows access to Apple TV content, so you can finally watch the absolute boatload of original shows the platform pumps out. It's a veritable cornucopia of sci-fi goodness, with hit shows like Severance, Silo and For All Mankind. The platform also airs non-genre fare like Ted Lasso, Shrinking and Slow Horses. New users get a free seven-day trial to the platform. Otherwise, pricing is the same as always and folks can sign up for subscriptions via Google Play.
The app even grants access to MLS Season Pass content, just in time for Major League Soccer's 2025 season. Sports fans can also c
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Feb 12, 2025
Iconic game designer Jeff Minter is back with another modern take on a long-forgotten Atari title. Minter has turned his psychedelic eye toward the 1984 arcade cabinet I, Robot. His version ups the visuals and takes serious liberties with the original design, adopting techno music and some new game modes.
The original I, Robot was a flop, despite being made by Dave Theurer, the guy behind Missile Command and Tempest. Maybe it was just ahead of its time. After all, it was the very first commercial video game to use real-time, flat-shaded 3D polygon graphics. The game came out a full eight years before Sega's Virtua Racing and more than a decade before the PlayStation and N64 brought 3D gaming into the mainstream.
The original title had players control a robot as it jumped around mazes to flip the color of tiles and shoot enemies. There was also a giant eyeball that had to be avoided at all costs. Minter's version keeps the core gameplay mechanic, but increases the speed and incorporates new gameplay elements. For instance, there are new tube shooter levels and an exploration mode called Ungame. It looks pretty nifty.
If the name Jeff Minter seems vaguely familiar, he's the person who made Tempest 2000 and its various sequels. More recently, he remade an unreleased Atari prototype called Akka Arrh
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Feb 12, 2025
MyFitnessPal, a popular, free food logging app, is getting into AI, specifically letting AI plan your meals for you. Following an acquisition of a startup called Intent, MyFitnessPal is adding an AI-generated meal planning feature for subscribers.
The meal plans the updated MyFitnessPal app will be able to create take into account subscribers' "goals, preferences, dietary habits, and routines," according to MyFitnessPal, via information the app already has on you, and what looks like a survey. The feature will also be part of an end-to-end experience. Any plan the app creates can be automatically translated into a grocery list for the next time you're at the store, or an order to a grocery delivery service if you'd prefer to do as little as possible.
MyFitnessPal
Given the sheer number of recipe and diet videos you can stumble upon across social media, trying to simplify the process of planning what you're going to eat makes sense. Using AI to do it does seem like it could
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Feb 12, 2025
We're in the tail end of winter here, but it's snowing as I write this. Not a lot, but just enough to be a potential frustration to the move I have planned for later this week. Basically, winter weather sucks, and one of the worst things about it is how unpredictable it can be. The Weather Company, owners and developers of the Weather Channel app (but not the TV station) know this, and have just released a feature to try and make planning for storms a little easier.
It's called probabilistic snowfall, and it aims to give you greater insight into just how severe or impactful a storm might be. You'll still see the standard "50 percent chance of snowfall" in your forecasts, but in the 72 hours leading up to snow, you'll also see the percent change for specific snowfall amounts. For example, you'll see that there's an 80 percent chance of snow overall, but you'll also see bars detailing how likely more specific snowfall amounts are. In this screenshot from the app, you can see that five to eight inches is the most likely outcome, followed by eight to 12 inches — enough snow that you might want to change your plans to deal with it.
According to Rachel Chukura, head of product at The Weather Company, that was precisely the vision behind the feature. "The idea is that users can see the different probabilities and know there could be variations, she said. "That's important because of all the decisions we make in terms of what weather we think is coming. What time do you need to leave for your commute, will there be a school delay, and so on." And while the company is starting with snowfall forecasts, they also hope to bring it to more forecasting tools over time.
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Feb 12, 2025
Roll up, gamers. It's time for your latest influx of PlayStation knowledge. Sony is hosting its first State of Play stream of 2025 today (February 12) at 5PM ET. The showcase will focus on PS5 games. You'll be able to watch it on the PlayStation website or the brand's YouTube and Twitch channels. Or, you know, by hitting the big play button on the YouTube video embedded above.
The State of Play will run for about 40 minutes, so there should be lots of juicy details here. Ghost of Yotei and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach are both slated for 2025 debuts, so we could get release dates for those. For what it's worth, Death Stranding 2 director Hideo Kojima recently teased that he was working on a new trailer and he's appearing at an SXSW panel next month to talk about the game.
Other first-party projects such as Marvel's Wolverine, Marathon and Fairgame$ could get a look in during the State
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Feb 12, 2025
The iPad mini 7 is once again on sale for $100 off via Amazon. This applies to every design variation, so the 128GB standard model is now $400 and the 512GB Wi-Fi/cellular version is $850. However, not all of the colors have been blessed by the discount fairy. Most colorways get a discount of some kind, but it may not apply to all of the hardware variations.
Apple's latest and greatest diminutive tablet easily found a place on our list of the best iPads. It's a solid refresh without any real tradeoffs when compared to the full-sized tablet. It supports the Apple Pencil Pro, the A17 Pro chip is plenty powerful and the overall design is comfortable to hold. It's an iPad mini.
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Feb 12, 2025
Hark thee, foul tarnished. Those who have yearned for fresh battles against hideously wicked beasts in The Lands Between need not wait an age for such misadventures. Elden Ring Nightreign has a release date, and it's not too far away. The co-op title will land on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC on May 30.
We first learned about the Elden Ring spinoff at The Game Awards in December. FromSoftware's original blockbuster game arrived in 2022 and that was followed by the mammoth Shadow of the Erdtree expansion last year.
This time around, you can team up with two other players or go it alone in a procedurally generated version of Limgrave, the first main area of Elden Ring. You'll be able to choose one of eight Nightfarers, each with their own set of abilities, to play as on your run.
The aim is to survive three in-game days and nights until a battle with a final boss. FromSoft appears to have taken a little inspiration from battle royale games like Fortnite, as the playable area shrinks over time. Even if your entire team sees the dreaded "you died" screen before completing a run, you'll still receive a relic you can use to upgrade your characters and align them more with your personal playstyle.
Some lu
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Feb 12, 2025
The MacBook Pro is certainly not a necessity for everyone and the steep price ensures that (I downgraded to an Air, myself, a few years ago). But, every once in a while, a sale makes the superior laptop seem worth it. Right now is one of those times, with the new 14-inch MacBook Pro available for $1,400, down from $1,599.
The sale comes courtesy of a 10 percent off discount and an additional $39 coupon on the product page (just remember to click it before heading to check out). The 14-inch MacBook Pro has 16GB of memory and 512GB SSD storage in either Space Black or Silver.
Apple's 14-inch MacBook Pro came out late last year and scored a solid
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Feb 12, 2025
How do you follow up a product that has reigned as the king of mirrorless cameras for the last four years? For Sony, the answer with the A1 was simple: just improve everything. The result is the $6,500 A1 II, a powerful pro-level hybrid mirrorless camera that's Sony's best to date.
The A1 II is equipped with a 50-megapixel stacked sensor, not a global sensor like the A9 III, so it's not quite as fast. However, its blend of speed and resolution makes it the most versatile camera in Sony's lineup. It also impresses on the video side with 8K 30 fps 10-bit capture, along with 4K slo-mo at up to 120 fps.
I expect a lot out of a Sony flagship camera, though, and while the A1 II has lots of small improvements, there's nothing terribly innovative. It's also up against impressive (and cheaper) competition like the $4,300 Canon EOS R5 II and $4,000 Nikon Z8. Plus, there's the similarly priced pro-level Canon R1 and Nikon Z9. So despite its strengths, I found Sony's new flagship to be slightly disappointing.
Body and handling
The A1 II is Sony's best-handling camera to date. In terms of design and control placement, it's nearly identical to the company's high-end A9 III. At 743 grams (1.64 pounds), it's heavier than the 617-gram (1.36 pound)
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Feb 12, 2025
The problem with good quality earbuds is that, of course, they don't come cheap. So, when a sale comes along that makes them more affordable, we're all over it. Right now, you can get the Apple AirPods Pro 2 for $169, down from $249 — a 32 percent discount. They fell to a record low of $154 over the holidays, but this price is the best we've seen so far in 2025.
Apple's AirPods Pro 2 came out in 2022 and yet we still rate them the best wireless earbuds for iPhone. At the time, we gave them a score of 88 thanks to big improve
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Feb 12, 2025
Google Pixel fans who don't wish to break the bank often look to the more affordable A series of Pixel smartphones. The successor model of this series, the Pixel 9a, hasn't been released yet, but at this point nearly everything important about the handset has been leaked. Here's everything we know so far.
The Pixel 9a will come with a slightly modified Google Tensor G4 chip with the Exynos Modem 5300 found on the Pixel 8 series instead of the newer Modem 5400 on the other Pixel 9 smartphones, according to Android Authority. Android Headlines reported that other specs include 8GB of RAM, up to 256GB of storage space, dimensions measuring 6.1x2.9x0.4 inches (154.7x73.3x8.9mm) and a weight of 6.6 ounces (185.9 grams). It'll also get the largest battery on a Pixel device ever so far, with a capacity of 5,100mAh, which is 40mAh more than the Pixel 9 Pro XL.
The Pixel 9a will also reportedly have a 48-megapixel main sensor, 13MP ultrawide sensor and 13MP front camera. There's a new pill-shaped camera housing instead of the familiar camera bump. It fits flush with the back of the phone, a welcome departure from previous models.
The Pixel 9a is expected to come in four colorways, the names of which are not finalized: Iris (purple), Obsidian (black), Peony (hot pink) and Porcelain (white).
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