If you're like us, Nintendo holds a special place in your heart thanks to iconic characters like Mario, Peach and Donkey Kong and multiple generations of best-selling consoles. But little did we know that outside of gaming hardware and accessories, there's an ever-growing assortment of Nintendo-themed toys, clothes and decor. And it's kind of a problem because we want all of it. So to help you figure out the best gifts for the Nintendo fan in your life, we've put together a big list of our favor...
Motorola just announced the Edge 70 smartphone, which is an ultra-thin handset that could rival the recently-launched Apple iPhone Air. It's a bit thicker than the Air, at 5.9mm compared to 5.6mm, but the camera bump is less noticeable.
As for that camera bump, the Edge 70 features a trio of 50MP camera sensors. The main camera can capture 4K video and there's also a front camera, an ultrawide with a macro lens and a dedicated light sensor. Like most modern smartphones, there are AI tools availa...
It can be challenging for us humans to wrap our brains around really massive numbers. Even the scale of a million or billion is pretty hard for most people to really comprehend. So prepare yourself to think big, because scientists have recorded the largest and most distant black hole flare to date, and the numbers around it are pretty staggering. The event occurred at an active galactic nucleus, also known as an accreting or feeding black hole, that they predict is 500 million times more massive...
Valve is bringing a helpful update to the Steam Deck, adding an option for downloading content while the screen is off. The company is calling it a display-off low-power mode. It will be enabled by default when the Steam Deck is plugged in. The handheld's power settings can also allow it to be active while on battery power, although it will automatically revert to full sleep mode if the battery drops below 20 percent. If a user hits the power button while the Steam Deck is downloading content, a...
Amazon has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity that demands that the AI startup prevents its Comet browser from making purchases on Amazon, Bloomberg reports. In a blog post responding to Amazon's letter, Perplexity claims Amazon is "bullying" the company and that its demands pose "a threat to all internet users."In Amazon's eyes, Comet's agent violates its terms of service, degrades the Amazon shopping experience and introduces privacy vulnerabilities, Bloomberg writes. Amazon's "Condi...
In a case of deja vu, Stellantis is once again recalling two models of its Jeep brand plug-in hybrid SUVs. The company has recalled at least 320,000 of its Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe and Jeep Wrangler 4xe cars in the US over concerns of fire risks while driving and while parked. Stellantis is also recalling 20,753 of the Jeep vehicles in Canada, 2,653 in Mexico, and 32,238 outside of North America. A statement from Stellantis said an internal investigation discovered 19 fires. Jeep also recalled th...
Reddit won't escape Australia's child social media ban. The Guardian reports that Communications Minister Anika Wells announced Reddit's addition on Wednesday. The nation's law, which blocks children under 16 from major social media sites, is scheduled to go into effect on December 10.Alongside Reddit, Wells said Australian streaming site Kick would also be included. They join the previously announced Facebook, X, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. Australia considers the list to be a star...
Every year for as long as I can remember, my mother has gifted me a wall calendar featuring photos of my hometown. It’s a lovely thing, and I use it often to keep a note of all the concerts I have coming up. For 2026, though, I’m going to need something different: a Balatro wall calendar that features actor Ben Starr as the game’s mascot, Jimbo, in a variety of scenarios.You’ll see Jimbo as Santa Claus and a vampire. There’s a photo of him in baseball garb and another of him eating ice cream. Th...
Dolby unveiled Dolby Vision 2 in September, and Samsung has already fired back with its own upgrades to its image quality format. The company is a key player in the consortium behind the HDR10 and HDR10+ standards, and this week it announced that the group is developing a version called HDR10+ Advanced. Amazon Prime Video has already signed on to support this format when it becomes available.Forbes reported on the six upgrades that are in the works with HDR10+ Advanced. The revised standard is e...
After a delay, Apple has announced that it's bringing its AI-powered Live Translation feature to the European Union in December. The expansion is notable, not only because Live Translation was a key selling point of the recently released AirPods Pro 3, but also because the company warned in September that complying with the EU's Digital Markets Act could delay the feature.When Live Translation becomes available in the EU on AirPods Pro 3, Pro 2 and AirPods 4 with ANC next month, the feature will...
Microsoft has announced its latest batch of games coming to Xbox Game Pass in November. Monthly subscribers have a lot to look forward to, including Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 on day one of its release.
Kicking off the release slate is Dead Static Drive on November 5. This indie survival-horror game takes players on a 1980s-style road trip across the country. Dead Static Drive will share its date with Sniper Elite: Resistance, a tactical third-person combat game with rich sniper mechanics that sp...
Google is bringing live lane guidance to Google Maps in cars with the company’s built-in infotainment system, starting with the Polestar 4. Using the vehicle's front-facing camera, Google Maps will be able to "see" the road just as the driver does. It will then create more detailed depictions of which lane a driver should be in and guide them using visual and audio cues.
Google says the new feature uses AI to analyze lane markings and road signs, which it then integrates in real time with Google...
Sora is now available to Android users on the Google Play Store. The iOS version of OpenAI's text-to-video generative AI app is still only available in select markets and requires an invitation, but people are still extremely excited about making slop of their own; the app reportedly reached more than 1 million downloads in less than five days. And it didn't take long for the company to land in hot water over users creating disrespectful clips of Martin Luther King Jr. and drawing censure from t...
Obsidian Entertainment, the studio behind Fallout: New Vegas and the recently released The Outer Worlds 2, has announced that it's revisiting an RPG it released over a decade ago for a new update. Pillars of Eternity, a throwback isometric RPG, is receiving a turn-based mode as part of a new public beta on PC.The new mode slows the game's "real-time with pause" combat down, building on the optional turn-based mode the developer included with Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire, a sequel from 2018. The...
Samsung just announced the P9 Express series of microSD Express cards, which are primarily intended for use with the Switch 2 console. This is a good thing, as Nintendo's latest console only works with microSD Express cards and, to be honest, there aren't that many options out there for consumers.
The company boasts that these new cards feature maximum sequential read speeds up to 800MB/s, which is a mighty fine metric and in league with some of our other favorite cards for the Switch 2. The ca...
There’s a lot more riding on Amazon’s latest batch of Echo hardware than usual. After all, these are the first devices arriving alongside Alexa+, the AI-powered revamp of the company’s signature voice assistant. And unlike the $220 Echo Studio, the new Echo Dot Max is a more affordable ($100) and compact entry point into using Alexa+. It’s also another example of how confusing Amazon’s hardware lineup can get: the older Echo Pop ($40) and Echo Dot ($50) are also getting Alexa+. The Echo Dot Max ...
Nintendo's lawsuit against Palworld just hit a snag. The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has ordered a reexamination of a key Nintendo patent expected to be wielded in the case. Games Fray reports that the office is reviewing the Switch maker's patent regarding "summon subcharacter and let it fight in 1 of 2 modes." If we view Nintendo's Palworld lawsuit as a test bed for monopolizing game mechanics, the development can only be seen as a good thing.
Several factors make the reexamination...
Stability AI has partially succeeded in defending itself against accusations of copyright infringement. As reported by The Guardian, Stability AI prevailed in a high-profile UK High Court case, following Getty first suing the company in 2023 for allegedly using its copyright images to train its Stable Diffusion AI art tool without permission.
Getty’s original claim was that Stability AI had unlawfully copied and processed millions of protected images for training purposes, therefore abusing the ...
It seems Apple is preparing to debut a low-cost Mac laptop in the first half of 2026. According to Bloomberg, such a system is in early production at the company’s overseas suppliers and Apple is testing the devices internally.Apple’s aim with this laptop, per the report, is to draw people away from the likes of Chromebooks and cheap Windows PCs and into its own ecosystem. The company is said to be making the system with casual users, students and businesses in mind the kinds of folks who use la...
Since being placed on a Department of Commerce entity list in 2020 over national security fears, China’s DJI has faced the threat of a US ban on its hyper-popular drones. After exhausting its appeals and losing a lawsuit last month, DJI products like the Mini 4 Pro, Avata 2 and Neo may disappear from US shelves starting December 23.
The situation could be even worse than initially expected. The FCC just gave itself the power to retroactively cut off products from companies on its “covered” list,...
We've seen a whole bunch of Vampire Survivors clones arrive over the last few years in the wake of the roguelite's success. Poncle has released crossover DLC based on the likes of Castlevania and Balatro for its game as well. Now, the studio behind Vampire Survivors and Warhammer parent Games Workshop have given the green light for an officially licensed game that smushes the two together.Warhammer Survivors has a formula that is very similar to Vampire Survivors. Developer Auroch Digital even u...
While there are lots of great Black Friday sales on cheaper devices, it's the big ticket items that really make a world of difference. Take Apple's 2024 Mac mini M4, which has dropped to $499 from $599 as part of early Black Friday deals. The 17 percent discount brings Apple's mini desktop computer with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD to only $30 more than its all-time low.
We gave the Mac mini M4 a 90 in our review, in part, because it packs an incredible amount of power into such a small design...
Those looking for a better way to keep track of their finances should consider a budgeting app. There are dozens of them on the market now, and one of our favorites is running a discount for new subscribers. Monarch Money is offering 50 percent off annual plans right now when you use the code MONARCHVIP at checkout. With the typical yearly price being $100, this will save you $50.
As mentioned before, the discount is only for new users and it can't be combined with other offers. The code only w...
Meta has unveiled an overhaul for the WhatsApp experience on Apple Watch. The first official such app for the wearable is rolling out today and it includes support for what the company calls "many requested features." You'll now be able to see everything your friends are saying via your Apple Watch as longer WhatsApp messages won't be truncated. You'll have the option to respond to messages with quick emoji reactions.The Apple Watch app will enable you to record and send voice messages from your...
Amazon has launched its new and improved AI assistant in the Amazon Music app. From today, anyone signed up to Alexa+ Early Access with the latest version of the app downloaded to their iOS or Android device can start using Amazon’s reimagined virtual assistant for music discovery and organizing their libraries.
To access the chatbot, you tap the “A” button in the lower right corner of the screen when Amazon Music is open. You can then test its knowledge by asking it a range of questions, from s...
Motorola has been consistently offering solid budget smartphone offerings, and the company back with new refreshes to its Moto G and Moto G Play for 2026. The latest versions offer some incremental tech upgrades and a couple lovely new color options for the aesthetic upgrades. These smartphones both sport 6.7-inch displays with 120Hz and peak brightness of 1,000 nits. The Moto G boasts a 50MP camera as well as a 32MP front camera for selfies, while the Moto G Play has 32MP for its main camera an...
If you'd rather not spend the money on a brand new TV this year, you can make an old set feel new again with a streaming device. Our favorite streaming device is on sale right now ahead of Black Friday: you can grab the Google TV Streamer 4K for only $75, which is the lowest price we've seen so far. The Amazon deal applies to both color options, White and the soft gray Haze.
The Google TV Streamer is our top pick for an all-in-one streaming device. It has a faster processor than Google's previo...
The Apple MacBook Air M4 laptop is back on sale for just $799, which is one heck of a deal. This sale is for the model with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. It's available in multiple colorways.
We ranked this as our favorite Apple laptop in our list of the best MacBook computers. Heck, it's even our very favorite laptop. Full stop. The performance is exceptionally snappy, thanks to the M4 chip. We appreciated the upgraded battery life, which now lasts for around 18 hours per charge. ...
Apple dropped the "plus" from its streaming service's name in October, because the company typically uses the plus sign for free services with paid versions, such as iCloud+. Now, the company has released a new intro bumper and soundmark for its TV service. Apple has uploaded a five-second video showing its streaming service's new logo appearing in a hazy multi-colored animation before it shifts into focus at the center of the screen. Playing in the background is a soundmark, or as its composer ...
It's become cliche to say that we live in a golden age of board games, but to paraphrase the great stoic philosopher Andy Bernard, it's great to know you're in the good old days before you've left them. Great titles are still coming out by the thousands every year, from crowd-pleasing party games to genre-bending, theme-heavy Euros. Whether the gamer in your life is looking for a mind-warping challenge, a fun evening with friends or something in-between, we've got new releases or old favorites t...
Nintendo has boosted its Switch 2 sales forecast for the current fiscal year, meaning it could top first year sales of the original Switch. The gaming giant expects to sell 19 million Switch 2s by March 31, 2026, up 26.7 percent from its original forecast of 15 million units. That follows a previous report that Nintendo had asked suppliers to build 25 million Switch 2s by the end of March next year.
In its second quarter ending September 30th, Nintendo sold 4.54 million Switch 2s and has moved ...
Nintendo has boosted its Switch 2 sales forecast for the current fiscal year, meaning it could top first year sales of the original Switch. The gaming giant expects to sell 19 million Switch 2s by March 31, 2026, up 26.7 percent from its original forecast of 15 million units. That follows a previous report that Nintendo had asked suppliers to build 25 million Switch 2s by the end of March next year.
In its second quarter ending September 30th, Nintendo sold 4.54 million Switch 2s and has moved ...
Elon Musk told Joe Rogan on his podcast he hopes to unveil a flying car “before the end of the year.” It was an interesting announcement to make, as Rogan also asked Musk about the long-delayed second-gen Tesla Roadster. Tesla unveiled a new Roadster in 2017 and had plans to start deliveries in 2020, but production was delayed several times.
Avoiding that conversation, the Tesla CEO suddenly started talking about wanting the vehicle to fly. After vague answers and musing, he eventually said: “My...
Logitech is hoping to attract all the keebheads out there with its latest Alto Keys K98M. While this keyboard has been available in Asian markets for a while, Logitech finally brought its customizable work keyboard to the US. It may appeal to a specific demographic, but it's a welcome return to hot-swappable offerings from Logitech. The Alto Keys K98M is now available in US markets through its website for $119.
According to Logitech, the Alto Keys K98M comes with hot-swappable Logi Marble linear...
For those of us living in the Apple ecosystem, the App Store is second nature. It's a core part of the Apple experience and the go-to spot for any applications you might want for your device. So I was fairly shocked to learn that up until today, the link apps.apple.com would send you to a page with information about the App Store, but not actually take you to said digital storefront. That's right, it took until the year 2025 for Apple to create a browser version of the App Store. Maybe it never ...
SOPA Images via Getty Images
It doesn't look like Disney-owned channels including ABC and ESPN will be returning to YouTube TV anytime soon. The Walt Disney Co. pulled its channels from YouTube TV as of midnight on Oct. 30 after the two companies failed to reach new terms on their latest carriage agreement. While big sporting events are often where the rubber meets the road on these channel blackouts, YouTube TV subscribers were unable to see any college football games on ABC or ESPN all wee...
As expected, iOS 26.1 is out now for all Apple smartphone users today, and it includes what is sure to be a popular feature from the beta. Once installed, this update lets people opt to give the Liquid Glass look a frostier, more opaque appearance. You can find the option to tint the screen behind notifications and tab bars within the Settings menu. It's under Display and Brightness, then the Liquid Glass section. The feature is also present in iPadOS 26.1 and macOS 26.1, both of which also drop...
Panic is ready to show off some new games for its delightful Playdate. The company will run a Playdate Update showcase on November 6 at 1PM ET on its YouTube channel and website. The stream will include a look at some upcoming games for the system as well as highlights from this year that are included in the Playdate Catalog Fall Sale, which runs until November 13 at 1PM ET.One of the items that’s on sale is Playdate Season 2, a run of weekly drops of neat games, including Fulcrum Defender (from...
Best Buy has kicked off its early Black Friday deals by discounting the Bose QuietComfort headphones (the non-Ultra variety) to $199. That's 45 percent off and one of the best prices we've seen not to mention, it's a return of their Prime Day price from last month. Note that Amazon has already matched the price on the QuietComfort headphones, too.
Bose's headphones have top-notch comfort and active noise cancellation (ANC). For the latter, you can choose between "Quiet" (full ANC) and "Aware" (...
TikTok just announced that it will be hosting its first-ever awards show in the US. The appropriately-named TikTok Awards will take place on December 18, starting at 9PM ET. It's a live event that will be held at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. Of course, it'll be livestreamed on TikTok. The platform Tubi will begin streaming the event on the next day.
Awards will include stuff like "Creator of the Year" and "Video of the Year." There will also be awards given for "Breakthrough Artist of...
Waymo has announced the launch of its robotaxi services in three new cities. San Diego, Las Vegas and Detroit will play home to the driverless cars as the company continues its aggressive expansion.
In a series of blog posts, the Alphabet subsidiary said Detroit residents can expect to "soon" see Waymo vehicles on the streets, mapping out the service areas before launching to the public. Timing for San Diego was more vague, with "plans to begin serving the city next year."
Waymo's service area i...
One of our favorite power banks is on sale for one of the best prices we've seen, period. The Anker MagGo Power Bank 10K has dropped to only $57, which is 37 percent off its usual price. To put it into perspective, the lowest we've tracked it is $54, and that only happened briefly at the end of 2024. Today's sale applies to multiple colorways.
This model topped our list of the best power banks, and with very good reason. It's a workhorse that gets the job done. It includes Qi2 tech for fast wir...
Google has pulled the AI model Gemma from its Studio platform after a Republican senator said it "fabricated serious criminal allegations" against her, as reported by The Verge. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) sent a letter to CEO Sundar Pichai to accuse the company of defamation after the model allegedly created a story about her committing sexual assault.
The model was reportedly asked if Blackburn had ever "been accused of rape" and it reportedly answered in the affirmative, going so far as t...
Black Friday has become the time to buy the hottest tech of the year. Whether you're shopping for yourself or stocking up on gifts for the holidays, Black Friday deals are sure to bring the best prices of the year to things like headphones, game consoles, robot vacuums, phone accessories and everything in between. You don't even have to wait until Black Friday proper to save a ton of money. Over the past few years, we've seen Black Friday tech deals start earlier and earlier to the point where t...
A VPN subscription can make for a good holiday gift. Everyone could do with having a VPN to help protect their online activity from prying eyes (and, perhaps, access more things to watch from their favorite streaming services). It's something useful that a gift recipient may have never realized they needed. Of course, you may be looking for a great deal on a VPN yourself, and the Black Friday discount for Proton VPN is nothing to sniff at. You can get two years of access to the VPN Plus tier of ...
When OpenAI announced last week the end of its drawn-out corporate restructuring, one of the freedoms the company had managed to negotiate for itself was the ability to more easily sign cloud contracts with Microsoft’s competitors. With the new agreement in place, the company waived its first right of refusal to be OpenAI’s compute provider. OpenAI is wasting no time taking advantage of that freedom.On Monday, Amazon announced a new multi-year, $38 billion cloud partnership with OpenAI. “Startin...
Google has started rolling out a new version of its Translate app with a feature that allows you to create more accurate Gemini AI-assisted translations, 9to5Google reported. The feature appears as an AI model picker at the top of the app, allowing you to choose between "Fast" and "Advanced" translations. It's appeared for some users on iOS but not Android to date, and the Advanced mode only translates between English and French, and English and Spanish.
To use the new model, simply click on the...
Black Friday (which is now basically all of November) is one of the best times of the year to pick up things for yourself and for other people. But to say money is tight is an understatement this year. If Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days was any indicator, folks are spending more on essentials than anything else during these big sales. That, combined with the rising trend of holding on to big tech purchases for longer means that you may not have gadgets at the top of your to-buy list this year.Even ...
When I review products, I try to take other perspectives and use cases into account as much as possible. I'm very aware that I'm not the target audience for every device. But once in a while I run into something that seems like it was designed specifically for me and it just hits different. With the Acer Predator Triton 14 AI, that's pretty much the situation. While it isn't the flashiest or most powerful gaming laptop on the market, it has pretty much everything I look for in a portable system ...
The SanDisk 256GB microSD Express Card for the Switch 2 is down to $60 via Amazon, which is a record-low price. This model is also available in storage sizes of 128GB and 512GB, but neither version is on sale.
This particular model easily made our list of the best microSD cards for the Nintendo Switch 2. It even made our list of the best Switch 2 accessories. It just gets the job done. We loved the speed on offer here. It was the fastest of all the cards we tested when transferring games and lo...
The era of holiday shopping is coming and there are a lot of great tech gift options for loved ones or as a treat for yourself. That includes the new Apple Watch Ultra 3, which is on sale right now for $700, down from $800.
The sale model comes with 64GB of storage, a 49mm screen and GPS and cellular service. Notably, it's also only available with the one size, adjustable band and in two colors: a Black titanium case with Black Ocean band and a natural titanium Case with Anchor Blue Ocean band...
Dyson is holding an early Black Friday sale on vacuums and related products. Sure, Black Friday isn't for another month, but who are we to turn down a fantastic deal? To that end, the Dyson V9 Motorbar cordless vacuum is on sale for just $270, which is a discount of $330. That's more than half off.
Dyson devices are all over our list of the best cordless vacuums, and for good reason. The company makes effective products. The V9 Motorbar has been designed to clean all floor types, in addition to...
Engadget staffers spend the entire year poking, prodding and otherwise testing the latest tech gadgets. So we’ve got a pretty good handle on what’s unique and interesting right now. We put together this list for anyone looking for a good gift for that tech-obsessed person on their gift list. Some of these are devices we’ve tested for our reviews and guides, others are items we bought for ourselves (or wish someone would buy for us). We’ve got more than 35 picks here, from nearly every member of ...
Everything new about the revamped Apple Vision Pro can fit in a single sentence: It has a far faster and more efficient M5 chip, it comes with a more comfortable Dual Knit Band and its display looks slightly sharper and faster. Beyond that, the Vision Pro is still basically a $3,500 developer kit that really isn't meant for consumers.
Still, the Vision Pro fascinates me. It's a bold swing from a company that's become increasingly risk-averse over the last decade. And now that we have its first ...
Advent calendars aren’t just about chocolate anymore. Recent years have shown that the countdown to Christmas Day can be packed with fun surprises. Whether you’re into building Lego sets, adding more minifigures to your collection or curiously intrigued by scientific experiments, advent calendars can fill that desire (and they make for great gifts, too). Each door hides a new surprise that brings a bit of joy, nostalgia or nerdy fun to the holiday season.
Best advent calendars for 2025
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Somehow it's already November, which means gift giving season is right around the corner. While Black Friday sales can help with that, there are some great early deals running for anyone who wants to check off their list with time to spare.
Take the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold, which has only been out since late August. It's now down to $1,499 from $1,799 a 17 percent discount. This deal is available at both Amazon and Best Buy, and seems to be the first big markdown on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Not...
After teasing its dual-screen gaming handheld last month, Anbernic has already put its RG DS up for preorder on its website. When the Anbernic RG DS was revealed for the first time, the handheld maker only hinted at a price range of less than $100. To Anbernic's credit, the RG DS starts at $93.99 for preorder pricing and will go up to $99.99 once preorders end.
While Anbernic has kept its pricing promise, the RG DS product page is missing a transparent white colorway that was part of the reveal....
One of the best streaming devices you can get today is deeply discounted on Amazon ahead of Black Friday. The Google TV Streamer is going for just $75 right now the lowest price we've seen it hit yet. The device normally costs $100. The Amazon deal applies to both color options, White and the soft gray Haze.
The Google TV Streamer is our top pick for an all-in-one streaming device. It has a faster processor than Google's previous streaming devices (22 percent faster, according to the compan...
All the complaining about the Liquid Glass redesign may have amounted to some real change, since Apple could be offering a compromise with its forthcoming iOS update. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is getting ready to release iOS 26.1, which will have a toggle to reduce the Liquid Glass effect. Gurman said the iOS 26.1 update could roll out to users as early as Monday, while the first beta version of iOS 26.2 should arrive for developers the day after.
Liquid Glass was introduced at...
Those looking to keep an eye on their home when they're away need look no further than Blink cameras. These are some of our favorite security cameras, and the most affordable of the bundle is on sale for even less right now. You can get two Blink Mini 2 cams for only $28, which is the cheapest we've seen.
That's a discount of 60 percent, which is certainly nothing to shake at. This is also a better price than the $35 we saw for the cameras during Prime Day. Amazon recently revealed a newer vers...
Now's a great time to pick up a new MacBook Air if you've been thinking about taking the plunge. Amazon has the M4-powered, 13-inch MacBook Air for a record-low price of $799 right now. The 20 percent discount applies to multiple colors, too.
We ranked this as our favorite Apple laptop in our list of the best MacBook computers. Heck, it's even our very favorite laptop. Full stop. The performance is exceptionally snappy, thanks to the M4 chip. We appreciated the upgraded battery life, which now ...
Spam and scam calls are some of the most annoying things we all have to deal with when it comes to our phones. Apple’s iOS 26 update takes a firm step toward solving this problem with Call Screening, a new feature designed to filter unknown numbers before you ever pick up the phone. Once it’s activated, your iPhone can automatically answer calls from numbers not saved in your contacts, ask the caller to identify themselves and display a real-time transcription of their response on your screen. Y...
Monarch Money is one of our favorite budgeting apps and, fittingly enough, there's a way for newcomers to save money on a subscription right now. If you use the code MONARCHVIP at checkout, you can get an annual plan for 50 percent off. It typically costs $100, but you can get 12 months of access for $50 with this code.
There are some key caveats here. The discount is only for new users, and it can't be combined with other offers. The code only works when you sign up through the web. You can't ...
SpaceX will reportedly receive a $2 billion contract to develop satellites for the US government, according to the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ's report detailed that SpaceX will be tasked with developing up to 600 satellites that can track missiles and aircraft and will be used for President Trump's proposed "Golden Dome" project.
Announced back in May, the president introduced a project to build an anti-missile defense system that would intercept missile attacks before reaching their target. T...
Here are some recently released titles to add to your reading list. This week, we read First Contact: The Story of Our Obsession with Aliens, plus James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds' take on Dracula now in black and white for extra creep-factor.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/what-to-read-this-weekend-a-deep-dive-into-humankinds-search-for-alien-life-201422007.html?src=rss
Ayaneo is breaking into the competitive smartphone market with its latest offering, but it's hoping to attract the mobile gamers out there. In a teaser posted to its YouTube, the gaming handheld maker offered its first look at the Ayaneo Phone. As vague as the trailer is, Ayaneo clearly has a target demographic in mind, describing the smartphone as when a "mobile phone meets the soul of gaming handheld."
From the teaser, it looks like the Ayaneo Phone will be built with a standard dual-camera s...
Later this month, Italian citizens will have one extra step to go through before getting on porn sites. On Friday, Italy's regulatory agency for communications, known as AGCOM, announced an age verification system that's meant to prevent minors from accessing websites with pornographic content. The initial list of sites covers around 50 sites, including Pornhub, XHamster and OnlyFans.
The new rule will require users to get verified through "certified third parties," which could be another compan...
The World Series is headed to a Game 7 after the Los Angeles Dodgers tied up the series against the Toronto Blue Jays last night, 3-3. The Fall Classic remains on Toronto's home turf for Game 7 tonight Saturday, Nov. 1 at 8PM ET/5PM PT. The World Series odds still favor the Dodgers. The final 2025 MLB World Series game will air on Fox and Fox Deportes.
Of course, Fox is a "free" over-the-air channel, so any affordable digital antenna will pull in the game if you live close enough to a local af...
If you already picked up a Switch 2, you're probably looking for deals that can help you kit out your new console without spending too much money. While maybe not the most exciting thing, a microSD Express card will be a key component for long-term gaming bliss. SanDisk's 256GB microSD Express Card for the Switch 2 is on sale for the first time ahead of Black Friday, down to $60 right now. This model is also available in storage sizes of 128GB and 512GB, but at the moment, only the 256GB model h...
Early Black Friday deals are starting to pop up across the web, and a great one to check out is at Dyson. While we still think you have the best shot to get the steepest discounts the closer to Black Friday we get, some of the discounts on Dyson's site right now are some of the best we've seen. One of those is $290 off the Dyson V8 Absolute cordless vacuum, bringing it down to $300.
Dyson devices are all over our list of the best cordless vacuums, and for good reason. The company makes effectiv...
Elon Musk has told Joe Rogan that he hopes to unveil a flying car "before the end of the year." As Gizmodo has reported, Rogan asked Musk about about the long-delayed second-gen Tesla Roadster in his show, when the Tesla CEO suddenly started talking about wanting the vehicle to fly. If you'll recall, Tesla unveiled a new Roadster in 2017 and had plans to start deliveries in 2020, but its production got delayed again and again. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently tweeted that he'd been having difficul...
Techtober may have come to an end, but our reviews team is still hard at work with this fall’s haul of new devices. Over the last two weeks, we’ve tested two new Apple products, a powerful gaming handheld, some seriously impressive headphones and Meta’s sporty smart glasses and that’s just the start. Read on to catch up on all you might’ve missed, including our picks for the best of 2025.
Apple MacBook Pro M5 (14-inch)
When it comes to the new M5-powered MacBook Pro, the question isn’t whethe...
Apple continues to refine the look and feel of the iPhone with each major iOS release, and iOS 26 places more emphasis than ever on personalization. The one big change is the introduction of Spatial Scenes, a feature that allows you to create what Apple calls “holographic” lock screens. Instead of being a flat image, the wallpaper reacts to the way you move your device, giving it a sense of depth and motion that feels far more dynamic than a standard background. The effect is similar to the para...
Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. As always, we have a bunch of new games for you to check out this weekend, along with fresh looks at some upcoming projects and a release date or two.But first, I really enjoyed this week's edition of The Guardian's Pushing Buttons newsletter. The publication's video games editor, Keza MacDonald, wrote about spending a day in a theater playing what sounds like the ultimate pass-the-controller game with dozens of other peop...
Black Friday has become the time to buy the hottest tech of the year. Whether you're shopping for yourself or stocking up on gifts for the holidays, Black Friday deals are sure to bring the best prices of the year to things like headphones, game consoles, robot vacuums, phone accessories and everything in between. You don't even have to wait until Black Friday proper to save a ton of money. Over the past few years, we've seen Black Friday tech deals start earlier and earlier to the point where t...
Private Internet Access (PIA) comes with some of the best pricing of any VPN, and often doesn't feel like a budget service. I say "often" because, sadly, it does sometimes feel like you get what you pay for with PIA. While I'm working on seeing what settings iron out the kinks, the fact is that PIA doesn't always leave you with the internet speeds you need for everyday use.
If you've found PIA unreliable, you may want to know how to end your subscription, get a refund and trade up to a more stab...
Rockstar Games, developer of Grand Theft Auto VI, has been accused of deliberately laying off employees who were trying to unionize, Bloomberg reports. The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) claims over 30 employees who were eliminated at the developer's offices in the UK and Canada were either already part of a union or attempting to organize."Rockstar has just carried out the most blatant and ruthless act of union busting in the history of the games industry," IWGB President Ale...
Bluesky is adding a dislike button as a way to signal the kind of posts you don't want to see in your Discover feed. The experiment is part of several new ideas Bluesky is exploring to a improve conversations on its platform.The new experiments Bluesky is running are primarily built around the notion of "social proximity." The company says it's aiming to build a system that maps your place in a "social neighborhood" of "people you already interact with or would likely enjoy knowing." By prioriti...
While YouTube TV is Engadget's pick for the best live TV streaming service, it isn't for everyone, especially right now. Google and Disney's ongoing carriage dispute means subscribers don't have access to channels like ABC and ESPN, and recent price hikes means paying for YouTube TV now costs a minimum of $83 a month. Whether you've switched to another service to hold on to your favorite channels or just want to save some money, there's ample reasons to cancel or pause your subscription right n...
DJI just announced the Neo 2 selfie drone, a follow-up to last year's original. This upgraded model includes a whole lot of new features. Just make sure to set DJI's website to Hong Kong/China to see images and specs.
Perhaps the biggest upgrade here is the inclusion of LiDAR sensors for obstacle avoidance. The LiDAR is paired with downward-looking infrared sensors so it should be much safer as the drone follows you during flight. It still has integrated guards to protect the propellers, but th...
SOPA Images via Getty Images
If you're a YouTube TV subscriber, you may have noticed that ABC, ESPN and other Disney-owned channels have gone dark on the platform today. The Walt Disney Co. has pulled its channels from YouTube TV as of midnight on Oct. 30 after the two companies failed to reach new terms on their latest carriage agreement.
That means that until that negotiation is resolved, you won't be able to watch any programming from those stations. That includes all upcoming college fo...
The esports partnership between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Saudi Arabia is no more. On Thursday, the IOC said that it and the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee (SOPC) have "mutually agreed" to part ways. The breakup comes weeks after Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund and other investors bought EA for $55 billion.
The IOC and SOPC agreed on a 12-year esports partnership in 2024. At the time, the IOC was reportedly in talks with publishers of Rocket League, Street Fighte...
Apple's most recent iPad release is the iPad Pro with the new M5 chip (we called it "perhaps the most impressive piece of hardware Apple sells" in our review). Despite being only weeks old, it already has a $50 discount on the base configuration, bringing it to $949. As for the other iPads, we're seeing a discount on the standard iPad with the A16 chip that drops it to $299. A handful of other Apple gear is on sale too, and we included those discounts below. There aren't nearly as many hot deals...
Creative Labs, the maker of Sound Blaster audio cards, has launched a Kickstarter for a modular audio hub called Sound Blaster Re:Imagine. The universal hub, which is reminiscent of Elgato's Stream Deck, is meant to allow routing from any input to any output with the press of a button. Users can connect their gaming consoles, PC and musical instruments to the Re:Imagine, as well as speakers, wired headsets and wireless headphones, transitioning seamlessly between them.
The system uses magnetic m...
The Republican-led FCC has voted on and approved a proposal that would make it harder for consumers to receive itemized bills with accurate information from their ISPs, as originally spotted by CNET. This proposal revises previous "unnecessary" requirements on the grounds that a fact-based list of charges "may confuse customers."
These changes would minimize the benefit of the so-called "nutrition labels" which are otherwise known as Broadband Facts labels. You've likely run into these simple it...
Perplexity AI has agreed to a multi-year licensing partnership with Getty Images that will allow its users to access the latter’s extensive library of images. Leveraging Getty’s API, Perplexity will integrate the visual media distributor’s huge collection of stock and editorial imagery within its AI search and discovery tools, with correct attribution being a key part of the agreement.
In a press release, Getty said that Perplexity will be "making improvements on how it displays imagery, includi...
Some of the most successful creators on Facebook aren't names you'd ever recognize. In fact, many of their pages don't have a face or recognizable persona attached. Instead, they run pages dedicated to memes, animal videos and yes, AI-generated photos and videos.The people behind these pages are experts at creating content that can catch Facebook's algorithm and go viral. Successful pages can generate tens of thousands of dollars a month from performance bonuses, revenue-sharing and other moneti...
One of our favorite power banks is on sale for one of the best prices we've seen, period. The Anker MagGo Power Bank 10K has dropped to only $57, which is 37 percent off its usual price. To put it into perspective, the lowest we've tracked it is $54, and that only happened briefly at the end of 2024. Today's sale applies to multiple colorways.
This model topped our list of the best power banks, and with very good reason. It's a workhorse that gets the job done. It includes Qi2 tech for fast wir...
The Apple MacBook Air M4 laptop is back on sale for just $799, which is one heck of a deal. This sale is for the model with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. It's available in multiple colorways.
We ranked this as our favorite Apple laptop in our list of the best MacBook computers. Heck, it's even our very favorite laptop. Full stop. The performance is exceptionally snappy, thanks to the M4 chip. We appreciated the upgraded battery life, which now lasts for around 18 hours per charge. ...
Google’s AI ambitions are global in scale, so much so that it has just agreed to give Gemini away for free in India to people using the country's biggest mobile provider. Thanks to a deal with Reliance Intelligence, an AI-focused subsidiary of Reliance Industries, people signed up to Jio’s Unlimited 5G plan will be offered Google AI Pro at no extra cost for 18 months.
That means that qualifying users will have access to Gemini 2.5 Pro, Google’s most advanced AI model. They will also benefit from...
NVIDIA has teamed up with with South Korea's biggest companies and the country itself, as they build out their AI infrastructure. One of those companies is Samsung, which is building a new AI factory that will use 50,000 NVIDIA Blackwell server GPUs and other NVIDIA technologies to make its own chips. This "AI-driven semiconductor manufacturing," as the companies call it, will help Samsung improve its processes, better predict maintenance needs and improve the efficiency of its autonomous operat...
The Bose QuietComfort headphones (the non-Ultra variety) are on sale. Best Buy's early Black Friday sale has the comfy cans for 45 percent off, knocking their price down to $199. That matches their record low from Prime Day.
Bose's headphones have top-notch comfort and active noise cancellation (ANC). For the latter, you can choose between "Quiet" (full ANC) and "Aware" (hear your surroundings) modes. There's also a wind-blocking feature. The headphones' audio, while not quite on par with the $...
If you're in the market for a budget-friendly home security camera (or even several), the Blink Mini 2 may be worth considering. A two-pack of the cameras is on sale at Amazon as the bundle has dropped from $70 to $28.
That's a discount of 60 percent, which is certainly nothing to shake at. This is also a better price than the $35 we saw for the cameras during Prime Day. Amazon recently revealed a newer version of the Blink Mini that records 2K footage, but the 1080p Blink Mini 2 can still get ...
Those looking for a better way to keep track of their finances should consider a budgeting app. There are dozens of them on the market now, and one of our favorites is running a discount for new subscribers. Monarch Money is offering 50 percent off annual plans right now when you use the code MONARCHVIP at checkout. With the typical yearly price being $100, this will save you $50.
As mentioned before, the discount is only for new users and it can't be combined with other offers. The code only w...
A good VPN is worth paying for. Almost every service I'll recommend as one of the best VPNs is either subscription-only or supported by paid plans. Free VPNs do have their place, though, as not everybody can afford yet another subscription in the software-as-a-service hellscape we live in. Since everyone deserves privacy and flexibility online, I wanted to put together a definitive list of the best free VPNs.Now, some will say that free VPNs are, by definition, security risks that are to be avoi...
Disney's channels have gone dark on YouTube TV after the companies failed to reach an agreement by their October 30 deadline. The affected channels include ESPN, local ABC stations, ABC News, FX, NatGeo, Disney Channel and Freeform. "Last week Disney used the threat of a blackout on YouTube TV as a negotiating tactic to force deal terms that would raise prices on our customers," YouTube said in an announcement on its blog. "They’re now following through on that threat, suspending their content o...
Home robots are moving way beyond Roombas. 1X unveiled its NEO helper bot this week, a terrifying $20,000 machine that can perform basic tasks after you've trained it, and more complex tasks via teleoperation. In this episode, Devindra and Engadget's Igor Bonafacic try to figure out why 1X made the Neo look like a murderbot, as well as the future they see for home robots. Also, we discuss last week's AWS outage and our over-reliance on a single cloud provider, as well as Apple's rumored push for...
Microsoft’s latest earnings report for the quarter ending on September 30 revealed that revenue from the Xbox hardware fell 30 percent year over year.
Worse, in a way, this revenue decline doesn’t reflect any dip in sales caused by the console’s $20 to $70 price hike, since that took effect on October 3 after this earnings report. (Oh, and Microsoft raised the price for its Game Pass Ultimate subscription from $20 to $30 in October.)
Fortunately, revenue from Xbox content and services, specifica...
The Toronto Blue Jays have taken the lead in the 2025 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Fall Classic returns to Toronto's home turf for Game 6 tonight Friday, Oct. 31 at 8PM ET/5PM PT. The World Series odds still favor the Dodgers ahead of tonight's game, meaning we may very well make it to a Game 7. Every 2025 MLB World Series game will air on Fox and Fox Deportes.
Of course, Fox is a "free" over-the-air channel, so any affordable digital antenna will pull in the game if you l...
OpenAI has started selling power users extra credits for its Sora AI video generation tool. An extra 10 video gens will retail for $4 through Apple’s App Store. The company currently has a limit of 30 free gens per day, a rate that will likely decrease as OpenAI starts to monetize the offering. Bill Peebles, who heads OpenAI's Sora, posted on X about the changes. "Eventually we will need to bring the free gens down to accommodate growth (we won't have enough gpus to do it otherwise!), but we’ll ...