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Google’s NotebookLM made a pretty big splash with its AI-generated podcast feature Audio Overviews, and before the year is out the app is getting another upgrade. As part of a larger redesign of Google’s AI notebook tool, Audio Overviews are now interactive.
After generating an Audio Overview based on the sources you’ve uploaded, Google says you’ll be able to play the recording in a new “Interactive mode (BETA).” Clicking “Join” at any point in that new playback screen will get the AI hosts to call on you to ask a question, which they’ll answer live while you’re listening back. Google cautions that the feature is still experimental and that hosts might pause awkwardly or introduce new inaccuracies while answering questions, but it seemed to work well in a brief test. I was able to create a NotebookLM project trained on articles about NotebookLM, and while asking a question did seem to slow the whole Overview down, the AI hosts were able to smoothly incorporate an answer into the rest of the show.

Alongside these new expanded features, NotebookLM is getting a bit of a visual overhaul. The interface is now split into three sections, a “Studio” panel where AI-generated content like Audio Overviews, study guides, and FAQs live, a central “Chat” panel for asking questions about your sources to Google’s AI, and a “Sources” panel on the left for managing what sources NotebookLM pulls from. It’s a pretty clean setup, and being able to collapse a panel when you’re not using it keeps things from getting cluttered.
Google is also using these updates as a way to introduce its first pass at monetizing NotebookLM. A new NotebookLM Plus premium subscription is available to Google Workspace and Cloud customers as a Gemini add-on, and will give you the ability to generate up to 20 Audio Overviews per day, create up to 500 AI notebooks, and add up to 300 sources per notebook. That translates to an additional $20 per user per month for Workspace subscribers. Starting next year, NotebookLM Plus benefits will also be rolled into the Google One AI Premium subscription.
Google
NotebookLM started as an internal Google experiment called Project Tailwind, but quickly blossomed into one of the more reasonable applications of Google’s Gemini AI model thanks to its grounding in sources you upload, rather than the web and whatever scraped material Gemini was originally trained on. It’s capable of working with anything from web articles to YouTube videos, but its Audio Overviews have proven to be one of its most popular features.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/googles-notebooklm-audio-overviews-will-now-let-you-call-in-with-a-question-210700150.html?src=rss

Google’s NotebookLM made a pretty big splash with its AI-generated podcast feature Audio Overviews, and before the year is out the app is getting another upgrade. As part of a larger redesign of Google’s AI notebook tool, Audio Overviews are now interactive.

After generating an Audio Overview based on the sources you’ve uploaded, Google says you’ll be able to play the recording in a new “Interactive mode (BETA).” Clicking “Join” at any point in that new playback screen will get the AI hosts to call on you to ask a question, which they’ll answer live while you’re listening back. Google cautions that the feature is still experimental and that hosts might pause awkwardly or introduce new inaccuracies while answering questions, but it seemed to work well in a brief test. I was able to create a NotebookLM project trained on articles about NotebookLM, and while asking a question did seem to slow the whole Overview down, the AI hosts were able to smoothly incorporate an answer into the rest of the show.

Alongside these new expanded features, NotebookLM is getting a bit of a visual overhaul. The interface is now split into three sections, a “Studio” panel where AI-generated content like Audio Overviews, study guides, and FAQs live, a central “Chat” panel for asking questions about your sources to Google’s AI, and a “Sources” panel on the left for managing what sources NotebookLM pulls from. It’s a pretty clean setup, and being able to collapse a panel when you’re not using it keeps things from getting cluttered.

Google is also using these updates as a way to introduce its first pass at monetizing NotebookLM. A new NotebookLM Plus premium subscription is available to Google Workspace and Cloud customers as a Gemini add-on, and will give you the ability to generate up to 20 Audio Overviews per day, create up to 500 AI notebooks, and add up to 300 sources per notebook. That translates to an additional $20 per user per month for Workspace subscribers. Starting next year, NotebookLM Plus benefits will also be rolled into the Google One AI Premium subscription.

NotebookLM started as an internal Google experiment called Project Tailwind, but quickly blossomed into one of the more reasonable applications of Google’s Gemini AI model thanks to its grounding in sources you upload, rather than the web and whatever scraped material Gemini was originally trained on. It’s capable of working with anything from web articles to YouTube videos, but its Audio Overviews have proven to be one of its most popular features.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/googles-notebooklm-audio-overviews-will-now-let-you-call-in-with-a-question-210700150.html?src=rss

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There are some things you just don’t do in certain parts of the US. You don’t use inferior salsa during a cattle drive in Texas. You don’t eat pizza with a knife and fork in New York City. You don’t yell “Belichick is a big, fat cheater!” in a crowded Boston bar (even if it happens to be true).
And if you’re in New Jersey or just America in general, you NEVER take the holy name of Bruce Springsteen in vain in ANY manner. So it’s bewildering why one New Jersey representative would even think about faking his listening habits when it comes to The Boss.
9to5Mac spotted a curious looking post on X from US Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ). The congressman shared what appeared to be his Spotify Wrapped playlist for the year, with one list consisting of Springsteen’s classic tracks like “Glory Days” and “Thunder Road” and the other filled with tracks from various hip hop stars. He tried to cement his esteem for Springsteen in his post by saying his “first ever concert was at Meadowlands to see The Boss!” Well, it didn’t take long for the internet and anyone who’s ever used Spotify to figure out that he faked the whole list just to kiss up to his constituents.

Yikes… pic.twitter.com/bTEkSodA9u— Sebastian (@SebastianRios68) December 9, 2024

Gottheimer’s list included such glaring mistakes as inconsistent font sizes, improper spacing between the albums on his lists and the fact that both lists were titled “Your top songs” even though one only had Springsteen albums. He didn’t even use the same font type or size for all of his track and album entries.
So how did Gottheimer handle this musical faux pas with the press? He dug in his heels on his Springsteen tracks and blamed his two kids for the rest. He admitted to NJ Advance Media that he made a fake Spotify Wrapped list but says the tracks on each list are accurate because he shares an account with his children because that’s easier than going back in time and setting up a family plan.
“This would be my Spotify Wrapped if I didn’t share my account with my 12 and 15-year old kids,” Gottheimer told the outlet. “While it’s Springsteen all day for me — don’t get me wrong, I still love listening to Taylor Swift!”
Gottheimer has since taken the post down and replaced it with a list of his most listened to Springsteen tracks. He’s trying to save face because he’s in a heated race for governor and if you want a solid shot at moving into New Jersey’s governor mansion, then you need to make your love for The Boss known far and wide across the Garden State. If Gottheimer is also going for the “Dad who makes his kids cringe at their music choices” vote, then he’s a lock.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/a-us-congressman-tried-and-failed-to-fake-his-spotify-wrapped-for-political-gain-205516508.html?src=rss

There are some things you just don’t do in certain parts of the US. You don’t use inferior salsa during a cattle drive in Texas. You don’t eat pizza with a knife and fork in New York City. You don’t yell “Belichick is a big, fat cheater!” in a crowded Boston bar (even if it happens to be true).

And if you’re in New Jersey or just America in general, you NEVER take the holy name of Bruce Springsteen in vain in ANY manner. So it’s bewildering why one New Jersey representative would even think about faking his listening habits when it comes to The Boss.

9to5Mac spotted a curious looking post on X from US Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ). The congressman shared what appeared to be his Spotify Wrapped playlist for the year, with one list consisting of Springsteen’s classic tracks like “Glory Days” and “Thunder Road” and the other filled with tracks from various hip hop stars. He tried to cement his esteem for Springsteen in his post by saying his “first ever concert was at Meadowlands to see The Boss!” Well, it didn’t take long for the internet and anyone who’s ever used Spotify to figure out that he faked the whole list just to kiss up to his constituents.

Gottheimer’s list included such glaring mistakes as inconsistent font sizes, improper spacing between the albums on his lists and the fact that both lists were titled “Your top songs” even though one only had Springsteen albums. He didn’t even use the same font type or size for all of his track and album entries.

So how did Gottheimer handle this musical faux pas with the press? He dug in his heels on his Springsteen tracks and blamed his two kids for the rest. He admitted to NJ Advance Media that he made a fake Spotify Wrapped list but says the tracks on each list are accurate because he shares an account with his children because that’s easier than going back in time and setting up a family plan.

“This would be my Spotify Wrapped if I didn’t share my account with my 12 and 15-year old kids,” Gottheimer told the outlet. “While it’s Springsteen all day for me — don’t get me wrong, I still love listening to Taylor Swift!”

Gottheimer has since taken the post down and replaced it with a list of his most listened to Springsteen tracks. He’s trying to save face because he’s in a heated race for governor and if you want a solid shot at moving into New Jersey’s governor mansion, then you need to make your love for The Boss known far and wide across the Garden State. If Gottheimer is also going for the “Dad who makes his kids cringe at their music choices” vote, then he’s a lock.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/a-us-congressman-tried-and-failed-to-fake-his-spotify-wrapped-for-political-gain-205516508.html?src=rss

Read More 

The Xbox Series X was the perfect opportunity for Microsoft to run far away from its tumultuous Xbox One years and towards an era of genuine 4K gaming, ray tracing and Game Pass abundance. But it was not meant to be. The PlayStation 5 has outsold Microsoft’s new consoles by two to one, according to a VGChartz sales comparison, a replay of the battle between the PS4 and Xbox One. Now, Microsoft simply seems to be running down the clock of this console generation.
When I initially reviewed the Xbox Series X, I found it to be a powerful console that surpassed the PlayStation 5 in some ways. But it was clear that Microsoft had a major problem at launch: Games. Four years later, not much has changed, despite spending nearly $69 billion acquiring Activision Blizzard. While Sony and Nintendo consistently delivered exclusive system-selling games — even on the aging Switch! — Microsoft has stumbled.
It’s no wonder Microsoft wants to call so many other devices Xboxes. If you look too hard at its flagship console, you can’t help but be disappointed.

Should you buy an Xbox Series X?
Normally, I’d tackle the question of buying a device towards the end of a review, but this is a re-review so it’s worth asking up front: Who is the Xbox Series X for? It’s been around for four years, and, aside from the $450 version without a disc drive, there haven’t been any major hardware changes. Beyond the Xbox faithful, I’d wager most gamers would be better off putting $500 towards anything else.
For anyone dipping their toes into modern console gaming for the first time — a parent grabbing something for their kid, or a former gamer trying to reclaim their hobby — it makes more sense to go for a PlayStation 5 instead of the Xbox Series X. Sony’s console has a wider array of noteworthy exclusives, more innovative haptics with its DualSense controller and its digital edition is typically cheaper than the disc-less Series X.
Of course, if you’re a Halo fan the Xbox Series X is pretty much your only choice for a premium console (though the $300 Series S is a solid option for secondary TVs, especially when it’s on sale). Microsoft also released a special $600 2TB “Galaxy Black” model this year, but I’m still half-convinced that’s some sort of sick Tim Robinson-esque joke. It has to be when the more powerful and desirable PlayStation 5 Pro is only $100 more, right?
Hardware: The pinnacle of 2020
The Xbox Series X is still powered by an 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU and an RDNA 2 GPU, similar to what’s inside the PlayStation 5. It also has 16GB of GDDR6 RAM, 10GB of which runs at a higher bandwidth than the PS5’s memory. The Series X’s larger GPU gave it a slight edge over Sony’s console early on, but in practice that didn’t amount to much. Occasionally some third-party titles would run a bit more smoothly on the Xbox, but both consoles still had trouble balancing the demands of visual fidelity and performance.
Instead of being the generation of no-compromise consoles, the Xbox Series X and PS5 frequently forced gamers to choose between playing games with ray tracing and graphical upgrades at 30fps, or forgoing them to reach a smooth PC-like 60fps. That’s the main reason Sony threw a more powerful GPU into the PlayStation 5 Pro — the standard PS5 hardware just couldn’t cut it.
The Xbox sales slump made it clear why Microsoft didn’t try to compete with its own mid-cycle refresh, but it’s still sad to see the company shy away from any sort of innovation, like the leaked hardware that never arrived. The redesigned 2TB all-digital “Brooklin” Series X would have been a useful replacement for the base model. It also would have included a revamped controller, codenamed “Sebile,” with improved haptics (likely similar to Sony’s DualSense) and a direct cloud connection for playing streamed games. Microsoft even floated the idea of bringing 1TB of storage to the $300 Series S.
Instead of those functional upgrades, though, we got a slightly cheaper all-digital $450 Series X, that overpriced 2TB model nobody will buy and a $350 1TB version of the Series S. Those prices are all at least $50 too high if Microsoft genuinely wanted to move consoles. I’d argue the company would benefit from going even cheaper to undercut Sony, but that would also dig into the company’s already slim profit margin. I’m sure Microsoft isn’t eager to lose more money on Xbox.
In use: A good enough console
Even with its aging hardware, the Xbox Series X can still make modern games look great. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, for example, looks solid on the Series X, with smooth 60fps gameplay and ray tracing features. While it’s running at around 1800p instead of 4K, it’s still pretty sharp on both my 4K OLED and 4K Formovie ultra short throw projector. Sure, the game performs noticeably better on my RTX 4090-powered PC, but I can’t easily play that in my home theater. (According to Digital Foundry, even the Xbox Series S can run The Great Circle at 60fps, albeit at just 1080p with variable-rate shading.)
It’s still disappointing that Microsoft stuck with its classic Xbox controller design for the Series X, though. When I reviewed the PlayStation 5, its DualSense haptics felt transformative. It made playing Astro Bot or Returnal feel unlike any console gaming experience I had before. Controller-wise, playing anything on the Xbox Series X doesn’t feel much different from the Xbox One or even the Xbox 360.
Microsoft poured all of its innovation experience into delivering a slightly faster machine than the PS5, but it turns out that didn’t matter much in the long run. In addition to having more noteworthy games, Sony’s console feels like a genuine upgrade from the PlayStation 4. The PlayStation VR 2, flawed as it was, also demonstrated that Sony wasn’t afraid to take some risks this generation.

Where are the exclusive games?
After striking out with middling exclusives like Redfall and Starfield, the new Indiana Jones game is a rare feather in Microsoft’s dusty fedora. But even that advantage will disappear eventually — the company already plans to bring it to the PlayStation 5 next spring, alongside other former Xbox exclusives like Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves.
Given the sheer amount of development talent at Microsoft from its many acquisitions (and despite an obscene number of layoffs), the company has now become one of the most important publishers in the gaming world. But owning a popular multi-platform series like Call of Duty hasn’t translated directly into Xbox sales.
Beyond exclusives, Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription is the strongest argument for owning an Xbox. But even that has gone through its own form of enshittification this year. The company increased the monthly price of the “Ultimate” plan to $20, which includes day-one access to new titles and a large library of games for Xbox and PC. The new $15 a month “Standard” plan doesn’t get day-one access, but does include a library of hundreds of games, while the $10 a month “Core” option offers a limited library of 25 titles alongside multiplayer support.
The Game Pass Ultimate plan also feels less, well, ultimate these days thanks to opportunistic early-access pricing for new titles. For example, subscribers could have paid an additional $35 for the “Digital Premium” edition of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle to play it three days early. That timing included the weekend before the game’s December 9 launch, so I’m sure many impatient Game Pass subscribers upgraded just to clock some uninterrupted playtime. It feels like a backhanded way for Microsoft to treat its most loyal players, despite not being overtly evil.

Sony’s competing PlayStation Plus subscription isn’t as robust as Game Pass (there aren’t any launch day titles), but it still offers a large array of older games and cloud streaming support. While I wasn’t a huge fan of the PlayStation Portal handheld initially, it’s certainly a compelling accessory for PS Plus customers now that it can access cloud titles.
Oddly enough, Microsoft hasn’t promoted Game Pass cloud streaming much over the past few years. It recently started testing the ability to stream a handful of games that you own, outside of the Game Pass library, yet that’s also a feature that should have been implemented years ago. The cringey “This is an Xbox” marketing campaign is a rare attempt at making mainstream players aware of Xbox cloud streaming, but even that feels like it’s coming way too late.

Aaron Souppouris/Engadget

Where does Microsoft go next?
It’s not as if Microsoft has an empty gaming plate ahead. The company showed off a bit of its Perfect Dark and Fable reboots this summer, alongside a tease of a new Gears of War. We just saw a trailer for The Outer Worlds 2 at The Game Awards, the Dishonored fan in me is hyped for Arkane Lyon’s Blade, and I’m eager to learn more about Hideo Kojima’s OD. But all of those games will likely be available on Windows PCs, and many will also head to other consoles.
There’s no doubt 2025 is going to be a busy year for Xbox — it’s just a shame that it likely won’t help Microsoft catch up to the PS5’s sales lead. But who cares, right? Everything can be an Xbox if you believe hard enough (or have a browser to access Game Pass cloud streaming).
Back in February, when Microsoft confirmed it would be bringing Xbox titles to other consoles, Engadget Executive Editor Aaron Souppouris argued that the company should exit the console business entirely. While that makes a certain amount of sense for Microsoft, a software company that has often struggled with hardware outside of the Xbox 360 (and even that had its issues), I’m not convinced the company needs to go that far.
For one, it would leave Sony and Nintendo as the only remaining console makers. Sony would also effectively have a monopoly on powerful console hardware and graphically intense games, at least based on what we’re hearing about the Switch 2. Less competition potentially also means less innovation down the line — Sony could easily coast if it was the only powerful console maker around.

Aaron Souppouris/Engadget

Much like it did with the original Xbox, Microsoft could potentially cut its losses and try to jump-start the next console generation earlier than Sony. If Microsoft could produce hardware that’s more powerful than a PS5 Pro and deliver it at a relatively affordable price, it has a chance at peeling away Sony loyalists. That’s particularly true if it can ensure desirable exclusives are actually available for launch.
Microsoft should also work towards making its recent Xbox marketing campaign more of a reality, instead of placing its bets mostly on expensive consoles. Make cloud streaming faster, sharper and easier to access. Make people aware that they can game on their phones, tablets and just about any computer. Revive the streaming dongle accessory and make it cheap so you can turn any TV into an Xbox, and also keep working on bringing Game Pass apps to all TVs.
Hell, produce that genuine Xbox portable system and make sure Windows is better optimized for third-party portables. You should be able to spin up your Xbox games from practically wherever you’re sitting, no matter the device in front of you. (And while I’m on this soap box, why not let people turn the Xbox Series X and S into Windows PCs? These systems are all basically PCs already, and they would make lovely mini desktops or servers down the line.)
The console wars of the future won’t be fought like those of the past. Microsoft should plan accordingly.

Aaron Souppouris/Engadget

Wrap-up
If you already have an Xbox Series X, or find one obscenely cheap somewhere, it’s still a solid way to play Microsoft’s titles, popular third-party games and everything Microsoft has available on Game Pass. But if you had to choose between buying the Series X or PlayStation 5, it’s hard to deny that Sony’s console is a smarter purchase.
Perhaps the next console generation could be an Xbox 360-esque revival for Microsoft, but the company needs to look closely at what Sony and Nintendo are doing right. And really, it just comes down to having more games people want to play. Now that it’s flush with so many notable developers, Microsoft may finally be able to solve that problem. There’s no doubt that staying in the console business would be risky and expensive, but if there’s one company that can justify sticking around, it’s the one printing money from the cloud.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/xbox-series-x-review-2024-unfulfilled-potential-203025192.html?src=rss

The Xbox Series X was the perfect opportunity for Microsoft to run far away from its tumultuous Xbox One years and towards an era of genuine 4K gaming, ray tracing and Game Pass abundance. But it was not meant to be. The PlayStation 5 has outsold Microsoft’s new consoles by two to one, according to a VGChartz sales comparison, a replay of the battle between the PS4 and Xbox One. Now, Microsoft simply seems to be running down the clock of this console generation.

When I initially reviewed the Xbox Series X, I found it to be a powerful console that surpassed the PlayStation 5 in some ways. But it was clear that Microsoft had a major problem at launch: Games. Four years later, not much has changed, despite spending nearly $69 billion acquiring Activision Blizzard. While Sony and Nintendo consistently delivered exclusive system-selling games — even on the aging Switch! — Microsoft has stumbled.

It’s no wonder Microsoft wants to call so many other devices Xboxes. If you look too hard at its flagship console, you can’t help but be disappointed.

Should you buy an Xbox Series X?

Normally, I’d tackle the question of buying a device towards the end of a review, but this is a re-review so it’s worth asking up front: Who is the Xbox Series X for? It’s been around for four years, and, aside from the $450 version without a disc drive, there haven’t been any major hardware changes. Beyond the Xbox faithful, I’d wager most gamers would be better off putting $500 towards anything else.

For anyone dipping their toes into modern console gaming for the first time — a parent grabbing something for their kid, or a former gamer trying to reclaim their hobby — it makes more sense to go for a PlayStation 5 instead of the Xbox Series X. Sony’s console has a wider array of noteworthy exclusives, more innovative haptics with its DualSense controller and its digital edition is typically cheaper than the disc-less Series X.

Of course, if you’re a Halo fan the Xbox Series X is pretty much your only choice for a premium console (though the $300 Series S is a solid option for secondary TVs, especially when it’s on sale). Microsoft also released a special $600 2TB “Galaxy Black” model this year, but I’m still half-convinced that’s some sort of sick Tim Robinson-esque joke. It has to be when the more powerful and desirable PlayStation 5 Pro is only $100 more, right?

Hardware: The pinnacle of 2020

The Xbox Series X is still powered by an 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU and an RDNA 2 GPU, similar to what’s inside the PlayStation 5. It also has 16GB of GDDR6 RAM, 10GB of which runs at a higher bandwidth than the PS5’s memory. The Series X’s larger GPU gave it a slight edge over Sony’s console early on, but in practice that didn’t amount to much. Occasionally some third-party titles would run a bit more smoothly on the Xbox, but both consoles still had trouble balancing the demands of visual fidelity and performance.

Instead of being the generation of no-compromise consoles, the Xbox Series X and PS5 frequently forced gamers to choose between playing games with ray tracing and graphical upgrades at 30fps, or forgoing them to reach a smooth PC-like 60fps. That’s the main reason Sony threw a more powerful GPU into the PlayStation 5 Pro — the standard PS5 hardware just couldn’t cut it.

The Xbox sales slump made it clear why Microsoft didn’t try to compete with its own mid-cycle refresh, but it’s still sad to see the company shy away from any sort of innovation, like the leaked hardware that never arrived. The redesigned 2TB all-digital “Brooklin” Series X would have been a useful replacement for the base model. It also would have included a revamped controller, codenamed “Sebile,” with improved haptics (likely similar to Sony’s DualSense) and a direct cloud connection for playing streamed games. Microsoft even floated the idea of bringing 1TB of storage to the $300 Series S.

Instead of those functional upgrades, though, we got a slightly cheaper all-digital $450 Series X, that overpriced 2TB model nobody will buy and a $350 1TB version of the Series S. Those prices are all at least $50 too high if Microsoft genuinely wanted to move consoles. I’d argue the company would benefit from going even cheaper to undercut Sony, but that would also dig into the company’s already slim profit margin. I’m sure Microsoft isn’t eager to lose more money on Xbox.

In use: A good enough console

Even with its aging hardware, the Xbox Series X can still make modern games look great. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, for example, looks solid on the Series X, with smooth 60fps gameplay and ray tracing features. While it’s running at around 1800p instead of 4K, it’s still pretty sharp on both my 4K OLED and 4K Formovie ultra short throw projector. Sure, the game performs noticeably better on my RTX 4090-powered PC, but I can’t easily play that in my home theater. (According to Digital Foundry, even the Xbox Series S can run The Great Circle at 60fps, albeit at just 1080p with variable-rate shading.)

It’s still disappointing that Microsoft stuck with its classic Xbox controller design for the Series X, though. When I reviewed the PlayStation 5, its DualSense haptics felt transformative. It made playing Astro Bot or Returnal feel unlike any console gaming experience I had before. Controller-wise, playing anything on the Xbox Series X doesn’t feel much different from the Xbox One or even the Xbox 360.

Microsoft poured all of its innovation experience into delivering a slightly faster machine than the PS5, but it turns out that didn’t matter much in the long run. In addition to having more noteworthy games, Sony’s console feels like a genuine upgrade from the PlayStation 4. The PlayStation VR 2, flawed as it was, also demonstrated that Sony wasn’t afraid to take some risks this generation.

Where are the exclusive games?

After striking out with middling exclusives like Redfall and Starfield, the new Indiana Jones game is a rare feather in Microsoft’s dusty fedora. But even that advantage will disappear eventually — the company already plans to bring it to the PlayStation 5 next spring, alongside other former Xbox exclusives like Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves.

Given the sheer amount of development talent at Microsoft from its many acquisitions (and despite an obscene number of layoffs), the company has now become one of the most important publishers in the gaming world. But owning a popular multi-platform series like Call of Duty hasn’t translated directly into Xbox sales.

Beyond exclusives, Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription is the strongest argument for owning an Xbox. But even that has gone through its own form of enshittification this year. The company increased the monthly price of the “Ultimate” plan to $20, which includes day-one access to new titles and a large library of games for Xbox and PC. The new $15 a month “Standard” plan doesn’t get day-one access, but does include a library of hundreds of games, while the $10 a month “Core” option offers a limited library of 25 titles alongside multiplayer support.

The Game Pass Ultimate plan also feels less, well, ultimate these days thanks to opportunistic early-access pricing for new titles. For example, subscribers could have paid an additional $35 for the “Digital Premium” edition of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle to play it three days early. That timing included the weekend before the game’s December 9 launch, so I’m sure many impatient Game Pass subscribers upgraded just to clock some uninterrupted playtime. It feels like a backhanded way for Microsoft to treat its most loyal players, despite not being overtly evil.

Sony’s competing PlayStation Plus subscription isn’t as robust as Game Pass (there aren’t any launch day titles), but it still offers a large array of older games and cloud streaming support. While I wasn’t a huge fan of the PlayStation Portal handheld initially, it’s certainly a compelling accessory for PS Plus customers now that it can access cloud titles.

Oddly enough, Microsoft hasn’t promoted Game Pass cloud streaming much over the past few years. It recently started testing the ability to stream a handful of games that you own, outside of the Game Pass library, yet that’s also a feature that should have been implemented years ago. The cringey “This is an Xbox” marketing campaign is a rare attempt at making mainstream players aware of Xbox cloud streaming, but even that feels like it’s coming way too late.

Where does Microsoft go next?

It’s not as if Microsoft has an empty gaming plate ahead. The company showed off a bit of its Perfect Dark and Fable reboots this summer, alongside a tease of a new Gears of War. We just saw a trailer for The Outer Worlds 2 at The Game Awards, the Dishonored fan in me is hyped for Arkane Lyon’s Blade, and I’m eager to learn more about Hideo Kojima’s OD. But all of those games will likely be available on Windows PCs, and many will also head to other consoles.

There’s no doubt 2025 is going to be a busy year for Xbox — it’s just a shame that it likely won’t help Microsoft catch up to the PS5’s sales lead. But who cares, right? Everything can be an Xbox if you believe hard enough (or have a browser to access Game Pass cloud streaming).

Back in February, when Microsoft confirmed it would be bringing Xbox titles to other consoles, Engadget Executive Editor Aaron Souppouris argued that the company should exit the console business entirely. While that makes a certain amount of sense for Microsoft, a software company that has often struggled with hardware outside of the Xbox 360 (and even that had its issues), I’m not convinced the company needs to go that far.

For one, it would leave Sony and Nintendo as the only remaining console makers. Sony would also effectively have a monopoly on powerful console hardware and graphically intense games, at least based on what we’re hearing about the Switch 2. Less competition potentially also means less innovation down the line — Sony could easily coast if it was the only powerful console maker around.

Much like it did with the original Xbox, Microsoft could potentially cut its losses and try to jump-start the next console generation earlier than Sony. If Microsoft could produce hardware that’s more powerful than a PS5 Pro and deliver it at a relatively affordable price, it has a chance at peeling away Sony loyalists. That’s particularly true if it can ensure desirable exclusives are actually available for launch.

Microsoft should also work towards making its recent Xbox marketing campaign more of a reality, instead of placing its bets mostly on expensive consoles. Make cloud streaming faster, sharper and easier to access. Make people aware that they can game on their phones, tablets and just about any computer. Revive the streaming dongle accessory and make it cheap so you can turn any TV into an Xbox, and also keep working on bringing Game Pass apps to all TVs.

Hell, produce that genuine Xbox portable system and make sure Windows is better optimized for third-party portables. You should be able to spin up your Xbox games from practically wherever you’re sitting, no matter the device in front of you. (And while I’m on this soap box, why not let people turn the Xbox Series X and S into Windows PCs? These systems are all basically PCs already, and they would make lovely mini desktops or servers down the line.)

The console wars of the future won’t be fought like those of the past. Microsoft should plan accordingly.

Wrap-up

If you already have an Xbox Series X, or find one obscenely cheap somewhere, it’s still a solid way to play Microsoft’s titles, popular third-party games and everything Microsoft has available on Game Pass. But if you had to choose between buying the Series X or PlayStation 5, it’s hard to deny that Sony’s console is a smarter purchase.

Perhaps the next console generation could be an Xbox 360-esque revival for Microsoft, but the company needs to look closely at what Sony and Nintendo are doing right. And really, it just comes down to having more games people want to play. Now that it’s flush with so many notable developers, Microsoft may finally be able to solve that problem. There’s no doubt that staying in the console business would be risky and expensive, but if there’s one company that can justify sticking around, it’s the one printing money from the cloud.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/xbox-series-x-review-2024-unfulfilled-potential-203025192.html?src=rss

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Airbnb has announced it’s deploying “anti-party technology” to prevent “unauthorized and disruptive parties” from happening at homes on its platform for New Year’s Eve. If you were planning on hosting a get-together, start thinking of a Plan B.
The company says it’s using machine learning to identify and block high-risk, whole-home bookings in advance based on a variety of criteria. Airbnb’s assessment takes into account things like the length of a trip, how far a listing is from your current location, and when you’re trying to book to weed out potentially disruptive parties. If you’re booking a two-night stay a week before New Year’s Eve, you’re likely to tingle Airbnb’s anti-party senses. The company will either block your reservation entirely or direct you to different accommodations.
Party detection technology will be used in countries and regions globally, according to Airbnb. If you’re trying to book an entire home in “the US, Puerto Rico, Canada, the UK, France, Spain, Australia and New Zealand,” you’ll also have to be willing to stay for more than three days and agree to a “mandatory anti-party attestation” to be allowed to book.
Airbnb’s transformation into the party police has been happening for a few years at this point. The company claims that it blocked 74,000 people globally from booking an entire home listing for a party in 2023. It’s also deployed its machine learning tech to weed out unauthorized events before. Airbnb’s stricter stance towards events started in earnest during 2019, when it banned “party houses” after five people died in a shooting at an Airbnb listing. Airbnb banned all parties outright in 2020, and the company now offers hosts multiple tools for tamping down noise complaints, including a free sensor that can be placed in homes to detect noises over a certain volume.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/airbnb-is-deploying-anti-party-technology-to-ruin-your-nye-party-193356056.html?src=rss

Airbnb has announced it’s deploying “anti-party technology” to prevent “unauthorized and disruptive parties” from happening at homes on its platform for New Year’s Eve. If you were planning on hosting a get-together, start thinking of a Plan B.

The company says it’s using machine learning to identify and block high-risk, whole-home bookings in advance based on a variety of criteria. Airbnb’s assessment takes into account things like the length of a trip, how far a listing is from your current location, and when you’re trying to book to weed out potentially disruptive parties. If you’re booking a two-night stay a week before New Year’s Eve, you’re likely to tingle Airbnb’s anti-party senses. The company will either block your reservation entirely or direct you to different accommodations.

Party detection technology will be used in countries and regions globally, according to Airbnb. If you’re trying to book an entire home in “the US, Puerto Rico, Canada, the UK, France, Spain, Australia and New Zealand,” you’ll also have to be willing to stay for more than three days and agree to a “mandatory anti-party attestation” to be allowed to book.

Airbnb’s transformation into the party police has been happening for a few years at this point. The company claims that it blocked 74,000 people globally from booking an entire home listing for a party in 2023. It’s also deployed its machine learning tech to weed out unauthorized events before. Airbnb’s stricter stance towards events started in earnest during 2019, when it banned “party houses” after five people died in a shooting at an Airbnb listing. Airbnb banned all parties outright in 2020, and the company now offers hosts multiple tools for tamping down noise complaints, including a free sensor that can be placed in homes to detect noises over a certain volume.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/airbnb-is-deploying-anti-party-technology-to-ruin-your-nye-party-193356056.html?src=rss

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Staff at another video game studio have organized their own union. The Communication Workers of America (CWA) announced late Thursday in a statement that 461 workers for ZeniMax Online Studios (ZOS), the Maryland-based studio behind The Elder Scrolls Online, voted to form the ZOS United-CWA union covering web developers, designers, engineers and graphics artists by a vote of 395-40. 
The new union will allow ZeniMax staffers to “collectively push for real improvements” in the workplace and provide “job security amid record layoffs, protections against AI, better pay and benefits,” according to a statement released by the CWA.
“I’m excited to finally see workers have a say in the workplace,” encounter designer and ZOS United-CWA member Billy Eichner said in the statement. “We already work together to make great games. Why not work together to make a great workplace?”
This isn’t the first time that a group of ZeniMax workers have formed a union. Quality assurance testers at ZeniMax unionized in January of 2023, making it the largest union in the game industry at the time.
Workers at other major game studios have followed the lead of QA workers at ZeniMax by forming their own unions. Sega of America workers unionized last March. More than 500 staffers who work on Blizzard’s World of Warcraft voted to form their union over the summer. Workers at Bethesda Game Studios, the developer behind Starfield, The Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, also voted to create a union in July.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/zenimax-online-studios-workers-form-their-own-union-190055555.html?src=rss

Staff at another video game studio have organized their own union. The Communication Workers of America (CWA) announced late Thursday in a statement that 461 workers for ZeniMax Online Studios (ZOS), the Maryland-based studio behind The Elder Scrolls Online, voted to form the ZOS United-CWA union covering web developers, designers, engineers and graphics artists by a vote of 395-40. 

The new union will allow ZeniMax staffers to “collectively push for real improvements” in the workplace and provide “job security amid record layoffs, protections against AI, better pay and benefits,” according to a statement released by the CWA.

“I’m excited to finally see workers have a say in the workplace,” encounter designer and ZOS United-CWA member Billy Eichner said in the statement. “We already work together to make great games. Why not work together to make a great workplace?”

This isn’t the first time that a group of ZeniMax workers have formed a union. Quality assurance testers at ZeniMax unionized in January of 2023, making it the largest union in the game industry at the time.

Workers at other major game studios have followed the lead of QA workers at ZeniMax by forming their own unions. Sega of America workers unionized last March. More than 500 staffers who work on Blizzard’s World of Warcraft voted to form their union over the summer. Workers at Bethesda Game Studios, the developer behind Starfield, The Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, also voted to create a union in July.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/zenimax-online-studios-workers-form-their-own-union-190055555.html?src=rss

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Microsoft has cut two of Skype’s central premium features: credit and custom phone numbers. Instead of credits, the company is now pushing subscriptions — priced regionally and globally, depending on your needs. As for using a phone number other than your cell’s, there’s no longer an alternative on the platform.
The first wind of the change came from a volunteer moderator replying in Microsoft’s Skype forums to a user who wanted to know why they couldn’t buy new credits. “We have just received new information from Microsoft,” said Skype moderator Ruwim. B, who rocked a sweet Yoda profile pic. “Skype has stopped purchase of Skype Credit for all users. The only option available now are monthly calling subscriptions.”
When another user chimed in to ask for confirmation that this meant there was no way on the entire platform to send SMS messages once you’re out of credits, the moderator wrote, “Unless they decide to add an ongoing SMS texting subscription, you will no longer be able to send outbound SMS texts from Skype.”
Screenshot by Will Shanklin for Engadget
Microsoft confirmed the changes in a statement to TechCrunch, saying the company “continuously evaluate(s) product strategy based on customer usage and needs.” The spokesperson clarified that existing Skype numbers will still work and existing credit can still be used, but once you’re out of credits, that’s it. You can now only buy a subscription instead of credits, and you’ll have to seek out other platforms offering a virtual phone number you can answer over VoIP.
Skype-to-Skype calls have always been free on the platform — and still are. If that’s all you use the service for, nothing should change. When calling out to landlines or supported mobile numbers (with remaining credits or a subscription), you can still use the service’s Caller ID feature, which displays your real cell number to the receiving party. So, axing Skype Number only affects you if you want to call or message non-Skype lines or if you want to display a custom number (like one with an area code local to the country you’re calling) when doing so.
The product sits alongside Google Voice as a service that once seemed primed to take on the new mobile world but instead settled into niche status. As alternatives like Zoom, FaceTime and WhatsApp rose to capture the bulk of the pandemic-era demand for internet calling and messaging, the Microsoft-owned Skype played second fiddle even within the company. Microsoft invested a lot more in promoting its preferred calling platform, Teams.
You may have noticed that Microsoft doesn’t advertise Skype as it did in the first few years after buying the company for $8.5 billion in 2011. It no longer makes a habit of touting Skype’s user base in earnings calls (or anywhere else). As TechCrunch notes, the last mention was in a blog post from last year that said, “More than 36 million people use Skype daily to connect through phone calls and chats across borders and around the world.”
It isn’t clear whether those numbers are still current, and we also don’t know how many relied on the premium features that have gone away. Regardless, we can assume there’s still a healthy chunk of folks around the world relying on the platform’s paid features to at least some degree. Those using anything but free Skype-to-Skype calls are now left to weigh a subscription’s cost or shop around.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/skype-phases-out-credits-and-phone-numbers-182520063.html?src=rss

Microsoft has cut two of Skype’s central premium features: credit and custom phone numbers. Instead of credits, the company is now pushing subscriptions — priced regionally and globally, depending on your needs. As for using a phone number other than your cell’s, there’s no longer an alternative on the platform.

The first wind of the change came from a volunteer moderator replying in Microsoft’s Skype forums to a user who wanted to know why they couldn’t buy new credits. “We have just received new information from Microsoft,” said Skype moderator Ruwim. B, who rocked a sweet Yoda profile pic. “Skype has stopped purchase of Skype Credit for all users. The only option available now are monthly calling subscriptions.”

When another user chimed in to ask for confirmation that this meant there was no way on the entire platform to send SMS messages once you’re out of credits, the moderator wrote, “Unless they decide to add an ongoing SMS texting subscription, you will no longer be able to send outbound SMS texts from Skype.”

Microsoft confirmed the changes in a statement to TechCrunch, saying the company “continuously evaluate(s) product strategy based on customer usage and needs.” The spokesperson clarified that existing Skype numbers will still work and existing credit can still be used, but once you’re out of credits, that’s it. You can now only buy a subscription instead of credits, and you’ll have to seek out other platforms offering a virtual phone number you can answer over VoIP.

Skype-to-Skype calls have always been free on the platform — and still are. If that’s all you use the service for, nothing should change. When calling out to landlines or supported mobile numbers (with remaining credits or a subscription), you can still use the service’s Caller ID feature, which displays your real cell number to the receiving party. So, axing Skype Number only affects you if you want to call or message non-Skype lines or if you want to display a custom number (like one with an area code local to the country you’re calling) when doing so.

The product sits alongside Google Voice as a service that once seemed primed to take on the new mobile world but instead settled into niche status. As alternatives like Zoom, FaceTime and WhatsApp rose to capture the bulk of the pandemic-era demand for internet calling and messaging, the Microsoft-owned Skype played second fiddle even within the company. Microsoft invested a lot more in promoting its preferred calling platform, Teams.

You may have noticed that Microsoft doesn’t advertise Skype as it did in the first few years after buying the company for $8.5 billion in 2011. It no longer makes a habit of touting Skype’s user base in earnings calls (or anywhere else). As TechCrunch notes, the last mention was in a blog post from last year that said, “More than 36 million people use Skype daily to connect through phone calls and chats across borders and around the world.”

It isn’t clear whether those numbers are still current, and we also don’t know how many relied on the premium features that have gone away. Regardless, we can assume there’s still a healthy chunk of folks around the world relying on the platform’s paid features to at least some degree. Those using anything but free Skype-to-Skype calls are now left to weigh a subscription’s cost or shop around.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/skype-phases-out-credits-and-phone-numbers-182520063.html?src=rss

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It’s getting close to pinch time, when gifts bought online will probably arrive in time for the holidays, but then again, might not. If you’re willing to assume the odds are in your favor — or don’t really care when something arrives on your doorstep — you’ll be happy to know this turned out to be a pretty good week to save on tech. 
Many of the sale prices from Black Friday expired after Cyber Week ended, but some deals have miraculously popped back up. The Apple Watch 10 is still down to $330 (with an on-page coupon), and the brand new Kindle Paperwhite is $25 off. Anker’s 3-in-1 power bank/wall charger combo is just $20, also with a coupon. We also found discounts on gaming gear, Bluetooth speakers, robo vacs and more. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today. 

Anker 3-in-1 5,000mAh USB-C portable charger for $20 ($20 off with coupon): Click the on-page coupon to get this all-time low price on an battery bank. It’s similar to one of the models we chose for our best power bank list, but has a few more mAh of juice. It has a built-in and foldable AC plug that allows it to act as a 30W wall charger as well as a portable battery and there’s also a built-in USB-C cable.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $29 ($21 off): Woot currently has a three-month digital code for the game subscription for $34, but if it’s your first time shoppng at Woot, you can use the code GAMEPASS at checkout to get an additional $5 off, bringing the price down to $29. The deal runs through the end of the day today, December 13. Game Pass Ultimate is one of our favorite Xbox accessories and gives you the opportunity to try out titles you may have never played.
Elgato Stream Deck Neo for $80 ($20 off): The Neo is Elgato’s smaller (and much more affordable) take on one of our favorite game streaming items, the Stream Deck +. They both have eight customizable keys you can program with shortcuts for streaming or just knocking out your daily computing tasks.

Photo by Amy Skorheim / Engadget

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (16 GB) for $135 ($25 off): This is $5 more than the all-time low of $130 the new Kindle Paperwhite hit for Black Friday, but it’s still $25 less than the list price. We gave the Signature Edition an 85 in our review. This standard model lacks wireless charging, auto-adjusting lights and has a smaller capacity, but we noted those features really weren’t essential — the standard Paperwhite is still plenty premium.  
Cosori 6-quart 9-in-1 air fryer for $88 ($32 off): Our runner up for best air fryer of 2024 is just $3 more than its all-time low as a Prime Exclusive a few months ago. It has nine present modes, including preheat, broil, bake, roast, proof and frozen settings. The air fryer also includes a touchscreen, basket-release button and spacious cooking basket.
Backbone One mobile gaming controller for $70 ($30 off): A dedicated physical controller will let you more easily play the widening number of games that are available on your phone. One of our picks for the best mobile game controllers is the Backbone One, which is back on sale. The second-gen USB-C PlayStation Edition has dropped down to $70, though if you’re not a Prime member you may not see the discount until you add the item to your cart. 

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Google Pixel Tablet (128GB) for $279 ($120 off): This is the lowest price we’ve tracked since its release. The Google Pixel Tablet with its 11-inch screen is one of the best Android tablets according to our tests. Though we think it works best when paired with its optional speaker dock.
Amazon Echo Show 8 for $85 ($65 off): This is $5 more than the smart display went for over Black Friday, but it’s still over 40 percent off. It’ll handle all the things Alexa can do such as making shopping lists, predicting the weather and controlling your connected smart home devices just by asking. Plus it has an eight-inch screen so you can see your doorbell feed, make video calls, watch a Netflix show and watch recipe videos. 
Breville the Bambino Plus Espresso Machine for $400 ($100 off): This quality machine has two things going for it for the home barista: It’s not gigantic and not crazy expensive (when compared to the $1,000-plus options out there). The controls are simple enough for newbies, but the results are cafe-quality, which is why we recommend it in our guide to gifts for coffee lovers. Also at Williams Sonoma and direct from Breville.
JBL Go 4 for $40 ($10 off): This is a return to the Cyber Monday pricing for JBL’s smallest portable speaker. It gives up to seven hours of battery life on a charge, has an IP67 waterproof rating and a tiny built-in carry strap so you can bring it wherever you go. Also at Amazon and Best Buy.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Sonos Move 2 for $359 ($90 off): Sonos speakers dipped down for Black Friday then shot back up. Since then, a few of the brand’s speakers have returned to their shopping holiday lows, including the Move 2 which we gave it an 80 in our review, praising the battery life, loud output, improved sound and handy line-in jack. Also at Amazon. 
Sonos Era 100 for $199 ($50 off): The Sonos Era 100 has also returned to it’s Cyber Week pricing. It’s our pick for the best midrange smart speaker. We like the excellent sound quality plus it pairs well with other Sonos devices. It has Alexa built-in, so it can handle regular smart home duties, but it’ll also make your music sound far better than any spherical Echo can.
Sonos Ray soundbar for $169 ($110 off): The Ray soundbar is our pick for a runner-up mid-range soundbar in our guide. It’s compact, easy to set up and is relatively affordable, especially now. 
Anker Eufy BoostIQ RoboVac 11S Max for $129 ($120 off): This is our pick for the best ultra budget robot vacuum. We like the slim design, good suction power and relatively long battery life (up to 100 minutes). Just note that it does have some smarts, but no Wi-Fi connectivity — you’ll control it with a remote instead of an app.

Billy Steele/Engadget

Sony’s WH-1000XM5 headphones for $298 ($101 off): All four colorways are on sale and this matches the all-time low we’ve seen a few times before. The WH-1000XM5 earned a stellar 95 from us in our review. The noise-cancelling cans offer a near-perfect balance between features, performance and price; in fact, they’re the Bluetooth headphones Billy Steele, Engadget’s resident audio guru, recommends for most people. Also at Amazon. 
LEVOIT Core300S Air Purifier for $120 ($30 off): This is the model we recommend for smaller rooms in our https://www.engadget.com/best-air-purifier-120040002.htmlguide to air purifiers. It relatively quiet, has affordable replacement filters and did a good job of clearing the air in our tests.  
Twelve South AirFly Pro for $44 ($11 off): This handy transmitter lets you connect your wireless earbuds to a 3.5mm jack — ideal for airplanes. This Pro model can receive audio so you can also make phone calls through your headphones, but if you don’t need that feature, you can save some money by going with the AirFly SE model, currently $5 off and down to $30. 

Aaron Souppouris/Engadget

PlayStation 5 (slim) for $424 ($76 off MSRP): While this 15 percent price drop isn’t the biggest we’ve seen, larger discounts for Sony’s console have been uncommon over the past year. This bundle throws in a few Fortnite skins and V-Bucks, while the console alone is available for the same price. Alternatively, you can pair the machine with the recent RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard or an EA sports game for $450 at Walmart. Also at Target, GameStop and PlayStation Direct. Sony says its holiday PS5 sale will run through December 24.
PlayStation 5 Digital Edition (slim) + NBA 2K25 for $374 at GameStop ($76 off): If you don’t care about owning physical discs, you can save another $50 upfront by getting the all-digital PS5. This bundle includes the latest NBA 2K game as a freebie, though the Fortnite bundle noted above and the standalone console are each available for $375 too. Also at Amazon, Target, Best Buy and PlayStation Direct.
Xbox Wireless Controller for $39 at Walmart ($21 off): This is another deal we’ve seen a few times before, but it’s a decent $5 to $15 off the Xbox pad’s typical street price, depending on which color you pick. A few different color options are still on sale, with some models priced $5 higher. Just remember that this gamepad requires a pair of AA batteries or a separate pack for power. Also at Amazon and Target.
PlayStation VR2 + Horizon Call of the Mountain for $349 at Amazon ($251 off): Sony’s middling software support has made the PSVR2 difficult to widely recommend, but if you have cash to burn and want to dive into games like Gran Turismo 7, Tetris Effect or the Horizon spin-off bundled here, this is the headset’s lowest price to date. Also at Best Buy, Walmart, Target, GameStop and PlayStation Direct. Sony says this deal will go through January 3.

Photo by Cherlynn Low / Engadget

Apple Watch Series 10 (42mm) for $330 at Amazon ($69 off): The latest Apple Watch is our top pick for the best smartwatch. It’s slightly thinner and lighter than previous models, with a rich wide-angle OLED display, (mildly) improved battery life and the usual array of fitness tracking features. We gave it a score of 90 in our review. This ties the best price to date for the 42mm model, though you’ll need to clip the on-page coupon to see the full discount at checkout. The larger 46mm version is also on sale for $360.
Apple AirTags (4-pack) for $73 at Amazon ($26 off): Apple’s Bluetooth tracker is our top pick for iPhone users, unsurprisingly, as it can accurately locate your belongings right from the Find My app. A waterproof design and replaceable battery help as well. Just make sure to grab a holder or case if you want to attach one to your keys. This deal is $5 more than the lowest price we’ve seen but still $7 off the four-pack’s typical street price on Amazon. Also at Walmart.
Samsung Pro Plus (1TB) for $90 at Amazon ($30 off): The Pro Plus is the top pick in our microSD card buying guide. It’s not the cheapest card you can buy, but it tested faster than most of its peers in our benchmark tests, with a particular edge in random performance. That lets it play a bit nicer in a portable gaming PC or a device like the Raspberry Pi, where it’d more frequently have to access smaller bits of data in random locations. This is a new low for the 1TB model, which Samsung released earlier this year. Also at Samsung and B&H.
Marshall Emberton II for $99 ($70 off): This is the smallest Marshall speaker in our guide. Its dual 10-watt drivers and passive radiators create an impressive, 360-degree sound. While it’s not super loud, we think the output is nicely balanced. You’ll get up to 30 hours of play on a charge. Also at Best Buy and directly from Marshall.

Razer Basilisk V3 for $40 at Amazon ($30 off): The Basilisk V3 is the top wired pick in our gaming mouse buying guide for those who prefer a more ergonomic shape. This discount ties the device’s all-time low. Razer released an revised version with an improved sensor a few months back, but that one costs $80 and isn’t an essential upgrade while the old model is still in stock. Also at Best Buy.
Astro Bot for $50 at Walmart ($10 off): The inventive 3D platformer Astro Bot is the closest thing the PS5 has to a modern Super Mario game, even if it is a bit too reverential to the PlayStation brand. Engadget’s Jessica Conditt called it “one of the best games Sony has ever made” in her review. The game briefly fell to $43 at Amazon on Black Friday, but this is its best price otherwise. Also at Best Buy, Target and GameStop.
Metaphor: ReFantazio for $50 at Amazon ($20 off): It’s about as subtle as you’d expect a game named “Metaphor” to be, but the latest from the minds behind Persona 5 is a fantasy JRPG through and through: bombastic, stylish and deeply earnest. (And long.) This leftover Black Friday deal marks its lowest price to date. Also at Walmart.
Hisense U7N 4K TV (55”) for $479 at Amazon ($319 off): Several reviews around the web call the U7N one of the year’s best TV values. It pumps out better brightness and contrast than most alternatives in its price range, plus it supports a fast 144Hz refresh rate at 4K, which helps PS5 and Xbox games look more fluid in motion. Its picture will look washed out if you don’t view it straight-on, however, and it’s limited to two HDMI 2.1 ports. This is the 55-inch model’s all-time low. Other sizes are similarly discounted. 

Amazon Echo Buds for $25 at Amazon ($25 off): We highlight the Echo Buds in our guide to the best budget earbuds for those who prefer an unsealed design that doesn’t totally mute the outside world. They sound decent for the price and can connect to multiple devices at once, though they aren’t fully water-resistant. This deal matches their all-time low.
Amazon Echo smart speaker for $55 at Amazon ($45 off): The latest Echo is the “best under $100” pick in our smart speaker buying guide thanks to its strong-for-its-size audio quality, stereo pairing support and (mostly) handy range of Alexa skills and smart home integrations. This discount comes in $5 above the lowest price we’ve seen. Other Echo devices are still on sale as well, including the smaller Echo Dot for $23 and the Echo Spot smart alarm clock for an all-time low of $45.
Audible Premium Plus (3-month) for $3 at Amazon ($42 off): Non-subscribers can still get a three-month Audible Premium Plus trial for $1. Normally, the audiobook service costs $15 per month after a 30-day free trial. As a refresher, Premium Plus is Audible’s upper tier: Apart from giving access the full Audible Plus library, it lets you keep one title from a curated selection of audiobooks each month. We wouldn’t call it essential, but this is a good way to see if it’d work for you if you’ve been on the fence. Remember that the plan will auto-renew until you cancel.
MasterClass Premium (1-year) for $144 at MasterClass ($96 off): MasterClass is still taking 40 percent off the cost of its annual subscription plans for new or returning users, bringing the “Plus” and “Premium” tiers down to $108 and $144, respectively. As a refresher, both options support offline viewing — the cheaper “Standard” tier does not — but the Premium plan lets you watch from six devices simultaneously instead of two. Either way, this is a decent chance to save if you’ve been interested in taking one of the service’s many celebrity-led courses.

Ultimate Ears Everboom for $180 at Amazon ($70 off): The Everboom is a mid-sized entry in Ultimate Ears’ portable speaker lineup. We gave it a review score of 75 this past September and currently include it in our guide to the best Bluetooth speakers. Its rugged waterproof design, 20-hour battery life and 360-degree sound make it a solid outdoor companion, though it’s somewhat bulky, and it’s not the best at reproducing fine details in tracks. This deal price is a new all-time low.
Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 4 for $60 ($40 off): We put the Wonderboom 3 on our guide to the best speakers and this next-gen model includes a new podcast mode EQ for crisp vocals and is made from more recycled plastics. Like its predecessor, it’ll go for 14 hours on a charge and packs a waterproof build into its mini barrel-like shape. Also at Amazon.
Anker Soundcore Motion 300 for $56 ($24 off): Weighing in at less than two pounds, Anker’s speaker has a bright, punchy output with a crisp high end and thumpy bass. Plus it’s waterproof and goes for 13 hours on a charge. No wonder it made our list of the best speakers.
Dyson Airwrap for $490 at Amazon ($110 off): This multipurpose styling tool uses the Coanda effect to create curls without excessive heat, and it comes with a bunch of other attachments that let it work as a hairdryer, heated brush and more. It’s certainly not cheap, but this is a good 18 percent off its normal street price. Also at Dyson.
iRobot Roomba Vac Essential (Q0120) for $149 at Amazon ($101 off): This entry-level robot vacuum has decent cleaning power with three cleaning modes and the ability to set cleaning schedules from iRobot’s mobile app. It’s a fairly basic model with no obstacle avoidance tech, but it should work for first-time or budget-minded robovac buyers. This deal has been live for a few weeks now but comes within a couple bucks of the device’s all-time low. Also at Best Buy.

Dyson V15 Detect Absolute for $500 at Dyson ($250 off): The V15 Detect is our pick for the best cordless vacuum thanks to its excellent suction power, impressively portable design and hour-long battery life (which is fairly long for these things). This model comes with a “Fluffy Optic” cleaning head that illuminates the ground in front of you so you can better see where dust and debris is hiding. You get a few other cleaning head attachments in the box alongside that. This discount matches the lowest price we could find.
ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) for $1,650 at Best Buy ($350 off): The 14-inch ROG Zephyrus G14 is the top pick in our guide to the best gaming laptops. We gave it a score of 91 in our review, praising its (relatively) elegant aluminum chassis and beautiful 120Hz OLED display. It can get toasty under load, and the memory isn’t upgradeable, but this config can still handle more demanding games at high settings and the native 2.8K resolution without much trouble. It includes a Ryzen 9 8945HS chip, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and an RTX 4070 GPU. Outside of one drop to $1,600 back in July, this ties the best price we’ve seen.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 (13.8-inch) for $899 at Amazon ($300 off): We gave the latest Surface Laptop a score of 88 in our review, and we currently recommend it as a great ultraportable in our laptop buying guide. The caveat is that it uses an ARM processor, which runs well but may not work with every app or peripheral you use. If you can live with that, however, its bright 120Hz display, upscale aluminum design and long battery life all impress. Besides in-store-only deals, this is an all-time low for the config with a Snapdragon X Plus chip, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. A 15-inch version with a faster Snapdragon X Elite chip and 256GB of storage is down to a new low of $1,044. Also at Best Buy.

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/ankers-3-in-1-power-bank-drops-to-just-20-plus-the-rest-of-this-weeks-best-tech-deals-173041921.html?src=rss

It’s getting close to pinch time, when gifts bought online will probably arrive in time for the holidays, but then again, might not. If you’re willing to assume the odds are in your favor — or don’t really care when something arrives on your doorstep — you’ll be happy to know this turned out to be a pretty good week to save on tech. 

Many of the sale prices from Black Friday expired after Cyber Week ended, but some deals have miraculously popped back up. The Apple Watch 10 is still down to $330 (with an on-page coupon), and the brand new Kindle Paperwhite is $25 off. Anker’s 3-in-1 power bank/wall charger combo is just $20, also with a coupon. We also found discounts on gaming gear, Bluetooth speakers, robo vacs and more. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today. 

Anker 3-in-1 5,000mAh USB-C portable charger for $20 ($20 off with coupon): Click the on-page coupon to get this all-time low price on an battery bank. It’s similar to one of the models we chose for our best power bank list, but has a few more mAh of juice. It has a built-in and foldable AC plug that allows it to act as a 30W wall charger as well as a portable battery and there’s also a built-in USB-C cable.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $29 ($21 off): Woot currently has a three-month digital code for the game subscription for $34, but if it’s your first time shoppng at Woot, you can use the code GAMEPASS at checkout to get an additional $5 off, bringing the price down to $29. The deal runs through the end of the day today, December 13. Game Pass Ultimate is one of our favorite Xbox accessories and gives you the opportunity to try out titles you may have never played.

Elgato Stream Deck Neo for $80 ($20 off): The Neo is Elgato’s smaller (and much more affordable) take on one of our favorite game streaming items, the Stream Deck +. They both have eight customizable keys you can program with shortcuts for streaming or just knocking out your daily computing tasks.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (16 GB) for $135 ($25 off): This is $5 more than the all-time low of $130 the new Kindle Paperwhite hit for Black Friday, but it’s still $25 less than the list price. We gave the Signature Edition an 85 in our review. This standard model lacks wireless charging, auto-adjusting lights and has a smaller capacity, but we noted those features really weren’t essential — the standard Paperwhite is still plenty premium.  

Cosori 6-quart 9-in-1 air fryer for $88 ($32 off): Our runner up for best air fryer of 2024 is just $3 more than its all-time low as a Prime Exclusive a few months ago. It has nine present modes, including preheat, broil, bake, roast, proof and frozen settings. The air fryer also includes a touchscreen, basket-release button and spacious cooking basket.

Backbone One mobile gaming controller for $70 ($30 off): A dedicated physical controller will let you more easily play the widening number of games that are available on your phone. One of our picks for the best mobile game controllers is the Backbone One, which is back on sale. The second-gen USB-C PlayStation Edition has dropped down to $70, though if you’re not a Prime member you may not see the discount until you add the item to your cart. 

Google Pixel Tablet (128GB) for $279 ($120 off): This is the lowest price we’ve tracked since its release. The Google Pixel Tablet with its 11-inch screen is one of the best Android tablets according to our tests. Though we think it works best when paired with its optional speaker dock.

Amazon Echo Show 8 for $85 ($65 off): This is $5 more than the smart display went for over Black Friday, but it’s still over 40 percent off. It’ll handle all the things Alexa can do such as making shopping lists, predicting the weather and controlling your connected smart home devices just by asking. Plus it has an eight-inch screen so you can see your doorbell feed, make video calls, watch a Netflix show and watch recipe videos. 

Breville the Bambino Plus Espresso Machine for $400 ($100 off): This quality machine has two things going for it for the home barista: It’s not gigantic and not crazy expensive (when compared to the $1,000-plus options out there). The controls are simple enough for newbies, but the results are cafe-quality, which is why we recommend it in our guide to gifts for coffee lovers. Also at Williams Sonoma and direct from Breville.

JBL Go 4 for $40 ($10 off): This is a return to the Cyber Monday pricing for JBL’s smallest portable speaker. It gives up to seven hours of battery life on a charge, has an IP67 waterproof rating and a tiny built-in carry strap so you can bring it wherever you go. Also at Amazon and Best Buy.

Sonos Move 2 for $359 ($90 off): Sonos speakers dipped down for Black Friday then shot back up. Since then, a few of the brand’s speakers have returned to their shopping holiday lows, including the Move 2 which we gave it an 80 in our review, praising the battery life, loud output, improved sound and handy line-in jack. Also at Amazon. 

Sonos Era 100 for $199 ($50 off): The Sonos Era 100 has also returned to it’s Cyber Week pricing. It’s our pick for the best midrange smart speaker. We like the excellent sound quality plus it pairs well with other Sonos devices. It has Alexa built-in, so it can handle regular smart home duties, but it’ll also make your music sound far better than any spherical Echo can.

Sonos Ray soundbar for $169 ($110 off): The Ray soundbar is our pick for a runner-up mid-range soundbar in our guide. It’s compact, easy to set up and is relatively affordable, especially now. 

Anker Eufy BoostIQ RoboVac 11S Max for $129 ($120 off): This is our pick for the best ultra budget robot vacuum. We like the slim design, good suction power and relatively long battery life (up to 100 minutes). Just note that it does have some smarts, but no Wi-Fi connectivity — you’ll control it with a remote instead of an app.

Sony’s WH-1000XM5 headphones for $298 ($101 off): All four colorways are on sale and this matches the all-time low we’ve seen a few times before. The WH-1000XM5 earned a stellar 95 from us in our review. The noise-cancelling cans offer a near-perfect balance between features, performance and price; in fact, they’re the Bluetooth headphones Billy Steele, Engadget’s resident audio guru, recommends for most people. Also at Amazon. 

LEVOIT Core300S Air Purifier for $120 ($30 off): This is the model we recommend for smaller rooms in our https://www.engadget.com/best-air-purifier-120040002.htmlguide to air purifiers. It relatively quiet, has affordable replacement filters and did a good job of clearing the air in our tests.  

Twelve South AirFly Pro for $44 ($11 off): This handy transmitter lets you connect your wireless earbuds to a 3.5mm jack — ideal for airplanes. This Pro model can receive audio so you can also make phone calls through your headphones, but if you don’t need that feature, you can save some money by going with the AirFly SE model, currently $5 off and down to $30. 

PlayStation 5 (slim) for $424 ($76 off MSRP): While this 15 percent price drop isn’t the biggest we’ve seen, larger discounts for Sony’s console have been uncommon over the past year. This bundle throws in a few Fortnite skins and V-Bucks, while the console alone is available for the same price. Alternatively, you can pair the machine with the recent RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard or an EA sports game for $450 at Walmart. Also at Target, GameStop and PlayStation Direct. Sony says its holiday PS5 sale will run through December 24.

PlayStation 5 Digital Edition (slim) + NBA 2K25 for $374 at GameStop ($76 off): If you don’t care about owning physical discs, you can save another $50 upfront by getting the all-digital PS5. This bundle includes the latest NBA 2K game as a freebie, though the Fortnite bundle noted above and the standalone console are each available for $375 too. Also at Amazon, Target, Best Buy and PlayStation Direct.

Xbox Wireless Controller for $39 at Walmart ($21 off): This is another deal we’ve seen a few times before, but it’s a decent $5 to $15 off the Xbox pad’s typical street price, depending on which color you pick. A few different color options are still on sale, with some models priced $5 higher. Just remember that this gamepad requires a pair of AA batteries or a separate pack for power. Also at Amazon and Target.

PlayStation VR2 + Horizon Call of the Mountain for $349 at Amazon ($251 off): Sony’s middling software support has made the PSVR2 difficult to widely recommend, but if you have cash to burn and want to dive into games like Gran Turismo 7, Tetris Effect or the Horizon spin-off bundled here, this is the headset’s lowest price to date. Also at Best Buy, Walmart, Target, GameStop and PlayStation Direct. Sony says this deal will go through January 3.

Apple Watch Series 10 (42mm) for $330 at Amazon ($69 off): The latest Apple Watch is our top pick for the best smartwatch. It’s slightly thinner and lighter than previous models, with a rich wide-angle OLED display, (mildly) improved battery life and the usual array of fitness tracking features. We gave it a score of 90 in our review. This ties the best price to date for the 42mm model, though you’ll need to clip the on-page coupon to see the full discount at checkout. The larger 46mm version is also on sale for $360.

Apple AirTags (4-pack) for $73 at Amazon ($26 off): Apple’s Bluetooth tracker is our top pick for iPhone users, unsurprisingly, as it can accurately locate your belongings right from the Find My app. A waterproof design and replaceable battery help as well. Just make sure to grab a holder or case if you want to attach one to your keys. This deal is $5 more than the lowest price we’ve seen but still $7 off the four-pack’s typical street price on Amazon. Also at Walmart.

Samsung Pro Plus (1TB) for $90 at Amazon ($30 off): The Pro Plus is the top pick in our microSD card buying guide. It’s not the cheapest card you can buy, but it tested faster than most of its peers in our benchmark tests, with a particular edge in random performance. That lets it play a bit nicer in a portable gaming PC or a device like the Raspberry Pi, where it’d more frequently have to access smaller bits of data in random locations. This is a new low for the 1TB model, which Samsung released earlier this year. Also at Samsung and B&H.

Marshall Emberton II for $99 ($70 off): This is the smallest Marshall speaker in our guide. Its dual 10-watt drivers and passive radiators create an impressive, 360-degree sound. While it’s not super loud, we think the output is nicely balanced. You’ll get up to 30 hours of play on a charge. Also at Best Buy and directly from Marshall.

Razer Basilisk V3 for $40 at Amazon ($30 off): The Basilisk V3 is the top wired pick in our gaming mouse buying guide for those who prefer a more ergonomic shape. This discount ties the device’s all-time low. Razer released an revised version with an improved sensor a few months back, but that one costs $80 and isn’t an essential upgrade while the old model is still in stock. Also at Best Buy.

Astro Bot for $50 at Walmart ($10 off): The inventive 3D platformer Astro Bot is the closest thing the PS5 has to a modern Super Mario game, even if it is a bit too reverential to the PlayStation brand. Engadget’s Jessica Conditt called it “one of the best games Sony has ever made” in her review. The game briefly fell to $43 at Amazon on Black Friday, but this is its best price otherwise. Also at Best Buy, Target and GameStop.

Metaphor: ReFantazio for $50 at Amazon ($20 off): It’s about as subtle as you’d expect a game named “Metaphor” to be, but the latest from the minds behind Persona 5 is a fantasy JRPG through and through: bombastic, stylish and deeply earnest. (And long.) This leftover Black Friday deal marks its lowest price to date. Also at Walmart.

Hisense U7N 4K TV (55”) for $479 at Amazon ($319 off): Several reviews around the web call the U7N one of the year’s best TV values. It pumps out better brightness and contrast than most alternatives in its price range, plus it supports a fast 144Hz refresh rate at 4K, which helps PS5 and Xbox games look more fluid in motion. Its picture will look washed out if you don’t view it straight-on, however, and it’s limited to two HDMI 2.1 ports. This is the 55-inch model’s all-time low. Other sizes are similarly discounted. 

Amazon Echo Buds for $25 at Amazon ($25 off): We highlight the Echo Buds in our guide to the best budget earbuds for those who prefer an unsealed design that doesn’t totally mute the outside world. They sound decent for the price and can connect to multiple devices at once, though they aren’t fully water-resistant. This deal matches their all-time low.

Amazon Echo smart speaker for $55 at Amazon ($45 off): The latest Echo is the “best under $100” pick in our smart speaker buying guide thanks to its strong-for-its-size audio quality, stereo pairing support and (mostly) handy range of Alexa skills and smart home integrations. This discount comes in $5 above the lowest price we’ve seen. Other Echo devices are still on sale as well, including the smaller Echo Dot for $23 and the Echo Spot smart alarm clock for an all-time low of $45.

Audible Premium Plus (3-month) for $3 at Amazon ($42 off): Non-subscribers can still get a three-month Audible Premium Plus trial for $1. Normally, the audiobook service costs $15 per month after a 30-day free trial. As a refresher, Premium Plus is Audible’s upper tier: Apart from giving access the full Audible Plus library, it lets you keep one title from a curated selection of audiobooks each month. We wouldn’t call it essential, but this is a good way to see if it’d work for you if you’ve been on the fence. Remember that the plan will auto-renew until you cancel.

MasterClass Premium (1-year) for $144 at MasterClass ($96 off): MasterClass is still taking 40 percent off the cost of its annual subscription plans for new or returning users, bringing the “Plus” and “Premium” tiers down to $108 and $144, respectively. As a refresher, both options support offline viewing — the cheaper “Standard” tier does not — but the Premium plan lets you watch from six devices simultaneously instead of two. Either way, this is a decent chance to save if you’ve been interested in taking one of the service’s many celebrity-led courses.

Ultimate Ears Everboom for $180 at Amazon ($70 off): The Everboom is a mid-sized entry in Ultimate Ears’ portable speaker lineup. We gave it a review score of 75 this past September and currently include it in our guide to the best Bluetooth speakers. Its rugged waterproof design, 20-hour battery life and 360-degree sound make it a solid outdoor companion, though it’s somewhat bulky, and it’s not the best at reproducing fine details in tracks. This deal price is a new all-time low.

Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 4 for $60 ($40 off): We put the Wonderboom 3 on our guide to the best speakers and this next-gen model includes a new podcast mode EQ for crisp vocals and is made from more recycled plastics. Like its predecessor, it’ll go for 14 hours on a charge and packs a waterproof build into its mini barrel-like shape. Also at Amazon.

Anker Soundcore Motion 300 for $56 ($24 off): Weighing in at less than two pounds, Anker’s speaker has a bright, punchy output with a crisp high end and thumpy bass. Plus it’s waterproof and goes for 13 hours on a charge. No wonder it made our list of the best speakers.

Dyson Airwrap for $490 at Amazon ($110 off): This multipurpose styling tool uses the Coanda effect to create curls without excessive heat, and it comes with a bunch of other attachments that let it work as a hairdryer, heated brush and more. It’s certainly not cheap, but this is a good 18 percent off its normal street price. Also at Dyson.

iRobot Roomba Vac Essential (Q0120) for $149 at Amazon ($101 off): This entry-level robot vacuum has decent cleaning power with three cleaning modes and the ability to set cleaning schedules from iRobot’s mobile app. It’s a fairly basic model with no obstacle avoidance tech, but it should work for first-time or budget-minded robovac buyers. This deal has been live for a few weeks now but comes within a couple bucks of the device’s all-time low. Also at Best Buy.

Dyson V15 Detect Absolute for $500 at Dyson ($250 off): The V15 Detect is our pick for the best cordless vacuum thanks to its excellent suction power, impressively portable design and hour-long battery life (which is fairly long for these things). This model comes with a “Fluffy Optic” cleaning head that illuminates the ground in front of you so you can better see where dust and debris is hiding. You get a few other cleaning head attachments in the box alongside that. This discount matches the lowest price we could find.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) for $1,650 at Best Buy ($350 off): The 14-inch ROG Zephyrus G14 is the top pick in our guide to the best gaming laptops. We gave it a score of 91 in our review, praising its (relatively) elegant aluminum chassis and beautiful 120Hz OLED display. It can get toasty under load, and the memory isn’t upgradeable, but this config can still handle more demanding games at high settings and the native 2.8K resolution without much trouble. It includes a Ryzen 9 8945HS chip, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and an RTX 4070 GPU. Outside of one drop to $1,600 back in July, this ties the best price we’ve seen.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 (13.8-inch) for $899 at Amazon ($300 off): We gave the latest Surface Laptop a score of 88 in our review, and we currently recommend it as a great ultraportable in our laptop buying guide. The caveat is that it uses an ARM processor, which runs well but may not work with every app or peripheral you use. If you can live with that, however, its bright 120Hz display, upscale aluminum design and long battery life all impress. Besides in-store-only deals, this is an all-time low for the config with a Snapdragon X Plus chip, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. A 15-inch version with a faster Snapdragon X Elite chip and 256GB of storage is down to a new low of $1,044. Also at Best Buy.

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/ankers-3-in-1-power-bank-drops-to-just-20-plus-the-rest-of-this-weeks-best-tech-deals-173041921.html?src=rss

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2024 is unquestionably the year of Balatro. It came out of nowhere to fill our heads with dreams of flush fives and legendary Jimbos. But I think what put it really over the top was when it launched on iOS and Android earlier this fall. That’s because even though I don’t have the numbers to prove it, Charlie Brooker — as he so often does in his show Black Mirror – made a particularly prescient prediction during an interview with Deadline when he said that after Balatro comes out on phones, “humankind’s activity is going to drop about 25 percent.” That said, I don’t think people were prepared for the mobile version of Balatro to be an almost flawless example of how to properly translate a game from desktop to small screens and foldables.
To start, on both the Apple App Store and Google Play, the mobile version of Balatro costs $10, which is actually $5 less than the desktop edition on Steam or the console ports on Switch, Xbox and PlayStation. But what’s even better is that in a world where seemingly every phone game is crammed full of microtransactions, there are zero intrusive ads or other extra purchases to take away from the game. This includes all the crossover cardbacks (like the ones featuring characters from The Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077 and more) and the big forthcoming update due out at the beginning of next year.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
On top of that, there’s essentially no difference in features between the mobile and desktop/console versions. Granted, that’s due in large part to the game being a relatively simple title (at least in terms of graphics). But even so, you’d be surprised how easy that is to mess up. The game boots up nearly instantly and even when you’re smashing antes while pushing your score deep into scientific notation, the game doesn’t get bogged down.
It gets even better though because developer LocalThunk paid attention to nearly all the little details. Balatro mobile features cloud saves, multiple profiles and tons of languages. The game also supports achievements while making it easy to unlock everything with a single option in case the phone version is more of a secondary platform for you. And I can’t forget to shout out the High Contrast Cards option, which is not only a great accessibility feature but a generally useful tool for making it faster and easier to tell hearts and diamonds or spades and clubs apart. 
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
I also appreciate how Playstack tweaked the game’s UI and interface to make it easy to drag and drop objects wherever you want. I can’t speak for everyone, but there’s just something inherently satisfying about using touch controls to move cards around like in Hearthstone and Marvel Snap compared to relying on a keyboard and mouse or a controller, to the point where I prefer the mobile version over the original desktop release.
But perhaps the thing I like the most about Balatro mobile is how well it plays on pretty much any device, but foldable phones most of all. I’d argue that handsets like the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 are the perfect joker-hunting devices. Their large screens feel like a perfect match for the title’s UI without ever feeling cramped, which happens sometimes on older gadgets with less roomy displays. Text is generally easy to read (though sometimes less so on tiny devices) and there’s plenty of open space to push things around without getting in your own way.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
That said, if I had to nitpick, my complaints boil down to two (maybe three) things. The first is that on foldables, Balatro doesn’t take full advantage of the extra vertical screen space. But since there’s already plenty of room, it’s not a huge deal. I also wish the Skip button when opening packs was in a different place, because I’ve accidentally fat-fingered it more times than I’d like to admit, resulting in not picking a joker or Spectral card that I really needed. But perhaps the biggest issue (or not) is that when I’m playing the game outside, when people who aren’t Balatro fans see my screen, they probably think I’m a true dirtbag that just can’t wait till I get home to make a bet. And in many respects they’re right, but since I’m not actually gambling, it’s still the wrong impression.
Regardless, the mobile version of Balatro has basically everything I could want in a phone port. And in a world where more and more portable titles feel like low-effort cash grabs than projects meant to delight and entertain, Balatro is something I’m going to get more than my money’s worth out of for years to come.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/balatro-is-an-almost-perfect-mobile-port-163050971.html?src=rss

2024 is unquestionably the year of Balatro. It came out of nowhere to fill our heads with dreams of flush fives and legendary Jimbos. But I think what put it really over the top was when it launched on iOS and Android earlier this fall. That’s because even though I don’t have the numbers to prove it, Charlie Brooker — as he so often does in his show Black Mirror – made a particularly prescient prediction during an interview with Deadline when he said that after Balatro comes out on phones, “humankind’s activity is going to drop about 25 percent.” That said, I don’t think people were prepared for the mobile version of Balatro to be an almost flawless example of how to properly translate a game from desktop to small screens and foldables.

To start, on both the Apple App Store and Google Play, the mobile version of Balatro costs $10, which is actually $5 less than the desktop edition on Steam or the console ports on Switch, Xbox and PlayStation. But what’s even better is that in a world where seemingly every phone game is crammed full of microtransactions, there are zero intrusive ads or other extra purchases to take away from the game. This includes all the crossover cardbacks (like the ones featuring characters from The Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077 and more) and the big forthcoming update due out at the beginning of next year.

On top of that, there’s essentially no difference in features between the mobile and desktop/console versions. Granted, that’s due in large part to the game being a relatively simple title (at least in terms of graphics). But even so, you’d be surprised how easy that is to mess up. The game boots up nearly instantly and even when you’re smashing antes while pushing your score deep into scientific notation, the game doesn’t get bogged down.

It gets even better though because developer LocalThunk paid attention to nearly all the little details. Balatro mobile features cloud saves, multiple profiles and tons of languages. The game also supports achievements while making it easy to unlock everything with a single option in case the phone version is more of a secondary platform for you. And I can’t forget to shout out the High Contrast Cards option, which is not only a great accessibility feature but a generally useful tool for making it faster and easier to tell hearts and diamonds or spades and clubs apart. 

I also appreciate how Playstack tweaked the game’s UI and interface to make it easy to drag and drop objects wherever you want. I can’t speak for everyone, but there’s just something inherently satisfying about using touch controls to move cards around like in Hearthstone and Marvel Snap compared to relying on a keyboard and mouse or a controller, to the point where I prefer the mobile version over the original desktop release.

But perhaps the thing I like the most about Balatro mobile is how well it plays on pretty much any device, but foldable phones most of all. I’d argue that handsets like the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 are the perfect joker-hunting devices. Their large screens feel like a perfect match for the title’s UI without ever feeling cramped, which happens sometimes on older gadgets with less roomy displays. Text is generally easy to read (though sometimes less so on tiny devices) and there’s plenty of open space to push things around without getting in your own way.

That said, if I had to nitpick, my complaints boil down to two (maybe three) things. The first is that on foldables, Balatro doesn’t take full advantage of the extra vertical screen space. But since there’s already plenty of room, it’s not a huge deal. I also wish the Skip button when opening packs was in a different place, because I’ve accidentally fat-fingered it more times than I’d like to admit, resulting in not picking a joker or Spectral card that I really needed. But perhaps the biggest issue (or not) is that when I’m playing the game outside, when people who aren’t Balatro fans see my screen, they probably think I’m a true dirtbag that just can’t wait till I get home to make a bet. And in many respects they’re right, but since I’m not actually gambling, it’s still the wrong impression.

Regardless, the mobile version of Balatro has basically everything I could want in a phone port. And in a world where more and more portable titles feel like low-effort cash grabs than projects meant to delight and entertain, Balatro is something I’m going to get more than my money’s worth out of for years to come.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/balatro-is-an-almost-perfect-mobile-port-163050971.html?src=rss

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If you missed out on picking up Sonos soundbars and/or speakers on sale during Black Friday, here’s another chance for you to score good deals on them before the holidays. They’re now up to 39 percent off. The Ray soundbar, for one, is getting the full discount. It has dropped to $169, which is $110 off the list price.
The Ray was already the most budget-friendly Sonos soundbar, and that’s even more true after this latest temporary price cut. It has a compact design but still packs a punch in terms of sound quality (including good performance on the low end), though of course larger models will deliver more immersive audio. So you might want a louder model if you have a larger living room. The lack of built-in voice control is a bit of a bummer too. But the Sonos Ray is a great entry-level model and we gave it a score of 82 in our review.

Elsewhere, other Sonos models have dropped back down to their Black Friday prices. That includes a $50 discount on the Era 100, bringing that model down to $199. This is our pick for the best midrange smart speaker and we gave it a score of 88 in our review. The Era 100 sounds great (I have four myself) and you can pair two of them for stereo audio. You can also use a couple as rear surrounds in a home theater setup by pairing them with a Sonos soundbar.
If you have some extra cash to spend and would prefer a model that sounds even better, the Era 300 is worth considering. At $359, it’s currently $90 off the list price.
We feel that this speaker delivers excellent audio quality, but the design is a little odd and we found spatial audio performance to be somewhat inconsistent. Still, we gave the Era 300 a score of 80 in our review.
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/sonos-soundbars-and-speakers-are-up-to-39-percent-off-154440813.html?src=rss

If you missed out on picking up Sonos soundbars and/or speakers on sale during Black Friday, here’s another chance for you to score good deals on them before the holidays. They’re now up to 39 percent off. The Ray soundbar, for one, is getting the full discount. It has dropped to $169, which is $110 off the list price.

The Ray was already the most budget-friendly Sonos soundbar, and that’s even more true after this latest temporary price cut. It has a compact design but still packs a punch in terms of sound quality (including good performance on the low end), though of course larger models will deliver more immersive audio. So you might want a louder model if you have a larger living room. The lack of built-in voice control is a bit of a bummer too. But the Sonos Ray is a great entry-level model and we gave it a score of 82 in our review.

Elsewhere, other Sonos models have dropped back down to their Black Friday prices. That includes a $50 discount on the Era 100, bringing that model down to $199. This is our pick for the best midrange smart speaker and we gave it a score of 88 in our review. The Era 100 sounds great (I have four myself) and you can pair two of them for stereo audio. You can also use a couple as rear surrounds in a home theater setup by pairing them with a Sonos soundbar.

If you have some extra cash to spend and would prefer a model that sounds even better, the Era 300 is worth considering. At $359, it’s currently $90 off the list price.

We feel that this speaker delivers excellent audio quality, but the design is a little odd and we found spatial audio performance to be somewhat inconsistent. Still, we gave the Era 300 a score of 80 in our review.

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/sonos-soundbars-and-speakers-are-up-to-39-percent-off-154440813.html?src=rss

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Formovie’s Theater took the projector world by storm when it first arrived, offering a triple laser, 150-inch ultra short throw (UST) image and Dolby Vision for $3,000. That was a relatively unheard of price for such a feature set, especially from a brand that hardly anyone knew about.
That model helped make Formovie’s name, but $3,000 is still pretty expensive for a projector. To appeal to more buyers, the company recently unveiled the $1,800 Cinema Edge, a far more affordable option that still offers a laser light engine, sharp 4K image, Google TV for streaming and 15-watt stereo speakers.
There are some fairly serious trade offs, though, particularly the absence of a triple laser engine and Dolby Vision, plus mediocre color accuracy and brightness. The new model also has some heavy competition from the likes of Hisense, Epson and Optoma. All of that adds up to a projector that’s not quite as exciting as Formovie’s first attempt.

The Formovie Cinema Edge’s main features
As a reminder, Formovie is a joint venture between Xiaomi and Appotronics (the latter makes laser engines for high-end brands like Barco). Formovie now offers three projector models: the Cinema Edge, $2,400 Theater and $3,000 Theater Premium. It also sells the cheap and cheerful $199 Episode One Google TV projector, a 120-inch floor rising screen and a 100-inch wall-mounted ALR screen.
The Cinema Edge is more compact than the Theater in all dimensions and has a square design and subtle, dark grey exterior. You can project to a wall, or preferably a dedicated glare-reducing ALR screen, at a distance of about 13 inches for a 120-inch picture. All of that makes it discreet and lets you install it in relatively tight spaces.

Steve Dent for Engadget

The Cinema Edge comes with a pair of 15W speakers, but projector purists will no doubt want a 5.1 audio system to best use the built-in Dolby Atmos and DTS-HD. The Google TV system includes Netflix (unlike the Theater at launch) but the processor is a bit laggy. That can make navigation and settings adjustments a chore, though it’s par for the course on other projectors I’ve seen, particularly Optoma and HiSense models. As a result, some users may still prefer to use a Google TV or other streaming device.
Similar to the Theater, the Cinema Edge sits on three rubber feet rather than four, which can make it tricky to level when setting up. While it supports digital keystone fine-tuning to square the image, that should be used as little as possible, as it reduces picture resolution slightly and increases latency for gaming. Because of that, along with the configuration for various apps, setup took longer than I expected.

Steve Dent for Engadget

Fortunately, there are plenty of inputs to add accessories like Blu-Ray players, including three HDMI 2.1 ports (one with eArc for a high-quality return to your audio system), 3.5mm and optical audio connectors, two USB-C ports for media/streaming stick power and an ethernet port (plus Wi-FI support, of course).
The included remote is required to change most settings, control playback and more, plus it uses standard batteries with no charging port. Like most ultra short throw projectors, the Cinema Edge has a sensor that detects if someone gets too close and automatically dims the output so you don’t get a laser blast in your eyeballs.
Picture quality

Steve Dent for Engadget

Like most modern projectors (Epson aside), the Formovie Cinema Edge uses Texas Instruments’ DLP tech that projects a 1080p image twice to create a sharp 4K image using so-called fast-switch pixel shifting. It combines that with an RGB+ single color laser to keep the price down compared to triple laser setups like the Formovie Theater or Hisense’s $3,500 PX3-Pro.
The Cinema Edge delivers sharp 4K video at up to 2,100 lumens, which is decent, but falls short of rivals like the 2,400-lumen Hisense PX2-Pro or Epson’s EpiQVision Ultra LS650. That latter model pumps out 3,600 lumens. Still, the Cinema Edge’s level of brightness was just enough to watch some content in daylight, like Netflix’s Drive to Survive or live sports on Amazon Prime.
The 4K detail is excellent, and something I appreciated when watching sci-fi series like Silo, The Expanse and 3 Body Problem. Contrast is also strong, allowing for better viewing of films with dimly lit scenes like those in Joker and The Batman.

Steve Dent for Engadget

Where the Formovie Cinema Edge struggles compared to the Theater model is in color rendering. With its single laser light source, it lacks the incredible 100-percent-plus BT.2020 color gamut found on the Formovie Theater or Hisense PX2-Pro. It’s also limited to HDR10 support, rather than superior modes like Dolby Vision found on the slightly more expensive Hisense PX2-Pro.
As a result, visuals are a bit more drab in films like Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and Air, with primary colors failing to pop off the screen as I’ve seen on those other models. That said, colors are accurate by default, and there are extensive picture quality settings if you want to fine-tune everything. I noticed other issues related to the lack of good HDR performance, namely blown out highlights and some artifacts in the shadows or dark parts of images, particularly in The Batman.
Motion smoothing (called MJC on the Cinema Edge) is enabled by default, unfortunately, but it’s relatively easy to disable. Without it, though, the projector occasionally suffers from some motion artifacts during fast action sequences, something that’s common on DLP projectors. For those types of films, I found the low motion smoothing setting to be a good compromise, limiting the soap opera effect while removing any choppiness from energetic action scenes.

Steve Dent for Engadget

The Cinema Edge isn’t bad for light gaming, but with a refresh rate limited to 60Hz and input latency around 40 milliseconds, you can’t play anything too demanding like fast-moving FPS shooters. For instance, I played Resident Evil Village from my Mac through the projector, and the lag, tearing and artifacting made gameplay a challenge.
The speakers offer decent audio quality, with clear voices, music and sound effects. However, the bass is a bit thin and there’s little to no soundstage to add realism. Given the projector’s Dolby Atmos and HDMI 2.1 eArc support, anyone serious about audio would want to add external speakers or at least a soundbar.
Wrap-up

Steve Dent for Engadget

Considering how good Formovie’s Theater is, the Cinema Edge is a disappointment. Performance is only so-so for the price, with relatively low brightness and mediocre color rendering. The built-in Google TV is a bit laggy, and setup is more difficult than it needs to be due to the lack of a fourth foot. The speaker setup is also just okay, with better sound quality available on some Optoma and LG projectors.
The Cinema Edge is still a decent mid-range UST projector, but the problem for Formovie is that there’s a lot of competition in this price range. For just $200 more, you can get the Hisense PX2-Pro triple laser UST projector, which offers higher brightness (2,400 lumens), along with Dolby Vision and over 100 percent BT.2020 coverage. Another option for the same $1,800 price is the Epson LS650, which offers similar specs but nearly double the brightness at 3600 lumens. The Cinema Edge is a good choice if you want a versatile projector with a small and subtle design, but if brightness and picture quality are paramount, look elsewhere.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/formovie-cinema-edge-review-a-midrange-ust-projector-that-lags-behind-its-rivals-150025407.html?src=rss

Formovie’s Theater took the projector world by storm when it first arrived, offering a triple laser, 150-inch ultra short throw (UST) image and Dolby Vision for $3,000. That was a relatively unheard of price for such a feature set, especially from a brand that hardly anyone knew about.

That model helped make Formovie’s name, but $3,000 is still pretty expensive for a projector. To appeal to more buyers, the company recently unveiled the $1,800 Cinema Edge, a far more affordable option that still offers a laser light engine, sharp 4K image, Google TV for streaming and 15-watt stereo speakers.

There are some fairly serious trade offs, though, particularly the absence of a triple laser engine and Dolby Vision, plus mediocre color accuracy and brightness. The new model also has some heavy competition from the likes of Hisense, Epson and Optoma. All of that adds up to a projector that’s not quite as exciting as Formovie’s first attempt.

The Formovie Cinema Edge’s main features

As a reminder, Formovie is a joint venture between Xiaomi and Appotronics (the latter makes laser engines for high-end brands like Barco). Formovie now offers three projector models: the Cinema Edge, $2,400 Theater and $3,000 Theater Premium. It also sells the cheap and cheerful $199 Episode One Google TV projector, a 120-inch floor rising screen and a 100-inch wall-mounted ALR screen.

The Cinema Edge is more compact than the Theater in all dimensions and has a square design and subtle, dark grey exterior. You can project to a wall, or preferably a dedicated glare-reducing ALR screen, at a distance of about 13 inches for a 120-inch picture. All of that makes it discreet and lets you install it in relatively tight spaces.

The Cinema Edge comes with a pair of 15W speakers, but projector purists will no doubt want a 5.1 audio system to best use the built-in Dolby Atmos and DTS-HD. The Google TV system includes Netflix (unlike the Theater at launch) but the processor is a bit laggy. That can make navigation and settings adjustments a chore, though it’s par for the course on other projectors I’ve seen, particularly Optoma and HiSense models. As a result, some users may still prefer to use a Google TV or other streaming device.

Similar to the Theater, the Cinema Edge sits on three rubber feet rather than four, which can make it tricky to level when setting up. While it supports digital keystone fine-tuning to square the image, that should be used as little as possible, as it reduces picture resolution slightly and increases latency for gaming. Because of that, along with the configuration for various apps, setup took longer than I expected.

Fortunately, there are plenty of inputs to add accessories like Blu-Ray players, including three HDMI 2.1 ports (one with eArc for a high-quality return to your audio system), 3.5mm and optical audio connectors, two USB-C ports for media/streaming stick power and an ethernet port (plus Wi-FI support, of course).

The included remote is required to change most settings, control playback and more, plus it uses standard batteries with no charging port. Like most ultra short throw projectors, the Cinema Edge has a sensor that detects if someone gets too close and automatically dims the output so you don’t get a laser blast in your eyeballs.

Picture quality

Like most modern projectors (Epson aside), the Formovie Cinema Edge uses Texas Instruments’ DLP tech that projects a 1080p image twice to create a sharp 4K image using so-called fast-switch pixel shifting. It combines that with an RGB+ single color laser to keep the price down compared to triple laser setups like the Formovie Theater or Hisense’s $3,500 PX3-Pro.

The Cinema Edge delivers sharp 4K video at up to 2,100 lumens, which is decent, but falls short of rivals like the 2,400-lumen Hisense PX2-Pro or Epson’s EpiQVision Ultra LS650. That latter model pumps out 3,600 lumens. Still, the Cinema Edge’s level of brightness was just enough to watch some content in daylight, like Netflix’s Drive to Survive or live sports on Amazon Prime.

The 4K detail is excellent, and something I appreciated when watching sci-fi series like Silo, The Expanse and 3 Body Problem. Contrast is also strong, allowing for better viewing of films with dimly lit scenes like those in Joker and The Batman.

Where the Formovie Cinema Edge struggles compared to the Theater model is in color rendering. With its single laser light source, it lacks the incredible 100-percent-plus BT.2020 color gamut found on the Formovie Theater or Hisense PX2-Pro. It’s also limited to HDR10 support, rather than superior modes like Dolby Vision found on the slightly more expensive Hisense PX2-Pro.

As a result, visuals are a bit more drab in films like Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and Air, with primary colors failing to pop off the screen as I’ve seen on those other models. That said, colors are accurate by default, and there are extensive picture quality settings if you want to fine-tune everything. I noticed other issues related to the lack of good HDR performance, namely blown out highlights and some artifacts in the shadows or dark parts of images, particularly in The Batman.

Motion smoothing (called MJC on the Cinema Edge) is enabled by default, unfortunately, but it’s relatively easy to disable. Without it, though, the projector occasionally suffers from some motion artifacts during fast action sequences, something that’s common on DLP projectors. For those types of films, I found the low motion smoothing setting to be a good compromise, limiting the soap opera effect while removing any choppiness from energetic action scenes.

The Cinema Edge isn’t bad for light gaming, but with a refresh rate limited to 60Hz and input latency around 40 milliseconds, you can’t play anything too demanding like fast-moving FPS shooters. For instance, I played Resident Evil Village from my Mac through the projector, and the lag, tearing and artifacting made gameplay a challenge.

The speakers offer decent audio quality, with clear voices, music and sound effects. However, the bass is a bit thin and there’s little to no soundstage to add realism. Given the projector’s Dolby Atmos and HDMI 2.1 eArc support, anyone serious about audio would want to add external speakers or at least a soundbar.

Wrap-up

Considering how good Formovie’s Theater is, the Cinema Edge is a disappointment. Performance is only so-so for the price, with relatively low brightness and mediocre color rendering. The built-in Google TV is a bit laggy, and setup is more difficult than it needs to be due to the lack of a fourth foot. The speaker setup is also just okay, with better sound quality available on some Optoma and LG projectors.

The Cinema Edge is still a decent mid-range UST projector, but the problem for Formovie is that there’s a lot of competition in this price range. For just $200 more, you can get the Hisense PX2-Pro triple laser UST projector, which offers higher brightness (2,400 lumens), along with Dolby Vision and over 100 percent BT.2020 coverage. Another option for the same $1,800 price is the Epson LS650, which offers similar specs but nearly double the brightness at 3600 lumens. The Cinema Edge is a good choice if you want a versatile projector with a small and subtle design, but if brightness and picture quality are paramount, look elsewhere.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/formovie-cinema-edge-review-a-midrange-ust-projector-that-lags-behind-its-rivals-150025407.html?src=rss

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