If you had trouble using X today, you're not alone. DownDetector reports that over 5,000 people have reported issues accessing the social media platform as of 4PM ET. X's official Engineering account claims the issue is due to a data center outage.

"X is aware some of our users are experiencing performance issues on the platform today," X's Engineering account writes. "We are experiencing a data center outage and the team is actively working to remediate the issue." The platform last experienced a major outage in March 2025. At the time, X CEO Elon Musk blamed the outage on a "massive cyberattack." Security researchers who looked into the issue later said it was poor security on X's part that left the company's servers vulnerable to attack.

Update, May 22, 6:30PM ET: Users are still reporting problems accessing X, though at a lesser rate than its peak of 3:40PM ET. The X Engineering report has not posted an update since its original tweet.

Update, May 22, 9:35PM ET: X is still experiencing site-wide outage. Wired has reported that a fire broke out at a data center leased by Elon Musk in Hillsboro, Oregon. It's not quite clear if that has anything to do with the current outage. 

As if early June wasn't already going to be a wild enough time in the gaming world with the arrival of the Nintendo Switch 2, that's also when a whole host of showcases takes place as part of Summer Game Fest. Along with the two blockbuster events — Summer Game Fest Live and the Xbox Games Showcase — there are a bunch of other ones in store, including the always-delightful Day of the Devs.

There could be even more on the docket. There's always a chance that Nintendo and Sony will run a Direct or State of Play, respectively, over the next few weeks. Ubisoft hasn't yet announced a Forward event for this year either — perhaps because it has delayed a bunch of big games and isn't ready to talk about them. We haven't yet heard about a Devolver Direct either (c'monnnn, we need Baby Steps and Skate Story release dates already!).

As things stand, SGF is slated to run from June 6 until June 8. With E3 officially dead (organizer Entertainment Software Association is planning an industry-focused event for next April instead), SGF is now the de facto replacement and the biggest event for announcements and updates this side of Gamescom in August.

We'll update this preview as more details about the showcases emerge, including additional events in the SGF nebula. We'll embed videos for each stream as they become available as well.

Engadget will be on the ground in Los Angeles for the in-person side of SGF, which is for media and creators. We'll be bringing you hands-on impressions of many of the games that are featured during SGF Live.

Most folks will be keeping up with everything from home, though. To that end, here's a breakdown of how to watch Summer Game Fest 2025 and what to expect from the extravaganza (we're bound to get a Hollow Knight: Silksong release date this time, right?!?!)

Summer Game Fest 2024 schedule

• Summer Game Fest Live — June 6, 5PM ET

• Day of the Devs — June 6, 7PM ET

• Wholesome Direct — June 7, 12PM ET

• Women-led Games Showcase — June 7, 1PM ET

• Latin American Games Showcase — June 7, 2PM ET

• Xbox Games Showcase — June 8, 1PM ET

How to watch Summer Game Fest Live — June 6, 5PM ET

Watch on YouTube or Twitch

Putting aside our annoyance at the timing of this showcase — late on a Friday evening in the UK and right when many folks on the East Coast are clocking out for the weekend — Summer Game Fest Live is one of the bigger events in early June. It starts at 5PM ET and will run for two hours.

Organizers are promising "spectacular new video game announcements, surprises and reveals." That's pretty compelling, especially since host Geoff Keighley (rightfully) downplayed expectations ahead of last year's show. 

We do know about a few games that will appear. SGF Live will include a fresh look at Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, a Soulslike action RPG from Leenzee, a studio based in China. That game will arrive in July. Open-world MMORPG Chrono Odyssey will make an appearance as well.

You can watch SGF Live on more than 20 platforms, including YouTube, Twitch, X, TikTok, Steam and international services. The event will stream live from the YouTube Theater, and you can attend in person, if you like.

In any case, we'll be bringing you all the major news from Summer Game Fest Live. We just can't promise we won't have an adult beverage with an umbrella next to us while we're covering the event.

How to watch Day of the Devs — June 6, 7PM ET

Watch on YouTube (the same stream as SGF Live above) or Twitch

Immediately after SGF Live ends, the YouTube and Twitch streams will segue into the summer 2025 Day of the Devs stream. This indie-focused showcase invariably has a fantastic lineup of games worth keeping an eye on.

Among the games making appearances are Possessor(s) from Heart Machine and "nightmarish RPG" Neverway from Coldblood and co-publisher Outersloth. We'll also see something from House House (Untitled Goose Game) — presumably the co-op "walker-talker" Big Walk that was revealed in 2023. In all, this edition of Day of the Devs will feature 20 games.

Last year's show included 2024 game(s) of the year contender UFO 50, the very intriguing platformer Screenbound, survival climbing game Cairn, the delightfully kooky-looking Building Relationships and sci-fi mystery Phoenix Springs. My Steam wishlist somehow expands quite significantly after each Day of the Devs showcase. Weird how that always happens.

How to watch Wholesome Direct — June 7, 12PM ET

Watch on YouTube or Twitch

Definitely don't overlook the smaller events that take place during SGF, as you can always find plenty of treats among them. One such event is the Wholesome Direct, which will feature around 60 cozy games. It will include world premieres, demo announcements and updates from publishers and developers including Playstack, btf Games, ustwo games and Wētā Workshop (whose Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of The Rings Game arrives in July).

How to watch Women-led Games Showcase — June 7, 1PM ET

Watch on YouTube

This one does what it says on the tin. It's a showcase featuring games from women-led and majority-women studios. Women-led Games will feature 39 titles, including world premieres and release dates.

How to watch Latin American Games Showcase — June 7, 2PM ET

Watch on YouTube

The Latin American Games Showcase will feature more than 50 games, all of which are from Latin American developers, oddly enough. Expect world premieres, game update news and more from this one.

How to watch Xbox Games Showcase — June 8, 1PM ET

Watch on YouTube or Twitch (there's a separate ASL stream on Twitch too)

What's the over/under on the number of times the phrase "day one with Game Pass" will appear on this stream? That's one phrase you can definitely expect to hear, but Microsoft will have plenty to share here. It's the biggest Xbox showcase of the year. There will be reveals and updates from across Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda and Activision Blizzard.

Games that the company has in the pipeline include Fable (2026), Perfect Dark, Gears of War: E-Day, Everwild, State of Decay 3, Clockwork Revolution, Hideo Kojima's OD and Contraband. It feels a little early for an update on The Elder Scrolls 6 since that game is still years away. But we may find out more about those other games and some we don't yet know about. 

I have my fingers crossed for more info on the Blade game that Arkane Studios is working on. It's a reasonably safe bet that we'll see something about the next Call of Duty here as well.

One game we'll definitely hear more about on June 8 is The Outer Worlds 2. That's getting its own time in the spotlight, with a dedicated event that will start as soon as the main Xbox Games Showcase ends.

Meanwhile, several publishers and other organizations are hosting their own shows around SGF. Here's when those will take place: 

• IGN Live — throughout June 7 and 8

• Southeast Asian Games Showcase — June 7, 3PM ET

• Future Games Show — June 7, 4PM ET (featuring more than 40 games) 

• PC Gamer's PC Gaming Show — June 8, 3PM ET (with 50-plus games)

Phew. Get ready, gamers. Details on many, many new games are coming your way very soon.

The Federal Trade Commission has finally given up the ghost on challenging Microsoft's $68.7 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard. "The Commission has determined that the public interest is best served by dismissing the administrative litigation in this case," the agency said in an order issued today.

The federal regulator had attempted to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard both before and after the deal closed back in October 2023. The FTC just lost out on its latest appeal against the merger earlier this month. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the FTC had not successfully argued several points of its case for a preliminary injunction against the merger, which is one of the biggest acquisitions in the video game industry.

"Today’s decision is a victory for players across the country and for common sense in Washington, D.C. We are grateful to the FTC for today’s announcement," Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith posted on X about the dismissal.

Bluesky is ramping up its verification program, even though it's still not exactly clear how it plans to determine which accounts are "authentic and notable" enough for a blue checkmark. One month after the company said it would start giving checkmarks to select accounts, the company is now allowing people to apply for verification.

Currently, the application consists of a multi-page Google Form that asks users to share details about their account and why they want to be verified. However, it's not exactly clear what criteria Bluesky will be taking into account or how it will be reviewing what will almost certainly be a flood of applications.

The company notes that it will only verify accounts that are "active and secure, authentic, and notable." Bluesky also recommends some obvious steps, like having a complete bio and using two-factor authentication. The linked form also asks users about what "category" they may fall into, such as an elected official, brand, athlete, journalist, academic or "other."

But it sounds like Blueksy is very much still figuring out verification as it goes. "Our criteria for verification is evolving based on user feedback," the form states. "We will continue to expand the scope of accounts that are eligible for verification over time. This is an initial version of the form that will change as we finalize the requirements for verification." It also notes that "meeting the basic criteria does not guarantee verification."

That could complicate things for Bluesky, which resisted the idea of having an in-house verification system until recently, despite repeated issues with impersonation. The service has more than 36 million sign-ups, and if even a small percentage of them request a badge, it could quickly overwhelm the company's small team.

Notably, the platform is also expanding its "trusted verifiers," which are third-party entities that can verify users (who get a slightly different-shaped checkmark) and vouch for their legitimacy. Organizations that want to verify on behalf of others can also sign up via the same form.

Valve officially added support for the Lenovo Legion Go S in its latest SteamOS release. The handheld, which begins shipping this weekend, is the first hardware other than the Steam Deck to formally run Valve's gaming-centric operating system.

Valve has been laying the groundwork to bring SteamOS to more devices. Earlier in the month, it introduced a separate verification program to show players when a game is supported by the operating system. While the Legion Go S is the only third-party handheld to have official support, the patch notes for the recent update note that there is now "improved support for other AMD powered handhelds (like the ROG Ally and original Legion Go)."

Another standout item in the software update is the introduction of SteamOS support for the Proteus Controller. This is a nifty modular gamepad that can be arranged to address players' individual accessibility needs.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that Apple aims to release smart glasses by the end of 2026. This product would be equipped with cameras, microphones and speakers so that a wearer could interact with the Siri voice assistant. The glasses would also support activities such as listening to music, taking phone calls or hearing step-by-step directions to a location.

Apple has long been working toward an end goal of true augmented reality glasses, but it has faced several hurdles in getting its AI endeavors to parity with other rivals. We're expecting a lot of AI announcements during WWDC 2025 in a few weeks, but some of them may be met with skepticism after the slow and sometimes rocky rollout of its Apple Intelligence suite.

Meanwhile, other companies have already made waves with AI-enabled smart glasses. Meta has seen a fair amount of success from its partnership with Ray-Ban. Google recently unveiled new plans for its Android XR mixed reality glasses with a demo during its I/O showcase earlier this week. And OpenAI is getting in on the hardware game thanks to its acquisition of Jony Ive's io design startup, although it hasn't offered details yet on planned projects. Apple's project sounds more akin to the Meta option than to the display-equipped model Google showed off, but we'll likely hear more specifics soon.

While Apple pushes to ready smart glasses for next year, it has abandoned some other wearables projects. According to Gurman's sources, the company has left the idea of a camera-equipped Apple Watch and Apple Watch Ultra by the wayside. However, AirPods with cameras appear to still be in development.

Today's report by security expert Jeremiah Fowler of a massive unsecured database full of usernames and passwords shouldn't necessarily frighten you, but it should spur you to action. If you have any weak passwords protecting accounts with sensitive information, or if you've reused the same password — however strong — on multiple accounts, now would be an excellent time to change them and set up two-factor authentication.

Fowler reported on Website Planet that the database, which he found unlocked and without any encryption on an anonymously registered server, contained a little over 184 million records. These included usernames, emails, passwords, and direct links to the URLs for logging into the relevant accounts. While Fowler was able to get the hosting provider to lock the server, he couldn't find any hard evidence about who compiled the database, nor whether they had used or shared the information.

There are a couple of reasons not to panic here. 184 million records exposed doesn't mean 184 million people exposed — it's just the number of rows in the database. If the info was gathered through malware, as Fowler believes, it's likely to have gathered multiple records from every infected device. That's obviously still bad, but fewer people have been affected than it may seem from the number alone.

The database also contained no information that could be used for two-factor authentication, so anyone with a second factor set up has much less reason to worry. Don't forget, though, that one weakly secured account is a liability to the others. For example, a hacker could gain access to your email, then use that access to break through 2FA on your bank account.

The potential consequences of having your password stolen are severe enough that it's worth taking common-sense steps. Since the database wasn't leaked on any of the usual dark web sources, its data likely won't show up on breach checkers like HaveIBeenPwned. However, Fowler did share with Wired reporters that he tested a sample of 10,000 fields in the database, and found passwords to the following platforms:

• Facebook

• Google

• Instagram

• Roblox

• Discord

• Microsoft

• Netflix

• PayPal

• Amazon

• Apple

• Nintendo

• Snapchat

• Spotify

• Twitter

• WordPress

• Yahoo

• Online banks

• Online wallets

• Healthcare web apps

• Government employee accounts

If you have an account on any of those platforms without two-factor authentication, we recommend changing your password and setting up 2FA as soon as possible. Pay special attention to platforms like Roblox and Nintendo where your kids might have set up their own accounts and not bothered with 2FA. As Fowler points out in his blog post, even seemingly innocuous accounts might have personal information lying around.

Apple's big 2025 software reveal is nearly upon us. On June 9, the Worldwide Developers' Conference (WWDC) keynote will showcase the changes coming with — deep breath — iOS 19, iPadOS 19, macOS 16, watchOS 12, tvOS 19 and visionOS 3.

Leaks suggest this year will be a biggie. In addition to the requisite Craig Federighi gags, expect a significant visual overhaul — one of Apple's biggest ever — and (shocker) new Apple Intelligence features.

Visual redesign

The company is reportedly set to unveil a platform-wide visual overhaul. The revamp is said to be a dramatic change, drawing inspiration from Apple's mixed reality headset.

Apple

According to Front Page Tech's Jon Prosser, that may even include (nearly) round icons on the home screen and in Control Center. He also noted subtler changes, like a redesigned tab view within apps and the search box in Messages being moved to the bottom of the screen.

One of Apple's core goals with the new software is to unify the design language of its operating systems. The idea is to make it less visually jarring to hop between devices. If executed well, jumping from iPhone to iPad to Mac (and so on) will feel like touring different flavors of the same OS.

Apple's last big macOS makeover was with 2020's Big Sur. For the iPhone's software, you have to go all the way back to 2013. That's when iOS 7 kicked skeuomorphic design to the curb, replacing it with the flat, minimalistic look that (minus some iterative changes) the company's software still uses today.

The iPad goes to work

Nathan Ingraham for Engadget

Could 2025 be the year the iPad Pro starts to feel… Pro? The high-end versions of Apple's tablet have been more than capable on a hardware level for generations (especially when they switched to M-series chips). But the software has held it back. That's presumably because the company doesn't want to cannibalize Mac sales. After all, if the iPad Pro can truly replace a laptop, then fewer people would buy both.

The bad news for those wanting a full-on Mac experience: The iPad won't switch to macOS. The good news: iPadOS may get much more Mac-like. This year's update will reportedly focus on productivity, featuring improved multitasking and app window management.

It's not that Apple hasn't inched the iPad's software in that direction. It incrementally did so with Stage Manager in iPadOS 16. The year before, it added the multitasking menu at the top of app windows. But for many, those tweaks fell far short of the full-on productivity overhaul they craved. Will it be enough this time? Bloomberg's Mark Gurman thinks it will "likely go far enough" for most power users. (Is that a "Hallelujah!" I hear?)

Apple Intelligence

Apple

Even if leaks hadn't already suggested as much, this one would be a no-brainer. After all, AI has been every tech company's obsession since ChatGPT took the world by storm over two years ago. Expect a healthy portion of the keynote to be devoted to Apple's AI advances. These will reportedly include improvements to existing features and a few new ones.

Siri

Remember when Apple promised a more personalized, Apple Intelligence-infused Siri at last year's conference? The one that many of us wish would come ahead of the visual overhaul? Well, we're still waiting on that. The last official update we heard was in March, when the company told Daring Fireball, "It's going to take us longer than we thought." (Oops!) Apple expects the new Siri features to arrive "in the coming year," a clear-as-mud description if ever there was one.

A report last month from The Information hinted that the upgraded Siri may not have been as far along internally as Apple's 2024 presentation suggested. The demo, where Siri used Apple Intelligence to condense minutes of multi-app planning into mere seconds, reportedly came as something of a surprise to team members working on Siri. (Never an encouraging sign.)

Apple

Separate reporting this month from Bloomberg sheds a bit more light, adding that we probably won't hear much about those Siri upgrades at WWDC 2025. The publication described those updates as being months away from shipping. The company is also reportedly separating its Apple Intelligence and Siri marketing. The logic behind this is that users are so fed up with Apple's assistant that it's hurting Apple's AI push.

The company's 2024 presentation was undoubtedly impressive. It showed a more context-sensitive Siri that better understands what you're doing and can take appropriate actions. It pulled info from various apps and spliced them together in striking, multi-step requests. It responded to requests like recording a specific video in a third-party app, sharing a meeting summary in an email draft to a teammate or locating missing information you remember reading somewhere. It could even control system settings or spit out support documents explaining how they work.

The bottom line: If or when Apple pulls off what it promised last year, that's big news for Siri. But don't hold your breath for it to show up at WWDC 2025.

According to Bloomberg, the Siri updates we do see will be much subtler. These would include adding the option to use Gemini instead of ChatGPT with the assistant.

AI battery management

Apple

Another iOS 19 scoop points to an Apple Intelligence feature that's easy to get behind. A new AI-powered battery management mode will reportedly analyze how you use your phone and make power-saving adjustments on the fly.

The feature would analyze your data to predict when to lower the power draw from apps or device features. If it works well, that could be pretty nifty.

It may also be a key ingredient to a new device: the "iPhone Air." Whatever Apple calls it, the rumored ultra-slim handset is expected to join Apple's lineup this year. Without this feature, the phone's smaller battery might struggle to make it through a typical day. (According to Gurman, it would last several hours less than Apple's other iPhones.) But with the AI battery feature activated, the svelte iPhone could become more practical.

Will we see this slim-jim iPhone at WWDC? Well, let's say you have as good a chance of Valve randomly showing up to announce Half Life 3 at Apple's conference. First, the svelte handset is expected to be part of the iPhone 17 lineup, which typically arrives around September. Second, Apple hasn't unveiled a new iPhone at WWDC since Steve Jobs showed off the iPhone 4 in 2010. So, in short, nope.

Virtual health coach

Apple

Apple is reportedly working on a virtual health coach. Allegedly codenamed Project Mulberry, the AI feature would pair a refreshed Health app with an AI-powered coach. Bloomberg says the feature would, to some degree, give you advice you'd usually seek from a doctor.

The virtual coach would collect data from your Apple devices and use AI to provide personalized health advice, chatbot-style. Apple is reportedly training the AI agent with data from company physicians. Meanwhile, outside experts would shoot educational videos.

In March, Bloomberg's Gurman said the virtual coach could arrive as early as iOS 19.4, which wouldn't likely come until early to mid-2026. But a quick aside in a report this month from Gurman and Drake Bennett mentioned that it could be a point of focus at WWDC.

Hair Force One

Apple

It wouldn't be an Apple keynote without some wacky Craig Federighi hijinks. Last year, Apple's software lead strapped on a hair-shaped helmet and skydived into Apple Park. At previous events, he showed off his parkour skills, summoned an iPad like he's a Jedi and jammed out on a three-necked guitar.

Say what you will about "Hair Force One." Federighi knows how to sell a sight gag. (With maybe just a teensy bit of help from Apple's visual effects artists.)

Betas and release dates

Following Apple's typical schedule, you can expect the first developer betas for the new software to become available after the conference ends. (Likely the same day!) Public betas would follow early this summer. And you can expect the final versions of iOS 19, iPadOS 19, macOS 16 and so on to arrive alongside new iPhones this fall.

Nintendo has shaken up how it treats your digital game purchases. It's now calling those virtual game cards, and it hopes to make it easier for you to share your games across multiple Switch systems. You can even let friends and family members borrow a game you've purchased from the eShop so they can play it on their own Switch. Getting things set up is a slightly complex process, but in most cases, you'll only need to do the tricky stuff once. In any case, we're here to help.

The virtual game card system went live on the console on April 30 when Nintendo rolled out a major update. The Nintendo Switch 2 (which arrives on June 5) will support virtual game card lending and borrowing as well. Virtual game cards also include any of a game's associated DLC (i.e. extra downloadable content) that you've acquired.

If you haven't tried out this way of letting your kid, partner or roommate jump into a Switch game you're not currently playing, sharing a virtual game card is a pretty simple process. We'll break down how to do that before explaining how to use virtual game cards across two of your own Switch consoles.

When it comes to lending and borrowing virtual game cards, there are a number of caveats you'll need to be aware of. Sadly, a casual internet acquaintance who lives on the other side of the country won't be able to borrow a game from your Switch. The virtual game card system is designed for sharing games between friends and family — you'll need to be on the same Wi-Fi network to make the transfer.

To wit, you can only lend out a virtual game card to another member of your Nintendo Account family group. Both Switch systems will also need to be connected to the same wireless network at the time a game is lent and borrowed.

You can lend out a game for 14 days at a time. While a game of yours is loaned out, you won't be able to play it on your own Switch. However, if you do decide you want to hop back into that title, you can recall it at any time (which is, perhaps, a way to show a misbehaving child the consequences of their actions). Let's run through the other key virtual game card lending provisos in bullet points:

• You can lend out as many as three virtual game cards at a time.

• A borrower can only take one game at a time, and they can't borrow from multiple users simultaneously.

• Similarly, you can only lend out one virtual game card to a given console at any time.

• If a Switch has users that belong to different family groups, it won't be able to borrow any virtual game cards.

Got all of that? Cool. Let's jam through how to actually lend and borrow virtual game cards on the Nintendo Switch.

How to set up Switch systems to share virtual game cards

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

Before you actually get started with lending and borrowing virtual game cards, there are a few things you'll have to do. First, make sure your system software is up to date. You can check that's the case by going to the Switch home screen, then System Settings > System > System Update. If your Switch isn't running the latest system software, it will start the update process. Otherwise, you're golden.

Next, as mentioned, you'll need to make sure the Switch systems that are going to exchange virtual game cards are on the same wireless network. Once you've taken care of that, it's time to ensure the consoles are in the same Nintendo Account family group, if you haven't already done so. (A family group can include up to eight account holders, and a role-based system allows for parental controls.)

Slightly annoyingly, you can't add a Nintendo Account to a family group from Switch consoles as things stand. You'll have to set things up on Nintendo's website.

First, sign in to the Nintendo Account that will be the admin for the family group (only one account can be an admin per family group). From there, select "Family group" then either "Add a member" or, if you haven't set up a family group yet, "Create family group."

To invite an existing Nintendo Account holder to a family group, first click the "Invite someone to your family group" option (or go through the process of setting one up for a child aged 12 or younger, if that's who you're adding). Of course, if the person you want to invite to a family group doesn't yet have a Nintendo Account, they'll need to set one up.

Next, you'll need to read a disclaimer about only adding people you know to a family group and then what will happen if either your account or theirs is banned (spoiler, it won't be a good thing!). After you've agreed to the disclaimer and clicked Confirm, you'll be prompted to enter the email address linked to the Nintendo Account you want to add to the family group. Click Submit when you're done.

The person you're inviting to the family group will receive an email. They'll need to click the verification link, sign into their Nintendo Account if necessary and click "Join family group." After that person has joined the family group, the admin can assign them a role.

Phew, okay. All of the hard/annoying stuff is out of the way. Save for connecting to the same wireless network, you should only have to do all of that stuff once to make sure a pair of Switch consoles is ready to use virtual game cards. Now for the fun part.

How to lend and borrow virtual game cards on Nintendo Switch

Nintendo

For the sake of clarity, let's call the system that's lending a virtual game card Switch A. We'll refer to the device that's borrowing a game as Switch B (calling them Switch 1 and Switch 2 would have made things more confusing!).

Go to the Virtual Game Cards option on the Switch A home screen, then select the user that's linked to your Nintendo Account. At this point, you'll need to enter your password or a PIN if you've enabled the user verification setting.

Pick the game you want to lend out from your library of virtual game cards then to go Lend to Family Group Member > Select Select a User to Lend To. Select the person you'd like to receive the game, and then click on Lend.

After that, it's the recipient's turn to act. On the Switch B, access Virtual Game Cards from the home screen. Choose the user profile for the person that's receiving the game, and enter the PIN or password if necessary. Then choose the Borrow option. After that, the virtual game card should start downloading, then you'll be able to play!

You only need to be connected to the same wireless network when you're actively lending and borrowing ("loading" or "ejecting" to use Nintendo's terms for it) a virtual game card. You don't necessarily have to be online to play a game once it's on your Switch. Nintendo has a help article that should help you address any error messages you encounter as part of the process.

Returning a virtual game card (perhaps so you can borrow a different one from Switch A) is straightforward too. Go to Virtual Game Cards from the home screen, select the relevant user profile, enter the password or PIN if need be. Go to the game, select Return to Family Group Member and then click Return.

This is all perhaps a little more complicated than it has to be. It probably would have been easier for the Switch B user to receive a notification when Switch A lends a game out to them. Still, the process should be simple enough to run through, especially after you get the hang of it.

How to use virtual game cards across two Switch units

Nintendo

One other thing you can do with virtual game cards is freely swap them between two of your own Switch consoles, even if one is in sleep mode. Maybe you have a Switch docked in your living room and a Switch Lite you take on the go. This system could be useful in that case. As ever, other users of a Switch console can play any game or DLC that's installed on the system through their own profile.

To swap virtual game cards from one Switch to another, you first need to link them. First, bring the system that you can already install virtual game cards on (Switch A, we'll call it) and the other one (Switch B) in close proximity to one another and connect them to the internet. Make sure your Nintendo Account is linked to a user on Switch B as well.

On Switch B, choose Virtual Game Cards from the home screen, then the user that's linked to your Nintendo Account (again, you'll need to enter a password or PIN if you have user verification on). Choose a virtual game card that you'd like to add to the Switch B, then go to Load on This System > Next > Systems Are Close Enough (once you've ensured both consoles are within close proximity).

Next, return to Switch A. Again, do the virtual game cards > user linked to the same Nintendo Account > password/PIN (if necessary) deal. You'll then see a message about linking to another console. Select the Link option to enable this. After the linking process is wrapped up, click the OK button. You'll also need to click on Load on This System if such a prompt pops up to load the virtual game card you picked earlier onto Switch B.

And that's it! After that, you don't need to keep the consoles in close proximity to each other to load virtual game cards onto either system.

Bear in mind that only two consoles can be linked at a time for this purpose. To set up another console as a new Switch B (we're still calling it that for the sake of clarity), go through the same setup process again on that device.

Partway through, you'll see a message on the new Switch B telling you that you already linked two consoles for the purpose of loading virtual game cards. After you read the information about that (and assuming that linking a different Switch is what you want to do), select Unlink next to the console that you want to unlink. Click this button again to confirm.

If you want to play digital Switch games across more than two consoles (perhaps you have one in your den, another in the bedroom and a third at a vacation home?), you may need to use a different method called the online license feature. Nintendo has a help article that'll walk you through how to set that up.

With either method, there is a significant factor you'll need to take into account. Save data isn't automatically shared across each system, so you can't simply start playing a game on one Switch and continue where you left off on another. To do that, you'll need to transfer the data manually, either by having the two consoles in close proximity to each other or via the cloud if you're a Nintendo Switch Online subscriber.

How to hide virtual game cards on your Nintendo Switch

The Nintendo Switch has been around for over eight years. That's a long time! Over that period, you may have amassed a large collection of digital games, perhaps making it increasingly difficult to find what you're looking for. Thankfully, there's an option to hide (and unhide) virtual game cards in your collection.

To hide one, go to Virtual Game Cards on the Switch home screen and choose the user that's linked to your Nintendo Account. Highlight the game or DLC you'd like to hide, select Options and then Hide twice to mask that title from your library.

To view a hidden virtual game card, repeat those first two steps, then scroll down and choose the Can't Find Software? option. From here, you'll see a prompt to View Hidden Virtual Game Cards. Pick this and you'll see the full list of hidden game cards.

You can unhide a virtual game card from this section too. Select the particular game, then choose Options and Unhide. It will then appear back alongside your regular library of virtual game cards.

A game card isn't exactly useless while it's hidden. You can still download the associated game onto your Switch while a card is hidden or lend it out to others in your family group.

WhatsApp is expanding its Discord-like voice chat feature so that group chats of any size can talk to each other in real time. Unlike group calling, which has existed on the app for years, real-time "audio hangouts" are more of a drop-in feature that doesn't ring every member of the chat.

Voice chats also offer a bit more flexibility than a traditional call because the interface doesn't take over your whole screen. That means you can still follow along in the chat for new messages or keep an eye on any incoming notifications.

Meta first introduced the feature in 2023, but for some reason limited it to larger groups of 32 to 256 participants, which is likely a lot bigger than the average group thread on the app. Now, though, WhatsApp users can start an audio hangout in both smaller group chats and even larger ones. WhatsApp supports groups of up to 1,024 participants, which sounds extremely chaotic even for texting, much less audio.

Games Workshop, maker of the popular Warhammer 40K tabletop game, held its annual Warhammer Skulls festival today, and announced a slew of new video games, remasters and DLC for its properties. I've collected some of the more exciting announcements below. 

First, let's start with Space Marine 2. In March, Games Workshop announced a sequel was already in development. At the time, the company said the new game was "likely years away from release," but it also reiterated post-launch support for Space Marine 2 would continue. Today we got an update on Space Marine 2's long awaited horde mode, called here Siege Mode. It will arrive as part of a free update slated for release on June 26. 

However, that's not all. On June 10th, GW will release Space Marine — Master Crafted Edition. It's a remaster of the 2011 original developed by Relic Entertainment. The new version features updated textures and character models, with support for 4K resolutions, modernized controls and a refreshed user interface. If you've not played Space Marine, it's worth revisiting if only to hear Mark Strong voice protagonist Captain Titus. Master Crafted Edition arrives on June 10 on Xbox Series X/S and PC through Steam and GOG.  

Speaking of Relic, a remaster of the studio's excellent Dawn of War is also on the way. No word on an exact release date yet, but GW says Dawn of War – Definitive Edition will feature updated visuals, camera controls and a new HUD. The re-release will be compatible with mods for the existing game, and has a 64-bit code base to ensure it's playable on modern systems for years to come.    

For fans of boomer shooters, there's Boltgun game on the way. It will arrive in 2026, and it's coming to Steam, Xbox Series X/S and PS5. The new game will pick up right where the first game ended, with a new non-linear single player campaign that has new enemies for players to overcome. Of course, you'll also have access to new weapons with which to vanquish the Emperor's enemies in the most cartoonishly violent way possible. 

In the meantime, today you can download Boltgun — Words of Vengeance, a free typing action game that will have you spelling words and phrases from Warhammer lore like "thin your paints" and "Ghazghkull." You bet I'm downloading it right now.  

Last but not least, Owlcat, creator of the CRPG Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, is working on a sequel to the criminally underrated Rogue Trader. The new game is adaptation of GW's Dark Heresy RPG and casts the player as the leader of an Inquisition party. It looks like Owlcat has a bigger budget this time around, which is a great sign for the project. Rogue Trader had moments where it felt like if Owlcat had the time and resources that Larian did to work on Baldur's Gate 3, it would have been every bit as popular.

Again, those are just some of the announcements Games Workshop made today, so be sure to check out the Warhammer Community website to get the full story.

The United States Senate voted 51-44 mostly across party lines on Wednesday to repeal a waiver granted by the Biden administration's Environmental Protection Agency, allowing the state of California to enact its Advanced Clean Cars II Regulations. ACC II requires that 80 percent of new passenger vehicles sold in California by 2035 be zero-emission.

Notably, the legitimacy of the vote itself was dubious, as the Senate parliamentarian — a nonpartisan staffer who helps the Senate understand its own rules — had warned that the waiver did not fall under the Senate's purview. The parliamentarian noted that the EPA waiver wasn’t a formal rule but an administrative order. This means the waiver is not subject to the Congressional Review Act (CRA), the law Senate Republicans used to justify the vote. The CRA only became law in 1996, and had seen little use until recently — it has been used to overturn federal rules a total of 20 times, 16 of which occurred during the previous Trump administration.

The measure will now go to President Trump's desk for signature, as the House already passed legislation to repeal the waiver earlier this month.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a DC lobbying group that represents a number of automakers including GM, Toyota, Volkswagen and Hyundai, celebrated the vote. "These EV sales mandates were never achievable," said John Bozzella, president and CEO of the lobbying group. He argued, "Meeting the mandates would require diverting finite capital from the EV transition to purchase compliance credits from Tesla."

While these automakers rejoiced, environmental protection advocates struck a concerned tone. "It’s deeply disappointing that the Senate used the Congressional Review Act to block states from implementing air pollution standards to improve air quality. This illegitimate move poses threats to public health, the economy and states’ rights." said Steven Higashide, director of the Clean Transportation Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

As reported in the L.A. Times, Will Barrett, senior director at the American Lung Association and a clean air advocate said, “This is a major blow to the decades-long public health protections delivered under the Clean Air Act.” Highlighting the importance of these waivers he said “It is more important than ever that California and all other states that rely on Clean Air Act waivers continue to cut tailpipe pollution through homegrown, health-protective policies."

This is just the latest in continued efforts by the current administration to curtail or end legislation that supports or encourages wider adoption of electric vehicles and environmental protection.

The US House of Representatives just narrowly passed a budget bill, which has been referred to by President Trump and others as "one big, beautiful bill." Hidden amongst the cuts to health care, debt add-ons and tax breaks for the rich is a ten-year ban of state AI laws. You read that right. States would be banned by the federal government from enforcing laws that regulate AI for the next decade.

The vote fell largely along party lines, with nearly every Republican member of the House approving the bill. This marks one of the most significant federal actions on technology policy in decades and it was buried in a budget bill that has nothing to do with AI.

This isn't law just yet. The budget bill has to pass through the Senate and it could have a difficult road. It's expected that Democratic lawmakers will challenge the AI regulation ban under what's called the Byrd Rule, which prohibits "extraneous" provisions to the federal budget during the reconciliation process.

Even some Senate Republicans seem wary of the ban. Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee expressed concern that it would override state legislation that protects artists from deepfakes in her state. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri has also pushed back on the idea on the grounds that it could "tamp down on people's efforts to address" issues posed by AI.

Supporters of the ban argue that it would stop a potentially confusing patchwork of differing state AI laws until Congress can craft its own federal legislation. This is pretty odd coming from the "states' rights" crowd, but whatever.

Opponents, like many Democratic lawmakers and advocacy organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, call it a dangerous giveaway to big tech firms, as these companies stand to benefit the most from a completely unregulated market. They also say it poses a serious danger to Americans, as it would leave the citizenry unprotected from any associated risk. Current state laws address issues including deepfakes and discrimination in automated hiring.

“Make no mistake, the families who have come to this committee and begged for us to act won't benefit from this proposal,” said Democratic Rep. Lori Trahan during a subcommittee hearing on the matter. “But you know who will? The big tech CEOs who are sitting behind Donald Trump at his inauguration."

The budget bill, as passed by the House, also includes cuts to Medicaid totaling an estimated $625 billion and cuts to SNAP, otherwise called food stamps, totaling $300 billion. It could also force $500 billion in cuts to Medicare, which serves senior citizens, as a byproduct of adding nearly $4 trillion to the national deficit. It also ends the EV tax credit. All of this pays for an extension and expansion of previous tax cuts that disproportionately favor high-income earners.

Pocket, Mozilla's service for saving articles to read later, is shutting down on July 8, 2025. Mozilla says it's phasing out Pocket and Fakespot, its browser extension for vetting product reviews, in an attempt "to be intentional about where we invest our time and resources" as the company continues to support Firefox.

Starting today, May 22, Pocket is no longer available to download and you can't sign up for a Pocket Premium subscription. Mozilla says existing annual and monthly subscriptions will be cancelled automatically, and annual subscribers will be fully refunded on July 8. You'll have until October 8 to export your Pocket data before Mozilla deletes it, and the Pocket API, which lets apps and devices access the articles you've saved, will be shut down on the same day.

The Fakespot website, browser extension and apps will no longer be available starting on July 1, 2025 and you'll lose access to Review Checker in Firefox (a Fakespot-powered feature) even earlier on June 10. Mozilla acquired Fakespot in 2023 "to help people navigate unreliable product reviews using AI and privacy-first tech," but the company says that "while the idea resonated, it didn’t fit a model we could sustain."

Pocket lived an even longer life at Mozilla as one of the last OG read-it-later apps. Mozilla acquired the service in 2017, but Pocket existed for a decade before that, first launching in 2007 as a browser extension called Read It Later before it was renamed to Pocket in 2012.

Like Instapaper, Pocket promised to take an article URL and convert the page into a highly-readable, ad-free document that you could access while you were away from your browser. Some modern browsers have built-in "Reader" modes that can do the same thing on-demand, but Pocket made it possible to archive it all for later, even if the page was taken down.

With Pocket out of the picture, the best alternatives are Instapaper, which got a new lease on life when it bought itself from Pinterest in 2018 and Readwise Reader, which combines read-it-later features and the ability to review eBook highlights in the same app. For more instructions on how to rescue your Pocket data before its deleted, Mozilla has an online guide.

The Levoit LVAC-200 cordless vacuum is on sale for $150 via Amazon as part of a Memorial Day promotion. This represents a 25 percent discount, which translates to $50. That's pretty darn close to a record low price.

The LVAC-200 made our list of the best cordless vacuums, and we specifically recommended it to the budget-conscious. It's lightweight, at three pounds, and does a great job at cleaning different types of dry messes. We tried it out on both hard and carpeted floors, with exceptional results. There are three suction modes and a push-button start. It even ships with a hand-vac attachment.

This vacuum doesn't come with a storage base, but it's easily disassembled. Just detach the cleaning head from the extension arm and the arm from the motor base and it can be stored just about anywhere. However, it also stands upright on its own thanks to a locking mechanism.

We appreciated the five-stage filtration system, even if it's not HEPA-certified. The dustbin, however, is on the smaller side at 0.75 liters. This means the debris will have to be manually disposed of fairly regularly. We found that it was almost entirely full after one pass. Despite these drawbacks, this is still one heck of a vacuum for the money. We recommended it at the original $200 asking price, so we definitely recommend it now.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Anthropic kicked off its first-ever Code with Claude conference today with the announcement of a new frontier AI system. The company is calling Claude Opus 4 the best coding model in the world. According to Anthropic, Opus 4 is dramatically better at tasks that require it to complete thousands of separate steps, giving it the ability to work continuously for several hours in one go. Additionally, the new model can use multiple software tools in parallel, and it's better at following instructions more precisely.

In combination, Anthropic says those capabilities make Opus 4 ideal for powering upcoming AI agents. For the unfamiliar, agentic systems are AIs that are designed to plan and carry out complicated tasks without human supervision. They represent an important step towards the promise of artificial general intelligence (AGI). In customer testing, Anthropic saw Opus 4 work on its own seven hours, or nearly a full workday. That's an important milestone for the type of agentic systems the company wants to build.  

Anthropic

Another reason Anthropic thinks Opus 4 is ready to enable the creation of better AI agents is because the model is 65 percent less likely to use a shortcut or loophole when completing tasks. The company says the system also demonstrates significantly better "memory capabilities," particularly when developers grant Claude local file access. To encourage devs to try Opus 4, Anthropic is making Claude Code, its AI coding agent, widely available. It has also added new integrations with Visual Studio Code and JetBrains.

Even if you're not a coder, Anthropic might have something for you. That's because alongside Opus 4, the company announced a new version of its Sonnet model. Like Claude 3.7 Sonnet before it and Opus 4, the new system is a hybrid reasoning model, meaning it can execute prompts nearly instantaneously and engage in extended thinking. As a user, this gives you a best of both worlds chatbot that's better equipped to tackle complex problems when needed. It also incorporates many of the same improvements found in Opus 4, including the ability to use tools in parallel and follow instructions more faithfully. 

Sonnet 3.7 was so popular among users Anthropic ended up introducing a Max plan in response, which starts at $100 per month. The good news is you won't need to pay anywhere near that much to use Sonnet 4, as Anthropic is making it available to free users.

Anthropic

For those who want to use Sonnet 4 for a project, API pricing is staying at $3 per one million input tokens and $15 for the same amount of output tokens. Notably, outside of all the usual places you'll find Anthropic's models, including Amazon Bedrock and Google Vertex AI, Microsoft is making Sonnet 4 the default model for the new coding agent it's offering through GitHub Copilot. Both Opus 4 and Sonnet 4 are available to use today. 

Today's announcement comes during what's already been a busy week in the AI industry. On Tuesday, Google kicked off its I/O 2025 conference, announcing, among other things, that it was rolling out AI Mode to all Search users in the US. A day later, OpenAI said it was spending $6.5 billion to buy Jony Ive’s hardware startup.

Disney has taken another step into the hyper-competitive world of live sports broadcasting. According to The Guardian, the entertainment conglomerate has secured a five-year deal to broadcast live Women’s Champions League soccer matches on Disney+ across multiple European broadcast territories, including the United Kingdom. 

From the NFL on YouTube to the Grammys on Disney+, the broadcast rights to live events have become a hot commodity as streamers look to make inroads into one of cable TV’s biggest selling points. And in recent years, broadcast rights for women’s sports leagues have become more competitive as the category’s growth in viewership accelerates.

Amazon has been streaming WNBA games since 2021, and last year Netflix secured the rights to broadcast the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Disney’s investment in streaming the best in European women’s soccer signals an important continuation of that trend.

According to the same report by The Guardian, Disney made a “hugely competitive offer” for the streaming rights, and is said to be investing not only in the rights themselves, but in extensive coverage with high-caliber production. The deal was entered into in agreement with UC3, the joint venture between UEFA and the European Club Association, which means club representatives were involved in the discussions.

In the United States, the broadcast rights for the Women’s Champions League are held exclusively by DAZN; the platform currently streams 19 matches for free in addition to more for subscribers. YouTube had signed on as a streaming partner in the US for all games from 2021 to 2023, but didn’t renew that deal when it ended.

The deal reportedly includes some free-to-air coverage of the Women’s Champions League in the United Kingdom, though there are no details yet on which games or how many exactly. So if you’re in the UK, don’t forget to renew that TV license.

Amazon is testing a new feature that involves AI-generated hosts talking through product summaries. It looks fairly similar to Google’s audio overviews, which also include AI-generated hosts that seem plucked from a middling podcast.

Amazon says that these "AI shopping experts help save time by compiling research and providing product highlights for customers from product pages, reviews and insights." This leads me to an obvious question. Amazon is notorious for hosting fake reviews. Some studies suggest that fake reviews account for more than 40 percent of the sum total. Do these AI hosts pull from those reviews? 

Amazon reached out to Engadget to note that it has "zero tolerance" for fake reviews and that it has "robust and long-standing policies that prohibit review abuse." The company also boasts that "more than 99 percent of products viewed in our store contain only authentic reviews." It didn't say if the AI hosts include an additional layer of security to protect against fake reviews. 

Each audio summary will remind you that it was generated by AI, just before an introduction from the "expert" hosts. Amazon says these hosts are "like having helpful friends discuss potential purchases to make your shopping easier."

You might be able to try this out right now. It's currently available to some US customers on the mobile app for certain products, like this Ninja Blender, OSEA Undaria Algae Body Oil, SHOKZ OpenRun Pro headphones and a couple of other items. Just tap the "Hear the highlights" button under the product. Amazon has stated it'll be rolling this out to more customers and more products in the near future.

I can see this being a boon for those with visual impairment issues, but I listened to a couple of summaries and they certainly don't save any time. I could peruse reviews, look at product information and even conduct a web search of my own in a fraction of the time it took the friendly experts to complete their spiel.

The company says this feature is useful when "multitasking or on the go" but I don't tend to mindlessly spend money in that way. Do you? This seems like another AI thingamabob that nobody really asked for, but maybe it'll find a niche somewhere. Again, this could be seriously useful for the visually impaired, but that's not how Amazon is pitching it.

The team behind GeoGuessr is withdrawing the location-guessing game from the Esports World Cup (EWC) after fans protested its decision to participate in the event. Community members pulled many popular custom maps from the game after it emerged the game's publisher, GeoGuessr AB, was going to hold a tournament at the EWC, which takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in July.

Map creators who removed their community creations from GeoGuessr claimed that the EWC is "a sportswashing tool used by the government of Saudi Arabia to distract from and conceal its horrific human rights record." Many other prominent game franchises will be featured at the event, including Call of Duty, Overwatch, Rocket League, Street Fighter and EA Sports FC.

In a statement posted on X and Reddit, GeoGuessr AB CEO and co-founder Daniel Antell said the community stated loud and clear that the decision to take part in the EWC "does not align with what GeoGuessr stands for." As such, the team is pulling out of the event.

Here is Antell's full statement:

Hi everyone,

I’ve seen your reactions over the past few days regarding our decision to participate in the Esports World Cup in Riyadh. When we made that decision, it was with positive intentions. To engage with our community in the Middle East and to spread GeoGuessr’s core mission of let everyone Explore the World.

Since Erland, Anton, and I founded GeoGuessr in 2013, we’ve always strived to be a community-first game. Everyone here at the Stockholm office is a passionate GeoGuessr fan, doing our best to build something meaningful, with you and for you.

That said, you - our community - have made it clear that this decision does not align with what GeoGuessr stands for.

So, when you tell us we’ve got it wrong we take it seriously. That’s why we’ve made the decision to withdraw from participating in the Esports World Cup in Riyadh.

We will come back with information on how the wildcards will be distributed as soon as possible.

Thank you for speaking up and sharing your thoughts.

/Daniel

It’s been a while since a company has thrown out a truly silly number of megapixels for a new phone. After all, the double-digit pixels found on most flagship handsets are just used to pixel bin the size down without harming the quality. Rejoice, then, when I tell you Honor’s new midrange 400 series is shipping with a 200 megapixel sensor working hand-in glove with an AI to make use of all that data. 200 megapixels, in this economy? Apparently so.

The 400 series is the latest in Honor’s not-at-all-confusingly-named “N” series of midrange handsets which bear numbers. Naturally, while there’s also a low end version of the 400 to buy, the company’s focus here (as always) was on the 400 Pro 5G and the regular 400 5G. Both models get that 200 megapixel primary camera tied to a Samsung-made 1/1.4-inch sensor with both optical and electronic image stabilization. Both are also equipped with a 12-megapixel macro/wide camera, plus a 50-megapixel front-facer.The Pro, however, also gets an additional 50-megapixel telephoto that the company claims will produce some impressive digital zoom.

Of course, these handsets are less about the raw numbers and more about what they can do when the images are run through the AI. Honor says the phones will capture and enhance portraits, erase passers-by, create videos from still images and can even remove reflective glare when taking pictures through panes of glass. Plus, on-device generative expand will expand the edge of an image if you feel the original was too closely cropped when you shot it. And Honor says the phone will use AI to create film simulation models to annoy all your Fuji-owning frenemies. Honor hasn’t yet been clear about how much of these AI innovations will be part of the phone and how much will require an extra subscription.

As for the rest of the phone, the 400 Pro’s spec list is no slouch: It’s got a Snapdragon 8, Gen 3 processor, 16GB RAM and a 5,300mAh silicon carbon battery. Up front, you’ll be staring into a 6.7-inch 2,800 x 1,280, 120Hz AMOLED display with a peak brightness of 5,000 nits. If you opt for the regular 400, then you’ll get a Snapdragon 7, Gen 3, 8GB RAM and a 6.55-inch, 120Hz AMOLED with a similarly beefy peak brightness. Both handsets will get Honor’s often-ballyhooed AI thread optimization for better sustained performance under load, such as if you’re gaming on the go. And the company has tweaked the graphics engine to better handle people’s massive photo libraries without stuttering.

The Honor 400 series is available to buy in Europe and the UK from today, with the Pro 5G setting you back €800 / £700. The regular 400 5G can be snapped up for €500 / £400 if you want 256GB storage and €550 / £450 if you want 512GB instead. Naturally, if you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, the “Lite” version can be picked up for €300, but the company didn’t share any specs for that particular handset. As usual, there's no word on if this handset will come to the US unless you import it yourself.

What Honor has been eager to point out, is the company has committed to providing six years of Android support for these handsets. That means buyers should expect to get at least that many OS and security updates, and Android 16 will be coming to the handsets by the end of the year.

At I/O 2025, nothing Google showed off felt new. Instead, we got a retread of the company's familiar obsession with its own AI prowess. For the better part of two hours, Google spent playing up products like AI Mode, generative AI apps like Jules and Flow, and a bewildering new $250 per month AI Ultra plan.

During Tuesday's keynote, I thought a lot about my first visit to Mountain View in 2018. I/O 2018 was different. Between Digital Wellbeing for Android, an entirely redesigned Maps app and even Duplex, Google felt like a company that had its pulse on what people wanted from technology. In fact, later that same year, my co-worker Cherlynn Low penned a story titled How Google won software in 2018. "Companies don't often make features that are truly helpful, but in 2018, Google proved its software can change your life," she wrote at the time, referencing the Pixel 3's Call Screening and "magical" Night Sight features.

What announcement from Google I/O 2025 comes even close to Night Sight, Google Photos, or, if you're being more generous to the company, Call Screening or Duplex? The only one that comes to my mind is the fact that Google is bringing live language translation to Google Meet. That's a feature that many will find useful, and Google spent all of approximately a minute talking about it.

I'm sure there are people who are excited to use Jules to vibe code or Veo 3 to generate video clips, but are either of those products truly transformational? Some "AI filmmakers" may argue otherwise, but when's the last time you thought your life would be dramatically better if you could only get a computer to make you a silly, 30-second clip.

By contrast, consider the impact Night Sight has had. With one feature, Google revolutionized phones by showing that software, with the help of AI, could overcome the physical limits of minuscule camera hardware. More importantly, Night Sight was a response to a real problem people had in the real world. It spurred companies like Samsung and Apple to catch up, and now any smartphone worth buying has serious low light capabilities. Night Sight changed the industry, for the better.

The fact you have to pay $250 per month to use Veo 3 and Google's other frontier models as much as you want should tell everything you need to know about who the company thinks these tools are for: they're not for you and I. I/O is primarily an event for developers, but the past several I/O conferences have felt like Google flexing its AI muscles rather than using those muscles to do something useful. In the past, the company had a knack for contextualizing what it was showing off in a way that would resonate with the broader public.

By 2018, machine learning was already at the forefront of nearly everything Google was doing, and, more so than any other big tech company at the time, Google was on the bleeding edge of that revolution. And yet the difference between now and then was that in 2018 it felt like much of Google's AI might was directed in the service of tools and features that would actually be useful to people. Since then, for Google, AI has gone from a means to an end to an end in and of itself, and we're all the worse for it.

Even less dubious features like AI Mode offer questionable usefulness. Google debuted the chatbot earlier this year, and has since then has been making it available to more and more people. The problem with AI Mode is that it's designed to solve a problem of the company's own making. We all know the quality of Google Search results has declined dramatically over the last few years. Rather than fixing what's broken and making its system harder to game by SEO farms, Google tells us AI Mode represents the future of its search engine.

The thing is, a chat bot is not a replacement for a proper search engine. I frequently use ChatGPT Search to research things I'm interested in. However, as great as it is to get a detailed and articulate response to a question, ChatGPT can and will often get things wrong. We're all familiar with the errors AI Overviews produced when Google first started rolling out the feature. AI Overviews might not be in the news anymore, but they're still prone to producing embarrassing mistakes. Just take a look at the screenshot my co-worker Kris Holt sent to me recently.

Kris Holt for Engadget

I don't think it's an accident I/O 2025 ended with a showcase of Android XR, a platform that sees the company revisiting a failed concept. Let's also not forget that Android, an operating system billions of people interact with every day, was relegated to a pre-taped livestream the week before. Right now, Google feels like it's a company eager to repeat the mistakes of Google Glass. Rather than trying to meet people where they need it, Google is creating products few are actually asking for. I don't know about you, but that doesn't make me excited for the company's future.

The first device OpenAI is putting out with Jony Ive won't be a phone or a wearable and may not even have a screen at all, according to The Wall Street Journal. OpenAI chief Sam Altman reportedly talked about the company's plans to employees after announcing that it has purchased Ive's startup called io. The Journal said Altman told employees that they have "the chance to do the biggest thing [they've] ever done as a company." 

Altman and Ive gave out clues for what the company's first device could be: They said it will be fully aware of its environment and the user's activities, that it will unobtrusive and could either be carried around in one's pocket or placed on a desk. The executives also believe that it's bound to become one of people's "core" devices after a laptop and a phone. According to the Journal, it won't be a phone and that one of Ive's and Altman's goals is to wean people off screens, which means it most likely wouldn't come with a display. Altman reportedly said that it won't be a pair of glasses, and Ive wasn't keen on building a product users can wear in the first place. 

Whatever the device is, they intend on guarding specifics until it's time to release it in order to prevent their competitors from copying it. They're hoping to launch their new AI device late next year and are hoping to ship 100 million units "faster than any company has ever shipped 100 million of something new before." Ive's team, the Journal said, has been talking to vendors that can mass produce the device over the past four months. 

OpenAI apparently started working with Ive's startup a year-and-a-half ago. The original plan was to have Ive's company build a product that uses OpenAI's technology, but they realized that it could become the primary way users will interact with OpenAI's generative AI models. And that is why OpenAI ended up acquiring the startup founded by Apple's former chief design officer for $6.5 billion. We'll have to wait and see whether the combination of Ive's design and OpenAI's tech is compelling enough to convince people to buy yet another device from a new category. A company called Humane, for instance, tried and failed to get people to purchase the Ai Pin, which it marketed "as a tiny replacement for smartphones." In February, the company disconnected all the Pins it had sold, leaving customers without access to all of its features.

Another great streaming deal has hit the internet: one year of Peacock Premium is only $25 right now. Just use the code SPRINGSAVINGS at checkout to get $55 off the standard annual price of the Premium plan. Just note that this tier does include ads, and the deal runs through May 30.

Peacock is a decent platform and made our list of the best streaming services. It doesn't get the attention of Netflix or Disney+, but it's home to several nifty original shows. There's the AI-adjacent tomfoolery of Mrs. Davis and the Rian Johnson-made whodunnit Poker Face. It also airs several video game adaptations, like Knuckles and the surprisingly-decent Twisted Metal.

The big draw here, however, is likely the long-awaited spinoff of The Office, which is called The Paper. That one premieres in September and is a Peacock exclusive. The platform also signed an 11-year agreement with the NBA and that goes into effect this fall. The mobile app could be getting minigames and short-form vertical videos (like TikTok) in the near future.

There's one caveat. This subscription will automatically renew for $80 after the year runs out. Stay on top of scheduling if you want to cancel before then.

Check out our coverage of the best streaming deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Fujifilm has already released one unusual camera this year in the GFX100 RF medium format compact, but its latest model may be the most offbeat yet. The $850 X Half is an 18-megapixel digital compact camera, but it uses half of a 1-inch sensor to shoot 3:4 vertical photos. To drive home the retro vibe, it has a rear screen dedicated to displaying the camera's 13 film simulation modes and can only shoot JPEG and not RAW images.

The name comes from "half-frame" cameras popular in the '60s, like the famous Olympus Pen F, that use a 35mm film frame sawed in half (18mm x 24mm in size). The backside-illuminated sensor on Fujifilm's X Half is, well, half that size in both dimensions (8.8mm x 13.3mm) or a quarter the area. It's also the smallest sensor on any recent Fujifilm digital camera, as the X-series uses the APS-C format and GFX models medium format. In fact, the X Half has the same 3:4 vertical ratio as Fuji's Instax Mini instant cameras — so you can make prints using an Instax Mini printer via the new dedicated X Half smartphone app. 

Fujifilm

The X Half naturally uses Fujifilm's film simulation and grain effect modes. Among the new ones are "light leak" for a blown-out quality that happens when film get exposed to light inadvertently, "expired film" and "halation," an effect caused by light bouncing off film emulsion layers. To really get you into that analog film mood, you can switch to the new Film Camera Mode that limits your view to the optical viewfinder, makes you pull a frame advance lever for each new shot and only lets you see the photos once they're "developed" through the X Half app. It even produces a "contact sheet" layout for 36, 54 or 72 images. 

Another feature is 2-in-1 images that let you combine two still images or movies into one composition in-camera for extra artistic possibilities (using the film advance lever again). That also means the X Half can shoot video as well as photos, with a vertical or square size (up to 2,160 x 2,160) that looks ideal for social media — especially with film simulations applied. Also exuding nostalgic vibes is the "Date Stamp" function that lets you imprint dates in the bottom right of images, just like on old-school Kodak-style film cameras. 

On top of the main rear 2.4-inch LCD 3:4 monitor, the X Half has an optical rather than an electronic viewfinder, adding another analog touch (and the accompanying parallax distortion errors). The camera itself is small enough to slide into a pocket and weighs just 210 grams (7.4 ounces). Other features include a built-in flash, massive 880 frame battery life and SD UHS-I card slot.

The X Half looks like it could be coveted by social media users or anyone looking for a fun party or vacation camera. However, it's expensive considering that you can just get an Instax (or regular film camera and a lot of film) for a lot less. Fujifilm has definitely captured the photography zeitgeist before with models like the X100 VI, though, so I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes a hit. The X Half is now on preorder for $850 (in black, charcoal silver and silver) with shipping set to start on June 12. 

If you’ve picked up an AirTag, you already know how handy it is for keeping track of your stuff — but finding the best Apple AirTag accessories can make it even more useful. With the right gear, you can clip, stick or stash your AirTag just about anywhere, making it easier to keep tabs on everything from keys and wallets to purses and backpacks.

An AirTag keychain holder is one of the simplest and most popular ways to keep your tracker attached to everyday essentials like your car fob, while rugged cases and mounts help expand where you can place an AirTag without worrying about damage. Of course, it’s also important to double-check compatibility when you're shopping around, especially if you want something slim, stylish or built for heavy-duty adventures.

Whether you're looking for a sleek leather holder, a waterproof case or something designed specifically for bikes or luggage, there’s an AirTag accessory out there that can make your life a little less stressful — and your valuables a lot easier to find.

Best AirTag holders for 2025

AirTag holder FAQs

Why do AirTags need a holder?

AirTags need a holder because they do not have built-in keyring holes like Tile, Chipolo and other Bluetooth trackers do.

How do you attach an AirTag to things?

You'll need a holder or case to attach an AirTag to your stuff. If you're comfortable slipping an AirTag into an interior pocket of a bag or coat, you can do so without an extra accessory. But if you want to use one to keep track of your keys, wallet, backpack or even your pet on their collar, you'll need an accessory that can accommodate that use case.

It's been almost ten years since Dyson first unveiled its Supersonic hair dryer, which put its signature bladeless fan technology into a styling product. For a company that was known primarily for its vacuums at the time, this was a surprising move. Since then, Dyson has released several beauty tools like its Airwrap curling iron that have spawned countless imitations. The company also expanded into other categories like audio with its OnTrac headphones and the controversial Zone headphones-with-built-in-purifying-mask while continuing to make some of our favorite cordless vacuums. 

Today, Dyson is going full circle by announcing the PencilVac, which it says is the "world's slimmest vacuum cleaner." The twist? It achieves that thinness by using a motor that's basically the same as the one in the Supersonic hair dryer.

What makes the PencilVac different from existing vacuum cleaners is the fact that it's basically all shaft, with some attachment options for the head. That means there is no bulge unless you use the included conical brush bar cleaner head. All the parts that would normally take up space on a conventional vacuum (like a bin, filter and motor) all fit inside the long cylinder. At the very bottom, you can attach a variety of heads designed specifically for the PencilVac, including the main one that Dyson is calling a "Fluffycones" cleaner head. 

The company said it has four cones in two brush bars that rotate in opposite directions, and they were designed to "strip and eject even long hair, preventing hair tangling around the brush bar." The laser-like lights at both ends of this head also help illuminate where dust particles might be so you can better see what spots you missed.

Dyson

Altogether, the PencilVac weighs about 3.96 pounds (1.8kg) and is meant to be easy to use in all kinds of hard-to-reach areas. Since it's got the same roughly 1.5-inch (38mm) diameter throughout, you can grip it fairly easily along its body, wherever you choose to place your hands. This should make it easier to pick up for overhead cleaning.

To get the entire PencilVac to look like, well, a pencil, Dyson had to redesign quite a lot of components. This includes the new Hyperdymium 140k motor, which the company says is its "smallest (at 28mm) and fastest vacuum motor. " There's also a new dust compressing system to "maximize the bin capacity." Speaking of, the bin fits inside the cylinder itself, and it has a transparent window that allows you to not only see how full it is but also watch as debris gets sucked up. In fact, at a recent demo, I watched with a mixture of satisfaction and sadness as bits of crushed up Lotus Biscoff cookies flew to the top of the bin. 

Despite its small size, the Hypderdymium 140k motor seemed plenty powerful in my brief time with it, as it sucked up Cheerios, cookies and other detritus with ease. I also found the entire device mostly easy to maneuver — it didn't feel too heavy and coasted over the bumpy food waste with ease. I was slightly confused by the locking system as I had to make sure to hold it precisely straight up (and wait for a click) after I was done to make sure the stick didn't just fall to the ground.

Dyson also designed a new filtration system that the company said "effectively separates dust and debris from the airflow without causing filters to clog or cleaning performance to decline." It also made a new "two-stage linear dust separation system, which captures 99.99 percent of particles down to 0.3 microns so only cleaner air is expelled back into the home." 

More interestingly, the PencilVac has an "air-compressing bin design" that allows the bin to contain "five times more dust and debris than its 0.08L capacity." In the few rounds of cleaning that I witnessed, the PencilVac certainly appeared to be packing in the garbage quite tightly, though whether it can actually hold 0.4L of stuff is something I didn't get to measure.

Dyson

When it comes time to empty the container, you can use what Dyson calls its "new hygienic syringe bin ejection system" to empty it. I didn't try this out myself, but it basically involves removing the cleaner head, aiming the bottom of the PencilVac at your trash receptacle and sort of shucking the transparent housing up and down to get the debris out. I watched a Dyson engineer do this and the process seemed straightforward, though it did look like parts of the housing trapped some crumbs. The good news is, you can detach the shell and filters to more thoroughly clean them.

The PencilVac also has a swappable battery pack that can last up to 60 minutes of suction, and you can charge the machine on its magnetic charging dock. This is also Dyson's first connected cordless vacuum, meaning it works with the MyDyson app so you can see battery levels, access more settings and get maintenance alerts (like when and how to clean the filter). There's also an LCD screen at the top of the handle that shows the selected power mode as well as remaining run time (while you're cleaning). You'll largely interact with the controls via the two physical buttons here, too.

Dyson hasn't shared pricing details on the PencilVac, but there's plenty of time for the company to figure that out, since it's only going to be available in the US next year. That's 2026. Meanwhile, the device will retail in other regions. 

Encrypted messaging platform Signal is rolling out a feature called Screen Security to its Windows app. It's broadly a way to prevent a computer from logging screenshots of your messages when the app is open, but in a blog post, the company directly called out the Recall feature in Windows 11 as the reason for this new capability. 

Signal explained that what it essentially did was to flag its application as protected by Digital Rights Management (DRM), because content under that umbrella will not be recorded in a screenshot on a Windows device. It's the same reason that a movie streaming from Netflix will appear in screenshots as a black box. Screen Security will be on by default, but this setting can be easily disabled for cases where a user does need to be able to access the application, such as when using a screen reader.

"We hope that the AI teams building systems like Recall will think through these implications more carefully in the future," the company said. "Apps like Signal shouldn’t have to implement 'one weird trick' in order to maintain the privacy and integrity of their services without proper developer tools."

The Recall feature in Windows 11 has had a difficult and well-delayed development process. While the AI-powered tool to record everything on a PC's screen has some potential benefits for user productivity, it's also raised a lot of concerns about privacy and security. Although Microsoft has started rolling out Recall to Copilot+ PCs, not everyone is convinced that it's ready for prime time.

The News/Media Alliance took aim at Google today after the tech company's announcement at its I/O showcase that AI Mode will be rolling out to all US search users. This feature more closely integrates an AI chatbot into Google search. Ostensibly, AI Mode can help people get better answers to their queries, but it also serves to keep users on a Google property rather than clicking through to get information from other publications.

"Links were the last redeeming quality of search that gave publishers traffic and revenue. Now Google just takes content by force and uses it with no return, the definition of theft," said News/Media Alliance President and CEO Danielle Coffey. "The DOJ remedies must address this to prevent continued domination of the internet by one company."

This isn't the first time the organization has fired shots at Google; it filed an amicus brief earlier this month looking for remedy in the antitrust case about Google's monopoly control over search. The group argued that publishers should be able to opt out of letting search engines use their content for retrieval augmented generation.

Google has also taken an aggressive stance toward publishers as it develops more AI-driven services. The company's recent attitude can be seen in Bloomberg's discovery of an internal document showing that the company decided not to give publishers a choice to opt out of AI training if they wanted their material to appear in search results.

Update: GeoGuessr will no longer participate in the EWC, GeoGuessr AB said in a statement. Our original story follows:

A group of GeoGuessr map creators have pulled their contributions from the game to protest its participation in the Esports World Cup 2025, calling the tournament "a sportswashing tool used by the government of Saudi Arabia to distract from and conceal its horrific human rights record." The protestors say the blackout will hold until the game's publisher, GeoGuessr AB, cancels its planned Last Chance Wildcard tournament at the EWC in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from July 21 to 27.

GeoGuessr is a browser game where players try to pinpoint locations using only Google Street View images, and it relies on community mapmakers to stay relevant. The blackout, which began on May 21, includes "dozens of creators and their maps, including a supermajority of the most popular competitively relevant world maps," according to a statement the group shared on Reddit. The removed maps have been played tens of millions of times.

One of the largest GeoGuessr communities, Plonk It, has also removed its Map Directory and shared the mapping community's open letter. That statement reads in full as follows:

We've hit up GeoGuessr AB for a comment on the blackout and will update this story as we hear back.

The EWC is a huge, multi-game event owned and operated by the Saudi government and held in the country's capital city. It's an evolution of the Gamers8 tournament and this year marks the second EWC-branded competition; it's due to take place in July and August with a total prize pool of $38 million, split among 24 games. Franchises participating in the 2025 event include Rocket League, Apex Legends, Call of Duty, League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Overwatch, Dota 2, Valorant, Street Fighter 6, EA Sports FC and PUBG.

It's difficult to compete in esports without running into Savvy Games Group, the video game arm of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Alongside hosting the EWC, Savvy has financial stakes in Nexon (10.2 percent ownership), Electronic Arts (9 percent), Embracer Group (8.3 percent), Nintendo (7.5 percent), Capcom (5 percent) and Take-Two Interactive (6.8 percent as of 2023). Savvy also runs ESL FACEIT Group, which contains the Electronic Sports League, a longstanding and significant esports event company. The New York Times reported last year that the Saudi government plans to invest $38 billion in the video game industry by 2030.

Human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have long documented the abuses of the Saudi government. HRW describes Saudi Arabia's human rights record as "abysmal," and specifically calls out the PIF as a reputational whitewashing tool. Saudi authorities have been accused of sportswashing in traditional sports as well, specifically through the country's ownership of LIV Golf and Newcastle United FC.

In February, Riot Games — the operator of League of Legends, Valorant and Teamfight Tactics, and arguably the largest name in esports — signed a three-year deal with the Esports World Cup Foundation for an undisclosed sum. Riot defended the partnership, arguing that the resulting financial boon for players and the esports industry outweighed other concerns.

"We know some of you may not feel great about our decision to partner with the EWC in this way, and we respect that," Riot's statement read.

Though corporate support for the EWC remains strong, the GeoGuessr mapping community isn't alone in rejecting this year's tournament. Street Fighter 6 player Christopher Hancock, who plays as ChrisCCH for FlyQuest, recently declined his spot at EWC 2025. In a social media statement, Hancock said, "I gave this decision a lot of thought and ultimately decided that, due to the nature in which the event is funded and managed, I do not feel comfortable participating in it." He added that the partnership between the Capcom Pro Tour and the EWC effectively forced him to work with the Saudi-backed group.

"Choosing to not participate in any EWC qualifiers would effectively mean retirement from competing," Hancock said. "I find it regrettable that this event has become so deeply embedded in the [fighting game community], but I have not yet made a decision on whether I will stop competing in events associated to it altogether."

Alongside the GeoGuessr map blackout, the community protest added one new, short challenge to the game called How to Run A Dictatorship. It takes players through five locations around Riyadh, documenting the alleged government-sanctioned torture, kidnapping, imprisonment and oppression of women, LGBTQ people, religious minorities and political dissenters occurring in these places. The challenge takes just a few minutes, so feel free to experience it yourself.

Update, May 22, 11:14AM ET: Added a note about GeoGuessr's withdrawal from the EWC with a link to our latest story.

Devices running Android 16 will pick up a new trick when the software update rolls out later this year: The ability to run a desktop-style interface while connected to an external display. An early version of the idea was spotted for phones in betas of Android 16, but as 9to5Google noticed, Google made the feature official during its developer keynote.

According to the presentation, the new windowing and external display feature was created in collaboration with Samsung, "building on the foundation of Samsung DeX, to bring enhanced desktop windowing capabilities in Android 16." Prior to this official support, Samsung DeX was a custom feature Samsung built into One UI that allowed certain Samsung phones and tablets to display a desktop-style interface while connected to a display.

Google's implementation seems to be aiming for the same thing, with resizable windows and a dock for your most used apps. The company also appears open to the feature working on tablets and phones, too. In a blog post touting the advantages of developing adaptive apps, Google says that Android 16 offers "a true desktop-like experience on large screens and when devices are connected to external displays." While Google's language leaves things open-ended, support for this desktop experience could still hinge on phone makers enabling it and app developers making sure their apps play nice with resizable windows.

A developer beta of Android 16 is available to download on select phones and tablets right now. Assuming desktop windowing and support for external displays isn't dropping in a later update, you'll be able to try the new features for yourself when Android 16 launches in June.

Microsoft says Apple's App Store rules are to blame for the continued delay of the Xbox mobile app store it announced last summer. In an amicus brief filed this week first spotted by The Verge, Microsoft expressed support for Epic Games in the company's long-running bout against Apple. The company also expressed concern that Apple could succeed in overturning the injunction that has opened the floodgates for payments outside of apps that circumvent Apple's 30 percent fee.

"Among its other provisions, the order challenged in this appeal would prevent Apple from requiring consumers and app developers (like Microsoft) to use Apple’s in-app payment processing system as the exclusive means for the purchase of digital goods or services for use within iOS apps available for download on the Apple App Store, Microsoft said in the brief. "In part as a response to the district court’s injunction issued over a year ago, Microsoft undertook significant work to prepare new consumer offerings. However, Apple’s evasion of the injunction has hampered Microsoft in delivering these offerings." 

The offering in questions would have allowed Microsoft to direct users of its apps like the Xbox app or games like Candy Crush and Minecraft to "separate platforms for payment." That's exactly what Spotify and Amazon's Kindle app has started doing in recent weeks, letting those companies avoid Apple's standard in-app purchase fees. 

"The district court’s injunction allows Apple to maintain its in-app exclusivity but at least should have enabled Microsoft to offer consumers a workable solution by launching its own online store — accessible via link-out — for in-app items to be purchased off-app and used in games or other apps," the brief reads in part. "And that is what Microsoft wants to do. But even this solution has been stymied by Apple."

Apple filed an appeal against the injunction earlier this month, and just a few days later it asked the Ninth Circuit to halt enforcement of the original ruling while it works through its appeal. Microsoft, for its part, is urging the court to enforce the injunction while the courts handle the appeal. The company points out that Apple itself has said that the policy changes it made in response to the injunction "can be undone," raising concern that without firm enforcement by the courts, Apple could pull the rug at any given moment.

While things are moving quickly, with apps like Fortnite already returning to the App Store in the US, Microsoft remains in a holding pattern awaiting a firm outcome in the case. It seems they want to avoid a situation where the Xbox mobile store is released, only to be taken down should Apple win on appeal.

Update, May 21, 2025, 3:42PM ET: This story has been updated with a link to the amicus brief that Microsoft filed and now includes more details from that filing. 

Sonos' speakers are known for their premium price tags, but if you're looking for a more affordable entry-point to the ecosystem, you can get up to 25 percent off some of the company's portable speakers and speaker bundles for Memorial Day. That includes $113 off the Sonos Move 2, which brings the speaker's price down from $449 to $336.

The Sonos Move 2 was introduced in 2023 as the more expensive follow-up to the original Move, Sonos' first "portable" speaker. You can argue over it's portability — the Move 2 makes more sense as something your carry to your backyard than take on a hike — but the speaker packs a punch and lets you play music over both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. We liked the Sonos Move 2 when we originally reviewed it, but took issue with how expensive it was, so this sale helps make splurging on it more palatable.

If you're looking for something even more portable and affordable, the Sonos Roam 2 is also on sale for $45 off. Like the Move 2, the speaker has the ability to connect to a smartphone over Bluetooth outside while still being able to hook into your larger Sonos sound system over Wi-Fi at home. The Sonos Roam 2 offers some key improvements to the original Roam's design, too, like new colors and easier to understand buttons, while still providing the company's signature sound profile and 10 hours of battery life.

On top of the two speakers, you could also buy a bundle of a speaker and an accessory, like the Sonos Roam 2 and an OtterBox case, or a bundle of multiple speakers. You can get two Roam 2's for $268 or a Sonos Roam 2 and Sonos Move 2 for $479, for example.

Sonos has faced issues in the last year ironing out software problems — the bugs and missing features were so bad the company's CEO stepped down — but the fundamentals of how the company's speakers sound have remained great. With the ship mostly righted on the software side of things, a sale is a great time to see what all of the fuss is about.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

When Google unveiled Android XR last year, it seemed like a clear response to Apple's Vision Pro: It was a plan for a true mixed reality platform that could easily hop between AR, VR and smart glasses like Meta's Ray-Bans. At Google I/O 2025 today, Google announced the second developer preview for Android XR, and it also showed off a bit more about how it could work in headsets and smart glasses. It'll likely be a while before we see Android XR devices in action, though, as Google also revealed Samsung's Project Moohan headset will arrive later this year. Additionally, Xreal is also building Project Aura, a pair of tethered smart glasses powered by the platform.

Update: Google demoed prototype Android XR smart glasses at I/O with live translation, which Engadget's Karissa Bell called "lightweight, but with a limited field of view." Google isn't planning to sell those devices, but it is partnering with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster to provide frames for future smart glasses. 

Basically, there really isn't much to get excited about just yet. It's clear that Google is working hard to catch up with both Apple and Meta, which actually have XR products on the shelves already. Given that Google tends to kill its ambitious projects with a swiftness — just take a look at Google Glass, Cardboard and Daydream, which were all early stabs at AR and VR — it's hard to put much faith in the future of Android XR. Is the availability of much better XR hardware enough to make the platform a success? At this point, it's just too tough to tell.

For now, though, it looks like Google is aiming to deliver all of the features you'd expect with Android XR. Its second developer preview adds the ability to play 180-degree and 360-degree immersive videos, bring hand-tracking into apps and support dynamic refresh rates (which could seriously help battery life). As expected, Google is also making it easier to integrate its Gemini AI into Android XR apps, something the company promised when it first announced the platform last year.

Google

In a series of pre-rendered videos, Google showed off the ideal ways to use Gemini in smart glasses and headsets. If your glasses have a built-in display (something Meta's Ray-Bans don't offer yet), you could see a small Google Map to give you directions, message friends while you're prepping dinner or take a picture while dancing with your partner at sunset (seriously). All I can say is: "Cool demo, bro." Get back to us when this is all working in headsets and glasses we can actually wear.

Update 5/21, 2:45PM ET: This story has been updated with references to Google's XR prototype glasses.

Game Pass members can now play over 50 old-school games for free. Microsoft's Retro Classics is a library of old-school Activision and Blizzard games from the '80s and '90s, like Pitfall! and MechWarrior 2. You can play on Xbox consoles, PCs and supported cloud gaming devices.

Like Nintendo's Switch Online classics, the Game Pass version includes save states. That should come in handy for some of the excruciatingly difficult ones. Although there's no online multiplayer, you can play against friends locally in titles that support it.

Sierra / Microsoft

Retro Classics includes Atari-era games like the pioneering platformer Pitfall! and its sequel Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, the bomb-catching game Kaboom! and the shoot-'em-up River Raid. Fans of early adventure games also have plenty to chew on. There's the groundbreaking text adventure Zork, as well as the Sierra classics Space Quest II and Police Quest. Just remember to connect a keyboard (or play on PC) for the latter three, or you won't get far.

Microsoft says it will expand the collection over time, planning to eventually pass 100 games. GameSpot published a complete list of the 58 titles available at launch.

Retro Classics is available today for all Game Pass tiers. You can find the collection here or by searching for and installing it on your Xbox console or in the Xbox on PC app.

The upcoming Switch 2 launch title Mario Kart World was originally intended for the OG Switch console, according to an interview with the game's developers. This was the goal until the dev team realized that the console couldn't handle it.

"It was difficult for us to incorporate everything we wanted, so we were always conscious of what we were giving up in return,” said programming director Kenta Sato. A big sticking point seemed to be that the original Switch would have had to run the game at 30FPS. Mario Kart games have always run at 60FPS, for obvious reasons. You can't simulate speed without, uh, simulating speed.

Developers pecked away at the "tough situation" until finally deciding to create more DLC for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as a way to bide time as the team figured out what to do.

"As we’d decided to release Mario Kart 8 Deluxe — Booster Course Pass, we thought that would give us a bit more time to continue development," said producer Kosuke Yabuki. "That’s when the conversation of moving it to the Nintendo Switch 2 system came up, and this suddenly opened up a bunch of possibilities on what we could do. It was truly a ray of hope.”

This interview also revealed that the game has been in development since 2017, which is a heck of a long time. However, it makes a certain amount of sense given that the original Mario Kart 8 came out in 2014.

The upcoming racer was always set in an open world and it was never going to be called Mario Kart 9. The developers wanted to "take the series to the next level." The big, connected world seems to do just that.

"I felt that in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, we were able to perfect the formula that we’d been following in the series up to that point, where players race on individual courses," Yabuki continued. "That’s why, this time, we wanted the gameplay to involve players driving around a large world, and we began creating a world map like this.”

I personally think the company made the right call by delaying this game until the Switch 2. Recent first-party Switch titles have experienced massive framerate issues, and there's no way the console could have handled races with 24 participants. In any event, we only have a couple of weeks until we get to play Mario Kart World, if you've successfully reserved the Switch 2 for the June 5 launch.

OpenAI is buying Jony Ive's startup, io, for $6.5 billion, as first reported by The New York Times. The company confirmed the news in a blog post on its website headlined by the photo you see above, which is apparently real and not AI generated. As part of the deal, Ive and his design studio, LoveFrom, will continue to work independently of OpenAI. However, Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey and Tang Tan, who co-founded io with Ive, will become OpenAI employees, alongside about 50 other engineers, designers and researchers. In collaboration with OpenAI's existing teams, they'll work on hardware that allows people to interact with OpenAI's technologies.  

OpenAI has not disclosed whether the deal would be paid for in cash or stock. Per the Wall Street Journal, it's an all-equity deal. Open AI has yet to turn a profit. Moreover, according to reporting from The Information, OpenAI agreed to share 20 percent of its revenue with Microsoft until 2030 in return for the more than $13 billion the tech giant has invested into it. When asked about how it would finance the acquisition, Altman told The Times the press worries about OpenAI's funding and revenue more than the company itself. "We'll be fine," he said. "Thanks for the concern." The deal is still subject to regulatory approval.  

In an interview with The Times, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Ive, best known for his design work on the iPhone, said the goal of the partnership is to create "amazing products that elevate humanity." Before today, Altman was an investor in Humane, the startup behind the failed Humane AI Pin. HP bought the company earlier this year for $116 million, far less than the $1 billion Humane had reportedly sought before the sale.  

"The io team, focused on developing products that inspire, empower and enable, will now merge with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, engineering and product teams in San Francisco," OpenAI writes of the acquisition on its website. "As io merges with OpenAI, Jony and LoveFrom will assume deep design and creative responsibilities across OpenAI and io." 

According to The Times, OpenAI already had a 23 percent stake in io following an agreement the two companies made at the end of 2024. OpenAI is now paying approximately $5 billion to take full control of the startup. Whether this points towards physical OpenAI devices on the horizon, and if so what form they take, remains unclear. The description for the YouTube video you see above says, "Building a family of AI products for everyone." Whatever comes out of the acquisition could take years to hit the market, and some of what Ive and his team do may never see the light of day.  

Sony is opting out of its PlayStation Stars loyalty program. Starting today, you can no longer sign up for the program. If you're a member and cancel your membership, you won't be able to sign up again.

Current members can still earn points and digital collectibles and level up their status until July 23 at 9:59 PM ET. After that, all campaigns and rewards will be kaput. The program will be entirely discontinued on November 2. But if you keep your membership until then, you can still redeem your points after that, provided they haven't expired.

Sony launched PlayStation Stars in 2022. The company's first loyalty program lets you earn points by playing games and making purchases on the PlayStation Store. You can redeem points for items like PSN wallet funds and select store products.

The company will now "refocus" its approach to rewards. (How, we don't know.) "We want to thank all of our players for supporting PlayStation Stars since the launch in 2022," Sony wrote on the PlayStation Blog. "As we explore new ways to evolve our loyalty program efforts for the future, we'll continue to celebrate all of our players through the various community activities we have planned."

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is coming to PS5 this summer, though we don't have a concrete release date just yet. Ninja Theory says it will be optimized for both the standard-issue PS5 and the beefier PS5 Pro.

The company also says it launches alongside a free update that'll be available for all platforms, including PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. We don't know much about this update, but the developer promises "new features." There's a trailer that discusses the update, but is also devoid of any real details.

This is something of a homecoming for the franchise, as Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice was originally released for PS4 back in 2017. Ninja Theory says it's "excited to bring Senua back to where her journey began and for PlayStation players to be able to experience the next chapter in her brutal saga of survival."

For the uninitiated, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 is a brutal and gorgeous game that first hit the Xbox and PC in 2024. It's a third-person adventure set in Iceland during the 10th century. We called it an outstanding "interactive brutality visualizer" in our original review, going on to say it features "an extended, extremely anxious and violent vibe." Good times!

The combat is decent, though not groundbreaking, and the puzzles are just average. The sheer violence, however, is epic. The protagonist Senua screams with each swing of the sword and every fight is close combat. This is for those who revel in simulated physical violence. We'll let you know when we have an actual summer release date for this gem.

Today is one of the most important days on the tech calendar as Google kicked off its I/O developer event with its annual keynote. As ever, the company had many updates for a wide range of products to talk about.

The bulk of the Android news was revealed last week, during a special edition of The Android Show. However, Tuesday's keynote still included a ton of stuff including, of course, a pile of AI-related news. We covered the event in real-time in our live blog, which includes expert commentary (and even some jokes!) from our team.

If you're on the hunt for a breakdown of everything Google announced at the I/O keynote, though, look no further. Here are all the juicy details worth knowing about:

AI Mode chatbot is coming to Search for all US users

Quelle surprise, Google is continuing to shove more generative AI features into its core products. AI Mode, which is what the company is calling a new chatbot, will soon be live in Search for all US users.

AI Mode is in a separate tab and it's designed to handle more complex queries than people have historically used Search for. You might use it to compare different fitness trackers or find the most affordable tickets for an upcoming event. AI Mode will soon be able to whip up custom charts and graphics related to your specific queries too. It can also handle follow-up questions.

The chatbot now runs on Gemini 2.5. Google plans to bring some of its features into the core Search experience by injecting them into AI Overviews. Labs users will be the first to get access to the new features before Google rolls them out more broadly.

Meanwhile, AI Mode is powering some new shopping features. You'll soon be able to upload a single picture of yourself to see what a piece of clothing might look like on a virtual version of you. 

Also, similar to the way in which Google Flights keeps an eye out for price drops, Google will be able to let you know when an item you want (in its specific size and color) is on sale for a price you're willing to pay. It can even complete the purchase on your behalf if you want.

1.5 billion people see AI Overviews each month

AI Overviews, the Gemini-powered summaries that appear at the top of search results and have been buggy to say the least, are seen by more than 1.5 billion folks every month, according to Google. The "overwhelming majority" of people interact with these in a meaningful way, the company said — this could mean clicking on something in an overview or keeping it on their screen for a while (presumably to read through it).

Still, not everyone likes the AI Overviews and would rather just have a list of links to the information they're looking for. You know, like Search used to be. As it happens, there are some easy ways to declutter the results. 

Another look at Google's universal AI assistant

We got our first peek at Project Astra, Google's vision for a universal AI assistant, at I/O last year and the company provided more details this time around. A demo showed Astra carrying out a number of actions to help fix a mountain bike, including diving into your emails to find out the bike's specs, researching information on the web and calling a local shop to ask about a replacement part.

It already feels like a culmination of Google's work in the AI assistant and agent space, though elements of Astra (such as granting it access to Gmail) might feel too intrusive for some. In any case, Google aims to transform Gemini into a universal AI assistant that can handle everyday tasks. The Astra demo is our clearest look yet at what that might look like in action.

NotebookLM mobile app

On the NotebookLM front, Google has released an iOS and Android app for the tool. The company also took the opportunity at I/O to show off what NotebookLM can do. 

Google put together a notebook featuring the I/O keynote video from YouTube as well as associated blog posts, press releases and product demos. You can drill down into all of this information or just ask the AI questions about I/O. Of course, you'll be able to generate audio summaries as well as a mind map to structure all the info that's in the notebook.

Other AI updates

Gemini 2.5 is here with (according to Google) improved functionality, upgraded security and transparency, extra control and better cost efficiency. Gemini 2.5 Pro is bolstered by a new enhanced reasoning mode called Deep Think. The model can do things like turn a grid of photos into a 3D sphere of pictures, then add narration for each image. Gemini 2.5's text-to-speech feature can also change up languages on the fly. There's much more to it than that, of course, and we've got more details in our Gemini 2.5 story. 

You know those smart replies in Gmail that let you quickly respond to an email with an acknowledgement? Google is now going to offer personalized versions of those so that they better match your writing style. For this to work, Gemini looks at your emails and Drive documents. Gemini will need your permission before it plunders your personal information. Subscribers will be able to use this feature in Gmail starting this summer.

Google Meet is getting a real-time translation option, which should come in very useful for some folks. A demo showed Meet being able to match the speaker's tone and cadence while translating from Spanish to English. 

Subscribers on the Google AI Pro and Ultra (more on that momentarily) plans will be able to try out real-time translations between Spanish and English in beta starting this week. This feature will soon be available for other languages.

Google

Gemini Live, a tool Google brought to Pixel phones last month, is coming to all compatible Android and iOS devices in the Gemini app (which already has more than 400 million monthly active users). This allows you to ask Gemini questions about screenshots, as well as live video that your phone's camera is capturing. Google is rolling out Gemini Live to the Gemini iOS and Android app starting today.

Google Search Live is a similar-sounding feature. You'll be able to have a "conversation" with Search about what your phone's camera can see. This will be accessible through Google Lens and AI Mode.

A new filmmaking app called Flow, which builds on VideoFX, includes features such as camera movement and perspective controls; options to edit and extend existing shots; and a way to fold AI video content generated with Google's Veo model into projects. Flow is available to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the US starting today. Google will expand availability to other markets soon.

Speaking of Veo, that's getting an update. The latest version, Veo 3, is the first iteration that can generate videos with sound (it probably can't add any soul or actual meaning to the footage, though). The company also suggests that its Imagen 4 model is better at generating photorealistic images and handling fine details like fabrics and fur than earlier versions.

Handily, Google has a tool it designed to help you determine if a piece of content was generated using its AI tools. It's called SynthID Detector — naturally, it's named after the tool that applies digital watermarks to AI-generated material. 

According to Google, SynthID Detector can scan an image, piece of audio, video or text for the SynthID watermark and let you know which parts are likely to have a watermark. Early testers will be able to to try this out starting today. Google has opened up a waitlist for researchers and media professionals. (Gen AI companies should offer educators a version of this tech ASAP.)

The new AI Ultra plan costs $250 per month

Google

To get access to all of its AI features, Google wants you to pay 250 American dollars every month for its new AI Ultra plan. There's really no other way to react to this other than "LOL. LMAO." I rarely use either of those acronyms, which highlights just how absurd this is. What are we even doing here? That's obscenely expensive. 

Anyway, this plan includes early access to the company's latest tools and unlimited use of features that are costly for Google to run, such as Deep Research. It comes with 30TB of storage across Google Photos, Drive and Gmail. You'll get YouTube Premium as well — arguably the Google product that's most worth paying for.

Google is offering new subscribers 50 percent off an AI Ultra subscription for the first three months. Woohoo. In addition, the AI Premium plan is now known as Google AI Pro.

A second Android XR device has been announced

As promised during last week's edition of The Android Show, Google offered another look at Android XR. This is the platform that the company is working on in the hope of doing for augmented reality, mixed reality and virtual reality what Android did for smartphones. After the company's previous efforts in those spaces, it's now playing catchup to the likes of Meta and Apple.

The initial Android XR demo at I/O didn't offer much to get too excited about for now. It showed off features like a mini Google Map that you can access on a built-in display and a way to view 360-degree immersive videos. We're still waiting for actual hardware that can run this stuff.

Xreal

As it happens, Google revealed the second Android XR device. Xreal is working on Project Aura, a pair of tethered smart glasses. We'll have to wait a bit longer for more details on Google's own Android XR headset, which it's collaborating with Samsung on. That's slated to arrive later this year.

A second demo of Android XR was much more interesting. Google showed off a live translation feature for Android XR with a smart glasses prototype that the company built with Samsung. That seems genuinely useful, as do many of the accessibility-minded applications of AI. Gentle Monster and Warby Parker are making smart glasses with Android XR too. Just don't call it Google Glass (or do, I'm not your dad).

Chrome's password manager is getting an upgrade

Google is giving the Chrome password manager a very useful weapon against hackers. It will be able to automatically change passwords on accounts that have been compromised in data breaches. So if a website, app or company is infiltrated, user data is leaked and Google detects the breach, the password manager will let you generate a new password and update a compatible account with a single click.

The main sticking point here is that it only works with websites that are participating in the program. Google's working with developers to add support for this feature. Still, making it easier for people to lock down their accounts is a definite plus. (And you should absolutely be using a password manager if you aren't already.)

On the subject of Chrome, Google is stuffing Gemini into the browser as well. The AI assistant will be able to answer questions about the tabs you have open. You'll be able to access it from the taskbar and a new menu at the top of the browser window.

Beam is the new name of Google's 3D video conferencing booths

It's been a few years since we first heard about Project Starline, a 3D video conferencing project. We tried this tech out at I/O 2023 and found it to be an enjoyable experience.

Now, Google is starting to sell this tech, but only to enterprise customers (i.e. big companies) for now. It's got a new name for all of this too: Google Beam. And it's probably not going to be cheap. HP will reveal more details in a few weeks.

You've got to hand it to the Tamagotchi team for continuing to find new ways to spin a toy that is now pushing 30 years old. We've seen a Tamagotchi with a built-in camera, a Tamagotchi watch with a touchscreen so you can pet your virtual pet and another one with its own Tamaverse. Sometimes these experiments don't work out as well as we'd like them to — the flat buttons introduced with Tamagotchi Pix were kind of terrible in practice — but they keep the franchise feeling alive. And alive seems like the best way to describe the newest member of the Tamagotchi family. Tamagotchi Paradise looks like it's absolutely bustling with life.

Bandai first teased the upcoming Tamagotchi Paradise in a comic for Free Comic Book Day at the beginning of May, but it's now official: we're getting a Tamagotchi that's equipped with a zoom dial feature to observe the critters up close (like, even down to the cellular level) and from afar. It'll bring back gene-mixing, too, meaning you'll be able to create unique characters through breeding. Tamagotchi Paradise will also be able to physically connect to other devices with a docking port on the top of the egg.

There is a lot of information to unpack in the Tamagotchi Paradise announcement. For one, instead of starting off by hatching a Tamagotchi character from an egg, players will hatch an entire planet in an Egg Bang (get it?) event. You'll be able to view the planet from space, and zoom in to observe what's going on down at the surface. Your mission is to "enrich your planet and make its Tamagotchi population flourish." The device will come in three shell designs — Pink Land, Blue Water and Purple Sky — and whichever shell you have will determine which location you start in. It appears that you'll be able to unlock all three areas eventually no matter what device you have.

Bandai

As always, you'll have to raise Tamagotchi characters from babies to adults and do all the usual caretaking tasks, like feeding them and cleaning up poop. But for once, you'll be able to put all that poop to good use by turning it into biofuel for space travel. When a Tamagotchi gets sick, you'll use the dial to "zoom in and treat them at the cellular level." There are a total of 25 different care menus according to Bandai, including shops and mini-games.

Tamagotchi Paradise introduces a ton of new, more animal-like characters than we've been seeing in recent years, and they're really cute. (Don't worry, Mametchi, Mimitchi and a few other existing favorites will still be there too). There are also three secret characters that haven't yet been revealed. 

Bandai

It looks like it's packed with activities, which would be really nice coming off of the Tamagotchi Uni, a device I've loved in the two years since it was released but still can't help but feel like it's a bit boring compared to others. Tamagotchi Paradise goes back to AAA batteries, which should be good for longevity. And it'll be cheaper than other recent flagship Tamagotchis, at $45. Pre-orders haven't opened in the US just yet, but the device will ship on July 12 according to the Japanese Amazon listing. The wait might actually kill me.

Once Tamagotchi Paradise arrives, there will be pop-up Tamagotchi Labs in some as yet unannounced stores where you'll be able to connect your device to access exclusive items and experiences. Tamagotchi Uni owners will be able to get a taste of all this ahead of the release as well if they buy the Tamagotchi Lab Tamaverse ticket, which comes out on July 3.

Coinbase has been betrayed from within. The cryptocurrency exchange said that cyber criminals bribed some of its support agents to share personal information about Coinbase customers. Attackers acquired data such as names, addresses, emails, phone numbers, images of government IDs, masked bank account numbers and masked sections of social security numbers. The perpetrators tricked some Coinbase users into sending them money and also demanded $20 million from the company to not publicly disclose the ill-gotten information.

Coinbase has not paid the ransom and is cooperating with law enforcement to press charges. In the blog post, the company said it would offer a $20 million reward for information that could lead to arresting and convicting the remaining attackers.

A Maine Attorney General filing (via TechCrunch) says the breach affected 69,461 customers. The hack began on December 26, 2024, and ran until May 11.

Coinbase said that users' login credentials, two-factor authentication codes and private keys are still secure. It will reimburse customers who sent funds to the extortionists and will place additional safeguards on vulnerable accounts. According to an SEC filing, the incident is projected to cost Coinbase $180 million to $400 million.

Update, May 21, 2025, 11:23 PM ET: This story has been updated with new info from the Maine Attorney General filing.

The best smartwatch you can get your hands on right now is the Apple Watch Series 10 (at least if you're an iPhone user). The wearable is on sale at the minute, making it a more enticing proposition. The Apple Watch Series 10 can be yours for $299. That marks a discount of $100 and is a record-low price.

This price is for a GPS version (meaning it doesn't support LTE) with the smaller 42mm case. At the time of writing, the $299 price applies to two color variants: a jet black aluminium case with black sport band and a rose gold aluminium case with light blush sport band. Discounts vary on other configurations.

The Apple Watch Series 10 is an iterative upgrade. If you already have a Series 8 or 9, it's perhaps not worth switching to the latest model. However, if you're rocking an older Apple Watch or you're looking to pick up your first one, this is our recommendation. We gave the Apple Watch Series 10 a score of 90 in our review.

The Series 10 is a little thinner and lighter than the previous model, but it has a larger OLED screen, which makes it easier to see what's on the display. Apple has improved the efficiency of the battery life as well, and it should often last longer on a single charge than the 18 hours for which it's rated.

The new sleep apnea feature is very welcome, but the blood oxygen feature from older models is not available here (Apple removed that app from certain models in the US due to a patent dispute). In general, though, the Series 10 is a solid step forward for the Apple Watch. The latest model is a terrific fitness tracker that helps you keep an eye on the most important alerts and notifications you receive on your iPhone.

Check out our coverage of the best Apple deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This is a big month for Xbox Game Pass, as there are some real standout titles hitting the service. Upcoming games include the sublime Metaphor ReFantazio, Tales of Kenzera: Zau and The Division 2, among others.

Let's get to the games. You likely heard a whole lot about Metaphor ReFantazio last year. The JRPG was a bona-fide phenomenon, and it actually grabbed a nomination for game of the year. It also easily made our list of the best games of 2024. It's developed by Atlus and the game improves on the formula behind the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei franchises in nearly every way.

The characters are great. The dungeons aren't procedurally generated. The world feels alive, with quests and objectives in nearly every nook and cranny. The story is perhaps the biggest reason why the game became such a sensation. It's grounded and feels like it was plucked from today's news, despite being set in a fantasy-laden kingdom. It'll be playable on May 29.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a Metroidvania platformer that wears its heart on its sleeve. The story is extremely emotional and engaging, particularly for this genre. The graphics are lovely and the gameplay is fluid, with plenty of nifty upgrades as you advance. What's not to like? The game arrives on May 22.

Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 is something of a hybrid, with plenty of both tactical shooter and RPG mechanics. The game is set in an open world version of Washington DC, which is a pretty cool location. It's online-only, so there's a deep emphasis on multiplayer. It can be played solo, but you have to be connected to the game's servers. It'll be available on May 27.

Other forthcoming games include Spray Paint Simulator (May 29) and Stalker 2 (May 22.) The deckbuilding roguelike Monster Train 2 is available right now.

If you’ve been shocked by how much you spend on streaming services lately, you’re not alone. Companies like Netflix, Disney, Max and others have been consistently raising prices to the point where you may question if streaming is even worth it anymore. We at Engadget still think it is, but we also think you should be smart with your money — and that’s where streaming deals come in.

Yes, it is possible to get discounts on services like Peacock and Paramount+, even if those deals aren’t as common as a sale on AirPods. If you’re looking to save money and still stream all of the content you want, Engadget can help by laying out the best streaming deals you can get right now, how you can save with bundles and everything you should know before paying for yet another streaming service.

Best streaming deals

True streaming deals can be hard to come by. Most often, they’ll pop up during the Black Friday shopping period. On occasion, we’ll see them sparingly throughout the year and they usually take the form of a discounted monthly or annual rate for a limited period of time. Also, true streaming deals are typically on the ad-supported versions of a service, but once in a while you’ll find a unicorn of a deal on a tier that has ad-free viewing.

If you’re able to wait for a deal before subscribing to a streaming service, we recommend doing so. You’ll save money upfront and in the long run, and you also have the option to cancel your subscription before the price goes back up to the normal rate. Maybe you find you like the service so much that you’re fine paying full price for it — that’s the ideal situation. But if you’re not compelled to keep that app on rotation in your smart TV, most streaming services make it easy for you to cancel at any time. With that said, these are the best streaming deals you can snag right now.

Spotify Premium Individual (one month) for $0 ($12 off): This is our favorite music streaming service for podcasts and social features. Right now, users who have not signed up for Spotify's Premium service before are eligible to get one month for free. The Premium Individual plan lets you listen ad-free and skip songs at will. You can also organize your listening queue and download content for offline listening. Just be aware, your subscription will auto-renew at the end of the trial period. So if you don't want to be on the hook for the $12 monthly fee, set a reminder to cancel and go back to the free version.

Starz (six months) for $18 ($28 off): Starz's latest offer gives you six months of access for only $18, which shakes out to just $3 per month. This represents a 66-percent discount off the standard annual plan. This gives you access to all Starz content, including originals like Power Book III: Raising Kanan and movies like Fast X. If you'd prefer less of a commitment, you can get three months of access for only $15.

YouTube TV (two months) for $120 ($46 off): You can get two months of our favorite live TV streaming service for $60 per month which works out to $46 less than paying the full $83 each month. And right now, the service is free for the first 21 days. That should give you a decent chunk of time to see if the service is right for you. The discount and trial are only open to new subscribers to YouTube TV’s base plan, which includes access to over 100 channels, unlimited DVR space and six household accounts with the ability to stream on three devices at once. The deal ends July 31.

Sling Orange for $23/month for the first month (50 percent off): New customers can get Sling Orange or Sling Blue for half off the usual price for the first month, bringing the final prices to $23/month and $25.50/month, respectively. Orange is likely best for sports fans, with eight exclusive sports and family channels, while Blue includes 19 exclusive news and entertainment channels. You can get both Orange and Blue access also for half off for one month, or $33 total.

Fubo Pro for $65/month for the first month ($20 off): Fubo has introductory discounts on most of its packages, and the Pro package is the least expensive plan currently listed. It offers access to 224 channels, unlimited cloud DVR and up to 10 simultaneous streams. It even includes regional sports content from the NHL, MLB and NBA.

Sling TV + MLB.TV for $30 off: New subscribers can get $30 off their first month of Sling TV when they sign up and add MLB.TV to their package. The offer applies to Sling Orange, Sling Blue and Sling Orange & Blue, and MLB.TV gives you access to MLB Network along with access to all out-of-market games during the regular season. This offer runs through May 31.

NBA League Pass student discount — one year for $120 (40 percent off): Students can get one year of League Pass for only $10 per month, which includes access to NBA TV and the ability to watch classic and archive games on-demand. On the NBA League Pass website, look for the student discount banner at the top and follow the instructions to verify your student status.

Max student discount — subscribe for $5/month (50 percent off): Max offers their ad-supported tier to students for half off the usual rate. You’ll just have to verify that you’re a student through Unidays, and make note that this offer is only good for up to 12 months of service.

Hulu student discount — subscribe for $2/month (75 percent off): Those with a valid student ID can get Hulu’s ad-supported tier for 75 percent off the typical rate. They’ll keep the same sale price for as long as they’re a student as well.

Spotify student discount — Premium + Hulu with ads for $6/month (72 percent off): Spotify’s student offer continues to be one of the best around, giving you access to the Premium tier of the music streamer and Hulu’s ad-supported plan for only $6 monthly. Purchased separately, you’d pay $22 per month for both of the services. Plus, the first month is free when you sign up.

Peacock first responders discount — one year for $48 (50 percent off): Medical professionals and first responders can save 50 percent each year of Peacock. The deal requires annual verification and is open to those who work for either private or public institutions. Peacock has some great stuff to watch, including Poker Face and Killing It and more.

Streaming bundle discounts

There’s more consolidation happening now than ever before in the streaming space, and that means there are more streaming bundle options. These bundles offer you access to more content with one subscription price, but those prices are typically higher than paying for a single service by itself (obviously). It may be tempting to just get the bundle, but if only one of those services in the bundle speaks to you, you’ll spend less overall by just paying for the single service.

Speaking of a deep love for a single streaming service: if all of your favorite shows are on Peacock or the latest releases on Max consistently bring you joy, consider paying for one year upfront. Subscribing with an annual plan usually saves you money in the long term over paying on a monthly basis. Unfortunately, not all streaming services (looking at you, Netflix) have an annual subscription option. Here are some of the best streaming bundles you can get right now.

Disney+, Hulu, Max bundle with ads for $17/month: Ad-supported Max is included here, along with full, ad-supported access to Disney+ and Hulu. You’ll save 43 percent with this bundle, as opposed to paying for all three services individually.

Paramount+ with Showtime for $13/month or $120/year: This includes everything in Paramount+’s Essential plan, except the ads, and also provides access to Showtime content, live CBS streams and download features.

Sling TV + Max starting at $53/month: Sling TV and Max have partnered on a discount that gives new subscribers 50 percent off their first month of Sling TV, plus $5 off monthly when you subscribe to the Sling TV + Max bundle. The standard price for the Sling Blue + Max duo is roughly $58/month, so you'll get a monthly discount of $5 off that. In addition, for the first month only, you'll get half off the price of the bundle. The promotion also applies to the Sling Orange & Blue + Max package, which has a standard price of $73/month.

Hulu + Live TV with Disney+ and ESPN+ for $96/month: This streaming bundle amalgamation is a bit confusing but it does offer a lot: you get live TV streaming via Hulu’s service plus access to the following VOD services: Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+. Out of those three, only ESPN+ will have ads.

Disney+ and Hulu Bundle Premium for $20/month: Disney and Hulu offer a few different bundles, which you can view in the drop-down lists under Choose Your Plan. This bundle removes the ads from both Disney+ and Hulu (with the exception of select live and linear content) and allows you to download content for offline viewing. You’ll save 42 percent with this bundle, as opposed to paying for both ad-free tiers individually.

Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ Bundle Basic for $17/month: You get full access to Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ content with this package, albeit with ads across the board. This bundle price is 46 percent off the total price of all three separate subscriptions.

Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ Bundle Premium for $27/month: Similarly to the Duo bundles, the Premium version of the Trio removes ads from most content in Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, and you can download content for offline viewing. This price represents a 43-percent savings when compared to paying for all three ad-free tiers separately.

Read more streaming coverage

• The best live TV streaming services to cut cable

• The best streaming services: Netflix, Hulu, Max and more

• The best streaming devices

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Oura has rolled out activity updates for Gen3 and Ring 4 users, including a new trend view for active minutes so that they can get a better look at how active they are for the day, the week or even the whole month. They'll also be able to add their max heart rate to the activity setting, and Oura will adjust heart rate zones accordingly. Oura now allows users to add or edit activities for the past seven days manually, instead of just for that particular day, and it now displays heart rate data from activities imported from partner integrations via Apple HealthKit and Health Connect by Android. Its Automatic Activity Detection feature has also been updated to work all hours to track movements, even for activities between midnight and 4AM. 

In addition to those new features, Oura has upgraded its system to be able to count steps more accurately. The company uses an advanced machine-learning model to determine whether a movement is an actual step, and it says the technology slashes average daily step count error by 61 percent. It has upgraded its Active Calorie burn feature to be more accurate by taking heart rate into account during exercise, as well. Oura can now also use your phone's GPS data to show your runs and walks in more detail within its app. All these updates are now available on iOS, but the new fitness metrics and new trend view for active minutes won't be out on Android until June. 

Aside from announcing its upgraded features, Oura has revealed its new partnerships with third-party entities. Users can now link their smart ring with CorePower Yoga so that they can track their yoga activities, Sculpt Society, Technogym and Open, which uses a person's biometrics to create personalized recovery rituals for them. 

Update, May 21, 2025, 10:50AM ET: This story has been updated to clarify that the updates are available for Gen3 and Ring 4 users with Oura Membership. 

On paper, the idea of a PC gaming tablet doesn't really make sense. Anything with a screen larger than eight to ten inches is generally too big to hold for longer sessions. Their thin chassis don't leave much room for big batteries, ports or discrete graphics. But with the second-gen ROG Flow Z13, ASUS is turning that line of thought on its head with a surprisingly powerful system that can do more than just game — as long as you don't mind paying a premium for some niche engineering.

Design and display: Not exactly stealthy

For better or worse, the Z Flow 13 looks like someone tweaked a Surface Pro to accommodate the stereotypical gamer aesthetic. It has cyberpunky graphics littered across its body along with a small window in the back that’s complete with RGB lighting.

Unlike a lot of tablets, ASUS gave the Z13 a thicker-than-normal body (0.6 inches), which left space for a surprising number of ports. Not only do you get two USB 4 Type-C ports, there's also a regular USB-A jack, full-size HDMI 2.1, 3.5mm audio and even a microSD card reader. This instantly elevates the tablet from something strictly meant for playing games into something that can also pull double duty as a portable video editing station.

ASUS' 13.4-inch 2.5 IPS display leans into that even more thanks to a 180Hz refresh rate, strong brightness (around 500 nits) and Pantone validation. Regardless of what you're doing, colors will be both rich and accurate. Rounding out the package are some punchy speakers, so you don't have to suffer from subpar sound. But there are limitations here, as deep bass is always tough to produce on smaller systems like this.

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

Finally, there are some pogo pins along the bottom of its display for connecting its folding keyboard. Sadly, this is one of the system's weak points. Because the Z13 is heavier than a typical tablet PC, its keyboard has to carry a hefty load. On a table, it's fine. But if you try to use this thing on your lap (or any uneven surface), I found that the keyboard can flex so much it can result in accidental mouse clicks. It's a shame because the bounce and travel of the keys generally feels pretty good. Nothing is more of a bummer than playing a game while relaxing on the couch and then having to fight with the tablet to avoid errant clicks.

Performance

Instead of relying on discrete graphics, ASUS opted for AMD's Ryzen AI Max 390 or Max+ 395 APUs, which feature up to 32 cores and a whopping 128GB of unified RAM. However, our review unit came with a more modest, but still ample, 32GB. Unsurprisingly, this makes mincemeat out of basic productivity tasks while having more than enough power to quickly edit videos on the go.

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

But without a proper graphics card, can it actually game? Yes, and rather well, I might add. In Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p and Ultra settings, the Z13 hit an impressive 93 fps. And while numbers weren't quite as high in Control at 1080p on Epic presets, 70 fps is still very playable. The one wrinkle is that when I tested Cyberpunk 2077 a second time on Ultra with ray tracing enabled, the Flow's performance was cut in half to just 45 fps. Unless you're playing a brand new AAA title that requires RT support (of which there are a growing number), the Z13 is a shockingly good portable gaming companion for frequent travelers.

You just have to be careful about how you configure its power settings. That's because if you're out in public or a quiet room, high performance (especially turbo) can result in a fair bit of fan noise, which may draw some unwanted attention. Or in my case, it got much harder to talk to someone sitting next to me on the couch.

Battery life

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

When it comes to longevity, you'll get one of two outcomes. In normal use and on PCMark's Modern Office productivity battery life test, the Z13 fared quite well, finishing with a time of six hours and 54 minutes. That's not quite a full day's worth of work untethered, but it's good enough for most folks. You'll just want to keep its chunky power adapter nearby.

However, if you plan on gaming without plugging this thing into the wall, just be prepared for the Z13 to conk out after two hours at best. When I played League of Legends' Teamfight Tactics, I only made it through two games (about 30 to 40 minutes each) before its battery got dangerously low (around 10 percent). And suffice it to say, TFT isn't a very demanding title.

Wrap-up

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

The Flow Z13 is a niche device that's more of an all-rounder than it might seem at first glance. This system fills an interesting gap between ASUS' gaming machines and more creatively-focused PCs from its ProArt family. In a lot of ways, slapping an ROG badge on it doesn't really do this thing justice. It's got more than enough performance to breeze through general productivity or video edits, and its built-in microSD card reader makes transferring footage to the tablet a breeze. Its screen is bright and vibrant, while also offering accurate colors and a decently high refresh rate. And even without a discrete GPU, the Z13 didn't have much trouble rendering games with lots of graphical bells and whistles turned on.

However, this tablet's issues boil down to a couple of major sticking points. Its detachable keyboard is simply too flimsy, to the point where if you use it anywhere besides a table or desk, you risk fighting with it just to ensure your mouse clicks are correct. But the bigger hurdle is price. Starting at $2,100 (or around $2,300 as tested), the Flow Z13 costs the same or more as a comparable ROG Zephyrus G14 with a proper RTX 5070. Not only does it have worse performance, it's less stable too due to its tablet-style design. For people trying to get the most value out of their money, that proposition is a hard sell.

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

Deep down, I want to like the ROG Flow Z13. And I do, to a certain extent. It's got a funky build and unapologetically aggressive styling. But unless you have a very particular set of requirements, it doesn't fit neatly into most people's lives as an equivalent laptop. And that's before you consider how much it costs.

Memorial Day brings the unofficial start of summer in addition to tons of deals across the internet. It's a decent time to shop for tech, believe it or not, from big purchases like laptops and tablets down to more affordable devices like tech accessories.

In the latter category, you'll find the Apple Magic Mouse with a USB-C port down to $68 for Memorial Day. That's a 14-percent discount and only $5 more than its record-low price. Notably, this deal is only for the white model with a USB-C port.

The Apple Magic Mouse is a solid wireless and rechargeable option to go with any of your Macs. It should pair automatically with the computer. Plus, one charge should last about a month and you can recharge it with an included woven USB-C Charge Cable. 

In addition to the Magic Mouse, there are a handful of other Apple accessories on sale for Memorial Day. Key among them are the Apple Pencil Pro for $99 and a four-pack of AirTags for $75.

Check out our coverage of the best Apple deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

Google used news from its I/O developer conference this year to show what NotebookLM can do. The AI-powered research and note-taking tool has been around for years, but the company has infused it with more and more features as its AI tech improved. To demonstrate those features, Google created a notebook filled with news from I/O 2025, including a YouTube video of the keynote (complete with a transcript of the whole event), press releases, blog posts and even product demonstrations. You can visit all of those one by one, since the company uploaded them as sources to the notebook, but you can also use the AI tool to digest all the information for you. 

You can ask NotebookLM anything you want about the event in the chat box, so that you can quickly find details for whatever it is you want to know. When I asked it what is NotebookLM, for instance, it gave me a response that aligned with what was announced during the event. "According to Google's announcements at I/O," the tool responded, "...NotebookLM becomes an 'expert' by grounding its responses in the provided material and offering creative ways to transform information."  

Under the Studio section of its interface, you'll be able to generate audio overviews that can give you a quick or a more comprehensive spoken summary of the information you've uploaded. You can also create a Mind Map, which visually summarizes uploaded sources, showing one main topic branching towards several smaller topics and relevant ideas. Mind Maps are meant to structure information in a way that's easier to understand and remember. Google added a reminder to its announcement, however, that "like all AI, NotebookLM can generate inaccuracies," which is something to keep in mind while using the tool.

Google has released an official app for the tool in time for I/O 2025, which you can now download on Android or iOS. To see the company's I/O 2025 notebook, you'll have to be signed into a Google account. 

Before augmented reality was ever a thing, there was Google Glass: a much hyped experiment that was ultimately a failure over issues like privacy (and just looking like a dork). At an I/O session yesterday with Deepmind CEO Demis Hassabis, Google co-founder Sergey Brin admitted that he made "mistakes" with Google Glass in several areas.

"I just didn't know anything about consumer electronic supply chain chains, really, and how hard it would be to build that and have it it at a reasonable price point and managing all the manufacturing and so forth," he said during the session.

Brin said that he's still a believer in the form factor, though, adding that Xreal's latest device looks like "normal glasses" without "that thing in front." He noted that rather than going it alone as before, Google now has "great partners" in Samsung (the Project Moohan headset) and Xreal (Project Aura glasses) as part of the Android XR extended reality program. 

There was also a "technology gap" when Google Glass came along in 2013 that no longer exists, according to Brin. "Now in the AI world, the things that these glasses can do to help you out without constantly distracting you, that capability is much higher," he said

Google Glass wasn't a complete flop. It's easy to forget that the product soldiered on for many years after its debut, largely as an enterprise device, and was only fully discontinued in 2023. It also paved a path for future VR and AR wearables like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro. Come to think of it, though, none of those projects have exactly set the world on fire, either.