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As Big Tech pours countless dollars and resources into AI, preaching the gospel of its utopia-creating brilliance, here's a reminder that algorithms can screw up. Big time. The latest evidence: You can trick Google's AI Overview (the automated answers at the top of your search queries) into explaining fictional, nonsensical idioms as if they were real.

According to Google's AI Overview (via @gregjenner on Bluesky), "You can't lick a badger twice" means you can't trick or deceive someone a second time after they've been tricked once.

That sounds like a logical attempt to explain the idiom — if only it weren't poppycock. Google's Gemini-powered failure came in assuming the question referred to an established phrase rather than absurd mumbo jumbo designed to trick it. In other words, AI hallucinations are still alive and well.

Google / Engadget

We plugged some silliness into it ourselves and found similar results.

Google's answer claimed that "You can't golf without a fish" is a riddle or play on words, suggesting you can't play golf without the necessary equipment, specifically, a golf ball. Amusingly, the AI Overview added the clause that the golf ball "might be seen as a 'fish' due to its shape." Hmm.

Then there's the age-old saying, "You can't open a peanut butter jar with two left feet." According to the AI Overview, this means you can't do something requiring skill or dexterity. Again, a noble stab at an assigned task without stepping back to fact-check the content's existence.

There's more. "You can't marry pizza" is a playful way of expressing the concept of marriage as a commitment between two people, not a food item. (Naturally.) "Rope won't pull a dead fish" means that something can't be achieved through force or effort alone; it requires a willingness to cooperate or a natural progression. (Of course!) "Eat the biggest chalupa first" is a playful way of suggesting that when facing a large challenge or a plentiful meal, you should first start with the most substantial part or item. (Sage advice.)

Google / Engadget

This is hardly the first example of AI hallucinations that, if not fact-checked by the user, could lead to misinformation or real-life consequences. Just ask the ChatGPT lawyers, Steven Schwartz and Peter LoDuca, who were fined $5,000 in 2023 for using ChatGPT to research a brief in a client's litigation. The AI chatbot generated nonexistent cases cited by the pair that the other side's attorneys (quite understandably) couldn't locate.

The pair's response to the judge's discipline? "We made a good faith mistake in failing to believe that a piece of technology could be making up cases out of whole cloth."This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/you-can-trick-googles-ai-overviews-into-explaining-made-up-idioms-162816472.html?src=rss

Zeekr and MG showcased new models at the Shanghai Motor ShowThe MG Cyber X brings back pop-up headlightsZeekr’s 9X is gunning for Bentley and Rolls-Royce with opulent styling

Both MG and Zeekr have joined a plethora of Chinese brands in showcasing exciting new models at this year’s Shanghai Motor Show.Sitting at the more affordable end of the spectrum, MG unveiled the second in its fashion-forward ‘Cyber’ themed series, which includes the ground-breaking two seater Cyberster sports car.While much of the current global MG range is stylish but a little restrained, the Cyber X is a full-on design showcase, boasting boxy proportions, a high-riding road presence and cool pop-up headlights that retract when the ignition is turned off.Sporting a stealthy smoked black paint job, it is the work of ex-VW and Bugatti Veyron designer Jozef Kaban, who joined MG early last year to bring some design spice to the brand.Speaking to Autocar, he said that the point of the Cyber X was to show how diverse the company is.

(Image credit: Zeekr)

Just around the corner from MG’s stand, Zeekr showcased its first every hybrid model in the gargantuan 9X – a car that the company hopes can legitimately take on the Rolls-Royce Cullinan and Bentley Bentayga in the ultra-luxury SUV space.But unlike the Rolls-Royce Cullinan, which costs well in excess of $400,000 (or £300,000 / AU$625,000) the 9X is slated to start at around $70,000 (about £53,000 / AU$110,000) and offer plenty in terms of intentions plushness and technology.There’s a 43-inch cinema screen in the rear, allowing passengers to recline in plush surroundings, while Zeekr says it will be the first model to sport its G-Pilot autonomous driving technology.According to the marque, its extensive camera, sensor and Lidar suite is good for true Level 3 autonomy – allowing drivers to take hands off the wheel and eyes off the road where legal to do so.

China refines its luxury tastes

(Image credit: SAIC Design)

Recent reports have suggested that the demand for premium Western brands is cooling in China, as the domestic market looks more towards its own start-ups for the latest and most innovative electric vehicle technology.Sales of Porsche and Ferrari vehicles have dipped in recent years, while even the luxury watch, wines and spirits markets have seen an overall decrease in sales numbers, according to Finews.This could be down to several factors, but Jing Daily, which covers China’s luxury market, claims that there has been a general societal shift away from showy signs of wealth, while younger buyers expect a much higher level of digital engagement in their products.It is the reason that Audi has launched its own China-only brand in the confusingly-badged AUDI and Mercedes-Benz is showcasing its futuristic Vision V MPV concept at the Shanghai Motor show this year – not only is China producing some of the most advanced EVs on the planet, it is also exclusively receiving some of the newest and most innovative models from western brands.But both Zeekr and MG sell far beyond their domestic markets, with the pair rapidly finding an audience in Europe and beyond. While it is unlikely the rest of the world will get to see the mammoth 9X on the roads any time soon, the MG Cyber X is highly likely to spawn a global production variant.The Cyberster did a great job of establishing the brand as something more than just a budget offering, but the Cyber X could well be a volume seller that proves MG can also do desirable design.

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The latest Google Messages beta hides a working version of group chat mutingThe feature requires some effort to get working, but seems likely to be launching soonThere's no word on a release date yet

Earlier this month we reported on rumors that suggested Google Messages would be getting a snooze feature so you can temporarily turn off group chat notifications, and now it looks even more likely that this feature is on the way.That’s according to a new Android Authority teardown of the latest Google Messages build, in which the AA team actually managed to get the tool to work – suggesting it’s very close to release.The snooze feature will see a new button added to the toolbar (which appears at the top of the screen when you long-press on a chat).Choosing snooze will cause a second menu to appear, where you can choose to mute a group chain for one hour, eight hours, 24 hours, or 'always'. The menu also reveals that “other members will not see that you snoozed this chat.”

(Image credit: Google)

You can also tweak your snooze options within user profiles, with this option giving you the ability to fine-tune notifications – such as muting everything except direct @ mentions in the chat.

A group chat essential

Muting can be an invaluable group chat function. Sometimes you just need to focus on something for a few hours and don’t want your phone to be bombarded with notifications. And we’ve all been in the family group chat which might be just a few very active relatives pinging messages back and forth – it would feel rude to leave, but only about 5% of the messages are relevant to you (and if a message is relevant the sender can always @ you).Muting allows you to remove some distractions from your life without completely shutting yourself off socially.As with all leaked features, there’s no guarantee that this will launch; however, given how in-depth the muting feature already appears to be, it seems likely that it’s not only on the way, but on the way soon.If and when it does eventually launch, it looks like it could be joined by two other very useful Google Messages features that are also being teased by the latest beta.

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You can always count on Max for a show-stopping drama, but you never know when it could get rid of that one movie you've been relying on it for. Luckily, that's what we're here for, and you can bet that we've had our eagle eyes peeled for the titles leaving Max soon.There are five stand-outs that have limited time left on one of the best streaming services and now is the time to make the most of them. With two A24 movies on the chopping block (one of them a previous Best Picture Oscar winner), there's a beloved superhero movie, a British modern classic animated feature, and historical war biopic that Max have decided to let go.Thankfully none of our picks for the best Max movies are leaving any time soon - but that's never guaranteed. On a brighter note, Max has a wave of new movies and shows on the way, and you can view our full list of everything new on Max in May 2025.

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

RT score: 94%Directors: Dan Kwan & Daniel Scheinert Age rating: RLength: 132 minutesOne of the most-loved movies to come from the A24 studio that captured the hearts of millions of movie fans, and now it's running its course with Max. Though many were left utterly disappointed with Jamie Lee Curtis' Oscar victory over fellow nominee Stephanie Hsu, it certainly redeemed itself when it swept Best Supporting Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Picture.In this surrealist comedy action drama Michelle Yeoh stars as Evelyn Wang, a Chinese immigrant who is under IRS investigation. She uncovers a strange ability to transport through different universes and connect with her alternative timelines. Through this crazy journey across the multiverse she must stop a powerful being from destroying everything, but this wild ride turns into a touching story of self-discovery which leads her to rekindling her complicated relationship with her daughter.

The Imitation Game (2014)

RT score: 90%Director: Morten Tyldum Age rating: PG-13Length: 113 minutesWhen I started my monthly streaming diary roundups earlier this year, The Imitation Game was one of the nine movies I streamed in January 2025. As far as biopics go, Tyldum's retelling of Alan Turing's history-altering discovery is a gold standard British drama film despite its small handful of historical inaccuracies.As much as its a war drama, The Imitation Game is an inspiring story of a queer genius who helped saved millions, but was still persecuted for his sexuality even in the events after his ground-breaking achievement.It's the Second World War, and English mathematician Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) has been recruited by MI6 to help crack the Enigma Nazi code which professionals have failed time again to achieve. Behind him is a team of computer whizzes Hugh Alexander (Matthew Goode) and Joan Clarke (Kiera Knightley), who assist Turing in building a machine which he hopes will be the answer to saving the country from war.

The Florida Project (2017)

RT score: 96%Director: Sean Baker Age rating: RLength: 111 minutesIf you loved recent Best Picture winner Anora (2024) you only have a few more weeks left to revisit this coming-of-age drama from the back catalog of Sean Baker.Before he dabbled in comedy crime dramas, Baker put out his slice of life drama starring Willem Dafoe exploring the small joys in life and the means of creating your own fun and happiness with what you have. Six year-old girl Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) lives with her single mother at a motel in Florida who struggles to make ends meet and dips in and out of homelessness. Their world is a stark contrast from the one which surrounds them - the surreal and built-for-distraction Walt Disney World.

Paddington (2014)

RT score: 96%Director: Paul King Age rating: PGLength: 95 minutesThe Paddington series of movies has sat very well with audiences, with its recent installment Paddington in Peru (2024) scoring 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. But its second movie Paddington 2 (2018) comes out on top with a near-perfect score of 99%.Inspired by the classic British children's literature Paddington Bear (Ben Whishaw) lands himself in London after his Peru home is destroyed by an earthquake. He immediately warms to the family of Henry Brown (Hugh Bonneville) and Mary Brown (Sally Hawkins) and their two children, who decide to adapt him into the family, but shortly after settling into city life, he becomes the target of Millicent Clyde (Nicole Kidman), a taxidermist who will stop at nothing to get her hands on a bear as rare as he.

Deadpool (2016)

RT score: 85%Director: Tim Miller Age rating: RLength: 108 minutesMiller made his directorial debut with Deadpool in 2016 and went on to produce the Sonic trilogy of movies (we won't mention Borderlands).In contrast to other Marvel movies and superheroes, Deadpool isn't the suave, put-together action hero you'd expect. Instead, he's irreverent and unserious, yet has smart comedic timing. After serving in the Special Forces Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) is disfigured by evil scientist Ajax (Ed Skrein) and is turned into Deadpool. In spite of his disfigurement he's left with superhuman powers which he uses to his advantage to track down the man who ruined everything for him.

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Despite an eight year anticipatory wait, Nintendo is still "surprised" at just how many people want the Switch 2. The company has announced that about 2.2 million people have entered a pre-order lottery in Japan alone, far more than the number of consoles it can deliver on June 5, aka launch day.

Nintendo will announce the winners tomorrow, April 24, and anyone not chosen will be entered into a second drawing. However, that still won't provide enough spots for every entrant. "In response to this demand, we are currently working on further strengthening our production system," the company wrote on X in a post translated from Japanese. "We plan to continue producing and shipping a considerable number of Nintendo Switch 2 units in the future. We apologize for the delay in our ability to meet your expectations." The company further notes that other retailers should begin pre-orders on the 24th.

Nintendo has faced a few hurdles around pre-orders for the Switch 2. It delayed them in the US following President Trump's extreme tariffs and uncertainty about price. Now, the company has confirmed pre-orders in the US and Canada will also begin on April 24 and the Switch 2 will maintain its $450 price tag. Though, this might result in a loss for Nintendo.

A lack of supply and heavy demand could also bring exploitative resellers. Such was the case with other big ticket consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X. They were both listed on sites like eBay and Amazon for up to $1,700. Nintendo's SNES Mini and NES Mini were for sale on eBay for more than double their sticker price. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-somehow-underestimates-demand-for-switch-2-pre-orders-141030573.html?src=rss

The wait is (kind of) almost over. Ghost of Yōtei will be available for PS5 on October 2. This is a sequel to the 2020 hit Ghost of Tsushima and was first announced last year. It’s a PS5 exclusive, as it’s developed by Sony-owned Sucker Punch.

It doesn’t follow the story of Ghost of Tsushima. Rather, it’s an original adventure with new characters that's set in a new era. Ghost of Yōtei takes place in Hokkaido, Japan in the early 1600s. This is over 300 years after the events of the first game.

It’s still an open-world adventure, though Sony promises "even more freedom and variety than in Ghost of Tsushima." For instance, you can hunt down the six big bads in whatever order you choose. There’s a new trailer that reveals the basic story beats and some gameplay. It looks pretty darn fun.

Preorders will open up on May 2 at 10AM ET for those in the US. This being a modern console game, there are a few different editions to choose from. There’s the Standard Edition, which is just the game, that costs $70. The Digital Deluxe Edition adds in-game bonuses, like armor, weapons and costumes. That one costs $80.

Sony

The Collector’s Edition, which costs a whopping $250, comes with all of the aforementioned in-game items, but that’s just the beginning. It also ships with physical items, like replicas of the protagonist’s mask, katana and sash. Sony is calling this the best Collector’s Edition it has ever produced. All preorders, no matter which edition, receive a "unique in-game mask" and a handful of PSN avatars.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/ghost-of-yotei-comes-to-ps5-on-october-2-165531467.html?src=rss

Western Digital targeting 40TB HDDs by late 2026 using HAMR techOptiNAND and UltraSMR will boost capacity until HAMR adoption begins to drive growthStorage demand from AI boom is expected to arrive in late 2026

Western Digital recently held an investor day, with a primary focus on how it intends to supercharge hard drive capacity within a decade.WD’s detailed roadmap showed a clear technological evolution from energy-assisted Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (ePMR) to Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR), and ultimately to Heat Dot Magnetic Recording (HDMR), at which point it will be targeting capacities in excess of 100TB.By 2026, WD said its HDD capacity will reach 36TB-44TB thanks to HAMR technology which uses laser heating to temporarily lower the magnetic resistance (coercivity) of the disk, allowing for significantly denser data writing.

Waiting for demand

In a recent interview with PC Watch, Kimihiko Nishio, sales manager for Western Digital Japan, went into further details on the company’s plans.“Other companies have started adopting HAMR with 30TB HDDs, but we believe HAMR’s true potential begins at 40TB," Nishio said."Until then, we'll continue using technologies like OptiNAND and UltraSMR to increase the capacity of existing HDDs up to 40TB.” OptiNAND, integrates flash memory with HDDs to boost capacity, performance, and reliability, while UltraSMR, uses advanced error correction to pack data tracks more densely than traditional SMR.“We’re targeting the latter half of 2026 for the release of 40TB drives,” Nishio said, adding that WD is "currently developing HAMR with that goal in mind.” He explained that while data generation is booming, particularly due to AI advancements, storage demand is still catching up.“Right now, there's a huge surge in demand for generative AI, but storage hasn't really benefited from it yet. Currently, the biggest beneficiaries are GPU servers. First, data is being generated in large volumes, and after that, it will need to be stored. That’s where we expect storage demand to spike.”Western Digital is timing its production plans to coincide with this predicted demand. “We anticipate that spike will happen in the second half of 2026, which is why we're aligning our HAMR-based high-capacity HDD development to that timeframe,” Nishio said.“Since HAMR production requires a complete overhaul of materials, starting production now while demand is still low (e.g., for 40TB drives) would result in high costs. But we expect that in 2–3 years, demand will rise, allowing us to offer them at reasonable prices.”Nishio also shared Western Digital’s even more ambitious long-term vision. “Looking further ahead, we plan to release 100TB drives by 2030, after which we’ll pursue even greater capacities using new technologies,” he said.

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Andor season 2 gives fans the Syril-Dedra partnership they've been cravingIt's a dynamic full of weird moments, according to the actors who play themKyle Soller and Denise Gough have also teased what to expect from their characters' dynamic throughout this season

Full spoilers immediately follow for Andor season 2 episodes 1 to 3.

Andor season 2 will take some very bold swings with the incredibly weird romantic relationship that develops between Syril Karn and Dedra Meero.That's according to Kyle Soller and Denise Gough, who told TechRadar that they're still struggling to truly "work out" what's going on between their characters one year on after filming wrapped on the Star Wars show's latest season.They aren't the only ones. Ever since Syril saving Dedra's life in Andor's season 1 finale – a moment that was infused with a strange romantic tension – fans have longed to learn if the pair would actually get together. Now that season 2's first three episodes are not only out, but also confirm they're involved in some form of romantic entanglement, viewers are equally fascinated by the dynamic that's played out thus far.Indeed, threads on numerous Star Wars-based Reddit pages are filled with fans commenting on the curious atmosphere that arises whenever the Imperial officers are in the same room. Other social media platform are similarly awash with people trying to dissect the clearly uncomfortable nature of their dynamic.

Are Syril and Dedra really in love? Soller and Gough don't believe so (Image credit: Lucasfilm/Disney+)

Fan examination of the romance between two members of Andor season 2's cast is sure to continue for weeks and months to come, too. Well, as long as some of them remain as fascinated by the relationship as Soller and Gough continue to be – the duo telling me they're still not sure what's actually going on between their characters in one of the best Disney+ shows' second and final season."I think it was really bold of [showrunner] Tony [Gilroy] to end season one with the two of them in this strange little cupboard [where they hide from the Ferrix rebellion]," Soller mused. "Now, going into the domestic intimacy of it all, and what that might look like for these two very strange animals, I think it's another masterstroke."

My biggest fear was 'Oh, great, they fall in love and then what?'Denise Gough, Andor season 2 actor

"But he [Tony] doesn't change them," Gough interjected. "Going into this season, my biggest fear was 'Oh, great, they fall in love and then what? What does domestication look like to them?'. But, once I got the scripts for season two, I was like 'Okay, it still looks weird and it's even more surreal than before.'"There was plenty for audiences to enjoy regarding the pair's relationship in one of 2025's new Star Wars TV shows throughout its first three chapters, too.

Anybody else feel that Dedra wears the proverbial trousers in this relationship? (Image credit: Lucasfilm/Disney+)

Whether it was the extremely uncomfortable nature of Dedra meeting Syril's overbearing mom Eedy in episode 3, or the general conversations that they engage in, it seems fans are smitten with this villainous duo enjoying some frivolity amid the evil nature of their day-to-day jobs as employees of the Galactic Empire.So, will the good times last? Predictably, Gough and Soller wouldn't be drawn on how this dynamic will evolve over the next nine episodes. That said, they drop a couple of teases that viewers are sure to pore over during the wait for new episodes to air on one of the best streaming services every Tuesday (US) and Wednesday (UK and Australia)."Relationships are all about power in one way or another," Soller said. "This is a beautiful realization of how that power imbalance can grow and take things in all kinds of directions. I always thought Syril wants Dedra, but I also think he wants to use her, so it's hard to get a read on where his motives truly lie."

The last thing I was expecting from #Andor S2 was a Syril and Dedra home life sitcom but I absolutely loved every second of it.Also, absolute mood: pic.twitter.com/Q5TRbjODtAApril 23, 2025

"At her core, Dedra is a monster," Gough added. "She does awful things based on where she's come from."Does she really care for Syril? I watch it as a viewer and I still don't know," Gough continued. "To me, she doesn't have that human programming inside her to make me think that she's in love with him. She's like a computer, but I also think that she definitely wants him. It's not a loving relationship where they turn down the lights and cuddle. It feels very transactional and strange. It baffles me and I still can't fully work it out."My full review of Andor season 2 doesn't contain any spoilers about where Syril and Dedra's relationship goes next. Nevertheless, it'll give you some hints at what will happen in the weeks to come. Read that for more insights and then check out more of my exclusive coverage on the series below.

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Discord CEO and co-founder Jason Citron has announced that he's stepping down from his leadership role at the chat app and being replaced by Humam Sakhnini, a former executive from Activision Blizzard. Citron will remain on Discord's board of directors, and fellow co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy will continue acting as the company's chief technology officer.

"From the very beginning, our mission has been about bringing people together around games," Citron said in a statement. "It’s a mission I’ve dedicated my career to, and I'm confident that passing the torch to Humam is the right evolution for Discord's future." While initially pitched as a way to talk to friend's before, during and after playing games, Discord has morphed into a much larger and more general social platform, serving "more than 200 million monthly active users worldwide," the company says.

There's an important financial context to Citron's move. The New York Times reported in March that Discord was meeting with investors to take the company public. Sakhnini has experience acting as a leader of a public company. He was also the President of King Digital — the creator of Candy Crush and other popular mobile games — after the company was acquired by Activision Blizzard. A veteran executive could be a natural fit to usher Discord to an IPO. Citron didn't deny the plan when GamesBeat asked if the company would go public: "As you can imagine, hiring someone like Humam is a step in that direction."

Just a few years ago, Discord was reportedly in talks to be acquired by Microsoft, which seemed like a natural fit alongside Xbox. The rumored $10 billion deal fell through, but both Xbox and PlayStation platforms got Discord integration.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/discords-ceo-and-co-founder-is-stepping-down-181851778.html?src=rss

Roku has launched two new weather-resistant home security camerasThe larger of the two has a battery life of up to two years on a single chargeRoku hasn't revealed prices, but the cameras will go on sale later this year

Streaming specialist Roku has launched a pair of new wireless security cameras that can send video footage straight to your phone or TV, letting you watch your yard without leaving the couch.The Roku Battery Camera can run for up to six months on a single charge, while the Battery Camera Plus runs up to two years. Both cameras are weather-resistant, and can be set up indoors or out in a few seconds.You can use the Roku Smart Home app or Roku Web View to customize your camera's settings, set up schedules, and receive notifications. The cameras can also be used as motion-detectors to activate some of the best smart lights or other connected devices.

(Image credit: Future)

Blink and you'll miss it

Real-world battery life will depend on which settings you choose and the weather (lithium-ion batteries tend to drain faster in cold conditions), but the Battery Camera Plus should be a serious rival to the Blink Outdoor 4, which also runs for up to two years before it needs recharging.Both the Blink Outdoor 4 and Roku Battery Camera Plus boast 1080p resolution with motion detection and notifications, but the Roku camera also offers color night vision rather than black and white, which could give it the edge over the Blink model if the price is right.You could also extend the Roku cameras' battery life even further by connecting an optional solar panel – something that's not possible with the Blink camera.Roku has yet to announce official pricing for the two cameras, but it says they will be available "in the coming months". We're hoping to test both ourselves so we can see whether they deserve a place in our roundup of the best home security cameras to secure your smart home.

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Meta AI, the most interesting thing you can do with Ray-Ban Meta glasses, will soon be available to more people. The company's Live Translation feature is rolling out to all the product's markets, and Live AI (where you can hold a free-flowing conversation about what you're looking at) will soon be available in the US and Canada. In addition, glasses owners in the EU can finally use Meta AI with their high-tech specs.

Live translation, previously available in early access, is now rolling out in every region where Ray-Ban Meta glasses are available. Handy for trips abroad or chats with locals who speak a different language, the AI-powered feature speaks a translation in your preferred language in real time. You can also view a translated transcript on your phone.

Live translation is available in English, French, Italian and Spanish. And if you download your preferred language pack in advance, you can use it without a Wi-Fi connection or even mobile data from your paired phone. You can launch the feature by saying, "Hey Meta, start live translation."

Meta

US and Canadian users can now use Meta's Live AI feature, which lets you ask questions about your surroundings without saying "Hey Meta" every time. (You can even interrupt it.) Another feature previously only available in beta, live AI lets you chat with your glasses in natural language about your environment, asking it to explain things like missing ingredients for a meal or the best wine to pair with it. You can say, "Hey Meta, start live AI" to begin.

In addition, Meta AI is finally rolling out to all of the product's supported countries in the European Union. And starting next week, EU countries will get the visual search feature that can answer individually prompted questions about your surroundings, but (unlike Live AI) can't perform a free-flowing conversation with interruptions.

The glasses' Instagram integration is also expanding. Meta says you can soon send and receive Instagram DMs, photos, audio calls and video calls on your Ray-Bans. They already supported calls and messages through WhatsApp and Messenger and your phone's messaging app, so the glasses now have a solid list of communications options. You can start by saying, "Hey Meta, send a message to [your recipient's name] on Instagram."

Meta

Music app support is expanding beyond the US and Canada. The company is rolling out support for Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music and Shazam in the product's non-North American regions. Once the update is live, you can ask your glasses things like, "Hey Meta, what's the name of this song?" or "Hey Meta, when did this album come out?"

Although no major hardware upgrades were announced today (the next revision with a screen is rumored to launch later this year), Meta and Ray-Ban are rolling out new styles for the second-gen glasses. These include new Skyler frame and lens color combinations, including the cat-eye-shaped Shiny Chalky Gray with Transitions Sapphire lenses and the "more timeless" Skyler Shiny Black with G15 Green lenses and Skyler Shiny Black with Clear lenses.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/meta-is-bringing-smart-glasses-live-translation-and-ai-to-more-people-184546291.html?src=rss

Google has teased a redesign of the YouTube experience for TVs The update is coming "this summer" and includes improved navigationGoogle also announced a Multiview upgrade for YouTube TV subscribers

Twenty years ago today, the first video was uploaded to YouTube (the thrilling 'Me at the zoo'). To celebrate that milestone, Google has announced that YouTube's TV app experience is going to get a big upgrade soon. And as someone who watches a lot of big-screen YouTube, that's something I'm very much looking forward to.Google hasn't revealed a lot about the "TV viewing upgrade" it has planned. It's apparently coming "this summer" (which means sometime between June and September, if you're in the southern hemisphere). But it has revealed a screenshot (below) of what it'll look like, plus a few hints of what's coming.Apparently, we're going to get "easier navigation" alongside some "quality tweaks" and an improved playback experience. There will also be "streamlined access to comments, channel info, and subscribing". In other words, YouTube on your TV (not to be confused with YouTube TV) is going to become a lot more like the fully-featured browser experience.

(Image credit: Google)

Alongside the improved TV experience, YouTube TV subscribers will also gain the ability to build their own multiview experience. This four-way grid has traditionally been reserved for sports fans, but this is being opened up to non-sports content with a "small group of popular channels" in the "coming months". So if you aren't feeling quite distracted enough yet, this multiview update could be for you.

A subtle but important update

(Image credit: Google / YouTube)

I've been watching YouTube on TV for years and it's always felt a few steps behind the full experience. The Apple TV app, for example, was only given a comments section relatively recently – and while that might sound like a mixed blessing, I've always found comments to be an important part of the experience for the channels I follow.The incoming YouTube update for TVs appears to be more about design than functionality, but still looks a lot more modern and in tune with its mobile apps. There's a new button for adding the video to your playlists and it also appears to be easier to subscribe from within videos. There are no doubt more tweaks not shown in the single teaser image.YouTube is naturally reserving lots of features for Premium subscribers, too. As part of its 20th birthday announcements today, Google also revealed that a '4x playback speed' option is coming to smartphones for Premium subscribers (a service that costs $13.99 / £11.99 / AU$14.99 per month).I'm still sorely tempted to upgrade to YouTube Premium (particularly after reading my colleague David Nield's strong arguments in favor of doing so), but I'm glad to see YouTube is still upgrading the TV experience for us non-Premium mortals. Let's just hope it happens in the earlier rather than later interpretation of "summer".

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ChatGPT will now use The Washington Post to provide answers using the newspaper's reportingChatGPT answers will now include summaries, quotes, and article linksThe move builds on OpenAI’s growing roster of news partners and The Post’s own AI initiatives

The Washington Post has inked a deal with OpenAI to make its journalism available directly inside ChatGPT. That means, the next time you ask ChatGPT something like “What’s going on with the Supreme Court this week?” or “How is the housing market today?” you might get an answer including a Post article summary, a relevant quote, and a clickable link to the full article.For the companies, the pairing makes plenty of sense. Award-winning journalism, plus an AI tool used by more than 500 million people a week, has obvious appeal. An information pipeline that lives somewhere between a search engine, a news app, and a research assistant entices fans of either or both products. And the two companies insist their goal is to make factual, high-quality reporting more accessible in the age of conversational AI.This partnership will shift ChatGPT’s answers to news-related queries so that relevant coverage from The Post will be a likely addition, complete with attribution and context. So when something major happens in Congress, or a new international conflict breaks out, users will be routed to The Post’s trusted reporting. In an ideal world, that would cut down on the speculation, paraphrased half-truths, and straight-up misinformation that sneaks into AI-generated responses.This isn’t OpenAI’s first media rodeo. The company has already partnered with over 20 news publishers, including The Associated Press, Le Monde, The Guardian, and Axel Springer. These partnerships all have a similar shape: OpenAI licenses content so its models can generate responses that include accurate summaries and link back to source journalism, while also sharing some revenue with publishers.For OpenAI, partnering with news organizations is more than just PR polish. It’s a practical step toward ensuring that the future of AI doesn’t just echo back what Reddit and Wikipedia had to say in 2021. Instead, it actively integrates ongoing, up-to-date journalism into how it responds to real-world questions.

WaPo AI

The Washington Post has its own ambitions around AI. The company has already tested ideas like its "Ask The Post AI" chatbot for answering questions using the newspaper's content. There's also the Climate Answers chatbot, which the publication released specifically to answer questions and share information based on the newspaper's climate journalism. Internally, the newsroom has been building tools like Haystacker, which helps journalists sift through massive datasets and find story leads buried in the numbers.Starry-eyed idealism is nice, but there are some open questions. For instance, will the journalists who worked hard to report and write these stories be compensated for having their work embedded in ChatGPT? Sure, there's a link to their story, but that doesn't count as a view or help lead a reader to other pieces by the author or their colleagues.From a broader perspective, won't making ChatGPT a layer between the reader and the newspaper simply continue the undermining of subscription and revenue necessary to keep a media company afloat? Whether this is a mutually supportive arrangement or just AI absorbing the best of a lot of people's hard work while discarding the actual people remains to be seen. Making ChatGPT more reliable with The Washington Post is a good idea, but we'll have to check future headlines to see if the AI benefits the newspaper.

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Microsoft promised in a strange ad campaign last year that it would bring Xbox Game Pass to more than just its own gaming brand's hardware thanks to Xbox Cloud Gaming. One of the previously announced platforms that it said would gain the ability to run Xbox Game Pass was smart TVs from LG. Today, LG announced that the Xbox app will begin rolling out to a collection of its smart TVs in 25 countries this week.

The Xbox app is compatible with select LG screens and monitors. According to the press release, the available models include "2022 OLED TVs, 2023 OLED, QNED, NanoCell and UHD TVs…which have been updated to software version 23.20.01 or higher." It will also be made available at a later date on LG's StanbyME screens. Once downloaded, the app allows members of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription to stream select titles they already own or to access titles from the Game Pass library.

LG is the latest electronics manufacturer to offer the Xbox experience without the need to physically own an Xbox. Samsung has already done the same, and Amazon's Fire TV also has an Xbox app.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/lg-smart-tvs-are-getting-xbox-game-pass-this-week-200422697.html?src=rss

I remember life before YouTube and life after. In the 20 years since Jawid Karim posted that first zoo video, YouTube has become a dominant force in media creation and consumption.It's built industries and stars and forever altered viewing habits. I'd argue that it's the reason we now get most of our information from social video. And while AI is fast becoming the source for every answer (and some videos), we still get things done with YouTube's voluminous guidance.As a long-time technology journalist, I'm embarrassed to admit I was a little late to the YouTube revolution, waiting to post my first video until almost 18 months after the initial launch. Even so, that first video made me a convert. I was so excited, I detailed the entire process in a PCMag post.

The video is in some ways emblematic of 2006's state-of-the-art. It's a silent, grainy 800-x-600 pumpkin carving animation. In hindsight, "Ghost Carves Halloween Pumpkin" looks awful, and yet, it set the template for a long and fruitful relationship, which even then featured many of the elements YouTube Pros rely on today.There's the pithy and key title, an accurate, if brief description, thumbs up marks (miraculously, no one gave me a thumbs down), and dozens of comments, including many that noticed my less-than-expert animation work.In those early days, it wasn't entirely clear what YouTube was meant for. Even the crew that launched it, Chad Hurley, Karim, and Steven Chen, could not agree on where the idea came from. At the time, Karim told USA Today that they wanted to build a platform where people could quickly discover highly publicized (trending) stories online. Others recall that the desire was a place where people could share videos of important life events.In a way, early YouTube is a reflection of all those intentions. Certainly, my own YouTube library, which is around 260 videos, is proof of that. It took me years to try my hand at becoming an official "YouTuber" but only after I learned the craft by watching thousands of other people's pro-level creations.There were, however, some who quickly recognized YouTube's storytelling potential. The breakthrough hit "Lonelygirl15" used YouTube's early confessional style to tell a complex story that, for a time, many people believed was real.The story ran on YouTube for a few years, but it was soon just one of many tales and, as I see it, lost among an explosion of YouTube talent that started using the platform as a way to convey lengthy monologues and details about their interests in science, technology, entertainment, DIY, and more.

We are all made of Stars

YouTube was the first media platform to lower the bar between filmed content and an audience. You no longer needed a TV network or film producer to greenlight your idea. If you could film and edit it, you could attract an audience.When my 46-second Pumpkin animation was unexpectedly featured on YouTube's homepage, my views exploded. The short video soon boasted well over 200,000 plays. I spent years trying to recreate that success, but that was another early lesson of YouTube: virality is not promised.It tickles me when TikTokkers moan about how the algorithm has abandoned them as if every video is supposed to hit 2 million views. YouTubers know all too well the vagaries of a platform and editors (then) and algorithms (now).YouTube made stars of people like Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendes (don't let people tell you that it was all Vine). YouTubers like MKBHD and iJustine have built and held onto enviably devoted audiences that I think most network television shows would kill for. (If you want to have some fun, visit any of these YouTubers' pages, go to the video tab, and click on the "Oldest" link to see their first YouTube videos.)

In the meantime, YouTube altered our viewing habits and may have helped smooth the way for streaming platforms like Netflix, which launched its streaming platform two years after YouTube.Watching high-quality videos online was quickly becoming an ingrained habit when Netflix first dumped Lilyhammer on us, but thankfully, it followed with House of Cards.Over time, YouTube transformed from a place for sharing short, interesting videos to long-form, lean-back experiences. Today, it's stuffed with video podcasts, hour-long videos that couldn't survive on TikTok.The transition from virality to information happened years ago, though. 2025's YouTube is as much about information as it is about entertainment. Parent company Google certainly assisted in this. How many times have you Googled how to do something and found a YouTube video that shows you exactly how it's done?I'm not sure how I accomplish any unfamiliar tasks without YouTube's steady tutelage. With it, I've done everything from jump-starting my car to installing a bathroom fan, all under the confident guidance of a YouTube video.YouTube's knowledge base across a wide range of topics is truly encyclopedic. I challenge you to find a topic that doesn't have a dozen or more video tutorials.In truth, the world learns differently because of YouTube.

Generation YouTube

A 2022 Pew Research study found that 95% of teens use YouTube. TikTok was close behind, and by now, it may be neck and neck. Still, learning from video and using it as your foundational source for news and forming opinions is all YouTube's doing. I understand that people still watch cable news and form opinions based on specific information bubbles, but online video wasn't a primary news source until YouTube came along.And it's not just young people. Statista found that people across all age ranges are watching videos, and the next generation will too, as 80% of parents said their under-11-year-olds are also watching YouTube.I've seen these kids in their strollers, iPad in hand, staring intently at the latest Ms. Rachel video. And with YouTube entering its third decade, we are now living among adults who literally grew up with the platform. They've never known a world without YouTube, and their expectations for content are largely shaped by what they found there.My point is, we made YouTube, and then YouTube made us. Happy 20th Birthday, YouTube.

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Chemical-free recycling supports U.S. supply chains and cuts landfill wasteRecovered materials support electric cars, wind power, and advanced electronics manufacturingSustainable end-of-life plan redefines future for storage in U.S. data centers

A new pilot program from Microsoft and Western Digital has demonstrated a novel method of recycling rare earth elements (REEs) from decommissioned hard disk drives.The initiative, developed in collaboration with Critical Materials Recycling (CMR) and PedalPoint Recycling, successfully recovered nearly 90% of rare earth oxides and around 80% of the total feedstock mass from end-of-life drives and related components.Using materials sourced from Microsoft’s U.S.-based data centers, the project processed approximately 50,000 pounds of shredded HDDs and mountings, converting them into high-purity elemental materials. These can now be reused across key sectors such as electric vehicles, wind energy, and advanced computing.

Old HDDs now have more value

The project employs an acid-free, environmentally friendly recycling process that reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 95% compared to conventional mining and refining.This approach not only recovers rare earths like neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium, which are essential for HDD magnetic systems, but also extracts valuable metals including copper, aluminum, steel, and gold, feeding them back into the U.S. supply chain. It shows that even external hard drives can have an eco-friendly second life.Despite the critical role of rare earths in cloud infrastructure, current domestic recycling efforts in the U.S. recover less than 10% of these materials.Meanwhile, over 85% of global REE production remains concentrated overseas, but this pilot aims to change that, offering a scalable, domestic solution that reduces landfill waste, enhances supply chain resilience, and lowers dependence on foreign sources.“This is a tremendous effort by all parties involved. This pilot program has shown that sustainable and economically viable end-of-life (EOL) management for HDDs is achievable,” said Chuck Graham, corporate VP of cloud sourcing, supply chain, sustainability, and security at Microsoft.Acid-free dissolution recycling (ADR), a technology developed at the Critical Materials Innovation (CMI) Hub, was central to this achievement.“This project is significant because HDD feedstock will continue to grow globally as AI continues to drive the demand for HDD data storage,” said Tom Lograsso, director of CMI.Via StorageNewsletter

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Sustainability Week 2025This article is part of a series of sustainability-themed articles we're running to observe Earth Day 2025 and promote more sustainable practices. Check out all of our Sustainability Week 2025 content.

If you’re looking for sustainability-themed mobile games that are as fun as they are educational, you’re in the right place.To celebrate TechRadar’s sustainability week, we've handpicked a selection of games about environmental sustainability that you can play on the go. These games teach you about the delicate balance between man’s needs and nature, see you cleaning up islands and cities, and task you with tackling sustainability at a grassroots level.Here are our picks of sustainability-themed mobile games for adults and children.

1. MeteoHeroes

(Image credit: Gammera Nest)

Based on the TV series of the same name, MeteoHeroes is an action-packed adventure that sees you fighting for a cleaner planet.You travel the world, visiting nine famous locations threatened by chaos and pollution, and utilize your weather-controlling powers to defeat the Maculans and clean them up. MeteoHeroes is aimed at kids and is a great way to get them interested in environmental issues.

2. Alba: A Wildlife Adventure

(Image credit: ustwo Games)

From the award-winning studio behind Monument Valley, Alba: A Wildlife Adventure is a cozy, family-friendly collectathon with stunning handcrafted visuals.You play as Alba, who visits her grandparents on a Mediterranean island only to find the paradise is struggling with a serious pollution problem. Alba sets out to clean up the island by forming a wildlife organization but needs to convince the island's inhabitants to join her cause.This wholesome adventure focuses on the power of good deeds and the importance of sustainable environments for wildlife and is great fun for adults and kids alike.

3. World Rescue

(Image credit: ZU Digital/UNESCO MGIEP)

Inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations and aimed primarily at young people, World Rescue is a narrative, research-based game set in Kenya, Norway, Brazil, India, and China. You meet five young heroes working for change and help them solve global problems, like displacement, disease, deforestation, drought, and pollution, at the community level.This game consists of several fast-paced mini-games, which involve activities like shopping for low environmental impact food, distributing food and water, and platforming, making it thoroughly action-packed but hard-hitting.

4. Never Alone: Ki Editition

(Image credit: E-Line Media)

Never Alone is a staggeringly beautiful, atmospheric puzzle platformer created in collaboration with the Iñupiat, an Alaska Native people, with the story taken from a traditional Iñupiat tale that's been shared across generations.In this game, you play as Nuna and Fox – switching between the two as you please – who set out to find the source of an eternal blizzard that threatens the survival of everything they have ever known. Never Alone explores the Iñupiat's close relationship with nature and gives us an insight into their fascinating culture.

5. WWF Free Rivers

(Image credit: WWF Free Rivers)

WWF Free Rivers is really more of an augmented-reality app than a game, but it could be classed as an education game due to its interactive elements so we're counting it.This immersive storytelling experience lets you see the importance of rivers in five distinct habitats based on real places: the Himalayan mountains, tropical jungles, African savannah, South American grasslands, and Southeast Asian deltas.You'll find out how each of these rivers plays a pivotal part in the lives of the people and wildlife that live near them, and get to see what happens if its flow is affected. For example, you can put a dam in the river and see what the outcome would be. This is an interesting experience that emphasizes how interconnected nature is and the importance of rivers in sustaining ecosystems.

6. Get Water!

(Image credit: Decode Global Studio)

In endless side-scroller, Get Water!, you play as Maya, an avid student who keeps being pulled out of class to collect clean water.Your quest is made more challenging by pesky monkeys, flying turtles, and other foes that you fend off with your boomerang. As you collect more water, you unlock new skills from school to collect it faster and better protect it. Get Water! highlights the struggles a lack of clean water can have on children's education and how water can be better preserved.What's more, the proceeds from this game go to charity: water, which aims to bring clean water to developing nations.

When Disney Cruise Line opened its new island destination in the Bahamas – Disney Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point – it wasn’t just a vacation spot for island visitors. Instead, in coordination with its Animals, Science, and Environment (ASE) team, the brand launched a major conservation project that combined wildlife biology with modern technology, including radio telemetry and 3D printing.While Disney Lookout Cay opened in June 2024, planning had been underway well before then, with the ASE Conservation team included from the start. A key decision was that Disney wouldn’t develop more than 16% of the land.“We were going to leave a lot of the critical habitat, such as forest habitat, intact for the animals that were already living there,” Lauren Puishys, a Conservation & Science Tech with Disney’s ASE team, explained.“We created an environmental impact analysis before any construction began,” Puishys said. That then turned into an Environmental Management plan, which was focused on learning about the bird population on the island and protecting them.

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The team identified key zones on the island that would remain untouched based on where birds were nesting, migrating, or foraging – all gathered through on-the-ground fieldwork. “You're collecting every bird you see, every bird you hear, and you're just writing this down to make observations about how many of these birds are in this region,” Puishys said.One species quickly emerged as important, though – the great lizard cuckoo. “They're noisy, they're really cool looking,” Puishys explained, calling them ‘incredibly smart.’ Now, to track a population, though, in terms of patterns when moving around the island and where they were choosing to nest, Puishys and team combined old with new.

In this case, the team turned to the art of 3D printing to get close to the bird species in question, and then, through radio telemetry, mapped them on the island.“I need a very specific bird,” Puishys recalled telling her colleague, Jose Dominguez, a member of Disney’s ASE Behavioral Husbandry team. Though he’s 3D modeled a variety of enrichment items for Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park, he didn’t necessarily have experience modeling birds, so he called on other expert teams at Disney that did.

(Image credit: Disney Parks)

Disney has teams unsurprisingly well-versed in 3D modeling using CADs and tools like Blender. “They were like, ‘Oh, absolutely, I would love to work on this,’” explained Dominguez.They collaborated for months, refining the model through regular Zoom calls. “Lauren provided her input on if it was too big or it needs an extra toe, things like that,” said Dominguez. “Eventually, we got to our desired model shape, the great lizard cuckoo.”The model was printed in PLA, a plant-based plastic, which Dominguez said is what Disney routinely uses for deployments in “behavior-based enrichment.” The model was then coated with the same durable outdoor paint used across properties. More specifically, “an outdoors acrylic-based UV-resistant paint, and then with a protective clear coating on top.The outcome? A decoy bird coupled with audio recordings of real bird calls. It worked and was deployed.

The Great Lizard Cuckoo model in nature at Disney's Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point. (Image credit: Disney Parks)

“We had it down there with the speaker underneath it, and we had two different types of calls on there,” Puishys said. “At one point, an actual great lizard cuckoo called back and forth to it… So it was actually trying to communicate with the model, which was incredible to see.”

We have infrastructure around property on the rooftops of buildings and cell towers that's actually created to pick up that signalLauren Puishys, a Conservation & Science Tech with Disney’s ASE team

Finally, a bird approached the decoy, and Puishys was ready for it. “I was in the woods, out of sight from the cuckoo but in sight of the model, so I could see it myself. And then all I had to do was step out of the woods, and the bird was in the net.”From there, the team attached a solar-powered radio telemetry tag to track the bird. “So there's small solar panels on it with a little antenna, and that's giving off a radio frequency of 434 megahertz,” Puishys said. “We have infrastructure around property on the rooftops of buildings and cell towers that's actually created to pick up that signal, which has an associated identifying eight-digit number and letter code for that animal.”

The Western Spindalis Radiotelemetry Tag, attached by the wildlife conservation biologists team. (Image credit: Disney Parks)

Thanks to the tag and the infrastructure installed around the island in an unintrusive manner, Puishys can now track bird movements from her desk in Florida.“We work pulling everything off of the cloud with an API key through the company, and we can just download it all to my desk using RStudio,” she said. “We’ve had it up now since pre-construction and now have over 35 million data points associated with this.”

We’ve had it up now since pre-construction and now have over 35 million data points associated with thisLauren Puishys, a Conservation & Science Tech with Disney’s ASE team

That data is captured through a highly structured array of nodes across the island, with about 25 of them being spaced around 400 meters apart.Further, the data is stored on those nodes, then sent to the sensor station, which processes it and is uploaded via a cellular network so that the team can access it from anywhere. That includes Puishys’s desk in Florida, and it’s the most data the ASE team has ever collected on a terrestrial species.

For Puishys, the most exciting part isn’t just the success of the project – it’s how early they were brought in. “I honestly think our involvement as a Conservation team in the development of Disney Lookout Cay was our biggest leap,” Puishys said. “It kind of blew me away… and it was a big part about why I was so happy to join the team and help out with the project.”The hope is that this approach – one that blends science, tech, and collaboration – becomes a template for future projects. “We hope that it worked out well enough that we can kind of be an example or a good model for other construction projects moving forward,” Puishys said.

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The PlayStation 5 is getting a software update that brings back the looks of yesteryear. After fans applauded the move to apply the appearances of past Sony generations to their consoles' home screens during the PlayStation 30th anniversary last year, the company said it was working on making those permanent aesthetic options. That promised return of the four retro UI looks is the highlight of the upcoming PS5 update.

Unfortunately, the start-up audio chimes that accompanied each generation are not coming back. But the visual part can be changed at will under the Appearance tab of the Settings menu.

The other big component of the upcoming software update is a feature called Audio Focus that can help increase immersion during a play session while using headphones or headsets. With these presets, players can choose to boost the voice, the low pitch sounds, the high pitch sounds or the quiet sounds. You can also set whether the amount of amplification is weak, medium or strong.

The PS5 update will begin its global rollout on April 24.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/retro-playstation-ui-options-return-permanently-to-the-ps5-230337414.html?src=rss

Anker reveals the Nebula X1 4K projectorFeatures include 4K resolution, Dolby Vision HDR support and 3,500 ANSI lumensThe X1 is touted as an 'outdoor projector'

Anker has revealed the latest 4K projector in its Nebula range, the X1.Anker, makers of some of the best projectors, such as the Anker Nebula Mars 3, says the X1 is its highest-performing projector yet. The X1 follows in the footsteps of Anker's Cosmos range, which has delivered some of the best portable projectors, including the Anker Nebula Cosmos Laser 4K.The 4K-resolution X1 uses an RGB triple laser light engine and is said to deliver 3,500 ANSI lumens. It's capable of displaying images up to 300 inches in size and its NebulaMaster technology is set to offer a 5000:1 native contrast ratio and 56,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. Anker says it's the "perfect backyard projector for daytime and night-time use".The X1 has four side-firing internal speakers powered by a total of 40W, and a separate pair of wireless speakers is an available option. These speakers have 8 hours of battery life and are USB-C rechargeable.As an added audio feature, the X1's built-in speakers can be switched to subwoofer mode when combined with the wireless speakers, creating a 4.1.2-channel audio system.From a design perspective, the X1 can tilt up to 25 degrees, allowing for easy placement on a wall, table or floor. It also features AI Spatial Adaptation, which uses real-time auto focus, auto keystone, auto optical zoom and auto screen fit. There's a built-in micro gimbal for added adaptability, and it comes with a carry handle for easy portability.The X1 will also support Wi-Fi streaming with Google TV built-in for access to the best streaming services such as Netflix, Prime Video and Disney Plus.Another new feature is its liquid cooling system, which Anker says will limit fan noise to 26dB (at a distance of 1m).The Anker Nebula X1 will be available from May 21, starting at $2,199.99 / £2,199.99 (roughly AU$4,595 directly converted). An accessory bundle, with the two wireless speakers, a carry case and two wireless microphones designed with karaoke in mind, is available for $999.99 / £499.99 ($667 / AU$1,042 directly converted). Both will be on sale at Amazon and Nebula in the US and Nebula in the UK.

The ultimate summer projector?

(Image credit: Anker )

The headline of Anker's release of the X1 is that it is perfect for the outdoors day or night, its 3,500 ANSI lumens brightness putting it in the same category as the likes of the Samsung Premier 9 and Epson QB100, both of which we classed as 'super-bright'.Although the X1 sounds like it will be super-bright, even the brightest and best 4K projectors can still struggle with outdoor daytime viewing, as the lumens required to project a decent image in brighter viewing conditions can be a real challenge.However, 3,500 ANSI lumens is indeed very bright, and with the added benefit of Dolby Vision HDR, the X1 could produce images bright enough for outdoor viewing.Admittedly, it's not a cheap projector, but compared with other portable projectors with similar specs, such as the JMGO N1S Ultra 4K, it's competitively priced for what it offers.With the display specs listed and the option for an audio upgrade, plus two wireless microphones for anyone who fancies a bit of karaoke after their movie night, the Nebula X1 really could be the ultimate portable and outdoor projector cinema package. I'll be keen to get my hands on it and see how it fares.

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Character.AI's new AvatarFX tool can turn a single photo into a realistic videoThe video shows a still image speaking with synced lip movements, gestures, and longform performancesThe tool supports everything from human portraits to mythical creatures and talking inanimate objects

Images may be worth a thousand words, but Character.AI doesn't see any reason that the image shouldn't speak those words itself. The company has a new tool called AvatarFX that turns still images into expressive, speaking, singing, gesturing video avatars. And not just photos of people, animals, paintings of mythical beasts, even an inanimate object can talk and express emotion when you include a voice sample and script.AvatarFX produces surprisingly convincing videos. Everything from lip-sync accuracy, nuanced head tilts, eyebrow raises, and even appropriately dramatic hand gestures is all there. In a world already swirling with AI-generated text, images, songs, and now entire podcasts, AvatarFX might sound like just another clever toy. But what makes it special is how smoothly it connects voice to visuals. You can feed it a portrait, a line of dialogue, and a tone, and Character.AI calls what comes out a performance, one capable of long-form videos too, not just a few seconds.That's thanks to the model's temporal consistency, a fancy way of saying the avatar doesn’t suddenly grow a third eyebrow between sentences or forget where its chin goes mid-monologue. The movement of the face, hands, and body syncs with what’s being said, and the final result looks, if not alive, then at least lively enough to star in a late-night infomercial or guest-host a podcast about space lizards. Your creativity is the only thing standing between you and an AI-generated soap opera starring the family fridge. You can see some examples in the demo below.

Avatar alive

Of course, the magical talking picture frame fantasy comes with its fair share of baggage. An AI tool that can generate lifelike videos raises some understandable concerns. Character.AI does seem to be taking those concerns seriously with a suite of built-in safety measures for AvatarFX.That includes a ban on generating content from images of minors or public figures. The tool also scrambles human-uploaded faces so they’re no longer exact likenesses, and all the scripts are checked for appropriateness. Should that not be enough, every video has a watermark to make it clear this isn’t real footage, just some impressively animated pixels. There’s also a strict one-strike policy for breaking the rules.AvatarFX is not without precedent. Tools like HeyGen, Synthesia, and Runway have also pushed the boundaries of AI video generation. But Character.AI’s entry into the space ups the ante by fusing expressive avatars with its signature chat personalities. These aren’t just talking heads; they’re characters with backstories, personalities, and the ability to remember what you said last time you talked.AvatarFX is currently in a test phase, with Character.AI+ subscribers likely to get first dibs once it rolls out. For now, you can join a waitlist and start dreaming about which of your friends’ selfies would make the best Shakespearean monologue delivery system. Or which version of your childhood stuffed animal might finally become your therapist.

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As nice as it is to have a projector wired up in your home cinema, the flexibility a portable model offers is equally valuable. It means you can set up an impromptu big screen in your back yard during those glorious long summer evenings. But portable projectors also carry that whiff of not being as good, or being compromised, with less powerful sound and vision. It’s this issue that Nebula is looking to tackle with its latest flagship portable projector, the X1, which is designed to offer the power of a home projector in the body of a movable one.

The X1 is a triple-laser unit promising 4K UHD, Dolby Vision video with 3,500 ANSI lumens that should easily fill a 300-inch screen. You can place it on a stand, table or the floor, with the array capable of tilting up to 25 degrees to find wherever you’ve placed your screen. There’s a 14-element glass array inside the body, which the company says should provide reliable image quality for the life of the unit. It’s flexible, too, with an optical zoom letting you cast on a screen up to 200 inches wide from between 13 and 22 feet away.

Nebula

The other big problem with projectors is the sound quality, but Nebula thinks it’s solved that issue as well. The X1 not only has a quartet of side-firing internal speakers, but you can pay a little more to pick up a pair of wireless 20W satellite speakers with their own built-in batteries. Each satellite connects to the X1 over Wi-Fi and has a rated battery life of eight hours, plus they’re IP54 rated to ensure they won’t break if your movie night gets interrupted by a rain shower.

Nebula is also proud to boast that the X1 is the company’s first portable projector to get its own internal liquid cooling system. Liquid cooling is commonplace on higher end wired projectors, and Nebula says that its inclusion here enables it to get the fan noise down to 26 dB. That may or may not be a good thing depending on the talent levels of your friends given you can also buy a pair of wireless karaoke microphones with a rated battery life of 40 hours.

The rest of the spec list is what you’d expect, with the X1 running Google TV, plus a pair of HDMI ports (one with eARC). It’ll be available to purchase in the US on June 20 for $2,999, while the accessory pack on its own will set you back $999, but you can bundle both for $3,298. It’s a similar situation in the UK, where it’ll be ready to buy on May 21 for £2,199.99, with the accessory pack costing £500, but if you order between May 21 and June 15, you’ll get both for £2,350.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/nebulas-new-x1-4k-portable-projector-is-liquid-cooled-233025705.html?src=rss

LG TVs are getting Xbox cloud gamingThe app is coming to WebOS 24-compatible TVsAll you’ll need is Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and a controller

Microsoft has been on a mission as of late to brand everything from here to there an Xbox, mostly off the back of the company’s cloud streaming efforts. The latest Xbox? Why that’s your LG TV of course.LG’s latest update to its TV operating system (first teased back in January) brings with it the Xbox app, albeit currently in a beta version. The result means that you can now play any cloud-streamed game on your display without a console. All you’ll need is an Xbox controller and a Game Pass Ultimate subscription to enable cloud streaming.

If you have a WebOS 24 or WebOS 25-compatible TV (to make it easier, if your LG TV launched in 2022 or after, or if it’s a 2021 StanbyME display), you’ll be able to install the Xbox app right away. There won’t be any downloads required except for the app itself. The update will roll out to StanByMe TVs after other WebOS 24-compatible models.This isn’t a first for game streaming mind you: Samsung TVs have supported the Xbox cloud gaming app since 2022 and Amazon Fire TV devices have supported it since 2024.With your Xbox controller in hand and Game Pass Ultimate subscription active, you’ll be able to play games like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, Minecraft, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and more from just your TV – just head to the Gaming Portal on your LG display and launch the Xbox app to get started.Though be prepared for some quality issues. A fast internet connection will improve your cloud gaming experience massively, improving streaming quality and latency alike.Here in Australia, I’ve personally had a lot of issues with cloud streaming Xbox games on my PC and Samsung projector with my 100Mbps-capable internet plan, but obviously this might be a non-issue for your household.LG’s TVs are mighty impressive. The LG C4 is currently the top model on TechRadar’s list of the best TVs and the incoming flagship LG G5 scored a whopping five stars in our review. The mid-range LG C5 also scored an impressive five stars, remaining a top pick for folks craving a high-end screen without a gigantic price (the C5 will likely replace the C4 soon on our list).If you care about having fast and responsive gameplay in the lounge room, you may be better off buying an Xbox console, such as the affordable Series S or powerful Series X, or alternatively you could pick up a PlayStation 5.But for casual gaming where you might only play a handful of titles, if you’re looking for something to entertain the kids, or if you simply don’t want to pay the full price for a game, Xbox cloud gaming might be worth considering.

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The day has arrived — Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders are now open in North America. The new console will be widely available on June 5, but if you signed up on Nintendo’s site in anticipate of pre-orders opening on April 24, you should have received (or will receive) an email that will give you access to place your order via Nintendo. In addition to direct from Nintendo, participating retailers will also have the $450 console and the $500 Mario Kart World bundle for pre-order. Those include GameStop, Walmart, Best Buy, Target and others.

How to pre-order the Nintendo Switch 2

Along with Nintendo, third-party retailers like Best Buy, GameStop, Walmart and Target have confirmed their pre-orders open on April 24. GameStop said it will be accepting pre-orders both in stores and online, the latter starting at 11AM ET that day. Best Buy, Walmart and Target pre-orders will open at midnight. We also expect it to be available from Amazon, but links are not live on the site yet.

Pre-order Nintendo Switch 2

Amazon*

Walmart

GameStop

Best Buy

Target

Nintendo

Pre-order Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World bundle

Amazon*

Walmart

GameStop

Best Buy

Target

Nintendo

*As of midnight ET on Thursday April 24, Amazon has not listed either Switch 2 console package for sale. We will update this article with direct links when they arrive, until then we're linking to the site's Nintendo-focused hub.

How to pre-order Switch 2 accessories

The Switch 2 has a number of accessories that you can buy separately. While the console didn't get a price adjustment when Nintendo announced the new pre-order date, many of these accessories did. The new Switch 2 camera now costs $55 instead of the original $50 price tag; the new Switch 2 Pro controller costs $85 instead of $80; an extra pair of Joy-Con 2 controllers will set you back $95 instead of $90 and a Joy-Con charging grip is going for $40 instead of $35. Check out Nintendo's official statement for all of the accessory price adjustments. You can pre-order most of them at the same time that you can pre-order the Switch 2 console.

Joy-Con 2 bundle for $95

Nintendo

Amazon*

Walmart

GameStop

Best Buy

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Switch 2 Pro Controller for $85

Nintendo

Amazon*

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Switch 2 camera for $55

Nintendo

Amazon*

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Samsung microSD Express Card – 256GB for Nintendo Switch 2 for $60

Nintendo

Amazon*

Walmart

GameStop

Best Buy

Target

Joy-Con 2 charging grip for $40

Nintendo

Amazon*

Walmart

GameStop

Best Buy

Target

Joy-Con 2 Wheels (set of 2) for $25

Nintendo

Amazon*

Walmart

GameStop

Best Buy

Target

Switch 2 all-in-one carrying case for $85

Nintendo

Amazon*

Walmart

GameStop

Best Buy

Target

*As of midnight ET on Thursday April 24, Amazon has not listed any first-party Switch 2 accessories for sale. We will update this article with direct links when they arrive, until then we're linking to the site's Nintendo-focused hub.

More Switch 2 details

We knew from the teaser trailer for the Switch 2 that Nintendo's new hardware would be bigger and would have a new approach to the detachable Joy-Cons. The new Joy-Con 2 have a new C button, mouse controls and a built in gyroscope for tilt control. The console has a built-in mic to support a new feature called Game Chat that will let you communicate with friends in-game. The device is indeed a bit larger, with a 7.9-inch LCD screen that supports a 120Hz refresh rate, HDR and a 1080p resolution.

When docked, you'll be able to play at up to 4K on your TV, and Nintendo says it improved the consoles internal speakers as well. The new dock also has a built-in fan to keep the console cool and help maintain performance during long play sessions. The Switch 2 has dual USB-C ports for charging, and the base storage amount has increased to 256GB. The Switch 2's storage can be expanded like the previous model, but it will only work with newer microSD Express cards.

Tariffs and the Nintendo Switch 2

During its most recent Direct presentation at the start of April, Nintendo showed off more of the Switch 2 than it ever had before. That included the reveal of the April 9 pre-order opening date, in addition to the original $450 starting price. Shortly after, President Trump announced sweeping tariffs on China and other countries, prompting Nintendo to delay pre-orders in the US and Canada.

In a reversal, President Trump then announced a 90-day pause on steep “reciprocal” tariffs affecting 75 countries, but also announced that the tariff imposed on China will go up even further (currently, it's up to 245 percent for that country).

We now know that the original $450 price for the Switch 2 will remain the same in the US and Canada, but based on its official statement, it appears Nintendo is leaving the door open for potential future price increases.

We also know that Nintendo started moving some of its Switch console manufacturing to Vietnam in 2019. The reciprocal tariff for Vietnam was set to be 46 percent, but that appears to be on hold for now in favor of a 10 percent reciprocal tariff that’s now in effect for the 90-day pause period.

It has been speculated that Nintendo will boost production of Switch 2 consoles in Vietnam so it can stay on schedule, even if it sells the console at a loss in the short term. It appears the company will have to seriously ramp up production to keep up with Switch 2 demand: according to Nintendo, 2.2 million people entered the pre-order lottery in Japan alone, which is far more devices than it is expected to deliver in that region on launch day.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-switch-2-pre-orders-are-available-now-at-walmart-gamestop-best-buy-and-others-starting-at-450-140931291.html?src=rss

Across the globe, 70% of data center facility leaders say their national power grid is being stretched to its limits. Now, the sustainability warning bells aren’t just ringing, they’re deafening.Behind much of this growing concern is the surging energy demand driven by artificial intelligence (AI) in data centers. To quantify the use of AI, McKinsey’s latest survey highlights that 78% of respondents say their organizations already use AI tools in at least one business function. From workplace productivity gains to life-saving capabilities such as detecting illnesses, AI innovations are second to none.Data centers, which house the computing power for AI, must now focus on supporting its growth sustainably, ensuring national grids are protected. If not, we might run out of power, leading to data center outages that affect communities and livelihoods. However, according to Cadence’s Innovation Imperative, while 88% of data center operators say they’re actively working to enhance energy efficiency, only three in ten (31%) believe that they’re doing enough.The good news is that data centers can reduce their energy impact by harnessing AI in smarter ways. AI-powered digital twins—virtual replicas of facilities—help operators shrink their environmental footprint, prevent costly outages, and finally, boost sustainability.Ultimately, the research shows that data center operators want to make a difference. The challenge is knowing where to start. The first step is uncovering where the real problems lie and what’s truly driving excess energy use.

Apprehension on Energy

Before beginning to invest in efficiency tactics, data centers must assess the challenges in their facilities.Our latest research shows that almost two-thirds (60%) of facility leaders overprovision, which is allocating more resources to a system than necessary. This is due to concerns that scaling back will cause outages. While it’s understandable that facility leaders want reliable systems, it also wastes energy, drives up their footprint, and increases operational costs.As energy needs rise to power AI, they lead to excessive overprovisioning, with immense energy waste.Another challenge that Cadence uncovered is that many data centers struggle with stranded capacity. This is another unsustainable practice, where installed capacity in the data center cannot be used, and 29% of leaders reported stranded capacity as a constraint.Picture stranded capacity like a game of Tetris, where data centers are playing five levels at the same time, trying to fit all the systems (blocks) into the data center. Operators are often unaware of doing this and can’t spot the available capacity. Thus, the facility fails to meet its design goals and has a costly impact on the planet.Furthermore, while high-density servers are great for holding immense power, their high energy requirements can create several challenges for data centers. Currently, 59% of data center operators are using high-density servers, so it is important to make sure they run properly and effectively, with as little stranded capacity and over-provisioning as possible.This is especially true with rack densities exceeding 100kW, and as high as 600kW, with the latest Rubin architecture that Nvidia presented at GTC.

Addressing These Matters is Not a “Nice-to-Have”

Tackling data center energy challenges is now critical, especially as regulatory factors come into play. This includes stricter reporting requirements, such as the EU’s Energy Efficiency Directive, which requires carbon emission reporting.Local communities are increasingly opposing data center facilities. This is primarily due to claims that such facilities consume large quantities of energy, competing for energy resources and water with the population. Recently, this has become a concern in Virginia, where some residents will soon be neighbors to a 466,000-square-foot data center.Addressing these issues requires a nuanced, multi-faceted approach. From energy reporting and thermal modeling to capacity planning and workload optimization, digital twins will play a critical role in tackling stranded capacity, reducing excessive energy use in data centers, and allowing them to trial renewable energies.

Reducing Inefficient Resource Allocation

By simulating real-time operations, digital twins enable operators to fully utilize available capacity, optimize energy consumption, and minimize the environmental impact on surrounding areas.Minimizing overprovisioning is a good place to start to reduce energy consumption. Digital twins, enhanced by AI, offer a powerful solution. Through real-time data and historical trends, operators can create a virtual environment that mirrors the physical facility. This allows them to test different scenarios, evaluate the impact of resource allocation decisions, and identify potential areas of over-provisioning.It also provides an excellent stranded capacity solution. By integrating sensors and data collection mechanisms, operators can continuously monitor the performance of various components, such as power consumption, cooling efficiency, and overprovisioning. This data can then be analyzed using predictive analytics to identify potential bottlenecks or areas of underutilization.By proactively addressing these issues, operators can optimize resource allocation and reduce stranded capacity.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

The transformative capabilities of digital twins do not end here. Using these tools, data centers can capture and repurpose waste heat from cooling systems for other applications, such as heating buildings or industrial processes. To do so, digital twins can replicate the physical facility and help manage the implementation of technology. This will reduce energy waste and lower overall carbon emissions.Repurposing wasted heat is important because the EU Energy Efficiency Directive mandates that data centers with a high level of energy input utilize waste heat or implement other waste heat recovery measures.In addition, the increasing heat caused by growing server density puts cooling systems under significant strain. Digital twins allow operators to model the effectiveness of alternative cooling methods and explore how these systems interact with the entire infrastructure.

Evaluating Cooling Effectiveness

Re-evaluating data center cooling is an important strategy for reducing energy consumption. Cooling is one of the most energy-intensive elements of data center operations, particularly as AI workloads increase power demands. Digital twins are making it more feasible for data centers to adopt liquid cooling, which is gathering momentum.At present, 45% of decision-makers use liquid cooling, and a further 19% plan to introduce it in the next year. This is largely because high-density server racks, intensive workloads, and increasing power densities are surpassing the capabilities of traditional air cooling. While air cooling can manage heat loads up to 20kW per rack, loads beyond 20–25kW are more efficiently and cost-effectively handled by a mix of liquid cooling and precision air cooling.Using digital twins to implement liquid cooling, data center operators can examine factors that are otherwise difficult to detect or measure, such as overall cooling efficiency. They can assess the pros and cons of various liquid cooling options before investing in technology. The result is a customized solution tailored to the facility’s specific heat load requirements.

Transforming the Data Center Trajectory

Clearly, data centers are serious about improving their environmental impact. However, implementation remains the biggest hurdle. Digital twins are proving to be the sustainability game-changer the industry needs, helping operators move from ambition to action.Even the process of deploying digital twins drives immediate value, forcing facilities to gather their data, surface blind spots, and build a clear picture of their operations. This alone creates the foundation for smarter, more sustainable decision-making.Those that turn to digital twins won’t just optimize data center performance, they’ll unlock a roadmap to a greener, more efficient, and future-proofed data center industry.

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This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

The B&W Px7 S3 launch today, for $429 / £399 (about £830)Built-in amp, redesigned drivers and dramatically improved ANCSpatial audio, Auracast and lossless audio too

Bowers & Wilkins has launched, in its own words, "the most advanced and capable wireless headphone the brand has yet made", the Px7 S3.Based on the very impressive PX7 S2 and PX7 S2e, the new headphones have re-engineered drive units, aptX adaptive and lossless audio, "greatly upgraded" ANC and an all-new design. And they have their own dedicated headphone amp inside, rather than the amp integrated into the chip platform, used by most headphones.Let's start with that design. They're visibly slimmer than the PX7 S2e, and the carry case is more compact too. There's a redesigned arm mechanism and a new headband for a closer fit, and Bowers & Wilkins says it's improved the memory foam in the ear cups too. That means more comfort for longer listening, and the spec suggests you're going to want to spend a lot of time inside these over-ears.We've been testing these headphones, so you don't need to wait for the full-fat, in-depth verdict: our Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 review is right there. Spoiler alert: it's five stars. But if you just want the low-down on what's inside, keep reading.

You can customize controls and personalize your headphones via the Music app. (Image credit: Bowers & Wilkins)

Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3: key features and pricing

The Px7 S3 are a first for the brand: their 40mm biocellulose drivers are powered by a discrete headphone amp (though still built into the unit) that the firm says delivers more scale and energy than you get from the average setup in the best wireless headphones, where the amp isn't cutomized for the particular driver design.Speaking of, the drivers have a redesigned chassis, voice coil, suspension and magnet that delivers lower coloration and distortion, improved resolution and "superior dynamics". As with previous models the drivers are slightly angled to ensure a consistent distance from each point of the drivers' surface to your ears and deliver a spacious stereo image.In addition to spacious audio, the Px7 S3 also deliver spatial audio for the first time in a B&W headphone – or at least they will soon. The feature is coming as an over-the-air update later in 2025.The Px7 SE have aptX Adaptive 24/96 and aptX Lossless for higher quality audio over Bluetooth, and their DSP delivers 24-bit / 96kHz sound quality. You can also use the headphones with wired connections: 3.5mm analogue and USB-C cables are included.Bluetooth LE Audio and Bluetooth Auracast will come this year too, again as an over-the-air update.The other big improvement here is in the active noise cancellation. According to the firm, "Bowers & Wilkins engineers are confident that Px7 S3 features the most powerful and effective active noise cancelling technology the brand has ever developed."That's a big claim, but there are eight microphones located around the periphery of each earcup with two measuring the output of each drive unit, four monitoring the ambient noise around you, and two more for "outstanding" vocal clarity.With ANC on you can expect 30 hours of battery, and a 15-minute quick charge will give you up to 7 hours of playback.The Px7 S3 are available in most countries from today, 24 April, in a choice of Anthracite Black, Indigo Blue and Canvas White. They are $429 / £399 (we're waiting on Australian pricing, but the UK price translates to around AU$830).However, the list of countries where it's launching today doesn't include the US. Due to "evolving market conditions" the North and Latin America date will be announced shortly.

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Not everyone needs a super-expensive, top-of-the-line laptop, and the good news is you don’t have to break the bank to get a solid machine. Whether you're a student, a casual user or just looking for an affordable device for everyday tasks, there are plenty of great options out there. The trick is finding the best cheap Windows laptop that balances performance, build quality and battery life without making too many compromises.

Table of contents

What to look for in a budget-friendly Windows laptop

Best cheap Windows laptops for 2025

What to know about the budget Windows laptop market

What about Chromebooks and tablets?

What Windows laptops do well

What to look for in a budget-friendly Windows laptop

While you can do a lot even when spending little on a Windows laptop, you must set your expectations accordingly. The biggest downside when purchasing a budget laptop (of any kind, really) is limited power. You’ll want to carefully consider a few specs, the most important among them being the processor (CPU). Many Windows laptops under $500 run on Intel Celeron or Pentium chipsets, but you can find some with Core i3/i5 and AMD Ryzen 3/5 CPUs at the higher end of the price spectrum.

We recommend getting the most powerful CPU you can afford because it will dictate how fast the computer will feel overall. Memory (RAM) is also important because, the more you have, the easier it will be for the laptop to manage things like a dozen browser tabs while you edit a Word document and stream music in the background.

When it comes to storage, consider how much you want to save locally. If you primarily work in Google Docs or save most things in the cloud, you may not need a machine with a ton of onboard storage. Just remember that your digital space will also be taken up by apps, so it may be worth getting a little extra storage than you think you need if you know you’ll be downloading big programs. A final side note: solid state drives (SSDs) are ubiquitous at this point, not to mention faster and more efficient than hard drives (HDDs), so we recommend getting a laptop with that type of storage.

As for screens, there’s a healthy mix of HD (720p resolution) and FHD (1080p) options in this price range and we recommend springing for a notebook with a 1080p display if you can. Touchscreens aren’t as common in the budget space as standard panels, but you’ll only really miss one if you get a 2-in-1 laptop.

Before we get to our recommended specs for a cheap Windows laptop, it’s worth mentioning that Microsoft clearly lays out the true minimum requirements for any Windows 11 machine. Those include a 1GHz or faster processor that includes two or more cores, at least 4GB of RAM and 64GB of available storage space. That’s the bare minimum to run Windows 11; we recommend giving yourself some wiggle room by choosing a machine that will perform well now and for years to come.

Specs to look for in an affordable Windows laptop

CPU: Intel Core i3 or AMD Ryzen 3 processors, at minimum

RAM: At least 8GB

Storage: At least 128GB SSD

Screen: At least 1080p FHD

It’s essential to prioritize what’s important to you. But at the lower end of the budget, a good laptop may not offer everything you need, whereas a great one might. Although most machines come with features like Bluetooth, built-in Wi-Fi and additional ports, you might find not all of them come with the specifics you require, like an SD card slot, webcam, charger, and so on. Be sure to check the spec list of any laptop you’re considering before you buy, especially if you need specific connectors and capabilities.

See Also:

Best Laptops for 2025

Best Gaming Laptops

Best 2-in-1 Laptops for 2025

Best Chromebooks

Best Laptops for College Students

As for Copilot+, don’t expect to see much of it on truly affordable Windows laptops just yet. Microsoft’s AI features and Copilot assistant require certain specs to run, namely a powerful neural processing unit (NPU), 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Currently, the cheapest Copilot+ AI PCs will run you about $700, so if you’re willing to pay more for those perks, check out our best laptops guide for more options.

If you’re looking for either a gaming laptop or a “Windows on Arm” laptop, both categories will require you to spend more money than we’re discussing here.

Best cheap Windows laptops for 2025

The cheap Windows laptop market moves fast, and — unlike nearly all of our other buying guides — we haven't necessarily tested each specific configuration listed below. However, the combination of these technical specifications and familiar brands represent exactly the sort of entry-level laptops we'd recommend to shoppers in this price range based on our thorough research and expert knowledge.

What to know about the budget Windows laptop market

The best cheap laptop models change all the time. Unlike more expensive, flagship machines, these notebooks can be updated a couple times each year. That can make it hard to track down a specific model at Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart or any other retailer. Also, we’ve seen prices vary widely depending on the configuration and retailer you’re looking at.

You can ensure you’re getting a quality laptop by doing a few things. First and foremost, make sure you get a machine that follows the recommended specs we list above. Also, make sure you’re buying from a reputable retailer, including big-box stores like Walmart, Best Buy and Costco, online shops like Amazon or direct manufacturers like Dell, HP, Lenovo and others. If you have a physical store near you (likely a Best Buy in the US), it’s never a bad idea to go play around with some laptops in person before choosing one.

If you decide to shop online from the likes of Amazon or Walmart, double check the seller of the laptop you’re considering. For example, many items on Amazon are “shipped and sold” by Amazon and those are typically the best options. You’ll see that information on Amazon on the right sidebar on a product page, under the Add to Cart and Buy Now buttons. Third-party sellers are common in the affordable laptop space. Amazon sometimes classifies laptop manufacturers as third-party sellers, so you may see a laptop shipped and sold by HP or Dell — that’s a good thing, since it’s coming directly from the manufacturer.

However, there are other third-party electronics sellers out there. We recommend clicking on the third-party seller’s name on Amazon or Walmart (yes, Walmart has them, too) to see how much positive feedback and how many five-star ratings they’ve received from buyers.

What about Chromebooks and tablets?

You may be inclined to recommend a Chromebook or a tablet to anyone considering a budget Windows laptop computer. Those instincts aren’t wrong, but Chromebooks and tablets aren’t the best buy for everyone. Tablets have the most portability, but they will only work for the most mobile-competent users like kids who have been grabbing smartphones out of their parents’ hands since they’ve been dexterous enough to do so. Tablets can also be just as expensive as some of the cheapest Windows laptops, and that’s without a mouse or keyboard.

Chromebooks are a good alternative for those that basically live in a browser, the trade-off being you must give up the “traditional desktop.” And Chrome OS is a more limited operating system than Windows when it comes to the programs you can install and run.

What Windows laptops do well

What can you realistically accomplish on a cheap Windows laptop? Quite a bit, especially if you’re doing one thing (or a limited number of things) at a time. They’re great for everyday tasks like web browsing, checking email, video streaming and more. All of those things can be done on Chromebooks as well, but Windows laptops have a big advantage in Microsoft Office. While yes, there is a browser based version, the native, desktop apps are considered a must have for many and will run smoothly on even the most bare-bones budget laptop. The only caveat is that you may run into some slowdown on low-powered devices if you’re multitasking or working with large data sets in Excel or a lot of photos and graphics in Powerpoint.

When it comes to specs, a bright spot for Windows laptops is storage. Even the most affordable devices tend to have at least a 128GB solid state drive. That will come in handy if you prefer to keep your most important files saved locally on your laptop's hard drive. In contrast, cheaper Chromebooks often have less storage because they’re built on the assumption that you’ll save all of your documents in the cloud. Not only is that less convenient when you need to work offline, but it also limits the size of programs and files that you can download. So, Chromebooks aren't the best for hoarding Netflix shows before a long trip or for use as a gaming laptop.

Windows also has thousands of apps that you can download from its app store. Chromebooks have some Chrome apps, numerous browser extensions and the ability to download Android apps, but quality control is… inconsistent. Android apps, in particular, often haven’t been optimized for Chrome OS, which makes for a wonky user experience. Windows may not have as many apps as Android, but at least the experience is fairly standard across the board.

Windows also gives you the ability to download and use programs from other sources, like direct from the developer. You can run things like Adobe Creative Suite, certain VPNs and programs like GIMP, Audacity and ClipMate on a Windows device, which just isn’t possible on Chrome OS. Chromebooks limit you to the apps and programs in The Play Store and the Chrome Extensions store, reducing any others to unusable, space-sucking icons in your Downloads folderThis article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/best-affordable-windows-laptops-123000512.html?src=rss

Welcome to our liveblog for Adobe Max London 2025. The 'creativity conference', as Adobe calls it, is where top designers and photographers show us how they're using the company's latest tools. But it's also where Adobe reveals the new features it's bringing to the likes of Photoshop, Firefly, Lightroom and more – and that's what we'll be focusing on in this live report direct from the show.The Adobe Max London 2025 keynote kicks off at 5am ET / 10am BST / 7pm ACT. You can tune onto the livestream on Adobe's websiteand also see demos from the show floor on the Adobe Live YouTube channel.But we're also at the show in London and will be bringing you all of the news as it happens here.Given Adobe has been racing to add AI features to its apps to compete with the likes of ChatGPT, Midjourney and others, we're expecting that to be a big theme of the London edition of Adobe Max – which is a forerunner of the main Max show in LA that kicks off on October 28.But there will also likely be a sprinkling on non-AI features and tools for everything from Photoshop to Illustrator – so whichever Creative Cloud app you use, you can follow all of the announcements here with us live from Adobe Max London 2025...

Welcome to Adobe Max London 2025

(Image credit: Future)

Good morning from London, where it's a classic grey April start. We're outside the Adobe Max London 2025 venue in Greenwich where there'll be a bit more color in the keynote that kicks off in about 15 minutes.It's going to be fascinating to see how Adobe bakes more AI-powered tools into apps like Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro and Firefly, without incurring the wrath of traditional fans who feel their skills are being sidelined by some of these new tricks.So if, like me, you're a longtime Creative Cloud user, it's going to be essential viewing...

Apple sees €500m EU fine for forcing users to use its own App StoreGoogle accused of not collecting genuine user consent, receives €200m fineThe US has already imposed tariffs on EU goods, but the fines could make things worse

The European Union has issued €700 million in fines to Apple and Meta under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), making them the first two companies to receive fines under the legislation.Both firms must comply within 60 days or they risk facing further penalties. Apple received €500 million in fines, while Meta was hit with a €200 million penalty.Besides aiming to squash the dominance of big tech in the region, the EU's DMA fines may also cause further tensions between Europe and the US amid ongoing trade wars.

EU fines

In the case of Apple, the European Union has criticized the iPhone maker for restricting alternative app marketplaces on iOS, accusing it of reinforcing the dependence on the Apple Store for both app developers and consumers.The EU says Apple must allow third-party app stores and sideloading on iOS, and naturally, Tim Cook's company isn't happy about the news, arguing that the EU is asking Apple to "give away our technology for free."It has acknowledged that Apple has, "made it easier for users to change default settings for calling, messaging, call filtering, keyboards, password managers and translation services on iPhones."For Meta, the European Union is accusing it of lacking genuine user consent in its 'consent or pay' model, violating DMA rules. In this business model, users had to allow data merging or pay a subscription to use Facebook/Instagram. Meta has accused the EU of "attempting to handicap successful American businesses," effectively imposing a multibillion-dollar tariff on the company and forcing it to offer an "inferior service."More broadly, the US has already imposed tariffs on EU goods, citing unfair tech regulation. Europe's fines, totalling €700 million for just these two companies, is almost certainly going to ruffle some feathers.TechRadar Pro has asked both companies to comment on the fines, but we didn't receive immediate responses.

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Microsoft claims "Frontier Firms" are leading the way with business AIWork Trend Index 2025 shows AI effects on productivity, trainingBut AI skills can also help boost job progression, Microsoft says

Microsoft has revealed new research extolling the virtues of utilizing AI tools in the workplace, but admitted major progress may still be some way off.The company's annual Work Trend Index report, which interviewed around 31,000 people across 31 different countries, highlighted the work being done by "Frontier Firms" - essentially those businesses fully embracing AI in the workplace.It claimed 82% of industry leaders said AI is already revolutionizing work in their organization - leading them to have to rethink strategy and ways of doing business.

Frontier Firms leading the way on AI

"We are entering a new reality — one in which AI can reason and solve problems in remarkable ways," Microsoft's Jared Spataro - CMO, AI at Work, said in a blog post accompanying the report."This intelligence on tap will rewrite the rules of business and transform knowledge work as we know it. Like the Industrial Revolution and the internet era, this transformation will take decades to show its full promise — and will bring broad technological, societal and economic change.""Frontier Firms" are understandably leading the way with the promise of AI, with the report claiming 71% of workers at these firms say their employer is "thriving" - compared to just 37% globally.Also understandably, AI is set to play a major role in improving various roles across the business, offering "a new lever for growth", Spataro noted.To satisfy the growing need for productivity increases, 82% of leaders expect to use digital labor to expand their workforce in the next 12 to 18 months, as human workers become overwhelmed with other tasks.This change is already in play, the report found, as nearly half (46%) of leaders said their organization is using agents to fully automate workstreams or business processes — with customer service, marketing and product development as the top AI investment priorities.And as companies of all sizes trim workforces, AI itself seems to be a safe bet for employment, with over three-quarters 78% of bosses saying they are considering hiring for new AI roles - and 83% believing AI will enable employees to take on more complex and strategic work earlier in their careers."2025 will be remembered as the year the Frontier Firm was born — the moment companies moved beyond experimenting with AI and began rebuilding around it," Spataro concluded."Like the digital native companies of a generation ago, they understand the power of pairing irreplaceable human insight with AI and agents to unlock outsized value. We’re giving customers the insight to anticipate what’s next — and the technology to help shape it."

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We are at the threshold of a groundbreaking new era – the Era of Intelligence – where technology is no longer just a tool but a catalyst for human potential. This is more than the rise of artificial intelligence; it is the beginning of a future where human ingenuity and machine intelligence merge to unlock unprecedented levels of creativity, efficiency, and innovation.The way we work is being redefined, shifting from routine tasks to high-impact contributions fueled by AI-driven insights and automation. Enterprise that embraces this transformation will create more dynamic, empowering, and purpose-driven workplaces where people can be more fulfilled and thrive like never before.As AI-powered experiences—voice interactions, real-time collaboration, automated workflows—become the foundation of modern work, our relationship with technology is evolving. The workplace is no longer confined to desks and screens; it is becoming an intelligent ecosystem that adapts to individual needs.To fully unlock this potential, organizations need the right infrastructure. Modernizing PC fleets is no longer an option but a strategic imperative. Upgrading to Windows 11 and AI-optimized hardware is not just about keeping up with technology—it is about staying ahead in an era where AI-driven efficiency and innovation define success.

The Future of Work is Intelligent—Your Hardware Must Keep Up

The digital tools we rely on daily, from browsers and productivity suites to collaboration platforms, are evolving to integrate AI. These applications are becoming more adaptive, more intuitive, and more capable of optimizing workflows. However, legacy hardware was never designed to support these intelligent functions, making performance sluggish and limiting AI’s transformative power.This is where the Neural Processing Unit (NPU) changes the equation. Just as GPUs revolutionized graphics, NPUs are specialized processors designed to handle AI workloads locally, reducing reliance on cloud computing. This shift enables real-time transcription, instant email drafting, and rapid data analysis, cutting hours from routine tasks. Recent Harvard Business School studies indicate that employees using AI tools complete tasks significantly faster and with higher-quality output, transforming the very nature of productivity.This isn’t just about convenience—it’s about redefining work itself. Developers using AI-powered coding assistants see dramatic efficiency gains, consultants leveraging AI analytics produce more accurate insights, and creative professionals unlock new levels of expression. Without modern hardware, organizations risk missing out on these innovations, leaving employees to struggle with slow processing, frequent crashes, and diminished efficiency.

Security and Stability Built for the Modern Era’s Enterprise

Despite the excitement surrounding AI PCs, misconceptions persist—particularly around security. Many enterprise IT leaders are unaware that AI PCs are inherently more secure than their traditional counterparts. This lack of understanding has created hesitation, even though AI PCs offer some of the most advanced security protections available today.One of the biggest advantages of AI PCs is their ability to process sensitive workloads locally, reducing reliance on cloud-based computing and minimizing exposure to cyber threats. When coupled with Windows 11’s advanced security features, such as TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot, AI PCs provide a robust defense against evolving cyber risks. At the same time, AI-driven IT management tools automate security monitoring, reducing the workload on IT teams and strengthening enterprise resilience.The pressure on IT decision-makers is immense. Studies show that nearly 90% of IT leaders cite the rapid pace of technological change as a major source of stress. AI PCs are designed to alleviate this burden by streamlining security protocols, automating routine maintenance, and enhancing overall system stability. Rather than adding complexity, AI PCs simplify IT operations while making organizations more secure and adaptable.

The AI PC Adoption Curve: From Skepticism to Standard

Like any transformative technology, AI PCs are following a predictable adoption curve, though at an accelerated pace. Early adopters—primarily enterprises with well-developed AI strategies—began experimenting with AI PCs in 2024. These organizations, driven by the need for enhanced security and speed, accounted for roughly 8-13% of enterprise IT customers evaluating AI PCs.As AI-driven enterprise applications mature, the benefits of AI PCs are becoming more apparent. Over the next two years, organizations will begin rolling out AI PCs to power users—developers, analysts, and executives—who rely on AI for advanced workloads. By 2026, AI-driven workflows will be deeply integrated into business operations, and AI PCs will transition from niche adoption to mainstream deployment, making up at least half of all enterprise PC purchases.However, enterprises are not resisting AI PCs—they are looking for clarity. Many IT leaders need better insights into the tangible ROI of AI investments, while others are working through concerns about implementation costs and security risks. But as AI’s impact becomes undeniable, enterprises will transition from evaluation to action, incorporating AI PCs as a fundamental part of their IT strategy.

From Features to Experiences: Shaping the Future of Work

When IT leaders evaluate AI PCs, they often focus on specifications and features. However, the real transformation lies in the experiences these devices enable. AI PCs are not just about faster processing or better battery life—they are about fundamentally reimagining how people work.Imagine a world where meetings are automatically summarized, emails are drafted based on conversational context, and data insights are generated proactively. AI PCs enable these seamless experiences, ensuring that workers spend less time on administrative tasks and more time on meaningful, high-value work. Despite this potential, research shows a disconnect: while nearly three-quarters of workers believe that having the right technology is critical to productivity, only 23% feel their company provides it. Bridging this gap is essential.AI PCs are not just tools; they are catalysts for a new way of working. This shift goes beyond individual productivity—it is about reshaping entire industries, enhancing collaboration, and enabling a more adaptive workforce.

The Time is Now

Upgrading to AI PCs is more than a refresh—it is an investment in the future of work. Enterprises must think beyond the immediate need to replace outdated hardware and recognize the long-term impact of AI-enabled computing. Companies that embrace this shift today will be at the forefront of the intelligent workplace, leading the charge in efficiency, innovation, and security.Rather than upgrading an entire fleet at once, organizations can take a phased approach, prioritizing power users and high-impact roles for early adoption. A well-planned transition strategy—supported by employee training, clear communication, and the right technology partners—will ensure that businesses maximize the benefits of AI PCs without disrupting operations.The AI revolution is not a distant future; it is happening now. The question is no longer whether businesses will adopt AI PCs—it is how quickly they will move. Those that take action today will define the next era of work.

We've reviewed the best business computers.

This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

GameStop has launched its Switch 2 pre-order offersYou can save up to $175 by trading in your old Switch consoleRates differ depending on which system you trade in

US pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 have gone live today (April 24), and retailer GameStop is ready with a seriously tempting Switch 2 trade-in offer.If you pre-order a Nintendo Switch 2 at GameStop, you can save up to $175 off the price of the console when you trade in your old Switch, Switch OLED, or Switch Lite console. That's a pretty chunky saving, and one you may want to keep in mind if you're not all too keen on paying $449.99 for the new system - or indeed $499.99 for the Mario Kart World bundle.Rates will differ depending on which console you trade in, and GameStop will reportedly offer less for systems whose Joy-Con controllers are suffering from stick drift. In better news, though, it seems you won't have to worry about losing your save data, as GameStop's 'Transfer and Trade' program seems to be in effect here, according to its socials.Here's a quick breakdown of what you can potentially save with GameStop's Switch 2 trade-in offers:

Nintendo Switch 2 trade-in deals: save up to $175 at GameStopThe good news is that Nintendo hasn't raised the price of the Nintendo Switch 2 console in the States. The better news is that you can save up to $175 when trading in your old Switch at GameStop. You'll get the full rate for a Switch OLED, $125 for the standard Switch, and lastly $100 for a Switch Lite.View Deal

After a Switch 2 pre-order delay that came as a result of the ongoing tariff situation uncertainty, Nintendo has thankfully not raised the price of the Switch 2 console in the US. Better yet, you stand to save even more if you choose to trade in your original Switch system at GameStop.Of course, the elephant in the room is that such an offer won't necessarily make the stock situation any easier. But you can at least save cash ahead of time by trading in your Switch console early.Be sure to read my Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order tips guide to put yourself in the best position when it comes to securing a console for yourself. And of course, you can bookmark and keep an eye on our Nintendo Switch 2 pre-orders live coverage for all the latest stock updates as they happen.

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If you're a frequent Photoshop user, there's a good chance you've run into this scenario. You open the program after a long break to edit an image, but this being Photoshop we're talking about, there are about five different ways to complete the task before you and you can't quite remember the way you learned to do it. Adobe is trying to make it easier to use its flagship app with the introduction of a built-in AI agent that can navigate Photoshop and complete tasks for users. At its Adobe Max London event today, the company demoed this agent, showing how it can automate multi-step workflows.

Users can access the tool from the redesigned Actions panel. If you've used an AI chat bot before, the interface will be familiar. There's a text box for users to input what they want the agent to do for them, with a list of suggested prompts above. Once you hit enter, the tool will display all the steps needed to complete your request, allowing you to follow along as it does the work for you. Judging by the demos Adobe shared with press before the event, the agent can complete nearly any task you might turn to Photoshop to do. In one example, the tool first applies a color gradient to text, and then does the same for the background behind it.

Adobe

At the same event, Adobe showed off a new version of its Firefly app, which brings together all of the company's AI image, video, audio and vector generation tools in one easy to find place. The redesigned Firefly is available to use on the web today, with Android and iOS apps coming soon. Additionally, each part of the app is powered by new underlying models that offer better performance.

With image generation, for instance, Adobe is offering two new in-house systems, the imaginatively named Firefly Image Model 4 and Firefly Image Model 4 Ultra. Of the former, the company says it can produce 2K resolution images, making it possible to print what the model generates. Adobe claims both systems offer best-in-class human rendering. All of Adobe's own models are commercially safe, meaning they weren't trained on copyrighted material, and creative professionals can feel safe using them.

"By unifying image, video, audio and vector generation and providing unmatched creative control, Firefly empowers creative professionals to work more productively and with an unmatched degree of precision," Adobe said. "Seamlessly integrated with Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Express and Adobe’s other creative applications, it offers AI-powered assistance throughout every stage of the content creation process – from ideation through production."

Adobe

If Adobe's models aren't thing, the company is also — for the first time — offering third-party models directly within the Firefly app. With today's announcement, some of the more notable options include Google's Imagen 3 and Veo 2 models, as well as ChatGPT image generation, with more to come later. As part of Adobe's agreements with Google, OpenAI and other model providers, those companies have agreed to not use data from Adobe users for training their future AI systems. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/adobes-new-ai-agent-can-show-you-how-to-use-photoshop-090049772.html?src=rss