Amazon has launched Alexa+ , its next-generation digital assistant, in Canada . The company unveiled the new assistant in February , and it has been making its way to more and more people since. Canada is the first region outside the US to get access Amazons upgraded Alexa. Like the version that rolled out in the US, users can communicate with Alexa+ in natural language. They can say Im cold, for instance, and the assistant will turn up the heat in their home. If they say Its dark, Alexa+ can sw

Stop me if you've heard this one before: xAI is once again nuking a bunch of posts from Grok on X after the chatbot made a series of outrageous claims. This time, though, the company isn't cleaning up a bunch of pro-Hitler posts , but a bout of cringe-inducing sycophantic praise for its CEO, Elon Musk. At some point in the last couple days, Grok began to offer extremely over the top opinions about Musk. The bot claimed that Musk is the undisputed pinnacle of holistic fitness and that he is more

FoloToy, a company selling AI-enabled toys, suspended sales of its products after a consumer safety report showed there were few restrictions around what its toys would talk about, CNN writes . The report, put together by the US Public Interest Research Group Education Fund , found that FoloToy's products would discuss everything from sexually explicit topics like BDSM to advice on where a child can find matches or knives. The toys, including a teddy bear named Kumma, a panda named Momo, anthrop

Meta is rolling out a way for people to interact together in its virtual spaces. Users will now be able to invite friends to hang out in the spaces created with Hyperscape on Meta Horizon. Up to eight people can join an instance, as long as they are age 18 or older and have the link to the space. The virtual spaces can be joined through a Meta Quest 3 or 3S as well as via the Meta Horizon mobile app, which is on both Android and iOS. People can scan their own homes to create a virtual hangout wh

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 knew how to lay on the camp. But it wasnt only known for having some of the most delightfully cheesy cutscenes this side of The 7th Guest . Red Alert 2 was also an acclaimed real-time strategy game for its time, and its still perfectly playable today. Want to see for yourself? Its now as easy as opening your browser. The Chrono Divide project (via PC Gamer ) lets you play the 2000 RTS in Chrome, Edge, or Safari. Although it supports Firefox, too, its developer says

Preservation has become a pressing topic for games in this era of digital-only releases and games-as-a-service. So it's wonderful to have a big win in archiving a trio of seminal text games for the ages. Microsoft announced today that the code for Zork , Zork II and Zork III will be made available open source under the MIT License. The company's Open Source Programs Office, Xbox and Activision all contributed to the effort. The goal is not to modernize Zork but to preserve it as a space for expl

A major selling point of the Xbox Ally and Ally X is that they ship with a full screen version of Windows that plays nice with handheld PCs. As part of the company's recent Xbox Partner Showcase , Microsoft has announced that the Windows full screen experience or FSE is finally rolling out to all other Windows 11 handhelds starting November 21. For the most part, FSE lets you live inside a touch and controller-friendly version of the Xbox PC app, rather than the normal Windows desktop. The launc

After what was apparently a successful testing period, OpenAI has announced that it is rolling out group chats in ChatGPT to all logged-in users on ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus and Pro plans globally over the coming days. The company first started testing a way to collaborate with peers directly inside ChatGPT around a week ago in Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan. Once you start a chat in ChatGPT you can invite other people to join (up to 20 in a chat), either with their existing ChatGPT acc

Stop me if you've heard this one before: Meta has been fined for unlawfully processing user data to gain a market advantage . On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Madrid court ordered the company to pay 479 million ($552 million) in damages to 87 Spanish media outlets. The fine stems from the company changing its legal grounds for harvesting personal data after new regulations took effect. The court found that Meta's data collection practices violated the EU's General Data Protection Regulation

CloverPit is one of my favorite games of the year so far , and it just arrived on Xbox without prior notice. As revealed during Thursdays Xbox partner showcase , Panik Arcades nightmarish take on the ills of capitalism and gambling is out now on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. You can play CloverPit via the cloud or the Xbox PC app too, as its on Game Pass Ultimate and Premium as well as PC Game Pass. On the surface, the game is pretty simple. Youre locked in a rusty room that looks like something

As the future of physical media looks increasingly grim, it feels like more and more gaming enthusiasts are turning to the classics, back to a time when buying a game meant actually owning it, and the games themselves were more willing to be complete thoughts rather than endless services. If you know someone who has fallen down the old-games rabbit hole, weve rounded up a few retro-themed gift ideas that should delight this holiday season, from video upscalers to portable consoles to vintage wal

The survival horror game Total Chaos has been in development for years and it's finally available for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC . Incidentally, this a Game Pass release if you're hankering to spend $30 a month . The launch announcement was made during a recent Xbox Partner Showcase . This is an interesting title for a number of reasons. First of all, it's absolutely dripping with style. The art direction seems plucked right out of the Alan Wake universe. It also seems to have somethi

After its most recent successful New Glenn mission , Blue Origin is announcing propulsion upgrades to its star rocket, and plans for a larger super-heavy class rocket that puts the company in even closer competition with SpaceX. Blue Origin says New Glenn will get higher-performing engines at both stages, with the total thrust of the booster engines increasing from 3.9 million lbf to 4.5 million lbf. The total thrust of the upper stage of the rocket, meanwhile, is going from 320,000 lbf to 400,0

Co-op horror game Reanimal will be released on February 13, 2026. If you simply can't wait until Valentine's Day to have an eerie experience with a fellow horror-loving person, you can check out a demo that dropped today. The announcement was part of the Xbox Partner Preview showcase, but you can also try the demo on PC and PlayStation 5. We got a first glimpse at the next creepy creation from Tarsier Games, which made the first two installments of the Little Nightmares games, last year during G

Google just unveiled its Nano Banana Pro image generation platform , which is also going by the name Gemini 3 Pro Image. The company promises this is an improvement over previous versions of the software in nearly every way. Google says it will turn your visions into studio-quality designs with unprecedented control, flawless text rendering and enhanced world knowledge. The text rendering portion seems to have gotten a big upgrade here, as Nano Banana Pro can create context-rich infographics and

Perplexity is continuing the rollout of its AI browser to more users. Comet is now available to download for Android mobile devices from the Google Play Store. Comet initially debuted this summer only to Perplexity's high-rolling subscribers on the $200-a-month Pro plan, but it expanded access to all users last month. It's free on Android as it now is on other platforms, and has many of the same features as the desktop version. The mobile option has access to Perplexity's AI assistant, and it ca

Poncle has been pretty darn busy lately. Along with greenlighting a licensed Warhammer take on Vampire Survivors , bringing a VR version of the original game to the world and working on crossover expansions , the studio is making a brand-new game. Vampire Crawlers is a Vampire Survivors spinoff. Rather than running around the map to collect gems to level up and unlock or upgrade auto-firing weapons, Vampire Crawlers has a different format. Its a dungeon-crawling roguelike deckbuilder. Its set in

Remember way back in 2024, when Qualcomm said most x86 Windows games would run smoothly on its Arm chipsets ? Well, those promises were, shall we say, a bit premature. But with this week's launch of the Snapdragon Control Panel (along with other updates), the company says things are finally looking up for Snapdragon X Elite laptop owners. Alongside the launch of faster new chips, Qualcomm has made some quality-of-life improvements on the software end. Chief among them is this week's arrival of t

Count this as the latest unexpected detente between Apple and Google. Today, Google announced that the Pixel 10 series of phones can use Android Quick Share with the iPhones AirDrop feature, meaning itll be much easier to shoot files and photos between the two platforms. While this feature is currently limited to Pixel 10 series phones, Google says it is looking to expand the feature to other devices. Google dropped details on how it made this work from a privacy and security standpoint in its t

The Trump administration has drafted an executive order that would effectively block states from enacting their own AI regulations. According to a draft document obtained by Politico , the effort would entail a multifaceted approach including an AI Litigation Task Force run by the DOJ. This indicates the president has not wavered in his desire to eschew federalism in favor of a more centralized power structure around artificial intelligence. This past summer, the administration released its AI A

The rise of cloud-based streaming for games has made it possible to play plenty of high-profile games on Chromebooks not natively, but when youre using a primarily web-based platform youll take what you can get. As of today, Googles making it easier for new Chromebook buyers to play games right out of the box. Anyone who buys a Chromebook will get 12 months of access to GeForce Now, NVIDIAs cloud-streaming service that lets you access games you own on platforms like Steam, Xbox and so forth. It

Some people shop Black Friday sales for discounts on shoes and socket wrenches, duvet covers and blow up mattresses none of those things are on this list. Here youll find only the best electronics for less than $50 a pop. These are all gadgets and accessories weve tested for our buying guides , recommended in our gift guides or reviewed for, well, our reviews . For less than $50, you can pick up Engadget-approved gear like earbuds, smart speakers, streaming sticks, power banks, smart plugs, Blu

Dave the Diver , the smash hit adventure RPG/management hybrid, is finally available on Xbox. The game, about an intrepid scuba diver named Dave who splits his time between underwater adventuring and serving sushi in a local restaurant, started as a PC exclusive in 2023, but has since made its way to Switch, Switch 2, PS4 and PS5. Only Xbox remained, but its here now, along with all DLC released to date. Since launch, developer Mintrocket has added to the lengthy base game campaign with a number

These days, Black Friday is the longest day of the year. We're only halfway through November, but amazing deals are already popping up for some of our favorite subscription services. This is a great time to lock in a long-term deal on a streaming platform, but there's even more to explore beyond that, from a big discount on Quicken (which you can use to chart all the money you're saving) and one of the best offers I've ever seen for DeleteMe (which cleans your personal data off the internet whil

Spotify definitely wants you to only use Spotify for streaming music, but its willing to admit that you might have used another service in the past. Those people can now more easily import their playlists into the Spotify app, thanks to its latest integration with TuneMyMusic . Available through Spotify mobile users and rolling out globally from today, you can access the new feature through Your Library in the Spotify app. Scroll to the bottom and youll see an option to import your music by conn

Apple's AirPods 4 have dropped back down to a record low price in an Amazon Black Friday deal. If you aren't looking for active noise cancellation, the model without ANC is a steal at 34 percent off, bringing it down to just $85 from its usual price of $130. The Apple AirPods 4 are the best budget AirPods you can get in 2025, with Apple's H2 audio chip to support some of the more advanced audio features from more expensive models. They offer Voice Isolation, Personalized Spatial Audio with dynam

Uber Eats has announced it'll soon start using Starship robots to complete food deliveries in certain parts of the UK, beginning in the Leeds and Sheffield areas. These little robo-couriers will only be able to handle deliveries from select merchants for the time being. The robots won't accept tips, for obvious reasons, but customers can still rate their experience via the app. We aren't sure what happens to a particular robot with enough bad ratings. Maybe it gets sent to a farm in the countrys

WhatsApp is going back to the past for its latest feature. In fact, its going all the way back, because its reviving the very first WhatsApp feature. You can think of About (the creators were really not very good at naming things, huh?) as a status update or WhatsApps version of an AIM away message. Its designed to let your contacts know at a glance what youve got going on, such as something thats keeping you busy and might make you slow to respond to messages. The About message appears on both

Google is gradually replacing the outgoing Assistant with Gemini in all of its apps, and now its the turn of Android Auto. In the next few months, any Android users who have made the jump to Gemini on their phones will be able to interact with the next-generation AI assistant while driving using natural language. The Gemini-ification of Google Maps has already happened, and its new features are also coming to Android Auto. You can do things like ask the AI about restaurants that serve a specific

If you'd rather not spend the money on a brand new TV this year, you can make an old set feel new again with a streaming device. Our favorite streaming device is on sale right now for Black Friday: you can grab the Google TV Streamer 4K for only $75, which is the lowest price we've seen so far. The Google TV Streamer is our top pick for an all-in-one streaming device . It has a faster processor than Google's previous streaming devices (22 percent faster, according to the company), so you can swi

Black Friday is a banner time to pick up some of the latest gear from Apple for a discount. Engadget has been reviewing Apples products for, oh, 20 years or so this year alone saw us evaluate, among others, the latest-gen AirPods Pro , the new Apple Watches , the iPad Pro M5 , the iPad Air M3 , a bunch of MacBooks and, of course, all models of the iPhone 17 lineup. Speaking of which, you wont see iPhone deals represented here service and contract-related discounts tend to make those savings a

Action cams make great gifts, or if you're a photographer, a solid addition to your kit. Black Friday deals usually mean you can pick up new cameras and accessories for less, and this year is no different. One of the best deals we've found is on the GoPro Hero 13 Black action cam, which is down to $310 for Black Friday. That's a discount of 23 percent or $90. This model topped our list of the best action cameras , and for good reason. It's a fantastic device with all kinds of bells and whistles

French authorities are investigating allegations that Grok made statements denying the Holocaust. The Paris public prosecutor's office said it was adding Elon Musks chatbots latest controversy to a criminal probe initially launched in July. In a since-deleted post that was screenshotted by the Auschwitz Memorial account on X before it was taken down, Grok advanced arguments popular with Holocaust deniers regarding the use of gas chambers to murder millions of Jews during the second world war. It

The DJI Neo drone is on sale for $159 as part of an early Black Friday deal. This is 20 percent off and represents a record low price. It's a heck of a deal, given that the original asking price is nearly $200. There's just one caveat. The price is only for Amazon Prime members. The DJI Neo was recently pushed off our list of the best drones in favor of the newer Neo 2 , but the original is still a fantastic, budget-friendly option. We called it the best $200 drone ever made in our official revi

If youve been waiting to grab a PlayStation 5, this Black Friday deal is worth noting. Sonys latest consoles are getting a $100 discount across the board starting November 21, dropping the PS5 Digital Edition to $399, the standard PS5 to $449 and the PS5 Pro to $649. Thats one of the best prices weve seen on Sonys hardware this year. You'll find the deals direct at Sony and from other retailers including Amazon and Walmart when they launch on Friday. Sonys flagship console remains one of the mos

MasterClass is running a limited-time offer that cuts up to 50 percent off all annual subscriptions for Black Friday . The deal gives you access to hundreds of lessons taught by experts and well-known names across nearly every field, from cooking and business to film and design. MasterClass has built a reputation as one of the best streaming platforms for learning new skills and creative hobbies. The service features courses led by industry leaders who share practical insights drawn from their o

The fifth and final season of Stranger Things is almost upon us (well, the first part of it, anyway), which means there are Brand Integrations afoot. One of those involves Fortnite and a new map for the fast-paced Blitz mode. Starting on November 21, it seems that youll be able to go into the Upside Down for quickfire matches at a creepy version of the Creel House. The trailer indicates that there will be skins of several of the main characters available, so you should be able to play as Lucas,

When it comes to holiday video game gifts, Nintendo gear is often at the top of the list for kids and adults like. This year likely more so than ever thanks to the launch of the Switch 2 back in the spring. But fi you were hoping to save money on the console with Black Friday deals , you may be disappointed. The Nintendo Black Friday sale was just announced , and unsurprisingly, there are a scant few real deals to be had. This is typical of Nintendo, though actual Nintendo Black Friday deals ar

While there are lots of great Black Friday sales on cheaper devices, it's the big ticket items that really make a world of difference. Take Apple's 2024 Mac mini M4 , which has dropped to $479 from $599 as part of early Black Friday deals . The 20 percent discount brings Apple's mini desktop computer with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD to only $10 more than its all-time low. We gave the Mac mini M4 a 90 in our review , in part, because it packs an incredible amount of power into such a small desig

Sling TV is one of the best live streaming streaming services out there right now, giving you the option to watch a number of traditional cable channels without the traditional, locked-in price of a cable subscription. For Black Friday, you can save on Sling TV's newly announced $5 Day Passes . That $5 price is the regular cost for a limited time through November 30, a Day Pass for Sling Orange is only $1 and that includes access to 34 channels like ESPN, ESPN 2 and ESPN 3. Besides ESPN, the Sl

Black Friday is arguably the best time of the year to pick up small kitchen appliances like blenders, toaster ovens and air fryers. In the latter category, one of our favorites is on sale right now for a great price. The Ninja DZ401 dual-zone air fryer is down to $180, which is 22 percent off its normal price. Admittedly, we have seen this model a bit cheaper in the past, but if youre on cooking duty for Thanksgiving, you might not have the option of waiting until what could be a deeper discount

Verizon is set to lay off more than 13,000 employees and every part of the company will be going through some changes, CEO Dan Schulman has confirmed. The company is reducing its headcount and cutting back on outsourcing and other external labor expenses in service of building a stronger Verizon, Schulman wrote in a memo to staff . The company will also convert 179 retail stores that it owns into franchised outlets and it will close one store. In September, Verizon said it had around 100,000 ful

If you, like me a few months ago, didn't know fabric shavers existed, I'm willing to bet you're not alone. Not too long ago, I went looking for something, anything, that could help get rid of the pilling on some of my most loved pieces of clothing. I stumbled upon the Philips Fabric Shaver in my search and was pleasantly surprised to learn such a device existed and in such a cute, compact form. I decided to give it a shot and now it's an essential piece of tech in my house. Thanks to Black Frid

Amazon Black Friday deals almost always include discounts on Fire TV devices and Fire TV sets. This year is no different, and some of the best discounts bring Fire TV streaming dongles down to near record-low prices. Case in point: the Fire TV Stick 4K Max is 41 percent off and down to only $35. The Fire TV Stick 4K Max is one of Engadget's favorite streaming devices . The stick supports a solid mix of advanced technologies for its price: Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, 4K and HDR10+. As long as the

NASAs James Webb Space Telescope has shown us images of space wed never see otherwise, and one of the latest wonders it has captured is of an unusual star system in our galaxy with what the agency describes as four serpentine spirals of dust. Previous observations of the Apep system, named after the Egyptian god of chaos and located around 8,000 light-years away from Eath, showed only one shell. But as you can see in the mid-infrared image captured by Webb above, it actually has four shells, wit

Apples latest MacBook Air M4 is now discounted to $749 for Black Friday . The deal applies to the entry-level 13-inch model, giving you the same sharp Liquid Retina display and impressive M4 performance that we praised in our review , now for less. The MacBook Air M4 continues Apples streak of refining whats already its most popular laptop. It runs on the new M4 chip with a 10-core GPU, offering fast performance for everyday work, creative apps and light gaming. The upgrade from the M3 model is

Meta's entry-level VR headset, the Quest 3S, is down to an even more budget-friendly price than usual in a deal on Amazon right now. The 128GB Meta Quest 3S is 17 percent off in an early Black Friday deal, bringing it to a record-low price of $250. It normally goes for $300. With the purchase, you also get the game Gorilla Tag for free. The Meta Quest 3S is an impressive VR headset for the price, and scored a 90 in Engadget's review , landing it among our picks for the best VR headsets around ri

For home cooks, kitchen tools are the equipment that make all your favorite dishes and meals possible. And while having the fanciest gear certainly isn't a requirement, it is really nice, which makes products like the ones here such great gifts. These are the kind of things that people want but might not be able to justify buying for themselves, or essential pieces that would be handy additions to any kitchen or pantry. So if you're looking for present ideas for the chef in your life, check out

Spotify has unveiled an upcoming interactive feature called SongDNA designed to show you the samples, collaborators and covers included in a given track, the company announced. As part of that update, Spotify also revealed that it has acquired WhoSampled , the company behind the SongDNA technology. Through our recent discussions with Spotify, it became clear that we share a strong belief in the power of musical context and a vision for helping listeners go deeper into the songs they love, the W

The iPad A16 is now on sale for $280 for Black Friday , giving you a chance to pick up Apples newest entry-level tablet at a discount. Its the most affordable iPad in the current lineup, offering quick performance, strong battery life and all the essentials for everyday use. The discount applies to the silver and blue colorways. Apples latest 11-inch iPad uses the A16 chip, the same processor found in the iPhone 15, delivering fast and reliable performance for most tasks. Whether youre watching