It's been a minute since you've been able to get a USB phone charger bundled with most new flagship smartphones . That means you actually need to think about which one you should get instead, and how much you ought to spend. But the bright side is that, if you pick the right charging brick, it can act as a multi-purpose device that can top up a variety of gadgets while also reducing how much gear you need to carry while traveling. That said, before you buy anything, there are some important thin

Razer has to pay over $1.1 million to the Federal Trade Commission to settle complaints that it advertised its infamous Zephyr masks as N95-grade when it didn't get them certified at all. The gaming peripheral maker released Zephyr, its high-tech face mask with built-in RGB lighting, during the height of the pandemic. Half a year later, in early 2022, it introduced a Pro version that added voice amplification. Razer said back then the Zephyr was as effective as an N95 mask, but it later rene

The latest generation of Apple's eternally popular AirPods Pro are back down to their all-time low price of $180 at Amazon. The deal takes $10 off the typical sale price of $190 and a solid $69 off the $249 MSRP. The last time we saw this price tag was during Amazon's spring sale in March . Apple updated the charging case when the iPhone 15 came out last year to give both devices a more universal USB-C port (both can also charge wirelessly). If you have an iPhone, we think these are one of the b

Meta is offering some creators thousands of dollars if they go viral on Threads. The payouts are part of a new invitation-only bonus program that rewards creators who use Metas newest app. An Instagram support page offers some details about the bonus program, which Meta hasnt formally announced. It states that creators can earn money based on the performance of your Threads posts or the number of posts you create. It appears that specific terms of the bonuses are individualized to each creator.

Streamflation is real y'all. Peacock just announced its raising prices again, less than a year after it last upped subscription costs . The new price will be $8 per month for Peacock with ads and $14 per month for an ad-free experience, starting on July 18 for new subscribers and August 17 for pre-existing users. An ad-free subscription will be the same price as Disney+ and nearly as much as Netflix. Mrs. Davis was good , but was it that good? To put this into perspective, just one year ago

On Monday, the US Supreme Court dismissed Elon Musks appeal about a 2018 SEC settlement regarding his infamous funding secured tweet . Ars Technica reports that the conservative-majority court took a break from weighing whether US Presidents should be above the law to pass on Musks attempt to throw out the agreement, which required him to pay fines, step down from Teslas board and have his tweets pre-screened by a lawyer. The justices denied Musks petition without commenting. Their unwillingness

Apples iPad has been added to the list of tech products that must abide by the EUs DMA rules, as reported by Bloomberg . The European Commission has officially designated iPadOS as a gatekeeper under the DMA, alongside the Safari web browser, the iOS operating system and the App Store. The organization states that users are basically locked-in to Apples iPadOS ecosystem and that it disincentivizes people from switching to competitors. The company has six months to comply with various preemptive

Walmart's Discovered experience started out last year as a way for kids to buy virtual items for Roblox inside the game. But today, that partnership is testing out an expanded pilot program that will allow teens to buy real-life goods stocked on digital shelves before they're shipped to your door. Available to children 13 and up in the US, the latest addition to Walmart Discovered is an IRL commerce shop featuring items created by partnered user-generated content creators including MD17_RBLX, Ju

The European Union is getting ready to launch a new investigation into Meta over its handling of election-related content, according to a new report in The Guardian . Details of the investigation could be announced later this week, but European officials are reportedly concerned about deceptive advertising and political content. According to the Financial Times , the EU has also raised concerns about Russias efforts to undermine upcoming European elections and other foreign interference campaign

The Financial Times has become the latest news organization to strike a deal with OpenAI. In a joint announcement on Monday, the Financial Times and OpenAI said that maker of ChatGPT will use the Financial Times journalism to train its AI models and collaborate on developing new AI products and features for the publications readers. ChatGPT will also attribute and and link back to the Financial Times when it includes information from the publication in its responses It is right, of course, that

Getir is hightailing it out of everywhere but Turkey. On Monday, the instant delivery startup said it would exit the US, UK, Germany and the Netherlands to serve its Turkish home market exclusively. TechCrunch notes the closures are likely to wipe out 6,000 jobs at the company. Getir's business model, distinct from traditional shopping services like Instacart (which has problems of its own ), involves establishing micro-fulfillment centers in urban areas that carry groceries and household essent

OpenAI has been hit with a privacy complaint in Austria by an advocacy group called NOYB , which stands for None Of Your Business. The complaint alleges that the companys ChatGPT bot repeatedly provided incorrect information about a real individual (who for privacy reasons is not named in the complaint), as reported by Reuters . This may breach EU privacy rules. The chatbot allegedly spat out incorrect birthdate information for the individual, instead of just saying it didnt know the answer to t

If you've been planning on buying an Apple Watch Series 9 , today looks like a decent time to take the plunge. The smartwatch is currently on sale for $299 at multiple retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy , Target and Walmart . That's not quite the lowest price we've seen a couple colorways briefly fell to $269 earlier this month, for instance but steeper discounts have generally been uncommon. This deal takes about $30 off the watch's typical street price on Amazon, and it's $100 less than b

Whether your mom keeps on top of the latest tech trends or still calls you for help logging into her email account, a carefully considered gadget can be a practical way to tell her thanks for, yknow, putting up with you. Sure, the usual flowers, breakfast in bed or complementary spa day will always be worthwhile Mothers Day gifts, but if you want to take a different (and much nerdier) approach, a good piece of tech can make her life easier even after the holiday has passed. If you need some help

DJIs latest product is another Mini drone. It can capture 4K video at up to 30 fps and 60 fps footage at 2.7K resolution, with increased video bitrates up to 100Mbps, which should ensure higher quality video at both settings. While those specs may not excite, maybe the price will. Not to be confused with the Mini Pro series, which is several hundred dollars more, the $299 Mini 4K weighs less than 249g, is foldable and requires no FAA registration. The specifications wont move the Mini series for

Surviving high school is a major milestone, but the transition to young adulthood that comes after is often as overwhelming as it is exciting. If you have a recent high school grad in your life, a pragmatic gift to celebrate the occasion could make their next chapter just a bit easier to manage. Below weve put together a list of tested and approved gadgets, gear and services that should delight, regardless of if your giftee is heading to a new campus or starting a new job. This article originall

Apple Vision Pro headset production is reportedly being cut, sales are reportedly way down. But but but wait: Wasnt the Vision Pro meant to change the world of VR/AR, ushering in an era of spatial computing? Is the dream over? Hah, no. As Sam Rutherford laid out just before the weekend, while reports and rumors cant nail exact numbers, based on financial figures from Apples last earnings, Vision Pro sales likely equate to around one percent of the companys revenue. Its almost as if early Vision

Apple makes two types of laptops: the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro. As of March of this year, both sport the companys latest in-house silicon, the M3 chip and you can still buy the 13-inch M2 MacBook Air if youre on a budget. With just two families of notebooks, the lineup is far simpler than most PC manufacturers, but theres still a lot of variation. Your preference of screen size, chip type, memory capacity and storage options could make picking out a new MacBook more difficult than you an

The popular Nintendo emulator, Delta, that arrived on the App Store for iPhone to much fanfare a few weeks ago is now getting a version thats optimized for the iPad. Developer Riley Testut shared an update on Threads this weekend revealing that an iPad app has been in the works, and is now being prioritized since Apple changed its tune on game emulators. The iPad app is near completion, and subscribers to Testuts Patreon can get it now through the AltStore, an alternative marketplace the develop

Apples Let Loose iPad event is just over a week away, and the rumors in the leadup are starting to get interesting. According to Bloomberg s Mark Gurman , the much-anticipated OLED iPad Pro may arrive not with the new M3 chip as weve all been expecting, but the next-gen M4 instead. In the Power On newsletter on Sunday, Gurman wrote that hes hearing there is a strong possibility that this will be the case. And, he says itll herald Apples official entry into AI. I believe Apple will position the t

Eken Group has reportedly issued a firmware update to resolve major security issues with its cheap doorbell cameras that were uncovered by a Consumer Reports investigation earlier this year. The cameras in question pair with the Aiwit app and are sold under a slew of brand names, including Eken, Tuck, Fishbot, Rakeblue, Andoe, Gemee and Luckwolf. During its tests, the watchdog found that the unencrypted cameras could expose sensitive information like home IP addresses and Wi-Fi networks, and all

Google filed a motion on Friday in a Virginia federal court asking for the Department of Justices antitrust lawsuit against it to be thrown away. The DOJ sued Google in January 2023, accusing the company of monopolizing digital advertising technologies through anticompetitive and exclusionary conduct. Per Bloomberg , Google is now seeking summary judgment to avoid the case going to trial in September as planned. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said at the time the lawsuit was first announced

Something is up with Apple ID this weekend. As reported by 9to5Mac , Apple users started complaining online last night that theyd been logged out of their Apple IDs on all of their devices without explanation. Upon trying to log back in, some say they were locked out of their accounts despite entering the correct details, and had to reset their passwords. Engadget has reached out to Apple for more information. I was mid FaceTime with @milesabovetech and my Apple account got locked and signed out

I allowed myself to play Fire Emblem Engage on the easiest possible mode, and it finally got me back into gaming. The first time I picked up a Fire Emblem game back in 2010, a friend told me that the only correct way to play is in Classic mode with permanent death. For some reason, I took that to heart, and I played each subsequent game ready to restart my console during every skirmish and story battle so that I didnt lose any of my friends. Due to unexpected upheavals in my personal life over t

Apple has resumed conversations with OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, to power some AI features coming to iOS 18, according to a new report in Bloomberg . Apple is also building its own large language models to power some iOS 18 features, but its talks with OpenAI are centered around a chatbot/search component, according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman. Apple is also reportedly in talks with Google to license Gemini, Googles own AI-powered chatbot, for iOS 18. Bloomberg reports that those talks a

According to a court document viewed by Engadget, the Federal Trade Commission accused Amazon of using Signals disappearing messages feature to conceal communications as part of its antitrust suit against the company . The FTC says the retailer continued to auto-delete its communications even after the agency notified it that it was under investigation and asked it to preserve them. Founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos and current CEO Andy Jassy are among the accused. For years, Amazons top executi

Drake apparently learned it isnt wise to mess with Tupac Shakur even decades after his untimely death. Billboard first spotted that the Canadian hip-hop artist deleted the X (Twitter) post with his track Taylor Made Freestyle, which used an AI-generated recreation of Shakurs voice to try to get under Kendrick Lamars skin. The takedown came after an attorney representing the late hip-hop legend threatened to sue the Canadian rapper for his unauthorized use of Tupacs voice if he didnt remove it f

Aaron Sorkin has announced that hes currently writing a followup script to The Social Network , according to The Hollywood Reporter . He broke the news during an episode of The Town podcast that centered on how Facebook and social media have influenced democracy in the years since his Oscar-winning hit. The first film chronicled the early days of Mark Zuckerbergs social network and starred Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake, among others. Sorkin is cagey on the actual details

Another week is coming to a close, which means it's time for another roundup of good tech deals. This week's highlights include a new low on Samsung's Galaxy S24 Ultra , which is $200 off and down to $1,100 for an unlocked model. That's not exactly cheap, no, but any savings should be welcome for what we consider the best premium Android phone . Elsewhere, a trio of recommendations from our wireless earbuds buying guide are on sale, including Bose's QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds for $249, Google's

Nikon is arguably the world's most famous camera brand, but with the decline of DSLRs it has lagged behind Canon and Sony. In 2022, it released the Z9 , a flagship mirrorless camera that could finally hold its own against rivals, but the $5,500 price tag put it out of reach for most. To appeal to a wider audience, Nikon unveiled the Z8 last year with the same sensor and nearly the same specs as the Z9 for $1,700 less. With a 45-megapixel stacked sensor and the latest Expeed 7 image processor, th

Amazon has some of the highest-rated Bose headphones on sale for record-low prices. That includes the Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones , which have best-in-class active noise cancellation (ANC). Usually $429, the wireless cans are now only $379, matching an all-time low. Engadgets Billy Steele praised the headphones sound, ANC and comfort in our review, but he also found them a bit expensive at their standard retail price, so this sale could be the right time to snag a pair. The headphones are

Apple's latest MacBook Air with the new M3 chip just hit its lowest price yet at Amazon. The retailer is taking $110 off the laptop's list price, which is $10 cheaper than the sale price of $999 its been hitting lately . That's not a huge difference, but still represents a new low for the two-month-old laptop. The discount applies to all four colorways of the entry-level 13-inch model, which gives you 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. If you need more memory, you can get the model with 16GB , whi

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has concluded an investigation into Teslas Autopilot driver assistance system after reviewing hundreds of crashes, including 13 fatal incidents that led to 14 deaths. The organization has ruled that these accidents were due to driver misuse of the system. However, the NHTSA also found that Teslas weak driver engagement system was not appropriate for Autopilots permissive operating capabilities. In other words, the software didnt prioriti

Wacom displays and tablets have been handy tools for artists and designers since the 1980s, offering to swap a mouse for a pen for drawing, photo editing and more. That lineage includes pen displays: screens that connect to your computer that you draw on directly with a stylus. But, Wacom says it has created something entirely new just a few weeks before Apple is set to upgrade its iPad displays . The latest pen display model is called Movink , and it's the company's first with a OLED screen. It

Earlier this week, noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo posted an updated forecast for Apples Vision Pro headset, claiming production was being cut to 400,000 or 450,000 units compared to a previous market consensus north of 700,000. This came after a related report from Bloombergs Mark Gurman, who said in his Power On newsletter that demand for Vision Pro demos is way down while sales in some locations have significantly slowed. Naturally, this incited a lot of panic and hand-wringing among Apple e

Google's Pixel Buds Pro remain one of our favorite pairs of true wireless earbuds , offering robust active noise cancellation (ANC), punchy bass, reliable touch controls and a host of convenient features for Android users in particular. That said, given how competitive the wireless market is these days, they aren't the greatest value at their standard list price of $200. Today, though, Wellbots is running a sale that brings the pair down to a more palatable $135 with the checkout code EN

Say farewell to the classic XPS 13, and say hello to the spiffy new XPS 13. Dell surprised us at CES by bringing the modern (and somewhat controversial) design of 2022's XPS 13 Plus to its entire flagship lineup, which now includes the larger XPS 14 and 16 models. With this new design, they all have invisible haptic trackpads hidden beneath the glass-covered wrist rest, a capacitive top row of function keys (which can instantly switch to media controls), and wider gap-less keyboards that hav

Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai are joining the government's Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board, according to The Wall Street Journal . They're also joined by Nvidia's Jensen Huang, Northrop Grumman's Kathy Warden and Delta's Ed Bastian, along with other leaders in the tech and AI industry. The AI board will be working with and advising the Department of Homeland Security on how it can safely deploy AI within the country's critic

Another school year over, and another batch of high school and college grads let loose in the world. Theyve worked hard for years to get to this point, so why not reward them with the tools to play well? Weve assembled a list of favorites that will improve your grads game, with a few gadgets that can pull double-duty at their new jobs, too. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-gaming-gifts-for-graduates-150047802.html?src=rss

Apple has scheduled its next product showcase for May 7 , a few weeks before its Worldwide Developers Conference, clearing space for even more announcements in June, hopefully. For May 7, an iPad refresh has been rumored for months, and Apples Let Loose announcement features an illustration of a hand holding an Apple Pencil. That screams iPad to us. We could see some substantial upgrades to the iPad Pro series. M3 chips are a predictable addition, but we might also see OLED displays, according t

After months of anticipation, President Biden finally signed the TikTok divestment into law this week. It will force ByteDance to either sell TikTok to another company within a year, or see the app banned from US app stores. Is this a wise move to rid control of the social app from the Chinese government, or is it government overreach before TikTok has done anything wrong? Engadget Senior Editor Karissa Bell joins Cherlynn and Devindra to dive into what's next for TikTok. Listen below or subscri

Its pretty easy to find a solid pair of wireless earbuds today. New wireless Bluetooth earbuds are arriving at a constant pace nowadays, and most of them from big players like Sony, Bose, Beats and others will serve people well. While all that variety is good for your wallet, that also means deciding which pair of earbuds is best for you can be tricky. Youve got to consider things like active noise cancellation (ANC), waterproof ratings, sound quality, design and more. We at Engadget are constan