Theres nothing more frustrating than shooting the perfect reel only to realize that the audio sounds like garbage. For budding creators, its a frustration; for those looking to make more professional content, its a dealbreaker. Fortunately, the world of mobile-specific (or phone-friendly) microphones has exploded with great options in the last few years. Whether youve been tasked with recording candid moments at a relatives wedding, shooting a friends dance moves or are a journalist out in the f

Smartwatches do more than just track your steps and deliver phone alerts to your wrist. The best smartwatches go even further, giving you the ability to pay for a cup of coffee, take calls and connect to apps like Spotify all without whipping out your smartphone. Chances are, if youre reading this, you already know all of the benefits of a smartwatch. Youre ready to invest, or upgrade from an aging accessory, but we wouldnt blame you if you if you didnt know where to start. There are dozens of s

Opera is filing an antitrust complaint against Microsoft in Brazil, alleging it creates an unfair environment for alternate browsers to compete with Edge. The Norway-based company claims Microsoft's deals to make Edge the exclusive pre-installed browser on Windows machines creates an unfair environment for alternate browsers to compete. Opera also argued that Microsoft uses design tactics and dark patterns to further discourage people from downloading and using rival products. It is asking Brazi

YouTube will start using machine learning to determine whether viewers should be on a teen account. The company said it plans to start using this AI application on a subset of US users in the coming weeks for a trial before rolling it out to the rest of the market. The tool will assess user behaviors including the types of videos being searched for, the categories of videos watched and how long the account has existed. When an account is deemed by machine learning to belong to a teen, YouTube wi

NotebookLM, the Google research tool that gained notoriety for its AI-generated podcasts , is introducing a feature called Video Overviews . As the name suggests, this tool automatically creates videos on requested topics and pulls data from a user's uploaded images, diagrams, quotes and documents. It's rolling out right now, but there are some caveats. These overviews are only available in English, though Google says more languages are on the way. Also, the tool doesn't make videos in a convent

OpenAI is rolling out a new Study Mode the company says is designed to give students a better understanding of complex topics. Like Claude's Learning Mode , which Anthropic introduced in April, Study Mode will see ChatGPT adopt a Socratic approach to conversations. Rather than answer a question outright, the chatbot will attempt to guide the user to their own solution, starting with questions that allow the system to calibrate its responses to their objective and understanding. Conversations the

The Home Depot is well on its way to becoming a Spirit Halloween that also sells weed whackers. Here we are in July, and the retailer is already rolling out its Halloween product lineup. The centerpiece is the latest version of Skelly, the hardware store's viral skeleton. Meet the $279 animatronic Ultra Skelly. Given its name, you might think Ultra Skelly is even bigger than the standard 12-ft. model. But the new model is only 6.5 ft. tall. The Ultra part comes from app control and animatronic m

After kicking off its PS Plus 15th anniversary celebrations last month , Sony has announced the PS Plus Monthly games for August. From August 5, members of all of the services tiers will be able to add Lies of P (PS5, PS4), DayZ (PS4) and My Hero Ones Justice 2 (PS4) to their libraries. The headliner is undoubtedly Lies of P , the surprisingly great Pinocchio-flavored soulslike from 2023. South Korea-based studio Neowizs twisted take on the oft-reimagined childrens novel stood out in what is now

Elgato just introduced a novel new webcam with a pro-grade feature . The Facecam 4K allows users to mount lens filters for unique effects. This is the first time a webcam has offered this functionality. The camera integrates with any 49mm lens filter , which opens up a world of potential. Folks could attach, say, a circular polarizing (CPL) filter to reduce reflections from glasses or go crazy with cinematic effects like diffusion. The unit ships with a free CPL filter to get started, as long as

Netgear has launched its most affordable WiFi7 mesh system yet, the Orbi370. The headline price is $350 for a router and two satellites, which is extremely competitive. A quick look at the specs, however, reveals several tradeoffs that make the lower cost possible. The company says the Orbi370 is designed for customers with moderately demanding WiFi needs, claiming the systems total bandwidth is 5Gbps. However, since it carries only a 2.5gigabit internet port, the maximum speed to a single devic

Sex toy company Lovense is leaking the email addresses of its app users and allowing account takeovers without asking for a password, according to a security researcher. As reported by TechCrunch , BobDaHacker, who describes themself as an ethical hacker committed to exposing and reporting security vulnerabilities, published an extensive report in which they accuse Lovense of failing to fix a serious bug it was first made aware of in 2023. According to the hacker (and later verified by TechCrunc

Google is updating AI Mode on desktop this week with the ability to process images, so you can ask it detailed questions about the pictures like you already can on mobile. In the coming weeks, the company is also adding support for PDF uploads on desktop in the US, which could help you digest lengthy course or work materials. You can ask AI Mode to summarize the documents for you and ask follow-up questions that it will then answer by cross-referencing the materials you uploaded with information

Cash App has debuted a new group payment feature that allows folks who don't even use the app to contribute to a kitty. Pools enables Cash App users to invite folks to chip in for a large purchase (such as a group vacation) via Apple Pay and Google Pay. A small number of users have access to Pools at the jump, though Cash App owner Block expects to offer it to all of the service's customers in the coming months. Block told CNBC this is the first time that Cash App is opening up to external payme

If you're in the market for a new mouse that won't totally break the bank then today is your lucky day. Right now, our favorite mouse for productivity is down to a record-low price. You can pick up the Logitech MX Master 3S wireless mouse for $80, down from $120 33 percent discount. Logitech released the MX Master 3S in 2022, but it's still a great option. This model comes with a USB receiver, quiet clicks and lots of customization options. It also has an 8K DPI optical sensor that performs wel

Amazon is selling the DJI Mini 4K drone for just $249 , which is a discount of $50. The deal is only for Prime members. This is the lowest price we've seen for this particular model since early in the year. The Mini 4K is a beginner-friendly drone , but it's still got plenty of nifty features. As the name suggests, it can capture 4K video at up to 30 FPS. It can also record 2.7K footage at 60 FPS. There's 2x digital zoom, a 3-axis gimbal and electrical image stabilization. The drone can transmit

Ive been wondering for a while what the killer app for Joy-Con mouse controls on the Nintendo Switch 2 might be. Sure, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is fine as a tech demo (one that should have been a pack-in rather than costing $10) and Drag x Drive looks pretty interesting. Civilization VII has its fans as well. But the best use case for the feature yet could be a 33-year-old game that just hit Nintendo Switch Online. Thats right, the all-time SNES classic Mario Paint just joined the service

Adobe is rolling out a series of new Photoshop tools in beta that it claims will eliminate tedious steps, reduce friction, and make precision editing faster and more intuitive. The new features include Generative Upscale for desktop and web, allowing you to enhance images by up to 8 megapixels before losing quality. This tool can be used for things such as improving photos you want to print or updating older files. According to Adobe, this feature has been one of the most requested among its use

Rugged and regal, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is on sale for a recordlow price of $650 right now. Built for endurance athletes and outdoor adventurers, the Ultra 2 pairs a rugged 49millimeter titanium case with 100meter water resistance and dive support to 40meters. If you're a fitness enthusiast and haven't yet taken the plunge on an Apple Watch, this sale might be the perfect opportunity to pick one up for $150 off. Its Retina display peaks at 3,000 nits, which is 50 percent brighter than the Appl

Apparently it's the season for great deals on Apple's MacBooks with M4 chips. First, the 13-inch MacBook Air M4 dropped to an all-time low of $799 (it's still on sale here ). Now, the 14-inch MacBook Pro M4 has followed in its footsteps, going on sale for its own record-low price of $1,299. The 19 percent discount means $300 in savings, compared to the model's usual $1,599 price tag. That deal will get you 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD. Though, if you're willing to spend another $200, you can get

Prime Day has come and gone, but power bank stalwart Anker still has some compelling deals to keep your devices charged while on the go. Among these is the Anker Laptop Power Bank , which carries 25,000mAh of portable power. It features three 100W USBC ports, two of which have retractable USBC cables built in so you don't have to remember your own in order to charge your compatible devices. This particular model was our top pick for best premium power bank , but it's on sale for 30 percent off.

If you're at all familiar with Meta's Ray-Ban-branded smart glasses, there won't be many surprises when it comes to its latest Oakley frames. The Oakley Meta glasses rely heavily on what's already been a successful playbook for the company: the style of a popular eyewear brand mixed with juuust enough tech to let you keep your phone in your pocket a little longer. But the Oakley Meta glasses are also the social media company's first collaboration with a non-Ray-Ban brand (though both share a par

Anyone trying to watch porn online in the UK will need to take a selfie first or share a photo ID. (Yes, both of those might ruin the mood.) The UK government began checking compliance with its Online Safety Act last Friday , which requires any website that publishes or displays pornographic content to implement a system for highly effective age checks. Popular porn sites, including the country's most-visited site, PornHub, have agreed to the new regulations. The rules also apply to platforms l

Earlier this year, Google rolled out AI Mode to Search users in the US. Now, the notoriously inaccurate tool is coming to the UK . While Google's AI overviews have been available in the UK since last summer, AI Mode provides more conversational responses and fewer links to other pages. Google touts AI Mode as a more intuitive method for asking multi-part questions or follow-ups. It uses Google's Gemini 2.5 model to detail how-tos, compare products or plan a trip. Instead of searching for somethi

Managing your finances doesnt have to be complicated, and there are so many tools available now that can make things easier (and even partially automated) for you. I was a Mint user for many years, but I was forced to find a new budgeting app after the service shut down in March 2024. Mints parent company, Intuit, prompted folks to try their other financial app, Credit Karma. However, after testing Credit Karma myself, I found it to be a poor Mint replacement . So I set out to try all of the bes

The United Kingdom's Online Safety Act took effect on July 25th. Among other provisions, the new law makes websites responsible for protecting UK children from content deemed harmful, like pornography or the promotion of eating disorders. This has resulted in many of the most-used websites, including Pornhub, X and Reddit, either putting up or planning to put up age verification barriers to restrict access by minors. Age-restricting laws put broadly popular websites in a difficult position. Site

Last week, social network Tea experienced a data breach that exposed personal information for its users. The dating safety app for women said at the time that there is no evidence to suggest that current or additional user data was affected. However, 404 Media reports that the problem is bigger than originally stated. The site credits independent security researcher Kasra Rahjerdi , who found that content from the platform as recent as last week has been exposed. Additionally, this source claims

Whistle, a subsidiary of Mars that makes pet trackers, has announced that it's being acquired by Tractive. As part of the acquisition, Whistle trackers will stop working, but Tractive is offering to replace those trackers for free for a limited time. The official shutdown date for Whistle's pet trackers is August 31, 2025. Users will be able to request a replacement tracker until September 30, 2025 by providing their tracker's serial number and then choosing a new Tractive tracker. Tractive will

Anthropic has introduced new weekly rate limits on its Claude Code tool for AI assistance with coding tasks. The move comes shortly after the AI company quietly began implementing rate limits on the Claude Code service, which is an agentic side of the AI chatbot that is capable of reading code, editing files, performing tests and pushing GitHub commits. According to a series of posts from Anthropic on X, these changes are in response to some users who have been running Claude Code continuously i

Microsoft is implementing an age verification system on Xbox accounts to comply with the UK's Online Safety Act, and in a new blog post announcing the move, the company suggests it'll come to other countries, too. Players in the UK who indicate on their account that they're 18 years or older will now begin seeing notifications encouraging them to verify their age, Microsoft says. The process is optional for now, and players will be able to enjoy playing Xbox games until early 2026, when verifica

Microsoft has debuted a Copilot Mode for its Edge web browser. When enabled, this experimental feature can search across multiple open browser tabs and analyze the information on each page. An example posted on X by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shows Copilot Mode examining several papers published by the company's researchers and assessing if they make any similar points. Today were introducing Copilot Mode in Edge, our first step in reinventing the browser for the AI age. My favorite feature is

Liquid Glass is a huge new change coming to iOS 26. (Apple) The wait for accessing all the new Apple iOS 26 features is still a couple months away. However, you can now download and install the public beta if you're itching to see what's coming this fall. Prefer more of a guided tour? Check out our preview of the iOS 26 public beta release , which includes the fresh home and lock screen redesign we've been asking to see for years. Dubbed Liquid Glass , the new look and feel will extend across al

If you've been ready to see a significant change come to your iPhone's OS, then get ready because a slew of new updates are coming to Apple's operating system this fall. But don't expect to see iOS 19 it'll be called iOS 26 instead. Included in the list is the new Liquid Glass design ( think Windows Vista , but arguably more thoughtful), which looks to be Apple's largest visual update in years. We spent two weeks test-driving it you can check out our detailed hands-on iOS 26 preview , or you c

Sony is suing Tencent for copying nearly every aspect of its Horizon games for the upcoming Light of Motiram , an open-world hunting game with some obvious similarities to Sony's franchise, as first reported by Reuters . Tencent first announced the new game in November 2024 . The lawsuit goes into detail on the various ways Tencent's new game appears to be unlawfully copying memorable aspects of Horizon Zero Dawn , Horizon Forbidden West and Lego Horizon Adventures . That include the basic setup

Google just announced a neat little feature for its Chrome web browser. It'll now show AI-generated reviews of online stores , to make buying stuff safer and more efficient. The feature is available by clicking an icon just to the left of the web address in the browser. This creates a pop-up that spills the tea about the store's overall reputation, with information on stuff like product quality, pricing, customer service and return policy. The AI creates these pop-ups by scanning user reviews fr

Earlier this month, Block CEO and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey unveiled a peer-to-peer, Bluetooth-based messaging app he put together. Now, anyone with a compatible iPhone, Mac or iPad (or even Apple Vision Pro) can try Bitchat as it's available on the App Store . Dorsey created Bitchat under the auspices of and Other Stuff, an open-source development collective he has backed financially . Per the free app's description, it allows users to chat with others who are physically close to them with

Earlier this summer Engadget covered the news that Warner Bros. Discovery would split into two giant media companies. Today the conglomerate announced the names for the restructured entities. The company retaining Warner Bros. film, television and game studios, along with New Line Cinema, DC Studios, HBO and HBO Max, will be called Warner Bros. Meanwhile, the other entity, which holds the original companys full portfolio of live cable channels, including CNN, HGTV, Cartoon Network, Discovery and

Sony just dropped some more details about its upcoming wireless fight stick , including the real name. During development, it was known as Project Defiant but it's officially called the FlexStrike. This is the very first fight stick controller designed by Sony Interactive and it's compatible with both PS5 and PC via either a wired or wireless connection. It's also extremely easy on the eyes, as you can see below. Fighting games require precise inputs with no lag, and wireless controllers aren't

Apple devices currently hold the top honor in our guide to the best laptops , smartwatches and tablets . But the companys gear isnt cheap and you wont find sales at Apples own website either. But that doesnt mean you can only get a new iPad or MacBook at full price. Other retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, Target and B&H Photo often host considerable discounts, sometimes on the order of a few hundred dollars in savings. At Engadget, weve tested and reviewed every major device Apple has released

We've known Star Trek: Starfleet Academy was coming for a while now , but we finally have some real footage. Paramount just dropped a trailer , in addition to an official announcement that the show will premiere in early 2026. For the uninitiated, the show is set at the titular Starfleet Academy in future San Francisco and follows a group of cadets and their instructors. The trailer introduces us to all of the major characters, more or less, all while chancellor Holly Hunter does her best space

On July 23, the Trump Administration released its long-awaited AI Action Plan . Short of copyright exemptions for model training , the administration appears ready to give OpenAI , Anthropic , Google and other major players nearly everything they asked of the White House during public consultation. However, according to Travis Hall, the director of state engagement at the Center for Democracy and Technology , Trump's policy vision would put states, and tech companies themselves, in a position of

Dell is holding a back to school sale on all kinds of laptops and accessories, and there are some significant discounts on offer. The company's newly-released line of Premium laptops is up to $350 off, depending on the screen size and overall specs. A solid starter computer for students is the Dell Premium 14 base model, which is down to $1,500 from $1,650. It boasts an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. The RAM can be increased to 32GB and the hard drive to 1TB, but that

Rokus latest streaming sticks are both on sale with steep discounts. The Roku Streaming Stick Plus , which supports 4K and HDR10+, is on sale for $29, a discount of 27 percent. If your television only supports HD, pick up the Roku Streaming Stick HD , which is on sale for $19. Thats 37 percent off its retail price. Both the Plus and HD versions of the Roku Streaming Stick offer more than 500 free channels through Roku Live TV, which is why we called the Plus the best streaming device for free an

Insta360 has decided to spin out its own drone company, Antigravity, allowing it to operate independently. The new sub-brand is now developing an as-yet-unnamed drone that can record 360-degree video, similar to Insta360's X camera series. Details are currently limited, as the company finalizes its first product. However, Insta360s Antigravity says its drones will be aimed at existing drone owners, looking for more creative video options as well as beginners intimidated by the learning curve of

When it comes to audio performance, Bowers & Wilkins is on a hot streak. The company manages to consistently offer balanced and detailed sound across its line of headphones and earbuds. The Px7 and Px8 lines have been mainstays on our best headphones list for a while now, primarily for their outstanding audio quality. With the Px7 S3 ($449), the company updated a previous model with changes to its sound platform and some subtle design tweaks. And that combination continues an upward trajectory t

Samsung will make Tesla's A16 chip in a deal worth 22.8 trillion won ($16.5 billion). The chip manufacturer had filed a regulatory contract with an unnamed entity, but Elon Musk announced Tesla as the other party on X (formerly Twitter). The deal will run through 2033 and utilize an upcoming plant in Taylor, Texas. Musk stated, Samsungs giant new Texas fab will be dedicated to making Teslas next-generation AI6 chip. The strategic importance of this is hard to overstate. This agreement marks a si

If you've put off getting a new MacBook then today is your lucky day. Right now, the 2025 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air M4 are available on Amazon for record-low prices. The 13-inch model is our pick for best MacBook to buy this year. You can pick up the 13-inch MacBook Air M4 for $799, down from $999 a 20 percent discount. This model comes with 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD . You can upgrade to 512GB SSD for $999, down from $1,199, another all-time low price, or 24GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD for $1,

Streaming services keep raising prices . At this point, if you subscribe to all the major services out there, you're basically paying the same price as cable those antiquated local monopolies that streaming was supposed to save us from. But streaming still has one big advantage over the old ways: no contracts. That means you can grab a good streaming deal and then cancel without penalty. Our advice is to sign up for a service when you see a good streaming deal (or the latest season of, say, Doc

After previously saying that the US would block exports of key AI chips to China, Donald Trump's administration may have backtracked. The US will now temporarily block restriction on exports of chips and other technology to China, the Financial Times reported. The aim is to help Trump book a meeting with China President Xi Jinping later this year in order to strike a trade deal, according to people familiar with the matter. Export controls are dictated by the US Commerce Department, which was re

There are dozens of excellent Nintendo Switch games available now to the point where youll always have something new to play even if you have an extensive library of titles already. Whether youre playing on the go with a Switch Lite, at home with your friends on an OLED Switch or now on a brand new Switch 2, youll be able to play most games on your preferred console. This flexibility makes the Switch lineup ideal for both casual gamers and hardcore fans who love having the ability to access ever

Foldable phones have gone from futuristic novelties to genuinely useful devices that blend portability with big-screen versatility. Whether you're into multitasking, mobile gaming or just love having a phone that turns heads, the best foldable phones you can buy offer powerful performance, durable designs and impressive displays that unfold to reveal more room for apps, videos and productivity. From book-style designs to flip-style clamshells, the best foldable phone for you depends on how you l