While we have already seen a few periods of price cuts on Segways new Xafari e-bike , you can now score it in an all-new red colorway for the first time at $1,999.99 shipped . This model opened for preorder with a $2,400 price tag and didnt see its first discount until the top of June when it fell to $2,200. Two weeks ago the brands Prime Day sale dropped things further to the $2,000 low, with it not only returning here today but also coming as the official introduction to this new red colorway. While the savings last you can keep $400 in your pocket, with it back at the best rate we have tracked to date. more
Windows 11 Pro is normally $199, but now its only $15
Support for Windows 10 is winding down, which means now is the time to plan your next move. If youre still using Windows 10, youll stop receiving critical security updates in October 2025. That makes upgrading to Windows 11 Pro not just a smart idea, but a necessary one, and its even on sale right now. Instead of paying $199 to upgrade to Windows 11 Pro, now you can get it for $14.97 . more
Tea app suffers breach, exposing thousands of user images
Tea, an app that claims to help women make sure your date is safe, not a catfish and not in a relationship, is experiencing a security breach. 404 Media reports that a database posted on 4chan allowed anyone to access users' data. (It's since been removed.) The dataset included thousands of images, including driver's licenses. 4chan users claimed the data came from an exposed database hosted on Firebase, Google's app development platform. 404 Media verified that the exposed storage bucket URL matches one found in Tea's Android app. The company confirmed the breach. In a statement to 404 Media , Tea said it identified unauthorized access to one of our systems and immediately launched a full investigation to assess the scope and impact. The company stated that the exposed information included data from over two years ago. It included 72,000 images, including selfies, photo IDs and pictures from app posts and DMs. This data was originally stored in compliance with law enforcement requirements related to cyber-bullying prevention, Tea said. We have engaged third-party cybersecurity experts and are working around the clock to secure our systems. At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that current or additional user data was affected. Protecting our users' privacy and data is our highest priority. We are taking every necessary step to ensure the security of our platform and prevent further exposure. Google Play Store The app allows users to post photos of red-flag men. Already swiping for dates on Tinder, Bumble, Match or Hinge? the app's Play Store pitch reads . Tea is a must-have app, helping women avoid red flags before the first date with dating advice and showing them who's really behind the profile of the person they're dating. Its Play Store listing highlights a reverse phone number lookup. It has sections for men's real names, ages, addresses, social profiles and relationship statuses. Other features include a reverse image search and background checks to help women get the tea on your date. Users can poll others about whether they should date new matches. The app requires new users to submit a verification selfie and a photo of their government-issued ID. Tea told 404 Media that it uses this to verify that new signups are indeed women. The timing of the breach coincided with the app's surge in popularity. According to Business Insider , Tea hit the top of Apple's App Store this week. The app first launched in 2023. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/tea-app-suffers-breach-exposing-thousands-of-user-images-190731414.html?src=rss
Amazon is developing a Wolfenstein TV show
Following the success of Fallout , Amazon is turning its attention to another video game adaptation. The company is reportedly developing a series based on the Wolfenstein franchise with the help of some of the creative team behind Fallout , according to Variety . The details of how the Wolfenstein show will adapt the alternate history action of the games are still under wraps, but the subject matter remains unfortunately timely. The show's logline is The story of killing Nazis is evergreen, according to Variety , which seems like a direct acknowledgement of that fact. Patrick Somerville, the writer and showrunner of Station Eleven , will reportedly serve as the writer of the Wolfenstein adaptation, with Lisa Joy, Athena Wickham and Jonathan Nolan producing the show through their company Kilter Films. The production company also made the adaptation of the William Gibson's The Peripheral for Amazon, and currently produces Fallout. While it might make sense to pair a new show with a brand new Wolfenstein game, the series has effectively been on hold since 2019. MachineGames, the Microsoft-owned developer of the last five Wolfenstein games, hasn't produced a new entry since 2019's Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot . The studio released Indiana Jones and the Great Circle in December 2024. Given the tumultuous state of Microsoft's Xbox division , the series could be your best bet for getting more Wolfenstein, assuming Amazon decides to move forward. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/amazon-is-developing-a-wolfenstein-tv-show-190028817.html?src=rss
If youre looking to score some physical copies of brand new Switch 2 games and thought there wouldnt be any deals for months (or ever), think again. Theres no telling how long these will last (likely not long), but Woot is now offering discounts on some of the biggest and best Switch 2 games right now in physical condition: Mario Kart World Switch 2 $72 (Reg. $80) The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Switch 2 Edition $72 (Reg. $80) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Switch 2 Edition $62 (Reg. $70) more
You can buy a Switch 2 console online today from $449, but who knows how much longer this will last
Remember when it was actually difficult to get a Switch 2 at retail? It wasnt all that long ago when folks were clamoring for a fresh new announcement that Walmart, or Best Buy, or Target would have a scheduled restock, but that is not the case anymore. Anyone looking to grab a new Switch 2 console can readily do so right now without getting off the couch or making their way to the local Best Buy when the doors open, or anything like that. more
VSCO launches dedicated 'Capture' app with live previews
VSCO, the photo filter and editing app that spawned an entire culture , has released a dedicated camera app called VSCO Capture. The free iOSonly app is a camera with live previews where users can choose from over 50 different presets with realtime film effects and manual settings like shutter speed and exposure for finetuning. The app takes the guesswork out of how your photo will look after you apply VSCO's iconic filters. VSCO Capture is a direct response to our communitys desire to get closer to the lens, to reduce editing fatigue and find more joy in the process of making authentic, stylized photography using their phone, said Eric Wittman, CEO of VSCO. The app's nondestructive presets retain the original captured image so users can modify them later and change filters after the fact. VSCO Capture supports RAW and ProRAW formats for maximum flexibility when editing. Capture syncs instantly with the main VSCO app for additional edits and sharing. VSCO Capture is available for download now on iOS. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/vsco-launches-dedicated-capture-app-with-live-previews-184005036.html?src=rss
Add three polos to your wardrobe while theyre as low as $6.50 each (31% off)
3-pack of PINSPARK Polo Shirts Buy from $20 (Reg. $29) What we love Give your wardrobe a bit more variety with three polo shirts with a total price as low as $20. Youre looking at roughly $6.50 a pop here, and each polo comes in a different color. These deliver a classic look for a head-turning per-shirt price point. more
Apple iPad Pro With M5 Chip May Feature Dual Front Cameras In 2025
Apple is reportedly preparing to launch a new iPad Pro featuring the M5 chip and a significant design update , including the introduction of dual front-facing cameras . According to Bloombergs Mark Gurman , this enhancement will go beyond the typical hardware upgrades and slimmer bezels expected from the companys next-generation tablet. In his latest weekly newsletter, Gurman reveals that the upcoming iPad Pro will include a second front-facing camera positioned for portrait orientation . This addition is aimed at improving the user experience when unlocking the device vertically using Face ID. The tablet will automatically determine which camera to use based on its orientation sensors, rather than requiring the user to switch between them manually. The current iPad Pro with the M4 chip features a single front-facing camera aligned for landscape use. That configuration was introduced to optimize Face ID functionality and video calling when the tablet is used horizontally. With two front cameras in the next iteration, Apple aims to deliver a seamless experience for both portrait and landscape orientations, adapting to user preferences without compromising convenience or security. iPad Pro with M5 Chip to be released with two front-facing cameras. (Image concept: Perplexity AI) If Gurmans predictions are accurate, the dual-camera system could be part of a broader strategy to enhance usability and functionality across different use cases , such as video conferencing, selfies, and biometric authentication. Furthermore, this development challenges recent rumors suggesting that the iPad Pro with the M5 chip would not debut until 2026. Gurman asserts that Apple is planning to announce the device in October 2025 . He also notes that internal testing of the new iPad Pro has been underway since March 2025. As of now, Apple has not provided any official statements or launch details for the upcoming iPad Pro. However, the inclusion of dual front-facing cameras could mark a significant shift in Apples design approach for its tablet lineup, potentially setting a new standard for multitasking and user interaction on large-screen mobile devices. Apple iPad Pro With M5 Chip May Feature Dual Front Cameras In 2025 , original content from Ubergizmo . Read our Copyrights and terms of use .
Todays Android app deals and freebies: Majesty Fantasy Kingdom, Inked, Dungeon Tracer, more
Your Friday edition of the best Android game and app deals is ready and waiting for you down below, as per usual. Just be sure to also scope out the deals we are tracking on the Sony XM5 ANC headphones , this Android e-reader with an E-ink color display , and the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro at $150 off . As for the apps, highlights include Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom, Inked, Dungeon Tracer, Tempest: Pirate RPG, and more. Head below for a closer look. more
We just spotted a deal at Amazon that drops Mophies Snap+ 3-in-1 15W Qi2 charging station down to $89.99 shipped. This is regularly a $130 charging unit that dropped to the $99 mark a couple of weeks back during the Prime Day sale, but todays deal steps it up with an additional $9 off. With a 31% discount, this 3-in-1 charger is now down to the lowest price we have tracked for it, landing $5 below its previous all-time low. This multi-device charger is a good option to consider if you have an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods to simultaneously charge, and its now joining the other Qi2 3-in-1 chargers from the likes of Anker, Twelve South, and more that are discounted right now. more
Sleek and compact design headline Gerbers Paraframe Mini pocket knife down at $12.50 (Reg. $16)
Gerber Paraframe Mini Pocket Knife Buy for $12.50 (Reg. $16) Clip the on-page 15% off coupon. What we love As Ive said before, I think that if youre going to carry a pocket knife, you might as well grab something with a cool design. Paraframe passes with flying colors, if you ask me. I also like the miniature design here, with a compact 2.2-inch blade that will get the job done without taking up much space in a pocket or bag. more
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond release date delayed? New details suggest announcement coming very soon
Reliable sources already said the next Nintendo Direct showcase was inbound this month, and now additional sources have confirmed as much. At this point, it seems as though a big-time summer Switch 2 Direct stream is all but imminent alongside, what many gamers are hoping for the most, the Metroid Prime 4 release date landing in 2025, and the rumored appearance of the new Animal Crossing game for Switch 2. more
Value-packed bundle delivers two 54W USB-C car chargers with cables for $11 (Save 23%)
2-pack of LISEN 54W 2-Port USB-C Car Chargers with Cables Buy for $11 (Reg. $14) Apply code HXBDKZQ8 during checkout What we love This bundle packs quite a punch in terms of value. Youre looking at two car chargers with an up to 54W output distributed between USB-A and Type-C ports. And thats not all, two USB-C cables are also bundled in. With these, youll be ready to outfit a couple of cars with smartphone, tablet, or even MacBook Air charging capabilites. more
Running alongside its Back to School Sale that will be lasting through August 6 , Rad Power Bikes is now also offering a weekend flash sale on its popular RadRover 6 Plus Step-Thru Fat-Tire e-bike for $1,299 shipped . Coming down from its $1,599 price tag, you can save $300 through July 27 for the second-best price we have tracked. Weve been seeing it drop down to $1,399 a lot during 2025, with todays deal only being beaten out by the $1,199 low that we briefly saw back at the start of the year. more
Alienwares new Aurora 16X RTX 5060 gaming laptop with 32GB RAM/1TB SSD is a whopping $400 off today
Best Buy is currently offering Alienwares latest Aurora 16X RTX 5060 gaming laptop for $1,399.99 shipped . This particular machine hit the scene a couple of months back alongside the Aurora 16 laptop , and the config discounted today is currently fetching its full price directly at Dell for $1,800 . We saw the Aurora 16 laptop go on sale earlier this month, but this is the first time were tracking a deal on this model. Youll find other variants of this laptop discounted at Dell right now with up to $350 in savings , so be sure to check them out after getting more details below. more
Save up to $870 on Ankers EverFrost 2 portable electric coolers and bundles starting from $649
Anker is offering some post-Prime Day extended savings through the weekend on its SOLIX Everfrost 2 Portable Electric Coolers , starting with the 40L single-zone model at $649 shipped , and also matching at Amazon. Normally going for $900 outside of sales, weve only seen this rate beaten out by the $600 pre-launch deal back in February, as well as the recent drops to $630 and the $599 low during Prime Day sales. If you missed out on those earlier deals, you can score your ice-free cooling/freezing solution at the next best rate with $251 in savings at the third-lowest post-launch price. Head below to learn more about this model and the other deals were seeing through July 27. You can also check out our hands-on review of the larger 58L dual-zone model here . more
Meta will stop running political ads in the EU
Meta will stop allowing political advertising on its platforms in the European Union as of October 2025, blaming the EUs new unworkable transparency rules for what it called a difficult decision. In a statement released by the company on Friday, Meta said the EUs incoming Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulations presented it with significant operational challenges and legal uncertainties. As of early October, users on any of Metas platforms in the EU will no longer see political, electoral or social issue ads, which Meta says can currently be placed by advertisers who complete an authorization process proving their identity. Ads of this nature are also required to include a paid for by disclaimer, and information about how much was spent on them must be publicly available. Meta argues that the TTPA rules put extensive restrictions on ad targeting and delivery that create an untenable level of complexity for advertisers. The EU introduced the new regulations in order to address widespread concerns over foreign interference in elections, as well as the potential manipulation of important information that might influence how someone votes. As well as labelling political advertising as such and providing information on its source and intention (which Meta says it already does), the soon-to-be-instated EU rules also list a number of conditions about how personal data is processed. The TTPA regulations will also forbid political ads from sponsors outside the EU sooner than three months before an election or referendum. Meta said that users of its platforms will see less relevant ads as a result of the restrictions, and that it made its decision after extensive engagement with policymakers in which it made its concerns about the threat to the principles of personalized advertising clear. The companys decision only applies to the EU, and Meta users, including politicians, living in member states will still be allowed to discuss and share political content provided it isnt via paid advertising. Meta isnt the only company objecting to the incoming EU rule changes, which are also set to come into effect in October. Last year, Google stopped serving paid-for political ads in the EU, including on YouTube, and the company ultimately avoided fines for its allegedly abusive online advertising practices in 2019. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/meta-will-stop-running-political-ads-in-the-eu-162232948.html?src=rss
Score the Sony XM5 ANC headphones at $150 less than the new XM6 today at Amazon
By now all avid 9to5Toys readers will already know a few things about the Sony XM6 headphones how much we loved them after testing them out for a few weeks ahead of and after the launch, and how the $450 price of entry is no small investment. However, youll also know we still love the XM5 set nonetheless, and you can land them at $100 off via Amazon today. more
Whoa! This 3-piece outdoor bistro set is down to just $62 shipped (Reg. $110)
Greesum 3-piece Outdoor Bistro Set Buy for $62 (Reg. $110) Clip the on-page $10 off coupon. What we love If your home or apartment has a small balcony, patio, or some unused green space, Im a huge proponent of outfitting it with a set like this. You cant put a price on having a place where you can relax and get some fresh air. And even if you could, I think it would be worth a whole lot more than low $62 price were seeing here. more
Stock up with several styles of these golf pants priced as low as $28.50 (Reg. $40)
Willit Mens Golf Pants Buy from $28.50 (Reg. $40) What we love It doesnt matter if you are planning some golf outings or simply want to step up your business attire, these pants are here to help and wont break the bank. Pricing kicks off at $28.50, and there are loads of styles to choose from. I personally made the switch to pants like these for day to day wear and have found them more comfortable than jeans in a wide variety of scenarios. more
Amazon is offering the Greenworks 80V 16-inch Carbon Fiber Cordless String Trimmer for $209.46 shipped. Its coming down from its usual $300 price tag, while remaining priced in full directly from the brands website . This is the second time in 2025 that weve seen discounts take things to $209, which is beaten out this year by a drop to $206 in April and falls to the $199 low, most recently during the Prime Day event two weeks ago. Youre looking at the fourth-lowest price we have tracked, which doesnt sit much higher than the other rates just $9 above the low overall with $91 in total savings here while it lasts. more
Brave and AdGuard now block Microsoft Recall by default
The Brave web browser and the ad-blocker AdGuard have both announced that they are blocking Microsoft Recall by default . For the uninitiated, Recall is an AI-powered tool that accompanies Windows 11 and it records everything on a PC's screen . It's pretty obvious why a privacy-minded web browser like Brave and an ad-blocker would make this move. AdGuard said the decision was made due to a privacy concern, going on to say that the very idea of background screen captures is unsettling. A blog post on the matter suggested that the tool could snap a screenshot of a private chat window, an online form where youre entering your credit card or simply something personal you didnt want saved. Microsoft Recall new threat or improvement? In May 2024, Microsoft introduced a new feature in Windows 11 that was actively taking screenshots of everything happening on the screen, including messages in WhatsApp and Signal. These screenshots were stored on the device pic.twitter.com/C97KDylXPj AdGuard (@AdGuard) July 15, 2025 Brave also cited privacy concerns, suggesting that a user's entire browsing history could be captured by the tool. We think its vital that your browsing activity on Brave does not accidentally end up in a persistent database, which is especially ripe for abuse in highly-privacy-sensitive cases, the company wrote in a blog post. The chat app Signal made a similar move back in May , urging AI teams building systems like Recall to think through these implications more carefully in the future. Brave says it was partly inspired by Signal. AdGuard and Brave both offer toggles to bring Recall back into the mix. Microsoft's controversial tool lets people jump to whatever was previously on a screen. This includes web pages, images, documents, emails, chat threads or whatever else. It actually sounds like a pretty nifty productivity tool, despite the privacy concerns. It's available with some Copilot+ PCs. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/brave-and-adguard-now-block-microsoft-recall-by-default-152601475.html?src=rss
Recently-released 12-in-1 surge protector hides, moves, and upgrades a wall outlet at $17 (Save 25%)
TROND 12-in-1 Outlet Cover and Extender Buy for $17 (Reg. $22) What we love Just over a month ago this surge protector arrived at Amazon, there have been some smaller discounts leading up to now, but this is your chance to cash in at 25% off. This unit sets itself apart with a design that hides a standard wall outlet with a clean white cover and then allows you to relocate that power source up to 6 feet away. Best of all, you go from a measly 2 power sources all the way up to 12. This includes 8 AC outlets, 2 USB-A, and 2 Type-C. more
Dont spend a fortune on gym shorts, this 5-pack is only $23 Prime shipped ($4.50 each)
5-pack of LalaHooK Gym Shorts Buy for $23 (Reg. $25+) What we love Nobody wants to spend a fortune on gym shorts. Well I take that back, theres probably one person out there that does. That said, most of us would rather go for an affordable assortment of options like this. Pricing works out to roughly $4.50 a pair here, so you might as well stock up. more
First cash savings hit Autels new MaxiCharger AC Pro 80A level 2 EV charger at $899 (Reg. $1,299)
By way of its official Amazon storefront, Autel is now offering the first cash savings on its new MaxiCharger AC Pro 80A Business Level 2 EV Charger to $899 shipped. It hit the market a few months ago carrying a $1,299 price tag, which is where its currently priced directly from the brands website . This is the very first price cut weve spotted on this powerful charging solution, with the 31% markdown here cutting $400 from the tag while also setting the bar for future discounts down the road. more
Steep drop takes this AirTag-ready bifold wallet down to just $10.50 (Save 56%)
Miroddi Bifold AirTag Wallet Buy for $10.50 (Reg. $24) What we love If you like the idea of having Apple Find My tracking built into your wallet, but dont want to have to charge it, this AirTag-ready solution strikes a nice balance. Simply slot a spare AirTag in the dedicated spot and youll only need to swap out the battery roughly once a year. more
Bag two MagSafe car mounts while theyre under $7 each (20% off)
2-pack of Lamicall MagSafe Car Mounts Buy for $13.50 (Reg. $17) Clip the on-page 20% off coupon. What we love I only have one vehicle, and its decked out with two MagSafe mounts. This allows both the driver and front seat passenger to easily cruise around handsfree while also keeping their iPhones display in sight. Todays offer lets you follow a similar path or outfit two vehicles with a single unit at just under $7 per mount. more
We just spotted a deal at Amazon that drops the BOOX Go Color 7 Android-powered e-reader down to $219.99 shipped. This unit typically sells for $250 and hasnt seen many discounts since it debuted last year. In fact, its been going for around $270 on Amazon in recent months, making todays $50 price drop a solid deal. This is the lowest price we have tracked for this reader with a color E-ink display, so be sure to snag it after you learn more about it below. more
JOYROOM 57W Retractable USB-C Car Charger Buy for $10.50 (Reg. $20) Apply code 49SW7CWW during checkout What we love Easily refuel a smartphone, tablet, or even a MacBook Air while on the go with this affordable car charger. Its a cinch to do because of the retractable USB-C cable thats built right in. The cord can extend up to 31.5 inches, which works out to nearly 3 feet. Another perk here is that even when the integrated cable is in use, there are still USB-A and Type-C ports up for grabs. more
Go quick! Donkey Kong Bananza just dropped back to the $63 Amazon all-time low
Update: The Amazon all-time low on the wonderful Donkey Kong Bananza has returned at $62.99 this likely wont last long.Details below in the original post. Donkey Kong Bananza released to near-perfect review scores yesterday, and Amazon is already offering it on sale down at $62.99 shipped if youre quick (theres now telling how long this deal might last). Regularly $70, and likely in response to Costco offering it to its members at the same price yesterday, this is the lowest price we have ever tracked that anyone can take advantage of. If you havent scored Switch 2s best game yet, go grab Donkey Kong Bananza now while its on sale at Amazon. more
Engadget Podcast: A taste of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26 and more
Weve been playing around with the developer betas of Apples latest software , and now that weve spent time with iOS 26 , Liquid Glass and more on actual devices, we have thoughts. From representation in Genmoji and Live Translation adventures to Apple Intelligence musings, our hosts Cherlynn Low and Mat Smith share what you can expect on your iPhones later this year. We also go over our reviews of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 , as well as Microsofts SharePoint server vulnerabilities . Check out the episode below or find the Engadget Podcast on your favorite podcast platform. We're pretty much everywhere. If you'd like to interact with our hosts live, make sure to join us on Thursday mornings on the Engadget YouTube channel for the livestream of this podcast. We're taking a break for the rest of July but will resume that broadcast in August. Come through, we can't wait to talk to you! Subscribe! iTunes Spotify Pocket Casts Stitcher Google Podcasts Credits Hosts: Cherlynn Low and Mat Smith Producer: Ben Ellman Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/engadget-podcast-a-taste-of-ios-26-ipados-26-macos-26-and-more-143044957.html?src=rss
Apples public betas are hereand theyre nothing but trouble
Macworld The first public beta versions of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe, and watchOS 26 are now available. And if youre a keen enthusiast of all things Applewhich is likely, given the name of the website youre currently readingthen I imagine youve been tempted to download one or more of them and give them a whirl to see what all the fuss is about. Im here to tell you not to do that. If youre a developer, then it makes perfect sense to try out the developer betas. You kind of have to, because youll need time to update your apps to work with the new software framework before it officially rolls out: its no good running iOS 26.0 for the first time on launch day in September and suddenly realising it kills your game. But for everyone else, the downsides heavily outweigh the benefits, and I would go so far as to say that most people should stay away from installing them. Heres why. Theyre difficult to uninstall In the world of technology, curiosity is nearly always a good thing. Fearless experimentation is how you expand your knowledge and adapt to the latest developments. The key thing when nurturing that spirit of curiosity in beginners is explaining that there are no negative consequences to a little tinkering: that changes can be undone, settings reverted, and saves recovered. But installing a software beta, much like upgrading Apple operating systems in general, doesnt come under that category of consequence-free exploration. A couple of years ago, Apple made downloading and installing the beta much easier (we explain the process in this tutorial ); uninstalling it is much more of a pain. Removing the iOS 26 beta , for example, requires you to completely wipe your iPhone, reinstall iOS 18, and lose whatever you might have done while using the beta. So dont take the decision lightly. Installing a beta isnt quite a one-way ticket, but lets just say that its a lot easier to check into Hotel Public Beta than to check out. macOS Tahoe is a work in progress. Foundry Theyre not finished yet Theres something appealing about trying a new tech product before everyone elseas if youre a celebrity or influencer being given exclusive behind-the-scenes access. But that isnt whats happening when you install a public beta. Youre not really getting macOS Tahoe (or whatever), but an unfinished piece of software with the same name that Apple doesnt yet consider to be ready for release. In some respects the public betas are unfinished because Apple simply hasnt got round to adding scheduled features yet (and wouldnt you rather wait for them to be added?). But other elements will change organically between WWDC and launch day in response to tester feedback. Complaints about Liquid Glass visual effects have resulted in them being tweaked and toned down ; Apple has also been praised for improving performance and stability . There will be many such improvements as the beta process continues, and grabbing the public beta now means youll get a version that doesnt benefit from them. They can cause serious problems Whats the point of beta testing? To find bugs. A process which benefits Apple, but can cause serious problems for the people who find them. Beta software has been known to cause any number of headaches, from small glitches afflicting a single app or screen to system-wide issues with overheating, battery performance, backups , connectivity, and screen freezes. In some cases betas have completely bricked the devices theyre run on. These things have happened on officially released software too, of course, but far less oftenbecause those products have been through a full beta testing process. We always advise prospective beta testers to run the pre-release software on a spare or older device, so that running into a serious bug wont leave them unable to use their primary one. But a better solution would be not to run the beta at all. Theyre not the flex you think they are Full (and slightly embarrassing) disclosure: I like it when people notice a brand-new tech device Im reviewing. Oh, is that the new iPad Pro? Why yes, yes it is. Yes, I am a very cool person. How kind of you to notice. If youre looking for the same experience from running a public beta, Im here to tell you that it doesnt produce the same effect. On the one hand, it isnt obvious enough; it only changes the interface of your iPhone rather than its physical exterior. You have to actively point out that youre running the beta, which ruins the effect. No Mans Sky is now a much more fun game thanks to patches. Hello Games Youre spoiling the surprise! When the space exploration game No Mans Sky came out in 2016, players rushed to get on board, seduced by wildly ambitious claims and the idea of what it could become. The reality, at least at launch, was very different: planned features were delayed or abandoned , scope was reduced, and the whole thing failed to live up to what was implied by the trailers. Initial reviews were poor, user numbers fell off, and it seemed like a failure. But the makers didnt give up on the game, and the subsequent months and years saw numerous updates. Problems were fixed, features were added, and these days its considered a success. With the benefit of hindsight, how would you choose to play that game? By jumping in at launch, being massively disappointed, and then either sticking with a substandard experience until it got better or giving up? Or waiting until it was ready and enjoying the game in its full glory, surprised and dazzled by the new experiences each time you land on a new planet? Apples public betas may have come out, but theyre not the finished article. Plenty of features havent been added, they wont perform optimally, and there will be bugs everywhere. Why would you choose to spoil the surprise now? Just wait and enjoy the full experience in September, barely two months away.
Segway Navimow is offering up to 20% discounts on its i Series of robots, starting with the i105 Robot Lawn Mower down at $799 shipped that is also matching at Amazon, while the upgraded i110 Robot Lawn Mower has been dropped to $1,099 shipped and also matching at Amazon. These models havent seen as frequent discounts from their $999 and $1,299 starting rates in 2025 like the H Series of robots, with them both having seen a drop to $849 and $1,099 in June and falling to their lowest $749 and $999 rates during the Prime Day window. If you missed out on those low prices, youll be getting them at your second-best price of 2025, saving you $200 while upgrading your lawn care routine with autonomous support. more
New ONVIS Apple Find My Card with 5-year battery life sees first discount to $18.50
ONVIS Apple Find My Card Buy for $18.50 (Reg. $22) Clip the on-page 15% off coupon. What we love There are loads of ways to track gear now that Apple Find My is open to third parties. One of the newcomers to the space is ONVIS, and its actually made a name for itself in the Apple Home space, with it getting coverage over at 9to5Mac from time to time. Ive personally used some of its gear and have come away with no issues to speak of. This Apple Find My card can slip in a wallet, or really just about anywhere a standard credit card would fit. The brand touts a 5-year battery life due to a low discharge rate when in standby mode. more
New Jersey is the latest state to embrace digital IDs
New Jersey citizens will now be able to flash their driver's license from their smartphones after Governor Phil Murphy signed a digital ID measure into law, joining the ranks of over a dozen other states to do so. The law also allows for digital nondriver identification cards for those without driver's licenses. The bill also enshrines privacy and security protocols for those using the digital IDs, including safeguards to prevent unauthorized access to the underlying data. It outlines protections when using them, prohibiting any entities from requiring users to hand over their devices when presenting the digital ID. The bill clarifies that presenting a digital ID does not imply consent to a search or access to any other data on the device. Digital driver's licenses will make life easier for drivers across New Jersey, said Governor Murphy . Innovation has always been at the core of who we are as a state, and my administration has embraced that spirit to deliver practical solutions that improve everyday life for our people. By bringing government services into the digital age, were setting a new standard for how the public interacts with state agencies. Participation in the program is voluntary, so those who wish to keep using their physical IDs may do so. The state has set aside $1.5 million toward launching the program. It remains unclear whether these digital IDs will be compatible with Google Wallet and Apple Wallet , or if New Jersey intends to create its own digital ID app like Louisiana , New York and others. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/new-jersey-is-the-latest-state-to-embrace-digital-ids-140408431.html?src=rss
Google invests in carbon dioxide battery for renewable energy storage
Google has announced that it has signed a global commercial partnership with Milan-based startup Energy Dome and has also invested in its long duration energy storage (LDES) tech for renewable energy. The deal, its first investment in LDES tech, entails using Energy Dome's carbon dioxide battery for the grids that power Googles operations around the world. Batteries are used to keep excess energy generated by renewable sources, such as solar and wind, during peak production and when demand is low. But lithium-ion batteries can only store and dispatch energy for fours hours or less. Energy Dome explained that its CO2 battery can store and continuously dispatch energy for 8 to 24 hours, so Google can rely on renewable power more even when there's no wind or sun. Its technology uses carbon dioxide held inside dome-shaped batteries, which you can see in the image above. When there's excess renewable energy being generated, the batteries use that power to compress the carbon dioxide gas inside them into liquid. And when that energy is needed, the liquid carbon dioxide expands back into a hot gas under pressure. That gas spins a turbine and generates energy that's fed back into the grid for a period lasting up to a whole day. Google said that Energy Dome's technology has the potential to commercialize much faster than some of its other clean tech investments, and it aims to bring this technology to scale faster and at lower costs. It also said that it believes the partnership and its investment in Energy Dome can help it achieve its goal of operating on renewable energy 24/7 by 2030 . This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-invests-in-carbon-dioxide-battery-for-renewable-energy-storage-140045660.html?src=rss
Over at Amazon, youll find 8Bitdos official Amazon storefront offering Prime members its Ultimate 2C Black Myth: Wukong edition controller for $16.49 shipped. This is originally a $25 gamepad that has lately been sitting at the $21 mark. Todays Prime-exclusive offer shaves $4.50 off its usual going rate, landing it $1 below its previous low from a couple of weeks back. This is the lowest price we have tracked for this model, and youll also find the wireless variant of this controller currently down at $26.24 shipped for Prime members, which is within cents of its lowest price. Head below for more details. more
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 review: More screen, more battery but something's missing
Samsungs annual foldable refresh includes a trio of devices this year. While the Z Fold 7 comes with a top-tier processor and cameras, the Z Flip 7 carries over many technical details from its predecessor. In fact, the most significant upgrade this year is a more expansive front display, or Flex Window, as the company prefers to call it. Samsung has also, somehow, added an even bigger battery to a slimmer foldable, which is technically impressive. However, the company made minimal software additions and modest improvements in places. The upgrades are good, but are there enough of them? Hardware Mat Smith for Engadget Samsung has caught up to one of its few foldable rivals by substantially increasing the front display from 3.4 inches to 4.1 inches. The two camera cutouts are the only things interrupting this bright, vivid display. Despite bigger screens (and battery), the Flip 7 is also thinner than last years model. It measures 6.4mm (0.25 inches) thick, down from 6.9mm (0.27 inches). That's equal to the Galaxy S25 edge, where the major selling point is its thinness. I shouldnt have to say this, but that thickness doubles when you fold it away: Samsung says its 13.7mm (0.54 inches) when closed. However you measure it, this is the thinnest Flip yet. The Flex Window now has a 120Hz refresh rate, can reach peak brightness levels of 2,600 nits (matching the S25 Ultra) and features the thinnest bezel yet (1.25mm) of any Samsung smartphone display. The brightness increase is a crucial upgrade on a screen thats used mainly to glance at your device from across a desk or outside in sunlight. Samsung said it was able to further extend the display to the edges by applying a waterproof coating on components beneath the AMOLED display. This meant less bezel is needed around the screens perimeter. Samsung also expanded the foldables main screen to 6.9 inches a notable step up from the previous models 6.4 inches. The company also wisely shifted closer to a more typical smartphone display ratio of 21:9. While its not quite the same as, say, the Galaxy S25 or iPhone 16, video content now fits better. Previous Z Flips had more elongated screens, making it hard to reach the upper corners when using one hand. While the Z Flip 7 has a better aspect ratio, its also bigger, which unfortunately means it has the same issue. If Samsung had changed the aspect ratio while keeping the screen size, it might have struck the ergonomic sweet spot. Not for the first time, Samsung says its further strengthened the Flip's hinge mechanism. While I can't attest to its longevity, the Flip 7 does close with a beefier 'thunk' than its predecessors. I like that it takes a little bit more strength to open because it makes the whole device feel more solid. If youre hoping this is the year where the display crease disappears, Im afraid that isnt happening. For those who have never owned a foldable though, the Flip 7s crease is largely unnoticeable. The cameras Mat Smith for Engadget The story of this year's Flip's cameras? More of the same. The Flip 7 has the same 50-megapixel f/1.8 primary setup with optical image stabilization (OIS) and a 12MP ultra-wide lens with a 123-degree field of view. Theres a 10MP camera on the inside, too, but with the Flips improved front screen, you really should be using the primary camera duo. The best images come from well-lit scenes. Samsungs Night Mode is a little aggressive, but its still great for nighttime shots, even if it leaves an over-processed look on skin tones and faces. The Flip 7 defaults to 12.5-megapixel images, but you can switch to 50MP stills if you want all the detail and you have a steady hand. Theres no dedicated telephoto camera, which means the zoom is limited to a 2x crop, hindering the Z Flip 7s versatility. Once again: if you want a foldable with the best cameras, youll have to go with the Fold series. Mat Smith for Engadget In regard to video capture, the Flip 7 can record video in 10-bit HDR, up from 8-bit, for more color accuracy and detail. And you can still hold the Z Flip 7 like a retro camcorder, which remains far more enjoyable than it should be. Software Mat Smith for Engadget Despite the bigger screen, Samsung hasnt really evolved its Flex Window's software this year. There are a few improvements, though. When using the front display to take selfies and videos, interface icons and mode buttons will float around the display to get out of the way of what it detects youre trying to take photos of. If youre looking to use a special filter on your shots, the Z Flip 7 can show a live preview of each filter before you apply them. Two other software additions to the Flip series are the Now Bar and Now Brief, introduced in this years S25 series . The Now Bar is Samsungs spin on the iPhones Dynamic Island, displaying pertinent ongoing or time-sensitive information that isnt quite a notification, but something you might want to know about. This includes fitness metrics, weather or live updates from ride-share apps like Uber. You can tap into the Now Bar without opening the phone, and you won't have to unfold it if youre looking to interact with Googles Gemini Live either. Its another Android feature that seems well-suited to foldables, as you can talk to Gemini with minimal physical interaction on the Z Flip 7. To use most other apps, youll still need to install the Multistar launcher (which is made by Samsung) in order to view and use basic software like Gmail and Chrome. This is the workaround for now, as Samsung hasnt expanded the approved list of six apps that are allowed to run on the Z Flip 7s Flex Window a short list which bafflingly includes Netflix. Battery life and performance Mat Smith for Engadget Despite being even slimmer than last years model, the Flip 7 has a 4,300mAh battery thats 300mAh larger than its predecessors. That, along with a new processor (its homemade 3nm Exynos 2500), has led to a leap in longevity. In our standard battery rundown tests, the Flip 7 played continuous video for 18 and a half hours. Thats a big jump from the 13-hour rundown I got from the Flip 6 . I was so surprised I ran the test two more times to confirm and got similar results. The new chip never felt particularly sluggish, either, whether I was gaming, using Galaxy AI features or completing other taxing activities. That said, the phone would get warm, both in my hand and in my pocket, during camera testing and location-based tasks, like using Google Maps and CityMapper. In my day-to-day use, with heavy testing, Id get through a solid day and a half before I had to think about recharging. Unfortunately, the Galaxy Z Flip 7's wired charging speeds still top out at 25W, which Samsung has the gall to call Super Fast Charging. Its the same speed as the Z Flip 6 (and the base S25), but when other phones are using 45W charge speeds (or higher), its a little underwhelming, especially on a premium device like this. Wrap-up Mat Smith for Engadget By refreshing the design and further slimming down the Z Flip, Samsung has made its smaller foldable easier to handle. At the same time, its accomplished an engineering marvel by squeezing in larger screens and a more substantial battery. However, certain aspects of the Flip 7 are lacking, most notably the cameras, which havent been changed since last year. Samsung also needs to put more work into its Flex Window. While the ability to use most apps on the smaller front display is here, its still a fussy implementation and most of them arent tailored for the tinier screen. Theres untapped potential here and the Z Flip 7 doesnt push its category of foldables forward by much. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/samsung-galaxy-z-flip-7-review-140022250.html?src=rss
Todays best iOS app deals and freebies: Inked, Majesty Fantasy Kingdom, Some Peace of Mind, more
Friday has arrived and with it we have a fresh batch of discounts courtesy of the App Store. Joining this mornings games and apps, youll also want to scope out the ongoing deal Apples 32GB M2 Max Mac Studio at $900 off the list price, a chance to score AirPods Max (USB-C) at up to $136 off , and a giant $350 price drop on Apples 14-inch 24GB M4 Pro MacBook Pro with a 1TB SSD. As for the apps, everything awaits below. more
Embers Travel Mug 2 with Find My is $30 off right now
The annoying thing about coffee is that its ideal temperature is fleeting. Get caught up in a particularly lively debate in your morning meeting and by the time you return to your cup of joe, its cooled right down. Thats where Embers smart heated mugs come in, and right now one of its best models is $30 off. The Ember Travel Mug 2 this one is the 12-ounce variant usually costs $130, but right now can be snagged for $100 when purchased online from Walmart. It can keep your beverage of choice at your preferred temperature between 120-145 degrees Fahrenheit for up to three hours on a full charge, thanks to the extended battery life. If that isnt long enough, the included charging coaster can maintain optimum heat all day. You can pair your mug with the Ember app to tweak the temperature (theres also a touch display on the cup itself if you dont want to open your phone), and this model also supports Apples Find My service, so you can locate it on your Apple device using the Find My apps map if you misplace it. The Ember Travel Mug 2+ is IP67-rated but bear in mind that its washable by hand only. This model is available in black. Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice . This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/embers-travel-mug-2-with-find-my-is-30-off-right-now-135059507.html?src=rss
Nintendo released a sweet remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door on Switch in mid 2024, and now you can land a copy on sale. Alongside the rest of the ongoing Switch game deals youll find down below, and this chance to score some discounted eShop credit for deals on Switch 2 games , you can now land Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door on Switch for $42.99 Prime shipped via Woot (a $6 delivery fee will apply otherwise). Regularly $60, this is nearly 30% off and the lowest price we can find on the rarely discounted first-party Mario Switch remake. Chances are we are not going to be seeing any kind of a new remake on this one for Switch 2, and even if Nintendo issues an update, youll have a copy ready to go at a discount. more
CRISPR can stop malaria spread by editing a single gene in mosquitos
CRISPR gene-editing therapy has shown great potential to treat and even cure diseases, but scientists are now discovering how it can be used to prevent them as well. A team of researchers found a way to edit a single gene in a mosquito that prevented it from transmitting malaria, according to a paper published in Nature . These genetically modified mosquitos could eventually be released into the wild, helping prevent some of the 600,000 malaria deaths that occur each year. Mosquitos infect up to 263 million people yearly with malaria and efforts to reduce their populations have stalled as late. That's because both the mosquitos and their parasites that spread malaria have developed resistance to insecticides and other drugs. Now, biologists from UC San Diego, Johns Hopkins and UC Berkeley universities have figured out a way to stop malarial transmission by changing a single amino acid in mosquitos. The altered mosquitos can still bite people with malaria and pick up parasites from their blood, but those can no longer be spread to others. The system uses CRISPR-Cas9 scissors to cut out an unwanted amino acid (allele) that transmits malaria and replace it with a benign version. The undesirable allele, called L224, helps parasites swim to a mosquito's salivary glands where they can then infect a person. The new amino acid, Q224, blocks two separate parasites from making it to the salivary glands, preventing infection in people or animals. With a single, precise tweak, weve turned [a mosquito gene component] into a powerful shield that blocks multiple malaria parasite species and likely across diverse mosquito species and populations, paving the way for adaptable, real-world strategies to control this disease, said researcher George Dimopoulos from Johns Hopkins University. Unlike previous methods of malarial control, changing that key gene doesn't affect the health or reproduction capabilities of mosquitos. That allowed the researchers to create a technique for mosquito offspring to inherit the Q224 allele and spread it through their populations to stop malarial parasite transmission in its tracks. Weve harnessed natures own genetic tools to turn mosquitoes into allies against malaria, Dimopoulos said. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/crispr-can-stop-malaria-spread-by-editing-a-single-gene-in-mosquitos-133010031.html?src=rss
NZXTs originally $140 Function 2 full-sized gaming keyboard with RGB new all-time low at $60
We just spotted a deal at Amazon that drops NZXTs Function 2 wired gaming keyboard in back down to $59.94 shipped. This is originally a $140 model that has lately been going for $90. Todays deal delivers a 57% markdown on its listed price, landing it $30 below usual going rate. This is the lowest price we have tracked for this full-sized keyboard, and its now fetching $20 less than its previous all-time low. You can also get this in white , though, its currently fetching $90. Head below for more details. more
We see deals on Nintendo eShop gift cards all the time, but almost never at a full 20% off. Sams Club is now offering $100 in Nintendo credit for $79.98 with free email delivery (5 x $20 cards at 20% off). If you plan on spending on any money on the eShop, be it during sales on smaller indie titles or new Switch 2 games, this is a no brainer. more
The Best Samsung Phones of 2025, Tested and Reviewed
From flagship and budget to flipping and folding, Samsungs Galaxy range spans the breadth of the smartphone cosmos. WIREDs here to help you make your choice.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 review: Foldable phone nirvana (for a price)
After several generations of iterative updates, it feels like Samsung tossed the Galaxy Z Fold 7 into a Hyperbolic Time Chamber to create a stunning device that's leaner, stronger and more powerful than before. The best part though is the phone looks and functions just like a regular handset now that theres less bulk to lug around. But at a moment's notice, it can go Super Saiyan by opening up to reveal an even larger 8-inch display to become a true multimedia raidboss. Unfortunately, it's still extremely expensive at $2,000. Though if you can handle the price, in a lot of ways, Samsung has finally achieved foldable phone nirvana with the Galaxy Z Fold 7. ( Ed. note on July 25 at 9:00AM ET: The Galaxy Z Fold 7 has been available to pre-order since Unpacked on July 9 , and has now gone on sale. Since our review was published, additional reports on the Fold 7's durability has come out, including how its display has been rated to withstand 500,000 folds twice the number of its predecessor.) Design: Chef's kiss When Samsung debuted its updated super sleek design language on the Galaxy S25 Edge , it felt like a novel way to reimagine the S25+ as a more engaging device. But when the company gave the same treatment to the Z Fold 7, that engineering became something truly transformative. Compared to its predecessor, Samsung's big foldable for 2025 is 10 percent lighter at just 215 grams. The bigger drop comes in thickness with Galaxy Z Fold 7 measuring a whopping 26 percent thinner (just 8.9mm when folded). This represents the biggest generation-over-generation decrease for the entire Z Fold line, which is kind of shocking considering it's happening seven years in. The result is a foldable that is basically the same size and weight as the Galaxy S25 Ultra (it's actually a little narrower), which is no mean feat for a class of gadgets that has been plagued by extra heft since they first came out. What might be just as impressive is that Samsung hasn't really cut corners to deliver the Z Fold 7's streamlined dimensions. You still get an IP48 rating for dust and water resistance (which can handle submersions of up to 5 feet for 30 minutes) along with Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 in front and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 in back. Samsung also completely re-engineered its Armor FlexHinge, which glides open and closed like a dream. Samsung even says that Z Fold 7's ultra-thin glass is 50 percent thicker than before while also sporting a new titanium lattice that adds additional support and durability to the phone's flexible display. Inside, Samsung has switched away from the under-display sensor used on previous models in favor of a more traditional hole-punch camera. This is a bit of a shame as it adds a small blemish to that otherwise gorgeous screen. However, with the panel now measuring 8 inches across (up from 7.6 on the Z Fold 6), there's more of it to enjoy even after you account for the small cutout. Plus, the move to a higher-res 10-megapixel sensor for this camera results in significantly better image quality than any of Samsung's under-display modules. Sam Rutherford for Engadget The one small design quirk is that sometimes the phone doesn't unfold all the way, often stopping just short at 179 degrees much like the original Pixel Fold . That said, you can always make it go fully flat with a bit of extra pressure, though most of the time I don't even bother because this is the kind of thing that you don't really notice unless you're specifically looking for it. Displays: Now even bigger, both inside and out As for brightness and image quality, Samsung's panels are still unmatched. In addition to a larger main display, the Z Fold 7's exterior Cover Screen is slightly bigger at 6.5 inches. More importantly, it's noticeably wider too while sporting even thinner bezels, which makes the whole phone feel more usable. The feeling of holding a skinny baton I got on previous models is completely gone. Both screens also support a 120Hz refresh rate and can hit a peak brightness of 2,600 nits. And when compared to rivals like the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, the Fold 7's displays just pop a touch more thanks to slightly richer colors and saturation. Sam Rutherford for Engadget After introducing S Pen integration on the Z Fold 3, Samsung has removed stylus support for this model a big downgrade that may anger longtime Z Fold fans. The company claims it made this decision after seeing very low S Pen usage on previous generations, which frankly isn't all that surprising. But, as one of the highlight features that separated Samsung's big foldables from practically all of its rivals, it's still sad to see it go. Performance and software: The fastest big foldable phone The Galaxy Z Fold 7 unquestionably packs top-tier performance. It's powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip along with 12GB or 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage. Everything feels fast and snappy while OneUI 8 and Android 16 bring app optimizations that help make the most of the phone's big display. Sam Rutherford for Engadget The biggest eye-opener for me was when I compared how long it took the Z Fold 7 to launch my current favorite mobile game, Sword of Convallaria , against the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Even with the increased performance of Google's recent Tensor chips, Samsung's foldable loaded the game in 13 seconds compared to 18 seconds for the Pixel. That might not sound like a ton, but its around 25 percent faster and when it's something you do multiple times a day, shaving off even a few seconds adds up fast.. Cameras: A major resolution bump While the Z Fold 7's ultrawide and 3x telephoto cameras are largely unchanged, the phone features a big photo upgrade thanks to a new 200MP sensor for its main camera. This is essentially the same component Samsung used in the S25 Ultra and S25 Edge, and it delivers a much-needed bump in image quality. Sam Rutherford for Engadget In bright light, the Z Fold 7 easily keeps pace with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. In certain situations like when snapping pics of food, some may prefer its shots thanks to Samsung's warmer color profile. The phone still tends to oversharpen things, but colors are vibrant. For those who want to maximize resolution, you can select the phone's full 200MP mode (images are captured at 12MP by default). At night, the Fold 7's shots remained surprisingly sharp. I still prefer the Pixel 9 Pro Fold due to its more accurate white balance and often sharper focus, though Samsung's phone isn't far behind. Potentially the biggest shortcoming on the Fold 7 is that its 3x optical zoom can't quite match the 5x telephoto cam on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. But for fans of group shots, Samsung added a new selfie camera with a wider 100-degree field of view. Battery life and charging: Solid longevity, but still only Qi 2 ready While the Z Fold 7's 4,400mAh battery is the same size as its predecessor, you will get slightly increased longevity due to improved power efficiency from its processor. In our local video rundown test, the Z Fold 7 lasted 20 hours and 50 minutes when using its main 8-inch display and 26 hours and 22 minutes with its exterior screen. Depending on which display you use, that's between 45 minutes and an hour longer than what we got from the previous model, which is nice to see considering battery life was already pretty solid. Sam Rutherford for Engadget Sadly, Samsung hasn't changed much when it comes to recharging. The Z Fold 7 supports wired charging at up to 25 watts which is rather average for a modern flagship alongside 15 watt wireless charging. And like the rest of the 2025 premium Galaxy line, this phone is merely Qi 2 ready, which means there's no built-in attachment system for magnetic accessories like charging pucks, card holders and battery packs. So if you want to use peripherals like those, you'll need to get a case with full support for Qi 2. Wrap-up I've always said that Samsung is at its best when it focuses on hardware design, and the Galaxy Z Fold 7 may be one of the best examples of that. With its latest flagship foldable, Samsung has removed one of the remaining barriers preventing people from trying out the new breed of phones: excessive size and weight. By widening its cover display, the Z Fold 7 looks and acts just like a regular smartphone, which is great for checking messages, looking up directions or snapping a photo. When you want to get really immersed in a show, movie or game, you can open up that beautiful flexible display, which is now even larger for your viewing pleasure. The phones higher-res main camera also brings upgraded image quality while its Snapdragon 8 Elite chip gives it a performance edge over rivals like the Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Sam Rutherford for Engadget I don't love how Samsung is backtracking on features by removing S Pen support and reverting to an old-school camera cutout instead of an under-display sensor for its main display. But at least in the case of the latter, that change comes with much improved image quality, which is a big upgrade for video calls. With the Galaxy Z Fold 7, you really do get the best of both worlds. Its new design is just as sleek as comparable traditional flagships while hiding a larger display that makes the need for small tablets obsolete. Unfortunately, with a starting price of $2,000, Samsung hasn't addressed the last roadblock stopping people from trying out a device that might completely change the way they use their phone. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/samsung-galaxy-z-fold-7-review-foldable-phone-nirvana-for-a-price-123004636.html?src=rss
Galaxy Watch 8 review: Samsungs best smartwatch in years
Im too tired to write this review. Last week, I penned a work-in-progress version because I hadnt yet spent enough time to fully explore the new features Samsung packed into the Galaxy Watch 8 . One of those features is the new AI-powered running guidance, which I followed. I have run more in the past week than I ever have before. In my life. Ever. But Im pretty sure my editors would still appreciate the full assessment Ive proposed, so Ive plied myself with caffeine and will do my best here. Luckily, most of what I experienced in my first few days with the watch still stands: I was impressed then and remain so now. Not only are there a few valuable health and fitness additions, but the redesigned hardware looks great as well. Plus, the on-watch integration with Googles Gemini has proven surprisingly seamless. (When AI interactions actually yield positive results, Im always taken aback.) Samsung also fixed not one but two of the complaints I had with the Galaxy Watch 7 . Since the company probably didnt base its updates on my personal opinions, I imagine others had concerns over the comfort of the Watch 7 and I know from other reviews that many people were disappointed in its battery life. Before I get to Gemini, the redesign and exactly how my watch exhausted me, I want to discuss antioxidants. Its a compelling new health metric the Galaxy Watch can now measure and despite my hard work, I scored miserably. Antioxidant tests and my persimmon intake The Galaxy Watch 8 has the same processor and sensors as the previous generation, but its using those to detect a new metric: antioxidant levels. You have to take the watch off and hold your thumb on the sensor node for five seconds to get a reading and youll need to refer to the Health app in your phone for detailed results. The first time I tested, I got a score of 60, which falls right in the middle of the low segment of the scale. The only other results are very low and adequate, which will surely be a disappointment to the over-achievers out there. The Health app suggested I try eating one (100g) persimmon today. When my grandmother was alive, she made persimmon cookies every Christmas and the last time she did so was also the last time I thought about that fruit. Considering South Korea is one of the worlds largest persimmon producers , it might make sense that a Samsung device suggested them. The produce guy at my local grocery store said they only carry them around the holidays (no doubt because grandmas insist, plus thats when theyre in season). Turns out persimmons are high in antioxidants such as Vitamin C and beta-carotene (Vitamin A). Cantaloupe also has those nutrients plus its orange like persimmons so I bought one. In fact, I went hard on the antioxidants and did everything I could to see if I could get a better score. I ate a bunch of cherries and a little dark chocolate. For breakfast, I had half a cantaloupe instead of the very tasty-smelling breakfast hash my husband made, and I drank plain green tea instead of my usual oat matcha latte. I did yoga and went to my monthly medical massage appointment (stress is said to increase oxidant levels). I got eight hours of sleep and drank my weight in water. I felt ready. So I took the test again and my antioxidant levels were two points lower. Sigh. I wasnt expecting overnight transformation, but Id hoped for a little improvement. Next time, Im eating the hash. Taking the test on subsequent days days that I did nothing special to improve my score I never scored higher than 60 and dropped as low as 56. So it seems this is a metric that may take some time and effort to budge. Finally, a new design! Since its fourth generation , the Galaxy Watch has looked pretty much the same: a round glass screen set in a round metal case with large prongs popping out of the top and bottom to hold the band. While there was nothing wrong with sticking with a good design, giving a device a refreshed look lends the yearly update cycle some meaning instead of feeling like an obligatory move to appease stockholders. With 3,000 nits of peak brightness, the watch is easy to read even in the bright Albuquerque sun. Amy Skorheim for Engadget This time around, the Galaxy Watch 8 looks markedly different thanks to a shape borrowed from last years Ultra model (and some high-end timepiece profiles). Samsung calls it a cushion design a circular glass display set atop an aluminum case that looks like a roundish square (or squircle as our own Cherlynn Low calls it). The Sport band on my review model curves to meet the width of the case, creating a smooth arch that I think is more refined than the clunkier pronged configuration. In fact, the entire look is classy much more so than the Apple Watch, which looks like a miniaturized iPhone 11 glued to a silicone strap. The cushion design is great in one way, but also worrisome. Because the glass display stands proud of the case by at least two millimeters, my first thought was: Im going to trash this screen. Immediately after taking the watch out of the box, I ordered screen shields and, during the course of this review, managed to crack one. Thats possibly because I was cheap and ordered off-brand screen protectors, or perhaps the protruding glass cushion is simply begging for misfortune. However, the raised glass solves one issue with the Galaxy Watch 7 . One way to scroll is by running your finger along the outer edge of the screen. In fact, on-screen cues suggest that gesture when theres more content to view. On the Watch 7, my finger was always getting in the way of the text I wanted to read. Now that the display is elevated, theres room for my finger to travel further out along the outer edge and stay out of the way. Appearance aside, my favorite hardware update is the much more comfortable design. The Watch 7s underside had a sizable sensor node, and it took me a week to get used to the feel I wrenched it off the first night I tried to wear it to sleep. The Watch 8, however, felt good the first time I put it on. And now that Ive spent more time with it, I can say its the most comfortable watch Ive tested. I often forget I have it on and dont mind wearing it to bed, which is saying a lot. In fact, when I slept with it on one wrist and an Apple Watch Series 9 on the other to compare sleep data, I woke up in the middle of the night and took off the Apple Watch, but felt no compulsion to do the same with Samsungs model. Gemini on your wrist and Wear OS 6 The Galaxy Watch 8 is the first smartwatch to ship with Googles Wear OS 6, though Samsung overlays it with its own One UI interface. The first time well get a look at the unfiltered wearable software will be on Googles upcoming Pixel Watch 4 . The headline feature is Gemini integration. Now, most things you can do with the Gemini app on your phone can be done through your watch. Just note that youll need to have your Gemini-compatible phone nearby to use it. Amy Skorheim for Engadget Googles AI was pretty snappy at basic tasks like setting reminders and timers. Requests that required more thought took only marginally longer (and completed more quickly when I was using my home Wi-Fi versus relying on cell signals out in the world). I asked for the best record stores in my city and a good place to eat lunch. I was pleasantly surprised to hear of a new-to-me answer for each category. The record store turned out to be two bins of LPs inside a book shop, but still, I hadnt heard of it before. I asked why my eight-year-old talked about lava chicken all the time and was correctly informed about Jack Black and A Minecraft Movie . The assistant displays answers in text form on the watch screen and also reads out every word. That can turn into a lot of talking, but tapping the screen stops the chatter if you prefer to read. Gemini can handle follow-up questions and tasks, but since it doesnt usually keep listening after it speaks, you have to tap the mic icon to make your next request. I reached out to Samsung to ask if I could change a setting to make Gemini keep listening, but there isn't one at this time. For now, you'll need to tap or say OK Google again for followups like, Add that to my Google Keep or Remind me about that. If Gemini asks you a question, however, such as verifying a text its about to send, it does keep listening for the answer. You can also combine commands at the outset, such as asking to look up an address and text it to someone. I requested some fairly specific tasks and didnt hit any snags. I asked it to text the address of a local restaurant to my husband and it verified which location I wanted then sent the message. I asked when the Albuquerque Isotopes were playing the Sacramento River Cats and it gave me the upcoming dates. I tapped the mic and said, Add that to my calendar, which it did. It only let me down twice. When I asked whether it was going to rain, it just read me the general weather forecast instead of answering the question. All the other assistants in my life (Alexa and Siri) can answer those questions though technically thats a Gemini problem, not the watch's fault. The other disappointment is a matter of integration. I was out on a walk and I asked for directions to a nearby grocery store. Gemini gave me the address and the distance, but told me to look at my phone for the actual directions. When I asked Siri the same thing on the same walk, directions simply showed up on my Apple Watch. (Yes, Ive been wearing two watches and carrying around two activated phones like a double agent, just much less cool.) Tiles on the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic Amy Skorheim for Engadget In addition to Gemini, Wear OS 6 introduces updated and larger tiles which organize and display information on your watch. By default, the tiles are separated into categories: Health, Fitness and Basic (weather, media playback, calendar) with each box displaying a bit of pertinent info activity metrics, current temp, your next event and so on. If the limited info isnt enough, tapping a tile opens the respective app. You can categorize, rearrange, swap out and add as many pages of these cards as you want in the Wear app on your phone. I spent some time tweaking the layout to my liking, but really didnt alter the defaults too much. Already this feels like a much smarter way of interacting with a watch. Now you can glean key information from the apps that are important to you just by browsing your tiles. The running coach made me mad, but it earned my respect The Galaxy Watch 8s built-in, AI-fueled running guidance sounds a bit like the upcoming Workout Buddy that Apple announced for watchOS 26 . I plan to test that out next and it will be interesting to compare the two. Google Pixel watches and Fitbits currently have the option of an AI-powered running coach, but its limited to Premium subscribers. Garmin offers an adaptive training program called Run Coach as well, so this isnt an entirely novel idea. Samsungs running coach begins with an assessment: Run as fast as you can maintain for twelve minutes. Youll then be awarded a performance level ranging from one to ten. Each level comes with a tailored, four-week plan with four workouts per week intended to get you ready to complete a 5K, 10K, half or full marathon. My 12-minute, 22-second per-mile pace put me at a level three. My plan was geared towards getting me to run a sub-35-minute 5K at the end of four weeks. Samsung/Engadget The first workout was low-intensity interval running with four segments of running hard, interspersed with cool-down walks which felt easy and attainable. Two days later I did the second routine, which had me run for thirty minutes at my assessment pace (which it referred to as a slow jog). For the next session, I was told to run for 30 minutes on a hilly course. There was some walking on the inclines, but I completed it. After that, I was startled to see it wanted me to run for 3.1 miles with a target pace below 12 minutes. Yes, on workout four (of 15 total), I was supposed to run a 5K faster than my assessment pace. This felt unfair. Unhinged. Not nice. But in the name of proper gadget testing, I tried. During every run, the AI coach chimes in each minute with a pace update, letting you know whether youre going slower, faster or right around your target. You also get updates on your completion level, with a shout out at 30 percent, half way and 80 percent. Three or four times per session, the coach gives you some canned advice like telling you to focus on maintaining a consistent pace and not speed, reminding you that runs build cardiovascular health or suggesting that you cool down after a workout to avoid injury. You also get interjections like Youre doing great or Youre almost done, finish strong. At first, I hated the constant pace checkins. Once I hit the halfway point of the 5K, I started to lag. My watch told me over and over: Youre running slower than your target pace. Try to speed up if you can. I wheezed obscenities in response. But then, when I really just wanted to quit, I started to look forward to the next update, knowing it meant Id stayed on my feet for one more minute. Ultimately, I ran faster and farther than I would have without a coach. I wouldnt have attempted a 5K, because thats just insane. Of course, Im a pretty easy win for Samsungs running coach. Im an optimistic person and Ive never been coached before, so anything that says it elieves in me and pushes me to try something I dont think I can do is pretty likely to get some results. Samsung calls this an AI-powered regimen and sure, it knew my pace, distance and heart rate and adjusted its encouragement accordingly but I didnt hear anything uniquely personalized to me and my journey. But I still have three weeks to go. Vascular load and bedtime reminders Two new features require overnight data gathering. Vascular load takes readings while you sleep to evaluate the health of your circulatory system, then tells you when your load is higher or lower than normal and offers recommendations. It requires three nights of data to set a baseline. After that, youll be able to check whether your load is higher, lower or steady. My range has been lower or steady over the past few days. The internet tells me that a high vascular load can lead to bad things like hypertension and heart attacks. And the Health app offers suggestions to improve your vascular load, too things like getting better sleep, being active, limiting stress and maintaining a healthy weight. Personally, this isnt an area Im concerned about, but considering the prevalence of heart disease, its a good metric to keep an eye on.. Three nights of sleep also triggers the Bedtime Guidance feature, but I didn't see any notifications. I asked Samsung why, and was told to turn it on in the Health app (Health > Sleep > tap three dots icon > Bedtime guidance). I still didnt get any guidance, which I realized was due to the fact that I have my bedtime set for 10PM, but I turn on the watchs sleep mode by 9PM most nights. What can I say, I like sleeping. A bigger battery makes the AOD A-OK One of the prior models shortcomings was battery life. The always-on display (AOD) tanked the charge, so I kept it off. The Galaxy Watch 8 has a bigger 325mAh battery, compared to the 300mAh one on the Watch 7. Twenty-five milliamp hours isnt a huge jump, but in batteries, bigger is always better. And thats true here. I charged the watch to full at 12:30PM, turned the AOD on and after two auto-detected bike rides, one walk, some Gemini requests, checking notifications and using a few timers, it was still at 75 percent at 8:45PM. I enabled sleep mode shortly after and slept until 6:15AM. Then I did an AI-coached three-mile run and it still had 27 percent at 9AM. At 2:30PM it hit seven percent and I put it on the charger. Samsung promises up to 30 hours of use on a charge with the AOD on. This was slightly less than that, but it was an activity-filled day and I was fine with the lifespan. The Galaxy Watch 8 Classic is super swank The spinning-bezel version of the latest watch is obviously aimed at the luxury watch-hound crowd. The knurled spinning bezel, inset diving bezel replica and the default chronograph watch face gives off serious Rolex Daytona/Omega Speedmaster wannabe vibes. It ships with a stitched leather-look band and the steel case has the heft and stature of an automatic mechanical timepiece. The always-on display and chunky buttons only add to the effect. Amy Skorheim for Engadget For me, the main advantage it has over the standard Galaxy Watch 8 is the protection the spinning bezel offers the raised display. The glass is shielded at the edges and its even inset slightly, which should ward off scratches. At first I thought it would be too chunky, but its surprisingly comfortable for its size and I really like how it looks. Its an extremely attractive watch. I mostly tested out the standard version of the Watch 8, because I think most people will opt for that model, but if I got one for myself, I think Id go with this beaut Pricing and the competition Samsung added $50 to the price tag on the 40mm Galaxy Watch 8, bringing it to $350. The larger 44mm model is now $380 (versus $330 last year) and the Classic variant is $500 for the single 46mm size. For reference, there was no Galaxy Watch 7 Classic and the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic sold for $400 for the 43mm size and $430 for the 47mm. At $350, the base model Galaxy Watch 8 costs the same as Googles Pixel Watch 3 (though the Pixel Watch 4 is almost certainly on the way and could be more expensive.) The Apple Watch Series 10 starts at $399, but it went as low as $279 during Prime Day. And, of course, a new Apple wearable is likely coming this September with a potential price bump as well. So Samsungs Galaxy Watch 8 could end up being the most affordable of the major smartwatch releases once the dust settles from 2025s launches. And if youre a Samsung smartphone user, its easily your best bet. All the small things The core functions of the Galaxy Watch 8 havent changed all that much. We went in-depth on the fitness and health features for our review of the Galaxy Watch 6 and covered the notable perks of Samsungs wearable in our Galaxy Watch 7 review and our Galaxy Watch 5 review . So Ill just point out that the workout tracking is still accurate and its faster to suss out when Im on a walk than my Apple Watch. The companion Health app, where you view all the data your watch gathers, is helpful and a delight to use with its common-sense suggestions and friendly animations. And the daily Energy Score is a useful indicator of how Im doing with my sleep and movement goals. Amy Skorheim for Engadget The Watch 8 is an industrious accessory for a Galaxy phone. My only lingering gripe is that the notifications arent as intrusive as my distracted brain needs them to be. Theyre easy for me to miss. The double tap feature is great a pinch gesture that dismisses or triggers actions without you having to touch the screen. I use it often and the watch almost always registers the motion. The screen has only become more responsive and navigation is plenty zippy. And finally, I love how customizable the watch faces are. Wrap-up: The best smartwatch Samsung has made in years The substantially refreshed look was the first indicator that Samsung was (finally) doing something different with the Galaxy Watch. I was pleasantly surprised by how well and how quickly Gemini was able handle functions on the wearable itself, as well as answer my questions. The tiles make hunting down info on the watch much easier and the new health metrics like antioxidant levels and vascular load could come in handy for many folks. Also the Classic variant this year is a truly stunning timepiece, finally bringing a true grown-up style to smartwatches. The AI running coach got more out of me than I thought possible (and ensured that I will be fast asleep before any Bedtime Guidance suggestions kick in). But the changes that pleased me the most were the improved battery and markedly increased comfort. Those were two factors that prevented the just-good Galaxy Watch 7 from being a great smartwatch. Of course, if you dont have a Samsung phone, theres no point in considering any Galaxy Watch (and if thats you, you probably havent read this far down anyway). But if youre a Galaxy fan, this watch may very well delight you and help you get the most out of your phone. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/galaxy-watch-8-review-samsungs-best-smartwatch-in-years-155857108.html?src=rss
Alexa+ preview: An almost philosophical exercise
Alexa, I need to write a review about you. Oh, a review? Im intrigued! Whats the occasion? Id love to hear what you think. Theres no occasion, this is just my work. Ah, I see. Writing a professional review, got it. Im here to help if you need any specific information. Yeah, what should I consider when reviewing you? Consider my natural voice, emotional intelligence and my ability to handle complex tasks. How about my personality and humor? Those are key parts of the new me. The above is a recent exchange I had with Alexa+. Access to the next-generation assistant has been slowly trickling out to users since Amazon first announced availability at an event in February. But work on the smarter, more natural-sounding Alexa has been going on for years, and it still isnt ready for a widespread release. The version currently rolling out is more like an intriguing preview of what a truly intelligent Alexa could be. Im having a hard time figuring out how I feel about the upgraded Alexa. On the one hand, I cannot deny it is now capable of tackling some fairly complex requests it couldnt before. On the other, it doesnt have good memory, cant really see all tasks to completion and is just incompetent enough to be annoying. I want to first caveat all of this by pointing out that when it does become broadly available, Alexa+ will be a free upgrade for Amazon Prime subscribers. Non-Prime members will have to pay $20 a month for the privilege, but theyll still get the existing Alexa experience on their compatible devices should they choose not to upgrade. That means there will likely be no extra cost to most, and you probably wont need to spend too much time thinking about whether you want to use it. As long as its not a worse experience, it is very easy to say yes to. Ive been tempted to get philosophical when thinking about a digital assistant thats more fluent in human. Do I really want to think of the new Alexa as basically a flesh-and-blood assistant with emotional intelligence, personality and humor? No. If it performs poorly, I'll be let down; if it performs well and can essentially pass a mini Turing test, the ickier I'll feel at keeping something like an indentured servant in my kitchen. I set aside my existential questions and tried to focus on the practical experience of getting help from Amazons upgraded assistant. Is it better than the previous version? Is it reliable and easy to use? Finally, does it deliver what Amazon promised? And as a bonus, is the experience enjoyable (or at least painless)? The answer to all those questions is a half-hearted shrug. In some ways, Alexa+ delivers. But in many ways it is an excellent showcase of the limitations of generative AI, and demonstrates that the true problem with the current cohort of AI tools is a mismatch between expectations and reality. Amazon Whats new with Alexa+? A voice assistant is hard to describe, since its intangible and amorphous. Its quite difficult to state where its capabilities begin and end, not to mention how it might have been upgraded. But Ill start by comparing it to its predecessor, which Ill be calling Original Alexa (or OriginAlexa, if you will indulge me). OriginAlexa taught us how to use very specific commands to do things like turn our living room lights on or off. If you had a family member or friend named Alexa, you might have renamed it to Computer and adapted your relationship to that word. Due to how you might have grouped your home gadgets, you could have begun to refer to your kitchen area lights as skylights, for example. Alexa speak, as some call it, differs across households. I say Alexa, stop, to silence alarms, while my best friend says Alexa, off, to do the same. But regardless of the specific word choices, Alexa-speak largely revolved around using stilted phrases and careful enunciation to avoid having to repeat yourself to get something done. Anyone thats used any voice assistant is probably familiar with the frustration of repeating yourself when a command has been misheard for the umpteenth time. Thats (supposed to be) a thing of the past with Alexa+. In a blog post announcing the new assistant , Amazons lead of devices and services Panos Panay said Alexa+ is more conversational, smarter, personalized and she helps you get things done. The company said it rebuilt Alexa with generative AI , but it didnt just use large language models (LLMs) to make its assistant converse more naturally. It also created new architecture to enable API integration at scale. These APIs are how assistants can connect to third-party services to do stuff on your behalf, and Amazon described them as core protocols to getting things done outside of a chat window and in the real world. In a separate blog post , Amazon said This architecture is what will let customers quickly and seamlessly connect with services they already use in their daily life: GrubHub, OpenTable, Ticketmaster, Yelp, Thumbtack, Vagaro, Fodors, Tripadvisor, Amazon, Whole Foods Market, Uber, Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Max, smart home devices from companies like Philips Hue and Roborock, and so much more. Basically, Alexa can communicate with you more naturally, meaning you can talk to it more like you would with another human being, so you can forget about Alexa-speak. It will also retain information about your preferences and is capable of handling more tasks on your behalf. But enough about the promises. What was living with Alexa+ for weeks actually like? The setup Alexa+ is currently only available as an Early Access preview to a small group of users. Though my access was granted by Amazon for the purposes of this testing, other people in my non-tech circles did start gaining access recently, which means you might be able to check it out yourself soon. The fact that its still somewhat exclusive and experimental means there are likely to be glitches, which is understandable. Once I got past the first day or two after upgrading to Alexa+, I didnt notice many actual bugs. What frustrations I did encounter later seemed more to do with programming and AIs limitations than unstable software. The updated Assistant currently requires at least one compatible device with a screen on your network, so those of you who only have Echo speakers will have to wait a lot longer or try it on your phone. I spent most of my time testing Alexa+ via an Echo Show 15 as well as the Alexa app on my iPhone. There were small variations in the answers I would get on either device, but by and large the experience was similar. The most meaningful difference really was in how I perceived Alexa. Initially, when I was interacting with it on the smart display, it felt more like an upgraded smart home and personal assistant, and I predominantly asked it to check on the weather, Uber prices or to help me do things like set timers, reminders and play music. Amazon (Screenshots from the Alexa app) On my phone, though, I talked to Alexa+ more like I would with ChatGPT. I asked deeper, more philosophical questions that required more research and thought. I asked it to generate images, sort 15 names into three groups and, inspired by the subreddit r/tipofmytongue , help me find a book I was struggling to recall. Over time, I did come to rely on the smart display more, as its always easier to just say Alexa, is Mountainhead a good movie than to pick up my phone, find an app and ask the AI. Of course, I could ask the same question of Siri or my Google speakers, and I did. All three assistants answered similarly, each citing different sources. Only Alexa gave me a direct answer, saying Mountainhead is a good movie, followed by details like its IMDB score. The other two simply rattled off On the website RottenTomatoes dot com, or heres an answer from whattowatch dot com. Alexa has improved in some small ways In many ways, Alexa+ is a marked improvement over its predecessor, and I have to admit I found myself nodding, impressed, at its ability to tackle multi-step tasks and recall previous conversations. Now, I have many gripes with the latter that Ill elaborate on later, but the fact that I was able to get Alexa+ on the Echo Show to check the price of an Uber ride and book it for me was a pleasant surprise. Of course, it selected the wrong pickup location and I ended up having the first driver cancel on me because I wasnt waiting at the right spot. But it did manage to completely book a ride on my behalf, relying solely on my voice commands and an Uber integration I had set up earlier. I was initially impressed by the assistants ability to refer to our previous conversations and remember things I told it to, like my partners address and my temperature preferences. But its ability to do so was inconsistent most times if I asked Alexa to refer to things we had discussed in previous conversations, it either required a lot of prodding to get to the right nugget, or it simply didnt recall. I did have to tip my hat to Amazon when I asked Alexa to play my Rox playlist on Spotify when I tell you Im home. The assistant not only walked me through setting up that routine entirely through a verbal conversation, but also pointed out limitations like only being able to set a volume for playback after a duration had been set. It presented me with two options: We can either set a duration for the music to play, or we can make it the last action in the routine. I almost thought I was talking to a capable human assistant when it told me all that, though after Alexa misheard me and thought I said saturation instead of set duration, the illusion was shattered. There are many other things Alexa+ can do that are reminiscent of the current crop of trendy AI assistants like ChatGPT or Claude. Ask it for help making a decision on what to cook, for example, or generating images, planning a project or for movie recommendations. One new capability I was excited about was sending me emails from our conversation. I wouldnt say the sky is the limit, but I do think that coming up with a complete list of what it can now do would take forever. Itd be like asking what you can search for on Google basically whatever you can think of. Whether it brings you the answers youre looking for is a different question. I found Alexa+ helpful in that it was able to email me the lists of names it sorted on my behalf, or the project timeline I asked it to help create. But the limits to what it would send me were frustrating. Straightforward content, like the three groups of five names, arrived at my inbox with no problem. Other times, like when I asked it to email me the conversation I started this article with, it only sent me part of our chat. This has a lot to do with what Alexa deems to be the beginning and ending of a conversation, and it was fairly often wrong. Ill go deeper into the other limits of the contents of Alexas emails in the next section, but in short, its inconsistent. Inconsistent and imperfect Thats a pattern of behavior that youll see here. Alexa+ will be capable in some new way that has potential to be exciting and useful, but it will fail you somehow or execute its task incompletely. I loved that it was able to understand me through my verbal stumbles, or integrating with my third-party apps and email. But I kept hitting walls or being let down. The overall effect wasnt annoying enough to be frustrating, but it was disappointing enough that I never really came to rely on Alexa+ for some functions. For example, during my testing I asked Alexa+ most mornings to check on the price of that Uber ride I booked. Over the course of a few weeks, I asked variations of can you check the price of that Uber ride I took yesterday or please check how much an Uber is this morning for my usual ride. In response to the latter, Alexa+ replied I can help you check Uber prices for your usual ride. I have two saved pickup locations for you. Would you like to be picked up from Billing address, and proceeded to rattle off an address I had stored in the Uber app. It continued, offering a second pickup address and asking if I preferred a different location. After I selected one, it asked where I would like to be dropped off. Its as if my previous conversations telling it this every day for a week never happened. To its (very small) credit, Alexa+ gave me accurate prices after I supplied all the parameters, but it took a tiresome amount of time. Thats largely due to how verbose the responses are. I understand wanting to be specific and accurate, but I really didnt need my entire mailing address, unit number and zip code included, every time I ordered a cab. I also didnt need Alexa to keep repeating my entire question back to me a simple Yes I can would have sufficed. Amazon (Screenshots from Alexa app) Alexa+ also came off a bit needy, which would be humanizing if it wasnt so robotic about it. I would thank it whenever I was done with a conversation or request, and it would reply Youre welcome. Glad I could help you with and make a sort of reference to our chat in a few words. Or it would say youre welcome, have a nice day. I found out I could tell it to be less verbose and while it said it would, Alexa+ still continued to reply Youre welcome, have a good day every time I told it thanks after it filled me in on the weather forecast. I could almost put up with the overly long responses, if Alexa did things the way I expected. But like I already mentioned, its inconsistent. Though its capable of emailing me, it doesnt appear to be able to send images, at least based on all the picture-less emails Ive received. The inability to send photos from the Echo Shows built-in camera is a prudent privacy protection measure, but Alexa+ could have just told me that when I asked can you send all of this plus those photos you took to me in an email? Instead, it replied Certainly, I can help you with that. Ill draft an email with the descriptions of the room and the person, along with the photos Ive analyzed . Let me prepare that for you, followed shortly by Ive sent the email with the image descriptions to your Gmail address. You should receive it shortly. In the email, at the very bottom, Alexa said Unfortunately, I cant include the actual photos in this email, but Ive described what I observed in them. Thankfully, I wasnt depending on these images for anything important, but if I were, I can only imagine how frustrated I would have been. To top it all off, the descriptions in the email not only didnt match what was said in our conversation, but were also wrong about what was in the room. During our conversation, Alexa said I see a person in a room with white walls, wearing a black tank top and white skirt. Theres furniture including a cabinet, bookshelf, desk and coffee table. Thats a fairly accurate description of my living room. The email I got had three sections with bullet points. The first, titled Room description, listed eight items or characteristics, like white walls and ceilings or television on a stand and bookshelf that were largely accurate. Here, it said I had a white cabinet with drawers, which is wrong. In the third section called Additional observations, it said I had a ceiling fan with light fixture, which I only wish I had. Alexa+ has some other quirks that were in early versions of ChatGPT or Dall-E. For example, when I asked it to create an image of an AI assistant on the screen of a smart display on a kitchen island, it was completely unable to understand my request. Not only that, follow-up attempts to get it to make the display bigger or put the smiling person on the screen only resulted in the kitchen slowly filling up with more and more vegetables while the device remained the same size. I didnt know whether to laugh or cry. Amazon (Screenshots from Alexa app) Is the goal of generative AI to be human? I could continue to list examples of where Alexa+ failed to completely do what I asked it to, but I think you get the point. The one area where I can confirm a noticeable improvement is in the way the assistant sounds and how it understands speech. Ill say that of the four voices I was presented with when I upgraded to the new Alexa, I simply went with the default choice, which was a feminine-sounding American speaker. I didnt mind it, but I know some other people who dislike it. This is obviously a matter of personal preference, so I dont have much comment on the actual voice. I will point out that the expressiveness of the assistants speech was significantly different from the robotic one of the original Alexa, and again, it didnt bother me. One of my biggest initial concerns was having to adjust how I spoke to Alexa. I considered myself fluent in Alexa-speak. Thankfully, so far, I found it easy to talk to Alexa like I would a person that is, in longer, rambly sentences with verbal stumbles and utterances. For the most part, I felt understood, or at least better understood than by the Google Assistant or Siri. Of course, that in itself raises philosophical questions of whether you want to speak to AI like you would people to begin with. But from my weeks with Alexa+, that feels like the least pressing concern. Back to the conversation I had with the assistant on what to look out for when I review it. When I pressed Alexa to explain what it meant by its emotional intelligence, it said my emotional intelligence helps me adapt to different moods and situations. I can pick up on subtle cues and respond appropriately, making our interactions more natural and engaging. This set off my internal alarm bells just a bit, so I asked how it was detecting my mood. Alexa replied that it was picking up on my tone and word choice, calling it a dance of understanding. So I pushed it further: Tell me about your emotional intelligence. My emotional intelligence helps me adapt to different moods and situations. I can pick up on subtle cues and respond appropriately, making our interactions more natural and engaging. Well how are you detecting my moods I pick up on your tone and word choice. Your emotions color our conversation, and I adapt to match. It's like a dance of understanding. How do you think I am feeling right now? Based on our chat, I'd say you're feeling analytical and focused. You're in work mode, evaluating my capabilities for your review. What about when I, you know, asked you about the weather this morning? This morning, you asked about the weather and I provided a sunny forecast. How did that information help you start your day? No, I was asking about my mood back then, do you know how I felt then? Ah, I see. Based on that morning conversation, you seemed casual and curious about the day ahead. Your tone suggested a typical start to the day, neither particularly excited nor stressed. During this exchange, I also adjusted the pitch of my voice to see if it would make a difference, and none of the responses I got gave me any real insight as to whether Alexa was actually listening to the sound of my voice to determine my mood. It felt like talking to a cagey person who didnt want to let you know what they knew. Neediness, inconsistency and gaslighting. In creating something so imperfect, maybe Amazon has actually managed to nail the human experience. Ill be clear, though. The company never said it set out to make something human. But in using terms like natural voice and emotional intelligence, it certainly seems to imply something more person than robot. Its not a problem unique to Amazon. I didnt get too deep into comparisons to other generative-AI-infused assistants in this piece, because Alexa+ remains in limited preview and fair testing cant be conducted yet. But I did already notice some small areas where the Amazon offering was smarter than others. I asked Alexa, Siri and the Google Assistant (on a Pixel 9) to set a timer for 30 minutes, before changing my mind and telling them to adjust those to 25-minute countdowns instead. Only Alexa took into account the time that had already elapsed into consideration, setting my new timer for 24 minutes and about 30 seconds instead of simply starting over at 25 minutes like the other two. Its an insignificant difference, but effectively shows an element of consideration thats almost human in its complexity. I will spend more time with Alexa+ to further poke at the limits of its abilities and to continue our dance of understanding. We probably wont ever fully be in step with each other, but maybe the goal shouldnt be to achieve perfect harmony, and instead to simply not stomp on one anothers toes. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/alexa-preview-an-almost-philosophical-exercise-130012573.html?src=rss
How to land the Midnight AirPods Max (USB-C) for less than Prime Day, now up to $136 off
Apples latest AirPods Max (USB-C) dropped down to $400 in all colors other than the Midnight black set for Prime Day earlier this month. Landing a set of $549 premium headphones at a price like that is a serious deal, but if you missed out, all of the paint jobs are now sitting down at $449.99 shipped and we just spotted a chance to score the Midnight set for even less than the Prime Day offer. more
Somnee Smart Sleep Headband Review: High-Tech Help
This wearable tech maps your brain using EEG sensors and algorithms, delivering therapeutic stimulation to improve sleep. And it succeeds, sort of.
Internet Archive is now an official US government document library
The US Senate has granted the Internet Archive federal depository status, making it officially part of an 1,100-library network that gives the public access to government documents, KQED reported. The designation was made official in a letter from California Senator Alex Padilla to the Government Publishing Office that oversees the network. The Archive's digital-first approach makes it the perfect fit for a modern federal depository library, expanding access to federal government publications amid an increasingly digital landscape, he wrote. Established by Congress in 1813, the Federal Depository Library Program is designed to help the public access government records. Each congressional member can designate up to two libraries, which include government information like budgets, a code of federal regulations, presidential documents, economic reports and census data. With its new status, the Internet Archive will be gain improved access to government materials, founder Brewster Kahle said in a statement . By being part of the program itself, it just gets us closer to the source of where the materials are coming from, so that its more reliably delivered to the Internet Archive, to then be made available to the patrons of the Internet Archive or partner libraries. The Archive could also help other libraries move toward digital preservation, given its experience in that area. It's some good news for the site which has faced legal battles of late. It was sued by major publishers over loans of digital books during the Coronavirus epidemic and was forced by a federal court in 2023 to remove more than half a million titles. And more recently, major music label filed lawsuits over its Great 78 Project that strove to preserve 78 RPM records. If it loses that case it could owe more than $700 million damages and possibly be forced to shut down. The new designation likely won't aid its legal problems, but it does affirm the site's importance to the public. In October, the Internet Archive will hit a milestone of 1 trillion pages, Kahle wrote. And that 1 trillion is not just a testament to what libraries are able to do, but actually the sharing that people and governments have to try and create an educated populace. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/internet-archive-is-now-an-official-us-government-document-library-123036065.html?src=rss
There have been some wonderful opportunities to score extremely deep deals on Samsungs latest Galaxy Buds 3 Pro over the last few weeks as part of the Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 pre-order promotion , but those all ended yesterday and we have another shot at some serious savings. And this time around you wont have to fork out any cash for a phone to get them Best Buy has certified refurbished sets back in stock at $150 off the new list price. more
These 6.6-foot 240W USB-C cables are down to just $2.50 each, grab this 2-pack at 45% off
2-pack of LISENs 6.6-foot 240W braided USB-C cables Buy for $5.50 (Reg. $10) Enter promo code JHCR87FA for $4.40 off. What we love Theres no shortage of USB-C cables out there, but many of them, especially in this price range, top out at 60W charging speeds. The 2-pack were looking at today gets you cables which max out at 240W. Another great thing about them is that theyre braided and each one measures 6.6 feet in length. more
Samsung Galaxy Watch8 and Watch8 Classic Review: The Squircle
Samsung introduces a ton of new health-tracking features, some of which are a little strange.
We just spotted a deal at Woot that gets you a 2-pack of the Tile Pro item trackers at $34.99 Prime shipped (a $6 delivery fee will apply otherwise). This particular model hit the scene in September last year and this specific 2-pack with black and white units has been going for $60 at Amazon. Todays deal at Woot delivers a 42% markdown, knocking it down to a new all-time low. Cashing in on todays deal essentially lets you grab these trackers at just $17.50 each , which is $6.50 less than what youd pay for a single unit down at $23.99 Prime shipped right now. more
Huge 50% deal knocks Embers Find My Travel Mug down to $100 (Reg. $200 at Apple Store)
We are now tracking one of the best prices we have ever seen on the Apple Find My-equipped Ember Travel Mug 2+ . Walmart has this model down at $100 shipped right now and we do not expect this deal to stick around for very long it very quickly appeared on Amazon and died off shortly thereafter. more
5 Best Red-Light Therapy Masks and LED Devices of 2025, Reviewed
Your face called, and its low-key offended you might trust TikTok more than WIRED.
Deals have really slowed down on Apples M4 iPad Pro models, even with the M5 rumors abound . You will find some $100 price drops, some even better than that, on select models right now at Amazon, but nothing particularly notable by comparison to what we saw earlier in the year. That said, there are a couple notable offers floating around this morning for folks looking for a banger 13-inch model with well over $200 in savings right now. The first of which has the 1TB nano-texture variant starting at a new Amazon low with $269 in savings and the other has one of the best prices we have tracked on the standard issue. Details below. more
The Morning After: Apples iOS 26 beta is ready for the public
A few months since WWDC 2025, and Apple is shifting its OS update from developers to brave members of the public. Yesterday, the company launched the public beta version of all its operating systems, now all under the umbrella of 26, making my job a little bit easier. Ive been testing the iOS 26 beta, which (like the rest) centers on a major design shift to Liquid Glass, with transparent overlapping elements and fluid animations. While it looks different, Apples focus seems to be familiarity and guiding the user in how to use its hardware, across mobile, PC and the rest. Engadget In iOS 26 specifically, key updates include a relocated search bar, improved Visual Intelligence for screenshots and boosted performance across many Apple Intelligence features, like voice note transcription, Genmoji and Image Playground (even if it thinks Im entirely bald). The Camera app has been redesigned, Apple Music gains AutoMix and Messages offers more engaging options, with custom backgrounds and live translation. However, while the update focuses heavily on design and system consistency, new Siri enhancements arent here yet. Check out the full previews on the beta builds of iOS 26 here , macOS 26 here and iPadOS here . Mat Smith Get Engadget's newsletter delivered direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here! The news you might have missed Headspace annual subscriptions are 40 percent off right now The best Nintendo Switch 2 accessories for 2025 A year later, the Sonos Ace is finally fulfilling its potential Maingears new PC is beige 90s desktop meets raytracing Back when the Millennium bug was the scariest thing out there. Maingear Maingears Retro95 is a new custom desktop PC that blends the aesthetic of 90s beige desktops with modern, high-performance components. While its exterior evokes a 30-year-old machine that introduced many of us to dial-up internet, the Retro95 can be equipped with powerful internals, such as NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 graphics and the latest processors from Intel and AMD. Continue reading. These smartphone cases give any iPhone a USB-C port Bring that iPhone X up to date! Ken Pillonel After creating the first ever (unofficial) USB-C iPhone back in 2021, Ken Pillonel has created an iPhone case that can give older device models a USB-C port, welcoming them to 2025. You can browse the options in his shop. The cases cover all 20 iPhones with Lightning ports and support data transfer. Continue reading. Anker Nebula X1 projector review The king of outdoor movies, if you can afford it. Engadget The Nebula X1 is an odd proposition. While Anker has produced multiple projectors in the past, it has never reached the $3,000 mark. For that money, though, it beams out a category-leading 3,500 ANSI lumens at 4K resolution. It also features never-before-seen innovations in home projectors, including liquid cooling to reduce fan noise and a motorized lens gimbal that automates setup. Its framed as a portable outdoor projector, but its also just one of the best indoor projectors weve ever tested. With a sharp, high-contrast and color-accurate image, the video quality is stellar. Its also easy to set up and incredibly versatile. Continue reading. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-111549934.html?src=rss
Wildly low price hits Lenovos touchscreen IdeaPad Slim 5 Copilot+ PC down at $450 (48% off)
We just spotted a deal at Lenovo that gets you an IdeaPad Slim 5 touchscreen Copilot+ PC for $449.99 shipped . Dont forget to enter promo code GETIDEA5 during checkout to see the discounted price. This is a fairly affordable notebook that typically goes for $870, but todays deal makes it even lighter on your wallet. The promo code reduces the laptops usual price by a whopping $420, marking the lowest price weve found. Theres a lot to like about this particular IdeaPad Slim variant, and you can learn more about it below. more
Big-time $350 price drop hits Apples 14-inch 24GB M4 Pro MacBook Pro with 1TB SSD today
We recently spotted a big-time price drop on Apples latest 14-inch M4 Pro MacBook Pro with some upgraded specs over at Amazon, but B&H has that deal beat out today. You will now find this M4 Pro model with the standard 24GB and an upgraded 1TB SSD down at $2,049 shipped price reflected in the cart for $350 in savings and the lowest price we can find. more
Bose is taking over the Best Buy Deals of the Day today and that means Amazon is serving up some price matches on just about all of it. One of the more standout offers of the lot is bringing back the Prime Day low on the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds down at $199 shipped thats $100 off the regular list price. more
Samsungs official steel 3-in-1 Wireless Charger station hits Amazon all-time low at $100 (Reg. $150)
Amazon is now offering the official Samsung 3-in-1 Wireless Charger station down at $99.99 shipped. While originally listed at $130, it now carries a $150 regular price on the Samsung site and current fetches as much. Todays deal at Amazon known $50 off that to deliver 33% in savings and the lowest price we can find. more
AI tech detects hidden heart disease doctors often miss
Structural heart disease often shows no symptoms until it's too late, but Columbia's AI tool, EchoNext, can flag potential cases from routine ECGs that trained doctors might miss.
It operates on stock Android 15 and will receive 1 Android upgrade and 2 years of security updates
The 5 best Mint alternatives to replace the budgeting app that shut down
As a long-time Mint user, I was frustrated to say the least when news broke at the end of 2023 that Intuit would shut Mint down . I, like millions of others, enjoyed how easily Mint allowed us to track all accounts in one place and monitor credit scores. I also used it regularly to track spending, set goals like pay my mortgage down faster and with general money management. So I set out to find the best Mint alternatives in the wake of its disappointing demise. I gave Credit Karma , Intuits other financial app, a try but found it to be a poor Mint substitute. The following guide lays out my experience testing some of the most popular Mint replacement apps available today in search of my next budgeting app. Our pick for best Mint alternative remains Quicken Simplifi , even long after Mint shutting down, thanks to its easy to use app, good income and bill detection and its affordable price. But there are plenty of other solid options out there for those with different needs. If youre also on the hunt for a budgeting app to replace Mint, we hope these details can help you decide which of the best budgeting apps out there will be right for you. Table of contents Best Mint alternatives in 2025 Other Mint alternatives we tested What is Plaid and how does it work? How to import your financial data from the Mint app How we tested Mint alternatives What about Rocket Money? Best Mint alternatives in 2025 No pun intended, but what I like about Quicken Simplifi is its simplicity. Whereas other budgeting apps try to distinguish themselves with dark themes and customizable emoji, Simplifi has a clean user interface, with a landing page that you just keep scrolling through to get a detailed overview of all your stats. These include your top-line balances; net worth; recent spending; upcoming recurring payments; a snapshot of your spending plan; top spending categories; achievements; and any watchlists youve set up. Another one of the key features I appreciate is the ability to set up savings goals elsewhere in the app. I also appreciate how it offers neat, almost playful visualizations without ever looking cluttered. I felt at home in the mobile and web dashboards after a day or so, which is faster than I adapted to some competing services (Im looking at you, YNAB and Monarch). Getting set up with Simplifi was mostly painless. I was particularly impressed at how easily it connected to Fidelity; not all budget trackers do, for whatever reason. This is also one of the only services I tested that gives you the option of inviting a spouse or financial advisor to co-manage your account. One thing I would add to my initial assessment of the app, having used it for a few months now: I wish Simplifi offered Zillow integration for easily tracking your home value (or at least a rough estimate of it). Various competitors including Monarch Money and Copilot Money work with Zillow, so clearly there's a Zillow API available for use. As it stands, Simplifi users must add real estate manually like any other asset. Dana Wollman / Engadget In practice, Simplifi miscategorized some of my expenses, but nothing out of the ordinary compared to any of these budget trackers. As youre reviewing transactions, you can also mark if youre expecting a refund, which is a unique feature among the services I tested. Simplifi also estimated my regular income better than some other apps I tested. Most of all, I appreciated the option of being able to categorize some, but not all, purchases from a merchant as recurring. For instance, I can add my two Amazon subscribe-and-saves as recurring payments, without having to create a broad-strokes rule for every Amazon purchase. The budgeting feature is also self-explanatory and can likely accommodate your preferred budgeting method. Just check that your regular income is accurate and be sure to set up recurring payments, making note of which are bills and which are subscriptions. This is important because Simplifi shows you your total take-home income as well as an income after bills figure. That number includes, well, bills but not discretionary subscriptions. From there, you can add spending targets by category in the planned spending bucket. Planned spending can also include one-time expenditures, not just monthly budgets. When you create a budget, Simplifi will suggest a number based on a six-month average. Not dealbreakers, but two things to keep in mind as you get started: Simplifi is notable in that you cant set up an account through Apple or Google. There is also no option for a free trial, though Quicken promises a 30-day money back guarantee. Monarch Money grew on me. My first impression of the budgeting app, which was founded by a former Mint product manager, was that it's more difficult to use than others on this list, including Simplifi, NerdWallet and Copilot. And it is. Editing expense categories, adding recurring transactions and creating rules, for example, is a little more complicated than it needs to be, especially in the mobile app. (My advice: Use the web app for fine-tuning details.) Monarch also didnt get my income right; I had to edit it. Once youre set up, though, Monarch offers an impressive level of granularity. In the budgets section, you can see a bona fide balance sheet showing budgets and actuals for each category. You'll also find a forecast, for the year or by month. And recurring expenses can be set not just by merchant, but other parameters as well. For instance, while most Amazon purchases might be marked as shopping, those for the amounts of $54.18 or $34.18 are definitely baby supplies, and can be automatically marked as such each time, not to mention programmed as recurring payments. Weirdly, though, theres no way to mark certain recurring payments as bills, specifically. Dana Wollman / Engadget Not long after I first published this story in December 2023, Monarch introduced a detailed reporting section where you can create on-demand graphs based on things like accounts, categories and tags. That feature is available just on the web version of the app for now. As part of this same update, Monarch added support for an aggregator that makes it possible to automatically update the value of your car. This, combined with the existing Zillow integration for tracking your home value, makes it easy to quickly add a non-liquid asset like a vehicle or real estate, and have it show up in your net worth graph. The mobile app is mostly self-explanatory. The main dashboard shows your net worth; your four most recent transactions; a month-over-month spending comparison; income month-to-date; upcoming bills; an investments snapshot; a list of any goals youve set; and, finally, a link to your month-in-review. That month-in-review is more detailed than most, delving into cash flow; top income and expense categories; cash flow trends; changes to your net worth, assets and liabilities; plus asset and liability breakdowns. In February 2024, Monarch expanded on the net worth graph , so that if you click on the Accounts tab you can see how your net worth changed over different periods of time, including one month, three months, six months, a year or all time. On the main screen, youll also find tabs for savings and checking accounts (and all others as well), transactions, cash flow, budget and recurring. Like many of the other apps featured here, Monarch can auto-detect recurring expenses and income, even if it gets the category wrong. (They all do to an extent.) Expense categories are marked by emoji, which you can customize if youre so inclined. Monarch Money uses a combination of networks to connect with banks, including Plaid, MX and Finicity, a competing network owned by Mastercard. (I have a quick explainer on Plaid, the industry standard in this space, toward the end of this guide.) As part of an update in late December, Monarch has also made it easier to connect through those other two networks, if for some reason Plaid fails. Similar to NerdWallet, I found myself completing two-factor authentication every time I wanted to get past the Plaid screen to add another account. Notably, Monarch is the only other app I tested that allows you to grant access to someone else in your family likely a spouse or financial advisor. Monarch also has a Chrome extension for importing from Mint, though really this is just a shortcut for downloading a CSV file, which youll have to do regardless of where you choose to take your Mint data. Additionally, Monarch just added the ability to track Apple Card, Apple Cash, and Savings accounts, thanks to new functionality brought with the iOS 17.4 update. It's not the only one either; currently, Copilot and YNAB have also added similar functionality that will be available to anyone with the latest versions of their respective apps on a device running iOS 17.4. Instead of manually uploading statements, the new functionality allows apps like Monarch's to automatically pull in transactions and balance history. That should make it easier to account for spending on Apple cards and accounts throughout the month. Monarch also recently launched investment transactions in beta. It also says bill tracking and an overhauled goals system are coming soon. Monarch hasn't provided a timeline for that last one, except to say that the improved goals feature is coming soon. Copilot Money might be the best-looking budgeting app I tested. It also has the distinction of being exclusive to iOS and Macs at least for now. Andres Ugarte, the companys CEO, has publicly promised that Android and web apps are coming soon. But until it follows through, I cant recommend Copilot for most people with so many good competitors out there. Copilot Money for Web and Android! Thanks to the support from our users, and the overwhelming positive reception we're seeing from folks migrating from Mint, we can now say that we'll be building @copilotmoney for Web and Android with a goal to launch in 2024. We'll continue to Andres Ugarte (@chuga) November 15, 2023 There are other features that Copilot is missing, which Ill get into. But it is promising, and one to keep an eye on. Its just a fast, efficient, well designed app, and Android users will be in for a treat when theyll finally be able to download it. It makes good use of colors, emoji and graphs to help you understand at a glance how youre doing on everything from your budgets to your investment performance to your credit card debt over time. In particular, Copilot does a better job than almost any other app of visualizing your recurring monthly expenses. Behind those punchy colors and cutesy emoji, though, is some sophisticated performance. Copilots AI-powered Intelligence gets smarter as you go at categorizing your expenses. (You can also add your own categories, complete with your choice of emoji.) Its not perfect. Copilot miscategorized some purchases (they all do), but it makes it easier to edit than most. On top of that, the internal search feature is very fast; it starts whittling down results in your transaction history as soon as you begin typing. Dana Wollman / Engadget Copilot is also unique in offering Amazon and Venmo integrations, allowing you to see transaction details. With Amazon, this requires just signing into your Amazon account via an in-app browser. For Venmo, you have to set up fwd@copilot.money as a forwarding address and then create a filter, wherein emails from venmo@venmo.com are automatically forwarded to fwd@copilot.money. Like Monarch Money, you can also add any property you own and track its value through Zillow, which is integrated with the app. While the app is heavily automated, I still appreciate that Copilot marks new transactions for review. Its a good way to both weed out fraudulent charges, and also be somewhat intentional about your spending habits. Like Monarch Money, Copilot updated its app to make it easier to connect to banks through networks other than Plaid. As part of the same update, Copilot said it has improved its connections to both American Express and Fidelity which, again, can be a bugbear for some budget tracking apps. In an even more recent update, Copilot added a Mint import option, which other budgeting apps have begun to offer as well. Because the app is relatively new (it launched in early 2020), the company is still catching up to the competition on some table-stakes features. Ugarte told me that his team is almost done building out a detailed cash flow section as well. On its website , Copilot also promises a raft of AI-powered features that build on its current Intelligence platform, the one that powers its smart expense categorization. These include smart financial goals, natural language search, a chat interface, forecasting and benchmarking. That benchmarking, Ugarte tells me, is meant to give people a sense of how theyre doing compared to other Copilot users, on both spending and investment performance. Most of these features should arrive in the new year. Copilot does a couple interesting things for new customers that distinguish it from the competition. Theres a demo mode that feels like a game simulator; no need to add your own accounts. The company is also offering two free months with RIPMINT a more generous introductory offer than most. When it finally does come time to pony up, the $7.92 monthly plan is cheaper than some competing apps, although the $95-a-year-option is in the same ballpark. You may know NerdWallet as a site that offers a mix of personal finance news, explainers and guides. I see it often when I google a financial term I dont know and sure enough, its one of the sites Im most likely to click on. As it happens, NerdWallet also has the distinction of offering one of the only free budgeting apps I tested. In fact, there is no paid version; nothing is locked behind a paywall. The main catch: There are ads everywhere. To be fair, the free version of Mint was like this, too. Even with the inescapable credit card offers, NerdWallet has a clean, easy-to-understand user interface, which includes both a web and a mobile app. The key metrics that it highlights most prominently are your cash flow, net worth and credit score. (Of note, although Mint itself offered credit score monitoring, most of its rivals do not.) I particularly enjoyed the weekly insights, which delve into things like where you spent the most money or how much you paid in fees and how that compares to the previous month. Because this is NerdWallet, an encyclopedia of financial info, you get some particularly specific category options when setting up your accounts (think: a Roth or non-Roth IRA). Dana Wollman / Engadget As a budgeting app, NerdWallet is more than serviceable, if a bit basic. Like other apps I tested, you can set up recurring bills. Importantly, it follows the popular 50/30/20 budgeting rule, which has you putting 50% of your budget toward things you need, 30% toward things you want, and the remaining 20% into savings or debt repayments. If this works for you, great just know that you cant customize your budget to the same degree as some competing apps. You cant currently create custom spending categories, though a note inside the dashboard section of the app says youll be able to customize them in the future. You also cant move items from the wants column to needs or vice versa but In the future, you'll be able to move specific transactions to actively manage what falls into each group. A NerdWallet spokesperson declined to provide an ETA, though. Lastly, its worth noting that NerdWallet had one of the most onerous setup processes of any app I tested. I dont think this is a dealbreaker, as youll only have to do it once and, hopefully, you arent setting up six or seven apps in tandem as I was. What made NerdWallets onboarding especially tedious is that every time I wanted to add an account, I had to go through a two-factor authentication process to even get past the Plaid splash screen, and thats not including the 2FA I had set up at each of my banks. This is a security policy on NerdWallets end, not Plaids, a Plaid spokesperson says. Precisely because NerdWallet is one of the only budget trackers to offer credit score monitoring, it also needs more of your personal info during setup, including your birthday, address, phone number and the last four digits of your social security number. Its the same with Credit Karma, which also does credit score monitoring. Related to the setup process, I found that NerdWallet was less adept than other apps at automatically detecting my regular income. In my case, it counted a large one-time wire transfer as income, at which point my only other option was to enter my income manually (which is slightly annoying because I would have needed my pay stub handy to double-check my take-home pay). YNAB is, by its own admission , different from anything youve tried before. The app, whose name is short for You Need a Budget, promotes a so-called zero-based budgeting system, which forces you to assign a purpose for every dollar you earn. A frequently used analogy is to put each dollar in an envelope; you can always move money from one envelope to another in a pinch. These envelopes can include rent and utilities, along with unforeseen expenses like holiday gifts and the inevitable car repair. The idea is that if you budget a certain amount for the unknowns each month, they wont feel like theyre sneaking up on you. Importantly, YNAB is only concerned with the money you have in your accounts now. The app does not ask you to provide your take-home income or set up recurring income payments (although there is a way to do this). The money you will make later in the month through your salaried job is not relevant, because YNAB does not engage in forecasting. The app is harder to learn than any other here, and it requires more ongoing effort from the user. And YNAB knows that. Inside both the mobile and web apps are links to videos and other tutorials. Although I never quite got comfortable with the user interface, I did come to appreciate YNABs insistence on intentionality. Forcing users to draft a new budget each month and to review each transaction is not necessarily a bad thing. As YNAB says on its website, Sure, youve got pie charts showing that you spent an obscene amount of money in restaurants but youve still spent an obscene amount of money in restaurants. I can see this approach being useful for people who dont tend to have a lot of cash in reserve at a given time, or who have spending habits they want to correct (to riff off of YNABs own example, ordering Seamless four times a week). My colleague Valentina Palladino, knowing I was working on this guide, penned a respectful rebuttal , explaining why shes been using YNAB for years. Perhaps, like her, you have major savings goals you want to achieve, whether its paying for a wedding or buying a house. I suggest you give her column a read. For me, though, YNABs approach feels like overkill. Other Mint alternatives we tested PocketGuard PocketGuard used to be a solid free budget tracker, but the company has since limited its free version to just a free seven-day trial. Now, youll have to choose between two plans once the trial is over: a $13 monthly plan or a $75 annual plan. When I first tested it, I found it to be more restricted than NerdWallet, but still a decent option. The main overview screen shows you your net worth, total assets and debts; net income and total spending for the month; upcoming bills; a handy reminder of when your next paycheck lands; any debt payoff plan you have; and any goals. Like some other apps, including Quicken Simplifi, PocketGuard promotes an after bills approach, where you enter all of your recurring bills, and then PocketGuard shows you whats left, and thats what youre supposed to be budgeting: your disposable income. Although PocketGuards UI is easy enough to understand, it lacks polish. The accounts tab is a little busy, and doesnt show totals for categories like cash or investments. Seemingly small details like weirdly phrased or punctuated copy occasionally make the app feel janky. More than once, it prompted me to update the app when no updates were available. The web version, meanwhile, feels like the mobile app blown up to a larger format and doesnt take advantage of the extra screen real estate. Ultimately, now that the free tier is gone, it just doesnt present the same value proposition as it once did. What is Plaid and how does it work? Each of the apps I tested uses the same underlying network, called Plaid, to pull in financial data, so its worth explaining in its own section what it is and how it works. Plaid was founded as a fintech startup in 2013 and is today the industry standard in connecting banks with third-party apps. Plaid works with over 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada and Europe. Additionally, more than 8,000 third-party apps and services rely on Plaid, the company claims . To be clear, you dont need a dedicated Plaid app to use it; the technology is baked into a wide array of apps, including the budget trackers I tested for this guide. Once you find the add an account option in whichever one youre using, youll see a menu of commonly used banks. Theres also a search field you can use to look yours up directly. Once you find yours, youll be prompted to enter your login credentials. If you have two-factor authentication set up, youll need to enter a one-time passcode as well. As the middleman, Plaid is a passthrough for information that may include your account balances, transaction history, account type and routing or account number. Plaid uses encryption, and says it has a policy of not selling or renting customer data to other companies. However, I would not be doing my job if I didnt note that in 2022 Plaid was forced to pay $58 million to consumers in a class action suit for collecting more financial data than was needed. As part of the settlement, Plaid was compelled to change some of its business practices. In a statement provided to Engadget, a Plaid spokesperson said the company continues to deny the allegations underpinning the lawsuit and that the crux of the non-financial terms in the settlement are focused on us accelerating workstreams already underway related to giving people more transparency into Plaids role in connecting their accounts, and ensuring that our workstreams around data minimization remain on track. How to import your financial data from the Mint app Mint users should consider getting their data ready to migrate to their new budgeting app of choice soon. Unfortunately, importing data from Mint is not as easy as entering your credentials from inside your new app and hitting import. In fact, any app that advertises the ability to port over your stats from Mint is just going to have you upload a CSV file of transactions and other data. To download a CSV file from Mint, do the following: Sign into Mint.com and hit Transactions in the menu on the left side of the screen. Select an account, or all accounts . Scroll down and look for export [number] transactions in smaller print. Your CSV file should begin downloading. Note: Downloading on a per-account basis might seem more annoying, but could help you get set up on the other side, if the app youre using has you importing transactions one-for-one into their corresponding accounts. How we tested Mint alternatives Before I dove into the world of budgeting apps, I had to do some research. To find a list of apps to test, I consulted trusty ol Google (and even trustier Reddit); read reviews of popular apps on the App Store; and also asked friends and colleagues what budget tracking apps they might be using. Some of the apps I found were free, just like Mint. These, of course, show loads of ads (excuse me, offers) to stay in business. But most of the available apps require paid subscriptions, with prices typically topping out around $100 a year, or $15 a month. (Spoiler: My top pick is cheaper than that.) Since this guide is meant to help Mint users find a permanent replacement, any services I chose to test needed to do several things: import all of your account data into one place; offer budgeting tools; and track your spending, net worth and credit score. Except where noted, all of these apps are available for iOS, Android and on the web. Once I had my shortlist of six apps, I got to work setting them up. For the sake of thoroughly testing these apps (and remember, I really was looking for a Mint alternative myself), I made a point of adding every account to every budgeting app, no matter how small or immaterial the balance. What ensued was a veritable Groundhog Day of two-factor authentication. Just hours of entering passwords and one-time passcodes, for the same banks half a dozen times over. Hopefully, you only have to do this once. What about Rocket Money? Rocket Money is another free financial app that tracks spending and supports things like balance alerts and account linking. If you pay for the premium tier, the service can also help you cancel unwanted subscriptions. We did not test it for this guide, but we'll consider it in future updates. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/the-best-budgeting-apps-to-replace-mint-143047346.html?src=rss
NordVPN Coupon and Discount Codes: 76% Off
Save up to 76% on 2-year plans and get a gift card valued up to $50 with our NordVPN discount codes.
FCC approves Skydance's $8 billion Paramount acquisition
Regulators won't stand in the way of Skydance's Paramount acquisition . The Federal Communications Commission has approved the $8 billion purchase of Paramount Global and its subsidiaries, including the parent company of CBS Network. In a statement, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said he welcomes Skydances commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network. Skydance, he said, has made written commitments to ensure that its news and entertainment programming will embody a diversity of viewpoints across the political and ideological spectrum. He also said that Skydance has committed that it will not establish DEI programs. Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly. It is time for a change...These commitments, if implemented, would enable CBS to operate in the public interest and focus on fair, unbiased, and fact-based coverage. Doing so would begin the process of earning back Americans trust. Todays decision also marks another step forward in the FCCs efforts to eliminate invidious forms of DEI discrimination, part of Carr's statement reads. FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez, however, issued a statement saying she cannot support the deal in light of the payout and other troubling concessions Paramount made to settle a baseless lawsuit. In early July, Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to settle the lawsuit Donald Trump filed over a CBS interview with Kamala Harris during the 2020 presidential campaign. His lawyers accused the network of editing her answers to confuse, deceive and mislead the public. Legal experts said at the time that Paramount may have settled to ensure that there are no obstacles for the merger's approval. When news about the acquisition first came out, the company said that it plans to rebuild its streaming technology while reducing costs under its new CEO David Ellison. Paramount, after all, invested billions into its streaming service Paramount+, and it had yet to turn a profit. The company said that it was allocating the $16 million to Trump's future presidential library and not paying him directly or indirectly. In an unprecedented move, this once-independent FCC used its vast power to pressure Paramount to broker a private legal settlement and further erode press freedom, Gomez said in her statement. Once again, the agency is undermining legitimate efforts to combat discrimination and expand opportunity by overstepping its authority and intervening in employment matters reserved for other government entities with proper jurisdiction on these issues. Even more alarming, it is now imposing never-before-seen controls over newsroom decisions and editorial judgment, in direct violation of the First Amendment and the law. She added: The Paramount payout and this reckless approval have emboldened those who believe the government can and should abuse its power to extract financial and ideological concessions, demand favored treatment, and secure positive media coverage. It is a dark chapter in a long and growing record of abuse that threatens press freedom in this country. But such violations endure only when institutions choose capitulation over courage. It is time for companies, journalists, and citizens alike to stand up and speak out, because unchecked and unquestioned power has no rightful place in America. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/fcc-approves-skydances-8-billion-paramount-acquisition-032028104.html?src=rss
Starlink outage: Service returns after over two hours down
SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service experienced a global outage on Thursday that lasted for over two hours. Reports of connectivity issues started around 3:20PM ET, based on DownDetector . SpaceX didn't acknowledged the outage until 4:05PM ET, via a post on the Starlink X account . Service began to come back for some at around 5:30PM ET, and Michael Nicolls, Starlink's VP of engineering, said the provider had mostly recovered at 6:23PM ET. Users across the US, Europe, the UK and Asia reported issues on r/starlink , the service's Reddit page, and SpaceX even acknowledged the outage on Starlink's website . The company hasn't shared the number of people who were actually impacted, but it could be in the millions as of the last Starlink network update , the service has over six million active customers globally. The initial announcement that SpaceX was working on a fix didn't explain what cause the outage or what was being done to restore service. Starlink is currently in a network outage and we are actively implementing a solution, the company's X post said. We appreciate your patience, we'll share an update once this issue is resolved. Starlink is currently in a network outage and we are actively implementing a solution. We appreciate your patience, we'll share an update once this issue is resolved. Starlink (@Starlink) July 24, 2025 In announcing the service's recovery, Nicolls explained that the outage was due to a failure of key internal software services that operate the core network, rather than any issue with SpaceX's satellite constellation or other hardware problems. Nicolls added that Starlink will fully root cause this issue and ensure it does not occur again. Starlink has now mostly recovered from the network outage, which lasted approximately 2.5 hours. The outage was due to failure of key internal software services that operate the core network. We apologize for the temporary disruption in our service; we are deeply committed to https://t.co/ffFYM1Z7tD Michael Nicolls (@michaelnicollsx) July 24, 2025 Starlink is designed to be accessible where traditional service providers can't reach, making it a common option for van lifers and anyone living without traditional internet infrastructure. SpaceX has also partnered with companies like T-Mobile to use Starlink to extend smartphone connectivity outside the bounds of traditional cell networks. It's not clear how T-Mobile's Starlink service was impacted as by the outage. Update, July 24, 6:30PM ET: Article has been updated to reflect that Starlink service is restored. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/starlink-outage-service-returns-after-over-two-hours-down-204002942.html?src=rss
Intel confirms it will cut a third of its workforce by the end of 2025
Intel provided more detail about the scope of its planned job cuts and other business changes while sharing its second-quarter earnings results . Reports in April suggested that Intel could eliminate around 20 percent of its staff in a restructuring plan. Today, the chipmaker said it anticipates having a core workforce of 75,000 employees by the end of 2025. That's about a third less than the 108,900 people it employed at the close of the previous fiscal year. These cuts are part of the company's current goal to bring its non-GAAP operating expenses down to $17 billion this year, then to $16 billion at the end of 2026. The effort to rein in spending is also leading Intel to abandon some previously announced expansions. The business will no longer embark on new projects in Germany and Poland, and it said it will consolidate its Costa Rican testing and assembly operations into existing efforts in Vietnam and Malaysia. Finally, it will also slow the pace of its stateside growth at a construction site in Ohio. Our operating performance demonstrates the initial progress we are making to improve our execution and drive greater efficiency, said Lip-Bu Tan, who has been forthright about his plans to downsize since assuming the CEO title in March. Tan was brought in to replace Pat Gelsinger in an effort to turn around Intel's business following a long, slow slide into financial trouble . This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/intel-confirms-it-will-cut-a-third-of-its-workforce-by-the-end-of-2025-215014365.html?src=rss
Rad Power Bikes has launched its Back to School Sale through August 6 with up to $300 in savings on one legacy model and two of the brands newest models, as well as the ongoing $600 discount on the RadExpand 5 e-bike . Of course, the biggest deals in this sale are on the new RadRunner Cargo Utility e-bike with a free $109 passenger package at $1,499 shipped while the most advanced RadRunner Max Cargo Utility e-bike gets a $139 passenger package at $2,299 shipped . Unfortunately, we have yet to see any actual price cuts on this or its two counterparts since they released back at the end of April, though the RadRunner Max has already been apart of two previous free bundle promotions in the time since. The passenger packages that accompany your purchase give you a seat to convert the cargo racks into a place for passengers (as the name suggests). Head below for more on these and the other deals were seeing. more
Starlink is experiencing a network outage
SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service is experiencing an outage. Reports of connectivity issues started around 3:20PM ET, based on DownDetector . SpaceX didn't acknowledged the outage until 4:05PM ET, via a post on the Starlink X account . As of 5:30PM ET, the service is still down. The outage appears to be global. Users across the US, Europe, the UK and Asia have all reported issues on r/starlink , the service's Reddit page, and SpaceX has even acknowledged the outage on Starlink's website . The number of people potentially impacted could number in the millions as of the last network update , there's over six million active Starlink customers globally. Starlink is currently in a network outage and we are actively implementing a solution, SpaceX shared in an X post. We appreciate your patience, we'll share an update once this issue is resolved. Starlink is currently in a network outage and we are actively implementing a solution. We appreciate your patience, we'll share an update once this issue is resolved. Starlink (@Starlink) July 24, 2025 Starlink is designed to be accessible where traditional service providers can't reach, making it a common option for van lifers and anyone living without traditional internet infrastructure. SpaceX has also partnered with companies like T-Mobile to use Starlink to extend smartphone connectivity outside the bounds of traditional cell networks. It's not clear how T-Mobile's Starlink service has been impacted as by the outage. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/starlink-is-experiencing-a-network-outage-204002103.html?src=rss
LEGO unveils the modular Batman: Arkham Asylum set with 16 minifigures and tons of detail
After the exciting news this morning about LEGOs unveiling of the new Game Boy set that is now open for preorder, the LEGO Group has also shined a light on its latest DC collaboration in the form of the upcoming 76300 Batman: Arkham Asylum set and its open for preorder too! This new modular set is the biggest variation of Gotham Citys iconic institution to date plus it comes packed with tons of minifigures of the Caped Crusader, his allies, and plenty of villains to stage countless scenes and stories of your own creation. Head below to learn more about what you can expect and browse through all the collected photos. more
A slew of new changes are coming to your iPhone's operating system this fall oh, and it'll be called iOS 26, not iOS 19. 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 can try it out yourself by downloading and installing the public beta , which became available today. But the biggest question we're all wondering: Will my iPhone be able to run iOS 26? Last year, Apple didn't nix any iPhones from its eligibility list, but that's not the case for 2025 a few models are getting cut this time. All iPhone 8 models and the iPhone X were the last to get the boot in 2023, and this year the 2018 models are getting left behind. If you have an ineligible device, you won't be able to download iOS 26 when it becomes available this fall. We'll get to the bottom of which iPhones will support iOS 26 this year. To see what's coming with the latest OS and more, check out everything announced at Apple's WWDC June 9 event . These three iPhones won't be compatible with iOS 26 Unlike last year, several iPhone models won't be eligible to download the newest iOS when it makes its debut this fall. This trio of models first released in 2018 won't be coming to the iOS 26 party: iPhone XR iPhone XS iPhone XS Max iPhones compatible with iOS 26 While we don't yet know the new iPhones Apple will be dropping this fall though there are iPhone 17 rumors we do know, per Apple's site , that the phones listed below will be compatible with iOS 26. Basically, if you have an iPhone that was announced in 2019 or later, you're in the clear: iPhone SE (second generation or later) iPhone 11 iPhone 11 Pro iPhone 11 Pro Max iPhone 12 iPhone 12 mini iPhone 12 Pro iPhone 12 Pro Max iPhone 13 iPhone 13 mini iPhone 13 Pro iPhone 13 Pro Max iPhone 14 iPhone 14 Plus iPhone 14 Pro iPhone 14 Pro Max iPhone 15 iPhone 15 Plus iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 15 Pro Max iPhone 16e iPhone 16 iPhone 16 Plus iPhone 16 Pro iPhone 16 Pro Max What if I don't want to buy a new iPhone? If you want to continue using your older iPhone that isn't supported by iOS 26, that's fine. However, you'll miss out on security updates which could potentially put your phone at risk for malware and other threats. Additionally, some apps may stop working if they require a certain version of iOS or later. And of course, you won't be able to access the latest features iOS 26 offers. When will iOS 26 become available? Apple usually rolls out its latest iOS in mid-September, just a few days before the new iPhones hit store shelves. Last year, it released iOS 18 on Monday, Sept. 16. Expect a confirmation of the release date at that iPhone 17 event, expected in early September. iOS 26 features we're excited about Liquid Glass design : Your home screen is getting revamped with new app icons, including dark mode and all-clear options. You'll also notice buttons with a new floating design. Liquid Glass was designed to make all of Apple's OSes more cohesive. Phone app redesign: You'll finally be able to scroll through contacts, recent calls and voicemail messages all on one screen. It also comes with a new feature called Hold Assist that'll notify you when an agent comes to the phone so you can avoid the elevator music. Live Translate: iOS 26 is bringing the ability to have a conversation via phone call or text message with someone who speaks another language. Live Translate will translate your conversation in real time. Polls feature: Coming to group messages in the Messages app, chat members will be able to create polls. This can help prevent the unwanted 30+ messages when it comes to deciding which restaurant you're meeting at this weekend. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/apple-released-the-ios-26-public-beta-heres-the-full-list-of-compatible-iphones-that-can-download-it-191854986.html?src=rss
Windows 11 To Support Simultaneous Audio Output On Multiple Devices
Microsoft is preparing to i ntroduce a new feature in Windows 11 that will allow users to play audio on multiple output devices simultaneously. This means it will soon be possible to share audio across different headphones or speakers connected to a Windows 11 computer a functionality long requested by users. According to information shared by X (formerly Twitter) user @phantomofearth , this new feature is currently being tested in preview builds of Windows 11 available to Insider users in the Dev and Beta channels. The option, called Share Audio, is expected to appear in the system tray of the Taskbar , alongside other quick settings such as Project, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. https://twitter.com/phantomofearth/status/1946667612676460818 Once available, the feature will allow users to select from a list of connected external audio devices, such as Bluetooth headphones or speakers. After selecting the desired devices, users can simply click Share to play audio through all of them at the same time. This could be especially useful for social settings, group listening, or users who want to switch audio sources without interrupting playback. Currently, this functionality is still hidden in the latest Insider builds, and there is no official confirmation from Microsoft about when it will be released publicly in a stable version of Windows 11. This upcoming feature is part of a broader initiative by Microsoft to enhance usability and modernize the Windows 11 experience. Recently, Microsoft also began including updated versions of its native apps as part of the initial system installation, aiming to improve security and convenience for users. This approach ensures that essential applications are ready to use immediately upon setup and remain up to date. The multi-output audio feature reflects Microsofts efforts to respond to user feedback and make Windows 11 more versatile for multimedia use. While still in testing, it is a promising addition that could enhance the way users interact with audio on their PCs. Windows 11 To Support Simultaneous Audio Output On Multiple Devices , original content from Ubergizmo . Read our Copyrights and terms of use .
Liquid Glass is a huge new change coming to iOS 26. (Apple) We're getting closer to accessing all the cool new features coming with Apple iOS 26 this fall. But if you can't wait that long, you can download and install the public beta as of today. Prefer more of a guided tour? Check out our preview of the iOS 26 public beta release . We're pretty excited for the fresh home and lock screen redesign we've been waiting to see for years. Dubbed Liquid Glass , the new look and feel will extend across all of Apple's upcoming operating systems. The overhaul was one of several big changes coming to iOS, macOS , iPadOS and the rest of Apple's software suite, all of which were showcased during the company's WWDC keynote on June 9. After overpromising on AI plans last year, Apple kept its iOS roadmap focused more on basic quality of life improvements this year. There are multiple useful additions coming to the Phone and Messages apps on your iPhone, for instance: Apple execs outlined the ability to weed out spam texts or other unknown senders and an option to hold your spot on a phone call when you've been waiting for a representative to pick up. Plus, a treasured feature that we took for granted is coming back (hint: it's in the Photos app). Siri, meanwhile, is in a holding pattern. Apple has previously specified that its smarter voice assistant first promised at WWDC 2024 is delayed until some point in the coming year , so you shouldn't expect any major changes in the current betas. But there are reports that Apple is aiming to give Siri a bigger brain transplant by basing it on third-party artificial intelligence models like OpenAI's ChatGPT or Anthropic's Claude, which could make 2026 a pivotal year. With each beta, it seems like additional new improvements are popping up, like a newly discovered FaceTime feature that'll freeze your video if it detects nudity . Most newer iPhone models are eligible to download iOS 26 (both the betas and final version). Want to see the full list of new features coming this fall? Read on. What is iOS 26? While the current iPhone operating system is iOS 18, Apple is skipping the numbering ahead to iOS 26 later this year. The company has decided to line up its iOS version numbers with a year-based system, similar to car model years. So while iOS and its sibling operating systems will be released in late 2025, they're all designated 26 to reflect the year ahead. (Meanwhile, iOS 18 is still getting new versions this summer , too.) It's official, we're moving to iOS 26. (Apple) What is Liquid Glass design? Let's be honest. Out of everything announced at WWDC this year, the new Liquid Glass design was the star of the show. The iPhone's home and lock screens have looked pretty much the same year after year the last exciting thing (in my opinion) was the option to add your own aesthetic to your home screen by customizing your apps and widgets. So seeing the home and lock screens' new facelift is refreshing. So what exactly is Liquid Glass? Apple calls it a new translucent material since, well, the apps and widgets are clear. However, the screen can still adapt to dark and light modes, depending on surroundings. You'll also notice buttons with a new floating design in several apps, like Phone and Maps. They're designed to be less distracting than the current buttons, but are still easy to see. While the design overhaul has proven to be controversial since its announcement, some including Engadget's own Devindra Hardawar like the new direction, even if it's somewhat reminiscent of Microsoft's translucent Windows Vista Aero designs from nearly twenty years ago. That said, as of the release of the iOS 26 beta 2, Apple has already incorporated some user feedback into the design, dialing back the transparency in at least some places. And while it will continue to evolve, Apple users won't be able to escape it: Liquid Glass was designed to make all of Apple's OSes more cohesive. Here's a look at how the translucent aesthetic will look with the new macOS Tahoe 26 on your desktop. What are the new and notable features of iOS 26? iOS 26 has a laundry list of new features. Among the most worthwhile: Phone app redesign: You'll finally be able to scroll through contacts, recent calls and voicemail messages all on one screen. It also comes with a new feature called Hold Assist that'll notify you when an agent comes to the phone so you can avoid the elevator music and continue on with other tasks. Live Translation in Phone, FaceTime and Messages: iOS 26 is bringing the ability to have a conversation via phone call or text message with someone who speaks another language. Live Translation will translate your conversation in real time, which results in some stop-and-go interactions in the examples Apple shared during its presentation. Polls in group chats: Tired of sorting through what seems like hundreds of messages in your group chat? You and your friends will soon be able to create polls in group messages for deciding things like which brunch spot you're eating at or whose car you're taking on a road trip. Filtering unknown senders in Messages: If you haven't received spam texts about unpaid tolls or other citations, you're lucky. For those of us who have, those annoying messages will soon be filtered away in a separate folder. Visual Intelligence: Similar to a reverse Google image search, this new feature will allow you to search for anything that's on your iPhone screen. For instance, if you spot a pair of shoes someone is wearing in an Instagram photo, you can screenshot it and use Visual Intelligence to find those shoes (or similar ones) online. Photos tabs are back: For anyone who's still frustrated with the Photos changes made last year , you'll be happy to know that your tabs are coming back. Library and Collections will have their own separate spaces so you don't have to scroll to infinity to find what you're looking for. FaceTime Communication Safety feature: A newer addition to iOS 26 appears to be the FaceTime Communication Safety feature that pauses communications if and when nudity is detected. The feature appears to be a child safety feature that uses on-device detection, thus obviating any cloud-based privacy issues. Apple's Hold Assist will be nifty for those pesky services that put you on hold for 10 or more minutes. (Apple) Which iPhones will be able to upgrade to iOS 26? A few iPhone models that run the current version of iOS iPhone XR, XS and XS Max won't be compatible with the latest upgrade. But any iPhones released in 2019 or later will be eligible for the iOS 26 update . iPhone SE (second generation or later) iPhone 11 iPhone 11 Pro iPhone 11 Pro Max iPhone 12 iPhone 12 mini iPhone 12 Pro iPhone 12 Pro Max iPhone 13 iPhone 13 mini iPhone 13 Pro iPhone 13 Pro Max iPhone 14 iPhone 14 Plus iPhone 14 Pro iPhone 14 Pro Max iPhone 15 iPhone 15 Plus iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 15 Pro Max iPhone 16e iPhone 16 iPhone 16 Plus iPhone 16 Pro iPhone 16 Pro Max Not listed here are the presumed new iPhone 17 models (or maybe iPhone 26?) that are all but certain to be announced and released in September. When will the iOS 26 beta be available? As of July 24, the iOS 26 public beta is available to download via the Apple Beta Software Program . If you're not already a member, you'll need to sign up to try out all the latest features. Just visit beta.apple.com and sign up with your phone number or email address. It's free. Once you're in, you can install it by going to Settings > General > Software Update and selecting iOS 26 public beta . A word of caution: Don't sign up with your main iPhone unless you're OK with any risks that occur with using an OS that isn't finalized. When will the final version of iOS 26 be released? iOS 26 will be released to the public this fall. It usually comes in September, within a week of the Apple iPhone event. Last year, it rolled out to iPhone users on September 16 exactly one week after the iPhone 16 lineup was announced. If you're more interested in the Apple Intelligence features coming, here's everything Apple revealed for iOS, macOS and more during WWDC. Also, check out how iOS 26 screenshots could be an intriguing preview of Apple's delayed Siri rework . Update, July 24: Noted the iOS 26 public beta is now available. Update, July 3: Noted new FaceTime feature found in the developer beta. Update, June 30: Noted ongoing iOS 18 releases, and reports that Apple is considering additional external LLMs for Siri. Update, June 25: Noted changes added in iOS 26 beta 2. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/apple-ios-26-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-public-beta-release-new-iphone-features-and-more-135749482.html?src=rss
Amazon is offering the LEGO Icons Boutique Hotel at $170.16 shipped. We saw it fall from its $230 price tag to a $160 low two weeks ago during Prime Day, with the deal here providing solid savings for folks who missed out before. You can pick up this modular building set with a 26% markdown while the savings last, putting $60 back in your pocket over buying it directly from LEGO at the third-best price we have tracked. Below, you can learn more about this particular build, along with all the other sets that are holding on to their Prime Day pricing. more
Google will use AI to organize search results with Web Guide
Google's latest AI adventure is a new option for search. Web Guide is a new way that Google will organize search results based on analysis by a dedicated version of its Gemini artificial intelligence tool. The claim in the announcement is that AI can help surface the most relevant content, but it could also be a new way for Google to control what websites get prime billing in results. In the graphic shared alongside the blog post announcing this Search Labs experiment, the company showed clusters of results to the query how to solo travel in Japan. Web Guide displayed a few hits each under different headers, such as Comprehensive Guides for Solo Travel in Japan, Personal Experiences and Tips from Solo Travelers and Safety and Destination Recommendations, with an option to reveal more for each grouping. It does seem to provide some AI-generated summaries at the top of each heading, but at least with this example, there are fewer instances of copy/pasting another publication's words wholesale. Web Guide has some similarities to Google's AI Mode , which looped artificial intelligence more tightly into the search experience. The presence of AI Mode for all US users has already prompted outcry from publishers; News/Media Alliance called it theft . Pew Research Center recently issued a report confirming that the presence of an AI summary at the top of a search led to fewer people clicking through to read published content from a source. The group's survey of 900 adults who shared their browsing history revealed that for users who did not see an AI summary, 15 percent of them clicked on a link from search results and 16 percent ended their browsing session. In contract, only 8 percent of users who saw an AI summary clicked a link in the search results, and 26 percent ended their browsing session. And while Google has been working to improve their accuracy, let us never forget that those AI-penned summaries once gave us glue pizza . It's too early to know if Web Guide will encourage more people to actually visit and support sites other than Google. For now, it's only available for opted-in users in the Web tab for search, but it will appear elsewhere down the line. Given that Google is already in the legal dog house for anticompetitive behavior with its search business, it should be interesting to see how this latest AI rollout goes. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-will-use-ai-to-organize-search-results-with-web-guide-191135024.html?src=rss
For folks look to refresh their 3-in-1 15W MagSafe stand, or perhaps jump in for the first time after landing an Apple Watch during Prime Day, there are some notable deals up for grabs right now. We have the wonderful Twelve HiRise 3 Deluxe at the $75 all-time low , as well as Belkins BoostCharge Pro at the same price, and now you can add the latest Anker MagGo 3-in-1 MagSafe Station to the list too it is now starting at $69.99 shipped courtesy of the official Amazon storefront. more
Foldable phones are impressive technological marvels but come with serious compromises
Foldable phones wow with design, but high prices, durability issues, and battery limits raise questions about whether they're truly worth it.
Worlds first hybrid solar cargo ship launches in Germany
The world's first hybrid solar cargo ship has just launched in Germany, marking a major milestone for sustainable shipping.
The best live TV streaming services to cut cable in 2025
Around ten years ago, as the price of cable rose to untenable heights, live TV streaming services arrived as the low-cost, contract-free antidote. The services are still blissfully easy to walk away from, but the cost is inching towards cable levels, with every major provider steadily raising prices. Last year alone, YouTube TV , Hulu + Live TV , Sling , Philo , DirecTV , and Fubo all raised monthly subscription prices. But a live TV streaming service is probably still the best way to get the widest coverage of live sports, news and linear channels if you dont want a standard cable contract. And, despite the price hikes, live TV streaming services are still cheaper in many markets than cable plans that offer similar lineups. Here, we break down which service offers which, comparing pricing, plans, channels and features, all based on our own testing, to help you pick the best live TV streaming service for you. Table of contents Best live TV streaming services for 2025 Best free live TV streaming services for 2025 What to look for in a live TV streaming service How we tested Live TV Streaming FAQs Recent updates Best live TV streaming services for 2025 Back to top Best free live TV streaming services for 2025 There are plenty of ways to get free TV these days. To start, many standard streaming apps have added live components to their lineups. Youre paying for the service, so its not technically free, but you can get a dose of live TV without spending more than necessary. Peacock includes some regional NBC stations, and notably access to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games . Paramount+ subscribers can watch on-air CBS programming. The standard Hulu app has a live ABC news channel and Max now includes a live CNN outlet with its service, along with cable-like linear channels . The smart TV operating system (OS) you use likely provides free live content too: Amazons Fire TV interface has a live tab and Rokus built-in Roku Channel includes hundreds of live channels at no extra cost. The same goes for Samsung TV Plus , which added a trove of K-dramas to its free live and on-demand lineup in 2024. The PBS app offers local live streams of its channels even NASA has a free streaming service with live coverage. But for a full suite of live TV networks, and dont want to sign up for any paid service, there are a number of free ad-supported TV services that have live TV. Even cable company DirecTV has joined the crowd with MyFree , and Fubo Free lets customers with a lapsed subscription keep watching some content. Here's the best of the live TV streaming services we tried: Back to top What to look for in a live TV streaming service How to stream live TV Streaming live TV is a lot like using Netflix. You get access through apps on your phone, tablet, smart TV or streaming device and the signal arrives over the internet. A faster and more stable connection tends to give you a better experience. Most live TV apps require you to sign up and pay via a web browser. After that, you can activate the app on all of your devices. Monthly Price When I started testing these cord-cutting alternatives, I was struck by the price difference between live TV and a standard video streaming app . Where the latter cost between $5 and $20 per month, most live TV services hit the $80 mark and can go higher than $200 with additional perks, channel packages and premium extras. The higher starting price is mostly due to the cost of providing multiple networks particularly sports and local stations. And, in the past year or so, every service except Sling has raised base plan prices. Local channels Only two of the services I tried dont include full local channel coverage for subscribers and one of those makes no effort to carry sports at all. That would be Philo and, as you might guess, its the cheapest. The next most affordable option, Sling, only carries three local stations and only in larger markets but it still manages to include some of the top sports channels. When you sign up with any provider that handles local TV, youll enter your zip code, ensuring you get your areas broadcast affiliates for ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC. Of course, you can also get those stations for free. Nearly all modern television sets support a radio frequency (RF) connection, also known as the coaxial port, which means if you buy an HD antenna , youll receive locally broadcast stations like ABC, CBS, PBS, FOX and NBC. And since the signal is digital, reception is much improved over the staticky rabbit-ears era. But local channel access is another area where traditional streaming services, like Netflix, are bleeding into broadcast territory. For example, you can watch your local NBC station with a Peacock subscription and you can tune into your areas CBS station through your Paramount+ subscription. Netflix is even getting into the mix with a recently announced deal with one of Frances broadcast companies, TF1. The streaming service will now air TF1's live TV channels and on-demand content inside the Netflix app. No word if the concept will expand to other regions, but its an interesting move to anyone interested in the future of streaming. Live sports coverage One reality that spun my head was the sheer number and iterations of sports networks in existence. Trying to figure out which network will carry the match-up you want to see can be tricky. I found that Google makes it a little easier for sports fans by listing out upcoming games (just swap in NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL and so on in the search bar). When you click an event, the TV & streaming button will tell you which network is covering it. That just leaves figuring out if your chosen service carries the RSNs (regional sports networks) you want. Unfortunately, even with add-ons and extra packages, some providers simply dont have certain channels in their lineups. It would take a lawyer to understand the ins and outs of streaming rights negotiations , and networks leave and return to live TV carriers all the time. That said, most major sporting events in the US are covered by ESPN, Fox Sports, TNT, USA and local affiliates. I should also point out that traditional streaming services have started adding live sports to their lineups. Peacock carries live Premier League matches, Sunday Night Football games and aired the 2024 Olympic Games from Paris. Thursday Night Football as well as NBA and WNBA games are on Amazon Prime and Christmas Day Football aired on Netflix. Max ( formerly HBO Max) now airs select, regular season games from the NHL, MLB, NCAA and NBA with a $10-per-month add-on . You can watch MLS games with an add-on through the Apple TV app, and Apple TV+ includes some MLB games . Roku users can watch the just-added free sports channel and those who subscribe to Paramount Plus can see many of the matches aired on CBS Sports, including live NFL games. This year, even the Super Bowl was live-streamed for free on Tubi . While all of these alternatives may not cover as much ground as live TV streamers, they could end up being cheaper avenues to the sports you want. And if sports is all youre after, there are sports-only plans that are a touch cheaper, too. The promised sports streaming service from ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. called Venu was cancelled early this year. But in May, ESPN confirmed it will launch its own streaming service that will include all ESPN channels , though a start date hasnt been confirmed. DirecTV recently announced a $70-per-month, sports-only streaming package called MySports and Comcast now has a sports and news bundle for the same price (as long as you're an Xfinity customer with auto-pay, otherwise it's more expensive). Traditional cable networks Dozens of linear programming networks were once only available with cable TV, like Bravo, BET, Food Network, HGTV, CNN, Lifetime, SYFY and MTV. If you only subscribe to, say, Netflix or Apple TV+, you wont have access to those. But as with sports, standard streamers are starting to incorporate this content into their offerings. After the Warner Bros. merger, Max incorporated some content from HGTV, Discovery and TLC. Peacock has Bravo and Hallmark shows, and Paramount+ has material from Nickelodeon, MTV and Comedy Central. Other channels like AMC+ have stand-alone apps. The Discovery+ app gives you 15 channels ad-free for $9 per month (or with ads for $5 monthly). And a service called Frndly TV starts at a mere $7 per month and streams A&E, Lifetime, Game Show Network, Outdoor Channel and about 35 others. Of course, most live TV streaming options will deliver more sizable lists of cable networks, but just note that you may already be paying for some of them and if all you need is a certain channel, you could get it cheaper by subscribing directly. On-demand streaming Most live TV subscriptions include access to a selection of video-on-demand (VOD) content, like you would get with a traditional streaming service. Much of this content is made up of the movies and TV series that have recently aired on your subscribed networks. This typically doesnt cover live events and news programming, but I was able to watch specific episodes of ongoing shows like Top Chef or BETs Diarra from Detroit. Just search the on-demand library for the program, pick an episode and hit play. Partnerships, like Hulus relationship with Disney, and add-ons, such as bundling Max with your YouTube TV subscription or Starz with your Sling plan, will let you watch even larger libraries of on-demand content. But again, if VOD is all youre after, paying for those networks directly instead of through a live TV plan will be far cheaper. Digital video recordings (DVR) limits Every option I tried offers some cloud DVR storage without needing a separate physical device. Youll either get unlimited storage for recordings that expires after nine months or a year, or youll get a set number of hours (between 50 and 1,000) that you can keep indefinitely. Typically, all you need to do is designate what ongoing TV series you want to record and the DVR component will do all the hard work of saving subsequent episodes for you to watch later. You can do the same thing with sports events. Aside from being able to watch whenever its most convenient, you can also fast-forward through commercials in recorded content. In contrast, you cant skip them on live TV or VOD. Simultaneous streams and profiles per account Each plan gives you a certain number of simultaneous streams, aka how many screens can play content at the same time. And while most providers will let you travel with your subscription, there are usually location restrictions that require you to sign in from your home IP address periodically. Stream allowances range from one at a time to unlimited screens (or as many as your ISPs bandwidth can handle). Some plans require add-ons to get more screens. Most services also let you set up a few profiles so I was able to give different people in my family the ability to build their own watch histories and libraries, set their favorite channels and get individual recommendations. Picture-in-picture mode and multiview Picture-in-picture (PiP) usually refers to shrinking a video window on a mobile device or computer browser so you can watch it while using other apps. Sling, YouTube TV, FuboTV, Philo, DirecTV Stream and Hulu + Live TV all have PiP modes on computers and mobile devices. Another feature, multiview, lets you view multiple live sports games at once on your TV screen. YouTube TV and FuboTV are the only live TV streamers that let you do this. With YouTube TV, you can select up to four views from a few preset selection of streams. FuboTV offers the same feature, but only if you're using an Apple TV or Roku streaming device. 4K live streams Right now, just FuboTV, YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream offer 4K live streams but with caveats. YouTube TV requires a $20-per-month add-on , after which youll only be able to watch certain live content in 4K. DirecTV Stream has three channels that show live 4K content one with shows and original series, and two with occasional sporting events. You dont have to pay extra for these but you do need to have either DirecTVs Gemini receiver, or a device from Fire TV, Apple TV or Roku. Youll need those same streaming devices to watch the select 4K programming on Sling as well. FuboTV shows certain live events in 4K but access is limited to the Elite and Premier packages, not the base-level Pro plan. Of course, watching any 4K content also requires equipment that can handle it: a 4K smart TV or 4K streaming device paired with a cord and screen that can handle 4K resolution. Tiers, packages and add-ons Comparing price-to-offering ratios is a task for a spreadsheet. I made three. The base plans range from $28 to $85 per month. From there, you can add packages, which are usually groups of live TV channels bundled by themes like news, sports, entertainment or international content. Premium VOD extras like Max, AMC+ and Starz are also available. Add-ons cost an extra $5 to $20 each per month and simply show up in the guide where you find the rest of your live TV. This is where streaming can quickly get expensive, pushing an $80 subscription to $200 monthly, depending on what you choose. How to stream live TV for free I also downloaded and tried out a few apps that offer free ad-supported TV ( FAST ) including Freevee , Tubi , PlutoTV and Sling Freestream . These let you drop in and watch a more limited selection of live networks at zero cost. Most dont even require an email address, let alone a credit card. And if you have a Roku device, an Amazon Fire TV or Stick, a Samsung TV, a Chromecast device or a Google TV, you already have access to hundreds of live channels via the Roku Channel , the live tab in Fire TV, through the Samsung TV Plus app or through Google TV . Back to top How we tested When I begin testing for a guide, I research the most popular and well-reviewed players in the category and narrow down which are worth trying. For the paid plans, just six services dominate so I tried them all. There are considerably more free live TV contenders so I tested the four most popular. After getting accounts set up using my laptop, I downloaded the apps on a Samsung smart TV running the latest version of Tizen OS. I counted the local stations and regional sports coverage, and noted how many of the top cable networks were available. I then weighed the prices, base packages and available add-ons. I then looked at how the programming was organized in each apps UI and judged how easy everything was to navigate, from the top navigation to the settings. To test the search function, I searched for the same few TV shows on BET, Food Network, HGTV and Comedy Central, since all six providers carry those channels. I noted how helpful the searches were and how quickly they got me to season 6, episode 13 of Home Town . I used DVR to record entire series and single movies and watched VOD shows, making sure to test the pause and scan functions. On each service with sports, I searched for the same four upcoming NHL, NBA, MLS and NCAA basketball matches and used the record option to save the games and play them back a day or two later. Finally, I noted any extra perks or irritating quirks. All live TV streaming services weve tested: Philo Sling YouTube TV Hulu + Live TV DirecTV Stream FuboTV Freevee Tubi PlutoTV Sling Freestream Plex Back to top Live TV Streaming FAQs What is live streaming? Streaming simply refers to video content that is delivered to your screen over the internet. Live streaming can be split into two categories: linear programming and simultaneous transmission. That first one is similar to what you get with cable or broadcast TV, with channels that play a constant flow of movies and shows (sort of what TV looked like before Netflix). Simultaneous streaming lets you watch live events (like a basketball game) or a program (like the evening news) as they happen. What is the difference between streaming and live streaming? Standard streaming, the most popular example being Netflix, lets you pick what you want to watch from a menu of choices. Its also referred to as video on demand. Live streaming refers to sports and news events that you can stream as they happen in real time. It also refers to channels that show a continuous, linear flow of programming. What streaming service is best for live TV? FuboTV does the best job of letting you organize live channels to help you find just what you want to watch. The interface is uncluttered and when you search for something, the UI clearly tells you whether something is live now or on-demand. YouTube TV also does a good job making that info clear. Both have just over 100 live channels on offer. What is the most cost effective TV streaming service? Free TV streaming services like PlutoTV, Plex, Tubi and FreeVee show plenty of ad-supported TV shows and movies without charging you anything. Of course, they wont have the same channels or content that more premium subscriptions have. Ultimately it depends on what you want to watch and finding the service that can supply that to you in the most streamlined form so youre not paying for stuff you dont need. Is it cheaper to have cable or streaming? A basic cable package used to be more expensive than the base-level live TV streaming service. But now that nearly all major providers have raised their prices to over $75 per month, thats no longer the case. And with add-ons and other premiums, you can easily pay over $200 a month for either cable or a live TV streaming service. What streaming service has all the TV channels? No service that we tested had every available channel. Hulu + Live TV and DirecTV Stream carry the the highest number of the top rated channels, according to Neilsen . Hulus service also gets you Disney+ fare, which you cant get elsewhere. FuboTV has the most sports channels and YouTube TV gives you the widest selection of add-ons. What is the most popular live TV streaming platform? YouTube TV has the most paying customers. According to 2024's letter from the CEO, the service has over eight million subscribers. Disneys 2024 third quarter earnings put the Hulu + Live TV viewer count at 4.6 million. Slings customer count dipped from two million to about 1.9 million in 2024 and FuboTV grew its subscriber list to 1.6 million . How safe are free streaming services and websites? You may have heard certain sites that provide free content can be dangerous, leading to stolen info and/or exposing you to malware. Thats likely in reference to certain peer-to-peer (P2P) networks and file-sharing sites that let people download free movies and series which can come bundled with malicious code. But if youre talking about the free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) services listed here, from providers like PlutoTV, Tubi and Freevee, they are just as safe as any other streaming service. Since you sometimes dont even have to provide your email address or credit card info, they can even be more anonymous than apps that require login credentials. Back to top Recent updates January 31, 2025 : Added information about which streaming service would live-stream the Super Bowl, including Tubis free option. Updated Fubos pricing. Added details about DirectTV Streams sports-only package and Comcasts sports and news bundle. January 16, 2025 : Included higher prices for Slings Orange and Blue plans. Noted the demise of the never-launched Venu sports streaming service and mentioned the inclusion of DirecTVs new sports package. December 31, 2024 : Noted increased pricing for YouTube TV, Hulu+ Live TV and DirecTV. Updated information for 4K streaming capabilities and requirements for multiple services. Reported on the upcoming shut down of Amazons Freevee service and the addition of DirecTVs free service. August 6, 2024 : Updated with the addition of Plex as a free live TV streaming recommendation and mentioned the additional free channels Philo is now including with the free version of its service. Added pricing information for ESPN's new sports-only streaming service, Venu. June 12, 2024 : Updated with more information about 4K live streaming, picture-in-picture and multiview modes, as well as video on-demand options. We expanded our recommendations around free live TV streaming services and added a FAQ query about the safety of free streaming services and clarified the difference between standard and live streaming. More traditional streaming services have added live and sports components, so we revised that section accordingly. Back to top This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/best-live-tv-streaming-service-133000410.html?src=rss
Step up your office look with a pair of Bruno Marcs Oxford Shoes down at $36.50 shipped
Bruno Marc Oxford Shoes Buy for $36.50 (Reg. $42) What we love If your wardrobe is feeling a bit drab or mundane these days, a fresh pair of shoes like that can go a long way. Black, brown, dark brown, and blue colorways are all on sale, allowing you to step up your office attire without breaking the bank. more
UGREENs ultra-thin rechargeable Find My wallet tracker still down at $20 Prime Day low
UGREENs official Amazon storefront is offering Prime members its latest FineTrack wallet tracker for $19.99 shipped. This is regularly a $30 Find My tracker which is now seeing a 33% markdown. Todays Prime-exclusive deal knocks $10 off its regular price, bringing it back down to the lowest price we tracked during Prime Day a couple of weeks back. This matches the all-time low for this model, and you can find more details about it below. more
Create logos, articles, chatbot scripts, art, and code forever with AI Magicx for $60 (Reg. $972)
Imagine being able to generate a polished brand logo, a chatbot that actually works, and a full blog postbefore your second cup of coffee. Thats the kind of workflow this platform makes possible. And the best part? You can get lifetime access to the full AI Magicx Rune Plan for just $59.97 (regularly $972). No subscription fees, just creative firepower on demand. more
PUMA Evercat Contender Backpack Buy from $19 (Reg. $30) What we love Need a new bag for work or when school rolls back around? Well, this affordable bag from PUMA now costs even less with styles starting as low as $19. While not every colorway is marked down as heavily, were seeing 8 or so that are at least $5 off the typical $30 price tag. These have several compartments throughout and can accomodate an up to 15-inch laptop or tablet. more
iPadOS 26 preview: A long-awaited multi-tasking update pays off (so far)
Im not going to beat around the bush: iPadOS 26 and its new multitasking features are a game-changer for Apples tablets. Pretty much ever since Steve Jobs introduced the iPad 15 years ago (!), Apple has tried to straddle two worlds. In one, the iPad is a super-simple, easy-to-use tablet with a gorgeous display and tons of good apps from the App Store for gaming, entertainment and light work. The other world is one where the iPad replaces your traditional computer, letting people do the serious work thats been typically reserved for a Mac or Windows PC. iPadOS has too often served as a hindrance to the latter goal over the years, particularly as the iPad Pro has gotten more powerful . The Stage Manager multitasking experience Apple introduced with iPadOS 16 in 2022 was a major step towards making the iPads software suitable for power users but it was rather buggy at launch and not as flexible as iPad power users were hoping for. The calls to just put macOS on the iPad grew louder. But this year, Apple took a different approach : it brought crucial macOS features like the familiar stoplight window controls, the menu bar at the top of the screen and vastly improved window management tools to iPadOS 26. The result is an iPad experience where you can easily jump between multiple windowed apps set up just how you like and one where you go full screen to focus on your content. Its a massive refinement over the old Stage Manager experience and one that I think will finally satisfy iPad die-hards who want to push their tablets to the limit. Before diving into the details, a quick word on betas and stability. As usual, Apples public betas feel pretty stable and capable, but that doesnt mean you wont run into weirdness here and there. App crashes, particularly with third-party apps, happened far more on this beta than with iPadOS 18. Im confident those things will be ironed out as more developers update their apps for the new OS, but youll also run into things like UI inconsistencies and occasional stutters and jerkiness when jumping between apps. As we always say, think hard about what youre willing to put up with to try a beta, even the relatively stable public beta. After all, the final version of iPadOS 26 will be out in just a few months. (Ed. note: Apple just released the public betas for iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26 and watchOS 26 . This means, as Nate stated above, you can run the preview for yourself, if you are willing to risk potentially buggy software. As usual, we highly recommend backing up all your date before running any beta, and you can follow our guide on how to install Apple's public betas to do so.) Multitasking Time for the nitty-gritty. When you update to iPadOS 26, youll be asked if you want to enable multitasking or have apps run in full screen mode only. When Apple says full screen only, they mean it. Past versions of iPadOS offered either Stage Manager or a basic, two-app split screen view with a third app available in a Slide Over window. The latter option is gone now, though you can still easily set up two or three apps side by side with iPadOS 26s window tiling features. You can use multitasking mode or full screen only, with no in between. I think thats a smart move, as plenty of people who use an iPad probably never use these multi-app features, and having a multitasking on or off toggle keeps things simple. When you turn on multitasking mode, apps still open in full screen first but you can grab any corner of the window to resize it or touch the top of the app and drag it around the screen. You could already do this with Stage Manager, so what really sets this new mode apart is how it interacts with other windows. Swiping up from the bottom of the display reveals the usual Home Screen view, but with your apps tucked to the side as a visual cue that you can add another app to that group. And, as before, you can move, resize and stack that app window wherever you want. As Im writing this, I have nine separate app windows open on my iPad, and getting around them feels more Mac-like than ever before. I can swipe up and hold from the bottom of the Home Screen and see every open app in a smaller window, which makes finding the specific thing I want a lot easier; I can also just command-tab through them. Apps can be minimized down to the dock and when I want the app back, itll pop open in the same size window and same placement as before. Swiping up from the bottom of the screen twice minimizes everything I have open to start fresh but again, if I reopen those apps, theyll go back to exactly where I had them set up before. I realize it sounds kind of silly to make a big deal of this, but its hard to overstate how much this improves the iPad multitasking experience. With Stage Manager, I was never quite sure where an app would open or if it would be full screen or windowed. It can be useful for setting up multiple groups of apps, but adding and removing apps from that view was not terribly intuitive. Just opening everything in one space is a lot more intuitive. And if you want to have various different spaces with specific apps, you can still turn on Stage Manager. Its a lot easier to add and remove apps from various different groups than it used to be; minimizing a window puts it into its own space that you can add more apps to (or just use it on its own). There are a few other new components that make multitasking work as well as it does. These should be quite familiar to Mac users: The three-button stoplight controls and the menu bar. The stoplight buttons replace a similar three-dot window management system from older versions of iPadOS but are far more intuitive. The red one closes an app window entirely, the green one makes a window full screen and then yellow one minimizes it to the dock. These controls are crucial to making iPadOS 26 feel more flexible and fluid than ever before, particularly if you want to have more than one window of a single app open. Ive also found them to be crucial when working with multiple apps on a smaller display, like on the 11-inch iPad Pro. Stage Manager usually felt like more trouble than it was worth on anything but a 13-inch iPad, but these new multitasking features make it easy to flip through a bunch of apps and pop into full screen if I need more space. The expanded window tiling controls here also make that easier. If you press and hold the stoplight buttons, youll get more options to resize apps to take up a quarter, third or half the screen; you can also grab drag bars to further adjust how much space each app takes up. I really liked a mode where three iPhone-sized apps fill the screen, and when there was something I wanted to devote more focus to, I just hit its green button and went full screen. The menu bar, meanwhile, is pretty easy to explain. If you swipe down from the top of the screen (or move your trackpad cursor up to the top) youll see familiar menus like File, Edit, Window and so on. Its a handy way to find more advanced controls for an app, and it also keeps the various toolbars in apps from getting too overloaded with options. Long story short, this all adds up to a wildly improved iPad experience. It doesnt compromise the single-screen, focused mode that the iPad has always been known for, and it greatly improves working across multiple windows and apps. And unlike Stage Manager, which was limited to M-series iPads, these new multitasking features will work on any iPad that can run iPadOS 26, including the base A16 iPad and the iPad mini. Everything else If this was the only change to iPadOS Apple made this year, it would already be a worthwhile upgrade, but there are a bunch of other improvements coming this fall. These include an improved Files app, the Preview app that has long been a core part of macOS, the new Liquid Glass design, some potentially useful Apple Intelligence features, a nice set of updates to the Messaging app and a new Phone app. Much has been said about Liquid Glass, with tons of prognostication about how Apple was ruining usability and throwing its UI back to 2006 in a blatant Windows Aero ripoff . As usual, the truth is much more nuanced. No one familiar with Apples software will be thrown off by this update everything works as it did before, and while youll definitely notice some refractive visual elements, its not the wholesale change that aggrieved social media posters would have you believe. You can make things look very different if you, say, opt for the new clear glass icon look, but you can also leave the standard colorful iOS icons in place. The Music apps Now Playing bar is a perfect place to see iPadOS 26s Liquid Glass transparency in action. Over the course of the developer betas Apple has released since WWDC, the company has responded to feedback and reduced some of the transparency effects that were present in the first version of Liquid Glass as it turns out, submitting feedback during a beta works! (Interestingly, they bumped some of the transparency back up in the fourth developer beta, right after turning it down in beta 3. This is still a work in progress.) Probably the biggest functional change is that app controls, toolbars and sidebars float over apps in a new, distinct layer rather than being wholly separate from an apps content but again, its not the kind of thing thatll faze anyone who has been using an iPad or any other Apple device. Preview isnt exactly a thriller, but its a much better way to work with PDFs and images than the old interface that launched them in a separate Files window. You can still find PDFs in Files easily enough, but actually dealing with the document in a separate app is better than making Files pull double duty. Apple Speaking of Files, it has even more in common with the Mac Finder than before. You can now put specific folders in the dock for faster access to whatever youre working on, and the app list view has resizable columns and collapsible folders, just like on the Mac. You can also add emoji and colors to folders for more visual differentiation (and, lets be honest, a little more fun). And for the first time, you can pick specific apps to open different file types by default so if youd rather have PNG images open in Photomator than Preview, go nuts. There are also major updates to the communication experience across the board in iPadOS 26. The FaceTime app got a nice redesign with large contact posters of your recent calls. But whats most handy here is that the FaceTime app no longer tries to do double-duty with voice calls. A dedicated Phone app handles that now. Assuming you also have an iPhone, youll see all your recent voice calls and voicemails here and you can quickly place a new call through your contact list or using a traditional dialer. Ive always liked the idea of being able to place calls on devices Im using during the work day like my Mac or iPad, and this makes it far easier. Apple Messages is getting some fun visual enhancements like backgrounds for your conversations, but the thing Im most interested in is message filtering. The app now identifies unknown senders and puts those messages in a separate folder, and theres also a new spam folder where it drops messages that Apple strongly believes are spam. If a message gets filtered into unknown senders or spam, you can mark it as known even if the contact isnt in your address book and those messages will end up in your main view by default. The system also attempts to recognize when a message from an unknown sender is timely and needs to be delivered to your main inbox something like a delivery person saying theyre nearby or other urgent content like a two-factor authentication code. This feels primarily like a phone-first feature; I get messages on my iPad, but havent seen much get filtered directly to spam or unknown callers yet. Once all my devices are running Apples latest software, well see how that goes, but Im still very excited about any feature thatll help combat the deluge of spam messages that plague my inbox. For more details on the updated communications experience and other new features like the Apple Intelligence-powered Live Translation, Ill point you to my colleague Mat Smiths iOS 26 overview . As is usually the case, nearly every feature coming to the iPhone this year is also coming to the iPad, meaning Live Translation will arrive on the tablet too. Theres a lot more here that I havent been able to get to, like improved background tasks that let you export a video without keeping the app in focus, updates to Genmoji and Image Playground, the Journal app finally coming to iPad, Apple Intelligence-powered Shortcuts updates and much more. Ill be continuing to check out how things change between now and the final release this fall, but even based on my experience with the recent beta, Im quite pleased with where iPadOS 26 is at. The updates to multitasking are so significant that I cant imagine going back to an iPad without them. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/ipados-26-preview-a-long-awaited-multi-tasking-update-pays-off-so-far-172522054.html?src=rss
macOS 26 beta preview: Spotlight's time to shine
I've learned not to expect much from macOS updates not through sheer cynicism, but from the obvious reality that Apple pays far more attention to iOS and iPadOS than its desktop platform. I get it. macOS is a thing of the past, while smartphones and tablets are Apple's profitable present and future. But still, I think Mac users deserve more than just widgets , or the ability to merely mirror their iPhones (a feature that's not only genuinely useful, but also cements how crucial iPhones are to Apple and its users today). Now with macOS 26 , Apple is finally showing a bit more love to its laptops and desktops. After testing the macOS Tahoe 26 developer beta for a few weeks, it definitely feels like a more substantial update than the last few versions. The revamped Spotlight alone will likely delight Mac diehards, since it makes it easier to find apps and perform all manner of tasks without requiring your fingers leave the keyboard. Add in a lovely visual refresh thanks to Apple's Liquid Glass design , as well as enhanced iPhone continuity features, and you have an operating system that feels like a genuine step forward for the Mac faithful. (Ed. note: Apple just released the public betas for iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26 and watchOS 26 . This means you can run the preview for yourself, if you are willing to risk potentially buggy or unstable software that could cause some of your apps to not work. As usual, we highly recommend backing up all your date before running any beta, and you can follow our guide on how to install Apple's public betas to do so.) Spotlight becomes more than a search engine I've never been a heavy Spotlight user, aside from the few times I've needed to quickly look for an app or file. But in macOS Tahoe 26, it's suddenly a lot more useful. Now Spotlight can also help you find specific files; search cloud file services and websites; run Apple shortcuts and automations; and even run basic commands, like looking up your recent screenshots when you type /screenshot. Spotlight has become more than just a search engine for your Mac, it's practically a super-powered command line. (And notably, it has no real equivalent on Windows. So once again, Mac power users will be able to gloat about the supremacy of macOS.) Apple Over the course of my testing, tapping the command key and space bar to trigger Spotlight practically became second nature. I'd bring it up to find files, as usual, but I noticed that it was better at unearthing what I was looking for than before. Spotlight also replaced my usual practice of typing in search strings in Safari or Chrome's address bar. It takes just a few seconds to bring up Spotlight, type YouTube, hit tab to trigger the search box and type in the video I'm looking for. This intelligent site searching also works for Amazon and IMDB hopefully, Apple will add more commonly used sites over time (or perhaps just the ability to map a site's internal search engine to Spotlight). If you're often buried by tons of tabs in your web browser, Spotlight can also quickly search through them. That helped me avoid getting distracted by social media and Slack conversations. I could just stay in my productivity flow, since I didn't have to sift through multiple app windows and tabs. The ability to trigger actions from Spotlight was similarly useful it's a cinch to pop it up, start typing Send Message and jot out a quick text to my wife. Spotlight also learns your most common commands over time, so now I just have to type se for the Send Message action to pop up. I'm sure for a certain type of Mac power user, Spotlight will give them far fewer reasons to ever touch their mouse or trackpad. Apple A more refined user interface with Liquid Glass While Spotlight is the most powerful upgrade in macOS Tahoe 26, you'll notice the spiffier Liquid Glass interface first. As with iOS 26, it basically amounts to more transparencies and visual flourishes spread throughout the OS. The menu bar at the top of the screen is now fully transparent, instead of looking foggy like before. It's not much, but it does make your Mac's screen seem a little bigger (or perhaps that may have just been extra noticeable on the cramped 13-inch MacBook Air I've been testing on). Similarly, widgets and the Control Center dropdown have more glass-like visual elements that make them look a bit more modern. There's no real practical advantage, but to paraphrase a classic Marge Simpson quote, I just think it's neat. Apple Silicon-equipped hardware has more than enough graphics power to spare, so these visual upgrades also don't hinder performance at all. I didn't notice any slowdown during my testing, and according to Activity Monitor, there didn't seem to be a big hit to CPU or GPU usage. Apple Better iPhone integration Even though you've been able to make phone calls on Macs for a while now through FaceTime, it's taken until macOS Tahoe 26 for Apple to debut a dedicated Phone app. The app itself is nothing special it gives you a quick glance at your contacts and recent calls, all in a compact Liquid Glass window but at least it's a more logical place for phone calls. Even better than the standalone app, though, is the addition of iPhone Live Activities appearing in the macOS Tahoe 26 menu bar. That makes it easier to keep track of an inbound Uber or Doordash order, without whipping out your phone. And if you need to tap into a specific activity, macOS will also automatically launch the app from your phone via iPhone mirroring. It's the sort of usability feature you'd expect from Apple, and notably it's also not easily replicable on Windows. (And sure, you can also view it as a way to keep iPhone users from straying to the dark side too.) Other useful upgrades The more I dug into macOS Tahoe 26, the more intriguing it became. Here are a few other updates worth highlighting: The Shortcuts app seems a lot more powerful now, especially with the addition of custom automations and Apple Intelligence-powered actions. You can have an automation trigger writing tools or Image Playgrounds, and there's also a new Use Model command that can tap into on-device AI models and ChatGPT. I'm still trying to wrap my head around building a complex automation, but conceivably it could let you do something like compare an audio transcript to text notes, according to Apple. Safari has received a Liquid Glass redesign that looks pretty polished. It's not nearly as transformative as the Safari iOS upgrade, which makes it easier to read websites on a small phone screen, but at least it looks nice. The Notes app now has Apple Intelligence-powered reminders whenever you share content to it. That could help you unearth some key tasks from a large email. The Photos app has also received the Liquid Glass treatment, and you can finally use Pinned Collections on Macs to keep your favorite photo groups handy. The Apple Music app can now use AutoMix to intelligently blend songs together, similar to a DJ. I've been using this feature on iOS 26 a lot, and it's honestly delightful so long as you're not a total gapless playback purist. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/macos-26-beta-preview-spotlights-time-to-shine-171700779.html?src=rss
iOS 26 beta preview: Liquid Glass is better than you think
At WWDC 2025, Apple revealed a major visual shake-up for iOS (not to mention the rest of the companys operating systems). This is the biggest change, aesthetically, since the shift away from the stitching, textures and skeuomorphic design of the iOS 4. It also comes with significantly fewer AI and Siri updates this time around. However, its the smaller touches that make iOS 26 seem like a notable improvement over its predecessor. Ive been running the iOS 26 developer beta for the last two weeks and here's how Apples new Liquid Glass design and iOS 26 broadly stacks up. (Ed. note: Apple just released the public betas for iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26 and watchOS 26 . This means you can run the preview for yourself, if you are willing to risk potentially buggy or unstable software that could cause some of your apps to not work. As usual, we highly recommend backing up all your date before running any beta, and you can follow our guide on how to install Apple's public betas to do so.) Liquid Glass changes everything iOS 26 looks new and modern. And for once, how Apple describes it liquid glass makes sense: its a lot of layers of transparent elements overlapping and, in places, the animations are quite liquidy. Menus and buttons will respond to your touch, with some of them coalescing around your finger and sometimes separating out into new menus. Liquid Glass encompasses the entire design of iOS. The home and lock screens have been redesigned once again, featuring a new skyscraping clock font that stretches out from the background of your photos, with ever-so-slight transparency. Theres also a new 3D effect that infuses your photos with a bit of spatial magic, offering a touch of Vision Pro for iPhone users. The experience in the first few builds of the iOS 26 beta was jarring and messy, especially with transparent icons and notifications, due to those overlapping elements making things almost illegible. Updates across subsequent releases have addressed this issue by making floating elements more opaque. There is also a toggle within the Accessibility tab in Settings to reduce transparency further, but I hope Apple offers a slider so that users can choose exactly how liquid they want their glass to be. If you own other Apple products, then youll come to appreciate the design parity across your Mac, iPad and Apple Watch. One noticeable change I'd been waiting for was the iOS search bars relocation to the bottom of the screen. I first noticed it within Settings, but it reappears in Music, Podcasts, Photos and pretty much everywhere you might need to find specific files or menu items now. If, like me, youre an iPhone Pro or Plus user, you may have struggled to reach those search bars when they were at the top of the screen. Its a welcome improvement. Visual Intelligence Screenshot (Apple) With iOS 26 on iPhones powerful enough to run Apple Intelligence, the company is bringing Visual Intelligence over to your screenshots. (Previously it was limited to Camera.) Once youve grabbed a shot by pressing the power and volume up buttons, youll get a preview of your image, surrounded by suggested actions that Apple Intelligence deduced would be relevant based on the contents of your screenshot. Managing Editor Cherlynn Low did a deep dive on what Visual Intelligence is capable of . From a screenshot, you can transfer information to other apps without having to switch or select them manually. This means I can easily screenshot tickets and emails, for example, to add to my calendar. Apple Intelligence can also identify types of plants, food and cars, even. If there are multiple people or objects in your screenshot, you can highlight what you want to focus on by circling it. There arent many third-party app options at this point, but thats often the case with a beta build. These are features that Android users have had courtesy of Gemini for a year or two, but at least now we get something similar on iPhones. One quick tip: Make sure to tap the markup button (the little pencil tip icon) to see Visual Intelligence in your screenshots. I initially thought my beta build was missing the feature, but it was just hidden behind the markup menu. More broadly, Apple Intelligence continues to work well, but doesn't stand out in any particular way. Were still waiting for Siri to receive its promised upgrades. Still, iOS 26 appears to have improved the performance of many features that use the iPhones onboard machine learning models. Since the first developer build, voice memos and voice notes are not only much faster, but also more accurate, especially with accents that the system previously struggled with. Apple Intelligences Writing tools which I mainly use for summarizing meetings, conference calls and even lengthy PDFs doesn't choke with more substantial reading. On iOS 18, it would struggle with voice notes longer than 10 minutes, trying to detangle or structure the contents of a meeting. I havent had that issue with iOS 26 so far. Van life vlogger, bald or running for Congress? Image by Mat Smith for Engadget Genmoji and Image Playground both offer up different results through the update. Image Playground can now generate pictures using ChatGPT. Ill be honest, I hadnt used the app since I tested it on iOS 18, but the upgrades mean it has more utility when I might want to generate AI artwork, which can occasionally reach photorealistic levels. One useful addition is ChatGPTs any style option, meaning you can try to specify the style you have in mind, which can skirt a little closer to contentious mimicry especially if you want, say, a frivolous image of you splashing in a puddle, Studio Ghibli style. Apple also tweaked Genmoji to add deeper customization options, but these AI-generated avatars dont look like me? I liked the original Genmoji that launched last year, which had the almost-nostalgic style of 2010 emoji, but still somehow channeled the auras of me, my friends and family. This new batch are more detailed and elaborate, sure, but they dont look right. Also, they make me look bald. And contrary to my detractors, I am not bald. Yet. This feels like a direct attack, Apple. You might feel differently, however. For example, Cherlynn said that the first version of Genmoji did not resemble her, frequently presenting her as someone with much darker skin or of a different ethnicity, regardless of the source picture she submitted. Still, the ability to change a Genmojis expression, as well as add and remove glasses and facial hair through the new appearance customization options, is an improvement. A Camera app redesign for everyone Apple has revisited the camera app, returning to basics by stripping away most of the previously offered modes and settings at least initially to display only video and photo modes. You can swipe up from the bottom to see additional options, like flash, the timer, exposure, styles and more. You can also tap on the new six-dot icon in the upper right of the interface for the same options, though that requires a bit more of a reach. These behave in line with the new Liquid Glass design and youll see the Photo pill expand into the settings menu when you press either area. Long-pressing on icons lets you go deeper into shooting modes, adjusting frame rates and even recording resolutions. What I like here is that it benefits casual smartphone photographers while keeping all the settings that more advanced users demand. None of the updates here are earth-shattering, though. I hope Apple takes a good look at what Adobes Project Indigo camera app is doing there are a lot of good ideas there. One extra improvement if you use AirPods: Pressing and holding the stem of your AirPod (if it has an H2 chip) can now start video recording. Apple Music tries to DJ Alongside the Liquid Glass design touches, the big addition to Apple Music this year is AutoMix. Like a (much) more advanced version of the crossfade feature found on most music streaming apps, in iOS 26, Music tries to mix between tracks, slowing or speeding up tempos, gently fading in drums or bass loops before the next song kicks in. Twenty percent of the time, it doesnt work well or Apple Music doesnt even try. But the new ability to pin playlists and albums is useful, especially for recommendations from other folks that you never got around to listening to. Messages get a little more fun Image by Mat Smith for Engadget Apple is making Messages more fun. One of the ways its doing so is by enabling custom backgrounds in chats, much like in WhatsApp. I immediately set out to find the most embarrassing photo of my colleague (and frenemy) Cherlynn Low and make it our chat background. I know shes also running iOS 26 in beta, so she will see it. [ Ed. note: Way to give me a reason to ignore your messages, Mat! ] Apples Live translation now works across Messages, voice calls and FaceTime. Setting things up can be a little complicated youll first need to download various language files to use the feature. Theres also some inconsistency in the languages supported across the board. For instance, Mandarin and Japanese are supported in Messages, but not on FaceTime yet. In chats, if your system language is set to English or Spanish, then youll only be able to translate into English or Spanish. For those polyglots out there, if you want to translate incoming Japanese texts into German, youll need to set your device's language to German. While I didnt get to flex my Japanese abilities on voice calls and FaceTime, iOS 26 was more than capable of keeping up with some rudimentary German and Spanish. Im not sure if Id rely on it for serious business translation or holiday bookings, but I think it could be a very useful tool for basics. Theres also the ability to filter spam messages to their own little folder (purgatory). Spam texts remain a nightmare, so I appreciate any potential weapons in the fight. Sadly, it hasnt quite manage to deal with the TikTok marketing agencies and phone network customer services that continue to barrage my Messages. Still, hopefully Apple will continue to improve its detection algorithms. One more tool in the battle against spam: You can mute notifications for Messages from unknown numbers, although time-sensitive alerts from delivery services and rideshare apps will still reach you. New apps are hit-or-miss Not everything in the beta lands, however. Ive already touched on how Liquid Glass was initially a semi-transparent mess. The Games App, too, seems like an unnecessary addition. Because its a blend of the Games tab of the App Store and a silo of your preinstalled games, Im not sure what its adding. Its not any easier to navigate, nor does it introduce me to games I want to buy. Cherlynn did want to highlight that for a casual gamer like herself, its intriguing to see if the Games app might start to recommend more mind-numbing puzzles or farming simulations. She was also intrigued by the idea of a more social gaming experience on iOS, issuing challenges to her friends. Still, because the phone she has been testing the beta on doesnt have access to all her contacts or her gaming history, the recommendations and features are fairly limited at the moment. Games is one of two new apps that will automatically join your home screen. (Fortunately, they can be uninstalled). The other is Preview, which should be a familiar addition to any Mac user. It offers an easy way to view sent or downloaded files, like menus, ticket QR codes and more. During the developer beta, the app pulled in a handful of my documents that previously lived in the Files app. Navigation across both those apps is identical, although Preview is limited to files you can actually open, of course. AirPods, upgraded This is more iPhone-adjacent, but iOS 26 includes several quality-of-life improvements for some of Apples headphones. First up: notifications when your AirPods are fully charged, finally! The Apple Watch got this kind of notification back in iOS 14, so its great to see Apples headphones catch up. Apple is also promising studio-quality sound recording from the AirPods, augmenting recordings with computational audio improvements. Theres a noticable bump in audio quality. It appears that AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 will record files at a sample rate of 48 kHz, which is double the rate used in the past. The sample rate bump happened last year, but it is dependent on what the app you're using. Is it studio quality? I dont think so, but its an improvement. While recordings sound slightly better in quiet locations, the bigger change is in loud environments. The algorithm doesn't appear to be degrading audio quality as much while trying to reduce background noise. iOS 26 also adds sleep detection to the buds. If the AirPods detect minimal movement, theyll switch off automatically, which could be helpful for the next time Im flying long-haul. Wrap-up In iOS 26, Apple has prioritized design changes and systemwide consistency over AI-centric software and features. While Liquid Glass is a big change to how your iPhone looks, Apple has drawn from user feedback to finesse the design into feeling less jarring and gelling better when the home screen, Control Center and Notification drop-downs overlap with each other. There are numerous quality of life improvements, including Messages and Visual Intelligence, in particular. If anything, the AI elephant in the room is the lack of any substantial updates on Siri. After the company talked up advanced Siri interactions over a year ago, Im still waiting for its assistant to catch up with the likes of Google. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/ios-26-beta-preview-liquid-glass-is-better-than-you-think-172155402.html?src=rss
