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It's September 2025, and things are looking peachy keen. Sure, the US job market has taken a nosedive. And yeah, only one in four Americans believes they have a good chance of improving their standard of living. But hey, Tesla's board has proposed a pay package that could make Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. What really matters is that someone is having a good time, right?

Tesla's board laid out what's by far the biggest CEO compensation package in history on Friday. It reads like the ultimate dangled carrot for a leader who is both driven by wealth and power and also prone to distraction.

The compensation plan is based on performance metrics that, at least for now, seem far-fetched. First, the Tesla leader would have to remain at the company for seven and a half years to cash in any shares. To receive the full payout, he'd have to stay for a full decade. Musk also runs a rocket company and an AI company (which also operates the former Twitter, aka X). So, above all else, the proposal is designed to keep his attention on the company that made him the world's richest person.

For Musk to receive the full payout of around $900 billion, Musk would have to increase Tesla's market value to $8.5 trillion. It's worth about $1.1 trillion today. Other performance requirements include deploying a million Tesla robotaxis and a million AI robots. Musk would also be incentivized to participate in the company's long-term CEO succession plans. The package also includes structural protections to minimize stock price volatility, which the company has become well-acquainted with in 2025.

Tesla recalled virtually all Cybertrucks earlier this year.Tesla

"We believe that Elon's singular vision is vital to navigating this critical inflection point," Tesla board leaders Robyn Denholm and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson wrote in the shareholder letter. "We also recognize the formidable nature of this undertaking and, as a result, the importance of having a leader who is not only willing and capable but eager to meet this challenge. Simply put, retaining and incentivizing Elon is fundamental to Tesla achieving these goals and becoming the most valuable company in history."

Denholm and Wilson-Thompson implied the package was at least partly motivated by the CEO threatening to jump ship. "Mr. Musk also raised the possibility that he may pursue other interests that may afford him greater influence if he did not receive such assurances," they wrote. "Ultimately, the Special Committee believed it to be critical to Tesla to secure Mr. Musk's commitment and focus to lead Tesla."

Tesla shareholders will have to approve the pay package. They're expected to vote on it on November 6. A Delaware judge struck down a (similarly performance-based) 2018 package, and Tesla appealed. The new plan, if approved, would replace the older one if the appeal fails.

If Musk hit all of the required benchmarks, his stake in Tesla would grow from 13 percent to 29 percent. Who says the American Dream isn't alive and well?

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/teslas-board-to-elon-musk-hit-these-milestones-and-well-make-you-a-trillionaire-170914461.html?src=rss

Games Done Quick’s all-women and femmes speedrunning event Flame Fatales kicks off on September 7 and goes until September 14. You can watch the marathon on the GDQ Twitch channel starting at 11:30AM ET.

This is a week-long event, so the official schedule is packed with cool games. All told, there will be more than 50 speedruns. These will include recent hits like Blue Prince and Hades 2, in addition to classics like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. There's also going to be a one-handed speedrun of the original Hollow Knight, which is great timing considering the sequel just came out.

That one-handed speedrun of Hollow Knight isn't the only goofy and unique entry in the mix. The speedrun of Blue Prince will include a bingo board and others will focus on boss rushes. It looks like a good time will be had by all.

I'm excited to announce that be raising money the next 2 weeks for the Malala Fund as a Flame Fatales Ambassador! 💕 I'll be doing 2 charity streams over the next 2 weeks! See you there! pic.twitter.com/dvXvu3Hyce

— Sakura Tsubasa (@SakuraTsubasa) August 16, 2025

This year's Flame Fatales event is being held in support of Malala Fund, which is a non-profit that helps provide educational resources to girls around the world. This is all part of the Games Done Quick organization, which has helped raise more than $57 million for charity spread across numerous streams throughout the past 15 years. There's also a winter all-women and femmes speedrunning event called Frost Fatales.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/how-to-watch-flame-fatales-2025-speedrunning-event-170515843.html?src=rss

OnePlus and Hasselblad are ending their five-year partnership, according to an official blog post. The smartphone maker has started developing its own camera system, which it has dubbed the DetailMax Engine.

There was no reason given for the split, though OnePlus heaped praise on Hasselblad in that blog post. It lauded the camera maker's "obsession with precision and detail" and opined about "nights in the lab chasing the perfect balance of light and shadow." The company also said that "Hasselblad’s refined aesthetic sense is now part of our imaging DNA, woven into every future OnePlus camera."

OnePlus

As for every future OnePlus camera, the proprietary imaging system is still in the early stages. OnePlus CEO Pete Lau said he's already testing an early prototype that's been "designed from the ground up to deliver the clearest and most real photos on a smartphone."

The two companies first paired up for the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro flagship smartphones and the Hasselblad logo has been a mainstay of higher-end OnePlus devices since then. The Verge reports that the logo is likely to disappear with the release of the upcoming OnePlus 14, which may be renamed the OnePlus 15 to avoid the unlucky number "4" in China.

There's one final wrinkle to this story. Oppo, which is the parent company of OnePlus, is sticking with Hasselblad for the time being. As a matter of fact, it officially extended the partnership back in July, with both companies promising a new mobile imaging system in the near future.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/oneplus-and-hasselblad-are-ending-their-five-year-partnership-154217176.html?src=rss

Qualcomm's driver-assistance system Snapdragon Ride Pilot will debut on the BMW iX3 electric SUV, offering hands-free highway driving, automatic lane changes and parking assistance. The jointly developed software stack announced today will be powered by Snapdragon Ride system-on-chips and will make its first formal appearance at IAA Mobility 2025.

Snapdragon Ride Pilot is a Level 2+ driver-assistance system, not self-driving, which means drivers will still be responsible for supervising the vehicle's movements and paying attention to the road while these features are in use.

The software stack is structured into a series of layers that come together to power the autonomous features. The first is 360-degree perception, which uses a camera-based vision stack to detect objects, interpret traffic signs and provide parking assistance among other functions. An advanced context-aware driving layer uses a combination of rules-based and AI-based models to plan and predict behavior during complex driving scenarios.

The stack also uses what Qualcomm is calling a safety-first approach, which includes cybersecurity features and enforces strict global car safety rules like ISO's Automotive Safety Integrity Levels and Functional Safety standards.

Snapdragon Ride Pilot is now being offered by Qualcomm to all global automakers, and the chipmaker says the system is already validated in 60 countries worldwide, with the aim of availability in more than 100 countries by 2026.

This new partnership is the latest high-tech product for cars from the semiconductor company. Last year they began working with Google on AI voice systems for vehicles. They have also worked with Volvo on the automaker's infotainment systems.

Qualcomm is not the only player betting on self-driving, with companies like NVIDIA and Mobileye also developing chips and software to power advanced driver-assistance systems.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/bmw-and-qualcomm-announce-jointly-developed-driver-assistance-system-144922600.html?src=rss

We're just days away from Apple's September 9th iPhone 17 event, and the hype seems practically nonexistent. Did the many (many) leaks splash cold water on an enthusiasm, or are we just tired of annual iPhone events? In this episode, Deputy Editor Nathan Ingraham joins Devindra to discuss why even the rumored iPhone Air isn't really tingling our gadget geek senses. Also, we dive into the final repercussions of the US. v. Google antitrust trial: Turns out Google doesn’t have to sell Chrome, or give up much of anything else.

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Topics

• The iPhone 17 is almost here, does anyone care? – 1:36

• U.S. antitrust judge rules that Google won’t have to sell Chrome – 23:24

• More Gemini-powered smart home products will be revealed on October 1 – 30:02

• The Browser Company’s sale to Jira parent company Atlassian shows how hard upstart browsers have it – 33:15

• After 15 years Instagram is finally getting an iPad app – 40:41

• Dolby announces Dolby Vision 2 with a bunch of AI features that seem useful – 44:25

• There’s AI in your pizza oven: Ooni’s Volt V2 will cook a pie in 90 seconds using machine learning – 49:02

• Around Engadget: Remarkable Paper Pro Move, Acer Chromebook 14 Spin Plus, and Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 – 52:51

• Working on – 56:55

• Pop culture picks – 57:20

Credits

Hosts: Devindra Hardawar
Guest: Nathan Ingraham
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/engadget-podcast-the-curious-calm-before-the-iphone-17-storm-143000763.html?src=rss

On a random Saturday in August, I became the omnipotent caretaker of a newly formed planet, one born, according to the lore, from humankind's collective love of Tamagotchis past and present. An egg hatched and a planet sprang forth. Then another egg hatched down on the surface of that planet and a critter sprang forth. In the few weeks since, I've raised half a dozen more creatures across three different virtual habitats, slowly but surely turning my planet into a bustling hub of adorable alien life.

Whereas previous Tamagotchi devices felt like they bestowed a personal challenge on players to keep individual characters alive and in their care as long as possible, Tamagotchi Paradise places more of an emphasis on populating, rewarding you for nurturing a revolving door of new characters that you will ultimately release to the peaceful wild. In a sense, Tamagotchi Paradise completely reimagines the classic toy not as a pet-keeping experience, but something more akin to wildlife conservation. It's really cool.

Tamagotchi Paradise also introduces a new egg design, with a dial sticking out that has a stopwatch-like button. It's another hefty device and brings back AAA batteries instead of charging via USB-C. The top of the plastic shell flips open to reveal a docking port (a throwback to design from the '90s), where you can physically connect another Tamagotchi Paradise. And the updates don’t stop there, since the whole UI has been overhauled. It is a lot of change all at once, and some parts work better than others. I expect this to be a polarizing one among Tamagotchi fans, and a cursory glance at some of the online discussions would suggest that's already the case — but consider me team Paradise. I am super into it.

The dial

The dial is one of the biggest new features of Tamagotchi Paradise. Its main purpose is to let you zoom into the planet to see all the goings-on there, but it can also be used to scroll through menu options and has a role in some of the games. While it was very exciting to play with for the first few days, the novelty has largely worn off in the month since, and it's just a normal part of using the device now. It does feel nice to spin and click the dial, and I appreciate that as a person who likes to fidget with things. But frankly, it was just a relief to find that it doesn't suck.

After the frustration of the flat, not-button buttons on Tamagotchi Pix, I was a bit nervous that the dial would end up being another feature that's more gimmicky than practical, and cause a bunch of headaches. Thankfully, that's not how things have panned out. The dial took a little getting used to, particularly when figuring out how far to spin it to get where I'm trying to go (planet level, the surface, one-on-one with your Tama and into the cells), but now it's smooth sailing.

Cheyenne MacDonald for Engadget

In at least one way, it's even an improvement. Thanks to the dial, you can finally go back to a menu icon or number/letter you accidentally skipped over, as opposed to pressing through all the rest of the options to get around to the beginning again. It is also still possible to do everything one-handed, though less comfortably than when all you had to deal with were three buttons.

Mostly, the dial just works as it's intended to, and I certainly don't hate the touch of whimsy it adds to my interactions with the device.

Caretaking

Tamagotchi Paradise takes a more gamified approach to raising Tamas than other models, and this makes for slow going when you first get started, as much of what it offers is locked away until you've leveled-up your planet by reaching certain milestones. You'll have some games to begin with, both from the Mini Games section (to earn Gotchi Points) and the "Play" menu (to raise your Tama's happiness), as well as some shopping options, but the bulk of the content is initially walled off.

Regardless of whether you have a Land, Sky or Water device, you'll eventually have access to all three of those environments and the characters they can support. These areas exist as different "Fields" on your Tamagotchi planet. But you won't have all three Fields unlocked until you hit Level 6, and that requires raising two Tamas to adulthood. Since that process takes a few days each time, it could be almost a week before you're there.

Once you reach Level 10, at which point you're onto your sixth adult Tama, everything is available. It's a bit of a grind, and a slow one at that, but I actually enjoyed how it spaced out the discovery of new things. It reminded me a bit of the Tamagotchi On's unlockable areas.

But this leveling system also led me to do things differently than I normally would. On all of the other recent color Tamagotchis, which let you continue caring for characters indefinitely as long as you don't kill them, I'll usually raise each one with the intention of hanging onto it for as long as feels right, be it weeks or months or more. Tamagotchi Paradise, on the other hand, had me raising new characters back to back to back. Only now that I've crossed Level 10 have I started aiming for characters that I feel like I'll want to sit with for a while.

Despite the high turnaround, I've found Tamagotchi Paradise to be perhaps the least needy of all Tamagotchi models I've run. Beyond the baby stage, it doesn't feel like I have to be super attentive to keep my Tama alive and happy. That might be a point against it for those who want something more actively demanding, but for me, the relatively easygoing nature of this one has been pretty refreshing.

The way Tamagotchi Paradise handles food gathering and feeding feels more forgiving, too. It's very easy to feed your Tama for free (without making it choke down something it doesn't like). You can send your Tamas on daily egg hunts to find food for themselves. You can buy them pre-made dishes from the shop, but you can also use the ingredients they've foraged to cook a meal that will fill them up all the way. Or, they can just consume the raw ingredients. It is great, as is the fact that you can finally have more than three of a given food item in your inventory at a time.

Of course, the most important thing about Tamagotchi is the characters you can raise, and Paradise has a lot working in its favor on that front. Fans will recognize several beloved characters from older devices, but there are also a ton we've never seen before, and they're so good. Even the one that's just a straight-up rock is so cute it makes me want to scream.

And for the first time, the different care factors — which determine what adult you'll end up with — are visualized, with icons to tell you exactly how many care mistakes you've made, how many times you've filled the happiness meter and more. It takes out the guesswork, not to mention the potential disappointment of not getting the character you wanted and not being entirely sure why.

Cheyenne MacDonald for Engadget

When you're ready to move on and hatch another egg, you must release your current Tama to the Field, where it'll remain in the background until the space fills up. You can have four released Tamas per Field. After that, the older ones will disappear and be replaced one by one by the new entrants.

It is a joy that my old Tamas will stick around after their time, and that I get to see them playing in the virtual wild. But this also brings me to my biggest gripe with Tamagotchi Paradise. While your three Fields may be brimming with Tamas, you can only have one active character to take care of at a time. This feels like a huge missed opportunity, and it was a bit of a letdown to find out after thinking — based on the promo materials — that Tamagotchi Paradise would allow you to simultaneously raise and care for a character in each Field. If that had been true, this would have been the ultimate Tamagotchi, or close to it.

I would have also liked to see more complex gene mixing like we've had on other devices, where you could breed two characters to create offspring that were either a delightful or mildly disturbing amalgamation of the parents' traits. Gene mixing on Tamagotchi Paradise only goes as far as body color and eye design, which are then slapped onto the body of one of the existing characters from the pair. It's still making for some fun results, but I wish it went a bit further into mad scientist territory.

Customization of the Tamas themselves is pretty limited. You can't name them. You can dress up their environment with decorative items and you can accessorize the planet, but you can't dress up the Tamas. You can, however, change the color and mood of your characters by buying certain snack items with Gotchi Points, which I really like. Doing this helped me create a perfect pink and yellow version of the adorably derpy Elizardotchi, one of my favorite new characters.

Is it worth it?

Tamagotchi Paradise has a lot going on. It contains a decent amount of games, and they're good ones, with a mix of old and new. All of the Mini Games have multiple difficulty options, so you can up the challenge a bit if you so wish. Setting the game to a harder mode will make your potential reward of Gotchi Points higher, which is always a plus.

Every time you harvest enough poop to fuel a rocket (yes, that's a thing), you can travel to different themed Tamagotchi planets. There are seven other worlds to visit, and on each you'll be gifted a couple of special items. While it would have been better if these areas offered a little more to do, like a themed game and a shop, it's still a nice way to keep unlocking new items for a while.

There are emergency events that will pop up out of nowhere, briefly upping the stakes. Miss the alert and your planet will get pummeled by meteorites or stampeding birds. In contrast to the overall chillness of the game otherwise, these emergencies make for some real heart-pounding excitement. I love it — even if I felt so bad when I saw the sad, beat-up state of my little Tama after the Dododotchi herd blew through.

Paradise also assigns you roughly two dozen "missions" to complete, which are achievements for succeeding at different tasks a certain number of times, like cleaning 500 poops. Similar to the care icons we saw on Tamagotchi Uni, these give you something to keep working toward even after you've unlocked everything the device has to offer. You can even be a completionist about Tamagotchi.

Cheyenne MacDonald for Engadget

The Connection feature, which requires a second device, is a fun way to swap items and experiment with gene mixing, or just observe how two Tamas will interact. And while there's no Wi-Fi connectivity on this device, you can still get new items in other ways, from off-device to using download codes. The official Tamagotchi website has already released a few of these, and considering we've gotten two years of continued new material for Tamagotchi Uni, I'm hoping to see the same for Paradise.

With Tamagotchi Paradise also came Lab Tama, or in-store installations where fans can access exclusive games and items. These don't seem to be particularly widespread, though, so that unfortunately seems like an experience most Paradise owners won't get to take part in. (To the heroes who post these download codes online, thank you for your service).

All in all, Tamagotchi Paradise feels fuller than 2023's Uni, especially as the latter existed at its launch before all the downloadable content started coming in. At $45 (if you can find it in stock and at retail price), Tamagotchi Paradise is also less expensive in the US than the Uni, Pix and On, which is a surprising but welcome development. There's a lot of fun to be had with this one, so long as you're open to a little (okay, a lot of) change.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/tamagotchi-paradise-trades-stressful-virtual-pet-parenting-for-nature-and-tranquility-130049511.html?src=rss

NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI, A. Pa

If "chaos is a ladder," then brilliant stars forming from discordant gas and dust are the ultimate example of that. The James Webb telescope has imaged one of the more dramatic stellar nurseries in the galaxy called Pismis 24, showing swirling dust and infant stars in unprecedented detail. 

The image was captured in infrared light by Webb's NIRCam (near-infrared camera), with false color detail added afterwards. It shows the Pismis 24 star cluster located in the Lobster Nebula around 5,500 light-years from Earth, part of the Scorpius constellation. The heart of the cluster is the star Pismis 24-1 at the top of the image, with the tallest spire in the nebula pointing directly at it. It's actually composed of two stars that can't be resolved by telescopes, collectively around 140 times the mass of the Sun. 

Below in the dusty area, super-hot stars up to eight times the Sun's temperature live inside the nebula blasting out "scorching radiation and punishing winds," according to ESA. That radiation is actually carving a cave into the wall of the nebula, with streams of hot, ionized gas flowing off the ridges. The white, glowing outline along the highest peaks are wispy veils of gas and dust illuminated by starlight. 

In nebulae, gas, dust and other materials clump together under the influence of gravity to form denser regions that eventually become massive enough to form stars. Once those stars ignite under fusion and enough of them form, they in turn influence the nebula by ionising hydrogen gas and creating massive solar winds, compressing the dust and creating more stars. 

The nebula extends well beyond NIRCam's field of view and to give an idea of scale, the tallest spire spans 5.4 light-years from its tip to the bottom of the image. More than 200 of our solar systems could fit into the width of its tip. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/new-webb-image-shows-star-formation-as-glittering-craggy-peaks-133001953.html?src=rss

Firaxis, longtime developer of the strategy series Civilization, is laying off an undisclosed number of staff, Game Developer reports. "We can confirm there was a staff reduction today at Firaxis Games, as the studio restructures and optimizes its development process for adaptability, collaboration and creativity," a spokesperson for the studio's publisher and owner 2K told Engadget. The layoffs follow turmoil at another 2K studio, Cloud Chamber, which is supposed to be developing the next Bioshock game. 

Some former staff who worked on Civilization VII and Marvel's Midnight Sons have already shared on social media that they were laid off. Game Developer's source claims "dozens of workers" were caught up in the cuts. The 2K spokesperson said it was company policy "to not disclose specific employee numbers related to layoffs and restructuring."

The layoffs are surprising only because Take-Two Interactive, Firaxis and 2K's parent company, was still expecting financial growth for the back half of 2025. Despite delaying its hotly anticipated cash cow Grand Theft Auto VI, Take-Two shared in March that it expected five percent growth in revenue and net bookings for the rest of the year, according to Game Developer. While that might suggest jobs should be safe, layoffs are increasingly a feature of game companies' normal business strategies. A game could be a failure or a success, but either way it seems to lead to layoffs.

Firaxis' latest game, Civilization VII, was released in February 2025. The game features a new approach to the series' turn-based gameplay, letting players mix and match world leaders and civilizations to their strategic benefit. While it wasn't released to universal acclaim, Firaxis has continued to update Civilization VII since its release with new content and software fixes.

Update, September 5, 2025, 9:17AM ET: Added a statement from 2K.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/civilization-developer-firaxis-is-laying-off-staff-221105604.html?src=rss

The government of Nepal is blocking commonly used social platforms including Facebook, X, Instagram, WeChat, Reddit and YouTube due to noncompliance with a new law requiring them to register with the government, The Associated Press reported. Five platforms including TikTok and Viber that did register in the country were exempted from the ban. 

Social media companies were asked to provide a local contact, grievance handler and person responsible for self-regulation to avoid a shutdown and many apparently failed to do so. "Unregistered social media platforms will be deactivated today onwards," ministry spokesperson Gajendra Kumar Thakur told Agence France Presse. 

The Nepalese government recently introduced a directive forcing social media companies to ensure their platforms were well-managed, responsible and accountable. The government said the bill was an effort to curb online hate, rumors and cybercrime. However, it was widely criticized by opponents as a tool for censorship, with some groups calling it a violation of citizens' basic rights. 

"It is not wrong to regulate social media, but we first need to have the legal infrastructure to enforce it. A sudden closure like this is controlling," said Digital Rights Nepal president Bhola Nath Dhungana. Another group, the Federation of Nepali Journalists said the measure "undermines press freedom and citizens' right to information." Also expressing opposition was the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Nepal is the latest government to tighten social media oversight, with countries including the US, Europe and Brazil having done so to varying degrees of late. Nepal's neighbor India has also mandated local compliance officers and takedown mechanisms (and even threatened to jail Twitter employees at one point). 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/nepal-blocks-most-social-media-sites-for-failing-to-register-with-the-government-131512017.html?src=rss

Bose announced a refresh of its QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds over the summer and now it's back with an overhaul of its flagship noise-canceling headphones. The company has employed the second-generation moniker once again on the new QuietComfort Ultra Headphones, but this time the list of updates is a bit more substantial. Bose says it made tweaks to audio performance, active noise cancellation (ANC), battery life, power efficiency and more. Surprisingly, the company managed to make its upgrades without raising the price. 

The biggest changes for the QC Ultra Headphones come in the sound department. First, lossless audio is now available over wired USB-C connection. Bose says you can expect 16-bit/44.1kHz or 48kHz playback and the setup doubles as a low-latency option for desktop or mobile gaming. When it comes to Immersive Audio — Bose's take on spatial audio that doesn't require specialized content — the company has added a new Cinema mode. 

By "spatializing and balancing background sound with other audio effects," Bose says it creates a "movie-like experience" thanks to a wider soundstage that's placed in front of the listener. As a result, dialogue clarity is enhanced, which makes Cinema mode an option for podcasts and audiobooks in addition to movies and TV shows. For general listening, the company provides deeper bass at high volume, more natural sounding treble and consistent clarity even when the content is loud. It also reduced the sound created by the ANC tech so that it's less apparent in quieter environments. 

Bose

Speaking of ANC, Bose made the same update here that it did on the QC Ultra Earbuds. In Aware or transparency mode, the headphones better handle sudden changes in environmental noise (like sirens) with smoother changes to noise-canceling levels. On the QC Ultra Headphones, you can now disable ANC completely or manually adjust it to suit your needs. 

Bose extended the battery life to 30 hours of ANC use or up to 45 hours with noise cancellation disabled. If you opt for that spatial Immersive Audio all the time, you can expect up to 24 hours of use now. If you run out of juice before you want to take a break, the QC Ultra Headphones can be charged during use via the USB-C port. To help you conserve battery power, the headphones will now enter a standby mode when you lay them flat or fold them into their case. And when the time comes to resume listening, improved wear detection automatically turns on the headphones when they're placed on your head. 

Lastly, you'll notice that Bose opted for polished metal on the headband where the yokes used to have a flat finish. There are also two new colors: Driftwood Sand (tan) and Midnight Violet (purple). 

The second-gen QuietComfort Ultra Headphones are available for preorder today from Bose in black, white, tan and violet color options. The price remains $449, same as the original version, and general availability is scheduled for October 2.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/bose-overhauls-the-quietcomfort-ultra-headphones-with-lossless-audio-and-longer-battery-life-130018894.html?src=rss

Kirby is a uniquely wholesome Nintendo character, yet his games often have a quirky mean streak to them. They're all about letting players absorb enemies and take on some wild powers to tear through vibrant stages with reckless abandon. That's especially true with Kirby Air Riders, the long-awaited sequel to the GameCube classic racing game, Kirby Air Ride. Much like the original, it's a fast-paced racing game starring Kirby and friends as they race through visually striking locales – it also happens to be one of the most chaotic racing games I've played in quite a while.

At PAX West 2025 in Seattle, I spent an hour playing Kirby Air Riders, reacquainting myself with the approachable yet surprisingly deep mechanics from the cult-favorite 2003 racing game. It's certainly interesting to see game director Masuhiro Sakurai follow up Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with a Kirby racing game. Still, after playing Air Riders, this racer carries that similar 'go-for-broke' energy that runs deep in his previous games.

Like the original game, you race through a variety of stages inspired by the Kirby series. The sequel takes things further with an expanded roster of Kirby characters, such as Meta Knight and King Dedede, each with their own unique skills and stats as racers. While you race through traditional tracks, Air Riders – much like the original – also opens up free-for-all action stages and mini-games that test your skills in drifting, gliding, and the classic ability of sucking up to gain new powers.

Kirby Air Riders totally doubles down on what made the original so unique, and that's what makes it such an incredibly bizarre take on a racing game. In many ways, Air Riders does to racing games what Smash Bros did for the fighting genre – injecting non-genre-conforming systems and concepts that may seem out of place for the type of game it wants to be.

However, playing Kirby Air Riders can take some getting used to, especially considering its fairly limited control scheme. Much like the original, acceleration happens automatically, and the game instead has you focus on managing movement and momentum with the control stick and a single button to engage boosts – and that's all you need for controlling your chosen racer's vehicle. But therein lies the nuance of playing; by managing momentum and speed, you can engage drifts and power spin attacks to overcome rivals on the track.

Nintendo

It pays to be aggressive in Kirby Air Riders, as you'll gain speed by successfully landing attacks on enemies. A particular racer I used often was Return to Dream Land's Magolor, who could sprout ground spikes after landing from jumps. The sequel even expands upon the offensive nature of Air Riders with a new special ability button, which activates character-specific attacks after filling a meter.

I was really taken aback by how fast and chaotic races can get, and I found myself getting caught off guard by how diabolical the other rivals can get, unleashing attacks and snatching victory in a pinch. In fact, I closed two races in 2nd place back-to-back in the final second due to King Dedede engaging their vehicle's boosts at the right time. In that sense, it took me some time to come to grips with the game's rapid pace and how quickly things can turn against you.

This was especially true with the returning City Trial mode, which is essentially Kirby Air Riders' take on the classic kart-racer battle mode in the vein of Mario Kart 64 or Twisted Metal. In City Trial, players and CPU characters enter a mad dash to collect power-ups and upgrade their vehicles in a large open area, which culminates in themed mini-games to decide the final winner.

It took me some time to understand the larger goal of City Trial, as it felt like getting swept up in a colorful mosh pit – one where other players can snatch your vehicles. This battle mode quickly becomes extremely hectic and the dynamic events lead to some truly bizarre scenarios, such as bombs raining down on the arena, which can send players scrambling. City Trial is a fun, mini-open-world to explore that features a set of secrets to find, and I really took a liking to just how much is packed into these events.

It took me some time to really get into the groove of Kirby Air Riders and its pretty ruthless approach to action-racing – and this was after spending 20 minutes running the generous tutorials that explained the systems at work. I still liked the sheer spectacle of it all.

Once I found my flow within the chaos, it really helped to bring Kirby Air Riders into focus for me, and I really appreciated the over-the-top spectacle that it is as a racing game. It's a very different type of racing that sets itself apart from Mario Kart World and other games of its kind. In fact, there are aspects of Kirby Air Riders that I still don't quite understand. OK with that because I just had so much fun trying to go with the flow.

Kirby Air Riders will be released on November 20, 2025 on the Nintendo Switch 2.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/kirby-air-riders-hands-on-123040486.html?src=rss

After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Valerion is formally announcing its new premium projector, the VisionMaster Max, at IFA 2025. The boxy little projector offers improved contrast and brightness, but the feature that should be most interesting to home theater aficionados is how it tries to address the "rainbow effect" common in some cheaper projectors.

Cheaper DLP projectors sometimes display stuttery strobes of color when the projector's color wheel is forced to quickly shift between colors during fast-paced scenes. While these doesn't necessarily impede watching a movie or TV show, the rainbow effect can bother sensitive projector owners. The VisionMaster Max attempts to address the problem with what Valerion calls "Anti-RBE Technology" that "reduces rainbow effects by 99.9 percent." The company pulls this off by using software to blend the individual color sequences of whatever you're watching faster than the human eye can perceive, creating what looks like a seamless image.

Valerion

Valerion says the VisionMaster Max also has an upgraded native contrast ratio of 5,000:1 and an AI-assisted "Enhanced Black Level (EBL)" contrast of 50,000:1 for improved depth and details in shadows. Valerion's dramatically named "NoirScene Dark Field Engine System" mixes stable luminance from a fixed iris aperture and an EBL algorithm to offer deeper blacks with less need for calibration. Combined with the VisionMaster Max's up to 3,500 lumens of brightness, it makes the projector even more usable during day or night.

The VisionMaster Max also carries over the adjustable lens system from some of Valerion's other projectors, offers support for Gigabit ethernet and Wi-Fi 6E and runs Google TV. Despite favoring Google's home theater OS, Valerion guarantees you can fully integrate the VisionMaster Max with Google Home, Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, Control4 and Crestron smart home systems.

If that all sounds good, just make sure you're comfortable paying for a premium experience. Valerion says the VisionMaster Max will be available in October 2025, starting at $4,999.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/valerion-launches-new-premium-projector-with-anti-rainbow-effect-technology-120058357.html?src=rss

OpenAI is gearing up to start the mass production of its own AI chips next year to be able to provide the massive computing power its users need and to lessen its reliance on NVIDIA, according to the Financial Times. The company reportedly designed the custom AI chip with US semiconductor maker Broadcom, whose CEO recently announced that it has a new client that put in a whopping $10 billion in orders. It didn't name the client, but the Times' sources confirmed that it was OpenAI, which apparently doesn't have plans to sell the chips and will only be using them internally.

Reuters reported way back in 2023 that OpenAI was already exploring the possibility of making its own AI chips after Sam Altman blamed GPU shortages for the company API's speed and reliability. The news organization also previously reported that OpenAI was working with both Broadcom and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to create its own product. The Times didn't say whether OpenAI still has an ongoing partnership with TSMC. 

After GPT-5 came out, Altman announced the changes OpenAI is implementing in order to keep up with "increased demand." In addition to prioritizing paid ChatGPT users, he said that OpenAI was going to double its compute fleet "over the next 5 months." Making its own chips will address any potential GPU shortages the company may encounter in doubling its fleet, and it could also save the company money. The Times says custom AI chips called "XPUs" like the one OpenAI is reportedly developing will eventually take a big share of the AI market. At the moment, NVIDIA is still the leading name in the industry. It recently revealed that its revenue for the second quarter ending on July 27 rose 56 percent compared to the same period last year, and it didn't even have to ship any H20 chips to China. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-is-reportedly-producing-its-own-ai-chips-starting-next-year-113924707.html?src=rss

reMarkable is making a move away from its giant e-ink slate. The new Paper Pro Move is a smaller iteration with a 7.3-inch display the same size as a reporter’s notepad. The idea is an eink device you can write and edit on while on the move. Hence the name.

Engadget

There are some drawbacks, however. With the Move, the only way to write and edit typed text is with the on-screen keyboard. Bigger reMarkable devices can connect to a companion keyboard. Engadget’s Daniel Cooper spent some time with the new slate. There’s a lot to like, but it’s a different proposition to past reMarkable Papers.

The Paper Pro Move is available to order today, priced at $449 with a stylus included. Meanwhile, paper notepads cost a buck fifty. They’re not compatible with keyboards either.

— Mat Smith

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The news you might have missed

• The Apple iPhone 17 Awe dropping event: Here’s what to expect on September 9

• Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra hands-on

• The first new Bond game in over a decade is Hitman meets action blockbuster

Dolby Vision 2 is here to push picture quality ‘beyond HDR’ Hisense TVs will get the tech first.

Just when most of us figured out that our TVs and most new smartphones support high dynamic resolution (brighter whites, darker blacks, you get the gist), Dolby is here to make it look like crap. It just introduced Dolby Vision 2, with an array of new features.

Content Intelligence uses AI to automatically adapt your TV to what you’re watching.

For example, Precision Black helps keep darker scenes visible, and Light Sense detects ambient light to create the best picture — great if you keep a lamp or two on for movie night. Authentic Motion. This tool is what Dolby calls “the world’s first creative-driven motion control tool to make scenes feel more authentically cinematic.” I have no idea what that means.

Continue reading.

Eufy wants robovacs to conquer stairs But only its robovacs.

Eufy’s MarsWalker carries the robovac between floors and drops it off at the base station when needed. It uses four control arms along with a track-drive system that “grips each step securely.”

There are a few caveats. There’s no price yet, and it will only work with a few Eufy models — and no other company’s robovacs. Don’t worry, though, Eufy has a new model that packs its own aromatherapy module and costs a punchy $1,600.

Continue reading.

Instagram gets an iPad app 15 years later Better late than never?

What a week for long delays! Hollow Knight: Silksong is out (still looking for the third Mossberry here…) and Instagram developers, for some reason, decided September 2025 is the time to finally launch a dedicated iPad app. Thanks to the bigger screen, comments on Reels will appear right next to the videos, and the DMs page will include the inbox alongside the actual chat. What makes it extra baffling is that Instagram head Adam Mosseri said the iPad platform wasn’t big enough to warrant fast-tracking an app. He said that in 2023.

Continue reading.

The LEGO Ultimate Death Star: Over 9,000 pieces and $1,000 It’s the most expensive set ever. Lego

LEGO just revealed the Star Wars Ultimate Death Star set, the largest LEGO Star Wars set ever made. It’s also the most expensive LEGO set ever. Bricks aside, it comes with 38 minifigures, including characters like Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine. It also comes with a stormtrooper figure in a hot tub — a nod to the video games.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-111553035.html?src=rss

At the beginning of the year, Lenovo gave us an early design preview of its next flagship gaming handheld — the Legion Go 2. Today, at IFA 2025, the company is fleshing out the rest of the system with more details regarding its specs, price and availability.

In terms of its overall appearance, not much has changed on the outside of the Legion Go 2. It has the same general shape and detachable controllers as the preview model, alongside an 8.8-inch OLED with a variable 144Hz refresh rate and VESA HDR TrueBlack 1000 certification. Lenovo has kept the ability to use the right controller as a vertical mouse (aka FPS mode) when paired with the handheld's included puck/stand. And as before, you still get Hall Effect joysticks, a built-in touchpad and kickstand and dual USB 4 ports.

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

The only major change from what we saw in January is slightly different paint colors on elements like its shoulder buttons. That said, I do appreciate that unlike a lot of its rivals (aside from the Steam Deck), Legion Go 2 still comes bundled with a case, just like its predecessor. On the flipside, one thing I wish Lenovo had changed is the detachment process for Legion Go 2's controllers. Like before, you can press a button in back before sliding each joypad off a small hidden rail. And while it works, after using the new magnetic system for the Switch 2's Joy-Con, doing the same thing on the Legion Go 2 just feels clunky.

Meanwhile, the Legion Go 2's internals are where most of its upgrades have gone. The handheld can now be equipped with up to an AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip, 32GB of RAM and 2TB of PCIe Gen 4 storage. And if that's not enough, there's also a microSD card reader. But perhaps the most tantalizing improvement may be its battery life, as the Legion Go 2 comes with a 74Whr battery that's 50 percent larger than the 49.2 Whr cell in the original. 

Unfortunately, I only had a brief time with the demo unit and as it didn't have a lot of games already installed (especially more resource-intensive ones), so I couldn't really gauge how much better its performance was compared to the original model. However, I did notice that Lenovo's Legion Space app felt much snappier and more polished, though it probably won't be as seamless as the native game integration and new UI that's coming on the ROG Xbox Ally.

All told, the Legion Go 2 is shaping up to be a more refined, powerful and longer-lasting follow-up while retaining pretty much every major good feature from its predecessor like a big OLED screen, detachable controllers and solid connectivity. Granted, it's still quite chunky even with its curvier and more streamlined design, but that was always going to be the case considering its large 8.8-inch display. So if you can handle a Windows-based handheld (sorry SteamOS fans) that's on the heftier side, this is one worth keeping an eye on.

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

But here's the potential catch: the Legion Go 2 may be substantially more expensive too. It's expected to go on sale sometime in October starting at $1,049, which is a significant jump up from the $700 base price of the original (let alone what it's going for now, which can be as low as $550 depending on discounts). And that figure is likely for a model with a Ryzen Z2 chip, which means anyone who wants one with a more powerful Z2 Extreme processor will need to keep some wiggle room in their budget. So while I appreciate how Lenovo is chasing big performance on a portable gaming machine, the Legion Go 2's price has me appreciating more affordable handheld rivals like the Steam Deck even more than I already do. 

Update: September 5 at 9:30 AM ET We now have official listings for the Legion Go 2 in the US from Best Buy and this thing definitely isn't cheap. The base model is going for $1,100 while the upgraded version with a Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip, 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage is available for $1,350. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/lenovo-legion-go-2-hands-on-powerful-upgrades-but-with-an-even-higher-price-060052114.html?src=rss

Lenovo just announced some new gaming products at IFA, including the Legion Pro 7 laptop. The specs here are impressive. The laptop ships with AMD's newest Ryzen 9 9000 HX series processors and options go all the way up to the Ryzen 9955HX3D.

The Windows 11 computer also features NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs and purchasers can go up to the RTX 5080. There's a 16-inch 240Hz OLED panel with a 0.08ms response time, which should make for some glorious gaming sessions.

Lenovo

It can be outfitted with up to 2TB of storage and up to 32GB of RAM. It also incorporates the company's Coldfront thermal technology to keep things cool, which in turn lets gamers "run the highest-demand games at the highest settings." The Legion Pro 7 will be available this November and prices start at $2,400.

The company also announced the LOQ Tower 26ADR10 desktop. The specs here are impressive, as the computers are powered by AMD Ryzen 8000 series processors and NVIDIA 50-Series GPUs. It can be topped off with up to 64GB of RAM and 4GB of SSD storage. It'll be available later this month, with a starting price of $1,000.

Lenovo

Lenovo even announced a few new gaming monitors at IFA, all of which offer multiple connection options and speedy refresh rates. They will be available in October or November, depending on which model is selected, with prices ranging from $700 to $1,100.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/lenovos-new-legion-pro-7-gaming-laptop-can-be-outfitted-with-up-to-a-geforce-5080-gpu-060017519.html?src=rss

Lenovo is no stranger to laptops with funky displays. The company has made a notebook with a tri-fold screen, one with a rollable panel and multiple systems with flexible displays. But this year at IFA, Lenovo is testing out yet another new design with its latest concept laptop, and this time it may have created the ultimate doomscrolling machine.

Its official name is the ThinkBook Vertiflex Concept and when it's closed, it looks almost exactly like a traditional 14-inch clamshell laptop. But if you look closer, you'll notice that its screen has a secret feature: the ability to rotate 90 degrees into portrait mode. This means you can switch to a taller aspect ratio for tasks like coding, editing photos and videos, or simply browsing your favorite vertically-oriented social media app.

Naturally, to enhance its portrait mode capabilities, Lenovo included support for pairing the laptop with your phone via its Smart Connect app, which allows you to mirror or extend the latter’s display on a bigger screen or quickly transfer files just by dragging and dropping. In a lot of ways, the Vertiflex Concept feels like the laptop version of one of LG's last phones — the LG Wing — while also sharing a lot of similarities with TVs like the rotating Samsung Sero. And given the continued rise in popularity of vertical photos and videos on social media, it's actually kind of a surprise that it's taken a mainstream PC maker this long to create a laptop like this.

On a more practical level, I really appreciate that even with a rotating display, it doesn't feel like there's much of a penalty when it comes to added heft or thickness. The Vertiflex Concept weighs just three pounds and measures 0.7 inches thin, which isn’t far off from what you’d get from a typical 14-inch ultraportable. And while Lenovo hasn’t provided much in the way of hardware specs (this is a concept device after all), I noticed that the laptop does feature a healthy number of connectivity options, including two USB-C ports, one USB-A connector, a full-size HDMI jack, 3.5mm audio and a microSD card reader.

Now, Lenovo has shown off more concept devices than practically any other major OEM in recent history, so of course, the Vertiflex wasn’t the only prototype the company had on display for IFA 2025. There was also the Smart Motion Concept, but that felt less impactful because instead of being a standalone product, this thing is merely a laptop stand. It uses the sensors on whatever it’s connected to to track your face and automatically reposition your laptop’s screen in the right position.

The Lenovo Smart Motion Concept and the case for its optional gesture control ring. Sam Rutherford for Engadget

The idea is that if you're making a presentation, the stand allows your laptop to better keep your face in frame while also making sure its mics and speakers are pointed in the optimal direction. Alternatively, if you'd rather control the stand yourself, the device can be paired to a ring with gesture support. Finally, Lenovo says the Smart Motion concept also has some features to do things like help you maintain ergonomically friendly postures.

However, as both products are experimental devices, there's no word on whether Lenovo will turn these into proper retail offerings. But if either the Vertiflex or Smart Motion concepts strike your fancy, you might want to say something (maybe on social media for the social-media focused laptop) to give Lenovo a bit of extra encouragement.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/lenovos-latest-laptop-concept-might-be-the-ultimate-doomscrolling-machine-060000162.html?src=rss

Warner Bros. Discovery has filed a lawsuit against popular AI image generator Midjourney, accusing it of stealing and exploiting its intellectual properties. The complaint revolves around the AI tool's ability to generate images and videos of Warner Bros.' popular fictional characters, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Scooby Doo, Bugs Bunny and his friends from Looney Tunes. "Midjourney thinks it is above the law," the company wrote in its lawsuit. It said that the image generator sells a commercial subscription service powered by AI technology that was illegally trained using its copyrighted works. 

The company argued that Midjourney has the technology to prevent users from generating images of the characters it owns. It apparently refused to generate videos based on Warner Bros.' properties when it first launched its video model. But within the past couple of weeks, it allegedly removed those protections and told its users that they would encounter "fewer blocked jobs." The ability to generate Warner Bros.' characters are a clear draw for its subscription service that costs $10 to $120 a month, the media conglomerate said. "It is hard to imagine copyright infringement that is any more willful than what Midjourney is doing here," the plaintiff added. "Midjourney has prioritized and sought to preserve the hundreds of millions of dollars it earns annually from its service by doubling down on its theft of copyrighted works."

In the complaint, the company gave several examples of Midjourney-generated images and video stills next to images and screencaps of its movies and shows. The image above, for instance, shows Midjourney's output from the prompt "Batman, screencap from The Dark Knight." next to actual promotional materials from the Christian Bale-led movie. Further, generic prompts like "classic comic book superhero battle" could lead to output with WB characters even if they're not specifically mentioned. 

Midjourney is already facing a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Disney and Universal Studios back in June. They accused the AI service of "help[ing] itself to countless" copyrighted works to train its models and for infringing on their copyright by allowing users to generate images of characters from Star Wars, Shrek, The Simpsons and Despicable Me, among other properties. 

Warner Bros. Discovery is now asking the court for statutory damages of "up to $150,000 per infringed work by virtue of Midjourney’s willful infringement." We've reached out to Midjourney and will update this post when we hear back. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/warner-bros-discovery-is-suing-midjourney-for-copyright-infringement-035850831.html?src=rss

Meta currently has lots of priorities Mark Zuckerberg likely never would have imagined back in the early days of Facebook. The company has pivoted from social networking to the metaverse and, most recently, to AI. But somehow, one of its earliest — and most useless — features has not only survived but is apparently getting a revamp. I'm talking, of course, about the poke, which Meta is once again trying to revive. 

The company is making the storied feature easier to find by adding pokes back to user profiles in the Facebook app, according to a post it shared on Instagram. And you can track all poking-related activity between you and your friends at facebook.com/pokes. It even looks like there's a Snapchat-streak like aspect where different emojis appear based on how many pokes have been exchanged. 

Just in case you weren't on Facebook two decades ago, "poking" was something of a novelty in the early days of the social network. At the time, there weren't that many features for interacting with your friends. You could leave comments on their profile and … you could "poke." The feature never really did anything, but depending on who it came from it was considered something between creepy or flirty.  As Meta notes in its Instagram post, poking never really went away, but it was de-emphasized over the years and has been largely forgotten by users.

But the company has for some reason been trying to get poking to make a comeback for a while now. Meta said last year the feature was "having a moment" and that there had been a 13x spike in pokes after the company began surfacing the feature in the Facebook search bar. Now, it seems Meta is trying to build even more momentum for it, presumably for the current generation of younger Facebook users. 

Mark Zuckerberg said earlier this year he wants to bring back more "OG" Facebook features like… being able to find content posted by your actual friends. And it's hard to get more "OG Facebook" than poking. Meta has also been on a years-long mission to win over "young adults,"  so it might see the jokey feature as a way to appeal to a generation used to taking their Snap streak extremely seriously. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/21-years-later-meta-still-hasnt-given-up-on-the-facebook-poke-000446458.html?src=rss

The new Street Fighter movie has been given a release date of October 16, 2026. Kitao Sakurai is directing the project and a few generic plot details have been disclosed. The story will be set in 1993, a nod to the year Street Fighter II was released in arcades, and will have familiar characters from the game uncovering "a deadly conspiracy" in the midst of all their street fighting.

It seems safe to expect a fair bit of camp in a Street Fighter project, and that bears out in some of the casting. Andrew Koji will play Ryu; he's had several past action roles such as Bullet Train and TV series Warrior, so that feels like a solid choice. Noah Centineo is taking a break from his work in Netflix rom-coms (notably To All the Boys I've Loved Before and its sequels) to play Ken. Newcomer Callina Liang, who only has a few credits to date, will play Chun-li. David Dastmalchian will be filling the great Raul Julia's shoes (and oversized hat) as M. Bison.

Then things really get wacky. Curtis Jackson (who you know as rapper 50 Cent) is playing Balrog and country artist Orville Peck is Vega. Jason Momoa has been cast as Blanka, while WWE wrestler Cody Rhodes has even been chosen to play Guile. This could be absolute gold or absolute trash or possibly both at the same time.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-new-street-fighter-movie-lands-in-theaters-next-october-222724911.html?src=rss