We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.If you're in the market for a new Apple Watch, the Series 10 is currently $100 off during Amazon's Big Spring Sale. Normally priced at $399, the current discount brings the smartwatch down to just $299. This is as low a price as this watch ever gets, according to price-tracking tools.The Series 10 is a solid staple of the Apple smartwatch ecosystem. There are plenty of reasons that make this watch the best option for most people. It's smaller and lighter than previous models, and the screen is bigger, brighter, and faster than earlier series. Lifehacker's associate tech editor Michelle Ehrhardt even says it was the first Apple Watch model to actually tempt her to upgrade. Even if you aren't interested in features like, say, measuring how far below water you are up to 20 feet, the Series 10s comfort alone might make it the best Apple Watch for you. If you're still wearing the more budget SE, this discount could be a perfect way to upgrade or replace your current wearable. Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt The bottom line is the Apple Watch Series 10 is still the same experience youve come to expect from an Apple Watch, but with a little more convenience and comfort than earlier models. You still have a square body, and aside from the dive sensors, the same fitness tracking. If you're already a loyal Apple Watch user looking for subtle but significant upgrades, this is a good time to snag a Series 10 at a more affordable price. Apple Watch Series 10 $299.00 at Best Buy $399.00 Save $100.00 Get Deal Get Deal $299.00 at Best Buy $399.00 Save $100.00 Shopping for tech? Lifehacker can help you make the right decision. Browse our tech reviews and head-to-head comparisons for everything from laptops and smartwatches to e-bikes and home gyms. Subscribe to our deals newsletter, Add to Cart, for the best sales sent to your inbox, or browse our best-of lists directly on Amazon, including:The Best Over-Ear HeadphonesThe Best Wireless EarbudsThe Best Adjustable Dumbbell SetsThe Best Projectors

While getting a home you're thinking of buying inspected to make sure it's not harboring any hidden problems goes without saying, it's just as important to do a deep dive on the neighborhood you'll be moving into. But while you can look up crime stats and compare property values, how can you know if youre going to personally vibe with the new surroundings? Here are seven strategies you can try in order to vibe-check your potential new neighborhood before signing a lease or taking out a mortgage.Walk the area instead of driving aroundWhether youre a walker or you believe strongly in driving to the end of your driveway to collect the mail, a stroll through a prospective neighborhood is an effective way to gauge its overall feel. If you have a dog, taking it for a walk there is just as effective (and might make you feel more comfortable). Walking around will show you whether your neighborhood is buzzing with activity at all hours, or if its super quiet. Youll get a feel for whether neighbors socialize a lot, or if they keep to themselves. This will let you know if the area matches your energy, or if youll be bored or irritated living there.Walking around also gives you the chance to run into residents and chat them up a little. Some casual conversation can reveal a lot about the character of the place, and whether people are happy living there or gritting their teeth every day.Hang around at different times of dayWalking is a good technique, but so is sitting. Take a drive to your new potential block at different hours of the day and just sit there for a little while and listen. Noise is one of the leading complaints people have about their neighbors, but it can be difficult to notice when youre actively touring a home and engaged with a real estate agent. Sitting for a bit and listening will tell you whether the neighborhood is packed with barking dogs, screaming children, loud train tracks, blasting stereos, or vicious arguments.Try a short-term rentalIf you have the time and flexibility, look for a short-term rental in the neighborhood you're considering. A brief mini-vacation there will give you a day or two to see what everyday life might be like there. You'll also have the opportunity to find out how walkable it is, what the local stores and nightlife are like, even how easy it is to find street parking. If you cant wait to get out of there after a few days, you'll know everything you need to about whether it's the spot for you.Preview the nightlifeWalking and staking out the neighborhood are effective ways to gauge the vibe, but make sure you include some weekend evenings on your schedule. A neighborhood thats pin-drop quiet on a Monday morning might transform into an enormous block party on Friday nightwhich may or may not be what youre looking for. If you can, check it out during a holiday as wella neighborhood that has regular block parties or other social events to mark these occasions will have a very different vibe from a spot where everyone keeps to themselves.Even if youre not going to be renting out a room, you might consider redirecting your nightlife to the new neighborhood for a few nights. Hit up some restaurants, bars, coffee shops, or other venues. These will be your go-to spots when you live there, so knowing whether theyre walkable, always crowded, incredibly noisy, or just not your tempo is valuable information.Check out the grocery storesThere is absolutely a hierarchy of grocery stores, so you should check out your options in your potential new neighborhood. High-end spots will be clean and well-stocked, with fresh produce but higher prices. Lower-end stores might not be a pleasant shopping experience, and might indicate a neighborhood on a downward spiral. And having no local options and being forced to drive to a big-box storeor having dollar stores and convenience stores as your only grocery optionmight make living there a lot more difficult. Your feelings about the local grocery situation might depend on your lifestyle, but its worth it to make sure the stores match up with your expectations and needs, whatever they are.Test your commuteIf youre going to be commuting to and from work, school, or some other location regularly, do a test run or two. Get to the prospective neighborhood a little early, start the clock, and start your commute from there. Whether driving or taking public transportation, this will be the best way to get a feel for whether your commute is about to get much, much more nightmarish, a lot easier, or not change in any way at all.Check the local calendarOne thing you should look at when vetting any neighborhood is any list of public events in the general area you can locate. Many communities have public websites with information about upcoming festivals, block parties, and community events like local theater productions. You can also check out the local chamber of commerce for event information.

In the final days of our pre-Switch 2 world, Nintendo is trying to rethink how sharing games works. The biggest announcement from the company's latest Direct was its upcoming Virtual Game Cards feature, a new approach to sharing digital games that improves on the company's current system, but still carries limitations that keep it from feeling truly modern.Virtual Game Cards attempt to make digital games as easy to share as physical ones. That starts with the company visually representing games as "cards" and using the language of loading and ejecting them, and extends to how simple they are to share. Two Switch consoles logged into your Nintendo Account can share any digital game just by "ejecting" it from one and "loading" it on another. The only catch is that the consoles need to be connected over local wireless (as in, be physically near each other) when the trade happens, and be able to access the internet to download the game and run it for the first time.You can similarly share a Virtual Game Card with anyone in the same Nintendo Account family group for two weeks, after which the game automatically returns. In both cases, saves for each game stay on the console where the game was played, making it simple to share the Virtual Game Card again and keep playing.In comparison to Nintendo's current system, which requires defining a Switch console as "primary" and able to be used offline and other devices as a "secondary" and needing an internet connection to play shared games, Virtual Game Cards are a meaningful improvement. If you're a parent trying to share games with your kids or a super-fan with multiple Switches (something Nintendo no doubt wants to encourage), Virtual Game Cards have basically solved the problem or at least made it much easier to manage and understand. The company isn't exactly leading the pack here, though.If I own a game on PlayStation, I can download it on my Playstation 4 and PlayStation 5, and play on either console, without needing to go through the rigamarole of ejecting virtual cards. The same goes for Steam games. Valve even goes further and lets the vast majority of games be shared and played on accounts connected to the same Steam Family, without your computers needing to be near each other when you "hand-off" games.People are highly sensitive to any kind of DRM. Just ask Xbox, which had big plans to change how loaning games work when the Xbox One was announced, but had to dramatically backtrack after basically everyone complained.Nintendo isn't pulling an Xbox, per se, but it is pitching something adjacent. Virtual Game Cards are inarguably better than how things work now, but they require an internet connection and they still limit how many people can play a game at once. Nintendo came up with a better mental model for sharing games, but not necessarily a better way to do it.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendos-digital-switch-game-sharing-plan-could-be-so-much-simpler-190353732.html?src=rss

Shadow Labyrinth, an utterly bonkers riff on Pac-Man and sidescrolling Metroidvania games, will hit digital store shelves on July 18. Itll be available for Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.The game casts players as Swordsman No. 8 as he befriends a yellow orb called Puck. For the gaming historians out there, Puck-Man was the original name for Pac-Man. The gameplay involves switching from the classic sword-wielding hero to Puck, with the latter able to crawl on walls and (surprise) gobble up yellow dots. Theres also a third form, a mecha construct called Gaia.The gameplay looks frenetic and fairly violent, which seems like an odd choice for everyones favorite perpetually hungry orb. Bandai Namco is making the game, however, and it made the very first Pac-Man all of those decades ago. Im going to give them the benefit of the doubt here. In any event, its not as if developers havent experimented with Pac-Man in the past. The famished fiend has been featured in racing games, platformers, endless runners, puzzlers and more. Whats one more genre to add to the mix?Shadow Labyrinth will be available in the original version and as a Digital Deluxe edition. That one comes with a digital artbook and the soundtrack.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/shadow-labyrinth-the-edgy-pac-man-metroidvania-arrives-on-july-18-185011811.html?src=rss

A former third-party lost sensitive data on hundreds of thousands of users and now people are getting phishing emails.

The MacBook Air M4 reviews are in here's the verdict on Apple's latest lightweight laptop.

Kong returns with an older, greyer, and more evolved look in Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire. Bringing this iconic titan to life required a collaborative effort between Wt FX and Scanline VFX, who shared responsibilities across the films complex sequences.Wt FX focused on enhancing Kongs emotional range and physical aging, giving him a more nuanced and weathered appearance. The animation team paid special attention to his fur dynamics, muscle movement, and facial expressions, ensuring a realistic portrayal of the legendary beast.Through advanced motion capture and detailed creature work, the VFX teams pushed the boundaries of digital artistry to deliver the most lifelike version of Kong yet, capturing both his immense power and emotional depth in this epic cinematic showdown.The post Animating Kong: Behind the VFX of Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire by Wt FX appeared first on Vfxexpress.

This behind-the-scenes look reveals how the environment design plays a crucial role in enhancing the narrative, providing the backdrop for adrenaline-pumping action sequences and high-speed car chases.From meticulously detailed architecture to dynamic traffic patterns, every aspect of the city has been carefully crafted to deliver a seamless and immersive urban experience. The Before & After video showcases the incredible artistry involved in blending digital environments with real-world elements, bringing the high-stakes world of Crossfire to life.PlatigeThe post Behind the Scenes: Crafting the CGI City in Secret Level: Crossfire Good Conflict appeared first on Vfxexpress.

Many schools and colleges are underperforming when it comes to sex education. Going beyond the classroom condoms-and-bananas approach, a group of students have taken it upon themselves to deliver sex ed, TikTok-style.The TikTok account @sexedforguys, which has more than 117,000 followers, started as a school project by four students at Colby College, a private liberal arts school in Maine. Launched in 2022, the account features skits tackling consent, toxic masculinity, and homophobiaessential lessons in a time when manosphere content is flooding For You Pages and Gen Z boys and men are more likely than baby boomers to believe that feminism has done more harm than good. @sexedforguys The channel began as part of a study on privilege at elite all-boys schools, led by professor Adam Howard, chair of Colbys education department. His research highlights how these institutions often fall shortespecially when it comes to sex education. While working with student researchers, Howard asked how they could best share their findings. Their answer? TikTok.Howard told Rolling Stone that TikTok was the perfect platform for sharing his research for two reasons: First, thats where young people are (55% of TikTok users are younger than 30). Second, it provides a much-needed counternarrative to some of the worst content on the app.Guys could be scrolling through their TikTok and Andrew Tate will pop up, but as they scroll maybe Sex Ed for Guys will pop up and itll start having them think a little bit differently, Christopher Maichin, a 20-year-old junior at Colby, told Rolling Stone. I think the greatest part of it is that they are getting education without even knowing it. Theyre watching a funny video but theyre learning about consent.Several of the TikTok accounts videos have gone viral, including Respecting Women Workout (which has 11 million-plus views) and the game Thats Whats Up!/Whats Up With That? (which has more than 3 million views). @sexedforguys Thats whats up. #fyp #trending #trend #foryoupage original sound Sex Ed for Guys Setting boundaries with your partner: Thats whats up! Backflips: Thats whats up! Using racial and homophobic slurs: Whats up with that? the boys say to the camera. Their video goes on to praise the 2013 Florida Gulf Coast March of Madness run, night-vision goggles, and asking your partner about their day.This is unironically how we defeat the alt-right pipeline, one user commented under the video. Another wrote: this could actually save america.

This article is republished with permission fromWonder Tools,a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps.Subscribe here.Hundreds of AI tools emerge every week. Ive picked five new ones worth exploring. Theyre free to try, easy to use, and signal new directions for useful AI.1.Sesame: Talk with a surprisingly lifelike AIOf all the AI bots Ive communicated with, this one sounds the most lifelike. Pick either Maya or Miles to talk with for free inSesames conversational demo. Try one of thesetopics. You can download your conversation afterwards. Its deleted from the companys servers within 30 days to protect your privacy.Ill keep an eye on this company: Sesame aims to build an ever-present brilliant friend and conversationalist, keeping you informed and organized, helping you be a better version of yourself.Another intriguing new AI conversationalist:Im also intrigued by my experiments withNatura Umanas AI people. Rather than one AI bot that covers everything, theNatureOSecosystem hosts multiple conversational bots, each with a different focus. Ive talked with Hector about well-being and Athena about fitness. The NatureOS interestingly includes hardware, so you can summon these lifelike AI characters with a quick tap of special earbuds. (Seea video demo.)2.Convergence: Assign tasks to an AI agentAskConvergences AI agent to buy groceries for you, find a gift on Amazon, get you a restaurant reservation, research what people say about your company, or do any number of other tasks. This is just one of many new AI agents trained to use a Web browser for you, and none are yet fully reliable. When I tasked Convergence with making a list of LinkedIn profiles of speakers at the upcomingPerugia International Journalism festival, it got some right and many wrong. With simpler tasks your odds of success are higher. You can request up to five tasks for free per day, or pay $20/month for an unlimited number of tasks.3.Scribe: Transcribe super accuratelyUntil April 9,Scribea remarkably accurate new transcription model fromElevenLabsis completely free. In my tests it got the names of websites right, whereas most transcription tools get those wrong. It also captured tiny speech nuances so well that Id recommend this over other tools for anything requiring top accuracy. It works in 99 languages.4.Google Career Dreamer: Imagine a new jobDream up potential new directions for your career with this simple, well-designed free site. You dont have to log in, enter your name, or share any personal info. Just type in the kind of work you do and confirm whether you have certain skills and interests. Add your education if you want.The AI immediately gives you a career identity statement and shows you a map of jobs that might interest you. Hover over any to learn more about them. You can even open up nearby job openings in that field. You can then jump toGemini, Googles alternative to ChatGPT, to work on a cover letter or continue your career ideation.Gemsare now freeYou can now create a free Gemini Gem, which is an AI tool customized with your specific instructions and up to 10 documents you upload. Its Googles answer to ChatGPTsCustom GPTs.Try this:Create a new Career Gemby uploading your resume, past cover letters, career planning docs, and any other relevant materials. Provide instructions if you have a particular style, language, or approach in mind. This new trained AI assistant youve customized can then help you anytime you return to it to refine a cover letter, update your resume, practice for an interview, or even brainstorm career ideas.Alternative:You can use Googles default Career Guide gem without uploading anything, but its not personalized.5.Adobe Enhance Speech: Improve audioAdoberecently upgradeditsaudio cleanup tool. Upload any audio recording with background noise and immediately get a clean version to download. There are new sliders for adjusting the enhancement and background noise.You can then use Adobe Podcast to edit the cleaned audio by trimming the transcript just as you would in a Google Doc. It now works for recordings in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and English.If youre making a podcast, you can choose from royalty-free sound collections with intros, outros, transition sounds, and background music. Its free to try for a month and included with existing Adobe subscriptions.This article is republished with permission fromWonder Tools,a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps.Subscribe here.