When you select “hear the highlights,” a playback bar will appear at the bottom of the screen. | Image: Amazon Amazon is testing new AI-generated audio summaries that will let you listen to two AI “hosts” chat about a product’s features. Along with product details, the AI audio clips also draw information from user reviews and information from the web. The feature is currently available for select products on Amazon’s mobile app, including the Ninja Blender, OSEA Undaria Algae Body Oil, SHOKZ OpenRun Pro, and the SafeRest Waterproof Mattress Protector. You can try it out by hitting the “Hear the highlights” button beneath the product. The audio summaries open with a “friendly reminder” that you’re listening to an AI-generated clip, followed by an introduction to an “expert” AI host who’s supposed to give you a rundown of a product’s features. It’s similar to Google’s AI-generated audio overviews, which have two AI hosts discuss your research, documents, or slides in a podcast-like format. In the clip for the SHOKZ OpenRun Pro, the AI host introduces us to “Max,” who says the key difference about these headphones is that they “conduct sound through your cheekbones instead of going into your ears.” The AI host then follows up with questions about the headphones, like who would benefit from the design and whether the sound quality is up to par. “While the microphone gets praise for noise cancellation, some users find they’re not loud enough for an immersive music experience,” the AI “expert” Max says. “But customers do mention they’re better than earpods in certain situations.” Amazon’s AI-generated audio summaries are currently only available to some customers in the US, but the company plans on bringing them to more products and customers in the “coming months.”

Wait, that's not an Xbox! Credit: Robee Shepherd / Contributor / Getty Images What's old is new again, in more ways than one.Microsoft announced this week that Xbox Game Pass subscribers will get access to "Retro Classics," an app they can download that contains more than 50 classic Activision titles from the 1980s and 90s. A brief glance at the list of games suggests it's pretty Atari 2600-heavy up front, from an era when games had amazing titles like Demon Attack and Megamania. However, there are some later releases, like the 1993 PC adventure game Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist, a game I included here strictly because of the title.There is a massive catch to all of this, though: The games can only be played via cloud streaming, as far as I can tell from the FAQ page on the Xbox website. While that means they're accessible across different devices, it also means that you'll notice latency as you play them. These games were designed to play locally on a single machine years before people had home internet, so streaming them from a cloud is hardly ideal. Mashable Top Stories Stay connected with the hottest stories of the day and the latest entertainment news. Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! You May Also Like With that in mind, it's a little tough to take Microsoft's stated "commitment to game preservation" in the announcement blog post seriously. If these games only exist on a server farm somewhere and can't be purchased or stored locally, one could argue they aren't really being "preserved." And considering that Atari 2600 game cartridges had a mere 4KB of storage space on them, making people stream them instead of allowing for local downloads is a questionable use of internet bandwidth, to say the least.Interestingly, this is also the second time Microsoft has tried this on Xbox. Some folks may remember Game Room, an Xbox 360 app where old games were sold individually and stored locally, as game streaming wasn't really a thing yet. Microsoft pulled the plug on Game Room very quickly. Hopefully Retro Classics gets better treatment than that. Topics Xbox Alex Perry Tech Reporter Alex Perry is a tech reporter at Mashable who primarily covers video games and consumer tech. Alex has spent most of the last decade reviewing games, smartphones, headphones, and laptops, and he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. He is also a Pisces, a cat lover, and a Kansas City sports fan. Alex can be found on Bluesky at yelix.bsky.social.

Pros Sizzling hot throughput speedsExcellent 4K write speedWill be available in capacities up to 4TB Cons Lackluster PCMark 10 Overall Storage scoreLowest score on 3DMark Storage gaming benchmark of all the Gen 5 drives we've reviewed Lexar Professional NM1090 Pro PCIe 5.0 SSD Specs Bus Type PCI Express 5.0 Capacity (Tested) 4 Controller Maker Silicon Motion Interface (Computer Side) PCI Express Internal Form Factor M.2 Type-2280 Internal or External Internal NAND Type TLC NVMe Support Rated Maximum Sequential Read 14000 Rated Maximum Sequential Write 13000 Terabytes Written (TBW) Rating 2800 Warranty Length 5 All Specs The Lexar Professional NM1090 Pro (starts at $179.99 for 1TB; $494.99 for 4TB as tested) easily beats its rated sequential throughput speeds, according to our extensive tests, and it has the second-highest throughput scores we have seen from an SSD. But the NM1090 Pro's other test results are largely unimpressive; this PCI Express 5.0 internal SSD's sheer raw speed does not translate into great overall performance. So while it doesn't unseat the Editors' Choice-winning WD Black SN8100, it's an acceptable alternative. Design and Specs: Up to 4TB of Storage SpaceThe NM1090 is a four-lane solid-state drive running the NVMe 2.0 protocol over a PCIe 5.0 bus. This internal SSD comes in the standard M.2 Type-2280 "gumstick" format. This drive uses Micron 232-layer 3D TLC NAND flash and a Silicon Motion (SMI) SM2508 controller. Lexar cites this controller's 6nm architecture for helping to control the heat that Gen 5 drives are wont to generate and to minimize thermal throttlng. (Baffled by some of this lingo? Check out our handy guide to SSD jargon.)Physically speaking, this drive is also flashier than many of its competitors. It's adorned with a gold stripe across the front, which contrasts nicely with the black accents. It's sure to complement a classy PC build. The NM1090 Pro comes in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities. The 4TB stick that I reviewed is expected to go on sale in the US in the near future.Pricewise, the NM1090 Pro is midrange, below some of the elite Gen 5 sticks but higher than the modest-performing DRAM-less models we've tested: the Crucial P510 and the soon-to-be-reviewed Addlink G55H.As for durability, expressed as lifetime write capacity in total terabytes written (TBW), the NM1090 Pro matches the Crucial P510, T700, and T705 in the capacities they share. Its durability rating is a notch below the Corsair MP700 Pro, the ADATA Legend 970, and the Aorus 10000, which are rated at 700TBW for 1TB and 1,400TBW for 2TB. The Seagate FireCuda 540 is the reigning Gen 5 durability champ, with ratings of 1,000TBW for the 1TB stick and 2,000TBW for 2TB.The terabytes-written spec is a manufacturer's estimate of how much data can be written to a drive before some cells begin to fail and get taken out of service. Lexar warranties the NM1090 Pro for five years or until you hit the rated TBW figure in data writes, whichever comes first. But the drive's durability rating is such that unless you're writing unusually large amounts of data to the SSD, it's a safe bet that this drive will last the full warranty period and well beyond.The NM1090 includes the Lexar DiskMaster SSD Management tool, which lets you perform firmware updates, manage drive data, securely erase private files, and monitor drive health.System Requirements: Recent Motherboard RequiredPCIe 5.0 SSDs promise a major speed boost over PCIe 4.0 drives, but you can take advantage of it only if you have recent hardware that supports the standard. Only recent enthusiast-grade desktops and a handful of laptops are likely to be PCIe 5.0 SSD-ready off the shelf, so you may have to build your own PC from the ground up or update an existing system to gain the connectivity required. You'll need an Intel 12th Gen or later Core CPU with a motherboard based on Intel's Z690/Z790 or a more recent chipset; or an AMD Ryzen 7000 or 9000 processor with an AM5 motherboard built around an X670, X670E, B650E, or later chipset.Recommended by Our Editors(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)Now, an important point: Just because you have one of those chipsets doesn't guarantee that the motherboard maker actually implemented a PCIe 5.0-capable M.2 SSD slot. That's up to the board maker, so check your system's or motherboard's specs and documentation to make sure you actually have such a slot before investing in one of these drives. Some boards have PCIe 5.0 expansion slots for graphics cards and other PCI Express cards, but no PCIe 5.0 slots for SSDs. You need a PCIe 5.0-capable M.2 slot, specifically.Performance: Raw Speed Isn't EverythingIn benchmarking the NM1090 Pro, we used our latest testbed PC, designed specifically for benchmarking PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSDs. It is built around an ASRock X670E Taichi motherboard with an AMD X670 chipset, 32GB of DDR5 memory, one PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot (with lanes that have direct access to the CPU), and three PCIe 4.0 slots. The system has an AMD Ryzen 9 7900 CPU using an AMD stock cooler; a GeForce RTX 2070 Super graphics card with 8GB of GDDR6 SDRAM; and a Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 Snow 750-watt power supply. The boot drive is an ADATA Legend 850 PCIe 4.0 SSD. (The reviewed SSD is tested as a secondary data drive.)We put the Lexar drive through our usual slate of internal solid-state drive benchmarks: Crystal DiskMark 6.0, UL's PCMark 10 Storage, and UL's 3DMark Storage benchmark. The last measures a drive's performance in a number of gaming-related load and launch tasks.Crystal DiskMark's sequential speed tests provide a traditional measure of drive throughput, simulating best-case, straight-line transfers of large files. We use this test largely to see if our tested speeds are in line with the manufacturer's rated speeds.The NM1090 Pro put up some scorching Crystal DiskMark numbers, easily beating its sequential read and write speed ratings while turning in the second-highest throughput results we've recorded, after the WD SN8100. And while its 4K read was middling for a Gen 5 drive and far behind the SN8100's prodigious score, the NM1090 Pro eked out a high score in 4K write, edging out the SN8100. Good 4K write performance is especially important for an SSD used as a boot drive, though we test them as secondary drives.The PCMark 10 Overall Storage test measures a drive's speed in performing a variety of routine tasks such as launching Windows, loading games and creative apps, and copying both small and large files.The NM1090 Pro's PCMark 10 Overall score was toward the low end of our comparison group, ahead of the two DRAM-less PCI Express 5.0 SSDs (the Addlink G55H and Crucial P510), as well as the two Gen 4 drives we included in the chart above. As for the individual traces that make up the PCMark 10 Overall score, the NM1090 Pro's scores were below average, generally similar to the DRAM-less PCIe 5.0 SSDs and ahead of the Gen 4 sticks. A bright spot was the NM1090 Pro's second-place finish in Adobe Premiere Pro loading (after the WD SN8100), though it was brought down to earth with a last-place finish in Photoshop loading, behind even the two PCIe 4.0 SSDs. The NM1090 Pro also had a last-place finish in the Windows loading trace.In 3DMark Storage, which aggregates a drive's performance at a variety of gaming-related tasks, the NM1090 Pro's score was at the bottom of the pack, with its nearest rival, the Crucial P510, besting it by 18%.

Sonos is one of the better audio brands out there, but we rarely see significant deals on their products. That’s why today is a special day. Right now, the Sonos Roam 2 portable Bluetooth speaker just got its largest discount to date, bringing it down to $134 (25% off). This kind of discount is notable for just about any Bluetooth speaker, but particularly noteworthy for Sonos speakers. The Roam 2 is gorgeous with its sleek design and elegant build, while being compact and lightweight so it can join you outdoors with ease. It’s perfect whether you’re spending a day by the pool, at the beach, or in your backyard. It’s not just durable, but also comes with an IP67 waterproof and dustproof rating so it can survive your adventures in inclement weather. When we reviewed the original Sonos Roam, we gave it a 4.5-star rating and loved how small and lightweight it was along with the awesome features it brought to the table. The fact that it worked with Alexa was the cherry on top, allowing it to be used as a smart speaker. The newer Roam 2 has the same audio quality but better design and battery life, with a single charge able to keep the party going for up to 10 hours—a decent amount of time considering the speaker’s tiny size. With this being the best price we’ve ever seen for the Sonos Roam 2, there’s never been a better time to get one. Snag it now on Amazon for just $134 to level up your parties and adventures! Or check out some of our other favorite smart speakers for smart homes. Buy now at Amazon

It's the first partnership under the new OpenAI for Countries initiative.

Deal  When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. 6TB WD Purple Surveillance Internal HDD is now at its all-time low price Fiza Ali Neowin @Fiza_Aliii · May 22, 2025 11:38 EDT Amazon US is currently offering the 6TB Western Digital Purple Surveillance Internal Hard Drive at its lowest price to date. So, you may want to check it out if you're in need of reliable, high-capacity storage solutions. The HDD has been engineered for continuous, high-definition video surveillance. All WD Purple models incorporate Western Digital’s AllFrame technology, which optimises data buffering to reduce frame loss and maintain smooth video playback. The drive delivers a workload rating of up to 180TB per year, which is three times that of a typical desktop hard drive. It further offers a mean time between failures (MTBF) of up to one million hours. Moreover, the WD Purple supports up to 64 single-stream HD cameras and is compatible with surveillance systems housing up to 16 drive bays. Its SATA interface offers sustained transfer rates of up to 175MB/s, while a 256MB cache further enhances performance during peak recording periods. The drive operates effectively between 0°C and 65°C (non-operating range –40°C to 70°C) and is covered by Western Digital’s three-year limited warranty. Finally, it uses tarnish-resistant components to improve its durability. 6TB Western Digital Purple Surveillance Internal Hard Drive: $129.19 (Amazon US) MSRP $149.99 / 14% off This Amazon deal is US-specific and not available in other regions unless specified. If you don't like it or want to look at more options, check out the Amazon US deals page here. Get Prime (SNAP), Prime Video, Audible Plus or Kindle / Music Unlimited. Free for 30 days.You can also check out other HDD deals here. For solid-state drives, you can head over to our SSD deals section to see if anything from there matches your requirements. Make sure you also browse through Amazon US, Amazon UK, and Newegg US to find some other great tech deals. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

Google's expansion of Gemini's data access through "personal context" represents a fundamental shift in how AI assistants operate. Unlike competitors that start from scratch with each new user, Gemini can immediately tap into years of accumulated user data across Google's ecosystem. The Verge adds: Google first started letting users opt in to its "Gemini with personalization" feature earlier this year, which lets the AI model tap into your search history "to provide responses that are uniquely insightful and directly address your needs." But now, Google is taking things a step further by unlocking access to even more of your information -- all in the name of providing you with more personalized, AI-generated responses. During Google I/O on Tuesday, Google introduced something called "personal context," which will allow Gemini models to pull relevant information from across Google's apps, as long as it has your permission. One way Google is doing this is through Gmail's personalized smart replies -- the AI-generated messages that you can use to quickly reply to emails. To make these AI responses sound "authentically like you," Gemini will pore over your previous emails and even your Google Drive files to craft a reply tailored to your conversation. The response will even incorporate your tone, the greeting you use the most, and even "favorite word choices," according to Google. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

RT Forza MotorsportGet ready to hit the track in style with the new #ForzaMotorsport20 merchandise available at the Xbox Gear Shop. Our 20th Anniversary Edition collection includes shirts, hoodies, a blanket, and more. Update your wardrobe with these special items. Shop now: https://aka.ms/ForzaMerch

Mixed reality is full of wonders that keep impressing us. Here is another one that might interest you.Wordbound is an AR puzzle game where the world is made of words. You can stretch objects out, and they will fall apart to show the letters they are made of. Squeeze them together and get a new image from the letters you choose. It sounds magical, but doing it with your own hands is even more fun.In the showcase above, you see how you can turn a rooster into a rose by manipulating the pictures with your fingers – totally awesome! Here are some more, which you can find on X/Twitter.Wordbound will be released for Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro in the unspecified future.This project slightly reminds me of Matthew Hallberg's Camera Crop, which can turn your Snap Spectacles into Google Lens. You might also want to explore real-world object duplication, origami making, and an RPG you can play while walking.Join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.

Kart around the world!The Nintendo Switch 2 is (finally) coming soon, and with it will be a new installment in the wildly successful Mario Kart series. Mario Kart World is shaping up to be the largest Mario Kart ever made, with new characters, new items, and an entire map that can be explored thanks to new free-roaming mechanics.That being said, there are still "normal" racetracks scattered throughout the map, with the type of classic Mario Kart-style turns, obstacles, and secret paths that fans have loved for decades. Below is a list of all 32 courses that you and up to 23 other racers will be speeding through, from Mario Bros. Circuit to the vaunted Rainbow Road.Mario Kart World launches alongside--and exclusively for--the Nintendo Switch 2 on June 5. Preorders for the new console remain sold out for now, but preorders for the new Mario Kart game are still available at multiple retailers. Mario Bros. CircuitThis desert-themed track was the first Mario Kart World track ever shown to the public, as it was teased during the Nintendo Switch 2 teaser trailer in January. Crown CityThis large urban raceway is one of two tracks to appear in multiple Grand Prix cups, with each appearance highlighting a different route around the area. Whistletop SummitMario Kart 64 fans will appreciate the callback to Kalahari Desert here, as Whistletop Summit features a running train that will sometimes pose as an obstacle during a race. DK SpaceportDK Spaceport invokes the classic Donkey Kong 25m stage in its design, with multiple ramps shifting the races left and right as they ascend to the top of a hill. The massive mechanical monkey will follow racers up the structure--and maybe throw a few barrels at them too. Desert HillsDesert Hills is a remake of a track of the same name from Mario Kart DS. Pokeys routinely walk onto the track as an extra hazard, while the Angry Sun sometimes rain snakes down from the sky to force racers off course. Shy Guy BazaarShy Guy Bazaar is another course returning from a previous game, this time coming from Mario Kart 7 on the 3DS. This time, however, Mario Kart World's new free-roam abilities may let us find out what's going on in that palace in the background. Wario StadiumWario Stadium returns for the first time since its debut in Mario Kart 64--up until now, it was the only track from MK64 that had not been used as a classic track in another Mario Kart game. Airship FortressThe race takes to the skies in Airship Fortress, where a fleet of Bowser's flying ships serves as the racetrack. This track is also a returning course, as it debuted in Mario Kart DS. DK PassWhile DK Pass has been around for a while--it's appeared in Mario Kart DS, Mario Kart 7, and Mario Kart Tour on mobile devices--this is the first time the snowy mountain course will appear on a home console version of the game. Starview PeakStarview Peak is a brand-new course debuting in Mario Kart World. It's themed around Rosalina and her Comet Observatory, which players explored in Super Mario Galaxy. Sky-High SundaeThis delicious dessert course made its Mario Kart debut in the Booster Course Pass of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The Mario Kart World version loses the anti-gravity features of the previous game, which results in a new layout closer to its appearance in Mario Kart Tour. Wario ShipyardWario Shipyard takes racers through a pirate ship graveyard in the middle of the ocean, with spooky skeletal fish swimming through the water as racers pass by. The course originally debuted in Mario Kart 7 on 3DS. Koopa Troopa BeachKoopa Troopa Beach hearkens back to Koopa Beach 2 in Mario Kart SNES, with racers driving around the perimeter of a large island. A few new elements and decorations have been added, including a massive Koopa Troopa balloon overlooking the course. Faraway OasisFaraway Oasis is another all-new course in Mario Kart World. This one is themed after an African safari, with zebras, elephants, and other animals roaming the course during each race. Crown City 2Crown City 2 takes an alternate route around the massive urban area seen earlier in the gallery, though the exact route and obstacles have yet to be fully revealed. Peach StadiumPeach Stadium is the second original course in Mario Kart World to have multiple Grand Prix appearances, following Crown City. It's located in the center of the game's map, just south of Moo Moo Meadows. Peach BeachPeach Beach returns from Mario Kart: Double Dash on the GameCube. Players will drive over a large sandbar before the course wraps around a seaside castle, which replaces Delfino Plaza from the GameCube version. Salty Salty SpeedwaySalty Salty Speedway--which makes its series debut in Mario Kart World--features multiple canals running alongside the racetrack. Players will sometimes drive over or even into the canals while running the course. Dino Dino JungleAnother course returning from Mario Kart: Double Dash, Dino Dino Jungle features a giant yellow T-Rex that racers must avoid, as well as multiple geysers that can erupt right while a driver is traveling over it. Great ? Block RuinsGreat ? Block Ruins is a course that takes place in the skies above the map. It features mysterious ruins floating above the clouds, with a giant stone question block sitting prominently at the top of the course. Cheep Cheep FallsThis Japanese-inspired course will see players race through waterfalls and rivers, which run through a village of pagodas and other small buildings. Dandelion DepthsDandelion Depths seems to take much of its inspiration from the Steam Gardens of Super Mario Odyssey, with its mixture of natural and bright red metallic structures intertwining throughout the course. Boo CinemaThis haunted movie theater will send racers into the films themselves, with the surrounding area shifting from full color to a sepia-toned look as players race over massive film strips and through the theater's screen. Dry Bones BurnoutDry Bones Burnout is a volcano-themed course adorned with large bones resembling the titular Dry Bones. The course features a lake of lava that players must glide over or risk falling into the molten muck. Moo Moo MeadowsThe internet's new favorite racer Cow hails from Moo Moo Meadows, which returns as a classic course for the second straight console release. Cows line the track, and racers can crash into them if they're not careful. Choco MountainThough Choco Mountain has appeared a few times in Mario Kart history--debuting in Mario Kart 64 and then appearing in Mario Kart DS and MK8 Deluxe--this new version is now themed around Chargin' Chuck, Mario's football-playing (or is it baseball-playing?) enemy. Toad's FactoryToad's Factory is making a comeback for the first time since Mario Kart Wii, and it's bringing all of its industrial-themed obstacles with it. The course has seen some alternations, however--for one, racers can no longer fall off of the conveyor belts thanks to new fences. Bowser's CastleMario Kart World continues the tradition of naming a course Bowser's Castle, but delivering a completely difference experience from past iterations of the track. This new version has a more high-tech theme than its predecessors. Acorn HeightsAcorn Heights is one of Mario Kart World's new courses, with the racetrack winding around a gigantic tree adorned with acorns. Skeeters--the gliding bug enemies from multiple Mario games--will appear in some of the course's waterways. Mario CircuitMario Kart SNES's Mario Circuit, for many, is the first Mario Kart course they ever raced on. The iconic course returns in Mario Kart World, with this new version combining the SNES's multiple Mario Circuits into one big course. Peach Stadium 2The second Peach Stadium route is slightly different from the previous run, but it will also travel in and out of Peach's Castle, which sits in the center of the track. Rainbow RoadThe Mario Kart World version of Rainbow Road has not been revealed yet--we only know of it thanks to a tease in the Mario Kart World Direct--but it will appear in its usual place as the final course in the main Mario Kart World experience.