Those looking for a high-end gaming keyboard are in luck with the Amazon Winter Sale offering the Asus ROG Strix Scope II 96 at a solid discount, priced at $149.99. Asus has reduced the price $30 from its original price of $179.99. This 17% discount offers an excellent chance to acquire a feature-rich keyboard while saving some hard-earned cash. The 96% layout provides all essential keys and even a few extras while freeing up a bit of desk space.

Flying mounts are essential for getting around Palworld, which you may have noticed features a deceptively huge map.Sure, going from waypoint to waypoint feels like a walk in the park until youre faced with the ginormous cliffsides, which turn your little trek to a treacherous journey to Mordor. You can either attempt to climb your way up, or hop on the back of a flying Pal, which can be hard to find in their own right.Read on for a full list of all flying mounts in Palworld, plus information on which flying mounts are the fastest, and where you can find all of them.All Flying Mounts in PalworldThere are a total of 22 Pals who can be used as a flying mount in Palworld. At a glance, they are:NitewingVanwyrmVanwyrm CrystBeakonRagnahawkElphidranElphidran AquaQuivernQuivern BotanHelzephyrHelzephyr LuxAstegonSuzakuSuzaku AquaFalerisFaleris AquaShadowbeakFrostallionFrostallion NoctJetragonSelyneXenolordWhat is the best flying mount in Palworld?The fastest flying Pal in Palworld is Jetragon. Unfortunately, Jetragon is one of the hardest Pals to catch; it can only be caught during the Alpha Boss fight, and its catch rate is absurdly low. You should also know that its base level is 50 and it can only be bred by two Jetragons.Fortunately, there are a few other relatively quick Pals who you can use on your journey to the fastest of them all. In the early levels, Vanwyrm is the best of the litter not fast, per se, but faster than the other options. In the middle levels, Beakon and Ragnahawk will really make it feel like youre flying instead of trudging through the air. These two should be good enough until you reach the late game beasts Frostallion and Jetragon.Where to find all flying mounts in PalworldBelow, weve listed where to find all flying mounts in Palword, organized by their Paldeck number.Nitewing locationLocation (Day and Night): Eastern Windswept Hills, Marsh Island, Eastern Wild Island, Sea Breeze Archipelago, Dessicated Desert, and Alpha Boss location on the Ice Wind IslandElement: NeutralTechnology level: 15Saddle materials: 20 leather, 10 cloth, 15 ingots, 20 fiber, 20 Paldium fragmentsVanwyrm locationLocation (Day and Night): Southeast Bamboo Groves, Mount ObsidianElement: Fire and DarkTechnology level: 21Saddle materials: 20 leather, 10 flame organs, 15 ingots, 30 fiber, 20 Paldium fragmentsVanwyrm is the fastest flying mount youll find early on at least until you get far enough to get to Beakon.Vanwyrm Cryst locationLocation (Night): Land of Absolute ZeroElement: Ice and DarkTechnology level: 41Saddle materials: 24 leather, 12 ice organs, 18 ingots, 36 fiber, 24 Paldium fragmentsBeakon locationLocation (Day and Night): Northern Dessicated Desert and Alpha boss location in the Bamboo GrovesElement: ElectricTechnology level: 34Saddle materials: 20 leather, 10 cloth, 20 ingots, 20 electric organs, 25 Paldium fragmentsRagnahawk locationLocation (Day and Night): Southwest Mount ObsidianElement: FireTechnology level: 37Saddle materials: 25 leather, 15 cloth, 20 ingots, 20 flame organs, 25 Paldium fragmentsElphidran locationLocation (Day and Night): No. 1 Wildlife SanctuaryElement: DragonTechnology level: 21Saddle materials: 20 leather, 20 fiber, 15 ingots, 20 Paldium fragmentsYou can also grab an Alphaversion of Elphidran north of the red forest.Elphidran Aqua locationLocation: Breeding Farm with Elphidran and Surfent Element: Dragon and WaterTechnology level: 28Saddle materials: 24 leather, 24 fiber, 18 ingots, 24 Paldium fragmentsQuivern locationLocation (Day and Night): No. 2 Wildlife SanctuaryElement: DragonTechnology level: 36Saddle materials: 30 leather, 30 ingots, 10 cloth, 30 Paldium fragmentsQuivern Botan locationLocation: Cherry Blossom Crossroads, southern SakurajimaElement: Dragon/grassTechnology level: 49Saddle materials: 30 leather, 30 ingots, 20 cloth, 40 Paldium fragmentsHelzephyr locationLocation (Only Night): Moonless Shore and Verdant BrookElement: DarkTechnology level: 33Saddle materials: 30 leather, 10 cloth, 30 refined ingots, 20 electric organs, 30 Paldium fragmentsHelzephyr Lux locationLocation: Northern SakurajimaElement: Dark/electricTechnology level: 52Saddle materials: 30 leather, 10 plasteel, 30 electric organs, 60 Paldium fragmentsAstegon locationLocation (Day and Night): No. 3 Wildlife Sanctuary and Alpha boss location in Mount ObsidianElement: Dragon and DarkTechnology level: 47Saddle materials: 30 leather, 50 refined ingots, 50 ingots, 55 Paldium fragmentsAstegons Alpha boss location can be a little difficult to find as it is hidden inside the Destroyed Mineshaft. Head over to the coordinates (-578, -415) to find the entrance to the mineshaft and follow the path to challenge the boss.Suzaku locationLocation (Day and Night): Southern Dessicated Desert and Alpha boss location in Dessicated DesertElement: FireTechnology level: 40Saddle materials: 20 leather, 25 refined ingots, 20 flame organs, 40 Paldium fragmentsSuzaku Aqua locationLocation: Breeding Farm with Suzaku and JormuntideElement: WaterTechnology level: 41Saddle materials: 24 leather, 12 ice organs, 18 ingots, 36 fiber, 24 Paldium fragmentsFaleris locationLocation (Day and Night): No. 3 Wildlife SanctuaryElement: FireTechnology level: 38Saddle materials: 30 leather, 10 cloth, 30 refined ingots, 25 flame organs, 30 Paldium fragmentsThis Pal is admittedly hard to find in the Wildlife Sanctuary, as it doesnt spawn as frequently as some of the other Pals. That said, once you find one, youre pretty much set until you get Jetragon.Faleris Aqua locationLocation: The northern ash-filled areas of the Feybreak regionElement: WaterTechnology level: 55Saddle materials: 30 leather, 20 high quality cloth, 5 plasteel, 30 Pal fluids, 75 Paldium fragmentsShadowbeak locationLocation: No. 3 Wildlife SanctuaryElement: DarkTechnology level: 47Saddle materials: 50 leather, 40 refined ingots, 25 venom glands, 45 Paldium fragmentsJust like Faleris, this one is a rare spawn at the Wildlife Sanctuary. You may be better off breeding a Kitsun and Astegon together to net yourself a Shadowbeak.Frostallion locationLocation: Alpha boss location in the Land of Absolute ZeroElement: IceTechnology level: 48Saddle materials: 100 leather, 200 refined ingots, 50 ice organs, 75 Paldium fragmentsFrostallion Noct locationLocation: Breeding Farm with Frostalliion and HelzephyrElement: DarkTechnology level: 48Saddle materials: 120 leather, 240 refined ingots, 60 venom glands, 90 Paldium fragmentsJetragon locationLocation: Alpha boss location in Mount ObsidianElement: DragonTechnology level: 50Saddle materials: 100 leather, 200 refined ingots, 50 circuit boards, 140 Paldium fragmentsThis Legendary Pal will demand your full attention throughout your battle with it, as its quite hard to nab. Youll need your best gear and Pal spheres to catch it.Selyne locationLocation: Meteorite events in SakurajimaElement: Dark/neutralTechnology level: 53Saddle materials: 20 leather, 60 Paldium fragments, 30 plasteel, 10 meteorite fragmentsXenolord locationLocation: Needs to be summoned at an altar using Xenolord SlabsElement: Dark/dragonTechnology level: 60Saddle materials: 30 leather, 200 Paldium fragments, 50 dark fragments, 30 meteorite fragmentsFor morePalworldguides, weve got you covered. If youre just starting out, weve got abeginners guide, a list ofall Pals, and atype chart. We also have explainers onbreeding,eggs, and a rundown of howmultiplayerworks.On the hunt for resources? Check out our guides on how to getore, coal,polymer,leather,sulfur,wheat seeds,pure quartz,Ancient Technology Points, andancient civilization parts. For advanced players, consult our lists of alltower boss locations, allpassive skills, allflying mounts, and thebest base locations.

The WWE, and all of its content, is coming to Netflixs streaming platform. The drama and storylines of WWE play out across multiple shows: Raw, SmackDown, NXT, and then live events like Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. Previously, these shows were on cable or the WWE subscription service, which could be restrictive. WWE being available as part of the standard Netflix fee makes the hobby much more accessible.There are some regional wrinkles that make the deal a little more complicated, however. For instance, American Netflix users will not be able to watch Smackdown, NXT, and live events, which just leaves them with access to Raw, the weekly flagship show. Each show maintains separate rosters; for instance, NXT is used as a feeder league for up and coming talent. Raw is also a three-hour event, which leads to more story, promos, and interviews interspersed throughout the matches.This weeks Raw has a spectacularly stacked card, and will include bouts between CM Punk and Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa, and Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley duking it out ofr the Womens World Championship. Raw will be streamed each Monday at 9PM Eastern, and the show will be available for viewing immediately after the conclusion of the live stream. WWE programming can also be downloaded 48 hours after it streams on Netflix.Netflix will be expanding WWE to more regions in the future throughout 2025 and 2026. WWE events from the past are also being archived on Netflix, with new categories for SummerSlam, Hell in a Cell, the Royal Rumble. As a Canadian, Im enjoying exploring this past content. Most of the yearly events only have one or two past specials uploaded so far, but I can watch archives of Raw and Smackdown all the way back to the shows starts. Hopefully, my American friends can join in on the fun sooner rather than later.

Gundam Assemble! A new tabletop game based on the Gundam series was just announced by Bandai Spirits, the toy arm of Japanese multinational entertainment company Bandai Namco. Thats in addition to the highly anticipated collectible card game, titled Gundam Card Game, expected later this year. While there arent many details available yet, the Gundam Assemble game will use a new line of five-centimeter-tall Gunpla miniatures based on characters from the iconic Mobile Suit Gundam franchise, connecting mecha from multiple series to converge at the table.For the uninitiated, Gundam pioneered a subgenre of giant robot anime that has become one of the largest science fiction franchises in Japan. First airing in 1979, the animated TV series Mobile Suit Gundam (created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and the Sunrise studio creative collective known as Hajime Yatate) has evolved into a media empire with dozens of shows, books, and miniature model kits called Gunpla, which reportedly have sold over 500 million units across the globe. All together, sales of Gundam-related products totaled roughly $925 million worldwide, nearly doubling over the last five years. Banda Namcos newest Chief Gundam Officer, Hiroshi Sakakibara, stated in a special feature for the franchises 45th anniversary that his goal was to expand Gundams recognition and presence internationally and while Gundam Assemble wasnt mentioned in that report, it seems the tabletop game is a part of that strategy.However, like many IP-based games that have been announced recently, it seems the Gundam Assemble is promoting itself largely on nostalgia-based, hype-focused laurels built up over the last 45 years of publication. There is currently very little information on just what this tabletop game is going to be. The companys announcement states that Each unit has abilities that reflect their unique characteristics, allowing players to enjoy scenarios that follow the original story,or diverge into situations that transcend the world of Mobile Suit Gundam series; thus providing both a sense of recreation and distinct battles. The trailer for the game shows the Gunplas in action, both on miniature sets and a square, multi-colored hexgrid alongside a few ten-sided dice.Importantly though, Bandai Spirits isnt asking for any money, yet. The companys announcement says detailed rules and product specifications will be revealed at a later date, at which point we might begin to see preorders for the sets available.Will it end up being more of a board game, or something like the miniatures skirmish games that are growing in popularity? Well know more soon on the Gundam Assemble website.

Strava and Chipotle have launched a marketing partnership that involves three different ways to potentially win free food. Two of those ways involve getting outside and running, walking, or using your wheelchair (sorry, no bikes) on Chipotle-branded Strava segments. Heres whats involved, and which parts of the challenge give you the best chance at free food.The easiest way to get a free meal: Sign up for textsThe first thing you should do, if you want to make the most of this promotion, is to sign up for the No Quitters Day text listsorry, motivational text message community. Go here to sign up, anytime through Jan. 9.On Jan. 10, youll get a text with instructions to claim one of 50,000 free lifestyle bowls. A lifestyle bowl is, basically, a burrito bowl. They come in varieties like the Plant Powered Bowl (with sofritas) and the High Protein Bowl (with double chicken).(Why Jan. 10? Strava has previously identified the second Friday in January as the day people tend to give up on their resolutions; thus, Quitters Day.)The way to get the most free food: Live in one of these 25 cities, and run a lotStrava is setting up segments for the competition in 25 specific cities. A segment is a stretch of road that has an associated leaderboard in the Strava app. If you track an activity (with your phone or a smartwatch), and that activity includes a named segment, youll get credit for running that segment. If you run in a popular park, youve probably run tons of segments without realizing it.Anyway, to compete in this challenge, youll want to find one of the official challenge segments, and run it as often as you can. Whoever runs that segment the most times in January of this year will earn Local Legend status (this is also a standard feature of segments in Strava), and at the end of the month, the Local Legend will be awarded Chipotle Rewards credits that are good for one entre per week for a year. An entre can be a burrito, bowl, order of three tacos, quesadilla, or salad. It does not include kids meals, 3-point meals, or single tacos.The full rules for the city challenge are here, including links to the segments so you can see where they are. The segments tend to be short, around 0.1 or 0.2 miles. They are in 25 different cities, 23 of them in the U.S. and one each in Paris and London. In the U.S., Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, and Washington, D.C. are among the lucky cities.One more way to win: Live in (or visit) the city that gets the most milesFor this last way to win food, you dont have to do anythingbut the city that gets the most miles on its Chipotle segment will see its local Chipotle locations run a buy-one-get-one-free offer at some unspecified future date. You dont need to be a runner or have a Strava account; just keep an eye out for the promotion.

We may earn a commission from links on this page.Dont panic, you've haven't woken up back in 2020, at the heights of pandemic-era bread-making panic. Believe it or not, you can bake sourdough bread at home without existential dread hanging over your head. Quite the opposite: Once you get the hang of it, sourdough bread baking is fun and rewarding, and regardless of what the homemade-bread-haters say, it actually does taste better than the store-bought stuff. Maybe you noticed I didn't say it is easy.Unfortunately, there are a lot of variables for something made of so few ingredients, especially when youre starting completely from scratch. This guide can help you troubleshoot what is potentially the hardest part of sourdough bread making: the natural yeast starter. Whether youre taking your first crack at it, or youve already made a few too-dense loaves and you cant understand what went wrong, let me help you.The biggest challenge making sourdough breadThere is an even more extensive world beyond sourdough in bread making, including types of flours, yeasts, and preferments. Even though making a starter seems like the first hurdle, it's the trickiest one of all.Unlike with manufactured yeast, a natural yeast starter takes time to become active. Active yeast means lots of gas bubbles, and these bubbles are what makes your bread tall and spongy. The fermentation period is where your yeast strengthens in gas production and develops that delicious tangy flavor. Oh, and you have to figure out how to catch your own invisible yeast. You can see why the biggest challenge with a sourdough bread is getting it started.Sometimes, the only answer is patience. But other times something has just gone wrong. Here are the cues I look for when making a starter, and possible answers to problems you may encounter when doing the same.Making a strong sourdough starterWild sourdough starter is made from flour, water, and wild-caught yeast. What is wild yeast exactly? Yeast that refuses to be tamed\. It turns out, just like bacteria exist on everything, there are also yeast spores floating around everywhere. You just have to catch some in a mishmash of water and flour. On paper, this is pretty simpleI have a recipe that seems easy enough.A kitchen scale will be indispensable for bread making, so I highly recommend buying one. (You can find them for under $15.) Ozeri Pronto Digital Multifunction Kitchen and Food Scale $14.17 at Amazon $14.95 Save $0.78 Shop Now Shop Now $14.17 at Amazon $14.95 Save $0.78 Easy Sourdough Starter RecipeIngredients:4 ounces cold water2 ounces high gluten bread flour2 ounces organic rye flour (I use Bobs Red Mill stone ground dark rye) to teaspoon raw honey1. Add equal parts (by weight) room temperature water and whole wheat or rye flour to a wide bowl. Optionally, you can sub in a portion of high gluten white bread flour (as I do in this recipeIll explain the process in the troubleshooting section below.) I also mix in a half teaspoon or so of raw honey. This is optional, but its the way I was taught. (It keeps working, so I keep doing it.) Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann 2. Mix everything together until there are no dry spots left. Your wild yeast bait is set. Leave the bowl uncovered in your kitchen for an hour or two. Its okay if it dries on the edges a little. The wild yeast floating in the air will be attracted to your whole wheat or rye gloop and get stuck there.3. After the yeast catching time has passed, mix the paste again and transfer the starter to a jar or tall cup and cover it with plastic wrap or a lid. Dont make the lid completely airtight. (If everything goes well, the yeast will start to produce gas, and you want to give it a way out.) Use a piece of masking tape (I like to write the date and time on it), or a rubber band around the container to mark the height of the paste so you can see the growth later, or take pictures of it so you can refer back to them. Leave the starter alone to sit at room temperature for 72 hours. The starter paste is stiff and only reaches the middle of the tape. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann Signs your sourdough starter is starting off rightThis is the annoying partor fascinating part, depending on your personality. The wild yeast is invisible and you wont be able to tell if you caught enough for about 48 hours, but there are signs you can look for that tell you things are going to plan.After 24 hours: The paste will look like its relaxed into the container, and not as stiff as before. The jar will look slightly more full, but you wont see much growth or many (if any) bubbles.After 48 hours: The starter should have lots of small bubbles and look a little foamy on the top layer. It will have grown in size about 50% to 100%. After 48 hours I can see many small bubbles developing and the surface has risen to the top of the tape. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann After 64 to 72 hours: The starter should be fully active, frothy, and about triple its starting size. It should look alive and smell sour. It's rather unpleasant, but that's a good sign. After 64 hours, my starter is frothy and ready to use or feed. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann What to do if your starter didnt startIf you dont see any of these signs after 48 hoursbesides maybe a funky smell and a developing layer of slimy liquidand your flour and water paste has not become bubbly at all within 72 hours, then you didnt catch enough wild yeast. Discard this paste and start again. Use the tips below to ensure you catch enough wild yeast on the next attempt.Problem: My starter never made any bubbles.Use the right ingredients. Dont skip on the whole wheat or rye wheat flour. They have more nutrients that benefit yeast growth, so it pays off to use one of them. All purpose flour, even bread flour, but especially bleached flours, all get stripped of some nutritious components. Dont worry, you can switch your starter over to a white flour when you feed it, so dont assume you have to make rye or whole wheat bread loaves based on your starter. This doesnt mean white flour cant work for a sourdough starter, but if youre having trouble, using other flours might increase your yeast development.Try adding honey, if you skipped it. It doesnt take much, but raw, organic honey can be just the thing to boost yeast development. It has its own neighborhood of microorganisms and can give wild yeast something to snack on.Capture natural yeast with a grape or onion peel. There are other sources of wild yeast than the stuff floating in the air. Yeast coats the outside of a lot of different produce, and grapes and onions are sure to have it. After you mix your water, flour, and honey together, tuck an unwashed grape or a strip of onion paper (the dry outer layers of any onion) into the paste. Cover it completely and let it sit like this for the first 24 hours, then remove the grape or onion and discard it. Continue to age the starter for another 48 hours and look for signs of life as outlined above.Use a bowl to catch yeast. It might only be a small change you need. In the directions above, I say to mix the starter paste in a wide bowl and leave it at room temperature to catch the yeast. Make sure youre not skipping this step and putting the paste directly into a jar or other container with tall sides and a small mouth, which will make it harder to catch yeast. Unless your kitchen is particularly gusty, you might be blocking off air flow. The wide bowl allows for plenty of the wild yeast in the air to flow over the paste and get stuck.Problem: My starter made bubbles but hardly grew.Substitute a portion of white high-gluten bread flour. In my recipe above, I substitute two ounces of rye flour for high-gluten flour to make a stronger gluten network. Rye and whole wheat flours are sometimes stone ground, so theres a chance that the texture is too coarse to trap the air bubbles your yeast is making.If youre using only rye flour or a coarse whole wheat, you might see air bubbles foaming up but not really rising much. This means your starter is alive, but theres no net to trap the bubbles. If this is the case, when you next feed your starter, use high gluten flour. Thoroughly mix the preferment to develop the gluten network and age the starter for another 24 hours. You should see a big difference in height.If youre making a starter from scratch, use my recipe above, which replaces half of the total flour measurement with high gluten flour, leaving the other half as rye or whole wheat.How to feed a sourdough starterOnce youve got a strong bubbling starter, you can use it all right away, or you can age it. Im sure youve heard of folks talk of keeping their starter alive for years or decades, sometimes longer. The key to keeping the starter, or mother, alive for long periods of time is to feed it every day so it doesnt die. I used half of my sourdough start and fed the other half. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann The right ratio to feed your sourdough "mother"To feed the starter, youll need to mix in its total weight in additional flour and water. This means if your starter weighs 10 ounces, youll add five ounces of water and five ounces of high-gluten flour, for a total of 10 ounces of food. Then youll have 20 ounces of starter.You can see how this amount would quickly get out of hand if you just kept doubling your starter every day for three days. Most folks opt to feed half and discard the other half, so the weight stays the same as the flavor deepens. However, if youre planning on making eight sourdough boules next week, maybe youll need a large amount of starter, so you might not discard any right away. Whatever amount you eventually need, you want equal amounts of mother starter and new stuff every time you feed it.The steps to feed a sourdough starter1. Use your kitchen scale so you know how much weight you need to add. Measure out as much starter as you need into a mixing bowl. The other half of the starter gets discarded. Throw it away, or make something with it right away. (More on that in a moment.)2. Add an equal parts ratio of water to high gluten flour to the mixing bowl. Again, if youre using eight ounces of starter, add equal parts water and flourso four ounces each for a total of eight ouncesto the bowl. Mix it thoroughly so no dry patches remain.3. Put it back in the jar and cover it. Leave it at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours before feeding it again or using it.Using your sourdough starterInstead of discarding half your starter, you can use it to make something. As long as its at the height of its bubble production (its potency fades if it needs to be fed again), it can be used in a bread recipe, pancake recipe, biscuits, crepes, crumpets, or crackersanything you can dream up.When youre ready to use the starter for real, whether its the waste portion or the entire amount, you want to time it for peak potency. That will be approximately 12 to 24 hours after the last feeding. After caring for your starter for a couple days, youll begin to understand when that window opens and closes. Its at the height of its growth before deflating, actively making the most bubbles before wearing out. Youll get the best performance from your starter during this time.If youre still intimidated by a 100% sourdough starter bread recipe, remember that it can be used as a flavor enhancer for recipes with quick-acting yeast too. Search for recipes that include both starter and commercial yeast for speed, like this one from King Arthur Baking.If theres anything you should take away from this troubleshooting guide, its that there are a lot of variables in nursing a sourdough starter, and its okay if yours doesnt come out right the first time. Be patient, dont give up, and dont forget to feed your mother.

I truly thought this would be the year the world would see its first stair-climbing robot vacuum cleaner: While the Dreame X50 Ultra, announced today at CES, is being written about that way, it turns out that it can only climb "stairs" if the steps in question are under two inches tall. Rather, the Dreame X50 is a threshold-climbing robot, which might be less exciting, but is still useful.The X50 has a lot of new tech under the hood. This robot has 20,000Pa suction: For context, while suction power numbers have exploded this year, many robot vacuums that I think do an exceptional job, do so with less than 12,000Pa. Theres a limit to how much suction can actually help, and at least one executive has admitted to me that this number rises primarily because consumers generally choose the vacuum with the highest Pa. Still, more suction certainly couldnt hurt.As is happening with many other robots, the X50 is beginning to transition away from LiDAR exclusively by adding cameras into the mix. LiDAR uses light to measure space in front of the robot, but it does so with less precision than cameras do, and LiDAR requires the familiar round button on top of more robot vacuums. In the case of the X50, the LiDAR tower is still present, but can retract when needed, to go under low spaces like your couch. At that point, the robot relies solely on RGB cameras with advanced AI power. Companies are leveraging AI to identify objects so the robot knows to avoid them.Featurewise, all robots this year are hyper-focused on detangling brushes. This makes sense, since the rollers and brushes often become tangled not only with hair, but random strings, rug threads, and detritus on the ground. This means you have to pick the robot up, detangle it, and pull out the rollers. Dreame has an extending arm for their brush and two rollers, and while that isnt particularly new, the rollers can spin in reverse, which should help with detangling. Dreame has received TV certification for 100% detangling.But lets talk about the exciting part: The Dreame X50 Ultra has legs under the vacuum that can lift the front of the vacuum up over obstacles as much as two inches high. This may not seem like a lot, but the product team has managed to continually improve that height, so it seems reasonable to hope that stairs are coming someday soon. So what does two inches get you? It can climb over power cords, a small shoe, or a rolled-up rug edge.Most importantly, it can climb over one heck of a thresholdthat transition between rooms or floor typesso it can access parts of the house it couldn't have reached on its own before.The Dreame X50 Ultra will retail for $1,699, and will be available for pre-order Jan. 7, in advanced of a Valentine's Day release.

Apple will soon update Apple Intelligence notification summaries to make it clearer that theyre AI-generated. (The feature currently uses a small icon to denote their AI-generated status.) The BBC complained to the company after discovering several bogus summaries that twisted the content of some BBC headlines. On Monday, Apple told Engadget that the update will arrive in the coming weeks.Apple Intelligence is designed to help users get everyday tasks done faster and more easily, an Apple spokesperson wrote in a statement to Engadget. This includes optional notification summaries, which provide users who choose to opt in a way to briefly view information from apps and tap into the full details whenever they choose. These are identified by a summarization icon, and the original content is a quick tap away. Apple Intelligence features are in beta and we are continuously making improvements with the help of user feedback. A software update in the coming weeks will further clarify when the text being displayed is summarization provided by Apple Intelligence. We encourage users to report a concern if they view an unexpected notification summary.The BBC flagged several botched AI notification summaries in multiple reports over the last month accusing the phony summaries of spreading misinformation. One falsely claimed that Luigi Mangione, the accused murderer of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself. Other erroneous summaries said that a darts player had won a world championship before playing in the final (maybe hes just that good!), and that tennis superstar Rafael Nadal had come out as gay.Notification summaries are one of the features from the first wave of Apple Intelligence that arrived in iOS (and iPadOS) 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1. A second phase, bringing ChatGPT integration and Image Playground, came in iOS (and iPadOS) 18.2 and macOS 15.2.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/apple-will-more-clearly-label-apple-intelligence-notification-summaries-soon-215159614.html?src=rss

TiVo is back...sort of. Xperi, the owner of the TiVo brand as of 2019, announced at CES 2025 that TiVo OS will be available in the US for the first time on Sharp TVs. The storied TV brand was last seen stateside as the TiVo Stream 4K, a $50 streaming dongle. This new software push makes TiVo the main interface of participating affordable TVs, and puts it in direct competition with Roku's operating system."The Sharp Smart TV Powered by TiVo" is a pretty standard TV for 2025, with an "Ultra High Definition and High Dynamic Range 55 QLED screen," according to Xperi, and three HDMI ports for connecting various accessories. It's big differentiator is TiVo OS. The operating system aggregates content from streaming services, linear TV channels, and sports packages, and gives users access to "a vast library of free and paid content," Xperi says. The OS also supports "natural voice navigation" and "advanced search and recommendation capabilities." Nothing too revolutionary when compared to the competition, but TiVo's at least known for making user-friendly ways of navigating TV content.TiVo OS was originally announced in 2022, but TVs using the operating system didn't start shipping until 2023, and only in Europe. Sharp's TV will be the first new TiVo product in the US since the launch of the TiVo dongle. It doesn't exactly feel like a triumphant return, but to a certain kind of home theater aficionado, the TiVo name still means a lot, and Sharp is poised to take advantage of it.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/tivo-os-is-coming-to-the-us-on-sharp-tvs-213938244.html?src=rss

During CES 2025, I had a chance to check out a demo of the way Google is integrating Gemini capabilities into its smart home platform via devices like the Nest Audio, Nest Hub and Nest Cameras. The main takeaway is that the conversations you have with the Google Assistant will feel more natural. Personally, I'd appreciate being able to ask questions as they pop in my head, without having to formulate some Assistant-friendly sentence before speaking what I saw makes me feel like my wish could come true. To kick things off, you'll still say "Hey Google," but for follow-up questions you can skip the prompt and the Assistant will be able to hold on to the thread of your conversation. During the demonstration, held in a simulated (and very posh) kitchen, the Google representative asked things like what to cook with ingredients he had on hand (chicken and spinach). On the Nest Audio, the Assistant rattled off a few recipe ideas (creamy chicken and spinach, chicken and spinach stir fry). On the Nest Hub, the rep was able to play a song he didn't know the name of by asking, "Hey Google, what's the song from Wicked where they're dancing in the library?" The Assistant named the song and played it after a follow up prompt. Possibly the most impressive trick I saw was the case of the missing cookies. The rep asked the Nest Hub the question, "Hey Google, what happened to the cookies on the counter?" Pulling footage from a connected Nest Cam, the Hub displayed a dog walking into a kitchen, swiping a cookie and scampering off. The Assistant meanwhile narrated the context of the video saying, "A dog jumped on the counter and looked at the cookies on December 12th at 1:29PM." Of course, this was a pre-recorded clip, as there was sadly no dog in the demonstration kitchen. The video analysis adds to tech already available with the Nest Cam, like familiar face recognition and builds on features that were launched in beta last year where you could type questions into the Google Home app, asking things like, "Did my FedEx package get delivered?" The update here is that you'll be able to ask these things using your voice and see relevant clips on the Hub. Unfortunately I wasn't able to ask questions of my own as both the speaker and display were keyed to the Google rep's voice. Each question was followed by a one or two second pause as, I assume, the Assistant gathered/synthesized/analyzed the information (or whatever AI does) before answering. Of course, the Assistant can still do all of the basic tasks it always has set timers and reminders, play music and videos and control smart home routines. The Google reps were sure point out that this isn't a replacement of the Google Assistant, but an enhancement with Gemini. Having used all three of the major smart home assistants fairly extensively, I've found the Google Assistant is best at accessing and delivering general information, but Alexa was better at smart home control and understanding me overall (for the record, Siri is best at frustrating me). With this new Gemini integration, the Google Assistant may be in a good position to overtake Alexa in that department. These Gemini-improved improvements will be coming to Nest Aware subscribers in a public preview later this year. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/gemini-ai-smarts-are-coming-to-google-home-to-make-the-assistant-a-better-conversationalist-213644481.html?src=rss