The so-called “iPhone Air” is apparently on the way, despite Apple remaining characteristically tight-lipped about such a device.  Numerous leaks have suggested that the iPhone Air, which is expected to launch this fall along with the iPhone 17, will be just 5.5mm thick, making it easily Apple’s slimmest handset yet.  Recommended Videos With that in mind, many are curious to see how well the device stands up to the highly unscientific bend test meted out by tech YouTuber Zack Nelson of the popular JerryRigEverything channel. Whenever a high-profile handset hits the market, it’s not long before Nelson puts it through a wince-inducing stress test that includes scratching, scraping, burning, and, right at the end, bending. Over the years, at least five smartphones have succumbed to Nelson’s notorious bend test, which involves nothing more than bending the device with his bare hands. Several handsets, like the One Plus 10 Pro, have snapped clean in two. And yes, it’s always an excruciating watch. In 2023, Nelson managed to shatter the glass back of the iPhone 15 Pro Max. “You’ve been watching me durability test smartphones for about 11 years now, and most phones do not break,” Nelson said at the time. “iPhones especially do not break … like, ever.” While most folks are unlikely to ever apply the same amount of pressure to their handset — even accidentally — you can bet that Apple has been working hard on ways to ensure that the Air avoids a repeat of the so-called “bendgate” scandal that hit the iPhone 6 and larger iPhone 6 Plus in 2014.   The issue was linked to the phone’s larger size and thinner aluminum frame, with weak points near the volume buttons and antenna lines causing the phone to bend, especially when carried around in a tight pocket. The tech giant will be doing what it can to ensure the iPhone 17 Air retains its structural integrity despite its ultra-thin design, though we’ll have to wait until the phone’s launch to fully understand how Apple has designed it to meet the challenge. Even then, it kind of feels like a dead cert that the iPhone Air will fail Nelson’s rather harsh test, with the likelihood being that the device will crack and crunch, and possibly even splinter and shatter, before disintegrating in his hands. Then again, perhaps we’ll be pleasantly surprised …

Imagine a tool that takes an image of whatever appears on your computer’s screen, saves it locally, and lets you access it all like a time machine. A magical looking glass for the computing past. That’s essentially what Microsoft’s Recall is all about. Yet, when it was first introduced, it stirred up a security storm. Microsoft pulled its release plans, fortified the security guardrails, and relaunched it a few weeks ago. This time around, Recall got a minor-but-amazingly practical upgrade. The best part? Instead of having you scrub through a long timeline of pictures, you can simply search through the entire activity history with words. Recommended Videos All those perks come at a steep processing price, both in terms of system resources and AI chops. So much that the only machines that support Recall need a Copilot+ branding and a processor launched within the past year, or so. The experience, however, is shockingly good.  What is Recall? Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends In Microsoft’s words, Recall lets you “quickly find and jump back into what you have seen before on your PC.” But before any of that happens, do keep in mind that it’s an opt-in process, and when you enable it, you need to biometrically verify your identity (face unlock or fingerprint scan) to access the history. Next, your PC must meet the system requirements, too. For recall, you need a Copilot+ PC that has a dedicated AI chip offering over 40 TOPS output, 16GB of RAM, 256GB storage (of which 50GB must be free at the very minimum), active device encryption, and Windows Hello sign-in enabled.  Recall is also tied deeply to your web browsing activity, and as such, it needs a compatible browser. Broadly, it works with Chromium-based options, such as Edge, Chrome, Opera, and Firefox. But why are browsers important when Recall is essentially saving your entire screen activity?  Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends First, it doesn’t log screenshots of your incognito or private mode browsing. More importantly, you can limit it from saving screenshots of certain websites, using a system of filters. Think of your banking activities or secure communications.  Likewise, you can also exclude certain apps from getting visually cataloged into a digital ledger. Those exceptions are extremely important, especially for folks who think the idea of a “snapshot everything” tool is too risky. For the sake of privacy, I disabled Recall for WhatsApp to protect my personal chats and Adobe Reader, because I regularly handle confidential papers. You can choose to pause/resume Recall’s snapshot gathering — briefly or permanently – from a dedicated shortcut in the system tray. How does it help me? Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends Microsoft is selling the idea of Recall as a photographic memory for your PC. The idea is almost loathsome for any normal person who despises the concept of all their computing activity being recorded in the form of crisp snapshots. AI skeptics would absolutely run away from it.  I, a man of forgetful ways and critic of poorly-designed apps, love this. My daily routine entails reading and writing words. Lots and lots of them. From long articles in Docs and notes in a tiny scratchpad to detailed pitches in email and daily chat with work colleagues, most of my waking time revolves around words.  I believe I have a decent memory of events, but not so much with exact terms like “Embargoed until May 16, 6AM PT / 9AM CET” or “Microsoft meeting with John scheduled for April 9. Does 6AM ET or 5PM ET sound good?” It’s not scientifically possible either to remember it all, even though I have a vague recollection of the main event.  Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends This is where Windows Recall and its image recognition come to the rescue in a very controlled fashion. I remember having a brief chat with a source named John,  but couldn’t quite remember where the transcripts were saved. I went back to Recall, looked up the name, and found just what I was looking for. From the looks of the snapshot, it was a browser tab, but I no longer had it active. This is where Recall offered two routes to recover it. First, it offered an outbound URL button to open the webpage in a browser. Alternatively, the Click To Do system lets me copy-paste the conversation directly from the saved snapshot. Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends It even pulled information from a diagnostic test and directly guided me to Microsoft’s official Get Help dashboard with a single click. That’s impressive stuff.  Depending on the content you have selected in a Recall snapshot, you will also see contextual actions such as summarizing or rewriting the text passage. You can directly choose to open it in Notepad, or pick from any app of your choice.  Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends For example, I was recently looking up a recipe and forgot to bookmark it. With Recall, I recovered it and directly moved the wall of text to Copilot, where it was neatly rewritten across headings and bullet points, like a cookbook. These impressive capabilities are driven by Optical Character Recognition (OCR), powered by the AI accelerator chip on a Windows machine. Everything you search in Recall is processed contextually, and the results you are shown are divided across text and images. Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends The safety protocols Microsoft has also built a set of safety features around sensitive information. For example, it won’t save details such as license, credit card, account, personal identification, tax filing, citizen registration, and license numbers. I tried two of my banking operators and a government website where my national identity card copies are accessible, and they didn’t appear in the Recall snapshots. The list covers a healthy bunch of documents used across North America, Europe, and Asian countries, but it’s not all-encompassing.  Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends For the sake of added precaution, you can open such web portals in incognito mode or private windows. Alternatively, you can simply set those websites within Recall’s filters, and their snapshots will never be saved in the first place.  Furthermore, the Recall app will give you an option to delete all images belonging to a certain website or app, in one go. Finally, there is an auto-delete function, where you can set the erase all snapshots at a cadence of 30, 60, 90, and 180 days. Of course, you can wipe the slate clean at your own discretion. Another huge respite for me? The poor search system in apps. From Slack to Google Drive, the search system in these platforms often leaves me frustrated. Plus, if you don’t pay for a premium, the free user limits mean you lose your chat data due to the auto-delete protocols.  Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends Recall offers a fantastic way to not just overcome the poor search system in virtually any app that runs on your computer, but also does a much better job at it. It fared better at helping me find the right Docs file in a list of thousands that I have hoarded over the years and refuse to delete. Contextual understanding is a huge benefit here. For example, if you work across different apps, the search results at the top will let you narrow down the results. For example, you can only look for an item in Outlook if a match is found in the email client, among a bunch of other apps. This approach saves a lot of time.  Why are experts spooked?  Security experts are skeptical about the idea, and rightfully so. Nick Hyatt, Director of Threat Intelligence at Blackpoint Cyber, told me that Recall is a great idea, but also an awful one for a lot of reasons.  Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends He pointed out how the feature logs every single aspect of your digital life, from personal communications to files and what you look up on the web. The stakes are even higher for situations such as domestic abuse. “A categorized, searchable database of every activity conducted by a user could literally result in people dying should attempts to get help be discovered,” Hyatt pointed out. Plus, the cyber threat ecosystem is an ever-evolving field, so the risks persist.  Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends “Recall will be heavily targeted by attackers because of the goldmine of user data it contains,” Nate Warfield, Director of Threat Research & Intelligence at Eclypsium, told Digital Trends. “The repercussions of being able to steal what is essentially a complete history of what a user does on their machine are near impossible to comprehend.”  Jeff Williams, co-founder and CTO at Contrast Security, expressed confidence in the kind of security protections Microsoft has put in place for Recall. It is encrypted and lives behind biometric authentication.  Even if you are running it in the background and randomly pull up the dashboard, you will only be able to see the timeline after going through the security check. “For now, I don’t see how this is much more risky than log files stored locally,” Williams pointed out, adding that only extensive penetration testing will reveal the real picture of Recall.  Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends For an average user like me, I believe Recall is a deeply rewarding feature. And yes, every layer of security that is added to the system is a welcome change. The risk of infostealers and malware with OCR capabilities will persist, but going past the Recall guardrails won’t be easy, especially with safety features such as just-in-time decryption. You can always stay a step ahead and block Recall from logging your activity across specific websites and apps to be on the safe side. You can go with the auto-delete protocol, or even batch delete all snapshots from a certain website or app from Recall, in case you didn’t already filter it out. In the wake of my tests, I found Recall to be one of the most practically rewarding AI features, right up there with Deep Research. What it really needs is to bring down the access walls (read: price), or wait for Copilot+ PCs to get a bit cheaper. The new 12-inch Microsoft Surface Pro is a great start, but more brands need to follow suit. 

Apple TV+ appears to have another critical success on its hands. Murderbot, which stars Alexander Skarsgard as a sentient robot who is trying to hide his sentience, is receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews and is being praised for its sharp, funny tone. If you like Murderbot and are looking for other shows that scratch the same itch, we’ve got you covered. We pulled together this list of three sci-fi shows like Murderbot that are worth watching. Recommended Videos Mrs. Davis (2023) If you’d like to watch something that establishes a similar whimsical tone as Murderbot, then Mrs. Davis Anchored by a remarkable central performance from Betty Gilpin, Mrs. Davis is wild and ambitious in ways that few shows manage to be. In an era where AI has become increasingly prevalent in the world around us, Mrs. Davis feels more relevant than ever. You can watch Mrs. Davis on Peacock. Silo (2023-) It’s admittedly much more serious than Murderbot, but Silo builds the same kind of expansive and interesting world as that show. It’s riveting in its own right. The series is set inside of a silo where 10,000 people live. Although they have been led to believe that the world outside is decimated or unsafe, some people begin to believe that the entire world around them is nothing more than a lie. As the leaders of the silo try to maintain order, they face a populace that is becoming more and more restless and is looking around for someone to blame. Rebecca Ferguson is brilliant at the center of this series, and the show knows how to maintain intrigue as its plot unfolds. You can watch Silo on Apple TV+. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022-) Star Trek: Strange New Worlds exists to remind you just how fun Star Trek can be. The series, which is technically a prequel to the original show, follows the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise as they explore new worlds and travel the galaxy. Starring Anson Mount, the show has exactly the right combination of silliness and stakes, and, above all else, the show knows how to create stories that are fun to watch. Murderbot’s sense of humor is undeniably a little bit darker than Strange New Worlds, but if you’re looking for something with some whimsy, Star Trek has you covered. You can watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds on Paramount+.

Apple’s macOS operating system has changed a lot over the last 25 years, with new features and designs coming and going as the decades have passed. Even the name has been adjusted, starting out as Mac OS X before shortening to OS X and eventually settling on macOS. The world the original version inhabited back in 2000 is very different to today. Including the initial public beta, Apple has released 22 versions of the Mac operating system so far, with new launches becoming an annual occurrence. But it wasn’t always this way, and there have been some fascinating updates and developments in the time since the first version appeared. Let’s see how macOS has changed over the years. Recommended Videos Mac OS X Public Beta (2000) Blake Patterson / Flickr The world’s first glimpse of what was then called Mac OS X came in 2000 with the launch of the Mac OS X Public Beta. Codenamed Kodiak, this preview version cost $29.95 and was intended to gather feedback from users. The biggest advance over previous Mac-based operating systems was the introduction of the famous blue-and-gray Aqua user interface, which Steve Jobs touted as looking so good you wanted to lick it. Aside from that, it introduced the Dock, the menu bar, and protected memory, as well as a host of apps still in use today, such as Mail, Preview, QuickTime, Terminal, and TextEdit. Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah (2001) DavzTheEditGuy / Wikimedia The Mac OS X Public Beta only lasted six months, with Apple launching the first version of its new operating system – Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah – in spring 2001. Given that it was a full release and not a beta, Cheetah cost $129. It continued to use the Aqua interface, and its bubbly blue buttons and translucent menus instantly became iconic. Yet it was riddled with issues, including poor performance (even on machines that met the minimum spec), freezes, kernel panics, and more. There was a disappointing lack of third-party Mac apps, and some people complained that those shiny new interfaces were hard to use. That all coalesced into a feeling that Cheetah was simply undercooked and not ready for prime time. While its visual style was a revelation and created the playbook for future OS X releases, it probably needed a little more time in the oven before launching. Mac OS X 10.1 Puma (2001) Apple Another six months later, Mac OS X 10.1 (codenamed Puma internally at Apple) was released. This came with a number of features that were missing from Mac OS X 10.10, including DVD playback, greater support for third-party printers, an Image Capture app for exporting pictures from digital cameras and scanners, and more. There were also plenty of performance enhancements. This included faster 3D output, a more capable version of AppleScript, and more user-friendly file handling. Performance was also improved across the entire operating system. Although Puma cost $129 to new users, it was released as a free update for anyone who had purchased Cheetah. In January 2002, Apple announced it would be the default Mac operating system, replacing Mac OS 9. Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar (2002) Apple Although past versions of Mac OS X had used codenames (like Cheetah and Puma), those titles were intended for internal use only. Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar, on the other hand, was the first to use its codename publicly, giving users a much easier way to remember its name than a string of numbers. Arriving a year after Puma, Jaguar added a slew of quality-of-life features. The Finder gained a search box, Quartz Extreme improved responsiveness by offloading graphics compositing to your Mac’s graphics card, while the introduction of Universal Access made the system much more usable for disabled customers. Although Jaguar remained a $129 purchase for general users, Apple gave it away for free to all US K-12 teachers. Mac OS X 10.3 Panther (2003) Apple When Mac OS X 10.3 Panther came out in October 2003, its main focus was on performance. Here, Apple improved Preview’s PDF rendering abilities, brought quicker compile times to Xcode, added FileVault for on-the-fly encryption and decryption, and more. The update also came with better compatibility with Microsoft Windows apps and features. But there was more to it than that. It also featured the most extensive user interface update since the first version of Mac OS X. Finder was revamped with a new brushed-metal look and a customizable sidebar, the Exposé window manager was added, as was fast user switching and built-in fax support. Mac OS X 10.3 Panther lasted a full 18 months until it was replaced, giving it a more significant shelf life than previous Mac OS X releases. Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger (2005) Wylve / Wikimedia Apple boasted that Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger came with over 200 new features when it launched in April 2005, and it brought with it several tools and apps that are still used by Mac fans today. That includes Spotlight, Smart Folders, Smart Mailboxes in the Mail app, VoiceOver, and Automator. Among the other important new features was the Dashboard, which lasted 12 years until it was discontinued. Tiger was also the first Mac operating system to work with Intel processors, as Apple announced the transition from PowerPC chips to Intel processors during its lifetime. To facilitate the move, Apple included the Rosetta compatibility layer in Tiger, which allowed PowerPC apps to run on Intel hardware. Apple continued to use Intel chips until the debut of the M1 chip in 2020, which heralded the start of the Apple silicon era. Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard (2007) Apple Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard was promoted by Apple as “the largest update of Mac OS X,” and this was due to its inclusion of over 300 new features. Among them were a new visual appearance with skeuomorphic icons and reflective aspects, fresh features in Mail, Finder and iChat, plus plenty of security patches. Apple also pre-loaded Time Machine, desktop Spaces and Boot Camp with compatible Macs. Existing apps like Photo Booth, Safari, Spotlight and Front Row were reworked and improved. And there were other new features, such as the Quick Look file preview framework and Back to My Mac, which allowed MobileMe users to access the files on their home computer while away from their desk. Leopard had support for both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs, and was the last release to run on PowerPC chips. After that, Apple went all-in on Intel, marking the start of a new era for the Mac. Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (2009) FHKE / Flickr When Apple brought those 300 changes to Leopard in 2007, there was a sense that the company had overstretched itself, with many of the features working poorly and requiring fixes. To put things right, Apple launched Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard in 2009 as a “no new features” update, with the sole focus on improving what came before. To that end, Apple made plenty of small-but-significant adjustments. For instance, clean installs would leave much more free space compared to Leopard, Time Machine backups took less time to complete, and Finder was more responsive thanks to being extensively rewritten. The overall system was made faster and more reliable compared to its predecessor, too, while the Mac OS X 10.6.6 update introduced the Mac App Store for the first time. In terms of hardware, Snow Leopard could support greater amounts of memory, dual-core processor compatibility was improved, and GPU performance was stepped up. OS X 10.7 Lion (2011) Tony Nguyen / Flickr Ever use the Launchpad to view your installed apps in macOS? If so, you can thank OS X 10.7 Lion for that, as it was the operating system version that introduced that feature. It also expanded the use of multi-touch gestures on the Mac, and added Mission Control, which combined the previously separate Dashboard, Spaces, Exposé, and fullscreen apps. Aside from what was actually in its software, Lion had a few other notable changes. It dropped the “Mac” from its name, becoming simply OS X 10.7 Lion. It was also the first OS X version to not support 32-bit processors, and it also ended support for PowerPC chips by coming without the Rosetta translation layer. OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion (2012) Masaru Kamikura / Flickr Like Snow Leopard, Mountain Lion was another “refinement” release that aimed to improve on its predecessor and ramp up the usability of the operating system. And it succeeded in a big way, almost immediately being recognized as a major enhancement over OS X 10.7 Lion.f Compared to Lion, Mountain Lion was far more stable and pleasant to use. But it didn’t just put right past mistakes — it added a boatload of new features. Notification Center was the most prominent addition, but Messages and Notes came across from iOS, while system features like Power Nap and AirPlay Mirroring also made their debuts. Mountain Lion showed that Apple could refine its operating systems and add new features, and that combination proved to be a winner at the time. OS X 10.9 Mavericks (2013) Apple With OS X 10.9 Mavericks, Apple stopped naming its Mac operating system updates after big cats and instead switched to locations in its native California. Notably, it was also a free upgrade for anyone running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or later on a Mac with a 64-bit Intel chip. As with Mountain Lion, Mavericks brought across more features from iOS, including the Maps and iBooks apps. Tabs were added to Finder, and Safari was sped up thanks to better JavaScript performance. There were also improvements to multi-monitor setups and performance under the hood. At the time, Mavericks was seen as a gradual evolution of the Mac operating system, although it wasn’t without its critics. However, some of the biggest praise went to its price tag: it was totally free, marking a trend that continues to this day. OS X 10.10 Yosemite (2014) Apple OS X 10.10 Yosemite featured the first major visual overhaul of the Mac operating system in years. Gone were the skeuomorphic apps of the Steve Jobs era, replaced by flat icons and translucent design elements that are still in use today (albeit with some alterations). That followed the moves made by iOS 7 in 2013, which also dropped its skeuomorphic touches. It also enabled Apple to show off the tight integration of its iPhone and Mac products with a new feature called Handoff. With this enabled, you could answer an iPhone call on your Mac, or start editing a document on one device and then finish it on another. A change that was less well received was the replacement of the iPhoto and Aperture apps with Photos. The former two apps had loyal followings, and even today you’ll find Apple users who lament their demise. OS X 10.11 El Capitan (2015) Digital Trends As we’ve seen, every now and then Apple releases a “refinement” update to the Mac operating system, and OS X 10.11 El Capitan was one such case. That meant a plethora of small fixes and improvements, including a better user interface in the Notes app, . System Integrity Protection was also brought in for stronger security. But El Capitan wasn’t totally devoid of new features. You could now get public transport directions in the Maps app, there were new window-management features, and Mission Control was tweaked and enhanced. The Metal API was also added from iOS 8 to enhance performance in games and pro apps. All these small adjustments resulted in a positive reception for El Capitan, with praise offered for its stability and functionality. macOS 10.12 Sierra (2016) Digital Trends When you think back to macOS 10.12 Sierra, perhaps the most obvious thing you’ll remember is the name. It was the first time Apple used the “macOS” branding, dropping OS X and bringing its Mac naming style in line with that of its other systems (such as iOS and tvOS). But that’s not what made it a great release. Sierra is one of the best versions of macOS because of what it introduced. That includes Siri on the Mac, Auto Unlock to unlock your Mac using an Apple Watch, and Night Shift, which automatically reduced blue light late at night. There was Picture in Picture and the Universal Clipboard, plus the first look at the APFS file system that modernized Mac storage. Sierra was an important release both on the surface and under the hood, with a bunch of features that are still well-loved today. It was an impressive way to kick off the macOS era. macOS 10.13 High Sierra (2017) Jayce Wagner / Digital Trends In 2017, macOS 10.13 High Sierra was released with the intention of polishing much of what arrived a year earlier in Sierra. To that end, Apple put the emphasis on speeding up performance and solidifying the system’s stability, although there were a handful of new features in apps like Photos, Mail and Safari. Unfortunately, High Sierra was affected by a number of serious security issues that dented its reputation. There was the infamous “root” problem, for example, which let anyone enter the username “root” on the login screen, then log in to the all-powerful root account without even requiring a password. Other issues included problems with external monitor connections and lagging animations likely caused by a last-minute Metal 2 update. macOS 10.14 Mojave (2018) Digital Trends While macOS Sierra was the start of a new era, macOS 10.14 Mojave was the last of its kind. It was the final version of macOS to support 32-bit apps, and as such is cherished by a small subset of users who could not or would not update their apps to run on 64-bit operating systems. There was much more to Mojave than that, though. It was the first version to feature Dark Mode, which people still love today. Huge piles of files on your desktop could be grouped into Stacks, making things appear much neater (even if they actually weren’t). The App Store was totally remade and got editorial content, while a handful of apps were transferred from iOS to the Mac (although they were far from perfect at the time). Mojave was one of those editions that never really screamed and shouted to get attention, yet its consistency and thoughtful, incremental changes made it a firm favorite. As the old Steve Jobs adage went, “It just works.” Sometimes, that’s just what you’re looking for. macOS 10.15 Catalina (2019) Digital Trends Released in 2019, macOS Catalina wasn’t a terrible launch for Apple. It had plenty of positives, including the introduction of Sidecar and Find My, better security features, and more. But if you’ve used Catalina, there’s one thing that probably makes all that seem irrelevant: its incredibly annoying pop-ups. Let’s say you’ve got an app that you’ve told to open a file on your desktop. Catalina would insist you needed to grant it permission first, then did the same for every single other app that wanted to do the same. The alerts would often appear even when the app didn’t seem to be trying to do anything at all. They were a constant barrage of irritating distractions, akin to Windows’ much-mocked User Account Control pop-ups. Just trying to use your Mac in a normal way became annoying. Apple has always prided itself on the security of its Macs, but this was one case where it swung wildly away from convenience and too far into security territory. Fortunately, it seems to have found a much better balance these days. macOS 11 Big Sur (2020) Digital Trends Six years after Yosemite, macOS 11 Big Sur introduced another major design overhaul, with a new look that featured major changes to first-party apps, design elements like windows and the Dock, and remade system sounds. It also changed the macOS naming convention to drop the incremental 10.x style and instead use full integers. Big Sur wasn’t just about the visuals, though. Time Machine was revamped, Control Center was added, and the Notification Center was redesigned. Big Sur was also the first version of macOS to support Apple silicon chips, a significant alteration in the Mac’s history. macOS 12 Monterey (2021) Digital Trends Big Sur was always going to be a tough act to follow, but macOS 12 Monterey acquitted itself well. It added features like Universal Control (which lets you control multiple devices using a single mouse and keyboard) and Focus modes that are much loved today. It also ported the Shortcuts app across from iOS and iPadOS, giving far more power to users to create automated workflows. That’s not all. Live Text let you highlight words and phrases in images, while Low Power Mode helped save your MacBook’s battery and extend its life. SharePlay, Portrait mode and noise cancelation were all added to FaceTime, Visual Look Up let you identify plants and animals in photos, and AirPlay was tweaked with better streaming options for iOS and iPadOS content. Overall, then, there was a lot to like about macOS Monterey. macOS 13 Ventura (2022) Digital Trends Apple likes its whizzy demos, and following the wow factor that came with macOS Monterey’s Universal Control, the company needed a follow-up. It delivered that in macOS 13 Ventura in the form of Continuity Camera, which lets you mount an iPhone on your Mac’s display and use it as a webcam, no extra steps required. But there was more to Ventura than just a cool video-calling feature. System Preferences was renamed to System Settings and given a more logical design, Stage Manager was introduced (to a mixed reception), and native Freeform, Weather and Clock apps were added. It was a solid update with new features that are still well-regarded today. macOS 14 Sonoma (2023) Digital Trends Apple had long had an issue with Mac widgets – since the demise of the Dashboard, it hadn’t found a way to do them justice. In macOS 14 Sonoma, Apple found the solution in the form of widgets that could be placed anywhere on your desktop and interacted with, all without needing to open their companion apps. Sonoma also introduced Game Mode for enhanced gaming performance, added animated wallpapers and screen savers in a variety of styles, and the Lock Screen was redesigned to take on a similar appearance to iOS. It wasn’t the most feature-packed update, but it had enough going for it to be a solid upgrade. macOS 15 Sequoia (2024) Digital Trends With macOS 15 Sequoia came one of Apple’s biggest new features yet: Apple Intelligence. The artificial intelligence (AI) system was meant to revolutionize the way you used your Mac, although its initial rollout was marred by delayed features and subpar performance compared to rivals. Still, there were more positive changes elsewhere, like the introduction of the Passwords app for managing your logins, an iPhone Mirroring feature that lets you directly use your Apple phone on your Mac, and the debut of Math Notes, which can automatically calculate sums and formulae for you in the Notes app. Other new features comprised window tiling, a redesigned Calculator app, the second version of the Game Porting Toolkit, and more.

Following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, the first trailer for Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague has now been released. The film’s title means New Wave in English, and it follows director Jean Luc-Godard as he directs his first feature film, Breathless. That film, which is often considered the beginning of the French New Wave, had an enormous impact on the history of movies more generally. Guillaume Marbeck plays the film’s director, and Zoey Deutch stars as American actress Jean Seberg with Aubry Dullin as her French co-star Jean Paul-Belmondo. The teaser suggests that the film is shot in the same black-and-white style as the original Breathless, and features footage from the film along with French narration that describes what it is. “A pretty boy. A pretty girl. Paris 1959. A gym. A director. A camera. Film. A producer. An ingénue. Stars. Money. An American star. An American car,” the female narrator says. This is not the first time that Linklater has gone back into the history of film to forage material for his own work. His 2008 film Me and Orson Welles had a similar premise, and followed a young man who gets a small role in the famous director’s 1937 stage production of Julius Caesar. Recommended Videos Nouvelle Vague reportedly got an 11-minute standing ovation following its Cannes premiere. While those ovations don’t always strictly correlate with the quality of a given movie, you’d rather have a long ovation than a short one. We won’t know for sure how good the movie actually is until it hits theaters in October 8.

My first memory of the Nintendo Switch is about as mundane as it gets. I don’t recall unboxing it, powering it on for the first time, or bringing it to a rooftop party. Instead, I see myself sitting in my ex’s living room on a random weekday. As they cooked, I sat quietly as I climbed atop of my first Divine Beast in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.  I don’t remember this because it was a triumphant achievement that showed off what kind of spectacle my new next-gen console could pull off; I remember it because I was very depressed. Recommended Videos While Nintendo was starting a meteoric rise in March 2017, I was hurtling towards the ground faster than Link with a depleted stamina wheel. I had just come off a stressful election year marred by a wave of beloved celebrity deaths. The world felt like it was coming to an end, an alarmist thought that especially felt true as a new administration wreaked havoc on the United States come March. My personal life wasn’t going much better. My ambitions were non-existent and I was locked into a day job career that I never wanted. I was becoming more despondent by the day and I could sense that a breakup was imminent. It would be months until I’d go to therapy for the first time in my life, so all of this pent up anxiety that I tried to keep quiet bled into my Joy-cons as I gripped onto them for dear life. Nintendo I find myself reflecting on this small moment now as the Nintendo Switch 2’s June 5 release date looms. For the first time in eight years, I’ll unbox a brand new Nintendo console on that day. Its internal storage will be empty. My Samus avatar won’t greet me when I boot it up because I won’t have logged into my account yet. The tablet will be a blank canvas that I will fill over the next eight years of my life one download at a time. And though it’s an arbitrary moment in time born from cold boardroom meetings and clinical earnings calls, I see the start of a new console era as an opportunity to reinvent myself too. If I look back through my life, I can map my development by the video game hardware I’ve owned. My Sega Genesis takes me back to the early days of my childhood spent playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with my brother before he got wrapped up in his own teenage  angst. The GameCube conjures countless memories of the formative high school years that I spent bonding with my close friends over rounds of Super Smash Bros. Melee. I’m back in college when I think about the Wii, navigating physicality for the first time in both my relationships at the time and the video games I was playing. Each console, each handheld tells countless stories about where I have been and how I have evolved alongside the tech that followed me there. That now weighs on me as I prepare to power down my Switch for what could be the final time in just a few weeks. My instinct has been to process that moment with a retrospective about the system, reflecting on the games that made it one of the best video game consoles of all time. Instead, I’ve found myself more and more focused on mapping my own generation. Who was I during this eight-year Switch era? What will be the snapshot I see when I think back to Super Mario Odyssey or Fire Emblem: Three Houses? Nintendo The answer doesn’t feel as simple as it once was when I was younger and console generations were shorter. I began that journey at rock bottom, hopeless and floundering amid societal collapse. The Switch would follow me through multiple breakups, several jobs, three apartments, the death of a close friend, and unprecedented moments in history that chipped away at my mental health. Just as the Switch is inseparable from a pandemic that defined its power, I can’t untangle those eight years from the waves of pain and uncertainty that washed over me between new game releases. If the Nintendo Switch 2 had launched in 2020, I’d be able to tell you with relative certainty that the Switch represented the worst years of my life. But eight years is a very long time, much longer than these hardware time capsules usually hang around. A period that long is bound to bring arcs, both for the console and its players. Nintendo kept steady while riding a wave of momentum shifts due to a changing landscape around it, but my ride was different. While I started at the bottom, playing Breath of the Wild as an escape from the world around me, I began to rise. I started therapy and got a better job months after the Switch released, just when everything was at its most hopeless. I made a more serious career pivot in 2020, landing a dream job that put me on the path to a career in video game writing I’d always thought was unobtainable. I eventually landed here at Digital Trends and made a name for myself writing work that I’m proud of. I stumbled my way through relationships only to land into something more secure and healthy. I hit a peak alongside the Switch in 2023, the same year it would release the double whammy of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Bros. Wonder. When I look into my Switch’s display now, catching a glimpse of my reflection in the black screen, I see an era of rebuilding. These were eight years that threw the challenges of adulthood at me and dared me to overcome them. It felt impossible in the moment, but I’m still here. Maybe I’m just looking too closely to find patterns, but I see a direct parallel to that story and Nintendo’s own. Like me, Nintendo was listless in its Wii U era. It had no idea where to go after the Wii’s success, just as I didn’t know how to turn the creative fulfillment of my college days into something sustainable in adulthood. It too was at rock bottom when the Switch released, in desperate need of a second act. Nintendo got one, and so did I. If this is the start of a new era for Nintendo, who’s to say it can’t be another beginning for myself as well? But our lives don’t stay the same for very long. Ahead of the Switch 2’s launch, I find myself in a similar low to the one I was in back in 2017. History has repeated itself as a mentally taxing election year has yielded the same president that made my life hell for the Switch’s first four years on the market. The career I built for myself is one strong wind away from tilting over as games media endures an intense period of contraction, one that destroyed the website that gave me the dream job that catapulted me to success in 2020. Some days, I’m every bit as distant and despondent as I was back then. When I turn on my Switch 2 for the first time in a few weeks, it will feel cyclical in a way that’s bound to leave me overlooking just how much I’ve accomplished between launches. But I’m trying to approach it with a bit more hope this time. If this is the start of a new era for Nintendo, who’s to say it can’t be another beginning for myself as well? I know that I’m capable of climbing out of despair, even as the biggest forces in the world fight against me. There will be change. I will undoubtedly pack my things into 50+ boxes again in between playing levels of the latest Mario game. I will fall out of touch with some friends and gain some new ones. Perhaps I’ll miss Nintendo’s big Switch 3 reveal in 2033 because I’ll be too busy nursing an injured pigeon during my shift at a bird rehabilitation center. Maybe the Switch 3 won’t happen at all as Nintendo moves on to its next bright idea after a disappointing generation that calls for a creative overhaul. I can’t possibly know who I will be the moment I power my Switch 2 down for the last time. All I know is that Mario will probably be there at the finish line, looking not one day older than he does now while I greet him with a grayer beard. I’ll try not to be jealous of his eternal youth — some Italians just age better than others. Instead, I’ll embrace those differences, as grumpy as I no doubt will be in my middle age, as every change will be a sign that I’ve made it through another leg of an ongoing relay race. I’ll be ready to pass the controller to whichever version of me is up next when I get there.

The first time I encountered someone listening to their phone out loud in public, it was on a city bus and I was taken aback for two reasons. First, the volume level on the phone wasn’t just audible to the person sitting next to them; our entire section of the bus could hear it. Second, it was a FaceTime call, and neither the person on the bus, nor their caller seemed to be the slightest bit hesitant to carry on their conversation in public. In fact, they appeared completely oblivious. That was a few years ago. Since then, the problem of listening out loud has gotten much worse. I’ve encountered it in grocery stores, airport lounges, coffee shops, and even when just walking on the sidewalk. And it’s not just phone calls/FaceTime. Music, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram — you name it. If it’s got an audio track, I’ve heard it blaring from the speaker of someone’s phone. During a recent episode of the New York Times’ excellent tech podcast, Hard Fork, a listener referred to the problem as an epidemic, and I don’t think that’s hyperbole. Recommended Videos We all know the solution: just use a set of wired or wireless headphones or earbuds. It’s that simple. Except, maybe it’s not. I’ll give these folks the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they’ve fallen victim to misinformation — myths about headphones and earbuds — and that’s the reason they do what they do. With that in mind, allow me to dispel a few of the more common misunderstandings about headphones and earbuds. They’re too expensive In 2016, when Apple launched the first-gen AirPods, wireless earbuds were indeed pricey gadgets. That was almost a decade ago, and since then, the market for wireless earbuds and headphones has become heavily commoditized. Yes, the biggest brands still sell their best products for hundreds of dollars, but there’s also an ocean of less expensive alternatives that can be had for as little as $20. The affordable products aren’t worth buying Simon Cohen / Digital Trends Five or six years ago, I’d have strongly agreed with that statement. Today, it’s no longer true. Take Moondrop’s Space Travel earbuds as an example. I’ve been using these $30 wireless earbuds for a month and they’re shockingly good for the basics. They’re comfy, they sound great, and they even provide a small amount of active noise cancellation (ANC). They’re also fine for calls, as long as it’s not too windy or noisy. Sure, they’re missing lots of the extras you’ll find on more expensive buds, like wireless charging, Multipoint, and wear sensors. Their battery life is similarly basic at just four hours per charge (12 total when you include their funky, transparent block of a charging case). But the point is, they do what we need every set of earbuds to do and they cost less than an average meal for a family of four at McDonalds. Even if you spend less than $30, the odds are good that they’ll at least sound decent. They may not blow you away, but the days of truly awful sound are behind us. Here’s a list of the best wireless earbuds and headphones under $100. I have an iPhone so I need AirPods Simon Cohen / Digital Trends I’m sure Apple would love it if this were true, but nope. Any set of Bluetooth earbuds or headphones will work with any iPhone. I’ve tested hundreds of these products and I’ve still never found one that wouldn’t connect to my iPhone. I’ve heard it said — even by those who should know better — that if you’re an iPhone owner, you should use AirPods because the connection is more reliable. I don’t know of any studies that demonstrate this and my own experience doesn’t back that belief up. However, it is true that when connection problems occur, they’re more often related to the design and engineering of the earbuds/headphones rather than the phone. And since Apple’s AirPods are — whether you like them or not — very well engineered for connection quality, they may be more reliable than lesser products. I can’t wear earbuds; they’re painful or they just fall out Simon Cohen / Digital Trends Now this is not a myth. A lot of people find it hard or impossible to keep earbuds in their ears simply because of how their anatomy is shaped. The good news is, there are now more options than ever, including the newest category of earbuds known as open-ear earbuds. Typically, earbuds are semi-open, which means they sit in front of your ear canal (but don’t seal it with silicone tips) — think AirPods 4 — or, closed, which do seal the ear canal opening (e.g. AirPods Pro). Both types rely on contact with your ear’s concha to stay put. If you’ve got a tiny concha, or an irregularly shaped concha, these types of earbuds just won’t fit correctly, no matter what you do. However, open-ear earbuds are different. They come in two main styles: earhook and ear clip. Both position their speakers just outside of the ear canal, which eliminates any discomfort associated with having an object up against that area. Earhooks, as the name suggest, wrap around the top of your ear (and provide a very secure fit), while ear clips wrap around the side. If you’ve ever struggled to get a good fit with traditional wireless earbuds, open-ears are a superb alternative. Check out our list of the best open-ear earbuds for some suggested models. Just keep in mind, open-ears are, well, open: they can’t block any external sounds. This can be helpful for staying aware of your surroundings, having conversations with others, and they’re excellent for phone calls because you can hear your own voice naturally. But there will be times where those external noises are annoyingly intrusive — it’s just the nature of the beast. Alternatively, most people find wireless headphones very comfortable. I prefer wired earbuds/headphones but my phone doesn’t have a headphone jack Simon Cohen / Digital Trends It’s true. You’ll be hard pressed to find smartphones with headphone jacks unless you go for a niche product like the Sony Xperia 1 VII or the Moondrop MIAD01, which has not one, but two jacks. But that doesn’t mean you can’t connect a set of wired earbuds or headphones. In fact, you have several options. By far the easiest and most affordable way to go is with a USB-C-to-3.5mm adapter. These tiny and inexpensive accessories plug into your phone’s charging port and turn them into headphone jacks. Inside, each of these adapters has a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), which does the all of the heavy lifting of turning your phone’s digital music into something your headphones can reproduce as sound. These DACs are often basic, rarely exceeding 24-bit/48kHz, but for most folks, that’s more than enough quality. If you’re still rocking an iPhone with a Lightning port, don’t worry — there are plenty of adapters for your phone too. Apple makes one that’s just $10. The only thing to double-check when you go to buy, is whether or not the adapter supports two-way audio, so you can continue using your earbuds’ or headphones’ inline mic for voice calls. A step up from simple adapter is a dedicated external DAC/amp. These devices are aimed at folks who care a great deal about audio quality and can range in price from $50 to $450 and up. Their biggest advantage is that they can process hi-res audio at the highest levels (typically up to 24-bit/192kHz or higher) and many of them are designed to work with audiophile-grade earbuds and headphones, which often require more voltage to sound their best (that’s the amp part). It’s rare for these devices to support two-way audio, so check the specs if that’s important. If you don’t already own a set of wired earbuds or headphones, you may want to look for some that come with a USB-C plug. These are becoming increasingly popular, and they basically stick a DAC with a USB-C plug at the end of their wire. Other than that one feature, they’re the same wired products that we’ve had access to for years, and they frequently include an inline mic and remote buttons. I wish I could say I’m confident that this round of myth-busting will convince all those who listen out loud to change their ways — I suspect that’s unlikely. What I can do is share this brilliant scene from 1986’s Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home as a reminder that this is not a new problem.

Acer is bringing some really impressive computing gear to the Computex event in Taipei this year. From the sleek Swift Edge 14 AI that is nearly half a pound lighter than the MacBook Air to the sleek Predator Triton 14 AI gaming laptop, the company has grabbed quite a few eyeballs. What came as the biggest surprise was Acer’s shift into the direction of wearables, and specifically, smart rings. At the ongoing show, the company revealed Acer FreeSense, a lightweight smart ring that looks pretty neat and comes loaded with health-sensing features, but with a welcome surprise in tow.  Recommended Videos How does Acer’s smart ring stand out?  Acer Acer’s FreeSense doesn’t require a subscription, following in the footsteps of other established players such as Amazfit, Samsung, UltraHuman, RingConn, and more. “Users also have full access to all health data without additional subscription fees, making the FreeSense ring a practical and reliable daily wellness companion,” says Acer. It’s a huge sigh of relief. Oura is one of the biggest names in the smart ring segment. Yet one of the most controversial elements of owning its smart rings is the subscription model. If you’re already paying hundreds of dollars for owning the hardware, paying an extra fee for accessing the full suite of health features makes little sense.  Acer’s FreeSense makes sense Of course, add-on perks such as expert-driven exercise sessions often come at a premium, and that’s a model even the likes of Apple have adopted for their smartwatches. But a subscription is not a must-have, neither in the wrist wearable segment, nor in the smart rings ecosystem. A few days ago, Whoop also faced a similar backlash over its subscription-based upgrade policy reversal and quickly made a course correction.  What else does it offer?  Acer Acer’s FreeSense smart ring weighs just over two grams and comes in seven size options. It is made out of titanium alloy with a vacuum-plated process and PVD coating on top for extra resilience. Color options on the table are rose gold in matte finish and black with glossy polish on top. The build is IP68-certified (5ATM), which means you can take it for a bath without worrying about frying its circuits.  As far as health sensing chops go, it can measure heart rate, heart rate variability, and blood oxygen saturation levels. Sleep analysis is also part of the package, with stage-based breakdown and continuous tracking. Based on the biomarkers it has collected, the companion app will also offer personalized guidance and create comprehensive wellness reports, as well.  Acer hasn’t announced the pricing yet, but it shouldn’t go far beyond the $300-400 bracket, considering the features on offer. The likes of Circular Ring 2 have already integrated ECG measurement and blood pressure sensing at an introductory asking price of $239, though the final sticker price is $549 a pop.

Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni robot vacuum review: superior mopping skills MSRP $1,600.00 Score Details “The Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni features one of the best mopping systems ever used in a robot vacuum.” Pros Innovative mopping system Retractable brushes and mops Self-cleaning dock Anti-tangle vacuuming Cons Expensive Too tall to fit under furniture Ecovacs launched the Deebot X8 Pro Omni earlier this year. Featuring a unique roller mop system, it offered one of the best mopping performances we’d ever seen in a robot vacuum. Now, a few months later, the company has already launched its successor — the Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni. It takes everything we love about the X8 and makes it better, including a new mop-lifting system, enhanced vacuuming system, and a fantastic anti-tangle design that eliminates hair and string from clogging up its brushes. Recommended Videos If you’re looking for a robot vacuum to thoroughly clean hard floors, you can’t go wrong with the Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni. It’s not perfect, but aside from a few minor complaints, the expensive X9 Pro Omni should make a premium addition to any smart home. One of the best mopping systems ever Jon Bitner / Digital Trends I’ve tested dozens of robot vacuums over the years, and I can say without a doubt that the Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni offers one of the best mopping experiences on the market. Known as “OZMO Roller Mopping Technology,” it’s essentially a giant roller brush on the bottom of the robot. A series of sprayers are constantly rewetting the mop to ensure a consistent clean across your floors, while a scraper is used to pull dirty water off its surface. The end result is remarkably shiny floors. Combined with its ability to apply 3,700 Pa of pressure and roll at speeds up to 220 rpm, it eliminates just about any stain or spill it encounters. Ecovacs also outfitted the X9 Pro Omni with some cool bonus features. The first is a triple-lift system, allowing the mop, main brush, and side brush to retract depending on the task at hand. When a spill is detected, both mops will retract, ensuring they stay clean. When carpet is detected, the mop will retract, ensuring your floors stay dry. Better yet, the robot offers a “Carpet First” function — meaning it’ll zip around your home and vacuum with a dry mop before starting the wetting and mopping process. When all of this is taken together, the end result is a robot vacuum perfect for cleaning hard floors. It’s also great that it can traverse carpets with dry mops — though it would be even better if it could automatically detach its mop and leave it in the base station when vacuuming. It’s a feature some competitors are starting to use to great effect, as it ensures your mops aren’t touching carpet at all. Vacuuming and self-cleaning Jon Bitner / Digital Trends Oddly enough, the X9 Pro Omni offers less suction than the older X8 Pro Omni. The previous robot packed in 18,000 Pa — the X9 Pro Omni shifts it down to just 16,600. However, its vacuuming performance remains about the same (if not better), thanks to the inclusion of BLAST technology. BLAST is shorthand for “Boosted Large-Airflow Suction Technology,” and it works via a combination of suction and maximized airflow. The idea revolves around using additional airflow to knock loose dust particles and other debris, which can then be suctioned up without requiring as much force. In practice, we’ve found the system to work incredibly well. Along with handling dust and small particles, it picks up clumps of dirt and larger objects without much trouble. It also leaves fantastic lines on plush carpet — giving your home a “just cleaned” appearance most shoppers will appreciate. The side brush doesn’t swing out like some competitors, but it still did a great job of tackling corners and tight spaces, thanks to its impressive navigation skills. Best of all, you can use onboard AI to allow the robot to determine all the best settings for a superior cleaning. There are dozens of ways to manually customize its performance via the mobile app, but I’ve found letting the robot do its own thing often results in the best clean. Jon Bitner / Digital Trends Once a cleaning cycle is complete, the robot heads back to its dock to recharge and clean itself. The docking station washes the mop with hot water, dries it with hot air, and can even dispense a cleaning solution into the robot’s water tank for a better mopping experience. The onboard dustbin will also be siphoned off into a larger dustbag in the docking station, allowing you to go 90 days before needing a replacement. Finally, the docking station will clean itself, washing away any gunk removed from the robot during the cleaning cycle. Pretty much all of the maintenance tasks are taken care of for you. You’ll just need to monitor the clean and dirty water tanks, and perform a more thorough washing tray cleaning every 150 days. As far as robot vacuums are concerned, that’s a huge win for autonomy. Verdict There’s a lot to love about the Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni, and it’s an easy recommendation for most shoppers. If your home is largely composed of hard floors, it’s an even easier choice. However, there are a few limitations to consider. For one, it can’t leave its mop behind in its docking station. Yes, it will raise it while traveling on carpet, but most shoppers will likely find the auto-detachable mops of the Roborock Saros 10 to be a more elegant solution. The robot is also quite large. At 3.8 inches tall, it’s almost a full inch taller than some competitors. So while it’s small enough to clean under most furniture, smaller nooks and crannies will be too tight for the X9 Pro Omni to fit underneath. These are minor complaints on an otherwise stellar device. The Ecovacs Deebot X9 Pro Omni proves the brand has what it takes to stick with the leaders of the segment, offering a superior mopping experience matched by few rivals. Add in the effective BLAST vacuuming system, self-cleaning dock, and impressive onboard AI, and you’ve got one of the best robot vacuums of 2025.

Father’s Day is just around the corner, and we can’t think of a better way to show Dad his TV obsession has been accepted by the family than by buying him a new 4K OLED. And hey, why not a Samsung? Right now, there’s an insane discount on one of Samsung’s best models of 2024 that you can still buy brand-new.  We’re talking about the Samsung 55-inch S90D 4K OLED, which you’ll be able to snag through B&H Photo-Video or Samsung for only $1,200. The retail price on this model is $2,000, so you’ll be saving you and yours a whopping $800!  Why you should buy the Samsung S90D Series When it comes to picture quality, Samsung stands tall as one of the best TV brands, both for its impressive lineup of OLED TVs, QLED TVs, and regular LED-LCD sets. The S90D is only one rung below Samsung’s best model of 2024, the S95D, and the differences between the sets are pretty minuscule. But let’s focus on the S90D! This incredible 4K OLED gets bright enough when watching SDR content to place it in a well-lit room. Glare and reflections shouldn’t affect the screen, though the colors may lose a touch of vibrancy if strong ambient lighting covers your entire viewing space. Samsung’s cutting-edge picture processing makes the S90D a visual champ, especially when it comes to HDR content. The TV also has a wide color gamut and near-perfect contrast levels, thanks to all those self-emissive pixels baked into an OLED panel! The S90D also has a native 144Hz refresh rate, HDMI 2.1 connectivity, and VRR and ALLM support, which makes it one of the best TVs for gaming. Apps, free live TV channels, and screen mirroring capabilities are unlocked once you connect the TV to the internet. It’s hard to say how long this deal is going to stick around, but we’re willing to bet we’re going to start seeing more sales on this model as Samsung’s newest OLED models continue to hit shelves. Save $800 on the Samsung 55-inch S90D 4K OLED when you buy right now. We also think it’s worth the extra two or three minutes to walk through our roundups of the best Samsung TV deals, best OLED TV deals, and best Samsung deals, especially if you’re looking for a fancy Samsung soundbar to go with Dad’s new TV!

Nothing says “surround sound” like a full-on Dolby Atmos soundbar system. While many of these bar-speaker bundles cost upwards of $1,000, one of the best Atmos rigs has a crazy-good discount at Woot today: For a limited time, you’ll be able to score the Samsung HW-Q990D 11.1.4ch Dolby Atmos Soundbar for only $868. That’s a $1,132 markdown from its original $2,000 price!  Why you should buy the Samsung HW-Q990D Soundbar More than just an upgrade for your TV speakers, the Samsung HW-Q990D is a true, all-hands-on-deck surround sound, but minus a bulky AV receiver and all that speaker wire. Thanks to side-firing and up-firing drivers, the HW-Q990D is able to direct audio around you and up toward the ceiling for the height effects Dolby Atmos is renowned for. The system also comes with two rear speakers and a wireless subwoofer. One of the best features of the Samsung HW-Q990D is Spacefit Sound Pro. This calibrates the soundbar to accommodate the unique acoustics of the room it lives in, so you’ll always have the best sound for the space. We’re also big fans of the Adaptive Sound feature, which analyzes and enhances dialogue and vocals in real time, so you’ll never miss a line of your favorite show.  The Samsung HW-Q990D can be used for video passthrough to your TV as well, and has both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity for streaming tunes wirelessly from a phone or tablet.  Get Samsung’s 2024 flagship audio system for only $868 when you purchase right now. You should also take a peek at our lists of the best soundbar deals, best Samsung TV deals, and best Samsung deals for even more discounts on top Samsung tech!

There’s a reason that Steven Spielberg has the reputation that he has. For decades, Spielberg has been considered one of the best directors in film history, and he’s got the movies to back that assertion up. Opinions are, quite naturally, going to differ on which movies of Spielberg’s are the best. One movie that often winds up near the top of the list is Saving Private Ryan. The film, which follows a group of soldiers in the aftermath of the D-Day invasion as they are given a mission to receive a fellow soldier in France, is considered one of the greatest World War II epics ever made. Here are three reasons you should watch the movie on Peacock this May. Recommended Videos The opening sequence is iconic for a reason Although Saving Private Ryan may or may not be Spielberg’s best film, almost everyone can agree that the opening sequence, which is an extended look at what the beaches of Normandy were like on D-Day, is among the most riveting and harrowing things he’s ever made. That opening sequence is the most important part of the film, a reminder that the men fighting were just regular people and that they were faced with the kinds of horrors that they would carry with them forever. It’s not easy to watch, exactly, but it is among the most awe-inspiring sequences ever put to film, not least because it feels so raw and visceral. It’s anchored by an unusual premise Dreamworks The question of whether it’s even possible to make an anti-war movie has existed for as long as war movies have, but Saving Private Ryan uses its premise to emphasize the pointlessness of all the death it depicts. The soldiers at the center of the mission have been asked to put their lives at risk to rescue a single man, and many of them lose their lives along the way. Because of this, we come to understand that the soldiers on the frontline have almost no control over their own fates. The movie wants you to wonder why so many people should die for a single man and whether any of this was worth the cost. It features a roster of great performers Dreamworks On top of being the first time that Spielberg and Tom Hanks collaborated on a movie, Saving Private Ryan is filled with great actors from top to bottom. Matt Damon’s Ryan feels like the kind of man worth saving and does a lot with a relatively small amount of screen time. Jeremy Davies, Adam Goldberg, and Tom Sizemore are also standouts, as is a young Vin Diesel, who had not yet become an action icon. It’s an indelible cast, expertly chosen so that they don’t look like movie stars but instead like an actual platoon of young soldiers who are fighting for their country. You can watch Saving Private Ryan on Peacock.

A dependable laptop is a necessity these days, whether you’re a professional or a student. If your device is due for a replacement, we highly recommend going for the HP Pavilion 16t, especially now that it’s on sale with a 55% discount from HP itself. From its original price of $1,200, it’s down to only $530 for massive savings of $670. We’re not sure how long you’ve got until this offer expires, so if you don’t want to miss out on one of the best laptop deals we’ve seen recently, you need to push forward with your purchase as soon as you can. Why you should buy the HP Pavilion 16t laptop The HP Pavilion 16t isn’t going to challenge the performance of the top-tier configurations of the best laptops, but it’s going to serve as reliable device for your daily tasks. It’s equipped with the 13th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, Intel Iris Xe Graphics, and 8GB of RAM, which will be enough for activities such as typing documents, making presentations, and joining online meetings and classes. With its 16-inch screen featuring WUXGA resolution and anti-glare properties, it’s also a solid entertainment device for watching streaming shows during your downtime. With the 512GB SSD of the HP Pavilion 16t, you’ll have enough storage space for all the apps that you use and the documents that you need quick access to. The laptop also comes with Windows 11 Home pre-installed, so it’s ready to start helping you out with your workload as soon as you open it for the first time. HP laptop deals are an excellent source of bargains, but this one’s even more attractive than usual — the HP Pavilion 16t with a $670 discount that slashes its price from $1,200 to only $530. The device probably won’t stay at 55% off from HP for much longer though, as stocks are likely already flying off the shelves. If you want to buy the HP Pavilion 16t laptop for less than half-price, you should add it to your cart and finish the checkout process as soon as possible in order to secure the savings.

45 years after the release of Pac-Man, Bandai Namco is finally answering the age-old question: “How would it play as a 2D Metroidvania?” Surely you’ve all been wondering that, right? Well, ask no more because we’ll soon have an answer to that head-scratching question with Shadow Labyrinth on July 18. At PAX East 2025, Digital Trends went hands-on with the upcoming game and chatted with Seigo Aizawa, producer at Bandai Namco, about Pac-Man’s new look. Aizawa showed us how the oddball game is more true to Pac-Man’s core tenets than it looks at first glance. It may be a gritty Metroidvania with intense boss fights, but this is still the same maze-navigating eat-em-up you’ve been playing for decades, albeit in a very different light. Recommended Videos Enter the maze In Shadow Labyrinth, players wake up in a strange world where everything is trying to kill them. The only thing aiding their survival is a Pac-Man-like creature that gives them abilities and guides them through a savage planet. Amazon’s Secret Level episode starring Pac-Man serves as a prequel to Shadow Labyrinth, and watching it will give players a better understanding of what to expect. “To expand our audience, we wanted to make something new,” Aizawa tells Digital Trends. “We wanted to get people who never played a Pac-Man game to play [Shadow Labyrinth]. When we thought about the concept of the game, ‘Dark Pac-Man’ came up. When you think about a dark atmosphere and a maze concept, [the] Metroidvania [genre] matches it perfectly.” Shadow Labyrinth is especially fast-paced for the genre. Every attack must be executed with a plan in mind. But that’s not to say Shadow Labyrinth isn’t a Pac-Man game at its heart still. There’s still a maze for players to run through, you just won’t see it from a bird’s eye view. Instead, players navigate 2D environments and you have to figure out where they’re going as they explore. Pac-Man’s tendency to eat everything in sight plays a role here too, though in much more sinister fashion. After players are done chopping up your enemies, they can perform an action that essentially turns you into a Pac-Man Kiju that lets them eat their foes to gain abilities. Aizawa revealed that this was by design, as the game needed three key pillars for which Pac-Man is known for: eating, mazes, and power ups. That’s not the only thing my Pac-Man companion can do. As I was making my way through mazes, I was presented with paths that had rails on them. The only way to cross them was to turn into that iconic yellow sphere from the arcade classic. The catch was that the rails were packed with all sorts of traps that were trying to kill me. If I wanted to make it through alive, I needed to evade them. While the Shadow Labyrinth itself is a new location, it still connects to a familiar universe. Bandai Namco decided to toy around with the UGSF (Universal Gaming Simulation Framework), a narrative device that the company uses to connect many of its games. A clear example of this appeared towards the end of my demo. After defeating the main boss, I uncovered a Dig-Dug easter egg that played a bit of the game’s music. Bandai Namco Aizawa says that this is just one example of how all of the games are connected thanks to the UGSF. Shadow Labyrinth takes place in a distant future, whereas Dig Dug took place 3,000 years before this game. As players progress through the story, they’ll find remnants of other beloved Bandai Namco properties. Sometimes these will be simple winks and nods to other games, and other times they’ll play a bigger role in the story. The overall gameplay doesn’t disappoint based on what I’ve played so far. There’s a clear sense of Metroidvania progression that gives players plenty of new abilities to unlock, changing their tool set. The boss fights are engaging clashes against larger than life monsters and the platforming almost feels like a game of its own. Every aspect of it is working for me so far, which is a pleasant surprise considering how left-field the pitch is. Shadow Labyrinth is dark, edgy, and grim, but still very much a Pac-Man game at its core. As different as it is from anything else in the series history, I’m still having fun exploring mazes and eating enemies at the end of the day. Shadow Labyrinth is taking a big swing and hopes to capture a new audience with its latest iteration of Pac-Man. From what I played, Bandai Namco may just pull that off with something entirely new. Shadow Labyrinth launches on July 18 for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2.

The Dodge Charger Daytona R/T, once hailed as the vanguard of Dodge’s electric muscle car future, is being dropped for the 2026 model year. According to a report from MoparInsiders, the Scat Pack variant will now lead the Daytona lineup, marking a significant pivot in Stellantis’ EV strategy. Recommended Videos Originally introduced with bold ambitions, the Charger Daytona R/T was designed to offer an accessible gateway into electric performance. With its 456-horsepower dual-motor setup and optional 509-horsepower Direct Connection stage kit, it seemed poised to excite both muscle car fans and EV newcomers. However, market realities have painted a different picture. Industry and media reports highlight the core issue: buyers just weren’t biting. Despite its impressive specs and nostalgic design cues, the R/T struggled to justify its price tag, starting near $60,000. At that level, buyers expected either more performance or more premium features. Without strong sales traction, Dodge made the tough call to shelve the R/T variant for 2026, opting instead to focus on trims that resonate better with customers. As we reported in December, the Charger EV was launched with an off-beat marketing message to “save the planet from self-driving sleep pods.” The goal was to retain Dodge’s brand identity—muscle, aggression, and driver engagement—even in the electric era. The Charger Daytona R/T was supposed to be the perfect balance of price and performance, but it seems the target audience wasn’t ready to make that leap at that price. Importantly, this doesn’t spell the end of the Charger Daytona altogether. Higher-performance models like the Scat Pack and Banshee are still in the pipeline and, interestingly, are being adjusted for price competitiveness. Several trims are reportedly seeing price cuts, suggesting Stellantis is serious about making these vehicles more appealing and accessible. For enthusiasts, the takeaway is clear: the electric muscle car isn’t going anywhere, but automakers are still figuring out how to sell it. The demise of the R/T is less a failure and more a recalibration—proof that even the boldest plans need to stay flexible in the face of consumer demand.

Android devices have offered a built-in screen reader feature called TalkBack for years. It helps people with vision problems to make sense of what appears on their phone’s screen and lets them control it with their voice. In 2024, Google added its Gemini AI into the mix to give users a more detailed description of images.  Google is now bolstering it with a whole new layer of interactive convenience for users. So far, Gemini has only described images. Now, when users are looking at images, they can even ask follow-up questions about them and have a more detailed conversation. Recommended Videos How does it help users with vision difficulties? “The next time a friend texts you a photo of their new guitar, you can get a description and ask follow-up questions about the make and color, or even what else is in the image,” says Google. This builds on the accessibility upgrade that integrated Gemini within the Talkback system late last year. Google The Talkback menu on Android now shows a dedicated Describe Screen feature that puts Gemini in the driving seat. So, for example, if users are browsing a garment catalogue, Gemini will not only describe what appears on the screen, but will also answer relevant questions.  For example, users can ask questions such as “Which dress would be the best for a cold winter night outing?” or “What sauce would go best with a sandwich?” Gemini will also be able to analyse the entire screen and inform users about granular product details, or if there are any discounts available.  Making captions expressive and improving text zoom In the Chrome browser, Google is giving a small lift to the auto-generated captions for videos. Let’s say you are watching a football match. The captions will no longer just follow the commentator’s words, but will also match their emotions and expressions. Google For example, instead of “goal,” users with hearing issues will see a resounding “goooaaal” for an added dash of emotional emphasis. Google is calling them Expressive Captions.  In addition to human speech, they will now also cover important sounds such as whistles, cheering, or even the speaker just clearing their throat. Expressive captions will be available on all devices running Android 15 or a later version, in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.  Google Another meaningful change coming to the Chrome browser is adaptive text zoom, which is essentially an update on the Page Zoom system available on Android phones. Now, when users increase the size of text, it will not affect the layout of the rest of the web page.  “You can customize how much you want to zoom in and easily apply the preference to all the pages you visit or just specific ones,” says Google. Users will be able to make zoom range adjustments using a slider at the bottom of the page.

html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd" The box office still belongs to Marvel thanks to the success of Thunderbolts*. The MCU offering has grossed $278 million worldwide heading into its third weekend in theaters. However, Final Destination Bloodlines is poised for a franchise-best opening weekend that would top the box office. Theaters will be offering new summer blockbusters every week for the next three months. When you can’t make it to the theater, try streaming a free movie on a FAST service like Tubi and Pluto TV. These services continue to increase in popularity due to their no-cost options. Our recommendations for this weekend include a surprise horror hit, a Mission: Impossible entry, and a puzzling thriller. Recommended Videos We also have guides to the best new movies to stream, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+. Barbarian (2022) 20th Century Studios Cash your ticket if you had a member of The Whitest Kids U’ Know crafting one of the best horror movies of the last five years. Zach Cregger surprised audiences in 2022 with Barbarian, a horror movie set at a rental home in Detroit. Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell) is surprised to find Keith (Bill Skarsgård) staying at her Airbnb. Despite her instincts telling her to leave, Tess spends the night with Keith. The next morning, things go off the rails. For fear of spoilers, I’ll stop there. Barbarian is a movie that you must see to believe. The twist is less effective the second time around, but if this is your first time, enjoy the madness. Stream Barbarian on Tubi. Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation (2015) Paramount Pictures It’s Mission: Impossible month in Hollywood, as audiences everywhere prepare for Tom Cruise to entertain them as Ethan Hunt one last time in Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning. As part of your rewatch,Rogue Nation should be on your list. After the death of a station operative, the Senate decommissions the IMF and forces its employees to join the CIA. Ethan refuses and goes on the run as he hopes to track down The Syndicate, a nefarious organization that threatens the global powers. Now a fugitive, Ethan recruits his old team and Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) to join him in his hunt to destroy this rogue nation. To trigger your memory, Rogue Nation is when Ethan hangs off the side of a plane. Stream Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation for free on Pluto TV. Escape Room (2019) Sony Pictures Final Destination Bloodlines is a franchise built on insane death scenes. These unfathomable sequences are like Rube Goldberg machines for murder. While Escape Room does not feature the violence of Final Destination, the elaborate life-or-death situations are something the two movies have in common. Six strangers are invited to take part in an escape room challenge. If the players complete the tasks, they will win $10,000. Once the first challenge begins, the group quickly realizes failure to complete a mission will result in physical harm, with death being one of the possibilities. Starring Taylor Russell and Logan Miller, Escape Room is a brisk and entertaining 100-minute thriller specifically made for people who love to solve puzzles. Stream Escape Room for free on Tubi.

Once in a while, you might look up and marvel at magnificent views of our moon, its surface dramatically lit by our sun’s light. But have you ever paused to wonder what other moons might look like from the surfaces of other planets in our solar system? NASA’s Perseverance rover, which has been exploring Mars since arriving there in dramatic fashion in 2021, has just shared an exquisite image of Deimos, one of the red planet’s two moons.  Recommended Videos “Wishing upon a … moon?” NASA’s Perseverance team, based in California, wrote in a post on the rover’s X account on Thursday, adding: “That bright ‘star’ is actually Mars’ moon Deimos.” Perseverance captured the image in March “in the hours before dawn” via a long-exposure using its left Navcam. The picture also includes two stars — Regulus and Algieba — from the constellation Leo, which NASA has helpfully pointed out: NASA With a diameter of 7.7 miles (12.4 kilometers), Deimos, which scientists believe is likely to be a captured asteroid, is much smaller than Earth’s moon, which has a diameter of 2,159 miles (3,474 kilometers).  And while Deimos orbits Mars at a distance of 14,577 miles (23,460 kilometers), Earth’s next door neighbor orbits at a far greater distance of about 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers). Also, our moon has a spherical shape, whereas Deimos has an irregular form that NASA has rather unflatteringly described as “potato-shaped.” The rover’s image offers a refreshing departure from its usual focus on the martian terrain where it’s searching for signs of ancient microbial life, allowing us to appreciate for a moment the broader cosmic context of Perseverance’s mission.  In many ways, the striking photo is more than just a technical achievement as it also offers a moment of reflection during the rover’s epic mission to seek knowledge beyond our home planet.

Apple TV+ just seems to know how to churn out good shows, and Murderbot is no exception. The series has debuted with a 98% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, and seems to be the latest critical success for the streaming service. The show, which is adapted from a series of novels by Martha Wells, tells the story of a security robot who acquires free will. After discovering that he can think for himself, he agrees to take on a dangerous mission protecting a group of scientists, even though all he really wants to do is binge-watch TV. Starring Alexander Skarsgard, the series has earned praise for its light, witty tone and for his central performance. Recommended Videos “Murderbot isn’t an exact recreation of the books — and it’s too irreverent to be the kind of thing Murderbot would enjoy — but it’s very fun and satisfying as its own thing,” Rolling Stone’s Alan Sepinwall wrote in his review of the first season. “Murderbot is the latest example of a trend I’ve noticed on streaming TV — exquisitely produced science fiction and fantasy shows that may not be seen outside of a small-yet-passionate fanbase,” Eric Deggans of NPR added. Apple has proven to be particularly adept at adapting sci-fi stories, having already had success with shows like Silo, For All Mankind, and of course, Severance. Murderbot seems to have a slightly different tone from each of those shows, but thankfully, it seems to work pretty well on its own merits. The show is set to hit Apple TV+ starting on May 16.

What’s better than one link in your bio? Two? How about three? Threads is now allowing users to add multiple links to their bios, outnumbering the amount of links X, formerly Twitter, allows people to add to their own profiles. Meta announced the new feature to Threads in a press release on Thursday, saying users will be able to add up to five links onto their bio. For content creators, this means they can add links to their podcasts, YouTube channels, Twitch channels, TikTok page, newsletters, articles, and more so that their followers can engage with their content outside of Threads. Threads / Meta In addition to having more links on their bios than the one link X allots, Meta is launching a weekly recap feature within Insights to give users a summary of how their links have performed week after week. In other words, they’ll be able to see how many people clicked on the links regardless of whether they shared those links in their bios or in their posts. They’ll also be able to compare how many posts they shared from one week to the next, total views they garnered, new follower count, and receive tips on way for how they can better leverage their platform to connect with the community their platform is based on. Recommended Videos Meta adding the ability for Threads users to add more than one link to their profiles comes nearly two months after the platform added a feature that allows users to add as much as 10 topics to their profiles. The idea behind the topics feature at the time was to boost discovery of other people and content creators who share the same interests as they do. They could also tag topics to their posts so that when other users click on them, they’re taken to a feed of other users talking about the same thing.

Remember the buzz about flying taxis zipping through Paris for the 2024 Olympics? That sci-fi fantasy never got off the ground —Germany’s Volocopter dream was denied certification, leaving fans staring at the same old ground traffic. But now, the skies are opening again for a second shot at glory—this time over Los Angeles. Archer Aviation, the California-based electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) company, has been named the exclusive air taxi provider for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games. Recommended Videos Archer’s Midnight aircraft, a piloted electric air taxi designed to carry four passengers, will be whisking around VIPs, fans, and stakeholders between venues and key locations like LAX, Hollywood, Santa Monica, and even Orange County. Think 10-20 minute flights that skip the infamous LA gridlock and land you right where the action is—on the roof, basically. “We want to transform the way people get around Los Angeles and leave a legacy that shapes the future of transportation in America. There’s no better time to do that than during the LA28 Games,” said Adam Goldstein, CEO and founder of Archer Aviation. And Midnight isn’t just a pretty rotor. It’s a whisper-quiet, emission-light aircraft with 12 rotors and a redundant, airline-level safety design. What’s more, Archer and LA28 are working together to electrify vertiport hubs around the city—think futuristic sky stations—to serve not only Games-time needs but also to plant seeds for a post-Olympic air mobility network. The air mobility market has been fast developing over the past few years, featuring the likes of Hyundai partnership with China’s XPeng HT Aero and Toyota’s backing of Joby Aviation, a U.S. venture. Joby bought Uber Elevate in 2020, hoping to someday pair its air taxis with Uber’s ride-hailing app. Archer, for its part, has been busy building a strategic partnership with United Airlines, which has already placed orders for the aircraft and is helping with logistics to integrate air taxis into airport-to-downtown travel. More than a demo for the cameras, the LA28 partnership will showcase urban air travel for real-world daily use, starting with one of the most high-profile events on Earth. After raising false hopes in Paris, the air taxi dream is aiming for liftoff in LA—and this time, it might just stick the landing.

Huawei’s upcoming event is set to debut its Nova 14 series of smartphones, but it’s also unveiling the Huawei MateBook Fold Ultimate Design, a laptop with a foldable screen similar to the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold or the Asus Zenbook 17 Fold. The news comes from the Huawei Terminal account on Weibo, and the event will be held on May 19 at 2:30 PM CST. The machine is being made in collaboration with Hongmeng Computers. Unfortunately, Huawei remained tight-lipped about further details, but given that the event is in four days, it makes sense. The MateBook Fold Ultimate Design isn’t the first laptop to hit the market with a foldable screen, and we can glean some idea of how it will likely operate based on existing models. Recommended Videos The teaser image doesn’t reveal much detail, showing only a side profile and the front of the device in what looks like a screen cover. The fold seems to be around the center point of the device. If it’s anything like the ThinkPad X1 Fold, the MateBook Fold won’t have a keyboard built-in and will instead be more akin to a large tablet. Huawei Most likely, the MateBook Fold will use a Bluetooth keyboard, although it might also have an on-screen keyboard. There is also a possibility that the laptop can be folded, with the Bluetooth keyboard placed atop the lower section, sacrificing screen space for a more compact size. Related This is just an educated guess based on similar devices on the market, so exercising a certain amount of skepticism is recommended. We’ll find out more on May 19, when the laptop will be shown alongside the next wave of smartphones and the recently-revealed HarmonyOS. Until then, other aspects of the machine, including its specs, are anyone’s guess — but we hope it folds into a more compact shape for easy transport, taking cues from the Asus Zenbook Fold 17.

Table of Contents Table of Contents Why does it matter? What else is on the platter? If you’ve ever felt like dining at only the crème de la crème of food establishments in your neighborhood, Apple Maps just built the right system for you. And to go with it, if you’re in the mood for some calorie burnout through golf, the service got you covered on that front, too. Apple has inked a deal with MICHELIN Guide and The Infatuation that will let users find and get insights about Michelin-starred restaurants on the mapping and navigation platform. “Users can now view and search for MICHELIN-starred, Green Star, and Bib Gourmand restaurants — along with MICHELIN Key hotels — starting in the U.S,” says the company. Recommended Videos In case you aren’t familiar, a Michelin star is a rating system that is awarded to restaurants and chefs for their culinary excellence. A similar system is in place for hotels that serve a top-tier hospitality experience. Most of these establishments are pretty expensive, but there are Michelin-starred food outlets that cater to the masses with affordable food, as well. Related Thanks to the partnership, when you look up a Michelin-rated outlet, the details page will show cards about its rankings, images, and recommendations about the food options sourced from professional gourmands and connoisseurs. After all, if you’re splurging on a decadent experience, you might as well hear what an expert has to say, even before you get moving toward your destination.  Apple To get the best out of the new features, users can pick the appropriate filter in Apple Maps and find the spot that best suits their taste palette. And if they feel like digging deeper into what a Michelin-starred outlet is all about, they will find all the details in the attached curated guides. For a handful of establishments, users will even be able to make bookings directly from within Apple Maps and book a reservation for themselves. In the coming months, Apple Maps will also add tailored content sourced from The Infatuation and Golf Digest, followed by more expert-curated content. If you are looking up hotels on Apple Maps, you will now see a new search filter named “Michelin Distinctions.” When you select any of the options appearing on the map view, you will see a summary alongside a brief highlight and, more importantly, the number of Michelin stars received by a restaurant. Just like food establishments, Apple Maps users will be able to book tee times directly, thanks to a partnership with Supreme Golf. The latest additions to Apple Maps are currently limited to the US region, and there is no word on their global rollout yet.

YouTube is relying on AI in its latest crusade against seekers of an ad-free video-watching experience. The company recently announced plans to use AI models to make ads more persuasive by strategically placing them within the video. At its Brandcast 2025 event in New York, YouTube revealed it will deploy Google’s Gemini AI to analyze videos to optimize placement of ads. The AI will be used to identify key moments or “Peak Points” in the video where viewers are most likely to be engaged and too invested to stop watching it in order to avoid the ad. Recommended Videos The AI supposedly goes a step beyond the existing histogram on the YouTube scrub bar that shows “Most replayed” moments in a video. But the parameters that YouTube will use to detect these peaks are not immediately evident. YouTube YouTube doesn’t specify other aspects of the ads, such as their duration or whether they will be skippable. However, it can be easily assumed that YouTube is unlikely to place smaller ads or ones you can easily skip, since any of those traits will refute the purpose of placing ads precisely at the most intense moments in the video. Related While unpleasant for viewers, this is probably good news for content creators who could see their revenue from ads spike up. Whether it will also result in better click-through rates (CTR) for advertisers will likely depend on the relevance of ads for viewers. All of these tactics are ultimately designed to make viewers switch to YouTube Premium, and the company has been testing various means to convince you to switch, from offering limited ad-free previews to bringing plans with fewer ads. Of course, YouTube is still fighting to make ad blockers less serviceable, especially if you use Chrome as the default browser. In addition to these strategic ads, YouTube said it would broadcast the NFL game from Brazil later this week live on the platform for everyone. Viewers would not need a subscription to watch the game.

SpaceX chief Elon Musk has strongly suggested that the ninth test flight of the massive Starship rocket will take place next week. “Just before the Starship flight next week, I will give a company talk explaining the Mars game plan in Starbase, Texas, that will also be live-streamed on X,” Musk said in a social media post on Wednesday. His comments came shortly after SpaceX conducted a static test fire of the Starship spacecraft’s Raptor engines, which will assist the vehicle in the planned controlled landing in the Indian Ocean following separation from the first-stage Super Heavy booster. Recommended Videos After losing the spacecraft in flights seven and eight earlier this year, SpaceX is under pressure to ensure that this time around the vehicle performs as expected. Related As Musk said in his post, the long-term plan is to use the Starship — the most powerful rocket ever to fly — to take the first human crew to the surface of Mars.  The SpaceX chief said in 2024 that he wanted to launch an uncrewed Starship to the red planet as early as next year to test the reliability of the spacecraft’s landing and liftoff capabilities. Next week, we’ll get an update on that plan.   Once SpaceX engineers are confident of the Starship’s ability to get astronauts safely to Mars — and back again — the company can start making concrete preparations for the first crewed flight, something Musk has said he’d like to see happen before the end of this decade. Musk’s timelines often miss the mark, so don’t be surprised if this one does too. On the flip side, SpaceX is expected to ramp up Starship testing to up to two flights a month by the end of this year, giving the technology powering the rocket a better chance of accelerating toward readiness. Before the crewed Mars flight, NASA is expecting to use a modified version of the Starship to land two crewmembers on the surface of the moon in the Artemis III mission, which could take  place in 2027.  This year looks set to be the busiest yet for the Starship. Tune in next week for Musk’s address to find out more about what’s in store.

Table of Contents Table of Contents Bad Thoughts (2025) All American (2018-) Dark Winds (2022-) It’s a fantastic month for new TV shows on Netflix. Tina Fey, Steve Carell, and Colman Domingo join forces in The Four Seasons, a romantic dramedy about three married couples whose group goes into peril when one opts for divorce. Other new shows in May include the final season of Big Mouth and Love, Death + Robots volume 4. After scanning the Netflix homepage, dive deeper into the genre sections to find even more quality television. Three of the underrated offerings this month include a sketch comedy show, a teen soap drama, and a mysterious crime thriller. Recommended Videos We also have guides to the best new shows to stream, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+. Related Bad Thoughts (2025) Comedian Tom Segura has exploded in popularity thanks to his burgeoning stand-up comedy career and lucrative podcast company. Segura is betting on himself and trying his hand at sketch comedy in Bad Thoughts. Segura plays multiple characters in a series of vignettes that put the comedian in precarious situations, including an emergency landing, an assisted living facility, and the apocalypse. One of the funnier sketches involves Segura playing a country who starts a cult in hopes of becoming more relatable. Bad Thoughts is not I Think You Should Leave, but there’s enough humor in this sketch show to keep you satisfied. Watch Bad Thoughts on Netflix. Before being acquired by Nexstar a few years ago, The CW was the network for teen soaps. Riverdale, Nancy Drew, Stargirl, and The Vampire Diaries all became teen favorites and grew even bigger on Netflix. The only drama left standing is All American, a sports show set in the world of high school football. Spencer James (Daniel Ezra) is a talented high school football player from South Central Los Angeles. Spencer’s prowess draws the attention of Billy Baker (Taye Diggs), the head football coach at Beverly Hills School. Coach Baker offers Spencer a scholarship. Now a fish out of water, Spencer must navigate life on and off the field. This is a teen show, so expect a lot of relationship drama. Watch All-American on Netflix. Dark Winds was in a good position to be successful due to its critically acclaimed source material, Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn & Chee series. Add in Robert Redford and George R.R. Martin as executive producers, and Dark Winds has become a sneaky hit for AMC. Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) is a veteran police lieutenant in Navajo County. Leaphorn is paired with former FBI agent Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) to solve a serial killer wreaking havoc on the community. The deeper they dig, the further they uncover a conspiracy tied to a robbery. Backed by a terrific leading performance from McClarnon, Dark Winds is an eerie crime thriller with a suspenseful mystery at the heart of each season. Watch Dark Winds on Netflix.

OpenAI has made GPT-4.1 more widely available, as ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Team users can now access the AI model.  On Wednesday, the brand announced that it brought the model to its direct chatbot service following its original launch, where it was unveiled as an API in April. Its popularity among developers urged OpenAI to make the model available for paid users. It also plans to roll out GPT-4.1 for ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu users in the coming weeks.  Recommended Videos Paid users will be able to find the model within the “more models” dropdown menu of ChatGPT as of Wednesday.  Related The highlight features of GPT-4.1 are coding and web development tasks. The model can assist you in writing or debugging code, and OpenAI said in April that it shows significant improvements in comparison to GPT-4o and GPT-4o mini. These updates also follow OpenAI making adjustments to its model lineup, which includes its retiring GPT-4 and sunsetting the GPT 4.5 models. The brand announced the GPT-4.1 API not long after that, noting its capabilities as its fastest and cheapest model. Additionally, the model is knowledgeable up to June 2024. OpenAI has collaborated with companies including Windsurf, Qodo, Hex, Blue J, Thomson Reuters, and Carlyle using the GPT-4.1 API. OpenAI also detailed that it has now put GPT-4.1 mini in place of GPT-4o mini for all ChatGPT tiers, including the free option. The brand noted that this option will also be included under the “more models” dropdown menu for paid users. It will also be the base model for free users after they surpass GPT-4o usage limits.  Notably, a ChatGPT Plus subscription goes for $20 per month, while a ChatGPT Pro plan goes for a steep $200 per month. A ChatGPT Team subscription is $25 per person per month annually, for two or more users. 

Table of Contents Table of Contents The best selling Atari 2600 game: Pac-Man – 8 million The best selling NES game: Super Mario Bros. – 40 million* The best selling Sega Genesis game: Sonic the Hedgehog – 15 million* The best selling Game Boy game: Pokémon Red & Blue – 31 million The best selling SNES game: Super Mario World – 20.6 million* The best selling PS1 game: Gran Turismo – 10.85 million The best selling N64 game: Super Mario 64 – 11.91 million* The best selling Dreamcast game: Sonic Adventure – 2.5 million The best selling GBA game: Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire – 16.22 million The best selling PS2 game: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – 17.33 The best selling Xbox game: Halo 2 – 8.46 million The best selling GameCube game: Super Smash Bros. Melee – 7.41 million The best selling DS game: New Super Mario Bros. – 30.80 million The best selling Xbox 360 game: Kinect Adventures! – 24 million The best selling PS3 game: GTA 5 – 29.52 million The best selling Wii game: Wii Sports – 82.90 million* The best selling Wii U game: Mario Kart 8 – 8.46 million* The best selling PS4 game: Marvel’s Spider-Man – 22.68 million The best selling Xbox One game: PUBG: Battlegrounds – 9 million The best selling Switch game: Mario Kart 8: Deluxe – 68.29 million The best selling Xbox Series X/S game: ???? The best selling PS5 game: Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: 11 million Looking back at the entire video game console timeline lets us get a clear picture of how the industry has evolved. It is fun to rank the best consoles of all time and look at things like the best Nintendo launch games to remember what we were playing when we first got our hands on those new systems. Those kinds of subjective lists are fun, but there are some equally interesting objective things to explore as well. Game sales don’t necessarily represent the best games of all time, but do show what was most popular at the time for one reason or another. There’s typically a disconnect between what sells the best and what is the highest rated, which is fun to see. This isn’t the kind of thing most people know off the top of their head, so we dug through all the financial reports for as far back as we could to find the best selling games on every video game console. Note: We are only covering the major home and handheld consoles and leaving out the more niche systems that few people owned or remember. We are also only able to account for officially released sales data. It is possible some of these numbers have changed or are in the wrong order, but as of 2025, it is as up-to-date as possible based on the latest official data. Recommended Videos Giovanni Colantonio / Digital Trends The early consoles were mainly a way to play the best arcade games at home, so it makes sense that Pac-Man would be the top seller for the Atari 2600. What is a little surprising, though, is just how many copies this game sold in the end. Despite how niche video games were in the early 80s, Pac-Man on the Atari 2600 sold over 8 million copies. Space Invaders comes in at a distant second place with just over 6 million with Donkey Kong rounding out the top three with a little over 4 million. Related Nintendo We have to put a small asterisk on this entry because, despite being one of the best Mario games and certainly would’ve sold millions on its own, Super Mario Bros. was a pack-in game with the NES. That game was probably why most people bought the console, but we will never know for sure how many copies the game would have sold if it hadn’t been included with the system. However, bundle or not, the sales figure of over 40 million copies is nothing to sneeze at. Even Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros. 3, which were also included in bundles, only sold 28 million and 18 million copies, respectively. If you don’t count bundles, the top selling NES game would then fall to Tetris with 8 million copies sold. Sega Just like Nintendo’s main mascot topped the charts for the NES, Sega’s own Sonic was easily the best selling Genesis game with 15 million sales. However, we have to put the same asterisk on Sonic as we did with Mario because it, too, was bundled with the console. If we look at second place, it is none other than Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with around 7.5 million copies. These are great numbers, but really goes to show just how dominant Nintendo was at the time over Sega. Adobe Stock / Digital Trends What else could be the best selling Game Boy game than the franchise that took over the world and hasn’t let go? The monster-catching games rocketed the franchise into the stratosphere and gave the handheld a second life almost 10 years after it first game out. Some might think it is a little unfair to bundle the sale of both games together, but that’s how Nintendo has always done it. Besides, the second best selling game is Tetris, but that was a pack-in game, and third place is Pokémon Gold and Silver with 23.7 million, so you have to go pretty far down the list to not have any kind of asterisk. Nintendo Act surprised, but another Mario game is at the top of the list. Again, we have to put a disclaimer on this game’s huge sales milestone for being part of a bundle with the console. Just like with the NES, though, Super Mario World is one of the best SNES games made and would likely have sold about as well regardless. If you want to find the next best selling game that isn’t a bundle, we have to go all the way to ninth place, where we get Street Fighter II Turbo at 4.1 million copies sold. Sony This was a very close race between first, second, and third place, but the first entry in Sony’s own racing game franchise squeaks out the win at 10.85 million copies. Besides just being a great game, Gran Turismo was, and still is, always a graphical showpiece for Sony consoles that draws a huge crowd just to show off what the system can do. Nipping at its heels in second place is Final Fantasy 7 at 10.02 million, followed by Gran Turismo 2 at 9.37 million. Taylor Frint/Digital Trends Graphic / Nintendo Stop us if you’ve heard this one before, but a Mario game was the best selling game on a Nintendo system. Shocking, we know, but this is yet again a pack-in situation. In fact, first through fourth place all have that asterisk attached, including Mario Kart 64, GoldenEye 007, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Fifth place, however, is Super Smash Bros. with no asterisk at a respectable 5.55 million. While there were tons of great N64 games, this console didn’t sell as well as Nintendo’s others so these are still great numbers considering the install base. Sega It almost isn’t worth it to include the Dreamcast on this list, but we wanted to acknowledge its loyal fans and that it did have some great games. Sadly, not even Sonic could save this system and its premier 3D adventure only managed to sell 2.5 million copies. Soulcalibur was second best with >1.3 million, and Shenmue took third with 1.2 million. Just like Mario will keep showing up at the top of home console sales, Pokémon remains the king of the handheld market. Ruby and Sapphire make perfect sense, but second place belongs to Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, remakes of the first generation games with 12 million copies sold. It’s a little surprising how few copies the best PS2 games sold considering it itself is the best selling console. Don’t get us wrong, Grand Theft Auto: San AndreasGran Turismo 3: A-Spec gets the silver medal with 14.89 million, and GTA: Vice City holds bronze with 14.2 million. Micorosft Microsoft’s first console attempt went way better than expected, and that was largely due to launching with a Halo game. The sequel, Halo 2, was one of the most heavily marketed games at the time and revolutionized online play, allowing it to put the original Halo in second place at 6 million. The drop off to third place is huge, with Fable selling a still impressive 3 million copies. Nintendo Sadly, Nintendo’s grip on the console market continued to slip with the GameCube, but Super Smash Bros. Melee played a big part in keeping the system relevant at parties and in competitive scenes. It is also the first system where Mario was shoved to third place, though only technically, since Mario Kart: Double Dash is second with 6.88 million, and then Mario Sunshine comes in with 5.91 million. Photo by Dids from Pexels / Nintendo Meanwhile, the handheld side of things continues to print money and, in a rare twist, sees Mario on top and Pokémon way down at number five. 30.80 million are numbers Nintendo hand’t seen since the original Game Boy, followed by Nintendogs next with 23.96 million and Mario Kart DS only just losing out with 23.60 million. Xbox Be honest, did you see this one coming? You probably would have guessed Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, Skyrim, or one of the other common best Xbox 360 games would be the best seller, but no, 24 million people purchased Kinect Adventures! That sounds even crazier when you see that it sold more than GTA VMinecraft at 22 million. Photo by Nikita Kostrykin on Unsplash This probably looks more like what you were expecting. GTA 5 absolutely crushes all other PS3 games in terms of sales by a huge margin, as one would think. Even Gran Turismo 5 in second place only sold 11.95 million copies, and Uncharted 3 in third at ~9 million. Despite its rough launch, the PS3 did end the generation with a lot of big sellers, but nothing compared to GTA. Nintendo loves to bundle games with its hardware, and no example is more famous than the Wii and Wii Sports. This pack-in game was the only game a huge number of people ever got for the system, which explains its astronomical sales. Mario Kart Wii, which was also a bundle, is second at 37/38 million, and Wii Sports Resort at third with 33.14 million. The first non-bundled game is fifth place’s Wii Play at 28.02 million, which still blows away most other consoles’ best sellers. Nintendo This would be a tough one to talk about if Nintendo didn’t manage one of the greatest turnarounds in video game history right after. 8.46 million copies for a Mario Kart game is abysmal, and this was also a bundle game. In fact, the top nine Wii U games were all part of a bundle at one time or another. The first game you can say sold the most without an asterisk is Mario Party 10 at just 2.27 million copies. Of course, many of these games would end up selling way better when ported to a future system. Sony This is the generation PlayStation really blasted ahead of the competition. Marvel’s Spider-Man was the perfect storm of a massive IP and a perfect development team to hit 22.68 million sales, but it wasn’t a complete blowout. God of War was almost the winner with 21.02 million sales, and GTA 5 somehow managed to sell almost as many copies on the PS4 as PS3 with 20 million. We don’t need to remind anyone how dismal the Xbox One generation was, but seeing PUBG: Battlegrounds as the top seller says it all. No offense to that game, but it selling more than Black Ops III at 7.37 million copies and COD: WWII at 6.23 million shows how small the audience was on this system. Nintendo If you didn’t think the platform could make a big difference, here’s your proof. Despite being an upgraded port of the Wii U game, Mario Kart 8: Deluxe sold more copies on the Switch than the total number of Wii U consoles. And these numbers don’t get any less crazy when you look at Animal Crossing: New Horizons selling 47.82 million, or Super Smash Bros. Ultimate selling 36.81 million. In fact, you have to go to the 22 best selling game on the Switch before sales drop below 10 million. Xbox Microsoft Sadly, there is no official data available for what the best selling Xbox Series X/S game is. Microsoft has stopped reporting a lot of its sales data for hardware and software units in favor of players and engagement, making it impossible to know for sure how many copies of games have actually sold. Sony We’re still in the midst of the PS5 generation, so these numbers are likely to shift, but there’s no doubt that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is the clear game to beat with 11 million copies. Second place is a surprise hit: Black Myth: Wukong selling 5 million copies, and then an old familiar franchise taking third place in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, selling 3.97 million copies to date. We’ll keep an eye on this list as things evolve and more sales data comes out.

Marvel’s next genius is Riri Williams, who sets out to build something iconic in the first trailer forIronheart. After first appearing in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, MIT student Riri (Dominique Thorne) returns to Chicago with plans to build an armor suit similar to the one worn by Tony Stark. Riri’s quest leads her to Parker Robbins (Anthony Ramos), aka The Hood, a mysterious figure who offers the young heroine a chance to complete her vision. However, Robbins is willing to bend the law and do some “questionable things” to get the job done. Riri’s loved ones warn her about Robbins’ intentions, fearing it will send her down a dark path. Ultimately, it will be Riri’s decision as to how she wants to achieve greatness. Related Ironheart’s cast includes Lyric Ross, Alden Ehrenreich, Regan Aliyah, Manny Montana, Matthew Elam, and Anji White. Marvel Televison/Disney+ Chinaka Hodge is the creator and head writer of Ironheart. Executive producers include Zoie Nagelhout and Black Panther’s Ryan Coogler. The series balances elements of magic with science, resulting in a “crazy combination.” “Riri is definitely in conversation with a street-level show like Daredevil,” Coogler explained to Marvel.com. “You’ve got characters trying — both heroes and villains — to make do with what they have. Then you combine that with cosmic Marvel, characters who would be at home in Doctor Strange or WandaVision. That [mix] of street-level Marvel and magical Marvel is a pretty crazy combination.” Ironheart will conclude Phase Five of the MCU. The Fantastic Four: First Steps will kick off Phase Six in July. Ironheart will consist of six episodes that stream on Disney+. The first three episodes will premiere at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on June 24.

Table of Contents Table of Contents How to craft a saddle How to trade for a saddle How to find saddles in chests How to get a saddle from fishing How to use a saddle You tamed a horse in Minecraft, but the beast still has a mind of its own -- it absolutely will not follow your lead. You can corral it inside a fence, but trying to ride it isn't working like you hoped. Aside from flying, horses are one of the fastest ways to travel, but to take control of your mount, you need a saddle. Previously, you weren't able to craft a saddle and would have to get one in other ways, including trades at villages, exploration, and fishing. However, after many years, we are finally able to make a saddle for ourselves and we will show you exactly how to do it. Recommended Videos Difficulty Easy Duration 10 minutes Mojang As of May 2025, crafting a saddle in Minecraft is only an option in the snapshot test version of the game. However, it is expected to be included into the full game this summer. Either way, this is how making a saddle will work. Step 1: Collect three leather. Step 2: Collect one iron ingot. Related Step 3: At a crafting table, place the iron ingot in the bottom middle square and the three leather pieces above and beside it as shown in the picture above. Step 4: Take the saddle from the output. Step 5: You can now put your saddle on any compatible animal you wish, but there's also a new feature where you can remove it from a pig without resorting to killing it. If you have some sheers, you can safely remove it from a pig by using them on the pig to collect the saddle and use it on another mount. Mojang While crafting a saddle is still the easiest way to get them, you can still obtain one via trading. Step 1: Find a village and look for the leatherworker. Step 2: You’ll need to level up the villager, however, as it won’t offer a saddle until it reaches Level 3. This is accomplished by trading emeralds, leather, rabbit hide, flint, and whatever else the villager wants. Mojang Step 3: Once you get the leatherworker to Level 5 (Master), your chance of acquiring a saddle jumps up to 50%. Mojang If you don’t want to craft or spend the time to level up a Leatherworker, your next best bet is to head out and find a saddle packed into a chest. Luckily for you, there are plenty of places to look. Unfortunately, you’re not guaranteed a saddle each time you crack open a chest. Below we provide the locations and your chances of finding a saddle in percentages. Abandoned mineshafts (percentage unknown) Desert temples (23.5%) Dungeons (27.9%) End City (13.3%) Jungle temples (12.9%) Nether Fortress (35.3%) Strongholds (2.5%) Mojang This is the least likely method to produce a saddle, with a 0.8% chance. Simply fish like you would for a normal fish and just hope that you end up pulling a saddle out of the water. Mojang You didn’t go through all this trouble just for a conversation piece. Slap that saddle on a horse and giddy-up! Step 1: Make sure you are empty-handed and interact with the horse. Step 2: The horse may or may not try to buck you off. If it does, repeat step 1 until the horse gives up. Step 3: While still sitting on the horse, open your inventory. You should see the horse’s inventory combined with yours. Drag the saddle from your inventory up into the top square with a gray saddle icon. Once it’s applied, the horse icon will change. Now that you have a saddle on the horse, you can steer it wherever you like.