Plus: Fascinating insights into employee retention at Nintendo and sales numbers for (some rather pricey) Switch 2 peripherals.

/May 30, 2025/4:28 p.m. ETTrump Attacks Harvard With Social Media Screening for All VisasThis pilot program will soon be expanded across the country.Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesThe Trump administration has begun carrying out its expanded vetting for student visa applicants, surveilling their social media accounts to make sure they aren’t posting anything in support of Palestine, which the administration considers antisemitic. This vetting will start with Harvard visa applicants but is expected to be adopted nationwide.Secretary of Stato Marco Rubio sent a cable to all U.S. embassies and consulates on Thursday ordering them to “conduct a complete screening of the online presence of any nonimmigrant visa applicant seeking to travel to Harvard University for any purpose.” That would apply not just to students but also to faculty, staff, and researchers visiting the university.The Trump administration is taking particular interest in people who have their social media accounts on “private,” an obvious, ominous crossing of boundaries.The State Department has ordered officers to examine “whether the lack of any online presence, or having social media accounts restricted to ‘private’ or with limited visibility, may be reflective of evasiveness and call into question the applicant’s credibility.”This is yet another instance of Harvard serving as a test subject for the administration’s larger crackdown on free speech and international students at American universities. Trump has already revoked billions of dollars in research funding from the Massachusetts school, and even banned it from admitting any international students at all, although the latter policy was temporarily revoked by a judge. Most Recent Post/May 30, 2025/3:53 p.m. ETStephen Miller Grilled on Musk’s Drug Use as Wife Lands New GigTrump’s chief adviser seems desperate to avoid questions on Elon Musk. Does that have anything to do with his wife’s new job? Francis Chung/Politico/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesStephen Miller had a dismissive response Friday to new reports of Elon Musk’s drug use during Trump’s campaign last year. CNN’s Pamela Brown asked the far-right Trump adviser if there was “any drug testing or requests for him to drug test when he was in the White House given the fact that he was also a contractor with the government.”  A chuckling Miller ignored the question and said, “Fortunately for you and all of the friends at CNN, you’ll have the opportunity to ask Elon all the questions you want today yourself,” before he then segued into the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda. “The drugs I’m concerned about are the drugs that are coming across the border from the criminal cartels that are killing hundreds of thousands of Americans,” Miller said. Perhaps Miller laughed instead of answering because his wife, Katie Miller, has left her job as adviser and spokesperson for the Department of Government Efficiency to work full-time for Musk and his companies. Miller has probably had enough of Musk, as he has also been subtweeting the tech oligarch, trying to refute Musk’s criticisms that the Republican budget bill would raise the deficit. “The Big Beautiful Bill is NOT an annual budget bill and does not fund the departments of government. It does not finance our agencies or federal programs,” Miller said, in a long X post earlier this week. Is there bad blood between Miller and Musk that has now spiraled because Miller’s wife is working for the tech oligarch and fellow fascism enthusiast? Most Recent Post/May 30, 2025/3:19 p.m. ETOld Man Trump Repeatedly Fumbles in Weird Speech Praising Elon MuskDonald Trump couldn’t keep some of his words straight as he marked the supposed end of Elon Musk’s tenure at the White House.Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesHours after reports emerged Friday that Elon Musk had been under the influence of heavy drugs during his time advising the president, Musk and Donald Trump stumbled and fumbled their way through a White House press conference recognizing the end of the tech billionaire’s special government employee status.The wildly unusual joint conference featured Musk’s black eye, a giant gold key that Trump said he only gives to “very special people,” cringe-worthy regurgitations by Musk of Trump’s take on his Pulitzer Board defamation suit, and claims that Musk’s unpopular and controversial time in the White House was not quite over.But as Trump continued to praise Musk and his time atop the Department of Government Efficiency, the president’s verbal gaffes became more apparent. He claimed that DOGE had uncovered $42 million in wasteful spending, referring to expenditures related to Uganda, which Trump pronounced as “oo-ganda.” The 78-year-old also mentioned he would have Musk’s DOGE cuts “cauterized by Congress,” though he quickly corrected himself by saying they would be “affirmed by Congress,” instead. Trump’s on-camera slippage has gotten worse in recent weeks: Earlier this month, Trump dozed off while in a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. That is despite the fact that the president received a clean bill of health in a medical report released in April that described Trump as being in “excellent health,” including neurological functioning.Musk, meanwhile, refused to acknowledge emerging reports of his alleged drug use. But the news of White House drug use under Trump’s helm is nothing new: In fact, if the reports prove true, it would be little more than a return to form. Last year, a report by the Department of Defense inspector general indicated that the West Wing operated more like a pill mill than the nation’s highest office. Common pills included modafinil, Adderall, fentanyl, morphine, and ketamine, according to the Pentagon report. But other, unlisted drugs—like Xanax—were equally easy to come by from the White House Medical Unit, according to anonymous sources that spoke to Rolling Stone.While other presidents were known to take a mix of drug cocktails to fight off back pain (like JFK) or bad moods (like Nixon), no previous administrations matched the level of debauchery of Trump’s, whose in-office pharmacists unquestioningly handed out highly addictive substances to staffers who needed pick-me-ups or energy boosts—no doctor’s exam, referral, or prescription required.“It was kind of like the Wild West. Things were pretty loose. Whatever someone needs, we were going to fill this,” another source told Rolling Stone in March 2024.Meanwhile, pharmacists described an atmosphere of fear within the West Wing, claiming they would be “fired” if they spoke out or would receive negative work assignments if they didn’t hand pills over to staffers.Read more about the press conference:Trump and Elon Musk Have Ominous Warning About Future of DOGEMost Recent Post/May 30, 2025/3:00 p.m. ETElon Musk Gives Strange Excuse for Massive Black EyeMusk showed up a press conference with Donald Trump sporting a noticeable shiner.Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesElon Musk sported what looked like a black eye during his DOGE goodbye press conference with President Trump on Friday. When asked about it, he blamed the bruise on his 5-year-old son punching him in the face. “Mr. Musk … is your eye OK? What happened to your eye; I noticed there’s a bruise there?” one reporter finally asked near the end of the press conference.“Well, I wasn’t anywhere near France,” Musk said, in a weak attempt at a joke regarding footage of French President Emmanuel Macron’s wife slapping him in the face.“I was just horsing around with [my son] little X and said, ‘Go ’head and punch me in the face,’ and he did. Turns out even a 5-year-old punching you in the face actually does—”“That was X that did it? X could do it!” Trump chimed in. “If you knew X …”“I didn’t really feel much at the time; I guess it bruises up. But I was just messing around with the kids.”Musk chose an impeccable time to show up to a press conference with a black eye. Earlier in the day, The New York Times reported on Musk’s rampant drug use on and off the campaign trail, as the world’s richest man frequently mixed ketamine and psychedelics and kept a small box of pills, mostly containing Adderall. The shiner only adds to speculation around his personal habits.More on that Times report:Elon Musk Was on Crazy Combo of Drugs During Trump CampaignMost Recent Post/May 30, 2025/2:51 p.m. ETTrump and Elon Musk Have Ominous Warning About Future of DOGEElon Musk’s time as a government employee has come to an end, but his time with Donald Trump has not.Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesDespite the fanfare over Elon Musk’s supposed departure from the Department of Government Efficiency, Donald Trump says that the billionaire bureaucrat isn’t really going anywhere.“Many of the DOGE people are staying behind, so they’re not leaving. And Elon’s not really leaving. He’s gonna be back and forth, I think. I have a feeling. It’s his baby, and he’s gonna be doing a lot of things,” Trump said during a press conference in the Oval Office Friday.The press conference was held to mark the end of Musk’s time as a so-called “special government employee,” a title that allowed him to bypass certain ethics requirements during his 134-day stint in Trump’s administration. The president made sure to give Musk a gaudy golden key—what it actually unlocks went totally unaddressed—to make sure he could get back into the White House. “This is not the end of DOGE, but really the beginning,” Musk said, promising that DOGE’s “influence” would “only grow stronger” over time.Earlier Friday, the billionaire bureaucrat shared a post on X asserting that the legacy of DOGE was more psychological than anything else. Surely, it will take longer than four months to forget the image of Musk running around with a chainsaw. Read more about Musk:Elon Musk Was on Crazy Combo of Drugs During Trump CampaignMost Recent Post/May 30, 2025/1:21 p.m. ETDem Governor Vetoes Ban on Surprise Ambulance Bills in Shocking MoveThe bill had unanimous support in both chambers of the state legislature.Michael Ciaglo/Getty ImagesColorado’s Democratic Governor Jared Polis has vetoed a bill that would ban surprise billing by ambulance companies, over the unanimous objections of both chambers of the state legislature. Why would Polis veto a bill that’s popular with everyone, even Colorado Republicans? The governor wrote in his veto statement that drafting errors in the bill made it “unimplementable” and estimated that it would make insurance premiums go up by as much as $0.73 to $2.15 per person. “I am committed to working with proponents and sponsors to protect Coloradans from surprise bills, but I encourage all parties to work towards a more reasonable reimbursement rate that mitigates premium impacts and nets a better deal for Colorado families,” Polis wrote. In Colorado, if legislators in both chambers repass the bill with a two-thirds majority, they can override the governor’s veto, especially considering that the bill passed with the support of every single legislator. But the legislature adjourned on May 7, meaning that the bill has to be passed again when the legislature reconvenes in January.  For some reason, ending surprise ambulance billing nationally is not the slam-dunk issue it should be. Congress ended most surprise medical bills in 2020 but exempted ground ambulances from the bill. Was Polis’s veto due to badly drafted language and a (seemingly modest) price hike in insurance premiums, as he said, or was it for a different, more nefarious reason? We might not know unless and until the bill is reintroduced next year. More on surprise ambulance bills:Congress Doesn’t Care About Your Surprise Ambulance Bill Most Recent Post/May 30, 2025/12:21 p.m. ETTrump’s Pardons Since Jan 6 Spree Show an Infuriatingly Corrupt TrendSince his January 6 pardon spree, Donald Trump has tended to grant clemency a little closer to home.Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty ImagesA good chunk of the white-collar criminals pardoned by Donald Trump after his massive “Day One” pardoning spree either have a political or financial tie to him.The president has issued 60 pardons since he offered political forgiveness to some 1,600 individuals charged in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. But out of those subsequent 60 unrelated to the attack, 12 people—or roughly one in five—were already in Trump’s orbit, according to ABC News.They included several politicos, including former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted on several counts of corruption, including for an attempt to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat after he left the position for the White House; former Republican Representative Michael Grimm, who pleaded guilty to tax fraud; former Nevada gubernatorial candidate Michele Fiore, who allegedly stole public funds intended to commemorate a slain police officer; and former Tennessee state Senator Brian Kelsey, who pleaded guilty to campaign finance fraud in 2022.Trump also pardoned major financiers of his presidential campaigns. Trevor Milton, the founder of the Nikola electric vehicle company, donated nearly $2 million toward Trump’s 2024 campaign. Imaad Zuberi, who has donated to both parties, issued “at least $800,000 to committees associated with Trump and the Republican Party,” ABC reported.Others helped Trump advance his retribution campaign against his political enemies, or helped advance his own image in the broader Republican Party. Devon Archer and Jason Galanis, both former business partners of Hunter Biden, accused the younger Biden of leveraging his father’s name and influence in order to conduct business overseas. Archer had defrauded a Native American tribal entity, while Galanis was serving time for multiple offenses. Trump also forgave Todd and Julie Chrisley—reality TV stars known for their show Chrisley Knows Best who were sentenced to a combined 19 years on fraud and tax evasion charges—after their daughter Savannah Chrisley spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention.Speaking to press Friday after her parents’ release, Savannah Chrisley said that the “biggest misconception right now is I either paid for a pardon or slept for a pardon—,” but she couldn’t finish her sentence before Todd interjected: “That’s something I would have done,” he said.Read who else Trump is thinking of pardoning:Trump Considering Pardons for Men Who Tried to Kill Gretchen WhitmerMost Recent Post/May 30, 2025/12:04 p.m. ETTrump Knew He Was Deporting Innocent People to El Salvador All AlongMany of the people deported to El Salvador have no criminal record, and Donald Trump knew it.Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesDonald Trump’s administration was well aware that many of the 238 Venezuelan immigrants it shipped off to a notorious megaprison in El Salvador had no criminal records at all, according to a Friday report from ProPublica.  While Trump officials claimed that the deportees were brutal gang members and “the worst of the worst,” only 32 of the deportees had actually been convicted of crimes, and most of them were minor offenses such as traffic violations, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security reviewed by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune, and a team of journalists from Venezuelan media outlets. One of the men, 23-year-old Maikol Gabriel López Lizano, faced a misdemeanor charge after he was arrested in 2023 for riding his bike and drinking a can of beer.Little more than half of the deportees, 130 of the 238, were charged only with violating U.S. immigration laws. Twenty of them had criminal records from other countries. The U.S. government data showed that 67 individuals had pending charges, with only six being for violent crimes. In several cases, the government data about the pending charges differed from what ProPublica was able to find. In some cases, the men had actually been convicted, and in one, the charges had been dropped. But in many cases, these individuals were remanded to a foreign prison before their criminal cases were ever resolved. The Trump administration has touted allegations of gang affiliation as a justification for denying the deportees their due process rights. But none of the men’s names appeared on a list of roughly 1,400 alleged Tren de Aragua members kept by the Venezuelan government, ProPublica reported. Trump’s border czar Tom Homan tried desperately in March to downplay reporting that many of these individuals did not have criminal records. “A lot of gang members don’t have criminal histories, just like a lot of terrorists in this world, they’re not in any terrorist databases, right?” Homan said on ABC News. But the methods the government relies on to classify individuals as gang members—such as identification of gang-affiliated tattoos—have been disproven by experts. Not only were many of the men who were deported not proven gang members, they weren’t even criminals, and by denying them the right to due process, they were remanded to a foreign prison notorious for human rights abuses without ever getting to prove it. Trump has continued to pressure the Supreme Court to allow him to sidestep due process as part of his massive deportation campaign, claiming that the judiciary has no right to intrude on matters of “foreign policy.” But immigrants residing on U.S. soil—who are clearly not the bloodthirsty criminals the administration insists they are—are still subject to protections under U.S. law. Read more about the deportations:Trump Asks Supreme Court to Help Him Deport People Wherever He WantsMost Recent Post/May 30, 2025/11:41 a.m. ETJoni Ernst Stoops to Shocking Low When Told Medicaid Cuts Will KillSenator Joni Ernst had a disgusting answer when confronted by a constituent at her town hall about Trump’s budget bill.Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesRepublican Senator Joni Ernst had a particularly unhinged response to questions from her constituents at a town hall in Parkersburg, Iowa, on Friday.Ernst was asked about the GOP’s budget bill kicking people off of Medicaid, and her condescending answer quickly became callous and flippant as the Iowa politician smirked at the audience.“When you are arguing about illegals that are receiving Medicaid, 1.4 million, they’re not eligible, so they will be coming off, so—” Ernst began, before an audience member shouted, “People are going to die!”“People are not—well, we all are going to die,” Ernst responded, as the audience drowned her in loud protests.What was Ernst thinking with that answer? Almost every Republican town hall this year has gone badly for the politician holding it, thanks to President Trump upending the federal government, and Ernst surely knew that choosing death over Medicaid wouldn’t go over well with the crowd. Earlier this week in Nebraska, Representative Mike Flood was heckled after he admitted that he didn’t read the budget bill.Ersnt’s town hall wasn’t even the first one in Iowa to go badly for a Republican. On Wednesday, Representative Ashley Hinson was met with jeers and boos, with audience members in Decorah, Iowa calling her a fraud and a liar. But at least Hinson had the good sense not to seemingly embrace death over a vital, lifesaving government program. More on Trump’s bill:Here Are the Worst Things in Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill Most Recent Post/May 30, 2025/11:35 a.m. ETKetanji Brown Jackson Blasts “Botched” Supreme Court Ruling on TPSSupreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in a scathing disssent, called out the rest of the court for allowing Trump’s harmful executive order to stand.Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesSupreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson thinks the Supreme Court “botched” a decision to allow the Trump administration to revoke the Temporary Protected Status protections of about 500,000 Haitian, Cuban, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan immigrants.Jackson and fellow liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor were the only two dissenters.“The Court has plainly botched this assessment today. It requires next to nothing from the Government with respect to irreparable harm,” Jackson wrote in the dissent. “And it undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the Government to precipitously upend the lives of and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending.”TPS is a long-standing program that allowed those 500,000 immigrants to stay in the U.S. after they fled violence and risk in their home countries. After the Supreme Court’s ruling, all of them are at high risk of sudden deportation. “It is apparent that the government seeks a stay to enable it to inflict maximum predecision damage,” Jackson wrote.Read the full dissent here.View More Posts

A California-based company called Magrathea just turned on a new electrolyzer that can make magnesium metal from seawater. The technology has the potential to produce the material, which is used in vehicles and defense applications, with net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions. Magnesium is an incredibly light metal, and it’s used for parts in cars and planes, as well as in aluminum alloys like those in vehicles. The metal is also used in defense and industrial applications, including the production processes for steel and titanium. Today, China dominates production of magnesium, and the most common method generates a lot of the emissions that cause climate change. If Magrathea can scale up its process, it could help provide an alternative source of the metal and clean up industries that rely on it, including automotive manufacturing. The star of Magrathea’s process is an electrolyzer, a device that uses electricity to split a material into its constituent elements. Using an electrolyzer in magnesium production isn’t new, but Magrathea’s approach represents an update. “We really modernized it and brought it into the 21st century,” says Alex Grant, Magrathea’s cofounder and CEO. The whole process starts with salty water. There are small amounts of magnesium in seawater, as well as in salt lakes and groundwater. (In seawater, the concentration is about 1,300 parts per million, so magnesium makes up about 0.1% of seawater by weight.) If you take that seawater or brine and clean it up, concentrate it, and dry it out, you get a solid magnesium chloride salt. Magrathea takes that salt (which it currently buys from Cargill) and puts it into the electrolyzer. The device reaches temperatures of about 700 °C (almost 1,300 °F) and runs electricity through the molten salt to split the magnesium from the chlorine, forming magnesium metal. Typically, running an electrolyzer in this process would require a steady source of electricity. The temperature is generally kept just high enough to maintain the salt in a molten state. Allowing it to cool down too much would allow it to solidify, messing up the process and potentially damaging the equipment. Heating it up more than necessary would just waste energy.  Magrathea’s approach builds in flexibility. Basically, the company runs its electrolyzer about 100 °C higher than is necessary to keep the molten salt a liquid. It then uses the extra heat in inventive ways, including to dry out the magnesium salt that eventually goes into the reactor. This preparation can be done intermittently, so the company can take in electricity when it’s cheaper or when more renewables are available, cutting costs and emissions. In addition, the process will make a co-product, called magnesium oxide, that can be used to trap carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to cancel out the remaining carbon pollution. The result could be a production process with net-zero emissions, according to an independent life cycle assessment completed in January. While it likely won’t reach this bar at first, the potential is there for a much more climate-friendly process than what’s used in the industry today, Grant says. Breaking into magnesium production won’t be simple, says Simon Jowitt, director of the Nevada Bureau of Mines and of the Center for Research in Economic Geology at the University of Nevada, Reno. China produces roughly 95% of the global supply as of 2024, according to data from the US Geological Survey. This dominant position means companies there can flood the market with cheap metal, making it difficult for others to compete. “The economics of all this is uncertain,” Jowitt says. The US has some trade protections in place, including an anti-dumping duty, but newer players with alternative processes can still face obstacles. US Magnesium, a company based in Utah, was the only company making magnesium in the US in recent years, but it shut down production in 2022 after equipment failures and a history of environmental concerns.  Magrathea plans to start building a demonstration plant in Utah in late 2025 or early 2026, which will have a capacity of roughly 1,000 tons per year and should be running in 2027. In February the company announced that it signed an agreement with a major automaker, though it declined to share its name on the record. The automaker pre-purchased material from the demonstration plant and will incorporate it into existing products. After the demonstration plant is running, the next step would be to build a commercial plant with a larger capacity of around 50,000 tons annually.

BUTTPEACH Quantum Witch is a story of religious oppression, queer emancipation, and a dancing skeleton that hopes to popularise the ‘plotformer’ genre We spoke to Quantum Witch’s lone developer – NikkiJay – about how her experiences as part of a religious cult shaped the development of her game, an 80s-style ‘plotformer’ about finding your lost flock of faer. Image credit: NikkiJay Article by Kelsey Raynor Guides Writer Published on May 29, 2025 You might not have heard of Quantum Witch, but if you’ve an affinity for pixel-art platformers with engaging story-beats, meta-narratives, and an array of kooky characters, then you should be all over it. To just call Quantum Witch a colourful platformer with a strong narrative (read: ‘plotformer’) is to do it a disservice, though. Quantum Witch is so much more than its vibrant pixels; it is NikkiJay’s personal story of fleeing a religious cult, embracing her LGBTQ+ identity, and seeking solace in video games. There’s a dark undercurrent, but ultimately, Nikki chooses to tell her story – and a story that many others will no doubt see themselves in – with humour and pride. To get a better idea of exactly what informed Quantum Witch and how the indie ‘plotformer’ came together, VG247 sat down with NikkiJay to ask how growing up in a religious cult led to the development of the game and what she hopes audiences will get from it. The below interview discusses religious trauma, coercive control, and the abuse of power. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. VG247: I’m aware that Quantum Witch is largely informed by your own personal experiences of fleeing a religious cult; would you mind sharing some more about your experience, and how it has informed Quantum Witch’s story and characters? Nikki: I was born into the group and my family on both sides were third generation. Age 10, I needed my tonsils out and I had to tell the surgeon that I would rather die than accept certain medical treatments. As a 10-year-old, it's one of the questions they ask when you go for CPTSD diagnosis: “did you at any point honestly really believe you were going to die?” Yeah, I was told I had to be prepared for that. I had to die for God if that was the option that was presented to me. Either take this medical treatment that God said I couldn't have or die. I had to choose death. This cult literally kills kids for God. A lot of people stayed because the alternative was to lose your entire support structure and social network. You were literally by yourself with nothing, which was the option I chose in the end. It’s high coercive control. This way, they say that you have the personality God wants you to have. Religious control and abuse of that power is the biggest theme that made it into Quantum Witch. It is very much again about urgency and choice: I think if people have been through similar things, it's going to resonate with them. VG247: During the demo, I got the impression that Ren is largely not interested in the religious beliefs shared with her by others in Quantum Witch, but she still appears to have a fascination with the Old Gods. I have two questions about this: is Ren on the fence, so to speak, about her beliefs? Does this align with any of your thoughts and feelings about religion now? Nikki: Yeah, I am agnostic. I am a skeptic. I have to be open to the possibilities. A skeptic who isn't open to possibilities isn’t a skeptic. They're a cynic, and Ren is very much a skeptic. The majority of the characters in the game are just aspects of me that I've made into a character, it's just a little piece of me that I've enhanced without turning it into a stereotype as far as I can. Tyra [Ren’s partner] is more cynical: ‘come on, it's nonsense’. And Ren’s like, ‘no, let's go find out’. Her desire to go explore is going to lead her into things that she shouldn't have explored in the way that she's going to. But yeah, she is definitely that part of me who would like for there to be magic. Image credit: NikkiJay VG247: Quantum Witch’s marketplace – which features unnamed characters that bear uncanny resemblances to some iconic video game mascots – is what I assume to be a representation of some of your favourite games. The game itself regularly reminded me of themes and mechanics from Undertale, The Binding of Isaac, and even Stardew Valley. What other games or pieces of media helped inspire Quantum Witch, and how? Nikki: I love Undertale. What I loved about Undertale is the mixture of all those styles and then you'd be talking to a character and suddenly you have to play a really fast reaction game. I can't do that. I'm too old. But it was a big inspiration in the style of game I wanted to create. As for the reason why the video game characters are there in the plot of [Quantum Witch’s] story; they do tie into the plot and there's a little hint that they say. And I just loved putting in my alternate takes on who these characters were. You might know Paul Rose from Digitizer. At the very beginning of the project, I had all my story beats worked out. This is what's going to happen. This is how it's all going to interact, but I could not – for the life of me – start it. I couldn't build the bridges between these beats and Rose helped me a lot. He did a script treatment and some of the dialogue in the marketplace is directly from him; [one of the characters you meet is] talking about pills and I was like, ‘that that just fits in perfectly because there is a character later on who might need that pill’. It’s also a bit of a cue for me to have the characters talk about medication. . I also wanted to add some queer flavor to them, so Princess Nectarine – who is similar to but legally distinct from a certain Nintendo character – is in a polycule with Bowser and Mario and they like to roleplay kidnapping. I did not set out to make a queer game. It's turned out that way because I can't help it, but it's not all these characters are. VG247: I know you’re a solo developer and this is a largely solo project, but I’m aware you’ve received some help with the whole endeavour. You mentioned Paul Rose. So could you tell me more about the people who have helped you with creating Quantum Witch and what they did? Nikki: I must absolutely shout out Jerden Cooke for the music. We composed a lot of it together, [with] me mostly on the ukulele which you can hear in Ren's theme. I don't know if you've seen the video clip of David Lynch helping compose Laura's Theme from Twin Peaks. Working with him is like that. I got some fantastic music which was like the music I could hear in my head when I started playing on the ukulele. He was able to put it down, basically extract it from my head, and put it into a word file. And Paul Rose; I knew him through Digitizer meetups. We just got talking on Twitter one day and met up. He's a great guy and things came about quite naturally because it was when Covid hit and a lot of TV work got cancelled. I said to him, look, you should get yourself on Fiverr. Put your writing services out there because people should be paying for this. I will be your first customer, and so I was! Without his help, this would have still been a collection of little story beats that I would have had no idea how to wire together. And I've always wanted to work with Stephanie Sterling. What if I just ping her on Bluesky and say, "Hey, want to write a chapter of this game? It's got a dancing skeleton in it." She said, "Yeah, I'm in." She said that when she started to do it, she wasn't entirely sure whether it would be the right project because she just saw a [dancing] skeleton. The more she wrote for [Quantum Witch] and the more she played the game, she went, "Yeah, this is my wheelhouse,” and she poured her religious trauma into it, which happened to just fit absolutely perfectly. It's like I could not have asked for a better group of people to work with, and this is kind of what I want to say to indie developers who are solo. You're not alone. You might just want one name on the credit, but it takes a village to raise a child. Image credit: NikkiJay VG247: I was taken aback by just how cosy the game is. Admittedly, even with the subject matter, I didn’t expect – largely given the art style – for this to be all doom and gloom, but I definitely didn’t expect something so jovial and honestly, straight-up funny. How did you decide that this was the approach you wanted to take when creating Ren’s story? Nikki: [Stardew Valley], Chrono Trigger and Paper Mario: Thousand-Year Door are my three most played games. I love the style of Stardew Valley and I love that there's some darkness hidden in Stardew Valley. I really liked the humor in it. I mean, if you thought I shouldn't be laughing at this, but I am, then that’s an achievement. That's exactly what I wanted. My main coping mechanism is humor. I'm not saying it's a healthy coping mechanism, but it kind of works. And I mean, I was heavily influenced by reading a lot of Douglas Adams. and he was able to find humor in the most bleak situations. And the graphical style… When I started this, I couldn't draw a convincing stick figure. I look at the art that I did four years ago when I started messing about with this idea and it's just embarrassing. Objectively terrible, but my main influences were Stardew Valley and The Darkside Detective. I loved the low-resolution style art, but there was so much character in them. So, I took a pixel art course on Udemy and a color theory course and… then just found, hey, I can do this now. That's weird. VG247: While looking into Quantum Witch and yourself, I found a lovely quote of yours from The Guardian: “A lot of religion is about giving up autonomy to some mystical power that you’ve never seen, heard or met. Over the course of the game, Ren takes that agency back… It’s a queer emancipation story.” Could you expand on this? Nikki: The consequence of being yourself in a group that says ‘no, being yourself is wrong’ is that you just get thrown out. It's weird because I think of my experiences as unique, but the themes they really do seem to be universal. Stephanie Sterling from The Jimquisition: she wrote a chapter of the later part of the game. I originally said to her, can you write these three scenes? She came back and said “I couldn't stop writing. I just love this universe” It's weird, because you wouldn't know it was a different author. The religious oppression of queer people is the same wherever you go. I'm really hoping just that I've got that balance right between a game that's fun and cozy and humorous, – that there is a dancing skeleton who can see through time – but also has that deeper meaning and that message that you take back control. A lot of people would look at this and think ‘you must be anti-religion’ and I'm 100% for freedom of religion, but that also means I'm 100% for freedom from religion. Whether you've got faith or not, nobody wants somebody else's faith forced on you. You can't have freedom of religion without freedom from religion. Image credit: NikkiJay VG247: How long is Quantum Witch set to be, and how many endings will there be? I know you also mentioned some side quests having various conclusions, as well as the game’s main endings being different depending on your decisions. Nikki: I watched a tester play from beginning to end. It took him about three and a half hours, and he got my second favorite ending. He had questions about the lore and I said, "play it again and make different choices, and you'll get a different ending, which will probably answer that for you." It's difficult to say how many endings there are. There's three definite categories of endings. There's bleak. There's interesting, where you kind of get a bittersweet ending, and then there's the super happy ending, and there are variations on each of those. [These depend] on the characters you've helped. There's also little puzzles that you can go and solve which can enhance the happy ending. It's kind of like an open-world choose-your-own adventure book, but in pixel format. If I'm going to do a full playthrough of all choices and all stories, I will easily put aside six or seven hours to do it and I wrote it. So, I'm not trying to discover it. I think it's like The Stanley Parable in that sense. VG247: I also learned that Quantum Witch could have been a novel. It could have initially started out that way and you then obviously decided to turn this into a game. How did that come about? Nikki: One of my friends was doing the National Novel Writing November. I thought, I've got this story in my head which might fit, so I started writing it. I don't know if anybody's realized this, [but video games] are quite difficult to make, and novels are very easy because you just type... I was wrong and I really did not enjoy writing it. I decided, thinking back on my childhood, I want to make this into a game. I want to make this interactive. Choice is a big theme. I want to give the player a choice. And it did end up as a point and click [game] for a while, rather than a plotformer. No matter what you do, it is a valid choice. There are no game over screens in Quantum Witch. Anything you do is just a part of the story and the game is over when you get the credits. Quantum Witch is a surprisingly cosy and jovial take on topics of religious trauma and queer identities, but if your curiosity about this game is piqued, it’s up to you to find out all of its secrets. NikkiJay stresses that there’s so much to discover for those who are eager to explore the game and discover all of its various paths, endings, and dialogue. For those who want to try Quantum Witch out, you can find a demo for the game on Steam, and it’ll also be participating in Steam’s Next Fest during June.

When it comes to portable power banks, there’s no shortage of options on the market but as anyone who’s ever been let down by a cheap charger knows, not all brands are created equal. Reliability is everything when you’re counting on a power bank to keep your essential devices running. Famous for its dependability, safety features, and technology, Anker has become the go-to brand for this. Right now, Amazon has an amazing sale going on the latest Anker laptop power bank that makes it one of the season’s best picks. This model comes with a massive 25,000mAh capacity (and 100W output) and it was recently released. It already has more than 1,000 five-star reviews and has been praised by many as the best power bank on the market. Even more incredible is the cost these days: now you can have it for just $109, a discount from its original $134 price tag (19% off). See at Amazon 100W Output With three USB-C ports for as much as 100W output, you are able to charge your MacBook, phone, tablet, and so on—all at once. That is, no more messing about with devices or waiting for the first to finish charging before charging a second. The total 25,000mAh capacity is enough for long car rides, busy workdays or just plain peace of mind at home. And with its amazingly fast recharging capability, you can charge the bank itself to 30% in just 20 minutes. The power bank comes with two internal USB-C cables – one extendable to 2.3 feet (proofed for over 20,000 extensions) and a shorter cable that is also a tough-carry strap (proofed for over 20,000 bends). That way you do not have to worry about misplacing your cables or dealing with tangled wires and it is best to use on the move, when commuting or just keep in your backpack for emergencies. The device is designed to charge up to four devices at once thanks to its combination of USB-C and USB-A ports. Anker backs its product with an 18-month warranty and responsive customer support for you extra peace of mind with your purchase. This 2024 Anker laptop power bank is an essential if you relay on your devices throughout the day. Don’t miss this unique chance to own the greatest in the industry for one of the lowest prices ever. See at Amazon

I never considered myself a walking girl. I never engaged in the "hot girl walk" trends on social media or went on "mental health walks" during the pandemic lockdown. In fact, I long thought walking—the milestone most of us reach as babies, the activity the majority of us do each day to accomplish all the other basic tasks of living—had a little too much PR hype, especially after learning that the much-ballyhooed "10,000 steps" we're supposed to take every day relied on an arbitrary, made-up figure for marketing pedometers. If I am going to do cardio, I reasoned, I'm going to do cardio: cycling, running, swimming, or playing sports with my friends. If I'm not sweating, what's the use? After trying out Peloton's guided walks, available in the at-home fitness giant's incredibly versatile app, I have learned the use. I am now, finally, a walking girl. Is walking good cardio?The reductive view I formerly held of cardio—that I have to be sweaty and tired for it to matter—is and was always false, which I knew, intellectually. As Lifehacker senior health editor Beth Skwarecki has explained before, walking is cardio—and it's actually a pretty good form of it, too. How fast you walk can even be used to measure your health and capacity. Different intensities of cardio do different things for your body, but at its most basic level, walking still burns calories. It's also a great, easy way to work a little extra movement into your life, especially if you're a fitness beginner or have an injury. The catalyst for me checking out Peloton's walking offerings was actually my mom being "prescribed" walking as a treatment for an issue she's been having with her back. The issue prevented her from walking long periods of time or walking fast, so after addressing it medically with doctors and physical therapists, her at-home assignment was to walk longer and longer durations on a walking pad in the living room.As an able-bodied person living in a walkable city (by which I mean a city where I am basically forced to hit my arbitrary 10,000 steps per day whether I want to or not), I have definitely taken the ability to walk for granted. I decided to check out Peloton's walking workouts to see if they'd be useful for my mom—but they ended up being useful for me. What are Peloton's walking workouts all about?To find walking workouts on the Peloton app, select Walking from the top of your home screen or type "walking" into the search bar. Peloton's walking workouts are designed for use on their Tread treadmills (or any treadmill, really)—but I've found that I enjoy them just as much if I go outside, although I obviously can't control the incline if I do that. The guided walks available in the app are like any class Peloton offers: They come in a variety of lengths and formats, are led by a certified instructor who encourages you and reminds you of safety cues, and feature playlists of music that keep the energy going. I start off nearly every weekday morning by walking to Dunkin' Donuts and then to the post office to drop off whatever I've sold on resale apps, so I queue up a Peloton walk for my journey. While I don't necessarily need to have an instructor in my ears reminding me to, well, walk, it encourages me to keep my pace up; I just ignore whatever they're saying about messing with incline and resistance buttons, as I'm not on a treadmill. This morning, I walked along with a five-minute warmup walk routine from instructor Logan Aldridge, who shared encouraging reminders that walking, even if it feels easy, is "massively worth it" for a person's health. He also gave speed cues using practical, real-world examples instead of just relying on cues built around treadmill functions. At one point, he described the pace goal as "not Manhattan walking, not New York City walking," which was funny because I was, in fact, Manhattan-walking my way to a Dunkin', so I slowed down a bit. You can enable location sharing for more accurate measurements and, of course, I have my Apple Watch paired with my Peloton app to give me better data on my heart rate, output, and speed, too. I forgot to enable my location tracking at the beginning of the walk (I don't have it set to automatically track that, though you can), so at the end, it prompted me to enter in my distance walked for better measurements. I glanced at my watch, which told me how far I'd walked, entered in that number, and was taken to a screen where I could review my output. You can absolutely do this on a treadmill, too, and the workouts are more or less designed for you to. There are live classes available, which enter the on-demand archive when they're finished, and you can choose from cool-down walks, power walks, hikes, walks set to certain kinds of playlists (like '90s music or EDM), or even "walk & talk" walks that have two instructors if you like that chatty, podcast kind of feel. Some classes feature walking and running and their titles tell you that upfront. As you're scrolling the options, you'll mostly see title cards with instructors on Treads in the Peloton studio, but you'll also see a few where the instructors are outside. These guided walks are designed more for outdoor walks and the instructors will call out the half-way point so you always know when to turn around and head home (or back to the office or whatever). The workouts come in all kinds of lengths, from five minutes up to 75, with the longer ones often incorporating both walking and running. Why I like Peloton's walking workoutsThese workouts are an easy way to slot some extra intentional movement into my day. I'm already walking around a lot, but I'm not always doing it with purpose. Having an instructor reminding me to connect with my steps and a playlist designed to keep me on a certain pace turns a standard coffee run into a mindful exercise. Walking is also low-impact and accessible, so even on a day you're tired or even if other forms of cardio are beyond your reach, this opens up a whole world of fitness opportunities. Perhaps most importantly, this is the most accessible kind of workout on the app because you really don't need anything special. You don't need a floor mat, yoga blocks, or weights, let alone a fancy treadmill. As long as you have some good shoes, you can walk around all you want while still getting the company's signature encouragement and guidance from trained pros.

TheDanimal победитель победитель куриный ужин Member Oct 25, 2017 878 The year is 2025, you've finally made it as a journalist for your favorite gaming outlet. It's time for your first big review for a game, Split Fiction by Hazelight Studios. Sweet! you think to yourself I loved A Way Out and It Takes Two, I bet my partner will love to play this game with me! Heck, it might even make for a fun review! And then you started playing the game. With writing straight out of your favorite director's least favorite movie and gameplay from your least favorite Mario Party game, Split Fiction makes sure to waste your time in all the wrong ways. Starting to enjoy a gameplay mechanic? Too bad, you only get to do it once. Hate a mechanic? Great news, you have to roll an egg down a hill for the next 30 minutes. It's 12 hours before the review is due, and you're sitting on a 6/10 score. You've read the thoughts of your other journalist friends, and they seem to agree with you. The game seems fine, nothing great, nothing terrible. Your partner walks in and asks if they can read your review. Partner: Wait, a 6/10?? I thought we had a great time playing this game!? You, trying to salvage the situation: I'm so glad we played it together, but I really only liked the pig side story, the centipede section, and the ending section had a cool theme! I wish the whole game had been like that... Partner: But you were laughing! You know how much I don't like to play video games, and I had a great time playing this video game! Mio and Zoe were so relatable and fun. You: Babe, they had the most formulaic arcs I've ever consumed in media. They were neither relatable nor fun. Partner: ... You: ... You: Ok, how about an 8/10? Four days later, the embargo drops You: 90??????????  Zips Member Oct 25, 2017 4,058 What? No seriously... what?  RoastBeeph Member Oct 29, 2017 1,157 Wtf thread is this? I'm confused.   KZXcellent One Winged Slayer Member Oct 25, 2017 4,180 ???   Soulflarz Member Oct 25, 2017 3,985 RoastBeeph said: Wtf thread is this? I'm confused. Click to expand... Click to shrink... LTTP: split fiction isnt fun and how the hell did it score high  Lotus One Winged Slayer Member Oct 25, 2017 124,193 Wat   R O T Member Jan 1, 2021 5,047   OP OP TheDanimal победитель победитель куриный ужин Member Oct 25, 2017 878 R O T said: it's ok josef i still love and respect you   Ryengeku Member Oct 26, 2017 6,207 California, US Yes, the story wasn't anything stellar but the gameplay was even more of a step up from It Takes Two. It still deserves its high score.   Ferrio Member Oct 25, 2017 19,798 Was my GOTY until Expedition 33 hit. Amazing game. And while the overall story is pretty simple, the characters are well fleshed out. Even if both characters sucked (Looking at you It Takes Two) the gameplay still would justify the scores.   modiz Member Oct 8, 2018 19,264 Funny for me how this LTTP is meant to say the game is not nearly as fun as others make it seem, then proceed to say how your partner seemed to really enjoy all of it, and they even got the impression you enjoyed a lot of it too. Seems like you are trying to overly analyze a game that is all about enjoying doing a whole bunch of activities with your friend/partner, and the writing is pretty much on the same (mediocre) level as It Takes Two and A Way Out, I didnt feel it is either better or worse than either of them. Its just best enjoyed by messing around and laughing with a friend, and most reviewers treated it like that.  Katbobo Member May 3, 2022 8,278 are you drunk are you safe are you okay   SixtyFourBlades Teyvat Traveler Member Oct 27, 2017 8,891 I'm so confused lol   ynthrepic Member Oct 25, 2017 924 Is this role play or AI?   DespiteTheNora Member Jan 30, 2025 1,778 I didn't play it but I think you really enjoyed it   Mekanos ▲ Legend ▲ Member Oct 17, 2018 48,586 It's Memorial Day weekend alright   Tom Nook Says... Member Jan 15, 2019 7,406 I mean, yes, the characters were pretty two-dimensional and the game insisted on constantly positioning them as polar opposites to each other in a hokey way ("Oh, you like the city? I could never live there, I love the country!") but I don't put much stock into videogame stories, they're a means to an end in most cases. And when it comes to the actual gameplay of Split Fiction, my partner and I had a great time pretty much start to finish. I was constantly pleasantly surprised by the number of ideas and concepts the game throws at you while rarely repeating any of them.   TissueBox Member Oct 25, 2017 12,465 Urinated States of America GOTY!   Chaserjoey Keeper of the White Materia Member Oct 27, 2017 9,907 It deserved a 90 purely based on not having an annoying as fuck romance book popping up all the time.   Papercuts Prophet of Truth Member Oct 25, 2017 12,732 wat But yes a game that is 12-15 hours long of engaging, constantly varied coop mechanics that rapid fires ideas while being super polished and breezy resonates with people.  Anustart 9 Million Scovilles Avenger Nov 12, 2017 9,692 Same way I felt about it and It Takes Two. Basic gameplay but it's coop and has high production values. Not bad games, but middle of the road for me.  OP OP TheDanimal победитель победитель куриный ужин Member Oct 25, 2017 878 my favorite part was the boss fight where you jump around aimlessly until you can do damage i thought that was neat   Mau Member Oct 25, 2017 3,583 Can't say I agree with this take at all. Split Fiction is one of most inventive games I've played in years.   Soulflarz Member Oct 25, 2017 3,985 Anustart said: Same way I felt about it and It Takes Two. Basic gameplay but it's coop and has high production values. Not bad games, but middle of the road for me. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I think I enjoyed ITT way way more since it was the first time they did it, both have whatever stories and if ITT was another 10hr longer it would've been painful so doing it all a second time again was...rough...  Khaidu Member Oct 28, 2017 288 That's a pretty good way to show how little you know about how reviews work.   Aeana Member Oct 25, 2017 7,574 Is the point of this roleplay exercise to assert that the game only scored highly because reviewers were bullied by their non-gaming partners?   Awcko Member Oct 25, 2017 74 If you liked their other games and yet the writing is somehow a sticking point in this one, I really don't know what to tell you.   Hoggle Member Mar 25, 2021 6,784 I've been playing it on and off with a roommate and yeah… Maybe it's because I grew up with Split ClScreen games so this isn't that novel an idea, but it's a bunch of 6/10 idea with decent presentation and a godawful story. Had the characters not been constant assholes and maybe somewhat humorous, I'd have enjoyed it much more. But I'd rather play Earth Defence Force, Resident Evil 5, or a Halo campaign with my roommate.  Vulcano's Assistant Member Oct 29, 2017 15,380 The one disappointing thing about this game is that it just ignores the genres of fiction it builds its narrative around and instead doubles down on video game references, which is not bad because they do it through gameplay and It is a nice love letter to video games throughout, but the whole story being about writers and not exploring any of it just raises your hopes for something that isn't there. It is almost like a gamer's idea of what fantasy books and sci fi books are about, but all the fantasy and sci fi they consumed was from video games and not from novels.  Faiyaz Member Nov 30, 2017 6,675 Bangladesh Artificially intelligent weekend thread   Lampa Member Feb 13, 2018 4,009 Interesting OP. Anyway I just think it's far too long.  burgervan Member Oct 27, 2017 1,456 You could write for Hazelight.  

With its gold accents, prominent control knobs, and guitar amp styling, Marshall’s hefty Heston 120 looks like no other soundbar on the planet. But what fascinates me about the company’s first TV speaker isn’t the styling (it looks exactly like I’d expect from a Marshall product), it’s how it’s been engineered to work with the company’s equally iconic portable Bluetooth speakers: It uses Bluetooth. Wait, I know that sounds obvious, but bear with me because this is actually a new and intriguing change to the way soundbars work. Recommended Videos Marshall Heston 120 Marshall First, a quick 101 on the Heston 120. It’s priced at $1,000, which should tell you right away that Marshall isn’t messing around. That’s the same price as the Sonos Arc Ultra and Bowers & Wilkins Panorama 3, and only $100 more than the Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar. It packs 11 drivers, including two dedicated subwoofers, and can process both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X in a 5.1.2-channel configuration. It has onboard mics that are used for room calibration, and it supports a wide array of protocols, including Apple AirPlay, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, and Tidal Connect. On the back panel, you get an Ethernet jack, an HDMI passthrough input with 4K/120Hz/Dolby Vision support, stereo RCA analog jacks (for a turntable or other gear), and a dedicated subwoofer output — something you rarely find on soundbars.  Marshall has redesigned its mobile app to give people deep controls over the Heston as well as the company’s full range of existing headphones, earbuds, and speakers. Expansion via Bluetooth Marshall Where things get interesting is on the wireless side of the equation. The Heston 120 supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3. That’s not unusual — all three of its competitors I mentioned above have the same or similar specs. What *is* unusual is how it uses these connections, specifically Bluetooth. Marshall considers the Heston 120 an all-in-one speaker that’s designed to work equally well for movies and music. However, the company also recognizes that some people want even more immersion from their TV sound systems, so it offers expansion via wireless speakers. Normally, when a soundbar is expandable with additional speakers, those connections are made via Wi-Fi (Sonos, Bluesound, Denon) or dedicated onboard transmitter/receivers (Bose, Sony, Klipsch). Bluetooth has never been considered a viable option because of issues around latency and limitations on transmitting multiple audio channels (e.g. low frequency, surround left, surround right) simultaneously. However, the Heston 120 is Bluetooth Auracast compatible — as far as I know, that’s a first for a soundbar — a technology that overcomes traditional Bluetooth limitations. Unlike earlier Bluetooth standards, which could create audio lag of 100-300 milliseconds, Auracast can achieve a latency of as little as 30 milliseconds. That should be almost imperceptible for dialogue synchronization, and even less noticeable for low-frequency bass or surround sound effects. Moreover, an Auracast device, like a TV or soundbar, can transmit multiple discrete broadcasts. In theory, it could handle multiple wireless subwoofers, two or four surround speakers, plus one or more wireless headphones or hearing aids — each with a dedicated sound stream. More choice, more flexibility Marshall Emberton III Marshall So what does this mean? Marshall’s ultimate goal is to let you use any pair of Auracast-capable Bluetooth speakers as your Heston 120 left/right surrounds, and an additional Auracast subwoofer for low-frequency effects. Initially, however, the plan is more conservative. At launch, the Heston 120 will support a single Marshall-built wireless subwoofer and later in the year you’ll be able to add two Marshall Bluetooth speakers as left/right surrounds. You’ll have a lot of choice — all of Marshall’s third-gen Homeline Bluetooth speakers are Auracast-ready — from the small but mighty Emberton III to the 120-watt Woburn III. Once they receive a planned firmware update, you can expect them all to work with the Heston as satellite speakers via Bluetooth. Typically, wireless surround speakers and subwoofers need to be plugged into a wall at all times. That provides power to the built-in amplifiers and their Wi-Fi network connections. Bluetooth, as a wireless technology, requires way less power than Wi-Fi, so if your Marshall portable Bluetooth speaker has a 20-hour battery, that’s 20 hours of completely wire-free home theater listening. And if, for some reason, you don’t have a Wi-Fi network, you can still assemble a multi-speaker system. Marshall points out that while Auracast is an open standard, each company can implement it as it sees fit, and that could mean that some Auracast speakers won’t work with the Heston 120. JBL Auracast speakers like the Charge 6 — for example — can only share and access audio from other JBL Auracast speakers. Still, Auracast-enabled soundbars like the Heston are opening up a new era in home theater technology; one where we’ll have a lot more freedom to choose the kind, number, and placement of speakers. It will also reduce the number of gadgets we buy. When your portable Bluetooth speaker can double as a surround speaker, that’s one less device in our ever-expanding world of tech. More options coming soon Auracast-enabled soundbars are the first step toward greater flexibility and choice in home theater. Soon, there will be more alternatives. Dolby has promised it will launch a soundbar alternative technology called Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, which will let a compatible TV send multichannel audio to a variety of wireless speakers that you’ll be able to place almost anywhere in your room. Fraunhofer IIS, the entity that gave us the MP3 file format, has its own version of FlexConnect — the somewhat awkwardly named UpHear Flexible Rendering. We haven’t seen any commercially available systems based on either Dolby’s or Fraunhofer’s tech so far, but I expect that to change in 2025.

Table of ContentsSpeaker DealsComputer Mouse DealsSmartwatch DealsEarbud DealsStreaming Device DealsKeyboard DealsFitness Tracker DealsMicrophone DealsSmartphone DealsProcessor DealsSecurity Camera DealsRobot Vacuum DealsMonitor DealsGame Console DealsPhoto Printer Deals Walmart's Memorial Day tech deals are live, and they include big brands and deep discounts across the board. Whether you’re hunting for a new tablet, a pair of wireless headphones, a smart TV, or even a new smartphone, there’s something here worth checking out. We’re rounding up the best tech deals available at Walmart right now, so you can shop smart, save big, and maybe even beat the shipping delays. Plus, we are going to keep adding new deals all weekend long.Don't forget to check out our round-up of theBest Memorial Day tech sales for all of the best deals out there.Speaker DealsIf you want a rugged speaker that can bring the bass without falling apart at your pool party or the beach, the JBL Charge 5 is worth a try. It sounds way bigger than it looks, and has a powerful, bass-forward, bright sound signature that keeps everything feeling lively. Rated “Excellent” in our 2021 JBL Charge 5 review, it’s built to survive dust, water, and plenty of adventures while still packing a serious punch. Plus, being able to charge your phone off the speaker’s battery is a lifesaver when you're out and about. This thing seriously delivers, especially with this $60 discount.Computer Mouse DealsThe SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless mouse performs surprisingly well for the cost. It’s got both Bluetooth and 2.4GHz, which means you can switch between work and gaming without fuss. You can pop in a couple of AAA batteries, and you’re good for months. The sensor tracks smoothly, even during fast-paced games. As our expert said in 2020, “Bargain hunters looking for a low-cost, high-value wireless mouse should not ignore.” With an “Excellent” rating in our Rival 3 review, it’s one of the best bang-for-your-buck wireless mice out there, especially with today’s 53% discount.Smartwatch DealsFrom an early jog at sunrise to a late-night workout class, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra can track your health and keep up with your workouts without weighing you down. It offers a handy, customizable button so you can jump right into tracking your favorite exercises in seconds. Our expert, Andrew Gebhart, rated it “Excellent” in our review, calling it “the best Wear OS smartwatch for outdoor excursions.” Plus, its battery life is built to keep up with your busy days. Overall, it’s a solid choice and has a steep discount of over $250.Earbud DealsWith the Google Pixel Buds Pro earbuds, your playlists will gain a little extra thump while ANC scrubs all that background noise, allowing you to listen to podcasts without distortion. Bass remains bold without muddying vocals, and the wireless charging case tops them up between sessions. Meanwhile, it has a comfortable fit for long stretches. Hands-free Google Assistant means texts and timers can happen without touching your phone, which is especially helpful when you've got your hands full or are elbow-deep in cooking. Meanwhile, multipoint pairing switches audio from the laptop to the Pixel during Zoom calls. That’s why our expert, Tim Gideon, rated them “Good” in our 2022 Pixel Buds Pro review. Also good? About $90 in savings. Streaming Device DealsThe Roku Express 4K+ offers easy access to your favorite shows and you’ll love its straightforward interface that keeps your navigation hassle-free. With support for AirPlay 2, you can mirror your content from your iPhone seamlessly. Plus, its affordable price makes premium 4K streaming achievable for anyone. In 2021, our lead analyst, Will Greenwald, gave it an “Excellent” rating in his Roku Express 4K+ review. By bringing this streaming device to your home, you’re investing in a smooth, no-fuss entertainment experience for under $30.Keyboard DealsThe Logitech MX Keys S keyboard delivers a refined typing experience that makes daily work feel effortless. Its elegant design fits smoothly into your workspace with responsive backlighting and excellent battery life. With Smart Actions, you can automate tasks that save you time and reduce repetitive steps. The built-in USB-C charging is convenient and reliable. “If you're looking for an Apple Magic Keyboard alternative or are in the market for a new productivity daily driver, the MX Keys S is a great low-profile keyboard,” our expert Zackery Cuevas raved. He went on to give this one a “Good” rating in our 2023 review. Overall, this low-profile keyboard elevates your routine with practical features that make each keystroke both satisfying and efficient for just under $90. Fitness Tracker DealsThe Fitbit Inspire 2 is a great place to start if you're just getting into fitness tracking, especially at $43. It's super light, doesn’t scream “tech gadget,” and tracks your steps, sleep, and heart rate with barely any input from you. With 10-day battery life, you can forget to charge it for a week and still be covered. “It's a good, wallet-friendly option if you're just starting out on your fitness journey,” said Angela Moscaritolo in her “Good” rated 2021 Inspire 2 review. Plus, the free month of Fitbit Premium for new users is a legit bonus if you want guided workouts or mindfulness content.Recommended by Our EditorsMicrophone DealsThe HyperX QuadCast S is a must-have if you're into any kind of audio content creation. Our expert Will Greenwald calls it, "A gaming-focused USB microphone designed for streamers, Let's Players, podcasters, and anyone who might be putting themselves out on YouTube or Twitch." It has crisp, clear sound quality and supports multiple recording patterns, making it versatile for different setups. The built-in pop filter and adjustable gain control are super handy, and it even comes with customizable RGB lighting to match your style. With an "Excellent" rating in our 2020 HyperX QuadCast S review and an Editors' Choice award, it's one of the best USB mics out there, now at a 25% discount.Smartphone DealsFor only $40, the Galaxy A15 5G punches way above its weight. You get smooth everyday performance, a vibrant AMOLED screen, and bonus points for that microSD slot and headphone jack. Those features are rare even in pricier phones. Battery life is legit too; we streamed for hours and still had juice left. You will definitely find the cameras worth it, especially the main shooter. “The Galaxy A15 5G is one of the best Android phones you can get,” says PCMag's expert Iyaz Akhtar, who rated it “Excellent” in his Galaxy A15 review while giving it the Editors’ Choice award. If you're on a tight budget, this is the one to beat right now.Processor DealsThe AMD Ryzen 7 7700x is a fast and powerful processor with excellent eight-core performance that excels in single-threaded tasks and performs well in multi-threaded ones, making it ideal for demanding applications. It also includes integrated graphics, providing a solid option for light gaming or general display needs. "It's a very solid chip," said our expert, Michael Sexton, in 2022, rating it “Excellent” in his Ryzen 7 7700x review. The performance is competitive with its peers, and its lower power consumption is an advantage for efficiency. Overall, it’s a great choice if you desire strong performance without investing heavily in higher-end models, especially at this sale price.Security Camera DealsSetting up the Google Nest Cam (Battery) is a breeze. You can mount it pretty much anywhere without messing with wires. The magnetic base makes it super easy to adjust the angle or pop it off for charging. You’ll get crisp, colorful 1080p video and surprisingly sharp night vision, which is great for checking on your porch or driveway after dark. It even sends alerts for people, animals, or vehicles. As our expert John R. Delaney puts it in our 2021 Nest Cam review, “If you’re in the market for a security camera that installs in minutes and offers a good selection of features—particularly if you already use other Nest Devices and/or Google Assistant—put the Nest Cam on your short list." It earned an “Excellent,” as does today's near $50 discount.Robot Vacuum DealsThe iRobot Roomba Combo j7+ is a versatile robot vacuum and mop that effectively cleans various surfaces without wetting carpets, thanks to its retractable mop. It excels at both vacuuming and mopping, with features like AI-powered obstacle avoidance and a pet waste-avoidance guarantee. Ideal for homes with mixed flooring, it offers convenient app controls, auto-emptying, and voice command integration. In our Roomba Combo j7+ review, our expert Angela Moscaritolo said in 2023, "If you have a mix of hard flooring and carpets at home, the Roomba Combo j7+ is worth it." With the $236 discount, it's a steal!Monitor DealsThe 43-inch Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 monitor feels like you dropped a living-room TV on your desk, only for shooters instead of sitcoms. As Zackery Cuevas notes, “Indeed, for the most part, it’s an impressive screen with vibrant mini LED backlighting.” The picture smacks you with mini-LED punch, deep contrast, and a 144 Hz refresh that keeps Valorant razor-smooth while AMD FreeSync stomps tearing. Input lag is practically invisible at around 4 ms. Cloud-leaning Gaming Hub is a cool bonus for quick Xbox Pass sessions. Therefore, it earned a “Good” rating in our 2023 Odyssey Neo G7 review. But a $225 discount qualifies this as a great deal!Game Console DealsAs our lead analyst, Will Greenwald, said in 2023, “The refined PS5 remains a top-tier console.” This PlayStation 5 Disc Console Slim fits right into your living room, especially if you're short on space. It has a big 1TB drive to store more of your favorite titles, with the popular Astro Bot game already included. Whether you’re diving into the latest blockbusters or streaming classic shows, you'll find everything runs smoothly. The streamlined design makes it a conversation piece, too. It’s also simpler to place horizontally than before. That’s why it got an “Excellent” rating in our PS5 Slim review, and it’s even an Editors’ Choice winner, so you know you’re getting a standout system that handles your entertainment needs without any hassle, now for $110 less.Photo Printer DealsIf you’re itching to take photos from your phone and stick them on the fridge, the Instax Link Wide makes it ridiculously easy, especially with this $50 price cut. Pair over Bluetooth, drop a shot into the app, add a collage frame or goofy sticker, and in half a minute, a wide-format print pops out. The printed colors punch hard, and the gloss finish screams retro cool. As our lead analyst Jim Fisher says, “If you're tired of just looking at photos on your phone's screen, or just yearn for the days of Polaroid snapshots, this instant film printer might be the right remedy.” Consumables aren’t cheap, but for scrapbooks, party favors, or instant desk décor, this printer is straight-up joy, earning an Excellent rating in our 2021 Instax Link Wide review.We’re finding Memorial Day Deals everywhere, from retailers like Amazon to top brands like Apple, HP, and Dell.. And don’t forget to check out all of the Memorial Day Deals Under $100 and Under $50. But, if you’re looking for something more specific, we’ve rounded up the following holiday deals for you: