When Ultrahuman first announced its new flagship Ring Pro last February, we didn’t know whether the wearable would ultimately go on sale in the U.S. because of ongoing litigation with U.S.-based rival Oura.

Then, in March, Ultrahuman opened preorders for the Ring Pro to U.S. customers. Now, in the final week of October, the Ultrahuman Ring Pro has officially hit U.S. store shelves at major retailers like Best Buy and Amazon for $479.

But is the Ultrahuman Ring Pro worth the hype? I’ve been wearing one for a few days — full review coming soon — and I already think it’s a seriously strong competitor to the Oura Ring 5, the best smart ring in 2026.

With that in mind, here are the seven most important things you need to know about the Ultrahuman Ring Pro.

1. It's been completely redesigned to avoid Oura's (legal) wrath

The Ultrahuman Ring Pro features a unique unibody design that's purpose-built not only to withstand daily wear but also to avoid infringing on any of Oura's existing patents. As a reminder, Oura successfully litigated to keep the Ultrahuman Ring Air, the Pro's predecessor, off U.S. store shelves in 2025 for patent infringements.

However, when I spoke with Mohit Kumar, the founder and CEO of Ultrahuman, earlier this year, he seemed confident in his team's reworked design for the newer model.

"We went through the [U.S.] Customs procedure 177 to get the device approved, noted Kumar. " We took the right path to make sure that the design is approved by (U.S.) Customs, and they officially issue an order that says, 'This is a design which is unique and non-infringing, for the patent which Oura holds.'"

Another benefit of the updated design: It features Ultrahuman's "ProRelease Technology," a safety feature that makes it relatively easy for emergency responders or medical professionals to cut the ring off for any reason (like a faulty, swollen battery).

2. It’s pricier than the Oura Ring 5, but…

The Ultrahuman Ring starts at $479, which is $79 more than the starting cost of the Oura Ring 5 (more on that in a second). It's available in four finishes, including gold, silver, black, and titanium, with sizes ranging from five to 14.

The $479 covers not only the ring but also the cost of Ultrahuman's swanky/handy Pro Charging case (further details on that too, below).

3. Core features are subscription-free

Despite a higher up-front cost compared to the Oura Ring 5, the Ultrahuman Ring Pro is a better value after the first ~14 months of ownership. This is because Oura requires users to sign up for a subscription to use their smart ring for $5.99 a month or $69.99 a year.

Ultrahuman, on the other hand/finger, takes a more wallet-friendly, subscription-free approach to wellness tracking, which is perhaps the most notable difference between the two brands.

4. It’s thicker and heavier than other smart rings

The Ultrahuman Ring Pro is noticeably heavier than the Oura Ring 5. My size 11 silver Ultrahuman Ring Pro weighs 4.52 g versus ~2.5 g for the comparable Oura Ring 5. The latest Ultrahuman flagship is also thicker than its rival...then again, Oura's latest is one of the smallest, lightest smart rings in the world.

The Ultrahuman Ring Pro has a thickness of 2.6mm around the band and ~4.8mm at the sensors, making it thicker (and heavier) than other popular smart rings I've tested/demoed, too, like the RingConn Gen 2 Air.

That said, after 24 hours of wearing the Ring Pro, I hardly notice it on my left index finger, and this is coming from someone who doesn't usually rock rings. That said, let's see if my tune changes over the coming weeks.

5. Ultrahuman reworked the heart rate sensor for better accuracy

In addition to a redesigned body, the Ultrahuman Ring Pro features an overhauled heart rate sensor with added processing power for more accurate cardiovascular, sleep, and recovery insights. The updated processor additionally supports on-device machine learning capabilities.

But how does the heart rate accuracy of the Ultrahuman Ring Pro compare to the competition? I intend to find out, not just versus the best smart rings but some of the best fitness trackers too.

6. It gets up to 15 days of battery per charge

The Oura Ring 5 promises up to a respectable nine days of battery per charge, even if in reality, that number is closer to seven or eight. Meanwhile, the Ultrahuman Ring Pro blows its Oura rival away with claims of up to 15 days of battery life per charge.

Will it really last that long? You can also count on me finding that out! But given its heftier-by-comparison footprint, there's a good shot the new Ultrahuman has a larger-capacity battery than the 22 mAh one in the latest Oura Ring.

7. The Pro case extends battery life to 45 days

Finally, remember that free charging case I mentioned earlier? It's perhaps the nicest smart ring case I've encountered. The exterior shell is all-metal with a no-slip silicone bottom. It opens and closes clam-shell-style with a seriously satisfying snap.

LEDs on the side reflect the remaining battery capacity of the case, which can fully recharge the Ultrahuman Ring Pro two times, pushing its battery life to a max of 45 days without needing to hit a wall outlet.

But wait, there's more. The Pro Case doubles as a connection point for updating the Ultrahuman Ring Pro's firmware, and it supports haptic feedback and audible alerts for things like a fully charged battery.

What are your thoughts on the newly available (in the U.S.) Ultrahuman Ring Pro? Would you consider it over the Oura Ring 5, knowing that it's subscription-free? And besides the latest Oura Ring, what should I test the Ultrahuman Ring Pro against? Shout out your thoughts below!

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• I ditched alcohol for 30 days — and my Oura Ring 5 showed one surprising change
• I just went hands-on with the new Circular Ring 3 — and it beats the Oura Ring 5 in 3 big ways
• Garmin looks to be developing a smart ring: Here’s what we know so far

The new iPad mini 8 has a chip on its shoulder. It's almost like it's saying to the iPhone Duo, "Anything you can do, I can do better."

The iPad mini 8 (from $699) has a bigger display than the Duo (8.5 vs 7.6 inches); it supports the latest Apple Pencil Pro (that magnetically attaches to the side); and you get the same A20 Pro chip for serious power.

Of course, the iPad mini 8 doesn't fold, but I played with it for about 30 minutes and I think it makes a serious case for carrying a separate phone and small tablet. It could easily make our best tablet list, but we still have to do our full round of testing. Here are my first impressions.

iPad mini 8: Bigger OLED display, thinner design

The iPad mini 8 makes an awesome first impression with its OLED display, which is a first for the iPad mini.

This panel is 8.5 inches, larger than the 8.3-inch panel on the previous iPad mini 7. You also get 24% smaller bezels, so the iPad mini 8 gives you more real estate without ballooning the design.

In fact, at 5.4mm and and 255 grams, the iPad mini 8 is thinner and lighter than the iPad mini 7 (6.3 mm, 293 grams). That's pretty impressive given the new iPad has a larger display.

The iPad mini is also IP67 rated against water and dust.

A better display than iPhone Duo?

The iPad mini 8's 8.5-inch display isn't just bigger than the iPhone Duo's 7.6-inch panel. It looks more colorful in person, and it offered better black levels side by side when watching a trailer for 'Ted Lasso.'

However, the iPhone Duo's main display gets brighter at up to 3,000 nits compared to 1,200 for the iPad mini.

The iPad minis I played around with had a nano-texture finish, but that costs a pretty penny. You need to get a 256GB or 512GB model, so you'll need to pay at least $899.

A20 Pro power, and what you can do with it

The iPad mini 8 packs the same A20 Pro chip as the iPhone 18 Pro series and iPhone Duo, and it packs a pretty big punch.

When playing Petit Planet, this tablet offered smooth and detailed graphics as I panned around a large world.

Working in Pixelmator Pro, I could apply complex edits with ease using either touch or Apple Pencil. And in the Shapr3D app, I manipulated a complex 3D model of a skateboard and added different colors to the parts on the fly. There was no lag.

Front camera where it's supposed to be

Apple has done the right thing by moving the 12MP Center Stage camera to the long side of the device, making it easier to hold video calls in landscape mode. This is especially welcome because the Smart Folio accessory props up the device in this mode.

I didn't get a chance to check out the improved sound yet. The iPad mini has what's called an Acoustic Display. The woofers are paired through the display to give you more bass, and there's custom tweeters hidden between the glass and aluminum enclosure. The result should be boomier bass and clearer highs.

The back camera is a 12MP wide lens, so you get only a single shooter. There's no ultrawide like you have on the iPhone Duo. But the images I captured in the hands-on area with the iPad mini 8 were reasonably crisp.

is the iPad mini worth $100 more?

Yes, the iPad mini 8 is $100 more than the iPad mini 7, but I think the upgrades are worth it. You get a bigger and better OLED display and faster performance in a thinner and lighter design.

As for the iPad mini vs iPhone Duo comparisons, the new iPad mini starts at $699 and when you add an iPhone 18 Pro Max that brings you to $2,000. That's the same price as an iPhone Duo.

So it's really up to you if you want to carry one device or two for this sort of versatility. I prefer the iPad mini's bigger and richer display and support for the latest Apple Pencil — and the fact that you can dock it to the device. But the iPhone Duo is still a great choice if you want to fit a mini tablet in your pocket.

More from Tom's Guide

• How to pre-order iPad mini 8: Here's how to secure Apple's new mini tablet
• iPad mini 8 vs iPad mini 7: What's new, and is it worth buying?
• Cancel your iPhone Duo pre-order: Here's why I think the iPad mini 8 and iPhone 18 Pro combo is cheaper and better

I'll be honest. I'm not a fan of the name. "MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display" is a mouthful. But this laptop, starting at $2,899, definitely made my jaw drop.

Apple has created a truly stunning screen with this laptop, and I know because I've already compared it against one of the best Windows laptops with a tandem OLED display. It's colorful, super bright and looks great even off-axis.

But the biggest news for many is that this is the first MacBook with a touchscreen, and Apple showed off several apps that are ready for your finger. Here's what it's like to use and my pros and cons so far.

All about that panel

The first thing I noticed about the new MacBook Pro was the colorful tandem OLED display. At 2,000 nits, this screen is so bright we had to turn down our camera to record it. The colors really pop off the display. The screen offers a 120Hz refresh rate and a 10 million to 1 contrast ratio, which Apple says is industry leading — and I believe it.

Most Windows laptops with tandem OLED screens max out at 1 million to 1. The result is that the new MacBook offers perfect blacks without sacrificing details in the shadows.

MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display: Specs

Finally notchless

The second thing that hit me is that the notch is gone, replaced by a smaller Dynamic Island. When playing music, for example, the music player will shrink in a little window at the top of the display, and you bring it back with a tap.

And that brings me to perhaps the biggest upgrade overall, as it's a first for MacBooks: touch.

A MacBook you can reach out and touch

I found the touchscreen support to be pretty smooth as I navigated between apps. I could draw using my finger with ease, though there's no Apple Pencil support to speak of.

As you would expect, pinch-to-zoom works well, and I could easily drag and drop video clips in a timeline. I also played a virtual keyboard (complete with chords) and interacted with a 3D model by spinning it around.

We'll have to see how well touch works with third-party apps, but Apple already promises support for Notion, Canva, Zoom, Microsoft Office, Adobe Lightroom and more.

Pro power without the extra weight

All of this is wrapped up in a design that's only 3 pounds, which is less than the MacBook Pro with M6 at 3.4 pounds. I could easily see myself carrying this as my everyday laptop — if I had the budget.

Another design highlight is that Apple has brought back the glowing Apple logo, so everyone will know from across the room that you have the touchscreen Mac.

A true mobile studio

Powering the MacBook Pro with PROLED is the M5 Pro and M5 Max chip, which should offer swift performance for creative pros and coders.

And this new MacBook Pro will hopefully sound as good as it looks, thanks to a new woofer design with 50% more bass.

The port selection is robust, with three Thunderbolt 5 ports, HDMI, SDXC card, MagSafe and a headphone jack. And you get both Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 support.

An unmatched display

Starting at $2,899 for the 14-inch version and $3,399 for the 16-inch, this is one pricey laptop. But if you want the very best display quality it could be worth the premium. Anyone who works with photos and video on a daily basis I think will love this panel.

I would say the touch interface is more of a bonus, and I'd like to see Apple offer it across the lineup just to give people more options.

More from Tom's Guide

• Apple event LIVE: Touchscreen MacBook Pro OLED announced, iPad mini OLED and more
• Apple just announced a new iPad mini with an OLED panel and IP67 resistance
• Apple unveils new iMac with M6 — here are all the upgrades

If the tidal wave of leaks leading up to Apple’s ‘Pro and Tell’ event this week are accurate, we are days away from the biggest paradigm shift in Mac history: the OLED touchscreen MacBook Pro.

For a decade, the Cupertino crew swore they would never put a touchscreen on a Mac. They told us the ergonomics were wrong. They told us to buy an iPad. But the PC industry moved on, OLED got cheaper, and now Apple is finally caving.

But throwing a touch panel on a laptop is only half the battle; the operating system actually has to know what to do with your fingers. Rather than wait for Apple to take my money, I got impatient. Now with macOS2 27 installed, I went back and hooked the Intricuit Magic Screen touch layer to my current M5 MacBook Pro.

And after aggressively poking my display to see what a touch-first Mac actually feels like, it’s clear that macOS in its current form is suffering an identity crisis. Apple has a lot of software duct tape to apply before next week.

The finger vs. the mouse

The first 10 minutes of poking my MacBook Pro felt so familiar to other touch-enabled laptops like the Surface Laptop Ultra I just reviewed. Scrolling through articles with a flick of the wrist, pinching to zoom and tapping to pause on YouTube videos feels instantly natural.

But then, you actually try to get some work done.

Right now, macOS treats your finger exactly like a mouse cursor. There seems to be no native touch intelligence layer bridging the gap between your physical digit and the digital UI. That’s not a bad thing when it comes to simple tapping and scrolling, but the preciseness of a mouse cursor vs the blunt instrument of a finger is an issue.

When you try to hit the tiny, classic “traffic light” buttons in the top corner of the window, you’re playing a frustrating game of digital darts. And there isn’t any real gesture control built-in here to make the app bar appear or snap windows together.

What macOS desperately needs

Now, I know that chances are if Apple’s going to announce an OLED touchscreen MacBook Pro next week, it's already done a lot of the software tweaks in secret. But if I can propose three things that would make it great:

Hardware over software?

Using a touchscreen Mac today proves that the hardware experience is undeniably brilliant, but while there are some touch-friendly features on the trackpad, the OS software at the moment is actively fighting you.

If Apple unveils this MacBook Pro next week, it’s likely to be paired with a touch-optimized macOS update that borrows heavily from the iPhone Duo and iPadOS. And if they do that, they won’t just be catching up to Windows laptops; they will redefine how you interact with your computer.

Because ultimately, Windows 11 isn’t really touch friendly either, give or take some buttons. It’s a part of the laptop experience that has gone ignored for a while. And I’m quietly excited for Apple to change this.

We will find out on Wednesday. Keep your screen wipes ready.

More from Tom's Guide

• I built a touchscreen MacBook Pro using this snap-on accessory, and I'm baffled why Apple hasn't made its own for years
• Exclusive: Apple's OLED MacBook Pro may face a '$300 to $500' price hike to 'protect their profits' from RAMageddon
• ‘Babe, wake up, the internet is collapsing’: Two massive flaws just broke the web, and the data of billions is in the crossfire

The Pebble Time 2 doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is exactly why it's one of the most enjoyable smartwatches I’ve ever tested. Supported by an open-source community of developers and wearable tech enthusiasts, this $225 device is pretty much the antithesis of an Apple Watch. And that's a good thing.

I just got my hands on the Pebble Time 2, and after a quick and easy setup — it works with both Android and iOS devices — I became immersed in Pebble's vast library of (mostly) free watch faces, apps, and even games.

Stay tuned for a full review, but in the meantime, here are the five most important things you should know about the Pebble Time 2 smartwatch.

1. Retro design + e-paper display

The Pebble Time 2 features a rectangular-shaped stainless steel and plastic case that very much reminds me of my favorite digital watches from the late 1980s and early 1990s, including the legendary Casio F-91W shown above.

Rather than a power-hungry AMOLED screen, the Pebble Time 2 has a 1.5-inch, 64-color e-paper touchscreen that's always-on and surprisingly easy to read in direct sunlight. That said, in some lighting conditions, it can appear a tad dull or faded.

The case has three physical buttons on the right side and a single "back" button on the left side. They all have ample gnarling, and overall, the Pebble Time 2 feels well-made. Gorilla Glass protects the display; however, because the glass is raised beyond the bezel, I worry about scratches in the long term.

2. Open-source, highly customizable OS

The Pebble Time 2 is ridiculously customizable. For example, users can assign pretty much any action to a long press on the button of their choice. And even though PebbleOS lacks the flashy animations and overall pizzazz of more mainstream smartwatch operating systems like the latest watchOS and Wear OS, it's still quite easy to navigate and personalize.

There are presently more than 10,000 watch faces, apps, and games to choose from in the Pebble store, many of which are free. My first order of action upon completing the setup was to install a Super Mario-like watch face, where the character jumps every time the minute changes.

As a bonus, apps and watch faces take a negligible amount of time to download and install.

3. Insane battery

Since the Pebble Time 2 lacks power-hungry components like a bright AMOLED screen, GPS, or cellular antenna, battery life is seriously impressive. According to Pebble, users can expect up to 30 days per charge. Just think: that's 30x better battery performance than the Apple Watch Series 12, one of the best full-featured smartwatches in 2026.

4. Entry-level fitness tracking

The Pebble Time 2 is not designed to be a fitness or health tracker, but it does offer some basic holistic tech and features on par with a very entry-level tracker. These include a continuous heart rate sensor, an accelerometer for logging daily step counts and workouts, and insights into sleep duration and light vs. deep sleep.

5. Free games galore

While fitness features may be light, I'm seriously blown away by the number of free, genuinely fun games you can play on the Pebble Time 2. So far, "Turbo Drift," a game that reminds me of the 1980s Sega classic "Out Run," has been my go-to. Some others I'm looking forward to trying, based on positive reviews, include "Pixel Miner," "Strike Force," and "Rock Crusher."

As noted in the intro, I'm in the process of fully testing the Pebble Time 2, so stay tuned for my full review. For now, what are your thoughts on the new Pebble Time 2 smartwatch, and what should I test? Also, are you excited to see the return of the Pebble brand, and do you plan on buying one for yourself? Let me know in the comments below.

More from Tom's Guide

• Pebble founder on why he's bringing Pebble watch back — 'Samsung, Google, Apple don't take any risks'
• Pebble is back with two new smartwatches starting at $149 — how to preorder
• The new Pebble smart ring has a built-in mic and costs just $75 — here’s why I can’t wait to try one

The year 2026 has been all about refreshes for Xreal and its lineup of One AR glasses. It started with the Xreal 1S that launched this past spring and continues with the new Xreal One Pro Plus that launches today (Oct. 15).

The original One Pro is one of the best smart glasses on the market right now. So I was excited to get some hands-on time with the updated One Pro Plus before it launched to see how it compares to the original Xreal One Pro AR glasses that released back in April of 2025.

The refreshed One Pro Plus launches at an interesting time, just as Xreal is supposed to release its Project Aura Android XR glasses, which are both more expensive and feature dedicated spatial computing capabilities.

Are the One Pro Plus worth the upgrade? Read on to find out.

Xreal One Pro Plus: Specs

Xreal One Pro Plus: What's new

Bright lights

Xreal specifically kept its in-house X1 spatial computing chip, native 3DoF anchoring, and 57-degree field of view the same. Instead, the updates were "targeted" by Xreal to improve daily viewing.

Nicely, the Plus retains the same $599 price as the original One Pro.

You'll notice it in the 1,200 nits of brightness, up from 700 in the original One Pro. I don't have the One Pro to compare, but even budget glasses like the RayNeo Air 4 Pro hit 1,200 nits, so this update is overdue and necessary.

2D to 3D

The Plus also adds AI HDR to improve perceived image quality. Additionally, the 2D-to-3D conversion has been upgraded from 30 FPS to 60 FPS, which makes spatial content smoother. I found it added some depth to 2D content and didn't notice any hitches moving around it.

One of my favorite aspects of the RayNeo Air 4 Pros is the native HDR that makes shows on Apple TV look excellent. Xreal's AI HDR isn't quite that, but it does make movies and shows look great.

A mode for each task

Nicely, the Plus adds three new modes: Standard, Movie, and Reading, which is great for adjusting depending on what you're using the glasses to view.

Many AR glasses aren't great for work, but this new Reading mode is actually a nice improvement for clarity, especially when you're looking at documents. I found the modes worked great, and reading was finally comfortable for me while wearing AR glasses, something I rarely enjoy..

Nose comfort

Finally, Xreal redesigned the nose pad to be more ergonomic and comfortable.

The best compliment I can give here is that I never noticed the nose pad while wearing the glasses, which can't be said for every pair of display glasses. Again, I don't currently have the One Pro to compare, but the Plus is pretty comfortable

Xreal One Pro Plus: The flaws

Compared to our original review, the Plus fixes the flaws we highlighted. The price is lower, and the display is improved with the upgraded brightness and new modes.

However, adding the Xreal Eye Camera to take pictures and get true 6DoF is still a $99 extra fee. Without the camera, the new modes do help, but the glasses do occasionally get, as my colleague Jason said, "bamboozled" during travel.

This isn't a major flaw, but the case, while nice, isn't quite travel-ready. It protects the glasses just fine, but it could use a separate slot for the USB-C wire. Using some Reddit recommendations, I've found that something more like this RLSOCO case or this LTGEM case are better for travel and won't break the bank

Xreal One Pro Plus: Outlook

If you're a fan of Xreal glasses, the new One Pro Plus are a great refresh of the originals. The brightness alone brings it more in line with similarly priced and even more budget-friendly AR spectacles.

Personally, the new modes make the glasses more usable for switching between reading text and gaming or watching movies. The 2D-to-3D conversion getting an upgrade up to 60 fps makes spatial computing much smoother and a bit more immersive too.

In our head-to-head, the Viture Beast barely edged out the Xreal One Pro, but this refresh might give Xreal a new advantage that could put it over the top.

If you already have the One Pro, I don't think you need to upgrade. However, if you're looking for glasses with spatial computing, the One Pro Plus improves an already excellent device for the same price.

More from Tom's Guide

• I tested the RayNeo GT as a replacement to every screen I own — it's a mixed bag
• I've been testing Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses for 72 hours — and ditching the camera was the absolute right call
• Meta VR Glasses vs Xreal Aura: Which spatial computing glasses will win?

I'm a huge fan of audiobooks, and now that I've been testing Ray-Ban Meta's audio-only glasses, I'm finding even more opportunities to listen instead of read.

So when I came across a new tool called PDF to MP3, I was intrigued. It turns PDFs, reports and eBooks into narrated audio, making it easier to get through reading material while doing something else. It also connects with AI assistants, including OpenAI's Codex, so you can turn documents into something you can listen to on the go.

So if you're already paying for ChatGPT, why not put that subscription to work converting the documents you've been meaning to read? But there's an important catch. While your existing subscription can handle part of the process, generating the actual audio requires a separate API key and may cost extra. If you're up for the challenge like I was, I can guarantee it's worth it.

How PDF to MP3 works

PDF to MP3 uses AI to process documents and text-to-speech technology to produce narrated audio.

According to site, the workflow has two specific parts. Your existing OpenAI or Codex subscription can handle document processing through an MCP connection, while an OpenAI or Google Gemini API generates the spoken narration.

To be clear, you're not just uploading a PDF into ChatGPT and receiving a finished audiobook for free (that would be too easy, although I have created a workaround before).

Instead, the service connects different AI tools to handle the conversion process. The developer also offers examples of generated audio so potential users can hear the results before setting up the service. It's not Audible quality, but it's also not terrible.

The finished audio can be played through the service's listening interface, and the developer has demonstrated how the workflow can extend from uploading a PDF to listening on a phone or in a car.

How to turn a PDF into an audiobook

If you want to try the service, here's the general setup described by its developer.

Visit PDF to MP3's AI connection page and review its instructions for connecting an AI assistant. Connect a supported assistant, such as Codex, using the service's MCP integration and authentication process.

Provide a document you want converted into audio. This could be anything from an ebook file to a research PDF. From there, configure a supported text-to-speech provider, such as OpenAI or Gemini. Note: this requires separate API access.

Follow the service's workflow to generate the narration, then open the resulting audio in its player. The service is designed to handle the process from document preparation to listening, rather than requiring users to manually extract text, generate speech and assemble audio files.

If you are even the slightest tech savvy, you'll be able to handle it. The whole process took me about 20 minutes, but I was also taking notes for this feature, so it will probably be even faster for you.

What about privacy?

API keys can authorize billable requests, so exposing one to an untrusted service creates a potential financial and security risk. Before using PDF to MP3, review how it handles credentials, whether it stores uploaded documents and what access you're granting.

Of course, avoid uploading sensitive documents until you've established how the service processes and retains them.

It's also worth remembering that an AI-generated audiobook may not reproduce every element of a PDF perfectly. Tables, diagrams, unusual formatting and complicated names can all present challenges for automated narration.

Keep in mind, your ChatGPT subscription doesn't cover everything, which is where things get a little complicated. On the

The developer clarified on the site that the subscription covers document processing, while generating speech requires a separate API key from OpenAI or Gemini. That's important since ChatGPT subscriptions and OpenAI API usage are billed separately.

Even if you're paying for ChatGPT Plus or Pro, that doesn't automatically mean you have free access to OpenAI's text-to-speech API. You'll need to account for any additional charges associated with the narration.

Verdict: I think it's worth trying

I think the idea behind PDF to MP3 is useful, even if the setup isn't quite as simple as just uploading a document into ChatGPT. The project may still be useful, particularly if you regularly convert documents into audio. But it's not an entirely free audiobook generator simply because you already subscribe to ChatGPT.

Being able to turn a lengthy document into something you can listen to during a commute, while exercising or around the house could make information that's been sitting unread far more accessible.

And the ability to use an existing AI subscription for part of that workflow feels like a win. Just know before you try it that the additional API requirements make this a better fit for people comfortable connecting AI services than for someone looking for a one-click audiobook converter.

The bigger takeaway here is that AI is becoming even more practical to turn written material into audio.

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• Meta Muse can keep files on people who have never used it — here's what I found
• I made 7 Gemini Skills to handle my most repetitive prompts — #4 is my personal favorite

I've spent the last three days wearing Meta's new Ray-Ban AI glasses, and I have a confession: I wasn't particularly impressed (at first).

They're essentially sunglasses with earbuds inside. Meta's AI assistant is built-in, which is useful, but nothing about them feels especially groundbreaking. After everything we've heard about the future of AI wearables, I expected something more, especially since I have Ray Ban Meta Display glasses and have found them quite useful.

And yet, after three days with the Ray-Ban Meta Audio-Only Burbank glasses, I find myself reaching for them now whenever I leave the house.

I wore them to my son's soccer game. I brought them to the trampoline park. I've used them while driving, running errands and doing the ordinary things that make up most of my day. Somewhere along the way, I realized I was reaching for my phone a lot less.

The biggest surprise wasn't something Meta added to these glasses. It was what the company took away. Since there's no camera, that changes everything.

Stylish and camera-free

Despite having Meta Ray-Ban Meta Display glasses, I never really got comfortable with the camera. I appreciate the technology and have even found them useful for tasks like shopping, but the glasses were clunky and I never got completely comfortable with the idea of walking around with a camera on my face.

There's something inherently awkward about it. Even when you're not recording anything, other people have no way of knowing that. You're wearing something that could potentially capture the people around you, whether they want to be part of your day or not.

And frankly, I don't want to be that person.

At my son's soccer game, I want to watch him play. At the trampoline park, I want to spend time with my kids. I don't want other parents wondering whether I'm filming their children. Taking the camera away eliminates that concern while leaving the best part about the glasses: using Meta's AI hands-free.

Smarts without the stares

The Burbank glasses look like regular Ray-Bans. They're stylish, lightweight and incredibly comfortable. I especially love the transition lenses, which make them useful both indoors and outside.

The best feature is how little I need my phone. The glasses really pack a surprising amount of functionality. Without reaching for my phone, I can listen to music and podcasts, make phone calls, send and receive messages, hear navigation directions and ask Meta AI questions.

They also support live translation between select languages, along with hands-free voice commands for controlling audio and accessing the assistant. Honestly, I never missed not being able to take pictures or record videos. The only thing that I wished I had occasionally was the ability to identify objects or read signs or menus written in a foreign language.

The audio-only glasses give many of the conveniences found in the best smart glasses without wearing a camera on your face, which to me makes them feel more like an everyday accessory.

Reaching for my phone less and less

At my son's soccer game, I realized I could keep my phone put away and still have access to the things I normally reach for it to do. I could listen to audio, use voice commands and ask Meta questions without digging through my bag or staring at a screen.

The same thing happened when I took my three kids to the trampoline park. I wasn't constantly thinking about my phone because the glasses made it easier to stay connected without holding anything.

As a parent of three kids, I spend enough time juggling bags, snacks, schedules and whatever else everyone needs at any given moment. Having one less thing in my hands is genuinely useful.

I also found myself using "Hey Meta" more naturally than I expected. There's something appealing about being able to ask a question out loud and get an answer without stopping what I'm doing. I don't have to open an app or even look at a screen.

Of course, the glasses aren't replacing my phone. They still rely on it for important functions. However, there's a difference between needing to have your phone nearby and needing to interact with it every few minutes.

Even better on the road

Since the glasses do not have a camera, I felt comfortable wearing them while driving. In fact, this was my favorite use because when I'm driving with my kids in the car, hearing directions isn't always easy. Between conversations, questions and the general noise of having three children, I've occasionally struggled to hear my phone telling me where to turn.

With the Ray-Bans, navigation audio comes directly through the glasses without being a hazard (like ear buds might be). Meanwhile, their open-ear design means I can still hear what's happening around me.

It's such a simple improvement, but I appreciate being able to hear directions without turning up the car speakers or asking everyone to be quiet.

As a reminder, there are important safety considerations here. Drivers still need to remain attentive to the road, and local laws governing headphones and other audio devices can vary. I'm not suggesting that interacting with an AI assistant while driving is a good idea. But for listening to turn-by-turn directions, I've found the glasses surprisingly convenient.

The takeaway (so far)

Taking out the camera has made me an even bigger fan of Ray Ban Meta glasses. And sure, I can already listen to music through earbuds. I can ask my phone questions. I can get navigation directions through my car speakers. None of these things are new.

The Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses aren't going to replace my smartphone, and I'm not convinced they're a must-have purchase for everyone (yet). If you already own a good pair of sunglasses and wireless earbuds, you may struggle to justify adding another device to your life.

Still, what Meta has done with its new audio-only glasses is to bring those familiar features together in something I'm already comfortable wearing. And for me, that's enough. I've worn glasses since the age of two and have never needed ones with a camera.

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For years, Apple has tried to convince us that the pro iPhone is a legitimate AAA gaming beast. It has the GPU to do so for sure, but every year comes a victory lap over a hand-picked, $50 App Store port of an older game.

And let’s be real — nobody wants to re-purchase a game they already own on Steam just to play it on a phone.

Enter DroidDeck: a free, open-source app that doesn’t stream games from the cloud or rely on clunky virtual machines to get the job done. Instead, it boots Valve’s Arm-native Steam client directly on your Android phone. You can thank the Steam Frame and the work Valve did to get games working on that for this.

Yes, you read that right. Your entire existing PC Steam library runs locally on Snapdragon silicon. So I’ve been testing it for myself on the Honor Magic V6, and the numbers prove this isn’t just a party trick — it’s the legitimate future of mobile gaming.

Under the hood

This isn’t the first time that somebody’s tried to run PC games locally on an Android phone, but here’s the big difference. Unlike those that have to rely on emulating Windows (and chewing up all your precious RAM and CPU resources), DroidDeck runs Steam natively on your phone’s Arm silicon.

The secret sauce here is we have Valve’s newly launched Steam Frame VR headset to thank for this. The company built this around an Arm-based Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip rather than an x86 AMD processor. And because of that heavy lifting, DroidDeck essentially builds on its homework and unleashes it on your Android phone.

• Because the Steam client itself is running natively on Arm, zero resources are wasted on making SteamOS run in the background. On top of that, the open-source Turnip Vulkan drivers talk directly to the GPU on your Snapdragon chip.
• The end result is SteamOS-level optimizations right out of the gate, including cloud saves, all the performance overlays, and native support for AMD’s FSR, Snapdragon GSR and Lossless Scaling frame generation.

How to install DroidDeck

The awkward bit is that it does take some tinkering to get just right. The first bit is easy enough to do — go to the project’s Github releases page and download the latest version. After this, there’s a couple additional steps. You may need to turn off app security to install.

Optimal settings

Now, there’s an extra wrinkle here I need to go through. DroidDeck makes settings tweaks easy to do — just swipe over from the right of the screen (like you’re going back) and the right side menu will open up.

There’s a lot here, but to help, from my early testing, here’s the best options I’ve used for a Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 phone.

• Frame generation: LSFG 3x. You will need to download Lossless Scaling from Steam to activate this ($6.99)
• Scaling filter: Snapdragon GSR (Quality)
• FEX preset: FEX is the translation layer converting game code to work on your phone. “Use Default” if you’re playing an indie game or old title, and “Performance + TSO” if you’re on a AAA title

That “+ TSO” on the end (Total Store Order) makes the CPU read and write memory in a strict sequence. There are Extreme options, which is what ETA Prime uses in his video, but for me it crashed Cyberpunk 2077.

By the numbers

Now I’ve only had time to tinker and play three games here at the moment, and while it’s definitely still a work in progress, it’s definitely playable.

This is definitely a workaround that indie players are going to love. Hades II performs well and looks incredible on the Magic V6’s OLED display, and Portal II is a fun, fast blast from the past (been playing it loads with my nephew).

Meanwhile, AAA gaming can be tuned to run at over 30 FPS. Not 100% sure how ETA Prime managed to get it running at 60 FPS (kudos nonetheless), but this will take some time to tweak and get right on my end!

The iPhone is officially cooked on gaming

Even with the early-adopter friction, DroidDeck exposes the fatal flaw in Apple’s gaming strategy: library lock-in.

PC gamers have spent a decade or more building massive Steam, GOG and Epic Games libraries (all of which DroidDeck supports). When you buy a game on Steam, it works on your desktop, your Steam Deck, and now — thanks to this — your Android phone or foldable.

Apple’s walled garden, meanwhile, imposes iOS restrictions on custom drivers and background processes. An app like DroidDeck is technically (and legally) impossible on an un-jailbroken iPhone, which is a shame given the raw power that GPU holds.

Anyway, testing has just begun, but I can only imagine pairing this with a pair of AR glasses for a long haul flight would be a killer setup. No more will I be stuck playing watered-down mobile gacha games — I have my actual PC backlog.

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There are rumors that Apple’s Vision Pro category is on “life support.” But after playing with the new Meta VR Glasses, coming this spring for $1,299, I think it would be premature for Apple to pull the plug.

As reported by Bloomberg, Apple is exploring thinner and lighter Vision Pro designs, but the alleged new device wouldn’t reach the market until late 2028 at the earliest. That gives Meta a huge head start, and based on my hands-on impressions Meta’s VR Glasses are essentially a much cheaper — and much less cumbersome — version of the $3,500 Vision Pro that makes shockingly few trade-offs given its lightweight design.

What are the Meta VR Glasses like to wear? A revelation

Weighing about 100 grams, the Meta VR Glasses are not going to cause you neck pain like the 650-gram Vision Pro. They’re like Oakley shield-style sunglasses with a wire, but you can’t see through them like regular glasses. You need a video passthrough to see your environment.

The best thing I can say about wearing the Meta VR Glasses is that I barely felt them at all during a 40-minute demo session. They’re sleek and light, and you can easily adjust the lenses (sliding them left or right) to get the right IPD (Interpupillary Distance).

The puck computing unit is on the bulky side for sure, weighing in at 300 grams or 10.6 ounces. That’s heavier than most phones. But I like that this puck, which houses the Snapdragon Reality Elite chip, 12GB of RAM, storage and battery, has a built in belt clip. The Vision Pro battery needs to go in your pocket if you’re standing.

The battery life is slightly better through the Meta VR Glasses vs Vision Pro, too. You get 3 hours of runtime, versus 2.5 for Apple’s headset.

Interface: Intuitive eye- and hand-tracking

The first thing I noticed when setting up the Meta VR Glasses is how eerily similar the setup process is to the Vision Pro. You use your eyes as the cursor and your fingers as the mouse, bringing your index finger and thumb together to “tap.”

To calibrate, you follow dots around the screen a few times with your eyes and click them. Even the sound I heard during this process reminded me of the Vision Pro. Great artists steal.

More importantly, the interface is fluid and easy to use. To scroll, you simply rub your finger up and down on your index finger with a closed fist and you can scroll left and right by moving horizontally. It’s pretty easy to pick up, but I like that you have the option to just pinch your fingers and scroll up and down with your arm outstretched — just like the Vision Pro.

As you might expect, Meta’s Muse AI assistant is on board, and it’s pretty easy to do things with just your voice, such as closing all apps and going back to the home screen. I didn’t get to test any agentic AI use cases yet, though.

Immersive entertainment and sports (despite the 70-degree FOV)

In terms of visual experiences, I started with a 3D performance of Billie Eilish, and immediately I felt the impact. As she sat on the stage and reached out to fans in the crowd, I felt like I was in the front row with them. Co-directed between Eilish and James Cameron, this is a great showcase for what the Meta VR glasses can do.

I also had an opportunity to watch the famous tip-in from the New York Knicks’ OG Anunoby against the Spurs. For this 180-degree clip, I had the view from right behind the backboard, and I got a new appreciation for Victor Wembanyama’s height and the frantic energy of Madison Square Garden that night.

Meta says that it will be offering a range of sports content to Meta VR Glasses users for free, so you won’t have to subscribe to NBA League Pass, for example. Meta promises 100 immersive live sports events to watch each year.

As for the 70-degree field of view, it’s true that it’s more limited than the 110 degrees from the Meta Quest 3. But I personally was not bothered by it, and I wasn’t annoyed by light leakage either.

The last video demo I experienced through the Meta VR Glasses was “Avengers: Infinity War.” The movie itself was 2D but the environment mirrored the action in the movie, so it feels like you’re on Nidavellir as Thor forges his new axe. True 3D movies are coming, though.

Computing: Weirdly good virtual keyboard

I’ve never typed on a virtual keyboard projected on a desk, but doing just that felt almost natural through the Meta VR Glasses. When responding to a message you can have it so that the virtual keyboard is displayed on the table right in front of you, complete with a separate touchpad.

I typed a quick reply to a message, and it actually felt natural, complete with audible clicks as I pecked. The touchpad was accurate, too. But it doesn’t change the fact that you’re typing on a flat surface with no key travel.

The Meta VR Glasses will be able to act as a portable display of sorts, so you can extend your desktop (or multiple desktops) from your Mac or PC to the glasses. This can be done wirelessly or via USB-C.

Gaming on the Meta VR Glasses

I played only a single game on the Meta VR Glasses, but it showed the potential of the platform for mixed reality experience. In the lowkey Dragon Grove, I solved a series of puzzles by picking leaves and flowers off of a virtual tree and matching them.

I liked that I could spin the game table around to check out different vantage points, and at any time you could just hold out your hand and the dragon would land in your palm. The graphics looked crisp and colorful despite being overlaid on the passthrough camera view.

Meta promises more than 75 games at launch that you can play with hand gestures, but you’ll still be able to use Touch Plus controllers with the glasses to play the thousands of existing VR games.

Meta VR Glasses vs. Xreal Aura

The Meta VR Glasses have some serious competition from the Xreal Aura, which promises many of the same features for $1,219 but powered by Android XR and Gemini AI.

Unlike the Meta glasses, you can look directly through Aura glasses without needing a video passthrough. On the other hand, the Aura has lower resolution per eye (1900 x 1200 vs 2.5K), so the visuals may not be as crisp. For more see our Meta VR Glasses vs Xreal Aura comparison.

Outlook

Right now it’s hard to say if the Meta VR Glasses are worth $1,299, but they’re a heck of a lot more accessible than the Vision Pro while delivering nearly all of the same benefits — minus Apple’s ecosystem of course.

You get an immersive VR experience for watching video and playing games, and there’s some good productivity potential here — though I’d like to test out the virtual computing screen myself.

The best part is just how comfortable and light the Meta VR Glasses feel. There’s virtually no penalty here in terms of ergonomics, and the eye- and hand-tracking work really well for a product that’s not shipping until the spring.

So overall I’m pretty positive on the Meta VR Glasses so far, and I think business travelers in particular will really like it. If I were Apple, I would keep the Vision line on life support while developing something close to this.

I’ve been through a couple of grills since I moved into my house 10 years ago, and I usually just get the most burners I can get for the least amount of money. But when it came time to put my latest Monument Grill out to pasture — complete with a door that came off the hinge every time I touched it — I decided to try something different.

Over the years I’ve seen plenty of Weber grills but never had the opportunity to test one myself. So when I got a chance to try out the Weber Genesis E-325 Titanium Edition ($999 at Home Depot), I was intrigued to see if the “Weber premium” was worth it and how it stacks up to the best grills. But I wouldn’t be the only judge.

What makes the Genesis E-325 stand out

The first thing that stood out to me was the build quality of the Genesis E-325 Titanium. While my previous grills were thin and frail, the Genesis looks and feels rock solid. And I’m not just talking about the outside.

The two dual-row PureBlu burners are designed to deliver heat evenly across the cooking surface, and the raised ports that keep the flame above the tube, which minimizes both clogs and corrosion. Plus, the flavorizer bars do a great job of catching and vaporizing juices, keeping grease away from the burners to minimize flare-ups.

Then there’s the porcelain-enameled cast-iron cooking grates. I like that they heat up quickly and retain heat, which is great for searing. These grates flip over to handle other grill accessories, such as a Griddle, Pizza Stone and Grilling Basket (all $99). I tried the latter with mixed results; more on that below.

Test No. 1: Sriracha BBQ chicken

For my first test I wanted to make some barbecue chicken, and normally I like to marinate it in sauce. In this case I picked Trader Joe’s Organic Sriracha and Roasted Garlic BBQ Sauce.

After letting the chicken marinate for 30 minutes, I fired up the Genesis E-325 and it got to 400 degrees within a few minutes. For this meal I put the cooking grates on the flat side, as that’s recommended for chicken. I used the peaked side for grilling steaks later.

Granted, this was just my first time using a Weber, but I was impressed with how evenly the chicken cooked. I noticed some of the pieces got more of a char towards the back of the 513-square inch cooking area and just moved a couple of the breasts around.

Once the chicken was done I paired it with some jasmine rice and mixed vegetables, and it was time for the family to weigh in.

The best endorsement came from my 18-year-old-son, who usually doesn’t say much more than “thanks for making it.”

In this case I got a “this is really good” — unprompted. My wife also approved, commenting that the chicken was juicy on the inside and had a nice crispy crunch on the outside. I’ll take that as a win.

Test No. 2: Ribeye steaks, filets and roasted vegetables

For my next test of the Weber Genesis E-325 I tried something a bit more complicated. I grilled some ribeye steaks and small filet mignons while also attempting to roast some broccoli and sweet potato slices on Weber’s Crafted Grilling Basket ($99).

To prep, I hit the steaks and filets with a combination of Season All, Spice Lab’s Smoked Butcher’s Blend and Dan-O’s Seasoning.

My wife helped with the veggies, preparing the broccoli with roasted garlic and chili oil, salt and pepper, onion powder and crushed red pepper flakes. And she drizzled the sweet potato medallions with roasted garlic algae oil, hot honey, salt and pepper and hot honey dry seasoning.

Sounds like the recipe for success, right? Well, mostly.

The Genesis E-325 did a fantastic job searing the ribeyes with its dedicated Sear Zone, which gets up to 750 degrees. After I got those perfect marks, I moved the steaks over to the left and cooled the right side down to 350 degrees to roast the vegetables.

Unfortunately, I overcooked the broccoli and it got a little too much char, but the sweet potatoes were spot on. I should have waited a bit longer to add the broccoli to the grill basket.

The ribeyes, however, came out practically perfect. I got the sear I wanted without losing the juices on the inside. And the filets I cooked were nice and tender. I put them on the top shelf while the bigger steaks finished cooking.

Overall, this meal was a home run with the family despite my messing up the broccoli. We just sprinkled some cheese on top to mask the burning, and it still tasted great.

Cleaning: Where I messed up

The biggest mistake I’ve made with the Weber Genesis E-325 is not reading the instructions before cleaning. You’re not supposed to use a wire brush, as it can strip the enamel, and Weber suggests you let the grill cool before you clean.

I’m accustomed to using my Grill Rescue brush, which on other grills you dip in water and leverage the heat of the grill to steam clean. I made things worse, making some residue harder to get off.

I learned my lesson. You’re supposed to let the grill cool, then use a Nylon bristle brush to clean the grates. For deeper cleaning, you can use a sponge and hot soapy water to clean the grates.

Accessories: Lots of options

As mentioned, the Weber Genesis E-325 can accommodate a range of custom-fit grillwork. This includes a Pizza Stone, Grilling Basket (good for veggies) and Griddle (great for breakfast items or smash burgers). These are all $99.

It doesn’t stop there, though. The Genesis has a side table you can drop accessories into and side rails for clipping on other add-ons. You can get everything from a basin with cutting board lid ($39) to a bottle holder ($12.95).

Outlook

So far I really like the Weber Genesis E-325. I’ve only tried it with a couple of meals so far, but the food has been delicious and evenly cooked, and I’m happy with the overall build quality.

I also love having a dedicated Sear Zone for steaks, and even though I’m used to 6 burners, there’s plenty of cooking area on this 3-burner grill for me and my family. I think larger parties could be a challenge, though.The only thing that’s thrown me so far is the cleaning for the Genesis E-325. But now that I know the proper technique I don’t think it will be an issue. Would you invest this much in a grill? Let me know what you think in the comments and if you already have a Weber please feel free to share your experience.

Vagus nerve stimulators are designed to calm your nervous system by (as the name suggests) stimulating your vagus nerve, which is also known as the gut-brain axis. I've tried vagus nerve stimulators before, using a device that you hold to the pulse point at your neck for several minutes, but this is the first device I've worn on my tragus.

Given NuroPod is the "world's most studied wearable vagus nerve stimulator" with 60+ clinical studies behind it, I was keen to give it a try. NuroPod supports nervous system regulation via your vagus nerve, which plays a huge role in the body's stress response and recovery.

I committed to the device for 30 days, and this is what I learned.

What is NuroPod?

NuroPod VNS is a non-invasive medical device. You wear it on your ear, specifically clipping it to the tragus, and it sends targeted electrical signals to the brain via the vagus nerve, which should help calm the nervous system, moving it to the parasympathetic system or "rest and digest."

One of the clinical studies conducted on the device revealed it can improve sleep by 19% and reduce fatigue by 48%. My colleague tested the NuroPod device and spoke with neuroscience expert Dr. Elisabetta Burchi, and who works for Nurosym, to explain how it works.

The vagus nerve acts as an "information highway" between the brain and organs. Dr. Burchi said that it carries "parasympathetic fibers in the body" and maintains "balance" between the fight-or-flight response and the rest-and-digest response.

Activating it using a device is thought to help lower blood pressure, improve relaxation, reduce stress and even help you sleep better. You can wear the device while you go about your day and simply unclip it once you're done. That said, the advice is to wet the ear with a little cold water to improve conductivity, so you'll need access to that.

What happened when I tried vagus nerve stimulation for 30 days

Note that the device is called NuroSym in the U.K.

All you have to do is charge the device, then clip it over the tragus of your left ear and set the timer and intensity via the handy remote. As mentioned, the guide recommends a little cold water dabbed to the ear, but I found that doing this made the device slip off, though without it, I didn't feel much.

I was really looking forward to testing a device backed by science that indicated it could help reduce stress. I'm quite a high-anxiety person despite my best efforts to bolster stress resilience through my lifestyle. A little help with a pocket-sized device? Perfect.

My colleague, Eve, had been recommended a 30-minute stint (suitable for first-timers) and an intensity level of 18 by Dr. Burchi. Ideally, though, you'd continue dialing up the intensity until you actually feel something, and this depends on your sensitivity threshold.

I didn't feel much until I cleaned my ear with cold water. But when I did, the tingles were far from subtle. Eventually, I found a level I could manage for 30 minutes, but I found it impossible to go about my day as normal without it slipping off my ear, so I had to lie down on my side. For that reason, I started using the NuroPod at night before bed.

Lots of factors impact my sleep hygiene, including social plans, late meals when I'm coaching, or too much blue light if I'm working late or chatting to friends and family on my phone. For that reason, I didn't really think it would be fair to use the NuroPod from a sleep perspective.

My interest was less in tracking device data and more in how I actually felt in my body and from my own perspective. Old school, I know. That said, I knew my Oura Ring 5 was tracking everything in the background, so I could refer to the data at any time.

Firstly, the act of doing something mindful offers relaxation as a standard. Because I took 30 minutes to sit without distracting myself with chores or work, it gave me the opportunity to wind down. Naturally, I felt a little more relaxed when the device had finished.

However, I didn't notice a huge difference in my sleep at night, and when I did eventually look into my sleep and stress scores on my Oura Ring, the biggest differentiators were whether I had drunk alcohol or eaten a late meal and tagged them in the app before sleep.

I tried increasing by a level or two every few days and continued this way for 30 days total. And if I am being really honest? I'm not sure I could justify a whopping $900 for what was a very minor boost in mindfulness.

The biggest difference I noticed in my sleep and stress scores came when I quit alcohol for 30 days, whereas any changes in how I felt by my own assessment or when looking at device data during this experiment were subtle at best.

It's worth noting that the device isn't advised for pregnant women, people with sleep apnea, or people with implanted electrical devices like pacemakers. And if you have an ear piercing you can't remove, you can use your other ear. If you're unsure whether Nurosym is suitable for you, consult your healthcare provider.

Would I recommend the device? Unless you're studying the data in a strictly controlled lab setting, it's very difficult to tell what is causing upticks or downticks in your sleep, stress and general wellbeing. A particularly good night of sleep could be the vagus nerve stimulator, or it could be that you did lots of exercise that day and limited blue screen time. It's hard to know.

Do I think $900 is justified for NuroPod? I don't believe it is, and I didn't notice a noticeable shift in my wellbeing, data aside, during the experiment. If you can afford to splash out and take the risk, this might be the device for you. But otherwise, I'd save your money and look at $0 stress relief hacks instead.

Finally, I found the ear piece didn't really fit my ears properly. If you have small traguses, you may well agree. So if portability is important to you, this is something to consider.

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Amazon’s new Kindle lineup isn’t just a simple refresh; the company’s famous e-readers pack a slew of new, long-awaited updates. These include thinner and lighter builds, aluminum chassis variants, and a repositioned power button. While the new Kindle, Kindle Paperwhite, and Kindle Colorsoft are now pricier, the upgrades are meaningful.

I got to check out the new Kindles firsthand during a recent event and was impressed by what I saw. Updating Kindles can be tricky as the devices are darn near perfect e-readers already, but some of the additions do make for a more pleasing reading experience. I’ve been an avid Kindle user for the better part of a decade, so the upgrades are certainly worth getting excited about.

Here’s everything you need to know about the new Kindles.

Price and availability

Amazon is releasing three new Kindles, with the basic Kindle available right now, and the Paperwhite and Colorsoft arriving on October 28 — right in time for the busy holiday season.

The entry-level 6-inch Kindle starts at $149, comes with 16GB of storage, and includes lock screen ads. The aluminum model starts at $189, packs 32GB of storage, and is ad-free. It also supports magnetic accessories, such as covers. The entry-level model comes in Ube and Graphite colors, while the aluminum version comes in Alpine Sky Aluminum and Seaglass Green.

Next up is the 7-inch Kindle Paperwhite, which now starts at $199 with 16GB of storage and ads. The $249 Signature Edition features an aluminum chassis, 32GB of storage, an auto-adjusting light sensor, and a built-in accelerometer. It replaces standard Qi wireless charging with a pogo pin dock system, but you can also charge it via the USB-C port. The starting color is Graphite, and the aluminum colors are Graphite and Seaglass Green.

Last but not least is the 7-inch Kindle Colorsoft, which starts at $289 with 16GB of RAM. Like the other models, there will also be an aluminum model, which will cost $319 and pack 32GB of storage. Colors are the same as the Paperwhite, though the aluminum also comes in Fig instead of Seaglass Green.

Expect new accessories as well. This includes the $34 Kindle Click, which works with all the new models and current-generation Kindles. It has assignable page forward/backward buttons and a dedicated volume-style wheel for brightness controls. And for Kindle Oasis fans, the $79 Page-Turn Button Case (exclusive to Signature Series devices) features physical, tactile page-turn buttons directly on the case bezel.

Hands-on with the new Kindles

All of the new Kindles are now thinner and lighter than their respective predecessors. You won’t notice that at a glance, but when I held the new basic Kindle against the previous model, the difference wasn’t stark but certainly noticeable. The aluminum versions are naturally heavier, but not by much. Thanks to the new design, you should be able to read more comfortably for longer.

Each model comes with an assortment of new colors, engineered so the device’s color doesn’t bleed onto the display. That’s why prior Kindles had black bezels that absorb light. Books now open about 30% faster on the base Kindle, and I noticed the difference right away since I use Kindles so much. Your smartphone still refreshes faster, but I appreciate the speedier page turns.

Except for the basic Kindle, the Paperwhite and Colorsoft are both fully waterproof (IPX8). So if you want to read in the bath, you can do so without worrying about the Kindle falling into the water.

The aluminum models are my favorites since they feel like holding a smartphone (which Amazon deliberately wanted). Even the basic Kindle feels more premium thanks to its smooth, sturdy aluminum chassis. That’s not to say the non-aluminum models feel bad to hold, but the aluminum Kindles just step things up. I typically keep Kindles in cases, but I might not with the aluminum models.

Speaking of cases, there are the standard Kindle cases that the e-reader slots into. They’re also color-coded to the Kindle’s specific color, which is a nice touch. The ones I liked most were the new magnetic cases for the aluminum models, since they magnetically snap into place.

The biggest game-changer for me is the power button, which, like with the Kindle Scribe, is now located on the right-hand side instead of at the bottom. Many users like me have long asked for this, since accidentally turning the Kindle off has always been frustrating. You might not think this is a big deal, but trust me, it absolutely is.

Outlook

Kindles are my favorite way to read novels, so I’m glad Amazon keeps improving a device that is already excellent at what it does. The aluminum models look and feel great, and I love the repositioned power button. Again, I’m not enamored with the higher prices, but it’s hard to complain much thanks to these upgrades.

We’ll have full reviews of the new Kindles for you soon, so stay tuned!

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The Samsung SmartTag3 will soon be here to give Apple AirTags a run for their money. This is especially true since Samsung’s upcoming smart trackers now offer cross-OS support. That level of universality should make them more appealing no matter your preferred platform.

During a recent Samsung event, I went hands-on with the SmartTag3 and was impressed by its new features and compact design. It also didn’t hurt that a cute dog was at the event to show how the tags benefit pet owners. But whether it’s your fur baby or your luggage, SmartTag3 should help you keep track of your precious items.

Here’s what I think of the Samsung SmartTag 3.

Samsung SmartTag3: Price and availability

Just in time for the holiday season, the Samsung Galaxy SmartTag3 will be available in the U.S. in early November. A one-pack will cost $29, and a four-pack will be $99. Tags will be available in White and Black.

Additionally, Samsung will offer new official accessories for its tags. These include a Silicone Case with a keyring and a Loop Case. Pricing has yet to be announced.

Samsung SmartTag3: Design

Instead of a key fob design like the Galaxy SmartTag 2, the new SmartTag3 resembles a small puck. It’s now about 35% smaller by volume and 33% lighter than the previous model. That makes it easy to attach the tags to keys, small bags, luggage, or even your pet’s collar.

The rounded tag also features an aluminum-decorated button, giving it a more elegant look and a durable feel.

I like how the tags are elegant yet unobtrusive. Whether you place them on your backpack or your dog’s collar, they won’t look out of place. They also feel nice to hold thanks to their smooth texture.

Samsung SmartTag3: Core features

One of the biggest new features, and a first for the Galaxy SmartTag lineup, is cross-OS compatibility for Galaxy and iOS devices. Samsung says this will make it easier for families and groups to access core finding and sharing features across platforms. In other words, if you’re an iPhone user, the SmartTag3 will work with your phone.

Via SmartThings Find, you can check and share a tag’s location and use Search Nearby across supported devices. So if a family member borrows your bookbag, you can check its location and use supported finding features from your Galaxy or iPhone.

If you’ve lost track of something in your home, you can use Compass View to help find it. Acting like one of the trackers in the Alien movies (minus the monsters), Compass View provides distance and directional guidance from up to 60 meters away, which is about three times farther than the previous model. As you get closer, you’ll see a circle on the app begin to fill, and it will fill when you’re in the target location.

What happens when the SmartTag3 moves outside the connection range? That’s where the Galaxy Find Network kicks in to keep the search going. As Samsung explained, more than 900 million participating Galaxy devices worldwide can act as finding nodes to detect the SmartTag3 and update its location beyond your phone’s reach.

Samsung’s smart tags also tell you when objects or pets move from their usual areas via the Place Notification feature. This saves you from constantly checking whether something has moved. If it does, you’ll be notified. Location History also lets you review where your tag has been, while the Movement Detection Alert feature notifies you when movement is detected.

Lastly, the SmartTag3 promises up to 550 days of battery life under normal use and up to 790 days in power-saving mode. Since Apple’s Smart Tags last about a year (365 days), this is another reason for Apple users to consider Samsung’s SmartTag.

Outlook

Samsung has stepped things up with the SmartTag 3, making it more useful for tracking the things you don’t want to lose. Cross-OS support is arguably the biggest new feature, as it opens up these trackers to folks outside the Samsung ecosystem.

As an iPhone user myself, I’m impressed by what I saw and would gladly give these smart trackers a shot. You all can too, as November is just around the corner. Stay tuned for more!

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Being able to carry a powerful camera in my pocket is fantastic, and I can't tell you the number of times I've been able to pull out my phone to snap something that would have otherwise vanished in a second. The problem is that smartphones are not so great and shooting a lot of photos in a short space of time.

The lack of a burst mode has always irked me, especially since I'm often trying to take photos of things that are moving around — mainly my dogs or my son. My workaround has been to shoot video and then try and screenshot the appropriate frame, but those results are often lacking. You lose resolution and the whole process is rather fiddly, as you try and find the perfect frame.

Thankfully Google and Apple have each developed systems to do this exact thing, without all the same pitfalls. The execution is very different, though, and I set out to see whether Google Pixel 11 Pro's Magic Capture or the Save Video Frame as Photo option from iPhone 18 Pro and iOS 27 offered a better experience.

What are Magic Capture and Save Video Frame as Photo?

Magic Capture is a new AI-powered feature exclusive to Google's Pixel 11 series, and it functions as a separate mode within the Pixel camera app. Magic Capture records videos up to two minutes in length, and once finished, uses AI to analyze the footage and export a handful of frames as standalone photos.

The crucial thing there is that the whole process is automatic. You don't get to choose what Magic Capture picks out, and the number of photos you get is actually pretty limited. You get one photo at first, but that number increases to five once the cloud-based processing is complete.

In contrast to this, Apple's Save Video Frame as Photo feature is all on you. Rather than having a specialist camera mode, or complicated AI integration, it all functions as a feature in the Apple Photos app. Simply find a video you want to pull photos from, tap the three-dot menu in the top-right corner, and tap the Save Video Frame as Photo option.

Tapping that option then isolates the frame that's on screen and exports it to Apple Photos as a photo. It doesn't matter whether the video is playing, or if you've paused it, the feature will work as advertised, dropping the newly-created photo at the end of your timeline. Naturally, the manual process means you're not guaranteed to get a good photo, since it only copies what's seen on screen.

How do they actually differ in practice?

Magic Capture is certainly the more convenient method of extracting photos from video, though it definitely comes with some downsides. The fact that you can record a video clip, and have Google's AI do all the hard work for you to get things done quickly and stress-free. That said, the limitations do get in the way.

One issue is that Magic Capture is limited to two minutes of actual use. That's not an issue for short bursts of video, but if you want continuous, uninterrupted recording, you're out of luck. Similarly the feature sticks you with five photos no matter how long the clip is — no more, no less. It doesn't matter whether you record 30 seconds or the full two minutes, you get five photos.

If you want anything more, or you don't like what Magic Capture selected, you're going to have to do things the old fashioned way. That is less than ideal, especially since Magic Capture was supposed to solve this problem. The reliance on cloud processing may also be a little much for some people, depending on how much you trust Google's servers to keep your video clips secure.

Apple's system has no such limitations, because it doesn't rely on AI processing or a specialist camera. You simply record a video as normal, with no extra caveats or conditions you need to meet. The obvious downside is that you need to pull each individual frame out manually, which is not that easy — especially on an iPhone touchscreen.

There's a difference between photographs and video frames, since one is designed to be standalone and the other is one part of something much larger. Without the surrounding frames, that single snapshot could look like absolute garbage. And that happens quite a lot with the Save Video Frame as Photo feature. Not always, and rapid movement definitely makes it a lot harder, but it is something to be aware of.

The process is fairly simple, though. You load up the video you recorded in Apple Photos, and slide the progress bar along until you get to the frame you want to see as a photo. The main issue is that doing it in Portrait mode is not easy, especially if it's a particularly long video. This isn't like VLC, where you can advance frame by frame until you get to the spot you want.

There isn't enough finesse in my fingers to be super accurate with everything, but I found that flipping the phone into landscape mode made the process slightly easier. Similarly, loading up the video on my iPad and cycling through the video using the Apple Pencil made it feel as though I had more control over the entire process. Yes, iPadOS 27 has this feature too, and it works in the exact same way.

Clipping videos down into shorter clips can also be a big help, since the playback bar is the same size no matter the length of the video in question.

Verdict: Which is the better option?

The most important thing to remember about Magic Capture and Apple's Save Video Frame as Photo is that they are both rather different methods of reaching the same goal. The way they work is going to impact which of these is actually right for you, and the truth is that neither of them is a bad option.

Magic Capture has its limits, but it's the easiest way to get a handful of photos from short video clips. Personally I think Google's option is better suited to those times when you know getting a good photo is going to be difficult, but you don't want the moment to pass. So you use Magic Capture to record the video, and have Google AI select five photos of the event in question.

Meanwhile Apple's Save Video Frame to Photo feature is arguably better for those times you know you're going to be recording anyway, but want to be able to export different frames as their own photos. Or, alternatively, for those of you that prefer to put the effort into generating those photos yourself, rather than having a faceless collection of cloud-based AI algorithms do it for you. It's certainly the more labor-intensive option, but it's also the one that ensures better data security. Provided you have the will and means to go through your video frame-by-frame — or close enough to it.

A blend of the two wouldn't be a bad option, especially if Apple can adapt its own version of Magic Capture through Private Cloud Compute. However, we can all agree that it certainly beats the alternative of screenshotting videos and losing all resolution in the process.

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I'm a big fan of magnetic phone accessories, especially when it involves MagSafe-compatible wireless charging. Portable battery packs are great, but the reliance on cables is not something I will ever be happy about. Switching to wireless charging, and using magnets to keep everything in place, means that problem is eliminated — though it's not ideal that those batteries add a bunch of bulk and weight to your phone.

Belkin's newest magnetic battery pack, UltraCharge Pro Slim Magnetic Power Bank with BoostSolid Cell, helps to eliminate that problem. The "Semi Solid State" battery design is significantly thinner and lighter than you might expect, which makes a surprising amount of difference for comfort. However, that also comes at the cost of overall capacity, which may or not be a dealbreaker.

What the heck is a 'semi-solid-state' battery?

You may be wondering what Semi-Solid-State actually means. The idea of solid-state batteries is nothing new, since those offer power without any of the chemical movements and reactions.

According to Belkin, this "semi-solid" design utilizes a gel-like layer alongside a liquid electrolyte. The company hasn't gone into the specifics of how everything works, but the design enables a slimmer and more compact design, greater longevity and a much lower risk of overheating. That should help improve the overall safety of using these batteries, and considering the clampdown by airlines in recent months, that's definitely a good thing.

Speaking of airlines, Belkin says that the $70 UltraCharge Pro Magnetic Power Bank has been built to comply with standard safety requirements, and the TSA's carry-on guidance. Though this doesn't necessarily mean that you are cleared to use this one in the air. Each airline has their own policies, and you need to be aware of them before you travel.

The battery itself is Qi2 certified, offering up to 15W charging speeds on compatible phones. Wired USB-C charging is also available if you have a cable, with speeds up to 7.5W. The battery itself recharges at up to 22.5W. Naturally, being magnetic, it snaps onto the back of your phone — whether it has built-in magnets or you're using a special case.

Materials-wise, you've got a battery that is a mix of metal and rubber, which is not exactly uncommon in magnetic batteries, though the actual size of the thing is arguably where its biggest strength lies.

How does it compare to my existing magnetic power bank?

The magnetic battery pack I use most of the time is UGreen's 10,000 mAh magnetic power pack. It's a fairly cheap option, which means it isn't officially certified as MagSafe or Qi2 — it's just a regular wireless charger with a MagSafe-compatible connection. That means it's slow, and it has a habit of getting pretty hot.

UGreen's model is 0.79-inches thick, which is more than double Belkin's 0.35-inches. It's also heavier, weighing 7.9 ounces compared to 4.4 ounces for the Belkin. The UGreen battery is actually heavier and thicker than an iPhone 17 Pro (0.35-inches and 7.27 ounces), and only slightly lighter than the iPhone 17 Pro Max (8.33 ounces).

The UltraCharge Pro Magnetic Power Bank is still going to add thickness and weight to your phone. However, it is a lot more comfortable and convenient to use compared to the bulky UGreen option I've been using.

The downside is that it the Belkin has half the capacity of the UGreen. 10,000 mAh is enough to charge just about every phone at least once — and often more. 5,000 mAh doesn't go quite as far, but it's no small amount of power. It's enough to recharge a lot of phones in full, and enough to add a significant amount of power to others.

Personally, while I like to overprepare and make sure I have more than enough energy to keep me going, I'll admit that 10,000 mAh is a bit overkill for most situations. So long as you have enough power to make it through the day, and get back to a home charger, then what does it matter how much of a reserve you have?

In terms of charging and heat, I decided to test the two batteries on my iPhone 17 Pro Max starting at 47% charge. The Belkin battery restored 10%, bringing the total to 57% in that time, while the UGreen battery brought the charge to 54% — a 7% increase. It's not a huge amount of difference, but over the course of many hours that will add up.

As for heat, the Belkin battery definitely felt warmer, but a quick check with a thermal camera saw the temperature peak at just under 95 degrees Fahrenheit. The UGreen battery didn't feel nearly as warm, but the thermal imaging revealed that a small part of the battery had risen to just shy of 97 degrees. That's not a huge difference, but you do have to remember that the UGreen charger is going much more slowly — and I did feel that heat start to add up over extended charging sessions.

Wireless charging is always going to produce some heat if you don't have some sort of active cooling system. The Belkin UltraCharge does get warm, but it doesn't get too hot, which is quite nice.

Bottom line

I really like the Belkin UltraCharge Pro Magnetic Power Bank. Not specifically because it's a semi-solid-state battery, but because it manages to do all the things you need from a portable battery pack. It's slim and lightweight, with the magnetic connection making it incredibly easy to recharge your phone. Plus, the 15W Qi2 speeds mean it's fairly speedy as far as wireless charging goes.

Admittedly, the 5,000 mAh capacity would be enough to make me hesitate on buying one for myself — especially with a $70 price tag. You can buy wired battery packs that offer four times the capacity for similar prices, if not less. Still, you can't fault the Belkin for convenience or comfort, and that premium might be worth it if you regularly find that you need to top off your phone on the move.

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When Microsoft introduced its new Surface lineup at Snapdragon Summit, attention naturally gravitated toward the silicon and the screens. I mean it did to me — fawning over the new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop armed with Snapdragon X2 Plus.

But yet, the quietest peripheral on the table — the redesigned $79 Surface Mouse — might be the most significant announcement of them all.

Beyond its 30% recycled chassis, ambidextrous silhouette and dedicated action button, the standout feature is that the integrated haptic feedback can actually communicate with you as you work.

Let me explain.

Closing the tactile feedback loop

For decades, the computer mouse has been an entirely one-way transmission line: your hand clicks or drags, and your eyes watch the screen to confirm the result. Trackpads have experimented with haptics to mimic mechanical switches, but standalone desktop mice have largely remained hollow plastic shells with rigid microswitches.

The Surface Mouse turns that input into a two-way conversation in some small but significant ways:

• Window snapping: Drag a browser window toward the edge of your screen, and the mouse body delivers a subtle tactile bump when Windows 11 snaps the pane into place. It’s one of a few different haptic responses you’ll feel across the OS, and adds a liveliness to the whole UI.
• Object alignment: Slide an element across any of the Microsoft Office applications, or in Adobe’s Creative Suite, and I physically felt a micro-tick when the shape locks onto an alignment guide or center axis. This will be massive for me — someone with zero alignment awareness — who always falls out trying to snap objects onto ruler lines.
• Tactile verification: Instead of guessing whether a click registered in a laggy software pipeline, the haptic actuator provides an instant physical confirmation under your palm. If you’re doing anything particularly heavy, it’s good to know separate of the machine running slow that the click has been acknowledged.

The takeaway

Haptic feedback in a mouse sounds gimmicky on a spec sheet. I’ve seen it before in the Logitech MX Master 4, and while it feels good, it doesn’t really do anything.

But in real-world productivity workflows, the Surface Mouse is transformative. It offloads visual verification to your fingertips, shaving seconds off repetitive alignment tasks.

That Copilot key may grab the headlines, but the tactile dialogue inside the Surface Mouse is the game changer here.

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My kids treat almost anything with a scoreboard as a personal challenge, which made them the ideal testers for Strikesphere, a sports tech line from Golden Bear Toys that adds sensors, light-up targets and automated launch modes to familiar training gear.

We tested three of the company's products at home: the Soccer Launcher, the Speed Ball and the B-Ball Bounce. While my kids are very athletic, they are also very hard on toys (see the review of my youngest throwing the AT&T AmiGO tablet), and, they speak their mind when it comes to what they like and don't like.

My 5-year-old is drawn to anything that counts down, lights up or gives him a reason to run around the living room, while my 12-year-old plays soccer and loses interest quickly in gear that can't keep up with him. That split ended up being the most useful lens for judging all three, because the products that worked best were the ones that could hold a kindergartner's attention and still give a competitive player a reason to keep coming back. Some of them won over both kids right away, and one needed a little creativity on our part before it clicked for my older son.

One important thing to note is this toy is sold from the U.K. and not yet available on Amazon, so you'll have to adjust the currency to USD if you are purchasing in the states.

StrikeSphere Speed Ball

The Speed Ball was easily one of the biggest hits with my kids — and one won over my 12-year-old immediately.

The idea is incredibly simple, but unique, especially for kids working on their powerful kick. The ball has a built-in sensor that measures the power of each kick and displays your score directly on its LED screen, with scores going all the way up to 999. There's no app to download or phone to pair. You turn it on, kick it and immediately see how you did.

That instant feedback turned kicking a ball around into a competition pretty quickly. My 12-year-old kept trying to beat his previous score, which gave him a reason to take another shot and then another. It's one of those rare tech features that adds something to the game without making the product more complicated to use.

My one complaint is the size. The Speed Ball is a size 4 rather than a regulation size 5, which my older son noticed. For younger players that probably won't matter — and may actually be preferable — but I'd love to see StrikeSphere offer a size 5 version for older kids who are already accustomed to playing with a full-size ball. Also, being a size 4 it didn't fit on the StrikeSphere soccer launcher. Not necessary, but something to note for families who want to avoid switching the ball out while using both toys.

Still, this was one of those products I didn't have to convince my kids to test. Once they started trying to beat their scores, they just kept going.

StrikeSphere Soccer Launcher

Of the three StrikeSphere products we tested, the Soccer Launcher was probably our least favorite because it didn't keep the game going. Although it was still a hit, especially with my 5-year-old, I wouldn't suggest it for children much older.

The concept is pretty simple: you wind the handle and choose between a five-second countdown or three claps to send the ball into the air. There are six launch angles, and StrikeSphere says it can send a ball up to 13 feet, although for us, it was more like 9 feet.

My 12-year-old was harder to impress. He plays soccer and quickly found that the Launcher didn't have enough power to make it particularly challenging on its own. We eventually put it in front of our soccer rebounder, which completely changed the experience. Instead of receiving the relatively gentle launch, he could react to the ball coming back off the net, making it faster and much less predictable.

That setup also highlighted my biggest complaint with the Launcher: it's too lightweight. Ours frequently tipped or shifted when it fired the ball, and I found myself having to stand it back up or reposition it between launches. The lightweight design makes it easy to carry around, but I'd gladly trade some of that portability for a heavier, more stable base. That's the first thing I'd change in a second-generation model.

Still, I liked that one product could entertain kids at very different skill levels once we got creative with it. Younger kids may enjoy the simple thrill of waiting for the ball to launch, while older players can pair it with other training equipment to make the drill considerably harder.

Similar to the StrikeSphere Speed Ball, this toy is sold from the U.K. and not yet available on Amazon.

StrikeSphere B-Ball Bounce

If my 12-year-old claimed the Speed Ball, the B-Ball Bounce belonged to my 5-year-old. This was easily his favorite of the three.

What I liked most was that he could set it up and play with it completely on his own. That's a big deal with kids' toys, especially when so many supposedly simple games require a parent to assemble something, explain the rules or keep resetting it.

The B-Ball Bounce also gave him a way to burn off some energy indoors. That made it especially useful on rainy days when getting outside wasn't an option, although he was perfectly happy taking it outside and playing there, too.

The game became more fun for him as it sped up. He had to watch closely, react quickly and stay focused on what was happening rather than just mindlessly throwing a ball around. I could actually see the concentration on his face as he tried to keep up with it.

And that may have been my favorite thing about the B-Ball Bounce. It kept him moving, but it also demanded his attention. For a 5-year-old who has plenty of energy to burn, getting physical activity and a game that requires focus at the same time was a pretty great combination.

Bottom line

After testing all three StrikeSphere products, I can honestly say that we have found our new favorite brand of sports toys. For us, I think the biggest selling point is how easily they turn ordinary sports practice into something kids actually want to do.

My 5-year-old loved the B-Ball Bounce and Soccer Launcher, while my soccer-playing 12-year-old kept coming back to the Speed Ball to beat his previous score. The Soccer Launcher could use a sturdier base and a little more power, but pairing it with our rebounder made a noticeable difference.

What impressed me most was that none of these products required a screen or complicated setup to keep my kids entertained. They were moving, competing and practicing within minutes of opening the box. For a busy mom with very active kids, that was a huge win.

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Let's get one thing out of the way: I am not an advocate for VR headsets. I find them bulky, isolating, and, on the whole, an unuseful way to engage with technology as it currently exists.

You can imagine the skepticism I wore on my sleeve when I was given a chance to try out the new Meta VR Glasses during Meta Connect 2026. And my pleasant surprise at how intuitive and comfortable it was to wear and use the headset/glasses.

Meta's newest VR wearable is a cross between the Meta Quest headset and AR glasses like the Viture Beast or the upcoming Xreal Aura. Or if you're just looking at gesture controls, a much cheaper version of the Snap Specs (but still expensive).

While the race is on to see who can dominate the AI glasses side of things, Meta's VR glasses feel like the actual future. As a VR headset they're still isolating, and there are some strange decisions under the hood, but there's something interesting here.

What are the Meta VR glasses

Meta's VR Glasses are what happens when you slice off just the lenses of a headset and put them in a pair of Top Gun fighter pilot goggles. The glasses carry the lenses, display and sensors.

The lenses are a pair of Micro OLED 5K "ultra compact" pancake screens that Meta says are Dolby Vision certified and have Dolby color. It's also capable of running 3D content and is IMAX certified, a claimed first for headsets.

The chip and battery have been separated into a tethered puck that Meta says can last for three hours on its own. A Meta spokesperson told me the glasses feature a Qualcomm XR2 Gen 3 chipset. Or, by another name, the Snapdragon Reality Elite, announced at AWE this year. The naming convention is confusing since Qualcomm didn't announce XR2 Gen 3 but instead the rebranded Reality Elite.

Seriously, these things are light. Meta Quest headsets weigh 1.1 pounds or about 500 grams. The Meta VR Glasses are supposed to weigh only 100 grams or 3.57 ounces. For comparison, the Viture Pro and Xreal One AR glasses weigh just under 3 ounces.

They're quite comfortable to wear and don't get hot thanks to the puck. However, the puck was quite warm when I picked it up at the end of the session.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the VR glasses is the lack of controllers. They can support controllers like the Touch controllers used with the Quest via Bluetooth. However, these glasses utilize eye and gesture controls for most every interaction; more on that in a moment.

Price and release date

We have some time before we'll get our hands on the Meta VR Glasses for real. They're not expected to ship until spring 2027 — six months, I was repeatedly told.

At launch, the Glasses are supposed to have a $1,299 starting price, though no storage capacity options were given. Meta Quest 3 is only offered with 512GB, while the 3S comes in 128GB and 256GB versions. I presume the VR Glasses will probably launch at 256GB.

The price is high — they're more than twice as much as the Viture Beast — but about half the cost of the Apple Vision Pro headset.

All about the eyes

With the caveat that these were locked-in demos, the eye-tracking and hand gesture controls felt intuitive and worked extremely smoothly.

One cool thing I found is that the glasses will walk you through setting up the lenses and nose pads for your vision and nose shape. With my eyes, I had to adjust the right lens, which was done by just pushing it to the left a slight bit.

For prescription glasses users, Meta had a prescription setup so they could calibrate the lenses. It's not clear how that would be done for customers once it's in the wild.

One demo showed off a multi-screen workstation where what caught my eye was the readability of the websites and code I was shown. It fixes one annoying flaw of AR glasses where reading can be blurry or straining on your eyes.

There are sensors in the lenses that track your eyes and do a fine job of telling where I'm looking. I was able to look at an icon and then pinch my fingers, and the app would open.

Nicely, unlike many devices with gesture controls, I could keep my hands in my lap or flat on the table if I wanted. There's no strange reaching into the aether for an invisible ball that you usually see.

This is thanks to sensors on both the front of the glasses as well as the underside that capture your hand movements.

Content, content, content

While the Meta Quest or Valve's new Steam Frame function as gaming headsets, Meta stayed away from gaming during presentations about the headset. Yes, there are 75 launch titles that are "enhanced to be hands first," but this isn't strictly a gaming headset.

Much of what I was told and shown revolved around different content. There are the Dolby-certified lenses and IMAX certification. Meta will have a store with 3D movies and shows that will work with the glasses, along with new 3D titles coming from Lionsgate and James Cameron to start.

I glimpsed some of that with a Marvel Avengers scene where a 360 3D environment was built out around me while I watched Thor build his Mjolnir replacement axe. It was cool if a bit of a theme park ride. There was also a Billie Eilish concert where, using 3D it looked as though I was standing in the crowd, which felt creepy like I was breathing down someone's neck

There was also a 180 degree spatial version of the NBA Finals where I could turn my head and see Timothée Chalamet watch the Knicks beat the Spurs. This is supposed to come with more sports, including ESPN and college football that starts this October on the Quest.

On most AR glasses, a limited FOV determines the virtual screen size. With the VR glasses, I was not told what the FOV was, and for screen size I was only told I could expand or shrink the displays I was watching, though that option wasn't available during my hands-on session.

Gestures need work

During my hands-on time, it was tough for me to get the hang of using both eye tracking and virtual hand gestures.

I found it quite difficult in the Meta UI to tell if I was selecting something with my eyes. When I tried opening the Billie Eilish concert, I had no clue if the play button was actually selected or not.

This isn't a tracking issue; it's a highlighting problem. Instead of adding a bold border or changing colors, the icons you select just get brighter, like you've shone a penlight on them. On some darker shaded apps this is fine but on white play buttons it was nearly indistinguishable.

Presumably this could and should be fixed before launch.

The other problem I had was with the touted "Surface keyboard." It's a virtual keyboard and trackpad that you can put on a table in front of you and type. It looks cool, but in practice it's hard to actually type on without any haptic feedback on what your fingers are doing.

I mentioned using haptic devices like gloves or VR gaming vests like those from bHaptic, and Meta spokespeople didn't seem to know if they would work or thought it would confuse the headset. Pour one out for your VR headset accessories.

My verdict: The future of VR headsets

Right now, Meta and its Quest headsets dominate the VR headset market. Per Counterpoint Research, Meta has nearly 70% of the market. And if we're being honest, VR is just the Quest right now, though the Steam Frame could change that conversation a bit.

As mentioned, I find VR headsets bulky and isolating. I don't know that Meta VR glasses solve the second issue, but bulk is nearly gone, and it makes for a fascinating device.

This new form of VR headset is so intriguing and an actual improvement over current VR platforms that I believe it's only the start, and I hope, just the first step in a fascinating new direction for virtual reality devices.

We're slowly getting to a point where AI glasses and VR/AR headsets and glasses are going to become one and the same. This midpoint evolution shows both how far away we are and how far it's come.

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Meta is launching its new Ray-Ban Meta Audio smart glasses at an interesting time. The company is fighting a reputation that it makes "pervert glasses" with the standard Ray-Ban Meta glasses that feature cameras.

Plenty of other companies, like Even Realities, whose CEO decried cameras on glasses over the summer. "Adding a camera onto a pair of glasses definitely introduces many more downsides than upsides."

With those concerns in mind, I tried out the audio-only Meta glasses during Meta Connect 2026. Will Meta's new camera-free specs open up a new segment for the company?

They're Ray-Bans

On the surface, these glasses are just Ray-Ban Metas. The lack of a camera means that they're lighter and enables Meta and Ray-Ban to introduce new styles like the Clubmaster, which features more of a wire frame around the lenses.

The glasses weigh just 43 grams, which is roughly 10 ounces lighter than the Ray-Ban Meta gen 2 specs..

They do have more battery life than the camera-version, hitting a claimed 12 hours over the recently updated 9 hours in the Gen 3 version of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses.

Per Meta, the glasses come in 23 color and lens combinations between the Clubmaster and Burbank styles.

The glasses launch on October 13 for $349. The price is perhaps the most surprising thing about the Audio glasses. Removing the camera apparently does not make them cheaper.

Yes, the Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 3) glasses start at $449, but the currently available Gen 2 glasses start at $379, only $30 more expensive. And the still-available Gen 1 versions start at $224.

Similar uses

Using the Audio glasses is exactly the same as using the camera-laden version.

Swipe on the right arm for volume controls. Tap the button to access Meta AI or say "Hey Meta" before prompting the glasses.

If you've ever tried a pair of Ray-Ban Meta glasses, you've tried the Audio glasses, sans taking pictures or videos. Both the Audio and Gen 3 Ray-Bans come with six microphones for taking calls and talking to the AI assistant. It also comes with speakers for music and podcast listening.

The speakers sound about the same as on-camera Ray-Bans, which is decent for what it does.

I've received conflicting information on whether or not the new Hearing Enhancement feature for "mild to moderate hearing loss" will be available on the Audio glasses when it launches. At one point, I was told it would launch on the Gen 3 glasses first, but another spokesperson said it's coming to all Ray-Ban glasses. Press releases on the feature have not been illuminating.

Early verdict: Ray-Ban Meta Audio

On the whole, if you enjoy your Ray-Bans and don't really use the cameras or don't want to be seen wearing the camera-version, the Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses are nice option to have.

They're fairly comfortable, the user experience is the exact same and they look great, especially the Clubmaster frames.

The longer battery life is nice and basically guarantees nearly all-day use for the Audio glasses, something the Gen 3 glasses can't promise.

However, the price is high for glasses that offer fewer features than the normal ones, especially when the older versions of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses are still for sale for cheaper or about the same.

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Apple has long owned the blueprint for thin, light, silent computing with the MacBook Air. It’s the benchmark that we compare every skinny Windows notebook to, and the Cupertino crew always ends up on top for staying ice-cold under sustained multi-app workloads and delivering all-day endurance.

However, Microsoft just announced a new Surface Pro 12-inch ($1,149) and Surface Laptop 13-inch ($1,199) with Snapdragon X2 Plus — launching October 13th. And in my short time testing them, they look set to change that dynamic.

Beyond the real nice aluminum designs, stellar displays and strong ergonomics, I juggled heavy creative workflows without even a whimper of pressure. After seeing Blender run and the surface of the…Surface remained cool, it is clear that Microsoft finally has legitimate MacBook Air challengers on its hands.

Cold under pressure

Let’s get into the marquee achievement here — that thermal management. Both the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop lack active cooling fans, and use dense cooling pipes instead. In past generations, fanless designs inevitably meant thermal throttling and scorched aluminum chassis. No longer.

During my hands-on time, the hardware was subjected to a rigorous creative pipeline:

• An original sketch was drafted in real-time
• That asset was imported into Blender to render out full 3D geometry
• The completed render was transferred directly into Photoshop for multi-layered

All three resource-intensive applications remained open and active simultaneously in the background. Navigating between them was instantaneous with zero perceptible stutter.

More impressively, this is happening without a fan. I touched the back of the Surface Pro chassis and it remained cool to the touch.

With up to 60% faster graphics rendering and an 80 TOPS NPU handling on-device AI tasks, the X2 Plus architecture is powerful for sure, but this sustained performance without thermal penalties is the real win here.

Hardware, keyboards and the lapability hitch

Both machines pack upgraded 500-nit PixelSense displays that look vibrant and punchy in person, and are paired with tactile, responsive keyboards that offer a satisfying travel.

Plus, this is all packed into some gorgeous aluminum shells that feel great to the touch and have an unmistakable playfulness to them in the colors. Those hues do disguise the real power under the hood here.

Also, shoutout to the haptics on that Surface Pen on the Pro — offering a two-way conversation between you and the apps on screen.

Feeling the sand rumble through the the pen as I rake my zen garden feels like a fun gimmick, but it’s a glimpse of what this tool can do when more apps provide support: feeling a snapback as you align an image in Photoshop, and various swells and pops as you operate around Windows 11.

However, the Surface Pro 12-inch has one notable ergonomic drawback. Whereas on other Surface Pros, you could snap that keyboard deck magnetically to the bottom bezel to form a lock and stabilize the keyboard deck; this attachment connects strictly at the bottom spine.

While I wasn’t able to test the lapability trade-off of this, I can imagine that without the angled magnetic brace, using this on your lap would feel wobblier than a traditional clamshell. I’d have to find out for myself to be sure.

My early verdict

Starting at $1,149 for the Surface Pro and $1,199 for the Surface Laptop, that’s quite a RAMageddon sting, but they are being priced directly against Apple’s core lineup.

While the Surface Pro is the creators choice, but wrestles with its kickstand ergonomics, the clamshell Surface Laptop offers the best of both worlds.

And their fanless operation, sustained thermal composure and snappy silicon make the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop the closest Microsoft has come to matching the everyday magic of the MacBook Air.

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Another year, another Snapdragon chip, right? Well, we’re getting two: Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. And I’ve just benchmarked the Extreme.

Let’s answer some key questions. First, how does it fare against the mighty A20 Pro in Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max? Second, are Qualcomm’s claims backed up by testing? And third, how big of an upgrade over previous generations is it and who should be thinking about buying in?

This is a reference designQualcomm Reference Designs (QRDs) were used in this benchmarking session — not final hardware sporting the chipset. The model I tested packs 24GB of LPDDR5X RAM, 1TB of storage, a 4,400 mAh battery and a 6.73-inch 1440x3200-pixel AMOLED screen. So you’re getting something largely representative of what you will get in the future (maybe with a bigger battery).

Geekbench battle — iPhone 18 Pro wins

The bragging point of 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 is a 13% faster CPU speed than Gen 5, which, based on my own testing, they’re being a little modest!

A good chunk of this comes down to those two new Prime Cores that can run at 5GHz (a world’s first for smartphones), which you can feel with temperatures getting hot on the back of these reference designs.

That being said, in our own testing, Apple’s re-engineered CPU continues to stay ahead in single-core, while the multicore results gap narrows a little bit.

In use, quick switching between apps and loading up that RAM with various apps in the background, the snappiness of this was not affected.

In all honesty, you won’t really feel that difference in real-world use in that gap, but for the speeds-and-feeds nerds amongst you (welcome to the family), the Cupertino crew remains out front.

Also, while we don’t test specifically for AnTuTu in our labs, it’s worth noting I got to run this suite along with AI benchmarks (more on that later). So here are those results.

Gaming is a different story

Now on paper, if you were to take the 3DMark numbers you see here, you’d see that the overhauled GPU with neural accelerators in the A20 Pro trades blows with the 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6.

So on a pure apples-to-apples (pun intended), the silicon level is pretty evenly matched. But the real win for Qualcomm comes in the form of Adreno Neural Fusion (ANF) — Snapdragon’s AI upscaling and frame generation tech.

iPhones do have MetalFX, which is based on Spatial and Temporal upscaling. Basically, this tracks motion, contrast and edges on a lower-resolution image to paint in missing pixels. It does the job OK, but is a bit of an old-fashioned way of going about it (and quite power intensive).

Meanwhile, ANF is AI-based (running inside the display coprocessor), which uses those AI-specific Matrix Cores and high performance memory to upscale frames based on shared knowledge, and can even use that same AI hardware to insert generated frames to smooth frame rates.

Does this work like DLSS? Yes, it does seem like Qualcomm’s looked at Nvidia’s homework a little bit. But the purpose is different — rather than squeezing out the highest FPS possible without thinking about battery consumption, ANF is designed to make things more power efficient over long-term play.

And in the Traverse benchmarks purpose-built for this, I did see a drastic reduction in total wattage required to run these demos, while also seeing better detailing on faces and the terrain.

Ready for agentic AI?

This seems to be the big differentiator between 8 Elite Gen 6 and 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. With a 50% larger shared memory across the chip and support for a vastly larger mix of expert (MoE) AI models on-device, this chip is better prepared for what Qualcomm is calling the “agentic age” for smartphones.

Basically, the idea that a phone can work for you rather than with you in some key tasks, and across devices too. It’s an ambitious goal that’s starting to come into view, but we’ll see how people feel about using this in practice. That being said, the AI benchmarks show a sizeable uplift over previous generations:

Yep, you read that right. That is a massive increase in LLM performance, which goes to show that those AI-dedicated cores are doing their job well here.

What about heat and battery life?

Take this with the biggest grain of salt available. A 4,400mAh battery cell is not going to be representative of what you may see in final models. In fact, chances are that with this being an ultra flagship-level chip, you’ll see the Elite Extreme pop up alongside a massive silicon carbon battery to keep it going for longer.

That being said, Antutu performance benchmarks show how much battery is consumed over that time, as well as the rising temperatures while doing so. The result, as you’ll see, shows just how hungry those Prime Cores can be when running at full power.

Of course, like I said, with bigger cells, this percent drop in battery may be less pronounced, but getting to 5 GHz will take some brunt.

Another big uplift to take on Apple, but should you upgrade?

So it goes without saying nowadays, the uplifts over previous generations are nice to see, but still very much iterative if you’re on the upgrade train with a 1-2-year-old phone.

If you have a phone from the past year or two, unless you really care about agentic AI or want to be ready for when Adreno Neural Fusion comes to more games through Unity and Unreal Engine 5 support, it’s not going to be worth the upgrade.

But one thing is clear — this chip is the biggest statement of intent from Qualcomm about where they think the smartphone is going. It’s no longer an app-based system; it’s an agentic one, and everything is being purpose-built around this.

I look forward to seeing what this chip can do in more phones, starting with Motorola later this year with the Signature 27.

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Googlebooks are Android’s answer to the Apple ecosystem. Powered by a new OS that combines Android and ChromeOS and is designed for Gemini Intelligence, this new class of laptops integrates with your Android phone to deliver a seamless cross-device experience. If you’re an Android user seeking greater interoperability between your phone and laptop, Googlebooks could be a game-changer.

At a Googlebooks event, I went hands-on with the first five of these laptops and was more impressed than I expected. Though each machine has unique design elements, all are thin and light notebooks with touchscreens and haptic touchpads. Each also has a Glowbar to denote them as Googlebooks. These notebooks start at $899, pack 16GB of RAM, and feature premium aluminum shells. Chromebooks, these are not!

While all of the Googlebooks I checked out were solid machines in their own right, one stood out above the rest. I’ll detail which I liked most and why, along with the other Googlebooks expected to hit the market in early October. Also, check out our interview with the head of Android for more.

Quick links

• Acer Googlebook 14: $899 @ Best Buy
• Dell XPS Googlebook: $999 @ Best Buy
• Lenovo Googlebook 15: $1,099 @ Best Buy
• Asus Googlebook 14: $1,299 @ Best Buy
• HP Googlebook 14: $1,299 @ Best Buy

Asus Googlebook 14

The standout is the Asus Googlebook 14, which starts at $1,299. The instant I picked it up, I was astonished by how light this 2.2-pound laptop feels—and I say this as someone who regularly uses a MacBook Air! The Nano Ceramic magnesium-aluminum chassis not only looks and feels great, but it’s also extremely sturdy, which is essential for a laptop that’s only 0.43 inches thin. The Dusk Ash color is also eye-catching.

So, what’s under that lovely hood? The base model packs an Intel Core Ultra 5 Panther Lake CPU, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of SSD storage (up to 512GB). Asus says the laptop has an advanced cooling system that supports sustained performance and quiet operation. The company also claims the 70Wh battery can deliver up to 18 hours of battery life.

Then we have the 14-inch 3K OLED touchscreen, which Asus says can reach 1000 nits of peak HDR brightness. What stood out to me was its anti-glare tech, which effectively reduced the glare from the bright lights at the event I attended. If you work outdoors or in harsh lighting, this’ll be a great addition. I’ll need more hands-on time with the display (not to mention some lab tests), but based on my brief time with the Asus Googlebook 14, it seems plenty bright and colorful.

Other features include a six-speaker system with dual force-canceling woofers and two tweeters, which Asus says create fuller sound for calls, presentations, and media. Then there’s the large haptic touchpad, which uses six-point force sensing that delivers consistent click pressure no matter where you tap. I also liked the relatively roomy keyboard and the springy keys.

Again, all the Googlebooks I checked out were great in their own right, but the Asus Googlebook truly won me over because of its super thin, light design. It’s exactly the kind of laptop I would want to travel with daily because of its ultraportability and sleek aesthetic. I’m eager to put it through its paces and see if it lives up to the hype.

Other Googlebooks

Acer Chromebook 14

After the Asus Googlebook 14, the other one that stood out most was the Acer Chromebook 14. It was the only 2-in-1 convertible I saw at the event, and it was also the most affordable, starting at $899. Like most of the announced Googlebooks, it has an OLED touch display, a sturdy, thin, lightweight aluminum chassis, and claims strong performance and long battery life thanks to its Panther Lake CPU. If you’re looking for a premium device that doubles as a laptop and tablet for under $1,000, keep an eye on this one.

Dell XPS Googlebook

The $999 Dell XPS Googlebook is for folks who want a higher-end laptop than the $699 XPS 13 but much more affordable than the $2,399 XPS 14. It packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip, 16GB of RAM (up to 32GB), 512GB of SSD storage, and a 13.4-inch 2.5K touch display. This notebook is also 2.2 pounds, like the Asus Googlebook, and has a similarly sturdy machined aluminum chassis. I’m a big fan of XPS laptops, so it’s good to see Dell trying that brand with Googlebooks.

HP Googlebook 14

The $1,299 HP Googlebook 14 is another svelte laptop, featuring a 14-inch 2.8K OLED touch display, 16-32GB of RAM, 256GB of SSD storage, a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip, and an all-aluminum build weighing just 2.74 pounds. What stands out most is its lattice-less keyboard, which makes for a denser keyboard deck. Though some aren’t fond of this design, I quite like it—especially since the keys have excellent travel distance.

Lenovo Googlebook 15

Last but not least is the Lenovo Googlebook 15. As its name suggests, this has the largest display of the launch Googlebooks at 15.3 inches. Of the Googlebooks I saw, this has a boxier design reminiscent of a MacBook Pro. It’s also the heaviest at 2.8 pounds, though it’s still relatively lightweight. Other features include a magnesium-alloy and carbon fiber chassis, an Intel Core Ultra 5 Panther Lake CPU, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage.

Outlook

We don’t often get a new class of laptops, let alone ones also featuring a brand-new operating system. Because of that, Googlebooks are genuinely exciting. That said, given how these machines are primarily targeted at Android users, their appeal might be limited. Even if that’s the case, I appreciate that these laptops are more about fitting into people’s lifestyles rather than being machines focused on pure power and specs.

The first wave of Googlebooks arrives on October 4, so it won’t be long until we can all check them out. We’ll have full reviews of these laptops here on Tom’s Guide, so make sure you don’t miss out—especially if you’re a person these notebooks are targeting. Stay tuned for more!

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I have spent an inordinate amount of money at Ikea since I moved into my house; you can easily find at least two Ikea products in every single room. But recently, the thing I've been liking the most about the Swedish retailer is its growing range of extremely affordable electronics. It seems too good to be true, but so far I haven't been let down by them.

Needless to say, I've been quite eager to try out Ikea's Västmärke Qi2 wireless charging stand which debuted last December. Clearly other people have had the same idea, because I've had to wait months for the charger to come back in stock here in the U.K. I'm not even exaggerating either: Not only have I been waiting for this to come back in stock since May, Ikea already seems to have run out.

Considering the Västmärke stand is just £9 here in the U.K. (roughly $12), it's no surprise that people would want to get their hands on it, even if they did have to spend a little extra for one of Ikea's 30W charging bricks. If there's a cheaper Qi2 charger out there, I haven't come across it.

Sadly Ikea U.S. isn't quite so generous in the price, and American buyers will need to pay $30 for a Västmärke stand of their own — $5 more than the original launch price. That's still a cheap price for a Qi2 stand, but it's on a par with other budget chargers on sale from big names like Belkin and Anker.

What is the Västmärke wireless charging stand?

Västmärke is cheap for a reason, and that reason is that it's primarily made out of cork and plastic. There are no premium materials here, like metal or rubber.

Personally, I think it looks like a cheap product, though I admit that I may be letting the fact I hate touching cork skew my opinion a little bit. I really can't stand the stuff, but I can't fault Ikea for using a material that is cheap, sustainable and biodegradable.

There's no charging brick in the box, but the Västmärke does come with its own 47-inch (120cm) USB-C cable. The cable is built into the stand, though, so if it breaks you can't just replace it with a new one.

Looks and materials only form part of the equation, though. What sets the Västmärke stand apart from most cheap wireless chargers is that it's fully Qi2 certified. For those who don't know, Qi2 wireless charging is faster than the original Qi1 standard, and offers more advanced charging protocols in the process. This includes adaptive charging speed that lets your phone dictate how much power comes in, rather than being forced to accept a fixed flow of electricity.

Crucially, though, this is a magnetic Qi2 charger. That means any Qi2 capable phones, including most iPhones and the Google Pixel 11 series, will connect to the charger using a built-in ring of magnets. Other phones, such as Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, can also take advantage of this with special Qi2-compatible cases. The use of magnets ensures that wireless charging coils are perfectly aligned, which means better overall efficiency — leading to faster charging and less heat.

The downside is that the Västmärke stand is limited to 15W charging speeds. That's fine for some phones, but there are phones like iPhone 18 Pro and Google Pixel 11 that support up to 25W Qi2 wireless charging. So bear in mind that such phones will not be wireless charging as fast as they physically can.

What's it like using Västmärke?

Cork aversion aside, I can't say I've seen a wireless charging stand that looks aesthetically pleasing on its own. So credit where it's due, Ikea's created something that doesn't look industrial and clunky. Even if the design does feel a little bit cheap.

From a performance perspective, I can't fault Västmärke in any way. The magnet snapped onto the back of my Pixel 11 Pro XL and iPhone 17 Pro Max as advertised, and immediately kicked off the wireless charging session right away. That includes both phones' special charging display modes, better known as "Standby" on iOS and the simple "Screen saver" on Android.

The magnetic connection is nice and strong, which makes it easy to pick up the phone without disconnecting the stand. That can be good and bad, depending on your point of view, and like most magnetic chargers a little bit of effort is needed to ensure your phone is disconnected when you need it to be. The rubber base on the bottom of the Västmärke ensures there is enough friction to do that pretty seamlessly, though.

There's not much more I can say about the charging process itself. The Västmärke recharged both of my phones without issue, and according to my USB-C power meter it was hitting the speeds you'd expect from a 15W wireless charger.

Surprisingly it did register power levels in excess of 15W at times. I'm not sure why, but when recharging my Pixel 11 Pro from zero percent, the power rose to just over 18W at certain points. That's no big deal for the phone, it can handle up to 25W wireless charging, but it was weird to see considering the Västmärke is a 15W charger.

I can only assume that the stand was charging at a full 15W, with the rest of the energy being wasted somewhere along the way. Wireless charging is notorious for producing heat, after all, and the Västmärke is no exception to that. So maybe avoid using it during heat waves, unless you have a very large fan nearby.

Bottom line

I'd be pretty impressed with the Västmärke wireless charging stand, even if I'd paid the full $30 for it. But for £9/$12? That's an absolute no-brainer, and none of my criticisms matter. I may not be a fan of the overall design, but I can't really be mad that a cheap stand looks cheap. Certainly not when its wireless charging capabilities rival those of other, pricier Qi2 chargers I've used.

The Västmärke charging stand feels like it's too good to be true. These are prices that you'd normally expect from no-brand wireless chargers that max out at 10W if you're lucky. Instead, this is an Ikea product, and after so many years of offering cheap chargers and other electronics, I feel as though it's more than earned my trust.

If you're in the market for a wireless charger, and your nearest Ikea has the Västmärke in stock, I definitely recommend picking one up. Especially if you're in the U.K., because it probably won't be there for long.

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Let’s address the elephant on your face: Snap’s new $2,195 Specs have an unmistakable, thick-framed aesthetic that will inevitably divide opinion. I can hear you through your screen — sharing your take on how I look wearing them — when I saw them at AWE this year, I braced myself for an awkward feeling.

But then, I put them on and the reality check hit me like a brick in the courtyard of Snap’s Santa Monica HQ: they are shockingly wearable. The weight balance across the bridge and temples avoids the front-heavy lever effect that plagues tethered setups, which makes them much more comfortable for the extended session I had than their bold silhouette suggests.

And while the tech world has been obsessed over either making simple AI glasses or bulky mixed-reality ski goggles, Snap has quietly built the perfect middle ground — a fully standalone spatial computer with zero cables and zero pocket pucks that actually works in the real world.

Snap Specs: Specs

Pure standalone freedom

No wires, no tether, no pocket pack. Every single bit of compute, sensor fusion and battery architecture is housed directly inside the frame. And through that lens, their size becomes more understandable, but whether this look is your cup of tea or not, one thing I can confirm is they’re surprisingly comfortable to wear.

I had them on for roughly an hour, and I didn’t feel any serious downward pressure on the tops of my ears. As the guy who took that side profile picture of CEO Evan Spiegel wearing them at AWE (you know the one), I was pleasantly shocked at this weight distribution.

On top of that, the dual vapor chambers do a great job at keeping things cool on your temples — with only a small bit of warming up when you really put them under pressure. And those two-step electrochromic lenses do a great job of blocking out the LA sun.

One thing worth noting about those lenses with the built-in waveguide displays is that they do add a little chromatic aberration to the real world around you. Nothing too dramatic, but the iridescence does have a definitely noticeable effect on visibility.

And of course, the design itself is certainly polarizing. Speaking to Spiegel, this is by design to make them stand out, and go against the grain of making glasses that blend in a little too well (sparking the privacy concerns we’ve all seen around the Ray-Ban Metas).

In that vein, I kinda get it. Everybody will know you’re wearing smart glasses, but as the most visible piece of wearable tech on you, I can appreciate these will split opinions and cause some insecurity wearing them in public.

Opinions in the office ranged from appreciating that brutalist aesthetic to comparisons made to the 3D glasses you got at the cinema. But I’d love to know what you think!

The “palmtastic” UI

Yes, Snap has a buzz word for this — calling it “Instinctual computing” — tech that adapts to you, replaces traditional input devices with gestures and voice commands, and keeps people present and connected in their surroundings.

Rather than trying to teach a new dynamic of gesture control, Specs go the instinctual route and let you reach out and touch things, with opening your palm summoning the quick settings right on your skin.

I won’t delve too far into this, as you’ve already seen my impressions of Specs OS over the last 12 months leading up to this debut moment for consumers. But the extra layers of polish to get this ready for consumer launch really show in the UI, the rigid tracking of objects (even in travel mode) and the Specs Intelligence AI taking action rapidly on my requests.

Daily utility over gimmicks

And that’s because the main thing I do want to focus on here is the just what these many hundreds of thousands of Lenses unlock. It creates a massive ecosystem that can be immensely helpful and impactful.

The utility can come in the form of live-captioning across 60 languages that’s overlaid directly onto speakers in front of you — turning foreign travel into a foreign language movie with subtitles.

You can also measure things in the real world with your hands, TripAdvisor integration gives you spatial reviews, landmark histories and currency conversions on storefronts, and connecting a bluetooth keyboard can take you into a multi-screen UI to get work done.

And then there’s the entertainment and sports side of things. As you’ve probably already seen, Snap’s partnered up with the HBO remake of "Harry Potter" to make an AR experience that is almost pitch perfect for my millennial-coded self. I put on the sorting hat with my hands and was put into Gryffindor (apologies to the reviewer before me who got put in Hufflepuff).

Then for sports, being taught proper form for my golf swings, running soccer dribbling drills and practicing my basketball jumpshot revealed just how much of a comfortable revolution this is for those who use VR headsets for fitness.

And of course, if you remember all those visionaries from the Specs global campaign (Jack Harlow, Imogen Heap, Hoyeon, etc), they all have their own purpose-built lenses based on their own interests.

For example, Hoyeon’s is a full blown meditation garden to bring guided breathing into AR, Jimmy Butler’s love for dominoes comes to life in a connected AR experience between two Specs owners playing the game, and Imogen Heap’s Sound Space translates your body and your natural physical movements into music.

All-in-all, this is turning out to be a vast, but also curated suite of tools that will make these feel like a really useful addition to pop on and use. But hopefully the ambient part of instinctual computing remains — the last thing you want to see is the use of those screens and AR start to overtake the real-life surroundings too drastically.

The real breakthrough

One thing that I haven’t fully tested yet is going to be the glue between all your personal context called Specs Intelligence. Essentially this is a proactive move beyond a simple chatbot into an anticipatory engine that works across Mac, iPhone and Specs.

It works by building an architecture of your personal context:

• Portrait: Getting a deep understanding of your routines, contacts and working patterns.
• Corners: Partitioning your life into work, family, fitness and travel.
• Goals: Keeping long-term objectives at the center of it all as a filter to the noise — keeping you locked in.

And the idea is to manifest proactive actions in real life: gate changes and terminal directions as you hop out of an airport taxi, pulling up meeting notes before you sit down, even cancelling unused subscriptions — all while staying within strict on-device privacy guardrails.

And Snap is committing to not use any of this data to train generative AI or run ads. I’m definitely very intrigued to see how effective this is without becoming a nudge monster (like your Apple Watch stand notifications) and how seamless it can be taking your context between devices.

My verdict: an expensive paradigm shift

Now I have to acknowledge the friction points that are definitely here. The battery isn’t going to last so long under full AR load (the claim is four hours), at $2,195 it’s a very expensive first-gen device (though with that cellular case and partnerships with Verizon in U.S. and EE in U.K., that cost can be spread out as part of a data plan).

And then, there’s definitely going to be the social hurdle of wearing bold, geometric frames in everyday coffee shops.

But I can’t deny that they are damn cool to use. Snap has accomplished what Apple and Meta are still striving for: a self-contained, truly standalone pair of AR glasses that deliver genuine everyday utility. And that utility comes combined with robust developer buy-in, and an anticipatory AI layer that doesn’t feel like a toy.

It might look divisive, but the experience is the closest thing to real spatial computing that I have seen yet.

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• Nvidia’s RTX Spark N1X launches this October: My price predictions for the potential MacBook Pro killer
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The world of golf simulators moves forward quickly. Just when you think Golf VX has advanced simulation to a point that's as good as it gets, the company drops its new Quantum tech and blows everything else I've ever tried out of the water.

I went to the company's flagship location in Arlington Heights, IL (just outside of Chicago) and played a popular semi-private course called The Glen Club. Then, we went to the course and played the real thing to see how well the simulator holds up compared with the course.

What better way to test a virtual experience than by comparing it to the place it's designed to emulate?

Golf VX's new Quantum sim tech

I was at Golf VX's flagship location to check out its latest and greatest simulator technology, and I have to say, it is a noticeable improvement over the company's T2 sim I played in the past.

For example, the 15-axis swing plate allows the ground to shift to create the most realistic lies I've ever had the chance to play in a simulator. In real golf, you rarely hit off a completely flat lie (unless you're on the tee box), so being able to practice shots with the ball above and below your feet is critical to improving your game.

Another improvement related to the hitting area is the Q-Mat, which uses a ceiling-mounted projector to display data about your swing path, distance and other key information right on the floor, keeping you focused on your swing without looking around to see if you were outside-to-inside or inside-to-outside on your most recent shot. This can help you fix that slice or hook, which are issues that plague many golfers (hello, my name is Dave and I'm a slicer).

I think the most impressive aspect of Golf VX's tech, compared to other commercial and home launch monitors, is how quickly you see your ball fly on the projector. There's a 15ms delay between you making contact with the ball and the ball flying on the screen. That's fast enough that by the time I finished my follow-through, the ball was in the air. This helps to fix the disconnect between hitting the ball into a screen and playing on the course.

Real vs. Simulator

I'm not going to sit here and pretend you can't tell the difference between the real-world course and the Golf VX rendered version. Obviously, the real version of the course is, well, real.

But Golf VX did an incredible job rendering the course with the key details in place, so you can practice before playing and get a sense of where the hazards will be. This is true for all 380 courses available in the software, though we'll focus on The Glen specifically.

One hole that stood out was number 3, which featured water to the left of the tee box that you can clearly see in both real and simulator photos. The tree-line in the distance also matches up well, as do the bunker locations.

When I stepped back and took it all in, I could definitely remember what the simulated version of the course looked and felt like while standing on the real tee box.

For hole 12, I pulled out the Meta glasses to record a first-person version of the hole in the real world and on the sim. Since I'm not the most skilled golfer, my path to finish the hole was very different between the two, with me scoring a par on the simulated hole and a six in real life, but the idea stands: the hole plays almost exactly the same.

After going back and watching both holes to edit together a TikTok video, I was thoroughly impressed with the amount of care that went into rendering the courses in Golf VX.

Golf VX Quantum availability

Golf VX's Quantum simulators are available now, but they're prohibitively expensive for most home users, with systems starting at around $50,000 and going up to $100,000 for a full room buildout. If money is no object and you want the best-of-the-best in golf sim tech, though, you should 100% have Golf VX Quantum on your radar, as it's the best golf sim hardware and software I've ever used.

Sadly, since the technology is so new to the U.S., it's not available at many Golf VX locations yet, but the company plans to expand with more franchises, so even if you're nowhere near Chicago, you can still play Quantum in the future.

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• You haven't used a golf launch monitor until you've tried Foresight GC3 — here's my thoughts after 6 months of testing
• I replaced my TV with a 4K projector — and it was the best thing for my golf swing
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I love a good rocker on a running shoe, and the On Cloudsurfer line’s signature feature has always been its CloudTec Phase cushioning, where holes in the midsole collapse into eachother like dominoes to roll you from heel to toe as you run.

The On Cloudsurfer 2 is a lightweight daily trainer, while the On Cloudsurfer Max is a more cushioned but firmer shoe. The new On Cloudsurfer 3 splits the difference between these shoes, and based on my early testing, I think it could be the best Cloudsurfer yet.

I’ve been able to do a couple of runs in the On Cloudsurfer 3 ahead of its launch, and it’s impressed me on both. The shoe uses a new foam in the midsole called Surreal and delivers a soft, smooth ride that helps the miles tick by enjoyably.

Here’s what you need to know about On’s latest running shoe, including my early likes and dislikes.

On Cloudsurfer 3: Price and availability

The On Cloudsurfer 3 launched on 15 September 2026, and my first like about the shoe is that it hasn’t risen in price compared with the Cloudsurfer 2. It costs $160 in the U.S. and £150 in the U.K., making it one of the cheaper cushioned shoes in On’s line-up.

Like #1: It’s more cushioned than past models

The Cloudsurfer 3 feels like a softer shoe with more cushioning underfoot than past models, especially under the forefoot.

On say that the new Surreal superfoam deepens compression by 15.5% compared with the Helion foam used on the Cloudsurfer 2, and I could feel the extra depth in the midsole on my runs and how much the new shoe absorbed the impact of running.

I found that the Cloudsurfer 2 could sometimes "bottom out" and feel a bit flat by the end of runs, but I haven’t had that feeling from the Cloudsurfer 3 at all so far.

The Cloudsurfer Max was marketed as an incredibly soft shoe when it came out, but I actually found it pretty firm — the Cloudsurfer 3 delivers on its promise of softness.

Like #2: The ride is impressively smooth at a variety of paces

Soft shoes are great, but not if you end up stuck in that soft foam and feeling like you have to push through it to keep running, which does occasionally happen with max-cushioned shoes in my experience.

This is where the CloudTec Phase rocker comes into play with the Cloudsurfer 3, because it helps move you through the midsole onto your toes smoothly, so you don’t lose momentum while enjoying the impact-absorbing benefits of the cushioning.

I used the On Cloudsurfer 3 for a progression run, moving from an easy to a steady pace, and was able to clip along at sub-6min/mile pace comfortably in the shoe, despite the fact that it’s not all that light.

Like #3: There’s more spring off the toes

The main criticism I’ve had with past Cloudsurfer shoes is that the Helion foam in the midsole isn’t all that springy. The shoes have a smooth ride and a lightweight feel, but don’t deliver much energy return off the toes.

The Surreal foam in the Cloudsurfer 3’s midsole is a definite improvement on that front. I noticed a lot more bounce from the shoe, especially at faster paces.

That extra energy from the forefoot is also clear during longer runs in the shoe, when the previous models would start to feel a bit flat.

Like #4: The outsole grip is better

I did a short run wearing the On Cloudsurfer 2 on one foot and the On Cloudsurfer 3 on the other, and along with differences in the ride feel, I also noted that the outsole on the new shoe gripped a little better on damp sidewalks.

While I didn’t have any real problems with the grip of the Cloudsurfer 2 when I tested it out, any improvement in this area is always welcome in a cushioned daily trainer you’re going to use in all conditions.

Dislike #1: It’s heavier than the Cloudsurfer 3

The new Surreal foam used in the Cloudsurfer 3 is lighter than the Helion material used in past models, according to On, but the overall weight of the shoe has gone up considerably.

My US men’s size 9.5 weighs 10.8oz compared to 9.4oz for the Cloudsurfer 2 in the same size, likely because the shoe has more outsole coverage and more cushioning in the midsole, as well as a wider base.

This isn’t a big problem for me, because the Cloudsurfer 3 doesn’t feel heavy or cumbersome on the run thanks to its rockered ride, but it’s quite a noticeable change from the Cloudsurfer 2, and big fans of the older shoe might not take to the larger design.

Dislike #2: It’s not as versatile as some daily trainers

While I enjoyed using the Cloudsurfer 3 at easy, steady paces, it’s not a shoe I think will handle speed sessions all that well. That’s not really its job to be fair — it’s a cushioned shoe for comfortable cruising — but there are some terrific daily trainers that do offer more versatility.

The Asics Novablast 6 immediately springs to mind as a max-cushioned shoe that’s lighter and a bit livelier at fast paces than the Cloudsurfer 3, while the Puma Deviate Pure Nitro is an incredibly light daily trainer that I found comfortable for long, easy runs and that can also handle speedwork well.

I think the Cloudsurfer 3 is competitive with other cushioned shoes in its category, like the Saucony Triumph 24 and Hoka Clifton Pro, but those looking for more of an all-rounder will be better served by a shoe like the Novablast 6.

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At the risk of sounding cliche, there's something magical about using the iPhone Duo. The way it seamlessly transitions from phone to tablet and back again. The fact that you can't even feel the crease — though it is visible. And the way the software reacts based on the angle of the device.

Apple has taken several years to release its first foldable phone, but based on my hands-on impressions its patience has paid off. The iPhone Duo isn't as thin or light as the Galaxy Z Fold 8, and it costs $100 more, but the software seems really refined and the overall experience very polished so far. Here's my early pros and cons, and be sure to check out my ranked list of iPhone Duo trade-offs before you pre-order.

iPhone Duo release date and price

The iPhone Duo pre-orders start Friday, October 16 and the release date is October 23.

The starting price of the iPhone Duo is fairly steep at $1,999 / AU$3,499, which gives you 256GB. You can get 512GB for $2,199 / AU$3,899, 1TB for $2,599 / AU$4,699 and 2TB for $3,199 / AU$5,899.

iPhone Duo design and displays

The iPhone Duo features a 5.4-inch cover display and 7.6-inch main screen. The former is wide but not so wide that it feels awkward to use with one hand. And Apple has done a smart thing by placing the Control Center shortcuts on the right side of the screen.

The 7.6-inch innner display is breathtaking. You can barely see the crease, and the way that Apple designed the iPhone Duo you can't even feel it. Plus, the Duo will support Apple Pencil input.

When watching movies in Netflix, I didn't see any black bars, but we'll have to see how YouTube and other apps look on this device.

Another nice touch? The inner FaceTime camera is invisible when not in use, only appearing when you need it.

The iPhone Duo is definitely not the lightest or thinnest foldable. It measures 5.2mm thick when open, compared to 4.5mm for the Fold 8. And the Duo is heavier, too, at 254 grams (8.9 ounces) versus 201 grams (7.1 ounces).

iPhone Duo durability

The iPhone Duo outdoes the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra in that it's IP68 rated. That means it's protected against both water and dust. Samsung's foldables are only protected from water, and you can't really bring them to the beach, for example.

In addition, the iPhone Duo is built using grade 5 titanium, so it should be pretty sturdy in everyday use. And Apple uses Ceramic Shield to protect the back of the Duo and Ceramic Shield 2 on the front.

The inner display on the iPhone Duo has a nano-texture cover layer and a scratch resistant coating that Apple says is up to 40 percent stiffer than the competition.

iPhone Duo cameras

The iPhone Duo has just two rear cameras: a wide and ultrawide. So you don't get a telephoto lens like you do on the iPhone 18 Pro series.

You get a 48MP Fusion Main camera with "optical quality" 2x telephoto shots, but it's not the same as a dedicated telephoto lens. There's also a 48MP ultra wide camera for wide field of view shots.

Apple is really playing up the new ways to take photos and video with the foldable nature of the Duo. For example, with Smart Take you can prop up the Duo and it will snap pictures when it thinks everyone is in focus. So there's no need for a timer.

You can also take a selfie with the rear camera, use Duo Preview to show live previews on the outer display when taking images and (like the Pixel 11 Pro Fold) show little ones animations to get them to smile with Kid Cue.

You can also hold Duo FaceTime calls where someone else can join the call using the outer display.

iPhone Duo software and apps

A big selling point of the iPhone Duo is the software experience. And you can tell that Apple has put a lot of thought into how this device works.

In fact, Apple has redesigned all of its apps so that the controls now live on the right side instead of the bottom, which was a wise move.

As you'd expect, content reacts based on how the iPhone Duo is positioned and folded. For example, with the phone half-open you'll see the Netflix controls along the bottom and the video up top. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 doesn't have a Flex View mode, but the Fold 8 Ultra does.

Other third-party apps that have been optimized for the iPhone Duo include Zoom and Slack.

Multitasking is pretty easy. If you have one app open and want to open another, you move it up slightly and to the right or left side of the display. Then you simply open another app.

iPhone Duo performance

The iPhone Duo features an A20 Pro processor, which comes in handy for multitasking but also gaming. In fact, the new 7-core GPU promises up to 40% faster graphics performance.

I had a chance to try this out in an adventure game and the graphics looked downright cinematic.

Apple also promises up to 35 percent better sustained performance versus the iPhone 17 Pro Max, thanks in part to the custom vapor chamber.

iPhone Duo battery life and charging

The dual battery system in the iPhone Duo promises pretty long endurance. Apple rates the device for up to 44 hours of video playback with the outer display and 31 hours with the main display.

The Duo should charge up quickly as well, as it's rated to get up to 50% in just 20 minutes with a 60W charger. Qi2 charging isn't far behind at 50% in 30 minutes.

iPhone Duo vs Galaxy Z Fold 8

The nearest competitor to the iPhone Duo is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, and Apple's foldable has some key advantages.

The iPhone Duo offers IP68 durability (compared to IP48 for Samsung), and the hinge design allows for software to morph based on the angle. The regular Fold 8 lacks Samsung's similar Flex Mode, as that's exclusive to the Fold 8 Ultra.

In addition, the iPhone Duo will offer Apple Pencil support while the Galaxy Fold 8 doesn't support the S Pen. And only the Duo has MagSafe built in. With Samsung you need a case. Apple is also making a big push to have apps optimized for foldables, including Slack and Zoom, but it's not clear what will be available by October 23.

However, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 beats the iPhone Duo in several ways. It's thinner and lighter than Apple's foldable, and you can run 3 apps at once (compared to 2 for Apple). The Fold also offers Face unlock and it comes with more RAM (16GB vs 12GB). Plus, only the Fold 8 offers a desktop mode that turns the phone into a mini PC when plugged into a monitor. And the Fold 8 is $100 less.

iPhone Duo outlook

The iPhone Duo is not cheap. And it's a bit heaver and thicker than I was hoping for. But it looks like this could be the foldable phone to beat in terms of Apple's combination of polished design, the robust software experience and enhanced durability. We'll have to see if it's worth the $2,000 price in my full iPhone Duo review.

One of the strangest pieces of wearable tech I demoed at the IFA 2026 show is the iKairos. Pitched as a “second memory” that captures the most important moments of your life, this AI-powered device doubles as a wearable pendant and a stationary desktop companion.

All that said, I still don’t fully understand the purpose of the iKairos, and frankly, the folks showing it at IFA didn't seem to really know either. To be fair, the iKairos is still very much a concept. Here's what I do know.

A happy, little wearable

I was admittedly drawn to the iKairos because of the cute, animated face that beams from a circular display on the front. But what purpose does this sort-of interactive digital face serve?

Personal note-taking is one of the main advertised features of the iKairos; users can whisper all their deepest, darkest secrets to the happy little guy for safekeeping and transcription.

I suppose, to make these interactions a little less impersonal-feeling, the folks at iKairos gave the wearable a goofy cartoon face capable of blinking and making a handful of vague expressions.

A built-in camera captures your life… sort of

The iKairos also sports an onboard camera that can be deployed by sliding the bottom of the device downward. Don’t like the idea of a camera logging and interpreting your every moment? Slide that sucker back up.

The weird thing about the onboard camera is that the “meaningful memories” it captures aren’t traditional stills or video but weird, AI-generated interpretations of your daily routines and adventures. This, I am not a fan of.

A desktop companion, too

When you’re not wearing the iKairos around your neck, it’s meant to live on a small docking station that sits on your desk or bedside.

Regardless of its position, users can converse with the device and use it for more than just note-taking. Other functions include the ability to set reminders, add events to a calendar, and review summaries of past events.

The design isn't final

It’s worth noting that the iKairos is still a long way off from being an actual product you can purchase online. That said, the company behind it recently secured a hefty amount of investor funding, so hopefully, we’ll eventually see some form of the iKairos come to fruition; it just may look a whole lot different than the product I just demoed.

What are your thoughts on the iKairos? Is this a product you’d seriously consider buying? What existing features do you like or dislike, and what do you feel is missing? Let me know below.

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• I just went hands-on with the Odyss N1 — a sleek AI necklace that automatically tracks everything you eat
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Somewhere in the last five years my bathroom turned into a gadget drawer. Gua sha stones, a pore vacuum, cleansing brushes. So when an $800 LED face mask ( landed in my hands, the FOREO FAQ 202 — all Swiss engineering and glowing silicone — I was exactly the skeptical-but-curious person it was built for.

Eight hundred dollars is a lot of money to shine colored light at your own face. I wanted to know whether it actually works, or whether it's just the most photogenic placebo I've ever owned.

First, the good news

On paper, it's a serious bit of equipment. The FAQ 202 fires eight LED wavelengths, seven visible colors plus near-infrared, through what FOREO calls 600 optimized points of light, and points them at everything from wrinkles and breakouts to uneven tone.

It's wireless, hands-free and wrapped in flexi-fit silicone, built to be worn while you get on with your day rather than lying still under a lamp.

The honest answer is that it works. Perhaps not in the reduce-wrinkles-by-32%-in-two-weeks way the marketing promises, which I'd take with a fistful of salt, but in a way I could see in the mirror.

The red and blue settings were the standouts. After a few weeks of consistent use, my skin texture looked more even, my tone more settled, and the breakouts that usually crop up along my chin and calmed down.

I looked like a slightly better, well rested version of myself, and for a device I was fully on the fence about, that's a real result.

So, the technology delivers. It's everything bolted around the technology that I'm side-eying.

Living with it

Starting with setting it up. Out of the box, before you can so much as switch it on, you're downloading an app, pairing the mask to it, and working through the whole connection routine.

But here's the fair bit: once that's done, the day-to-day is easy. Finding your preferred light is a single button press, and the mask itself is comfortable enough to wear while you get on with something else. The friction is all front-loaded. Get through the setup and it mostly gets out of your way.

Then there's the serum. FOREO makes its own peptide serum designed to work alongside the mask, and the two are built to complement each other. What I appreciated is how upfront the brand is that it's optional.

Its own guidance says you're welcome to use whatever serum you already love, as long as you avoid ingredients that don't sit well with LED light. That kind of honesty is more than a lot of beauty tech offers, which I appreciated.

One small wish

But the thing that gave me serious pause is the subscription. Yes, a subscription. A few of the treatments and features live inside an app that asks for a recurring fee, which means the $800 sticker price isn't always the whole story.

It's a small thing, and a familiar one by now. Cars ask a monthly fee to warm their own seats. Printers meter their ink. Software arrives by the month rather than in a box. None of it is unique to skincare, and paper spread none of it is unreasonable.

But I do miss the older bargain, the one where you paid once and the thing was wholly, uncomplicatedly yours.

Let's also be clear about what this is and isn't. It's a good at-home skincare device that, used faithfully, makes a visible difference. It is not a replacement for a facialist, no matter how the branding flirts with the idea.

At-home LED runs at a fraction of the intensity you'd get in a clinic, and even the brand's own people concede the trade-off is fewer bulbs and lower output in exchange for convenience. Buy it understanding that, and you won't be disappointed.

This LED face mask is a difference-maker, in the end. The mask does what it promises, comfortably and consistently, and it has earned its spot in my routine.

My one small wish is for a version of the future where a good product is simply a good product, no strings attached. Until then, the mask works. That much I can say without hesitation.

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So while NBA 2K27 is officially the first game to launch with Nvidia’s newly launched DLSS 5, you’ve probably already seen it pop up in hundreds of more games than that. And I’ll say it again just like I said it before — in photorealistic games, it’s fantastic. But If you venture out of that into anything more stylized, it’s going to look weird.

That’s why it makes the world of sense in 2K27, but during my hands-on testing with my Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (armed with an RTX 5070 Ti), I noticed something bizarre. The moment I entered a menu or triggered a replay, it suddenly felt like it was trudging through molasses.

I dug into the raw telemetry data to figure out what was going on, and what I found completely changed my understanding of Nvidia’s “3D-guided neural rendering.” That intensive new graphics pipeline of DLSS 5 may indeed be a graphical revolution — but on my humble laptop (and lower end desktops), I get the sense Frame Generation is a requirement to make it playable.

The laptop I’m playing on

I’m seeing a lot of people test it on massive desktop rigs. I’ll of course get round to doing this when I’m not on my honeymoon (my wife will kill me if I started benchmarking DLSS 5 in Cancun), but first I wanted to show you some numbers on something that isn’t really being covered here — my Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop.

Nvidia’s been talking about how the model running this mode of neural rendering has been made super efficient over the past few months. In fact, when it first debuted, it ran on a separate RTX 5090 desktop GPU; whereas now, it’s able to run on a single card with the game.

So let’s give it a go in a notebook with a lower power level running through those graphics.

By the numbers

To figure out why the game was suddenly stuttering, I ran the telemetry on three different game states with DLSS 5 turned on and off. And as you can see, while the gameplay numbers are very close matching, elsewhere, the difference is pretty significant.

In fact, this kind of lines up with PC Gamer’s report of a 50-60% drop in performance. So what’s going on here? Let’s talk about it.

The heavy cost of the transformer

So why does turning off the new tech triple frame rate in menus and replays? Because DLSS 5 is not just an upscale filter. It is a highly complex transformer model that interacts with the on-screen geometry and injects neural rendering.

Speaking to Nvidia, it’s clear that this AI pipeline is a heavy one, and the answer to why you don’t see that same impact in gameplay is a simple one: Frame Generation.

During live gameplay, I engaged the 6x Frame Generation multiplier to take that slower neurally rendered base and fill the gaps. However, developers typically disable frame gen during static menus, UI-heavy pause screens or camera-cut replays.

You can see how much this first iteration of DLSS 5 is sweating the system by looking at a couple of factors in the gameplay. Yes, the framerate is barely touched, but the 1% Lows takes a dip and the latency is upped quite drastically, as well as the GPU utilization spiking.

In a controller-centric game like NBA 2K27, that’s not necessarily a noticeable hit, but I can imagine that when this in its current form is moved to games that require faster inputs with a keyboard and mouse, it could become more apparent.

Take away the prop of frame generation in menus, and you see the DLSS 5 penalty more realistically on an RTX 5070 Ti laptop GPU.

But it looks incredible

Like I said in my first impressions, when faced with photorealistic graphics, DLSS 5 is undeniably impressive. There is one very specific takeaway when I looked at these “before and after” pairs of screen captures: the core game look is preserved impressively.

DLSS 5 does a flawless job of preserving the game’s visual integrity. The shots of Jalen Brunson and Victor Wembanyama show off the micro-details on the skin and the way the sweat catches the harsh stadium lighting. The upscaler isn’t adding any aggressive smoothing or plastic-looking artifacts — it’s remarkably lifelike.

Then there’s the fabric and material textures. Brunson’s Knicks jersey and the fabric of the couch in the cutscene get an upgrade to show off the stitching more with high-resolution clarity, and without any noticeable AI-induced blurring.

The lighting reacts to on-screen characters more realistically, there isn’t any noticeable AI “fizzing” or ghosting around finer textures like hair — something upscalers have had problems with in the past.

Is this a frame-generated future?

DLSS 5 integration proved to me that the uncanny valley is dead, but it also proves that native frame rates are on their way out with it.

Nvidia themselves keep saying that Moore’s law is dead, and getting crafty with AI is what will bridge that generational gap. That threshold has been crossed — photorealism is getting too heavy for high-end silicon to render natively.

And DLSS 5 proves that future of photorealism isn’t just about rendering better pixels; it’s about accepting that a good chunk of the frames you see on your screen aren’t technically going to be “real” at all.

We’ve been coming to this moment in the PC gaming space for a while now, and it’s also happening on consoles too.

And personally, I have no problem with it if it looks this good — provided it’s used the right way (such as in photorealistic games).

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• Best of IFA 2026: We found the 26 top new gadgets
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We've got fitness trackers, smartwatches, and smart rings that can precisely log our sleep, workouts, stress, and more with minimal user legwork, but one holistic tracking pain point that persists is food logging.

Sure, lots of companion apps, including Garmin Connect and the Oura app, let you manually log your calorie and nutritional intake, but what if there was an easier way?

The Odyss N1 AI necklace is aiming to be the missing link. Still a concept, I had the chance to demo the Odyss N1 at IFA 2026 in Berlin, and even though I'm slightly skeptical of its capabilities, I'm seriously intrigued by what it potentially offers.

Odyss N1 AI necklace: design

The Odyss N1 consists of a small, triangular metal pendant with a built-in camera and accelerometer used to track what you eat, when you eat, and how much you eat.

The necklace itself is actually a cable that connects the pendant to a battery module that sits at the back of your neck. This power module also boasts haptic feedback for notifications.

The pendant is constructed of metal and available in three colors: black, silver, and gold. It's also remarkably high-quality and jewelry-like.

A single physical button adorns the top of the pendant. Pressing it turns off all the food logging features. Another privacy feature: the Odyss N1 doesn't save any raw imaging data, ever.

Odyss N1 AI necklace: how it works

The Odyss N1 feeds visual and motion data into an AI-powered algorithm, which also takes into account prior contextual data to try to accurately predict what exactly you're eating, including details on how it was cooked. Users can, of course, edit the details logged at any time. Better yet, the Odyss N1 learns from your edits.

The more you wear the Odyss N1 and/or update the logged info, the smarter it gets. I'm told that users will need to wear it for at least two weeks to fully calibrate the device for accuracy, but after that, it should be good to go.

What happens to all that logged food data? The companion app uses it to track your overall nutritional trends and even make recommendations to help you improve your diet.

In addition to nutrition, the app generates diet analysis reports focused on three key metrics: quality, energy, and rhythm.

While the Odyss N1 is still just a concept, the plan is to make its food logging data accessible to other popular holistic tracking apps. Likewise, the Odyss app is designed to import and analyze health data from other wearable tech and factor it into your nutritional recommendations and insights.

Odyss N1 AI necklace: Outlook

The Odyss N1 is more than a cool idea. It's a potentially groundbreaking piece of wearable tech that truly attempts to solve a problem. Assuming it plays nicely with other popular health apps, isn't too pricey, and actually works as intended, I could definitely see the Odyss N1 catching on.

On the other hand, one downside of the design is that you pretty much need to wear it all the time for the food tracking feature to work effectively. Moreover, battery life appears to be limited to a day or two at best, requiring users to frequently take it off for a recharge.

What are your thoughts on the Odyss N1 AI smart necklace? Is it something you'd consider wearing? Also, how much do you think it should sell for? Let me know in the comments below.

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One of the biggest surprises out of IFA 2026 in Berlin, from a wearable tech perspective, is the debut of Motorola’s first LTE smartwatch. The new Moto Watch Ultra boasts some darn impressive features and specs, like support for Gemini AI, detailed sleep insights, and a brushed stainless steel case, but can it really compete with the best smartwatches out there?

I got my first look at the new Motorola Moto Watch Ultra at IFA 2026 and was pleasantly surprised by all that it offers. So, should Google and Samsung be worried? Maybe! Here’s everything you need to know about the Moto Watch Ultra.

Moto Watch Ultra: price and availability

The Moto Watch Ultra will initially debut in European markets for around 429 euros. According to Motorola, it should hit store shelves within the next few weeks.

In Uncle Sam's house, the Moto Watch Ultra will be available starting on September 10th for $349 via Motorola and Amazon. That makes it a better value than other flagship smartwatches, like the Google Pixel Watch 5 (from $399), Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 (from $379), and Apple Watch Series 11 (from $399).

Moto Watch Ultra: design

Despite its slightly more affordable price, the Moto Watch Ultra features a surprisingly premium design. The case is made entirely from brushed stainless steel and is paired with a 1.5-inch OLED touchscreen. Max screen brightness is 2,700 nits, a little behind the Pixel Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 9 (3,000 nits) but ahead of the Apple Watch 11 (2,000 nits).

Two physical controls adorn one side of the case, including a standard button and a digital crown that doubles as a button.

The 46mm case is on the chunkier side and is noticeably thicker (12.1mm) than many of the best smartwatches I've tested. Weighing in at 51 g, it's also heavier than most full-featured flagships but lighter than rugged models like the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2.

Moto Watch Ultra: OS and connectivity

The Moto Watch Ultra runs on Google’s excellent/refined Wear OS platform, which also means support for useful apps like Google Wallet and Google Translate, as well as Gemini AI features. The smartwatch ships running Wear OS 6, and Motorola promises support for up to two future OS updates.

An LTE antenna unlocks on-the-go connectivity without a paired smartphone, though you’ll need a data plan to make use of it. The Moto Watch Ultra also boasts an onboard microphone and speaker for taking on-wrist calls.

Moto Watch Ultra: Health and fitness tracking

For health and fitness tracking, Motorola has partnered with the Finnish smartwatch maker Polar. Like most modern smartwatches, the Moto Watch Ultra logs your sleep quality, including sleep stages, workouts, productivity, and energy levels.

Dual-band GPS ensures accurate tracking when logging outdoor activities, without the need to carry a paired smartphone. It also features a personalized running coach to help you train for events like marathons.

Moto Watch Ultra: Battery life

Motorola is a bit vague about battery life, saying only that the Moto Watch Ultra should last up to two days when not using the always-on display mode. The brand also mentioned that a 15-minute charge should provide enough power for 24 hours of use. This seemingly suggests a full recharge takes only 30 minutes (but I will confirm).

48 hours of battery life without the always-on display puts the Moto Watch Ultra a little ahead of the Apple Watch 11, which lasts roughly 38 hours per charge sans always-on. The Pixel Watch 5, meanwhile, lasts for 72 hours or more without the always-on screen function.

Moto Watch Ultra: Outlook

I’m always excited to see a new full-featured smartwatch come to market that doesn’t have Apple, Pixel, or Galaxy in its name.

The Moto Watch Ultra is cheaper than its closest competitors, namely the Pixel Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 9, while boasting an arguably more premium design.

Motorola was wise to again partner with Polar for all things fitness and holistic; the brand is a trusted player in the space. Similarly, Google’s Wear OS platform ensures a smooth, bug-free user experience.

Ultimately, if the Moto Watch Ultra proves as capable as the best smartwatches for Android, it could be the perfect antidote to a market currently dominated by Google and Samsung.

What are your thoughts on the new Moto Watch Ultra LTE smartwatch? Would you consider swapping out your Pixel Watch or Galaxy Watch for it? Are there any important features it’s missing? Let me know in the comments below.

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There's been a sudden surge of AI agents that can help you perform tasks on your PC, even while you're away. You've probably heard about tools like OpenClaw, which can run autonomously on your behalf. But one of the problems with running these kinds of agents locally is that they often require plenty of hardware resources to function properly.

I'm not someone who changes laptops every year. I still use a MacBook Air M3 from 2023, and I'll probably continue using it until it gives up on me, which hopefully won't be for another five to seven years. But that also means my laptop isn't necessarily built for running powerful local AI agents, and upgrading my entire computer just for that doesn't make much sense.

Well, for people like me, Violoop might have an interesting solution. The company has just showcased its new hardware AI agent at IFA 2026, and unlike software agents that run directly on your laptop, use its resources, and potentially drain more battery, Violoop is a separate device that connects to your computer and handles much of the AI processing itself.

Similar to software-based agents, Violoop is screen-aware. It can understand what's happening on your display and help perform tasks based on that context. For example, if someone asks you to send them an address, Violoop can pull up the relevant information and fill it in for you. If you're looking at a long PDF that you don't have time to read, you can ask it to summarize the document instead.

The idea is that the device gradually understands you better the more you use it. Violoop builds what the company calls a continuous memory graph, which learns about your workflows, preferences, and patterns over time so the agent has more context when you're asking it to do something.

Of course, having an AI constantly looking at what's on your screen and building a memory around what you do immediately raises some privacy questions. Violoop says it has taken a local-first approach here. Screen data is processed directly on the device and, according to the company, is never transmitted to the cloud.

Inside, there's an 8-billion-parameter local AI model with 26 TOPS of on-device AI performance handling these tasks. When Violoop does need to use the cloud, the company says it sends "only the information necessary" to complete the task, while your screen itself is never streamed.

There's also a dedicated STM32H563 security processor for handling approvals around sensitive tasks. The company says you'll be able to connect your preferred AI services, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and others.

The hardware itself is also pretty interesting. There's a small display on the front showing things like the time and what the AI agent is currently doing. The whole thing almost looks like a tiny old-school computer monitor sitting next to your laptop, which I actually quite like.

One thing worth noting is that Violoop isn't powered directly through your laptop's USB-C port. It requires its own external power source. Around the back, you'll find three connections: USB-C, HDMI, and a dedicated power input.

There's also a physical button on top that acts as a hardware-level approval key. When the agent wants to perform a sensitive action or something that involves multiple steps, you can physically press the button to approve it rather than letting the AI simply go ahead on its own.

Perhaps the most interesting part for me is that Violoop isn't tied to one operating system. The company says it works with both Windows and macOS, and setup is supposed to be largely plug-and-play. At least, that's what Violoop tells me.

Violoop is launching on Kickstarter on September 15, 2026, with an introductory price of $399. The company expects to begin shipping in mid-October, after which the device is expected to be more widely available for $799.

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Tecno always manages to bring some crazy concepts to trade shows. Last year, we saw the company debut an iPhone Air competitor — even before the iPhone Air became a thing — that too with a huge 5,160 mAh battery inside.

Then at MWC 2026, we saw its modular phone concept. And Tecno isn't holding back at IFA 2026 either, as it has just shown off a new concept phone with practically zero bezel around the display.

Now, for those unfamiliar, the bezel is basically the black border that surrounds the display on your phone. Smartphone makers have been trying to shrink it for years, with the ultimate goal of maximizing the screen-to-body ratio and making the display take up as much of the front as possible.

There was slow but steady progress for a while, but bezel innovation has sort of stalled over the past couple of years. And to be fair, I don't think we really needed much more progress. Flagships like the iPhone 17 Pro Max and Galaxy S26 Ultra already have incredibly thin bezels, to the point where they barely bother me anymore.

But Tecno's new concept proves that it's technically possible to go even further and shrink those bezels to (almost) zero.

The company has managed to practically eliminate the black border around the display, as long as you don't mind the actual frame of the phone still being there. Tecno says this is strictly a concept for now, but it could give us an early look at where smartphone displays are heading next.

The concept phone features a 6.78-inch display with a 144 Hz refresh rate, and a screen appears to go all the way to the furthest edges of the device. Of course, the physical frame is still there to hold everything together, but there's virtually no visible black border separating it from the display. If you look closely from certain angles, you can still make out a teeny-tiny border, but you really have to look for it.

In isolation, though, I don't think you immediately realize how different it looks. So I put the Tecno concept next to an iPhone 17 Pro Max, and that's where the difference became much easier to see. The iPhone already has incredibly thin bezels at around 1.36 mm, but next to Tecno's concept, even those look slightly noticeable.

Getting the bezel this thin wasn't simple. Tecno says it had to completely redesign the display manufacturing process to achieve it. The company had to invent an inverted screen assembly process, which means the entire display module is now inserted from the back of the phone instead of from the front, as is usually the case.

Apart from the bezel-less display, the rest of the phone isn't quite as exciting, but then again, this is a concept device, so it doesn't really need to be.

One thing that did surprise me was the weight, or rather the lack of it. The phone felt incredibly light in the hand, and that's coming from someone who daily-drives an iPhone Air.

What's even more impressive is that Tecno has managed to fit a massive 6,000 mAh battery inside. The concept is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 7300e, which obviously isn't going to win any benchmark competitions, but performance isn't really the point of this device.

The star here is that zero-border display, and Tecno has shown that something like this is actually possible. It's a shame that the phone may never make it beyond the concept stage, because after seeing it in person, I definitely want this kind of display on a phone I can actually buy soon.

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As the joyful caregiver for an 18-pound Long-haired Chihuahua-Dachshund-Miniature Pinscher mix, I know a thing or two about dirty floors. Belvedere, mensch that he is, sheds like a madman. He’s also known to be a bit messy when it comes to wolfing down delicacies like raspberries, his favorite treat.

As a result, my partner and I spend countless hours a week vacuuming and swiffering to keep the dog-hair tumbleweeds and sticky floors to a minimum. If only there were a robot that could actually handle cleaning up after my all-time best pal.

Enter: The Ecovacs Deebot X12S OmniCycle.

1. It’s a high-power vacuum and wet mop in one

I just got my hands on the new Ecovacs Deebot X12S OmniCycle robot vacuum at the IFA show in Berlin, and dear readers, I am floored (some pun intended) by all its features and specs.

It’s been nearly a decade since I seriously considered purchasing a robot vacuum to assist around the house, and now I’m questioning why; they've really come a long way!

Make no mistake: the Deebot X12S OmniCycle is Ecovacs’ creme de la creme of consumer robot vacuums, but it’s honestly so much more than that. Sure, it’s got enough power to suck a bad joke right out of the air (or 27,000 Pa of suction), but it’s also a full-blown, automated wet mop with automatic spray action.

Translation: the grime on your hardwood floors and carpets stands no chance against this bad boy. For sticky messes, built-in sprayers soak down the gunk, while a plush, wet/dry roller underneath soaks up all the nastiness, leaving a floor so shiny, you’ll be seeing your own reflection.

2. Auto-cleaning eliminates the ‘yuck’ factor

But wait, a robot vacuum that doubles as a robot mop must require all sorts of regular maintenance? No, sir. Ecovacs sells a couple of different docks for the X12S, but all of them feature a thorough auto-clean function that uses pressure washing to thoroughly sanitize the robot’s roller and other mopping components.

3. Rapid-charging limits cleaning downtime

Need a lot of rooms cleaned? No problem. The Ecovacs Deebot X12S OmniCycle supports rapid charging while docked. So, in the five or so minutes it takes to run the mop auto-clean function, your robot vac is also topping up the battery to power ahead cleaning the next room.

Moreover, thanks to rapid charging, the Ecovacs Deebot X12S OmniCycle sports a less bulky battery than the robot vacuums of yore, while also being able to clean more rooms back-to-back.

4. Extra attention for edges and baseboards

I’m a bit of a neat freak, and scuzzy baseboards are my Achilles' heel. Fortunately, the Ecovacs Deebot X12S OmniCycle is designed to pay particular attention to baseboards and floor/carpet edges. But how? An admittedly cute yet highly effective little sweeper arm uses onboard sensors to determine where the floor ends and then scoops any/all debris into the robot’s suction mouth as it makes its rounds.

Will the Ecovacs Deebot X12S be Belvedere-approved?

Ultimately, there’s only one way to know for sure whether or not Ecovacs' latest 2-in-1 robot vacuum will actually be up to the task of tidying up after my rambunctious lil furry monster.

With that in mind, stay tuned for my full Ecovacs Deebot X12S review, coming soon.

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Our hands-on session with the Acer Predator Atlas 8 at Computex 2026 left us quite impressed. And now, at IFA 2026, Acer is bringing much of that same experience to a smaller handheld with the new Predator Atlas 7.

Acer's idea with the Predator Atlas 7 is pretty simple: push Intel's Arc G3 Extreme to... the extreme, while offering the same flagship handheld performance in a more compact 7-inch form factor.

The Atlas 7 is noticeably easier to hold than its bigger sibling, while still feeling sturdy and premium in the hand. Interestingly, though, it doesn't feel dramatically lighter than the Atlas 8.

And (thankfully) there's a good reason for that: Acer has somehow managed to squeeze in the same massive 80Wh battery in the Atlas 7 that we saw with the Atlas 8.

Considering there's now a smaller display to power, I'm particularly interested to see what that does for battery life. Handheld gaming PCs aren't exactly known for lasting very long away from a charger, so keeping that 80Wh battery could turn out to be one of the Atlas 7's biggest advantages.

Speaking of the display, you're getting a 7-inch 1080p IPS panel with a 16:9 aspect ratio and support for up to a 120Hz refresh rate. There is Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support as well, and Acer has also used Corning Gorilla Glass Victus on top of the display, giving the handheld some added protection against everyday scratches and accidental drops.

The Predator Atlas 7 will be available in two configurations, powered by either Intel's Arc G3 or the more powerful Arc G3 Extreme. You will be able to configure it with up to 24GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 1TB of storage.

Acer is also putting considerable effort into keeping temperatures under control. Inside, you'll find one Predator AeroBlade metal fan working alongside a second plastic fan to cool the handheld.

I got to play Forza Horizon 6 on the Atlas 7, and on its default settings, the handheld ran the game without any noticeable lag or major hiccups. I then pushed the graphics settings all the way up, and that's where I started noticing a few dropped frames and occasional stutters.

That's not particularly surprising, especially considering the unit I tried isn't running final hardware and software yet. But for a handheld this compact, the performance was still pretty impressive, and once again shows just how capable the Arc G3 Extreme can be inside a PC gaming handheld.

The port selection is pretty good for a handheld this size, too. You get two Thunderbolt 4 ports along the top, alongside a microSD card slot and 3.5mm headphone jack, with the power and volume controls also positioned around the top edge.

And thankfully, even though the Atlas 7 will presumably come in at a lower price than the Atlas 8, Acer hasn't removed one of my favorite little touches from the bigger model. The joysticks still have RGB lighting around them, which looks particularly cool in person and gives the handheld a little more personality than the usual plain black joysticks.

The Acer Predator Atlas 7 is expected to arrive in the U.S. sometime this fall, although Acer hasn't announced pricing just yet.

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Laptops are in a pretty unique place in 2026. On one end, we have companies pushing performance to the absolute maximum, with new flagship laptops soon to be powered by chips like Nvidia's RTX Spark. On the other hand, we have brands going directly after Apple's MacBook Neo, pushing prices lower while still trying to deliver as much value as possible.

Dell is jumping on the latter bandwagon at IFA 2026 with its new Dell 14S. The company already has the XPS 13, which sits as its more premium MacBook Neo competitor, but the Dell 14S is targeting a slightly different buyer.

Dell tells me this laptop will sit one tier below the XPS 13, aimed primarily at pre-college and high school students who want something sturdy and capable without spending too much money.

On first inspection, the Dell 14S feels extremely similar to the more expensive XPS 13 in the hand. You get an all-aluminum build that feels premium, and unlike some other thin-and-light laptops I've tried here at IFA, there isn't much flex in the keyboard deck when you press down hard. The display lid doesn't feel flimsy either.

It's certainly not the lightest laptop I've used at IFA this year, but I'll happily take some extra weight when the trade-off is a machine that feels this solid.

I also really like what Dell is doing with the colors. Similar to Apple with the MacBook Neo, Dell isn't sticking with the usual dark finishes. The 14S comes in four much more playful colors: Linen (beige-silver), Dusty Rose (pink), Washed Denim (light blue), and Velvet Green.

Washed Denim (the one on the top in the image below) is easily my favorite of the bunch, although all four look much better in person than their names might suggest.

And despite being positioned below the XPS 13, Dell isn't cutting too much when it comes to performance either. The Dell 14S will be available with Intel's Core Series 3 "Wildcat Lake" processors, with options including Core 5 and Core 7 chips.

Other internal hardware includes up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of onboard storage. Those aren't exactly flagship specifications, but they're pretty much what you'd expect given the price range Dell is targeting and with the ongoing RAMageddon. The port selection is also surprisingly good. You get two USB-C ports, but Dell has also included a full-sized HDMI port, something you don't even get on the more expensive XPS 13.

In terms of display options, you're getting two options. The higher-end model comes with a 2.8K panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, while the other configuration drops down to a 2K display running at 60Hz.

The biggest question right now is the price. Dell hasn't announced U.S. pricing yet, but the company tells me the 14S will sit below the XPS 13 in its lineup. Considering the XPS 13 starts at around $699, I wouldn't be surprised if the Dell 14S lands somewhere around the $599 to $649 mark.

And if Dell can actually hit that price, I think the 14S could be a very interesting MacBook Neo competitor. There's no exact launch date for now, but Dell tells me that the 14S will launch in the U.S. sometime this fall, with pricing to be announced closer to availability.

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