A couple of days after announcing its first open-weight models in six years, OpenAI is releasing the long-awaited GPT-5. What's more, you can start using it today, even if you're a free user. With GPT-5, the company is touting across-the-board enhancements, claiming the model is its best yet when it comes to coding, writing, safety, accuracy and more.
"GPT-5 is the first time that it really feels like you're talking to an expert in any topic," said OpenAI CEO (and hypeman) Sam Altman during a press briefing the company held before today's announcement. "It reminds me of when the iPhone went from those giant, old pixel [screens] to the Retina Display, and then I went back to using one of those big pixelated things and I was like, 'Wow, I can't believe how bad we had it.'"
At the start of the year, Altman said GPT-5 would offer a unified experience for users, and the new model delivers on that promise. For the first time, OpenAI's default offering is a reasoning model, meaning the system is programmed to tackle complex problems by breaking them into smaller parts. Previously, if you wanted to force ChatGPT to use one of OpenAI's reasoning models, you had to select the "Think Longer" option from the prompt bar. This meant most free users didn't even know OpenAI had more capable models. With GPT-5, the company has significantly simplified the ChatGPT experience.
On the consumer side of things, there are only three versions of the new model. One of those — GPT-5 mini — only crops up when free and Plus users run into their regular GPT-5 usage limit. The other variant, GPT-5 Pro, is, as the name suggests, only available to subscribers of the company's $200 per month Pro plan. On the subject of query limits, Plus users can use GPT-5 "significantly" more than those with a free account, while Pro customers can chat with GPT-5 as much as they want.
When it comes to reasoning, GPT-5 is much faster than o3, OpenAI's previous state-of-the-art AI. "It's so fast that I've had the psychological experience of wondering, like, is it really thinking enough? And then it gives a great answer," said Altman. Perhaps more importantly, it suffers from fewer hallucinations, with OpenAI claiming the model delivers more accurate answers than any of its previous reasoning systems. For instance, when thinking, GPT-5 is approximately 80 percent less likely to include a factual error in its answer than o3. We'll see how GPT-5 responds in real-world use, but if OpenAI has made meaningful improvements here, it would be a big deal; hallucinations have typically been a major weakness of reasoning models, particularly relative to traditional large language counterparts.
At the same time, OpenAI says GPT-5 is its safest AI to date. For one, it includes a new feature called Safe Completions. "In the past, we've approached this from a sort of a binary, if we thought that the prompt was safe, we would comply. If we thought it was unsafe, the model would refuse," said Alex Beutel, safety research lead at OpenAI. "This worked well, but as a challenge that there can be kind of carefully worded prompts that could be confusing. So if someone says how much energy is needed to ignite some specific material that could be an adversary trying to get around the safety protections and cause harm, or it could be a student asking a science question to understand the physics of this material."
With Safe Completions, GPT-5 will try to give the most helpful answer within the safety constraints OpenAI has imposed on it. In tricky situations like the one Beutel outlined above, the model will only provide high-level information that can't be used to harm anyone. "On average, the system is both safer and more helpful for users, and we think that'll be much better," Beutel added.
Additionally, when it comes to health-related questions, GPT-5 is better at flagging concerns and suggesting questions the user should ask of their healthcare provider. It will also answer those prompts more precisely, thanks to the ability to adapt to the person's knowledge level and geography.
On top of everything else, OpenAI says GPT-5 is its best model for coding yet. It's supposedly a better writer too, with the company promising the chatbot is better at translating your drafts into "compelling, resonant" copy.
Alongside GPT-5, OpenAI is adding a handful of new features to ChatGPT. To start, users can now choose a color for their chats, with a few exclusive options available for paying customers. OpenAI has also made it easier to connect ChatGPT to Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Contacts. Once you enable the connections, the chatbot will know when to automatically reference your Google accounts; you won't need to select anything before you start chatting. OpenAI will begin rolling out this feature to Pro subscribers starting next week, with availability for other users to follow.
Over in the Custom Instructions pane, where you can write system prompts to tweak how ChatGPT interacts with you, OpenAI is introducing a handful of pre-set personalities. The four options — cynic, robot, listener and nerd — are available as part of a research preview, and can be changed or disabled at any time.
Last but not least, OpenAI is releasing an updated version of its Advanced Voice feature the company introduced last summer. OpenAI says the tool is better at understanding instructions and adapting its speaking style to the moment. As part of this change, OpenAI is retiring Standard Voice Mode. In practice, that means the company can now offer a better voice experience to everyone since it doesn't need to fall back on Standard Voice Mode, which isn't natively multi-modal like Advanced Voice and therefore worse at understanding the nuances of human speech.
If you're wondering where this leaves OpenAI on the path toward artificial general intelligence, Altman had this to say when asked about the topic. "I kind of hate the term AGI, because everyone at this point uses it to mean a slightly different thing, but [GPT-5] is a significant step forward towards models that are really capable. We're still missing something quite important," he said, noting GPT-5 can't continuously learn on its own. "But the level of intelligence here, the level of capability, it feels like a huge improvement. Certainly, if I could go back five years before GPT-3 and you told me we have this now, I'd be like that's a significant fraction of the way to something very AGI-like."
Update 2:00PM: Added more context about hallucination rates.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/gpt-5-is-here-and-its-free-for-everyone-170001066.html?src=rss©
© OpenAI
The upheaval continues for gaming at Microsoft. The latest victim appears to be Contraband, a planned release from Avalanche Studios with Xbox Game Studios as publisher. The co-op open-world game from the studio behind the entertaining Just Cause series was teased in a brief, mostly atmospheric trailer at E3 2021. But very little had been heard since about the project, and it seems the axe is currently hanging pretty precariously above Contraband.
"Active development has now stopped while we evaluate the project's future," Avalanche said in a post on its website. "We're thankful for the excitement we've seen from the community since we announced and will give an update on what's next as soon as we can."
Microsoft announced in May that it would cut 7,000 jobs, or about 3 percent of its global workforce. That news was followed by another cut of 9,000 positions later in the summer. Gaming has been hit hard by these changes, with several studios and planned projects shuttering as Microsoft consolidates. Here's the rundown of other projects that have been reported to have ended so far under Microsoft's auspices:
Everwild from Rare
Perfect Dark reboot from The Initiative
Warcraft Rumble from Blizzard Entertainment
Blackbird from Zenimax
An unnamed FPS from Romero Games
Several of the aforementioned studios, and many others under the Xbox umbrella, have also been hit by the layoffs. Some, like The Initiative, have been completely shut down.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/microsoft-has-ended-active-development-on-contraband-175333930.html?src=rss©
© Avalanche Studios
Another major streaming platform is set to crack down on password sharing. JB Perrette, head of streaming and gaming at Warner Bros. Discovery, just told investors that HBO Max will begin an "aggressive" messaging campaign about the practice beginning next month, according to an earnings report.
Beyond stricter messaging, the company is looking to close any and all loopholes that allow users to share account passwords by the end of the year. Perette said the company has been testing to determine “who’s a legitimate user who may not be a legitimate user."
“The message language right now has been a fairly soft, cancelable message,” he said. It will “start to get more fixed and such that people have to take action as opposed to right now sort of having to be a voluntary process.”
The company hopes that these actions will reap financial rewards, with Perette saying that “the real benefit will start probably in the fourth quarter and then kick in in 2026.” This isn't a desperation move. HBO Max has actually been doing pretty well, despite consistent name changes, as it added 3.4 million new subscribers this quarter.
HBO Max is just the latest streamer to put the kibosh on password sharing. Netflix ended the practice back in 2023 and Disney+ performed its own crack down on the practice last year.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/hbo-max-plans-aggressive-crack-down-on-password-sharing-starting-next-month-164357329.html?src=rss©
© Warner Bros. Discovery
The PS5 might be lacking the cadence of first-party exclusives that made its predecessor so successful, but that doesn’t appear to be slowing it down. Sony has announced that the console had shifted just north of 80 million units as of June 30, 2025. This puts it just behind the Xbox 360 (84 million) and well on the way to overtaking the PS3 (around 87 million) in lifetime sales.
The 80.3 million figure was confirmed in Sony’s first set of quarterly results for the current financial year, during which time it sold 2.5 million PS5s, a slight downturn from 2.8 million in the previous quarter. Compared to the same period in the last financial year, however, the company has actually shifted around 100,000 more consoles in the last three months.
Sony also sold approximately 66 million PS4 and PS5 games this quarter, almost 7 million of which were first-party titles. That’s around a 12 million year-on-year increase in overall software sales. Digital accounted for 83 percent of PS4 and PS5 games sold in the last quarter, which is a larger share than in any three-month period in the previous financial year.
The last few years saw Sony briefly shift its focus towards live service games, but one of those was a well-documented disaster, and others have since been cancelled. Clearly none of that has noticeably hurt software sales, though, as Sony has continued to grow in that area.
The PS5 turns five this November, and attention will then turn to whether it will hit the all-important 100 million mark in its lifetime. The PS4 managed that in five years and seven months, and at the time it was the fastest console to reach that number. It also didn’t have to contend with tariffs. PS5 prices increased in the UK, Australia and New Zealand earlier this year, with Sony blaming a “challenging economic environment” in which it is fighting against high inflation and fluctuating exchange rates. The company has since said it is not ruling out moving PS5 manufacturing to the US in the future.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ps5-sales-have-passed-the-80-million-mark-161131719.html?src=rss©
© Engadget
Truth Social, President Trump's social media platform, is beta testing an AI search feature powered by Perplexity. Truth Search AI is launching first on the web version of Truth Social, with plans to begin a public beta for the feature on iOS and Android in the near future.
"We're excited to partner with Truth Social to bring powerful AI to an audience with important questions," said Dmitry Shevelenko, chief business officer at Perplexity. The controversial AI company has found itself embroiled time and again in accusations of copyright infringement, plagiarism and stealth crawling websites for content and this latest partnership will likely only continue to fuel the turmoil around the company.
The partnership is the latest example of big tech finding opportunities to cozy up to the president. Just this week OpenAI announced that it would be offering its ChatGPT Enterprise subscription to more than 2 million federal workers at practically zero cost. Choosing Perplexity as the engine for Truth Search AI also puts Trump Media in business with Jeff Bezos, one of Perplexity's largest backers. This week Apple CEO Tim Cook presented Trump with an engraved glass plaque set in a 24-karat gold base, to commemorate domestic investments by the company in an effort to avoid the president's ire at the company's foreign manufacturing of iPhones.
With the addition of Truth Search AI, Truth Social gains an AI layer to its platform without the expense of building one, presumably in efforts to keep up with the likes of Grok on X. Perplexity, for its part, gains exposure to a new base of users to further train on.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/trumps-truth-social-launches-ai-search-powered-by-perplexity-152250137.html?src=rss©
© Truth Social
The latest Apple iPad mini, which was released at the tail-end of 2024, is on sale for $399 via Amazon. That's a discount of $100 and close to a record low price. The only caveat? The deal doesn't apply to the iconic Space Gray colorway, but all other hues are on sale.
The iPad mini 7 made our list of the best Apple tablets because, well, it's the only one the company makes at this size. However, the specs haven't been hobbled here. It's a real iPad, through and through. We said it was everything we want in a small tablet in our official review, and that holds true today.
The tablet supports the Apple Pencil Pro and the integrated A17 Pro chip is plenty powerful. It's not an M-series chip, but you probably won't notice. The entry-level model, which is the one on sale today, ships with 128GB of storage. It's also small and can therefore fit just about anywhere.
On the downside, we found the bezels to be a bit thick. We were also a bit disappointed with the 60Hz refresh rate, though the display does look great. This model lacks a Face ID sensor, but that suits me just fine. I prefer fingerprint scans or passcodes.
Check out our coverage of the best Apple deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-latest-ipad-mini-is-100-off-right-now-151127280.html?src=rss©
© Nathan Ingraham for Engadget
The most obvious question is “Why?”
Framework builds modular, repairable laptops that anyone can take apart and put back together again. It’s a big deal in an era where laptops are regularly sold as a single unit that, should one part break, goes in the trash. Since every part of a Framework machine can be swapped out, you can keep one going for as long as your patience, and the supply of spare parts, allows. Desktops, however, are already modular and repairable — company founder Nirav Patel said “desktop PC ethos was one of the core inspirations for the Framework laptop to begin with.” So, if desktops are already modular and repairable, why do we need one from Framework?
When the Desktop was announced, Patel said the genesis of the product came from seeing a preview of AMD’s Ryzen AI Max. It’s an APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) — AMD’s term for a chip combining a CPU, GPU and NPU in a single package, much like Apple Silicon — with plenty of hyped-up claims about its performance. Those claims were so compelling that Patel added the Desktop to the company’s roadmap just to harness that potential power. The big selling point for this chip is the sheer volume of RAM you can employ (up to 128GB) and the massive memory bandwidth (up to 265GB/s) it can take advantage of. AMD described it as a “workstation-level” chip that’ll work in a regular ‘ol PC, with the base model priced at $1,099.
But there’s a devil’s bargain in opting for such a powerful chip, since to get it means Framework has had to give up a lot of its founding principles. As someone probably once wrote, for what shall it profit a computer manufacturer if it shall gain searing power but lose its own soul?
The major issue with the Ryzen AI Max is its inflexibility since it’s made as a single package. Much like Apple Silicon products, you’ll need to pick your chip spec in the knowledge that you don’t get to change things later. Consequently, you’ll be ordering the Framework Desktop in one of three unchangeable flavors:
Ryzen AI Max 385 with 32GB RAM, Radeon 8050S GPU
Ryzen AI Max+ 395 with 64GB RAM, Radeon 8060S GPU (the model I’m testing).
Ryzen AI Max+ 395 with 128GB RAM, Radeon 8060S GPU
With every other Framework machine, the mainboard has the CPU and fan soldered in place, but that’s it. Every other component can more or less be removed and reinstalled on the replacement mainboard. Here, if that APU goes or if your needs do evolve, then you’re losing pretty much everything (including the heatsink) since it’s all soldered to the mainboard. We'll get into pricing considerations later, but replacement mainboards from Framework run between $799 and $1,699. Otherwise, the only things you can recover here are the Wi-Fi module, SSD (there’s space for two), power supply and case.
Speaking of which, the Framework Desktop is a Mini-ITX desktop in a 4.5L case, complete with optional carrying handle. It’s less understated than the cases you’d have seen at a LAN party circa 2006, but that’s not the point. While the box itself is a stark black, you can add a big chunk of personality to it with the front panel, which has space for 21 plastic tiles. These tiles come in a variety of colors (including black, green, orange and lavender) for you to mosaic to your heart’s content. You can also pick up single tiles with specific images printed on, including the Framework, AMD and Linux logos, plus this fetching pride heart. Naturally, if you’re crafty, you can also make your own.
Below the front panel and irritatingly small power button, you’ll find two of Framework’s trademark expansion card slots. These are USB-C ducts into which you can slot any of the company’s expansion cards, letting you pick and choose what I/O you have up front. But the flexibility, so necessary on a laptop, is less of an issue here since this is a Mini-ITX mainboard. Lean over to the back and you’ll find two USB-C, two DisplayPorts, two USB-A sockets as well as dedicated connections for HDMI, Ethernet and 3.5mm audio.
Framework is only selling its desktop in a “DIY Edition,” but that’s less of a big deal than you might initially expect. Whereas the company’s DIY laptops require you to put every component in the chassis, on the Desktop there’s very little to do at all. Everything bar the SSD is already in place, and all you need to do to add that is remove the heatsink and slot your drive into the M.2 slot. After that, you just need to attach the beefy 120mm fan to the equally beefy heatsink, pop the cowl on top and screw in the four screws. Framework’s wonderful iFixit-style guides claimed getting the hardware together would take between 30 and 45 minutes. I hit stop on the watch after 15 minutes and 15 seconds, and can’t imagine many folks will take much more time than that to put everything together. From there, you just need to install your operating system of choice and you’re ready to go.
With the Desktop, Framework is targeting two groups: gamers, and developers eager to use AMD’s Ryzen AI Max. The pitch to the former group could easily be boiled down to ‘this is a fast PC you don’t need to do much to build.’ That’s an easy enough metric to judge it by, since we can just run some games on it and see how well it performs. I’ll admit that I am not an AI developer, and so can’t speak as authoritatively on the latter or how effective it would be at running large models if you — as the company expects — buy several mainboards to run in a cluster.
I basically ran every title in my admittedly limited game library with the settings dialed up to max, and it didn’t break a sweat. AMD claims the Radeon 8060S GPU inside my machine goes toe-to-toe with an RTX 4070 laptop GPU. This is a ten pound hammer for the one ounce nail that is Fortnite, but even demanding titles like Hardspace: Shipbreaker breezed through. My gut tells me, however, that people wouldn’t be eyeing this up as a primary gaming machine. That’s not where this unit’s power lies, really, but in the more work-y tasks that better suit the APU.
As I said, I’m not an AI developer but I did mess around with LM Studio, which I tested with a chatbot running Google’s Gemma 3 27B model. Performance was a little slower than you may see on a web-based AI client, but not enough for it to be an issue. LM Studio, too, suggested that running this was only taking around a third of the Desktop’s CPU power, so there’s probably plenty more headroom there to run bigger and more demanding models.
I am, however, on surer footing with big workstation tasks, like video editing and exporting, and I was impressed with the results here. For this, I took a 39GB HD video file with a runtime of 2 hours, made a few minor trims, and then compressed and exported it as an MP4 file. Crunching the file down to 6GB took just one hour and 12 minutes, a staggering speed boost for a job that could take half a day to export on lesser hardware. It’s worth remembering, too, that I’m testing the middle-tier version of the Desktop with 64GB RAM.
When announcing the Desktop, Patel said the machine would run quietly even at peak power. He described it as “silent while sitting on your desktop under normal loads, and even under gaming, it’s impressively quiet.” If you’re familiar with Framework’s track record and products so far, that quote will have instantly provoked scoffing. The company does many things well, but it wildly overpromises on how quiet and cool its machines run.
Framework trumpeted how much better its cooling was on its recently-released Ryzen AI 300 mainboard for the Laptop 13, which was noisy and lap roasting. Here, you’ve got a beefy APU expected to run for sustained periods of time at 120W and up to 140W in boost. I half expected to be able to use this thing as a space heater but, mercifully, the company does seem to have made good on its promises. The 120mm fan barely got noisy at all, and I can only recall it becoming noticeable when running heavier AI models in LM Studio and when I started exporting the video file.
The starting price for the base model Desktop with the Max 385 and 32GB of RAM is $1,099. For that, you’ll get the case, power supply and mainboard, which includes its own Wi-Fi module. What the company is listing as optional extras, however, includes the SSD, CPU fan, OS and even the power lead. So, if you were looking to buy the base model as an essentially off the shelf purchase, including decorative tiles and two front-facing expansion cards, the price rises to $1,386. If you want to opt for the mid-tier option (the 395 with 64GB RAM) add $500 to the base model price. If you want to go for the high end 395 with 128GB RAM, then you’ll be adding $900 to the base price, bringing the total for an off-the-shelf model to around $2,286.
Because of the distinct nature of the Ryzen AI Max, an apples-to-apples comparison isn’t going to be perfect. But, if you were looking to spend around two grand on a high-performance PC, you could snag something like Lenovo’s Legion Tower 5 with AMD. $2,200 buys you a Ryzen 7 with 16GB DDR5 RAM, a 1TB SSD and NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4070 Ti with 12GB RAM. Alternatively, that figure could get you an ASUS ROG G700 with a Ryzen 7, Radeon RX 9070 XT Prime (with 16GB VRAM), 16GB RAM and a 2TB SSD. The real differentiator is how much you would value the faster memory bandwidth and speed the AI Max offers over its discrete rivals.
Framework will also sell users the Desktop’s mainboard on its own, with the base model priced at $799. Certainly, if you’ve got boxes full of spare parts and the necessary Mini-ITX case, you could save a chunk of change that way. This will also be the most cost effective way for power users to run clusters of boards for bigger projects. Pre-orders are open, but the company won’t start shipping boards on their own until it’s fulfilled all of its system orders.
In my time with the Framework Desktop, I’ve flip-flopped a few times on if this product is a hit or a miss. Framework was open about the fact this was something akin to a side project, outside its regular remit to build modular laptops, based on a particularly exciting chip. So while I think the all-in-one approach is a backward step compared to regular PCs, I get the rationale for doing so here.
Where I think Framework whiffed was to pitch this as a machine to make “PC gaming more accessible” by reducing “the mental and physical load” associated with building your own. Nightmares about thermal paste aside, I don’t think that’s a real issue for would-be gamers as they could easily pick up a pre-built system for similar cash. And I suspect most gamers would much rather use a PC with a standalone graphics card rather than slum it with an integrated GPU.
Because even mentioning gaming, really, does the machine a massive disservice, pulling the focus from its real strength. Which is the ease at which this machine handled productivity tasks, like running AI models and crunching video. The effortlessness at which it handled that brought to mind products like the Mac Studio, a creative powerhouse in its own tiny package. It’s this that Framework should have led with, especially since it’ll do all of those tasks and play games on the side.
I’m not sure I’d recommend this product to people who are just looking to buy a powerful PC or a gaming PC. It’s a tool for a specific group of users capable of taking advantage of the AI Max’s benefits that you’d otherwise need a workstation for. So while its review score is justifiably high when the Framework Desktop is judged on its own merits, that doesn’t mean you need to own one.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/framework-desktop-2025-review-powerful-but-perhaps-not-for-everyone-150011909.html?src=rss©
© Daniel Cooper for Engadget
When UFO 50, the dizzyingly ambitious fictional game compendium from the creator of Spelunky, landed on PC last year, a Switch port felt inevitable. We’ve had to wait nearly 12 months for that to happen, but it’s finally here.
Rudely shadow-dropped into a sizzle reel at the end of Nintendo’s (otherwise largely underwhelming) Indie World showcase this morning, UFO 50 is available on Switch (and presumably Switch 2, barring any strange compatibility issues) for $25 right now. For those who missed it on PC, you’re getting a wildly varied set of retro-styled games belonging to a console that never existed, all designed by a made-up developer called UFO Soft from the 80s. Confused?
The high concept fictional premise is basically just a good excuse for the six modern-day indie developers actually responsible for the game to pay tribute to the 8- and 16-bit games they remember so fondly. The included games span just about every genre of the era, from platformers and puzzle games, to turn-based strategy, pure arcade titles and bafflingly fully-fledged RPGs. UFO 50 really is a remarkable achievement, and the Switch is the perfect platform for it.
The end of the game’s PC exclusivity could mean that Xbox and PlayStation ports will also arrive at some point, but it arrives on Switch as a console exclusive for now at least.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ufo-50-a-brilliant-tribute-to-retro-gaming-is-out-for-the-switch-right-now-141756694.html?src=rss©
© Mossmouth
Back in June, publisher Devolver Digital decided to switch up its usual Summer Game Fest showcase format and dedicate it to a single game, Ball x Pit by indie developer Kenny Sun and a few collaborators. The demo sunk its claws into me, and I've been looking forward to the full game ever since. During Nintendo's Indie World stream on Thursday, it emerged that Ball x Pit is coming to Switch, PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Game Pass on October 15. A Switch 2 version will arrive later this year.
Ball x Pit is a bit like if Breakout, Vampire Survivors and Space Invaders were blended together with a pinch of base building thrown in for good measure. Your character will (manually or automatically, it's up to you) fire destructive balls at waves of enemies that approach from the top of the screen, trying to destroy them before they reach the bottom and cause more damage. You'll collect more types of balls and augmentations throughout each run and upgrade both.
The action really kicks up a notch when you're able to fuse two balls and combine their effects. A fusion might grant you a ghost ball that passes through enemies but sticks a lightning rod into each one it makes contact with, dealing recurring damage to both that particular bad guy and others nearby. There are more than 60 different balls to play around with and combining a pair frees up a slot for another one, so you can end up with truly wild builds. You'll also unlock more characters with unique skills that you'll want to experiment with too.
Along with the brick-breaking action, there's a base-building element to Ball x Pit. You can help expand the settlement of New Ballbylon (chef's kiss on that name) with dozens of different buildings that can help you unlock more power-ups, characters and so on. The two sides of the game feed into each other and make for a very sticky, satisfying loop.
According to Devolver, Ball x Pit had the 12th most-played demo during the most recent Steam Next Fest. More than 270,000 people have tried it out on Steam (demo progress carries over to the full game). Ball x Pit is easily one of my most anticipated games for the rest of the year. My only dilemma now is to figure out which platform to play it on.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-spellbinding-ball-x-pit-will-hit-pc-and-consoles-on-october-15-141156022.html?src=rss©
© Kenny Sun/Devolver Digital
Grok's responses to users on X could include paid advertisements in the future. According to the Financial Times, X owner Elon Musk told advertisers in a live discussion that his company would let marketers pay to appear in suggestions from Grok. He said that after making Grok the "smartest, most accurate AI in the world," the company is now focusing on paying "for those expensive GPUs." Musk added that if a person is asking Grok to solve a specific problem, then "advertising the specific solution would be ideal at that point."
What exactly does including ads into the chatbot's responses mean? Will the advertised products or services be clearly labeled as such? Will they compromise Grok's responses? Musk didn't delve into specifics. Instead, he talked about how xAI will automate the ad process for brands and improve targeting overall. Musk also said that xAI will assess the aesthetics of an ad and will prioritize those that appear more pleasing to the eye. He shared that his company has plans to build a checkout feature so that users can make purchases within the app, as well.
Musk said he wants to "overcome the curse of Twitter," in that users "never bought a single thing [for a decade] because the advertising system never actually showed the participants what they wanted." Some advertisers, the Times noted, still don't want to advertise on X because they deem it too toxic. In May, Grok repeated claims of a "white genocide" in South Africa on X, even when the user's question had nothing to do with it. And then a mere two months later, the chatbot went on antisemitic and pro-Nazi rants on X, which Musk then blamed on rogue users.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/x-plans-to-show-ads-in-grok-chatbots-answers-140058660.html?src=rss©
© SOPA Images via Getty Images
Between 2017 and 2022, 400,181 Uber trips resulted in reports of sexual assault or sexual misconduct in the US, or around one every eight minutes, according to sealed documents seen by The New York Times. The company had only disclosed 12,522 accounts of serious sexual assaults during the same time period. The report is based on interviews with current a former employees, internal documents and court records under seal as part of "large-scale sexual assault litigation against Uber."
"There is no 'tolerable' level of sexual assault," Uber's US head of safety Hanna Nilles told the NYT. She added that about 75 percent of the reports were "less serious," including comments about a passenger's appearance, flirting or using explicit language. In addition, reports had not been audited by the company and could have include incorrect or fraudulent reports submitted by passengers.
Publicly, Uber has stated in marketing campaigns that it's one of the safest options for travel, citing the rarity of assaults. However, the NYT notes that the company had failed to take actions that would likely have improved passenger security — like pairing female passengers with female drivers, using sophisticated matching algorithms and warning passengers about factors linked to attacks.
In several cases cited by the report, drivers with a recorded pattern of inappropriate behavior were kept on the platform and then proceeded to sexually assault passengers. It also shows that Uber rejected safety measures like cameras in cars so as not to disrupt its business model dictating that drivers are contractors and not employees. It also stopped a potential feature pairing female drivers with female passengers over fears of stoking culture wars, among other business reasons.
Uber told the NYT that millions of rides happen each day and vast majority in the US, around 99.9 percent occur without incident. However, with details of horrific assaults and Uber wilfully failing to deal with the problem, the report is yet another damning indictment of the company's growth-above-all culture.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/uber-received-400000-reports-of-sexual-misconduct-from-2017-to-2022-130007123.html?src=rss©
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Sonos plans to raise prices across its products later this year in order to minimize the impact of tariffs on its earnings, the company has revealed alongside its financial results for the third quarter of 2025. It hasn't listed the products and their new prices yet, but it said that it's evaluating any changes it might need to its promotional strategies and that it has flexibility to move production between Vietnam and Malaysia as needed. To note, the Trump administration had imposed a 20 percent tariff on imports from Vietnam and a 19 percent tariff on imports from Malaysia. Sonos also said that it will invest on diversifying its geographic footprint and expanding its presence in markets that represent only a small share of its revenue today to drive growth.
The company took steps to diversify its supply chain last year, which led to its manufacturing facilities in the two aforementioned countries. It now only relies on Chinese plans for products bound to the US for a limited number of accessories, such as speaker stands. Still, for the third quarter of 2025, tariffs reduced Sonos' gross margin for the third quarter by $2.1 million and its cash flow by $3.5 million. In the fourth quarter of the year, which covers the holiday shopping season, Sonos expects tariffs to reduce its gross margin by $5 million and to remove between $8 to $10 billion from its cash flow.
Overall, Sonos posted a revenue of $344.8 million in the third quarter, which is almost $100 million larger than its revenue for the fourth quarter of 2024. It's not a secret that 2024 was a tough year for the company. It rolled out a major update that broke its app, which led to the delay of product releases as it worked to fix the issue. Former Sonos CEO Patrick Spence even stepped down in the beginning of 2025 and was replaced by ex-Snap executive Tom Conrad.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/sonos-is-raising-prices-this-year-to-make-up-for-tariff-expenses-123031336.html?src=rss©
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Finding a laptop that can juggle both gaming and schoolwork isn’t as tricky as it used to be. These days, you don’t have to choose between a machine that can handle your homework and one that can keep up with your favorite games. Whether you’re diving into an essay, editing video for a project or hopping into a round of Fortnite or Baldur’s Gate 3 after class, there are plenty of laptops that strike the right balance between performance, portability and price.
The key is knowing what to look for. A solid schoolwork and gaming laptop should have enough processing power for multitasking, a GPU that can handle modern games (even if you're not cranking settings to ultra) and decent battery life to get you through a day of classes or study sessions. Some are sleek and lightweight enough to slip into a backpack while others double as full-on gaming rigs when you’re home and plugged in. We’ve tested a range of laptops to help you find one that fits your student schedule and your Steam library.
As we’ve mentioned, gaming laptops are especially helpful if you're doing any demanding work. Their big promise is powerful graphics performance, which isn't just limited to PC gaming. Video editing and 3D rendering programs can also tap into their GPUs to handle laborious tasks. While you can find decent GPUs on some productivity machines, like Dell's XPS 15, you can sometimes find better deals on gaming laptops. My general advice for any new workhorse: Pay attention to the specs; get at least 16GB of RAM and the largest solid state drive you can find (ideally 1TB or more). Those components are both typically hard to upgrade down the line, so it’s worth investing what you can up front to get the most out of your PC gaming experience long term. Also, don’t forget the basics like a webcam, which will likely be necessary for the schoolwork portion of your activities.
The one big downside to choosing a gaming notebook is portability. For the most part, we'd recommend 15-inch models to get the best balance of size and price. Those typically weigh in around 4.5 pounds, which is significantly more than a three-pound ultraportable. Today's gaming notebooks are still far lighter than older models, though, so at least you won't be lugging around a 10-pound brick. If you’re looking for something lighter, there are plenty of 14-inch options these days. And if you're not into LED lights and other gamer-centric bling, keep an eye out for more understated models that still feature essentials like a webcam (or make sure you know how to turn those lights off).
Not necessarily — it really depends on how you define "last longer." In terms of raw performance, gaming laptops tend to pack more powerful components than standard laptops, which means they can stay relevant for longer when it comes to handling demanding software or modern games. That makes them a solid choice if you need a system that won’t feel outdated in a couple of years, especially for students or creators who also game in their downtime.
But there’s a trade-off. All that power generates heat, and gaming laptops often run hotter and put more strain on internal components than typical ultraportables. If they’re not properly cooled or regularly maintained (think dust buildup and thermal paste), that wear and tear can shorten their lifespan. They’re also usually bulkier and have shorter battery life, which can impact long-term usability depending on your daily needs.
Gaming laptops can last longer performance-wise, but only if you take good care of them. If your needs are light — browsing, writing papers and streaming — a standard laptop may actually last longer simply because it’s under less stress day-to-day.
The GPU plays a big role in how your laptop handles visuals — and it’s especially important if you’re using your computer for both gaming and school.
For gaming, the GPU is essential. It’s responsible for rendering graphics, textures, lighting and all the visual effects that make your favorite titles look smooth and realistic. A more powerful GPU means better frame rates, higher resolutions and the ability to play modern games without lag or stuttering.
For schoolwork, the GPU matters too — but its importance depends on what you're doing. If your school tasks mostly involve writing papers, browsing the web or using productivity tools like Google Docs or Microsoft Office, you don’t need a high-end GPU. But if you’re working with graphic design, video editing, 3D modeling or anything else that’s visually demanding, a good GPU can speed things up significantly and improve your workflow.
Georgie Peru contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/best-laptops-for-gaming-and-school-132207352.html?src=rss©
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Apple has announced that it's working with Samsung at its Texas plant to "launch an innovative new technology for making chips." Those chips are reportedly cutting-edge image sensors for iPhones, according to The Financial Times. That in turn means that Sony may no longer be Apple's only supplier of smartphone camera sensors for its upcoming phones.
The chips in question are reportedly three-layer stacked image sensors that will allow for fast smartphone camera shooting speeds and high-frame-rate 8K video, along with reduced rolling shutter "jello" distortion. Both Samsung and Sony (along with Canon) have recently said that they're working on such chips.
The news marks a reconciliation of sorts between Apple and its frenemy Samsung. Apple stopped using Samsung in favor of TSMC as its primary contract manufacturer back in 2011, kicking off a decline in Samsung's chip business. Now, Samsung has scored back-to-back foundry wins with Apple and its recent $16.5 billion deal to build chips for Tesla.
Samsung may have won the business due to its likely exemption from upcoming tariffs on foreign chips announced yesterday by Trump that could be as high as 100 percent. It looks like companies with manufacturing in the US like Samsung, TSMC and SK Hynix will dodge those import taxes. However, Sony's image sensors are built under contract by TSMC in Taiwan, and Sony itself doesn't have any such chip plants in the US.
Sony has about a 45 percent share of the $21.8 billion image sensor market, compare to about 19 percent for Samsung. One big reason for Sony's domination is its cutting edge technology, having been first to market in nearly every major advance, including backside illumination, two-layer stacked sensors and global shutters on mirrorless cameras. According to a recent rumor, Sony was contemplating a spin-off its sensor division but held back due to Trump's tariffs.
"We remain confident that we are advanced in providing sensor technology to our customers, and we will focus on continuing further technological advancement through larger sensor size and density," Sony said in a statement in response to the news from Apple.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/apple-is-reportedly-working-with-samsung-to-build-iphone-image-sensors-in-texas-120021281.html?src=rss©
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Sharon Stone spoke to Business Insider about working with Robert De Niro on the set of "Casino." She reflected on his uncanny ability to challenge and provoke her as an actor.
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