TikTok just announced a couple of updates that that should make the app a bit more social. There's something called Shared Feed, which is exactly what it sounds like. It's a feed that friends and family can watch together, though at different times. 

This feed is shared via direct messaging and pulls up relevant content to everyone involved in the chat. TikTok says this is a "new way to discover content together." It consists of a daily curated selection of 15 videos that are generated by TikTok activity.

These feeds are shared via invitation and the participants can leave the chat at any time. There's also a new dashboard that lets viewers check out their Shared Like history and other metrics. The Shared Feed tool rolls out globally in the coming months. It sounds similar to something Instagram began offering earlier this year. Instagram is typically the one copying TikTok, so this is a nice change of pace.

TikTok

TikTok has also announced something called Shared Collections. This is like the aforementioned Shared Feed, but for saved content. The tool lets users collect, organize and share groups of videos, with TikTok citing that people could use it to share reading lists, local restaurants to try and, of course, products to buy.

All you have to do is save a video, create a Shared Collection and send that list to someone else via direct message. Users must follow one another to access one of these lists. The tool is available globally right now to folks over the age of 16.

Finally, TikTok is rolling out themed holiday cards that can be sent in direct messages. They will be available globally later this month.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/tiktok-announces-shared-feed-and-collections-features-193857725.html?src=rss

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© TikTok

Rivian is about to give the public and its investors another taste of its future with an event focused on autonomy and AI on December 11. The company's Autonomy and AI day starts at 12PM ET. You can watch the event via the Rivian website. We'll be liveblogging the Autonomy and AI day right here on Engadget, so we'll be recapping the major news as it happens and sharing our reactions. 

As for what to expect, the name of the event clearly indicates that Rivian will be talking about autonomous operation of its vehicles. RivianTrackr speculates, quite reasonably, that the company will share more about what CEO RJ Scaringe has referred to as a Universal Hands Free feature. Scaringe recently said he'd spent two hours traveling around Palo Alto, California, in a second-gen Rivian R1 with the vehicle taking care of everything by itself. It stands to reason that Rivian will at least offer up a demo of Universal Hands Free ahead of the company’s more affordable R2 model making its debut in 2026.

Earlier this year, Rivian said that, for 2026, "a hands-off/eyes-off feature is planned for controlled conditions with our current Gen 2 vehicles." So, this Autonomy and AI day seems as good an opportunity as any for the company to share more details about that. When Rivian unveiled the first-generation R1T and R1S in 2018, it said those would support Level 3 autonomy, allowing for the driver to take their hands and eyes off the road for short spells while they're on the freeway.

RivianTrackr also suggests that we may hear more about Rivian's sensor strategy as well as its AI and fleet-learning initiatives. The company may offer up a more detailed autonomy roadmap as well. However, the publication suggests Rivian isn't quite ready to announce rollout retails or firm pricing for full hands-off driving features.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/how-to-watch-rivians-autonomy-and-ai-day-and-what-to-expect-192838410.html?src=rss

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Meta will soon allow Facebook and Instagram users in the European Union to choose to share less data and see less personalized ads on the platform, the European Commission announced. The change will begin to roll out in January, according to the regulator. 

"This is the first time that such a choice is offered on Meta's social networks," the commission said in a statement. "Meta will give users the effective choice between: consenting to share all their data and seeing fully personalised advertising, and opting to share less personal data for an experience with more limited personalised advertising."

The move from Meta comes after the European Commission had fined the company €200 million over its ad-free subscription plans in the EU, which the regulator deemed "consent or pay." Meta began offering ad-free subscriptions to EU users in 2023, and later lowered the price of the plans in response to criticism from the commission. Those plans haven't been very popular, however, with one Meta executive admitting earlier this year that there's been "very little interest" from users. 

In a statement, a Meta spokesperson said that "we acknowledge" the European Commission's statement. "Personalized ads are vital for Europe’s economy — last year, Meta’s ads were linked to €213 billion in economic activity and supported 1.44 million jobs across the EU."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-will-let-facebook-and-instagram-users-in-the-eu-share-less-data-183535897.html?src=rss

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Analogue just announced new colorways for its recently-launched Analogue 3D console. The appropriately-named Funtastic limited-edition consoles are heavily inspired by Nintendo's translucent N64 models from the late 1990s. Analogue even borrowed the Funtastic branding.

In other words, these are going for the nostalgic jugular for gamers of a certain age. There's even a see-through green colorway that calls to mind the Nintendo 64 variant that shipped as a bundle with Donkey Kong 64. Just imagine booting up that bad boy as you roam around the house spouting the lyrics of the DK rap song.

There are eight translucent colors to choose from and accompanying 8BitDo controllers available as a separate purchase. The consoles cost $300 and the controllers are priced out at $45.

The Analogue 3D Funtastic consoles go on sale on December 10 at 11AM ET, with the company promising they'll ship within 48 hours to ensure delivery by Christmas. The company is also restocking the traditional colors, which will be available for purchase at the same time but won't ship until January.

Tim Stevens for Engadget

We praised the Analogue 3D in our official review. It's a fantastic way to play N64 cartridges, even if the original games don't always hold up. The 4K CRT emulation is top-notch and the overall hardware design is solid.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/analogue-is-weaponizing-your-nostalgia-with-these-translucent-versions-of-its-3d-console-181105740.html?src=rss

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© Analogue

Every December, the Engadget staff compiles a list of the year’s biggest winners. We scour over articles from the previous 12 months to determine the people, companies, products and trends that made the most impact over the course of the year. Not all of that influence is positive, however, and some selections may also appear on our list of biggest losers. Still, sit back and enjoy our picks for the biggest winners of 2025.

Nintendo Switch 2

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

Aside from a big bump in battery life that many were hoping for, Nintendo took just about everything that made its last console such a phenomenon and upgraded it on the Switch 2. A sleeker design with magnetic Joy-Cons that are less likely to break, a larger (albeit LCD) 1080p display with HDR, much stronger performance, mouse controls and a boost to the base storage were all very welcome.

Of course, the vast majority of Switch games run on the Switch 2 (often with visual improvements or other upgrades), so the new console had a vast library right from the jump. Nintendo is building out its slate of first-party games with treats like Donkey Kong Bananza and Metroid Prime 4, and the third-party support is seriously impressive too. Cyberpunk 2077, Street Fighter 6 and Hitman: World of Assassination are already available, and the likes of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade and FromSoftware's Switch 2 exclusive The Duskbloods are on the way.

The Switch 2 is an iteration, not a revolution, but Nintendo didn't need to reinvent the wheel to make another great system. It's little surprise, then, that we gave the Switch 2 a score of 93 in our review. The console is surpassing Nintendo's sales expectations as well. The company said in November that it believes it will sell 19 million units (up from 15 million) by the time its current fiscal year ends in March. — Kris Holt, Contributing reporter

NVIDIA

Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

Could things be any rosier for NVIDIA? Once just a video card company for gamers, NVIDIA's GPU hardware is now directly tied to the rise of the AI industry. Its stock has jumped a whopping 1,235 percent over the past five years, going from $13.56 per share in 2020 to a peak of $202.49 this past October. NVIDIA's server-grade cards are being used en masse to train AI models, as well as to power AI inferencing. At home, its GeForce GPUs are enabling local AI development and they're still the gaming cards to beat, despite AMD's steadily improving competition.

Clearly, the company's bet on parallel processing has paid off enormously. Its GPUs can handle tons of computations simultaneously, making them ideally suited for the demands of the AI industry. They're not exactly efficient — that's why neural processing units, or NPUs have sprung up to power consumer AI features — but it's hard to deny NVIDIA's raw computational power. 

NVIDIA's AI success may not last forever, though. Companies like Google and Microsoft are already working on their own AI chips, and it's still unclear if consumers actually want widespread AI features as much as tech companies think. If the AI industry crashes, NVIDIA will be one of the first victims. — Devindra Hardawar, Senior reporter

Tech billionaires

ALLISON ROBBERT via Getty Images

There's no doubt that tech billionaires, especially those that lean conservatively, have benefitted tremendously from the Trump administration over the past year. Elon Musk's DOGE team of tech loyalists chainsawed their way through the budgets and staff of several federal agencies, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which regulates Tesla. (That hasn't stopped the NHTSA from launching a new investigation into Tesla's full self-driving tech, though.)

According to a recent report by Oxfam, the 10 richest US billionaires (who are all tech leaders, save for Warren Buffet) increased their wealth by $698 billion of the past year. Of course, it took plenty of wining and dining to get there. Elon Musk reportedly donated nearly $300 million to Trump and Republican allies, and several tech companies have pitched in to build the president's lavish White House ballroom. 

But the result for the tech elite is increased access to the president, less scrutiny when it comes to acquisitions and other deals, and the potential for massive corporate and elite tax cuts. — D.H.

AI video

SOPA Images via Getty Images

AI slop didn't start in 2025, but it reached new heights thanks to updates from Meta, Google, OpenAI and others that made it easier than ever to create a real-ish (emphasis on the ish) looking clips from nothing but your most unhinged mad libs. Now, AI-generated videos are just about impossible to avoid. Some platforms, like Pinterest and TikTok, have even begun offering people the ability to ask their algorithms to show less AI content in their feeds. Unfortunately, there's no way to stuff Shrimp Jesus back into the bottle. 

AI video is everywhere and it's here to stay. It's not only overtaken Facebook and Instagram's recommendations, Meta created an entirely separate feed just for users' AI-generated fever dreams. OpenAI's Sora, which lets you make AI videos of real people, was downloaded a million times in just a few days. Google's Veo, which generated more than 40 million videos in a matter of weeks, is now built-in to YouTube Shorts.

It's now trivially easy for creators to churn out fake movie trailers, cute animal videos that never happened or viral clips of made up ICE raids. Hell, the president of the United States regularly shares bizarre, sometimes poop-themed, AI videos on his official social media channels. During the government shutdown, the official X account for Senate Republicans shared a deepfake of Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer. 

AI video is winning not just because it's everywhere, but because so many are unable, or unwilling, to understand what's real and what isn't. More than half of Americans say they are not confident in their ability to distinguish between human and AI-generated content, according to Pew Research. Similar numbers of people report being "more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life." But those concerns have done little to stop AI slop from dominating all of our feeds, and there's no sign it will ever slow down. — Karissa Bell, Senior reporter

Galaxy Z Fold 7

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

After seven generations, Samsung reached an important milestone this year with its Galaxy Z Fold line: It made a foldable phone that’s the same size as a regular handset. In fact, weighing 7.58 ounces and measuring 72.8mm wide, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is actually lighter and narrower than an S25 Ultra, while being practically just as thin at 8.9mm (folded). It’s a real marvel of engineering, especially when you consider the phone also features a 200MP main camera, an IPX8 rating for water resistance and a 5,000 mAh battery with 45-watt wired charging. And of course, there's that huge 8-inch main screen hiding inside, which makes the Z Fold 7 both a phone and a tablet in one device. The only thing it's really missing is the improved dust resistance Google gave to the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. 

But perhaps more importantly, the Z Fold 7's reduced size and weight have created a device with wider appeal. This has propelled sales of Samsung's latest flagship foldable up 50 percent compared to the previous generation while pushing shipments of foldables as a whole to record highs. Who knew that when Samsung focuses on creating world-class hardware instead of overindexing on AI, good things happen? Okay, maybe that’s a bit harsh. Regardless, for a phone category that has struggled with excess weight and bulk since its inception, the Z Fold 7 feels like a revelation and the beginning of a new era for handsets with flexible displays. Now, can we just bring their prices down, please? — Sam Rutherford, Senior reporter

Smart glasses

Karissa Bell for Engadget

Like it or not, smart glasses are having a moment. Propelled by new devices like the Meta Ray-Ban Display and upcoming models like Xreal’s Project Aura, the idea of wearing specs with built-in screens suddenly became an attractive proposition. And that means a lot for a category of gadgets that’s often best remembered by the fashion tragedy that was Google Glass in 2013. 

However, this development isn’t purely by chance. The latest generation of smart glasses has only just now become a reality due to the convergence of several branches of tech — including improved optics, lightweight batteries and, of course, AI. Now that last one might sound silly considering how many big companies seem to be betting the farm on machine learning being the next big thing, but AI will be a critical feature for enabling the hands-free experience that you need to make smartglasses work when you can’t rely on touch input. While this category is still in its early stages of development, the increased momentum we've seen from smart glasses this year seems poised to carry them towards being a future pillar of people's core tech kits. — S.R.

Fast charging

Cherlynn Low for Engadget

Devices like tablets and smartwatches have matured to the point where each generation mostly sees iterative upgrades, making covering them seem boring. But this year, as the hardware review season came to a close, I noticed an interesting trend. One feature, across various product categories, genuinely excited myself and other reviewers at Engadget and around the internet: impressively fast charging. 

By itself, high-speed charging isn’t new. But when I reviewed the Pixel Watch 4 in October, I was shocked that one seemingly little update changed how I went about my day. The new power system on Google’s smartwatch was so efficient that after about ten minutes on a cradle, the wearable went from below 20 percent to past 50 percent. With that boost, I stopped having to remind myself to plug the watch in — any time I ran low or was about to run out the door, I just plopped it on the charger and would have enough juice for hours.

Google wasn’t the only company to make fast-charging a meaningful addition to one of its 2025 products. Apple’s iPad Pro M5 is the first iPad to support the feature, and while in our testing it fell a little short of the 50 percent charge in 30 minutes that the company promised, our reviewer Nate Ingraham still found it a meaningful improvement.

Observers of the smartphone industry will likely point out two things. First, battery technology can be volatile, and larger, faster-charging cells might lead to exploding phones. So my optimism about this development is not without caution. Secondly, we’ve already seen all this come to handsets, especially in phones that launched outside the US first. OnePlus is known for its SUPERVOOC fast charging system, for example, and we’re seeing even more novel battery tech show up abroad. Calling fast charging a winner of 2025 may feel untimely to some.

But when you consider the spread of speedier charging to other types of products, especially in electric vehicles that till now take forever to top up, the benefits are clear. This year, we saw Formula E (finally) debut its fast-charging pit stops, Honda announce its first full-size electric motorcycle with fast charging and Chinese EV maker BYD unveiling new tech that delivers peak EV charging speeds of 1,000 kilowatts. That should about halve the time it currently takes to top up your electric car. 

Sure, it’s not the most eye-catching or novel technological development. But when counted in terms of precious time saved, fast charging coming to more types of devices certainly amounts to a greater good in gadgets in 2025. — Cherlynn Low, Managing editor

Magnets

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

Two years after the announcement of the Qi 2 wireless charging standard and its support of magnetic attachment accessories (a la Apple’s MagSafe), we’re finally seeing one of the more mainstream Android devices adopt it. In 2025, Google became the first Android phone maker that’s not HMD to do so, bringing such magnetic capabilities to the Pixel 10 series. It also introduced Pixelsnap — its own version of a MagSafe accessory ecosystem, including a slim puck with a fold-out kickstand that you can snap onto a phone. 

I love the Pixel Ring Stand and make sure to bring it with me whenever I can. It works perfectly with my iPhone 17 Pro, and has a compact footprint that makes it easy to take anywhere. Of course, it’s not the first of its kind — Case-Mate and PopSocket, among others, already make similar products but they’re either pricier or rated poorly. 

But it’s not just Google that made a magnetic accessory I unexpectedly adored. When reports of Apple’s Crossbody Strap first trickled out, I was underwhelmed. Who cares about a crossbody strap for an iPhone? But when I was presented with one to try at the iPhone 17 launch event, my cynicism quickly melted into desire. 

Setting aside the convenience of having your phone on your person when you don’t have pockets or a purse, the way magnets play a part here also won me over. To adjust the length of the straps, you just separate the two overlapping pieces that stick together magnetically, move them along each other till you’re satisfied with the length and let them snap back in place. 

I’m sure Apple isn’t the first to make a crossbody strap accessory for iPhones, nor is it the first to use magnets to adjust such straps. But like many Redditors, I’ve slowly come to realize the differences between those products and the Crossbody Strap for iPhone 17. It’s far from perfect, but in 2025 it was another implementation of magnets in tech that caught my attention and brought convenience to my life. — C.L.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/techs-biggest-winners-of-2025-180000177.html?src=rss

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Today, during the XR edition of The Android Show, Google showed off a bunch of updates and new features headed to its mixed reality OS. And while most of the news was aimed at developers, I got a chance to demo some of the platform's expanded capabilities on a range of hardware including Samsung's Galaxy XR headset, two different reference designs and an early version of Xreal's Project Aura smart glasses and I came away rather impressed. So here's a rundown of what I saw and how it will impact the rapidly growing ecosystem of head-mounted displays.

First up was one of Google's reference design smart glasses with a single waveguide RGB display built into its right lens. I've included a picture of it here, but try not to read too deeply into its design or aesthetics, as this device is meant to be a testbed for Android XR features and not an early look at upcoming models.

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

After putting them on, I was able to ask Gemini to play some tunes on YouTube Music before answering a call simply by tapping on the touchpad built into the right side of the frames. And because the reference model also had onboard world-facing cameras, I could easily share my view with the person on the other end of the line. 

Naturally, I was curious about how glasses had the bandwidth to do all this, because in normal use, they rely on a Bluetooth or Bluetooth LE connection. When asked, Max Spear, Group Product Manager for XR, shared that depending on the situation, the device can seamlessly switch between both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, which was rather impressive because I couldn't even detect when that transition happened. Spear also noted that one of Google's focuses for Android XR is making it easier for developers to port over the apps people already know and love. 

This means for devices like the reference design I wore that feature a built-in display (or displays), the OS actually uses the same code meant for standard Android notifications (like quick replies) to create a minimalist UI instead of forcing app makers to update each piece of software to be compliant with an ever-increasing number of devices. Alternatively, for models that are super lightweight and rely strictly on speakers (like Bose Frames), Google has also designed Android XR so that you only need mics and voice controls to access a wide variety of apps without the need for visual menus. 

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

Meanwhile, if you're hoping to take photos with your smart glasses, there's a surprising amount of capability there, too. Not only was I able to ask Gemini to take a photo, the glasses were also able to send a higher-res version to a connected smartwatch, which is super handy in case you want to review the image before moving on to the next shot. And when you want to inject some creativity, you can ask Gemini to transform pictures into practically anything you can imagine via Nano Banana. In my case, I asked the AI to change a shot of a pantry into a sci-fi kitchen and Gemini delivered with aplomb, including converting the room into a metal-clad setting complete with lots of light strips and a few bursts of steam.

However, one of the most impressive demos was when I asked Google's reference glasses to look at some of that same pantry environment and then use the ingredients to create a recipe based on my specifications (no tomatoes please, my wife isn't a fan). Gemini went down an Italian route by picking pasta, jarred banana peppers, bell peppers (which I thought was a somewhat unusual combination) and more, before launching into the first steps of the recipe. Sadly, I didn't have time to actually cook it, but as part of the demo, I learned that Gemini has been trained to understand human-centric gestures like pointing and picking things up. This allows it to better understand context without the need to be super specific, which is one of those little but very impactful tricks that allows AI to feel way less robotic. 

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

Then I had a chance to see how Uber and Google Maps ran on the reference glasses, this time using models with both single and dual RGB displays. Surprisingly, even on the monocular version, Maps was able to generate a detailed map with the ability to zoom in and out. But when I switched over to the binocular model, I noticed a significant jump in sharpness and clarity along with a higher-fidelity map with stereoscopic 3D images of buildings. Now, it may be a bit early to call this, and the perception of sharpness varies greatly between people based on their head shape and other factors, but after seeing that, I'm even more convinced that the smart glasses with dual RGB displays are what the industry will settle on in the long term.

The second type of device I used was the Samsung Galaxy XR, which I originally tried out when it was announced back in October. However, in the short time since, Google has cooked up a few new features that really help expand the headset's capabilities. By using the goggle's exterior-facing cameras, I was able to play a game of I Spy with Gemini. Admittedly, this might sound like a small addition, but I think it's going to play a big part in how we use devices running Android XR, because it allows the headset (or glasses) to understand better what you're looking at in order to provide more helpful contextual responses. 

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

However, the biggest surprise was when I joined a virtual call with someone using one of Google's new avatars, called Likeness. Instead of the low-polygon cartoony characters we've seen before in places like Meta Horizon, Google's virtual representations of people's faces are almost scary good. So good I had to double-check that they weren't real and from what I've seen they're even a step up from Apple's Personas. Google says that headsets like the Galaxy XR rely on interior sensors to track and respond to facial movements, while users will be able to create and edit their avatars using a standalone app due out sometime next year. 

Google

Next, I got a chance to test out the Android XR's PC connectivity by playing Stray on the Galaxy XR while it was tethered wirelessly to a nearby laptop. Not only did it run almost flawlessly with low latency, I was also able to use a paired controller instead of relying on hand-tracking or the laptop's mouse and keyboard. This is something I've been eagerly waiting to try because it feels like Google has put a lot of work into making Android XR devices play nicely with other devices and OSes. Initially, you'll only be able to connect Windows PCs to the Galaxy XR, but Google says it's looking to support macOS systems as well.

Finally, I got to try out Xreal's Project Aura glasses to see how Android XR works on a device primarily designed to give you big virtual displays in a portable form factor. Unfortunately, because this was a pre-production unit, I wasn't able to take photos. That said, as far as the glasses go, I was really impressed with their resolution and sharpness and the inclusion of electrochromic glass is a really nice touch, as it allows users to change how heavily the lenses are tinted with a single touch. Alternatively, the glasses can also adjust the tint automatically based on whatever app you are using to give you a more or less isolated atmosphere, depending on the situation. I also appreciate the Aura's increased 70-degree FOV, but if I'm nitpicking, I wish it were a bit higher, as I occasionally found myself wanting a bit more vertical display area. 

Google / Xreal

As a device that's sort of between lightweight smart glasses and a full VR headset, the Aura relies on a wired battery pack that also doubles as a touchpad and a hub for plugging in external devices like your phone, laptop or even game consoles. 

While using the Aura, I was able to connect to a different PC and multitask in style, as the glasses were able to support multiple virtual displays while running several different apps at the same time. This allowed me to be on a virtual call with someone using a Likeness while I had two other virtual windows open on either side. I also played an AR game (Demeo) while I moved around in virtual space and used my hands to reposition the battlefield or pick up objects with my hands. 

Now I will fully admit this is a lot and it took me a bit to process everything. But upon reflection, I have a few takeaways from my time with the various Android XR devices and prototypes. More than any other headset or smart glasses platform out now, it feels like Google is doing a ton to embrace a growing ecosystem of devices. That's really important because we're still so early in the lifecycle for wearable gadgets with displays that no one has really figured out a truly polished design like we have for smartphones and laptops. And until we get there, this means that a highly adaptable OS will go a long way towards supporting OEMs like Samsung, Xreal and others. 

But that's not all. It's clear Google is focused on making Android XR devices easy to build for. That's because the company knows that without useful software that can highlight the components and features coming on next-gen spectacles, there's a chance that interest will remain rather niche — similar to what we've seen when looking at the adoption of VR headsets. So in a way, Google is waging a battle on two fronts, which makes navigating uncharted waters that much more difficult. 

Sam Rutherford for Engadget

Google is putting a major emphasis on Android XR's ability to serve as a framework for future gadgets and support and address developer needs. This mirrors the approach the company takes with regular Android and the opposite of Apple's typical MO, because unlike the Vision Pro and visionOS, it appears Google is going to rely heavily on its partners like Xreal, Warby Parker, Gentle Monster and others to create engaging hardware. Furthermore, Google says it plans to support smart glasses that can be tethered to Android and iOS phones, as well as smartwatches from both ecosystems, though there will be some limitations for people using Apple devices due to inherent OS restrictions.

That's not to say that there won't be Pixel glasses sometime down the road, but at least for now, I think that's a smart approach and possibly a lesson Google learned after releasing Google Glass over a decade ago. Meanwhile, hi-res and incredibly realistic avatars like Likenesses could be a turning point for virtual collaboration, because, in a first for me, talking to a digital representation of someone else felt kind of natural. After my demos, I had a chance to talk to Senior Director of Product Management for XR Juston Payne, who highlighted the difference between smart glasses and typical gadgets by saying "Smart glasses have to be great glasses first. They need to have a good form factor, good lenses with prescription support, they need to look good and they have to be easy to buy."

That's no simple task and there's no guarantee that next-gen smart glasses and headsets will be a grand slam. But from what I've seen, Google is building a very compelling foundation with Android XR.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/heres-how-google-is-laying-the-foundation-for-our-mixed-reality-future-180000716.html?src=rss

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Uber will begin selling customer data to marketers, according to a report by Business Insider. The company's ad division just launched a new insights platform called Uber Intelligence that's tasked with hoovering up and selling trip and delivery data.

The data will technically be anonymous, via the use of a platform called LiveRamp. This will "let advertisers securely combine their customer data with Uber's to help surface insights about their audiences, based on what they eat and where they travel."

Basically, it'll provide a broad view of local consumer trends based on collected data. Uber gives an example of a hotel brand using the technology to identify which restaurants or venues to partner with according to rideshare information.

The company also says it's planning on using this tech to directly advertise to consumers, saying it could be used to identify customers who are "heavy business travelers" and then plague them with ads in the app or in vehicles during their next trip to the airport. Fun times.

"That seamlessness is why we're so excited," Edwin Wong, global head of measurement at Uber Advertising, told Business Insider. Uber has stated that its ad business is already on track to generate $1.5 billion in revenue this year, and that's before implementing these changes.

As for Uber in totality, the company made $44 billion in 2024, which was a jump from $37 billion in 2023. It's also notorious for raising fares. Uber has raised prices for consumers by around 18 percent each year since 2018, which has outpaced inflation by up to four times in some markets.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/uber-will-start-selling-trip-and-takeout-data-to-marketers-171011769.html?src=rss

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© Unsplash / Barna Bartis

Netflix has already committed to reviving Star Search for its streaming service, and now the company is turning its attention to a different type of live show: HQ Trivia. Netflix's Best Guess Live is an attempt to revive the late 2010s app-based show with what the company is calling its first "weekday mobile game show."

Best Guess Live will be hosted by Howie Mandel (Deal or No Deal, America's Got Talent) and Hunter March (Sugar Rush) and will broadcast Monday through Friday at 8PM ET / 5PM PT. The game seems like it will lean on multiple choice questions much like HQ Trivia did, and will reward players who answer the fastest and play multiple times per week. Netflix's announcement doesn't have any specifics as to how much money will be up for grabs, but the company does promise to give away "thousands of dollars in prize money."

HQ Trivia, started by Vine co-founders Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll, was a surprise hit when it debuted in 2017, thanks in part to its host Scott Rogowsky and the appointment-viewing nature of a daily game show you could watch on your phone. The later slow collapse of HQ was rocky enough to warrant a CNN documentary, but clearly the concept of the app fits nicely with Netflix's growing interest in live shows and casual games.

Netflix has experimented with a growing number of live shows, including talk shows and sports programming. The company has also recently abandoned its aspirations to develop AAA games and ambitious indie titles to focus on casual experiences and games based on Netflix IP. Best Guess Live seems like a nice fusion of casual interactive experience and lightweight live content. Many people already open the Netflix app daily to find something to watch. It makes sense they'd be willing to do it for money, too.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/best-guess-live-is-netflixs-take-on-hq-trivia-170000030.html?src=rss

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The makers of ICEBlock, the community-based reporting app for ICE sightings and activity, are suing the federal government, alleging "unlawful threats" made by Trump administration officials led to the app's removal from app stores. The suit centers on free speech violations and accuses the administration of coercing Apple into taking down the app in October. Google began taking down similar apps around the same time.

Josh Aaron developed ICEBlock in response to the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration. The app allowed users to pin ICE agent locations on a map as well as add notes such as what agents were wearing or the kind of vehicle they were driving. The app would then alert users within a five-mile radius of the sighting. The White House called the app "an incitement of further violence against… ICE officers" and sought its removal.

“A lesson we should all take from this is when we see our government is doing something wrong, it is our duty to stand up,” Aaron told the New York Times.

This isn't the first time Apple has faced controversy for an app takedown. In 2019, the company removed an app that protesters in Hong Kong were using to track police after facing pressure from the Chinese government.

Apple, for its part, said it took the app down in response to "information we've received from law enforcement about the safety risks associated with ICEBlock." Federal officials said the gunman who attacked an ICE facility in Dallas had used tracking apps, including ICEBlock.

"Fundamentally, ICEBlock neither enables nor encourages confrontation — it simply delivers time-limited location information to help users stay aware of their surroundings in a responsible and nonviolent way," Aaron's suit reads.

Engadget has reached out to Apple for comment and will update if we hear back.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-developer-behind-iceblock-is-suing-the-federal-government-165111674.html?src=rss

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© Anadolu via Getty Images

Paramount has been none too pleased about Netflix striking an $82.7 billion deal to buy much of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). Now, Paramount is making a hostile takeover bid for WBD. It's making its pitch directly to WBD shareholders with an all-cash offer of $30 per share that expires on January 8.

Late last week, the WBD board unanimously accepted Netflix's offer of $27.75 per share. That breaks down to $23.25 per share in cash and another $4.50 per share in Netflix stock. Netflix's overall bid is valued at $82.7 billion, while Paramount's totals $108.4 billion.

There's a key difference when it comes to the Paramount offer, as it’s for all of WBD. The latter is scheduled to split into two companies next year. Netflix only wants the Streaming and Studios side of WBD's business, which includes HBO Max and the Warner Bros. film, TV and game studios.

Paramount is after the whole shebang, including WBD's cable channels (Global Networks). "WBD's Board of Directors recommendation of the Netflix transaction over Paramount's offer is based on an illusory prospective valuation of Global Networks that is unsupported by the business fundamentals and encumbered by high levels of financial leverage assigned to the entity," Paramount said in a press release on Monday.

As of the end of September, WBD was carrying $34.5 billion of gross debt. It planned to saddle the Global Networks company (aka Discovery Global) with most of that. The Paramount offer includes $40.7 billion in financing from the family of Paramount CEO David Ellison — his father is Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison — and RedBird Capital, but it would be taking on more debt to secure a deal for WBD. The bid includes "$54 billion of debt commitments from Bank of America, Citi and Apollo." (Apollo owns a majority stake in Yahoo, Engadget's parent company).

According to an SEC filing [PDF], other entities are backing the Paramount bid, including Jared Kushner’s investment firm Affinity Partners and the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia (the Public Investment Fund), Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Tencent was a financing partner in a previous Paramount offer, but it’s not involved with the hostile takeover attempt.

In a letter sent to WBD CEO David Zazlav before the company accepted Netflix's offer, Paramount questioned the "fairness and adequacy" of the sale process. It asked whether WBD was acting in the best interest of shareholders after the management team allegedly appeared to favor the Netflix offer.

"Despite Paramount submitting six proposals over the course of 12 weeks, WBD never engaged meaningfully with these proposals which we believe deliver the best outcome for WBD shareholders," Paramount said. "Paramount has now taken its offer directly to WBD shareholders and its Board of Directors to ensure they have the opportunity to pursue this clearly superior alternative."

Paramount — which Skydance bought for $8 billion this year — also claims that its offer is likely to face less regulatory scrutiny than the Netflix offer, which wouldn't close until sometime after WBD splits in two later in 2026. According to CNBC, Paramount executives believe that the company's smaller size and cozy relationship with the Trump administration will help streamline the regulatory process. Over the weekend, President Donald Trump said that Netflix's bid for WBD has "got to go through a process, and we’ll see what happens. But it is a big market share. It could be a problem."

In a statement to Variety, WBD said it will consider Paramount’s latest bid and provide a recommendation to its stockholders within 10 business days — in other words, by December 19. The company said it “is not modifying its recommendation with respect to the agreement with Netflix” for the time being and it is asking shareholders “not to take any action at this time with respect to Paramount Skydance’s proposal.”

Meanwhile, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said at an event on Monday that Paramount’s new offer was “entirely expected. We have a deal done, and we are incredibly happy with the deal. We think it’s great for our shareholders. It’s great for consumers. We think it’s a great way to create and protect jobs in the entertainment industry. We’re super confident we’re going to get it across the line and finish.”

Update December 8, 2025, 11:14AM ET: Added details about the involvement of sovereign wealth funds and Affinity Partners.

Update December 8, 2025, 2:38PM ET: Added the responses from WBD and Netflix.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/paramount-makes-a-108-billion-hostile-takeover-bid-for-warner-bros-discovery-152248473.html?src=rss

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It’s 2025, so chances are you have at least one person who works remotely on your gift list. While the work-from-home life has its perks — nobody likes a long commute — it certainly comes with its own set of challenges, from missing out on pro-level equipment to dealing with annoyances around the house. If you’re looking to buy a gift for someone who spends much of their time in their home office, we’ve rounded up a few techy ideas that should make their days a little more delightful — or at least easier to manage.

Best gifts for remote workers

Check out the rest of our gift ideas here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/the-22-best-gift-ideas-for-the-remote-worker-in-your-life-140037336.html?src=rss

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Amazon's budget Blink smart home brand is adding AI-generated video descriptions as a new benefit for subscribers. Blink Video Descriptions are text descriptions of the motion doorbells and cameras capture, and they’ll be available in beta starting December 8.

Not unlike Ring Video Descriptions, a feature offered on Amazon's other smart home brand, Blink's AI-generated descriptions are supposed to be a concise way to check out what's happening in and around your home. Any kind of motion can produce a video clip and a notification in the Blink app, but video descriptions should help weed out which ones are worth watching and worrying about.

Blink says Video Descriptions will be supported on all existing Blink doorbells and cameras, provided you're paying to be a Blink subscriber for at least $4 a month or $40 a year. That means if you've scooped up one of the new Blink 2K+, Blink Outdoor 2K+ or Blink Arc cameras, you'll be able to take advantage of the feature.

Blink Video Descriptions start rolling out to subscribers today in beta, though not in Illinois, possibly due to the state's Biometric Information Privacy Act.

Correction, Dec 8, 2025, 12:03pm ET: This story originally misstated the availability date for the beta as mid November.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/blink-budget-security-cameras-will-support-ai-powered-video-descriptions-143000725.html?src=rss

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Cyber Monday has come and gone, but you can still get a great deal on a smartwatch with the Google Pixel Watch 4 marked down to $300 from $350. At almost 15 percent off, this is the lowest we've ever seen it.

The Pixel Watch 4 was just released in October and is our smartwatch of choice for users with Pixel phones. In our hands-on review we scored it 86 out of 100, taking note of its fast recharge time, health and fitness tracking, repairable design and gorgeous display.

The curved display sits under a domed glass cover and sports an impressive 3,000 nits of peak brightness, well beyond the 2,000 nits max of the Apple Watch Series 11. This makes the Pixel Watch 4 about 50 percent brighter than the previous generation, and thanks to smaller bezels the display is about 10 percent bigger.

The new generation also adds dual-frequency GPS, updated processors and a custom haptic engine. It also boasts a more repairable design thanks to a case that can be easily unscrewed to replace the display or battery. We did find the gesture based raise-to-talk Gemini feature a little gimmicky, and users should note that the watch must be connected to the internet for Gemini to work.

Thanks to all this, we named the Pixel Watch 4 the best smartwatch for Android users. It's as good a workout companion as a daily watch and offers peace of mind with emergency SOS via satellite. If you're an Android user in the market for a smartwatch, this is one of the best deals available now.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/the-google-pixel-watch-4-is-cheaper-than-ever-right-now-141715083.html?src=rss

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© Cherlynn Low for Engadget

Sure, Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, but you can still find a last-minute deal on the best tech gifts. Take the Apple Watch Series 11, which has dropped to an all-time low of $299, from $399. The 25 percent discount is an even better deal than we saw on either of those sale holidays. 

We gave the Apple Watch Series 11 a score of 90 when it came out in September. That's thanks, in part, to an upgraded 24 hours of battery life — which lasted closer to a day and a half — compared to the 18 hours promised by the Series 10. It also features a thin, light design and a wrist flick gesture for everything from dismissing a notification to ending calls. Plus, it has Apple's new hypertension tracker and comprehensive health monitoring. 

This deal is available for the Apple Watch Series 11 with a 42mm case and a small to medium band. It also comes with just GPS capabilities and in three colorways: Jet Black aluminum case with Black sport band, Space Gray aluminum cause with Black sport band and Rose Gold aluminum case with Light Blush sport band. 

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/apple-watch-series-11-drops-100-to-an-all-time-low-price-130006591.html?src=rss

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© Cherlynn Low for Engadget

After Netflix announced that it was acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery last week, observers immediatley wondered when or if the deal could obtain regulatory approval. Now, President Trump has made comments indicating that said approval is likely to take awhile if it happens at all, Bloomberg reported. 

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"Well, that’s got to go through a process, and we’ll see what happens," Trump told reporters in a recent Q&A scrum. "But it is a big market share. It could be a problem." The President added that he will be personally involved in the approval process. 

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As we pointed out last week, Netflix and HBO Max combined would account for around 33 percent of the US streaming video market, ahead of Prime Video's 21 percent share and likely enough to attract the antitrust division of the US Justice Department. For its part, Netflix has said that it will "maintain Warner Bros. current businesses," which includes HBO Max and HBO, theatrical releases for films as well as movie and TV studio operations. 

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Headwinds were likely with any deal, so in November Netflix's co-CEO Ted Sarandos reportedly met with Trump at the White House, arguing that the acquisition wouldn't create a monopoly. Trump said that Warner Bros. Discovery should sell to the highest bidder, and Sarandos left the meeting feeling that Netflix wouldn't face White House opposition in the short term.

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Even before regulators address the acquisition, more drama may ensue. Paramount, which first expressed interested in buying WBD when it wasn't even for sale, may launch a hostile bid. And Hollywood's unions and guilds are up in arms over fears that Netflix may significantly reduce Warner Bros.' theatrical distribution, along with its back end profits and production jobs. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/trump-says-if-netflix-buys-warner-bros-its-market-share-could-be-a-problem-123004774.html?src=rss

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© Netflix/Engadget

It's been over one year since Intuit shut down the popular budgeting app Mint. I was a Mint user for many years; millions of other users like me enjoyed how easily Mint allowed us to track all accounts in one place and monitor credit scores. I also used it regularly to help me track spending, set goals like pay my mortgage down faster and with general money management.

Ahead of Mint’s demise, I gave Credit Karma, Intuit’s other financial app, a try but found it to be a poor Mint alternative. So I set out to find a true replacement in another budgeting app. The following guide lays out my experience testing some of the most popular Mint replacement apps available today. Our pick for best Mint alternative remains Quicken Simplifi, even this long after Mint being shut down, thanks to its easy to use app, good income and bill detection and its affordable price. But there are plenty of other solid options out there for those with different needs. If you’re also on the hunt for a budgeting app to replace Mint, we hope these details can empower you to choose which of the best budgeting apps out there will be right for you.

Table of contents

• Best Mint alternatives in 2025

• Other Mint alternatives we tested

• What is Plaid and how does it work?

• How to import your financial data from the Mint app

• How we tested Mint alternatives

• What about Rocket Money?

Best Mint alternatives in 2025

No pun intended, but what I like about Quicken Simplifi is its simplicity. Whereas other budgeting apps try to distinguish themselves with dark themes and customizable emoji, Simplifi has a clean user interface, with a landing page that you just keep scrolling through to get a detailed overview of all your stats. These include your top-line balances; net worth; recent spending; upcoming recurring payments; a snapshot of your spending plan; top spending categories; achievements; and any watchlists you’ve set up.

Another one of the key features I appreciate is the ability to set up savings goals elsewhere in the app. I also appreciate how it offers neat, almost playful visualizations without ever looking cluttered. I felt at home in the mobile and web dashboards after a day or so, which is faster than I adapted to some competing services (I’m looking at you, YNAB and Monarch).

Getting set up with Simplifi was mostly painless. I was particularly impressed at how easily it connected to Fidelity; not all budget trackers do, for whatever reason. This is also one of the only services I tested that gives you the option of inviting a spouse or financial advisor to co-manage your account. One thing I would add to my initial assessment of the app, having used it for a few months now: I wish Simplifi offered Zillow integration for easily tracking your home value (or at least a rough estimate of it). Various competitors including Monarch Money and Copilot Money work with Zillow, so clearly there's a Zillow API available for use. As it stands, Simplifi users must add real estate manually like any other asset.

Dana Wollman / Engadget

In practice, Simplifi miscategorized some of my expenses, but nothing out of the ordinary compared to any of these budget trackers. As you’re reviewing transactions, you can also mark if you’re expecting a refund, which is a unique feature among the services I tested. Simplifi also estimated my regular income better than some other apps I tested. Most of all, I appreciated the option of being able to categorize some, but not all, purchases from a merchant as recurring. For instance, I can add my two Amazon subscribe-and-saves as recurring payments, without having to create a broad-strokes rule for every Amazon purchase.

The budgeting feature is also self-explanatory and can likely accommodate your preferred budgeting method. Just check that your regular income is accurate and be sure to set up recurring payments, making note of which are bills and which are subscriptions. This is important because Simplifi shows you your total take-home income as well as an “income after bills” figure. That number includes, well, bills but not discretionary subscriptions. From there, you can add spending targets by category in the “planned spending” bucket. Planned spending can also include one-time expenditures, not just monthly budgets. When you create a budget, Simplifi will suggest a number based on a six-month average.

Not dealbreakers, but two things to keep in mind as you get started: Simplifi is notable in that you can’t set up an account through Apple or Google. There is also no option for a free trial, though Quicken promises a “30-day money back guarantee.”

Monarch Money grew on me. My first impression of the budgeting app, which was founded by a former Mint product manager, was that it's more difficult to use than others on this list, including Simplifi, NerdWallet and Copilot. And it is. Editing expense categories, adding recurring transactions and creating rules, for example, is a little more complicated than it needs to be, especially in the mobile app. (My advice: Use the web app for fine-tuning details.) Monarch also didn’t get my income right; I had to edit it.

Once you’re set up, though, Monarch offers an impressive level of granularity. In the budgets section, you can see a bona fide balance sheet showing budgets and actuals for each category. You'll also find a forecast, for the year or by month. And recurring expenses can be set not just by merchant, but other parameters as well. For instance, while most Amazon purchases might be marked as “shopping,” those for the amounts of $54.18 or $34.18 are definitely baby supplies, and can be automatically marked as such each time, not to mention programmed as recurring payments. Weirdly, though, there’s no way to mark certain recurring payments as bills, specifically.

Dana Wollman / Engadget

Not long after I first published this story in December 2023, Monarch introduced a detailed reporting section where you can create on-demand graphs based on things like accounts, categories and tags. That feature is available just on the web version of the app for now. As part of this same update, Monarch added support for an aggregator that makes it possible to automatically update the value of your car. This, combined with the existing Zillow integration for tracking your home value, makes it easy to quickly add a non-liquid asset like a vehicle or real estate, and have it show up in your net worth graph.

The mobile app is mostly self-explanatory. The main dashboard shows your net worth; your four most recent transactions; a month-over-month spending comparison; income month-to-date; upcoming bills; an investments snapshot; a list of any goals you’ve set; and, finally, a link to your month-in-review. That month-in-review is more detailed than most, delving into cash flow; top income and expense categories; cash flow trends; changes to your net worth, assets and liabilities; plus asset and liability breakdowns. In February 2024, Monarch expanded on the net worth graph, so that if you click on the Accounts tab you can see how your net worth changed over different periods of time, including one month, three months, six months, a year or all time.

On the main screen, you’ll also find tabs for savings and checking accounts (and all others as well), transactions, cash flow, budget and recurring. Like many of the other apps featured here, Monarch can auto-detect recurring expenses and income, even if it gets the category wrong. (They all do to an extent.) Expense categories are marked by emoji, which you can customize if you’re so inclined.

Monarch Money uses a combination of networks to connect with banks, including Plaid, MX and Finicity, a competing network owned by Mastercard. (I have a quick explainer on Plaid, the industry standard in this space, toward the end of this guide.) As part of an update in late December, Monarch has also made it easier to connect through those other two networks, if for some reason Plaid fails. Similar to NerdWallet, I found myself completing two-factor authentication every time I wanted to get past the Plaid screen to add another account. Notably, Monarch is the only other app I tested that allows you to grant access to someone else in your family — likely a spouse or financial advisor. Monarch also has a Chrome extension for importing from Mint, though really this is just a shortcut for downloading a CSV file, which you’ll have to do regardless of where you choose to take your Mint data.

Additionally, Monarch just added the ability to track Apple Card, Apple Cash, and Savings accounts, thanks to new functionality brought with the iOS 17.4 update. It's not the only one either; currently, Copilot and YNAB have also added similar functionality that will be available to anyone with the latest versions of their respective apps on a device running iOS 17.4. Instead of manually uploading statements, the new functionality allows apps like Monarch's to automatically pull in transactions and balance history. That should make it easier to account for spending on Apple cards and accounts throughout the month.

Monarch also recently launched investment transactions in beta. It also says bill tracking and an overhauled goals system are coming soon. Monarch hasn't provided a timeline for that last one, except to say that the improved goals feature is coming soon.

Copilot Money might be the best-looking budgeting app I tested. It also has the distinction of being exclusive to iOS and Macs — at least for now. Andres Ugarte, the company’s CEO, has publicly promised that Android and web apps are coming soon. But until it follows through, I can’t recommend Copilot for most people with so many good competitors out there.

There are other features that Copilot is missing, which I’ll get into. But it is promising, and one to keep an eye on. It’s just a fast, efficient, well designed app, and Android users will be in for a treat when they’ll finally be able to download it. It makes good use of colors, emoji and graphs to help you understand at a glance how you’re doing on everything from your budgets to your investment performance to your credit card debt over time. In particular, Copilot does a better job than almost any other app of visualizing your recurring monthly expenses.

Behind those punchy colors and cutesy emoji, though, is some sophisticated performance. Copilot’s AI-powered “Intelligence” gets smarter as you go at categorizing your expenses. (You can also add your own categories, complete with your choice of emoji.) It’s not perfect. Copilot miscategorized some purchases (they all do), but it makes it easier to edit than most. On top of that, the internal search feature is very fast; it starts whittling down results in your transaction history as soon as you begin typing.

Dana Wollman / Engadget

Copilot is also unique in offering Amazon and Venmo integrations, allowing you to see transaction details. With Amazon, this requires just signing into your Amazon account via an in-app browser. For Venmo, you have to set up fwd@copilot.money as a forwarding address and then create a filter, wherein emails from venmo@venmo.com are automatically forwarded to fwd@copilot.money. Like Monarch Money, you can also add any property you own and track its value through Zillow, which is integrated with the app.

While the app is heavily automated, I still appreciate that Copilot marks new transactions for review. It’s a good way to both weed out fraudulent charges, and also be somewhat intentional about your spending habits.

Like Monarch Money, Copilot updated its app to make it easier to connect to banks through networks other than Plaid. As part of the same update, Copilot said it has improved its connections to both American Express and Fidelity which, again, can be a bugbear for some budget tracking apps. In an even more recent update, Copilot added a Mint import option, which other budgeting apps have begun to offer as well.

Because the app is relatively new (it launched in early 2020), the company is still catching up to the competition on some table-stakes features. Ugarte told me that his team is almost done building out a detailed cash flow section as well. On its website, Copilot also promises a raft of AI-powered features that build on its current “Intelligence” platform, the one that powers its smart expense categorization. These include “smart financial goals,” natural language search, a chat interface, forecasting and benchmarking. That benchmarking, Ugarte tells me, is meant to give people a sense of how they’re doing compared to other Copilot users, on both spending and investment performance. Most of these features should arrive in the new year.

Copilot does a couple interesting things for new customers that distinguish it from the competition. There’s a “demo mode” that feels like a game simulator; no need to add your own accounts. The company is also offering two free months with RIPMINT — a more generous introductory offer than most. When it finally does come time to pony up, the $7.92 monthly plan is cheaper than some competing apps, although the $95-a-year-option is in the same ballpark.

You may know NerdWallet as a site that offers a mix of personal finance news, explainers and guides. I see it often when I google a financial term I don’t know and sure enough, it’s one of the sites I’m most likely to click on. As it happens, NerdWallet also has the distinction of offering one of the only free budgeting apps I tested. In fact, there is no paid version; nothing is locked behind a paywall. The main catch: There are ads everywhere. To be fair, the free version of Mint was like this, too.

Even with the inescapable credit card offers, NerdWallet has a clean, easy-to-understand user interface, which includes both a web and a mobile app. The key metrics that it highlights most prominently are your cash flow, net worth and credit score. (Of note, although Mint itself offered credit score monitoring, most of its rivals do not.) I particularly enjoyed the weekly insights, which delve into things like where you spent the most money or how much you paid in fees — and how that compares to the previous month. Because this is NerdWallet, an encyclopedia of financial info, you get some particularly specific category options when setting up your accounts (think: a Roth or non-Roth IRA).

Dana Wollman / Engadget

As a budgeting app, NerdWallet is more than serviceable, if a bit basic. Like other apps I tested, you can set up recurring bills. Importantly, it follows the popular 50/30/20 budgeting rule, which has you putting 50% of your budget toward things you need, 30% toward things you want, and the remaining 20% into savings or debt repayments. If this works for you, great — just know that you can’t customize your budget to the same degree as some competing apps. You can’t currently create custom spending categories, though a note inside the dashboard section of the app says “you’ll be able to customize them in the future.” You also can’t move items from the wants column to “needs” or vice versa but “In the future, you'll be able to move specific transactions to actively manage what falls into each group.” A NerdWallet spokesperson declined to provide an ETA, though.

Lastly, it’s worth noting that NerdWallet had one of the most onerous setup processes of any app I tested. I don’t think this is a dealbreaker, as you’ll only have to do it once and, hopefully, you aren’t setting up six or seven apps in tandem as I was. What made NerdWallet’s onboarding especially tedious is that every time I wanted to add an account, I had to go through a two-factor authentication process to even get past the Plaid splash screen, and that’s not including the 2FA I had set up at each of my banks. This is a security policy on NerdWallet’s end, not Plaid’s, a Plaid spokesperson says.

Precisely because NerdWallet is one of the only budget trackers to offer credit score monitoring, it also needs more of your personal info during setup, including your birthday, address, phone number and the last four digits of your social security number. It’s the same with Credit Karma, which also does credit score monitoring.

Related to the setup process, I found that NerdWallet was less adept than other apps at automatically detecting my regular income. In my case, it counted a large one-time wire transfer as income, at which point my only other option was to enter my income manually (which is slightly annoying because I would have needed my pay stub handy to double-check my take-home pay).

YNAB is, by its own admission, “different from anything you’ve tried before.” The app, whose name is short for You Need a Budget, promotes a so-called zero-based budgeting system, which forces you to assign a purpose for every dollar you earn. A frequently used analogy is to put each dollar in an envelope; you can always move money from one envelope to another in a pinch. These envelopes can include rent and utilities, along with unforeseen expenses like holiday gifts and the inevitable car repair. The idea is that if you budget a certain amount for the unknowns each month, they won’t feel like they’re sneaking up on you.

Importantly, YNAB is only concerned with the money you have in your accounts now. The app does not ask you to provide your take-home income or set up recurring income payments (although there is a way to do this). The money you will make later in the month through your salaried job is not relevant, because YNAB does not engage in forecasting.

The app is harder to learn than any other here, and it requires more ongoing effort from the user. And YNAB knows that. Inside both the mobile and web apps are links to videos and other tutorials. Although I never quite got comfortable with the user interface, I did come to appreciate YNAB’s insistence on intentionality. Forcing users to draft a new budget each month and to review each transaction is not necessarily a bad thing. As YNAB says on its website, “Sure, you’ve got pie charts showing that you spent an obscene amount of money in restaurants — but you’ve still spent an obscene amount of money in restaurants.” I can see this approach being useful for people who don’t tend to have a lot of cash in reserve at a given time, or who have spending habits they want to correct (to riff off of YNAB’s own example, ordering Seamless four times a week).

My colleague Valentina Palladino, knowing I was working on this guide, penned a respectful rebuttal, explaining why she’s been using YNAB for years. Perhaps, like her, you have major savings goals you want to achieve, whether it’s paying for a wedding or buying a house. I suggest you give her column a read. For me, though, YNAB’s approach feels like overkill.

Other Mint alternatives we tested

PocketGuard

PocketGuard used to be a solid free budget tracker, but the company has since limited its “free” version to just a free seven-day trial. Now, you’ll have to choose between two plans once the trial is over: a $13 monthly plan or a $75 annual plan. When I first tested it, I found it to be more restricted than NerdWallet, but still a decent option. The main overview screen shows you your net worth, total assets and debts; net income and total spending for the month; upcoming bills; a handy reminder of when your next paycheck lands; any debt payoff plan you have; and any goals. Like some other apps, including Quicken Simplifi, PocketGuard promotes an “after bills” approach, where you enter all of your recurring bills, and then PocketGuard shows you what’s left, and that’s what you’re supposed to be budgeting: your disposable income.

Although PocketGuard’s UI is easy enough to understand, it lacks polish. The “accounts” tab is a little busy, and doesn’t show totals for categories like cash or investments. Seemingly small details like weirdly phrased or punctuated copy occasionally make the app feel janky. More than once, it prompted me to update the app when no updates were available. The web version, meanwhile, feels like the mobile app blown up to a larger format and doesn’t take advantage of the extra screen real estate. Ultimately, now that the free tier is gone, it just doesn’t present the same value proposition as it once did.

What is Plaid and how does it work?

Each of the apps I tested uses the same underlying network, called Plaid, to pull in financial data, so it’s worth explaining in its own section what it is and how it works. Plaid was founded as a fintech startup in 2013 and is today the industry standard in connecting banks with third-party apps. Plaid works with over 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada and Europe. Additionally, more than 8,000 third-party apps and services rely on Plaid, the company claims.

To be clear, you don’t need a dedicated Plaid app to use it; the technology is baked into a wide array of apps, including the budget trackers I tested for this guide. Once you find the “add an account” option in whichever one you’re using, you’ll see a menu of commonly used banks. There’s also a search field you can use to look yours up directly. Once you find yours, you’ll be prompted to enter your login credentials. If you have two-factor authentication set up, you’ll need to enter a one-time passcode as well.

As the middleman, Plaid is a passthrough for information that may include your account balances, transaction history, account type and routing or account number. Plaid uses encryption, and says it has a policy of not selling or renting customer data to other companies. However, I would not be doing my job if I didn’t note that in 2022 Plaid was forced to pay $58 million to consumers in a class action suit for collecting “more financial data than was needed.” As part of the settlement, Plaid was compelled to change some of its business practices.

In a statement provided to Engadget, a Plaid spokesperson said the company continues to deny the allegations underpinning the lawsuit and that “the crux of the non-financial terms in the settlement are focused on us accelerating workstreams already underway related to giving people more transparency into Plaid’s role in connecting their accounts, and ensuring that our workstreams around data minimization remain on track.”

How to import your financial data from the Mint app

Mint users should consider getting their data ready to migrate to their new budgeting app of choice soon. Unfortunately, importing data from Mint is not as easy as entering your credentials from inside your new app and hitting “import.” In fact, any app that advertises the ability to port over your stats from Mint is just going to have you upload a CSV file of transactions and other data.

To download a CSV file from Mint, do the following:

1. Sign into Mint.com and hit Transactions in the menu on the left side of the screen.

2. Select an account, or all accounts.

3. Scroll down and look for “export [number] transactions” in smaller print.

4. Your CSV file should begin downloading.

Note: Downloading on a per-account basis might seem more annoying, but could help you get set up on the other side, if the app you’re using has you importing transactions one-for-one into their corresponding accounts.

How we tested Mint alternatives

Before I dove into the world of budgeting apps, I had to do some research. To find a list of apps to test, I consulted trusty ol’ Google (and even trustier Reddit); read reviews of popular apps on the App Store; and also asked friends and colleagues what budget tracking apps they might be using. Some of the apps I found were free, just like Mint. These, of course, show loads of ads (excuse me, “offers”) to stay in business. But most of the available apps require paid subscriptions, with prices typically topping out around $100 a year, or $15 a month. (Spoiler: My top pick is cheaper than that.)

Since this guide is meant to help Mint users find a permanent replacement, any services I chose to test needed to do several things: import all of your account data into one place; offer budgeting tools; and track your spending, net worth and credit score. Except where noted, all of these apps are available for iOS, Android and on the web.

Once I had my shortlist of six apps, I got to work setting them up. For the sake of thoroughly testing these apps (and remember, I really was looking for a Mint alternative myself), I made a point of adding every account to every budgeting app, no matter how small or immaterial the balance. What ensued was a veritable Groundhog Day of two-factor authentication. Just hours of entering passwords and one-time passcodes, for the same banks half a dozen times over. Hopefully, you only have to do this once.

What about Rocket Money?

Rocket Money is another free financial app that tracks spending and supports things like balance alerts and account linking. If you pay for the premium tier, the service can also help you cancel unwanted subscriptions. We did not test it for this guide, but we'll consider it in future updates.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/the-best-budgeting-apps-to-replace-mint-143047346.html?src=rss

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If you haven't yet upgraded to Apple's AirPods Pro 3, you can pick up the company's latest model at a discount through a deal on Amazon right now. The AirPods Pro 3, which came out in September, are currently down from $249 to $220 — their Cyber Monday all-time low price. With the new AirPods Pro, Apple made some big improvements, including better battery life and sound quality, and introduced useful new features, such as Live Translation.

The AirPods Pro 3 are the best AirPods available today, with Apple's H2 chip, and earned a score of 90 out of 100 in Engadget's review this fall. Active noise cancellation (ANC) is one of the biggest selling points of the AirPods Pro, and Apple has made the experience even better with the AirPods Pro 3. They sport new foam-infused ear tips that create a better seal to improve passive noise isolation, and as Engadget's Billy Steele wrote in his review, "Ultra-low-noise microphones combine with advanced computational audio to silence even more background noise." In testing, they had no problem blocking out the chatter of people nearby or otherwise noisy environments.

With the AirPods Pro 3, Apple introduced heart-rate sensing, so you'll be able to see your heart rate data from the earbuds in the Fitness app and other workout apps. The AirPods Pro 3 also boast Live Translation, which you can activate via controls on the earbuds themselves. As long as you have an Apple Intelligence-capable device, you'll be able to translate in-person conversations in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Chinese (Mandarin).

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-airpods-pro-3-are-back-to-an-all-time-low-price-222806220.html?src=rss

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© Billy Steele for Engadget

One does not simply spend more than 11 hours watching The Lord of the Rings trilogy in a single weekend at home when the opportunity to do so in theaters arises. As The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring turns 25, Fathom Entertainment and Warner Bros. announced theatrical screenings of the Peter Jackson trilogy in their extended editions, according to an exclusive report from Variety.

The re-releases will be available in DBOX presentations from January 16 to 19, complete with movements and vibrations to make you feel like you're making the journey to Mordor with Frodo and his entourage. If you prefer a traditional experience, the trilogy will be available in standard format from January 23 to 25.

Fathom Entertainment

Fathom Entertainment

For the collectors out there, the screenings will also feature limited-edition themed concession items. Fans can purchase popcorn buckets that showcase maps of Middle-earth at AMC locations, while Regal venues and other local cinemas will have buckets with designs of the One Ring. Tickets are already on sale at Fathom's website.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-lord-of-the-rings-trilogy-returns-to-theaters-in-january-for-25th-anniversary-202433217.html?src=rss

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© Fathom Entertainment

Those might not exactly be ads you're seeing on ChatGPT, at least according to OpenAI. Nick Turley, OpenAI's head of ChatGPT, clarified the confusion around potential ads appearing with the AI chatbot. In a post on X, Turley said "there are no live tests for ads" and that "any screenshots you've seen are either not real or not ads." The OpenAI exec's explanation comes after another post from former xAI employee Benjamin De Kraker on X that has gained traction, which featured a screenshot showing an option to shop at Target within a ChatGPT conversation.

OpenAI's Daniel McAuley responded to the post, arguing that it's not an ad but rather an example of app integration that the company announced in October. However, the company's chief research officer, Mark Chen, also replied on X that they "fell short" in this case, adding that "anything that feels like an ad needs to be handled with care."

"We’ve turned off this kind of suggestion while we improve the model’s precision," Chen wrote on X. "We’re also looking at better controls so you can dial this down or off if you don’t find it helpful."

There's still a lot of uncertainty about whether OpenAI will introduce ads to ChatGPT, but in November, someone discovered code in a beta version of the ChatGPT app on Android that made several mentions of ads. Even in Turley's post debunking the inclusion of live ads, the OpenAI exec added that "if we do pursue ads, we’ll take a thoughtful approach." Turley also posted that "people trust ChatGPT and anything we do will be designed to respect that."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openais-head-of-chatgpt-says-posts-appearing-to-show-in-app-ads-are-not-real-or-not-ads-190454584.html?src=rss

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© Benjamin De Kraker / X

Just a day after receiving a roughly $140 million fine, X has terminated the ad account of the European Commission. Nikita Bier, X's head of product, accused the European Commission of using an exploit to artificially boost the reach of its post announcing the major fine.

In the post, Bier said that the commission "logged into [their] dormant ad account to take advantage of an exploit in our Ad Composer" and posted "a link that deceives users into thinking it’s a video and to artificially increase its reach." Bier explained in a separate post that the exploit has "never been abused like this" and "is now patched." However, X still revoked the European Commission's ability to buy and track ads on its platform.

While X decided to remove the European Commission's ad account, it still needs to submit specific measures and an action plan to address the concerns associated with the $140 million fine. The European Commission's spokesperson for Tech Sovereignty, Defence, Space and Research, Thomas Regnier, said that this is the first-ever fine under the Digital Services Act. The European legislative body claimed that X has a deceptive system when it comes to verified accounts, lacks transparency with its advertising repository and doesn't provide effective data for researchers. In response, X's owner, Elon Musk, replied to the European Commission's post, calling it "bullshit."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/x-shuts-down-the-european-commissions-ad-account-the-day-after-major-fine-173553267.html?src=rss

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© European Commission