Amazon has responded to viewers catching errors in its AI-generated season recaps by apparently pulling them from Prime Video. The company announced its new Video Recaps feature in November as a way to make it easier to jump into a new season of a show, but the feature had issues: A recap created for Fallout included factual errors about the plot and the setting of the show.
On Prime Video, recaps can be played in the "Extras" section if you're watching on the web, or via a dedicated "recap button" on the show's page, according to Amazon's original Video Recaps announcement. If you head to the Fallout season two page now, the erroneous recap has been removed. In fact, at least on the web, there are currently no video recaps available on the show's Amazon was testing the feature on, which includes Fallout, Bosch, Upload, The Rig and Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan.
Engadget has contacted Amazon for more information on why the recaps were removed. We'll update this article if we hear back.
Video Recaps are just one of the ways Amazon is trying to integrate AI into its different products and services. The company offered AI-generated English dubs for select anime shows on Prime Video, before it pulled the dubs after users complained. Amazon also uses AI to generate recaps for long-running book series that are sold through the Kindle Store.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/amazon-pulls-its-bad-ai-video-recaps-after-fallout-fallout-220358758.html?src=rss
IKEA's revamp of its smart home products doesn't end with Matter support. The furniture and home goods company also has a line of new Qi wireless chargers, the best of which, the VÄSTMÄRKE wireless charger, combines the functionality of a PopSockets-style phone grip with cable storage.
The $10 VÄSTMÄRKE wireless charger is reminiscent of a bagel or donut, if you could take the top half of those ring-shaped foods and turn them inside out to create a cozy grip for your fingers. That same red silicone design also makes for a perfect place to store the charger's built-in USB-C cable, according to IKEA's product page, and otherwise acts as a playful replacement for what can be a pretty boring smartphone accessory.
A VÄSTMÄRKE wireless charger with its top half unfolded so fingers can grip it.
IKEA
VÄSTMÄRKE offers Qi2 charging speeds and can magnetically attach to iPhones with MagSafe or Pixel phones with Google's Pixelsnap magnets. If you're interested in something a bit more discrete, the $25 VÄSTMÄRKE wireless charger with lighting is a bowl-shaped charger with a column in the center for attaching a smartphone, and room around it for keys or your wallet.
IKEA has had multiple different ideas over the years for how smart home tech should integrate with its minimalist and user-friendly furniture. The company's partnership with Sonos ended in May 2025, which produced lights and picture frames with smart speakers built-in. Since then, the company has announced a new Bluetooth speaker and started rolling out a new collection of Matter-connected remotes, lights and sensors.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/ikeas-new-wireless-charger-is-as-cute-as-it-is-practical-195013422.html?src=rss
The next game from Left 4 Dead designer Mike Booth is putting a sci-fi spin on his last game's co-op action, based on a trailer Booth and producer JJ Abrams shared at The Game Awards 2025. The new game is called 4:LOOP, and it's the first project entirely developed by Bad Robot Games, film production company Bad Robot's game studio.
4:LOOP combines the four-player co-op action of Left 4 Dead, with roguelike elements enabled by what seems like a time loop mechanic. Based on the trailer, players fight a mixture of aliens and robots in each mission, all in the hopes of eventually drawing the attention of an alien mothership and destroying it.
"Each time the four-player team succeeds in a mission, they make choices to improve their equipment, building out a unique kit to survive the epic boss battle at the end of the Act," Booth said in an interview with PlayStation Blog. "If the team completes all three Acts, they defeat the Mothership and save the world. All of this is, of course, easier said than done."
Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that it would be publishing 4:LOOP earlier in December, so naturally the game will be available on PS5 and PC when it launches. Players interested in trying 4:LOOP can sign up on the game's website.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/4loop-is-a-co-op-shooter-from-the-creator-of-left-4-dead-and-jj-abrams-bad-robot-035835461.html?src=rss
The last mainline Tomb Raider game was 2018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and after spending a few years in video game purgatory, Lara Croft is coming back in two new games. At The Game Awards 2025, Amazon Game Studios announced that Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantiswillreimagine of one of the hero’s early adventures in 2026, and Tomb Raider: Catalystwill continue the series in 2027.
Catalyst is developed by Crystal Dynamicsand follows Lara through Northern India “in the wake of a mythical cataclysm,” as she comes into competition with other treasure hunters. Legacy of Atlantis, developed by Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog, reimagines the very first Tomb Raider game in Unreal Engine 5. And yes, it seems like dinosaurs will be in the mix.
A new Tomb Raider game has been in the works officially since at least 2022, when Amazon announced that it would be publishing the next game in the series. Amazon shared that Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge would be developing a television adaptation of Tomb Raider in May 2024. Sophie Turner, best known for playing Sansa Stark on HBO’s Game of Thrones, was cast as Lara Croft in September 2025. With both a show and a game in the works, Amazon clearly seems interested in making Tomb Raider its next big crossover hit after the success of Fallout.
Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis will be released in 2026 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. The platforms Tomb Raider: Catalyst will be released on weren’t shared, but the game is scheduled to be released in 2027.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/lara-croft-will-return-in-tomb-raider-catalyst-and-a-new-remake-025859998.html?src=rss
South of Midnightis heading to PlayStation 5 and Switch 2 in Spring 2026, developer Compulsion Games announcedon X. The third-person action-adventure game launched as an Xbox and PC exclusive, but like plenty of Microsoft's other first-party games, it's heading to competitors' consoles.
Mixing platforming with magic-infused combat in a unique setting inspired by the folklore of the South, Compulsion Games' South of Midnight was generally well-received when it was released in April 2025. The game likely reached sizable audience by launching on Game Pass and PC, but coming to PlayStation and Switch will open it up to an even bigger audience.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/south-of-midnight-is-coming-to-ps5-and-switch-2-next-spring-022725892.html?src=rss
Amazon's plan to offer AI-generated recaps of Prime Video shows isn't off to a great start. The company's recap of the first season of Fallout features multiple errors, GamesRadar+ writes, including basic facts about the plot of the show.
You can watch the recap yourself in the "Extras" section of Amazon's Fallout season two listing in Prime Video. Besides being somewhat dry, the AI-generated recap incorrectly identifies the time period of the show's Los Angeles-set flashbacks as being the 1950s, when they're actually 2077 (the Fallout franchise is set in an alternate history that diverged from our real one after 1945). As Gizmodo notes, the recap also seems to misunderstand the ending of the first season, which sets up season two's partnership between vault dweller Lucy and The Ghoul, an irradiated wastelander with a personal connection to the mystery at the heart of the first season.
While the recap suggests Amazon's AI system can successfully combine clips, music and dialogue into a coherent video, it apparently lacks an understanding of the details. The inaccuracies in this recap won't prevent anyone from enjoying the second season of the show, but they don't exactly inspire confidence in Amazon's tool either. It also seems like a problem that could have been easily solved by having a human employee who's watched the show review the video before it was uploaded.
Unfortunately, Amazon's lack of AI quality control extends beyond recaps of its shows and into the dubs for the shows themselves. The company pulled AI-generated voiceover tracks for Banana Fish and other anime because of how bad they sounded earlier this week. It wouldn't be surprising if this recap gets pulled, corrected and re-uploaded, too. As Amazon adds more AI-generated content to its platform, users are bound to discover more ways it comes up short. The company's audience is too big, and AI is apparently still too unreliable for it to be avoided.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/amazons-ai-generated-recap-tool-didnt-watch-fallout-very-closely-215712958.html?src=rss
New York is taking steps to regulate the use of AI in the state's entertainment industry. NY State Governor Kathy Hochul passed two pieces of legislation on Thursday that forces certain productions to disclose the use of AI-generated performers, and defines rules around how someone's likeness can be used after their death.
Assembly Bill A8887B, now known as S.8420-A, specifically covers the use of AI performers in advertisements. Per Hochul's announcement, the law "requires persons who produce or create an advertisement to identify if it includes AI generated synthetic performers." S.8391, meanwhile, "requires consent from heirs or executors if a person wishes to use the name, image, or likeness of an individual for commercial purposes after their death."
“By signing these bills today, we are enacting common sense laws that will ensure we are fully transparent when using images generated by artificial intelligence and also prevent the unauthorized commercial use of a deceased individual’s name or likeness," Governor Hochul said in the announcement. "In New York State, we are setting a clear standard that keeps pace with technology, while protecting artists and consumers long after the credits roll."
The use of AI performers and deepfakes made using the likenesses of actors were major focuses of the contract SAG-AFTRA won during its strike in 2023. The union ultimately agreed to allow for the use of things like digital replicas and AI-generated performers, with some key carveouts. For example, actors have to give their explicit consent for a digital replica to be made in their image. They also have to give their consent each time the replica is used and are supposed to receive a pre-negotiated rate every time the replica appears in a production.
New York's new regulations put further safeguards around both practices, and join a growing collection of state AI laws that have passed or are currently being considered this year. Because of the close relationship between tech companies and the Trump administration, though, multiple attempts have been made to prevent such laws from existing at all. A decade-long ban on state AI regulation was included in early drafts of the Big Beautiful Bill, and David Sacks, venture capitalist and White House Special Advisor, has reportedly gone to great lengths to try and get President Donald Trump to sign an executive order banning state AI regulation. The effort may have been worth it: The president posted on Tuesday that he would sign a new executive order focused on AI this week.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/new-york-passes-law-requiring-ads-to-disclose-the-use-of-ai-performers-202619826.html?src=rss
Apple Music and Apple TV were briefly down during outage, according to Apple’s System Status page. The outage was logged on Apple’s own system at around 2:53PM ET and affected both of the company’s streaming services, along with Apple TV’s Channels feature, until the company resolved the issue around 4:31PM ET.
On DownDetector, reports of issues with Apple TV and Apple Music first appeared right around 2:33PM ET, a little before Apple officially confirmed the outage on its own site. Only “some” users were affected by the outage, according to Apple, and anecdotally, multiple members of Engadget’s staff were still able to stream content while the services were reportedly out.
Engadget has reached out to Apple for more information on the outage and how many people were impacted. We’ll update this article if we hear back.
Apple relies on cloud services from third-party companies like Amazon, and is ultimately only as stable the data centers it’s paying for. In October 2025, the company was impacted by the same Amazon Web Services outage that took down services and apps like Alexa, Fortnite and Snapchat for hours.
Update, December 10, 5:09PM ET: Article and headline updated to reflect that the outage has been resolved.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/apple-tv-and-apple-music-were-down-for-some-users-214425802.html?src=rss
Spotify is attempting to give users more control over the music the streaming service recommends with a new playlist feature called "Prompted Playlist." The beta feature is rolling out in New Zealand starting on December 11, and will let users write a custom prompt that Spotify can use — alongside their listening history — to create a playlist of new music.
By tapping on Prompted Playlist, Spotify subscribers participating in the beta will be presented with a prompt field where they can type exactly what they want to hear and how they want Spotify's algorithm to respond. And while past AI features took users' individual taste into consideration, Spotify claims Prompted Playlist "taps into your entire Spotify listening history, all the way back to day one."
Prompted Playlist will exist alongside Spotify's other playlist features.
Spotify
Prompts can be as broad or specific as users want, and Spotify says playlists can also be set to automatically update with new songs on a specific cadence. An "Ideas" tab in the Prompted Playlist setup screen can provide suggestions for users who need inspiration for their prompt. And interestingly, Spotify says each song in the playlist will be presented with a short description explaining why the algorithm chose it, which could help direct future fine-tuning.
If this all sounds familiar, it's because Spotify has already tried AI-generated playlists in the past. The difference here, besides Spotify framing the new feature as giving users more "control," is the detail of the prompts, the depth of user data Spotify is applying and the options users will have to keep playlists up-to-date. Prompted Playlist is only available in English for now, but Spotify says the feature will evolve as it adds more users.
Spotify isn't the first company to offer users more direct control over how content is recommended to them. Meta has recently started experimenting with algorithm-tuning options in Threads and Instagram, and TikTok lets users completely reset their For You page to start fresh. The irony of all these features is that algorithm-driven feeds were supposed to be able to recommend good music, posts and videos without additional prompting. Now that prompting is being pitched as a feature, rather than extra work.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/spotifys-new-playlist-feature-gives-users-more-control-over-their-recommendation-algorithm-203237903.html?src=rss
The US Department of State is unwinding a 2023 decision to use san-serif Calibri font on all official communications and switching to Times New Roman instead, The New York Times reports. In a memo obtained by NYT titled "Return to Tradition: Times New Roman 14-Point Font Required for All Department Paper," Secretary of State Marco Rubio frames the change as a way to return professionalism to the State Department.
"Switching to Calibri achieved nothing except the degradation of the department’s official correspondence," Rubio said in the memo. That's because the font is "informal" and clashes with the State Department's letterhead, according to Rubio, while serif fonts like Times New Roman "connote tradition, formality and ceremony."
Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken originally switched the State Department to Calibri in 2023 to improve the accessibility of official communications. The curvy, flourish-free lines of sans-serif fonts work better with assistive technologies like screen readers and text-to-speech tools. Serif fonts, meanwhile, are typically used in things like newspapers to make small, printed text legible.
While Rubio notes that Calibri "was not among the department’s most illegal, immoral, radical or wasteful instances of D.E.I.A.," it seems clear that Rubio lumps the font in with those same diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility initiatives. Getting rid of it is an easy (and weirdly petty) way to follow through on the second Trump administration's anti-DEI stance towards just about everything.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/state-department-calibri-font-was-a-dei-hire-190454957.html?src=rss
OpenAI has announced that Denise Dresser, the current CEO of Slack, will be the company's new Chief Revenue Officer. Dresser will oversee the company's revenue strategy "across enterprise and customer success," according to OpenAI's announcement, and will presumably play a key role in leading the company towards profitability now that it's reorganized as a public benefit corporation.
"We're on a path to put AI tools into the hands of millions of workers, across every industry," Fidji Simo, OpenAI's CEO of Products said in the announcement. "Denise has led that kind of shift before, and her experience will help us make AI useful, reliable, and accessible for businesses everywhere."
Simo joined OpenAI in May of this year, after serving as CEO of Instacart, and before that, the head of Facebook at Meta. Hiring Simo and Dresser could be a good indication of how OpenAI plans to approach ChatGPT going forward. Which is to say, the company is taking a very Silicon Valley approach to growing its chatbot business and focusing on scale and monetizing as many AI interactions as possible. It's not a mistake that Simo helped establish Meta's ads business and OpenAI is reportedly planning to introduce ads into chats with its AI models.
Even with the possibility of ad revenue, Dresser will still have to overcome what OpenAI continues to spend to offer its various AI products. OpenAI pays for multiple partnerships for data center access and has commitments to both buy and build server components for those data centers. Add in the cost of just processing a ChatGPT query itself, and growing the company’s revenue seems like a tall order.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/slacks-ceo-is-joining-openai-to-find-the-money-to-pay-for-all-those-data-centers-220411962.html?src=rss
Owners of the Porsche Macan and upcoming Porsche Cayenne Electric will be able to unlock and start their cars with their Galaxy phones, Samsung has announced. The cars, alongside other Porsche models, are gaining support for Samsung Wallet's Digital Key feature, which lets users wirelessly control their car over a secure UWB or NFC connection.
Digital Key support will be available in Europe in December, before rolling out globally, "aligned with the launch timeline of Porsche vehicles," Samsung says. Samsung Wallet is available on Samsung devices as old as the Galaxy S20, Note 20, Galaxy Z Fold 2 and Galaxy Flip 5G, and is included on the majority of the company's new phones. Like similar features on Google's Pixels and Apple's iPhones, Digital Key allows Porsche owners with a supported Galaxy phone to unlock, lock and start their car directly from their phone. If your phone is ever taken, you can also remotely lock or delete a Digital Key to keep your car safe.
Samsung added Digital Key support to select Volvo and Polestar EVs in February 2025. The feature first became available in 2021, and is one of several ways the phone maker imagines people will use Samsung Wallet. Beyond digital car keys, the app can also store credit and debit cards and be used to transfer money with a tap.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/samsung-wallet-to-gain-support-for-digital-porsche-keys-193000085.html?src=rss
Netflix has already committed to reviving Star Searchfor 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
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
Meta has acquired Limitless, the maker of an AI-powered "Pendant," to work on building consumer hardware for the company, the startup announced via a YouTube video and blog post. So far, Meta has focused on selling VR headsets and AI smart glasses. Now the company seems interested in branching out.
"Meta recently announced a new vision to bring personal superintelligence to everyone and a key part of that vision is building incredible AI-enabled wearables. We share this vision and we'll be joining Meta to help bring our shared vision to life," Limitless CEO Dan Siroker said in the post announcing the acquisition.
Limitless' first product was Rewind, desktop productivity software that recorded everything you did on your computer and turned it into a searchable database you interacted with via a chatbot. The company later expanded into hardware with Pendant, essentially a clip-on Bluetooth microphone that applies the same concept (privacy concerns be damned) to the things you say or hear throughout the day.
The company plans to support its existing Pendant customers "for at least another year," but will no longer sell the wearable going forward. Current customers will be able to access all the features of Pendant without having to pay for a subscription, though Limitless says availability will vary per region. If you have data stored with Limitless and don’t want to hold onto your Pendant, you're now also able to export or delete your data if you choose.
AI wearables focused on recording audio have emerged as a common form factor primarily because they lean on two things AI models do moderately well: transcribing audio into text and summarizing it. Meta dipping its toes into the space makes sense, if only because not everyone will want to wear glasses to receive the benefits of an AI assistant. Amazon acquired an AI wearable company called Bee in July 2025, presumably with similar intentions.
Add in Meta's recent hiring of former Apple design lead Alan Dye, and you can start to imagine where things might be headed. In the future, the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses and Meta Ray-Ban Display could be two entries in a larger lineup of AI-powered wearables.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/metas-latest-acquisition-suggests-hardware-plans-beyond-glasses-and-headsets-212930339.html?src=rss
CES doesn't start until January, but whispers of the products and announcements that could be in store for tech's biggest annual conference have already started to take shape. The CES 2026 show floor is officially open from January 6 through 9, although the show kicks off with events on Sunday January 4 and a host of press conferences on Monday. As always, product demos, announcements and networking will be happening at the Las Vegas Convention Center and surrounding hotels all over the city. As usual, Engadget will be covering the event in-person and remotely, bringing you news and hands-ons straight from the show floor.
More specific details and pre-announcements should trickle out as CES approaches, but in the meantime, we do know what companies will be hosting press conferences and what tech trends could rear their heads at the show.
What we already know about
Press conferences and show floor booths are the bread and butter of CES. The Consumer Technology Association has already published a searchable directory of who will have a presence at the show, along with a schedule of every official panel and presentation.
On Sunday, January 4, Samsung will kick-off CES with "The First Look," a presentation hosted by TM Roh, the CEO of Samsung's DX Division, on the company's "vision for the DX (Device eXperience) Division in 2026, along with new AI-driven customer experiences."
That'll be followed by multiple press conferences throughout Monday, January 5. LG is hosting its "Innovation in Tune with You" presentation to share "its vision for elevating daily life through Affectionate Intelligence" at the start of the day, Intel is launching its new Core Ultra Series 3 processors in the afternoon, Sony Honda Mobility is holding a press conference on its first car and AMD CEO Lisa Su will cover AMD's upcoming chip announcements at a keynote address that closes out the day.
Finally, on Tuesday, January 6, Lenovo CEO Yuanqing Yang will host Lenovo's Tech World Conference at Sphere, using the large and decidedly curved screen to share the company's "commitment to delivering smarter AI for all by constantly redefining how technology can engage, inspire, and empower." It’s worth noting that Lenovo is the parent company of Motorola, which still makes phones and foldables that feature AI tools, so it’s possible those devices feature in the presentation as well.
Outside of the formal introduction of new products and initiatives, reading the tea leaves of what was announced last year and what companies are reportedly working on, we can make some educated guesses at what we could see at CES 2026.
New chips from AMD, Intel and Qualcomm
CES is frequently the start of a cascade of new chip announcements for a given year, and one of the first places new silicon appears in real consumer products. AMD will likely use its keynote to introduce new versions of its Ryzen chips, including the recently spotted Ryzen 7 9850X3D, which is expected to offer better single-threaded performance, and the Ryzen 9000G series, which could be built with AMD's Zen 5 architecture. The company might also use its CES stage to go over its new FSR Redstone AI upscaling tech.
Intel has already publicly announced that it'll launch its Panther Lake chips at CES 2026. The officially titled Intel Core Ultra Series 3 chips fit into Intel's overall "AI PC" push, but are specifically meant for premium laptops. Based on a preview from October 2025, Intel says the first chip made with its 2-nanometer 18A process will offer 50 percent more processing performance than previous generations and for the chip's Arc GPU, a 50 percent performance bump from last generation.
Qualcomm is also rumored to be targeting laptops at the show, building on the work it's done moving its Snapdragon chips out of phones and tablets and into other types of computers. The company's Snapdragon X2 Elite and X2 Elite Premium chips should start appearing in laptops at CES 2026, offering a look at the improved speed and AI performance the company promised in 2025.
Brighter, "truer" screens
Sony announced a collection of new Bravia TVs in April 2025, replacing the company's flagship, filling in its midrange options and adding a new budget model to the mix. The star of this updated Bravia lineup is the Bravia 9, which features a QD-OLED panel, but Sony appears to be prepping entirely new display tech for 2026. In March 2025, Sony introduced a new RGB LED panel that uses individual Mini LED backlights colored in red, green and blue to produce even brighter, more accurate colors. In contrast to a QD-OLED, which filters a layer of blue organic light emitting diodes through quantum dots that change color, Sony's "General RGB LED Backlight Technology" can get as bright as a Mini LED panel without needing an extra filter layer or worrying about OLED's problems with burn-in.
The company has already trademarked the name "True RGB," which could end up being what Sony calls this new flavor of display if it decides to show them off at CES. It seems entirely likely, because CES is nothing if not a TV show — it’s a sure bet that we’ll see new TVs from the likes of LG and Samsung in addition to Sony. If the company doesn't introduce new display tech for its TVs, it does have a new 240Hz PlayStation monitor coming in 2026 that it could show off at CES instead.
Sony isn't the only company hyped on bright screens. Samsung is reportedly pushing an updated version of the HDR10 and HDR10+ standards that could be ready to demo at CES 2026. The new HDR10+ Advanced standard would be Samsung's answer to Dolby Vision 2, which includes support for things bi-directional tone mapping and intelligent features that automatically adapt sports and gaming content. Samsung's take will reportedly offer improved brightness, genre-based tone mapping and intelligent motion smoothing options, among other improvements.
Ballie Watch 2026
The ball-shaped yellow robot lovingly known as "Ballie" has been announced twice, first in 2020 and then again in 2024 with a projector in tow. Samsung said Ballie would go on sale in 2025 at CES last year and then shared in April 2025 that Ballie would ship this summer with Google's Gemini onboard. But it's nearly 2026, and Ballie is nowhere to be seen. It's possible Samsung could make a third attempt at announcing its robot at CES 2026, but whether or not it does, robotics will still be a big part of the show.
Robot vacuums and mops were a major highlight of CES 2025, and it's safe to expect notable improvements from the new models that are announced at CES 2026. Not every company will adopt the retractable arm of the Roborock Saros Z70, but robot vacuums with legs for rising over small ledges like the Dreame X50 seem like they could become the norm. Roborock could also show off its new Roborock Qrevo Curv 2 Flow, the first of its robot vacuums to feature a retractable roller mop.
Beyond just traversing spaces more efficiently, improving robots' navigation could also be a major concern at the show. Prominent members of the AI industry are turning their attention from large language models to world models, which aim to give AI a deep understanding of physical space. Those world models could be the key to making robots, bipedal or otherwise, competent at navigating homes and workplaces, and will likely be a significant talking point at CES 2026.
We’ll be updating this article throughout the month as more rumors surface and new products are confirmed — stay tuned for future updates!
Update, December 11 2025, 11:03AM ET: This story has been updated to include detail on Lenovo being Motorola’s parent company and how the latter might have a part in the Tuesday presentation.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/ces-2026-preview-what-to-expect-from-techs-biggest-conference-in-january-120000200.html?src=rss
Roskomnadzor, Russia's federal agency for monitoring and censoring mass media, has blocked access to Snapchat and FaceTime in the country, Bloomberg reports, citing Russian news service Interfax. The bans were reportedly put in place because the platforms were used "to organize and carry out terrorist acts,” and commit fraud.
It's not clear if either service is still accessible by using a VPN, but banning Snapchat and FaceTime fits with Russia’s crackdown on communication and social platforms that started after the country’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Facebook and X were blocked in March of that year, and Instagram was added to the ban list not long after. In 2024, the encrypted messaging app Signal was also banned, and more recently in July 2025, Russia threatened to block access to WhatsApp.
Engadget has contacted both Apple and Snap to comment on the Russian bans. We'll update this article if we hear back.
Banning or restricting these platforms is a way to exert control over where and how conversation happens in Russia — and prevent the spread of "LGBT propaganda," if you believe Roskomnadzor's reasoning for banning Roblox — but it might also be an attempt to drive people to use "MAX," a state-run super app that offers services like communication, banking and document storage. The app is part of a long-standing push to rely on Russia's tech industry rather than foreign companies, and could potentially give the Russian government an easier method for surveilling its citizens, The New York Times reports.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/russia-reportedly-bans-snapchat-and-facetime-194906404.html?src=rss
Bungie and Sony Interactive Entertainment appear to have settled the plagiarism scandal that rocked Marathon before the game was indefinitely delayed in June 2025. Fern Hook, an artist who goes by the name “Antireal” online, posted on X that her issues with Bungie using her work without credit in Marathon have been resolved to her "satisfaction."
Marathon's distinct art style is one of its charms, but as Hook claimed on X and Bungie later confirmed, a portion of the assets and textures featured in the game's alpha were lifted from Hook's work. At the time, Bungie announced that it was conducting an investigation and hoped to discuss the issue with Hook. It's not clear what kind of agreement Bungie, Sony and Hook came to, but it appears to have solved any outstanding issues.
The Marathon art issue has been resolved with Bungie and Sony Interactive Entertainment to my satisfaction.
Bungie delayed Marathon from its original September 2025 launch date in June, and more recently ran closed playtests of an updated version of the game in October. As of Sony's November earnings report, the company now says Marathon will launch by March 2026. Marathon is a reimagining of an older Bungie franchise, but more importantly, it's also the developer's first new game since Destiny 2 was released in 2017. Considering Sony's increased scrutiny of Bungie's performance, settling this issue and hopefully setting up Marathon for a smoother launch is definitely a good thing.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/artist-bungie-plagiarized-for-marathon-alpha-says-the-issue-has-been-resolved-223901094.html?src=rss
Alan Dye, Apple's Vice President of Human Interface Design, has been poached by Meta, Bloomberg reports. The designer played a pivotal role in the look and feel of Apple's products since Jony Ive left the company in 2019, and now he’ll be taking his talents to Meta.
Dye will reportedly work under Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth as the head of a new studio that will oversee the design of hardware, software and AI products. The studio will also include former Apple designer Billy Sorrentino, Meta’s interface design lead Joshua To, an industrial design team led by Pete Bristol, and metaverse design and art teams led by Jason Rubin, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Threads.
“The new studio will bring together design, fashion, and technology to define the next generation of our products and experiences,” Zuckerberg shared in the post. “Our idea is to treat intelligence as a new design material and imagine what becomes possible when it is abundant, capable and human-centered.”
Apple, meanwhile, is replacing Dye with Stephen Lemay, Bloomberg reports, a senior designer at the company who's worked on all of the company’s interfaces since 1999. Considering the secrecy of Apple as a company, it's hard to credit individual breakthroughs to individual designers, but Dye worked on several of Apple's major new platforms and design changes, including things like the interface of visionOS and its new Liquid Glass design language.
Meta has had success with its Quest virtual reality headsets and more recently, its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, but the company clearly hopes to release many more consumer hardware products with Dye and its new design studio’s help. Those will likely include future versions of the Meta Ray-Ban Display and its Neural Band accessory.
Dye isn't the first designer Apple has lost to a competitor. Evans Hankey, the company’s former head of industrial design, left Apple in 2022 to work with Ive. Hankey is now one of several former Apple employees building OpenAI's upcoming hardware device. Dye joining Meta is particularly interesting in this case because Apple is rumored to be working on products that will bring the company in even closer competition to the social media giant. The Vision Pro could be considered to be a high-end competitor in VR, but Apple is reportedly working on its own pair of smart glasses, too.
Update, December 3, 5:54PM ET: Added information from Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads post on hiring Alan Dye and Meta’s new design studio.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-design-lead-alan-dye-is-heading-to-meta-214449944.html?src=rss
The developer of Cozy Grove and Alphabear is leaving Netflix. Spry Fox is being sold back to its original founders, Game File reports, and will continue to work on its upcoming "cooperative village life sim" Spirit Crossing as an independent company. Unlike other shuttered Netflix games studios Team Blue and Boss Fight Entertainment, Netflix will remain involved with the studio as Spirit Crossing's publisher on mobile.
As part of the arrangement, Spry Fox founders David Edery and Daniel Cook will be able to shop Spirit Crossing to other publishers for console and PC releases of the game. While reverting to being an independent studio is definitely a happier version of the typical studio closure story, it might not be without issues. Game File reports that layoffs at Spry Fox are still possible and the developer will need to find additional funding to continue long-term. Spirit Crossing may also need to be altered so that Spry Fox can continue to make money from the game after players purchase it.
Netflix acquired Spry Fox in 2022, a little over a year after it acquired Oxenfree developer Night School. Spry Fox released its first game for Netflix subscribers, a sequel to Cozy Grove, in 2024. The studio formally announced Spirit Crossing in March of this year, as an ambitious attempt to fuse the cozy life simulation elements of something like Animal Crossing: New Horizons with the online social experiences of MMOs like World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIV.
That pitch apparently no longer jives with Netflix's current game strategy, which changed when Epic Games' Alain Tascan took over from ex-EA executive Mike Verdu. Whereas Netflix Games under Verdu acquired studios, funded projects and licensed an eclectic collection of mobile games for Netflix subscribers, Tascan has refocused the company's games business around titles based on Netflix IP, social party games and known quantities, Game File writes. Spirit Crossing doesn't fit neatly into any of those categories, which might be one reason Netflix is parting ways with Spry Fox.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/netflix-is-getting-rid-of-another-of-its-game-studios-by-selling-it-back-to-its-founders-203645232.html?src=rss
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