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In the latest case of AI being shoehorned into everything, say hello to Ooni’s Volt 2 pizza oven. It uses an adaptive heating system called “Pizza Intelligence” that’s designed to cook your pizza more consistently to deliver the ideal slice, while also giving the company a hot new marketing angle.  The Volt 2 is an all-electric indoor oven that can cook pizzas up to 13 inches in size, the same as the Volt 12. Like that model it operates at up to 450 degrees Celcius (850 degrees) Fahrenheit, allowing you to cook a Neapolitan-style pizza in around 90 seconds. However, the design has changed with a more rounded profile, considerably larger window, touch controls and a dial. Ooni notes that it’s compact enough to fit on a kitchen counter.  Ooni The Volt 2 uses real-time sensor data to dynamically balance heat between the top and base heating elements in order to minimize temperature fluctuations and cold spots for “consistently perfect pizza.” Ooni dubbed that system “Pizza Intelligence,” though others may call it a “thermostat.” It also automatically adjusts for different types of pizzas ranging from New York slices to Chicago-style deep-pan pies. Each preset is programmable so you can bookmark favorite settings for consistent results.  It offers cooking modes including Dough Proof, Oven and Grills, making it useful for prepping, baking, roasting and recipe experimentation. Ooni’s Volt 2 electric pizza goes on sale October 1 for $699 — if you’re interested, you can join the waitlist here.  This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/oonis-volt-v2-oven-uses-pizza-intelligence-to-cook-your-pie-more-evenly-123055762.html?src=rss

One of the first guides I ever worked on for Engadget was about power banks. In the years since, I’ve tested more than 50 portable batteries to keep our top picks as up-to-date as possible. Now that the iPhone 17 is on the horizon — and rumored to be the thinnest ever — we wanted to devote some space to MagSafe battery packs in particular. I gathered up a new crop of batteries to test and compared the results with our existing data to pick the best MagSafe-compatible battery out there. As we learn more about the new iPhone’s battery specs and get our hands on banks enabled with the new Qi2 25W charging standard, I’ll continue to update this guide. For now, our top pick is Anker’s Qi2-enabled MagGo 10K power bank. It has a big capacity, fast charging times and handy extra features like a stand and display. But there are also options here for minimalists and the budget-conscious, too. The best MagSafe power banks for 2025 What to consider before buying a MagSafe power bank Choose the right capacity. Most portable MagSafe chargers have either a 5,000 milliamp hour (mAh) or 10,000mAh capacity. Obviously, the larger capacity batteries are physically bigger, but thanks to an iPhone’s magnetic attachment points, you can still use the phone comfortably as it charges. If you’re worried about overall bulk, you may prefer the slimness of a 5,000mAh battery. Just note that a 5K battery pack won’t deliver its entire capacity to your phone due to energy loss from voltage conversion and heat dissipation. Over the years, I’ve measured around a 60-percent delivery rate for wireless banks. For example, that means an iPhone 16 with its 3,561mAh battery will get about 85 to 90 percentage points from a 5K battery. A 10K bank will charge that same phone fully once, with enough for a 50- to 60-percent boost next time. Understand MagSafe versus Qi2. All iPhones model 12 and later have MagSafe technology, which rely on embedded magnets to align the phone with a wireless charger and can support charging speeds of up to 15 watts. The MagSafe name is owned by Apple — third-party chargers can’t freely use the term and instead call their accessories “magnetic,” or apply a branded name like Anker’s MagGo or UGreen’s MagFlow. Be sure to check the product details before buying: anything that works with Apple’s technology will be listed as MagSafe-compatible. Qi2 is a standard from the Wireless Power Consortium (of which Apple is a member) and has the same stipulations as MagSafe (15W charging and magnetic alignment). Any company can submit their tech for this certification. iPhones 13 and later are Qi2 compatible. A new standard is coming this fall; it’s called Qi2 25W and bumps wireless charging speeds up to 25W. The WPC says a certified smartphone using a certified charger can wirelessly go from dead to half full in about 30 minutes. These devices will start hitting shelves in the fall of 2025 and it’s highly likely that the new iPhone 17 will support it. Plus, it’s likely that iPhone 16 models will retroactively gain the certification since those phones already support 25W speeds when using Apple’s official MagSafe Charger puck. Remember travel restrictions. You may have seen news reports of flights being grounded because a power bank caught fire in the cabin. Currently, the TSA allows them in your carry-on luggage as long as they’re rated at 100 watt-hours or lower (about 27,000mAh for lithium ion batteries). But some airlines have enacted further restrictions. Southwest, for example, requires you to keep power banks out of the bag and visible while charging. Even if your airline doesn’t make such demands, keeping a power brick out in the open while it’s in use is a good idea — it’ll keep it cooler and you’ll be more likely to notice if it starts to overheat. Most, if not all, MagSafe battery packs come in at under the 100-watt-hour limit, so traveling should be easy with one. Consider the extra features. You may not need them, but the little extra perks of a MagSafe power bank can come in handy. Some have stands so you can watch your phone while it refills. Some have LED displays that tell you how much charge is left, which can be a little more precise than the lighted pips other banks use. Some also have straps to make the bank easier to carry around or fish out of your bag. MagSafe power banks FAQs What does MagSafe do? MagSafe is Apple’s own technology that supports 15W wireless charging speeds and incorporates embedded magnets to align the phone with chargers and other accessories. Which iPhones support MagSafe? iPhones 12 and later support MagSafe technology, though only iPhones 13 and later can reach the 15W charging speed with third party Qi2 chargers. The iPhone 12 maxes out at 7.5W with non-Apple accessories. Can you use MagSafe batteries with a case? In most cases (heh), yes. The wireless charge can travel across a distance of a few millimeters. If the case is more than 5mm thick or contains metal components, the wireless charge can be blocked. Many iPhone cases are marketed as MagSafe-compatible, which means the case itself has complimentary magnets inside and should not interfere with charging accessories. We tested a MagSafe power bank on an iPhone 15 with and without a MagSafe case and got the same charging speeds and amounts in both tests. How much power do MagSafe batteries provide? That depends on the power bank. If it is Qi2-certified, it can provide up to 15 watts of wireless power. Non-Qi2 batteries typically deliver around 7.5 watts. The amount of charge delivered depends on the capacity. Most MagSafe portable chargers are rated at 5,000mAh or 10,000mAh. The former can get a standard iPhone 15 from five percent to around 90 percent. The latter can fill the phone completely with enough left over for another half charge. This article

reMarkable knows you’d like to use its e-paper tablet on the go, but the size of its current products don’t make that easy. To address this, it’s launching a smaller, pocket-sized version of its flagship slate for folks who can’t luxuriate at a desk or armchair to do their thinking. The reMarkable Paper Pro Move is a slate with a 7.3-inch display that’s the same size as a reporter’s notepad. It’s a device that Chief Product Officer Mats Herding Solberg says is perfect for getting “real work done while standing up and holding it in one hand.” Now, I’m on record saying that I love reMarkable’s products, and its ethos, but the bit about being able to do good work while standing up? That’s a harder sell. reMarkable makes devices for serious, intentional work shorn of the myriad distractions inherent in modern computing. You can read, annotate and edit documents on its e-paper display, as well as write with either a stylus or a compatible keyboard. Its first device launched in 2016 and its second in 2020 with the third, the Paper Pro, arriving last year. The Paper Pro heralded a number of changes, including a bigger display (11.8-inch, up from 10.3-inch), a backlight, faster internals and, for the first time, the ability to reproduce color. Nico Cormier, the company’s CTO, said the previous three models were really designed “for people who have a desk, people in a controlled environment.” The focus here was to build a reMarkable slate that could easily fit in a pocket or purse for work on the go. After a lot of prototyping, product manager Jon Dalvang said the team used the reporter’s notepad as the template for how the hardware should feel. At first blush, the Paper Pro Move just looks like a slimmed down version of the Paper Pro from last year. If the company said it just threw some of its bigger tablets into a boil wash and they came out looking like this, you’d be tempted to believe them (I’m joking). But while they look and feel very similar, reMarkable made it clear that a lot of work had to go into reengineering the hardware and software to reach this smaller size. The reMarkable Paper Pro Move measures 7.6 inches tall and 4.3 inches wide, with a 7.3-inch version of the same Canvas Color display found in its larger sibling. Inside, you’ll find a 1.7GHz dual-core Cortex A55 processor (compared to the Paper Pro’s 1.8GHz, quad-core Cortex A53 one). It has the same 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage as found on the bigger model, and while the battery has shrunk from 5,030mAh to 2,344mAh, the promise of two weeks of battery life remains the same. Similarly, you’ll find the same ridged edge banding (to evoke the feeling of a sheaf of paper) as on the Paper Pro. And the power button and USB-C ports are in the same place (bottom edge and top left corner, respectively), too. Dalvang explained that the changes are far more subtle, and designed to improve the user experience. For instance, the back cover has the same “high-friction surface” as found on the company’s styluses to improve friction. reMarkable believes users should always use their device with a folio for protection. After all, no matter how hardy a device like this is, it might not do too well if it’s dropped onto a curb from chest height. Such are the perils of using any device on the go. Daniel Cooper for Engadget The smaller chassis and smaller display pushed the company to make a lot of changes to the software. The Paper Pro’s 11.8-inch screen is positively luxurious compared to what’s here and, in usual reMarkable fashion, the details have been sweated. For instance, you can now drag and drop the toolbar, letting you pick a position in both portrait and landscape modes. The company also focused on ensuring gesture navigation is more efficient since you’ll need to use it a lot more frequently here. I’ve maintained that reMarkable’s products work fine with a stylus, but only really become truly useful when paired with a keyboard. After all, it’s at that point that you have a pure, distraction free writing machine that enables you to get focused work done. But with the Move, the only way to write and edit text is with the on-screen keyboard, and the company has already ruled out making a smaller version of the Type Folio. On one hand, it’s logical since a keyboard for a 7.3-inch tablet would be fairly small, and using the equivalent of a Nokia 9210 to get work done would be a pain. But I’d have preferred the ability to pair up any old Bluetooth keyboard if I needed to write something out and this was my device of choice. For the bigger models, I grudgingly accept the company omitting Bluetooth to help encourage sales of the type folio, but here, its absence is churlish. Now, I often use old-school reporters notebooks, especially when I’m on the go at a big tech trade show. I like their small size, the big volume of paper at hand and the fact that they fit in the back pocket of my pants. The spiral binding makes it easy to flip pages and is a neat place to hold my pen, making it practical and effective, if not particularly good-looking. Since the Paper Pro has the same footprint as one, I could easily see this as a useful tool when I’m on the go. The notebooks I use measure five by eight inches, giving me plenty of space to write. It’s here, however, that I started to see the issue with the Move, given its usable writing area is closer to 3.6 by 6.4 inches. That puts your writing area in the same territory as the not-quite-A6 you’d find if you used Field Notes or one of its many imitators. reMarkable knows this, and believes users will more

A Wi-Fi mesh system is one of the best upgrades you can make to improve your home’s internet coverage, especially if you’ve ever struggled with dead zones, buffering or dropped video calls. Unlike a single router that broadcasts from one central point, a mesh system uses multiple access points spread throughout your space to blanket your entire home with a strong, seamless Wi-Fi signal. Whether you’re working on multiple laptops, streaming 4K video in the living room or gaming online in the basement, a mesh setup helps ensure you get reliable Wi-Fi wherever you are. These systems are designed to handle the demands of modern households, offering features like dual-band or even tri-band connectivity to balance your bandwidth across devices, and automatic updates to keep your firmware current. Many also support high-speed internet plans and include options for a wired connection if you need extra stability for gaming or work. With easy setup, smart app controls and long-term future-proofing, the best mesh Wi-Fi router systems can eliminate the need for clunky Wi-Fi extenders and give you fast, dependable Wi-Fi connections across your whole home. Table of contents Best mesh Wi-Fi systems for 2025 What to look for in a mesh Wi-Fi system Other mesh Wi-Fi router systems we tested How we test Wi-Fi routers Mesh Wi-Fi system FAQs Best mesh Wi-Fi systems for 2025 What to look for in a mesh Wi-Fi system Linksys’ CEO Jonathan Bettino told Engadget why mesh systems are an “advancement in Wi-Fi technology” over buying a single point router. With one transmitter, the signal can degrade the further away from the router you go, or the local environment isn’t ideal. “You can have a small [home], but there’s thick walls […] or things in the way that just interfere with your wireless signal,” he said. Historically, the solution to a home’s Wi-Fi dead zone was to buy a Wi-Fi extender but Bettino said the hardware has both a “terrible user experience” and one of the highest return rates of any consumer electronics product. Mesh Wi-Fi, by comparison, offers “multiple nodes that can be placed anywhere in your home,” says Bettino, resulting in “ubiquitous Wi-Fi” that feels as if you have a “router in every room.” Rather than having one main router in your home, having a “router in every room” is the biggest selling point for mesh Wi-Fi given how reliant we all are on the internet. Each node is in constant contact with each other, broadcasting a single, seamless network to all of your connected devices. There’s no separate network for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, just a single name that you connect to. It’s a good time to buy a mesh Wi-Fi system since the latest standard, Wi-Fi 6E, represents a big leap in the technology. Matt MacPherson, Cisco’s Chief Technology Officer for Wireless, said Wi-Fi 6E is a big “inflection point,” using much more of the wireless spectrum than its predecessors. “If you’re using that spectrum with a Wi-Fi 6 [device],” he said, “you’re going to get significant gains [in speed.]” MacPherson added Wi-Fi 6E will likely “carry you for a long time” thanks to the fact its “top throughputs now typically exceed what people can actually connect their home to.” In short, with a top theoretical per-stream speed of 1.2 Gbps, Wi-Fi 6E is fast enough to outrun all but the fastest internet service. What do all these Wi-Fi numbers and letters mean? I’m sorry folks, we need to get boringly technical for one paragraph, but I promise you it’s worth it. Wi-Fi is governed by International Standard IEEE 802.11, and every few years a letter gets added onto that name when the technology evolves and improves. Until 2019, routers were sold under their IEEE name, leaving users to pick through the word soup of a product labeled 802.11 b/g/a/n/ac and so on. Mercifully, wiser heads opted to rebrand the letters as numbers, so rather than 802.11 b/g/a/n/ac, we have Wi-Fi 1, 2, 3 4 and 5. Right now, we’re in the middle of one of those Wi-Fi generations, with most of the gear on sale right now supporting either Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E. What’s the difference between Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E? Wi-Fi uses chunks of the radio frequency spectrum, with Wi-Fi 6 using the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands to pump data around. In fact, back in the old days, it was likely your home router would offer you the choice of the 2.4GHz or the 5GHz network, as separate bands to access. These days, all of the spectrums are tied together as one thing, and Wi-Fi 6E has the added ability to use the 6GHz band as well. That’s a big chunk of extra wireless real estate that isn’t as cluttered up as the 2.4 and 5GHz bands. You’re going to talk about wireless frequencies now, aren’t you. Each Wi-Fi band had tradeoffs, because the slower radio frequencies have greater range but less speed. 2.4GHz signals will travel a long way in your home but aren’t quick, while 6GHz is blisteringly fast but can be defeated by a sturdy brick wall. A lot of Wi-Fi-enabled gear you own, like smart home products, only use the 2.4GHz band because the range is better and it’s a lot cheaper. But it means that the band is also overcrowded and slow, making it great for your doorbell and robovac, but lackluster for Twitch streaming. So, what am I looking for? Right now, the market is full of mature Wi-Fi 6 and 6E devices, and most new systems available to buy are capable of taking advantage of the faster speeds they offer. This guide focuses on Wi-Fi 6E gear since it’s what we think it’s more than enough to satisfy almost everyone’s at-home Wi-Fi needs. What about Wi-Fi 7? We’re now seeing the first generation of Wi-Fi 7 devices available to buy, but we don’t recommend you do so immediately. The Wi-Fi 7 standard is still so new that there’s little

Acer just unveiled the new Swift 16 Air laptop at IFA 2025. The biggest selling point here is likely the weight. The 16-inch laptop clocks in at just over two pounds, which is lighter than a 13-inch MacBook Air. The Swift 16 Air is available with two display options. There’s a standard IPS panel and an AMOLED. The AMOLED does tick the weight up a bit to 2.4 pounds, which is worth considering. Acer The overall specs here are solid. These computers are powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series processors, with options up to the AI 7 350. They also come with AMD Radeon GPUs. The battery life is pretty decent, allowing for up to 13 hours of use per charge. There’s a webcam with a privacy shutter and plenty of connectivity options. These include a pair of USB-C ports, two USB-A ports and an HDMI port. Finally, each laptop ships with two speakers and two microphones. The Acer Swift 16 Air will be available this November in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. We don’t have pricing or availability information for the US yet, but the starting cost in Europe translates to around $1,160. Acer The company also used IFA to introduce the TravelMate X4 AI. This is a lightweight Copilot+ PC with Intel Core Ultra Processors. It weighs less than three pounds and meets MIL-STD810H durability standards. It ships later this month, with a starting price of $1,400. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/acers-swift-16-air-laptop-weighs-less-than-22-pounds-090029625.html?src=rss

JBL just announced the PartyBox 720, which is an extremely chonky party speaker. As a matter of fact, it’s the company’s largest-ever battery-powered party speaker. The thing is bigger than many human children. It boasts 800W of power with up to 15 hours of playtime via a replaceable battery. There are two 9-inch woofers and a pair of 30mm dome tweeters, which should provide for robust audio. The company has included its proprietary AI Sound Boost technology, which increases audio without distortion. JBL The PartyBox offers multi-speaker connectivity via Auracast and USB-C connectivity for streaming audio directly from a device. The speaker also creates a “futuristic lightshow” that syncs to the music, which is always fun. This being a device intended for soirees, it also boasts a pair of XLR ports for connecting microphones, guitars or DJ consoles. The company says the speaker will “bring karaoke sessions to life.” However, modern party speakers are expensive. This one costs $1,099. That’s cheaper than Marshall’s recently-announced $1,300 model, but still pricey. Pre-orders are open right now, with shipments going out on September 21. JBL JBL also announced the Boombox 4, which is an iterative update of the Boombox 3. We liked the previous model and it almost made our list of the best portable Bluetooth speakers. This one features the same AI Sound Boost tech as the PartyBox, for louder audio without distortion. It’s nearly two pounds lighter than the predecessor, so it should be easy to carry out to the front lawn like that one scene in Say Anything. It’s IP68 water and dustproof and integrates with Auracast for linking to other speakers. It includes a replaceable battery that can go up to 28 hours before requiring a trip to the outlet. Pre-orders for the Boombox 4 are open right now. It costs $550 and is available in three colorways. The speaker ships on September 28. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/speakers/jbl-just-announced-its-largest-ever-battery-powered-party-speaker-090024747.html?src=rss

Amazon is shutting down the Prime Invitee program which allowed members to extend free shipping to people outside their household. An updated support page says sharing through Invitee will end on October 1 and that previously invited guests will be notified by September 5 of the changes. The Verge is reporting that users who don’t live with the primary account owner will be prompted to create their own Amazon Prime accounts and will be offered a discounted rate of $14.99 for the entire first year and then the standard rate of $14.99 per month thereafter. We reached out to Amazon to see what measures the company plans to take to prevent account sharing beyond limiting deliveries to one address, but the company didn’t have any specifics to share. The company is encouraging users to take advantage of Amazon Family, which allows the sharing of Prime benefits among multiple people under the same roof. This arrangement is limited to two adults including the primary account holder and up to four children. Up to four teens can also be included if they were added before April 7, 2025. Household members who participate in Amazon Family can access free shipping, Prime Video and more. Many major subscription-based online services have been cracking down on sharing recently, especially streamers like HBO Max and Disney+. Reuters recently reported that despite a record four-day Prime Day this year, Amazon fell short of its goals for new Prime account sign-ups. Update, September 2, 2025, 5:05PM ET: This story was updated to note that Amazon didn’t have any specifics on what measures it’ll take to limit account sharing under this new policy. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amazon-ends-shared-prime-shipping-182513989.html?src=rss

It’s a dynamic time right now in the automotive industry. Many manufacturers that previously pledged themselves to dive head-first into the wonderful world of electrification are now pumping their literal and metaphorical brakes on the idea, leaning back into hybrids, plug-ins, and various other transitional means of propulsion. Audi is one of those brands that has been softening its stance on the EV front lately, pledging to continue supporting internal combustion-powered machines so long as the market demands. But its new concept unveiled today in Milan gives us a striking view of a next generation of EVs — and hybrids, and others — that will wear four rings on the nose. It’s called the Concept C, and it’s part of a movement Audi brass have called “the radical next.” It’s meant to be something of a reboot for the brand’s design efforts, a back-to-basics project that starts on the inside with a dramatically simplified interior design. While many modern Audis feature one or two giant touchscreens that dominate the dash, in the Concept C, there’s just a pure dashboard with a subtle, illuminated vertical slot in the middle. Controls are physical and chunky, designed to have a strong sense of weight and tactility, featuring what the car’s designers describe as the “Audi click.” Tim Stevens for Engadget It’s definitely a major departure for Audi, but there is a nod to modern sensibilities with a 10.4-inch touchscreen. It’s hidden, tucking itself behind the dashboard when not needed and quickly swiveling into view when summoned. The car also features buttons and touch-sensitive surfaces that disappear behind the dashboard, a row of backlit controls that only appear when needed. The outside of the car is a substantial reboot, too. In this new concept, you’ll see some similarities to the brand’s last great roadster, the TT, which went out of production in 2023. But to see the key inspiration for the Concept C, you have to go back a little further, back to the Auto Union Grand Prix machines of the 1930s. Specifically, Audi is referencing the Type C, which raced from the pre-Formula One days of 1936 to 1937. That car’s shape and upright grille definitely carry on in the Concept C, but this new road car has one feature that vintage racing machines lacked: a folding hardtop convertible. The Concept C is actually the first Audi to sport such a top, giving it the look of a coupe but the open-air design of a roadster. The louvered rear and simple, tapered shape are dipped in a colored paint meant to emulate the subtle warmth of titanium. Tim Stevens for Engadget One thing that tapered shape doesn’t allow is a rear window. Like the Polestar 4, the Concept C takes an extreme stance towards rearward visibility by featuring none at all. That rear-view mirror you see hanging from the glass is digital. But, the fact that this car even has a rear-view mirror, plus side mirrors and windshield wipers, hint that this thing is probably close to production-ready. When it comes to the more practical matter of what makes it go, and for how far and how quickly, sadly, we don’t have a lot of details just yet. Again, Audi has said that this will be an EV, but that the design will influence a new generation of Audis powered by all sorts of options, including hybrid and internal combustion, “as the transition to electric mobility progresses.” This car, though, is most definitely battery powered, though the company has yet to share any more details beyond that. Audi says it is rear-wheel drive, which would point to a single-motor at the back, but a future version with Quattro all-wheel drive seems like a sure bet. This car’s predecessor, the TT, was actually based on the Volkswagen Golf chassis, which gave it front-wheel drive to begin with. However, if this new machine is to share its foundations with anything, it’s much more likely to be Porsche’s upcoming electric 718, as previewed in the Mission R. But for now that’s just speculation, and again, this is just a concept. Audi isn’t saying when a car like this might see production, but it is a machine that is destined to become something you can buy. That’ll be good news to anyone who misses the dearly departed TT. If an eventual production-based Concept C still looks this good when it hits dealers, it very well might make just as many waves as its predecessor. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/audis-concept-c-previews-the-companys-next-gen-ev-aspirations-190030488.html?src=rss

The Google TV Streamer 4K is back on sale for just $80, which is a discount of 20 percent. The deal is available via Amazon, but also through retailers like Best Buy and Walmart. This beats a recent Prime Day promotion by $4. The TV Streamer 4K topped our list of the best streaming devices. It’s a smartly-designed product that just works. We enjoyed the clean interface and the fantastic remote that ships with the device. The processor is speedy and this thing can stream content in 4K at 60FPS. It integrates with HDR, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. On the audio side of things, it supports formats like Dolby Digital and Dolby Atmos. It can even handle spatial audio, so long as you’re wearing the Pixel Buds Pro earbuds. The interface includes a smart home control hub, which we praised in our official review. This lets users easily control smart lights and thermostats, among other gadgets. The TV Streamer 4K also offers voice control, which we found to be useful. There are only two minor knocks with this one. The original asking price is on the higher end, but this sale alleviates that concern. The unit also includes some fairly useless AI integration, but it’s 2025 so what else is new? Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-google-tv-streamer-4k-is-back-on-sale-for-80-183511035.html?src=rss

Paramount has just signed a deal with Microsoft and Activision to make a movie based on the iconic Call of Duty franchise. The valuation of the deal hasn’t been revealed, but CoD is a mighty lucrative IP. We don’t know much about the specifics of the deal, other than it covers a live-action feature film that Paramount will develop, produce and distribute. This means we don’t have any information about the cast, creative team or what game or era the film will pull from. After all, there have been more than 30 mainline games in the franchise. Some of the standard Call of Duty games could make for decent, yet slightly derivative, war movies, while the more futuristic titles could spin out into sci-fi epics. Variety reports that this could just be the beginning. The deal is for one movie but industry sources indicate that there’s potential here for Paramount to expand the franchise to more movies and TV shows. Get ready for the CoDCU. Paramount recently completed an $8 billion merger with Skydance, after making some controversial moves that were widely seen as appeasements to President Trump to secure the blessing of the FCC. Since that happened, the newly-formed media conglomerate has been on a spending spree. It lured the creators of Stranger Things away from Netflix and shelled out over $7.7 billion for exclusive rights to UFC events for the next seven years. The company recently announced plans to double its yearly theatrical output, eventually hoping to release 20 films annually. As for games, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 arrives on November 14. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/call-of-duty-is-getting-the-movie-treatment-courtesy-of-paramount-171408410.html?src=rss