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Google is expanding access to YouTube Premium features like faster playback speeds and high-quality audio to more types of devices. Most people subscribe to YouTube Premium to remove ads from YouTube and access to YouTube Music, but Google also includes a variety of “power-user” features that give subscribers more granular control over their viewing or listening experience. Now those features will be available in more places. YouTube Premium’s faster playback speeds (in 0.5x increments from 1x to 4x speed) are now available on Android, iOS and the web, after initially only being available in the mobile YouTube app. The ability to have YouTube automatically download Shorts to view offline or watch Shorts in a picture-in-picture window is now also available on both iOS and Android, after originally launching on Android. Google says Premium’s Jump Ahead feature for skipping to “key moments” of a video is now also available on smart TVs and game consoles. In terms of the music side of the house, the big change has to do with audio quality. When you’re watching a music video, Google says you’ll now be able to select “High” from the audio settings and listen at a 256kbps bitrate. This change applies to “Art Tracks” as well, which are videos of songs available on the wider YouTube platform that don’t have an official music video. The “High” quality option was originally only available in the YouTube Music app, but now Google says you can access it across the Android and iOS version of both YouTube Music and YouTube. None of these updates change what the main benefit of a $13.99-per-month YouTube Premium subscription is, of course, but for the price, it’s good Google is trying to unify the experience across devices. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/youtube/youtube-premium-adds-high-quality-audio-and-4x-playback-for-ios-android-and-desktop-212214797.html?src=rss

Assuming it can turn its Project Orion augmented reality glasses into a real product people can buy, Meta apparently wants to get into robots next. That’s according to Sources‘ Alex Heath, who spoke to Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth and reports that much like Apple, Google and Tesla, Meta is researching robotics. Unlike those other companies, though, Meta apparently isn’t all that focused on competing in hardware. It has a “Metabot” in the works, but its real goal is to create software that other companies can license, much like Google does with Android. “Software is the bottleneck,” according to Bosworth, and the hope is that the combined powers of Meta’s robotics team — led by Marc Whitten, the former CEO of Cruise —  and its highly publicized Superintelligence Labs can produce a solution. That work apparently starts with the development of a “world model” that can help a robot “do the software simulation required to animate a dexterous hand,” but will presumably extend to more complicated movements and tasks down the road. In February 2025, Meta was reportedly looking at building a robot that could handle household chores like cleaning or folding laundry. Given how early everything sounds, that’s likely a long way off. Meta isn’t alone in pursuing robotics. Apple is reportedly working on its own home robots, starting with a table-mounted arm with a display. Tesla has regularly demoed versions of its Optimus robot to the public, though often in highly-controlled scenarios. Meta has yet to realize its goal of usurping the smartphone with AR glasses. Whether or not it does, it sounds like robots will be the thing it burns money on next. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/meta-wants-to-become-the-android-of-robotics-220701800.html?src=rss

The Apple Watch Series 11 is already available on Amazon, and you can pick up select color and case combos for $10 less than Apple’s base price. The newest generation of Apple’s smartwatch was just revealed this month at the company’s iPhone 17 event in Cupertino. The Series 11 packs some new features like 5G connectivity on cellular models, a more scratch-resistant screen, new sleep features, improved battery life and a hypertension alert system that just received FDA clearance. The GPS-only version is our top pick for Best Apple Watch in 2025. In our hands-on review, we gave the Apple Watch Series 11 a score of 90 out of 100, noting its thin and light design, the excellent battery life, a nifty new wrist-flick gesture and its comprehensive approach to health and fitness monitoring. It is relatively pricey however, and the Watch SE 3 is probably enough for most users, but the Series 11 has a brighter and larger display, a thinner design, longer battery life and more advanced health features. For anyone who hasn’t bought a new Apple Watch in a few years, the Series 11 is a worthy upgrade. If you’re in the market for your first Apple Watch, then this model would be a great one to start with. If you’re rocking a Series 10, then you probably don’t need to upgrade now unless the improved battery life will mean that much to you. The Apple Watch Series 11 is available on Amazon in all sizes, colors and connectivity options. There are a few case color and band combinations that are $10 off Apple’s base price. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apple-watch-series-11-models-are-already-on-sale-at-amazon-135020611.html?src=rss

The long-awaited sidescroller Possessor(s) will be available on November 11 for PC and PS5. It’s a horror-tinged action game with Metroidvania elements. It also happens to look extremely beautiful. The game was developed by Heart Machine, which is the same company behind Hyper Light Drifter and its prequel Hyper Light Breaker. Publishing duties fall to Devolver, which has had a hand in a boatload of recent indie hits from Enter the Gungeon to Cult of the Lamb. The developer just dropped a launch date trailer for Possessor(s) and it’s filled with both gameplay and story elements. As for that story, the game’s set in a quarantined metropolis that’s been invaded by ghostly forces. Exploration will slowly unravel what happened to the city. There’s an open-ended narrative with multiple paths and plenty of characters to meet. The combat looks really slick, with lots of melee using found objects. The protagonist can also slide down long corridors and swing from a grappling hook. Weapons can be upgraded and there looks to be a skill tree of some kind. We only have around five weeks until we can get our hands on this one. Pre-orders on both platforms are up right now, but there’s no price yet. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/horror-tinged-sidescroller-possessors-hits-pc-and-ps5-on-november-11-152851427.html?src=rss

Facebook and Instagram users in the UK will soon be offered paid subscriptions that remove ads. In the coming weeks, those over the age of 18 can pay £3 ($4) per month on the web, or £4 ($5) per month when using Meta’s iOS or Android apps. If you’re wondering why the mobile version is more expensive, Meta blames that on fees levied by Apple and Google in their respective app stores. A no-ads subscription will apply to any Facebook and Instagram account added to a Meta Accounts Center, which is what Meta uses to let users connect various Meta logins on its different platforms. Any additional account listed in a user’s Accounts Center will automatically gain their own subscription for an extra £2 ($3) per month on the web or £3 ($4) per month for iOS and Android. Anyone who chooses to decline Meta’s offer will continue to see ads on its free platforms as normal, and can still use Ad Preferences to choose which ads they would prefer to see more or less of. Meta says the change is a response to new regulatory “consent or pay” guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), whereby users are given the choice between consenting to an organization using their data to personalize ads, or paying to avoid it. Meta previously introduced a similar change for its EU users, offering an ad-free subscription option for €10 ($11), but was fined €200 million by the European Commission for allegedly failing to comply with its stricter Digital Markets Act (DMA) laws. The company later offered a revised, cheaper, ad-free plan that was still being assessed by the EC earlier this year. Meta praised the ICO for its “constructive approach” to personalised ads, which it insists provide the best experience for both its users and businesses, and criticised EU regulators for continuing to “overreach” with its privacy regulations. As reported by Bloomberg, digital advertising accounted for around 97 percent of Meta’s revenue in 2024. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/meta-announces-paid-subscriptions-for-both-instagram-and-facebook-in-the-uk-140913304.html?src=rss

The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus is on sale for almost half off and is at the lowest price we’ve ever seen for this model. Normally retailing for $150, the smart doorbell is on sale for $80, a discount of 47 percent. This aggressive sale comes ahead of another Prime Day that runs October 7-8. The Battery Doorbell Plus offers a 150-by-150-degree “head to toe” field of vision and 1536p high-resolution video. This makes it a lot easier to see boxes dropped off at your front door since it doesn’t cut off the bottom of the image like a lot of video doorbells. This model features motion detection, privacy zones, color night vision and Live View with two-way talk, among other features. Installation is a breeze since you don’t have to hardwire it to your existing doorbell wiring. Most users report that the battery lasts between several weeks and several months depending on how users set up the video doorbell, with power-heavy features like motion detection consuming more battery life. With most video doorbells today, you need a subscription to get the most out of them, and Ring is no exception. Features like package alerts require a Ring Home plan, with tiers ranging from Basic for $5 per month to Premium for $20 per month. You’ll also need a plan to store your video event history. Ring was acquired by Amazon in 2018, and now offers a full suite of home security products including outdoor cameras, home alarm systems and more. This deal is part of a larger sale on Ring and Blink devices leading up to Prime Day. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/this-battery-powered-ring-doorbell-is-47-percent-off-ahead-of-prime-day-154508654.html?src=rss

YouTube just announced YouTube Labs, which is being described as a “new way for users to take our cutting edge AI experiments for a test drive.” This looks like a YouTube-centric version of the pre-existing Google Labs, which is another place for folks to test out experimental AI tools. There’s already something new to play with here. YouTube Labs is testing AI hosts for its Music app. These hosts are designed to deepen a listening experience by providing “relevant stories, fan trivia and fun commentary about your favorite music.” This is just the latest music-streaming platform to introduce AI hosts, as Spotify introduced an AI DJ earlier this year. YouTube Labs is only available for Premium members. Sign-ups are open right now, but just for a “limited number of US-based participants.” We don’t have any data as to how many people will get accepted to join the AI tomfoolery. Regular YouTube users have probably noticed the proliferation of AI slop on the platform these past several months. It’s becoming a whole thing. While the prospect of virtual music hosts is rather innocuous, it will likely lead to even more AI being forced on the platform. YouTube recently added a boatload of AI tools for creators, including the ability to turn spoken dialogue into a slop-filled song. It’s also handing over age verification to AI and is testing its own version of Google’s famous (or infamous) AI overviews. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/youtube/youtube-music-is-testing-ai-hosts-that-present-relevant-stories-trivia-and-commentary-174042191.html?src=rss

Microsoft has a fix for long shader compilation wait times. The system is called Advanced Shader Delivery, and it’s being first introduced for ASUS ROG Xbox Ally handhelds and games listed on the Xbox app. Just about every PC gamer knows the feeling of booting up a highly anticipated new AAA title, excited to explore its sprawling environments or open world, only to be hit with “compiling shaders” and a progress bar that seems to move at a snail’s pace. Depending on what specs you’re rocking and what game you’ve just installed, the wait could be as much as one to two hours for those with slower CPUs and older systems. While it seems increasingly common that huge games are using these shader compilation screens before even getting to the main menu (looking at you Hogwarts Legacy), games that choose not to use them still need to load and compile shaders. If they aren’t done ahead of time, then they must be done during gameplay, which can lead to in-game stuttering that many gamers are also familiar with. Advanced Shader Delivery would preempt this by doing the entire compilation process ahead of time and storing those compiled shaders in the cloud. The catch is that shader compilation is hardware-specific, and since there are myriad GPU and driver combos, it would take a few dozen sets of compiled shaders to cover all the most common setups, and that’s per game. Extrapolate that out even just to all the AAA titles released yearly, and you’ve got yourself a massive database. This is similar to how shader compilation works on consoles, but you’re talking about at most two or three versions per console, or even fewer in the case of the Nintendo Switch. In fact, that’s precisely why Microsoft is starting with the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally handhelds, which comprises only two hardware configurations. Microsoft’s Agility SDK for game developers now supports Advanced Shader Delivery, meaning devs could start building it into new games already. In practice, it can take years to fully capitalize on new technologies like this. That’s exactly what we’ve seen with Direct Storage, another Microsoft technology meant to reduce asset load times. Three years after its release, we still see only a handful of big titles incorporating Direct Storage. It might be a long time before we see Advanced Shader Delivery incorporated into most popular games and available on different store fronts like Steam. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/microsofts-fix-for-pc-shader-compilation-stutter-could-take-years-to-fully-implement-183904449.html?src=rss

The long-awaited sequel to The Social Network will hit theaters next fall, according to a report by Deadline. The official release date is set for October 9, 2026, which is just about 16 years after the first film dropped. We also have plenty of other information, including the full cast and the actual name of the movie. The official name is The Social Reckoning, which makes sense as the movie follows recent events in which Facebook got into legal and political trouble when a whistleblower alleged that the company knew the platform was harming society but did nothing about it. The cast is being led by Jeremy Strong from Succession, who takes over Zuckerberg duties from actor Jesse Eisenberg. Mikey Madison is playing the aforementioned whistle blower Frances Haugen and The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White portrays Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horowitz. Bill Burr is also appearing in this flick, though we don’t know in what capacity. The Hollywood Reporter has suggested he will play a fictional character invented for the film that will be an amalgamation of several people. Aaron Sorkin is both writing and directing this one. He wrote the first movie, but David Fincher directed it. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-social-network-2-is-coming-next-fall-and-stars-jeremy-strong-as-mark-zuckerberg-191021848.html?src=rss

Microsoft has finally revealed how much the ROG Xbox Ally handheld consoles will cost you, now that they’re available for preorder. The ROG Xbox Ally X, which the company describes as the “ultimate high-performance handheld” that’s “built for the most demanding players,” will set you back $1,000. Meanwhile, the ROG Xbox Ally is “for everyone from the casual player to the avid enthusiast.” That model costs a more palatable $600. ASUS + Xbox Microsoft unveiled the devices during the Xbox Games Showcase at Summer Game Fest in June, with the promise that they’d be available by this year’s holiday shopping season. It was revealed a couple of months later that the consoles will be on store shelves by October 16. However, they hadn’t announced their prices until now. Microsoft teamed up with ASUS’ ROG division to develop the handhelds. They’re powered by Windows 11 and lets you play any Xbox game you’ve purchased, whether you bought it on your console or your computer, as well as PC games from any store that you install directly on the device. You can use it to stream Xbox games from your console anywhere in your home or from the Xbox Cloud Gaming service. And yes, you’ll be able to continue where you left off when you jump from one device to another. At launch, Xbox will mark thousands of games as Handheld Optimized or Mostly Compatible to indicate if they play well on handhelds. Specs Digging into their specs accentuates those differences. The ROG Xbox Ally uses an AMD Ryzen Z2 A chip, while the ROG Xbox Ally X has a more powerful AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme. The standard model has 16GB RAM (6,400 MT/s), while the premium version has 24GB (8,000 MT/s). The ROG Xbox Ally has a 512GB SSD; the ROG Xbox Ally X boosts that to 1TB. However, they each have a microSD slot to help you store more games. (And they both use upgrade-friendly M.2 2280 SSDs.) The premium model has a larger battery, measuring 80 Wh. The entry-level version has a 60 Wh one. But that doesn’t necessarily mean longer battery life. We’ll have to wait for extended testing to know that. Each variant has two USB-C ports, but (again) you get a higher-end version in the higher-end model. The Xbox ROG Ally includes two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports. The Xbox ROG Ally X has one of those, along with a USB 4 Type-C port. The latter is more versatile, supporting Thunderbolt 4, DisplayPort 2.1 and eGPUs. Each model has a seven-inch 1080p, 16:9 display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 500 nits of brightness. They’re anti-reflective, use Corning Gorilla Glass Victus and support FreeSync Premium. How to pre-order The standard ROG Xbox Ally is more readily available. In the US, you can pre-order it from Xbox, Microsoft Store, Asus, Amazon, Best Buy and Walmart. Meanwhile, the ROG Xbox Ally X is only available from Microsoft (“sold out” at the time of publication), Asus and Best Buy. Both handhelds are more expensive than their non-Xbox counterparts, which range between $500 and $800. A SanDisk microSD card designed specifically for the handhelds and a SeaGate SSD that supports Microsoft DirectStorage are now also available for preorder. The devices are also available around the world. You can also preorder the consoles in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Vietnam, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Slovenia, South Africa, Thailand and Ukraine. All these markets, including the US, are getting the console on October 16. The handhelds will also be available in additional markets in the future. These will include Brazil, China, India, Luxembourg, Malaysia, the Philippines and Switzerland. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/the-rog-xbox-ally-x-handheld-gaming-device-will-cost-you-1000-120029250.html?src=rss