It’s been nearly a year since Google launched its latest Chromecast, the one that introduced us to a new Google TV interface and created a schism with the hundreds of Android TV devices we’d seen to date. A low price and a good experience made this new Chromecast one of the most no-brainer purchases for many Android lovers, and even more non-techies.

If you’re a Pixel user, you know Google delivers dozens upon dozens of beautiful wallpapers for your home screen. We’ve seen a ton of new backdrops from the Pixel 6 leak out over the last couple of months, but one thing’s been missing from all of those collections: live wallpapers. Thankfully, Google has some in the works for its latest smartphone, and they look pretty familiar.

For a company that sells so many headphones featuring active noise cancellation, it was a bit surprising when Bose launched its first true wireless earbuds, the SoundSport Free, without this very feature. Luckily fans didn't have to wait long to enjoy a little silence. Enter: the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds, a pair of great-sounding buds with ANC. Normally selling for $279, for today only you can pick them up at an $80 discount — their lowest price to date.

With so many smart home gadgets on the market these days, complete automation isn’t just a dream — it’s a reality. Google’s Home app already syncs with all of your pre-existing light bulbs, cameras, and thermostats, controlling them on your behalf when you’re out and about. With some new changes to Routines, triggering those gadgets when leaving the house just got a whole lot easier.

Pine64, the hardcore nerds behind Linux-powered hardware including the PinePhone from 2019 which we have reviewed, is opening pre-orders for its new $399 PinePhone Pro.

We may all have our favorite apps and services, but loyalty only goes so far. When something suddenly stops working, it doesn't take us long to go scrambling for alternatives. That's just what's been happening with Facebook and its properties lately, and a series of high-profile outages has had the consequence of pushing users to competing services, including Telegram. Now we're seeing the evidence of that exodus, as the Telegram app crosses the 1 billion...

With the onset of the foldable smartphone and all of the screens it can pack onto so much surface space, Google feels the need to highlight what owners of Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip3 and Fold3 can do with its services.

The company has set up a new With Google splash site showing off how you can use YouTube, Duo,...

Remember Moto Maker? Motorola used to make it easy to personalize your Moto X or Moto G with whatever colors you liked the most, but it quietly discontinued the program several years ago. The Galaxy Z Fold3 and Z Flip3 are the newest foldable devices from Samsung, complete with top-notch specs and, at least in the case of the Z Flip3, a more affordable price. With another event on the horizon, the company might be ready to pick up the mantle from Motorola, with the introduction...

Most Android fans probably expected OnePlus founder Carl Pei’s new company, Nothing, to focus on developing a smartphone. Instead, it burst onto the scene with more manageable goals in mind, releasing a set of flashy, translucent wireless earbuds earlier this summer. With that first ever-terrifying product launch out of the way, it might be time for Nothing to release something we assumed was coming all along.

Welcome to Friday, everyone. It's the end of the week, which means I have some awesome sales for the weekend, including some fantastic standouts. First up is Monument Valley 2, an extremely popular puzzle game that just saw a new chapter added to the game this week. Next, I have Battle Chasers: Nightwar, a classic-style RPG themed around the story and art of the Battle Chasers comic book. Last but not least is Space Marshals, an enjoyable top-down strategic shooter that'...

Enlarge / The TL;DR: A book so enjoyable, it even stands out when surrounded by tacos and Texas libations. (credit: Nathan Mattise (via his Pixel 3a))

The Every, a new near-future tech dystopia novel from author Dave Eggers, marks the first time the famed writer has penned a sequel in his two-decades-plus career. In the seven years after Eggers published his tech-obsessed bestseller The Circle, the author found himself still taking notes on things that could take place in that...

Jodie Whittaker returns for one last stint as our favorite time lord in Doctor Who: Flux.

We got the briefest of teasers for the upcoming 13th season (or series) of Doctor Who during San Diego Comic-Con in July, hinting at the return of some of the show's most classic villains. Now we finally have the full official trailer, and it's a doozy, particularly for hardcore fans, with glimpses of the Ood, the Cybermen, the Sontarans, and the Weeping Angels—for my money the most frightening...

Enlarge / Boxes of Johnson & Johnson's Janssen COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site in Florida. (credit: Getty | Paul Hennessy)

A committee of independent advisors for the Food and Drug Administration on Friday voted unanimously in favor of authorizing a second dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to everyone 18 years of age and older, two or more months after a person has received the first dose.

It is the third time the FDA's advisory committee has...

Enlarge / See that spinny thing at the bottom of the page? It's going to load more search results any second now... (credit: Google)

Google is rolling out a big update to mobile search today: continuous scrolling.

Now, instead of making you tap to load the next page after your usual 10 links of search results, Google will just load the next page.

The company hopes that continuous scrolling will get people to look at more search results and that a longer supply of...

Enlarge / A PC running Windows 11. (credit: Microsoft)

Now that Windows 11 is out, the arduous process of fixing the new operating system's bugs can begin. The OS got its first Patch Tuesday update earlier this week, and now another update is rolling out to Windows Insiders in the Beta and Release Preview channels. It fixes a long list of early problems with the new operating system.

The headliner here is a fix for a problem affecting L3 cache latency on AMD Ryzen processors,...

Enlarge / Tina Peters. (credit: Tina Peters' campaign website)

A Colorado judge on Wednesday barred Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters from supervising elections due to the leak of voting-system BIOS passwords to QAnon conspiracy theorist Ron Watkins. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Mesa County registered elector Heidi Jeanne Hess had petitioned the court for a ruling that Peters and Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisley are unable to perform the functions of the Designated...

Enlarge / A 2,700-year-old piece of human excrement found at the Hallstatt salt mines, in which beans, millet, and barley are clearly visible (assuming one wishes to look that closely).

Ancient Iron Age miners in what is now Austria were quite fond of beer and blue cheese, according to a new analysis, published in the journal Current Biology, of preserved paleo-poop. The researchers found evidence of two fungal species commonly used to produce blue cheese and beers, along with...

Enlarge / Apple could be getting ready to show us the next stage of the MacBook Pro's development.

Another month, another Apple event. Fresh off a September event that delivered new updates for the entire iPhone lineup, some new iPads, and a gently tweaked Apple Watch, Apple is preparing for another event on Monday, October 18. And this time, we're expecting the company to focus on the Mac, which is still in the middle of a transition from Intel chips to the Apple Silicon chips...

Enlarge / Samsung Galaxy Chromebook. (credit: Samsung)

Chromebooks, which are powered by Chrome OS, are generally viewed as a simpler alternative to Windows and macOS systems. But as more Chromebooks flirt with four-figure price tags—take, for example, the Asus Chromebook Flip C436, Samsung Galaxy Chromebook, and recently announced Acer Chromebook Spin 514—consumers will start to demand at least a little more functionality. To that end, a feature being worked on in Chromium’s open...

Enlarge / Atlas V with the Lucy spacecraft aboard an SLC-41 on the morning of October 15 as media set their sound-activated remote cameras. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann)

Less than five years have gone by since NASA selected the "Lucy" mission for development as part of its Discovery Mission program, and now the intriguing spacecraft is ready for launch.

The $981 million mission will fly an extremely complex trajectory over the span of a dozen years. The spacecraft will swing by...

Saturday Night Live's latest Weekend Update segments were highlighted by some actually-strong one-liners about COVID-bearing bats and, unexpectedly, trickle-down economics. But Chris Redd's appearance cast a shadow over all of it.

It's not just his rant wanting to know who the hell drive blimps, though that part is hilarious. It's also not his incisively funny take on angry people overreacting to a bisexual Superman. The bit that really lands is when Redd is forced to face an off-the...

There's nothing like a good Saturday Night Live earworm, especially when it's Pete Davidson (and his uncanny lookalike Rami Malek) doing the singing.

This absolute winner of a musical comedy sketch finds Davidson and Malek crooning a heartfelt country number about loss, desperation, and a homicidal game show popularized by Netflix. Yup, it's time for the inevitable marriage of classic country music tropes and... Squid Game?

It works. It works so well! You'll be humming this...

Grab your magnifying glass and get ready to investigate as Mashable uncovers Big/Little Mysteries.

Who doesn't like a good fictional detective? The genre, which sprang out of nowhere in the 19th century, has become arguably our most enduringly popular over the last 120 years. Sherlock Holmes spawned armies of imitators, many with quirks as curious as his coke habit. The amateur sleuth begat the PI, the superhero detective, and more police inspectors, pathologists and lieutenants than...

Another week, another case of the National Football League stumbling over attempts to explain and address the deep-rooted bigotry of one of its top names.

By now, most of us know that former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden is out of a job because he couldn't keep his hateful opinions on women referees, gay players, and racial justice protests to himself. It's been headline news all week. That's what led Saturday Night Live to ditch some rather obvious political targets in...

Like shopping for any used car, you’ll want to check an electric vehicle’s crash and repair history, along with the odometer. But the most important thing to know before buying an EV: the state of its battery.

"The main problem is not knowing battery health," said Recurrent CEO Scott Case. The company provides battery reports, kind of like a Carfax for electric vehicles.

Used car sales hit record highs this year, propelling the average cost of a used car to over $25...

Picking up a new skill can open you up to more opportunities, grant you a fatter paycheck, and make you indispensable at work.

And the good news is you don't have to go back to school just to acquire new skills. You can start with these online training course bundles. As of Oct. 17, they all only cost $20.

Comprised of three courses, this training package is designed to help you become an automation expert using Powershell, a task...

TL;DR: Get closer to your kitty with the Basepaws Breed, Health, and DNA Test Kit, on sale for just $99 with the code PAWS15 — that's a 23% discount.

Sometimes it seems like dogs get all the attention with new product launches, but there is a DNA kit that caters to feline friends specifically. If you've ever wondered what breed your cat is, what health issues it could be predisposed to, and its other unique features, there's an easy way to learn about your...

TL;DR: Expand your kitchen arsenal with the Wolfgang Puck 14-Function Bread Maker with Nut Dispenser, on sale for $69.99 — a 41% discount — as of Oct. 17.

If loving bread is wrong, we don’t want to be right. If you’re like Oprah and want to embrace your love of the carbalicious treat, you’ll love this 14-function bread maker from Wolfgang Puck.

Knead, proof, and bake your own bread at home with this versatile...

TL;DR: Listen while you swim laps with the xFyro xS2 Waterproof Wireless Earbuds, on sale for $79.99 — a 68% discount — as of Oct. 17.

Wireless earbuds are everywhere these days, but they’re definitely not all created equal. Some offer unique features, but lack battery life. Others can last for days, but don’t offer much else. Then there’s the xFyro xS2 Earbuds — a pair that gives Apple’s AirPods a run for their money and is...

TL;DR: Buy refurbished and save on a 2017 13-inch MacBook Air, on sale for just $599.95 — that's a 40% discount as of Oct. 17.

Your laptop has gone through some things over the last year and a half. It miraculously took on a new life of working from home like a champ. It helped entertain you throughout quarantine. And it even kept you connected to loved ones when they felt so far out of reach. But it might be time to move on. It’s seen better days and an upgrade is likely...

Earlier this week, we reported that the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) were set to strike—just one of many going on recently, as it turns out— as conversations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) were coming to a standstill. The plan was for the trade union…

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Next week, Square Enix is putting out another Marvel game, this one for the Guardians of the Galaxy. While it looks like a typical third-person action game where you control Star-Lord and command the other Guardians, there is one thing that warrants a special shoutout for how surprising it is.

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It’s pretty much understood that the great Batman cartoon of all time is the ‘90s animated series, made by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, which formed the cornerstone of the equally excellent DC Animated Universe. So anytime Bruce Timm gets his hands back on Batman it’s worth checking out—and based on this preview, his …

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Doom Patrol is one of DC’s weirdest shows, and also just a lot of fun. Its cast of misfits trying to make a go at being superheroes has plenty of charm to go along with its trippy nature, clearly enough to make the jump to HBO Max. During yesterday’s lengthy DC Fandome, a trailer dropped for the remaining episodes of…

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It seems that the world’s largest oil producing countries will stop at nothing to keep drilling, despite the fact that doing so aggravates climate change and its devastating effects. Oil-producing heavyweight Saudi Arabia recently unveiled a new tactic: making oil rigs look cool.

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Contactless payment systems are quickly becoming an ordinary part of our daily lives. As of this week, you can even pay for subway fares with your face. Before you ask where you can sign up, this new facial recognition payment system has debuted in Russia, sparking concerns that it will be used by authorities as a…

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Democratic lawmakers may have to scrap the most aggressive emissions-reduction initiative in American history from their massive budget bill. Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have told President Joe Biden they refuse to support his climate agenda, forcing negotiations for the…

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Given that the first (surprisingly fun) Shazam movie came out in April of 2019, it’s pretty understandable we’ve seen almost nothing from the upcoming sequel, Fury of the Gods. Although the first film’s success meant the sequel script was started almost immediately, the movie was only supposed to start production in…

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A new look at Matt Reeves’ The Batman is here, and it’s big on the action—plus the fury that comes when you really, really tick off Robert Pattinson’s young, raw incarnation of the legendary DC Comics hero.

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While there were many new sights to be seen and announcements to be made at this year’s DC Fandome, the Harley Quinn’s creative team sent their animated headline to the digital expo to let the everyone know that while she appreciates everyone being excited for the show’s upcoming third season, animation takes time,…

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Leaks are still pouring in just a day before Apple's "Unleashed" event kicks off. According to MacRumors, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman understands the chips for the widely expected 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models have surfaced in developer app logs under the names "M1 Pro" and "M1 Max." It's not certain Apple will use these names for its high-end silicon, but they suggest Apple won't go with M1X or otherwise echo the naming scheme used for souped...

Shooting for the first feature-length movie in space has wrapped. Space.comreports Russian actress Yulia Pereslid, producer Klim Shipenko and cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy have returned to Earth after the first two spent 12 days filming their movie The Challenge aboard the International Space Station. The three left the ISS in a Soyuz spacecraft at 9:14PM Eastern on October 16th and landed in Kazakhstan just a few hours later, at 12:35AM.

Pereslid and Shipenko arrived on October 5th...

It's been over a year since Rocksteady and Warner Bros. revealed their Suicide Squad game, but now they're finally ready to offer another peek — if not necessarily the one you were expecting. They've released a story trailer for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League that shows the formation of Task Force X and explains why your band of supervillains (Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, Deadshot and King Shark) has to destroy some of Earth's greatest heroes.

As it turns...

Do you lament EA's dominance of soccer (aka football) games due to its licensing advantages? So does FIFA, apparently. Eurogamernotes that FIFA has issued a statement insisting that soccer gaming and eSports should have more than one party "controlling and exploiting all rights" — a not-so-subtle reference to EA. Accordingly, FIFA is talking to developers, investors and other groups to "widen" its gaming and eSports options.

The organization added this would...

On Saturday, Mojang held its annual Minecraft Live fan convention. As in years past, the event saw the studio detail the future of its immensely popular sandbox game. And if you're a fan of Minecraft, the livestream did not disappoint.   

The studio kicked off the event with the announcement of The Wild Update. Set to come out sometime in 2022, Mojang promises this latest DLC will change how players explore and interact with the game’s overworld. The update will...

Themed gaming chairs aren't completely new, but this example is rather unusual. According to Windows Central, Microsoft and Mojang have collaborated with Secretlab on a Minecraft chair. The Minecraft Edition Titan Evo 2022 includes the obligatory game logos, but it's also made to look like you're sitting on one of the game's infamous Creepers. That sounds more than a little... creepy, but it might be just what you're looking for if you livestream Minecraft or otherwise...

You may soon be able to give McDonald's plant-based burgers a try. The fast-food chain will offer the McPlant at eight restaurants across the US starting on November 3rd and until supplies last. It's a limited-time trial run for the burger, and it's supposed to help the company figure out how having the item in its menu will impact its kitchen operations. 

The burger's patty is made with Beyond Meat plant-based meat. It's supposed to be different from the...

Analogue's Pocket handheld won't arrive until late this year, but the company is betting that its software will be worth the wait. TechCrunchnotes the company has detailed AnalogueOS, the platform the Pocket and future Analogue devices will run — and it's pitched as nothing less than the "definitive" OS for retro games, a way to showcase classics that haven't always received the kindest treatment.

Rather than simply play cartridge games, the Pocket and...

This week, we’ve got our regular gadget reviews plus our thoughts on a forthcoming video game. Cherlynn Low strapped on the Apple Watch Series 7 to see how it compares to the previous version and to find out how much of a difference the larger screen makes. Igor Bonifacic tested the 2021 Motorola Edge smartphone and found it offers a lot of high-end features — including a 144Hz display — at a budget-friendly price. Terrence O’Brien played with the effects and inputs on the Roland SP...

Amazon is the Standard Oil of the 21st century. Its business operations and global reach dwarf those of virtually every other company on the planet — and exceed the GDP of more than a few countries — illustrating the vital importance innovation has on the modern economy. In his latest book, The Exponential Age: How Accelerating Technology is Transforming Business, Politics and Society, author Azeem Azhar examines how the ever-increasing pace of technological progress is impacting,...

DC Comics and Warner Bros. held their second annual Fandome

We got a second trailer for The Batman, at last (and FanDome saved the reveal for the very end of the day). We’re not even sure if he thinks he is a hero, but Pattison’s Batman is definitely Going Through Some Stuff. We didn’t learn a heck of a lot more about the characters in Matt...

The Batman debuted a brand new trailer at DC FanDome on Saturday, showing off the best look yet at Robert Pattinson’s take on the Dark Knight and promising an even darker, grittier version of Gotham’s Caped Crusader than any that have hit film before.

Set just a few years in Batman’s career as a superhero, The Batman promises to show not just a look at the early days of Batman but numerous other proto-villains and allies, including Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Jeffrey...

Some Instacart shoppers are striking on Saturday, to protest the company’s pay structure and failure to communicate directly with workers. The Gig Workers Collective (GWC), which represent some of the company’s shoppers, want the Instacart to address five of its policies. The group is calling for Instacart to pay shoppers by order...

There’s still no firm release date for the delayed Analogue Pocket (outside of the broader “December 2021” window that the company last provided in September), but Analogue is looking to whet players’ appetites with the next best thing: a deep look at AnalogueOS, the new custom software that will power the Pocket whenever it does actually arrive.

As one might expect for a retro gaming device, AnalogueOS features a minimal, pixel-art style design that’s meant to get you into games as...

The International Space Station was unexpectedly tilted on Friday after a test firing of thrusters on Russia’s Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft continued longer than expected. First reported by the New York Times, the personnel aboard the ISS were never in danger according to a statement from Russia’s Roscosmos space agency.

Ground teams for NASA and Roscosmos were able to regain control of the station about 30 minutes after it lost...

On October 14th, Apple fired a leader of the #AppleToo movement for allegedly failing to comply with an internal investigation. The employee, Janneke Parrish, has been working behind the scenes for months to organize fellow employees who’ve faced harassment and discrimination.

Now, Apple appears to be cracking down on those efforts — under the guise of trying to stop internal information from leaking to the press. In September, Apple...

NASA’s Lucy space probe launched successfully from Cape Canaveral in Florida early Saturday, the beginning of a 12-year mission to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids.

The uncrewed spacecraft lifted off at 5:34AM ET aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Lucy sent its first signal to Earth from its own antenna...

This slim soundbar from Samsung is currently available for its lowest price ever at Newegg, down to just $298. This 38-inch soundbar comes packed with 9 forward-firing speakers and a wireless subwoofer for a soundbar that punches well above its weight. There are a couple of things to keep in mind, however. This soundbar only comes equipped with a single HDMI input and output port, so you’ll need to rely on a switcher, or utilize the built-in Bluetooth connectivity if you’re using this...

Earlier this year, Dbrand started selling matte black PS5 side plates that it called Darkplates, and when it did, it baited Sony right on the product’s info page to “Go ahead, sue us.” We got our hands on some, and they look exactly like you expect, making the sides of your PS5 black instead of white. They even have their own tongue-in-cheek take on the PlayStation icon microtexture.

As of Saturday, though, you can’t buy Darkplates anymore, as Dbrand has removed them from sale after ...

We’re just a few days away from Google’s October 19th launch event for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, but if you want an early look at what to expect, you might want to check out this big thread of leaked images from prolific leaker Evan Blass. The thread includes what appear to be official renders of both phones, images of cases, and some photos of people using the phones — and it’s that last...