Category: Technology

A few years ago, Microsoft offered some of the best deals in gaming. The spartan Xbox Series S was well-priced at $300 (and you could often find it even cheaper if you hunted for deals). A $15 monthly subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate offered a vast catalog of games new and old. But my, how things have changed in 2025.

The nearly five-year-old Xbox hardware lineup got not just one but two price bumps this year; the Series S with 512GB of storage now costs a whopping $400, while the Series X starts at $600 for a digital-only model or $650 with a disc drive — $150 and $100 than they retailed for just a few months ago. Adding insult to injury, Microsoft also jacked up the price of Game Pass Ultimate by 50 percent this week — it will soon cost $30 a month, up from $20. And that’s hardly the only price bump it has received recently — it was only $17 as recently as July of last year. It’s a positively wild move. 

Sure, Microsoft isn’t alone in increasing console pricing —  Nintendo is charging more for the ancient original Switch than ever before, and the Switch 2 is no bargain at $450. Sony also increased PS5 pricing this year, albeit to a less dramatic extent. It’s not a huge shock given the roller-coaster ride of uncertainty that is the US economy in 2025 (and for at least a few more years to come), but Microsoft’s approach feels egregious.

And that was before the Game Pass bump. It seems Microsoft is betting that increased revenue from die-hards will offset the inevitable losses from people who decide that the new price isn’t worth it. Subscriber inertia is definitely a real thing, and devoted Xbox owners who get a lot of use out of Game Pass may not bat an eye (or may forget to check their bank statements).

$30 for hundreds of games, as well as high-profile launch day availability for titles that would normally cost $70 or more each, is totally reasonable. By the same token, $30 or $40 for something like Apple Music would be more than fair when you consider how much purchasing a single album costs. (Not to mention fair compensation for all the artists involved in making music, or games, but that’s a story for another time.)

But in a desperate effort to get people signed up for music streaming, $10 a month became the industry standard. Sure, streaming services cost a few bucks more than that now, but they’ve thus far avoided the big price jumps we’re seeing in video and now game streaming. As the first big company to offer a subscription gaming catalog, Microsoft had a chance to set market rates — but to get as many people on board as possible, it seems like it aimed too low and is making up for it now.

And those who used to pay $15 or $18 or even $20 a month for Game Pass for years will likely struggle with this bump, no matter how devoted an Xbox gamer they are. A year of Game Pass now costs more than double the annual rate for a PlayStation Plus Platinum subscription. And while Sony still has no plans to bring high-profile, first-party studio games like Ghost of Yotei to its service on day one, the various PS Plus plans offer a ton of value without that. Especially for people who don’t need to play the hot new game the week it comes out.

For my part, I’ve been considering breaking up with Xbox for most of the year, and I think this will seal the deal. In a lot of ways, I was the exact target market for the Series S and Game Pass. There weren’t a ton of Xbox games I wanted to play, but there were enough I was curious about. So the combo of a reasonably-priced console and Game Pass was a great way to both try some new games and explore others I had missed.

Getting new players into the Xbox ecosystem feels like a massive challenge now with the prices we’re looking at. My year-one cost for an Xbox Series S and Game Pass was $480; it would be almost double now at $860. That is a positively brutal increase, and you can get far more for your money in the PlayStation ecosystem, to say nothing about Steam’s frequent (and often more generous) sales. And more and more former Xbox exclusives are coming to other consoles — like Forza Horizon 5, the game that got me to buy an Xbox in the first place. That’s yet another reason to not buy an Xbox, especially at these prices.

Sure, part of Microsoft’s strategy is that anything can be an Xbox, streaming games to your TV or set-top box. But you’ll need a really strong internet connection for that to be your only way to play games, and the kind of people who are going to shell out $30 for Game Pass are probably going to want the increased performance and fidelity that’ll come with a dedicated console. At the very least, though, game streaming is available on all Game Pass plans, so they’re making that part of the equation more accessible to more users.

Microsoft seems to have decided anything can be an Xbox without considering the people who already bought one. The new strategy appears to be shifting consumer costs away from hardware (which is usually a loss leader anyway) to its increasingly-expensive subscription service. That’s been a clear part of the Xbox plan for a while now, but people have come to expect a certain price point for things like Game Pass (regardless of whether or not that price is ethical). Now, Microsoft looks like it’s gouging Game Pass customers and leaves people who did buy into the Xbox ecosystem feeling taken advantage of.

The big bet is that fewer customers paying more will work out in the long run. I have no idea if that’s the right strategy — but I’m one gamer who won’t be sticking around to find out. I bet I’m not alone.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/why-im-breaking-up-with-xbox-160000545.html?src=rss 

Neon, a service that pays you for recordings of your phone calls and then sells those to AI companies for training data, seems set to return in the wake of a privacy breach. The app swiftly went viral after its debut, but it has been on ice since last week after a security flaw emerged. 

According to CNET, Neon founder Alex Kiam apologized for the incident in an email to users and said the app would return “soon.” It went offline after TechCrunch found users were able to access other people’s call recordings, along with transcripts and metadata. Neon pledged to add extra layers of security during the outage before making a comeback. 

While the app has been offline, users have been unable to cash out their payments. Neon pays them up to $30 per day for call recordings — 30 cents per minute for chats with other Neon users, and 15 cents per minute for calls with anyone else. It offers $30 for referring a newcomer to the app as well. 

In the email to users on Tuesday, Liam wrote that, “Your earnings have not disappeared — when we’re back online, we’ll pay you everything you’ve earned, plus a little bonus to thank you for your patience!” 

Neon says it only records the user’s side of the conversation when they place a call through the app. If the person on the other end is a Neon user as well, it records both sides of the chat. The company claims its tech automatically filters out personal information like names and phone numbers. Some privacy experts have warned people not to use Neon, in part because of potential pitfalls related to two-party consent laws for recording conversations in various jurisdictions.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/viral-app-neon-vows-to-return-to-sell-more-of-your-phone-calls-to-ai-companies-150233035.html?src=rss 

About two years ago, I tried a facial treatment in Singapore that had left me feeling refreshed and my skin smooth and taut. I found out it was called an “aqua peel” and started investigating how I could replicate the experience at home in the United States. Back then, the available options were either too costly or looked dubious. At the time, devices like the BeautyBio GloFacial weren’t showing up in my searches, and the Dermaflash Dermapore+ Pore Extractor and Serum Infuser just didn’t seem like what I was looking for.

When I first read the description for Shark’s FacialPro Glow, I felt a spark of hope ignite. It sounded like the aqua peel I had experienced, and it wasn’t until I actually was able to try it out recently that I was convinced. The company says its latest gadget is a “hydro-fueled, skincare-enhanced facial device that delivers spa-level results.” Basically, imagine a nozzle being dragged around your face as it sucks gunk out of your pores while also flushing them clean. That’s the refreshing sensation I experienced and was, to use a Singaporean term, “damn shiok.”

There are two parts to the FacialPro Glow system: the “cleanse” or exfoliating attachment and the Shark Depuffi, which will be sold separately starting October 17. Both of these components can snap onto a handle that houses the power unit. The “cleanse” portion is made up of a dual-pump system that applies suction and also sprays water or a hydrator into your pores so it infuses as it cleans. From all the descriptions I’ve read of “aqua peels” or “hydra facials” the FacialPro Glow seems to do pretty much the same thing. 

I’ve only had the chance to try it out once so far but I’m already pretty impressed. But before I get into that, a word on the setup. You can choose to use the Depuffi to warm up your skin before moving on to the exfoliating attachment. I also missed that step and simply began with the suction. The Depuffi is basically like a bigger, rounder gua sha (Asian smooth-edged tool for scraping your face to sculpt it) with a much larger surface area. It can either heat up or be cold, and uses similar technology as the undereye plates in Shark’s LED mask that launched earlier this year. I did use it after I was done with the exfoliation session to relax and cool my face.

The very first step in the process is to apply a thin layer of the included “Derm Detox” exfoliating gel on your face and leave it there for three minutes. It’s a combination of glycolic and salicylic acids that Shark says “gently dissolves impurities.” So far, I haven’t found anything noteworthy about the formulation. It didn’t have any smell or fragrance, didn’t leave my skin feeling tingly and despite being called a gel it had a mostly watery consistency that was reminiscent of facial treatment essences.

There are two tanks on the FacialPro Glow — a smaller one near the nozzle for clean water (or the BHA hydrator that Shark includes) and a larger one behind it labeled “gunk tank.” For your first pass, which is mostly about suction and cleaning, you’ll need to fill the front section with clean, cool water. 

A close-up look at the Shark FacialPro Glow after one round on my face.

Shark includes five tips for the device: gentle wide, gentle T-zone, normal wide, normal T-zone and self-cleaning. Once you’ve attached your preferred head and filled up water to the “max” line, you can turn on the FacialPro Glow and adjust the intensity using the “plus” button above the power button. 

Then, as you would with a microdermabrasion device like the PMD or even a makeup brush, glide the nozzle over your skin. Shark also includes a guide on how to do so, going over the types of motion you should use and the general direction (outwards and upwards) to sweep in. As I dragged the machine around my face, I felt a tug on my skin and suction that felt similar to the pore vacuum devices used in salons, and whenever I caught sight of the gunk tank I noticed it slowly filling up with cloudy water. This wasn’t as murky as I was anticipating, and frankly whatever mild coloration I did notice in the gunk tank seemed more like the removal of the Derm Detox essence than any actual build-up from my pores. (I did just have a facial a week prior, so there likely wasn’t a lot to extract.) 

The instruction manual suggests using the wide head for about two minutes and the T-zone option for the remaining minute of the three-minute sessions. The device will keep track of the time and simply pause after your three minutes is up, so all you have to do is switch out the attachments when you’re ready. I found this part slightly confusing as I wasn’t sure if I could just hit the power button to pause the machine while I switched out the tips or if there was a time it would stop on its own. Eventually I just went with the former method and pressed the power button again to resume the suction and it did end on its own afterwards.

The next step in the process was to fill the clean tank with the BHA hydrator essence that Shark included, called “Hydro infuse,” and launch another three-minute session with it flushing your face. This was the part I really enjoyed. The gentle stream of water swooshing against my skin felt very refreshing and relaxing. I never felt like there was too much water — nothing dripped and I performed the whole session standing up without any of my clothes or surroundings getting wet. 

It’s worth pointing out that Shark says its two formulas were dermatologist-tested and “developed in a Korean lab specifically for the Shark FacialPro Glow routine.” According to the company’s vice president of design and engineering Chris Hedges, you’ll have to use these products instead of third-party options because “the exfoliating AHA/BHA percentages were carefully managed to balance well with the device flow rate, amount of suction provided and the amount of time the tip is covering your face.”

Hedges added that “this mix of chemical and mechanical exfoliation is the key to the efficacy and safety of the process” and that use of other formulations with the device is not advised “as it could unbalance the system, leading to over or under exfoliation.”

The Shark FacialPro Glow with its exfoliating attachment and with its Depuffi head.

I’m not a fan of being limited to a company’s products, especially as someone who has already found a skincare system that I’m committed to (shoutout to the Jan Marini range of products). Hopefully, Shark might be able to develop a range of offerings or work with third parties in a way that would make it easier to use the FacialPro Glow without needing to consistently repurchase exfoliating gels from the one company. Plus, Shark is selling $50 bundles that come with one bottle of each, which is quite pricey. Depending on how frequently you perform the treatment, you might find yourself shelling out an additional $100 a year.

Once you’ve finished your three-minute pass with the Hydro Infuse, you’re technically done with your treatment. If you like, you can detach the cleanse module (the one that contains the two tanks and the nozzle) and swap in the Depuffi attachment. After you do so, slap on some moisturizer and turn on the device, you can run the cool plate all over your face for a calming effect. I have sensitive skin that turns red at almost any touch, so having the Depuffi cool my face down was nice. It’s also just very comforting and enjoyable, like running a cool, dry bottle on your skin on a hot day.

Like I mentioned earlier, you can also turn the Depuffi into heating mode, in which case you’d be running a warm plate all over your face. This should help open up pores ahead of your cleansing treatment and might make impurities easier to suck out. Shark offers six temperature levels for the Depuffi, though I should note that when I accidentally left the Depuffi in its warmer state, it took awhile for it to feel cool again after I toggled back to the chill mode. 

If you’re only interested in the Depuffi, it will be available separately for $200. The whole FacialPro Glow system, which includes the cleansing attachment, the Depuffi and the exfoliating gel and hydrating essence, will be available from October 6 for $400.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/sharks-latest-skincare-gadget-will-suck-gunk-from-your-pores-and-rinse-them-133000385.html?src=rss 

When Lego announced its near 1:1, 421-piece Nintendo Game Boy set I wrote that it was charming, but “sadly not playable.” Now that it has started shipping (as of yesterday), creator Natalie the Nerd proved me 100 percent wrong. She added the power to play genuine Game Boy cartridges, using real hardware and not an emulator, according to her post on Bluesky and a story on The Verge. 

The project was right up Natalie’s alley as she specializes in circuit board design, having even created a transparent one for another Game Boy project. To make the Lego Game Boy run, she created a custom circuit board with Game Boy chips soldered on, including working buttons. She then added the “smallest screen kit on the market,” she told The Verge, removing a few bricks to make it fit. You won’t even have to worry about batteries as it has a USB-C port to run everything.

It’s fully functional but not quite complete — on Bluesky, Natalie pointed out that the A and B keys are currently held in by an elastic band. To fix that, she plans to 3D print a lego piece that will hold a custom PCB for the buttons. Once it’s all ready, she’ll share her designs as she has with past products. “I am going to release it once I am happy with it,” she wrote on X. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/a-creator-has-made-legos-non-playable-game-boy-set-playable-120044617.html?src=rss