Category: Technology

If you want a powerful phone charger in the smallest size possible, Apple has the answer — but there is a tradeoff. The company’s new 40W Dynamic Power Adapter is the first charger to support the USB PD 3.2 AVS (adjustable voltage supply) protocol so it can hit up to 60W, but only for a limited time. It was designed to work the company’s new iPhone 17 models with faster charging speeds than previous iPhones.

Lugging heavy chargers is a particularly bugbear of mine so the Dynamic Power Adapter stands out with a footprint not much bigger than the smallest 40W chargers. With AVS, it can provide a specific power level that’s ideal for what a given device needs at specific times in its charge cycle. To that end, it can hit up 60W but only for a limited time period of around 18 minutes, according to one tester. 

“With Dynamic Power, you get many of the same benefits of higher-wattage chargers in a compact, pocket-size form factor,” the Apple explains in the product description. “For faster charging, pair [it] with iPhone 17 models (50 percent battery in around 20 minutes) or iPhone Air (50 percent battery in around 30 minutes).” 

With its fold down prongs it’ll easily slide into a pocket and not weigh you down like regular 60W chargers. For instance, Anker’s popular Nano II 65W GaN charger is one of the smaller options available but is still about twice the size of Apple’s new model. However, due to the limited time at higher wattages, it won’t be suitable for charging laptops like some third-party models. The other rub is the price: The 40W Dynamic Power Adapter costs $40, almost twice as much as Anker’s 65W charger.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/apples-new-iphone-charger-dynamically-switches-between-40-and-60w-123053563.html?src=rss 

Streaming platforms once again dominated the 2025 Primetime Emmy awards (77th edition), while network TV was shut out of the the major filmed categories. Apple TV+ came out on top with seven total wins including four for The Studio: Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actor (Seth Rogen), Outstanding Directing (Rogen and Evan Goldberg) and Outstanding Writing. “I’ve never won anything in my life,” Rogen said during his off-the-cuff acceptance speech. “When I was a kid I bought a used bowling trophy.” 

Apple+ also garnered two acting awards for Severance, including Britt Lower (Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series) and Tramell Tillman (Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series). However, HBO Max’s medical drama The Pitt surprisingly pipped Severance for the Best Outstanding Drama Series, while also earning Noah Wyle and Katherine LaNasa drama series awards for Outstanding Lead Actor and Outstanding Supporting Actress, respectively. HBO Max also scooped awards for its comedy series Hacks with Jean Smart taking the Outstanding Lead Actress trophy and Hannah Einbinder winning for Outstanding Supporting Actress. 

Netflix took the prize for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series with critical darling Adolescence, with that same show earning Stephen Graham, Owen Cooper and Erin Doherty Emmys for lead actor and supporting actor and actress, respectively (at 15, Cooper is the youngest-ever male winner of a Primetime acting Emmy). That show also won Emmys for outstanding directing and writing for a limited or anthology series or movie. 

The Emmys showed again how prestige and money continue to shift from networks to streamers. CBS’s only Emmy was for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, a show it canceled in August. NBC won for the Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Special, while cabler HBO took prizes for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (Outstanding Scripted Variety Series and Outstanding Writing) along with The Penguin (Cristin Milioti for Outstanding Lead Actress) and Somebody Somewhere (Jeff Hiller for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series). 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/apple-tv-won-big-at-the-primetime-emmys-with-severance-and-the-studio-093051329.html?src=rss 

Another day, another adorable game that I’ve become completely obsessed with. I came across Roly-Pony this weekend during a particularly soul-sucking bout of doomscrolling, and it’s turned out to be the perfect little temporary respite from the horrors. (Shoutout to Alice Ruppert of The Mane Quest for always keeping us informed about the latest in horse games).

Roly-Pony is a Suika-style game, meaning it involves dropping and stacking round objects in order to create matching pairs that combine to become different, bigger objects. That’ll also clear up space on the board in the process, which is important because, similar to Tetris, you can’t allow the objects to pile too high. In this case, you start with horse treats and keep building on them until you’ve unlocked a bunch of different horses. It’s very simple and very cute, with peaceful music going in the background and a lot of little details that people who love horses will really appreciate.

The game is free and playable on both the web and mobile, with a leaderboard so you can see how you rank. I naively thought I would just quickly check this game out (because, horses) and move on after a few minutes, but have instead spent hours this weekend trying to crack the top 10. I’ve now got it bookmarked on both my laptop and my phone, so at this point there’s no end in sight. Roly-Pony is free, but there’s an option to send a few dollars the developers’ way on itch.io if you want to support their work.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/this-horse-themed-browser-puzzle-game-is-an-absolute-delight-and-i-cant-stop-playing-it-214313395.html?src=rss 

The Stop Killing Games campaign is continuing to gain momentum after hitting more than a million signatures in July. After a July 31st deadline, the movement secured around 1.45 million signatures, which the organizers are currently in the process of verifying. The initiative aims to enact legislation that preserves access to video games, even when developers decide to end support, as seen with Ubisoft when it delisted The Crew and revoked access to players who already purchased the game. There were some early concerns about the potential for falsely-submitted signatures, but the latest update from organizers said that early reports show around 97 percent of the signatures are valid.

According to the European Commission’s website, EU authorities have three months to verify the signatures once they are submitted. After that, the organizers said they will personally deliver the petition to the European Commission. With initial estimates clearing the threshold of one million verified signatures, the following steps involve getting meetings with both the European Commission and the European Parliament.

From the date of the initiative’s submission, the European Union will get six months to decide what to do regarding the Stop Killing Games movement. There is the possibility of the governing bodies not taking any action at all, but the organizers said they are “preparing to ensure our initiative cannot be ignored.” To prepare for the meetings, the organizers said they will be reaching out to members of Parliament and the Commission, while also trying to counter any misinformation or industry lobbying. For now, the campaign will post more frequent updates on its Discord community and social media channels.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-stop-killing-games-movement-is-nearing-an-official-meeting-with-eu-lawmakers-191535413.html?src=rss 

Fortunately for Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 owners, the FOMO from Apple’s announcement of its AirPods Pro 3 last week was short-lived. After introducing the latest Beats ear hook style headphones in February, Apple is introducing new features and updating the heart rate tracking functionality of the Powerbeats Pro 2 with the upcoming release of iOS 26.

With the latest iOS upgrade, Powerbeats Pro 2 integrates better with Apple’s Fitness app, giving users more accurate data and the choice of up to 50 different workout types. For Apple’s Fitness+ users, the Beats earbuds will also show the heart rate, calories burned and “Burn Bar” metrics in real time. Outside the Fitness app, iOS 26 will bring smaller improvements like being able to use a single earbud for heart rate monitoring, better accuracy when counting steps even when your iPhone isn’t on you and a new algorithm that churns out faster heart rate readings. To make your life easier, the updated Powerbeats Pro 2 will send you a notification to get a better fit for more accurate heart rate monitoring and can sense if you nod or shake your head in response to Siri asking you to answer an incoming call or hear a text.

All of these iOS 26 upgrades for the Powerbeats Pro 2 will mostly put it in line with the AirPods Pro 3 features when the update releases on September 15. However, in our review of the Beats earbuds, we found that they offered mediocre ANC performance. It’s worth noting that Android users for the Powerbeats Pro 2 won’t get many of the Apple-branded features that come with iOS 26.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/some-much-needed-upgrades-are-coming-to-powerbeats-pro-2-with-ios-26-181716994.html?src=rss 

It’s been quite the wait, but the fourth season of The Witcher is almost here. In a teaser shared this weekend, Netflix finally revealed the release date: October 30. The video also provided an extended look at Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia — a casting change that fans naturally have a lot of feelings about after Henry Cavill won their hearts with his take on the character in the first three seasons. The minute-and-a-half-long clip doesn’t give away too much about season four, but we now have a proper sense of what our new Geralt looks and sounds like.

This season will also see Laurence Fishburne join as Regis, Sharlto Copley as Leo Bonhart and James Purefoy as Skellen. It’s the second to last season of the Netflix adaptation, and the streaming company has said that the two final seasons will cover the last three books in the series: Baptism of Fire, The Tower of the Swallow and Lady of the Lake. But, fans still have more Witcher content to look forward to yet outside of the show. The Witcher 4 (the game) is on the way, though we don’t yet have a release date.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/the-witcher-season-4-will-hit-netflix-in-october-with-its-new-geralt-183241887.html?src=rss 

Even though Google’s AI Overviews were introduced with a comically rocky start, it’s about to face a far more serious challenge. Penske Media, the publisher for Rolling Stone, Variety, Billboard and others, filed a lawsuit against Google, claiming the tech giant illegally powers its AI Overviews feature with content from its sites. Penske claimed in the lawsuit that the AI feature is also “siphoning and discouraging user traffic to PMC’s and other publishers’ websites,” adding that “the revenue generated by those visits will decline.”

The lawsuit, filed in Washington, DC’s federal district court, claims that about 20 percent of Google searches that link to one of Penske’s sites now have AI Overviews. The media company argued that this percentage will continue to increase and that its affiliate revenue through 2024 dropped by more than a third from its peak. Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said that the tech giant will “defend against these meritless claims” and that “AI Overviews send traffic to a greater diversity of sites.”

Earlier this year, Google faced a similar lawsuit from Chegg, an educational tech company that’s known for textbook rentals. Like Penske Media, this lawsuit alleged that Google’s AI Overviews hurt website traffic and revenue for Chegg. However, the Penske lawsuit is the first time that Google has faced legal action from a major US publisher about its AI search capabilities.

Beyond Google’s legal troubles, other AI companies have also been facing their own court cases. In 2023, the New York Times sued OpenAI, claiming the AI company used published news articles to train its chatbots without offering compensation. More recently, Anthropic agreed to pay a $1.5 billion settlement in a class action lawsuit targeting its Claude chatbot’s use of copyrighted works.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-faces-its-first-ai-overviews-lawsuit-from-a-major-us-publisher-162333462.html?src=rss 

A California bill that would require operating system and app store providers to verify users’ ages before they can download apps has cleared the Assembly 58-0, and will now move on to Gov. Gavin Newsom, Politico reports. The Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043), introduced by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, does not require photo identification for verification, but puts the onus on the platforms to provide tools for parents to indicate the user’s age during a device’s setup, and use this information steer kids toward age-appropriate content and screen time.

It comes after Utah and Texas both adopted app store age verification laws earlier this year that have been criticized as posing potential privacy risks, and faced opposition from the likes of Google and Apple. The California bill has been received more positively by Big Tech, with Google, Meta and others putting out statements in support of it in the leadup to a Senate vote on Friday. Kareem Ghanem, Google’s Senior Director of Government Affairs & Public Policy, called the bill “one of the most thoughtful approaches we’ve seen thus far to the challenges of keeping kids safe, recognizing that it’s a shared responsibility across the ecosystem.” Gov. Newsom now has until October 13 to sign or veto the bill, according to Politico.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/californias-age-verification-bill-for-app-stores-and-operating-systems-takes-another-step-forward-214339759.html?src=rss 

Following her son’s suicide, Becca Dallas filed a potentially groundbreaking lawsuit against Roblox and Discord, accusing the platforms of wrongful death. As first reported by The New York Times, the lawsuit recounts the events leading up to Ethan Dallas’ death, detailing his interactions with a player named Nate. According to the report, Nate was likely a 37-year-old man named Timothy O’Connor, who was previously arrested on charges of “possessing child pornography and transmitting harmful material to minors.” The report added that Ethan opened up about these incidents to his mom before committing suicide four months after the confession.

The lawsuit could be the first of its kind against Roblox, according to NYTimes, considering it attributes some blame to the gaming platform that’s home to tens of millions of underaged players. In a statement responding to the report, a Roblox spokesperson said that child safety issues are seen across the industry and that the company was working on new safety features, while also complying with law enforcement.

This isn’t the first time Roblox has faced complaints of being a dangerous place for underage players. In August, Louisiana’s attorney general, Liz Murrill, filed a lawsuit that claimed Roblox doesn’t “implement basic safety controls” to protect its underage user base. That lawsuit follows a similar investigation launched by Florida’s attorney general James Uthmeier, who demanded answers to the reports of Roblox reportedly exposing kids to “harmful content and bad actors.” Roblox has taken steps to combat these allegations, including tightening restrictions on its Experiences, and more recently, expanding its age estimation tool to all users.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/roblox-hit-with-wrongful-death-lawsuit-following-a-teen-players-suicide-201501296.html?src=rss 

Kodak has shrunk a camera to fit onto a keyring, but it still manages to shoot both photo and video. It’s hard not to compare the Kodak Charmera to the ubiquitous Labubu craze, considering the highly collectible nature of Reto Pro selling these officially licensed mini cameras as a single blind box for $29.99 or a full set of six for $179.94. The keyring cameras, which only weigh 30 grams, are already sold out on the Reto Pro website, but are expected to be restocked.

The blind box can be unwrapped for one of seven designs, including one secret version that has a transparent shell to show off the tiny camera’s internals. According to the website, the basic style odds are one out of six, while the secret edition has a probability of one out of 48. Whichever design you get, each Charmera comes with a keyring to Labubu-bify it to your belt loop or bag and a USB-C cable to export your photos or videos to other devices.

Inspired by Kodak’s first single-use camera from the ’80s called the Fling, the Chamera sports a throwback design that can shoot 1.6-megapixel images with a 1,440 x 1,080 resolution and videos at 30fps. Nobody should expect any ultrasharp images, but you can customize your shots with Kodak frames, vintage filters and a date stamp. We’re not expecting the Charmera to deliver the highest-quality images, but just like the Gameboy Camera, that won’t make it any less fun to use.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/kodaks-mini-camera-fits-on-your-keyring-and-is-smaller-than-an-airpods-case-184227505.html?src=rss