I would have preferred any other Super Bowl matchup than another showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, but the world doesn’t revolve around me. Regardless, I love a good championship football game, especially one enhanced by an immersive sound system. If you’re in need of a home theater audio upgrade yourself, Sonos might be the play, as it’s offering up to $250 off its connected soundbars and speakers through February 8th.

The Sonos Arc, for example, is on sale at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart starting at just $649 ($250 off) right now, which is the lowest price we’ve seen on the high-end soundbar. It was the most impressive soundbar in the Sonos lineup before the Sonos Arc Ultra showed up. Although it doesn’t have the expanded soundstage offered by the Ultra’s extra virtual channels and Sound Motion tech, it’s still terrific as a standalone Dolby Atmos soundbar with eight woofers, two tweeters, and two upfiring speakers. It supports Apple’s AirPlay 2 and does the Sonos trick of offering voice-activated control using Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, too.

The Arc could still use a bit of bass help, though, assuming you want to get the most out of movies and games after the final whistle blows. You can get that by pairing it with a Sonos Sub Mini, which is matching its all-time of $343 ($86 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Sonos’ online storefront right now. It’s a compact wireless subwoofer that should be much easier to find space for in tighter home theaters than the fourth-gen Sonos Sub. The latter is bigger and more powerful, but also pretty expensive. Thankfully, it’s available for $679 ($120 off) from Sonos as part of the company’s ongoing Super Bowl promo.

If these pairings would stretch your budget too much, Sonos also makes several budget-friendly soundbars. The second-gen Sonos Beam is available for $399 ($100 off) from Amazon, Best Buy, and Sonos, which is $30 more than its lowest price to date. It’s more compact than the Arc, but still offers good sound, an eARC HDMI port, and support for Dolby Atmos with virtualized surround sound channels (though, no up-firing Atmos speakers).

Amazon, Best Buy, and Sonos are also discounting the entry-level Sonos Ray to $179, which is $100 off and $30 more than its all-time low. It can’t match the sound coming out of the Sonos Arc or the latest Beam, but it’ll surely trump what most TVs can output. Plus, at 22 inches wide, it’s the ideal size if your entertainment center doesn’t have much space. That said, you’ll need an optical cable for audio from your TV as it doesn’t have an HDMI eARC port like the other soundbars do.

If you prefer a smart speaker over a soundbar, the Sonos Era 100 is also currently matching the record low of $199 ($50 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Sonos’ online storefront. With a pair, you can add rear surround sound to make it feel as though you’re in the stands hearing cheers and jeers. That said, the Era 100 doesn’t support Dolby Atmos like the beefier Sonos Era 300 does. The latter is the only Atmos-supporting Sonos speaker, and it also happens to be on sale for an all-time low of $359.99 (about $89 off) at Best Buy.

The Era 100 does well on its own as an all-around music speaker, though. Like the Era 300, it offers both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, AirPlay 2 support, and Amazon Alexa compatibility (with a dedicated switch to disable the microphone). It also supports Sonos’ handy Trueplay tuning feature and USB-C line-in, which lets you connect wired devices using an optional 3.5mm to USB-C adapter.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman teased exactly two weeks ago that o3-mini would ship in “a couple of weeks,” and it’s arriving on time today. OpenAI is launching its latest o3-mini reasoning model inside ChatGPT and its API services and making a version with rate limits available to free users of ChatGPT for the first time.

Originally announced as part of OpenAI’s 12 days of “ship-mas” in December, o3-mini is designed to match o1’s performance in math, coding, and science, while responding faster than the existing reasoning model. OpenAI says o3-mini should respond 24 percent faster than o1-mini and provide more accurate answers in the process. Much like o1-mini, this latest model will show how it worked out an answer, rather than just providing a response.

OpenAI provided some early benchmarks showing its o3 model outperforming o1 in December, and it now says the o3-mini version will outperform o1 in a number of coding and reasoning tasks at less cost and latency. Developers will be able to leverage o3-mini through OpenAI’s API services, including the Chat Completions API, Assistants API, and Batch API.

Paid users also be able to select o3-mini-high, which OpenAI says will be the “best coding option in ChatGPT” and include higher intelligence responses that take a little longer to generate. o3-mini will also work with search to find answers with links to web sources.

This is also the first time free users of ChatGPT will be able to try out OpenAI’s reasoning models, just days after Microsoft made o1 free for all Copilot users and DeepSeek shook up the AI world. You can try o3-mini free of charge in ChatGPT by selecting the Reason feature in the chat bar, and the rate limits will be similar to the existing GPT-4o limits. o3-mini will also be available for ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro users worldwide today, and OpenAI is tripling its message limits for Plus and Teams users to 150 messages per day. Only Pro users, who are willing to pay $200 a month, will get unlimited access to o3-mini.

MultiVersus will go offline at the end of its next season, Warner Bros. Games announced on Friday. The free-to-play brawler’s fifth and final season starts on February 4th and runs through May 30th, 2025, after which you’ll only be able to play against AI opponents or through local co-op. It will also no longer be available to download.

To gain access to the offline version of MultiVersus, you need to download the latest version of the game and log in during season five. From there, you’ll get a local save file connected to your PlayStation, Microsoft, Steam, or Epic Games account, “allowing you to enjoy the game offline with all earned and purchased content moving forward.​”

The Super Smash Bros.–like MultiVersus first launched in an open beta in 2022, but it went offline in 2023 after its player count dropped. It relaunched in May 2024, adding characters from across Warner Bros. Discovery’s intellectual property, like Samurai Jack, the Powerpuff Girls, and Beetlejuice. The fifth season will add the game’s final characters: Aquaman and the Looney Tunes’ Lola Bunny.

MultiVersus is also ending in-game purchases starting today, which means you can no longer buy Gleamium. You can still use any remaining Gleamium or character tokens until the end of season five, however.

It’s been a pretty rough past few months for live service games like MultiVersus, as Sony shut down Concord last year and canceled two unannounced live service projects, while XDefiant servers go offline in June.

Ugreen has announced another Apple AirTag alternative with its new Finder Slim wallet tracker. It’s not only much thinner than an Apple AirTag, at just 1.7mm thick, the Finder Slim is also thinner than the 2.4mm Chipolo Card Spot, the 2.8mm Pebblebee Card Universal, the 2.5mm Tile Slim, and the 2.6mm Eufy SmartTrack Card E30.

It’s now available through Amazon for $26.99, also making it one of the cheapest wallet trackers compatible with Apple’s Find My network.

Like Eufy and Pebblebee’s wallet trackers, Ugreen’s Finder Slim features a rechargeable battery instead of a disposable one. Battery life is claimed to be up to 12 months between charges, which is much shorter than the three years Tile says its wallet tracker will work, but you can potentially keep using Ugreen’s for even longer than that.

The downside to ultra-thin rechargeable wallet trackers like the Finder Slim is that they’re too thin to use a standard USB-C charging port. It instead relies on a proprietary charging cable with a magnetic connector you’ll need to make sure you don’t misplace before needing it again in another 12 months. On top of that, if product imagery is accurate, the proprietary charging cable Ugreen includes is only USB-A compatible.

The Finder Slim works with Apple’s Find My network but skips support for Google’s Find My Device network entirely. Remote tracking allows you to see the Finder Slim’s last reported location on the network, and it will also trigger left behind reminders when it’s initially separated from your iPhone. A built-in 80dB alarm should make it easy to pinpoint the exact location of the tracker when it’s nearby and within earshot — even when it’s stuffed inside a wallet — and it’s IP68 rated, so it can survive a complete dunking for up to 30 minutes. Just don’t expect to be able to track it down if it ends up in the drink.

WhatsApp has disrupted a spyware campaign last month that targeted journalists and civil society members, the company announced on Friday. The campaign originated from an Israeli spyware company called Paragon Solutions and impacted around 90 users.

In a statement to The Guardian, WhatsApp says it has reached out to affected users, saying it had “high confidence” that they were targeted and “possibly compromised.” The Meta-owned app also sent a cease-and-desist order to Paragon and is “exploring its legal options,” The Guardian reports.

Paragon, which Reuters called a competitor to Pegasus maker NSO Group, bills itself as an “ethical” cyber defense company. It was acquired by the Florida-based private investment firm AE Industrial Partners last year, while a recent report from Wired revealed that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed a $2 million contract with Paragon in September 2024.

WhatsApp sued NSO Group in 2019 for targeting 1,400 users, including journalists, activists, and government officials. The spyware company has since been found liable.

“This is the latest example of why spyware companies must be held accountable for their unlawful actions,” WhatsApp spokesperson Zade Alsawah said in a statement to The Verge. “WhatsApp will continue to protect people’s ability to communicate privately.”

Update, January 31st: Added information from WhatsApp.

If you’re tired of watching your heating bill soar every month, now is a good time to invest in Google’s latest Nest Learning Thermostat. Normally $279.99, right now Amazon, Best Buy, and Google are selling the smart thermostat in all three color options for $239.99 ($40 off), which is just $10 shy of its lowest price to date.

Google’s fourth-gen smart thermostat is the smartest on the market — full stop. It can learn your preferences and habits over time, much like previous models, and automatically adjusts your heating and cooling schedule based on how you go about using it, ensuring you’re always comfortable. It also supports the newer Matter standard, so you can connect it to any major smart home platform once you set up using the Google Home app, paving the way for native controls in Apple Home and Amazon Alexa. What’s more, it comes with a remote temperature sensor so that you can focus on heating and cooling specific rooms in your home, not just the room in which the thermostat resides.

Despite its host of smart capabilities, the stylish thermostat is relatively simple to set up and use. It features a large, customizable display that functions much like an oversized Pixel Watch, one shows basic info like the time, weather, and temperature settings. What’s cool is that it provides more detailed insights up close, letting you quickly view the humidity or the outdoor air quality index score, among other data points.

Read our Google Nest Learning Thermostat review.

A few more deals and discounts

• You can currently grab a pair of Technics’ EAH-AZ80 starting at $185.37 ($115 off) at Amazon and Best Buy, which is an all-time low. The wireless earbuds impressed us with their unique ability to pair with three devices simultaneously, making them a good choice for multitaskers. They also feature terrific sound and noise cancellation, along with a feature-packed companion app that lets you preview your voice call quality, adjust various EQ settings, and dial in the helpful transparency mode. Read our review.
• Lego’s Bouquet of Roses, one of our V-Day gift guide picks from last year, is down to its all-time low price of $47.99 ($12 off) at Amazon, Target, and Walmart. The clever set comes with enough pieces to assemble a dozen red roses and four sprigs of baby’s breath — all in bloom — which you can then drop in whatever vase you have lying around when you’re done, just like an actual bouquet.
• The 2022 Tile Mate is on sale at Amazon for $14.99 ($10 off), which is just $2 shy of its best price to date. The 2024 Tile Mate features a wider Bluetooth range, but the 2022 model still accurately tracks items within a respectable range of 250 feet. And, just like Tile’s newer location trackers, the last-gen model is both platform-agnostic and water-resistant.

Apple has agreed to a $20 million settlement in a class action lawsuit over battery swelling in early Apple Watch models. If you experienced the issue and owned an Apple Watch Series 0, 1, 2, or 3, you may be eligible for a small payout.

The lawsuit, Smith et al. v. Apple Inc, was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. In both the settlement agreement and claim website, Apple explicitly denies that its smartwatches ever had battery swelling issues and “denies all allegations of wrongdoing” and liability. Instead, it says that Apple is choosing to settle to “avoid further costs of litigation.”

In a statement sent to The Verge, Apple spokesperson Aushawna Collins says the company “strongly disagree[s] with the claims made against these early generation Apple Watch models.”

To be eligible for a payout, you have to have owned an eligible watch model and have reported any potential battery swelling issues to Apple between April 24th, 2015 and February 6th, 2024. Anyone who fits those criteria has until April 10th to confirm or update their payment information to receive a payout. According to the settlement’s FAQ site, the payment is estimated to be roughly $20 to $50 per covered watch. Accepting a payment means you also give up any future action regarding battery issues on these particular watches. Those who do not wish to be part of the settlement have until February 24th, 2025 to exclude themselves or object to the settlement.

Update, January 31st: Added comment from Apple.

Apple wants to ensure it has a voice in the remedies trial for the Justice Department’s search monopolization case against Google, and filed an emergency motion to stay the proceedings while it appeals the district court’s denial of its request to be more directly heard in the case.

The remedies phase of the trial is set to begin in April, since US District Court Judge Amit Mehta already found Google liable for illegal monopolization in the general search market. Even though Apple is not technically a party in the case, it has played a significant role in it — the billions of dollars Google pays Apple each year for default placement on iOS helped convinced Mehta of Google’s monopoly power.

Mehta denied Apple’s request to take a limited role in the remedies phase of the case in an order earlier this week, saying it didn’t file fast enough. Instead, he said, Apple could file post-hearing briefs explaining its views. The DOJ and state plaintiffs had opposed Apple taking part in the proceedings, while Google did not take a position.

Apple believes it now needs to take a role in the case because unlike in the earlier stage, its interests may no longer be sufficiently represented by Google. The government’s proposals to end lucrative deals for Apple — where Google pays for default positioning — “implicates concerns unique to Apple,” it says. Apple worries that Google will need to decide which arguments to focus on most — including the government’s request that the Chrome browser business be spun out — and the ones that concern Apple might not be adequately covered.

Apple writes that if its appeal isn’t handled until after the remedies trial has begun and it’s unable to participate, “Apple may well be forced to stand mute at trial, as a mere spectator, while the government pursues an extreme remedy that targets Apple by name and would prohibit any commercial arrangement between Apple and Google for a decade. This would leave Apple without the ability to defend its right to reach other arrangements with Google that could benefit millions of users and Apple’s entitlement to compensation for distributing Google search to its users.”

While Mehta hopes to resolve the case by August, Apple says that “the concern about a short delay is outweighed by the need for a fully developed record that includes information that only Apple can develop,” like how the DOJ’s proposals to eliminate Google’s monopoly power would impact Apple, and why they might not work. Apple said in its initial motion to intervene that it would offer evidence that despite the government’s suggestions, it would not create a general search engine were it not bound by its default agreement with Google.

If Mehta doesn’t grant the stay pending appeal, Apple requested at the very least that it gain access to discovery and depositions as a non-party while the Circuit Court considers its appeal. “Absent a stay,” the company writes, “Apple will suffer irreparable harm.”

DeepSeek startled everyone last month with the claim that its AI model uses roughly one-tenth the amount of computing power as Meta’s Llama 3.1 model, upending an entire worldview of how much energy and resources it’ll take to develop artificial intelligence. 

Taken at face value, that claim could have tremendous implications for the environmental impact of AI. Tech giants are rushing to build out massive AI data centers, with plans for some to use as much electricity as small cities. Generating that much electricity creates pollution, raising fears about how the physical infrastructure undergirding new generative AI tools could exacerbate climate change and worsen air quality.

Reducing how much energy it takes to train and run generative AI models could alleviate much of that stress. But it’s still too early to gauge whether DeepSeek will be a game-changer when it comes to AI’s environmental footprint. Much will depend on how other major players respond to the Chinese startup’s breakthroughs, especially considering plans to build new data centers. 

“It just shows that AI doesn’t have to be an energy hog,” says Madalsa Singh, …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Blackmagic Design has announced that it’s finally bringing several advanced features already available for the iOS version of its free camera app to Android. The Blackmagic Camera for Android 2.0 update released this week allows several smartphones running the app to be monitored and controlled from a single device, including, for the first time, a small selection of Android tablets.

The new multicam remote functionality, which was introduced on the iOS and iPadOS versions of the app last August, allows a single Android smartphone or tablet to be connected to up to nine other phones running the camera app over a Wi-Fi or wired network. The controller device can be used to monitor the live video feeds from all the connected phones in a multi-view layout, start or stop recordings, and adjust settings such as focus, zoom, frame rate, white balance, and shutter angle individually or on all the phones at once.

Although the Blackmagic Camera app was originally released in September 2023 for iOS devices, the rollout for Android has been much slower and staggered. When the app finally launched on Android last June, it was only compatible with a handful of Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel smartphones. Blackmagic Design has been slowly expanding the app’s compatibility to other Android devices, and this week’s update adds support for the Samsung Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra. The newly added support for Android tablets is limited to the Xiaomi Pad 6 and Samsung Tab S9.

Other features introduced in the Blackmagic Camera for Android 2.0 update include support for Tilta’s USB lens control system, a UI update allowing users to “drag-select multiple media clips,” German language support, and the ability to capture video at 120 and 240fps on Sony Xperia smartphones that support that feature.

The holidays are over, a new year is here, and along with all the various upheavals that we are facing (including some possible changes in tax law), most of us have to deal with our annual income taxes. Sorry about that.

Tax day this year falls, for most of us, on the traditional April 15th. There are exceptions: for example, if you live in California and in an area that’s been affected by wildfires, you are eligible for tax relief and an extended deadline of October 15th.

Despite the stress that many of us feel at the thought of tackling our yearly taxes, try not to worry — we’re going to list some resources that are available so that you can prepare your taxes. As always, it might not be a bad idea to start working on those taxes as soon as possible to avoid any last-minute panic. And whether you’re a full-time worker dealing with a single W-2 or a freelancer / gig worker getting a series of 1099s, the fastest way to pay the piper these days is to do it online.

On the positive side of the ledger, if you live and work in one of 25 states, there’s now a new way to figure out your taxes: via the IRS’s own Direct File program. We’ll get to that in a moment.

To begi …

Read the full story at The Verge.

TikTok’s traffic is almost back to normal despite its delayed return to US app stores, according to Cloudflare Radar data seen by CNBC. The “DNS traffic for TikTok-related domains” is around 10 percent lower than the levels before its abrupt shutdown, David Belson, Cloudflare’s head of data insight, told CNBC.

To compare, TikTok’s traffic dipped as much as 85 percent when the app went dark in response to the US divest-or-ban law, Cloudflare reported at the time. TikTok started coming back online on January 19th, but the app has remained unavailable on Google Play and the Apple App Store ever since.

The shutdown also affected other apps owned by TikTok parent company ByteDance, including Marvel Snap, CapCut, and Lemon8. Even though all three apps have restored their services in the US, they aren’t available in app stores, either — and there’s no indication when they might return. Many users unable to download the apps have resorted to methods like using a VPN or changing their Apple ID region to Canada in an attempt to get them back.

President Donald Trump has since signed an executive order delaying TikTok’s ban, but the app still isn’t in the clear just yet. That legal uncertainty might be what’s making Apple and Google hesitant to bring TikTok and other ByteDance-owned apps back to their stores.

Dell is the latest tech company to announce it’s ending its hybrid and remote work policy. Starting March 3rd, Dell employees will have to show up in person five days a week.

In an email obtained by Business Insider, CEO Michael Dell writes that “all hybrid and remote team members who live near a Dell office will work in the office five days a week. We are retiring the hybrid policy effective that day.”

“What we’re finding is that for all the technology in the world, nothing is faster than the speed of human interaction. A thirty second conversation can replace an email back-and-forth that goes on for hours or even days,” Dell writes.

Despite this mandate, Dell also continues to sell remote work solutions, noting that remote work offers “benefits such as flexibility, reduced commute times, and cost savings for employees, while employers can access a broader talent pool, reduce overhead costs, and increase productivity.”

Technically, Dell had already required its sales, manufacturing, and lab engineers to return to office. The email cites the “new speed, energy, and passion” from those teams as a reason for implementing it company-wide globally. For previously remote workers who don’t live near an office, Dell says they can continue to work remotely.

Dell is not the only company to issue return-to-office mandates in recent months. AT&T, Amazon, Stellantis, and JP Morgan have all either started or announced return-to-work policies this month. Meanwhile, President Trump also issued an executive order last week requiring all federal employees to return to office, noting that all government departments “terminate remote work arrangements.”

Stargate is a staggering power grab.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has spent the past year seeking an absurd amount of computing power to train the company’s AI models — one report says Japanese officials literally laughed at the amount of electricity he demanded. The stakes were clear: without massive computing resources, OpenAI risked losing ground to tech giants like Google and Meta, who’ve spent years building their AI infrastructure.

But last week, this impossible dream became a press release. Altman secured a mind-boggling $500 billion commitment to build OpenAI’s data center empire, called Stargate, thanks to backing from SoftBank, Oracle, and the Abu Dhabi fund MGX. The White House added its stamp of approval in a press conference, with President Donald Trump flanked by Altman, Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. (The name references a 1994 sci-fi movie, where the stargate is an ancient transportation portal controlled by an all-powerful ruler.)

If it materializes, Stargate could effectively be the largest private computing infrastructure project in history. It would mean a network of massive computing complexes — each spanning hundreds of ac …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Electronics, avocados, vegetables, cars, tractors, crude oil — these are some of the things that could soon get more expensive for US consumers. Under President Donald Trump’s proposed plan, goods coming in from Mexico and Canada will be subject to a 25 percent tariff beginning on February 1st. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has also said Trump was “very much still considering” tariffs on China on the same day. As of late Thursday, the specifics of these plans were still up in the air.

Sweeping tariffs were one of Trump’s marquee campaign promises leading up to the election in November. He’s previously threatened up to a 60 percent tariff on goods from China, a 100 percent tariff on goods from Mexico, and even a 200 percent tariff on John Deere products imported into the US. Despite this, Trump failed to levy any tariffs on day one of his presidency, with Bloomberg reporting on Thursday that his administration lacked even concepts of a plan. His first round is now supposed to hit goods from Mexico and Canada, the two largest trade partners for the US.

In 2022, around $1.8 trillion of goods and services moved between countries under the current United St …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The DeepSeek story contains multitudes. It’s a story about the stock market, whether there’s an AI bubble, and how important Nvidia has become to so many people’s financial future. It’s also a story about China, export controls, and American AI dominance. And then, somewhere in there, there’s a story about technology: about how a startup managed to build cheaper, more efficient AI models with few of the capital and technological advantages its competitors have.

On this episode of The Vergecast, we talk about all these angles and a few more, because DeepSeek is the story of the moment on so many levels. Nilay and David discuss whether companies like OpenAI and Anthropic should be nervous, why reasoning models are such a big deal, and whether all this extra training and advancement actually adds up to much of anything at all. (Nilay has a long comparison to Bluetooth, in case that helps you guess where we land.)

After that, we go through our email inbox ([email protected]) and the Vergecast Hotline (866-VERGE11), and talk about some of your responses to last week’s question about how people use AI. Thank you so much to everyone who wrote in and called! There a …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Behance co-creator Scott Belsky has announced he’s leaving his position as Adobe’s Chief Strategy Officer to become a partner at independent film production company A24. Belsky initially joined Adobe when it acquired the Behance artist portfolio platform for $150 million in 2012. 

Following a brief departure in 2016, he rejoined Adobe in 2017 to lead its product development across Creative Cloud and has since become one of the design software giant’s most respected and recognizable figures. Belsky played a key role in launching Adobe’s lineup of Firefly generative AI products, which debuted its first AI video model in October last year.

Belsky was also a driving force behind Adobe’s failed attempt to acquire rival product design platform Figma for $20 billion in 2023. The merger agreement was squashed under pressure from UK and EU regulators, requiring Adobe to pay Figma a $1 billion termination fee.

“After 7 years since returning to Adobe… i’ll be shifting gears over the coming months + jumping into the fast-evolving world of filmmaking and storytelling (a longtime passion),” Belsky said in his farewell message. “It’s hard to leave a team, mission, and customer base I care for deeply, but the Adobe team, strategy, and pipeline has never been stronger.”

Belsky says he will be relocating to New York City and will remain in the “extended family of Adobe” as a “future tech partner.” According to Adobe chief marketing officer Lara Balazs, Belsky’s A24 partner role will see him building “tools and resources” to help support filmmakers’ creative visions.

“I’m excited to see how his experience developing technology will translate to the entertainment industry,” Balazs said on Adobe’s blog. “We have always partnered with studios around the world, and we have already begun conversations with Scott and A24 on how the two companies can partner to progress the art of storytelling.”

Looking for a way to speed up your weekly cleaning? It might be worth investing in a robot vacuum that can also mop up your floors, like the Dreame L20 Ultra. The hybrid robot vacuum / mop is one of our favorites, and has currently dropped to an all-time low price of $614.99 ($785 off) at Amazon when you clip the on-page coupon.

The L20 Ultra’s packed with all kinds of features that make it easy to clean up quickly. It’s got 7,000Pa suction for sucking up dirt deep in your carpets, while its mop is capable of extending itself to reach areas that are usually hard for robovacs to clean. Once it’s finished with your floors, the bot is capable of automatically removing its own mop pads to keep your carpets dry. It’s also smart enough that it can automatically empty its own dustbin and refill its water tanks, so you don’t need to spend a lot of time cleaning the bot itself up.

The hybrid bot also boasts AI-powered obstacle avoidance so it can move around stuff on the floor like shoes. Plus, it’s compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri Shortcuts so you can control it with just your voice for an almost hands-free cleaning experience.

Disney’s extraordinarily expensive Star Wars hotel isn’t coming back. The building that housed the Galactic Starcruiser is being converted into office space, scuppering hopes that it could be reborn or repurposed into a new interactive attraction.

The Wrap reports that the hotel will be converted into an office for Walt Disney Imagineering, the creative arm of the company responsible for its theme parks, retail, and cruise ships. The team located there will reportedly work on upcoming expansions for Florida’s Walt Disney World resort, including a Latin American section of the Animal Kingdom and a Monsters Inc. area within Hollywood Studios.

Galactic Starcruiser was an immersive hotel experience set in the Star Wars universe, where the minimum stay cost $4,800 for two people over two nights. It opened in March 2022 but ran for just a year and a half, shutting in September 2023. It returned to headlines in May 2024 when YouTuber and theme park superfan Jenny Nicholson’s four-hour video on its “spectacular failure” went viral, amassing 11 million views.

Disney park fans had hoped that the Starcruiser might be repurposed for a new attraction or interactive experience, with reports that Disney was playtesting a multi-hour theatrical dinner set in the hotel’s former lobby. The fact that it requires shuttles to shepherd guests to the hotel site from the rest of the park is one reason that idea might have been deemed unfeasible.

Midnight Society, the game studio co-founded by Dr Disrespect (real name Herschel “Guy” Beahm) has shut down, killing the first-person shooter title it was developing. The studio made “significant” layoffs in September after terminating its relationship with the controversial streamer in June due to “inappropriate” messages he exchanged with a minor. 

Within hours of the closure, YouTube, which also took action against Beahm in June by demonetizing his account, decided to reinstate the streamer’s ability to make money on Google’s video platform. The decision was made after “careful review of the channel’s recent activity,” YouTube spokesperson Boot Bullwinkle told The Verge. “If there are further violations, we’ll take appropriate action.”

Midnight Society was co-founded in 2021 by Beahm, former Call of Duty creative strategist Robert Bowling, and former 343 Industries lead sandbox designer Quinn Delhoyo.

“We are actively seeking other game studios that would be interested in offering employment opportunities to our talented team members,” Midnight Society said in its shutdown announcement on X. “We express our sincere gratitude to each and every one of our community members and deeply sorry we were unable to reach our ultimate goal.”

The “ultimate goal” mentioned in Midnight Society’s departing message was Deadrop — a free-to-play vertical extraction shooter that was initially funded by selling NFTs at the height of the blockchain gaming frenzy. Deadrop was expected to release in 2024, and was the only game being developed by Midnight Society.