The Meta Quest line of AR and VR headsets appear to be popular Christmas gifts this year, as the Meta Horizon companion soars to the top of the iPhone App Store in the US region, and around the world. The uplift in demand is likely driven by the release of the , a cheap-but-capable $299 model.

The Amazon Alexa app also rose in the Top Free app charts, as Echo speakers continue to be popular gift ideas. AirPods and were also likely to be one of the most unwrapped gifts this Christmas, but the App Store does not give us any insights into the popularity of Apple’s own products …

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From smoking at McDonald's to AI Tom Cruise, 2024 was a busy year for viral hoaxes.

Some consider gift cards not the most personal of gifts, but I say that's not the case. They allow you to get exactly what you want with no confusion, and (typically) both gifter and giftee walk away happy. But maybe you received a few gift cards for the holidays and are stumped on what to buy with them — Engadget can help. Here, we've gathered some of our favorite gadgets and services of the year that are all worthy ways to spend your gift card money, from wireless mice to coffee gear to gaming controllers.

Check out the rest of our gift ideas here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-spend-your-100-gift-card-after-christmas-130036223.html?src=rss

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Social media platform Bluesky has launched Trending Topics into beta, the company announced in a post on its platform. The new feature is one of the most-requested by users and matches a function that has been on rival Threads for around nine months, and on X (Twitter at the time) since at least 2017. 

The Trending section shows the top viral content on the platform, with topics like "Christmas," "Nosferatu" and "Wikipedia" (thanks to Elon Musk) currently on top. It can be found by clicking on search in both the desktop version and mobile apps, or you can disable it altogether in the settings, TechCrunch noted. Any words that you have muted won't appear in Trending topics either.

Bluesky recently hit a big milestone with 25 million users, many of whom recently fled X following the US elections. Though still relatively small compared to Threads and X, users have remarked on the high levels of engagement along with the lack of bots and harassment compared to Elon Musk's platform. Other highly requested features still not implemented include bookmarks, editing, verification badges and private posts. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/bluesky-launches-a-trending-topics-feature-in-search-140049208.html?src=rss

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Samsung’s celebrated flagship soundbar does just enough to beat out the rest of its Dolby Atmos competitors.

It started, like so many overwrought home optimization projects, during the pandemic.

My wife and I, like many people stuck inside, were ordering takeout more frequently. We wanted to support local restaurants, reduce the dish load, and live a little. It became clear early on that app-based delivery services like DoorDash and Uber Eats were not the best way to support local businesses. If a restaurant had its own ordering site or a preferred service, we wanted to use that—or even, heaven forfend, call the place.

The secondary issue was that we kept ordering from the same places, and we wanted to mix it up. Sometimes we'd want to pick something up nearby. Sometimes we wanted to avoid an entire category ("Too many carbs this week, no pasta") or try the newest places we knew about, or maybe a forgotten classic. Or just give me three places randomly, creative constraints, please—it's Friday.

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This Bluetooth speaker’s design is a breath of fresh air, but Bose skimped on some features that are usually standard at this price.

Read the full story at The Verge.

Oracle shares have jumped 63% in 2024 and are headed for their best year since 1999, adding over $75 billion to Larry Ellison's net worth.

Forget about patchy internet connections and dead spots in the house. These WIRED-tested multiroom mesh systems will get you online in no time.

Villains were everywhere and more relatable than ever. Across pop culture, social media, and IRL, the phenomenon went full-on main character.

It's been a wild year in tech thanks to the intersection between humans and artificial intelligence. 2024 brought a parade of AI oddities, mishaps, and wacky moments that inspired odd behavior from both machines and man. From AI-generated rat genitals to search engines telling people to eat rocks, this year proved that AI has been having a weird impact on the world.

Why the weirdness? If we had to guess, it may be due to the novelty of it all. Generative AI and applications built upon Transformer-based AI models are still so new that people are throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. People have been struggling to grasp both the implications and potential applications of the new technology. Riding along with the hype, different types of AI that may end up being ill-advised, such as automated military targeting systems, have also been introduced.

It's worth mentioning that aside from crazy news, we saw fewer weird AI advances in 2024 as well. For example, Claude 3.5 Sonnet launched in June held off the competition as a top model for most of the year, while OpenAI's o1 used runtime compute to expand GPT-4o's capabilities with simulated reasoning. Advanced Voice Mode and NotebookLM also emerged as novel applications of AI tech, and the year saw the rise of more capable music synthesis models and also better AI video generators, including several from China.

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The plant-based-meat company’s CEO, Ethan Brown, credits a series of attack ads with prompting a potentially sector-saving change of plan.

Technology has changed the way many of us consume information, from complex pieces of writing to short video clips

Apple, Google, and Samsung all prioritized image generation and predictive text over slimmer phones and bigger camera glass.

Deepfakes were nothing like the political force in 2024 that many feared—but that doesn’t mean that generative AI didn’t profoundly affect elections all over the world.

From Chinese cyberspies breaching US telecoms to ruthless ransomware gangs disrupting health care for millions of people, 2024 saw some of the worst hacks, breaches, and data leaks ever.

NICOSIA, Cyprus, 26th December 2024, Chainwire

The post BC.GAME Launches Wukong Slot Game, Now Playable with Crypto first appeared on Tech Startups.

The Joy-Cons on your Switch were pretty innovative when the system came out, but it’s been long enough that we know they don’t work for every use case. Luckily, it’s also been long enough that plenty of companies have come out with their own Switch controllers, meaning you have your pick of the litter when it comes to upgrading your gamepad experience. Whether you’re a casual player, love to marathon classic games or are ready to take your Switch skills to a professional tournament, there’s a Switch controller for you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/best-nintendo-switch-controllers-160034389.html?src=rss

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Despite the arrival of new competitors and growing political tensions between the US and China, the ecommerce juggernaut Temu proved in 2024 it’s here to stay.

A killer whale mother who carried her dead calf for 17 days in an apparent show of grief has given birth to a new calf, scientists have said.