I don't mean it lightly when I say that Halo: The Master Chief Collection is one of the best bundles of games I've ever seen. Not just because you score a whole ton of amazing first-person shooters for a very agreeable price, but because the collection itself goes above and beyond what was expected of it. The end result is a, quite frankly, legendary product that I will always wholeheartedly recommend.

The CMF Phone 2 Pro was the company’s most recent cheap smartphone. Nothing has announced that it plans to spin off its sub-brand CMF, which focuses on cheaper smartphones, earbuds, and wearables, into a standalone subsidiary based in India. Founder and CEO Carl Pei announced the move on X, claiming he plans to build CMF into India’s “first truly global consumer tech brand.” Nothing is partnering with local manufacturer Optiemus in a joint venture to set up CMF, and announced plans to invest over $100 million and create at least 1,800 jobs over the next three years. Nothing can afford the investment, having just raised $200 million in a funding round that values the company at $1.3 billion. The announcement comes at an interesting time for CMF, which is busy teasing the launch of its first pair of over-ear headphones on September 29th. Like all CMF products, they’re expected to be budget-friendly — its top smartphone, the Phone 2 Pro, is just $279 in its US beta release, with its watches and earbuds all below $100.

PC owners aren't strangers to the usual hardware debacle. If you’ve been using a PC for more than a year, chances are you have probably encountered some common hardware hiccups. Whether it’s an overclocking or undervolting tweak gone wrong, a curious case of a forgotten BIOS password, or the dreaded black screen on startup, a simple CMOS reset could spell the end of your hardware woes.

Nintendo is releasing a new Fire Emblem mobile game, Fire Emblem Shadows. The company says the game is a spinoff of the series and “introduces a new style of battles featuring role-playing and social deduction.” The company’s description of the game indicates that Shadows will have Among Us-like elements of treachery: One of the three allies participating in each battle is secretly a treacherous disciple of shadow. Players choose to take on the role of either a disciple of light, aiming to find their way through the labyrinth, or a disciple of shadow.After the initial battle, players vote to determine who they believe is the treacherous disciple of shadow. The outcome of the vote affects whether the next battle is more favorable or more challenging. Whether the disciples of light can correctly discover the traitor—or the disciple of shadow can successfully deceive the others—holds the key to how the next battle unfolds.Nintendo says Fire Emblem Shadows is available for iOS and Android, and while it’s a free-to-play app, it will have optional in-app purchases.The company’s other mobile take on Fire Emblem, the gacha-style Fire Emblem Heroes, quickly turned into a big and lucrative hit after its 2017 release, and the game still receives regular updates and new heroes. Nintendo also recently announced a new entry in the series for Switch 2, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave. 

Apple says it’s having to delay bringing some product features to Europe because it’s struggling to make them compliant with the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). In a statement published on Wednesday, Apple said that DMA rules have created “more complexity and more risks for our EU users,” blaming the obligation to open Apple features to third-party devices for the delays.Features impacted include AI-powered Live Translation for AirPods, iPhone Mirroring, and  Visited Places and Preferred Routes on Apple Maps. While interoperability requirements under the DMA specify that companies make proprietary apps and device features available on third-party hardware, Apple says it hasn’t found a way to make these features available on non-Apple devices without compromising users’ data security and privacy.DMA requirements to make it easier to pair, transfer data, and display notifications between iPhones and third-party devices are bearing some fruit, however. The latest iOS 26.1 beta suggests that a “notification forwarding” feature will allow iPhone notifications to surface on non-Apple devices, such as smartwatch competitors to the Apple Watch. The beta also includes references to a feature that will make it easier to pair iPhones with third-party accessories.Despite its ongoing opposition to the DMA, Apple insists that it’s “spending thousands of hours” to be compliant with the law’s requirements, and that the “list of delayed features in the EU will probably get longer” due to these impediments. The EU has given Apple until the end of this year to open up most of these features if it makes them available to European users, or risk facing additional fines under the DMA. The company was hit with a $580 million penalty in April after the App Store violated anti-steering requirements under the rulebook. The iPhone maker has called for the DMA regulation to be repealed “while a more appropriate fit for purpose legislative instrument is put in place,” according to a feedback submission seen by the Financial Times. While Apple’s concerns around user security may hold merit, the company is also motivated to see the DMA scrapped to prevent the legislation from tearing down the walled garden that incentivizes consumers to stay in its product ecosystem. Denying Europeans access to features over DMA compliance concerns may help Apple keep its user base on-side in its argument with the EU.

The Magic 8 Pro has a dedicated AI button along the side. Honor has revealed the design of its upcoming Magic 8 Pro flagship in a selection of images shared exclusively with The Verge, confirming that the phone will include a dedicated AI button. When the Magic 8 series launches in China next month, the phones will be among the first powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, which was announced today by Qualcomm.The Magic phones are Honor’s flagships, and the Pro models tend to launch first in China and then later in Europe, where they typically cost upwards of €1,000 (around $1,200) and lean on flagship chips, big batteries, and powerful cameras. From what we know so far, the Magic 8 Pro will be no exception.In broad strokes, the Magic 8 Pro looks much like the Magic 7 Pro. The phone’s back is flat, rather than having subtle curvature like the previous model, but otherwise things seem familiar. Even the light blue color looks a lot like one of last year’s hues.The biggest difference is on the phone’s side, where we can see an extra button in addition to the power button and volume rocker. Honor tells me that this is a dedicated AI button, rather than a camera control, though exactly what AI functions it will enable I don’t yet know. Honor is also announcing a new AI feature called Magic Color, which lets you restyle images and videos using the color palette from another image of your choice, but presumably it has more AI tricks in mind for the phone. On the back we can see a round rear camera island, boasting what looks like four camera lenses, but is most likely three plus a ToF (time of flight) sensor for depth detection. We don’t know much about those cameras, but Honor’s CMO Guo Rui did share a camera sample to Weibo taken on a 200-megapixel, 85mm-equivalent, f/2.6 camera, which should mean a more powerful telephoto than the Magic 7 Pro’s 72mm periscope.Honor has also confirmed that the Magic 8 phones will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, the latest iteration of the company’s flagship phone chip. Honor isn’t the only company ready for the 8 Elite Gen 5 though. Xiaomi has previously announced that the new chipset will be used in its Xiaomi 17 series, set for a full reveal Thursday.Last year Honor announced the Magic 7 and Magic 7 Pro, eventually joined by a Lite model too, so I’m expecting the company to announce two phones at its Chinese launch event on October 15th. They’ll be joined by the MagicPad 3 Pro, also powered by the 8 Elite Gen 5, and will hopefully see a European release some time early next year. The company is rumored to be working on new Magic 8 Ultra and Mini models too, though those will also reportedly arrive in 2026.

Package managers are less common among the general Windows user base. Most of us still prefer the old Microsoft Store or web search method for finding and installing software packages on our PCs. I also followed the same procedure whenever I had to install an app on my Windows 10 or 11 PC. WinGet debuted in 2022, and it was my first time trying a command-line tool for installing and managing system packages.

The real implications of insufficient VRAM have finally started to rear their head in the last two years. Graphics cards with 8GB of VRAM are simply not capable of handling the latest titles, sometimes even at 1080p. However, a lack of VRAM might not be the worst problem plaguing GPUs right now. Ever since the launch of Nvidia's RTX 50 and AMD's RX 90 series GPUs, multiple disturbing trends have surfaced that paint a bleak future for graphics cards. These dark trends might ruin your GPU upgrade dream before VRAM even gets a chance.

I was tired of the mess that came with planning anything with my family. We had too many group chats, emails, and notes all over the place. Whenever we tried to plan a simple trip or a weekend get-together, the important details would just disappear. We needed a single, central location where everyone could contribute and view the entire plan at once. That's when I discovered HedgeDoc, a free, self-hosted tool for collaborative note-taking. It has completely changed how we work, and it's now our family's own private wiki.

“The Supreme Court is Google’s last hope to avoid an Epic reckoning in October,” I wrote last week. Google apparently agrees. Today, it’s finally elevated its Epic v. Google case, the one that might fracture its control over the entire Android app ecosystem, to the Supreme Court level. Google has now confirmed it will appeal its case to the Supreme Court, and in the meanwhile, it’s asking the Court to press pause one more time on the permanent injunction that would start taking away its control. On September 12th, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that permanent injunction and gave Google until October to stop forcing app developers to use its Google Play Billing for payments, allow them to link to other ways to pay and other places to download apps, set their own prices, and more. But the Supreme Court might see it differently. It might agree with Google’s argument that the lower courts overstepped, or that Apple’s win in Epic v. Apple is relevant to the Google case, or any number of other arguments that you can read in the full document below.Google says it will fully appeal to the Supreme Court for certiorari by October 27th, 2025, and is asking the Supreme Court to decide whether it’ll press pause on the injunction by October 17th. Meanwhile, the district court judge who issued the injunction, Judge James Donato, is asking Google and Epic to explain how they’ll comply with it in his courtroom on October 30th.

The iPad provides one of the best tablet experiences on the market. Not only is it great for entertainment, but you can also get some work done on them if you need to as well. While there are plenty of different models to choose from, the iPad Air is a great middle ground, featuring a great design, lots of power, and a price that's relatively affordable. Right now, you can score the 256GB model with M3 chip for $160 below its original retail price, coming in at just $539 for Woot.

Playground Games is launching the next instalment in the Forza Horizon franchise next year, and this time it’s set in Japan. After revealing Forza Horizon 6 a little early on the official Forza Horizon Instagram account this morning, Microsoft unveiled an official teaser trailer during the Xbox Tokyo Game Show stream.The teaser trailer doesn’t offer up any gameplay, but Forza Horizon 6 players will be able to experience the neon lights and buildings of Tokyo City, as well as an open world set in various other parts of Japan. “This has been the most requested location since the very first game, and we can’t wait to share more next year,” says Matt Booty, Xbox president of game content and studios.Forza Horizon 6 will debut initially on Xbox and PC in 2026, but not on PS5 day and date. Playground Games and Turn 10 Studios are “working together to bring Forza Horizon 6 to PlayStation 5 post-launch.“ The developers are planning to reveal more about Forza Horizon 6 in ”early 2026.“The confirmation of a 2026 release window for Forza Horizon 6 means it’s a busy upcoming year for Xbox, and Playground Games in particular. Xbox chief Phil Spencer casually revealed earlier this year that the next Forza would arrive in 2026, and Forza Horizon 6 will also be joined by Gears of War: E-Day, a Halo CE remaster, and Playground Games’ Fable.Forza Horizon 6 will debut a year after Microsoft released the previous instalment, Forza Horizon 5, on PS5. The four-year-old game topped Sony’s PlayStation store charts, and became one of the most popular PS5 games this year.