The Series 11 is a great smartwatch, but it’s not the most exciting one. No one is going to wax lyrical about the Apple Watch Series 11. Not because it's a bad smartwatch - it's a great smartwatch, actually. There's just nothing that makes it feel special this year. Alas, the $399 Series 11 is the middle child of Apple Watches.It's not the Series 11's fault that the entry-level Apple Watch SE 3 got a major glow-up. It can't help that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 gets everything the Series 11 has plus satellite connectivity. But there's little to mask the fact that this watch doesn't offer much more than the entry-level SE 3. You're mostly paying extra for a bit of polish.Hardware-wise, the Series 11 is nearly iden …Read the full story at The Verge.

When I say "high-end CPUs", I mean any CPU with more than 8 cores. These processors are undoubtedly made for particularly demanding workloads, and have their place on the market. That said, the relevance of high-end chips has gone down with time, especially for those only interested in gaming, occasional productivity, or even AI/ML workloads. Due to the advances in computational power, challenges with scaling, and more emphasis on the GPU, high-end CPUs just aren't as necessary anymore.

Nothing’s Android-based Phone 3. London-based consumer tech startup Nothing has raised $200 million and vowed to usher in a new generation of “AI-native” devices running on operating systems that “are significantly different from the ones today.”In a press release that reads part ode to technology and part manifesto, Nothing founder and CEO Carl Pei said the cash infusion — which values Nothing at $1.3 billion — will help the company ramp up distribution and accelerate innovation. At the heart of Nothing’s plans is AI. Pei said the company is “building the foundations for the future” on a focused “AI OS” to deliver a “hyper-personalized experience.” However, it’s unclear if Nothing’s operating system ambitions are built on top of Android like Nothing OS. We’ve reached out for clarification.This “AI-native platform” will run hardware in widespread use today like smartphones, headphones, and smart watches, Pei said, as well as other devices like smart glasses, electric vehicles, and humanoid robots. He confidently predicts Nothing’s new OS will run “whatever comes next,” too. That said, last October Pei just as confidently proclaimed that “AI is just a tool” and that the company’s OS should not be described as an AI operating system.Nothing plans to release its first AI-native devices next year. Its chief challenge will be generating demand in a category that has historically failed to engage the mass market and where success has eluded even the industry’s biggest players like Apple. There’s no shortage of competitors either, including the mysterious “screen free” device former Apple designer Jony Ive is creating with OpenAI. Nothing says it’s uniquely positioned to create these future AI devices. “Owning the last-mile distribution point with all its contextual and user knowledge is essential to developing an OS that will help people in their daily lives,” said Pei. “An AI OS that doesn’t know its user and isn’t ever-present can’t deliver a hyper-personalised experience. This is the next chapter for Nothing, integrating an AI experience into our hardware devices to reinvent how technology amplifies us.”

Microsoft is adding automatic AI model selection to its Visual Studio Code editor that will automatically pick the best model for "optimal performance." This new auto model feature will select between Claude Sonnet 4, GPT-5, GPT-5 mini and other models for GitHub Copilot free users, but paid users will "primarily rely on Claude Sonnet 4."It's a tacit admission from Microsoft that the software maker is favoring Anthropic's AI models over OpenAI's latest GPT-5 models for coding and development. Sources familiar with Microsoft's developer plans tell me that the company has been instructing its own developers to use Claude Sonnet 4 in recent m …Read the full story at The Verge.

Meta’s next big Connect conference is nearly here, and this year, we’re expecting to see a lot of news about glasses. AI-focused hardware is all the rage, and Meta arguably already has the best gadgets around in its Ray-Ban and Oakley glasses. At this year’s show, we’re expecting to see more about glasses, but also some standalone AI updates and even some talk of the metaverse.Here’s what we’re expecting from Connect, which will feature a keynote from CEO Mark Zuckerberg that we’ll be covering live on Wednesday at 8PM ET / 5PM PT.Smart glasses with a display and a wristbandMeta plans to announce new smart glasses with a small display in the right lens that can be controlled with hand gestures via a wristband, CNBC reports. The display apparently has a limited field of view and is only intended to show small pieces of information. The Verge reported on the glasses, codenamed Hypernova, in 2022.The wristband will apparently use surface electromyography (sEMG) technology that “reads and interprets the electrical signals from hand movements,” according to CNBC. The tech comes from CTRL-Labs, a startup Meta acquired in 2019, and Meta demoed it last year with its augmented reality Orion glasses. Meta is very optimistic about sEMG technology; in a recent blog post, it said that “sEMG could revolutionize how we interact with our devices” and that sEMG “may just prove to be the perfect input for virtually any device.”The new glasses are expected to cost “about $800,” CNBC says, and could be thicker and heavier than some of Meta’s other smart glasses offerings. And a now-removed video from Meta caught by UploadVR actually showed a pair of new glasses with a display with the branding “Meta | Ray-Ban” and “Display,” so it seems like Meta is on the cusp of actually launching these.Smart glasses without a displayMeta’s smart glasses have been a big success — EssilorLuxottica, which produces the Ray-Ban Metas, said that the company has sold 2 million pairs of the glasses — and rumors indicate that Meta could introduce new models at Connect.CNBC reports that Meta plans to announce third-generation Ray-Ban Metas. The timing would make some sense. Meta launched the previous-generation Ray-Bans about two years ago, and this year’s Oakley Meta HSTN Limited Edition glasses have a better 3K video resolution and double the battery life, so perhaps Meta will bring some of those improvements over to the Ray-Ban line.The Meta video spotted by UploadVR also showed off a pair of new wraparound “Sphaera” Oakleys with a camera on the nose bridge, so it seems like those could show up at Connect, too.New Quest VR headsets? We’ll seeMeta released the Quest 3 in 2023 and the Quest 3S in 2024, but it doesn’t seem like we should expect a new Quest at Connect this year. According to UploadVR, Meta is working on an ultra-light headset that offloads the compute to a puck that runs the company’s Horizon OS, but the headset isn’t scheduled for release until 2026. Meta has also started licensing Horizon OS to hardware companies like Lenovo and Asus, and a rumor from earlier this year indicated that Asus is developing a VR headset codenamed Tarius with eye tracking and face tracking. Should that headset be real, it could debut at Connect.The company is promising that Zuckerberg will touch on the metaverse in some way, so we’ll have to wait and see what that actually means.More Meta AIMeta, like most tech companies, is obsessed with AI right now, so it seems likely the company will tout AI features coming to its apps and hardware. Meta recently relaunched its companion app for its smart glasses as a standalone Meta AI app that lets you browse AI-generated creations posted by other users, and Meta could further build out its social features. The company has also continued to add AI tools to its smart glasses, so in addition to brand-new hardware, existing hardware could get some AI-focused upgrades.

AI has taken over several cumbersome online experiences, ranging from workplace companions that automate email responses to agentic AI tools handling hotel bookings for a vacation. However, NotebookLM is the quiet underdog that excels at any task I've thrown at it. Google designed it around the premise of simplicity and power, devoid of the typical LLM limitations like hallucinated data and unverified sources in every corner of the internet. NotebookLM only works with what I supply, and its multimodal nature makes it indispensable for wolfing down user manuals or learning new skills like brewing coffee.

Microsoft is rolling out a new aggregated gaming library inside its Xbox PC app today on Windows. The updated app will now list games from Steam, Battle.net, and other PC storefronts — making it a launcher for games you have installed on your PC.Microsoft has been testing this aggregated library in recent months with Xbox Insiders, but it’s now available to all Xbox PC app users. It’s designed primarily for the new fullscreen Xbox experience that will ship on the Xbox Ally devices, but it’s also part of Microsoft’s efforts to make the Xbox app on Windows the home of PC gaming.“When you install a game from a supported PC storefront, it automatically appears in ‘My Library’ within the Xbox PC app, as well as the ‘Most Recent’ list of titles in the sidebar, so you can jump back into your favorite games with just a click,” explains Jason Beaumont, vice president of experiences at Xbox.Alongside the library integration, Microsoft is also rolling out a new My Apps section in the Xbox PC app that allows PC gamers to quickly install and launch third-party apps like browsers, gaming utilities, and rival storefronts. This new feature is also designed primarily for handhelds, to help people download and launch games from multiple stores.Later this month, Microsoft will also add cloud-playable games and game history to the Xbox app that syncs your recent games list on Xbox consoles, PC, or handheld. Microsoft already started rolling this out on Xbox consoles last month. “Once this feature is released, look for the ‘Jump back in’ list on the Home screen of your console, PC, or handheld to find your recent play history and pick up where you left off,” says Beaumont.

Google is testing a new search app for Windows. A blog post on Tuesday said the app, currently available on personal accounts via Google’s Search Labs, will allow you to use an Alt + Space shortcut to search for information from the files on your computer, in your Drive, and on the web.The app, which has a Chrome-like install process and requires you to sign in, also comes with Google’s visual search feature, Lens, built in. That means you can select and search for images on your screen, as well as translate text. In one example shared by Google, you can highlight a math problem on your homework and then ask Google’s AI Mode to help you find the answer.Just like Google’s search engine on the web, you can switch between all results, AI Mode, Images, Shopping, and Videos, and more, as well as choose between dark and light mode. It’s similar to the Spotlight on Mac, which can help you search through your files, apps, and the web. Windows has long had a built-in feature that lets you search through your files and the web, but it recently upgraded this capability with the launch of Copilot Plus PCs.Upon downloading the app, Google will plant a search bar directly on your desktop that you can drag anywhere on your screen and resize. You can minimize the search bar by hitting Alt + Space. The app also gives you the option to enable or disable AI Mode, as well as change the shortcut used to open the app by selecting your profile picture and hitting Configurations.You can try out Google’s new app for Windows now by enabling the experiment in Labs. It’s currently only available in English and for users in the US. You’ll need a PC with Windows 10 or up to download it.Update, September 16th: Added more information about the app.

Say whatever you like about Capcom, but they make it very easy to explore some of its most famous series. For instance, if you want to explore the history of Mega Man, the company has several collections related to the different storylines and series it created over the years.

So I've been having fun mixing AI with D&D. I had AI make a dungeon for me to explore, and then got a few models to make me legendary D&D magic items, and the encounter players need to defeat to get them.

The Apple Watch SE 3 is the star of this year’s lineup. When I walked into Apple Park last week, there was one thing that I did not have on my bingo card: the $249 Apple Watch SE 3 stealing the show from the Apple Watch Series 11 and the Apple Watch Ultra 3.But here we are. It's 2025, and the entry-level Apple Watch is the one I'm most excited by.That's because compared to the iterative updates of the Series 11 and Ultra 3, the third-gen SE has gotten a massive, wide-ranging glow-up. Unlike the other watches, there also weren't any leaks suggesting this was even in the cards, making this jam-packed release a total surprise. And the cherry on top? In the lead-up to the event, I wrote the easie …Read the full story at The Verge.

This is one of those mini PCs that's built with a purpose. It isn't cheap, but it's extremely powerful, packing some of the best hardware you'll find in a compact size. Not only are you getting AMD's Ryzen Al Max+ 395 chip, but it's also paired with 96GB of LPDDR5X 8000MHz RAM.