Author: News Room
After six years of waiting, Google has finally released a new smart speaker. The $99 Google Home Speaker is available for pre-order starting today and hits shelves on June 25, 2026. At the core of the speaker is Google’s conversational AI assistant: Gemini. With Gemini, you can now hold natural, multi-step conversations with the speaker rather than issuing individual commands. It understands natural phrasing and logic, so you can speak more naturally without phrasing everything like a voice command. What does the Google Home Speaker actually sound like? Beyond the Gemini AI layer, the smart speaker produces 360-degree output from…
As the entire gaming world waits with bated breath for the release of Grand Theft Auto VI, Rockstar Games has announced a surprise treat for those still playing the last-gen versions of the previous entry, Grand Theft Auto V. Starting tomorrow, June 18, owners of any PlayStation 4 version of Grand Theft Auto V or the digital Xbox One version will be able to upgrade to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions for free. The news was announced via a Rockstar Newswire blog, and it coincides with an upcoming update for GTA Online called The Kortz Center Heist, a…
While electric performance cars have gotten quite fast, especially when it comes to driving in a straight line, they still struggle to replicate the engaging feel of a regular sports car. Missing are the gear changes, the rev build, and the physical feedback that make a sports car feel alive. Porsche thinks it can fix this with software, and the 2027 Taycan update is its most serious attempt yet. The car comes with something called E-Shift, a system that adds eight virtual gears operated using the paddle shifters behind the steering wheel. How does Taycan’s E-Shift system work? Each virtual…
If you have ever felt like your TikTok feed is mostly fake content, you are not imagining it. A new report from Kapwing found that 59% of videos served to a brand-new TikTok account are AI slop. That is roughly three times the rate Kapwing found when it ran the same test on YouTube. How bad is TikTok’s AI slop problem compared to YouTube? Kapwing built a fresh account on both platforms and manually checked the first 500 videos served to each one. On TikTok, 294 of those videos were AI-generated. On YouTube, only 104 of the first 500 Shorts…
SKG PS700 Neck Massager MSRP $199.99 “Deep relief for desk workers who’ve already tried everything else.” Pros Biomimetic kneading reaches deep neck muscles that vibration can’t Near-infrared heat for deeper-feeling warmth Quiet enough to use at a desk or on a call 120-minute battery life with full app control Light enough to toss in any bag Cons Only one mechanical intensity setting Built-in audio can be distracting This post is brought to you in paid partnership with SKG We’ve reviewed enough neck massagers to know that most of them are solving the wrong problem. They vibrate, apply surface heat, or…
Xreal Aura is now one step closer to landing on your face. The company has opened reservations for Xreal Aura, its Android XR-powered smart glasses built with Google. The device was previously known as Project Aura, and it is shaping up to be one of the most important early tests for Android XR beyond full headset hardware. Xreal is marketing Aura as a portable spatial computing device in a glasses-style form factor. So it’s more than just a simple pair of glasses that records or keeps track of your notifications. Aura combines lightweight glasses with a dedicated compute puck, letting…
Samsung Display is using AWE 2026 to push RGB OLEDoS as a core building block for the next wave of XR hardware. The showcase centers on displays designed for mixed reality headsets and augmented reality smart glasses, where brightness, size, and efficiency all collide. The standout spec is a 1.3-inch RGB OLEDoS panel rated at 40,000 nits. Samsung Display is presenting it in a dark-room Big Dipper installation, where only two of seven panels use the ultra-bright tech to make the brightness and color gap obvious. It’s a booth demo with a sharper message underneath. Why brightness decides the experience…
Despite starring a hero clad in red, it’s clear that The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is a game trying to fill the proverbial green tunic worn by Nintendo’s star swordsman, Link. Between its talking fairy, time-traveling narrative, and arsenal of weapons/puzzle solving tools that includes bombs, a bow, and a boomerang, the comparison is impossible to deny. While it arguably improves on some elements, like its enjoyable combat system, I spent most of my time with Elliot entertained, but never satisfied. Link did it better, but my 25 hours in the land of Philabieldia was pleasant nonetheless. Elliot…
China’s EV safety rules are about to make automakers prove their cars can fail safely, not merely warn people before trouble spreads. Starting July 1, 2026, two mandatory national standards will require stronger battery safeguards and a physical one-touch way to cut high-voltage power during an emergency. The pressure points are the ones drivers, firefighters, insurers, and regulators can’t brush aside for much longer, including battery fires, crash damage, smoke exposure, and rescue access after a severe incident. America should be watching much more closely. China’s using hard tests to turn EV risk into a pass-or-fail problem, and that’s exactly…
Smart glasses still have a charging problem, and it’s sitting in plain sight. Charging hardware can break the illusion that AI eyewear is still eyewear, especially when exposed metal pins or bulky docks shape the frame. NuCurrent is using AWE to show a cleaner version of smart glasses charging. Its Fast Frames system uses NFC wireless power, runs on Snapdragon XR platforms, and fits into a Ray-Ban Meta style form factor without changing the outside of the frames. Speed gives the demo teeth. NuCurrent says Fast Frames reaches 50% in 20 minutes, matching exposed pin charging while keeping the device…