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Man Creates Most Dangerous Handheld Xbox Ever
Game Updates

Man Creates Most Dangerous Handheld Xbox Ever

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Have you ever dreamed of playing Halo on an original Xbox, but you didn’t want to use a big TV? And you also wanted to risk damaging your game disc and/or fingers in the process while holding a large technological monstrosity in your hands? Well, that’s a strange dream you have, buddy, but I got just the video for you.

On September 16, as spotted by GamesRadar, YouTuber, retro console enthusiast, and modder James Channel posted a new video to his wonderful channel all about his wild and wacky experience turning an OG Xbox into a portable handheld console in the most janky way possible. It’s a fantastic video that involves Channel getting shocked, ripping apart multiple electronic devices, and covering the entire beast in a bunch of duct tape. Here’s the video, which is admittedly 33 minutes long, but totally worth watching.

Something I really appreciate about this video is how committed the modder is to making sure this handheld Xbox looks and feels hacked together. It’s like a Frankenstein’s monster of a console, with pieces and parts from an old iPod dock crammed on top of an Xbox’s motherboard. And while it takes him a few attempts and a lot of tinkering, he does eventually pull it off and is able to play Halo in one of the wildest ways possible. It also seems very dangerous, as there is a DVD spinning incredibly fast just a few inches away from his fingers and face at all times.

This monster of a thing even sports a relatively impressive 9 minutes and 40 seconds of battery life. That might not sound like a lot, but keep in mind this slapdash device relies on nearly 20-year-old batteries from an iPod dock. The fact that it can even run at all on just those ancient chemical husks is incredible. And if you were then wondering, “Can this thing play Steel Battalion?” well, yes. Yes, it can.



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Meta Ray-Ban Display hands-on: the best smart glasses I’ve ever tried
Product Reviews

Meta Ray-Ban Display hands-on: the best smart glasses I’ve ever tried

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I want to preface this hands-on by saying that I’ve been a smart glasses skeptic for many years. In 2019, I even made a two-part mini documentary with a thesis that consumer smart glasses couldn’t happen without massive societal and technological shifts. Well, color me pink and let me find a shoe to eat. After getting a demo of the $799 Meta Ray-Ban Display, I’m convinced this is the closest we’ve ever gotten to what Google Glass promised over 10 years ago.

The glasses look just like a chunky pair of Ray-Bans. But put them on, pinch your middle finger twice, and a display will appear in front of your right eye, hovering in front of your vision. It’s not augmented reality overlaid on the real world so much as on-demand, all-purpose menu with a handful of apps. You can use it to see text messages, Instagram Reels, maps, or previews of your photos, letting you do all kinds of things without having to pull out your phone. In fact, since it pairs to your phone, it sort of functions like a pop-up extension of it.

The display shows apps in full color with a 600-by-600-pixel resolution and a 20-degree field of view. It has a whopping 5,000 nits of maximum brightness, yet only 2 percent light leakage, which means it’s nigh impossible for people around you to see that it’s there. Each pair of the Display glasses comes with transition lenses, and the brightness adjusts depending on ambient UV light. Since it’s monocular, the display only appears in the one lens, and while it can be a little distracting, it doesn’t fully obstruct your vision.

It was difficult for us to capture our own still photos of what the display looked like for me at the hands-on. This is a decent approximation. Image: Meta

My colleague Jay Peters was looking at me dead-on while I was reading a text message, and he couldn’t see a trace of it. I stepped outside into a sunny area, and while the display was hard to see at first, it came into clearer focus as the transition lenses took effect. (Though even 5,000 nits can’t compete with the sun if you stare directly at it. Side note: don’t stare directly at the sun.)

When you are looking at the screen, your conversation partner may not see what you’re looking at, and will be able to tell you’re a little distracted. Jay noticed this immediately in my demo, and after, we joked: forget phones at the dinner table — now you’ve got to worry if your spouse, date, or friend is secretly watching videos or texting while you’re telling them important news.

The glasses are bolder than the Ray-Ban Metas. The frames are thicker, the edges are more rounded, and the overall Wayfarer shape is more square. The nose bridge, I’m told, is designed to have a universal fit. As someone with a low nose bridge, I appreciated that it didn’t slip down my face. Also, good news if you have a wide face: there are now overextension hinges so the temple arms can bend slightly outward for a more comfortable fit. Battery life lasts around six hours with “mixed use,” and you get 30 hours total with the new collapsible charging case. And at 69 grams, it’s still relatively light.

I’m tracing letters into my leg to write a text message. You can hold your arm by your side to control the device with the Neural Band. Photo by Colt Bradley / The Verge

Another big new addition is the Meta Neural Band. We’ve seen this before with last year’s Orion prototype, but using it was eye-opening. The band utilizes something called electromyography to read the signals from your muscles so that you can control the display with gestures. It was a lot to take in at first, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly. And the coolest part? You don’t have to hold out your arm as with a headset like the Apple Vision Pro. You can just hold your hand at your side — behind your back, under a table, anywhere really — and perform all the gestures discreetly.

Pinching once with your index finger selects an item in the menu, while the same action with the middle finger acts as a back button. Pinching your middle finger twice summons and dismisses the display. You can also make a sideways fist and swipe your thumb left, right, up, and down to scroll through options. Pinching while rotating your hand will raise or lower the volume while listening to music, as well as zoom in when you’re taking photos.

Here are some examples of how you can’t see the display, but you can tell my attention is elsewhere.

Adding a display plus this wristband suddenly unlocks a range of hands-free capabilities. On the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, you have to pull up Instagram Live on your phone if you want to see what your photos or videos look like. With the Display glasses, you have a built-in preview window. My smart glasses photos will no longer be plagued by my bangs or my infernal tendency to tilt my head. You can also take video calls directly to your eyeballs in WhatsApp. You’ll be able to see whoever’s calling, and they’ll be able to see your point of view, too. I tried a video call with Jay. While it was incredibly cool to see his face floating in my vision, I couldn’t help feeling like a spy about to steal some corporate secrets in a high-stakes heist.

Messaging is another obvious plus. You can read, view photos and Instagram Reels, and reply to messages without ever having to take out your phone. (The Reels part is a little annoying; my friends send me TikToks.) And later this year, Meta is planning on introducing a handwriting feature where you can trace letters on any surface and discreetly reply to messages without having to dictate things aloud. I got to try it, and it worked shockingly well. There’s also predictive text, so you don’t even have to “write” that much.

Meta Ray-Ban Display and Neural Band specs

  • Display: 600 x 600 pixels with 20-degree field of view, 90Hz refresh rate (30Hz for content), and 30–5,000 nits of brightness
  • Battery life: 6 hours of mixed use for glasses, 18 hours for Neural Band. The glasses case holds 4 extra charges.
  • Lenses: Transition lenses that support prescriptions from -4.00 to +4.00
  • Camera: 12MP with 3x zoom; 3024 x 4032 pixel photo resolution with 1080p at 30fps for video
  • Weight: 69g
  • Water resistance: IPX4 for glasses, IPX7 for Neural Band
  • Storage: 32GB of storage, capable of storing up to 1,000 photos and 100 30-second videos.

A live caption demo was impressive. When you’re speaking to someone, the screen can display text or translations for live speech right in your line of sight. The wildest thing, however, is that thanks to the multidirectional microphone array, the glasses can tell who you’re looking at and will only show captions for that person. I got my demo while multiple people were speaking at once, and cross-talk was never an issue. When switching who I looked at, there was nearly zero latency in the captions catching up. The original Ray-Ban Metas were a game-changer for visually impaired people, and I suspect these glasses will be the same for people who are hard of hearing.

I’m excited by turn-by-turn walking directions. While my hometown of New York City has always had a grid system, I somehow always manage to get turned around. I hate looking down at my phone, trying to figure out where I’m going. With the Display glasses, I could look up directions to the nearest Jack in the Box and then orient myself on a map as I would on a phone. While I didn’t get to go to said hamburger joint, I was told you can dismiss the screen and still get turn-by-turn directions when you need them all while staying present in your surroundings.

You can’t see that I’m video calling my colleague Jay Peters, though you can see what I see on the laptop on the table behind me. Photo by Colt Bradley / The Verge

Meta’s Live AI features also get a boost. I used it to give myself a mini self-guided museum tour by taking a picture of an Andy Warhol Campbell’s soup can painting. Meta AI offered a short description, while the display showed info cards with further examples from the rest of that series of paintings. I also asked the AI to show me a chai latte recipe. It gave me step-by-step instructions, and then I hid the display and brought it back up again. The idea is you can review the steps, get cooking, and only review the next steps when needed. This seems useful as someone with many waterlogged cookbooks.

There haven’t been many consumer smart glasses, but I’ve tried everything from the original Google Glass and the enterprise edition to the defunct Focals by North. I have pairs of Rokid Glasses, XREAL glasses, and the Even Realities G1 that I’m currently testing. I’ve even received multiple demos of Google’s new prototype XR glasses. This is the first time I’ve ever felt like consumer smart glasses might really take off. Not just because Meta’s execution is excellent, but because I can see use cases I want in my daily life.

The glasses will come in two colors: black and sand, with matching neural wristbands and collapsible charging cases. Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

Still, after the initial wonder and excitement tempered, I remembered my colleague Liz Lopatto’s recent column on how none of us truly has anonymity anymore. Surely these glasses will only exacerbate that. I thought about Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s recent comments that people without AI smart glasses will be at a “significant cognitive disadvantage.” I winced at how a Border Patrol agent was spotted wearing a pair of Ray-Ban Metas during an immigration raid. Then I mulled the huge advances these glasses could pioneer in accessibility tech, enabling disabled people to live more independently. Are we perhaps rushing to open Pandora’s box without first thinking through what might break in the process? That question will linger in my mind until I get a pair for myself.

The Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses go on sale on September 30th for $799, and you’ll be able to try them for yourselves at Best Buy, LensCrafters, Ray-Ban Stores, and Verizon. They’re US-only to start, but Meta will expand sales to Canada, France, Italy, and the UK in early 2026.

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A small head looks out at a nursery.
Game Reviews

Henry Halfhead Gave Me Whimsical Whiplash In The Best Way

by admin


In Henry Halfhead, you play as a disembodied head (well, half of one, to be precise) that can amble around and possess the objects around it. It’s a simple mechanic which, combined with a cozy sandbox sim and guileless voice over, ends up resulting in a surprisingly entertaining movie-length experience that’s as moving as it is silly.

I’m not a mark for sentimental games with affected emotional arcs, which is why I was relieved to discover that Henry Halfhead isn’t one. The twee presentation and surface-level puzzles don’t don’t mask a game that’s trying to be more than it is. Instead, they compliment a rewardingly concise exercise in showing how playful reassessments of the mundane building blocks of our lives can shake us loose from their otherwise zombifying power. It’s a rebellion against min-maxing wrapped up in a poignant animated movie about not letting life turn you into a boring jerk.

Out this week for PlayStation, Switch, and PC, the latest indie release from the Zurich-based Lululu Entertainment begins at birth with you controlling Henry the first time they brake out of their crib at bedtime. It’s the first of many rogue acts as they make messes and cause chaos in pursuit of each new story-based objective. Henry can become other things—a toy, book, calendar, cake knife, child-proof gate—to explore their surroundings and move things along.

Lululu Entertainment

This setup encourages one small act of discovery after another, rewarding you with both the delight of seeing how each new object in the sandbox reacts to your powers as well as the absurdity of the situations that come from them. I was supposed to help set up for my birthday party at one point but ended up throwing everything on the floor by accident as I struggled with the simplest tasks. My first day of school was a special one as I figured out how to turn my worksheet into a paper airplane that could fly up to reach a friend’s confiscated toy, only for the bell to ring and the teacher to effectively tell me I was a failure with dwindling prospects.

This familiar tale of “growing up” at the expense of “feeling alive” hits a climax at Henry’s workplace where they’re responsible for sorting packages in a mail room. The parcels pile up quickly. The initial fun of exploring the new environment is cut short by the arbitrary urgency with which productivity must ramp up. Play is replaced with work, both narratively and in the gameplay: the once cozy sandbox transforms into a drab, transactional checklist. It’s the story of so many lives and so many games. Henry Halfhead hit hard when I was least expecting it to.

Emotional epiphanies wrapped up in gameplay often ring as true to me as the words inside a fortune cookie, but Henry Halfhead does not force its way into your heart or hit you over the head with a book report. It shows instead of tells, with a co-op mode that instantly won my kids over the first time they tried it. The fight to stop the world from grinding us to dust is never-ending. For a few hours at least, Henry Halfhead makes it more fun and colorful, and leaves behind the nagging reminder that I could be living the rest of my life with more of the little halfhead’s spark.



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NFT Gaming

SEC Clears Path for ‘Waves’ of Crypto ETFs With New Listing Standards

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In brief

  • The standards bar leveraged and inverse trusts from using the generic path.
  • Eligible assets must already be traded on regulated, surveilled markets or backed by an existing ETF.
  • Solana and Litecoin ETFs could arrive within weeks, with Dogecoin and others in line, Decrypt was told.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission signed off Wednesday on new generic listing standards for commodity-based trusts, a move that analysts say could swing the door wide open for crypto products beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The new standards, approved for Nasdaq, Cboe BZX, and NYSE Arca, allow trusts that meet defined criteria to list without a separate Commission order. They bar leveraged and inverse structures, but create a pathway for commodity or crypto-linked products to qualify more quickly.

“It was expected, but big, because it’s gonna mean that about 12 to 15 coins are good to go,” Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, told Decrypt in a call. “You start getting the coins coming in waves,” he said, adding that this factor is “pretty big” considering that “right now, only two really exist under the 33 Act.”



Balchunas was pointing to the Securities Act of 1933, often shortened to the ’33 Act. It is a U.S. statute that governs the initial offer and sale of securities to the public and requires issuers to register their products with the SEC and provide full, fair disclosure in a prospectus.

That statute has long been “the more appropriate place to file them,” for commodity-style funds like SPDR Gold Shares and BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, Balchunas explained.

“It’s going to be real nice for investors to have 33 Act spot ETFs with reasonable fees and low trading spreads in the ETF wrapper, which has been vetted by the SEC. It’s a beautiful thing,” Balchunas said.

In a section on the discussions around the standards, the SEC said the rules are “designed to help prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices” while improving market transparency and investor protection. These steps help “perfect the mechanism of a free and open market and a national market system,” the discussion reads.

In any case, the standards would require underlying assets to trade on surveilled markets, have a futures history, or already back an exchange-traded fund with significant exposure.

Trusts must also publish daily holdings, net asset values, and liquidity policies, while market makers face trading limits and firewalls to block misuse of non-public information.

Still, Balchunas thinks the SEC’s latest action sets the stage for the broadest expansion of crypto ETFs since spot Bitcoin products debuted last year.

Asked about ETF expectations for the near term or within the year, Balchunas said he sees Solana and Litecoin leading the next wave of approvals.

“You’re not going to see everything on one day,” Balchunas said. Solana and Litecoin ETFs could be the “ones that come out first, probably within a month,” he said, adding that Dogecoin could follow soon after.

An XRP ETF, meanwhile, may lag a bit, because “the futures aren’t exactly six months old, which is a criterion, so they might be a little later than the other ones,” he said.

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Wormhole Unveils W 2.0 Tokenomics With Yield And Bi-Weekly Unlocks
Crypto Trends

Wormhole Unveils W 2.0 Tokenomics With Yield and Bi-Weekly Unlocks

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Wormhole, a leading cross-chain interoperability protocol has launched W 2.0 Tokenomics, a major upgrade to its W token that brings a 4% base yield, a Wormhole Reserve, and bi-weekly unlocks. This update changes the way Wormhole rewards its community, spreads value, and drives the healthy growth of its ecosystem.

The W token powers governance, staking, and ecosystem growth across more than 40 blockchains. With a capped supply of 10 billion, W sits at the center of Wormhole’s vision to connect the internet economy. 

Wormhole confirmed the launch on X in a thread saying it is “announcing the next major chapter for the $W token with the release of upgraded W 2.0 Tokenomics.”

🟣 🟣 Wormhole is announcing the next major chapter for the $W token with the release of upgraded W 2.0 Tokenomics, including:

– The Wormhole Reserve
– 4% Base Yield on W
– Unlock Optimization

Read more ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/p8rApBeees

— Wormhole (@wormhole) September 17, 2025

Previously, token unlocks followed annual cliffs, often creating heavy market pressure. However, Wormhole has now adopted a smoother bi-weekly unlock schedule beginning October 3, 2025, which eliminates concentrated sell-offs and ensures steadier distribution.

Introducing Wormhole Reserve and Yield

The update also includes the launch of the Wormhole Reserve. This pool will gather on-chain and off-chain protocol revenues to ensure the long-term sustainability of the ecosystem. Additionally, a 4% base yield for the W token will be provided to users who stake their tokens and participate in governance. Those in governance and active in the community can earn even more rewards, directly tying their involvement to the protocol’s growth.

The protocol noted that the yield will be sourced from existing token supply and future protocol revenues, ensuring that no new inflation is introduced. Wormhole’s main app, Portal, will soon launch “Portal Earn,” a feature that allows users to collect points to boost their staking rewards. The yield will be sourced from protocol revenues and the existing supply, ensuring that there’s no extra inflation for W holders.

Strengthening Market Confidence

The protocol eliminated annual cliffs, which tackles a long-standing issue in tokenomics. This means that investors and contributors can look forward to more stability and less unpredictability in unlocking events. 

According to the protocol, Contributors and Guardian validators have agreed to extend their token lock-ups until October 2028. This enables stability and room to grow as more institutions, governments, and companies begin using blockchain products. 

Wormhole’s W 2.0 Tokenomics brings better rewards, easier token unlocks, and a fairer system, making W a key asset for the growing internet economy.

Also Read: Vitalik Reveals Ethereum’s Next-Gen Roadmap at Japan Conference





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Baker Mayfield says Bucs won't be fazed by teams like Texans
Esports

Baker Mayfield says Bucs won’t be fazed by teams like Texans

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  • Jenna LaineSep 17, 2025, 04:46 PM ET

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      Jenna Laine covers the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for ESPN. She started covering the Bucs for ESPN in 2016, but she has covered the team since 2009. Jenna is a former cheerleader at the University of South Florida and speaks to the consistency of the program as being one of the top best in the nation.

TAMPA, Fla. — Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield was asked Wednesday to recount his third-and-10 scramble against the Houston Texans in which he got caught by defensive end Will Anderson Jr., immediately clutched his left leg, then sprang up and started jawing with safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson.

“We don’t take any s—. That’s about it,” Mayfield said.

The play happened Monday night with the Bucs up 14-10. For a moment, it looked like Mayfield could have been seriously hurt. But he continued playing and led the team to a 20-19 victory.

Mayfield posted a picture of the play on his Instagram feed, drawing a response from Gardner-Johnson, who is coming off a Super Bowl-winning season with the Eagles.

“Boy this cute but still ringless,” Gardner-Johnson wrote.

Despite taking several hard hits during the game, Mayfield on Wednesday said he’s fine.

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“[I feel] great,” he said. “It’s Week 3 in the NFL. I feel great.”

He said the same about his left leg, which had a compression sleeve on it while he was speaking to the media.

“Good. Great,” he said of the leg.

Mayfield was a full participant in the team’s walk-through, although he is listed with a foot/toe injury.

His bodywork coach, Dave Matthews, who flies in from Arizona and has worked with the quarterback since his time with the Cleveland Browns, is not coming in for extra sessions this week.

“Normal schedule,” Mayfield said.

The Bucs as a whole have a different schedule this week with the walk-through to account for one less recovery day ahead of Sunday’s home opener against the New York Jets.

Also in Monday’s game, Tampa Bay running back Rachaad White took an exceptionally hard hit recovering a Mayfield fumble. White came back in for the next series and then, on the final possession, ran in a 2-yard touchdown with 9 seconds left to win the game.

“You look at that play, he took a nasty shot trying to dive on the ball,” Mayfield said. “Obviously a huge, huge play for us being able to punt it. But yeah, it’s guys laying their body on the line — that stuff screams off the tape. Guys notice that. You might not say anything, but you nod your head like, ‘Yeah, that’s the type of group we have. We’re going to fight for each other and try to pick up each other when we’re down.”

White was not listed on the team’s injury report Wednesday.

Starting right tackle Luke Goedeke did not participate in the walk-through after aggravating a foot injury against the Texans that he initially suffered in Week 1. Sources previously told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler that Goedeke could miss multiple weeks.

Rookie wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, who has a league-leading three touchdown catches, missed the walk-through with a hip/groin injury.





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Shiba Inu Rockets 440% in Crucial Metric, But Price is Down
GameFi Guides

Shiba Inu Rockets 440% in Crucial Metric, But Price is Down

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After multiple days of consistent downtrend, the Shiba Inu burn rate has finally flipped positive, according to data shared by the popular wallet tracker, Shibburn.

According to the data, the Shiba Inu burn rate has returned to the positive side, hitting a 440% increase over the last day. While this marks a decent improvement in the asset’s burn activity, it is not extremely exciting, as the amount of meme coins that have been destroyed during the period remains substantially low compared to previous records.

SHIB supply shrinks by 375,821 SHIB

Notably, the data have shown that only 375,821 SHIB have been moved out of circulation in four separate transactions over the last 24 hours.

This reluctance in SHIB’s deflationary activity comes as no surprise, as it coincides with a negative trend in SHIB’s price action during the period. Notably, the price of the second-largest meme cryptocurrency has failed to resume its uptrend, falling by 1.68% over the last 24 hours after a notable upsurge witnessed the previous day.

This decent recovery in SHIB burn rate has helped to drive a slight improvement in the weekly burn rate. While the SHIB weekly burn rate has previously recorded notable losses, it has only dipped by 62.29%, with about 3,047,331 SHIB burnt over the last week.

SHIB has yet to witness a major breakout in its price, as recent onchain movements suggest fading momentum, with its price majorly trading sideways.

Although Shiba Inu’s latest run has remained unstable, investors have continued to show optimism amid predictions that the leading memecoin is headed for a breakout towards $0.0000138.

Nonetheless, the memetoken remains in the spotlight, as it has continued to draw attention across the broad crypto community amid growing debates on the possibility of a major price rally for Shiba Inu.

While whales have been consistently spotted stacking up on the meme asset, investors are still positive that SHIB can climb beyond key resistance levels and fuel a rally toward the highly anticipated $0.0001 level.



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One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Celebrates 50th Anniversary With 4K Steelbook Edition
Game Updates

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest Celebrates 50th Anniversary With 4K Steelbook Edition

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No list rounding up the best movies of the 20th century would be complete without One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In celebration of the film’s 50th anniversary, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is releasing on 4K Blu-ray with a collectible steelbook case. Slated to release November 11, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Limited Edition Steelbook is available to preorder for only $30 (was $35) at Amazon. This edition also comes with a voucher to redeem a digital copy of the movie. A standard edition is available to preorder for $25 at Walmart.

$30 (was $35) | Releases November 11

The steelbook case features Jack Nicholson’s character pondering an escape from the prison of his mind and the psychiatric hospital, represented by a giant bird cage. The subdued color palette is similar to the film’s original posters used to promote the theatrical release.

Presented in native 4K resolution (2160p) with HDR10 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, this edition of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest should be the best way to watch this all-time classic in 2025. This edition doesn’t come with a standard 1080p Blu-ray disc. One reason for this might be that the Blu-ray version has been out of print for a while.

There aren’t too many extras included here, but you can extend your viewing with the Conversations on Cuckoo and Completely Cuckoo featurettes as well as around 20 minutes of deleted scenes.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Special Features:

  • Conversations on Cuckoo: Group Therapy featurette
  • Completely Cuckoo featurette
  • Deleted Scenes

Sadly, it looks like the audio commentary track featuring director Milos Forman and his producers Saul Zaentz and Michael Douglas has not been included here, which is a pity because it provided fascinating insight into how challenging it was to film this adaptation.

If you want the audio commentary, a region-free 1080p Blu-ray edition is available for $17.37 at Amazon.

$25 | Releases November 11

As mentioned, a standard 4K Blu-ray edition is also available to preorder at Walmart for $25. Preorders for the standard edition haven’t opened at Amazon yet. This version also comes with a digital copy of the film and the same special features.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is based on Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel of the same name. Kesey’s novel is regularly included in lists of the best works of fictions of the 20th century, so it’s fairly remarkable the adaptation became one of the best movies of its era. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was nominated for nine and won five Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Nicholson and Best Picture.

Nicholson’s portrayal of Randle McMurphy remains one of his most memorable roles. McMurphy, a career criminal, avoids being sent to a labor farm and is instead imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital. He soon finds himself at odds with Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher), a manipulative healthcare worker who controls patients with fear, abuse, and intimidation. Nicholson’s character is a quick-witted foil to the cold and clinical Ratched, and his rebellious nature gradually has a positive impact on his fellow inmates. In addition to Nicholson and Fletcher, the film also featured an ensemble cast of actors like Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Will Sampson, and Sydney Lassick, and William Redfield.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

As mentioned above, On Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is adapted from the book of the same name. Kesey’s novel is mostly adapted faithfully for the big screen. Still, one of the major differences here is that the story is told from the viewpoint of Chief Bromden, giving readers more insight into his life and making him the main character.

At the same time, he witnesses the battle of wills between McMurphy and Ratched. The film also made several other changes to the source material–like having a completely different ending–but it does keep the gist of the novel intact.

If you’re interested in reading it, you can pick up the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: 50th Anniversary Hardcover Edition for $17.58 (was $30) or the paperback version for $13 (was $19).

The other option available here is the Audible version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. This is a new reading of Kesey’s novel by Walk Hard actor John C. Reilly, and it runs for over 10 hours. It’s worth mentioning that Audible offers a pretty good deal currently, as new subscribers can get their first 30 days for free.

This will allow you to choose one free audiobook for the month–or two with the trial if you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber–and the service will then cost $15/month afterward. Audible Premium Plus members get one Audible Credit each month, and you can buy more for $15 each. Effectively, this means you won’t ever pay more than $15 for a new book, and you also have access to thousands of books in the Audible Premium library as well as exclusive sales events.

Sign up for GameSpot’s Weekly Deals Newsletter:



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The AKG N9 on a wooden floor.
Product Reviews

AKG N9 Hybrid review: feature-packed headphones with a high price that’s almost justifiable

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AKG N9: Two minute review

As someone who tests headphones for an income, I’ve got a roster of “X headphones” for specific tasks. I’ve got my best headphones for music, my running headphones, a gaming headset, a pair of the best earbuds when it’s too hot for headphones, and a set-up for movies and TV shows too.

The new AKG N9 from Samsung’s sub-brand’s sub-brand, AKG, didn’t slot into this line-up as much as they replaced half of them, and it’s largely down to one handy feature which we also saw in their contemporary earbuds equivalent, the AKG N5.

I’m not going to do that clickbait headline thing of alluding to a feature and then dancing around the topic, only specifying it 20 paragraphs in: this feature is a dongle which comes build into the AKG N9, and if you plug it into any USB-C slot, it overrides that device’s audio output into the N9.

Borrowing a partner’s laptop for a quick video call? Dongle it. Don’t want to play games out loud for fear of annoying a flatmate? Dongle it. Really can’t be bothered to set up Bluetooth on every device you own? Dongle it. That’s not to mention that this dongle has a higher quality connection than Bluetooth, affording higher-quality music and entertainment.

Within days of me realising the potential of this dongle, I’d begun using the N9 for a range of tasks that I usually afford to bespoke speakers or headphones; I was watching movies from my iPad, playing video games on my PC and taking calls on my girlfriend’s tablet. And now you can take a break from reading the word ‘dongle’ for a bit.

A handy way to instantly and temporarily connect to any device is a killer feature, but it’s not the only one the AKG N9 offer. The AKG Headphones app is full of extras like dynamic EQ, spatial audio, L-R panning and a hearing test to create you a bespoke audio profile.

There’s also a battery life that stretches up to a staggering 100 hours if you listen on Bluetooth with noise cancellation off, but lasts for over a day even if you turn on all its power-hungry features.

Of course, I wouldn’t be commending headphones like these if they sounded bad; they don’t, with AKG’s staple neutral audio mix delivering detailed music and an expansive sound stage.

I’m not used to writing so many positives in an introduction, so it feels weird to keep going, but one more thing: the AKG N9 are some of the best-designed headphones I’ve ever tested. Not only do they look premium but lots of the features are smartly incorporated into the design, with the dongle nestled in a little nook in one cup and volume being controlled by easily twisting one side of the cans. AKG clearly treats design as an important part of the headphone-making process, instead of an afterthought to hold a few drivers and buttons together, and it’s appreciated.

Unless you’re Sir Mix-a-Lot, you probably don’t like big “but…”s, and unfortunately the AKG N9 have a major one: the price. There’s no two ways about it: these are premium headphones and many buyers’ budgets won’t come close to reaching them. That said, they’re expensive, but they’re not four-figure-cost expensive like many of the true best headphones are, so perhaps sales will bring them within reach if you’re interested.

Since I have to list three ‘cons’: I also feel like the Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) could have been a little bit more robust, as it doesn’t compare with top dogs on the market right now. Plus, you can’t fold up the headphones for increased portability, which made transporting them in my bag a risky proposition.AK

AKG N9 review: Specifications

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Component

Value

Water resistant

NA

Battery life (quoted)

100 hours (ANC off) 55 hours (ANC on)

Bluetooth type

Bluetooth 5.3

Weight

281g

Driver

40mm

AKG N9 review: Price and availability

(Image credit: Future)

  • Announced in October 2024
  • Priced at $399 / £299 / AU$499
  • Expensive… but competitive to rivals

After making their debut in October 2024, the AKG N9 went on sale that same month. They’ve been on sale for roughly a year, by the time of this review.

The AKG N9 don’t come cheap. They’ll set you back $399 / £299 / AU$499, which firmly cements them as premium cans that you need to consider carefully before you buy.

They cost more than some of our favorite rivals including the iconic Sony WH-1000XM4 and Cambridge Audio Melomania P100, but then again, they undercut (to a decent extent) the B&W Px8, Dali IO-8, the Sony WH-1000XM6 and Bose QuietComfort Ultra.

I should point out that a year on shelves seemingly hasn’t affected the headphones’ usual price (outside of sales)… except in Australia, where they were easy to find for as little as AU$309 which is an absolute steal.

AKG N9 review: Design

(Image credit: Future)

  • Premium-looking sleek cans
  • Features incorporated into design
  • Doesn’t fold down and no IP rating

On the surface, the AKG N9 might look like any old pair of headphones, but there are a few refinements and polishes that go a long way in making these look both premium and feel ultra-functional.

I’m talking about the soft fabric of the headband (either leather or a close imitator), the comfortable earpads, the sparkling sheen of the speaker covers, svelte fashion of the headband connectors. It all comes together to make it obvious to onlookers just how much you paid for these cans. They come in either white or black.

The headphones weigh 281g so despite some option extras that we’ll get to, they’re on the lighter side of things, and I found them comfortable to wear for long music bouts and entire movies. There’s no IP rating, as far as I can tell, but they felt sturdy enough that I wasn’t worried wearing them out and about.

I also had no qualms in wearing them for long periods of time, as they’re comfortable and lightweight.

Evidence of how easily-bendable the hook is. (Image credit: Future)

The headband connectors are extendable by about two inches each, letting you change your headphones’ size. One thing to note is that the headband can’t be folded, so you can’t reduce the size of the N9 to fit in a bag. Instead they can be transported in a rather large carry case that comes included in the price.

As with all the best headphones, each cup provides some useful controls. On the right side we’ve got a slider which lets you turn on the headphones as well as put them into Bluetooth pairing mode, as well as a pause/play button and USB-C charging port – and, in one of my favorite implementations of a volume rocker, the entire headphone cover can be rotated clockwise or anticlockwise to change the volume. This was incredibly easy to use, to save me fiddling with small buttons on the headphone.

The left cup has a 3.5mm headphone jack and a toggle for Ambient Aware noise cancellation, and I thought that was it at the beginning of my testing… until I realized that you can partially slide the headphone cover off to reveal a USB-C dongle underneath. Some may be annoyed that they’re carrying the extra weight of this dongle on the head but it’s only a few grams, and these are still nice and lightweight headphones.

AKG N9 review: Features

(Image credit: Future)

  • Hugely long battery life
  • App brings loads of features
  • Useful dongle connector

The dongle is one of my favorite features of the AKG N9; you can plug it into any device with a USB-C port to instantly (and, vitally, temporarily) connect to said device without having to go through the laborious pairing method.

I used this to connect to my iPad, my laptop and my PC at various times in order to quickly watch a video, take a call or do some work, and it’s incredibly convenient – in fact, for a while during testing the N9 became my go-to gaming headset. One thing to note is that once during testing the connected device still played music out of its speakers instead of using the N9, and I never really worked out why – like the N5, it worked 90% of the time, but there were a few teething problems.

Another thing I absolutely love is the battery life of the AKG N9, which if you play your cards right lasts for an entire 100 hours. ‘Playing your cards right’ involves listening via Bluetooth with ANC turned off and if you want ANC on, that figure drops by 45 hours; likewise using the dongle cuts about 15% of your listening time over Bluetooth.

(Image credit: Future)

However AKG’s lowest battery expectation, specifically talk time over the dongle, is still 30 hours, which beats quite a few competitors. So the battery life is great whatever you do, and it’s fantastic that people who need a lot of listening time on one charge have the option of dialling down the features to get that fantastic figure.

Let’s touch on that active noise cancellation, which so dramatically affects the battery life. AKG has given the N9 a range of ANC modes: Ambient Aware which cuts out ambient background sound but allows in important nearby ones, TalkThru which does the same but just for voices, and a standard ANC mode which has extra modes for Adaptive ANC which changes the noise cancellation strength depending on your surroundings and Auto Compensation which does the same based on how you’re wearing the N9.

It’s a pretty overwhelming array of options for non-audiophiles but it does let you get into the nitty-gritty of what you can and can’t hear. However even at its strongest tier the ANC is only good, never great, and quite a few rivals are better for removing background sound.

Those aren’t the only overwhelming options in the feature set, because the AKG Headphones App has an absolutely huge roster of perks, including the ability to balance your sound to the left or right, change how voices sound on calls and play with a 10-band equalizer.

As in the AKG N5, the app lets you choose between listening to high-res audio, or enabling a few other features including spatial audio, dynamic EQ for low volumes and Personi-Fi. This latter is a hearing test that provides you with a custom audio mix.

AKG N9 review: Sound performance

(Image credit: Future)

  • 40mm drivers
  • Balanced sound profile
  • Textured audio in high-res mode

The AKG N9 pack 40mm dynamic drivers with what the company calls “liquid crystal polymer diaphragms” which are designed to improve the detail and clarity across the board.

It works because the N9 have a beautifully balanced sound profile, which doesn’t dominate your mix with too much treble or overblown bass (though it also gives you a nice springboard to use the equalizer to change this if you like a wonky sound mix).

Instead you’re getting a detailed glimpse across the bow of an entire orchestra or band, full of texture and detail. You can hear the scoop of a bass guitar string, the strike of fingers on piano keys – I almost felt like I could tell which guitar strings were being strummed during chords.

There’s an audible sound spread too, and I noticed mids in several songs holding a distinct space that many rival cans lose. It’s an effect that makes these just as great for movies and gaming as for music, and I went so far as to use these headphones instead of my gaming headset during the testing period.

At times I did feel like songs lacked a an extra ounce of energy, with the bass in particular missing a touch of momentum, but these aren’t huge issues – I’m only nit-picking here to justify the score below not being a full 5 out of 5.

  • Sound performance score: 4/5

AKG N9: Value

(Image credit: Future)

If you’ve read the price section already, you’ll know that the AKG N9 have an uphill battle in proving themselves in the value department (and if you didn’t read that section, they cost $399 / £299 / AU$499).

Basically no headphones costing that much present a real value proposition, not when you can get great alternatives for a third of the price, but for what it’s worth the AKG N9s come closer than most.

The inclusion of the dongle, the useful cup controls, the range of features and high-quality audio all come together to make it clear that AKG is giving you some value for money… just not as much as if you’d paid a lot less money.

I will say, though, that these are primed for deals in Black Friday and Amazon Prime Days. So if you don’t think you can afford them, it could be waiting to see how low the price goes.

AKG N9 review: scorecard

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Category

Comment

Score

Value

AKG goes some way in justifing the price of the N9, but they’re easily beaten in this department.

4/5

Design

Not only do the cans look great, but the design neatly incorporates many of the headphone’s features.

4.5/5

Features

From the Bluetooth dongle to the range of app features to the long-lasting battery, everything’s working here.

5/5

Sound

The N9 has a nice balanced sound profile that will please most listeners, if not owners of the real top dogs.

4/5

AKG N9: Should I buy?

(Image credit: Future)

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Also consider

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Component

AKG N9

Cambridge Audio Melomania P100

Sony WH-1000XM6

Water resistant

NA

NA

NA

Battery life

100 hours (ANC off) 55 hours (ANC on)

100 hours (ANC off) 60 hours (ANC on)

40 hours (ANC off) 30 hours (ANC on)

Bluetooth type

Bluetooth 5.3

Bluetooth 5.3

Bluetooth 5.3

Weight

281g

330g

254g

Driver

40mm

40mm

30mm dynamic

How I tested

I tested the AKG N9 for two weeks, doing so alongside their contemporary siblings the AKG N5 (which are earbuds).

As you’ll know from reading this review I tested them on loads of devices: Bluetooth from my smartphone, 3.5mm on an iPod Classic and 2.4Ghz dongle on a Windows PC, Windows laptop, iPad and Android tablet.

This was done for a range of functions; mainly listening to music and streaming audio but also gaming, movies and video calls. I tested at home, in the office and around my neighborhood, including on a several-hour-long trip.

Read more about how we test

  • First reviewed: September 2025



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Fed Cuts Interest Rate in 'Risk Management' Move as Bitcoin Eyes Possible Upside
NFT Gaming

Fed Cuts Interest Rate in ‘Risk Management’ Move as Bitcoin Eyes Possible Upside

by admin



The Federal Reserve has returned to easing mode after ten months of taking a wait and see approach on the U.S. economy.

In a widely expected move on Wednesday, the U.S. central bank cut its benchmark fed funds interest rate range by 25 basis points to 4%-4.25%, the lowest since December 2022, in what Fed chair Jerome Powell called a “risk management cut.”

The Fed acknowledged that economic growth in the first half of the year “moderated” and the job market has “slowed.” This slowdown, Powell said during a press conference, is mostly due to changes in immigration. Nevertheless, there was no widespread support for a larger cut, he said, and that the Fed was right to wait to lower rates and will not be rushed to cut more aggressively.

The decision follows growing signs that the U.S. labor market has begun to decisively weaken, the latest being the August employment report which showed the addition of just 22,000 jobs to the economy and the unemployment rate rising to 4.3%, the highest since 2021.

“The Fed is under pressure to lean more dovish, and any successor to Powell is likely to favor faster and deeper rate reductions,” Chris Rhine, Head of Liquid Active Strategies at Galaxy, said. “While risk assets had largely priced in this cut, the updated dot plot aligns with recent sell-side forecasts, pointing to another 50bps of cuts ahead.”

Alongside that data, revisions to previous months’ reports showed far less jobs had been created than previously thought.

Added to that was political pressure in the form of President Trump’s repeated criticisms of the Fed’s hesitancy to act in the face of what he insists has been softening inflation. Powell said during Wednesday’s press conference that the Fed is “strongly committed to maintaining [its] independence.”

Bitcoin ‘new highs’ possible

In the minutes following the rate cut, the price of bitcoin BTC$116,862.68 rose about 1% before giving up gains. It is currently down about 1.5% since the decision, trading at $115,092.

Major U.S. stock indexes — which have been repeatedly carving out record highs for weeks ahead of the Fed move — also briefly rose on the news but later fell sharply. Gold followed a similar move.

“The dots leaned more dovish, signaling the Fed is open to accelerating the pace of easing if conditions demand it,” said Matt Mena, Crypto Research Strategist at 21Shares. “That repricing risk is now front and center – creating an asymmetric setup for Bitcoin. While today’s 25bps cut provided the spark, it is the path implied by the dots – more than the cut itself – that may set the stage for Bitcoin to challenge new highs into year-end.”

Looking ahead

A glance at the Fed’s dot plot shows that the Commission is torn about how the rest of the year will unfold. A slight majority of participants of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) believe there could be two more rate cuts this year.

Seven out of the 19 participants see rates kept steady throughout the year.

UPDATE (September 17, 18:18 UTC): Adds dot plot projections and markets update alongside commentary.

UPDATE (September 17, 18:39 UTC): Adds quote on markets.

UPDATE (September 17, 18:45 UTC): Adds quotes from Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell.



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