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Gaming Gear

Which Wireless Earbuds Are Better?

by admin September 10, 2025

After years of speculation, Apple’s AirPods Pro 3 are finally here, and while we haven’t tried them for ourselves, they look like they were worth the wait. This generation brings new hardware, features, and some impressive improvements on paper over the last generation, which was refreshed in 2023 with USB-C and a few other features. If you’re in the market for new AirPods, you’re probably already wondering whether you should rush out to scoop up Apple’s long-awaited third-gen, but before you do that, you should know what you’re getting into.

Luckily, we’re here to give you a categorical breakdown that shows all of this year’s improvements and what’s the same as the AirPods Pro 2. Have at it, folks.

AirPods Pro 3 vs. AirPods Pro 2: ANC

When it comes to AirPods Pro, ANC is one of the most important categories, and this year’s generation is no different. Apple knows that, which is why it clearly went back to the lab and took a stab at improving noise-canceling gen over gen.

According to Apple, AirPods Pro 3 use “ultra-low noise microphones and advanced computational audio” to help give this generation 2x more ANC than AirPods Pro 2. That equates to 4x more ANC than the original AirPods Pro. It’s not all ANC, though. Apple says that this year’s earbuds should also improve passive noise cancellation, thanks to new ear tips that are filled with foam, creating a better seal in your ears.

Apple doesn’t provide specific numbers for how many dBs are cancelled by its earbuds, but from the sounds of it, AirPods Pro 3 should excel in the ANC department and maybe even give Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra earbuds (my favorite buds for ANC) a run for their money.

AirPods Pro 3 vs. AirPods Pro 2: Sound

I haven’t gotten to listen to AirPods Pro 3 myself yet, but Apple says its new generation boasts some improvements over the AirPods Pro 2. Behind that is a tweak to the AirPods Pro 3 architecture.

According to Apple, the AirPods Pro 3 have a “multiport acoustic architecture” that better controls the airflow and the way the sound carries to the ear. Apple couples that with a new Adaptive EQ, which is designed to give the AirPods Pro 3 a better bass response and widen the soundstage. Again, this all sounds good in theory, but we’ve yet to hear them for ourselves. On paper, at least, Apple’s AirPods 3 should be the best-sounding AirPods you can buy right now.

AirPods Pro 3 vs. AirPods Pro 2: Battery

Photo: Andrew Liszewski / Gizmodo

Battery life is one of the biggest metrics of any good pair of wireless earbuds, and, again, AirPods Pro 3 roll the ball forward here. According to Apple, the AirPods Pro 3 now have 8 hours of playback with ANC on as opposed to the 6-hour average of the AirPods Pro 2. If you want to extend the battery life even longer, you can listen to the AirPods Pro 3 with transparency on (ANC off), and you’ll get 10 hours of battery life on a single charge, according to Apple.

There’s really no subjectivity here—more battery is just better—but if you’re curious, the AirPods Pro 3 improve upon the AirPods Pro 2 battery by 33 percent when it comes to ANC playback. On top of that, I’d say that AirPods Pro 3 also beat a lot of its non-Apple competition, which usually averages around 6 hours of battery with ANC on.

AirPods Pro 3 vs. AirPods Pro 2: Features

If you’re picking up on a trend, it’s that AirPods Pro 3 are pretty much better across the board, but this is where they really start to pull away. There are some things in the third-gen AirPods Pro that the AirPods Pro 2 just can’t do. One of those things is heart rate monitoring. Thanks to new IR sensors in the AirPods Pro 3, which are combined with the preexisting accelerometer, gyroscope, and GPS, these earbuds can track fitness goals, calories burned, and heart rate. According to Apple, AirPods Pro 3 will combine with its suite of fitness tools, allowing Apple Fitness+ users to see real-time performance metrics onscreen. And yes, unlike the PowerBeats Pro 2, you can listen to music while you track your health metrics.

Another exclusive feature with the AirPods Pro 3 is Live Translation, which does exactly what it sounds like—it translates speech in real time. One cool aspect of the AirPods Pro 3 translation feature is that it uses ANC to lower the voice of the person you’re talking to so you can actually hear the translation in your earbuds. While the feature is still in beta, Apple says you can currently use Live Translation for English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish, and Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese are on the way.

That’s all to say that you’ll be able to do basically everything you can do with AirPods Pro 2 with the AirPods Pro 3—adaptive ANC, hearing test (though the AirPods Pro 3 is allegedly better at that), transparency, and more—but with two big new features in heart rate tracking and Live Translation. Point goes to AirPods Pro 3 once again.

AirPods Pro 3 vs. AirPods Pro 2: Comfort

Comfort is another huge metric for earbuds, especially if you plan to wear them for long periods or while you’re exercising. Once more, Apple seems to have taken strides here with its new generation of AirPods. While both earbuds have ear tips, Apple says that it used “over 10,000 ear scans with more than 100,000 hours of user research” to tweak the fit of AirPods Pro 3.

Specifically, Apple says the “external geometry of the ear tip” now aligns to the center of the body for more stability. AirPods Pro 3 also come with five ear tip sizes as opposed to four. With more sizes and a redesign, it looks like AirPods Pro 3 are poised to outpace the AirPods Pro 2 in comfort, too.

AirPods Pro 3 vs. AirPods Pro 2: Price

So, there is one thing that’s the same on these two pairs of earbuds, and while that sounds like a point against the AirPods Pro 3, it’s actually a big win for Apple’s newest pair of AirPods. Both pairs debuted at $250, and while you can currently get the AirPods Pro 2 for $200, AirPods Pro 3 still qualify as a static entry price gen over gen. More for the same amount! Nice!

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September 10, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

A Star Wars AR Game Got Me Playing With Virtual Action Figures Like I Was 6 Years Old

by admin September 10, 2025

It took less than a minute after donning a Meta Quest 3 headset before I was reliving some of my best memories from childhood in augmented reality, sitting on the floor with my digital Star Wars action figures creating fantastical scenes from a galaxy far, far away.

Last week, I visited Meta’s Los Angeles offices a mile from the city’s sunny beaches to try out an upcoming game, Star Wars: Beyond Victory, due out October 7 only for the Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest 3S headsets. The game is developed by Industrial Light and Magic, the special effects wizards that brought the Star Wars galaxy to life with starships and lasers, lightsabers and space battles.

Star Wars: Beyond Victory was first revealed at Star Wars Celebration earlier this year, where ILM teased the game’s central story mode. In it, players take on the role of an up-and-coming podracer guided by the legendary Sebulba, racing rival of Anakin Skywalker in Episode I: The Phantom Menace. In Meta’s offices, I donned a Meta Quest 3 headset and played an early section of the story, including a podrace.

While I was expecting immersive full-screen podracing much like in the Nintendo 64 classic game Episode 1: Racer, Star Wars: Beyond Victory is very different, leaning into the Meta Quest’s augmented reality capabilities to portray racing on, functionally, a digital game table hovering above the real world room I was in. ILM’s developers told me that given concerns over making players nauseous when racing in high-speed VR, they opted to make the game’s action play out on a table in AR that gamers can resize to their liking, while still controlling their racer from a bird’s eye view.

“The original podracing prototypes were based on slot car races because that was like thinking about racing cars in your room,” said David Palumbo, senior experience designer at ILM and for Star Wars: Beyond Victory. “Eventually we hit on that holo-table prototype, and that sort of shifted the way we thought about mixed reality gameplay in a really fun way.”

In my four-person race I finished a distant third, but there’s a delightful novelty in reaching out with my Meta Quest controllers and — this will be important later — digitally grabbing the gameplay board to move it around or resize it to my liking. It felt tactile and responsive, letting me place it in the perfect spot to survey the action as I stood up. The ILM developers described their different approaches: one placed it before them while they were sitting, while another got down on the ground to play, much like they did with toy cars as a kid.

“I also think it plays really well with the nostalgia of what we’re doing with action figures and playing with these little toys,” said Harvey Whitney, senior producer at ILM and for Star Wars: Beyond Victory. “I remember as a kid every Christmas either getting a slot car or RC car, and so now being able to do that with Star Wars toys and flying them around and driving around, it just works so well.”

Star Wars: Beyond Victory’s Adventure mode is a story campaign around a rookie podracer climbing the ranks, while Arcade lets players jump into quick races.

Industrial Light and Magic

I only spent around 20 minutes with the Adventure mode, so it’s impossible to comment on how the storyline or podracing gameplay will be in its full release, though it does have an interesting voice cast including Lewis MacLeod (returning to voice Sebulba as he did in The Phantom Menace) and Saturday Night Live’s Bobby Moynihan. Set in the period between the third and fourth Star Wars movies with the Galactic Empire in power but before the Rebel Alliance gets organized, Beyond Victory will tell a story about racing life on the fringes of the galaxy — an aspect of the franchise that’s surprisingly rarely explored given how important hot-rodding was to creator George Lucas and how much it influenced the original films.

Throughout Beyond Victory’s story mode, your podracing rookie will run into some characters from ILM’s previous AR game, Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge, along with a few iconic figures from the movies. But you won’t just be meeting them: many of the cast in the Adventure mode can be unlocked to play with in the Playset mode, which is where I spent most of my time in my preview assembling my own Star Wars scene, bringing my childhood play to the augmented reality future.

Playset mode allows players to pick and choose models of characters, structures and vehicles to move and pose as they please.

Industrial Light and Magic

Star Wars: Beyond Victory is for reliving your childhood

Adventure mode plays through a story with cinematics and climactic races, while Arcade mode allows you to play quick podracing matches, including taking your story rivals’ speedsters for a spin. The aptly named Playset mode lets players make their own dioramas using the characters, scene elements and special effects from Adventure and Arcade.

I clicked on Playset mode from the game’s menu…and immediately felt like I’d popped open a toybox. I used my Meta Quest controllers to sort through an in-game menu and pluck out aliens, droids, vehicles and objects to populate my scene. While I couldn’t physically pick them up, using the grabber functionality on my controllers (which looked like a pair of robot claw arms) was very intuitive. I carefully hovered over specific parts of each character, tweaking limbs and joints to pose them just so.

Regrettably, I wasn’t allowed to take photos of my creation, which was less a film-accurate recreation and more a hodgepodge of oddball characters scattered around a metal causeway — exactly how it felt to upend my toy chest and cobble together a scene from whatever random action figures I had on hand. I sat bounty hunters and podracers around a table, lorded over by a giant slug-like Hutt walking on spider legs (Graccus, a crime boss from Adventure mode) and stood C-3PO up on the side wielding a lightsaber, because why not.

Arcade mode lets players use racers and pods from rivals they raced against in Adventure mode.

Industrial Light and Magic

While I couldn’t physically touch everything, there are several advantages to the digital nature of augmented reality. I could grab a character and make them bigger to more precisely move their limbs around and then shrink them back to the size I wanted (or leave them huge, Attack of the 50-Foot Woman-style). There were also digital effects to add, like explosions, smoke and laser bolts. It was while angling one of the Empire’s iconic TIE Fighter vehicles up above my diorama and placing green laser blasts as if they’d just been shot from the fighter that I felt a sort of technical glee from staging a scene — a frozen moment of tension and adventure that felt, well, Star Wars.

Playset mode and the “action figure”-esque technology behind it are inspired by a pre-visulization tool ILM built for filmmakers to stage their own scenes, albeit one far more technically complex that’s full of “menus within menus,” as Palumbo described it. The game’s developers made Beyond Victory’s version far more simplified for gamers, he continued, citing a mantra I heard repeated multiple times during my preview: “The main driving philosophical difference was toys, not tools.”

Palumbo has been working in virtual reality since the Oculus Rift’s second developer kit was released back in 2014 and emphasized how much playtesting went into developing Beyond Victory. He called out the game’s accessibility options like having both seated and standing modes to play as well as completely mirrored controls for players to be able to use either hand. It should be no surprise that ILM is filled with Star Wars fans who offered feedback on how things should feel in the game, with Whitney shouting out quality assurance manager Marissa Martinez-Hoadley’s specific corrections about how things like a lightsaber should feel and operate.

That attention to detail has been what’s made Star Wars toys the implements of magic for decades of kids (and kids at heart). Beyond Victory brings that joy to augmented reality with some novel perks using its visualization tech: during my preview upon the ILM developer’s suggestion, I took the lightsaber out of my toy-sized C-3PO’s hands and scaled it up fill my hand. With the press of a button, I ignited the lightsaber and waved it around, looking and sounding straight from the films — digital, perhaps, but real enough to thrill the kid inside me.

Star Wars: Beyond Victory will be released on Oct. 7 exclusively for the Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest 3S.

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September 10, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Apple’s Best New iOS 26 Feature Has Been on Pixel Phones for Years

by admin September 10, 2025

Ever since I was a child, I’ve despised answering the phone when an unknown number calls. Who could be on the other end? Literally anyone: an acquaintance, a telemarketer, a serial killer who’s menacingly breathing into the mouthpiece.

While Apple’s upcoming Liquid Glass refresh in iOS 26 is likely to be the most immediately noticeable aspect of the software update as it starts rolling out to the public on September 15, I believe a smaller addition in iOS 26 might even have a bigger impact on how iPhone owners use their devices.

The iPhone is finally getting call screening. Hallelujah. At launch, the feature will support calls coming in from nine languages, including English, Spanish, and Japanese.

Once your iPhone updates to iOS 26, you can opt in and have the software automatically screen calls that come from unknown numbers. In this case, an unknown number is any phone number you haven’t interacted with before.

When your phone automatically picks up the call, a robotic voice asks the caller for their name as well as why they want to get in contact with you. Only after that information is collected, the iPhone will ring and show you these details in a notification bubble so you can decide whether to answer.

I was ecstatic to see this new option as I experimented with a beta version of iOS 26. I’m constantly getting calls from so many unknown numbers that I’ve completely given up answering the phone for anyone not saved in my contacts list.

With the imminent release of iOS 26, I can make informed decisions to ignore or answer these calls. And while most of the calls will still be ignored, I no longer have to wait until the caller starts leaving a voicemail and the live transcription appears on the screen to make a decision.

Call screening will be new for iPhones owners this fall, but users of some Android smartphones, like Google’s Pixel, have had a version of this tool, named Call Screen, available to them for years. Lyubov Farafonova, a product manager at Google, says in a statement emailed to WIRED that millions of Pixel users are using the feature in the US alone. “It is one of our fan favorite features,” she says.

Since its release of call screening in 2018, Google has worked to make the synthetic voice sound more natural for incoming callers. It’s also started showing relevant replies as tappable options while the screening is in progress so users can easily communicate with unknown callers without actually answering the phone. Further leaning into this feature, Google plans to roll out call screening to additional markets this fall.

“Pixel 10 owners in India can start experimenting with the beta version of manual Call Screen. This feature will be initially working in English and Hindi, with more languages and dialects on the way,” Farafonova says. “It will have a functionality to not only transcribe but also translate what the caller says to the Call Screen bot, to make life easier for those who don’t speak the same language as the caller.” Options for call screenings, manual or automatic, are coming soon to Pixel owners in Australia, Canada, Ireland, and the UK as well.

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September 10, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Feels and looks the same, but real changes are deeper

by admin September 10, 2025

Though the Apple Watch announcements may have paled in comparison to the iPhone news at Apple’s event today, there were still some noteworthy updates to the smartwatch lineup to talk about. This year, we’re getting the Watch Series 11, Watch SE 3 and Watch Ultra 3, and each of them have some interesting features. At a hands-on session here at Apple Park, I spent some time with the devices, and believe the most intriguing is the Series 11.

At first glance, the Series 11 is no different from the Series 10 I wore to the event. They’re the same thinness and have pretty much the same dimensions, and the main change is that the new smartwatch has an IonX coating that’s two times more scratch resistant. There’s also a new space grey case option that looked nice, though I was a bigger fan of the rose gold band and case pairing. I especially like the loop band that was on the unit I checked out.

I put the Series 11 on my wrist next to my Series 10 and truly could not tell them apart. There might not be much reason to upgrade from last year’s model to this, which isn’t a bad thing. We don’t want to be too wasteful, anyway. The real updates coming to the Series 11 include the new “Possible hypertension” alerts, using data gathered from the existing optical heart rate sensors to study patterns in the constriction and expansion of your blood vessels in relation to your heart rate. This tells the watch whether there are differences in your blood pressure — keyword: differences.

Cherlynn Low for Engadget

This tool isn’t meant to give you readings of your blood pressure like “130 / 80,” for example. It’s more meant to tell if there are concerning variations and alert you to see a medical professional if so. This is similar to many other Apple Watch features like sleep apnea detection or high heart rate alerts, and since it requires data trends to work, wasn’t something I could just test here at Apple Park.

I also didn’t get to test the sleep score feature that’s coming watchOS 26, but that isn’t exclusive to the Series 11, and any Apple Watch compatible with the latest software will be able to get it. I did like how you’ll get scores once you’ve worn the watch to bed, and don’t have to wait for a required number of nights for the insights to surface.

Hypertension and sleep score were among the more interesting updates coming to the Series 11, along with the promise of better battery life. Apple said the wearable should last up to 24 hours on a charge now, with eight of those meant to power through overnight sleep tracking. That’s not something I can really test here at a hands-on event, so we’ll have to wait for a review unit to properly measure.

Hands on with the Apple Watch SE 3

I was more intrigued by the Apple Watch SE 3, and will readily admit that I cheered when the company announced its entry-level smartwatch will be getting an Always On Display. When I picked up the Watch SE 3, I immediately noticed its relatively chunky bezels, but by and large it felt quite similar to my Series 10. Sure, the cheaper watch is slightly thicker, heavier and more sluggish, but for $250 it’s a very solid device. It comes with a skin-temperature sensor to support cycle-tracking, and will now charge twice as fast as the last Watch SE. That’s closer to the speeds of the Series 9 and later, which is a huge improvement considering how slow the older Apple Watches used to charge.

Again, like with the Series 11, a lot of the Watch SE’s improvements weren’t things I could check out at a brief preview like today. And most of them are features that already exist on other devices coming down to a smartwatch that costs $249. I think what Apple is offering for the price is very compelling, though, since you’ll really only be missing ECG and blood oxygen features by opting for the SE 3 over the Series 11. The latter is a bit thinner and lighter, but the SE 3 is plenty comfortable and small anyway.

This story is developing, please refresh for updates.

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September 10, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Apple says the iPhone 17 comes with a massive security upgrade

by admin September 10, 2025

It’s less noticeable than a thinner profile or trick camera lenses, but Apple is pointing out another upgrade in the iPhone 17 family of phones that it says is part of “the most significant upgrade to memory safety in the history of consumer operating systems.” Explicitly targeting the spyware industry that produces exploits for tools like Pegasus to hack on targeted devices, a series of changes in Apple’s chips, OS, and development tools are part of what it calls Memory Integrity Enforcement (MIE).

With the introduction of the iPhone 17 lineup and iPhone Air, we’re excited to deliver Memory Integrity Enforcement: the industry’s first ever, comprehensive, always-on memory-safety protection covering key attack surfaces — including the kernel and over 70 userland processes — built on the Enhanced Memory Tagging Extension (EMTE) and supported by secure typed allocators and tag confidentiality protections.

The approach is similar to what we’ve seen from Microsoft’s introduction of memory integrity security features for Windows 11, as well as a series of changes that have arrived to prevent speculative-execution vulnerabilities like Spectre. Apple’s blog post also mentions efforts by ARM with the Memory Tagging Extension (MTE) to fight memory bugs, which is supported on Google’s Pixel phones starting with the Pixel 8 series and enabled for supported apps if you turn on Advanced Protection.

Apple says its implementation goes a step further, with the ability to protect all users by default and by designing its A19 and A19 Pro chips for enhanced security, while still adding memory safety changes for older hardware that doesn’t support the new memory tagging features. The company also says its new mitigation for Spectre V1 leaks works with “virtually zero CPU cost” — as performance hits have been an issue for memory integrity and other security features — with all of the changes making “mercenary spyware” even more expensive to develop.

The folks behind the security-focused GrapheneOS project acknowledged the “major security improvements” that will help iPhone security in a post on X, but also said they had issues with the presentation and how it portrayed iOS security vs features like MTE, already released for Android. We’ll learn more about how much has changed once these updates reach devices and attackers take their turn trying to crack open the iPhone 17 and iPhone Air’s security.

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September 10, 2025 0 comments

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Turok: Origins preview: Borderlands meets Exoprimal in this co-op shooter

by admin September 10, 2025

I went hands-on with upcoming co-op third-person shooter Turok: Origins at Gamescom 2025 . While I’m not a mega fan of the dino-slaying series, I have enjoyed many of its earliest entries, including the Nintendo 64 trilogy and even the divisive multiplayer spin-off Turok: Rage Wars.

Aside from a now-delisted 2019 spin-off game, the series has been largely dormant since 2008’s Turok for seventh-generation consoles. It now returns in Turok: Origins, courtesy of developer and publisher Saber Interactive, with an as-of-yet unannounced release date.

Cutting to the important details, Turok: Origins is a co-op-focused shooter for up to three players. You pick a class-specific character – each with their own weapon and skill loadouts – and load into a map where you must complete a linear series of objectives before facing off against a climactic boss encounter.

Hit ‘em with the brain destroyer

(Image credit: Saber Interactive)

Let’s focus on the good for now, though. Combat does feel really good in Turok: Origins. Player characters are outfitted with a wide variety of weapon types, including shotguns, rifles, bows, and iconic series staples like the Cerebral Bore – a terrifyingly cruel instrument that quite literally sucks the brain out of an enemy’s skull.

When I asked creative director Jesús Iglesias if the Bore would be as overpowered as it was in prior entries, he didn’t hesitate with a resoundingly excited “yes!” Usually, a developer might want to ensure a degree of balance for powerful weaponry such as this, but I more appreciate the fact that Saber seems to have as much reverence for this legendary tool of destruction as Turok series fans do.

The good news is that Saber Interactive clearly has a lot of love for the source material. Dinosaur variety is impressive, with each type offering its own challenge. Some prefer to charge you at melee distance, while others will hang back and try to get a height advantage, raining down gobs of acid.

What I will note, then, is that spatial awareness is key to success. Origins’ maps (from what I’ve played so far, at least) are designed with at least two vertical layers. A coordinated team of three definitely has the best chance of success here, as you’ll likely need to call out priority threats and divvy up the team’s attention based on individual characters’ skill sets.

One class, for example, felt perfect for melee combat. Their skills allowed them to buff their own damage. Another seemed better focused on crowd control, able to spawn barriers to restrict enemy movements. In isolation, it’s all pretty simple stuff, but in a co-op setting, the synergies these skills provided definitely enhanced the fun factor.

Welcome to the jungle

(Image credit: Saber Interactive)

Overall mission progression was fairly straightforward, as we progressed from a dense jungle to a hidden temple, before facing off against a colossal cyborg stegosaurus (yes, really) in a large circular arena. Objectives ranged from simply activating a set of nodes to killing a certain number of enemies.

The basic nature of these objectives seems fine for the early game, but what had me more concerned was the level design itself. Environments (especially exteriors) are pretty, but also somewhat maze-like and repetitive in nature. I also couldn’t help but note that it was easy to lose sight of enemies amongst the thick foliage, leaving myself open to several surprise attacks. Though honestly, this could well be intentional on the developer’s part.

What’s even more annoying than that was that the environments felt overly dark. It could well have been the monitors we were playing on, of course, but an overall lack of light sources certainly didn’t help when it came to spotting enemies or objectives.

Thankfully, things picked up again when we went against the aforementioned stegosaurus boss. The towering creature had plenty of armor and wasn’t afraid to literally throw its weight around.

My team had to really grapple with the mechanics of the fight, loosening its armor to expose weak points for bigger sums of damage. On that front, saving powerful skills for when we needed them most was crucial. If a teammate goes down, you are able to revive them, but that could be difficult in such an intense battle.

To help things along, ammo is a universal resource across all weapons, refillable by ingesting yellow plants strewn across the battlefield. However, this too (along with the blue-hued healing plants) is a limited resource in itself. So we still had to be careful not to play too fast and loose with our resources and our lives.

So far, Turok: Origins seems like it’ll be an enjoyable experience for three friends. I’m not too sure it’ll hold up quite as well in solo play (which is supported), and I hope that levels and objectives get more ambitious as the game progresses. But I definitely would be keen to play more when it eventually launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

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September 10, 2025 0 comments

Battlefield 6 ui redesigns: A close-up shot of a soldier wearing full headgear turning to look at the camera while holding their gun up.

Gaming Gear

Battlefield 6 producer acknowledges vehicles were underpowered in the beta, but says it’s better than the alternative: ‘Rather have too weak vehicles over too powerful’

by admin September 9, 2025

You know something is off in Battlefield when piloting a multi-million dollar metal box with a building-leveling cannon mounted on the end is a bigger risk than hoofing it across the map.

That was the state of last month’s Battlefield 6 beta: tanks, helicopters, jets, and especially jeeps could never get much room to vroom before getting blasted by any number of anti-armor rockets, laser-guided missiles, stationary cannons, mines, or sticky explosives.

A month ahead of launch, we have our first acknowledgement from DICE that vehicle balance needs work via lead producer David Sirland.

The exchange began with a video of leaked Operation Firestorm gameplay depicting an engineer sniping and firing rockets from the map’s highest tower. To critics of Battlefield 6’s controversial “open weapons” default ruleset, the scenario is a perfect example of why letting any class use any gun disrupts the balance of Battlefield.

“A classic demonstration of why open classes don’t work. Support with ammo resupply/sniper, and APS gadget and engi[neer] with sniper/launchers on Firestorm getting constantly resupplied. It just creates these ridiculously broken combinations,” wrote Battlefield YouTuber GhostGaming.

(Image credit: David Sirland on X)

Sirland, not usually one to acknowledge leaked gameplay, offered a retort.

“That button still exists (as in the originals) & the fact we have more [anti-tank] on the map isn’t really a problem either?” Sirland wrote. “Let’s not pretend this type of gameplay is effective in any shape or form, it really isn’t (unless you can safeguard the pos – which can be cleansed with fire :)”

Whether or not you agree with Sirland’s assessment—if you ask me, an engineer holding a sniper rifle is an affront to the very idea of the class system—it was Sirland’s next response, pivoting toward vehicles/anti-air in general, that’s most interesting.

Responding to someone who made the point that engineers carrying up to five rockets and powerful anti-tank mines means “infantry is more dangerous to vehicles than vehicles are to infantry,” Sirland agreed it’s a balance problem that the studio is currently grappling with.

(Image credit: EA)

“That is a balance issue wholesale, not specific to this special situation, however. And one we are actively working on,” he replied. That said, Sirland suggested undercooked vehicles aren’t too big of a deal at this stage of the game, and said it’s at least better than the alternative.

“Rather have too weak vehicles over too powerful to start. It’s a tricky one as players get better at using them over time as well.”

Perhaps that’s true of tanks, APCs, and aerial vehicles, but what about my poor jeep? For four long days, I watched hundreds of teammates ignore my honks of friendship, opting to run an extra 30 seconds instead of climbing aboard. Give those gunners some armor plating at least!

We’ll see what’s in store for rocket pockets and vehicle armor when Battlefield 6 launches October 10.

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September 9, 2025 0 comments

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The Zombie on ‘Wednesday’ Was Inspired by Klaus Kinski and Frankenstein

by admin September 9, 2025

Wednesday actor Owen Painter recently sat down with Vulture to discuss the human element he brought to his performance as Slurp the zombie—and of course, what it was like eating the disembodied Professor Orloff (Christopher Lloyd)’s brain.

As Painter stated, “I was told to act out ‘You’ve been sitting for a thousand years and your voice box doesn’t work, and water’s going to fix that, so you should have a glass of water across the room, but some stuff is in your way.’ I had so much fun messing around with that and coming up with physical gags and jokes.”

Though Slurp looks like he stepped right out of 1985’s Return of the Living Dead, 1985’s Day of the Dead, or 1985’s House, Painter said his performance was largely influenced by classic depictions of Frankenstein, as well as cult-beloved German actor Klaus Kinski.

”Weirdly, I took a lot. It feels a little funny, because you point to a performance that’s so iconic, and then it’s just what you did. But the person in my mind the most was Klaus Kinski. He is a German actor who worked with Werner Herzog a bunch, and he’s a lunatic. He delivered some of the most gorgeous performances ever. I think he had so much energy in his body. It feels like there’s a current going through his limbs all the time. So I was trying to steal a little bit of that.”

Though Kinski never actually played Frankenstein or his monster, he did play similar roles in 1982’s Android and 1974’s The Lover of the Monster, as well as Nosferatu in 1979’s Nosferatu the Vampyre, Nosferatu a second time in 1988’s Vampire in Venice, and even Renfield in 1970’s Count Dracula.

In the article, Painter stated he channeled the actor in some creative ways. “Because of all of that wandering around and looking stupid, I came up with a sheet of funny jokes that I thought could be in the choreography, and then I had some sessions with the stunt team. They’re so knowledgeable about the athletics of everything. I would be able to bring creative ideas to them, and they would help me fine-tune the movements,” he said. “A lot of it is off the cuff in a really fun way. At one point, I showed up for a day and they just handed me the camera for POV footage. I’m holding a GoPro while I’m punching myself in the face. That was like the best day of work ever.”

As any actor worth their salt will tell you, a good scene partner will naturally elevate their performance, so it’s a bit heartbreaking to learn co-star Lloyd wasn’t actually there the day Slurp ate his character’s brains. “I was bullying a robot all day. Yeah, there was a prop head, but the mechanical bot was there and controlled by people on the crew. I don’t think a lot of it’s in the actual episode, but we had so much fun shoving the robot around. It’s almost kind of tragic. The wheels start squeaking and it feels like it’s a puppy dog.”

Though Lloyd’s head may have cost a fortune, it sounds like his brains did not. According to Painter, he was eating “some Jell-O blood mixture. It just tastes like sugar, kind of gnarly.”

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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September 9, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Apple’s iPhone 17 Event Is Today. Here’s How to Watch

by admin September 9, 2025

Apple’s annual fall iPhone launch event is here. The keynote kicks off at 10 a.m. PT. Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 17 lineup, which could include a slimmer version of the phone, as well as the Apple Watch Series 11 and the AirPods Pro 3.

The invite, which Apple sent on Aug. 26, shows the title “awe dropping,” with a dynamic Apple logo that seems to reference Siri’s colorful glow.

Watch this: iPhone Air Is a Wild Card – and Starts a Big Change for Apple

06:39

There’s also an interactive element when you view the invite on Apple.com. With a finger (phone or tablet) or a mouse/trackpad pointer (computer), you can move across the logo and watch the colors go from a cool blue to a vivid orange, possibly evoking the Liquid Glass design element in iOS 26, which exhibits light-bending qualities across apps and functions. You can read more theories about what the fall event invite might signify.

The keynote will be held at Apple Park in Cupertino, California. CNET will be covering the announcements live, so be sure to follow along.

Get ready for an awe dropping #AppleEvent on Tuesday, September 9! pic.twitter.com/uAcYp2RLMM

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) August 26, 2025

How to watch Apple’s iPhone 17 reveal

Technically, Apple has yet to confirm the iPhone 17, but the company typically unveils its latest handsets at its fall event.

You can tune into the iPhone 17 event by watching the official livestream on Apple’s website or via the livestream on Apple’s YouTube channel. Those streams are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET. CNET’s reporters will also be on the ground and bringing you all the updates.

What might Apple be cooking up?

Rumors for the upcoming slate of iPhones have been plentiful. Stealing the spotlight is the supposed iPhone 17 Air, which could follow in the footsteps of Samsung’s sleek Galaxy S25 Edge and have a slim profile and lightweight design. The Pro model could get a scratch-resistant, antireflective display and an 8x telephoto lens, and the Pro Max could pack a bigger battery. The baseline iPhone 17 could also boast a higher refresh rate. It’s possible that all the phones may include an Apple-developed 5G modem called the C1 chip, which debuted on the iPhone 16E, as well as in-house Wi-Fi chips.

We also expect to learn more about the public rollout of iOS 26 later this fall. The new operating system features a Liquid Glass interface that brings a more transparent, lens-like look to the iPhone and other Apple devices. The Camera app also gets a more minimalistic design, Messages lets you create polls in group chats and a new screening tool can better detect spam texts. You can check out all the features coming to iOS 26.

Watch this: Apple Will Reveal the iPhone 17 Soon. Here’s What We Want

05:23

Will there be a Siri overhaul?

What we might not hear as much about is the updated version of Siri that Apple unveiled at its Worldwide Developers Conference last year. The smarter version of the AI assistant has faced repeated delays and may not arrive until next year. But Apple could discuss other Apple Intelligence updates and features arriving on its new devices.

Watch CNET’s livestream

CNET’s reporters will be on the ground, bringing you all the latest updates and impressions of whatever Apple has in store. You can watch our livestream here starting at 9:30 a.m. PT/12:30 p.m. ET:

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September 9, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

The iPhone 17 Series Gets the Biggest iPhone Design Refresh in Years

by admin September 9, 2025

Apple has largely stuck with the same iPhone design since the iPhone 11 debuted in 2019, but change is afoot in Cupertino. While the iPhone 17 may resemble iPhones of the past few years, there’s an entirely new camera layout for the iPhone 17 Pro models. Also, there’s a brand-new iPhone! The iPhone Air replaces what was supposed to be the iPhone 17 Plus. It, too, features a new look, and it’s the thinnest iPhone Apple has ever made.

The changes on the standard iPhone 17—typically Apple’s most popular iPhone model—aren’t as drastic. The company announced the new handsets alongside new Apple Watches and AirPods Pro at its annual September event at the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park in Cupertino, California.

Preorders are available on Friday, with the iPhone 17 starting at $799, the iPhone Air costing $999, and the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max seeing an increase to $1,099 and $1,199. Here’s everything you need to know.

The iPhone Air

Apple’s iPhone Air is joining a slew of other phones that launched in 2025, which tout incredible thinness, like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge and the Honor Magic V5. It’s 5.6 mm thick—an incredible feat, as that’s even thinner than Samsung’s handset, and a 2.65 mm drop from the iPhone 16 Pro.

iPhone Air is the thinnest iPhone ever made.

Courtesy of Apple

That’s about seven credit cards stacked on top of each other. With it comes weight savings of 24 grams compared with the regular iPhone 16, and this combo can dramatically alter how the phone feels in your hand, especially considering it sports a large 6.5-inch screen. It’s also the only iPhone this year employing titanium to help with the durability of the frame. Speaking of which, Apple says this phone uses its new Ceramic Shield 2 material on the front for 3x better scratch resistance and 4x better drop protection. The back glass uses the original Ceramic Shield glass mixture.

There’s still a camera bump, except it’s now horizontal (ahem, like a certain Google phone), but as you’ll see, there are compromises: You only get one camera. It can simulate a 2X optical zoom like most iPhones today, but unlike Samsung’s thin phone, there’s no ultrawide camera, making it less versatile for shutterbugs.

This phone debuts Apple’s C1X modem, which allows for sub-6 5G but no millimeter wave 5G, and it also features the first-ever Apple N1 wireless networking chip. The N1 has Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread support, which can improve local smart home controls with supported devices.

It still maintains features from previous iPhones, like the Dynamic Island, which takes up less space on the front, the Action Button, and Camera Control. The selfie camera has been upgraded to 24 megapixels and supports Apple’s Center Stage technology, which keeps you in the frame. The selfie camera has a square sensor, so you can take selfies in landscape or portrait orientation without having to switch the phone into landscape orientation. Apple has also added the ability to shoot videos with both the front and rear cameras at the same time.

The internals of the iPhone Air have been designed to maximize battery space.

Courtesy of Apple

Apple says inside is a “high-density battery,” which likely alludes to silicon-carbon battery technology to achieve this level of thinness. The phone is powered by the new A19 Pro chip, features Apple’s ProMotion 120-Hz refresh rate for the display, and has magnetic Qi2 25W wireless charging. It’s available in black, white, light gold, and light blue.

You might think this super-thin iPhone will have limited battery life, but Apple is still claiming the same video playback numbers as the iPhone 16 Plus: 27 hours. This is likely why Apple is selling a new low-profile MagSafe power bank to help users keep their slim phone topped up. Let’s just see how often you need to use it.

The iPhone 17 Pro

The first thing you’ll notice about the iPhone 17 Pro and the iPhone 17 Pro Max is the redesigned camera array on the back, which Apple calls the “Camera Plateau.” Gone is the square-shaped camera module in favor of a long, horizontal camera bar. Maybe it means the iPhone finally won’t rock on a table. There’s also a slightly different color tone below, indicating the split between the new aluminum chassis and the glass.

The forged plateau creates extra space for components, like a larger battery.

Courtesy of Apple

You heard that right, Apple’s priciest models are reverting to aluminum instead of the titanium of yesteryear. Aluminum handles heat better and is cheaper and lighter, not to mention a better carbon footprint (it’s 100 percent recycled aluminum). Now the only titanium model in the company’s lineup is the iPhone Air. You’d think this would bring a price drop, but alas.

Apple is also debuting a vapor chamber cooling system on these phones, helping them keep cool under load. This is something Android phones have used for years, so it’ll be interesting to see how it impacts performance across the board, whether you’re shooting 4K video or playing a graphically demanding game.

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September 9, 2025 0 comments